The Bill Simmons Podcast - NBA Opening Night Overreactions With Kevin O’Connor, Plus Ryan Fitzpatrick on QB Intangibles and Tom Brady’s Bizarre Season

Episode Date: October 19, 2022

It’s NBA Opening Night, and The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Kevin O’Connor to trade overreactions to Celtics-76ers and Lakers-Warriors (1:45). Then, Bill is joined by Ryan Fitzpatrick to discuss working on 'Thursday Night Football,' the diminished scoring by NFL offenses this season, Tom Brady’s struggles, the frisky Falcons, and much more (52:13). Host: Bill Simmons Guests: Ryan Fitzpatrick and Kevin O’Connor Producer: Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I haven't been on the last three rewatchables. We did Pitch Perfect. We did Glen Gary, Glen Ross. And then this week we did Pineapple Express. Our fantasy football guys did that one actually. So if you missed any of those, go check out the rewatchables feed. Check out our NBA podcast as well. You have the Ringer NBA show. You have the mismatch. Ryan Rosillo is dipping into the NBA as well. And then the Ringer gambling show has been diving into NFL and NBA as well. So that's all we got going on our end.

Coming up on this podcast, Kevin O'Connor is going to join us. We're going to react to what we saw tonight in the NBA. Celtics, Sixers, Lakers, Warriors. And then after that, Ryan Fitzpatrick, he came on for the first time ever on this podcast. Wish we'd had him on sooner, but we talked a lot of NFL stuff. We talked Tom Brady. We talked a lot about quarterbacks. This is a great podcast, guys. I don't know what else I can tell you.

First, our friends from ProTip. all right kevin o'connor is here it is 10 15 pacific time we're here to talk about bailey zappy versus mac jones i know you have oh no no actually it's gonna be nba opening night Kevin O'Connor is here. It is 1015 Pacific Time. We're here to talk about Bailey Zappi versus Mac Jones. I know you have a... Oh, no, no. Actually, it's going to be NBA opening night. KOC, let's trade just abject, ridiculous,

reckless overreactions to Sixers, Celtics, and Lakers, Warriors. I will give you first pick in the overreaction draft. You go. The Lakers, at best, without a a major trade or the 10th seed at best. Yeah.

Like a fringe playing team at best because eight teams are going to be better than them for sure. Warriors, Nuggets, Grizzlies, Clippers, Suns, Mavs,

Pelicans, Wolves. Then on the mismatch on Tuesday, Chris Vernon and I, you and I hyped up the Kings. We really like what we saw from them in preseason, the moves they made. Blazers, as of now, trying to win games with all the money

they spent this summer. You could argue that they should go the other way, trade Damian Lord, be worse, get higher draft odds in the Victor Wemanyama race. But as of now, they're trying to win. The Lakers right now, Bill, you need in the NBA to win today. You need

shooters. You need wings. The Lakers have no spacing, no reliable shooters. Tonight, 10 of 40 from the floor, from three-point range. Terrible until that fourth quarter. And they have no wings in the scene. They're starting six-foot-one. Patrick Reverley is a small

forward. Lonnie Walker, a so-called 380 player, even though he doesn't shoot three well, three as well, doesn't defend well. Lakers ownership, like they've been questioned why they extended Polinga, why Jeannie Buss has decided to do that. It's right to question them

considering the product we saw on the floor tonight. They've been questioned or they've been ridiculed why they extended Polinga. I was stunned. It's one of those teams when you actually watch it year preseason you listen to podcasts you watch the clips but then when you

actually see the team it had a feel of a team that guys were out and it's like well when they get so and so off the injured list and so and so off the IR and it's like no no this is actually the whole team they started Beverly and Westbrook and Lonnie Walker, the fourth. And then the five guys off the bench initially were Matt Ryan, Gabriel, Toscano, Anderson, Reeves, and none.

There's no help on the horizon. There's no free agent who's going to be ready in December. This is the team. KOC, my overreaction on top of your overreaction, I think this is actually the worst 3-10 in the league. Who has a worst 3-10? Even if you go to the bad teams like OKC, San Antonio,

maybe Charlotte. I don't know. Name a team. I still might like their 3-10 better. You could argue every single player 3-10 in the Lakers is below average. If we're just saying average is, what, the 150th best player in the league?

Is their third guy in the top 150? You could argue Westbrook, Reggie Miller certainly tried to today. Russ is maybe like 120, 130, something like that at this point of his career. Let's call him average. And maybe on a nice 130, something like that at this point of his career. So let's call him average. Yeah. And maybe on a nice day, you could call Beverly average.

I think he's like an eighth or a ninth man on the right team. But it was funny hearing Reggie Miller do the whole, you know, say what you want about Russell Westbrook. You know, he did average an 1877 last year. You know, he plays with a lot of heart. You know, the Lakers fans will lie to this guy. But, you know know he's out there and he beats to his own drum played 78 games he's got

two legs and two arms and a head it's really bad it's just hard to believe because they had their full mid-level they had a couple side levels they had the THT contract that was like $10 million. That was at least a little tradable.

I just don't know how they didn't do better than this. I mean, the thing with them is at this point, you look at the team, what we saw in preseason, what we saw tonight, and what we just saw on paper, what was kind of obvious all along here. A Russell Westbrook and two first-round picks deal

for Miles Turner and Buddy Heald, that helps you. That makes you more watchable. But that doesn't solve all their issues. it doesn't solve all the shooting problems all the the defensive issues of the wing position so if you're the lakers you have russ and i i think i think despite no matter how average or below average this team might be from now until february 9th the trade deadline i think they gotta wait as long as they can to trade Russ rather than make a panic move for

Turner and Heald. You got to find out where it comes up. It could be Hayward and Rozier and you only might need one pick to get rid of something like that. And then you hold that other one for something else and you make two separate trades and then your team suddenly looks better than settling now for Turner and Heald. And maybe you

end up getting them for less than one first. Maybe it's one first and a bunch of seconds. Like the Sixers, three through ten guys. Maxie, Tucker, Harris, Niang, House, Harrell, Theibel, and Melton. What a difference. I think you could argue all of those guys would be the Lakers' third best player.

Maybe Niang versus Westbrook, I don't know. But Niang, for what the Lakers third best player. Maybe Nang versus Westbrook. I don't know, but Nang, like for what the Lakers need. You're taking Russ over Nang. But for what the Lakers need. Sure. Celtics,

they're, they're three through 10. Taking out Tatum Brown, Horford, Smart, White, Grant Williams, Brogdon.

Then it goes into the Hauser, Griffin, Vonlay. But all of those guys probably would have played for it goes into the Hauser, Griffin, Vonlay, but all those guys probably would have played for the Lakers today. I don't know what the moves are. I'm with you, though. You can't panic yet. Plus, Davis looked great. They're going to win their fair share, I think, to at least not dip too far. I don't think they're in danger of being like a 15 and 30 type team. They'll hang around if those two guys are healthy. I picked them to go over because I thought the panic trade was coming sooner than later. And I think, let's say they start out one and six, something like that. The difference this year is I think LeBron knows that this title has sailed for this season,

which is what leads me to my overreaction, my first one. So LeBron was 23 to one on FanDuel to win the scoring title. I actually think that's a great bet from what I saw tonight, because I think he's going to kind of quickly move into, you know what? We don't have it this year. I'm going to score some points. I'm going to break the record. I'm going to get my 30 a game. I'm going to try to get to like 65 games and get to 30 to 32 a night. See how fast they're playing? They're playing with pace in the fourth quarter. If they play with that kind of pace, A, I don't know if Davis is even going to be

able to hold up, but if they do, I do think he's going to score points. What do you think of that one? I think we definitely saw him stat padding tonight. That's for damn sure. I mean, I think LeBron is smart enough to realize this team's not good enough and without some major surprise trade they won't be good enough you know no matter what they do turner heels not going to get him there so if you're lebron you're you know

you're thinking about yourself right now and you're thinking about your numbers and your place in history and you get that done and then you reassess next summer and and that's the other side of it if you're leron, you did sign that extension. You were not trade eligible this season. Like even if you decided you wanted out that have to wait until next summer. I mean, the conspiracy theorists inside of me wonder of Rob Palenka. I mean, he's either the worst GM in all of basketball, or he deliberately

built a roster so bad around LeBron that he's trying to push him to ask out after the season, knowing there's no path to winning again with him anymore like it's one of the two things like this roster is so bad around him if you're LeBron unless you don't care about winning at all anymore you're past that championship chase I don't

see how you can when you're LeBron you're still playing at the level that you can it's almost it's disappointing to me in a way Bill that we are at that stage where he's stat padding and he's still not competing because he's still a player worthy of contending for championships. He just has the worst 3-2-10 around him,

as you just said. Yeah, I made this point last year when Curry was making the Warriors run, but it's worth mentioning again, just that he kind of did have the pieces for his version of what this Curry Warriors team is right now. You know, like this mix of vets and young guys on the rise.

You look back at that 2018 team, that first Lakers team that he was on. Kuzma. And they did have a lot of pieces. Oh, yeah. Brandon Ingram and Hart and Lonzo's on there. And they had all the draft picks, right? They had every draft pick coming. They had a lottery pick in the draft that was coming.

Lonzo's the only one just from a health, that I think you'd maybe be worried about. But for the most part, they had most of those players. I don't see a lot of outs for them. I didn't see it before the season. I thought them as a play-in team was a great bet. I think it was either minus 120 or plus 120. It was somewhere around even odds, but it just, I thought, I think Dallas is going to be a playing team. The West, like they're top seven, eight. If you think New Orleans is going to be good, which I think we do. And if you think Sacramento is going to be sneaky, which I think all of us at the ringer who follow basketball, we all love this Kings team to the point that I'm actually probably scared for the Kings now. But I, to me, the Lakers are the 10th best roster, no matter how good Davis is. One thing that's on the Davis front is just the trade possibilities with them. If he just looks great for a month, could they look at that as a way, you know what,

it's not going to work with this combo. We won the title, we got what we wanted. Maybe we send him and we try to rebuild, replenish, and we could deal with LeBron in the offseason would be the other thing.

It's possible. That definitely could be a path that makes sense because if we saw what teams were offering for Kevin Durant, and granted, no deal ended up happening, if the Lakers were to put LeBron James on the block or AD on the block before the deadline... Well, it can't be LeBron. It has to be Davis this season.

LeBron, it would be AD before the deadline, LeBron for the summer. Either of those guys on the block, you're getting a massive haul in return for them. And then suddenly, you get this young up-and-coming roster. You get your own first-round draft pick in 2024. You can try to hit on that, build a young team, and try to do it in a way that doesn't involve LeBron making decisions or pushing for decisions in the front office. Well, this leads to one more overreaction, then I'll throw it pushing for decisions in the front office.

Well, this leads to one more overreaction, then I'll throw it back to you for the next one. Snake draft. I'd be really worried about the Wimbledon Yama scoot picks if I'm a Lakers fan. Oh. Because this team, what we saw tonight is now, if Davis goes out for like 25 games and LeBron plays 65 games at 82, something like that, this will be potentially a top seven worst team. This is if the injury luck swings against them. Where you don't want to be is like in the worst seven, because then the odds are actually

realistic, especially with the two top ones. And if that all leads to that Lakers pick, basically the reverse of the Magic Johnson pick, which they got in the Gail Goodrich, the Jazz signed Gail Goodrich, the Lakers get these two picks down the road for him, one of who turns out to be Magic Johnson. And this could be the New Orleans flip of that way down the line where that Wimbanyama

or Scoot all of a sudden go into New Orleans as part of the Davis trade. And we're not even done with the picks for the Davis trade. I mean, I had the Pelicans are one of the big winners of the night on my list for the same exact reason. Oh, yeah. Because even if that pick is only, you know, 10

or 11, and that's all it is, you still get another lottery pick if you're New Orleans with this great young team already. That in and of itself is a winner. Never mind if, like you said New Orleans with this great, great young team already that, that in and of itself as a winner, nevermind. If like you said, the,

the 80 thing tonight, 80 looked tremendous. He looked like his prime self on defense. That block he had on Wiseman coming up from behind in the first half was just absolutely filthy. He, what about the mid-court play when he jumped up for the steel? He lost weight.

He was too heavy last year. He put on too much muscle. He's athletic AD again. He looked tremendous. But as the broadcast said, every time he hits the floor, if you're a Lakers fan, you're worried that he's going to get up

holding his knee or his wrist or his neck, whatever. He's made of glass. And so, I mean, the Lakers are holding on to that play and hope on a very thin string. You mentioned the Pelicans being a winner. And I think we hit that hard enough and it's a great point one thing about that pick though because we both think the pelicans are

going to be good barkley seemed to think that they had a chance to make the west finals or the finals which i thought was a tiny bit ambitious you hear me say that on the mismatch you think i'm crazy bill i don't think you're crazy because we know that Zion, if he's at full strength, is a top 15 player in the league. We saw it a couple years ago. It's that, but also the trade possibility because the Pelicans have 10 plus first-round draft picks. So do the Jazz and the Thunder, but the Jazz and the Thunder aren't trying

to win games. The Pelicans are. So New Orleans can pick and choose whoever they want to try to get that might become available to bolster the team, too. That's what I was going to point out. It's not just a trade possibility. It's this specific Lakers pick as a trade possibility. And if you're them, you can start dangling it now or within the next two months.

They have, I guess, the Devante Graham contracts, $11.5 million. Valanciunas, maybe for $14.7 million if it was a big guy coming back. They have Jackson Hayes at about $7 million. They could patch together something for a salary in the 20s or the 30s. And that's a dangle. And especially if AD goes out,

if AD's down riding around the floor one night and he's out for 20 games, and I'm a team that has things, I just want picks. I want to sell high basically on one of my vets. I want that pick. That's a different kind of pick than your normal pick because normally you aren't able to trade for a tanking first round pick when you're giving up a veteran, right? You're getting a first. You're not getting a pick that you know is going to be like in the top eight. So I think that's going to be

a factor. Sure. And then I said earlier that the Lakers, if they were to trade everybody, would have their 2024. The reality is they have their 24 or 25. So the Pelicans on their side of things have the next year. They can game it. Yes. They can dangle that as well.

Well, you get your choice. You can take the Lakers in 24 or 25. So I mean, they have dangle that as well. Well, you get your choice. You can take the Lakers in 24 or 25. So, I mean, they have... I believe they have the Bucs pick in 26 and 27 as well. They have all their own draft picks. Is there swap stuff? Yeah, there's some swaps. I believe they have one Bucs swap, two outright Bucs picks as well coming.

So, they have an absolute ton of picks. Yeah, because Pelicans versus Lakers, the Pelicans are probably a better bet to have a better record for the next couple years. So I don't even know how the swap helps them because they'd be swapped. I think the last swap is this year. So the Lakers and Pelicans swap

this year. Right, so that would help them this year. Yeah, I don't know what I'm saying. Kyle, let's go to a break and I'll have some coffee and try to regroup. Hey, basketball season started. It's a perfect time to download FanDuel, America's number one sports book. Right now, new customers get a no-sweat first bet up to $1,000. Free bets back. If your first bet doesn't win, sign up with promo code BS. You can dive into Wednesday night of the NBA season, Utah, Denver, Denver Nuggets, 11 plus, Jokic to score 20 plus points, 12 plus rebounds, six plus assists. You make that a same

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See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. This episode is brought to you by Prime Video. You know me, I can't go a day without sports. I really can't. And now Monday nights are all about hockey. That's right. There's a new exclusive home for streaming Monday night NHL hockey,

and it's on prime all season long. Watch prime Monday night hockey deliver unreal plays. The biggest goals can't miss moments. Matthews, McDavid, Crosby, the NHL's best. They're all on prime prime Monday night hockey. It's on Monday. It's on Prime. All right, coming back. Next overreaction. What do you got? If all teams in the Eastern Conference are healthy, the Sixers, as presently constructed, have a 0% chance of winning the NBA Finals.

And I'm saying that as somebody who, I love the Harden deal. I loved what Maury did this summer, getting Tucker, Melton, House, Harrell, all those guys. But Harris, Maxie, Harden in your starting five, not good enough on defense. Embiid in tonight's game

against the Celtics playing the deep drop coverage, really passive, deeper than last year. Doesn't seem like the right scheme for that defense for Doc Rivers to run. And Tobias Harris, most of all, just not a great fit. I know he didn't have the worst night.

Just not good enough on defense. Misses rotations. Not a stopper on ball. And offensively, I think he's a very replaceable guy given his role, even though he can do more. The offense doesn't demand that out of him.

I do worry a little bit about that Sixers defense tonight. They talked about wanting to be number one. That's what Embiid said at media day. They've been preaching defense. They're not going to be the number one defense. How are you going to be number one with That's what Embiid said at media day. They've been preaching defense. They're not going to be the number one defense. How are you going to be number one with Maxine Harden as your backcourt?

Get the fuck out of here. There's no way. I'm not going to overreact to tonight's game for them because I think Boston, as presently constituted, is a bad matchup for them. They are. Where with the wings and the size they have on the perimeter

and the guards that they can throw it hard in and just, I don't love the matchup. And you would have, to me, Embiid had to destroy the Celtics tonight. But the Celtics, Missoula, who I thought did a great job and broke the gum chewing record. I don't know who it was held by, but he was smacking gum at warp speed on the sideline. But he was just telling them, run, run, run, run, run. It reminded me of that Brooklyn game after the Harden trade last season when Brooklyn really laid it to the Sixers. And they were just like, run, run, run. Get these guys tired. And Bede was doing the thing in the fourth quarter. He had his hands on his knees again. And then he got, talk about stat padding at the end. That game was over and he ended up getting like six more points. but I don't love the matchup for them. I'm not ready

to panic yet. Harris is more tradable this year than he was last year, 37.6 this year, and then 39.2 next year. That's it. They don't have a lot of pick flexibility, but you know, I have a feeling the team we watched tonight won't be the team they have in February. I'm going to throw this over reaction back at you. Fandles should have Mike D'Antoni coach of the year odds up. Because I think I, I've said this before the season and I'm going to say it again.

The leash is short. The way they look today looked like same old Sixers, super slow, bad transition defense, offense getting bogged down. I didn't love the body language. I thought Harden actually looked pretty good for what we're going to expect from Harden. I thought that was on the higher end of what you're getting. But I've said it for four months.

If this team is like 8-8 after 16 games or 8-9 or whatever, slow start, that's it. They're going to make a coaching change. It's going to happen. And they go straight to D'Antoni and not Sam Cassell off their bench. Yeah, whoever it is.

But I would assume it would be D'Antoni just because of the familiarity with Harden and the fact that he's coached in a bunch of big games over handing it over to an untested head coach right during a season don't you go with the steady hand no maybe I don't know I just think that'd be such a huge chemistry shift mid-year to bring in D'Antoni to a team with Embiid they didn't want to bring Doc back last spring nobody remembers this that it was

a staring contest with the Lakers knowing the Lakers wanted to hire Doc. Sixers wanted compensation for him and they just kind of looked at each other for eight weeks. Nothing happened. It felt like Doc was trolling tonight when he threw out the Harold Neang lineup. Where's Thibel?

I know Thibel has his limitations, but you're facing two great wing scorers in Tatum and Browning, not putting him out there. And also, I think you get a... Maxie had some great moments in that first half. Whether it's Harden's fault or Doc's fault, I don't know,

but you get to get this guy some more consistent touches. He only ran 15 pick and rolls tonight. That's not enough for him, given his talent level we've seen. Getting to the basket, pulling up from three, you gotta get him more reps in PNR. This isn't over action, it's just a question. Are we sure Maxie's not the second best

player in the team? I think Harden is still, because of his playmaking and scoring upside, the number two, but Maxie can be the number two on any given night. I think that's a fair thing to say and maybe by year's end, if he gets opportunity and gets a higher usage

and he gets more of those on-ball opportunities to prove what he can do with it, then yeah, I think he could be the second best player. But given that, the fact we haven't seen it yet, I don't think we can go that far yet. Harden's defense continues to be abominable. How many times did he just kind of like, you know, let him go right by a transition tonight?

Oh my God, it was such a layup for the Celtics. No chance you're going to be the number one defense with that effort. My overreaction, Raheem Palmer called this out in the Ringer Gambling Show. And he has this whole model for MVP and looks at age ranges. He has a whole thing that it's usually under 30 and the guy's at a specific point. He thought the best value bet was Tatum at 13-1. Tatum looked incredible tonight.

He looked like the guy from the Nets series and March-April Tatum as a two-way guy. It wasn't just the ease that he was scoring. The defense, if he plays defense like this, like he did tonight for the whole season, he will be on the all-defensive team. He was borderline dominant on defense. And I think in general,

the team defense without Robert Williams, I was pleasantly surprised by. But Tatum as a 13-1, I think the odds should be a little lower on that one. And in general, the Celtics are going to be good. He's going to be one of the seven or eight best players in the league, and he wasn't really mentioned at all in the conversation.

He was absolutely sensational. I mean, I think in the finals, he at times looks more like a number two than a number one. But we saw a large sample size during that postseason run, during the regular season, not just this year, past year, but past years as well.

Tatum has that upside to be a top five, top six, top seven player in the NBA. And you're right, Bill, like the defensive effort by him tonight. I thought he set a tone right from the jump in the game early in the game. He hit that three and then he blocked Maxie after a switch on that dribble handoff. Philly ran for him and Tatum screamed his lungs out after the play. I felt like he was setting a tone for Boston with his vocal, with his actions

whereas Embiid, you mentioned some of the body language. He was mopey, moody. Looked tired. Yeah, tired. Sweaty. Sweaty and kind of heaving. He didn't have much of a preseason so you kind of can excuse that but at the same time you still get to set a tone on opening night. Celtics guys looked like they'd been working out for four straight months.

They had a fitness to them. Turn the TikTok camera on, Kyle. There was a moment in the Celtics game when Embiid got caught up with Smart, and it looked like he was trying to break his arm Dwayne Wade style. I call it the Dwayne Wade. Nobody did more dastardly dirty stuff than Dwayne Wade style. I call it the Dwayne Wade. Nobody did more dastardly dirty stuff than Dwayne Wade but never had any credit for it. That play against Rondo

so nasty. Oh my god. Yeah. Embiid's been in smarts thing back. Jalen Brown came flying in to defend him. I thought he was actually going to fight Embiid then he did like a finger point thing. I thought it was an important moment. Here's why. They got their asses handed to them a little bit

by PJ Tucker and Butler last year from a physicality intimidation standpoint. Then Draymond in the finals, standing over Brown in game two, kind of flipped the state. They got bullied a little bit by Draymond, who then gloated about it when he did the podcast with JJ and Tommy over the summer

about how he took Brown's manhood. I thought it was interesting that Brown stood up and smart and those guys, and they all got pretty aggro. And I was like, I wonder if there's going to be a postgame quote about this. Well, there was. Here's what Jalen Brown said. This is what Brian Robb reported on Twitter about Embiid. He was getting away with a lot of unnecessary pushing and shoving. It seemed like he was trying to hurt Smart in a sense. We're not taking no mess this year. How about the Smart quote?

You see the Smart quote? He said it's maturity that I didn't crack his head open. Right. It reminded me of Rounders when the second time Mike McPhee is playing Teddy KGB and he comes back hard with like a re-raise and Teddy KGB is like, he laughs.

He's like, oh, look at you. You won't be pushed around. And, but I think the Celtics are in that phase. Like they're like, fuck everybody. We're not going to be bullied again. Like they definitely 100% saw that Draymond video. And I think this was a big thing for Emei when he was there during the season

and probably before he got bounced in September. It's like, we have to be tougher. You guys got to stick up for each other. You guys got to defend yourselves. And I thought there was a little attitude with them this year that they didn't have. And part of that seasoning from the finals, part of it's coming up short.

Some of the quotes that Tatum had, I thought in the Chris Mannix piece was really interesting about how bitter and angry he was that they lost. I thought they were going to win tonight, but they had a little edge to them that I don't feel like they had last year. Do you? No. I mean, we saw it and they had that edge and they also just had the stability too. With smart limiting turnovers, brogdon limiting turnovers

they have like the the ability to stay calm but also to get aggressive as you're talking about like they they have both of those extremes that you see as a championship quality and boston had a little bit of it last year they developed it after the new year but i mean for them to come out the way they did on opening night that's very encouraging i picked i picked celtics warriors to go to the finals again on the mismatch, but I think and I picked Warriors to repeat and I'd stick with that. But at the same time, Boston,

you project them forward, getting Robert Williams back some point during the season, adding him to this group with Brogdon and Smart and White, the stable back court they have. They can defend anybody. Then I didn't even

see Luke Cornett tonight, Phil. Hauser only three minutes. My dad was devastated. He was really counting on him this year. The Blake Griffin thing, it seems like he's going to play a little bit. They threw Vonlay out there for 20 minutes. I'll be interested to see if that's the same case in 50 games. But I

think people probably overreact a little bit to the Gallinari injury. And I think they underreacted to how good Brogdon is when he's healthy. He was magnificent today. Just coming off the bench, when you think how much trouble they had, what a tightrope it was if Brown and Tatum weren't out there, or if you removed one of them and how delicate that had to be where you just like, they basically couldn't survive unless one of those guys was out there. And if Jalen was having one of his shitty halves,

now you're going like, now you have no offensive creator. But now there's Brogdon. They saw that Tatum was out, I think for almost six minutes in the fourth quarter and they were plus three while he was out. That was not happening last year. And Brogdon,

I noticed this during the preseason. We have no idea how many games he's going to play. Just full caveat. You could tell me he's going to only play a thousand minutes this year. You could tell me he's going to play 1,800. I don't know, but dramatic difference. He's got more size than you realize too. He fits in with the whole way that they can switch on D and he's just lights out shooter. He's just good at basketball. If they keep him on the court, huge addition. He's a stabilizer. The types of pass he makes, it's immediate. It's instantaneous when he catches the ball and

swings it around the court or his drives to the basket. It's in the shot pocket of a guy shooting a corner three. He is just such a good, just a straight up good player. He has a good feel in the pick and roll. It looks like he's been with the team for a couple years now. Yeah, no question.

He was always a high IQ guy, right? The reason he fell was the medicals in the draft. That was the only reason. Yeah, that's the only reason. He would have been a higher pick if it weren't for the medicals. I like that they added a couple guys, and unfortunately Gallinari is another one, but he got hurt.

But these guys that also haven't tasted it yet. You know, Blake's another one. Blake, who's either at the very tail end of his career or the almost tail end of his career, but, you know, never got over the hump, never was able to win a title. And is a great, I think it's funny because he was one of the most disliked players

in the league at his prime, especially by other players. But now I think he's like a pretty well-liked veteran. He's respected. I think he's fitting great. I haven't heard anything other than great stuff about him behind the scenes. And he's just like that one more adult in the room. I was surprised that they didn't figure out the Grant Williams extension though. I thought that was going to be a layup.

I saw the Brandon Clark. What did he get? 52 for four? And I figured, oh, that means Grant will get somewhere between 50 and 55 for four. And they didn't agree to it. They're going to roll it over to restricted free agency. It also makes him a possible

trade candidate during the season because this will be the last season. It'll be really easy to trade for him. Were you surprised they didn't extend him? Not really. I mean, I think Grant wants to prove himself judging from his quote afterwards. He said something about, you know, I don't want to ruin the market

as a guy high up in the NBPA. Not that he's necessarily a tone setter. Yeah, settle down, Grant. Yeah. But I do think Grant, he has shown some improvement as a ball handler.

He showed that hesitation dribble in preseason. Tonight, he had some nice finishes around the basket. Grant, maybe he on the inside wants to prove himself that he can be more than just a spot-up shooter in the corner

and a great defensive player. Maybe he feels that he can prove more over the course of the season. So I understand, in a sense. Let's take one more break and can prove more over the course of the season. So I understand in a sense. Let's take one more break and we'll do a couple more overreactions. This episode is brought to you by Movember. The mustache

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It's learned. Okay, give it up. Give what up? Really? Really, really. This message is brought to you by Metrolinks. We didn't talk about the Draymond part of tonight. It has a really super weird documentary.

I don't even, it wasn't even a documentary. It was like an infomercial. Whatever the hell that was. It was propaganda. It was Draymond propaganda for the Prop The Network. That was so strange.

20 minutes of free game to that? I don't know. So weird. And then here was, I can't say he was super remorseful about the pool punch

and it all led to the crux of this infomercial thing we had to watch where he justified where he sits now post-punch like this. Someone told me the world has been able to see one of your worst moments. Look at the upside now. And then he's like, it's a totally different way to look at it. It's like, what? What? So you're saying you,

you couldn't sink lower. So it's, there's, there's only one way to go from here. Fucking OJ should have thought of that when he was during the trial. Hey, sorry guys. There's only one way to go.

Thump it up for me. I just thought the, the lack of remorse was almost strange. He had a little remorse at the press conference, but for the most part, it almost seems kind of pissed off that this became a thing. He was saying, I didn't realize it. I went home. I don't really check Twitter. I don't really look at comments. Well, you have a podcast. You don't look at comments at all. I thought the whole thing was very, very strange. And then the vibe on ring night, I couldn't tell. It almost seemed like they fumbled with the audio or something. I couldn't tell if there were any boos. I don't

think there probably were, but it was way louder for Clay and Curry and Poole. It seemed to be the big three. But in general, it was just a weird vibe. And then him and Poole, and they're getting their rings and they were never quite next to each other. They never did a hug. They never made up in front of anybody. And they just kind of like, oh, cool. These guys, guess they could have put it behind. And Poole gave him a nice little pass at one point for a layup. But for the most part, it was kind of hanging over the whole night in a way that was a little uncomfortable. It was like being at a family event, right? Like a Thanksgiving or Christmas where your aunt and your uncle had just gotten in a huge fight four weeks before. And now we're all at the dinner and like, Hey, so how are things?

And we're just, everyone in the back of their head is thinking like aunt Bobby and uncle Joe had a huge fight last week. Um, I thought it was a little weird. What'd you think? It was definitely weird that the fact he turned it into content and it wasn't on his podcast either. That was strange that he didn't do it on the pod, but he did do it for this 25 minute propaganda piece. By the way, if you punch Chris Vernon and you don't talk about it on the podcast, you talk about it on some 20 minute infomercial documentary, I'm going to be furious. What the hell? Why is that on the Mismatch? Do it on FanDuel TV.

Yeah. It's like, why are you telling Kay Adams this? Put this on the Mismatch. Anyway. It's very weird, but I still don't think they're going to trade him, Bill.

Really? I still don't think so. What would you put as odds? Not that you're an odds maker, but do you think it's more likely they trade him or don't trade him? Because that's probably more likely they, but do you think it's more likely they trade him or don't trade him?

Because that's probably more likely they keep him, right? I think more likely they keep him. I just, I mean, me and Chris talked about this. I don't, I look around the league. Who is going to make an offer that's going to make any sense

for Golden State to take? To me, it seems like the type of thing they would wait until next summer and then address it, make another title run, even if it's weird. And then you assess things next offseason

when he does have the player option and he can decide to opt out or opt back in. I could see the Pistons grabbing him. Detroit trying to make a playoff run. Especially if they were a little bit better. If they were a little bit better than people thought.

How about the Hawks? Hawks, I could see. They would make some sense. Pair him with Trey and Murray. Hawks, I could see. I could see some sort of three-teamer where Miles Turner is involved because that's...

To the Lakers. I think it would be really nice. Yeah, but after watching the Lakers tonight, the last thing I'd want to do if I was them is trade for Draymond Green. I don't think that's what they did. I wasn't watching them tonight going, man, if Draymond Green was on the Lakers,

this would totally be different. And Draymond was also interesting. The game itself, he was one of the more forgettable guys in the game. And yeah, it's whatever. It wasn't his type of game. It's opening night. It's a little weird with ring night.

But the fact that Wiseman, can we move to that overreaction? Because I think this is a piece of it. I mean, you're overreacting here, not me. Wiseman rolling in the basket with his hands up. Let's go. I thought at the minus 11 in 17 minutes Bill. Listen, whatever. Don't

throw stats at me. I thought at the very least he passed Darko in the bust rankings. For sure that. Such a low bar. Not until tonight. Dead even with Darko. Did he pass Anthony Bennett too?

Yeah, I think he did. I think he passed Poku. Poku and him might just go back and forth. Hey, we're not done with Poku yet. Yeah, they might just leapfrog each other back and forth.

Now I thought, I know he was minus 11, but he, I, how many of those minutes did he play with Curry? I thought he was playing with their second unit for the most part. And the Warriors missed a lot of open shots. I mean, the Lakers' defense was pathetic.

And I actually think the Warriors could have scored 150 points if they were shooting better. But look, we haven't seen Wiseman play basketball. We saw him during the pandemic season a tiny bit. We didn't really see him at all last season. We barely saw him in college. I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know if he was a complete write-off bust where the Warriors were kind of talking about him like he was BuzzFeed stock or something like, no, no, no, you want to get in. I know it's a dollar. The athleticism and

the size, it's there. So whether they can turn him in, can they turn him into a 20-minute-a-game guy? What is he, 21 years old? Yeah. I don't know. I thought it was encouraging. It doesn't seem like you were as encouraged.

I mean, it's encouraging, but the bar was so low. I'm not doing jumping jacks over here over what we saw from Weisman on Open Night. If that was Killian Hayes, you would have been throwing a party. I mean, well, he. If that was Killian Hayes, you would have been throwing a party. I mean, well, he's not better than Killian Hayes, that's for sure. Say Pistons, turn down Wiseman for Killian Hayes. They're hanging up.

Pistons hanging up on that call. Hanging up on that for damn sure. I like what I saw from Wiseman. I think they like him. Look, he's shown potential. I mean, he's shown a different element that the Warriors haven't had with his rim running.

And if he can become an enforcer and anchor for that defense, then it makes trading Draymond, whether it's at the deadline, whether it's next summer, whether it's some number of years from now, it'd make that easier to do. Because if you are moving Draymond,

you got to have somebody who can be the anchor of your defense besides Kevon Looney, given Looney's only a 20 to 25 minute per game guy, maybe 28 to 30 minutes in certain postseason matchups. So Wiseman needs to reach that level, then you can do that. But yeah, he's not on my overreaction draft,

but I was definitely encouraged. I think one of the things I'd be overreacting to is Jordan Poole. Granted, he didn't have a good scoring night. It was only 4-15. I thought the playmaking he showed was really, really impressive. That was true in preseason as well. But the five assists he had in the first half had some. You mentioned Wiseman rolling.

He had a great pass to Wiseman in the pick and roll where he took an extra dribble to hold the defender before whipping the pass to him. The Warriors are on the sideline play with Stephen Curry where sometimes Steph comes over for a handoff or a three-pointer. Sometimes he cuts to the rim. In this instance, he cut to the rim and Poole delivered this perfect bounce pass to Steph on the cut. I just feel like Poole, he didn't score tonight, but he's doing a good job each year of toggling between scoring and playmaking. And with him, he's not going to get... Clay's taken a lot of shots, and he's not going to get all-star usage. But it feels like if this

trend continues for Poole, he has all-star talent, even if the usage isn't there. I agree. They want to keep Curry's minutes. It was 34.5 last year. In the 18 season, it was 32.

I think they want him around 32, which means Poole needs to run the team for those other 16 minutes. And you didn't mention DiVincenzo. Now, his game, if he's ever going to really make it as an elite bench guy, it would be on this Warriors team with the way they move and the stuff he brings to the table. It does remind me like in the Redeem Team

doc, Rudy Fernandez has this whole moment in the Redeem Team doc. And it brought me back to 15 years ago when like all of us had Rudy Fernandez doc. It was like having the Ken Griffey upper deck cards in 1990. All of us had Fernandez doc. It's like, this is the year for Fernandez. And he just on paper looked and you'd watch him. He's like, God, this guy can do everything. And DiVincenzo reminds me a little of that. He's so skilled. He can go to the basket. He's a good passer. He can shoot. Just fundamentally, as a bench guy, you want those three things. And yet I have no idea if he's ever going to be able to put them together. And that's why he was only available for basically a one-year flyer. If it's ever no idea if he's ever going to be able to put them together. And that's why he was only available for basically a one-year flyer.

If it's ever going to happen, it's going to be in this team. I mean, he made a good decision going to Golden State. What a place to try to restore your value and prove you're worth more money than what he ended up signing for.

So for him, if he's able to stay healthy, shoot threes, make some solid decisions off the dribble, survive on defense, he's going to get paid. Yeah.

It's a little like the Curry Warriors are becoming a little like the Brady Pats where people are just going to stop by for a year to either restore their value, try to chase a ring, whatever. And they'll take the discount to have the experience for one year just to see how it goes. They'll always be able to get those guys, it feels like. Is that a good thing in the sense that

Moses Moody plays only eight minutes tonight and he's looked pretty good defensively, versatile, long. Right.

He's got strength and his spot-out three's free. We can dribble. I mean, Moody's a good player, but he only gets eight minutes behind Kaminga, behind DiVincenzo. I'd like to see him

get some more opportunities behind Jermichael Green for that matter, too. Yeah, see, I didn more opportunities behind Jermichael Green for that matter too. Yeah, see, I didn't like the Jermichael Green. I was surprised he played 23 minutes. I thought those were going to be moody minutes. I thought they were going to be a little smaller. Maybe it was because of the matchup

where they were playing. I don't know, but I'm with you. They talked that moody big time before the season. Made it seem like he was this super important person. Yeah, the Draymond thing, I don't know how it plays out. I don't think I would want to bet either way on it yet.

And I do think he has potential to make it worse, is the other factor with this. Even that documentary thing, whatever, I wouldn't be delighted about that if I was running the Warriors. It's like, why is this on the internet now? Why is this on Twitter? Why is this still going? Just let it go. Put it behind you. Don't talk about it. You know how the internet goes. People talk about stuff and then they move on to the next thing. People kind of moved on to the next thing. Ring Night was going to be the last piece of it. And now it feels like it's going to

come back up. It gave it more life for no reason. Yeah, for no reason. The Curry piece of this was fun tonight too, where you think like, LeBron and the Lakers coming to Curry's house. LeBron was the player of the generation. Then Curry kind of took

over at least a little bit these last seven, eight years. They either shared it or then last year, Curry really took the reins. And then LeBron comes to his house, did the same number of titles. Even the way Curry was carrying himself in that ring thing, like it's just like, that's his house. Those are his fans.

There's no other relationship like that with a player and a city and a franchise. And you could feel it even in ring night. Like no other player could win and have the command of the room like that and that's you know the one thing lebron gave up by not staying in cleveland he's not going to have a connection like that with another fan base you know did you see the uh the bob costas video that kind of went viral on twitter the other day

where he's talking about after michael jordan last finals, the changing NBA, how stars weren't staying in one place at one time anymore, and what that meant for fans with the identity of teams that they root for. It seems kind of prophetic in a way and relates to what you're saying now about what LeBron doesn't have and Steph does. Well, we have Giannis has it with Milwaukee. I think Tatum has a chance to have it with Boston if he wants it. I think Embiid has a chance to have it with Philly. He needs to win a title. All these guys need to win a title. Giannis already did it. Luka has a chance to do it in Dallas and Ja has a chance in Memphis, but you know, first you have to win the title because that's a whole different level of bonding. Yeah, and it's so early for them too.

But you got to get the title. That pushes the bond. Think about how different Pierce's Celtics career was and how KG is received in Boston. They won one title. But those guys, they're printed for life in Boston because of that one title. I don't know how that's going to work with Davis and the Lakers

because that bubble title was so strange. There were no fans in any of the games. I don't know if that carries the same sort of... Didn't even have a parade. There was no parade. Yeah, it was just weird. It was a weird one. I remember going to the Celtics parade. It's one of the most... Made an imprint on me going there, being on there on the street. Not even be able to celebrate that. I saw Leon Poe after that parade. He was in a car and I was like, that's Leon Poe! Ran over to him and thanked him for the title. What was he? Game

two was his big game? I think game two, game three. Game two of the finals? Something like that. Almost 20 points, bunch of rebounds. Hey, I did my picks today before we go. So you have a Golden State-Boston rematch. I did Milwaukee and Denver. I talked about this last week

with House and Rousseau when we did the over-unders. We're all really high on Denver. And I was like, I don't want to officially make my pick. I want one more week. I want to read. I want to...

I love the quotes before the season. All that little stuff. I had to do my whole process. Denver's the ceiling team to me. And I think people are pointing to the Clippers, but that was an interesting outcome tonight. We forgot to talk about this, where people are like, Kawhi and Paul George, that duo. I just think Jalen and Tatum are better than Kawhi and Paul at this point. Those guys are older. I don't trust them to play eight straight months. I don't know how they can stay on the court for more than 60 to 65 games.

I don't trust it. And I know what I have with Tatum and Brown. I just think they're a safer bet with Denver. When you think the floor for that team, removing Murray and Porter and forget about adding Caldwell Pope and Bruce Brown, their floor was 48 wins. I don't know how they're not eight to 10 wins better.

And there is a bet on Fando, I think, plus 550 for the one seed. To me, it's Golden State or them for the one seed. I think those are the two safest bets. But I think Denver's

going to be off the charts offensively this year. What do you think? I think Michael Porter Jr. is going to be the key to that. Yeah. He looked more like the guy who averaged 19 points

on 45% from three and just jacking shots from everywhere and still hitting them the regardless of the defense and preseason so if he's able to sustain that or even build on it and keep getting better and maybe become a 23 24 25 point per game guy with murray back and all that support like you said kcp bruce brown they got some depth they have versatility bones highland maybe he gets better as a young player too he'll definitely be a little better yeah they should be better so denver um another year of chemistry with aaron gordon too for that matter yeah denver's got a real shot they do and milwaukee you can't bet against yannis and chris

middleton one of the best players top 25 30 guys in the league as well coming back at some point early in the year I think that's a fine bet Milwaukee would be right there for me next to Boston to me that's the two clear best teams in the Eastern Conference and Golden State Denver they're right up there for me in the West I mean I think you could make an argument for a couple other teams making the finals but ultimately I'd go with Golden State still right now in Denver probably in the West Finals. Grizzlies, they have a shot. Still too young, I think. Clippers, it's really

a health bet with them. Yeah, I think the two teams you had, the two teams I had, I think to me are the clear four that are the safest bets. And then the Clippers are the wildcard bet in Philly in the East. And if Philly, whether there's a coach chance.

We haven't mentioned them. The Suns that fall off a little bit here for you? No question. Well, we added Michael Pena was on the ringer today and he did 19 predictions. Came out hot, first ringer piece. And he had increasingly bold predictions in two I was just flat out jealous of.

The Chris Paul with the Suns trade Chris Paul during the season. I was like, whoa, I got to put a fire-retardant suit on. How about the last one he had? Well, he... Then it goes to the last one. Oh my God. Then I was like, whoa, he's not going to be able to top that Chris Paul one. And then not only did he have the, will Miami move on from Jimmy Butler as his last prediction,

but he had fake trades. I was like, how is this guy not working for a suitor? But one of the trades was Jimmy Butler to Denver and it was like Porter and a couple other pieces. And I got to be honest, my head started racing with that one. I was like, that is really, really interesting. If Miami feels like they missed their window, you have Denver going, we're close. Now, the uncertainty of Porter, let's just grab Jimmy Buckets and really make a run here. I was intrigued.

I don't think it'll happen, but I thought that was one of the best fake trades I'd read in a while. If you're Denver, and if you have concerns about Porter Jr. moving forward, then yeah, you try to shop him. But if you're betting on and if you have concerns about porter jr moving forward then yeah you try to shop them but if you if you're betting on this guy to stay healthy dude his upside so high like that guy couldn't agree more a six foot ten clay like shooter dude's unbelievable he can jack it from 30 feet he can jack it coming off a screen with two defenders sprawled over him

and from the corner he can pull up for mid-range. He can hit turnarounds. And if he continues getting better with his handle, he's going to be able to get to the basket with even greater efficiency as well. Porter, I mean, like he's the, he might be the X factor

of the entire NBA season if we're talking about finals teams because what he can turn Denver into is a team that's there possibly every single year. Well, that's what I was thinking about them as a one seed. Like even if they get 60 games out of him, that's there possibly every single year. Well, that's what I was thinking about them as a one seed. Like even if they get 60 games out of him,

that's such an X factor. It's just like, oh, we're going to add this 20 point score, six foot 10 and makes 25 footers, moves without the ball. We're just going to throw him into this mix we have already. I thought, one thing I thought and why I don't think that trade can happen, but it was fun to talk about. If Denver was open and trading Porter, that would make me not want to trade for him because I'd be like, what do they know?

Oh, yeah, for sure. It's like, hey, man, I got this unbelievable Porsche. Man, I'd hate to part with this thing, but I'll sell it. Yeah, no, the engine's great. And I just think I'm out. Why are you trying to sell that car? It's beautiful. Why do you want to get rid of it?

So I think they're probably stuck with Porter for better or worse and it'll probably be better. I think we both think he's, you know, on paper, just an unbelievable fit with Jokic and what they have. But yeah, he could get hurt in April

and that would be it. Well, I remember when I was in Denver a couple of years ago and interviewed their former GM, Tim Conley, he said something to me like, with Porter Jr., the only concern is injury. That's it. Yeah. And I think that was the mindset with them just giving him the money, even though it

might end up being a mistake if he keeps getting hurt and you're stuck with that contract. But all you really need for a chance to win one is for him to be healthy once in April, May, and then possibly June. That's all you need is just one time, just once over the duration of the contract. And if you win it, then it's worth it. All right.

KSA is now 1102 Pacific time. So we're wrapping it up. It's good to see you. We'll hear you on the mismatch. We'll see you on the YouTube feeds. When, when is the void kick back up? Not sure.

We're figuring that out. Okay. Then we got November, December, something like that. You're on Tik TOK. There's a lot of Wimpy Yama scoot coverage coming. It're figuring that out. Okay. Then we got... November, December, something like that. You're on TikTok. There's a lot of Wimbinyama scoot coverage coming. It's a good time.

A lot of draft coverage. I'm looking forward to our NBA draft guide this year. This is a fun draft, even beyond those guys. All right. Good to see you. Thanks, Bill. What does possible sound like for your business? It's having the spend to powers your scale with no preset spending limit, more cash on hand to grow your business with up to 55 interest-free days,

and the ability to reach further with access to over 1,400 airport lounges worldwide. Redefine possible with Business Platinum. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms and conditions apply. Visit amex.ca slash business platinum. Alright, Ryan Fitzpatrick is here. He played the NFL for a long time. He is

on Amazon's pregame halftime postgame stuff now trying to figure out what's next. What do you think of TV, first of all? It's been pretty good. I've enjoyed it. Part of it for me is just traveling from city to city and getting to see former teammates, coaches,

trainers, equipment guys, all that. So keeping in it. And the TV aspect, they dress me. So I get to say, well, does this go with this? And they usually say no, but I decided to wear it anyway. And just working with the guys I'm working with and Carissa, Richard Sherman

is a character and Andrew Whitworth's been fun. Tony Gonzalez has been fun. So we're enjoying it so far. I got thrown into one of those studio shows for NBA like 10 years ago. And there are these little things that you just don't realize until you're actually doing it, right? Like it looks really bad if you're nodding vigorously as somebody else is talking.

It looks bad if you're fidgety. You want to make your point in like, you know, 25, 30 seconds strong and not just kind of ramble. You don't want to chew up the five minute segment, you know, if it has to move around to everybody. What else have you learned? What other little tricks? Yeah. I mean, we've got, we have to hold our mics the whole time. So we're not, we're not doing this. It's picking up too much interference. So we're not doing the Madonna mic. We're doing the normal mic. And so they keep having to tell us, especially in these loud stadiums, like Kansas city, for instance, our first week doing it, eat your mic, you know, because we're talking and you're moving your head, but you're not moving the mic. And the audio isn't picking up as good as it should. So there's some of that, you know, for me, it's been, you know, just moving your head back and forth.

Yeah. Yeah. Like, what are we doing here? The camera, don't worry about it. You're talking and having a discussion, you know, and I'm right in the middle. And so it's just constantly doing this and this, and then having to go to the chiropractor after the, after the session, you know, with all the neck movement and the nodding and, uh, you know, knowing when you're on camera and when you're not making goofy faces at people, but that, that all, uh, that all has been fun to learn about. See, I was smart. I worked with your girl Amina when I did the NBA. And I was like, give me the side seat. I'm not doing the bobblehead back and forth thing. I would have been the Ed like Barkley. Let me do that. Let's talk football stuff. So the big,

I guess it's becoming a trend is this whole everybody trying to take away the explosive plays. And I can't tell we're only six weeks in, I don't know the difference between a fad and a trend, but we are getting less explosive plays. Every game is going under. It's like 65% of the games are going under. And it does feel like a little more of a grit and grind kind of season, which is good for my beloved Patriots because that's a run the ball, play action, 12 play drive type of team. But is this a fad or is this an actual trend for you? Well, I think there's a lot that goes into it. I think first of all, quarterbacks are becoming more risk averse. You see that a lot lot and with some of these new offenses um you know if you think they're

playing to take away the deep shots running games should explode and they're not really exploding and so uh some of these new offenses it's such even you know watching justin herbert last night but he had 58 attempts or something an average 4.2 yards per attempt you know and so uh there's a lot the issue i have with a lot of these newer offenses is when you look at receivers catching the ball, their shoulders are facing the quarterback. They're away from their end zone. And so this run after the catch stuff, which you see with San Francisco and with some of these other teams, they're not catching the ball on the run and hitting it and going.'s more catching it looking at the

quarterback face to face and then having to turn around and so you're going to generate less explosives that way and you're going to generate less explosives by not taking the shots down the field uh so that part of it for me has been a little frustrating to watch uh you know watching the patriots watching bailey zappy is it zappy or zap we're calling them zappy we're calling them zappy you can call them whatever you want. Just call him the best quarterback in football, but call him Zap. Zap, it doesn't matter. But we got a young guy that comes in and right away on a third down takes a shot up to Devontae Parker who goes up and gets it and brings it down. And so there's some

of these passes down the field that you're not seeing with some of these other guys. Aaron Rodgers, for example, there's a lot of the RPOs and just getting it out of his hand. And someone that's probably trust with receivers, but more down the field shots, man. That's why I'm hoping Jameis plays this week for us on Thursday night because you know he's going to put it down the field. Well, ironically, you were a take the shots. I used to hate when the Patriots played you because you and Flacco were the two that you just three-step drop, just chuck it down the

sideline. And I'm always the most scared of that as a fan. If I've gambled it on the other team, or if I'm a fan, I just feel like there's three outcomes, basically incompletion, completion, or pass interference, right? And you saw Baltimore just for five years there with Flacco where they were just like, let's keep going. Let's keep putting the pressure on. And I absolutely hated it. I don't know why the Chargers don't do that with Herbert.

To me, if I could change anything in the NFL this season, I'd be like, just run that offense with Herbert. Let him fling it. Yeah, and they had a game plan going in in the NFL this season and be like, just run that offense with Herbert. Let him fling it. Yeah. And they had a game plan going in where they were going to attack the guy opposite of Sertan last night and threw a couple deep ones on him where they got the PIs. But there can be more of it. There can be more of the quarterback at the line seeing one-on-one coverage and being able to take advantage because some of these receivers are so impressive and so skilled coming out of college now. In the last five to ten years, that's been the crazy thing for me too, to watch

how skilled some of these guys are coming into the NFL ready because it's a tough position to do that in. And more and more guys are making that jump easier every year. You played with Parker. That's the move. It's not like he's going to be open by five yards. He wants to have contact, go up in the air, and bang off people and go get the ball.

Well, and you think, we did the Bears game, and we just started talking about Justin Fields and what he threw to in college. And really, his receiving core is worse than it was in college. No disrespect to the guys he's throwing to, but the one I forgot about, I think Jameson Williams was on that team as well. Right.

At some point, but Smith and Jigba, who they're saying, you know, is better than a lobby and better than Wilson. Like, you know, the guys he was throwing to and the guys,

the talent he was throwing against, there's so much separation. And I saw that with Tua when he first got to Miami. You take the receivers he had at Alabama and their competition level, and there's just a different this guy is open in the NFL

than there is in college. And that's, I think, what some of these quarterbacks are struggling with, the young ones especially, as they get to the NFL. So if you just did that Bears game, and they don't have a lot of talent, obviously.

And I'm more on the side of, I don't know if Fields ever makes it as a top 15 guy because they just call me nuts, but I love accuracy and completions. It's one of my things for quarterbacks. I like when even somebody like Zappy, I just like guys who hit open dudes. With that said, it does feel like there's a different version of an offense for him that might be more fun, right? Where you take advantage of his

elitism and just have him chuck it downfield. What you said before about the fear of interceptions, where does that come from? Is that the coordinators or is that the quarterbacks being afraid of the impact on the stats? Yeah, I think it's the stats. I mean, and you can always tell, you know, when you've either got the end of half or end of game Hail Mary, you can always tell a quarterback and what they're thinking and feeling about that.

One that accidentally takes a sack or you know oh yeah hey let's throw it real quick for the you know 15 yarder and maybe get into the end zone uh the guys that throw the hail mary out of bounds i mean you could tell certain guys are thinking about it and trying to protect protect what that end stat line looks like um but i think that's probably some of its rise of social media and the hatred on there. And, you know, just being able to produce a stat line at the end of the game, that's like, well, I guess he didn't lose the game for us. Look at his stats. He didn't throw any picks. That part is becoming more and more prevalent. Look, the goal is not to throw interceptions,

obviously, as a quarterback, but the goal also also especially with these offenses that are struggling when i look at denver i'm taking two or three shots to jerry judy and taking two or three shots to courtland sutton every single game because if you're having a hard time generating yards and you're having to go on these 14 15 16 play drives where a batted ball, a holding call, a false start, a lost run, a sack, and all of a sudden you can't extend that drive, shots down the field are the way to overcome bad offense. Whether you say it's a PI, it's a catch, or it's an incompletion,

there's two of those three things that can be pretty good for you. It's funny what you said about the Hail Mary because in basketball, this started happening like 15 years ago. The end of the quarter, end of the half three-pointer from half court. And guys just started waiting until a split second after the buzzer before they shot it because they didn't want it to hurt their three-point percentage. I'm going to start looking for that now.

That would be a fun thing to follow just during football games. Yeah, that's... So you had... Especially end of half. When you're looking at the end of half and and the guy takes the five yarder off the line and then the, you know, the receiver runs for 30 and they jog into the locker room. That's, that's a big one. He's like, I'm good. Yeah. You had a couple of years you had in Buffalo, you threw 23 picks and 16 picks back to back seasons. You threw 17 picks in the Jets one year, but you were letting it fly.

I always felt like, you know, like you were kind of a throwback to 60s, 70s, where they just didn't care about the stats as much. It was more, you know, how could I move the ball? What are my things? Like, what would you do differently when you look back at some of your stat lines? Yeah, but some, you know, 23 picks with the Bills. I led the league that year.

I think I tied maybe Eli, but some of that, a lot of that was also decision-making. It was being behind in a game and making some dumb throws and decisions. So I'm not saying like, yes, you need to lead the league in picks. You need to have 15 interceptions. But the fact that there's so much fear, especially when you're losing a game of taking shots downfield and making plays i just think uh there aren't enough guys that are willing to take those shots right now and there should be more and look even justin fields when we watch when we i watch all his tape going up into that game he throws a beautiful deep ball but it was like in that game he threw one deep ball to Austin Pettis and they scored a touchdown on it

and other than that the only way they generate yards is from him scrambling so why not dial up two or three a game where he's putting the ball in the air and letting it rip downfield it's just it's head scratching to me sometimes what uh what's your favorite young me sometimes. What's your favorite young quarterback? Or who's your favorite young quarterback right now? If you had to pick. The one you just enjoy watching for all the reasons you like. If we're still counting Josh

as a young quarterback. Josh Allen. No, Josh doesn't count. Josh is off the table. Okay. Is Joe Burrow off the table? No. I love watching Joe. But even week one, he comes out and just lays an egg versus the Steelers. He's got the picks. He makes some bad decisions.

Even after that, he's getting stacked a bunch, and people are critical of his offensive line, but he realizes a lot of it is himself. Now you see the numbers of how quickly he's getting the ball out. But also, it's not just the short short throwing the ball to screens and all that. He puts the ball down the field. And lucky for Joe, he's got Jamar Chase, T. Higgins, who to me is the most underrated receiver in the NFL, and Tyler Boyd.

So he's got some players that hand it off to Joe Mixon. So he's in a great spot. But I really like him, the way he plays. He plays without fear in terms of, you know, taking those shots down the field and even hanging on to it for an extra second and taking a shot while letting go of the ball.

I really liked the way he plays. I do as well. I, I have them on my fantasy team. So I was watching them even more closely. I went all in on him and Chase. And I feel like he's been figuring out his team as the season went along,

because we all thought, oh, the Bengals, they improved their offensive line. I thought they were going to be better. But that Pittsburgh game was such a disaster. Now they're going against Watt, and maybe Watt was, he got hurt at the end of the game, but he's just a freak. Maybe he blew them up.

I don't know. But over the last five games, I thought that Saints game was pretty important for them where they had to come from behind. I think the season craters if they lose that. They're two and four

with some games that they blew and they just seemed disjointed. But Chase finally rips one off and now they're three and three, which you don't want to be two and four at this point in the season. But I'm with you. The thing you said about he waits that extra second, but he'll take the hit if it's going to buy him that extra second, because that's going to be the completion. I'm on my couch. I don't want to sound like Van Pelt. I'm just a guy on my couch.

I don't feel like Brady and Rodgers are waiting that extra second anymore, especially Brady. Brady, to me, seems like he's been business decisioning these first six weeks and he just doesn't want to get hit. What do you see when you watch Brady? Yeah. I mean, he's also 45 years old. Yeah. It's his career. When I think about his career and how durable he's been, I mean, you look at some of these games that are happening. Skyler Thompson goes in for Miami and bangs his hand on a helmet. You've got a Teddy Bridgewater goes in, concussion, Hoyer, concussion. You have these guys that are going into these games getting hurt right away. Like Tom, other than the ACL, hasn't really missed anything in his entire career.

And a lot of that is toughness in the way that he prepares. Some of that is luck, but it's also longevity in the way that he plays and getting rid of the ball. So, you know, I just, for me watching him this year, I know there's a lot of stuff that's going on in his life, you know, that kind of everybody's been rumored to hear about. But I just don't see that same fire. He just seems a little disinterested. You know, I feel like in the Kansas City game, he was ready to turn it up. You know, they didn't really have a chance in that game because Kansas City's offense was great.

But that was kind of the first time where it was like, OK, I see the interest level. I see this guy played against him so many times. I mean, when they're beating you, he's just not satisfied with winning by three or by seven, the whole game. And the most impressive thing for me, his entire career is how focused he can be on every single drive of every single game. And I just see a lack thereof this year when I watch them play. So I'm a huge Patriots fan, obviously, and I've watched an incredible number of Brady games. And I'm with you. I don't know what the right verb is, but something's different.

And I see a guy, and again, I don't know anything. I haven't seen him in person. I'm just watching on TV. But I see a guy who doesn't seem like he's all in on playing football anymore. And you can just see it the way, the look on his face, how he used to be like the ultimate team guy. And he was always trying to inspire and he was just locked in. And you felt like he was really, really leading the team. That team seems rudderless to me. And I know they lost Arians too, but man, you're losing to Pittsburgh. You're losing to Kenny Pickett, who's basically, I think it's his second start. He goes out, Trubisky comes in, who they would have sent packing if anybody

had to get off of them a 14th round pick. He comes in, he's making third down throws. It's like to lose that game, I thought was alarming. And I try not to overreact in October, but that was alarming because it doesn't feel like they moved the ball in the same way. I don't think they can run the ball either. Their offensive line isn't as good. And I just wondered, does he just have regret?

Does he just like, man, why did I come back? And is that starting to seep on the field? So what do you see with that? Well, I think I've seen this from him before his last year in New England. Yeah, that was another example. It was another example of just a year where there was so much visible frustration from him. He was kind of exasperated all the time by his teammates and play calling. And you could just visibly see him upset more than usual on the field,

on the sideline. And that's what this year feels like a little bit. That being said, you know, I played for Todd Bowles in New York. I think, first of all, his defensive scheme is great. It's tough to go against. He's very aggressive. And that trickles down to the team. I think they won some of those games early because of the defense, and they haven't performed

as well as of late, but I still see the Bucs as a team that they're going to sleepwalk their way to 10-7 and make the playoffs, and then hopefully it all comes together because maybe then Tom becomes Tom again in the playoffs. Yeah. It's just, that's, that's kind of what this season feels like right now for me. And that's the case for Brady is he's like,

he's done 22 of these 22 seasons of these. Like he knows, like it doesn't really matter until we get the Thanksgiving, but that your team is, but that's, that's always been the amazing thing about him though. When I watch him is even though it's been so long, he's so locked in all the time. You know, whether it was

an inferior opponent or a big game on, you know, Sunday, Monday night, Thursday night, you know, it's just, he was always so locked in. And I just, I'm missing that a little bit

when I watch him this year. Well, I thought that the retirement comeback was obviously odd. The 10-day hiatus in the middle of training camp in August, that didn't seem great. He's not with them on Wednesdays. And the Friday night thing, I was really surprised by. I thought that was about as unusual.

I mean, you've played a lot of football seasons. I'm going to guess you kind of want to be where the team is on a Friday night when the game is Sunday at one o'clock on the East Coast. Am I missing something? Yeah. And, you know, it's one of those things he had to know, you know, if they win the game, it's not a story. And if they don't, then it is.

Yeah. And I don't think a whole lot of people went into that game thinking they were going to lose that game to Pittsburgh. But, you know, all of a sudden it becomes a story and something we have to talk about because nobody else in the NFL is getting that privilege to go to a buddy's wedding on a Friday night. If it's one thing, it's not a big deal. But this is like five or six things now. And they just start adding up where you're going, football doesn't work like this. The great thing about Brady when he was on the

Patriots during the best times is he was always like, even though he wasn't one of the guys, he worked harder than everybody else and he was all in and he was the ultimate teammate. And that's what all those guys who played with him, it's very different than some of the guys that have come out against Rodgers and Russell Wilson, where you have these people kind of throwing grenades, the ex-teammates. There's none of that with Brady. Nobody from the Patriots, you've never heard anybody say anything other than that guy was an incredible teammate. And this year, it doesn't seem like he's an incredible teammate. It feels like he's being grandfathered in as I'm the superstar. I'll show up,

you know, kind of when I want. And I, I just, you tell me different, but I don't know if football works that way. When you have 53 guys, everybody's supposed to be on the same page.

Yeah. And that's, you know, if anybody gets a pass, it's him because, you know, he's widely considered the greatest of all time. And then the,

it's almost like he did the bucksucs a favor by coming back. I'll come back under my own terms, that kind of thing. But I will say just knowing some of the guys in that locker room, especially the guys he's throwing to, the Chris Godwins of the world and the Mike Evans, those guys love and respect him. They have zero ego. You're not going to see an Antonio Brown-type blow-up out of those guys. They're there to win.

They love playing with him. They're true professionals. So I don't think this goes south because of this last incident or multiple incidents. I think, again, they're going to sleepwalk their way to the playoffs and hopefully it all comes together. Well, the football season is so fucking long. It's week six.

We're barely at the one-third point. And I think if we've learned anything over the last few years, the Chiefs were three and four last year. The Bengals, 10 weeks into this season, nobody was thinking about them as any sort of a Super Bowl possibility. So it's a long season. You have a unique place in Patriot fan history, which I'm sure you're aware of. You murdered our last season with Tom Brady. Yeah, I'm sorry.

It was an assassination. It wasn't even a murder because nobody was expecting it. And we ended up losing home field advantage and then getting trounced in the playoffs. But did you feel like, this is deep inside Patriots stuff, but it felt like you guys thought you could win that game. Like I think you saw, your team saw something in the Patriots that I don't think a lot of us saw where we were like this is bad but they'll turn it on they'll flip the switch they did it last year but you guys actually thought you were better than them is that accurate well it was crazy because if you go back to when we played him at the beginning of the year and that was you know the worst roster ever assembled and they're tanking for Tua.

Dominic Foxworth was, this isn't fair to these players. You're putting them in harm's way because they're so bad. And we really just cut everybody that had any sort of ability and just brought guys off the street. But that year was so rewarding for me because I think we started 0-7. But the way that we finished that year and the belief that we had That year was so rewarding for me because I think we started 0-7. But the way that we finished that year and the belief that we had in that locker room and grew together throughout the season, that was a big game for the Dolphins organization, for us as players to be like, OK, look how far we've come. We can do this. We can actually beat these guys. And the Patriots were flawed that year. Just talking about the Bucs sleepwalking to 10-7 maybe this year,

whatever their record was, they were kind of sleepwalking their way through the season there. And there was some stuff that wasn't right. And going back to Tom's body language throughout the year and some uncharacteristic stuff as he watched their offense, they weren't really what their record was. And we did. We believed that we could do it in that game. And it took us going down and scoring on a two-minute drive

at the end of the game. But it was very fulfilling to be able to do that at Foxboro. It wasn't fulfilling for us, I'll tell you that much. We can't really complain. We made a lot of Super Bowls. I always ask when I have quarterbacks on, I always ask this question. So I'm going to ask you, that position, just for what succeeds, it's not, I think talent, and the smarts is so important. The confidence, all these intangibles that come with that position where you're basically like, you're like a fighter pilot. You're one of the only people in the world who can fly the Top Gun plane, right? It's like Top Gun Maverick. They get the 12 guys. It's like, you are the 12 people who can do this mission.

And a lot of people can't do the mission. And yet over and over again with the draft, the same kind of guys get drafted and the same kind of guys fail. And then you look at the guys that make it, you mentioned Burrow earlier, right? Cool customer, tough as nails, super smart. There's just something different about him that you can see.

Why can we not get the quarterback thing right with the evaluations? Why do we always over and over again, look for the wrong things? Bailey Zappi is a good example. Has poise, put a big stats in college, but it's like,

let's hold the phones a little bit. It's early, but yeah. No, but it's, it's hard because part of it is situation too. Part of it is what you walk into. And I always point to two guys,

and one of these is becoming a better example, but the two guys I point to, Ben Roethlisberger and Russell Wilson, and the success that they had right away, but the situations that they walked into. There was an infrastructure on both of those teams with a great defense and the ability to run the ball. So you see them both walk into those situations and get better. I mean, Ben was not a great quarterback when he came into the league.

But over the years, you just saw all of a sudden that changed from Steelers' great defense, good running game, to Ben Roethlisberger's team airing the ball out, making plays down the field, and then relying more and more on him to win games for them. The Russell Wilson example is very interesting. I'm on set with Richard Sherman, who has some very strong opinions on it, but you've got a historically dominant defense. You've got a good running game. Now, all of a sudden, we've stripped some of that away,

and he goes to Denver. He's in a new system. Now, their defense this year has been phenomenal, but there just seems to be something that's not working there. But even when Josh Allen came out, there were questions about Josh because coming from Wyoming, smaller school, can he do it? His first two years in the league,

he's at 50-something percent completion percentage. And all of a sudden, something clicks. And there is a physical talent with some of these guys. Josh and Herbert are probably two examples

that you can't replicate. But Justin Fields is an example of a guy that is so physically gifted that you're willing to take the chance on them early in the draft because maybe the ego of a coach, you think that you can develop them into something. But it's just, it's tough. And you're not going to see many of the Bailey Zappies

and those fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh round undrafted guys as quarterbacks much anymore because there's so many guys with the way that the Ricky Wade scale changed and everything that are going in the first round that you're going to pick in the top ten and you just look around the league how many non-first

round quarterbacks or opening day starters. There aren't many. I mean, Kirk Fezzens is one of them. Dak Prescott's one of them, but there aren't a whole lot of them anymore. Well, think about just the guys who won on Sunday. It's like Geno Smith, Mariota, who I know is a first round pick, but anybody could have had him over the winter, right? Trubisky, Pickett, Wendig, Zappi. You go on down the line, it's like half of the guys were afterthoughts. Yeah, and I love, you know, I think Atlanta, Arthur Smith is doing such a

wonderful job there. If you look at a guy that is taking what he has and he is using Marcus Mariota's best attributes and making sure he highlights those every game, he's making game plans that highlight who they are as a football team rather than just copy-p throwing plays out there. I think Arthur is a great example of a team now that's on the rise, maybe not because of how much talent they have, but the way that he's coaching that football team right now. I always thought that was Belichick's greatest skill as a coach. People are going to be like, why did he succeed? It was like he always

looked at his players and then figured out what system would work for the players he had for that year. And I don't think a lot of people do that. Yeah, and you look at the last two weeks with New England. Sometimes we forget it's, oh no, they're going to be terrible this year. They're never going to be

terrible with Bill as a coach. Because all of a sudden, these last two weeks, a team that looked lost and looked like they're never going to be terrible with bill as the coach right because all of a sudden these last two weeks a team that look lost and look like you know they're going to win three four five games uh has blown a few teams out they shut out the hottest offense in the league yeah and they go and they make cleveland look silly with you know a kid that it bailey's happy what he's doing right now it pretty incredible because, you know, we had the offensive coordinator dilemma where they've got a guy that's never called offensive plays in the NFL or maybe anywhere. Bailey Zappi is not getting a ton of reps, you know,

in the off season. So he's come in and done what he's done with limited reps as well. But it's almost like coach Belichick thrives on that adversity too, right? When things like that happen, the greatness of his coaching comes alive. Well, I knew I said it on the podcast that night when they lost to the Packers. And I saw how into the game he was and he's thrown his headset. And it was a very Patriots type game where they controlled the clock. The game he was and he's thrown his headset and it was a very Patriots type game where they controlled the clock. The game management was great.

They kind of maximized whatever the possibility was that Zappi just wasn't ready. They needed him to make two throws in Lambeau and he had just been thrown in the fire. He couldn't do it. I think he could, the Zappi now might've been able to do it,

but I had a feeling that game, I was like, oh, he likes this team because I just felt like he was invested. And you saw what they did to Cleveland last week. It was a classic Belichick game. It's like, oh, you love to run the ball with Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt. You're not going to do that today. It's just not happening. What else do you got? And the other thing in the beginning of the game, long drive. You know what? I'm going to take the three points. It'll be great. I'm happy to go up three, nothing. That's another thing. I've been complaining about

this a lot on my pod. It's just, people are afraid to take points now. It's like, ah, I looked at my chart. We have 78% chance if we go forward and 76% if we don't. Ah, screw it. I'll just go for it. It's like, you know what's nice? Three points sometimes, especially if you think it's a low scoring game. I don't, where do you stand on this whole revolution? Yeah, it's tough.

Cause I think, I think you go into like the bills, Kansas city game this last week and say, okay, look, three points. I don't know if, and they both had that mindset,

right? Three points isn't necessarily going to win this game. And Buffalo had to go for it that in the fourth quarter, they had to, I was down the fourth quarter. They had to. I was down with that. I'm sure you were too. But there's also times, you know, Baltimore had a decision against Buffalo earlier this year where they decided to go for it and not kick a field goal. And it just, some of these, you know, not just taking into account the other team, but that game is a rainy game, right?

There's just, there's other factors where I don't think we can just take the number for the analytics. How is the game going? How is their offense look? How is our defense playing? There are just so many other factors than just the simple 78% chance of winning if we do this, you know, that I go to the Denver game that we had on Thursday night where, you know, Russell throws a pick versus Indy on third down

because they're trying to get the first down in the end zone at the end of the game. Indy had no business being in that game. There's no way if they just run the ball again,

let the clock bleed down and kick a field goal and go up by six that Indy's going to go down and score a touchdown. I'm so glad you said that. Yeah, just Matt Ryan's not going 85 yards. You kick the shit out of

him the entire game. He's got no receivers left. Just take the field goal. Make him go 85 yards. If he does it, so be it. But then it comes out after the game, Wilson's hurt. So it's like, Wilson was hurt and you still went for a fourth and one and a half? Because that doesn't make sense to me either. No, his shoulder looked good this week though.

Yeah, you think it was a little conditional injury? Yeah, I don't know. I have a question for you about Belichick. Was there ever a game when he just completely picked the butterfly wings off you where you were like, oh my God, this guy demolished me. I have to reevaluate my entire career after this. picked the butterfly wings off you where you were like, Oh my God, this guy demolished me. I don't, I have to reevaluate my entire career after this.

Yeah. I'm sure early with Buffalo, it was that, uh, for sure. But you know, the thing I always, I always love by the end of my career going against Belichick and going against the Patriots because you kind of always knew what you were going to get. You know, the cover zero, the man coverage or the soft zone. And you knew they were going to challenge you on every throw. And they were going to try to take away your best guy.

And so in knowing all those things and trying to scheme against it, it was always fun for me to go into those games. You know, the problem was when Tom was there, it was just, you know, so difficult when that offense was going as well to keep up a lot of the time. But I felt like towards the end of my career, you know, whether it was at the end in Buffalo, in New York, or in Miami, I started welcoming that matchup because I really enjoyed playing against him in that defense.

Well, what age did your brain pass your body as a quarterback where you were like, oh, I see everything. At least mentally, I get it. Well, I think 2014 was a big year with me. I was in Houston with Bill O'Brien, and that was the first year I was exposed to the New England offense and the New England side of looking at football.

So you're 32 at that point? Yeah, 32. And I had started a number of years and had a bunch of experience under my belt. You know, and that's not to say I figured it out because, you know, it was still so up and down

and had the good games and the bad games. But it's a really hard position to play. And that's why I marvel at some of these guys that are so consistent every year and every game being able to play at such a high level. All right, we have to go. Get me out of these guys that are so consistent every year and every game being able to play at such a high level. All right, we have to go. Give me out of these two teams

who are the two co-favorites right now. And we know that's not how it works after week six. One of these teams will bounce and not make the Super Bowl, Philly or Buffalo. If you had to say one of those teams is bouncing, which one would you pick? Philly. Yeah, I think I'm with you.

Buffalo looks great. I mean, Buffalo's won in both sides of DVOA now, which is like, I don't know if that's happened in 10 years. And they've had so many injuries too on defense. And that defense, that scheme is such that they can overcome some of that, which has been pretty incredible. Did you like being on the podcast? Are you going to come back?

Loved it. Thank you for having me. We should say we tried to hire you for the ringer and then all of a sudden you're doing Amazon TV. That was it. But I thought you would be great at podcasting. So the door is always open. If you ever want to be on the ringer team, you say the word, but I'm grabbing you later in the season. You're coming back. All right. Appreciate it. See you. All right. Good to see you. Thank you. All right. That's it for the podcast. Thanks to Kyle Creighton and thanks to Dylan Berkey and Steve Cerruti as well. I will be back on this feed on Thursday.

See you then. I don't have feelings within. On the wayside, on the first side of the river. I don't have feelings within.