The Bill Simmons Podcast - The Buffalo Curse, a Mega-Mailbag, QB Roulette, and Week 3 Picks With Joe House and Tom Pelissero

Episode Date: September 25, 2026

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Joe House to dive into the mailbag and answer some questions from the listeners. Then, Tom Pelissero comes on to talk about six fascinating topics in the NFL before House returns to make their Ringer 107 picks for Week 3. (0:00) Intro (2:01) Mailbag with House (56:40) Six fascinating things in the NFL with Tom Pelissero (1:30:23) Ringer 107 Week 3 Host: Bill Simmons Guests: Joe House and Tom Pelissero Producers: Chia Hao Tat and Eduardo Ocampo This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Create a Personalized Price Plan® today. https://www.statefarm.com/lp/football/ The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit https://fanduel.com/playwithaplan to learn more about the resources and helplines. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is brought to by Uber Eats. You can get almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Sorry, you can't get a beach deliver, but you can get a peach. A canoe, no. Shampoo, yes. A rocket? No way. Chocolate, yes way. It's everything you need, including $10 off your first grocery order with code,

anything 30-30. Get almost, almost anything with Uber Eats. Order now. Order a minimum of $30 required, valid on grocery, convenience, retail, specialty foods, or flower delivery orders only, Terms and conditions apply. The Bill Simmons podcast, brought to by the Ringer podcast network, where you can find the new episode of The Rwatchables.

We did Law Abiding Citizen this week. Next week, we are doing another rom-com. Yeah, 13 going on 30. Jennifer Garner, a classic. It's on Netflix if you haven't seen it. Or if you have seen it, or in the case of my wife and daughter, if you've been watching it, really, since 2004. My daughter was watching it.

was minus one. She was somehow watching it, I think, in my wife's belly, a beloved romcom. So that's coming on Monday. Coming on this podcast, Joe House and I are going to do a big listener mailbag. We're going to take a break, bringing Tom Pelliserro in. He's going to give us the scoop on what's going on in the NFL heading into week three. And then House and I are going to do Ringer 107 picks. It's all coming up next. We're going to take a break, Pearl Jam, and then mailbag. The Bill Simmons podcast is presented by Fandul. The NFL is here and it's the most rewarding season ever on Fandul with the all-time Fandall Rewards Club. Every eligible bet can earn your points.

Win or lose, you still get points. The more points, the bigger the rewards you can unlock. Head to fandel.com slash BS to start earning with Fandul Rewards Club. 21 plus select states are 18 plus D.C. or Wyoming. Game problem, call 1-800-Gand-8-78-9-7-7-77 or visit C-CPG. org slash chat in Connecticut. Thursday, mid-afternoon, East Coast time. Joe House is here.

We're going to do picks on a little bit. I have a mailbag for you, House, and I didn't send you any of the questions ahead of time, not one, no prep. But this is why you're one of the greats. You're just going to roll with me. How are you, by the way? I'm phenomenal.

I had a little midweek business trip, and at this stage of life, business trip means golf trip. So great time down in Richmond, Virginia, playing golf rain a little bit, but, you know, I'm bad. at it. Ready to grind. Are you excited for Jesselnik book club? You're a big English major. Yeah. I have so many things to say about the Jelsenik Book Club. I just feel like, oh, all the best

things, but none of which I'm going to say on camera. Oh, well, you were an English major in college. You're going to have to come on. He's a deep thinker when it comes to the books. I know. Well, it doesn't sound like you're that excited about it. All right, mailbag question. And these are mailbag questions from actual listeners. And the first one is from Joe from SoCal. Listening to your zombie Deshaun take, and I think you should hereby refer to him as Deshawn of the Dead, like the early 2000 zombie parody movie.

I love Deshawn of the Dead. I'm officially calling him that for the rest of my life. It's a great name. And I wish I knew which version we were going to get in this game against the Panthers this weekend. Well, spoiler alert for our Ringer 107, picks coming later, is Tampa Cleveland on your card? It is not.

It's on my card. Wait, wait, wait. Tampa Cleveland was, was... That was last week. A zombie apocalypse. Yeah. That was the actual zombie apocalypse. The game stopped and everything.

No, no. The Cleveland this week. Yes. Are they on your card? They are not. Against Carolina. No. No.

They are not. Jeremy in Seattle wants to know. The Paul Pierce wheelchair Giff stood alone for Debt It's unfair. He thought his knee popped. He panicked. Is the Caleb Williams carting off gift the new gold standard? Congrats to Paul Pierce. You might finally be off the hook. What do you think? First of all, the Paul Pierce gift definitely fair. He thought his knee popped, but they got him up off the court. He got into the chair. You know whether or not your knee popped. He came back and he made some threes and we beat the Lakers in a finals game.

In the game. He came back in the game. He didn't sit out the rest of the game. I feel like it's entirely fair. Caleb Williams made everyone think he blew out his Achilles and was really upset on the cart. And then it turns out he might even be playing this weekend. It's an astonishing performance by Caleb.

Just magnificent. And the internet really has responded in kind, not kind, but in kind. The internet has some opinions of Caleb Williams and the way that that whole thing went down. My favorite was probably the side by side of Jackson Dart walking off the field with torn ligaments in his knee and Caleb, you know, with a towel over his head. That one was a favorite. Some people are just bad with pain.

I mean, it's the reality. It's a reality. My wife, my wife loves Instagram dog videos because she obviously clicks on all of them and then they get served to them. And it's this never-ending cycle. There's this video. I think it's of a bastard hound. or a pit bull. I can't remember who's getting his nails clipped. Have you seen it?

I saw it this week. I adored it. I'm not even on that algorithm, but I saw it. Nothing's happening, and then all of a sudden the dog's nail gets clipped, and he just goes, oh, for like 20 seconds. He does two. He goes a full one that goes 20 seconds, and then he goes right back

at it. It's only one nail clipping. He's so upset. He doesn't do it twice. Doesn't like pain. He was on the injury cart. He's freaking out. It's anticipatory pain for the dog. It doesn't hurt to have when he's just sure that they're going to cut his paw. Poor guy. Dogs don't like pain.

Poor girl. Maybe some NFL players don't either. Speaking of the Browns, Ken from Cleveland said as a lifelong Browns fan before last weekend's game, I realized the most Brown's thing that could happen was us beating the bucks. Now we are stuck with Watson starting the home opener coming off arguably as best start as a Brown, which will lead to fans trying to tuck themselves into him, all leading to the typical disappointment that fans feel watching the Browns losing another home opener. 10 to 6 when Watson throws multiple interceptions

in his boot throughout the game in the factory of sadness. Anyway, congrats on another week of betting against Deshawn Watson. No way the Brown scored 20 points in this game. You might even get two weeks because we played Pittsburgh the week after. These are all some really good points.

We made a lot of fun of Deshaun last week. I'm not betting against them. It's not doing it. Deshawn of the dead? You're staying away? He played better than Baker Mayfield. He had a better game than Baker Mayfield. Baker-Manfield's making $165 million

over these next three years. I sadly watched the entire game and said this on Sunday night. I thought Deshawn of the Dead was legitimately good in that game. Now, he wasn't throwing anything really deep, but it was all short stuff. He had a real rhythm.

Their offense was moving the ball. Great yak. And it seemed like his teammates were buying into him. I might get sucked in. You'll have to stay. Yel Cannon from South Florida, I hope I said that correctly. He said,

You always talk about coaches on the hot seat. Maybe we need a new category. We call it the crock-peat slow cooker seat. This is a good one for you. When your wife-mom makes a delicious slow-cooked stew. What's better than that smell, by the way? We're in crock-pot season now officially, too. You have to wait all night or 24 hours for the stew to be ready.

You get up in the morning and the whole house smells good, but it's not ready to be eaten yet. you just keep thinking about it all day until finally about 24 hours later you're ready to eat that delicious stew. How hungry are you right now? Just over the top. It's amazing.

This is a perfect category for coaches that we just feel like the seat is warming up, but we still need to wait a little bit for the seat to be proper hot. So I guess the analogy here is Jim Harbaugh, is it a crock pot seat or a hot seat for Jim Harbaugh right now? I might be a crock pot seat. I think we're taking the crock pot to Buffalo this weekend.

I think that's crazy. Harbaugh, he will bail before the seat gets hot enough. Either. It's an eject seat for him. He's in a fighter jet, and he's like, I'm not going to let these guys get. I'm going to hit the eject button and float down to some, you know, soft landing. Who's a Crockpot coach then? So you think Jim Harbaugh is in the top gun eject seat?

Bowles is for sure in a hotter seat. He's on a hot seat, though. He's not a crop cut seat. So it's not, it's already hot. It's not, it's not warming up. It's a coach that we have, we have some questions and concerns about, but it hasn't really got, here's, here's one. I wouldn't rule this one out, especially if they go on three this weekend, but D'Amico Ryan's. Could that be cooking on the stove like a stew for a few weeks? Well, I'm not sure because all three hard games, and they start.

started 0 and 3 last season. Hmm. And he, you know, I don't even recall him being on, on an eye. I like Harba was the crock pot guy. All right. Do you think Stu's are underrated? Yes, yes. I'm so ready.

We're in this season. I saw my first white guy with the beard wearing the knit hat you hear on the East Coast, you know, where we're fishing. I'm sure up in Boston, they're all over the place. Yeah. And yeah. Was it Chris Ryan? No.

I mean, Chris, that is a look for Chris Ryan. That's true. Yeah. But I didn't see Chris Ryan. With multiple layers. The thing with the stew, there's never enough, like, broth in the stew. And where the stews, my wife, when she's a little hit or miss with it, but when it hits, it's unbelievable. But if there's not enough stew, then it just becomes all the contents of the stew after, like, one day.

And it all, you know what I mean? You can, but then if it's too brothy. You can rebroth. If it's too brothy, then it's not stewy enough. There's like this real middle ground you have to hit. It's really hard. This is a nice challenge. Let's pose this one to Dave Chang.

Maybe when you come to L.A., maybe Dave Chan can make us a stew. Yeah, that sounds like a great idea. The problem is it's not the same Dave Chang anymore. It's not the same cook. Now, let me ask this. Dave Chang 15 years ago would have been like, I'm going to make you the best stew ever. This Dave Chang now is like, I don't know, I'm flying with Amazon this week. Can't do it.

I don't know if I'm going to have time. He's got a CNN show. Yeah, he's got to see an end thing. All over the great nation of ours eating. Stews are one of those things at a restaurant. If they're like one of our specials tonight is a delicious beef stew, it's like, okay, that sounds wonderful. Yeah, more often you see like seafood stew, like a Chapino or something.

Like, you know, look at all of the shellfish that are in here with like a rich tomato broth. But folks don't say have some beef stew. I've seen Shepherds pie. I've seen chicken pot pie, but those are not stews. Those are, you know, they have a kind of a filling that has sort of a brothy soft that's very nice and nourishing and comforting. But somebody needs to just jump out and say, fuck it, I'm going full stew. Have some stew. One great thing about this, well, two great things about the stews that you just don't get another entre is.

One are the really soft potatoes. Amazing. And the potatoes just kind of, they almost like mashed potatoes, but they're still have a hardness. They have a tiny bit of a texture still. And then the big ass carrots that also gets. soft, I think are my single favorite thing. That's right. I love the big ass carrots. I don't mind a tiny

little onion in there either. I don't mind the onion in this stew. I don't mind it. I wonder if Dave Chang would make us stew. Nice beef stew? Strong umami. Speaking of cooks. So I was dubious of the

Tony movie. Because it's 824 and I'm just my body's just starting to reject the 824 over campaigns for every movie they do. Like settle down 824 for real. So I didn't see it in the theater, but I did rent it last week.

Okay. And I loved it. I thought it was fantastic. I really loved it. I really genuinely loved it. I was so impressed by how they did it and the angle they took. And I thought the actors were good. And I just,

it's probably my favorite movie I've seen in 2026. I even, it's that or obsession. The ringer like it. I think Greenwald and Chris Ryan gave it very high marks. Everybody liked it. I just was. I'm always a little dubious with them

because I think they promote stuff. Putting this on my list. It's really, really good. All right. Tony. Adam and DC. Hey, what's up, Adam? You better put on a bulletproof vest for this email. With all the talk about the 49er substation this summer,

I can't believe that no one has brought up the fact that the commander's practice facility in Ashburn is surrounded by literally the biggest collection of hyper-scale data centers on Earth. They're like robot fortresses and they're all on all sides of the calming practice bubble. In fact, the team already is a contract to sell the land to build more data centers. This place is literally radioactive. The world needs to know. Currently, 14 of our 22 starters are out with injuries. I haven't heard a single word from anyone about the outcomes of spending training camp next to a 100x substation. Can't believe House hasn't brought this up. This

made needs to get off the golf course and spend some time out in DMV. Love the show, Adam and DC. Wow, just an attack on house. Calm down. First of all, it's barely the DMV. Where the ashburn and all that is too far out. I'm not going all the way out there. And those data centers have been cropping up. I will confess that I am unfamiliar with how many there are, this notion that they're surrounding. I know that there's some in proximity. I've been out there, but I didn't, I was unaware of this idea that they're surrounding the practice facility.

Maybe it's like the San Francisco thing with less PR. I took Adam's word for her to complete stranger and did no Googling whatsoever about it. So I'm just throwing it out there in the universe. I thought you were going to know. No, I don't know because I'm, it's the Ashburn. Are there data centers in that Asheville area? There are. There are Ashburn and there are data.

centers in that direction. Yes. They're definitely going to watch this. And they may have been sprouting up. I might be completely unaware of how many there are. By the way, it's playing incredible. Yeah. Maybe the substation is now helping them.

Maybe it's giving them superpowers. I want them to keep playing well. Well, since that last email was mean to house, this next one is an all-timer from Alex Gordon, and it's very favorable for house. Oh, good. On October 24th of this year, on the BS report, you were discussing how great the Red Sox turnaround was

when the Great Show House unleashed this masterpiece which came out at absolutely nowhere. Quote, yeah, I'd like to invite the Red Sox to eat a fat dick because I bet them consecutive games against the athletic. What was that? Once I finished howling with laughter, it wasn't on the Caleb Wilson cum room level, but it was still hilarious.

I got to think about a house that inadvertently stumbled upon a great idea for the newest segment of the BS report, he called it, BS podcast. the invitation to eat a fat dick segment, sponsor is going to be tough for this. Each week you and or the other host could pick a player or team or fan base that has displeased you. Really, the possibilities are endless and invite said team player, etc. to eat a fat dick. My invited guest to the inaugural Eat a Fat Dick segment on the BS podcast would be NS Canter Freedom.

Maybe a house can extend invites or others can vote on who gets the invite. there's a lot of irritating people, fan basis teams. Just how irritating they are will be earned with an invitation from House to eat a fat dick. Thank you for this attention to this matter. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Wow. Sponsors are going to be tough.

I will talk to Spotify ad sales. Liz Kelly, maybe it will be good on it. Find somebody that sells a food product that is like hot dogs? Close enough. Yeah. That sounds great. Like our giant brot? Yeah.

Yeah. We can do this. We can definitely make this. Johnsonville makes some delicious brats. We could find somebody that makes something that's big enough. I would have done this for the Mariners last week, and I'm happy to do it this week, too. George Kirby, Anthony Munoz, Josh Naler. I think Hebrew National.

Welcome to the Eat of Fat Dix segment. Hebrew National sells jumbos. Yeah. First of all, I'm still stuck on the sponsor. But this is obviously genius. I obviously endorse this. my very first eat-a-fat-dick invitation would indeed go to Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for, I mean, they cost me $21 million. I was going to win $21 million until last week.

tons of bitches. I might have to borrow that from you. See, I think weather and lightning delays and all that stuff played as big of a factor. I still think they were going to win that game. They were going to, yeah, they were dry where they had the ball. They were going right down the field. and then they come back after three hours and it's an overthrow and it's a dirtball

and it's a guy who drops a pass. Come on, man. We'll workshop you to fat dick and I'll get back to you with sponsors. Nate from San Antonio said on a Thursday pod, I couldn't help but notice how the way you talked about the bills was identical to the dialogue about the Knicks last season. Both fired the coach that built the program.

Both teams in a conference described as wide open. No one would pick them to win the Super Bowl over the big boys in the West NFC except Max Cullerman. Can they win it all like the Knicks did? The answer is yes. What are your thoughts? What are your thoughts? Today on September the 24th, just in advance, who are they hosting this weekend?

They're favored by a touchdown. They're playing the Chargers. The Chargers, favored by a full touchdown. Well, let me give you this one. This is, that was a 1A email. This is a 1B from Trevor in LA. In 2012, LeBron, was in his ninth year in the NBA, had won MVP's. was why I regard to his best part in the league

had not won a championship and was coming off his biggest playoff failure. 2006, Josh Allen in his ninth year in the NFL. It's won an MVP, driven winning elite level. Why do it regard it as the best player in the league? It's not won a championship coming off one of his biggest playoff failures. We know what LeBron did in 2012.

Can Josh do that in 2006? I like that one. Also, the Josh Allen thing makes people mad, which is funny. It's like great for the sports take, universe. Some people are like, why are we talking about Josh Allen like this? I think it's ridiculous. We do hold especially quarterbacks to what have you done in the playoff standard. That's the standard. We murder Justin Herbert for it. Lamar has been.

I murdered Josh Allen last year. I thought you did. I did and Sal did and everyone had a podcast with. He sucked in that playoff game. We gave it to him. He gave it to them. He gave it to them. That play at the end of the have. That was unforgivable. Yes. The only thing I'll observe, I would really like this thing will pick up steam if Buffalo really handles its business against

the Chargers this weekend. The line is kind of rich and you're supposed to take the chargers in this circumstance, desperate chargers. And the reminder is they should, the bill should have lost game one against Houston. Lasseter had the ball

in his hands. That would have ended the the football game. And then they caught Detroit coming off of an overtime game on a short week. Yeah, we have no idea if their defense is any good. Right. That's it. There's a lot of, surprisingly, I do not have the Bill's Chargers game as in my, as a teaser leg.

Oh, I don't have that in anything. Yeah. And it's more because of some of the stats with the O and two teams and desperation. Yes. And the fact that I don't know if the Bill's defense is any good. We have no idea. And they certainly can't say it looked good at the first two games. Speaking of the Knicks,

Andrew from Boston wanted to point out, since you did that mailback question about New York having great sports karma post-Nicks for the first time in a generation, Aaron Judge got injured with no set return. Jets blew a 10-point lead because their coach didn't understand the overtime rules. Jackson dart out for the year. It wasn't intentional. I try to obey all karma rules,

but it was notable that it wasn't. a great week for New York teams after. All those things happened. The high watermark of the season for the Giants was beating Dallas on Sunday night. Ethan from New York weighed in. Do the Yankees without Aaron Judge have all the makings for the all-time great Ewing theory runs? Best turn baseball multi-time MVP.

It's going to miss some of the postseason. And he said best scenario is the Yankees make the World Series in a week, L.A. without him. Then he comes back and they lose to the Dodgers in his Ewing theory. Status is cemented. Wow. He does fit the, like, listen, the original definition of the Ewing theory is superstar, incredible media hype. Never actually won anything.

Team plays better without him. Yankees have really good starters. I like their bullpen. And I think they can generate offense with or without them. Elements are in place. The elements are in place. Last week, Sal and I talked about the masked backup for QBs that you just would know. Incredible.

Amazing. Nathan Wye suggested We call it the mass slinger Oh Yeah I don't know how we didn't think of that Great job Nathan The Cuzz would have thought of that last week But I think he had taken like seven percocets

And wasn't positive where he was because of the kidney stones Are the kidney stones done? I think they're still going Oh I'm sorry to hear it It's a really tough times for the Cuzz He deserves better Did you tell him to drink some hot water?

water with lemon? I did. I told them drink a lot of hot water. What a friend. Jacob H. in rural Washington says, I don't understand Vegas having a much higher valuation for an NBA franchise than Seattle, which is true. The Vegas thing is that like mid-nines,

allegedly edging toward 10, I just don't believe it, but now everybody thinks they're going to stagger it. Just name the Vegas team first and hope that they can build up the bidding for Seattle with more suitors with the people that don't get the Vegas team. Jacob points out Seattle is a rabid and loyal fan base

that will show out even if the Sonics suck. Look how we show up for the baroners even though they always break our hearts. Vegas has no good fan base. Opposing fans will take over, blah, blah, blah. And he just doesn't understand how Vegas is more valuable. I've asked a round on this. And I think it was the same thing that happened with the Seahawks.

I think those super rich guys just are looking at convenience as much as anything. And Vegas is really easy for everybody to get to. Whereas Seattle is in the Pacific Northwest, and it's three hours beyond anything. And I think it's a convenience thing. Does that make sense? For sure.

There's also, unquestionably, all of the collateral revenue streams that are just... That come with Vegas. That come with Vegas. You build the arena. You 365 days, basically. Yes, exactly right.

It's those two things. But I do think the convenience thing is a big piece of it too. Boy, conspiracy bill was summoned by MC from North Attleboro said he's always been fascinated by Tom Brady in retirement.

Beside all the weird personal life stuff, no comment, I love Tom Brady. I can't get over his arrangements with the NFL and Fox. He becomes a part-time owner in a team that he has no connection to and we still not sure how he paid for it, becomes a top color commentary guy

for the network covering games for teams in the largest media markets and seemingly circumvents all existing rules the league had to prevent those dueling arrangements. My question for conspiracy bill, did the NFL do this for Brady as a make-up for deflate gate?

Boom. Seems like you think the answer to that is yes. Conspiracy bill is levitating like the Niners put an electrosubstation next to my podcast right now. What a great theory. They also made it up to craft, didn't they? how'd they make it up to craft?

Isn't he in some kind of... Isn't he in the Hall of Fame? Did he get in? I thought he didn't get in. Oh, well, whatever. I don't think maybe... He's got to get in. Yeah, at some point. I really like this to flake it idea.

Because it's still like, if you actually go back and sift through the facts of that whole thing, that was one of the all-time railroading's, and it's amazing he didn't sue the league and probably could have and gotten away with it. Oh, come on. The fucking Patriots have been cheating for decade. We can just hear story

after story about this cheating after that cheating after this cheating. I know. He got caught up for that. He got caught up. He got profiled. He steps in on one one element of it and punishes and it was a very gentle punishment. I mean, let's be honest. All the evidence was the bunt.

You give the shit about the evidence. Doesn't matter. The league gets to make up the rules. That was a real wording. There was plenty of evidence of cheating for two decades. I'll fully admit. Maybe they did some other stuff Yeah, they did. They sure did.

But in this case, I don't think he did it. I think he liked the balls a little lighter. Doesn't matter. You like the balls a little lighter. You like the balls lighter. Suck up that one. Emery. How about that?

That's an Edipat Dick. With the Manning cast, this is from Emery from Columbus, Ohio. I'm nervous. This is really good. The Manning cast struggling. Yeah. Jason Kelsey appearing in roughly every third commercial. Travis Kelsey continued to absorb

the gravitational pull of Taylor Swift's fame. It has to be asked. Have the Kelsey Brothers market corrected the Manning Brothers? At what point would this be a full, undeniable market correction? He suggests Travis stars in a movie

with Tom Cruise. I'm going to say no. Jason Kelsey runs for president. Donna Kelsey gets her own cooking show. The brothers launched a drama on Peacock called Kelsey. He goes on and on. I think it's already happened. You beat me to it.

We're there. There's no question. They're way beyond. Travis Kelsey is married to Taylor fucking Swift. She is a worldwide phenomenon. That, look at that, respectfully. I'm a fan of the Mannings in general. And I've enjoyed the Manning cast in the past.

Not right now, but in the past. And they're not in the same category. The Kelsey is our next level. really tough to hold off the Kelsey's, especially when they're doing the Sunday ticket ad with Jason Kelsey and his wife, who also somehow has a podcast. Yeah, I think it's already happened. I see that ad. I'm not to tell you right now. Every time I see it, I'm like, oh, where's my invitation? I want to go to that. I want to go see. Well, because they have food. Yeah, it looks great. It's a great spread. I think they're doing a great job with that fake hosting a party concept.

Mike from Farmingville once knows Miles, Miles Garrett, the greatest ever. NFL good stats, bad team player. Oh, wow. And he says he's never played a meaningful game in the NFL. That's not true. He has played in a playoff game. They even won a playoff game. He's played in three playoff games.

But he said every other all-time great defensive player, Reggie White, Lawrence Taylor, Deanne Sanders, name it, led teams to championships. He spent his career compiling great stats in games that didn't matter. Now he goes, ring chasing with the Rams who already won a championship. I'm going to say names that feel disrespectful. What was the most important game in La Danian time? Tomlinson never played in. I'm not suggesting.

I don't want to be disrespectful to Danny and Tomlin. He was in the playoffs a few times. Yeah. Yeah, that's. I mean, Miles Garrett was in the playoffs. I just don't think football is like basketball except for quarterbacks. Yeah. You could be the greatest defensive end of all time.

And if your offense sucks and your coach sucks, it's not going to matter. And he's now in the position we're on the Rams with a really good team. If he's healthy, we'll see how he can affect. everything. Reggie went to the Packers and that was the last piece of his career and all that stuff and they ended up winning. It feels like there should be a quarterback in this category. That's how I felt. You're not going to find anybody that rivals the all-time great status that Garrett has rightfully kind of earned. We can't think of any quarterbacks. Like Dan Marino, is that, but Dan Marino did play in a Super Bowl. All the people who follow this shit say that

the stuff Miles Garrett has been doing for the last eight, nine years is out of control and just double teamed all the time. Teams running away and the other side of him. And I don't think it's fair. Like the Patriots had a couple great football players when I was younger. Like Andre Tippett was incredible. And we really only had one awesome season with him where he was at the forefront and they won the three straight playoff games in a row and went to the Super Bowl. But he was awesome. And nobody outside of New England barely even knew who he was. because our team Yeah, somebody will listen to this

and have a good answer and send it to you and then we'll have some good you know, it's an interesting question. I just, I think my instinct is the same as yours, which is can't really do that to football players, can we? No, I will say, we're not thinking of.

If we're talking about best defensive players in our lifetime, it's LT and then everybody else for me. That's a fact. I actually think like LT his teams would have won no matter who the fuck was on it? He just wouldn't figure it out. Yeah.

I've never seen anybody like that, dude. Me either. Like, to me, it's him and Jerry Rice are the two that I just feel like are above everyone I've ever seen at their positions by far. All right, we're going to take a break. Come back, do a couple more.

The Bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by Fandall. Here's something I look forward to between kickoffs this Sunday with Sunday Spectacular. Fandle Rewards Club members can unlock exclusive rewards throughout the day with offers tailored to their rewards club level. Depending on your level, you can unlock things like profit boost, reward boxes,

point boost challenges, choose your reward offers, choose your reward. Much more. The best part, new rewards drop throughout Sunday's game. So there's always something new to discover as the day unfolds. Check out Sunday Spectacular in the Fandall app only on Fandall Rewards Club. Make this your most rewarding season ever with Fandall. 21 plus select states are 18 plus DC or Wendell. Wyoming. Restrictions apply. See terms at

sportsbook.fando.com. Game problem. or call 1-800-Gand-8-7-8-8-7-7-7 or visit CCPpG.org slash chat in Connecticut. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Football has a play for just about everything. And whether it's a flea flicker or a tush push, you need a plan that fits your unique situation. That's why State Farm takes the time to get to know you.

So they can help personalize coverage for your life and for your budget. Now that's a solid game. plan like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. All right, a couple more mailback questions. Steve from OKC said you frequently talk about the 90-10 rule with star athletes use Westbrook as the example is Baker, the NFL Westbrook, an athlete who's great and could win victories without a great sporting caspak coaching, but is 10% is his decision making, which is like getting hit by a truck and a crosswalk.

I don't think Baker is a great athlete and I don't think it counts. That's respectfully disrespectful to ruffalo. Russell Westbrook. Yeah. Russell Westbrook is a top 60 player ever. Yes. Yeah. Not.

Yeah. He averaged a triple double for a season. He didn't. He won the MVP that season, undeserved. But he did do that. He did do that. There's a weird crossroads for Baker right now because he really was two quarterbacks last year, the guy from the first six, seven, eight games, whatever that was.

And then he had all the injuries and fell apart. And then the guy we've watched this year, which has just been incredible. sloppy with the basketball, with the football, all of it. And the basketball, any ball. Any ball he's touching, he's sloppy with. But even like in that, in that post-lightening drive, he had Ibuka for the winning touchdown and he just overthrew it.

And he used to, last year he was making that play. Jeff from Cincinnati said, one of your great underrated bits of the past was when you referred to Ryan Tanna Hill as Lauren Tana Hill's husband. I got to be honest. I don't remember that. It's time to bring it back for Justin Herbert, who should now be called Madison Beer's fiancé.

Oh, are they engaged? I don't even know. I just thought that was really mean. Alex from Hamilton, Ontario, says, we're all quite to be struggling to find a historical comp for the Herbert experience. Why isn't it incur cousins? He sends all the stats of their career stats per 17 games,

career win percentage, completion percentage, yards per seven. like it's actually pretty crazy how similar it is. 29 TDs per 17 games for cousins, 29 for Herbert. Like it's pretty nuts. QB ratings almost the same. I was shocked.

And then the playoff stuff is obviously bad. And then he decides maybe this is disrespectful to Kirk. He's right. He beats him and all this stuff. He has a playoff win. Yeah. He can always say he beat Justin when he was 38 and Herbert was 28. And then he suggests this nickname,

Justin's second cousins. A plus. Second Cousins. I love it. Nobody can disrespect Kirk Cousin's career. Nobody can. You like that? I like that.

Yeah. It's an incredible career. All the money that he's made and going from place to place. And each time he leaves, the place takes us. Like, look at Atlanta. Atlanta would be dying to have Kirk Cudson right now. Completely dysfunctional. They had them.

They had to pay him $75 million next season. But they had them under contract. They had them. Alex S had a Herbert thing. He thinks he's Gen Z, J. Cutler. Big Arm, Hollywood, wife, girlfriend, limited success and excuses. Give this to the world. I like second cousins.

Me too. Yeah. And then one more Herbert thing. I've been talking about the Nerd Kings all year, how Herbert lost it, Jordan Love gained it. Like great timing for me with that whole bit. Who is the opposite of that poor thing? the NFL, the guy who doesn't grade well analytically, but the eye test tells a different story.

NBA version was obviously Jalen Brown, who is in the NFL. It's clearly Jalen Hertz, right? Oh, wow. Is Jalen Hurts the Jalen Brown of the NFL? We watch him. They both won a title. Yeah. It's pretty good.

It never feels great, but the results are there. His fans would rather have him than not have him. He doesn't really. really makes sense conventionally with how we look at the stats for those positions. Even the touchdown that he threw to beat the Titans at the end, that was a great play and a great pass. Right.

It was a great catch also, but... Okay. So it's Jalen Hertz, I think, is our answer. That's a good one. I like that one. Anthony and Tom's River wants to know how I feel historically about Jalen Brunson hosting SNL. Historic?

Which is happening on Saturday, and who are the best athletes ever to host a show? Oh, okay. All right. Does he have a chance to crack it? So I went through it. I think there's like 33, 34 athletes who've hosted the show in the last 50-plus years. People would have Jordan as one of the four best.

And I actually don't think his was one of the four best. I don't even think that's a hot take. I'll go in reverse order for who I thought was the best. Joe Montana. Okay. The famous sketch of when you could hear the person's inner monologue. And Phil Hartman's on. a date, I think, with Jan Hooks.

And they're like, would you like to get a glass of wine? And then it cuts them. And he's like, I'd like to jump your bones. And it's like everything in your head. And then Joe Montana's a roommate. And he comes in. And they're like, hey, Bob, where are you going to go? And he's like, I'm going to go upstairs and masturbate. And then the thought bubble is like, I'm going to go upstairs and masturbate.

It was just groundbreaking stuff. Remember we were in college? I do remember. We were like, oh, my God. Joe Montana. So he has to be fourth. All right. Peyton Manning was really good.

Peyton Manning is outstanding. Yes. I have him third. Bill Russell. Oh, I don't remember Bill Russell. They did like an eight-minute SNL sketch called the Black Shadow, which was a parody of the White Shadow with Bill Russell.

And it was an absolute tour to force. You need to sign that around to the internet. The internet needs to see this. I think it bounces around every once in a while. I need to see it. And he was on Miami Vice playing Bernard King's father, was another Bill Russell thing. And then the best one ever,

it's almost not fair, but The Rock is the best athlete to turn to host ever. He did Barack Obama, whatever that one was, but he was just ridiculous as those. So that would be my top four. Any ones you would throw in

or is that a good four for you? No, I'm fine with it. The MJ was more like... It was more a moment. Exactly. We felt like we were getting an inside look at a version of MJ that didn't exist.

because he was such a hero to us and the world was so different in terms of what was accessible to us in terms of consuming this person and persona. And he showed a real genuine sense of humor. And he showed and he was like, oh, MJ. It just added to the hagiography. Put that man up, the sainthood of MJ. Yeah, all we had to digest MJ was the games, going to a game, the posters. and the ads.

And then every once in a while he'd go on a talk show or he'd sit down with the Mon Rashad. Other than that, we had no idea what was going on with it. Pre-game and post-game interviews were all monotone right to the point. Yeah, you're right. It's a really good point. That was the first time. SNL was the first time we're like,

oh, I didn't know he did this too. Right. Oh, he has a sense of humor. Like, we just really didn't know. I like this question. I'm happy with that one. Thank you. Hunter Price wants to know if the new Colts owner

Cali Gordon Ursay. Callie Erse, Gordon? I'm worried about where this is going. Go ahead. New Colts owner has ever surfaced on my new owner's syndrome radar. I mean, I have loved the new owner's syndrome forever. I'm glad you asked this in that manner. I know Indianapolis is the kind of non-threatening friend in the group that nobody wants to rag on.

But trading two first round picks for Sauce Gardner last year was indefensible. Who trades a massive amount of draft capital for a player who has zero evidence? of helping a team win. Also, the whole listing into the coach headset is ridiculous. Does she make the new owner's syndrome list? He didn't even mention the taking notes on the sideline. That's the most remarkable of all. How can we get access to those notes?

That's the starting point. Yeah, she should publish it as an Instagram. But the question that he posed, the big dummy, that's the general manager of Jacksonville, did that. He traded all, you know, for Travis Hunter. Yeah. He did that.

That guy. I can't pull his name up. I would just never do trades like that in football. In football, you just want as many bites on the apple as possible. And if you're putting that much capital towards somebody, that person better be incredible. It's why we gave the Browns credit for the Miles Garrett trade. Right.

For second, third and Jared Verst for a guy who's 30, who obviously wasn't 100% healthy. Yeah, good job by them. My only thing with Callagher, I didn't like when she, was so candid about the coach and GM are done if this doesn't go well. The GM deserves to go. Chris Ballard's heart. He's been manipulated in the press forever.

Forever. There's like a feature about him every year and a half. But I didn't, I thought it was weird to put it that way because I thought it just brought undue pressure to a team that, you know, had a quarterback coming back from an Achilles that nobody had high hopes for anyway. And then a lot of the other step, just looks look at me to me.

It's like, look at me. Take a notes. Here I am. Look at me. This happens in the NFL, though. They're the dumbest. The owners in the NFL are by far, I feel like. I mean, the Haslums, the stuff that they do, how cheap they get.

The people in Tennessee who drove out Brable so they could enjoy this half decade of a shit sandwich. It might be, it'll probably be a full decade of a shit sandwich. James Gladstone. That's the general manager of the Jaguars. That trade was horrible. Covering himself and shit glory. Speaking of the Eat a Fat Dick segment, Noah from Boise, Idaho said,

my question is this. He's a Packer fan. I'm sorry, he's a Steelers fan. Why is the sad Aaron Rogers retirement tour happening on the Steelers? He won the Packers, the Super Bowl. They should be enduring this pain. I've been listening to McShay,

talk about how this is the best. best draft class in 10 years. Let's blow it up. Escape the Tom and Curse. Time is now. It is a good point. The retirement tour should not be like, this is like,

this guy wasn't on our team during the during the salad years. Why don't we have to deal with this guy? That's great. I love it. I agree with you. Brandon Draper is upset because the Lions lost to the electric

jaded Daniels and his rookie of the year season. And now he's going to have his second straight year where he doesn't play a year of meaningful football. Oh, he's upset? I'm upset too. Well, they lost a shot at the title because of a guy who had one good season. Is that even worse than the team like the 90s, always losing to Jordan or Allen falling short to Mahomes?

It sucks to miss out on our title shot because of a one-hit wonder. Is that fair? Sure. Yeah, it's fair. They should have planned better. They had a buy week. They got to watch all of Jayden, Danes.

They got to watch Washington. They had a home game. They game plan poorly, and they executed it in the second half, especially. Every time Jamir Gibbs touched the ball, he gained like 11 and a half yards. And they couldn't figure out how to get him the ball and golf through five picks. Like, what do you play better? What do you want me to say? I knew you'd have a reaction like that, which is why I had the question.

Here's another mean Jane Daniel's question. He said, much like Mr. Joe House, I'm a long-suffering fan of the Washington football. team. He wonders if Jay Daniels is not built for the NFL. I know you have concerns about that too.

But he's perfect for flag football. Oh. Is the answer for Washington draft the new QB, released Jada Daniels, and he can become the face of USA flag football and get his soul back

and gets to play backyard football that getting hit. We get our ideal QB. He asked Joe House, would you rather watch Jada Daniels suffer through an injury play career with the commanders or be the face of Team USA as we dominate the world in Olympic football. I hate this question.

I figured you would. You don't have to answer. I don't know what to do. I mean, let me this guy right here. Give it to this guy. Isn't there a way to just not have them take huge hits all the time and have things happen? Here's the thing. His injured elbow was because he fell down.

He didn't take a hit. He ran for almost 70 yards against Dallas. and he was being super smart about the way that he ran. And that offense was humming. The offense was going to be this season formidable because, you know, that Antonio Williams is revealing himself as a guy who can get separation, shake the tight end as soon as he gets over his latest hamstring issue,

even with the offensive line compromise, but it's over now. Cosme's in concussion protocol. It's Marriota time. But I do wonder he could come back if they can get, you know, a modern brace on that elbow. So second injury to that elbow, right? Yeah, but it's just a dislocated elbow. It looks grotesque.

And I'm not suggesting that it, but he can play. He can still play if they can protect that elbow and keep it from popping out. He's not, his legs aren't hurt. His throwing arm isn't hurt. And he was making good decisions the season in terms of how he scrambled and the hits he was willing to take. He wasn't putting himself in harm's way. He just fell down. He fell down on that.

And it's clear that, you know, the internet doctors have said, you know, that's, that can happen. It can pop out again because, you know, at some point, he'll get surgery to tighten the whole structure. But he doesn't have to do it this season because they have braces and people want to know why wasn't he wearing a brace in the first place. So it didn't happen. And it feels like a fair question to me. I don't know. Maybe he wasn't comfortable with it. Maybe they didn't experiment with it.

But I honestly think he will come back this season and play and be effective. That's what I think. So the reason I want to do that question is I completely agree with you. And I think people overreacted to the injury if they felt like this was an injury prone, J. Jay Daniels thing now. Same thing twice with the elbow. Fixable. And I thought he looked good in the games I watched.

I thought he was effective in the second half of the first game. And then in the Dallas game, he was doing stuff. to me I would have much more concern about somebody like Pennix having like his third ACL surgery. Multiple ACL tears. Who clearly can't play anymore. Right. I don't think there's enough evidence yet that you can't create an awesome offense around Daniels. And if anything, like if I was another team, it's like, oh, you're worried about him long term?

We'll take him and then build an offensive line and some sort of infrastructure around him to protect him. But I thought he was really good before he got. Rebuttal to injury prone is that he wasn't injured in his rookie. And he took shots, his rookie season. He took the shots. And we've seen the shots over his college career. And that was the big question mark, will Washington take Drake May or Jaden?

And you see the shots that Jaden took in his college career. You know, can he handle that in the NFL? He did, he missed 10 games last season with three different injuries. The elbow was twice. And now he's going to miss some games because of the same. same elbow. But if he comes back in three to four weeks and plays the balance of the season out and shows, you know, that this offense, then I'm, I'm okay because they have to make a decision with his extension, but this is probably more time than people care to hear on the

Bill's. Well, I mean, there's a relevant question with Washington, though. Do you want to be a bottom four worst team? And maybe that makes the Daniels decision easier. It's too early to say. The problem is that they're going to be. Bad. Their defense is bad. They don't have the bodies. They don't have the talent in the secondary. We might be discussing that in a little while on this program. I'm in Boston right now. Yeah. I made one bet on Fandle, one bet only. Okay. The Miami Dolphins have the worst record in football. What do you think the odds were?

It has, you have to lay juice now. There's no way that it's plus money because it was plus money before the season. Arizona, I have the same bet. I bet both Arizona and Miami to have the worst record, and it was north of two to one. Now is it minus 160? What is it? It was plus 110. Get out of here. What time of day? When? A hour ago. Oh, Lord, I live in a place where Fanduel is legal, and I'll just leave it at that. When we go to a break before we do football picks, you can put it in. Can I borrow? I I need $10,000. Can I borrow? Plus $110.

What are we doing? Whatever the rules are in terms of legal gambling, I know I'm allowed to borrow money from you to make a give. Are we kidding? Plus 110? That is outrageous. What do you think the odds were for them to go 0 and 17? Bet it. Who cares?

What are the odds? I mean, is it plus 210? I don't know. No, it's better. Come on. Plus 2. 0 and 17, not winning a game. Yeah.

Have you? Has anybody watched this football team? They don't have professional. It's 10 to 1 for them to go, oh, 17. Better, like, that means you're not paying attention. If that price is out there, go through their roster and the schedule and come up with a game that they're going to lose by less than a touchdown. Find the one. It's hard to find a game where they're even going to be plus three.

They pay the Jets twice. Guess what? The Jets are fucking good. They're, I mean, you know, they're kind of, they're, they're, they're talent. They have talent on both sides of the ball. Not in the headsets. This is a really long, ambitious question from a Bill's fan named Drew who wants to know why we don't talk about the Buffalo sports curse with the Clippers.

Oh. Because they came from Buffalo and how Buffalo has escaped all blame here. And he mentions this in the last 60 years, the Bill's missed the first Super Bowl loss of the Chiefs. Tim Horton died in a car crash after a game. Sabers lost the 75 Cup final. Braves moved. Clint Moore checks throwed slashed by a skate. Wide right to the Giants.

Lost an MOB expansion bid. Three Super Bowl losses in a row. NHL, it was four in a row, but three in a row after wide red. After wide right. NHL finals, the skate in the crease, the whole game. Music City Miracle. Flyers Phantom goal through the side of the net in the playoffs. that was a good one.

17-year playoff drought for the bills, traded Hasek in 01, lose to Steelers backup missed 2005 playoffs, lost game 70s final loss through Carolina, all kinds of terrible saber stuff, including guys leaving in 14-year playoff drought. They lost the Connor McDavid lottery. They lost the Chiefs to basically three years in a row,

including the 13 seconds. DeMar Hamlin, four Chiefs losses, actually the OT playoff loss last year. And then last year in hockey, the game 7 OT loss. And he said, by the way, there's way more if you want some. And he wants to know if there's any way to shake the Buffalo bad luck, escape the ghost of President William McKinley. This makes a lot of sense with the Clippers.

They already had the Buffalo stink on them. And then they moved and like tripled the stink. And I do think there's something there. I don't know. This is the pressure for Josh Allen now. I don't think anyone has more curse and removal potential in any sport than Josh Allen. Well, I like that. Even in Cleveland, like LeBron did win in 16.

So if the Browns won the Super Bowl, you've still at least had the LeBron title. Buffalo getting to the Super Bowl, Buffalo getting to the NFL 5. I mean, are we really, that that's not a curse. He's just saying nothing, nothing good ever happened to get us over the home. They won anything. You got Josh Allen as your quarterback. There's no Buffalo title. I understand that.

I got it. But getting to the, to the Super Bowl, four straight years, that's, that's pretty good. That's pretty good. Yeah, my, so my counters to Drew, A, Josh Allen was a gift. A gift. B, those Jim Kelly teams were awesome.

Everybody loved those teams. They were super fun. They just happened to be in the worst possible pre-salary cap era against these different juggernauts, right? But those were still memorable, awesome teams. three, thank God the Quippers left. You want to deal with that team the last 60 years? 50 years, that was a drive to the airport.

Go eat a fat dick team. I think you were the big winners. So it's not all bad. Not all bad. That's what I would say. Last email from Peyton and Charlotte said, love the pod. You've built an impressive podcast empire.

Its foundations are shaky. You're and Sal's use of the term Zag is incredible. The whole point of Zigg when everyone else zags is that Zieg is the contrary move. Bill, you somehow zagged on the word Zieg planted your flag on Zag

and now Zag is market corrected Zieg. And you always talk about the Zag which feels historic adjacent is this the apex mountain of the Bill Simmons language issues from Payton and Charlotte. So he's saying I should have said Zig. Is he right?

I think he's right. I think he's wrong. The Zieg is the contrarian move. The Zag is the contrarian move. I thought because Zag was second. Zag is the Zag. Zieg is in the direction. The move. I thought. I don't know. Now we have to look it up. Did you look it up? Do you know the answer to this?

I didn't look it up. I thought he was right. You know what we need? I took a listener for the face value. Maybe I should have Googled this. You know what we need? We need a cunning linguist. We need a cunning linguist to come help us with this, Bill Simmons. Let's get one. Let's get one. You get them on the pot or have a cunning linguist, send us the correct. I think you're using it right.

I feel like Zag is the right use, but what do I know? But I definitely don't know. Thanks to everybody who's sending those questions to BS Podcast 33 at gmail.com. Great job. You're going to take a break. You're going to go see if your wife will make us do tonight. We're going to talk to Pelliserra. And we're going to come back and do picks.

I'll see in a second. Yes. And now it's time for a special part of today's episode brought to you by NFL Sunday ticket with NFL Sunday ticket and YouTube TV. You get every game every Sunday all in one place. This is my best friend in the world. And since YouTube has crowned me, there's CMO, chief multi-view officer. It's my job to tell you which four games to serve a spot in the multi-view this week.

All right, so looking at the slate, we have a lot of early games on Sunday. I think Chargers Buffalo has to be in your multi-view. Let's see what's going on with the Chargers. Buffalo's going to score some points. Can't lose with that one. Pat's Jacksonville. Really, really telling game from both teams. I think Jacksonville needs a little more than Pat's,

but I think that's going to be a really good one. Houston Indy? Is Houston really going to go on with three? Let's throw that in there. That's a great one. And then last but not least, Carolina and Cleveland has to be the most fascinating early game of week one, or week three.

Is Deshawn, is this for real? Is Carolina's offense for real? What's going to happen? It's in Cleveland. How are the fans going to react? I can't wait to watch it. That's the beauty of multi-view. Instead of flipping channels every two minutes, you just get to build your own Sunday slate. New Year'sers can get an NFL Sunday ticket for eight payments of Sunday ticket for out of market ticket for eight payments. Every Sunday day, all in one place with NFL Sunday ticket and YouTube TV, all in one place. New users pay $240 or eight, eight non-cancasable payments of $30 a month. First charge at purchase. Availability varies with NFL Sunday ticket for out of market games and YouTube TV required. Terms restrictions and embargoes apply. Commercial use excluded, no refunds. This episode is brought to you by Square.

If you're in the restaurant game, you know that efficiency is everything. Square lets you take payments, track sales, handle inventory, manage staff, send invoices, and keep up with finance, all from one streamlined system. That means flying through orders with zero mistakes, get in the data you need, and keeping everything working together. So you're ready for whatever's next. Learn more about their customizable plans at squareup.com. This episode is brought to you by DeZone. You already know Sundays are built for football

to get the ultimate edge this year. NFL game pass on DeZone is the only place to watch every game from every team. It truly is the only way to Sunday. You get four exclusive games a week. You will now find anywhere else. Plus, for just a buck, add Ultimate, fire up multi-view

to watch four live games at once and completely crush your fantasy league. Never want to miss a touchdown. Watch NFL Red Zone with Scott Hansen. Sign up today at DeZone.com. time offer, see website for details. All right, Tom Palacero's here. You can watch and listen to him on the Ringer NFL show all the time as well as pop.

When's the next Netflix game? Thanksgiving Eve. A little break here. Packers, Rams in L.A. That's a don't get divorced game. My wife's not happy about that one at all. She can't believe it. Imagine being my wife and finding out, hey, yeah, you got this new job.

You're going to be gone for Thanksgiving and Christmas. kids were not thrilled. You're there for the other holidays. The Arbor Day? I don't know Valentine's Day. Yeah, it's really important one. We're going to do a new gimmick where you're going to open a six. Normally I open the six pack up on this podcast.

You're going to open a six pack. We're going to do six things that you're fascinated in as we tape this Thursday, late afternoon, Eastern time. Jackson Dart, Giants, tell me what's going on. Do they feel like the season's over? How do they fix this? Can they fix it? There's a lot of moving parts.

right now with the Giants. For right now, they paid James Winston. He's going to be the starting quarterback. Jay Canter's in line to back them up this week. But I would not be surprised at all if we see them at a quarterback over the next few weeks here. James's play and how things go for the Giants is going to determine what type of quarterback and what role that guy's in. If you look at their schedule, you couldn't ask for a better time to be figuring out,

can we win a game with our backup quarterback? you got Tennessee at home, Arizona at home, and Washington when Jaden Daniels is probably still not bad. I mean, those are the best three games you could possibly have? You know, are they three and two at the end of that? Are they one and four? How does that influence exactly what Joe Shane and John Harbaugh want to do? I would tell you, they definitely want to add a quarterback, whether that's a younger guy, whether that's a veteran quarterback. There's obviously not a lot of like legit walk in the door starters unless you're going to drag, you know, Derek Carr or Ryan Tannehill or somebody off couch and hope for the best. So you're probably realistically bringing in somebody to be behind

James, at least initially. But they are going to try to add another quarterback here. And again, the spot that they're in will probably kind of dictate exactly what quarterback that is. And any guy they bring in probably isn't good. Well, it's not like there's good quarterbacks just sitting there in the grocery store waiting to get plucked out of the aisle. Right. Unless it's, you know, Joe Flacco a couple of years ago and he's sitting there or it's Carson Wentz last year. You have a guy. Like there's circumstances. Right now, though, if you look on the street bill,

it's like you have Russell Wilson, who looks very comfortable wearing a suit and looking dapper on TV talking about the game, Jimmy Garoppolo is out there. I don't know how much, you know, how desperate Jimmy is. Why is Jimmy Garapolo out there? I don't know how that.

Did he just not want to get hit anymore? Like, what's the deal? Because it's made a lot of money. He has made a lot of money. He's had a lot of injuries. And unless it's like the perfect situation, I don't think Jimmy just wants to come back and, you know,

cash a $5 million check to go be a backup somewhere right now. Coming in and playing for the Giants, if they show that the rest of the roster can stay healthy, I do think that that would be something that would intrigue him, but don't you already kind of have that player? Like, you've got Jamis. It's not the James we saw Monday night. That's the worst James we've ever seen.

Matt Nagy, I thought, did a good job in the game. It's like, just get him some easy passes. Oh, he one hopped a ball into the flat. No, normally, it's like three touchdowns, three interceptions. you can live with that because you kind of know what you're getting. I think we'll see a better James. It was like the Chuck Knoblock, Steve Sacks kind of froze. Completely, the yips where it's just like it looked like something cracked.

Now, he had one throw over the middle that was pretty good, but all the other ones, like, guys are open. You know, credit Nagy for it. Like, he got guys open and James couldn't deliver. I think that they'll have a game plan that's built around him. I'll actually get reps this week. He'll play better, but I don't think that that discourages them from trying to get another quarterback in the room because right now, you know, Hainer was the only other guy. He's now your two.

He's on the practice squad at this point, barring them adding somebody before Sunday. Yeah, the last level of when a quarterback is really bad in the game is when the receivers are just stopping their route because the ball is no chance and you just see the life leave their body. They're just, even at the place, the ball's still bouncing and they're just like, oh, my God, shoot me in the head. And the body language where the arms kind of go.

Yeah, they're just so devastated. but this leads to my second one that you have that I want to hit about what do the Chargers do if this keeps falling apart there's in the basketball side of me

football doesn't work this way the basketball side of me would be like yeah could could there be like dart and three first farm picks and do you get into the Herbert race if you're the Giants

and try to just godfather off of them to save your season because you like their team I don't think they like their team that much but it does make me wonder with the Chargers, Harbaugh will press the eject button, right? Because that's his history if he doesn't like this team.

They committed to Harbaugh, to Herbert, but what are your moves if they go 0 and 3 and this is just clearly not going to work? What happens? I mean, going into the season, you're looking at the schedule and going, okay, a couple of games at home. You know, you got the Cardinals and the Raiders. Like, those are easy wins. All right, now the meat of the schedule hits week through when you go to Buffalo. Now they're 0-2. They didn't look good.

Forget even losing the games to teams that weren't good last year. Like, they didn't look good. The offense is just all over the place. It looks sloppy and the pre-snap penalties and all these things. So now you're 0-2 staring down like the murderers row of your schedule, starting out with the bills. Then they got the Seahawks. I mean, it's brutal. And so, all right, if 0-1-2 becomes 0-1-3 and becomes 0-4, what are the moves left?

Like, Jim already made his biggest move he could by firing the over. in the offensive line coach after last year. You bring him Mike McDaniel, who's supposed to fix everything. It doesn't look great right now. Jim's not a kind of guy. Like, he has no familiarity with that offense. It's not like he's going to take a deep look at it and go, hey, Mike, we got to tweak X, Y, and Z.

Like, that's just not his scheme. That's not what Jim is as a coach. What's he good at at this point as a head coach? I'm not saying that he's a culture and like a people manager, right? He's a CEO type of coach. He wants to manage just like, you know, he's not even a guy who stands in of the team a great deal. You know, he's not addressing him every single day.

It's more just setting, hey, we're the culture and we're going to be the tough team. Like, that's what he's about. And they just got punched in the face by the Cardinals and the Raiders on their home field. It's a tough spot because, all right, you're not going to change out the play caller at this point. I mean, you have, you know, Adam Gase is on staff. You get handed to him. You get handed to Shane Day. But you're probably more likely to go, it's a new scheme.

Everybody's learning it. And we know Mike can call plays. So it's not that. Well, you can't bench your tackles. You actually, like, invested in a high pick on Joe Alt, you know, a lot of money in Rishan Slater. Like, those guys aren't playing great. You know, your interior offensive lines. It's like it's all these moving parts.

I would say this, though, in terms of what they do. I don't think that there's any magic bullet out there for the Chargers. Because even if you start going, it's like, is Jim Harbaugh on the hot seat. They owe him a ton of money for another three years. He signed through 2028 at a pretty high number. The Chargers are not a team that has a history, A, of paying coaches that much money, certainly B, of firing coaches. When they own that much money.

Paying for their money. They're paying for it. They're paying rent to Stan Cronkey. It's so bad. That's just that's not their history. So, all right, Herbert, well, you can say, yeah, people are going to call them. If they, you know, again, if it goes to 0 and 5, 1 in 5, whatever, like, they're going to get calls about Herbert.

But I don't see the organization punting on a, what is he, 28-year-old quarterback in favor of a 65-year-old head coach. And on top of that, Herbert's got a no trade clause. You really think he's eager to say, yeah, I'll get traded to Cleveland or Atlanta and his fiance's in L.A. Like, why would he go with that? That's what I mean with like there's no magic bully. There's not like a single move or a trigger of events. It's always felt like this was kind of the two-year plan here, bring in Mike, pair him with Justin, have Jim running the thing. they can turn it around. They could upset the bills

or having a totally different conversation next week. But if it continues to unravel, it's going to be a really long season in a building where, like everywhere Jim is, his whole philosophy is more is more. It's more work,

more hours, more time. Great when you're winning. When you start to lose, that stuff can really weigh on people's shoulders. Yeah, we've talked a lot about Herbert on this podcast because he's the most fun. He's the most closest to an NBA player in terms of people arguing both sides of him, right?

The one interesting thing I thought, because there was a lot of dialogue and discourse about him this week, was that he skipped the OTAs because he was in France with Madison Beer, his girlfriend. And there was like the hint of ever since he's met his girlfriend and he wants to be a celebrity as much as be the quarterback and he's not in there doing the work. And that was kind of floating around there.

Have you heard about that? Like what is the word on him as like a leader? I have asked people if that was a big deal. And the answer's been no. It's not like this was a locker room revolt. It wasn't. Remember when Aaron Rogers missed the minicamp and went to Egypt and claimed it because the schedule had changed?

And everyone was like, this doesn't quite add up. And Robert Sala was like, I got to find you for it. It was like this awkward thing. I didn't get that sense. Also, OTAs are voluntary. But you'd like to think, especially when you're wired like Jim Harbaugh, I was all football all the time, your quarterback's going to be the guy

like leading that culture. But I don't get the sense coaches, players that people were just like, oh, can't believe that he's not around. It wasn't portrayed like that. As a leader, you know, he's this... Tom Brady wouldn't have done it. Tom Brady would have been there for the U.S.

He did those late years. Late years he was in and out when he was trying to keep the family together. Right. Yeah, that was, he was out of seven-hour work schedule. Yeah, but during the Patriots era, like famously, like,

it seems like the most famous best quarterbacks or like you get there 5.30 in the morning, they're already there. It's like that kind of thing. I don't know. It's also like Tom's very, you know, type A in a lot of ways. Like Herbert was the whole knock on him or one of the questions the teams had about him when he was coming out in the draft back in 2020 was he's this kind of quiet, almost shy kid from Oregon.

He's never really left the state. He grew up right by Eugene. He went to Oregon for college. Like, is he going to come out of his shell? I don't think your personality. changes a whole lot. That's not to say that he's a bad leader. It's just if you think that he's going to be the, you know, the guy who's going to start getting in your face and screaming at you, we saw some emotion from him last week. That's just not really him. And I think it's probably

unfair to say like you got to, you know, when times get tough, change everything about yourself. No, you want to double down on being you. There's a lot of other stuff going on around him, including the fact he's getting his ass kick behind that offensive line right now. What's his trade value just out of curiosity? How many picks are we talking? If he were willing to waive the no trade clause, it's got to be three first round picks and more. I mean, the Russell Wilson trade,

if I remember correctly, it was two ones, two, maybe two twos or two and a three and three players. And that was Russell Wilson in his early 30s where he had already shown some like little signs of maybe he's not at his peak anymore. Where Herbert, I know what the numbers are. are, but he's still a really talented quarterback, and physically he's ahead of where Russell is, just

from, he's got the size and he's got the arm, he's got the toughness, he's a really tough dude. It would be the house. You would have to give up the house to go and get... I wouldn't do that. Would you do that? I wouldn't do that. Look at the desperation around the league. If you went

back, if you read my story in the sweep last week, the Deshawn Watson backstory and remind yourself... That was excellent. Thank you. How many teams were trying actively to trade for Deshaun Watson while he was facing dozens of civil allegations of sexual misconduct and a suspension and your fan base probably wasn't going to like him

and he hadn't played in a year. There were five teams lined up. They were all willing. I mean, the dolphins were really to do it in the heat of it. Then when the charges criminally, there were no charges filed, there were four teams that all agreed to like the general structure of a trade

that the Texans want. of the Panthers, the Falcons, the Saints and the Browns are all willing to pay it. And think about that. That's for Deshaun Watson with everything going on and he hadn't played. Like this guy and Justin Herbert, maybe the contract never happens again because it hasn't happened since the Watson trade, but he would have an unbelievable amount of leverage in terms of not just, hey, you got to give up all these picks, but also why wouldn't he be able to command a five-year, $350 million contract out of it?

He's a really good player at that position and nobody ever becomes available. So that leads to the third thing in the six-pack. What are the traded quarterback options if I'm looking for somebody to try to either elevator or place a guy? Are we basically looking at Mack Jones and who else? Who are the guys that you could actually go get? Mac is one, but that's going to cost you. I don't think that they do that.

So what is that? Is that like a second? second or a third. You know, there's not many first-round picks to get traded at the deadline. There's rarely trades involved more than a three in season, but it's also a quarterback. If your guy goes down, and I don't know what that wouldn't make sense for the Giants just because the scheme's different, but any of those teams that run the Kyle stuff, you'd probably be interested, but like, that's a pretty big price to pay for a quarterback who's in a contract here.

J.J. McCarthy is another. You know, there's not many dudes. Jay-J. McCarthy. He is on his rookie contract. Wow. winning record as a starter. All these teams did work on them a couple of years ago. They know the good and the bad of McCarthy.

And right now, you know, that's one of the first calls you're going to make if you lose a guy is to the Vikings, just being like, all right, like, what would it take? Who else are you going to go get that's got still potential upside? I mean, Anthony Richardson, but I don't think the Colts even want to trade Anthony Richardson right now because he's in a contract here. Is anyone trading for Anthony Richardson? Come on. Hey, if we get into the desperate mode here, we had how many quarterbacks got hurt last week,

three guys, including one for the season. Like, these are the names you start to get to. The one that'll be really interesting will be Kirk Cousins. He's playing at a good level right now. He's on sort of a one-year contract, but it actually has a tail on it where the Raiders have an exclusive window next March to either cut him or trade him or potentially pick up his option. So they've got time to kind of play this thing out.

What the Raiders have to decide is, are you willing to trade them? if two and oh becomes like three and one or four and two. Now the schedule gets a lot harder from this point moving forward, but let's say they're still in it. And like Mark Davis is celebrating in his suite because he has a relevant football team at the first time in five years. Max Crosby's all fired up on the sideline.

Like, do you really do it? Well, you've got Fernando Mendoza. And I don't anticipate as long as they're in the playoff chase, that this isn't going to be the Kurt Warner, Eli Manding, awkward handoff where you're five and four. And it's like, we need to put Eli in. They're going to ride with Kirk as long as they're alive. or until his play takes a dip.

But if you get that opportunity and someone offers you, let's say a third round pick for Kirk Cousins, I don't know if you can get that, but somebody gets hurt and he's available for not a whole lot of money, like that would make a ton of sense. So that'll be one that'll be dictated by circumstances, but I would absolutely not rule out the possibility of Kirk Cousins being traded during the season.

That seems like the right name. But the Giants obviously don't think that they're a Super Bowl contender because that would be the guy who would go after. It would be interesting if he got traded after signing the cheapest contract possible while he's also getting paid a ton of money from a third team. I don't know if we've seen that before. More teams paying guys making minimum salaries somewhere because they're getting paid by somebody else. This has to be the NFL high that we've had.

Maybe two. It could be in the trade too. Next one for the six pack. Joey Porter Jr. seems like the best holdout free agent who might get traded maybe. Pittsburgh certainly could have used them last week. I don't think Pittsburgh season is necessarily going in a great place to begin with. But how does this end? Defensively, without their top corner, they're pretty good.

The offense didn't show up. Rogers got the shit kicked out of them last week. But in terms of the defense, like they're legit. Like they're going up against the Bengals this week. You know they'd love to have Joey Porter Jr. out there against Jamar Chase and T. Eiggins. He said he talked to the media for the first time today. It looked like he said kind of all the right things.

they're not extending them like that they negotiate up to week one that's their policy it's over he can't come back and like take that deal now so really it's he says he's going to play at some point when he's ready or else you trade him like there is going to be trade interest because there's there's nobody out there to your point there's no other of these kind of hold in things he does have a back issue how big of a factor is it actually we can certainly debate that but he's the one guy and there's a bunch of teams that don't have corners like when when jerry jones is walking through the the stadium the other night saying nothing more dangerous than an old man with money. I'm like, he's going to try to trade for Joey Porter Jr.

He's going to try to add that extra piece to the defense. That to me is the most logical team if they're going to trade. So what is it? A second? Second would be my best guess. If this were a different time, if this were March, you know, Trent McDuffie went for the number 31 overall pick. It would probably be in there.

You're a little bit later now. It's probably a two. Remember, you also could, you know, he's in a contract year, but you could tag him. So you could justify to yourself, hey, even if we don't get a, deal done with Porter Now, we could always tag them and retain our rights or tag and trade them. So, you know, and for the Steelers, they could also, they could tag them or they could let them walk and get a comp pick. There's a lot of different things in terms of the value. It seems like there's bad blood there, though. That's like something shifted with it.

I like the Cowboys idea, though, because, you know, the scenario would be they lose in Brazil to Baltimore, right? And Jerry's been awfully quiet. It's been a running joke for everybody, but they lose. And then that Monday, it's like, we. You've now traded a conditional first round pick that could be a second for Joey Porter. And here's this giant contract he shouldn't get. Or could be you do it after you win. It could be the, oh, man, we're so close. You know Jerry.

Jerry would like that one too. Analyzing if you're in the game. And then you just go, this is the time we're going to strike. I could see it. Like the bad blood thing is interesting because it seems like Joey Jr. is in a good place. Remember, dad's also around. It's kind of an awkward situation like what other team has a franchise legend's kid

who they're in a contract standoff with. And Joey is around the team. You know, he used to be on staff there. That dynamic is a little bit odd. But it seems like it's in a fine spot in terms of, you know, Joey Jr. continuing to work his way back onto the field. It's just at some point, if you're getting legit offers for him, I'd be really tempted to take it.

Well, especially when his peers all got extensions and he did. it. Right. So if you're poor, or you're like, okay, I guess I know how you guys feel.

You don't think I'm on that same level where other people do. There you go. Two more in the six-pack. Deshawn Watson, House and I are about

to talk about this and Ringle 107. What if he's good again? What if he plays well this week against Carolina, who has a bad defense in the game that

everybody thought would just be a boo-fest for three hours. what if last week how he looked against Tampa was the sign of what's also going to happen this week where he's kind of back what happens then not too late for a five year two hundred thirty million dollar fully guaranteed extension it's such a unique situation because go back to what in 2022 all those teams were willing to do it and now he's he's four years five years older and he's had a bunch of injuries well Like the guy that played last week looked like a real NFL quarterback.

Like he made some big time throws in the game. So from that respect. I thought he dominated the second half. He was on it. He was whipping it around and the offense had real pace. I couldn't believe it watching it. And by the way, those rookie receivers they got, the Browns draft box last year was really good.

Those rookie receivers this year, you know, Casey Concepcioni was more so Denzel Boston. Looks like, you know, he's the guy that they've lacked to like actually take a top off the defense. I don't know what the market would be. If Deshaun played this out, now he's got a wonky thing in his contract where essentially for cap purposes, he won't just be a free agent. They'll have to release him

after the start of the league year in March. His contract, he won't be on the same contract, but they set it up to keep his cap hits out into 2027 and 28. So there's a little bit of a ripple effect, but like who's bidding on Deshawn Watson? Knowing everything, you know, even if you're comfortable with the background you do on him,

You still got to be sitting around the room being like, are all their fans going to hate this guy? Like, are they going to give him a chance? I don't think it happens. But if he plays better, he's going to be on the short list of dudes you can at least bring in as a bridge quarterback. I mean, I can't even rule on.

Why wouldn't the Browns keep him at that point? That's the thing. It's not like they don't have a quarter. It's not like they have better options. I can't even rule out that you keep them around. If he plays like he did last week, it's one game. The whole offense was terrible in week one.

But, you know, they flash to the sideline after the game and everybody's soaking wet because of the two hour delay or whatever. The first guy, it cut to Deshaun and he's hugging J.W. Johnson, Jimmy Haslam's son-in-law on the sideline who's like very involved with the Browns organization. The relationship internally is better

than I think everybody realizes. You just have to do the calculus on can you heal the external relationship. And if the Browns don't bring him back, he's not just your average quarterback. You're bringing in on like a one-year incentive laden deal. Like, you're taking on all sorts of other stuff.

It'll be absolutely unique. It is a one-of-one type of situation, and his play will dictate where it goes from here. It's definitely the most fascinating week three plot other than the O and two teams. And like just if he's good again, as that's happening in real time. But he's going against Bryce Young,

which is the last thing for a six-pack. Bryce Young, Caleb Williams, linked together forever for variety of reasons. You had had Caleb would have been, minus a thousand heading into the season on who is going to have a better season, him or Bryce Young. And yet Bryce Young was good again. We'll see on Cleveland on the road this week. But just where does it stand with these two guys, not just against each other, but how they're going to look the rest of the way?

With Caleb, you know, despite what it looked like on the field, he's going to be back soon. He didn't practice today. It's unlikely that he plays Monday night. I know some people took my initial tweet the wrong way. I said they're not ruling him out, meaning it's not a 0% chance. You broke the story, we should mention. I did break the story that it showed no major injury.

And so they're not even ruling him out this week, meaning if he's feeling good enough by Monday, they'll put him out there. Now, if they get to the end of the week and the hamstring's still an issue, obviously they'll hold him back. This is not a long-term injury for Caleb. Wait a second.

If all the shit he took on social media this week, which he had to have seen because he's under 30 years old, so there's no way he's on social. media. Sure. Or not on it. Would that make him want to come back to be like, I'll show you guys, I am tough. And then he's back on Monday night.

Because they could beat Philly if he's even 60%. Milked for three weeks to make it clear that it was a more major injury. Well, you could go that way too. Yeah, it could be like, yeah, I actually was hurt. Look, I'm not playing again. It comes down to it for the bears. They'll come down to like how functional can he be. Can he protect himself?

Like, there's things you can do schematically just to like, yeah, he's not going to scrambling. a lot of the pocket and make the crazy throws. Like, you may have to play in rhythm, but they don't feel like he can do that this week. They're not going to put him on to the field. But I expect him to be back in the next couple of weeks here. On Monday night, if he doesn't go, then it's either Tyson Baygent or Case Keenham going up against the Eagles

coming off a performance where from the highs of 59 points to the lows of playing in that terrible weather against the Vikings and scoring six points and fumbling on the goal line and all that. You weren't there, were you? I wasn't at that game, no. But it looked. Yeah, I did not. factor in with the bet.

The under seemed like the craziest, easiest bet ever. It just didn't seem like anybody could throw the ball. So then even when we did it, we talked about the game on Sunday night, me and South, but I always had that game on a smaller TV, so I wasn't hearing the announcers. And I wasn't really fully aware of like how bad the weather was and how much it affected it. So we'll see. Because the bears to me, you know, they're going to have Case Keenham this week, probably.

But they have all these weapons, like love. has done nothing. They have this really good run game. They got, like, I'll be interested to see if their offense is still pretty good, even without Caleb, even for a week.

Well, and the whole, you know, Ben Johnson first start without a number one pick at quarterback thing. It's so overblown because it's not, it's not like anyone was like, wow, Ben got Jared Goff.

He's going to be great. It's like, no one thought Jared Goff was great when they paid. They had to pay a first runner to get rid of them. It was literally the throw-in. It was a salary dump that required a first, the first round pick to take him in the Stafford trade. And then Caleb wasn't, you know, didn't play great his first year.

There was a lot of stuff going on. Like, Ben has healed those guys. Like, I don't know how much you're changing Case Keenum with all the football under his belt. But like, they'll have a plan. They'll be ready to go. It's a good match with Ben going up against Vic Fangio. With regard to Bryce, one of the things that I think is really interesting is if you, if you really watch it and I went back through the Panthers' first couple of games here,

they're getting to the line of scrimmage really early and snapping the ball. pretty early. And I don't see like a ton of Bryce making checks and stuff, which tells me, they know how good of a processor he is. And they also know he's not a big quarterback who like once the ball is snapped is not going to have a great sight. So you're basically putting in positions where you're making the call and just going, this call is going to be good enough against a lot of different stuff. Like use your processing ability walking to the line and getting there while everybody is still down. All right, now get the snap off. And it's worked. Like they've really stressed the tempo and operate quickly.

And they've put a bunch of, they put a basketball team around them. You know, it's a bunch of like physical athletes, T-MAC, and Legett, Coker. I know Coker and Legett did not practice today, which isn't a great sign. Oh, no. Coker's my guy. Coker is, I mean, the guy was in a walking boot last Monday

and played in the game. So it may be a maintenance thing. Holy Cross. Holy Cross people are very tough. Yeah. You know, since Coker came back last year, Bryce has been a different guy from, you know, he didn't have them for,

I forgot how many games it was. but it was at least 9 to 10. But once Coker got going again, that kind of unleashed him because McMillan, you know, he's not like on the Jamar Chase level, but he's a difference maker. And I don't know. When I watch them,

I just feel like guys are open and he's getting the ball to the right spot. But you're right, they play with a little oomph. And I'll be interested to see if they can do that in Cleveland because I don't think that's a great spot for them. Yeah, I mean, they still use a ton of motion and stuff. It's not like they've like just totally dumbed down the offense or something. But they clearly are making the emphasis of like,

we got an elite. processor. Let's put him in positions where he can actually do what he's best at. You know, the contract negotiations didn't really go anywhere in the offseason with the Panthers and Bryce. It was kind of like, all right, the market, we're all anticipating because of Caleb, because of Jaden Daniels pending health. You know, those guys are going to get huge deals. So why would we take a deal where the market is now from Bryce's perspective? And the Panthers probably wanted, you know, a little more information. Okay. The arrow's pointing up. But like, we got in the playoffs last year, we were still eight and nine, you know, it wasn't perfect.

Well, if Bryce does this all year, it's going to be, you're going to be under a ton of pressure not to pay him whatever he wants. It's like a bet on yourself type of a situation. They weren't going to be in the neighborhood of what Bryce would have wanted. It could end up working out. But Cleveland's defense will be harder. Like that first game against Jacksonville, they were super passive and just like sitting back in zones. Last week looked a lot more like what we expect the Browns to be. And I bet that they just, you know, pressure the crap out of Bryce this week.

one of the many differences between NFL and NBA is like if this was NBA and Bryce was a free agent after the year this would just be a pretty massive story right like if he could just jump but in the NFL you can just if he's really good they'll just franchise tag him for a year and figure it out and I don't think we'll ever see the movement like that I do you like the franchise tag or no I mean it's not I don't think I'd say I like it or don't but it's just a necessary evil It prevents certain things. I mean, the players would argue it shouldn't exist,

but it's existed for over 30 years now. But team control is a big thing. It's not quite like baseball, but it does give you. I mean, you got first round picks for seven years. It's not five. It's four years plus the option and two tags before the third tag is so astronomical because of how it's calculated that you probably can't keep the guy. I mean, you can keep if you draft a 22-year-old quarterback,

you can keep him until he's damn near 30. Can you imagine in the NBA? like if Detroit could do this with Jalen Duren? Yeah, we couldn't agree. We're just going to franchise taggy. You're going to make the average salary of the top five centers or whatever it is. And the NBA also. All those players would fucking hate that.

They would go crazy. The flip side of it, though, is that in the NBA, you've got like the max and the supermax deals where it's like you can go up to a certain threshold. And you also have like the mid-level exception stuff. None of that exists in the NFL, even like the veteran salary benefit deals. Every dollar you spend hits the cap of energy. in the NFL. There's ways to move it around and push the pain into the future, but like every dollar you spend hits. And so if you're a top quarterback, you wouldn't

probably like to see like, all right, the maximum you can get is five years for $250 million. And everybody from Patrick Mahomes to Baker Mayfield to Bryce Young is going to be making the exact same amount of money. Like you would have right now, two are making the same amount of money as Patrick Mahomes. And we'd all be sitting there going, and they're not that far apart, by the way. They're like $8 million apart, but you'd be going like, this seems wrong. At least that part of the economics hasn't changed yet. But who knows, man, there's a lot with the TV deals and the opt out coming up in 2029 and the CBA up in 2031. The talks, which haven't started yet, between the union and the league, there's going to be really interesting things about cap percentage

and potentially changing some of the things economically about how it works. I don't think any of those things are high priorities for players. But the NFL, definitely, the only only, the only only, want to change some things economically here, and we'll see how long it takes them to sort of work through all the ancillary issues that lead up to the big thing, the one thing that ultimately matters, which is money. It almost feels like they need two different salary structures

for quarterbacks and for teams, right? Because the top half of quarterbacks in the league are all basically NBA Max players. And you kind of have to think of them that way, and they're just operating in a different stratosphere than any other position. It's not even close. Those things have been proposed and bandied about different things about quarterbacks

kind of being set aside. You know, there's been a bunch of different ideas that have been floated. But again, if you're the union. Yeah, why are you agreeing to that? You represent all players. So like the rank and file would be like, yeah, limit the quarterback money. But the quarterbacks, the guys who have the power and the money don't want that. And the union's never going to, you know, want to limit wages.

I mean, that's just kind of the nature of it. But again, like there's, there have been agents that have proposed cap percentage deals for quarterbacks. Because if you look at, you know, even a deal done four years ago when the cap was like $100 million less. Right. Now it's like, okay, that guy ranks eighth. But at the time, like in terms of cap percentage, you ranks way lower. We got to redo this deal. And that's where you see things like Josh Allen's deal getting ripped up and them adding a couple of years and giving them a huge raise.

It's just all you're doing is bringing it back up to the top of the market. That's really changed in the last five to 10 years, which is. When guys have undervalued contracts, the agents don't wait. You could have two, three, four years left and you're coming to them going, hey, we need to bump this up. Different teams have different policies. You can push the money years ahead, which you can't do in the NBA. The NBA, it's like, we've decided this and this is your contract until it's finished, and that's how it's going to go. You can reroute cap for a long time, which is why the Browns have paid all but like $800,000 of the $230 million in cash.

to Deshaun and they still have, I don't even actually know the precise number because they have an insurance policy, but it's still like $80 million in cap that they got to eat over 2027 and 2028 when he's probably not even on the team. Tom Palisero, you can hear him on Ringer NFL show tomorrow and then the sweep. Please sign up for this newsletter. It's really good. It comes out Saturday morning. It's good to see you as always.

You too, Bill. Thanks. Thanks. Remember, today's Ringer 107 is brought to you by Fandul. Make this your most rewarding season ever. Download the Fando app to check out all of our Ringer 107 picks. And boosted teasers, boosted, minus 110 juice. Go get them every single week this season.

All right, week three picks, we are both 5 and 5 in Ringer 107. As usual, I'm complaining about some bad luck with some of those picks, including Lasseter dropping the Josh Allen Interception. That one hurt my feelings. Week one, yeah. Baker Mayfield driving down to cover. my tease against the Browns. Sorry about that. Sorry. Stop by lightning.

Game disappears for almost three hours. Comes back. Can't get it done. There's some, the week three trends. Last year, the big trends were all four teams that lost by 20 plus points in week one. Everyone's like, take those teams in week two. They all won

and covered in week two. Cleveland, Carolina, Denver, and the Rams. Yes. Very good. This week, the week three trends, probably there's the most stuff that we have, either going back to 2000 or 2010. For instance, teams that start 0 and 2 against the spread are 42, 19 and 1 against the spread in week three against 1-1 teams since 2010.

So if you had 0-2 team against 1-1 team, almost a 70% chance that 0-2 team's going to cover against spread. We have two candidates this week, Tennessee, plus 2 and a half in Atlanta tonight. Oh and 2 teams. No, no, no, the Falcons are playing. Wait a minute. Yeah, I had that right.

Tonight? No, I'm saying two teams. Tennessee plus two and a half. And then the Falcons tonight start at O and two against spread. Sorry. And then week three underdogs, O and two teams that are underdogs, are 30 and 12 against the spread, which is almost 72%. That includes the Chargers, Atlanta tonight, Tampa, and Miami. And then last but not least, this is a weird run.

I never know what to make of these, but NFL teams that are one-on-one. against the spread in week three or 14 and 24 if they are underdogs of plus 3.5 or higher, that would be Pittsburgh Jets in Arizona. And well, Washington definitely fits that as well. Washington covered in week one and now there are seven and a half point dogs to Seattle. So we'll add them as well. My favorite week three trend has nothing to do with these spread records, but just the own two desperate team.

Yes. I take it seriously. I think sports goes like this. And at some point, when you're way, way down, you know, so I'm looking at the chargers, which that line has moved all the way to plus seven and a half on Buffalo. I'm not going to take the chargers, but I'm also a little scared of the bills because of the charges.

But what's your favorite week three trend? What do you like the most? Just in general. Oh, the 0 and two teams, you know, look at the inflated spread that comes along with that. The first one that you read is right.

Yeah. Okay. You seem enthused. I'm not playing into any of those trends with my picks this week. So that's why I'm hesitating. I think, do you go first this week or to whack?

Because we each do three Ringer 107 picks and a tease. You were generous. You let me go first in week one. Then you went first last week. And I immediately... What's your favorite game? I immediately piggybacked you. I absolutely.

love the Baltimore Ravens laying. In Brazil. You're going with the hockey rink field. Oh, my God. Well, yes. And that is part of the handicap for me. Because if the field sucks, then that definitely favors the offense over the defense. And so the Ravens have the best offense in the NFL by a whole slew of measures.

They're missing two receivers. But especially, Zay is still a possibility out there. I haven't completely eliminated him. It's always a good idea to have a guy with an injured hamstring on a hockey rink field in Brazil. Let's bring him out. That's not the basis for the play, though. They are especially dominant with the run. And I think that, you know, they're number one in the NFL run block win rate.

They're number one in the NFL in success, like per EPA per rush. Like, oh, you know, slice and dice it, however you want. I think that they are going to go out and get up with some kind of margin, and then Dallas won't be able to close it because the Ravens can run the ball the entirety of the second half. They can do what they didn't do against the Saints when they were up. When Derek Henry had five runs in the second half. Yes, yes, I felt like I was watching John Harbaugh all over again. Yeah, so I really love the Ravens getting up.

Matabuque is back. That's huge for the inside. of their defense. Dallas can't establish the run anyhow. Dallas is one of the worst rushing teams in the NFL. I'm really regretting some of our Cowboys future stuff, or at least some of the

stuff I had, because it looks like their defense, they shifted some deck chairs in the Titanic, but I don't really feel like it's any different. And Washington was moving the ball just fine. They were all the way down to the one yard line with, you know, five seconds left in the first half. Yeah, right.

And then everything went to shit. all at once. I just think that this Ravens offense in a get right kind of moment here, I have no problem with the idea of them winning by margin. So I have the Ravens laying the three and a half.

So I looked at it long and hard, and it came down to, I just don't want to bet games and weird locations. I remember that Eagles, Packers game on like a Friday night in Rio, wherever the fuck that. Mexico, I don't even remember where it was. And guys were falling down and the vibe was weird. I'm just I'm out.

I don't think there's any way to know what's going to happen in these games. But if I did do it, I would have the Ravens. I think it's the right side. My first one, I'm doing something I rarely do in Ringer 107. And just for the record, I pick the team I'm about to go against in week one and week two for Ringer 107. Oh.

It's the New England Patriots. Wow. This is great. They are plus two and a half in Jacksonville. I think that line will move. I think that's going to move up. I think that would be three or three and a half by Sunday. In Florida, humid.

I don't like that. Jags in Florida have been good, especially recently. Something like, they're like 8 and 1 or 9-0 in their last 9 home games. Pats are banged up now. AJ's gone probably until November. I'm just, I assume we're not going to see him until we're on Halloween. they lost in Wenu, who was, by all accounts, probably their most reliable offensive linemen,

on a line that was pretty mediocre. They ended last week's game with a bunch of defensive back injuries that are all up in the air before we tape this, but it didn't matter because they're playing Aaron Rogers. And Drake May is a mess. He's a mess. And I said this Sunday night, and I don't feel like it's an overreaction.

Like I think he's going through something. and they're going to have to outscore the Jaguars. As good as the Pats D were in those first two games, they played Drew Locke and they played Aaron Rogers. And this is now a real quarterback and real offense coming off a loss. I don't know what happened to them in the second half in Denver, but I think that Jags offense is really good. And I think it's going to, you're going to need 27 to 30 points,

I think, in this game to win. And I don't think the Pats, without A.J. Brown, with the way Drake May is playing with some of the run block stuff, and just the offensive line stuff in general. And the McDaniels, whatever the offense are running, which doesn't seem right, I couldn't believe this line stayed at two and a half. I think it should be three and a half or four.

So I want to win Ringer 107. I hope I'm wrong. Jags minus two and a half is my first pick. You started this off by saying I'm playing the Patriots. And I was like, oh my God, you and I are going to be head to head for the first time. in the ringer 107 this season. You're taking the Jags too?

I am all over the Jags. You just made the case. You should see my, the ear of the notes. Injuries are all over the place for the Patriots. The Jaguars, 8 and 1 against the spread at home. The Jags have been good coming off of a loss as well.

Liam Cohen. These weapons, we haven't really seen them exploit the middle of the field yet. We haven't seen Brenton Strange or Jacobi Myers really get unleashed. Well, that's where the softness to this Patriots defense is going to be exposed and there's no reason. Go ahead and take away Parker Washington. It's fine for the Jags and Cohen at home. Yeah, they have all these different spots. Whatever the thing is we call it. It's a bad spot. No, no. So I have two. That's my second pick. I mean, that's the Jack.

It's actually, I've circled it number one because the Ravens are here and then I had the, I was saving that Patriots. There's a way the Pats can win. Yeah. And I think it would take at least 27 to 30. But I think it's at least it's going to have to be explosive plays. It's going to have to be like a kick a kick touchdown, a punt touchdown, some sort of return.

It's going to have to be a Henderson 60-yard bust. It's going to have to be a Drake May scramble for 45. They're going to need like, I think at least three explosive plays. Yeah, you're right. He has to stop turning the ball over. I mean, that's it. Jacksonville for sure is capable of creating turnover. He's a mess. Orlowski did a footwork thing that I saw on,

on social this week where he was just talking about his feet moving as he's going back and like a little happy feet thing. He wasn't doing that last year. I don't know what's going on with him. Well, I do. Since the playoffs started,

the Patriots have played a whole slew of good defenses. Yeah, I think they got all the way up till now. They can rattle them a little bit. For sure. It's a different kind of football all together. I don't think this is a must win for the Pats. I think they could be one and two and they're fine. This is a game you were probably going to circle as a potential loss for them anyway.

And I don't think they're going to have the team that they need until November. Yeah, that makes, they have Buffalo next week. So I don't really want to be one and three. They just think they're treadwater and be four and four and five, five and four, somewhere in there heading into November, December, because I did they can still make a run. Jacksonville has to have this game. Their next three are the Bengals, the Eagles, and the Texans. And that's a tough, that's a tough road right there. I'd be really surprised.

I'd be really surprised if the pets won this game. So there you go. Okay, so I guess I'm up again. Yeah. This is like partly, it's almost like a comedy pick. I'm taking the bucks again. They beat me two weeks in a row. I have a bunch of futures with them.

I'm betting on the following things. They're 0 and 11 against the spread in the last 11 games. games. Yes. Todd Bowles will probably get fired after this game if they lose. Agreed. Baker Mayfield almost seems like he's drunk in these games. I know he's not drunk, but some of his decision making and the carelessness with

the ball is just unbelievable. Like he's going to play himself out of the league. So if there's no lightning in that game last week, they're one in one. I think they beat the Browns. And I think they're favored by one and a half. I think the fact that that lightning happened, swung this game by three points. hot in Florida and September, right? I still feel like we say that all the time.

Florida and Carolina, this matters in September when it's human and weird. And Kyla Murray's coming back, which makes me like them more. I agree with this. They're like trying to figure out how to even use them in. I'm not impressed by the Vikings scored nine points last week. Yeah.

I don't think they can run the ball at all. And like if the Bucks can't win this game, they're going to go like four and 13. This is out of all the teams that are playing, I would even include the Texans. This is the biggest game of the season for a team so far. Like this is like, you lose this game. You might as well blow it up, start either trading pieces or trading four pieces.

And I think the plus one and a half, I just, they have to win this game. Yeah. I agree with what you're laying out here. And in fact, I have them as a teaser leg. So I'm teasing them from one and a half up through the seven into the seven and a half, which I just need some wiggle room with the. this version of Baker. There is definitely a case to be made for Tampa to be two and oh

as opposed to the O and two that they are. They didn't punt against the Cincinnati Bengals. Right. Four fumbles. They just gave them the ball a whole bunch of times. Also, they were in control of that Cleveland game. It was 16 to 9. Yeah.

16 to 6. Well, that Denzel Boston play happened. Right. I'm watching going, God damn it, Cleveland's hanging around. They're hanging around. Denzel Boston, five guys are there. He somehow bust through all of them, scores 16 and 16 and now you got to sweat it out.

But here's the other thing. From a Ponzi scheme standpoint, how many games in a row can you lose against the spread? Where are they going to go? Oh, and 20? Like at some point, I might just pick them every week in Ringer 107 until they cover. They're right now tied. Are they going to go 115 against the spread?

They're tied right now for the all time against the spread, worse streak. So if they lose to the spread again, they will be the single. title holder. They're tied. I heard this on the action network. Evan Abrams. Shout out Evan Abrams. They're tied with the Houston Oilers. Well, the chiefs the Oilers team.

I think in the 70s. So the counter of this is the strategy I'm using here is the blackjack strategy of the dealer is killing me. I'm going to double my bets because my look's about to change. I don't know if that's going to happen here, but I, man, if you can't be Kyla Murray

in the fucking Tampa Heat, in an offense that can't run the ball. And put this way, Bowles gets fired if they lose this game, and maybe that's how this plays out. And I'll just bet I'll take them again next week. But I'm taking them. Bucks plus one and a half,

Home Dog, a lot of favorable stats with Home Dogs, O&2 and all that shit. Yeah. So what's your other leg of your T's? The other leg of my T's is the Tennessee Titans from two and a half up to eight and a half. New York Giants,

favored at home with James. James Winston starting at quarterback, I'm not going to sit here and make a compelling case for the Titans. I'm not going into the X's and O's to explain to you why I think that the Titans are going to compete, be competitive in this game. I'm just going to say, I don't have the Giants winning by more than a touchdown against anybody for the rest of this entire season. Maybe the Dolphins.

I don't know if I don't even know if they're on the schedule. but this version of the Giants, with Jamis at quarterback, I'm just not, you know, that feels like a good teaser leg to me. So you're taking them up to eight and a half. Yes. Tampa up to seven and a half,

Titans up to eight and a half. I haven't had a chance to talk about the dart injury on this podcast yet. James, I think that was the worst I've ever seen a quarterback playing a game that I can remember. No, no, no. I'm sure there's been worse.

You watched Cooper Rush. Did you see any of Cooper Rush, the two previous weeks. I saw Cooper Rush. I feel like James was worse. I honestly was stunned. It was like he had no idea he was actually going to play in an NFL game this season. He seemed completely prepared.

He was not planning on playing. And the throws weren't near anybody. Like, I've never saying anything like that. The Dart thing was such a bummer. The Giants fans were so upset. I was so psyched for that game too, and I think everybody was. And then... This moron took the Giants plus

seven and a half in Ringer 107. I don't know what happens I thought they were going to be within a touchdown yeah that's why I went three and two last week there were so many easy games I could have picked so I'm obviously staying away from the Titans for all intents and purposes

I was thinking how they got Sala and they got dayball and it was like and even I like I test drove it a couple times in my head like Sala's great on the defense now they get dayball on the offense but they basically basically did the equivalent of those

movies you'll see on like Amazon when it's like Nick Cage and John Chavolta are in a movie again. You know, like these actors that just are not in successful projects anymore and they're thrown together

and you're like, oh, it's a movie. This was the equivalent of that or it's like these two actors, oh, Ben Kingsley's in this too and it's just, it's oh, and that's Aaron Eckhart. And it's just not going to happen. And I think that's same with this. You take two name coaches that have really not been successful.

And you put them together and guess what? They're not successful. And the Cam Ward, I haven't seen any identifiable tape with him this year that says that he's going to be a productive QB. Yeah. I don't have a counterpoint. I just thought they looked lively against the Eagles, especially they were able to put some pressure up front.

They got some pressure on Hertz. And they can kind of run the ball a little bit, the Titans. and, you know, that Giants defense, Burns is supposed to be out, I think. Just, you know, I'm just the idea of... Well, their secondary is the worst. Probably it's in the running for worst. Okay. So that's your tease.

I'll do my tease done. And I really, I changed this a hundred times. The only thing I knew was that Seahawks, Washington was going to be one of my legs. Yeah. Six-point teas on Fandle, we have a deal. deal every week. $50 bet, you get minus $110 juice. We've done okay on the teases.

I almost went too now, except for the Baker thing, but I just feel like Seahawks. It's a free leg. Tees the Seahawks down to one and a half. I think they go on a bender this year. I'm a full believer. All the stuff I laid out, might have been one of the few things I was right about before the season,

but the nobody believes in us with them. I think they have a little edge to them. They are not even completely healthy yet. I don't really see a difference with Locke and Darnold from how it's affected them. They seem fine with Locke. I thought he was good last week. And then your team, Marietta last 13 starts, which were basically in 22 and 25. He's 3 and 10.

And him against that Seattle defense, you could talk to me to some alternate, like Seattle minus 19 and a half, like some of those bets too, some blowout bets. but this just, I can't imagine Marriota's going to beat the Seahawks. So I'm putting him in a tease. Washington fits a bunch of those trends in terms of O and two teams. Now, Washington is one and one against the spread, so they're not, you know, the red lights flashing and the sirens blaring in terms of that trend angle. But they are supposed to cover this according to what history has told us. but you can't go against Seattle. They're 10 and 1 against the spread on the road under Mike McDonald.

They have nine straight, straight up wins in the eastern time zone to Seattle. They are so well prepared, so well coached. And the issue is the Seattle defense against Marriota. That's one significant formal issue. The other issue is the Washington defense against JSN. and that's the only weapon that Seattle needs. Yes. It's a single weapon.

You can't take them away. We watched Seattle twice. Their opponents try and take J.S. in the way, he's untakeawayable. So this Washington defense is going to do it? I don't think so. They're just too good. They're not going to lose games like this early in this season. Yep.

And I thought what I saw from Washington, plus you lost Cosme. brutal. But from what I saw from Washington, there was a little something with Daniels, but it was all built around all the skills Daniels have, and I just don't think Marriota has the same skills. He does not. You are correct.

So I'm putting the Seahawks down to minus one and a half. And man, I'd test drove a bunch of different ones for the other leg, including I was looking at the Broncos plus eight and a half in that Rams game seemed enticing. I looked at the same. the Raiders, the Raiders going all the way up to plus nine, that caught my interest. I'm going with an under for the first time. Oh, okay, you're doing a total.

I'm doing a total. Good for you. Bengals Steelers under 48 and a half. Okay. I was trying to think in my head how this game got to 49 points and what would need to happen. And it's basically defensive touchdowns and special team stuff. Agreed. The Steelers offense, they had 23 points in the first two games.

their quarterbacks of fossil. They can't run the ball at all. They've no run game whatsoever. Did you see the video of Lawrence just punking the Houston offensive line for like four minutes? No, I just see it. They miced them up. He's talking shit to them for four solid minutes

about how he's whipping their ass. They're scared of them. I'm coming again. It is unbelievable. I thought they have a real identity with their front seven. I'm not sure about their secondary yet. Yeah.

Listen, I was down on them before the season, but they can block better than I thought, and their front seven's better than I thought. It's legit. And they'll do at least as well as the Patriots did last week. So you have that. And then on the other side, the Stewart's defense was really good against the pads.

I was really, I thought they did a bunch of good stuff. And the way Houston was hitting Burrow last week, they weren't really moving the ball. They basically got a couple long plays, and they have really good receivers. They only gave up 13 points on offense. I mean, on defense to the Patriots offense. So 49 points is either that's 30, 20 beats me, 27, 23 beats me, 35.

No, I like this. 14 beats me. I don't, I don't see it. I don't see how they get there. Yeah, I bet the under in this game just on the number. Like, it's an appropriate under game. And it just boils down to the complete ineptitude. I can't believe you, you, I'm glad that there isn't a camera in my living room capturing what I say to D.K. Metcalfe.

Because I have D.K. Metcalfe on my fantasy team. He was awful. I want him to go to Antarctica and find that city under Antarctica. Is he going to be the guest on Eat a Fat Dick? Oh, he, no, no. I want something worse for him than that. He's not even loud on the podcast? The bravado matched with the ineptitude is just,

that's what I have the least amount of patience for. He's like the Seattle Mariners, the receivers. And, you know, Aaron, my best friend on the team is D.K. Metcalf. Well, that certainly makes a lot of sense. Yeah. Two pieces of, you know, two guys not capable of advancing the football down the field. Pittsburgh's offense 31st in EPA through two games since then he was 21st. Pittsburgh's defense was second in EPA since he's fourth.

It's a great underplay. Good luck getting a 50. What's your last pick? I have a very quick question for you. Why didn't you take San Francisco from eight and a half down to two and a half against Arizona? Something scares me about that game. Okay, that's all.

That's it. Yeah. I don't think Arizona's as bad as they looked last week. I thought Seattle's defense is so fucking good. They just completely undress them and clipped their wings and got in their heads. And I thought Arizona wilted. But I don't,

the San Francisco's lost a lot of receivers. They've looked really good the first two weeks. There's a lot of purdy buzz. Yep. And it just felt like jumping on. one bandwagon and getting off another. I don't know. I just didn't like it.

No problem. Seems too easy. Just wanted to ask it because I might end up playing San Francisco laying eight and a half. I would rather do it that way and figure it out that way. All right. What's your last pick? I'm torn because I have Seattle minus seven written down here. And it was it opened minus six.

I bet it's Sunday night as fast as I could with, you know, amount of money that I'm uncomfortable with. It's Seattle, seven and a half. I know. I'm describing what happened. It was seven this morning, as I was making my notes and everything, it's up to seven and a half because nobody in America is taking Washington. Like there are not going to be, they have to, I mean, if people are teasing them, all kinds

stuff. Right. It has to get to eight and a half before I would consider taking Washington. Right. So I'm going back to the well with something. This is a place where you're, I'm going against every single trend that's ever been trended in week three. and I'm taking the chiefs to win by margin against the Miami Dolphins.

I have to keep betting against the Dolphins. I like it. Every week that the dolphins are less than two touchdowns, I have to take it. It's just a mandatory play for me. There's no evidence whatsoever that's a defense capable of stopping anybody, and they have no interest in it. I mean, they were kind of feisty in their first half against the Niners. Then the Niners came out and scored on their first two drives the second half,

And the football game was over. They should have mercy ruled the fourth quarter so that nobody got hurt on on either team. Honestly, there's just no point. It's because college football, right? You're just basically betting a big college football spread, knowing that the talent's like not fair.

So it's 10 and a half, Kansas City minus 10 and a half? Sure. Great. Done. I mean, there's just not, no evidence of competent football coming out of that Miami team. I looked at it for a while.

It scared me that, that Casey's coming off a fun win. It scared me that they're in an easy stretch right now or it's at Miami at Las Vegas by week. And you start like, oh, we're going to go four now. And then the weather piece scared me. And I couldn't get there with the double digits. Because I don't get their defense certainly was not great.

No, Casey. And Mahomes as a double digit favorite is terrible. My homes on the road as a double digit favorite is terrible. Miami fits every single trend in terms of a team coming it. I think it's a smart pick. Yeah, but I don't care. I mean, it's not a 100% trend.

So I'll take the chiefs and lay the points. I don't care. For my last pick, I really want to do Browns plus two and a half against the Panthers. I was just thinking about how funny it would be to say one last chance to bet on Deshaun Watson against Deshaun Watson. I do think they can win this game, though, but I think it's just to stay away. And it's Browns plus two and a half. And if it was three, I might be a little more interested. Good call.

I looked long and hard at Raiders plus three over the Saints because the Saints were down 21-0-0 in week one, 14 and 3, 14 and 3 in week two. They're down seven and they're down eight, both fourth quarters, and they can't run the ball. And I think the Raiders are well-coached and they can block. And I don't mind them, but I just couldn't get there. That seems like a last minute in the game game. So I'm going with another team that has burned me two weeks in a row.

The Houston Texans. Yeah. I almost did it. They're playing in Indianapolis. The line has dropped. The line is down minus one and a half. They're probably the most desperate team of week three other than Tampa, who I also have. But two things.

they actually really shut down Sinci and then just gave up a couple bigger plays because they have Jemar Chase and they have T. Higgins. He doesn't have anybody like that. Pierce is out for the year or most of the year. They basically have downs. They don't have Pittman anymore.

Tyler Warren, cover him and you're good. And I don't, and Daniel Jones can't move. And this just feels like we're giving up 112 total yards this week, that kind of game. offensively, just they're not, the Indy's defense is terrible.

They're going to be able to run the ball finally. You know, after playing who they played last week, I think they'll have a little more success. And I don't know, CJ wasn't bad last week. I thought he had some really good throws. I think they can score. But I think they can shut down the Colts more importantly. I don't know, how are the Colts going to move the ball without Pierce?

Who are you afraid of on that offense other than Taylor? Just shut down Taylor. You win the game. Yeah, I don't know. They did a great job getting Taylor. I get it. They ran the ball really well. I don't love it, but I like it.

I decided to stay away from Houston this week. I went with them. I gave them out as my wise wager two consecutive weeks on the show. Guess what my record is with wise wagers? I mean, I just believe in Houston. I think ultimately they are going to be. That's the thing. It's like, am I going to get scared off because of how week one went when they dropped the game-winning interception?

And then last week, which was just the stupid cluster fuck and one of those dumb NFL games that happen all the time. And they don't have Nico Collins. And am I going to panic or am I going to really believe this is an 0-and-3 football team? I don't know. We'll see if Cali or say Gordon had some good notes in her notebook. Let's see what our notes are. Chisham Booty.

All right, House, here's what we have, Ringer 107. We're both five and five, hoping for a big week here. You have Ravens minus three and a half in Brazil. You have Jaguars minus two and a half at home against the Patriots. and you have the Chiefs, minus 11.5. 10.5. 10 and a half. But 11.5 is fine. 12 and a half, whatever you want. You'd pick them 13 and a half.

I would. It's 10 and a half under the premise that Miami just keep betting against them until these lines going into the 20s. And your tease is going to be Titans up to 8.5 against the Giants and James Winston. And the Bucks up to 7.5 at home trying to win their first game of the season against Minnesota. I have, as my tease, Seattle down a minus one and a half and the under in the Sincere Pittsburgh game, 48 and a half under. It's a good one.

49 beats me. I have the Jags minus two and a half against my beloved Patriots. Have to do it. In Ring 107, you can't have favorite teams. You're just trying to make the best picks. I do not like the spots for the Patriots this week. Bucks plus one and a half against Minnesota. And then last but not least.

the Texans minus one and a half. So basically, I'm applying the symbotic strategy. I'm still back in these Bucks Texans teams, and if it fails me, so be it. We'll see. Happy gambling in Week 3 House.

Best of luck to both of us. Today's ringer 107 was brought to by Fandall. Download the app now to find all of our 107 picks. Make this your most rewarding season ever. Fandle, play your game. Odd subject to change. All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to Halse and Palisaro.

Thanks to Gahau and Eduardo and Chris as well. Don't forget new rewatchables coming on Monday. We are doing 13 going on 30. I'm going to be back on this podcast. Sunday night with Cousin Sal, who's fighting through it, still fighting through those kidney stones. We'll see if he can make it to Sunday night. Enjoy the weekend.

See you Sunday night. Must be 21 plus on president's select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus in President D.C. or Wyoming, opt and required bonus issued as non-drawable profit boost tokens. Restrictions apply, including any token expiration of max wager amount. See terms at sportsbook.finder.com. Game and problem called 100 gambor or 1-800-Gampbell or 1-800-7-77.

Or visit ccpg.gat in Connecticut or MD gamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gambling helpline, ma.org, or call 800-327-5757. 50-50 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts, or call 8778 Hope NY, or text Hope, NY in New York for Louisiana. Call 877-770-7-8667.