The Bill Simmons Podcast - The "My Guy" Fantasy Football Draft With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly. Plus, a Cleveland Sports Check-in With Garrett Bush.

Episode Date: August 30, 2023

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly of 'The Ringer Fantasy Football Show' for the "My Guy" Fantasy Football Draft, where they identify NFL players who fit unique categories on draft day (2:24). Then, Bill talks with Garrett Bush of the 'Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show' about the Browns, Cleveland's relationship with Pittsburgh, Browns fans' affinity for Baker Mayfield, Cavaliers predictions, and more (1:16:42). Host: Bill Simmons Guests: Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, Danny Kelly, and Garrett Bush Producer: Kyle Crichton The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming, please checkout theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coming up, a fantasy football extravaganza and the tortured soul of Cleveland fans. That's next. This episode is brought to you by Prime Video. You know me, I can't go a day without sports. I really can't. And now Monday nights are all about hockey. That's right.

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for additional details. You must be 21 plus and present in select states. Gambling problem called Win 100 Gambler or visit rg-help.com. We're also brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network, where you can find new rewatchables we put up on Monday night. Me, Chris Ryan, and my dad, we did The Equalizer, one of my dad's favorite movies ever. Stealth Boston movie, by the way. So you can check that out. You can also check out a new Spotify podcast that we announced on Tuesday, Strike Force 5. Oh yeah. All the late night hosts, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver, Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert. They got together. They had been doing Zooms during the writer's strike. And then they decided, you know what? Maybe this should just be a podcast and we'll give all the money to our staff. And that's just what we're going to do. All of a sudden, it seemed like a great idea.

I remember talking to Jimmy about it and thinking, this is a great idea. This will never actually happen. I'll never actually do this. Well, they did it. And you can follow it on Spotify, Strikeforce 5. You can get it wherever you get your podcasts. Can't wait to listen to this. Well, they did it and you can follow it on Spotify, Strikeforce 5. You can get it wherever you get your podcasts. Can't wait to listen to this. Super excited. Those five guys all on a Zoom together. Just crack of jokes. I'm ready. So there you go. On this podcast, it's the second annual My Guy Fantasy Draft. Craig Horlbeck, Danny Kelly, Danny Heifetz from the Ringer Fantasy Show. We're going to come on and we're going to talk about all of our guys that we like, dislike, that we're afraid of in the fantasy football season. Then went to Cleveland to find Garrett Bush, who is kind of a big guy there. I got to

say, he's kind of a guy. He's going to tell us what to expect from the Browns, who are the most confusing 2023 team. A lot of that has to do with Deshaun Watson, which Deshaun Watson, are we going to get? How do we feel about Deshaun Watson in 2023, just in general? And where is Cleveland sports going? What's happened to them this century? All the good, all the bad, and he's going to lay all of it out for us. So this is a really good podcast. Can't wait. First, our friends from Pearl Jam. All right. It's the second annual My Guy Fantasy Draft.

Our Ringer Fantasy Show guys are here. Danny Kelly, Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, my rewatchables producer. Always nice when he pops on the BS. So we did this last year. We didn't win any awards, but sometimes you don't need to win awards. Sometimes when something's great, when it works,

you just kind of know it and we're going to run it back. Heifetz, you want to explain what this gimmick is? Yeah, you text us a bunch of ridiculous categories and then we kind of build an entire show around it. No, it's fun though.

It's just like, it's a draft but it's not a draft and then it's vibes. It's a vibes episode. Yeah, we can agree on this. The concept is like you go into a fantasy draft, we all have the same kind of guides, same kind of rankings,

but it doesn't capture the love. It doesn't capture the irrational. I just believe in this guy. It doesn't capture Craig thinking that Pickens is going to end up being Justin Jefferson this year. There's just some things. He already is.

Or fear PTSD from bad draft picks from the past. I actually listened to a lot of the pod we did last year, and it was pretty funny hearing some of the guys we were completely enamored by that ended up being bust. And then there were some other ones that I was surprised by the accuracy of it. Danny Kelly, can you ever be right in a fantasy draft? Can you ever go perfect? One in a million. It's like picking stocks.

If you get one good one, then you're set. Last year, mine was Ramondre. I listened to our show last year, too. I feel like I nailed that one. Didn't get some other ones right. So we don't have to re-litigate those. But Ramondre, I'm calling that one. The take I was proudest of last year was fearing Cooper Cup after the year that he had just not liking the scent of something.

It was a veteran experience. I've been doing fantasy, I think since like 1989, 1990, something like that. All right. So I'm going to rip through the categories here and then we're going to go at them one at a time. This is not, it's a draft, but it's not a draft because if we all have the same guy for a category of tour, if two of us have it, it's fine. We're okay. Um, the categories are my one true love, the guy that we just like the most, my crazy pills guy. Do you want to explain the crazy pills thing, Craig? I think it can go either way, right? It's either you feel like you're taking crazy pills

because nobody else likes the guy you like, or it's the other way around where you feel like you're taking crazy pills because everybody likes this guy and you don't understand it at all. Right. So there's a little variance on that one. You can go either way. There's the,

my, I absolutely hate myself for doing this guy, which seems to happen over and over again in fantasy, where you go into a draft and you're like, well, I'm not going to end up with Russell Wilson. That was the example I used last year. It could be the example you use again this year. I'm not even going to spend a dollar for Russell Wilson.

Then it gets to the 17th round. If you're in a booger eater draft or, you know, you have $5 left for five guys. Then it's like, Russell Wilson, Sean Payton. All of a sudden, you have Russell Wilson and you have no idea how he ended up on your team. I absolutely hate myself for doing this guy. I'm going to add this category. It's a little subcategory. I'm staying away from that whole team team. There's teams where you're just like, I'm out. I'm staying away from that whole team team. There's teams

where you're just like, I'm out. I'm just blind out. I don't want one person from that team. We'll see if we agree on that team. Then we have the My Shameless Homer pick guy. That's going to be really... I mean, Craig, you don't even have to go. Although there could be... There are tickets like plus

500, but I think we know Pickens is going to be there. There's the My I Wouldn't Take pickets is going to be there. There's the, my, I wouldn't take him even if he was free guy. So you're putting them on your D and D do not draft list. I had McCaffrey as my guy for this last year, which looked brilliant for about six weeks.

Then he got traded a machine of an office. We have the, my, that 2022 booty call isn't happening again guy, which is a new category for this year. This is the, you stumbled into somebody in the free agent auction, maybe in November. You wrote them for a couple of weeks, some fond memories, but you know, as a one night stand or, you know, as a three week stand and you're not going back then we have the this is a classic one the somebody's got to get points on that team guy we just look at all the teams you're like well

i don't know everybody scores 300 someone's catching passes on that team someone's rushing for 970 yards there is the my sorry i sorry, that's too rich for my blood guy, where you look at the draft guide and you see some of the salaries next to the guys and you go, wait, at $47? So Najee Harris was my guy

for this last year and I was proud of that one. There's the my $1 QB guy. He's not going to make it break your draft, but you're also kind of secretly stashing away in your head. And we all have our $1 QB. There is the, my, I'd be afraid to look on Tuesday and see the red flag guy, which I've added this year. I didn't even tell you about this

category. You take the guy and it's going great. Eloy Jimenez is the ultimate baseball example. This it's going great. You're feeling awesome. And then you go on there on a Tuesday and there's the red flag with the yellow box that there's news. And you're just like, oh no. Oh God, what happened? And there's certain guys who just, it happens every year.

A cousin of that, I know there's a 99% chance he's getting hurt again, but God damn, I can't resist this guy, guy. Then we have my Cooper Cup. It's a year after the year God damn, I can't resist this guy, guy. Then we have the, my Cooper cup. It's a year after the year guy. So I named this category after Cooper cup. So who is it this year? They had their year last year. Don't do it again. Don't get sucked in five more. The, my, I just want everyone on that offense. I don't care. Guy, the, my it's a year too early, but fuck it. Guy, the, my missionary position. We've all had him guy.

The, my, I fell for the preseason hype guy. And then finally the, my, I'd never root for an injury, but he is one injury away. That guy. All right. So we're going to start with my one true love. We're going to go and we're going to go on one, two, three, four on the Zoom. And then for the second round, then the second guy will go. Danny Kelly, you're up. All right. My one true love. Who is it? I got to go with Tony Pollard for the Cowboys.

I'm irrationally in love with this guy. I've been saying it. I think there's nothing you can say will convince me that he's not the best player in the NFL. Like just pound for pound, the best player in the NFL. You know, last year he finished as the RV7. This year he's going to be playing I think more snaps, getting way more opportunities. If he can get up to

the same level of opportunities as Eckler and CMC, because he's in that style of runner, I think. This guy could finish as a top three running back in the NFL. I'm just full as Gettleman said, full bloom in the NFL. And so I'm just like full, as Gettleman said, full bloom in love

with Tony Pollard. I just can't. I can't help it. So in the Ringer Fantasy Guide, he's 13th right now and he's going for $42 in auctions. So you think that's low? Yeah, I would push that. I actually had Pollard too. I had Pollard too. Wow, we all know Pollard. Wait, did you too, Crick?

I'm scared now. Yeah. Well, that's the cutter. This is a sign that... Yeah, this is a terrible sign. But I just... I mean, just to pile on to DK's stats here, Zeke had 12 touchdowns last year, and Tony Pollard was a top 10 running back. Like, what else do you need to hear?

Like, every time Tony Pollard was on the field, he was the best running back in the league, and now Zeke's gone. Like, I rest my case. This is the pregame show where they all pick the same team to win a game of football and then that team loses. So you should probably stay away from Tony Pollard.

Wait, so all three of you had Tony Pollard for this? Yeah, I could give you someone else. And we did not discuss this before coming on. I didn't expect that. Oh my God. Talk about group thing. You know what sucks about this? Jesus.

You know what sucks about this? Jesus. You know, it's, you know, what sucks about this is that means when I have my big auction draft in a week and all my friends are going to be listening to this. And when Tony Pollard comes up, I'm not going to get them because they're all going to bid them up. It's going for $57 if I want to get them.

Yeah. Well, Bill's like, Oh my God. Well, here's the argument. Rich Rebar, who works for Warren Sharp,

he's at sharp football analysis and he is a really good comp, is basically melvin gordon was playing ahead of austin eckler for years and everyone's begging for austin eckler to get the job and then austin eckler finally got the job and the charges got rid of melvin gordon and then austin eckler still wasn't really a first round pick and we talked ourselves out of it we hemmed and hawed this is tony pollard again it's like zeke is finally after five five years, out of Dallas. And we're like, yeah, any point in the second you get Tony Pollard,

that's actually crazy. Honestly, you could get him for 45 bucks. Austin Eckler's going to go for 60. Tony Pollard would probably just be better than Austin Eckler this year. I kind of genuinely mean this.

Tony Pollard should maybe be the first pick in fantasy football. Rake him there, you coward. You can convince me. Kind of genuinely. Well, he does have a great offensive line. There are going to be a couple games against bad teams where you have him on Thanksgiving or something

and he puts up the four-touchdown 180-yard game. I can see it. So I guess I'm up then because you guys all agreed. You can have anybody you want. My one true love this year, Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles, who I also like for MVP. So last year he missed two games and they also blew out what? What was it, DK?

Like seven, eight games, seven, eight games where they just like in the fourth quarter, they didn't even really have to play offense. They were just kind of running out the string. I don't think their defense is going to be as good this year. Shil Kapati on the NFL show has been talking about this. I think it's going to be better than he thinks, but it won't be as good.

And their schedule is tougher. But, you know, is it possible that he's like a 4,000-1,000 guy with some sort of combination of 42D? Like, everyone agrees they have the best offensive line in the league. Everyone agrees the 1-2 A.J. Brown-Devonta Smith punch is way up there.

And I'm seeing like Schrager on TV this week was saying, Devonta Smith, this is the year he jumps up to the chase class. So we have that with Dallas Goddard, who everybody thinks is the best all around tight end in the league. Could the guy who actually blocks and plays three downs running backs, whatever, put anyone behind there and they'll gain 80 yards. And then he's going to get a lot of the goal line carries. I think he's my top QB this year. I think I would take him before everybody else.

I don't even think it's that controversial. What do you think of that one? He is ours. I think you're right. I think the key point you have there is that he barely played

in the fourth quarter last year. That's the key thing. He was already, in a per game basis, he was the best quarterback in fantasy last year and he barely played the fourth quarter.

Yeah. So you could argue he hasn't even reached the ceiling yet. He's our number one guy on the guide right now i believe shameless plug for fantasyfootball.3.com he's our 21st player we have like all our rankings there and yeah he has the highest floor and the highest ceiling my favorite stat about jalen hurts other than 18 rushing touchdowns in 18 games last year jalen hurts had more games over 30 points than under 20. That's everything you want in a quarterback.

Well, so he's number one in our guide, but I still feel like in a draft, Mahomes is going over him because of the Mahomes. It's just the most fun to have Mahomes. The R. I actually think that's a little nuts this year.

DK. Hurts is, I think, either 12-1 or 11-1 on FanDuel for MVP. And I think those odds are the most out of whack of all the MVP odds. Because if you're going to say the MVP is going to come from an awesome team, they're probably one of the five teams that has a chance to go 13-4, 14-3, something like that. They have the most talent on offense, I think, of any team that's going to be in the MVP conversation.

And we've seen him get better every year. So why is he 11-1, 12-1? Shouldn't he be like 6-1, 7-1? Shouldn't he be where Josh Allen is? I don't... Is it just because of the previous impressions that he was a... What was he, a third round pick or second round pick?

Second round bias? Maybe he'll hold on to that for too long, or maybe it's just because he's surrounded by such a good team. I don't know. But, yeah, like you said, he's improved pretty much every season he's been playing, even going back to college. From everything that we've heard, he is maniacal about

working and leadership and just all the things, all the intangibles. And then, of course, if he takes a jump as a passer this year, that's going to be huge for him because he's already one of the best running quarterbacks. He's double-digit rushing touchdowns in the last two years. Everything about him screams just the face of the franchise. He's everything they want.

And so I could see it from a narrative point of view for sure. It reminds me of what you used to have with Russell Wilson when he was alive. Yeah. Hype it's here on the clock here. Next category is my crazy pills guy can go either way. You feel like you're taking crazy pills. You don't understand why more people don't like them or you're taking crazy pills because you can't believe this many people like them one look it's all one look yeah my crazy my crazy pills guys christian watson for the packers i i just feel like i'm taking crazy pills because all these second year sexy receivers are everyone that like all these receivers they're cool as rookies they second year we expect them to take a huge jump garrett wilson with Aaron Rodgers, obviously top 15 player.

Chris Olavi expected to be great with Derek Carr, top 20, 25 players. Christian Watson, you know, I mean, we're probably even, I mean, we got Christian Watson, you know, as like a top 50, top 60 player. And I look at Christian Watson and I just see a guy that could just be fantastic. It was like, cause he had eight touchdowns in four games. And then Aaron Rodgers leaving. Everyone's like, well, he'll be worse. And then he won't have eight touchdowns in four games again then aaron rogers leaving everyone's like well he'll be worse and then he won't have eight touchdowns in four games again but bill i'm gonna read you a list i feel like you love lists with good guys on it so here's a list

of yards per route run which is the best receiver stat we got i got this from j.j zacharyson receivers who had 2.25 yards per route run as a rookie just straight up since we had the stat 15 years ago. The receivers who had that, Odell Beckham Jr. did it as a rookie, Tyree Kill, AJ Brown, Jamar Chase, Justin Jefferson, Chris Olave, and Christian Watson. It's the entire list. And so I had him in fantasy and I picked them up, I think like week six, week seven range. And then I thought he was one of the people that was kind of carrying me. And so I would watch the Packers game and he would make two like genuinely exciting plays a game. Like it would be like, they almost connected on a 60 yard bomb or there was like a screen pass or a bubble screen and he would just take off.

But I thought he was electric. I really thought he got exciting as it went along. So I'm with you. You agree with this, Craig? Yeah, I do. I actually, Heifetz has kind of brainwashed me into being a Jordan Love believer, and I'm now kind of in on the Packers offense, even though they're all young and completely inexperienced. But yeah. Piano next time, too.

I got you in to kill the prime minister and everything. All right. Craig, who do you have for my crazy pills? I don't know why we're trying to still make Kyle Pitts be a thing. You know? It's like fetch from Mean Girls. Stop trying to make Kyle Pitts a thing. It's not a thing.

Lombardi just said it on your show. Arthur Smith is telling us who he is. Let's just believe him. You know? Yeah. I don't know why we think it's going to be any different than it was last year for Kyle Pitts. What's changed? The guy's coming off a torn MCL.

Desmond Ritter's the quarterback. We don't know if he's better than Marcus Mariota. They just spent a first-round pick on the best running back since Saquon Barkley. And they're in the most run-heavy offense in the league. And Desmond Ritter, by the way, all he does is check down the running backs, much more than Mariota,

which means less targets for Kyle Pitts. We just need to believe what Arthur Smith is telling us. I know we don't want to, but I'm out on Kyle Pitts. I like it. My crazy pills guy, and this is basically

coming from listening to your podcast where you guys talk about this person like Tom Cruise talks about David Miscavige. Brandon Cooks. And Brandon Cooks is a great Zag name. And you guys have done this a few times where you're like, oh, here's a stat. Guess who?

There's four receivers who've had 5,000 yard seasons of the last seven. Blah, blah, blah. And Brandon Cooks. And Brandon cooks. And then it's like, guess who wide receiver 17 was last year, Brandon cooks. Well, he was playing in Houston in garbage time for most of the year where, you know, putting up, God only knows he had all that concussion stuff, which is the reason he kind of bounced around where, you know, he's had injuries, concussions, all kinds of things. And then Dallas gets him

at a pretty cheap price because he's Brandon Cooks. He's gotten passed around. And then a couple months pass and then we get to August and everybody's like, watch out, Brandon Cooks. I'm just telling you,

he's not going to be on my team. I feel like you guys are taking crazy blows. I think he plays nine games. I'm fine with that, honestly. DK, who you got? I've got Najee Harris. He's got one speed.

That's too easy. Doesn't anyone notice this? He's got one speed. Too easy. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. So this is just purely what we did with Zeke and Pollard. And again, I know this is me talking about Pollard again, but we did this for like three years with Pollard and Zeke and Pollard. And again, I know this is me talking about Pollard again, but we did this

for like three years with Pollard and Zeke. Pollard is better than Zeke. Can we stop with this charade? So that's my crazy post guy. I love it. There's more on that in a later category. I absolutely hate myself for doing this guy.

Who is it, Craig? Who is it for you? Yeah, it's Michael Thomas. I'm here. I'm doing it. He's like $3 now. Last year, I spent like $25 on him. Now he's $3. How can I say no to that?

The man is cocky enough to play in the preseason, which is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen is that after missing the last three seasons, they're just throwing him out there in preseason, which is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen is that after missing the last three seasons, they're just throwing him out there in preseason. But look, I'm simply a man. I'm only a man. He's $3.

I have to do it. I have to. This is like... I just got to do it. This is like Julio Jones last year. We see there's that one receiver every year who was like, three years ago, he did this.

And he usually doesn't work. Look, he played three games last year. He caught three touchdowns. I'm just, I gotta do it. Mine is Cooper Cup. Because there's a fantasy draft world where you don't get Jefferson, you don't get Chase,

you don't get Tyreek Hill. Then it's like, I'll get Garrett Wilson. Oh my God, he went for $43. I'm not doing that. And all of your favorite receivers go in a row. And then it's like Cooper Cup. And he's just sitting there and it's like 31, 32. It's like, oh my God, Cooper Cup,

you broke every record two years ago. I mean, I can't let him go for 37, 38. And then all of a sudden you have Cooper Cup and you realize like two games in that the Rams have 30 backup players and a quarterback who is breaking down and Sean McVay might be tanking for Caleb Williams and Cooper Cup who has had a bunch of injuries

over the last couple of years. Now you got the red flag next to him and you're like, my God, why did I spend $37 in Cooper Cup? So that is my guy. Who do you have, DK? I'm going with Gabriel Davis. I'm back in.

I've talked myself into the idea. I've talked myself into the idea that he was hurt last year. And that's why he wasn't good. Not because he's not good. It's just because he was hurt. And basically, I want options on the Bills team. They pass a lot. Josh Allen passes deep. Explosive plays. We've seen in very

short spurts how absolutely ridiculously explosive Gabe Dave can be as a downfield receiver. There's all that. And that's why we talked ourselves into him last year. Obviously, he was a big disappointment last season, but he did have a high ankle sprain in week two and was basically never the

same after that. Now he's healthy. I don't know. He, to me, looks like a big bounce back guy and I'm going to hate myself for drafting him, but I'm absolutely doing it this year.

You like that one, Danny? I freaking love Gabe Davis. At the end of the day, Gabe Davis was a top 60 pick last year. It didn't work out, but nothing has literally changed about why he was top 60 pick. And now he's like a top 100 pick. So it's like, I I'm in a DK. I hate myself less for Gabe Davis was a top 60 pick last year. It didn't work out, but nothing has literally changed about why he was a top 60 pick, and now he's like a top 100 pick. So it's like, I'm in a

DK. I hate myself less for Gabe Davis. The guy I have for this, I actually also have Michael Thomas, just like Greg. Michael Thomas, there was a story on ESPN today, Michael Thomas explaining why he had this one ankle injury that kept him out for three years, and he said that

they kept putting these implants into his feet and ankle, and his body was rejecting the devices they were putting in. And I remember reading it and thinking, I wish my body would reject Michael Thomas, but I can't. I thought about, speaking of Saints, I thought about Alvin Kamara for my pick. Because I know he's out for three games, right?

So his price is instantly discounted. So you think like, ah, I'll just stash him for three weeks. I'll have him for the playoffs. There was all that. What was that story about how he realized his leg was more muscular than the other leg? He solved that. Yeah, one leg weighed two pounds more than the other leg. And he changed his heart rate. I'm in on all that mumbo jumbo. I buy into all that. Yeah, one leg weighed two pounds more than the other leg and he changed his heart rate.

I'm in on all that mumbo jumbo. I buy into all that. I already hate myself. Did you read that and wonder why your cryo place doesn't weigh your legs and figure that out for you? I'm going to ask them the next time I go if they can weigh all my appendages to see what's going on.

We're going to take a break and come back. Get ready for the NFL season with incredible offers from FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. Right now, new customers can bet $5 and get 200 bonus bets guaranteed.

Plus, new customers who bet $5 will get $100 off NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. So we're going to be doing a bunch of futures that I will give you, I think either Thursday or Sunday,

we're gonna have a special page on FanDuel, whole bunch of stuff we love. There's one parlay I had to make, uh, to make the playoffs parlay that I'm super excited about. Can't wait to tell you about. And just stay tuned. But for week one,

you know, do you just short Arizona every week? Are they going to be the last winless team? What do we do on that? I kind of love the Steelers at home against the Niners, but there's a bunch of them. We're going to talk about them on Guest of the Lines on Sunday.

I'm going to be doing million dollar picks as well on Thursdays. And all those them. We're going to talk about them on Guest of the Lines on Sunday. I'm going to be doing million-dollar picks as well on Thursdays. And all those lines that we're going to use are from Fando. It's the best time to join. The app is easy to use. You can bet on everything from spreads to player props and more. Visit Fando.com slash BS and kick off the NFL season with an offer you won't want to miss. Fando, official partner of the NFL. You must be 20-plus and present in select states.

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required to watch YouTube TV. Redemption requires a Google account. Current form of payment, commercial use excluded. This episode is brought to you by my old friend, Miller Lite. I've been a big fan of Miller Lite, man, since college days when I was allowed to have beer. I think nephew Kyle is a fan too. Miller Lite keeps it simple for us. Undebatable quality, great taste. Picture this. It's game day. All the gang's here. You're tailgating outside the stadium. It's a great time for beer. Or how about when you're standing at the grill and the smell of sizzling burgers is in the air? Moments like that. Or when you want a light beer that tastes like beer, that's delicious.

You don't want to load up on those heavier beers and then you only have two of them. Then you feel tired. Your stomach feels full. Miller Lite, it's your friend. It just accompanies whatever else you're doing. You're super happy with it. Opening an ice cold Miller Lite can signal the beginning of Miller time. Miller Lite is the light beer with all the great beer tastes we like. 90 calories per 355 mil can. So why not grab some Miller Lights today? Your game time tastes like Miller time. Must be legal drinking age. I'm staying away from that whole team team. The choices are Arizona and Carolina and maybe Houston, although I think we all like Damien Pierce. So it's probably Carolina and maybe Houston, although I think we all like Damian Pierce.

So it's probably Carolina and Arizona in the finals. Is there any other team you would be running away from? 49ers? It's Arizona. 49ers? Stop it.

So who do you have? Arizona's running away from themselves. Yeah. Carolina or Arizona, who are you running away from? I had Carolina, number one, with a bullet like that.

Really? Yeah. So, I know that I recognize and I'm aware that preseason doesn't always translate to the regular season,

but, my God, they looked very bad in the preseason, at least early, you know, early on. And,

to me, it's just, this is going to be, the offensive line wasn't working right, rookie quarterback, brand new receivers in a new system. I don't know. To me, it's just, this is going to be, the offensive line wasn't working right. Rookie quarterback, brand new receivers in a new system. I don't know.

To me, it's just, there's a low ceiling on any of these guys that you're picking. And I don't overly love any of them anyway. So I'm just absolutely staying away from this team. So I agree with DK. Because you would think Arizona is the blink test. That's who I'm going to stay away from. But Kyler's going to come back at some point and then he'll run around and do stuff and you might be able to get him on your waiver wire for a dollar.

And who knows? There is no scenario where I have a Carolina Panther on my team this year. I'm just telling you now it's not happening. Heifetz, you agree or disagree? The only guy I might want is Jonathan Mingo is their second round pick who, again, you could probably get literally last round of your draft, a dollar, you can get them off waivers and that he might be pretty good.

He's kind of like the DK Metcalf, uh, AJ Brown, Vannit Ole Miss or Jarvis Landry, Odell Beckham, where I think he could have better stats as a rookie in the NFL than he did in college. But I actually like what you said about the Panthers.

Cause there's a weird, like nobody believes in this thing that happens when a team that's tanking. And then kind of like we saw last year with the Texans when they won that game where the team's like, you know what? No, we're going to win. Even our GM and our owner want us to lose. But the Panthers, it's more like the players like,

oh my God, this is the plan. And actually the depression and sadness seeps into the team even quicker. Yeah, I don't try to overrate preseason, but they were such a dumpster fire in preseason and couldn't block, and they're throwing a rookie QB. I think they have the worst skill guys in the league.

I just don't see a path for them to be good. Craig, who do you have, Carolina or Arizona? Arizona. I mean, can anyone in the country name who's going to be the starting quarterback for the Cardinals for the first half of the season? It might be Bailey Zappi. They just cut Colt McCoy.

It's going to be Clayton Toon or Josh Dobbs who showed up on property a week ago. Josh hasn't been there long enough to get direct deposit yet. He hasn't even been there for two Fridays. I'm not sure Kyler's coming back. This team wants to tank and get Caleb Williams. Kyler Murray might have some complications with his knee come week seven, and he's out for the second half of the season. Next category.

My shameless homer pick. So I'm a Patriots fan. DK, Seattle. Heifetz, Giants. Craig, Steelers. I think Ramondre doesn't qualify for this because Ramondre is fucking good. I can't put him on this.

I'm going to go with Kendrick Bourne. There's been a lot of comeback buzz for this guy. Uh, he was, I thought good two years ago. Nobody who roots for the Pats understood why he didn't play last year and what happened with him in the dog house. This,

this year, great preseason, like mini camp, all that stuff. Really good preseason. Rave reviews and even grouchy Bill Belichick singled him out today as having had a really good camp. And I think, you know, everybody went nuts that they didn't get Hopkins. I think their receivers are going to be pretty good this year. I think especially the younger guys to be pretty good this year. I think, especially the younger guys, Craig just made a face.

They have some speed. And I think Bourne, I don't think they're going to miss Jacoby Myers at all. And I think Bourne's a sneaky, like $1 guy at the end who might end up having a lot of those eight for 78 with a TD type game. So that's my guy. Who do you got, DK?

Well, if Ramond Dre is too much of an obvious one, I was going to say Kenneth Walker. But should I say someone a little less obvious than that? No, Kenneth Walker's good. Make the case, because I don't think people realize how good he is. Yeah. Some people don't. That's kind of where I am. I think a lot of people are very scared off by the idea that,

or the fact that they drafted Charbonnet in the second round, as Yucks did. And, you know, a lot of people are kind of scared off of Walker. He's not a huge guy in the passing game. And they think, you know, Charbonnet is going to come in and steal a lot of his work, which I think in any backfield, you're going to have a rotation these days.

Like there's two backfields in the NFL where it's one guy getting everything. And so I think that was always sort of a given. The Seahawks just had a lot of depth issues at running back, and they took a guy in the second round who they liked, which they've done several times. I think they've drafted more running backs, actually, than any other team in the last 10 years. And so this is just what the Seahawks do. But

for me, Walker is just head and shoulders, more dynamic, more explosive, and more talented than Charbonnet. It's not that I dislike Charbonnet. I actually think he's a very good player. But I think Kenneth Walker just blows my water, in my opinion, from a talent and explosiveness. And we saw that as a rookie.

You know, he would turn a play that should have been a three-yard loss into like a 20-yard gain very consistently. And, you know, people are going to talk about his success rate, which I think is valid, certainly, around the goal line and all that. But, you know, I think if you look at those plays, the individual plays, they were just like the Seahawks just didn't block for him on those plays. It wasn't necessarily something he did. So to me, I'm very bullish. I'm above market on Kenneth Walker. I think he's a really good player. I think the Seahawks offense is really good. And I think Gino is going to be taking that next step and be even more efficient than he was last year because he's going to have

the whole offseason to work with this team. So I think the Seahawks quietly are a team that's going to score a lot of points. And I think Kenneth Walker is going to really benefit from that.

I thought he was electric last season. Yeah. Really, really exciting. I'm interested to see because it does seem like they beef things up a little bit. So we'll see. Heifetz, who do you have? You know, Bill, I was too young to see because it does seem like they beef things up a little bit. So we'll see. Heifetz, who do you have?

You know, Bill, I was too young to see Frank Sinatra at concert. And I wasn't there to see the live moon landing. But I did see the first drive where Daniel Jones and Darren Waller played together. And I feel like I know how it feels now. So I know Darren Waller is like the first giant being drafted. I get that. But I hope to everyone listening right now will bring, will join me in the communal experience of participating in the Darren

Waller 2023 NFL season. He, I mean, we talked about him in last year's pod and there was a lot more suspicion and dubiousness of, but all of us like him, and he was incredible three years ago. I'm in.

Here's the difference. I'm with you. To me, it's one of the reasons I think the Giants are a playoff team this year. Darren Waller did not like Josh McDaniels, and he didn't like the Raiders, and there were a lot of issues with the contract stuff, and he's on the Giants.

He's happy. Brian Dable knows how to get him the ball, and it's just, look, I told you, if contract stuff, and he's on the Giants. He's happy. Brian Dable knows how to get him the ball. And it's just, look, I told you, if fantasy rankings, imagine if every single player was guaranteed to play 17 games. Where would you take Darren Waller? Because I kind of think he'd be a top 30, maybe a top 25 player.

There's a 50 spot gap, basically, out of the fear that he misses games. What if he doesn't? I was talking to a Giants fan friend, and he was like, we're using him like Kelsey. And I was like, well, there's only one Kelsey. And the Giants fan said,

this year there's going to be two. That's the level of optimism for Darren Waller. Craig, do you even need to go or should we just move on? We have to talk about him. He's the best player in the league. We have to talk about him. He's the best player in the league. We have to dedicate a couple of minutes to him.

Has anyone won the preseason more than George Pickens, man? My favorite type of guy is the former five-star who got hurt in college and then dropped in the drafts. And then he gets picked by a team in the second or third round. And he's just immediately good and everybody regrets not drafting him earlier. That's George Pickens.

Maybe the only knock on him is that he might be better in real life than in fantasy because they kind of just send him deep, like all day, every game. But my God, he's officially joined the hold the ball in one hand club. All the best receivers only hold the ball with one hand. George Pickens is already going up,

catching balls, coming down with just one hand on the way down. Sky's the limit for George. We talked about him in last year's pod, but last year's pod, the QBs were Mitch Trubisky and Kenny Pickett. We had no idea if Kenny Pickett was going to be anything. And that was the catch was like, well, this is one of the worst quarterback situations in the league, so that's the asterisk. I like Pickett. I mean, Warren Sharp had that clip that he put on Twitter of all of Pickett's preseason throws. Who was it? Solak?

Solak's father said he's reminding him of Joe Montana. That was an actual dad quote from Solak's father. He's got Moxie. And you're like, he's not not Montana as you're watching it. I'm with you on Pickens. He's got something to him. Yeah. The whole Steelers offense, I think, is underrated heading into this year.

The problem with Pickens is he's going to be too expensive because two people are just going to get no pissing war over who gets them and he'll end up going for $5 more than shit. He's been, he's going too hard in preseason. He's like the guy dunking in warmups

before like the play down and everyone's just like, all right, well, this guy's the first pick now. Well, he reminds me of like in baseball where it's like Elie De La Cruz comes in.

You're like, wow, that guy's amazing. What an athlete. So much fun. Football occasion will have these guys just pop in and are like, whoa, look at's amazing. What an athlete. So much fun. Football occasion, we'll have these guys just pop in and we're like, whoa, look at this guy. I can't wait for Pickens. Okay. Next one.

My I wouldn't take him even if he was free guy. AKA the D&D list. DK, who do you got? Who's on your D&D list? Who's your number one? So Craig's going to be mad at me about this, but it's Cam Akers for the Rams. I'm just off.

I'm off that train. There was a point in time in my life when I really liked Cam Akers, but there's just so many reasons for me to fade him this year. Even past the whole personality thing where he was trying to quit on the team last year. He was

away from the team for a while. Him and Sean McVay rekindled their relationship. I don't know what the hell happened there. But just past that, I think the Rams are going to have to pass a lot this year because their defense isn't going to be very good. They're going to be playing from behind. They have like 30 undrafted free agents on their roster.

And I don't know. To me, it's just that's a little bit worrisome. I think they're probably going to have to lean on the pass a little bit more. I think Kyron Williams is going to be the guy that they leaned in that, lean on for that in terms of their running backs. And so, I don't know, just, there's just too many red flags with, with him. And then he's also a guy who came off of Achilles. So, you know, not to steal from another category, but it's like, as soon as the red flag, as soon as the red cross pops up next to his name, I'm just going to be worried the rest of the season on him. I just don't want to have to deal with it.

And there was some weird chemistry stuff with him and McVay last year too, which they sorted out. But there was three weeks there where he was available for basically anything. Who do you got, Heifetz? I don't want Deshaun Watson on my team this year, man. Fantasy football is supposed to be

fun, and I'm going to be staring at my TV, and I'm going to be rooting for Deshaun Watson. I'm like, I don't want this Watson on my team this year, man. Fantasy football is supposed to be fun, and I'm going to be staring at my TV, and I'm going to be rooting for Deshaun Watson. I'm like, I don't want this dude on my team this year. Especially if you're going to sell your soul, at least make sure the person's freaking good. The idea of Deshaun Watson being bad and on your team, I can't imagine a worse feeling of ruining your entire four-month fantasy season.

There are more quarterbacks now that are good in the NFL than maybe at any point in NFL history. I'm like, just take anyone else. Anyone. It's fine. I like that pick. Who do you got, Craig? I wouldn't accept money from Michael Pittman this year.

I don't want anything to do with the whole passing game. That was your number one guy last year. That was your... The pendulum. That was your my true love last year. Yeah, it was. It didn't exactly work out. Not exactly his fault. I still think he's a good player, but I just, I don't love what Anthony

Richardson on the ground is maybe the best running quarterback we've ever seen through the air. He might be the worst. And I don't like anything I've seen in the preseason from Richardson passing this offense on the Colts this year feels like the bears last year. It's going to be like running the Navy offense. Yeah. I don't want anything to do with Michael Pittman. He's way too expensive. Also, you didn't mention this piece with Pittman.

I mean, not the most durable guy. And Richardson has a couple of those throws. Like, I'm wide open over the middle. Now I'm jumping up for the pass that's over my head and I'm getting blasted

by safety. Stay away. Yeah. So, I really wanted to take Jonathan Taylor here, but there is the McCaffrey 2022 trade possibility where all of a sudden he's on some awesome team and somebody has him for 19 bucks in fears.

So I'm not taking him. So I was really proud of this pick. It's Kadarius Tony. Boo. So there's three outcomes for a fantasy receiver like Kadarius Tony, right? One is he just never lives up to the hype and it's just super disappointing and you just regret that you take him. The second is that it's amazing and it actually works out and he plays 16 weeks, including the playoffs when you need them, those last three. And it's just, you struck oil, you hit a home run. And then there's the third one,

which is the worst, which is the guy who tempts you. He tantalizes you with two or three weeks where he has like in week four, he has six catches for 190 yards and three TDs. You're like, oh my God, I did it. I fucking landed on the moon with Kadarius Tony. And then in week seven, the red flag's up. And then it's like he missed an injury rehab session. He's been suspended by the team for 72 hours. And then he misses week eight. And then there's another injury.

And then now he's just hogging my roster spot because I have no idea if he's going to come back or not. But he was the guy that had 190 yards in week three. So I have to hold on. I don't want it. I'm out. I'm just out. I don't want to deal with it. I still dream about his game against Dallas in 2020. I believe it was week four. He had like 150 yards. He looked like the best receiver I've ever seen in my life. I still think about that game and I still hope to get there one day. You know what?

Kadarius Toney's a drug. He's kind of like Salvia. He distorts time because Craig and DK talk about Kadarius Toney's greatness like Michael Thomas's greatness, except Salvia, it's like 10 minutes. It feels like three hours. I'm like, dude, he had two good games like two years ago and I'm just

completely underrated. He was also the third most important player on the I was like, dude, he had two good games like two years ago. And I'm just, I, I, I, I'm completely. He was also like the third most important player on the chiefs in the Superbowl, mind you. And she won them the game. Practically. The chiefs played him for like five steps in the game. He was, they had two weeks to prep him for the game. Oh my, don't even get me started.

You know what he is? What? He's the new Josh Gordon. I mean, different, different issues, but he's just so tantalizing and teams talk themselves into him and you just... I just don't trust it.

I don't believe in it. Here's what I'll say. Josh Gordon, but he's allowed to play. But he's just not in any way. This category is called I wouldn't take him even if he was free. He practically is.

You can get him for a dollar or two. Who cares? It's worth a flyer, but it's a gateway drug. This is the problem with the chiefs. DK. As I look at them big picture, because I talked about this Lombardi on Sunday,

but I picked them in the Superbowl last year. And the theory was their receivers are just good enough. And my homes is so great. And their offensive line is going to be good that he'll make it work. But now I feel like we've passed the point and overturned to the degree that if they don't hit with Tony or one of their rookies doesn't actually

blossom into a major, major dude, who's catching the ball other than Kelsey? I cannot figure it out. What receiver do you trust the most than the Chiefs? Probably Sky Moore. But again, we haven't really seen him yet. He barely played as a rookie.

He lined up wrong in the Super Bowl and still caught a touchdown. But to me, yeah. So the Kedarious Tony thing is more of a bit than us being actually serious. But I will say the way he moves is very rare. Yeah, totally a bit.

No, he does. He has. When you watch him play, it's like, alright, this guy's pretty special. And then he's on the sideline. I think the one thing that, the one actual analytical thing I will say about him is I think he's good on the scramble plays,

on the broken plays, when Mahomes gets outside of pocket, extends plays, and that's really a huge part of Mahomes' game. Tony always seems to be in the right place when those plays happen. Maybe it's because he's in the wrong place where he was supposed to be running. But to me, that's the one actual analytical thing I would say other than he moves differently

than everyone else on the field. That's what gets me excited about Tony. Craig, you know what? Fantasy football is enough pain and heartache and self-doubt and hating yourself. I don't need to also bring Kadarius Tony into that. I don't need to also bring Kadarius Toney into that. I don't need to be tantalized by this talented dude. All right, next category.

That 2022 booty call, is it happening again, guy? I don't even know if this category is going to work, but HiFitz, who did you have a nice fling with last year that you're probably good and it's not going to happen again? Oh my God, dude. You mentioned him earlier. It's, it's mentioned him earlier. It's Kyle Pitts with the Falcons. Like I got all hot and heavy and I was like really excited about it.

Jared Freed, who just has a Netflix special, calls it the oof, which is, you know, you hook up with someone and they do something in the morning where you're like, oh my God, I can't believe I just did that. Kyle Pitts. I mean, I, the fact that I was even associated with him last year, he had fewer yards per game than Kalief raymond like i just fewer catches per game than ben skoranek who's the receiver most famous for also being able to play fullback and i'm just like you know what cow pits is texting me again and you're seeing all these like instagram stories and they're popping up and i'm like

i'm gonna tell the algorithm to like please stop showing me cow pits well you don't have to sell me on that one i had him on every team last year. It's the reason I didn't take home any titles. Who do you got, Craig? It's James Cook, because every year I talk myself into thinking that a Bill's running back could be good in fantasy football. And every year I get let down. Oh, it's Zach Moss this year. Oh, Devin Singletary.

He's the guy. He's going to get all the touches. I don't want anything to do with it. Josh Allen is the goal line back in Buffalo. He's not going to check down to his running back because he's scrambling all around and improvising 24-7. James Cook is just another one of those guys. I'm going to ignore it this year,

and I'm going to ignore it every year until Josh Allen's not the quarterback on the Bills. I like it. So I have a nice one. The guy on Hyphens' team, Hodgins. I had nice little dalliance with him near the end of the year when all of a sudden

they were throwing to him all the time. And I like him. I think he's talented, but I think that's where it's going to end. I think we're going to stay friends. And that's it. Who do you got, TK? This is the one-time thing. I'm going with Jamal Williams, who is now on the Saints. Yeah, that's a good one.

I was telling these guys today, he had 45 carries inside the 10-yard line this last year, which was by far the most in the NFL. And that ain't happening again. You know, it's just lightning. It's not going to strike twice with this.

I think he's a solid player. He's one of the most fun players to listen to in terms of interviews. He's really funny. Great personality. I just don't think it's happening in New Orleans. They've got Alvin Kamara coming back after three games. Kendra Miller, who they drafted.

I don't know. It just seems like he's going to be a role player and that's it. I'm just not going to try and make that happen again. I like it. Somebody's got to get points on that team, guy. Who do you got, Heifetz? You mentioned Brandon Cooks already,

but between him and honestly just DJ Moore for the Bears, where I look at the Bears pass the game and I'm like, Darnell Mooney is just a huge ink for me. Chase Claypool, I just, please. I just, DJ Moore, yeah, sure. He's there. Yeah, cool. He's, yeah, alright. Someone's got to catch passes.

Craig? Adam Thielen on the Panthers is just sitting there waiting to catch like nine touchdowns this year. He does it every year. Bryce Young looks competent. He looks like an adult out there. In the preseason, a third of Bryce Young's passes have gone to Adam Thielen.

There's nobody else on this team. There's DJ Chark. There's a rookie, Jonathan Mingo. Terrace Marshall. LaVisca Chenault. There's nobody. Adam Thielen's going to quietly have 10 touchdowns this year and nobody's going to know what to do with him.

So I had, I was looking at the Rams for the Cooper cup injury, but a McVay, Van Jefferson. Yeah. So is it, is it, I don't,

I was going to ask you guys, is it, is scouring still on that team? Like who is their number two? They have some fifth round pick. They're all excited about Schrager's all excited about two, two at well, it's going to be one of those guys.

He's going to be good, right? None of them. It's Tyler Higbee for the Rams because he has the lowest bar to actually be serviceable because he's the tight end. So the idea of him only has to be so good to plug Tyler Higbee in as a top 10 or top 12 option. Also, I think he's better than all those guys than Vin Jefferson.

I mean, Skorodik, I don't know how many other teams he would make, honestly. So I have him, but then Damian Pierce has to be the winner of this thing, right? Yeah. The rent, the ramps is fun, but we all love Damian Pierce. And by the way,

I had him on all my teams. He was really good the first month of the year. And then, you know, Houston went sideways. He got hurt. Um, but I just like him and I think he's going to play.

And that, that would be the one guy I would bet would get points. I'm not, I'm not banking on a lot of CJ Stroud moments this year. Who do you got, DK? I'm going with James Conner for the Cardinals. I think volume-wise,

as long as he can stay healthy, he's going to get a ton of it. They don't really have any other running backs on that team. Pop Quiz, can you name their backup running back? It's not easy. Keontae Ingram, I think. Maybe. I would not have been able to pull that one off.

I also can't name their quarterback, so I'm probably not the guy to ask. That's why I was going to go with Marquise Brown, but honestly, I think he did pretty terribly when they didn't have Kyler, so if Kyler doesn't come back, it's just not going to go well.

But for James Conner, his numbers actually were really solid when they were cycling through their backup quarterbacks. He catches passes. He's big. He's physical. He breaks tackles. And he's going to get the volume. He's their only guy this year.

Is there a fantasy zag with the Cardinals if they're really going to do the gutting to go 1-16 and try to basically tank, which rarely happens to the NFL. But they've already shown signs they might do it. But could Marquise Brown be a guy that ends up on a really good team in like week six or Connor, one of those guys? You see that?

Oh, yeah. And I think there's two ways this could zag because everyone's talking about how they're going to get the first pick. They're tanking. There's like this was the most common joke on Twitter yesterday. They're tanking for Caleb Williams. But what if Kyler comes back in week five? And then their offense is actually pretty good. Oh, the flip. I like this.

So that's what I've been sort of zagging a little bit. Because I think Marquise Brown, if you go back to the first six weeks of last year, when Kyler was playing quarterback, Marquise Brown was the wide receiver six. He was absolutely going bonkers. And then he got hurt and then Kyler got hurt a little bit later and it all kind of fell apart. But, you know, I think if Kyler surprises everybody, that maybe is not the most likely thing to happen. But if it does happen, I think Kyler coming back would be huge for Marquise Brown, would be huge for James Conner. And you could probably, you know, extract some value because everybody's so down on the Cardinals right now.

Well, and also to get his leadership in the Cardinals locker room. Right. The NFL's Ben Simmons. Ben Simmons. Just take it like the Billy. Craig, when does Call of Duty

come out again? New Call of Duty comes out in November. Something to note. Okay. Kyler Murray is going to be a great Raider next year. Yeah, he would definitely not be on the Cardinals next year.

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Securian Canada, insurance designed for life. My sorry, that's too rich for my blood guy. Who is it for you, Craig? It's Christian McCaffrey. I don't like dealing with Niners running backs. Shanahan and running backs don't mix with me. People think that McCaffrey is getting the Panthers role in San Francisco,

but the reality is, one, they want to keep him healthy throughout the whole year. And when Eli Mitchell, who's a really good backup on the team, when he was healthy last year, him and McCaffrey split carries pretty much 50-50.

So I actually think McCaffrey going number one overall and you dropping $60 on him is not a smart decision. For all we know, Jordan Mason's going to be getting goal line work for the Niners. I love it.

And he was my backup choice. But I'm going with a guy who came up earlier in this podcast, Tony Pollard. No. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. You know why? Cause you guys are all in on Tony Pollard. It's all happening. It's all fair. Uh, I think he's going to go for like $62. Two people are going to be, they're going to listen to this pod and other ones and get all excited about them. And guess what? Maybe Tony Pollard was great in Unlimited Role. Maybe he was McConaughey in Wolf of Wall Street. Maybe you didn't want three hours of McConaughey in that movie. Maybe it was nice just to have him pop in for a nice section and then leave. Pollard comes in and out. He's in the perfect situation. Way more explosive than Zeke. Do we

know if he can get 300 plus carries? Do we know if he can be the goal line back? I don't know. I'm not going to spend $62 to find out. So he's my guy. Who you got, DK?

I'm going with Brees Hall for the Jets. Yeah, that's a great pick. I mean, he's been, in my opinion, I've been trying to tell these guys all offseason that he's just a little too

highly priced right now. Just based on the fact, number one, he's coming off an ACL, which, you know, he might be fine. He might do, you know, he might be spectacular and whatever. And like, he won't have any ill effects from this ACL. But there's also a strong chance that he has other compensatory injuries around that injury or whatever. And I don't want to have to, again, I don't want to have to worry about him being hurt every single week. And then the other thing is, obviously, they signed Dalvin Cook,

which is an even bigger reason. It sounds like, coming from the Jets, that Aaron Rodgers was really trying to get this to happen. He apparently loves Dalvin Cook. There's a chance he lobbies and gets Dalvin Cook more playing time. There's a chance Dalvin Cook is just straight up the starter

on this offense. And so, there's just too many variables going on here. I think Brees Hall is awesome. I think he's an awesome player. And he could end up making me look bad for that. But there's too many variables and I'm just shying away from that every single time I go into a draft. I'm just like, there's too many things going on there.

Let's ask somebody who has recent experience with rooting for a team whose star running back tore an ACL and then came back like year one after the injury of Saquon was not remotely like year two after the injury of Saquon, right, Danny? No, not at all. And so Saquon's was a little different because he had, I think, an ACL and a meniscus. And basically what that does is delay you being able to have the surgery and the recovery afterward. And that's why Brees Halls was considered, quote, like cleaner because

Javante Williams, when you have multiple stuff, there's all these variables. Having said that everyone's like, well, Adrian Peterson came back from an ACL and he was, that was 10 years ago. We don't have a second example yet.

Like at some point, like why don't we just stop trying to bet on outliers and like, just all these other players. Like there's so many running backs, some of the Brees Hall. And also again, just like earlier Lombardi made that great point about arthur smith is trying to tell us who carl pitts is when the jets go out of their way to pay seven million dollars to bring in dalvin cook listen to them right yeah who do you have for this category heifetz cooper cup man

i hate to say it but you got you want Cooper Cup you got to pay 55 bucks basically a quarter of your budget or a first round pick and I look when I'm going to like click that button I think people are missing the forest for the trees if you just look at per game last year Cooper Cup per game was the number one receiver in fantasy when he went down the percentage of the passing game he has at the Rams is historically great and everyone's like well he's so much better I think everyone's missing the forest for the trees if he gets hurt are the Rams is historically great. And everyone's like, well, he's so much better. I think everyone's missing the forest for the trees. If he gets hurt, are the Rams really going to like, are the Rams really going to, do they want to win this year? The Rams want Caleb Williams, the prospect of the Rams shutting down Stafford who debated retiring this year

or Stafford getting hurt. And the Rams just saying, you know what, Cooper cup, you have a hamstring injury. We're going to shut you down. It's so much disproportionately more important for Cooper cup to play for you in December in the fantasy playoffs is so much disproportionately more important for Cooper Cup to play for you in December in the fantasy playoffs is so much more important than the marginal gains he has over like Jamar Chase or Tyree Kill that I'm like, why am I risking like all these other guys? I don't have to ask whether their team wants them to play in the final weeks of the season.

It's a good pick. Let's do a quickie category. DK, give me a $1 QB that you like really quick. Sam Howell commanders this guy. Gino Smith, baby. Oh, he'll go for more than a dollar. Give me a $1 QB that you like really quick. Sam Howell. Commanders. This guy, right? Gino Smith, baby. Oh, he'll go for more than a dollar.

That's insolent. You just... It's a personal shot at DK. Jordan Love, then. Who do you have, Craig? Brock Purdy, the cult leader. God damn it. That's what I had, too. I have Brock Purdy.

I might even spend two bucks on Brock. Also, Kyler. Dark, Dark, Dark Horse. I have Brock Purdy. I might even spend two bucks on Brock. Also Kyler. Dark, dark, dark horse. Aiden O'Connell on the Raiders. Little stasher. How many teams are in your league? Well, did you see him in the preseason? Has anyone ever looked better in the preseason other than Kenny Pickett? It's like Pickett. It was like

the Montana Marino rivalry was back. All right. Another quick one. I'd be afraid to look on Tuesday and see the red flag guy. For me, this is Mike Williams every year. I don't know if you guys have read Mike Williams. It's a rollercoaster ride of emotions. You find out things about yourself.

You learn to dread Tuesdays. You learn to dread Sundays. He'll have the random Sunday flag up. Who do you got, DK? Let me see here. I had J.K. Dobbins. It's another thing. He, to me, is one of the most tantalizing

players because I love him. I think he's so talented. But the last couple years have just worn me down and I just don't want to see him. He's missed all of training camp. I don't even know what's going on with this guy. And he was like upset. Yeah. He got high fits.

Dude, Darren Waller. The second there's a flag of Darren Waller, I'm going to lose my mind. So it's almost you have too much at stake with him already. I used to go through this with Gronk. I couldn't take Gronk in fantasy leagues anymore because I had too much at stake. It was too painful if anything happened to him.

You can't have your personal fan interest and your fantasy interest on the same player. You can't do it. Who do you have, Greg? It's Mike Williams. He's like driving a vintage car. It's really fun for the first few miles and then you hear something weird

coming from the engine and you're screwed. And then they show the stats of the Chargers when he plays and when he doesn't play. It's not just losing him, but then you get all the additional minutia that comes with being disappointed by Mike Williams. All right, this is going to be a fun category. My, I know there's a 99% chance he's getting hurt again,

but God damn, I can't resist this guy, guy. I'm going to go first. I feel like Tua is now completely undervalued. And if he's sitting there for a dollar, I'm grabbing him two hours. I'm still grabbing them in three hours. I might grab them. I was on the internet earlier this week, watching,

uh, his judo instructor talking about how they taught him how to roll. So when he got out, part of the problem with him getting concussions is he didn't know how to absorb the sacks. And he trained in the offseason learning how to roll. And I'm like, I'm back in. Right.

I believe. I did the same thing. It's really easy to know how to roll when you're getting hit by a 350-pound man from behind. In judo, they have weight classes. Right. True. It's like a five-pound people. It's a five-pound difference. They're not allowed. Right. True. It's like a five pound people. The five pound difference.

They're not allowed to like fight each other. I wonder how they adjusted for the 300 pound defensive tackles. That's like, that's like learning what to do when you get in a head on collision in a car. It's like, Hey, listen,

man. Yeah. Right. I don't know if you can prepare for that. What do you do? If Vita V is falling on you, maybe the judo is a good at work as well. I'm still in,

I'll spend at least three bucks on him. Who do you got, DK? I really love that one, actually. Kadarius Tony. I was listening to last year's show. Oh, boy. Craig said he's like Russian roulette. Yeah, baby.

I was just like... In the chamber! That's so good. Who do you got, Hyphus? Michael Thomas. We've given too much air time I'm going to shout out Rashad Penny there is no chance Rashad Penny plays 17 games but if Rashad Penny played 17 games I actually think the only player

I'd pick to lead the league in rushing yards over him would be like Derek Henry Nick Chubb Rashad Penny stylistically is like the perfect player for the Eagles O-line he's like my low-key Kateris Tony. Yeah, there is a world where he has like 700 rushing yards after four weeks

or some crazy number. Like, oh my God. Could Rashad Penny break OJ's record of 2,014 games? Who do you got, Craig? I also have Penny, my San Diego State guy. I want to just give you

one quick Penny stat. He's had 11 games where he's had more than 12 touches. In those 11 games, he averages 7.2 yards per carry, which is the best ever. He's the best running back ever when he gets more than 12 touches in a game. This goes back to my Hurts case. The only quote-unquote weak spot

on that Eagles team is running back, right? Where they don't have a signature dude. But that's the thing with running back and that's why the position's been so devalued because you can just get Penny on your team who has all these stats and Swift. You can trade for whoever and you're good to go. Okay.

DK. Your Cooper Cup, it's a year after the year guy. We might all have the same guy for this, so let's go quick. Who is it? I was a little confused about the actual... Is this the guy that is just coming off of a massive, massive season?

Yeah, he's coming off of an awesome season and being priced that way. Got it. But you feel like he might have gotten a little too close to the sun last year. I think I know who we're all going to say. This one for me is Austin Eckler. I think there's two guys that are

honest, but Austin Eckler, the only thing I worry about with him is last year, the thing that we all complained about all season long was that Justin Herbert was dumping the ball off and not passing down the field. Dumping the ball off and not passing down the field. Dumping the ball off, not passing down the field.

His ADOT was one of the lowest in the entire NFL and he has the best arm in the NFL. We were bitching about it all year. And guess who benefited from that? Austin Eckler, who caught 107 passes. And that definitely helped

his fantasy bottom line. I don't think Austin Eckler is going to be bad. I just am worried that may have been his ceiling that we saw last year. Do the rest of us have Josh Jacobs here? Yeah. Yeah. Say no more. All right.

I just want everyone on that offense. I don't fucking care, guy. Who is it, Heifetz? The Eagles backfield of the Chiefs receivers. I just feel like I'm playing a slot machine, and I'm just soullessly staring. I'm like, well, one of these has... Patrick Williams led the NFL in passing yards last year.

How is there no one other than Travis Kelsey? Eagles have the best O-line. How none of these running backs work? I feel crazy, and I'm not going to get the right person. I don't care. I just keep taking them. Craig. Chargers. I think we're really underestimating what not having broken

ribs will do to Herbert and what not having a first round left tackle will do to the O-line and what Kellen Moore will do as the offensive coordinator. I think this is the ultimate post-hype team. Love that. Well, the first round pick I think this is the ultimate post-hype team. Hmm. Love that. Well,

the first-round pick that they took, the receiver, Danny, not like an awesome preseason for him. It doesn't seem like he's going to play, right? Well... If he plays, not that much?

Quinton Johnston. I think he was up and down. He had some exciting plays, for sure. He had a couple of drops, a couple of plays. And this was on his scouting report, you know? He's a exciting plays for sure. He had a couple of drops, a couple of plays. And this is, this was on his scouting report,

you know, he's a little bit unrefined, but he's so explosive, so tall. So, you know, he's just a big, tall,

fast guy. And sometimes these guys take a little bit of time, but I, you know, he will play, I think. I think there's an alternate universe where Mike Williams is hurt by week three.

Keenan Allen looks like he's 40 years old and Eckler gets dinged up. And then by week seven, everyone on Twitter is doing the, can't we just get Justin Herbert a good team? And we're doing that whole thing. I think that's there sitting there too. My, I just want everyone on that offense. I don't care guys, Dallas Goddard. And there's a lot of good stats for him last year when he played and uh you know everybody gets excited at tight end about the same four guys and I think he's just kind of lurking underneath there and it's just fun to have an eagle did you pick one DK you did right yeah I got one uh I haven't gone yet I got I have the Lions because

you can go down the line in terms of the different rounds or whatever. I'm on Ross St. Brown, Jameer Gibbs, David Montgomery is the guy I'm choosing here. And then Jamison Williams late, you know, they have a couple other guys,

Samuel Porter, their rookie tight end. I'm excited about, I basically want everyone on this offense. And I, you know, David Montgomery to me is a guy that's totally forgotten. Um,

you know, just in the fantasy world, people don't talk about him cause he's boring, but he's going from one of the worst offenses in the NFL last year in the fantasy world, people don't talk about him because he's boring, but he's going from one of the worst offenses in the NFL last year in the Bears, and he's going to one of the better, highest scoring offenses for the Lions, and I think he could really

just be a really good value. I don't necessarily think he's going to be a number one running back, but just be a really good value for getting him. Alright. My year too early, fuck it guy, who last year I think we all had George Pickens. Who do you have? If it's Luke Musgrave, the tight end for the pack. The running the running bit is, you know what? Rookie tight ends. They're never good.

You can never expect anything out of them. But this year, this is the year it's everything different. And we've made a blood pact on our fantasy football show where if the rookie if historically good rookie class of tight ends if these guys aren't it we'll never do it again but luke musgrave they're talking about him like he's the second coming like there might be three travis kelsey's between him darren waller and kelsey but i mean again all the usual things where you're out on a guy lu Luke Musgraves, he's going to play. He's going to play, and I think he's going to be incredible. Greg? The rookie, Zay Flowers, on the Ravens, who is just like a replica of Tyreek Hill.

Every other receiver on the Ravens is either old or coming off a serious injury. This Todd Munkin offense, look, we don't know if it's going to work out, but if it does, Flowers is going to be a guy that is going to make you some fantasy playoffs. I have Gibbs on Detroit as my runner-up. I am infatuated by Michael Bayer on the Raiders, and I was glad Heifetz did that tight end thing.

I think he's going to be awesome. And I actually think you guys know way more about the draft than I do, but I really wanted the Pats to get a tight end. So I actually did the tight end thing. I think he's going to be awesome. And I actually think you guys know way more about the draft than I do, but I really wanted the paths to get a tight end. So I actually did the tight end work. And I was really surprised that he fell to the second round. I also think he's one of those guys that he like goes to bed saying the names of the two tight ends that went in front of him. And then he wakes up and he says the two names again, and he goes to the bathroom to brush his teeth and they're on the wall. And he's just like,

my goal in life now is to be better than these two guys. And I think McDaniels loves using guys like that. Good preseason. Um, I, I just like them. And it's probably, people thought he was going to be the first overall guy.

People thought he was going to be the first tight end taken in the draft. And then he fell, right? There was a cup of coffee for him where he was like a top 10 pick. And then I don't know what happened with the tight end. I saw him at the combine, Bill. You are exactly right in terms of his demeanor. At least from my impression, he gets up on the podium,

puts his hands on the sides of the podium, and lords above everyone that was in the scrum. And he's just like the most charismatic, you know, this guy, I want to run through a wall through like for him immediately. He was just so like intense. So he's got the bills game circled for whatever year they're playing the

bills. They took Kincaid over him. I'm not sure that he fell because of talent. I think that all the teams at the top part of the draft were like, well, there's seven great tight ends. Why would we take one of the first when we get a guy almost as good as second? I do think that that was a huge

reason they fell. DK, did you go? No. My guy this year is Jahan Dotson for the Commanders. He was good last year. He flashed a lot last year. He was injured for part of the season, but he definitely flashed. I think in the preseason this year,

there's more flashes where you look at him and you're like, okay. And Craig and I have talked about this in high fits. You can just see it immediately. This guy has it. He's an eye test guy. He's good. He's really good.

I'm just a little... I'm not 100% ready to be committed to the commander's offense being good. So I don't think Dotson's going to necessarily be this elite fantasy guy. But I think he has the potential to be one of the elite's offense being good. So I'm, you know, I don't think Dotson's going to necessarily like be this elite fantasy guy, but I think he has the potential to be

one of the elite receivers in the NFL. You know, also Terry McLaurin has turf toe. So also not great. Not great. Yeah.

All right. Three more. My missionary position. We've all had them. I have no excitement whatsoever that I just took this guy guy last year.

I think I took Keenan Allen who I'm just not taking anymore. I just can't I just can't get excited all about him. Hi Fitz. Who do you have? I have Keenan Allen plan. You know what missionary and Keenan Allen both get a really

bad rap and you know, let's hear about it. So let's get Jackie Jackie. Yeah. Look from hear about it. Let's get Jackie in here. Jackie. Look, from week 10 on, so Keenan Allen, you know, took a little bit to get going. Happens to the best of us sometimes.

But week 10 on, the best receivers in fantasy football, week 10 on, Justin Jefferson, CeeDee Lamb, Jamar Chase, Devontae Adams, Keenan Allen. That's four receivers that are going in the top 15 players and then Keenan Allen. I just can't get excited about him. Who do you have, Craig? Joe Mixon. Everybody's done it. He's fine. He's not going to be the best running back in the

league. He's not going to be the worst. It's fine. He'll be the 15th best running back in the league. He's not going to be the worst. It's fine. He'll be the 15th best running back in the league. Get you through the day. It's a good one. I have Kirk Cousins, who is like, you didn't want to end up with him as a starter, but then somebody went nuts on my homes. Then, oh my God, Anthony Richardson went for 11 bucks. And all of a sudden, eight people have quarterbacks and you're one of the two teams that doesn't and you're looking at Dak Prescott and Kirk Cousins and you're like, well, I could take one of these guys now. I'll get Brock Purdy and whoever later.

And you end up with... Really, I have Kirk Cousins and Dak Prescott because they're the same guy. It's just really hard to be excited when you look at the fantasy team on the website and that's the first guy you see. And by the way,

we've all had both of those guys. DK, who do you got? Aaron Rodgers. I think, again, I'm excited that he's on the Jets and I'm excited that some of his skill position players might do a little bit better than they did last year, particularly

Garrett Wilson, who I'm excited about. I just don't want Aaron Rodgers. I just don't want to do that again. I feel like it's just one of those things where he's been in the league for like 20 years. I'm excited about but I just don't want Aaron Rodgers I just don't want to do that again I feel like it's just one of those things where he's been in the league for like 20 years I'm tired of it I don't want this is 40 this year yeah um Craig you're up my I fell for the preseason hype guy who'd you fall for I mean it's it's it's Kenny Pickett come on what are we talking about here I'm probably gonna like draft Kenny Pickett. Come on. What are we talking about here? I'm, I'm probably going to like draft Kenny Pickett.

It has to be my starting fantasy quarterback this year, which is going to completely come around and bite me in the ass, but he had a perfect passer rating. What am I supposed to do? It's a good one. Uh, I, to me,

I have Pickens who's now come up in like five of these categories as like, if he was my number one receiver, I don't think I would be bummed out. You know, if, if I chose not to go after the Steelers, not the high price guy. And I'm like, you know what? I'm going to get two second tier guys and I'll get George Pickens. And then people fall asleep on Tyler Lockett. I'll get him too. I'll just have those two as my, and then I'm good to go. Who do you have, DK? Elijah Moore for the Browns. I think I did this last year too.

Change the scenery, guy. I like it. Yeah. There's talk of him being like a Devo and they're using him in the backfield as a running back.

That was a great trade. Why didn't the Jets keep him? I didn't understand that. Because he hates the Jets. Because he doesn't have a good relationship with that front office. Who do you got, Heifetz?

We were talking about Darren Waller being another Travis Kelsey like half an hour ago, so it's probably Darren Waller. Alright, last category. This is my favorite one. I'd never root for an injury, but he is one injury away guy.

There's two that jumped out of me. I'll let Craig have the other one. Tajay Spears. Oh, he stole mine. Yeah. Just electric. Did it in college. There's like this whole Emmett Smith possibility with him where it's like,

all the evidence was there all along. We just didn't look. There's some change of pace stuff with Henry. This could be the year Henry goes South, but, uh, you take Spears, you take Henry and you take Spears is probably the move, but you could just take Spears. And then the guy who has Henry is pissed off that you took fucking a, you spent $7 on Spears. You used my backup. But then in like week six, he's just crushing it. So that is my guy. Who do you have, DK? Well, I had Spears, but since you took him, I'm going to go with Sam

Darnold. Oh, wow. I'm half kidding, but not really. There's some Shanahan loves him buzz that's definitely percolating. I can't do it after he blew the 21-0 lead

to Tampa in the last week of the season. I can never go back. Who do you have, Iphos? Well, this is real synergy because the guys I've written down are Jalen Warren

who I'm sure Craig's going to say and I have Tajay Spears and I have Sam Darnold. I can't believe... Sam Darnold, yeah. I will use this moment to say nothing should go wrong with Brock Birdie. I wish nothing ill upon him, of course.

However, people really overlook the whole undefeated thing happened in line with Christian McCaffrey starting games for them. Number one. Two, what can Brock Birdie do that Sam Darnold can't do? Like the whole problem with Sam Darnold

was basically his brain and that he was coached by Adam Gase to enter the NFL. And I can't think of a wider gap between coaching the bad habits out of you than Adam Gates and Kyle Shanahan. I, I, I think the Brock Purdy chapter will be very funny.

And honestly, I think the diners might win the Superbowl if darn wins the job. Oh my gosh. Wow. Craig, you want to just end it here? I don't want to do Jalen Warren because I don't want Najee to get hurt. I don't want to speak that into existence. I like Najee

Harris. I think they're a good one-two punch. I don't want to do that. You know who I want to give it to? Brandon Ayuk on the 49ers. Brandon Ayuk needs to put a couple banana peels on the field for Kittle, McCaffrey, and Debo because we've been waiting for this guy to blow up and he almost does it.

He has a few spike weeks. Like, whenever one of those other guys gets hurt, Brandon Ayuk is a great game. We need to get a couple of those guys out of here because I've been hearing how Ayuk is one of the best receivers in the league for three years now. That's a really good one. Well, I guess technically nobody took Jalen Warren,

but we all had him. That's one where... He's the new Tony Pollard is really what he is. He's kind of Tony Pollard and waiting for the moment the Steelers realize that an opportunity happens. Najee Harris should probably sleep with one eye open. That's a good thing. All right. So what's the schedule for Ringer Fantasy Show this year?

What do you got? We're doing three a week until the season starts. And then we do four a week. We do Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. So we're doing everything. Waivers season starts and then we do four a week. We do Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. So we're doing everything. Waivers,

we do a power ranking every week. We predict the best players do start sit on Fridays. So we'll be here all year. All right. And you can check out the Ringer Fantasy Football Guide

as well if you want to help with your draft this weekend or in my case, the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, right before the season

because that's how us old guys roll. Danny, Danny Danny Craig, great to see you. Thanks for coming on. Appreciate it. We're supported by NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube and YouTube TV. If you find yourself in a place far, far away from your home football team, you need NFL Sunday Ticket. That's been me for the last two plus decades. Why do you need it? Because it's now on YouTube and YouTube TV, making it easier than ever to watch all your favorite teams on Sunday afternoons. I mean, the most exciting part

of that first Sunday, especially on the West Coast, 10 o'clock, and you get all these games, right? And you look at some of the games like in the week one, Texans, Ravens, not very excited for the fantasy stuff in that.

Bengals, Browns, whatever. But then you get to like 49ers, Steelers. And not only is that an awesome game to maybe place a friendly wager on, but also a ton of fantasy guys on both teams, competitive game, and you just start marking it down. This is what I want. But the thing is, on YouTube and YouTube TV, you have multi-view. You can watch

four live games at once. So you don't just have to say, I'm locked in on 49ers Steelers. You can also throw in Bengals Browns. You can throw in Panthers Falcons. You can get frisky and watch little Cardinals Commanders because that's probably the worst game of the day. Lots of choices. So thanks to NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube and YouTube TV for sponsoring this segment. Remember, there's no better place to keep up with all your favorite teams.

Out of market Sunday afternoon games, early, late. Right now, you can get $50 off your subscription when you sign up at youtube.com slash BS. That is youtube.com slash BS. That is youtube.com slash BS. Terms and blackout restrictions apply. Offer ends September 19th. All right, Garrett Bush is here. You can find

him. He's got a bunch of gigs. He's on the Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show. You can find him on The Barbershop, which also has a YouTube channel. He is right in the heart of Cleveland. Give us the state of Cleveland sports just quickly. Where are we? How are we feeling? Are we like a C plus?

B plus? Where are we? Everybody, I would say B minus. Everything hinges on one Deshaun Watson and everyone's heart is like in their throat a little bit because we have not seen him play like he used to. We're clamoring for anything we can find to make ourselves be like believe we got that 2020

Deshaun Watson so I think that's where we're at half on one side waiting to see if he's going to do something in half it's like I think I still like Baker Mayfield to be honest well what's your what's your theory on what happened to Watson last year other than the fact that he didn't play and he was in the news there in the worst possible way for a long period of time and then he comes in and he just doesn't look like himself in any shape, form, anything. So what happened?

I think, first of all, the backdrop of what happened with Deshaun Watson, you have to look at it through a lens of what the Cleveland sports psyche has been since 1999. Baker Mayfield, for whatever he said he did right or wrong or her shortcomings, was a very popular guy in the city. So when they move on from Baker, they decide to put the number one picks up to go get Deshaun Watson.

Besides the allegations and the rust, I just think he came into a situation where half of the fan base was still thinking like, hey, we need to bring Baker back. How about we offer him a little bit of a contract, bring him back a little bit. He can sit behind Watson. People were literally thinking that was a thing. It wasn't. And Deshaun himself, I think when you watch Deshaun play, Deshaun has always played with that exuberance, that attitude. And I said, until I see the bow and arrow again, I know that's not the real Deshaun has always played with that exuberance, that attitude. And I said, until I see the bow and arrow again, I know that's not the real Deshaun Watson. And I think a lot of times when you go through some very tough stuff, you don't know if you're going to play, when you're going to play again. You don't know if your freedom is on the line. There's a lot of things

other than football that you're thinking about. And I think for him to play and to have that joyful exuberance to play and to be free, you didn't see that last year as well as you didn't see the skill set that we saw when he left before. So I think there was a lot of different things going through his head that contributed to that. Well, the way you're laying that out, and it's a completely different circumstance and reasoning behind it, but another guy very close to Cleveland, LeBron, when he went to Miami that first year and he became the villain and he didn't like it. And remember, he kind of embraced it there for a couple of months. And there was that Portland game when he really seemed like defiant. It was

like, wow, he's really leaning into it. But I think ultimately he didn't want to be that guy. And it kind of broke him by the time we got the 11 finals so do you think there's some real parallels with what's happened with Deshaun here from like I now I'm the villain like I know I didn't had no idea this was going to happen to me when I was writing down a couple jotting down a couple of notes before

I came on that was one of the things I thought about was I call it like the zero dark 30 carbon fiber LeBron like that was a different LeBron. Like he in the league stopped people from wearing those masks because LeBron was in Miami looking intimidating. His game was different. I'm like, man, this guy's this guy's dominant. This is a scary LeBron. But even though he was playing at the peak of his powers,

almost even though I go back and we'll have a discussion for this another time, I still don't know which year LeBron is the best LeBron version. Cause there's been like 12 of them, but that's another story. But when you go back and look at LeBron and he talks about it, he says, that's not who I am. I've been loved and adored in this city for my whole life. And in all around the world. And when that turned out to be something that was fleeting and people kind of

turned on him, it messed with his mental psyche a little bit. And when you talk to Deshaun and you talk to, I've talked to people around him, like his manager. And he says, you know, Deshaun has always come from a small town in the South. He's a guy who who's always been beloved. You know, Dabo Sweden calls him the Michael Jordan of football. And, and, and when you, that happens and you sit out and all the allegations, it's very difficult for you to go from a person who's adored and loved

to a person that people don't want. And this was in his own backyard. This is in Cleveland. And he's still doing some things to kind of ingratiate himself to the fan base. And I think that's another unique story is we kind of really don't know who Deshaun Watson is. We don't know him personally. And I think that's what he's trying to work through on another level as well. Because, you know, it's just he didn't have time to get his feet wet and indoctrinate himself with the fan base. Right. And again, not to compare the two situations, all LeBron did was switch teams and the shit storm happened. Deshaun,

all this stuff, you know, he caused, it was a terrible story. I still don't feel great about it. Now he's back in the league and he's trying to put his career back together. And he just, he looked like he had been replaced by the ghost of Deshaun Watson. And the reason I think it's a really interesting discussion just for this NFL season, you know this better than anyone, the Browns are kind of loaded and they're in the situation where this guy that they gave three first rounders up for is the question mark on the team because everything else is kind of there. They might have the best running back in the league. They made the receivers better to have one of the top three lines. It looks like their defense is going to be

really good. Everybody loves their pass rush. They're in a really competitive division, but I think you could really make a case they could potentially win the division. There's been some gambling action on them, but it all comes back to like, what Deshaun are we getting? Are we getting 220 Deshaun? Are we getting 2022 Deshaun?

And it's so confusing because there's a perspective on the national scene where a lot of people locally may not understand it, but for the television people, you don't know if you're doing a schedule, right? How do you know where to put

the Browns? Are you going to put them in a marquee game against somebody or do you want to bury them on a one o'clock game? The reality of it is their roster says they have a four o'clock p.m. roster. They got a Thursday night football roster. However, it's the degrees of separation from Deshaun Watson. Is you going to get 100% Deshaun Watson, or are you going to get the 85%? For the people in Cleveland, our calculus is this, and the calculus in Cleveland was, look,

people say we overpaid for Deshaun Watson. Well, you definitely did. Yeah, but that's economics. That's the going rate. If I got terrible credit, Bill, and I want to go get a car and I need one tomorrow, the interest rate going to look a little crazy, right? You go to JD Buy Rider or wherever you go, you buy here, pay here, you're going to pay a little more, and? You go to JD by writer or wherever you go, you buy her pay, or you're going to pay a little more and the car might not last as long as you

want to. But at the end of the day, you still need to get to work. Kids need to go to school. So you got to pay a little more. The Browns have not been good. So they're going to have to pay a premium on a, on a player or a quarterback that came available in his prime. So for Jimmy Haslam and D Haslam, the calculus was simple. Baker wasn't it. We got a team that we think is ready today.

Are we going to take some hits? Sure. But let's go ahead and spend the money because other than that, we have not been good at getting a quarterback or developing one. So that's why the overpayment happens. And I think people, about 75% of the fan base understands that. Well, it's even worse than an overpayment because he didn't want to go there. And the only way he wanted to go there was if they guaranteed his entire contract, which

never happened before. I think it's so funny looking at all their gambling stuff because they're plus 112 to make the playoffs, right? They're almost even. Their over-under is nine and a half, which is such the perfect cutoff for 10 and seven is probably good enough to make the playoffs, right? They're almost even. Their over-under is nine and a half, which is such like the perfect cutoff for 10 and seven's probably good enough to make it. Nine and eight is a classic Brown season. They're 30 to one to win the Super Bowl.

They're 18 to one to win the conference. They're plus 400 to win the division and they were seven and 10 last year. And then you could go even bigger. Like on FanDuel, it's 12 plus wins is plus 340. And you could just talk yourself into, hey, if Deshaun's back, this team might be loaded. They got the biggest variance.

So I could talk myself into, like, if I have, you know, one too many cocktails, I could talk myself into 12, 13 wins for the Browns. Wow. Just because I look at it and say, okay, if you got a coach of the year, Kevin Stefanski has shown that he can call plays. He's won a coach of the year before. Miles Garrett is playing under Jim Schwartz. You look at it, the cornerstone pieces,

they got a nice secondary. You got one of the best pass rushers in the league, best running back, top five line. We've gone over that. A bona fide route runner. We like Elijah Moore. We love what he's going to bring. You look at that and say, okay, well, you put all that together

with that 2020 Deshaun Watson. That's a bona fide AFC championship contender. However, on the other end, I could talk myself into 6-11. I could see six. If you, you, you, we got three division games starting off. You got the bangles, you got the Steelers at Pittsburgh. So think about this. We get off, we get off to a bad start or so.

Say for instance, Deshaun Watson plays poorly and we lose to the bangles. Week one, you got to come back short week. You got the Steelers. Now you really... No, it's worse than a short week. It's a Monday night game, week two at Pittsburgh. Think about it. If you start off one and three,

you know, two and four, how many people are going to be satisfied with that? People, I told them they had six games to prove it. And Kevin Stefanski is under the hot seat, and I think that's why we've already turned over our kicker already, because I think the pressure's on a little bit. Yeah, they go Cincy at Pittsburgh Monday night, home Tennessee, home Baltimore, home San Francisco with a bye week in there, and then at Indianapolis at Seattle. And that's probably

the toughest part of the schedule and you kind of have to come out of there four and three if you're thinking about winning the division, which is a tall task. You got to and we peek around a little bit. I've been watching the Steelers. I always ask people,

how do you know if you got a squad or not? How do you know the Browns are for real? And I said, well, okay. I always ask myself, if Mike Tomlin was coaching his team, what would you expect him to do? I say, if Mike Tomlin was coaching the team, I think that we'd be playoffs all day. Okay, well, look, John Harbaugh, if he was coaching his team,

I could go down the line about seven, eight coaches that if they had this roster, I believe that they would be playoff contenders or Super Bowl contenders. I can go down the line about seven, eight coaches that if they had this roster, I believe that they would be playoff contenders or Super Bowl contenders. So my question is, not only is it the staff, not the roster, but also, if it comes down to a championship game, and I have to beat a Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid,

do I have the coach that can do that? I personally don't think so. That's my biggest fear other than Watson. I haven't seen it from Stefanski. I don't know if I trust it. I made a list of top 32 coaches. I didn't have him in the top half. And I'm like in the high 20s.

And I think the knock on him is he looks great when he has a mediocre guy. If he has Case Keenum or he has case keenum or he has i wouldn't call kurt cousins mediocre but the buck's still out on him that's what his thing is people think he can't win but he looked great with baker he looks good with bootlegs and tight ends and and he'll run play action and he has the the best looking high school playbook i've ever seen he had who runs a solid high school playbook but when it seen. He had a solid high school playbook, but when it comes to the bonafide superstars,

when you got to play a Kyle Shanahan or McVay or, or Andy Reed, are you going to be able to go play for play? And you're going to be able to go pass for pass innovation. And are you going to get the most out of Deshaun Watson? Now they've told me, as I talk to people in the organization, they said, they put a lot of Deshaun Watson? Now, they've told me, as I talk to people in the organization, they said they put a lot on Deshaun Watson and say,

look, give us 40 plays. If you don't like those 40 plays, we'll rip them up and we'll get you 40 more. So they're trying to be more lockstep at the hip with Deshaun Watson calling the plays he likes along with Stefanski. My thing is, I don't know if they have enough time together to kind of pull that off in a very short period of time.

I can't say I've loved Stefanski's game management over the last few years. Alright, since we never have Cleveland diehard people on this pod, I'm going to throw some Cleveland questions at you. Gotcha. Just walk us through Cleveland's relationship

with Pittsburgh. I don't think you finished ahead of Pittsburgh in the standings, what, since you came back in the league? Is big brother, little brother not even strong enough to say what it is? What is it? It's the difference between

having everything and having nothing. To me, a lot of people don't get it. We've lost a generation of Browns fans in our state. If you would poll people and you go to certain places in town, there's Pittsburgh Steelers fans who have their gear on. The terrible towels are here. And you got to think about it. When Ben Roethlisberger, I played against him in Miami.

I went to OU. He went to Miami of Ohio. When Ben Roethlisberger got drafted by the Steelers, it was for years. He had a better, more wins than any quarterback in Cleveland had

and at our stadium. And so they would, they would flood and wave their towels. And I just hate those doggone towels. I don't like the colors. I just don't like,

I don't even play with the Steelers on Madden. So when you run into a Steelers fan and you tell them you're a Browns fan, they just look at you with complete disdain. Because we used to have this with the Yankees as Red Sox fans. Where they're just like, oh yeah, we own you guys.

Cool. Well, if you note it like that, it isn't even disdain. It's kind of like they don't pay you attention because you haven't done enough to make it a rivalry right it's a feud it's a feud it's not a rivalry you're like why would you wear that why would you wear browns colors those are halloween colors and they're ugly anything like why would you they never win why like more than ever, we get a lot of, you guys are tortured, man. Oh, they feel bad. The pity. Yeah, that pity. That's even worse.

Gosh. Yeah, I've been there. I've been there with the Red Sox, with all that shit. But then, is Baltimore higher or lower than Pittsburgh with the pure hatred? Now, this one is different. This one hurts a little bit more because it's like let me give it to you like this it's like it's like breaking up with your ex right but then she upgrades on you like she upgrades she's like yo i broke up with you my life is

better i shop more i went and got my degree i work out every day and my new husband is great he's such a good guy and you think he's a good guy there's nothing you can say about it you're like you know what you've completely upgrade for us it's like the baltimore we left in 95 baltimore you know they come and they they you know leave go to baltimore 96 they start doing their things they get ozzy smith or excuse me, Ozzie Newsome, one of our four fathers. They get him. We put him in Hall of Fame.

He's the GM. And right out the gate, he goes and gets Ray Lewis. He goes and gets Jonathan Ogden. He drafts Ed Reed. And then they win a Super Bowl with one of the greatest defenses of all time. And you're just sitting there like, how did this happen? This was us. That was my story. It's just crazy. Well, and then on top of it, then you have the Belichick piece.

The Belichick thing is even crazier because if you go back, I think ESPN had to think about 1995 where the Browns were built in the roster. And you go back and look at that roster. I think they had Kurt Ferentz. I think they had Bill Belichick. His staff was crazy. Saban was on there? Yeah, they had a bunch of people like that.

It was one of the greatest coaching staffs and collective of young minds in the world. The Browns run him out of town. First, he ran Bernie out of town. Bernie goes and gets the Super Bowl with the Cowboys. We run Belichick out of town. And he's the greatest thing ever to move as a coach. And it just seems we left holding a wet bag again.

Come on, Bill. It's like, how does this? You can't even, you can't write this, man. You can't write it. It's crazy. So if you had to pit the Browns against the Bills and the Lions for the most tortured championship, and we'll throw in the Vikings too. Those four.

Who would you have? You're going to obviously make the case for the Browns. You lost a team. None of those other franchises lost a team. That's the worst thing that can happen. They didn't pack a team up. I make the correlation. People talk about those great Indians teams

in the mid-90s with Bell and all those guys, Manny Ramirez and Tomey. The reason why those guys are as great as they are and they had to settle is because of Cleveland Browns left. There was a void in the city. There was kids growing up in 1996. I was a freshman in high school, and I didn't watch football again to 99. We had no team, no direction.

That's why baseball was so huge and the tribe was so huge during that time period. But no one had no one has gone through what the Browns have. They you know, they took that team. I could make a case that the Cleveland Browns have like really been at least the at least the Lions got Thanksgiving. At least I got Thanksgiving got Thanksgiving. If you look at it, we didn't even have an opportunity because we had the blackout locally where if the game wasn't sold out, you didn't even get to see the Browns.

So even when they were here, you didn't have an opportunity to see them. I've always told myself I think I would literally cry if I got an opportunity to see the Cleveland Browns jerseys just for the Super if I got an opportunity to see the Cleveland Browns jerseys just for the Super Bowl

I just want to see them come out of the tunnel that's it, all I want to see is come out the tunnel Bill, I'll be golden I've talked to different fans from the fan bases about this and I mean you had the Biner game which is one of the worst losses of all time.

Certainly one of the worst ones I've ever seen. But the Bills have the Norwood game, they have the four in a row, the Music City Miracle. They have the 13 seconds game. So they add up. And then the Vikings have some of the great losses we've had over the last 50 years.

A case that Alliance fan made to me was like, all right, the Bills had all those Super Bowls. At least they got there. You know, and same, the Vikings, they've had all this heartbreak. At least they got there. And the Browns, like, at least they were good in the 80s.

Like, we've had nothing. We had Barry Sanders. We made round one of the playoffs once, and he was good in video games. And do you realize year after year, we just get our asses kicked on Thanksgiving I thought that was compelling but I still feel like losing

a team is still the worst but then on top of it that team becoming the Ravens they went to and Belichick winning another six and then the fact that you've been incompetent since 1999 like incompetent we're known for how many quarterbacks we have um like starting

quarterbacks you look at a guy and shout out to joe thomas bless his heart you know i one of the best dudes i've ever met in my life and and they just wasted his career they just wasted it and they're throwing on top of that you gotta think about it like before lebrron came back it was worse because we're just known as the place that lost the greatest basketball player ever that lived there like it was just so him coming back was a crazy thing but

obviously he left again but under better circumstances but yeah it's been a strange one that's why I think I call the Browns America's team and the reason I call them that is because when you take a look one. That's why I think I call the Browns America's team. And the reason I call them that is because when you take a look at Browns backers, I do a small little ball going to barbershop or whatever. And I didn't even when I started doing this, like I just woke up off my mom's couch being unemployed and was like, listen, I think I want to do that. And so I started a little blog or whatever, and I started on stuff I was passionate about. And it was a bar. It was the Browns. And no lie. There have been people who have reached out to me from every corner of, listen, I love listening to you because it makes me feel like I'm at home in

Cleveland watching my Browns. And there's so many passionate fans around Browns backers everywhere that it feels like we, we like one big Legion. And if we do win, we will have multi simulcasted parades all over the, all over the globe celebrating the Browns. And I think,

and to be truthful, I think America will root for us because they do know we've been through a lot. I would 100% root. Unless the line was tasty enough for the other team. Then I would just take the other team.

The LeBron thing. So if they don't fix game five of the 2016 finals and suspend Draymond and you never win the title that year. What's the psyche of the Cleveland fans at that point? LeBron leaves. He never took care of business.

He leaves. And now he's on the Lakers. And then he wins in 2020. And you guys still haven't won anything since 1964. Is it just way darker? Does the mood of the city just feel different? What happens? It's so crazy about LeBron. It's, it's when I try to tell people and explain people what it is like on the ground, it's almost being like when he came back and he won, um, it was like one of the

greatest things I've ever seen, uh, you know, playing Steph Curry and how good they were. We won that championship. And I think that it was so devastating because after that happened, there had already started to be rumors and whispers that Kyrie wanted out. And the machine was already working. And us, so at that point in time, like we're a little Midwest Cleveland, right? You're in Boston, so you that point in time, like we're a little Midwest Cleveland, right? You're in Boston, so you know how this thing works.

Y'all are the first people detailing the max players and how they move. And you guys were in the cutting forefront of the way the player movement was working. So you guys understood that. We never saw it coming. It was totally outside the realm of our possibility that we were saying, we just beat one of the best teams ever. LeBron came back and we came back from 3-1 and it was already working behind the scenes that we were going to lose

Kyrie and so as that season goes along we never even really got a chance to celebrate because soon after that the 17th season comes around and the Warriors go get Kevin Durant and they just dropped a nuclear bomb on everybody and it was like Soon after that, the 17th season comes around and the Warriors go get Kevin Durant. And they just dropped a nuclear bomb on everybody.

And it was like, yeah, we were delusional in our little space. It was like two weeks after you won the title. Right. All of a sudden, Durant's on the Warriors. And then it was just done. It was like there was no if you play basketball or if you know the game, there was no way anybody was beating them. And so Durant came, that kind of, you know, pulled Kyrie away a little bit. And then that thing kind of developed. And then it was one of the things where we looked at LeBron

for staying so long. We were like, yo, is LeBron coming back or leaving? We couldn't even prepare for the Kyrie leaving because, I mean, to me, one of LeBron's best acts was, I think it was the 2018 LeBron. Yeah, when he beat the Celtics in Game 7. He was amazing. I mean, the way he maestroed that thing, the way he just, I mean, one of those things, you don't really understand it

until you watch it, but this guy didn't have nobody. He had Larry Nance Jr. J.R. Smith. Yeah. Tristan Thompson. Yeah. He had those guys. But the way he came in game seven and was like, hold on, let me control the pace.

I'm down six. And LeBron does this cool little thing where he's like, oh, man, he's keeping it close. He's keeping it close. And then all of a sudden you look up, he's up four with like three minutes left and you're like what the heck happened he just morphed in front of us he had game winning shots against the raptors that series yeah i think he he played well he against raptors he beat us in his game seven and by the way by the way he played all 48 in game seven against the celtics and guess what that game won against the nickics. And guess what? That game won against the Knicks. Or not the Knicks. The game won against the Warriors. The 51.

That was his best game. That was the best game. Yeah, I think that's his best game. Without the charge, without the return to the charge, which I think LeBron got there. I just watched the game over about two weeks ago.

If you say he can go in there and steal game one against the greatest team ever assembled, in my opinion, that I've seen play. That's just something to behold. It was like a double loss because

they probably should have won. So now it's like, all right, we got to beat these guys five times in a seven game series. That's never happening. He knew it was done when they lost game one. He punched the wall and broke his hand. He knew he had he you know there was a small little sliver of where he could go um and how he could do that and he did it

um and they just lost the game and i think he knew he was leaving from that point but as far as it goes with the fans we kind of it was a whirlwind. Like I think, and we did, LeBron said it before. He kind of, he kind of, you know, spoils you a little bit. Because at that point, we were on a stage where we were going to go in the finals. It was just a foregone conclusion. We'd be there with the Warriors at the end of the season. He turns around and leaves. And then I think after that happens, we start to look and focus at our other teams and say, OK, well, what do we have here?

And we realize the Cavs are going to have to rebuild again. We realize the Guardians aren't going to spend any money, but that's a whole nother problem. And then we got we got our Browns. And at that point, the Browns, I think, was starting to come around a little bit. We had Baker. Baker brought a jolt of energy to the city. I mean, you know, he just, he was that guy. That's the biggest thing I've learned in this talk so far is that I didn't realize Baker was that popular

to the bitter end. Still is. Still. Listen, people, there were guys, there were guys last year, we started Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show, and I was talking, I think he worked with you. Jay Craw is is on our show as well and jay's like look if baker beat baker's gonna win the starting job in in carolina there were actual browns fans that drove down

to carolina to watch baker and was like and had the jerseys on and everything. That's unbelievable. What did they, what did they like? What was, what resonated with Baker? What was it? Well, so what resonated with Baker was he's kind of,

it's like, kind of like our country, right? Right. He, he was a guy who he wasn't a quarterback. He wasn't one of those buttoned up guys. He told you how it was. He was a guy's guy. He drank beers. He said how he felt guys. He told you how it was. He was a guy's guy.

He drank beers. He said how he felt and said he felt how he said. And to a certain extent, he came along the time period where we had just left one in 31 with Hugh Jackson. You know, one of the darkest periods in our in history of the Browns. And he was the guy to give you a little bit of confidence. He gave you a little bit of swagger. He said, nah, listen, I'm not going to take it.

It's us versus everybody. And so that resonated. And on top of that, he won. So he did things other people, he won, you know, he broke the rookie passing record. He eventually got to a point where the one year that Coach Stefanski did win during the COVID year, coach of the Year, he

goes into Pittsburgh, and they put it on Pittsburgh like we've never seen. The game ended up being close, but at one point in time, it's 28-0 in the first quarter, and we're sitting around locked in our houses, not going

anywhere. I can't believe my Cleveland Browns are doing this to Big Ben. We made Pouncey retire. Wow. It sounds like we need a Baker Mayfield Cleveland 30 for 30. Let's get the documentary crew for the comeback. It'll start with those beer coolers. We had one

again. We were 1-31. Tyrod Taylor. It was a Monday or Thursday night. I think it was Thursday night. Tyrod Taylor. It was a Monday or Thursday night. I think it was Thursday night. Tyrod Taylor's playing against Sam Darnold. And Tyrod gets hurt. He gets injured. Baker comes in, throws a rope down the middle to Jarvis Landry.

He catches the ball. They do the Philly special. Baker catches the Philly special touchdown. And basically, at the stadium, they're running a promotion where they had these beer coolers filled with beers. And when the Browns would win, they were going to open the beer coolers. And it had been almost two years since we won. They win their game in comeback fashion.

The beer coolers open. Baker Mayfield is now like he's Jon Snow. He's the god. He's Jon Snow. He's the king of the North. He's riding in on his dire wolf. It's crazy. Like, he's the man. He's Jon Snow. He's the king of the north. He's riding in on his dire wolf. It's crazy.

Like, he's the man. And the crazy part about it was that was, like, the high point. Like, it was here. Like, you couldn't have told us. We didn't find it. And he got injured. He got hurt. You know, the team kind of turned on him. You know, it was evident that he needed to go somewhere else to start over and i think one of the things that you you will see in the backdrop of everything

going on is this it's it's you know you don't never really know what you got to is gone because i remember coming up and a lot of people talking about bernie right and now bernie's one of my good friends and he's a he's a hero because we've had nothing since him. So in the same way of Baker Mayfield, people loved him because he gave him something to think about and get through during the tough times. But Deshaun Watson is coming in at a very difficult task. But I think he's the best quarterback they've had. He has the most talent. And I do think that the Cleveland Browns, this unit is rallying around him.

I think this year he's more of a captain figure than he was last year. I don't think he could have led that way last year, but this year, I think he gets it. What you just laid out made me almost certain that Baker Mayfield when he retires from football comes back to Cleveland and has like a 25 year media career.

What you mean? Lock it down. Baker on Fox college football. I think Baker Mayfield is a star. Like I could see him doing like, you know, the Fox game day shows or whatever the case may be. He's a star on screen.

You can't get around that. Like, so if you watch him, that's part of I guess having that it factor. People want to watch Baker. I think he's a slam dunk star on TV.

Alright, before we go, can you give me your Cavs prediction for this season in 45 seconds? What are you expecting? 45 seconds.

Donovan Mitchell, this is a big year for him. I like Imani Bates. Wait, is it a big Donovan Mitchell year because he completely shit the bed in the playoffs? No, because I think he's completely not going to be here after next year. Alright, so you're

signing up on that because that's been the whisper campaign for a while. Yes, he's not going to be here. I think they signed up with that knowing that. I do like the Niang, George Niang. I like Struess. I like, they need some shooters. They need some guys that can spread the floor. Little concerned

about Jared Allen playing 4B or, you know, stretch forward. He's not some guys that can spread the floor. Little concerned about Jarrett Allen playing four big or, you know, stretch four. He's not a guy that can spread the floor. I'm also concerned about Mobley. It's all about he's a unicorn. I need to get him better than 27% behind the three-point arc. I want to see more of that. I want to see more dribbling to the basket.

I think he may play better without Allen. I'm not sure. I love Darius Garland. I think he can take another step forward. Playing two small guards is kind of but what I will say is I think this team can be anywhere from a one to a five. I would

expect them to get past the first round this year. And then from there, it's just all about how well they play in the playoffs at that point in time. Maybe they have enough shooting, but I would pick them somewhere between one or five. I think the ceiling is in number three seed in the East. So why wouldn't

they just trade Mitchell now if you think he's going in a year? I think they don't like the packages they could get back. If you trade him now, also I don't think they would trade him because I think that would signal that they made a mistake. I think if you trade him now, it basically says, yeah, we screwed up

and we thought we were better than we were. But we just kind of, you know, he was available. We got him. See if it worked. It didn't work. Now we're going to have to trade him pennies on a dollar. So I think they're willing to ride it out because they believe that Mobley can be a unicorn.

And if they lose him for, I wouldn't say a unicorn and if they lose him for I wouldn't say free but if they lose him and don't really get much for him I think that they can really save face because Mobley will be good Garland and he's already locked up yeah all that matters is Mobley and Garland but I wonder I just wonder if the Knicks would get frisky and

jump in and just try to get him and you're basically taking all the picks you gave up and getting a bunch of them back. RJ Barrett and Quick Clean. Yeah, and you're getting a bunch of stuff back. Yeah. By the way, before we go, Bill, I have to shout out your daughter who goes to Emerson College, correct?

Yes. My producer on Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show, Mikey McNuggets, he's a former basketball player there. So he says, shout out to the Emerson people. He knew good and bad. I said, how long did you do research for that, Mikey? You know what's going on here?

Shout out to Emerson College, right? I love the shout out to Emerson. All right. So Brown's final prediction, you're going playoffs. Sounds like you're in playoffs. Okay. I'm a playoffs guy. All right.

Just leave it there. I don't want you to jinx anything. Let's just say, all right, they're going to be one of the seven playoff teams Alright, there we go, we'll take one of the playoffs Alright, if you enjoyed hearing Garrett Tell us where we can find you You can find me on Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show

Every single day, Monday through Friday 11am to 1pm, you can catch me on my Barbershop Show, Radio Show 92.3 The Fan, WKRKFM in Cleveland, Ohio I'm on there Saturdays from 8am.m. to 12 p.m. Catch it on the Odyssey app. You can follow me on Twitter at Gbush91. And of course, you can find some of my work

on the Bleacher Report as a Browns content contributor over there as well. So appreciate you, Bill. And thanks. Big fan of your work. And I hope to talk to you soon again. Yeah, thanks for coming on. Appreciate it.

Appreciate it, Bill. All right. That's it for the podcast. Thanks to Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck. Thanks to Garrett Bush. Thanks to Kyle Creighton and Steve Cerruti for producing as well. Don't forget to check out Strike Force 5. It is launching later this week.

Don't forget about the new rewatchables as well. And I will see you on this feed on Thursday. It is part one of the annual NFL over unders pod with our friend. Cousin Sal. Oh yeah, baby. We are back. See you Thursday. I don't have.

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