The Ringer NFL Show - DK IS BACK! 49ers-Cowboys, Mahomes’s Slump, and a Bad Vibes Check-In (More "MMMBop")

Episode Date: October 6, 2023

Jonathan Taylor and Cooper Kupp are (maybe) BACK, the NFC championship game Part 1, diving into the extremely weird QB play this season, a much-needed bad vibes check-in, and more (3:05). Next, they revisit the “MMMBop” controversy, DK recounts his time in Greece, and the two get into maybe the most heated argument in the show’s history (69:28). Check out our Week 5 Fantasy Football Rankings for positional rankings, waiver wire pickups, and much more! Fanduel.com/ringerffs is live! Email us! [e-mail] The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Social: Kiera Givens and Jack Sanders Producer: Kai Grady Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, this is Danny Haif. It's a long episode today. Just the beginning, the first part, first two thirds are football. And the final third is D.K. yelling at me about pop music. And then we argued for like really long time about Wi-Fi and Blades. Do not be intimidated by the like this podcast. Please don't skip it. There will be a poll. Yeah, vote in the poll.

And then if you want the football, that's the first part of the show. And you'll enjoy it. And if you just want the arguing, that's the second part of the show. And you can enjoy that too. So there. go. Episode description, we'll have notes on what's what. Thanks for our patience. We're back. Fantasy football show.

My name is Danny Hyfitz and I am joined by Craig Krollbeck and Danny Kelly who is back, baby. Yeah. Dad's home. We are back. That made me laugh, Craig, when you were saying it's like dad's not here. What are we going to do? We're going to have a party?

Ice cream for dinner. Not that. I'm not that fucking old. Jesus. No, I know. I know. But you're old enough to be able to afford a trip to Europe. So your dad in my eyes. That's fair. That's fair. Yeah, thank you guys for picking up the torch for me or whatever, the Paton. While I was away, I had the opportunity for everyone who didn't know to go to Greece for some dear friends wedding, which was awesome. Normally,

I don't leave during the middle of the NFL season, but this was sort of a once in a lifetime opportunity. So I took it. It was awesome. All right. We're going to talk to D.K. about Greece at the end of the show. If this show is like well over an hour, it's because we talked about Greece for a really long time and basically just heard it. We actually have not heard about the trip yet. So we just talked about it. And we're going to catch TK up on the imbop fiasco of 2023. We're not going to talk about that right now. Right now we're going to preview week five. If you're wondering who to start who to sit in your fantasy football lightups, we have our weekly starts at rankings at fantasy football.3.com. Our rankings are beautiful. They're free.

They're correct. What else do you need? Fantasyfewport.3.com. You can follow us on Twitter, is at Craig. Craig Rollback. D.K. is at Danny B. Kelly everywhere. My Twitter's at Danny underscore Hyfitz. My Instagram's at Danny Hyfitz.

And then I try to answer to starts the questions Sunday mornings on Twitter so you can at me if you want. All right. All right. Geez. Plugs out of the way.

Well, you fight. Look, man. What else you got on? Plugging Santorini. Just saying, I was gone for a week and you guys didn't really explain why.

So I just wanted to let people know. We didn't know. Honestly, we didn't want to like docs you. I didn't know if you're, Are we allowed to say where you are? I don't know how comfortable anybody is with that. So I don't ever want to push too far.

I respect that. I respect that. People seem to be worried I was gone forever. Like you guys were just hiding the fact that I was like dead or something. I think like two or three shows, they were like, oh, DK's gone. And then it was like show five. And they were like, all right, what's up here? It's been like nine days.

All right. Well, speaking of people who are back, we got to start this week with players who are also back. Cooper Cup, Jonathan Taylor. The injured reserve used to be for people. we're out for the season. Now it's like you can come back and then you're off and there's like a practice when it's complicated. So they're not off fire yet, but they probably are. Anyway, Cooper Cup and Jonathan Taylor may or may not be playing this week. We don't totally know we're recording this Thursday afternoon. However, I want to start with Jonathan Taylor.

And again, if you have just kind of forgotten about this whole thing, Jonathan Taylor had this huge standoff with the Colts. He's in a contract year because last season he had a right ankle and he got surgery and he came back and there was like questions about his ankle and his back. And so he was injured, but he wasn't. And he was. And then he wanted any contract. They wouldn't give to him. So then he asked for a trade. And then he went on Jim Mersay's bus. And then Jim Mersay was like, look, kid, I, Jim Mersay's like, I could die tomorrow and no one would care. So just be happy you're alive. And then Jeremy Sway was going to fly a freaking killer whale from Florida to the ocean. And then for $20 million, then the whale

died. And so much has happened. But it was a whole thing. Yeah. And he was right. Like anyone could die. Like the whale didn't survive. I hope, you know, we got to still, I can't get over the fact they were going to fly a fucking whale. They're going to put it in the air and fly it across the country. What are you going to do? Have it swim through the Panama Canal and like it's high up? They should have done that. Yeah.

Can you imagine if you were driving the highway and it said wide load and it was just like a whale? Imagine if you had a really long leash from the whale to a plane and you kind of flew it all the way home. He was diving. Oh no. Like jealous of things. Anyway, so Jonathan Taylor's

back. I think I cross the whole season what this means well yeah is he well so here's the here's what he said

and he came back this week he's back at practice and I think this is the quote that caught my eye and the first part of this has gotten aggregated on social media

but the whole quote at length is important to me John Taylor says I don't think it matters if I'm saying I'm committed or not because I'm here if somebody wasn't committed they wouldn't be here

and right now I'm here and my number this part and my number one one goal is to attack this first practice. It's been over 290 days, I believe, end quote. This is called burying the lead. Yeah, exactly.

Two hundred and ninety days. That's how long D.K. was in Greece. Yeah, exactly. Could have got a new podcast. It felt. I missed you guys. In those 290 days, the Colts have a new coach, a new quarterback, and a new playbook. So I think that's the thing.

It's like, I don't know what's going to happen is Johnson's going to get traded all this stuff. But if he does play this week and you're like, should I play Jonathan Taylor? I don't know. Like, I don't know, but you guys, I would rather have Jonathan Taylor on my bench, have an incredible day and be like, all right, cool. That's a guy I have now. I feel like if you play Jonathan Taylor, he could get eight carries for 10 yards

because he's never practiced with any of these people until like three days before this game. And so, I don't know, Craig. Are you, like, where is your line of whether you'd actually start Jonathan Taylor? Because I am not very excited by this haven't practiced in 290 days thing. Yeah. More often than not, when these guys are coming back, they're usually not getting like 23 carries right, right out the gate. We don't know how they're going to work him in.

So once again, you have to analyze, you have to assess where your head is that emotionally. Will you be more upset if you start Jonathan Taylor and he gets five carries? Or are you going to be more upset if you don't start Jonathan Taylor and he has 140 yards and looks like the best running back in the league, which he might be. I, because I have fantasy fomo, I'd probably play him, to be quite honest with you, unless I have like really awesome running backs.

I think I'm leaning towards playing. If I have somebody like, you know, Khalil Herbert, I'm probably playing Jonathan Taylor over Kalil Herbert. Mind you recording this Thursday and this episode's coming up Friday. So maybe Khalil Herbert has had 200 yards by now. Right.

I don't know. Miles Sanders. Everyone's going to watch the Golden Bachelor over that football game anyway. So no one listening has even watched that. Everyone's just probably talking about a golden bachelor anyway. DK, by the way, while you were gone so long, they have a new kind of Bachelor now.

That's how long you were gone. The bachelors are really old now. They grew up. Yeah, it was the same bachelor from last season, but you were gone so long. He's now 70. Yeah, yeah. That makes sense. Yeah.

It's like when you go to Greece, time passes differently. It's like in Interstellar when you're on that one planet, like 20 years goes by. It's like on the island of Santorini. But what do you guys agree with me? Like, hi, Fitz, what do you think about Taylor and if you play him or not? Dude, I'm as, I look, I think most of the time, honestly, like 85. or 90% of the time. You're like, should I play this really good player?

My answer's like, yeah. But, dude, practice does matter. Like, he has not practiced with this coach. Like, he has a, this is a new coach with a new system. Counterpoint Josh Dobbs. Yeah. It's good point. Maybe practice doesn't matter at all.

It's a good point. It's actually the most overrated thing in the world. Quantum leap him into this offense. Here's what I think. This is a theory, and we'll see how it all plays out. But like this is a perfect opportunity to get him back in the good graces of the team. Or at least like for the coach to play an intermediary between the GM or the owner, Jim Mersay and like the team. Just go, let him do his thing.

Let him go and play a lot. Like doesn't, don't you think that would be an olive branch situation? I don't get it to be honest with you. What do you say? Okay, players want to play. Oh, you're saying the Colts, Jonathan Taylor will be happy. Shane Stiking can make everyone happy by playing him? Yeah, by giving him the rock.

this is what players want to have the ball. Players want the ball. If they go in there and play them like five plays, don't you think that's just going to make it more mad? I don't, yeah, but it's not, I'm not saying,

to be clear, I'm not saying he would have like some like cap workload forever. I'm saying that like, they didn't even have a full practice on, uh, Wednesday, they don't walk through. It's like he'll have one practice essentially before this game.

I think, I don't know. It's crazy to me. But again, Josh stops. My point is they could give him, they could extend an olive branch and basically say, hey, it's your offense again, baby.

Go out and do your thing. Give them a big workload. And, like, to me, that's a good way to kind of get back into his good graces. Because obviously, like, hates the front office. But who cares? Like, I'm just saying, like, they're not going to, why does the front office get?

I'm just saying, like, John the Taylor, I don't think he's going to extend it. If they don't care, if they don't care, like, why are they even playing? Like, why even keep him around? I not train him. Well, I don't know. I mean, he's coming back because he has to play.

But, like, I guess what I'm saying is, I don't think that he's going to be on this team long term. personally. I feel like he's coming back because he's healthy and he wants to show. You know what the Colts should plan? You guys are missing the forest for the trees here. You know where the Colts should plan? Because he's really, really good. And it will help the Colts win the game. Which is the goal of the Colts organization.

You might be out of something here, Craig. I genuinely don't know the answer to this. I feel like running a read option with Anthony Richardson. Can you run a read option with two days practice that you've never met this person before? Why couldn't you? I don't know. Maybe they were going to fumble. I got a question about the RP. I guess that's true, like figuring out like the handoff situation.

but RPO's in general, do you think running backs like them or do you think they're kind of annoying because it's always like dangling the carrot in front of you? Do you think it's just like a weird play to line up for it? Because like you have to gear yourself up

every single time as though you're about to run the ball and then it just gets ripped from your stomach half the time. Must be pretty odd. Blue balls. It's a running back. You're like, oh, and then you're like, damn.

God. Charlie Brown with the football, but literally, it's pretty funny. We should get on that. Okay. Other guy who's going to come back this week, Cooper Cup,

who, this is weird because it's similar and it's not similar, where Cooper Cup's coming back. He seems to want to play. The teams seems to be a little more hesitant than Cooper Cup himself. It sounded honestly like Sean McVeigh put a Cooper Cup on IR so Cooper Cup couldn't talk Sean McVeigh

to playing him earlier. Right, right. That sounded like the reason they put him on. He's like, stop bugging me, Cooper. But there's two things here. It's like what happens with Pooka and Kui and Cooper Cup together. And then there's Cooper Cup himself, I feel like the short version is,

you're not benching Pooka Nekua. He's literally, it's like Tyree Kill Justin Jefferson and Pooker Kooah. you're not going to bench him out of some fear of something. So I think my question is, D.K., do you have to play Cooper Cup this week? And again, recording Thursday, there's going to be information between now and them. If it turns out Cooper Cup's going to play,

but he's going to be in a snap count, do you still have to play Cooper Cup? Yes. I feel like if you're the team that drafted him, he's been out for four weeks, you're probably not doing great. Like, let's be honest. You got to play him. I feel like you got to play him. Unless there's, like, big news over the next couple days where he's, like, really

limited in practice or whatever, but it sounds like he's going, like he's just running full speed or whatever. It's like they said, I want to say McVeigh said technically he was limited, but he was out there practicing. Like he didn't have any limitations. So, and I don't know, man. Mr. Limited is unlimited, he's limited, but there were no limitations. That's the point. If he's off the IR and if he's in the game, I'm playing him. It's Cooper Cup. Yeah, yeah. That's why you drafted him. You've been waiting for four weeks. If he's on the field, you're playing him. He's like Marvin Mims, but he plays the whole game. Like even if he only plays 10 snaps,

he's going to have a, he can still have six catches and a touchdown. Yeah. All right. Next up here, we got game of the week, game of the year. Should we just keep doing like game of the year

and just see how many games of the year we have? It's like Dolphins builds a game of the year. Now we got another one. 49ers Cowboys. This feels like the NFC championship game part one. Also, I'm not going to lie. Like, these teams have a lot of history. 88 playoffs are in 89.

It's really the Taylor Swift era. there was an eight season stretch from 88 to 95 where these Dallas and San Francisco won six of the eight Super Bowls in an eight year period and then every year they played each other the winner of the playoff game won the Super Bowl so there's a lot of history already

and then the 49ers have just knocked the Cowboys out of the playoffs like back to back seasons in like identical ways like literally the last two seasons the Cowboys have won 12 games and then lost by a touchdown to the Niners in the playoffs

and the final play of each game Dallas was unable to execute a play to try to score. Like, it was actually crazy. I, I am curious. I kind of want to go through how much, I think there's more pressure. I don't know, Craig.

Am I wrong when I say? I feel like there's way more pressure on Dallas to win this game than there is on the 49ers. It's always Dallas. Yeah. It always is Dallas. Well, it's because Dallas has been the perennial disappointment. The Niners won't have been to a Super Bowl in the last five years.

Like, this offense has been to a Super Bowl, more or less. And it does deal like every time the Niners lose in the playoffs, it's not really because like the Niners screwed up. It's usually bad injury luck, right? It's like last year they got completely screwed with Brock Pretty getting hurt against the Eagles and they probably would have won that game and maybe won the Super Bowl, who knows.

But with Dallas, it's always them shooting themselves in the foot. They're always like coming off a great regular season and then they blow it themselves. So to me, if the Niners lose a close game here, it's like, all right, you know, it's still the Niners. As long as they're held in the playoffs, they can win the Super Bowl. If Dallas loses by like 14 points here, I think everyone is going to say,

well, this was essentially a playoff game and Dallas did what they always do in the playoffs. DK, I feel like you have dad brain, dad memory, which is a compliment because you're doing so many of the things of your life. But you know what I'm saying. Dad memory. Okay.

Where's this going? I want to jog your memory on the last two games, the Cowboys actually played against the Niners in the playoffs. Yeah, please do. So two seasons ago, so it's the 2021 season, so it's January, 22. The Cowboys won 12 games. They play the Niners in the Wildcard round.

they lose by six points. Dallas, this is the game where Dallas was down 19 seconds left and they couldn't spike the ball in time. Like, Dak does a scramble. They ran the QB sneak.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and there's 19 seconds and they could not spike the, and it was the same weekend that the Chiefs, the Chiefs, the Chiefs' game between Chiefs bills. So the Chiefs got the ball left

with 13 seconds and scored a touchdown in 13 seconds. And the Cowboys could not spike the ball in 19. Right. So like that's, and that's the one we remember. But in the same game,

and this, gets glossed over. The Cowboys said, and I can't say this word, but penalties. The Cowboys had 14 penalties against the Niners, literally tied for most in a playoff game in the 21st century. And the best part is it's tied with another Cowboys performance. So the Cowboys had 14 penalties in one game, including the first play of each half. So it's like, and then they come out, they blame the refs for the, and it's like, they led the league in penalties in the regular season. So I'm like, Mike McCarthy wasn't calling the plays in offense. They couldn't manage the clock with the spike at the end and then they had a record amount of penalties.

Yeah. So it's like Mike McCarthy, what did you? They come back and they get a redemption in 2022. Second chance. Deja vu, the Cowboys win 12 games again. They play the Niners, this time in the divisional round. They once again, this was the one, do you remember when Zeke Elliott was center on the final play of the game and his last play is a cowboy?

Yeah, yeah. He got pancakes. That was Zeke Elliott's last play as a cowboy. Man. So in that game, too, I think it's forgot. That's the one we remember. Dak Press got through two picks in the beginning of the game. And then do you remember the last drive to, like,

Dak almost took a safety on the second-in-last drive. And then the last drive, Dak threw a pick six. And Drey Greenlaw, the linebacker for the 90s, just dropped it. Like, it was like 15 yards to the end zone. And it hit him so hard in the directly in the chest.

He was like, you know, the defenders are surprised. The ball came right at their face. Like, so I don't know. Deacon, I'm curious where you're out on DAC, because I'm looking at this game. And I, I feel like there's so much pressure

on the combo of Dak Prescott and Mike McCarthy to be worth the money and faith that Jerry Jones has to them because they have been so bad against the specific team at the end of each season that if they lose

it's kind of like oddly deflating for the Cowboys whole season. Yeah. So I've always been a DAC defender. I don't know. Obviously, I think with anything, the Cowboys, there's always going to be really strong narratives

because it's just always such a focus for the talking heads on ESPN. or whoever Fox. And, you know, Dak, I think has gotten this reputation as being super overrated, even though I think he's one of the better quarterbacks, like just consistency-wise,

intelligence, you know, accuracy, all those things. And I think it's a little bit ironic, or I guess like the contrast is funny because like 49ers fans straight up worship Brock Purdy. And Cowboys fans seem to hate Dak Prescott. I think Dak Prescott's like way better quarterback, but that's where we are in the year 2020, the 49ers just there's a cult of Brock Pretty

and by the way he's playing awesome like he's playing very well this year but I think Dak Prescott is a very good quarterback who just has like terrible marketing. Who's better, DK? Dak. So right now if you were

Kyle Shanahanham and you could do a swap Brock for Dak, you do it? Yeah. Oh yeah. I wonder what Niners fans would say. I don't think they'd do it. Of course they wouldn't do. They wouldn't take fucking Tom Brady so you know, of course they would.

Brett Brut isn't lost the game. the money thing matters too. Fine, if the contracts were equal, though, I will say there is something to the fact that Dak Prescott has played horrifically against the 49ers twice. The idea of swapping him is like insane. Also, can I point out one thing here about Dak?

Like, Dak is so weird. He's had a really unlucky stretch the last two-ish years because if you look at his numbers, like even if I don't think people consider him like a fantasy elite quarterback by any stretch of the imagination. But like, look, this year, it's been weird because last year

he hurt his finger, right? He missed the first four games of the season with a finger injury and then just played the rest of the season with it and led the league in picks and he was clearly hurt and that's why. But the year before that, Dak threw 37 touchdowns and 10 picks. And the year before that was when he played four games and they were on pace to break every offensive record ever and then he broke his ankle. And then this year, he's been perfectly fine, but they really haven't even needed him because they've destroyed everybody they've played or had a weird game where they lost to the Cardinals. So like, it's almost

been two full years since like DAC has been A healthy and B, they needed him. And like this is, I feel like is the first game finally where we'll see that DAC. Time to shine. Here's my thing with Dak. One of my favorite interviews I've ever done was I talked to this guy named Tim Grover, who is the guy who trained Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. And Michael Jordan recommended him to exactly one person his entire life. And he basically, when Michael Jordan retired, he gave kind of the trainer. It was like, all right, work with Kobe. He's the only guy worthy of you. Now he's with me. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Got Craig in wedding shape. And the guy, he wrote a book, and Dak Prescott, when he broke his leg, I talked to Dak Prescott about this because he read, Dak Prescott read this guy's book when he was recovering from his leg injury. And he talks about like closers, it's weird terms, but it's like coolers, closers and cleaners. And the terms kind of don't make sense. But the point is, there are people who are good and like athletes who are like good

and they'll do what they're told. And then there are like closers who are like that. But at the end of the game can be good. Like a Dame Lillard, like, oh, like you can be good at the end of the game. And then there are people who are like, like Michael Jordan, who's like the end of the game clutch all the time. And I think Dak Prescott fashions himself like that. But in reality, DAC has been one of the most unclutch guys I can remember in like huge moments thus far. And I know that sounds hot takey, but he has melted in the biggest moments of his career.

And I'm not, I don't want to be hyperbolic, but like he needs to play well in this freaking game, man. He's been terrible in all the important games. So we'll see. If he does, if he does play well, like, do you think it'll actually change the narrative or do you think people will just kind of stick to their guns? No, he needs to do something in the playoffs. Yeah, I think he needs to.

Yeah, it won't change change to the playoffs, but if he crushes the Niners, it's going to be Cowboys' Super Bowl favorites, like if they crush it. Who got in this game? I'm not picking against San Francisco until they lose. Snap in action, this NFL season with Fandul, America's number one sports book right now.

New customers get $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place a four. $5 bet. That's $200 in bonus bets, win or lose. Giants are playing the Dolphins this week. I just take every Tyreek over. It'll be fine. If you've been thinking about joining Fandall, there's no better time to get in on the action. The app is so easy to use. There's a wide range of betting options, spreads, player props, over unders, and more. And Fandalls is now live in Kentucky. Download the app now and take advantage of their great special offers, boosts, and more.

So visit Fandle.com slash ringer fantasy and kick off the NFL season. Fandul, the official partner of the NFL, must be 21 plus and present in select states. First online real money wager, only $10 first deposit required bonus issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets to expire seven days after receipt restriction supply. See terms at sportsbook.fandul.com. Next up here, DK, I feel like you were gone for so long, the 290 days that Jonathan Taylor missed. Right. And you just sent us a, you came back, and you just, you had a lot of questions.

Yeah. And we were like, we should just do this on the show where you're just like, so what did I miss? And so, D.K., please take us through. I feel like you just had a bunch of like, what is going on? When I was in Greece, the games were happening in the middle of the night. So most of the time, for most of these games, I just went to sleep and I woke up. Very weird, by the way.

As someone who covers the NFL, like going to bed. And while all the action is happening, it was just the weirdest sensation. I really, you know, it's like super bizarre. Red zone is like, it's the witching hour. And D.K.'s like, I'm like, I'm like, sleep. sleeping. But, um, so this is the, like, I woke up to a bunch of final scores and box scores. And I was like, what the fuck just happened?

And this is, these are some of the questions I have. First of all, is Josh Dobbs just better than Joe Burrow and or is, is Joe Burrow just bad now? Like, what the fuck is going on with Joe Burrow? I will say, for the record, I've watched like half of the games so far. I've rewatched half the games. I'm going through them slowly this week. But, um, just based on like the box score, what is going on with this Bengals team? This Bengals team is truly one of the worst.

offenses in the NFL right now. It's Adele. It's the park and bark. Yeah. Yeah. It sucks that he's hurt because this would be so much more fun to talk about if he was just playing terribly and he was healthy. You know, like there's like the caveat looming over this where it's like, God,

the Bengals are by far the biggest fantasy story of the year. Like maybe more than Puka Nakuwa and like the dolphins running backs, to be honest. Like the fact that Joe Burrow, Jemar Chase, this whole offense is like dead last in the league and points per game. Joe Burrow is the quarterback 34 on the season. That's so bad. There are backups outperforming Joe Burrow. I want to run down some stats that I looked up for Joe Burrow.

This is crazy because he literally just got like the biggest contract for a quarterback of all time. These are his ranks. There are 34 quarterbacks that are pass rating qualified so far. In other words, they've thrown enough passes to be qualified for pass rating. He ranks 34th in pass rating, dead last. 32nd in EPA per drop. 31st in success rate, 29th in passing yards per game,

182 passing yards game, 32nd and adjusted net yards per attempt, 4.5. That is so bad. 32nd and passes of 20 plus yards. He only has four of those. He is the number one quarterback or dead last, I guess,

depending on how you look at it, in time to throw. So he gets rid of the ball faster than any other quarterback in the NFL so far this year. 33rd among 34 and air yards per attempts, six air yards per attempt so far. And basically, like, the offense is the worst in the NFL. It's the worst NFL, the worst offense by far. Second of last in points per game.

Second to last in rushing yards, 29th and passing yards, and dead last in touchdowns. Highfits, I heard you give this a shout out in one of the shows last week. They cannot score touchdowns. Touchdowns are a paramount thing in football. Like, the most important thing probably in football is scoring touchdowns. Getting into the end zone. This team cannot get into the fucking end zone. Dead last.

They have four touchdowns. I think I saw they only have three offensive touchdowns. It's the 2021 Giants Award of this team does score any touchdowns. Get in the end zone. What do we do it? I think the problem is not that Josh Dobbs has more fantasy points than Joe Burrow. The problem is that Josh Jobs has twice as many fantasy points of Joe Burrow. God damn it.

That's true. Honestly, more than twice. Josh Jobs is averaging 16 a game. Joe Burroughs averaging seven. Seven. Seven. That's not even like a good like wide receiver four

in fantasy. Dude, there are consistent. I have seen multiple players like quarterbacks have a play that was worth seven fantasy. Like one play. Josh, like honestly, Anthony Richardson can get you seven points

on a drive. Right. Wait, can we, can we play, I want to play a quick game. Can we play who is the worst quarterback you'd be willing to play over Joe Burrow this week?

Yeah. Okay. this is real talk, all right? Josh Dobbs. Oh, I play Josh Dobbs. I think you actually have to play Josh Dobbs over. Again, like Joe, all right. I didn't, Joe Burrow has, if you just can remember,

I know, I know college stats. They're playing each other too. It's Cardinals Bengals. Well, I actually think that's relatedly the reason you have to play Josh Dobbs is the Bengals, not only can they not get touchdowns, they can't get first downs. And so the Bengals are going to, like, they can't run the ball because they're always in shotgun. So the Cardinals are going to win time possession.

Like, I think you have to play Dobbs. Plus he runs. Joe Burrow has like three rushing yards this year. I think there's a chance. Chance that Dobbs outscores Burrow in one of the quarters in this game, then Burrow gets the whole game. That's on the table. All right.

So Dobbs is the QB 16. We're starting Dobbs. What about Sam Howell, QB19, play in Chicago? Definitely, right? It's Thursday and we're recording this Thursday, so we don't know what happened. I think you actually, you kind of have to. You kind of, yeah, you have to take out. Okay. Jimmy G. The QB 23 versus Green Bay.

That's where I start to like be like, well, I think here's the thing. Jimmy G has a concussion so like he could come back. But if he misses the game, he definitely won't get negative points. And part of him he's like, I don't know if Joe Burrow can't get negative points. All right, let's hover around the same area. Daniel Jones versus Miami. The sore subject for high fits. I mean, he's the QB 25 on the air.

I feel like you got to start Jones just because he runs so much you know what I mean? Well, here's the deal. Like, I think Joe Burrow, this is the whole, like the whole picture here is, of course we think Joe Burroughs an awesome quarterback.

But when are we going to see it is the question? Like, when are they actually going to do something besides, line him up in shotgun? I'm having to throw the ball in one second. He's been Robisberger from 2000. Yeah. Craig,

you nailed it where it's like, it'd be more interesting if he wasn't hurt, but it's just like, oh, he just has the, like Joe Burr even said it. Kelsey Conway tweeted this out. the Bengals, and she was like, she asked Burrow

what the calf interest affected him. And he said, quote, my ability to throw has not been affected, mainly my ability to move in the pocket, run for first down, succeed in plays, find the next second. And quote, I'm like, yeah, it's like so sad. It's just, you're right, you're 38, Joe, there's a little wind, it goes to Christmas future. And like, we're like, the Navy passing offense this season in four games.

33 fantasy points. Joe Burroughs 31 fantasy points. Navy offense is more fantasy points in the same number of games. So then Burrow really is in like, he he's in Kenny Pickett, Ryan-Tanhill territory. then? Is that what talking about? Yeah. Absolutely. I would play him over Pickett because Pickett is an knee injury. I think that's the line for me. This is tough. This sucks, man,

because obviously he's so good. And I think we will see it at some point this year, but he was out for a good month in the preseason or whatever when he first injured. I think they need to sit him. They need to sit him a week before their by week and give him like a full, like three week break. DK, we said this a bunch while you were out, but I just the thing that blows my mind about this is how the Bengals, this happened on the first day Bengals practice and they just didn't get a good backup quarterback. Yeah. It's crazy to me.

That doesn't make any sense to me. They're by his week seven. The whole Burroughs situation is, to me, such a good example of the, like, how hard the NFL is. You know what I mean? Like, how small the margins for success in the NFL are? Like, how hard it is to play quarterback.

Like, he is straight up one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. And he's done that for a couple years now. And this injury, like, he can't do anything now. to me it's just such a good example of how hard how everything has to be kind of like perfect in the NFL to do literally do anything it's just crazy And I think that you're right. And I think, you know what this shows. And I actually think this is, to me, a good example of kind of what's up with the Steelers too for like six years.

I think what's amazing is how cascading of an effect this has. A burrow can't really move in the pocket. And like how incredibly that affects everything. Well, he can't really drop back. Okay, so now he's got to go shotgun. So now they can't run the ball. Yeah. And he also, so they can't run.

So now, but that has an effect where all right, well, they're just going to, they're just going to send guys at him. All right. Well, he doesn't have time to move. So you can't send downfield. So now they're sitting on all these routes. can't complete passes. And now you can't run.

You can't throw. And now the defense is on the field all the time. And the defense can't defend because they're spending all this time out there. And so it affects every phase of the game field position. And it's like, all right, it's crazy how quickly that happens. NFL's hard. It's very, very hard. Unless you're Justin Fields or Zach Wilson last week, in which case, NFL, very easy.

Yeah. I feel like everybody was pretty much in unanimity. Is that a word? No. No. That Zach Wilson was done. Like even Anonymity is a word

I don't think Unanimity It was unanimous It was unanimity I was like anonymity The state of being unanimous Right Yeah

It should be a word though Honestly I mean it might be Wait a minute It's just not used It is a word It is a word Just looked it up

Unanimity I will actually break my I'm actually gonna say it's not You know why Here's my thing with words Okay If you say something Here's my thing with words

Well it's true If you say something And people know what you mean It's a word don't really care whether it's like funner. People are, yes, it's not a word. Like, did you know what I mean? 100% of people know what that means.

That's a word. Teachers across the world are just pissed right now. What about the other way? If you say words that are too big and fancy and no normal person knows what you're saying, not a word. That's exactly my point. Even unanimity may technically be a word, but for my money, funner is more of a word than that because more people know what it means.

Like, that should be the definition of a word as to people know what it means. I don't know. It's like when people ask you like, rather than just saying where did you go to college, they can say like, where did you matriculate? It's like, just that's where you went to college. No one. Yeah, please don't ever say that. And you're like, that's HIPAA.

HIPAA. None of your business. I don't know why that word exists. Get rid of that. It does sound creepy. It's so stupid. Where did you matriculate? That sounds like a box that you have to check.

You know, you know, when you go to a doctor for the first time, you have to fill out all this paperwork that sounds like one of the questions. Where do you matriculate? How many times the night you matriculate? I got to tell you, Zach Wilson was matriculating against the cheese last week. He was matriculating the fucking ball down the field.

Matriculated everything. Yes, he was. All over the chiefs. Yeah. That was it. So, Hyfitz, you alluded to it, but this was my other question. It was like grogly waking up and checking the box scores. I'm like, what the fuck? Justin Fields says 300 plus yards and four

touchdowns? What happened here? What in the hell is going on? Of course, they were playing Denver, so that kind of made sense after a second. And then Zach Wilson, like, his best game ever. So what's the deal? Are they good now? Are they, is their careers?

Are both of these guys' careers saved? I think we're going to find out. There's an easier explanation for the fields one. The Zach Wilson thing, I have no words for that. You know, he was like the, he was the first quarterback in the history of Patrick Mahomes's college and professional career to have more completions, touchdown passes, yards. and less interceptions than him in a matchup.

Wow. Wow. That is going to go down as one of the funniest and best stats ever. I hope that no one ever does that ever again. And that will be the greatest freaking fun fact ever. Trivia question. Who's the only quarterback to beat Mahomes in every category in a game? What would the odds of that been heading into that game? Like, a thousand to one?

What do they say in the end of Avengers? Where they're like one in 15 million or whatever? I mean, the Chiefs won for the record. The Chiefs did win. Barely. Yeah, but like barely. I think here's my, there's a few things going on. I feel like there's a bunch of balls in the air.

I will say, I would like to leave the door open for the fact that Zach Wilson cannot suck. Because at the end of the day, is he even 23 yet? Like this kid is, yeah, he's 24. And I don't, you know, it is his third season. and I'm not I don't think it's insane to think that like you know after he's basically hit rock bottom

twice that he could be a better quarterback now but the reason I think it's interesting is they're playing the Broncos this week and the fields just shredded the Broncos. Momentum baby. I think the Broncos have like four forced four incompletions in the last

like three weeks or something absurd in the first half sorry no the first half of games. No no it's like it's like minus I saw this I think I can't remember he said it but it was basically in the first half of the last two games,

minus a Hail Mary that was incomplete, teams have completed like 32 out of 32 passes. Against the Broncos. That's actually insane. So here's the thing. I think there's two things that have. If Zach Wilson carves up the Broncos, here's my question for you.

Let's say Zach Wilson is an incredible week this weekend. Are you more like Zach Wilson might be good? Or are you like, actually, the dolphins might suck and they just beat the Broncos. And the dolphins are just the bad good team. Obviously, there's so much nuance when it comes to quarterback. I know that's like a boring answer, but development is never linear necessarily.

I think confidence to me is the biggest problem with Zach Wilson. Like he's absolutely lost his confidence. The physical traits are there. And that's the reason he was number two pick. Like he has a good hand, he has a good arm, very elastic. Like he can throw off platform. You know, he can throw the ball deep. He can kind of make plays out of structure and all that stuff.

I think I personally believe, and I said this before the draft, I thought he was overdrafted, but at the same time, the traits are certainly there. I think the big problem that's happened with him is he lost all of his confidence, like, hard. And it's hard to be in New York. It's, you know, and he played very, very poorly throughout the first two years of his season. So, or of his career. So obviously that does not help. But like his confidence is completely broken.

And this last game clearly going to give him a little bit of confidence. So it did kind of concern me a little bit that he was like blaming himself for the loss after the game. It's like, dude, give yourself this. win. Like, you played really well. Like, you gave this team a chance to win. It is his fault. Like, let's get that out there. Like, he fumbled a snap to, yeah. Okay. Well, I'm kind of fine with him saying he lost the game. It's very observant. He did, but I, but I understand what you're saying. Like, if I'm Robert Sala, I'm like, I'm, I'm making sure he understands how well he played. Every quarterback is going to make turnovers. Like, you should take this win. You played well.

You know, obviously it was a crucial mistake. But overall, he looked pretty good. The Patriots Jets game where he got benched. Remember that game they lost 10? to three on a punt return. And then they asked if he regretted anything. He said no. So I do want to put it in the context of like the last time he blew a game for the Jets, he literally was like not my bad. Not my bad.

Sorry. Yeah, that's a YP. That's true. Yeah. Well, whatever. At the end of the day, like stacking good game on good game. If he can play well this week, I think that obviously you're moving in that direction. I think with him, the big thing is repairing his psyche, much more than physical stuff.

Certainly. Preparing his side. Can we get that as a badge? Am I wrong? Am I wrong? I mean, when you watch him play, before this last week, when you watch him play, like it was a struggle to complete a freaking pass. Like it was very, he would look like the worst quarterback in the NFL by a long shot.

And so just getting him confident, getting him in rhythm. I thought that was the one thing when I rewatched this game. He was playing in more rhythm than I'd seen him play really in his whole career. Like he was, for the most part, getting the ball out when he hit his back foot. I thought he was a little bit late on. a few throws. And same with Wilson, same with Justin Fields, by the way. Like, Fields put up good numbers, but he's still too slow, just getting through his progression or just even hitting his back foot and getting the ball out. It's just like slow. Everything is slow. And I thought Zach Wilson had a little

bit of the same problem, but at least he was more in rhythm. And I thought the play calling is good. They did a lot of play action. They got him. They were throwing like screen passes to kind of give him some layups and get up some confidence. Again, to me, it's all about building his confidence and getting him back to the point where he's like, oh, yeah, I'm pretty good at football. I can do this. You know, because I think that's like truly one of his biggest problems. He's like lost his confidence. Can we talk about the quarterback on the other side of the ball that day, Mahomes?

Yeah. It's one of the weirdest Mahom games I think I've ever seen. He like truly looks lost out there. And look, Mahomes is obviously still the best quarterback in the league. This is probably, I'm going to give a bunch of stats right now, but I think the answer might just be the Jets defense is really fucking good because they broke Josh Allen and kind of Patrick Mahomes in a four-week stretch. However, kind of like,

going through Patrick Mahomes' career, this is by far, by far the worst start to a year he's ever had. Fantasy points-wise, he's averaging 19.9 right now. His average, in the first four weeks of his season is 26 and a half.

He's averaging 19.9 right now. Average is 26 and a half. He has the lowest TDs he's ever had to start his career. Most interceptions, lowest yards per attempt, lowest passing yards, lowest passerating, lowest EPA per drop pack. Most rushing yards, which lets me know that None of his receivers are open and he's scrambling a lot.

Right. And he's taking the longest time to throw, which lets you know. No one's open. He's buying time and then he's running. So, again, I don't think it's his fault. And they haven't necessarily had the toughest schedule. They've obviously just played the Jets. But before that, they played the bears, the Jags, and the Lions.

And it's just a little weird, you know, Mahomes is having like a very non-Mahomsey in year. And I think finally, we can recognize that maybe Travis Kelsey is 100% healthy right now. coming off the knee injury. And it's like there's nobody to throw to on this team. I think all those stats you just said, because it might be like, oh, whatever. But I want to, I think you are dead on right noting that there's a difference between how the Chiefs has started this season and others.

And here's why. I'm not shitting you when I say that Patrick Mahomes in September is the greatest quarterback of all time. And I mean that when I say it. I mean, I'm telling you, he averages 27 fantasy points a game in September. That is like incredible. It's insane. I want to read you the stat line.

So before this season, he had played perfectly 16 games in September before this season. So, you know, keep all these, I'm going to read you. Basically, I'll reach you his September numbers over a full season before we went to season 17 game schedule. This would be his line. 5,100 passing yards for 49 passing touchdowns and four picks. That is Patrick Mahomes in the month of September before this season. And to your point, I think that it's, whether it's him, I think it's larger, Andy Reid and Mahomes together, have come into this season. and they've always had new stuff

and they've always been ahead of people by like a month. And now they kind of look like they're behind and they've never looked like that. Yeah. Last year, they lost Terry Kill and then were like better than they had been before. So I think I don't want to say like it's hubris or whatever, but like I feel like the...

It's justified to a degree. Right. Here's the thing, though. I actually think they're a by low and I would actually try to trade for Mahomes and Kelsey and here's why. the flip side is you're right to play the Jets. Here's the thing. Their next four games,

the Vikings who have an awful past defense and I think the Chiefs are going to shred this week. Then they play the Broncos, who are the worst defense in the NFL at 70 points. Then the Chargers, who are also top five in fantasy points, a lot of quarterbacks. Then the Chiefs get the Broncos again.

Oh, hell yeah. I totally agree. So it's like, go get them. Do you guys think they make a trade? Do you think they bring in somebody? Like a receiver? Yeah. I think they're literally going to be

the highest scoring offense in October and they'll be fine. Maybe this has happened a lot. Maybe this is actually not that rare a thing. But to me, it's kind of bizarre how they have like no starters at receiver. Like they just have a rotation of receivers that they play.

The receiver with the highest snap count on the team this year is Sky Moore. And he's played 63% of the snaps. They just have like six guys that play. It's so weird. It's like the worst line of a hockey team. Like almost every good offense in the NFL these days. has like two really good receivers, you know what I mean? No one like little league teams are like

or like CYO basketball, like there's like a rule where every player has to play a little bit to like the parents are happy. It's like the cheeks are doing that at wide receiver. The parents on the sideline are just like barking at Indy Reed. Oh, we'll get my son in the game. We're paying for this league. Our son better get a couple cracks at it. Maybe that's the Kadarist's getting playing time.

Dude, he's at 20%. He's like only Justin Ross has fewer. Fewer snaps in Cadarious Tony right now. I saw some report out there. Maybe this was fake. And it was like, the chiefs are planning on Justin Ross to be their number one next year.

I'm like, why not right now? They need a number one. What are you waiting for? This guy's never healthy. Start him right now. Justin Watson? Are we really doing this? I mean, yeah, we could all die tomorrow.

Like, just no time like the president. Look at the whale. Oh my goodness. All right. D.K., what other questions did you have when you were far away? The one other thing that kind of stuck out from the slate last weekend

goes into the slate this week. is the Eagles squeaking out a O.T. win over Washington. And I feel like the Eagles haven't, I know that they're four and O. Like, I get that. But they haven't been all that impressive to me yet. Are you guys getting worried at all about the Eagles? Or is this just like, you can't really quibble about Ws in the NFL? Like, you just take Ws and move on?

Are you starting to think maybe they're not as good as we thought they were? The Eagles were playing the Rams this week. And a lot of smart, Stephen Reeves is like trying to bet Ben Solac. but if the Rams win, he gets 15 minutes of whatever he wants to do on the Philly special. I think the Rams Eagles game

might be frisky. I don't know. What do you think? I think the Rams are pretty frisky too, yeah. I feel like, like, whatever 15 minutes

Steven would want to do on the Philly special is like pretty much just like what would he do shit on the Eagles? I feel like it's already what Ben and Schill would talk about anyway. I feel like he would just want to come on

and talk football with the guys. I don't know. I think they're keeping Jalen Hertz in the garage a little bit. They're not running him nearly as much as they used to, and he just got a huge contract. And look, Hertz got hurt at the end of the last season.

He missed the last two games. I think they want him healthy. And I think if that means that they lose a couple more games this year, and they go 12 and 5 instead of 14 and 3 or 15 and 2, I kind of think they're okay with that because the goal at the end of the day is to be healthy heading into the playoffs. Yeah. That makes sense because, I mean, I'm looking at Hertz's numbers.

and I mean, they're not super impressive at this point. Like, just as raw numbers, this is passing numbers. I still love Hertz. I'm not really implying that he's not good. I just think it is kind of interesting how they've been such a lackluster relative to, like, expectation. I know that they're four and oh again. I was going to say, just please remind people that they're under. Yeah.

And again, look, this is why, you know, power rankings are never, or the right type of power rankings are never just based purely on, like, record, right? Like, we have to look at the strength of the team. the other thing, Craig, that you brought up, I think, on one of the shows last week, was Dallas Goddard is like invisible at this point in this offense. What is going on with Dallas Goddard? I feel like so much of his stuff was based on a screen that play that they had that kept running at work and now they can't do this. He's out of ideas.

He's like Daniel Jones, but like as a tight end, they're like, oh, well, we did two things and now they know what those are. It's like the guy with one pickup line and it's like, you got to figure something else out, man. Got one move out on the dance floor. Like going knocked up. They changed songs. He's like,

ah, all right. Well, enough about good teams. I think it's, we should probably do like a bad vibes check in because there are so many teams with bad vibes. Oh my gosh.

Yeah. Craig's, I think you immediately. Do you want to lead? Well, D. D.K missed the giant Seahx game. So Dek,

I don't know if you saw it, but basically the Giants won. It was close. Oh, did they? Yeah, yeah. It was close games.

Sounds familiar. I wouldn't. Yeah. How many fucking teams? Here's another question I had. What's up with all these teams scoring three points? Can we please get some fucking touchdowns? I think we do this every year.

I think every September we're like, this sport stinks. What are we doing? I'm just looking across like the scoreboard from last weekend. There's like six teams that scored three points. You wake up and you're like, what is this? The end of the first quarter? That's the end of the game scored? Seriously.

I'm like looking at my watch. Is it half to? I was like watching that, but a football game was a Giants fan. And I was like, oh, so John Butchagross

is going to host Red Zone but for hockey. That sounds cool. Maybe I'll get into that. Maybe I'll switch over. Anyway, so the Giants scored three points against the Seahawks.

The Giants, I think relative to expectation, got to be one of the most down atrocious teams. All right. Okay, okay. I think they're dead last.

I really do. No, no, no. No. I would like, Okay. I would like to defend this team. I would like to defend the Giants. The Giants have been absolutely pilloried this week.

Another good word. Where did that come from? Maybe it's not a word either. No, it is. I've heard of it. I don't know for sure you said it correctly, but yeah. No, he did. He did.

Okay. Yeah, yeah. Statistics. Anyway, can I defend the Giants for a moment? Look, you know, I'll destroy them first because everyone enjoys that. I'll lay out all the stats. 77 and 9 in what the first? half.

Like, ridiculous. Three points in their first two home games, lowest the Giants of had since 1939. And this reminds you in 2021 that they were outscored in the final two minutes in the first half. 1939? 79. Yeah, like,

the pre- Pearl Harbor Giants team was the last time these scored three points in their first home games. So, like, the team is bad. My lord, milk plum was just a twinkle in his father's eye at that point. Cloy Spock's, you know, wasn't even a vet.

Cloy's box had no idea. he was going to serve. Coyce box had killed zero Nazis by that point. So I would like to defend the Giants. Please. Happiness. Happiness is reality minus expectations. The problem with this team is not the reality.

The problem is the expectations. It's that when Brian Dable took over the team, they were rebuilding. They were one of the worst teams in the league trying to recover from Jason Garrett, mentoring Daniel Jones. And they were so good and they had such a bad schedule. They won so many close games.

that they made the playoffs and they just got so, they, you know, they out kicked their coverage and like, oh, they're a playoffs. I'm like, no, it's still a rebuilding team.

And you may say, oh, well, they gave Daniel Jones the money. I don't, stop talking about the Daniel Jones contract. This is snap adjusted age, the youngest team in the NFL. We're not panicking.

Don't panic. Because we're not panicking. No, I'm just saying, if you, if you wait by how many, by snaps, by how many who is actually playing,

the Giants are the youngest team in the NFL. They have the youngest offensive line in the NFL. They have the youngest secondary in the NFL. And they're the first. They started two rookie cornerbacks in week one, which hasn't happened for any team in 15 years. Like, it's not going all right. It is what it is.

And then on top of it, all our good linemen are hurt and the bad linemen are healthy. So, yeah, it's a disaster. I understand Daniel Jones is not great and all this stuff. But this is a rebuilding team and the defensive line's incredible. And like, this was always going to be a step back. That's the only thing I want to say it's not getting talking. about at all. Is they're the youngest team in the league?

They're younger than the Packers who don't have anyone in their skill group of quarterback position who legally can rent a car. So what are you trying to say? Like, what are you telling Giants fans right now? It's all good? The problem is that all the Giants fans got high on the playoff win and beating the Vikings and that people expect this team to be a playoff team. My point is this is still a team that can have a good rebuild.

It's the bills with the talking about the Giants of the bills. The bills, remember when they won the playoffs or they made the playoffs the first time in like 20 years and like they celebrated all this stuff? The next year they missed the playoffs. And then the year after that, then now they're the bills and they're really good. I'm saying like you can take the Giants took four steps forward last season. It's okay to take another step back to actually go somewhere. All I'm saying is they were the worst team in the league or one of the three worst for like 15 years. And that doesn't get fixed in one season.

I think that's all fair. but do you agree the vibes are just absolutely horrific right now? Yeah, clearly. I just ranted and very emotional. Obviously the vibes are bad, DK. No shit, man. We're doing a vibes chicken. That's all I'm saying.

They're down atrocious right now. They just scored three points on Monday night full. How many points are they scored in prime time this year, like six? Our best player is Sequin Barkley, who has hurt the high ankle and not going to resound with the team. The other best player is Andrew Thomas, who's the left tackle, who got hurt in a special team's play. and then they kept him in the freaking game

and now he's had to set back and won't come back. And then the center is John Jacob Jingleheimer is her, like all the good, uh, whatever. Steelers suck too. Vives are sucky.

The Steelers suck too and they're old. Yeah, but you know what we don't have to do? And they're old. We don't have to give Kenny Pig at $47 million next year. That's kind of nice. At least we had to ask the question.

You guys actually freaking already know. Also, you know what? we got, D.K., I don't know if you heard this. Seth Myers went on Bill Simmons's pod, and I had the funniest rule. This was really funny. So jealousy. Seth Myers was like, it's never good when all the other fans know your offensive coordinator's name. If you're a bad team. Like, if you're the best team in the league and people know Eric B. Enemy's name, that's cool. But like, if you're a shitty team and people know your offensive cord, you're like, everybody in the league knows who Matt Canada is, which is not great. Horrific. By the way, you just got a promotion. So that's cool. Yeah.

That's like how Jason Garrett was promoted out of the job. They were like, like, Like, well, maybe we just set a firing and we'll just like put him in charge of more stuff. I made this joke in the outseason, Craig, and it's truly living up to it. It's like the departed quote with Matt Damon where he's like, look, I'm Irish. I'll stay with this forever. Like, the Steelers are too fucking loyal. Like, figure it out. Yeah, they are.

This is not working. Well, they have three coaches in 40 years. I know. That's what I'm saying. They're just like, they're Catholic, you know? I have a take here. There's one thing. I'm actually kind of getting tired of the Matt candidate discourse.

Craig, and everyone blaming MacKedith. I know what you're going to say. Don't defend Matt Canada. The idea that Mike Tom... No, I'm not defending Matt Canada. The idea that Mike Tomlin's just like, what's he going to do? Like, this is Mike Tomlin's fault.

Like, Mike Tom's a Hall of Famer. He's a great coach. If Mike Tomlin was fired, he would have three offers to be the highest paid coach in the NFL by the end of the day. Having said that, the idea that this is not Mike Tomlin's fault

is insane. I agree. I was just about to say that. We're at a point now where it's like, this is Mike Tomlin's decision to continue letting Matt Canada call plays. be the offensive coordinator.

Matt Canada is showing us who he is. You know what I mean? Mike Tomlin has to make a decision here. They promoted him. Jackie. Jackie wanted me to say, Jackie's whole family is from Pittsburgh and Jackie wanted me to note that this is beginning to happen in Pittsburgh within the,

everyone's whispering about Tomlin, but I'll just say this. Yeah. When Matt Kennedy even staying was kind of interpreted by people, not like people who like cover the team was interpreted as a lot of what was wrong with his offense was dictated by Tom. People don't talk like Tomlin is his boss. Sometimes the offense is doing what the coach tells him to do.

And the fact Canada even got to stay was interpreted as Canada with the offense, the bumpers were up in the bowling alley or the bowling lane because Tomlin told him to. The fact that Matt Canada was retained and it's still like this, it's like this is Tomlin's job. It's half the team. Yeah. Anyway. I mean, it doesn't help that they've played some really tough defenses, of course.

But yeah, like I don't know. Obviously. Yeah, Cleveland. and the Niners, yeah. Yeah. The real is, Steelers play the Ravens this week. I kind of think you guys are going to get your clocks cleaned. It'll be very impressive.

I agree. The classic Ravens Steelers game. All the Sto's fans. I agree. The Ravens, if the Ravens win this game, Ravens will have already beaten the Steelers Browns and Bengals. They'll be functionally, like with the head to head against all three division opponents,

and they'll functionally be three games up, five games in the season in the division. I don't disagree with you. Lamar looks great. for how good the Steelers defense is or purports to be or has the reputation of being they've gotten shredded through the air for like five years now we can never beat Tom fucking Brady and we get shredded by CJ Stroud and all these number one receivers absolutely murder us Devante Adams had like 28 catches like that is that has always been happening

with the Steelers secondary for so long we have Minka Fitzpatrick and nobody else and I think Lamar's going to have a massive day well yeah well we're on vibes checks I mean the Giants is stills are bad. We talk about the Bengals, like the vibes and the Bengals are bad. The Bears, I feel like we've talked about ad nauseum. We know they're bad.

The other one I want to talk about, dude, the vibes on the Panthers, I actually think are one of the few teams that I think might be worse than the Giants. Like the Giants actually do have quite a few good players. D.K., you texted this to me the other day. And you're like,

did the Panthers straight up pick the wrong guy? Well, the question is like, did they pick the third best quarterback in this class? They traded up to number one. They gave up their next year's number one to the bears. who have now... We're now going to have the two first...

Yeah. If the season... They'd have one and two, which is wild. And that's why the Bears... I will admit, the Bears' vibes aren't even that bad anymore because it's like... It's like... Keep losing.

It's fine. Yeah, they have something to look forward to, whereas the Panthers, it feels more, I guess, like the hopeless or something. It's obviously not to that point yet. And I'm not giving up on Bryce Young, but he has clearly been the least impressive of C.J. Stroud, Anthony Richardson,

and those were the, you know, top ranked quarterbacks coming into the draft. And to me, like the concerning thing about Bryce coming in was like his size and is that going to translate to the NFL. And like so far it doesn't seem to translate. You know what I mean? Like he looks small out there. Like his arm doesn't look particularly impressive. There's been some flashes for sure.

But he's just not surrounded by good skill players. The offensive line is still a massive work in progress. And the worst part is they gave up DJ Moore and now they have like no prospects for how are they going to get back? better going next year. You know what I mean? They said they're looking to trade for a number one receiver, which is hilarious because they gave up DG Moore in the trade. Mind you, they turned down the two first run picks for Brian Burns last year and they

haven't even resigned him yet. But someone laid out the actual picks, like the people that have gone with these picks. And it was like, oh, my God, there's a chance that Panthers traded away, D.J. Moore. And then the ninth pick, which they could have, I mean, Jalen Carter. I mean, you know, that's someone that could have had who's maybe the best player from the whole draft. And then on top of it, the first rounder next year might end up being Caleb,

Williams from USC, and also two second rounders, just to go and get Bryce Young, who might not be good, or at the very least, best case is that Bryce Young is good, and that Frank Reich has already kind of revealed himself as a pretty horrific coach. And I, like, Frank Reich is, I think the biggest difference is also just coaching. I mean, the Texans with Demico Ryan's and then also Bobby Slowick, their offensive coordinator has done fantastic job. Yeah, exactly. Carolina. You're like, how did they think this was going to work? It's like, not a good sign when the most exciting and most consistent player on the Panthers offense is Adam Thielen, who's like 34 and has one foot out the door in the NFL. You know what I mean? Like it's just the vibes are not good, obviously.

And it doesn't seem like there's a clear path to getting Bryce Young to help he needs. So that's just why, you know, it's very concerning. And of course, it's, it's, it's doubly tough to watch when you see how well Anthony Richardson is playing, how Stroud is setting all these records for the first four weeks of his career and looks amazing. And he's making all these plays out of structure. and he's elevating all these players around him and Bryce Young has just really been struggling so it's not looking good right now. Obviously, I'm not giving up on Bryce by any means,

but the vibes are not good. It is pretty crazy. I don't know if this is more the case now than it has been. It kind of feels like it is because back in the day, people like Peyton Manning, a lot of these guys would have really rough rookie seasons and then come around. It really feels like nowadays,

you know immediately. Like Herbert played one game and you're like, yep. Baham's played one game, two games, you're like, yep. CJ Stroud, we're like immediately, two games in, you're like, yep. And it feels like the guys who don't start that way, it's really hard for them to come back around.

You know what I mean? And I don't know if that's a product at the times, if there's a difference in the way offenses are run or play calling or what, but I think the era of like the rookie who has a terrible year and then kind of starts to come on year two or three, it feels like that's happening less and less now, and the quarterback is either good immediately or he's bad.

I actually think the answer to this is the contract structure. It's that the collective bargaining agreement 2011 just changed that rookies are paid because they were like Sam Bradford can't be the highest paid player in NFL history before he plays a snap. They're tired of that. So then they change it. But now the way that it's incentivized is that the quarterbacks are such a bargain when they come in. They have to play them immediately. And the quarterbacks used to sit and learn the game.

And it's like for first 50 years of the NFL or 70, really, they're like, quarterback's too hard to play immediately out of college. It's too much. And they're like, no, it's too profitable, value-wise. So they're all getting thrown in the fire immediately. And it's like, look, some of these guys might benefit. Again, Tom Brady sat for your, Peyton Manning didn't, but he was like, I think he's the exception to prove the rules. Tom Brady sat, Trebris sat, Aaron Rogers sat for three years, Mahomes sat for a year. Like, I don't think that's a coincidence.

Matt Hasselbeck has said a lot. Like, Matt Hasselbeck would not have been an NFL quarterback if he got to sit for like three years. He's a sixth round pick and they need a great NFL career. And so I think that a lot of these guys, being thrown into the fire. And they, like, I don't know. I wonder a lot about, like, I don't know, what if Baker Mayfield hadn't had to play immediately

for the Owen 17 Browns? So what about, what if Kenny Pickett hadn't been thrown into the fire against the hardest defenses in the NFL? You know what I mean? Mentored by Matt Canada. Do you think it stunts your growth? Like, are you incapable of, of bouncing back?

Like, like, what is better? Playing for a year and then getting another crack at it in year two or sitting for a year and then getting, and getting your first start in year two? Because, like, Baker Mayfield is, what, your four of his career, five of his career? Like, hasn't he played enough to finally show if he has the talent or not?

He's had five offenses in four years, and he transferred in college. So if Baker-Mayfield, his career, he was drafted in 2018. So since 2016 to now, what is that, eight years? Baker-Miffield's had, like, ten offenses in eight years. So, like, that's not great. And that's the way I look at it is that a guy like,

Alex Smith, Jason Campbell, people were like four offenses in three years. And you're like, okay, like, I mean, imagine if the entire direction of your job just changed every single year. And they're like, hey, why aren't you the best in the world at this? I think, Craig, when you're asking that question, the first thing I thought of was, it maybe is less to do. I mean, I think it does matter to get more reps and learn the offense, like more clearly,

get the language down. All that stuff matters. But there's more value in sitting a guy. I think for a year if you're going to improve the support system around him. Like the support system is more important than a sitting thing, right? Like getting the team to a point where you can support a quarterback, help him out, you know, make yards for him,

don't turn the ball over, basically take the load off of him and, you know, distribute among the defense and the offensive linemen and the running backs, the receivers, all that stuff. You know, that, to me, is like the biggest deal. And that's why, you know, I think Bryce Young, it worries me because I'm worried it's going to be like a Justin Field situation where we have just a really bad offense around him for the first like three years of his career. And then it just spirals from there. And then fans start calling for someone new. And they start calling him a bust.

And it just sort of snowballs from there. And, you know, I think the one exception to this rule is like Trevor Lawrence, as a rookie, was horrific. But his surrounding situation was horrific. and then things got a lot better around him, and he improved dramatically. So it's not impossible. Of course, Trevor Lawrence was an extremely good prospect, and he has very rare skills.

So it's just tough with some of these other guys. So the bottom line is, I think, situation is very, very crucial. Anthony Richardson landed in a position with a coach and play caller who has proven the ability to use players of that type of skill set, where you can incorporate him into the run game. That's huge.

You know how to develop a guy and not ask too much of them right away and blah, blah, blah. You know, I don't know really what the plan is, Bryce Young. It just seems like they're trying to throw them out there and see whether you can sink or swim. It's almost like, you know, when they say like, you know, a Nepo baby, you know, born on third and you thought you hit a triple, stuff like that. It's like it's almost like Patrick Mahomes being drafted into the chief's organization with Andy Reid, with the offense, having a year to sit. It's like he basically started on second base. And then it's like the complete opposite is like Josh Rosen. you know what I mean?

He came into the worst offense in the league with no coaching structure, with no anything. Who are the successful quarterbacks? Russell Wilson went to the greatest defense in modern NFL history since probably the 2000 Ravens. Dak Prescott went to the best roster in the entire NFL when he replaced Romo.

Lamar Jackson went to the Ravens, who had made the playoffs. Deshaun Watson when he went to the Texans was good immediately. Texans had won the division like three times in a row without him. The Chiefs without Mahomes, like the Chiefs had just won like 13 games

without Mahomes with Alex Smith playing. It's like there was like a stretch from like Andrew Luck and Cam Newton genuinely changed their franchises and those special guys do. And then you didn't have another quarterback do that till Joe Burrow. And so I think that there's basically two guys. Exactly. He was terrible until that happened. And so it's like there were basically two pockets, right, of ways to win in the NFL. Let's get a transcendent player with a great situation like a Mahomes, Josh Allen, whatever.

But really the other way it's you have to build a great freaking team. And honestly, a lot of teams that have succeeded did it by accident. The Bucks built a team around James Winston. and he sucked, replacing with Tom Brady won the Super Bowl. The Rams built a team for Jared Gough, flipped in for Stafford, they won the Super Bowl. And it's like the Lions built teams

for staff didn't work. And then they're like, all right, they built a whole other team, stuck Jared Gough in. That's working. And so the Broncos tried to do with Rust didn't work. But it's like you're building a team around the guy. And then if that's not the guy,

you stick someone else in and there's so much infrastructure to prop them up. And I think that's such a more sound way to build a team. And so that's the reason to come back around. It's kind of the reason I'm not worried about the Giants is I actually think

they can accrue enough talent that like, all right, two or three years you've got to get rid of them. I don't know. Giants have a lot of great players that they can do. And it's like, all right, there's plenty of teams that you build enough skill set. Then you go from there. I don't know. Again, just to wrap it all up, it goes to what I said earlier. It's like the margins in the NFL are so narrow. It's so hard to win in the NFL. But things can change quickly. It's like starting a podcast. It's like, you know how many things need to go right for your podcast to actually be popular? Think about how many podcasts. Totally. It's, yeah. I think the lesson. already was you were going to bet on an outlier in Bryce Shunger Richardson.

Bet on the one who is huge and fast. That was probably the one. All right. We got a little huge Fandule contest going here. If you haven't heard, we have a contest for the Ringer Fantasy Football Show at Fandul. It's going to run from weeks three to ten. And if you haven't done yet, that's okay,

because we're going to take the top five scores from week three to ten. And we're going to average them. And the winner gets money, a trophy, et cetera, our eternal respect. So you can join it at fandul.com slash, Ringer FFS, or it's in the episode description because Craig says no one does URLs anymore. But I say fendul.com slash ringer FFS. DK.

Yo. Who are your stars and scrubs? And again, scrubs are good. So you're star and then a player who's cheap you think will be good this week. My star this week is David Montgomery for the Lions who. No, no. We said star. Sorry.

Oh, hey, come on. Did you see him score like 30 plus points last week? He's really good, by the way. And the coaching staff loves him. They want to utilize him. Him changing his number has helped him more than he'll ever know. He looks faster, doesn't he? He does.

He looks a little more sleek and spelt. He's going up against the aforementioned Panthers. I think their run defense has been bad. Their defense overall, their team is bad. They're not very good. I think the lines are going to be playing with the lead here. They're going to give him more opportunities inside the red zone. I just like David Montgomery this week.

My scrub, I'm deciding between two guys. I'm going to go with Tank Dell for the Texans, who, again, he was quiet last week, but I think he's still playing a ton of snaps, still has a great chemistry with C.J. Stroud. And I think that this is a team that likes to pass a lot. Trust CJ Stroud to do that. Tank Dell is a, he's only, let's see here. He's 6,000 on Fandowl.

So I just like him, I think he's going to get a lot of targets, going to bounce back from last week. David Montgomery and Jemir Gibbs should like just do a jersey swap and then everybody will be happy. Like the Morris twins? Yeah, it's like how Don Draper just like took that guy's identity, change his name. him's like just yeah I guess yeah that's tough but it's been a while it shows been out for like over a decade

but like if david montgomery was just like wearing jemir gives his jersey i feel like everyone's happy everybody wins dan campbell's happy because he's playing david montgomery fantasy people are happy because like the guy with the last name gibbs is scoring and honestly he looks like jimir gibbs have the way he's running these days anyway that's a side note my star tyree kill i'm and rehem moster to be honest. I'm like grabbing. Hyatt's talking about these rookie corners on the Giants. I want Tyreek. He had a down week last week. And Rahim Mostert. I'm zagging.

I don't think a lot of people are going to be playing him in daily because of, what, he had nine yards last week. So those are my two stars. My scrub, we mentioned this man, Zay Flowers, $5,900 bucks playing the Steelers. The Steelers are so fucking bad against wide receivers. I could have just stopped it bad, but they're so bad against wide receivers specifically. So I really like Zayflowers. There you go. I also had Tyree Kill.

Tyree Kill. I have no idea how the Giants are going to cover Tyree Kill. The Giants like the blitzing the Dolphins is very silly. It gets rid of the ball so fast. And I mean, Tyree Kill, I, Dory Jackson is on the Giants. He's like the fastest cornerback. That's the guy who would guard him. For context, four years ago,

Adory Jackson tried to guard Tyree Kill when he was on the Titans. And Tyree Kill had 160 yards in a touchdown. And Tyree Kill is just as fast. than Dori Jackson is not. And so I'm just, like, deeply concerned about this game on a spiritual level to the point where so many people are taking them in Survivor, I'm wondering if the Giants are going to win. And then my scrub is Marvin Mims for the Broncos, who again leads the Broncos in receiving yards, even though he, like, barely plays to them, which is one of the funniest running bits.

I kind of wonder, like, how long that can go on, like, this basically part-time role player is just leading the Broncos and receiving rights. Are you really coaching if you're just playing your good players? I mean, that's just easy. You can't, it's not coaching if you're just like putting in your good players. You have to be like developing guys. You have to have someone named Brandon Johnson coming in and playing a whole bunch of snaps. I've never even heard of this guy before.

And they're, you know what? They're making yards and they're scoring points. Russell Wilson looks pretty good. Brandon John, that's just a great coaching job by Sean Payton. He doesn't need to play his best players, you know. Did you, did you detect by sarcasm? I fucking hate this shit. You're officially back.

This is a player fucking good players. God damn it. DK, you missed a lot of episodes. Do you want to tell me your vacation first? Did we want to do the Mbop there? I'm going to do the Mbop thing. Let's say the Mbop, as you put it. Yeah.

Did you hear that? Okay, so if people are listening to have no idea we're talking about. Craig and I, as soon as DK left, somehow had this large argument about whether imbop by Hansen or whatever is the... Mbop. What's the bigger song, Mbop. What is it? Mbop.

Mbop. You want me to say that? Like, I'm an adult. That's how it's. That's what it's called. Why would you say M? Why would you say M-Bop? There's three M's.

I am an almost 30-year-old man and you want me to say, there's no context where I'm like, hmm, like unironically. I mean, it's the name of the song, but okay. That's ridiculous. I'm not making that sound. It's like I'm not going to start saying Devon a chan or A-chan. Well, that's his name.

That's different. Well, this is the name of the song, is what I'm saying. That's stupid. Yeah, it is exactly. the same actually. No, it's not. Once a person. Yeah, but one way, either way, it was something that, like, a person decided

was named this. It's like, it's the most catchy, like, hook of the 1990s and everyone knows and said, um, bab, do, like, that's how they say it in the song. And you're calling, you say it's something different. What was your reaction when, um, you heard the argument to the first time? I mean, it's just absolutely ludicrous

to think that, uh, fucking my chemical romance. was bigger than Hansen at any point in time. Like, what are we time? They are now. I would argue that have been for tech. I think, I think Hansen's brewery is bigger than my chemical romance.

Stop it. That's in its same take. That's worse than my original take. Hanson's beer is more famous than fucking my chemical romance. I like my chemical romance. Are we doing this again? So, Hyvich, are you saying right now, if you walked on the street and found anybody

and you walked up to them and said, have you heard of my chemical romance and Hansen that more people will say, I've heard of my chemical romance? This has been confirmed. We got floods of email from people who said everyone under 22. It's no idea who Hanson is.

We're not talking about people under 22. I'm talking about society is what you said. There's what D.K.'s talking about. The world. No. People know my... All the feedback was my chemical romance is more famous. No, all the feedback was, My Chemical Romance is a bigger band,

but that song is bigger than anything my chemical romance. did. Okay. Well, anyways, I really enjoyed when Craig threw all the stats at you in the follow-up episode, basically about like the top 50, where they were on the on the Billboard charts or whatever. Like, that was very satisfied. I don't know where I was for this song.

Hanson was like a top 50 song of the 90s and teenagers was not a top 50 song of the year. It's like, I think the worst. It's like comparing like a Hall of Flame player who was like an all decade to with a guy who was like an alternative. in the pro bowl. You know what? This is how I'm going to feel when Kai has like no idea who like Patrick Lewis gets a bad example.

It's more like Lyddi and Tomlinson. And I'm like, well. I mean, to me this is just like classic you're just too young to know what Hanson was, but they were massive. This song was absolutely fucking massive. It took over. Yeah, I was born in 1995.

What year was the song? It doesn't matter. 98. It did matter because my brother had never heard of it. And clearly like, I don't know. I was, society failed me. How was I supposed to know?

I don't know. I also have an older brother who has heard of Hansen and Mbop and I am the same age as you, so. So it's my brother's fault. It's my brother's fault. Not a Hanson household, you know? You know what's funny about it

is in the same way that Hyford's like shames people for their trivia guesses? He like made me feel bad at first about my Hansen thing. I was like, for a second, I was like, man, like maybe I'm way off on this Hansen thing because Hyford's like,

Craig, you're nuts. My chemical romance. And I was like, you know what? No. I got to double down here and stay in my ground. Half the time in trivia, I always say the dumbest answer and half the time it's right. That's your fault. I don't know.

Sounds like a, that's a YP. It's a U problem. Is it? Highfitz is a confident. He's a confident arguer. I don't know. Hyphitz is like loud equals correct is Hyphitz. It's striking to me that he's still like defending this take where after being, you were very like

contrite in the last episode about how everyone had email. There's like 400 something emails you lost by like 80% in the poll. Like there's like 4,000 votes in this poll and you lost by a fucking landslide. And now you're still trying to defend this. He is like the Trump of this argument. He's like, we need to find more votes. Yeah. We didn't get all the ballots in Arizona.

We're still waiting. There's a lot of listeners in Arizona who haven't heard of yet. The show probably didn't even go out. I don't know. I'm just saying. I heard that only people in Oklahoma, only people in Tulsa voted, I heard. Yeah.

Also, with all the bots that can vote online. We don't know what Craig did. Right. That was very funny, though. Good job, guys. Ignite. It was a firestorm of controversy while I was gone.

I was getting all these tweets. Yeah, I was getting all these tweets. I was like, what the fuck did they do? Did you hear on one of the pods that a man like was yelling at me on the street? and I thought it was a crazy person and he was actually yelling mba, bet me.

This is like the best anecdote. This is literally our apex mountain. I think you said that. This is our apex mountain. Someone yelling at us on the street about fucking Hansen. Crossing the street because he thought the person would. If you listen to that guy,

can you email us at Ringer Fantasy Football? I'm so sorry if you're listening. And I did try to yell back at you and say like, oh my God, you're like totally Mbap. But I apologize because I was very caught off guard. I'm very infrequent. like noticed on the street. So I like how it's like not Josh Jacobs or fucking Mike Davis.

It's M. Pop. Also the fact that I'm like, I'm with Bill, Chris and Sean, the three most famous people at the company and I and Bill Simmons is legitimately famous. And this guy yells Mbop at me. Our greatest moment of all time. It's all downhill from here, guys.

It is. It's all over. I mean, that's what the song's about, really. That's what Mbop's entirely about. TK, did you like Mbop in the moment? Was this like high school for you? What was 97?

No, I don't think I ever liked it. It was, I would not say it's a great song. It's just catchy. And it gets, like you said, it's an earworm. It gets stuck in your head forever. And I don't, honestly, I don't remember any of their other songs. But it was a sensation. It was massive, massive hit.

And they were, you know, a little boy band or whatever. I know they had like multiple albums, but I don't remember anything. No, I think they were pretty much a one-hit wonder. Yeah. which is why they make beer now. Go to their brewery. I think we should get them on the show. I think we could do it.

I don't know. We'll see. I just tell them to their face, do you think you're bigger than my chemical romance? It's just such a six-person pod. What if they agreed with me? Can you imagine? Well, they would be wrong.

It wouldn't matter. The numbers speak for themselves. Yeah. Craig, throw up the stats again. Come on. Oh, my God. I mean, they were nominated for two Grammys. one song in the country.

Number one. Teenagers was number 67. Ted's peak. It's dumb. It's a dumb. This is somewhat I liked my chemical romance back in the day. And I'm just saying there's no comparison

in terms of like fame. I don't know that these people are. Whatever. Joy, your mops. That was Greece. Greece was dope. It was very fun. What would you like to know?

What's the best thing you ate? Oh, that's a good question. They've got this fried feta that's covered in like dough and they sprinkle honey and sesame seeds on it. It's very delicious. I'm a big starters kind of guy. Like I love getting like 12 starters and eating all of this. Yeah, tapas is how food was meant to be like waves of small plates.

So that was really good. I went to the restaurant that High Fitz recommended. Sunset. I can't remember the name of it. A Moody Bay? Yeah, Moody Bay is like really far down a cliff and then you're right on the water. It's really cool. So that was a great restaurant.

Would recommend. Did you get in the water at all? Yeah, we went on a catarabaran tour of the surrounding area. If you don't know Santorini, it's basically the towns are built on the rim of the volcano. And then in the middle of the bay that these towns overlook, there's a big caldera. It's a giant volcano. And you can take a little catamaran over there. there's a sulfur, there's sulfur springs in the water so you can jump in the water.

It's like hot springs almost, which of course means the volcano is still doing stuff, which is a little disconcerting when you're up there. But yeah, it was awesome. Still churning. We had a great, we had a great crew on the catarind. They made everybody, like, do backflips off the boat. That was fun. You did a backflit off the boat?

Yeah, they said, if you can jump off, you have to flip. So everybody was, like, diving head first or jumping out. That's hard. I feel like people, not everybody can. can backflip or is like physically capable of everybody not everybody did do backflops but the effort was put out yeah santerini was sick i went to santerina after we did the sweden trip santerini is like it genuinely is as advertisements beautiful places in the world the whole thing's built around the sunset it's crazy like it's there's just every inch of like the island is basically

like geared to like enjoy the sun at all times right it's red we rented an at tv and ripped around the island on that that was did you oh wow Jack and I were gonna, and we were like, I think if we rent a vehicle here, we will, we will break up. Because like, driving an ATV on that island is like, oh my God. I know. It was a little harrowing at times, I'd say. I told Skippy, I was joking with her before we rented. I was like, you know, if we're going to end up in the hospital on this trip, it's because we fucking crashed driving around that like 50 miles an hour in traffic.

And there's just, you know, it's probably not like the safest thing you can do, but it's super fun. We got to explore all over the island. We went to a bunch of different beaches all over the island. There's a beach called Parisa that we hung out with some friends at. It was really cool. Yeah, fun time. Loved it. Would do it again.

Actually, I don't think I would go to the same island again, but I love the Greek islands. Did you eat fish? Did you eat seafood? Yeah, I did eat some red snapper. It was good. Nice. Yeah. So, you know, I'm not going to talk shit about fish right now.

I thought it was good. It was one of those things are. High Fitz, you pick out the fish that you're going to eat, and then they cook it for you. I know. They bring it up to you. They're like, which one do you want? What? So they, like, all of us took a picture with this fish and then they cooked it up for the entire table.

It was very dark. It's kind of a morbid way to go about your meal. Trophy hunting. Yeah. If you guys were going to be eaten, would you rather just like a faceless block of your flesh vacuum sealed? Do we're like, look at your whole body and pick you? I don't know. This is a very macabre conversation.

Fine, whatever. I don't know. I don't know. I'll put it up. I don't know. I'll switch gears. DK., did you see the cat? Because you sat at the same table.

The cat. There was a There's a bunch of cats. Yeah. That was at the restaurant No, that you were at and there's a cat that was like feeding scraps.

I'm not going to like we fed the cat a lot of them. Fried octopus. Did you see the cat? It was really cute. I don't think. Well, maybe the cat's dead now

after you fed it pounds of octopus. They had like a big memorial set up. I don't really know what that was all about. He ate too much fried cheese. Yeah, and they told us specifically

not to feed any of the animals around there. We didn't get told us. I don't know if that's related at all to what you're. doing. But yeah. I did. It was weird because that was the second time I went to Europe in the last like few months.

It was like reminded me of, you know, did you ever see the movie, uh, something about Mary? And there's, yeah, like they're, the two guys are pretending to be something that they're not. And they're like talking to each other. He's like, have you ever been to Santiago, Chile? And he's like, yes, twice last year. I was like, I was like, what I sound like what I'm talking. talking about I went to Greece right after I went to Sweden. I sound like such an asshole.

Who goes to Santiago Chile twice in the year? Twice. Anyway, that's what I felt like. The jet setting lifestyle. I know. And by the way, I'm ready to not fly for a while. That's a long-ass flight. It's like nine and a half hours.

We had a bunch of, we missed our connection on the way there, which was an ideal. But all in all, great trip. Loved it. What did you do on the plane? I'm always fascinated.

Oh, my God. I was actually going to the opposite. I'd rather hear about grease than the plane. I hate people. Oh, no. What do you do? You watch movies? I tried, Craig, on the way there, this was my nightmare.

On the way there, I wanted to watch all these movies. They had some good movies on deck. But then the internet and the TVs all went out and they couldn't reset them because this was like two hours into the flight. It's a nine-hour flight. There's something going on right now in the airline industry. The technology is getting worse. I probably been on whatever.

I think like six. of my last 10 flights have not even offered Wi-Fi or internet to be purchased because it's down. My flight to Sweden and back, they're in back. No internet. Thank God I downloaded movies before. I don't know what, I can't sleep on planes. Pulling a putty, just staring at the back of your chair in front

of you. They're terrible. Every time I'm on the plane, it's like, our Wi-Fi is temporarily down. I think this is the worst form of conversation. Complaining about being a Greek myth. Like, you get to like be, like, you get to go to fucking Greece in one day. You're flying. But it doesn't matter where I'm flying.

And you're like, what of all, any flight anywhere, the internet doesn't work. I'm just flying anywhere. That's existed for like six years, the idea of internet on a flight. You can just have, like, you've some God-given right to internet while you jet set across the goddamn sky. It's not a champagne problem compared to people nowadays. Yeah, I guess it's a champagne problem that people born in 1840, but not people who are alive right now. Okay. Do you, if you have a long flight, do you not down?

like a show from Netflix or Hulu on your phone before you get on the plane. Spotify podcast. You don't download things on your show before you go. In anticipation of the Wi-Fi networking. If it's a Saturday night and the power goes out in your house, you're like, well, look, they didn't have power 300 years ago. So I can't really be bad. That's on the ground.

That's on the fucking ground. That's not like a plane in the sky. I'm like, well, this Wi-Fi might go down. And they're like, oh, it's a three-hour flight. I'm going to download a movie in case the Wi-Fi goes down. I'm an adult. I download the dark night or heat on my phone or iPad in case the internet goes out on the plane because it's a plane in the sky.

Here's what I'm saying. If a very expensive piece of equipment that you pay a ton of money to use offers a product, I expect that it should work. And I think that's completely fair and not a champagne problem. Go build your own then. The Wi-Fi is $20. Oh, my God. The plane got you there.

The plane's not the problem. High face. You're so, this is a bizarre take out of you. They offer it. It should work. He's really stuck on the idea that flying is like fucking wild. Look, I get that. It is.

It's cool. The internet hasn't been around for a long time on planes. That's because I'm afraid of dying. It doesn't do with anything. But you're more likely to die driving to the airport. If I buy an iPhone, I expect it to work. Dude, you bought the plane ticket. You got.

You got everywhere you're going. It's not congruous or whatever. Like, you're going on this high-tech airplane. It's insane how crazy these things are. We're putting these giant hunks of metal in the sky. And yet the fucking internet won't work on it. Oh, my God. At all.

Like, the screens are, the screens don't work. I'm so confused. Like, that's incongruous. It's weird. It's not a crazy complaint because it exists and works. It's always, because they know how to do it. Maybe we're coming from different perspectives here. If they said, hey, guys, with all flights, there's a 50% chance the internet works at all times.

That's just like a rule of airlines. It's a coin flip every time. They don't say that. They offer it. Do the computers on these things that are fly in the planes, like shit out half the time? Like, that makes me a little more worried about flying. Here's my question. How many flights have you guys taken where the Wi-Fi worked so perfectly that you're like,

oh, well, this should always work. Because maybe I'm just coming from the experience where I can't remember ever going like two flights in a row where the Wi-Fi worked, hence why I always download stuff before I get on a long flight because I've never, it's like literally it's never worked enough for me to be like, oh yeah, this will work this time. I'm going to get on a seven-hour flight with no backup plan. The free, the free Wi-Fi is shoddy, and I don't disagree with you because it's free and I understand that.

But there's always a paid service. You can pay $20, $29, whatever it is. Yeah, has that always worked for you? No, that's my point. That's my point. It's annoying that they offer it. You said 10 flights. you should have a backup plan by now.

I do have a backup plan. I literally said it's why I thank God I downloaded movies before. And I'm saying it's annoying that this high-tech machine that offers such a high-end experience doesn't work most of the time. Maybe figure it out before you offer it. I'm with you. I think the idea of internet, I think that this is like,

I think that this is the epitome of like, no matter how good life is, people will be unhappy. Like you have internet It's expectation versus reality If they're telling you Hey man Welcome to Delta

We offer high speed internet You can stream all of our movies Sit back and have a great flight We'll bring you an orange juice And you sit down going great They told me I get to watch movies on the flight And you sit down and they go Hey

Something's up No movies. Sorry about that I think I'm allowed to be upset about that They tried I don't know Like they try High Fitz is like That's crazy

He's swimming upstream on this one Or whatever rowing upstream me. All right. You know what? The idea that we should just like... Let's make this a poll. The idea that we should just appreciate airlines is like ludicrous.

Airlines are the worst run businesses in the fucking world. That's not what I said. Havits is like, it's hard. It's hard to like fly a plane. You're flying. You should appreciate that you're up there. Get the fuck out of here. Don't offer it if it doesn't work.

Airlines are the fucking worst. What are we doing here? The poll should be this. Should you be, are you allowed to be upset if inter, internet on the plane does not work. I guess what I'm saying is like, I get that you can be upset. But I guess the flip side of the coin is if this bothers you so much, why would you ever get on a, you know, it's literally, you go to Netflix.

You just hit download and it takes like two seconds. I think you're missing the point. He says he did that. You are missing the point. Yeah, of course. Also, you can't do that if you have a laptop. You can do it on your phone or you can do it on an iPad, a tablet device. You can't do it on a laptop.

So if you don't want to watch something on a tiny little phone screen, you're screwed. Unless you have an iPad, which a lot of people, a lot of people obviously don't. Craig, to add to this... You can't download stuff off Netflix on a laptop. To add to this, the charger station on the TV did not work either. So if I was going to try and watch a movie on my phone, my phone would have died within like an hour. That sucks.

So you want the charges to work. I'll give you that. A lot of the charges don't work. What? No, what? Bring a portable charger. You got to play for that. Yeah, I always do.

It's an airplane. You think they're supposed to have 100 working outlets in the sky? I always have a portable charger. How can you think that and not the other thing? That's ridiculous. Because that's a wire. It's easier. Dude, Wi-Fi hard wires on the plane.

That makes more sense to me. It's like a hard wire thing. Wi-Fi on the sky. I can see how that's complicated. I think airlines just want people's expectations to be really, really low. So they don't really try. Airlines are crux. We got to figure what the polls do.

This is crazy. I got a whole thing about the emergency row on the hottest take. You could listen to that if you want. What is it? What is their crooks? I think it's ridiculous that they allow civilians to operate the emergency exit. Civilians. I don't think that makes sense at all.

They should have emergency exit marshals on the plane. So it's like in the most important time in your life, a plane crash, you're expected to rely on a 68-year-old woman sitting in the row who had headphones in while the person was telling you what to do when the plane goes down. I'm relying on her to open the hatch and save us all. There should be a flight attendant sitting in that seat at all times. but the airlines need to make money on tickets. So they're like, you know what if we just had the passengers operate the door? Wouldn't that be crazy? Put a fucking flight attendant there.

I've never, you guys, I think it's that I've just never been afraid of planes. I think we have different fears. Yeah, maybe. The idea I've seen, I've watched Lost too many times maybe, I don't know, cast away. I had a really interesting discussion with somebody recently. This is a guy who was a longtime commenter at Field Goals, my old blog. And I was talking to him about like, like how I get nervous flying.

And he was like, yeah, I do too. And came to find out, this guy was an F-16 fighter pilot for like 30 years or 20 years or whatever. And he was telling me he still gets nervous on landing on commercial flights. And it's exactly the same reason. I don't like not having control of what's happening. You know what I mean? It's more of like a control thing.

I think it's less natural to be comfortable flying. I think it's much more understandable to be nervous like flying in this like metal. Metal tube through the sky. And my whole point is just like all these air. airlines want to do is make you feel comfortable and distract you. Oh, don't worry. You're up here. You're safe. Watch a movie. And then I sit down and I'm like, great. At least I can check out watch a movie on Delta. And they're like, no,

it doesn't work. I'm like, great. I guess I got to watch reruns a new girl that I downloaded on my phone. That's for eight hours. Yeah, I love new girl. All right. We should probably end the show. Thank you. We post this is a second episode? Is this like a Friday episode?

I don't know. That was maybe like a part two? He did what I've heard of us. I'm just, I don't know. All right. We've got to figure what the poll is going to be. We can figure that out later. All right. Thank you, D.K., for being back.

Thank you, Craig. Congrats to whoever got married to Greece that D.K. went to. Thank you to intern Jack. Who's going to have to pull some video from this? What's soon as he does? Thank you, Wright brothers. Thank you, who invented planes? Who invented Wi-Fi?

Right. Brothers. I don't know. Wrong brothers. Am I right? Yeah. Thank you, Lauren. Lord.

Thank you, my chemical romance. For being moderately popular. for being moderately, you know, a niche ban that some people know about. The hyphins is like, should I, should I do, should I get back into this argument or not? He's, he's showing restraint. No, you only, you only set me off when you were like the Hanson's breweries bigger than my chemical romance. Okay, obviously I was talking about. That set me off.

We got to figure out what the wording is on the pole. I'm not defending airlines. I saw my chemical romance with the war. Warp Tour one year. Oh, really? What's the Warp Tour? The Warp Tour. You don't know what the Warp Tour is?

Is that a workplace? Hefez doesn't know what the Warp Tour is. This all starts to make sense. I literally am getting deja vu to like when my friends were all like, oh, we're going to see Vampire Weekend. And I thought that meant a music festival. And then I thought, I just, and then I kept thinking Vampire Weekend was a music festival.

And then I was like, you don't know, Vampire Weekend? And I got caught thinking that they were a festival and they were a band. I got to say, for how confident you are. about so many things. You really have a lot of pop culture blind spots that you don't really, you know, you don't really show. You kind of keep that hidden.

But you're so confident about so many things. It's a festival. Is it not? It's a traveling, like, rock tour. Primarily, like, punk stuff, I think. Yeah. Oh, my God. I googled it. And ironically, you know, is playing there this year?

Who is this the new post? Oh my gosh. This is meant to be. Oh, yeah, it is over. But sorry, what it was in June. I'm trying to find me, this is the real one, 25th universe, oh, 2019, never mind. But the Google, the first thing that comes up, you Google it is Andrew WK. It's like headline.

Yes. It's so funny. Amazing. It's meant to be. Full circle. Oh my God. That's actually pretty wild. What was it?

You guys had never heard of Andrew W.K. Or was it that you just like- I had never heard of him. I've never heard of him. ever heard of him. That is just wild. Jackie was upset with me because they used to play

party hard at Penguins game when they scored, but they changed them to jump around, which is wild because it's like, jump around is cool, but like you have a tradition. Full circle. I do like jump around,

that's a great song. I mean, who doesn't like jumping around, but. Pack it up, pack it up. Bye, goodbye, everyone. Must be 21 plus and present in select states,

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