The Ringer NFL Show - NFL Week 1 Start-Sit, Injury Updates, and Key Matchups

Episode Date: September 8, 2023

Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck preview the Week 1 fantasy football slate with categories including the Hot Tub Club (a.k.a. the players with injury concerns), Sunday Scaries, the Door Dash Award, a preseason Hype Index, the DK on DK Corner, and much more (2:31). Finally, the guys close with emails (62:34). Check out our Week 1 Fantasy Football Rankings for this week’s positional rankings and more! 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

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Show, my name is Danny Hyfitts. I am joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Worldwick and football's back, baby. We're back. It's week one, Craig. Strong side! Left side! Strong side! Left side! Football's back.

DK.'s never seen that movie since there's no idea what's going on. That's so insane to me. Watch that instead of the game tonight. Yeah, it's honestly. I mean, what are you going to? Colts, Jaguars or remember the Titans? I will never watch. that that's fine it's week one football's back it's kind of insane every year labor day weekend i'm like wow the NFL really crushed this whole like putting football three days after labor day weekend thing and every year i'm just like damn that's wild okay bunch of housekeeping up top if you're wondering

who to start or sit our rankings at fantasyfutball dot the ringer dot com we're gonna we had preseason rankings now we're gonna have in season rankings telling you who we would start or sit positionally you can type in running backs end receivers together to get your flex also i never mentioned this but They're free. The rankings are free at Fascifold.3.com. I feel like I'd never talk about that, but someone asks that we charge money.

You can Venmo me if you want to. If you want. We should start putting our Venmos in our bios, like all the, all the zoomers. People do that on Twitter, and I'm like, come on, man.

You can also ask us stuff on Twitter. I'm at Danny underscore Hyfitz. D.K's Danny B. Kelly. Craig is Craig Craig Rollback. I'm Danny Hyfitts in Instagram. You can just, you know, slot in the DMs, at us, whatever.

I don't know if we're answer. But we might. Also emails trivia questions. we're going to have waiver wire stuff. Emails trivia questions. Remember, it has to end in a number. So just trivia questions, answer us to be a number, whatever it is. Fantasy courts, send us whatever you got.

With all that said, let's talk about week one. There's actual football going on. Finally. We're recording this Thursday. It's like five Eastern. So the Thursday football hasn't happened yet. We don't know what's up the Chiefs Lions, but oh my God. We're going to go through matchups, must starts.

Just basically a vibe check heading into week one here. Starting with Hot Tub Club. Honestly, kind of bad vibes with all the injuries right now. I know. Bad vibes. DK, please take us into the hot tub, DK. Take us through the bubbles. Is Hot tub club a common enough term that we can just say that and people know what that means?

I don't know. No, I think once a year we need to remind people that the hot tub club is essentially like all the people sitting around in the locker room and the hot tub because they're hurt. I think technically they're probably sitting in a cold tub if we're being really like realistic here. Ice bath. Yeah. There was one point when we tried to make the injury report have something to do with the rest of development's literal doctor where he's was like he's going to be all right. And it looks like he's dead.

And what else does he say? We've lost him. He's totally fine. We just don't know where he is. But then we decided that was also very confusing. So anyways, I'm going to run through the injuries. He looks like he's dead because he's covered in blue paint.

Yeah, he's got blue paint on him or something. I'm going to kill this doctor. But anyways, yes, these are the injuries they have to pay attention going into the weekend. Number one, Cooper Cup is out versus Seattle. And it's come out now. Sean Muffay is talking about they may put him on the IR and he'll miss the first four games.

We'll see. Right now we're just kind of... That's honestly best case scenario. The worst thing in the world is having a player who's like trying to give it a go on his hamstring in like week two and he's just hurt the entire season. Let him sit out for four games

and he'll come back healthy. Exactly. So obviously Van Jefferson to me becomes the big priority pickup if you are desperate at the position. Other injuries at the tight end spot, George Kittle was back at practice on Thursday and Wednesday.

So looking like he might have a chance to play this week, but just monitor that as we go into the weekend. Mark Andrews has a quad injury. He was limited on Wednesday, but John Harbaugh seems upbeat about his chances of playing, so he's probably going to play. Christian Watson, wide receiver for the Packers, hamstring injury on Wednesday. He missed Thursday's practice. This is very concerning to me.

I'm assuming right now, based on everything, he's probably not going to play this weekend. So Christian Watson, looking like he's trending towards being out. So set your lineups accordingly. Terry McLaurin, Washington, receiver practiced on Thursday, in full. It seems like he's going to go. I'm honestly a little bit worried about his performance, though, just because this is a toe injury. You guys have, we've seen toe injuries

in the past kind of affect guys, explosive, what do you think about this Terry McLaren thing? Turf toe is my least favorite injury in football. It sucks. There's nothing worse than turf toe to deal with as a fantasy manager, which I was going to say, well, Alex Smith, was dying from a broken leg. He was good at parties, Typh. It's Jesus. Giovante Williams

tearing every ligament in his knee probably is worse. But man, turf toes a pain in the ass. for a fancy manager. Because these guys always play through it. It's like they asked, what was the, Steveo, what was worst thing he's ever done on Jackass was? He's like, oh, I fell off a wagon once and I scraped all the skin off my ass,

and it just hurt for like a month. And they were like, that was it? He's like, yeah. Think about how often are you like sitting and whatnot. But yeah, so McLaurin to me, I'm guessing we're going to downgrade him, even though he is playing. So just to be aware that he's going to be playing through a very painful foot injury. I wouldn't play him.

Don't play Terry McLaurin. It's like, if you know, Terry McLaurin, If you bench Terry McLaurin, he has an injury. When there's a player is hurt. No. You have to remove yourself from the name unless they're like actually like Travis Kells. I know the game's already happened. But I'm just saying if Terry McLaren's hurt, you have to remember he's not Terry McLaurin yet.

At least you don't know if he's Terry McLaurin. Like he might be 70% of that. I'd rather bench Terry McLaurin and he plays great. Like, all right, cool. He's healthy. Now I know. Craig. Hefitt says the unders guy.

Bet the unders. Like Bill Barnwell told him one time, just bet unders. Is this a hot take? Don't play injured McLoren? I'm not saying this is a hot take. I'm saying, I'm starting to notice something with your personality. You're like, just get rid of Cooper Cup. He's dead to me for the rest of the year.

We should absolutely sit Terry McLaren. Any little injury? Dude, a lot of players pick up injuries throughout the year. Are you ready for this? Are you just going to say, we don't, we shouldn't play any injured player forever? Look, look, here's my rule. Here's my rule. You probably spent $20 to $30 on Terry McLaren if you had a salary cap league.

And you probably draft it in like the fourth or fifth round. whatever, $20, $15 to $20. $12. Something like that. And he's a fourth or fifth round pick in your draft. He's one of the best receivers in the league. He has 1,000 yards every year. If this man's practicing in full, you have to play him. In full, you have to play him.

He's practicing in full. In full. If you have a better option, though, as far as far as our rankings at fantasy football.com, that's where we get the rankings here. I guess if you drafted three right receivers before him, yeah. But like, odds are, you drafted Terry McClure and you're planning on starting him. Dr. Daniel Hyfitt says, okay, we're going to move on.

You guys can make your own choice in Terry McLaren. Craig and are downgrading him a little bit, but I think we're going to play him. Tight ends though is kind of easier because tight ends is simple. Mark Andrews, George Kittle. If they play, you're playing those people. Like, that's really simple. So we'll just talk about a world where those dudes are out. Mark Andrews, it's the simplest one in honestly the entire NFL.

If Mark Andrews doesn't play, you should add Isaiah likely who's his backup. He's the only handcuff at the tight. right-end position. He's incredible. He's 23 years old. Isaiah likely is unbelievable. Honestly, he might be like a top four receiver on that team. And if you don't have Mark Andrews, you should still add Isaiah likely to take him away from the guy who does have Markle. Especially if you're playing against Mark Andrews, you should probably add Isaiah Lake. Also, if you have Mark Andrews even he plays, you should add Isaiah likely and you don't have to worry about tight end any week except the Ravens Buy if you just have Andrews and likely together.

If you have Cattle, it's more complicated. If you have George Kittle, Gerald Everett for the Chargers, Joanne Johnson for the Saints, Jake O'Conquo for the Titans, although I actually don't like him this week. He's probably rostered anyway. Then there's a big drop, and then there's Dawson Knox for the Bills, Hunter Henry for the Patriots,

Jake Ferguson for the Cowboys, Greg Dulcich for the Broncos, Luke Musgrave for the Packers. It gets kind of sketchy. I feel like you've got to give a more narrow answer there. You being like, there's 10 dudes, add any of them. It's like, well, do you have a favorite? It's which one are you liking.

No, sorry, I apologize. That was the order. Sorry, if that wasn't clear. Literally the order in which I would add these people is, Gerald Everett for the Chargers, then Joanne Johnson, then begrudging Shiga Conquo, because he's better, but then the matchups are bad. And then if those guys are all gone, Dawson knocks to the bills, Hunter, Henry, the Patriots, Jake Ferguson Cowboys, Dulcich for the Broncos, then if you're really feeling friskees for some Buckees. I was going to say, Musgrave is the spicy pick here because, like I said, Christian Watson's out. Romeo Dubbs missed practice on Wednesday. He's back today on Thursday at practice.

But if Christian Watson and Dubs, if Dubs plays, he's probably going to be a little bit limited. I was going to say it's Dobbs. Dobbs, whatever. Dobbs. I feel like we've just gone back and forth on his name. Romeo Dobbs? If he does not, if he's not a full go in this game, even if he plays, then I think Musgrave could see his Rolex man a lot.

So he's kind of the sneaky guy this week. The Ringer Fantasy Football Show where we tell you to start rookie tight ends in their first career game. That's why people come here, baby. And Hyvitz tells you, sit Terry McLaurin, even though he's a full participant and start a rookie tight end in his place. I'm surprised this is like a. I just, I can't in good conscience recommend sitting a star player because he's any, even though he's a full participant.

Is he a star player? Is he really? Yes, he is. Dude. All right. Calm down. Is this weird? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

It's like injured Terry McClure. I'm like, all right, Terry McLaurin is no one's top receiver, right? He's everyone's second or third receiver or fourth. It's like, all right, well, you might have a better player. I don't know. That's all I'm saying. He's a top 20 receiver in the league. And like if he's a football participant, you have to play him.

That's nuts to me. Okay, so what do we, here's my next question. What do we do with Jerry Judy? He's back at practice. He was limited on Wednesday. I saw some video of him running routes. I mean, honestly, he looked pretty normal to me. It didn't look like he was super limited.

If he is, if he does end up playing, if he's on track to play this week, Hiface, what do you do with Jerry Judy? Are you just absolutely not playing him too? Well, I'm getting mocked with Jerry Judy. We were questioning what? We were talking about where Jerry Judy was going to miss six weeks. I'm like, yeah. I was like, oh, I might not play that guy in week one.

I feel like, am I the batty here? All I'm saying is if you have Tyler Lockett, I'd play Tyler Lockett over Terry McLaurin. I don't think that's crazy. Yeah, but in what world does somebody have Tyler Lockett sitting on their bench just languishing away ready to fill in for a hurt Jerry Judy? Like, odds are you're probably playing both those guys already and you have to start like Elijah Moore or something. those are the types of players.

I feel like you would have to start in replacement of a Jerry Judy or Terry McClor. I doubt you're just going to have Deontay Johnson sitting on the bench. Why not? What if you took Tyree Kill in the first round and D.K. Metcalfe in the third round. You start three-run receivers and a flex.

You're probably starting all those guys anyway. With that said. I'm not going to add anything to this discussion. D-K., which side are you on? Pick. You have to choose your favorite son. All right, this is why we're going to put rankings out at fantasy football dot 3 or dot com. If you have a player that's higher

than McLaurin, play that guy. And if not, then play McLaurin. We're going to rank McLaurin like he's playing. Who's honking? Who's that honking? Where's the haunting from? Is that me? I'm at the Spotify office and we're near a parking garage and there's honking going on. First of all, important thing

about the Spotify office, if you watch it's SOTI in Philadelphia, we've never talked about this in the show. The Spotify office directly overlooks the outside of the bar from Soie's Sunny. Patty's Pub. Patty's Pub from It's Always Sunny. Like literally the exterior, the brick is, that is, if I Uber to the office when I'm visiting,

I literally get dropped off at Patty's Pub. And it gets me every time. It is cool. Like scenes where they're right outside the front door and they're like doing shit on the sidewalk, that is where we work. No big deal. Flex. No big deal.

Just the exterior of a set. Anyway, that was the most contentious injury update of our career. With that said, I understand. I understand not playing Judy because he's made of glass and he's not a full participant. I just remember when Craig started that whole thing with Turf Toe, my least favorite injury and then I came out being weird for not wanting to play him one time.

Look, I'll go, going back to the same thing. If you're a full participant, you have to play them if you were already going to. Full participant. All right. When you're not injured, you're a full participant. You know what I mean? So if you're injured and a full participant,

to me, that shows that you are as close to healthy as you can possibly be. Yeah, no, that's fair. But like, I guess what I'm saying is I think it's a different dynamic. In all seriousness, I think what I'm trying to say is there's a different dynamic between being full participant, being a signal of whether you're going to play or not. However, with the nature of turf toe, that's not really what we're talking about necessarily. We're talking about are you going to have your explosiveness cutting laterally, which I don't know. This whole argument is such a microcosm for this week where it's just like, what the fuck is going to?

going on with Cooper Cuff? What the fuck is going on with all these players? We're like in midseason 4 with injuries for fantasy already and the freaking games haven't even started yet. I was going to say. You know what the best part about it is? Is none of these guys are running backs. It's all wider receivers and tight heads.

The guys who never get hurt are supposed to be safe. If you do end up having an extra roster spot or anything, you have an IR and you can put like Kyler or Jonathan Taylor or someone, even Camara sometimes on your injury reserve and you can add someone or whatever it's going on. Van Jefferson, as D. I said, because Cooper Cups hurt, probably at him just as a receiver. I think that's it for the Rams, honestly. Jonathan Mingo for the Panthers, I don't, I wouldn't blame this week.

Get into that. Well, the reason that we mentioned him is because DJ Chark and Adam Thielen are not playing right now. Yeah, they all drop like flies, the people in front of Mingo. You got second round pick and a start. Donovan People's Jones for the Brown's my guy. I kind of wish she'd have one. And Marvin Mims for the Broncos rookie, but like again, Jerry Judy's banged up.

Tim Patrick and K.G. Hamler, RIPP. So, and then again, as you said, Luke Musgrave, even Aegee Dill in the freaking running back, like, play him if. you know, the Packers' top two receivers are down. All right. Holy, it really was wild. I can't believe that took us that long. We had to talk about injuries.

Should that just be the whole episode? Do we just do Hot Top Club for an hour? I feel like we could. Should we leave? Just to argue about Turf To? Okay. Can we do Sunday scaries? Let's do it.

Yeah. Other than Turfto, my God. I'm a little scared about all these rookies, man. Again, fantasy. You should be. All right. We got three rookie quarterbacks starting in week one, which we have not seen that in a minute.

We got Bryce Young starting for the Panthers this week. A quarterback drafted first overall isn't won in week one in 20 years. He's on the road, really? Wow, that's a stat. The entire preseason Bryce Young has just been huddling on the ground like a boomer who's like doing one of those under his desk like a nuclear fallout drill. Like that's basically what Bryce Young's been doing. We got Anthony Richardson is making his first start for the Colts.

He went fourth overall of the Colts out of Florida. I love Anthony Richardson. But in college last year, Anthony Richardson didn't crack a hundred 170 passing yards till October. So excuse me if I'm a little worried about Anthony Richardson, his first and if he'll start. And then C.J. Stroud is going to play for the Texans. They took him second overall out of Ohio State.

C.J. Stroud's first games against the Baltimore Ravens. I don't know if you remember where the Ravens left off, but Lamar was hurt, but the Ravens defense was firing on all cylinders. The Ravens defense was averaging like 14 points per game allowed. Like one of the three best marks in the entire season over the final third of the year. Like the Ravens defense in December, on average, like 130 passing yards a game. Little worried about C.J. Stroud, especially since

C.J. Stroud, half his losses in college, were to Jim Harbaugh at Michigan. And then Jack's John Harbaugh's brother at the Ravens. And the Ravens' defense coordinator was the Michigan defensive coordinator. There's no defense in the NFL that's more prepared to face C.J. Stroud than the Baltimore Ravens. All this told, I don't want any of these guys or anyone associated with them. I don't want the Texans, except for Damian Pierce.

I don't want Miles Sanders with the Panthers this week. I don't want Michael Pittman for the Colts. I don't want any of these dudes in week one. And as far as I'm concerned, all these rookie quarterbacks, offenses. They cannot move the ball until I see otherwise. That's how I feel. The only thing I will quivel with here, I agree with you in terms of I'm not really interested or excited about any of the corresponding players in these in these offenses, the receivers particularly. I think Damien Pierce for the Texans, that's good. I'm excited about him.

But when you mentioned Anthony Richardson not passing for 100 and whatever yards until October, you kind of leave out an important variable here, which is in his first game last year in college for Florida. He rushed for 106 yards and three touchdowns. This is why we like him because he runs. I agree. But how much did he, but he three in the first week and then six in the next 11 games? He's freaking amazing at running. I know. I'm just saying that's my quibble. That's my quibble. If you want to wait a couple weeks to see how it all goes, I definitely get that. But like the running thing is why we like him, not because he's a good passer yet. Well, look, you're probably not starting Bryce Young or C.J. Stroud anyway. So that's more of a

question about like would you start any of the players on their offense. Anthony Richardson is a quarterback who was a fringe starter in one quarterback leagues. So I think if you took our advice, what Hyfitz has been saying this whole off season where if you draft Anthony Richardson, go get yourself a Kirk Cousins or a Dak Prescott or a Jared Gough, I would probably start those guys over Anthony Richardson this week just to kind of see what happens. I mean, is he going to be year one Justin Fields? Justin Fields's first game as a starter. He was six for 20 for 68 yards and was sacked nine times. That was Justin Fields' first game as a starter. So it's like maybe you just kind of wait and see.

Tess, zip your toe in the pool. That's all I'm saying. It's like, oh, Anthony Richardson could be a Hall of Famer. It could be terrible in week one. Yeah, that's fair. Look, if he runs for 150 yards in a touchdown, that's great. Now you know, start him next week.

But, like, you're not going to die if you start Jared Gough and he gets you 17 points. You know what I mean? Josh Allen, also Josh Allen's first game. He didn't start. But it's six throws 15, sorry, six or 15 for 74 yards. It's, I think, yeah, it is a good reminder because we get so excited about these rookies coming in that rookie quarterbacks, even when they look incredible in the preseason, the regular season is a whole different ballgame. The speed is different. Everybody's playing for their careers and for their lives.

Like, it is so much different. And so I think that can't be stressed enough. That first game for Josh Allen, the bills lost 47 to 3. You know, they played the Baltimore race. Oh my God. Just saying. 47 to 3. Nathan Peterman and Josh Allen combined for 98 yards. I'm going to use this as a little segue, but like I remember Russell Wilson's first game in the pros.

In the preseason, when he came in, he was like the most exciting rookie in the preseason. He absolutely went nuclear in the preseason. Everyone was so excited. This offense is going to tear people up. And he had a rough go in the first game as a pro. Like the regular season is a completely, completely different ballgame. So yes, I think overall high point is. is well taken.

And that brings me to my first award of the year, the DoorDash Award for Russell Wilson. No more cooking, bud. We're ordering out. That is basically sort of the, I think that's the philosophy that Sean Payton is bringing here. Like, buddy, we're not even wanting, we don't want you to warm anything up.

Just order something out. Like, you're not in charge of the food anymore. Basically, I think, and if you look at some of the moves that they made over the offseason, they really want the early career Russell Wilson to come back. They want the guy who's going to be a, you know, quote-unquote game manager, even though that is a pejorative. Russell Wilson has been in his career, like one of the best all-time game managers. Like distribute the football, highly, highly efficient, mixing a few deep balls for touchdowns.

And, you know, at the end of the day, you win in a close battle game. That's like kind of who he's been, even going back to Wisconsin when he was like, you know, tearing up college defenses for Wisconsin. It was a very run-heavy offense with a lot of play action. He's amazing on these deep passes. And he's amazing sort of out of short. structure and making things happen when the past rush gets there. So I think, you know, I think that's exactly what Sean Payton wants him to be. I think, you know, it's funny because Russ wanted John Payton to be his coach.

That's like when he was trying to get Pete Carroll fired. He was like, I want to get Pete Carroll and John Schneier fired and bring Sean Payton in. And then the Seahawks traded Russell Wilson. And now Sean Payton is Russell Wilson's coach and Sean Peyton maybe doesn't like Russell Wilson. I don't know. So anyways, long story short. He told him, stop kissing babies. You're not a politician.

Stop caring what people think about you. Stop with the corny shit is essentially what he told. Tough love. I don't know. I just can't wait to see what this offense looks like this week with, you know, with a whole new offense, basically, like no more Russell cooking, play action, run game. You know, I just excited to see what Sean Payton has dialed up for this. You're so right, D.K., that Russell Wilson is like the cliche of an actor who's like an A-list actor.

He's like, but what I really want to do is direct. Right. Yeah. It's a different thing. Yeah, De Niro tried to direct. George Clooney tried to direct. Vinny Chase. Vinny Chase?

You're pretty face, bud. Yeah, met Ian. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. That's... You like that? That's... Yeah, that's exactly what happened last year.

Where do you guys land on this? You guys... Because I know that I've been sort of preaching that Russell Wilson's going to have a bounce back here. Or do you have any faith that he's got anything left to the tank or are you out? I think that there's two kinds of ways to look at it. the situation. There are players that drop off at a, like, on a physical level that generally speak, you don't come back from, which, you know, is why we like Michael Thomas,

but that's why Michael Thomas was outside the top 100, because when you fall off for three years, you kind of don't come back, right? And that's how it is. The flip side is, unless you don't think Russell Wilson actually physically fell off, all right, we had a 10-year career in the first nine were super solid, and then you went to a new team that hired a coach for Aaron Rogers, and then Aaron Rogers didn't come. so the guy had no plan or any idea what to do with you on a team. Just vibes.

Ownership was just trying to sell to another company, like selling to the Walmart people. And so like they didn't like ownership on down. No one had a plan. And all right. Yeah, it was terrible. And now you have a real coach. So I'm like, I lean more toward Sean Payton, not that he's a magic whisperer, but more Nate Hackett just came for Aaron Rogers and had no idea what to do with Russell

Wilson and Russell Wilson filled in all the colors. And he's a terrible painter. and Sean Payton's going to go back to more like, you're going to paint by my numbers here. And I love this. This is such a fun storyline. I don't know why. I'm so excited about it.

Just because like you were saying, Russell Wilson was essentially the coach last year. And Sean Payton came in and is like, fuck that. Like we, if you remember at the, I think you'd said it at the combine or something. And he's talking about how Russell Wilson had his own coach. He brought in his own quarterback coach.

Russell Wilson's employees had offices at the building. And he like, flew separately from the team, right? Like, he's just like his own guy. It's like what Barry Bond used to do in the Giants. He's just like barely involved with the team. He just like shows up on the field with them. And then, you know, as soon as Peyton gets it,

he's like, yeah, we're not doing that shit, you know. So it will be fun to see kind of like if it works and Russell Wilson comes back. Or if it just falls back. If you had to bet, you had to bet a million dollars that you have in the bank right now. Yeah, yeah. Russell Wilson in this game against the race. Rators throws for less than 150 yards and a pick and two picks and they lose and they score 10 points or he throws for over 300 and three touchdowns and they put up 40.

I have to pick one of the two. Yeah, which if you had to guess, which one of those is going to happen? No. If I had to bet a million dollars, I'd bet that he throws for 150 yards and they lose. Yeah, I think that's right. I think there's a middle ground here. I think he's going to be a lot better than that. Well, yeah, obviously, but my point is,

is like if you had to pick an extreme, which side that tells me how you really feel about it. If you pick the bad side, that's been how you really do. Well, do you know how many 150-yard games Russell Wilson had with the Seahawks? Like, that's like a pretty normal thing. He was never passing for a ton of yards. He was just so efficient, you know?

And then he pulls some play out of his ass late in the game. I think it's worth noting, though, that a year ago, including me, idiots like myself, were in on the Broncos with hype. Like, oh, new offense. DK, you actually said to mealy this week that the Ravens are in a similar. situation where we're like, all right, Ravens, new offense, Lamar and his bread, they get to cook.

Let's see Lamar. And it's like, well, it's kind of like the Broncos last year. We were like, all right, what if, like, we saw Russell Wilson get to do whatever he wanted. And it turns out, you know who knew what was really good for Russell Wilson? The coaches who were with him every single day. It actually really understood its limitations. Right. And I'm wondering, same thing Craig just asked.

The Ravens are playing the Texas. If I told you Lamar is going to come out. Like remember when Lamar 2019 came out against the dolphins in week one and they had like 500 yards. Do you think it's more likely the Ravens come out against the Texans with this new spread offense and we'll see if Hodelbeck and plays. But like all these new receivers and everything is it more likely Lamar comes out with 450 passing yards, 100 rushing yards, five touchdowns. They win 47 to three. Or the Ravens like really struggle to move the ball and barely put up 19 points and like barely beat the Texans in overtime. It's definitely the latter.

Yeah. That would be devastating if Lamar was like, like he got, here's a, Lamar got a quarter billion dollar contract. He got the copy and paste Jalen Hertz deal after Jalen Hertz almost won the Super Bowl. And then Lamar also got, like he got the players he wanted. I got Odell Beckham signed. It's, it's time for Lamar. Like, he has to be incredible.

Honestly, there's no excuses. Yeah. But at the end of the day, he hasn't played in a really long time. Like, when was the last time he played football? It's been a while. Like, I would not be. you have to knock off a little bit of rust. If he comes out and I don't know who they're playing in week two,

but like, you know, if they come out in week two and they just like light it up, that wouldn't be surprising to me. But I won't be super surprised this week if it's a little sluggish. Also, just like a complete offensive scheme changed and just expecting to walk into that week one

and lighting it up, I think it's just a little, it's a little unrealistic. It's like, you know when you move into a new apartment and then like you get up in the middle of the night and it's pitch black and you're trying to like get to the bathroom and you don't exactly have a feel.

You're like bumping into wall. You don't know where the handle is or the light switch. I feel like it's going to take a bit. I think Baltimore is going to be an October team more than they are a September team. That's a good, yeah, you wake up and you don't know where you are. Where the fuck am I? Yeah, you're just like, when does this wall in? That's going to be Sam Howell with Terry McLaurin for six weeks.

Just like, where is that guy? That's every quarterback with Terry McLaren. He makes it work. But yeah, like the reason I brought up and wanted to talk about this is because there are some similarities to what Russell Wilson did. obviously Lamar didn't demand a trade or at least he didn't get a trade but you know he made all these demands and he got everything he's asking for and you know sometimes and we saw this with Russell Wilson like you got to be careful what you wish for because Russell Wilson he literally trademarked let Russ Cook you know like he like forgot it trademarked this with his whole soul and then

turns out awful he was actually he is honestly and I believe this like and I was guilty as everybody wanting him to like wanting them to open it up and like let him do more. But I really do think like he fits best in an offense that has like a run game and play action and he can do his little like, you know, scrambles outside the pocket and stuff. But like if he's trying to run just like a drop back offense and, you know, do high volume Peyton Manning shit, he wants to be Drew Breeze. Like he's not that guy. You know what I mean?

And we've seen that. Not that guy, pal. So yeah, I hope Lamar is this guy and this new offense. and he gets what he wants and, or sorry, and he, you know, like excels and explodes in this new offense. But like, there is a chance that maybe he was actually just better off in the Greg Roman offense. We'll see what history says. Get ready for the NFL season with incredible offers from Fandul America's number one sportsbook right now. New customers can bet $5 and get $200 in bonus bets guaranteed.

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I want to do my next award here. I want to do like the preseason hype check-in. You know, that's what I'm really curious about. Like what preseason hype story is actually going to pay off week one? You have to start with Pittsburgh. You do. They're the preseason team of the year. I mean,

everyone's crazy about Kenny Pickett now because he threw 15 good passes in preseason, which is great. And I'm on board. I think he's going to take a leap. I don't think he's Joe Montana. And I'm worried people think he is. Nick Bosa's going to be playing. I'm sorry.

How much Pittsburgh hype can go and check in a row? I'm worried people think Kenny Pickett's Joe Montana. You know what I'm saying. Like everyone is just like, there's a lot of people now on the like, Pittsburgh's going to make the playoffs. Can he pick a leap to his. Is this your family's good chat? Bill Simmons,

Shield Capadia. Like people are in on Pittsburgh. And I'm like a little nervous now. Like I feel like we're getting ahead of our skis. We're playing the, they're playing the Niners in Pittsburgh, which is great. No, but like the Niners aren't exactly an easy team to play.

But, but my, so my preseason height point is, is if the Steelers somehow beat the Niners and they like pull off like a 20 to 17 game and picket throws like a couple touchdowns, no picks. It's going to get out of hand. It's going to go off the rails. It's going to be

take it off, baby. Rocket boosters. Also, the Steelers, the last two week ones, they beat the Bengals last year in OT and they beat the bills the year before that, if you remember that in week one. So the Steelers are kind of frisky as dogs in week one. T.J. Watt had one of the best games I've ever seen from a defender at

any level of football in week one last year. And also, while we here, we should just be doing like the basically the week one over reactions. That's really what we're talking about. If Steelers do beat the Niners, a month ago I said, Kenny Pickett would never win MVP. Kenny Pickett's going to be the freaking MVP favorite

by the end of the day if they beat the Niners. We've talked about Kenny Pickett a lot this offseason. I think I neglected to actually go look at his stats throughout that whole time from his rookie season. He threw seven touchdowns and nine picks. Like, 6.2 yards per attempt. Joe Montana. Those numbers are really, really bad.

I understand that he got better as the year went on. And, you know, you can't necessarily lean completely on those raw numbers because, you know, and we've talked about it. He has like sort of this confidence and poise that you really want in a quarterback. And I think the team is picking up on. But, man, not great numbers. I'll never forget the throw. The throw he made against Baltimore in the fourth to Najee rolling out to his left was like the greatest throw any quarterback had made that entire season.

It's like the catch from the Niners. You know what we talk about that? Because he had eight great throws all year. Craig, more hype index, Craig. I feel like we got to go with the Jets. You know, Aaron Rogers, Hard Knocks team. The Jets are finally back.

They're playing Monday night against the Bills. They're two and a half point underdogs. This game has massive implications. Like, if the Jets win this game and beat Josh Allen and the Bills, like everything that the Jets did to bring in Rogers and Alan Lazzard and Randall Cobb and all the shit they've done, literally all feels like it comes down to this game. And if they can even hang with the bill,

and keep it like a one-score game in the fourth quarter, I would argue that it's paid off. And people can be happy and be like, we are a real team that can actually compete. But if they lose, what if they get blown out? If Rogers throws like two picks and they score 14 points

and the bills put up 42 on the defense? The funniest thing would be if Rogers basically throws three picks looks terrible, then gets hurt, like just like hurts his shoulder, and then Zach Wilson. Sack Wilson is to come in and Sackleson looks awful again. And then the Jets are just back where they started.

Oh, man. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, we'll see. I feel like, we haven't actually talked about how we feel about the Jets. Are you guys like Jets are making the playoffs people or no? I'm trying to remember what I put officially for the Ringer. I don't think I've got them going to the playoffs. High Fids is big on the Jets.

I'm big in the Jets. I didn't pick the Jets to make the playoffs solely because I think that the AFC North has a better schedule. The reality is the AFC East and the AFC West play each other. It's hard. The AFC is tough. If you want to pick wildcard teams, honestly, you have to pick the division.

The schedule dictates it. It's like the NFC East had three playoff teams because the NFC East had the like played the easiest divisions. Like the Giants got to play like the Jags and the Titans and the tech, you know what I mean?

And this year like the Steelers, Browns, Bengals and Ravens get to play like the freaking NFC West and AFC South. And that means like the Cardinals, the Rams who I think are a fake team and the Titans and the Texans and all these rookie quarterbacks. So, I mean, I don't think that, I think the Jets, they, to make the playoffs, whether it's

the Jets, the Bills, the Dolphins, the Broncos, any of these teams, you have to like kind of crush your division and then these really tough schedules. I think they're going to make the playoffs and they're going to win 10 or 11 games. They went seven with Zach Wilson last year. I mean, we're going from Zach Wilson to Aaron Rogers. Well, they had Joe Flacko. You can't tell me that's. And Chris Treveller.

But yeah. Right, right. I forgot. If the Jets make it, I think no one's going to want to play them. That's the thing. It's like that defense with Rogers, like no one's actually. Chiefs and Bengals are top tier. Nobody wants to play them.

But if they make it, I think actually I'd be more scared of the Jets than the bills. Yeah, I don't disagree with you. Another preseason hype is like Arthur Smith in Atlanta. Like what's it going to look like this year? They're playing the Panthers like, is this going to be like, how much is Pitt going to play? Are they going to give Bichon? Are they going to split carries with Bijon Robinson and Tyler Alger?

Is Desmond Ritter going to be competent? Yeah. is Arthur Smith just going to be back on his bullshit again? Or is he actually going to use his star players? While we're on that, we haven't even talked about Arthur Smith's mustache either, man. How have we not talked about that? To be honest, I don't know if I've seen it. His stash is pretty cool.

Google it right now. Dude, I can't take men with mustaches, but no beards that are like under 40 seriously or under 50. Just clean-shaven with a mustache. I can't take you seriously. Too many friends grow ironic moustaches and durations. in COVID because they weren't going out in public. And now I just just like, I see Arthur Smith and I'm like, oh, it's a bit. He kind of looks like Big Cat.

It does look like Big Cat's dad. Look at this. High Mitch. Look at the screen. He does look like Big Cat. He does look like Big Cat's Dad. Oh my God. He looks like, he looks like a good podcasting.

Like what you imagine is an undercover cop posing as like a football coach. I know football. It's like the real life. Ted Lassau was based on and you Google, you're like, oh, I see why they had an actor do that. What else we got? We do more like week one overreactions here. If Sam Howell beats up on the shitty Cardinals, there's a chance that like, let's say it's like 3514 and Sam Howell frisky game runs for 50 yards and a touchdown throws for 250. There's a chance that he's like declared a star and then we get the like sports talk show C block on first take is like, is Sam Howell?

the biggest steal of the draft. And this man was a consensus top five pick if he had come out his junior year. And then he lost, you know, Javante Williams and Michael Carter. And they, okay, look,

he had a down year at UNC his senior year. But like, this guy was a top five talent. And like, now we're seeing it. Sam Howell is like here to stay just because they beat up on the shitty car. Yeah. That's going to happen.

Dude. And everybody loves like a plucky short guy, mid-round pick. Like, remember Taylor Heinekeke type? like it's going to be I feel like it's because of Russell Wilson like all of these like little

plucky scrappy runners like came in after Russell Wilson and everyone's just trying to look for the next like fourth rounder who's like under six feet tall and is good. I like this one. I get 100% can see exactly what you're saying. It's going to happen.

I'm telling you. We're going to give the quantum leap award to Josh Dobbs, the Cardinals quarterback. Can you explain Quantum Leap? Okay, so this was a show. They actually made a remake. So some of you, the zoomers might know about it.

But like quantumly, back when I was growing up was this great show, I loved it, where a scientist leaps through time and dimensions. I don't really know exactly how it happens, but he leaps into other people's lives

into their bodies. And then he needs to like figure out who the fuck he is, what he's doing, what his job is, what his relationships are. And like, I gotta do surgery today.

I think the premise was like he needs to save their life or his life, one of their friends' lives. I can't remember exactly what it was. But I haven't watched him like 30 years. But, yeah, he,

Josh Dobbs is quantum leaping into different teams. Like, he's the quantum league quarterback. He's like, last year he got traded to the Titans and within like two days was starting for them. It's like you wake up one morning. You're like, you're the starting quarterback. I need to learn how to do surgery.

And now he's doing this with the Cardinals. They traded him. They released Colt McCoy, who spent the entire summer expecting to be the team's starter. And now Josh Dobbs is like, well, fuck, I don't know the offense. I don't know what in my, receivers? I don't know what I'm doing. Josh Jobs is probably not even being like, like the IRS

probably doesn't even have registered as he's being taxed in the state of Arizona yet. Like he doesn't have his paperwork to HR. Yeah. Why is it Josh Dobbs? Like, why did he suddenly become like the backup de jour? I feel like there's a lot of other QBs out there who are more capable that like the Cardinals could have went after. Like Josh Dobbs never played his entire career, started a couple shitty games for the Titans and is now starting for Arizona. Like, why aren't they going after different backups? I think he's in the Josh Johnson zone, this very rare select group of quarterbacks

that are good or skilled enough and for whatever reason that coaches trust them to capital N not screw up and get me fired the coach. But they're not actually good enough that any team particularly

wants to keep them around. And that seems like a very particular skill set like Liam Neeson but not cool or sexy at all. He's famously like a genius. He an aerospace engineering major. He's like a rocket scientist. Oh, Matt Patricia? Yeah.

Really? With Dobbs and Patricia together, rocket scientists? Wait, is he a rocket scientist or did he just get that degree? He doesn't, he's not actually doing anything. Yeah, I don't know. I don't think he's working on rockets. I doubt he's actively a rocket scientist. Athlete and, oh, I Google this.

It says NFL Players Association. It says hashtag athlete and rocket scientist. Josh Dobbs' love for space dates back to his. His days as a six-year-old. His days as a six-year-old. What six-year-old's not into space? Oh, he did actually do an externship on the space coast. That's kind of cool.

Oh, he actually did an internship at the space center. That's pretty fun. Oh, good for him. Yeah. I mean, I guess maybe this is why everybody thinks the Cardinals are tanking. It all makes sense now. Anyway. He's quantum leaping.

He's quantum leaping. He's like, I've got to get these guys to the spaceship back to Earth. Getting Josh Jobs is like the exact opposite of the Warriors getting Kevin Durant. It was like, hey, we were terrible last year. How can we get worse? We didn't think we could. The Warriors were like, we can't get any better, right? Wait, what if we got Kevin Durant?

The Cardinals are like, how can we get worse? I don't think we can. We have Clayton Tune and a hurt, Kyler Murray. What if we start Josh Dobbs, week one? Wait, hold on, hold on. What if we do it two weeks before the season starts? We don't announce it until a week. week before.

We won't even give him the playbook. And once we cite him, we're going to wait 11 days to announce it. All right. That's Josh Dobbs, quantumly. When I want to go back to the overreactions, speaking of like just tomorrow, like, you know, Monday's headlines today, I feel like every, you know, after week one, it's always like, oh, look, it was just week one. I actually think there's one game that actually the entirety of this season hinges on week one

and everything after it doesn't matter. Like week one's more important the next 17 weeks. It's the Packers, Jordan Love. Yeah. Like the whole, everyone has this wrong. And what I mean by that is Jordan Love, you know, obviously it's his first season starter. Even the owner, not owner, but like the guy president of the Packers came out says, yeah, we did half a season. Everyone's like, look, you're transitioning to Aaron Rogers.

Like, you know, give it a season. Like we got this guy hopefully is her starter for a decade. Yeah. However, they just need to be. the Bears. Like Packers fans honestly can stomach anything this year. Oh my God. As long as they beat the Bears.

Yes, dude. I mean, I'm going to pull up the Packers head to head record with the Chicago. Remember Rogers literally did the I own you thing to the Bears. Right. They can't get like the Pat. Oh my God. All right. Here's the Packers' last games of the Bears. Win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win,

loss. Win, win, win, win, win, win. I'm in Twitter. Now win. Three losses ago to the Bears was 2011. What if they, so off the top of your head, can you think of any parallels in other sports or anything like where if the Bears beat the Packers in this game like the fan base panic meter? I'm thinking like if Steelers lose to the Browns.

Like Brazil's national team lost to like some random fucking team. It is like that where they're like transition year, but it's like just beat that team. Yeah. That's actually pretty funny. I mean, I'm sure there's better, better, you know, examples of that, but I'm just thinking, like, in terms of, like, the fan base losing their shit, like, he needs to, Jordan Love just needs to earn their respect. It's like, it's like Tommy Boy, or it's like when, like, when the son takes over the family business, it needs to earn the respect of the company.

Like, that is, that is Jordan Love. Like, he needs to come in and, like, give a firm handshake, you know what I mean? So they can be like, all right, like, maybe we can work with this guy. I like this guy. 100%. Because here's thing. Packers fans can say consciously, intelligently with their brain.

Yeah, you know, yeah, we lost to the Bears. It's fine, though, but it's like deep inside, they'll never get over it

until he beats the Bears, like ever. Oh, and one with a loss to the Bears right after Rogers leaves. No, you just beat them and you're good for a year again.

I can't wait for this game. It's going to be amazing. And for the flip side, if the Bears lose to the Packers that Jordan love, Bears fans, that's just so brutal. It's like Justin Fields

getting to Jordan Love. Speaking of Rogers, should I do it? Should I do the thing? Yeah. Should I do it? All right. Someone going to ask Aaron Rogers about 9-11 or what?

God. Just to play on 9-11. Monday night football, Aaron Rogers debut. No one talks about this, but Deshawn Kaiser, who was the Packers backup quarterback in 2018, told the story on the Brennan podcast,

and this got a little traction, but not as much as I thought it would. And to Sean Kaiser told the story. He had met Aaron. Rogers before, but it was Kaiser's first day on the Packers. And he's there and he goes to the quarterback meeting room. First day. Day one.

First day he says to him. They had like the same agency. So they had met before. But day one of the day one, he walks in the quarterback room. He sits down and Rogers walks in and he's like, you're sitting in my seat. And so he gets up and he closes the door. And he closes the door. And Aaron Roger.

And I'm going to quote verbatim what Deshaun Kaiser said. First day of practice walks the quarter, shuts the door. And Aaron Rogers says, you believe it. 9-11? To Sean Conce says what? Do you believe in it? I don't know. And Guy's just like,

yeah, why wouldn't I? And Aaron Rogers is like, you should read up on that. Good Lord. That is the most like classic like pseudo smart male mansplain bullshit thing to say that.

You should actually look into that. There's actually a lot more than you actually realize. College freshman. Everything, everything Rogers does is through the lens of a college freshman. Man-splained 9-11 to Deshaun-Ceyes. I feel like Rodgers just gets caught in YouTube like wormholes and he's just like,

it's three in the morning and he's like watching Q&On shit. I saw this get aggregated and I went to the podcast to find the full thing with all the context. And Deshaun Kaiser went on to say, yeah, it ended up being cool because like we started a dialogue and we, you know, ended up talking about all these conspiracies around 9-11 and we like, it was a very thought-provoking discussion and we exchanged some books.

And it was a real bonding experience. Great. Hey, caramba. If you're exchanging books, I feel like that's a positive. Yeah, books. Who's going to ask him? Like the sideline reporter? What do you, like, when do you think this is going to be?

I don't know. This is going to come up. We can't, we can't talk about Aaron Rogers this week without noting he had a very UFOs. Concerning UFO experience recently. He was like talking about it on hard docks. He saw this giant UFO fly over his house. I don't remember the background story.

He was with someone named Brian. Who is this? I, like, I missed the first. part of it. Did you watch this clip, Hyphitz? I actually spared myself, but now I kind of want to watch it right now. Some guy named Ryan. I mean, I'm sure he says at the beginning. I just, I think I caught like midway through the explanation. We saw this giant thing fly across the sky above his house and then a bunch of fighter

jets like following it. And he's like, he's like, yeah, it was pretty cool. This is actually the most relatable thing he's ever said to me. I'm like, I want to be there. I want to see that shit. post weather balloon that's like, yeah, I bet that happened. I kind of actually, this is the one thing I believe him about. I'm kind of with you, Rogers. I think there are UFOs. Well, yeah. I mean, look, there's always something weird going on.

UFO doesn't even mean alien, right? I was just saying, no. Here's my thing with the aliens, UFO stuff. I think obviously, you all heard the thing. Like, all right, the universe is so big. There's a difference, but the universe is so big, there's difference between there being aliens and aliens making it here. And so I always weigh, well, last time there were all these UFO stuff in the 40s and 50s,

it was because we had the spy plane and broken the sound barrier. And the government was like, yeah, UFOs. And they just didn't want to know they had a plane that went fast. So I'm like, well, if they've declassified all of these things about UFOs and are like, hey, no one look into this. I'm like, well, maybe we just have a crazy plane that they don't want anyone to find out about. I don't know. It's like that seems more likely to me.

Do you guys want me to read what he said? This is actually pretty great. He goes, so he's at his friend. Steve's house, not Brian, Steve, my bad. Steve. This was in 2005. He goes, I was getting down to bed. I heard this alarm in the distance going off. It just didn't seem like normal. And I heard some rustling upstairs. So I got up, walk downstairs.

Blah, blah, blah. He goes, we look outside. We see this tremendously large object moving through the sky. It was like a scene out of Independence Day where the ships are coming into the atmosphere and they're creating this kind of explosion-type fire into the sky. We just saw this incredibly large object and froze as anybody would. This either sounds amazing or they were really high. I was going to say, when did he start taking ayahuasca? At some point, I also have to give you a nitpick with Independence Day.

I got to tell you. You have a nitpick about a movie about an alien invasion? Yeah, what's your nitpick? The nitpick is the pilot. Remember the recruiting pilots to fight the aliens? And they're like, does anyone, and he's like, I have fighting experience. And the guy's like, I was abducted. And everyone turns around and laughs at him.

Like, what an idiot thinks he got abducted by aliens. At the recruitment meeting to fight aliens. And everyone's like, that's not, that never happened. I'm like, well, I don't know. It just, just, I've been saying it for 10 damn years. The best nitpick is the Armageddon nitpick of why the hell would you teach construction workers to be astronauts and not astronauts to be drillers? Have you ever tried drilling?

Why would it go the other way? It's the greatest movie. It's can't. That's also, them coming up with the reason that the astronauts couldn't go with them. Like, yeah, we only got money for two. Yeah, they just kind of yada yotted it. They're like, no, that wouldn't work that way. Anyway, we got to get the drillers in the astronaut suits.

Quantum leap. They just woke up. I'm on asteroid. I got to get this thing diverted. Talk about two of the great movies of the aughts or whatever, whenever they came out. Now, I guess Independence Day was before that, but whatever. It was like 95 or something. When was Independence?

Like Armageddon was also late 90s? Okay. So the late 90s then, so. While we're doing bits here, I think the Sealks are playing the Rams. I would like to say serious fantasy analysis first. If you have Gino Smith and like Anthony Richardson, I play Gino Smith this week. He's going to be high in my rankings

on fantasyfobble.3.com this week. I play Metcalfe. I play Tyler Lockett. I think the Silk's going to just destroy the Rams. The Rams are not a serious football team. They're not. They're not a real team. They're like a Potemkin village.

The Rams drafted 14 rookies. All 14 rookies made the team. A quarter of the Rams are made of rookie. And then if you take out Aaron Donald, the Rams are spending $23 million on every other defender on their team that isn't Aaron Donald, $23 million. The Rams spent $22 million to get rid of Alan Robinson.

Like the Rams spent an almost equal amount of money and Alan Robinson to get rid of him so he can play for someone else as they did on every other defender on their team. Like even if you include Aaron Donald, the Rams defense costs them less than they paid to get rid of Jalen Ramsey, Leonard Floyd, and Alan Robinson.

Those guys aren't on the Rams anymore. This is a fake team. And to prove that point, I would like to play a game with you guys. I'm going to read a bunch of lists of names. I would like you to decide which of these are real defenders for the Rams and which of these are characters on Yellowstone. Okay. I don't watch Yellowstone.

This is perfect. Yeah, same here. Nick Hampton, Jake Hummel, John Dutton, Jimmy Hurdstrom, Lloyd Pierce, and Lerl Murchison. Heardstrom. I know that, I know that, I know one. I know Dutton is Yellowstone.

Okay, Dutton is Yellowstone. Hampton's a player. That's correct. So that's perfect. Can you pronounce the last name? The last one on your list again? You have two players left and two Yellowstone characters left. That sounds like from Yellowstone.

That has to be from Yellowstone. That's a player. Damn it. That's a real person on the Rams. Lloyd. Lerl Merchison. I think Jake Hummel is Yellowstone. That's a real player on the Rams.

God! Damn. Jimmy Hurdstrom and Lloyd Pierce are yellow stone. Lloyd. Dude, this isn't a real team. Dude, play the Seahawks. I think the Rams are going to be the Mario Bar Rainbow Strip this year.

I'm going to be the Seahawk fan avatar here and say you are fucking jinxing the shit out of us. This is ridiculous. The Seahawks suck against the Rams every fucking year, regardless of how bad they are. It's just a thing that happens. I saw this tweet the other day from Aaron Levine. Including playoffs.

and despite winning both of their games against the Rams last year, the Seahawks are 5 and 8 against Sean McVeigh. And they've only won by more than six points once in their last 13 games. It's always close. It's always ugly. It's always a slog. What you're saying is making me mad. The Seahawks is going to freaking lose this game because you said that shit.

I hear that. You're Travis Kelsey saying this again. I respect nothing more than being like, don't jinx my team. Having said that, you know what the difference is? The past, the Rams were trying to win games on purpose. and now they're trying to like lose. Oh, they just hate the Seahawks. There's actually quite a rivalry, I think.

Yeah, but this year, the Rams hate themselves. I mean, it's the Flying Coach Bowl. It's the Ringer Podcast Network Bowl. Pete Carroll versus Sean McVeigh. Don't underestimate that, you know. Yeah, Craig, well, you pick the winner than Craig. You set up both their audio equipment. I simply can't decide between both of my brothers.

Well, Pete's more of like a, I don't know, grandfather. An uncle. Yeah. Oh, my God. All right. Other things from week one, should we mention, DK was triggered by D.K. Wait, Craig, tell us, we're on the Seox.

Your friend Chris saying D.K. McCaff was overrated. So I had my big, like, high school fantasy draft on Tuesday, and I knew going in, or I knew when D.K. McK. McAf got nominated. We were doing a salary cap league. I knew I wanted him. And the second he gets nominated before anybody starts bidding, my friend Chris, who's the best man in my wedding, I'm with him in the room. He turns to me and goes, can we just all finally admit that D.K. McCaff is fine. and I was like, well, I'm about to bid a shitload of money for him. So this is awkward.

And then I told D.K. this yesterday on a planning call we were having. And I was like, yeah, like, my buddy, Chris was just like, can we all just admit finally that, like, D.K. McHef is like, okay. And like, can we all stop pretending? He's like one of the best receivers in the league because he's fine. And D.K. went nuts. And for the next hour, as Hyvitz and I were moved on talking about other things,

DK would just keep coming back to us with more statistics on why D. Maccaf is underrated. I'm talking like 20 minutes later, we were talking about planning and scheduling things and be like, what do you think, D. He's like, he has the fourth most receiving yards in the first five years of his career ever. People need to wake up. Look at history. D.

D. His father doesn't like D.K. Mekhaff has done. Okay. D. You cannot move forward unless you look back. Here's my spiel on why everyone, including Hyfitz, who thinks D.K. Mechaf is overrated, are completely full of shit and need to show.

shut the fuck up. All right. Here we go. Among all players ever in the history of the NFL through their first four seasons. Here's some stats. D.K. Beck-K.Eff has 35 touchdowns. That's tied for 13th most of all time.

Above Larry Fitzgerald, future Hall of Famer. Calvin Johnson, Marvin Harrison, Mike Evans, Isaac Bruce. He's tied for 19th among all those players and catches. Same as Tori Holt. More than Stefan Diggs, more than AJ Brown, more than Calvin Johnson, more than Jerry Rice.

More than Julio Jones. He's 20th and yards. And again, it seems like a bunch of Hall of Famers. He's like way better than a bunch of Hall of Famers. Isaac Bruce Calvin Johnson, Marvin Johnson, Des Bryant, Brian, Andre Johnson, Brandon Marshall. He joined Larry Fitzgerald and Randy Moss as the only three players in postseason history with 450 receiving yards and five touchdowns in their first four

playoff games. He's a playoff baller. Just fucking, just enjoy how great he is. Why do we have to say he's overrated? Would you feel that way if he just had a normal ab? though. It's because he looks like a superhero that he needs to be the best player in the league.

His stats over his first four years are fucking ludicrous. Why do you think he's overrated? Why do you think he's fine? His stats are incredible. He's so good. Why do you think people think that, D.K.? Because he has like a few drops.

It's because your dad text to you every month. I'm mad. D.K. McCamp drop that ball. He's one of the top 20 receivers of all time in like every category through his first four years. and he's fine. You know how many receivers are?

How many routes can he run over under three and a half? It's because he ran a slow three cone. Hyfitz literally just did what everybody else is doing. D.K. was like he's 13th. In the first four seasons ever, he's 13th in touchdowns. He's 19th in catches. He's 20th in yards. And then D.K. was like, he's a top 20 wide receiver ever in the first four years of his career.

And Hyphitz was like, what? Come on. No, he's not. And I was like, D.K. just read the step. He literally is. Do you see some of the players? he's above. He's above AJ Brown and like almost all these stats too, by the way. And everyone thinks AJ Brown is like the fucking shit.

I don't get it. Well, he was at the beginning of the show because D.K. will just think I'd talk about this. Like the Chiefs Lions game will go like overtime and end in a tie. And D.K. will be like, more catches than Jerry Rice. My whole thing is, Hyphitz and like, honestly, I'm not going to like go out of my way to tell you that

D.K. Metcalf is the greatest ever. I just think it's crazy if you think he's just. fine. Like it's insane. It's insanity. We might have to get Chris on the show. Craig's friend. Let's get him on here. Anyways, I'm tired. I'm tired to get, you guys are purposely triggering me on D.K. Metcalfe and I'm sick of it. Could we get your dad on the show to talk about D.K. McCaff? Could we air this out? No. I'll get actually mad if that happens. I also just want to say, I love you, Chris. I met Chris at his wedding. This is not personal. This is me being triggered by my father in Hyphitz.

That's like his personal gets. But anyway. You don't have to believe he's the best ever. Just don't believe he's fine. That's all. Speaking of people's relationships with their father, there's an Instagram video going around of Amonra St. Brown talking about

how they kiss each other on their lips in their families. He's like Amonra kisses his dad on the lips. He kisses his mom in the lips. When they were kids, they kiss each other, like his brothers on the lips. And I just want to take it. I feel like we have a,

had this discourse since Tom Brady kissed the son in the lips and I wanted to take the content. We need to readdress this. Yeah. I want to, I don't know. I mean, we never read the decade. You've got a son. Like, I don't know. How do we feel? We don't, we don't kiss on the mouth on our family with the child. Is Amonro French? Is his mom French or something? She's, uh, Europe. German. He speaks like four languages. Hold on. Let me look it up. I'm pretty sure she's either French or German.

They speak both French and German. Is it a cultural piece of this, perhaps? I don't think so. His mother is German. I don't know if that has a German. Kiss it. I feel like the Germans are very sort of stern. I don't think they would be doing a lot of mouth kissing in Germany. I don't think anybody should kiss anybody else on the lips at any point in their life unless they are lovers. And that is it. The funny thing is that's like a very milk toast take.

It's like a very normal thing to say. Just no kissing on the mouth. Nope. I'm not with you on that. you have to be such an alpha male to just talk about this and then just be like, I don't even care what people think.

It's so alpha. Did Tom Brady share that video of himself kissing his son on the mouth for an uncultimate long time? It was Tom versus time. Personal owned documentary series that he owned the rights to. Also like the angle does this? The angle was weird. It was like,

I don't know. He was laying there like a cadaver. I'm just saying Belichick does this too With the kissing kids on the mouth thing And I'm like there's greatness afoot I mean it's definitely a thing that like people do I just can't get on forward with that But maybe like do you think if we started doing that

Like that's what it takes to be the best It's so it's so weird it's actually like They're playing chess and we're all playing checkers Because we're not kissing our relatives on the mouth I don't know man there's something I don't know Something about to find I don't know Brady's drinking water and telling people that's why I just get concussions or whatever. I'm like, I don't know.

You got a rational confidence, man. That's Russell. No, Brady did it too. Oh, okay. Cool. Oh, no, Brady said water leads to no sunburns. And then they edit that part of the book out. So that's not, that didn't make the second.

Fact checkers like, ah. I don't if I can say this. I respect that. He's above, he's above sunburns. It doesn't affect him. Do we want? Do we want people to email us about their kids kissing them? Do we want emails about that?

I don't know if I want. I don't want to know. Email us about anything you want. Yeah. Rangha Fantasy Football at Gmail.com. If I told you guys that I came back from the future 50 years from now and I was like, actually one of those is true. The Russell Wilson water did prevent concussions or drinking a lot of water did prevent sunburns.

Which would you think? I would say the sunburn one is real. Wow. The concussions one, I think there's not to be like a total like weirdo, but I think there has been research that has been like somewhat useful. like it's like the micro bubbles in the water. The micro bubbles in the water prevent concussions? Yeah, that was the science.

You prevent your brain from slamming into its skull? This is like where you accidentally start defending something. I'm not defending this. I don't know anything about that. To me, like at least you can make the case that like if you drink a lot of water, you're very hydrated and hydrated skin, you know, could prevent sunburns more than dehydrated skin perhaps. But good Lord. Microbubbles preventing your brain from slamming into the inside of your score?

Maybe you should read up on that. Yeah, you should read up on that. There's a lot you don't actually know about that. Fucking read up on it, you know? There's the media telling you not to look into that. Yeah, the media is blinding you. God. This is off the rails.

Yeah. All right. Should we get out of here? I got one email that I want to read before we go. Sure, why not? This is from someone who we call, who will call Mike in this scenario. It goes, I got a good laugh. from the handshake stuff.

I was at a funeral for a co-worker's mom a while ago, and somebody went to shake the hand of the grieving husband, who I'd never met. And I just instinctively darted in, stole the handshake, and shoulder-checked the sad dad out of the way. Then everyone was staring at me, so I panicked, pointed out my wife and blurted out, this is my wife. This is the, like,

oh my God. The worst thing I've ever heard. This is, oh, my God. He intercepted a handshake, at a funeral that was meant for... Why? Because if you stick your hand out towards someone, I'm going to grab that thing.

That's my whole point. So he shook the green... He was standing next... He was like standing there next to him. It's not like he ran over and, like, did it. I think it's the co-worker's dad was... Yes.

Taking handshakes because his wife had passed. And then he just intercepted the handshake. This is my wife. He doesn't even say her name. Just this is my wife. I can hear the curb your enthusiasm music playing. It's truly like, that's what I said back to him. I was like, this is like straight Larry David style.

Something just happened here. He goes, she looked at me like, don't you dare involve me in whatever this is. We are getting a divorce. I mean, you know, that is like the moment. most mortifying thing I can imagine. So anyways, I had to say that. The Josh Harris handshake was fine.

Yeah. I don't agree, but. D.K., one last note here. Yeah. After all that D.K. Metcalfe stuff and that you said he's essentially a top 20 receiver of all time through the first four years of any receiver's career.

Right now, do you think D.K. McCaff is a top 10 receiver in the NFL? Ooh, that's a good question. How can he not be? How is it? That's just, yes. What just happened? How can he not be if he is top 20 all time?

He's not top 10 right now? No, no, no. Why did you have to think about that? Okay, top 20 statistically of all time through the first four seasons. I'm not saying he's the top 10 receiver of all time. No, I'm saying through the first four seasons. I'm not saying he's like a top 20 receiver all time. Do you understand?

I know, like he's in his fifth season now. So it's like if his story, if he's on pace to be the 20th best wide receiver ever, why is he not currently a top 10 receiver? in the league. Well, it depends on if we include George Pickens in this list. It's a very subject. No, I'm not not letting you wriggle out of this. Like, why like, if you're saying statistic,

like, is he a top 10 receiver in the NFL right now, not numbers wise, but just like, is he a top 10 receiver? Yes. I don't have the fucking list in front of me, but yes. I didn't make a list this morning. Oh, God. What, do you think not? Do you think not?

Well, he's not ranked top 10 by us. we did happen to spend a lot of time this year on lists of receivers I mean, D.K., I could give you 10 wide receivers fast and maybe he's right around 10. Justin Jefferson, Jamar Chase, Tyree Killed, digs, A.J. Brown, Devante Adams,

is he around the Amon, Ross, CD, Waddle, Garrett Wilson range to you? Yes. Okay. And here... That's funny. And I think you're like, you're twisting my words a little bit

because, again, it was about where he stands through four seasons. in the league statistically. It's about people thinking he's not that good. Right. Who thinks he's not that good? Chris. It's just your dad.

Chris goes into mock drafts. Chris goes into mock drafts on websites. It takes kickers first just to make people angry. Craig's best man. That's who fucking thinks. It's a good bit, though. It's a good bit. I just want people to have context of what D.K.

McCaff has done in his career. and it's absurd to think he's just fine. There's a dissonance there. There's a dissonance that doesn't make sense to me that he is statistically a top 20 receiver ever through his first four seasons, and yet he might not even be top 10 in the league. He's like top third in the league, maybe right now.

No. I would say like at worst, he's like 13th or something. That's top third. That's actually outside of the top third. I was going to say. There's only 36 receivers. receivers in the NFL? I'm talking about

I'm saying lead wide receivers on a team okay okay okay I don't know what just happened all right we're leaving all right I mean you make a good point that's fine that's fine

I just want you to have fucking context that's all look hey I drafted him all right I was clearly into him after all that you did draft him I did thank you to DK's dad for

I mean okay but also just wow this is incredible thank you Chris thank you Kai for producing this episode thank you Jack, people behind the scenes.

Thank you, Lauren. Lauren. Thank you. Okay, I'm not going to get this name right. Why he's so distracted. He forgot to get a band. Meet, mute. Have you guys heard of this?

It's like a, they're like a big brass band. It's spelled M-E-U-T-E. Mute or M-T-E-T. I don't know. Meat. Meat. Why did you pick them? Because they do a cool,

they do a cool, like, cover of the song, Sale. Check it out. I honestly thought you were going to give us a DK. Metcalf stat instead of the band. They're German. Maybe they all kiss each other on the mouth. I love when we have so many inside jokes that all cliff so many callbacks that Kai can't cut anything. Oh, my God.

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