The Ringer NFL Show - NFL Week 5 Recap: 49ers Are the Best Team in the League, Joe Burrow Shows Signs of Life, and Are the Patriots at Rock Bottom?

Episode Date: October 9, 2023

The guys recap Week 5, starting with the 49ers eviscerating the Cowboys on 'Sunday Night Football.' Then, they check in on the Giants, Patriots, and Broncos, who are nearing rock bottom. They also talk about the teams that have climbed out of rock bottom, like the Bears and Bengals, as well as some other exciting offenses and players around the league. Then, they add a new player to the Fantasy Burn Book. Check out our 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 and Danny Kelly Social: Kiera Givens and Jack Sanders Producer: Carlos Chiriboga Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Welcome to the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. My name is Danny Heifitz and I'm joined by Danny Kelly. And that's it. Craig Holbeck is not here because I don't know. I spent too much with D.K., or he was drunk after George Pickens at a game winning touchdown or he's been kidnapped by the Brock Party Cole. I don't know what's going on. Craig's not here.

It's just D.K. I'm giving out awards for week five. We're going to have waiver pickups on this feed tomorrow Monday night. We're going to have waiver column from DKFantasy, football.com for want to who to add in fantasy. I'm Danny underscore Hyfitz on Twitter. is Danny B. Kelly everywhere. Enough plugs. Okay, DK.

49ers just obliterated, atomized, eviscerated, the Dallas Cowboys in Sunday football. It was 42 to 10 before the backups came in. Niners doubled the time of possession. They tripled the rushing yards. It is too bad Craig's not here because we're going to have to have a Brock Purdy conversation.

It took not even, I was going to say one episode without Craig. It's been like 90 seconds without Craig. I've changed my. mind on Brock Purdy. I think Brock Birdie's good. You're pretty pilled? You're in? No, he's good. So, I agree.

Watching him, he was extremely impressive tonight. I do think, obviously, the context is he has an incredible sports system around him, but I'm, like, beginning to care less and less. He's just very good at what he does. He's very good at running this offense, and we have to give him credit. I'm sorry, I should have given him more credit earlier or whatever. Like, you know, he was very, very impressive tonight. Just like, and he was dropping some dives, too.

It wasn't just him, you know, like handing off or making these easy passes. Like he was making some nice touch throws, throwing over the middle of the field, playing with anticipation and poise. And he obviously has the love of all his teammates. So, yeah, fine. He's getting better. He's getting better this season. He's improving.

Yeah. I don't know. Like, honestly, you know, I think Bill Barnwell had a good article about this. And this is, you know, of course, this is the case. But I think it is easy to get anchor to the fact. he was a very late round pick. He was the last pick in the draft. It's very easy to get anchored to that.

If he had been like a third round pick or a second round pick, what if was Tray Lance? What if Tray Lance was doing exactly the stuff? Like literally hadn't lost the game, all this stuff. I know. But he was the third pick in the draft. You're like, all right, yeah. So yeah, all the Brock Party people will find.

I will say, though, the Niners look like a Death Star. Yeah, you won us over. This was an obliteration. I want to get to, like, who the competition is for this team. in a second. But when the, I was watching the early slate today, Giants Dolphins, I had the YouTube, the multi-view. The Giants Dolphins game was top left. And then I had like the Steelers, Ravens game top right. And I just remember being so struck by how the dolphins, all the plays looked easy. And the Steelers, all the plays look hard. Even the Steelers plays that don't, that do work,

look hard. And like, I just, the dolphins and the Niners, the Niners today, except the difference is the dolphins were playing the Giants. The Niners are playing the Cowboys. and everyone, everything looks easy. And the defining sequence to me was, they were already up like 21 to 7 or whatever. And Purdy throws like to Brandon Ayuk wide open for 40-yard pass. And honestly, it could have been a touchdown. I got two-string tackled.

And there's holding. And the play comes back. And now it's like third and 13. And literally the next play, third down again, Purdy just hits Debo wide open for 42 yards. They just did it again. They scored three plays later. I'm like, this team is unstoppable.

I was tilting my face off at that moment, too, because I have Iuke and I was going up against Debo in one league. So, yeah, that was a triggering moment for me. But yes, it's a great point. It is something that I know I've mentioned this in the past before, but it's like very, I just find it so fascinating about football where some, for some teams and some games, everything just looks so incredibly hard. Like you can't barely complete a pass.

Like sometimes there are games and we've seen in the past like Zach Wilson. We're like, truly he can barely complete a pass on an NFL field. And then you get teams like the dolphins. You get teams like the 49ers. And, of course, they come from the same schematic play calling, you know, tree, which is, you know, something that really matters here. And maybe that's maybe, you know, this is just going to take over the NFL. But it's just so easy. Everyone's open.

Everybody's running and they all have space to run after the catch. You know, they're creating space for their players. It's just an easy layup most of the time for these quarterbacks. It's just, yeah, it's beautiful football. It's very fun to watch. It's very enjoyable to watch. I want to be clear. Craig and I wax poetic about this for like, no, is it you and I wax poetic about this for like 20 minutes once when Craig,

some news broke, oh, Cooper Cups injury broke. I don't remember what happened, but Craig wasn't there. But we were talking about how it's part of it is a lot of scheme, right? There is a tremendous amount of scheme to what Shanahan McDaniels do. But it's not an accident that the two teams were talking about here that have these offenses that, again, just look easy. If you rank the top 20 guys in the NFL, skill players of like, who would be the hardest person to, like, tackle?

The dolphins have five of them and the Niners have five of them. It's not an accident that they're like, well, we need these are the people we need. And then there's the Niners defense, which the Dallas is, I want to just, Dallas's first four drives gained four yards. No first downs and a fumble. So Dallas went three and out for one yard,

three and out for one yard, fumble, three and out for two yards. You tweeted it. The 49ers have a top two offense in the NFL, and their defense is better than their offense. What do you do against this team? That's incredible. It's not even controversial.

I think the Niners are clearly the best team in the NFL. They're clearly the Super Bowl favorite after tonight. And I think the question I have for you is, who's the competition for this team? The Cowboys, as good as the Cowboys have been, they kick the crap out of bad teams. The Cowboys are not on the level. The Chiefs didn't look that great today. I mean, Travis Kelsey's banged up again. I know that I've jinxed him into submission because he's got two knee injuries in

in the first five weeks. I know he came back and scored a touchdown, but it's not good that Travis Colsey. This was a foot. This was a foot. A foot, whatever. Well, they, I don't know what they shot him up with. Some, like, horse tranquilizer or whatever the hell. But the offense doesn't look smooth yet in Kansas City.

The bills are dropping like flies. Like, the bills lost to the Jaguars in London. The offense is asleep. And they keep losing defenders. They came into, the bills came into this game without Trudevis White towards Achilles. Their other starting quarterback was hurt. Their other defensive end was hurt. And then they ended up losing this game, their best pass coverage linebacker.

Like the dollar. dolphins are down half their defense. That's just not what Super Bowl teams do. So I don't know. It's like, who are the teams that are, even like could give the Niners a run? Is it just Miami and Philadelphia? I mean, yeah, because I think what I was thinking while you were talking is basically styles make fights. And I could see the Eagles, the way that they play, the, you know, the toughness and physicality they have on the front line and all that stuff. Like, they could be the type of team. That can go quote unquote punch for punch with the 49ers.

the dolphins, you know, of course, are extremely, extremely explosive offensively. And that I think that's another team that could, you know, keep pace with the 49ers. But yeah, to me, those are the two teams that stand out. I think obviously Mahomes is Mahomes and you have to include them in there. I was actually surprised. I'm looking just at the standings. I know this is not everything. But the Chiefs actually have a plus 48 score differential this year, which I don't think

I would have guessed that. It feels like they've been eking out wins. but obviously that's pretty pretty decent. It's better than the dolphins, better than anybody else in the AFC, or in the NFC, rather, other than San Francisco, who's plus 99. They're just blowing people out of the water.

This is five weeks in. Casually. Yeah. The 49ers are absolute buzzsaw. And so to answer your question, though, yeah, I think the Eagles really stand out to me and the dolphins, of course. What do you think about the,

are the lions even remotely on this level? Not yet, because I think the, coaching isn't there, and then just the experience isn't there and the physicality. The offensive line's good, but I got to, I mean, no, I think the lions could, like, put up a fight, but the Niners, I think, are just like, they're on a different level. I mean, honestly, what are the, I have two questions for you. One, what are the teams that, what I, the thing I tweeted, like, their top two offense

and the defense is better. How many teams does that even apply to it, like in your lifetime? Because someone was like, well, the Eagles last year, I'm like, okay, yes, 70 sacks, their offensive. good. But who before them? Like, how many teams are actually this good? And shout out Marcus Grant replied and was like the 94-95 diners.

I was like, oh my God. You have to go far back. I know there are a lot of ghosts. Emails that we're going to fancy football at gmail.com if I'm forgetting a team. But like, it's really rare. Yeah, I'm sure there are teams, you know, sprinkled in that were as balanced

and completely dominant on both sides of the ball. But this is pretty rare. Like, this is definitely pretty rare. So, yeah. On that note, we have to, we have to do it. I'm sorry Craig's here. Not here for this. but honestly, maybe this is meant to be

that Craig couldn't handle this. Poor little soul. How many quarterbacks in the NFC would you take over Brock Birdie? And I'm going to start with, I'm going to give you an opportunity for Mayor Coppola on Friday. If you're Kyle Shanahan,

and let's just pretend it's not in the middle of the season, but you could just swap out this person. At dollar for dollar. Shout out Scott Barrett, who has invented the perfect stat, which is EPA divided by millions you make. I think we should call it EPA. It's EPA per game,

but it's EPA per game. check because Brock Purdy's game checks are 50 grand a week. God. Meanwhile, Deshawn Watson makes what, $2 million? Think about that. DeShone Watson is getting $2 million a game, basically. So on that note, let's just say everyone at the same salary. Would you take Dak Prescott or Brock Purdy?

Oh, for crying out loud. Final three-threat for picks for DAC. This was not a confidence-inducing game for Dak Prescott for me. So fine, I'll fucking say it. I'll take Pretty in this case. All right. Jalen Hertz. no, I'll take Kurtz. That's one.

Jordan Love? Purdy. Jared Goff? Purdy. Kirk Cousins. That one's just rot with so many things. I mean, I think they're kind of the same player, aren't they? No, I think Purdy's better.

Dude, Justin Fields? No. I'm going to skip the entire NFC South. We're not doing Ritter, Bryce Young, Derek Carr, or Baker. Not doing car. I mean, it's really just Stafford. I would take Stafford. Gino.

I'd take Gino. I would take Gino. And then Daniel, I would go pretty. What about like Kyler? Did we count Kyler? Well, he's, I mean. He's hurt.

Yeah, he's hurt. It's weird. I mean, if we want to count healthy Kyle. Honestly, I don't know if I would take healthy Carla. I would. You don't like Kyler as much as I do. I don't. I think the bottom point of the point of being, we're saying Brock Perkins is the top five quarterback of the NFC.

The point of the conversation is we're pretty pilled. We give up. We like Purdy now. he's good. He was very, very impressive in this game. I'm still kind of waiting for like the other shoe to drop up. It's just not dropping. So fuck it.

We should just enjoy it. You know what I mean? What I really would say is, as Dennis fans, be careful what you wish for because now that we're on, Brock Purdy, he's going to totally suck now that everyone's going to be in on him. Joking with the text chain,

like imagine how good the Patriots dynasty had been if Purdy had been the quarterback for them the whole time. You know, they probably, they wouldn't have lost nearly as many Super Bowls. They wouldn't have had to cheat. I mean, they would have beaten the Giants. They would have gotten undefeated.

They would have, you know, they certainly would have lost the second time. The whole taking Purdy over Brady thing doesn't sound so wild anymore, you know? I do think he's kind of, we'll talk about it any time. I've just been beaten into submission. I feel completely, I've given up. I'm not resisting anymore. Literally the beating continued until morale improved. That's literally what happened.

Truly. Yeah. All right. Flip side here. We got to just, we're just doing like a rock bottom check in. There are a lot of teams racing to Rock Bottom. Rock Bottom for the season. Rock Bottom and their own team history.

And like, we just got to check it on like how rock bottom teams are drilling right now. Because there are multiple teams contending for like absolute worst vibes of the O. D.K., just start us off here. Start with the Patriots who are getting near the bottom of the Mariana Trench here. The thing that came to mind when I was watching the Patriots was we got no food. We got no jobs. Our pets are falling off. Like, nothing.

is going well for the Patriots. Saints 34 Patriots, zero. The Patriots have been outscored 72 to 3 in the last two games. This is the worst two game stretch of Belichick's career by far. Mack Jones has been benched in the fourth quarter in the last two games, not going great. Because they were down by so much that Belichick saw no point. He saw no point.

I saw no point of having him in there. Dude, he punted on fourth and three, or was it, fourth and three, 40 yards, the end zone and they were down 24-0 in the third quarter. He punted on fourth and three. It's, I mean, it's really, really bad. And a lot of the offensive problems that we're seeing were predictable. I think the less predictable things are the Patriots' defenses were kind of falling apart. Injuries has been a big part of that, of course.

And their special teams has not been good. But on offense, like in particular, I think it all starts with their offense. Obviously, now we're starting to see this wasn't all Patricia. I think overall, the Patricia thing last year was a really bad idea. but obviously, as we're saying now, it was not the only reason this team struggled on offense. The offensive line cannot block. The offensive line is really, really bad.

Dude, Dante Scurney, they lost the best offensive line coach ever, and then you're like, oh, cool. There's guys running into the backfield on every single play, like unblocked or barely blocked. The wide receivers are not fast. They're not special. They can't separate.

They're not making big plays. I don't know how many of them would play for however many teams. I mean, Devonty Parker is like playing the most snaps for hit. Like what other team would he actually play on? I don't know how many teams he would make. The one guy that I'm excited about, DeMario Douglas,

he looked good until he got hurt. He got a concussion early in the game and he had to come out. They're just brutal at the receiver position right now. The running backs even look really bad, which is the surprise because I'd love Ramontre Stevenson. I thought Ramonre Stevenson was one of the best running backs in the NFL, like maybe top 10, maybe top five in the NFL just purely on, you know, his skill set last year.

And he has just straight up look bad this year. Remandre and fantasy has, so cut out week one. Remandre this season, if you cut out week one, has one more point than Naji Harris. God, that's frustrating. And he's not like being utilized in the passing game either, which was like a big strength of his last year. I don't know.

Get first downs or anything. It's like, it's just a product of, again, you're right about the defense. The defense was all right. And then they lost Matt Judon as the best edge rusher. there's, you know, front seven player. And then they lost Christian Gonzalez, who was crushing as rookie cornerback. And they lost those two guys and the defense couldn't do it.

Again, the Saints hadn't scored 21 points the season in a game. The Saints had 21 points five minutes into the second quarter. That's bad. This was like the Saints offense last week where Derek Hart could not do anything. Yeah. And so that was the strength was the defense. And so I look at this Patriots team. And what I think is, what do they do well?

And honestly, I very rarely say this. The answer is nothing. they literally don't do anything well. If you look at, like, just expected points added, they're dead last in passing offense. They're dead last in rushing offense. And they are second to last in special teams. Jeez.

They don't do anything well. They make stupid mistakes. Bill's been saying this for a while. I think the real question here is, the easy part is to say Mac is done or whatever, and they're probably going to have a top five, even Devin McCordy. You know how former players are when they leave the team.

Devin McCordy was like, of top five pick. That's the easy thing is like they're going to have to get a quarterback, a lot of quarterbacks in this draft. The real question is, I think the Belichick stuff starts this week. Like the real conversation, it's been whispers, the real conversation, but whether Bill Belichick finished be the coach of the team begins now. And on one hand, I'm so torn about this.

I'm so torn about this. And I'm curious what you think. I genuinely don't know how I feel. And I am the ultimate kombucha girl where I'm like, and I go back and forth between like, he's literally had the greatest stretch of football ever for 20 years in his salary cap era, which is unheard of and will probably never be done again. And all the, you know,

17 titles and division titles and 19 years are all this stuff. And it's like, you have three bad years you're going to cut this guy. Versus I am starting to believe the Brady held up the end of that run more and more. And I don't know how you feel. Like, is it insane to talk about axing Belichick? Or is it just like, well, you're using your eyeballs.

No, I think it's, okay, insane is maybe too strong. I think it's stupid, though, to talk about firing the Belichick. I do think both can be true. Like, I think what we're seeing now is obviously Tom Brady elevated this team year in and year out to a point where Belichick could not have done that on his own. Like this relationship between Brady and Belichick was what kept this team competitive year in and you're out for 20 straight years or however many years, more than 20 years.

And I think now we're starting to see the quarterback is more important than the head coach, like, period. But at the same time, I don't think Belichick is a bad coach. I think Mack Jones is not a good quarterback right now. And that is the root of all these problems. That is the root of all the problems, certainly on offense. And so, I don't know, to me, like, cutting bait on Belichick now would be ridiculous because he's just going to get hired by some other team and then,

like, make the Patriots absolutely, like, regret it almost immediately. So that's the question is like, I don't know how to say this other than what's going on. The simplest way I always think of it is, I feel like Belichick, the coach is still unparalleled. And I feel like it's a joke,

but I do think Belichick, the organizational mastermind is probably too old to be training other people. Again, like his coach, his job at some point is to coach coaches, just as much, if not more so than players. And the linebackers coach is his son and the safety's coach is his son.

And I'm just saying, like, they only have, and Joe Judge is like assistant head coach, but he's on defense. And he was a receiver's coach before, like none of this really makes sense. It's just people he likes working with. That's the thing.

It's like it just does seem like he's a little tired of teaching people how to work for him. And so that, to me, as much as anything, is like the pipe, he had a 20-year pipeline of assistance coming up. I mean, remember all those people that made famous

for the first dynasty of like Romeo Cornell and Charlie. wise. Those people were 20 years ago getting head coaching jobs. And so he had 20 year pipeline. He's just tired of teaching people's shit. And that, to me, feels like the problem is it's like, it's not even him as much as his mid-level people. His sons, mid-level people

can't teach the underneath people and he has no talent pipeline anymore. He said 20 years of brain drain. Yeah. Not 20 years, but like 15 years. No, 20's accurate. I mean, Romeo Crenel was a head coach, or not in 2003, wasn't he? I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, it's like, it's hard. I mean, again,

we talked about this thing on the last point. years of institutional memory over and over. It's really what happened was the Brian Flores Dolphins. That's honestly what killed the thing is Brian Flores left and there was a huge writ. I mean, obviously, it was a lawsuit and everything. But Belichick and Flores initially it was a huge issue because Flores took way more staff than like any Belichick person had ever taken leaving.

There was a huge rift. And Belichick talked to Sabin about it. But I agree. They have to keep him. I mean, if they fire him, give me a break. Someone's going to immediately hire him and then he's going to do great. It's weird because it's funny to watch like the Cowboys and the Patriot. I can only imagine what Bill shows like right now.

But it's funny to watch the Patriots fans deal with mortality. It really is like a great empire. It's like, you know, they say like Macedonians for like, you know, thousands of years after Alexander the Great just were like, well, we're the center of the universe. And like every empire is like that. Like every empire once you are like Greeks, it's like America. Like everybody once you conquer the world, you still always feel that way. It's like Patriots fans are just now dealing with reality.

It's like what it feels like for a normal. franchise to have ebbs and flows of success and not. And it's based on the quarterback, by the way. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. I don't think they should fire them. But the Patriots are, what do the kids say, down bad, down atrocious right now? Speaking of which, while we're on rock bottom checking here, I think the giants are,

they're not in the Mariana trench. I think the giants are more like an abandoned mine. You know what I mean? Something like that. It's treacherous down there. Yeah. Dolphins won 31. Giants at 16.

but that almost doesn't really tell the story. Well, they had 16 because they got like three turnovers on defense. They had to pick six. Right. And then the two field goal drives went like a combined like 20 yards. So it didn't really like score. There's no point in time where this game felt close. No.

It felt close only on the premise the dolphins would keep making more mistakes. But Daniel Jones left the game with the neck injury, which may or may not be connected to the Giants, you know, giving Daniel Jones taking 16 sacks. over the last two games may or may not be related. Unreal. So Jordan Renan, who's a great reporter at ESPN, he covers the Giants. He's been covered in Giants for a decade.

So since 2013, which, I mean, Giants won the Super Bowl, 2011. And they've basically been like the worst team of football since then. And Jordan Renan was like, I've covered this team for 10 years. This is by far the worst offensive line I've ever seen them had. It's not close. By far. It's been like their defining quality other than quarterback for 10 years. It's been bad offensive lines.

Josh Azudu is like a fifth round guard at a UNC. Could win a guard job, and now is their starting left tackle. Maybe that's why Daniel Jones is. is a neck injury now. So, this is a disaster? I thought there was, I like the, the pause there at the end. This is a disaster? You set me a text that said, teams since 1991,

because the Giants are the last team in the league, they've run no plays with the lead in any of their five games. It was them of the Jets, the Jets won. Teams since 1991 to have zero plays while leading the game through five weeks. The 2002 Bengals, who won two games. The 2003 Bears, the 2011 Rams who won two games,

the 2019 Dolphins who, Stephen Ross, who owns the Dolphins, was trying to tank for a quarterback. That was the team. 2021 Lions who won three games, and then this year's Giants. That's not great. From a big picture perspective,

though, obviously this season is probably shot at this point. They're one and four. How do you feel just about like, the coaching and the overall direction of the franchise. Are you feeling really a lot of despair about like just where this team is? Or is this just like, they're running bad this year. It's just the offensive line sucks.

They got rocked by the dolphins and the dolphins are literally on the shave, like literally at the cutting edge of like a tectonic, not maybe not a tectonic shift, but like a actual, they're the greatest show. The dolphins, we're talking with the dolphins a little bit. Carlos is going to come on.

But like the dolphins literally pass the greatest show on turf for most yards through five weeks. So I don't feel that bad. Yeah. But the way I ranted about this on Friday, but I look at the Giants. And the reason I don't think they're in the Mariana Trench is that they're the youngest team in the league. Like they're the youngest offensive line. Yeah, they're getting the crap kicked out of them.

They're the youngest cornerback group. Again, I'm going to rant about this. They had two cornerbacks. They're rookies start in week one. That hasn't happened for any team in the NFL in 15 years. The guy, Tyree killed a 69-yard touchdown. The guy guarding him was Trey Hawkins, who's a sixth-round rookie cornerback who went to Old Dominion. Old Dominion was playing last year,

Trey Hawkins was guarding guys at Appalachian State and Texas A&M Commerce. Not Texas A&M. Texas A&M Commerce. Did you even know that was a school? I had no idea. No. Texas A.M. Commerce.

I don't think anyone like Tyree Kill is playing at Texas A&M Commerce. Why is Trey Hawkins one-on-one with Tyree Kill? I have no idea. Is this really his fault? I don't know, man. So I'm like, it's a young team that got the crap kicked out of them. It's going to happen. But like, I don't know.

At least Darren, eight catches, 86 yards. at least everyone can stop yelling about him being useless. He's back, baby. So the Giants are down bad, but I actually think the Giants aren't as bad as the bats right now for emotionally because there are things to point. The bats have nothing. The other team, the worst, I actually think the worst team for this specific week might actually be Denver.

Yeah, this is the down in the core of the earth. Down bad Broncos. They lost to Nathaniel Hackett. So sorry, let's back out for a second because, over the offseason, Sean Payton, who came in, he's supposed to, like, resurrect this Broncos team, bring them back from this completely atrocious performance in 2022. You know, obviously everything that could have gone wrong in 2022 for the Broncos did. And Peyton, over the off season in an interview, he said something along the lines of,

that was one of the worst coaching jobs in the history of the NFL was his quote. And he said, quote, unquote, everything I heard about last season, we're doing the opposite. he's actually right in a way that they're doing the opposite of what they did last year because last year the defense was good and the offense was terrible. This year, the defense is all time bad. Maybe the worst defense in history through like five weeks. And the offense is like fine. Actually, like we'll say the offense has been better than expected. Russell Wilson, I think, has been much, much better than he was last year.

So he is doing the exact opposite of what he did last year. But at the end of the day, the Broncos are one and four. They look awful. they're the laughing stock, and they just lost to Nate Hackett, who got the game ball, by the way. Yeah, Nate Hackett's the offensive coordinator for the Jets now,

because Aaron Rogers. So the Jets win 31 to 21. And this game was kind of perfectly disgusting. Yeah, exactly. I mean, Breece Hall, I mean, Breece Hall, 22 carries for 177 yards in a touchdown. The Broncos have allowed the most rushing yards

through five games in 20 years. Everyone makes fun of, like, coaches and their obsession with the run and all that. But it's really hard to win if you can't stop the run. I will say that. If you cannot stop explosive runs on the ground, it's very hard to win. And that's why the Broncos suck,

or among many reasons. But like, that's what is the big reason. Can you imagine? Like, Sean Payton broke every, like, coaching code of just like, don't criticize other coaches and stuff. And it's actually just doing just as poorly,

if not worse than Nate Hackett was. Yeah. It's, it's not great for him. I don't even know what to say about this team. Because, like, I don't know where they're going. Like,

is Sean Payton going to, bench Russell Wilson. I would say, I would argue that Brussels Wilson is actually not one of the big problems for this team this year, which people have lost sight of, I think. Because a lot of people, I think, just are conflating what happened last year. We see Sauce Gardner, when he tweeted out Jets Country, let's ride, had lost sight, that it's not

Russ's fault. Well, I'm just saying, among the reasons the Broncos are terrible this year, like, Russ is not in the top five. It's funny that they have Pat Certainis is, like, one of the best cornerbacks of the league. And they're just like, he had an incredible pick today, too. I don't know how the Broncos has come out of this is my point, because they don't have any picks. And they've given up all their picks for Russell Wilson and Sean Payton.

Again, I'm going to say this again. I gave this rent to, oh, you missed this. If you combine the Russell Wilson trade, which was two first, two seconds to give Russell Wilson 160 million guaranteed. And then there was such a mistake. They had to trade a first, another first and another second for Sean Payton, just to pay him $17 million a year for six, and that's guaranteed six years coaching, five years, whatever. That's $80 million.

So you put that together, give or take. the Broncos have spent a quarter of a billion dollars guaranteed. To get where they are. Three first round picks and three second round picks just to be the worst team in the AFC. They're literally in last place. I can't imagine being further from your goal. And if you think about it in that sense,

we could be doing just as much of a job because they're literally spent as much as any team could possibly spend and are getting as little results as you could possibly get. So that's cool. The vibes are bad. You know what they need to keep doing? They just need to keep digging.

Keep going further through the core of the earth. Come out the other side, which is what exactly the Bengals did this week. They drilled all the way to China as you did when you were a kid. You kept digging and kept digging. You end up on the other side of the world. The Bengals are back, baby. They look pretty good, actually, this week. I know that they were going against Cardinals,

but Joe Burrow looked crucially like Joe Burrow. He looked like himself. He was even moving around a little bit, scramble around. He passed for 317 yards. three touchdowns. Jamar Chase had a truly magnificent day. 15 catches, 130, 192 yards and three touchdowns. Bengals won 3420. And it felt, it felt really close and then not close at all very quickly.

We were ready to give up on the Bengals last week. You know, we had a big long. Friday. Yeah, we were just like several days ago. Naming random quarterbacks to start over Joe Burrow. We were like, Josh Dobbs. Yeah. I'm glad that Joe Burroughs back because it makes fantasy a hell of a lot more fun.

He looked way better. Joe, dude, Jackie's dad was like, should I play Joe Burrow and he had this weird work league where like there's three bench spots and he had two quarterbacks and I was like, I don't know, man, like, I don't know what you should do. And I was anyway, I mean, we went through all the stats. There was very few stats in which the Bengals weren't the absolute worst than NFL. Yeah, he's like, they had three touchdowns in four weeks. They had three touchdowns of like the first three quarters of this game. So, but again, you can go through all the stats and you're so right. Like, I mean, Joe Burrow in this game, I mean, freaking, I mean, he had. He had. He had. had 80 yards in a game, like not that long ago. Joe Bar, 317 yards and three touchdowns. But more importantly, to your point, he actually looked healthier. Like, the funny part is Jamar Chase was right. Jamar Chase in August when Joe Burrow got hurt. It was like, I don't know, man.

He should probably just like missed the first four weeks, come back, week five. Maybe Chase should be the coach. Maybe he should be the coach. Like, only crap. Why did we have to go through all this? Joe Burrow, like, looked, he scrambled like the third touchdown. Third touchdown to Chase is a funny thing to say. But he, like, he scrambled right and extended the play.

The second touchdown, he chucked it like 55 yards. and he ran for first down and I was like, dude, this was not a park and bark performance. It was kind of like, it was more like do a leapa before she learned to dance. You don't get the joke, but dolepa, like, used to like dance kind of awkwardly when she was first, like when, um,

actually I do kind of think, I know what you're talking about with this. Yeah, like she used to kind of like, like when the album first dropped at the first FMAs, she like kind of looked very robotic. Now she can dance. That was like Joe Burrow, like a pop star just learning to dance.

So it's like, you know, happy learned a putt. Exactly. I think, yeah, he absolutely agree. He looked like himself, which is what I said before. Like, he just truly looked like Joe Burrow for the first time this year. Earlier, it was like just a decrepit old man trying to play quarterback. You know what I mean? And he doesn't have the arm strength, the pure arm talent to really overcome that, I don't think.

And this has always been sort of the hallmark of his game is he's very much, you know, not to compare him to Tom Brady, but like in the same vein of like moving around in the pocket to buy himself an extra beat to get a throw off. That's like how he's been so good. What you're saying is it's not the size of the sword. It's how you swing it. But if you can't swing it and you don't have a big sword, just take five weeks off until you feel like you can swing it again. But like, yeah, I don't know.

I guess my question was going to be like, is this actually they're back or is this a blip? I lean more towards like their back. I think they're back. Well, Burrow looks bad. That's the whole thing. Again, as much as we were like all these problems with Burrow, my fear with Burrow was like, well, he doesn't look healthy.

I'm like, it's going to get healthier playing football. I don't know. And so he looked way better. Joe Borr himself said it felt like New Orleans last year, which is that's the total turning point in their year last year. He had one deep, deep bomb to Jamar Chase. That was like perfectly lofted, 50 yards down the field. Like this is the Joe Burrow that we know, you know.

So I think it was everything. And also his shoes, Kid Cuddy did his outfit. Like Kid Cuddy. And his random friend from high school made his sweater. I don't know if he's like he was getting a clown for that sweater. That was a good friend move. Yeah. Yeah, he shot his friend out, but also kind of like to avoid getting thrown under the bus.

He's like, it's my friend made it from high school. My mom, my mother-in-law gave it to me. And then it was like, yeah, exactly. He's like, Kit Cutty gave me the shoes. This reminds me of the big hats from Brian Robbins. Was it Brian Robinson last year with the huge hats and those things caught on? Sam Fortier, the Washington Post tweeted that out. I actually sent me one of those big hats.

Send you a big hat. Anyway, that's all I got on that. Love that he's back. Bengals being good is better for the NFL. All right. While we're talking about teams that are just drilled through rock bottom, came out the other side. Dude, the Chicago Bears.

Yes. I know this is Thursday night football, but oh my God. Justin Fields, I got to say, we kind of crushed our, our bilos, sell highs. I mean, I was screaming for people to get Justin Fields. Justin Fields has literally had the best two passing games of his career in the last two weeks, including his first 300-yard game against the Broncos, and then they play Washington on Thursday football. Justin Fields 282 yards, four touchdowns, no picks.

DJ Moore, eight catches, 230 yards, three touchdowns. And the most bizarre stat line ever, which is three people caught a pass, one wide receiver. DJ Moore, one wide receiver caught a pass, and he got eight for 230. I got to be honest with you, when we were giving the by low on Justin Fields' advice, it was like a strong pucker factor for me on those.

Like I... Oh, did you think I was an idiot? No, no, because I did it, I did it in the show before that, and then you reiterated it. And I remember thinking at the time, like, man, this could really end up looking bad. Justin Fields is playing so terribly. His, like, I was very much worried about, like, his psyche. We were talking about this with Zach Wilson.

And he just did not seem even remotely confident. The man is talking, he's out there talking about how he just, happy to be alive, smoking up all these, like, you know what I mean? Like, he had, like, been browbeaten. Kyle shit ahead. The beat, yeah, beatings continued than morale for proof. Yeah. And then all of a sudden he comes out and just absolutely has two get-right games.

He looks like Justin Fields from Ohio State, honestly. Like, this is what made me so excited about him when he's coming into the NFL. In the last two weeks, he's thrown an NFL best eight touchdowns. He has 617 yards passing in that time. So, you know, over 300 yards of game average, which is like unheard of for him. He's also rushed for 82 yards on 15 rushes. His stack rate is still too high. He's given up seven sats.

which is, it's not terrible, but like he definitely needs to work on that, continue to work on that. But you just asked me like straight up, is Justin Fields good? I don't think he's good. I'm not ready to be like, yeah, he's officially back like I'm with Joe Burrow. But this is such a massive, massive, massive step in the right direction. And I said this along the whole time, like, Hyvitz, you know this. I say this all the time. Like confidence is such an important thing for quarterbacks.

That's why I wanted them to have him run around because I think getting him like running around, get the juices flow and getting the confidence going, get his teammates jacked up and hyped up and all that. All that stuff is super contagious. And I believe in that strongly. And I think Justin Fields is like playing. And he talked about this. He's playing with like more,

he's just not thinking as much. Like he's just playing. And so it's really good to see. I don't think it's going to be this smooth every other game. But I do think it sort of has saved him from being on the precipice of being straight up benched forever. So that's good. And then also just the DJ more of it.

We're actually playing. We have a dynasty league with all your friends from home. And you have Jamar Chase and you're going to lose because I have DJ Moore. And I want everyone to email us at Ring and Fantasy Football atcom. If you had like DJ Moore or Jamar Chase this week or George Kittle maybe and you had them and you lost or someone in your league had like DJ Moore or Chase who had like basically 45, 50 points in PPR. If you had them and lost, please email us at Ring and Fantasy Football at Gmail.com or your friends. we'll make fun of them too. It's like if you, like you're playing cornhole and you make a, you make a hole,

you make it into the hole and then the guy that you're playing just makes it right into the same hole. It's like, and then you do that three times. This is like what it feels like. Haifitz, I got 47 points or something from Jamar Chase. You got 48 or whatever it was. It's like within one point from DJ Moore. I'm just like, fuck.

That sucks. So, yeah, but anyways, DJ Moore. Another guy that I did not expect to have a big fantasy season is now going off. I mean, I think DJ Moore has legitimately had like multiple. months of his career where he did not approach 230 yards. He is now on the season, the wide receiver four. I did not see that coming.

He's averaging 19 fantasy points per game. Good for him. Yeah. Good player. Yeah. Email sereniphancy Football.gumel.com. I feel like a lot of people lost probably to Anthony Richardson going up. The shoulder injury, which sucks. We don't know where that is right now, but it feels like that's going to be the problem is this is throwing shoulder.

I feel like when the quarterbacks come back. I know. It's not good. I feel like Romo did it, but it was his non-throwing shoulder, right? like Richardson with the throwing shoulder, especially when it's like his running is the whole thing. He's just so physical, but he just doesn't have like self-preservation. He's 21.

I know. How many 21-year-olds have any kind of self-preservation? I do think it's partly bad luck, obviously, and not indicative of how he plays, but at the same time, three injuries in like four games. You don't think it's indicative how he plays? It's five games. He's less three of the five games with an injury from running the ball.

Yeah, I mean, yeah. I don't know. The concussion thing to me was a fluke. And the first injury was he just left it was like the second to last play of the game or something like that. So I don't know if that really counts. I'm saying 60% of his games. I'm just saying. 60% of the time he leaves all the time.

I'm trying to be optimistic because I want him to be okay because I think he's an awesome player. He's very fun to watch. Well, maybe not awesome. It's a little bit early on that. But like he's really exciting to watch. So hopefully he can figure out a way to not just get hurt and three, fourths of the games that he plays. the NFL. Well, I do know a player who's also to watch, which is the Miami Dolphins. D.K., I would like you to take a victory lap. I think you've been more right about this guy than any

guy you've ever been right. Your NFL draft expert here at the ringer, and you were screaming from the rooftops. At Devon, at the time, A. Chain. But now Devon, A Chan. A Chan. A Chan. She changed his name. He is in, I think he's, so basically there was like, oh, like, he's averaging 12 yards of carry. This can't continue. They were right, because today he averaged 13 yards of carry. Devani Chan is Craig texted us this today. He is officially the first running back. He just posts

wide receiver stats. Like he literally like his week three game, yeah, 18 for 203 and two. Last week four, he had eight for 101. That's something you say about a receiver. Eight catches 100 1. He has 8 carries 101 yards. Today, 11 for 151.

11 carries for 152. That's crazy. This is crazy stuff. So I would like you to take a victory lap. The draft god you had compared him to Java Best or a bottle rocket said he had field tilting speed. And Carlos, can we play the clip of of D.K. talking about A. Chan

from the spring? We talked about him on the last show, Devon, A.C. Running back out of Texas A&M. He is, he on an SEC field full of amazing athletes, like, makes everyone look slow. He is incredibly fast. He is, and I don't even say this lightly, like, he's

almost reminiscent of, like, Tyree Kill fast. I'm not saying he's as fast as Tyree Kill. But he's like in the stratosphere of Tyree Kill Fast. I want to be clear. You said that before he was on the Dolphins. Like you compared him to Tyree Kill Speed before he was drafted by Miami. Yeah. I will say so Carlos was reminding me that I went on the around the NFL podcast with Greg Rosenthal and company.

And one of their questions was like if you had to stake your reputation on one player, who's it going to be? And I was like, well, I'm going to do it on a 190 pound running back. And it's going to be Devon A chain. And like, I don't know, to me, I'm not a big victory lapper, but like I feel so validated because when I watched him, and I told you this hyphen said it like during the draft period, when I watched him, I was like, this, sitting up in my seat. I'm like, holy shit. This guy is so fucking electric. He is like the best acceleration of any running back I've seen in years. Like the way that he can just hit the gas pedal and gets his top speed almost instantly allows him to have access to gaps that you don't see for most running backs. And we've seen this, like, play out in Miami where he's, like, going so fast downhill that he, like, break, he rips through these little holes in the line that most running backs would just get clogged. They're not late.

They're hallways. They're, they're, they're, the Miami's hallways as rushing wades. Well, but my point is more just that he can access gaps that most running backs can't because they would close before they get there. Yeah. And so, and then obviously he has the breakaway speed, which, you know, he's a track guy that's expected. But like, to me, he's a good running back. great vision, great balance. You see him ping ponging or whatever, like through the offensive line.

Plinkoing is the word I was looking for, not ping pong. He just kind of like bounces around and keeps his feet and he can just hit these explosive plays. And that's why he has like 12, 13 yards of carry. You know, there was definitely times during the preseason where I was like, well, shit, he's a healthy, he was a healthy scratch week one. Like, what the fuck are we doing here? This is like the-

Well, he has to learn stuff, man. I don't know. It took him a week more, I guess. I think it matter. No, but I think to your point, I think that you made a great point a couple weeks ago, before you disappeared for 10 days, that weight is no longer your fate in the NFL where it's like all these small guys, like, you know, Devant, you know, Lamar honestly started with like, you know, Devonty Smith.

Yeah. Tank Dell and all these small people, two to Atwell who's like actually maybe not 170 pounds are just Emmanuel Forbes and Washington's, you know, he's been out wrong. He hasn't been great. So that's a bad example. on offense. Right. But all these small dudes

who just honestly would have been filtered out of the league or succeeding. And I want to bring in producer Carlos here because Carlos is a long-time Dolphins fan

who is more polite than he probably should have been this week because I was just watching this Giants Dolphins game and I was kind of like weirdly kind of thought the Giants could win

because they kept making mistakes but I was just blown away by two things. Everyone's probably seen the stat by now that the dolphins now have the seven fastest ball carrier speeds of the year which to be clear.

It's a flawed stat because really in the past it's been flawed because what it means is here are seven people who got to full speed at an NFL game. But what's incredible to the dolphins having the top seven is the fastest people in the league are at full sprint all the time. Like it's insane. And so they added two more today. And it's just A. Chan and Hill.

And I was watching them. And I was just like everyone's always open. But there are two hand touch football team. Like it is incredible how many times, like the thing that we were right about Tyreek Hill is the amount of times Devon A. Chan, like the defender thinks he's going to get there for a tackle and he actually can't touch him. And like they literally are playing two-in-touch.

They would still score all these points. Yeah, that's what I'm saying about the pursuit angles, man. He annihilates pursuit angles. The guys think they can catch him. He just blows past him. Carlos, I'm curious. What is it like for you? I mean, unless someone's a better name, I think everyone is being a little too

hoity-to-oity. Like, greatest show and surf is a great name. I can what is it like to root for this team? I've never seen anything like it. I mean, it's just a joy. I don't know what it's, like, it's, I mean, sure, the bills own us. That's fine. And we're going to win every other game.

And it's just like, I don't know. It's just so much fun to watch an offense that is so explosive and so, I mean, consistent even. Like, you know, the Dolphins had three turnovers today. Two of them really bad interceptions by two. I don't know what was going on today. Yeah. For pick six. And it doesn't even matter.

They scored over 30 points and won by, what, 15? Like, over the more than that? Because I think the dolphins were the only team that didn't have a Proble quarterback in the 21st century. And they still haven't because they do it, like, maybe fake and went, but he didn't get voted in. So it's like, you, I mean, the dolphins, offenses have sucked. Oh, it's been terrible. So this is, the thing that's, I think is interesting is like the dolphins, dolphins fans don't get brought up as like this, you know, long suffering fan base. It's not, they're not viewed that way. And maybe that's part of it is because, you know, we're, you know, the two and on has given them a bad

reputation. Fair enough. Probably LeBron in the heat, but yeah. Well, that's fair. Fair. But it's been a long time. I mean, I have said this for a while, and it's true. The dolphins before last year have not had an exciting offense in my lifetime. Like, I'm 28 years old.

Oh, my. That's crazy. That doesn't count the wildcat offense that was fun for like four weeks? Sure. Like, if you want to, like, I mean, when the running back playing quarterback was the peak of the mountain, that's a bad mountain. I just want to like put this, I want to figure out how the best way to express this. Marino retired in 2000. That was 23 years ago, right?

Since then, the dolphins have been to the playoffs five times total in 23 years. They've won one playoff game. That win came in like 2001. So it's been a long time. And then between 2020 and 22 when Mike McDaniel got here, the dolphins have had a top 10 offense by either points or yards. one time, once. In 23 years. Oh, shit.

Once. Top 10? Yes, top 10. Points and or yards one time? Points and or yards. God, that's bad. Now, if you expand it to top 15, you would think, okay, that probably gets a lot better right, seven times.

So top half of the league seven times. They've been below average. It's not even average. For your whole lifetime. My entire lifetime. The last time they had a top five offense, literally, I was born 1994. Wow.

Just, it's been a, it's been a while. The Dolphins fans deserve this. Let him enjoy it. I think, all right, we haven't talked about this enough. I think what you're talking about Carlos is like, honest to God, the defining feature of the entire season, which is the teams that are good and cool

are the teams that have sucked forever. And the teams that are downtrodden are the spoiled fat, one spoiled on their riches. It's like, Who do we just talk about? The giants are awful. The Patriots are awful. The Steelers, I mean, they won today, but it was ugly. But, like, the teams that are doing well, the teams that actually are exciting. The dolphins, you're just saying- Clients?

How bad were the Lions forever? How bad were the Bengals? The Biggs of, like, the Bengals of, like, the 2000s were, like, the worst team in the league. The Jaguars have expectations now. Like, the Jaguars, like, barely eking out a win over the Bills is, like, bad. And then the other, and then the Bills. I know they lost today, but it's like the bills and we're bad forever.

I mean, all these teams that were horrific forever and kind of thought we never, and we're upset that the Jets now don't have Rogers. It's like the team, I don't know. It's like all these downtrodden teams are kind of like, and you're right. I don't think about the dolphins in that way. And yet everyone also always makes fun of Dan Marino

for never winning a Super Bowl. You know what? True. You know what I think of the Dolphins? So I just had this realization and I feel like when we're watching the multi-view, like on YouTube and early in the game, there's like six games or seven games,

eight games going on. I really have the same sensation getting ready to watch the Dolphins offense. You know what it really reminds me of? Just to my core, to my spiritual being, is when I was watching Ken Griffey Jr. have an at-bat when I was growing up. Because every time anybody touches the ball,

it's like this could be a fucking home run. Every single play could be a home run. It's not always a home run. And that was the case with Ken Griffey Jr. But like, I just want to watch this. I look forward to him coming back up in the lineup. You know what I mean? just because it's so much fun, so exciting.

They just have such a unique style. And man, yeah, I don't know. That's just like, to me, it's almost the exact same feeling. No, and it skews your expectations watching it. I actually, it was a very interesting experience watching as the opponent, knowing that you were going to lose mostly. Because it skews your expectations of what a successful play is. Like, when they tackled A-chan or Moster for like a six-yard gain, I was like, great job.

Nice. Second and four, fantastic. And I'm like, that's like the, literal definition of a successful play. But it felt like a victory. I think time for six yards. I think there was the shortest run of their day for like three and a half quarters. You know when you're watching a bad offense with a bad quarterback and you get a like a

holding call on a first and 10 run and you're like, oh, it's over. The drive's over. Like we're not. Just pun. Yeah, you might as well pun now, right? Like with this offense, you're just sitting there like, oh, this is fine. Who cares? Totally.

That brings it full circle, though, to the Niners thing. It's like those are the two teams I feel that. And I used to feel that way about the Chiefs, but no longer. But like the Niners get that holding. Third and three, 40-yard game. Holding third and 13. All right, here's another 40-yard game. I'm like, there's two teams right now that can do that.

And I just, like, they're going to meet the Super Bowl. I know. It's having the same thing, High Fitz, too, where watching that Sunday night game is like if the Cowboys held them to like six yards or less, I was like, ooh, that was a good play by them. Yeah. Like the partisans, wow. Oh, my God.

All right. Incredible. Thank you, Carlos. Anything else you want to get out here? Just because the dolphins kick my ass. Any other thoughts you want to? No, I mean, I feel bad watching Daniel Jones go. Like, I, man, that was rough.

I don't know. He has your pity. Awful. It's just not fun to watch Daniel Jones sit back there and then get like absolutely wrecked for 10 plays a game. I agree. He just turns into a nervous Jewish mother. you're like, all right, 16 sacks.

All right, well, that's the number you need for neck injury. All right. Well, watch out Sam Howell. All right. Thank you, Carlos. Thanks, Carlos. The other word we want to do right here is the guy she told you not to worry about checking, which is, you know, Jonathan Taylor, you know, he's like, oh, don't worry about it.

You know, it's Zach Moss. Don't worry. He's just a friend, right? It's just like, you know, there's nothing to worry about. He's just. Yeah, you weren't around. You weren't there to, you know, go to the, take her to the test or whatever. Zach Moss just did it for you.

for a couple of weeks, and now Jonathan Taylor's here. He's back. He's going to step back into his role here. Nope. By the way, so I was definitely, like I started Jonathan Taylor this week. I thought it would be the more, it would be more of the Jonathan Taylor show than the Zach Moss show. I didn't necessarily mean Taylor or believe that Taylor was going to like completely take over. But, man, Zach Moss just dominated.

Skipping the prologs. Jonathan Taylor sends a three-year, $42 million contract extension last week. 27 million guaranteed, comes back. And like, morons, we, I mean, we didn't gloss over. We talked about it for like five minutes, but we were like, so this guy's been practiced with his team for 290 days, new coach, new quarterback, and has three days to, like, practice with them. How much is he really going to play?

And somehow Josh Dobbs convinced us, though, does practice even matter? Anyway, Zach Moss had, again, one of the best games of his career. Zach Moss has basically had the four best games in his career. Yeah, Zach Moss has basically had the four best games in rushing yards. Yeah. Zach Moss has basically had four of the best five games of his career in the last four weeks. And what did Zach Moss finish with? I mean, he had, I mean, he was, Zachmost, the number two running back of the day behind Travis Ct, N, 23 carries for 165 yards and two touchdowns, including one like really long run.

So that was incredible. And honestly, we probably should have seen it coming. I know, like hindsight is 2020, of course, but you brought up that you were a little bit concerned. It's like, yeah, it's been almost a year since John. Taylor practice. Like maybe they're not going to give him 30 carries. I probably should have thought that. But it's Jonathan Taylor, you know, he's the superstar running back.

I want to ban names. Names are the problem. You're against Jonathan Taylor. I'm like, if someone hasn't practiced in the amount of days you're counting is hundreds or if someone has an injury that has required months of rehab, I don't want to use their name. That's kind of what I think that's the problem. However, having said that, Cooper Cup.

It's the boyfriend. Like, hey, you know, like, you're our guy. Triple Crowns, Super MVP. Like, you know, you're the guy. And, like, you know, he's thinking about thought. My friend's back. For work. Yeah.

And it's like, this Pukukukes. This Pooka. Co. He's like, he's a coworker. It's fine. We're, like, getting work drinks. It's fine. He's a co-worker. It's like, don't worry about it.

We're going over spreadsheets. Exactly. Well, Pook and Kewa, literally just with Justin Jefferson and Tyree Kill in every receiving category. Cooper Cubs gone. You're like, oh, that's interesting. Cooper Cup comes back. has five catches for 56 euros of the opening drive

and has like eight catches for 180 years. So Cooper Cup looked like Cooper Cup immediately again. And then not for a long time later. I don't know. I feel like to me this one is a little less crazy because I always felt that Puka and Cup could coexist because Puka is essentially playing. He wasn't playing the Cooper Cup role.

It's an open relationship. It's like, you know, it's all vibes. Like Saffir. Polycule is what they call it. I've heard. I don't know. What? that's a thing that millennials do.

I don't know what it is. If I Google that on my computer, is that going to get flagged by HR? Don't think so. All the people link through their relationship. She's a remand. Yeah, okay. Oh, wow.

What is it? What is it for the people that don't know? Linked through romance or sex to one or more members of a polyamorous group. The actual example on Wikipedia is how polycule doubled in size when my spouse started seeing Boris, whose husband had six other partners. That's the first thing that comes up when you Google that. That's the first thing.

You know, this metaphor is we're stretching it. I don't even know where we are anymore. But Fuku Nakua, I always thought that he could coexist with Cooper Cup because he's essentially playing the Robert Woods role, the Bobby Trees role. I don't know. We're excited about Cooper Cup, though. I still think he's going to be, you know, like top 10 receiver the rest of the way. Or what do you think?

No, I agree. I think Cooper Cup and Akua, they're just polykill. There's something there. Email is ringing fantasy football at g-gimel.com. If you can get that Pooka-Dakua, Polyk. you'll joke right. There's something there. It's too late. It's like Chris Godwood and Evans had it once at James and the Rams honestly might throw a little less than that, but not that much less. The real

the guy you're not supposed to worry about, it's Julele McLaughlin who just looks better than Javante Williams. Yeah. And Javentai Wism missed and it's like he's going to get while he pipped. This is the one that worries me the most. If you're, if you've got Giovante Williams on your team and you're like depending on him, it doesn't feel great. This guy, he went to Notre Dame College, not Notre Dame, hyphids, you were talking about. That's the Texas A&M Commerce. You were talking about really weird, small colleges. Wait, Notre Dame College.

What is that? Which is not Notre Dame University or whatever the official name is. And then he went to Notre Dame College and Youngstown, Youngstown State. Youngstown State. Why is that so hard for me to say? Wait, dude, how many times you think he's like, I played at Notre Dame and just dropping that on people? I get a bar.

That's a good question. So hold on. It's in Cleveland. It's in Cleveland. Please people email us at Rear and Fantasy football about other things about Notre Dame College and Texas A&M Commerce. Who are the... Notre Dame College Falcons.

What? Oh, my God. I've never heard of that. He's good, though. Yeah, he looked awesome. He was, like, very explosive. They used him in the passing game a lot. this is this goes along with the Sean

Peyton loves to have his little speedy pass catching running back guys like Darren Sproles and Camara and whatever I'm officially worried as a if you're a Javante Women's bag holder this worries me can I read you oh no Notre Dame Falcons do you want to know the other

players that Notre Dame College is playing the rest of the season yes the games include Frostburg State University Frostburg Strasbourg State. That's not a real thing.

West Virginia State, which I didn't know was a thing. Nope. I kind of thought West Virginia was a thing. Where is Frostburg State? Frostburg State. This is made up. Damn, Craig would love this.

Frostburg State. Frostburg State's playing Mercyhurst. Mercy Hurst? Mercy, dude, I'm in the wormhole now. All these fake colleges. Dude, they're playing University. West Liberty. Wheeling.

Wheeling University. Hi, Fitz, Frostburg, Frostburg States in Maryland. How do you not know about them? Frostburg State? Oh, my God. And then Texas A&M Commerce, I want to look up there.

Texas A&M. They're playing incarnate word. Oh, I've heard of that. Nichols State. Incarnate word, not incarnate word. And I forgot, Lamar. Lamar is just the name of the... Just Lamar.

No college universe. I think actually I've heard of that. Yeah, yeah. And then also, they're playing... I've never heard of this. It says NW. State. a street. There's no, it's just NW. It's Northwestern State Demons.

Is this in Missouri? This is the one that David Moore went to. And I remember thinking like this is a completely made up place. Email us or your fantasy football at gmail.com. If you have any information on any of these schools, especially Frostburg State. Wow. All right. Well, yeah, Julema. All right. Wow, that was so worth it. Incredible. All right. Craig would love that. And honestly, we're going to do the Craig Raulbeck Memorial Award.

and we're going to give it to George Pickens catching game-winning touchdown to beat the Ravens in one of the ugliest games of the day. I couldn't believe the Steelers won this game. I don't think the Steelers could either. Yeah. The Ravens were dominating this game

in almost every single way throughout the whole game. They just couldn't score points. They could not score, you know, as I've mentioned in the past, I know that I'm beating a dead horse here. It's important to score touchdowns. Well, you talk about analytics a lot,

and we're going to do it. You could do the analytic speech. I know people don't want to hear the advanced math. Look. football, it's in football, in the game of football, it's important to score touchdowns is what I've found. And the Ravens just couldn't do it. Pickens had an absolutely ludicrous day, of course.

He had like all the, he had several ridiculous looking catches on the sideline, doing his thing, scored the game winning touchdown. And the contrast between that and what the Ravens receivers are doing. The Ravens had maybe an all-time bad receiving game from what I've seen. So let's go back. Let's go through it because I'm trying to do this off.

memory, but there was a really bad drop in the end zone by Mark Andrews. It was a little high, but he should have had it. I had multiple people tweeting at me about him volleyball setting another touchdown pass into the stands. The next play was worse. Right. The very next play, Rashad Bateman, first round pick, by the way, who's just been absolutely completely disappointing, just dropped a really easy, like he was wide open. It was not a hard pass. It was not a fast pass.

It was like a brain fart. It was like he thought, I got to catch. the football and then it like hit him in the hands. It was so and then they had a kick of field goal. And so, and then they lost. There were later in the game, there was a really bad drop by Agilor, I believe. That just went right through his hands. He probably,

he never heard the seeing the unlike Allenler video and I had the pleasure of showing her the unlike Avenue video. The guy saved. What does he save a kid from a burning building? No, it's literally like the quote is because he's got to fire. And I, oh, I can't. The quote is even better than I remember. He's like, yeah, man, we was, they were just throwing babies.

out the window. He was catching them. Unlike Aguilar. And the part I forgot was that after he's like, pauses and thinks about what he just said. And he's like, just wanted to put that out there. And then he goes back to tell him the story. That's the best. Later in the game, there was a play. Again, this is just off memory, but Lamar threw it deep. And Zayflower, as a rookie receiver, was wide open.

And for some reason, he decided to turn around and backpedal. Like, this is like the, he was like trying to feel. a fly ball and he totally misjudged as he fell down and it was it was like he was wide open he just kept running you made a good point that this game was like a study in contrasts because if you like it literally couldn't be more opposite it's like with sean pey we're going to do the opposite everything they do watching this game it's so like at some point our jobs i guess are to explain football and it feels so hard to explain like if you watch lamar jackson and you watch kenneth picket play football And the concept that like the Steelers outscored more points than the Baltimore Ravens feels impossible.

But then like the actual skill set of this of like George Pickens versus what the Ravens had today. And you're like, oh, like they're just exactly opposite. But the Ravens scoring 10 points in this game feels impossible. And the Steelers just stealer to them. This is such a Raven Steelers game. Second half. Pun, punt, punt. This is both teams.

Punt, punt, punt, punt, punt safety. field goal, punt, pick, touchdown, fumble, field goal, downs. Yeah. I mean, Lamar, you know, Lamar kind of blew it at the end there with the, he got sacked, he fumbled it and they picked it up or whatever. But yeah, I mean, I feel like for the vast majority of the game was like, dude, he was giving them a chance to win. They should have scored way more points.

And the receivers just freaking couldn't catch a football. So ridiculous. It's so frustrating. It was a failure. It's funny, too, where you're like, I can't be the Ravens. defense did it. And I don't know why the Ravens were playing so tight on the Steelers and let pickings have it. But it's funny too to think that like fundamentally the Ravens defense gave it 14 points and the Ravens offense couldn't match that as like wild. Yeah. So it's like, my God.

Anyway, congrats to Craig. Yeah, shout of Craig. He's drunk somewhere. Speaking of Craig, Craig always does the three-todent two outscore Kyle Pitts and a lie. And you know what? I'm giving Carl Pitts and Craig the week off. Kyle Pitts actually, Carl Pitts had one of the best games. games he's had in a really long time. So we're not going to just make fun of him also because there weren't actually that many tight ends who actually unscored Kyle Pitts. But Kyle Pitts had, and this feels crazy to say, D.K., Cow Pitts had seven catches Wow.

For 87 yards. I can't believe it. I seriously can't believe it. So I will say, tight ends are back. Tight ends are back. I sure hope so. I had this hunch, so I looked at it. up and it was even better than I thought.

If you look at just tight ends who scored 16 half PPR fantasy points in a game this season, just 16 points in a week. In any week, okay. The first month, that happened five times. So five tight ends scored 16 points plus? No, it happened like five times total.

Right. Like there was an instance where a tight end scored 16 points. Mark Andrews did it, Cole Comet did it, Travis Kelsey in LaPorte. This week, it happened six times. Six players scored 16 points today. Dallas Goddard had a

And it was all guys that are started. Sometimes it's like, oh my God, Pharaoh Brown had like, no one started him. It doesn't matter. Like, it doesn't matter. This week, it was like Dallas Goddard, best game of the year. George Kittle had three touchdowns, best game of the year. Darren Waller, lower bar, but like had best game of the year. People who started him are like, all right, at least he doesn't totally suck.

Kyle Bitz, if you started him, the best game of the, I mean, lower bar again. But. Right. Cool. Tight ends. Back. Sam Laporta, two touchdowns. And George Kittle and Sam Lipporta, they had the same end around reverse.

Flea Flick or Dup play, and the Niners and Lions both ran the same play. Whoa, yeah. I like that. Leporta reminds me of kiddle, by the way. They're both in Iowa, of course. I was going to say, is that just because they're white dudes who went to the same college? No, like stylistically, Leporto is kind of like a beast after the catch. He's always just like running guys down and running them over and stiff arming the shit out of them and things like that.

You know who's got another great tight end pipeline is Frostburg State. That's legendary. East North College. I might have to, I should have just, oh, wait, here, off the fly. Instead of two tight ends in a lie, I'm going to do two colleges and a lie. Perfect. I'm going to look up Frostburg State Schedule, football schedule from last year. Two colleges and a lie from Frostburg.

Oh my God, they played Notre Dame College. They're on here. They played. That's incredible. They played them. Okay. Okay. Two colleges in a lie.

American International. Uh-huh. National University Alderson Broadus There's no way that you could have made up Alderson Broadus Oh, that was real They won 58 to 7

National University's fake Yeah, I was what was going to say What was the other one? American National American International Okay Frostburg baby Frostburg State

All the Frostburg State Alums out there are pissed Yeah they are Burn Book Time We burn Drake London in week one, we burn Carl Pitts in week two, Najee Harris, week three. Ironically, Dallas Goddard, week four,

now the best game of his season in week five. Do you have someone? I have someone for the burn book. I can't remember if we've talked about this guy or not before, but Damien Pierce has been very frustrating. I'm not quite ready to burn him because I think he's good. And I think the Texans' offense is pretty good.

So he's probably going to have some big weeks. But, man, he's been frustrating. I think it's remandre. I think it's got to be remandre. Yeah, God. Remandre again since week one is like 27 fantasy points in four games. Like he was like one of the first three or four picks. Remandre is one of the more like emotionally frustrating players for me this year.

He carries for 24 yards. Are you supposed to play him in his next game? He was on the, I feel like we're going to find out after the years over that he had like a really bad knee injury that he was just nursing the entire year or something like that. Because he doesn't look like the same guy to me. I don't know what's going on. Obviously the offensive line issues.

last year suck, but he does not look like a very dynamic, elusive tackle-breaking guy that we saw last year. I was very much, you know, looking forward to what he could do this year, and he's just been really bad. Unlike the rest of the Patriots

are firing on the cylinders. Right. All right. Remodger Stevenson, you're in the burden book. All right, that's all we got. Thank you, D.K.

Thank you, Krollers, for producing this episode. Thank you, Craig, for being here in spirit. Thank you to everyone at Frostburg State in Notre Dame College, who we have insulted. Please email us at ringer fantasy football at gmail.com.

What trivia questions? Honestly, email us trivia questions about Frick and Notre Dame College, please. Trivia questions for trivia tomorrow. Make sure they end at a number. Email us about anything related to Frostburg State. I'll take it all. Thank you, Lord.

Lord. Thank you. Positive K. I don't know what that is. That's probably going to be before your time. You ever heard the song, a man? I think so. You think so? It's the song. I feel like maybe I've mentioned this one before. It's like the rapper does both his voice and the woman's voice and she's like, I got a man.

What's your man got to do with me? You know that one? Yes. Yes. Great song. I don't know a lot more of his work other than that, but great song. Did you look that up for this or did you know off the top of your head that that was positive K? No, I knew that was positive K. It's impressive. Yeah. It's got a great. hat at this picture, everybody googled them. Great hat. Yeah. Yeah, I can't say I'm like a huge fan because like I just don't know his work, but that is a good

song. You know, oh wait. Yeah, from the Bronx, went to Notre Dame College. Frostburg State. Great music. Goodbye, everyone.