The Ringer NFL Show - NFL Week 6 Recap: Giant Brain Farts, San Fran and Philly Fall, and the Injury Avalanche

Episode Date: October 16, 2023

The guys recap Week 6, starting with the Giants' miscues at the end of each half that cost them the game on ‘Sunday Night Football.’ They also talk about the last of the undefeated teams losing, the dominance of some of the top defenses, and bunch of injuries. 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, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Social: Kiera Givens and Jack Sanders Producer: Carlos Chiriboga Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Good with the Ring and Fantasy Football Show. My name is Danny Hypert. Today I'm joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Coralbeck. Sunday of Week 6 is done. We'll get to a waiver show, ad drops for a Monday. An incredible New York sports event has just wrapped. The New York Liberty have forced a game five of the WNBA finals.

I think that was the most notable New York. Also the ALCS. I mean, our oldest Chapman facing the Astros again. I don't know. DK, what did you think of the sports today? The sports? I would say the football is what I was watching. It wasn't very good.

Craig, what did you think of the football today? Hi Fitz, I'm impressed that you were able to make it back on the pod. You were playing left tackle tonight for the Giants, weren't you? That was you out there? Off the couch? I got to tell you, I will say, I feel really rending. I feel like we actually had one of the harshest. I feel like all our arguments, the harshest arguments we have are actually not about football.

I feel like last week we had the harshest. argument we had about football when DK said Daniel Jones sucks. And I said, it's because our offensive lines the worst in the league. And I actually feel vindicated because the starting left tackle got hurt and replaced by a guy who was unemployed a week ago and we were like 10 times better. But was that the only difference?

Well, the uniforms, Tyra Taylor, there's so many things to talk about this game, but the only thing that matters, I don't know what to say other than the first half was a disaster, obviously. Well, I mean, it was incredible for like, this is so obviously me live processing it. But obviously it was the Giants played really well. And then that last play they ran, guys, I was, I am so emotionally devastated that they actually just did it again at the end of the other half.

It was literally the last in the world I was expecting was having to deal with that again. I barely got over it the first time. So to be clear, at the end of the first half, They had, like, there was 12 or 13 seconds left to go. And they, Tyra Taylor checked to a run play. They couldn't get the playoff. On the one. Right.

It got stuffed. They didn't have any timeouts left. So they couldn't get the ball back and snap it again. Time run out. They didn't get three. They didn't get seven. They got zero. Brian Dayball was absolutely livid.

Sounds like Tyra Taylor checked to a play. Although we don't know for sure, but it sounds like he checked to a run play. No, it's definitely what happened. He was screaming at Tyrod. He screamed out one of the. other coaches and the coach was like, I didn't do that. This is, this is Brian Dable's fault. Like this is, it's not Tyra-Tiller's fault.

Like, it really isn't. Why are there two plays and even on the table there? Well, that's what, so first of all, it's worth winding back. This is like what happens on, I mean, I think the majority are a lot of NFL plays. It's like they actually call two plays in the huddle and the quarterback, you know, if they don't like the, if the defensive alignment won't work for the past play, they often have a run play check that will work based on where a specific guy is standing. If they're saying, hey, if basically what we're going to say is it's Tyrod Taylor's fault

for not checking, the coach, and mind you, Daibald does not necessarily call the offensive plays. Mike Koffka is our offensive coordinator. They need to be there saying, hey, we can't take. Don't check to a run. Like, yeah, like, they, like, they called the play. Like, that's the key thing there is if Tyraott Taylor checked to a run, like, he didn't do it just tapping your head, that's not a play. He didn't yell anything. He tapped to his head.

That means kill, kill, kill, kill. Like, when they yell, kill, kill, kill, that's kill the first play, run the second. That means the second play was called. And if a second play is called, they called a run. So I'm like, I don't know. I don't know if they actually call. I really don't know how the whole audible thing works. And I'm sure it's different for our team. Like, I'm not sure he called two plays. I bet they just have a bunch of audibles that they can use based on hand signals. This only affirms for me the thing that, look, 99% of situations in football, it's like the coaches do know more than us. And like all these questions we have, there's context we don't know. Why doesn't CalPets get the ball this stuff? There are things that coaches are worried about, but generally speaking, they know more.

The one thing, it's true, I swear to God that we are better at the clock management stuff and we've done it more. We've done the clock management stuff. Anyone who's ever played Madden has managed the freaking clock more than these people because I swear to God, how did that happen? I'm sorry. Okay, but so 30 minutes, fast forward 30 minutes of gameplay. And the, The Giants had an opportunity to win the game by making a touchdown. They had one untimed play with no time left, and they almost got it. I mean, how did you feel about how the ending went? Can I just say?

That was a PI. The second one? Two in a row. Easily. No, it was past interference, Craig. I agree. And I'm saying this is Giants fan. And I want everyone to listen very important.

This is very important. As someone who just lost the game because they're probably, it was PI. You can't get that twice in a row. I completely get it. They're not going to call it. The refs cannot do that twice a no. But the Giants getting the first one was stunning. Like they were in that gray area.

You won't get it in Hail Mary, but you can't ask that twice. The Giants made too many mistakes. The no field goal at the end of the first half. And then, I mean, if you look at the giant's mistakes, if they had just kicked the field goal at the end of the first half, they could have kicked the field goal in that drive to win the game. So it's like you don't deserve it. And then you got the first one.

You got the PI. You got it at the one yard line. But I kept thinking about the true detective, like time is a flat circle where I just, I can't believe they're at the one yard line. And literally the entire game came down to these two plays at the one yard line. Tyrod looked all right, to be honest. Maybe like he's better than Daniel Jones. I don't know. Thank you.

His deep balls were great. Thank you for saying that, not forcing me to do it. He was dropping dimes. Like every deep ball he threw was like in the breadbasket and he was mobile and, you know, I don't think he made a lot of dumb decisions except checking to a run at the end of the half. But like, Tyrod seemed fine. This is a weird game because I don't think the Giants played that well. The bills had a lot of unlucky plays. They had the Gabe Davis fumble. They had the tipped interception. Those are like two probably touchdown drives. And then it was a very like slow game. There was a lot of like eight minute possessions. So I actually feel like the

giants were lucky to even be close, to be honest. First of all, the third quarter had two drives and one of the drives didn't finish till the fourth quarter, which is astonishing. I, you're right. Tyra Taylor looked incredible. And I feel like the criticism of Tyra Taylor is always specificity. He looked, he looked okay. All right. It's a little bar. It's a little bar, dude.

The Giants have it. First of all, Mike Tariko's like, the Giants need their first touchdown in three games to win the game. And I'm like, God, that's the most depressing thing. It's like the kicker jinx, except if it was like, all right, he made a field goal in three years. But if he makes sense, I like, when you're, like, you have the one single friend who hasn't had a girlfriend in like six years. And someone's like, wow, your first date. He has been on a date in six years. It's like, all right.

Talk saying. Let me need to bring that up. I actually do so many things. I will say, I'll just, the refereeing overall today was really weird. I thought the referee in this game was bizarre. And I'm not even including the PI at the end. I mean, the refereeing, I feel like the refs that are employed by the TV networks are always very pro. The referees in the field, because they're all know each other and they're trying to promote.

Terry McCauley, who's the NBC guy. Disagreed the whole game. Straight up was like, that's wrong. That's wrong. very rarely definitively. Like, that's obviously incredible. Can Terry McCauley just make the calls? Why can't he just be the ref?

Like, just let him make the calls from a boot. That's how the system kind of works, Craig. Like the people in New York, whatever, who were in charge of it, they'd make a lot of those calls. My hot take was, I actually think refereeing's been really good this season. And this week it was a catastrophe. We'll get into a lot of games that happened today.

But like the Browns' Niners game was plagued by like a bunch of weird calls. The Jets game. I mean, honestly, we'll get into it. teams won, but it's like, oh my God, the Alan Luzard foul of blindside block. I'm like, I mean, Alan Lazzard's in front of the guy. I don't know what the blind part is. There was so many strange calls, but the Giants game too. I mean, I don't know.

A lot of weird going on. Anyway. Hyvitz, real quick, before we move on from the Giants and Monday night football, deep down in your soul. Sunday. Sunday night football. Are you, what, what, what's your goal here in terms of like the Giants? Are you rooting for them to lose now for a better traffic?

What, like, really, what are you? You should be happy. you should tank. I think exactly the same as last year where I was, what did I say last August? The worst possible thing could happen is Daniel, the Giants are good enough, Daniel Jones convinced them to your contract extension.

And like, again, it's post nut clarity. It's like before you're like, I don't want to get into the situation. Then you're in the middle of it. And you're like, I want to win the game.

It's so hard to root for tanking. Yeah. It's like it's not. Goes against all your instincts, I feel like. Yeah, it's like, I would like my tribe to do very poorly.

Because then later in this arbitrary draft, we will get a better. Like, yeah, it's like objectively, obviously better for the Giants to have a better shot at a quarterback. But at the moment, I'm like, I don't want to lose the son of the football. It's just furious. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway.

When you get into our awards, we got to do right now, we got to do the 72 Dolphins can pop Champate Award for week six here. There are no more undefeated teams in the NFL. The last two teams, as I mentioned, the Niners and the Eagles, they both lost and lost the teams with backup quarterbacks. NFL's weird. NFL's weird. Cleveland beat San Francisco. go, 1917. The Jets beat the Eagles 20 to 14.

First time Jets have ever been the Eagles. We said one of the four Costanza matchups would win. Turns out two of them did. We should have just part. We should just as a rule parlay, the Costanzas. D.K. We were talking about both these games, but do you feel like the Niners and the Eagles lost these games?

Or do you feel like the Browns and Jets defenses won these games? Yeah, I mean, obviously, you have to say when you're analyzing these games, is like these great teams lost to backup quarterbacks. But in reality, their defenses were just ridiculously good. Starting off with the Jets who got four takeaways from Jalen Hertz. Well, I guess three from Jalen Hertz and then a fourth from, I think it was DeAndre Swift, Lusufl fumble. So I don't know, the defense on both of those games,

both Cleveland and Philly or New York, I should say, were both incredible. I just think it was a little bit striking to me today because in the modern era, especially when we're so focused on fantasy football, it's like offense dominates the conversation. Offense dominates the entire narrative most of the time. In fact, the old adage defense win championships,

I don't even really know if that's true anymore based on like how the NFL is evolved, based on the way the rules have evolved and they favor the offense in almost every way. In reality, it's like quarterbacks win championships. It is the new sort of paradigm in the NFL. And if you look past, look back at the last 10 Super Bowl,

I think probably 80% of them, 8 out of 10, were just like really good offenses of really good quarterbacks dominating. So I don't know. I thought this was just a day for defense. It's almost the opposite because the full adage is offense wins games, defense wins championships, right? Isn't that what people say? But it's actually inverted now. It's kind of like defense wins games, offense wins championships. It's like the defense is able to stymie Brock Purdy or stymie the Eagles for one game. But like over the course of the season, the quarter of the back in the offense is, you know, going to be the thing that matters the most.

Yeah, I mean, I think the thing that caught my ear was, I think Nick Saban said that three years ago. And he used to say, like, you know, like, he literally was like, yeah, defense used to win championships. And he's like, I'm telling you that it ain't that way anymore. And that's why Alabama went from playing the way Alabama used to play to having, like, a real ass offense and having like, now they're like, all right, I guess we need the best receivers now, but grudgingly.

And now they just have four first-run picks every year or whatever. But yeah, to your point, I mean, I would say, the only defensive Super Bowls last year, your Seahawks defense, the Broncos. That was 10 years ago now. The Broncos defense. And I would argue the Patriots with Braille,

I mean, the Patriots, the last one with the Rams, that was really a defensive Super Bowl. I'd also say, I will say that the Brady Bucks won, the Chiefs had nine points of the game. But to your point, like,

they're offenses that are winning. I guess the adage is defense to win championships, but like those Super Bowls were defense oriented, but like on the whole, those seasons, were dominated by Brady. Yeah, it's a break.

You know what I mean? So it's like, I don't know, obviously, whatever. We're just talking about a saying. But at the end of the day, to me, it was just, it was kind of crazy seeing a high-powered offense like the Eagles lose to this Jets team with Zach Wilson at quarterback. Like, that is wild. We just need to take a minute and appreciate that this defense,

this Jets defense, has now toppled some very good quarterbacks this year. Yeah, man, the Jets have beaten the Bills, the Eagles, and they should have beaten the Chiefs in six weeks, the Jets. I mean, pretty impressive. And obviously with Zach Wilson the entire time, I mean, they beat the bills, the Eagles, and almost the Chiefs in the first six weeks without Aaron Rogers. I mean, it's impressive what Sala is doing with this team.

And I got to say, with Zach Wilson specifically, since that Chiefs game, he's been okay. He hasn't been that bad. I actually think he kind of looks like a different player, a little bit. This is going to sound crazy. He doesn't look atrocious anymore, which I think is what you're getting at. He looks like he's matured, to be honest. Like he's like making smarter decisions.

He's like not being a maniac and trying to Josh Allen everything because nobody can do that except Josh Allen. Even Josh Allen can't do that sometimes. But I got to say, I don't know if I'm getting like, you know, Jedi mind tricked because Aaron Rogers is on the Jets and is on the sidelines. But there are moments when Zach Wilson, you're going to, this is going to be so dumb that I'm saying this. There are moments when Zach Wilson is throwing a ball down the sideline that he kind of looks like Aaron Rogers. Like he kind of throws like Aaron Rogers and he throws these like slinging deep balls down the sidelines. kind of like these back shoulders. And I'm like, kind of as Aaron Rogers vibes

on those specific throws, nothing else. Dude, you know how when you're growing up in your favorite player or someone that's on your favorite team, you like totally emulate their style? So for instance, when I was growing up, I would emulate King Griffey Jr. swing, you know? And then later on, it was Ichero or whoever.

And then, like, when I was really younger, I was like emulating Gary Payton's shot or whatever. And I feel like just being in Aaron Rogers' presence is probably rubbing off. By the way, I think he was compared to Aaron Rogers a little bit when he was coming into the league because he has just a whip-like really quick motion when he's throwing the football. Yeah, because Aaron Rogers looks like he's like throwing a baseball to first to me when he throws. Like he has that like flick, almost like he's throwing a dart. And there's a little bit of that in Zach Wilson.

Yeah, maybe he's copying him. It's like when Americans go to London, then they come back and have an accent. They say, I reckon. Yeah. Where's the loo? Oh, sorry, the bathroom. him. Zach Wilson's also going to vote for RFK Jr.

So I think you guys are totally right. He probably will. Probably will. Yeah. No, I think so the Jets, I think, look, I think you're totally right. One, Jack Wilson's 24. Like, I mean, he doesn't have to be the worst quarterback ever forever. And then I totally agree he's getting better.

I think the Jets defense, I, Jets fans that kind of have a weird relationship with Robert Sala. I've always thought he was great. I felt very vindicated today. I think he's the right guy, like, personality-wise to handle the Jets team. But like, holy crap, they've played. Jalen Hurts, first of all, Jalen Hertz, career high,

or tied for his career high, three picks. The Jets have now created 10 turnovers versus Jalen Hurts, Mahomes, and Josh Allen and those teams. That's pretty incredible. So the caveat here is the Eagles were like the healthiest team last year in the league with the Super Bowl. You know, but today they didn't have Lane Johnson, their right tackle, got hurt,

Jalen Carter, the defensive tackle, Darius Slay, the cornerback, Avanti Maddox, the cornerback, read safeties, read Blankenship, Justin Evans, that's what Eagles fan would say. Here's the Jets have way more guys, who are hurt than the Eagles. That's what's so impressive about this game to me.

The Jets were out their top. Two starting quarterbacks, two backup cornerbacks. Never mind. The quarterback, Aaron Rogers, is supposed to be on this team. The Jets lost their best offensive lineman, Elijah Verit Tucker.

Their other left tackle, Dwayne Brown. I'm like, they still kind of rocked Philadelphia. Like, this team, can you, I know this is a stupid thing to say and we, like,

have been over this for a month, but can you imagine if Aaron Rogers was the quarterback for this team? I was thinking this whole time we were talking about Zach Wilson. This team would be so good. Should we talk about the video of Rogers on the field, like in sneakers, like throwing the football around today, a month after the surgery?

I think he is coming back. I'm saying it right now. I think Rogers will be back this season. Dolphin sex. So this is... Listening to Dolphins fucking is his rehab plan. Was this a joke? I don't know.

It doesn't matter. I don't think we can assume anything with Rogers. Here's my question with the Achilles thing. Everyone's like, oh my God. I don't know anything. Is that normal? or is that? How much of the timeline

is he really beating here? I feel like that's no idea. Yeah. People seem to be surprised. I had a friend who I played basketball with who tore as Achilles and it took him like over a year

to get to the point where he could play basketball again and then there was like another year mentally of getting over it. I feel like the way Rogers looked like he was just standing, shuffling and throwing. I was like, can he play right now?

Like, just like have him throw spark and greens. Like I feel like what he was doing was good enough. In the shock of, Rogers getting hurt. We never talked enough about how it was kind of the MetLife turf fault. And Garrett Wilson once again got hurt.

Everyone hates the MetLife turf, by the way. What's a, like, why do they have turf versus a different state? Like, what goes into the decision-making process of turf versus grass? I believe that the entirety of it comes down to you have other events there that are not football games. And so when Taylor Swift comes, you need to take the turf away and set up a, Taylor Swift concert, and that if you want to put the turf back, it's cheaper to put your rubber pellets there and not real grass. And I think that's like the entirety of the reason is it's cheaper. Money. Yes, it's just cheaper. And like I'll never forget, do you remember what was the snowstorm

something last year or the Lions? They had to move a game from Buffalo to like Detroit because there was like a lake hurricane coming of snow. I don't know. But there was like, oh, look at this Detroit Lions. They had a Christmas carnival. And then now they have a game. And they take the carnival down. and they like had a funny video time lapse of like how fast it went down. And I'm like, that's why all the players get hurt is because there was a carnival at this game yesterday. And then they put the, because what happens is there's slippage. Like they put it back, but there's give and it's concrete underneath. So one players hate playing on it because it land harder.

But then also it just gives. Like there's give to it anyway. But the Jets won. Before we move on, I just had this thought during the game. I want to throw it at you guys. This is about the Eagles who, again, were kind of. of underwhelming. Obviously, I know that their record is very strong, but I don't know.

I will say, though, does anyone in the NFL right now, like, combine pure physical, like, elite size and athleticism and speed and explosiveness with actually being a really good catcher of the football than A.J. Brown. It just struck me today how freaking good A.J. Brown is, not just as he run after the catch guy or he's big and physical. he has like incredible hands, like the softest hands. He had so many catches

that I would put on like the 9.5 rate and like difficulty today. And he just makes him so easily. It's crazy. I just wanted to shout out AJ Brown because I just had that thought that he's just incredible. Funny, I was thinking the exact same thing today.

He made like three deep ball like feathery fingertip catches. It's just like very beautiful. It's delicate. Yes. And I'm just like, man, AJ Brown is like, he's like D.K. Metcalfe mixed with like,

Exactly. I didn't want to say it because I'm the D.K. McKaff defender, but it's like this is like what it would be like if D.K. could catch really well. D.K. is like physically a wonder. But his hands have always been a little bit,

hit or miss. Like, AJ Brown is just freaking. He's a little too physical. Sometimes. Seriously, dude. Has anyone told D.

D.K. Metcalfe, he can't push a guy down like that. Yeah. D. D.K. McHiv just takes his egg around. What? Was that you talking shit?

Like, that guy didn't even look like he was paying attention to D. D.K. He's a bully out there. He's just picking on people. The other upset here, the Browns beat the San Francisco 49ers. This is wild.

49ers first loss in their last 16 regular season games. So they snapped the longest winning, Cleveland snapped the longest winning streak in 49ers team history. This one, there's so many stats in this game, but Browns allowed 1,000 and two yards in five games. So it's 1,000 yards, basically, in five games, which is the third fewest since the merger in 1970. And the only team,

to allow less than Cleveland has through their first five games are the Vikings in 1970 and the Baltimore Colts in 1971. This is the modern era too. This is insane. This is the greatest start for any defense ever. Like, just say it. Like, it's crazy.

It really is, especially when that fifth games against the 49ers. And I mean, there are so many things to say about it. But on our Friday show, we talked about how Jim Schwartz is like the guy, it's almost like every pitcher, no matter how great, you know, that Greg Maddox quote, one of the best pitchers ever was like, except for Tony Gwynn. It's like Kyle Shannon, best play call except for Jim Schwartz, the Browns' D coordinator. Jim Schwartz has now had 10 games against Kyle Shadahan. Jim Schwartz is nine and one, nine and one against Shanahan.

And Shanahan has now scored under 20 points in nine of the 10 games against Jim Schwartz. So I don't know, Craig, you've been talking about this Brown's defense so much. D-Kat. D-Kare we at this point with this Browns defense where if they could do this to the Niners, can you kind of bench anyone now if they're facing Cleveland? It certainly, yeah, it certainly makes me worried now anytime I have a player in fantasy going up against the Browns defense.

I want to throw some numbers at you. Obviously, quarterbacks have fared very, very poorly against the Brown so far. Only Lamar Jackson has had a good game. He had 28 points a week four. But otherwise, we got Burrow in week one, 3.2 points. Picket 11 points.

Tannahill in week 3, 4 points. Then they had the buy, and then Purdy this week, who has been one of the most efficient quarterbacks in the entire NFL, has the best offense around him. 7.7 points. And that obviously extends to the receivers, opposing receivers against the Browns. There's been basically two guys that have had more than double-digit points.

These are only two players that have had more than seven fantasy points. George Pickens, a week two, AJ Brown, today. Wow. everyone else has had 6.5 or below or something like that. In Pickens, it was one play. It was that one deep ball. It was that 170-yard touchdown. Yeah.

Exactly. So they are, to me, an absolute avoid if you can't, if you can with receivers. Running back's the same deal. There's two running backs this year that I've had double-digit points. It's Jaylon Warren in week two. And that was probably on like five or six dump-off passes. You know what I mean? And then D'Andre Swift today, those are the only running backs to score double-digit points.

And then tight ends the same. same deal. It's like they don't give up anything to any position. You know how like in NBA draft picks, you could have like a top five protected pick where if it's, if you end up getting a top five pick, you retain the pick. But if you don't, it goes to the other team. I feel like the Bill's defense. It's like, what do they? They're probably like top 40 protected right now. And by that I mean like if you, a top 40 fantasy player in the league, you're probably starting them still against the Browns. But if you're outside the top 40, I really consider like, you're just bench.

that player no matter who they are against the Browns. So I don't know if it's like top 30, top 40, top 50. But they're, and that number is getting smaller and smaller of the people that you would want to play against the Browns and feel comfortable about starting. We have, while we're here, we have to talk about Brock Purdy. This is the first regular season loss of Brock Party's career. Right after we decided he was good. When do you know it?

I know. It was raining for what it's worth. We have to say that. And he has small hands. And I think the other thing is how much of the narrative was decided by like the kicker Like at the end of the day, I think that I kind of wanted to just delete the outcome of kicks from people's careers. Because if Jake Moody misses the kick, so it's like, Brock Purdy, exposed. But if Jake, but if Jake Moody made the kicks 41 yards, we would have been like, Brock Purdy, you know, what he got it done?

Kids just a winner. Just wins. Yeah. In reality, it did a Kenny Pickett. He was pretty bad and unremarkable for 55 minutes and he put them in like a total game winning situation. And then the guy missed the kick. but I don't know. I mean,

what was your guys' take? Because obviously the cynical view is that once Debo and Christian McCaffrey were out, Kyle Shanahan was getting out done by Jim Schwartz and it was wet. Brock Purdy, I mean, to be clear, the second half, the Niners, if you take out the drive where they got the ball at the eight-yard line and just scored, the five drives after the second half, they literally had negative 13 yards in those five drives combined at a pick. They couldn't move the ball.

So I don't know, TK, now that we went in on Brock Bertie, did you were you having buyer's remorse? No, I mean, I think so Craig even said this last week, I think, when we were talking about this game, because obviously he tore up the Cowboys. And then we started looking forward. He's like, now he's got to play the Browns. And it's like, are we going to just like completely shit on him now that he lost

to the Browns? Like he played two of the best defenses in the NFL like twice like two games in row. He was really good in one of them and he was pretty bad in the other. Like, let's just chill and like wait until the next week. I do think obviously. some of the concerns that we had had about him before we got Purdy Pilled,

we decided to take the pill, the red pill, and we're Perti Pilled, all that. Like some of the concerns we had, like those showed up. But like at the end of the day, this is one game against a defense that's absolutely shut down almost everyone they've played. It's whatever. Yeah, as somebody who is like taking the longest

to convert to believing in Purdy, I'm actually not, I'm not reading into this at all. Like, I think Pardy is still totally fine. I mean, we're talking about this is the, best defense maybe ever in the first six weeks of a season. And look at what they did to Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes. It's like, all right, yeah, Purdy didn't have a great game in the rain against the best defense ever. I think it's fine. But I have a larger question that I wanted to pose to you to today. I feel like there's been some really, like, especially today, the interceptions are awful.

There's like really blatant interceptions now. And like, you know, guys like Tua sometimes or or Purdy or not really Purdy this year because he hit through his first pick today. But like, D.K., do you think because play callers are getting so good at telling a quarterback where he's going to go and with guys like Tua and Brock Purdy and like what may be a Desmond Ritter

where like the offense is designed around like, the coach is so smart, the scheme is so complex and it's like, you are going to go here. You don't even really have to make any reads. That now these players, these quarterbacks are just throwing to a spot without even caring whether or not. it's open because they're told to do it.

It's the muscle memory. They know where they're supposed to go. Who was it today that had, I might have been Ritter, had like the most blatant interception throwing to two people standing in front of the Falcon receiver that he was trying to get the ball to. And it was just like he dropped back,

like hit his spot through it, blatant pick. And I'm like, are these guys not even thinking now because their play callers are drawing things up so directly for them? Ritter was hitting his, the defenders more accurate than I've ever seen. seen him hit his own series, to be honest of you. But to answer your question, Craig,

the first place of my mind went when you're like, are the quarterbacks throwing more blatant picks? My mind went through a montage of watching Kerry Collins growing up and then Rex Grossman. And I was like, I don't know. But those picks were like reckless. They were like reckless bad throws. Like these are like Tua drops back and just like throws it to a dolphin over the

or to the other team over the middle field. And the announcers are like. Mac Jones said a bad one of the. Yeah. Mac Jones said one of the worst picks of seen in a while. while of this that he sailed it. I don't know. It just looks like the way, like when they throw these interceptions, it looks like it's like a part of their rhythm. It's just like drop back, look, throw blatant pick. And I'm like, why are you throwing? Like, this wasn't like your fourth

reed and you're panicking. It's like in rhythm interceptions. It's very odd. Yeah, I don't know the question. I don't know the answer. I think my first reaction is like we are living in the golden age of quarterbacking, so it's probably fine. Yeah, the mistakes being polarized is that's actually true. It's like we just, I actually think the interception rate's never been lower. If anything, they might stand out. But I will say like for teams that, I think that you're picturing where it's a lot of like, get the ball out quickly, hit your back foot, get the ball out, timing, rhythm, you know, defenses watch tape too, I think is like something that we don't really think about all that

much in the fantasy world. It's like, oh, this offense, why is this quarterback not doing as well? It's, well, because teams are starting to figure out some of the, like, some of the plays that you like the plays that you like the most, which is what obviously a lot of offensive coordinators want to call those plays. And so you can start to predict where he's going to go. You get a guy dropping back that normally isn't dropping back, hasn't dropped back on tape in the past or whatever, like in filling in a passing lane. So I don't know.

I just think part of it is probably just like teams are starting to figure out, you know, the bread and butter plays from some of these offenses, particularly like, you know, the dolphins who get the ball out so quickly and so much in rhythm. Obviously the dolphin, no one's figuring out the dolphins yet, but except for the bills. But yeah, I don't know. That was the first thing that came in mind. It's just like maybe like defenses are adapting to some of these quick throws.

I have another answer too. Maybe it's because all the quarterback suck, Craig. Because I don't know if you noticed. Today was a disaster. A quarter of the teams in the NFL played a backup quarterback. So first of all, there's injuries. The injuries everywhere, right? So just, it's going to tick down a list.

Quarterbacks who got, I mean, Trevor Lawrence, he didn't even come out of the game. But Trevor Lawrence, after the game said he had any issue. Ryan Taneyhill left with an ankle issue. He was replaced by Malik. Willis, who is God bless his heart. Justin Fields dislocated his thumb, tried to pop it back in and couldn't. Tyson Badgett replaced him. Jimmy Garoppolo had a back injury.

He was replaced by Brian Hoyer versus Bill Belichick, which is hilarious. Never mind. Christian McCaffrey with an oblique injury. Debo Samuel with his shoulder. David Montgomery hurt his ribs. Remandre Stevens. And then people who got hurt, like actually hurt, blue tent hurt, and then went back in the game. Remandre Stevenson, Kyron Williams, D.K. McCaff, Tyra killed Garrett Wilson twice.

Never mind that Trent Williams, best left tackle in the NFL, left and came back. Lane Johnson, best right tackle in the NFL. It was crazy. Even by football standards, a lot of people got to hurt. And then it was just like, I want the quarterbacks we were watching were so bad. I mean, Gardner Minshu, horrific. I feel like it's, I don't, the NFL is so weird right now because in the last few drafts, for whatever reason, quarterbacks have started falling further, it feels like.

but then teams have more need for quarterbacks because of these concussion rules where you can get knocked out of a game in the first quarter and they won't let you come back in. It's like I feel like we're seeing more. I don't know if this is actually true. I feel like we're seeing more quarterbacks than ever before. Just like the sheer volume of quarterbacks that play in any given games because of the new rules around quercutions, which is a good thing, of course, in the long term. But it really complicates things. This is why there's a third quarterback emergency quarterback rule for a lot of teams. I don't know.

It just seems like a weird contrast because you need quarterbacks more, but now teams are less, they feel less like focused on getting quarterbacks. I don't get it. It's weird. This is what I kept saying about the Brown, the Bengals, not having a replacement for Joe Burrow.

Perfect example. Yeah. All right. Here's two good examples. One, the Browns, I know they won with PJ Walker today, but let's be real. The fact that their backup quarterback for the Browns was,

Deshawn Watson, $230 million. The backup is Dorian Thompson Robinson, who is a rookie, what, like a fifth rounder. This is what I'm saying. They're like using these fourth and fifth round picks. Sam Howell is a fifth rounder. It's like you spent $230 million on Deshawn Watson, like spend a couple more on a backup.

You know what I mean? Like what's a couple more at that point? $16,000 on candles. My family's starving. Help me, help me budget. If this was a car, it's basically like having a, I don't know, like a Bugah that you paid a million dollars for, but it snows and you can't use it. So you're like, well, like, shit, I guess we have to walk.

Like, there's no, like, you just have a Dorian Thompson Thompson, Bob, it's like, oh, I guess we'll quantum leap PG Walker in. And then, you know, the bills, they couldn't even afford a whole name. They had to get Kyle Allen instead of Josh Allen. But I mean, I was a DK. Tyson Badgin. Baygent? Tyson, Bat, Baygent?

That's a, that's such a backup name. You know what I mean? Like, he'll never be a starter with that name. You got to change the name. It's backup name. So this is the perfect, exactly the perfect example of what we're just talking about. Tyson Beigent, undrafted free agent out of Shepard University, which is a D2 school, D2. Explain to me, DK.

I don't understand why this guy is the one who is on an NFL team. Like, I don't understand. Why aren't all backups just like guys who played at Oregon State or something? You know what I mean? Like, Tyson Bejans from Shepard? Like there's nobody else telling me the quarter of, back from like Oklahoma State last year is not better than the guy from Shepard? Or the like thousands of,

Shepard. The thousands of like veteran backups. Like Craig, I've never heard of Shepard. Another perfect example. He beat out PJ Walker who started for the Browns today and what. That's so we beat out right. Because the Tyson Vagent, the whole thing was he beat out for the job and undrafted.

I'm like right, he beat up PJ Walker. PJ Walker who had a $2 million guaranteed salary. The Bears cut him because Baygent did so well in the pre-stead. season. And he honestly, he looked really good in the preseason. I want to throw some facts at you guys about this because obviously being a D2 guy, you're not very well known. He did go the senior bowl, I will say.

Did he always go to Frostburg State? No, they didn't. It's Frostburg D1? I don't. Sheppard could they even beat Notre Dame college? Hyvitz, look up Bej. Sorry, look up Shepard and see who they play. I will say, he is the all-time, all-division, all levels in college football leader in

career passing touchdowns, 159. More than Case Keenham, more than Kellynne Moore, 159 passing touchdowns in four seasons, which is a fuckload. Obviously, I know it's D2. He threw for 17,000 yards in college. He attempted over 2,000 passes. Do you remember how we were talking about Trey Lance a couple years ago? Do you know how many passes Trey Lance through in college?

318. 318. Tyson Baygent through 2,000 plus passes in college. maybe this is why he's good just because of fucking reps. Anyways, the other thing which I think you'll like the most, Craig, and hyphen, it's really. His dad is a world champion arm wrestler. He's generally...

He's generally considered to be the greatest left-handed arm wrestler of all time. This is Travis Bejant, who I've looked at some of his... So obviously studying the draft, I studied this guy a little bit. His dad is like this boombastic, larger-than-life personality. He's like almost like a WWE guy. like, but arm wrestler. He has like a website. He has all these videos.

You should Google him. Travis Bejant. He's got a bunch of like CBD stuff you could buy too if you want. Anyways, this is like the weirdest fucking story of all time. Like D2 guys who's starting for, he might be the starter for the next few weeks. Well,

Justin Field is out because he dislocated his throwing thumb. That's not good. Like you might miss a few weeks now. I have a question that I would like people listening with your children to turn it off and also my mom you can pause it. and maybe we cut this in the show. You're world champion arm wrestler. You're the greatest left-handed arm wrestler ever.

What hand do you think his dad jerks off with, left-to-right? If you have the strongest left-hand of all the left arm of all time. I feel like he goes left. That means he's left-handed, you know, most coordinated. It's probably brushing his teeth with his left, I'm sure. More dexterous. Oh, that's how he got there. He has to do everything.

His dexterity is off the charts with that thing, you know? The funniest thing about this guy is like, you know, he jogs in. They're like, and here it comes tight. and Beijan, and you're just like, there's just no way this, like, this guy's got no shot. First play is like the most like egregious pick you've ever seen. It was a pick six, I believe. He just gets like hit as he throws. Oh, that wasn't his first.

That wasn't his first play. But yeah. Correct. Your point, Bejit did something that I forgot that Blake Bortals used to do, which is he threw a pick that I thought had been tipped that was not. And that hasn't happened in like four years that I, it's usually the other way. You throw, you think it's fine and it's bad. It was not bad and I thought it was, oh my God. You guys are making fun of them.

I think he might be good. I think this guy might be legit. You know who's not Malik Willis? I hope Tannehill's okay because Malik Willis is one of the worst quarterbacks I've ever seen. Those types of plays only happen to bad quarterbacks. Like they're like get hit as you throw, the ball goes straight in the air. Like that just doesn't happen in Mahomes. You know what I mean?

Like for some reason, he just never gets hit. as he throws in it, it's like an ugly pick. That only happens to like Tyson, Bajuns and Desmond Ritters. Here's my other question. Here's my other question. So, like, you know, I was thinking about this. I mean, you know, McCaffrey ended up being okay. But if you have like, you know, Debo or like Justin Fields leaves the game with four points,

I'm not saying this should be the default. Like, I'm not saying every league should be like this. However, should we be able to sub players out in fantasy football? Like, it's kind of whack that they could just get hurt in me. Like, oh, nothing I can do about. this. That's kind of dumb. Here's that thing. I agree. I don't know like the best way to do it, but I feel like, do you guys remember during the

COVID year when everybody before the, this is like a whole bunch of extra work for the commissioner, I guess. Maybe there's a way they can automate it. But do you remember during the COVID year, you would send an alternate to your commissioner in a lot of leagues and we were like, basically, if this guy gets COVID on Saturday and can't go on Sunday, here's my backup guy, blah, blah, blah. I think in an era, especially with, like we were talking about before, where concussion, where they have a spotter, an independent spotter telling guys they have to come out if they hit their head awkward.

We're seeing more and more guys, leave games and not come back. Whereas in the old days, a lot of those, like, for worse, would play through concussions, right? I don't know. It's just like really changed. I think it's really changed football, obviously. And it's changed fantasy. Maybe there's like a way, there's like a, it's just like a, somewhere in between where you can, like, have one backup guy,

if one of your players leaves early with a concussion or whatever, where you can sub him in. Because I think it's just going to get, it's going to continue on this path. And, you know, the NFL is going to be really, like, proactive about getting guys out when they get concussions. And so, I don't know. I think there's something there.

I would be for it. I mean, I think it, the thing I think about is, I don't know you guys, but one, I feel like we've changed where some people have IR spots in their leagues, but you can put players who are out in the IR. I think that's fine because people are like, I'm like, okay, but real teams can do that. Like, real teams can put a guy, you know what I mean?

And so the thing I always wonder about is I understand that back in the day when Bill Simmons was mailing the roster and you don't figure out if you want or not to like Tuesday, you didn't know what the score was. I understand why they couldn't sub guys out. And I understand you don't want all 12 members of your league having to like sub a guy in. But it's just kind of nuts that you're like, yep, got hurt. Nothing I can do. I'm like, oh, but the real team can sub a guy in.

There's got to be a compromise between here's the deal. It's like there's a gray area between the way that we most people play, which is like you set your lineup. And then there's best ball where you just, your best ball lineup is just the guy, the seven or eight guys or whatever, how many or 10 guys that scored the highest points. What if there's just a middle ground?

Like you can sub in one guy, you know, that like. Yeah, you should get like one alternate per game or something like that. Like one best ball, like one, we'll call him a ringer. And he'll go in and, you know, he's your ringer. And if one of your guys goes out early, then you get like your high score goes back in. I like that. I kind of like that.

By the way, McCaffrey got hurt, which is kind of what we've been saying this entire season. Like, man, they're really feeding McCaffrey. Do you think load management will ever be a part of the NFL?

I think it already is starting to be. I think that this is the reason there's so few McCaffrey's in the world is because teams are like, we can't give these guys to turn for carries every year. And I think it's going to continue. This is something,

by the way, this is something I texted you guys today. I feel like, so like this, I was watching the Bears game. It was like, Darrington Evans, who came in from the Dolphins practice squad. He's like their sixth running back because everybody else is hurt.

And like, he looked pretty good to me. He looked fine. He was out there running. Like, he was making some plays. I think he did fumble one time. But otherwise, he was pretty good. I think every team has like six running backs. So it would be like pretty good.

Except for the chargers who have been trying for three years to find a backup running back back back. And all their guys are terrible. It's like, why can, why can the bears find a guy from the practice squad of the dolphins and plug him in one day? And the Chargers have spent three years trying to find anybody to back up Austin Eccler. I don't get that. Have you guys seen Phantom Thread that movie?

I have not. Oh, well, I think maybe, I think Austin Eccler might be just like he just poisons the food of all the other running backs. So they're always just like a little debilitated. They don't know why. He must be doing that. He must be like sneaking poison into their food. This was doing his one arm pull up. So he's like, yeah, you guys can't.

That's funny. But like, dude, if the Niners are nine and oh and they're. like playing the commanders, they should just be like Christian McCaffrey healthy scratch. They do it with Kauai Leonard. You know what I mean? Like I kind of fully. How's that going for the Clippers? No, well, they started it with the Spurs when they won the title.

So like, Kauai Leonard like kind of started it. But it was like, yeah, Pop would just be like, you know what? Duncan, Genobley Parker, we're sitting them. It's rainy. It's wet out. We don't want to pull any grinds. Like if the Niners play on a Sunday and then they have a Thursday again the next week, just fucking say Christian McCaffrey.

I think the simplest answer I could give you is that it's because something about the scheduling, and that's something, it's the back-to-back nights where players want to party or whatever and also just travel. It is built into the culture of the NBA that, eh, I don't know about all these games. There's not enough games in the NFL. Yeah, it's like it's built to the culture. I don't think that used to be a thing, though, Hyfitz. I mean, like, in the 80s, I don't think they thought that way. It was like, you play every game.

Now it's like a lot more lenient. I think that the NFL. there's more a culture of if you sit out the game, you'll lose your job. That doesn't exist. But I'm saying it's the coach's decision. Yeah, I'm not saying McAvary opts to sit out. I'm saying like,

I just think it's crazy that in a sport where injuries are so important and they change the trajectory of a season that if you're a really good team, you're 11 and 1 and you have a game, it's like fucking sit your guys or some of them. I don't know.

We see this in the preseason too, Craig. Well, the funniest thing to me, I agree. The team that does, I feel like the Chiefs do this, to Jerich McKinnon, but it shouldn't take like three reconstructive D-surgery's for people to do it. And Cadarius. And they only play Cadarius, Tony,

like 25% of snaps because they need them. It's just load management. All right. It's not any other reason. Saving them. Yeah. Speaking of Cadarious, there are a lot of receivers we were really wrong about. That everybody was really wrong about. That segue is offensive,

hyphins, but continue. You're right. Sorry, I was right about Kavanaugh. You guys were really wrong about them. But there were a lot of people that we were all really wrong about. I was wrong about. And I actually think that the connected tissue here is it's really that somebody's got to catch pass as a word. I feel like I talked a lot about the dread zone. Because we talked about the running back dead zone. We talked a lot about the receiver dread zone this year. And really just all these receivers are terrible quarterbacks. We were like,

don't go through this. Don't put yourself through all these terrible quarter. Whoops. Oh my God. Like you look at some of the receivers this year, DJ Moore is like what, a top two receiver on the season. We, you know, we didn't love DJ Moore coming to the year. Michael Pittman for the cults has been like really concentrated. Like there's a lot of receivers. We're really worried about, I don't know how this is going to go and they're doing great. But there's,

I don't know if this person quite counts, but because they weren't going very high. But there's been no one I was, I think it was more wrong about the shit than Adam Thielen, who I need to give his flowers. Adam Thielen receiver for the Panthers. Adam Phelan had eight catches and 100 yards and a touchdown at half time today. He ended up with 115 yards.

But the Panthers are actually up 14-0. and then they lost 42 to 21. But Adam Feele in top 23 fantasy points, top 14 receiver in the day. Adam feels a top four wide receiver on the season. He is literally ahead of A.J. Brown and J.M.R. Chase. Wow. Wow. Which quite, I'm speechless.

Like I-flaggasted. It feels like a Josh Jacobs-esque thing. I thought I was done with this. But I honestly, I'm stunned. I mean, when he was on the field for the Vikings, the Vikings overall offensive efficiency cratered when he was when literally everyone on the field accepted like he would leave and then the team is just better.

What do you guys think this is? Like, I mean, because I think the rationale behind not being into it. So the other guys, Jacobi Myers, Drake London, Michael Pittman, Adam Thielen, DJ Moore, these guys are on bad teams, right? And like the whole thing was like, I have the worst fucking attorneys, the Terry McLaurin Award.

It was like, don't draft guys with shitty quarterbacks on shitty teams because it doesn't work out. All these players that we named are on bad teams that are bad this year and yet they're still playing well with their mediocre to bad quarterbacks.

Is this just like kind of a sell high across the board situation here or what? What do you think the takeaway is from this? I don't know. That's tough. So basically we name this to somebody's got to catch pass as a word

because it's a cliche that we use a lot in the preseason when we're trying to put together projections and rankings and be like, somebody in this offense has got to catch passes. And I think a lot of the times we've preached against that because ultimately when you say that,

somebody's got to catch passes, the implication is all these guys suck and there's nobody that's good in this offense and someone's going to have to catch passes. I do think there's an element of this with Adam Thielen where Adam Thielen is the only good receiver on this team. And therefore, or maybe we just underestimated how good he is, but he doesn't have much competition here.

You know, Jonathan Mingo, he's a rookie. He's slowly learning. And I thought he was overdrafted anyway. You know, Terrace Marshall is not turning out to be anything. DJ Chark is just a journeyman guy. There's not a lot of competition here. And so I think the fact that Bryce Young, like, trust this guy and his timing and chemistry is really strong with him.

Like, that's the reason we're seeing Thielen just absolutely ball out. And then I would say, you know, in that instance in particular, I think we'd probably just underestimated how good Adam Thiel is, at least relative to his. teammates. Yeah, I mean, it's stunning like just the competency what it's done. I think it's a few factors because even as the Panthers have been so bad, I mean, I think to your point, like there's how many times we try to project a receiver like, you know, when Devante Adams left, being like, oh, Alan Lazard or, you know, was it Robert Woods, the first year he was in Tennessee. You know, there are so many instances where we're like, oh, this guy will be it. And generally speaking,

when an aging veteran goes to a rebuilding team, you're like, yeah. Yeah, I think it's kind of the veteran leadership. I don't know. I mean, you're absolutely right, though. Thielen was just not very good last year. I think he was probably kind of banged up. Craig, to answer your question, I think a few of these guys are absolutely sell highs, though.

Like, DJ Moore being a top five receiver this year, sell high. Whoa, whoa, whoa. What about Tyson Bayesian? Well, as much as I love Tyson Bayesian. I don't think he's going to continue this trajectory. DJ Moore is not going to continue this direct. What's the word? trajectory.

God damn it. It's all right. It's late. DJ Moore was easily my biggest miss. I didn't want to be, like, I didn't want my name to be associated with DJ Moore.

I think, I think Drake London after today probably so high. I think Kyle Pitts probably so high. I got to say, London looks really good. He's like an elite contestant catch guy. Like,

he's just going up and like ripping balls and coming down with them, which is necessary because Ritter's not good. And every pass is kind of difficult. But I was watching today, you know what's funny about the Falcons, particularly with their receivers, they're good ones, like Pitts and Drake London. Every time they catch a pass, it's like they're a street dog that was just fed their first meal in weeks. They're like so happy and elated to have caught the pass. They celebrate as though like they just like won on a buzzer beater. Like Drake

London catches like a 12 yard slant. And he gets up and he's like screaming and like pointing at the stands and I'm like, it's because these people are never fed. You never know when the next one's going to come, you know? Yes, they're like legitimately like celebrating every time they catch a 15-yard pass. Along those lines. So if you listen to our Wednesday show, I kind of got a little shocked and dismayed that Hyphitz ranked Desmond Ritter as the number two worst quarterback in the NFL. I'd like to rescind that, that reaction.

I'm taking my complaint off the table. We'll cut that out of the podcast. Todd, Ty, cut that out. Watching Ritter today was hard. Like, he was so bad. A couple of his picks, especially the one in the end zone. By the way,

did you see Arthur Smith's reaction to that interception? I've never seen a man so just incandescent mad. Like, he was so mad. Arthur Smith looked like he had lost faith in whatever God of his choice. He was incandescent. Yeah, it was bad. He just, like, hucked it up.

Like, not even close. He just, like, off his back foot threw up, like, a lot. It's like he's thrown at Alleyoop, and the defender just, like, easily intercepted it. Desmond Ritter was so bad today that I literally was thinking to myself. I think interceptions that it'd be worth more, like, more negative points in fantasy. Like, minus six for those three picks was not enough. Yeah, can we get like an EPA-style version of interceptions where it's like, or next-gen gen stats is like how close the nearest receiver was when a ball is intercepted and then you get,

like, more points against you if it's a really terrible one or something like that? I think there's something there. By the way, the Falcons pass the ball 47 times today. Do you guys, how many times? First of all, when do you think the last time the Falcons threw that many passes was? Don't read the page. Matt Ryan, like Matt Ryan against like the Eagles, like five years ago, probably. It was, well, not quite that long.

September 19th, 2021 was the last time they threw more than 47 passes. That was, yeah, this is the second worst, I guess, game from the, that point of view for Arthur Smith era. And by the way, it was like nice for us that Pitts and London had good games. So maybe we should just like root for this. But at the end of the day, like this was not good for their offense with Ritter under center. Yeah. Pitts had a touchdown today.

Good for him. He was the number, the third tied in on the day. I got to say. Hell yeah. Two weeks in a row, baby. Falcons also Washington beat the Falcons 24 to 16. And the, we're leaving it. They were in the game.

The Falcons only win. when they don't give the ball to London Pitts and Bijan. I think that's what... The Falcons had three straight drives down eight points that they could have gone down and won the game. Like the entire fourth quarter was essentially the Falcons had the ball with the chance to get a one possession game. They had

so many plays. They also ran the ball 29 times. They ran a lot of plays in this game. They had a million opportunities to win. To be honest, Pitts doesn't look healthy to me. I don't think Pitts looks that good. Like, when I see guys like Leporta and Mayor, I know they're different styles. I know Pitts is basically a wide receiver,

but like, Pitts does not look that electric to me. He doesn't look like a generational talent. Well, I think that is the root of the thing here. And it's funny because I think somewhere along the lines in the Pitts arc, we forgot to like actually watch what he does on an individual play-to-play basis. Like when I watch Evan Ingram, I'm like, this guy's just as good as Kyle Pitts. He's like hobbled. He's clearly lost a step from being.

And this is all related to, I think, his knee injury that, you know, was reported as an. MCL strain, I think, and it kept him out for almost a full year. So I don't know what the deal is there. But yeah, he's not healthy, I don't think. But his touchdown catch was pretty sick today. Did you see that one? Let's just say, we're going to shit talk Kyle Pitts today when he was, like, we always

do two tight ends that outscore Kyle Pitts and a lie. And today, only two tight ends outscore Kyle Pitts. There's not even room for a lie. I mean, he had 43 yards, but I think we can relax. It was a slow day. He had a touchdown. He had a touchdown. He's only had three touchdowns in his life in his career. Just can't be choosers, Craig.

Come on. He was four touchdown of his career. 43 yards in a touchdown. I think I could still be like, this guy doesn't look that good. I'm just saying. Brent and Strange had 27 yards in a touchdown. You know?

It's not that hard. Breton Strange. I was like watching it. I was like, wow. That's Breton Strange guy. It looks great. But you think he's related to Cole? We ever checked that?

Nuga. Honestly, they probably are. Let me look. I don't think they are. I got to say, Michael Mayer, Raiders, looks. Great. All these tight end rookies are awesome. Yeah, we need, we have a zombie section.

We should just do like the zombie tight ends, like the Halloween resurrections, because Cal Pitts resurrected with the touchdown. Michael Mayer, who had been irrelevant while Sam LaPorteur was breaking all these records. Michael Mayer looked out of control, incredible. And D.K., I'd like to shout you for the best comp you've ever made, which is Michael Mayer trying to, like people trying to tackle Michael Mayer. It looks like the Lord of the Rings guy who blows up the castle at the end of Helms deep. Just like the berserker, like running in with the bomb.

Like, that really is what Michael Mayer looks like. Legolas, bring him down. Bring him down, Legolas. Oh, man. By the way, that's like the most frustrating, most frustrating moment in all of Lord of the Rings when Legolas misses for the only time. I know.

Come on, Lego. Get him in the head. That was Brock Bernie today. Brock Bernie today. All the Niners fans were, like kill him. He's like fucking sliding on shields downstairs. He can't hit the berserker in the head.

Come on. Anyway. It's like, dude, Brandon, I use wide open. Are there PFF grades for Lord of the Rings characters? Write that down. We might have to cut that out.

That's a really good idea. Wow. I think Ruiz would have graded Legolas really poorly in that game for sure. There should be a PFF. Oh, my God. This is a great idea. There should be a PFF for like action stars. Like,

this is such a Shea Serrano. where there's like a full ranking and stats and like what they're best at. John Wick is like Mahomes. Who's the Herbert who like everyone like well the nerds love but everyone's like, what a loser. The John Wick thing would be hard because he's like

he fights with pistols. It's like a very weird finding. Maybe John Wick's Herbert. Do John Wick's Herbert? He might be. John Wick. The thing I love about the John Wick movies is to see reloads.

Like they actually is the only movie I've ever seen where they show the entire process of reloading. His reloading is like one of the most impressive parts of it because he's really doing it. My dad is a former police officer. I was on the SWAT team. And he says that John, like the Keanu's gun skills are like very accurate.

He's actually legit. I was going to say that I watched John Wickford. And without doing spoilers, there's a scene where he's running up the stairs of the soccer car in freaking Paris. And then he, I don't want to give us spoilers, but whatever.

Just stop listening if you haven't seen it. He gets all the way to the top. It's like this 10 minute long fucking fight scene up to stairs. Then it gets kicked, kick down the stairs again. And it's like start over. It's like, who's the, who's the parallel for this quarterback? I don't even know. But like, that was like to me, I was like, oh, come on.

I feel like honestly, finish this scene. I feel like it's Kyle Shanahan getting there. Like the lead in the third quarter of the Super Bowl, like it kicked all the way down the stairs. It's all the way to the NFC championship game runs out of quarterback. She's like, God damn, it just throw the guy. That scene was like almost like a bit for a second. 100%. He's going to, he's going to roll down.

It was like that scene in Hot Rod where he's like just keeps falling down the hill. So funny. I'm like, there's a Tommy boy. Dude, there's a scene in family guy famously where Peter falls down and just goes, he just like grips his knees like. Oh, yes.

Yes, there was a bit of that vibe in that scene. It's like something's funny for a while and then it turns not funny. And then it keeps getting bad. The third one, the third John Wick where they just keep kicking him through the pains of glass. like seven times. Oh my God.

Anyway, what were we talking about? Michael Madder. He looks awesome. Yeah. Berserker from Helms deep. Yeah. Tal Schultz scored a touchdown. Anyway, yeah, what year is it?

Remember the time the Giants didn't run a play at the one yard line and get a field goal? And then they got to do it again at the end of the second half. That was crazy. Anyway. Speaking of favorite teams, D.K., what are your C-Haw?

Knox thoughts today as they had like 15 opportunities to win the game today, but their offensive line wouldn't let it happen. Oh, man. Yeah, that was a frustrating one. I feel like on one hand, I was really excited because the defense looked pretty good against a really good offense. And, you know, like, I don't know,

I'm getting excited that the Seahawks might actually have some pieces to be pretty decent on defense. But man, their offensive line is super banged up. They had all these backups on the offense line. They did get Charles crossed their left tackle back today, but they just, every time, they had an opportunity to do anything in the second half,

especially in the fourth quarter, they just got sacked. Like, Gino-Smith just got sacked so many times. And had a couple of picks. So it was a really ugly game. But Highfitz, you called this. In our Friday show, I think, you called it, like, almost exactly.

Like, the offensive line against that defensive line was just like a bad mismatch, especially in the second half. Seahawks just kind of, like, ran out of tricks to, like, get around that deficiency. And, yeah, credit to the Bengals for having a really good defense and kind of shutting down the Seahawks.

I'm kind of working on a take that I wanted to run by you guys. And it fully formed after this Seahawks game because I had D.K. McCaff and I was just like, God, Gino, just do anything. And they just kept getting sacked over and over. And then this season's, you know, especially with Daniel Jones getting sacked a million times, Sam Howell getting sacked a ton. I kind of think we should just not have a pass rush in football.

I think it ruins the sport. I don't think there should be defensive linemen. you should just have to throw the ball in five seconds or less, four seconds or less, and that's it. Because I think the worst part of football is when the offensive line or the quarterback is so bad that it becomes unwatchable and it becomes uncompetitive. And I'm just like, fucking get rid of it.

I don't need to see T.J. Watts, I'm going to do you guys. It's cool, but it ruins the game. Craig, I wrote an article about this like a couple of years ago at the Rigger. It was like basically like, do we want good, like, because you know like all the old heads, every time there's like a defensive battle, they come out of the woodwork. They're like,

this is real football. I'm like, do people actually want that? No, we want the fucking Rams versus the Chiefs scoring 55 points, lighting up the scoreboard. I don't know.

To me, that's more fun. Like, beautiful football to me is watching the Dolphins, not watching some offense, like completely, like,

destroy some quarterback. By the way, this is absolutely, like, a completely biased take because we're fantasy heads. But like, yeah,

I mean, honestly, even from a football point of view, it's really fun to watch like awesome, awesome, offense. Defense is just like, man, this is frustrating. Greg's enjoying this take now and then like five seconds into the first game where Kenny Pickett has to play without the Steelers Pass rush. He's going to be like, what the fuck did I do?

I'm just like, it sucks when it's third and 10 and you're like, oh, wow, I hope Derek Carr is going to be able to convert and maybe make this game close and the line gets blown up and he just gets sacked. And you're like, this is not fun. No one's having fun here. Anytime there's a mismatch on the OL and the DL, it's like that's the worst game immediately. It's awful. sucks. No one has fun. Nobody likes that. So many takes. One, Craig, you have some of the best takes of anyone I know. This is your worst one.

He's got hot takes. You never are more online than when you say acronyms out loud. That's like, I've never heard anyone say O-L versus D-L. You have like such a weird fixation on that. I said O-L versus D-L. Like, who fucking cares? I never heard anyone say that. But I used to say I-N-Ts or ints and you get really mad at me. That was, you called me.

Hyphitz, it's okay. Just let it go. I'm on Hyvitz's side with the int thing. Okay. That's what I was thinking of. I couldn't think of it. I called them ins. People say, oh, well.

I don't really hear people say oh well, but it doesn't. I've never heard that out loud other than from you. I think you're wrong. But okay, continue. Okay. Paul? Look, it's a take. It's not meant to be like the most rational take.

But no, no. It's a hot take. I am not. The sack rate in the NFL. this is not being discussed enough is the highest that's been in 20 years. It's the highest in the true media database. So quarterbacks are being sacked more than ever.

And that I think is interesting. Rooting football. Well, honestly, I actually think it's the other way around. Can I give you the flip side of my take? I actually think there's more quarterback sacks because the game is safer. I think that the body weight rule, which was horrific to live through

the education defensive players, learning how to tackle people without landing on them. And then like all these rules and I actually think you see players pulling up instead of hitting guys over the middle all the time. And I think the aggregate is, I actually think the net value of hitting quarterbacks

is less painful or burdensome or whatever. The toll is less per hit. Because honestly, I think it's really weird to me that outside of the expansion Houston Texans, Daniel, like the Giants have allowed the most sacks ever on record since stats became a stat. And then Washington's right there. And I mean, it's not a coincidence.

It's like somehow it wouldn't have survived 29 sacks. 15 years ago, but I actually think the rules have made it safe enough for quarterbacks that they're just, I don't know, they're making it, there are more sacks because

15 years ago, a quarterback would have been like, oh my God, this fucking sucks. I got to throw the ball away. But now it's not as hard. Like the hits you're taking or and it's punishing.

And I actually think that's why quarterbacks are holding on the ball longer in part. But that's not a counter to my take. You're just giving me an explanation as to why there are a lot of sacks. I'm saying it makes the game less entertaining to watch. Oh, that's fair.

I guess I was trying to say your point about sacks. I was just trying to say there are, to your eye test, there are more sacks happening. The lovers of defense are going to come after you, Craig. People who love slugs. There's just nothing worse than a Sunday night game. You're excited for the game. And you can tell within the first three minutes,

you're like, this offensive line is going to ruin this, the next three hours. Dude, this is why I was talking. So rewind a couple of weeks when Russell Wilson early on in the season, everyone was like, oh, he's washed, blah, blah, boy, he sucks. and they're doing that again this week, by the way. I'm like, did you watch him at any point in time during like the 10 years he was with the Seahawks?

80 to 90% of those games was just the most unwatchable football imaginable. He's just getting sacked. He's like spinning around, like spending two hours back there running around, throwing the ball away. It's like he would have really terrible games spiked by like three or four really awesome plays.

And that was Russell Wilson in a nutshell. It's who he is still. It's who he is now. He just can't run around quite as much. Maybe like one to two Mississippi, they have to count before they can rush. Anything. The Mississippi rule. Yeah.

Miles Garrett has to count the two Mississippi before he can rush. The game is better. Craig, they're going to hate it. Whatever. I like it. Yeah. All right. Time for the burn book.

Yeah. What you guys got? I forgot to think of one. Well, last week she said Damien Pierce and then Damien Pierce and then Damien Pierce at three points this week, so I kind of assumed you were going to say him again. Let's just run it back again, yeah. I'm done. He's another guy that has, there's a lot of, there's a disconnect between how awesome he is at

football and how useful he is in fantasy. Because I think he's a good runner. I just, I don't know, like he has the least valuable role in the NFL or something. I'm okay with Pierce. I was going to nominate Jerry Judy, but I think he's solid. Judy. Steve Smith went off on Judy, by the way. What was the deal with that?

I thought Smith was like, I thought that was kind of weird. What did he say against Steve Smith for people who don't know? What's the pro? I think he was mad. He think he was mad essentially that Jerry Judy like didn't want to take his advice. And then he got so upset about that that he like backfired on air about like how lame and untalented Jerry Judy is. He was like, I'm good. And now Steve Smith's like, fuck Jerry Judy.

And Judy did that because Steve Smith called him. him a jag. Yeah. It's like, I don't know. I kind of get where Judy's coming. Yeah. Right. Didn't Steve Smith say don't,

the Broncos shouldn't pay Jerry Judy? No one should sign Jerry Judy. He's like, if anyone asks me if they should cite Judy, I'm going to tell him no. I think he did have some funny, Steve Smith said like he's going to have like, oh,

he like, you know, whatever. He predicted that he'll have his three catches for 26 yards as he always does, and he literally had three catches for 14 yards. We're not saying Steve Smith is wrong. We're just saying it was a petty. Should we ask Steve Smith who he wants to burn this week?

We should call it just the Steve Smith Burnbook is Judy for sure. All right, skills do Jerry Judy. Honestly, though, that's a good one because like I'm like, I don't want to start him ever again. I don't want to do that. I don't want to experience that. He's a bench player now in fantasy of like Therindro. One of my friends. I, when my friends, I assume you guys, your friends text you too, but like, oh, what should I do?

And I'm always like, who's on waivers? Let me check. And someone was like, Jerry Judy. Like, I was like, oh, my God, add him. And then I'm like, yeah, I get it now. Like three weeks ago. It's like, uh, all right. Yeah.

Jerry Judy. Yeah, no. Jerry Judy. Yeah, no. Jerry Judy. You're in the burn book. All right. So he joins.

Tough wait for Judy. Man. Yeah. He joins, who do we been slash? Ramantra Stevenson, Dallas Goddard, Naji Harris, Calpitz, and, London. Wow, we burned Romandre. Yeah, he had two points last week. We see it was better this week. That's what we got. We got our waivers episode coming for you on

Monday. Who to add, who just, who did trivia, all the stuff. Thank you, Craig. Thank you, T.K. Thank you, Carlos, for producing this episode. Thank you, Lord. Lord. Thank you, Mark Morrison. Nope. Return of the Mac. Once again. I panicked briefly that Jim Morrison had like a brother that I had no panic. You have no idea. I don't think so. That's how Tyrod Taylor must have felt when he handed the ball off. Wow, I had no idea that that song was sung by Mark Morrison.

Wait, he's the Mac? Yeah. Well, it's Mark Morrison, not Mac. Yeah, but he's the self-styled Mac in the song is what the question was. He's Mac. Return of the Mac. Wait, I thought Return of the Mac. Return of the Mac.

Have we been saying it wrong this whole time? It's Return of the Mark. Oh, it's just the British thing. It's because it's just his name. It's not, the R is soft, right. That's so funny. I know that's not actually it. That's not, yeah.

Are we sure, though? This is like Michael Scott trying to figure out lyrics. You know, it's funny looking up this song. It says the song's beat is sampled from Genius of Love by Tom Toll. Club. What? Stop it. No, it's not.

Yeah. Oh my God, it is. What? Return of... No way. I can't picture that. That's interesting. Interesting.

Now we need to work Return of the Mac into fantasy football parlance. Return of the Sack. What are we going to do? Return of the Mac Jones. There's something. We've got to find a return of the Mac pun here to work into our shows. I'm just trying to figure out where the sample's coming from. Is it just like the main beat

It was sampled? It kind of sounds Genius of lovey Craig's just rocking out Maybe we'll get sued I don't know I don't know I get sued by

I don't think we get sued They're not going to sue us Come on What are you going to do Sue me What are you going to do sue me Plus we have the worst fucking attorneys Saying sue me is like

One of the funniest things You can say I think Like to this day It's been like It's been gold for probably well over 40 years at this point, saying sue me when someone's mad at you. You know what would be a great trivia question is when was the first time anybody was like legally officially sued? When was the first time? Oh, it had to be like ancient times, dude.

It's been around forever. People are litigious. They used to say sue for peace when they were having like a war. Does that count? Yeah, yeah, sure. Thanks, Craig. Are you even listening to me? Do horses have socks?

I'm Googling when was the first lawsuit. You guys don't even listen to my questions anymore. First class action lawsuit 1820? Or that's when they were invented. Oh, it's way before that. It's in Roman times for sure, at the very least. Probably way before that. All comes back to the Romans.

All right. Goodbye, everyone.