The Ringer NFL Show - NFL Week 7 Recap: Lamar’s Takeover, the Bad QB Bowl, and Trying to Find 10 Good WRs

Episode Date: October 23, 2023

The guys recap Week 7, starting with the Eagles' win over the Dolphins on ‘Sunday Night Football.’ They also talk about the bad teams and backup quarterbacks who got wins, as well as the disappointing start to the season for a lot of highly drafted wide receivers. Then, they discuss if Lamar Jackson should be the MVP favorite. 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

What would you do if you got scammed? Would you suffer in silence, or would you do something about it? Well, I got scammed once, and this is the story of what I did. I'm Justin Sales, the host of the wedding scammer, a true crime podcast from The Ringer, and for seven episodes, we're hunting a comment, a guy with a lot of aliases, a guy who's ruined a lot of weddings, and with the help of some friends, I just might be able to catch him. Listen to the wedding scammer on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. My name is Danny Hyfitz. I am joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Coralbeck and Sunday night of week seven. Woo! Is in the books. We're going through our awards here. Sorry to producer Carlos.

His Miami Dolphins just lost. Tough one. Tough one. To the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday football. Game of the year, part three. The game was, what was the final score? Honestly, it was weird because I just thought 31.17. 3117.

could have been 3817. I will say this. I feel like the only two things I really kind of wanted to talk about from this game were the Tushbush and A.J. Brown being unbelievable. He's so good. Overall, the vibe, though, this felt like the mountain and the viper,

like speed versus power, but it felt like Mountain in the Viper, except if Oberyn had never actually gotten the lead at any point in that fight. You know what I mean? It's like if the mountain had just, like, grabbed O'Bron immediately, crush his eyeballs.

Jesus. That scene is brutal. I don't know, D.K. Yeah. You kind of like that last drive, the Eagles had where they did the push twice, that kind of felt like he got his hands around his head, right? It just lifts him up above him.

Oh, God. Yeah, it's like, dude, they're sort of, what you're getting at, I think, is just like speed and gracefulness and, you know, lack of size, I guess, versus just power, like unstoppable power. power. And that was exactly what the eagles have done.

What's the famous quote about getting punched in the face? Everybody hasn't planned until you get punched in the face. It kind of feels like that's what happened to the dolphins. Yeah. You know where it's like when things are going right and like everything they're calling is working like they're unstoppable with the second somebody punches in the face, it gets a little dicey. I mean, if you dolphins are five and two. If you look at their record, they beat the Chargers by two.

They beat the shitty Patriots. They beat the Broncos. They beat the Giants. and they beat the Panthers, and they've lost to Philly tonight and the bills. So we don't even really know. They've beaten all the bad teams and they lost to the good teams. Carlos,

do you want to hop in here for two seconds to defend the dolphins? I know Tyree dropped that pass. That's fair. That would have been in touch. I would just like to point out that they didn't not only beat the bad teams, they destroyed the bad teams. And those same bad teams. That does matter.

The bills scored 14 points against the Giants and barely beat them. And then the bills lost to the same Patriots team that we're calling. bad just throwing that out there. But you lost the bill, so what does that mean? I will say the one thing Co said to me before. Transit property, what is this? Yeah. Transitive property, be careful because I could figure something.

Even the Giants are like the best team in the league by the training. It's a cluster of fact if we actually trying to use that. The Cardinals are making the Super Bowl. I feel obligated to acknowledge that there were 10 flags on the dolphins and zero in the Eagles, which I cannot remember. What's all that? That's kind of weird with the face mask. When you see that, though, do you think, man, like what an unlikely outcome that that shouldn't happen?

That's like a referee thing. Or does that tell you like the Eagles are disciplined? Miami is not. Depends on who you're rooting for. I think it's a little bit of both. A little bit of both. I think that the refs want to make it out of the Philadelphia parking lot. Safely.

Their tires and cars intact. But no, I think the Eagles are just incredible. really does feel like when they get a lead in any game. It just is really tough, especially now that they have Swift. But AJ Brown, like, how many receivers in the NFL Craig do you feel like are better than AJ Brown? Or not even better, but like even on his level, right? Like right now.

Like Justin Jefferson's out of it. He's probably four. Oh, oh, right now who are healthy. It's probably Tyree Cooper Cup, Jumar Chase. That's it. Yeah. He's obviously so completely different than Tyree Kill, but that I almost want to put Kelsey in the conversation because we can get to him later.

but Kelsey just has in the exact opposite way that Tyree Kill literally always open and I can't even explain it anymore. And AJ Brown's different. AJ Brown feels always covered, but he just catches it anyway. This goes back to what I said last week. It's like he's big, strong, fast physical, has just that elite size, but then he's also got really soft hands and he catches the really hard passes. So it's like truly worse the hole in his game. He's like the ultimate wide receiver hinge profile. You know, it's like he checks every box.

Like, what does it? Oh, he's tall. He has a good job. He's like really close with his mom. He has everything. Man, by the way, also, he's absolutely left Devante Smith in the dust this year. Just the absolute dust. And I like Devante Smith, but man, because I remember, you know, in the offseason, it was a little bit like 1A, 1B. And that was what the numbers looked like last year, at least for the second half the season. But E.J. Brown is the freaking alpha. And I think you could say the same thing on the other side of the ball with Miami. The same thing with Hill and Waddle. Totally. Waddle is having a Devante Smith-esque season where last year it was like 1A-1B with Hill and Waddle,

and now it's like truly number one Hill and a tier below is Waddle. AJ Brown, 10 catches, 137 yards in a touchdown. Five straight games of 125 yards tying the record with Calvin Johnson. And I put the other name that he tied was, when a Pat Studstill.

What year is this? Pat Studstill. Port in 1938 in Shreveport, Louisiana. Shreveport? It's Shreveport? Yeah. I mean, I think it's around that, yes.

They probably say it with a southern accent, but yes. Did you just like laugh at me and then realize mid correction that you might not be right? Streveport. Come on. No, I didn't say Streveport. I said Shreveport. Okay. Is it Shreveport?

Yeah. I have no idea. You sound unsure. Anyway, the point is Pat Studstill. There you go. AJ Studd still. Studstill. All right.

So the Eagles are good. I think we have established. The Eagles are great. And in conclusion, the dolphins, I still think are going to be good. Because I feel like, honestly,

the most physical teams are in the NFC and the dolphins, you know, they have to get to the Super Bowl to have this problem again. We're practically halfway through the year now. And I think I've now come back to the two best teams in the league

are just, oh, well, the Niners are, it's probably, maybe the Niners still. But like, chiefs and the Eagles, I've really come back around on this week. And now I'm like, oh, it might just be the chiefs and the Eagles again.

Yeah, I think so too. Inevitability. Yeah. The other part of this, it's funny that there was like this fantastic game of Eagles, Dolphins, and there was Chargers Chiefs. And then there was, well, Lions Ravens was supposed to be good. But because the rest of the games, it really was like any given Sunday. It was just like bad teams and backup quarterbacks just cleaned house.

And Craig was just getting all these texts from you, too, of just like, what's happening? What's going on? So the Patriots beat the bills 29 to 25. The Giants beat Washington 14 to 7. That's Tyrod Taylor backup quarterback. Jack Jones who was going to get benched.

Fricking the Bears and Tyson Badgin beat the Raiders 30 to 12. Like all these backup quarterbacks cleaned up. I feel like we should start though with the Patriots beating the bills. Well, first, if you rewind a little bit, the day started out with the revelation that Bill Belichick got

a big lucrative contract extension during the offseason And so all this talk and conjecture about him potentially being on a hot seat is like total bullshit. Like he's he's not going anywhere, I assume, especially not after this win. Because honestly, this offense looked transformed. You know, I don't know if necessarily, if the bills are just really bad on defense now with all the injuries that they've been having. But Mack Jones looked really, really sharp. The run game looked pretty good.

Both Zeke and Ramandre look pretty good. I thought Pop Douglas gave him a little. a little bit of juice in the receiving game. Like he ran most of his routes. Did he play with studs still? Pat Stutz still and Pop Douglas. Is Pop Douglas his nickname? I didn't know that.

Yeah. What is it, DeMario, Douglas? Yeah. They call him Pop. And I think that's what he gives them. He gives them a little bit of juice. This is like honestly the slowest offense in the NFL. And he's, I think he missed the last two games.

Zeke Elliott looks fast. I know. That tells you everything you need to know. But yeah, to me, like he was a big deal. you know, Kendrick Bourne looked pretty solid for them, but I think Pop Douglas coming in and just giving them a little bit of speed, a little dynamism in the middle of the field.

He ran most of his routes on the slot. He got four passes for 54 yards. He ran for another 20 yards. I don't know. This just looked like an offense that actually can function going forward. So I thought that was just a big step for the Patriots. Nice. Belcheck, 300 wins. And you know what?

The 300th win, everyone will remember it as, you know what, this team can function. Well, could you say that last week? Do you think, do you think, Pat's fans were relieved when they woke up to see that Belichick signed a lengthy extension or a little bit upset? I bet Bill has had so many emotions today. Simmons and Belichick just like it's out of it. I'm excited to listen to Simmons pod tonight.

Like to see what his reaction to this is because Mac Jones was like, perfect. Mac Jones was perfect on the day. If you put, I will say this. If I know, look, you certainly get caught up in the emotions and sometimes if you know your team should lose, you want them to win anyway. I understand that the Giants won a day. But however, if you were just a box, just a quad box here of Belichick signs an extension and is here for years more or is fired after the season. And then the Patriots win more games or lose more and get the chance for quarterback

or play their way out of quarter. I feel like the worst box is Belichick's here for a long time, but they also don't get a better quarterback. That's like the worst combo you can pick. It's kind of like the Daniel Jones signing to be. That's mean. It's so. Look, I will say, before we move on to the Giants, it is hard. It's like, we talked about this with the Giants Hife.

It's like the idea of tanking is so much easier to think about than actually experiencing tanking. You know what I mean? Like, I guarantee you, Patriots fans were like, ooh, just a little bit of hope flickering, you know, somewhere in their body. Even in a video game. No one stuck around for, you know, sim the season. No one actually lost all the games. Like, no one, you know what I mean? They're like, maybe Pop Douglas, he's the key to this offense.

Ramadre, he looked pretty good this game. You know, obviously this is just one game, but that's how hope works. That's why this is so addicting. The Giants, so Giants beat Washington 14 to 7. Tyra Taylor completed 18 of 29 passes for 279 yards and two touchdowns. No interceptions. I will entertain the conversation. that Tyra Taylor's playing better than Daniel Jones.

I'll entertain it. I thought you were going to say you would entertain that he is better than Daniel Jones. I don't think it's even a debate that he's playing better than Daniel Jones right now. I, well, well, I think, I will admit that Daniel Jones might need some Giants doctors to stab Tyraud Taylor if he'd like to re-entered

the starting lineup. Dude, Tyrod's got some serious. Silky deep balls. I got to say, like Jalen Hyatt looks good. Like he's dropping dimes down the field to everybody, especially Hyatt. Dimes,

pun intended. Yeah. The caveat I will say is that I think that Hyatt is actually just needed a month and is playing better. And Daniel Jones just had to bear the brunt of the O line being at the worst with Seek one not being in the lineup. And now Tyrant stepping in and like Jelan Hyatt has a month under his belt and the line's playing a little better.

And Seek one's there. And somehow Justin Pugh signed off his couch is better than who we had at left tackle. Having said that, It's a lot. That's a lot of stuff. Like AJ Brown in those Eagles uniforms, there's incredible. Tyraud Taylor and the throwback giant is like unbelievable. Yeah, I feel like Tyra Taylor, like especially like a few years ago when he like played before like I had a baker.

It was like it doesn't throw deep. And I'm like, yeah, no, it's. Daniel Jones has two touchdowns this year, two passing touchdowns. Tyra Taylor had two today. Just saying. The Giants. Just pointing it out because you jumped. Like down my throat when I just brought up the idea that Daniel Jones isn't very good.

That's not what happens. Just going to say it. He just hasn't done anything in his career is what I said. Which I stand. He won a playoff game this year. Okay. This is so funny because I feel like I'm going against probably what most people at the ringer would say. But I think you guys completely overate like fucking playoffs.

Like it's one fucking game. Like he won one game. Great. I don't know if I'm there. I think I've left. I think I'm on high-fids this idea. now after that statement. I think I'm on the other side.

I feel like having one good playoff game or one bad playoff game or several playoff bad playoff games does not cancel out everything else that a player is. That's a different thing, though. That's exactly what you're doing. I'm saying he, Daniel Jones hasn't done anything in his career. You said he won a playoffs game. You said he hasn't done anything in his career.

You're saying the things he's done haven't outweighed the bad. That's fine. Just don't take away the things that I enjoyed happening in my life this year. That's all I'm saying. He played great in a playoff game. That's not nothing. You have to add that to his resume and mix it in and consider it. If you say it doesn't counterweight the negatives or the positives, that's fine.

He's still terrible. He had a good game in the playoffs, though. Yeah, just don't say there's nothing on that side of the scale. It's very hurtful to me personally. We're arguing about semantics. It's true. That's fair. I'll meet you in the middle.

I'll meet you in the middle. I was speaking to, I was speaking in absolutes too much there. All right. Anyway, all right. So Tarottoe's better than Dale and Jones. Delete this. Okay, Giants beat Washington. So another one in five team goes to two and five as their fans are kind of like this totally won't be a issue later in December or the draft to reset.

While we're here, Bears, another one in five team. What the hell are the Bears? The Raiders, 30 to 12. Better question. What are the Raiders? Yeah. It's not just the Bears second one of the seasons. Basically their second win in the last 365 days.

It was dominant too. Like they dominate. Tyson Bejant. Look good. Secret Bejit, man. I told you, guys. I told you, I think he's, like, pretty solid. And here's why he gets the ball out on time.

He is the exact antithesis of Justin Fields in like almost every way. Justin Fields, you know, awesome athlete, probably a much stronger arm. You know, like a lot of the traits that you really look for in a quarterback, Justin Fields, like I would say, like trumps him. But Bejant gets the ball out. He gets the ball out. It's like so important to offenses in general to just like pass the football. So it's like, Fields is sexy, sex appeal.

Bajon's like cute. He's a rebound. He's there. And it's like it's the opposite. It's reliable. Yeah. You just got a job. Yeah, exactly.

Can we talk about, so Bayesian looked okay today, right? 21 for 29, no picks. Got the game ball. Good for him. They won 30 to 12 against the Raiders who looked horrific. Tyson Bajent, which is such a terrible name, Tyson Bajent invited 65 friends and family to this football game. Do you guys know 65 people that would even consider attending a sporting event you were in?

65 is a lot. You had a live show. You had a live show. You're at your wedding. That's different. That's different. I don't know if my like great aunt is flying across the country to see me in a football game. 65.

This is a lot of people. No, I think the difference is that you might have two weddings, but Tyson Baj and probably his parents of family were like, this will never happen again. It's more likely that I have a second wedding. Then he starts another football game. Especially when the Chiefs Dolphins game in Germany creates a 15-hour football day for you on Sunday. It's impressive that the last game Tyson-Begent played, he got killed by the Colorado School of Mines. And now he just won an NFL game. Colorado School of Mines.

How many of these 65 people do you think came and watched his games of Shepard College, like playing the Colorado School of Mines? They were like, wow. Objectively, that's the funniest team that you could lose to. Were they digging a, did they dig like a tunnel underneath the field and get you? That is that how they got you? The school of months? I looked him up a little bit. You know their mascot is the ore diggers?

Stop. That's real. Craig, when I was growing up, I don't know if you get, this might be before your guys' time. But like when I was growing up, there was this really big trend where they would sell college hats. Like they're just like really plain like white hats. And it said like the mascot in cursive writing. So like South Carolina. line a gang game cocks.

It was just cocks. Like on the top of the or diggers. I feel like that one shit. They need to just go. They need to just call themselves to gold diggers. What are they doing? Just yes. They're in golden Colorado.

Are you serious? Do the Kanye Weston. Lean in. Yes. You got to be the gold diggers. Also, if you see the photos of these people, what the fuck is going on at this school? Like, like Roger Sherbin, these photos are tweeting, Roger Sherman is tweeting out this one of these.

He tweeted out all these people. Roger went there? He went to the Colorado school minds? No, no, no. And we went to their website. Okay. He went to the worldwide web. Yeah.

Okay. The photos, we'll put the, we'll put a link in the episode description. It's like, one of these guys who sacked Tyson vaged into this last game literally shaved half his beard. So it's like, imagine a full beard, but a half your face. He like deleted it. He like shaved it off. Was it like a dare maybe?

Like a freshman dare? There is a tradition I read about at the school. The freshman at Colorado school minds, the freshman tradition is you have to carry a 10-pound rock up Mount Zion. Is that a class for a credit? This is like mythology. And then at the end, you have to go down to the bottom and start over again. Who is it that does the rock climb Sisyphus?

Who is that? Yeah. Yeah, Cisophis does, yeah. Yeah. Dude, if you look at some of the pictures that Roger tweeted out, this can't be a real school. There's like 35-year-olds in these pictures. Dude, the Colorado school.

He lost. Also, Tyson Pageant lost to the school. And then he beat the Vegas Raiders. They're in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. I'm looking at the schedule of Shepard. Dude, I have never heard. I'm dead serious. I've never heard of a single one of these schools. Can I listen to you?

This is who Shepard played last year. Angelo State. Anyone? Oh, my God. Adams State. CSU Pueblo, Shadron State. I've heard of that. You've heard of that.

You've heard of CSU Pueblo? Yeah, I've heard of CSU Pueblo. Shadron. That sounds like a part of a spaceship that would break in an episode of Star Trek. Colorado Mesa. South Dakota Mines, another mining school. It's another mine school? Yeah, Black Hills State, Western Colorado, New Mexico Highlands, Fort Lewis, who they destroyed 80 to zero.

Fort Lewis had a tough night back home. And Ferris State. Oh, I've heard of them. Oh, okay. I've heard of two of them. Colorado school minds lost to Ferris State in the finals last year. Jesus. All right.

I just, what do you think Josh McDaniels, the head coach of the Raiders thinks when he's like, Tyson Bejant, like lost to some of those schools. And then he beat the Las Vegas Raiders in this game. That wasn't particularly close. Like if Mark Davis,

who owns the Raiders, had the money to fire Josh McDaniels, he would, but he just literally doesn't. Oh my God. Raiders fans just want him to be fired so bad. Austin pointed this out. If you just search Josh McDaniels on Twitter, it's like,

holy shit. People are not happy with them. Can I roll through this? Three and four. Come on. There's a three and four, please, dude. Come on. So the worst coaches we've ever seen, I think, are kind of known, right? Like, you know, Nate Hackett got that treatment.

It's one of the worst coaches we've ever seen. Urban Meyer with the Jaguars. There's, within that, among the coaches who have the air of competence. see, which I think Josh McD, maybe not air, but like there's a certain respect. If he's not the way, I think he's the worst coach I've ever seen among people who you wouldn't think might get that label. He kicked a field goal today again, down 18 in the fourth quarter, which is like just unbelievable to have like an eight minute drive.

And it's like, if you know you're going to kick a field goal, then do it quickly. Like, you take eight minutes to kick a field goal. It's like this guy's never played madden. And Mo Moton, who covers the Raiders, all three quarterbacks of the Raiders have more interceptions than touchdowns. Yikes. Brian Hoyer lost to. 13th consecutive start today, which is the longest active streak in the NFL.

The Raiders have under 20 offensive points in all seven games, which is the first time a team has done that under 20 points through the first seven games on offense. Since the 2009 Washington football team, and this, again, coaching. The Raiders lost to the Rams when Baker Mayfield landed in Los Angeles to sign with the team on Tuesday night and then played on Thursday night, and they lost that game. And then the Raiders lost to Jeff Saturday when he went from ESPN. to Indianapolis that week, the first game that beat Josh McDaniels. And now he's

lost, Josh McDaniels lost to Tyson Bayesian. I love this. Three and four, second in the AFC West. It's not even that he lost to Tyson Baygent, though. It's like the bears have been the worst team in the NFL for a full calendar

year plus. Can you imagine spending this much time around Bill Belichick and being this bad at something? Like, I know the other assistants are bad, but Bill Belichick actually liked Josh McDonald's, I think. Also, Can we shout out Deante Foreman, number one running back in fantasy today, 31 fantasy points, three touchdowns looked fantastic. He does this like once a year Deonté Foreman where he has like 200 yards and three touchdowns. And everyone's like, what?

Deontae Foreman. Didn't this guy like tear both Achilles tendons three years ago? And he's somehow still like very good when he gets an opportunity and then he got hurt. And yet the the chargers are still searching for that backup, you know? The bears have six running backs that could be like better than Josh Kelly. Josh, Josh Kelly did score touchdown today. So kind of ruins my narrative a little bit, but still going to stick with it. No, that's good.

The flip side of this, which is the, I hope you didn't get a tattoo of this team award, which is, I feel like we just need a panic index for all these franchises today. The Lions lost 38 to 6 to the Ravens. And then you got the Bills losing to the freaking Patriots. And I know the Browns won, but the game is weird. 39, 38. I feel like the Browns, Lions, Bills, all these teams are the really long-suffering fan bases that now are like, hey, you're.

a Super Bowl contender and their fans probably slowly, slowly accepted. Like actually, maybe we can have nice things. And this week, just a rug ripped out. Like, no, no, you always knew you didn't deserve this. And I'm wondering, of these teams, who do you guys think should have the most fear of like, oh my God, are we actually frauds? Are we going to go back to sucking? Like, D.K., the Lions 38 to 6, are you worried about the Lions actually just being way

worse than we thought? Not really. I think obviously, you know, we were very excited to see this game and the Lions just did not show up. I think Lamar was, yeah, one of the generational games. Game of the year. The Lions just couldn't get anything going on offense and Lamar looked awesome. And they basically just ran away with it pretty early in the game. And that was that.

But I wouldn't worry too much about the Lions. I will say it's a little bit of a heat check because they had like the best vibes of any team coming into this week. If they were to won, the vibes would have been out of control. But now maybe they're just like, hey, look, we've got to look inward. We're still a good team. We still got a lot of talent, bounce back next week. That's more how I see them. And then on the other side of the ball, like, can we talk about Lamar?

Lamar looked awesome. Lamar, we were talking about this during the day, texting about it. Who are the MVP top MVP candidates right now in your guys mind? And is Lamar on that short list? Probably Mahomes won right now, right? Yeah, I think Mahomes and Lamar are the MVP. And then Tua lost tonight, so Tua would probably fall down that list quite a bit. I still don't think Tua deserves the MVP.

I just, Tyreek. I agree that I don't think he deserves it, but I, the odds suggest otherwise going into tonight. So now it's maybe like Mahomes and Lamar? Yeah, and then maybe a little bit of hurts. Yeah, I would say so. I think you're most worried if you're Buffalo. I think, you know why it's worrisome? It's because Josh Allen, I thought, played pretty well in this game.

And they still lost. Well, the bills are doing this weird thing where they keep like shooting themselves in the foot early in games. Like the last three games, week five, they had 11 points through three quarters against the Jags. Week six, they had zero points through three quarters against High Fitz's Giants. And then today they had 10 points through three quarters against the Patriots. And then they just have to claw back.

The bills are weird because you've got to feel good about the Dolphins win, obviously. But other than that, I mean, they've lost to now New England, who was like the worst offense in the league and with the worst quarterback in the league. They lost to the Jets, week one, was Zach Wilson.

They lost to the Jags. So it's like, the defense is kind of screwing up, but the offense is basically dead until the fourth quarter. I think I'm a little worried about Buffalo's offense. Like the Browns, to me, it's like, look, the Browns are four and two with the weirdest quarterback situation in the league. So I almost think if you're a Browns fan, you got to feel good about where you are, because you're like, if we can figure it out like at all, we might be a Super Bowl team. Like, the fact that we're just a fucking mess at quarterback and we're still four and two,

to me, like, it can't really get worse at quarterback for Cleveland right now in terms of play on the field. So I think I'd be most worried if I was Buffalo, to be honest. I think you're probably right, especially the Bill's Caps situation that they, this really is probably the last year the bills have to have to make some tough decisions with like, which of their defenders, like, you know, they still have like both their great safeties and Tradevis's way to cornerback. I know he's out of the season, but like, they're going to have to make like tough decisions and people who've been there for a long time. We're going to have to go after this year. And you're watching this team. And I don't know. I feel like the bills came

to the season. It was like, well, our goal line offense was atrocious. The bill's goal line offense was terrible. And they need to be able to run the ball at a 12 personnel with two tight ends end to the field. We got Dalton Kincaid. And honestly, I watched the bills and I'm like, you're betting with Deonté Hardy, who's like your five foot six slot guy who went to Assumption College of University. I remember, but he went to assumption. Yes. Craig, what are we assuming? Well, it's Jesus. I looked it up. It's, it's, it's just an assumption. I know what the Assumption is. I didn't know. I'm Catholic. I actually went to Assumption middle school,

elementary school. Did you? You didn't bring that up when we were talking about Assumption. Yeah. I grew up Catholic. So I know I know what that is. I didn't know assumption. I didn't know man. I just yeah, it's funny because Craig said, what are we assuming? You know what I actually was wondering that. You guys knew the answer? I didn't know the answer. I'm not Catholic. D.K.'s just sitting on I went, D.K. went to an assumption school. Like I don't want to have to describe what the assumption is in Catholic dogma, you know? Let's not talk about that.

You can go there. Just go to the web page. Two like in Wednesday power hour. We're going to do top dogmas. Assumption. Top ten dogmas. Got that dog in them? Oh.

Anyway, the Browns, someone who may not, Browns beat the Colts, 39 to 38. And I know the Browns won. Fucking bizarre game. One of the craziest games of the year. For many reasons. It's a bit of sweet. We'll get to the quarterback stuff in a second.

I want to say, the refereeing at the end, I think, was atrocious. Honestly, the cults were robbed. The game basically swung because there's any legal contact on the cornerback. He barely touched the receiver of anything. Like, the receiver just kind of shoved him and he fell and they were like, how dare you to the court? And then the next play, they do defensive pass interference. It was like in the first row of stands. The ball literally, the ball literally landed behind the cameraman.

And the cameraman did not at any point look like they were worried it would hit them. And I'm like, if that's not. an uncatchable pass, I don't know what an uncatchable pass is. I can't believe the game is dictated by this. One fourth quarter defensive pass interference challenge per game. Each team should get one of those. You know they have like VAR

like in soccer, they have the video assistant. I want for defensive pass interference the uncatchable. I want them to stretch the receiver to show you how big he would have had to be. Like to have shadow in tennis or whatever. Yeah, exactly. I want to show like

how big would this guy, how tall and he's had Stretch armstrong over here. Yeah. It's insane to me. They can use their like combine. That would be cool. Yeah. It's like Donovan People's Jones is 6-5 with a 34-inch vertical.

Even he couldn't reach that ball at the combine. What's the sports science guy doing right now? John Brancis? Yeah, what's he up to? He's got nothing going on. I don't think much. I don't know. We just bring John Brancis in.

John Brancis? What's his name? He's catching strays right now. Craig's like, this guy's not doing anything. Oh, he's fine. He's a legend. He's a legend. 17 feet tall to have caught that throw by PJ Walker. And like,

anyway. I just, by the way, everyone knows this, but I'm just going to say it again. I fucking hate referees that try and like insert themselves into the games. Like, dude, we're not here to watch you. Stop that shit. Just let them fucking play. I'm talking to America right here. Yeah, seriously, God. I just want to shake you.

What's the matter with you? All right. Quarterback thing, though. The reason to bring the Browns, and I think the Browns deserves me on this list. What the hell is going on with Deshaun Watson? This is weird. So just to recap, was this three weeks ago at this point?

And before the by, Deshaun Watson's medically cleared, which, and again, this weeks ago at this point, your head coach is saying like, yeah, no, we cleared him. He didn't want to play,

which is just like not something that happens when your coach throws you into the bus and it's not a contract issue. Comes out of the by, still doesn't play. Then it turns out he has a shoulder contusion, a rotator cuff contusion, which reminder contusion,

to Bruce. I thought they said he has minor tears on his rotator cuff. I thought that was the report. Yeah, but I mean, that could be anything. But the point being is there's still disagreements. And he's like, all right, look, he knows his own body. Like, you know, he can throw. But comes back for this game.

Practice is Thursday. Full practice is Thursday. He does the walk through Saturday. Five passes into this game throws two picks. One of them was dropped, overturned, a replay. I don't care. He functionally speaking through two interceptions, through the worst picks they've ever seen him throwing his career

on the first five passes. gets checked for a concussion, cleared, gets his helmet back. If you're concussed, you're not allowed to have your helmet, gets his helmet back, cleared, and then never goes back in the game for a shoulder injury, even though he left for a head injury. I don't know what's going on. Maybe the shoulder got worse than the five passes. However, I think it's incredibly strange that Deshawn Watson practiced,

knowing he's had the shoulder injury for a month now, and five passes in the game, it's like, you know what, I changed my mind. I don't think my shoulder's healthy enough. What is with that? That's weird. And I'll say, I believe in this extent because either two things. His arm is strength is not strong enough as he thinks, watching the pixie through because he clearly can't put the ball where he wants to.

Option A. Or B, his game mentally is destroyed because he is making either his arm can't cash the checks he wants to or he just doesn't know he's seeing on the field. But either way, he's the biggest investment any teams ever made in any single player in NFL history three first. picks, the first ever five-year guaranteed contract for $230 million. And he is, like, physically and or mentally a disaster and borderline unplayable right now. He's like the worst starter in the NFL.

Yeah, literally last in EPA per play this season. And so PJ Walker came in and Sean Watson just watching him. It was really weird, like the starting quarterback, just watching him. I don't know. Stafiowski came out after the game and said that he essentially benched him. Not benched him. Sorry, he essentially kept him from coming back in. He's like, you're not going back in.

And that he wanted to come back in. And he, like, yeah. And he said, he did the opposite of throwing him under the bus in this game. He said, Deshaun tried to come back in. I said, no, I was just trying to protect him for the long term. And then Deshaun said essentially the same thing was coach knows best. And he's just trying to protect me long term. So.

But I agree. So like, that's the story. That's the company line or whatever. But this goes back weeks now. The vibes are very strange with Cleveland and just with Sean Watson right now. So it's just like, I would just. just put it in the bucket of something to watch as this goes on because it's like very weird. It almost is worth noting that in a way, the official, like the, if you put together what they're

doing here, the official story in a way, not unofficial, it's the wrong way to put it, but like what they want you to believe is that they completely misdiagnosed his shoulder. But you know what I mean? Like, like, if you just listen, like, yeah, no, he's not healthy with the shoulder. I'm like, so he played five passes. You know what I'm saying? Like the idea that if we're supposed to believe that Sean Watson's not healthy, then the $230 million quarterback, they just botched his throwing short.

You know what I mean? Like that's the surface level? I don't know. It's really weird. But either way, this doesn't add up. We don't have to linger here. I think the person who also deserves a little shine is Miles Garrett, who I actually think is defensive player of the year so far.

It's been awesome. Yeah. NFL research tweeted so first player, Miles Garrett's the first player of two sacks, two force fumbles, and a blocked field goal in the same game since they started keeping track of that stuff in 1991, like at least since they started keeping track in 1991. I mean, he had the Palomalu. Have we ever seen a defensive end do the Palomalu? He jumped over the offensive line to block a kick. Which if you touch any of those linemen, that's a flag. He didn't touch any of them.

And he was asked after the game, is it hard to jump over offensive linemen as cleanly as you did? And he said, depends on if you're me or not. Are Benito Fish big? Yeah, what do we do? Yeah, they're big. Is it hard to jump over offensive lineman, Miles? What's this guy's deal? Yeah.

Miles Garrett, Craig, Cleveland Times. Is it hard to jump over an offensive lineman? What? What's this guy's deal? Yeah, it is. What an idiot. Oh, that makes me want to watch that movie again. That's from Step Brothers in case you didn't get that.

Miles Garrett, it feels to me, even though he's having an extraordinary year, still remains, like, underrated. He's one of the best past rushers, like, through X amount of years that he's been in the league of all time. Like, he's legitimately doing, like, Reggie White numbers. Most sacks before turning 28 years old ever for Miles Garrett. Yeah. It's just insane what he's doing. So recognize that.

He's been a big part of why they're so good. Or he is a huge part of that. Gardner and Minshu in the Indianapolis Colts, 38 points on this team. and honestly should have won the game. Number two quarterback of the day, Gordon Minshu. Minchu, yeah. I mean, God,

300 yards, two touchdowns passing, two touchdowns rushing. He's kind of, he's in the Josh Dobbs range where I'm like, I have no idea if he's good or not, but when he's in games, he is incredibly frisky,

an underrated runner. Both these guys, both Dobbs and Minchu today have like 20 yard touchdown runs. Like, there is something about these two where I would never want them to be the starting quarterback on my team. However, if my,

if my quarterback gets hurt and these guys come in, they almost have the weird, like streak of confidence in them where they're like, are they better than my starting quarterback? They have that vibe to them. Yeah. They can only exist as a backup.

They're floor raisers. Somebody asked me this today is like, is Gardner Mintz you actually good? And I'm like, well, I think the ups and downs over the long term are going to like, the downs are going to outweigh, like the bad is going to outweigh the good in the long term. But in the short term,

he is a floor razor compared to most backup quarterbacks. You know what I mean? It's good hook up, but you don't want to date the guy. Okay. He's a no, no, no, yes guy to use Bill parlance. Like, he's like, oh, God, this looks like a design. Well, he caught it. Like, that's kind of like the Minchu experience.

DK, it's like how you talk about Chargers running backs, how it's like Josh Kelly's awesome as a backup. But the second, he's a starter, he just like, for some reason, can't do anything. Yeah, you can only run for 80-ard touchdowns with Austin Eccler's there. That's kind of how Minchew is. It's like Nick Foles. It's like they're only good as backups coming in to save the day.

Yeah, I also think Shane Steichen, who's their head coach did a great job. Did you guys hear, by the way, did you hear the, story about Nick Foles this week? I think it was Jordan Milata, the offensive lineman for the Eagles. One of the reporters asked him, if you could trade bodies with any player, any one of your teammates,

who would it be? And he just goes, he just said Nick Foles and then coughed. For those keeping track at home, Nick Foles has a legendary dick. You know what's funny? I don't think I always thought that nickname. I always thought Big Dick Nick was the only,

like based on his playoff performance. I didn't know he was actually well endowed. No, I think it's very literally. Physically and metaphorically, he's big, good for him.

Okay. I think that's, yeah. One of the reasons I think Nick Foll's so religious because like, he's just like, yeah, no. He's like, I could do an incredible amount of things. Only God could have made this.

I'm blessed. Do you guys find it weird that the cold scored 38 against the Browns and, you know, the Niners scored 17 and the Bengals scored 3 and Baltimore scored. Yeah. It's like, what are we doing here? I think covering football's ridiculous.

I also would like to just covering fantasy football is ridiculous. I would like to do a whole award. Covering fantasy football is ridiculous. Why do we do this award? For four of the top, we rank every week, shamest plug, fantasy football.3.com. Go to our ranking. See how ridiculous they are.

For the top 10 running back to rank this week. Yes. Hyphitz, you just gave a URL, and we should probably update people on the poll. We had a poll for people whether or not they click or can remember Hyphitz's URLs when he reads them out loud during the pod. We got 1,400 votes. 65% said, no, they do not remember when Hyphitz reads URLs out loud. So that means one third of people do? Which is pretty good.

Yeah, I agree. It means a third of the people remember. That's sick. Like, you literally lost, but you spiritually won. A third is strong. Just like the Giants. Anyway, continue. It's the whole season.

So I felt against the bills. Anyway, fantasy football. dot 3.com for the, you know, there's 35% of you. We rank our players every week. For the top 10 running backs we rank this week, were outscored by their backup. Like, Aaron Jones of the Packers was outscored by AJ Dillon. Austin Echler on the Chargers was outscored by Josh Kelly.

Josh Jacobs for the Raiders was essentially just tied. with Zemir White. And then Tyler Elger, like, way outscored Bichon Robinson. To the point where Aaron Jones, Austin Eccl, Josh Jacobs, and Bijon Robinson had combined 17 points, which is a smidge over half of what Deonté Foreman had for the Bears. Why do we do this? I got a lot of people in my mentions today during the day,

just very, very angry at Arthur Smith. And like a lot of people were very much looking forward to me, I think, just going off on Arthur Smith. Head coach of the Atlanta Falcons. Yeah. And I really want to because, as everyone knows, like, I hate that guy. Like, he's a billionaire whose hobby is coaching

and he just, like, wants to piss us off. Like, that's this main thing in life, I think. He just does this. It'd be fun to piss off all the fantasy guys. But I will say, based on what we heard after the game... So, yeah, four and three tied with the Buffalo Bills. Same record as the bills. Same record.

Fuck. By spending 70 million fewer dollars. But at the end of the day, it sounds like Bichon had a migraine headache or something like that. Because he, after the game, he was like, I woke up. feeling really off, had a terrible headache. Is this from spending the time with Arthur Smith? Maybe. I mean, honestly, probably.

Everybody was making the arthritis joke. Did you see that? That would be the overworked Twitter joke of the week would be the arthritis joke. So I don't really think it was Arthur Smith just being like an asshole. You know, maybe partly. I like that you're even entertaining this,

even though everyone has addressed that Bisha Robinson was sick and you're like, I don't know if it's because Arthur's really. Well, he did go in at the end of the game. he went in at the end of the game that's the only thing holding me back for or that's the only thing that's like makes me a little bit

could it be that Arthur Smith just decided this game to sit Bijon Robinson until the fourth quarter I mean his track record would suggest so it's crazy it's funny though like from our's perspective like Bejohn Robinson not getting a touch for 59 and a half minutes and then like just when they really needed it

would be went in. Yeah there's nothing like honestly I can even remember it like it where it's like a player's active but he's like the best player but he's not playing, but it's not because he's in trouble or did anything and he's hurt, but we don't know why. And he's like, in the game, but they're not giving him the ball. And I'm like, what a weird mix.

He's also, Bejohn Robinson was the fourth highest scoring running back on the Falcons today. Like there was Tyler Al Jair was that of him, quarter of Paul Patterson, and Keith Smith, who had one catch for minus one yards, but because of your half PPR gods, that actually outscored because Bichon for the one, one carry for three. I just wish they would let us know before the game. Like, you know what? Just give us a head zone. I'm annoyed with the DK Metcalf thing.

I don't know if people, I played somebody in one league who had DK Metcalf and had them, had him in their starting lineup. And I had him in my starting lineup. He was questionable all week, but he's been questionable for the last like four weeks ever since he hurt his ribs. He basically doesn't practice, but he plays. We all assume that was the exact same thing. Shefter's like, oh, actually, it might be more of a game time decision.

But you're still like, all right, you know, they're playing at one o'clock. Like, I'm assuming he's playing. So I put them in my lineup and then at like noon, oh, D.K. McCats out. I'm screwed. Can't replace him with anybody. I hate fantasy football. I'm going to lose now because of that.

Craig, you're in a league that doesn't allow you to make changes after the game start in the morning, right? Is that not standard? Like, once 10 o'clock hits, waivers again. If your game has started, you can't be moved. But I was like, put it. I was like, why can't you just add Jake Bobo? I actually texted you that and then Jake Bobo scored a touch time. Yeah, we could add.

Leagues of Man, you can just add someone as long as their game isn't started. And you have to cut someone as well. But like you can't make, if any of your players have started the game, you can't cut them or do anything with them. Yeah, our league has always been that waivers begin at 10 a.m. Once Sunday begins, everyone is on waiver. I mean, I think that's Pacific time, which is fake time. Some leagues, yeah.

Yes. From everyone, Colorado School of Minds in East, that's a, that's 10 a.m. It's nothing to us. But yeah. That's right. I will be petitioning to change that rule next year. good I would like to do a little tweak every week we hear we play two tight ends who outscore carpets in a lie but in honor of one national tight ends day I'll give him a break

and two I would like to play two running backs who did not outscore bison Robinson and a lie because bison Robinson with one carry for three yards only outscored two players in the entire day who touched the football and I would like you to I'm going to read three names and two of these people are the only two people that did not outscore bison robinson Darrington Evans, Tank Bigsby, Damien Williams. I think Evans outscored Bijan. Yeah, I heard Evans name a couple times, I think, and that's all it would take to outscor.

That would be the problem. Then, yes, that's too many times. I'm going to say it was... So is the other two were less than him, Bing and Damien? Yeah. Tank and Damien were the only people who touched the football today, but did not.

Not a great look for Tank. At running back. This could have been a really bad... I know ETS's been great. This could have been a really bad week for his... If anybody has a lineup, where they started Deshawn Watson, who had negative 0. D.K. Metcalf, he literally had zero.

And now, uh, Bejohn Robinson, who had what? What did you have 3? 0.3? Yeah. Like, there might be some legendary bad lineups out there this week. So send us. If you're like sub 50, send it our way. Dude, if I'm, I'm looking around the leagues that I'm in, and there's a lot of like sub 100 scores out there right now with Monday night football

pending. It's, it was kind of bleak today. Like, you could have started Josh Jacobs who had four. I mean, it could have been really bad out there. Cooper Cup at like six. Calvin Ridley had one. Like, there could be some bad lineups out there. I never get tired of like the, you could have started this lineup and had 19 points total.

Every week. Like, it's my favorite thing. I never gets sold for me. But you could have Calvin Ridley, Amari Cooper, Josh Jacobs, Deshawn Watson, D.K. Metcalfe and Bejohn Robinson. It didn't legitimately have 15 points. It's like a good lineup. Just like literally Patrick Mahomes

were the first three drives of the game would have been you. We should actually have this be a thing where everyone sends it. If you score less than 40 points, send us your lineup and we'll do something. We'll try and like, you know, like, you know, tweet it out or whatever,

give you an award. It's like a dundee. Yeah, we'll let the public know how bad of a week you had. Yeah. Ring of Fantasy Football at Gmail.com. If you can remember it, Earl. Hey.

Next up. I would like to do the Millennials trying to buy Homes Award, which just goes to all the wide receivers. There are 10 receivers that you could have drafted that you're unambiguously happy you took them. This is like the full season. Yeah, on the whole year.

The early rounds is Jamar Chase, A.J. Brown, Tyree Kill, Stefanix. And then the middle rounds, it's like, you're happy you took Keenan Allen on the Chargers, D.G. More on the Bears, Brandon Ayu for the 49ers, Michael Pittman for the Colts. And then later, it's like Adam Thielin for the Panthers.

Nico Collins to Texas. That's it. There's 10 guys out of like 60 or 70 receivers drafted that you're happy that you draft. Who could you could have an account because you didn't draft them? So it's like 10 out of like 60 or 70. That's it.

Those are the only people you're happy with. Here's the deal. Wide receiver inventory is low as fuck. Interest rates are through the roof. People can't save enough money to defer a down payment. The people who have good receivers. So if you have Jamar Chase and AJ Brown,

or if you have like Tyree Kill and Keenan You are like the boomers who have, like, they spent like $50,000 on their house and then they can't understand why millennials can't afford a house. It's like you've got to stop eating avocado toast. Those are the people that have two good receivers right now in any league. Let's work hard. We work hard. Yeah. Stop wasting your money on coffee or whatever, you know, and you'd have good receivers.

That's the thing. We went nine to five every day and we worked hard and we bought our house for $45,000. With one single income. There's a great scene. Do you guys watch Everybody Loves Raymond? Have you seen that show? I love everybody. I love Raymond.

There's an amazing episode where the parents, Marie and Frank, they're older. They're like in their 70s. They're going to sell their home, the home they've lived in for 40 years, to their son, Robert. And they're trying to figure out what they should charge and how much they should have their son pay for the home. Eventually, Marie, the mom, the grandma, goes up to Robert, her son and goes, we've decided to give you the home, but we're not just going to give it to you. You're going to have to pay what we paid for it in like, you know, what, 1962? And she's like, $32,000. And they, like, have a heart attack and, like, fall over because of the shock. That's what it's like if you have

Tyree Kelle and Jumar Chase or Step on Dix this year. There is some, there's the exception I would say is the people who have like Adam Thielen and Pooka Nakua on their teams or the people who were lucky to have bought a house in like 2019 and 2020 with a 3% interest rate and they're just like killing it right now and everybody else is just fucked. And they're like, we'd lose money if we like paid this debt off. Like that would. We are staying in this house for the rest of our lives. Or it's like if you're the guy like in a snake draft and you just like got Tyree kill like second

overall, that's like the guy whose parents bought him a house. And you're like, I don't know what everybody's complaining about. This is easy. Fantasy is easy. Anyway, as you can tell, we're kind of bitter. Yeah, it sucks. All my receivers stink. Chris Godwin doesn't do shit.

D.K. Metcalf. None of these fuckers are doing anything. Every single week. Chris Olave is not good. Jalen Waddle is just irrelevant now. It's a huge bummer. Calvin Ridley. He looked awesome in week one,

and then he hasn't really done anything. Do you guys remember? What's his name? Used to be famous. Chris Olave. That's the one. Remember that guy? That was good.

Nicely done there. I think he was one of the Chris's in the Avengers. Years ago. Didn't he? He was pretty good this week, wasn't he? I missed, I missed, Thursday was like ages ago.

Top two receiver on the Saints and Thursday at football. Top three, actually, if you count Camara. I mean, no, it's in targets and he only had seven catches. Like, literally, it's funny because this whole conversation

started with, wow, all these second-tier receivers didn't do well. And then we like zoomed out and we're like, none of the, there's literally, there's 10 people. Is this an extension of the shitty offense conversation we had last week where it's just like all these offenses are terrible. There's so many backup quarterbacks in that this is just none of these receivers are getting any help. I think it's a combination of two things. Well, many things, of course. But the quarterbacks and passing games have been awful this year because pass rushes are so good.

And that's why Craig thinks we should eliminate pass rush, which is increasingly becoming a good idea. Again, not eliminate. Not eliminate. Not eliminate. Two Mississippi. The two Mississippi. Castrate. But also, like, with more teams playing three receiver sets, there's just more guys.

There's just more receivers. It's like the pie is, you know, they're divvying it up to more guys. And so the team, like, the good offenses, the offenses really want fantasy are the ones that, like, have two guys. And that's just the only players that, yeah, they funnel them to those players. So I think there's a couple of things happening. When those teams play well, though, play, play, poorly, though, it's bad because

Metcalf's out and then Geno Smith, just fantasy entropy, just like, oh, well, for Jake Bobo a touchdown and then Tyler Lockett gets nothing. And then I'm looking and I'm like, the irony is the only quarterbacks you're playing well is Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson, everyone else is bad. And then Lamar's great and I'm like, all right, well, they're throwing a tight ends. It's like Mark Andrews and Kelsey are the only

like, honestly, it's the tight end week, national tight end day, which I can't believe this is a real thing that we all entertain. Why is that a thing? I don't understand this. I think George Kittle. Are there other positions that get tweeted about it? How's that work? I, I, this has gone too far, if you ask me. But I will say they did show up.

Kelsey, if you just look at wide receivers and tight ends combined, three of the top five are tight ends. It's Kelsey is number one, Andrews is three, and then Waller's five. It's like those three, like Josh Downs for the Colts randomly is number two. And then Pook is four and I'm including receivers and tight ends together. But I'm like, oh my God, that's kind of pathetic if you think about it. Like, that's before Sunday football. But it's so funny to me that, I don't know, it's weird that was Lamar threw for

340 yards. I'm like, I don't want any of his receivers still. It's just say flour dining on PPR. That's what's funny. It's like Mahomes and Lamar are having, are awesome. Well, they had great days today. Lamar's having a better season than Mahomes is technically fantasy wise. But yeah, it's like, I don't want any receivers on the chiefs, even though Mahomes threw four touchdowns. And it's like, there's nobody even on the Ravens other than, it's like the two tight ends. And then there's no receivers that you want, even if these guys have MVP level seasons. You know, it's funny, too, is so many quarterbacks are playing poorly. There's so many backups. Brian Hoyer again, 13 straight losses in a row.

Why didn't they start O'Connell? Explain that to me. I think he was worse. Again, every quarterback of the Raiders is more picks than touchdowns. But then you look, you're like, you know what, it's okay. We have a generational draft coming, like all these quarterbacks, one of the deepest draft classes ever. Caleb Williams, they're all playing terrible too.

Caleb Williams, two touchdowns and three picks in his last three games. USC just lost two games in a row and they barely beat the other two terrible teams before them. Drake May just had one of the worst losses in like recent UNC. history for his team. Michael, what are we going with, Peanicks? Penix. It's Pennix if he wins. It's Peanics if he loses. Michael

Penick, Pennix for Washington. They won by eight points. No touchdowns in two picks. And the quinoos for Texas sprained his throwing shoulder. All the college quarterbacks are screwed too. No one's playing. His heads are falling off. Yeah. We should pivot to basketball. Thoughts. NBA starts this week.

Switch. Let's just, let's just pivot. Power hour will be basketball. Our favorite sleepers coming into the season. You're going to have to, so maybe this is a good podcast idea. It's just catch somebody up on basketball for the last 15 years. What has happened in the end of NBA? Okay, what was last time I watched basketball? When did the Sonics leave Seattle?

15 years ago, probably. That's what I stopped. That's last time I watched basketball. And this is, I grew up basketball was my sport. I played basketball in high school. I was obsessed with the Sonics. I fucking loved the NBA. I had trading cards.

I was just, I absolutely love the NBA, but then the Sonics left, and in spite, I stopped watching the NBA. It's funny because I feel like one of the biggest topics Bill used to write about was how Seattle was robbed of a team. And I never actually thought about you, DK as like the exact point. He was trying to make of someone who's super into basketball. I was like, oh, you took the Kevin Durant Russell Westbrook team for me.

I'm going to just stop watching now. Like, damn, that would have been cool. That was just your team. I mean, like the Sonics were actually, even when they wore it. like the, so like obviously the glory years for the Sonics were Peyton and Kemp. They went to the finals that one year. They were always really good. They played the Carl Malone teams.

They played the Elygwan teams. And it was just tons of really good rivalries with the Suns and all those teams back in the day. But even in like the sort of twilight years of the Sonics, like Ray Allen was really fun for them for a couple of years. I mean, I don't know. I just loved the Sonic so much. And then when they left, again, it was just like, fuck you guys. And I truly haven't like watched the NBA. Like when you guys say anything about the NBA,

anytime I go on Bill's pod and he says something about the NBA, I'm like, this means nothing to me. I don't know. DK, who won the title last year in the NBA? I can't remember. I will say, for the record, for the record, I have a hard time remembering,

like, who won in the NFL. That's how my memory works. It's like, once the season is over, I'm like, I don't remember anything about it. So, like, this doesn't mean as much as you think, because I do pay attention a little. little bit. But remind me. Give me the recap. The nuggets beat the heat. No, I remember because Jokic was fucking hilarious. Yes, when he like didn't give a shit. He was like, I just want to go

home and like ride my horses. The defining thing for last NBA season. Just from my, like, I decided he's my favorite player in the NBA. Yeah, everyone's like, wow, this guy, it's his fucking job. Yeah, he's the best. He's like, finally I can go home. I'm starting to get that way with baseball where I'm like, dude, I couldn't name the last five teams that won the World Series. Like every year, I'm just like, who is it? The Braves or the Astros? I don't know what's going on with baseball anymore. I'm like that with every sport, dude.

The funniest thing that happened in baseball recently was when the Braves won the World Series, and they hadn't had a championship in so long that they did their parade route so fast that no one actually got to, like, see them. Like, they drove like 35 miles an hour through their own parade route because it was so big. And they, like, the only one was too. I just want to go home. D.K., did you see there was a, in the post-con, the post game, after they won the finals, Yokic was getting interviewed.

And he was like, I'm excited to go home. And they're like, aren't you excited for the parade? And he's like, there's a parade? And they're like, yeah. And he's like, when? And they're like, like, four or five days are now. He's like, ugh. God.

Yeah. Disgust. It was, this was like legitimately the only reason I, like, remember, like, anything about that is because he's just, his reactions are so funny. he's just like wants he's from Serbia right he just wants to go home and just like chill and relax and doesn't he gain a lot of weight during the off season then lose it in the beginning the season or am i making a little thick I love this guy oh my god uh all right yeah god if we could you think we could get yokitch on the show and

just talk about horses for like an hour it's not and i was calling him jokic right like that's not correct it's yokic okay my bad i don't know maybe I'm wrong. I think most people say Yokits, but I've heard it both ways. I'm sure there is obviously a correct way. Please correct me. Anyway,

we're going to start a pod where Craig just explains to me what the NBA is all about these days. No, the best one was Janus winning the title and then going through Chick-fil-A drive-thru on Instagram live and ordering the 50 nuggets for the 50 points. And then like asking the Chick-Flead woman,

like almost putting it on camera, like, wait, do you mind if you go on camera? She's like, no. He's like, all right, cool, because 100,000 people are watching this right now. Yeah. And then it gets it with the no ice. Like that. Yeah.

Yeah, that was great. It sounds like you had to be there, thing. Yeah, I probably just. You had to be on IT live. Sorry. All right. That's what we got. We have a show coming tomorrow.

Thank you, DK. Thank you, Craig. Thank you, Carlos for producing this episode. Sorry about the Dolphins, Carlos. Emails or your fancy football, gmail.com. If you, your cool team scored like under 35 points or 40 points, whatever D.K said. Yeah, what should be the, what should be the breakoff?

Under 40. It's just sad. It should be sad. Like, it should be pathetic. That's, I don't, I don't know. It should be very sad. Email, trivia questions, ringer fantasy football. Gmail.com.

Should they earn a number of fantasy court cases, whatever. Thank you, Lord. Lauren. Thank you, Bob Marley. Oh, wow. Where'd that go from? Why Bob Marley? Yeah.

I don't know. I felt like we were a little, you know, sad on this. one, a little just depressed about the nature and the state of football. So, you know, everything's going to be right. Don't worry. Hi, Fitz, after you started going through all the shitty college quarterback play, I'm really starting to be like, what if we just, what if we kind of just quit football? I'm out. I'm out. I don't know if the juice is worth to squeeze in this dumb sport. I'd rather just watch the highlights. Let's be real. These games are too long. It's like, at least in the

NBA, like people are always shooting, you know, like the game's two hours. There's so many games in the NBA, Craig. There's 82 games a year. But that you just pick the good ones. You only pick the good ones. It's great. You're like, oh, Warrior's Sons, I'll watch that. I think that here's my thing with the NBA. I'll watch the worst games in the NFL, eagerly. Saints, the Saints, it was so bad.

Derek Carr could not throw more than like 10 yards in any given direction. It's so bad. I swear to God that's going to like outdo the ALCS. Yes. Like, that doesn't happen in the NBA. Like, there's no, where it's never like, oh, Steph Curry has like a broken ankle and he's just playing and limping around and they're just stealing the ball from him every single possession.

Like, football is the only sport where you just play hurt. You have the Atlanta Hawks just hosting some team that's just been at a strip club like the night before. I don't know. It's like, it's wild. You can say James Hardin's team. It's the Sixers. Yes. To your point, Craig.

I actually think that maybe there is something here where I don't remember exact years because I, again, don't really watch the NBA. but like, I remember the NBA sort of had like this crisis of like having no stars for a while and it was like trying to attract interest and then all of a sudden they get all these stars. Do you think that the NBA or the NFL is a little bit there with how bad the quarterbacks have been? Obviously we've talked about this for last couple weeks. No, we're being dramatic. It's like we have Mahomes and Herber.

We have my own. Yeah, for sure. And like, dude, quarterbacks are the, we're just saying the youngest quarterback class we've ever had. And like, we are. Caleb Williams and Drake, maybe they're going to be good. And like, we have a lot of young quarterbacks. I think Trevor Lawrence being in Jacksonville, no offense to Jacksonville, is probably, you know, less than ideal.

I get what you're saying a little bit, D.K. It's like we don't have the Manning Breeze, Rothesberger. Like, we don't have all, Brady, we don't have all that right now where there's like 35-year-olds who are just like fantastic. You can depend on them every year. Here's my thing with basketball and the watch. I think what baseball did this year is incredible in that what baseball did was prove you can actually, if you put a tremendous amount of thought to something,

you can make massive wholesale changes to the sport that actually everyone loves. And like I think the crazy, we almost don't talk about enough that baseball, which is the most old, crotchety sport, like it is the like change nothing sank. And like they literally just liposuction

sucked half an hour out of every game. And everyone was like, yep, that's cool. That's better. Two weeks in, two weeks in the most crotchety baseball fans right now we're like, yeah, no, I like it. And like the fact that you can have

such substantial change. I actually think is like a real inspirational thing for creativity. My point being with the NBA, they have to do the ELM ending. They have to do the ELMending. And it will supercharge the NBA. And I think if the NBA ever wants to surpass the NFL

in being the biggest sport in the country, it will begin with the ELM ending because every single NBA game will end well. And right now, every single NBA the ELEM ending is the best fucking idea anyone's had since the 3. You play towards a certain number.

There's not a time limit. You play to a target score. Oh, wow. Oh. So then you don't get into the bullshit clock management shit where it's like fouling. There's none of that. The problem of basketball right now is that it's like defined, like the ending of every basketball game that's close is defined by the aspect that there's a benefit to committing fouls, which is one, the opposite of a fucking point of a foul. And then two, it destroys the telecast.

And it's like, it's not even for people or basketball fans. if you're watching with someone doesn't love basketball, it's fucking horrible to tell them, yeah, well, the game will end soon as soon as they stop. Like, it's just horrific. But the Elam ending becomes pick a basketball. They're like, if you're up 20, then, yeah, sure. Whoever scores the next three wins.

Is it like you have to win by two, though, or something? No, it's literally like a target number. Yeah. Oh, wow. They have math. They have fancy math that figures it out, but it's like if it's like a hundred to 95 and there's like, whatever, five minutes left, two minutes left, whatever.

They're like, 100 to 95, they're like, all right, whoever hits 105 first wins. But if it's like 130 to 90, they're like whoever hits 132 first wins. But the point being, it's like pick a basketball where the game ends with a basket and trying to score and not giving the team points on purpose. And it's like it is such a better idea. And I know it's weird, but like every game should have done a bestor-beater. It's like, I don't know.

So it's like I think it's the most obvious thing ever. The statistics purists are going to just have a fucking aneurysm though. They'll be fine. It's a huge departure. It's very different. The baseball thing, I mean, like the Ilemending, I think is a much bigger change. anything we've done in baseball, obviously. But Hive, it's to your point, with that said, to Mississippi.

To Mississippi. Yeah. Look, there's a reason when you're playing pickup with your family in the backyard. Everyone's like, hey, this pass rush is ridiculous. We're going to make Aunt Janine count to two before she runs at Uncle John and everyone's happy. It's a better game. I'm in. I'm in.

She's got incredible acceleration. She does. She's Miles Garrier out there. She's wrecking the games. We can't have fun with Janine out there. She's like Michael Parsons. God damn. I want to see the quarterback throw the ball.

That's the point. Oh, man. I still love football, by the way. We had 95 sacks in week four. Who wants that? No one wants that. I just want to come back around. I can't believe the Colorado School of Mines didn't go with gold diggers.

That's crazy. It's terrible. It's right there. It's insane that they did. It's right. Literally, it's right there. Or is so much less sexy than gold. Or is like the vehicle in which you find other valuable minerals on, right?

It's like the ugly metal that holds on to everything else. Yeah, ore is a fun word to add to other things. Iron ore, gold, or I don't know what ore is, honestly. Like they're from gold in Colorado. Come on. It's the thing in Zelda that you have to break to get to the thing. Or diggers. No one wants that.

School of mind. I want to look up at Ordigger's hat. You've seen those memes of the... It's just like the biggest game, video game now is Minecraft, like 100 years after they outlawed child labor. It's like the kids, they yearn for their minds. Yeah, I love that. So all these memes are like the kids yearn for the minds.

God damn it. All right, goodbye, everyone.