The Ringer NFL Show - Power Ranking the Biggest Underreactions after Week 1

Episode Date: September 13, 2023

RIP to Aaron Rodgers’s Achilles and the New York Jets’ Super Bowl chances (4:59). Next, power ranking the NFL Week 1 things that people aren’t talking about enough, including late-round quarterbacks looking better than their early-round counterparts, Tony Pollard being good at football, the NFC just looking flat-out better than the AFC, and much more (14:54). “You guys want to do some emails?” (39:00) Check out The Ringer’s Fantasy Football Rankings for positional rankings, waiver wire pickups, and much more! Are late-round QBs back? (15:33) Calvin Ridley and Trevor Lawrence are a match made in heaven (17:44) The Cowboys defense just entered the chat (20:12) Tony Pollard: really good at football (22:21) No one’s talking about C.J. Stroud! (24:30) Why Travis Etienne might be a league-winner (26:40) Tyjae Spears > Derrick Henry? (30:12) What if Jimmy Garoppolo and Jakobi Meyers are just last year’s Derek Carr and Davante Adams? (32:19) The NFC looked better than the AFC (yes, the AFC still has Patrick Mahomes) (34:13) Email us! [e-mail] The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Social: Kiera Givens and Jack Sanders Producer: Kai Grady Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, yo, this is Jason Gough from the full go podcast. Me and the crew, we like to entertain you. And we're going to do more of that this football season because the bears should be more intriguing. There should be more fascination. Justin Fields. Is this the make or break year? Is DJ Moore the piece that's going to put them over the top? You can catch us on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, or when we have an emergency podcast, when we have breaking news.

Make sure you follow the full go on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. For your fantasy football show, my name is Danny Hyphitz. by Danny Kelly and Craig Horlebeck. And today it is power hour where we power rank something every Wednesday. And today we are power ranking our biggest underreactions entering week two. That's right. Everyone's doing overreactions, but not us, right, D.K.? Everybody seems to be loving these overreactions, but we're not, all right?

We are underreacting to everything. We're going to talk about the things that people aren't talking about very much around the world. A little pivot from us, you know? We always got to stay nimble, big. when everyone zags. And also, we're probably going to talk about things that other people have discussed, but we're just going to just underreact instead of overreact just for the bit, mostly. I saw a tweet from PFF's Kevin Cole.

This is where 2023 week one offenses rank versus other first week NFL offenses since 2001. EPA per play last. Success rate, third to last. So in the last 22 years of football, this week one was the worst week one in EPA per play of the last 22 years. that is wild i mean i kind of believe it after watching the freaking games i mean i think it's weird because it's everything we've talked about where i think that the regular the first week or two the regular season is an extension of the preseason but it's been that way for a minute like that's a trend you know what i mean and i think like offense like the pandemic when there

was no um fans in stadiums we saw a huge spike in offense i even including early in the season i don't know we actually got an email that got my brain whirling about this dk but i i don't know, what do you make of that other than just like a total anomaly? Why is the football bad? That's a good question. I think there's probably some just natural variance to it. It's just randomness. Like maybe the NFL offenses look great next week.

We'll see. We were making fun of the fact that all the big money quarterbacks, all the guys that got paid during the soft season looked like total garbage in week one, which is just kind of crazy. But yeah, if this continues, I'm actually going to be very curious to see if the NFL does the whole thing where they institute more rules changes because every time offense suffers, the NFL starts to panic

and starts bringing in these new rules. High Fitz, you mentioned the pandemic game. That was the year where they just didn't call holding. Like no offensive holding. And it was so incredible for the offense because the offensive tackles could just grab defenders and like bear hug them and they weren't going to call it. And so offense totally spiked that year.

So I don't know. We'll see. This is clearly just week one. but it was definitely concerning. It was some of the ugliest football we've seen in years. I kind of, I'm just going to skip. I want to read an email we got from Luke. You said for a little while now, Luke,

for a little while now it seems like the talent and athleticism on offense in the NFL had been increasing at a higher rate every year than defense. But this week was the first time I've ever felt that the defenses may have finally actually started to catch up on offenses in terms of athleticism. I don't remember a full weekend of NFL football where I felt like almost all the defenses were flying around the field almost more so than the offense. I think that's a good point. I think it's probably a little biased by the fact that the Jets and Cowboys were in prime time.

But I'm not going to lie, I kind of feel that way too. I mean, Michael Parsons, Nick Bosa, you know, everyone on the Jets. I don't know. Again, probably an anomaly, but having said that, like, it's kind of true. Like, there are Jalen Carter for the Eagles. Like, there are some insane athletes on defense now. Miles Garrett. Yeah.

DJ Y. All these guys have huge weeks. I don't think it's going to be a blip on the radar. I think this is a real trend. and part of the reason is the best athletes at that size so like if you're 6'5-285 pounds you're not playing tackle

you're going to pass you're going to rush the passer you're like Nick the Nick Bosa body types those guys are going to rush the passer so most of the time like the vast majority of the time the best athletes on the field are defenders and the offensive tackles are not nearly as athletic

so they have a massive disadvantage but I think this is this has been a trend and it's going to continue to be a trend we're seeing more and more, you know, of these types of defenders, you know, lining up against inferior athletes on the offensive line. And it's, you know, it's obviously affecting the offense. It's going to be very interesting to see how this continues to evolve. All right. I want to get to power here in a moment. First, we have to talk about the freaking Jets game. I know, you know, we're brutal talking about this on Wednesday. But I mean, honestly,

just before there's so much to get to, there's the game itself. There's what the Jets do next. But first, Craig, I want to start with you. Like, what was your actual first thing? loss when Rogers was like on the ground. Honestly, I was like, I can't think of a worse. You couldn't write this to be any more devastating for Jets fans. Yeah. Everything about this entire situation, the amount of hype that went into the season was getting Aaron Rogers.

It was 9-11. Aaron Rogers on hard knocks seemed to like really galvanize the team, let alone, you know, of course the fans. There was just so much going into this night. And he plays four snaps, gets hit like every single. single snap and then looks like he, people thought he like broke his ankle initially and the shots

cutting to the Jets fans in the stands was just I was like this is the most cursed fan base in all of sports and you should just stop now just quit and pick a different team because this is, there's something greater going on here with what's going on with the Jets

and watching Zach Wilson then run out and seeing Robert Sala's face being like, well guess we're doing this again. DK, what about you? It was truly for me just like, you have to be kidding me. Like, this is, there's no way this is actually happening. This is like worst case scenario, truly.

Four snaps in on the fourth play of the season. And it's brutal because, you know. I actually said on the Friday show, what if Rogers just immediately got hurt and then Zach Wilson came in? So I'm a little worried about my Nostradamus powers here. I'm like, again, I don't know what my power ends. Again, Danny Kelly, 371 straight episode. episodes without explosive diary on air.

So I just, you know, we'll see the limits of my powers. But no, I wrote, shameless plug, I wrote a column for The Ringer about this because I was, I was covering Rogers' first game. And I feel like I've just covered Rogers well my whole career. I feel like I was probably the first person to predict pretty confidently he was going to go to the Jets. Oh, you were for sure. I was pretty, like, I had that out there in November.

So I was pretty excited to like watch this game. And so obviously gets hurt. And I was trying to think about what I wanted to say about Rogers just having this Achilles injury. And I kept thinking about John McEnroe because John McEnroe. because John McEnroe did this interview that they aired. Honestly, a lot of those interviews are corny.

But I loved it because John McEnroe is a real Jets fan. John McIntyman, obviously, legend, like, you know, his US Open just happened. But John McEnroe is a real Jets fan. And I thought it was such a funny interview because Aaron Rogers was talking about winning a Super Bowl. And you know, when it's like one of those reporters, people on television,

they're always like, oh, yeah, that's cool. John McEnroe looked miserable. He was like squirming and he's like, why are you talking about this? And Aaron Rogers was like, like, you're a Jets fan. Come on. He's like, John McEhrone's like, exactly. And John McEbron basically asked him like, have you considered what might happen to you if this doesn't work out? Like, it's the Jets. It was like a man who had seen a half century. It was like talking to a younger person who didn't

understand what they were getting into. And I was, and Air Rogers honestly sounded like hippie Joe Rogan, Ted Lassow. And he was talking about believing and the team believing and the fan base believing. And he was talking about manifesting what you want out in the world. And honestly, it felt like the collective. anxiety of Jets fans all thinking it would go. Every Jets fan was kind of in the back of their mind like the bear where it's like, when's the shoe going to drop? We're all waiting for shoes to drop.

And the fact that it came so quickly, it felt like Charlie Brown with the football. Every Jets fan I know had the same reaction, which was like, yeah, of course, why did I expect anything else? By the way, they won the game. Won the game. They came back. Maybe this is good. Maybe like Zach Wilson's actually going to figure it out now and they're going to

you know, do what they wanted to do originally when they drafted him a second overall. Maybe this is all works out for the best. Part of me wondered, like, is it actually worse that they came back and won this game? Because now, once again, there's still hope is back. The hope that kills you and there's still hope.

Hope is the worst of things. Hope doesn't. If they will last 35 to zero, you know what? You go, all right, I'm not watching the Jets this year. I'm going to pick up a hobby. I'm going to start golfing on Sundays. Maybe we tank and drafted.

quarterback. Yeah, you know. And now it's like, well, you know, maybe we get squeezed into the playoffs. We'll see how Rogers recovers. Oh, our defense is really good. Maybe this is the Zach Wilson year. I actually think this is worse. It's going to be the good take because it's going to be like the biggest what if ever. Because watching this team beat the bills anyway, literally just every Jets fans could be like, well, can you imagine if Aaron Rogers was our quarterback for the rest of their life? They're just be like, oh my God. Honestly, the thing I keep thinking about is it's, yeah, you ever had like an amazing dream where. all this stuff was going to happen and then you get like woken up. And you're just like, I want to go back to that dream, but you can't. And I just feel like that's...

Yeah, I'm just trying to fall in sleep. I'm obsessed with what the Jets are going to do next, to be honest. I'm so fascinated with this, with the rest of the season and what they're going to do at quarterback. Obviously, they have Zach Wilson. They have Tim Boyle as their third string quarterback. So... Aaron Rogers's friend, Tim Boyle and Aaron Rogers' friend, offensive coordinator, Nate Hackett,

now have to actually run the team. Flacco said the other day that he still wants to play. He's still out there. He's still working out. He's to publicly volunteer. That means they didn't call him. I volunteered. They had to reach him.

He had to reach out through Twitter because they wouldn't take his calls. Hi, Vince. What do you think happens here? Robert Sala has said that Zach Wilson is their starting quarterback, but who do you think starts the most games for the Jets this year? Is it Zach? I think the problem with this is that they just installed this Packers Aaron Rogers' offense and taught everyone it.

And you can't just undo all that. And I think that's the real problem is Nate Hackett. never done anything else. I actually wonder if they're going to get Blake Bortles because Blake Bordels. Well, remember when they made the AFC, I know. He was in Green Bay. Not just Green Bay with Rogers. And Jacksonville, right, right, right.

Nate Hackett was the offensive coordinator for the Jaguars when they made the AFC championship game. That's basically the same thing. The Jaguars said this elite, insane defense led by a cornerback. Jalen Ramsey, the Jets said this is Sauce Gardner. Blake Bortle's coming in. Like, he's just more experienced. Like, I kind of think that's the answer.

not that he's the best quarterback available, but he's the one who will pick up this offense and get Zach Wilson out of their quickest. Again, the fact that Zach Wilson, even the touchdown he threw was basically Garrett Wilson intercepting the pass. That was for the defensive back. I know, right?

Did you see the Manning cast with Peyton Manning every time Zach Wilson threw? Eli Manning was like, they should take a shot. Screw it. It was honestly such a personality test. Eli was like, you got to take a shot here. Payton's like, I wouldn't throw it if his life depended on it.

Peyton was like cringing. They did the right thing by not having a throw. Can you imagine if he would like on that final drive when they ended up winning or late in the game when they ended up, I think, tying the game or whatever. Like if they'd thrown it and he'd thrown a pick, like his confidence, he would be done forever. Zach Wilson said

of the game, Nate Hackett on the touchdown pass, Nate Hackett said, let's, it's an RPO. They were like, please, let's lean toward run here. Zach was like, I like Garrett outside, threw it anyway and almost threw a freaking pick. Oh my God. Garrette Garrette. But I will say the other quarterbacks, Andy Dalton is the Panthers backup for Bryce Young. I think he's the, he was

actually weirdly good for the Saints last year. I take him. Teddy Bridgewater is the backup for the Lions. Gardner Minchew for the Colts. Ironically, the funniest one is Sam Donald's for the 49ers. They will never do that. I think they should trade for a guy like Ryan Tannahill. I don't think the Titans would give up Tannhill though, because trading Taddle's giving up in your season and I don't think the Titans going to do that after one game. But like Jacoby Preset. Especially to another AFC team. Exactly. Jacoby Preset though for Washington who just started 13 games last year and is now behind

Sam Howell. Like there are there are guys out, Case Keenum, for God sake, James Winston. For God's sake. I think they're a guy. James. We'll see. Matt Ryan? Matt Ryan's toast.

Honestly, though, Tom Brady, man. Tom Brady, I'm not just saying this for clicks. Like, Tom Brady, I don't think he signed the paperwork to be the Raiders owner. A serious question. How long does Tom Brady actually need to be better than Zach Wilson? How much practice? What? Ten days?

None. None. Literally none. I think he could just show up and play and be better than Zach Wilson. He can't. Zero days. He was just honored by the Patriots. And two days later, he goes and suits up for division rival.

I don't know. If this were a different team, I could see it, but not the Jets, man. Can you imagine, though, like, if he did? Because here's the thing. He probably enjoyed that ceremony. But, like, do you remember that video of him outside the Raiders locker room in the preseason? He was like, go get him, guys.

Like, what's he doing next week? What's he got going on next Sunday? He's going to watch the games? What is he doing? Like, I kind of think. Bring it back. If he went and played the Patriots, three weeks from now, that would be the most incredible thing ever. Do it.

I didn't realize, is he 46 now? Is Tom Brady 46? At what point do we have to give up on this? Like, 46. For some reason, 45, I could wrap my head around. We lit the NFL and passing cards two seasons ago. 50's the new 40. He is 46.

Wow. He just turned 46. That is old. Craig. He was born in 1977. Dude, what? That's so funny. This is wild.

Some of the quarterbacks were born in the 2000s, like some of the starting quarterbacks in this league. That's wild. Do we want to do a quick check-in while we're here? Josh Allen, I believe, led the league in turnovers last year, comes in four last night. It's 24 turnover since Brian Daible left the offensive coordinator of the bills. Craig, you're shaking your head. Zero to 10, how concern to you for Josh Allen?

If I was a real-life Buffalo fan, I think my concern is a five. For fantasy, I think my concern is a two. Yeah. I think we can lump this in with Week one, everybody played like crap. And if we were doing an overreactions pod, Josh Allen would probably be in the top three, but we're not doing that.

Underreactions. All right, well, let's do Power Hour then. Let's do it. We're going to power hour, our biggest underreactions after week one. And again, we're doing this Power Hour style. If you're not familiar with Power Hour, it's very simple. We're going to go through each topic, and after two minutes, you will hear this sound from our beloved Tom Tom Club.

Great song. unless you're watching this on Fandil TV where we can't clear that song legally so we have a different song that is also fantastic. They're both good. They're both great. They're both great.

Great copyright free song. Great copyright free song. Great copyright free song. Without further ado. Craig, you power ranked these underreactions. We sent them into you. You ordered them. So I'm going to give you the baton here.

If anyone doesn't like the order you chose, it's a Craig's fault. Take it away, Craig. Give us our power rankings, underreactions after week one. Yeah, so everybody's overreacting in week one. We wanted to underreactions. So these are things that happened this week

that we thought people should have been talking about more. So first one here, I'm actually giving it to myself. Late round quarterbacks kind of looked great in week one. And the story was that all the good quarterbacks looked bad. But all the quarterbacks that we thought were going to be bad looked pretty good. I mean, to run through Matt Stafford looked fantastic and looked back to his, you know, Super Bowl form.

He had 334 yards. He just had zero touchdown. They just punched them all in inside the five. And if he would have thrown for two touchdowns been a top five quarterback in fantasy. We'd probably be talking about him a lot more, but he was an assassin out there. Mack Jones was the overall QB2.

Jordan Love overall QB3. Anthony Richardson, QB5, and for his first game of the season, looked awesome, had 10 rushes, immediately seemed like a guy who's going to be a top 10 fantasy quarterback. Purdy was as solid as ever, and I can't believe I'm saying this,

but Jimmy G was incredibly competent and got the win, was third an EPA per drop pack. So, I don't know, maybe late round Kee. QBs are back and we got too hot and heavy about spending $60 on Jalen Hertz and Joe Burrow. I hope no one spent 60 bucks on Hertz or Burrow. But I think I will say I certainly get some Agena that we didn't just kind of do the Warren Buffett,

be bold when everyone's fearful and fearful when everyone's bold and just take a step back and say, so every single court, like the top quarterbacks are going literally earlier than ever by a lot, just fade that. You know what I mean? Like it just kind of seems super obvious. Like it's just buying high. And again, all these quarterbacks could still be great, right? Like Jalen Hurts, like Josh Allen, all these guys are probably going to bounce back.

It is an extension of preseason. However, it's pretty disheartening to see Matt Stafford outscore like Joe Burrow and Lamar combined without a touchdown. Well, and that's a great point. Like Lamar, I think ended up with something like six points or whatever. And Justin Fields was underwhelming. Here's the deal. Here's the reason we love these quarterbacks is because they run.

Lamar Jackson, one design run. Justin Fields, two design runs. What are we doing here, coaches? Come on. All right. Second biggest underreaction, Hyfitz, take it away. Dude, I think Calvin Ridley was the steal of the draft for the Jaguars, and I think Trevor Lawrence is the truth. I, as a quarterback.

I just, I mean, so Calvin Ridley hit like 11 targets, eight catches, 101 yards. He had a touchdown. Actually, I believe he had the most, Calvin Ridley have the most catches in the first half of any game in his entire career. And then, um, Fantasy Life, Dwayne McFarlane, McFarlane who tracks usage.

Basically, all the underlying metrics are elite. like Dwayne was saying, Calvin got a third of the Jaguars targets, which is elite. He got half the air yards of the passes that Trevor Lawrence through. The distance, the past has traveled.

Half went to Calvin Ridley. That's elite. Half the untoad targets went to Calvin Ridley. That's insane. But also like the eye test. Frankly, I was kind of really curious. Calveridly looks incredible.

He's like squirrelly. I think I forgot how squirley Calvin Ridley was. Squirley. But also, they're just mentally on the same page. Lawrence and Calvin Ridley, like the timing was better. The back shoulder stuff was just better than I thought.

And then also, dude, Lawrence, the way Lawrence has the willingness to just take a shot. And I don't mean just to pass, like get hits. He will take a shot downfield ball taking a hit with. He's like, like he is cliche alert, surprisingly mobile for like, you know, six foot six white dude who looks like a giraffe who's falling. Deceptively fast. Yeah.

Yeah. But like, yeah. He had a play where he kind of did the Tony Romo where he blind turned left and then just scramble left. And just like the way he, not a. Mahomes-esque because Mahomes is the best, but the way Lawrence just kind of rips, passes without any semblance of a platform with his feet and is still perfectly on target, there's like four people on Earth who can do that.

So I just think the combo of them, I think Lawrence is going to be an MVP candidate for 10 years and Calvin Ridley is going to be like the guy that you're like, oh my God. Yeah. D.K. You're nodding with me. This was proof of concept, right? Because we talked about it all offseason. We thought, oh, there's a chance he could be a massive steal. But the reason he fell and the reason people were a little bit scared to take him so high is because he hasn't played football in two years.

We don't exactly know what's going to happen. Like we've been bitten before with like a Michael Thomas situation. This was proof of concept. He looked incredible. We said, I think a couple weeks ago in the show that Calvin Ridley was the latest receiver you could draft that could still realistically finish as the overall wide receiver one. And that kind of played out that way with week one. All right, number three here on Power Ranking Underreactions from week one.

I'm going to also go back to Hyphids here. Should we just have taken great defenses and fantasy? Are defenses also back? Late round QB and defenses? What year is it? How many times you're in a league, your friends, and one of your friends drafts like a defense in the 11th round? What an idiot.

And they're like, I'm smart. I'm going to take Dalton Kincaid. And then I'll just grab a defense later. Meanwhile, I'm just going to wish that I had the Dallas Cowboys the entire season. And I kind of feel like an idiot. And I wonder if we made a mistake. I'll never forget in like, God, it must have been 2000. in 11 or 12, right when I started playing fantasy

with my high school friends. We had one friend in the league Thomas, who's actually no longer in the league because he doesn't really care, but that's part of the point. He basically showed up, drafted who he thought was good, didn't really care.

He took like the Bears' defense in the 10th, and we all just absolutely let him have it. You're an idiot. You don't understand how this works. The Bears defense went on to average like 25 fantasy points a game that year, and he made the playoffs, despite never checking his roster,

just because of the Bears. Usually it's the guy who just is like, you know whose defense is really good? the Cowboys, I'm just going to start them every week, regardless of who they play. Meanwhile, I'm overthinking it and trying to start whichever defense is playing the worst offense. In reality, if you just start the Niners, the Cowboys, and the Jets every week, they'll probably give you 15 points a game. That's actually the most annoying thing is that generally speaking, one of the reasons we say don't reach for defenses in fantasy. You don't actually know who the best defense is going to be in fantasy.

It's a lot of a turnovers and stuff, and you don't, like, it's actually really hard to predict who the top defense will be, so it's usually wasted a pick. But this year, well, the Cowboys at 37 points, depending on your scoring. That's more than hurts Josh Allen Lamar and Burrow combined. It's like one of the top scores. More than everyone except Tyree Kill. The Jets' defense had 20 points on Monday in football. A lot of people thought they were going to lose one.

The Niners defense was awesome. Gave you double digits. The Eagles immediately got to pick six. I'm like, damn, well, those are the four defenses you would have picked. There's 12. I see 12 defenses that scored double digits this week in week one. Guess how many tight ends scored double digits? Happy.

Two. Two? Two. We should just take three defenses and no tight ends. You should be able to start a defense at your flex. I mean, yeah. Okay. Number four spot here.

Power ranking under reactions. D.K., go ahead. I feel like this is something that's gone underrated, under the radar and underdiscussed. Tony Pollard, pretty much exactly as advertised all offseason. We were getting very excited about him because last year he was like one of the best players in the NFL. Like every time he touched the ball, it was like an explosive play. It was a touchdown, whatever.

And then, but in the back of your mind, you're like, oh, what if they give him more touches? Is he going to get worse? Is he going to get less efficient? Is he going to be completely different what we saw last year as when he was basically backing up Ezekiel Elliott? This year, Pollard, he got more touches and he was incredibly awesome. He was the RB5 in week one, scored two touchdowns, rush for 70 yards.

And basically did everything that we were hoping and more. Yeah, just fine. And by the way, this was a game in which they absolutely took their foot off the pedal probably about halfway through because they were winning by 40 points in third quarter. Should have been 80 to zero. And so to me, like, the thing that with Pollard that I'm really excited about is what happens when you simply give an elite player more touches, he does good things with it. And I'm really excited about what he could do going forward when he has to play the entire game

where when the score is closer and they're really having to feed Pollard. he got all of the carries inside the five-yard line so he has that touchdown upside. This is a similar, I think, story to what we were talking about with Calvin Ridley where he's one of these guys that could legitimately finish as the RB1 in the right situation.

And I mean, everything we saw week one was very encouraging. Everything, everything was encouraging. Yeah, everything. So far. Steelers, Seahawks, Giants, everything was encouraging. Everything. For this pod, we went on Bill's pod

and we had to each come with our favorite player in the draft, and we did not consult with one another, and we all picked Tony Pollard. So at least for week one, that has aged pretty well. So far so good. Yeah, yeah. So far so good.

Hi Fitz, don't say anything about injuries. Hyfitts, keep your mouth closed. Arthur Smith, take a page out of Mike McCarthy's playbook here, huh? Give the ball to your best players. All right. My next underreaction here.

I feel like C.J. Stroud was pretty good, and nobody really cared this week. No one mentioned it. Yeah. CJ Stroud, I think, got the least buzz of any rookie quarterback, Bryce Young, Anthony Richardson, but Stroud came in, played at Baltimore, one of the better defenses in the league, took five sacks, took 10 hits, and was quietly very, very competent. He had no interceptions.

He threw for 24-42 yards, no picks on 44 passing attempts. He was 16th in EPA on throws. And look, this guy doesn't even really have a lot of great receivers around him. Nico Collins kind of looks like to steal a little bit in drafts, but he's got Robert Woods he's throwing two. John Metchie wasn't even playing. He's got Dalton Schultz. Damien Pierce didn't even play that much. And they hung around in this game. And, you know, this was a close game against the Ravens at halftime. So I don't know. I feel like C.J. Stroud, if you're a Texans fan, you got to feel pretty good about this. And it kind of just

went under the radar. Yeah, I totally agree with this. He looks like it wasn't too big. You know what I mean? Like, the one thing you worry about, and this is what we saw was Zach Wilson. We talked about earlier is like, when he first came in, it was like deer in the headlights, completing the easiest pass was difficult. And from there, it's like, oh, this is going to be a process. And it may never work out for him. But C.J. Stroud, he came in and he looked confident. He looked pretty poised.

He never got rattled. I'm just looking at some of his numbers. He's off target rate was only 13%. So he was, like, pretty accurate during the game. And, you know, it wasn't like sailing passes. He didn't look too nervous. And so, you know, from a psychology and confidence point of view, like, I feel pretty good about his first game.

I'm much more confident that this is not too big for him. He can, you know, it's going to take some while to develop, but positive science with week one. Yeah, we need a whelm score because there are just guys that come in and look overwhelmed, like Chubisky and Zach Wilson. And then there are guys that look completely welled, if not underwhelmed. Jalen Hertz, all-time leader in underwhelming debut. He just didn't look. Everything was like, he wasn't rattled by anything.

And C.J. Stroud had a lot of that. So I was very impressed. We were underwhelming. People were underreacting to how. underwhelmed C.J. Stroud looked in the field. Yeah, I didn't really make that case very well. Number six here, D.K. I'm going to stick with the running back spot.

Travis E.T.N. from the Jaguars looks like a potential league winner. 23 touches in week one, which was second only to Chris McCaffrey. That's what we want to see, baby, because one of the big worries coming into the season was that he was going to fall into a heavy rotation with Tank Bigsby. And there is a potential hiccup here to him, to Travis Eton, having the elite elite lead upside, and that is that Tank Bigsby took some of the goal line carries. I feel like Tank Bigsby got that one touchdown, and then everybody just threw away

ETN stat line on the day, despite him still being great. Let me throw some stats out for you. First of all, he rushed 18 times for 77 yards and a score. Five catches, which, by the way, was a career high. That's extremely encouraging. He ran 29 routes, which was third among all running backs, because everybody pictured him as a purely two-down, not going to factor into the passing game type of running back. That's not what happened in week one, which is very encouraging.

And he played 80% of the team snaps, which was fourth among all running back. So he was getting the volume. He was getting the passing game usage. The only real hiccup right now is he's not getting the goal line looks. But if maybe he mixes in a little bit during the season in those areas, like I still think he has league winning potential, especially where you got it, where are you able to get him in the preseason? He looked amazing.

I would say the other, I think that you're right, D.K., I am afraid that we might have been more wrong in ETIN than any other player this year. Just I'm afraid that ETN ends up being Josh Jacobs. But here, because not just everything you said. Yeah, yeah. Underrating, you know, his talent on this offense. Tank Bigsby might just be done. Like, Tank Biggsby almost lost the Jaguars this game.

He had a couple bad plays. He had a couple just kind of rookie brain fart plays. And maybe Doug Peterson gives him a second chance, but you never know with coaches. Sometimes they just bury a guy. And Tank Bigsby really almost like Kedars Tony-esque single-handedly lost them this game with ball security. And so I kind of think Travis E.N just steady hand.

I totally agree. He might just be top five running back this year. Adding one last thing before we move on, we talk about the eye test. My eye test on Travis ETIN, he looked really, really explosive. I was very impressed with what he did. Get ready to start the NFL week off right, because right now all customers can get a no sweat, same game parlay for Thursday night.

Football just plays a three-legs, same game parley on this week's game, between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Minnesota Vikings, and you'll get bonus bets back if you don't win. The Eagles and Vikings actually played in week two on prime time last year. I think that was Monday night football, and this one's Thursday in football. The Eagles kind of shalacted them. I think it was like 24-7, all the points were in the first half.

I know the Eagles didn't play well last week, but how much has really changed? I still think the Eagles kind of just overpower the Vikings on both sides of the line. I like the Eagles in this game. I'm willing to lay points. I'll put bounce back overs on all the Eagles skill players, all that jazz. NFL same game parlays are the perfect way to combine your bets for a chance at a bigger payday build your own or choose from one of the popular same game parley's pre-built for you in Fandalls' top-rated sportsbook app. Visit fandle.com slash ringer fantasy so you don't miss out on your chance to get a no sweat.

Same game parlay in America's number one sportsbook. Fandul, an official sports betting partner of the NFL must be 21 plus and present in select states. Refund issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets that expired seven days after a seat. max refund $5, unless otherwise specified restriction supplies, C terms at sportsbook. Fendell.com. All right, number seven here. I don't think people talking enough about how Derek Henry got out snapped by Ty J. Spears. Yeah.

He basically had two big plays. Derek Henry, he had a big run and a big screen pass catch that kind of saved his day. He had over 100 yards total. But he had 63 rushing yards. He had 15 carries. He averaged 22 carries a game last year. And he got 15 coming out of the gate here against the Saints. And this game was tight the whole way through.

it's not like they were down a bunch and didn't need to run. I mean, this was a neck and nip game going back and forth throughout the entire game. Yeah, Spears, 34 snaps, Henry, 30 snaps. I don't know, I got to say I'm a little worried. There was a lot of Spears preseason hype. He looked amazing in preseason. He averaged nine yards of carry this week. He had three carries or 27 yards.

Just something to keep my eye on. Don't think we really discussed it just because Henry once again had over 100 yards. But I'm keeping my eye on it. he got most of the long down-of-distance and third-down work in this game, which is for the Henry defenders and the people that are really relying on Derek Henry this year, that's an area that we kind of need him to be around in because he's not typically a big pass catcher. He did, I believe, set a career high in catches last year, or at least he was close to it. So it looks like, at least right now, that he's not going to be very much involved in the past game.

I think they got him on like a screen. He got a big player on like a screen here. But for the most part, like Tadjay Spears looks like the guy who's going to be the passing down sky for them. And it was wild that he out snapped him. 55 to 47 snaps. Yeah, it just feels like the one thing you could depend on with Henry

was like rain or shine, he's getting 20 carries. And seeing him get out snapped and get 15 carries in a game that was tight the whole way through when usually, and especially with how bad Tannahill was, it's a little concerning. Maybe they'll overcorrect now. and because Tannenhale was so bad

that we're going to see 28 carries out of Henry next week. But yeah, it's a little nerve-wracking. Henry hasn't had a great backup behind him in a while. Yeah, maybe relying on the second oldest running back in the NFL to lead lead and carries was bad.

All right, next underreaction here, D.K. I feel like people aren't talking enough about how awesome Jacoby Myers was. He straight up outplayed Devante Adams. I'm not going to say, I'm not going to be, I'm not going to hot take it and say he's better than Devante Adams, because that's a ludicrous comment.

but Jacoby Myers looked incredible. 10 targets, 9 catches, 81 yards, two touchdowns. He was the wide receiver 3 on the week in half PPR. He had a 39% target rate. He was Jimmy G's go-to guy in this game, which to me that's the thing we're not talking about enough here. Devante Adams has been, for the last decade, the go-to guy on every offense he's played in.

Jacobi Myers was that guy in week one. I don't necessarily think that's going to carry over week in and week out. You know, obviously, Devante Adams is a great player. But you can't, I think you can't completely ignore the fact that Jimmy Garoppolo was looking to this guy often in this game. And he looked really good. So big props to Jacoby Myers, who I think scored two touchdowns in his whole career prior to week one. And then he scored two touchdowns in this game. Well, obviously, Jacobi Myers suffered an injury too in this game.

So we'll see if he actually even ends up playing this week because he had like that really scary. He's in the concussion protocol. Yeah. So we'll see if he even ends up playing. But I agree. Obviously, like Jacobi Myers, knowing that Josh McDaniels, like the Patriots, you know, ask offense is obviously,

I think he actually ever like specifically aligned with Jimmy G. specifically. But knowing the Josh McDaniel stuff was clearly a massive help for him. And then honestly, I think the other being such a different quarterback than Derek Carr, like if you kind of just map where Jimmy G likes to throw the ball,

it's just kind of not where Devante succeeded last year. Devante had like nine deep touchdowns last year. A lot of stuff outside the numbers. Like, you know, if you think about the defining Rogers play with Devante, it's not necessarily slant. It's like back shoulder stuff. Jimmy G's not good at that. He's good over the middle of field. Man, that's a great song. All right. Last one here. High Fates, throwing this to you.

The NFC's better than the AFC. I think this is just a take purge that I wanted to get off that I really regret now not doing. The NFC is just better, man. I think the Niners right now should be favored over any team in the NFL if they played them. I think the Cowboys are second on that list. Like the Cowboys are the second best team in football. the Chiefs, if they get Kelsey back or on that list, until they get Kelsey back, they're not. I kind of think the Eagles, even though they had a tough week one, the Eagles are still right there. I kind of think right now until the Chiefs get Kelsey back,

the three best teams of the NFL are in the NFC. And here's the thing. You can say about the Dolphins. The thing is the Niners, the Eagles and the Cowboys, to me, all might have a top five offense and a top five defense. And then you go down the board. And I just think we kind of underrated things. I think we underrated how good the Bucks defense is.

And I think we overrated, I mean, obviously, the bill, you know, Josh Allen, 24 turnovers in the last year without Brian Dable. I don't know. Am I crazy? Like, we talked about the AFC and NFC imbalance. And meanwhile, I'm like, the NFC is just straight up better. Am I crazy? Yeah. We do power rankings every week at the ringer.com.

Go check those out. And I was very shocked when I put together my power rankings. I had four out of my top five teams in the NFC, which is way different than what we were expecting coming into the season. And those teams include the 49ers, Eagles, Cowboys, and

maybe, be my team that I'm too high on are the Lions, but like the Lions beating the Chiefs in week one, I think, you know, kind of just like sets the stage. They're, they are a good team. They're a very tough physical team and they're going to be a hard out for anybody that tries to play them. So, yeah, I think there's something you said about balance that, because we get so hyper-focused on quarterbacks for a good reason, typically, but like the AFC is very well set up with quarterbacks. Maybe some of the best overall teams, though, are in that FC. As we said, late round QB is back. Right now on Fandle's Super Bowl odds.

Chiefs are still one at plus 600. Eagles plus 800 or second. Third is the Niners also at 800. And then it drops to the bills are still fourth. And the Cowboys are fifth at plus $1,200 right now. To Dicka's point where the AFC have better quarterbacks right now, do they? Joe Burrow will bounce back. I will totally give you that.

Joe Burrow is going to be better than he was in week one. Are you sure that Lamar, Deshawn Watson, or Josh Allen will be better than they were in week one? I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure the AFC still has better quarterbacks. I mean, when you look down the list of some of these teams in the NFC, like just the NFC South in particular, it was like Desmond Ritter, Derek Carr, Baker. I'm not fighting that. Like the bottom doldrums, Bryce Young are there.

But I'm just saying it was Aaron with Aaron Rogers torn Achilles, Josh Allen's in the worst funk he's had since we, he was a laughing stock where we thought it was a bust. And then Deshawn Watson didn't look. And it was raining, we'll see. But Sean Watson still has not looked good for his team that he plays for. And then, you know, Kenny Pickett was a disaster for the Steelers. I'm just saying, like... Russell Wilson wasn't especially great, yeah.

Yeah, I'm just saying, like, a lot of this is an assumption. So, we'll see. We are supported by NFL Sunday ticket on YouTube and YouTube TV. If you're a displaced fan, NFL Sunday ticket is an absolute must have. And now that it's on YouTube and YouTube TV, it's easier than ever to keep up with all your favorite teams on Sunday afternoons, since you can watch four preset games at once on multi-view. All right, this week for fantasy, the games that we need to watch, the YouTube multi-view in week one was phenomenal. It was honestly kind of like a life-changing experience.

it. Bengals Ravens to me is like very clearly the game we're watching because the amount of people, again, T. Higgins, eight targets without a catch first time in like eight years. Got to see if Joe Burrow, shout out to who emails us this. John, Joe, the Navy midshipman had one yard of passing less than Joe Burrow did in week one. So I would really like to see whether Joe Burrow can outdo Navy. And then it's the same thing with Lamar. It's like, you know, if Tom and his coordinators for how long, it's like he's got a new

coordinator two weeks in two division rivals. I'm very curious for that game. Are they going to start running him at all? Is he just not going to be a running quarterback anymore? You know what I mean? Like he had one design run in this last game, which was shocking. I need to see. This is bounce back week, week too.

I'm going to watch all the bounce back teams, especially High Fitz's New York Giants. From a fantasy perspective here, they're playing the Cardinals, man. I need to see Seekuan, Daniel Jones, Darren, putting up real points or else we're in deep water. I'm very excited to see the Chiefs and Jags. I want to see if the Chiefs can bounce back. The Jaguars, extremely fun team in week one, one of the most fun teams to watch. So to me, that is a game to circle for Sunday.

All right, thanks to NFL Sunday ticket on YouTube and YouTube TV for sponsoring this segment. It truly is the best place to keep up with all your favorite teams out-of-market Sunday afternoon games. And right now, you can get $50 off your subscription when you sign up at YouTube.com slash ringer fantasy terms of blackout restriction supply offer end September 19th. All right. We're going to get in some emails. However, first, we have to discuss. is Travis Kelsey dating Taylor Swift? I saw this.

There's no way. I think it's more likely that they've never met. I don't know. It was posted on the messenger. Yeah, I feel like the messenger just wanted some buzz. Yeah, the messenger's like trying to be the daily mail.

He tried to get Taylor Swift his phone number and the wording was weird because it was like, was it like they have connected or something? Was that me, they could be a text message? Apparently, I read it. It says that they've like,

they have been. hanging out, I just don't buy it. I think that's actually just straight up a lie. Taylor Swift is extremely busy. I don't think she has any interest in dating an NFL player. Maybe I'm wrong. Travis Kelsey was like trying to get her to like he wanted to give her his bracelet that he made because all the Taylor Swift fans, they wear bracelets at the at her concerts. But I don't know. I smell BS with this. Yeah, she's touring. She's touring and he's trying to play an NFL season. I know that he's injured. That doesn't mean he's got a ton of time out. Kelsey's, Kelsey was born in 1989 though. So I'm just saying they got that common.

Yeah, yeah. He has that going for him. But do you think this was related to him sitting out week one? You think he was in Mexico City sitting at bone rows. I don't know. What kind of bone bruise? You know what I mean? What bone bruise? They didn't specify I didn't specify I don't buy it I don't buy it

this is BS I think so I think there's no way all right shall we do a fantasy court let's do it yeah week one fantasy court

I can't wait I can't wait to know what these people are up to it's always anarchy week one it's not actually sponsored by Jack Links yet but honestly still shout out Jack Links anyway

hell yeah all right fantasy court all right What is it? Jacklinksmeatroast.com We can get it wrong because they're not sponsoring this segment. Was that what it was called?

Yeah. Meat roast. Jack linksmeat roast. Be careful if you just type in meatroast.com. I feel like you're just going to meat roast alone. That might be a disaster.

All right, fantasy court. It's from Mark. Mark. I have one league that's for big money. I was texting and talking shit with the guys in that league for like two weeks before the draft. Even making sure the commissioner

did not have a draft date that conflicted with my other drafts. So two days before the draft, my air conditioning breaks. My wife and I are sweating bullets at night. Home Depot gets the air conditioning, sets it up in the bedroom the night of the draft. The room started to cool off.

My wife, my dog and I were all in bed. I'm getting ready for the draft. And I fell asleep. When I wake up, it's three in the morning. The draft is over. My team stinks. None of those bums even texted or called me to wake me up. Or even texted me just to bust my balls

for not drafting. So I ask your honors. One, do I block and unfriend and delete the numbers of my friends? But are they at fault for not even contacting me about not drafting? So he's trying to blame them for falling asleep. I like to spin. It's a smart move on Mark's part here. I like it.

Also, he probably got the best sleep he's had in weeks. I love that. He was like sleeping so peacefully in his like wonderfully chilled new room with his fresh AC and then woke up in an absolute panic at three. in the morning. And he's like, I got Cooper Cup and Jonathan Taylor. I feel like an important piece of data here is he woke up at 3 a.m. What time do you think the draft was? Like, latest, you know, six or seven? Nine.

Like, he slept for like eight hours. What time did you fall asleep? How long was he sleeping for? Like, no one's waking you up from that thing. If you're sleeping for eight hours, maybe he slept like shit the night before. Well, a lot of you West Coast people, if you're doing it, it, it's, it, it's, you know, it, it, You got the schedule at 10 p.m. draft just to get it 7 o'clock for you guys. Still, that's like you're safe for a really long time. Like, if you had fallen asleep for like an hour and no one texted you,

I think there's more leeway to be mad about it. But this guy, he fell asleep for a solid night. Like, he felt completely asleep. It was not a nap. He was sleeping. He went to bed. I got to be honest, though. I don't think his friends are completely innocent in this.

You check somebody if they're not showing up. Yeah, you do. I'm more of a call guy I mean I host a podcast Yeah we know Yeah I mean more of a phone call guy But You gotta text them

What you know what I mean Yeah Yeah look I don't think you can punish them In any way sure you can like What do I block them Like I that's just a bad friend It's probably not Yeah you just

Did they even I don't know what you can do with that Did they all decide not to text them Or it just all together No one thought to text You know what the funniest thing Would be is if they forgot about them no one noticed.

But he's auto drafting. And I think I think the worst, the worst thing in a draft is when 11 people are there live drafting and there's one auto draft. Usually we pause it. Yeah. Well, that's thing. These are ostensibly your friends.

And the real problem is that 11 of your closest friends didn't really care that you weren't participating in your social event. Like no one actually cared that you were God. Or they were trying to screw him. Unfortunately for Mark, there's nothing for us to adjudicate here. This is just tough beat. I hope you got a good night's sleep. If you had looking up.

We would have reconsidered things, but this is a long sleep. Really dial it in on the waiver wire this season and win that way because, also maybe. Oh, he auto-drafted. He's going to win. Yeah, it's going to say, like, auto-drafting sometimes it just works out the best way. You don't overthink it. Yeah, you know what I mean?

My internet went out for a bit during the Ringer Fantasy Football League draft, and I got the Cowboys defense on auto-draft, and look at me. Boom-down. You know what? Boom-town. All right. More emails. Or no, sorry, fantasy court. We have a second fantasy court and take two cases this week.

Oh, Ross. Colin. Colin. This week, my opponent and I tied to the second decimal point. Wow. My opponent's been playing fantasy for 20 years, and he outed himself as knowing that the bench points would be the tiebreaker. But my league, basically is like, my league has never discussed. Did that that would ever happen with, that's why we went to the two decimal points.

So the rest of the guys that are league are basically saying that I can get screwed and I should just accept the L. However, if you guys are the commissioner, do you just leave this as a tie or just let this like unspoken tie breaker rule stand? I leave it as a tie. Well, my only question for the discovery portion of this case is was there a setting online that said it explicitly, here's what happens in case of a tie? Because again, we preach constantly about knowing the rules of your league. shouldn't he have known the tiebreaker rules? Not that you usually need to know them. Colin implies that this is almost a default setting

and that his opponent who's been, like, I don't know, him pointing out that this guy's been playing for 20 plus years suggest that he knew that this was the rule, which suggests to me that it's a default setting that was not discussed openly amongst the league, right? So this is a default rule that's two decimals, yeah,

right. It's astronomical. Also, I think it's a stupid rule that your bench, you move on to your bench. because like you absolutely chose not to start those players. You shouldn't be rewarded for that. But there's no.

You can tie in the real NFL. I think I agree with Craig. I'm agreeing with Craig for the principle that I think it's a dumb rule that your bench points would count towards a win. I agree. Yeah. This should be a tie. They should figure out a new tie breaker, which is like pick a guy in your lineup. Do a DFS lineup or something.

I don't know. Trial by combat. I like that. Trial by combat next week. And then next week, if you tie or if you really want the winner long, Like, you just put your best player, my best player, said it'll two weeks at once. So we ruled in Colin's favor.

We did. And I know that he's in the minority here and everybody thinks he should just accept the L. But I think that's bullshit. That's such a lame rule. The bench deciding if you win, you chose not to start those players for a reason. But if you had injured guys.

You know? Yeah. Doesn't make any sense. I don't know. Colin, we stand with you in solidarity. All right. We got a weird one here from Anthony. Anthony.

Tony. He's taking a turn. Hefitts dropped an octave there. He went, we got a weird one. D.K., we were talking about the Joe Buck handshake with the Washington owner that was really awkward. Which is fine. It was fine. It was a fine handshake. Find a new slant.

Yeah. It was not a fine handshake. It wasn't a handshake. I don't know what it was, but it was not a handshake. A handshake requires two willing parties. It was a de facto hands. They grasped hands. Yeah. I was fist bumping. Firmly grasp it.

Well, that's not that firm, but yeah. Dickie just grabbed what our fists like a like a stick shift. And as we were fist pumping each other, think, because Dickie just grabbed it. Like out there just instinctively. And Dickie was defending himself so hardcore. We actually got an email from someone who was saying that they went to a co-worker's mother's funeral and then instinctively like grabbed the hand of like the morning husband at this funeral

because he just stuck his hand out and intercepted a handshake for someone else. And then he was like, this is my wife. just panicked and then I didn't talk to anyone else. Painful to think about. So got an email from Anthony. Tony. I've wanted to email every week or for years, but I never do. But when you guys were discussing the funeral handshake and said, this is the worst thing

I've ever heard. God. I was compelled to finally send an email. He's like, I see your handshake story and I raise. I'm scared already. A few years ago, one of my best friends passed away. I hadn't seen him in almost 10 years. there was no bad blood or anything.

I just moved away from my hometown and we simply fell out of touch. So someone let me know that my friend had passed away and I drove the seven hours for the funeral. And all my old friends were there in attendance and everyone was shocked to see me because when I moved away, like I disappeared. Like I didn't talk to anyone. I disappeared from my hometown. So I finally make it in the line to the grieving widow and she says, Anthony, is that you?

And I shrug and like an idiot, I say, Yep, I'm still alive. Oh, that's painful. Oh, God. Oh, no. That's just about it. That's like Michael Scott level awkward. Oh, that hurts like my chest.

I have a pain in my chest right now from reading that. I think you just turn around and get back in the car, seven hours back up, back home. This is truly, you go back to your old life. you leave, just leave immediately. You already have a new life set up. I'm so sorry for your loss and you turn around. He probably did something so embarrassing that he left his hometown. He goes back one time and then just immediately needs to do like another decade away from his hometown.

Oh, wow. This is bad. I swear the brain works that way sometimes where it tells you the worst thing possible to say. Intrusive thoughts. Intrusive thoughts. You know, if it's on the mind, you know, you're at a funeral stuff, it just slips in. I don't know how he said it. Was he like, I'm still alive?

No, no, no, I don't think. I bet it was like, yep, still alive. No, but that's the thing, though. It is a cliche to say that. I feel like that's in movies or whatever. No, it's still a lot. Sure. I see how he said that.

Expression, sure, yes. Tough, tough context, though. That's, so he said that she pretended like she didn't hear me because she's a champion. And then I spent the rest of the hour trying to hide from everyone. So the awful part about that is no one else heard it. So it's just him. and her only share that horrible interaction,

and now he just has to live with that. Well, that's where we share it. You know, happiness shared is multiplied, grief shared is divided. So look at us here. Boom. Good expression. I've never heard that one.

Yeah. What is it again? Happiness shared is multiplied. What was the grief? Shared is divided. Well, on that lovely note. Words to live by. So, yeah, so that's why I, you know,

talk so much about, sorry that I injured Travis Kelsey and, um, jinks, Darren's. just trying to share grief. You really are on the role. Dude. Yeah, I can't wait till the Friday episode. I want to see who you are into this week,

so I know to immediately fade them. We need to really bring the Costanza back. Like, we just got to start Costanzing all my thanks. We do, actually. Yeah. All right. That's all we got. Thank you, D.K., thank you, Craig.

Thank you, Kai, for producing this episode. Thank you, Jack. Thank you, Kira. Thank you, Lord. Lauren. Thank you, Simon and Garfunkel. Oh. Craig, I feel like you'd be into that.

I like Paul Simon a lot more than I do Simon and Garfunkel. Not a big art Garfunkel fan over here. I'm not as familiar with his work as I am Paul Simon, so I feel like I said a more prolific solo career. What did Garfunkel even do? He sang. He made stuff. He sang.

The boxer is great. That's my favorite. I like how Simon and Garfunkel, like a good chunk of their songs, they're just 100% harmonized, like the entire. song is just them singing together. It's pretty badass. That was like, I mean, I feel like a lot of groups from the 60s and 70s were like that. Like the Beach Boys were all about harmonizing.

Yeah. Crosby stills in Nash, all about harmonizing. I saw this video the other day that melodies are just simpler now. There's no more complicated melodies anymore. But it's all just simply. Don't you remember Derek Thompson did a plain English episode about. Yeah, that's it. Music used to be about melody and now it's about rhythm or something like that?

Or is the other way around? I forget. Yes. Yeah. I, it's a plain English by Derek Thompson. It's an incredible show. And I highly recommend people listen to it. Shout out Derek.

And he did this awesome episode on the history of music. But to your point, basically it was like as rap exploded, really one of the crazy things he talked about was how the billboard charts were kind of made up until 1991. Yes. Because the billboard charts relied on record stores self-reporting, but the incentives were all wrong because the record stores wanted to sell the inventory. that was not selling well. So they actually lied and said the things that were selling were the ones they couldn't

sell. And then they changed to like what was actually being played. And then when they changed it, they're like, wow, people like rap and country music, don't they? And it was like 1991 just instantly the entire taste of American music actually changed. It was crazy fascinating. I thought that pod, there was another really interesting note that he made in that one was that there's no modulation anymore in music, or at least not as much.

You don't change keys in your songs anymore. And I think the example that he used was the, oh, I want to dance with somebody's song. What was the... Yeah. Whitney Houston? Yeah, yeah. And she's like, you know, at one point in the late in the song, she, like, completely changes keys and, like, goes to a higher key. And I, like, you don't see that in music very often anymore.

I think that was really interesting. The other thing he said was all music now is just like a bunch of triplets, like, Like all the beats kind of follow that same. Beep boop. Triple it thing. Boop. Yeah. Beep boop.

Beep boob. Our intro song is just a real indictment on the modern music industry. By the way. James Keys. Did we actually confirm that there are two intros? Really what we're saying is that because I love that the idea that the one, it was just a mixing error essentially. Somebody split it into mono. Is it a mixing error or is it that when?

people listen with the wrong, like a different device that your car might be playing it differently than like your wired headphones? I don't, no, I don't think so. I think we were using the mono version on some shows and the stereo on others. I just think it's so funny that our intro, like it's mono stereo, like left right headphones, that it's actually the left version of the intro. It's like the left shark of intro songs. It's like our left shark.

Oh my God, the left shark. Just missing every third beat. Yeah. Left Shark. I think Les Shark was one of the funniest, like, cultural phenomenons of all time. So we don't really have a ton of guests on the show. The first guest, like, Bill. Like, I think we had, like, Me to Kimes a few years ago because D.K.'s really good friends with her and, like, Bill.

Other than that, the only, the first guest we ever wanted on the show was Left Shark. And we were, like, so close to getting on Left Shark. It was like Left Shark, Stephen Glansberg. We had the Burger King guys on. Whopper, Whopper, Whopper, Whopper. By the way, that ad was out in full force last night. I loved it. Well, I'm just thinking about the Whopper song.

Junior double, triple. How does the Whopper song represent? Matsauerala. ESPN really missed an opportunity when Rogers was down to play Stahmy up. Oh my God. Anytyses. Two for 20 apps at Applebee's. When you're here, that's Olive Garden.

Like the shrimp. What is the Applebee's? on the barbecue. You see Aaron Rogers' Achilles tended recoiling up into his calf and it's like new spicy chicken nuggets. Oh my God. As it hits

the grill, the shrimp recoils just like his Achilles. What's the Applebee's slogan? Olive Garden is when you're here, your family. What is Applebee's? Hold on. A neighborhood. Eating good in the neighborhood? Is that it? When you're here, oh yeah, you're in that neighborhood? That's Olive Garden when you hear your family, I think.

Dude, Waffle House. It's not a Logan, but like when you walk in, they have these signs that say we're not in the food business, we're in the people business. We're in the diarrhea. Eating good in the neighborhood. Is that what you said? Oh, yeah, eating good in the neighborhood. Good old epaubes. Stop me up.

Stop me up. Rogers. He's going to have a lot of time at Alibu's now. All right, this time. Goodbye, everyone. Must be 21 plus and present in select states. Fandul is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC. Gambling problem? Call 1,800.

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