The Ringer NFL Show - Power-Ranking the Players We Are NOT Thankful For

Episode Date: November 23, 2022

We power-rank everything in the 2022 fantasy football season we are not thankful for. Later, we build our favorite parlay for the Thanksgiving Day slate. Check out our Week 12 Fantasy Football Rankings for this week's positional rankings and more! Email us! [e-mail] Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Producer: Craig Horlbeck and Kai Grady Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

An Instagram post gets an unexpected boost. A TikTok catches in the algorithm. Sometimes that's all it takes to launch someone into internet fame. But then what? This blew up is a new podcast documentary that reveals how social media stardom is made. It's a different kind of fame that's not always as glamorous as it looks. From Spotify and the Ringer Podcast Network, I'm Melissa Boresnack. You can listen to This Blue Up on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

This football show. My name is Danny Hydezitz. I am joined by Danny Kelly and Greg Coralbeck. Today it is power hour. We are power ranking something every Wednesday. And this is Thanksgiving week, baby. It's all about gratitude, being thankful. It's too much of that shit.

We're going to power rank all the things we're not thankful for. Haters. Yeah, listen, this is no time to look back on your season and reflect on all the good things. That's not what this episode's about. It's more like an early festivist. This is like the airing of grievances. I got a lot of problems with you people. It's what every, it's what that weird uncle does at the Thanksgiving dinner.

That's what we're about to do for this episode. Just complain. Just complain the next 30 minutes. But you haven't done anything to help. It's like, when's dinner? But it's like you're just sitting there eating crackers. It's like you haven't done anything. Are we going to offer solutions?

Probably not. No. We're just going to complain. Did you offer to help? fun though. No. Yeah, exactly. We're doing this power hour style so if you don't know every two minutes you're going to hear this song. Got that on Monday net football now. Incredible. Shout out to everyone's notice. Frank's just dancing. It's great dance. All right. Let's get right into it. All right. D.K. Thanksgiving week. Yeah, D.K. Ranked these. We all sent these in. Yes. I ranked all these. And unsurprisingly, we all had the same thing ranked several times. Number one. Things that were not thankful for. Number one, the two high shelf.

bullshit that's happening across the NFL, a.k.a. Dink and dunk offenses, just generally offense sucks in the NFL this year. Scoring is down, a full point off of last year, and three points from 2020, which of course was the pandemic season, so it's kind of

That is so much. Three sounds small. Three is a massive drop over like a couple of years. And if that doesn't, like, if the number thing doesn't just resonate, to me it's just like the games are kind of shitty lately. Like, I don't know, the offense.

Product is worse. Well, I'm torn of this. I'm torn. I'm torn. Because it's like the essence of football is that, or the reason, not the essence, but the reason the NFL so profitable is that even bad games, when the game's close to the couple minutes is good. And so I think the games have been closer this year, but the quality of football is worse,

but there's more entertaining games. Does that make sense? Well, there's a lot of like, oh, it's 13 to 10 in the fourth quarter. Right. Is that more entertaining? I don't know. I saw this stat from Warren Sharp. This was last week.

This was before the week 11 slate, so I'm sure it's shifted slightly. But I wanted to point it out. He listed the passing yards per game for teams that won their game. So essentially, if you win the game, how many yards did your team pass for? This year, it's 224 yards. The average team who wins passes for 224 yards.

That is the lowest since 2010. Wow. Just taking it back to the Stone Age. Craig, I actually really love your bit how you just complain about how there's all these quarterbacks every week that have like 170 passing yards. Obviously, look, I get it.

We're in the fantasy world. We want fantasy points. We want scoring. We want back and forth. But it's like not even that. Like, to me it's just more fun to watch a back and forth game. Yes, it's visually unappealing to watch Mack Jones go up against

Colt McCoy and they both throw for 190 yards. And the game is 14 to 10. Well, hold on, hold on, whoa. Zach Wilson is not throwing for 190 yards. Zach, that's not. It's never 90 yards. Don't get excited. Couldn't even get to 90.

I will say, I had the absolute choice. I'm home for Thanksgiving. And I had the absolute pleasure of seeing Stephen A. Smith, like, live on ESPN, like, talking about Zach Wilson. And, like, I've come all the way in Stevie A where he thought he was the problem in sports media. To, like, actually, when you get, like, a live Stevie Day Smith in the moment thing to, like, a Zach Wilson. He was like, I'm talking about Zach Wilson. As a man, he's playing like a boy.

And football's a game for men. Men take accountability. Boys run from it. And I'm like, this is the best forum of entertainment. Oh, he's fantastic. He had a whole run on the Knicks last year that I thought. He was like, the New York Knicks are a national disgrace. But when you get the Stephen A, like, I'm going to watch this on YouTube in like five years, but you're watching it live.

It's like, it's like, it's like, it's, oh, I get goosebumps. Yeah, yeah. All right. Next one here, D.K. All right. Number two, things we're not thankful for. Professional quarterbacking in the NFL. Just in general.

Yes. There just does not seem to be very many good quarterbacks on earth right now. This is also sort of the, I'm not very thankful for Father Time. It's not just me turning 40. There's a quarterback crisis. Tom Brady. He's been fine, but like fantasy-wise, not very good. Aaron Rogers might be washed.

Matt Stafford, falling off a cliff. Russell Wilson sucks now. Matt Ryan. Complete dust. Pass that Derek Carr, kind of stinks. Well, Matt Ryan's kind of back, but... Yeah, sort of.

James Winston was so bad he got Wally Pipped by Andy fucking Dalton. Justin Herbert is passing. Dinkin and Duncan? What's going on with this? What do you guys think? I remember at the start of the season, I was talking to my friend

about how many teams are happy with their quarterback situation. At least in the front office and with the fan base. And there was like... We came up with like 29 teams who were happy. So the only teams that weren't

were like the Texans. You didn't really know what was going on. with them, Seattle, and there wasn't a whole lot more. Now you can flip it and ask how many teams and fan bases in front offices are happy with their quarterback situation? It's like eight. Eight. It's unbelievable how quickly it's flipped. It's so true.

Even on that list, you've got like the Ravens who have to negotiate a contract with Lamar. And then you've got a team like the Cardinals who just signed a massive contract with Kyler. And it's like, does Kyler suck? Is he awful? Yeah. I'm like for the first time I'm starting to actually get really worried about Kyler Murray, just in general as a quarterback. Like, has a long-term solution there. But that's not, like, that's not even, he's not one of my main issues here.

It's like all the old guard quarterbacks or most of the old guard quarterbacks seem to be falling off a cliff. They're washing up ashore like whales. I think the real answer is that the old guard quarterback signed up with teams. No, they're just, their teams are the husk of a whale that's beached. Yes. And so like, it's rotting around them because they were like, like let's just try to win. Except Russ.

He's, he's, he's beaching. He is, he is a rotting beached corpse whale. Yeah. That is definitely true.

The imagery of that is. Did you guys know that when whales die, they explode? Because of the gas is right. Yeah. There's a crazy YouTube video out there of somebody cutting open a whale,

a beached whale, and it fucking explodes. Oh my God. Oh, can you imagine, did you guys, when you were talking about that, did you guys like think of the smell? Oh, it's probably

wretched. That's what probably the whole Broncos game smell like. Appalling. Fowling. Just an appalling smell. All right. Next one.

All right. Next, this one's from Craig. Again, related. Tom Brady deciding, and this is his words, Tom Brady deciding to choose football over marriage and still sucking. Go ahead, Craig.

Yeah. Like, what else does this guy have to do now? You know what I mean? Tom Brady's having, what of his, bottom four seasons, which is saying something because he's played like 21 of them. He's having his worst season since 2006. He basically is playing as though he's like second year Tom Brady on the Pats,

who are just like a run first defensive team. And Brady is just asked to game manage. Except that's not what the bucks are at all right now. The team has been ravaged with injuries. And Brady looks a thousand years old and he can't move. And I know Tom Brady's still good. I know he's probably going to have a strong second half of the season. But as somebody who's never had him on my fantasy team,

it's honestly painting my image of who the man is as a football player. I love that you're the only one that's going to remember Tom Brady's career for like, but remember when he was bad on the bucks at 45? But I think it's funny, everyone who debated retiring this year should have retired. Sean McVeigh shouldn't take the money at Amazon. Tom Brady should have stayed married to Chazelle and then Aaron Donald should have just gone to the hall fame. I think the McVeigh thing was horseshit. I don't think he was actually considering retiring to take the Amazon money.

Well, he should be now. Sure. Would it look great. Fresh off the Super Bowl, he's like 37 years old. There's no way he was considering retired. He's 34. He's not even 37, is he? I think he's, well, is he?

He's 36. Oh. Well, regardless, I know that's insane. He's still the youngest coach in the league. That's so funny. Just retire. No, I think, but Brady, though, should have just stayed retired. Like, I can't believe he came out.

Although maybe he just went to Germany and he's just going to go and rip off, like, just once again, went to see. Yeah, I think this is, like, actually going to reverse jinx him. He's going to absolutely just. dominate down the strike. He's going to crush. All right. Things we are not thankful for. I'm going to quibble with this one a little bit, but this is Craig's.

Nate Hackett and Russell Wilson. I'm a little bit thankful for these two guys, but Craig. Oh, well, you're the Seahawks fan going to get a top five pick for them. If the Broncos get a top five pick this year and give it to Seattle, I think this is in the maybe the best sports trades ever. Oh, my God. We are like, Seahs fans are just already starting to dream of like the superstar pass pressure we could get in the draft or whatever.

Like, it's just so fun. You guys are just pigs and shit right now. But don't you think that this has been one of the biggest fantasy rug pools in memory? Like, going into the season, everyone liked Denver. Russ was like a top 10, top seven, sometimes quarterback in fantasy drafts. Sutton was like a top 15 guy. Judy was a top 30 guy. Albert L was like the sleeper darling of the year.

Javante. I mean, he tore his ACL and he was looking good. But yeah, Javante was really highly touted. And now, this team, after 11 weeks, they're dead last in points. They're dead last in touchdowns. They've had the seventh most drives in the league. The seventh most drives, and they are still last in touchdowns. They're first in points.

Their defense is incredible. They're always getting the ball. First thing getting booed at their home stadium. Here's the thing. With all the, look, all these players, their fantasy seasons were murdered. Like Cortland Sutton, Albert O, the RIP, may he even, rest in peace, Jeffante. Like, Ross is kind of like a fantasy serial killer.

Yeah, he is. He's Michael Myers. He is. And he won't die because he never gets hurt. He'll just keep coming back and keep playing. There's no hope. And you know what's even worse is the defense is fantastic. The defense is incredible.

They're giving up the third least points in the league and they're still three and seven. But what's so funny is this is the whole reason they got Russell Wilson was because they were like the best. They were the best defense in like 30 years. to not make the playoffs. So they went and got Russell Wilson. The defense is better, and he's, like, worse than the old quarterbacks were.

Tim Tebow's Broncos had more points than him. I want to shout this from the rooftops that Tim Tebow Broncos were better. I just would like to point this out. Last year, at this stage, the Broncos had five wins. That's unbelievable. It's unbelievable.

Quick question. Just one word answer. Which team is more sad? The Rams or the Broncos? Broncos. The Rams just won the Super Bowl. this year. Yeah, but I guess that's what makes it sad is like they just won the Super Bowl. Yeah, but the whole narrative around it was like they're selling out now.

They're leveraging their future for right now. And I mean, it's quite literally exactly what happened. But you have, I mean, they won a Super Bowl. Shakespeare answered this like 500 years ago. It's like to have loved and lost or to be stuck with Russell Wilson and also not have won a Super Bowl like a loser. Just have a serial killer should quarterback. Old Bill. Old Bill Shakespeare. All right. Number five, this was things were not thankful for. this was another one that everyone had in some format. Arthur Smith and what he did to Kyle Pitts, also coaches who don't know who their best players are.

Also, Heifitz just doesn't like Kyle Pitts in general. Hyphids you kick it off. You want me to kick it off? You're the person who hates Arthur Smith to your core. You're not a man who holds much hate in your heart, but you like 80% of your hatreds for Arthur Smith. I like to focus my hatred on one particular thing every season, I feel like.

Arthur Smith is in my crosshairs this year. You hate it more than the refs. You have hated the refs the entire time I've known you, but now it's like, you hate Arthur Smith. The refs haven't been that bad this year, have they? I almost put them on the list of things I am thankful for because the rest have been good. I actually just realized this. I haven't been pissed off at the refs that much this year. It's because all the offenses suck.

They don't have anything to call. No, they put the sky judge in and they're fixing shit quickly. Holy shit. That's a good, I just realized, I just had an epiphany. Wow. On last year's episode, one of your things that you weren't thankful for was the refs. Oh my God. It was killing me.

So Arthur Smith replaced it for you. This Falcon's team is the bait of my existence right now. Back to back years. And it's philosophical. It doesn't matter. The results don't matter. Philosophically. Yeah, winning Super Bowl.

I'll get to that. I'll get to that. They spent two top 10 picks back to back ears on big alien unicorn receiving weapons and then proceed to run the Navy offense. I'm just going to let that sink in for a second. The Kyle Pitts storyline, honestly, is probably the most depressing storyline with the entire fantasy season. And it sucks that he's got hurt. Like, before he's going to be.

got hurt. It was like the most depressing thing. Now it's even like I guess now we can just like flush it and like move on with our lives. Also the Drake London tease early in the year. I don't know if you remember he had like two big games and then he's done an absolutely check shit almost since. And worse yet, the Falcons are winning. The Falcons are like maybe going to go to playoffs. This is just the most annoying thing in the entire season to me. I'm just I hate it. I have to say, D.K., I say this with love. This is my least favorite thing that fantasy football people do. which is like whine about coaching usage when teams are like drastically overperforming. Like the Falcons, the only team that had lower Super Bowl odds than the Falcons this year were the fucking Houston Texans and now they're the same amount of wins as Tom Brady.

Imagine how good they'd be if they actually use their best players though. Falcons like I agree with you. Their preseason win total but they're not even good. I actually agree with you. Like I think there's a gray area here where they're way better

than we thought, but they are leaving so much meat on the bone because they're not using their, like, their unicorn players. You know who I think is going under-discussed in this entire saga of Arthur Smith and Kyle Pitts? Is Marcus Marriota? I agree. Craig, I was thinking, here's the reality of what happened. He's probably actually who I should hate. Marcus Marriota throws like six times a game to Kyle Pitts, and he's wide open in all six times, and Mariotta sails it over his head 75% of the time.

I agree. We have probably done a bad job explaining the situation. reality is the Falcons wanted to Sean Watson. They did not get him. Matt Ryan was so upset that they wanted to show on Watson that Matt Ryan demanded a train. The Falcons then had to stick with Marcus Mariotta because he was the only quarterback around that knew Arthur Smith scheme. Marcus Mariotta, his career base was derailed by a nerve injury in his throwing arm and he can't throw anymore.

And this is the real problem. Hence, they have to be Navy. So I actually think Arthur Smith's doing a great job. I think Arthur Smith gets, he gets the brunt of my hatred because he's like a total dick to media every day. But it probably should be Mark's Mariotta, who is like a sweetheart. He has a loveable guy.

He has a nerve of injury and his throwing arm. No one ever talks about this. If Matt Ryan was throwing the same passes to Kyle Pitts that Marriota is, Kyle Pitts would probably be like a top 10 tight end right now because he's always open. Yeah, the ironic thing is like he actually has incredible usage relative to like the team's number

of pass steps. Like his target rate is really high. Like his yards per route is really high. They just suck at passing. Should this be a memento tattoo? too, it's like Mario does the problem, not Kyle Pitts. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, all right.

Number six. Highfitz, is it weird? Like, I'm kind of hosting. I feel like I keep stepping on you. Do you want to do this next one? Well, you just keep stepping on Tom Tom. Tom. I don't care about myself.

That's fine. Disrespect me all you want. You disrespect Tom, Tom. All right. Sorry, Tom, Tom. Okay. This one is a good one. This is from Hyphitz.

Things we are not thankful for. The NFL deciding to remove the probable tag from injury reports. Hyphids go off. I never agreed to this. this. I never agreed to no probable. I don't know who this benefits. Why is this a thing? Like, like, it is insane to me. This is the worst part of being a fantasy player. It is absolutely the worst part of doing fantasy analysis professionally. Like, this is crazy. Michael Thomas was questionable. Keenan was questionable. Two months. They could have been dead for all I knew.

Meanwhile, there are players who are questionable every week who end up being like, freaking top five at their position. I have no idea what's going on anymore. I don't think this helps anybody. I feel like they did the probable thing away because they were mad that teams were doing gamesmanship. Like, oh, like they keep putting Tom Brady problem on the injury point. He's not even hurt. But this is way worse. This is awful. Yeah, you can legit be questionable and then go on the IR the next day. Like, it's so ridiculous. Crazy. I have no idea who's just dinged up and definitely going to play and who is out for like a month, but just not on IR. As people and well, as anybody who plays fantasy.

Like questionable tag and day to day is like fucking kill me. Like that's the worst. I hate these teams for saying this shit. Day to day, that means nothing. Here's the thing. Here's the thing. If England can just leave the European Union by referendum, we should be able to have a referendum on this.

Like bring this back, it'll win 99 to 1. Like no one is voting to get rid of this. I absolutely agree. I just want, I just, I feel like now all I have to focus on is practicing. I just want P for practice or DnP for did not practice. And that's all I base anything off of nowadays. But that's the problem is that combined with having a probable was actually super useful because the questioner pool was smaller.

Now you have to do it for everybody. It's exhausting. I'm tired of this. Bring back the probable tag for the love of God. I'm begging you. Good one. The timing. Impeccable timing hyphids.

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Number seven, this is mine. And this is, like, not timely whatsoever. I just wanted to get it off my chest. I hate the NFL scheduling rules, where they have eight games in the early slate, and then, like, three mediocre to shitty games in the afternoon slate. Why do they do that? Okay, actually, back up.

I understand it's like TV rights related, right? I don't actually know exactly what it is, but it's fucking annoying. To quote Mitch Hedberg, once again, football can't be like pancakes all exciting at first, but by the end you're fucking sick of them. So here's my question. The later games are always just like,

hold on, hold your horses. Do you like it when the Seahawks, in that situation, do you prefer the Seahawks to be in the earlier games or in the later games? I don't have a preference. See, I kind of like when, I like it either way.

I like when the Giants are on by or something and I can just watch stress-free. But I also generally love the formula of all the chaos of like your team's playing at one o'clock or Eastern. But then there's like a mega game at like the afternoon. Like when a, I don't know. Like a, what was that earlier? There was a game earlier.

Oh, the Chief Spills at like 4 p.m. And then there's like a great game. But it's so rarely happens though. That's true. I guess some of them are bad. Here's my deal. It's like I get that. I understand where you're coming from.

However, I feel like I've made. so much with the way that they do this. It's just so annoying. Like, why can't they spread them out evenly? I know. I think they want to simulate like a mini primetime feel in the afternoon's flight. Yeah, they want the local...

I think the, yeah, the first slots, like, local get everything out of the way and the fours, like, hold them for a big matchup. But they're not always great at figuring out what people want to watch or what will be good. There's nothing worse, though, when it's like nine games at 10 o'clock and two in the afternoon. And it's like Seahawks Cardinals and...

Well, I think the real. answer also is it's like when you tee off like 10 games at once you can't miss it and then once you're there you're watching and then you're not going to get up and I think that they're banking like as long as we get you on your couch on Sunday at 10 a.m. Pacific 1 p.m. Eastern whatever it's like you're getting up are you? Yeah I guess it's like inertia. The other thing that I hate is like in the afternoon you have to watch commercials. Bullshit. Why? Why? What are you talking about? Because there's less, there's fewer games going on and so you can't just like change the channel to another game like both Both games are a commercial.

You could do Red Zone with three games on and you miss most commercials. I love the idea that watching a single commercial to our generation is like tilting oppression. It's like the way we talk about like even me, I'm guilty. This like a week ago, I'm like, my God, I had to watch two 15 second YouTube ads back to back. Fucking sucks. All right. Number eight, this is a hyphitz one.

Astro turf. I would quibble with the name. It's probably more like field turf, but that's fine. Go ahead. Hefitz. Okay, sure, call it whatever you want. Artificial turf. I don't fucking care.

This thing is, this is like quietly a huge problem for the NFL. Like all the injuries that matter this year were on turf. And all the injuries that have mattered mostly for the last few years have been on turf. Like Cooper Cup is, and like players are like shut up about it. And like this year all the players have stopped carrying and they're all bitching about it. Like Cooper Cup got hurt on turf at SoFi Stadium in the L.A. O'Dell Beckham towards ACL in the Super Bowl on SoFi Stadium. The Chargers, Mike Williams, heard his ankle at SoFi Stadium.

D.K. McCafford his ankleed Sofay Stadium. J.C. Jackson, the cornerback for the charges, hurt his ankle, and his ankle, sofa stadium. All these guys got hurt there. MetLife has the same problem with the Giants Jets shared stadium. The Niners went there in a 2020, like this back-to-back road trip Giants Jets back-to-back weeks. The Ninoos Super Bowl campaign basically ended that year

because all their good players. Nick Bosa got hurt. And now they've basically, there are studies basically showing that it is statistically like worse for you to play on turf. It gives you less give. and every injury this year, it just feels like it has happened on turf. And it's not going to, like, get fixed.

But it's really frustrating that there's grass is just better, but it's just cheaper to have turf. And so they just have turf. It's kind of crazy. It's an interesting dilemma because, I get it. On one hand, that does make sense. But on the other hand,

it's like field conditions are annoying. Like, if you have bad field conditions, it's really fucking annoying. And it like hurts the competition. It hurts the, you know, the flow of the game if it's like super muddy or if there's a bunch of standing water or whatever. Like a lot of these stadiums also struggle to like keep the fields in good shape. There's a bunch of shit that happens at the stadiums.

They don't struggle. They just are cheap. Like Washington long had bad grass because they're cheap. And I'm just like, you can't find players that prefer turf. Like it's concrete. That's the interesting. Like every, it's not just like injuries. Players literally say their joints hurt worse when you practice on turf. They don't like practicing on turf, never mind playing.

And it's interesting. Like this, they're all. all feel very passionately about this. So, and turf. Then you get, like, rubber pellets in your eyeballs, too. Because your feet, like, can't drag on turf, right? They don't slide, yeah. It's grass has more give.

That's all it is. And then also, on Thanksgiving, when the Lions play the Bills, they're going to play that video, if you saw it this week, of them packing up that carnival, the Christmas carnival, at Lions Stadium. And then, like, underneath is the turf. That's the fundamental problem is, like, You can't just, like, throw a giant tarp over grass, grass necessarily and have a carnival on it.

Right. And then, like, it'd be suitable for the NFL. It's more versatile. And it's like, capitalism, baby. Exactly. It's just like, but, yeah, they just played a game on that field the next day. Like, that's probably not great. Like, when the Niners played the Giants Jets and all the ACL terrors, they had a couple years ago,

they had a cement roller, like, come and, like, roll over the field because they thought, oh, maybe we screwed up. Anyway. Soccer in, like, Europe is all on fields, right? I'm so glad you asked. Or grass, sorry. Premier League teams or any European soccer teams come to America for a little tour, the stadiums that have artificial turf have to put grass over it. They have to put a single-use grass because the soccer teams will not play on turf.

Oh, that's interesting. There's my soapbox friend. I don't know if it's going to happen, but that was interesting. All right. Next up, number nine, getting into the petty range of the list here. Highfitz just does not like DJ more. He's not thankful for DJ. God, all right, I'm back.

Yeah, forget. There's, like, that's my real... Poor DJ Moore. It's not his fault. I'm going back to... Yeah, I hate this guy. I was pure pressured into it, and everyone's like, but he's good. It's the Craig rule of like every time they throw DJ Moore the ball, he catches it.

It feels like a miracle. And I should have known coming in. It was going to feel like a miracle. And everyone's like, but he's good and blah, blah, blah. I'm like, God damn it. How have I once again been suckered? I'm a sucker for having DJ Moore. And he, like, fell to me immune.

It's like a value. Never again. I'm so done. And I just, I just, oh my God. This is the worst. I was into DJ Moore this year. Memento tattoo. Don't draft wide receivers with shit quarterbacks.

It never works. It's stressful. Every week is miserable. Just only draft wide receivers have good quarterbacks. It's very simple. Speaking up, by the way, Sam Darnold starting for the Panthers this week. Good Lord. What do you do with that?

You just put him in and be like, well, Sam Darnold when he was with DJ Moore last year at a high target share. It's like what I made to do, play him and get two points again. Going to bench him and get 20. It's like, this is. the worst. I hate this. There's nothing worse than the player. You have to play and you can't cut, but you want to cut them.

And it's just like, it's like Kyle Pitts again. Yeah, really. Just avoid bad quarterbacks at all costs. Maybe that's what the entire theme of this entire power hour is. It's just we're not thankful for all the shitty quarterbacks in the league. But they ruin everything. They make everything worse. Ruin everything. Should we

have a badge? We do our draft guide. Should next year's draft guide have, I don't even care if they have a good quarterback. I want a badge for like, Can we put like the hands emoji, like the prayer emoji? And it's just for like bad quarterback. And it's like every catch will feel like a miracle. Yeah, but like that's the problem.

There's like eight good quarterbacks in the NFL right. All right. So it'll be a lot of badges. No, but that, no, that doesn't mean prayer. Like Mario does a prayer. Carson Wentz with McLaure and that was like a prayer. Everything was like a prayer. Yeah, like the idea that I was like waffling between somebody like a T.

Higgins or a Terry McLaurin or a T. Higgins or a DJ Moore is insane to me. I don't know why I would ever consider a. player with a shitty quarterback. Sometimes you find clarity in these moments of anger. And that was a moment of clarity for me. I actually agree with that. Memento tattoo. All right.

Yeah. Number 10. Last one. Craig go off on Michael Thomas and the idea of being injury prone. I'm not thankful for Michael Thomas whatsoever. I spent $25 on him. And you know why? Because I'm also not thankful for big fantasy pedaling the idea that getting hurt is random.

You know what? It's not. I've completely pivoted. People get hurt, and they get hurt a lot because they're injury prone. Michael Thomas. Cadarius Tony is injury prone. Mike Williams. He's been injury prone since he got in the league. Guess what?

He got hurt this year. Jerry Judy made a glass. I believe that stuff now. I'm fully in on it. I'm at the point now with injuries where I think a player with a hamstring injury should sit for like a month longer than the report says they should. Because they're just going to come back and get hurt. No, we underrate.

The fundamental problem is that all these guys want to come back and believe that they should come back way faster than they do. And there's not really any, there's no way we can really tell which ones are coming back to soon. Like Mike Williams, you know what you shouldn't do? Come back three weeks after high ankle sprained. Like a bulky ankle and then go deep and jump up for a 50-50 ball. On your turf field. He doesn't really know how to land, but when he's healthy, let's be honest. On the turf, his foot plants, it can't even spin because.

it's like wedged into the turf. It's terrible. Anyway, I've completely abandoned the injury-prone thing. Like, I know we were big on Sequin this year. That was lucky. No, but no, but that's different, though. Like, he just had to, like, McCaffrey's a good example, though. Because you can argue it either way.

Is he injury-prone? Because he missed a lot of games in two years. He also missed, like, zero games in high school, college or the NFL until a couple years ago. So it's like, when do you decide, though? And it, like, I think it's less, like, random, more like, who get, dude, Cadar is Tony, injury prone vibes. He hasn't played a full season since he was like 16 years old. 100%.

I'm completely out on it. And I no longer want to hear anybody saying injury proneness is random. I don't think the Sequin stuff doesn't help you though. Sorry, the Sequin stuff does help you. Because the injuries he had were kind of weird. They were like he just like stepped on someone's foot weird. It wasn't like shit just keeps happening. Yeah, but I don't know.

Cosmically, like that just happens to the same people. I don't know what it is. Like just Sequin's more likely to step on a guy's foot and roll his ankle than other running back. I don't know why, but he is. Oh, I know why. It's because they give him 45 touches a game, but it statistically makes it more like that.

I want to end on something a little bit more positive. Hyfis, what are some things you think before? I want to think, I do want to do something. We mentioned the referees. I legit do think the referees, even though there's been a couple high-profile things that Washington Eagles Monday on game, the refereeing is better and no one wants to talk about it.

Like the rules are less just infuriating. Here's the thing. Al Riverone used to run the refs. It's a hard job. Bless his heart. They replaced him with, is it Walt, there's two waltz, right? It's Walt Anderson, I think replaced him. Let me double check here because I want to shout him out.

Yeah, Walt Anderson took over as the head ref and just doing a phenomenal job. Like, they basically stopped enforcing the letter of the law and they just started enforcing the spirit of the rule. And they just, that's all we ask. Combined it with like these expedited replay. where ever, instead of just being like, oh my God, we're going to stop the game. It's just they're buzzing again. You're like, yo, that was that was not a touchdown.

Let's not waste it. Like, put them at the one. And that combined with the dink and dunk and the thing, the number one thing we hated, the dink and dunk on the cover two and all that, I will say this. Football games are the fastest pace of play we've had in 40 years. Like this is the quickest. Because they're running more? Yes, it's the combo of less refereeing and 10 play drives are back.

How many times have you seen like the watch? Washington commanders have like a 12-play scoring drive this year compared to years past. Like the Titans are just rolling down 14 play drives. Like it's just happening. Just like a drive takes an entire quarter. I don't know if that's better. I don't think I enjoy that. I don't want to watch the commanders have a 12- fucking play drive.

Okay, but how often did we complain about how long these games were taking? I'm just saying the games are shorter. I am happy that the games are shorter. They're the shortest they've been in D.K.'s entire life and he's 40. Yeah, I don't know if I like that either. Going back to the referee thing, one thing, the next task that they need to handle the next issue

is the quarterback sliding and getting hit and throwing the flag thing. That's a disaster, don't you think? Like, how many times has that played a crucial role in a game where like Mahomes is just like shimmying and like daring to slide and the defense doesn't know what to do?

It's terrible. It's true because the last thing any defender wants is a quarterback to like break their ankles and make them look dumb. But then the quarterbacks are, getting more emboldened of like, am I going to slide? They're gaming the system. Yeah, they are. It's annoying. The Kenny Pickett fake slide stuff.

100%. Like Mahomes is like running for like 15 yards of scramble it feels like because nobody wants to get near him because he might slide at the last second. All right. Well, real quick. Uh, like how that turned into complaining too. Yes. Nothing's good. On that note, speaking and complaining, I might, I have to figure out what I'm going to bet with my father on Thanksgiving Day. So betting these games, I think either betting individually, I personally think it's a right of American, right of passage? I don't know. Good part of America. Just having a three-team teaser in each of the three games and Thanksgiving. Tell me, so the bills are giving nine and a half to the Lions. It just feels right for like a three-team

teaser to move the line by, you could, three-team teaser, you put three-bets together, and you can move each line by ten points. So you can just mess with it, but you got to go the three-team, right. I kind of like, you could three-team teaser, the bills, the Cowboys, and the under on the third game. So basically, you would be getting the bills, would just have to win over the lions. The Cowboys basically just have to beat the Giants. And then you need the Pats Vikings game to be under like 52 points. Why is that, that seems like the bet of the day to me.

Don't overthink it. Just do that? Does it, do we have to include all three teams? That's where you lose me because the more pieces you add to the puzzle, the more likely you are to screw up. I just like Bill's, Bill's Cowboys tease. Just the Bill's Cowboys two-team teaser. I can't lose.

I don't fuck with the Patriots Vikings. I don't know. what's going on. Could the Vikings put up 30? Yes. To me, it's like bills are going to beat the lines by three and the Cowboys are going to be the Giants by three. The problem with that is it's nine and a half. So if you do the two-team teaser, it's the Bill's giving three and a half

and so the bills win by field goal you lose. Why do you have to do a six point tease? Do a seven-point tease. You could, but then, yeah. Dude, a seven-point tease, knock the bills down to minus two and a half and knock the Cowboys down to minus two. Lock! Also, the other one, honestly, just bet the Cowboys

giving nine. The Giants are so injured, it's Unbelievable. You know the Giants are going to be out. They're three cornerbacks. They're going to start in this game, probably. Don't have two combined career starts. You know, maybe a fun little sprinkle bet is to bet like an altered spread on the Cowboys. Like, take Cowboys minus 21.

I think I might do that. Cowboys giving 19 or something. It's like legit a good idea. If you want to bet on the Patriots Vikings, I saw one that I like on Fandul. New England defense anytime. touchdown. It's plus 6.50. They've scored three defensive touchdowns this year, two intercept, two pick sixes

and one fumble recovery touchdown. Primetime Kirk. Cousins has been bad against the Patriots in his career. Of course, it's only two games, but he's been bad in those games. 69 pass rating, by the way. Nice. I don't know. I kind of like that one. What do you think?

It's fun. That's a perfect thing to bet on for that. You've got a shitload of money. Your two-team teaser. By then you've already eaten dinner. You're like a little drunk. You're way too full. You can barely even see the game over your stomach. But you're full of confidence. Yeah, you've already won money on your, on your bills, Cowboys bet. So why not root for a pick six? I love it. Are you lost money? Because we were wrong. And then you just like, we'll have triple down on this plus 650. And that's going to just net a profit.

All right. Beautiful. All right. That's what we got. Happy Thanksgiving. We're still going to have our Friday show. We're going to have like a little truncated, condensed version of our Friday show. Thank you, D.K. Thank you, Craig. Thank you to everyone for listening. I hope you have a happy safe Thanksgiving. Remember gratitude is really important and there should be more of it in the world, but it's not everything. On that note, thank you, Kai. We're thankful for Kai. We are.

We are genuinely thankful for Kai. I'll speak for yourself. Thank you, Lord. Lauren. Thank you, the game. Wow. It's such an eclectic mix from Dekad. Never know it's coming.

We did Dead Prez on the last episode and now the game. Oh, I was listening to that, the most famous dead dead. It's bigger than hip. Yeah. That song hits so hard. That song does hit. We were talking about how there are like very famous people, but like to younger generations you learn of him from like them cameoing and something that you watch when you're a kid.

I feel like the game is like that for me in rap. Like the game, like he did, like the first thing I thought of the game, like the first time I ever listened to the game was actually him featuring. I'm like, I don't even know someone's song that came out like 2007. But then you find out later. What song? I don't know. I'm trying to remember.

It was The most famous song that he has probably Is hated or love it I don't know but that's his song I don't know a lot about the game I haven't I don't listen to him a ton This is riveting Oh yeah the red album yeah

The game does have a great voice It does It's like kind of low and raspy I wonder why Craig likes that Yeah you should hear me rap Raspby I like that word Raspi. You have kind of a raspy voice.

I've been told. I've been told like I sound like I smoke cigarettes, which I do not. Gravely. Gravely or grovely? Gravely, sorry. Not grovely. He's basically begging people. Big grovely voice.

All right. Goodbye, everyone.