The Ringer NFL Show - Preseason Week 1 Winners and Losers. Plus, Dalvin Cook and Zeke Signings.

Episode Date: August 15, 2023

Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck open by discussing the fantasy implications of Ezekiel Elliott’s signing with the New England Patriots and Dalvin Cook joining the New York Jets (2:45). Next, they react to both the standout and disappointing performances from the first week of the NFL preseason (15:31). Finally, the guys close with emails (43:56). Check out our 2023 Ringer Fantasy Football Rankings here! 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 Producer: Kai Grady Audio intern: Jack Sanders Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Football is around the corner and we are ramping it up over here on the Ringer NFL feed in the month of August. Every week, Ben Solac and I will be bringing you not one but two extra point takens. That's right, double the trouble as we predict, debate and analyze our way through camp and the preseason every Monday and Friday. But that is not all. Stephen Ruiz and I will be coming to you every Wednesday. We'll talk about everything in the world of the NFL. And who knows, maybe Stephen will even have something nice to say about your favorite squad. Though frankly, I wouldn't count on it.

Subscribe to The Ringer NFL show on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. And be sure to follow the Ringer NFL on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter at Ringer NFL. Welcome to the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. My name is Danny Heifitz and I am joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Horlebeck. And week one of the preseason is over, baby. We know all you guys are tuning on YouTube TV. You know, they couldn't just resist. Everyone just glued to their couch for 11 hours at a time.

But if perhaps you missed any of the games, you're wondering whether you should care about preseason, don't worry, because Danny Kelly, unironically, is obsessed with the preseason. Danny Kelly watched literally every single game. D.K., why should people care about the preseason? Quite honestly, they probably shouldn't, but the main thing. Great start. Anyway, that's our show for the day. Thank you, Lord.

Thank you, D.K., thank you, Craig. If you're being earnest, like the earnest answer is it can give you some idea of the depth charts and how teams are planning to use their players. in particular situations. Like, for instance, the receivers or tight ends that get time with the quote-unquote starters of these games, generally speaking, that's like the rotation you see during the regular season. So you can extrapolate some of the usage in the preseason into the regular season.

However, not all of it is super sticky and not all of it is very reliable. So we have to kind of read the tea leaves a little bit when it comes preseason action. The other reason is to watch is just if you're a fucking bored like me, which I just really wanted to watch some football. I've kind of been feigning for football the last, you know, however many months, six months, five months. So it was exciting to actually watch football. Can I be the Debbie Downer to today's episode? And every time you guys get over excited about a player, I just come in like Rachel Dratch as the Debbie Downer.

And I'm like, actually, most preseason stats don't make any sense and have no history of actually working out. Yes, you can be that. Yeah, that's a good idea. We can do that. Yeah. That works. Okay. So, first of all, we have news, though.

We have news. Here we go. Craig, this is a good opportunity for you. Before we go and know that, Ezekiel Elliott says that he's going to sign with the New England Patriots. So, Zieg's been a free agent since Cowboys cut him.

He's going to wear a number 15, which he wore at Ohio State. 15's a weird number. I like people wearing their college numbers. I think 15's a weird number for running back. What number did it used to be? Cowboys, he was 21, right? Yeah, right.

21 also cool number. I think 15's cool, too. I don't make them look a little younger. 15's fine. It's perfectly fine. We should eventually rank numbers. I think that would be good. Yeah.

So I think this is weird. So Remandre Stevenson definitely dips. You know, we thought that he might, well, we thought maybe he would be the main guy for the Patriots this season. I think this is probably what New England had in mind the entire time, which is Remandre, Damien Harris got hurt last season. Remandre had to carry the whole load. Remandre kind of dinged up his knees. They warmed down his season went on.

They kind of wanted to bring someone in. I'm not surprised by this because Zeke does all the little things right that coaches are obsessed with and no coaches are more obsessed with the little things being done right than Bill Belich. He can block. He knows his assignment. he's a good goal. And I think Ian Hartett's at Fantasy Life summed it up, which is basically Zeke Elliott Elliott converted touchdowns inside the five-yard line last season, twice as often as Ramadri

Stevenson did. Zeke's going to be like the short line goal line guy seems that way, probably really annoying fantasy. Deke, we had Ramanji Stevenson, 21st overall, we have him as their 10th running back. How far down do you move them for Ramondri now? Oh, I don't know. I mean, honestly, not that much, probably. I think I was always kind of going into the season expecting them.

I was actually thinking they might sign Dalvin Cook, which I would actually move Stevenson down even further if they had signed him. And we've talked about this before. Like if Zieg signs with the team, does that move the starter back or not? I don't think it's certainly not good for Amandre because if you, here's another reason to watch preseason football. Like if you watched the Patriots game the other day,

their backups were awful. Like they did not do anything. And so that was sort of probably acted a little bit of a stimulus to get the Patriots to sign Zique. But at the end of the day, like he is 28 years old. He's definitely on the downside of his career. You hear that, Craig? I don't think he is going to,

sorry. How dare you? What do you say him at 28 year old? DK? So I guess here's the question. And I think your goal line, the goal line situation is the valid point here. But it's not like they were going to give Remandre

Stevenson all the carries anyway. You know what I mean? Like there were not, no team does that anymore, except for the Steelers, apparently. Like, that was probably never going to happen.

So the question is, how much do we downgrade him based on the idea that Z could seal goal on carries, maybe a couple spots, but I really don't think that's something that you can project. Ramon-Rae is a great pass catcher. I think he's going to be a big part of that passing game. I still think he's going to get the lion's share of the carries. So, yeah, I don't know.

I don't really know exactly what to do, but I don't think you have to overreact to this totally. I think you may even move him down a few spots, but not, like, dramatically. I feel like Vermonjo drops around. Yeah, I kind of agree. I think he's probably now in the, yeah, and we have him as our 10th running back. I'd say he's closer to 15, 16 now.

To me, he's with Breeze Hall, Kenneth Walker, Aaron Jones. He's kind of in there. I completely agree. You don't have Najee? Noggi's weird because stylistic, it's almost like... He's higher. Naji, it's stylistically, it's a different thing where Naji has the volume, but he's not as, like, frankly, good of a player as Ramanjre,

but he'll probably touch the ball more, so it's kind of like what you want. You guys, Bill Simmons has weighed in. What do you think he thinks about this trade? I think that Bill is all in. He's winning the division. AFC East is theirs. He said, Zick turned only 28 last month. He's an excellent pass blocker.

He had 22 touchdowns in the past two years. And he's going to be a winning mentor for the future five-time pro bowler Malik Cunningham. I am in. That was what he tweeted. Buried in that as Bill saying, Mac Jones is going to get benched from Malik Cunningham. Oh, my God.

of reasons to watch preseason. Guys, Malik Cunningham, super exciting. Okay. So, Zique, where do we draft Zique now? Is he a top 100 player, top 120? All right. Well, Devin Singletary is 132 on the Texans. You cannot tell him you take Devin Singletary on the Texans over Zeke in the Patriots.

Make it 131 then, yeah. Okay, okay. I mean, we had him 144th before he was on a team. So, like, somewhere in that area. Well, granted, we didn't have him there thinking he wouldn't play. 144th. It wasn't like he won't play football, but he's 144th. I think we were anticipating him being the goal line back somewhere.

And here he is. And the Patriots, frankly, are boring. If we weren't talking to Patriots briefly, I think the Patriots are, we're literally, I would say literally the worst offense to watch last year because they were awful in all the most boring possible ways. They had very boring players. Ramandre honestly was like one of the only fun ones. I think Bill O'Brien, I can't overstate how big of a coaching impact. It'll go from Matt Patricia, a defensive coordinator, installing an offense he had never run as the people that

Shanahan McVeigh people were moving on from that offense, back to what the Patriots were doing before. Patricia, can't overstay O'Brien. I don't know, man, Malik Cunningham, future Hall of Famer. Going to step in a quarterback. All right, next up here, Dalvin Cook, signs with the New York Jets. Adam Schaefter says, oh, this is incredible.

Talk about copy. This is a drink for copy and paste. High-fin-free agent. Hifen-free agent, R.B. Dalvin Cook, is planning to sign a one-year deal worth up to $8.6 million to the New York Jets per source. I'm going to, spoiler alert right now, it's not worth $8.6 million. It's probably a lot of incentives. I don't know what the number is.

But Dalvin Cook's on the Jets. This is, wow, a rare L for when the player actually posts a picture of himself in the other team stadium in Miami. And then he's not signing with that team. So, wow, Dalvin Cook goes to division rival Jets. I don't know what you guys think. My first thought when I saw this was this is about blocking. Like, this is about Aaron Rogers not getting his ass destroyed because, like, if Brees Hall can't play, I think that this is about

having a running back who actually is a veteran who will not get Aaron Roger destroyed because he didn't realize a cornerback Blitz was coming. I think this is similar to Zeke with the Patriots. It's about having a veteran who can play with Rogers and Rogers knows he's not going to have his career end because Israel Obonaconda didn't know to slide the protection the right way.

But Craig, what do you think this does? Dalvin Cook, Breece Hall, what are your initial thoughts? I think Breast drops a lot more than Remandre does. One, I think Bruce, I think Dalvin Cook is a better player right now. now than Zika's. And I think, you know, you could argue that Delvin is still somewhat in his prime or his ladder prime. He had a good year last year. And, you know, Bree's coming off as ACL, unlike Remandre,

who's healthy, this becomes a really difficult backfield. That's almost like a, it almost becomes one of those classic, I don't know who to rank ahead of the other. And it's kind of a stay away. Also, I saw Tom Pellasaro tweet that, he said that the majority of the 8.6 is guaranteed. So I don't know how much that is, but majority suggests maybe six, seven million of that's guaranteed. Well, in the first year, the guaranteed money is always like, well, yeah, they signed the guy, so it's guaranteed. But, like, yeah, the majority, I'm just skeptical. Maybe I'm cynical by nature.

Right. But you're right, Craig, that like, I think you're right that Breece falls more. In a weird way, I might be more in on Breece now that he might plummet. And now I'm like, okay, cool, now I'll take him. Because at the end of the day, it was probably a little nuts that Giovante Williams was going 60 picks after Breece. I know they both had bad knee injuries, but Breece Hall being like a Lottie Da top 30 pick after an ACL tear.

I think the Jets are telling us right now they have questions about his workload at the very least, which is responsible and a thing they should probably do with a high pick like Brise Hall. Dika, how do you, like, I agree. Craig is right. Dalvin Cook actually statistically had a good year last year, but I don't know what the scale is of like dust scale. Right. But how dust is Dalvin does.

He played all 17 games. He was 27 years old. I mean, he's still very productive. You look at the highlight clip he posts of himself all offseason when he's talking about how he got released or whatever. And yeah, I mean, he's still got the burst. He's still got big playability. I don't think he's necessarily like he was when he was in his prime, but he can still make a big play.

I think the difference here with between him and Zeke landing with the Patriots is there's a world in which Dalvin Cook is the starter. You know what I mean? Like he is the starter for the Jets. I do think, you know, you were mentioning. Not letting Rogers get killed back there, like sitting back there or whatever. Isn't there just a world in which Rogers lobbied for this? And the Jets are like, okay, fine. He gave back 30.

Are you right? Aaron Roger, this, I almost think this wasn't a big enough story. Aaron Rogers gave back $35 million in his contract. And maybe you saw that headline didn't understand it. That actually was real. Aaron Rogers actually essentially handed back $30 million that he basically won from the Packers as part of a staring negotiation. And he was like, go build me a team. Tom Brady.

Like, I want less money and I'd go build me a team. And I do think it was, this is Rogers doing to get cooked. So that, like, that alone makes me worry a little bit. Like, Rogers has always been the type of quarterback who's, like, playing favorites. You know what I mean? Not that he could necessarily, maybe he can't dictate who's getting more playing time at running back. I don't know.

But there's at least a little bit of doubt in my mind. And, again, going back, we've talked about this for a long time, this offseason. Like, Reese Hall always felt a little bit too ranked too richly for me. I was just really worried about taking him that high just based on all the uncertainties. The fact that the Jets had reportedly been really in on Javier Gibbs and would have taken him if he had fallen to where they were in the draft is, you know, they're bringing in all these other free agents. They had floated with Alvin Cook for like what feels like months now. And so the Breece Hall thing was always a little bit worrisome in the back of my mind. And so, if you said something, now you're going to be more likely to get him, I think, depending on how far he falls, he might fall a couple rounds now, at least.

I'm with you. I think, like, he's probably more appropriately priced. I do think Breece Hall is a legit elite talent, though. And maybe there's a world, like, obviously I can see a world in which Dalvin Cook just ends up being a starter. But I think there is also a strong chance that Breece Hall just looks way better. And, like, the Jets have no choice, but to play Breeze Hall as, like, the one, like, the lead back, the primary guy.

And then Dalvin Cook is just there as, like, a veteran, you know, insurance guy. He's going to be good in the passing game, all that stuff. but there's there you know as a strong chance that bruce hall just looks too good and they can't take them off the field and he's going to turn into being a value bill simmons would want us to mention that the jets cannot block and the jets have one good linemen in a liege vera talker and the jets ironically dalvin cook was between the dolphins and the jets and both those teams have one good linemen each and it's the jets plan at tackle the season is honestly of any team that actually thinks fancies themselves a super bowl contender insane they have dwayne brown who is 38 years old at left tackle and then Mackay Beckton, who I believe has played, he's one game in the last two years, and it's the fewest games through three seasons of his career of any tackle drafted in the first round in 30 years because he's had like a right knee cap issues.

So it's like the comp, it's more likely both those guys miss time than neither misses time. The Jets are just paper thin. So that is a little concerning here overall. But if, all right, quick name game with Dalvin Cook. Rapid Fire. Dalvin Cook or James Cook?

What say you both? Who? I think Dalvin moves up. past James Cook. Dalvin Cook or Alvin Camara. We're going to see how high it goes. Camara. Camarra 73rd.

Okay, Dalvin Cook or Rashad. We got to move Camara up, I feel like. We do. Just my personal opinion. That's going to be in our latest ranking. Yeah. Dalvin Cook or David Montgomery. Dalvin Cook.

Yeah. Dalvin Cook. Dalvin Cook or Alexander Madison. Alexander Madison. I would take Madison. I like guys who have their own role. Madison's going to get a three-down. So we're talking around the very end,

like RB 23-24-ish, you're thinking for Daven Cook. Where does that put Breece? Right around the same spot? Like, it's Breast. I think Breast still should be higher. I think Breast will, he falls certainly to, I would say he's like around like Miles Sanders or something like that now, like RB21. You want to do, let's do a quick name game with Breece Hall.

Then I'll give it to you to. Breeze Hall or James Connor. Breeze Hall. Yeah, I think, I think that's the exact spot for it. What about upside? Upside still at Breeze Hall. Brees Hall is so talented, man. But this is a huge complication.

At that point, I would take Brees Hall. Okay. Breeze Hall or Cam Acres. I think he fits in right there. I think it's Breeze Hall is in that Aaron Jones, Jacob Dobbins, Damien Pierce, KMakers tier. Yeah. He's right in there.

And I think it's a solid tier. Because he's more talented than those guys for us. Yeah. All right, there we go. Yeah. I think that's fair. All right. Let's go through the preseason games.

I think, let's just go positionally because I think that makes the most sense, because there's so many freaking things happening. Let's start with the quarterbacks, DK. Stock up, stock down, winners, losers, whatever you want to call it. Take us through. Start the rookie quarterbacks, DK. Take us on a little tour. Yeah, I think this was a little bit of a reality check.

You know, heat check. Pump your brakes a little bit on the excitement around the rookie quarterbacks. C.J. Stroud came in through a pick, I think on the first series was two for four or 13 yards and a pretty ugly pick. Bryce Young, four for six for 21 yards. The Panthers got shut out. I can't remember a shot. shutout happening in preseason before.

You know, when you got like backups and stuff playing, like, all hell usually breaks loose late in the game. And obviously, that's not all on young, but, you know, their offense really struggled to get going. Their offensive line looked overmatched at times. Anthony Richardson threw a pick on his first drive. I will say, of all the rookies, Anthony Richardson was probably the most impressive. Like, he did some nice things.

He kind of settled in as the game went on. Was he big end fast? Oh, he was really fast. I mean, there was a couple of plays where he kept it and ran. I think he had like a 40-yard deep bomb to the, to the, to the, the pylon that was like right on the money, could have been a touchdown, and Alec Pierce just dropped it. So that obviously did not help.

His interception was, I think, maybe other than C.J. Strauts was horrific. Pretty ugly. He rushed to pass, threw it over the receiver's head, and it was easily picked. That was on the first drive. So yeah, like, and then Will Levis, who we're not really expecting anything from Fantasy World, but he rotated in behind Malik Willis and Malik Willis played better than him. So I think this served, this week just served as a good reality check. like, hold on.

Rookies tend to really struggle as, you know, rookie quarterbacks tend to really struggle passing the football. So that just sort of makes us, like, be a little bit careful about Texans receivers, about Panthers receivers, the expectations around those guys and Colts receivers as well. So I think that was like one thing that it just was a big takeaway from the weekend. I think quarterback is the only position where I care about what they do in the preseason,

particularly rookies and like second year guys. Like I do think that stuff matters. I actually thought Bryce Young didn't look too bad. He looked really calm. He just seems like, relaxed in the pocket. He's very accurate. He didn't make any huge mistakes. A couple, it seemed like there was like a couple of miscommunications with receivers, but he just looks like a professional out there. I thought I was the most impressed with Bryce. I thought Bryce

didn't do anything stupid. He was handed a very bad cards and he folded. Right, exactly. It was like, oh man, there's three people coming down at me. I'm going to get to the ground as fast as humanly possible. I'm like, great job. Carson Wentz would have throw his other hand. Bryce got drilled a couple times and you kind of were like, wow. I keep forgetting that he's kind of the same height as Kyler Murray and 30 pounds later. Yeah, exactly. Oh, my God.

Okay. What about quarterback competitions? This is actually also, I think, where the preseason is very important because a lot of times they're like, all right, first drive to this guy and second drive this guy, and then next week they flip the starters. I do think this is where sometimes you don't overthink it. And you're like, all right, the coaches are,

and I would argue, the coaches are looking at quarterback through the lens of who is less likely to get me fired. DK. How'd they go? Quarterback competitions. Start off with Tampa Bay. Baker Mayfield started the game. He was fine.

I mean, he didn't really do anything all that great. And then Kyle Trasked took over and he was fine too. I don't really think there was a clear winner in that one. Obviously, Baker Mayfield feels like he's ahead at this point. Craig, did you watch the Steelers Bucks? Did you watch that game? So I was at a wedding this weekend in Santa Barbara, but I came home and I watched a lot of,

I basically watched like the first two quarters of most games. I unfortunately did not watch. I watched only the Steelers offensive drives. I didn't have any interest in Bakerbittal for contrast. You didn't skip that one much. Yeah, you didn't miss a whole lot. Chris Godwin and Mike Evans didn't play. This was, I would say there's nothing to report quite yet from that competition.

I think if you go to Washington, I would say Sam Howell looked better than Jacoby Percette. He started the game out. Yeah, Howell looked not bad. Yeah, he had a couple big plays. He had a touchdown to Jehan Dodson. That was incredible. Like, John Dodson was the one who did the incredible thing. on that play. He tipped it to himself and then

forced to miss tackle and waltzed in the end zone. He looked amazing. But I'd say Sam Howell has the edge there clearly. And then in terms of just, this isn't necessarily a quarterback competition that we need to pay attention too much, but Clayton Tune versus Colt McCoy.

Clayton Tune, I know this is going to be a pro-Clatan Tune podcast here, but I think he was just fine too. Like he didn't do anything all that special. Regardless of who starts that thing, I think it's going to be kind of yucky from offensive point of view, whether it's called McCoy or Clayton Toon. So just, again, be aware

the Cardinals' offense is going to suck until Kyler Murray gets back. Yeah. On your point about Johan Dotson, I think he's the only guy from the Washington team I want, and I think he's a grown-ass man. I think he is basically baby D'Andre Hopkins, just this 5-10, 5-11 guy you think in your head is 6'4, but he's not.

He's incredible. All right. While we're talking about quarterbacks, I want to just shout out. I know it's pretty, Can I do my caveat? Craig? I know he's the Debbie Downer. I'm going to do my caveat here. I know it's the preseason. But I think DePackers and Bears' offenses could be really good.

And I know I'm already getting sucked in. I will say two things. Again, preseason only confirm your biases. I'm in love with Jordan Love. I think Love's going to be great. It's pretty sure. He's not going to be Aaron Rod. He's not going to be Brett Fav.

But, and look, he could suck. I don't know. But I think Jordan Love is going to crack that like Gino Smith, Daniel Jones, Kirk Cousins, like, mid-tier. almost immediately. Like, I think we're going to be stunned. I think the Packers' offense with Jordan Love, a healthy Jordan Love is going to be better

than the one with Aaron Rogers and a broken thumb last year. And I actually think the Packers can be competitive in the NFC North. Bears won't be, but they could be fantasy football paradise because their defense is so bad. This was a crazy status.

So from you, Svian, the Bears did not have a single play last year with 50 yards after the catch, not one. They had two in their first two drives in this. DJ more, that long scaring. I will say, I think the Bears, it's like a little too neat

to say it's like, Josh Allen when he got Stefan Diggs, but I will say, I think the bears, the complexion of the offense is completely different. Stop. Come on. DJ Moore and Khalil Herbert's stock are all rising. Like their 80Ps are jumping. Everyone's drafting him like two rounds early now.

Justin Fields, his little screen pass, DJ Moore was a shitty pass. I can't believe DJ Moore had to like go behind him and like scooped out. It was like really low. It was an inaccurate screen pass and nobody touched DJ Moore. Strategic placement. the fifth string receiver on that team could have run that screen pass for a touchdown. And then the Khalil Herbert 55 yard play

was like, Fields couldn't find anybody to throw to who rolled out and dumped it off to Khalil Herbert, who once again just kind of ran straight from 50 yards. This means nothing to me. I think Fields had like seven air yards in this game. And he finishes like 121 pass a minute.

This is the definition of like, watch the game, don't check the box score. So what if it's like, so you don't think just, Justin Fields and D.G. Moore are going to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame together. Is that what you're saying? I'm happy letting somebody else draft D.J. Moore. Especially if his stock is on the rise now.

Yeah, for sure. I would say, if anything, I did see the stat. The Bears were last in the NFL and yards after the catch last year. As Hyfitz was alluding to, like, they just weren't good at that part of the game. And D.J. Moore definitely brings something there. I'm not, I'm still kind of out on D.J. Moore in terms of just where he's going, especially after this weekend. I bet she's going to rise up the ADP ranks.

And so, yeah. I mean, yeah, it's hilarious, Craig, that you point out. It wasn't even a good screen pass. He had to, like, reach back. It was like a shoestring catch. Also, yeah, the Titans had one of the worst defenses in the league last year, and they were playing the preseason Titans. So I just, I don't know.

Details, Craig. I'm reading too much into that. Yeah. Sorry. Wah, wah, wow. Oh, yeah. Whoa, whoa. All right, running back.

Stock up, stock down, DK. This is really also where preseason can kind of shine with illuminating rotations and usage. DK, take us on a little tour of the, uh, what you learned about running backs in week one preseason? A couple things. First off, James Cook, like he looks like he's the dude in Buffalo.

He had, I think, he played almost every snap with the starters. He had a big rushing touchdown. He looked really good. So I think he really kind of solidified himself as the guy that they're going to be leaning on this year, just based on the way they used him in this preseason game.

Kalea Herbert, as you mentioned before, he looks like the bear starter right now. Obviously, a lot could happen in the next few weeks. But he played all seven snaps that feels was on the, on the field. He housed that 56-yard touchdown.

He looked pretty good, pretty explosive. Deonté Foreman was clearly behind him. And then Rochon Johnson was behind both Foreman and Tristan Ebner, who got hurt in this game. So, I don't know, to me, like, based on the way that they were using these guys in this game, it looks like Claire Herbert is probably a little bit undervalued right now, according to, like, most ranks. And then finally, there was a couple other situations that really did not help in fantasy, like at the running back position. And we have to kind of like, I think just we're in wait and see mode with what happens with a couple of teams. Number one, the Eagles.

The Eagles sat Kenny Gainwell in favor of playing D'Andre Swift and Rashad Penny. And typically, a lot of the time, if you see a team sit a guy, it means they're putting him on ice because he's going to be a big part of their offense. He's like their starter, all that stuff. And so that could be very, very worrisome when it comes to D'Andre Swift. However, this is a very specific situation where Kenny Gainwell, he's been with the team for two years versus Deandre Swift. He just got traded to the team in the offseason. Rashad Penny was signed in the offseason. So maybe they just wanted to get these two guys some game action.

I know that Nick Serrani came out after the game and was like, yeah, we're going to like rotate things and switch things up next week. This doesn't really mean anything. He basically was like Rashad Penny hasn't played in a while. Right. I wanted him to get out there and get tackled. And that's the only reason why he was in there. And Kenneth Gainwell wasn't. I will say, DeAndre Swift ripped off like a 20-something yard run.

He looked really good. Rashai Penny was very unremarkable. So we'll see, obviously, it's way too early to make any determination. But I will say, just keep an eye on Kenny Gainwell. People, like, it's not just the way that this game was, that this game went. Because the beat reporters, multiple different beat reporters, the week prior, had talked about how Kenny Gainwell is like getting the most touches in training camp. And he looks like the guy.

And some of them are even predicting that Kenneth Gainwell will be the team starter. I think it's just going to end up being a just fucking mess, and we're not going to want any part of this. So that's just my prediction right now. If Kenny Gainwell was the guy, why did they bring in D'Andre Swift and Rashad Penny? Kenny Gainwell's been on the team for two years. We know who Kenny Gainwell is.

They know who Kenny Gainwell is. It's like what they're doing with their defensive line. It's like you can't have enough good depth on their defensive line. I think the argument for Kenny Gainwell is we have him 143rd right now, and it's like Rashad Penny is made of fiberglass, and DeAndre Swift is not exactly a parent. gone of health. And so you can have this Eagles running back for free, wait a

month, and then just see if he's basically like the de facto starter, Kenny Gain Willis. But yeah, I wouldn't like reach, he's, I don't think he's going to be the starting running back for the Eagles barring two injuries, but those injuries are kind of like really likely. He could be. But it could work for us. Like, being like, Rashad Penny looked unremarkable

in his first two carries. It's like, what do we? He just like led the league in rushing last year for like five weeks. We didn't see him in week one of preseason. I love it. Keep rolling. Moving on. I agree, Craig, generally, but also it's something to watch. This is a good dynamic we have here.

This is good podcasting. This is why shows like undisputed and first take work, you know? You need this, this tug and pull. All right, here's another one, Craig. Draft Justice Hill. He's the fucking starter for the Ravens, apparently, based on one series or couple series of action in the preseason game. Disclam, that is not true.

Yeah, I'm not actually being serious, but surprisingly, Justice Hill of all people got the first reps for the Ravens at running back in front of Gus Edwards, which is kind of surprising. Obviously, J.K. Dobbins has been out and away from the team. He's not playing right now. He did return to practice on Monday today. But yeah, I don't know. It's kind of surprising.

Justice Hill was the guy. And then Gus Edwards got quite a bit of action later on in the game, which is always a little bit of a head scratcher. So maybe they're just getting him back into form. He obviously missed all of last year or most of last year. I can't remember off the top of my head. So, you know, that is a variable that we have to take into account here.

And also this offense is going to be different. So maybe he's just not a fit for the new offense. I don't know. Maybe Justice Hill is the new superstar fantasy. That's what we can find out from this preseason game. Can we zoom in on my face like Rachel Drey in the SMS stretch? And then I'm going to say, Gus Edwards has been banged up the last couple of weeks. So he probably wasn't getting first team reps.

And that's why they played Justin. Stop be illogical. I think Gus Edwards is a really good pick I wouldn't draft Justice Hill Also Justin Hill since the pandemic Behanas 61 carries in an NFL game I think Gus Edwards is really good value though That's fine that's fine

Other stuff DK other preseason bits yeah hit us We gotta talk about Give me more We gotta talk about Clyde Edwards-Hilaire Starting the game Starting the game for the Chiefs The first four plays

Went to Clyde Edwards Haleer Two rushes two past catches Two catches whatever So wait so he started over Isaiah Pacheck Yeah, Pacheco's hurt. So that's a variable. Great. A variable.

Wait, have you guys seen John Mullaney's new special where he explains like some of, like, he went to rehab? And he was explaining all the crazy shit he did that led him to realize, like, you don't know him trying to get cocaine at his intervention. That's like, DK's like so high right now on this preseason. Like, DK., you're a problem. You need to stop. And Dke's like, can I go to the bathroom? I need to go. tape of Deuce Vaughn in the bathroom.

Oh, my God. We'll get to that. We'll get to that. Okay. Sorry. But no, my main point with the Clyde Edwards-Slaier thing is not that he's going to start over Isaiah Pacheco, but I do think he is going to be like a bigger part of the offense.

Everybody has written him off for dead. I don't think he's all the way dead quite yet. I think, you know, and Pacheco has been banged up. He runs with a very physical style. He's, you know, his style invites contact. He's looking for contact. That, to me, is a little bit worrisome. So if Pacheco were to get hurt, I think Clyde Edwards-Alair might be the handcuff that you want here.

So we'll see. Deneric Prince, who has gotten quite a bit of hype in the preseason, he was well behind. He played most like the second half and stuff. So don't forget about Clyde, is all I'm saying. I think if Bill Simmons is still listening to this, which maybe he turned it off after we stopped talking about the Patriots, but he would say, oh, he's by distressed assets. I mean, that's what, you know, Reddy Moss was for the Patriots. There is no more distressed asset than Clyde Edwards-Alair, who was.

a first round puck when he was a rookie, now undrafted three years later, even though he's still on the team and the two guys ahead of him are extremely unimpressive. It's finally healthy. A lot of similarities between Clyde and Randy Moss. God damn it, Chris. What are we talking about? We were on Bill's podcast last year, and I touted Clyde Edwards hilarious. Bill was out last year.

You think he's back? Well, Clyde was a top 35 pick last year. Right now he's 168th. We have him behind Isaiah Hodgins for the judge. Giants and Jordan Love. Sure. Sure. If you want to throw a 15th round pick on him, sure.

That's fine. You mentioned him. Craig, I think it was Craig. Or maybe it was Hypatts. Deuce Vaughn for the Cowboys. Now, if you want second half fun in, second half fun in preseason football is very rare. I turned off, I'll be totally honest with you.

I turned off most of the second half. By the time you get into the mid third quarter, it's like, I don't know who the fuck these guys are. I don't know who the quarterback is at that point. These are all guys that are just going to be on practice squads or, you know, going into real estate or whatever. I apologize for turning off the third quarter of week one of the preseason on a Saturday. But if you turned off the Cowboys game before the third quarter,

you've missed out on some fun-ass deuce Fawn runs. I mean, this guy, he really does kind of remind you of Darren Sprouls a little bit in terms of just like his size, just twitchy, fast, 175 pound running back. And he's so tiny. You literally can't see him behind the line of scrimmage. He made two Jaguars defenders like bang into each other and fall down. Like it was literally comical what he was doing.

The best comp D.K.'s ever made in his illustrious history of NFL comps is that Deuce Fawn runs like the hobbits running under the horses in all the battle scenes and Lord of the Rings. It's like you don't even notice he's there. He's like running through your legs. Sam! So yeah, I don't know, man. And couple that with the fact that neither Malik Davis nor Rico Dowell really kind of of separated themselves.

I'm beginning to warm to the idea that Deuce Fond might actually have a role with this team, with this offense. Before I was like, because we talked about him as one of the coolest players in the draft during the draft run up. But there's just this massive caveat that he's the smallest player in the NFL. And they drafted him in the seventh round and his dad is a scout for the, sorry, the sixth round. His dad's a scout for the Cowboys for like 20 or 30 years.

It's kind of like a baseball pick. Like the 18th round of the MLB draft. It's all like, all right, we'll draft this guy's kid who's worked here 20 years. It was like a Nepo baby. Yeah, but he looked awesome. But he looked great.

He's a Nepo baby that's got some skills, man. He's a Nepo baby. Nepo baby starts week one of preseason. I don't know, man. I'm not saying he's going to be the starter. Certainly. I'm just saying he might actually make the team and he might have a roll. Like you think he could be the change of pace guy, you know,

to mix in with Pollard? Yeah. Very possibly. not probably. Definitely could maybe happen. There's a non-zero chance. Duce Von makes the team, is what I'm saying. That's like Oppenheimer.

So there's a non-zero chance that this bomb could blow up the world. Got it. Duce Von could blow up fantasy, possibly. Football season is about to kick off, and Fandle is giving you the chance to win all season long. Because right now, when you bet on a Super Bowl winner, you can get bonus bets every time. they win in the regular season.

Just pick any team to win the Super Bowl, and you'll get bonus bets for every victory. Chiefs are obviously the best bet, even though, what are they like, plus 300, because they're going to make the championship game, and then it'll be good. But if you want a longer shot won the Jaguars, I don't know, maybe they make it through the playoffs

once they get there, Trevor Lawrence. I don't know. You can do anything in between. They're like 16. I want to make the Super Bowl. You can use your bonus bets on spreads, player props, over unders, and more. So visit fandel.com slash ringer fantasy

and start earning bonus bets with America's number one, sportsbook. That's fandal.com slash ringer fantasy. Must be 21 plus and present in select states. gambling problem called 1-800 gambler or visit the ringer.com slash RG. First online real money wager only. $10 first deposit required. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets, which expires seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.Fandill.com. Let's go to tight ends here. DKs stock up, stock down. Give us the rundown on the tight ends. So nothing really to report in terms of like the big name tight end receivers or tight end pass catchers or whatever. But there are a few guys that I think are legitimate sleepers to add to the list that we haven't talked about a lot.

Joanne Johnson for the Saints, he caught two big passes for first downs. By the way, the Saints' first team offense looked incredible. They like marched down the field. Their car looked really confident. They looked really good. Very impressive. Wait, can I chime in here? The fact that Michael Thomas played in this preseason game is fucking hilarious.

Dude, they got to get him on the field at some point, man. Dude, what if, yeah, he might not remember how football works. Like, he's practically taunting us at this point that he shows up and decides to play in a preseason game. Are you kidding me? Like, are we going that way? Yeah. Michael Thomas play is, he's like, you ever have those dreams where you're like, I certainly have these. I haven't gone to college in almost two decades now.

And I'm like, I have these dreams where I'm like showing up for a final and I haven't studied at all. Do you think Michael Thomas has that feeling at all? Like, I haven't fucking gone to this. class in two years. I don't know what the fuck we're talking about. Honey, honey. I just had a nightmare that I was playing in the NFL. I was on the field. Oh shit. Go back to sleep, babe. It's not real. But you're like brace back on and go back to sleep. It's not real. He's got to like memorize fucking play calls and stuff. Like I haven't done this shit since I was in middle school. I just couldn't believe he was out there. Yeah. Anyways, Juan Johnson. The Saints have three

tight ends that we have to kind of talk about and think about. Well, we don't have to. But we choose to. Obviously, Taysam Hill is still involved with this offense. They signed Foster Morrow, who came back miraculously from cancer in the soft season, a very inspirational story. But Juan Johnson, who, by the way, was pretty exciting at times last year. He played nine out of the 12 starter snaps with Derek Carr. He was the guy running routes. Foster Mrow basically was just in there to block. He only ran two routes in the entire series. And so, I don't know, these are signs that Juan Johnson could have a bigger than expected role. He could be a real sleeper there. The other guy I really want to mention here is Jake Ferguson for the

Cowboys who had like this really impressive leaping, twirling catch right up the seam for like 20-something 30 yards. Very impressive. He got 13 out of 17 snaps with the starter Cooper Rush. It looks like he's the starter, not Peyton Hendershot or Luke Schoonmaker, who was a rookie that was mostly injured throughout training camp. So Jake Ferguson, remember, Dak Prescott loves to target his tight ends. So I think Ferguson is a good sleeper. And then And the two rookies, Laporta and Musgrave, Laporta for the Lions and Luke Musgrave for the Packers, I think they're locked in as starters. So they're just two guys to have in the back of your mind as like last round picks.

Rookie tight ends never worked historically, but it does feel like this year someone's going to pop just because there's, one, there was a lot of tight ends taking this draft. It was a great tight end draft, especially early on. And Laporta and Musgrave are two guys who are in Dalton Kincaid and Buffalo are just like guys in great positions. And Sam Laporta, I mean, the Lions don't have. have a lot of options. They have a Monrois St. Brown. They have Jameson Williams, who's an adventure. He's suspended for six dreams. Right.

And there's not a lot going on there. And same with Musgrave. So, I don't know. I kind of could see you taking a late round flyer on one of these guys and hoping they work out. And they could kind of have a Pat Friarmooth-like first season. There you go. I'm skeptical that any of the, and I could be wrong. And again, I think if you're going to bet, like this is a great

tight-end rookie tight-in class, you'd think if it's ever going to happen into this year. I will say this. I'm skeptical. any of the traditional quote unquote tight ends will have a great rookie year for Michael mayor for the Raiders or Sam LaPorter for the Lions because they are still beholden to the basic premise that tight ends impossible because you have to learn to block NFL defensive ends and then also learn how to get open against the best athletes of your entire life who were the biggest people ever and you do both those things. I am more can I would be more I would be sorry, I'd be less surprised

if like Musgrave, Luke Musgrave for the Packers or Dalton Kincaid because they only have to fundamentally learn one job. They just have to be a receiver. So I, and again, you know, Dalton Kincaid went, what, 26th. Musgrave was like 42nd overall. Those guys with the pedigree, I wouldn't be surprised that they follow the receiver arc that D.K. always talks about where they start slow, like, and then eventually by the end of the season, right when the fantasy playoffs,

rookie receivers are often like at their best later in the season. I wouldn't be shocked if that's how it happens. happens in that like Luke Musgrave or Dalton Cicator on waivers in October, and they're winning your league by Thanksgiving. Agreed. All right. Well, we're talking about tight ends, wide receivers. Want to talk about wide receiver, wide receivers? I do.

I just want to say, Steelers' offense looked sharp, very sharp. Craig will be very excited to hear that Kenny Pickett went six out of seven for 70 yards on a touchdown. George Pickens. Oh, wait. I have a stat for you. I have a stat for you. The Steelers had a 67-yard touchdown in the preseason. Longest play they had, longer than any play they had all.

year. Do you care about that? No, I don't. Kenny Pickett didn't throw that touchdown. Yeah, and Calvin Austin was at the receiving end, which he's probably not going to be fine. I know. I just wanted to find. Just wanted to throw it out there. Pickett looked good to finish the season last year, and I continue to think that he's

going to be a starting quarterback in the NFL for a long time. Yeah, it feels like we're too low on the Steelers. I think Kenny Pickett might have a shoulder about Pickett. Craig, Craig's going to get annoyed to pick it. I just think that the poor guy came in the worst situation possible. He played like five of the top ten defenses in his first five games, and looked really shaky and matured immediately and actually finished the season not bad. And the Steelers, I think, were seven and two to finish the year.

And they had a winning record. And Pickett looked like a reliable player already. And now he has a full off season and they have a ton of young talent. Pickens, Deonté Johnson, Pat Fryer, and with Najee Harris and then toss in Alan Robinson is a top 10 receiving core in the NFL, in my opinion. And the offensive line is going to be a lot better. This team is improving. The defense is good. I said last week, Kenny Pickett had zero chance to win an MVP.

And Craig, I saw the fire in his eyes. I saw Craig like something lit up within him. How dare you, sir? Non-zero chance to win an MVP. I'd prefer zero. Okay. Any other receivers, D.K. Talk of the town, I think on Friday it was, or Thursday night.

I can't remember. Tank Dell for the Texans. Another itty-bitty guy that's almost the same size as Deuce Fawn, like 160-something-pound. super, super productive in college, but came in and obviously the size thing was a big concern for me. He looked incredible. He had five catches for 65 yards

and a touchdown for the Texans. Most of it, I think all of it was with the second team. So obviously there's a massive amount of caveats here, but he looked really impressive, was just getting open on everything. Craig's just shaking his head at me. Just saying people were excited about Tank Dell. His name is Tank and he's 168 pounds.

That's exactly why everybody was talking about him. Yeah. If his name was Richard Williams and he was 510, nobody would give a shit. He wasn't the only rookie that looked good, though. I thought, you know, Jackson Smith and Jigwer for the Seahawks was very impressive. Jordan Addison for the Vikings looked really good. Quentin Johnson had a touchdown.

He had a couple of shaky plays in terms of catches, but overall, like he was out there making plays. Zay Flowers looked impressive in the limited amount of time he played. So overall, good weekend for rookie receivers, I would say. Like all of them were pretty impressive in their own ways. And then the last guy I want to bring up is Elijah Moore, who he was like lining up in the backfield for the Browns. He had a couple of plays where he was lining up as a running back. It brings back memories of like Randall Cobb or Percy Harvin style player.

So, you know, he looked really explosive and quick. He did leave the game with a rib injury. It sounds like it was not serious. But I don't know, I'm maybe allowing myself to get excited about Elijah Moore based on just a limited amount of action that he showed in this game, just the way that they were utilizing him, trying to get him touches. You know, he looked very explosive and fast. So Elijah Moore, Truthers, unite. I'm kind of on that train, to be honest. I do think Elijah Moore is really good.

Yeah. I think two things are true. Elijah Moore is an incredibly talented player. I think he's very good. I think the Browns, there is a real chance that Elijah Moore is like the player going outside the top 100 that you look back and you're like, wow, what a value is going in like the 40s next year. I also think if you looked at a Venn diagram of all the fantasy football people who like

Elijah Moore and all the fantasy football people who, are like into QAnon. I think they'd be like a perfect circle. Qaeda. Harsh. Rude. Yeah. So you're saying Elijah Moore is the fantasy football version of Q&on.

Yeah. He's like Q for, oh, I guess we're giving that to Brock Purdy, right? So I don't know, maybe the Leisure is something else. His breakout is coming. Just look.

Yeah. On January 6th, his breakout is coming. It's like the doomsday clock. It's like, the world will end on. Yeah. It's like anytime it doesn't happen,

they're like, oh, what could it mean? When will Elijah Moore reveal himself? He's doing this on purpose. Yes. I have an explanation why the world did not end on December 21st, 2012. Do you remember that? That was when I was in high school. That was a big thing. We all threw a party that night. Craig's like, pivot off the queue. Pivot off the queue. It's like pivot.

There's like a red dot pops up on my forehead, like a sniper thing comes on my forehead. I'm like, uh, anyway. The Myers. Should we get to emails? Email. Sorry, let's do it. Yeah. Let's change the topic. Okay. We got an email. Someone said, uh, this from Kevin. Kevin. Kevin. Kevin wrote in defense of our beloved producer, Kai Fieri. Kai.

I said me, this is Danik. I said last week that I said Christopher Nolan would be a better audio producer than Kai, which I thought was fine. Kevin wrote, guess what? If Christopher Nolan produced your podcast, it would sound like shit. Oh. Christopher Nolan's outspoken about not doing ADR. The dialogue in his films is infamous for being muddy and unintelligible.

Try watching Tenet without subject. or try figuring out whatever the fuck Bain is saying in the Dark Night Rises, the best part of Oppenheimer is silent. This is a really good take. Holy shit, I love this take. I don't watch movies without subtitles. I think we've discussed this on our shows before. You don't watch any movies without subtitles?

No. And it's because it literally, and I've seen articles written about this. I think on the ringer.com, in fact, good website. A lot of like audio mixing these days is really shit. and like you can't understand dialogue. I watch a lot of British shows. I can't understand what the fuck people are saying. You know, very fast, obviously accent in English.

I just don't get it. So I, like, need to listen. Oh, by the way, I also have a young child and I can't turn the TV up very loud. So, yeah, love subtitles. I would have done those reasons in the opposite order and we would have been like, yeah. Yeah, because I was about to freak out.

And in terms of importance, like I literally can't understand British people speaking. I can't watch it with. But if I have subtitles on, all I do is read the words and then I'm not watching the show. Same. I will never use subtitles as long as I live because I just read the bottom fifth of the screen for the entire movie. Email us around to fantasy football at Gmail.com if you have thoughts on subtitles. You know when you find yourself reading a book and you're like, now I'm just like reading the words and then thinking the words in my head instead of just reading, you know, like you know the difference where you're like, now I just am just reading the words. I can't actually comprehend what they mean. You like start to think about it too much and you're just like not actually reading reading.

I, to me, like, subtitles now, I'm just like, I don't even notice that they're there. I just read them. It's like, second nature.

No, for me, it's like, I'd be watching Breaking Bad. I'm like, I am the danger, Schuyler. I'm, man,

I'm just reading it. So that's what I'm saying. It's like not like that for me. Sometimes it's kind of spoil stuff. Like, sometimes they'll put the whole sentence, even though the actor's speed it says it slowly. Yeah,

subtitles kind of, you know what I mean? It'll like give the spoiler the end of the sentence before the actor says it. No, that's fair. That does happen sometimes.

If you were alone on the weekend and you were going to put on whatever movie, remember the Titans. Would you put on subtitles? For the record. It's a great. Craig and I top five movie for Craig and I. Yeah, I hate it. That's the weirdest thing.

Okay, whatever. You're going to put on Indiana Jones. Would you put on subtitles if you're alone and you can play it as loud as you want? Yes. That's insane. Why? Why would you do that? Some services and we could go down another rabbit hole with the judge.

just the sheer number of streaming services out there. I would say some are... Oh, my God. Some streaming services have, like, giant fucking block letter subtitles where it's, like, covering half the screen. And there's no way to fix it as far as I can tell. Like, you go into the settings, trying to adjust it. I will say with Amazon, I'm pretty sure it's Amazon.

They give you, like, very detailed and wildly different options for the subtitles. Like, you can have them be yellow. You can, like, make them really small. It's really nice. Amazon's video player is good. I like their video player. What? Oh, my God.

No, it glitches. Dude, the prime video player, my girlfriend, we hate it. I have thoughts on all these interfaces. The HBO Max one, or Max, whatever the hell it's called now, getting subtitles on or off, that's wild decision. Getting subtitles on or off, my mom calls, who's like, how do we get the subtitles off? And I like, oh, come on, mom, it's easy. I'm like, how the fuck do you get the subtitles off?

It's so hard. You're watching on television, right? Like, I'm watching on my computer, all of these services. Like, Amazon's video player on a laptop, I think is phenomenal. I love that it gives you who the actors are and what their characters are. That's brilliant. And they try to sell you the jewelry. We're watching shout out to the summer I turn pretty.

Incredible show and Prime video. They're trying to sell you the jewelry that like the actresses are wearing. It's Amazon smart. I don't love that. But I actually kind of sounds like that's still bad nightmares. But yeah. I like it to tell me to the actors are and some trivia. What is this fucking Instagram?

Come on. Oh my God. All right. We got an email from, um, Johannes, Johan. Yohan. Yohan. Yohan.

And the prologue to this is that we've been talking in the last couple weeks about like dad's stuff and dads among many of the things using like old things to describe like talk about unleaded gas. There has been leaded gas in 25 years or like using old businesses that are having been in business for 30 years as like mile markers, whatever. Johan says greetings from Finland. Finland. Hey, nice. And Johan basically is like, you know how parents would complain about private?

And they'll be like, back in my day, this was a nickel or I went to college for $200. Johan says that the most European dad thing to do is to complain about how expensive something used to be, but doing it by talking about how much it cost in your country's old currency from before the euro. Man, I wish we had that here. Yeah, that'd be fun. You know, I'm like, I'm 30 year old man. Dude, he's like, he's literally, Yon's like, you can imagine how bewildered my 10-year-old

nephew was when I told him how much those Fortnite V-books would have cost in Finnish marks. No fucking idea. Well, we went to Sweden and they still have Kroner there. And I was like, I don't know. Yeah. What the hell is happening with this? It's like 10 times

or it's like $10 to every dollar or something like that. It was 10. It was super convenient. It was times 10. It wasn't actually that hard. I hope it was $500 for $100. I hope it wasn't the other way around. Speaking of which, all of the, half the ringer is in Sweden right now. Yeah. Yeah.

A work trip. So I hope everybody's having fun. Not as fun as we had. But yeah. No. I hope they go to that restaurant where we all sat in a weird stadium style. Stadium seating and watched each other eat meatballs. That was the crazy.

If you didn't hear this episode, we get back from Sweden, we went and they were like, table for six. And they're like, oh, we don't have six, but we can do two, two, too. And they're like, yeah, that's fine. So we sit, you know, three tables next to each other. We're like, could we push those all together? and they're like, well, not exactly. So I'm eating next to D.K.

And then like a stadium above us is Craig and Liz. And below us was Kaya and Austin Gale. And like Liz and Craig are, their feet are touching our butts and they're trying not to eat. I can see Liz try not to drop meatballs on me and DK's back. It was very awkward. You're like sitting on, you know how you like sit on your buddy's feet when they do situps and P.E.?

It was almost like that. But backward. At a dinner table. Yeah, it was. There wasn't separate spots for your feet. It was literally just there was a seat in front of you. It was bizarre. Except there were no chairs.

It was like you were sitting on the concrete. It was kind of like Coliseum. Anyway. All right. Very European. Moving on. We also saw Madden soundtracks and someone, many people,

shout up many people who emailed in to say, the Madden O3 had party hard by Andrew W.K. Hell yeah. Andrew W.K. I remember talking about this. If you guys had to guess right now, who was on the cover of Madden O3, you get one guess.

Oh, I haven't looked, I don't know. My whole life. okay 04 was Vic What player 06 was Vince Young Madden O's it like Donovan McNabb

Because oh wait Donovan McNabb Do you kid you have a guess? I don't know either No I got no idea It was not Donovan McNabb Oh he was 05 O 3 Marshall Falk Correct

That's a good one Boom thank God Great a show on turf My inner child almost rebelled When's last time of running back was on the cover of Madden Peyton Hillis Oh gosh. God, I can't believe that happened.

We got some other emails, but can I tell you guys a story for my weekend? I just thought you guys would appreciate this one. I'm talking about all this dad communication. I want to tell you a little bit of Jackie's mom communication. Okay, yeah, sure. By the way, it was Adrian Peterson 2014. That makes sense. Jackie's mom visits town.

We're in D.C. And I realized Jackie's mom is the doctor from arrested development. Okay. The literal doctor? The doctor, and he's like, he looks dead. He's not dead. He just looks dead. I was like, I'm sorry, we lost him.

And they're like, oh, my guy's like, oh, he's not dead. We just don't know where he is. Jackie's mom is human clickbait. She was like talking about Jackie's dad, and she was like, he washed the winning lottery ticket. And it was, I know, he washed the winning lottery ticket, which is true. The ticket won $40. A winning lottery ticket. I was like, how'd you sleep?

She's like, I thought I was going to get shot. And I'm like, oh, my God, what happened? She's like, well, a bird. flew into my window. Get this woman writing some headlines. She would nail it. Get Lucille Blues. I hate this doctor.

She's just a master storyteller is what she is. She keeps you engaged. I think she should title our podcasts. That's incredible. All right. Fantasyfutball.org.com. We have all our rankings. We're going to update that stuff this week with, you know, we'll see if we can give in to Craig to put like, you know, tied shale that really high up on our board.

We'll see what happens. All right. Thank you, D.K. Thank you, Craig. Wait, wait. Wait, wait, I have huge news. Oh, boy. According to Twitter,

Teddy Bridgewater is going to wear number 50 for the lines. What? What? 5-0. Are you allowed to do that? No, there's no way that should be legal. What? That's the oldest, that will be the oldest looking jersey of all time.

Wait, right now, who do you think is the last? Teddy Bridgewater will immediately look 50 years old. Oh, no. Is that like what Bobby Lane, like what? You can wear 50 as a quarterback. I didn't know you could even do that. I thought 50 was like reserved for offensive and defensive linemen or something. 50 is the number that they give to the linemen who won't make the team.

Right, exactly. The practice squad linemen. Yeah, like the only people who are number 50 are like the ones wearing those like red mesh jerse jerseys at practice that they're just like throw in the hamper immediately. The pennies. Do we know why Teddy Bridgewater wants 50? Oh, he said, I'm going to wear 50, man. That's it. Pretty cool, right?

What a good bit. It honestly is a good bit. 50s are defensive linemen and linebackers. Offensive linemen are 60s. Oh, wait, here we go. None of the traditional quarterback numbers are, okay, sign with the Lions. Give me the backup.

Every jersey between 0 and 19 is already taken by an active Lions player or retired. And 0 to 19 are the only numbers allowed by the league for quarterback, so he gets an exception. Oh. This reminds me of something that bugged me. by the way, over the weekend. Watching some of the games on mute,

I was just watching them without the sound. Kyle Allen is the backup in Buffalo. And it just says Allen on his back. And Josh Allen is the starter there. And it just says Alan on his back. And I was like, did Josh Allen lose weight? Like, this is again going back to, I don't remember what number of Josh Allen is off the top of my head.

I was like, Josh Allen looks like small and like not very powerful arm. What's going on here? This is the off-brand version of Josh Allen. What's going on here? I don't know. You should have had the subtitles on. They would have said Kyle Allen.

Oh, God. Subtitles on sports games is the worst, by the way. It's like delayed like 10 seconds. If you're in a movie theater, are you disappointed that there's no sub-toucher? Who do I got to talk to? Are you having the worst experience? Get my specs. Because there's no subtitles in Barbie?

No. That's fine in the movie theater. All right. Thank you, Lorne. Lauren. Thank you. Dusty Springfield. Oh, yeah.

Son of a preacher is like top five song all time. Oh, yeah. Sing it. High Fitz? You know that song? I've no idea. I'm not going to sing. I'm worried that one day you're going to make someone up.

And that sounds made up. I'm afraid that Dika's going to make up. You think I was just immediately in on that bit with him? I just pulled that son of a preacher man out of my ass. Dusty Springfield? I will admit I don't know any of her other work. If you don't know son of a preacher man You live under a rock

Yeah that is worse than Rod Stewart I'm gonna play it I'm gonna play it I'm playing it The second it begins you should know it Oh yeah okay okay He looks confused there for a minute No it was a I think he's an ad

No is an ad Because like now you pull it up And it was five it was an ad Wait why you're in We have fucking Spotify Oh yeah bleak Kai Kyi bleak that Bleak that

Bleak that out Kai The kids love Oh, my God. Leap that too. Company men. All right. 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.

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