The Ringer NFL Show - RB Sleepers, Tiers, and Fears 2025

Episode Date: August 6, 2025

The guys discuss their running back tier list rankings for this upcoming fantasy season, and also welcome The Ringer’s Sean Fennessey to talk about the Jets, Aaron Rodgers, the upcoming Ringer Fantasy Football League, and 'Happy Gilmore 2.' 2:05 - Micah Parsons and Terry McLaurin's trade requests 9:28 - Rams extend Kyren Williams 12:25 - Matthew Stafford's back injury 16:35 - Tier 1: Saquon Barkley, Bijan Robinson, Jahmyr Gibbs, Derrick Henry 21:07 - Tier 2: Christian McCaffrey, De'Von Achane, Ashton Jeanty 35:19 - Tier 3: Jonathan Taylor, Josh Jacobs, Bucky Irving, Kyren Williams, Chase Brown, Omarion Hampton 51:34 - Tier 4: Kenneth Walker III, Breece Hall, Alvin Kamara, James Cook, James Conner, Chuba Hubbard, David Montgomery, Tony Pollard, Aaron Jones Sr., Isiah Pacheco, D'Andre Swift, RJ Harvey, TreVeyon Henderson, Kaleb Johnson 01:05:13 - Tier 5: Jaylen Warren, Brian Robinson Jr., Rhamondre Stevenson, Travis Etienne Jr., Tank Bigsby, Jordan Mason, Zach Charbonnet 01:11:18 - Sean Fennessey talks Jets, last-place fantasy punishments, 'Happy Gilmore 2,' and more Sponsored by YahooFantasy #YahooPartner. Play Now at yahoofantasy.com/promo Getaway sales event. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Guest: Sean Fennessey Producers: Ronak Nair, Kai Grady, and Carlos Chiriboga Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Rear Fantasy Football Show. My name is Danny Huy for today. I'm joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Coral Beck. And today we are going over our running back, sleepers, fears, tears, going over all the important running backs. It's the most important position in fantasy football. And we're going to go through who we like, who we don't like, who we would be happy getting and who would be kind of sad to end up on our team.

We're also going to have Sean Fantasy. Always like our boss's boss's boss on this show. And he's going to make fun of Craig to his face for talking himself into Aaron Rogers, which was absolutely delightful. And also while Sean's here, we litigate. happy Gilmore 2 where Crick and I honestly kind of got a little vicious disagreeing and happy

granted. Yeah, I'm sure you can see where this is going on how I was on the big picture. You can hear me there talking about the movie. D.K. and Hyvitz did watch the movie and Sean is the smartest guy I know to talk movies. So we kind of rehashed the disaster that was Happy Gilmore 2.

Debatable. Running backs interview with Sean Jets. Happy Gilmore 2. A couple news. All that's coming up. We're going to take a quick break. This episode of the Ringer Fantasy Football Show is presented by Hyundai. Get into the Hyundai Getaway sales event and get away with a deal so right, it almost feels wrong. You can get huge savings on their adventure-ready SUVs like the Hyundai Santa Fe and Santa Fe and Santa Fe and Sanofi Hybrid models.

Or go all-electric and choose from America's most awarded EV lineup, like the breakthrough, Ionic 5 or Ionic 6. Visit HyundaiUSA.com or call 562-314-4-6-0.4-6-0. for details. Offers end September 2nd, 2025. All right, we're going to get to our running back tiers, and we're also going to have special guest, Sean Fennessey, later in this episode. But first, I want to hit a couple things in news right now. And then there's all the news that we're going to do in the middle of the show.

But I want to start with just a couple big things that happened since we last recorded. So Micah Parsons, past rusher for the Dallas Cowboys, has requested a trade. And he did it the good way, which is just posting a crazy long notes app, message that you can't even fit in one screenshots was four screenshots of this essay he wrote on Instagram and social media and it was the epitome Craig of the millennial I ain't reading all that either congrats or I'm sorry that happened yeah yeah I just kind of scrolled to the last page read the last two sentences and it was like I am officially requesting a trade yeah got it you know lawyers are like you read the last sentence first it was like okay I don't

be cowboy anymore. I'm like, got it. Thank you. D.K., I'll sum this up for you because you're like a father and you're busy. So I think the summary is Jerry Jones is older than Joe Biden. So on one hand, he's kind of nuts. And on the other hand, Jerry Jones is the driving force of why the NFL makes

$2 billion a month. And so I think that the Parsons thing is actually a perfect encapsulation of why the NFL makes so much money and also why the Cowboys suck. And basically, Michael Parsons tried to do everything right here. And yet, Jerry Jones didn't care. I am of the firm belief that Jerry Jones genuinely in his heart of hearts looks at all this stuff, contract stuff as a potential for free advertising, where he's like, I'm going to give Michael, like, spoiler alert, the Cowboys

are going to sign Michael Parsons. They're not going to trade them. They're going to cave, like September 3rd. They're going to give Michael Parsons $42 million a year. But Jerry Jones looks at it as if I'm going to give Michael Parsons $42 million a year, why don't I just do it? Yeah, what's in it for me? I got a little bit for everything it's worth. Yeah, he's like, how about I just have my company I own be the biggest story on ESPN every single day until then? That seems like a fair deal, right? That's how he looks at it.

Not only that, Googling right now, it appears as though America's team, the gambler and his cowboys, the documentary, the multi-part documentary coming out on Netflix about the Dallas Cowboys, releases on Netflix August 19th. Jerry knows what he's doing. Jerry knows what he's doing. Again, last year, DAC Press. Not his first rodeo, if you will. I actually watched my first rodeo on YouTube this weekend. We can talk about that later.

Rodeos are crazy. But, yeah, I really mean that, though. Like, again, Dak Prescott's contract last year was done on Sunday morning of week one. Like, literally they want it. It's literally he just looks at his free advertising. He's like, I don't want to pay for all this. So his attention, he turns on the television, his company's on TV. He's like, that's good.

So they're going to keep Michael Parsons. But this is why we don't take Dallas seriously because this is a guy who's probably one of the three best past rushes in the NFL, wants to be a cowboy, wants to win, showed up to training camp, and you know what? There was no drama. You want a crowd, you start a fight. Michael Parsons still want to fight.

So Jerry Jones starts talking about how he's hurt and he's missing time and he's like doing all this stuff and he's like, poke in the bear. Michael Parsons like, fuck it. Why did I show up and be a good soldier? What was your favorite Jerry Jones anecdote during this entire dispute?

I like him not knowing, claiming to not know the name of Michael Parsons agent. I thought that was. Who is the biggest agent in the NFL, basically? He was like him in Trosonelago. I also like that he was a nice such. that he won't talk to Michael Parsons agent. That's part of the huge thing is that he won't speak

to the agent. He had a pseudo-negotiation with Michael Parsons, which is illegal. You have to have your agent there for negotiation. And yeah. Look, man. Again, it's the Wild West. It's not his first rodeo. He knows what he's doing. You know the meme of Antonio

Benderas, like looking at his computer and then leaning back and going? Yeah. I feel like that's just Jerry Jones every time he like turns on his computer or has one of his child, the children, and show him something that's on the internet.

He just, I mean, yeah, he knows what he's doing. The Cowboys are in the news. They're the number one story for, you know, everything that's on daytime TV.

It's also just weird. Like, this is clearly an elite pass rusher. Like, this is the exact type of player you pay. But, I mean, it'll get done.

He's not going to get traded. And the extra money he has to pay Michael Parsons. for dragging this out and letting other past rushers like T.J. Watt get a big deal. The money he loses and that he gains in advertising dollars. He would have had to spend that and, you know. Anyone who wants to make fun of Jerry Jones

is Jerry Jones, again, the NFL makes $2 billion a month and it was basically kind of his idea. So do you know what? I have a question for you generally speaking, because we're saying this now all the time. Is it annoying to you that trade requests are now a standard

step in the contract negotiation process. Like, it's just, okay. I declare bankruptcy. Yeah, if you get to a certain point in the, in the discussion or whatever, and you're like, okay, now I'm going to request a trade. That's my piece of leverage. I need to use it.

And then it'll be fine afterwards. I know some guys do get traded. Formality. I would answer that with, there's a line in the wire from this guy named Cuddy. And he's like, damn, the game's changed. And Slim Charles is like, games the same, just got more fierce.

and like that's it. It's just like trade requests used to be this like break glass in case of emergency. And now it's almost like if you don't even check the box, like you're not even trying. Dude, I roll my eyes when I see a player has requested, requested trade. I'm just like, oh, God. GMs don't get out of bed unless their players requested in trade. Yeah. Don't even, don't even knock on my door unless he's requesting a trade.

All right? Because then we know it's getting serious. Speaking of which, Terry McLaurin for Washington, I actually think the single least likely player to request the trade in the NFL very politely requested a trade. Unlike Michael Parsons, just kind of like quietly knocked that Dan Quinn's door

and let him know that if you don't mind, sir, please could I potentially like have a trade if you won't pay me? Another person who's not going to get traded, Terry McLauran. This is,

Terry McLaren's going to sign with Washington. They're haggling over numbers. Long story short, Terry's like the epitome of a player. You keep every coach wishes all the receivers from like Terry McLaurin. He's like a leader.

He's a captain. He's beloved by the community. He's beloved by his teammates. been an issue with anything? No, he's just, he's 30, wants 30 million a year, which sounds like a lot, but the cap's got up $50 million in two years. The cap used to be, I mean, 2018, the cap was like $180 million. I just turned 31.

I want $31 million a year. I'm going to ask John when it comes on later. We'll see how that goes. There you go. But yeah, I just think that this is the first negotiation for the GM, Adam Peters. Craig, we got to request the trade first, pal. Yeah, come on, Craig. First, I'm going to post seven screenshots of a notes app on Twitter.

I love that that's like the way to do it. It's like the hardest to read. You can't scroll. You have to zoom in. It's like the least efficient way to fit text in a media post. And yet it is the way to do it. If you need to post an apology, it's always the notes app. Hold on.

Hold on. I guess because it feels more intimate. I don't really know. How serious is this? Did he unfollow the Cowboys yet on Instagram? Parsons or McLaurin? Well, did McLaurin unfollow the commanders? I really need to know how serious is.

That's a good take. If you're still following the team, you don't even give me. I mean, this is no hard. There was some, I love, I love ones like some tweet or some video resurface of Michael Parsons being like, if I ever left Dallas, like, I'm going to Pittsburgh. And then it was like, D.K. Metcalf has followed Michael Parsons on Instagram. Like the betting lines move. It's the best. It's so ridiculous. Yeah, none of these people are getting traded and they're all going to get paid for a little less than they want.

Okay. A couple of the running back. So Kyron Williams got paid with the Rams two years, basically 11.5 million a year for two years. He did it the old-fashioned way. Didn't hold in, didn't hold that, showed up, showed up, practiced, stayed following the Rams. Got paid less that he probably wanted and and he's there and he's getting paid.

But you know what? Good for him. Do you guys find this mildly surprising considering everyone's been trying to replace Kyron Williams for the last year? Well, the Rams haven't just fantasy football. I'm just going to say. Everything Sean McVeigh has ever done has not suggested anything other than he really likes

Kairn Williams and all of us collectively refused to believe that. It really takes this, the wind out of my Jarquess Hunter sales. You guys ever have any friends when you play rock pepper scissors that like announce what they're going to do? They're like,

Joker chaos agents. You're like, I'm going to do like, I'm going to do rock. I'm going to rock. And then you're like, I think they're going to trick me. And like, no, they just do what they say every time. That's Sean McVeigh every year. He's just like, I'm going to play Kiron Williams. D.K.

3D chess. What does it mean? Do you think there's like a collective indignance amongst fantasy analyst, draft analyst, when like a fifth round or six round running back becomes the guy because like they didn't see it or predict it. And so every year they're trying to prove to themselves that they were right by wish casting that this fifth rounder

is going to get replaced by like a second rounder. No. That's not what happens. You eat pieces of shit for breakfast? No. No. Yeah, that's absolutely what happens. The other thing that happens is anyone who really likes the

fifth rounder is just constantly doing victory laps for like four or five years. My new favorite tweet is when people go, last year I recommended you draft Pooka Nukuwa and Drake London. Yeah, that's a meme now. The short answer to Craig to what you're asking is particularly in fantasy football, but basically the hardest things to quantify are things coaches like, like work ethic, ball carrier vision, IQ, blocking assignments, and then just understanding how to set up. up blocks and just run the play as the coach wants it ran, which is unquantifiable a lot of times.

And so in fantasy football in particular, I think a lot of analysts are math-based. And so like someone that Kyron Williams is exactly falls through the cracks. Right. And so people are like, well, he's not as explosive, blah, blah, blah, but it's like, but Sean, I think what people forget, Sean McVeigh, like Shanhan, perfectionist. And it's like he can't have a perfect play called at the perfect moment and have the reason it went wrong as his really explosive running back made the wrong really. Like he can't sleep at night

That looks aren't everything You know You need a little bit of personality It's not all RAS score Okay Oh my God Okay So yeah Karin got paid

The James Cook situation He's holding We want to get to that When we get to these guys We can go through every running back Part of sure We'll get to James Cook later Okay so yeah

Congrats to Kiron Williams Just being a dog Well did you want to say Anything about Matt Stafford Before we start here Craig You're very concerned About Matt Stafford's back I am concerned

About Matt Matt Stafford has yet to take part and training camp as he deals with like back soreness. And the Rams don't, McVeigh doesn't play a starter in preseason games. He's not, you're not about that. But what he does value is the like team on team scrimmages against other teams. Stafford's not participating in the first one. That's kind of like a big deal for the Rams.

It's how they see a lot of stuff. And Stafford is doing, McVeigh has quotes. He said it's a week to week thing. He said he's doing static throwing, maybe running on a treadmill, maybe even just walking. He's able to do a little bit of. light cardio and he's able to do some core work. I'm like... That's how it sounds like when I'm like, oh, it's a cardio today. I'm like, oh, yeah, light running, maybe even just like walking.

It sounds like we're talking about a 70-year-old man here. He's walking. He's doing water aerobics. I'm a little nervous. I'm not going to lie. I mean, I think the combination of Puka Nakua's like recklessness combined with Matt Stafford's age and injury history makes the two of them one of the more high-risk duos that you could drive to fantasy. So I just, I I am starting to kind of think about whether or not Pooka Nakua should be a first rounder. I kind of don't know if you show. It's every game Puka and Stafford play Pook is probably like a top four receiver.

I don't know, DK's, DK's point always lingers in my head that no one's ever used to have a bad back. And Matt Stafford broke his back seven years ago. And it's not been the same ever since. But I'm also thinking about Brett Farr, even late in his career where he's like, wouldn't play, would pretend to retire.

So I wouldn't have to do two a days in training camp show up and then almost make the Super Bowl at 40. And I'm like, Stafford, I think, is the same way where it's Stafford's a psychopath and will not miss games. But, like, he's just like, yeah, I'm 30. How old he, 38? 37. I'm just 37. And he's like, I'm going to play in week one.

And that's in 30 days. And I'm not going to fuck up my back and Alan Iverson style in practice. Yeah. I guess is a practice where he's not getting hit and just throwing passes to his teammates. If that's too hard right now, that is a little worrisome. I don't know, D.K. You just don't want to exacerbate it, you know. Yeah. I'm older than Matt Stafford.

I will say when you get. to a certain age in life. Even things like sleeping, your back hurts really bad. Dude, you know what I am? Like, you wake up in pain.

Yeah. That's why you really need a knee pillow. The fact that he's working out is fine. He's fine. I'm finally old enough where sleeping on my side is like hurting my shoulder. Dude, there's days I get out of bed and I'm like, fuck.

Like I can barely pick up like my pants to put them on. You need like more months before you bend over. You got to, I feel like everybody should be sleeping with a knee pillow where if you're on your side, it's the pillow between your two legs. Or even sleeping with that like completely aligns your spine. It makes you feel so much better.

Really? Yeah, that's great. I sleep on my back, though, to sleep on your back. I feel like I'm crushing my shoulder and my stomach. Well, that's terrible, Craig. You're going to have to fix that. What happens to your neck? Is your face just contorted?

My neck is always going one way. Like, I feel like I can turn my neck more to the left than right because I'm always sleeping left. Like I'm like an owl, but only in one direction. Oh, my God. Email us a rigor fitness. Not an ambit, turner. Email us at your fantasy football at jeepile.com

If you're sleeping Any car If you're above eight years old and you sleep on your stomach Like you should fix that How dare you? I'm like I like burrow under the pillow Like a like a dockson You know what you should also do is a pillow

If you're on your back A pillow under your legs is also good for your back I've heard Oh because you raise your feet That makes sense God getting old is the worst God All right Speaking of getting old

Let's hit I think he'll be fine Yeah, staff, I actually agree, Dinkai. I think it'll be fine. And then it'll take one hit and we'll be like, why the fuck did we draft any of the Rams? Yeah, I'm terrified. A bit of a house of cards, but that's okay. Okay.

Let's get to the running back tiers. And again, running backs are like the backbone, if you will, of your fantasy football team. Usually decide if you win or lose. And just a reminder on how we try to do these tiers, which is basically everyone puts out rankings and stuff, but the reality is if you really want to have success in your draft, try to have tiers because it's really about understanding,

you know, you can rank these groups of running, backs however you want, but we want to get the groups right. And the perfect example is this first tier we have of running backs of Saquan Barkley from the Eagles, Jamir Gibson and the Lions, Bja Robinson, and the Falcons, I don't care which way you rank them. You could convince me of Gibbs going first, Bejohn going first, Sequin going first. The point is those are pretty clearly the top three in our minds and frankly in most people's minds this year. And the point is we're to go through each tier and we're going to make sure we get the buckets right. But the order within the buckets, we don't really care. We just want to get the groupings correct because that is really how

you can make the decision when your TikTok, TikTok, TikTok on the lock and you're looking and there's 10 receivers you're happy with it. It's your second receiver and one running back. You're like, think the running back. That was like a subtle Kesha reference there. TikTok on the, yeah, brush my teeth, bottle jack. She just has an album coming out. Yeah.

I have a small quibble. I think you could put Derek Henry in the top tier. DK, hold on here. Wait, hold on. Let me, hold on. I got to Google Derek Henry age. Dickey's 31 years old. So that's fine.

How do you think, does he think he sleep in his stomach? He had 1,900 yards and 18 touchdowns when he was 30. second most yards of his career to start, you know, that was the second best season of Derek Henry's crew. It was by far the best offense.

Derek Kennedy had 2,000 yards from scrimmage. That was one of the, I think that the most like simple analysis we had last year when we were into Derek Henry was like, the Titans were last in yards before contact for Kerry. The Ravens were first. Derek Henry's really hard to tackle.

That's it. When he gets going. Yeah. And it's fun. Well, I mean, we can just jump into Henry if you want. I mean,

and that's fine too. Sequin, Bichon, on Gibbs. Honestly, this is a good place to start. If anyone belongs here, so if Henry, the argument against Henry, he's 31, but I'm kind of gonna fucking hear it.

Like, he's like, these arguments about Derek Henry. Yeah, I don't want to hear, like, he's almost like a receiver in that, like, until the falloff happens, I don't really want to hear about the fall off anymore. Call me when he slows down.

He had the second best. So I think the argument against him is basically the Ravens led the league in yards, third most points. And Ravens were really healthy. And they're probably not going to do that. again. So if the Ravens score less, Derek Henry will score less.

And then, you know, he was like 40 touchdowns, which that's what I can say. That's, well, that's the flip side. The Ravens had twice as many passing touchdowns as rushing touchdowns last year.

It's usually way closer to 50-50. So if the Ravens do repeat what they did last year, the Ravens do just score 500 points again. Derek Henry could have 24 touchdowns. Like, shout out Scott Barrett reported that out to me. Like last year, if they had 50-50 past touchdown rate, Derek Henry would have had like 25 touchdowns. No one's had 20 rushing touchdowns in his.

season in 20 years. So, like, that is the upside if the Ravens' offense remains like a top three offense in the league. Also, do we think that the Ravens' offense is going to get worse? It's such an incredible offense. I mean, it might be efficiency-wise. It might be slightly worse, but this is still going to be

a very good offense. Pretty much every year that Lamar Jackson has started, they've been a very good offense. The game within the game to how the rankings kind of sort out in projections and models is one of the things that happened to Eric Henry last year is he had, you know, like three or four points per game,

or sorry, yeah, three or four points above expectation per game. Basically a similar player and a similar thing, like would only score 15 points per game. Derek Henry had like 19. The models that spit out those numbers

are not designed for an offense where Derek Henry is doing a read option with Lamar fucking Jackson. Like those things were not designed to measure that. The ultimate nightmare for a defense. Can you imagine? It is the best thunder, Lightning duo in the history of the NFL.

We almost, I actually think it's an underrated story that, like, Lamar Jackson sticks the ball in Derek Henry's gut and then, like, reads the defense. That's crazy. And so, yeah, I actually think we can expect Derek Henry to have three points per game of expectation. It's fine. So, yeah, D.K. Frankly, the only reason people aren't projecting it is fear.

Like, I think it's fear that Derek Henry's 31 and you're going to project a 31-year-old running back as a top five pick. But, like, I have no problem in taking Derek. Like he's sick. Also, just this is not a huge, this is not super significant, but the Bravens did nothing at running back this offseason. Justice Hill. They extended Derek Henry. Rashina Ali.

Someone named Marcus Major Jr. Oh, sure. On their roster. Sure. Dernus Johnson. So they're running it back, like, so to speak. And I think, you know, he's just still going to be like the engine of his offense. When they're trailing, I think Justice Hill will get more play.

And that's always kind of the worry with Derek Henry. I think this is going to be a very good team still. I'm okay. So it's going to be a very good team. So, well, all right. Well,

then do we put Christian McCaffrey in tier one? No. I say no, just because I think he fits nicely with the next tier, which I think is probably Devon A. Chan and Ashton Janty, where it's like, could they be the number one running back in fantasy? Absolutely.

But there is just way more uncertainty than with the higher tier. Sequin Gibbs and Robinson all come with a little bit of security where you kind of know, outside of an injury, like they're going to be okay. Devon Aitchan is relying on his quarterback to stay healthy for him to be good. Chris McCaffrey is relying on both of his Achilles to hold up. Bilateral Achilles. But this.

And Ashton Genti, I guess Ashton Jentee perhaps is a little bit safer, but it's just because he's a rookie, I guess you have to factor that in. But, you know. I agree overall with this tier. I mean, I had Sequin, Bijon, and Gibbs is basically like you could take them first in your entire draft. No one's going to blink an eye. And then I had easily could finish as the number one overall running back as the next tier, no one would really be surprised, which is I had McCaffrey. Afry, Derek Henry, Gentie, and A. Chan.

To your point about A. Chan, I do just want to shout out that the argument, you could also argue A. A. Chan could go on that tier, which it's probably iffy because, honestly, it just comes down to this for me. The split with Tua is crazy. When Tua played last year, or just sorry, when Tua plays with A. Chan, A. A. Chan is 20 points per game. It's like Sequin, Gibbs, Healthy McCaffrey, Bejohn, and A. He's right there. And when Tua doesn't play, Devon A. A. Chan is literally around Alex Madison and post-injury Nick Chub. like eight points per game. Like that is, the split is crazy.

So it's a parlay where you need two to be healthy and A Chan to be healthy. Yeah. However, the upside is A chance the number three receiver in the offense.

It's like Tyreek, what was Joe passed it to the Italians and like kicking and screaming, which how does that go again, Craig? The quote? The screaming passing.

Yeah, just pass it to the Italians. Well, I know, but it's been two years since we referenced it. Like the Will Ferrell movie kicking screaming

where he's just like, he's just like, he's not to a Chinese. He's like two Italian kids on the team, and he literally makes all the other terrible soccer players on the team only pass it to the two Italian kids at all times. Like they're- What's the offense? Fats to the Italians.

And it's like the Miami offense is just Waddle Hill. It's like Devon A-Chan is an Italian in this offense. He's the number three guy. They're going to give it the three people. And A-chan literally last year led running backs and targets and receiving yards and receiving touchdowns and everything. But he also owns the goal line work last year in Miami because Devon A-H-N got like, he's on the field for like 80% of

the snaps inside the five, which is like more than Seekwan, which I'll say that again, A-N was on the field inside the five more than Seekwan. But here's the thing. You know who doesn't run the tush-push? Tua. Tua is the least likely player to score Russian touchdown of any quarterback in the NFL. So like... So they're handing it off.

Yeah. So if A-N keeps the goal line work, I was like, oh, maybe he's in this tier. But now, Miami's Tyree kills making fun of A-Chain as a short yardage back. I think they're trying Ollie Gordon and Jalen Wright. So I think H. I'm fine to keep him off. But McCaffrey, though, literally outside of just, I'm afraid he'll get hurt.

Yes. Is there any argument McAfree should not be in the top tier? It's just if he gets hurt, you'll feel stupid. That's literally it, though. Yeah, well, because phrase it this way, say Quan Jemir Gibbs, Bejan Robinson, Derek Henry, if they were to have bad seasons, you wouldn't feel stupid for drafting them.

You'd be like, well, it was a smart calculated decision. I got unlucky. If you draft McCaffrey and he gets hurt in week three and he misses the season, you'll feel like a moron. But isn't the number one of rule? If you draft Devon A-chan and Tua gets hurt, you'll feel like a moron. But isn't the number one rule

we've probably agreed on on this podcast that Warren Buffett be bold when everyone's afraid and be afraid when everyone's bold and everyone's afraid of drafting McCaffrey

meanwhile. Are we being afraid? They're not that afraid. He's a first rounder for us. That's fair. I just, yeah, no, I think that's fair. I guess.

I'm just saying philosophically the way you think about it is if you took Jemir Gibbs first overall and he didn't have a good season, I don't think you can criticize yourself for doing that. If you took McCaffrey

first overall, he gets hurt week three. I think you would feel stupid. Like Lucy pulling the football away. Fair, but just, and I think that McAfree to me is similar to Sequin. Where there's, if we told, if I told you every running back play 17 games, the top two picks are probably Sequin and McAfree, right? Yeah. It's funny.

Yeah. Every running back plays 17 games. And Derek Henry. It's probably Seqon McCaffrey and Derek Henry. And it's like Sequin McCaffrey Henry. I'm just saying. So frankly, and I think this goes back to the conversation around Saquan Gibbs and B. Jean. The argument against Sequin is not Sequin.

Didn't have a great year last year. Obviously, just to reiterate, Sequin, literally, if you include the playoffs, the most rushing yards in the history of the NFL in one season. That's what Sequin did last year. $2.500. Yeah, crazy. 482 touches. Yes, the argument against him is he had almost 500 touches in one year.

It's wild. Such a dainty word. Yeah. 480 touches is like 400 collisions. Right. Like, that's a, he was tackled 400 times by an NFL defender. Like, that's what a touch is. And so that's the argument against him. the people who've done that get hurt the next year.

The other half are incredible. But if we knew Sequin and McCaffer going to be healthy, like McCaffrey in particular is going to be on the field 19 out of every 20 plays. I'm just going to, so to me it becomes a matter of risk tolerance. Yeah. If you are like listening and you're like, why would I take a player, like Sequin who had the second most touches of the 21st century first, then like you have permission to not take Sequin.

That's fine. But if you're listening, you're like, football's violent. Anyone could get hurt. Sequence is a physical freak. How would I not take Sequin? That's also fine. I think the McAfrey thing, I think is the same thing. Because when we do our weekly rankings at fantasyf football.com,

every week McCaffrey's healthy. I think it's fair to say. We're going to have McCaffrey first or second every fucking week. Is that not fair? Every week until he gets hurt. So I'm just putting that out there for people, to be clear. This is kind of morbid, I guess. But the McAfrey thing kind of reminds me of like, you know,

when someone who's like super rich dies and you're like, fuck, like they died, I'm fucked. you know what I mean like they have every resource available to them on the planet and they died I am fucking gonna I'm a goner uh that's kind of how I feel with McCaffrey because he's like such a freak like with his body in terms of working out and you know highly tuned machine and then the fact that he came into last year he's like oh yeah if there's a game tomorrow I'd be playing blah blah blah and then he just didn't play for like however however it was like two months to me I'm like I don't know if I trust this person anymore like the flip so

But it's a year off from getting hit. He's actually kind of fresh. Yeah. No. No, but he got hurt again when he came back in. Two Achilles injuries. No. He had some other injury too, didn't he?

Yeah, he did. He hurt his knee. Yeah. So I'm like, we did this already. We did this. Like in 2020, he, he's a human being. He's, I feel less confident now in Christian McAfrey's saying healthy. Like, Derek Henry is immortal.

Look, in 2020, or whenever we did that six years ago, he was like 23 years old. Now he's 29 coming off. bilateral Achilles injury where he basically didn't play the entire year. I feel like it's reasonable. I mean, again, he is a first round of him. He's like the sixth pick for us in drafts. Fine. Every position we get one player.

There's not that much of a look at this guy. We try to have a one player tier every year. One position gets their own tier. And I think McCaffrey has to be. I think of Chan and McAfee are right there together. Okay, fine. So McCaffrey, A. Chan, yeah, that's fine. And then I think we put Gentie in there.

So, Derek, I'm not going to fight you guys if you think. Would you, but if someone took Derek Henry first overall, you'd be like, yeah, sure. Yeah, I think so, I guess. I'm not going to argue. Because like some places... I don't think it's wild. It's purely how you feel about him being 31 and whether Derek Henry should be compared to other people.

For the first tier, it's less like if someone took this guy first, would you be weird? And more like, you're super happy getting one of these guys. I want to get someone in this tier. Like if you're in an auction draft or whatever, I want one of these four as the foundation of my team. Like, do you feel like he fits into that tier? Is he like, I get weighed a little, spend a little bit less on this.

You're not Derek Henry every year we do this. You're right. You're right. I think he's in that top tier. I don't think him being 31. Like he's clearly at this point, like genuinely the physical outlier in football of the, of the, he's like Tom Brady. Right. He's changed what it should be.

To your point, Tiki, you know what I thought of when you're saying that is you're actually speaking of Tom Brady. When he won with the bucks, you're compared Tom Brady's legacy to Alexander the Great and that he was so, he would lead back. soldiers in a battle and he was so good on the front lines that everyone around him thought that they couldn't die. Right. Because they were around Alexander the Great. And that's how you feel when you draft Derek Kennedy. Like if Derek is in your fancy football team, you're like, I am immortal. Yeah, you're Ryan Gosling and the good guys. Yeah. Or the nice guys. Never going to die. I don't think I can die. Do you fall? Did you, you fell off the room. All right. So that's the tier one is I'm never going to die. I don't think I can die. Sequin B. Jean Gibbs and Derek Kennedy,

I'm never going to die. And then you're right. Tier two is the, I might die. I'm going to die trying, which is McCaffrey H.N. Gentie? That seems right, actually. Okay. I think the Gentie version is like

he's a rookie and we're putting an awful lot on. Yeah. It's like, you know, we don't know what he looks like on an NFL field. Am I over indexing? I thought that's pretty good. Trent, Trent Richardson is the only thing holding me back from going all in on Gentie. Yeah.

So I'm going to die trying. Okay. That I actually think, despite all the arguing, I think that's the easy part. Are there any other, before we move on? Can you put Jonathan Taylor up there? I thought about it a lot. I think you can.

I'm very interested in what you think, D.K., because I, most, every other fantasy place does not have Jonathan Taylor in this spot, which is very, with McCaffrey, Genty, A. Chan, which is weird because Taylor is as talented as those guys and plays as three down back, but the cults might suck. So a lot of places don't have him there. And I struggle with it because I'm like, he's Jonathan Taylor. Like how could he be lumped in with like, Breece Hall,

but I get it. He had 1,400 yards rushing and 11 touchdowns last year quietly. He averaged almost 17 points per game in fantasy. And I think there's meat on the bone there. Obviously, like, I think the reason you're exactly right, the reason people aren't as excited about him is because of the horrific vibes

around Anthony Richardson and Daniel Jones. But I think, you know, at the end of the day, they're still going to lean on him to be a huge, part of their offense. And, you know, he had 11 touchdowns last year in a dysfunctional offense. So I don't know. I just feel, I still feel confident in him being a super high volume.

He's one of the very few running backs in the NFL that still can be called a bell cow back. And so I don't know, I still, even though he has a lower ceiling probably because of the offensive environment, he's still in this group to me. I'm actually so glad you said that, D.K., because when I made my rankings, I had Taylor in this tier. And then I looked and basically everywhere else, Taylor was like not part of it. and I cowarded it out and moved him, and I want to put John Tiller back.

Craig, do you feel that way? I want John Tiller in with A. Chanon. Gentie. He's so tricky because I do think he's one of the most talented running backs in the league. I mean, he was the RB1 in 2021. That was a while ago. But he obviously has the talent, everything around it. I think there's just something about the Colts that hold me back.

The Colts are projected to score the 7th, 6th or 7th, least points in the league this year. I think last year I had Jonathan Taylor on my fantasy team and having him attached to the like Anthony Richardson show was so upsetting and difficult because every time they'd get close, Richardson would throw some horrible pass, get intercepted. I think it almost is like less fun to draft him

even if at the end of the year it ended up working out. I mean, a lot of his statistics were very backloaded. Even like his week 18 game, he had like 200 yards and that did a lot for his year. So if you look at what? what he was doing for the first eight weeks of the season, he was not a great pick. So I'm a little more lukewarm on him, I think,

although I think he's a great player. Bad team, bad name. If John Taylor's name is Devon A-chan, you know what I mean? We would put him in this tier straight up, but his name's Jonathan Taylor. But I agree. To me, he's the fluid one.

I think ultimately I'm okay moving him down one tier, even though I kind of feel bullish on him this season. And this tier, and nuts and bolts, what it means is there's this whole second tier, our receivers we'll get to in our next episode, but there's like Brian Thomas's and Drake London's and Ladd McConkies and AJ Browns and all these like great receivers. And this is kind of what we're, and we'll talk about that obviously in context. It's like, who are you taking before after?

And gut check, like I'm probably going to take AJ Brown before Jonathan Taylor, which is kind of what we're talking about to a degree, but we'll see. Okay. Yeah, let's move him down just to, you know, play conservative on that one. Okay. So anything else you want to talk about with these guys, Gentie, Henry McCaffrey, Bijon Gibbs, Seyquan, which we actually didn't talk about a ton. Now, those are you're set and forget, guys.

Okay. All right. Let's keep rolling with running back rankings, but first, let's take a quick break. This episode is brought to you by Yahoo Fantasy. Yahoo! Fantasy is the best place to play fantasy football this season. Yahoo! Fantasy is dropping 28 big new features over 28 days throughout August. They just dropped Yahoo! Yahoo!

A killer new way to play on Yahoo! With the lowest scoring team gets eliminated weekly until one is left standing. and give this new moody try or stick with classics and private head-to-head leagues or public leagues played today at Yahoo! Fantasy.com slash

the ringer. Can you imagine if, so we're bringing back the Ringer Fantasy Football League, we're doing a live stream draft on Monday, August 25th with a bunch of people, Bill, Sean, Chris,

Van Mal, the three of us. Can you imagine if we did a guillotine league and Bill was just out after week one? Oh my God. That's like a fun format to play that. That's pretty funny though. You need a little.

like you basically need 14 to 18 teams maybe we do that next year. That's a good idea. Like you just get chopped. It's pretty true anarchy. Mm-hmm. And then you draft the players on the team that was eliminated. It's crazy.

It's just a draft every week. It's a state sale every week. It's unbelievable. That's how old I am. I'm looking at those now. Okay. Let's get to the next group here. I'm just going to tell you guys up front.

This tier is wrong. I try to, you guys made your tears. I made mine. I'm reading mine here and we can tweak them. but this one, I'm just going to tell you everyone at it. Jonathan Taylor for the cults, Josh Jacobs for the Packers, Bucky Irving for the Bucks, Kiron Williams for the Rams, Chase Brown for the Bengals,

Ken Walker for the Seahawks, James Cook for the Bills, Breeze Hall for the Jets, Omerian Hampton for the charges, Alvin Camara for the Saints, James Connor for the Cardinals, Chuba Hubbard for the Panthers. I am so deeply aware that Chuba Hubbard should not be in the same tier as like Jonathan Taylor and Josh Jacobs and Chase Brown. but I don't know where to cut the deck on this group

because every time I try to do a slice of a tier, I'm like, is O'Maryon Hampton for the Chargers really in a different tier than Kenneth Walker? Is Kenneth Walker really in a different tier than Kyron Williams? I just feel like I'm looking at color shades and a wall at Home Depot, and I'm like, I don't know where it stops being.

You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think most of this tier is correct. According to mine, I basically shaved off James Connor and Chuba Hubbard and kept the rest. That's the, yeah. Okay. So you would say it's most of it.

D.K., do you agree with that? Yeah, I think I still am looking at James Cook and feeling like he feels out of place here. I agree. But so like if I was going to do this and we were just going to kind of like blank slate it, I would probably drop James Cook below or Marian Hampton and then cut it there. I feel, I kind of feel similarly, DK. You know why? If you stop trying to think like,

if you think less just who's going to score what points and more like, are you excited to click on this player? Like hit the draft button. If I get Jonathan Taylor, yeah, I want him on my team. Josh Jacobs, I want him on my team, a little less so. Bucky Irving, I want him on my team. Kyron, yes. Chase Brown, yes.

Ken Walker, okay, there's upside. They suck less year, but the Searks are better on the offensive line. James Cook, honestly, that's where I, kind of feel like I'm paying for the career year. Because James Cook to me is like the Terry McLaurin of running backs where, I mean, the same way Terry McLaurin just had his friendship, like the 13 touchdowns. Like James Cook had two touchdowns and then two touchdowns. And last year he had 16.

He led the NFL. I saw this. He led the NFL in goal to go rushes. He tied with Josh Jacobs. And to me, so he's the weirdest quote unquote leadback in this group. All these other guys are very clear cut. or at least what we think right now, the leadback in their,

in their offense. And James Cook is technically the leadback, but he plays less than 50% of snaps. He gets less than 50% that carries. You know, he just really, really went off in the touchdown department. I think he's a really good running back.

But in an offense like this with the bills where they spread the ball around so much, would it surprise you if his touchdown total fell to like seven or something this year? And it still will be probably considered a solid season for him. And, you know, obviously Josh Allen is stealing goal line. reps in goal and carries and maybe it's just variance.

He doesn't get as many goal to go rush attempts this year. And I think that's, he doesn't have the, the safety of volume that the other guys in this tier have. James Cook only had like a thousand and nine rushing yards last year. And so, yeah, I agree. And he's also doing like a, he's also not practicing real quick. Elena Getsenberg, ESPN had a funny. It's holding out.

On Sunday, she, he wasn't practicing. And James Cook asked, she asked like, James Cook, why? and he said business. And then she asked James Cook if it was his choice to not practice and he said business. And then they asked, are you holding in?

And he said, business. And then they said, are you going to practice tomorrow? And he said, business. And then he's quite literally standing on business.

I was going to say, and then he's like, is it not clocking to you? That I'm standing on business? Standing on business. Yeah. So any, long story short,

I get it from James Cook's perspective because he had 16 rushing touchdowns, which is what Derek Henry had. And he's like, I probably want $15 million. And I also get, how the bills are like, you're not Derek Henry, we're not going to give you $15 million. So I think that the bills kind of lowballed him and then James Cook was upset.

I think he, I think that another situation where they get the deal done, I think it's less likely than like Terry McLaurin or Michael Parsons, which I think is like a lock that those guys signed. I think James Cook is going to end up signing. But overall, like, yeah, this is a team thinking about the Super Bowl. Like, I wouldn't be surprised if Ray Davis mixes more in in Buffalo. I agree, D.K. overall. Should this tier just be John Taylor, Josh Jacobs, Buck, Irving, Kyron Williams, Chase

Brown. and to me, O'Marion Hampton with maybe Ken Walker on the borderline because Marion Hampton to me is the guy where the Najee Harris situation. Najee Harris is not practicing, still has totally changed everything. Yeah. Right, Craig? Because basically

what we all thought would happen week eight this year where Omerian Hampton Hampton ends up taking over as kind of like the lead guy is happening right now because Najee Harris isn't at practice. And so if Amerian Hampton has all those reps and just is the starting running back the entire summer, while Najee Harris can't take glasses off because you can't look

into the sun right now. Omerian Hampton, like, as a talent, I was out on him three weeks ago because they really like Najee Harris. Jim Harbaugh, love Najee Harris. I thought it was going to be a true split. Greg Roman famously splits all of his backfields. He's only had one running back with over 200 carries since he was in Baltimore. So I was like, look, as good as Omerian Hampton is, like, the workload is not going to be

there. Now I'm starting to shift the other way. And I'm like, man, if the workload is there, talent-wise, I think he's like Jonathan Taylor good. And so if you can get that in this offense that's going to run the shit out of ball with a good offensive line, I don't know. Lots of goal line opportunities.

This guy should be much higher. I totally agree because, again, just Najee Harris, we thought he was going to get these reps, and that's the thing. So, Marion Hampton's getting these first team reps. And Najee Harris, just to reiterate, so there was a Fourth of July fireworks incident. We don't totally know what happens still,

and we didn't want to comment on it. But at this point, I think it's worth saying, we keep joking that the same way Mark Andrews last year, nothing structurally wrong after his car accident, but clearly wasn't healthy. What Najahe Harris's his agent said was it was a superficial eye injury. And just to delve into that for one second,

what superficial literally means is on the surface. Surface of your arm, that's probably no problem. The surface of your eye super fucking important. That matters. So a superficial eye injury, a surface eye injury could be very... It's not just fissial. It's superficial. Yeah, it could be like super official.

So like, if it was like, oh, he'll show up to camp. We'll see. He's walking around practice in a weighted vest. That is what Najee Harris is doing on August 5th. So like, and I don't mean to joke. about it. It's very serious. We have no idea what happened to his vision. Like it might, you know, not going to go ahead speculate, but like, it could be very serious.

Having said that, he's clearly not close to playing. And they said no time table for his return. There's no timetable. So like, and I don't want to joke too much because like, there's a chance not sure Harris's entire career is affected. But the brass tax of that is, so Marion Hampton's getting all these first team reps that we thought

would come out of. So I just think he's a week one starter. And it's one of those that, this is where the weird meta of fantasy rankings are way down by best ball, which I'm not going to get into, but there's like average draft position that's weighted from previous assumptions. So if we just started from scratch, I think Omerian Hampton would be a top 25 draft pick. And you're going to be able to get a 40th. And so I think he just belongs in this group with people that you wouldn't be surprised if they were like, oh, top five, like could these guys be top five?

And you wouldn't shock. Jonathan Taylor, yes, Josh Jacobs, yes, Bucking Irving, yes, Kyrne Williams, yes, Kyrne Williams, yes, Chase Brown, yes. And I think Omerian Hempden belongs there. And then the next tier to me is guys, I would be a little surprised, which is Ken Walker, Breeze, Breast Hall, Camara, and Chuba. Yeah. Angie Harris, let's say, like, didn't play a snap this year. I think Hampton would be right next to Jonathan Taylor and Josh Jacobs. I think that's firmly where he should be. And, DK, can you remind us about Amerian Hampton's skill set at North Carolina?

Because, like, Amerian Hampton's an impressive runner. And at a year without Ashen Gentie, probably would have gotten a lot more hype. Yeah, big physical has a history of heavy volume as a runner. Can feature in the passing game. He's not like a super great pass catcher in terms of his route or anything like that, but he is reliable in the passing game. and just, you know, a turbo boosted acceleration, which I always love just because it means you can do so much

when you don't have that much in front of you. Break tackles, avoid tackles, you know, make something out of nothing. He definitely has all that. He looks weird in eight, though, I will say. We saw a Hall of Fame game. He's number eight. Yeah, he chose the number eight.

Which is, I don't know, it just doesn't look right, but that's fine. I think he'll still be good. I think he'll be able to overcome that. On his team, what would you have opted for? What would you have recommended? His number in college was 20. He might just be going.

A lot of players do that where they just like take one of their numbers off. Two would have been better maybe. Well, I will say sometimes half the time the answer is like how many guys were taking ahead of him, which also on the Netflix series with Amon Ra, he answered why he wears the number 14. Did you guys see this? Yeah, his wife. Yeah. His girlfriend.

He asked his girlfriend how many receivers are drafted ahead of me and she said 14. And then a year in he's like, you know, I counted. It was 16. She's like, really? And he was like, she's like, she's like, Like, damn, my bad. Just counted wrong. Yeah.

Yeah. So that's what we just were to wear one number. It's like half the number. Yeah. I will say, when you look at pictures of him wearing 28 versus wearing just eight, it makes him look skinnier. Of course. Well, that was to do in Malik neighbors. I was convinced Malik neighbors wearing eight actually made him look slower.

And you know what? Because it's a round fat number compared to like number one or so. And now Malik neighbors looks one and he looks faster. Yeah, aerodynamic. Exactly. I don't mind eight. Is that bad? I kind of think eight's okay.

Didn't Gus Edwards wear eight? Am I making that up? Sounds right. Bottom line, though. You were four for the charges left. Four is gross. Four is awful. Four is crazy.

It's gross. Super ugly. What are the least aesthetic numbers? One through ten? Four and six? Can we do quick? Who's in this tier is like, what was he? 41 or something like that?

Quick, unprepared, impromptu. Can we just quickly draft running back numbers right now? So what are, what's available? One through zero to one? What are you telling them? Zero to 99. No, so now, now, now, they changed the rules. It used to be different, but now it's one through 49.

Oh, one through 40. Yeah, right. You're right. Yeah. And 80 through 89. 49 probably last. Previously, it was 20 through 49. Now you can do single digit.

No, you can do zero because Deontre Swift was zero. Yeah, you can do. Part of these things. I feel like the 40s are the obvious worst numbers. However, I feel like if one guy came in and made it cool, it's like, it's like one like, that's like, Camara, Camara is 41. He didn't make it cool. That's a great call.

He'd be the perfect player to make the 40s cool and he never did it. This is why DK's the Vines King. No, DK's the Vines King. You're 100% right. You see any other player in 40s? You're like, oh, God, he's getting cut. He's getting cut. He's on special teams.

He pulled it off. No chance. He did pull it off for sure. No, DK is right. 41 sucks, even though Camara is incredible. I don't know. I was like, Ashton Gentie was like 44 and just crushed. That'd be kind of cool.

It's like Margo Robbie bringing back the name Margo. What is actually? It's like now the name Margo is cool because of it. Oh, you're going to name your daughter, Margo? Maybe. Yeah, named after Margo Robbie, you know. I'm not naming her after Margo Robbie, but it's, it's now allowed me to realize that Margo's a nice name.

Okay. Sure. If anybody named Margo's that bad, if anybody named Margo listening, you have a pretty name. No, the name's not that bad. I can't hear you over backpedaling. You named your daughter after Margo Robbie. So, yeah. Naming her after Margo Robbie, after the amount that you guys talk about.

Wolf of Wall Street. I just saw that scene Wolf of Wall Street. Reminded me what I want my daughter. Yeah. Yeah, totally. Yeah, my two daughters,

Margo and Anora. Oh, God. Margo and Sydney. That one I feel like is a little more reason. Genties number two. Well, yeah, you're right. Which I think looks kind of sick.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I still kind of think skill players I'm a traditional. The 20s I think still are the coolest. Yeah, I think it's my oldest take. 28, Peterson, 21.

21 LT. Yeah. It's, yeah, those are, those are, I respect the hell out of Camara. He's a,

he's a trailblazer. He is. If it's though, real quick on Hampton, before the show, I moved him up right under Josh Jacobs. Yeah, we're gonna move up.

I moved him way up. I moved him way up. If you want to follow along, we're going to update it. But I agree. I think that we'll see where it ends, again, it's August 5th.

It's too bad because sometimes we're on top of stuff, but then it's like by August 30th. When you draft, it's like all the advantages go away. But I do think, O'Marion Hampton is that rookie that if we had known,

Najee Harris wouldn't play, is like maybe ranked 16th, and he's started 44th, and now it's like maybe there's that value, we'll see. But I think just to reiterate, we're saying that the top tier is like Sequin B, Jean-Jemir Gibbs,

and like Derek Henry. Then we're saying it's like Christian McCaffrey, Devon H. Dash and Genti, elite guys with risk. And we're saying this next tier here, guys that if you get in the third,

basically third round guys we like, fourth round, great value. The last guy who could theoretically be the number one running back in your team and you're not pissed. Yeah, that's a great way to think of it. Jonathan Taylor for the Colts, Josh Jacobs for the backers, Buckierving for the Bucks, Kairn Williams for the Rams, Chase Brown for the Bengals, and Omeran Hampton for the Chargers. I think that makes sense.

I think that's right. I think that's right. I think if Camer is your number one running back. That makes you nervous. You're like a little nervous. If Camer is your number two, you're like, damn, Camara's my two? I feel great about that. If Camer is your eyes just float down to your receivers and tight end and you're trying

to talk yourself into it. You're like, yeah, but I have. Yeah. I have Justin Jefferson at A.G. Brown and hurts. So, Camaro is my number one. I think this is very spiritually right. That feels right, even though if statistically at the end of the season, that ends up being wrong, it feels right. Alvin Camara is the RB6 each of the last two years.

But you're right that it feels, it would not feel great to have to be your number one. I just, you're just really banking. Again, it's going to be Spencer Rattler competing with Tyler Shuck. And I'm not, I'm like Derek Hart's least. It sounds like Rattler might be leading this quarterback competition right now. Who knows? not Derek Carr. Like,

I'm not Derek Carr's, but I actually might be Derek Carr's least favorite person in media, but like I'm just, Derek Carr is different than Tyler Shuck. I do,

I will say, though, I think if we're going by that rubric, if you have Ken Walker as your number one running back, you're nervous. If you have James Cook as your number one running back,

that makes you nervous. Totally. Resall, same deal. Yes. Hampton, I think is the last guy. Camara,

as your number one back is nerve wracking. As there's number two back, you're like, okay, that feels. So is Hampton? I think that's right. Are we saying Hampton's the top of the tier that makes you nervous or the bottom of the tier?

No, I think he's in the, I think if he's in the bottom of the tier, you feel okay, I think. Yeah. And if Naji starts practicing or something and Harbo's like, he's fine. We're going to work him in. We can move him down in tier. But if that's not happening, I'm like, the other guys in this team are Kamani Vidal. And like, I think that's the right move. I'm really happy you guys agree that Breece Hall is not in this tier that makes me feel good.

No, it's just like you feel great about him as your number two. That's the right rubric. I like, that's, that's, that's, I would say I'm the most bullish on Breeze Hall. and it still makes me just a little bit nervous based on everything that's coming out of camp. Anything else you guys want to say about Cook, Kyron Williams, we talked about Chase Brown a couple weeks ago. We love Chase Brown. Chase Brown again, who's just, I think, one of the last running back that's going to play like 80% of snaps. Like he's going to play all the time.

Yeah. Zach Moss was released. I don't know if we talked about on the show, but that's kind of like the last barrier that. Not that he was ever a huge danger, but to me and now I'm like, okay, that football is so fucking brutal. I didn't think we talked about Zach Moss in this episode. I do don't want to just say. Zach Moss broke his neck in three places at some point last year. They think it was during the Patriots game in week one or week two. And he played for like six weeks.

Yeah. With a sore neck, didn't tell anyone because he just, you know, that's life at the edge of the roster. And then eventually he lost feeling in his like half a body and thought he was having a stroke. And so he like goes in and the x-ray him and his neck's fucking broken. And so they come in and then it gets next,

or no, he was going to get surgery, he didn't get surgery. So he'd arrest it. Rest it. comes into camp non-football injury list because he's out of shape. And that is not a football,

even though he broke his neck playing football, does not get put on the football injury list, gets put on the non-football injury list because that's conditioning. And then they cut him. It's a brutal sport. They threw him a little extra money to cut him. They threw him like $300,000 to cut it,

but like got fired. And football is fucking brutal. So I just wanted to shout at Zach Moss. You don't think about those guys, but that's fucking crazy. Play with a broken net for two months. Anyway. Okay.

Next group of running backs here, I have this tier as basically like 1A backs and it's basically well ironically plus David Montgomery so David Montgomery for the Lions who's like the best one B probably and then you're like Tony Pollard for the Titans Aaron Jones and the Vikings Isaiah Pichekko and the Chiefs

Deontre Swift on the Bears and then a trio of rookies got like RJ Harvey on the Broncos Trevion Henderson for the Patriots and Caleb Johnson and the Steelers I want to get to that rookie trio in a second but of the veterans there Craig are there any veterans that stand out to you in that group of Montgomery, Pauler Jones, Pacheco, Swift. He's quite boring.

I guess a lot of these guys are honestly pretty boring, but Isaiah Pacheco has jumped out to me a little bit, the more I kind of think about him and the Chiefs. You know, last year he broke his leg in week two, and he came back week 13. So the entire year was a wash. He came back. He definitely rushed himself back, did not look the same.

He's an incredibly boring guy, but the year before, Isaiah Pacheco was getting drafted in the third round of drafts. And now he's going outside the top 25. at the running back position. He was the RB 12 in 2023. I think the Chief's offensive line is in a better position

than it has been in the last two years. I think the Chiefs are going to try to be a bit more vertical this year, try and spread things out, move the ball down the field, which I think could help the running game out. I just think they did not do a lot behind him. They have Elijah Mitchell, Kareem Hunt.

I just think Isaiah Bacheco is a good young running back who admittedly has had some struggles with health. but... Because he runs like he bites people. Yeah, he runs like he's upset at the ground, not the players. But I'm kind of just like, I don't know, what's really the difference between why we were drafting Isaiah Pacheco in the third round last year

and now he's getting drafted in the 738th. Yeah. I think this is a really smart take, Craig. He's one of the most under-discussed and underrated values in fantasy drafts right now. It's like you're going to be attached to Patrick Mahomes. You get the lead back on the chiefs in the eighth lap. Yeah.

I think Pacheco is an argument for why maybe you want to start with a couple receivers or like a receiver in Brock Bowers because where you're like, oh, I could get Justin Jefferson and Brian Thomas or Justin Jefferson and Brock Bowers where you're like, wait, so my second running back could be Izan Pacheco, who if the chief's offense is back, where again, it should be so much faster with Worthy, Marquis Brown actually healthy and practicing, Pacheco not with a broken leg. It's a much faster offense around Kelsey. And so, yeah, I think that's a really, a good call, especially of that group. I would not be surprised if it checkers the obvious value.

D.K., the other guys in this trio, we have the rookies. Obviously, you're a draft expert at the ringer, and I want to ask you about this trio of Harvey to the Broncos, Trevian Henderson, the second round pitch of the Patriots at Ohio State, Caleb Johnson at Iowa, went to Pittsburgh. Which of these three guys are you most excited about to get on your team? Push come to shove, Treveon and Henderson, I think. I still interested and excited in Harvey, but I think them signing Dobbins creates enough. uncertainty, I guess, or whatever, just in terms of like how they're going to divvy up the roles.

With Travion, and conversely with Travion, the hype is kind of like, the hype train has left the station. It's absolutely blowing up the last week or two. They're utilizing him in the passing game. There's like videos of him running vertical routes down the sideline, like wheel routes, catching passes, catching touchdowns. In Red Zone drill, he caught like three touchdowns. Like, you can't escape the hype right now around Travion. and obviously Josh McDaniels has a history of fantasy production from his from his past catching backs. And I think that's exactly what Trevion is going to be.

And then he might even get more than that. Like he might get early down work as well. Obviously, Ramandre Stevenson is still there and I think they still like him. But he's not the most reliable guy ever. He's been hurt in the past. He's had fumbling issues in the past. Travian, I don't think. Four times last year fumbled this a couple days ago in practice.

I don't think Trayvion fumbled in college or he had like some ungodly number of carries without a fumble. He's a really, really reliable back. In a lot of ways, kind of like the inverse of Romandre Stevenson, where you just kind of like know he's going to be where he needs to be. I'm not going to put the ball on the ground. He's going to catch everything that you throw his way. And again, he's a really good, he's a really good pass blocker, so he's going to be out there when it's important, I think.

So I don't know. I'm starting to find myself getting really excited about Trayvion and Henderson. He could be one of these rookie running backs that just dramatically outplays where people are expecting him to. I kind of agree. I want to backped a little, even though like a week ago I was talking about. Basically,

my read on it was, I think everyone was too excited for Henderson. I'm like, Ramangor Stevenson, only like 27 years old. Like, he's, he's going to play.

And I checked him with a couple people who are really, who are very smart with the Patriots. And I was like, come on. Like, Ramonjad's going to play. Henderson's not going to take over him this year. Like,

teams draft for like the year after. Like, it's a part of a succession plan. And they're like, no, I think Anderson's going to take over this year. It looks a lot better. And I was like, oh, because he's more explosive, obviously, than Remindra Stevenson.

But Henderson is the kind of rookie who's going to pick up the past blocking work, all the little stuff the coaches love. He's like, you know, a lot of those are running backs of great fundamentals. And so, yeah, I think Henderson's probably going appropriately. I agree. The only other work I want to shout out here is just Archie Harvey from the Broncos really quick because of this. Harvey is another guy I was a little iffy about because people are like, oh, he's just Bucking Irving. Always a red flag for me when people are like, remember that out of nowhere guy from last year, no one expected. It's going to happen again.

I'm like, that's always a red flag. Also, he's not out of nowhere, but. Second runner. Well, you see, he was a quarterback at Virginia, and then he was a running back at UCF, so RJ Harvey's only played running back for a few years, goes to Denver. And on one hand,

I'm torn because I think that the vision Sean Payton has for RJ Harvey Harvey is Darren Sprouls. And I think Darren Sprouls, and it's like, what does that mean? It's like, oh, a lot of catches. That's good. I will say this. Just one, does that happen as a rookie?

I don't know. Now, they're saying R.G. Harvey's picking up, Sean Payton is saying that Archie Harvey is picking up the block. and stuff better than you think he's been excellent at it. We'll see how it develops. I will say this. I think that R.J. Harvey, the part no one's talking about is RJ Harvey is like Tason Hill and that RG.J.R.V. was a quarterback at Virginia.

He doesn't have to be quarterback. Quarterback. But I do think if R.G. Harvey can throw like literally three passes a year, then he's like to Taysam Hill and that a running back that has to be accounted as a thrower, kind of like a Ladanian Tomlunds. You could throw a few touchdowns a year for the Chargers. Like if Sean Payton gets a running back that has to be accounted for in the passing game,

I do think that could be like crazy. Like imagine if Darren Spores could throw. Yeah. Darren Spores could credibly throw a pass. I think Sean Payton's going to get in lab with that. I do want to put that out. I'm just in on Harvey. I honestly trust Sean Peyton with his running backs.

His teams haven't ranked lower than six in running back target shares since he's been a head coach. There's a couple stats that I want to throw at you. RJ Harvey is only the fourth running back that Sean Payton has ever selected in the first two. rounds of the draft. The others are Reggie Bush, Mark Ingram, and Alvin Camara. Reggie Bush and Alvin Camara. Good group. Saw over 100 targets their rookie year. Over 100 targets, their rookie year. No running back in the entire NFL has had over 100 targets in each of the last two seasons.

And I'm like, okay, J.K. Dobbins is there? That's fine. If he's going to get first and second down work, I don't trust his health. I don't trust him as a player really as like a ceiling lifter. I think he's a solid player. But I'm just like R.J. Harvey in this offense with the draft capital, his past catching ability, his juice, like, D.K. really liked him coming out of the draft. I just kind of think I'm not going to overthink this, and he's going to be involved. I'd say this.

You have to be patient with Archie Harvey. If you take Archie Harvey, you have to understand, like, sure, he could come out of the gate swinging. There's a chance that you're starting to start slow, and he still could be great. Oh, D.K. did the thing. We grabbed his shirt again. Everyone's coming around on Sean Payton right now.

Yeah. Well, I'm not. I will say Denver is, like, no longer anyone's, like, best kept secret, cool hot take. Everyone's in on Denver. No, not at all. Everybody thinks the problem. This is what I'm worried about.

Yeah. It's over. I agree. It's over. Any other Craig or Caleb Johnson? Any take, Steelers takes here? Oh. Yeah, where are we on Caleb Johnson?

You know, because you're kind of like a hater, not hater, but a little lower. I didn't like him coming out of the draft. I think stylistically he makes sense with other Smith, right? Like he has a Derek Henry style to him, big one-cut runner, picks up speed as he goes along, like a stiff arm or type. Derek Henry for the first three years of his career, but he wasn't great and that no one remembers. Yeah, honestly, yes. And so it's like, all right. That's who we are.

Arthur Smith wants to run. Theoretically, it's a good fit, but you mix it with Aaron Rogers. It's like the Jets threw the ball the most in the league last year because it's what Aaron Rogers wanted. Aaron Rogers was like checking out of runs all the time. I don't know. I think like there is a world in which the offensive line works out. The year two of Arthur Smith works out. And Caleb Johnson is like pretty good and works.

And the reports out of camp is that he's been good. He's got to focus more on past protection. But then also I'm like, man, I think Jalen Warren's good. This offense is going to be all over the place and might not score a lot of points. And it might just be like your typical Steelers offense. And like the Najee Harris of last year is his ceiling. So I have Jalen Warren is the first guy in the next tier. But basically, yeah, I don't know what to do with either.

I kind of just want to be out on the Steelers. I kind of want to be on this offense because you need Caleb Johnson a rookie to earn Aaron Rogers's blessing, basically, for pass protection. I think Eelon Johnson's probably going to take the goal on work because he's larger than Jalen Warren. but Jail and we're going to get the passing work, and I think it'll be like, you know, I feel like there's enough rushing here for them to have value, but not enough success in this offense.

I don't want to be excited about these guys. I don't know. Maybe Caleb gets touches. I kind of just don't want the Steelers. I just, I'd rather have R.J. Harvey. I'd rather have Trevian Anderson. Like,

yeah. The other thing, he's also going to run a lot of zone from shotgun, which is not the, Caleb Johnson ran a lot of zone in college, but he's going to have to do all that as shotgun because Aaron Rogers is going to do the Rothesburg thing. That kills the run game.

That's what, like, they want to run more, but it's all fun in games until you have to redesign your entire run game around Rogers just having to do shotgun and get the ball has to be out in 2.2 seconds, which suddenly you're putting crazy bumpers up on the bowling lane for what you're actually able to do here. And I just, we know that going in. I don't want to be part of that.

That's, I don't know. The other thing I want to add here, and I know that I recognize that I just did this with Treveon Henderson, but like mainly the thing I'm excited about with the Trevion is what they're doing in the passing game. I always think it's funny when we talk up what running backs are doing in the run game in training camp where you can't tackle.

Yeah, no, it's. It's just like guys like slapping you as you. It's like, buddy, they can't even tackle. They're like they touched you. You'll get fired if you tackle the rookie running back. I always just thought it was really hard at this time of year to really buy in on like,

you know, like with the Jets, there's all this talk of Braylin Allen looks amazing. I'm like, okay, what does that even mean? Like he's running around. Like I honestly don't know where you're getting,

like where do you get that from? If he's being really utilized, really excitingly in the scheme and passing game and all that. Like I understand getting excited about that. It was like, Braylon Allen looks awesome right now. I don't know what to take about that.

We'll see next week. We're going to have a special guest on next week. But if preseason is good for one thing, it's the running backs. The running backs is the first thing. It's when you strap them on and actually hit people. He's got it. He doesn't like you can see it.

I will say the only, you're right, DK? Like every report basically out of every camp with every running back is like, it looks explosive. It's like, sure, of course. They're NFL players running.

Like, I don't know, they're running around in the shorts. Like you ever just seen an NFL athlete? Unbelievable. The only guy who has not gotten that report in Hyfitz, we can talk about this team next. I know you want to. The only time I've ever been like, wow, the reports out of camp or that this running back has no juice. And it's very sad is Nick Chubb. Oh, yeah.

So, like, everyone, like, couches any, like, couches any, like, comment about Nick Chubb with like, eh, he's just not. So I don't know where we're going to slot this. Here's the, so the texting situation is as follows. Joe Mixon is his foot injury. And again, he was in a boot. Then he came out of the boot. now there's no timetable for his return. They're going to evaluate it closer to the season.

Joe Mixon is like a do not draft. Joe Mixon is, I don't know what's going to happen within the season. I don't know. I don't even know if he's going to play this year. But Joe Mixon's closer to like a non-factor than a guy you're taking the first 50 picks. So then Nick Chub is the next guy in Houston. But Nick Chubb, DeMica Ryan's that coach is already talking about Nick Chubb is, you know, look, guys when they get older, you know, things happen like they lose a step.

It's fine. Not even like coaches usually defend their guys and they're like, yeah, you know, people say he's lost stuff. I haven't seen it. No, Damika Ryan's like, yeah. lost him. So what? He's great and past pro. He's a pro in the running backs meeting room. Yeah, they're like, he's a terrible. He's a good person. We asked about C.J. Shroud.

He's like, oh, right, sorry. Like, I feel like, he's like going out of his way to be like, Nick Chub, not, it's okay. It's okay that he hasn't looked like the same guy. They're like, we didn't even ask about it. I think the, so I don't know who the huge of running back's going to be, but Nick Chub will have a role. I'm sure to be the nominal starter in week one, but I don't know if

he's going to make it. He certainly seems like he'll need snap counts, but he doesn't have the juice. So I think it's going to be Woody Marks, the rookie at a USC, or Damien Pierce, who got activated off PUP today. We're recording this Tuesday, August 5th. Damien's time. Damien's time. I kind of think it's going to be, I think it's going to be Woody Marks, man. But the point is, those guys are going really cheap.

We'll update our rating to move them. But I think the Texan starting running back is going to be like free because people aren't going to realize that Joe Mixon's not like, I don't. I think that that's a total up for grabs, but like throw darts at that backfield because I think Woody Marks, Damien Pierce, one of these free guys is going to end up starting there basically. So yeah, that's why we haven't talked about mixing. Woody Marks caught a ton of passes in college.

I think Woody Marks, we'll see. That's one of it's August 5th. We've got to see in the next two weeks if it's Pierce or him. But I think that one will know. They clearly don't like gaming Pierce. I mean, how many, it's no. No, I. He has not been good either outside of like the early part of his rookie year.

Or maybe his entire rookie year, he was pretty good. But then since then it's just been a disaster. Let's see how preseason goes. Because Woody Marks, I'm curious how the first preseason game goes. Because if he looks better than Pierce, that could, that you could run with literally. 261 catches in college. 20 marks. I think that could be it. So the next year here is I mentioned Julian Warren Brian Robinson Jr. for Washington where it's like no receiving work. Remandre we talked

about him. I think he's going to lose the Trayvon-Henderson. Travis E. T.N. who the Jack situation is weird. I think Craig pointed out great. Like, I think we all like take Bigsby better at E.T.N. Especially Craig was on top of that. Ever since we had that discussion, I've just heard nothing but good things about Bigsby. Bigsby is going to win that job in Jacksonville. Like he just is going to be a value. Craig was on this year. The Giants, I was going to talk about Tyron Tracey and Cam Scataboo, but honestly, Kim Skadaboo heard his hamstring or worse. in his hamstring today. He re-injured his hamstring.

It's not even worth talking about because it could be two weeks. It could be six weeks. We don't know. I thought Scott Abu had a real chance to take goal line work, receiving work. But like, we'll just see. But I kind of think just stay away from the Giants, honestly. I don't know. That's going to be a defense bleed the clock team.

Jordan Mason from the Vikings, Zach Sharboning from the Seahawks, who are just kind of like high level one Bs. Any from those tier you guys want to talk about or anything? Jordan Mason's like could be the lead back, but he's not going to catch any passes. These guys are all here for a reason. And everyone's here for very, you have like a very clear deficiency that probably won't change.

Right, you know. And then I have a tier of just, I don't know where to rank you and for guys that are unrankable. I put mixing here, Najee Harris here and also Quinshaw Judkins, who has not signed his contract with the Browns yet. Just on,

you know, when I'm going to talk about them, like, they're just total missing things. One of the final tier is here. I just have like high upside backups. Just guys that are like dart throws of just like really valuable number twos

or like starters that might suck. So you have a. mix of like, you know, I mentioned Woody Marks for the Texans. Tyler L. Gerellar for the Falcons, if Bejan Robinson gets hurt. Isaac Warendo for the 49ers, if McAfee gets her, but Isaac Garendo just hurt his shoulder. We don't know what the deal is there. Rashad White for the Bucks, Taji Super for the Titans. I think Spears might have to go up in tier.

I think Spears is going to be closer to 50-50. I think Spears of the Titans is a value. Basial Tutton for the Jags, if ETN is exiled, like maybe Tutans, like the Kirkland, A. A.C., for Jacksonville, Austin, for Cleveland, for Cleveland. Again, if Judkins is not a factor this year, and then Jerome Ford's the starter, Dylan Samson's the starter. We got to put Jerome Ford Samson somewhere.

Trey Benson, if James Connor gets hurt, Ray Davis for the bills, if anything happens with James Cook, or maybe he gets less workload. Jaden Blue for the Cowboys. Miles Sanders is also in this tier where Miles Sanders, I think he's just the starter. I don't think Javante Williams is going to start for Dallas. I've been meaning to talk to you guys about this, actually. I think the Cowboys running back situation is one of those we got to kind of like watch and talk about a little bit more.

Miles Sanders, from the reports out of camp or that he's looked just significantly better than Javante Williams. However, he has a knee injury now, or he's nursing a knee injury. I don't think it's like serious, but he's missing camp. And therefore, Jaden Blue, the rookie fifth rounder, I believe, is getting starters reps. And he's another guy who's a really good pass catcher, scored a bunch of touchdowns, explosive player. But obviously, the volume is probably going to be an issue with him. I think he's more of a, you know, thunder and lightning type of way.

He's a lightning guy. But I think the Cowboys running back situation is definitely in flux. right now. I think today, I think today's episode's important to hit the big names. Next week, when we see these preseason games, I think it's going to be really fun to dive in next week to like the running back for, I hope Jaden Blue plays. Like, you know what I mean? I want to see these running backs, like nerdier deep into these hidden gems and these back fields, like a jaden Blue. Like I want, you know, want to see Woody Marks. I hope these guys play and we'll be able to dive into that a little more next week. But as you guys were just

saying, got to see them in pads, like actually with blocking and all the stuff. And just, you know, just see the speed on the field. See the, like you can kind of tell. So we'll dive into all that. Any other of these guys you want to shout? I think those are the right names of like Miles Sanders. If he's healthy, he's probably going to start in Dallas, if not maybe Jane Blue because Giovante Williams is cooked. And then, yeah, Jerome Ford's probably started for the Browns

and with Dylan Samson until Judkin signs. And then, yeah, I think Joe makes sense cooked. So a lot of two Texas backfields and then the Browns. Yeah. Up for grabs. All right, we're going to get into a really fun conversation with Sean Fennacy, which we went all over the place. But first, just want to take a quick break.

Fandle is turning your bets into bigger. wins with a parley profit boost. That is right. Build the same game parlay or parlay, and you can boost your winnings by 30% with a profit boost. You pick the teams, players, stats, all of it. Fandle just adds a little fuel to the fire. If I was doing a profit boost, I would look at honestly just who is going to lead the NFL and rushing touchdowns. A couple names that popped to me. Devon A chance 28 to one. Omerian Hampton is 29 to one. Chase Brown is 29 to one. Chase Brown and O'Meer Hampton are two running backs that are just, sorry, Chase Brown and Devon A

out are two running backs that are going to be on the field like all the time at goal line. Maybe the Dolphin scale back Aachian in the goal line, but they didn't last year. And then Chase Brown's like a Kyron Williams S, like 90 plus percent snap guy maybe for Cincinnati is going to score a ton of points. Chase Brown 30 to one? And then you could increase that. For anyone who's on the field that much, it's like in contention, then it just becomes about health.

So that one stands out to me as something that just feels mispriced. So I'd like to make it further mispriced. And I would use my profit boost there. Whether you're betting home runs, goals or birdies, Fendell's got markets across every sport and every game. And the best part, when you win, you'll get paid instantly. Head to fendell.com slash ringer fantasy to get started. Fandle, America's number one sportsbook must be 21 plus and present in select states

or 18 plus and present in D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming, opt-in required, minimum bonus issued as non-withdrawable, profit boost tokens, restriction supply, including any token expiration and max wage or amount. See terms at sportsbook. Fandall.com. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-dash-help.com. Call 1-88-8-8-8-9-7-77-7 or visit ccppg.org slash chat in Connecticut. Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18-plus and present in D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming.

Gambling problem, call 1-800-Gambler or visit RG-d-Help.com. Call 1-888-88-78-9-777-7-7-7 or visit CCPG dot in Connecticut or visit MD-GGG help.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gambling helpline, ma.m.m.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 18778 Hope NY or text Hope NY in New York. All right, we are now joined by Ringer, Head of Content, Sean Fantasy, and more importantly, tremendously long-suffering Jets fan. And as if we couldn't make your life harder, we actually are dragging you back into the world of fantasy football in the Ringer Fantasy Football League. But most importantly, we wanted you here today because your former beloved quarterback, Aaron Rogers, a deep, deep spiritual companion of yours, is now playing for Craig's team.

And I was just curious if you had any advice as someone who just passionately would root for Aaron Rogers the last couple of years, what Craig should expect. You know what to expect when you're expecting. I actually would like to know, I don't want to know what you thought, having seen the entire season play out. I want to know what you were thinking on August 5th last year right now. August 5th last year. So between the pyramids in the season. I didn't feel good. And I have never felt good, as you guys know, but I did feel a tinge, a sprinkle of hope, of possibility.

And that obviously was a huge mistake. But I don't know how you can reasonably have that feeling. feeling right now, Craig? Like, I don't think there is justification for what you've been talking about on the show. I think two things can be true. I think this is the best thing

the Steelers could have done this year, and also I don't think the offense is going to be that good still. I think both of those things are okay where I'm happy with the decision they made. He's $13 million. He's gone next year. We have a good roster.

I think that's all okay. And still, I think Arthur Smith, Mike Tomlin, and Aaron Rogers and D.K. Metcalfe, no other wide receivers is like a really bizarre combination. And I don't think the offense is going to make any sense. And I don't know who's going to win. And the weekly fight between Arthur Smith and Aaron Rogers philosophically,

I think they're just completely at odds with the way they want to run an offense. So I think all that is like, you know, I have my concerns. However, what? Kirk Cousins, bring Russell Wilson back? I think this is fine. What about Sam Darnold? Didn't that make a lot of sense for the Pittsburgh team? No, I don't want to give Sam Darnold $100 million.

I don't want to do that. What's the difference? You're going to have to give it to somebody else next year after Aaron Rogers goes 7 and 10. You know, like, what are you waiting for? I don't want to be the guy who buys the quarterback off of Kevin O'Connell, who is maybe the best quarterback whisper in the NFL and bring him to Mike Tomlin and Arthur Smith. It just doesn't sound like a great deal for a guy who before last year was one of the biggest bust of a decade. Okay, here's what I don't get about this take.

I've been listening to you proffer this take to these two guys. and they obviously think you're completely insane and I do too. It is it's neither nihilism nor hope. Like you're trying to walk on the balance being between those two ideas, right? You don't want to get hurt, but you're like, it's the best we could do, so I'm hoping for the best.

Which is not really a take. Like you kind of need to either go all in and be like, we're going to the Super Bowl or you need to just get off the boat and be like, the Steelers should be sold. And like, you need to get on the Jets level, is what I'm saying. The Steelers are entering a jetsy territory in the last 10 years, and you need to get on our level.

It's funny you say that because I think the Jets are weirdly in a situation where you can't really have hope for what the sealing of this team with Justin Fields can be. But there is, I guess, a floor of competency now with Aaron Glenn and you're going to have like a rushing attack. You're going to have an identity. But you still have Justin Fields and you give him $40 million. It's like, aren't you kind of in that same boat? I want to know what Hyfitts and D.K. think about that, though, because that's obviously the prevailing narrative. like, oh, Jets, could they be frisky? Wow, three 800-yard rushers on the same team?

This is exciting. But the Jets are fucking horrible. Like, they're one of the worst franchises in professional sports. Do I like what I'm hearing out of training camp? Of course, because I'm an idiot. But is it possible that they're actually kind of cool? I don't think it is possible. And I also don't think that that justifies any non-take on the Steelers that you're making.

Like, make your take, man. Like, take a stand. Look, are they winning 14 games or not? That's such a podcaster's mentality. And I won't, I won't succumbed to that. I'm living in the real world, pal. I will say, you want to live in the real world. You want to live in the real world.

I think that this is brass. The gray area. Plenty of room in the gray area. The season's gray area. It's up. It's down. It's all these things. But I think the one thing Craig hasn't lived in enough is you want to talk about real life.

There is a serious chance that Aaron Rogers ends up the quarterback of the first Mike Tom and Steelers team to have a losing record. and whether you like it or not, that will be attached to Tomlin and Rogers forever if it happens. Whether it is fair or not, it will literally be Aaron Rogers was great and then like got really weird after COVID

and then he ruined Mike Tomlin's career. Like literally that's how we will remember it and that's how people will think about the Steelers is before and after Aaron Rogers. Like that is also on the table along with the Brett Farr of 09 Vikings run of like almost going to the Super Bowl. Like that is the other end of this.

The counter to that argument is that the jetseest thing of all time would be for Aaron Rogers to win 14 games in the Super Bowl. as a stealer. Now that, if that happens, what kind of bold proclamation can I make that I will not stand by one year from now? I'm not sure. It would be really hard to come back from that. Last year sucked, guys. That was awful. Watching his carcass get wheeled out there every week and pretend to be good with his touchdown interception ratio that I used to think was a meaningful stat and is completely meaningless because he's a coward and won't throw the ball down the sideline. It's pathetic. I hate him so much. Craig, seriously, fuck him. Fuck the Steelers. I can't believe this. the time about your tweet from like before the first like you're like this i i want it on the record like the first year before he tore his killer she's like i want it on the record this erin rogers experiment will fail and everyone involved will get fired we just so there you go pretty right on yeah i want to get to bold proclamations here that we won't follow up on in a moment but the last thing i want to

hit is you mentioned justin field this whole podcast has become a quarterback key party for all of us well russell wilson's played for all three of our teams and now it's like justin fields who started the first six games for the Steelers as your quarterback, and then the Aaron Rodgers they play in week one. I think Craig correctly pointed out, it's probably the weirdest, meaningless week one game or the biggest revenge, meaningless

week one game we can ever remember. How do you feel as Justin Fields as the quarterback? I feel like it's a turkey sandwich, you know? Like, turkey sandwich, solid gets you through the day. You got to have a take, Sean. What do you mean? You know, have you ever had a 14-9?

Three turkey sandwich? No. You can't just say this is okay. You can't equivocate. Come on. That's funny. What do you mean? In his defense,

Aaron Rogers being like an MVP as Super Bowl winner and also someone who played four snaps in his season, it is a pretty more volatile range of outcomes than Justin Fields. I think that Fields, I can't get out of my head, whatever the semifinal in the college football championship, you know, four years ago, right before the year before he was drafted. I can't remember which team they were playing.

I want to say it was LSU, where he was throwing darts, and then he got tackled in the back, he got hit in the back, and was badly injured. Look like he had, he basically was, like, speared by Goldberg in WCW. And he got up and he finished that game and threw two or three more touchdowns. And that was the team that had, like, Garrett Wilson and Olive. And they were, that was an unbelievable Ohio State team. And I watched that game with my wife, who watches very little football with me and even less college football with me. And we were watching that game.

And I was like, the Jets. have the second overall pick, and this guy is Dante Culpeper 2.0. This is unbelievable that we're going to get this guy. Now, the murmurs about Zach Wilson had already started at that point, but I wanted Fields. I really wanted Fields. And I think I even said that to you guys on the show. And we didn't get him, obviously, and obviously he has not had the most decorated NFL career thus far. And frankly, most people are doubting him. And honestly, I'm doubting him. I'm not going to come in here and pretend like I believe that this is where he will turn it all around. But if he's, does turn it all around.

It's a great story. And I feel like everything else that is around him at this point is weirdly underrated. Like the way that they have built up young talent, the identity of the coaching staff, the line. The fact that the AFC East is in kind of a tricky spot right now. The fact that we don't know if the pats are going to rise. The dolphins obviously seem to be doing kind of a reset. The bills already have some injury and holdout stuff going on.

there's weirdly a soft vulnerability in the AFC East for the first time in a long time. And if he's just above average, if he is the 15th best quarterback or 14th best quarterback back in the NFL, now mind you, this is exactly what we said about Aaron Rogers last year. If he's the 15th best quarterback in the NFL

with this defense, they will go to the playoffs. But if Justin Fields is just above average, I think they could win eight or nine games. This is why Justin Fields is the perfect jet, because he's flashes enough that Sean news. Like, if he's the 15th best quarterback, we can win eight or nine games and it's, meanwhile, he's going to suck.

I will say they have not had a player like Garrett Wilson in over 10 years. And so he's kind of worth the price of admission for me. Like, I will just watch every game because I want to see him, you know, have 1,800 receiving yards. And I think that's in play for him if he stays healthy because

he's by far their number one receiver. Have you guys, did you guys get into Mason Taylor at all in the tight ends episode? Was it like I was listening waiting for me. We did discuss him, actually, yeah. I listed him as a late sleeper as the potential number two options on this team. The reports out of camp from him are glowing.

There's been four good rookie tight ends in a decade. He's hurt. And then he got a high ankle sprint today. Yeah, he got hurt. He got hurt today? Are you fucking serious? High ankle. Sorry, not even low.

High ankle. I didn't know. Are you serious? Yes. He's going to be out like a month. Yeah. Yo, I can't. I just, it's terrible.

He looks good. He looked good. He said. So being a Jets fan, this is why we do fantasy football because you feel so dumb having hope about your real team. We need a distraction from our distractions. And so this is why we do fantasy football. So we brought back the Ringer Fantasy Football League.

So we're going to do the draft later this month. And we wanted to ask you, Sean, among other things, we want to have a good punishment for this league. And we're trying to thread the needle between something fun, creative, humiliating. We've been soliciting our listeners. We've been getting hundreds and hundreds of. punishment ideas. And so we're trying to thread the needle on not just something like Bill Simmons would do,

but frankly, no offense to either of you, something you two would do, D.K. and Sean, as like fathers who have, like, responsible jobs. Yeah.

And we're trying to throw the needle of what is the most humiliating thing that you would actually participate in time consumption-wise? And I got to say before you answer this, our listeners think the bar is much higher than it is. Like, like, our listeners are like, oh, Sean and Bill have to do a rewatchable's on a movie, of our choosing shirtless.

And I'm like, okay, they're not going to, or it's like, we got one that, or it was like, the loser has to take a one hour twerking workout class and video tape it and post it on Instagram.

And I was like, instead of a boot camp is a boon. No one is doing this. Sean, are you willing to go. Neither of those are in contention for me. Would you be willing to go get your yellow belt in karate? That's crazier than the booty camp.

I, I would do that. Self actualization. You think you would. This was a punishment in my other friends league. It takes a lot longer than you would think to acquire a yellow belt. Okay, do a month of classes.

You have to go to like 10 classes. I don't think anyone is doing. That's at least bettering myself in a way that my decrepit body could probably use right now. That is very different from, I mean, me and Bill shirtless podcasting, I will say that is cinema. Like, that's a great idea. It will never happen. People thought it would be funny. But I appreciate the creativity.

People thought it would be funny if like, let's say Chris loses. Chris Ryan gets dead last. And then what he would have to do is sit in on the Sicario rewatchables, but he's not allowed to speak. Just torture. You have only say this listening to your show. It's amazing. Oh, my God. I would be willing to, here's the thing.

There's a good chance I lose. I mean, I am probably the least informed person in this space. I'm not a sports podcaster at all. And I also have an insanely busy life. So my ability to like nail the waiver. wire. I don't even have time to listen to your show

for Christ's sake. The fact that I'm going to be like on, and that's part of my job and being on top of this league against you know, nine other maniacs.

Like, Mal's in this league. Yeah. Bill's in this league. Like, these are incredibly competitive people. Sal,

like people who literally make their bread from watching football. So you don't play fantasy currently. I do. I've been in, I've been in one fantasy league

for 20 years with friends and then I'm in usually one or two more. But I just don't take it that seriously. I very rarely finish in the bottom five. I'm competitive because I have access to all you guys, but

I am not good, and I'm not going to pretend like I'm good. So if I lose, it can't be something that I'm going to refuse to do. So you won't agree to doing... You won't agree to vanilla ice slits in the eyebrows. I would do that. That's pretty good. I kind of like that one.

Wait, they grow back, right? Yeah, they do. But how long would that take? Vanilla ice slits in the eyebrows? I think that's a pretty fucking good. We've gotten a ton of, yeah, a lot of people want to program the rewatchables, which is probably not going to happen. The funniest one is your favorite movie, but you can't talk and sit there all the time. Somebody did say, yeah, it was a great idea. You have to drink two cold cans of soup.

This is my favorite. Would you do that? I really want to spoil a movie that's coming out soon, but I'm not going to do it. But that is, it is related to a movie that's coming out really soon. I would not do that. I would do the eyebrows. I would do the eyebrows. I would do the eyebrows.

I would do the eyebrows. All right. Put that. Can we raise it? We're putting that towards the top right now. I'm just telling you. Put that towards the top. Should we unpack this or just like take him in a word before we change? Is Bill Simmons going to do the eyebrows slits? Did who? Will Bill Simmons do the eyebrows slits?

No way. Probably not. I don't know. Okay, here's what's in my favor. Bill's like, I'm not going to lose. Bill's just thinking about whether he's going to get to who he's going to watch. Anyway, I'll be fine. That's what I was going to say, Deney.

I'm going gray. And so you can see even on this on this camera, like my, look at, look at Craig. He's got these. Craig and Highfielers over his eyes, you know? I've got these like this little faint, graying, no one would even notice. They'd be like, oh, Sean, he had an accident with a buzzer or whatever. That's why I'm pushing it up.

Pushing it up. But if it happens to Danny Highfitz, that's a problem. You're on camera four times a week. That's a tough beef. We could do the like side, you know, the side burn slits or whatever too. Oh, my God. So, but like two. I'm not going to lie.

Two cold cans of Campbell's chicken noodle. You're not doing it. I would ask them out. I actually, this is why you ask people. You never assume it never once occurred to me that eating two colds of Kansas soup would be worse than having slits in your eyebrows. But you know what? That's why yeah.

I love that one. Okay. I just think food stuff is gross. Like don't make me eat something disgusting. I don't, I'm not. It's food though. No. Like anything that is fear factor related.

That's just good to know. It's good to know. No food consumption. Okay, here you go. So email us at ring and fancy football at gemail.com if you're inspired. We get, and things that have already been. suggested five minutes of stand-up comedy. I think that's a classic. No one's doing that. No, I'm not doing stand-up comedy. I refuse.

Taking the SATs? You ever heard that one? Yeah, yeah, yeah. People, yeah, you have to go take the SATs. Yeah. That's kind of great. That's kind of great. Just a big enough paint in the ass. Sean, what do you think about the loser having to get a jersey of their least favorite team with their last name on it and having it behind them in their pod studio? So Bill would have like a Lakers jersey that says in your frame. I've been dealing with this shit for years at the ringer. So that wouldn't be really very interesting to me. Like Bill

photoshopped my head onto a photo next to Tom Brady and Bob Kraft celebrating him resigning with the team. Like I've been subject to that stuff many times. That doesn't bother me that much. So that's on the table. I'm old hat. I also think guys I am I don't

I can't lose. So if I lose actually maybe we'll just like shut down this show. So just we got to figure out a way to help me not lose unless it's the eyebrow thing which I would do and I don't think it's a big deal. That's funny. I love that so much.

That's why you ask. Okay, Sean, thank you so much. Any other parting words or advice, wisdom before you get out of here? Yeah, Craig, I wish you no luck. Okay. I hope Aaron Rogers breaks both legs on the first play of the regular season. Wow. And, um...

He's misunderstood. I hate him. Reports out of camp. I hate him, I hate him. He's a real locker room guy. I've heard that. I've heard that he and Tomlin together have a really interesting dynamic. and chemistry. And I'm sure it's going to be really consistent and quiet. And he's going to be really focused on football. And I'm really excited about his marriage. That seems very cool. And he's a good man with good ideas. And you're very lucky. Thank you. We're trying to get him on the show. So we'll see if that happens.

You can send him a clip of that commentary. So Happy Gilmore is like our favorite movie, I think, on the show by a lot. And then Sean obviously is like the movie. It's like the movie. movie expert. And so Craig went on Sean's show, the big picture. And God, I guess, I mean, Craig fucking shredded Happy Gilmore too. Evocerated. Eviscerated it. And I think I wanted, well, first, I don't know, I don't know, well, actually, I feel like Craig, do you want to kind of explain your, happy Gilmore is like your favorite comedy? And do you want to just summarize your hatred of, of the sequel? I thought it was, uh, pandering lazy, nostalgia slop. And if you want to hear my full take, you can listen to the big picture. But Hyphitz and D.K. have watched the film

now. We have not discussed it. Hi Fitz, did you share my same feelings? No. Oh, you liked it. I liked it. Of course you did. That is the most predictable opinion out of Hyphus ever is that you like that movie. Here's thing, here's thing. Of course.

Happy Gilmore, of course. Happy Gilmore 2 is fan service. Yes. I'm a fan. I felt surrogatory. I felt served. Like, I'm just saying, two cold cans of soup. A bunch of dumb jokes.

Like, the first 20 minutes were bad, and, like, I won't lie. The first, basically, until Happy Gilmore starts playing golf again, it's pretty bad. I'm like, oh, they killed his wife, which is like, like, the most classic,

like, 90s, Christopher Nolan shit or whatever. Like, all right, they killed, it's kind of, it's not very funny. Outside of John Dale is showing up for the first 30 minutes.

But frankly, the first Happy Gilmore isn't necessarily, like, amazing to start. What are you talking? Yeah, it is. it's more like when you see the hockey tryouts he's moving the goalposts he's moving the goalposts you enjoyed the last 30 minutes

when it turned into beast games I'm saying when Will it's a bunch of dogs Did we ask Sean a question yet? You're right I'm just like Sean here monitoring I'm fine When Will Zalotor shows up

Yeah And they do the extended bit that Will Zalotaurus looks exactly like the caddy I'm like you know what This is funny I'm enjoying it I'm not going to let the internet poison it? Is it like some high art? Guess what? It's a sequel 28 years later

for fucking Netflix. They made it for money. It's just like a thing that exists. It's kind of like when Lil Wayne puts out the car to six. Is it great? No. I'm just happy little Wayne's not dead. Like I can't believe still making music. This is cool. I'm happy this exists. They made Happy Gilmore 2. It's a little funny toward the end. That's fine. I don't know. This sounds like Craig's Steelers takes. I know. I'm like, I'm happy it exists. I have a take. The bar you're setting is so Sean, what did you think? The movie is not good, so I'm not going to pretend to tell you that it is some masterwork.

And I was not suggesting that on the big picture. I do think it's kind of an interesting movie. And it actually does have some ideas that I think are kind of fascinating for Adam Sandler to be putting into his clearly made-for-money and memes Happy Gilmore sequel. The thing that has been so funny about this, both watching the reaction of the movie and then doing the episode with Craig and watching the reaction to that episode is that I'm, It's so fun to have the shoe be on the other foot for me because I'm often identified as a pretentious film snob. That's like, that is my persona, right? And I lean into it a little bit and I think it's kind of funny. But there are certain things that I have a soft spot for or a blind spot for.

Of course, Adam Sandler is one of them and Happy Gilmore, especially is one of them. And so I'm happy it exists as an idea that I also relate to. But this is the movie that has broken the brains of men between the ages of 25 and 55 who think that they are not pretend. film snobs and that they are the ones who are now acting like the pretentious film snobs because their holy sacred document of comedy has been, you know, vandalized. And it's just amusing to me. I mean, the exact same energy that I bring to a lot of episodes of the big picture, Craig brought to that episode of the big picture.

I agree. I got to say, Craig, I thought, I get why Craig is upset because Craig, you guys care about movies, you care about bringing comedies back, you care about all that stuff. but I just, I don't know. It was funny that the Mr. Misty lady had a grave. Like, I just laughed. I'm not even saying it's good,

but I laughed that like Bob Barker's grave was there. It was funny. Sorry. It's telling. It's telling that you like it. It's really not. It's really not. And honestly, you know,

millions and millions and millions of people at home agree. You know, this is going to end up being one of the most popular streaming films of all time. But Adam Sandler continues to rain, correct? I don't know if they agree that it's good. They watched it. It was there and they watched it and they marketed it well. And it was a lot of famous faces.

And they clicked on it and they looked at their phone while it was on. And every once in a while they looked up and went, oh, Scotty Sheffler. Nice. Oh, Adam Sandler was hitting the ball again. Oh, fun. It called, honestly, I think I like golf. And they integrated golf a lot. And I think it's funny that they called Charlie Hall of Fine Ass Hillbilly.

Like, that just is funny. And it may be left. Is it cheap? Well, it's probably very expensive, actually, to get all these people in the cameos. I wonder what that costs, or maybe they show up for free. But it's funny to me that Rory McElroy took a golf ball or a baseball to the chest, and then they came back and he's like on the ground.

Like, that was funny. Scott Schelfer's in the jail. Like, it's funny. Do you think, so, Hyphitz, if let's say the next 10, 20 years, the next two decades of comedy are movies like this. Do you think then 20 years from now, you'll say, yeah, we're back. We're in a good place. These movies are funny.

This is what everybody's watching. That's why I think you didn't like it, though. You're thinking about the implications of what this means for the business. I get why that would bother you. However, I'm speaking, not as someone who understands how movies are made. I certainly don't understand what you talk about in the town with Matt Bellany, how movies are made and the implications of business. I'm saying, as a dumb-ass listener who is half on my phone, like watching it,

I'm like, oh, I get it. Like, Chubbs is there. Like, they're doing midi-golf again. Like, I don't know. It's like Anchorman 2. Was that good? No. But it was funny they did the fight thing with Stonewall Jackson's ghost.

It's like, it's just like getting the band back together. for like, I don't know, I get what you're saying because it's like the Sopranos line. Remember when is the lowest form of conversation? All this, what did you think Happy Gilmore 2 was going to be other than like, remember when? Oh, I said my expectations were low and it was worse than I thought. But yeah, it's like I don't think you can separate the two.

It's like I am worried about the future of comedies. But this movie was terrible and that's why I'm worried about the future of comedies because people like you were like, I thought it was pretty good, which means they're just going to make more of those. I couldn't get through it. Short, he can finish it. It's like his favorite movie.

I turned it off. It's, there's not a really strong rationale for it being two hours and ten minutes. I don't really think that that was a good choice. This is amusing to watch you guys fight about it, though. I can't tell if I want to finish it now or not. Well,

I think it's way better. Craig's right. The ending is weird. It's weird that they spent all that money on it. And the beginning is weird. The green looks dumb. It gets funny after you turned it off. I would say this.

This is my only take on the subject because obviously I love Happy Omar with a passion. It didn't feel like a movie. It was like some weird. Like Craig, I think you put it was like SNL 50. It was just like a collection of cameos. It felt like it was like some special or something. It wasn't a movie. It's rock bottom.

It's rock bottom. Oh, man. Craig, I love you, man. But you are really caught in a slip stream of your own aging. You know, like just turned 31. You're going. through it. You feel like they're taking things from you that used to be yours. And you feel like

the big algorithm has eaten up your childhood. I get it. Like I've been there, dude. I've been going through it publicly professionally for 10 years. You're just dead inside? It just gets way worse, dude. Like it's going to only get worse. You think this is rock bottom. You have so far down to go, man. They're going to

keep tearing apart the absolute core of your inner child. They will destroy it for as long as they possibly can. This is the entertainment business. this. Get used to it. Sean's been at rock bottom since you were cuddling a cabbage cabbage patch code.

Sean is like the meme of James Franco with a noose and he's like first time. First time. Totally. Exactly my point. We speak in memes anymore. We're not quoting movies. That was a good film. Ballad of Buster Scruggs. You know who made that movie? Netflix. How about that?

Yeah. It's not all bad. All right. Well, Sean. Thank you for imparting your wisdom once again. Thank you. All right, guys. Go Jets. that was really dude i love the fucking eyebrow thing that's great i can't believe it's shocking crazy crazy crazy

because like you can't once you do that like you can't take it away like i guess you it's gonna be like i don't think he realizes i googled it are you guys recording this should just be the end of the beginning to grow back i mean three months i googled it i don't think he knows that

i mean it's hair like it's like the season no your eyebrow hairs don't grow back very quick. It's like three months for your eyebrows. Yeah, yeah. That's my point. I'm saying like this is it's funny for maybe like one to two podcasts, but he's going to have that for a long time and there's nothing you can really do.

Like you can't really hide that. Also, what's he going to do? Like, like just good. Also, you know what's funny? What you didn't think about is that it would be for him, January to March, which is like Oscar season. He's going to be like, he's going to do Oscar season with the eyebrows list. As a fellow faint eyebrow person, it's like

that wouldn't bother me at all. He's right though. Yeah. Craig. I didn't realize that we're way more at risk where it's like, yeah, I have caterpillar. You guys got like dark, bushy eyebrows. I do, yeah. It would be, it would be like, I would walk around like people would just stare at me on the street, never mind doing content. You would look fucking cool. What are you talking about? Who's like, oh yeah, you know, I'm not that great at fantasy. I don't have a lot of time. Like, I never win.

And he's the one being like, yeah, could shave your eyebrows. I feel like that's something he would like casually mention to his wife and his wife would be like, what the fuck are you talking about? You're going to put a vanilla eye slits in your eyes. It's my job to make content. What can I say? Dang. You won't eat soup? That does change things.

So right. Okay, for the people listening, you just heard Sean talk about the punishments he would and would not do. Allow that to influence your new ideas and email them. Yeah, that's wild. All right. Thank you, D.K., thank you, Craig. Thank you to Sean Fantasy for coming on. Thank you to everyone emailing us at ring your fantasy football at gmail.com for fantasy football

punishments that people will actually do. I hope that Sean illuminated what is actually possible here. What was the other thing we wanted? from earlier. Oh, I don't know. I don't know. I don't remember. No memory of that.

If you remember, email us about that. Follow us on Bringer Fantasy Football on Instagram. Follow us on YouTube. Please just go subscribe. If you've been hearing me beg, then like you, and you haven't done it. Please just go to Ringer Fantasy Football YouTube channel and just hit subscribe. And yeah, follow us on Instagram, TikTok and everything. Thank you, Lord.

Lord. Thank you, Lil Wayne. Nice. Hi, hi-fiz is just happy he's alive. Did I go too far with that? You know what I mean? Yeah. Like people like, oh, the Carter Six.

There was like a day there where everyone thought he was dead. Yeah. Like, oh, the Carter Six is not the same. I'm like, dude, he is making music. That's crazy. Yeah. It's a little bit like Craig's Steelers take, but that's fine. I know.

That's true. Yeah. Like, you know those videos of Frankie Valley still doing shows? It's like at a certain point, when can you be like enough? Well, it's Frank. I like the music. It's fun to be there and see them. Senior abuse.

They're just playing the songs. I like the songs. It's like, you think the Carter is, is little Wayne making too much music though? No, I actually have no opinion

on what Wayne or the carters. Sorry, I want to veer off of Lil Wayne here and go to cold play. We were talking, I was hanging out with a bunch of people

and we were talking about like the most popular artists on Spotify and cold play is still one of them. Obviously, cold play in the news for other things lately. Did we ever talk about that,

by the way? Not enough, the cold play thing. Should we be the last people to talk about cold play? Should we delve into this whole cold play debacle? Anyways, I was just shocked to hear that Coldplay is still one of the most popular artists on Spotify in the world.

Not only, yeah, DK. I believe they have this first or second most profitable tour this year. What? Globally. How are people still this into Coldplay? People love Coldplay. They're the U-2 of our generation. I don't understand this at all.

Is that true? Fated into the background. That blows my mind. That's just how I think of them. Yellow has three billion streams. The last song I can remember from them is like that yellow video, where it's like... They have five different songs.

The beach, it's like he's walking on the beach. I mean, they have yellow Viva LeVita, clocks. Wow. They have so many songs with billions. Huge, huge hits. I just can't believe

they're still so popular. Should we be, instead of first take, should we do last take on the Coldplay concert? The last people to break this down in the world. Yeah. There was a lot of like fake announcements from the two people involved in the Coldplay thing.

Like there was a fake CEO statement. He was like, saying sorry, but then also I'm mad at Coldplay for showing me and putting me on blast or whatever. The best statement was when he was apologizing the entire time and he had to tell his wife. And then at the end, it was like, I did have to tell my wife that I am a Coldplay fan, which I thought was kind of funny. The Gwyneth Palshow, the company then turning around doing the Gwyneth Palsh video is one of the all-time great marketing moves ever. I can you, she probably made a million dollars to do 15 seconds of work.

Oh my God. Just record two minutes. Probably did four takes. That was amazing. I also, it's so funny to think that, like, if they had just played it cool, it would have been fine. But, like, who could think of that in the moment? Because it's honestly, I think that's the best example I've seen ever on the internet of the most catastrophic anxiety brain you could possibly imagine that actually played out in real life. Yeah, this is absolute worst case scenario for cheating at this concert. What if Chris Martin makes fun of us?

And then it becomes the number one trending topic in the world. You shoot awake at night, like having this dream or whatever. Oh, God, thank God. Also, like, her being the head of HR is so good. They had a third person there to make it look as though they weren't on a date. Also, just Chris Martin, like, hitting the nail right on the head and just being like, Harry, they're having an affair. The speed.

It was crazy. And also. This is the stric sand effect. If you want to know what the stric end effect is, like, that was it. Just like them ducking away from the camera. whatever. Yeah. It's a tough beat. But everybody knows what a strong way is now. That was like a

it was a worldwide meme for a solid week. I've never seen a more famous meme, I don't know. I think it made it into more algorithms than anything I've seen in a really long time. It was the rare situation where like I could talk to my parents about

it or like a 14 year old and everybody knows what's going on. I actually spanned like every demographic. It was pretty crazy. What was the astronomer? What is that company? Data storage solutions.

Data analytics or something. They store all of Cold Place music. Jamf. Well, the streets. Oh, that's good. I like last take.

We just cover news a week late. Last take, yeah. We just got back from vacation. It's like, Sydney, Sweeney, what's going on with American Eagle? Eugenics, what? Oh, God.

Last take. Oh, man. Goodbye, everyone.