The Ringer NFL Show - Steelers QB Hell, Fields Landing Spots, and Every Other Quarterback Situation

Episode Date: February 14, 2024

Welcome back to ‘The Ringer NFL Draft Show’! Every Tuesday and Thursday on this feed, Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck will be joined by Ben Solak to break down everything you need to know for the 2024 NFL draft. This week, the guys run through all 32 NFL teams to determine which ones are the most in need of help at the quarterback position. They discuss Baker Mayfield’s fling turned relationship with the Buccaneers, the Steelers’ catastrophic QB room, potential new teams for Justin Fields, and much more (2:30). “You guys want to do some emails?” (55:25) Check out our 2024 Ringer NFL Draft Guide here! Email us! [e-mail] The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, Craig Horlbeck, and Ben Solak Social: Kiera Givens and Jack Sanders Producer: Kai Grady Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Worldwide. Welcome to the Ringer NFL Draft Show. My name is Danny High Fitz, and I am joined by Danny Kelly Benzlick and Craig Horlebeck. Yeah. We are officially now the Ringer NFL draft show, baby. Change the art. change the name, same feed, kind of confusing. Whatever, it's fine.

We're going to keep all the stuff through the draft. We are the ringer NFL draft show. If you have any issues in like any weird stuff, emails for Inger Fantasy Football at Gmail.com. I don't know why on earth you would not be listening to us on Spotify. But if you're not, there's any issues, please let us know. But yeah, we're coming to you twice a week through the draft season. By the way, one note.

This is temporary. I don't want you to leave if you're not into the draft. You can listen to us through the draft and we turn back into the fantasy show. Right. We're just a fantasy show that hasn't a, fair with the draft. If you don't like the draft, unsubscribe now. Stop listening to their show forever. Take your hand off that button.

Leave. Get away from this show. Come listen to my show. Ring around a bell show on Spotify. I like that soul. I can see everyone, every other show in the world is like, like and subscribe.

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Don't unlike. We need the. stars. Please don't unlike. Give us the stars. Give us the stars. Okay. So again, offseason's here. And again, we're talking trades, coaching stuff. Draft. Obviously, it's the draft show. You probably figured that out. So the chiefs of the champions, the season's over.

Mahomes inevitable, et cetera. So we're going to start for the off season. The only place you really can, which is like, who needs a quarterback? It's almost impossible to kind of go through all this without talking about which teams to get a quarterback. We're going to just literally go 32 through one, picks it, the teams that have picks in the draft. Does this team need a quarterback and then we'll figure out maybe which one they're going to get. And that's it. So, you know, think of it. This is basically just continuing our Panda Watch, right, DK? Panda Watch. Always strong every time. It came in a little hot. Panda Watch.

Panda Watch. This is one giant Panda Watch today. It's just the Panthers. It's all about the quarterbacks. So we're just going to go again from the last pick through the first draft, the first pick. We're like, what's up with quarterback this team? So starting 32, Kansas City Chiefs, they don't need the quarterback. They have Bahams. 31. Yeah. We move through that.

You want to elaborate? Yeah. No. Okay. 49ers, they have Brock Purdy. I just want to note that even if you don't like Brock Purdy as a quarterback or a person, whatever. Brock Purdy is literally the cheapest quarterback ever that is a starter. Like the 49ers paid Brock Purdy in three years, they've paid him $2.5 million,

which is about what Deshawn Watson gets paid by the Browns per game. I was looking up the quarterbacks with more fully guaranteed money than Brock Purdy that are currently in a League, Skyler Thompson, Tanner McKee, Jaron Hall, and Kyle Allen. You put some daggum respect on Eagles quarterback three, Tanner McKee's name. This is thin, young man. Literally, if you just ranked every quarterback by how much money they make, Brock Purdy would not, he would not be the highest paid of third string quarterback. So they're not getting rid of it.

Yeah, no. I don't know. Shanahan. You never know with Shanahan, but probably not. Ravens are 30th. Lamar Jackson is fine. 29th, Detroit Lions. So Jared Goff is entering the final year of his contract.

they do they need to give him a contract extension but I don't think the lines replace golf I think they just re-signed Jared Goff to an extension yeah yeah yeah preseason I was in on like golf futures he this was the best season of his career and it was legitimately impressive season I would want to keep keep playing him paying him is tricky but I'd want to keep playing him for sure all right the bills are 28th obviously they have Josh Allen 27th is actually the Arizona cardals who are picking with Houston's pick at 27 let's just we'll just could they also have like a top pick we'll come back to Arizona 26 is Tampa Bay Baker's going to be a free agent I feel like this whole Baker Mayfield

Buck's thing was like a one-night stand and now they're actually like each other and they're hanging out the next day. Yeah. This is the plot of the movie knocked up. Oh. Now they're going to hang out. Wow, D.K., that's great.

Thank you. I really couldn't tell if that was serious or not. No, I like that a lot. Because Craig's tone didn't help but I also don't know the plot to the movie knocked up. So I'm just talking totally all vibes. So the Catherine Heigel is the Bucs organization

and Seth Rogen is Baker Mayfield. That's great. Yeah, and they, and they, so Catherine Heigel is pregnant, aka Baker Mayfield did great. He did his job. He shot a shot. Oh, that's too literal shot your shot. You can see if they can make it work.

Maybe they're going to move in together. Start building like baby stuff together. See if they can date while they're pregnant. It's going to be complicated, but I think they'll do it. That's good metaphor. I like it. Two weeks ago, Baker was asked about the bucks and he said we. So, oh, that's big football guy stuff.

You talk to a regular retired Steeler who's 65 years old. man, we got to get a better quarterback. Like that's like, we is, we is just like, that's football guy nonsense. Baker is probably the best free agent quarterback avail, second best free agent quarterback available, just to run through a few. It's like we have Kirk Cousinses's free agent.

Baker Mayfield, I mean, Drew Locke, Gardner Minchew, Brian Taniel, Tannahill, Jacoby Reset. So it's not a lot. Russell Wilson. Not a free agent, but yeah. Will be. 25th with the Green Bay Packers, they have Jordan Love,

Jordan Love is basically in the last year he had a weird contract extent, but he's in the last year, contract. Jordan Love needs an extension, but he'll stay, obviously. He will. Dallas Cowboys are 24th. Same with Dak Prescott. He's in the last year of his deal too.

Bad ending in Cowboys season, but like Dak is going to get a contract extension. So nothing to see there. Houston Texans are 23rd. I mean, C.J. Stroud probably the single best contract in the NFL right now is C. J.J. Stroud. He's not going anywhere. 22, Philadelphia Eagles, Jalen Hertz. I mean, Solac, speak down.

Huh. Huh. There's no worlds. Well, they take a quarterback round one? probably not. They took Hertz on Wence when Wence was one year into a four-year deal, right? I think that I would be surprised

if they took one at 22 where they're currently selecting. After that, you could tell me they take a quarterback, I would not be the least bit surprised. They also have walked out of like, they walk out of almost every draft with a quarterback, right?

Like they took Tanner McKee, they took Clayton Thorson, they took Jalen Hertz, obviously. Like, I think they're just gonna take a guy because that's what they do is they take a guy. And then if he hits, yay, value. So,

No, but yes. Solek, who is the most eaglesy quarterback in terms of like the second tier guy? Like Bo Nix, Michael Pennix, J.G. McCarthy, probably not going to be there in the second round. Who do you think? Good question, because Clayton Thorson and Tanner McKee sounds like dudes who got arrested

in the waste management open last weekend. Tanner McKee was good in the preseason, I will say. You will say? I'll say that. I'm willing to go on record. Yeah. I love when D.K starts touting, like, random fourth rounders. I'm the only one to watch the preseason. Me and Ben, sitting here watching preseason.

Dude, I, preseason DFS, baby. We're making money, all right? We need to start putting, like, a lot of money on preseason. Yeah, I could not agree more high fits. My thought is, like, Spencer Rattler. Like, that's the sort of, like, oh, that makes a lot of sense. Top pick, and he played Oklahoma, like, well, Lincoln Riley, and, like, you run our system, And he's got some arm, talent.

And then he's obviously, amounts to nothing in the league. Like, that's how they sell it. Spencer Rattler's my pick for Eagles at like 93 overall. I like it. I like that one too. Next up, 21st. Again, I don't think the dolphins had a first rep pick last year

because they got punished for trying and failing to get Tom Brady, which is just brutal. So one of the most under-discussed things I've ever, of like the season, I feel like. I don't know why we didn't talk about that more. They didn't have a first rounder. It was bizarre. It was like a real-life fantasy court.

Like, that's advice we would give to a fantasy. It's like some guy who's cheating. Don't get a first round pick. Yeah. Fantasy is actually a lot like the NFL. The commissioner, everyone's like yelling at the commissioners. Like, fine, fine. No first round pick.

But the dolphins, so they have Tua. Tua also entering the final year of his contract. And I'm curious what you guys think, but I think the situation for Miami is kind of simple. They will resign Tua to like a quarter billion dollar contract because emotionally, emotionally, it is basically impossible to not resign the best quarterback you've had in 25 years, which Tua is.

but on the other hand, if the Dolphins hired like a soulless consulting firm like McKinsey, I think McKinsey would be like, yeah, don't pay this guy. What are you talking about? Is two of the best quarterback they've had in the last 205 years?

I mean, Carlos, our producer, pointed out that the best offense the Dolphins had in the 21st century until Mike McDaniel came along was the Wildcat, which was an offense built around not having a quarterback.

For like six weeks. Yeah. That's how bad the offense has been. I don't know if he's the best quarterback, but he's the quarterback of the best offense they've had. in the last 20th. I think that's fair.

The other best quarterbacks are Ryan Tannahill, who was traded for a fourth round pick to salary dump him. And then Chad Pennington, who was Wildcat. Jay Cutler? Big Jay Cutler disrespect. Oh my God. Ryan Fitzpatrick, who was keeping Tua out of the job for the first couple of years. No, I hear the logic high fits.

I feel less strongly about that. I think that you've seen Tula enough and enough big games kind of know what the ceiling is now. Like that's obviously a visceral feeling. That's an experience that you've had in the building. It's tricky because I can talk myself into the dolphins preparing for life without Tua and not extending him. But I also think that Mike McDaniel is going to sit there and say, okay, I don't want to spend

21 overall on a guy, though, because the whole point here is that I can make this happen without a top quarterback. And like, you think about San Francisco, their Brock Pardy experience and their Jimmy Garoppel experience, they weren't spending a first round pick on the guy. When they did, and they spent it on Trey Lance, it like, hurt. the team because that was such a whiff and they had to trade up for a guy. And so I wouldn't be surprised if the dolphins do add a pretty significant quarterback. But I also can see a world in which they're like, ah, we won't do it until the second round at the earliest because we feel

like the magic of this offense is not needing to spend elite capital on a passer. I think the key. So again, two of the though is in the last year of his deal. And again, all his contemporaries like Justin Herbert, same draft class, Joe Burroughs same draft class, got an extension. If they'd let him play out this thing, they'd have to franchise tag him. That's what happened to Kirk Cousins. Daniel Jones played at his deal. has got a huge deal. So I think the dolphins do sign him to an extension. But as we've seen in the NFL and obviously NBA,

it's like sometimes you sign an extension and that used to mean you can't get traded. Russell Wilson signed a huge extension. He's going to get freaking cut. So I kind of think they have to sign an extension just to keep the timeline in play. But I don't think that necessarily ends the questions about Tua being the best quarterback. I'm telling you, Michael panics in this offense. It's just the same basic premise as Tua, but instead throw the ball further down the field.

Yeah, he can throw a deep ball. That sounds great. He's all out to the. the sidelines versus Tua is all about the middle of the field. Also, going from Tua, a quarterback, you're terrified, will get hurt on every play to Michael Penix, which is the exact same situation. I was going to say, it's like, we go from like Tua who had, what, three season ending injuries in college?

They have a type. Four season ending injuries. Don't. I worry about it, dude. They have a, we can fix him. Again, I said it's exactly Tua. You just get to throw the ball further down field. I like, I like, so like, so like is just like, he's going to be a consultant to GMs.

Don't worry about it, dude. like just don't worry about it. It's fine, man. It's going to be fine. Just turn injuries off. You don't think about it. That's all, it's going to be fine. Speaking of don't think about it, it's going to be fine.

Next up, Pittsburgh Steelers with the 20th pick and Kenny Pickett. Craig, how are you feeling about Kenny Pickett these days, Craig? I would like a new quarterback on the Steelers. Well, they caught Mitchell Chubisky yesterday. Yes, and it appears that Mason Rudolph will no longer be on the team, which I have no qualms with. Oh, really? Yes. He's looking for a contract elsewhere.

He's going to be a free agent. Yeah, so Schaefter reported, I think, on Pat McAfee a day or two ago that the Tomlin and the Steelers are interested in Justin Fields. And it's so funny because I was so lukewarm on Fields before he was rumored to go to my favorite team. And now that I'm in this, this Kenny Pickett predicament. I say that three times fast. The picket predicament, Kenny Picket for picket. Just something there. Now I'm like, man, I just wanted to be invited.

I just want to be invited to dance, you know. I don't care by who. Like Fields on the team, I'm like, I just want to be. the mix. Like, I'll take Fields. That sounds great. We could trade a second rounder for Justin Fields. Like, who am I kidding? I'll take it. What are other options? I mean, think about it. Last year, you got a second rounder, the first

second rounder, 33rd pick for Chase Claypools. Yeah. Basically, trading Chase Claypool for Justin Fields. It's just so funny how quickly I will, I'm willing to settle. Maybe it's also like knocked up. I'm just like, well, he's nice enough. Yeah. It's, it's, uh, musical chairs. You don't want to be the one left without a chair is the big thing. And he looks, Justin Fields looks like an attractive chair right about now. Don't think about it. Don't think about it, Solek.

I caught it. I caught it. I just wanted to throw out Joe Flacco had as many passing touchdowns in five games with the Browns as Kenny Pickett does in his career. Yes, there's a lot of Kenny Pickett stats. We're aware of them all. Well, just in case you're not aware. Tommy DeVito has more multi-touchdown passing games. Yes, each one is worse than the one before. I know.

Kenny Pickett never threw for 300 yards in a game. Jake Browning did it three times in December. Keep going. Keep going. Perhaps my favorite. I have every quarterback in NFL history is had 500 passes. So there's 315 quarterbacks that have that have done that. And out of those 315 quarterbacks, if you just look at touchdowns per throw,

Kenny Pickett is literally dead last out of 315 quarterbacks. He's 315 out of 315 out of 3. The other rumor is that, oh, maybe Ryan Tannenhill would come to reunite with the new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, which is just hilarious that he's there. I'm actually kind of in on Arthur Smith as OC in Pittsburgh. But the power of rationality.

I love fandom, dude. I know. Oh, I was like, if you would have told me, God, a year ago, I was like, Arthur Smith is the worst coach in the league, and Justin Fields does not deserve to be a starting quarterback. And now I'm, like, legitimately talking myself into both. What I do with Justin Fields, though?

But, but yeah, so, Ryan Tennell, which is, you know, I think most people would say he's washed up, has not been a good quarterback. In the last two seasons, in four less games, mind you, he has more passing touchdowns than Kenny Pickett. Tanahill is functional when he's on the field.

It's just you cannot rely on. He's 35 years old. He's been accruing unbelievable injury. He takes so many hits. If you sign Tannehill, you have to know that your QB2 is going to play a significant amount of football. And if they sign Tannehill and keep Kenny Pickett, that QB2 is Kenny Pickett. Yeah, it's a Zach Wilson situation. I want fields.

You know when like you had food poisoning and you're like, all right, my first meal back, like, I'm not going to go crazy. You know what I mean? I'm not going to have like a spicy miso bowl. but I just need to eat something and I'll be happy. That's how I feel about Fields. I'm like, we're not going to win the Super Bowl with Justin Fields. I just want anything. Anything that I can keep down.

Works. It's fair. That's fair. Justin Fields does, he had a 300 yard passing game by like midseason last year. I think he had a 400 yarder. I'm down for Fields. Let's do it.

No, I think it's a no-brainer. All right. So next step, we have the Rams in the 19th pick. I mean, Stafford is two years left in his deal is probably a top five quarterback in the NFL last year. Yes, but also they wanted Stetson to be the developmental guy in the fourth round.

I don't know if that's a Ben, major there another mid-round team because staff has got hurt so much. There's a lot of smoke around Bo Nix for some reason to this team. Sure. What? Bo Nix? Yeah. What is he funny?

Have you seen his stats? He has amazing stats. So there's that. He looks like he should live in L.A. By the way, there was a lot of pre-senure bowl hype that Bo Nix was going to come out of the senior bowl with like a bunch of buzz for the top 10. That has not materialized. I'm just going to say.

Here's my argument with the Bo Nix thing. The argument for Bo Nix is that maybe he'll have a high floor because, I mean, he's the most experienced college quarterback ever. Like he had, what, like 60 starts? I got to tell you, I know the Senior Bowl is not the best environment for quarterbacks, but like it didn't look like the most experienced college quarterback of all time in the senior ball. Like that's a super dukees.

That's why the top 10 hype is not arrived. It's almost like his dad was the quarterback in Auburn. It's been replaced with J.J. McCarthy. Yeah. Yeah. So they're also probably going to like him. Bengals are picking 18th. Obviously they have Joe Burrow.

They're fine. Jagger's is 17th. They have Trevor Lawrence. They don't need anyone. DK, the Seahawks are 16th. Gino's under contract for two more seasons, but Seahawks could like really easily get out 12 months from now. Yeah.

If they wanted to. Do you see any reason for the Seahawks to like not roll with Gino Smith this year? I personally don't, but I will say there's a pretty big contingent of Seahawk fans who seem to want to get rid of Gino for some. For what though? But the Seahawks fans also like hate Richard Sherman. Like they're crazy.

Yeah, I mean, I think I said this on the last show. Like, Seacac fans are a little bit sociopathic. And I count myself among those. people. So I can say that. But like, I personally think it's really stupid to move on from Gino. Like he's a, you know, above average starter in the league. Maybe he's not a top five guy, top 10 guy, certainly. But I think he's an above, above average starter. He can, you can win with him. And I don't know why they would just immediately get rid of him. We're getting dangerously close to, to middle of the road if he's not top five or top 10,

but he's still a top half of the league. Top 12 is solid. Top 13. Where would you, I think so. where would you put him right? I think he's Fringed Top 10. Wow, really? Okay. Yeah. If you look at any of the advanced stats, he's up there. Wait, hold on. We're saying Fringe Top 10, like Gino Smith, to win a game in week one.

That feels high to me. All right. Now we have to, quick and early. We have to do this right now. Panda Watch. Mahomes is number one. Well, yeah. Mahomes is one. I don't want to get stuck in the order, but in some order,

it's Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, Justin Herbert is two, three, four, five. Okay, is... Matt Stafford is six. Dack is better than Gino, right? Yeah, yeah. Or he loves count. That's six, right?

I would say so, yeah. D.J. Stroud is better. Strow's better. Lamar Jackson. Stroud is eight. Yeah, we said Lamar. It's better. Jordan Love, even to, like, win one game,

I would say, Jordan Love is where we, like, so I think Trevor definitely is. Where we have? We're like 10 and 11 right now. Love, Hertz, and Gino and like Kyler is where like this next tier is. Hurdy. Goff's step below for me. Um, Bertie is below.

Gough is the step below Gino? Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Not even in the same tier. Yeah. Goff. I've seen Goff get blitz enough times.

I know. I know what he is. I know what Devin's a coordinator's think about him. Gino beats the blitz pretty consistently. What about Dach's a buff? We already said DAC, I think. Okay. All right.

Sorry. Let me give the list again because we're being confusing. I'm going to do Mahomes and then Lamar, Josh. Lamar Josh and then we have Stafford, Joe Burrow, Herbert. Yep, Dak. Dack. Stroud. Trevor Lawrence.

Yeah. Lawrence and nine. Kyle. Right. This next year is like Kyler, Hertz, love, and Gino. Where's cousins land and all this? Well, Kirk's coming off in Achilles. That's the thing.

Like, Joe Burroughs coming off of an ACL, right? Like it's, No, it's, well, here it is like thumb or whatever. Excuse me, excuse me, yeah, he previously had ACL, I apologize. He's coming off of thumb injury. He's coming off multiple injuries.

All right, that's fine. So he's probably like 14th or something. Well, we, sure. He's in group 9 through 13 to me. So he's probably 14th. That's how the numbers go? Well, he's not nice. He's not 19th and 13 for me.

Um, here's Craig, Craig, hold on it. Would you take Gino on your team? Over, can he pick it? Yeah. Yeah. So shut up. Leave me alone.

I'm just saying you're also in this like this like middle ground gray area where you're like, can we win with him? You say also as a Ceylock situation is the same as the Steelers situation and it is not. Yeah, but we're at the bottom of the barrel over here. I take Gino Smith in a heartbeat. But once you've had him for two years, this is how it works. Here's the thing with Gino. If you are a quarterback contract filled, which is a reasonable thing to be,

you basically say you have an elite guy to justify being on a second deal or you you'd have a rookie contract quarterback. In that paradigm, Gino is neither, and so Gino's a frustrating place to be. It's a tough place to be the same way the alliance were with Jared Gough and the Vikings were with Kirk Cousins. That's a very reasonable opinion. I totally understand that opinion. There is, however, a big measurable difference between having a guy who's solid you can win

with who helps, like, develop Jackson Smith and Jigba, keep D.K. Metcalfe happy, right? It allows you to progress your offense. Guys grow with him with him a quarterback versus being like, let's just chuck rookies at this until one of them hits. Like, that's not an environment for development. So I think the Seahawks are, because they're losing Drew Locke, right, he's a free agent, they might not bring him back. Because they have QB2 open, I think they're a good candidate again for like your middle

round quarterback pick, your Hendon Hooker to the Jared Gough pick, right? Like, go get Michael Pennix, pair him back with Ryan Grubb, see if he can stay healthy, see what he can be, try to prepare for 2025 and beyond. But this job emphatically in 2024 is Gino Smith's and deservedly so. So next step, the Colts are picking 15th and they, I mean, they drafted Anthony Richardson fourth last year. so they don't need anything. But then, so now we're the top 14 in the draft.

This is what I call quarterback alley. This is like a bunch of teams that need a quarterback and might have to trade out. So next step we have, the Saints are picking 14th. Now, they are locked into Derek Carr. The Saints are kind of like the third act of the Wolf of Wall Street

when Jordan Belfort has like kind of like, he's kind of been caught with all the crimes and that could put him in jail. So it's like all his money's tied up. So it's like he's kind of broke and he's stuck with everything. Like the Saints, like they're stuck with their team. It's not good enough to be even over 500,

but they just can't move any of these players because they're being watched by the IRS slash TNF. And so they can't get rid of Derek Carr, but in a way, it's like their only way out of jail would be to just screw it, get a quarterback, like get him and just plan for the future. I don't know, but Derek Carr has literally has to be on the team this year, but they're crazy.

Derek Carr, he's a confounding, confounding character. Just a grifter. He's my least favorite NFL player. His stats, like if you look at his stats, because I think he finished pretty strong, his stats are very misleading. Derek Carr, Derek Carr, I don't want to understate this. Derrick Carr is a stats merchant. Okay, Derrick Carr is constantly pursuing 11-yard completions on 3rd and 17

to make his numbers look better. There's nothing Derek Carr loves more than throwing a pass that will be charted as accurate, but never, ever, ever would have been caught because his receiver would have been deleted off the face of the earth by a safety if he had caught. it. And then Derek Carr walks angrily to the sideline huffing and puffing as if it's the receiver's fault. Carr is a box score merchant. I do not respect it. Ben, Ben,

maybe you didn't hear it. I don't think you're on this pod when I said this. Derek Carr, to me, is the living embodiment of throwing the ball away on fourth down. Yeah. Absolutely. No, go Nate Tice of the athletic and of Yahoo, who coached with the Raiders, put me on to this. Go watch him Derek R's own reps. You'll find out real quick what that man cares about. He cares about not throwing pitch.

Dick. No interceptions on the box score for Derek Carr. Scoring points, that's incidental. Somebody else's job. Let's make sure my box score looks. Incidentally. Well, my honest take with Carr is that his David Carr's older brother was ruined by having the most sacks ever.

And then now his whole career was kind of like, don't get hit, don't get hit. But I think the thing with Derek Carr is in my lifetime, I think maybe, maybe last 20 years. I think there's only been four quarterbacks, maybe five, who have been criticized by multiple teammates on the record while they were current teammates. Like current teammates putting their names on, I don't like my quarterback. quarterback. It's happened like very rarely. And like Derek Carr is one of those people. It is all of our duty when we are older when our children and grandchildren are like dad, but Derek Carr in 2023 had 25 touchdowns and eight picks. Like you can't tell me he was bad.

Derek Carr in 2016 was fourth MVP voting. No. No young man. Every receiver hated him. Every receiver hated him at the same time. Anyway. Yeah. Anyway, the state's restructured his deal to make sure he stays there longer. Yeah. More power to you, Mickey Loomis. It's a Ponzi scheme. We'll have to talk one time. Next up, Raiders are picking 13th. So they have lame duck Jimmy Garoppolo who's probably going to get released because it's kind of game. I forgot he was still on that team to be honest. Well, it's like Game of Thrones when

the Lannisters win a power struggle with the Starks and they're like, yo, Aria, you have to like leave the city. This isn't safe for you anymore. It was like when Josh McDaniels got fired and Jimmy Garoppel was there like, yo dude, you've been back in the wrong horse. My guy. Like no one wants you here. And so he's got to go. So it's just Aidan O'Connell.

But you know what's weird is that Aiden O'Connell like just did a rookie year. He's fine. he's not the answer. You know, Aiden O'Connell is like the same age as Justin Herbert? He's not even young. It's going to be 26.

This is the new paradigm in college football, at least for a little while longer because of the COVID year and all the transfer rules now. He's just, quarterbacks are coming out. They're so old these days.

Yeah, I, I, the Raiders need a new quarterback. I mean, Aidan O'Connell is like a fine bridge if you can't find anyone else. But I don't think he's elevating that team. This is the first team. like needs a quarterback that is in a bad position to get one. So this is where the free agent thing of like,

do they have to go get fucking Russell Wilson? Ironically, probably not. I mean, I think there's no shot they're getting Fields because their OC is Lekeepsie, right? And I don't think Fields is playing for Lou Gezzi again. So like you, they are in a really tough spot. Russell.

We got to find a team for Russell Wilson. Or Kirk Cousins. Next up here. Yeah. And that's thing. So you have Kirk Cousins. So this is in a look. So we have the Broncos are at 12.

The Vikings are at 11. So this is kind of where we're going here. The Broncos are picking 12. also really important remember. Broncos are in the same division of the NFC West as the Raiders. So they're both staring down. They hate the Chiefs. The Chiefs have won eight or nine times in a row coming up the biggest streak ever. And the Raiders Broncos hate each other. Broncos are going to cut Russell Wilson. That was the whole Sean Payton trying to shake Russell Wilson down for money after beating the Chiefs.

The Vikings also, sorry, the Broncos are going to need a quarterback because I got Jared Stittam and Peyton needs to start over. And then right there with him, you have the Vikings at 11 where Kirk Cousins a free agent coming off in Achilles Intry, I do not think Kirk Corsons is going back to Minnesota. And they have Jared Stitton. And they have, you know, freaking Nick Mullins who went 0 and three for them there. And all these teams need quarterbacks. And I'm curious, what, like, D.K. We can start with you.

What would you do if you were these teams? Because you have the Raiders and Broncos as division rivals behind the Vikings who have a better pick, but also need to go of stuff to move up and get a quarterback. And so ironically, I don't, Russell's out there. Like, Kirk with an Achilles. Like, what do you do? I mean, yeah, I don't know. If I was the Broncos, I would have probably tried a little hard.

if I'm Sean Payton to get along with Russell Wilson because you kind of backed yourself into a corner here. You know, you paint yourself into a corner, whatever. And it seems like that relationship is fractured. It's over. I mean, obviously he didn't play awesome, but I don't know. It just to me it seems like they really limit what they're able to do now. And, you know, they're going to have to cut Wilson. They're going to have to take.

Do you know any of the details on like the cap hits they're going to be taking like $40 million? It's like $45. I think it's like $45 million. It's 80 over two years. Yeah. The first hit is like 48 or something like that, and then the next one is 32. Super normal amount of money to lose. And it's even dumber because they're going to call it a June 1 cut, but you don't actually have to do a June 1 cut until June.

Like, it's not even how it works. His cap charge, yeah. If he's post 1, if he's post June 1st, then he's 35.4 million in 2024 and 53.6 million in 2025. Which is hilarious. Which is hilarious because 53.6, all right, is the biggest cap hit from Kynong guy ever. and it's the second year of a two-year of cutting the guy.

It's the kicker. It's unbelievable. I don't know. To me, it just seems like they mismanaged that whole thing. That's a very obvious statement. But like they could have done a better job of, you know, not completely alienating Russell Wilson, I think.

I gave this take. Craig was gone. My take, this is the best trade that's ever been made, the Russell Wilson deal because the whole Russell Wilson thing was a giant grift. The old Broncos owners were the children of the previous owner who wanted to sell the team. they wanted to get Aaron Rogers.

So they hired Nate Hackett to be the coach. Hackett kind of grifted his way, kind of either pretending or unable to deliver on Rogers being the guy. So they get Hackett as the guy. Then they're like, oh, we need a quarterback. They get Russell Wilson. Russell Wilson's like, I can be a leader. I can be, you know, the next Drew Brees. He couldn't.

So the owners cashed out with the biggest sale in the history of North American sports franchises. Get $4.5 billion. Russell got his money. Nate Hackett got the Broncos money. And like, everyone just wanted the wallmarked. money. And so everyone got what they wanted. If we're being honest here, it looks bad, but everyone got paid and the only people got screwed

were the Walmart people in the $70 billion. And the fans. And the people who root for the Broncos. Never heard of them. They got screwed. Honestly, the Broncos fans are the only people who didn't get what they wanted out of this, honestly. Everyone else. The little guy. I will say, I'll never forget for as long as I live that

2022 combine when the, I think it was the Russell Wilson News broke first. It was like Russell Wilson's being traded to the Broncos. smoke, unbelievable. We thought the Broncos, we're going to go get Aaron Rogers. And then like four hours later, it was like, Aaron Rogers is staying with the Packers. Like, report Aaron Rodgers saying with the Packers.

And then the Broncos were like, listen, we always wanted Russ. It had nothing to do with Rogers staying with the Packers. They said it like 19 times. And it was like, yeah, man, for sure. It's kind of like Washington's like, we didn't even want Ben Johnson as they leak like 11 reports about being mad at Ben Johnson. Yeah, exactly. And Dan Quinn's

teams are so bad at convincing people that they didn't want to do something. And it's because they're so bad at hiding what they want to do. Yeah. So I've seen Broncos fans talking about trading up in this draft. I mean, I think you got to do something. Is Jared Stidham going to be the starter next year? What's the bottom line here?

So, like, I wouldn't hate Stidham competes with Jacoby Brissette. Like, I don't think that's the worst thing that's ever happened in the world. It is worth, it's not. I like how you put that. Yeah. you imagine. It's worth noting. I think, like, people who aren't closely

fall in the Broncos, you think, like, oh, Russell Wilson deal, massive trade package. Really, no. Like, the Broncos have their first round pick this year, obviously. They traded their second to the Saints for, for Sean Payton.

Other than that, they have a third round peg. They have a fourth round peg. They have two fifth round picks. Next year, all of their top picks are untouched. Like, they are decently standard in terms of capital right now. So they do have the draft picks necessary to make a trade up. I think that the number one thing, as we approach the combine and like talking about who's doing what and what's and and you know what

what's what deals are the situation like Denver at 12 Minnesota at 11 both to me scream like quarterback trade up teams the Tennessee Titans at seven scream as a trade back team and the Patriots at three kind of conditional as to how they view the quarterback class if they don't like whoever the third quarterback is available after the first two picks are off the board they would massively benefit from a trade down and then a guy who actually likes that third quarterback can go move up and so I think you're going to start to see those wheels get spun in motion over the next couple of weeks. Vikings and Broncos as the trade-up candidates. Raiders are there as well, and Titans and Patriots as the trade-down candidates.

That's not any sourcing. It's just my read on the teams. Next up, we're in the top 10 now. New York Jets have the 10th pick. I think if the Jets were a responsible organization, they would actually really heavily consider, you know, drafting a quarterback, but in reality that they're in a toxic relationship with Aaron Rogers and everyone running the team from Robert Solid head coach to Joe Douglas, the GM,

will be fired if they don't make the playoffs. so they're just going to take the best lineman, offensive linemen, who is available. Or receivers. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, spicy. The most short-term draft pick I can remember, short-term regime thinking. Yes, that is true. Joe Douglas and Robert Solne need to win games now to keep their jobs. They're going to draft to win games now. All right. Next up, the Bears, the Bears are the first pick.

We'll come back to them at the end. The Falcons are eight. I think, I mean, they need a quarterback. Like Desmond River, that is, Desmond of Ritter was horrific. Arthur Smith, the head coach, got fired in short, because he thought Desmond Ritter would be good enough to win the NFC South. So now they have Rahim Mores, the former Rams defensive coordinator is the head coach.

To me, I kind of think this is the team that should trade a second and just take Justin Fields. I'm curious, D.K., start with you, the one who's wanted Arthur Smith gone. Do you see the Falcons taking a quarterback or do you think that they end up with a veteran? I mean, depending on how the board goes, it would not surprise me whatsoever if they did take a quarterback. Like if Drake May fell further than people were expecting for some reason or Jane Daniels, one of those, top guys. But let's say those three are gone. Caleb May and Daniels. I think then you start talking about J.J. McCarthy, who like I said earlier, he's really getting a lot of round one buzz right now. The national champion of Michigan who keeps meditating under the goalpost.

Russell Wilson Light. Who called him Russell Wilson Light? Me. You're outside of your God-given mind, brother. I'm strictly speaking to his off-the-field practices. Oh, 100%. Good cop. Good call. We're back. And we're back. I would like it to be known. Ben is backing. The league, I would like for it to be known. The league waited until I was in Vegas Super Bowl working, busy, pause, articles. All right, now let's release the JJ McCarthy round one hype because Ben's too busy to tweet about it. And that was smart by them.

That was good. That was a good leak. No, you saw, I think Dana Brugler of the Athletic said there's a lot of buzzer now about McCarthy going top of 12. I really always trust Dane sourcing. I think he's one of the number one guys plugged in wise in terms of like where teams are actually thinking. on McCarthy is a leader you know he's he's he's a winner he's went 35 and one as a starter whatever it is like sick awesome i from a film perspective this is not around one quarterback i don't this is not for me with that said the world's which j j j mccarthy is successful it kind

of looks like brock birdie success right um in a point and shoot system one read and go like you know reading half of the field and then like a little bit of scramble ability on top of it a little bit to create outside of structure you know have that quick and have that agility And at Zach Robinson is the OC there. He's from the Shaw McMake Bay system. Like, I could see why Atlanta in particular would like a quarterback like McCarthy. That would make sense to me from a stylistic perspective, from a value perspective. But whatever.

I think he's going to be, J.J. McCarthy is going to be, I think there will be four top 10 quarterbacks in this draft. Wow. I did too. I kind of like J.J. McCarthy. I don't think he's a top, quote, quote, top 10 quarterback because the one thing that's really concerning is like his accuracy is really hit or miss and scatters. shot. But like, all right.

Very athletic. I love Craig. Whatever. The main thing it's missing is that he can't throw the ball. Craig's like, all right, got it. Oh, okay. There's some surprising similarities to Desmond Ritter here. I do think he's better than Desmond. No, no, no, no. Well, Ritter, to me, when I picture Ritter, I'm like, there's a lot of things

to like about this guy, except for he throws these inexplicably off-target passes and makes weird decisions. And I saw some of the same things with J.J. McCarthy, but I do, I thought JJ McCarthy, like, he had some absolute dimes this year. He was really good on the money downs, third down and long, and fourth down. But like, at the end of the day, this is, we're talking about a guy who's potentially going to go on the top 10.

He had 10 pass attempts in the, uh, in the national championship game. Or maybe it was 10, 10 completions. It's just like he was just a game manager for that. I'm excited that he's being tossed into Panda Watch. Every year, there's a guy where it's like, he just wasn't good in college and nobody likes him, but he's just going to go in the top 15 and nobody's why. He was good. He was good. I'm going to push.

back on that. I like it more than so. He was good because they only asked him to throw on second down against East Carolina. What are we talking about? He didn't have football in the second half against Penn State. I don't know. So Lex basically is doing this super bad. You ever seen JJ McCarthy at his own? Not for me.

This team actively avoided him the entire year. They won despite him. No, that's not true. We're putting him at eight? That's not true. They didn't win despite him. They played the way they played because they had a dominant run game and they could play that way. They had a dominant defense. So you think if they had Drake May, they would have had the same offense?

They won the national championship. This obviously worked for them. The equation worked for them. Yes. And that logic there of like what is best for Michigan to win the national championship is not necessarily what's best for JJ McCarthy's development or JJ McCarthy's audition to the league. That is sound. I agree with that. I also don't think that he threw the ball well against top competition.

So like that's where like there's some truth to the reality of like, hey, the thing that'll help us win right now is running on third and seven. like that to me matters, independent of the fact that they were the national championship team. All right. Next up, we have the Tennessee Titans are picking seventh.

Right now they have, you know, Will Levis, Billy Jeans at quarterback for the Titans. They have so the head coach in Tennessee now is Brian Callahan who the old coordinator

for the Bengals who then hired his dad who was actually like the best offensive line coach, Bill Callahan. Well, they just shout out to the Nepo Babies like giving it back to the previous generation. The Nepo Bays get the jobs

and they're like, hey, dad. Is this the first son case of nepotism where the son, hires the dad? Oh, interesting.

Oh, interesting. Did Wade Phillips ever hires? Nepopatism? I mean, I'm sure this has happened before, but like, it's much less often, yeah. Yeah. So anyway, I kind of think the Titans are, they probably have the most directions they could go of

any team in the top seven because they happen to just need everything that will be available at the spot. They need a receiver. They need an offensive tackle. Or they could go a quarterback. And I feel like those are the three things that will be available at seven. Let me ask, who is the top quarterback prospect in next year's draft? Oh, bad.

Carson Beck, probably out of Georgia. But it's not a great class. Shitter Sanders, potentially. Yeah. Shudor Sanders. Dane had the same. Dane had the, during the McCarthy report where I think it was Dane. It might have been somebody else actually not to think about it.

But was it, Dane. Thank you, Dan. No, it was Daniel Jeremiah, I believe. Jeremiah. Yeah, Jeremiah basically said, hey, teams are looking forward at the 25 quarterback class. They're not like what they're seeing. As you might see more aggressive stuff getting up in 2020.

Okay. Because I was going to say, this seems like a, like the Titans seem like a prime candidate to be the, the worst team in the league next year. And they try out Will Levis. If it doesn't work, they have the first pick in the draft next year. And that's kind of what they should do.

The Titans to me are high fits rule, right? If you are not a franchise that is capable of developing a quarterback, don't take the quarterback yet, right? Like, they need significant offensive line help and significant wide receiver help. So keep rolling with Levis. Like maybe he really like he does actually hit for you. You already have that bird in the hand. They should go tackle here.

They should go wide receiver here. Make the bedrock good for either Levis or for the next guy. Next up, we have the New York football. ball giants. Nice. That's his tone. What is their quarterback situation like? High Fitz.

Who did the, what did the Giants do the last time they had the sixth overall pick? Where's that guy now? What's he up? How much money is he making? What team is he on?

He can't be on the team that drafted him. He's a maestro. Daniel, Daniel, okay. So, all right.

You know what? He's not good. Whatever. Yeah, okay. So I think the Giants should take a quarterback. Daniel Jones is locked into the team. 12 months from now.

You take a quarterback now. 12 months from now, you cut Daniel Jones. That's the starter is the guy you take. I don't know or think they'll do this. But I think that like what haunts me is the Giants wanted Justin Herbert in 2019. Herbert didn't come out. He went back to school. They took Daniel Jones.

And then they could have had Herbert in 2020. And they're like, but we have Daniel Jones. Can't take Herbert. My fear is, and when in reality, the Cardinals doing the kind of cutting Rosen to take Tyler Murray, he was like totally the right move. My fear is that the Giants passed on a quarterback again because they did the Jones contract. and that guy's just great. And I'm kind of like,

there are going to be great receivers here, great linemen here. But like, just get the fucking quarterback while you have a top six pick is my take. Yeah. I think the Giants are more likely than say the Titans are

to take a quarterback because of the current contract situation with Jones. Like you want to have a future so you can move off of the Jones deal. And he said two serious neck injuries, which no one's even talking about, aside from his play.

We are right now. So there you get neck injuries. The other thing with with the Giants is like they feel like Craig said Titans worst team in the league. I agree. The Giants feel like decently close to being a super blowup team. Brian Dable and Wink Martindale did not get along this year. Wink left like as ASAP as possible after the season ended.

Mike Kafka, who's their offensive coordinator, interviewed for the Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator job, which he could have called plays there versus in New York, right, Brian Dable. But in general. No, Kafka calls the place. He just wanted to believe. Oh, that was, okay. So fully lateral move.

Which to be clear, almost never happens. Yes. Can I please get out of New York? Please, Seattle. Please move me. I don't want to be here any more vibes from Kafka. Who's now like, what, the assistant head coach or something? In general, the vibes to me on the Brian Dable experience are negative.

And so like I do wonder if Dable feels like he is in a spot where he has to like win now and try to improve the team on the Daniel Jones contract. Because if he doesn't, Jones looks bad for him. of the year. This is a team as ownership wants to make a change. Anyway.

Okay, the Kenny Pickett guy is out here stumping on hyphids for the quality of his team. I love it. Fight back to age. Misery loves company. Welcome. Wait.

Craig and I are not a lot of answer. Ain't that the truth. So like a DK. Would you rather have everything else the same? The Pittsburgh Steelers without question. No, not the team.

Not the team. Kenny Pickett or Daniel Jones. Contracts included? Contracts included, I'll take Kenny, so I'm not spending $40 million. Yeah, 100%. I think Daniel Jones is a better quarterback. Player-wise, yeah, I'll take Jones. Yeah, yeah.

Danny, isn't it so cool now with, like, well-run franchises? Yes, it feels great, and I keep thinking about how great Gino is compared to all these other idiots. Yeah, Gino, who they were besmirching five minutes ago. All right. I think we all need to settle down about Gino Smith is fine. Yeah, no, he's really good, actually, especially relatively. Good luck. Good luck, Nick.

you're probably going to finish like on like, can they pick at grading scale? Gino's fifth is one of the greatest quarterbacks ever. Well, so is Mason Rudolph. Chargers are picking fifth. Jim Harbo's there. They have Justin Herbert.

They're a new quarterback. Okay. Cardinals are fourth. They're going to keep Kyler Murray. I would say almost definitely the Cardinals are going to keep Kyler Murray. Is there even an argument that they should trade Kyler Murray and like take a quarterback? I kind of think that they should just not.

Oh, God. Can you imagine putting Kyler back with, oh, wait, no, sorry. Kingsbury is with Washington now. I was thinking, I want to figure out a way to get Kingsbury and Kyler. Oh, they trade Kyler to Washington for the second. I had a brain fart. My fault.

My fault. But yeah, no, I don't think they're good. I don't think Chicago wants Kyler. Kyler played quite well last year. I really liked the Kyler film with Drew Petts saying it's not like an air ready style of offense, but he still, I thought, worked very well within. I think Petting understands where he's good. And like, so long as the GM and the head coach aren't actively questioning his film

watching habits, it seems like Kyler's like pretty happy to just be a good quarterback. So I think Kyler, Arizona is. locked. I mean, they are, Marvin Harrison Jr. would be so, so good for this team. If that feels like such a no-brainer that if they do anything else, that would feel like overthinking it to me. Going from Marvin Harrison, like, think about the step up right now, like their number one receiver is arguably Michael Wilson. Michael Wilson or my guy Greg Dorch. Yeah. Greg Dorch to George to Marvin Harrison Jr. Pretty big. I think the top three we can kind of just do all together here. The Bears are the first pick, Washington is the second pick, and the Patriots.

at the third pick. I think the Bears are taking quarterback. Washington is taking a quarterback. And the Patriots should take a quarterback. The Patriots really want to, I think. It's a question of like who is QB3 for them and is he there or not? That's what makes things tricky. So I think they're definitely like, yes, they want to get out of the strapped for the quarterback.

They might end up not taking a guy at three. They might end up moving back and taking a guy. We just have to try to figure out their board as best we can. And obviously we're nowhere near knowing that yet. And the only question here is I kind of think Washington hate cards on the table wants Cliff Kingsbury. Sorry, they hired Cliff Kingsbury. I think, and the only question left is, I kind of think, if I was running the bears, and maybe that's a bad sign, but if I was running the bears, I would be like, Caleb Williams, these other guys,

maybe there's difference, but like who knows how big of a difference, I would rather move back one spot and get like a bunch of draft picks to just take Drake May or Jade and Daniels anyway at two. And so I kind of think if the bears, I would pretend I want Caleb Williams charge Washington for this hometown superstar. that's exactly what happening is happening. Like Washington hiring Cliff Kingsbury, who like just was at USC as a vague assistant with Caleb Williams. I don't know.

I find it hard to believe. That's not because Washington wants Caleb Williams to be a superstar, regrow the fan base. It's not just rebuilding a team. It's a business. And I think Caleb Williams would have like that Magic Johnson effect on the Lakers. But if Magic was from L.A., like I'm not saying he's that big. But I think Caleb Williams is like, Craig said the first true Gen Z quarterback. I think he's going to be.

is if he's good, he's a superstar, and I think Washington wants him, and Washington might trade up. It just comes down to how much, like, that sounds great. You could fleece Washington, but that would only be if you, if in your analysis,

you have Drake May and Caleb Williams pretty neck and neck. Like, if you truly believe James is better, it's probably hard to do this. But we've been saying that, like, so much of the thing with Caleb is some people won't have him first, not even because they disagree on who he is as a player, but that they value the kind of player he is different philosophically. And also there's probably just a bunch of, frankly,

like personality things that some old dudes who run teams will be turned off by. And like, I don't know. I'm kind of like if you're the Bears, so you have to pretend you want Caleb even if you don't want it. Yeah, I agree that the commanders bringing in Cliff Kingsbury who was a quarterback's coach with

the Trojans last year, worked with Caleb Williams. I think that is a Caleb Zion, Caleb's from DC, whatever. It is also worth noting that Drake May played in the air raid offense in college. He played for Phil Longo at UNC when he first started in 2022.

And then in 23, their OC was Chip Lindsay, excuse me, who was running a lot of the similar stuff, right? Like, he played in a pretty much explicitly air raid offense. Jaden Daniels, who to my opinion, plays a lot like Kyler Murray and a similar traits to Kyler Murray, the quarterback out of LSU, was playing under Mike Denbrock,

who was the OC there. And they weren't running air raid stuff. It was not the air raid offense. But they were kind of spread and shred. You know what I'm seeing? They were not dissimilar. They're running a wide cross, like 19 times a game, dude. Like, that's air raid inspired stuff.

So while Cliff has the direct connection to Caleb, you could tell me Drake May as a commander three months for now, and I'll be like, and I guarantee you, one of the first words out of their mouths are going to be, Drake may played an air raid offense in college, and Cliff Kingsbury's the NFL air raid guy. So it is not as cut and dry,

but we are a pot to commit on Caleb, in my opinion, as I think other people have made it out to me. Did the Cardinals have one good passing offense with Cliff and Kyler that wasn't just purely Kyler doing bullshit? They made the playoffs. They made the playoffs. played the Rams in the playoffs. It was great.

But the offense was just Kyler running around. They had half a season here and there. Remember the thing under Cliff was they would just absolutely implode in the second half. They would start the year eight and two and then collapse. Yeah, they would implode in the second half of the season. For whatever reason, there's a million reasons to that probably. But what do you guys take? My question is, what do you guys think the Shane Waldron hire tells us about the bears?

Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself here. He's the offensive coordinator. Dude, can we talk about the Jackson Smith and Jigba quote from media week? That's what I was going to. Oh, yeah. Shane Waldron, well, he was the Seahawks' offense coordinator. Yes.

And then the Bears hire him as the office coordinator. Somebody asked rookie Seahawks wide receiver, Jackson Smith and Jigba, about what Bears players should expect out of Shane Waldron being in Chicago. And Jackson Smith and Jigba is like, he's like, um. No, he goes, are we live?

Are we on here? Is this on the record? This is an all-time terrible thing to say. He's like, are we, is this live? Um. The first thing he says was he's a good person. Yeah. Good luck. He's nice. He's nice. Thumbs up. He's nice.

Okay. Yeah, he was very tepid. Sorry, Craig. What else do you say? He said something along lines of like, yeah, I mean. Yeah, he couldn't have been more hesitant to give this man the seal of approval. Yeah. Yeah, no, he's good. He's good. Yeah. I mean, this is coming. I think the context they have to pay attention to for. for Jackson Smith and Jigma in particular is like for the first eight or nine games of the season, the only targets Jackson Smith and Jigma got was screen passes behind the line of scrimmage. So I think there's probably a little bit of like, dude, what the hell are you doing? The exact quote was after you said, um, this is live.

He said, good luck to you all. Yeah. Good luck to you all. Can we, we should play the clip because it's hilarious. Bears fans are super interested about the offensive coordinator coming in, Shane Waldron. What can you tell them about who they just hired to try to get this offense where it needs to go? This is live? We're not live.

We're not live. Good luck to y'all. I mean, he's a great person. He said he's a great person, great coordinator. I learned a lot from him. He's a great person. That was before he remembered a lot. He's nice.

It took him like 30 seconds to get to he's a good coordinator. Here's my thing. Because he realized. Rookie wide receiver. He has no, like, you don't know how bad it can get, Smith and Jigba. All right? We have a lot of men have become offensive coordinators in the NFL who aren't great at it. And you were wide receiver through when they drafted you.

I feel like Jay SED just saw like Jordan Addison's numbers. He was like, I should be having that right now. I think he's wide receiver brained and he's also a rookie. He hasn't had perspective yet. I think Shane is a fine OC. I don't think his hire tells us anything about like Caleb versus Drake versus who they're interested in. I just think he's a solid OC from the McVase. does some cool stuff.

I like his running game stuff. Like, I think he's fine. It's a fair point. And we talk about this with receivers all the time. You can't trust anything your receiver says. Receivers are wild. AJ Brown will have eight catches for 95 yards at a touchdown. After the game, be like, I'm not willing to speak right now.

Stefan Diggs leads the league in targets. And he's like, I hate this team. It is wide receiver brain, man. That's so good. I have to get out of here. It's like, you guys are 12 and 4, and you lead the league in targets. That's great. So in summary, teams that need quarterbacks, the Bears, Washington, the Patriots,

who basically it seems like back show is going to get cut. So the Patriots, Falcons are four, Vikings, not the fourth pick, but the Falcons are the fourth team. The Vikings, the Broncos, the Raiders. Those teams need quarterbacks, Bears, Washington, Patriots, Falcons, Vikings, Broncos, Raiders. Teams that could get a quarterback, Giants, Titans, maybe the Saints. So that's seven that need one, three that could.

Okay. So what's the answer here? Quarterbacks that I think could get drafted. We have Caleb Williams, like first rounders, Caleb Williams, Drake May at a UNC, Jaden Daniels at LSU the Heisman winner, J.G McCarthy out of Michigan. I think that's the clear top four.

Bo Nicks at Oregon. Seems so, yes, right now. Michael Pennix out of Washington. I think that's it, right? And even PennX, I think with the medicals, I kind of think it's a top five for guys that would like answer your quarterback questions this year. And then so it's five guys in the draft.

And then what? We're going to have Russell, Wilson released. Kirk Cousins coming off in Achilles. And then like Gardner, Minchew, like Jacoby Brissette, like Joe Flackle. Tana Hill. Tanna Hill. Tanna Hill.

Slim Pickett. The league. Justin Fields. Let me ask you this if you're New England. Fields. If you think, you know, like Bill, for example, is really high on New England's defense and said this team was like weirdly close to being like 500 this year.

And that, you know, I had any kind of quarterback. They could have been 500. They have a good defense. If you want a quarterback to step in, and be competent, and you think your defense is good, and the AFC East is a weird division. You have the Jets and Rogers, the bills are in Capel.

Could you just sign Kirk Cousins, draft Marvin Harrison Jr. at three, and walk into next year with a pretty competitive team. Yes. I would want at least another offense alignment in New England before I'm like,

yes, yes, but pretty much yes. Yeah, I agree. I agree. Like, if you're not in love with Jane Daniels, and I'm sure you could trade down, But if you wanted to get the best receiver in the draft and get Kirk Cousins, that's not a bad deal. A really good subplot of this whole Bears, commanders, do the commanders want Caleb Williams? How hard do they want Caleb Williams?

How bad do they want? And what are they going to do to go get him sort of discussion is that it's going to give New England a lot of information about what's going on at one and at two, depending on how much ball of the bears play. And that's going to be really valuable for them. Because we're going to, at some point in the draft process, we're going to say out loud, the draft starts at three. Like, Hyphids is going to lead us into a mock draft episode we're doing in the being of Aprilities. Because they're going to know what the bears are doing with one. And accordingly, we're going to probably know what the commanders are doing it too. That's then going to be, all right, New England here is kind of the pivot.

And it's where the road first forks. So they, like, they got to do their work on these three quarterbacks and really know for sure if they want to actually take a guy at three, if they feel good about him. Or if not, kind of how big of a deal can you get? if you, let's say you're out on Jaden Daniels and like the Falcons are in and the Vikings are in and the Raiders are in, you can get a franchise saving hall, right? Raiders from 13 to 3, you can get a ludicrous amount of capital. Three first round picks for the Niners to go from 12 to 3 to go get Tray Lance. You can get a big deal if you make that trade, but you got to know.

And so that's something I'm really looking forward to over the cycle. And on that note, so like I think it's interesting that a lot of these deals usually get made the week of the draft or like a little earlier, but last year the Bears Panthers made that deal really right before free agency because that way each team could plan. And so I actually think that this deal might be made within the next 30 days. That's only, I remember that was for one because that gave you control. Trading three is a lot harder because you don't know for sure yet what's happening at one and two. And so we'll see. Cool. All right. We did it. Talk. Come to Pittsburgh, Justin. We'll have fun. I also just love it. Kirk Cousins turns 36 in July and

We're just like, yeah, Achilles, it's fine. He's fine. Boring about Achilles injury is so 2014. Don't worry about it. It doesn't move anyway. Yeah, Kelly and Solac consulting. Stop. Don't worry.

Don't worry. All right, speak of which. Okay, you want to do a couple emails before we get out of here? Yeah, emails. All right. So, look, you missed a lot. All right. I gathered.

Do you want a poop-related story? You want to talk about the refrigerators first? What do you want? I mean, refrigerator, interest. me more, but I feel like the blue is a larger national appeal. I would love it if there was a crossover story where they were kind of both involved. Well, yeah. Okay.

Yeah. All right. So, yes. All right. So the Super Bowl happened. And then after the Super Bowl, somehow we start talking about how hockey rinks work. I went ice skating in San Diego and it kind of let off a chain reaction. Fritz's work. I don't know. Roller skates, roller blades also turns out rollerblades are like an actual

like Band-Aid or Kleenex. It's like that's actually a brand. It's not a wild. Inline. I had forgotten about this. Inline, yeah. Inline skates. A series of emails that try to answer a question of how fridges works. So it's just a series of emails that all together hopefully put paint the picture.

Aaron writes. Aaron. Hockey rinks are like big fridges. There are tubes placed within the concrete floor that pump ammonia typically glyceol through them. This is a much lower freezing point than water. The concrete absorbs the cold, transfers this to fresh water, not saltwater decay. Then the water freezes. Look, the only reason I said,

salt waters because Craig read something that said they, for hockey rinks they turn, use brine. Right. That's true. Yeah. So like, I can't even tell you. So do you know how fridge works? I have a, I have a freezer. A freezer. Tell us how a fridge works. A freezer. Tell us how a freezer works.

Freezer I know less about. Isn't it the same thing? It's colder? Tell us what you know, pal. I mean, I guess that's probably it, right? It's cold. It's colder. They use a refrigerant, right? Which has like a lower a lower vaporization point than a boiling point than water does.

Oh, he got way further than we did. Yeah. Mickey knows the answer. And they they use that to kind of like it gets heated up by the outside world. It gets heated up outside of the fridge. And then it moves into the fridge

and it takes some of the heat away from the fridge. Takes the cold, puts cold into the fridge, it takes heat out. Good job, good job. I'm pretty sure that is that is exactly fucking right. So like his nail in it. Holy shit. It doesn't feel.

It doesn't feel right. I'm saying it, though. It's good enough for me. Did he just read the email? So let, yeah, did you look me in the eye? Did you just read the emails that the chemical engineers? I saw that we were doing refrigeration emails. Trust me.

I saw that. I knew. So you read them. I know, but I looked at the back of a fridge before. I'm been like, what are all these curvy lines? So you knew the term refrigerant before today. Yes, of course. You knew the vaporization was the answer without looking at this doc.

Boiling point. That's 11th grade. I went to school as a physics major. Oh, that's, I don't know. Boiling point. I really love, one of the things I love about this show so much, is that all of your listeners are like, these three are so dumb.

They can't even use Google. So I have to email to them how Fridge's work instead of just relying on them to do it for themselves. That is a choice by us to not use Google to promote listener engagement. And it's masterfully done. Whatever Hyatvitz is like, we got so many emails explaining to us how coins are made.

And I'm like, if you just watch how things are, how stuff's made in fourth grade, you'd have this. but now it kills me every time. Ben got way, way more specific than I was even expecting. So good job. We had to move the fridge in church a couple times. There's like the big coils in the backs. You're like, dad, how do these coils work?

And he's like, I don't know, son. And then you look it up. Yeah, I got like, I got to the coils part, I think. I was like, there's stuff in like some tubes. That's about all I know. So, okay. So, okay, so the email, let's. Well, nicely done.

Daniel. I understand. I understand these tubes have something to do with why my freezer is cold. I'm imagining Calvin being like, dad, how do, how do fridges work? And he's like, well, there's coils, son. Do you have you guys? Craig? You got, you guys read Calvin and Hobbs, right?

Like, you like, yeah. Yeah, I know you do. Yeah. It's like, there's always the, the strips of Calvin asking his dad questions and his dad just giving him total BS answers. Such a good bit. Yeah. How has there not been a Calvin and Hobbs movie, by the way? I feel like that's. Oh, because Bill Waterson's, like, really anti.

Oh, is he? He doesn't want to. I think there could have been like commercials. There could have been all this stuff. Not commercials. Cartoons. Like everything. But I think he was very against that.

Good for him. Which makes him like one of the OGs, you know. Dad, what causes wind? Trees sneezing. Really? No, but the truth here is more complicated. Wait, Solac. So like, wait.

Do we ever answer the way? So people email answered the wind thing too. Did I ever tell you guys that people answer the wind thing? You didn't tell us. No. You didn't tell us anything, Hyphitz. I actually know this now. Do you know what causes wind, the actual

reason wind exists. I thought it was something to do with waves and tides and things. I'm pretty sure I know this one too, but I'm just revealing how big of a nerd I was in high school. No, the air above different land surfaces warms at different rates because like the air over the ocean is going to be cooler, right? Obviously, we all feel cool ocean air than the land over, then the air over land. And so the temperature disparity leads to the air moving from hot to cold and that creates wind patterns. Yeah, that's exactly right. It's the uneven heating of the earth's successful. I don't look bad, man.

I was going to say that. And then Ben jumped in, but I had that. Okay, first of all, Ben's never going to play trivia with us. God damn it. Or he always is. We've got to take Ben to a bar. No, no, no.

We can do trivia in real life. I'm talking about like our games here. We all have a really low bar to set. What do you boys know about the Coriolis effect? Oh, I can play Call of Duty. I played the level of the Gilliesuit level of Call of Duty. Of course, into the Coriolos effect. I don't know.

that sentence was. Does tides and waves have anything to do with wind? I feel like that is somewhat related. Waves, yeah, the moon is the reason why we're controlled by the moon, right. Which by the way, we really glossed over that one. That's insane. I feel like I didn't learn enough. Also, I remember when I was a kid, when I was three, the moon being out in daytime, I was, I was like, no one told me about this. I was told the moon was at night. That sounds about right, yeah. See it in the sky. And I was like, what's up with that? But like, there's moon and the sun at the same time. When was this? When was this? I was three. I was like, what's up? I'm unprepared for this.

anyway. So are we good on the fridge thing? You don't need that anymore? I kind of feel like we got that covered. All right. Well, we just needed Ben all along. That's what I'm here for. Go ice skating in San Diego. It's fun. And it works. It's possible. But it's not Brian, importantly. All right. So also, Solek, you missed.

D.K told the story about almost pooping or almost peeing himself on a plane because it took so long to D. Board. And he used the phrase D. Bored. To be clear, peeing, not pooping. Is D. Bored not the correct phrase? I don't know. But he said it. mom texted me and said D.K. D. Bark. Which is funny. D. Plain

is so stupid. Like, who says, like, D. Carr. That's why I make fun of it. D. Borg makes way more sense. Dvark. It does. I'm just going to D. Home real quick. Go for a while. Yeah. That's good. Yeah. D. Office. I mean, that's really literally how, like, language works.

But yeah. So, uh, when I do it, my estuary and everyone gets all mad. It's the, anyway. So this is a story from, um, it's, Name has been redacted upon request. Name has been redacted upon request. Name.

Just make up a name. Kevin. Meestro. Frank. In college, this is an email. In college, I worked at a high-end patio furniture store. Sick bag. Okay.

I worked in the warehouse. Sounds like California, but okay. In the warehouse assembling patio furniture. They don't have nice furniture anywhere else. Definitely California. The business was family-owned. Most of the employees were family. friends.

The co-owner had an office in the upstairs of the warehouse. Sounds mobbed up. Yeah. Yeah. As rank and file employees, upstairs was strictly off limits. Okay. I reiterate. On this private upstairs boss floor,

there was a private bathroom right by the boss's office. I also had spotted one time up there that, like he was up there twice, that there were several decades worth of Playboy magazines in the quarter of said private bathroom. several decades. I know. This is 20 years ago. So, you know, it was a pretty big deal.

Yeah, you could get your hand on a physical copy of pornography. Amazing. Instead of just going to the woods. So anyway, redacted rights one day. Ben's confused. Yeah, Ben's like, what? Dude, it's... Don't worry about it.

There's porn out there in the trees. They could tell them what back in the day was like. There's porn out in the woods, man. The internet in the mail on a CD. People used to take magazines into the woods and masturbate and then you could go into the woods and find leftover porn. Oh, that's exciting. This is the physical internet. This is before the internet you had an interconnected series of hideouts of pornography hidden in the woods that people could log on.

So like every now and then we find a perfect, we find a perfect age demarcation. And D.K. told this, and Craig and I were like, what are you talking about? And we just, I literally just, we got emails of two kinds. people over 38 and people under 38 that were people everyone over was like yeah porn in the woods you know anyway hold on did I just stumble upon the reason we say log on did you hiding porn in a log

no no nothing it feels like a reach highly doubt it I don't know probably not I don't know I don't know the answer to that great thanks Craig Craig was the one night one nice one Mike it's a really good question Daniel that's good That's back to bed, grandpa. Yeah, back to bed, grandpa.

Email continues one day, the family that owns the thing. The internet used to be on a disc. Okay. They mail it to you. Back in my day. Family that owns the place has a wedding. And so the whole family was invited to the wedding. And most of the employees at the warehouse were also family friends.

So they were invited too. So I, again, not me, redacted. A redacted was in the warehouse by myself all day. this was extremely unusual. I was basically just king of the warehouse for the day. And around noon, nature calls. And I see a golden opportunity to use the off-limits boss's private bathroom. This is a Seinfeld bit or a curb bit or something, isn't it?

Yeah. Yes, George quits over the private bathroom. Right, right. So I went up, I grab a stack of Playboys, proceed to take ridiculously long and thorough shit. He grabs a stack of Playboys? Well, they were there. I don't know, man.

It's not me. To poop? He's reading the articles, Craig. Yeah, it's the interview. Apparently they were good. Just good writing. So, finally finish, get up, wipe, flush, etc. Finally finish.

Do we need to know that you wiped? But that's fine. That's what I thought. Superfluous detail. That's fine. What did he mean by finish? I was a good question. That's good.

How often do people poop and masturbate in the same thing? That's crazy. Well, sometimes when they have a stack of playboys, Craig. Which one goes first? But nature called, but which, you know, who, yeah, who do you answer first? I think you have to start with number two because I doubt you can hold that and enjoy yourself. So then you're doing it for the smell. It's grosser that way.

It is, but nature decides that for you, really. I see both sides. I see both ways. But isn't that what redacted is insinuating? He brought in porn. omags, masturbated and took a shit? You know what? You're right. That is the Is it? Okay.

Wait, what else are you doing? Is that what he said or not? What did he say? He said, I finally finished and then wiped. It's ambiguous. Let's, you know, that's up to interpretation. And then wiped. I would have wiped and then finished if you're going. So he flushes the toilet. Anyway, email continues.

Fluses the toilet. To my horror, I realized there was no water in the toilet. You didn't notice this before? Just full basin? It was all porcelain? I panic, frantically turned the faucet on the sink, no water. And I realized there's no water hooked up to this bathroom. Jesus Christ, dude. And I have a toilet full of shit and no water and perhaps other things.

And he continues, leaving evidence of my presence would have led to me being immediately fired. And so I had to dry clean my own shit out of the toilet. What does that mean? paper towels and then I make multiple trips walking paper towels full of my own shit downstairs to hide that I'd even been there. Wow. And it took over an hour to get the toilet back. They must have paid you so much money at the upscale patio furniture store.

Man. They better need this job, brother. Wow. I feel like I immediately would notice there's no water in the toilet. But like I get like, you're not looking for that. Not when you bring in six porno mags with you. Yes, it's true. What's looking at it.

You got six playboys. Your attention. is elsewhere. If you just fill the tank with water, you should be able to flush it because it's just gravity. So you should have just been taking pictures of water upstairs. Not everybody understands how refrigerators work all right. This is what's like, you are

exactly correct. Well, here's the thing though. Are you sure that it's hooked up to? Yeah, was the toilet hooked up or was it? Is it a decorative toilet? It's true. Dude, you can't just take a shit in a toilet if it's just sitting on a carpet. The water's not going to go anywhere. That's my point.

Yeah, I agree. But if the actual, like, the toilet doesn't empty anywhere, that's unbelievable. That's a great. It's just a prank toilet. It's meant to trap well-meaning workers. Yeah, this isn't trap man. It's just patio furniture. That's all the toilet is.

It's just patio furniture. Gentlemen's, uh, patio club. Gentlemen's shit club. I think, I think honestly, flushing it is riskier. Putting water in and flushing it, then you have, I don't think so. Then you have shitty water. The alternative was carrying poop and paper towel in your hands downstairs. You're saying flushing the toilet as it is intended is riskier?

No, no, no. I'm saying if it's not connected to plumbing, then you've got water everywhere. Dude, that is the worst post-knuck clarity I've ever heard. Is that the whole situation? I don't know what's worse that he didn't figure out that he didn't try the water thing or that he just brought Playboys into his boss's bathroom. They were already in there. I think they were in there.

Oh, he just, oh, okay. Which, okay, wait a minute. So if the boss has Playboys in there and there's no water, to the toilet. Does this bathroom only serve one purpose for the boss? No. And then he just leaves it in there? My favorite part is like, what does the, why did, why mention the Playboy magazines

in the story if they, if he doesn't use them? They were irrelevant to the story. He's reading the articles. I don't know why he added that. We're doing some good detective work here. That's incriminating. So wait, what happened? Did he get fired?

That's it? No, it sounds like he got away with it. I left his name out because I think he still works there. All right. Where he did for a long time. I feel like there's probably not a lot of high-end furniture story. He said, tell the story, leave his name out. At this point, it's on him.

He might be true. I feel like you could deduce this quickly. It's 20 years ago. Statute of limitations on that, yeah. All right. Well, I can't top that. Thank you, D.K. Thank you, Craig.

Thank you so, like. Thank you, Kai, for producing this episode. Thank you, Tucker, for help on the scenes. Thank you, Jack. Thank you. Everyone emailed in, ringer fancy football at Gmail.com. You got weird stories about toilets having no water or whatever or like scarred things about the bathroom. Anytime anyone's gone, you know, pooped or peed as an adult sober, like waste management,

not interested if you were blackout drunk, but if you're sober and like actually peed yourself, we want to hear about it. I want to know about workplace bathroom mishaps. Yeah. And then also football. We cover football as well on this show, which you may have forgotten. But yeah, the drafts, Kirk Cousins, Achilles, whatever. Thank you, Lauren.

Lauren. Lord. Thank you, Liljohn. Nice. Yeah, he was great. Yeah, he was great. Really talented performance out of him. How dare you? That was the best part of the whole thing.

Look, he's a great producer on stage. I think anybody could do that. Which one was he? Great. There you go. My point exactly. Yeah, I'm not. I don't work as the example of Craig.

We just figured. I'm just figured out what Ben doesn't know about. He was the guy going, yeah. Oh, he was excellent. Marvelous. That's like, marvelous. Marvelous. Visionary.

He was the guy wearing weird clothes. Oh, okay. Now I know. Well, he knows that's not Usher because Usher wasn't wearing any clothes. Yeah, Usher to expose a nipple cashed. What were the odds on that? Plus 120 yes, minus 160, no.

Wow. Did you probably do that for two nipples and like? you don't get double for how old is usher he's in good shape he's 45 good for him his muscles were lubricated he looks very once again the sweaty is person alive

sweaty than any player in the field my goal junior posted a picture of him with the caption me when I leave fogo to chow and I was like yeah he's got the meat sweats that's the one I don't know why and he was like two minutes into the performance

that man was sweaty you got to warm up Craig yeah you can't go in the cold Especially when you're roller skating For the last two months Someone answered this I apologize I don't remember who emailed this in But part of his Vegas residency

Includes the roller skating Oh Well that's what I said Kind of I was like he's like I've been fucking Training for roller skating for so long We got to put it in the show I saw Bruno Mars when I was in Vegas Perform

Okay He was really good That was like a Calvin story Just like complete change of subject That's not that different. My barbershop has a bit where every time Bruno Mars comes on the radio, they just go, ah, we hate this guy. And then they just leave it on.

And just every time I've been there, like three times Bruno Mars comes on, they're just like, oh, this guy's the worst. No one ever changes it. They just complain about him for the length of the song. Goodbye, everyone. Must be 21 plus and present in select states. Fandle's offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC.

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