The Ringer NFL Show - The Biggest Fantasy Questions for 2024

Episode Date: July 15, 2024

LIVE SHOW in Seattle on August 21: Click below for tickets! The guys break down some of their biggest fantasy questions ahead of the season, including the impact (or lack thereof) of Achilles injuries, how the Jim Harbaugh effect will translate to the NFL, WTF is going on with Bill Belichick’s dating life, and much more (3:13). “You guys want to do some emails?” (57:00). Tickets:  https://www.ticketweb.com/event/the-ringer-fantasy-football-show-the-crocodile-tickets/13718233 Check out our 2024 Ringer Fantasy Football Rankings here! Email us! [e-mail] 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 Social: Kiera Givens and Jack Sanders Producer: Kai Grady Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, my name is Dave Gonzalez, and I haven't read any of the books in George R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. I'm Joanna Robinson and I've read every book in Georgia R. Martens, A Song of Ice and Fire. And I'm Neil Miller and I have also read those very heavy books. Years ago, we hosted a Game of Thrones podcast called A Storm Spoilers, and we're thrilled to head back to Westrose to cover the second season of House of the Dragon on the Trial by Content feed. We'll be using our book knowledge to dive deep into each episode and answer your lingering questions. So send us a raven every week to Trial by Content at Gene. mail.com. Follow and subscribe to trial by content on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast to

join us on Thursdays where these two will explain to me which Targaryen is right. My name is Danny Hyfitz. I am joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Horlebeck. And today we are asking our biggest questions for the 2024 NFL season. Every year, I feel like you walk into the season and there are, I mean, there's a trillion questions, but I feel like there's always five, six, seven, ten. I don't know. I'm not great accounting. But there's a lot that just looms so much larger than the others. And almost you have to deal with first before you can get into everything else. And I wanted to do that with us this week. But quick note first. First of all, later this month, we're going to be going back to three episodes a week leading

in the season. It's happening. It's happening. You've been honestly screaming at us. Don't panic. Don't panic. Who said panic? Panic weekend. Anyway, uh, also live show in Los Angeles, July 30th at the L. Ray Theater. Live show in Seattle, August 21st at the Crocodile. God, what a great name for a venue. The Crocadile. The croc. El Ray is pretty good, too. By the way, I noticed you said at the L. Ray theater, which is a little redundant. At L. Ray? Yeah, fine. Yeah.

All right. I learned that about chai tea. Chai means tea. So you just be shy. It's like gobi desert. Goby just means desert. Yeah. We have a lot of places in America called River River, but it's kind of a dark history.

So anyway, the rigger. com slash events. Come hang out. A crook. An institution in Seattle. You better hurry. Tickets are selling out fast. They are.

They are. The rarer.com slash events. So hurry up. No, yeah, really. Don't walk, run. All those tickets are the ringer.com slash events. You can get those. And then, yeah, we're just going to go through just the big questions ahead of this NFL season.

So training camp is like next week, which is insane. Weird. Nick Chubb's already back to squatting like 600 pounds. Dude. What the hell? What is that? How is that? That guy's, is he, if Nick Chubb actually has a good season, he's going to be in the

Derek Henry category of that person, he won't die. We're very close. to like, like I know we had the Adrian Peterson came back, ran for 2,000 yards, but remember when Cam Acres tore as Achilles and then came back like five months later, but then wasn't good. That was kind of the first step in like the miraculous injury recovery world that we're now in. I do think that we are very close to somebody like suffering an injury like Nick Chubbs and then just coming back to next year and being normal again. It could be Nick Chub this year and it might like change the way we think about injuries once again.

In that case, I think we should just start with my number one question for this year. Are we just over Achilles injuries now? Because they're just injuries in general. The post-injury era. And we're not, obviously. We're not in the post-injury era. But I was looking at, I was thinking about this with the Achilles

because you have Kirk Cousins having an Achilles injury. We're in the post-most injuries era, I would say. Really one of the only ones that were not over is the Achilles and we're close. I'm old enough to remember when an Achilles injury was like career-threatening. And now we have Aaron Rogers tearing his Achilles in week one and being like, I'll come back for the end of season. And then later he was like, I don't know what he said that. doctor who performed on him, Neil Eletrosch, cleared him three months after the surgery.

That's insane. And then you have Kirk Cousins tearing his Achilles in, what, week five? Kirk Cousins gets $100 million guaranteed in free agency. And then even though those guys for fantasy purposes aren't necessarily like, their backup quarterbacks basically because they don't run anyway, Rogers and Kirk Cousins. But if you look at those teams, I mean, Atlanta, we have, we're so excited about Bison Robinson. He's like going to be a first rounder.

We have Drake London in best ball, average draft. Drake London's right after Devante Adams. We have Kyle Pitts, the thirst trap, is staring at us again because what about Kirk Cousins? And then New York with the Jets. We've Breast Hall's a top two, top three pick. Garrett Wilson's like a borderline first rounder. And it's like basically for fantasy purposes,

the way that these guys are priced, it's basically like these Achilles injuries did not happen to Aaron Rogers and Kirk Cousins. They would not be different. None of these people would be priced differently. And so I don't mean saying I think that's wrong, but isn't that weird? I hate when you're doing this,

Hyfitz, because you always end up right about this kind of thing. Craig and I are like, yeah, it'll be fine. Don't worry about it. He's, you know, the doctor says he's fine. The doctors can't lie. But then Hyphus was the one, of course, like, he's the voice of reason, I feel like. Well, like, sure, Tony Pollard broke his leg last year.

Then we invested all of our money into him. And then he was an absolute disaster. But this isn't something that we haven't seen before. If you, especially cross sports. Like, if you look at Kevin Durant, Clay Thompson. I guess Clay didn't come back that break. Two people have never been the same. I mean, Kevin Durant came back and, you know,

he was close to leading the league in scoring. Clay Thompson came back and won a title. Like these dudes, like... Didn't Durant also miss a year, though? Yeah. He missed a season. These guys aren't missing a season. Like, there's a whole year gap in this recovery. Aaron Rogers missed the whole season. Aaron Rogers would be out for a year.

Fine, fine. But Durant did not play the entire season after his Achilles. Kirk Cousins is coming back in like 10 months. Yeah. I mean, look, Kirk Cousins is. is at the Adele stage of his career. He's parking and barking. You don't need the Achilles. Dude, the park and park. That's really, that's really it though. And I get to a degree, like, these are, it's because there's pocket passing quarterbacks. Kirk Cousins, Aaron Rogers, their pocket passers. And that really does change it. Like, if we were talking about Lamar Jackson,

obviously Lamar Jackson would be a different player, you know, with an Achilles injury. I already know Mallory Rubin's going to fire me for even saying that, putting that out in the world. Speaking that into existence. I know. But obviously it would be a different conversation. I guess what I'm saying is, I don't disagree. I just think that it's, it's so weird to me that, There would be no, these guys would not be priced higher. Fries Hall's like the second pick. He wouldn't be first if Aaron Rogers had been fine last year. Or maybe he would.

Maybe that's the argument. But I just think it's so strange that what if he gets hurt again? You know what's funny is like, which quarterbacks are you not worried that they'll get hurt this heading into this season? It's like, I'm worried about Kirk Cousins and Aaron Rogers like we just discussed. We're all worried about Anthony Richardson. We're worried about Joe Burrow. Yeah.

Anytime you ever running quarterback like Jalen Hertz who got hurt last year or Lamar Jackson, you're worried. It's like, I feel like almost like 80% of the top 10 quarterbacks in the league are like huge injury risks. This is actually, Craig, that's a good encapsulation of why I act. The bit for me is always like, don't worry it'll be fine.

Like, what's the point of fucking worrying about these guys? Like, football is a very random and violent sport where guys get rolled up on like a line, offensive linemen falls on a guy. Like you got multiple non-contact injuries that ended the quarterback's, seasons last year in Aaron Rogers and Kirk Cousins. What's the fucking point of worrying?

Let's just freaking live our lives. Can I give you a counterpoint? Everyone who's ever played on the turf at Midlife Field has been injured and Aaron Rogers got played injured four snaps into it and they just did the Copa America and everyone who played on any of those fields got injured. Like messy, they sprayed water. Did you guys see the soccer? They sprayed water after Shakira went on at halftime.

Messi immediately like rolls his ankle. Like the turf at all these places is awful. Not all of them, but like, I'm like, I don't know. What if Rogers just gets hurt? it again because the MetLife turf is awful. And everyone has gotten injured there for like the entire time it's been open. The shoddy like fields and turf that people play on in the NFL is like the least covered story in football.

It's so ridiculous. Yes, it is. And the players have been talking about this forever. But it's at the point where it happens every year. And one, just turf in general. But the MetLife's basically I feel like the basis is that turf is worse than grass. I mean, there's reason Messi won't play on turf. Like soccer players don't play on turf.

All these stadiums are changing out for grass for the World's Cup. But also, they do all these other concerts and stuff that they pick it up. Like it's a basketball floor with hardwood. But it's not. And so when they do it and they all this give, they put it down and they're like, yeah, we got two days. We kind of threw it down. And when there's more give, people get hurt.

I don't know. It's been known. So part of me is like, if Rogers gets hurt again on this turf in September and you just drafted Garrett Wilson, how fucking stupid will you feel? Did you guys hear Joe Burrow was on part of my take? It was a funny interview. But Joe Burrow was talking shit about the Steelers grass. He said they put cat litter on the grass.

in Pittsburgh. Cat litter? Dude. Yes. Why? To dry it up? Oh, yeah, I don't know. They actually keep kitty lit.

My brother's a fire for them. They keep kitty litter and fire trucks in case there's like a, like a truck with like an oil tank or kind of tank. Well, yeah, because it sucks out. I was like thinking, do they try to like get all the pieces of shit that are laying around on the field or? Yeah, Burrow was like, yeah, because there's a pit, the university of Pittsburgh plays in the stadium on Saturday. And then in Sunday, Burrow was like, it feels like there's sand like in the grass. And he's like, is that kitty litter? Like, I hope not.

That's fucking crazy. It's crazy. I think it's so funny that Joe Burrow and Jim R. Chase went to LSU where they have like these incredible otherworldly football facilities or even guys who go to Oregon. And then you get drafted to like the Cincinnati Bengals. You got to pay for like a snickers in the vending machine. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, Arizona Cardinals are charging you like boxed lunches. Oh, my God.

The chiefs don't even have a locker room. They're one in the Super Bowl. Anyway, yeah. But that's my question is just, I guess I'm just going to get on the train. and be like, all right, whatever, these Achilles injuries don't matter. Even though five years ago it was the biggest story in sports. But fuck it. Medicine.

Modern medicine. Science. It'll be fine. It'll be fine. It'll be fine. Don't worry about it. It'll be fine. All right.

Cloud we settled that. Yeah. Okay. Next up here, I want to do my favorite exercise entering a season. And I like when this is like the first and last thing I do entering season, which is the only hard and fast rule of the NFL is that half the teams don't make the playoffs every year. It's kind of incredible. and like the secret to the NFL success

and the way they've rigged it with the schedule, the better you perform in the regular season, the harder your regular season schedule is the following year. To be clear, half of the playoff teams from last year will not make the playoffs again this year. Is that what you're saying? Correct. Yes, I didn't explain that well. Yeah, so now there's, now that remember,

there's seven teams in each conference make the playoffs. 14 of the 32 teams make it every year. Pretty reliably, three of the seven teams will not, basically, like you never get more than four of the teams to make it back. So I want to start with just, which teams won't make it back to the playoffs this year and which teams do you think will make it?

Because there's always a surprise. A year ago we were saying how the Houston Texans might have the worst record in the NFL and they ended up making the freaking divisional round of the playoffs. So there's always, if you're not predicting something crazy to happen, you're probably going to be wrong. So I'm curious, I don't know who wants to go first, but I thought, I think we start with the AFC.

And I think it's way easier to pick the teams that you think will make it. And then the hard part's picking who's going to come out. But I don't know. Craig, do you want to start here and just pick who you think of the AFC will make it into the playoffs? Yes. Let me see if my brain can work because right now I have the teams written down that won't make it. So let's see if I can. I could do that live on air.

Okay. Looking at the AFC teams that made the playoffs last year, Buffalo, Miami, Baltimore, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Houston, Kansas City. That's correct, right? Yes. Well, you just then forget what I said. You want to pull teams out first? The three teams I don't think are going to make it.

I don't think the Steelers are going to make it. are going to make it, which is not exactly a hot take. I don't think the Browns are going to make it. And I pick the bills. I don't think the bills are going to make it. Ooh, hot take. So you think the dolphins are going to be better than the bills? Yeah, and I think the Jets are going to be in the mix as well.

And I'm betting on, I think the NFC to me was a lot easier to predict the AFC. The AFC is very deep. You got teams like Indianapolis. You have teams like Jacksonville, the Chargers, all like with a shot to make a run. I think the NFC is a little bit easier to figure out. But yeah, I don't know. I look at the bills and I'm like, they lost Stefan Diggs. the defense hasn't been good.

I think they're one year away from maybe like moving on from Sean McDermott. You know, they saved their asses last year. They were in a really tough spot, two-thirds of the way through the season, and they won like six straight to sneak into the playoffs. And then, yeah, the Browns Deshawn Watson thing, I'm not sold at all on that. And like I said, with how competitive the AFC is, I think the Steelers are going to, once again, be right around 9 and 8, and I don't think they're going to sneak in this time.

I totally agree with that. I think the Steelers pulling out as easy. Also, I didn't mention the Bengals, who are a team. I also think we'll be in the playoffs. DK, what did you make? I had the same thing except I think the bills stay, even though I agree the bills are due for a comeback. Sorry, not a comeback.

A fall off. Those are different things. But I think that I actually have the Jets making it in over the dolphins. Yeah, I was going to say, if we're going to see three to four new teams in the playoffs this year in the AFC, the teams that I would circle are the Jets, the Bengals, the Bengals were the last place team in the division last year,

which is weird to think about. And then the other two teams I thought of are the Colts. And the Chargers possibly. I feel like we're all underrating the Chargers. I think we're all underrating the Harbaugh element. Like Harbaugh is just, every team he's coach, I feel like, is just overachieved and been a lot better than people think. He has a way of bringing a team together and galvanizing everybody. An easy division.

They're going to play the Raiders and the Broncos twice. They have a great quarterback. Like, I think there's a lot of things that could help the chart. I recognize and I 100% realized that we do this with the Chargers every year where we think they're going to be way better than they are. but I think this year it's different guys but it could work for us right so I'm like

100% cognizant of the fact that we do this every fucking year with the Chargers but like I'm doing it again I don't care I think the Chargers are going to be better than people think and then the Colts are one of those teams where if everything kind of swings right for them they could be really really good

and obviously some there's a lot of variables there but if Anthony Richardson comes back he stays healthy you know their offense takes a jump their defense takes another jump. I think this could be a really good team. And again, they're in a division that it's, it's anybody's ballgame there.

I agree with all that because, I mean, also, just so much of it's the schedule, because, again, the NFL schedule is set when the season ends, because basically the way it works is every team plays their own division, the other three teams. They play one division in each conference. And then you also play the teams

that ranked in the same as you. So if you're the Bengals in your last place, you get to play the other last place teams in the other divisions in the NFC. So, for example, the Bengals get to play other, like the Patriots because those teams were in last. But the Bengals were in last

because Joe Burrow got hurt. Now that Burrow, you think will be healthy, you look at the Bengals having one of the six easiest schedules, and the Steelers having the hardest schedule in the NFL, Warren Sharp does great work with actual strength of schedule.

And I'm like, I think the Bengals will be better than Pittsburgh. And then the same thing, the Browns have like the third hardest schedule in the NFL. And I look at the Colts and they have one of the seven easiest

because they missed the playoffs. And I think, I don't know who the hell is going to be in the secondary for Indianapolis this year. I think that that's a huge weakness them. But I just think Anthony Richardson and them, the Colts were fantastic last year.

And same with the Jets. They have like one of the five easiest schedules and their offense is going to get more good than their defense can drop off. Like if Rogers is... More gooder. Yes. You know what? Shut up. You know exactly what I mean? Yeah, yeah. The improvement on the offense will be larger than any decline the Jets have a defense,

even though they were really healthy last year. So I just, I don't know. I think Jets, bangles, cults. And honestly, I agree. I kind of wonder about the Texans falling out too. I know. That was the team I was like, you know, because there's so many expectations now with this team. It's like sometimes people fall back to Earth. I think the Jags are another team that could surprise that

and win that division. They were only one game out last year. And if you're looking at like their DVOA, they finished last season, 10th and overall DVOA, according to The Jags are the definition of like a post-time sleeper team this year. Everybody's off Jacksonville. Here's the thing though. I keep trying to remember

that like things do roll downhill from ownership. And that's not an accident to me. like the Ravens have a great owner and the Ravens are like always competitive and that the Jaguars their owner is literally their son who runs the owner's son who runs the team

is literally trying to do a WWE rival startup and showed up to the draft in a neck brace because he had been thrown for something through the ring on Saturday night or Thursday night whatever Raw like Tony Con was in a neck brace because of a WWE

performance the previous night. He's a modern businessman. He's a showman. Cool. Now, you do not hold on that? All right. That's why the Jags are going to be not playoff team. What would you say? If Bill went to like WWE and got thrown through the ring and then showed up next day with the neck brace on.

Yeah, I agree. I would love that. That's good for the brand. All right. Vince McMahon's NFL or an XFL thing did not work. Con's trying to, you know, make a name for himself in the NFL slash wrestling world. All right. All right.

So, AFC, I think we're on the same page. NFC. NFC is tough NFC it's kind of like you're like you're going to pick one of these teams to miss because the NFC East Cowboys and Eagles are so much bigger

that there's so much better than the Giants in Washington like the Cowboys and Eagles I feel like you have to make it I know the easiest one is the free space is swapping out the bucks for like the Falcons

and the NFC South that's easy I really wanted to like I really wanted to kick out Dallas or Philly I couldn't figure it out I tried for a while to be like, will one of these teams not make it?

But I couldn't get there. And I basically was just like, I'm going to swap Tampa for Atlanta. I feel like everyone is going to do that. And we know that's not how it's going to work. So I don't know. It's like, I mean, look, Matt Stafford's like one back injury away from the Rams being horrific and the Seahawks sneaking in. So there's definitely a lot that can happen. But I really wanted to find a way to see if Dallas could fall off this year.

I did too, Craig. But then I looked at, again, I was looking at the DVOA rankings from last year. Dallas is like very balanced team. They were top 10 in offensive DVOA, defensive DVOA, and special teams DVOA. So this is a very good team across the board. They have the best regular season record in the NFL over the last three seasons. Yeah. So I don't know.

I think they're probably pretty solid. And I had the same thought high-fiz as what you mentioned is like, I think the halves and the have-nots are more delineated in the NFC. Like there's just a lot of bad teams in the NFC. And then there's teams that you think are just pretty obviously going to win the division. I think it's going to be up to the Cowboys and the Eagles. In the east, the lions and the Packers in the north are going to be battling it out while the Vikings and Bears kind of go through transition seasons.

In the NFC West, 49ers, still clearly like one of the top teams in the NFL. And then I think the Rams and the Seahawks are going to battle it out for a wildcard spot. And I think the Cardinals could be surprising, though. I don't think they'll get quite there this year. But that's a really good division. If there's a worst to first team, I kind of wonder if it's Arizona, which is insane to say. Their defense was just so bad last year. I know.

I think their offense will be way better for fantasy purposes. Like I think Kyler, Marvin Harrison, Jr. Trade McBride are all like excellent for fantasy this year. Like we talked about James Conner. Dorch. Dorch. Dorch. Dorch. But I just keep looking and I'm like, all right, well, what's the shock?

Right. Because again, it's insane from the same year. Well, the 49ers, what if they missed the playoffs? Well, I'm like, you know, this is insane. The Eagles started 10 and 1 and then went one and six and had the most embarrassing playoff flame out. I can even remember. And I look at this Niners team and all the pressure they just lost the Super Bowl.

how many Super Bowl hangover teams have we seen evaporate? And it's so weird to point at this Niners team, but I'm like, this is like a five-year Odyssey between Super Bowl losses and getting back, losing again, I think that like you look at the brand-nayu contract situation, I think that when guys start to get squirrely about who's going to get paid, I don't know, man. I do wonder if the Niners kind of implode from internal expectations

and just the team factor starts to rip away. Because the Cardinals, I think they have really good. stuff going on. But that thing is, who are you going to pull out? So if it's not the Niners, it's the Rams. I mean, the Lions or Packers feels crazy to pull them out too at the playoffs. But I was just looking at like just the basic point differentials for the NFC. Dude, the commanders had a worse point differential than the Panthers. Washington allowed like the most points of the, they, Washington allowed like the most points,

the most yards like, yeah, it's disgusting. Min is 189. That's, that's rough. But yeah, I mean, I think like if you look at the NFC North, there's a lot of parody in that division. It would not surprise me to be honest, too much if the Bears challenge for the playoffs or the Vikings somehow are just a lot better than expected. So yeah, this is tough to, this is tough to say. I don't want to sound like it's Seahawks Homer,

but I think the Seahawks are better than what people are sort of projecting them as right now. I think right now I saw on Fanduil, the over under for wind total is the same as the Cardinals with the Seahawks. It's seven and a half. That just seems a bit wild to me. The NFC, you can make the case that there's what, three definitively bad teams in the NFC, Carolina, Washington,

and the Giants? And like even Washington? Maybe I need to rescind what I said earlier about halves and have-nots. Maybe there's more parity here. Yeah, but I just don't see the Giants and Commanders, Vikings, Bears. They feel more like transitional seasons for them.

One of my biggest questions for the season is around the Philadelphia Eagles and the tush push with Jason Kelsey now retiring. I looked into this. I honestly, I really go back and forth. I actually think I lean that the tush push will not be as effective

and we should be factoring that into Jalen Hertz's rankings. It has been the single most important piece of any fantasy player's skill set the last three seasons. Jalen Hertz easily leads the NFL and rushes from the one yard line over the last three years with 28. Of those 28, 22 of them have been touchdowns. Damn.

By far, most, of the last three years. The next closest is 14 touchdowns. Not only that, I was looking at some of the advanced stats, I was reading Warren Sharp. The EPA generated from just Jalen Hertz's one-yard sneaks is more EPA than every other team's total rushing EPA over the last three years. It is so important for the Eagles, so important for Jalen Hertz's fantasy value. They converted it at a 92% clip.

The rest of the league was at 82, which, to be honest, higher than I thought. Right. They make it seem like it's a lot bigger, the gap. Yeah, no. The touch push works for every team that does it basically. It really does. There was some lagging. I think it was like a lag situation

where early on the Eagles are dominating and then everyone's like oh shit how do we figure out how to do this but then over the course of the season teams started to figure it out there's so much turnover Jason Kelsey's gone and they have a new center his name's Cam Juergens

he was on the team last year he's a second year guy he was a second rounder two years ago he actually played at guard last year next to Kelsey they have a new O.C. and Kellen Moore and what Jason Kelsey was so good at is he was very nimble and he got super low

but he was also just like the smartest sense. in the league. He was so good at identifying like the middle linebacker in the middle of the play. He was like the only guy who could communicate with is a line coach. He did the protections for the Eagles, like not Jalen Hertz. Like he did. Correct. So it's like

all those factoring in, like, if Jalen Hertz does kind of just like regress to the mean as an average tush pusher, that like significantly affects yeah, I'm sorry. An average touch pusher. It's just super average average for a second.

Can we just pause for a second? Yeah, there we go. Yeah, we'll hold on. that average tush push. Average tush pusher pusher. They also hate that we call it tush push. They want to call it the brotherly shove. The eagles hate the Eagles do? Yeah, they do.

No, you got to lean in. That's the one, like, that's how you win the tush push. Growing up with an older brother, like, if he told me he didn't like something, I just said it more. You got to be like, oh, we love the tush push, and then everybody will get bored and move on. Yeah, I think I lean that like, which I don't know if this is exactly a hot take. I do think that no Jason Kelsey with this new center in Cam Juergens, with a new offensive coordinator, I do not think Jalen Hurts is going to be as effective. And I don't think they're going to run it as much.

I kind of just think Sequin's going to get more rushing touchdowns than we think. At the end of the day, they do the tush push when it's like within a yard and a half, a couple of yards. I just think Sequin will score frequently from beyond the two yards. Because, again, I think there were five or six different tush pushes where DeAndre Swift is tackled at the one. again, there's still going to be plenty of them. But I just think the Eagles rushing game will be a lot better with Sequin on the field all the time. I think I agree.

Sequin's pretty divisive this year. It feels like people are either all in or all out. Well, I think that the divisive parts, because Sequant's probably not going to catch as many passes because Jeline isn't going to check the ball down. And they don't think he's going to get the goal line carries, which is fair. Yeah, I just, I think it'll be fine. Bill Barnwell keeps saying that the Eagles should probably just have Seekwon

to do the touch portion instead of Jalen Hertz? Because do you want your quarter billion? Yeah, do you want a quarter billion dollar quarterback? That's a good idea. Yeah, do you want a quarter billion dollar quarterback being under, like how many, what's the collective weight of nine NFL players? I think Hertz could squat it. Yeah, exactly.

600. Just squatting like nine NFL players every play. How much of the tush push is like, is, like how much of the success of the tush push should be given to the fact that Jalen Hertz can squat like 650 pounds? Well, Saekwon can out squat him. Is that right? Can he out squat hurts? I think he can.

Yeah. I think Seekwon can do it. They had squat competitions at the OTS. Honestly, that'll be one of the first videos we see out of the Eagles at training camp. I'm sure Hertz and Sequin are going to do some like squat off in July. Squad off. That's cool. We should do a squat off.

You guys are going to be in L.A. in two weeks. We should do our own squat off on D. Should we do them just like mimic whatever Jalen Hertz and Sequin put out? Do you guys do squats? Not really. It's a squat off. Not really. I did.

I can only do like four or 500 pounds, though. I'm in my pliability era. I'm not. in my max weight era. Four or 500 pounds? Yeah, I can only do like Nick Chubb. I'm in my body weight era. I'm not going for PRs these days.

You know what I mean? Trying to stay loose. Rex. Greg Barr with Nick Chubb. I will say if the other teams can't all do the tush push this off season, I think that's, you know how I keep saying I could run an NFL team? If my coaches didn't have an entire proposal

to do the tush push on fourth and one, everyone's fired. Like if you can't figure out how to do this play that definitely works and they debated banning, I don't want, you're not my coach. I really like Kai FitzGM style. No nonsense. You're just too good for that.

Yeah, hire Bill Belichick. Free Oreos, any flavor for all the players. Just the O-Lyignment. Yeah, they get all they want. Other questions is just the general, when will the rookie quarterbacks play with six rookie quarterbacks go in the first half of the first round, which is insane. And DK, draft extraordinary.

I'm curious, when you think these guys are going to play? Yeah. And then also which ones you think actually would be good as rookies. Right. So I think Caleb Williams and Jay and Daniels seem to be locked for week one. Like they're starting from day one. We don't really have to figure out that situation too much. And I think both of those guys could threaten to be top 12 quarterbacks.

So Marcus Marriota is the backup quarterback in Washington. So that should tell you all you need to know. They're not even pretending in Washington. Who's the backup in Chicago? Is it going to be Beijing? Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

The teabag. Oh, my guy. I forgot about that. Remember when they were like, hey, Tyson, what would you have done if you were in an NFL quarterback? He was like, I don't know, probably like coach Jim at my high school and just do CrossFit to get ripped. So sick. Yeah. Just rip and Sigs.

Now it's just Caleb's backup quarterback. So I think for at least two teams, Jay and Daniels, Caleb Williams teams, we can get pretty excited about them from a fantasy point of view and from, you know, they will be starting right away. I think Bo Nicks, odds are he will be starting week one. Wouldn't you say, like, where do you guys land on the? Bo Nix thing. I think he'll be starting week one, but I think there is more of a question mark there. I'm starting to think Bo Nix will be good. And not

like an impressive way. Yeah. I think that he'll be annoyingly competent in the NFL. And I don't like him as a player and I don't like... What about as a person? Pick. Yeah, yeah. Well, he's kind of also in the Zach Wilson

vein of like he looks like the bad kid and made for Disney TV movie. Yeah. He looks like the evil character. But I kind of just think Bo Nix. Sean Payton, you know, he's one of those older coaches, you know, they like what they like. They know what they know what they want. And I think he just knows what he wants Bo Nix to do.

And everything about the Broncos where my whole NAC, not NAC, why can I speak English? Not NAC. Knock on Bo Nix pre-draft was one third of his passes where like at the line of scrimmage are behind. Cool. That's fine. I know, it's going to be like, this is late career Drew Brees offense. Yeah, keep doing that. I had a, this is, this

shouts to an emailer who was like, challenging me on my hatred of Sean Peyton. And I think, you know what? There's some fairness to that challenge, I think. I think from a fantasy point of view, maybe from a real life NFL point of view, I think he's kind of a donkey. And he's just like, Sean Peyton or Bono? Sean Peyton.

Sean Peyton or Donkey. Yeah, he's just kind of a weird guy. Like I don't agree with a lot of like his decision making and some of the things that he's done for the Broncos. But at the end of the day, what he has done in his career is produce fantasy finishes for us. And so I think there's, there's some fair. to the challenge. I can't remember the name of the person who was challenging me. But I read that and I thought about it and you're probably right. I'm probably too low on these

fucking Broncos. Bo Nix is probably going to be like a mid-range quarterback two and a rookie is a rookie year. They're going to have good running backs because Sean Payton's teams always have good running backs and fantasy. And so I'm probably too low on Chvante Williams. I don't know. I've had a kind of a change of heart over the last couple weeks on the Broncos just because Sean Payton's track record kind of speaks for itself. I mean, fuck. Russell, even Russell Wilson was like a, I don't remember. really finished like a top 12 quarterback last year. Sean Payton's the Peter principle where he's such a good head coach that he gets personnel

control and then he's pretty bad as a general manager. Yeah. I don't know. I think I'm like letting the idea like he came in and immediately alienated Russell Wilson from like day one. He's got to set everything to Russell's face and everybody around him that everyone else was thinking he would ever say to him. Like the first thing he said it like, hey, you're not a politician. Stop kissing babies.

Well, that's, I mean, that's a fair assessment. I agree with that. But like, he, like, was talking about how Russell Wilson was bugging Drew Breeze at home and shit. Like, Aaron Dirty Laundry at the fucking combine. I'm like, what is this guy doing? Like, I don't know. And then, of course, like, there was all the, all this stuff around how much the Broncos had given up for him, how much they were going to be paying Russell Wilson, how much dead money they're going to incur now that they've moved on from. Like, this just doesn't seem like a smart strategy for a head coach coming in and immediately just throw his quarterback on the bus.

that being said, like, from a fantasy point of view, I probably shouldn't let that cloud by judgment too much. Remember, Sean Payton said that he felt the same way about drafting Bownex as he did when he was sure about Patrick Mahomes, almost falling to him. The sixth quarterback taken in the draft? Yeah, basically Bownex will be Patrick Mahomes. But what about the other guys? What about Drake Bay with the Patriots?

To some degree, look, history is never exactly the same because the easy thing to say is like, what about the Texans last year? Cetri Strad was like so incredible because the Patriots is supposed to have the fewest points in the NFL this year. The real answer is Drake May can be, really good is it a real life NFL player coming in after Jacoby percent like four or five weeks of the season. But then like the Patriots will be both in real life and in fantasy so

irrelevant because they're still really bad. And I kind of think that's where it's going to be. Yeah. It's probably going to be low volume passing offense. They're going to be like trying to take care of the football, run it, play good defense, that kind of thing. I still I still kind of am thinking Drake May is going to start week one. But I think it's probably safer to assume it'll be like week three, week four, week five as you know, the season goes along. I don't think Drake May will start week one because the Patriots offense is so bad. They don't need to rush it. New England's offensive line is so bad.

And the receivers are you really... Who are the receivers? Pop Douglas and then you're depending on Jalen Polk and Javon Baker, we're both like rookies basically, or Kendrick Warren coming off an ACL. And you're looking at the Patriots offense and you're like, why not just stick Jacoby set in there? Like let Jacoby start

for a month. The idea of throwing Drake May to the wolves like that, I think. I don't understand to what end. I agree. You're in a really tough division. You're in like a full rebuild. You have a new coach. Take your time, develop your young guys and like get to next year. And on the same note, McCarthy, again, I think it's too early to kind of make a guess where whether he's going to start week one or not. I feel like there's been a lot more hype on Sam Darnold than there has been on McCarthy. And that, I mean, I feel like that doesn't mean a ton,

but at the same time, it is notable that there hasn't been like a huge push that McCarthy's been like dominating in practice and everything. He's taking, you know, the first, team reps and all that. Like it's been kind of darned and people are kind of excited about this. So I'm putting Drake or sorry, I'm putting J.J. McCarthy in kind of like that week four range. I don't think Sam's going to start all year. But it seems less likely now that McCarthy will be the week one start. What do you guys think about that one? It'd be really funny to be if Sam Donald just keeps the job. And J.J. McCarthy's actually Michael Penix and he never plays. I honestly think that's not going to relatively possible. I just think it would be incredible.

Like the whole Like the whole year? You think it'll be Sam Darnold's job The whole year? His whole thing, I don't know, I know I'm probably wrong. I'm just an idiot, but I just,

I kind of wonder if, look, in general, players like Darnold who've been around the NFL this long, almost never recover. But I just look at Darnold and I wonder about Gino Smith

and I'm like, the whole thing with McCarthy is, you know, he's not the most exceptional athlete, but, you know, he's a winner and he's got good habits and he can run this system.

And I'm like, Donald has better tools than J.G. McCarthy. And I think the question is the mental game. And I'm like, well, he just played for Kyle Shannon for a year. He's going to this Kevin O'Connell system. And I'm like, this is crazy how many years in a row we do this? When is this going to end with San Donald? I told you, I know, I know. I'm done with it. I'm out on it. I'm done with it. Yeah, D.K's out. Well, Dek is smarter than me. He's been in his ear for the last 12 months. He was bad when he played for the 49ers last year.

Better prospect than McCarthy from the tools perspective. He's got size. He's a vet now in the league. it wouldn't be a fraction as surprising to me as like Gino's. I mean, Gino, I guess Dino played better than whatever. You know what, man. Gino's a fair comp. Like, I'll give you that. Like, the Gino resurgence was shocking, I would say, to most people. Except Stephen Ruiz.

All right. So the point is, though, these rookies of all these guys, I think Caleb Williams for the Bears will be good for the Bears offense. I think Jaden Daniels would most be good for like himself and Terry McLaurna and Dotson, but that's it. I think Jaden Daniels is probably bad for Austin Eckle. He's probably bad, like, not great for Brian Robinson. Overall, like, I just think Washington playing from behind a lot,

probably a lot of Jade and Daniels running. And then otherwise, I don't think you're going to want to rely on anyone in New England. I think Atlanta, Michael Pennix is kind of irrelevant. And then Denver, if anything, they're going to throw to the running backs a lot. I don't know if I want any of the Broncos receivers. I think the Broncos running backs are undervalued for the past catching because Bonax is going to throw to them a lot. That's kind of where I'm at.

Yes. But all of those, who do you think comes out? Because you have Giovante Williams, you have Audrick Estimate, who they drafted out of Notre Dame. I think Samasha P. Ryan for the Broncos heavily favored to be released probably by the end of August. And then Julelea McLaughlin,

who, is he the one who went to Notre Dame College? Oh, was that him? Who is the one who went to Notre Dame? Yeah, that sounds right. Yeah, Notre Dame College, Joliel McLaughlin. McLaughlin's probably not going to have like a full-time job, but I think he's going to be a big-time pass catch with them. He was like their most explosive and elusive guy last year.

And the reason... I don't want anything to do with Denver. Well, that's the thing is that's why I was kind of out on Giovante Williams vores, because I don't even, we don't know if the team is just going to, like, pass him over and go right to Audrake Estimate, which I think is a possibility, although maybe not the most likely scenario. So I think that's my worry with Javante is still like, is he going to be the guy or is it going to be an estimate. So, Audrakeesstimate went to real Notre Dame. Do you think that's like they've talked about that? Real Notre Dame. They both have T-shirts. I went to real Notre Dame. Notre Dame.

McLaughlin with the Notre Dame College. You think they're like, oh, yeah, two Notre Dame alone. I hope that Notre Dame college stole, like, the font and some of the stylings of the real Notre Dame. That's what my high school did. My high school's name was California High. And we just stole the-ca... You went to California High?

You're like an NPC. You went to California High. Fake-ass, sitcom-ass named high school. That's the last thing. What was your mascot? What was your mascot? California High. So we were the...

Zoe 101. one. That was at Pepperdine, I believe. They, um, we were the Grizzlies, but like, we basically used the same font as Cal-Corpsi. Like, it would be the same paw as, like, Cal Berkeley. Oh. Um, and we were just like, do it. Yeah, high school is steal. Wait, so the Broncos official roster has estimated going to

Notre Dame. They have McLaughlin as Youngstown State. What? Yeah, I think he transferred there. Yeah. He finished there. I know, but I think they put it just to not like, you know. Notre Dame College. People looking it up and being like, yeah, they both went. Notre Dame. I can't wait.

What do you think you went to California high school? California high school, baby, go grizzlies. So ridiculous. That's the fakes thing I've ever heard. Oh my God. All right.

Anyway, Craig, any other questions? I have questions for you. I went to United States High School. America High. High School of the America. Yeah, I think one of the other massive questions heading into this season is what will Jim Harbaugh's

effect be on the Chargers offense in Justin Herbert? D.K. and I have been in favor of everybody's overreacting, and Jim Harbaugh knows what he has in Justin Herbert, and he's going to throw the ball at least enough to support fantasy relevant players on the Chargers. So then I went back, and I did some research, and unfortunately, there's really nothing going for SDK in regards to how much Jim Harbaugh likes to throw the football. Okay. When he was in San Francisco, they were literally like bottom three in pass rate every single year. You know, Greg Roman, the new O.C. And on the Chargers, you know, last year, or his three years on the Ravens, 31st in pass rate.

Like, these guys are literally the bottom of the barrel in terms of how much they want to throw the football. I'm waiting for the butt here. What that said. Yes. The Chargers players are going so criminally low right now. Herbert is going as the QB 17 off the board. The lowest he's ever finished was QB 15, and that was when his finger was broken from like week one.

But if you look at the receivers on the chargers, you have Ladd-McConkie, the rookie out of Georgia, and you have Josh Palmer, the most underweighted receiver in the NFL. And even the running back, you have Gus Edwards. You have Gus Edwards. He just slipped that in. These guys are literally,

these guys are literally being drafted like Panthers players right now. Right. Ladd-McConkie and Josh Palmer are going where, like, Deonti Johnson, and Jonathan Brooks and random Panthers players with Bryce Young are going ahead of Ladd McConkey and Josh Palmer. Ladd McCongkey is going as the 42nd wide receiver off the board and Josh Palmer as the 50 second.

Even if you go back on those Niners teams with Harbaugh, when they were going to the Super Bowl with Kaepernick and they were great, even when they were bottom three in pass rate, Crabtree, wide receiver 32 with Alex Smith. With the Kaepernick, Crabtree was the wide receiver 17. The next year, Anquam Baldwin was the wide receiver 18 and Vernon Davis was the wide receiver four. Tighthead four.

Tight end four, sorry. Yeah. Bolden was the wide receiver 18. Davis was the tight end for the next year. Bolden was the wide receiver 26. Like us pricing the wide receivers on the chargers in the 40s and 50s on a team with Justin Herbert. To me, is ridiculous and it's gone way too far. That's always been my argument too, Craig, is not that one of these guys is going to finish as like a top 12 guy.

It's just that they're really good values because everybody is so just furiously out on the chargers. It just seems like the pendulum has swung too far. this is like you said, still a Justin Herbert team so he can make up for some of the lack of volume with efficiency and precision and hopefully some touchdowns in there. I think there's going to be a good offense. And so they're going to be near the goal line a lot.

And so I think Gus Edwards is another really good value. I just think it's kind of bizarre that, yes, I agree they're going to be a run-heavy team. But they have Justin Herbert, and that's going to help with the efficiency. And we're both bullish on both Palmer and McConkey. And so, yeah, Craig and I are both bullish.

And it's a matter of just like, look, the pendulum has swung too far. You could talk me to McConkey because of everything you said. I think the pricing reflects we just don't know. And again, the same way, ambiguous backfields, sometimes you want to target ambiguous receiving court situations because you don't know who's going to pop out. I just, my issue is like, I like Ladd-McConkey for anything you're saying. I think the Josh Palmer stuff is, I can't tell if you guys even believe it or you're just going to say it to be to me. I don't know.

Josh Palmer's like the definition of a jag. But I look at McConkey. The problem is he's like, what do you say, 42nd? It's because there's like 40 guys I want before McConkey. Wrong. That's wrong. You want Deontay Johnson or Ladd McConkey? Honestly, probably Ladd McConkey.

Get the fuck out of here. Really? Deonti Johnson could have 145 targets this year. And zero touchdowns. Dude, get out of here. Yeah, if he stays on the field for. I'll give you, all right, fine. We'll move up two spots.

I'll give you Rishi Rice and Jordadis and his free space. for driving issues. But like Calvin Ridley or Ladd McConkey? Probably have Calvin Ridley. Calvin Ridley, right? Hollywood Brown. Jaden Reed, DeAndre Hopkins. These are the people ahead of them.

You want to move up three spots. You can Christian Watson, sure, Xavier Worthy, sure. Like how much are you going to put him? I'm like, give me Jaden Reed. Give me Chris Godwin. Give me Ridley. You know, fine. You can move up.

If you want to do five spots, you could cut out, Rishi Rice, Addison, because of whatever suspensions might come. Christian Watson, if you're out and you don't believe his legs are going to be equal weight like Camara, Xavier Worthy, like, sure. But I'm like, yeah, there's a degree where I'm like, yeah. Although I do, I see the upside case, but it has to be Ladd-McConkie being

incredible immediately. Like Roma Dunzee is going ahead of Ladd-McConkie. That's crazy to me. Xavier Worthy is going ahead of Ladd-McConkey. I'm being hard on you. I think there are six players that move him up. So you're right. I think we could probably move him from like mid-40s to like mid-30s, I think is probably

appropriate. But guess what? If we move Josh Palmer down, sure, we can compromise. No. You're telling me you'd rather have Curtis Samuel than Josh Palmer. Get out of here. I hear about Josh Palmer or A.J. Brown. What do you think?

It's a toss up. I'll have to check the numbers. I'm thinking. I'm thinking. Josh Palmer or Jamar Chase. With the injury history of Burrow, I might go Palmer. Similar body type. We're going to pull this up in seven months that Josh Palmer's going to have outscored all these people.

Yes, he will. Look, I was right once. I called Mike Williams four years ago. Mike Williams, it was his year. This is probably. I was right once. I was right once. Look, I was right once.

You guys have really like big picture questions entering the season? I mean, obviously we have a thousand, but the ones that really like leap. Can Anthony Richardson stay healthy? I think is a big one. Yeah. Just in general with like, and this can kind of go back to the playoff team's discussion we were talking about. Like if Anthony Richardson is healthy, it's going to have such a huge, huge impact on the entire league.

The division and the entire league plus fantasy plus his receivers. I just cannot wait to see this. If we could, if you guys could draft players that you could guarantee a full season of health, is Anthony Richardson number one? For fantasy, just in general. Let's say for both. Yeah, he's in the top. Top tier with McCaffrey, yeah.

He's up there. I might put Burrow pretty high, too, just because of the trickle-down effect it has on all their other players in that offense. And the NFL's better when Burroughs said. But I think Richardson's in the top tier with Christian McCaffrey, yeah.

I think Devon A-chan is sneaky high. H-S.? H-N's really high. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, if you just turn injury mode, honestly, we should do that in an injury mode off rankings. Yeah, yeah.

Like, all these guys will play all 17 games. But anyways, speaking of the injury, so High Fitz before the show, you're like, hey, do you want to talk about Anthony Richardson?

I was like, I don't really know what to talk about because like it really is just, can he stay healthy? And I don't know the answer to that. I did a little bit of research. I read a study that was done

by Dr. Edwin Porras for fantasy points. And that is encouraging to me. Obviously, it's not everything and it doesn't guarantee that he's going to be healthy. But what's encouraging to you? His study. Let me get into it. Okay.

So the study that, he did. The study is encouraging. I read an article and that's encouraging. Let me finish. Let me finish my fucking thought. He was moving on.

I read an article and that was encouraging. Okay. Anyway, so per porous in a study, taking a hit in the pocket and or getting sacked. So basically getting hit or sacked in the pocket is much more strongly correlated

to missing games and going on injured reserves than any of the like, quote unquote, mobile quarterback things. In fact, he found that scrambles per game and design runs per game were actually negatively correlated to injuries. Look at the two guys who tore their Achilles last year,

Kirk Cousins and Aaron Rogers. I'd rather bet on the 250-pound freak who runs a 4-3 than fucking Kurt Cousins standing in the pocket like a sitting duck. His study found that getting hit, as you would expect, is generally not good for quarterbacks, but there was not a strong correlation. There's no statistical correlation

between mobile quarterbacks, quote-to-mobile quarterbacks and getting hurt. So the bottom line is, and the conclusion based on that study is, like, Richardson was probably just unlucky last year in the way that he got hurt. Like injuries happen in the NFL, like these two particular incidents, it sucks that he got hurt, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's, quote-unquote, injury-prone, and therefore, don't worry about it. It'll be fine. That's where I'm landing.

High Fitz has a fucking shit-eating grin on his face. It's pissing me off. Hyphins, you're going to, like, write again about Richardson, aren't you? Like, this is so... I love Richardson, and I think, if he took... He'd be like, if he played all 17 games, I think he'd be my number one quarterback, I swear to God. But I just keep... My tug awards, basically...

I'm still going to have him ranked really highly because I think Anthony Richardson is the kind of player where you look back on this season and there are like three to four players that really moved the needle. And Anthony Richardson, that's in his range of outcome. But I just also, you have to do it with knowing in mind that Anthony Richardson and how many linebackers can you barrel into at full speed and still be, I don't know, I'm just, did he do that a lot of times though? Like, I'm asking genuinely, I don't know.

Like, was he constantly taking on linebackers or was it just that one play by the goal? He only made it for two injuries in four games. So I don't know. He only saw like nine quarters. But no, he's really good. And to be clear, I'm probably being a little harsh on him. But I also just, you know. Well, I know, but that's what worries me is like,

Hyfitz always ends up right when he's got that shit eating grin on his face. Does he? Mike Davis, Josh Jacobs, I don't know. I wasn't grinning. No, he didn't have that. It wasn't shit eating. I don't even know what that means. What does that mean?

We've lost all. It doesn't make any sense of what happened. Why do people, what does that, where that come from? I don't know. Shit eating. Shit eating grin. Let's look that out. Also, like, isn't it funny that what we're envisioning with Anthony Richardson, like,

is just what Josh Allen's been doing for five years? Yeah, and the bills literally have been begging him just run less and take less since. Brandon Bean, the gym of the bills went on a fucking tour all offseason on every media. But, like, yeah, if Josh could start taking hits, that'd be so cool. Meanwhile, Josh Allen's missed three games in the last five seasons. Yeah, because they talk to him about it every day for three years to stop being an idiot. But he doesn't. He just is made of...

They do. He doesn't run until December now. They never use him in the red zone until, like, December. But yeah, to your point, he's still like a golden retriever fetching balls. I mean, he had the most rushing touchdowns last year. So it's not like, yeah. By the way, shit eating grin comes from... It's possibly a contraction of grinning like a possible.

awesome eating shit. A possum? Apparently possums, grin whilst eating shit. I don't, I don't know. Those little freaks. I have two questions for the season.

I have two other less serious questions. One, will anyone ever do the off-season hard knocks again after this Giants one? Because it's like they're saying too much. Is that the interesting? It's very fun. I think it's actually a better show.

I agree with you. It's a better show. I just feel like, I feel like more people than ever are like, I could be a GM. Yeah. Like, I think the...

I want to emboldened more hyphidses. I can't imagine signing up for this show again because it's a better show and like... They force you, though. Yeah, I know, but the owners have to agree. The owner... They can't force the owners. The owners can force you.

Do they get paid? How much do they get paid to do this? It's a great question. I don't know. Not enough. But the Giants... I don't you guys have watched it. There's a couple of interesting moments.

I watched the first episode. I thought it was super entertaining. I'm going to keep watching. Well, It makes so much more sense because having a show you turn around in three or four days notice in August when there's all preseason games going on. There's football in August and like content July. Like now they're putting up these like very much better edited episodes, I think, with more footage from storylines that you know are big in this like dearth of football. It's really great.

And I think it makes way more sense. But the amount of times where I'm like, you know, the whole peal of like Brian Daiball is wow, you know, he's like a regular guy, right? And I watch the show. I'm like, man, he's just a regular guy. Like when he walked in, they're like, like, it's, it goes from, uh, it goes to derogatory in a parentheses. He's just a regular guy. Regular. Derogatory.

Like, yes, exactly. Like, like, he's like, he's a regular guy. Okay. Like, they're walking in and he's like, I want to hire Shane Bowen, the defensive coordinator for the Titans. And Joe Shane in the gym is like, why? And Brian Dable is just a list. He's like, like, like on pro football reference. And he's like, look where they ranked in, in red zone and rushing defense.

Third, fifth, eighth, third. And I'm like, this sounds like. I don't even think that's enough prep for like this podcast. Never mind like hiring a defensive coordinator. And he's just like taking off the red zone rushing rates. And I'm like, these are any, it was such an ick. And then also him talking about the 40 yard dash. And there's like, I could run a seven.

Like, yeah, we saw you running last night. It's like, yeah, if I put a plate of wings, I could run a seven. And I'm like, this is literally like had the conversation we had on this podcast. It's our conversation. They're just in cooler seats. We're there. We're at Lucasnell Stadium that day at the Combine. They're just sitting higher than us from a.

Just more expensive suits. Yeah. Dude, it removes all the illusion that people like, you know, that there's like some level of expertise that's like, you know, it's just they've been doing this thing longer. It's refreshing, to be honest, as I get older to learn that adults, when I was a kid age, I think like when you turn 40, you just like magically gained like 20 IQ points. Not true. You just remain to be the same person you were.

Well, that's like, yeah. A hundred percent. With parenting. It's like, oh, yeah, when you're a little, well, for most people anyway, you think your parents know everything. They know the answer to everything. They've got all figured out. And then in reality, when you become a parent, you're like, well, fuck, I got to Google everything. I don't know what the hell I'm doing. Yeah, your parents just weird. Well, it's like Craig and I are now at the age where you're really looking around like people you went to high school with and they're like

doctors and lawyers and parents. They're in charge. Yeah, like that person runs a hospital. I've seen you on a Saturday night at three in the morning. You should not be a doctor. Email us at ringer fantasy football at GMO.com. If you have stories of like people you went to high school with or just know that are now of crazy jobs. Oh, I feel like this is going to be a rich one. Yeah, you saw someone who runs a hospital once. Yeah, like like doing like naked laps or something and just like, you know what? Anyway, I'm just less impressed with people as I get older, but I guess that's just how it goes.

The advanced analytics that fans and analysts and whatever journalists use now are so advanced that there's actually not a lot more going on behind the curtain in front offices than we think because like we're actually probably are all just like you like the stuff that we're reading from like warren sharp i don't think is that different than what most teams are using so it's kind of funny when you watch a show like this and you see dayball talking about whatever run rates defenses and we're like those are all the things that like fantasy analysts used to determine like if we should draft joe bro or not and so it's kind of odd to see like oh wow we're all just using the same numbers now when i think 20 years ago 30 years ago that was not the case i think the

difference too is as I've met more people who really work in the NFL is that it's it's about the tunnel vision of their opponents the teams on the schedule that they're playing there is a level of knowledge about what they do and the schemes they run and how to attack them and their players and stuff that is impressive the teams that are not on their schedule they don't even know they don't even know the names of any of the players in the team like like it's it's because that's not their job they're not playing the titans like why do you have to know about you know what whether did he go to Autry left the team or not. But it's funny that the cliche,

like I made fun of Solac all the time for this because he called Devante Adams 17. And I'm like, you can call him Devante Adams. But it's like that. Like they don't even know the guy's names. They're not playing them. In the draft industry, it's like every single anonymous scout quote I've ever seen

is like the kid from LSU. It's like you didn't bother to learn this kid's name. What are you doing? This is your job. the yeah it's like the the kid from a couple classes ago from LSU it's like dude come on the other one was Joe Shane on the first episode they're at the senior bowl where again we were and it's Joe Shane who used to work for Brandon B and the Bills GM and then uh Dan Morgan who I think is the Panthers GM now they all used to work together and they're standing next to each other

and the Giants traded for Brian Burns which we know now and so we're just seeing how it happened and the elbows of him was like hey you want to give us up Brian Burns for two first and Joe's like yeah no I mean yeah but no he's like oh maybe like a first and change and And Joe's like, yeah, I guess we're heading the right direction. I'm like, this is like me talking like to fantasy. Like this is just a fantasy football trade. They were like, do this. They were like bullshitting about fake trades for like five minutes.

And then at the end, someone's like, what about Brian Burns for two first? And he was like, wait, really? And he was like, yeah, maybe. And he's like, that'd be fun. So like what is happening? This is, this reminds me of like watching the Brad Pitt movie. Money talk. No, money ball.

Money ball. Money talk. I have the worst fucking memory. Money talks. Money talks at Ball. Money Ball. You know the scene where they're all just going into the meetings and he goes into whatever team's office and it's just like,

all right. How about so-and-so? He's like, no, he's doing this. We want to keep him. Okay. How about so?

He just like runs through a list of players that they want. And then it's like they're literally trading baseball cards. They're just like, yeah, you can have him. Everything is so inexact and vibes. And also the fact that like fantasy football, it's a thousand times.

easier to work with someone that you know really well. Yeah. Like, yeah, I'll trade with you. Anyway, all right. Last one here. He's a normal guy derogatory. Normal guy. Oh.

Roger Federer. He's one of us. Delugatory. Yeah, exactly. All right. I have one last. This is to me the biggest question entering 2024 for the NFL season. If your parents, if you're with children, that was the moment to pause.

I'll give you a little buffer here. Where is this going? What the fuck is up with Bill Belichick's girlfriend? In what way? That he's 50 years older than her. I think they're 48 years apart. That's nothing. Oh, that's nothing.

Belichick's 72. She's 24. Jeez. And so he has children older than her. That's always the kicker for me. That's always the weirdest part. I was cry laughing because Craig, we were talking about this three days ago,

and you pointed out there's a photo of them taken at the beach or Cape Cod or something. And you pointed out that the shirt that Bill Belichick was wearing was probably older than her. Yeah, it's like, it's like the Cape Cod regatta from 1994. It's like, he got it at Value Village. He's like posing with his like dad glasses on and she's taking a photo of them like it's her father. Oh, God. He's just like retired. So painful.

It's really rough. You guys are 12 years younger than me and I have a hard time talking to you. What do they talk about? That would be the name of the documentary. The name of the documentary is what the fuck do they talk about? the story of old and young relationships. I don't know why I just would have expected Belichick to be like an old curmudgeon single guy,

just like locked in his basement, crushing tape, watching talks about the war and drinking wine. I did not expect him to be out with a 24-year-old taking photos at the beach. I would pay pay-per-view money to be a fly-at-the-wall for their conversations like breakfast.

I bet you they speak very little. Yeah, it's probably the best for everybody. Anyway, all right. You guys would do a couple of emails? Yeah. Right, we got an email from, um, Andrew. Andy. Andy.

So the black eyed peas, we had an incredible, incredible black eyed piece discussion of the last episode. Yeah. And Andy writes, black eyed peas are kind of like Sean Alexander in that they were really good for like six years and then disappeared. And now nobody really remembers them. Sean Alexander. If you just blindly look at Sean Alexander's six year stretch,

you're kind of like, wow, this is one of the best. running backs ever. He won an MVP award. Yeah. Now he's like no cultural imprint. Yeah. That's so true. He had like 20.

How many touchdowns did he have? 23? 20. Yeah. It was the record for like a minute. 27? Was it 27? Yeah.

And then it was immediately broken. And La Dadian. He was sandwiched between like priest Holmes and Liddi and Tomlinson. So he was just immediately erased. But yeah. He got market corrected. Market corrected by La Dadean Tomlinson. He was good, man.

He was good. The other one I hear, have here is an email from Joel. Joel. Joel. So Craig asked, if anyone's favorite band is the black eyed peas. Oh, we got a couple of those. We got a couple of people who said they were. So Joel said, Joel starts the email with, I am a lunatic.

The songs Fergie's London Bridge and also glamorous were played when I lost my virginity. And he writes in parentheses, epic. So funny. Go on. Okay. Wait, so he lasted two full songs. Nice work. Yeah.

He says, they remain in my intimate playlist. Intimate playlist. I know. Due to my psychotic relationship to music, two-thirds of the concerts of my life I've been to our black-eyed peace concerts. Which is incredible. And then he goes on, by the way, figured Craig would appreciate this. An uncle of mine owns a baseball that was autographed by sloppy Thurston. What? Oh my. Can we buy it off you? How much? Yeah, Joel, let us know what you want for that baseball. Get it from your uncle. Sloppy. Let us know what you want for the sloppy thirst in baseball.

I love that Joel's favorite band is Black Eye Peace. Never thought I'd see the day. Yeah, shout out. Are they his favorite because there's like sentimental value in the fact that he like lost his virginity to their songs? Or does he actually just feel like they are the best band in the world? Yeah, we got to see his Spotify wrapped to confirm this. If there's just like, you know, sentimental value like an old t-shirt, that's not the same. But I guess

I should If the two-thirds of the concerts He's ever been to or Black-Eight Peace I guess that's enough Yeah I was gonna say What more do you need? He's got the stubs and everything

He's got the sloppy thurston ball All right Oh my God We'll allow it His uncle, yeah He's got the sloppy thurston ball He's got the sloppy ball Craig says

By the way One of my buddies told me Based on our discussion About screwballs that the reason screwballs aren't really a thing anymore is because the way that you throw it and that you release it, it's like really bad for your arm.

You probably like invert your wrist as you throw it. It's like if you come over the top with the curveball, it's like the opposite. You like, the way you release it, it's like going to fuck up your arm. So people don't do it anymore. DK, did you know that in baseball now? They got,

they have this like new kind of pitch category that's called sweepers. They've just like re-bucketed how pitches are categorized. Sweepers? Sweepers and slur. and they got all this new stuff. Slerve has been around.

I've never heard of the sweeper. Oh, the sweepers. It's everywhere now. They got all this stuff. Are you just like making stuff up right now? What is the sweeper? Well, no, it's like a recategorization. Because now they can measure the horizontal and vertical stuff on like a 3D axis.

And they can measure the actual movement of the ball. Because the slurv is just a slider and a curve, right? Yeah. But they've rebucketed all these pitches down. It's nothing crazy new. It's just more like they've told it. The pitching stuff's really. nuts.

Baseball's so fucking nerdy. We got to go back. Get rid of all stats in baseball. Everybody had more fun. That's true. All right, let's get out of here. Thank you, D.K., thank you, Craig. Thank you, Kai, for producing this episode.

Thank you, Jack. Help, behind the scenes. Thank you, everyone to email those. Emails for your fancy football at gm.com. The ringer.com slash events for tickets. Los Angeles, July 30th, Seattle, August 21st. The ringer.com slash events. Thank you, Lord.

Lord. Thank you. Weird Al. Nice. There's a great moment. I just watched The Naked Gun again because he did a rewatchable's on it. And there's a great moment where Leslie Nielsen to start the movie gets out of it. He comes back from like, you know, some international spy mission.

He gets off the plane and there's a big press car. There's like a bunch of people waiting and he thinks it's for him and he gets up and he's talking. He's like, look, I'm not a hero. And they're like, whoa, whoa, Frank, Frank. Like, they're not here for you. Weird Al Yankovitch is on your flight. And then they all go crazy and like weird else gets out of the plane. You hit a moment, Weird Al.

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