The Ringer NFL Show - The Fantasy Impact of Every New Head Coach

Episode Date: June 30, 2022

We take a look at the fantasy impact of the new head coaches in the NFL. We run through each team by order of which we are most interested in, and forecast if their offense will get better or worse. (3:49) - Broncos (12:43) - Giants (17:33) - Raiders (25:20) - Dolphins (32:21) - Vikings (37:24) - Jaguars (43:41) - Patriots (46:32) - Lightning round: Saints, Bucs, Bears, Texans  Check out The Ringer’s Fantasy Football Draft Guide! Email us! [e-mail] Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Producer: Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From the host that brought you to Coding Westworld. And Westworld, the recapables. Comes the Ringer Prestige TV podcast on Westworld. I'm Joanna Robinson. I'm Danny Heifitz. And I'm David Shoemaker. Welcome to Westworld Season 4 in the Prestige TV podcast feed, where we're going to break down every episode of Westworld season four.

Every Monday, the day after the show comes out on the prestige TV podcast feed. Wherever we get your podcast, but get them on Spotify. The Ringer Fantasy Football Show, my name is Danny Hyfins. I am joined by Danny Killing Craig Coralbeck, and today we are looking at the fantasy impact of all the new head coaches in the NFL. Because whenever new head coach is hired, it's kind of just like, is this good or is this bad? You get lost in the scheme stuff, and they're like, oh, they used to work here, and they learned this system, and it's like, okay, are they going to be good or are they going to be bad?

You guys know what I mean? Totally. And you never really know because a lot of the times the new coaches are getting promoted because they're like attached to somebody like the Sean McVeigh effect, which is been it's old as time in the NFL you know you you want to kind of like get a hold of some of the winning cultures the winning teams winning schemes all that stuff so you hire the assistance from like the most successful teams you see that every year and then you have to issue caveats every single time being like well you know so-and-so didn't necessarily call plays but he's bringing this

offense over to the new team so we're going to try and dig into kind of like what it means schematically philosophically like what it means for each uh you know team each off and some of the main skill players that you're going to be worried about this year. So yeah, it's just kind of like, honestly, when we went through this, it's like learning for ourselves, too, like what to expect. It's also something that I think the casual fantasy player

doesn't really consider. I don't think there's the majority of fantasy players know about Kevin O'Connell in Minnesota. And quite frankly, probably won't even think about it when they consider Justin Jefferson and Dalvin Cook and everybody. Yeah. And it's important, it reminds me of something my mom. My mom is a saying, it's not a Jewish saying,

but it's something we say because we're Jewish and Ken's because we're Jewish. And my mom's just like, is this good for the Jews or bad for the Jews? And what she means by that is get to the point. Tell me what I need to know. Good or bad. And it's like, when the Giants drafted Kavon Tibido and Evan Neal in the first round. And I'm like, well, they played in Alabama.

And Kavon Tibdo's very versatile. It's a good speed rush. And she's just like, Danny, is this good for the Jews or bad for the Jews? Like in the collective, the giants are the Jews in this situation. I'm like, it's great for the Jews. She's like, cool. That's what I wanted to know. And I think sometimes the fantasy, it's like, all right, you know,

Kevin O'Connell from the McVease system got the, we're going to talk. We're going to talk about that, but also just want to know, is this good? It's good. Kevin O'Connell, good for the Vikings. So by the time this podcast is over, you'll know if each coach is good for the Jews or bad for the Jews. Exactly. Yeah, we're like Moses in that respect. Just the collective, you know.

All right. So let's just start. I think there's, especially, there was a lot of head coaching changes too. Yeah. Yeah. I think underrated how many coaches changed this year. I think the full number is 12. I mean, it's, we're going to go.

through one one but the broncos raiders the giants the dolphins the vikings the jaguars the or not the patriots but we're through them because it's funny the saints the bears the texans and the bucks that's 11 two were kind of weird because brusarians and charin peat and retired but a lot of teams change head coaches so we're gonna go through them and we're gonna tear them very simply we're to start with the ones that were genuinely like excited about and then the ones that are more interesting than you think and then we'll end with the ones that we even we don't care about ourselves so yeah we're gonna start with the good ones been thinking about these too much Yes. So, D.K., you lead us off.

Honestly, like, one of the biggest ones is, and it's funny because this isn't even necessarily because the Broncos fired their staff and hired Nathaniel Hackett as the offensive coordinator, or sorry, as the head coach slash play caller, but the Broncos also traded for Russell Wilson, which feels like the biggest move. You know, pair these two together. This is, like, going to be the biggest change, I think, for any team potentially in the NFL this year. And, of course, the big question is, like, what version of Russell Wilson are we getting? get it. We're going to finally get to see Russell Wilson

Cook. You know, is this going to be a massive, massive upgrade for all of the offensive skill players here, or is it just going to be kind of more of the same for what we've seen from Russell Wilson throughout his career, which of course is very good and very efficient, but the teams that he's been on, well, the Seahawks have essentially

seemingly sort of reined him in every year, you know, for the most part. Obviously, there's years where he's a little more prolific, a little more pass-heavy than others, but for the most part, they've always tried to run a balanced offense And so I think it's worth digging into what Nathaniel Hackett is going to do as a play caller here. And obviously there's no like easy answer to this.

But I've got some theories. What do you guys think just big picture though? Well, I think to be clear, no one has thoughts on Nate Hackett. This is probably a bad start for this one because we really care about Russell Wilson. And then Nate Hackett is like our vehicle. It's like the tortilla chip to like a really good guacamole. Russell's a guacamole and like Nate Hackett's just how we're going to get it. Yeah.

And to be fair, Nate Hackett was the, I'm not. offensive coordinator for the Jaguars when they almost went to the Super Bowl. Like he was the Blake guy who like fixed Blake Bordels kind of. So I think that, I mean, that's, I would argue, maybe even more impressive than making a great player, like a superstar is making Blake Bortals not make my eyes bleed. So yeah, I think my question for you, D.K., and we've been, like, I feel like we're going to talk about this all off season, but basically the Russell Wilson Seahawks schism was Russ was like, I want to pass more. I want the offense to run through me. And the Seahawks were like, we have a system and we want you to kind of execute. it with your little razzle-dazzle sprinkled in.

My question for you is, what are the things Russell Wilson wanted to do that Seattle wouldn't let him do? Like, what did Russ want? I think there's a number of things, and it's kind of it's been different every year. I think, you know, the big picture is he wanted to pass more. He wanted the offense on his shoulders. He's always talked, it seems like every

offseason in my lifetime. The Seahawks are, it's in the Russell Wilson era. The Seahawks have talked about, like, one of the big talking points in the off season is tempo. Oh, I'm really good at tempo. Like, I think it's just really good part of our offense. You should speed things up. you know, go no huddle, keep defenses on their heels, blah, blah, blah, except for the only problem is every time the season starts,

Seattle has, like, so many three-and-outs that's like the offense has the ball for like 12 seconds, and then the defense is back out there. So they've always kind of like talked about tempo and doing like more up-tempo stuff, and then when the rubber hits the road, they don't really do it. It just kind of fizzles out or it's like not used as much as people were thinking it would be used. When it comes to Nate Hackett, like, and I think we're going to have some of this with every single team that we talk about today. It's kind of hard to judge him in a vacuum

because offensive coordinators, play callers, are so reliant and dependent on the quarterbacks and the teams that they have. So like Nathaniel Hackett's history's five seasons as offense coordinator with both the bills and jags. Quarterbacks he's worked with include Blake Bortles, Kyle Horton, E.J. Manuel, Thad Lewis. And then, of course, with Green Bay,

the last couple of years, Aaron Rogers, but he wasn't the office coordinator. That's the entire spectrum, Blake Bordles to Aaron Rogers. Everybody, every quarterback in the world is on that spectrum. Right. However, he wasn't calling plays for the Packers. But it sounds like he said that they're going to bring kind of like the Green Bay system over, which means, I guess, like, offensive balance, play action, lots of plays where you're like getting the ball out quickly, run after the catch, RPO's, some shotgun, hurry up stuff.

Like, we've talked about it, and this is all very generic. That sounds like every play. Exactly. I was going to say. But like what, but is this good for the Broncos? The Broncos can't get worse. They had Drew Locke. So I guess my question is like, who's going to benefit from this?

My question is who's going to be the head coach? Is it going to be Russell Wilson or is it going to be Nathaniel Hackett? Yes. Right. That leads me to exactly what I was just getting to. The Russell Wilson offense always seems to end up being, or the Seahawks offense in the past has always ended up seeming to be the Russell Wilson offense. Whoever was running the offense, whether it was Shottie, Darryl Beville, Waldron. Whoever it is, it always ends up being some version of like the same offense where Russell Wilson is like, play action, deep throws,

improvising behind the line and scrimmage, making crazy things happen out of structure, blah, blah, blah. That's kind of like the Russell Wilson thing. And I think that's going to be the case still. I don't think it's going to change that much, like dramatically. However, the big thing I think we're going to see is, and this is what we talked about last week,

situation neutral pass rate. I think that the Broncos are going to pass at a much higher clip in just normal, early down, the score is close. Like, the game situation isn't dictating what they're doing. I think they're going to pass at a much higher clip than they have in the past. Last year, just for reference,

Green Bay passed 53% of the time in neutral situations. That was 11th most. Denver passed 47% of time. That's 24th. And the year before is basically the same numbers. So, long story short, is Green Bay has been much more pass-heavy

in neutral situations than Denver has in the last couple years. I think the bottom line, like the only thing you can take away from this, or the most important thing you can take away from this, I think, is that the Broncos are going to pass more, which I think is important.

Yeah, I just keep coming back to Jerry Judy, seeming like a really exciting receiver for the Broncos and fantasy. And I just feel like he's probably going to be overrated because I don't know if everyone's just kind of assuming that Judy's the beneficiary of this. And I feel like Cortland Sutton is going to be the number one guy for Denver. And I just feel like that's going to end up how it is. But I think Russ also is quarterback. I feel like Russ is probably the kind of quarterback you want to target if you're waiting.

You know what I mean? If you're not going to get one of those. top five quarterbacks like the Mahomes, Herbert, Lamar, Kyler, Josh Allen. I feel like waiting and getting Russell Wilson is probably just going to be a very popular but also very fun move. Well, Russ has always relied on his like efficiency, the big play, his connection with Tyler Lockett.

Do we see it like, like, Hyford, you're saying Judy, like, you think it's going to be Sutton over Judy? Do you think that's because Sutton is going to take over the D.K. Metcalf, big play, deep shot down the sideline role, or you think he's just going to find that connection with Sutton over Judy? both. Why Sutton? He's been in the league longer. He already seems to have a better connection to OTAs and also just, I don't know.

I just feel like Jerry Judy, do you tell me from wrong, D.K.? I feel like Jerry Judy's skill set is probably like way better over the middle of the field where Russ is like not good at throwing the ball because he's short. It's tough. I don't know. I think, I think, again, this comes back to like, you're trying to tell me or you're trying to decide who's going to be better. I think they're both going to be better than they were in previous years.

and that's like the important thing. I think we can get into this discussion. We will discuss this ad nauseum before the season starts about like whether Judy is priced at his peak or price at like his upside kind of deal versus like, you know, being a sleeper. But I do think both of these guys are going to be set up. Both court and sudden and jury junior are going to be set up to have the biggest years of their career, honestly.

I think what where Judy kind of comes in and I keep coming back to this is just like when I'm picturing this offense in my mind, if you picture the Green Bay offense, like a huge part of their scheme and a huge point. part of what they do and hack it has experience with is just like these smoke routes where if if erin rogers goes to line scrimmage he sees that someone's off playing off on devante adams he just throws it to him really quickly and then they do like they get five yards on a catch and run and i could see jerry judy doing that all day long um and he can line up both outside on the inside i think he's probably like you said more of like a short and intermediate middle of the

field kind of guy but he can line up all over the formation and get off line of scrimmage because he's really quick um so you know again like i don't think i have a strong take on like Judy's overrated versus underrated, but I do think they're both going to be better than they were last year, which is the important thing. Do you think a little bit of this season is set up to be a referendum on Russell Wilson as a quarterback? A hundred thousand percent. The Broncos have five prime time games. Yeah. Because I mean, it's been, it's been what, seven, eight years now since Seattle's made a Super Bowl. And I feel like over the past three years or so, we have drifted off of the Russell Wilson as a top five quarterback narrative a bit. Obviously,

a lot of new good quarterbacks have come in the league. But it does feel a little bit like this year is like, okay, we'll see if Russ is actually good, which sounds crazy, but it does feel like that's where we're at. It's difficult to discuss quarterbacks with nuance, and Russ is both extremely like an amazing quarterback and limited. And I think that it'll be interesting to see what they do with the guy. I thought he was unlimited.

It's like, yeah, Mr. Unlimited actually has many limitations. Okay. That was a weird one to start this coaching episode with, because, I mean, Russell Wilson is, it's really about whether coach let Russell Wilson just be the coach. I want to do the Giants and I want Yes to the Giants for how to do it I'm excited

I'm excited too This has got to be good for the Jews Yeah So this is amazing for the Jews So the Giants hired Brian Daibble Who was the Bill's Offence Coordinator Who did all the Josh Allen stuff And basically the Giants whole question this year

Is like what if Daniel Jones was Josh Allen And it's to be clear He's not And he won't be I can answer you that Just stop you there He's not Yeah.

So, but I think that fantasy-wise, that is going to be the question because the flip side is with the Giants, as D.K. always pointed out, the Jason Garrett giants were literally the worst in the league at scoring touchdowns. Like, by so much, that's the other part. Not only were they last, they were like seven behind the judges. They're just bad at scoring touchdowns. Like, like, 21 touchdowns or something in like 17 games. It's incredible. And just the competency could very easily have some, they don't have to be great. Just average. League average.

We're talking about like almost twice as many touchdowns just if they go from last to average. And so every single player, think about that. That's true, though. Think about all the players last year that were just immense disappointments on the Giants roster. Say nothing to Dan Jones. Kenny Gallaudet, $18 million a year, zero touchdowns. Coderis, Tony, first run pick was really good in like two games, but zero touchdowns of the year, barely played injuries.

I mean, Stilly Shepard, Torres Achilles, Seekwon had an ankle injury. Like, every fantasy-wise is like, every player on the Giants will probably be better just with the baseline competency that not having Jason Garrett there will provide. And then on top of that, Brian Dable just being a good player. Also, their offense coordinator is Mike Kafka, who's with the Chiefs. It's not like he was calling plays for Patrick Mahomes. Like that's Andy Reid's job. But regardless, Josh Allen, Mahomes, you got the guy who was in charge of Allen's development,

a guy who was there for Patrick Mahomes' development. I don't think Daniel Jones will be exciting, but I do think overall, like, Sequin Barkley is like an underrated player this year because Again, when an offense doubles and touchdowns, which I actually really do think the Giants could do this year, this is good for the Giants. Yeah, I 100% agree. And again, like, it's interesting looking at Dayball's history

because, you know, in previous stints prior to being with the bills, like his teams tended to be a little bit run heavy. He's adaptable, is the bottom line here. Like, when he got Josh Allen, he's been credited, and I think he deserves a lot of the credit with, like, sort of like, reshaping his offense. to like fit the strengths of Josh Allen and that's what you want from every offensive coordinator

you don't want them to be like so rigid we're running our stuff even if your quarterback can't run it you know which feels like what exactly what Jason Garrett was like all about it was all flat it was vanilla it was like the missionary offense right

so I really just excited in the offensive commasutra dayball doggy style exactly doggy I just am really excited about dayball coming in and figuring out what guys are good at and really just designing the offense around that. I think the one big question mark that we kind of have is like,

how much is he going to run Daniel Jones? Because Daniel Jones is sort of this, you know, and this is exactly what Nate Tice wrote in a really great article at the Athletic, where the one big question for each new offensive coordinator slash new play caller is, and with the Giants, it's how much is Dan Jones going to run? Because obviously that's a huge part of what they do with Josh Allen with the bills. It was a foundational piece of their offense because everything that they do, from the run game, the past game, it works off of that.

And it just kind of like opens things up for everybody else, I feel like, the ability to do that with your quarterback. Of course, Daniel Jones is not built like Josh Allen. He's not as big and beefy as Josh Allen. So like there's this injury concern there and he's like a skinny runt guy. But I'm excited to see if they just like make that a small part of their offense going forward and just to keep defenses on their heels, you know? Yeah, I mean, it's not like Daniel Jones is, he's not that. dissimilar from Josh Allen. He's enough of a knockoff or ripoff,

whatever you want to call it, that I think it can still work. I'm sure that because the Giants have Sequan, that the Giants are going to be a little more balanced than Buffalo was, and Dayball is going to use the RPO's Sequan, get Sequin the ball in space, screen passes short game, stuff like a little bit more than Buffalo did.

But that already just sounds so much better than what they used to do. Jason Garrett took the offense he had with the Dallas Cowboys, which was stale five years ago, and then which he used with the best roster in the NFL when he was with the Cowboys, and then applied it to the Giants who had the worst roster

in the NFL, and it didn't work. So I really do think the Giants would be better this year, just not having him, but also on top of that, as Craig said, Brian Dable, Football Commusutra, excellent. Craig, you want to take another team? Yeah, do you guys want the Raiders? How's that? The Raiders.

Yeah. The Raiders are under the radar. Nice. They're not getting, I think this is crazy, Josh McDaniels, the head coach of the Raiders. It's somehow, like, not been a story.

Yeah, it's definitely flying under the Raider, I feel like. I mean, I haven't really thought about it all that much. People two years ago were like,

Josh McDaniels will never get another head coaching job. And now it's like, hey, this guy who's been under Bill Belichick for half of Belichick's head coaching career, the Patriots,

just has a team. Yeah, I don't know why. There's just, the Raiders are boring. I don't know if it's that there's no culture in Vegas, but I just feel like there's no Raiders fans and they're just a boring team. They got Devonte Adams and Bill Belichick's

like favorite offensive play caller and nobody cares. Alberto is going to be very upset with you for saying that. Alberto, I'm so sorry, Alberto. He's one of our longtime fans and Spotify Green Room veteran. So the big question with the Raiders is like, can Josh McDaniels and Devante Adams make the Raiders offense, you know, up there with the Chiefs and the Chargers and can they really compete the F. I think the biggest thing for Josh McDaniels is that he's shown that he's been adaptable, right? For his time with the Patriots from when they had Brady and the Aaron Hernandez, like, gronk, high-octane years, they were throwing the ball a ton, fast-paced, all the way to the end of Brady's career.

They're a little bit more balanced and then into like Cam Newton and Mac Jones where they really slowed it down, ran the ball a lot, two tight-end sets. Josh McDaniels is extremely adaptable. And Bill Belichick is extremely effusive to, to, to, you know, to. Josh throughout his whole career. I mean, he says he's a coach who doesn't have any weaknesses. I'm reading, I was reading about Belichick talking about McDaniels. He calls him, you know, an excellent play caller's timing, setting up sequences of plays. Josh says creative, a very forward thinker. I truly don't think he has any weaknesses as a play caller. He has tremendous confidence in

everything that he does. Like that is such high praise coming from Bill Belichick. Yes. That, you know, I don't think Derek Carr is going to like blow the roof off this thing. He was like the QB 13 last year in fantasy. Do I think he'll be better than that? Yeah, they got a top three tied end in the league and Darren Waller. They have the best receiver in the league, Devanti Adams.

They got a great slot guy, Hunter Renfro. They have a good team. I think this team will be a lot more balanced, a lot more professional. I don't think like the checkdown life of Derek Carr is going to continue. I see Derek Carr now potentially entering Kurt Cousins range.

We're like, if you want to get a guy late in the draft and you want to be like a late round QB guy, Derek Carr now has enough upside to make you interested enough to draft him, and he has a high enough floor to keep you safe. To me, this offense is just going to be a lot more balanced and professional. Yeah, I think the obvious answer is by Derek Carr,

because it just feels like he has nowhere to go but up in this offense. But he has no rushing upside, so I don't think he's going to be, he's not, I don't think he has like top three or four quarterback potential in his arsenal. I agree with that. But I think, to me, the biggest thing is, obviously this is big for Derek Carr. at the end of the day, it's not very good for Devante Adams probably. Devante Adams is probably going to be

slightly less effective, slightly less prolific. He's still going to be extremely, extremely good, but maybe just like we're not going to see the peaks that we saw last year. To me, the big questions are, what happens with Waller and what happens with Hunter Renfro? By the way, remember, we talked about this on last week's show, or the earlier show this week.

Like, Renfro had 104 catches last year. Like, I'm very curious to see what kind of like personnel they use in this offense. like they brought Jacob Johnson over from New England which he's a full back so that means like potentially they see this offense using a lot of like two running back sets running back and I have fullback

you know heavier quote unquote heavier sets where you get renfer from the field I just am very curious to see how this is all going to work out with Hunter Renfro and Waller and how this the targets get split up because I think Adams is you know clearly going to see the lion's share of the targets and the other thing that's interesting sorry I'm kind of just rambling here is it sounds like Adams has been the lining up exclusively on the outside during OTAs where he was like a big time slot player

for the Packers. He was moving all over the formation. I think he's lining up exclusively there, but I feel like he will be everywhere. And potentially, but that's why like does, does that mean they take renfer off the field? Well, that's what's interesting is like, that's the question. So yeah, I think, I think, again, McDaniels being under Belichick, one of the Belichick's big influences is, I hate when we talk about this in sports, but it's true. Sun Tzu, Art of War, like just unpredictability, versatility, doing everything. Like the whole Patriots philosophy in some ways was not having a philosophy. I'm like, what's the right way to beat this team?

And I think that unlike the Rams where the Rams were kind of doing like a few things really well and making it look like a bunch of things, the Raiders are going to be able to do a lot of things pretty well. And I think that that's why you have a fullback. I think what's interesting is to your point, D.K., Devante can line up anywhere, except tight end basically. Darren, like, is a tight end, but not really. he's really a slot receiver that's huge.

Hunter Renfro is a slot receiver that's really small. And so I think that in theory you're like, well, there'll be Devante, Hunter Renfro, and Waller are going to be there, and then they can have a tight end or another receiver. But Hunter Renfro's not really on the outside. They're going to have a fullback. I think in reality you're going to have a ton of different variations in personnel.

What I think about, though, with the Raiders, though, think about third down. I think, like, if you just ranked every team, just the skill players on like, can you get a catch, right now on the third down. Is anybody's team better than the Raiders? Devante, Darren Waller, and Hunter Renfro on like third and five?

Yeah, it's all different style guys, too. Isn't that pretty incredible? Like, I just feel like, I think that's really interesting. In terms of fantasy, I feel like Devant, Hunter Renfro's tough because of what you said. You're basically looking at a guy that just did the Julian Edelman career with the Patriots with Josh McDaniels, but you're also like, is Hunter Renfro going to be like better when he's on the field but play less? Right.

I think the bottom line, the overarching point that I kind of bring up here is, like, while we're more excited about Derek Carr than we ever have been, he kind of have to downgrade all three of their main fantasy guys, right? Yes. This is like the Raiders are going to be a better team, but perhaps a less potent fantasy team. I honestly think one of the biggest questions is like, is Derek Carr's dump off pattern finally going to end? You know, he has never been great under pressure. He dumps off immediately. He's got a really short, you know, yards per attempt. that has to change, you would imagine, with Devante Adams.

And like Haifitz is saying, I think the theme of the Raiders is Josh McDaniel's adaptability in different scenarios. And that's why I think they're kind of the hardest team to predict. We don't really know exactly how it's going to go down. But I think we do know that they're going to try a lot of different shit. Yes. And I think to that point, I do think the same way we're really frustrated with Bill Belichick's backfields.

I think we're going to, this I do think will be like Patriots West in that how we get really frustrated with some of the way the usage of this team. Things will be hard to predict outside of Devante Adams. But that's the point. But I also think they're going to be, it's bad for probably fantasy, but for Raiders fans, I think the Raiders can be incredible. Okay. Incredible?

Where do you think they end up? Well, not this year necessarily, but I think Josh McDaniels is going to succeed. That's my point. I think that Josh McDaniels being the head coach for the Raiders, it's kind of underrated. He's like the coach version of a post type sleeper. Everyone thought he was the guy and what eventually Sean McVebe became and he burned out. but I feel like he's learned in 10 years, everything he needs to learn to now be successful,

and the Raiders are a pretty good place to do it. So I think he's, I don't know about this year, but I think the Raiders can be very good under them. All right, those are the three I think that we're, like, excited about. Like Brian Dable at the Giants, Nate Hackett and Russell Wilson at the Broncos,

McDaniels with the Raiders. Now we get another tier here, which is like, I would describe this tier as coaching changes that are more interesting than you think, or they sound, mostly because you've never heard of the guy, but the guy's interesting.

Yeah. So to start this off, and I just want to say, I had to look up this morning, whether it was Josh McDaniel or Josh McDaniels, because now there's another guy, there's another head coach in the NFL who's like a wonderkin play caller named Mike McDaniel with not the S. It's Josh McDaniels and Mike McDaniel, which I'm 100% sure I'm never going to remember this from now on. Anyway, Mike McDaniel comes from the 49ers, coach of the dolphins. And I think this is, of all the guys that we've talked about, well, I think, I guess apart from Dayball, like this could be one of the most dramatic shifts and philosophy and scheme and everything that goes around with offense from year to year than any of these other teams because the dolphins all of a sudden,

I think are going to be like a very run-heavy team. Despite the fact that they did go and trade for Tyree Kill, they already have Jalen Wattle. I think that those guys are still going to be like effective and they're going to funnel a lot of the passing game through those players. But if you look at what the 49ers are, they're one of the run-heavyest teams in the NFL.

Last year, the dolphins, and the last two years, the dolphins have been one of the past aviast teams in the NFL in neutral situations. So something has to give there. I just think it's going to be interesting. I think we can assume somewhat that McDaniel is going to do what he did with what the 49ers were doing, kind of try and design an offense that looks like the 49ers

where they're doing a lot of run game to create play action. Obviously, RPO's a big part of what Tua does, so I'm sure that they'll try to incorporate that into their game. And then run after the catch is a big one. 49ers, it's become, like, hilarious how easy it is to predict who the 49ers are going to like in the draft just because it's like, go find the guys that are best at running after the catch. And there's like a 50% chance of 49ers are going to draft them. And so I think they're going to design a ton of things for Tyree Kil Jalen Waddle to run after the catch, pick up like yards in space. I think that's going to be like one of the big personality traits, I guess, of this offense.

And so that's why, despite the fact that I think Hill and Waddle both probably will catch fewer passes this year, I think that they could. still be really prolific because I think they're just going to funnel everything through those two guys. And there's going to be a lot of run after the catchability. Is this basically the same thing as the Raiders, though, because you're talking about a team that like the Raiders, you had Waller and Renfro who had good seasons. Then you add Devante Adams and you're like, this is a better real-life group. But now splitting the pie, it's like Tyree Kill, not being with Patrick Mahomes. It's like you can't just guarantee him being a top three, top four guy. But Jalen Waddle, if he did not have Tyree Kill on the Dolphins, Jailin Waddle might be a top 10 pick.

the position. But now Jalen Waddle with Tyree Kill, it's like, what's his role? He got so many catches last year because they had to get the ball out. But like, I kind of feel like fantasy wise, this is another team that's going to be better in real life than it will for fantasy. Jalen, I don't know. I'm kind of, and Mike is sicky like is a tight end, but kind of like Darren Waller, really a slot receiver, but where does he play now? I just, I don't, and they're all in a run first team. I'm a little skeptical about the dolphins. I think they have just a really wide range of outcomes here. There's like really a lot of mouth to feed and You know, you hear, oh, they're going to be the Niners on the East Coast.

They're going to run the ball a ton and all this stuff. And then it's like, well, Tyree Kill gets pissed if he has like less than 10 targets in a game. And you have Jalen Waddle and you got Tua. Gassiki's really good. You got all these running backs and this run-heavy scheme. I'm, and Mike McDaniel's like a really interesting eccentric guy. If you haven't like seen an interview of him, like look him up. Like watch him on pardon my take.

He is like the weirdest dude. Honestly, it seems like he just like eats a lot of edibles and does intervie. interviews. I feel like there's never really been a head coach like him. No, he's very interesting. He's not, whatever your idea, like the, I feel like the classic football, your archetype of Mike Ditka, you know what I mean? He's like the opposite of Mike Ditka. He's just, it's, it's, Craig's right. He's just a different kind of dude. He's eccentric. He went to Yale. He's very smart. He's like 38 years old. He's like a, I don't know. He's like a, he's a real millennial in my mind. Put it this way.

When we were at the combine and we were doing the press conferences, he was just in the crowd. No one noticed. Just walk it around. There was one presser. I can't remember the details around it. But he came out and he was like, I'm really glad I get to talk to you guys.

So you could see the, just the intimidating nature of my stature or something along those lines. Because he's just like kind of like a small guy, but he's also hilarious and self-deprecating and all that stuff. So he's, yeah, he is just from a personality point. He's five foot nine. Seems like a, he seems like a,

he seems like a, Simpsons writer. Like, that's the shortest head coach in NFL history? McVeigh. No. How tall, is McVeigh shorter than 5'9? I think so, yes. That tracks, because I would follow this, Sean McVeigh.

I think he's like 5'8? Since he's 5'10, if you look at his Wikipedia. That's not true. I met him in person and he ain't 5'10. I'm taller. I am 510 and I'm taller than Sean McVe. Fair. Yeah, I think I would guess 58, but who knows?

but yeah I like there is a world to me there's not a world in which I think Josh McDaniels is like a disaster in Vegas I think there's a chance that by like week four they're like Mike McNagels is not a head coach right or maybe like he's the best head coach in NFL history and they're like 15 and 1 and then every 16 to 1 whatever

and then every coach now just needs to start like you know cracking more jokes and taking more edibles do you remember the Jared Goff I think it was under Jeff Fisher as a rookie just a fucking disaster and then Sean McVay came in and all of a sudden the REM's offense was like the fucking best offense we've seen

ever. Like what I know that that's not like the likely scenario but what if he just completely turns two around? Like that would be really fascinating. I think two is like Bitcoin. I don't know not as volatile but if you're ever going to buy it should probably just you know just do it like it's certainly

all time low and it's either going to go back up or wow it keeps going it's like well that's the Shanhan offense is famous for like all the quarterbacks in this offense have like 9.0 yards per attempt. Like even if they suck. I think the shanning in offense, I think of it now. It's like the quarterback mightest touch. It doesn't turn everyone to gold, but it brings everyone up a rung on the podium. It turns like bronze to silver, silver to gold, gold to platinum. And then if you're, but most importantly,

if you're off the podium, it makes you bronze. And I think that's kind of like Kirk Cousins is like the perfect example of that, right? And, like, Aaron Rogers enters that system and goes from gold to, like, back-to-back MVP. I, I don't know. I'm Tua, he's doing the whole, like, if you're, if you've been a hater, basically, like, don't be on the bandwagon later. He's kind of right, though. He's doing that?

Kind of. Keyboard warriors. There's been some very, like, Tua's getting a lot of hate this offseason. I don't think there's a big, I don't think there's a more controversial quarterback in the league than Tua. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of people just think he's not. Let's table this for later because we're going to talk about two a lot.

Let's keep rolling with coaches. I want to talk of the Vikings. This is interesting. Sneaky interesting. So the Vikings hired Kevin O'Connell, who was the offensive coordinator for the Rams for the last two years. So it's a Sean McVeigh guy. And I think the base question with this is, what if Sean McVeigh was coaching Justin Jefferson and Adam Thiel and a Dalvin Cook?

But mostly what if Sean McVeigh was coaching Justin Jefferson? Right. And it's such a stark change. And it's like very conveniently on the ringer NFL show this week, Kevin Clark and Stephen O'Reese literally interviewed Justin Jefferson about playing for Kevin O'Connell and the Cooper Cup role. Should I just read the quote, Craig, or do you actually want to play some of the things Justin Jefferson?

No, just read it. All right. So Stephen actually asked Justin Jefferson about playing in the Cooper Cup role. And these are just a couple of things Justin Jefferson said. These are quotes. He said, before we were, just as Jefferson on the Vikings, he said,

before we were a run first offense, now I feel like we're more of a past first offense, and I feel like if I can have that many yards and catches on a run first team, how many can I have on a past first team? Let me tell you guys something right now. I am very, very close to ranking Justin Jefferson as my number one receiver in fantasy.

I'm thinking about the same thing. I'm thinking about the same thing. Just for context, Jefferson had like 1,600 yards last year, like 100 catches. Cooper Cup had like 18 and like 140 catches. So this is another Jefferson continued. And they asked him he's going to play the Cooper Cup role.

And Jefferson said to Kevin and Stephen, he said pretty much where Cooper Cup was at, that's where I'm at talking about like a lining. I mean, my ability to move in different positions is going to be more. You don't really see Cooper Cup lining up outside as many times as I would. Just lining up differently in different positions to get the ball. Seeing what Cooper Cup did last year, that gives me so much hope. excitement to see what I can do in the same position he was. Him being so close to reaching the single season receiving record, the Triple Crown,

leading the league in catches, yards, touchdowns. All those things he accomplished are up in the air for me right now. And the biggest difference here is that Jefferson almost played exclusively on the outside, formerly in Minnesota, but when he was at LSU, he was like a power slot. Like he was doing everything from the slot and really dominating. And they kind of just completely removed that the second he got to the pros. So now we're thinking, can we actually unlock more out of Justin Jefferson? who's like already the third best receiver in the league.

I think Jefferson, I agree with Craig. I think Jefferson is going to be my number one receiver next to Cooper Cup. I actually, I'm going to put him at number one. And I also think Adam Thielen's insanely underrated. Adam Thielen and Kirk Cousins. I mean, I was look, Adam Thielen always kind of ends up banged up by December, but I was looking at just weeks one to 12. The goat, the goat for week one through eight.

But the first three months of the season, if you just look at, if you cut out December of the last four seasons, you know Adam Thielen is the most touch. of the NFL. I was going to say, if they're, D.K. Sorry, second to Tyree Kill. When we make our bets, we're going to bet Alan Robinson double-digit touchdowns this year, and we're going to bet who will lead the league in receiving touchdowns

by week eight? Give me Thielen, whatever those odds are. I do wish that was the thing of like all the season long bets. It's like the week eight, the week eight leaders. Yeah. But, yeah, I think, and then Dalvin Cook catching more passes. I think the Vikings are going to be incredible. I kind of think, I'm starting to think the Vikings are going to make the playoffs.

And then, yeah, I think Jefferson's number one receiver. I have, like, no notes. I think the one thing I want to add is essentially what Craig was saying is that Jefferson, coming into the NFL, his last season at LSU where the LSU offense was like the greatest college offense of all time. Like it was insanely good. Jamar Chase was on the outside. To be clear, though, it was the best college offense at the time when they won.

We all declared it the best college offense ever. And since then, those three players got to the NFL and then have destroyed the NFL and it only looks better in hindsight. Right. But what I was going to say is, like Craig alluded to, he was a slot only, pretty much, like 98% or something like that of his routes came in the slot for LSU that final year. It's because they had Jemar Chase on the outside, but yes. Yeah, you had Jemar Chase on the outside.

You had Terrace Marshall in the mix. And so they had like an insanely good offense, but like the big thing is he's got a lot of experience. He's very good in the slot. But last year, I think I saw it's like 60 to 70% of his routes came on the outside. If you compare that to Cooper Cup, Cooper Cup was running like, I think that amount on the inside. So he's like a 60, 70% slot guy. So in terms of fantasy, slot receivers are peppered with targets a lot. You know, it's like generally speaking, it's just an easier throw to make.

You're going to get more volume. So we could see Jefferson's volume go up, but we all already know he's like elite on the outside too. So, yeah, bottom line, I know I'm just kind of reiterating what Craig said, but it's like the sky, is the absolute limit for Jefferson. It's just going to be so fun to watch. This is what they say in fantasy is you never want to draft the guy who just had the historic record breaking season.

You want to draft the guy who's about to. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Next team, Craig. Yeah, so we got to talk about the Jags. Urban Meyer is gone.

Doug Peterson is in. I want to look back for a second at the 2021 Urban Meyer Jags. They were 3 and 14, worst record. They were a league worst. minus 204 point differential. That's a special group to break two.

The Jets were next with 172. The Jets were 30 points, over 30 points away in points differential. The Jags were last in points, scored. They threw 12 touchdowns in the whole year as a team, 12. Holy Jesus. Herbert did that like by week three.

And the Jags had the second worst defense in the league. They were terrible. Obviously, the urban thing, it was a mess. Off the field, a mess, on the field. combobulated game plan, wide receivers running to the same area of the field. They just didn't give Trevor Lawrence a lot to work with. They kind of just threw him out there and said, figure it out. And he struggled mightily. He was pretty bad in mostly every single category. When Meyer, before Urban Meyer got fired when he was with Bevel, the team was on pace to post the

worst points per game average in the franchise's 27-year history. And the Jags have sucked for a long time. So even though this guy was perceived to be the next Andrew Luck, the best prospects of Andrew Luck, it was brutal. He was the quarterback 22 in fantasy. Yeah, like I said, bottom five in almost every category. So now we get Doug Peterson in here, who obviously won a Super Bowl with the Eagles. He turned Carson Wentz into an MVP candidate. Everyone's different. The offensive coordinator's different.

It's Press Taylor. They have a new defensive coordinator. Press Taylor was with Doug Peterson in Philadelphia. In Philly, they threw the ball on an above average rate. They kind of had a slower pace. They had a West Coast your classic mid-2010s West Coast offense. They threw quick throws. They spread the ball around.

They ran a lot of RPO's with Wentz. And that turned Wentz into like an MVP-style candidate because they kind of took the burden off of Wence. They gave him a lot of easy decisions and choices and they like focused on his athleticism and what he can do. And Trevor Lawrence can do all that shit, Wens can do, but obviously better. So Lawrence is also really, I don't know what the term is. quick twitch when it comes to the RPO game. Like he ran RPO's a ton at Clemson. And his decision making is very good.

He's like on, he's like Nick Foles in the RPO game. Like Nick Foles came in and played quarterback for the Eagles that year they won the Super Bowl. And he was just insanely good at running that RPO game. And so, but of course, Lawrence has a much better skill set overall.

I think than Foles does. He's much more mobile. He's got better accuracy, blah, blah, blah. So I think, yeah, he's going to come in. like an excellent system for him. Hold up. Can we play a quick game? Yeah.

Can we play quarterbacks you'd rather have than Trevor Lawrence over the next five years? Okay. Am I factor? Wait, wait. Am I factoring in the team he's on or are we like redrafting? No, no, no. It's like if you could just have, like all three of our teams need quarterbacks, Giants, Steelers, Seahawks.

You can have this quarterback as your quarterback for the next, it's called six years, five, six years, whatever. Same money's not a factor, same contract. Josh Allen. Or Trevor Lawrence. Alan. Alan. Mack Jones.

Trevor Lawrence. Yeah. Tuwa. Trevor Lawrence. Zach Wilson. Lawrence. Burrow. Burrow.

Burrow. Lamar. Probably Lamar. I really like Lawrence, but I mean, Lamar's won an MVP. True. Russell Wilson. Next for five, six years?

Lawrence. Yeah. Oh, God. You're putting me on the spot here. Pass. Dak. Dak. Dak.

Kirk Cousins. Lawrence. Yeah, that's kind of close though. But yeah. Stafford is Stafford. Kyler. Kyler. I'd rather have Lawrence.

That's an interesting one, though. I think my point is that I think Trevor Lawrence is already a fringe top 10 quarterback because I think that it was obscure, not like already, but I think that, I think that Trevor Lawrence is incredible on par with Herbert. And he was obscured by literally the worst coach. season we've ever seen. And that one year from now, once we've seen him with competency, I think we're going to be, think about him in a different way.

On the part with Herbert is high praise. I think he's going to get the Herbert treatment this year. The way we talked about Herbert in 2020, we're going to talk about Lawrence this year. Lawrence is my QB10 in Dynasty. I mean, that's fantasy, but still, like, it's the rare case where you like literally have to say throw out his rookie season. Just throw it in the trash. Trevor Lawrence was the number one pick in the draft, unanimously the best

quarterback prospect and like almost since Peyton Manning basically and it's somehow just underrated and we've forgotten because he went to the Jaguars and Urban Arr. Anyway, we talked a lot about this. I will say I can understand if people, there's probably a strong reaction from a lot of people like, holy crap, people are just like really holding onto their takes about pre-draft Trevor Lawrence because everything he did as a rookie was just pretty bad. But I will say the flashes were there. Like, you can still tell, you can still see the reasons, some of the traits that people were hyping up for him pre-draft. So I don't think it's all just, like, rigid, like, people just, like, holding on to their takes, like, you know, take lock or whatever. I don't know what holding on to their takes means.

Like, refusing to, like, refusing to look at the evidence. It's, I don't think it's that. No, I said, we forgot about him. He's like, he became Mike Trout. It's just irrelevant. Mike Trout, yeah. He was more famous in college than Trevor Lawrence had been. famous in the NFL.

Yeah. The other thing is, like, it was a weird phenomenon during the pre-draft process last year, I think, when no one seemed to talk about Trevor Lawrence being the top overall pick.

Like, we just stopped talking about him at some point. Yeah. I will say, they're supportive, I don't think his team, his offense is that great. I mean, his receivers, he has Christian Kirk and Zay Jones.

He has Travis E.T.N. coming back from injury. James Robinson got hurt at the end of last year. His tight ends are Evan Ingram and Dan Ardle. He does not have, some elite offense to work with.

But I agree with you, Huyves, generally. Like, I think he will be a lot better. All right. Let's go next one, D.K. Well, this is a weird one because the Patriots didn't change their head coach. But we just want to quickly say that Matt, Patricia, and or Joe Judge is the offensive coordinator for the Patriots this year. Still undecided.

I threw these guys in because, look, there's other teams that are changing offensive coordinators. And, you know, we'll throw these names out, not really talk about them that much. But I think the Patriots losing Josh McKevigg. Daniels and not literally don't have an offensive coordinator that we know of right now. Like we don't know who's going to call plays. And neither Patricia nor Judge nor Belichick, or wait, has Joe Judge, does Joe Judge have offensive play calling experience? He was the receivers coach for the Patriots, but literally also the special teams coach.

I don't think he was the special teams coach and then became the wide receivers coach as well, but that's it. And both Patricia and Belichick have been known as sort of defensive-minded head coaches, although Belichick, of course, does everything. But I just think it's fascinating. So I just wanted to throw this into the most interesting, more interesting than you think group because I'm starting to become fascinated with it. And it's not just because Bill texts me every once in a while

talking about how I'm too low on the Patriots offense. I think it's just going to be a lot of fun to see how they do it. Like I said earlier, I alluded to earlier, they got rid of their fullback. Mike Reese has talked about, Mike Reese, the Beat Reporter for ESPN, has talked about how that could, signal them basically spreading things out, running like a wide open offense where they're just

like chucking the ball downfield. They're not going to be like a 21 personnel run heavy thing, like bully ball like they were last year. Like they're going to pass a ball. They're going to let Mac Jones do his thing. They're going to let Mac cook. I don't know. Stop. I'm done with let people cook. Okay. Do you want I can't say it anymore? So what do you want them to do then? Boyle? Sorry, hi-gril. I just, I'm just, I understand. I understand. But no, but really like Mac Jones taking a big jump, it feels like one of those things that we're just not really talking about that much, despite the fact that he was like by far the most,

I think, impressive rookie quarterback last year. And they did some things to make like his life easier on offense. Like obviously it's not anything, no big ticket moves, but Devante Parker, I think is a solid veteran that will help out. I'm pretty excited about Tycho and Thornton,

the speed element that he could bring, you know, and getting like Hunter Henry involved. Johnny Smith involved a little bit more. They've got three really good running backs in that group. I don't know. It's just to me, it's just going to be very interesting to see what happens with this team.

I think we could be too low. It's not very interesting. Pretty interesting. It's intriguing. I'm ambivalent, to be honest. Very interesting. I'm the only one. Tycoon Thornton's speed element for the Patriots

does not get the very interesting label. Ambivalent, I think that the Patriots fall into that bucket of other teams that were ambivalent on. it's like, I'm just going to do all of these at once, and then you guys tell me what you want to talk about. So the Saints and Bucks, I'm going to pair. The St. Sean Payton retired as the Saints head coach. And they, Dennis Allen, the defensive coordinator, and then Pete Carmichael became the offensive coordinator. Pete Carl Michael's been under Sean Payton for like a long time.

Like 16 years. I think the entire time. Yeah, like literally the entire time, Sean Payton's been there for like 15, 16 seasons. So probably the same stuff they're going to do with the Saints offense. And then the Bucks, Bruce Ariens retired, what got forced out, who knows what happened there. And then Todd Bowles, same deal. Defense coordinator, Todd Bowles, becomes that coach. Byron Lefrich, offense coordinator, stays in that role,

but like more play callery. Obviously, in that case, Tom Brady and Byron Lefich are just co-creating the offense together. Player coach, Tom Brady. Yeah, and it just feels like the same situation with both these teams. They're both trying to win the division. Both defensive coordinators are running the team,

but really not doing the, offense. It also doesn't seem like that much will probably change. If anything, ironically, the bucks will probably change more now that Ariens has gone, but it's not much there. Then the other two are the bears have Matt Aberflus, who's the Colts defensive coordinator, and there just seemed to be on a quest to ruin Justin Fields' career. And then the Texans hired Lovie Smith as their head coach. Papp Hamilton's their offensive coordinator. It just, you look at those two things and you're like, this is like fantasy wasteland with the Bears and Texans. I think with the Bears, it's like, I like, I like Fields, but,

but it just feels like they're actively trying to ruin him. And then with the Texans, it's just kind of hard. Like, I know that he did some things last year. It's just kind of hard to get excited about Davis Mills. Like, I'm not saying he's bad, but I just don't think he has a lot of upside either. Those two teams are clearly the least interesting to me,

Bears and Texans. I think the Saints are probably the most interesting. I think that the Saints are interesting because of their players. I don't think there's anything scheme-wise with the coaching. I think that the Saints are interesting, Jarvis, Chris, Alavi, the ghost of Michael Tom. coming back. I think coaching-wise,

I think the only thing interesting with Justin Fields is Justin Fields is actually pretty good in fantasy from the end of the season. And if they get Justin Fields running more and also

not putting Justin Fields in this insane position of not really getting first team reps in August and then basically being the starter midway through, Justin Fields could not have been put in a worse position last year

and then within that just didn't play that well. The Texans, I feel like literally will have one fantasy relevant player. It's Brandon Cooks and maybe Nico Collins. But otherwise,

I don't think there's much on the coaching front here. Other situations around the league, offensive coordiners that are changing, again, Bill's promoted Ken Dorsey to replace Brian Daebel. Again, Ken Dorsey's been there for like three years, probably not changing a ton with Josh Allen. The Panthers have Ben McAdoo,

Cheesecake Factory menu, suits that didn't fit, et cetera, et cetera. You remember from the giants. Tell us about Mcadie, worst hair in the game. Ben McAdoo. Yeah, but it changes like every year, which he's the most versatile hair in the game.

I think my thoughts on Ben McAdoe are if he makes anyone on the Panthers relevant other than McCaffrey and Ditchie Moore, I'll be quite surprised. And then, yeah, I mean, the Rams replaced Kevin O'Connell, Liam Cohen, but like McVeigh's running the stuff there. And then who else has new quartered? The Lions, I mean. Yeah, the Lions are going from shooting. I can't even remember their offensive coordinator who got demoted last year because that'll that'll tell you how exciting it was. Was it Anthony Lynn?

Yes. Yeah, Dan Campbell took over the play calling midway through. Blanked on the name. I think you could only go up in terms of like the creativity and the focus. They've got a lot better receivers this year than they did last year. So I think that's a big deal. But I wouldn't be, they're not super interesting from this point of view. And then the Rams are the Rams.

I mean, Sean McVeigh is going to continue calling the offense. Yeah, Liam Cohen was with the Rams. I think he was the head coach of Kentucky. last year in college. Before that, he was with the Rams, I believe. Isn't Liam Cohen also like a... He sounds like a British boy band... Music executive? That's Lear Cohen.

Yeah, Leor Cohen was Def Jam. You know, I can't believe that if, that Dan, like somebody who looks like and speaks like Dan Campbell and Mike McDaniel are both NFL head coaches. Mike McDaniel seems like Dan Campbell's tutor. That's how that looks to me.

Or it's kind of like in 22 Jump Street. you know what I mean it's just like it's like the jock and the nerd and they have to like you know figure stuff out together yeah they have different skill sets but they overlap I really encourage everybody watch Mike McDaniel on pardon my take I don't know what's going on I don't know what he's doing it's he's acting or doing a bit or he's super high or that's just who we I don't know it's like Ricky Bobby it's first interview he's like I don't know what to do with my my hands and did you guys see the video that the Dolphins posted the Dolphins social media by the way this year. It's just been throwing its own people under the bus just consistently. There was a interview,

or not an interview, a video of Mike McDaniel on the private jet flying over to Miami after he got hired and called Tua. And he was like talking to Tua on speakerphone. And it was just like so awkward. It was the most, it is like, why are you showing this to everybody? You don't have to post this to social media. You could just let it happen and decide that it's not worth posting on social media. But anyways, yeah, so it was awkward. I do think he's funny, though. Like, you guys are talking about how he's kind of, like, awkward and weird. I think he's also fun. No, I love him. No, that's what I said. I think he literally, if somebody was like, if I just heard this guy speaking in an interview and somebody asked me, what does he do for a living?

I'd say he was a television writer. He looks like he writes. I agree. And sounds like he writes for The Simpsons. It's a great way to put it. He's like, oh, yeah, he writes for Parks and Rec. Yes. Oh, yeah. That totally tracks. Or like South Park or something. But he's beloved by players on the Niners. He seems cool. I don't want, like, he sits down and he's like, someone's like Mike and he's like, who?

Mike Jones. Like, he's always hanging out and having it. He's a vibe. I think he's the epitome of what this, like, the difference between like 20th century coaching, which is kind of a legacy of like, I don't know, like militaristic, like, you know, post-World War II generation. And then like, he's more of a 21st century coach of the ilk of like McVeigh. And these guys were like, first of all, just age-wise, just closer and age to the players.

I don't think he's like McVeigh. I think McVeigh is a throwback coach. I think McVe is old school. It's true. Have you heard McVeigh talk? Like McVeigh is always like, great job men. Like keep it going, men. Like he's like very like formal.

I think McVeigh because he was so young at every position he had had to kind of adapt. Also he's just his style has kind of been more old school in the past. But McDaniel is just, he's kind of just a bro. It's how you, it's how you relate to the millennials. He's just like, yeah, man, whatever. Let's vibe out. Let's play football. I will say, and it's funny,

but I've seen some videos of him installing offense and stuff. He looks like he's a very good teacher. And I think that's important to be as a coach, like to be able to, like, this is all, it all gums together,

but like being able to teach players how to do the scheme that you want to do, like there's a lot of just old school boomer coaches who can't teach these players, you know? And the number one thing I learned from flying coach is there was somebody talking about how, there's a lot of coaches

who can design plays and understand how offense, works. It's relating to your teammates. He's like, plug, wait, plug yourself a little. Explain with flying coaches, for those who don't know. Flying coach was a show. Season two was last summer. It was hosted by Rams Head Coach Sean McVeigh and Peter Schrager, who's a reporter for Fox in the NFL Network. And we brought on a different NFL coach each week and just kind of talked about their styles, coaching, and whatnot. Check it out. It's very good, very interesting. But I think

it was Mike Tom and I can't remember who it was, but somebody was talking about how the most important thing as a coach is being able to relate to every single player on the team, which is incredibly difficult. He's like, you have a wide receiver who grew up from, who grew up in the Bay Area and went to Stanford, and you have another player who grew up in the Deep South and went to an SEC school. And he's like, and, you know, when things happen in the world, social issues, anything pops up. Like, you need to be able to relate with every single guy in your team and sit them down and basically have them respect you. And that, we'll have to see if Mike McDaniel has that in him. I don't deny he's like a whiz kid and a genius on the X's and O's. But it's all the.

other stuff that is that and that I think makes 10 15 20 year coaches like Mike Tomlin the other season of flying coach too was Steve Steve Kerr was on it and it was like I I think it's forgotten a lot but like Bill Belichick sees himself as a teacher like yeah what coach means is like teaching but more intense like a high almost like a higher level of teaching and there's a lot of like if you remember you I'm sure everyone remembers good teachers you've had bad teachers you've had and also good teachers come in many forms some teachers are like kind of like your friend. Some teachers are like, you know,

mother or father figures who are very hard on you, but it's rewarding. And like I think a lot of things these teams now are doing like the Rams do is they're learning how to teach and they're learning how people learn and they're actually hiring people to teach them like

they want to sort their players and some people are visual learners school or sending them more visual stuff. Some people need to hear that. And they're actually trying to bucket their players and get a better idea of how they learn so they can teach better. And I think that's a cool thing like teams

like the Rams are actually. doing. It's pretty interesting. Pete Carroll's book, he has a, I don't know if it's a chapter, but he definitely has a section called Learn Your Learners, and it's like figuring out how to teach different people because some people might have, some people might like watch a video and all a sudden it's like, oh shit, I totally understand this. Some people might need to write it down. Some people might need to read it or whatever. You know, it's like everybody has different learning styles and you have to like figure out how to get everybody on the same page. Think about all your favorite teachers growing up from middle school, high school, through college.

Why were they your favorite teacher? Like if you think about why, is it, were they smarter than all the other teachers? Probably not. It's that they connected with you on a different level. They like made you interested in the subject and made you want to learn. That is why, because I remember I used to think if a coach has a defensive coordinator calling plays and an offensive coordinator calling plays, what the hell is the head coach doing? I used to always think that. I did too, yeah. Oh, he's the one, like, actually managing these people's minds and, like, keeping them into their profession and, like, wanting to get up and work every day. That's what the head coach is doing. It's like a Ted Lassau when Ted Lasson gives them all the books. Like, he gives Roy Kent, like,

a wrinkle in time. And it's like, that's obviously a real thing that Phil Jackson did. I think definitely for the Lakers. And I think he also did that for the Bulls, right? He gave every player a book every year that was, like, finally tuned to them. And that's kind of incredible concept, giving Dennis Rodman a book. Didn't you see that Shaq was talking about that? And they asked if he, if he actually read those book and he's like, hell no, Spark Notes just came out then. He's like, I didn't read those books. I think Kobe read him.

Oh, he gave Kobe the Alchemist, which is kind of incredible to think about. Yeah, it's interesting. But I think that's why also players love Shanahan. Is that Shanhan's that, for all that, we talk so much about the Shanahan system and like, why is it great? And we're like, oh, well, it's blood.

Like, there's a lot of X's and those reasons. One of the core reasons that Shannon offense is beloved by players is like, you don't have to think. Like, it's very clear what Kyle Shannon wants you to do, and it's extremely detailed. I remember Joe Thomas, the legendary lift tackle was talking about this. And he's just like, it turns your mind into a computer. Everything's zero or one. And when you see it, it's very easy to know it to do and you can go to 100%.

Because, like, obviously, it's paralysis by analysis. All these guys are fast. And like, you have to know what you need to do to be at 100% speed. And like in the Shanahan system, it's like when everyone's educated on what they need to do in every situation, no one, you don't even need to think, you're just going at 100%. And like, that's teaching. Yeah. Some of the people that end up in his doghouse. Yeah, I think that's the flip side is. He's definitely a teacher who like rents gets off so quick. He's definitely like the teacher who's just like, you know what? I openly just hate

these six kids in class and they hit them all year. I'm not wasting it right time with you. You're like chewing gum and you get like a detention. You're like, really? Come on. Yeah, I had those teachers too. Okay. Litter pickups. I used to get those. So yeah, coaches, they matter. Urban Meyer proved all this. Oh my God. Well, you know what? Yeah. The flip side is like, you know what a great way to do is to kick your students and be like, make your kicks?

Which I have to say, I think if I was a head coach and I also started on for it, for some point, I'd just be like, do something. Like, duh, make you. If Bill kicked me, I'd be a better producer. Yeah. I was going to ask you guys, have you ever had a coach during your, like, high school or middle school or whatever that, like, physically pushed you or shoved you or anything like that? No. A coach, not a coach. teacher.

Not like a huge difference. A coach. I've had like nose to nose kind of screaming at you, but I actually respond well to that. I like a tough coach rather than like a soft one. My basketball coach in high school did that. Shove me. And I actually thought it like, it was like, holy shit, I need to get my ass in gear kind of deal. And it was like nowadays that would like that guy gets sued.

That would get fired. Yeah, I also, yeah, a football coach also just like joined a drill once that we were doing, but we were in full pads and he wasn't. and because the kid was one of the guys, the line group was like talking shit and he just got down and beat the kid and pit up against the fence. Not gonna lie, it was awesome

and we all freaked out. It was amazing. And we were like, and then we played better. It was great. There's a fine line, of course. Yeah. It has to work.

You can't mess it up if you're gonna do it. Anyway, okay, that's what we got for today. We're coming to Ringer Fantasy Football show. We're coming to you every Tuesday and Thursday. Email us at Ringer Fantasy Football at Gmail. Email. Emails if you have questions, thoughts coming up. Every Tuesday and Thursday for July,

go to fancyfoolball.com. We're updating our ranking soon. We're going to have our big whole shebang with our rankings by the end of July. Training camps at end of July. It's going to be fun. Thank you, Craig. Thank you, D.K.

Thank you to great teacher. You guys got a teacher. You want to shout out. I want to shout out Mr. Broggy and Coglin. And oh, my God. I'm going to shout out those two. Shout out Coach V. I'm going to be honest.

I've been out high school for way too long. I don't remember. I'm going to shout out Courtney Whitaker, good coach. Great, yeah. Shout out, shout out, shout out teachers, shout of coaches. Thank you, Lauren.

Lauren. Good teacher. Thank you. Mike Jones. Nice. Mike Jones. Mike Jones. Mike McDaniel.

Mike McDaniel.