The Ringer NFL Show - Week 5 Winners, Losers, and Awards

Episode Date: October 10, 2022

We recap Week 5 by giving out awards for the biggest winners and losers of the weekend, including the return of the first-round RB, and Josh Allen and the Bills' dominance. We spend too much time talking about Taysom Hill, the quagmire of fantasy football, and complain about the Bengals and Rams offenses. Then, we induct the next player into our 2022 Fantasy Burn Book. Check out our Weekly Fantasy Football Rankings for positional rankings and more! 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

Would you bet a few thousand dollars that you could sink an eight-foot putt? What about 10 grand that you could win a drag race against a Camero with a thousand horsepower? If you bet two million dollars, could you bet it all on one football game? Maybe you wish you could, but you probably wouldn't. Gamblers is about the people who did. From the Ringer podcast network, listen to Gamblers Season 2 on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You see football show. My name is Danny Hyfitz.

I am joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Brollabek. Sunday of Week 5 is over. We're going to go through our categories, discuss the vibes after Sunday night. Craig, you were at a bachelor party this weekend. You look hung over as shit. So you want to start us off? I was at a bachelor party this weekend in Arizona.

I drove back today watching DirecTV Sunday ticket on my iPad in the car. That's dedication folks, right? Flex. I use the hotspot of the phone to connect to make the Wi-Fi. Work for the whatever. It's going to go to space. That's amazing. Anyway, I didn't love this because I was facing these players this week.

But man, like the old school RB-1s, the bell cows. Those guys were back today. We were all talking about round one running backs are dead. The dead zone guys are back. The middle of the road guys. The Norm-Corps guys, I think is what I called them. The Josh Jacobs and Miles Sanders. But not today.

Derek Henry, Austin Echler, Nick Chubb, Dalvin Cook, who's been quiet for a while. Sequin delivered once again. Leonard Fournette finally hopped into the top. it felt like good old-fashioned 2008 football for the running backs today. They read the tweets. They read my article, apparently, and they took offense to it. The second D.K. starts talking about how running is down and running backs don't matter anymore. They scored a million touchdowns this week, too.

It was amazing. They did. They're back. The good RBs are back, and fantasy football is healing. We are back. Yeah, no, D.K. just starts to bemoan how running backs don't matter in fantasy anymore. and then Austin Eklah, Derek Henry, Dalvin Cook, Leonard Fennett, all of their best game of the season.

Well, people also always talk shit about Christian McCaffrey like every single game this year, but I think once again, McCaffrey had 100 scrimmage yards. He has had 100 scrimmage yards or a touchdown in like 30 straight games. And people, you know, he's not the old Christian McCaffrey, but he was still decent today. So in the NFL, running backs combined, and we still have Monday night football, by the way.

Running backs combined scored 26 touchdowns this week. Last week it was 24, the week before, 23. Week 2, it was 12. Running back scored 12 touchdowns in week two. They scored 16 touchdowns in week 1, 26 and counting this week. So they're back. Yeah, I feel like the first month of the season where like the top running backs were like Jamal Williams and I don't know, random, like Khalil Herbert somehow is outscoring like

Christopher, or Jonathan Taylor in the first month. It was kind of like there were like crypto, like alt coins that were just taking off. And it's like, no, S&P 500, it's going to win. Don't worry. Don't worry about it. All right. I just, it's really just like good players were good, like talented guys were good. And I want to give on that note the I am become death award.

You know that Oppenheimer quote? It's like when they did the first atomic bomb, he's like, I am death now. That's the Buffalo Bills. That's the Buffalo Bills play in the Pittsburgh Steelers. This offense, like we need to start talking about the bills. in like a higher plane of how we've been talking about them. A freaking buzzsaw.

If you didn't get to watch this game, this game was over at halftime. It was over, honestly, about like five minutes. I'm not even kidding five minutes into the game. The bill started by, like, they somehow got pinned at their own two-yard line. They immediately started with a 98-yard touchdown to Gabe Davis. Like, just immediately.

At the first half, the bills were 31 points. They'd exactly 400 total yards. They ended the game. Nate Tyson, the athletic tweeted this. I couldn't believe it. the averaged 10.2 yards per play. So the bills averaged a first down per play. It's the sixth highest average yards per play

in a game in NFL history for Buffalo. The bills had four touchdowns. Sixth ever? Yeah. Holy cow. The bills, think about that. There's a lot of games. There's a lot of games.

Yeah. It's been a lot of games to have the six most yards per play. The bills had four touchdown drives that took less than three minutes combined. Josh, I saw this. Josh Allen had eight. passes over 20 yards in this game. They, I mean, think about, dude,

those four touchdown drives, they took eight plays on the four drives. They had 263 yards in eight plays. I mean, this off, and again, this is an offense that in this calendar year, in the year of 2022, is also when the freaking perfect game against the Patriots in January

where they just did the eight, or the eight touchdowns and the kneel down, which had never been done before. They also had that game against the Chiefs in the playoffs that was so incredible. They had another game where they didn't punt this season. Or was it, I can't get track. But like, we don't talk about them.

But the way we talked about the 2018 Chiefs with Mahomes, they're probably a notch or two below the 2013 Broncos. There are a couple notches below the 2007 Patriots. But like, that's where this offense is. This is one of the best offenses we've ever seen. Josh Allen is, he's an alien. I mean, Josh Allen is an alien. He's doing things that we've never seen before, like legitimately.

He's so freaking good. yeah it's crazy and then of course he got Gabe Dave going again which is great I'm gonna get to that do you have anything else to add on the bills Craig

well I was gonna say next week Bill's chief we're getting the recap we're should we spoil should we announce oh yeah sure we're going to be in person

potting for the next week so we're going to be watching that next week people are so excited people at home I hope nobody was driving as they were listening to that meanwhile we just

shadow the that we're not together all the time we're recording this is really all if anything we should not tell anybody we're in person and see you're off the road in excitement after hearing that when you said it when you said should we tell him I was like I don't know what you're talking about I thought you knew the future or something um fine anyway so I was kind of ragged on Gabe Dave I think it was last week or the week before about how he's basically just run in wind sprints he's the forest gump guy just I just felt like running the cardio has paid off finally for Gabe Dave, guys.

This is the Cardio has paid off award. He had 171 yards on three catches and two touchdowns, 30.5 half BBR points. He had touchdowns of 98 yards, which was aforementioned first drive for the bills. And then another of 67 yards where basically just stole the ball from a defender and scored a touchdown on a deep shot.

I, look, it's a great game for Gabe Dave. He had a 16.7% target rates. Like, that's still not very good. but of course it was a total and complete blowout so maybe that just like kind of like doesn't matter. I don't know. How you feel about this? I have two thoughts.

One, he had an ankle injury and he came back quickly because they had nobody to play receiver. So I feel like the last few games sucked. So like he's much healthier now, obviously too. I don't give a shit about his target rate. Who cares? Well, I mean, you probably should care if you're playing fantasy.

I will, maybe what you're alluding to like the big plays. It's our job to care about his target. Yeah, the big plays probably outweigh with the fact that he has a low target rate. Generally speaking, yeah, it's obviously you can't get the ball unless you're on the field and then you need to bowl thrown at you and then you do run around and get the ball thrown at you and you need to catch it, blah, blah, blah, blah. But he's in, we just, we're talking, this is the best offense in the NFL. This is probably one of the five best offenses of the 21st century. It's in the conversation for one of the five best offenses of the 21st century.

I think that the fact that he's had, he had this game today, again, like two, he had a 98-year touchdown and then it's, 67-yard touchdown. I don't know. It's like this is why you have Gabe Dave on your team to have a piece of this offense. This is also, you probably didn't start Gabe Dave. He started in 33% of ESPN leagues because he's been so up and down.

He's kind of like what Mike Williams used to be where you never knew when he was going to pop off. So you kind of either had to decide philosophically who you wanted to be. Do I just want to be the guy who lives with the highs and the lows or do I not want to deal with it? It's kind of who Gabe Davis has been. I think it's really simple.

You play him and you keep playing him. I think you went with our rankings this week. you probably played him. And then also, I just, again, he was hurt. Like, he was playing hurt because everyone kept flowing down. Like, I wouldn't overthink it. You play game, Dave. You have to.

I mean, actually, in Hyphids, you hate when I say this, but, like, you could see when he was running, he was hobbled. Like, he just didn't look right the last couple of weeks. And so that clearly matters. But why do I hit when you say that? You hate when I talk about, like, clips when people look hobbled or whatever, like, oh, like, I should, you should. Not in a game. I hate, no. it's the opposite. I hate when people, when they post a video of a guy practicing,

and they're like, oh, it looks like he's back when that's not like new information. It's just you're seeing the guy run for the first time. It's like, well, if he looked like shit, they wouldn't post it from the official team account. That's all what I hate. Like Ben Simmons hitting threes in an empty gym. It's like Ben Simmons isn't posting the video of the 1003s. He clanked that day. Sometimes it's reporters. It's not always the team account. The only reason I bring it up is because- window where they can use their phones at practice and they're like, well, I have to get a tweet up so they take the video and they're like, this looks cool and they just tweet it and we're like,

oh my God, he's like, yeah, well, that's why he returned to practice. He looks okay. While D.K.'s yelling at me, I'm just going to keep rolling through people that D.K. hates. I want to do the Brandon Cook's Award for the player we don't want to admit is good at fantasy and it's for Taysome Hill. I don't hate Taysam Hill. Taysam Hill, I think this is, I mean, this is probably the best, this is probably, maybe the best day of Tase Meele's career. Ran for 100, 120 yards rushing,

three rushing touchdowns, also threw a passing touchdown. Recovered a fumble? Crucially, it was on special teams, right? He threw the key block for Alvin Camara that basically sealed and ended the game. He had 34 fantasy points. And then, great note,

NFL research, Tays Mills won of three players. in the last 70 years that had three rushing touchdowns, 100 rushing yards, and a pass touchdown in a single game. The only people who have ever done that are Ronnie Brown, who I believe was doing that for the Miami Dolphins

with the Wildcat, and the LaDaney and Tomlinson in that season where he broke the rushing touchdown record or was flirting with it, and then he would do the little jump passes like Tim Tebow in the games. That's it. That's the list.

Taysam Hill. Etched his name in history. He's L.T. now, I guess. He's Littadian Tomlinson. He's T.H. Does he just make a T.H. Sound joke? Yeah. No, I don't hate Taysam Hill. I think Taysa Phil's fascinating because, like, look, you're going to have, like, this is the same deal with like Gabe Davis, like on a totally different level, of course, but like you got a startup now, right? Like the ceiling is way too high

with this guy, even though everything that, everything about it is like the utilization is just like terrible. Like even in this game, he played less than a third of the team snaps. I do want to just say that like, every time Casem Hill comes up, you're like, put the utilization. I'm like, but that doesn't matter if when he's on the field, all the players are doing. But not for the exceptions. This is his first really big game this year.

But it does matter. Well, he said two games. No, he said this is the third game of the year we would have played where it would have been a starting double-ditchin. He jumped 10 spots in the ranked in the tight-in ranks this week. And by the way, it was all, it was because the entire fucking team was hurt. Like, you can't depend on Taysam Hill, but you have to play him. It can't depend, but we're talking about tight end streaming.

I'm just saying, like, at the end of the day, like, first of all, I don't think utilization and how often stuff matters for a player like this, where when he's on the field, everything's designed for him. So I think that if a player is one of one, it doesn't matter. Two, I just, I don't want to get lost in the sauce here. Can I just read you a bunch of other stats that'll make you mad because I like that I'm kind of like twist and screws a little bit? You do?

Oh, I didn't know that. Okay. Tayson Hill. Do you know the players who have more rushing touchdowns than Taysam Hill this year? Who? It's Nick Chubb, obviously. Okay.

He makes us ask who. Just fucking tell us. Jamal Williams. That's it. It's Nick Chubb, Jamal Williams, Jailen Hertz. Those are the people have more rushing touchdowns that taste of him in this year. Love it.

And he has more... I don't know. So, well, to D.K.'s point, obviously you have to add him in fantasy. We'll do our waiver show this week. We're going to do that on Tuesday this week because of Indigenous People's Day, but spoiler alert, I think we're all going to pick Tayson Hillers for top 10 end. Obviously, Adam, but do you just blindly? I'm not.

You're not? I'm not going to. I'm making a stand. No, they played the Seahawks and everybody on the team was injured. I think we need to settle down. Yeah. You wouldn't add Tassum Hill. You wouldn't add him?

I guess I would add him. But like, if it was him or Gerald Everett, I had to start one of them, I'm probably starting Gerald Everett. If it was him and David and Joku, Pat Fireman, I don't know. He's getting like five carries. a game and they play the Seahawks today. Can I make it an ambition? Because I'm kind of playing the devil's advocate a little.

I started Taysa Mell in three leagues this week. I fucking reap the benefits of this. Well, is it because the Seahawks for the Mario Carter War, the Seahawks are just every defense, every offense that plays the Seahawks defense is just like the grease and the wheels. Dude, the Seahawks defense is incredibly bad. Okay, so there's a couple factors. Yeah.

TaseMills, Taseemill's going to make you miserable. Like, I'm sure he did. I don't think he did. there was a lot of DKs out there. I don't know how many people started Tasein Hill this week. I mean, last week had five carries. You know, it's like, this is, this actually helps nobody and just makes your, your week more stressful if you add him. I get that, but if you forget that he's Tase M Hill, how is that different than like any other tight end that you would consider streaming, except the difference is he might do something like this? What the fuck is the difference between Tase Mill and Hayden Hurst or Robert Tanya

or anybody else that might just get you three points and you would live with? I guess, I guess. I see. your point, I still don't, I would rather just have David and Joku catching like five passes. I just would rather have that. Yeah, and Joku's solid, because Njoku's playing 90, like, in Jokka at this point, like firmly top eight probably because Pat Friarmooth has a concussion, we don't

know when he'll be back. Like, all the Titans drop in like flies, Kyle Pitts was terrible and now has a hamstring injury, like at this point, sure. But if you don't have one of those guys that's kind of solidly a top eight dude and you're like, oh my God, I'm adding Robert Rton or Hayden Hurst this week, and then the buys sit in, like the only difference

13, Taysom Hill, is that he actually could just get two touchdowns in a game and it would not be weird. Anyone else, it's kind of weird if Irv Smith had two touchdowns in a game. Why should I have Irv Smith instead of Taysom Hill? I agree with both of you, actually. I know this like, sent setting or whatever, but like, Taysom Hill has a specialized role where he's getting a lot of rushes inside the, like, you know, in the red zone, they're designing a bunch of stuff.

At the same time, like, we cannot look past the fact that Andy Dalton was a starter. Michael Thomas was out, Jarvis Landry was out, and they were playing the worst defense I've ever seen in my life. When Taysam Hill comes in and takes like a wildcat snap, the odds are 80, 90% that he's running like power, and the Seahawks still couldn't stop it whatsoever. Like it was ridiculous. They gave up, for the first time in franchise history,

two rushers of over 100 yards. Because by the way, Alvin Camara also rushed for over 100 yards. The Seahawks defense is absolutely atrocious. Yeah. So, but like here's the first. the other deal. Like, I actually kind of agree with Hyphitz. Like, you have to start him because going forward, you know, they're still

going to have some injuries on this team. And the like options available at like the low end, tight end one. So like the tight end 10, 11, 12, 13, whatever, like that group of guys outside of the like top, even like four or five, it's just so hit or miss whether they're going to get like three, four targets in a game. You know what I mean? I agree. I agree with Hyphitz. I mean, listen, if you're like at the bottom of the barrel in the at the tight end

position in your fantasy league. Like, if you're a guy who's had Kyle Pitts, like, yes, add him. My point was like, if you're just like a guy with Dallas Goddard, Zach Earth, Tyler Higby, and Joku, Everett, I wouldn't spend too much of your money on Taysam Hill. But yes, if you have somebody, if you've been screwed this year, then I would absolutely do it. But Taysam Hill makes me irrationally upset. I know.

That's what I'm saying. Look past the emotion. He's literally the third best tight end this season. It's Travis, Kelsey, Mark Andrews, and Taysam Hill. Like at some point, like... Yeah, but it's like the wrong kind because, like, no one's starting him when he's scoring. So, like, you can say that, but it's not actually helping anybody. He's not scoring because we're biased, but like, because people are like, oh, he's not

a touchdown. It's like, well, he's before, today never happened. He scored a touchdown in two of the three games he's played. So I'm just saying, like at some point. He'd jump 10 spots this week, by the way. He was a tight and 13 coming into this week. Yeah, but that's including him not playing. So week one, he had 80 yards in a touchdown. Nobody started him. And then everyone's like, oh, Taysam Hills a thing. Next week, I'll start him. He had 14 yards and you're just like, oh, well, that sucks. scored 40 points last week. That's every tight end that isn't Travis Kelsey and Mark Ganges.

All I'm saying is not many people. But now there's a much, we've had this argument. I'm sure we'll have this argument again. Honestly, everyone listening probably already knows how they feel. And if not, there's a much larger conversation here. A lot of people also feel that Taysen Mill should not be a tight end. Right. So for those who are, God, lucky that don't know about this,

basically a couple years ago, there was like a fantasy uproar because Tassum Hill had tight end eligibility. And in 2020, I don't remember the timeline here, blocked it out of my head. But basically, I think James got her true breeze. I don't remember. Taseville suddenly was the starting quarterback for the States. And you could just put a starting quarterback into your tight end spot.

And all the platforms, yeah. Go ahead. Well, I was just going to say additionally, you could even leave him in the tight end spot on a certain number of platforms if he was already there, even though he had lost his tight end eligibility. This was just this whole giant classified. Every platform essentially handled it completely differently. Some platforms let him stay a quarterback.

Some made him be a tight end. And then ESPN took like the ultimate cowards way out. No offense to anybody works at Eastman's spot, but it's true. Which was actually this is your fucking problem. And as D.K said, on ESPN leagues, if he was a quarterback, he could stay in your tight end slot if you never updated your roster. So the whole thing was insane. I mean, we have never gotten more emails for fantasy court about anything ever than Taysam Hill being a quarterback.

Now it's like Taysam Hill is a tight end again. Obviously, he had 34 fucking fantasy points today. But to this day, it's different. In Yahoo right now, Taysam Hill is a quarterback and tight end. And in ESPN, he is just a tight end. So with that said, who do you think is right? Is Taysam Hill, should he be a tight end or should he be a quarterback tight end? Or should he just not be a tight end at all?

I've really like honestly don't know. He's like his own little like position. He's just a flex. I saw this from PFF, Nathan Yonke. Tateaum Hill has run a grand total of 14 routes this season. Like typically you'd think a tight end would run routes. Like he doesn't run routes. He is, he's had 15 snaps total as a traditional tight end.

He's played 12 snaps at wide receiver. He's played 24 snaps at quarterback. And then six snaps as a running back essentially. he's more like a fullback. Like I don't even know how to designate him. I was going to say, is he a running back? Yeah, he's kind of a running back. Put him at running back.

I think that's closer because, again, you can say he lined up at quarterback, quote unquote, but you could say it about Sequin, too. He didn't throw a pass until today. And so it's kind of like... He's caught one pass this year. It gets into Aristotle. It's like, what are you? It's like, you are what you repeatedly do.

It's like, and ironically, the saints are one of the teams that define tight end because Jimmy Graham wanted to get out of being a tight end for the franchise tag like 15 years ago. or I guess it was 10. But I think this is all hard because when you start being like, how do you define a guy? But I think the idea that he's not a tight end, he's a quarterback is like false. Like back a couple of years ago when this was a huge issue,

it's because he was starting at quarterback and playing quarterback for them like unambiguously. So yeah, no, that guy should have been a tight end. But like, yeah, he should be a tight end now. I kind of like, there's no better answer. Are we going to just tell the saints actually that guy he's everywhere as a running back? like we can't just tell them I think that he should just be a tight end I mean he's listed as a tight end right

I'm actually looking at their roster unless he's listed as a tight end quarterback again like if Andy Dalton got hurt I do think that the tight end eligibility should be stripped otherwise I love that we're still doing this like I can't believe we've been doing this for years

taste of Hill we're still doing the taste of Hill thing oh man I thought it was over he should just be a flex that they should just call him a flex that should be his in the NFL. Flex.

Speaking of the Saints game, though, to be like a harsh pivot to an actual serious conversation from, I think Taysa Mill is probably the least serious conversation we could possibly have on the show. But more seriously, the Saints game,

Chris Olave had a moment in the end zone. It was one of the scarier injuries of seen watching football. Chris Olavi just kind of went unconscious. Mid hit, his head was slamming. It kind of looked like a UFC fighter going down from a knockout. And obviously, you know,

what happened with two, it took on a Varloa, and then Teddy Bridgewater, today was ruled out. Ironically, seems to have been, Teddy Bridgewater was the first player to be rolled out from the new rules

that happened as a result of Tua. And then, you know, Detroit had, you know, a defensive back taken away on an ambulance today, like a lengthy, lengthy pause. And I think at one point they had the guy's father, like, run out in the field. And it was whether he was going to jury the ambulance or not, which I don't, I don't ever remember

seeing anything like that. Pat Friarmuth had a very scary injury. He ended up leaving with a concussion. And this happens a lot in the NFL. It's like every year has a moment like this. We feel like we're in that more like that three, four year cycle every two or three or four years. There's just a big cluster of these injuries. And you kind of just have those moments of like, oh, my God, this is just brutal to watch.

And I feel like we're at the most intense moment of that in a couple seasons I can remember. Yeah, it's been very tough. Like, obviously, so the Tua rule or whatever is now, if you get, if the spotter says that you stumble around or like lose your balance or whatever, look like someone that has been concussed on the field, even if it's not, even if you're not concussed, like you can't come back into the game. And that's essentially, apparently, I don't know exactly what happened, but this is what the dolphins are telling us. A spotter, an independent spotter saw Teddy Bridgewater stumble and they ruled him out. Ultimately, this is good. Like,

this is good for the sport. It's got it. They have to continue to do things in the rules to protect the players because the teams aren't doing it. And obviously the rules aren't 100% going to protect these players, even though the rules have been designed to help that. But yeah, man, it's it's a brutal sport. It's just sometimes very hard to watch. And of course, you know, when you see these injuries, it just makes you sick. So it's, it's very tough. The Olavie one was really scary. He went completely limp. That was that was one of the scary ones I've seen in a while. Yeah, it's been, it's been, it's been difficult to watch. It really has. So it's too bad. But I, it, it,

I'm glad at least we've gotten to the place where the majority of people accept that it's, I don't want to say majority, but hopefully the majority of people accept that it's kind of viscerally not okay to re-enter the game if you're. You know what's bad when like the fans at home are the ones being like, this guy should not be playing. Like when all of us at home are like texting one another, like clearly this man is concussed, don't let him back in the game and the NFL and the teams are not agreeing with the people on the couch.

Yeah. Progress is slow. I mean, we're not that far removed from Julia. Edelman seemingly re-entering a Super Bowl, you know, after, you know what I mean? Yeah. Tom Brady, it's, you know. So slowly but surely, I guess. Okay.

Moving on here. London game. I know you guys are in the West Coast. High Fitz is Time to Shine right here, baby. Giants. And by time to shine, I mean, I actually was awake and watching this game. So I actually had the pleasure. My mom was in town this weekend.

And my mom is the reason I'm just hopelessly and sick, addicted to the, New York football giants. I have like a matriarchal football lineage. And I actually watched this with my mom and my brother. It was the first Giants game we watched together in years. And I think this was the best Giants win in like a decade. I'm not even exaggerated. Like the Giants, I'm giving this award, like the idea of like the Giants going to London

and beating Aaron Rogers. I kind of just keep thinking about the rest of the development bit of just, and her? Blant Aaron Rogers lost to her. him? Aaron Rodgers lost? Oh my God. I rewatched that scene the other day where Michael is like, or George Michael is explaining to Michael who like his girlfriend is and he's like, I've never met her. And she's like, yeah, you have. She's right here. And it like pans like five feet. He's like, you picked her up today in the car. And he's like, hmm. Okay. He's like, I have no memory of this person.

She funny? Yeah. I like it's so funny to me to think about how Aaron Rogers the whole theme of the season is man no Devante Adams how is Aaron Rogers supposed to do this with Alan Lazard and Christian Watson

and you know just these guys meanwhile Daniel Jones they are literally down their top five receivers Kenny Gallaudet Sterling Sheper Cadarys Tony Wondale Colin Johnson top five receivers three of their top four quarterbacks two of their starters

on the front four like including the highest paid player on the team Sequin goes out for a series. Daniel Jones did not make a mistake the entire game. I don't think I've ever seen that. This is not statistically his best game. Throw-wise not his best game. The Saints last year he had a much better game.

I don't care. This to me was like the best moment of his career. He was bleeding from his hand. I don't think I saw on Twitter, like he was bleeding with his hand. He left a blood stain on his center's ass like it was super bad. Yeah, I saw that. That was good.

But all the cliches that there are to throw around about football and quarterbacks and grit and everything. Everything was true. I could not believe. Like first they had the longest drive of the season in the NFL this year. Long by plays, by yards by time. They had an eight minute 15 play drive this year. I don't know.

I have. I love that. I know I'm just sounding like a beaming father, but I, this was stunning. Is this all gravy to you? Have your expectations now changed for the Giants this season? Like, where's your head at now? Unfortunately so. I came into this year.

Hope is a dangerous thing. It is such a drug. I remember two years ago when the NFC's was at rock bottom and being like, oh, my God, you know, if everyone keeps losing the Giants could win the division at like six and den. And like now I'm just like, the NFCs literally is the best division in football

by record, by a lot too. Like the NFCs is 14 and 6 and three of the six or two other NFCs teams. And the Cowboys look fantastic without DAC. The Giants just, everything about the Giants should be bad. None of this makes sense. And I have to say this is the first game.

Daniel Jones has one game of season where I wonder if I'm completely wrong and the Giants should make him their franchise quarterback. This was the one of the share. I just was watching it and was like, man, can we really let this guy go in free agency? And to be clear, they should. But I am now getting high off the fumes.

This was like an addicting, this is why I root for the Giants. This is why I love football game. You need to check that tattoo on your back that says don't trust Daniel Jones and look at that every morning, no matter how he plays. He did it coming off of an ankle injury too.

Like there was some question whether he's even going to play. He's reckless. He's lowering his shoulder, he's throwing shoulder into linebackers to get up first downs. And it's not even third down. He's not like a big guy.

He's not like a big human. He's just kind of tall and lanky. No, I, I'm like, I feel like a cat that's being slowly one over. Like, I don't want to love him at all. And yet he's winning me over and I'm very upset about it. Can I ask you a question? Please. Why did it take seven of the Giants top receivers getting hurt for Darius Slaten to get back on the field? Like, he's good, right? Like, I have no idea. I don't get this

whole Slaten thing. He must be the worst practice player at all time because like, every time he's on the field, he performs. Yeah. My brother were talking, my brother and I were talking about this for 25 minutes today. We had no answer. We literally spent like the better part of a quarter arguing about this. They were like talking about cutting him this off season. I'm like, dude, he's like you don't have any other good receivers. Just keep him on your team. The whole reason they were debating cutting him, ironically, because he played so well

on his rookie deal that he got a raise. And basically they were saying, well, the raise, they might as well cut him if he's not going to start because they have Gallaudy and Tony and Shepard. Then they kept him because those guys got hurt. And then they weren't playing him anywhere. We're like, well, if you're not going to play him when the top five guys go down, and then this game he played so well, I think he's going to have a roll. He had like David Sills playing in front of them and stuff.

None of it makes sense, but this was his game. He played his way in a contention. Okay, real question, though. The Packers also looked awful. Before we move to the Packers real quick, bottom line, are they frauds? Or are you, so like, should I start believing him? I know that you have a little bit of belief. But like, do you think, can you explain to me that they're a good team, like rationally?

Sell me this pen. You don't want this pen. I'll keep, no, you don't even want the pen, do you? No, just, just, you don't want it. No, I think that they're not good, which is why it's cool that they keep winning. Like, they're not a good team. I'm glad you said that. That's the most fun type of team to root for, I feel like.

Expectations are low. They're scrappy. Sounds like they've got good coaching. They're kind of buying in. People are jelling. Packers, though, should be thoroughly embarrassed. Like, the Green Bay Packers, I mean, they got outcoached. They got outplayed.

And again, like, the fact that your only hope is a Packers fan you're clinging to is, like, Well, we don't have Devonthe. And then the Giants come in and do that to you with fucking David Sills and, like, you know, Seikwan's hurt and like they have Gary Brightwell running. Like the Giants have so much less talent. And so I kind of kept thinking not just about Green Bay, but what? I mean, how terrible A.G. Dylan and Aaron Jones have been at running back and fantasy. I think they each, I mean, it's just not good. I mean, Aaron Jones and A. Jones has been good.

Dillon combined. Dylan. But Aaron Jones and A.J. Dylan combined, just scoring-wise, they have like a third of a Taysam Hill this season, you know? that's not good ironically I feel so similar watching the Packers and watching the Rams

like it's like their offensive lines have kind of collapsed they have no running and like well I guess the Packers have a much better running game than the Rams

but I just feel like the Packers receivers feel to me like the Rams running they just can't get anything when they need it you know what I mean and like you're looking like the Giants fundamentally

the whole is greater than this some of the parts. And then even with the Packers decrepit receipt, it's like, this offense is just less than the sum of it.

Like, and Aaron Rogers' offense should look like this. Yeah. It's, I don't know. I just, I can't get a good

on, on this Packers team. I can't tell if they're good or not, you know what I mean? Like, I know that they're three and two. Well,

they're not, they weren't good this week, that's for sure. No, the NFC as a whole, everybody is worse than they should be. I mean,

oh, I could go on. Okay. The Ringer Fantasy Football Show is presented by Fandall football season is here and there's no better place to get in on the action than Fandall. The app is safe, secure and easy to use. Fandle always has exclusive offers.

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All right. Speaking of the Packers, a bunch of other NFC teams are also just suck. Yeah, the vibes are bad. The vibes are insanely bad. And that's the name

of the award I'm giving to a couple more NFC teams. The Rams and the Cardinals, the vibes are bad with both of these teams. The Rams are a disaster. The Rams got handled today at home by Cooper Rush

and the Cowboys. The O-line, the lack of run game. The Rams are dead last in the NFL and rushing yards by like a wide margin. They're averaging 62 rushing yards to go to 10.

points. Ugh. And they're losing in different ways. Like they're getting torched through the air. They're getting torts on the ground. Like today, Cooper Rush had 10 completions and they lost. They threw for 100 yards today. Well, shout out to D.K.

Because D.K. said on our Friday show that it was the Rams versus this Cowboys pass rush. And obviously that was like the main matchup. Yeah. Yeah. And this game started, it couldn't have really started funnier from the perspective. Like, it literally started with the Cowboys just getting a, fumble six on Matt Stafford immediately. It ended with them picking off

Stafford and everything in between was he was constantly just running for his life. It was the worst version of Rams and Stafford kind of what was happening in the middle of last year when he kept throwing picks on primetime football and we were like, does this team suck? Was Stafford always bad?

And then the Rams went and won the Super Bowl. But for all the shit we gave about the Bengals for them being just hot for five games, Rams kind of had similar vibes if we're being honest. And these are the things where you watch where honestly, they've never recovered from not having Odell Beckham. Like, like, Odell got hurt. The Rams offense kind of

sucked for the rest of the Super Bowl. They look the same. They have nothing going on. Yeah, I mean, I keep coming back to the idea that receivers are, I mean, I don't know if people have the impression that receivers don't matter, but like people definitely give a lot of credit to quarterbacks. Quarterbacks are by far the most important player on the field, of course.

But man, receivers can really elevate an offense, and Cooper Cup is clearly awesome. He's one of the best receivers in the NFL. But like, they don't have a number two. like Tyler Higby has been their second best receiver this year. Ben's Geronik being out there doesn't mean he should be. Yeah, like 2-2-at-wells. They're trying to get 2-2-at-well to be a thing this year.

Like, obviously, Alan Robinson is just running a bunch of routes, not doing anything with them. And I think Matt Stafford doesn't really trust anyone except for Cooper Cup, which is a big problem. Because, you know, like, it just makes everything more difficult when the defense knows, like, the number one option in your offense is always going to be Cooper Cup. Like, we can design everything we do around stopping Cooper Cup.

Clearly, Cooper Cup is good enough to, like, overcome that. But as a team, they just haven't been good. And like, I keep going back to, you know, at the peak of the Rams offense, at the peak of these McVeigh offenses over the years, because he's been, he's had some really good offenses over the years, both with Goff and with Stafford. At all times at the peak, it's like, this is just too easy for them. Like, it always looks so easy for the Rams when they're really, like,

running like a well-oiled machine. that everything looks insanely hard right now for the Rams I feel like that is the perfect way to put it because even when they're throwing a cup sometimes they just you know toss them like a little quick screen and he gets like six yards but even just finding cup on third at eight he just has to do something that's never less than an eight and of ten degree of difficulty well yeah his touchdown he had a big long touchdown today or that was like one of his like the only big plays they made and he'd like double caught it and had to like run away from three defenders

It was like an incredible, incredible play. But like the odds of that play being completed are probably pretty low. He just was an incredible play. That's what I'm talking about, though. Everything is so hard. Like, it wasn't just a layup throw like we used to see. It wasn't just dudes running wide open like we used to see. You know what I mean?

So I don't know what's going on with them. I think a lot of it has to do with their offensive line, of course, and Stafford. And I got to say, Kim Acres, I'm ready to sell all my stuff. Oh, yeah. He looks terrible. Well, the offensive line is terrible. But he has no vision. He's running into the dude's butts.

he can't get anything going. He has no explosiveness. Daryl Henderson can't do anything. The running backs are so bad on the Rams. I think they have the worst running back committee in the league. Yeah. The other thing is, and this is, I don't know how much team self-scout.

I know teams self-scout. So, like, you know, I haven't been in a coaching room with them. But like, to me, it's so obvious. You're not game planning with McVeigh? Well, I'm not like, I'm not like Craig. I'm like best friends, Sean McVeigh. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, he told me he loved Cam Acres, so. He's been lied to. You've been in a room where he's coaching done. Yeah, that's true. You've set up audio equipment. Yeah. Anyway, I saw someone point this out, and I apologize, I don't have the tweet in front of me,

but someone pointed this out online, and it was basically every time Acres is in, or like 80% of the time Acres is in, it's going to be a run. And then if Henderson is in, it's going to be a pass. Henderson way out snapped Acres today, I believe, and didn't get a carry. Well, you know why? This is so obvious. This is so obvious. This is J.D. McKissick now.

Well, yeah, but it's like telegraphing to the defense, like what they're going to do. I'll never forget when they compared him to, uh, I think McVeigh compared Daryl Henderson to Camara, like every coach does. Anytime the coach gets a running back who's decent at receiving, they just call him the next Alvin Camara. Henderson, there was one play today. Henderson caught like a little swing pass or a screen and then just ran through the, he's not fast. He ran directly into the defender.

Like there was wide open space. He ran directly in. The announcer even said something. It was like, wow. The Rams running back. You can clean the windshield. Wipe the windshield off. Jesus.

What are you doing here? What's going on? Oh my God. I love it. Wait, can we stay in the NFC West? The Cardinals also. The Cardinals, I've decided, have like mid-2010s Chargers vibes. We're just something's going to go wrong.

It's just, it doesn't matter what. Something's going to go wrong in the fourth quarter. They have the worst vibes of any team. You could convince me any group of things. three people all hate each other. Like there's a hate triangle. Like instead of love, you can just pick everyone on the team.

Kyler clearly hates Cliff and vice versa. He should. The Cardinals are poorly coached. Shil Capadia has said this, are now ringer colleague. Cliff is a bad coach. There's so many different ways that he's a bad coach. But mostly,

they don't have an offense. They don't have no plan. I wish you got, you ever seen Sergeant Bilko? No one has seen. this but me. But it's great. It's Steve Martin is like an army sergeant ahead of its time. Steve Martin runs an army base and they don't do it.

They've gotten, they don't have to do any work and they just run a gamble. They just gamble. It's great. Anyway, you know what? What does that have to do? Nothing. I don't know why I'm trying to explain. You're circling, he's circling the airport. Are you going to bring it in or no? No, I'm actually going to give up. I'm like, don't fucking D.B. Coopering the shit. The point is they have no plan.

He's ejecting from the place. every game is exhausting with the car nose isn't it like i don't even have fun watching anymore of course they blew it cliff plans like that analogy i just had where i was trying to explain and that i give up halfway through that's kailer murray trying to do the play and he's like actually i'm just gonna scramble and get out of this thing people can make up like three yards it's tough the body language is really bad kiler doesn't look like he's having any fun when he's playing football i'm also convinced kiler doesn't like running he only runs in the fourth quarter now yeah you notice that that's when they have to win yeah they're down 14 and he's like ugh okay i

guess I have to run now. But he has like one rush for four yards every game until the fourth quarter. And then he racks up like 50 on the final drop. I would love to look at a breakdown of how many points, fantasy points and real points, the Cardinals have scored in each quarter because it feels like they never do anything until the fourth quarter. Well, it's because they don't score in the first quarter. They haven't scored in the first quarter all season.

Are you serious? Wow. Yeah. No, Arizona's not scored in the first quarter. Every game. It's because the only score when they're getting blood. No, Arizona's fucking horrible. And I would actually flip what Craig's saying.

It's not that Kyler doesn't want to run until the fourth. it's like Kyler has to pretend that Cliff has good ideas for the first three and then when they actually have to get shit done he just does stuff and makes Cliff not look terrible it's the other way around oh my God speaking of Kyler being good

I'm sorry Kyler being good but like the Cardo's being bad I this was the first week where I wondered if Gino Smith was just straight up a better fantasy option than Kyler for the rest of the season then Kyler I thought about it it crossed my mind he's better than a lot of guys though i will say like gino has looked incredible i think i saw this actually he has the highest dvio a rating

of any quarterback in the NFL right now like he's been incredibly efficient um he's the cuby three on the weekend so far hit three touchdowns no picks he's the qb6 on the season when it when does he turn back into a pumpkin i guess like is the question like or do we believe he did it against the saint's defense this to me was the test he had been crushed some bad defenses. The Saints have a good defense. This was the week where I was like, okay, let's see what happens. I kind of expected him.

No, he did fantastic. And he got a great stat line, but not even just the stats. He was in control. I mean, Dicay, you know the Cilocks better than me, but just walking. I mean, also, he's scrimmed into, like, his wrong side of his, you know, scrambling to his left. Oh, he made an incredible, yeah, he's made some incredible throws on the, on the run. He's, they've even used him on some designed runs this year. Yeah, he's been, he's been amazing.

Like, it's almost starting to give me hope that he could be, like, long-term starter for them, which is, I know that that sounds like crazy talk, but he's been playing so well. I just am very worried he's going to turn into a pumpkin like Jared Gough did this week. You know what I mean? Like, I mean, like, Jared Gough has not really been playing that well. He's just been throwing a lot of passes. But Gough is Gough. And playing the Patriots and Belichick was like, no, no, no, we're not doing any of this. I think I stopped myself there because Gough has not been actually good. Like, Gino has been actually good this year.

I asked the Kyler thing because him and Kylo and Kylo and Kylo have basically the exact same amount fan of any points this year. Kyle, there's one more point. That's interesting. Yeah. I don't know, man. So one of the big things that we tried to talk ourselves into over the offseason as Seahawk fans is that while Gino Smith is clearly not as talented as Russell Wilson and is not as good of a deep passer and all that stuff, like, obviously there's all this

stuff. He's a backup for like the last five, six years or whatever. There was this world which we could imagine and we probably, I know I felt like I was like just, you know, delusional during the offseason. But there was this world in which he actually runs the offense better because he's just able to work in the system. You know what I mean? Like he does what the coach wants him to do.

Pete Carroll even freaking said this after game. Like, he does what we tell him to do, you know, which is hilarious. Shade. You and Seahawks fans, though, were not delusional. We're living in the world where Gino Smith is a better fit for the Seahawks offense than Russell Wilson was. And we have to go a step further. Like, would you rather have, in fantasy football,

Would you rather have Gino Smith or Russell Wilson from today for the rest of the season? I'm serious. Gino, Russell Wilson looks broken. I think it's pretty easily, Gino. This is unreal. I know. I'm just crazy. Would you, like, it's easy.

Look, in some capacity, it's hard for us to sit here and say cut Russell Wilson before Gino because honestly, if Russ plays great, will look stupid. However, if your life depended on who had more fantasy points from here on out, has anything you've seen this year suggested you should pick Russell Wilson from Gino it's hard to even muster the argument Russ out of here maybe I'm even cheating because Russ has this

baseball pitcher injury that he's going to get an injection for and like even the reporters that are obviously getting information from like you know Russ's team and stuff and they're throwing in the injury not usually treated with an injection I'm like that's weird that's crazy

anyway I would pick I don't want my life in Russia Russell Wilson's hands right now. Yeah. I can't, this could not have played out any better. Can you believe we're here?

We're in week five. The Broncos are two and three, as are the Seahawks, but the Seahawks are playing the best offensive football they have in the last four years. Remember how the Seahawks got two firsts and two seconds to get a better, this is crazy. Well, we should say,

we should note there was a brief period there where Russell Wilson was cooking, and that was like the absolute peak of offensive. It was eight weeks, and then they started doing the two-high thing, and Russell's not adapted to two-high. It was two years ago. I just want to acknowledge that that happened. We're not trying to completely bury Russell Wilson's, like, play the last, like, whatever. But I will agree.

Like, the offense overall is running much more efficiently, I feel like, just play-to-play. Like, Russell Wilson was very much a boomer-bust quarterback for a lot of the time. Like, there was, you know, and I've, Seahawks fans, I'll get this. Like, there was games where this is the most disgusting. showing of offense I've ever seen. And then, like, with three minutes left in the game, Russell Wilson finally, like, does something amazing. And that was just like every week. It was like, God, this is miserable. And now it's the Broncos. And then we win. But like the Seahawks now, the offense is like from play to play, it's actually, you know, they're moving the sticks.

They're converting on third downs. You know, they're converting on first down and like actually setting themselves up to convert on third down rather than having third and 10 every goddamn play. I don't know. It's just like, it's so much more enjoyable to watch as just like, At that base level, like, I just like watching the Seahawks offense more than I have in, like, forever, other than that Let Russ Cook era, it's just more fun to watch. But in terms of fantasy for the rest of the season, would you rather have Gino Smith or Aaron Rogers, who has just had 16 points every week? Gino? Yeah, I think so, too. Would you rather have Gino Smith or would you rather have Matt Stafford for the rest of season?

I mean, easily, Gino. Stafford's been one of the worst quarterbacks in fantasy. Stafford is the QB 27. Yeah, he's been one of the worst. Eminently releasable. Kirk Cousins or Gino Smith That's where it starts to get close for me I think I'd probably still take cousins

But I don't know I mean that's what we're talking about now I'd take Kirk Gino or Jared Gough Gino Gino I think Gino's just better I think Gino's just better Gino or Tom Brady

Tom Brady Brady Let's not get way ahead of ourselves here Is it way ahead of my I'm just saying The Bucks had no wide receivers For those first three weeks And since they came back

Brady's been great. Yeah. I'm still afraid the wheels are going to fall off this thing. I'm still like stealing myself to that possibility or inevitability maybe or whatever, but I don't know, man. I even saw Stephen Ruiz because Stephen went out on a limb during the offseason and was like, you know, a Gino believer. There's a handful of Gino believers.

Greg Rosenthal, another one. And I think Stephen was like just laughing on Twitter today. Like, holy shit, maybe Gino actually is a top 10 quarterback. Like, this would be such an incredibly awesome. story if he actually did keep this up. Can we just take a moment and appreciate this podcast and where we are right now with Danny High Fitz is happy with Daniel Jones and Danny Kelly is happy with Gino Smith at the quarterback position.

Let's just appreciate this, take a second, and we might not ever be here again. Kenny Pickett's fighting the Buffalo Bills just for beating them by 30. I love that. It's great. We're all happy. Look at us. So you know what the key is? Craig's team just got absolutely taken mind of the woodshed today.

I hope we go two and 15 and we draft three offensive linemen. I think Kenny Pickett's not that bad. He showed grit today. I loved it. I like him fighting people. You know what? That was a dirty hit. You know what today is a proof of that the key to life is low expectations?

Seriously. It feels phenomenal. I gotta tell you. It feels phenomenal. All right. Next award here. Okay, next step, we got the your fucking out. I'm fucking in award.

Shouts, Kenny Powers. Raheim Mostert. I'm going to give you a nod on this when you called this a couple weeks ago and I was a little skeptical. Rahim Moster has taken over. as the leadback in Miami. In fact, Chase Edmonds, I think, got benched today. Like, he had one carry, I think, or one touch.

Because I believe he had a couple of drops, and then he didn't really see the field much in the second half. He's in the doghouse. And Rahim Moster does look pretty good. I mean, if he can say healthy, he's looking like a huge value, obviously, for where you got him because he was like a late round pick, past 100.

He's extremely fast. He's in an offense that schemes up ways to get him the ball in space and schemes up ways to get him openings and creases to run through. I don't know. I just like him. He's the kind of guy that like I always like he just looks good every time you see him, but he's just had injuries so many times

during his career that he never really like a sports car. A lot of maintenance involved, but damn, well that thing's humming. Nothing like it. Dude, he looks like a figure, when he's running, he looks like a figure skater or like a speed skater, you know what I mean? Like, just like he just glides through the defense so fast.

It's crazy. Apollo. Totally. I was just about to say that. Exactly. What a disaster The Chase Edmonds experiment has been,

huh? One carry today. I will say Reheme Moster was the by-low and if you didn't do it, wait a week for the Chase Edmins person to be apoplectic. Just trade for Chase Edmonds right as someone's about to cut him

and then Raheim's about to cut him. 100%. And then you'll have Chase Edm's Sell high on Rahim for right now. Don't say you don't have to sell high. It's more just like as soon as someone wants to just cut Chase Edmonds just take Chase Edmonds from them for nothing

for whoever you're going to cut. All right, next award. This is the, we're not mad, we're just disappointed. And it's going to go to Jamar Chase, who has been just considerably underwhelming for most of the games this season.

Burrow and Chase is supposed to be like the next great QB wide receiver combo in fantasy football and in real football. And they just kind of haven't been. Right now, Jared Goff and Josh Reynolds have more points than Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase. Oh, God. That is... Oh, God. That's tough.

The Bengals and the Rams are just having unbelievable Super Bowl hangovers, much like myself. right now. You know what's weird about, well done, you know what's weird about it. This is kind of what's so hard about figuring what, you know, predicting the future, that whole thing is obviously, you know, the Bengals are flying high and, you know, the whole too high, you know, put a roof on the defense thing and, you know, forcing the checkdowns, ruining golf. What's weird is that Joe Burrow, as much as any quarterback articulated before the season, yeah, they're going to do that to us. So, you know, we're just going to do all these things to

get around it. And they fucking can't. They haven't done anything that they said they're going to do. They try to fix their offensive line. They can't run the ball. Like, Joe Mixon, I think, is the last among qualified carriers in yards per carry. I could be wrong on that. But the Bengals as a team are bottom three. The only team's worse than yards per carry entering this week were the Bucks, who famously have a collapse the interior of their offensive line. And I think the charges who also have heard offensive line.

The Bengals' offensive line's supposed to be fixed. Like, there's no chemistry. They can't get you more chase. these, they have to force these screens to them, but they don't, they don't have an offense. Like, they're not consistently getting yardage, which I know sounds weird, but in the absence of these big plays, they have ostensibly had eight months to figure out how to get the dink and dunk, and they can't dink and dunk at all. They look so awkward trying to do it. Yeah, that I'm like, it's weird that they knew that they were publicly talking about

needing to do this. not that long ago and it looks like they haven't worked on it at all. Yeah, it's tough to have faith that Zach Taylor is going to come up with something super, you know, creative to fix it too or whatever. This game was tough especially too

because T. Higgins started the game and then left, I think, after the first quarter and just like never came in with an ankle injury. So that also hurts things because, you know, they're tilting, defenses are tilting, you know, their coverage in Chase's direction, basically the whole game. And then if they don't have

a good second option. Like it's very tough to like scheme around that. So yeah, it's tough right now. Yeah, I think that Zach Taylor is widely viewed as not a good coach. But then he like almost won a Super Bowl. That shovel pass at the goal line that didn't work out.

Yeah. Yeah, that wasn't great. I think look, sometimes with play execution, it's like if it works, people think it's good. And if it doesn't work, people think it's bad.

That was one of the weirdest sequences of play calling. I can ever remember it, the goal line. It just felt like a little brother trying to emulate their older brother. And because like Andy Reid has perfected that play. And now all these other teams kind of try it. And a lot of them can't execute it as well. And Ben Solic had a great tweet about it today.

He's like, maybe we just let Andy Reid do that play and nobody else. Especially when they come back on the next drive. I'm like, oh, you have the perfect play, which by the way is, they're going to have to address this at some point. Everyone's going to steal what the Bengals did tonight where they motion a tight end behind the quarterback under center, take the snap, and then the tight end. just shoves the quarterback through the line. Everyone's going to take that because that is not actually allowed.

That is not legal in the rulebook. You're not technically allowed to shove offensive players in your own team forward. And the NFL, the refs just basically decided to stop calling it like 10 years ago. And then slowly but surely like more offensive linemen have been shoving their teammates forward. And I'm sure everyone's noticed a guy just grabbing their running back

and throwing him over the goal line. But now that team, the Bengals, broke the seal of actively play design a tight end to shove. Like, everyone's going to take that. And I actually think that in the next, like, two months, you're going to see a shitload of that. But it's funny to think that Zach Diller had that in his bag.

And they started with the Stanley Morgan tight end pitch thing first. I don't know what the fuck he was thinking. You had that in your back. I was trying to remember who this was. I'm just looking at a next gen stats tweet right now. Joe Burrow averaged the fewest air yards per attempt in a game in his career. Four air yards per attempt. But it's weird that how does the offense look so bad?

They knew this was happening. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, well, the protection is not great. Scheming doesn't seem that creative. I don't know. Yeah, Zach Tillers, but I don't know. Anyway, speaking of coaches, D.K., do you want to rant about Arthur Smith again?

Arthur Smith? Dude, I like try not to get too emotional about, like, coaching decisions, but I kind of hate Arthur Smith at this point. The Atlanta Falcons vampire. I think he hates us, even more importantly. Like, he legitimately hates. fantasy football. He hates the media. Like, have you guys, have you guys seen this guy in Pressers? He's like antagonistic. He hates. Like, he literally hates anyone that asks him a question.

He's like, I don't have fucking time for you. I'm too smart for this. This is bullshit. They make me talk to you, idiots. Like, this is the attitude he seems to have. Dang, I kind of like this guy. Now, I'm coming around. I was going to say, no, I'm serious. I think that this is, we've kind of jumped the shark on this. like Arthur Smith is an excellent coach they almost beat the fucking Tampa Bay Buccaneers today They should have because if it wasn't for that bullshit call They had this insane call Roughing the passer on

Like honestly Probably the most incorrect call I've actually ever seen Like if like for all the outrage It's the Falcons so no one will care But that's the most incorrect call I've actually ever seen in a football field and if they get that, maybe the Falcons beat the bucks and they would be winning the division right now

and we're like, but why can't they get the ball to who we want? I'm like, I don't know. Well, they didn't win the game. They didn't win. But they, well, maybe they would have won if they got the ball of their best fucking players. Drake London ran a route on, he ran a route on 64% of the team's dropbacks.

Why? Why? Why would you do that? Why? after like what is what how does that make sense they had to get alameda zikaas more routes than drake london i i agree with you in theory but in reality is this kind of like how much of this is a bit versus do you actually think he's bad because i kind of think he's doing an incredible job for the falcons uh i think so like there's gray areas of course obviously with everything i think he has and look all the tape heads will tell you like their offense is really creative and so all acknowledge that. But I think he

gets in his own way. Like, I think he outsmarts himself by not getting his best players involved. Like, honestly, I think that's not, I don't think this is like him, you know, playing chess when we're all playing checkers. Like, get the ball to your best, most talented players. It's not that hard to do that. I feel you. I just, you Falcons have

$70 million in dead money. Like, this is a team that was supposed to get the number one pick in the draft. And I don't know. I'm just I can't believe you guys aren't on board with this. Like, he's actively trolling us. Honestly, if I were a billionaire. I hate Arthur Smith. I hate this guy.

What? How many billionaires love the media? Let's start there. Donald Trump? I don't know. Is he a billion? He's probably not a billionaire. I was going to say. You got a fat check out. Okay, rich guys. All right. Whatever. I hate this guy. All right. Moving on to something more positive. I want to run through your fucking face war. Damien Pierce.

Yeah, baby. And this is a shout out to Marshawn Lynch, who famously quoted. And I'm not even going to say it. Craig, can you just play this? Because he says over and over about 17 times. Yes. If you just run through somebody's face, a lot of people ain't going to be able to take that over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

They're just not going to want that. I think there's a deeper metaphor there. Run through a motherfucker face. Then you don't have to worry about him no more. There you go. This is the new Marshawn Lynch, as far as I'm concerned. Damien Pierce runs so hard. There was one run later in the game, I think, in the second half,

where he literally broke about four or five tackles right in a row and got tackled right at the one. He has now three games in a row with 100 plus scrimmage yards. They're basically leaning on him as they're, you know, he's like their identity guy. Like he's the guy that like the defense is going to feed off this guy. He's just running physical. They've they've given him the ball.

29 touches in the game. I think was tied for second most among running backs this week. 20.3 half ppr points. He seems to me like he's actually legit long-term fantasy like option now. And he's getting involved in the past game. He had five targets in the passing game. So like everything is going well for Damien Pierce right now. I just really like this guy.

I saw this incredible stat that the, the Texans are last in yards before contact and they're first in yards after contact. That's creating, baby. He's creating. Literally Damian Pierce, who by the way, today I think had the best run of the season so far.

You know what I'm talking about? He got it to like the two-yard line. It was like a 30-yard scamper. That was the one I mentioned. Yeah. Yeah. He had like three guys on his back. It was remarkable.

And I think we were always nervous about the Texans, right? Like the fear with Damien Pierce was that the Texans are going to be losing every game and he's going to be in such negative game script that he's not going to get the ball. That hasn't really been the case. And even when they have been down, they still kind of commit to the run. So Damien Pierce is, I think, a long-term option, like you said, D.K. I love it. My favorite run is when a running back gets tackled a little too high and they just like do like a shoulder shrug and basically just throw the guys off of them. You know what I mean?

Yeah. That's Damien Pierce's move right there. Just like, get off me. that's what you do to Calvin in the pool. Just chuck them. Saying anyone's the next Marshall Lynch for the Seahawks fan is alone. Pretty high praise.

Well, you know, he plays like Marshawn. I'm not saying he's Marshawn. I'm going to make up a new award here, and it's real quick, but I'm giving this the best fact of the season so far. This is from Michael Lopez, who is one of the official statisticians of the NFL, and they use next-gen,

Next-gen stats ball tracking. So Sunday football, Justin Tucker kicked the game winning field go, right? And you notice how they noted that it was in the middle hash, which is unusual. So I'm going to read this from Michael Lopez. Justin Tucker's game-winning field goal crossed the up rate with a Y coordinate, which is the width of the field, at basically 26.5. I don't even give units. I guess yards feed.

I don't know. And he says the exact middle of the field is 26.67, which means if the uprates, if the uprights, like the goalposts, were half a yard wide, Justin Tucker would have made the field. A half yard wide. Dude, Justin Tucker is absurd. He might be the best player in the league.

He's the best kicker of all. He is the Tiger Woods of kicking. He's the Roger Federer of kicking. He's the Tom Brady of kicking, maybe? Yeah, well, yeah, sure. anyway, I had to throw that out there. All right, Craig. Yeah, I wanted to come back and update everybody

on my Navy versus the Chicago Bears journey. So the Bears took the victory this week. Navy was two for seven for 35 yards. They won by 30. The midshipman, go. The Bears lost. However, as I predicted, they threw more than they have, almost more than they had this season.

15 for 21, 208 yards, touchdown. And on the year, the running tally, the bears have only 130 more yards than Navy. We'll check back in next week. I love this. If you're playing on the Bears, does that mean you have to serve like three years in the military, too, after you're done? No. Yeah, it's contract. Okay.

It's not the same thing. I think if it was the Bears, guys, we just skip the NFL and just go right into the service. Just get it over. Yeah. all right uh correct read some stat lines that we don't understand and will not respond to diamy brown had more points than

Terry McLaren and Curtis Samuel combined today there's just nothing that's going to get Terry McLaren points there's nothing we can do you said it first you said it so perfectly Craig last week you're like every time he catches ball it feels like a fucking miracle there's no way this is repeatable

God's hand has come down It's like some 30-yard chuck that like the defender missed it went right through his hands and it like hit McLaurin in the chest and he like bobbled it to the ground. But we do the draft guide next year. We need a little badge for the players where it's just like we need little HALA or like the Drake logo with the prayer and just like this like we need every time they catch it it, it feels like a fucking miracle for Terry McLaurin and DJ Moore. We need that as a badge. wide receivers should get double the fantasy points if they catch passes from Carson Wentz. It's different.

Not all yards are created the same. PPCW? So this is a new next-gen stat right here. A 25-yard catch from Carson Wentz is a fucking miracle. Anyway, next stat line here we don't understand. I won't respond to. Kevin Coleman, who was on the 49ers, I guess, was the eighth best running back in fantasy football today?

Did you know he was on the 49ers? When I saw that, I was like, oh, Jeff Wilson. Kevin Coleman? What year is it? He's followed Kyle Shanna in a round? Oh my God. The next step here, how do you say his name D.K.

Is it Shy Smith? Yes. I assume. It's not she. Also, for those if you're out there, it's Diami. No, it is Shy Smith, isn't it? It's Shy Smith, I believe.

Yeah, it is. Diami, what did I say? Diami, which is how it works. It's fine. Diami. Shy Smith was the leading wide receiver for the Panthers today. And lastly, somebody named Jake Gervais

had as many receiving yards as Alan Robinson. That's not true. That's not a real person. It's fact. Jake Gervais's son. Yeah. I legitimately, I've never heard of this person. Jake Jervase.

Yep. Did you make that up? No, look him up. Jake. I wouldn't put past Craig. Jake Jerva. I did. I just checked the box score. It's real.

Oh my God. It says Los Angeles safety. Jake Chervase recovers Fumble from Dallas Cowboys Wide Receiver. Oh my God. He plays safety. He's a linebacker. Oh, he's not inside out of that.

He's a linebacker. Oh, he's... Wow. All right. This man is a linebacker. Receiving yards with the yards interception

with the fumble recovery. Oh, my God. Dude. This is like too perfect. On that note, I think it's burn book. I mean, people who's burned us every week. How are we not burned Alan Robinson already?

I think it's Alan Robbins. If anything, this is like overdue, it feels like not enough. Week one, we burn Camakers instead of A-Rob. Week two, we burned Cole Comette and Darnell Moody and all the Navy people. Week three was Baker, Mayfield. Week four is Cowan-Raw-Pitts. This feels correct. This feels like the right.

Those are the five people, like the five situations that deserve to have. been in our burn book this far. Can we make like a new rule for the podcast if someone that we were excited about or hyping up on the podcast gets outscored consistently by someone we've literally never heard of that they go on the burn book? Parker Hessey? Who the fuck is that? Parker Hesse. Well, I learned who Parker Hesse is by checking the back of Jack Jervase. Honestly, Jake Jervase reminds me of when the page he's drafted Cole Strange and we were just looking up the Chattanooga schedule. Nuga.

How are the Nugues doing this year? We haven't got a Nuga update lately. Oh, my God. Yeah, what's Chattanooga up to? Oh, Nug's playing good this year. Nugues 4 and 1. Like the Giants! I've always said Chattanooga was the Giants of Appalachian.

Oh, my God. Jake Jervase. Hell yeah, 2 and O in the conference Which conference? Who the hell knows? They took down Wofford in week one. Oh my God, I'm delirious right now. Jake Jervais.

Austin, Pete, these are the teams. This is the low point of my career. Jake Jervase has as many receiving yards as Alan Robinson. I love that Chattanooga Ombi plays the 15 seats in March Madison. They're playing Virginia Military. institute next week. FMI? Yeah.

Hasn't Cole Strange been pretty good this year, too? I feel like we made fun of him a lot, you know, that we made fun of that pick a lot, and of course he's been pretty good. That's all we got. We're delirious. We're taking Indigenous People's Day off. We'll have our waiver show for you on Tuesday. Spoiler, just, you know, spend all your budget on Taste some Hill, right?

Is that we're all good to go to? We'll get it to you early in the day. So, yeah. Don't actually do that, but get taste of hell. Okay. Thank you, D. it, thank you, Craig. Thank you, everybody for listening. Thank you, Jake Jervase. Right? Yeah. Thank you, Chattanooga. Thank you, Lauren.

Lauren. Thank you, Nick Jonas. Oh, my goodness. Nice. Why? Nick Jones. Okay. What was, where did that come from? I'm not going to shame you. He's a famous artist. He is. I'm not shaming him. I'm just like, I feel like it's always like, shaming a little bit. No, it just felt like lately it's just been, I kind of just imagined what did you get in listening to the previous day or two and that threw me for loop. Okay, can you do me a favor and listen to a Nick Jonas song tonight and give me your honest review of it? Sure. Like any of them?

Whatever his most popular song, it's probably jealous. Is he the oldest one? No. I've heard the song. That's Kevin Jonas. Is it close with the Swedish singer? I can't remember. Yeah, it is.

Close. Is he the one married to Sophie Turner? No, that's Joe Jonas. Tovlo. I don't know which of the Jonases are married to which of the women. I know who they are. Joe Jonas is with Sophie Turner. Okay.

I don't know who Nick Jonas is with. I mean, sorry, I don't know who Kevin Jonas is with. He's the oldest one. And then Nick is with Priyanka Chopra. Yes. Were you guys in the Jonas Brothers, like, generation? Is that, like, big when you guys were growing up? Yes, but I was not participating in it, but it was happening around it.

I don't think partake. I did not partake of Jonas Brothers. Okay. Yeah. Danielle Jonas. is Kevin Jonas's wife. There's also a fourth Jonas, I believe. What?

The Cooper Manning of the Jonas' brother? I was going to say the same thing. Excuse me? The fourth Jonas brother? No way. Is this name Cooper? Oh, what a what? Frankie Nathaniel.

Oh, man, he looks like a Rob Kardashian. Yeah, Frank Jonas. It's also, there's a third Franco. Did you know that? No. Yeah, baby. What is he doing? This is stunning.

Yeah, baby. It's like if people listening were like, you know there's a fourth member of this podcast? Yeah, look up. Look up the third Franco. He looks like an actor hired to play James Franco. Tom Franco? Tom Franco? This is not real.

You know who has a million sons that you didn't realize is that Stirl and Scarsgard? Yeah. He has like five or, it's five to ten sons. Five to ten? That's a pretty wide range. Tom Franco. Tom Franco looks like I don't know what it is

it's like four or five and they're all in movies he's got eight kids how many of them are sons five to ten um is he the guy in the Mamma Mia too

yes that's what you got I don't know yeah I don't know oh who you're talking about Franco or are you talking about Stellan Scarsgaard no not Tom Franco no I'm telling Staling Scarsgard Tom Franco looks like

I was going to say like Stellan Scarsgard is way more famous for like 12 other movies I would say. Yeah, but that's what I know him from first. Dune, Goodwill Hunting. I mean, I could go down the list. Yeah, yeah, Goodwill Hunting.

I forgot to. But I didn't know who he was at that point. One of the girl who kicked the hornets nest or the girl, what was that movie called? One of those movies he's into. The girl who played with fire. And he has got hundreds of sons and they're all in movies. Every movie you watch, there's like, God, there's another scar, scar, scar. brother. They just show up

in every movie. They're multiplying. How many fucking Scars Guard brothers are there? The Swedes are really taken over. The other, speaking of brothers in movies that you didn't realize were that they had big families, is there's another Hemsworth that plays

Thor in a play in the new Thor movie. He's like the older brother. He's in Westworld. He's in Westworld. I didn't know that he was like in a bunch of stuff, but yeah. There's a million Hemsworth brothers. Matt Damon plays like the low-key character right in the play. And then the third Hemsworth plays Thor.

I was like, that guy looks a lot like Chris Hemsworth. It's weird. It's like Kirkland, Chris Hemsworth up there. Kirkland signature. It's an incredible scene. Okay. Let's get out of here. Goodbye.

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