The Ringer NFL Show - Week 7 Matchups: Dolphins-Eagles, Why NFL Offenses Stink, and the Chiefs Are Boring

Episode Date: October 20, 2023

Dolphins-Eagles is the perfect example of speed vs. power, system QBs running the league, how Lamar Jackson is the Daniel Radcliffe of the NFL, why the Detroit Lions being awesome is good for the league, the You Don’t Wanna Be Out Here Award, and much more (2:43). “You guys want to do some emails?” (66:52) Check out our Week 7 Fantasy Football Rankings for positional rankings, waiver wire pickups, and much more! Fanduel.com/ringerffs is live! Email us! [e-mail] The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Social: Kiera Givens and Jack Sanders Producer: Kai Grady Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What would you do if you got scammed? Would you suffer in silence, or would you do something about it? Well, I got scammed once, and this is the story of what I did. I'm Justin Sales, the host of the Wedding Scammer, a true crime podcast from The Ringer. And for seven episodes, we're hunting a comment. A guy with a lot of aliases, a guy who's ruined a lot of weddings. And with the help of some friends, I just might be able to catch him. Listen to The Wedding Scammer on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Football show, my name is Danny Hifitz. I am joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Coralbeck. And baby, we're going to preview week seven of the NFL season. You say baby? I did say baby. It was weird. Mickey sauce both shaking our fists, Arsenio style. Wow.

I don't know. This is what happens when he goes off script. He starts saying baby. All right. If you're wondering who to start, who's sitting your lineups, we have a week. She just starts at rankings. Fantasyfutball. Dot the ringer.com.

Baby. What a good host. Boom. Fantasyfootball.3.com rankings by position by everything. You also can join our contest at fandal.com slash ringer FFS. I did that.

There's two Fs. That's a good opportunity to get the right link, which is Fandall.com slash ringer FFS. You know what? You can also just go to the link in the description of the podcast. It's click it. It'll take you there.

And Hiveitz thinks that people like hearing URLs, which I want to do a poll. We're going to go to a poll. And we're going to say, would you rather be told to go to the link in the description of the podcast and click a link? Or would you rather have to remember the link and type it in? Have you ever typed out an actual Earl to anything? I just feel like I Google everything. Call it an Earl?

No one says Earl. Tiny Earl. You said Earl? Jesus Christ. Okay, sorry, Hyfitz. It's an I-N-T and it's a URL. You're calling them instant earls. Sorry for saying a word.

We're off to a great story. It's not EPA, it's EPA. Epa. Yeah, what's the Epa? Sheesh. All right, well, you can follow. D.K.'s Danny B. Kelly everywhere. Craig is Craig Horlebeck on Twitter.

I'm Danny underscore hyphids on Twitter. Dana, if it's on Instagram, okay. You know what, D.K. must like X now that Twitter's X because you can just say X and can just spell out the acronym and everything. I was thinking about this the other day. I'm never going to call it X. I refuse. Absolutely refuse.

It's like Heinz Field. I'm never, I'm never accurate. All right. Get to Week 7. Game of the year, part three. We should just keep track if I make game of the year. What was the first one? This is a generation.

This is a game this week. I don't remember. That's the point. This is the game of the moment. But we have the Miami. This is a great game. Miami Dolphins are at the Philadelphia Eagles and Sunday football. Eagles are giving two points.

They're both five and one. I feel like styles make fights and that Miami versus Philly, this is like true like speed versus power. Like both these teams can run, which I think is cool. Like now the two of the best teams, Lee, like, truly can run. But the Eagles are, like, the best power-based running game of my lifetime. And I know everyone knows the touch-push, but it's worth saying, like, since the beginning

of last season, the Eagles are hitting third and fourth and one at 91% clip on their quarterback sneaks, 91% which Craig is what Steph Curry shoots from free throws. Like, the Eagles have turned third and fourth and one with this push-push-push into free throws like Steph Curry. Do you guys have any theories of why no one else can do it? What's going on there? Why are the Eagles the only team that know how to do it? this might be stupid, but like, isn't it just because they have a really good offensive line and Jalen Hertz is really big and athletic?

I guess so. I actually think other teams are doing it well and is number one. It's kind of a myth. It's like other teams are doing it all right. I thought the numbers show that the Eagles are by far the best team at doing it. People are making too big of a deal of the handful of failures is number one. But also, I think it's just technique based. It's not just like a copycat.

This will work. I think it's a technique heavy. You like have to dive, like the O-Lignment dive and then. you kind of like crawl. Also it's a commitment thing. Yeah, it's weird. I think a couple other teams tried it and like the Giants tried it. Two players got hurt and they're like, we're done with that.

Just go back to sneaking or just running the ball. But the Eagles are like this incredible power based team and they use all four downs, right? Because they can get a first whenever they want. The dolphins have the best speed running game of my lifetime. Like the average carry by dolphins running back is gaining more yards than the average past Patrick Mahomes pass, which I kind of think tells you everything you need to know. stat of the season so far. That is wild. Every run is more than a Patrick Mahomes pass on average?

Yes. Over seven yards for just running back carries. Like we're not even counting when Tyree Kill gets the ball or whatever, so it's actually crazy. I think it's cool that like the best teams in the league are really good at running. I mean, the best three teams in the league right now, really are the three best rushing teams in the league. The Dolphins, the Eagles, and the Niners are the top three teams in rushing yards per game. And those are probably the best three teams in football.

And I don't know if this is like a cyclical thing like fashion where like big loose fitting pants are back now and low-rise jeans are in again. But, you know, if you go back three years, 2020, Chiefs, Bucks and Bills are the three best teams in the league. They weren't running the ball. None of them were even in the top 15 in rushing yards per game. The Chiefs and the Bucks were in the Super Bowl. None of them were in the top 15. The Rams Bengals Super Bowl, neither of those teams are in the top 22 in rushing yards per game. And now the three best teams in the league are the three best running teams in the league. I think with the dolphins is actually extra interesting because when I pictured the evolution of the NFL, based on the way that defenses were sort of evolving, players were getting smaller on defense, you're playing more like defensive backs rather than, you know, quote unquote, base personnel on defense.

And so we had been theorizing for a couple of years that the next evolution or the next cycle is going to be like big, big offensive linemen, big teams, big running backs. And they're going to just run it down your throat, which we're seeing with Philadelphia in some ways. But Miami is not big, and they're like space runners. You know what I mean? Like obviously, I think they're doing a great job of blocking, but really their speed and misdirection and just, well, I guess misdirection and just confusing the defense is the same thing. But like basically the defense ever really knows where the ball is.

And it's crazy. And so they're not exactly what I pictured when I, when I pictured or I guess when people were talking about the next evolution of the NFL is running is going to come back because they're purely speed-based. Yeah, and part of the reason, you know, that stat is true about running back. when they get the ball. Sometimes Devon H.N.

H.N. was getting the ball while he was lined up as a tight end or a receiver technically. And there's plays where we were talking about Tyree Kill being lined up as a tight end. And we were joking at the end of last episode, what should Tyree Kill's position be? And we're talking about like he's like an end,

like Cloyce box. He's close. Did you see there's pictures? Someone tweeted, I can't remember. Maybe it was Nate Tice. Just a picture of Tyree Kill lined up at the tight end spot with like crouched down. So he's like, you know,

straight up like four foot five inches tall off the ground. like it's just the weirdest look like period he's hiding well j c someone named j c shadow i don't think it's jesus but someone named j c emailed us in oh okay and they said that it's tyrie kill lined up a tight end we shouldn't call it that tyrant it's a loose end oh that's good we don't know where this is going loose cannon oh that's fun it's good yeah that's great i like that dk remember how the dolphins ran a play out of the wingtie formation the other day i i just love that like the dolphins are like a magic act Like you literally, it's like trying to watch a hockey puck in a game. And you're like, where's the puck?

Like, two like caught the ball, like did a pirouette. Like flipped it to Tyreek and the other two running backs are running left. Two wide receivers were running right. Like it's hard for people at home to follow where the ball is, let alone if you're a goddamn defender. It's just Jean Parmesan from Arrested Development. Cheen! Gene!

Someone pointed out to me that Gene Parmesan is only in one episode of Arrested Development. Is that true? That's crazy. What? No way. He's like in a million. Fact check that. Gene Parmesan is in multiple episodes of Kirk.

You should look into that. Maybe I completely made that up. I don't know. You should look at it. But you know what I mean? Like, the dolphins are like the closest thing to the football version of the Harlem Globetrotters. Like they're like borderline just like fucking with you and playing tricks on you. Totally.

I just like want them to use the music during the game. They're not tricks. They're illusions. Illusions, Michael. But yes, it is like I don't, I truly actually don't. I wouldn't know how to like define the wing. T, but like basically they're doing this thing where, like you said, they've got running backs, basically lining up on the wing and everything is like back and forth across the formation

at the snap. Tua takes a snap and literally like turns around and does a little spin. You don't know where the ball is. You know who's handing off to. They're also doing the thing where they pitch the ball forward, these little like shovel passes, which I think is really fun wrinkle to everything that they're doing. It's just this is much watch, must watch football every single. Yeah, I have this, this is the best son in a football game of the year.

Like this, I don't think I've had as much fun watching an offense since Patrick Moham's first started playing for the Chiefs. Like, there's a sense of wonder of like what's happening on each given play. It just things feel possible. It's like, I don't know. It's almost reduced me to like a childlike state of watching football. Like something about, just the world feels a little bit bigger. Don't you guys think that if you have Jalen Waddle on your fantasy team?

It's like you're like. Your Squidward in the meme watching everyone else have fun outside. Yeah, you're like the third Hemsworth brother or the fourth Jonas where you're like, yeah, no, this is cool. But, like, in reality, it's really just Tyreek and Rahim Moster and A Chan. And then, like, Jill and Wattle gets a couple catches. Like, you're one of the Scars Guard brothers. You're the least popular Scars Guard.

You're, like, eking out 10 fantasy points every week. And it's really not that fun, but you're watching a really cool team. I don't know. It's a weird feeling. Yeah. By the way, Jack did a fact check. Gene Parmesan was in six episodes. I don't know what the fuck I was talking about.

Dick, you've been saying that for, like, I'm not going to lie two years every, like six months. Has he? Has he? I haven't ever said that before in my life. But that's fine. You have. You have. Absolutely.

I don't remember it for what it's worth. As the impartial third party here. The Gene Parvary? Fact. Yeah, you told me that before. No, I saw it on Twitter like a couple of days ago. Don't gaslight him. Don't even get me started.

On what? Gaslighting? The term, the practice of gaslighting. I don't want you to gaslight me. So yes. We can get into like larger NFL trends in a second. But sticking with this game, the running games are crazy. But also, I think the quarterbacks won.

I think it's, almost been underplayed this week. People won't feel that way probably about the time they watch all the NBC coverage. But Jaylen Hertz and two went to Bama together. And they have like a pretty good relationship. And I feel like it's worth, it's pretty like movie TV show,

like how this all went. Like just to recap, Jalen Hurts is the first true freshman quarterback to ever start for Nick Sabin at Alabama. And he's raw as hell, but he can run. And freshman year he loses the national championship game to Deshawn Watson and Clemson.

And then comes back, sophomore year, Alabama, plays Georgia, in the national championship game. And Jalen Hertz is benched at halftime for Tua. And Tua comes in. It has like this legendary half, legendary game when he throw everything. And Bama wins the national championship, but Tua is bent. Or sorry, Jalen Hertz benched.

And everyone thinks Jailen Hertz is going to transfer. And he doesn't. He stays. And that alone was stunning. Like the idea that Jailen Hertz would stay and be like, no, I'm part of the team. And like, I'm not going to go. And it was like a very just atypical decision of this era. and then the SEC championship game against Georgia,

Bama's undefeated, two, it gets hurt. So almost a year to the day later, Jalen Hertz, they're playing the same team, Georgia. They're on the same field. Now Jalen Hertz has to come at a half time, and he leads a game-winning comeback against Georgia, and then they win the game. And so that happens, and then he goes to Oklahoma,

gets drafted, and then he goes to the Eagles, and he handles sitting behind Carson Wentz so well, in part because he had just done that at Alabama. And part of the reason Jalen Hurts one over the locker room in Philadelphia now has a quarter billion dollar contract is the juxtaposition of how well he handled being Carson Wentz's backup and how poorly Carson Wentz handled being the starter is like it really helped Jalen Hertz win the locker room and now he has a quarter billion dollars and they have a good

relationship but Nick Sabins talked about oh two and Hertz like they actually supported each other they weren't like you know trying to stab each other in the back so that alone is kind of crazy and I think now it's like Jalen Hertz has the contract two is going to be one of the next quarterback's up for one. It's kind of interesting, but also whether Tua deserves a contract and all this. Tua's career has been a wild ride, too. I mean, both of these guys, it's fascinating how they've diverged over the few years. And obviously, Tua, you know, not only did he have what was almost a career-ending injury with his hip. And then last, this last year, there was like the concussions concern, you know. And so, man, he's had, his career has just been very like up and down, up and down, wild ride.

Obviously, right now. He was the first lefty prospect of any seriousness in 15. years or almost 20 really because Michael Vic really was the last one. Yeah. So just, yeah, this is a great point. I'm sure that we'll hear about it more, but I haven't really heard people talking about it too much so far that, you know, these guys have taking such wildly

divergent paths since being teammates a couple years ago. And even now it's kind of like are they even good quarterbacks? Are they system quarterbacks? Like either them, neither of them quite gets credit for being like, like, Peyton Manning and the Manning castes. Well, they're not playing quarterback. You know, like, that's kind of like a thing thrown around and the idea that they're system quarterbacks. And I'm curious what you think of that, DK.

So this is, I think this is fascinating because this also extends to like what we've been talking about with Brock Purdy this whole season two. It's like, what's a system quarterback? Is anybody not a system quarterback? I think there are probably a few guys that are transcendent quarterbacks that could play on any system and be awesome. But, and someone actually asked this to Mike McDaniel in the press conference this week. And he just basically was like, my answer, quote, quote, my answer would be who the fuck cared or who the F cares. He goes, I'm about to push this podium. over.

And then he basically goes on to say, he explains essentially like every team is different. Every team is made up of different parts. There's so many variables. And, you know, I'll just read his quote because it's really interesting. I thought he said,

it's a team we're working together. And I know one thing. I've coached a long time. And I haven't seen people do what our guys do. I think that's such a good point. It's like, we've never seen this, you know,

exact collection of players before in the NFL. We've never seen this type of speed. And so he goes on to explain basically, it's just like, this is, you know, a lot of people are, someone's going to get more credit. Like Tyra Kill is probably going to get more credit than Tua. And Tyra Hill is going to get more credit than some of the other receivers on the team. But he went on to point out that it's like everybody's kind of doing their job in the

spacing and the scheme. And obviously Tua is doing an awesome job of distributing the football. And so I thought McDaniel's quotes, you should look up that answer on, on Twitter or whatever on the internet because I thought it was really interesting just from a team building point of view. And just from the idea that every team is a little bit. different from every other team ever made before. You know what I mean?

Like every team is this unique structure or organism. Do you think, do you think, you know, usually when a good quarterback on a good team who's performing at a high level, who's an MVP candidate, like Tua,

when it's time for a new contract, oftentimes they set the market and they become the new highest-bend quarterback in the league. We've seen it with many, Hertz, Lamar, Herbert, Burrow. All these guys are getting like, you know, they set the new mark for NFL contracts at the quarterback position.

Do you guys think Tua deserves to be the next? highest paid quarterback in the NFL? It deserves got nothing to do with it. Well, that's my question. Well, here's my question. Do you think Burrow and Herbert deserved it? I think they're better quarterbacks, yes.

McDaniel's going to push the podium over and take a run out of high fits. Just shove it. No, I think that it's kind of like an extension of the Brock Purdy conversation where Brock Purdy's main asset right now is it doesn't matter how good you think he is. He's good enough and he's making $50,000 a game. like they're, you know, there's one person in a luxury suite is basically paying for Brock Purdy

to play for the Niners each week. And so Tua is a less extreme version of that whereas cap it's $9 million. I don't know. It's on this off. I think that, I don't, honestly, I don't know.

I think that I can just speak as a Giants fan with Daniel Jones. I'll say, it's way easier when it's not your team to say, oh yeah, that quarterback, he's good and has led you to this historic whatever, but like, you should let him go

because you could find that again. And it really is a romantic relationship. And it's like, when you have a logical look at it, you can logically make the case. Two is totally replaceable. And obviously, Mike McDaniel and the speed and the scheme is what's here irreplaceable. And you can find the value of quarterback. But like, try explaining to Carlos, or producer on Sundays that, hey, here's the first great quarterback and great offense of literally your lifetime. And we're going to replace the most important part. Maybe I'm just buying into what McDaniel was saying. When he said this, he goes, I know this. Our players run a lot of plays that I have a lot

of history with and it looks different and that's because of hard work and unbelievable abilities. And it's again going back to just the unique mixture of the different guy's skill sets. Like Tua in particular gets small out so quickly. And I think that's such a massive, massive advantage and big part of what they're doing on offense. And so this is going back to his time at Alabama. He was always a really quick processor.

If you go back, I made some cutups even back in the day. Him just getting the ball out so quickly every time just knows where to go with it. He's super confident passing over the middle of the first. field. He's willing to pass with anticipation over the middle field. And so I think honestly, he's a big part of the reason this looks like it looks. And so I don't know. To me, it's, it would be ridiculous if they didn't resign him.

When does he do, first of all? And next year's a contract year. Okay. We're talking about this being one of the greatest offenses ever. And then if they didn't resign him, like, what are we fucking doing here? You know what I mean? Like, he's the quarterback. So it's one of the greatest offenses of all times.

And like there's no middle class contracts anymore really No it's a quarter billion dollars that's the price Yeah he's either going to be the richest quarterback in the league Or he's not kind of signed with them And that's the thing it's 50 million a year The one thing I'll say about the dolphins just because I don't want to gloss over this Dolphins are getting a first down on one third of their first downs Which they don't even need third or fourth down

Miami converts first downs like it's wild Like on first down Miami gets more first downs more often than Cleveland does on third down Like Miami's first down rate is higher than the Brown's third down rate. And like second down, the dolphins are getting a first down almost half the time. So like on first down, one at every three first downs, Miami's getting another first down. And on second down, Miami's getting a first down half the time. It's like they don't need third down. And the way I think about this game, Eagles, dolphins zooming all the way out.

And I'm actually thinking, I think the dolphins are going to win for the base reason that the, it's two different things. The dolphins don't even need third down and the Eagles have the luxury of using all four downs. I think that's kind of just a fascinating way to look at it. But I actually am picking the dolphins. I don't know how you guys feel. They're getting two and a half points, aren't they? Eagles are a favorite by two and a three.

I think it's just in Philadelphia thing. I think it's basically pick them. You know, the dolphins have the ball for such a short amount of time usually on these possessions because they're so explosive. They just like moved down the field immediately and score. And the Eagles are like the opposite. I think the Eagles had like an 18 play drive last week. They just eat clock, run plays.

I'm curious to see if the plan will be to just keep the ball out of the dolphins' hands as much as possible and to just churn clock. I mean, I lean dolphins, but I agree. This is going to be such a fun match. The problem is I think I lean dolphins in whatever game they're in. And even if they lose, the next game, I'll probably just lean dolphins. Again, they're like so electric that it doesn't matter who they play. I'm going to be like, oh, I pick the dolphins. Well, the other big thing before we move on is if the dolphins get an early lead, are the Eagles could be able to keep up.

Right. That's the other thing. So I don't know. I'm leaning to offense, but can't wait to watch this game. Speaking of system quarterbacks, though, Detroit Lions are at the Baltimore Ravens. Other game of the week. I would, game of the year. Other generational game of the year. I think I want to, I do want to shout out the Lions. We have not talked about the Lions enough during the season.

One, how many teams get as much hype as the Lions did this year and then pretty much live up to it just as much, if not even more? I don't think we've given this enough attention. and this blew my mind. The Lions are 13 and 3 in their last 16 games, which is the best 16 game stretch for the Lions since 1962. That is a sound. Cois Box retired at 1954. So, like, we're not that far.

Like, people living, players who played with Cloice Box, that's the last time the Lions were this good. Cloice was watching that season. Cois was like there. So, I mean, it's just cool. He paved the parking lot with his cement empire. You know? He paved Detroit.

How do you think Detroit? Do you use cement? To pave? There's a sidewalks. I don't know. Buildings. I mean, I think you pave roads with cement sometimes, yes. Asphalt.

Found buildings with the foundation, whatever. People get it. Are you trying to tell me that cement is not in roads? I don't know. Because that feels wrong. Anyway, we can move on. I'm opting out of this, but I, yeah. Google is, Jack, Google is cement in roads.

And I would like to know the answer. How much does a cloud weigh? I know that they use asphalt now. but I'm saying, I think like, how long have there been trees? Asphalt and concrete are two of the most common materials used for road construction. Concrete. So what's the difference being concrete and cement? Oh, Jesus.

Okay. Cement is actually an ingredient of concrete. Oh, interesting. So it's in roads. I knew it. All right. Anyway, sturdy foundation, Detroit Lions. There it is.

Oh, yeah. Yep. We're back on the road. Ding, ding. Boom. DK, you made an excellent point about Jared Goff. We were talking about this game. Basically, what Jared Goff did with the Rams,

he's just doing it again with the Lions, and we've yet to really recognize it. This man's had two renaissance in his career. He's 29 years old. Like, he, I got to be, I got to be honest. I did not think this was going to happen with him in his second go around with a new team. So rewind a whole long time. And he was one of the worst rookies of all time.

Like his rookie season under Jeff Fisher was absolutely, atrocious. There was, I don't think, I remember coming off of that season, like, basically people thought he was finished. Like, there was no way he was going to come back from that. They hired McVeigh. And within two years, he was, like, putting up historic numbers in, I mean, going back to what we're talking about, what's beautiful football, like that Rams' chief's game from, I don't

even remember what season it was. 24 to 50. It was like one of the funnest games ever, whatever. That was like the Jared Goff. No one saw that coming. And then for some reason, and this is I think, basically after the Super Bowl, Goff slowly arose.

Like, his confidence seemed to completely erode. And it took him, like, a year or two to figure out how to get their offense back, get their offense going again, essentially. And then I think along the way, Sean McVeigh lost all confidence in Goff. And then they shipped him off. They needed someone who was going to, like, elevate the team more. They brought in Stafford. And Goff, to me, it felt, again, like, he was just going to go back to, like,

the Jeff Fisher days. Like, he's going to Detroit. This is, like, you know, Dan Campbell, they're going to run the ball. They're going to do his, I kind of pictured, like, they're going to going back to Jeff Fisherball essentially. But, you know, lo and behold, two years later or whatever, he's, again, one of, like, the top quarterbacks in the NFL, you know, statistically, if you go back to 17 games, hyphids, you mentioned it.

In his last 17 games, Jared Goff has passed for 29 touchdowns and four picks. Wow. Can I just say that game in 2018, looking back at those numbers, the game was 54 to 51. Goff had 413 yards, four passing touchdowns, no picks, and a rushing touchdown. So he had 400 plus and five touchdowns. Mahomes, 4-7. the eight passing six touchdowns three picks. That's the football we want, baby.

It was a bad game. It was a bad game. Shut up. It was the best game. Just watch basketball. Yeah. Want that up and down. I liked Bill's Giants last week better.

That was better. I would love to go back and see with what you wrote about that game hyphen. So you were probably just shitting yourself about how awesome it was. No, that was actually, honestly, that was my grandma's take at the time. She was like, I don't like this. Where's the defense?

This is pathetic. Oh, man. I was like, that's sick. It was jealous of the take. Just getting back to golf. Like I do think it's pretty impressive and just, I don't know, kind of unique that he's had like two full-on renaissancees during his career with two different teams. And so just wanted to point that out and kind of give him a shout out because it's been very impressive. He reminds me of an actor, right?

It's like John Travolta, you know, starting off great in the 70s doing Saturday Night Fever and Greece. And then he kind of disappeared and like fell on hard times from a career perspective and then showed back up in Pulp Fiction and kind of like relaunched his career. Michael Keaton, same thing. I feel like Michael Keaton, Batman, disappeared for a while, came back with Birdman, and is now having this entire second run. It's like reinvented himself.

Yeah. I like that. I didn't realize Travolta was down bad until the Pulp Fiction, but now I'm realizing that that's Tarantino's whole thing. I think it was the women who were down bad after Greece.

Oh, yeah, right. Horny. Right, good point. Yeah. Right. And honestly, after Saturday Night Fever, watch that guy move his hips

in that movie, man. Impressive. What was the movie he did where he could, like, he learned, really fast. Like he could learn a language. There was like a meteor or something.

I can't remember the exact plot of it. And all of a sudden he could learn really, really quickly. And then in the end, spoiler, he had like a brain tumor or something. Phenomenon? Yes.

96. After Pulp Fiction, I haven't seen it. Oh, okay. For some reason, I feel like that was a big deal. Not on the level of like Legends of the Fall, but it was a big deal at the time. So we're saying Pulp Fiction's like the 54 to 51 game and then that movie's kind of like the too high

and safety. Yeah. Phenomenon. I got to say, D.K., yesterday, I was in a meeting, and somebody who we work with was like, oh, Legends of the Fall, I love that movie. Stop. Yeah, she was like, great movie Legends of the Fall. I was like, totally, totally, yeah. I've totally heard of that movie.

Incredible. Yeah. So Lions are playing the Ravens. I feel like these are exact opposite, or at least opposite office. defenses. I feel like the Ravens have like so much talent around Goff and Goff for a better worse. To your point, D.K., sorry, yeah, the Lions have so much talent around Goff. And to your point, D.K., oh, is the system quarterback? Whatever. The system's great around the quarterback and they're playing great. And who cares?

Who the F cares? Yeah. League Lions have this incredible offensive line they built. Ben Johnson's this incredible coordinator. Amonra is great. Like, LeBort is great. Like, they have a lot of talent. And then you look at the Ravens and you're like, oh, my God. Like, Lamar Jackson, just the, I'd be, J.K. Dobbins down at running back, like the fourth year in a Rail, the Ravens are just like stitching together the running back position. Their offensive lines banged up.

The receiving core has more famous names now, but is kind of equally as bad as it has been in every year. And it just feels like the exact opposite situations. Yeah, it's like Lamar's sort of trying to drag this offense along. And we made a big deal about him in the offseason because we thought that there was going to be a lot more talent around him, particularly with Jackie Dowman's coming back. And the receivers, in theory, getting better. Like, Rashad Bateman, first round pick from a couple years ago, it's like invisible.

The only time I've seen him this year is he dropping a touchdown. And so, I don't know. To me, this has just been, on one hand, it's been very impressive from Lamar because I think he's played very well. And he's sort of dragging this offense along. But at the same time, very disappointing offense overall, I would say. Would you guys agree? Yeah.

Okay. Craig's thinking about it. No, I don't know. I'm just starting to wonder when the Lamar conversation is going to happen. Are you asking, is he good? Not, is he good? He's definitely good quarterback. But, like, there was a long ago where people,

people were upset if you didn't say he was a top five quarterback. And I would, I mean, no, but I don't think anybody thinks he's a top five quarterback right now. And like, look, he's one in three in the playoffs. He's got seven turnovers in those four games. Never gotten past a divisional round. It hasn't played in the playoffs since the 2020 season. I don't know. And Ruiz hasn't met number five, by the way.

Who's the actor comp for Lamar? So it's like starting hot and then fizzling out. And it's always because, like, of everybody else around him and not because of him. He's miscast. Harry Potter, Daniel Radcliffe. Lamar's 2019 season his MVP year was that's Harry Potter

one through eight or whatever okay however many movies there were all right and ever since that he's doing some weird stuff gotta say

not sure he fits outside of that 2019 system I kind of think it's like Bree Larson oh that's interesting won an Oscar for Room then they put her in the Marvels

and it made a billion dollars but that was mainly I think more because of the Marvel boom than because of like her star power and the character of Captain Marvel. And now it's just like, what is Bree Larson? Is Brie Larson really like a superstar? Can she carry a movie?

The sequel's coming out in a month. The tracking's not good. And it's just like, I don't know. Now what do we do? What is Lamar? We should do this with every quarterback. Just a whole. I don't know.

I'm just like, I'm just wondering, like, three years from now, are we going to be like, is he the Russell Westbrook of football where it's like great stats? never gets anything done. Are we just going to blame the offense around him and the coordinator is forever? I feel like everyone's already pissed at Herbert for not winning a Super Bowl.

And it's like, well, what about Lamar Jackson? It's so unfair. I think Lamar's been playing well. Herbert already. The Herbert thing, I think, is ridiculous. But I think Lamar's played really well this season. I agree that like the results haven't been there in the playoffs or anything. But I think that Lamar, Free Larson's harsh.

I like him more. that feels that feels tough okay Oscar winning actor star of a Marvel film I feel like that's pretty good as an actor right it can't ask for much more than a best actress award in a in a Marvel film I don't know if I can say that an anonymous ringer staffer has a very like longstanding theory that Breelarsen is no friends

oh okay that's mean convinced that this person is absolutely convinced Brernerce has no friends because she talks about in these interviews about with like Emma Stone that Emma Stone and her are tight, but Emma Stone does not talk about Brie Larson. Like Emma Stone would be in Brie Larson's T-Mobile top five, but I don't think Bre Rarson would be in Emma Stone's T-Mobile top 50.

And you can tell that in the way they tell stories about each other. That's a bummer because even like, I feel like even like the movie that, even like Captain Marvel, people are like, yeah, yeah, no, we like Captain Marvel, but like, let's be real here. Like we don't actually need her in the Avengers. Tough. It's going to be off at some other planet. You know, there's a lot of planets in the...

Yeah, go on a side quest. Ree Jackson. All right. So who do you like in this game? I mean, I'm not going to bet against the Lions. I'm actually shocked the Lions aren't favored in this game. Can somebody explain that to me? What do you have to, Vegas?

I know the golf on the road stats, there's a big difference between Goff and Helma and Goff on the road. But also Ben Johnson, the coordinator for the Lions, and then Mike McDonnell, the quarter of the Ravens are two of the best coordinators. And I think that this is, I'm very interested to see how Goff handles this game. Yeah, I don't know. You know the Ravens haven't scored more than 20 points in the playoffs with Lamar.

20 points. well it helps if you can have like less than 12 people injured in every game but yeah no he's also been bad yeah the numbers are great he's like losing to the titans every year in the playoffs yeah it's not just the raven's offense it's been whacked this year offense alone yeah kind of been off um this is something that Nate tice had wrote about this week go check it out at uh Yahoo but I think just looking at the bare numbers through through six weeks here's some stats that Nate came up with lowest Offensive points for games since 2008. Wow.

Since 2008? You said 2008? Yeah. 15 years. Lowest touchdown rate and yards per attempt since 2008. Sack rate is the highest since 1998. Lowest explosive rate ever. Exosive play rate ever.

Lowest EPA per dropback ever. Lowest total EPA, EPA per drive, and EPA for play ever. Like, quarterbacking sucks right now. Craig, you had brought it up like a couple weeks ago. And I think it was more just like anecdotally, these games kind of suck. Hyvitz got mad at me. for suggesting that we should get rid of the pass rush. I hate that. That's so dumb.

Well, but clearly I was on to something, not that we should get rid of the pass rush, but that like the product is not great right now. Pass rush. The product is not great right now. I mean, they're going to have to change something. The competition committee after the season always looks at points for games. They don't have to change anything. Please.

Ban holding. Holding doesn't matter anymore. Give them an extra offensive linemen. The one Mississippi rule is my favorite idea. Two Mississippi. Two Mississippi. Mississippi. They have to say it.

I also, doesn't it just feel like every offensive line is terrible and injured this year? And I think that's a huge part of his lines are injured and defensive linemen are really good now.

But also Mike Sando at the Athletic has been beating this drum that quarterbacks are the youngest they've been in 60 years. And that also they've hit a great number that Mike Sotomis at the athletic had a great stat that 15 starting

quarterbacks entered week one with less than five years of experience, which that number's only been hit one other time entering a season in the last 20 years. And so it's just a lot of young dudes, like all these old guys aged out. And like Eli and Brady and Breeze and Rothesburg,

all those dudes aged out. And all these younger guys are kind of like, the offenses are simpler and they don't have as much experience. They're holding under the ball. They're taking more sacks. Like the lines are a little worse. So I think that is interesting. But there are also,

there are also other things happening. But I think that's some really like essential context. It's ruining golf. Get rid of pass rush, Craig. That's brilliant. No, this is dumb. I'm not saying get rid of it. I'm just saying make it a little bit harder.

Don't you think, high fits that there's a little bit of, like, the defensive end has gotten so freakously athletic and talented that like these like Micah Parsons types, Miles Garrets, they're just freak athletes and like offensive line, it quite hasn't caught up as much. It feels like the gap in talent and athleticism

between the defensive end and the tackle. It's like expecting Evan Neal to stop Micah Parsons just feels impossible now. That's true, and there's no doubt about that. But also, first of all, there's four alignments. There's five alignment had blocked the four guys. So, like, it's been six weeks. We could chill.

But the, I don't know, I think that what we're talking about in the beginning of the show about running being back, I think there's a relation here because I think big picture, it was only a couple years ago that offense was like unstoppable. And then, you know, defense is like basically the reason football is interesting is you can't stop everything at once, right? There's defense's priorities. and basically I feel like defense is zoomed out and we're like they have to stop the explosive plays as D.K mentioned like 20 yard plays. Basically, the math is if an offense gets a 20 yard play on a drive, they're three times more likely to score.

But if an offense takes a sack, they're 20% more likely to punt and they're like 40% more likely to punt if you take a holding penalty. So the idea is defenses were like, we just need to make them dink and dunk and take away the fun plays. That sucks.

But how do you do that, right? It's like instead of having one center fielder, they're going to put two outfielders out there, or left and a right fielder, right, safeties. But they're like, you take it from the infields. Now it's easier to run, right? It's easier to bunt. But the teams that were like really good

weren't really well suited to run, like the Bengals and the Chiefs and the bills, even a couple years ago, those teams weren't really well built to run the ball, even when the defenses were begging them to. But I think the difference is it took a couple years. But now teams are the best teams, the 49ers, the Eagles, the dolphins, the lions.

Those teams are built to run the ball. And I do think that's where the shift has happened at a large part. And you just combine that with all these young quarterbacks. And I think you're totally right though, Craig. Like defensive linemen being better and better athletically and technique-wise, I think, is also a thing. And linemen being worse. I think that is very true.

They're trying to get opposite directions. When you were talking about number one, like a sack, if you get sacked, and sacks are massively, massively up this year. If you get sacked, it's like the odds of scoring on that drive or even getting a first down, go down precipitously. You were mentioning that. And then you mentioned holding. Do you ever feel like this is a take I think I've been sort of formulating for a while? Do you ever feel like holding is a 10-yard penalty is like overkill? Why is it 10 yards?

It seems like too much. It just kills a drive. Like, and they fucking call it so much. You know what I mean? I don't know. Why is it 10 yards? 5 yards. Because if it was 5, wouldn't they just hold more?

But they would still call it. I don't know. I just think it seems like overkill. Like 10. yards. Okay, so the drive is over because this guy held. Like, it just seems weird. Of course, obviously everyone else is screaming like all

the rules are tilted to the offense. And I'm just saying, I don't fucking care. Make more tilted toward the offense. That's a good take, TK. Just make hold of all the other sports are doing it. Baseball is like half as long now. Get on bar. They're putting runners on second base just to start the inning. Bring back steroids.

You know? Dude, everyone made fun of that Olympics that was like, we're going to do the juiced Olympics. made fun of it. I'm like, I'm going to, I'll watch that. I'll watch that. I'm going to watch it. I'm going to talk about this flag football Olympics thing. Oh, my God. Explain to the crowd who have people who haven't heard about it. I don't, well, I don't know. Flag football's in the Olympics. Yeah, that's it. I think players join in. Represent. Can you imagine other countries trying to play if the NFL, like America gets to, honestly, we would have state. Like, can you? I think the question is what states would win. Like, Texas alone would be pretty like Texas versus Florida. Alabama and California.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, like we could have the top 10 spots. Who would be the best player after Tyree Kill? I mean, couldn't you just take like the Panthers and they would win the Olympics, probably? I mean, yeah. The worst, even than it is the new, we want Bama. We want Bama. Lamar would be pretty good.

Lamar would be very good. That's a great one. Yeah. Tavon Austin. That's better. We should have like old retired play. What's Percy up to these days? What's Percy Harvin doing? Get him into the Olympics.

Get like Kenyon Barner and Michael James. Oh, hell yeah. That would be good if it was a combo of only guys who were like in their 50s and like the highest recruited like eighth graders in the country. I don't know. I also don't think like, do you want flag football in the Olympics? Is that something that appeals to you? Yeah, sure.

Sure. It doesn't. And they have baseball too. Great. What's the weirdest sport in the Olympics? Are you mad? It's like what? I'm kind of mad.

You're upset that they added a sport. Why? Who cares? I don't know. It's like you can't even really play professional flag football. Like you can't play it in. college. Like, it's not a real sport. I mean, to my knowledge, it's additive.

Like, it's not at the expense of anything, is it? Well, I'm just like, but like if it's, if you can't even pursue it in the real world, it's weird that it's an Olympic sport. It's like an intramural game. I feel like there's a lot of those, though. Like, Luge?

That's Winter Olympics, of course. That's a good point, though. Are you going to try and go pro in Luge? No, like you're trying to go to the Olympics. The Winter Olympics are just rich people activities, mostly. It's just surviving in the snow. traveling in the snow as a sport.

Basketball? So there's a, I'm just going to, I'm reading off some of the Olympic sports. There's three on three basketball. Dumb. Rhythmic gymnastics. That's fine. I mean beach volleyball, that's fun. That's probably one of the more fun.

That's a real sport. That's a real sport. You can play that professionally in college. Dude, Phil Dollhouse, sir. Yeah, dude. Misty-May trainer. And legends. Yeah.

Sailing? Flag football. Sailing as an Olympic sport. Okay. I mean, that makes sense. Yeah, this is kind of weird. They race boats that feels like hundreds of years old. Honestly, it's probably thousands of years old.

We're going to be invested in like, did they pull the flag or not? Oh, flag guarding, 10 yards. I just tell you the truth, knowing nothing about this, I kind of feel like the NFL just was like, you're going to do this for us because they're hedging your bets in case football 60 years from now just doesn't exist in tackling. And they're just trying to figure out a way to like get our NFL athletes in the Olympics. Archery. Archery is in the Olympics. See, I'm down with that.

How is that? Are you saying that negatively? I'm just naming off the weirdest sports in the Olympics. It's not weird. I feel like archery is actually like an original Olympic sport. It's as old as trees, archery. It's as oldest trees. As long as, since there's been people, there's been archery, I feel like.

What is more, you know what actually? You know what's funny enough? You know what's kind of crazy? It's not an Olympic sport? Like archery without the art, like the bow and arrow. It's like it's funny that there isn't just like, what's like an older than two dudes being like, I bet I can throw this rock at that thing. And like, no, you can't.

You know, just like you should be able to throw a ball at a target. No, no, that's like I'm throwing a heavy thing, a far away. I'm saying it's kind of funny that there's no like target practice with just like, oh, I'll throw this ball at that and I have to at the bullseye. That just feels like a very two dudes. I should do that for all time in Memorial. So you're saying not a distance thing like javelin. It's just like, can you hit the soda can 50 yards away?

100%. Yeah. You should be able to hit random objects from, far away. It just seems like very I'd be into that. Just be a bunch of quarterbacks. Honestly, I'm sorry. They overthought it. They had the quarter of like, well, I haven't played dodge ball. And that is fun. But part of it is like, I just

want to see the two quarterbacks see who can throw it farther. I think that's like the new pro ball. Yeah, the pro ball is what you're describing. Well, I know. Yeah. Yeah. All right. What we're talking about anyway? We'll say that we're going to launch an Olympics pot on Patreon in 2028. The proof that

the season has been, the offensive little shop is that the chiefs are playing the charges this week. And it's kind of like, yeah, whatever, which huge red flag. Because last year, Amazon got Thursday night football rights. And they're like, hey, $2 trillion company, what would you like to start your broadcasting Thursday night football ownership with? And they're like, Chiefs Chargers. And now a year later, we're like, ah, are these teams even good?

It's the third most generational game of the week, you know? Yeah. I'm telling you, man. Game of the year. The Mahomes thing, the Chiefs put up 19 points against the Broncos last week, dude. The Bears put up 28 against the Broncos. The Jets put up 31 against the Broncos. Mahomes is having the most sluggish start of his career.

They're not even fun to watch anymore. What's going on here? He's got his lowest yards. I mean, I can give you a million stats. Lowest yards, touchdowns, yards per attempt, pass the rating, EPA per dropback, air yards per attempt. All of that is the lowest of his career.

He's averaging 19th, fantasy points a game. Every other season, he's been at least above 23 through six weeks. I don't know what it is. The receivers are whack. We also all assumed Eric B. Enemy leaving would have no effect on the chiefs if only because the last three offensive coordinators who left the chiefs had no impact because Andy Reid calls the plays. I don't know if it's B enemy leaving.

I don't know if it's weird to say Juju Smith-Schuster leaving, but it's true that this offense just, I actually think it's related also to what we're saying about the dink and dunk stuff where it's been shipped away at, but remember back in my day, I don't want to sound old, back in my day, Patrick Mahomes threw deep passes and it was the craziest thing I've ever seen and the coolest thing I've ever seen. Dude, serious question. Do you remember the last time Patrick Holmes threw the ball outside the lens of the screen?

Like the camera had to go find the football because that's how far. It doesn't happen anymore. No, it feels like his scrambles are longer than most of his passes. He'll like scamper for 16 yards. That's true. He doesn't throw the ball deep anymore.

It's like I literally like my greatest, some of my greatest football memories as an adult, which will always be different than your members as kids, is Mahomes throwing the ball outside the camera and then it just has to go find Tyree Kill. And I'm like, I didn't know you could throw a football that far. And it's just, it's just, it's just, That's been really good.

I mean, their second in points allowed this year. The Chiefs only given up 14 points a game. And that's what's been keeping them, you know, with a positive record. And they're playing the charges this week. And my caveat is that I think most Justin Herbert criticism is ludicrous for the simple reason that. We were talking about how if you just look at in the regular season quarterbacks, you've had to deal with their defense giving up 34 points. Herbert has had that happen nine times.

And he won three of the games. And it's like Joe Burrow, Lamar and the Holmes combined have dealt with that nine times. It's like the defense sucks. having said that last week was the worst game I've seen Herbert play including the game where he got his spleen exploded like that game last year Herbert missed five throws against the Cowboys on Monday

and that's what the other hand hurts says I kind of don't care about the other finger I don't know this charges offense kind of sucks too especially if Herbert's missing passes it's just a bummer it's a bummer because this should be such a highly anticipated like big time marquee game and it's like the only thing people are talking about

with the Chiefs is like this Taylor Swift thing like that's so true is saving the chiefs this year that's true Taylor Swift has completely overshadowed that the chiefs are boring I mean even Kelsey doesn't really look like himself I know he's injured

but you know what I mean like nothing about this team feels like chiefs like the chiefs of old even though I suppose I guess their record but you know except for being 5 of 1 sorry it's too busy winning but like yeah it's just like

they're not a team I look forward to watching anymore it's too to me like the bottom line is it's too much their offense just operates and fits and starts. It's like nothing is smooth. Nothing goes like according to plan. It feels like it's just really disjointed. And I don't know.

It's hard to explain, I guess, but it just not, it doesn't feel exciting to watch these teams. Brutal. Well, that's the, well, man, we're being too negative. I don't know because that's the game with Patrick Holmes and Justin Herbert. I don't know if you guys know this, but there's some other games going on. There is some ugly stuff happening,

but the backup quarterbacks, I think it's just worth running through. some of the backup quarter is going on this weekend. Just Giants and Tyrod Taylor, if you have these guys in fantasy, I guess for the Giants, it's kind of simple. It's like you play Saquan and honestly, you probably have more hope for Darren Waller.

Like you might be more likely to play him with Daniel, if Daniel Jones misses this game, because you're like, damn, Darren Waller's been annoying. But the Raiders Bears, because Jimmy Garoppolo, it's been ruled out. So it's going to be probably Brian Hoyer for the Raiders against Tyson Baygent for the Bears. What a matchup.

It's an NFL game. Yeah, this is a brutal week. There's like two good games and the rest you should probably just like go on a walk or go to lunch. It's very top heavy. It's like the Ravens Lions is at 1 p.m. Eastern and that's fantastic. And then Chiefs Charges is at 4 p.m. Eastern and that's great. And then Sunday football's great. But like it's very much like a one like less YouTube TV multi-view and more like single view for each of these windows.

Yeah, single view and then you have like red zone on and your like computer or something. Yeah. You just check in when Tyson Bajon's in the red zone once again. If the Bears, if you have DJ Moore, how confident are you in playing D.G. Moore with fantasy, with Tyson Baj and a quarterback? Not that confident. I'm still playing him.

But I think the ceiling is way lower just because somebody tweeted the status. Sorry, I think it was Shane Hallam tweeted this out. It was like last year at this time, Tyson Bajent was taking eight sacks and turning the ball over twice against Colorado School of Mines or something like that. And now he's playing the Las Vegas Raiders in the NFL. Why are we just strapped in quarterbacks who just played in the SEC? I don't understand.

Max Crosby's just like hunting this guy. But I think, yeah, he's still going to pass the ball to DJ Moore like every time, right? DJ Moore has made a career out of like being productive with shitty quarterbacks. Also, when Bejant was in, he like heavily targeted DJ Moore. It was like 40% target share. Did you more's like I was born in the dark. He was raised in it. No stranger to.

Devante Adams like you have no act. Yeah. No stranger to Tyson Baygent. So you're definitely starting TJ Moore. Or DJ Moore. He's probably like a top 20 guy still. Colquette probably sit. Raiders,

Devante. So Jacobi, I think with Brian Horre, I'm not going to lie. I kind of think Brian Horace is better than Garapolos. I kind of think he's just might not say he's better. I mean, I'm not like,

I don't think that's like a super hot take. I don't think any of the three quarterbacks are a problem. If it was O'Connell, if it's Hoy or Vats Grappel, I think you're all, you're still starting the people you would normally start. Yeah, you have to play Chacobie Myers has been too good. And I think Michael Mayer, if you picked him up, totally playable. Devante Adams, did you guys see what Devante Adams said? He basically said, winning and losing is not my main priority.

My main priority is greatness. And then people were like, oh, you don't care about winning and losing. And he quote tweeted a reporter who covers the Raiders who was like, so the reporter basically said, Devante values winning above all else, but knows the Raiders can't win at the level he wants to without the offense being way better. And for the offense to be way better, he needs to get the ball more.

Devotei Adams quote to him. He was like, yep, that's it. I love it. I love it. Squeaky wheel narrative. I bet she's going to get like 15 targets in this game. He's like the opposite of Drake London. Drake London just cares about winning.

He doesn't care about his numbers. Drake London has no interesting greatness. Yeah. You could bench Drake London. If they win, he's happy. The other one, Brown's Colts. Deshawn Watson practice today, but we don't know if he's going to play.

So it might be PJ Walker and the Cleveland Browns against Scar Der Minchin, the Indianapolis Colts. I feel like you if it is PJ Walker, you can play a Mark Cooper but that's it I wouldn't touch these other

Browns receivers with a 10 foot bowl and then the receiver Indianapolis you can play Michael Pittman but against the Browns defense again the first year's defense again fewest yards

allowed through five games at 50 years anyone other than Michael Pittman's tough and then you got to deal with the Zach Moss Jonathan Taylor question

what a nightmare yeah what do you do about that DK fantasy football dot the ringer dot com we have Jonathan Taylor ranked

as our 17th best running back. And we have Zach Moss as a 23rd best running back. But that's on a week with six by weeks in a bunch of injured running backs. I think this is the week. It starts to turn over to Jonathan Taylor's backfield. I think they're still going to use both of these guys, though. So I think it caps the ceiling of both of these guys.

Plus, then you add in the fact they're playing the Browns, who like we've gone over on this podcast, are just ludicrously good on defense this year. So to me, it's like if you have Jonathan Taylor, you're probably starting him. I would not blame you if you want to decide. at Zach Moss this week and go to a different place and so, but I don't know, like, it's not looking great

for either of these guys, honestly. No, and I know it sounds like RB17 is high for Jonathan Taylor, but because of the buys, like, High Fitz is just saying, like, it gets bleak pretty quick. Like, you get into like Gus Edwards, Latavius Murray territory pretty quick this week. Well, on that note, the running backs are... This is a nightmarish week of running backs.

You don't want to be out here. Okay, so there's this incredible Twitter thread where basically Del Curry, who's Steph Curry's father, there was like a news story that he was getting a divorce. And there's just, I don't know if he's a comedian or what, but someone had like literally 30 comments in a row just talking about just a tweet. We don't want to be out here dating younger women. Like you do not want to be out like, dude, you don't want to be out here in this dating

world. And literally it's like 30 tweets in a row that are like one of the best tweet threads ever on Twitter. And we literally just assigned a different tweet to each of these backfields because it is, it is so gross out here if you need to go get a running back on waivers. like you don't want to be out here. Like it's really that simple. Stick to the wife of your youth.

Yeah, stick to the running back of your youth. Just pray. Let's start out with San Francisco, which is probably the least clear one of this whole group. This is the, I'm not trying to scare you. I'm trying to prepare you. These people are children of Rihanna born in the fire of chaos. Okay, what do we do with CMC, Chris McAfrey, Jordan Mason, Elijah Mitchell? Not only is Chris McCaffrey, it's unclear whether he's actually even hurt at this point.

like he might play this week. If he doesn't play, we don't know whether to start Jordan Mason or Elijah Mitchell. Going back to this last game, Jordan Mason was quote like technically in front of Elijah Mitchell because he played more snaps, got more carries. You know, he looked better.

But then later in the week, Kyle Shanahan came out and basically was like, well, that was because Elijah Mitchell only practiced on Thursday and he hasn't really gotten any reps because he's missed the last couple of games with a knee injury. He's done a lot of good things for us, and I'm paraphrasing.

So it seems like Kyle Shanahan was eluding or just implying that it was going to be Elijah Mitchell's show if Christian McCamford can't go. I tweeted this and then a bunch of 49er fans were in my mention saying, I don't know. I feel like Kyle Shanahan is kind of a liar, which was validating in itself because I completely agree and I don't trust Cal Shanahan. And you hate him. You hate Kyle Shanahan. Even a little.

I mean, he's a good coach, but it's impossible to read what he's going to do. So what do you guys doing? Who you starting? If anybody, if Christian McCaffrey's up. It's Monday Night Football, which makes it so much tougher. Oh, God. And that too, yeah. I mean, I think that's the biggest part

is that if money in football and you if you have McCaffrey and Jordan Mason or Mitchell, it's way easier. Like you can play McCaffrey and then if he's gone. But if you don't have that situation, you're kind of screwed and I don't think it's a good idea to like, if you have another option and it's even kind of close

and I hope you do, you have to go with that one over hoping McCaffrey doesn't play. Did you guys? So you guys said on the waiver show earlier this week that Jordan Mason would get the slight nod for you. Do you still feel that way if, if Chris McCaffrey doesn't go? We're so confident in this.

I mean, honestly, to tell you the truth, like, it doesn't matter because I don't think many people have both those guys. I think that the reality is it'll be like one-third Mason, one-third Mitchell, one-third Debo and friends. And so it kind of doesn't matter. It's like if you either are going to be banking on it or not, but if you can avoid this situation, I would have been. We're all just collections of atoms somehow put together in the universe. I don't know. The question is, I'm just going to move on from that,

D.K. Spirling. The question is, like, let's say you have, let's say you typically start your two running backs, right? It's McCaffrey and another guy you like. And then your third one who you play sometimes is like Naji Harris. Would you rather just sit McCaffrey and not risk him sitting out on Monday night and taking a zero?

Or would you rather play Naji Harris, get seven points and risk McCaffrey playing on Monday and putting up 25? Like, where is the line? Yeah, you have to. He's certainly better than Naji. I have McCaffrey as like my... But you're also risking getting a zero out of McCaffrey. I'm saying where's the line of running back

that you would just start over McCaffrey rather than deal with the game time decision thing? We have him as the 13th running back at Fantasyfobble.com. And I think that's right. There are 12 guys that I feel like you can play ahead of McCaffrey because it's not worth the 50-50.

And again, we're recording this Thursday. We'll hopefully have a lot more information by Sunday morning. And so hopefully you don't have to deal with this thing and you'll have an idea. But if you really don't know, I mean, Nashi Harris had rather pick up Kyle's use check on Monday night

on Monday morning if McAfee's out. I'm not going to accept that slander. I'm not. Kai, edit that out. Honestly, Najee would have great careers as a fullback. You want to go to the next one here, Baltimore? The quote for Baltimore from this tweet thread is last time you was out here, out here was different.

Like the Ravens used to be a sexy running team, right? Last time you were like, oh, a Ravens running back got hurt. I'll just get the backup. It was different back then. Now it's like, it's the same names, but it's not the same vibes. Justice Hill, Gus Edwards. I mean, both these guys are gross and are not really doing anything. And you're like praying for a goal line touchdown.

Eileen, Justice Hill, getting a little bit more of the passing work. And it might be in a negative game trip here playing Detroit. But last time you was out here, out here was different in Baltimore. That's a perfect example. The other one, the Lions, for the Detroit Lions, you don't want to be out of here learning TikTok dances and falling off milk crate. Do you remember the milk crate thing? Yeah.

Which I think is incredible. And it's like, so David Montgomery's been crushing as the lion's running back. He's got a rib injury. Maybe he fell off a milk crate. And he might be out a few weeks. And so we got Jemir Gibbs coming back from a hamstring injury. Splitting work made with Craig Reynolds, who's the third stringer who his main play this

season is an awesome block, which is cool and also not great for our purposes. But Craig Reynolds, the third string guy, got a toe injury. this week. He was a limited practice guy on Thursday, so you want to see. So it's like, who's it going to be? We don't know.

So if Gibbs plays, you don't want to be out here learning TikTok dances. No, you don't. As a 41-year-old, that sounds that sounds truly nightmarish. Like, oh, Jesus Christ. Learning TikTok dances. I think if Craig Reynolds plays, you can play them, but it's, it's like a milk crate thing.

I'm playing Jim. I'm playing Jim. Assuming we don't get any negative reports over the next few days going into Sunday. I'm going with Gibbs and hoping for the best. You have to go with Gibbs, right? I mean, like, you're going to be an idiot. You're going to kill yourself if you don't. Yeah, I wouldn't play Reynolds over

Gibbs, especially now that he is an injury. But I'm saying, I think both will be playable if they play. Next up here. God, there's some of the backfields that are gross. Yeah, the Browns, I like the quote. I know what you don't want to do the work. You're going to come out here and you ain't going to like it. The Browns

running game and trying to figure out the Kareem Hunt, Jerome, Ford situation. The post-Nick-Chub world, you don't want to do the work. You ain't going to like it out here. P.J. Walker and no Nick Chub is not a viable situation. Look, Kareem Hunt,

the Browns can't quit him. And every time he comes in, he ends up stealing more and more work. This feels like a little bit more of an even split than like some of these other backfields. And at least, I think, more and more. I mean, Huck got 12 carries and three catches last week, and he like just showed up. So, God,

I still probably leaned Jerome Ford. I think he's better, more explosive. He's younger. Yeah. But I would say that out of a lot of these backfields, like if you're desperate for flexes, I think you could play both. Agreed. I think so, too.

The next one, this is real desperate. This is the Buffalo Bills or the, you're going to be chasing Seales with Red Bull. And I think that's exactly it. Because Damien Harris, he had a scary neck injury. He's not going to play this week. Which means it's going to be James Cook. That's probably the lean guy for the bills.

But that means Latavius Murray, 33 years old, oldest running back in the NFL, Latavis Murray. Tallest running back in NFL history. There you go. Does he just seem freakishly tall out there? I don't know why. Every time I see him, I'm like, that's the tallest running back I've ever seen. Probably gets a lot of first stage.

Too tall. Good posture, too. He's got that Darren McFadden posture running. 100%, yeah. He's like, the opposite of Tyree kill crouching behind the line, LeTavis Murray. She's just like totally up, right? Highman wins. Feels like the worst way to run, but who does?

I think this is the, perfect example of I think Latavius Murray is the worst possible player you could start this week that I'd be like man I'll probably work out like Latavis Murray like he's just going to get the red zone carries for the bills he's going to pop a Cialis

he's going to chuck a red bull he's going to be playing the Patriots defense that dude's going to have 27 yards in a touchdown again eking it out I could be way off here but isn't there something about guys taking Viagra to work out or something like that? I think it's

pod? I think it's one of, I think it is on the list of banned substances, Craig. It could be completely... Because it like increases blood circulation, obviously. I think there's something about guys working out and taking like Viagra and Seattle, but I don't quote me. That sounds like something of friends, a friend group would tell their friend, it's like, yo, that works.

And then like the urban legend, it's like... You know what the best pre-workout actually is? It's Viagra. Slam some creatine, take a Viagra. Next one, Denver here. You're going to be wearing a hottie shirt by Thanksgiving. You better ask your wife to forgive you.

You better ask you why. And this is like, man, you're going to be starting Jalil McLaughlin by Thanksgiving. You better get out of Denver. I don't know, man. This is bleak.

What sucks is like, McLaughlin's coming in and stealing all the things that Javante was supposed to be, like, had the upside for. Javante was like good at receiving. And I remember everybody freaked out last year. He had like 12 catches in week one.

And everybody was like, oh my God. Javonte's got, you know, the full package. I still think Javante is good. And I think he's still coming back from this, this bad knee injury.

He might be better down the road. I'm still banking on Peyton was working him back in last week, which was his first game back. So I'm still definitely siding with Javante both this week and long term over McLaughlin. And they're playing Green Bay, not a scary matchup.

You better ask Javentia to forgive you. Yeah, you better ask him to forgive you. The next one I have for the L.A. Rams, I have the do you like turmeric, charcoal ice cream? You better learn to like it. And it's like the Rams down Kieran Williams, Spray and ankle, and then Ronnie Rivers, the backup,

has a T. This is the worst one. I've decided this is the worst one. This is the worst one. This is insane. So it's like, Sean McVeigh, who again, exiled KMakers. It was like, you know what?

Two running backs. I'll only have two. And then both got hurt. And now it's like, damn, it's just charcoal ice cream. And it's like they got Zach Evans. I, Zach Evans is like ostensibly would start. He's the only running back left.

Zach Evans didn't even play special teams until last like a week or two ago. Like he wasn't even active on game day. They brought up Royce Freeman from the practice squad. These dudes haven't even been in the offense. They've been doing like the scout team running back job. They brought in Daryl Henderson who the team cut a year ago and no one else even hired him. He's been on the street.

Yeah. Miles Gaskin. They took him off the Vikings practice squad. I guess it's some Cam Acres swap. I don't even know. But it's like, they're like, I guess your offense is similar to ours, I guess. Like that'll take anyone. And I'm thinking and I'm like, oh, so people to throw Zach Evans to the flex.

Dude, I'd rather play Latavius Murray. Like, literally, it's like, these, Kyron Williams is going to be out longer than we think. Ronnie Rivers is going to be out a month, maybe two. And I'm like, dude, do you like Zach Evans? It really is like charcoal ice cream. Like, to me, sometimes no dessert is better than a weird dessert. Like, I fucking hate when you're out like,

your teeth are all black. You're like one of those like bougie ice cream places and it's like lavender olive oil ice cream. And you're like, I'd rather just not eat that, you know? I'm good. It's like Thanksgiving flavors, turkey and gravy. You know the thing you get on Christmas if you were a bad kid? Put that in your ice cream.

Sounds like a threat. To me, this is the worst one, though, because in some universe, like, Sean McVeigh is going to give this guy 30 carries. You know what I mean? Like, this one among all these feels like the most potential ceiling. But it's just fucking Russian roulette trying to pick the right one. You know what I mean? Like, who knows who it's fucking going to be.

You're so right, DK. It's a thirst trap because you're like, well, Kairn Williams got it. Here's the thing. Sean McVeigh, did you just ever see that documentary, Eurodreams of sushi? Yeah. about the, so basically it's like the best sushi guy in the world and he's a family restaurant. His son worked there. I'm talking like a son in his like 40s.

He, his son, they have like an egg, like it looks like cornbread, but it's like an egg bread, but it's like an egg bread that they put on one dish of like a 12th. The son had to work there for 10 years until he was allowed to make the bread. Like with the egg. He allowed to cook the eggs for 10 years. That's Sean McVeigh's a Michelin Star restaurant. And I'm like, dude, dude, he's not letting Zach Evans touch the food. Like there's no chance.

So, that Zach Evans was like, Zach Evans is not practice in this offense until like today. It does feel like unless we hear something definitive, and even then I'm still going to be a little skeptical, unless we hear something definitive from one of the B reporters, you're probably sitting at sitting all these guys, right? Yeah, it's a wait and see how it goes. Who are you, like let's handicap it?

Who do you think is the most likely to get the volume if it's going to be anybody? And please don't take this as like official advice. This is just more like our gut. Nobody. I think they split it. Henderson, every time Matt Stafford needs to be blocked for, it will be the person who's done that before. And so I think Darrell Henderson was signed. I think Darrell Henderson's going to be active and playing. I think he'll be God. It's just a question of who won't get Matt Stafford killed.

That is Sean McVeigh's first priority. And I think it's probably not the rookie who hasn't played on offense yet. I assume it would be Darrell Henderson. But if not, might be Miles Gaskin. I really don't know. I really don't know. That's where I'm leading. I'm on the Miles Gaskin. I mean, he's the best player. Right. I know. Like Miles Gaskin, number one, has like some experience in the league doing stuff. You know what I mean? Like I was looking back a couple years ago, he was like the wide receiver or the running back 27 and 28 like in

I think it was 2020, 2020, 21. And like at least he's done it before. You know what I mean? It was clearly for a different team. But I don't know. To me like Gaskin seems like, what's the, you know, the meme where it's like the sniper? There's a guy sitting behind someone in a pew and then there's a sniper up

in the top. You know that meme? I'm talking about that. That's Gaskin. Gaskin's like the guy up top. He's just going to take everybody out. I know exactly. I love explaining memes on podcasts.

It's super cool. The Bears are that you don't have the cholesterol to be out here because it's like Rochon Johnson's still in concussion protocol. And we don't know if he's going to play. So we got Deonté Foreman again for the Bears. It feels like Rochon's not going to play. It's Thursday. He didn't practice today.

I would just play Deonté Foreman. I think that's the answer. You don't want to be out here. That's overall the state of the running back. Just don't be out here. You know what? Love the wife of your youth. That's love the running back of September.

You better ask your wife to forgive you. Yeah. Ask, yeah. All right. We have a contest over at Fandall. It's running from week three to week 10. We're taking the top five scores. We're averaging them and the highest average score.

We'll be the winner of the contest. There's money. There's a trophy. There's our eternal gratitude. Fandle.com slash ringer FFS. Or as Craig would like me to tell you, it's in the episode description so you don't have to do anything. D.K., who's your star and by Scrabble?

We mean good players cheap. Like who are you building your team around this week? I'm going with my star is Kenny Walker. Kenneth Walker the second? Third. Third? How many are how many Kenneth walkers are out there? Going with Kenny Walker against the Cardinals.

Cardinals are one of the worst defenses in the NFL. I think the Seahawks are going to give Walker the ball a ton. Like if you look at their last game against the Bengals, he got like 85% of the running back action. It's like it's not, it's still his back. So I'm going to Ken Walker. And then my scrub is Michael Mayer. I'm just going out on a limb here.

And I had not a lot of money left at the tight-end position. So I said, Michael Mayer, he looked good. Let's do that. I love him as my tight end. My other scrub was, I had Jackson Smith and Jigwood because I figured we were talking about how frustrating it was. It was like, that means this is the week. Yeah, he ran a lot of routes.

He ran the same amount of routes last week as, as D.K. And lock it. So we'll see. Maybe D.K. will push someone over again and then he'll get benched. Craig? Starr, I'm doing the Stafford Cup stack against the Steelers. The Steelers are the worst team in the NFL

against wide receiver ones. So we saw him, Devante Adams destroyed the Steelers this year. I think Cooper Cup's going to have 385 yards. And then my scrub, I'm going to go with Rashi Rice. You know, if it's going to happen

for the Chiefs, it's going to happen against the Chargers defense. And Rishie Rice has been knocking at the door. So I like him. He's cheap. That's a good one.

I like that a lot. I like that one a real lot. I also like Jordan Love, just having a buy week to figure out how to, you know, carve up this incredible Broncos defense. I mean, hey, they held the,

The chiefs to 19. Here you go. That's a good point. All right. You guys want to hit a couple emails? Emails. A lot on pronunciations. So last week,

you're talking about how I already forgot the person. Craig Reynolds, the running back for the lines, went to Kutz Town. A lot of people from Pennsylvania went in. People were upset. It's pronounced Kootz Town.

Kootz Town. Wait, is it Kootz or Kutz? Kutz. Kutstown. Like foot. Seems like we should get this right since I'm so mad about it. It's Kootz Town. Cutstown. You said Coots Town. It's Coots Town. I did. Rhymes with puts or foots? Cuts Town. Yes. So then someone also emailed in, we actually did this in the draft show, but it was two years ago. They were like, can you pronounce these random Pennsylvania towns?

I'm going to see this list. Do you guys want to give me a crack? Should I just run through it? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And he was like, I should provide the correct pronunciation guide, but where's the fun in that? Good luck. All right. I'm just going to rattle these through. Ready? Con Shahoken? Ooh. Shulkel? Bala Sinwood. Dude, that's in Wales. What are we talking?

Littitz. Lyditz. I'm going to go with Lyditz. That one's got to be Ducane. North Versailles, nobles, Wilkes Bar and Wilkes Barre?

And reading. But is it Redding? Probably Reading, yeah. We'll see. Let me know. hit rate was. Grade me, folks. Bala. Kinwood? Kinwood? No idea.

While we're talking about pronunciations, an email from Bradley. I got ripped for this. Not going to lie, I'm going to be totally vulnerable to show right now. Like, Hyfitts pronounced that guy Fieri. It's Guy Fieri. That's true, but I genuinely had no clue and I would like you guys to explain to me what's happening to me. It's like, we can say Chile. Is this like, look, Bartholona of names? Am I getting ex-Len? We all can put on like the Italian accent. Fietti. Am I the correct thing?

Call him Guy Fietti? I mean, that is, yes. He would say it, Guy Fiatty. I feel like I've heard his name exclusively through promos on television of his name, and I don't think I've ever heard that said. I've heard it both ways. Is that like a trick on myself? I've heard it both ways.

Next up on the food channel, Guy Fietti. Like, am I just, have I heard this wrong my whole life? I don't, look, I don't think you're wrong here. I think I've heard it pronounce Fieri like a lot. but I also heard Fieri. Okay. I have a huge, huge news, though.

This is the most, speaking of Guy Fieri, Kai Fieri, or sorry, Kai Fieri. Deity. Oh, when I was in Barcelona. Abiza. We're trying to figure out a way to get Kai and eating more food, etc, et cetera, et cetera,

and like, you know, integrating with her waivers thing. Got an email from Matt, New Zealand. Matt, New Zealand. Kai, join the, get in here, Kai. I showed Kai this email. I've not said Craig and D. Get in here, Kai. Oh, boy.

It's from Matt from New Zealand. Long time listener, first time emailer. I wanted to drop you guys a line to let you know an ironic fact about Kai's name. Ooh. Okay. Ironically, in the Maori language, and I hope I'm getting that right, Maori language. Maori.

I think it's Madi. Maori? I don't know for sure. I'm not going to pretend to know for sure. I apologize. So it's of the original people in New Zealand. and there's a lot of dialects throughout Polynesian world. Kai literally means food.

Kai means food. Poetic, if you will. And the fitting take is that on the proposed segment of Kai's guys, it would literally mean food guys. And that there are phrases in this language like Kai Kai Kai Kai means it's a prompt for babies to eat. Kai time is meal time. And I can't get this one right. Kai time is meal time.

Kai time. Should Kai's first food be a kiwi? Oh. That's crazy. Kai means food. I like it. This is the craziest revelation. No, it's wild.

And to make, I texted this to hyphids, but like, to make it even better, my first name is Matthew. So this guy's name was Matt. Wow. And it was just like, is he seeing through me? Like, what is this? Your whole life is a lie. So your name is Matt Food, Grady. That's me.

That's what they called him in high school. Food. Maddie food. Cheese. Maddie. You know, cheese. Did we used to call you, did we knock you in the dumpster one time? All right, Kai, have you had a kiwi?

I haven't. At least not that I can remember. So, like, that feels like a fitting, a fitting start to this terrifying journey. They're fuzzy, and they have a lot of seeds, so maybe it'll gross you out. But I like kiwis. They're good on a tart. Are they, like, sour or more sweet? They're more sweet.

Tart? I'm down. A little bit more sweet. I don't know. I feel like they make you like, make you like hucker a little. That's the word. I haven't had a QI in a while.

I was gonna say, I can't remember the last time I'm had a Qaeda. They're on like fruit tarts. I've had a Qaeda on a fruit tart. None of us know what flavors are, which is the thing. I especially don't. I think it's funny that like I get brought on to talk about.

It's like typically when you bring someone on to talk on a podcast. It's like something that like they know a lot about. And it's I just don't know anything. about food. It's how I feel watching soccer with my friends who, like, religiously watched the Premier League. And I'm like, kick it in the net. Like, watch the World Cup.

Like, what? Put the ball in the net. That's like me showing up on a Lord of the Rings pod and chiming in. Which, speaking of New Zealand, right? Didn't they film that there? Oh, yeah. Two buildings was shot. Craig, you can still go to the Shire or whatever.

Hobbiton. Hobbiton? Hobbiton? Had it the first time. Where maybe, yes, the Shire. It's one of them, right? Back me up here. It's the Shire.

Hobbiton is in the Shire. Okay. Wow. I thought that sounded so dumb. Someone tweeted at us. And they were like every single one of the fantasy football pods is this conversation. And it was from Always Sunny. And it was where Charlie or whatever his name is, Charlie Day.

And he's like, he's like, wait, is Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania? It was, is Pittsburgh in Philadelphia? In Philadelphia? It's like, check this. Did you guys know that Pittsburgh is in Pennsylvania? Yes. Yeah. Now think about that, that's crazy.

Like two cities in one state? No. No, that's not crazy. Not at all. No, no. All right, I don't think you understand. There's two cities in the same state. Like, how's that even possible?

All states have more than one city. Yeah, multiple settings. No. Yes. No. There's Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Yes. So that's what Pennsylvania is.

Oh, no. No. So Philadelphia is not Pennsylvania? No. This is us having this fucking conference. Hobbiton's in the Shire. Is it Hobbit Town? It is the Shire?

Is it spelled like Hobbit Town? Do you say Hobbiton? Yeah, so it's like we light the garbage on fire and then it goes up into the sky and it becomes stars. You know, that doesn't sound right, but I don't have enough evidence to refute it. Hobbiton. Yeah.

Anyway, we know a lot about flavor. We know all the flavor profiles there are. Fantasyf Football. the ringer.com for fantasy rankings. Thank you, D.K. Thank you, Craig. Thank you to George Dekke's dog. He's begging for food right now. Thank you to our beloved producer,

Food Fieri, Food Fieri. Food Fieri. Thank you, Jack, for help behind the scenes. Thank you, Lauren. Lauren. Thank you. The strokes. Nice, nice.

I got a lot of friends who like the strokes. I don't know why I haven't gotten into them. I do think they're good and talented band, but I haven't listened to a ton of the strokes. Yeah, it's not my scene. is it the guy he's a great name isn't it at least singer julian casa blanca isn't that his name yeah that's an that's a that sounds like a made up name for a movie about a rock star it's like all time right yeah maybe he's from abeta barthalona or he made it up he's one of those guys who didn't just stick with whatever name yeah and he's like i feel like let me look it up i'm gonna see i doubt he made it up right that'd be crazy would it be crazy oh it's costa blancas with an ass ends with an ass that is his name According to Wikipedia, which is never wrong. They're Brazilian.

They're Brazilian. Oh, there you go. Yeah. That makes sense. All right. Goodbye, everyone. Must be 21 plus and present in select states. Fandul is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino, LLC.

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