The Ringer NFL Show - 2025 NFL Rookie Check-in With Daniel Jeremiah
Episode Date: October 30, 2025Daniel Jeremiah from ESPN joins Sheil on the pod to analyze and debate how the 2025 NFL draft class is performing so far this season. (00:00) 2025 NFL rookie check-in(1:57) Cam Ward(5:30) Jaxson Dart...(9:21) DJ’s top three picks(13:21) Emeka Egbuka(15:13) Travis Hunter(19:17) Carson Schwesinger(20:21) Nick Emmanwori(20:40) Mason Graham(21:20) QB reclamation projects(25:44) The Hurry Up: Lions extend Aidan Hutchinson The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Sheil KapadiaGuest: Daniel JeremiahProducer: Chris SuttonSocial: Kiera Givens and Brian WatersProduction Supervision: Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcript
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Welcome to the Ringer NFL show.
I'm Shield Kabatia.
Today we are doing a rookie check-in.
We are approaching the halfway point of the season.
Where are we with guys like Cam Ward?
Where would Jackson Dart go in a redraft?
What about Emeka Egbuka?
So to talk about the 2025 rookie class,
we have one of the best in the business,
Daniel Jeremiah from NFL Network.
He is also the host of the Move This Dix podcast,
along with Bucky Brooks, which is available on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Talked about Travis Hunter, what's going on with his role in Jacksonville,
talked about some of these other big name rookies.
So it was a very fun conversation with DJ.
Let's take a break.
We'll come back, get to it, talking about the 2025 rookie class.
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CCPG.org slash chat in Connecticut. All right, we are back with Daniel Jeremiah. DJ. Let's start
at the top. The Cam Ward experience. Where are you right now? Is this just another case of like a rookie
quarterback in a bad situation. Do you have concerns now that you didn't have when you were scouting
him? How do you kind of size this thing up for Ward and the Titans? Yeah, I'll tell you, I was out there
for training camp and went out there and watched him and saw what he had to work with there. And I remember
talking to somebody in the building and I used the phrase, look, you know, this is a team last year that
was both bad and boring. And I think they're still bad, but he's not going to be boring. And I think
that's the case. You see him get better and better
every game. The last couple weeks, he's looked good. I'm just
preparing for him because the Chargers play them this
weekend. So I kind of dig in and studying his stuff and I'm going through some of my
notes. And when he has, the rare times, when he has nice, clean
pockets to operate from, you see him getting one to two quick, balls
gone accurately. But he's under so much duress and he's having to
shuffle reset. He's actually better when he just stays on the move
than when he tries to gather and reset and throw.
But, you know, the arm is there, the quickness is there.
Like all the stuff that you liked about him in college, you see it here.
They've just got to build up around him.
So I'm hopeful with some of the rookies they got.
Chimere D.K. is playing well.
Helm, the tight end is going to be a good player.
They've got to get better offensive linemen.
They need a true, you know, a true legit number one.
There's been so much talk in the end.
Rightfully so this year about like the situations quarterbacks are in with
Darnold and Daniel Jones.
and you can go across the board.
If you're the Titans now,
you moved on from one coach.
You have huge decisions to make in the off season,
both from a personnel standpoint and a coaching standpoint.
Like, what's the blueprint?
What's the plan?
You know, you're calling that Titans Chargers game
and they sidle up to you and they say, DJ,
give us a little help here.
How do we position this guy for success after what might be a rocky rookie season?
What do you do?
Well, I think the coaching thing, you know,
we'll see what happens with that and what they're looking for in the off season.
Man, it's just been such a, my head's gone so bonkers with all these college jobs.
I'm like, are we headed towards an NFL Armageddon as well where we see a bunch of NFL openings?
Who knows?
But just from a roster building standpoint, I'll always stand on this mountain, which is, you know,
when you have a young quarterback, the first thing you do after you draft a young quarterback
is you walk down the hallway and you apologize to your defensive coordinator and say,
sorry, but, you know, for the next couple years, all of our resources, draft-wise,
free agency-wise, we're going to go to get this guy up and running.
Because, you know, you bring in your new coach and you get next year and he's making progress
and he's taking strides and you're losing games 30 to 27, you know, versus, hey, we loaded up
the defense and we're losing 13 to 10 every week.
It's just a different feeling in the building.
It's a different feeling amongst your fan base.
Like, you've got to get him up and running.
And so that to me is why you've got to have an aggressive off season.
Yeah, it felt like they tried to prepare.
for that with some of their offensive line moves last all season.
But they got the best that was available.
It wasn't, and to me, that's like given Dan Moore all that money, okay, he might
have been what was the best of their available options, but, you know, he's not a great
player.
So you better off maybe even packaging picks to go up and try and get yourself some help
in that regard.
Yeah, it certainly didn't work out.
Cam Ward getting sacked on 11% of his dropback so far this season, a very, very high
number.
All right.
Other quarterback, we got to talk about.
Jackson Dart. And I was thinking about this.
We did a redraft today.
Let's say they made some weird announcement, DJ.
And they just said, hey, rookies, you're going back in the pool.
We're doing a draft in the middle of the 2025 season.
Where does Jackson Dart go after this five-game sample we've seen with the Giants?
I would say no worse than second to Cleveland.
Okay.
That trade happened.
The Travis Hunter trade, they got out.
They ended up sliding back to five.
Jacksonville comes up.
Travis Hunter, to me.
They don't trade out in that scenario.
They have a quarterback that's worthy of that number two overall pick.
He's absolutely proven that.
And that's the low end.
The other discussion is well, it's him and Cam Ward.
And that's a conversation that would have been a lot more serious having seen what we've seen.
And it's not like Jackson Dart's playing with a bunch of world beaters since Malik neighbors got hurt.
And now you got scatibu out, unfortunately, as well.
But, yeah, that would be he's a top two pick if we redid the draft at this point in time.
That's the thing.
It really is not a great situation.
I mean, with neighbors out and you look at it there, it is impressive.
The plays he's made.
So if you do, you know, not to put you on the spot, but Dart first Ward, you're right.
It is a conversation now because you look at it and neither is in a great situation.
And you have kind of your evaluation of Ward on all the college tape versus this five game sample.
So who would you take right now if you had to choose?
Yeah, that's absolutely on the spot.
I saw Dart.
I was there for his first start against the Chargers.
and like I said, I'll see Cam this weekend.
So I'm going to cop out and say I want to just see Sam live,
but I'll say this when, and I said this after that Giants game,
which the Giants won, that dude, Dart, just not only the play that he brought,
running the ball, you know, some throws that he made,
he energized the entire building.
Like he, that place was on fire when he got in there,
and you've seen it in the other games that he's been at.
When he came out, man, I almost felt bad.
Russell Trots out there after he goes, you know, gets hurt.
And they boot him, darn here, boot him out of the stadium just to come in and run a series.
But that's how he completely changed the environment that he was in.
So that's not something you see often with a, you know, with a rookie quarterback this quickly to have just energized an entire organization.
So if I was going to lean, I would lean Dart, but that's because I've been in the building.
Let me see Cam Ward in the building this week.
And I'll give you a better answer.
For Dart, what are like the next steps for him?
We see the scrambling.
We see the playmaking.
We see the aggressiveness downfield.
when let's say we're having this conversation a year from now.
What are the things you hope to say,
hey, he really developed more in that area
and really got to another tier?
Yeah, I think just knowing where your answers are,
you know, there's some times where he's held the ball a little bit
with some pressures and just kind of, you know,
just needs to play more and figure out where those outlets are,
how to get rid of the ball and just survive and move on to the next down.
I love how aggressive he is.
Just a runner.
I love the temperament of it,
but he's going to have to pull that back a little bit
to have longevity.
So that's just going to be something he learns as he goes along.
Man, he's in a pretty good spot.
I mean, it's only going to get better.
I mean, this is going to be with the injuries they have now,
hopefully in his case, the worst supporting cast he has for the next five to ten years.
I mean, however long his run goes,
it's going to be much better than what he's playing with right now.
So I think you're going to see another big jump.
Yeah, he got out of some sacks last week against the Eagles that were just very,
very impressive.
The play's never dead with him, to your point?
I think that will be maybe something they coach with him
that, hey, you can't be taking all those hits,
but it is very entertaining to watch here.
All right, next one I have for you.
So this draft, I feel like when I was going through,
it was like, all right, running back wide receiver, tight end.
Those guys were kind of jumbled between Gentie and Tyler Warren
and the wide receiver.
So you're an expansion team.
You get your pick of any running back wide receiver or tight end
from the 2025 draft class.
We'll include Travis Hunter in this.
So Hunter, Egbuka, Teteroa, McMillan, Tyler, Warren, Genti, whoever else.
Who's the guy to say, this is the guy right now I would take on my team?
So can I do three?
Can I do one running back, one receiver, one tight end?
Can I get three guys?
Okay, but then you got to give me one overall.
Okay, yeah, that's fine.
That's fine.
Okay.
Yeah, happy to do that.
But I want to do three.
But by the way, I love expansion.
How fun is an exp—
Like, it doesn't come around, but so off.
But when it does, I love the whole thing about it.
You got to protect a couple guys.
You got to expose the rest of your roster.
Then they have to decide, you know, if you have two expansion teams, one's going to go
with the veteran route, pay a bunch of guys.
The other one's going to say, no, we're going to play all these young players.
I hope, you know, if we've got 32 teams, it's kind of a perfect setup, but I love,
I love expansion.
So I love this conversation.
I would go, I'll go, I'll go, give three positions, and I'll tell you who would be.
My running back might surprise you, I'll take Amarian Hampton.
And I know he's nicked up right now.
But I was, you know, call the game when it was the Raiders and the Chargers, and you go down there in warmups.
He is, he's such a physical specimen.
He's enormous.
He can run it.
He can catch it.
You know, he's, he had the misfortune of some offensive line injuries with the Chargers and then he got hurt.
But when you saw him, when he was out there and there was just the smallest bit of room, like he's explosive and dynamic and can you pass, protect, catch the ball, everything.
So all that together, I would take him as my back.
I would take a Buka as my wide out.
I think that's not even a, I don't even think it's close.
I mean, and I, McMillan's done some nice things.
He's clearly their, their number one option there in Carolina.
You know, Travis Hunter when he's, you know, got his few opportunities down the field,
he's shown what he can do.
But just as an overall receiver, a Mecca Bucas already, I think he's a top,
he's a top 8 to 10 wide out in the NFL right now as a rookie, in my opinion.
So he would be clearly my choice there, which is going to give you a little bit of
hint to where I'm going with his overall pick.
But then my tight end, it was close.
I would go Tyler Warren.
with all that he's done.
But again,
Sienerronday Gatson every week
and what he's done the last three games,
he is going to be a very productive player.
He's got like,
he's got like Zachert's plus type skills to me.
Like he's that type of mover
and he's got a really good feel and space.
Herbert clearly trusts him.
So he would be my alternate,
but Tyler Warren for everything that he does,
what he does after the catch,
just the big target that he is in the middle of the field.
And I love everything that he brings to the table.
So those are my three, my number one overall.
You can tell by my response would be Abuka.
A Bukka, okay.
I got you.
Let's take a break.
I want to talk more about Ibuka.
I want to talk more about Travis Hunter, too, and what we've seen from him so far.
We'll do that when we come back.
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All right, we're back on the Ringer NFL show.
Ekbuka's been unbelievable.
I'm not someone who studies the draft like you do.
So I'm reading your report.
And the sense I have in my head, you know, when you're doing that, is like,
all right, this seems like a polished, reliable, like going to come in and contribute right away.
He's got 11 catches at 20 plus yards.
That's third in the NFL right now averaging 16.5 yards per reception.
When you were studying him, did you think he could be that?
kind of explosive threat?
Or what do you think some of the time?
I mean, he didn't go that far down, but some of the teams that made me
passed on him, what do you think they missed on him?
Because it seems so obvious right now how good he is.
He's been awesome.
And he is.
He's been more dynamic than I thought he would be.
And to be fair, like the comparisons, the two guys that I thought of when I studied
him are two guys who've been awesome.
And that's Aminraa St.
And Jackson Smith and Jigba, like obviously the Ohio State thing there.
but those guys were just strong, tough, physical, polished, understand route running,
understand leverage, you know, quick in and out of breaks.
But like he's getting vertical on posts, you know, week after week after week,
and Baker loves throwing that ball.
So he's been able to be a little bit more dynamic from that standpoint than maybe I anticipated.
But, you know, he's such a pro.
I love the fact he's grounded through the catch.
Like he catches a ball on the dead run.
He doesn't have any hands issues.
So he's going to, his cleats are in the ground, he's going to catch it,
which gives you a lot more opportunity for yards after the catch, which is huge.
So, I mean, he's just, he's the polish, you know, we thought, okay, yeah, the polish,
he'll do that, but he can play inside, he can get vertical.
He's been, he's been a lot more than that.
Yeah, he's been incredible for them from day one.
All right, let's have the Travis Hunter conversation, DJ.
Let's see where we're at with Travis Hunter.
Eight weeks in, he's got 28 catches for 298 yards.
he's played 305 offensive snaps, 154 defensive snaps.
When they made that trade, I'll be honest.
I was like, Jacksonville, I don't trust them to have a plan.
I'm very excited to see what Travis Hunter is going to do in the NFL.
I wish he went to a franchise that I looked at and said,
I trust that they're going to have a plan for this guy and we're going to see the best of him.
What do you make of their plan so far with Travis Hunter?
I think it's hard.
I think it's hard when there's no blueprint, you know.
when there's no map.
So I don't want to be overly critical because I'm sure they're trying to figure this thing out as
just about anybody would.
I think he's been more offense than defense.
To me,
I said coming out,
and this is part of Lee because I was told he likes offense more.
He wants to play offense.
That's where his heart is.
So he's really good at corner,
but that's,
you know,
offense.
So I came to the point of like,
okay,
let's major him big time in offense and let's just learn all that.
And then literally,
maybe even if we said the defense can come along once we get through the first quarter,
maybe even the first half of the season,
but we're just going to lock in on offense,
learn everything,
be a real wide receiver,
not somebody who's a gadgety gimmicky guy,
but let him get down the field.
And then you can start adding onto his plate after that.
I think they tried to give him a little bit of everything,
and I think they kind of watered him down, so to speak.
And they haven't used him down the field.
When they've given him opportunities,
one against Kansas City,
one against, I believe, was Samford,
Cisco, I want to say, down the scene, but he can go up and make plays.
But it's just if we're just going to pitch him, you know, quick screens and bubbles and, you know, that kind of stuff.
I'm like, I think you're shortchanging him.
I remember reading your report and then watching him.
And he's a downfield threat.
So I looked it up before we started.
His average target is coming eight yards downfield.
I know.
I hate it.
That ranks 94th out of 111 qualifying wide receivers.
I mean, that is, yeah, that does not feel.
like the way you want to use him as a rookie here with it.
When you make such a big swing like that and they trade the future first and they come out
and they're not, they weren't, you know, tame with their expectations for Travis Hunter
with the press conferences and everything.
Is there a pressure in the building that we, hey, we got to have him play both sides.
We got to, you know, we got to make sure people know we had a plan for this versus like,
does that come into play versus let's just play them on offense and let's just kind of change
this thing up now that we're halfway through the season?
Yeah, again, I think you probably, and you could tell by their comments afterwards that, you know, they thought they had Joey Otani and this is going to be the chance to just, you know, unleash him.
And it's like, I've given him grace because there's never been really a team that's put in this situation.
So I think they're learning as they go.
And I think if you gave him a little bit of a do-over, just my opinion from the outside, maybe they would more major him one-sided early on.
But again, it's hard to sit here and say, oh, you guys are morons.
How can you not see this?
And why are you doing this out of the other?
When it's like, well, yeah, what do we have to go off of here?
Like there's true.
We haven't seen it.
So I'm hoping that this year is a year where they kind of figure this thing out.
And then, you know, to me it's a gradual growth for him on, on, you know, being a two-way player.
Okay.
Yeah, you're right.
I should give, I can learn from you.
Give a little more.
Don't just be ripping everybody, you know, when you have criticism, let them give them some time.
It hasn't figured up.
But to be fair, to your feelings, we thought this was going to be an extremely high fun factor.
And it hasn't been.
It's been tough.
It's actually been a little, yeah, I thought he's going to be must-see TV.
It's been a little bit of a tough watch, not getting that excitement.
All right.
Defensive side of the ball, DJ, five years from now, take Abdul Carter out of the equation.
Because unless you have someone over him, I think he seems like the number one guy.
But five years from now, who is the best defensive player?
from this draft class.
I'm going to go Carson Swessinger,
a linebacker for the Cleveland Browns.
Okay, good one. He's all over the field.
You can't watch the Browns defense.
First of all, Miles is going to do his thing,
but you can't watch them without seeing this dude
just kind of a blur. He's got tremendous range.
He's got instincts.
He's not just an undersized guy who can't get off a block.
Like, he can thud off blocks and make plays.
To me, you're going to look up,
and this guy is going to make a lot of Pro Bowls.
He's going to be a stat stuffer.
And I think he's got a chance.
They've got some good pieces there on defense that they've got a chance.
You know, they've got a lot of assets because of the guy we just talked about and Travis Hunter going forward.
That they could, you know, if they can get the quarterback thing figured out, maybe Cleveland could come around a little bit.
But I think he's going to be a stat stuffing machine on that defense.
Carson Schwessinger.
Okay, a couple of few other names I had written down.
Carey your thoughts on these guys?
Jehad Campbell.
I'm going to give you my second one.
Before you say, can I give you my second?
Okay.
Let's see he was on our list.
Mike Hill Williams was my next one.
Oh, interesting.
Okay.
I did not have him.
What about...
Who all said you have?
Nickyman Worry from the Seahawks.
Yep.
Yep. Big fan.
I mean, he's had some reps that have been very impressive, right?
Looks like he's 11 feet tall, 500 pounds out there in that number three jersey.
Yeah.
He's, and to me, they kind of know that you put him closer to the line of scrimmage.
He can wreck some shop.
Okay.
And then I went, where are you at with Mason Graham here?
Eight weeks in.
I think he's been good.
I have a running deal with Greg Rosenthal at NFL Network
because he kind of killed him coming out.
And I backed him up.
So then every time he'd make like a tackle for loss,
I text him and then he was getting grief from people on Twitter.
Look, he hasn't been like dominant, like, you know,
top five pick defensive tackle.
Oh my gosh, this is, you know, Fletcher Cox, Jeffrey Simmons, you know, type player.
But he's been really solid, really good.
Okay.
Yeah, I mean, Mason Graham?
Schwessinger, they got the, they got the Jags first round pick.
Yeah, they got some pieces there for the Browns.
All right, I wanted to finish with just a conversation on, I've seen you tweet about this.
And I think it's the story of the season is the QB reclamation projects.
I mean, Daniel Jones, Sam Darnold, Baker, Mayfield.
If you are one of these teams, you just mentioned, if the Browns can figure out their quarterback situation,
if you're one of these teams that's going into the offseason needing a quarterback,
What lessons do you take away from this?
Has this opened up maybe a different path that we didn't think about five, ten years ago?
How sold are you that this is actually something that teams can explore more?
Hey, it didn't work out for that guy there, but we believe in X, Y, and Z,
and it might not be that expensive that they can go this route.
I think what it does is it eliminates the marriage of like.
So you go through the draft process and you're like, I like this quarterback.
Yeah, okay. Well, don't take him.
Because if you're in the like world, you're not in the love world, then let's go get one of these reclamation projects.
It's going to cost, it's going to cost a lot less in terms of the opportunity cost.
Then we also, gosh, if it doesn't work out, you're not going to get crucified for it.
It's almost somewhat of a flyer.
It's like a high reward, low risk maneuver.
Now, don't go wrong.
If you'd love a quarterback or even if it's not that, you know, you don't have the first pick, but you could tell Sean Payton love Bo Nix.
So, yeah, go for it.
But we've seen other times where you're up there and it's kind of like, well, this is the next quarterback.
We need a quarterback.
So I guess we just take him.
And now you're going to look up and people are going to say, well, I don't know.
Let's see.
Like, could we squeeze something more out of, you know, who's this next batch going to be?
You have Mac Jones is going to get recycled.
I think Trey Lance is going to eventually get another opportunity who was super young when he came out.
So there's going to be another wave of these guys of players that were higher picks that, you know, that need a new fresh start.
what is the common thread if you're looking?
Because it is hard to find that next guy.
Now we can all look at it.
Oh, Daniel Jones, but I don't think many people were saying.
I wasn't saying it before the season.
I'll raise my hand.
Are you looking for the draft pedigree?
Are you looking for traits?
Are you looking for someone who's like, man, that was a really bad situation?
Like, what do you think the move is to try to identify the next reclamation project?
Well, I think the traits, you know, are a big part of it.
Now does he have the physical traits?
Those guys that have all, and even Baker, even though he's not the tallest guy,
I had a huge arm.
And so you knew the traits were there.
So you start with the traits.
Then to me, I think you have to figure out whether or not the quote unquote failure at their previous stop has kind of either, you know, make them stronger and built a toughness and a leatherness to him, a callousness to him or if it's broken them.
You can't fix a broken quarter.
If he's broken, he's broken.
You know, you've got to figure out if this guy is mentally tough enough to come out of where he was.
that's where, you know, you've got to marry up the physical traits, but then also some of the
makeup side of things to see if that's going to work out.
In an NFL building, how are you trying to find that out? Is it like, all right, we, we're
friends with a coach or somebody who works with him. It's such a small league, man.
Okay. Everybody knows each other. And you've got players on your roster inevitably that have,
that have been with him, you know, in different places. And they'd say, hey, look, I was, I know
when it was going bad there, but this guy never hung his head. This guy worked his butt off. This
guy, you know, I think, you know, you've got some belief in him and more of an understanding of
a situation that was more impactful than maybe you realize from the outside. So I think there's
ways to gather that information. There you go. We'll see who the next reclamation projects are
in 2026. Thank you so much to our guest. Daniel Jeremiah, you can watch him on the NFL network.
He is also the host of the Move the Sticks. Do you remember you were Moved the Sticks back in the day?
And my first blog, DJ, was moving the chains.
Come on. Look at that.
I mean, I've known you, but a long time.
I love that. I miss some of our, we used to have our yearly visits at Eagles camp.
That's right.
You'd be driving by and pop the window open.
Hey, what's going on with Chip Kelly?
Who knows?
You know, maybe next time.
You can also listen to him, the Move the Sticks podcast with Bucky Brooks, available on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcast.
DJ, thank you so much for joining us.
No, I appreciate your friendship over all these years.
It's been a long time now when we've known each other.
That's right.
It's great to see you, buddy.
I had hair back in the day.
All right, I'll be right back with the hurry up.
The hurry up is presented by State Farm.
Don't settle for just any insurance when there's State Farm.
All right, in the hurry up today, we got big contract news in the NFL,
the Lions signing Edgerusher, Aidan Hutchinson, to a four-year, $180 million deal.
according to ESPN. Hutchinson is now the second highest paid non-quarterback in the league behind only
Michael Parsons. I mean, he's seventh in sacks. He's third in press. Just flat out one of the best
defensive players in the NFL, a guy who I think is going to win defensive player of the year,
one of these years. And he's only 25 years old. So this was a no-brainer for the Lions,
but I was thinking about it. No-brainers don't always get done. We have seen that with other organizations,
in specifically bad organizations.
These things drag out, you get to the end of the contract,
you're thinking about the franchise tag, you go.
No, they did this early, and it is a reminder that the Lions are not one of those bad
organizations.
They are a very well-run franchise at this point in time.
And that's something we shouldn't take for granted, because this is a franchise that
was a laughing stock for most of my life.
I mean, 31 year stretch from 1992 through 2022 where they didn't win a playoff game.
And that has now completely flipped to where no team has won more games over the last three seasons.
So I like to rip the dumb teams for doing dumb things, but I also like to credit the smart teams for doing smart things.
And the Lions locking up Aidan Hutchinson on a long-term deal falls into that category.
All right, the hurry up was presented by State Farm.
you wouldn't settle for just anything for your team on the football field.
Shouldn't it be the same for your insurance?
So don't settle for just any insurance when there's State Farm.
Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
Appreciate everyone listening.
Thank you to Daniel Jeremiah.
Thanks to Christopher Sutton for producing Kiera Givens on social
and additional production supervision by Connor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgapal.
We'll be back tomorrow on the Ringer NFL show.
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