The Ringer NFL Show - 2029 Future NFL Predictions With Ben Solak!

Episode Date: May 14, 2026

Sheil and Ben Solak from ESPN shine a light on some of the most polarizing players, teams, and coaches around the league, and theorize the headlines we’re likely to see about them buzzing around NFL media circles in three years.(00:53) 2029 Future NFL Predictions(04:06) Jalen Hurts(18:55) Peyton Manning and Tom Brady(26:25) Mike Tomlin(45:03) Kyle Shanahan(50:48) Robot refs(57:35) Lamar Jackson(01:05:20) Chicago Bears(01:10:06) San Diego ChargersThe Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available.Host: Sheil KapadiaGuest: Ben SolakProducer: Chris SuttonVideo Editor: Stefano SanchezProduction Supervision: Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. I'm your host, Shield Capadia. We got a fun one today. We are doing 2029 predictions. That's right. We're looking into our crystal ball and saying, what storylines around the NFL will we be discussing three years from now? If that sounds familiar to you,

that's because we've done this episode before with a man you might be familiar with. Ben Solac from ESPN and you know what? We convinced him, hey, come back for this episode this offseason. And so Solac joins me, we make our predictions for 2029. Let's take a break. We'll come back and we'll talk about it. All right, we are back here with our old friend, Benjamin Solac, from ESPN.

An old staple show for us. We are predicting storylines three years from now. I found this to be a fun exercise. But before we get ready to it, I mean, people want to know the fatherhood, the gardening, any other life updates, because that's really what this pod has always been about. No, the father is good, man. It's elite. We got second birthday coming up in a few days here.

And so, we'll officially no longer be 2002, which is nice. But the oldest is the bomb. She's like full toddler mode, right? We had a guy come in today to work on the sprinkler system, and she just followed him around. What's that man doing? Man has a blue hat. What is that?

That man's talking? Like, he's trying to have a conversation with me. That man's talking. Like, you're so good at it, baby. You got it. You're dialed in. So she is in narration mode. And she, you know, the body training's going really good.

doing pretty well. So she's the bomb. And then the younger is eight months and is like, for sure right now my favorite. Like easy, easy top ranking right now. She is. She's refusing to crawl. She barely rolls and she just sits there and is super fat and smiles at you. And then don't go anywhere and do

nothing. Just please just by it. And sit there and wait for things to be brought to her. She is so content. And she's like a big like, she'll make eye contact with you for a long time. It's like silently across the room. Like no sound, nothing just staring at you. And eventually you realize it's happening. You look at her and she just gives you that big smile, like that delayed smile the babies give you.

So yeah, two for two, man, they're good girls. I mean, see, Solac comes in and for someone like me who's not used to feeling emotion, who we're talking about what classes are we taking in high school. I think I might have felt something in there. I might have felt something in there as he was describing the younger age. I also appreciate that you power rank your children. And I hope that you keep that up in the years. I don't know how you could not.

No, yeah, you have to. Exactly. It changes often. And it's not, it's got to be more than weekly, I feel like. And it's not a matter of who I love more. I love you both the most. It's a matter of who I like more. And currently is the younger one and I'll keep you posted.

I like that. All right. I'm going to steal that. All right, Solek. NFL, it's May. We're looking ahead. We'll have plenty of times for this year's predictions and who's going to win the MVP and Super Bowl and all that.

But we're not doing that. We are looking ahead to the year 2029. Solex, kids are older. They are potty trained. I'm having a real life crisis. as maybe we're looking at colleges or post high school plans. What is happening at this time in the NFL as we get behind the microphones? That's what we're going to tell you today.

We figured it out. We have crystal balls and we're going to, you know, we've answered the questions to the test. So you really don't need to pay attention in the year 2029. We're going to tell you what exactly is happening. So, Lack, you lead us off. We got a bunch here. I will see how many we get to. But let's just see where the conversation takes us.

Take us to the first storyline. we're talking about in the year 2029. All right, let's start with a real, real bang, a real out there one. You ready? Steelers await news of Aaron Rogers' plans. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. That's not really.

Oh, thank God. That was about to end the podcast. This is the first time I would have been like, we need to edit that segment. No, that was a fun one. All right. Cardinals quarterback Jalen Hertz on facing Eagles for the first time. Quote, the shark only swims forward.

I couldn't do like, I couldn't do like, you know, new Cardinals quarterback. Jalen Hertz says the first, because Hertz only signed through 2028 and these are 2029 headlines. So presumably he's already been traded to Arizona. He's been there for a year. And then just however the scheduling goes, hopefully he would only get the Eagles till 29, so I can get my headline. And then I figured I would put in a very classic Jalen Hertzian-esque quote there.

I had to think of some sort of good animal metaphor, you know, very brief, you know, kind of firm one liner. He can say it with like monotone and then just kind of like smirk at the reporter he's talking to. but yeah, like things are coming to a head with the Eagles and with Jalen Hertz. Absolutely are, right? We're on office coordinator number five. We've gone to multiple Super Bowles, but we're still getting Jeremy Fowler tweets in May being like, seems like Jaylen Hertz might be friends with his offensive coordinator, right?

Like we had, you know, McManus pieces and big coverage on the expectations for the offense and how much Hertz influences it and whether or not they throw in middle of the field because of him or in spite of him and how they want to change things and just, it's very clear that like there is tension between Hertz and to the Eagles organization writ large that is even independent of the AJ Brown scenario that we expect to be resolved around June 2nd. And so I have optimism, cautious optimism for the Sean Mannion and Jalen Hertz pairing. And if you're asking me the most likely outcome for the next couple of years, I think it's Eagles have pretty good offense because Hertz is a good NFL quarterback. St. Eagle and Barclay is

an excellent NFL running back. Devonta Smith is an excellent NFL wide receiver. They still have, you know, good tackles for now in Milana and in Lane. I'll see how much longer that lasts. But you trust their offensive line developmental systems along as Stoutland's still there. Like there's just enough good pieces on the offense that it probably should be good. But there are plenty of universes in which the Mannion thing really doesn't work

is super young, super green play caller. They're going to try to do a lot of stuff they haven't done in the past with Jalen. That can go great. They could also go very poorly. And as the situation deteriorates, and we know Howard Roseman will be willing to trade a quarterback contract.

We know Howard Rosen will be able to take a big, dead cap hit and kind of, you know, get back to the rookie contract quarterback, shed a bunch of contracts, and then kind of restart and retool this whole team. So I think when I go and I look at, you know, your top 10, top 12, top 14 quarterbacks in the league, and I try to find the guys who are most likely to be traded

when we did this three years ago, I did, I think Justin Herbert from the Chargers, should have done Burrell from the Bengals. But Hertz is one that obviously, like, the Eagles are the sort of team that would move off of him fast if they felt like, you know, all right, just take the big dead cap hit one year. Like I said, he's only got three years left from the deal.

If they post-June 1st trade him in the summer of 2028, So two years from now, they would save $21 million on the 28-28 cap and then take a big debt cap in 20209 with all the void years. So it is doable when we get to the end of that deal. I have them going to the Cardinals because, you know, it's the Cardinals, man. You can make them do whatever you want. Like, they don't make good decisions. You know, I wouldn't be surprised if the Cardinals are a team that wants to go for a veteran quarterback in the next couple of years because they did Rosen into Kyler and just their draft and develop has not been good. And so if they, you know, decide, oh, you know, we've figured stuff out with Nick Brown.

and Michael Thor, and we've developed Marvin Harrison. We're just a quarterback away that maybe the other Dylan Hurts team. So I sent him to Phoenix, and I gave him funny words to say as a headline. All right. So it's interesting because I think we probably had a similar process where you're just going through the teams, you're going through the quarterbacks, and you're going through the coaches. And you're kind of like, which of these important people in the NFL, their situation could

look a lot different three years from now than it does now. That's kind of the exercise. That's what makes it fun, where you're like, no, I think this person. you know, this person's going to be there. They're going to be fine. But, oh, maybe this person. If this doesn't go well, there's some uncertainty. It could look a lot of different three years from now.

I actually had a Cardinals one and I had a Hertz one. I'll hit you with the Hertz one in a second here. But let's just stick with Jalen Hertz this year because you mentioned it. Sean Mannion, new offensive coordinator. There is a lot of uncertainty around this Eagles offense and what it's going to look like. And I sort of feel like there's no scenario where the first six to eight weeks of the season are just like, man, this eagle's offense looks great. Like they just hit the ground running and it's perfect and everybody's a great fit with a new offensive line coach and a new offensive

coordinator and Jalen Hertz being asked to do all this different stuff. Man, it's seamless. I almost feel like the best case scenario is maybe first six, eight weeks of the season. There's bumps in the road. There's ups and downs. But it's like they're sticking with it. They're not getting away from it. There are some flashes. Their defense is good. So they're staying afloat in terms of their record. And then they want to be a team where like around Thanksgiving, you're having a conversation going, oh, things seem to be clicking here. Okay, I see what they were trying to do.

And it didn't look great in week three, but in week 11, it looks a lot different. And now they're getting ready for the stretch run of the season and maybe they're a threat in the NFC playoffs. What do you think? Is that aligned with how you vision sort of the bull case for this Eagles offense in 2026? I could see them hitting the ground extremely fast

because I think that you have seen young coaches from this tree, get their hands on a team, like, you know, full control over it, get two or three wrinkles into the kind of the existing, very healthy Sean McVeigh-Kal-Shanehan stuff, and then hit the ground very, very fast, before teams kind of get wise to it.

I'm thinking about Bobby Slough with the Texans, and I'm thinking about Mike McDaniel with the dolphins, where those guys were Shanahan guys, more of the Manion. Mannion's more of a, you know, LaFloor and By the Floor Shanna, McVeigh guy, excuse me. But there's a lot of ways where, like,

you know, one of the things the Packers did really well with Jordan Love was getting to a lot of like McBey Staples, but from the gun instead of from under center and running the ball from the gun instead of under center. And Manion like brings that to Philadelphia and gets like a good gun run game into a good play action, gun play action game.

That's something that like really fits what Hertz does well. And even in their best time with Kellynne Moore, like wasn't necessarily the strength of their game with Scycun was more like gun RPO game. So there's a world where they walk out. It's just like, oh my gosh, like they got stuff we weren't prepared for.

You know, they're breaking tendency and new wrinkle in offense that like, defenses haven't seen it a little bit, and they go steamrolling for six, eight, ten weeks. I can see that universe. And then they run into like, Ademika Ryans, Mike McDonald, a brain and stale. Like a guy who comes up with ideas defensively, get punched in the mouth. And then you see what Mannion's really got, right? How deep is your bag when you're not just like, you know, running the stuff you've prepared

for and you've kind of been scheming up for years? So I can see fast starts. I also hear you, though, in the sense of like, there's a lot, even over the four offensive coordinators, there was a lot more same language, same philosophy than it feels like there is for this fifth offense a coordinator. So there are like big growing pains worlds as well. That wouldn't surprise me either. All right. So that's interesting. So you're thinking more, hey, maybe the plan B is where they run into challenges versus, hey, these are all the things we rep during the off season. And we're not reinventing the wheel. It's just a lot different. But we're going to

have success with this because no one knows what it looks like the first part of the season. So we'll see which way that goes. I think Hertz is a, you know, I think Hertz, if you pulled a lot of people and said, do 20, 29 predictions, I think Hertz would come up a lot. So he came up in my first one there, So lax. So here's my first one. 2029. Hertz Stroud finding success

in their new homes. Oh, shield. How do we get? A backdoor Stroud in there. What are we talking about? So 2026, Eagles tried to make it work with Jalen Hertz

and Sean Mannion. And you know what? It just didn't look good. Team made the playoffs. Defense was still very good. But the offense wasn't great. Story was similar in Houston. C.J. Stroud.

just still did not look like the guy he was during his rookie season. Was it the O-C? Was it the O-line? Was it the lack of a run game? Was it C.J. Strau. Who knows? But you know what? The Texans, they had a decision to make. Do we sign this guy to a massive contract extension and make him one of the highest paid quarterbacks in the NFL? Because we're entering the final year of his rookie contract. The defense was still good. They're still a playoff team, but they're unsure about their quarterback. So, Howie Roseman. Nick Casario have a conversation after the 2026 season

and how he's looking at Stroud and going, they screwed that up. That's a talented quarterback. They didn't put him in the right position. He's only 26 years old. When do you get a chance to get a 26-year-old quarterback who can operate from the pocket like that? I think he gives us a better chance to win than Jail and Hurts

who might have won a lot of games but might have some limitations. Then Nick Casario brings in D'Amico Ryans. And they say, jailing hurts. That guy's the perfect culture fit. Houston native winner. Yeah. Doesn't turn the football over.

We don't need him to throw for 5,000 yards. This is a good one. We just need. He's going to be running the football. He's going to raise the floor. We know he's not going to turn it over. He's going to be a great leader. We got a championship caliber defense.

And so they make a trade. And here we are a couple of years after that trade. And it's a win-win. Neither side has made the Super Bowl yet. But they won a lot of games. and they're both going into the 2029 season, Stroud with the Eagles and Hertz with the Texans, these are two trendy Super Bowl picks.

And some NFL pundits, Ben, are even saying, Eagles, Texan Super Bowl, both quarterbacks face their former teams. What a story. When you say some pundits, is this you saying this? Are you the bunnies? I don't know who the pundits are at that time. I don't know. Will there be pundits at that time?

Anything could happen. What do you think? You saw me on that one as we were. going because like the I think of the Texans mismanaged Stroud and they don't extend Stroud like that'll be just like a pretty big error from a team perspective but the exact sort of

GM who would be bold enough to like go and get that deal done fast before you know Stroud you know whatever breaks out or like looks on a second contract or something would be Roseman and then I think the exact sort of coach who would fall for somebody like Jalen both in a good way and in a bad way like you know

fall sounds a little pejorative but like D'emico would be like yes absolutely get me like you know, culture guy, quote guy. The quarterback version of me. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Just do it.

So I like, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that makes sense. I personally would never have gotten that our predictions. I'm never trading CJ Stroud, but I do, I, you saw him on that one as you went. That was well done. Okay. So you said you're never trading C.J. Stroud. Now, I don't know if everyone's seen this, but Solax doing some video content. The man is in his garden.

I, I honestly have no idea how he's putting these together. some of the most compelling content on the internet. That's kind of you. Thank you. If you ask me, I mean, I got... I'm making them on Capcut. I'm a youth. All right. That's what the Gen Z are using. All right. Well, now I need to go, like, download that and figure out how to do it myself, not just me staring into a camera, but he's in front of his garden,

and he's just firing off these NFL takes and me. I mean, incredible. And one of them I saw was Solac just giving a full-hearted defense of C.J. Stroud, where if you look at Stroud's numbers, the last couple of years, they are quite ugly. There have been times watching him. Even me as a C.J. Stroud fan, there were times watching him last year, but I go, ooh, is he developing bad habits? Is this not the guy I loved during his rookie season? Or is it just the situation? You made the case, Ben, that it is almost entirely the situation for C.J. Stroud. So give that case here. And are you expecting it to look different in 2026? Or you might be here next year being like, all right, I know his numbers were bad

again, but I still love C.J. Stroud. What do you think? What's in the future for Strout? Well, so first thing is first. Let's start with bad numbers for Stroud. As Stroud is a rookie, right, 4,000 passing yards, 23 touchdowns, five picks, 100 pass a rating, like great numbers. You know, it looked beautiful. Advanced metrics. He had 0.06 EPA per dropback. He had a 45% success rate. Last year, 0.07 EPA per drop back, 46% success rate. Last year, by our advanced numbers, he was about as good of a quarterback as he was as a rookie. Now, when he was a rookie, he saw more base defense to anybody else. He saw more cover-through than anybody else.

Teams were selling out to stop the run because Sloak was running chain-of-hand stuff, and Stratt was just like nailing explosive plays like you wouldn't believe. So the raw stats are really, really good. The down-to-down snaps, like the per dropback stats were like, yeah, this guy's like a solid quarterback. The Texan's inability to run the football, which is what I covered in that social clip. And this is why I hate doing the social clubs because you're like, so I've made a full-throated endorsement about how the whole thing is context.

No, I'm going to have 90 seconds because everybody's brains have been fried by phones to make like one point, and that's never going to be a full encapsulation of something. Yeah. But the Texans just can't round the football. In Stroud's three years in the league, the Texans are 31st in Russia's success rate. They are 31st in EPA per rush. Only the Raiders are worse. The Stroud has seen year over year, the amount of base events he's seen goes down,

the amount of pressure on third down Cs he sees, the third and longs he sees, he sees more third and longs, any quarterback in the league. the last two seasons, save for Caleb Williams. Like, it is just, the Texans don't have a balanced offense. And so when Stroud has a good game, they win. I think everybody forgets. So they won like 11 games to finish the season, three of which were Davis Mills,

then Stroud came back in, they just kept winning. When Stroud has a bad game and he turns the football over, he puts the defense in bad positions, they can't run the football to like sustain drives. They can't flip field position. And then the Texans usually are still in those games late because Stroud can hit explosives in the second half and the defense is so good.

But in general, I just think that like, it's always the most, thing we've seen, right? Like, Stroud's two playoff games were just the two worst games I've seen him play. Like Herbert's playoff game against the Texans, or not the Texans, the Patriots defense, was like the worst game I've seen Herbert play. And so it's like, all right, like this is just the reality

of these guys. No, if that's the worst game we've seen CJ Stroud play is those last two games, then I don't think he's that. I think that's his worst. I think that's his floor. I think his reality, his average, his general outcome is somewhere quite higher than that. And I don't think that's like a bold, bold take to have. I think he's quite a good quarterback. You're right.

Still 12th in EPA. for pass play last year, same ranking as someone like Caleb Williams or someone like Sam Donald. Stroud's second half of the season, he came back from the concussion, and he was a little bit shaky at first, but the last like six weeks of the season was ripping.

And then he absolutely lost his mind in the playoffs in a way that's completely inexcusable and shouldn't happen for a franchise quarterback and is bad. However, do game simple. Higher than Trevor Lawrence, higher than some other guys here. Now it's just one stat, but no, I think that's a fair point.

I thought he was going to really get, I thought he was going to make the leap last year to like MVP candidate, like he's going to be in everybody's top five at the end of the season. And I don't think that happened, but I think you're right that it's not as bad as it felt at the end of the season when they lose in the playoffs there. All right, let's take a break.

We come back. We'll get to more predictions for 2029. All right, we are back here on the Ringer NFL show. All right, Solak, what do you have? What's next? Peyton versus Brady once again, AFC championship game, Colts versus Raiders.

The Indianapolis Colts are in an unbelievably odd management position at this time. I don't understand how the three daughters of Jim Ursette. I understand on paper how it's working and there's one in charge. They're all in the room helping to make calls

on who we're drafting around two. They're on the sideline with the headset. Okay. I don't know if it's good or bad. I just know that it's unique relative to what I expect from NFL ownership, right? It's Jerry Jones theorem. If you are different than the average ownership structure,

weird things might happen with your organization. We know that the seats have to be relatively hot on Shane Stuyken and Chris Ballard. They have made a Daniel Jones commitment for the next year. It's like, you know, kind of won your deal with another year team option. If it doesn't work out well this year, they'll probably move off of Daniel Jones, and I would assume move off of Chris Ballard

and move off Shane Stuyken. Now, whom will they replace? these guys that had Chris Ballard there for a decade as general manager. You know, Sykes has been the head coach there for almost four, gone on five years now. Well, you have seen this sudden uptick in ex-quarterback involvement in teams, right? The Raiders are minorly owned, minority owned by Tom Brady, which, you know, let's throw a quick to stop on the rant.

I can't believe we're all still okay with this, that he's owns part of the Raiders and he calls games for Fox. Every time I remember it happens, it blows my mind again. Anyway, maybe Bull British by 2029 will have decided to not let this happen, whatever. So Brady, and like, you know, 100% has significant influence over the Raiders' football decisions. They try to downplay it because they want him to continue

helping to run the team while also calling games for Fox. But like his buddy, he hired his buddy to be the general manager. The quarterback based drafted one overall, you know, whatever. He's like, you know, is his idol, so on and so forth. Chip Kelly said he talked to him. once a week, I think. At least once a week. He's around all the time.

The Falcons, with Matt Ryan. The Falcons are like, man, we're bad at this. We're bad at figuring out how to put together a team. You know what would help? Matt Ryan. Let's get Matt Ryan off the CBS desk and let's just get Matt Ryan, you know, in charge of president of all football and we'll be able to hire Ian Cunningham from the Bears. Bears won't get any compensatory effects and Bears fans will go ballistic.

Another hilarious, ridiculous thing that's been happening in just the machinations of NFL ownership. Anyway. Also, two search firms. So, I mean, two search firms hired and paid. And what a coincidence. They landed on Matt Ryan, one of the best players. And then they hired Kevin Siffansky, who was also a fellow guy with Matt Ryan. Yeah.

Wow. Good job by those search firms. Yeah. And you're Aiken by the way. Capon and Solis. Where the dolphins were like, yeah. The dolphins were like, man, just who do we hire? And Troy Aiken was like, well, in my experience, talking to coaches before games,

here's the general manager from the Packers? Like, how much did you interact with John Eric Sullivan? And then they ended up hiring the head coach that worked with John Eric Sullivan. of it. It's all farce. It's all ridiculous. Drives me nuts. But you have just a lot more like, it feels very like college recruity

to me where it's like, look, like our alums hang out with us. Come, you know, play for LSU. We're just two of these ex-quarterbacks who are just getting involved with team ownership and team decision making. Such that, you got to imagine. You're Erse-Gordon and you are trying to figure out who's going to run the Colts here moving forward. I mean, your first phone call

if it's not Peyton Manning, it's Andrew Luck. Right? I mean, like, that's one and two, is you call. those two guys. Like obviously Luxa G. I'm with Stanford football, he's probably going to stay there. But you're just calling these guys

say like, hey, do you want to just have like complete and total control? I would not be surprised, obviously if like Jim's philosophy on Jeff Saturday trickles down to his daughter

where it's like, hey, like, you know, it would be cool if the ex players just were more involved and we trust them. And like Peyton was our heyday and let's get back to Peyton. So Manning steps in in 2017

as the new president of football operations made up title for the cults. And he hires, I don't know, you know, some gentleman, Adam Gase is general manager. Like, I don't know.

Just guys he knows, right? Yeah. The Colts fill out the roster, but then guess what happens? You know, the Colts terrible season leads to them having the fifth overall pick. They spend it on Lenora Sellers out of South Carolina. He ends up being a tremendous quarterback for them. It galvanizes the team.

Meanwhile, in the AFC West, the Raiders are just chip, chip in their way. Up the divisional rankings, the chiefs start to fall apart more on that later. You know, the Broncos, Bo Nixcaron never comes back to health. Chargers tradeaway, Justin Herbert, making my prediction from last year's episode correct. And the Raiders win the West.

The Colts surge, they win the South. And we're just looking at the playoff bracket, realizing we might get another AFC championship game where, like, you know, playoff battle between Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. Just this time in nice suits and nice shoes, walk in the field pregame with their little stooges and Marionette Lackey's on the field. You know, the kind of the 2.0 chess match now of just football minds.

Our bodies have betrayed us, but we can still build teams to contend. And a new era of Manning Brady start. in the AMC. Okay, I like the boldness here quite a bit. The Colts aspect of it, I can, it all comes down to, you know, do they draft a quarterback who's really good?

Like you mentioned, they take sellers or whoever else, and all of a sudden it changed the fortunes of their franchise because they do have some talent there on the roster, so you could talk me into that. The Raiders aspect of this, I mean, this is, you have faith. I know you like Mendoza, but you have faith that Tom Brady is going to be,

able to build out this bad boy in three years. You think they're going to be good in three years? Two years? I think I'm making bold predictions for 2029. There's a little, it has to be a little ounce of something in there. It's more and maybe more of a Mendoza bet than anything else. I feel like, yeah, like anytime team makes first overall pick a quarterback, you can at least put one egg in the basket of, you know, they may take it hugely, right? Because Mendoza might be that caliber of a guy. I also think team makes higher off Shanahan McVeigh-Tree also deserves an egg in the basket, right? Like Kubiak now with what he did with the Saints and Derek Carr before like Carr got hurt and all those injuries ripped through the offensive line. That was in 2024.

And then when he did with Donald in 2025, guys clearly got gas. Like he's got good, good, good offensive ideas. So good offensive ideas coach plus first overall big quarterback there is like, all right, like you might just become the sort of team that has the offense that can win you enough games even if everything else isn't perfect. And let's say Max Crosby continues to play 900 snaps and recommits himself to the Raiders. Like you got yourself a star defensive player. like this is what a stews made up. This is how you kind of build a contender out. So I can see it.

Okay. I like it. Raiders. Colts. Weirder things have happened. I was looking at Chris Ballard's resume here. Nine seasons now. One playoff win with Chris Ballard as the gym.

Five straight seasons of not making the playoffs. Seven straight seasons without a playoff week. I don't need to do a Chris Ballard rent here. Enough ring around a fellow show listeners. I've heard enough Chris Ballard rins for me over the years. My stance is known. Your stance is known. I know we've said before, they're like, oh, this is a big season for him. It feels like now with the change in ownership that actually now a lot of pressure might be on him here in 2026,

whether this works out with Daniel Jones or not, whether they're a playoff team or not, could very easily determine whether he returns there as their GM or whether they say, hey, Peyton Manning, come on down to Indianapolis. And so like, guess what? Just as you had a Cardinals one, just as you had a Peyton Manning. Manning one. I have a Cardinals one. I have a Peyton Manning one. Oh my gosh. But they're combined. So my next one, 2029, here's the headline. Mike Tomlin, Arch Manning primed for Leap in second year together with the Arizona Cardinals. I know what you're saying. How do we get here? Shield, this is crazy. I know. Everybody settled down. All right. 2026, there's this race for the number one

pick. It becomes a huge storyline by Thanksgiving. Arch Manning's career, everyone clowned him at the first half of last year saying, hey, I'll hype this guy up. He thinks he can't play. Well, now it's happening in 2026 for Arch Manning. He is the story in college football. He is the universal number one prospect. And now teams have to decide like the Browns, the Cardinals, the Jets, the Dolphins. They're like, we're pretty much out of playoff contention. How far do we want to go with the tank here around Thanksgiving? And in the end, it ends up being the Arizona Cardinals. They are in a tough, tough, tough division with the hardest schedule in football. You look at that non-divisional schedule in football. It's insane. It's the hardest schedule in football

by a mile. If you look at any metric that looks at like projected wind totals or Super Bowl. I saw one. I can't remember who had it, so forgive me. But somebody had like, you know, like a strength of schedule projection. They were like, this is one of the hardest schedules of the last like eight years that a team has had his Arizona Cardinal schedule. It sucks. It's crazy. Yeah. It's not. So, and they're going to battle, by the way. So like with, I don't know, Jacoby Brissette's still holding out. Sorry, it's may. I haven't been just, you can have a word on my phone. QB1 Jacet is making his money. All right. And we got respect, the hostile respect to grind. All right. Or Gardner Minshew. They got Michael

LaFlor, who we'll see. But he did hire Nathaniel Hackett as his OC. So I, you know, it just doesn't feel like a fair fight for the Arizona Cardinals. And it feels like a two and 15th season is probably what we're going to see here and they're going to be able to secure the top pick. Okay, so that happens. And now the Manning family is looking at this going, hmm, do we want our golden boy Arch Manning to go play in Arizona? And there's conflicting reports all over the place. They got questions about ownership. But they also kind of like the idea of Arch going to a smaller market where he's not going to have a huge spotlight on him. He can learn. He can grow.

So ultimately they decide, all right, we're fine with this. We're not going to put up a fight. Cardinals, you are allowed to select Arch Manning. Now, it doesn't come with the coaching change. So like you might think, all right, Arch Manning, bring someone in, start a new era. But you have to remember that Michael Bidwell is the owner of the Arizona Cardinals. And he said, wait, aren't we still paying Mike LaFleur? And we might still be paying Jonathan Gannon.

And I don't know what other people are on my payroll. Let's just stick with the floor and give him a shot. And it's not going great. That's when the Manning's orchestrate a coup. Oh my gosh. Peyton Manning. 30 minutes into the podcast, we get orchestrated coup. Peyton Manning not only becomes the team's GM, but he says, wait, what's in this for me?

I'm making a lot of money. Life's going well. I have all the quarter zips I want. I'm doing the Omaha Productions. He says, I want an ownership stake in the first. franchise. They're really putting the screws to Bidwell. And ultimately Bidwell says, all right, I could think of worse ways than to

align myself with Peyton Manning. So Peyton Manning's your new GM. He's got an ownership stake. And Mike Tomlin meanwhile, he's been doing the NBC whatever, studio show, whatever he's doing on TV. He's living a nice life, having a good time. But you know what? He always

thought, if I'm ever going to go back in, I'm going to go back into a place that has a quarterback with a high ceiling and Peyton Manning's calling me, and it's Arizona. Yeah, nice weather. It's going to be kind of a cushy lifestyle. They're paying me all this money.

All right, I'll do it. So 2028, he becomes the coach. They go 9-8. They miss the playoffs. Tomlin still doesn't have a losing record on his resume. Manning showed some flashes. And then in 2029, So lack, they become the it team. They had strung together some good drafts.

And Arch Manning, who is now this. He is the new polarizing QB. You got the hipsters saying, look at this throw, tight window, look at the arm strength. You got the nerd saying his EPA sucks. You got the casual saying he's never even won a playoff game. Give me a break. He's the new guy everyone's arguing about. But the NFC West is there for the taking because Kyle Shanahan's out of San Francisco,

more on that later. Sean McFey's trying to coach up Ty Simpson. It's not going great. Seahawks are a formidable team, but they're not a juggernaut. And the Cardinals have a real chance. So 2029, we are talking about Peyton Manning, Arch Manning, Mike Tomlin, and the Arizona Cardinals. What do you think?

I did have one that I left on the cutting room floor, which is a Rams trade backup quarterback, Tyson to the Jets for a fifth round pick or something. Just not at how poorly it all might go. Here's your number one issue. Besides the Manning coup thing, because the Manning's, I feel like I've done a really nice job, it's kind of like letting Arch have,

like a regular process as regular as regular as you can when you're coming from the family you are and you have the last name you do. So I don't think the family would be coup oriented, right? Like in my Payton outcome where he's there with the Colts, Arch is presumably a starting NFL quarterback

somewhere that's not there. I'm trying to decide if the Capadias are coup oriented or not. You got a little in a few years. Probably, I think. When you've made as much money as Peyton has and Arch's, arch has, then you get to not be coo oriented.

When you're a normie's like that, you have the opportunity for a coup, you do a coup, right? I mean, I didn't like nepotism until I had a daughter. And in the moment I had daughter, I was like, nepotism, we got to, I got to be making moves. Like, we got to start, you know, lining things up for those girls. Anyway, I think Tomlin would never, ever, ever,

like, to go from the Steelers, storied winning franchise. And with how much he likes AFC North Bowl and how much he likes the physicality of it and the playing outside and the snow and the weather and the toughness and the physicality, to go to Arizona, to go play in a dome in Glendale, where, like, it's just like soft. and this is like the most storied lamest franchise like they never win anything.

I think Tomlin would take one foot into Arizona football complexes, get a sense of the vibe and be like, you know, you gotta paint the bar in red and they would leave. Like he just can't, like he would never like,

it's not the right franchise for him in terms of the way they play football, the area in which they play football, the style of football, they've been associated with and obviously the losing records. I do have a team that my Tomlin fits. But it's not the Cardinals.

This is where my experience comes in, So lack, because I can school you a little bit on this and what life's going to look for you like for you in maybe 15, 20 years. See, in your 20s, you're like, snow football grade. Oh, I'll live somewhere where there's seasons. This is, I can't believe these soft people who like this warm weather. I want to put on that big jacket and gloves. This is fantastic.

And then you get a little older. I'm putting on gloves? And a little older. And then you say, you know what? Southern California, you know, Arizona, Florida, maybe not the whole year, but December to, you know, February might not be the worst thing in the world to spend three months there. So your attitude changes a little bit. Tomlin. Tomlin might be getting a little soft here once he's in that cushy TV gig where now he goes there. He's like, this is great. There's not that many reporters covering the team. They're so happy to have me here after years of incompetence.

I'm like the new Bruce Ariens. Maybe he's rocking the kangaroo. hat like Bruce and he's just got the sunglasses on in the sideline and he's loving life. All right. So you're not seeing it. But the Cardinals, who do you think, if you had to say right now, where is Arch Manning playing next year? And do you think how confident are you that he will be the prize at number one? Where are you with that whole conversation? Because that's going to be a big conversation by the time the 2026 season starts. There's probably already Mark is out for what team Arch ends up with. There definitely is in terms of if you just want to just look at record and stuff. I think it's the team.

I mentioned where it's browns, jets, dolphins, and cardinals are probably the big four there in that top two. I think because of the total weight of 2027 first round picks acquired, I would say Jets, right? Because I think that in the event that a non-quarterback needy team ends up first and that becomes a trade pick, they probably are the best trade packages, and then they also have a really good shot to be the worst team in football, just as the Cardinals might. And so Jets, to me, Rees is the right team.

I will say, like, you know, Arch seems to me like he's an excellent prospect, just from, like, cross-watching, like, watching college football, and then watching prospects this year. It seems like a clear sort of guy would go one overall. but like it's the other it's some of the more dudes like this is going to be like you know 2021 draft 2024 draft where there's like a lot of quarterbacks talking about in the first half of the first round so even if you're not getting the arch pick like we're coming up on pretty good year all right there you go well all right so you said mike tomlin was this one of your one of your

story lines yes yes oh okay all right let's go to it chief's head coach reigning super bowl champion and reigning coach of the year mike tomlin quote the standard is the standard the 2026 season for the Kansas City Chiefs, Patrick Mahomes coming back from injury. We've got, we've got Kenneth Walker. You know, we've retooled the second-year we traded away McDuffey, Jay and John Watson got out of the building.

Like, you know, we're about to like, you know, we had this terrible year. We had the ninth of the World Pick. We're about to reignite and restart a new era of Chiefs football. I got to tell you, man, like, Andy's offense last few years has just been painful to watch. Like, just from a scheme perspective,

it is tough. And this goes back to like, even the season where they lost the Eagles badly in the Super Bowl, and they were kind of eking their way through offensively that year, and then going into 2025, or excuse me, 2024, when they were still winning all of those games, but it was with, you know, just like super unexplulsive offenses. They just live in the gun.

They run the same RPO's over and over again. It is just like very, like, Andy's cleverness is very much cordoned off to second and goal wing T formations. And like on a base down perspective, they're just running the same stuff. running from a home is the last five years. And they're clearly trying to figure it out from a running game perspective with the investment in Kenneth Walker, but like, let's say it doesn't work.

And I think that's like a reasonable bet because they have like a good offensive line and they, you know, I think Walker's a good running back, but they have no blocking tight ends. They have no blocking receivers because of the way they build this team. I think it's just hard to build a modern NFL running game if you're not asking your skill positions are getting involved in the blocking attack. So let's say the running game doesn't work. And then let's say, and this feels like it's a reasonable thing to say, that losing three starters in the secondary between

McDuffie, Watson, and Cook. I know Spags is good, but there's a limit to how a guy's goodness is. You know, Leo Chanel's out of the building. They still haven't figured out the pass rush. Chris Jones is like just kind of showing up for the big games and is increasingly fading down the stretches things go on. You know, defense doesn't save them.

Offense doesn't get much better. I think, you know, you're going to see Andy Reid frustration. I think you're going to see Andy Reid's job get called for. Would be very surprised if they fire him after 2026, but I'm not going to say it's impossible. So then you're sitting there. You're the Kansas State Chiefs.

You're Patrick Mahomes. You get to hire whoever you want. And Tomlin did it is one year on the NBC desk. And you do, you know, it's week 14. You're probably going to keep Andy. Maybe we'll, maybe you won't be. Put out the feelers, right? What does, you know, Sean McDermott think about, you know, get back?

What is, you know, the other coaches? Are we going to trade for Kevin O'Connell? That's the thing we always talk about every single year for some freaking reason. You know, okay, you know, you're doing all like this. It's just the background work. Just, you know, the back channels. It doesn't, you know, get to the media. and you put out a field of Mike Tomlin,

and Tomlin is very clear. Like, listen, you bring me to Kansas City, right? Again, like, legacy of winning, cold weather, outdoor stadium. And I have to bring my caliber of toughness and winning close games of competitiveness to a roster that has a star quarterback, but, like, you know, needs a jolt

from what they've, you know, kind of the soft, spread style of football they've run. Like, I'll come there and I'll win you a championship. So Tomlin gets hired. 2027 season is the retool season, right? cut a, you know, some key players, you know, Chris Jones gets traded away, you know, they go, they make a new defensive coordinator higher

because Spagis doesn't want to come back without Andy. They're installing the new defense. They invest a little bit in the offensive line. You know, they trade for darn out Washington, right? They get their sixth offensive line into a 80-pound tight end. And then the 2028 season, they just walk out and just shred. Just, they shred with culture and with the home's beauty.

It looks like we thought it all would look forever with Mahomes first dawn. They're never going to lose. They're 15 and 2. They waltz through the AFC playoffs. I don't know how this lines up with my Raiders Colts AFC championship game. Don't worry about it.

Anyway, they waltz through the AFC playoffs. They win a Super Bowl emphatically over like, you know, I don't know, the Anthony Richardson Lions or something. And then, and Tomlin's coach of the year. And then we're back in the summer and the entirety of NFL media has descended on the training camp. You know, Mahomes again, the chiefs are back. Tom was getting asked, you know,

what does it mean? You finally want a championship outside of Pittsburgh and, you know, Chiefs ring again. And you guys are looking at, you know, tying the Steelers or chasing the Steelers for the most rings ever in a franchise history and you're setting record, can Holmes beat Brady for the most rings of quarterback wins? And Mike Tomlin goes,

standard is a standard. And we're just, we're back, baby. We're so back for the next two decades of Mike Tomlin, Patrick Holmes, and she's greatest. This is such a funny exercise because of the people, we are landing on a lot of the same people. Yeah. So it just really narrows it down to who are like the main characters in the NFL. for the next three years here.

It's certainly Tomlin's a good one. I may or may not have a Chief's one in a minute here. But I always think about with Tomlin, like, I forget if it was when he gave that great interview for the pivot or whether it was somewhere else. But he actually surprised me when he said, like, I take great pride. It's not getting the D players to be C players.

It's not getting the C players to be B players. He's like, the most pride I take is when I see a great player who's like, And I know they're an A plus player and they haven't gotten there, but they've got that level of talent. And I can coach them to be like one of the greats. Because I always thought like, you know, coach talk. It's like, no, it feels great to take the undrafted free agent. And we made him like the special teams player.

Man, we changed his life. He's like, no, I actually really take pride in coaching greatness. And for as long as he has not had that at the quarterback position in Pittsburgh, that would be very, even if he's loving the broadcasting life and he's like, all right, I put in my time. I think we're both on the same page that it would take a situation where he views greatness in a quarterback

or a team or a roster or all of the above. He has that selection now. Like he doesn't just have to go back. He doesn't have to. I love you said it takes him seeing greatness. He also sent him to the Arizona Cardinals with a rookie quarterback. Listen, if Archmanning

you have to go back. Remember, so like I was saying, Arch Manning looks like a great quarterback prospect in this made-up scenario that we have. And you'd already see him in the NFL. But yes, Mahomes, obviously, if you get a chance to coach him at that stage of his career, that would be very, very interesting. Now, do we have an OC for Tomlin at this?

Because, you know, that hasn't been necessarily the biggest strength. Do we know? The other name I considered for making the head coach of the Chiefs was Mike McDaniel. Like, he does like two years for the Chargers. Absolutely strides with Herbert. And then the Chiefs hire him away to go making the head coach. So maybe somehow he gets Mike or somebody off of Mike's staff. and runs the mic with day no offense.

Okay, so the other interesting angle of this is Andy Reid. What I was saying is that, all right, we both view Andy Reid. It's like, oh, I don't know what the next couple of years are going to look like for Andy Reid. Every, I feel like every podcast thing I've done for the last couple weeks, Andy Reid's name has come up. We had Pat Dardy on last week, and we were doing, like, if you were starting an expansion team, where would you have Andy Reid? And I was like, yeah, I don't know.

And then I was on with Meenik Imbs and it was just coached, just ranked the best coaches right now. when we had an Andy read discussion. I'm with you, So lack. We're aligned on this. I feel like he's losing the fastball or has lost the fastball. And I am very concerned that when he thought I need to make a change this offseason, and we got to get this offense going,

that he just went back to Eric Viennamy when he really could have done a big search and been like, let me find the next great offensive mind in the NFL, who I can align with, who can bring in some new ideas. That's not what he did. He went with someone he's comfortable. with, and it almost feels like his instinct right now is to take more control. I can fix this. I'm the guy, and he's got the Hall of Fame resume.

Maybe he can, but the last two years, only two teams in the NFL producing explosive plays at a lower rate than the Kansas City Chiefs. I mean, that is wild to say, considering who their quarterback is. And to your point, it's not just that. It's the combination of all of it, the run game, the scheme. And so how likely is it that you and I are going to be feeling foolish? we'll see each other next year at the Super Bowl. And we're like, man, I hope no one really sees that podcast we did in May.

If anybody ever complains about any take on this exact show, you're not allowed to listen to a podcast moving forward. All right. But how confident, how strongly do you feel that it's just not going to kind of get corrected here with Andy Reed in the next couple of years? What percent chance would you put it that Reed is the head coach in 2029, right, the start of the 2020-season? Like, he'll be 70.

Yeah. and like they're either bad in which case I would say with some degree of confidence that like you know they're going to look into moving on from him or they're really good in which case they're probably winning a ring in which case Andy's getting asked to he's retiring

right because at some point you're 70 so I don't know I would say the percent chance that he's the head coach in 2029 is like 42 percent you know like you give me that three year sort of window I don't think it's like oh if any one bad year and Andy Reid's gone like 2026 is happening

But I do like, to me, like there's two outcomes, bad and good. And in both of them, there's a chance of Andy's stepping down, stepping away, or being asked to step away. And so, like, it's, I think, you know, he's been the head coach session since 2013. It's been a long, long time. It's very reasonable to expect by 2029. There'll be somebody else in the chair. All right.

Let's take one more break. We come back. And yes, the Kansas City Chiefs are making a coaching change, but it's actually not going to be Mike Tomlin. I'll tell Solac who it's going to be when we come back. All right. We are back here on the Ringer NFL show. We are sticking to Kansas City.

Here's the storyline, So-elect, 2029. Kyle Shanahan re-energized by second act in Kansas. Gosh, we love to fire Kyle Shanahan. We've done it twice now. He will always make the show. I don't care what year it is. If he's been with the Niners for 30 years, we'll do the show. We're like, all right, but I think really.

Where's Kyle going? Yeah, three years from now, he'll be somewhere else. Sorry, but here's what has happened in this situation. We're aligned. Reed couldn't get back to the mountaintop. He and Patrick Mahomes, they tried their best. They had good teams. They made the playoffs, but they ultimately did not get back to the Super Bowl,

26, 27, 28. He actually got three seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs. And then he said, you know what? I'm now 71 years old. And I've had a great run. And you might want me to chase that all-time wins record, but that's not really what I'm about. I've had a great record.

and I'm going to the Hall of Fame. I don't need to stick around anymore. Maybe he's getting nudged a little bit by the chiefs at the same time, but they do one of those like an amicable, you know, both sides were aligned. Love it to love it amicable. Yeah, it's never the case. That's what actually happened in Philadelphia when he got fired there. They tried to make it amicable.

And then he's like, no, it's not amicable. I don't want to do this. But Reed is out there, says he's had a great run. And how does Kyle Shanahan enter the picture? You're asking, well, Shanahan was actually out. of football in 2028. He had coached the Niners in 2026, 2027, but the roster got older. He lifted the floor. 49ers, though, they weren't really a Super Bowl contender. They were a solid team. He was still working his magic, but it just didn't come together. McCaffrey, Mike Evans,

Kittle, Trent Williams, all their best players got older and it didn't work out for them. So after an 11-year run, both sides decided it's time to move on. This actually was an amicable breakup with Kyle Shanahan and the 49er. So he looked around because he's not somebody who wants to not coach ball. I mean, this is Kyle Shanahan's identity is coaching ball. But he looked around and he said, you know what? I would see a great job here for me in 2028. So he takes the year off.

He studies some offensive trends. He's talking to high school coaches, college coaches, coaches at the NFL level. He's jumping into some podcasts. The hipsters are loving it, man. He's just explaining some of the schematic. stuff. It's not really the mainstream, like the casuals is. It's not doing numbers, but you know what? The hipsters are loving Kyle Shanahan doing some of these, this analysis. And then he says, I'll get back in in 2029. So it's 2029. The chief's job opens up. And he has a call with Andy Reed. And Andy Reid explains,

Kyle, you remind me a lot of myself, your stretch with the Niners, my stretch with the Eagles. We had a lot of success. We were widely acclaimed as great coaches. We never won the super I never hoisted the Lombardy, but you know what? Kansas City would be a great place for you to have a second act. And Shanahan looks around and says, I get a chance to get Patrick Mahomes in his age 34 season. He's had some injuries, but he's still a top five guy. He's chasing Brady. I'm chasing a ring.

Let's go together in Kansas City and win big for this little second chapter of my career. Kyle Shanahan, Solac. with Patrick Mahomes in Kansas City in the year 2029. What do you think? My Tom is more fun. I like my Tomlons fought better. More fun. Was he going to bring in?

What's that guy? Matt Canada? Who knows? I mean, geez. Kyle in Kansas City. So, like, I feel like it would be very good, but also I feel like the discourse of Mahomes, the Shanahan quarterback,

would be unbelievably toxic, right? Because he would win and he would look great in the offense. and we'd all be like, man, my Homes are so good. And then they'd just be like a huge uproar of Niners fans being like, oh, but I'm sorry, Brock Purdy wasn't elite when he was in this offense. We all were like, pretend we didn't see Mahomes for the last eight years playing without Kyle Binhard.

I like, yes, sure, absolutely. Do you think Andy would call Kyle and be like, I see a lot of myself in you? Or do you think Andy would call Kyle and be like, just go to bed, man. Like, it's not. It's not worth it there. It's crazy. No, I think Andy Reid probably likes Kyle Shanahan

a lot. And I don't think Andy Reid knows no life that doesn't involve coaching. That's why this is actually a hard exercise because I don't know that there will ever be a time unless there's like a healthy event or something that really is like, dude, you need to slow down. Unless there's something like that, I don't know that he's ever going to be the person to say, I don't want to coach anymore. I mean, I had one on the cutting room floor where I had Andy Reid with like a third team at the, you know, at age 71. I was like, could Andy read coach the bills? Do you know what I'm going to lovey Smith, Texans tenure? We're just like, why is this happening? I'm like, maybe he goes to Buffalo. And it's like, all right, Josh Allen, you know, Kansas City, you don't want me.

I'm going to Buffalo to get Josh Allen over the hump here. So I don't know that that would ever happen. But this brings to light that that Kansas City job at some point here with Mahomes still as the quarterback is kind of one of the most intriguing storylines maybe over the next three years. And they're just going to like internally promotes bags, which would kind of bang. Not going to lie. I would enjoy, I don't think enough people who consume the NFL understand just how New Jersey. the accent Spaggs voice is and they need to hear him more. Like I just,

more Spaggs presses I think are good for the people. All right. We've had too many, too many repeats here. I have it off the wall. Okay. All right. Give it to me. You're up. 2029 preseason

of exclusive robot refs forces questions about future of umpiring in the NFL. All right. Okay. We planned this pod before the refs CBA was right. And did that CBA throw off my plan a little bit? Yes, because there's like a new seven-year commitment to human being reps.

And as part of the commitment, it's like, we're going to develop more officials and we're going to have a bench and so on and so forth. Goodell could do whatever he wants. Exactly. But I'm just going to put the big NFL shield up and be like, you know, yeah, exactly, we get to do whatever I want. The league is not going to suddenly walk out in week one

and be like, you know, all calls are from New York. All calls are from the booths and, you know, from the VAR and whatever. But the league is, there's no way league's not going to start investigating more and more. We saw a rule change already this year where more calls can be made from New York, can be adjusted from New York. So the league is going to continue to experiment with how can we not pay, you know, reps on the field to make these decisions and have all these, you know, our gambling partners, you know, get terrible looks when human referees blow calls. How can we kind of automate this process? I mean, like, you know me, I'm not a baseball fan.

I'll watch every single ABS clip that comes across my screen. Incredible. Electric, right? I love a little glowy dot in a box. If you get me a little glowy dot where somebody's feet touched the thing next to the sideline, I'm on the edge of my seat.

So the 2029 preseason comes. The league is previously announced 18 months previous. Oh, we've partnered with new RoboVision company. Insert like the worst name you've ever heard here. Like Palantir, named after villains. Like, you know, you've got Robo Eyes 2000 is here to, you know,

we're going to debut this. And the Eagle Eye Technique. there watching the games. And so everybody's fired about this, right? It's a Hall of Fame game. It's the, you know, Jaguars versus the Texans. They never put the Jaguars the Hall of Fame game. It's the Browns versus the Texans.

They never put the Texans there either. It's the Browns versus the Cowboys Hall of Fame game. And we're going to be debuting the robot bumps. And, like, you know, there's just like a little, like, floaty spider cams wearing a little umpire hat. And he's just like, float around. He doesn't actually do anything. But, like, you know, like, that's exciting for everyone.

And we're watching the game. And the first, like, false start happening. happens and like a little automated whistle blows, little yellow flag pops on the screen. Woo, great. But then there was like a second quarter close touchdown. And we get like a dramatic zoom in. And like the picture perfect clarity. He just got his foot in on the third closest blade of grass touchdown.

There's a two minute warning, fourth and one attempt. And this would have been like, you know, bring out the note card to measure the ball sort of a situation. And Eagle Eye tells us, oh, short by three inches. It's a bomb. The game is so fun. All the little robot bells and whistles go great. There's no like unnecessary roughness penalty.

Like, you know, leading with the helmet on a hip from a safe product, the stuff that actually is going to cause problems when you take the human judgment out of it, it's mostly just like zoom in camera work stuff. And it's a great time and everybody has fun and there's a few more games of it. And then there's stink pieces

about the fact that because this was fun, there'll be no more human empires in 2032. And we're coming to the end of the human civilization. Yeah. Just for the people who take it. robot um squad i'll be stunned yeah i don't i don't you know this one as you were talking my mind went in a bunch of different directions i was trying to think of the robots that are actually uh in my life do you have robots at the grocery store there so lack of no they got robots at your

grocery store you know and now as i was they i don't know what they do i know my daughter loves them and she has a name for the one guy that i can't remember harry or marv or something and i don't know what he actually does he busy i don't know i was just trying to raise he's only at the one and you actually could like run into him but I don't know what his actual function is now that I think about it you've seen these that at San Francisco the Super Bowl they have the cars that

without the drivers yeah I want to hit it with a hammer I don't like it I want to be able to the baseball bat I've gotten in one of those no shot I'm getting one of those tried it out yeah no way it was interesting I did that so you got that

you have the robot lawn mowing equipment at golf courses now so Lex they had the lawn rumbos that's interesting to me yeah because a rumba is not threatening. Yes, Roomba's not threatening. So you've got that. But to your point, there's always been pieces written about the NFL and like, I've been watching games for years being like there has

to be a more technologically sound way to do this because I don't think these rests are getting it right and all due respect. There's got to be a better way to do it. And there's been pieces written that it's actually not that easy. It's harder to do in football. But man, watching baseball every night as I do this time of year. The ABS thing is so freaking exciting. I mean, I was at a game and I like rose to my feet when the Phillies won a challenge. It was so, it actually is so exciting. Tennis watchers knew. Us tennis watchers knew when there's a close ball and it gets a challenge and everybody is a fun time. So fun and so quick. It actually doesn't delay the game at all. And it's accurate. And so yes, if there are ways like that to improve the football view, I actually

it can improve the football viewing experience where it's not like, oh, man, added technology. Why are they doing this way? It extends the game. Other sports have shown if you do it correctly, it actually can add a little bit to the drama of the game. You're getting more calls right. And it's fun. It doesn't make the game longer.

So I like that. I can't believe you and I, we're just, you know, I feel like we're a little, you know, kind of old souls, but we're just bringing on the robots. If the robots are going for the ums job, then aren't coming for this job, all right? They're distracted. did. We've sacrificial lambed the umpires. We'll be okay for a few more years. Listen, you can't do what we do. Did you hear? I mean, the parenting conversation at the top, come on. No robots doing that. Yeah. Elector. How are we feeling? Can we get a quick fill in these check? Yeah, they're back in it after, you know, fire their manager. Uh, 10 game losing streak. And now Donnie baseball is the manager. And I'm not sure that he does anything. You'll appreciate this. I've never understood what the baseball managers do even when it's good. So I'd, you'll appreciate this. Because I feel like it's a Solac swing. of a life lesson. You know, you've hinted to this, but he took the job right as they were coming

after the hardest stretch of the early part of the season and right before the easiest stretch of the season. I mean, that's good. You got to appreciate that. That's good work right there. It's great work. And is he wearing the uniform as all the managers do? Yeah, of course. Yeah. It's the best job in sports. Are you wearing the uniform to argue with alms? That's exactly. It's a dream of every baseball fan. You get to wear the uniform, we get to argue with the alms. Well, I was at the, you know, the practice round for the PGA here locally yesterday. So like, and we notice everyone here is dressed like we're about to play a round of golf. We are not playing golf.

Why are we all dressed like we're going to play golf? So it's not quite the baseball manager, but it's pretty similar there. All right. I have two more for you. Okay. I have no more that I like. Okay. You have no more that you like.

So I'll give you my two. You can react to these. And then if it spurs anything, you can mention it. All right, here we go. Ravens Jets pull trigger on Blockbuster Lamar Jackson. No, no, no. All right. Now, I don't know how Mama Solac Jets fan would feel about this, but let's talk about it.

All right. So the Jets had three, you mentioned it. Jets have three first round picks in 2027. But the problem is, you mentioned the scenario where, hey, if it's a team that doesn't have, doesn't need a quarterback, it's the first pick. But what if it is a team that needs a quarterback with the first pick and the second pick and the third pick? And they get like the fourth pick.

Like those teams might not be trading out of those spots. And now all of a sudden, you don't get the quarterback you want. maybe they take someone later in the first round. I haven't studied all these guys, but I was looking at the early 2027 Mocks. Oklahoma State has a guy. USC has a guy. Notre Dame has a guy.

There you go. So there are other quarterbacks available, but then again, this is the Jets. So maybe they take a guy at like eight. And you know what? It's Sam Darnold and Zach Wilson all over again. They just can't catch a break. They can't draft the right quarterback.

But you know what? They have a good roster in 2029. It is ready made for a veteran quarterback to come in and have success. And by the way, so like they have a good coach, a man by the name of Greg Olson, the former Fox broadcaster. Oh, wow. Analytics darling. Media loves him in New York. He grew up in Jersey, not far from MetLife.

Would the media love him in New York if he's an analytics darling? I feel like that would be a disqualifying trade. I think Greg Olson is going to, whenever he gets a head coaching job, and I believe he will. I've been stumping for the, for listeners. I thought maybe he, I think he might. be the Eagles head coach if they fire Nick Siriani after the season. I could see their ownership. I could see their ownership just had Jeffrey Larry just being like, I love this guy. Josh McCown, O.C., Nick Foles, GM. Yeah. So anyway, I think he's going to, I think he's going to get a

head coaching job at some point if he wants one. And the Jets at this point are ready to make a big move. You know, they don't want to wait too long on this rookie. Will he become something? Won't he become something? And then you have the Ravens. They're at another contract impasse with the It's just kind of defined his relationship with the team over the years. He's had enough. They're looking ahead going, hmm, he's entering his age 32 season. Are we sure we want to commit to this or do we want to be out ahead of this? He's still a good player.

They can still get some good draft capital for him until they decide to make a deal. And so the Ravens trade Lamar Jackson to the Jets, revs up their fan base and he hopes to become a hero in New York. You were shaking your head early. why do you hate this one? So, okay, just so I understand it. They used the 2027 picks to take a quarterback and then also build out the roster.

It doesn't go well with the quarterback. Just with the quarterback, but the other first round picks, they nailed them. The teams are the guy. Olson comes in, analytics darling. I was like, you know what you got to do?

You got to trade multiple first for a 32-year-old quarterback. But he's also like an old school coach. He's not just analytics. I mean, he knows football. He's like, hey, I played with Kim. Newton-Lamarr still got it. Now, maybe Kim. That's not the best of, you know,

comparison because his career got short. he was broken. All right. So like, stop poking holes in this. Lamar Jackson's going to the chance. Are you in or are you out?

So Lamar's got two years left on his deal. So this is, he plays out 26, plays out 27. They franchise tag him in 28. Maybe there's a one year something in there.

Yeah, famously one year extensions for franchise quarter of X. That's what they kind of, they did the weird thing this year. I mean, they can never get on the same page with Lamar Jackson's contract.

I guess he also has a no tag clause. And so my idea of tagging him also doesn't work. I just, I think, I think you're, you're missing out on the real Jets disconcerted quarterback trade target, which is Broadway Joe 2.0, which is Burrow in Cincinnati.

I couldn't get to a Burrow one. Do you actually, do you think he's going to get moved? I would say Burrow is more likely to be moved than Lamar is, for sure. Because I think Burrow is much more likely to force the issue. Like Burrow is like very obviously to some degree discontended with the state of operations in Cincinnati. Lamar just like doesn't have, like his agent's his mom. And so like Lamar's just like,

harder to deal with harder to parse than the typical guy because the process doesn't happen the same way every single time. Burrow, like, very obviously, is mad about South of Cincinnati. The moment they traded for a 29-year-old defense to tackle a store contract on an elbow injury. Are we sure he's not just in his feelings a lot?

Are we sure he's not just in his feelings a lot, Burrow? I mean, yeah, but they do what he wants. Anytime he says, oh, the sign T. Higgins, like, I don't know. They're building, they've built up the offense, and they've made the moves he's publicly called for it. the connection between they do what he wants and him being happy there is a lot less.

Like, it should be one to one. But I would say one of the number of things I've learned about star athletes in my time is star athlete gets what he wants then becomes upset with that quite sort of after. Very good point. That's fair. I always go back to Tari Kilbin, like I'm so happy to be here with Tuotunga Vailoa.

He's the most accurate quarterback in the world. And then very quickly being like, wait a minute, he's not Patrick Mahomes. Right? Like, it's just like, he gets what he wants. Dexter Lawrence. He does. And then, like, his left guard's going to get hurt and he's going to get hit a few times.

He's going to forget all about how much he liked Dexter Lawrence because left guard got her. You know, like, that's what it is to be a quasi-GM player, is to just, like, make bold demands and then have them not pan out and then blame somebody else somewhere else. So to me, like, Burrow, you say, like, are you not interested in his feelings? That's, I think that's why he's more likely to get out of Cincinnati. Because he'll just get so deeply in his feelings, he'll be like, man, trade me. Whereas I don't think Lamar, like, Lamar doesn't act that way to me. Lamar acts a lot more like, you know, we're going to get this done.

and like, until we get it done, we haven't gotten it done. Like, you know, he's just very like, he doesn't do like subterfuge. He just kind of is like weirdly and aggressively frank about stuff in his way, which is a very entertaining way. Yeah, I don't know. I was looking at Miami too for I was like, hmm, the difference there I think is the reason I push back every time there's like, oh, Joe Burroughs going to, you know, be out of Cincinnati.

It's like the Bengals have zero motivation. Like, I just, they have, they don't have anything. Like he is the franchise and they're not like a forward-thinking organization. They're not going to just, oh, yeah, we'll find the next year. Where the Ravens, I could see them being like, all right, you know, maybe this is the time to get out. We can still get a lot of value.

We have a good team around him. Maybe you have a good offensive coach at that time. You can get me their own right. Like Lamar at 32 is much more likely to trail off dramatically than Burrow at 32 is. Assuming Burrow does not have any more major season ending injuries between everyone. Yeah. Yeah. So, well, the Burrow thing, I was looking.

at it going, is there a borough thing I can squeeze into this episode? And I just, I was like, I don't know, like, what would really motivate them to do that? If he was available, I mean, obviously you would get a hall and a lot of teams would be interested and he would, you know, be highly coveted around the NFL. But I just wasn't, I just can't imagine a scenario where inside the Bengals building. They're like, all right, let's go ahead and do this unless he's just so forcefully making them do it, which I guess is possible. To your point, it feels like he does like Star franchise quarterback is to get traded. It's either like, hey and Manning situation where, you know, like major neck injury,

like, you know, like you got like get off because of the physical train, like it might be totally gone. Or it is, you know, massive emotional problem, right? It is interpersonal problem that cannot be healed. And I feel like that, I can see that happening in Cincinnati in the way that I don't see it happening in Baltimore. All right. Last one I've got for you.

And then I, you know what? I have this like leftover list, so I might just hit you with some quick hitting questions. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just get it out there in case they're right. Yeah. All right. Last one. 2029. Bears, once again, the team to beat in the NFC. Heck yeah. It's 2029. Bears have just made the playoffs four straight seasons for the second time in franchise history. And last year, so like they got over the hump with their second Super Bowl ever. Ben Johnson has become one of the greatest villains the league has ever seen. LaFleur, McVeigh, Shanahan. They hate the guy. They can't stand him. And you know what? Bears fans love it. They're building statues. They've found the younger generation of Mike Ditka.

Caleb Williams has become the face of the league. His immense talent has been crafted beautifully by a generational offensive mind. Dennis Allen is the new spags. Nobody wants him as a head coach. But you know what? As a D.C., he's doing work out there with these one-off game plans and the postseason in high-leverage situations. and the Chicago Bears fans, they're in a place they dream. One day, one day, maybe we'll be in this spot, and guess what, at 2029,

and that's where you're at. So the Chicago Bears, how many teams have a brighter future the next three years than the Chicago Bears? I'm not sure so long. Very, very few. I had a Ben Johnson one,

which I figured it was too self-serving to do, but it was, like, you know, like headline, how Ben Johnson normalized the lateral in NFL offenses, right? Like I want by 2029, I want like a couple laterals in game, right, for the best offenses. I think this would be like a schemeed part of the playbook. You know, like, you have to like be defending for this.

Like it's changing the way tackling angles work. And I figure if anybody's going to do it, it would be Ben Johnson doing it. But yeah, there's no 2029 headlines so rosy that I like that's too much for the Chicago Bears. And I think especially because it's 2029 because I think in 27, I wouldn't be surprised if they're just worse from like a playoff results than they were, right? They went down to the bitter end of the divisional round. That's just very hard to do. They're like, you know,

one of the last eight and like pretty much more of the last, like, five teams standing there. They almost took the Rams of distance. And they just had so much turnover and that defense got a lot of luck last year. So I wouldn't be surprised that they're substantively better in terms of, you know, more reliable game to game. They don't have to win all this close stuff and all this gimmicky stuff. But the record doesn't super reflect it until they can like fully reload the defensive coffers.

And then in 2028, they shoot to the move. So yeah, I'm, I'm Caleb and Ben Johnson, you know, Yeah, those are two horses I've been hitching my wagon two since before they got together, now they're together. So I like, you know, ceiling is the roof. All right. I've got some, just some questions for you. Let's look ahead.

Look in your crystal ball, 2029, Solac. Has Josh Allen won a Super Bowl? Yeah, in the year 2020. No, and I almost had a, you know, Josh Allen forcing a trade because he's just so sick and tired of getting close and losing there in Buffalo, but I didn't want to do it to Bill's fans. I was trying to think of who the coach. could be in Buffalo, where if this doesn't work out this stretch here with Joe Brady, who's the coach, who's the GM? Hey, let's try this again. We still have Josh Allen in his prime. So, yeah, other than Andy Reid, I didn't get anywhere. Could Tomlin be a guy for them in Buffalo? Would he come back for Josh Allen, similar to our scenario there with the Chiefs? I don't know. I wanted to do a FC championship game, Andy Reid versus Shaw McDermott, but McDermott's coaching the Chiefs and Andrew is coaching the Bills.

Oh, all right. I don't hate that one. That's an interesting one. 2029 has Lamar Jackson won a Super Bowl yet. So, that's Jesse Minter experience. Yes. So you think more likely next three years, Lamar Jackson wins a Super Bowl than Josh Allen. Yeah, I believe in Minter more than I believe in Brady. And I believe in DeCosta a lot more than I believe in Bean.

And, like, I'm pretty frustrated with DeCosta right now, but I believe in a lot more than I believe in Brandon Bean. Like, that's different tiers right there. That's a tough one because, I feel like I'm still inclined to say Buffalo even though I almost feel like I don't know how much the coach matters I'm just like the offense is going to be good well maybe the defense maybe the new defensive coordinator

are you in on a Jim Leonard or are you with the hipsters on Jim Leonard? I know. I guess it's hipster I don't know like Jim Leonard's just been known good at his job since the Wisconsin days like that's he's going to be good. He's the I mean I don't even need to see a game coach. He's already the hipster defensive coordinator. of 2026. I would have thought O'Leary. Everybody's talking like, oh, like, you know, like,

you're too deep. See, this is the problem. I'm a casual. So I can, I can scout the hipsters. You, you think the hipster thing is the normie thing. So then you got to go deeper down the hipster hole. And now you have to go go down to O'Lear. This is why we got to touch base on these things. I become uncensored, but I'm not talking to you. All right. I'm too far down the rabbit hole. All right. You mentioned Mike McDaniel with the Chargers. I was trying to get a Herbert Harbaugh Chargers take in here. But I almost feel like, I don't want to say this has to be the year for the Chargers, but it's sort of like I don't think you're going to get an extended window of Mike McDaniel

and Justin Herbert. You know, I think you even alluded to that, maybe two years. But maybe it's one year because if Herbert's great this year, if their offense is amazing, it's almost like, no, you got to win the championship this year or get to the Super Bowl because then if McDaniel leaves, now you've got to find the next coordinator for him. And who knows if that's going to work? So where are you with Herbert McDaniel Harbaugh, the Chargers, the next one year, the next three years here?

I love it. I'm so excited. I love the way Jim's talking about the offense. Jim, like, you know, he seems like he's bought in all what McDaniel's going to bring, the way he's changed how Jim thinks about football. McDaniel gave an interview to the Chargers.com last week. You should read it. McDaniel's basically just like, yep.

Like McDaniels was like, like about as boldly as you can say something in May because he's doing like, you know, we got to work on footwork and timing. and like figure this out. But when McDaniel's talking about this, like McDaniel, he had a line where he was like, it's reasonable to expect season high, or career bests for every single offensive player. Like something like that, right?

Like, he's like clearly very confident what they're doing. Yeah. Herbert seems bought in. It's all great. The guards are Trevor Petting and Colstrange. And like, I just refuse to participate in Chargers' preseason hype again, knowing that we can say everything about the excitement about Harbaugh, Herbert, and McDaniel,

about how Marion Hampton fits in the rest. running game about how Lanmacon is going to use in the pasting game. It can all end up being 100% true, but they'll lose three key games because they still don't have guards. And then everybody would be like, oh, you're an idiot. You believed in the Chargers. But yeah, well, I thought they would have guards and have guards. All right, but you can't have a great player at every position.

What, you want them to reach a level of average competency. I didn't say great player in a position. It's Trevor Penning and Cole Strange. I needed Isaac Samo at $8 million a year. and I got coal straight. Yeah. Yeah, that's tough. And then, yeah, last year they had a chance to trade down.

They took Amari and Hampton. This year they take Messador, who's 25 on defense. So they had some options to fill those holes. And they did not do it. All right. I had a Rams-Tysimson one on here, but you already gave your kind of take on that one. I just wanted to be mean of your pejorie.

I love that one. No, I think that I think your scenario is probably. I'm not going to say I'm bullish. I mean, maybe it could work. I don't want to bet against John McVeigh. I just like, like, here's why it's a problem. And nobody ever talks about this

with the whole like developmental guy behind the older guy thing. Stafford plays one more year. The Rams lose in the divisional round in a very close game. Stafford has like a not MVP season, but like a really great season and then he retires.

Simpson's going to take over as the starter. Simpson was the 13th overall pick. Lesney put an enormous stamp of development on him. He's got one year in the system. Heck, make it two years if you want. I don't care. Sean McVeigh is still coached the team, Pocono Kua still catch and passes.

So a team largely looks like they've looked to this point. How many games does Simpson get until we are still freaking out? Right? It's like three. That's the thing with this, oh, you know, get the early developmental guy. Yeah, well, we're all going to be watching him. And if he's not good fast, and there can be a lot of writing about,

it can be a lot of conversations about it. It's going to be a lot of hemming and hauling in hindsight's 20-20. And that matters in terms of a guy's development, right? It's hard to develop and have that much scrutiny on you. So that's why, like, Simpson's going to have a very short leash once he gets there to, like, that he's got it. Otherwise, there's going to be a lot of pressure heating up on him. Not only outside scrutiny, but what's, like, if the first month, McVeigh is like, shoot,

I don't know if this guy's got it. Then what's your plan after that? So that, yeah, it is a, it was a head scratching pick that could look brilliant three years from now, but I'm not going to predict that it's going to look brilliant. You said Stafford retires? I don't know. I feel like Stafford's on another team next year. I don't, unless his body, unless he just cannot, like, move. That is like, he's in the Andy Reid bucket for me where he's like, you will drag me off this football field. You think so?

Yeah. What he talks about it, I feel like he's going to be willing to retire. Really? But he's had, he's played through so many injuries and is still so good at what he does where I just feel like, go to a place with the sports science and it's just like, you don't have to practice on these days

and we're going to have you do X, Y, and Z, and we can extend your career. I don't know. I think there's a difference between toughness and obstinence, right? I think that he is extremely tough, but that doesn't necessarily mean he will be so obstinate and so has to continue playing when, like, he simply cannot anymore, right?

I think that he continued playing this year because he could continue playing. Like, none of us really knew what was happening in the heat wave UV truck. But, like, very clearly, like, all right, there was a shot. I think once there's no more shot, he'll say there's no more shot. Yeah. But if he plays well enough with a team still pretty good,

he feels good. And then are they moving on? There are going to be other teams who would want it, I think, after a season like that. So the wheels would really have to fall off. for him to not have a market after this season. All right, those are our 2029 predations. Which ones have the best shot, so like,

which ones are we feeling good about here? I love Tomlin of the Chiefs. I think it's so spiritually sound. I do like that. Yeah, and then he's very successful there, and it, like, lead, like, you know, everybody thinks the Steelers would have made a mistake, except for Steelers fans who were all convinced

that it was still the right move as Mike McCarthy goes, like, 10 and 7, with Drew Aller and quarterback or something disgusting. I like that one. You got me there on Stroud Hertz. I think that's the one I feel best about. When I came up with that, I'm like, listen, Andy Reid might not still have this fastball shield, but you still got it.

All right, this is a good one. We're going to surprise Solac with this one. So there we go. We'll see three years from now. I may not have gotten Peyton Manning to the Colts, right? But I promise you, within the next three years, some team is going to make some ridiculous ex-quarterback hire. Might have already have him with Matt Ryan, but I feel like that was a defense.

some team will make some ridiculous ex-quarterback higher that will then go absurdly badly. Yeah, we're aligned that Andy Reid's not going to be coaching the Chiefs, we don't think, in 2020. We're aligned that we think Mike Tomlin's going to be back in the NFL in the year 2020. Hurts won't be an eagle. Hertz won't be an eagle in 2029.

And what was the one you just said? Man, the quarterback is going to be on the Colts. I think we're aligned that Peyton Manning is going to be running. I think we're aligned that Peyton Manning is going to be running team in 2020. This is good. We went over in 2023, so we really didn't hit here in 26. No, we didn't. We nailed them. But yeah, you can't find those in the feed anymore.

Something happened with Spotify. But don't worry about that. We nailed them. I think it's a good scope into what we're going to be talking out. Maybe in the next three here, sorry. His name is Benjamin Sol. Check him out. ESPN. ESPN.com. Mina Kimes Show coming up.

Yeah, I got the quarterback draft next week. That's right. Mina Kime Show. Talking quarterbacks next week. You can end. Don't forget on all the social media, this guy with the gardening football takes. I mean, I'm telling you, compelling content. Check it out. All right, Solak. Thank you as always, my friend.

Thanks, Joe. All right, thanks to to Chris and Prasuton for producing Stefano Sanchez on video and additional production supervision by Connor Nevins and Arjuna. Ramgo-Pala. I'm Sheila. We'll talk to you next time. On the ringer NFL show. 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with

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