The Ringer NFL Show - Aaron Donald's Return, Josh Jacobs's Status, and Making Sense of the Trade Market

Episode Date: September 1, 2026

Sheil, Tom, and Billy start the pod by sharing their reactions to Aaron Donald making his big return to the Los Angeles Rams and analyzing the team's travel plans for the big game with the San Francisco 49ers in Melbourne, Australia. They then dive into some of the other hot-button topics around the league, including RB Josh Jacobs being placed on the commissioner's exempt list, J.J. McCarthy’s status with the Vikings, and much more. They end the pod by talking about the trade market after cut-down day and shining a light on Tom’s 2026 NFL fantasy draft.(00:00) Aaron Donald's return, Josh Jacobs's status, and much more(03:12) Aaron Donald rejoins the Los Angeles Rams(17:05) 49ers-Rams NFL game in Melbourne, Australia(27:27) RB Josh Jacobs placed on the commissioner's exempt list(42:04) QB trade market updates(53:15) Odell Beckham Jr.’s return to the New York Giants(59:11) OT Broderick Jones traded to Dallas Cowboys, plus trade market news(1:04:11) Grading Tom Pelissero’s fantasy draft Upgrade Your Performance with Orgain Creatine. Available at Amazon, Costco, Walmart & Whole Foods. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit https://fanduel.com/playwithaplan to learn more about the resources and helplines. Host: Sheil KapadiaGuests: Tom Pelissero and Billy GilProducer: Chris SuttonProduction Supervision: Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopowell  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Don't you wish you could just hit skip on the worst parts of your life? You know, the same way you can skip an ad? I get it. I'm Siaiaa and I live in Ice Cove. I've made some questionable decisions that didn't end up the way I planned. And today, I'm still figuring it out. Somehow things usually get worse before they get better. Apparently, that's how I roll.

So bundle up and come along for the bumpy ride. Don't miss the new season of North of North starting September 8th on CBC Gem. Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. I'm your host, Shield Capadia. Lots of news around the NFL this week. Aaron Donald is back with the Los Angeles Rams. Josh Jacobs is out for the Green Bay Packers indefinitely. And a bunch of other stuff happening, a bunch of trades around the NFL over the weekend as team set their 53-man roster. We're going to talk about all of it.

We've got Tom Pelliserro here. We've got Billy Gill here. Let's take a break. We come back. We get caught up on all the news around the NFL. This episode of the Ringer NFL show is presented by organ. Organic protein helps improve muscle size, strength, and power when combined with a regular exercise and weight training routine.

Plus, it's certified with informed choice, which means it's tested for prohibited substances in sports. Upgrade your performance with organ creatine, available at Amazon, Costco, Walmart, and Whole Foods. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. All right, let's welcome in Tom Pelliserro and Billy Gill, a weekend filled with news. The big story, guys, Aaron Donald returning to the Los Angeles Rams.

Billy, I assume to celebrate, you got out the 180-pound dumbbells and we're doing a little chest press this morning. Is that right? Yeah, you know, I mean, I'm still in off-season shape, so I need to get into it. I think I have like those dumbbells that you can change the way. weight on them. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, the adjustable ones only because I don't have that much space. But yeah, I mean, I'm like mid-tier right now on the dumbbells. If you want, I can reach over and grab them for you. Okay. Do they go to 180? I'm pretty sure mine top out of like 52. 50. Yeah, 52. Wow.

52. That's right. Mine, I think, top out maybe at 25. These were very, very cheap. They were like Nordic track or something. They were on sale at Dix 1 Thanksgiving on Black Friday. I decided let me get two of those bad boys. So, all right. I'm on mine during COVID when everything was marked up and I paid like triple the price because there was no way I was going to be able to work out otherwise for like the next 18 months. Okay. I'm glad you brought that up and people will hate this immediately because they hate me anyways. But here's a thing that I realized during COVID.

Certain things are just not going to go back, right? Like we jacked up the prices on certain things. Dumbels before you could get a deal. Now if you could find a dumbbell for a dollar a pound, that's like an incredible deal. But there's things that are just not going to go back. And it's not because of scarcity. It's just because people realize we can just charge more for this, right? And people will pay it.

That's right. Once you bump up the price and people will pay it, it's supply and demand. Billy, you know, I don't want to go back to my economics days in college, but I do remember a little something about that art. So no 180-pound dumbbells. We do have the adjustables. But Tom, this was something that was rumored for a while. That way we think Aaron Donald's going to come back.

Sean McVeigh wasn't exactly playing coy when he was asked about it. How did this come together? and what do we expect from 35-year-old Aaron Donald joining the Los Angeles Rams? What's wild to think about was this was not even on the radar for anyone until the Miles Garrett trade, which is June 1st. It's less than three months ago. And it almost started out like an internet joke. Like people being like, wow, they get Aaron Donald to come back. Wouldn't that be something? Then he like winked in the comments on an Instagram post or something. It became a real thing out of seemingly thin air.

And so you knew when Aeronald was coming in, you know, a number of different times, multiple times officially on quote-to-quote visits or tryouts or whatever they called them, that this was something that he was taken very seriously. But it's also a guy who's been out of the league for a couple of years. I think I've said it before. There's only one modern-day Hall of Famer,

one player since World War II, who set out multiple seasons and come back. And that was Dion Sanders. He was a part-time player. He was still a pretty good player. but he wasn't 1995 Dion Sanders at this point. And so they're going to have a good plan in place. I don't anticipate it's going to involve Aaron Donald coming out and playing 70 snaps on September 10th in Australia.

But I do believe that they feel like they can get him in a place where he's still able to impact the game, in part because of what else they have up front. I mean, if you use him on passing downs and two-minute, those high leverage types of situations, you're basically saying, all right, as an offense, you've got to figure out. on how are we going to protect against Miles Garrett, Aaron Donald, Kobe Turner, Byron Young, all at once. I mean, you can't go max protect on every single snap, especially if you're trying to come back late in the game.

It has the potential to create some mismatched problems. But step one in this, besides obviously getting him signed, is, all right, what does this look like in the coming days, weeks? Is he ready to play week one? Is that on a extremely part-time basis? A lot of different questions, again, it's virtually unprecedented in NFL history, but it's one more wild storyline in a Rams offseason full of them. Tom, I saw you reported that he was granted a two-game roster exemption.

So is that kind of like we're operating under the assumption he may not play the first two weeks? It's pretty common. And I saw like every other NFC West fan complaining about why the Rams get special rules for them. It's actually pretty common with regard to situations where a player is coming out of retirement right at the end. If they're coming off of a suspension, there's usually a, window there or you don't count against the roster. However, the moment that they decide he's going to play, you lose the roster exemption. In other words, if he plays in that first game, that's it. What you have is, all right, let's say a player gets a two-game roster exemption. He doesn't play the first week.

Yes, you get a 54th player on your roster. That's what the Rams have right now until they activate Aaron Donnell. But the moment they put him on the field, that ends. It's not a unique thing. They didn't make it up on the spot to help out the Rams here. It's something that they actually do on a relatively common basis, even though Aaron Donald, future Hall of Fame are coming out of retirement on August 30th is anything become. Last played in 2023. Eight Sacks, 23 quarterback hits. He was a first team all pro at the age of 32.

I was doing a little, you know, internet deep dive here to figure out our guys who are 35 years old, defensive tackles who have been, who have had the most productive seasons. The two guys, Cam Hayward still playing for the Steelers and Callias Campbell. Those are the guys who doesn't matter where they are. in their 30s, they've still been pretty productive. But I think Billy Tom nailed it where I think this is like a high leverage thing where it's all right, let's, we don't need to week four. He does not need to be playing 40 snaps in that football game.

You can kind of ease them in. You can wait till later in the season. This is about the playoffs. This is about high leverage situations. But Billy, you know how coaches operate. Like sometimes they say stuff like this and then it is week four. And they're like, I really want to win this game. Aaron, yeah, Aaron, go get out there.

It's third down. I mean, how do you think they're going to manage this? And especially Donald, he's a competitive guy. He's coming back. He's going to want to play. Do you feel like they're going to be able to stick to this sort of script of not going too far with him right away? I mean, it feels like coaches and Tom, you could tell me if I'm overstepping here. It feels like coaches in general are just liars, right?

Like they're just going to tell you whatever it is that they're going to say, and they're not going to stick to any of that. And it's just gamesmanship. But they don't need to use Aaron Donald right away to what you're saying, shield is this is more for like the playoffs. This is more to get them over the hump against the Seahawks. This is more to win the Super Bowl right now, right? I had been reading, I think that they said that maybe the strategy is like 20, 25 snaps

on defense per game, I guess. Then you start building it up. You get to the playoffs. You get to the Super Bowl. And then you use this as kind of like they couldn't get past Seahawks last year. This is the final piece that will hopefully get them over. And they don't play the Seahawks until I think two out of the three last weeks of the season. So they don't even really need to worry about the Seahawks.

if they're in good shape. But I don't think he's lying necessarily. Like, Sean seems like someone who will stick to his plan, and they don't need him, need him. Like, they're so good defensively already. The biggest question that I've heard talking to people, and obviously this has been going on for months. I've had a lot of these conversations.

But even yesterday, once he'd come back, was, you know, all right, the Rams' biggest question now is, better be able to stop the run. Yes, you've got some amazing pass rushers up front here, but if teams just kind of run it down your throat, when Aaron Donald's not on the field, obviously you're not going to have those same level of pass rush opportunities. And so that's going to be on, you know, Chris Shula and that defensive staff to figure out exactly how are we going to utilize all these different parts. Yeah, if you get into pass rush situations, you know, if I'm an offense, say about this, in your head, and I'm not an offensive coordinator.

I wouldn't profess to know the ins and ounce of the X's nose here. But as wild as it sounds, don't you kind of dare Aaron Donald in the early going like, we're going to single hit. We have to double Miles Garrett. We probably got to worry about the other guys, Byron Young and Kobe Turner, like, let's single Aaron Donald and see what he does. He hasn't played a game in a couple of years here. The first time that he takes the quarterback down,

you're probably going to adjust that. But even Aaron Donald in 2023, he was still a really good player, but he wasn't peak Aaron Donald at that point. So now two years later, hasn't gone through a training camp, hasn't had that wear and tear on his body in so long. I'm not saying Aaron Donald's not going to come back

and be a player who could help. help the Rams, but this idea that he wouldn't come back if he's 100%, he wouldn't come back if he weren't Aaron Donald again. He already wasn't peak Aaron Donald in 2023. Let's see not just the management aspect, but how teams approach it here? Because I know this. If I've got a choice, I can only double one of those guys, I'm doubling Miles Garrett than seeing what Aaron Donald has. Yeah, they're in totally different parts of their career. I'm with you, even if you look at 2023. He was top 10 in most metrics for defensive tackles, quarterback hits, sacks, all of that. but it wasn't like this is far and away the best defensive tackle in the NFL.

I am picturing that poor left guard who like the coaches going up to him on Wednesday. Hey, we're just going to see if, you know, Aaron's got it or not. So we're just going to leave you one-on-one against him, Billy. And, you know, don't worry, if he beats you and kills the quarterback, will adjust. And Aaron Donald has just been like this, you know, caged beast for the last two years, not being able to play football. And that first snap, he's just frothing at the mouth. Billy, these guys are built differently than us.

I would not want to be that guard. I saw a fun stat that says since 2017, number one and number two pass rush wins, Miles Garrett and Aaron Donald, including the years that Aaron Donald did not play. So, I mean, it's a good problem to have if you're the Rams, right, to figure out. Also, if you're Aaron Donald and someone's like, hey, you haven't planned to years, you want $20 million and maybe $30 million,

it's kind of hard to say no to that, right? And the contract's unique, too, because he gets $10 million in a bonus. So that's the base. If Aaron Donald, God forbid, were to get hurt right out of the gate, everything else is tied to availability. There's $10 million in per game roster bonuses. And then there's $10 million in tiered playoff performance and incentive base with low playtime types of mechanisms here, which also allows the Rams from a cap perspective to carry a lower number than they otherwise would for Aaron Donald.

So we know that they've been creative. I mean, they about everything else they did in the course this off season, too, including flipping their secondary trade. right in a first for Trent McDuffey, signing Jalen Watson to a big deal here. They put a lot into the past defense, which again brings me back to week one, Christian McAfrey and the 49ers on an unfamiliar terrain in Australia. I'm sure Kyle's going to have a plan. Kyle's as good as anyone in the NFL at getting people open in the past game, but surely he's thinking we're going in here and we're going to run the football

and try to keep us out of situations where those guys can all get after the past. Yeah, you mentioned the other moves. I want to zoom out here for a second because they have been just the team of the offseason. I mean, that Miles Garrett, even before the Miles Garrett trade, it's like, oh, they gave up, look at what they did with Trent McDuffie, with Jalen Watson. They've built up their secondary, which was the weakness on the team last year. Then they had Miles Garrett. Now it's Aaron Donald.

And if you look at, you know, the fan duel, they are now plus 500 to win the Super Bowl. Their odds are twice as good as any other team in the NFL, including. the defending champ Seattle Seahawks, including any team in the AFC. And I saw this note from Ben Fox of Yahoo. He said there have been 20 teams with Super Bowl odds of plus 500 in the last 30 years. None of them have won the Super Bowl.

And if you look at the list, it's like, all right, the Brady Belichick Patriots, the Mahomes and his prime chiefs, the Legion of Boom Seahawks, the Rams, greatest show on turf. Those are the teams we're talking about that had this kind of hype going into the season.

Billy, are you, like, I don't know. How am I supposed to feel about it? Because I try to do the analytical thing, and I'm like, I don't know. They check every box. I think they're going to have a top five offense and a top five defense. Yes, injuries can happen. They have a great coach. They have a veteran quarterback.

I think this is going to work out for them. But is it not that simple? When you're this hype and expectations are so high and it's Super Bowl or bust, and you have a lot of guys on the last year of their contract, are there more ways this can go wrong that maybe the, than the public is acknowledging. This is not analytical. This is not even good analysis,

and I'll grant you that on the front end, but I feel like the only way that this can't work out is because things don't always work the way they're supposed to work, right? The way they have this set up, it's like this seems like a no-brainer. This seems like they've solved their problems. But then there's an injury, or then, you know, Aaron Donald maybe is a little bit slower.

Maybe he is a little bit off. Maybe they do try to test him. They don't double him. They go right at him. He has lost a step, and it just doesn't work on paper. And to your point, analytically, it seems like this should work, and they should be the favorites. But it just doesn't always work out that way. And I don't even know a better way to explain it than maybe it won't happen just because it won't happen.

You know, you can make a comparison to the Dodgers in the way that everybody's just saying, well, they've basically bought another world series. It's going to lead to a lockout. It's totally unfair. But football is less predictable than basically. not just because baseball inherently a one-on-one game and you can run the percentages. It's the foundation of moneyball, which is like on average, like there's a mean that every player is going to be. And over the course of time, the larger sample size, like guys kind of are what they are. The NFL is different because of the schematic elements, because of the matchup elements.

And also the fact that one or two injuries can completely derail what your plan was. Sure, if Otani goes down tomorrow and tears his UCL, okay, then we're in a different place talking about the Dodgers, but they still have a really strong team. The same thing were to happen to Matthew Stafford, that immediately would change everything that we know about the Rams. It's a long season. It's attrition.

It's 17 games plus three or four in the playoffs to be able to win the Super Bowl. I do think that they're a really talented team. I do think that on paper they are as good as anybody in the NFL. They're also relying on a lot of older players, whether that is Stafford or that's Devante Adams, whether that's Miles Garrett at this point on the other side of age 30. Obviously, Aaron Donald coming back

is an older player. Again, if you're just looking at this over the course of time, players that age, whether it is a dip in performance or whether it's injuries, those are things that can creep up. And I'm certainly not wishing any of that to happen

on the Rams. It's just, it's worth taking it into account. It's part of the reason you don't see teams go all in on older players very often. A perfect example last year is the commanders. They were in the NFC champion. championship game. Yes, you could say they overachieved in 2024, but they were right there at the end.

And what did they do? They doubled and tripled down on older players, veteran players, bringing Vaughn Miller, bringing Austin Eckler, bring back Zachers, and a bunch of guys got hurt, paid Terry McClore. You can go down the list and guys kind of got banged up. And all of a sudden, they went from being right there at the end to be one of the worst teams in the NFL. Again, somewhere

between is probably what they really are. The Rams floor is a lot higher than what the commander's floor was a year ago. But things can change. I can say this. I don't remember many teams with a target on them quite like the Rams. There are very few teams that we're talking about before we've even played a game. And you mentioned the odds plus 500 at this point.

It doesn't happen very often. It's just the absolute clear favorite across the league. We'll see the entire country, about 25 million people are going to be watching that first game in Melbourne on September 10th there, September 11th. No, September 10th here, September 11th there. I'm going to be there and I still haven't figured out what day is. I have no chance of getting that right. Yeah, between now, I'm just going to let you do that. It's a first thing I gave in America where I assume most of our audiences.

There you go. All right. But shout out, of course, to our Australian audience as well. You know, we don't want to. Tom's coming to visit you. And that's actually what I wanted to get to next year because we got week one in Melbourne. And that's how we say here, right? Melbourne, you're a mark.

Melbourne, you know what you're talking about. Is that right? Melbourne. Melbourne. Melbourne. Melbourne. There we go. Yes.

Okay. Melbourne, Australia, 49ers, Rams. And Tom, I've seen some various reporting here about kind of the different travel plans for these two teams. Now, I don't know that the Rams have said officially what they're doing. It just sounds like basically the gist of it is they're going to get there a lot later and be like, we don't need to spend a lot of time here. We're going to get off the play, maybe go to our hotel, play the game, and come back. Where the Niners are like, we're going a week early.

We want to get adjusted to the time zone so that when we're ready to play, we're going to be well adjusted to the time there. What can you tell us about this? This is actually a sneaky, sort of interesting, very interesting week one story in my opinion. Well, there's no precedent. It has never been a regular season game in Australia. So everyone is consulting their sports science people on what's the correct way. And Kyle and Sean, of course, have a long history and they've been close through the course of time.

They came up with completely different plans. The 49ers who were technically the road team in this. game, they're leaving, I believe, tomorrow. So they are going to spend the entire week. You're crossing, and again, I've learned a lot about this since I'll be over there for Netflix, they're crossing the international date line. So if they leave on Tuesday, they're getting

there somewhere in late Wednesday or early Thursday somewhere in there because the distance of the flight, and then they'll have the entire week to adjust. For the Rams, it sounds like, in essence, they're trying to get there the day before, and the way that they're thinking of it, from what I've understood,

is this game. So, if you're talking about on Pacific time, it's a 5.30 Pacific time kickoff, 8.30, it's like a normal night game. So the Rams wouldn't leave a week early if they were going to go play a night game, let's say in New York, right? You might leave 24 hours extra in advance, but you're not going to leave super early. So even though the game is being played at 10.30 a.m. local time,

their thought is we will travel exactly like we were playing a prime time game. So arrived in the city the day before, don't adjust anything. keep everybody's clocks on. We'll see if that includes any naps or anything else, since it'll be pitch black when you'd normally be awake. But then they're just going to roll right in like it's a prime time game, play the game, get back on the plane. Where we'll really see it is not just in this game,

but also after the game. Because remember, the 49ers are going to come back. They're going to get back on probably Saturday Santa Clara time and then have to readjust to the normal time before they end up playing in week two. It is interesting because of all the stuff that we've learned and there's a lot of data on, for instance, going to Europe, whether you're going to London or now Madrid and Paris and Germany,

you kind of feel, all right, the time changes are similar. This is completely different, and you've got two teams that are approaching in totally different ways. Hold on, I have a follow-up here. So the Rams, is it just like stay on Pacific time? Like, don't change your computers. Wow, Billy, that's wild. What do you think?

Let's take sports science. Let's take all the analytics out of it. You're just in that, in one of those rooms. And they're like, Billy, you are our, you know, champion of common sense. What do you think we should do? We're going to Australia to play a football game. Do you think we should just stay on Pacific Time, go the day before, not change anything, or do you think we should go a week early?

What are you telling Sean McVeigh or Kyle Shanehan? At first, I thought that the McVeigh plan was a ridiculous plan, but Tom has talked me into it as he was kind of explaining it. I was like, this is absurd. This seems like a really bad. strategy? Like, I feel like we're starting the Rams like Super Bowl run here, oh and one with getting there the day before. Because, I mean, I guess that, you know, they're flying private. They have their own plane. They're not going to deal with like the

regular, you know, inconveniences, the modern man faces. But you still have a 15 hour plus flight. So you're going to have to get used to that in that one day that you have. But never changing time zones in, like internally, like in your head, seems like a great strategy to me. I think that they've said that when you cross time zones, it takes you like that many days for your body to get reacclimated to the difference in time. Like that could just be, you know, an old wives tale where it's, you know, if you're crossing three time zones, east coast to west coast, it'll take you three days to get acclimated.

But if you never change your internal clock, then I guess there's no reason for them to be there that much earlier. So maybe McVeigh, look, McVeigh is known as a genius, right? So it's Kyle Shanahan, I guess. But McVeigh is like the one that we're like, wow, this guy thinks out of the box. maybe he actually is a genius in this. We're not going to know until the game happens, right? Tom, how long does it take you when you've traveled to get used to that time difference?

Yeah. I've never done anything like this. You guys will find out firsthand when I am on this show. I believe it's Wednesday morning, Australia time, Tuesday night, U.S. time. We'll see. We'll see what kind of shape I'm being. It's something like 22 hours of total travel time and then going across whatever is 13 time zone. It's going to be fascinating for everyone.

All I know is it's going to be about 105,000 fired up and perhaps inebriated Aussies cheering that thing on. It's going to be an electric environment. And by the way, a division game. Like we can be at the end of the year and going, man, they're separate just by a tiebreaker. Where'd that tell you? Melbourne, in week one, when we were talking about the travel plans,

that could literally turn the division. I mean, it's a high stakes type of a game. I know Kyle's made clear he wasn't a big fan of it. He still is not a big fan of it. But they're going to try to take advantage of getting over there and maybe even get a few people on their side by being the team that shows up early, even though on paper on game day, they're the Root Team.

Do you have a strategy for this 22-hour flight that you're going to be on? None. None? I'm like, I'm thinking through it, put it that way. I think that it's going to be, I'm going to try to time. I guess there's like an app you can get. that tells you like now is the time to go to sleep on these really long flights. I'll probably download the app. I'm just going to try to reset and sleep at the time that I would want to be sleeping in Australia,

even if it's 5 p.m. my time. But no. Do I have a plan? No. It's going to be total seat of the pants and I'll probably figure it out at the airport on Sunday. Wait, so does Netflix treat you right? You're going to have like a nice, like, laying down type seating situation? I better.

Oh, if I enjoy it. No, I don't mean that as a shot. I'm pretty sure I will. I just say if I show up on that plane and I've got like the upright 10 degree decline seats, it's not going to be, it is not going to go well for me on that plane. I mean, for show content purposes,

that might be best case scenario for us, right? Where you come on the next day and you're like in a really crabby mood because you're like, what did I do? There's Netflix in this ring or they didn't give me anything that I wanted. We're going to be on live on Netflix

at 8.30 a.m. local time on game day. So as long as by Friday over there, Thursday here, I'm up and running. That's what's important. I can't wait to hear about. We're going to do with Tom's travel segment next week because I'm very intrigued. Is he going McVeigh? Is he not changing his clock from central time? Is he going Shanahan?

No, I'm there early. Let me live like the locals live here. That's going to be very interesting. And I'll just say if Fandu'll put up odds for whether we will be all, you know, able to sign on at the same time for that podcast next week and get our time zones correct. I mean, plus 800 or something. I'm expecting when one of us is going to sign on, two aren't going to be there, something like that.

But you know what? Now that I put that out there, maybe we'll work on it. We'll make sure we figure it out. Very interested in this travel situation for the Rams and the Niners. Do you do movies? Do you do shows? Like, would you watch what, like three or four back to back? Like three hour movies?

It's so much time. Not a big. You know, that's not going to kill a lot of time. Really? I think I'm going to try to work, get things done. Wow. And then tire myself out and knock myself out. That's my baseline.

And then all of a sudden I'll find out that, you know, snakes on a plane is showing or something. And then I'll totally totally. You got a wreck for him, Billy? You sounded like you wanted to, you know, give them a little, hey, why don't you watch Knockout Season 3 attires or something like that? Well, that's, I've actually found that. So we had, you know, a couple instances where they sent us internationally.

We had a Spotify thing that half the company, you know, went to Sweden. And that was like a long travel journey with connecting flights. And I found that like the streaming of like one hour. episodes makes it easier than the back-to-back, like, multiple movies. Because I don't know why it is mentally, I guess. It's the same thing when you're at home, right, on a weekend where you're trying to get through it, where you can say, like, oh, you know, the Irishman or whatever that movie is called is four-hour as long.

I'm not going to sit down to watch a four-hour movie, but you could binge six or seven episodes back-to-back-to-back without even blinking an eye. I'm convinced that's a parent thing. When you're a parent and it's just easier to, I can't commit to this whole movie, but hey, I can watch this one hour episode and then you know what, if I still have time after that, I can watch another one hour episode. So yes, that has happened to me.

I think that's happened to a lot of parents. I was going to recommend the show I knocked out a lot of this summer was industry, but Tom, I would say that would not be appropriate for plain viewing. You're probably going to get looks. You're a new Netflix employee. I would just say, let's not do that one.

I'll try to come up with another one for you. People who have watched industry, know what I'm talking about there. All right, let's take a break. We come back. we got more to get to around the NFL. This episode is brought to by Organ. Go harder and push farther with Organicure.

It helps improve muscle size, strength, and power when combined with a regular exercise and weight training routine. Organic creatine is certified with informed choice, which means it's tested for prohibited substances in sports. Upgrade your performance with Organcreatine, available at Amazon, Costco, Walmart, and Whole Foods. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.

This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. When WestJet first took flight in 1996, the vibes were a bit different. People thought denim on denim was peak fashion, inline skates were everywhere, and two out of three women rocked, the Rachel. While those things stayed in the 90s, one thing that hasn't is that fuzzy feeling you get when WestJet welcomes you on board. Here's to WestJetting since 96. Travel back in time with us,

and actually travel with us at westjet.com slash 30 years. All right, we are back here on the Ringer NFL show. All right, not a fun story, but a big story in the NFL. Josh Jacobson placed on the commissioner exempt list running back for the Green Bay Packers. Fill us in, what are you hearing? What does this mean? And what does kind of the 2026 season potentially hold for Josh Jacobs? Well, this was always a possibility shield.

with Josh Jacobs because the way that the personal conduct policy reads, it's if you are charged with the felony, charged with the crime of violence, or if the league, based on what it knows, has come to the conclusion that you may have committed one of those acts, that you may have something that takes place down the line. That's where Josh Jacobs was, even though initially he was booked on five charges, including felony strangulation. In the end, the local district attorney in Brown County, Wisconsin came back to only charge him with two misdemeanor. misdemeanor battery and misdemeanor destruction of property. The fact that it involved alleged acts that were in the vicinity of something that the NFL

eventually could charge him for under the personal conduct policy, the league erred on the side of taking him off the field. The Packers did not know which way this was going to go. Certainly they had an inclination. This was possible. Brian Goodacutts referenced it recently. They made a trade yesterday for Caleb Johnson to get another running. back in the room along with Marshawn Lloyd and Chris Brooks, which is not the way I'm sure that

the Packers would have wanted their running back room to line up going into the season. The thing with the commissioner exempt list, and of course the first time, this list has existed for a long time, but it's not been, it only was applied to players who were facing personal conduct investigations in 2014, 2015, with the likes of Adrian Peterson and Greg Hardy, where it became a mechanism to take the player off the field. And once you go on that list, you've now really lost control of the timeline. Any suspension that eventually ends up coming is likely offset by the time that you spend on the exemplist. But for Josh Jacobs, whose hearing is not until the middle of November, the league could choose not to act until then.

We could see whether or not there's something that takes place on the legal front, perhaps a plea deal that allows the NFL to act sooner. We'll see it perhaps they could negotiate a suspension. But if it's a significant enough concern for the league that they're taking Jacobs off the field on the commissioner exemplist, just the same as Jonathan Cooper in Denver, who also landed on that list. Terriott, Arnold, the new Seahawks, cornerback is the third player. No other players are ending up on the exemplist. But in all those cases, there's a lot of different moving parts. The league historically has waited until criminal proceedings are complete, in part because there's information that they don't have access to from the police from the local authorities until after. after the legal proceedings are complete.

The exemplarist is the placeholder that you can place a player on. Again, they could end up negotiating a settlement and a specific number of games for a suspension. It's possible that if there's a plea deal or something else that moves things up, you agree to pretrial diversion, the charges are dropped, whatever it might be, that this could accelerate. But the Packers have to be ready now to not have Josh Jacobs for the foreseeable future. And we'll see when or perhaps even if Josh Jacobs is in a Packers' Unifference. form again. Paid suspension, like Tom said, court date set for November 17th, although, as you said, things could change between now and then. According to the police report, Jacob's girlfriend,

for those who don't know, kind of the details here, Jacob's girlfriend said that he grabbed her and threw her to the ground during an argument, and then the police report said video surveillance corroborated the altercation that the woman described that is per the athletic. So yeah, it's kind of wait and see with Josh Jacobs. I think one important note just to reinforce there from Tom is that if he's missing games while on this list and then it's suspended, Tom, that's just most of the time it's offset, right? Like, let's say he misses six games while he's on this list,

and then they give him a six game suspension. They would consider that those six games have already been served. But is that like definite all the time or that's just kind of how usually this has played out? These things are usually subject. Now, a lot of the suspensions that have happened recently for personal conduct matters, not the standard, you know, D.EY's three games, for instance, but a lot of these negotiated types of suspensions, they are the product of a settlement. That was the case, you know, with Deshawn Watson, there were a lot of different things that took

place in there. Justin Tucker was negotiated 11-game suspension where he signed on board to that to try to get himself back into the league. That has not yet happened. You just don't know exactly how things are going to play out. It is paid leave in the interim if, in fact, let's say, because we're going to miss eight games and the NFL says, well, the suspension would have been eight, you can come back. You would still have to give up the money for those eight games in all likelihood. But again, there is between the NFL, the NFL Players Association, and then, of course, Josh Jacobs is representatives, there's a lot of different things that can be discussed and figured out. Again, the bottom line here is, Commissioner's exempt is indefinite.

And you remember, this came out of the Ray Rice case and not just the corollary here of the potential existence of video, that would show an altercation between Josh Jacobs and this woman, but also that the NFL initially gave a short suspension to Ray Rice. I can remember if it was two games, I think it was two games, if I remember correctly. And then when the video came out, all of a sudden they suspended him indefinitely. Well, a federal court judge eventually ruled, or a former federal court judge ruled, that you can't suspend a player twice. So the NFL's answer to that was, we will now just use commissioners exempt to put the player on the sideline.

That part of it is indefinite because it's not a suspension. It is paid leave. Depending how long that lasts, again, there's probably a negotiation that takes place. But let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Josh Jacobs is facing serious allegations, though reduced charges from what he was initially booked with. This is not a felony case. These are two misdemeanors. It's always possible, again, that a plea deal could be reached or something could be worked out well in advance of that hearing in mid-November, at least in part because that may be, Jacob's best path to serving a suspension and getting himself back onto the field. But there's still a lot that we don't know about this case.

What we do know is barring a major change. The Packers are going to be walking into U.S. Bank Stadium in Minnesota in week one without one of their most important players on the field. Yesterday when the news of the exemplist came out, I think part of the story was also who wasn't on that list. So Rashad Bateman of the Ravens didn't end up on that list. he had domestic dispute back in June and his facing criminal charges. Pukunakua, that's more of a civil case, right?

Is that possibly why it is that he wasn't on that list? And then also, just because they weren't placed on it yesterday, does it mean they still can't be placed on it down the road, correct? It's unlikely that the exemplars would be used barring new information, Billy, because the NFL usually does those things at the cutdown because of the implications for the roster. The player doesn't count against the roster. it allows you to do it. They don't usually use commissioners exempt,

for instance, in the spring, though they would have used it with Terry on Arnold had he not, you know, had the Seahawks not waited until they did eventually actually sign him formally on Saturday. But in terms of the exempt list, usually that's not something to use later unless there's a material change in circumstances.

There's new evidence. There's video players hit with additional charges. They have another incident. Usually it is something that would take place at the cutdown. The only one besides the three that happened that I thought was possible was Rashad Bateman because he is facing, I believe one felony charge and additional charges. Alarick Jackson, I believe that case is resolved. That's a suspension that still could come down. In the natural distant future, he's already served one personal conduct suspension.

Certainly that's a possibility. With Puka, that's a more layered thing. The NFL has in the past suspended players without criminal allegations. It's one thing that I think a lot of people miss with the NFL in that, you know, I constantly see people. And even the comments on like the commissioner's exemplist of like, how can the NFL let this happen while they throw these guys out leak? The NFL in case after case after case have taken more action against players under the personal conduct policy than the criminal justice system. Ray Rice centered pretrial diversion and ended up with a two-game suspension that became an indefinite suspension and ended his career. you know, Adrian Peterson was something where his, his banishment was far more significant than the actual discipline that he would have faced through the criminal justice system.

Time after time, Josh Brown was another case. Justin Tucker never had any criminal cases brought against him and served an 11-game suspension that pending if he gets another opportunity this year could be the end of his career. And that's not to, you know, absolve the league. They've certainly made mistakes in the past. They've obviously admitted that in the case of like a Ray Rice. But time and again, they have taken greater action against players and the fact that they're pulling Josh Jacobs and Terry on Arnold and Jonathan Cooper off the field at a time that they have not been convicted of anything. The time they are still facing charges is one more or three more examples of really how the NFL has approached this, which is we're not going, A, we're not going to wait necessarily for final, you know, jurisprudence here. And two, we are willing, even if a player gets, you know, no jail time or gets, you know,

does not end up being charged or charges are dropped, they'll still take action if their own investigation that they do internally reveals conduct that they feel like violated the personal conduct policy. Just from a football perspective, the Josh Jacobs thing, Tom mentioned, probably not going to be there. Week one, it is interesting to look at this Packers offense. And obviously, this is a big pivot. These are serious allocations.

Tom outlined it there very well. But from an on-field perspective, this is a team that ran the football at the third highest rate last year. I mean, they were really a run first team and they weren't a great rushing team. If you look at really any of the advanced stats, they were quite mediocre.

And so that's just one thing to keep an eye on with the Packers now with a very uncertain running back situation. Is this the time where Matt LaFleur says, we're going to pivot and we're going to allow Jordan Love to do more and we're going to throw the football more on early. downs and does that benefit the team or does kind of, you know, more of that hurt a little bit? Because obviously he was playing last year the way he was for a reason. So that's something that's just a interesting little side effect here from a football perspective to keep an eye.

And Josh being banged up at the end of the year too with injuries was, you know, one of the complications that they had to keep the thing rolling. The biggest factor in my mind of why the Packers were not quite as efficient down the stretch offensively and they went through a pretty significant dip for a couple of games midseason was they lost Tucker Kraft. I mean, after Jordan Love, he might be the most important player on that team. To me, he is young Travis Kelsey. He is that good. He is that physical.

He's that athletic. He's that fast. He's a mismatch weapon all over the field. It certainly sounds like he's going to be able to go in week one. We'll see how much he's able to go in the early going. But the fact that he is back, Christian Watson, who they paid in the off season, who's a really good player, he's everything the Packers are about. He's just had a lot of injuries in his career.

He's back. You know, they made some other changes. If you think about what they did at the receiver position, Robio Dobbs moving on to New England, they traded Don Tadion Wix. I know that, you know, the kind of running joke or at times complain from certain people is, you know, why does no pack a receiver,

especially fantasy players? Why does no pack a receiver ever have a thousand plus yards? Why is it always, it's because that's how the offense runs. It's designed to get the ball into the open players' hands. All of a sudden now, to a Tuckercraft, Watson, Jaden, and probably Matthew Golden, those are the guys that it would seem the offense. The passing game is going to revolve around.

Matt's always going to want to run the football. But if you look in the backfield right now, you have Caleb Johnson, who was a third round pick a couple of years ago, who was available for a late rounder because he was probably going to get cut by the Steelers if they didn't trade him. You have Marshaun Lloyd, who has been hurt literally his entire career so far in the NFL. It's looked good in camp, but you don't really have, you know, evidence that he's going to be able doing the regular season. And then Chris Brooks, who was like a, I mean, I can't remember if the dolphins, they cut him or they traded him for a late round pick, but he was another guy who's like a bottom of the

roster player. That's your backfield going into the season. And again, we'll see if Josh Jacobs comes back at some point. There's a lot of other factors. There's nothing to do with football. Then we'll play into that. But that is absolutely something that LaFleur and company are going to have to take into account as they set the tone for this team going into 2026 with certainly also the hopes that the defense is going to be able to step up to the challenge early in the season when their best player, Michael Parsons, is also not available for at least four games. Yeah, I like the crowd. I thought Kraft, before he got injured, I thought it was the best tight end in the NFL last year.

I'm like, this is incredible, this guy. So, yeah, he, that is a reason for some optimism with the passing game to your point. Those two backs, Lloyd and Johnson and combined 34 career carries. I mean, that is, you rarely see an NFL backfield go into his season. and obviously these are extenuating circumstances with so little experience at the running back position. So we'll see what happens there.

Just closing the book there, Jonathan Cooper was the other guy. You mentioned also placed on that list in court for arraignment on domestic violence charges arrested twice in a seven-day span in June faces felony charge of second-degree assault

by strangulation and three misdemeanors including violation of a protective protection order. So we'll see what happens there as well. And again, just from an on-field perspective, in my opinion, that's as big of a deal as Josh Jacobs is. I mean, the Broncos team is built on that pass rush. They lose John Franklin Myers in free agency. Jonathan Cooper, eight sacks, 50 pressures last year. If you're losing both those guys for a big chunk of this season, I do think there's a domino effect with that Broncos

defense. So that's another situation to keep an eye on. All right. Let's take one more break. We'll come back. Will Pivot to some more stuff around the NFL. J.J. McCarthy, Odell Beckham, Jr., and some of the trades we saw over the weekend. When West Jet first took flight in 1996, the vibes were a bit different. People thought denim on denim was peak fashion. Inline skates were everywhere,

and two out of three women rocked, the Rachel. While those things stayed in the 90s, one thing that hasn't is that fuzzy feeling you get when WestJet welcomes you on board. Here's to West Jetting since 96. Travel back in time with us and actually travel with us at WestJet.com. slash 30 years.

All right. We are back here on the Ringer NFL show. I feel like, Billy, we've probably this offseason talked about J.J. McCarthy, maybe more so than any other player. Does that feel accurate to you? He's definitely, I think, in the top five of players that we've talked about a lot.

Yeah. High usage rate for the Ringer NFL show, J.J. McCarthy. But Tom, he stays on the Vikings roster over the weekend. What's your understanding of the situation here? were their calls? Was he close to being moved? Is it just a situation where they're not really motivated to just release him or give him up for nothing? Do they actually believe he might still have a future in Minnesota? How do you square this, J.J. McCarthy, still with the Vikings here? First of all, the Vikings were never going to cut J.J. McCarthy, no matter what rumors or what you read

on social media, that was never in play. They were never going to release the player. He's still a young quarterback who has shown flashes. I know all the memes. I know all the jokes, but he has shown flashes of at least being able to function, but he's not been able to sustain it in large part because of all the injuries that he's had in a variety of circumstances that he's been through over the past two and a half years. As much as anything, the money is an issue with a J.J. McCarthy trade. He's due close to $5 million, all of it fully guaranteed over the next couple of years. And if you're a team bringing in McCarthy, again, based on that history, you're probably talking about bringing him in as the three. Even as the two, you're taking a risk

because not, number one, he's got to learn everything. He's got to learn his teammates and the scheme and get the rhythm and timing and tempo. Like that's a lot. You are thinking, all right, if we're going to bring him in, this is a stash him as the number three quarterback and develop him. You know, Sean Payton did that a couple of years ago with Zach Wilson. And it didn't end up working out there. He was the number three for the year. He went to New Orleans. And, now, depending how they end up shaking that thing out, he might be the number two quarterback in New Orleans. He just made their 53-man roster. It could very well, you know, JJ could be the latest player in the list of them that comes back. And not everybody's going to have a Sam Darnel

type resurgence and go and win a Super Bowl, but, you know, Trey Lance is like, what, 70 years in the league at this point, and he's developed into a pretty solid backup. I know he wasn't great in the preseason this year. He's the number two with the charges. There's no reason that Jay J.J. McCarthy can't be that and potentially more. But taking on close to $5 million guaranteed for a number three quarterback is just not something the teams generally have an appetite for doing. And so the Vikings are committed to that money. Releasing them would have relieved them of at most the minimum salary, maybe even less if he was a practice squad guy. So they're just going to hang on to him. They also went on to Max Brosmer. That was one of the

themes coming out of the weekend. And we'll see how things evolve before we get to week one. But we had, depending on how you look at it, four different teams that kept in the initial 53, four quarterbacks. The Browns put Dylan Gabriel and I are, so it's really three on the 53 with Talin Green, joining Shadour and Deshawn Watson. But the Eagles kept four. If I had to guess, I would say that's a temporary situation. They like the rookie Colpate, and you can do a lot of different stuff. Andy Dalton's there. Tanner McKee might be the two behind Jalen Hertz. We'll see exactly how that evolves. You have the Steelers, who they're plan if they, you know, if they didn't find a trade for Mason Rudolph was to keep them,

because Will Aller and, excuse me, Drew Aller and Will Howard are guys who very well could be in the mix next year to start in Pittsburgh, depending on the development goes. And Mike McCarthy wants both those guys there. So they kept four. And then the Vikings, you know, with Colin Murray, Carson Wentz, who, if I'm guessing right now, I'd say he's probably the two and JJ's the emergency three going into week one. And then Max Rosemary is essentially a redshirt player, which is what he was supposed to be last year. until we got forced into action in a couple of games

and beat the Lions with like 50 yards passing on Christmas in one of the weirder games that we saw the entire year. I think that it speaks to the value that those guys have. I mean, look at two of the teams that traded their quarterbacks. Did anybody have Quinn Ewers and Kyle McCord both getting traded to be number twos and fetching a sixth round pick? That was not on my bingo card going into the weekend.

But it's just if you don't have those guys, you're always looking not just for who's going to be the two, but who can we develop? And so teams like the Packers for decades have developed those guys and then traded away and gotten something. Miami, John Eric Sullivan, Jeff Halfle, came from Green Bay.

Same thing with Quinn Ewers. If you can get something for him, train him away as you see her a deep sigh from Billy who might have been on the Quinn Ewers train there in Miami. They pulled their entire quarterback room this weekend. Like, what if the dolphins frustrate me? I'm sorry.

I don't mean to cut you off. But like, you were saying like, this is the theme of the weekend. A lot of teams kept all their quarterbacks. Like, not in Miami. They got rid of everyone. They just decided, you know what? This room, not for us.

We're going to trade away our number two. We're going to bring in Kyle McCourt. And I don't know how you feel about this, Tom, and I'm wondering, I don't like this situation with the dolphins and the Packers, where the Dolphins hire their GM from the Packers. They hire their head coach from the Packers. Now, their backup quarterback is from the Packers.

One of these things. Starting quarterback from the Packers. Yeah, starting quarterback from the Packers. This is one of those situations where, I feel like maybe the dolphins have gotten bamboozled by the Packers, where it's like, why are all of these capable pieces from the Packers just being made available to the Dolphins? Or is it the Dolphins have just been foisted all of these pieces that the Packers said, we can do without those.

And they're like, you know what? Like, this guy's available. I worked with him. Let's bring this guy down here. Let's bring that guy down here. And all of a sudden, you have all of the Packers the Packers didn't want. With the GM and the head coach, you can hire whoever you want. Nobody can block you in those roles.

I think that every head coach and GM out there, if you look on their rosters in their first year, they probably got one or two or three guys who they had before. Another one of the trades we started on the weekend, Gervyn Dexter from the Bears going to Atlanta, reunited with Ian Cunningham, who's a first year GM over there. It's something that's pretty common. You have people who, you know, fit your scheme, fit your culture. Sometimes it's about just getting the right guys in the locker room to kind of be that voice who can carry forward. Hey, you remember how we did things in Green Bay.

Let's continue to do it. I mean, if I'm guessing, and I haven't talked to Sully about this, but I would imagine Kyle McCord might have kind of been his guy in the draft process. He might have liked him a lot. And so you trade Quinn Ewers away for a 2028-6th, which I didn't think they were going to be able to get that for Quinn Ewers. Then you take that pick and you flip it for Kyle McCord to come in. It's just, it's a weird time just in quarterback development in general, in part because so many of the guys over the past several years have gone back to college. And now you're getting guys who have been at two or three or four schools. and they're there forever, and there's not the depth that you normally have in the drafts.

I mean, Kyle McCord won some games at Ohio State and then broke records at Syracuse. I mean, he does have talent. He looked really good in the preseason finale. I got that trade. The Ewers one was a little bit more surprising, but Jacksonville also just was not happy with their room. They called on everybody. And I mean, every person you can think of as a backup quarterback, essentially, they called. They ended up bringing in a guy in Ewers who also had a ton of success.

at the college level and now gets an opportunity to beat the backup of the Toronto Lawrence. Where does someone like Will Levis or Sam Hartman, where would they end up? Wow, you're going deep, Bill. Sam Hartman, the only person in the NFL had better hair than me. I anticipate it'll clear waivers and go back on the commander's practice squad. Will Levis is interesting because there were teams that had interest in them. The Titans could have traded them. They couldn't have gotten much, but they could have traded them back in the spring.

wanted to play it out because you never know. Injuries can happen. Maybe you need Will Levis. They get to the end and didn't have that opportunity. I wouldn't be shocked if somebody claims. So frankly, I wouldn't be surprised at the Packers claimed them. They've got Tyrod Taylor backing up Jordan Love. I could see Will Levis being a fit in Green Bay.

We'll know that maybe even before this podcast posts. But that would make a lot of sense. Will Levis is like, listen, he's got a big arm. His like kind of tight super muscle body is not going to be for everyone. He's obviously a high, strong type of individual. But like to go back and you watch his. tape, yes, he had some of the wildest turnovers you'll ever see when he was starting for Tennessee. But he also had moments where, like, oh, this guy's got ability. I mean, go back to his Kentucky tape,

not the last year, but the year before. He was really, really good. You know, he played for Liam Cohen in Kentucky. Could he also have to be added to the Jacksonville room? There's a lot of different possibilities. I do think Will Levis, you know, quite possibly get claimed, if not, that we signed pretty quickly. Last QB, I had a question about Anthony Richardson. Tom, this is sort of similar category. to J.J. McCarthy. I keep trying to get Anthony Richardson to another team. And you know, what you just said about Will Levis, I'm like, if you throw on Anthony Richardson's 25 best plays, you're like, there's absolutely a player here. I love, I like the rushing ability. It might

never happen, but he's in the last year of his contract. I can't imagine the price would be that much to acquire him. But he right now stays with Indianapolis. Do you expect that to be the case all season? I anticipated being the case, you know, until told otherwise. It really seemed to turn. Like, yes, Anthony Richardson was hoping to get a fresh start back in the spring. That just wasn't a lot of trade interest in him. I mean, think about it. He was coming off of an eye injury. The freak thing where resistance band snapped and smacked him in the eye.

It's like my worst fear every time I work out that something like that's going to happen. It happened to him. It was a bad injury. It basically took him out for the entire year. So for Richardson, he came back and he played pretty well. And, you know, we'll see how they end up structuring the two and the three with him and Riley Leonard. I wouldn't be surprised at all if Anthony Richardson was the two. because that also would at least give you the optionality

where you're also trying to preserve Daniel Jones, especially in the early going coming off the Achilles. If there's opportunities, Daniel's a really good athlete. But if you want to run something, quarterback run style down by the goal line, you probably want Anthony Richardson doing it, not Daniel Jones. You can only do that if he's the two. But he really kind of brought himself along.

He had a really good camp there. And so by the time it got down to cut down, that wasn't even really on my radar. I did not believe that he was going to get traded. We'll see where it all leads. Again, he's, what is he, 24 years old. He's 6.5, 240-something. He's a rare, rare physical specimen,

and he just hasn't played that much football going all the way back and we started Grand Tull at 13 games at Florida. There's still something there. If we've learned one thing from all the quarterback movement in recent years, including Darnold, including Baker Mayfield, you don't want to give up too soon on somebody who has the physical ability to do it. maybe Anthony Richardson's time comes because Daniel Jones has been banged up essentially every year of his career.

He may well get a start. And we've also seen where if you come in and it's a spot start for one or two or three weeks, all of a sudden you're Mack Jones and everyone's going, why in the world is this guy not a starter? What a curveball. That would be. You're right. Yeah, Daniel Jones coming off that Achilles and Richardson comes back in and resurrects his career.

That would be a fun 2026 storyline. Maybe if we're making some bold predictions here. All right. A couple more topics. Billy, your level of interest in Odette. Beckham Jr. being a part of the New York Giants. Are you like, oh, this is incredible. It comes full circle. Are you like, Shil, why did you even put this on the rundown? Like, who could possibly care about this? Where on that range of interest do you come down here?

I'd say out of 10, like five and a half, six, I think it's a nice story. But beyond a nice story and a good, like, full circle moment, I think that's probably it. Maybe he goes, he makes like one or two spectacular plays throughout the season. So you can put it in a nice story and a good full circle moment. I think that's probably it. so you can put it next to his all-time catch. It's like, wow, this is great. Imagine if he did that again. But aside from that, I don't know. It's okay.

Okay. Tom, he's not really selling you. What about you? I'm amazed by how O'Dell is moving. Like, if you just watch him, I mean, yeah, if you had a side-by-side of him in 2014 and now, I'm sure you could see the differences. But, like, for a guy who has barely played football

over the last, like, five years, it's pretty impressive. 2021, you remember, O'Dell with the Rams in that Super Bowl, He's the best player on the field until the knee, which he had had partially torn ACL for like half the year, fully tears, doesn't play for a whole year. Comes back, the Ravens give him a one-year contract up to $18 million,

comes back, isn't much of a factor there, then goes to Miami, that doesn't go very well, ends up getting himself released, doesn't play again. I mean, there's no like corollary here with the guy who's had a player who his first three years in the NFL might be the greatest three years we've ever seen from a wide receipt. Look at the statistics,

2014 to 2016. Even if you take out the one-handed catch and certain highlights, like just the production he had was off the charts. And then obviously he goes to Cleveland and that goes sideways

and he goes to the Rams where he's great and then hurts the knee. There were so many different things that took place with Odell. The fact that he's here and he seems to be in a good place right now, like I'm impressed, honestly. Odell seems like he's grown up some.

Over the course of time, there's a lot of emotional stuff with him as a young, player with the Giants. He seems to be getting past that. He's going to have his old number number number three. Giants fans can bring their jersey out. I mean, Giants can only kept five receivers. They also kept Darius Slate and there were rumors about that. Leak neighbors coming off of his injury. We'll see what he can do. But it's not just that Odell is on the initial 53-man roster. Instead, he's doing it at this stage in his career after all the time he's missed.

And by the way, he might be playing significant snaps right out of the gate. If he starts making plays, even if it's a couple. I mean, I think it's one of the great comeback stories that we've seen, just knowing everything that he's been through physically and otherwise over the past five or six years. I clicked on the athletic story on O'Dell Beckham Jr. And it does show a little video clip of him being interviewed in the locker room. I didn't recognize it him at first. He looks so different than he did in his early years.

He made his face routine, man. He's got some lotions or something going there. I need to know what the skin care is, Billy on O'Dell Beckham Jr. I was like, is it the facial hair? Is it his hair is a different color? But he was looking great there. So, you know, maybe we can get to the bottom of that. But Tom's right.

I was going to say this because, you know, I think we're really growing our young audience. You know, I don't see any of the metrics, but it just feels that way. I feel the same way. Why not? We'll say it. Sounds good. They're like, you know, they're like TikTok reels or the Ringer NFL show. You know, those are usually what the content comes down to.

Go watch YouTube clips of Odell Beckham Jr. 2014 to 2016. I would put up those three years against any three-year start for a wide receiver I've seen in my football view in life. Like he was incredible. I'm just like, this is a surefire Hall of Famer. This might be the best wide receiver I've ever seen in my life. And then obviously Tom outlined it didn't all go according to plan after that. But he was truly incredible to watch when he first.

Let's say, like our conscious football watching time, which I think for all of us is like over under 30 to 35 years, right? Somewhere in there, they're like, yeah, actually remember football. Greatest starts by a wide receiver to an NFL career. Randy Moss is absolutely up there. I think Justin Jefferson is up there. I mean, he's broken every record in terms of what he did, you know, through year one, three, or two, three, or three, and all those things. And Odell's in that category, too.

I mean, he was that good. And again, there were a lot of those things, you know, fighting the kicking net and then proposing to the kicking net. various meltdowns that he had and getting in little tussles on the field, getting into players, gets himself straight to Cleveland, tears his knee there,

comes back, then he gets himself cut, gives up money, goes to the Rams, tears his knee again. There's so many parts of the Odell story. Here he is in,

you know, what, 12 years after he got drafted and he's back with the Giants. I just think it's an unbelievably cool story. It might end up being a footnote to what is going to be, you know,

listen, a challenging season for a young giant's core. And maybe Odell, as wild as it is to say, might be coming back as the guy who's kind of seen it all and he knows how this story goes and maybe can be a little bit of a grounding force to some of those young, impressional teammates.

Like I'm late neighbors, who I'm sure at times when he's not getting the football has felt the same way that Odell once did. Yeah, I thought it was just a little cute little training camp story, but here he is. He made the team. He's on the team there with the Giants, Billy. I feel like there's a chance we get an O'Dell Beckham Jr. game this year, though, right?

Like, he has one more ball left to the chamber. That would be fun. Yeah, we look back at the season. I'm like, oh, the Giants, you know, they brought in Harbaugh. It didn't live up to what we thought. But man, we had that O'Dell Beckham Jr. game and that was fun, right? I'll sell him for one O'Dell catch. I'll sell him for one, like, crazy O'Dell catch.

Okay. And that alone would impress me. Yeah. He has some one-handed touchdown or something. Like, that would be a pretty cool deal. All right. The only trade I think we haven't touched on here, Broderick Jones' offensive tackle,

former first round pick, Steelers send Jones and a fourth to the Cowboys for a third and a sixth. Jones started 38 games in three seasons for Pittsburgh. Obviously did not work out. Had a neck injury, Tom. What do you make of that move, Cowboys acquiring Broderick Jones? Well, first of all, that was part of the theme of the weekend,

which was there were 15 trades. Okay, they were on the wire for cut. day. Eight of them were offensive line. Everybody was trying to find an offensive lineman. So if you had an able-bodied, whether it was a tackle, a guard, there were a bunch of centers, if you had somebody

that you were going to cut, like, you were able to move them to another team. Broder Jones was the biggest one, not just because he was a first-round pick, but because of the compensation. I get it for Dallas. Terence Steele, I know that just based on the public comments from Shadi and others, has not had the best

camp. You've got some other moving parts and Jones is a talented player who does upgrade your depth at that position, whether he's the swing tackle, whether he eventually ends up starting some games for you. On talent, it does make sense for Dallas. For Pittsburgh, I mean, remember, he had a

pretty serious injury last year. It was a neck injury, and you just don't know when guys come back from those, whether it's physically, whether it's mentally, is he going to be all the way that same player again? And so for the Steelers, they essentially get another top 100

pick out of it plus the sixth round. You guess they give up the fourth, but you get a third and you get a sixth out of the deal. I thought that it was really good value. They also got a pick for Caleb Johnson, who again, he was going to get cut. So for the Steelers, a team that I think everybody looks at is like this transition year and how good are they actually going to be. I think Cutdown Day's show. They've got some depth on that roster and also the new coach of Mike McCarthy coming in.

He's going to turn this thing, get it looking a little bit more like what Mike wants it to look like. It's really not a bad roster. at it in Pittsburgh where I'm not sure, you know, obviously not sure about the quarterback situation, but I look at other areas of the roster. Like, I like the O line. I like the pass rush quite a bit. I think the wide receivers. I caught so much hell for saying on Bill's podcast in my ringer debut a couple of weeks ago, but I thought the Steelers could be a top 10 offense. And like, I was getting messages for a week about that. I don't think it's crazy.

Mike McCarthy, and you can cross-check me, fact-check me on this shield, but I believe 18 seasons as a head coach. He's at a top 10 offense either 12 or 13 times. So perpetually, he has a really good office. Now, year one, at times is bumpier before they get that thing rolling here. But he's got a guy in Aaron Rogers.

He doesn't need to learn the scheme. He's got back one of his favorite running backs in Rico Dowdell to combine now with Jalen Warren. The receiver group is better with, you know, D.K., Michael Pittman Jr., coming in. They're hoping Roman Wilson takes a step forward. I don't think that it's outlandish to say this could be, And, you know, Darnell Washington, the unique threat that he is.

Mike McCarthy's, like, been one of the ones. He was, like, trying to bring back, you know, the tight ends and fullbacks. In Green Bay, they used to keep, like, five or six or seven tight ends and fullbacks on the roster because he'd use all these different personnel groups. I think they're going to be better than everyone thinks. It's not going to be the Aaron Rogers throwing off-balance 50 yards down the field anymore. Like, that part of it is not going to be as significant factor, if at all. But in terms of the ability just to get the ball out to these playmakers' hands,

they're faster, they're more athletic. they got the guys who are a better scheme fit. I think the Steelers' offense will be better than everyone thinks, even if they're not top 10 in McCarthy's first year. Billy, when I heard that, I'm like, wow, Tom's just coming in. He's going to be firing off takes left and right here. Now, I didn't message you, Tom, and say, you're a dummy. Why are you doing that?

I thought that was your burner shield. No, that wasn't me. But I was like, the thing with Mike McCarthy's offense is, I feel like his quarterback situation has been very good. Most of those seasons, whether it was Brett Farber, or Aaron Rodger in his prime or Dak Prescott, and I just look at this quarterback situation. I can't get there with the offense.

I like you going out on a limb. Maybe you'll be rubbing it in our face when we get to December. I told you guys, top 10 offense. Everyone made fun of me. I actually like the other side of the ball quite a bit. Where I've got them as a top five defense. I think they're going to really exceed expectations there.

Now, that's not as hot of a take, Billy. So I am coming in a little cool here. Like I think people think the Steelers defense is going to be pretty good. Get a hot take in their, shield. Go out on a limb like Tom did. Come on. scared of. Well, no, I'm not picking them to make the playoffs. Why? Why? My preseason prognostications are my hottest preseason take is that I don't think the Patriots are

going to make the playoffs. But we got time to get to that. That's just going to be a little tease. Are you guys doing? I'm not, but are you guys doing postseason picks on the preview episode later this week? I was thinking that maybe we could do that when the cat was away. You know what I mean? Like maybe the day that you're flying out or something, we sneak in some like postseason predictions or something, you know? Or maybe we can make them and Tom can make fun of us. Let's see. We got some planning to do here. I like that. Let's finish this episode. Billy, do you see this? Tom tweeted out

his fantasy draft and this guy is old school. I mean, they got the board, they got the stickers. You walk up. I don't know if you've ever done a draft like this. I have. You pick off the sticker from the sheet of paper. You put it up to your team. And he must have been feeling kind of good about it. Because he put out all the results. So we see him. We see all the other teams. And he said, who you got?

So I thought, you know, we're his podcast co-host. We should be able to critique this. How do we think Tom actually did with his team? Do you want me to read the team off real quickly here? Read every team. Hold on. Let me set this. Let me set it.

All right. I have been posting that every year because I always have that. We go to a bunch of my high school buddies, go to our friend Ryan's cabin. He has us for the weekend. And you make it. And then over dinner, I'll post the board. And then we just read the tweets out loud of the people like making. their picks. This team sucks. This team is good. And it's fun. So this is a keeper league where you can

keep two keepers in their prior round draft slot, but anybody you took for round four or later counts is a round four pick. And it is a non-PPR league. So when you're looking at the picks, it's not like I passed over certain people like, no, they might have been a fourth round keeper and I didn't have access to that player. But you can read, you can read my team. And then you can read Whatever team you like, you can read that team and say what you got. How many times can you keep a player? You can keep a player twice. The first time, it's the prior year round.

The second time, they have to be your first round keeper if you're going to keep them. All right, Billy, so here's the team. I don't know. I'm getting specifics and taking notes on this, but I'm really involved. It's important context. You have to know how this works. All right, so Tom kept Christian McCaffrey. That was in the first round.

That was a keeper. Did you get them second round last year? This is your second year of him. This was my, I traded for him at the tail end of the season two years ago. I was out of it and I made, I think he was, yeah, he was hurt that year. So I acquired him when he was on injured reserve in exchange for, I think it was Derek Henry, literally as a on playing for next year thing as a keeper. So last year he was your fourth rounder.

And then this year he becomes your first rounder. No, he was the first because he'd been a first the previous year. So it counted as my first round pick two years in a week. All right. So McCaffrey, then he goes Brock Bowers, Devante Smith. then he keeps Rishi Rice in the fourth round, and then the remainder of the picks, Judarian Price, Christian Watson, Carnell Tate, Michael Wilson, Chuba Hubbard, Matthew Stafford, Aaron Jones, Mackay Lemon, Zach Charbonnet.

We're still doing kickers here. Wow, Jason Myers. We're still doing defenses too. Old school, Pittsburgh Steelers, who I just talked up are Tom's defense. All right, we're aligned there. So let me quickly take you through the strategy, and then I want to hear the great of the team. So the strategy here, I wanted Saffer to be the quarterback. He was the number one point score based on our point scoring system last year. And I knew he wasn't going to go ahead

of the Lamar's of the world. So I could probably get him what I get in like the 11th round or something. I got him very late. 10th round. So I got in very late in the draft. So that was, that was, I thought, good strategy. My less good strategy was, all right, so I had the McCaffrey to Snake Draft, so I had a late first pick because I was keeping McCaffrey, so I ended up with an early second. I took Bowers there because it was either Bowers or Drake London. My theory was this. I thought if I took Bowers in the second, it would trigger a run on tight ends,

that then you would have the Trey McBride's, Colston Loveland's, the world, come off, a bunch of tight ends before it came back around to me, pushing down the running backs receivers I wanted. No tight ends were taken again until the fourth. So that part of the strategy field, I still almost had Drake London come back to me in the third, by the way. He went one pick ahead. I take Devante Smith, still had

Rishie, who, if you look at his career just based on a pure like when he's actually on the field basis, is still one of the highest per capita scores out there. So I felt good about that as a fourth round keeper. All right, give me a grade and then I want to hear what team you think or how you would rank these teams.

What do you think, Billy? Well, my big note was the Brock Bowers thing, but you just explained that situation. I was going to say you could have waited a little bit on him. You still almost got Drake London, so it still almost worked out for you. It was one pickaway. You also were talking up Tucker Kraft a little while ago, and I looked to see where he went, and he went like seventh round. So you could have settled for him later on.

If I'm not just, I think the Matthew Stafford getting him in the 10th round after Jackson Dart, after, you know, some of these other quarterbacks were taken, he's the defending MVP is a steal. I don't know how it is that they allowed him to fall to you in the 10th round. So like that's great. I'm kind of looking around. Is this John the second pick in the draft here?

G.I.A. The G. John. He has John Marco. Yeah. John taking Drake May as the second quarterback off the board in the fifth round here before Lamar, before Joe Burrow. That seems questionable to me.

Does John have any ties to New England? What was he thinking there? He does not, but I remember standing up to go back and look at the board. By the way, this happened on Saturday. It's been set that Saturday for years. This is the first time cut down was on Sunday. So half the draft, I'm on the phone trying to break actual NFL news. What is it like this weekend, by the way?

Because this is very inconsiderative of your friends, first of all. Yeah. It was nonstop. I almost didn't go to the draft. Oh, man. But our friend Pat didn't show up last year. And then he caught 365 days of hell for not showing up. Plus, participating remotely.

is not ideal. So I left at 5 a.m. on Saturday to get there, worked the entire day, was bouncing back at 4th, did the draft, and then left at 5 a.m. to go back on Sunday morning to make sure that that was the least likely time that I was going to miss news. So I did, I was strategic about it. Yes, I was also surprised that Drake May went ahead of Lamar Jackson because I was, I had half of mine when Lamar was still sitting there in the fourth to take him. But again, I stuck, I stuck to my guns on letting Stafford fall to me like I thought he would. Can I ask you one more question about this weekend and how? things play out for you. Because I was wondering this, and I've always wondered this about

insiders and newsbreakers. So you broke a number of stories yesterday. You put out a number of trades, number of releases, Aaron Donald coming back, et cetera, right? But for some of them, you put it out with the graphic. So you have, here's a thing, and it says breaking news, Tom Policero, it says the ringer, Netflix is on there, right? I've always thought as a casual, who's not in the industry, it seems like we're adding a step here that's slowing down and could let you get scooped here. If we're throwing in a picture here, I mean, presumably you know that this is going to happen. You're waiting for it to happen. So you have all of these pictures just lined up waiting to put it out. But still, just the adding it, I feel like we're adding a millisecond

there where you could get scooped by someone. I have all of the tweets of the things that I know or think are coming in my drafts. Okay. The photo's already there. The tweet is typed out. Sometimes you've got to fill in the team, but post it and it goes. so there's not a lot of delay there. There are times like the Broderick Jones trade where that one I was not I was not prepared, thank you, I was not prepared for that going into the weekend

so I hadn't requested a graphic. I knew that a couple teams had called. I didn't think that it was going to happen. And then I asked for a graphic, they're like, yeah, no one's, no one's working at 6 o'clock on Saturday in late August. So I was like, okay, there's had no graphic on this one. But no, it's actually, it's a pretty,

it's a pretty clean process you know the only the only the problem is the previous week when I broke the Kishon booty trade which was on the flight to the Netflix boot camp to get ready for this season and so I get the

text that the trade is done and here's the terms I try to open my drafts and they won't open on the crappy plane Wi-Fi so now I have to re-type the whole tweet and find the graphic again and put it in, that's like the, whatever, 60 to 90 seconds, that either A, I could have gotten beat

or B, I could have, like, put the wrong team in, which has happened on a couple of occasions. The most notorious one was the linebacker Kiko Alonzo, who was traded like three times. I'm pretty sure this was the time. Not graphics, worthy, if we're going to be honest. He was treated from, there was no graphic on, this was pre-graphics. Graphics was a relatively recent development. Yeah, that's new. Yeah.

But it was, Kiko was being traded from. the Dolphins to the Saints, the day after the dolphins had traded Laramie Council to the Texans. So I get the text, Kiko's been traded to the Saints. And somewhere like in the deep recesses of my subconscious, I'm thinking about the Laramie Council trade, and I type, trade Kiko Alonzo to the Texans. The moment I had sent and I see it pop up on TweetDeck,

I'm like, oh, no, no, no, no. So I copy it real quick, copy the text. you know, control C, I delete it, paste, control V, send it again, but I cut off the first letter. So now it just says, raid Kiko Alonzo to the Saints. So I copy it again, delete it again, get it right, put it out, trade, I get it correct, and like everyone is screenshoting the previous two attempts. What team is it? It's like, those are once in a while, that was probably, I don't know, seven years ago or something.

But like you just don't forget the absolute epic philies. I have nightmares about not like my fingers not working trying to type it or I mess something up and I can't delete. I will literally wake up at 3 a.m. having a nightmare about putting news on social media. In your nightmares where your fingers stop working are the other insiders like pointing and laughing at you or are you like getting bullied? Like what's going on? No, very realistic. I'm like in my basement and just like fat thumbs and I'm just typed it absolute gibberish. Like in your dreams here, you're not supposed to be able to read either. But somehow I know in my head that what I'm looking at doesn't make sense.

That's usually what it is. And occasionally I'll have one where I'll wake up and I'm like, did I actually get a text last night that that happened? I'll like check my text and be like, no, that was just a very, very vivid dream. So yeah, it's a totally normal life. Good, good question, Billy. I feel like there's a segment here inside the corner or something, you know? Yeah.

Who is your winner in the fantasy league? Let's not boost the plot here, Bill. I like your team, Tom. And listen, if I thought your team sucked, I would tell you that would make for better content here. But my daughter just had her fantasy draft yesterday. And we targeted some of the same. We took Bowers early. I have no issue with you taking Bowers there.

He could set the record for most receiving yards by a tight end. He's got Clint Kubiak. Look at what he did with JSN. Last year, Bowers is so clearly the number one target there. And they could get mediocre quarterback play. I like that one. I like Devante Smith. I think he's going to have a big year.

And then if I had one piece of, fantasy advice for the audience that you can take it or leave it. I'm not a fantasy guy. You can listen to the ringer fantasy show. Judarian Price. I mean, I want this guy on all my teams. I don't understand why he's not going higher. So you got Judarian Price. So I like your team quite a bit, but I will say this. I don't think it's the best team. I think it's the second best team. Who's the best? My guy Holland. Holland. Holland. I thought Holland had a good team. Josh Allen, Kenneth Walker, D'Andre Swift, Bucky Irving. It's like those teams that are NFL teams that are keeping the four quarterbacks.

It's like if you don't have the great running back, just take a bunch. Two of them are probably going to pan out. He got J.S.N. He got Devante Adams. He got Jaden Reed. Billy, you pointed out. He waited until the 7th and got Tucker Kraft. He got the Rams defense, which we just talked about. He's taking flyers on guys who could explode. Matthew Golden, a nice flyer there.

I would never take a kicker before the last round, but he got Brandon Aubrey. So now I'm looking at the roster. You're like, all right, that guy's going to make 60-yard kick. So, yeah, you might have to maybe get some people in your league to try to trade with Holland, weaken his team, maybe get personal, do whatever you need to do. I think that's your number one competition. Holland is also the guy who brings the draft, orders the draft kit with the name stickers every year, and is also almost always the last person to arrive.

So essentially, the draft is held up until Holland walks in the front door and then we're like, okay, now we can do this. All right, there you go. I guess I'm Team Holland, Billy. That's where we are. I think Jail had a nice little draft for being the last pick also, you know, Jamar Chase, Ascent Dentie Cam, Jalen Waddle, Tett McMillan, Joe Burrell. Scadabot is a stay away for me.

My daughter's like, I'm sure we shouldn't take him. He's the best available. I'm like, no, I don't think he's going to play. I don't know how much football Scadabot is going to be able to play. But you know what? I lose all the time. Anyway, so there you go. Check out Tom's draft.

You can check it out. It's on his Twitter account, but he's got a lot of news on there, as he just sort of outlined. So you might have to scroll down a little bit. I've never won that league, by the way. Really? To be clear. We're in year 22, I believe, of the league. I've been the runner-up several times.

And they'll expect you to win it because you are the NFL insider, right? There's 10 people in the league, only two people have never won it. I'm one of them. Part of my weakness, and you see it in that draft, is I'm always thinking because I'll hear stuff about the rookies. I'm always drafting guys one year ahead. So I'm hoping this is the year. Carnell Tate, Mackay Lemon, Jadier.

Right. Somebody make me look smart. I'm trying to get that fourth year keeper value and somebody's a rocket in year one. That's the plan anyway. You know too much is probably the problem and you over things. Yeah. I don't think I've won a fantasy league since I had Sean Alexander running over everybody in like 2003. John Alexander or Priestholmes, one of the two. Yeah. Those are good years. Is there a big trophy that you guys carry around, pass along from person to person or anything or no? There's not a trophy in that league. There's a trophy in my other league, the dynasty leagueer, real keeper league, salary cap league. It's like a whole, it's like the Heisman trophy.

It's huge. Also, never won that one. I'm not good at fantasy. No. This might be a year. This might be a year, Tom. I can feel it. It's a year of change.

It could be a year of change for Tom's fantasy team. Sorry, everyone, good luck with your fantasy drafts. In the next week here, I know a lot of them are happening this weekend. Thank you to Tom Pelliser. Thank you to Billy Gill, Christopher Sutton for producing Stefano Sanchez on video, an additional production supervision by Connor Nevins and Arjuna. Ram Gopal, we will be back later this week on the Ringer NFL show.

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