The Ringer NFL Show - AFC Championship Game Burning Questions with Ben Solak!

Episode Date: January 22, 2026

Sheil and Ben Solak from ESPN get together to take a hard look at the AFC Championship matchup between the Patriots and Broncos, and debate who’ll be the most likely team to make it to Super Bowl LX. (1:37) AFC Championship game preview(2:14) Broncos offense vs. Patriots defense(16:27) Broncos defense vs. Patriots offense(23:20) Buffalo Bills press conference The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Sheil KapadiaGuest: Ben SolakProducer: Chris SuttonVideo editor: Stefano SanchezSocial: Kiera Givens and Brian WatersProduction Supervision: Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. I'm your host, Shield Capadia. We are breaking down the championship games over the next two episodes. We'll do the AFC today and the NFC tomorrow. So today we've got Patriots Broncos. What will Sean Payton's plan be with Jared Stidham? What is the blueprint for an upset? We'll talk about all aspects of the matchup.

And then had to finish the show with the story everyone's talking about. What is going on in Buffalo? Just a wild press conference with their owner, Terry Pagula. in the aftermath of them firing Sean McDermott. So my guest today is our old friend ESPN's Ben Solac. He's going to join us for the two-parter. Let's take a break. We'll come back with Ben.

The Ringer NFL show is presented by Fandul. Fan Duel's got it all. Same game parlay's quick bets for jumping in live and your way so you can build the bet that fits your play. Plus, don't miss out on the NFL playoffs all month long. Download the Fandul app or head to Banduel.com slash ringer NFL to get started. 21 plus and present in select states or 18 plus and present in D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming.

Gambling problem. Call 1-800-G-Hallp.com. Call 1-88-7-8-8-7-9-77 or visit ccpG.org slash chat in Connecticut. All right, we are back here with our old pal. ESPN's Ben Solac, Benny Souls. Are you ready to talk a little AFC championship? I am on the great Netflix platform. I hear the bad home in the background.

I'm going to be watching this on Netflix the mid-ed drops. I'm so excited. Okay, there you go. We'll let you know. And you can watch this on Netflix or on Spotify or listen on Spotify. So many ways to get the show. All right, So lack. I think the only way to talk about this game

is to try to figure out how the Broncos can pull off the upset with Jared Stidham. That is just the central theme of this game. So we'll get to the other side of the ball in a minute. But let's start with Denver's offense. And I want to know from you, how should Sean Payton, who I've said before, is feeling this? I mean, if he can win a Super Bowl with Jared Stidham,

he's going to be the most insufferable man in America, and probably rightfully so, because that would be quite... Is there a bar of insufferability that Sean Payton has yet to achieve? There's an upper limit there? This might be the only one. So what are your expectations for Sean Payton? His game plan with Jared Stidham, how do you think he approaches this thing?

So I actually think that, like, the system of their own with Bo Neck, is one that fairly takes a lot of the operation out from the quarterback, just in terms of there's a lot of screens and RPO's, and just like the sort of stuff that's very quarterback-friendly, play action, the design, rollout game. It's not that it's the same as the two-a conversation. It's not that it's like easier means the quarterback's terrible.

It's just that the head coach is like, you know, says, I'm very good at this. And so I'll be like, you know, getting us to a lot of our good spots. And the quarterback just kind of needs the point guard. So a lot of the base offense can I think remain the same. The one thing that you do lose is the quarterback running game. We saw it be a huge part of their approach against the bills, early drive, especially on late.

downs, right, to convert. So I do think that your short yardage stuff gets a little bit strained. Stidum will throw a very nice deep ball. Nix had a great deep ball game against the bills, but in general has been one of the least accurate deep ball throwers since he entered the league in 24. So I think you could see the field stretch a little bit more, a little bit more shot plays, longer dropbacks in the pocket, a little bit more, you know, climb and step up. He's a bit bigger, and he stands there a little bit longer. But at the same time, like, you start welcoming pressures and sacks if you go that way. And Bodex is superpower.

The thing that he does best that keeps this offense chugging, he takes no sacks, right? Since he entered the league, like 3.5% sack rate, it's the lowest of all quarterbacks in football, Stidham over like his four starts at 8%, which is a very like league average number.

And so you can go for longer dropbacks. Use the fact that Sittam, I think it's a little bit more accurate throwing down the field, a little bit bigger of an arm. Use it to your advantage. But at the same time, like you're going to get a lot more negatives.

And I think you really want to avoid negatives in this game, try to make it low scoring, make it murky. And I'm not sure that there'll be enough juice worth to squeeze with, like, your receivers against the Patriots corners. So I could see them being a little bit more shot play oriented, but I largely think the offense will operate like X's and O's-wise, quite similar to how it does with Nix. They're just going to be some, like, more unique change-ups like, you know, your first and 10 flea-flickers and your second-and-seven reverses. And the ways you kind of try to get the drop on the Patriots so you can manufacture an explosive. No, I could tell, by the way, you spoke about Bo Nix there, that you are a man.

with maybe a little roller coaster ride with Bonix and then you get Broncos fans. They've been aggressive with me. They're aggressive with everyone. A roller coaster ride implies some degrees of ups. I would say I've been mostly just in the tunnel with Bono Nix and with Broncos fans, which when he was out of Oregon,

I was like a pro-Bonix guy. I was like, this is a pretty like solid dude, no second round, whatever. Since pretty much start one with Broncos fans, they've not like my read on the guy and that's that, listen, they're in the AFC championship game. I'll take my lungs. So I was thinking that this is a win-win for Broncos fans

because hear me out here. I think if Jared Stidham plays well and they win, they're in the Super Bowl. That's great. They're not complaining about anything. If Jared Stidham plays horribly, now they can come at everyone who says, you know, some version of kind of what you implied there that, you know, Bo Nix has played well, but he's not the thing that drives this Broncos team, drives this offense.

So if it looks like, oh, my gosh, this offense looks totally lost without Bo Nix. Now, all right, they're not in the Super Bowl, but they can say, hey, we got our guy. He is making a difference, and none of you know ball. What do you think about that? I think it's a win-win. So if you're sad about the Bonix injury, which you have a right to be, think to look at it my way.

Good things coming your way on Sunday either way. I think at the end of the 2022 season, Tua Tunga Wai Lowe got hurt, and Skylar Thompson played a game for the Miami Dolphins, and they lost that game in the postseason, well, I got around the bills. And then, you know, the Teddy Bridgewater reps are bad, and every school Dolphins fan said, oh, you told me that it was just a product of the offense.

that it's all Mike McDaniel. Look, the offense sucks when the backups are in there. And I was, okay, let's check in with me in two years. And here we are two years later, you know. There is a difference between, like, how good is the quarterback qualitatively? How well is he playing within the offense? And where do I rank this guy among the league quarterbacks, right? So I think with Nix is like, I have never had an issue with what Nix does for the Broncos offense in terms of execution, right?

A lot of the sack avoid and stuff is huge for how they want to play. He throws with an ice on the move and he, like, creates throws. He's a quick distributor. He's generally accurate in the short areas. Like the way, what they ask him to do, he is good at doing that. He knows how to play within himself. And he largely doesn't have like spiraling fall apart games. Even his bad games, like that Raiders Thursday night game he played,

he still like did well enough to like avoid turnovers, you know, keep the field position battle fine or rely on the defense and win the ball game. So there's that aspect. And then when you widen in the scope is like what inevitably ends up happening is this quarterback has successful when he's young guys. Broncos fans start saying like, all right, you know, why do you think that, you know, Caleb Williams is better than this. guy. You know, why do you guys rank Justin Herbert above this guy?

And that's where you lose me, just because we're starting to talk about different quarterbacks in different environments and being asked for different things. So with Knicks and like this game is a referendum, I think there's a lot of worlds where Stidham walks in and it looks 80% as operable. And that's because Sean Payne's really good at his job, Stidham's a solid quarterback. And because the system is generally kind of, you know, QB agnostic. There's also plenty of worlds where Stidham walks in, takes four sacks, throws two picks

and they lose because he's a backup quarterback playing in the AFC championship game, right? the book on Knicks will not be written and they'll not be a period and pen at the end of it because of one, maybe two games in the 2025-26 post season. Yeah, he's got a long, long way to go. Two years into his career, obviously great drive down the stretch

there, great deep ball down the stretch there and had his team in the NFC championship year in his second season. He's switching championship. He's switching conferences as well. You didn't get that yet? That just broke before the pod. Started there. All right, Stidham here. Now, you are a, you are a, you are a draft Nick, do you take offense to that?

Or you like being called that? No, I don't. Broncos fans have already found a tweet of mine from 2019, where I was like, I don't really like Stidham very much. Don't worry about that. They're already closed tweeting it. Like, oh, he hates Stidham. I'm like, guys, relax. All right, that's why we got to sign up.

You got to log off more. Touch grass. Get your steps in. I don't even remember sending this tweet, and they found it. They're fired up. All right. So I'm curious about Jared Stidham because he has four career starts. I do not grind the preseason film the way some of my colleagues like you might.

I was looking at his numbers in those. four starts. There was one that was bad, just like EPA for past play. There were two that were average. And there was one that was good. And his worst one, it wasn't even, you know, statistically, it wasn't horrible. It was about the 33rd percentile. So what should we know about Jared Stidham? Other than what you told us earlier, throws a pretty nice deep ball, sack rate about 8 percent. What else do we need to know about the way he plays his strengths and weaknesses going into this game? Yeah. So Stedham can spin it. And this has been the joke since his Auburn days when he came out is his Auburn production, his Auburn film

wouldn't even that great. And then he was coming out in the draft process, and all coaches and scouts are talking about like, man, you watch this kid throw, like your practices, like, you know, pro day, man, ball comes off his hand real clean. And we were all like, yeah, the games aren't good. Like, the games are not going well. As he goes middle round, he is a really classic backup quarterback mold in the sense

that a practice that looks beautiful. He knows for his sports football. He can execute. He throws a gorgeous ball. He's got a nice compact release. He's got the downfield ball. He's generally accurate. once the bullets are live, and you see this on the good film and the bad film the last couple of years, he doesn't operate at the speed

you like for a quarterback to operate at. He's not debilitatingly late. He's a solid QB2 in the NFL, but he definitely is a tick behind. It lets zone defenders get closer to guys, forces the windows a little bit tighter. He'll miss receivers behind them a little bit because he's late to these throws.

And that is significant in the context of the Broncos' offense because so much of what they do successfully and other credit to Knicks is Nix will get the ball or the checkdown fast. And it allows him to throw these swings and these screens and these tight-end delays and actually pick up five and six yards, maybe pick up eight and ten yards and stay ahead of the stick so reliably. Eventually, we're going to get to like four or five cold shot plays, you know,

with some vertical options down the field, maybe not five attempts, but five called shot plays. Just didn't him get the throw off against this pass rush and also the way that they've been blitzin recently into England. And when he gets it off, you know, are we, if it's growing Sutton against Christian Gazales down the field, you know, to me that leans Patriots, but son can win some of those. If it's Marvin Mims against Carlton Davis, Mims can separate. Is the ball going to be accurate? Are we going to get a DPI? A lot of this

is going to come down to. Sean's going to manufacture a few leverage spots for Stedham to hold that ball for a little longer and shoot that soccer. And what's going to happen on those plays? That's what happens with all backup quarterbacks. That's the Jacoby percent story, right? That's the Joe Flacco story. Just ding dunk, ding, duck. Stay ahead of the six, don't myself, don't make up. Okay, we're going for our shot here. Let's go

get seven-on-one play. And to your point, there has been a lot of that with this Broncos' offense anyway with Bonnex where it's, you know, layups and three-pointers and hit your shots downfield here. I was looking at a couple things here with Sean Payton's history and also the way the Broncos have played. So Sean Payton in New Orleans, five in one with Teddy Bridgewater when he had to come in. Five and two with James Winston. So 10 and three with Bridgewater and Winston when Breeze was out. Now, there was some other stuff in there.

Trevor Simeon, Luke McCown, Ian Book, Mark Brunell. Oh, and Seth, Mark Brunel, I don't remember that. Oh, and seven. All right. So that's some of Sean Payton's history there with the backup quarterbacks. And one other thing I was looking up. You were mentioning, all right, Fonix doesn't have, hasn't had maybe a bunch of clunkers. Offensively, I was just looking at when the Broncos have had below average games.

And so I looked at it seven games this year where they've had the offense has performed at a below average level just when you're looking at EPA per drive. There's six and one in those games. So they've had three games that have been. below the 20th percentile, and they've won all three of those. So it just reaffirms what our eyes have seen, that the defense in a large part has been driving this thing for the Broncos. And Bo Nix has made plays late in games, and they figured out a way on offense. But the makeup of this team has not been like, we have to be mistake-free, efficient football,

down in, down-out. That's just not the way they've played all season long. So if you're Broncos fan, I think those are some things going in your favor. But then so like the other side of the ball, you mentioned the Patriots defense. And I think there's still a question like Patriots defense. Are they good? Are they not good? Are they really good? Are they finding their way?

I think they've played maybe their two best games of the season the last two weeks where we look at it. Everyone's ripping Justin Herbert and C.J. Stroud. And I think that's fair to a large degree. But these were over 90th percentile games for the Patriots offense. It feels like they're healthier than ever before. It feels like they're playing better than they have for most of this season. And where are you on the scale of like how legit is this Patriots defense? my whole job, we're 20 weeks in

and I'm just like, I don't know, man. Yeah, who knows? This is the sort of question you hope you'd professionally be able to answer. I definitely think that, like, you know, I saw Aaron shots of football outsiders, or of FTN, excuse me, tweet today that, like, since week 10, the Patriots defense is better by DVA than the Broncos defense, right? The Broncos defense has been having, like,

a little bit more up and down performances than this Patriots defense. It is easy to fall into the trap of saying, the schedule is not good, and it's played soft quarterbacks, is absolutely true, and their numbers are inflated. But you also look at the room, and you're just like, all right, wait, like, Mill and Williams and Christian Barmore are good and have been good.

Carlton Davis, Christian Gonzalez, Marcus Jones, are good and have been good. Like, they have pass rushers and they have manned cover players. How long 10, 15 years of the postseason has been defined by, can your defense man up? Can you play guys one-on-on and can you get after the pass with four? They can do both of them. So they have the DNA of the legitimate postseason defense, a Super Bowl defense.

They're also, like I said, being more creative. You saw them Blitz, Justin Herbert, a ton. They were pressuring Stroud as well. They like to blitz on these early downs. It helps them with their run fits, which is a big deal because they have these lighter edge rushers and they don't really want to go pound for pound against offensive lines like the Broncos.

So I'm confident they're quite a good unit. Now, the difficult reality of the NFL is that you can be the sixth best defensive football. If you run into a really good offense, you're just going to get deleted, right? This is an offense-driven league. They certainly are not on the caliber of, like, the Seahawks or the Texans,

where I don't trust them against a functional offense to, like, suffocate and win the game Anaconda style. I don't think they can have, like, you know, the Texans' defense was amazing against the Patriots. It was the worst game by success rate in Drake May's career that he paid against the Texans. Didn't matter because they had 19 drives that started inside the five-yard line.

But I don't think they can have, you know, I don't think the Patriots defense can have that caliber of like a suffocating performance. That being said, it's back and quarterback. So, like, pressure him, blitz him, show him everything. Let's trip him into some mistakes. So I'm confident they are a good unit. They're good enough to get a few stops on Matthew Stafford and the Rams

and Sam Donald and the Seahawks if we get there. Are they dominant enough to, like, you know, kick Jared Stedham and Sean Payton's teeth in and only give up six points? I'm not convinced by that. I think the offense still needs to do enough, like, heavy lifting in this game. So they're a very tricky unit to Calvary, too. Yeah, I'm with you. Different makeup than the Broncos. I think they've certainly played really well the last two weeks.

I think they're good enough to win a Super Bowl. I don't think they're really going to get lit up. But could there be some give here with Sean Payton and his game plan. I think there could be. All right. Let's take a break. We come back and we talk about the other side of the ball. The Ringer NFL show is brought to you by Fandul.

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How confident should Broncos fans be that their defense is going to be good enough to keep them in the game? And what is the game plan to do? So now that we've seen the Patriots offense, these last two playoff games have not been great, it looks like they've got some vulnerabilities. Can the Broncos expose those? I'm very confident they can keep it a game. I'm confident they can keep it close. So long as you're just not getting, like, you know, tons of short fields

and then, you know, you don't know how bad the Stidham turnovers might get, but, you know, generally not terrible short fields, you should be fine. They, I think, are a very good pass rush for Drake Mae specifically, because when you start to heat up May, as we've seen, first thing he can be careless with the football, take a lot of sacks, and we've seen the ball get on the ground a few times. May also is like, you know, one of these young quarterbacks, one of these great playmakers who's like,

ah, I've got an extra half-second or about, like, you know, just hold off a guy with one arm, it could throw with another arm. And that's good when you can beat, like, the first rusher. You can climb up in the pocket and beat an edge rusher. You can escape through the B gap or whatever. But the Broncos rush is just so complimentary. It's just, it's so total, right?

Where you have Nick Minito and John Cooper and Zach Allen and DJ Jones and Malcolm Roach and John Rowe's and John Lewis. And they just, they converge on you with such great discipline before Vance Joseph even starts sending guys from the second level. So I'm confident in their ability to get sacks on May and to minimize his escape lanes, minimize the effect of his legs. now you're forcing the ball into the air and, you know, are there worlds

where Riley Moss gives up for big catch justification on booty? Yes, but also you have certain you have Jake Juan McMillan, you expect to win enough of those downs to force puns. And so I'm confident they can keep it close. The Patriots will just like, you know, death by a thousandth paper cuts you, right? Like when Drake May is like on it and the quick game is firing and they're getting rid of the ball quick because they're worried about the pass rush

and they're protecting their line, Drake is unbelievably precise. He's a excellent, excellent processor. or a way that he does get nearly enough credit for. We talk about the running, building the arm. Like, when he just wants to beat you with just, like, day one install concept of just throwing to space, you see them, like, the games gets the bills. He just walks it down the field.

It's really fun to watch. And so I do think that there's a strain, right? They're going to die if they face, like, 70, 80, 90 plays. And that's where your offense and complimentary football starts to come in. Don't take sacks, play the field position game, and really try to, like, you know, shorten this game with longer drives. Yeah, it's kind of boring, but like the high leverage plays are just so huge here. You can't really escape them when you look at half.

It's two man coverage defenses, right? And so it's the sort of thing where it's like it's either a pass per cover but 55-yard completion. Right. That's the nature of how these defenses play a little bit. And the Broncos have done a really good job at limiting those explosive plays, even though they've played that way. You know, so the explosive plays may and this Patriots offense,

they're the best team in the NFL at producing explosive pass plays. And the Broncos are the best team in the NFL at preventing explosive pass plays just statistically. So that's going to go a long way here. and then, yeah, the pass rush. I mean, Drake Mays fumbled, what, six times in these first two playoffs games? I know he's lost. I think he's lost, what, three? Yeah.

Well, lost. I mean, there's a randomness to what you lose there. So, like, you know, this is a ball game. I mean, the Broncos recovered all five fumbles against the bills or whatever it was. Yeah. So statistically, these have been May's worst two games of the season based on EPA per pass play against the Chargers and then against the Tex. And so I'm with you.

I think it's going to come down to can the Patriots hit some of those explosive plays and can the Broncos pass rush control the game? Are they forcing negative plays, sacks, forcing turnovers? But I do think they're going to be able to keep the offense in the game. I don't think this is going to be a blowout in the fourth quarter where you say, man, the Patriots just lit them up and it's 30 to 7 or something like that. The weird thing about the Broncos defense is that the only number of where they were not elite defense in the regular season was turnover rate.

They did not generate a lot of turnovers per drive. Now, you know, either nerds will tell you, well, turnovers are largely random. you go and you have the game against the bills where you get all those huge takeaways and great, you win by three, excellent. They got ran on dude. They got the ball ran on them. And the Patriots are not capable of having

that successful a day on the ground. They don't have the line, they don't have the scheme for it. But like, if I'm brayball, right, I'm just like tattooing, protect the ball on Drake May's head and you're just confident

in your guys against their guys for 60 minutes because they have a backup in. The only way this like really gets out of pan pan, is if we're giving them short fields. And just if you protect the football, you should be able to chip your way at this team, both in that quick passing game, but then also in the running game,

because the Broncos have been weak there for last few weeks. Yeah, this is like the opposite of, you know, when Ben Johnson gave like the halftime interview and was basically like our defense can't stop them. This is the opposite of that. This isn't like a step on your throat game. This is like a don't give them anything type game. Absolutely.

We should win here. So it's a very different philosophy. Oh season football, baby. All three phases. All right. Marcus Jones, get us a field position flip. Like this is this sort of game. All right. Speaking of which, give me one thing, Solac, that's making the hipster group chats this week about this, about this game. I didn't prepare you for this. I'm just bringing it on you. It could be an X factor. It could be an under the radar player. It could be a scheme thing, a prediction. It could be someone sending a tweet being like, I can't believe this. Normie said this when really the case is this. Give me one thing from Broncos Patriots that makes the hipster group chats this week.

So I will say this is an old stat. It was pre-Texans game. It might have been a pre-chargers game. But the Patriots pass rush with Barmore and Williams both on the field. Their rush with four is like 40% pressure rate. They were like astronomically. It would have been the first in the league. They didn't have a ton of those snaps in the course of the season.

Then they crater down to like 28th and at least one of them is off the field. Milton Williams and Christian Barmore. Like, you know, the Eagles third rusher last year and a guy who missed time was a blood clots last year. understandable why they don't get their names talked about in the same way but in terms of defensive tackle duos in the league man like at Seattle's

you might be able to put Denver up there with Allen and Franklin Myers or Allen and Roach maybe but then you're right there with this Patriots group and so to me like if I feel like we've been saying for the last 12, 13 months like man you've got to watch Milton Williams like oh you hear about the Milton Williams numbers like look at these rate stats I still don't think we're there in terms of fully

understanding how good Milton Williams is and then Barmore like Barmore's like the first like the fifth best Stephen's back when football dude. Like, I understand he was unhealthy and like it's open time to get back and whatever. He is so, so, so stinking good. So like interior pressure against a pocket backup quarterback who's coming in very cold, like has not had, you know, live bullets in two years.

There's a world where like Will and Williams and Barmore just take this game over from the inside. So you wake, you cut you wake up and get out of bed and are ready to give me a hipster take. I knew I didn't have to give you any prep for that one. You came through in a big spot. I was wearing a flannel earlier. I switched her for the sweater because it's cold out, all right? If I would have known, I would have suffered the show for the flannel, if really leaned into the bed.

That's okay. Nothing wrong with that. Listen, hipsters can wear sweaters. There's nothing wrong with that. All right, I've been waiting to talk to you about this story. So like the Buffalo Bills. Let's finish with this. Press conference with GM, Brandon Bean,

and owner Terry Pagula, and Pagula just stole the show. I mean, let me hear. I mean, give you some things that he said, I know you know it in case the listeners don't know it here, or the viewers don't know it. he said the decision to move on from Sean McDermott was based on the loss to the Denver Broncos, a great way to make potential franchise altering decisions based on one game and what the reaction was

to one game when a guy's been there for however many years it was eight or nine. But then the clip that's making the rounds, Brandon Bean asked about Bill's wide receiver Keon Coleman, you know, a pick that hasn't worked out for the Buffalo Bills, starts talking. starts responding. He knows how to answer these questions about failed draft picks. He's done this before. He's a member of Brandon Bean got a star in the NFL as a PR guy. A lot of people forget this.

In Carolina, PR first, before the personnel. He was going to be a journalist. He's a communications grad, baby. He was going to be you and me. I think I do know that. And then they put him in charge of the bottle of bills.

But Gula interrupts him and explains that. No, no, no, no. That was the coaching staff that wanted Keon Coleman. Bean was just being a team player. He said he didn't understand why Bean, Bean, the GM of the football team, was taking heat over the Kiann Coleman pick. And maybe the most interesting part about this, So like, Keon Coleman is still on the Buffalo Bills. He is a member.

Just sit at home playing FIFA of the Buffalo Bills. I mean, this seems cruel to do to Bill's fans. It's not even a week old since that loss. And Pagula just with a fundamental misunderstanding, I think, of what the fans want to hear. He's trying to help Brandon Bean. He makes him look even worse here. He makes him look like the teacher's pet that he needs a babysitter. And what did you make of this?

What was your favorite part? What was your big takeaway? Do you feel any differently about the bills now than you did before that press conference? Because I'll be honest. I do. I'm worried about the bills. I'm worried about the direction. I'm worried about who they're going to hire as their next head coach.

Because that did not sound like leadership that is buttoned up and knows what to do to get this team over the hump. I would say 98% of times that owners get in front of the mic, It is anywhere from net negative to disastrous, right? Firstly, we got to stop letting these people talk about things. I disagree with that as a capital J once upon a time journal. That's a good point. Actually, we need to get them in front of the mics more, so that way people can realize, yeah, what we've got running the teams here.

You are the general manager, the buck of player acquisition stops with you. If you acquired a wide receiver at the behest of the coached staff and stayed silent despite the fact that you didn't like that player as much, you did your job poorly then. And now you are suffering the results of it now. That does not exculpate Bean at all. I would argue it makes Bean even look worse. That was their first pick they made.

That wasn't the 174th pick in the NFL draft. Oh, I wanted to take Pook and Nakua, but we told the cornerbacks coach that he could take somebody and so now we got this corner here. No, that was your first pick in the draft after trading back multiple times. You are in charge of the board at the beginning of the draft. You trade out of the first round as a guy who was very publicly said, like, oh, I wish I could pick earlier, but I just can't.

We're just too good. I can't go get it to Mar Chase. We're not going to be bad enough to get a Jamar Chase. You traded back out of the first round. We got clips of you on the socials on the bills you do. Like, man, we get to take Keon Coleman now.

I'm so excited. Oh, but the coaching staff made me. Lydia asks me all the time for more mac and cheese. She doesn't get more mac and cheese. I'm in charge of the broom. What are you talking? You run the bills. God, it's so bad.

Oh, it drives me up the wall some of this stuff. Well, to be fair, he didn't say it. The owner said it for him. That is fair. That's a very good point. I don't think Brandon Bean would have said that. I think to your point, his background, he's a little too savvy for that. The other thing is, it's like Pagula screwed up because all the time a GM might have two guys in the same tier or whatever. And you know what? The coaching staff prefers one player. And sometimes you do, I don't think that that's that unusual because- No, not at all. Yeah. If you understand the draft is a bit of a crapshoot and you're not. overconfident in your ability and you're like, man, I had these guys graded almost exactly the same. But you know what? The coaching staff, they really love this guy. And that just intuitively makes sense because they're the ones coaching him. If they're excited about the player, they're more likely to be like, all right, this guy can make an impact for us right away.

So that one, I think, it's actually not that crazy. But, you know, he give the reporters that off the record at some point in the next three months. You don't have the owner. I mean, it looks like you look weak because the owner's there going like, he didn't do it. and stop blaming him. It's like he just got a promotion to be the president of the team. He's getting paid handsomely. And he's got Josh Allen. I don't think this guy needs a lot of excuses made for him.

All right. His name is Ben Solac. You can check out all of his work at ESPN. Check out his podcast appearance with Mina Kimes this week as well. Thank you to Ben. Thank you to Christopher Sutton for producing Kira Givens on social. Stefano Sanchez on video editing and additional production supervision by Connor Nevins and Arjuna Ram Gopal.

Soak's going to join me. For the next episode, we're going to talk about the NFC championship game. Check that out tomorrow on the ringer NFL show. Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Help.com. Call 1-888-7-8-9-77 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit MD gambling help.org in Maryland.

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