The Ringer NFL Show - Are the Bears Better With Chase Daniel? Do the Rams Regret Paying Goff? And Other Burning Questions After Four Weeks. | The Ringer NFL Show

Episode Date: September 30, 2019

Chase Daniel filled in for an injured Mitch Trubisky and led the Bears to a win over the Vikings, Jared Goff continued to struggle against a surging Jameis Winston and the Bucs, Gardner Minshew continues to impress, and the Lions almost take down the mighty Chiefs (1:10). Plus: Stock Up and Stock Down, Week 4 challenge flags, and tomorrow’s headlines (37:30). Hosts: Robert Mays, Kevin Clark Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Zorro.com is where you'll find everything you need for businesses of any size and almost any industry. They have tools, equipment, and supplies for everything you need. Whether you need stuff for industries like electrical, plumbing, manufacturing, or more, Zorro's got it from brands you know and trust. And Zorro.com offers amazing customer service from real people based in the U.S. visit z oro.com slash NFL in all lowercase letters to sign up for Z-mail

and get 15% off your first order. Do you know what my favorite thing is? Skittles. Actually, I'll take that back. It's my family. They mean everything to me. Skittles is my second favorite thing. Scratch that.

Our listeners are my second favorite. Skittles is my third favorite thing and I'm saying this as I realize that sports is my third favorite thing. You know what? Skittles is probably my 68th to 70th favorite thing, but they are my favorite candy, favorite fruity candy. Skittles.

Podcast the rainbow, taste the way. To the ringer NFL show, I'm Robert Mays, joined as always by Kevin. I'm doing, buddy. I'm doing great. I saw a stat a couple minutes ago that blew my mind. The AFC South, everybody's two and two. And it's the first time that everybody in division has been two and two after four weeks. since the merger.

Which is a good way to get into the fact that I have no idea what's going on in football. Today was a bizarre week. If you were going to throw out a conference or excuse me, a division that was all two, let me do that again. If you were going to throw out a division that everyone was two and two after four weeks, isn't that the one you would have picked? It perpetually two and two. Yes.

Perpetually six and six, seven and seven. And then they play each other in the last like two weeks of the season. And then somebody makes the playoffs. And then you forget that everybody else is in playoff contention. So the AFC South is perpetually 500. The rest of the league is perpetually hard to figure out. So what we're going to do today, we're four weeks in. We're at the quarter pole of the of the year, essentially.

So we're going to start off the show by asking some kind of big picture questions as it relates to week four that we have right now about a lot of the league. because I think that we have many more questions than answers at this point. So what is the first question about week four that you want to throw out? So you know this and you're making me ask it because you don't want to ask it. I definitely don't want to ask it. Okay. So just so the listener knows, you were supposed to ask this question, but because of the nature of the question, you're pretending like it's my question.

Yeah, of course. Here's the question. Here's the question. This is why I'm pointing it. because it's going to be so funny when I say it out loud and I'm really looking forward to it. Are the bears better with Chase Daniel at quarterback than Mitchell Trubisky? So what is your answer to that question? Hmm.

Well, I saw a great staff from Eric at home earlier today. At the half, at the half, Chase Daniel entered three months into the game, had 130, had 138 passing guards in a touchdown. That's more passing yards than Trubesky had in a quarter of his starts. Okay. And the reason I bring that up is because

I... You get? The reason... I'm fine. Yeah, okay. So the reason I bring that up is because I think that there's a floor of

competence with Chase Daniel that is really important. And I think that, you know, we were playing in Slack earlier today, the kind of, how many quarterbacks does, do the bills, could the bills win, beat the Patriots with today, you know, because you, because you win with Andy Dalton, that kind of thing. And I think you think about it from a season standpoint with that defense in Chicago, okay, there are so many quarterbacks who could make that team real, like, runaway NFC contenders because that defense is unbelievable.

So if they had a top 14 quarterback, I'd pick them to make the Super Bowl. If they had a top 10 quarterback, I'd pick them to win the Super Bowl, right? Chase Daniels, obviously, neither of those. But what I'm saying is, I think almost try to take quarterback out of the equation and just limit mistakes,

have a floor of competence, and just see where you go. Now, the only question is whether or not Chase Daniel is competent enough to be that guy. I don't know. There's not that big of a sample size. The only thing I can say is that Mitch Trubisky has shown that sometimes the bottom falls out.

And all you have to have at the quarterback position is a quarterback who does not let the bottom fall out. I know it's a joke. I know that this conversation is funny. And I can't even deny that. I don't think you're having a very good time with this conversation. Well, because it's not, it really sucks. I know. I know.

But you're saying it's funny. funny, but in like a you want to walk off a bridge kind of way. Oh, absolutely. Okay. Because to the fact that a career backup might be better than the guy you drafted second overall three years ago and that you really kind of were hanging your hopes on this season, sucks. But we've had this discussion before on the show over the last few weeks.

I mean, I'm ready to live that Andy Dalton, Ryan Tannenhill, whatever life based on how he's played. And I think those earlier discussions were informative as to what today was like. Because Chase Daniel is not a good quarterback. Chase Daniel, by the way, has been in the league for a long time. You went to college with him and you're washed. Yes, I'm washed as hell. And he's a year old.

Actually, we're the same age. That's depressing. But he turns 33 in like a week and a half. Chase Daniel was older than me. So here's the thing about what the offense looked like today. I'm not saying Chase Daniel is some savior. He missed some throws today, some easy ones. But the offense operated on time in a way that it often doesn't with Mitchell Trubisky.

It seemed like there were some checks at the line and some protection adjustments that don't happen with Trubisky. That's one of the more depressing elements of what he's looked like this year, is that in year two of this system, they're putting a ton on James Daniels, who is a rookie center for the most part. second season, but it's his first year playing center in a very complex offense. But for a guy to be able to actually run the show, even if he's limited in terms of talent, was nice to see.

I just like watching this offense run on time. I like when the trains are on the tracks. And that's what happened today. And when you had that defense, I don't know if they're necessarily the same type of unit they were last year where they were transcendent. But I think that this defense is even better than I thought they were going to be this season. Killeel Mack is an otherworldly football player. Watching him today is just the fact that I'm still in all of what he can do every once in a while,

I didn't even know that was still possible. And a game like today really brings me back to that. So yes or no, do they win? This is two separate questions like you to answer. Do they win more regular season? games. If Chase Daniel plays the rest of the season, then they would have Trubisky did. And do they go further in the playoffs? If Chase Daniel plays in the playoffs, then Mitch Trubisky, where do you go with both those questions? I think the answer is yes to both those questions.

If it's the Mitchell, if it is the Mitchell Trubisky we saw for the first two and a half years. We don't know, by the way, just so the listener knows, so we don't know the severity of the injury. Matt Nagy said that he does not believe it's season ending. But when you see Mitchell Trubisky on the sideline with a sling. Obviously, it's significant time. So we'll find out more than bad. Yeah. The only thing that worries me about this is that I feel like the way he was playing, it was over.

They would go out to get someone next year to like at least be competition for him. But now if you're the front office and you're the organization, you can talk yourself into maybe we give him one more go around. that to me is the worst thing that can come out of this is that they talk themselves into one more year of Mitchell-Tribis. It's like the Midwest version of the Adam Gase thing where it's like we didn't see enough. Yes. And that legitimately terrifies me because I think that based on how things were going, it was going to be a, all right, who's around?

Who can we get for 20 million next year? You pay your quarterback room 30 total. You can actually kind of get by with that. and now it seems like that could be out the window because they're going to say, yeah, well, we couldn't see him in a year or two of the system. That to me is the worst outcome that could possibly happen from all of this. So if he comes back, let's say he's out seven or eight weeks. Let's say he's out eight weeks, okay?

It's week 13. How good does Chase Daniel need to play, in your opinion, for them to not even think about Chubesky coming back in? About what he did today. Okay. I mean, they're three and one, man. They haven't looked good. Oh, I know.

They're three and one. And the defense is really, really, really good. I just, I did not give them enough credit coming into the season for how good they might be. They are really good. Yep. All right. Next question. All right.

Let's stick with some quarterback questions. Are the Rams already regretting the contract they handed Jared golf this offseason? It's not the same, but it reminded me. a little bit of like, so the NBA contracts now, so like the Supermax and stuff, kick in like a year later. So like John Wall, his contract was terrible before it even started, right? Like it was a year out from when it started. It's like, oh, oh, we regret the John Wall deal. I'm not obviously not comparing those two people to very, very different. But what I will say is that when you look at a performance like today, I don't think they're regretting. I think it's

way too early. And I think that golf can, golf can turn this around. We've seen what good Jared Gough looks like, okay? But from where I stand, Jared Gough has the golden ticket, right? He gets to live the fantasy of every quarterback. He got Sean McVeigh. And you understand why they extended them because you don't want to find out. We think a lot of quarterbacks can run this, but you don't want to find out. And you don't want to just go back to the well and say, okay, we're going to go to the draft.

We're going to change out quarterbacks every four years because eventually that stops working. You'll get the lemon and everything kind of comes apart, right? It is worth it with the way the cap works now to just say, okay, we're going to pay our guy. The only way this doesn't work is if Jared Goff screws it up. And right now he's starting to screw it up a little bit. He's turning the ball over a lot. I mean, first of all, he had probably, I didn't look at all the 500-yard games in the history of the NFL. I imagine there are some losses on there just because of what needs to happen to get 500 yards.

but that's got to be the most uninspiring 500-yard performance you've ever seen in my life. That was really bad. He threw 68 passes, but he throws three interceptions. He's now fumbled, what, 14 times in his last 13 games. Let me get the stat right. Yeah, 14 fumbles in his last 13 games. He's a very funny, very good piece on the ringer, but whether or not his small hands is something to do with it.

I didn't write it. I don't know who did the art for that, but that person deserves just a raise. like a 10-year contract extension. It was unbelievable. The money that is going to Jared Goff should be funneled into our art department to give to whoever that got that. Goff has a $36 million cap hit next year. Worth every penny. A million dollars of that should go to our art department.

Okay. So where are you on this? My short answer here is, are they regretting it? No. If we see this for four more weeks, will they regret it? Yes. So we've had this conversation a lot about when it comes to paying quarterbacks. And it's okay to pay a quarterback.

That's fine. But you have to pay the right quarterback. So the fact that, you know, Russell Wilson is going to make $31 million against the cap next year for the Seahawks, that's completely okay. Russell Wilson's awesome. The fact that Jared Goff, as things currently stand, has the highest cap hit in the NFL next season of any player, that's a problem. And I thought Dan Rolofsky tweeted this today, and I thought it was a really good point.

They're turning Jared Gough into a dropback quarterback. Yeah. And we've seen how he struggles with that. And that's kind of why, even before they lost this game, you know, one of the ideas I was kicking around when we were kind of figuring out what we wanted to write about for the next week was the fact that the Rams are worrying me. Because what have we seen from them in terms of evolution from the team that discused? from the team that disappointed down the stretch last year. Yeah. Well.

Have they gotten better in any areas that make you feel more comfortable about where they're going? And the answer to me is no. So I'm of two minds here. Number one is that I like to, and I've talked about this in the past in recent years, is that I like to go and look at kind of power ranking stories from week four, or week three, whatever it is the previous year to see where we were as a league.

Sure. And it's funny to me because I was about to say that I think it's helpful to understand that they still are three and one. So even if they're having a bad month, they're still three and one. And I thought Orlovsky made this point too about the Browns, which is the encouragement for the Brown should be they had the worst month they could possibly have and they're still two and two. And they're two and two. But when I was looking at the power rankings from week four of 2018, I was,

I was basically laughing out loud. It was so fun. I mean, the Jaguars, I think were fourth on NFL. com's power rankings this time last year. That seems like 50 years ago that they were contenders. But it was week four of last season because they started three and one. It's unbelievable. So I do think that the fact that they are not what they were, but are three and one is okay.

Because I think they will get better. I think there will be some evolution and they've kind of stayed their way to three wins. that's a really it's probably a more competitive division than even we thought because you don't i assumed it was going to be seahawks rams and then you know the rams would win one more game in december and then then they would they would win that division now you have the 49ers who look like legitimate legitimate legitimate playoff team so that's just that's a different wrinkle now and so i'm with you i'm not that encouraged by what i've seen but uh i'm i'm not pulling the plug on golf just yet.

All right. So I want to get to the team that beat them today. But before we do that, let's, let's have a very quick, very broad NFC discussion. In your mind right now, who is the scariest team in the NFC?

Jeez. It's a really hard question to answer, right? Craig has to edit out all the silence. No, the silence is telling. The silence is good. The silence is telling. Because I think that that's where

we are right now. And I think that the silence really speaks to how difficult a question that is. I don't know what my answer is. I think it's still the Eagles. Yeah, it's a combination of the Eagles, the Cowboys, and the Packers. And here's why I would say, I think you put Green Bay in there. I'm not curious about your reasoning. But here's so, I think the Cowboys and the Eagles are both really, really good. Right. And we're going to get to the Cowboys in a second because they had a real bad play calling game. You're going to have to defend your boy, Kellyn Moore, a little bit later. I mean, they let an egg on the road against a team with a lot of defensive talent.

That happens. We'll get there. It honestly reminds me of the way that the Cowboys played the Saints last year. Yeah. Yeah. So the Packers, the Packers are scary to me because even though we saw kind of a weird game on Thursday night, I think they have a lot of defensive talent. And I think we're both in agreement.

You more so than me, but I'm certainly. throwing them in here, that the bottom five person you want to see charging against you is Aaron Rogers. Like, that's just, you just don't want to see that. And if you're, if you're playing a divisional playoff game, I don't want to play Aaron Rogers. I want to play Chase Daniel. I want to play. Yes. Yeah, I want to play. I mean, I, I, who the heck knows what's going on in New Orleans right now? And when Drew Breeze, what he looks like when he returns to health, I mean, again, there's not much of a playbook for, for 40-year-old Drew Breese to come back and week 10 or week 11 or whatever and we'll leave that aside for a second but i when you look at the

quarterbacks and that you know assuming that the packers have the roster that we think they did through three weeks i think that's still a scary team having said that i probably it's it's it's they're all they're one a b and c with with dallas philadelphia and green bay i can see that And I think that for me, the most encouraging part of that Philly win is that it reminded me of the Super Bowl year in the sense that they have answers to a lot of questions. Agreed. And the idea that their offensive line can just dominate that game against Green Bay and really just take control, that's exciting to me. And, you know, Wendt's played really well. I honestly, though, the fact that the Jags keep winning is bad for a team that needs Jalen Ramsey.

But I tweeted this the day after the game. I mean, the Eagles need Jaylen Ramsey. They just, this is not sustainable. They need somebody in the secondary. Let's do a thought experiment. Do you give up, if you're Hallie Rose, when you get a call and they say, we will do Jaylon Ramsey for two first round picks, do you do it? Yes.

Even though you'd have to pay him quite soon. Yes. Because they have the cap space next year. Okay. They have it now. And if you structure the contract a certain way, we've talked about the fact that Wents's deal is going to look like a steal and like, like, 10 days based on the way that they did it and we're already there.

I would do it, yes. I don't want to do another quarterback pay discussion, but I will say it's funny to me that we have both said the line that is almost universally true and has been universally true in sort of the mega contract era, which is that every quarterback contract eventually becomes a bargain. I don't know if that's going to happen for Jared Goff. Wence's his biggest cap hit, the biggest cap hit of his contract that he just signed. is $200,000 more than Jared Goff's contract

campaign next season. It's crazy, man. It is crazy how good Howie Roseman is at this shit. It blows me away all the time. Let's stick with quarterback conversations and quarterback pay here in talking about the other half of that Rams game. Do we think that the way the bucks look right now, that they just roll with this when it comes to Winston next?

year. So, this is a great question. He is in the last year of a $20 million cap hit deal. He would, you know, in theory, he reach unrestricted free agency, but we know that's not really how this works. Either he'll get franchise tagged and then negotiate or whatever. So that's the thing. Is it the tag is on the table?

Right. And listen, if he's the type of quarterback you want to extend, he is the type of quarterback to put the franchise tag on. That's, there's, there's not a lot of room for debate there. If you have a quarterback, like the franchise tag, that's, that's who you franchise tag is a franchise quarterback. If you think he's that. I don't think they think that. I don't think that we think that.

But I think you kind of maybe entertain a two year. And I would say, interestingly enough, that if the Titans have a good year this year, that both of these quarterbacks, the 2015 draft class, might be facing a similar situation, which is maybe a, sort of band-aid contract that lasts two years. It's not one of these mega contracts. What, two years, 17 a year? Something like that. There's no way he signs that, though. James Winston? There's no way he signs that. Who's going to pay James Winston more than $17 million a year? You can't give him $17 million. There's no way he signs that contract. I think if you're going to do that, you have to franchise tag him. You think that someone's going to come in with $20 million a year or more for James Winston?

100%. Yeah, I don't know about that. Maybe, I guess, who? I promise you someone would do that. I just, I mean, there's only 32 teams. I just don't, I don't know. My team would do that. My team would give $20 million next year.

$20 million for an inconsistent guy who's had problems with the league office and certainly problems dating back to college. I promise you if he continues playing like this, someone is going to offer him $20 million a year. Nick Foles just got an $88 million contract. So I don't know where you've been the last couple. Nick Foles won a Super Bowl and put up some of the best numbers in the history of the league and had highs that were kind of way higher than James Winston's ever experienced in a league.

That's not true. That's not true. In the regular season, James Winston's highs. just as high as Nick Foles is. I understand that, but Nick Foles won a Super Bowl and then made, had a nice little playoff run last year and that's what sort of bounces around NFL on his minds. Let me be clear about this. I would not want to be paying James Winston that.

I would not be the one, want to be the one who does it. Someone will do it. You can't throw $17 million of James Winston. If they want him, I assume it's going to be a franchise tag situation. I just, then I would let him go. I wouldn't, I wouldn't give James Winston $20 million a year. I wouldn't want to either. But if you're playing the way they are right now,

don't you want to see where they're two and two? They're not four. They're not going to win the Super Bowl here. They lost to a team that we think is really good in San Francisco. And they had a weird kind of collapse at the end against the Giants. Yeah, that was last week. They lost to Danny Dimes. I think they're intriguing for this reason.

I think the talent on offense is really good. And I think that Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, and I think you can ride with that. I think the defense is what makes this really interesting. Because I think the defense is pretty good. And I think that them hiring Todd Bowles is maybe the most important upgrade a single team made this offseason. And you combine that with the fact that Shaquille Barrett,

I guess, is just like the best defensive player in the NFL now. there is so much going on with that roster that I think makes them really interesting. And I feel like franchise tagging Winston next year to ride with this again and see where it's going is the right move. Yeah, I mean, listen, this has been, it's only been a month under Ariens. It's possible that Ariens feels good about where Winston is under himself and Byron Leftwich and they want to keep it going and franchise tag him for another year. But I would think long and hard about committing a lot of money to a guy who's been that inconsistent. who I just think he's... That's why I tag him.

I would not sign him to an extension. Okay, but let me ask you a question. Would you rather have... Would you rather have him, or would you rather do the, you know, two years, 20 million for Ryan Tannahill? I'd rather have Winston. Okay.

I don't know. We have three months to find out if that's the case. I just don't... I think if this is the... If he's the guy we saw today, I'd rather have James Winston because I think the highs are higher. Yeah, but the problem is...

That's why. James, James Winston has never been the guy we saw today for longer than today. Does that make sense? Like we've seen. Or longer than two or three games. It's always been in spurts. He is inconsistent. That's been James Winston. He throws these insanely bad turnovers. That's kind of what he does. I don't like James Winston. I would not want to commit to James Winston. Dude, you're backing up the Brings truck for him. I'm doing the, I'm doing the franchise tag and nothing more. that's all. I think that if this continues,

and that is a big if, because again, the inconsistency, everything else, if this continues, I think he's worth franchising but not anything longer than that. Yeah,

I'm going to pass on that. You wouldn't give him the franchise deck for 30 million. I don't know. I mean, here's the thing is I don't understand which Jamis Swinson we're talking about because he got run out of town by Danny Dimes last week.

Like, I just don't. That was not on him. I mean, hey, you get out dual by Danny Dimes, been beaten by the best. No, I understand that, but I'm just, I don't know. There's a reason that NFL seasons aren't four games long. I'll say that.

There's a lot of season to play. I just think that if we're projecting what happened today, then that's what I would do. But that's difficult to do because he's inconsistent, and it's a long season. Totally fair. All right. Speaking of the man who got that $88 million contract,

do you think Nick Foles should be the starter in Jacksonville when he gets healthy? So that wasn't, that's not the question. Will Nick Foles get his job back? Does he ever? And this is actually from a Twitter user that I got when I was writing up the script here. But how is that question that different? Isn't that the same question? Well, no, because should he and will he are very different things.

All right. Will he? Will he? That will he? That's the question. Because should he, I actually think the answer is probably. know. I think the I think the Gardner Minchew looks pretty

good. And this was a very, very, very weird game in Denver. Leonard Four, Leonard Fournett looked like 2004, Adrian Peterson. And Joe Flacco had 300 yards and no one, we should burn the tapes

of this game. But I think Gardner Minchie's pretty good. We're going to get to the Broncos later. This is a really interesting conversation. I think that Minchia was sacked five times, by the way. And I don't I don't think they actually got some heat on them. Congratulations to the Broncos for figuring out that they had two of the best passers in football. One of whom got hurt.

Yeah, exactly. All right. So will he get his job back? I actually think you will. I think that you cannot give $88 million. And remember that whole thing about how they paid him so he'd have respect in the locker room or whatever? I mean, this is, you know, the Kaufflin-Marone alignment there. I think that they make decisions in.

kind of an old school way still. And I see them saying, you mean the wrong way? Let's not say if it's right or wrong, but it's wrong. And I just think that there's probably a week here in like week 14 where they say, Nick Foles was started.

You can't lose your job to injury. We're going to give him a shot. And then he starts one and a half games. You know what team didn't say that once? The New England Patriots and it worked out okay for them. I'm not saying the United States. You know who else did the Dallas Cowboys with Dak Prescott. Yes.

I think Mitchie was worth riding with, man. I agree. I agree. He knows how to play quarterback. And we talked about this on last week's show. The finances of it suck. There's just no good way for them to do this. Because, I mean, the Foles is getting paid so much next year, and you're going to owe him so much.

But it's $15 million. And talking the same conversation we just had about Winston and about, and about how much quarterbacks get paid, someone will give you a third round pick to take that Foles contract off your hands because his base salaries over the next three years are 15.1, 14.9 and 20. Someone will do that.

And I think if, again, it's all projection and we're extrapolating this. But if Minchu is this guy for the rest of the season, I think you have to do that if you're Jacksonville. What if we ship Nick Full as a Tampa? This is a conversation for Lenthu is. later, there's going to be a lot of quarterback movement next off season, a ton. There are going to be a lot of guys changing teams just because of the dominos start falling.

They really do. The dominos are falling when you bait the bears into spending $40 million a year on James Winston, giving them a four year $160 million deal. Honestly, you know, the nice part about that is the fact that they're paying Trubisky $9 million, they can't afford to do that. So they're going to have to go with some creative, mildly cheap option. You're going to bang the drum. honestly, if they wanted to trade a third round pick for Nick Foles and pay him $15 million,

that's not the worst thing in the world to me. It's going to be a situation like that. All right. Next question. Our last question before we get to stock up. When did we add a team to this question? I think we have to because we weren't talking about them in any other space. Oh. Okay. Go ahead.

Are the lions and bills good? Hmm. I don't believe in moral victories necessarily, but weren't those two decidedly moral victories? yeah i actually think that the i think that the lion should have won that game i think so too i think i i don't think that i don't think that the i don't think the bill should have won that game i think that that first of all so are the lions good and the bills are not is that what we're going i think that they both had the chance to make the playoffs i think if they played right now i think the lions would win do we owe matt patricia an apology hmm i think even though i've never

publicly, I've never publicly gone out against him. I actually think in my mind, you said he should get fired after week one. That's not what I'm talking about. I actually think that I was too hard on Bob Quinn. I think that that, I think that that roster is pretty good. And I kind of, I kind of chocked in my mind. I apologize. This is like minority report. I was, I was like, I was thinking about canceling Bob Quinn. Pre-crime. Yeah, I was pre-cancelling Bob Quinn in my mind, even though I don't think I ever said it out loud. If the listener remembers me ripping Bob Quinn,

please remind me, but I don't think, I think it was just in my mind. But I think that's a pretty good roster. And I don't know if we owe Matt Petrition Apology. I think still think that the game in Arizona is unforgivable, even though that was Darryl Bevel, you're the guy that hired Darryl Bevel, all that. I still, obviously, I believe in Matthew Stafford.

The way they built that defense has been quite good, someone like, you know, signing like Justin Coleman. And I don't think a lot of people were thinking about has really paid off. He was fantastic today. Mm-hmm. And so I think that that's a much better roster than I gave a credit for. When I wrote that Stafford piece, to be honest with you, I kind of thought it was going

to be another sort of here-come Stafford to throw for a bunch of yards and play better than the teammates around him and, you know, kind of another. I think he's having the best season of his career. Yeah. I didn't necessarily see it coming that he would have this in team success. in the broader context of team success. So I'm happy for that. The bills,

I mean, looks, Matt Barkley played half the game. I mean, I don't know. I mean, I don't know how many times out of 100 they win that game,

but I don't think, I don't actually think it's that many. I really like the bills. I really like the bills. I really like the bills too. I think it's one of those things, though, where when you have to win games ugly,

it's hard to win a lot of games. And I think that's where the bills are. I don't think the lions are there. I think the lion, the lions, have more ways they can win games. And I think that's what makes them intriguing, especially in an NFC where we don't really know who's that good.

I mean, the NFC North right now, it's full of a lot of really competent teams. I mean, every single team in that division can beat, I think, pretty much anybody on a weekly basis. And I don't like that my team is in it because it's going to be a slog for the entire year because there are no easy wins in that division. And I just think that the Lions are better

and more interesting and more dynamic on a lot of levels than I thought they were going to be. Yeah, I'm, I'm 100% with you on that. And I think that, you know, I think with Buffalo, I just think that right now the Patriots are, I mean, God, that secondary is just unbelievable. It's speaking of teams that can win games a bunch of ways. I mean, Jesus. The New England Patriot? You mean Tom Brady playing one of the, you know, I think pretty much every beat writer for the Patriots

tweeted today that they had not seen in offense look more. stagnant than it did on Sunday. And everything was just fine. I mean, it's, it's amazing to me. Yeah, they won. And so I think that there's, there's a lot to unpack with the bills. And I think that they're still in my mind of playoff contender. But, you know, listen, we'll see, we'll see what the, we'll see if Matt Barkley has to

play going forward. I mean, Josh Allen, you know, if he's going to keep running, he's going to keep getting hit. And obviously, whether or not, there seemed to be quite. to Firestorm whether or not, you know, that was a super illegal hit or just, you know, kind of helmet to helmet or or Allen lowered his head. I don't even know. I even even looked at it from that egregious to me. Yeah. I haven't looked at enough angles and I'm not in league office or anything like that. What I'm saying is is that Alan is a really gifted runner and a lot of times he looks like a running back. But I know that there's going to be times where, you know, he gets hit a lot.

And that's going to be part of the Bill's game going forward. And so it'll be interesting to me to see how sort of that unfold over the course of season and how often somebody like Matt Parkley has to play. Before we move on, let's take a quick break. Hiring can be a slow process. Cafe Altura's CEO O' Dylan Miskiewicz needed to hire a director of coffee for his organic coffee company, but he was having trouble finding qualified applicants. So we switched to ZipRecruiter.

ZipRecruiter doesn't depend on candidates finding you, it finds them for you. Its technology identifies people with the right experience and invites them to apply to your job, so you get qualified candidates fast. Dylan posted his job on ZipRecruiter and said he was impressed by how quickly he had great candidates apply. He also used ZipRecruiter's candidate rating feature to filter his applicants, so we could focus on the most relevant ones. And that's how Dylan found his new director of coffee in just a few days. With results like this, it's no wonder four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day.

See why ZipRecruiter is effective for businesses of all sizes. Try ZipRecruiter for free at our web address, ZipRecruiter.com slash Ringer NFL. That's ZipRecruiter.com slash R-I-N-F-N-FL. ZipRecruiter.com slash Riner NFL. ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. Today's episode is brought you by floor and decor. Don't miss out. Floor and decor is the only one-stop flooring shop

that keeps general contractors, flooring specialists, and renovation experts ahead of the game. Thanks to their fully stocked warehouse of hard surface flooring, no job is too big. Job quantities of tile wood and stone are in stock and available for the convenient workside delivery.

And their dedicated pro-services team is here to help Make it easy for you to run your business, offering everything from 14-day product storage to financial solutions to express pickup. Sign up for Pro Premier Awards and you will automatically rack up points that you can exchange for prices. Plus, you'll have access to over 15 discounted services to help you grow your business. Explore your local floor and decor and discover how quality flooring products at everyday low prices can completely change your game.

Visit floor and decor.com today to love you. locate the floor and decor nearest you and score savings and service you won't find anywhere else. That's floor and decor.com. All right. Let's get to stock up, stock down. Let's run through these pretty quickly. Let's start with stock up. I think the Saints defense deserves mention.

You know, this is, we talked about what they would have to do without Drew Brie's, what the kind of formula would have to be. And I think for the last two weeks, they've really shown us that they can win in uglier ways than we've seen them in the past. You know, last year, last week it was kind of dumping the ball off. Camara. It was letting him do all the work this week. They had a little bit more in the passing game. You know, Michael Thomas was solid. They didn't have much downfield in the same way they didn't against Seattle, but they really did look great on defense. Marshawn Lattimore had an

awesome game. It's just one of those things where when you talk about how can you have a secondary plan when your all-time legendary quarterback goes down. They've shown us over the last two weeks that they have a couple different secondary plans. And I think that's impressive. Hey, do you You know who helped to do normal stands tonight? The Dallas Cowboys? Yes, they certainly did. So there's a couple of things I like from the Cowboys. Number one is that I actually like someone like Robert Quinn doing really well in a game

like that shows their depth because I don't think when I'm listing the X factors for the Cowboys, Robert Quinn doesn't pop out. And I just, I'm a huge fan of roster depth. And when you get contributions to someone like Robert Quinn, that's usually a suggestion. good things. Having said that, the other side of the ball, it's from the NFL, excuse me, from PFF, the Dallas Cowboys use play action on seven of 35 dropbacks, 20%. Okay. They had the second highest rate of play action through the first three weeks and it was double that. Okay. Beyond that, Lee Sharp tweeted this out. First, a passing rate on first and second down, week one,

against a giant, 70%. Week two against Redskins, 64%. Week 3 against the Dolphins, 53%. Tonight, 50%. So it's dropped in four straight weeks. Kellen Moore. What are you doing? We know what works with Dak Prescott. Maybe they were playing around with some stuff

or maybe he looked good doing certain things the last couple weeks. But I think we know for certain. You've written a million words about this. We've both talked about this for a long time. We kind of know what works with Dak right now. And I think they got away from it a little bit on Sunday, That happens though, right? I mean, you get in your first, like prime time game, you know, on the road, tough situation.

Every play caller is going to have a slight slip the same way every young player does. So, I mean, I think that he's been great. I think they'll be fine. Oh, no. Listen, this is the type of game that happens every once in a while. This is still a significantly pro-kellen Moore podcast. I support a lot of the work that he has done. I think they'll be okay.

Yeah, I just think that from from, from, from, from, from, tonight's perspective, I think that part of the story is not just the St. defense, but the, you know, the Cowboys offense was not doing necessarily what had earlier in season from a, I agree. Tenancy standpoint. And I think that they'll be fine. I think that you see that. You do a little self-scouting that they'll be back, you know, to where they were very

quickly. I have a lot of faith in that team. But at this point, I also have a lot of faith in New Orleans's ability to sustain without breeze and figuring it out. I'm just kind of trying to tread water and make sure that you're around, again, in a pretty watered down NFC. That Dennis Allen Corner Blitz on the Hail Mary was awesome. It was really good. He had a couple really nice plays.

I mean, they had that one where they came out and it was just like a, even on the first play of that of that drive. They came out. It was like a mug front. They had like eight guys in the line, drop four back. I think that there will be fine on defense. I think they have enough talent on that side. and we've seen what they can do schematically over the last couple of years. And it's maybe the last, the first three weeks were not a fluke,

but not necessarily indicative of how good they can be defensively over the course of the season. All right. I mean, stock up to any times, man. Okay. So we talked about this last week with Trubisky. And I said that you said if Trubisky beats Redskins by 30, that's an accomplishment. I said 50.

It kind of landed, you know, closer to you than me, but I still kind of give credits Trubisky for that win. He played okay. He played fine. How are we viewing a Danny Diamond's versus Washington performance? 24 to 3.

You know, it wasn't perfect. He had two exceptions. He had some moments today. Yeah, he looked like a rookie quarterback. He had two interceptions, but he's 2 and 0. I saw, I was watching prime time, as I do, as we know, as regular listeners now, two weeks in a row,

watch prime time. and Pat Shermer was on there and he was just like do I don't even know what the question was a Petchermer was like Daniel Jones is smarter than all of us he's smarter than all it was so

like emphatic and and like strange that I now think that Daniel Jones maybe is smarter than all of us and so now I'm just now with almost no evidence whatsoever just think that he's the smartest quarterback in football but listen a win is a win

two and oh good for him that's kind of where i'm sitting he did not look great today i mean he had moments he definitely looked like a guy making a second career start i think this is more kind of a a joke than anything else i think he'll be fine he's got the he's got the Vikings next week and then the patriots on thursday night that's what you did to be looking at the redskins are not a not a functioning team we're doing this is a bit good for him for being two and oh but the next two weeks are going to be really really instructive to how what kind of quarterback he is i think he looked like a rookie quarterback today. And that's going to happen.

This is still trending in the right direction as far as I'm concerned. I think, do you see anything from Haskins? We're going to get to them in a second. I just think that you get throw, they're going to be one of the stock downs. We don't have to do that. We can just do it now.

But it's, I think that it's one of those things. I think that there are such a hard team to figure out. They literally didn't have their two best offensive players in this game. They didn't have McLaurin. They didn't have Scherf. He gets thrown in cold. it's going to be a tough road this year.

It's going to be really difficult for us to judge him by the end of the season because of how bad this team is. I think that he's struggled. I think he's going to struggle. And I think that that's going to be a constant theme throughout the rest of the season. Where are you on whether or not the Redskins should promote Jim Tom Sula if Jay Gurdon gets fired? I mean, I think you have to, just for the you have to do it all. You have to do it. I'm always, there's always this weird.

owner narrative that like if you fire a and this happens a lot more in the NBA I think but if you fire a coach you should always promote the guy who on staff who's who's been there before and I'm normally like very very against this because I think it's just sort of lazy but I am so pro Jim Tom Sulla being a head coach again I can't stand I might move to Washington if this happens what one more stock up uh the Cleveland Browns today they showed up and I was impressed. And I think that them leaning on Shub the way they did, Baker having a better game when Odell was nowhere to be found.

And the way they could kind of tap into a different version of themselves, I thought that was impressive against a Baltimore team that you and I both like. Yep, we both like them. And it's interesting to me, I mentioned this earlier, but I think Rolovsky's point about how they basically had, the Browns had as bad of September as you can have. and they're two and two. And this is almost exactly what I thought was going to happen,

as I said a couple times in the preseason, that when you have a new head coach, a new group of faces, it just takes time to build. That's just football in 2019. That's no training camp. That's guys who don't play in preseason, all that stuff.

It just takes a while to gel. Okay. And so I'm not, you know, I got a little bit worried last week when it looked like they, they just were cool it off the rails, but this is fine. I want to talk briefly. about the stat I saw that I just cannot get over this.

Baker Mayfield's fastest play of the season is what? In what sense? Him running? Just him running. The fastest he has moved on a football field is what? I have no idea. Well, you're about to know. It is Nick Chubbs 21.9 mile per hour run on this 88 yard touchdown.

Okay. Baker Mayfield was going 19 miles per hour following Chubb just to celebrate. That's really funny. I find that incredibly charming. I really do too. And honestly, though, it just seems like they needed a day like today. Yeah, they needed a celebration.

And I think that part of it is, and with Freddie, I understand that he wants, look, I know the whole thing about how Freddie's going to be a hard ass and all that stuff. And I've talked to John Dorsey about it. We both talked to Freddie himself, but I was a leader of men and all this stuff. But I think with that group of personalities, I think every couple weeks, they just need to have just a ton of fun on the football field. They're a fun team and they should be having fun. It goes back to the member.

It wasn't even the do your job thing. What was the initial Belichick thing? The initial Belichick documentary? It doesn't matter. It was the one from like 10 years ago. I can't remember. You know what I'm talking about that. It was the one where he dressed as a pirate.

He dressed as a pirate and he went to Randy Moss's party, all that stuff. But I remember in there, he was just like, you should be as you should be excited on the football field. You should be excited to make a play. plays on football field, right? And like that's sort of, when I watched the Browns last week, I'm looking at and I'm thinking, Baker loves playing football and being out there. Odell has a great time out there. Jarvis Landre has a great time out there.

Miles Garrett is as big a personality as there is in football. And I don't think people understand that just yet. And I think that these kind of days where they're just having fun in the field is kind of really important because that's the type of team personality they have. And so when you see those celebrations, there's a photo. going around. I've been able to be sought where Mayfield is running sort of caddy corner to Chubb celebrating already as Chubb kind of pulls away. It was the type of win I wanted to see from them going forward. And I know this isn't very analytical. It's just sort of, this is the body

language. This is the body language doctor checking in. That's okay, though. I think that with them, there was so much about the start of their season that wasn't analytical. it was a little bit more emotional and it was one of those things where you needed to see a certain kind of like you said body language demeanor all that stuff and i just think that this was one of those games you know baker just making big throws that he didn't make in the first couple weeks they still have issues they though the offense especially the passing game isn't on time the way you'd hope it is you know from going forward but i still think that this is one of those things where their talent won out baker made big throws nick chub is a special player and we didn't

really get to see that a ton over the first three weeks. He really has a ton of talent. And he just took over in this game. The thing to me, though, that was almost most impressive is the fact that without Denzel Ward and Greedy Williams, they grounded this Ravens passing game. That to me was really encouraging. The fact that we have this amount of talent on Baltimore's side and they still couldn't move the ball consistently through the air against a banged up Brown's defense, that is one of those things going forward where it's like, okay, like if they're going to have this much talent on offense and the defense is going to show up like this, even when they're banged up,

this is a team that I think could stick around. I also, I tweeted this today. Is Ricky Seals Jones better than David and Joku? I think he might be. Like, he's catching the ball. Yeah.

So back shoulder throws, everything else. Their offense was not demonstrably worse with their backup tight end in instead of a first round pick. And again, think that that's what you like to see. Teams just being able to sustain when things aren't necessarily going their way. Yep. Big win for them.

Are you worried about the Ravens defense at all? So I'm worried about this Mike Garifolo report that Brandon Williams and Earl Thomas were in a tiff over Williams in activity today. Oh, man. I did a lot of reporting on Earl Thomas in Seattle and he was very, very, very blunt with a lot of people. Yeah. And I don't even remember who told me.

It was like, their old Simon or somebody told me that he would just like, he would scream things that were like, do you think this is Madden or something like that? Where it was just like, he would just say whatever was on his mind. And I think there's probably some people who are not yet used to that. And, you know, Earl is Earl.

I'm sure. This is a pro Earl Thomas podcast as well. I have a lot of faith in their ability to figure things out on several different levels. All right, let's get the stock down. The Texans really can't figure this stuff out, man. Deshaun Watson sacked six more times today. Just being completely bewildered by defensive backblitzes

the same way they have been for a long time at this point. I just, this team is so good in so many ways, and they just cannot figure out how not to beat themselves. He was hit 10 times today. He was hit 10 times today. A lot of it is on him. But this is a problem that continues to happen, no matter whose fault it ends up being. This is, this was the danger the whole time when you go all in in a year where you're not actually ready to go all in.

And now they're getting owned by Kyle Allen at home. They got owned by the Panthers defense. The Panthers defense. I'm aware of that. I'm aware of that. But I don't know, man. I mean, I saw some footage of Deshaun Watson out on the field practicing after the game, which is kind of an NBA move.

You know, they're always, you know, they lose a game until 2 a.m. Yeah, they lose a game when they take 700 jumpers or whatever. I guess Deshaun Watson's practicing passes. So I just, I don't know what to think of the Texans franchise right now. I just, we seem to criticize them every week. listen, I still think, as we said, everybody's two and two. It's not the end of the world. It's just don't lose games like this at home.

The Panthers conversation is kind of similar to me to the Saints in the sense that them proving they can kind of do this in a different way. And when Kyle Allen does not play well and he puts the ball on the ground as much as he did today, I mean, they should lose this game. Carolina absolutely should lose this game. when you consider how many times they tried to give it away, and they didn't. And I just think that the reason I was so excited about them coming into the season was about their overall roster talent.

And that's shown through today. It really did. And Shaq Thompson was everywhere. Their defensive line played really well. I just feel like this is a team with so much ability on both sides of the ball. And the fact that kind of what we were talking about with the Browns having a disaster month in being two and two, I feel the same way about Carolina. They had a terrible month and they're sitting here at two and two.

And it's anybody's game in that division. The Texans have scored 78 points and allowed 78 points. They're eternally a 9 and 7 team. Even if the actual record doesn't bear that out, they really are. Did you see the Deshaun Watson press comments? So I saw that there was something that happened. And I literally stumbled upon it when we were recording. Yeah, yeah.

So it was essentially that reporter asked Deshaun Watson about not taking deep shots and what the Panthers were giving them. And he kind of misunderstood it first. I think he thought it was like a, he thought it was a, I don't know, kind of an accused story question. But obviously that was that was sussed out pretty quickly. And then he went really, really, really, really in depth. You would have loved it.

You should watch after this about. I'm looking at the clip right now, actually. I'm not listening to it, but I see it. About the Panthers defense and kind of what they were doing and how they were adjusting and what was possible against it. And I just want to say that like we both really like to show. I see him doing two fists. Yeah, you're going to love you're going to download this and put it on your phone.

If this is the kind of stuff that happens at press conference is going forward, the NFL will be a better place. I think that there's probably room for the casual fan to slow it down a little bit. it. Just as far as like, you know, I don't think there's a lot of people who are going to understand everything that's said in it. But I think that if there are quarterbacks like Deshaun Watson who want to bring everybody into this world and teach people football, which he did and very, very, very intelligently on Sunday, then the NFL will be a much, much smarter place. And I, uh, kudos to Deshawn Watson for explaining in detail. And at least he, if you really want to understand what he's talking about, you can.

just take everything he said and put it into Google and figure it out after like an hour. You'll be fine. It's one of those things where I mean, we do this stuff all the time where we'd be having a conversation with someone about football and they'll just be like, well, it's kind of complicated. And I was like,

I was like, well, just teach me. Just like here. Here's my notebook. Just write it. Just show me. It's one of my favorite things.

The other way is when they say something really complicated and you have to be like, absolutely. And you have no idea what they're talking about. Yeah. That happened a lot. It happened a lot. I typically know the NFL. He's not.

Yeah. I typically know the NFL vocabulary quite well just because I've heard this stuff before. It's not like I'm, you know, some football genius. But when I did an NBA story over the summer and I just had no idea what some of these vocabulary things might not. I was just like calling up Justin Verger and be like, teach me what the hell this is. All right. Let's get to one more stock down here.

We talked about this a little bit on last week's show. Where do the Denver Broncos go from here? Eight straight losses. what what is the answer here i i don't know we talked about on the last show right so maybe it's maybe it's a different personnel situation i mean it seems like that's a given at this point but like no no but it's given to us but maybe not to ownership so all right so that's fair all right it's john elway let's say they do they go a different direction let's say john oway does get moved through a different side of the building and his job now is he professionally shakes hands

do you go to his job his job title his job title will be john elway yes and that's fine and he deserves that job so you go to drew lock next year is that the answer i don't even know if that's

necessarily that possible considering what they pay joe flaco i mean this is a disaster man yeah man um great question i you know again this is Joe Flacko's cap hit next season is $23.7 million. It's $13.6 of that money.

Jesus fucking Christ. I think you run it back and maybe hope you can get Drew Locke starting sooner rather than later in 2020. I think you may be, I mean, should they just tank? Should they tank this year? Why not? What are you going to win? They'd be kind of funny if the dolphins got out tanked by somebody,

either Washington or Denver. The non-tanking tanking tank. tankers. They're not, well, no, I mean, they might, one of these teams might just wise up and to start tanking. So, yeah, I don't, if I knew what could fix the Broncos, uh, I would tell you, but it just seems like a lost cause right now. I don't, I don't, I don't think you fire fan, you.

I don't think you do any of this stuff. I just think you can do that. I think this is a rebuild. And I don't know what you do with von Miller. I feel bad for him. But that's the thing that's so frustrating to me is if it were a rebuild and it should have been. The Flacco thing is so misguided. It was misguided in the moment. And now it just looks so, so stupid. It just, it was never the right choice. And I just think that their inability to figure out

that position is so damning. And it's not even that they haven't been able to figure it out, because my franchise hasn't been able to figure out in 30 years of my life. That's correct. But it's still, at least there's been a somewhat justifiable plan. And their plan was not in any way justifiable. So, like, when you look at Jacksonville, I'd say there is actually a sizable contention of people who are like, this Nick Folson could work, right? Yes. And I feel like that there's some ability to defend it that I will concede that.

And I feel like in 85% of quarterback situations, you can see the logic in it. Why would you draft Mitch Trubisky second? Overall, okay, because X, Y, and Z. It makes sense, at least on the surface. I don't know what the contingent of human beings who thought that Joe Flacco was going to work in Denver was, except maybe just John L.A., Joe Flacco and John L.A. were at two.

We're at two people. I haven't heard a third yet. and it was just one of those decisions where you could just see it coming from a mile away and they did it anyway and see see the outcome from a mile away and they did it anyway I don't know why they did it and why they gave them all that money I don't even know why you give a draft pickup for them but I just I don't know I don't know dude all right let's get to our challenge flags for the week I'm throwing in mind about the Vikings plan, just period. They pay Kirk Cousins $84 million fully guaranteed,

and then they systematically, this offseason, try to build a roster and an offensive approach to hide your $84 million quarterback. They are at their best when they ask him to do the least, and I just don't understand how that's a path to success right now. When they can't run the ball, they're pretty much worthless right now. And they could not run the ball today. They could not run the ball today against the team that did not have a Keem Hicks and still just didn't allow them to do anything on the ground. I mean, it's a weird thing because if this season goes awry and it seems like it may, what do they do?

So now you have cousins for one more year after this. Your cap situation is such that you're going to have to lose at least one, probably multiple players from that defense. I mean, what are the Minnesota? of Vikings with Kirk Cousins making this amount of money and a lesser roster. It just, I don't understand. They tried to build this offense this way in order to have an identity on that side of the ball.

And that identity is so counter to the way they've spent most of their resources that it's just really hard for me to construe what this team will be in 2020 and moving forward just because this has not worked the way they wanted it to. So I think we can not press the panic button just yet. I wouldn't press a panic button. I would just say their ceiling is decidedly lower than I thought it was going to be coming into the season. I right now would agree with that. But again, this is early days for everybody.

Sure. There are two teams that division of three wins, Packers and the Bears. Then you have the Vikings. I think the- Can't believe the Bears are three in one. No, nor can I. There's a lot of things I can't believe about the Bears. but I think that you start to think about what that division race looks like.

And again, I think that I picked the Vikings to win the division, the Packers to make the wildcard. Is that correct? You did. Okay. And I probably would switch those right now if I had to. I don't know. Where do you think the Vikings sit in that division?

I think they look like the worst team. Well, we said that the Bears were the worst team four days ago. I mean, like, fortunes rise and fall in the NFL all the time. And I kind of think that one thing I want to avoid is just sort of jumping on and off bandwagons with the exception. With the exception of the Danny Dimes bandwagon. Of course. We're driving that one now. Full bore.

And we're just completely, we would, he is by like week seven. If he, if he actually just beats the Vikings, we have to like, I mean, I don't even know. I don't even know. The bandwagon is just going to be. game, the Bears dismantled the Vikings today. Oh, no, I watched it. It was terrible. I mean, they could not move the ball. It was terrible. But again, I just, I want to avoid every Sunday night just completely overreacting to the events of the day. I don't think that the Los Angeles, Rams are worse than the Tampa Bay Bucks. I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't think that

the Baltimore Ravens are that much worse than the Cleveland Browns like we saw on Sunday. I just think that Sometimes things happen. I think that what we learned on Sundays that the Bears defense is really, really good. We already knew that. And it's going to take me a little longer to get off the Vikings bandwagon than just the last couple weeks. I tend to agree with you. And I do think that they have a lot of talent. I just am worried about what their offense is going to look like when Kirk Cousins has to carry a child.

Did you see what Adam Thielen said? I did not see that. He said some Chad Graff tweeted that said, quote, at some point, you're not going to be able to run the ball for 180 yards, even with the best running back in the NFL. That's when you have to be able to throw the ball. You have to be able to hit the deep balls. That sounds not today. That is exactly my thought right now.

Yeah. I just think that when they are forced to step outside of this very specific approach that they seem to be struggling right now. And when you're paying your quarterback $30 million, it's really frustrating to not be able to have a passing game. that's correct that that's it i i believe in a lot of the talent that they have i just think that when they're forced to go to plan b right now plan b is not working for them yeah agree all right what's the next challenge well so i have two um i don't know what's going on in atlanta right now it's a it's a problem i didn't not watch enough of that game i was at a wedding shower today so A wedding shower?

Wedding shower. It was a wedding brunch. A wedding I am officiating. So I was watching. So it wasn't like a bridal shower. It was a wedding shower. It was like a wedding brunch and I was there. So it was just a brunch to celebrate an upcoming wedding.

Correct. It was like an engagement party. Okay. That's okay. Engageant party. That tracks. Do you have Marcus Mariotas is the only quarterback? Now that I would, of course I want more details about this, but I'm going to just get back

to the Falcons real quick. It's more so that I, the game was on a smaller screen that I would normally be watching it on. Okay. That's one of the games that fell by the wayside today. Okay. It was more so I was looking at the score and be like, what's going on there? Marcus Mariotta is the only quarterback to start every game this season and not turn the ball over. Take that for data.

They're so confusing to me. They're so confusing to me. I just, they are a confounding football team. I think Matt Ryan had like 390 something yards today, which would be good. But they, I don't think he had a, he did not have a touchdown. Like, what are we doing here? 35 completions, 397 yards, zero touchdown, zero interceptions. Devante, they, no one had more than 28 yards rushing.

The Devante Freeman thing is just bizarre. I don't know, man. I don't know what's going on there. It's just, I can't even diagnose it really. It's just strange. It's just strange. Okay.

Andy Reid's post-win victory speech? I have not seen this. No. He said, he said Mozart made some, not every, not every painting that Mozart painted was a masterpiece. But hold on.

but the lesson is that they all sold for a million dollars. Here's, here's... Andy Reid, not an art connoisseur. In Andy Reid's defense, I will say this. He's right about one thing. First of all, he didn't say that Mozart was a painter. He just said that Mozart's paintings sell for a million dollars. They probably would, honestly.

Yeah, that's what I'm getting at. If a Mozart painting was unearthed in 2019, it would absolutely sell for million dollars. What's your favorite Mozart painting? Do you have one? I celebrate Mozart's entire catalog of paintings. It's like picking a child, the favorite child. I love all of his paintings.

It was great. I assume that because of the extended analogy that it was going to sell for a million dollars, I assume him at Picasso there. Yeah, that's probably true. I mean, I guess that would be, he's the most famous. He's the most famous sort of artist you would go to in that situation. I don't know he's the most famous. Which NFL head coach do you think has the most just well-rounded art knowledge?

I probably know the answer to this if I thought about it. I don't know. I don't think many NFL coaches are super into art. It would surprise me if one had a really detailed understanding of like 19th century artwork. Some of the executives do. But I'm trying to think of actual coaches. I'm trying to rack my brain. I don't know.

I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. I got nothing for you. We'll figure this out. We'll figure this out. We'll get back to art talk later. Wait, wasn't there a coach who takes their guys to museum, has taken their guys to museums for a game?

I don't know this is going to drive me crazy. Oh, on Thursday, we'll on back. figure it out. I'm sure we'll figure it out. We'll get back to our talk at some point. The short answer is not Andy Reid. Yeah. All right.

Before we get out of here, tomorrow's headlines. What are we going to talk about for the next couple days? I think there's just going to be overreaction to a bunch of two and two teams. Yeah. It was a weird week. I think it's kind of hard to build a conclusion about a lot of stuff. I think there's going to be weird panic buttons hit for teams that don't necessarily. necessarily need to hit it.

Like I think there's probably going to be kind of a weird, even though we've done this already, but I think there's probably going to be overreaction to the Rams game. I think the Rams are definitely, that's the, turn the ball over a lot. I think the Vikings, they'll be an overreaction to. I think they'll probably be in, even though,

listen, they were real bad, but like the Falcons are still just one and three. They can, they can do something to salvage a season at some point. But I just think there'll be a little bit overreaction. I think that, listen the only teams right now that should just be like our season is over absolutely over are the dolphins the redskins and the broncos everybody else is at least like you're a throw the jets in there oh yeah the jets i'm sorry i forgot that they were they were football team um no they didn't uh that's what they didn't lose today so yeah they didn't they're better shape than the other guys yeah they didn't they're they're on the bye week and so i i forgot they existed so um yeah i would throw them in so those are the four teams because even the bangles i

Like they've been in it, you know, so I don't necessarily. And, you know, the Broncos lost today or the Ravens lost today. So now the Ravens are two and two. You're only two games back in that division. If you beat the Steelers, for the, for the Bengals playoff run. Yeah, I'm just saying. Like, I mean, that matters. The fact that you're not, I mean, if you're one and two, like, let's say the Bengals are

one and three after tomorrow or 0 and four. If you're in a division with the chiefs of the Patriots, that's a different story. Then if you're in a division with two, two and two teams. I love it. Here come the Bengals. Also, they play the Bengals and the Steelers, both of whom are winless, play tomorrow night. Yes, they do. And that is a game.

I am not excited about watching. And I would go to as far as to say that if one, whoever loses that game, their season might be over. That's fair. All right. That's all we got. As always, guys, thank you so much for listening to the Ringer NFL show on the Ringer podcast network. We'll be back on Thursday.

Today's episode is brought to you by Flore and Decor. Floor and decor is where pros go for tile, wood, stone, and installation materials. But the best part about floor and decor is their pro services and loyalty reward program. From the dedicated pro hotline to the exclusive pro app, your floor and decor teams is to touch away. Visit floorandecore.com today to find location nearest you.