The Ringer NFL Show - Big QB Contracts, the 'EPT' Team of the Year, and Ben Says Goodbye | Extra Point Taken

Episode Date: July 30, 2024

Sheil and Ben get together after a long vacation for one last pod, and they begin their conversation by shining a light on Jordan Love’s big contract extension with the Packers and debating the viability of Tua Tagovailoa’s new deal with the Dolphins. They then pick the ‘Extra Point Taken’ Team of the Year before our beloved Ben Solak bids a fond farewell to the Ringer NFL squad (24:51). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Sheil Kapadia and Ben Solak Producer: Chris Sutton Social: Kiera Givens and Eduardo Ocampo Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal and Conor Nevins Musical Elements: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Danny Haif. It's here to remind you that it's never too early to start thinking about football. Join me with Danny Kelly and Craig Korbleck on the Ringer Fantasy Football Show all offseason. As we dive into the biggest news and topics are in the 2024-eastern season. Also, we probably get into really stupid arguments too. That's the Ringer Fantasy Football Show on Spotify. Welcome to Extra Point Take It. Sheal Kapady here with Benjamin Solac, who returns for one time and one time only, but we're still doing a show. We've got a Jordan Love Deal.

We've got a two-a-deal. We've got a team of E-P-T conversation to have. You didn't think I was going to let So let go without picking a team of E-P-T, did you? And then we've got to talk dad life, Benny Soles. You look good. We haven't seen you on a Zoom in a long time. You've been on paternity leave. I didn't want to say this before we started.

The arms are looking pretty good from maybe, you know, handling that sack of sugar all day long. How are we feeling? No, there's been a concerted gym-going effort in a lots of. fraternity leave because otherwise I don't get out of the house. And if I don't get out of the house, I go crazy. And so yeah, we started a mandatory bend leaves for an hour pretty, pretty quickly into the process. Dude, it's, I mean, thank God. It's awesome. It's been so good. Lydia is 10 weeks old and she's amazing. She's doing multiplication tables. She's reading chapter books. We're moving on to novels. Thus, Deskiske's coming to Vonnegut. Now, she's, she looks at you and smiles now.

And now it's ballgame once you can look at it. And it's still like accidental smiles. They're not like fully intentional. But every so often she makes direct eye contact with you and smiles, you can do whatever you want for the next 48 hours. Like it's good. It's good. So thank God she's healthy.

Mom's healthy. Everybody's doing good. When you said 10 weeks old, I'm like, don't you mean months? Like, no, I feel it feels like it's been for me as in, you know, outsider looking good. Only 10 weeks. Holy cow, you're not going to remember. It's good.

We have this on record. You're not going to remember any of this down the road. In terms of like season length, Lydia's as old as we were when we were like, the bills are missing the playoffs and the Chiefs came win in the Super Bowl last year, right? And then lo and behold, turn things around pretty quick. It's been short. It's not been a long time at all. For the record, I always said the bills are still going to make the playoffs. I'll live by the Chiefs. I said, I brought the Bills one for me. I brought the Chiefs one for you. All right. There you go. We're going to get to some more, you know, dad talk at the end of the air. But let's start. You know, we thought, are there going to be some headlines for us to talk about as we do the farewell show? And then all of a sudden, Jordan Love gets a new deal. Tua gets a new deal. So let's start with Jordan Love. After all, the Packers were the team of extra point taken last year.

We nailed that one. You're welcome. Everybody who put a little lettuce on the Packers before the season. Jordan Love, there it is. Solex got the cheese head. Love gets a four-year, $220 million extension, $55 million per year. I remember, Solek, like you asked me at one point last season, like, hey, our Packers offer him, the Daniel Jones deal. You're doing it? And I said, no, I'm not doing it if I'm Jordan Love.

Forget the Packers. I'm waiting until the end of the season and cashing in. Essentially, this is a commitment through 2026. So like when you saw this, how did you feel? Were you like, oh, it's only what, half a season he played great or where you know, this is a no-brainer. I'm doing it every time or somewhere in between. You got to do it every time. I don't feel as good about doing it every time as you do on some of the previous extensions, right? And I think that that's kind of the tenor of where quarterback contract extensions have gone, where it's like, okay, when you go and you make Lamar the highest paid quarterback, it's like, yeah, I'm going to do this every time. You go and you make Joe Burrow the highest paid quarterback. Yeah, I'm going to do this every time. You feel great about

it. You've seen those guys for an extended period of time. You see them change the franchise, change the offense. Those are dudes. Once we start doing, like, I'm the biggest Trevor Lawrence fan, you'll find. Once we start doing like Trevor Lawrence into Tuatoga by Loa, into Jordan Love, you're like, all right, you still got to do that. You've seen the guy. You've seen it for a long time, maybe a little bit shorter of a time. You've seen them be good, maybe not great. You've seen them change the franchise. Maybe not exactly the best sort of office to change the franchise too.

But you've seen them do the stuff that you need to see them do to give them extension. This is going right for a quarterback. You don't want to go to the dark place. You don't want to go to the bad place. The bad place is we're drafted rookies. The bad places are signing for regions. Nobody else to be the bad place. So you got to do it.

But we certainly start to get to the point where you feel a little bit squirrelier with some of these, you know, as this market balloons and expands, some of the guys who get brought into the fold. Love I feel pretty good about. It's less scary how quickly this happened and more impressive how quickly this happened because I really do believe that love is the player that we saw over the last couple months of the season.

Especially because I remember writing at the end of September a piece about like, hey, like, love doesn't look perfect right now, but loves doing a lot of really good stuff. And like their young receivers are having communication issues. And like the line is shuffling and they're figuring out what the offense looks like. It's not like he was bad. became good. It was like, oh, like, he's, you could see him being good. You could see how he's

going to figure this out. In a world of which man, like, loves first two months of the season where his last two months of the season, and his last two months of the season, though, like it, he's never getting this deal. So we are definitely doing a little bit of like, last thing I saw from Jordan Love was, you know, playoff winning against the Dallas Cowboys. And I love that guy and I'm giving that guy all the money in the world. And so it's, I'm fine with it. It's, you got to do it. He's a talented guy. And this is how the Packers go about things. You can't not have a little voice in the back of your head that's like, man, I really hope November and December didn't lie to us. Yeah, there's always, there's going to be a little risk with the small sample.

I feel great about it. Listen, I have been on the Jordan Love bandwagon for it. And even if you look at the whole season, the team was fourth in passing DVOA and he was third in EPA per pass play. That's the whole season. That's including all the stumbles he had early on, which really tells you how good and how impressive he was and how much he overcame statistically. I mean, he was a top five QB statistically in his first full season as an NFL starter. And supporting cast, you know, I think we all like their group of young wide receivers. It's not like he had Justin Jefferson or Tyree Kill or A.J. Brown out there. I mean, it wasn't, you know, the best supporting cast maybe he'll ever play with. They were shuffling some things on the

offensive line. And still, he plays like that. The offense, you should always be chasing, what, a top six, a top eight offense, as we've said on this show, many a time that's going to put you the mix year in and year out. They were already there as an offense last season. They go on the road against a Cowboys team and they win. They cook Dan Quinn's defense and then they go to San Francisco and they lose by a field goal. They had a lead in the fourth quarter of that game. So yes, risk of a small sample size. Sure, if I'm the Packers, you know, you always have to say if I'm in the room and Brian Kudukunst is saying, hey, you bald guy over here, do I do this? Do I not? I'm saying, Yes, absolutely do this because the price is, for a guy like Jordan Love, the chances of the price going up are way higher than, you know, anything else happening here. I think even if he plays like a top, let's say, 10 quarterback, top 12 quarterback over the next two seasons, the price is only going to go up here. So now you have him under contract through 2028. Now you can make decisions around him, around the structure of the deal with the rest of your roster and you try to win a Super Bowl here in the next five seasons.

So I feel great about it. I can't wait to watch Jordan Love play football for the Packers this season. And good job by the Packers. Good job by Jordan Love. Listen, I don't know who I'm picking to get to the Super Bowl from the NFC this year. Packers are absolutely on my list. So this thing could happen very quickly for that. I've been cooking up my like offseason takes to land here in August.

And I was like, oh, man, like I'm going to be the biggest guy by Packers stock. And then there was a pod a couple of weeks ago where you're like, I might pick the Packers from the Super Bowl. And I was like, no, shield, no, mine. So it's mine. I don't want you to have it. This time of year, it's a race to get to, like, your take, like, plant your flag on the take. But I think they might be popular.

I don't know by the time we get to September. Something very important on the love deal. Obviously, the love deal gets announced, what, eight hours after the Tua deal. And they're both done by David Muligeta. And they know what the structures are going to be and so on and so forth. But for the Packers, the cap hits for love over the next couple of years. And this is different than Tua when we get them. We talk about him.

The capits are still pretty love. low. Love's going to hit the cap for 20.7 mil this year, 29.7 the following, 36.1 the following, 42.4 the following. That's 2024 to 2027. Caput never gets above 45 million. That gives you the flexibility in the room to go make moves and to make additions and to make some changes to the roster, 25, 26, and 27, maybe start to get some of those extensions done for all those young playmakers, all those first round picks on defense that the Packers have. They put a lot of money into future years. They put a lot of money into 28 option bonuses, void years. And 29, 20, 2030, they are conceiving of Jordan Love as a guy was going to be a Packer until he's 35,

which is, of course, they are. They're the Packers. This is literally what they do. But structurally, obviously, like, oh, he got 55 million, two, got 53.1. Yeah, but this deal is built, but a lot of money in future years to give the Packers flexibility now. And so talking about Packers Super Bowl, there's not going to be any moves coming up over the next, I would say, two seasons where it's going to be like, oh, well, the Packers are too tight

against the cap. No, no, no, they're going to have room. And that's intentional. They're getting geared up. Yeah, the most likely scenario is this bad boy gets restructured and extended before it hits the end of that. I know this sounds great. To some of you, it probably sounds great. Wait, he had been a one season or half a season and you're talking.

I feel good about it. You know, check back with me. If he stinks it up, if this was a fluke, that's fine. I don't think so. He passed everything from my test to statistically, to leadership, to how teammates talked about him to on a big stage in the playoffs. I mean, he checked every box for me last season, so I feel good about it. It was crazy. I went and looked through my old, like, just, okay, hey, when did I tweet about Jordan Love last year?

Kind of like, what was the timelines went through the season? In mid-October, I was explaining a game-winning interception. The Las Vegas Raiders made. Christian Watson, right? I remember that one. On the left side. Go ball on the left side? Exactly. And Matt LaFleur is on the sideline screaming for love to throw that go-ball.

And Love doesn't throw it in time, right? That was mid-October. and then in like mid-November, late November, I'm like, Jordan Love might be the top five-fass quarterback in the NFL. Man, when he hit, he hit. Maybe this is, maybe I should tweet more. So you have a library of your takes and analysis. Like, if I want to know what I thought about Jordan Love in mid-October,

I have no way of doing that. Should I start doing this? Well, I wrote about Jordan Love on October 25th. So like, some of it's that. But yeah, like, I just was, it's a good barometer to be like, okay, what was I? Because it's easy now to be like, I thought Jordan Love was going to finish.

it all out because I did. But how much vindication did I have? How much certain did I have? Not like the certainty I have now and the hindsight 2020. And so yeah, like you go back and you look, you're like, all I think the kid's going to be good. I certainly didn't think he was going to explode the way he did once kind of all, all the lights came on, all the connections are made.

But we got to see, like, you know, there's still rough edges to stand out from this guy's game. So there's a man, high floor, high ceiling, exciting time in Green Bay. Yeah, you have to win a Super Bowl next three years. Taking Jordan and Lovicey Stroud. Oh, okay. All right. Now, am I, what, who, is this like, is this the Texans with Stroud and the, or am I a random team that gets to plug one of those two guys in? You have to win Super Bowl in the next three years.

You have to pick a quarterback to do it. It doesn't matter. A team doesn't matter. Contract. See, Jay Stroud doesn't matter. I think. Oh, man, that stuff. I swear we had this same conversation at one point.

We did. And the reason why I'm asking is because at the time, I was like, it's close. They're both good. I'm taking Stroud. As I've watched film over the course of Samara, I tell you. Why I take love? That's a little closer than I thought it was in the spring. My gut says Stroud if I had to pick one.

I feel like you took love at the time. You're probably just being contrary. Yeah, whatever you said, I'll just take the other one. That way we're covered as a show. And I can just lie and say, if one of them happens, I'll just lie and say, no, no, I had that one. You had the other one. Don't tweet about it.

Then you won't have the library and you'll have to go back and listen to old shows. And we both know neither of us are doing that. So there you go. A win-win for me, a little inside podcast. for you there. All right, other deal. Tua, Tunga Viloa, four years, $212.4 million, $53.1 million per year under contract for five more seasons through 2028. If you look at the commitment, it's essentially a three-year commitment. He has a $50 million guarantee in 2025. And then a lot of these contracts, it's like if you're on the roster at point X, then the next year gets guaranteed. And

That's basically what it is with 2-0. If he's on the roster in 2025, now all of a sudden, 2026 becomes guaranteed for $54 million. So again, essentially a commitment to him for the next three seasons. This is only his age 26 season, still like a very young quarterback, stayed healthy. Last season, Benny Souls, how are your feelings about this one, different or similar to your feelings about the Jordan Love Deal?

This is why I brought up the love structure and why I think it's, it's, you know, people get like to dialed in on contract structure and like talking about figures and whatever. But it's why understanding structure is important when you want to know, like, kind of how teams are actually thinking about things. This is a deal with with trap doors. There's no money tied into future years beyond the length of the contract, right? Contract ends in 2028. There's no void years put on the end of it, which the Dolphers aren't huge on void years, but they've done it before. They have, right, all you have all those rolling guarantees, right? So they can announce, oh, big guarantee number 161 million. But that's not all guaranteed right now. That's, okay, if you're on the roster in 26, we guarantee 2027, like you said. There's availability escalators and incentives, right? If you're healthy and active and playing for this season, you get an extra 500,000 on top. If we, you know, we make to the coverage championship game, division around, you get extra 500,000 on top. There's escalators for performance, escalators for availability. And like you said, there's a three, there's a three or clear out, right?

Where it's like, okay, once you get past that 2025 season, where those are all the firm guarantees, all that money is guaranteed right now. then, you know, the money will start to roll. But if we want to, we can pick a pill and we can swallow it, pick a year to swallow the pill and we can swallow it, right? And we can potentially get out of this. So this is monetarily, like, oh, it's a little bit less of a commitment than Jordan Love got because of the size. Structure-wise, you know, it's lukewarm.

It's good for Tua. There's a lot of guaranteed money. If he stays healthy and plays well, he will see the entirety of this contract. It's a fat contract. So Tua didn't, like, give up anything. It's not like the Dolphins, like, you know, had to, you know, paint into a leverage corner. But absolutely the dolphin.

wanted to build this with a little bit of, of, of, escapability to it. I don't think you can argue that, independent of your, of your, of your, of your, of your, of your feelings about Tua. Now,

onto my feelings about Tua. I, like, I, I, I, I, I, I, don't think this is good. Uh,

I, like, I brought up, Jordan Lov's cap hit in, in, uh, 25 is 29.7 million. Tua's cap hit is 59.4. Jordan loves cap hit in 26 is 36. 36.

36. 36. It's, two is 26th. Double. Right? Like, the Dolphins are about to enter the world where you can't pay as many people real freaking quick.

And the Tua offense works because you're able to pay Tyreek Hill and because you're able to pay Jaylon Wattle. And like you can't like it doesn't even work because you can pay Toronto Armstead. Because you actually need to be able to also pay like Robert Hunt and some of these other guys to like actually have the line at a level. And they couldn't do that. Right. Hunt's out of the building. Connor Wom's out of the building. So the version of the Dolphins offense that we have seen with Mike McDaniel and two over the last couple of years is astonishing. It's the coolest offense to watch in the league.

It's the most unique offense in the league. We have seen it run into issues with playoff teams before because of talent deficiencies, right? Because when they get good versus good, they don't necessarily have the quarterback who can elevate the team. Now you're about to enter a world in which you also don't have, you have like his cap number is ballooning by a degree of 10. He's 10xing his cap hit. It's going from 9 million to 60 million. That's not 10xing, but whatever. I don't think Tua has enough talent to justify losing that much cap flexibility.

I don't see how the Dolphins are able to sustain a championship caliber roster, which is the theory behind extending your quarterback and competing like this. I don't see how they do it once he's starting to take up the space. So this is the year for Miami. Yeah, win it this year. Because I think after this year comes sit, it becomes so much harder for this team specifically to live with a second contract quarterback. Yeah, I wish I could take the other side on this one.

But again, if I'm in the room and they say you, bald man, do we do this? I'm saying, no, no, no, no, we don't need to do this. let's do a little year by year with Tuotunga Vailoa. And I know you can make the argument, well, you don't want your quarterback to be. I understand. But at some point, you know, these are tough decisions that you have to make. I mean, he had the concussion scares in 2022. He missed eight games the previous two seasons before last season.

Last season against playoff teams, the dolphins were one in six with a minus 110 point differential. One of the worst point differentials against playoff teams of anyone in the NFL. Now, the offense works. No doubt. I get it. They did it in 2022. And then I said, going into last year, I was kind of hard on the dolphins. I said, all right, now we know Mike McDaniel had a plan A, but now what's his plan B? Now the defenses have seen this for a year. And guess what? The offense was still really, really good for most of the season. He's played in one playoff game, a loss in four seasons. And I just feel like I would have wanted to maintain some flexibility here. I would have said, we love you. But listen, we got. We're up against it with some financial that we just can't make this commitment right now. It could lead to a very difficult situation. I don't know how far Tua was willing to go. Was he willing to hold out and miss game checks? Usually that's not the case.

But who knows? Maybe he would have been willing to do such a thing. I would have let him play out the year. I've got the franchise tag in my pocket for 2025. There's a certain Dallas Cowboys quarterback who could be available where if I'm going to pay that kind of money, I would rather have the Dallas Cowboys quarterback than to with Tunga Vailoa. I know the price goes up, so I'm not talking about, it might sound like I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth, because I say with the team like the Cowboys, the price is

only going on, but it depends on the player too. And I would just rather have the flexibility. I want more of a sample. I want more data. Listen, if they play great this year and they make it to the AFC championship, then go. Listen, I'll pay you five more million dollars per year at the end of the season and let's go and let's continue this marriage if you've stayed healthy for the whole season. I mean, he was contemplating retirement 16 months ago after that. He said that publicly. Like, that would make me very nervous. And like you mentioned, all the pieces around him, Mike McDaniel, Tyreek Hill, Jalen Waddle, like he's never going to be in kind of a better situation than he has been or then he's in right now. So I add in all those. And I know it's easier for me to

say than if you're the team and you haven't had success in your franchise and now you have an exciting offense and you have a young court who, by all accounts, everybody, likes, does it, everything right, I understand all that. I still want to be a voice in the room saying, whoa, hang, hold on, hold on, hold on, let's just be patient here and wait a year. So that, that's my take on Tua. And this is what makes discussing the value of Tua to the dolphins such a conundrum. It's really, really hard to do. I'm very certain. And my evaluation of quarterbacks, my film watching, from a talent perspective, Tua is not as talented as a lot of the guys who have gotten these extensions. I think Tua is.

below the bar of a guy that I want to get $50 million to. Like, I think he'd, like, do it to me is like more. So he's closer to Daniel Jones. I'm not saying he's Daniel Jones. He's closer to Daniel Jones than he's some of those guys. Like, he falls below the bar for me. However, let's put him in context. What Mike McDaniel has done in Miami is incredible. It's astonishing, where he has built such a unique offense that is so well catered to Tua's skill set. What's Tua best of doing? Just rapidly quick release, extremely accurate football. All right, I'm going to build an offense where Tua just throws it to space like a lightning bolt. And the defense cannot get back onto that ball. Receivers are going to break two spaces. Again, it feels very air-rady. It's like,

where's the green grass? Just go to the green grass and turn around. The quarterback's going to throw it there. It's very basketball on grass. It's extremely cool to see. So what McDaniel has built to make a player of Tua's skill set work is incredible. Simultaneously, he has made Tua extremely valuable to the offense, despite the fact that Tua doesn't have as much talent as like Trevor Lawrence and C. J. Shroud and Jordan Love and Joe Burrow and, and Lamar Jackson and Jalenhurst and all these other guys. Because this offense is so bespoke. One of the Shield's favorite Benwords.

You got to. Last episode, I mean, I would have been very disappointed if we didn't get one bespoke. This offense is so tailored. It is so custom to Tua that you can't, like, even though the Shanahan offense is like, oh, it's quarterback agnostic. I'll just plug anybody in there. If you took Tua out of this offense and put a league average quarterback in, the offense would have to dramatically change.

Because while what two. it does is not like inherently league wide valuable in this specific context it is extremely valuable and so i i i understand why like you're talking about being in the room i understand why if mcdaniel was in the room with chris career macdainil's saying listen i need him to run this offense and like you you listen to macdainil interviews when he got the dolphin's job he's like he talks about and he's like two as the perfect quarterback for the offense i want to run at the time i was like man man man and now watching i'm like no i get what he was talking about i understand what what his framework is.

But you don't want to end up in a position where the perfect offense to run is for this sort of quarterback, right? Because you end up in a spot where you drop 70 points in the Broncos and then you run into like Sean Desai and the Eagles defense. Not even a good defense last year,

but just like fast. And with a good pass rush, it's like, oh, we have no recourse. It's such a fragile build. And again, that was a lot more excusable when he was making $9 million. Right? Because it's like, okay,

we can paint into the morgue. origins with big contracts. Go get Bradley Chubb and we'll build out a pass rush, go get Jalen Rams. We'll build out coverage and everything. And I feel it feels so much like last year was the talent window. Last year was the dancing. Then Christian Wilkins is gone and the edge rushers are injured. And so on Armstead is a year older. And Tyreekills a year older. And it's like, man, I don't know if I want to be in this world that you have, you've very much painted yourself into the corner of being into this world. So it is difficult to talk about Tua's value to the Dolphin specifically relative to Tua's value as compared to some of these other top quarterbacks.

Yeah, I think as you described that well, I also feel like Mike McDaniel, what he's shown so far, depending on the quarterback, would be able to sort of adapt and adjust to make it work. Maybe I'm wrong. We'll get a bigger sample, but he's been very impressive. They just feel like a team who's ceiling is capped with Dua, honestly. Like, I don't think they can win the Super Bowl. And maybe I'll be, I said that about the chiefs last year. So if you're a Dolphins fan, maybe you should be happy to hear me say that.

I just, I don't have them on the list of teams that can win the Super Bowl this year. If I go eight teams or whatever. In order to do so, McDaniel would have to do something that really no scheme lord has ever done, which is you arrive with a new, new quarterback, new receiver, new team, whatever. Like, you know, there's kind of a spark. And then some scheme lord starts doing something that's like cool and good and new and difficult to defend. It's like, okay, like, introduce the RPO into Philadelphia, right? Chip Kelly's stuff.

And like, okay, like, you know, Shanahan offense in San Francisco. He even think about McVey with the Rams, got there with golf, couldn't win the Super Bowl against the Patriots, never gets back in with golf, has to wipe Goff for Stafford to, like, reintroduce an innovation, and then they're able to get back to the Super Bowl and back to Promocelyn win the championship.

McDaniel will have to get like a second wave of innovation, a second wave of evolution with nothing new being introduced, personnel-wise. That's very, very, very, very, very. very, very hard to do. If there's a guy who can do it, it might be Mike, but it's challenging to anticipate. So if your Dolphins fan listening to this, listen, you're still going to have a fun year. You're still going to have a fun offense. It's probably one of the better times you've been, better eras for you as a fan, but that's how we feel about the Tua contract. All right,

let's take a break. We come back, and we haven't talked about this at all. We're just, we're going to have the conversation here on the podcast. We're picking a team of EPT. All right, we're back on extra point taken. The rules for those of you who have not listened in the past, first of all, shame on you. You've missed a great two years. The rules for the team of EBT is a team that has plus odds to make the playoffs. We choose one. We make them our team last year.

It was the Green Bay Packers. Our runner-ups were who, the Pittsburgh Steelers, who also made the playoffs. We just got two just casually. Yeah, well, I definitely brought up the Broncos. Broncos we talked about. I mean, the Broncos weren't terrible. What would they win? Eight games last year?

They were kind of in the mix, whatever. I don't know. Pick the Broncos again? They're plus 790. Second lowest odds of the list. No. I went through this morning, Benny Souls, and I had two teams that just kind of, because I'm doing, you know me, I like doing the summer spreadsheet.

So I got like six or seven teams left. But I've got, I think, the teams that I think, people. are too low on and too high on. And I've got a couple here that I said, I don't know, I might be picking this team to make the playoffs anyway. So I don't know. If you want to let me first go over. Here are the teams we are not allowed to pick. These are the teams with minus odds to make the playoffs. Chiefs 49ers, Eagles, Ravens, Bengals, Lions, Cowboys, Texans, Falcons. Falcons minus 188 to make playoffs. Jets, minus 176 to make the playoffs. Bills, Packers, Dolphins, Chicago Bears minus 106. You are Chicago Bears. Shoo-in. Extra Point-taking team if they were below the line, dude. Shoo-in.

Oh my gosh, to make the playoffs. So those are the teams we cannot choose the teams we can choose. Los Angeles Chargers, Los Angeles Rams, Jacksonville Jaguars, Colts, Browns, Bucks, Steelers, Saints, Seahawks, Vikings, Raiders, commanders, Cardinals, Titans, Giants, Panthers, Broncos, Patriots, Patriots. So let's see. That's three, six, nine, 12, 15, 17, 18 teams. We have our pick of 18 teams. Benny Souls, is there a team or two in there to get us started that you're saying let's at least have the conversation? What do you got? First, I think I know which teams you want. You said there's two? I think you probably know which teams I want. I think you want the Indianapolis Colus is plus 142. No? Okay. Good. I've heard so much.

type that I've listened to so many podcasts, walk out so many walks, and everybody is in on the Colts, and I don't get this at all. Oh my gosh, I thought you were going to be with the hipsters on the Colts, and I was going to smack you down. This is so disappointing.

So I get it because, like, they were good with Gardner Minchu. We, you know, I can't believe about to do Gardner Minchu defense. We're kind of forgetting that Gardner Minchew's like a solid, like he's like a very high end backup. He's like a solid spot started. A lot of experience with Jacksonville.

Like, people act like they went, you know, almost made the playoffs with like, me at quarterback. Mitch is fine. Like, it's good for the offense, RPO's, whatever.

Richardson's going to come back. Absolutely. The quarterback play is going to be better overall, but it's going to be very, the high peaks of valleys, right? That's in the aggregate.

It's going to be better. It's going to be weeks for Richard loses them ball games, right? Like, he is very much so figuring things out. You go, I watch all of his film from last year. There's so much to be excited about.

And then there's also like big misses, easy misses, big mistakes, turnover prone, right? All of his film. Come on, it was 98 dropbacks. Don't have to grind that long for that.

I was grinding it, man. Don't you worry about it. The other thing that drives me nuts, okay, is that everybody's got this Colts hype. Nobody can name anybody who played cornerback for the Colts last year. This is the worst corner room in the league. I've heard anybody talk about it.

They're going to get thrown on. No team, they dramatically outperformed their pressure rate with insane sack production. Huge, massive statistical drive-ending anomaly that is very clearly going to regress to the mean. All right, they're not going to get eight sacks from Quitty pay and day.

at a Yank Bo and Stamps and Appalcom again. I? And so Colts, I'm not there on the Colts. I'm glad that you and I, even from afar and not talking to see the same bit. Yeah, I'm not going to fire off all of my takes on all these teams because I got a lot a lot of podcast to fill here so much. But I do like to, so I'm just going to kind of sit back a little bit. But yeah, I don't think we do not disagree too much on the Colts.

Okay. So are you with the Rams plus 102? I am not with the Rams. Oh my gosh. I'm out of practice. This is very embarrassing. I don't think I've ever guessed your takes and been a while. Yeah, this is stuff.

I'm kind of tempted by the Rams. I run a little bit of the same problem. People are like, oh, man, Sean McVeigh, very impressive offense last year. Pugna Cua is so good. Guys, Aaron Donald's gone. Who's the best player of this defense? Well, Byron young, Ernest Jones.

Kobe Turner? Ernest Joe? Trinavis White, Darius Williams, Josh Johnson, one of their healthy Cam Curl, right? They have all these like veteran DVDs. And Rahim Morris has gone, too, by the way. I think this defense might be the worst defense in the league

when the season ends. This is so disappointed. Well, I guess it's good. If this was like, if this was just a regular pod, I would be so upset with you. Because I like to argue more. And so far we're on the same page with it with your takes. Okay. Let me then actually put my chest into a certain end of a team here.

The Jaguars at plus 120 are probably a good bet, right? They were my, probably my third team. Yeah. This is, this is such a pinch your nose and buy the dip, right? Because the Jaguars just that two playoffs ago, you have your, your massive comeback win against the Brandon Staley Chargers, the ever-fated to fail charges so embarrassing. They go and they're like

fine in Arrowhead and they give the Chiefs a good fight and they're like, okay, like this team like, you know, they got their playoff experience, they're young, first year of Doug Peterson, like here they go, they're going to come out the gate strong and then they just were never what they were supposed to be last season. For 70, when they would win, it would be agonizing and difficult and unnecessary and when they would

lose, it would often be as a product of shooting themselves in their own foot. They lost more touchdowns that did, you know, like drops and they had, you know, pass interferences on third down and they had offensive line shuffling. All this little stuff that would just accumulate and like, you know,

Lawrence would make nine great plays in a row and they would really matter at the 10th play. Just an absolute stinker. Like they just never, never, never coalesced. There's play calling debates and they're gonna fire the OC

and they didn't fire the OC. And Doug is mad that people are still asking about play calling and they have a new defensive coordinator and they have all these draft picks that Tramblekey made that just don't see the field ever. We got just just third round picks, second round picks, Tank Bigsby,

Brent and Strange, Chad Muma, like, the guys don't make an impact at all. Like, it's such a defunct organization. With that said, it's Trevor Lines. There's a good quarterback with a ton of talent on both sides of the ball, right? The Gabe Davis, Christian Kirk, Brian Thomas, wide receiver room is probably not what they envision their room would be. But it's still, I think, a solid room.

Evan Ingram thrown into that as well. Travis E.T.N. This is a solid starting running back. The offensive line, again, there's been a little bit of upheaval and some change there, but you go and you get Ezra Cleveland from Minnesota. You bring in Mitch Morris. I think that they're going to be fine on the interior. And then defensively, you know, go and acquire Eric Armstead.

And you have the extension for Josh Heinz Allen, and you go and you get Ronald Darby to replace Darius Williams. It's a good unit, right? The extension for Tyson Campbell. Not really any like top 10 guys. Not really like all like huge like field tilting guys, but professionals at all three levels. Like just a good impact players.

And I do still think Doug's a good coach. And so bad AFC South, seven seed 10 and seven Jaguars. Like it feels very reasonable to me. especially as a Colts doubter. I'm willing to consider the Jacksonville Jaguars. You made the points. They were nine and eight last year. So it's not like they would have to make this huge leap.

Trevor Lawrence dealt with, what, four different injuries last year? I'm not like at the, hey, no one's allowed to criticize Trevor Lawrence, you know, grouping of the NFL podcasters. But, you know, I think it's fair to give him a little pass for what happened last year with all those injuries. And like you mentioned, this is from Dan Pizzuta. No player lost more EPA to drops than Trevor Lawrence last season. So, yeah, if you get a little bit more luck, can you win nine games, can you win 10 games? Everybody seems to like a Ryan Nielsen.

By the way, this defense, even though it wasn't the most talented in the world last season, they were tempted defensive DVOA. Now, they fired the whole staff. They blamed the entire everything on the defense. But it's like, all right, there was a pretty okay defense, at least in there somewhere. And so if you like Nielsen, then I think they have a chance. All right, I'll write down the Jaguars as a possibility. Again, they were not my first choice, but they were on the list.

All right. Give me your first choice, then. I'm curious. I thought I thought I could peg it. I mean, I hate to do it. I hate to just, maybe we're reversing roles here. If you say the chargers, I'm going to clock upside the head. How were the, the chargers are making the playoffs this year.

Okay? What? The chargers are making the playoffs this year. The chargers are, listen, I was out for one year. Last year, I saw this daily thing coming. Like, Chargers? I took a year off. Now I'm back.

All right. case for the charger since you're, I'm shocked. I thought you were going to, I thought we were going to be on the same page. This is going to be a five minute conversation. This is so bad. 19th in DVOA last year. It felt like they were the worst team in the NFL. They were not. They were 19th in DVOA. They were three and eight in one score games. What did we look for last summer? Do you not remember we look for the coach who was Garbanzo beans replaced by the coach who could be good. With this screaming, coach who was Garbanzo piece. And that's why we landed on the Packers? Well, no. We, that, we were going to do the problem.

It was our logic for the Broncos who we didn't take. And we're the only of the free teams who didn't make the playoffs. So it was our logic last year. We ignored it to good ends. Process over results. It was still good thinking. Jim Harbaugh, 44191 as an NFL head coach. Come on.

The guy never had a losing record. Then he goes to college, leads them to a national championship. How about this? Second easiest schedule in the NFL. If you go by opponents, Super Bowl, odds. So you can tell me who. Who is Justin Herbert throwing to it? Oh my God, the lack of talent on defense.

Listen, they just got to win nine or ten games. The offensive line has a chance to be excellent. In what universe? The offensive line? Zion Johnson, Bradley Boseman on the interior? Trey Pipkins and guard? Listen, Bradley Boseman, Bradley Boseman and a Greg Roman offense is going to be just fine. Watched it in Baltimore.

They're good attack, but listen, you have a couple issues on the interior. You could scheme around that. That's no problem. And they don't need to be great. So they're going to be just above mediocre. I'm not telling you they're going to win the Super Bowl. They're not. They don't have enough talent.

It's a transition year. But you look at coach, quarterback, schedule, and they absolutely have a good shot to make the playoffs this year. I don't think that the coaching staff and the front office intends on making the playoffs this year. What do you mean? They're going to throw games? Have you never met? No, not throw games.

When you hear them talk about like the team, especially when Harbaugh and Hortiz took the jobs, you heard them talk about the fact that like, you know, they're going to like like this team traded keen and Allen for a fourth round pick, right? Like they very much viewed this off season as like, okay, we're going to get younger. We are going to shed money, right? Like there was a moment where both Khalil Mack and Joey Bowso were potentially going to be gone from this team just from a peer cap perspective. They had a restructured deals in order to get that done.

Now obviously, they're there now, right? I hear that. I think that defensively, I think they're going to be a little bit better than people realized just because I do think that Jesse Minter's got the goods. But like we're talking about a college GC, joc jumping up to the NFL level. We're talking about a completely different offensive system, like very dramatic. change in what they're doing. They are not equipped for it. Like the running back room.

This team, people talk, oh, they really want to run the football. Like, they're going to be a run first team. It's Gus Edwards, J.K. Dobbins, and Kamani Vidal. Like, they don't have the backs to be a run. You're just going to go four yards, plug and chug Gus bus all the way down the field? Like, they have no explosiveness at running back right now. So if you're going to run the ball, 25, 30 times a game, you need somebody. You can house something.

They don't have anything yet. They are not equipped to be the sort of team that Jim Harbour wants them to be. I think the interior office lines can be a massive problem for that. them. Trey Pipkins is a player that I've been frustrated with for a lot of his career. I do not think his game translates to guard at all. I do think Bradley Bozeman is dramatically past the point where he was effective in this offense. Zion Johnson, I think has some flashes, but he's not what you want him to be for a first

round. But like from between the tat and like, this is assuming Joe Alt just like is excellent as a rookie tackle, which like, they have a good reason to believe that, but still, this is a rookie. That's true. There's always questions with rookies. There's question marks on four of the five spots on the offensive line. I don't know how you can just say the office line is a chance to be excellent. This is the office line is a chance to be literally anything under the sun in terms of including being very, very bad.

And so I do think they're going to be competitive. And I do think that they have the star talent to knock off some good teams. But I don't think they are yet, they don't have the cupboards full to be what Jim Harbaugh wants them to be. So I think it's going to be a massive growing pain season for the Chargers. Be around the 12th ranked offense. They'll have a mediocre defense. Harbaal will give them an edge. easy schedule.

Nine or ten wins. They're playing for a playoff spot in week 18. All right, you vetoed the charges. Then I really don't think you're going to like my second pick here, Solek. I think I know what it is. Who? Which I know,

I should stop saying this. I'm very tempted to take the Pittsburgh Steelers plus 164. No. What a roller reversal for a last show. What is happening? You're going to take the Pittsburgh Steelers? Who are you on? Listen.

All right. Talk, go ahead. Talk me into the Steelers. All right. So, okay, let me talk to the Steelers real quick. This is not hard at all. So last year, the Pittsburgh Steelers, with some of the worst quarterback play the world has ever seen, made the playoffs.

Wildcard round, Mike Tomlin, they're 10 and 7 with a negative point differential. There's eking out close wins, bad football team, and they go and they limp in. In three of the last four seasons, they have limped their way into the wildcard round. Mike Tomlin gets results and results of the seventh seed in the AFC playoffs. This roster, okay, let's just cover. up quarterback real quick with a nice big, you know, black piece of tape, electrical tape. They're also pretty good. I like the Office of Line reoping and all the draft capital that was invested there.

I think a lot of people are very quickly going to like, oh, when Troy Fon, who starts a right tackle and Zach Frazier starts the center and Mason McCormor. I don't think all those guys are winning those jobs right away. But they do have Isaac Sam Molo. I like what I saw Project Jones last year. They have James Daniels been good for them for a couple of years. Like they have good 10 pole pieces and they can figure out some of the other spots. So I like the offensive line investment. I do think that this offense works really, really nicely with Arthur Smith, the way that he wants to play.

I've heard a lot of people talk about, oh, like, Arthur Smith in Atlanta, like, the running game wasn't as good and everything like that. Arthur Smith was, like, trying to solve a lot of problems in Atlanta, and they kind of got, like, down a rabbit hole around the bend in a deep end in a bad place. I think Arthur Smith, a big part of him going to Pittsburgh is just him going back to what he wants to do, which is putting multiple tight ends on the field, right? Darnow, Washington is going to be a big player for this team's sixth offensive linemen and just running the ball. vertically, right? A lot of people are all outside zone. The thing they were doing with Derek Henry in the Arthur Hayday was they was run ball down your throats,

right? And that's what I think Najee Harris is going to be really, really valuable to them running between the tackles. So they'd be able to play ball control. They're going to be able to play into close games. And then I love this defense's ability to do what it's always done, which is win you games against bad and mediocre teams by generating turnovers and generating short fields. They're going to win so many 16 to 13 stinkers

because Alice Highsmith gets a strip sack on third down in opponent territory with five minutes left on the clock, right? Highsmith, Larry Ongo Jobi, Keanu Bent, and Cam Hayward is back. TJ Y, this even's a line, man. This front is something. You put Patrick Queen, gets a better linebacker play behind it. It'd be a really, really, really staunch front seven.

I like Joey Porter, Jr. came along really nice. I thought of the course last year. Pittsburgh Steelers, man. So long as quarterback doesn't matter for this team, this is a playoff caliber roster. And I know quarterback doesn't matter for this team because they did it last year and they made it anyway. All right.

You might be able to talk to me. Yes. This happens to me every summer where I allow myself to be talked in to the Steelers. I will last year they were ninth in overall DVOA so we look at them as a team that kind of snuck in like their defense was really good last year their offense their run game was very good think ninth in DVOA think about how we talked about them last year like they were criminals isn't that crazy it's unbelievable you would think they were 20th and they won you know so uh so I think there is a case for them now the coaching should be better there's a chance that the quarterback plays better even if it you know it shouldn't be too much worse I will say even kind of a worst case uh, scenario. So you have that. I think their defense is going to be really good. I do have some question marks aside from George Pickens, who are we throwing the football too? So just don't get into third and longs and just run the ball, run the ball. Have Fryeuth is about to have the Evan Ingram season and all Evan Ingram seasons. There's 120 catches for 400 yards.

My concern with the Steelers is that they have the second hardest schedule in the NFL and their quarterback situation. In your scenario where they make the playoffs, how many games is your boy starting? plays for six games. Fields plays for three games. Then Russ plays the rest of the season. That'll be exact. It's exactly how it's going to do. I promise he's going to make a fake quasi injury that like makes it seem like they're

not actually benching it, but then they're going to play fields and he's going to run around and look amazing. And then they're going to bring Russ back in and they're going to go back to ball control. I like, listen, Russ was so bad last year. Like a lot of people are like, oh, when he's out of Denver, oh, this. No, like, like, Russ is like, Russ is not good a quarterback right now. He is trying to play a style. He is no longer capable of playing.

He could be good for like a ball control. like the Steelers' offense if he calms down, but I just don't think he's going to do that. I thought Russ was really, really bad for the Broncos last year. Russ is better than Kenny Pickett, right? Like, they got better at quarterback with that being the change. Before you even put in the fact that they might play Justice Fields for a little bit, which I think would be great for this running game. So I'm completely agnostic to the quarterback position.

I don't care who's there at all. I trust Mike Tomlin at plus 176. All right. So you've got the Steelers and Jaguars, who I'm open to. you vetoed the Chargers. I'm going to give you one more to chew on here. Who is it? Seattle Seahawks.

I wanted to bring them up, but I thought I was like, there's no way she will let me get away with it. I love this. Listen, I got the background in Seattle plus 186 to make the playoffs. Yes. They were 9 and 8 last season. This wasn't like a terrible team last season. They were 12th in offensive DVOA last season.

They were 28th in defensive DVOA. Well, how do you fix that? maybe bring in the guy who everybody thinks is the best defensive play caller in the entire NFL. And I don't think the cupboard is bare on this defense. Now, I haven't done my full defensive rankings yet, but I think the defense that I'm probably going to be higher on than maybe consensus is the Seattle Seahawks. I mean, you've got Rieke Wollin. I know he wasn't the same guy last year.

He's been a very good player in the NFL. Devon Wetherspoon. You've got a guy who should thrive in Mike McDonald's defense. Up front, Draymont Jones has been a good player before. Euchenna noosu has been a good player before. Leonard Williams has been a good player before. Jonathan Hankins has been a good player before. Byron Murphy, you're adding to the next player.

Yeah, I'm not telling you they're going to like like the world on fire, but these aren't scrubs. Like these guys have been for the most part solid NFL vets. And so I think there's enough there where if your coordinator is who we think he is, that you're not going to have the best defense in the NFL, but you could certainly have, you know, a solid to above average defense there. and then offensively, who doesn't love a Ryan Grub? I mean, now, the offensive line is what really scares me, obviously. If that's bad, they're going to suck.

This is why I didn't want to bring up Seahawks. I knew we were going to talk chargers. I knew we were going to talk offensive line. I was like, I can't possibly out of one side of my mouth and then the outside of my mouth. Yeah. I mean, now, part of that depends. You know, how did you think their offensive line was last year? Not very good.

And they were 12th in offensive DVOA. So, like, I don't think they're going to be 28th in offensive DVOA. So that's the case for the Seahawks. I know the Cardinals seem to be a hipster pick for a team that's going to make a leap in the NFC West. I think team, I think everybody has the wrong NFC West team. I'm pretty sure that whenever we do the show on this feed, and I'm not committing to it yet, it's going to be late August where I have to make my picks for the NFC playoffs, I think I'm going to have the Seahawks sneaking in as a wildcard team.

So there you go. There's the pitch. As a proud owner of Seahawks at 7 to 1 to win the division and also a proud owner, Cardinals to win the division of 13 to 1. I just, last year I was in a position where I wanted to fade the 49ers a little bit. I'm in that exact same position again because it's just okay. How that'll work out?

Yeah, which like, which like, what was the logic? The logic was okay. I don't, I don't think Brock is like that good. I don't think Brock is,

is an incredible quarterback. And then they are very much like, you know, 10 pulled on Christian McCaffrey and, and, you know, he's got health question marks. They're 10 pulled on, on Trent Williams and he's got health question marks, right?

Like, when a team's been this successful for this long, we just start to be like, oh, like, you know, and they're just going to do it again next year. Eventually a house of cards tumbles, especially when it's been as psychologically damaging at these 49ers runs have been. And so I'm always looking for spots

not to like be like, oh, the 49ers are going to like definitely lose, but like, hey, like, Seahawks at 7 to 1 and just like the Niners have like a little bit of a collapse season. Like, I'm interested in that. I very much think that the Seahawks have a good shot to make the playoffs. The defense, I agree with you. I think the defense has more talent than people

realize. I think the number one reason why Pete is out of Seattle, which was a frustrating thing for me. And I still don't even know if I like the fact that Pete was out of Seattle. But I think the number one thing was that like just the innovation and the ideas on defense just kind of ran dry. They were just out of those. Yeah, they had five or six years. They couldn't figure it out.

He tried to his credit. He was trying stuff, bringing different people in. And they were doing it. Exactly. They were doing stuff. It was just like, you don't know the coaching. You don't know the little adjustments, the fine dials. Like they needed new, new ideas there.

And they go and they get those new ideas with Mike McDonald, who it's hard to turn our defense around this fast. if there's a guy who can do it. And I think that the defensive line having quite a lot of talent in it, Draymond Jones, like we said, Leonard Williams,

which ended Ous who were trying from injury is a huge deal. That's their only edge rush presence. I do think that, yeah, like this defense can be better quicker, but even putting the defense aside. I'll take this offense in a shootout

with like anybody, right? And like, I'm like, yes, the past, anybody. The past, in terms of like, you know,

it's a 35 to 35 game, you know, there's eight minutes left. Like, Gino with D.K. Metcalf and that explosive potential, Tyler Lockett, obviously isn't what he once was, but he's still extremely quarterback friendly.

Jackspeth and Jigbo, I thought, was good in like the very brief flashes we got of him last season, but he was just pigeonholed into this, you know, behind the line of scrimmage role. Noah Fan, who's your explosive tight end? Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet, like just with Gino and him being a very good cerebral quarterback after the snap, having that many guys, like, thinking about the dudes on this team who can just house stuff, like, DK, Kenneth Walker, Noah Fan has that explosive building and you don't see it a lot. but like they're like this team is big with science and speed like the weapons here are like nasty there

you think about some of those games where seattle was really good last year and you're like oh that's right because like they just have some takeover players at offensive weapon we didn't see that enough last season in large part because i think of the offense that was being run and then also some of the pressure that they were dealing with and so i don't think the pressure is going to go away but i do think seattle has so much explosive play potential on this offense that's what ryan grob was all about when he was at washington right it was just let's find ways to create big ones right In the running game, in the passing game, let's make some bigans. And I think the game mapped that onto the NFL pretty well.

And so I would not be surprised if we're like week seven, week eight of the season. And the Seattle offense has like crazy weird numbers, right? Where you're like, oh, the three offenses right now that have an explosive plan at least 12% of their dropbacks are Miami, San Francisco, and the Seattle freaking Seahawks. That would not surprise me at all. All right. So we've narrowed it down. The Jacksonville Jaguars, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Seattle Seahawks. I want to take the Jaguars off the book.

The vibes on the Jaguars don't feel right to me. Which is why they're a good pick, but I will allow it. Okay. A little post-type Jaguars. Now, the Steelers are fun because we got Papa Solaxa Steelers fan. We have a running sort of bit on this show where I've been higher on the Steelers than you. And in this case, you brought up the Steelers. And now your boy, who I've been like, you're going over the top with Justin Fields.

He's quarterbacking the Steelers. Tomlitz never had the losing season. If we picked them and then he has a lot of, the first losing season, that's good for content. If they make the playoffs, that's good for content. So the Steelers are in the mix. And the Seahawks are, the Seahawks felt as we were having the conversation, they felt like the team we were aligned on that we both said, this just, it just feels right.

So where are you? Here's what it is. We don't need to make the Steelers, the extra point taking team of the season, because they are. Just by virtue of who they are and like the Justin Fields of it and the Tomlin, of it, right? Like, the Steelers are good. We will already have receipts to cash. We don't need to establish a new receipt here at this time. We've already got them.

So that's why you're going to make the Seahawks of the team. So we also have the potentially good. We can double dip. We didn't get the double dip with the Steelers last year. We could double dip this year. I think it's the Seahawks. And like the Seahawks are probably also a little bit post-hypy like the Jaguars are. It's just the vibes are way better. But if you remember last year, it was like, hey,

like Seattle, you know, the Gino thing. Like, their new era, they're coming around. And then just the office line injuries decimated them. So if we get just a little bit, if we break a little bit better on the line, which I know is a big ask, but this could be the worst line in the league. But if we break a little bit better on the line, I think all the reasons for hype by the Jowars last year are there again this year. Excuse me, the Seahawks, all the hype that was there with the Seahawks last year,

they're here again this year. By the way, the game management nerdy stuff that I like to talk about, I think they're going to be pretty good in that with Mike McDonald. Listen, I love Pete Carroll, but, you know, if you look at the areas where Pete Carroll had a weakness, this coach addresses those weaknesses. And so now if you can keep the strength of the past regime and, and address those weaknesses,

I think that's it. The Seattle Seahawks are the team of extra point taken. What do they say? Do they have 12, 12 rise up? I don't know. I don't know what they're saying is. It's something with 12s. 12s did, some with the 12s.

But yeah, 12s rise up. I don't know if that's it or not. You know what I should have done? Because we're going to keep this short and sweet, you know, as your farewell episode. We're like nearing the one hour mark. I should have just come up with some bit where basically we talk about all 30. two teams, and this could have been like a four part. All right.

Now the teams that definitely aren't making the playoffs. Which is most interesting to do you. Yeah, now we have to pick a team with minus odds that's not going to make the playoffs. Let's go through all of them for the next hour. Okay, we're not going to do that. The Seahawks official team NFL hashtag is hashtag Seahawks. So that's kind of lame. Hashtag Cahawks.

There you go. All right. We're back on extra point taken. It has sadly come to an end, Benny Souls. All right, dad, let's get to some dad life. And then you can say your goodbyes. and we can call it a show. You said you had a couple dad things to throw my way or what was going on there. I thought they were going to be serious. And I told you, I don't remember anything from that period of

my life. But what do you got here? No, so I've been, you know, slowly scrolling away some good shield dad life content from when I came back onto the pod. The first thing I want to ask, and this is an important question to me because I very much need somebody who's in my field to answer this for me. I think the number one best thing about fatherhood that I did not anticipate is how extremely low the expectations are for you. I want to know if you had this experience. When did you have your first?

When about it was like 1980? How old are you? That was. Let me make sure I don't get this wrong. That was 2012. October 2012. Okay. So it's like, you know, 10, 10, 12 years difference.

Every single person, like, you know, friends from church, mayor's family, my family, they see me like pick up the baby and like, they're like, soothe it when it's crying. And they're like, oh, look at you. Whoa. He knows what he's doing. Everybody is astonished that I've read two blogs and I listen to what the nurses said in the, in the room. Mind blowed. And I do think some of it is like, oh, we are like a football writer. Like all the nurses at like in the labor delivery room and then in the, you know,

the couple days we were there. They're like, oh, like you're a football guy. Are you going to hold the baby? Yeah? Like, what are they? Because I watch football, I don't want, I don't love the child. What are we talking about? Did you have astonishingly low bars to clear for everybody when you're at your first? Yes, I don't. I actually don't think it's based on your line of work. I think it's a societal issue and it's completely unfair to the moms where the moms are doing all this stuff. But then the dad, you do one little thing and you'll get a stranger like touches you on the shoulder. You're doing a great job. It's like, oh, okay. Thank you. I mean, any, like you said, anything. You're feeding a bottle. You're changing. The stuff you literally have to do every day. You're holding, like you said, you're soothing. And it's like, oh my gosh. Wow, what a great dad. Yeah. Mayor's grandma is like super from that generation. And like, I can, I can like hold the baby and like take the baby from being awake to going asleep. And Mayor's grandma is like astonished. And I'm like, this is like the only thing.

Like, it's, this is a very important skill to be. Of course I want to know how to do this. It makes it quiet. Like, what are we talking about? It is, I wasn't sure if it was like a career thing or not. No, that will continue too, I think probably throughout, but especially with the, and when they're in the baby stage for sure. But the other thing about it is that like, anytime you do anything, people keep saying, oh, that's like a classic dad thing, right? Like when she was born, she's seven pounds, right?

She's 20 inches long. I would hold her in one arm, right? I would hold her head in my hand. She's looking at me and her body would just rest in my forearm. And I learned later, that's called the football hold. And people are like, oh, because you watch football. And I was like, no, she just fits. Like, I did like, oh, let me do the football hold because I like football.

Like, where's the most easy way to hold her? And then I would walk around with her in one arm. And everybody would be like, such a dad thing, just gallivanting around, just throwing the baby, just single hand of the baby. Dude, it's seven pounds. What do it? So the other side of it is anytime you do anything that's less like acting like the baby's made of glass, people are like, oh, classic dad. I'm like, well, it's, guys, it's very easy to handle. It doesn't move.

Like, I don't know why this is so challenging for people. I'm loving this. So you're just, you're basically, uh, annoyed, yeah, by anything. Yeah, I could see that. I don't remember that being the case for me, but I can like picture it, um, in my head. Yes, that will continue. You know, you're, you're a new dad. People want to give you props as the new dad. So that's true. Now, here's my other important sheer related question. Okay. You are, I've been known at times occasionally to be a little, little curmudginate. Disagre, but I think, I think, I think it could be said that you sometimes enjoy taking the wind of other people's sales. I think that's a claim that could be levied against you.

When you, you had your two. Do I tell my kids they're terrible? No, no, no, no. I'm not saying you do it to your kids. I'm saying you do it to your co-hosts mostly. When you had your two, and then there were now people around you who were having their firsts, right? They got their seven-week-old, their ten-week-old, they're three-month-old, whatever.

Were you one of these people who loves to tell new parents about how much hard it's going to get later? Did you revel in this? No. No? Okay. I didn't think you would be. Yes.

No. So like I said, the number one most, like, surprising thing is how low the bar is. The other thing that's fascinating is how excited people are to tell you that actually, like, like, how do you feel? And you're like, good. And they're like, okay, that'll end. Stop. Why do people keep doing it?

Terrible. So many people were so, like, interested in being supportive when, like, when we were pregnant, like, it's going to be great. It's going to be amazing. And then like at the moment the baby's born, they're like, oh, just wait until it's three. Three, three years from that doesn't even exist. What are we talking? That is like, yeah, I'm supposed to remember that you said wait until it's three, what, 36 months from now?

The amount of people who want to, like, it's astonishing to be how many people are just like, oh, like, how's she sleeping? Pretty good. Oh, she won't be later. I know. I'm living with the thing. It's awful. I'm offended that you would think I would be one of those people. I didn't think so, but I wanted to make sure.

These are people you just need to cut it. You don't need to be having conversations with these people. You need to get when you're in a conversation. Because you know these people. Listen, I have, there's someone, as you were describing that, there was someone in my life. Whenever I get in a conversation with this person, I just know they're going to start talking about something negatively. Oh, your child's in this grade. Wait till they get to this grade.

It's terrible. Oh, cool. What am I supposed to do with that information? Why are you telling me that every, oh, yeah, we live, we used to live here. it was so much better. Okay, well, I'm living here. I think it's a good place to live. I'm sending her off to her first day and fourth grade be like, dang, Dave told me this was going

to be bad. Yeah. Yeah, so the negativity I find is contagious and I will just remove myself from those conversations. So I suggest you do the same. Also, like I told you before, every kid's to say they don't know anything. They don't know when it's going to be easy for you, when it's going to be hard for you. You're not giving them every detail of everything. You've got no control over this little.

thing. So yeah, I would say cut those people out from your last month. I didn't think you'd be like that. The times where I most felt like you and I felt your spirit with me and your presence with me was when I was using some piece of like baby related technology that I paid an inordinate amount of money for that's supposed to be like excellent at doing something and it just isn't. Right? Everything is like like you get the baby swing. I hate the baby swing. The Baby swing and I are great enemies. The baby swing specifically says on the baby swing describing the baby swing. It's like the baby swing is not an effective tool for soothing or calming an upset baby,

but it's an effective tool for keeping a calm baby calm. I can do that. Do the thing to invent something that'll calm an angry baby? Million dollars to him. Everything. Oh, the lounger is good for keeping your calm baby interested. Make something for when it's crying that it fixes that. Why are we inventing stuff for what it's called?

I'm very technologically savvy, so I take offense to that. I'm currently speaking in a new mic set up here. Nice. It's not a technologically savvy thing. It's like be what you're supposed to be. Yeah, I would agree with that. This is not actually helpful. Yeah, I don't need you.

Why did we spend on if you're not doing what I thought you were going to do? Yeah, that would frustrate me. I like that energy. That's good. Drives me nuts. Anyway, that's fatherhood right there you go. Yeah, I would be positive. It only gets more fun, you know?

just on Saturday, eight years old, we just go out, you know, the other daughter was with my wife, went to the Phillies game, we just went out to dinner, you know, great age, eight years old, driving to dinner, great conversation at dinner, she orders for herself, make sure the manners are right, she's eating, we get a little dessert on the way home. Now, is she picking the restaurant? What's what she's picking for birthday dinner? Yeah, it wasn't even a birthday.

Just a nice, I said Saturday night. You know, we don't go, I said, when I was a kid, we would, you know, this would be a big thing. You get to go out to dinner once in a while. We don't do that enough. Let's do that. We did that. Fantastic. So there you go. We agree. You got to agree on the restaurant. You can't be dragging them to a restaurant and they're not going to eat them. Well, listen, we're going to keep it positive. So there you go. You have a lot to look forward to in the months and the years ahead. All right. Do you want me to just sign off? Do you need to say anything? I don't know how this is where you, you know, I've been asking you like, what's the announcement in this and that's the floor is yours. And then we can sign off whenever you want to sign off. Yeah. I was like, you know, my family, my whole family thinks I'm going to cry.

this episode. I'm not going to cry in this episode. I might cry later, but not on air. That would make me very uncomfortable. I know. Basically have to do, you know, when Mark Sanchez announced he was foregoing it and Pete Carroll just walked up and left, I think that would be what I'm going to do. Which is the best thing. I'll never, I'll never forget for the life of me, but saying you at the Super Bowl and telling you how much I appreciated working with you this past year and just watching you slowly inch away from me as I was talking and being like, oh, he's dramatically uncomfortable right now with me. Just being like, hey, I appreciate you. You're really nice coworker. Yeah, no. I, um, I said it's on Twitter yesterday.

But yeah, this is my last week of the ringer. So this is my last show with the ringer. I wanted to hop on and do one last pie with Shield because it wouldn't feel right if I didn't get a chance to do that. Man, I tell everybody that I meet that I want to be like Shield Capati when I grow up. Anytime I meet somebody who does it, who listens to the show. Or like, I was telling people that back when I was writing Eagles and you were writing Eagles, and I was following you around like a guppy during assistant coach availability,

2018 training camp, just taking notes on how you ask questions. And then I got caught. Yeah, I look up to you so much. And getting to do the past couple years has been an absolute blessing. It's been the bomb. And I know a lot of people who know I'm leaving have said that they're going to miss the show. None of them more than me. I'm going to miss talking to Jum's a week.

I'm going to be listening to you. No matter what shows you're doing with who you're doing, I'm going to listen to. I'll probably be yelling. I'll be putting in reviews. Only five stars. That's the only review that works. And yeah, man, I will be your biggest fan every day that you're doing this.

And I appreciate you so much. What does the point about the bill's offense? Do you think they take a step? I like that they're doing like a spread-the-wealth sort of a thing. I do. I think that that's smart with Josh Allen. Well, thank you very much. Listen, it's been a pleasure. We've had a great two years. You're going to do big things wherever you go. You know that. And listen, this way, we're, I'm still relatively young. Like, I'm not going to stop working in a year. Who knows what the future holds for each of us. So I don't think this will be our last podcast together. You're great at what you do. We've had many

laughs. We've had many arguments. We've had everything in between. I always left our shows feeling good about it, feeling great about it. That's, I can't wait to be correct about Joe Burrow and be unacosted now. That's what I'm looking forward to the most is I can just be like, hey, this guy's a little bit overrated for one playoff run. And then no one will be like, well, speaking of my Super Bowl picks, we'll see. Go ahead. Ms. Shield, please, don't do this to yourself. But this is good because, you know, six years, I'm going to have to send off one child to college or the real world. 10 years another one. So this is a good prep for me.

I will obviously be following your work, watching along, listening along, reading along, and rooting for you. And do we do it? Now, do you want to do a clean breakup? Or like, if I have a couple surf sides on a Friday night, I want to send you like a Caleb Williams take, do I hit send?

Oh, you hit send. Okay. I am so looking forward to the first thing you say on a pod that if I were on the pod, I would have stopped the pod for. And I won't be able to do it. I'll just be in the car just like, screaming alone to myself, be texting you immediately, not while I'm driving, later when I park.

That's right. Yeah, no, no clean break. You're going to clean break for me if you tried. I was explicitly instructed by your daughters that whether I stay or go, whatever my career holds, I still got to be sending the Christmas gifts every year because every time I send shield his Christmas gift, I usually throw something in for the kids. You got to, I know where the bread is buttered in the company, all right? And so it could be a clean break if you tried.

I'm still committed to the girls. They've been very invested in this. You know, when I first told them, oh, dad. Are you okay? And then has he announced it yet? And it's like, guys, so they're going to be very excited that at least it's out there in the open. And then they'll continue to take care of me.

So as you know, I can, I'm not capable of expressing any more emotion. I'm about to say, it's very sweet that they thought you'd feel something. I thought they would know by now. That's not going to have. In Capadia fashion, you'll get a long email for me like three years from now telling you how much I enjoyed working with you. But it just takes some time. You know, we got to process.

these things in the Capadia family. So good luck to Benjamin Solac from everybody at the ringer again. He will do big things wherever he goes next. I'm not, you know, we can't say it here on the pod and we'll follow his work

and we'll see what the future holds. I'll still be here. We still got a good Bill ringer. We're going to miss Solac. I don't want him to say, it's going to be the same. I'm so, I texted Austin Gale last week

and I was like, man, people about to figure out how much of a system quarterback I was with Sheal on the pods, Jill Shanahan. I'm Jimmy. I think I put Stephen in this spot. Deontay in this spot's going to work just fine. Everybody's going to know who is really calling the place.

So we're going to have lots of shows coming up, lots of preview stuff in the weeks and months ahead. I will be back later this week on the Ringer NFL show. So thank you to Benjamin Sollack. Thank you to Christopher Sutton. Thank you to Eduardo Ocampo on video and social. Additional production supervision from Connor Nevin's and Arjuna Ramgapal,

go Hawks, and we'll talk to you next time on the Ringer NFL show. Must be 21 plus and present in select states. Fandwell is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC. Gambling problem, call 100 gambler

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