The Ringer NFL Show - Biggest Remaining Questions Before the Start of the 2021 Season

Episode Date: August 27, 2021

Kevin and Nora are joined by Steven Ruiz and they start by discussing some midweek news items (2:15). Then they each ask their two biggest remaining questions heading into the final week of the preseason (20:18). Hosts: Kevin Clark and Nora Princiotti Guest: Steven Ruiz Production Assistant: Isaiah Blakely Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, I'm Missa Ongo. I'm Ian Wright. And collectively, we are the Stadio podcast and Wright's House on the Ringr-FC feed. Yes, we are. We come to you three times a week on the Ringr-FC feed. Bring in love. We're bringing love and football. So if you like zooming out and zooming in on football and all the stuff around it, make sure you follow Ringrrrfc on Spotify or wherever we get your podcasts. How's that, Rye?

I reckon I'll do. Yeah, man. It is the Ringwrenfell Show, part of the Ringer Podcast Network. I am Kevin Clark, joined by new New York City resident Nora Prenciati. Hey. How is it? It's great. It's really great.

It's honestly, you know, moving is such a pain in the butt. Yeah. But a funny thing happened where I just, for, I don't know, several weeks stared at a to-do list and was just like, I got to do this. I got to do all this stuff. I got all this done. Has to happen. Has to happen. Has to happen.

And then I got here. And then I was kind of like, oh, yeah, I did this because I really wanted to. That's nice. So it's nice. I'm happy to be here. I have one thing of my to-do list, and it's to introduce Stephen Ruiz. Steve, what's going on, buddy?

How's it going? I will say this. Nora, you're now on the Upper East Side. Stephen lives in Washington, D.C. I'm going to see Stephen in his... I go to Stevens area of town significantly more than the Upper East Side of New York. I've probably been to D.C.

I've probably been to D.C. five times since I've been to the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Didn't you live in D.C.? No, my family. I have a bunch of family there. It's like my satellite city. But so we'll meet, we'll meet further south, Nora, is what I'm saying. I live here because I'm not cool. I'm not under the impression that I live in like a hot, happen in a neighborhood, but I live in the right neighborhood for me. And I absolutely love it.

It's cooler now. I love it. And I can't wait to visit. I can't wait to visit the Upper East Side and see all the sites. All right. Go to the Met. The Met. All right. So let's do a couple of things here.

We're going to do our big questions that we have. we still have going in the last couple weeks of the preseason and into week one. But we're going to start with a bunch of news. Let's start with the big one. Sony Michelle lover Lamar Jackson, bad draft pick. All right. Sony Michelle traded to the Los Angeles Rams for a conditional fourth rounder. There was a bit of strangeness initially that they were going to trade him for a compic

they didn't have yet. That was essentially voided and it ends up being kind of a conditional fourth rounder could be a fifth or a sixth. Uh, this was an interesting trade in that the Rams solidified their stance of just hating draft picks and not ever wanting to make another draft pick. Uh, but from a football standpoint, Stephen, what did you see here? I think it makes sense for them. I need they, they need a running back.

And I feel like Sean McVeigh is the type of coach who likes a particular style of running back when he wants to run a particular style of offense. We saw that two years ago when they made that Super Bowl run when Todd Gurley kept getting benched for C.J. Anderson. And I think this is along those same. lines. I think this kind of gives us a clue as to what kind of offense they're going to run. All right. So the Sony Michelle era has ended. So everybody's calling it. The Sony Michelle era. And I saw a robust discussion yesterday, but whether or not he was a bust. Obviously, first round

pick played some really meaningful games and had a nice Super Bowl, but did not live up to a lot of the production from the players in that draft. Nora, where do you stand on this? Well, yeah, I mean, look, it depends a lot on how you see the credit being appropriately divvied up between that offensive line that year that they won the Super Bowl and Sony Michelle was really productive, especially as the later parts of the season and through the playoffs. Because if you say that that was Sony, then I would argue there's a lot of teams in the NFL that would say, okay, if this person is going to be really productive and help us win a Super Bowl, fine. And if it's nothing else, that's fine. I think,

time has worn on. And I actually, I felt like that about the Sony Michelle pick shortly after that Super Bowl and for a little bit of time going forward from them. Just because it seemed like, okay, in general, I would say that it's a bad idea to spend a first round pick on a running back. It didn't seem like his tenure was was totally smooth. However, you know, having seen firsthand how their running game powered them to that championship, it felt like, okay, you know what? fine. If they get literally nothing else out of this draft choice, fine. If it helps you win a Super Bowl, like that's kind of the name of the game. That said, having gone forward and especially even this preseason, look, like one of the reasons that they did this now is that there's guys like Ramandre Stevenson and J.J. Taylor who have really emerged for them.

And those are guys that they spend basically nothing on. And so then you start to reframe it and go, oh, this team, they don't always get the most buzz. for it because it's the Patriots and it's the system. But this team has had an incredible offensive line, like a really, really, really steady, solid group for years now. And when you reframe it and go, okay, maybe a lot of guys running behind those guys would have been that productive that year through the playoffs, then it's kind of like, yikes,

you probably could have gotten more value out of that pick. And then also when you put it in the context of like, could have had Lamar Jackson, starts to be a little bit of a wamp, so I think that they would take a do-over if they could have one. I mean, the Lamar thing is a separate bucket because Brewer had reported that one of the reasons

that they didn't do that was because they knew they would have to do a total overhaul of the offense in the same way that the Ravens did. And that would just have been really hard at that point when it's the last days of Brady. So it's a different deal. All right, next item, Ryan Tannahill is on the COVID-19 list.

He is fully vaccinated, but he is tested positive, so he's out for five to ten days of practice. Their backups are Logan Woodside and Matt Barclay. I did not know that those were their backups until about 10 minutes ago. Stephen and I had that revelation together while Googling. You know, I think that this is more evidence that as normal as things can be in 2021, there's still going to be COVID-related things that pop up and that really matter from a football standpoint. So Tana Hill, a week before the season is going to miss five to ten days.

obviously we hope he stays healthy and hoping for the best. Stephen does this, you know, we saw this a couple days ago with the quarterback competition, which is a different situation with Cam and Mac Jones. But from a football standpoint, what happens to the Titans in the next two weeks? Not only did we not know that Logan Woodside was the backup in Tennessee. I didn't know Logan Woodside existed. I didn't know he was an NFL player, which is a problem, especially in this season where, I mean, I would expect

quarterbacks to miss some time where they wouldn't miss that time in regular seasons. So it really exposes their issues. And maybe it's a good thing. Maybe the Titans, you know, maybe they're spurred on to

trade for a backup or wait for one to get cut and sign one. Because they really need to solidify that position. Now, if Tannahill stays healthy, which he's had problems doing in the past in Miami,

then it won't be an issue. But if he has to miss a couple games, I don't know Logan Woodside is able to take advantage of Julio Jones and A.J. Brown. I don't know if they win those games. The disrespect to Toledo football is really upsetting, I would say. Did you have to Google that he went to Toledo?

Or did you know that off the top of your head? I'm going to keep that in-house is what I'd say about that. So, yeah, no, Nora, any disagreement there? I mean, it sounds like I think teams without a real play and a backup quarterback need to have one, especially if you're trying to make a deep playoff front like the Titans are. Yeah, I think that's absolutely true. Look, there's a solid handful of NFL teams that are going to be really screwed if their starting quarterback goes down. So while I think that's, that's accurate, it's the type of thing where having a really, really good backup to get you through a season if you feel like you're ready to contend.

Like that's one of those things where we look at and go, wow, great, great, great roster planning here. The thing that this, this situation made me think of because I think there are a few other guys who are on the Titans COVID reserve. list who are also vaccinated like Tanna Hill is as well is there's a lot of sort of emerging science on what this is going to be like when people have breakthrough cases going forward that and I'm not going to try to get into the nitty gritty here because news flash I am not a doctor but there's a lot that the you're the only non-doctor on the upper east side of Manhattan can we okay I I led you to the water on that one so I'm not even going to try to do. And I have, however, that was solid.

There is a lot of sort of emerging research on viral load, basically. And if someone has a breakthrough case who is vaccinated, at what point are they actually super contagious? And that's going to be really interesting to see if that science develops, if there's more clarity on that. because if these, I think Tannahill reportedly feels totally fine. And if we can get to a place where there's an understanding that, okay, like five days is fine versus if it has to be 14 days every single time someone tests positive but isn't feeling any symptoms. Like that makes a huge difference for a team going through the course of a season. Right.

So it's just the thing that this made me think of was that it's another example of, okay, we're in a vastly different situation than we were this time last season, but there are still these things where we're sort of waiting on information and understanding of how people are going to be feeling and how contagious they're going to be and could still be dealing with some of this stuff that's a little hairy throughout the course of the year. All right. Last news item, the best quarterback in Colorado right now is Andrew Luck, who apparently

according to pro football talk and other sources. So apparently Luck, who spends time in Colorado, contacted a coach at Summit High School in Frisco, Colorado, and asked if you to come out to practice. Summit head coach James Wagner, quote, was amazed by how involved Luck got when he showed up, even jumping in to play scout team quarterback. Wow. I like this Andrew Luck kind of as football Bill Murray thing going forward. We're just going to hop into different things. You can pick up back. Cam Newton does this too.

or did this where he would just sort of jump into different games like, yo, he's a black football game on the sideline. Let's just play. Let's just play a couple reps. I like that for Andrew Lux's career. Frisco, Colorado, beautiful place. Shout out. Oh, I forgot.

Is there a ski angle here? Yeah. That's Summit County is like huge, huge ski. Okay. So he's just out there on the slopes or whatever. I guess it's August. Can you, if you want it, what, what, if you're like a total ski sicko, this time of year. What are you doing?

You got to leave the country. You're going to South America. Go skiing, chill out. I wasn't ready for that. Stephen, so you have been tackling the Broncos, speaking of Colorado quarterbacks. You've been tackling the Broncos starting quarterback battle, I guess you could call it. We'll put battle in huge quotation marks. What did you see and what did you think of the decision this week to start Teddy Bridgewater? I mean, I think it's the one that is the most.

boring outcome just because of how Teddy plays. But I think that's what Vic Fangio is going for. Like, have you seen Vic Fangio? Have you heard him talk? He seems like a guy that likes steady and boring. And Drew Locke is anything but that. But the thing that I find funny when we're talking about these two quarterbacks, we talk about Drew Locke, like he's this gunslinger who throws the ball downfield.

He does throw the ball downfield. But his yard per attempt average is a full yard lower than Teddy Bridgewater. And Bridgewater is like the next coming of Alex Smith. So I don't even know if we could say that the Broncos' offense would be more exciting with Locke, I think it would just be worse, or at least more inconsistent. Is there any expectations for you for the Broncos this year? I mean, I think 10 wins is on the table, 10 and 7. I don't know if that gets you into the playoffs now with the 17 game schedule, but I,

look, there were three receivers on the Panthers that had over 850 yards. It was the only team in the NFL that had at least three receivers past that mark. And Teddy Bridgewater was the quarterback, so I don't see the argument that he's going to bring down that Broncos supporting cast. I think he's going to get the most out of it, or at least more than Drew Locke would have gotten out of it. Nor, anything on the Broncos that excites you? I think Stephen's argument is a good one,

and it's the one that I assume that is resonating with Vickangio, right? Who would like to win, at least in part with defense sort of fundamentally. Obviously, their skill position players are so good that if he's neglecting to see that the offense is going to be a part of it. That's, that's an issue, but it's one that I don't think that they necessarily have. The thing is, is that I just worry that, like, Teddy Bridgewater has this,

has this reputation for being, you know, incredibly safe with the football. He's not going to put you in bad, bad positions. He's not going to turn the ball over. Last year, he threw 15 touchdowns and 11 picks. Like, I'm, I'm not sure that we have this overwhelming, amount of evidence that Teddy Bridgewater is going to be just like slow, steady, careful, not ever put them in a bad position all season long.

And I don't know that, I don't think that this is like clearly the wrong decision, but I guess I see it a little bit differently where Drew Locke is probably going to make more bad plays, but he's also probably going to make more good plays. And then at least you learn something about who you have. And if Teddy's not going to be, you know, the perfect Alex Smith, totally careful game manager guy, which I'm just not sure he is quite to that level, then I don't know. I guess I would lean a little bit more towards give it a last run, see what you have. You will either end up with a better draft pick or more wins. I think my thing with Drew Locke is we keep playing the.

the upside card. It's year three, and he failed to beat out Teddy Bridgewater. He's been on five teams in four years and just got traded for a six-round pick. Like, at some point, I feel like we have to give up the upside card. Like, maybe he just doesn't, maybe just can't play. Maybe he's not going to pull it Josh Allen. But if we give up the upside card, then can we flip over to the extreme downside card, right? Like, what is it do for the Broncos to just be really?

Ruiz is ready to flip to the extreme downside card. Sorry, go ahead, Nora. Like, what does it do for the Broncos to win, like, not? games. Yeah, I don't think it does anything for the Broncos, like going forward, but it does do something for Vic Fangio, who I think needs to win this season. If he doesn't make the playoffs, his third year is a four-year contract. He's playing for a GM that didn't hire him.

So I think that's the main motivating factor for him. Is that the best thing for them in the long term? Probably not. But McFandio is not thinking about the long term. At least he shouldn't be. If he was, they would have drafted Justin Fields or that's the part that totally makes sense to me is a defensive mind. head coach who wants to, you know,

Teddy Bridgewater is a type of quarterback that someone like Vic Fangio is going to like, right? Like, let him do his thing. And then at least, ideally, he'll be put in sort of safe conservative situations. I'm just not, I'm not sure that all the pieces of that puzzle actually fit together. But I absolutely believe that that's sort of the mindset

and the logic that led to the choice. I will say, Stephen, it was interesting, you mentioned the Josh Allen thing, because there were some parts of it on the fringe there were similar in a sense that the Broncos fan base really believed in Drewlock

and if you said something against Drewlock the Broncos would be like no the Broncos fans would be like no no no no no I know that you don't see it you don't see it and so obviously the play style was completely different obviously the talent level is completely different the arm talent all that stuff is completely different

but it was the same thing where you're getting this reaction from the fan base where you're just kind of like oh this kind of reminds me a little bit of Buffalo except there was no payoff there was no like parade of old takes exposed because Drew Locke just can't back it up. So I did think that was funny.

And I think that we're going to learn the wrong lessons from Josh Allen in that sense. Nora and I both talked to the folks in Buffalo, including Josh Allen, about kind of the lessons of his rise. And a lot of that is infrastructure. A lot of that is just having a great roster and letting the talent flourish and all that stuff. But one lesson we should not learn and we're learning it too often is that if there's a bad quarterback, sometimes he's just bad. And he's not going to make the leap like Josh Allen. Josh Allen is a literal, he's one of one. He is one of one.

Everything he did was completely against the run of play, so to speak. And so he is a singular talent. And we can't just do this thing now where we give every quarterback three and a half years to bloom because Josh Allen was bloomed. Right. So whatever. Last thing, speaking of the bills, Isaiah McKenzie was fined for not having a mask indoors. They found two separate incidents in one day, I think, where he was not wearing his mask indoors. In the process of trying to show everybody this letter that he found unfair, he revealed his own Gmail address.

He docks himself. And also, like, what was he going for by posting that letter? Did he think he'd get sympathy from anybody but Cole Beasley? I don't know. I don't know if he got sympathy, but he certainly got a lot of Gmail messages, I'm assuming. Did he get the Cole Beasley quote tweet, though? Did he get the re-change from Colby? He did.

He did. Mission accomplished. I did see that. I did see that. So then Cole Beasley signal boosted him doxing himself. That's correct. It's not idea. Did you guys have any embarrassing email?

Like, do you have like weird AIM? Usernames? Oh, gosh. No. My first couple were about hockey. Yeah. Youth hockey player. I don't do.

Did you have a bad one? one? I had one that was like like rainbow puppy something something. Okay. That sounds too embarrassing, Stephen. It was not great though. I didn't have one, but I'm going to throw my brother under the bus. He's a Jaguars fan. When he was in high school, his thing was Jacks fan, but wait, the fan was spelled with a pH. Oh, wow. He eventually grew out of it and went to the F, but I think he needs to grow out of the whole Jacks fan persona in general, which he has yet to do. So I'm trying to put a positive spin on this for Isaiah McKenzie, although I mean, look, he should have just been wearing a mask

and then he could have avoided this whole kerfuffle. But if you're going to self-docs, probably better to self-docs with just a sort of straight down the middle email address instead of like, right, Power Ranger 92. Right. Should we send him a podcast invite for the next episode? Just send him a Zoom link and just see what happens.

Yeah, yeah. Send him one right now. Steve just pops out. I think the answer is no, actually. I think it's yes. What exactly would we want to ask? Are Juna? Isaiah thoughts? Well, I just, I feel like just with the contents of the initial email, you know, that conversation can get fraught very quickly.

That's fair. Maybe it's a slow news day. We have a, uh, we have an NFL player coming on next week. It's exciting. Not as I believe the player is fully vaxed. So no questions about that. Nice. All right.

Let's get to our big questions. There are a lot more questions and answers, I think, going into the next couple of weeks. Obviously, the third preseason game will answer almost nothing since most teams are resting their starters. And then week one is just two short weeks away. We have a holiday weekend before that. But yeah, it's coming up on us. Stephen, your first question.

My first question is, can the buck stay healthy? And I asked that because last year, they were number one in football outsiders adjusted games loss. And they were number one by a wide margin. And when you look at this depth chart, obviously, I think they have the best starting lineup in the NFL by far. I don't even think there's an argument. But they don't really have depth. And they don't have depth at some key spots like cornerback, safety, mostly on defense. And they're relying obviously on a lot of older players.

Their pass rush, Shaq Barrett, Jason Pierre-Paul. And then obviously Tom Brady is, what is he, 45 now? So if this team suffers a significant injury or two, I mean, maybe one of those teams in the NFC South catches up to them, but I don't know. I don't think the South is as competitive as it was before. So it may not be as big of an issue, but it does hurt their chances of getting home field advantage. Tom Brady is 44.

How dare you out of your Tom Brady? Nora, thoughts on this? Because I, listen, injury. luck is a very, very real thing. And it can really bite. I remember when the Eagles were on top of the football world, there were a couple of stories about the Eagles had solved, had solved injuries and all this stuff. And they had some great medical team. And then a year later, they had, they were close to the most games missed. And obviously, they had some real big stars who just had awful injury bugs, right? So it's real. And the depth is interesting. As Stephen said,

they do have the best starting lineup in football. Where are we? on just the bucks, the way they're constructed, and also the fact that, I mean, it is at the end of day a bunch of veterans. Yeah, look, they're, I think the, they were the fifth oldest team by snap-weighted age and other football outsider stat last year. They are in Florida, though.

I wish someone, can somebody do research on this, actually? I'm really curious. Because old people go to Florida and, like, that's human, and it makes their bones feel better or whatever. Are the Florida teams on average? a little bit healthier. Can we get, can somebody research this?

Can we get somebody on this? Can we get the CDC on this? Wait a second. Wait a second. Wait a second. Wait a second. Did you just say that old people go to Florida because it makes their bones feel healthier?

Is that why? I'm pretty sure that's why Brady went. I've never heard of cold bones and knew. I grew up in Florida. I lived in Florida last year. I've never heard that the humidity makes their bones feel good. How did your bones feel? not that true.

My bones felt strong, it's very strong. But I don't think that, I don't think it was the humidity. I think it was just, I have just great bone integrity. You don't think that if you're like a little bit arthritic, it's nice to be in a warm, humid climate? I don't know. I mean, this sounds like how they, like, I was reading what George Washington a couple months ago. And their prescription for anybody who had a serious illness was just go to like the Bahamas and just dry out for a while. This sounds like pseudoscience to me, which is perfect.

for you think bone integrity i think pseudo science is generous i'm going to let that be i'm going to let that be i'm going to let that be i'm going to let that say which is perfect for for blank do you think bone integrity is a big thing in the tb12 method do you think yeah uh i would say yes because well the the big thing is that they think heavy weights damages the structure of the bones right that weakens your ligaments yeah weakens your ligaments so it is yes so did norah just accidentally crack the code of why tom brady is there I think I kind of did. We have an article from Arjuna. What does it say?

It says that the link is not conclusive between humidity. That's never stopped Tom Brady in the past. Hold on. It's saying that there's no conclusive link between humidity making your joints hurt more. But it says people with arthritis often notice the connection between humidity or temperature and joint pain systems. This is the epitome of Nora doing her on research. is I think what's happening right now. This is what we're saying when we talk about doing our own research. All right.

Never a good idea. Anything else on the bucks before we dive deeper into libel? Does any team have a chance of catching them in the NFC South? Yeah. So actually, we're going to do a, we're going to do a chief's topic in a second with Nora. And I want to have this discussion because we can have it now. I was going to do it in a second there.

I think we all agree that the chiefs are the best team in the AFC and the bucks are the best team of the NFC and that there's, if we had to guess, they'd probably meet in Super Bowl, right? Even though I think that the Packers, I'm predicting the Packers. Who's in that mix to catch them normal? Well, I think the Packers are absolutely in that mix.

But how deep does that go? I can see, I can certainly see the Seahawks. I can sort of see an outside chance for the 49ers, although I think that that's at least a year away. The Rams, I can see. Sure.

Then it starts to really, really drop off. I mean, I think the Cowboys, because of their quarterback, the high end, the absolute high end of results there is capable of competing for the Super Bowl, but there's a lot of really negative outcomes that could happen there. So I think that's kind of it.

facial reactions in the boxes right now are me furiously shaking my head no and Stephen's shaking his head yes because he sees me shaking my head no that's what's happening to this cowboys reaction. I'm agreeing with Nora. No! No! The Cowboys are that high variance team

that can come out of nowhere. If the defense is fine, if the defense is fine, which I think it could be fine, that offense has a very high ceiling. Maybe the ceiling has the best offense in the NFL. I agree. I said that last year and then they were just got awful.

And by the way, Well, Dak Prescott didn't play. But the Cowboys are like Josh Allen. It's like an incredibly low percentage chance that it works out as well as it possibly can. But if it works out as well as it possibly can, it's really, really, really good. Okay. I agree with that. A couple of things to note.

Number one, Adam Schaeffer. You agree with my Cowboys are Josh Allen take? That's a way. Yeah. Number one, Adam Schaeffer comes out and says that Dak might not be healthy the entire year. the amount of weirdness. So he did seven on sevens this week. I understand that there's been progress.

The amount of weirdness around this injury has been astounding. I just don't think, I think that the only path forward for them to have actual legitimate, like a contention level season is for Dak Prescott to be flawless and perfect and everything else breaks right. And it sounds like there's not a huge path to that. Sounds like he might be banged up all year.

And then Mike McCarthy is still a bad car. coach. The defense's ceiling is probably to be fine, to be fine. I really like the way that they operated the draft. I think they will be good at some point. But I don't know. I don't see it. I don't see it. I thought, listen, coming into this year, I had really high expectations for the Cowboys, but they were all. And by the way, I still think just because of the way this is sorting out, I certainly have a very good chance of winning the NFC East. I just think that's a completely separate conversation, then can they win the NFC? The NFC East is in the conference USA role right now where it's just like, yeah,

whatever, man, you want. Congratulations, you won. Okay, but here's the thing is that, so that's reasonable in that they need so many things to go right, but they still have the ability if those things do go right just because of how good DAC is. I agree with that. They could beat a team like the bucks. Like, for instance, okay, I think there's a decent chance that the Vikings have a

better record than the Cowboys this year. But I don't think the Vikings can win the Super Bowl. I don't think there's a world in which that happens. I think there is a world in which enough things go right in Dallas that they're really, really, really, really good. Yeah, I get the concerns with Dak. Dak being an MVP candidate is on the table, at least. And if he's an MVP candidate, Dallas is good.

It's always on the table. Like Daniel Jones being an MVP is not on the table. Guys, we just did Hard Knocks for a month and the highlight was a drone video. That's all you need to do with the 2021 campaign. Cowboys. Everyone's like, the drone video was very cool. It was very cool.

Okay, but all you need to know about Dak Prescott is that we just did Hardnogs for a month and the highlight was a drone video. And yet it is still conceivable that if he has an MVP season, the Cowboys would be a Super Bowl contender. Has anyone looked into how Hard Knocks correlates with team success that following season? Well, didn't the Jets make the ATSC championship game after theirs?

I remember that. Do you guys know the Spurious Correlations website? No. No. It's just a website that takes bagillions of data points and finds graphs that match each other. So it'll show you

you know, rate of failures at driver's license tests in Missouri is like strongly correlated with potato chip sales. Is that how you came up with the humidity and injury thing? It's not.

It's not. It's not, but that's a fair question. The Bears have waived Javon Wims, so who's going to do their fighting this year? Let's move on from, I actually wanted to do this. There's a very funny Simpsons joke about specious reasoning about a rock keeping a tiger away, but it would take 90 seconds to do the whole joke, so I'm just going to move on. Stephen, any other thoughts on NFC contenders that can seriously touch the bucks? And by the way, by the way, are we all?

all on agreement that the NFC South champion is going to be the bucks. Yes, right? Yes. Okay. Just want to make sure. But anybody else there in the NFC, Stephen, we should be talking about? I'm just going to throw out the Cardinals just because maybe Tyler takes a leap. I don't think it's going to happen.

I don't have a lot of faith in Cliff, but I think it's on the table. There's like a 2% chance, which is more than I could say about other teams. I've thrown out the Cardinals, but I meant it a little differently. I think there's like a 5% chance that the Cowboys win the NFC, but which I would not. But I think that the other teams in this bucket, the Rams, I think the Niners have a better chance because I just think that Tray Lance shows anything that that roster is much better. The coaching staff is much better. And then the Packers, obviously, than the Bucks. That's about it.

All right. Nora, first question. Well, so let's let's keep it in the NFC because I do have a question that's a little bit similar in the AFC about challengers to the chiefs. But one of my unanswered questions that, frankly, I had hoped would be answered with some clarity by this point in the, through training camp in the preseason is who's the saint's starting quarterback? And I think a lot of people think that it is now clearly James Winston because James on Monday was, looked pretty good. 9 to 10, 123 yards, two touchdowns. They beat the Jags, looks sharp. Taysam has looked iffy at best.

here's the thing. So preseason week three, they're playing the Cardinals. It's this Saturday. Sean Payton has not said who's starting that game. He has not said who the starter is for the regular season. And he has continued to be incredibly like cagey and disinterested in acknowledging that James has played well or talking about their timeline for naming a starter. And it is it is making me, it is giving me like sort of,

red alert blinking scary lights. Because my question is just, if this is so clear cut, why won't they let it be clear cut? And if they won't let it be clear cut, is Tase'm still in this thing? Oh, God. Stephen, you want to break down

the Saints quarterback competition? I feel like the explanation to Norris question is like just Sean Payton, Sean Payton weirdness. Like, I'm not going to try to get into the mind of Sean Peyton. I feel that's not a place I want to be. But as for who should win the job, I feel

yes. I would say it's pretty clear cut, like Nora said. Like James looks like a quarterback. Taysam Hill does not look like an NFL quarterback yet. He just doesn't look like a guy that can play 17 games. I would go with James. So I'm totally in agreement with you. Like the reason that this is an unanswered question to me, It's not like who has emerged as the person who should start for the Saints.

It's why isn't this thing wrapped up already? And I guess the fear, although I think one of the biggest positive developments is that James has looked really, really, really good thrown to Marquez Callaway and they need receivers like something bad. So that would be really significant. my worry is that they're looking at the rest of their roster. And Michael Thomas is going to be out until at least October, if not longer. The depth in the receiver room is really, really bad. And my, I don't know, I guess there's some logic to this,

but it makes me wonder if they think about, they're not just thinking about like, okay, who's the better quarterback here, but they're also thinking about what type of offense they want to run. And if they want someone who's going to influence the running game, a little bit more and work in the short area, rely a ton on Kamara. Maybe then you start seeing a world where it's like, okay, Tayson fits this situation a little bit bit more. Do either of you see any logic to that?

Or is this just like, I should wait until Sean Payton just says something and not try to inhabit that mind space? Yeah, I was going to say, the reason it's an unanswer question for me is because I refuse to look at it. like the Ark of the Covenant and Indiana Jones just like I'm just not I just can't stare straight at the Saints quarterback competition I agree

with Stephen and it's part of it's the Sean Peyton weirdness I was at the first preseason game where they had six turnovers and there was someone in the press box I'm not going to say their name but after like the fifth turnover he just loudly said I can't believe we risked COVID to watch this

and that's sort of how I felt like we're indoors right we're all masked up but like that When I'm watching this, when I was watching this, when I was watching it's the first preseason game, I was like, okay, fine. Obviously, the way it developed against the Jaguars was different. I agree it's going to be James

Winston, but I just don't have all that high expectations. Stephen, anything there? Yeah, like, I've heard the arguments for Taysam, and I think the best argument is the one Nora laid out. It's like designing the offense around the run game and playing 11 on 11 in the run game. If James is back to the defense

doesn't have to care about him when you hands the ball off. but the other argument has been Tayom is more, it's like the Teddy Bridgewater drew lock thing where Taysam is not going to turn the ball over as much, but Taysam fumbles every time he gets touched, and he gets sacked a lot,

so he's going to fumble a lot. Like his career turnover-worthy play percentage was, I think it's a PFF stat, is only 1% lower than James Winston's in the season where he threw 30 interceptions. So that's one turnover-worthy play, not even turnover, turnover-worthy play per 100 plays.

I don't think that's a big enough difference to justify playing a guy that can't play quarterback. Playing quarterback is a great prerequisite towards being a quarterback on an NFL team that has high expectations. That's what I'd say about that. All right, I'm going to do my first question. I didn't exactly know how to phrase this or frame it

because I'm just going to let it rip. Are we sure Urban Meyer is having a good time? So, I'm sure he's not having a good time. I personally would posit that he's having a bad time. So are we sure Urban Meyer wants to be here? So he gave two interviews before the preseason game this week against the Saints, where he talked about his viewpoint in the college game. It was really interesting.

The interview itself is really interesting. He talked to Breer, and he said that the college game and the NFL game has never been closer, which is something that I've certainly been talking about for a number of years. There was kind of a great merging of schemes. He basically said he didn't want to recruit 24-7 like he had to at Ohio State. He obviously admires what Ryan Day has been able. to do. He's been researching a lot of the great NFL teams over the past couple of years, something we've known about for a couple of months. But what was interesting, and there's a couple of

these things. Number one is there was an anecdote in the Peter King column that sticks with me, which is that Brandon Linder had to basically tell him to calm down and relax because they lost a preseason game. And Irmaier's not used to losing. And I understand that he's trying to be. He's trying to, trust in the process and all that stuff. But like, he's wearing it on his face. He's wearing it on his face. And then the second part of this, and I'm, I was pro-Myer. And I have been as far as I think this can work.

What was interesting in the Breer column in particular is I thought that he was, he was obsessed to building a culture, which is correct. You should be. Culture is probably the one B on the list of things of why teams win. But it seems to me that he's not necessarily. emphasizing the X's nose part of it. And you hired Darrell Bevel, Brian Schottenheimer, all that stuff. That's what you hired guys with NFL experience.

And what I can't tell right now is whether or not it's going to be Urban's offense or Bevel's offense or a mixture of the two. Because when I was in on this idea, I was thinking it was Urban just scheming it up. And the more I read, the more I think it might just be Urban as chief culture officer. and Beville and Chottenheimer scheming it up. And I'm getting a little bit worried in that regard.

I still think this can work. I think Trevor Lawrence is generational talent. But man, Urban Meyer is wearing it. Stephen Ruiz, what have you seen? Well,

I don't think Urban has been a guy that schemes it up since, like, his days at Bowling Green. Like, he's hired offensive coordinators to do that for him. Dan Mullen, obviously,

was key to those Florida things, but I'm saying that he at least, he was instrumental in the development of the spread offense. and he kept tweaking up. There's a reason that Ryan Day was promoted and had that stuff,

but I'm just saying that in the same way, I mean, Belichick doesn't sit there most years and just sit there and be the defensive coordinator. He just understands how to run a defense. I'm not saying that Urban Meyer needs to be in the lab coming up with man beaters, but what I am saying is that this needs to be Urban's offense. Yeah, I think that's why I was optimistic about this hiring,

but the fact that Urban has been, taking this time to study the great NFL teams. And then his conclusion was get me, Brian Schottenheimer and Daryl Bevel is a little concerning to me. If that's going to be his main function as the head coach is hiring the right people. I do like what they did on defense with the defensive staff and kind of borrowing that Raven scheme. But yeah,

offensively, it just doesn't look good yet. And it's still preseason, but even for preseason, it hasn't been encouraging. The same conversation happened with Chip Kelly before his Eagles debut because he showed nothing in the preseason. So there's the chance that this is so vanilla on purpose and that week one, he's just going to be running, you know, these incredible, incredible spread plays that just blow our mind.

That's, there's a chance of that. The difference is Chip was calling the plays in Urban One. Correct. So that's the big difference. Correct. Nora. Well, and that's the interesting part, right? It's because this offense in the preseason has been like vanilla as all vanilla.

they are, you know, they were missing Linder and Norwell. They were missing two offensive linemen when they played the Saints. And it was still just like, oh, great. So your entire offensive line is totally banked up and you're just going to run it up the middle over and over again. Like, I don't know how this is going to work out. We don't know who's responsible for that. It seemed like, I think after their first game, Meyer said something about, I don't have the quote right in front of me, but he said something about like, I don't totally ascribe to you can't show everything

during preseason, like at some point you have to try stuff. This has been, we've been like bland on offense or something. They've continued to be bland. So that's a little bit concerning. So that kind of goes two ways, right? It's either this is what Urban wants or this is not what Urban wants and we're heading for conflict. Right? Because like, okay, yes, Bill Belichick is not necessarily, you know, calling every defensive play and not letting defensive coordinators do anything in New England.

but Bill takes the headset sometimes on defense. Sometimes he's like, no, I'm just doing this right now. But he has the cachet to do that. And even though he does, it's still something about like, at times, that's rubbed people the wrong way, you know, if things aren't going well. And the head coach is just like, no. Isn't his big line, okay, we did it your way,

now we're going to do it my way? I've heard that from people. That's when you know it's over for you, at least for a couple weeks is when Bill says, all right, we've done it your way. Like that's it. That's okay. you're in timeout for three weeks.

No more schemes for you. You're in scheme timeout. But so, okay, is Urban Meyer, how's it going to go if Urban Meyer puts one of those guys in scheme timeout, right? Like, we don't know. And we've already had this weird situation where, like, the most obvious non-quarterback competition was portrayed as this, like, big competition and we don't know who's going to start,

even though we absolutely do. And it just seems like I'm not sure. I'm not sure either situation if he's just like chief culture officer or if he's scheme lord. Like both of those have their own issues, right? And the vibes remain questionable. Also, this gave me an excuse to go back to Mark Long's Twitter account. Drew Brees.

No, that Jaguar's practice. Uh-oh. Where the Vives any better? Oh, wow. I don't know. Is Drew Brees in a Jagger's practice? hat and t-shirt. Are those vibes good?

What is the connection between Drew Breeze and the current Jaguar staff? I'm not sure. He's like wearing full Jaguars. He's wearing a full Jaguars outfit. Is he just there for NBC? And he's decided to wear team gear? How long until he's calling plays?

That would be great. So I will say that. That's bad journalism, Drew Briez. He's talking to the team. He's giving an address. He's giving a team talk. He's giving a team talk. I'm looking for people.

I'm looking for people Schadenheimer, no. I don't think there's a Darrell Bevel connection. I don't think there's no Urban Charlie Strong connection. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. But what I will say is that the gear thing, I was years ago as of the Senior Bowl, and if you've ever been, everybody's wearing team gear. And I noticed that there were guys

who had recently been fired by their teams, assistants, head coaches, whatever. and they were still wearing the team gear. And I said to someone in the NFL, I was like, why are these guys still wearing the team gear? And they were like, the most important thing in the NFL is free shit. By far.

That is the most important thing. Those shirts are expensive. They are. And, you know, if you go out and you get a polo of that quality, you're looking at like 120 bucks. So yeah, I'll wear the damn Falcons thing. If they just fired me, whatever, who cares? So Drew Breeze, you know, you get a nice little,

Jaguar's hat. I love it. Put it on. Most important thing. Free shit. Remember that. Remember that kids. All right. Norah, what's your next question? All right. So my next question is, I think the way that I really want to talk about this in frame it is, is there an AFC team who can genuinely challenge the chiefs? And within that, the central question is actually less about the rest of the AFC to me. And more whether the chief's looking shaky in the preseason matters even. the slightest bit, right? Because they have not looked good. Like Patrick Mahomes is going to start the third preseason game. He has not done that before. And he's doing that, Andy Reid said, because they just have not gotten in any semblance of a rhythm. So their second game was against

the Cardinals. He was 10 of 18 for 78 yards through an interception, no touchdowns, looked incredibly disjointed. And it looked to me like he just didn't know, he didn't know who to throw to. And the interesting thing about that is that so Tyree Kill had a strained hamstring and they held him out mostly as a precaution but he wasn't playing and this is a team that you know you're working without Sammy Watkins now and this trust me my point here is not that Sammy Watkins was the straw that stirs the drink but it brought up for me the question of how fragile is this thing because I am certainly of the mind that if the chiefs are are firing on not. even all, but like most cylinders, you can kind of pencil them into the AFC championship game,

if not the Super Bowl, right? But it just started bringing up to me a world that I haven't spent very much time thinking about, right? Which is, are they a couple star player injuries away from Mahomes not being able to cover up for everything anymore? So I'm curious, first of all, if you guys think that that's a total overreaction to the preseason or if you think, or if you think that there's any logic in that. And then we can talk about sort of who might be able to take advantage if those cracks are legitimate. I would say if Tyreek Hill goes down or even Kelsey,

I think those two are the guys besides Mahomes, obviously, that make that passing game as hard to defend as it is because you can only double one guy and it's usually Hill. And if you lose that and you can all of a sudden double Kelsey or vice versa, where does Mahomes go with the ball? Like he needs someone to throw the ball to. I know he makes these crazy plays, but if no one's open, there's only so little he can do. So I do think that's a legitimate question, especially now that the receiving debt has been depleted, basically.

Now you're relying on Mikul Hardman to be your number two guy. And I think that's dicey. I like Hardman. I think he's going to have a good year. But I can understand why that's dicey. I agree. I think there's a sliding scale of the amount of things need to go wrong from a homes to stop being able to paper over everything. thing. And I actually don't know what that is. And I'll know it when I see it. And I think that

Stephen, if, so let's just play a game here. Okay. Let's say the offensive line is, is healthy as currently constructed, but that includes, I mean, Kyle Long is going to be out for a while. So they might have two rookies starting week one. Okay. If one of those two guys, Tyree Kil or Kelsey, gets a significant injury mission is half the season, are they still the best team the AFC? If one of those guys goes down. I have a hard time counting them out. Like they're like the Patriots for me now where even if they look bad, we know they're going to figure it out eventually.

And I think the question really comes down to and it's, I think it's Norris question is like, is there another team that steps up? Because I do think a team has to step up to catch them, even if they take a step back, whether it's the Ravens or the bills. I think if one of those teams is better than they were last year, then yes, I think they're in trouble of losing that top spot in the

FFC if they have an injury like that. Handicapped that formula. Like, who is the, if not the chiefs, then who? I'm inclined to think, I mean, so the contenders here, Buffalo, Baltimore, Cleveland, I think of those teams, I'm going to go Buffalo. Stephen, do you agree? I'm going to take Baltimore. I don't, like, I understand that argument.

I think, like, Buffalo is right with Baltimore. I would take Baltimore just because I think we've seen the worst that that offense can be last year. Like everyone was asking what's wrong with the Ravens offense in the middle of the season. They still finished like sixth in EPA and like fifth in DVOA. They still had a very good offense. Whereas if Buffalo takes a step back, maybe Josh Allen, I don't think he's going to regress that much. But I don't think, I think he's going to have a hard time matching what he did last year. There might be a few more interceptions.

There might be less touchdowns. I think if that happens, Buffalo's defense is not good enough. At least the defense we saw last year was not good enough to make up for that. Whereas with Baltimore, I think the defense is very good. It's going to continue to be very good. All right. Nora, if I was about to send you an Isaiah McKenzie style NFL fine letter because you are on notice that you cannot pick any of the teams you've already named,

okay, I'm about to docks you. If I was about to send you that letter because you're not allowed to pick. any of those teams you've already mentioned, but you have to pick an AFC champion. Who have you not named that you would, uh, that you would handicap there? Uh, the Chargers. Okay. Why the Chargers? Well, look, I mean, why not the Chargers, right?

Like, they have a quarterback. They have a, it's a little bit of a star heavy roster, I think, but they have some great defensive players. Yeah. You can see them doing it, right? Like you can see Justin Herbert being a really, really productive quarterback, someone who's capable of going. throw for throw with, you know, maybe not a full strength Mahomes with the full complement

of that offense. But if there is a weakness there, I think he could be capable of exploiting it. And then you've got the pass rush, right? Like, I think that defense is pretty high variance. Like, it could go really well. It could go not so well. But, you know, good defensive coach, who I think is trustworthy to have a good scheme there and take advantage of those players. And I think not only are they just sort of high enough caliber as the team, it's also the type of team that I can see being able to pick off a sort of weakened chief's team. I want to be very clear particularly because I'm now incredibly nervous that we all were like,

yeah, I mean, maybe, maybe there's a weakness there. The chiefs are probably going to win the Super Bowl. Like, it's probably fine. That's correct. So for me, I'm in agreement with you, Nora, it is. It goes chiefs on one, one cut, and then the Ravens and the bills on the next one, then a gap and the Browns, and then a big gap, and then the Chargers. That's it for me.

But the reason I asked that, I wanted you to bring up the Chargers, because Stephen Ruiz's next topic is... Wow. Great segue. What a pro. My question is how fast can Brandon Staley get that defense up and running? And I asked that because he's coming from a place with the Rams where he had Jalen Ramsey, Aaron Donald, two of the best five players in football.

And those guys allowed him to do a lot of things that he's not going to be able to do with the Chargers. They do have Derwin James, although he's had problems staying healthy. They do have Joey Bosa, who also had problems staying healthy. But they don't have the depth. They don't have the defensive line depth. They don't have the cornerback depth that the Rams did. But I do have faith in him doing that because he was able to change that defense up

week to week. And he comes from the Fangio line where Fangio was, It doesn't matter what he was working with. The defense was always solid. And I think all it has to do is be solid if Justin Herbert is who we think he is. So I'm high on the Chargers. I think they do have a shot at making a run in the playoffs. I still think they're a year or two away from the Chiefs.

So, Nora, you did the most important work of the last year on the Chargers last season when he talked about how they were cursed. And he talked to different experts in the field of astrology and curses. Explain how the Chargers become uncursed from a football standpoint. Okay, so what I found through my reporting for that piece, so the Chargers had very bad energy according to several mediums, psychics, tarot readers, what have you. The good news is that Justin Herbert apparently has very good energy.

So what they really need to do is like they need to make him the face of the team. He needs to take a step forward. They need to build around him. also the uniforms have really good energy. So they need to be embracing, like, let's just get as much powder blue as we possibly can, is what I'm saying. Can you check back in with your sources and ask if Drew Breeze and Team Gear is good or bad for the energy? Oh.

If Drew Breeze and Jaguars gear, yeah, I'll check in on that. In any team's gear. He could do a tour around the league, like fixing the bad energy around the league. He could put them in some Chargers, Powder Blue. Oh, so that's the other thing is that, and I should ask the charges about this, except I absolutely shouldn't because I would have to, you know, retreat from society and stuff. But it was suggested that they should burn sage in the locker room because it would get rid of

some of the bad energy. Crystal's also an option. I want to briefly say that I think that Staley's going to have immediate success. And he's going to have immediate success as long as everybody's healthy because they've just got, they've got pieces there. And also, by the way, he was, he did it pretty quickly with the Rams. He was only there for one year and he got a head coaching job. Obviously, it's a different level of talent.

They don't have the best player in football there. But Joey Bose is pretty damn good as far as just an elite guy. And then obviously Derwin James got a LeBron tweet this week. I love that defense. I love that franchise. Nora, have you ever visited a psychic? No, I have not. Okay.

Steven? No. Have you? I have. Well, there's a, there's a city by Orlando. called Cassadaga that is just psychics. And I went there with a friend of mine in high school. What do you mean it's just psychics?

I don't know what to tell you. Like you can't live there unless. Well, I don't think that'll kick you out. Yes, I mean it literally. I mean, if you go to Cassadena, Florida. Is there a CBS? I don't believe so. No.

Is there a grocery store? I mean, if they do, you wouldn't even need, like, you know how, like, Panera you'd have to, like, put in the order and they would give it to you five minutes later. Like, you wouldn't even need to do that if there was a restaurant. They would have it ready for you. They would have it ready for you. Yeah. Oh, that's way better than I have more. It's more like, I mean, it's not a big town. But yeah, every house is a psychic. Did you, did you do like a psychic crawl, like a pub crawl, but with psychics? No. So, uh, we were in high school. Uh, and we did not have that much money. Uh, like literally physical money. This was before none of us either, either. with head credit cards. And psychics, maybe this is just a price fixing scheme in Casadega, but extremely expensive. Like way more expensive than I thought. And so we ended up scrounged together like 40 bucks.

And we ended up seeing one guy. It was like a Tuesday afternoon. And he was like, he was really good. He was unbelievable. What did he predict for you? A lot of things. He basically mapped out both of mine and my friend's careers, like the next 20 years. He basically pretty much nailed it.

So that's that's that. It would take like 10 minutes to explain, but the guy, the guy pretty much nailed it. Why don't we bring him on for predictions? Yeah. I mean, that's a pretty good idea. But he pretty much nailed it. It's probably a longer form story than I'm going to get into here because we have to

get to my nice question. But the Cassadagic Psychics are extremely good, is all I'll say about that. All right. So my next question, what a, what a natural segue. 40 bucks is steep for that. old neighborhood in Boston on the on the on the sort of main streets charles street um i did often walk past this thing that was like 15 bucks you can get your yeah well cascadaga cascadaga has a you know a higher a higher price right it's like getting pizza and naples yeah all right so

wikipedia says that cascadaga florida uh indian word meaning water beneath the rocks is a small unincorporated community in Volusia County, Florida, is especially known for having many psychics and mediums and has consequently been named the psychic capital of the world. It's a spiritualist camp. It started in 1875. So, there you go. Tom Petty has a song about it, apparently. I think they're driving up the rates. All right. My last question is, what is Matt Nage's angle here? So we have, we basically, Justin Fields is starting week three of the preseason because Andy Dalton is the week one starter, according to him. Now, there's been some debate about whether or not he's really committed to it. Chris Sims told Mike Florio a couple of days ago that he thought that Matt Nagy was leaving some, some doors open as far as, you know, he keeps saying things like that's what we have to talk about in the next couple weeks, that sort of thing.

in between talking about how Dalton is a starter. And Sims' point is basically that what is there to talk about if Dalton is a nailed on a week one starter? I think that the discourse around week one of the season has become very funny now because we've now turned the Rams into like the Ray Lewis, Ed Reed Ravens and the 85 Bears all into one. Like they're like, you can't feed Justin Fields to the Rams. Wait, why not?

Like, in fact, like, if you're trying to win the game, having an offense that no one's ever seen before is probably a pretty pretty good idea. And even if you say, okay, Aaron Donald's one of the two best players in football, whatever, like, I have some bad news. Justin Fields is going to have to play against really good players all the time. He's in the NFL now. Like, we can't delay that. So I'm normally in favor of patience with this kind of stuff, but I really do think that that the more I think about that argument. And again, I was in favor of Andy Dalton starting week one earlier in the summer. But I don't, the more I think about it, the more I've seen fields, I just don't think they have a leg to stand on.

He told Matt Nagy told Mark Podash of the Shagosun Times that his offense really takes a couple of years to get going. I can't even read that in a straight face. I explained to quote, I explained to everybody at this offense, it takes a few years to get going. I'm not really sure that's how that works. But anyway, he says to Andy, he says about Andy Dalton. He says what we're doing right now. It makes us feel really good.

And he basically said that they're in a place where they can take off now with the quarterbacks that they have. Nora, what's going on in Chicago? All right. Can I give Matt Nagy some free advice? Is it just to not say my offense takes a couple of years to get going? That's part of it. The other part of it, stop referencing the chiefs.

Oh, yeah. I would just stop drawing those comparisons. Should he pretend he never worked there? Yes. Or not. Like, people know. It's like people know, so you don't need to bring it up. I think it's probably something that he should just sort of let be in his past.

I think people will, well, history will acknowledge that he was a part of that. I just think that with the parallels of, you know, Justin Fields and Mahomes and Alex Smith and Andy Dalton, like maybe we don't need to draw those connections quite as starkly because it might not work out the same way. Mayhap and then it's going to seem like a failure if it doesn't. So I actually have come around a little bit to the reasonableness, reasonableness of the keep Justin Fields away from Air. and Donald at least for week one. I think in general, you're right. Like, I think in general, look, he's going to have to play against good pass rushers at some point.

But if there's one thing that Fields has done that doesn't look great, it's just that he holds onto the ball for a really long time. And yes, there's good players all over the NFL, but Aaron Donald is a really special player. And if you're giving him three seconds, he's going to get there a lot. Okay, week two is Miles Garrett. Yeah, I mean, then maybe start him week three. Like, if you're not sure, start in week three.

Yeah, week three is Dan Campbell. Start him week three. You want a first time quarterback staring over the sideline and seeing Dan Campbell. You know what I do. You know what Kevin, I absolutely do. I think she'll be comfortable with that. Week four is the Raiders. who unless that they can trade for Coral Mac

in the next couple of weeks, that's actually a fine time. But then they have the Packers, then they have the Bucks, then they have the Niners. There's a lot of dogs out there. So how much of this is it, Matt Nagy kind of delaying Justin Fields

coming onto the field? Because if he's like, if he just shows positive signs in the second half and he didn't play, that's the big thing. That's something. He gets another year. An angle. Yes.

What do you think, Matt, this out for me, Steve. What do you think Nagy has to do? say that they don't make the playoffs this year. What do you think Matt Nagy needs to keep his job? Is it just he trots Andy Dalton out there for October until November? He throws Justin Fields out there and then Fields looks pretty good on an upward trajectory and then Megan keeps his job. How does that work?

I think you just look at the 2018 Browns and he has to be Freddie Kitchens and Hugh Jackson at the same time where like the first half doesn't look great. And then the second half like Freddie Kitchens made Baker Mayfield look okay. good. I'm not saying like that's the reason. I'm saying they looked good together. No, I know. Norah and I are reacting to the idea of Hugh Jackson and Freddie, Freddy Kitchens merging to one person. It's Matt Negey. But then if that happens and he shows signs in that second half, like the bears are going to be like, oh, this is the right guy. If we just give him another year with Justin Fields, maybe this offense looks better. Maybe this is the year the offense takes off. And I think that's the best way he gets the job next year. Whereas if Justin

field struggles all year and then shows a little bit of like some signs in the second half, I still think he loses the job. It's interesting to me because a couple of months ago, and I actually said this four or five times with podcast, but someone early on once told me that there's only really like six or seven teams that are trying to win the Super Bowl and maybe maybe a little more. But then Kyle Shanahan was on flying coach and he was talking about how when he took over the SF job that he realized the number is like four. So Shanahan has reduced the number of teams in the intertimore.

to win the Super Bowl. But, but more generally, and this is not Chanahan's point. But this is the point that the person who told me this was making. Most, I'd say, like, a good 16 teams, it's just about, on a given year, and let's say the talent to win the Super Bowl, it's mostly about job preservation and saving money. Like, for, if you're in, if you're not in win now mode, and very few teams are, I would say about half a league is in that mode. And I think that developing Justin Fiskeye's in that mode.

is really important for the franchise. I think that there's just a lot of signs of promise in Chicago, and I think that Justin Fields is going to be really good on a full quarterback. But what I would also say is that when you have someone like Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy, who have at times gone into January with a lot of questions at whether or not they'll be retained, that has to factor into how you're projecting everything, is that these guys do want to keep their jobs. and you cannot, no one, no one is selfless enough to, to sacrifice themselves and say,

Justin Fields is going to be great for, for Brian Daibold next year. Like, that's just not going to happen. So that does factor in psychology. We should always be asking ourselves how that works. And that's what I'm interested in. So that's it. Anything else, guys? I just want to acknowledge that I think we just told Matt, Maggie, to, uh,

downplay that he was part of building the chiefs and to become, to become a hybrid Hugh Jackson Freddie Kitchens. Is that not good career advice? What are you trying to say? Week three. I see nothing wrong with that. I see nothing wrong with that. If in 2018, someone told you that Matt Nagy would still be talking about what he did with the chiefs, I don't think the bears make that higher. So I think, I think Norris point is a good one. Stop bringing up to cheese.

Also, if he was going to tell that, if you knew it as we told Chicago, sometimes this offense takes a couple of years to get going. Maybe he did tell Ryan Pace that. A couple years into his tenure or a couple years after, like, changing the quarterback. Every time he gets a new quarterback. I don't know. We need a new, we need another couple of years. I don't know.

Like, Stephen, if you were going through the hiring presses at the ringer and you were just like, you know, I'm really targeting 2024 to have a good podcast. I think there might be some red flags there. Yeah, I don't think I'd be on this podcast. I did say that. I did say 20-24 with my first best, my first good podcast, but it hurt me anyway.

All right. Nora, you want to take us out with highlight rule? Yeah. Okay. So here's what I'm going to do because I've, the upper east side of New York City has taken some slander on this podcast. On my block,

there's a coffee shop called Hutch and Waldo. And I really, really, really like it. So my highlight reel is finding my neighborhood coffee spot. Is this one where we're meeting? reading? Um, yeah, maybe. Although, Kevin, I will, like, I can come, I'll come down. You come west, I guess, technically. It would be. It may be like October. I think let's target it. We're targeting 2024.

We're targeting 2024. My plans take a couple of years to come together. Stephen, what's good? Literally, what's good? I wasn't ready for this. Uh, having a cat. I got a cat two months ago. Yeah, you were mentioning the cat before we got on. Tell us about the cat. Wait, tell us. everything about your cat. Her name is Rhonda. I don't know if she likes me or not yet. It's been months and I still don't know. I don't know.

It might take a few years. It might be the mat and aggie of relationships. It might take a few years to take off. But she, just having a cat around and like you can like, when you're alone in the apartment, you can kind of like talk to the cat. Like, and you don't feel as crazy. Like just talking out loud to yourself. So that's my recommendation.

Get a cat. I saw a news story recently that vets are. Betts have diagnosed a lot of cats with depression during the pandemic because the cats are annoyed that their humans are home all the time and cats just sort of want to be left alone. Dogs do not have this problem. Dogs have thrived throughout the last 18 months or whatever. But there are several cats who have been sort of down in the dumps because they're just being bothered a little bit more than they would like to be.

All right. I'm going to go with that. I'm going to go with that explanation for why the cat doesn't like me and not like my being. I'm going to say it's because I'm around all the time. Yeah, it's definitely not you. That's just cat temperament. You're right. But I brought the cat to get its nails clipped at a local,

at a local grooming place. Don't do that yet. They had to wash the nails first to test it out to see if they could cut the nails. Within two seconds, the guy was like, no, no, we can't do anything for this cat. So I had to walk out. Now my cat's nails are still long as hell and she's just scratching up everything. I just want to talk real quick. I tweeted about this couple weeks ago.

I read it on the camp floor, and I want to talk about it here. Barry Switzer wrote a memoir about his time in Oklahoma called Bootleggard's Boy. That is the most insane book I've ever read from someone in football. He has a chapter

where he goes through all the NCAA allegations against him, which, I mean, it could have been five chapters. And he goes through, and he says whether or not he was guilty or innocent, And if he was guilty and he admits to some of them, he just explains why he did it. And it's amazing. At one point, he has an entire chapter comparing himself to Jay Gatsby, but at the beginning, he points out that he didn't know who J. Gatsby was until someone at a party compared

him to J. Gatsby. There was a point where I want to get this phrasing right. Someone took a gun to the quad and started shooting. on the Oklahoma football team, like just like at a party. They just started shooting a gun. And he makes clear it was not, not, as the media reported, a semi-automatic weapon. It was just a regular gun.

That's an important distinction. Wow. That is a trip. I just can't get enough of it. I just can't get enough of it. We might have to cut you off from using books as your highlights. But that was a good entry. So you're on notice, but you're not put off.

yet. What do you want me to enter into the damn season two, Ted Lassow discourse? I wouldn't hate it. Everybody's mad about that show. I haven't even started it. Everybody's mad about it. I know. I haven't started season two either. I haven't started either season. I watched one episode. I wasn't into it, but I'm afraid to say that on Twitter because I feel like everyone loves that show. I think people like it less and less now. I don't understand what's going on. Every time I turn on Twitter, is someone just extremely mad about it. I don't really get it. I was having a conversation with some last night about Zach Braff being involved in that show,

which reminded me of something else that this I can recommend to people. Do you guys remember the old Fox and Friends sketches on SNL? I actually don't. There was like a bunch of corrections at the end. They had, right. Okay. So Stephen is going where I'm going. They had,

it was just a spoof. But at the end, the funniest part of it was that they would run like fake corrections. And so there would be a scroll. of things that they like supposedly got wrong during the sketch. And if you were just watching live, like they would, they would go up on the screen too fast to see what they actually said. But they were always incredible.

And like, you could imagine that the writer's room was just sort of riffing and coming up with stuff and having a really fun time writing those. So I would always go to YouTube or whatever and find it and scroll through them and pause it so that I could read them. They were absolutely hysterical. One that has always stuck with me. Was that there was one episode where one of the corrections said, Zach Braff is not the sound a trumpet makes?

And that's, I think about that an awful lot. So that's, that's a recommendation. That's a highlight. Wow. All right. We'll be,

hopefully we'll be back next week after that. Who knows? Who's to say? Was the recommendation going to, I'm not sure what you're doing. too have been watching. Yes, the highlight is going to YouTube and and watching the corrections real from those SNL sketches. Soak was on vacation today. He's visiting his parents, not committed to the grind. He'll be back next week. We'll be back on Monday. He's been the Renfellow Show on the

podcast network. Thank you to Isaiah Blakely for production help and additional production supervision by Arjuna Ramckel.