The Ringer NFL Show - Bold Predictions for the 2023 NFL Season | Extra Point Taken

Episode Date: September 5, 2023

Sheil and Ben get together to unload all of their juiciest NFL predictions before the start of the season. Ben begins with his thoughts on Matthew Stafford's future with the Rams before Sheil reveals which coaches he believes may be leaving their teams at the end of the year. Next, they speculate on Lamar Jackson’s ceiling and the 49ers' QB situation before sharing a surprise Super Bowl pick and debating the possibility of a postgame coaching altercation somewhere on the schedule (17:24). Solak ends the pod by pondering whether Brian Burns has played his last game with the Panthers (51:20). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming, please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Sheil Kapadia and Ben Solak Associate Producer: Chris Sutton Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal and Conor Nevins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mac Jones is ripped. Matt Patricia's calling plays. The Celtics are title favorites. And The Ringer has a new Boston show. I'm Brian Barrett, host of Off the Pike, the show covering all things Boston sports. I'll have shows multiple times a week covering your favorite teams and with your favorite ringer and local guests.

Plus, maybe Bill will stop by to rant about the socks. Follow off the pike with me, Brian Barrett, now on Spotify. Come to Extra Point, Take, and Sheila Kapati here, joined by Ben Solac. Week 1 is here. Benjamin Soak, how do you feel? You still got takes to unleash before a football game has played or no? I mean, yes.

I have takes to be released before, after, during, in lieu of any time, any preposition. No, I feel good. I feel ready. I ring in the NFL season in the best way that I know how, which is betting on David Montgomery rushing yards over. And that's how I know that the season started, baby. We're here. Let's go.

There you go. The official sign of fall, some would say, betting on David Montgomery. memory rushing yards. That's been said for many a year by many a person. I've heard that before. So we've given you our official predictions, the NFC predictions, the AFC predictions. Today we thought, let's throw some nonsense in there. This is kind of like any leftover takes that you have. They can be as wacky as you like. They can be as serious as you like. These are non-traditional predictions. This isn't just this team's going to be good. This player is going to be good. This is going to be. I mean, I guess it could be that. I don't know what yours are going to be.

I've got a few here that I'm going to pick from really on the fly as we get going. So we'll do that today. And then Ben will finish with an extra point taken. And then for those of you who have enjoyed the twice a week, extra point takens for the last month, guess what? The extra extra point taken. We're just going to keep doing this for the entire season. So you're going to hear from us again every week, not only with the Monday night football show after Monday night football. You know, we come to you just like we did last year. But we're going to hit you with the

Friday show as well. So look for that this Friday in your feed. Solek and I will be doing that every week, probably record Friday morning, get in your feeds early Friday afternoon. If there's something from Thursday night football, we have to talk about. We'll do that. Otherwise, we'll be looking ahead to the week in the NFL. Solac, how do you feel about it? Twice a week. Extra point take it for the next 20 weeks or so. You ready? And for everybody, who listens here and who listens to the Philly special where Sheel and I talk Eagles, just keep Sheel in your thoughts and your prayers. Just remember to thank Sheel for his work and for his service for his sacrifice over the course of the season. It's just, it's all been

on Shield's docket. Nobody else, baby. There you go. All right, it'll be fun. And we're looking forward to that. We'll do our first show later this week, looking ahead to the week one games. But without further ado, let's get to the good stuff. Solek hit me with your first nonsense, non-traditional. I don't even know how to label this prediction for the 20-23 NFL season. What do you got? Matthew Stafford's going to be a Packer in November.

Oh, I like it. All right. Start out hot. So, okay, here we go. There are several different ways I thought about framing this take, but the take is functionally this. What if the Rams aren't just bad? What if they're like bad, bad, right?

I know we've all decided that the Cardinals are getting the first overall pick. I know we've all decided that the Cardinals who are actively, the Cardinals are not giving a quarterback for media availability today as we record, or it's Tuesday on Wednesday. They don't have one listed because they're still deciding between Clayton, Tune and Josh Dobbs.

The Cardinals, I guess. No, no, no, it's a competitive advantage, Ben. Right, exactly. Yeah. That way the commanders who are seven point favorites with Sam Howell and quarterback are just, do they have no idea how to line up. Anyway, so we've all agreed that Cardinals are the worst, right? I get there.

But the Rams are pretty close to also being the worst. Like this Rams roster is unbelievably depleted. Their offensive line is in total disarray. The defense outside of Aaron Donald is a lot of guys that you simply cannot trust who are just not NFL starters. You have the Cooper Cup hamstring situation now where, okay, it's fine. It's just a setback to a soft tissue injury.

That's kind of actually more than a soft tissue injury. So he's going to see a specialist in Minnesota before the season begins. Like this could not have more alarm bells of an injury. Hamstring. Aging, quick, aging receiver. 30 years old. Which is a quick Twitch position. Specialist in Minnesota.

Always when the specialist lives somewhere else. You know, it's really bad. So this, like this, there are our worlds in which I think the Rams are just truly, really, really, really bad this season. So if we enter the world in which the Rams are really bad and you're sitting there with Matthew Stafford is 35 years old, who's had back injuries and elbow injuries, and you have reportedly talked to. about trying to figure out if you can trade this guy.

Like, that's the thing you've investigated. You spent the fourth round pick on Stets and Bennett. Like, you very clearly are thinking about quarterback worlds after Matthew Stafford in the imminent future. And you go, okay, we're, we might be able to get the first overall pick here if we're really bad. We might be able to get the first second overall pick. Get us at Caleb Williams.

Get us a Drake May. Get us a third quarterback to get the odd name because this year's class looks. Excellent. Every college football quarterback is good. That was my takeaway from Saturday. I'm like, when did these guys? I miss the old days of you sit down. Saturday and you're like, this team has no chance with this guy.

Now every guy looks incredible. Everybody can grip it and rip it. It's so cool. I tweeted, I tweeted out this comfortable Saturday. Like, just do the draft tomorrow. Like, I want all these guys on teams. Let's go, baby. Everyone's awesome.

So if you're sitting there, you're the Rams are saying, right, like, let's be sellers, right? Let's see, like, this Cooper Cup contract. Let's this Aaron Donald contract. Right. And you're not like saying, like, we have to move on from Aaron Donald. It's freaking Aaron Donald. Cooper Cup. But you're saying, all right, let's see what it looks like from a, from a cat perspective,

but from a return perspective. So if that's the universe we're in for the Packers, or for the Rams, if there's a Packers world in which Jordan loves not that good, Matt LaFleur has got the Sean McVeigh connections, he saw exactly what Stafford was able to do for that McVeigh offense and he knows so well. He obviously experienced with Rogers how to work this offense around a veteran quarterback, a more pocket passing quarterback,

hit the Rams up and say, listen, well, you know, what's what, Graham was, said, send you a, you know, day two pick, nothing big, right? You don't really like, I went back to see quarterback's movement at the deadline, and it just doesn't exist. There's just no precedent for it. So I don't really know where the price would be. But if love is not good and this Packers team is otherwise like, hey, the NFC North is still competitive.

We're around 500. We still have a shot. The Jordan Love is not the quarterback of the future. Go get Matt Stafford. Have him for a couple of years. Stay super competitive. Go get another young guy and see if you can develop him in lieu of Jordan Love. And so, like I said, I wanted to find a good.

way to get a Rams really bad take in there. I thought about Caleb Williams is going to be a ram this time next year, but that's not really like a season prediction. That's like an offseason prediction. So instead, Matthew Stafford, division rival of the Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, wearing the green and gold. Absolutely cursed, baby. There we go. All right. So I like the part about Stafford getting traded. Actually, one of mine that I'm leaving on the cutting room floor is that I think we're going to have the most active trade deadline in NFL history this year. I'm looking at these teams, the Rams. I'm looking at the Raiders. You even look at last year. It was very active. Christian McCaffrey, Roquant Smith, Bradley Chubb. These are big-time players getting dealt. And I think that's

only going to pick up in part because of the quarterbacks who are going to be available in this year's draft where teams are going to say, all right, we could move on from this guy, the bucks I should throw in there. So I like where you're going with that. And I think the Rams are really interesting from that perspective, for sure. I'm trying to think if I love the destination or not. I sort of feel like the Packers are just going to be like, you know, we got this year is all about just being committed to Jordan Love,

seeing what he's got. Like I'm trying to think of how bad he would have to be for them to pull the trigger on that trade. I just quickly am pulling up the standings here. And I was like, well, what other team might, you know, just be like,

all right, we'll roll the dice. If Matthew Stafford's healthy, we're ready to win now. What about? There's a second team I thought about. All right. Who is it?

I don't think it's the one that you. you're going to say. But I was so close to being like, Stafford a lion, just send him back. I didn't do it. I didn't do it. That would be amazing. I was looking at the dolphins a little bit of two as an injury. Then you're like, do we really want to roll with Mike White? Like we've got all this talent. You got them, you know, Mike McDaniel again, there are some connections with the scheme. That would be one that I would kind of look at. There aren't. Falcons. Falcons are one.

Alkins was one, another I looked at. And then this may, the other one I'm going to save because that gets to one of my later predictions. So I like it. And again, Ben, this is our first in-season show of the year. And my first one piggybacks off here. So listen, it's a good sign that we're going to be having a good season on extra point taken because my first prediction is that the two coaches from Super Bowl 53. You remember it. That 13-3 game, the hipster tried to tell you. No, no, this was actually good. No, no, it was terrible. I did not say it was good, by the way. This hipster straw man that inevitably becomes me,

because I'm just the other guy on this podcast. I was not of that opinion. I did not name names. The hipster tried to tell you was good. Sean McBan and Bill Belichick will each coach their final games with those respective teams. So, again, this piggybacks off the Rams one. I'm looking at the Rams like you are.

I feel like the Rams had three good players. Matthew Stafford, Cooper Cup, and Aaron Donald, and one of those players is seeing a hamstring specialist. And everyone's talked about the Rams' defense. Look at the rest of that Rams' offensive depth chart with no Cooper Cup. It is not pretty. I don't know how you get a good offense out of that group. So McVeigh was clearly drained last year, contemplating retirement.

I think he's going to regret coming back. I think this is going to be a bad team. And at the end of the season, McVeigh has to look at it and say, even if they are bad, like let's say, listen, if they're, going to get Caleb Williams, then that will be very attractive. But if you're like the fourth or fifth worst team, what's your move then? Like, does he, does he want to come back and rebuild with the third best quarterback prospect in this draft? I'm not sure. I kind of think he might say, look at it and say, you know what, we had a great run. I need to kind of recover a little bit. Recharge my battery. I'll stay in the

game. I'll do some media. I'll get paid a lot of money for doing that. And I'll be kind of the new Sean Peyton. Every year, I'll take a look around. I'll say, all right, is there a job that I like? If there is, I'll take one. If not, I'll just chill until there's one that I like. So I think Big Vey, I'm looking at him going, I still can't totally figure out if he was on the fence why he came back and why didn't he jump into media, but we know how coaches are wired. They can't really envision their lives doing anything else, but I think he might regret that and make that move after this season. And then Belichick, listen, it might not happen. I'm I'm not telling you, it's definitely going to happen, but this is a bold prediction type episode.

And I'm just looking at it. I think they're going to be under 500. You think they're going to be under 500. If this is under 500 and no playoffs for the third time in four seasons, maybe everyone just looks around and says, this has been 24 years together. There are rarely happy endings in the NFL after 24 years. There's rarely happy endings in the NFL after like five years. I don't even know what 24 years could be like.

So maybe everyone looks around and says, all right, it's time. You know, this team is not ready to compete for a Super Bowl right now. By the time it is, Bill Belichick's going to be in his mid-70s, most likely. Let's make a move right now. If you want to go chase that Shula record elsewhere, you can. We'll figure it out together. Maybe we trade you. Maybe we do something else.

And Robert Kraft says, I'm going to, you know, we're just going to plug Gerard Mayo in there. And we're going to move into the next era. So to be clear, I feel less confident about the Belichick one than the McVeigh one. the McVeigh one I really looked at and I go, what are the circumstances where he would be really excited to come back for 2024 given what he's talked about? So what do you think?

I think right. McVeigh is one where it's very hard to talk about McVeigh. Because McVeigh has been very open about what happened. He was just like, hey, like I worked really hard to win a Super Bowl. I did. It didn't make me feel as good as I thought it would.

And we started losing and I just lost it. Like I just was like just not, like I was in such a bad, headspace, which first is very cool that he just did that. Like, it's very like, coaches be able to talk about being people. That's nice. So now you, you orient yourself to 2023 and you say, okay, if X happens, Sean McVey will respond to why.

Well, we don't, like, I don't know. Like, if they start losing really badly again, has he made his peace with that? Has he figured out how to live with that? And like, he'll still be able to be engaged in the team. Like, I think that that was a goal of his. I don't know if he's achieved it or not. I also know that McVeigh is like an insanely good coach. And so actually, does he,

make them better. Like, will he coach a 6 and 11 Rams team, but it also be like, it's insane that I got six wins out of this group. I'm the man, I feel awesome right now, because this is what I love about the game is just coaching up these young kids. And like, okay, well, that's a bad Rams team, but actually it was very good for Sean McVeigh.

He's very hard to pin down. But I think that like Sean McVeigh in general jeopardy of retiring makes sense, because we know that that was a thing last season, and I don't think that'll totally go away. Belichick is hard to pin down for the exact opposite reason. Nobody knows what they're like, I got no information about this guy. I have no idea.

You haven't heard him talk about his feelings and his, you know, like how he, you know, like after what a Super Bowl meant to him or no. You know what I am willing to start piloting, though, is that like, you know Ernie Adams, right, who's the guy behind Belichick is the director of football apps. They started getting bad the second he left, like even like the end. Brady years where everyone he left. Oh, you like that theory, huh? I'm willing to start piloting out.

Like, put Ernie in the hall, don't put Belichick in the hall. That's, I'm down for that. I think that works for me. All right. So, Lex, take there. Yeah. I think the most interesting McVeigh scenario could be if they actually are like a bottom two or three team.

And it's like, shoot, I kind of need a break. But also these quarterbacks are really good. And like, you're right. I mean, Jordan Rodriguez, the Athletic has done great reporting. on McVeigh. And yet, the narrative is that he does feel sort of energized this summer by, all right, the expectations aren't as high. I'm getting back to my roots. We're coaching young players. We're trying to help them improve. We're trying to give our team an edge. And it's process oriented. And you know what? If we don't win a lot of games, that's okay. Let's kind of go day by day

here. Now, that's easy to say on, you know, August 28th, when it's November 18th and you're, you know, four games under 500 and don't have a chance for making the playoffs, then down the stretch, are you going to be the same guy. So I just think those are two interesting teams that I don't think either of them is going, you know, I think the Patriots are going to be competitive, feisty, but probably a seven or eight win team. And I think the Rams are going to be worse than that. They could be a little feisty if they can coach them up.

But even with that, I think those are going to be interesting teams to monitor because of the head coaches going into next offseason. All right. Let's take a quick break here. We'll come back. We'll get to Solax's second prediction. Snap into action this NFL season with Van Duel, America's number one sports book. Right now, new customers get $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place a $5 bet.

That's $200 in bonus bets, win or lose. Remember, you can read all my picks against the spread at the ringer this week. A couple that I'm looking at Mike Tomlin and Mike Rabel are both underdogs in week one. I usually like both those coaches, Steelers hosting the 49ers, Titans goal. to the Saints. Those are two that I'm keeping an eye on here in week one. You can also head over to Fandul Casino and play through $1 and you'll be entered for a chance to win a VIP trip to Cronk's big game party in Vegas. So visit Fandul.com slash ringer NFL and kick off the NFL season. Fandle, official partner of the NFL.

21 plus and present in select states for the Gronk sweepstakes, no purchase necessary. Max five entries per day. Sportsbook bonus bets are non-mustrable and expire seven days after receipt for bet $5.5. Get $200 first online real money wager only $10 first deposit required. Restrictions apply. See full terms for both offers including methods of entry at vanduel.com. All right. We are back on extra point taken. Benjamin. What do you got for your second prediction? Lamar Jackson will become the first player in NFL history to throw for 4,000 yards and run for 800 yards in a single season.

So, we have had three seasons in which a quarterback has thrown for 4,000 yards and rushed for 700 yards. You're down on your head. I've piloted this, I've said this stat roughly 7,000 times this summer. Oh, okay, you must have said it to me. I'm tired of saying it, yeah, I probably said it to you.

Listen, we got a lot of odds, brother, with a lot of stats, all right? I know this was in my head at some point. I need a motivated expat to do a super cut of the 400 times I've mentioned this on bond. Okay, do you want to say the stat? Go ahead and say it's that for me. It's your stat, not my stat. We can all click three buttons on stathead.

It's not a great stat. It's just, yeah. No, I felt like I've said this too much. I'm like, people are tired to be saying it. But I'll listen, I'll say. Three times in NFL history, a quarterback has thrown for 4,000 and rushed for 700. Josh Allen has done it in back-to-back season somehow, and Cam Newton did it in 2015.

So you're upping the ante a little bit here with Lamar. Well, first things first, Cam Newton did it in 2012, or 2011, excuse me. So you go ahead and jot that down. Fact check, whatever. Maybe get your own stat right there, Chief. We have great fact checkers. Now, they're not for pods.

In my written content, the stats will be correct. On here, I just kind of let it rip and half the things I say are probably false. We got to, yeah, we got to get Danny Comer just sitting on our pods with us to just be stat-heading things while we say them and just hop on the mic a minute later be like, actually, that was 2011.

Yes, so it sounds great when you say. You're better at saying stats than I am. I always like to trip over my words. Quarterback season, 4,000 passing yards, 700 rushing yards, as she'll say this happened three times. I initially was like, let's do 4,000, 1,000, and then I started to look at the numbers,

and I was like, okay, 1,000's a lot. Obviously, it's something that Lamar's, he's had, like, stretches where he's had that, like, like if you took this stretch over the season, he's been able to hit that, but you don't hit it consistently, especially when you deal with injury concerns.

Now, there's two things that I really like for why this is going to work. The first is this. Greg Roman, who was the previous office coordinator of the Ravens, kind of like bamboozled public perception of how quarterback rushing works, where he was like,

hey, like Lamar is a great quarterback run guy, right? He's so good running the football. So here's what we have to do. We got to put a bunch of tight ends on the field. And we got to be able to run like all these pullers and this pistol sets and all these condensed sets to get the most out of him. Because Romans got a background in the pistol, right? Colin Kaepernick with coming out in Nevada, going to San Francisco. Like that's where his framework is.

But then you go and you look at like what the Eagles did with Jalen Hertz, right? Or what the bills do with Josh Allen, who's had these consecutive seasons. And these are just spread teams. They just put receivers on the field. They're just like, no, you don't need three tight ends to get juice out of a Russian quarterback. As a matter of fact, there's an argument that it limits the Russian quarterback because you're putting, more bodies in the box. Like, spread the field out. Give this guy just a little bit more space to operate in his area. And he's going to be able to create running for you. And so that there's, there's a

expectation that like you've seen floated around a little bit this offseason that's like, oh, well, like, obviously, like the passing game's going to work for the Ravens, but how is it going to affect the running game? Because Roman had such a big narrative and a big investment in the running game, frankly. Like, I just think that's Buckkus, frankly. Like, I just think when you put a body like Lamar in the backfield, the running game works. Like, I just like, done. Like, He's simply too dangerous of a guy with the ball in his hands for you to be able to say,

oh, we don't have two tight ends or how are we going to run all these schemes? You just run zone reads until the cows come home, man. Like, when you're playing seven on seven in the running game,

you're going to be successful with an athlete Lamar. So that's the first thing. The second thing is, it's not just that we're leaving a Greg Roman offense and we're going to like a regular passing offense.

We're going to a Todd Monkin okay? Now, Todd Monkin, known for being, okay, he was with Baker for that. that one year in the Browns, like trying to make that work. Like, I was okay, it was Georgia the last few years.

But the Football Hipsur Society became fans of Todd Monkin. And in this case, I'm using it for myself, yes. Became fans of Todd Monkin when, when he had James Winston with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and when James Winston was leading the league in average depth of target on a yearly basis with these Buccaneers teams where they would just line up, send vertical routes down the field, and tell James to choose and shoot. just choose and shoot, and they were willing to just flood that deep barrier of the field. I don't think Lamar is going to lead the league in like past attempts.

Like, I still think they're going to be, they're going to be like a past first team, but they're inherently going to be a little bit more balanced and he's going to occasionally tuck and run. But Lamar's like not actually that active of a scrambler. Like Lamar would rather like get to his second read and throw it or like extend behind the line of scrimmage and find a throw. Then he would be to check and run. He's not like a Kyler that way or hurts that way. He'd rather like, or Daniel Jones even, he'd rather like sit back there and throw it. And in this offense, when you throw it, you throw it deep, right?

They throw it vertically. So I think that Lamar's not necessarily going to be like a high attempts guy. He's going to be up there. But he's really going to be a high A-Dop guy. It's going to be throwing to the intermediate middle of the field, throwing to the deep middle of the field. And when you see the speed that this team has a receiver, O'Dell Beckham Jr., Zayflowers, Mark Andrews,

who's inherently a vertical player, that's where he's at his best. That makes a lot of sense. Like the personnel fits. And so even if there's big ups and big downs as the Ravens get settled in, I think Lamar's going to have games or he's like a 400 plus yard passer. Like I don't think that's outside of the realm of possibility for him to have those peak games, those peak passing moments. Accordingly, you start to look at this over a 17 game season if he's healthy.

And yeah, like 4,800 just makes sense. Like it is absolutely achievable for Lamar if he's healthy and if the offense works. And so I think it's going to be a record-setting dual-fired quarterback this season. All right. I have a couple takes here. One is, do you think there's like a thread with like Joe Lombardi and Greg Roman and I don't know who else would be on there where they're like what's the like why do but like Greg Roman is probably like 2019 like we were doing something no one else in the league was doing

and we had like one of the most efficient offenses of the last decade and now everyone thinks I just suck and don't know how to coach football like the I don't know there's got to be something like the football hipsters I don't know it's like the it's not like Gruden I don't you know gruden had the old fired whatever it was code there but has to be something for these offensive of coordinators who are like, why does everybody hate us? Like, we're not that bad. The players matter more. Do you think who else would be in that?

Am I missing anybody? Those are the two definite punching bags of the last couple of years. Because they're the ones who have kept the elite quarterbacks from us. They have good quarterbacks. That's true. Here's the thing with Roman. Like what Roman did in 2013, 2014 was objectively sick. And an issue is when a guy lands on somebody that's objectively sick and then can't get off

of it. And that was the problem. like Roman coming in for Lamar and like bringing that like pistol offense, gun run offense. Like that wasn't really popular in the league. Like that was great for Lamar. It was great for Cap. And Roman knew how to run it better than anybody else and they knew how to run it. But then you see cats like Brian Dable, right, who like spend a year in college,

Shane Stuyken and Nick Siriani, who has been anytime in college, just reach down to the college ranks and be able to pull QB run stuff up out of it and get at the NFL level. And now you're getting similar benefit for someone. much less cost. And that's the thing, like, Roman is a good coordinator, but he costs a lot. The expense for getting his offense on the field is pretty dramatic. Lombardi, you can say a similar thing, too, or like, he coaches it up well. It's just the juice of not being worth the squeeze. So it's not that they're bad coaches. It's that this is hyper competitive. If there's 32 spots, you've got to be able to get a lot out of a little. If you're getting a lot out of a lot,

you're not giving us the competitive edge that we need. And that's, and once we have Lamar Jackson on $50 million contract and we know he's an MVP caliber player, I need you to bring me an edge. I need you to be giving me something that nobody else can. And Roman lacks that over time. I don't want to come off as Greg Roman's agent, but if I were Greg Roman's agent, I could easily argue that he did more with less

when you look at sort of the supporting cast for Lamar Jackson and the fact that when Lamar Jackson was healthy, this has been like a top eight, top 10 offense since that MVP season. Like the last three seasons, you look at EPA for play, I think they were six. with Lamar Jackson healthy and like 31st with Lamar Jackson not healthy. So it's Lamar who's pulling it off then? Well, I don't know.

Well, yes. Yeah. I mean, that is what we could learn. But also, I mean, I don't know how many teams with a backup quarterback and that supporting cast are going to get a good offense out of it. Like, I don't think there's many who would go with Tyler Huntley and DeMarcus Robinson and would be better than like a bottom five offense. So I don't know.

It's just like your job is to produce a good offense when your good players are, when your players are healthy. And I think that, like, they were a good offense. Now, I agree with the limit. The passing, there's no denying that you watch the Ravens, the passing game, and you're like, what is going on here? How does this look this bad? Do they even practice passing plays in practice? So I actually agree with most of the criticisms for Greg Roman. I'm just trying to play a little devil's advocate there. And you could be right. It might, the run game might have nothing to do with Greg Roman. They could switch it up and have Lamar, you're having Lamar Jackson back there, dynamic athlete,

one of the best Russian quarterbacks we've seen in NFL history. It could be good regardless. And that's what's fun about the Ravens this season is we're going to get answers. Now, that 4,000 yards passing, Benjamin, is a big, big number. Lamar Jackson's career high, 3,127 yards. And that was in his MVP season in 2019. The last three years, he has not even gotten to 3,000 yards passing. So you're putting a lot of faith in Todd Monkin.

and a lot of faith in that supporting cast, I'm not telling you it's not going to happen, but that's why I like it. It's a good. It's a good bold prediction because it is bold. He has not sniffed 4,000 yards passing as an NFL quarterback so far. The 2019 Baltimore Ravens MVP season for Lamar Jackson, do you remember who his leading receiver was? Not Mark Andrews.

Willie Sneed? No. He was his third receiver. Marquis Brown was the leading receiver, right? that got that. Do you remember his stats? Do you like, do know how he produced? 800? 46 catches for 580 yards. Okay. Here's why Lamar's going to throw up for 4,000, because he's going to have a team that

employs a wide receiver for the first time in his career. A real one. Not like a Mickey Mouse one, an actual one. Presumably. O'Dell, baby. 18 months off of an ACL injury. Looking nice. Like, if we just had to make a list of things I'm most looking forward to, Lamar Jackson playing for a new coordinator with wide receivers would be high on that left. I can't wait to see how that plays out. So that certainly is a good one. All right.

My number two one. Benjamin, I feel like 49ers fans are a little mad at us. I don't know if you've gotten any emails or check your emails. Labor Day weekend. I hadn't checked the emails in a bit. I got to go take a look. Okay.

See, I actually cleaned out the inbox on last night. I said, all right, I got to get. There were people emailing us back in May when I'm like, I don't even remember what these conversations were, but thank you for listening to the show. So thanks to everybody who has reached out. We both picked the Seahawks to win the NFC West. I think with Brock Purdy, you're more down on him.

I'm more, let's, I need to see more because it's an eight-game sample. However, having said that we both picked the 49ers to be a wildcard team. So my second one, and I don't think this is going to endear myself to 49ers fans more, a quarterback who's not currently on the 49ers roster will start a playoff game for them. Oh, I love it. January. The first team I wanted to give Stafford to

was to the Niners, but there ain't no chance there's any Stafford there, baby. Yeah, probably, yeah, unless they're just like, well, this is a great offer. They're desperate. Let's go ahead and do it. But I agree with you. So, yeah, I think 49ers fans are all in on Brock Purdy,

and I get it. He played well for the Niners last year. excited about him. I just, in looking at it, eight starts, small sample, coming off an elbow injury, offense where quarterbacks have gotten injured pretty consistently. Like, can I just see more? I was reading Matt Barrow's had a story in the athletic about, like, when they knew, you know, that, like, they wanted to go with Brock Purdy.

And one thing that really shines through there is that, like, Purdy's like a gamer. Like, he is not a, let's slide and stay out of harm's way and go out of balance type play. Very much so. He's like, I'm getting this first down. And I, you know, I actually love watching players like that. But if I'm the organization, it's probably not going to be the best thing for sustainability. So I don't know. Listen, it could be injury.

It could be ineffectiveness, whatever. I will tell you what I do feel strongly about. I feel strongly that Kyle Shanion cannot make this work with Sam Darnold. I'll be happy to admit, I'm wrong. If it's December and Darnold's, like, I don't know. Like, sometimes you see enough of a player and he's got multiple opportunities and he's legitimately been statistically the worst started quarterback in the NFL. I know the circumstances haven't been good, but if he has to play like six games or something, I don't think it's happening

for the 49ers. I don't think their offense is going to be good enough, regardless of the supporting cast that they have there. So for a couple of games, maybe, but I think there's going to be a point where if Sam Darnold has to play that long, the 49ers are actually going to be in trouble. So, all right, who could it be? We know the 49ers got aggressive at the deadline last year with Christian McCaffrey. They're not a team that's going to be patient and say, oh, it's cool. We'll, you know, punt on this year because our quarterback got injured and we'll bring it back next year. No, you've all seen Kyle Shanahan the side by sides like Barack Obama, the man, like, he just needs to get a Super Bowl trophy very soon, though it's not going to be good for

his health. So here are some names I've written down. So like you tell me if I've forgotten anyone. Philip Rivers, we know he was their contingency plan last year, right? That came out in a ESPN an article that in that NFC championship game, if they advanced with Brock Purdy being injured, they were going to call Philip Rivers to be their quarterback for the Super Bowl. That obviously did not happen. Mack Jones. Things go south for the Patriots. They say, all right, we tried it with the new coordinator.

He's not our guy. Shanahan says, this was my guy. And everyone's, well, you kind of, you agreed to take Tre Lance. No, no, no, but this is my guy. Hey, you know, I haven't you? Okay, wait, no, I haven't spread that to you guys. I've only spread that to people in the media that Mac Jones was my guy. But Mac Jones was my guy.

It's not like I'm the final decision maker here or anything. He always has been. So maybe if they just say, all right, we took the L on Traylands. Let's go get Mac Jones here. Kirk Cousins, pre-agent at the end of the year. Obviously, there's already been rumors. Maybe they sign him at the end of the year if it doesn't work out for Purdy. But if the Vikings are not a competitive team at the deadline,

Kirk Cousins does have a no trade clause, I believe. Maybe the 49ers say, listen, this guy knows our system. Hans coached it before. That's the one I was waiting for. Yeah, we need him for like an eight-game run. And then the playoffs, this will be an easy transition. Let's go with Kirk Cousin. So those were the main ones.

If you want to throw Tom Brady in there, go ahead and throw Tom Brady in there. Once he did the Raiders ownership thing, I was like, all right, I actually believe that he's done. All right. What do you think of the prediction? I love it. I am surprised you're not a Sam Donald guy. I would have guessed you were a Sam-Darnell guy. What are you talking about?

How would I be a Sam-Darnold guy? I paid attention the last six years. You think I'm, I know I'm old. I don't go to bed that early. Like I have watched. Listen, I'm with you. I am not a Sam Donald guy. And usually when I'm a something, you're an opposite of that something.

And I just assumed I should have checked in. I just thought you were going to be a Sam guy. Donald's like, Donald is very interesting to me because, okay, they spent all these books on Lance, you know, all this physical, all these physical tools that all of their, like the Jimmy of the world didn't have. and then he's gone. I know he's bad now. But hey, they have another third overall pick on the roster now.

It's Sam. And Sam's got great physical tools. Sam can elevate. So, like, I'm very interested to see what it looks like with Donald. I think there are worlds where it does end up looking pretty good. And Sam makes the offense work. But in general, right, I have a lot of doubt on that. And obviously, I have a lot of doubt on Brock.

Kirk is the one to me that stands out. And I think it's tricky because I don't think Kirk's going to bottom out. Jefferson's too good. O'Connell's too good. Like, and so it, even at like, let's say the Vikings are having the exact same season they're having last season, but without the lucky wins, right? They're like 27th in DVOA like they were last season. They're actually losing some close games and they're under 500. Kirk's still going to look productive.

That's what Kirk's superpower is looking productive even when he's like not helping a team, like win games. And so I think that's going to be like a hard sell. Tan Hill's interesting to me. Just like, hmm, plug in like, but how positive are you that Tan Hill is going to have like a working body in January? that's the issue, right? Like, Tannhill would overall be good if you could promise me that he's healthy. The way that Ryan plays

and his age and is a crude injury at this point, like, ah. In that offensive line, yeah. Yeah, I don't know. Go get Jacoby from Washington. Huh? Did you do the Jacoby thing? It's not a high ceiling.

Like, I don't know. It's, I love the take. I don't think we have the guy yet. Well, we'll know the guy. We'll figure him out. We'll figure him out. That'll be like week seven extra point-taking. and we'll have the take on who the guy's going to be.

All right, give me your third prediction. What do you got? Sheal, she'll, she'll, she'll, she'll, shield, shield. Dolph was a winning in the Super Bowl. We already made our Super Bowl picks. What is happening? Wait, what? It's bold predictions.

You're allowed to predict more than one team wins the Super Bowl. So you've got the Dolph- See, I was confused because we were on a text thread, and you said something like, either it's going to be the Jets or the dolphins for the wildcard spot in the AFC East. And I didn't respond back, but I thought, so you've been telling me for three months

that the dolphins were going to win the Super Bowl. Now you don't even know if they're going to beat out the Jets, but you did pick them to beat out the Jets for a wildcard spot. I don't remember this text read. I'll send you a screen grabs. Okay. Listen, you have to remember, everything is range of outcomes, right?

It's not like what I actually think is going to happen. It's the high tails and the low tails and the percent chances. the dolphins are so good as an August team, right? Where you're just like, hey, rose color glasses, the things that they're trying are going to work, right? Like if every single team has everything that they try work this year, the Dolphins are one of the three best teams in football, even with all the other teams succeeding.

Just when Tua was the healthy quarterback of this team, two was third and expected points out of or dropback. There was six in success rate. The offense overall was top three in points per drive. They were top three in DVOA. again, when Tua was healthy, right? You bring back largely the same group. You have continued questions along the offensive line,

but you had that last season. You had continued questions at running back, but you had that last season. You have an offensive play caller and Mike McDaniel who, like, in year two, I always forget this, I have to remind myself of this. That was his first year calling plays. Yeah, good point.

Like, we, that was so good. It was so good. It was sick. And it was his first year doing it. There's two ways this goes now. of the sophomore slump where like he had like he had 20 years to plan what he would be as a play caller and now he only had one year to plan when he's going to be in year two as a play caller and there's going to be a slump or it's going to be I've figured out some mistakes right I've grown from this

process and now I've honed and I've improved and if McDaniel's a better play caller than he was in year two like I always liken it to the Shaw McVe experience 2017 into 2018 I think this offense going to be lights out I think it's going to be out of this world and again that's that's a healthy tool which is another thing that you question but with Tyreek with Jalen Wada like This offense has the ability to make stuff work that no other offense can because of the amount of speed they have on the field. So that's the offense. Defense. Zach Sealer, Christian Wilkins, Rayquan Davis, Jalen Phillips, Bradley Chub, David Long, Jerome Baker, Cater Cahoohoo, Jailen Ramsey, Zavion, Howard, Howard, Brandon, Jones, Javon.

Javon. It's an unbelievable, it's such a good depth chart. I don't know when this happened. I don't know what, like there was so much going on with Miami, like Brian Flores and Chris Gehr and Stephen Ross and Tom Brady and Tua and Justin Herbert. Like so much was happening the last three years that they just quietly put together. together such a nice defensive roster and then plug the last piece in in Vic Fangio, who like, you and I talk a lot about, oh, the Fangio system and the Fangio castoffs and are these guys good? And is this system proliferate? Will it actually work? Can it go to other teams?

All that is moot when you have the guy, when you have the original product. Like, Fangio has been coaching good defenses as long as I can remember. Like, Fangio was in the a odds in San Francisco, just killing it. This is a good defensive mind with a good defensive roster that, again, like we're talking about if things hit. They should be a top 10 defense of Ramsey comes back healthy and if Fancho, like David Long is as expected and Jayvon Holland is as expected and Jalen Phillips takes the jump. Like they should be a

top 10 unit. So I've got a top 10 offense. I've got a top 10 defense. I have two coaches that I really trust a game plan and I also saw like extremely peak outcomes like the comeback against the Ravens, right? They beat the bills that one game. Like we have seen them have

explosive moments and success against playoff teams. Why not man? They are there. They are again, like in August with the rose-colored glasses on, when I look at all these teams, I look at the dolphins and I go, man, like, if everything hits, this is a juggernaut. This team is dynamite. They got to go through the AFC.

Obviously, we're turning injuries off when we're simulating things in our mind in August, but I get to do that right now. And if I get to do that, and you give me 17 healthy games in two, I guess what? Dolphins are winning the Super Bowl. Thank you. I do think they have a high ceiling. I mean, I think the reason I don't have them in the playoffs is because I think they're a

fragility, more fragile than the other contenders that I like. got the hard schedule. I want to see, does Mike McDaniel have a plan B? That's really what, you know, a lot of these offensive coaches, that's what it comes down to. Like, they come into the league, year one, they're tearing it up. And then year two, do you have a plan B or not? And maybe he does. He seems like a smart guy. I agree with you. Like he did, you know, more with less. He had a plan. I mean, they were talented, but he knew exactly what to do. Like no one was watching that going, why isn't Tyreek Hill getting tired? I mean, for Tyreek Hill to go from Andy,

Patrick Mahomes to Mike McDaniel and Tua and have a career year. Like, don't go back and read what I wrote about that trade because I did not think that that that was happening. Like, I was stunned and that's a nice job out of them, identifying a player and saying, no, no, no, we know exactly how to use him and we can get the most out of him. And they did that. And so I don't fully trust it just because of all the stuff we've been over to Ron Armstead injury history, Tua, injury history, how much they rely on those two

wide receivers. But I would agree certainly offensively, I mean. I mean, yeah, they showed it last year. Like if everything hits, they are a top five. They can be a top five offense and produce like that. Defensively, I don't think I love the depth chart as much as you, but then you kind of couched it and said top ten. And I would agree with that.

I think, yeah, they could be a top ten defense if everything hits there. I will say with Fangio, I was going back and looking at like his first season in new places. In San Francisco, he went in right away, and I think they were awesome. Chicago, Denver, they were definitely better in year, much better in year two. than in year one. They weren't like terrible, I don't think, in either spot in year one. They were more mediocre and so much of defense comes down to just, are you talented and are you healthy?

But I'm not fully convinced that that's going to be like an awesome defense this year. But hey, if their offense is as good as it was for most of last year, then that probably doesn't matter. They're like the 13th or 12th ranked defense that will probably be good enough. So I like it. I was actually, yeah, when we were doing our big predictions, I thought maybe there you might just take the big swing and say you think the dolphins are going to win the Super Bowl.

Well, that's the thing is, you're like, oh, Super Bowl predictions. Okay, well, that's like for real. This is bold predictions. And if you're going to pick the Chiefs, which you have to, you got to, right, when you pick the Bengals. No one cares. You just be it. You just pick, I mean, it's predictions.

Who cares? Here's what matters. You got to make one Super Bowl prediction this year. I got to make two. I'm just playing the numbers. That's a nice shot by you. That's a veteran move. I should have that.

I should have that in my bag. Yeah, come on. I would imagine the Shield Capadia special. Just 32 different radio stations. Yeah, no, I think the Texans are going to win it this year. Just get them all out there. How dare you? I'm actually remarkably consistent with my predictions.

I don't waver what you hear on the podcast is what you will read on the ringer is what you will hear on radio station. So there you go. Ben got it. Now Ben can claim victory. Well, I think this will work out for me because if the dolphins do win the Super Bowl, you'll be honking and I'll be ripping you for not having the guts to actually make them your official predictions. I'm going to find a way to win here. Hanken is an interesting verb for how you perceive me on this show.

Honkin is how you feel when I talk. That's cool. That's good to know. All right. That's actually, that's actually, I think that's a Greg Rosenthal. I think I've stolen that.

I've heard Greg Rosenthal. Greg with three Gs, baby. Yeah, yeah. So that is a direct steal from him, but I do like that quite a bit. All right, let's take a break. I'll come back with my third one, which is absolutely absurd.

All right. We're back on extra point taken. This one is not serious, uh, really at all. here's one that we can keep an eye on the entire season, Benjamin. There will be a head coach altercation during a post-game handshake at midfield. And I feel like you're going to like this one.

Hell yeah. Now we can talk about which coaches is it going to be. Who would do you? What would happen? So let me give you a brief history because I did kind of fall into a rabbit hole last night as I was researching for the pod. And of course, the most famous one I think is Jim Harbaugh and Jim Schwartz in 2011. Hardbaugh 49ers coach, Schwartz Lions coach.

Harbaugh's all excited at the end of the game, just has his hands up, goes in for a really aggressive handshake of Jim Schwartz, who is not a guy. You're really, I think he can get irked pretty easily. He gets irked. All of a sudden, they have to be separated. The players start getting into it. It calms down, but that was an especially fun one in 2011.

So that was one. College ranks. Surprise, Jim Harba. Jimba! Jim Harbaugh, this would be a better prediction if Jim Harbaugh was in the NFL, but Jim Harbaugh and Pete Carroll, Jim Harbaugh runs up the score at the end of a USC Stanford game. Pete Carroll goes up to him and says, what's your deal at the handshake? Many years later, I believe the, when I was covering the Seahawks, they drafted somebody from, from a, I think it was Amaro, Amaro Darbo, I believe, from Michigan. John Schneider gets asked the question, and they start, and, and, and, Peter Carroll starts talking about what a great coach Jim Harba is, and then everyone just starts laughing, and then John Schneider says, what's your deal to Pete Carroll? And everyone starts laughing some more. So that was a fun moment that I remember. But that was a good one. Here's one I forgot,

Ben. I don't know if you remember this one. 2010, Todd Haley, then coach of the Chiefs, Josh McDaniels then coach of the Broncos, Haley refuses to shake Josh McDaniels hand at midfield after a Broncos win and instead says there's a lot of bleep being talked about you and then goes to the locker room. I mean, this amazing.

I don't know that's at all. I forgot about this. Later, Chiefs punter and Haley afterwards like apologize and was like I shouldn't have done that. McDaniels downplayed it. Later, Chiefs punter,

Dustin Colquitt, suggested, I think, during a podcast interview that it was about the Broncos cheating. You remember the Broncos and McDaniels got fined for like a,

a video taping scandal, like recording somebody's warm-ups or walk-through or something in Colco, it was like, no, that's actually what that was about. So that was a good one that I very much enjoyed. All right. So fast forward to 2023. Who are the most likely candidates here? I'll give you the easy one. Here's the layup.

Week 5, Jets at Broncos. We know what Sean Payton said about Nathaniel Hackett. Maybe the Jets win that game. Maybe the Broncos win that game. And by the way, Sean Payton is not. want to back down. Like, I could easily see him just kind of going all in and running up the score, doing something wild in the fourth quarter of that game. Robert Sala, in that, he might be too professional to do something at midfield. But, hey, I think there's a chance there.

So that's one that I've got on my radar. John Harbaugh, I think, is an underrated one for this, Soak. He's a fiery guy. He's a Harbaugh. Here's the thing about John Harbaugh. He benefits greatly in terms of his public perception by the shenanigans of Jim Harbaugh. 100%. And there are no comparison. 100%. There'd be a lot of a different thought about our boy, Sean Harbaugh. And that's good work.

All right? You just got to be faster than the slowest guy, right? With the bear's chasing you. You just got to be a little bit more well-adjusted brother. It's the way to do it. Oh, my God. It's so true. You nailed that.

I don't, yeah, I don't think we've had that conversation before. But it's absolutely accurate. So you remember a couple of years. years ago, the Ravens called a run with three seconds left to extend a streak of 100-yard rushing games. Like, how could you possibly care about that streak? I don't know, but they called a run. Vic Fancio was very upset about it. He was then the coach of the Broncos. He said, I thought it was BS, but I expected that from them. In 37 years of pro ball, I've never seen anything like that, but it was to be expected, and we expected it. Guess what? Ben, we got a little

week 17 Ravens Dolphins there's going to be a lot on the line for that game I know listen it might not

be a hardball Vic Fingio maybe Vig Fancho comes down and goes after him on the field there's going to

be something there so those were the pairings I mentioned and here are a couple other names I'll just throw your way

and then you tell me what you think I mean Mike Rable I could see I don't think he's gotten into it but he could

get into it yeah Josh McDaniels I mean we already mentioned him earlier, that that's one. Your boy, Nick Siriani.

I mean, he was on the bleachers yelling at Colts fans last year like that. Right. Yeah, it's only, it's really only a matter of time. He was yelling at Robert Salon, the preseason last year when they hit Jail and Hertzlady. He was yelling across the field, so Siriani's a good one. And then I don't think Pete Carroll, I mean, he's a little older, calm or wiser, but hey, he does have the history there with the Harbaugh. All right. Who did I miss?

What do you think about this take? What's your favorite pairing? Siriani was the one that I was going to be like, listen, if the Eagles start to be a little bit worse and, like, Siriani feels like he needs to fire up the troops, and Sierraani will just fight somebody to be like, because this is about the team and it's not Philadelphia, and you're like, this is unintelligible, man.

Like, this is not, this makes any sense. Brayble, you have to have, McDermott's two level-headed. I'm trying to think I'm like... Although McDermott is very intense. There is a scenario where McDermott... It snaps. And so I'm glad you mentioned it.

I think he's too professional. I don't think he would, but I could tell you he is a very intense guy. Dan Campbell wouldn't go to fight somebody. But if Dan Campbell felt infringed upon, do the Lions play the Broncos? Well, Dan Campbell, well, Dan Campbell, Sean Payton, something, something. Why those two? They work together, right? In New Orleans.

So they, is there a rivalry or you're saying because of that? September 17th, 2020. So this is like late in the season. I'm saying like right, like Campbell, right, looks up to Sean a lot and like, you know, like he came up under Sean. Let's say like he feels disrespected by Sean for whatever reason, right? Then I think he could bristle a little bit. He'd get big chest.

It's easy to come up with reasons why other coaches would be mad at Sean Payne. That is not a hard part of this exercise. What would John Gannon do ever at any time? No. I don't think that. No. I mean, no, I don't, I don't, I mean, they're going to be getting killed most of the thing. Right, but here's the thing.

Would you have been able to successfully predict anything John Gannon has done as a head coach up to this point? I mean, his defensive game plan every week for two years. But yeah, other than that, I'm interested in my head coach behavior in terms of speeches and quarterback decisions. No, no, that's true. They named, they named Kyler a captain. I'm super into that. It was unorthodox. That's a great bit.

I'm going to, I, if I ever put my head coach, I promise you, All my captains are going to be on IR. This is the way I want, it's all going to be players who are unavailable. That's how we're going to do captains. No, I think you've got most of the good ones. But something to look forward to, this bold prediction. That's fun. Coach rivalries, bring them back.

Sean Payton did his part earlier this summer going after Nathaniel Hackett. Let's get a little more of that. The old Jimmy Johnson, buddy Ryan, Mike Ditka, buddy Ryan. As you can see, there are repeat offenders generally in this. We really just need one guy to kind of act out and then he can get a fight in a fight with multiple people. All right. Those are our three off-the-wall predictions. That was fun.

I think that went well. Thanks to look forward to. Things to track this season. So like, what do you have for our extra point taken as we approach? What, two days? Two days till our first NFL football game. Okay. So actual bold prediction plus also a thing that's newsy and stuff that we're supposed to happen.

Brian Burns never plays a game for the Carolina Panthers again. I love this Brian Burns move. I think this is this like this caught my attention to show up for training camp and to be like, yeah, we're working on the contract extension. Like everything's hunky dory. Like, you know, like obviously like there were trade talks last year. Like we're trying to get the deal done. I want to be a market setter.

Like I'm the young star on this defense. But, you know, we're doing the thing. like we're going to this season, like, here we go. And then to get to the practice before week one and go, oh, sorry, no, I'm out now. That's good work. That's, that's, that's, I, it's risky work, right? I mean, like, that really puts the Panthers in a tricky spot,

and they can resent that a lot. It's expensive work, because now you're, you're going to start paying a potential week one. Yeah, you're going to start playing game checks. I saw that a Jason Fitzgerald of over the cap tweeted out the amount that Burns will be losing this year, $889,556 per week for each week missed. So it's risky work, it's expensive work, but it's ain't like, you know, Nick Bosa with the Niners or Chris Jones with the, with the chiefs, or you give them six weeks, eight weeks to start thinking about what a world's going to look like, what an offense is going to look like, what an offense is going to look like,

without them on the field. Oh, we start planning for this, so we feel good about that. I go, week one game plan. No, you pull the rug out from under room at the 11th hour. You're making a face that you don't like it. I like it. Well, no, but also those guys didn't have to participate in training camp. Like, you've seen what training camp is like, who wants to do that, especially a veteran. So he actually participated in training camp and is now doing it as now is going to lose more money if he misses games because it game checks. So you're right that you're sticking it to the team more, but in terms of your personal, the day-to-day level of enjoyment, I don't, you know, it's unorthodox. I'll give him credit for that.

I think he's more likely to get what he wants out of the Panthers by doing it this way than if he did at the training camp way. I'll put it to you that way. I think this gives him a better shot of getting the major extension than he wants because you put the Panthers in a little bit of a state of panic, right? Panthers go and they call your agent and they say, okay, what does he want? You say, okay, he wants this, you know, get it to us by Friday, Saturday and you'll see him on Sunday. It's very simple. Like, go ahead, right? But instead of giving them the entire month of August to figure it out, you got to figure it out two or three days here. And again, like, the Panthers are going to resent that. They're probably going to try to draw a hard line. But if you're

prepared to miss a couple of games, I think it's a smart way of going about it. Now, teams were offering multiple ones and multiple twos for Brian Burns last season, right? When we were talking to trade deadline time, there are Rams conversations, Brian and Burr's going to get the move, yes or no. If I saw this news, and I was the general manager of the Jacksonville Jaguars, who so desperately need a pass rush in order to actually field a contender, but I were the general manager of the Detroit Lions, who desperately needs an actual real edge rush or opposite Aidan Hutchinson.

Within two minutes, I'm calling the Carolina Panthers. So it was two ones and two twos last year? I'll just do my homework. What was it? It was two ones and two twos. Okay, we just want to know what the price was last year. Just curious. Two ones and two twos. That's a thing. We have those actually. I just realized we have first round picks and second round picks. That's crazy. Who could have seen this coming? Anyway, hopefully contract negotiation goes well. This is a, this is a spot where if this gets gnarly the first couple weeks of the season, I think a huge offer for Brian Burns is completely and totally justified. That is a star edge rusher. It was 24 right now. I like the

idea of a team that is a solid offense, contending offense, that needs help on defense, trying to make the move for Burns. Now, you're going to do it, and then you're going to have to immediately extend him. And there's not a lot of teams that were planning on signing a huge extension in September. That's not typically how the extensions go. But it is doable if you want to get that ball across the line. I think as we get into football and we start to see some of these top offenses realize that their pass rushes are deficient, that they're going to need to improve that for the postseason.

I think you're going to see Brian Byrd's trademark and get really heated up. See, I'm on the other side of that, I think, and I've loved Brian Burns since he was a prospect, since he came into the league. I don't, you know, and this is a nice plug. Again, good synergy by us. You can read my trade value rankings on Wednesday on the ringer.com where we basically look at who are the 75 most valuable trade assets in the NFL. And Brian Burns is pretty high. But if I'm the team, two ones and two twos, I mean, you look at the history. of defensive players who have been traded for multiple first round picks.

It's Jalen Ramsey. It's Jamal Adams. It's Khalil Mack. I might be missing one in there. The Ramsey one worked out. The other two have not worked. I just feel like from a team building perspective, the number of defensive players I would give up multiple first round picks for right now

is probably Micah Parsons, Miles Garrett, Patrick Sertan, Saus Gardner. and I can't quite put Brian Burns in that tier because I don't think he's good as impactful as Michael Parsons and Miles Garrett. And for the other thing you mentioned, you're going to be paying him $27 to $30 million per year. So to give up the assets and then pay him, I don't think that's something I would do. Now, if I'm the Panthers, I'm saying let's revisit. Like maybe we shouldn't have turned that deal down before. a depleted offense. We have a new quarterback. Maybe we can get a receiver out of this. If not,

we get multiple picks that we can build around Bryce Young. And they just sent more picks to go get first overall, too. And so they're, there's fewer picks in the future than they did previously. Yeah. So I would actually really consider that. Like, if you're the Panthers, it's kind of one of those situations where we know what he's looking for. Either we pay him right now or yes, I would, like, you're not trying to win this year. I would go ahead and trade him and get those picks. and kind of have your eyes on building around Bryce Young in the future. So it's an interesting time for these defensive players. As we record this, Nick Bosa, Chris Jones, Brian Burns,

these guys are looking to get paid and they've been impact players for sure, all three of them, and we'll see what the market is like for them. But yet, listen, there could be a surprise trade even between now and when that game's kicked off on Thursday night. Who knows? So I like that one. Brian Burns certainly something to watch here. you know, like, could he have not done?

I mean, the other reason for doing this early is you don't affect Shield's defensive rankings. I mean, he's loving up the Carolina Panthers and now their best edge rusher might not even play for the car. Like, come on, Brian Burns. I've been in your corner for a while now. You don't got to do me like that. That wasn't very nice. So that's another reason for doing it the other way there. All right. He probably doesn't care about that. Benjamin Soler. Thank you for joining me on this episode, Christopher's. We're so ready to for the season. Your face.

Your face at the end of that was awesome. Christopher Sutton, thank you for producing additional production supervision by Connor and Evans and Arjuna Ram Gopal. You will hear Nora Princiotti and Stephen Ruiz next

on this feed. But then don't forget, Friday, Solak and I will be back. We'll make some picks against this rule. We've got all sorts of fun stuff we're going to do on that Friday show.

So look for that in your feed Friday afternoon. All right. Thanks to everyone for listening. We'll talk to you Friday on Extra Pointing. Must be 21 plus and present in select states. Fanduel is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC. Gambling problem.

Call 1-800 gambler or visit fanduel.com slash RG in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, and Virginia. Call 1-800-next-step or text next step to 533442 in Arizona, 1-888-78.9. 7777 or visit CCPG.org slash chat in Connecticut, 1-8009 with it in Indiana, 1-800-5-22-4-7-00 or visit KSgamblinghelp.com in Kansas 1-8777-7-70 stop in Louisiana,

visit MD gamblinghelp.org in Maryland, visit 1-800 gambler.net in West Virginia or call 1-8005-22470. In Wyoming, Hope is here. Visit gambling helpline-ma.org or call 800, 327 50-50 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts, or call 1-8778-8-Hope-N-Y or text Hope NY in New York.