The Ringer NFL Show - Dallas Makes a Splash, Desperate Times for the Texans, and More Main Characters for Week 4

Episode Date: October 2, 2026

Tom, Sheil, and Billy get together to share their reactions to Browns' big win over the Steelers on ‘Thursday Night Football’ before breaking down the trade that sent Joey Porter Jr. to the Dallas Cowboys. Next, they analyze some of their main characters for the Week 4 slate, including C.J. Stroud and Travis Hunter. They end the pod by shining a light on Sheil’s Ringer 107 picks.(00:00) Intro(1:35) Browns defeat Steelers on ‘TNF’(19:00) Steelers trade Joey Porter Jr. to the Cowboys(28:26) Week 4 main characters(51:18) The Ringer 107 Check out Tom Pelissero's newsletter 'The Sweep' on Substack! Upgrade Your Performance with Orgain Creatine. Available at Amazon, Costco, Walmart & Whole Foods. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Tom PelisseroGuests: Sheil Kapadia and Billy GilProducer: Chris SuttonVideo Editor: Curtis SchultzEngineer: Oscar De La CruzProduction Supervision: Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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we follow the money. Learn more at Bloomberg.com. Humberg.com. What's up, everybody? It is the Ringer NFL show Friday, October 2nd. Thursday night football, a clash for first place in the AFC North. Are the Browns for real? Do we have to start seriously contemplating this being a playoff team? What are we making the Steelers coming out of that game? We'll also look ahead to Sunday. We've got our main characters for week four. We'll break down some of the other news throughout the league this week. The Joey Porter Jr. trade on the eve of that Thursday night game.

What does it mean for the Cowboys? Jaden Daniels out this week. Other quarterback news. We'll get to it all right after this. This is the Ringer NFL show presented by Fandual. Make every NFL week more rewarding with Fandual Rewards Club. Just bet like you normally would and earn points on eligible, settled bets, win or lose. Keep collecting points, level up, and unlock bigger rewards. So keep an eye on your rewards.

Club progress and see what you can unlock. This is your most rewarding season ever with Fandul. 21 plus select states, 18 plus DC or Wyoming. Gambling problem, call 1-800-Gampler. Call 1-888-7-9-77-7-7 or visit cCPG dot in Connecticut. Tom Pellasero, Shio Capati, a Billy Gill with you as always. And I want to start guys with a moment for the Browns fans.

because we have not had many occasions, hardly in my lifetime, in which you can sit there and say the Browns before the entire country just had a moment. I want to show you'll start with just a few stats to kind of set the context of the Browns being in first place right now. They have not won the division since 1989. They have not started three and one since 2001, 25 years. ago. They have not been in first place in the aFC north since November 9th, 2014. So regardless of where the season goes from here, and we'll talk about

how real, how sustainable this is for the Browns, I give it to them. If you're a member of the dog pound, if you were in the stadium or watching that game last night, like, enjoy this regardless of how long it lasts. Yeah, because it feels like there's certain fan bases and the Browns fall into that, the jets fall into that, where when their teams in the spotlight, like on national TV or an island game, they're not excited. They're not like, this is great. It's like, please don't embarrass us.

It's like your uncle, you know, at the family gathering or whatever. Oh, God, he's had his, you know, third glass of wine. This is going to about to go back. That's how they feel about their teams. And they didn't embarrass them. They played well. I think the story about the Browns is, and Tom, you mentioned this in a recent pod, their recent drafts.

I mean, it really feels like they have some young players. who are going to be key contributors, maybe all pro players, but certainly like high-quality starters in the NFL. That was on full display last night. Denzel Boston, Casey Concepcion, the tackle. Spencer Fano, they were highlighting during the broadcast. Defensively, Carson Schwessinger,

had a nice game. Emmanuel McNeill Warren, even though he has the one penalty at the end, he was making some big-time plays earlier in that game. These are all guys they drafted who are on rookie contracts right now. So you have that to feel good about if you're a Browns fan. And then Todd Munkin is doing Billy like a Bruce Ariens impression here. He's just like, I'm the old no-nonsense coach.

I've seen a lot of ball, you know, all you young whippersnappers. I got more in my mind than you guys have, you know, acting like you've reinvented football. And he's doing a pretty good job. That was a schemed up offense that gave Deshawn Watson a lot of easy answers. So yeah, I think those are the areas where the Brown should focus on. And we'll see if it lasts or not. But you have to feel good about those aspects. You mentioned Bunkin, he was also making jokes, like he's getting comfortable, you know, with the media after the game where he's like, you know, I told the kicker if you miss this.

We're giving their kick, one of the best kickers in the league the ball right at midfield. And it's basically a gift for him if you don't make this, so you better make it. And then he's like, well, I didn't really tell him that, but I was thinking that. So like, he's got his jokes. I mean, it is an exciting team. You mentioned Boston. You mentioned Casey Collins of Shield. Like, they're running around.

You don't have to rely as much on Jerry Judy, which is great. Deshawn definitely has some weapons. I think last night, and by the way, defensively you talked about them, they were hitting Aaron Rogers all night long. Like he was not looking comfortable. I believe he had 10 QB hits the entire game. He had seven tackles for lost, five sacks. So he really wasn't getting much time to do anything and really find a groove. You saw some of the frustrations that he had with Mike McCarthy on the sideline where he's screaming, you know, get the FN play in there. And then McCarthy is saying, guys, an FNA, this and that, you know what I mean? And after the game, he came back and he's like, you know, I live.

lived in a world before when we left it all out on the field. And obviously with cameras, that's not the case anymore. And I understand that. And he, like, half apologized. And it's like, there's no fractures here. Like, this is just kind of football stuff. But you could see the frustration. I think yesterday, while we all feel good for the Browns,

one of the takeaways, I think, was the coverage of the game and was kind of the decisions to have the piece on Deshaun Watson before the game, where it seemed like, like, this is a redemption story for him. been through so much. And while I think that Cleveland can get behind this team, and I think that Cleveland can see their quarterback to Sean Watson and say, this is, you know, our guy, we're winning with him and they can start supporting him and kind of move past it, not like at all in the form of grandstanding, but I got the impression just based on like reactions and talking to people. Like, it seems like much of America is not ready to kind of move on and have this redemption

art for Deshawn Watson and just say, hey, you know, that's all in the past. Let's forgive and forget. So while this is exciting for Cleveland, it seems like the more successful he is, the more pushback outside of Cleveland they may get. And it's unfortunate for everyone but Deshawn Watson in this instance, because it is a fun team, but it's become hard for a lot of people to look past the quarterback. Yeah, I think they were really, you know, pushing the redemption arc. You're right, so much during that broadcast where you just wanted to be like, focus on the game because it doesn't, you know, get an adult in the room if you're going to talk about

his off-field transgressions. And it didn't feel like they had one in that game because it was just like you got to the point where I just focus on the on-field stuff because they're trying hard to blaming Browns fans and blaming the media. And like Deshaun Watson is a sympathetic figure. It's like if you want to state the facts, state the facts that he faced allegations by more than two dozen women of sexual misconduct, served in 11 game suspension,

never admitted any wrongdoing and then cashed in on $230 million guaranteed. Like most of America's not going to watch that and be like, I need to go find my place of worship and offer thoughts and prayers for this guy. Like that's just not how it's going to work and they were pushing that so hard.

And then I just thought the on-field performance of Watson, they missed the mark on that also where I'm not saying like they're totally winning despite, like if there was just nothing else with Deshaun Watson, it was just like focused on his on-field stuff. I mean, I thought he was kind of trying to give the game away in the second half. Fumble, interception, another fumble he recovers, a bad third down miss. He takes a horrible sack on that final possession. Another bad misfire on the final possession.

Like, it feels like Bunkin is really trying to come up with this scheme where quarterback playpoint guard, make a couple plays with your legs, but don't lose the game for us. And there were absolutely stretches in that game where Watson was doing that. But at the end, like, if they missed that 56-yard field goal, I was thinking about this this morning, if they missed that 56-yard field goal, the narrative and the conversation we're having today is just so different. It's about how Watson blew the game for them in the fourth quarter. So I think you're right. I think Billy's right, Tom, that Watson, despite all the feel good stuff about the Browns, he ended up being the one that at least the most conversations were being

had about after that game. I think just, and not to criticize too much of the coverage, right? Because like the broadcasters are kind of in the positions and there's decisions being made, like, this is the piece we're going to go with. So this isn't like pointing anyone out, but it's kind of like either cover it or don't. You know what I I mean, like, if you're going to kind of touch on it, don't just gloss over it. Or if you don't want to get into it, like, and maybe this isn't the most responsible way to do it, but just don't talk about it if you just want the focus to be on the field. And I think a lot of people kind of left kind of feeling icky about how that went.

And, you know, Deshaun did kind of, there was a fumble at the end of the game that he was ruled down on. You know, that interception initially was called a pass interference, but then upon review, you see the finger barely moves. So there's been good and bad with him. Overall, on the field, he has been, I think. surprising a lot of people, though, that he's been able to play at the level that he's been at and he's been good enough to get them in this position. Deshaun Watson would be the no doubt frontrunner for NFL comeback player of the year, but for all the circumstances that led to him

being in this position. He had legit injuries. I mean, two Achilles tears and broke his shoulder. There is physically no question all the things he's been through, but you can't separate that from as you said, Shield, the more than two dozen serious allegations of sexual misconduct that I think everybody has formed their judgment on. You're not swinging anybody at this point on Deshawn Watson, the guy. And nobody is feeling bad for somebody who made $230 million over the past five years to, again, based on the circumstances, barely play football. And when he did play, not play at all that well. Having said that, if we zero in on Deshawn Watson, the player, and you're right, Sheald. I had the same thoughts, you know, that fumble on the play with TV.

J. Watt, that could have been the swing point in the entire game. But they found a way and just strictly on football here. Like, this is exactly the type of game. These are exactly the situations we've seen the Browns so many times, not rise to the occasion. I give Todd Monk in a ton of credit for, especially off a week one, which was a disaster on both sides of the ball. They totally changed how they're playing defense with Mike Rutenberg. You played a ton of zone in week one, which everybody thought was kind of weird. And even the Jaguars were surprised by. And they're like, let's get back to our identity. Let's play man.

Let's be super aggressive. And you saw Denzo Ward have a huge impact in the game last night. You're also right that Aaron Rogers got hit quite a bit. Aaron can still make the next to impossible throws. The touchdown throw that he had and leading the player back into the inside. I mean, the whole red zone offense was basically find Arnail Washington, just like make it happen. Like Rogers still can do that. The issue he has is now when the rush is bearing down on him,

it used to be three out of four times he'd get out. Now it's one out of every four times that he can get out. So there is so much pressure, Sheel, to play on time for a player who has made his entire career of playing off schedule when he needs to. There's a balancing act that Steelers have to find here. But I also, despite the Aaron and Mike thing, which if you know those guys and know their relationship,

like not surprising at all, that was a top 10 accidental miced-up, lip reading moment that we have had. The combination of the two was fantastic. And T.J. Watt calling upstairs and yelling at somebody, if it's Patrick Graham or whatever. Like, there was a bunch of stuff. But I walked away from that game thinking,

those are two pretty good teams. I don't know that either one of them is winning the Super Bowl, but sometimes you get those games that are competitive because everyone's not very good. Last night, that was a super competitive, fun to watch game with guys like D.K. Metcalf, that's the best that he's looked. Certainly this entire season,

and maybe since he got to Pittsburgh, takes one dumb taunting penalty, which is also part of the DK experience. I just, I did not show a walk away going, boy, you know, the Steelers blew it or the Browns are getting up with it. Like,

I think they're both competitive teams in a really, really competitive division. I agree with that. It seemed like they were very evenly matched and it seems like their, but it was a well-played game. It wasn't a mockery like,

oh my God, both these teams suck, which sometimes you get on Thursday night football. Rogers is playing better than he played last year. I just think that has been the case. Now, will that be the case the entire season? Again, at his age, you feel like there might be, as you go on and take those hits. I mean, he was getting crushed again.

We've had multiple conversations on this pod in three weeks where it's like, wow, Aaron Rogers took a beating in that game. And without getting a second view of it, I wasn't sure, are guys not open? Is he holding onto the football? He's not pulling the trigger. Are they just having protection mishaps? It's always a bunch of those things together. But man, that drive at the end, that throw the Metcalf down the left sideline where he's got to drop it in the bucket,

I'm like, it's a big time throw by Aaron Rogers. And, you know, the one thing I think Steelers fans might be having the conversation is like, if our quarterback's getting hit that much, can we lean into the run game a little bit more? It feels like Jalen Warren looks really good. It feels like the offensive line is more comfortable when they're run blocking than pass blocking. So that's something to keep an eye on as well. I have more concerns about that Steelers defense now. I know we'll get to the Joey Porter trade.

They had injuries on the defensive side of the ball yesterday where I really thought that had a chance. to be a top five unit. And now I watch them in a game like that. And I'm like, cool, I'm not sure. I think I might have gotten out over my skis in the preseason. Can I ask you as a question? Because I feel like we're kind of wrapping up this game here. I'm going to move on.

Did anyone, and this is somewhat related to this game, sort of related to this game. Any of you happen to catch Mike Tomlin's Minecraft City viewing experience that went out this week? As of this morning, it had 1.5 million views on episode one of this series entitled R rooftops, Penthouses, and Urban Living. The guy won the week. It was incredible, and I feel bad for the fact that people,

Steers fans in particular, kind of look at when they think he started this city and are comparing his postseason performance prior to starting the city after. I feel like it's unfair. Granted, you can see he's invested a lot of time in this city of his. Okay. Tom, this wasn't on the rundown,

but I feel like we need to do a PSA, mostly for me. But you know, like in class sometimes, Like if you have a question, raise your hand because someone else probably has that question and is too afraid to ask it. Billy, I know nothing about Minecraft, about what Mike Tomlin did, how he spent his time, what he actually was doing. Can you please just give like a little PSA to people like me? Because it seems like people love this and it made Mike Tomlin more relatable. And it's just his cue rating is going through the roof so far this season.

He's like one of the biggest winners of the season. but I actually don't know anything about this world or what he was doing. Can you help me out? So you haven't checked out the video yet? No, I have not. I would recommend you check out the video. I too am not someone who is deep in the world of Minecraft,

but essentially you start from a blank slate and then you build things brick by brick in Minecraft. You build like a city, right? You build presumably anything brick by brick in Minecraft. And Mike Tomlin started doing this because his kids were into it and he wanted to see what his kids were doing. so he would play this game with his kids. Eventually, his kids grew up.

Mike Tomlin did not. Not that he didn't grow up, but he didn't grow out of the mind-craft phase. So I guess he viewed this as kind of, you know, a release, a stress relief, a hobby for him where he was building these fake cities. But in this first episode, he took us just through, again,

rooftops, penthouses, and urban living. And he built this all around the lake. And then he was slowly going through a series of buildings. So he started with his boutique hotel. And then he took us inside his boutique, hotel and then he told us that he made sure to put the appropriate number of restrooms in his boutique hotel. My favorite part. Appropriate number of restrooms in public places, number one, A plus architecture from Tom. He was very detail oriented. He then started telling us how obsessed

he became with the details in the bedrooms. He would show us how, you know, this is the penthouse so it takes up a whole floor. But if you go to the other floors, there's multiple apartments on there. I was very, he told us he was very obsessed with the views. So he was very view conscious at times where he would have good views of the MLS stadium, but he'll get to that in another episode. So this is an ongoing series. He showed us all the aquariums that he had. He had a building full of aquariums, which he said was appropriate because it was across the street from the city's aquarium that he built.

And he's like, you guys are really going to love the aquariums. But we'll get to that in another episode. So it's kind of wild when you see this and you talk to people who are deeply in the city who said, this is easily thousands of hours he has spent on this city. So, Sheel, I would recommend, even though you're unfamiliar, just to check it out, just to get slightly into the mind of Mike Tomlin and kind of possibly the stress relief that he was having when dealing with the Antonio Browns and the Levion Bells of the world who are really kind of giving him a headache. And by the way, I saw Levion Bell be critical about this saying this is what he was doing when we were trying to make the playoffs. I'll remind you, Leviabeyon Bell decided to sit out in a contract holdout. And I down here in Miami, while he was holding out in Pittsburgh,

would walk to work and see flyers on the floor for Levion Bell is hosting a Monday night football watch party at X and X Club tonight. And it's like, Leveon, you could have been on the field. Like you held out and were hosting parties at clubs during the season. So let's give Mike his little thing here. I saw people doing, you know, like the Kylie Murray Call a Duty old comparison, like before and after the release and with Tomlin, it was the number of playoff wins before and after he started playing Minecraft.

I would also remind people of this. Winston Churchill used to lay 200 bricks a day. It was 200 bricks and 2,000 words a day. And that was how he dealt with all the stress and pressure and depression at times of all the really serious global matters he was dealing with because you could be solely focused on laying the bricks. And he joined the bricklayers union and was like building a wall of bricks.

Like Tomlin is doing the virtual version of literally exactly that that it was therapeutic for him. I'm not going to bash Tomlin for having a hobby even though we've become accustomed to NFL coaches.

Like the moment they become coordinators, they just stop doing anything in life and they have no idea what's in the world. He actually discovered something. If you were saying he was playing SimCity, I'd be like, I feel like you're a little bit outdated.

But no, he's playing Minecraft. I'm okay with it. Let's talk about the Joy Porter Jr. Trade, too, because this came late on the eve of the Thursday night game. Porter goes to the Dallas Cowboys. It's for a sixth round pick in 2027 that's conditional, but they'll hit the conditions.

And then the second round pick in 2028. And there's a lot that went into this in terms of Porter, not practicing all of camp, and saying he had a back injury, which happens to be an injury that I can speak from personal experience, doesn't always show up when you take an MRI. If you say your back hurts, it's hard to disprove that your back hurts.

So the contract talks, they did make a run at extending him. It didn't get done before week one. Their policy is we don't keep negotiating. But the Steelers believed that Porter ultimately was going to choose to be on the field. He had a long way to go in terms of the conditioning aspect. But week three, when he was ramping up, it seemed like there was a real chance he could have played against the Bengals. They had him in practice.

They listed him as limited because they had him going to play in Scout team against D.K. Metcalf and Michael Pittman to try to prepare for Jamar, Jason T. Higgins, got to the end of the week, he wasn't quite there. Then earlier this week, he was in the full participant, Monday, Tuesday. You're not really practicing on a short week, but they're like, all right, he's got a real chance to play in this game. And then all of a Sunday, again, they did like a short, quick, like, runaround practice and it was, my back doesn't feel good again.

At that point, from my understanding, they've been engaged with the Cowboys for a couple of weeks, but at that point it was, okay, we can't keep doing this every week. We can't keep basically putting in two game plans, one with Joey Porter, one without Joey Porter, and then find out a day or two before the games. This guy actually intend on playing. From the Steelers perspective, it's not, hey, we think we're better off without Joey Porter

or we just need a pick in 2028. It's more so, Sheel. It was Joey Porter wasn't a member of the team. They saw him practice in pad once time last Thursday. That was it. This coaching staff had never really been with them. So the Cowboys get a very good corner, albeit one that I think it's fair to say people in the league are reluctant to pay at the absolute top of the corner market.

We also all know that if you hit free agency, the crazy money happens and guys get paid more. So I also don't blame Joey Porter for going, you know what? I'm not getting paid here. I'll go play it out somewhere else. Now he joins a Dallas team that's clearly going all in, Sheel for 2026. By the way, if anyone wanted to get the news of that broken to them in their inbox with great detail, I would suggest to me subscribing to the suite, Billy. I don't know if that's how you found out about it.

That's how it just popped up right on my phone there so you can check that out from Tom Pelliserra. I had a tough time with this one, given the details that you've given there. Because I generally believe that good roster building, when you draft a good player at a premium position, you hold on to them, you extend them, you take care of them, and that's how you form the foundation of your football team. But there obviously are exceptions. And this feels like an exception where they couldn't get on the same page with the contract. They didn't know if he was going to play. And I do think it's a better alternative.

For all the things we said about the Steelers, I don't think any of us think the Steelers are getting to the Super Bowl. this year. So I think keeping an eye on the future is smart. And you get a 2028 second round pick for him. So you're not just going to have to deal with this at the end of the season. Maybe he walks and you get nothing for him. So I get it from the Steelers perspective at the same time. If I'm a Steelers fan, I'm like, I don't know. It might have been nice to just have him be a part of our football team for the next four or five years. From the Cowboys perspective, I think it's a good move, except I want to ask you about this. When every team trades for a player like this who's in the last year of his deal and the trade does not come with a contract extension, I get very, very nervous.

Because now if you're the Cowboys, you gave up a second, you gave up a sixth, and the player has so much leverage now where you get to the end of the season and they're like, we want this. And you're like, no, we're not paying that. Okay, cool. You're going to tag us. We're going to hit free agency. You just gave up a second round pick. You're really not going to extend us.

You're going to get crushed for this move. So that part makes me a little bit nervous. What are your thoughts on kind of whether a deal might get done at some point here or whether the Cowboys are taking an unnecessary risk by making the trade but not signing into that extension? There's no doubt it's a risk. You do have the franchise tag at your disposal, but you've also got some other pending free agents, including George Pickens, who's on the tag this year, and you only get one tag. So that creates a potential bind if you don't do extensions with the players. Last year they traded for Quinn and Williams, who they knew was going to need a new contract this year. He was still under contract, but they knew they were going to have to adjust it. They've kind of adopted the stance of, we're just going to get good players in the building and figure it out later.

Rishon and Gary, they just traded for on a one-year deal. Kenny Clark, when they traded for him, they knew they were going to have to redo the deal. Porter's in a little different situation. And I think back to why this didn't get done in Pittsburgh, you can look at the way that the corner market moved in this offseason. You know, when Trent McDuffie got 30 million a year on an extent with the Rams, that was like a, that was the one I heard for people in the league. whoa, that is a significant commitment.

They were in the same spot. They're training a first round pick for a guy who's in a contract year. They don't want to lose them. So you do the new deal. You get it done and you lock in the price. But then that kicked up the number for Denzel Ward, who looked like he was worth every penny last night,

kicked up the number for Devin Witherspoon, and in turn for Christian Gonzalez. Joey Porter Jr. is not viewed as on the same level as like a Gonzalez or Witherspoon, but he is a very good starting corner. And again, free agent dollars are different than extension dollars. When you've got 32 bidders instead of one or up to 32 bidders, it moves. And they're acutely aware of that.

I mean, his agent, David Muligeta, who also happens to be George Pickens's agent, who also happens to be Michael Parsons agent, who also happens to be Jalen Ramsey's agent. And several of those guys had a back injury at one point before ultimately getting traded. He's very experienced. He's done a lot of those top DB deals. Like, he'll have a plan in. place. They're not going to, they have no reason to take less than $30 million a year for Joey

Porter Jr. We can all sit here and argue, well, Trent McDuffie's a better player. Yeah, but the market's already moved since the McDuffie contract, which moved the market. She'll, it just, it's sort of, it all fits together because you're all, you're constantly projecting out from the player's side. Like, how am I going to get the most money now? Well, the Steelers are offering a contract. It wasn't in that 30 plus bucket. All right, we're going to play it out somewhere. We wanted to go Well, so he ends up in Dallas, and then we'll see. You know, if it's an extra 10% on the free agent market, this may be all worth it. To his credit, he said he wants to be a cowboy for life.

It means nothing, but he said it. So maybe that will lead to something. Hey, Sheel, you mentioned the sweep. That's Tom's Newsler's. Chum, is that coming out Saturday? What are we looking at the sweep this week? We're going to be putting that together after the show. There's already some things.

No spoilers. I like it. All of some things written, all of some things on Drake May and what's going on in New England, among other things. there's a ton to discuss. I mean, all the different quarterback situations going on around the league. You know, I looked at both the McCarthy trade and the Joey Porter trade in the sweep already this week, but some of the other potential trade items that could be floating out there. Jaylon Daniels making his first start for the bucks. We'll have a little bit of something on that as well.

Also, one bit of quarterback news, which you mentioned real quick here. Jane Daniels officially out for Sunday's game against the Colts. Not a surprise, but he practiced this week, which, to me, says, He's got a pretty decent shot to play week five. If not, it's going to be week six. And if they can get a similar performance like they did out of Marcus Mariotta and find a way to get back to 500, I still think that's a potentially dangerous commanders team as this thing moves forward.

Yeah, I think for the two teams playing in London on Sunday morning, it's about just staying in the mix, the commanders, and the Colts. It's like no one feels great about either of them, but one of them's going to be back at 500, two, and two. And I feel like so many of these teams, we're seeing it more than ever now. the first four to six weeks of the season, it's like hang around and try to figure out what you're good at, what you're bad at, what your personnel is, all those things. I mean, especially this year with so many teams implementing new coordinators, new offensive schemes, new defensive schemes. And I think those two teams certainly fall in that category where they just kind of want to hang around for a little bit and see if they can stay in the mix.

Is he traveling with the commanders or we don't know that yet? He's there. He's been practicing all week. He's got the big Barry Bonds, Bray. race on that he'll be wearing for the foreseeable future. But again, good signs overall for what that initially looked like that he's already back on the practice field a little over a week later. Again, I don't know that he plays week five. This would tend to make me believe he's got a good chance. And then if it's not week five, it'll be week six, which, you know, based on the Jane Daniels, we saw from the second half of week one to the first half up to the injury in Dallas, like he

looks a lot like that guy who won rookie of the year, not that long ago. Let's take a quick break here. We got our main characters. It's the Sunday of week four, a bunch of big games. Who are we focusing in on this week? I'll tell you after this. This episode is brought to by Organ. Go harder and push farther with Organ Creatine. It helps improve muscle size, strength, and power when combined with a regular exercise and weight training routine. Orgain creatine is certified with informed choice, which means it's tested for prohibited substances in sports. Upgrade your performance with organ creatine available at Amazon, Costco, Walmart, and Whole Foods.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Our ringer 107 picks, or really shields, Ringer 107 picks coming up a little bit later on in the show. Some fun games, some interesting ones, a lot of backup quarterbacks around the league. Let's get to our main characters for the week. for Sunday main events. I'm not in Madden-Kirce territory. I don't think just yet,

but we've done this bit the past couple of weeks. And I do feel like I've watched it and immediately gone. I think I texted you guys last week, like, I guess maybe I'm not helping these guys by putting them on the spot. Two weeks ago, I had Aaron Glenn, and that was the game that they fumbled away against the Packers. Last week it was Drake May,

three more turnovers and ugly loss of the Jaguars. So I'm not trying, just for the record, I am not actively trying to jinx this person, but it is a really, really big week. My main character for week four is C.J. Stroud. A year ago, the Texans are 0 and 3, and all the questions are, what's wrong with the defense, and what's wrong with C.J. Strout.

They rebounded, week four, they played the Titans. Stroud was 22 of 28 passive for 233 yards, two touchdowns. The defense shut them out. 26 to nothing. That was a massive turning point in the Texan season as they made their way back from that 0-and-3 start to be the rare team who recovers enough to make the playoffs. This time they got the Cowboys.

It's a home game. The Cowboys just got, and we'll see if Joey Porter Jr. plays, but they just got a little bit of a shot in the arm. They got reinforcements coming on defense. You know, I mean, Dallas went toe-to-to-toe last week with Baltimore and but for those last seven seconds, you know, maybe emerging with a huge win. They need this game and the Texans really need this game. If you fall to 0 and 4, your odds plummet even further than you are at O.N. 3.

And there's going to be, fair or not, even more focus on C.J. Stroud. Stroud has been, you go back to the playoffs last year, it has not been great. I certainly don't put the slow start all on him. There's been other circumstances. run the ball as effectively as they were hoping. Not having his top receiver the past couple of weeks is a really big deal without Nico Collins who returned to practice this week. It just feels like this is a moment.

That organization revolves around to Miko Ryans and C.J. Strout. And both one way or another have to find a way to get a win in this game. This is a big moment for C.J. Stroud. They have extensive contract extension negotiations in the off season. They weren't able to come to an accord. he's playing out the fourth year of his rookie deal. There's money on the line, not all in this game, but in the big picture, shield. It just feels like this is the moment.

This was the spot last year. We're all going, well, they're going to figure it out like they did last year. It was week four. That's where the whole thing turned. That's where CJ Stroud turned. Massive game for CJ Stroud and the Texans on Sunday. Yeah, I feel like I said pivot point probably last week. But as you said, every time you lose, now the urgency gets picked up a little bit into your point.

It's not just about, well, are they going to be a disappointing team this. season. It's about what does the future of the franchise look like when you have a quarterback who you haven't locked into a long-term deal yet and you have a disappointing season. And I'm with you. I don't think it's all on him. I think he's played okay. I'm not telling you he's been unbelievable, but I don't think he's been like the number one reason why they're 0 and 3 so far. I think their run game has just always been bad. It's just like every year we look at it in the offseason and they try to rebuild their offensive line and they make a move for a veteran running back and they come back and you're like, well, is it going to be different this year?

And it hasn't been different. It just hasn't been different over the last three years. And then defensively, I really have a hard time figuring out what my concern level should be with the Texans. Because on one hand, you watched that game last week against the Colts. And Will Anderson and DeNeil Hunter are just, they look unbelievable. They look as advertised what we've seen in recent years. Yet they're giving up explosive pass plays at the second highest rate of any defense in the NFL.

So it's not down to down. They're not getting gashed on the ground. They're not giving up 10, 11 play drives, but they're giving up way too many explosive plays. And that makes this a really interesting matchup because you have Jack Prescott, you have Cedley Lamb, you have George Pickens. They've been more methodical than explosive.

Like they're a team that can just complete 70% of their passes and go down the field, but they've kind of, again, not really relied on those explosive plays. If they can hit on some explosive plays here and how the Texans are 0 and 4. I mean, I don't know where they go from there. But I'll say I'm not giving up on them. I'm not out on the Texans yet.

I think they have a good chance to win this game. I think they have a good chance to still turn their season around because I believe in the defense, the coach, and I think the quarterback's going to be able to be good enough with Nico Collins back. You guys have mentioned it. The Cowboys defense, while they're getting reinforcements, has been pretty bad. And the Texans' offense, they haven't finished all of their drives, but they've had a pretty impressive offense so far.

They're getting a ton of yards. They're just not always scoring. So hopefully if you're a Texans fan, this is one where it's like, okay, we're going to start converting. We're going to start getting, you know, turning these drives into points. Also, just, you know, a little side note here because I like to see what's happening around the game. They're celebrating their 25th anniversary on Sunday. So they're going to have some of their luminaries in attendance. They're going to be honoring Hall of Famers Andre Johnson.

Arienne Foster's going to be there. J.J. Watt, DeAndre Hopkins, Brian Cushing. I don't know how JJ's going to be there because he should be. be calling a game and this is a Fox game, but he's listed on people they're honoring. Gary Kubiak is supposed to be there. I wouldn't just breeze by that. What do? Yeah.

Is that false advertised? How is it going to be there? He's on CBS. Well, they're honoring him. It doesn't say he's in a okay. I mean, get him there. You know what I mean? He can take a week off, but here's the thing.

If he takes a week off, that Ross Tucker is going to sneak in there and he's going to take that number one job like nobody's business. Trust me, I know this Ross Tucker in the way that he moves. So this is surprisingly only the eighth time these two teams have played he other in 25 years. And right now the Cowboys hold lead four to three. So in Texas, this is kind of a big game for bragging rights. You can even things up. This isn't the way that Texans want this to go, but you mentioned if they go 0 and 4, their chances of making the playoffs are even slimmer. Only one team, the 1992 chargers have started a season 0 and 4 and then gone on to make the

playoffs. So they would be only the second team ever should they lose this one and eventually figure things out and go to the playoffs. But if they don't figure things out, Sheal, and this isn't the turning point of the season. I know we're going to be getting ahead of ourselves, but you mentioned C.J. Stroud, what goes on with his contract. You know, right now, the Texans are sitting at the number one overall draft pick because of strength of schedule. So it's not time to look at Tankathon yet,

but if you so happen to check those things, they are in the driver's seat. Should things not go in the right direction for them moving forward? So I ask you guys this. Is this the rare must win week four game? it's not a division game. They've only played one game in their division so far, and that was the loss last week against the Colts.

Their next few games, I mean, they're at Tennessee the following week, which based on where the Titans are, they're playing better and better defensively. The offense is still just trying to find some ground here, but you'd think for the Texas, that's a winnable game. You're at Jacksonville after that.

That's a huge game. The Jaguars aren't running away with the division, but they look plainly like the best team in the division right now. And then you're at home against the Giants before the buy, and you got a chance to recalibrate. I mean, if you can get to three and four even, you know, forget four and three. If you get to three and four by that buy,

I feel like if you're the Texans, you feel okay based on the O and three starts. So I wouldn't say must win, Billy, but I would say, Sheel, that it's certainly, it's a really important game. Again, just based on trying to get some positive vibes flying into a building that's like, we've been here before,

but it's not easy to get out of this. My favorite must win question is when they asked the player a coach in like an elimination playoff game. Is this a must win? And it takes the person like, wait. Of course, yeah, our season is over. It's the Super Bowl media-in thing. There's always some of you. That's their bit.

Do you really want to win? Is this a must-win game? Is someone who always makes that bid? And it's not original. Shield, your main character, Week 4 Sunday. What do you got? All right. I'm going a little outside the box, I think, this week. I'm going to this Jaguars Bengals game,

which I think is a very fun. week four matchup in Cincinnati. And I'm going with Travis Hunter. Do you remember Travis Hunter? Everybody remembers Travis. I remember he was going to change the game of football, you know? But we look bigger than I'm not going to do my James Gladstone impression. But year one, maybe didn't go great for Travis Hunter.

They were trying to figure it out. Then he gets injured. This year they come in and they say, you know, we're going to play him more on defense. And that's been happening. Last week, Travis Hunter, Hunter, plays 42 defensive snaps. the most he's played in any game in his career, he only played five offensive snaps. If you look at it on the season,

104 defensive snaps, 16 offensive snaps. So it feels like they're trying to just, hey, let's get him settled in. We already have a good offense. Let's get him settled in on defense. We have a good defense too, but he can be a big part of that.

So you've got that going on. And then you've got Jamar Chase and T. Higgins, who have been incredible through the first three weeks of the season. I mean, I thought that it's being. speaking of the Texans, I thought Jemar Chase kind of just like won that game for the, for the Bengals in week two with that catchy made down the right sideline. T. Higgins was terrific last week.

And there's been an evolution with this Bengals offense where they had the Super Bowl season where it's all bombs away. We're throwing it downfield. You can't stop us. And then after that, defenses were like, that's the one thing we're not going to let you do. We're just not going to let you create explosive plays. And if you look at all the numbers, Dave had trouble producing explosive plays over the

last few years. Well, that's not the case this year. it's back, whether it's just Joe Burrow being like, I'm going to trust those guys, they're going to make plays, whether it's schemed up stuff, whatever. They're creating explosive plays at a very high rate. So I think Travis Hunter, whether he gets smashed up with Chase a little bit, whether he gets matched up with Higgins a little bit.

I mean, these are big-time players that are probably going to determine who wins that football game in Philly. I don't know if you saw this clip. Jamar Chase was asked about Travis Hunter. Oh, what do you say? He was asked, what do you see the difference in Travis Hunter? from year one to year two. And he said,

that's all I got. Wow. This is, listen, I don't know, Liam Cohen likes the little bulletin board material. Maybe he's sending that to Travis Hunter over and over again, but I think this is a very fun matchup, Bengals versus the Jaguars. I was going to ask,

is this possible bulletin board material, but you already answered that. And you also kind of touched on, it's going to be fun to see, you know, the rotations of Jamar, Jason T. Higgins on Travis Hunter since they moved around the field and how he does against both. Travis Hunter last week got his first interception.

And we didn't talk about it because it was kind of just like a side note in the game. But there was that fight over the ball that it disappeared. And then all of a sudden the ball boy for the Patriots refused to give it back. And then there was like some hubbub and what happened with the ball. And people were kind of like looking him up and oh, how could the NFL do this? And I looked this up because we didn't talk about it. I wasn't sure if you guys decided to kind of see where the ball ended up. All's well that ends well.

It was reported that the Jaguars did end up with the ball and the Patriots decided to make it right. But that was a weird thing. But with that interception, he kind of entered the history books. I guess not really. He becoming just the fourth player since 2000 to have a receiving touchdown and an interception in his first two seasons. So good for Travis Hunter.

I mean, just a little side note also in this game, we're kind of missing or we didn't really talk about yet. The Joe Burrow versus Trevor Lawrence of this whole thing. Trevor Lawrence has not beat Joe Burrow yet in their career. Burrough is 3-0 against him going back to the national championship game in college. Now, the last time they met was last season, and it's a game that went in Joe Burroughs favor, but he didn't really win it because it's when he got injured

and he got the turf-toe situation, so he left the game after getting sacked, and Jake Browning came in and ended up winning the game. But we have a chance here for Trevor Lawrence to potentially get his first win over Joe Burrow, which is not what you're looking at in this game. but it is a fun of side shield to your game. And now you had me just Googling because when you said Travis Hunter entered the history books with an interception, Tom, I forgot about the Jets thing.

The Jets still don't have an interception for the first three weeks. The streak has continued from last year. I totally forgot about this. I assumed they probably just got one and I wasn't paying attention. So we're now at what, 20 games over the last two years they have not had an interception. I know we're not talking about the Jets, but I forgot about that. we got to be keeping track of that every week. At this point, this is like the elephant in the room, right?

Where it's almost just like, you know, an anchor on you. Oh, man, we're just, we're never going to get one. Like, then you watch, like, turn on any game. And there's a couple of balls that are just, like, thrown to the wrong spot. Like, the Denzo Ward Interception on the side. It's great coverage, but it's like, oh, here's the ball. I'm going to catch it. How does that never happen?

Like, the odds are infinitesimal of going this long without an interception regardless of who's on the field. Every other team has at least six. Sorry, I just looked at this. I just, you know, I was saying. Every of the first of last year? Last season. Since the start of last season, every other team has at least six. They have zero and the Chicago Bears, this is crazy.

Have 26 interceptions. The Bears and the Jaguars have 26 interceptions since the start of last season. The New York Jets have zero. Does anybody else not have won this season? Does anybody else zero for this season? I think there's four other teams, including the Cowboys, which is part of why. they made the trade.

Not that Joey Porter Jr.'s known for interceptions, but they did say, we're going to work on that situation. On the flip side, the Jaguars has picked off a pass in eight straight games. So to bring it back to this game, the Jaguars have their interceptions. Don't worry about them.

All right, Billy, main character, week four Sunday. Who you got? I was going back and forth on my main character here, and I knew the game that I wanted to kind of focus in on, but I wasn't sure who exactly the main character of the game would be. I thought that I had this person locked in and then upon doing a little more research, I've decided that my main character

for this week is going to be the Raiders fans. So the Kansas City Chiefs are going to be traveling to Las Vegas to take on the Raiders. 3 and O versus 3&0, first place in the AFC West is on the line. Now, Raiders fans travel decently so. Like you can see them, they took over L.A., which obviously everyone always takes over L.A.

against the charges. That's a home game for whoever's in town. But the Raiders fans, you know, they travel well. They had a good presence in New Orleans. Chiefs fans are known for traveling well. If you saw last week's game against Miami, the stadium has Aqua seats, but all you could see is red because everyone from Kansas City said, you know what, now's a good time of year to head to Miami to watch this game that should be an easy win. It ended up not being as easy as they thought, but they traveled well in that game. Here's a thing. At times, Las Vegas has been called Arrowhead West. So they have been known to take over that stadium and past matchups, but the teams have been kind of on opposite sides of the success spectrum where the chiefs are kind of running all

over the Raiders. This year, the Raiders are 3 and O, surprisingly so. And there's an excitement around that team. They just brought in Fernando Mendoza, but they're not even worried about him right now. It's just his birthday recently. Happy birthday to him. They're not even worried about the birthday boy because they have Kirk Cousins doing things. Max Crosby, they said, get out of town. And then they said, never mind, you can come back because the Ravens didn't want. you now everybody's happy there and we're just kind of kind of forget about that situation. Brock Bowers is back and healthy and they're rolling. So I was looking up how this is going to try to figure out who is going to have the edge because historically the chiefs fans take over

this venue. But now you can get information on secondary markets based on zip codes and who's buying these tickets. And the reports are depending on which secondary market source you go to and which site people are buying tickets from. You have anywhere between, a 60 to 80% advantage in favor of Las Vegas zip codes. So it would seem like Raiders fans are going to kind of hold home court here and they're not going to let the Chiefs fans come in and create a home field advantage for Patrick Mahomes. He was saying how great it is to travel with the team and how the fans are great of traveling.

However, there is a contingency of Chiefs fans that live in the Las Vegas area. So it won't come until game that we'll know for sure if those zip codes are in fact Raiders fans or Chiefs fans in the Las Vegas area. but the crowd in this very big important game in the AFC West I have as being my main character. She'll. Okay, so the zip code say 60. I needed more charts in that one.

I needed you to fully, you know, map, connect the strings. No, Billy, was this from Sleeper Titans fanboy on Twitter? No, this was a different source? Official website. competitor. Some might say, yeah. Okay, so you believe based on your,

and that was some research there, I'm not poo-poo and not, I mean, you were putting in. I could have done Kenneth Walker. Let's be honest. I was going to be Kenneth Walker. This is much more entertaining. Let's talk about the Raiders and Chiefs. We'll throw Kenneth Walker in there.

But then I started seeing the ticket thing, and I was like, you know what? They're right. The Chiefs do kind of take over a lot of these stadiums that they go up against. And the Raiders are still, even though they've been there a few years, they're still trying to kind of find that home field advantage. It's Vegas.

Every fan base goes, hey, our team goes to Vegas this year. As soon as we find out what it is, we're all going. They're going to have to deal with that forever. I don't think it's a lack of Raiders fandom, shield. I think it's more, this is a vacation destination. You know, you want to go to Miami. You want to go to New Orleans. You really want to go to Vegas.

Like those are probably the top three places that every fan base, you see it on the calendar. You're like, we are at that game. But this is, yeah, this is the biggest Raiders home game. What were you saying in the yard? Like in probably five years? I wouldn't expect there's a lot of Raiders fans giving up their tickets for this one. Arizona, if you're in a cold weather city, your team's playing there in like

December, you know, Chicago, if it's September. So yes, I think, I think a lot of fan bases look at that stuff in transplants, but Billy's saying he thinks it's going to be 60 to 80 percent, maybe Raiders fans. The Raiders fans were awesome in that game against the Chargers. I mean, the crowd shots there, and I know what you said in, it's L.A., and they obviously have a foundation there and a lot of fan bases takeover that stadium. But that was like on TV. You could really see how excited they where, and this is as excited as you've been. We talked about the Browns earlier. It's very similar for the Raiders where you look at this and you're like,

I think we have a coach who knows what he's doing. We have an unbelievable tight end who came back from injury last week and looked like the best tight end in the NFL. We're getting contributions from guys who we probably never heard of a year ago. And the other guy I have to call out who's been unbelievable for them, NCOBE Dean is looking like one of the best free agent signings in the NFL last off season. I mean, he has made a play every single week for them in the fourth quarter. And having watched him, like, closely on film during his Eagles career,

he's just one of the most fun linebackers in the NFL to watch. So yes, the Raiders are a feel-good story. Man, this would be something. If they could, their home underdogs, you know, the betting markets are not taking them seriously as a 3-0 team. If they were to pull the upset here on the Chiefs and be 4-0, that's probably the biggest story in the NFL, I think, through the first month of the season. What's the line?

She'll share the line again. Four and a half. Chiefs are favored by four and a half at Vegas. So really, they're seven and a half point favorites. If you're adding in the three points for the home game, do we think that there's seven and a half points better than the Raiders right now? I know the history and I know who the quarterback is for the Chiefs. I think it's part of their resume. You know what I mean?

It's like who they've been over the pastures, which by the way, like coming into the season, I think there were a lot of question marks about the Chiefs too with the way that last season. And granted there was the injury to Mahomes. But it was kind of like, does Travis Kelsey still have it? Right now he's leading the chiefs and receiving yards. So it seems like he's kind of figure things out. He leads the NFL in yards after the catch, Billy.

That was my favorite stat I unearth this week. Travis Kelsey leads all players in yards after the catch. Maybe he was just the big wife guy. And he's like, once I get married, I'm going to get back to be in my mid-20s guy. He needed something in his life. They had to fulfill. Most of them let themselves go after the wedding. He got himself in shape.

Opposite. Yeah. I mean, wedding planning, honestly, is quite time-consuming and very stressful. And I can't even imagine how time-consuming and stressful it is to plan a wedding at Madison Square Garden. They didn't plan anything. So you have to start doing like, where does Tom Cruise it? Do we have them in the table with Joe Buck? Like how do we arrange people to make sure that there's not random feuds going on there? So like now that that's in like the rearview mirror, the chiefs have come back and like,

hey, the chiefs are still the chiefs. Like they're still pretty good. And you mentioned exciting players. We touched on him very briefly last week, but has a guy amassive. for the Raiders just kind of coming out of seemingly nowhere. He was at Cal prior to that. He was at FIU. He has three interceptions on the season.

He's been one of those field good stories early on in the season. You wonder, obviously, can you keep... We talked about the Jets. The Jets haven't had an interception in two seasons. This guy has three in four... In three games so far, you had two and one game. So it should be a fun game, I would think. Conventionally speaking, if you're just looking at the brands

and where they've been lately, you would think, okay, like the clock is going to strike midnight on these Raiders probably this week and the Chiefs should win this game easily but I don't know. I don't know that that's what's going to happen. If the Raiders beat the Chief Shield, should we be considering the Raiders

the favorite in the AFC West? No, it'll take me a long time to get there. But they will be I will take them seriously as a potential playoff team. I will feel if I'm a Raiders fan, I'm like, we've got our coach. This is incredible that we finally found our guy after some of

recent years. And there'll be the feel-good story and one of the biggest stories of the first month of this season. I try to remind myself that every year in like, you know, January, we look back to what happened in September and the first five weeks of the season. And you're like, oh, that didn't last. So I will be someone who needs to see more. But yes, we will be talking about the Raiders a lot more if they win this game on Sunday. We got picks. Ringer 107. Can Sheel rebound from the old Ofer last week? We'll find out his fix. after this. It is Friday, two days away

from kickoff of the Sunday in the NFL, which means it's time. For Sheal, to give us our picks, really, Sheel's picks, especially after a week like this for the Ringer 107. Remind us again, Sheel, how this went. We were in first place.

This show was in first place going into last week, and then what happened? Yeah, you know, I'm good with this, that when I have a bad week, it's my picks. And, you know, this is like what you're supposed do it right you're a leader of the organization you got to just take you know when it when things go badly you got to take it on yourself and then when things go well you deflect the praise to everyone else so i'm going to try to take that advice i was 0.5 last week okay you know and uh we're six and nine on the

season but listen last year i'm sure everybody remembers this everybody was paying very close attention to this i was struggling for a long time and then we had a massive comeback in the second half of the year, finished 56 and 51, and lost on the coin flip to the fantasy guys in the contest in the Super Bowl. So it's a long season. We got a long way to go. We're going to be okay, Billy. Would you like our input or help making picks? It seems like you just want to handle it. So we've kind of left it to you. But if you'd like, we could say, hey, I think this, I think that. So it's up to you. Now, the timing of this based on when we record and when the picks are kind of supposed to be in. It doesn't line up perfectly for us to do a podcast. But we could do that.

Just to tell us the big shield. You don't want to trust me. It's fine. Okay, you trust me. I need the emotional support. You know, it's like Tom gave the beautiful story earlier this week. His daughter gets hit by the ball. He said, we got to get through. That's what I need for me. I need you to tell me, rub some dirt on it. Get out there. They're going to be okay. Okay. So we're going to bounce back this week. Today's Ringer 107 is brought to you by Fanduel. Make this. your most rewarding season, download the Fanduilab to check out all of our 107 picks

and boosted teaser every week this season. Okay, again, 0 and 5 last week, 6 and 9 on the season. Listen, no one's better than like 8 and 7, I think. So two games back. I mean, this is nothing. It's very early in the season.

First pick, we're going to a game we didn't talk about. We're going to my hometown, Philadelphia, but we're taking the Los Angeles Rams minus three at the Eagles. Eagles have some serious injuries this week. Zach Vaughn, middle linebacker,

dealing with a concussion. Devante Smith, by far their number one option in the passing game, dealing with a hamstring injury. It looks as of this recording, like those two guys are not going to play. And guess what? Even when they were out there,

the Eagles have been very up and down this season. I don't think they've had a strong start despite their two-and-one record. Defense has been a disappointment. Coverage busts all over the place. Only three sacks in three games. I thought the Rams played really well last week, even though they blew that game against the Denver Broncos. I don't think the Rams are going to fall to one in three. I think they're going to run the ball effectively. I like the Rams minus three against the Eagles. That's my first pick. All right. Okay. Just making sure, you know, giving you the option. If you had anything to tell. I mean, that's a bold pick. Okay. Go either way on that game. I don't have a good. feel for it right now. You're giving up on your hometown team, after the Phillies blew it yesterday.

Yeah, you know, when it goes negative, it goes real negative. Billy, sometimes it compounds and just a really bad week for a city. That could be this week for Philadelphia. Sometimes she was walking out of the batters box and you boot the ball across the field and hope no one else. Yeah, that was something. All right. We go to Charlotte for the next pick. I'm taking the Detroit Lions minus three and a half at Carolina. Tom gave us the news earlier this week. The There's dealing with those big cornerback entries. That's how they were built with those cornerbacks. Like that's how their defense was built,

but those two guys being able to play a little man coverage or at least match up with opposing receivers one-on-one. Now they don't have those guys. Mike Jackson, J.C. Horn. Lions' offense has been excellent so far this season. And I think this is a really tough matchup for the Carolina Panthers unless they create some turnovers, unless Bryce Young, who is also dealing with an injury

and they've got O line injuries. just think this is one of those spots where the Panthers are going to be playing a lot of backups. I don't think they have the deepest roster. And I just think on paper, there's a huge talent advantage between the two teams taking the field in that game. So I've got the Lions minus three and a half at Carolina for my second pick. So there you go. To me it comes down to can either of these teams stop the other from throwing all over them? Like the secondary injuries for both teams are just wild right now.

So it could be a shootout. Yeah. If Bryce Young lights them up. I'm not going to be feeling good about this pick. But you know what? You just got to win by three and a half. You don't have to win by 10.5. Lions, you can get that done.

All right, third pick. We are going to Tampa with the Green Bay Packers take on the box. I like the Packers minus three and a half in this game. The Packers made the unorthodox move this week of just being like, give us all of the veteran free agents. All of them that are out there, sometimes you see teams like try them out and they're like, let's pick our favorite one. They're like, no, we want all of you.

Kevin Zitler, Lake and Tomlinson, Mackay Beckton, all please, book a flight to Green Bay, Wisconsin. They sign all of them. Am I convinced that that's going to go great? No, but this is a bet on the infrastructure in Green Bay, okay? Matt LaFleur is a good coach, I believe that. Jordan loves a good quarterback. I believe that.

You're one and two. You need the game and you're going up against a rookie UDFA where you know what, if he ends up being really exciting and we're coming on next week being like Jail and J. Daniels, that was incredible. I'll take the L there, but I don't think that's the most likely scenario. Tom, I know you said you're writing about Daniels. How nervous should I be that he just becomes the story of week four in the NFL?

The thing with Jalen Daniels is nobody can be totally certain what this is going to look like. When he drops, when he goes out there, something's going to happen on every snap, whether it's him using his legs. He does have a pretty big arm, but it may be a little chaotic. It may not be the structure of what the play is actually. supposed to look like. They really believe in him, though, from everything I've been told he's had a good week of practice. There's a reason that they didn't go out and sign a veteran. We'll see. I know Todd Bulls said Baker's going to miss at least three weeks.

He may be able to beat that timeline, but they need him. He's not going to play this week. They need Jalen Daniels to go out and play well. I tend to be on your side, though. I'm not as panicked about the Packers as everybody else. Clearly, they saw the same thing as everyone else with their guards and decided we need to change out all of them immediately. are banged up some spots. Micah Parsons isn't back yet, but I still think that's going to be a Packers team

that's going to be there at the end. So are the buck's just done because of the injury of the O and 3 starter? Are we kind of just like, yeah, this just wasn't their season. Like, we've ridden them off. No, because of the division. Yeah.

You know, I don't think anyone's going to run away with it. So it's going to be... They're only a game out of it right now. Yeah, it's like, you know, if they steal this game, it's just going to be a different conversation. If they steal, like, one of the next two, they've definitely been disappointing.

I thought they were going to be better. I still do think they have more talent probably than any other team in that division. So no, I don't think they're totally out of it just yet. But I do hope that they lose by three and a half points this week. And they don't play a division game until week seven. They haven't played anybody yet. So they play, they got the Panthers in week seven, Falcons in week eight, Panthers again in week 12, Saints in week 15,

Falcons again, week 16, saints again week 18. Like it's all backloaded in the division. Just winning those six games, you only need to find. two or three more with how the division has gone in recent years. You know, if you steal one against the Packers this week at home, that could feel like a little bit of a turning point here. But even if they lose,

you know, yeah, they got the Cowboys and the Steelers coming up those following two weeks, but like all their division games are still ahead of them. That means anything can happen. Well, and the Saints are playing the Falcons this week, so one of them has to lose, obviously. And Shield has the Panthers losing to the Lions. So two of the three teams ahead of them may also be losing this week if they do in fact

lose. Maybe if we do well on our picks. But if we don't, then those teams might win those games and I'll be crying next week. Okay, fourth pick here. This is the teaser. For those that don't remember, the teaser means you pick two sides, but you can move the line,

six points in whatever direction you choose. So we are going to Baltimore, where the Ravens are 11.5 point favorites against the Tennessee Titans. We're teasing that down to five and a half. They just have to cover the five and a half against the Tennessee Titans, and we win that side of it.

And then Billy, I need you. I need your friends. I need your neighbors. Don't do it, Sheel. Get behind this Miami Dolphins team. Don't do it. Because the dolphins are 10.5 point home underdogs to the Minnesota Vikings. I'm teasing that up to 16.5.

They have to keep this game within 16 points against the Vikings, who as we discussed earlier this week, Vikings aren't looking to put up 35 points. offensively. They don't need the offensive fireworks. They're just looking to let Brian Flores do his thing and win the game. Dolphins quietly competitive last week against the Chiefs. And I'm telling you, Malik Willis is not playing bad football. I swear, he looks like an absolute competent NFL quarterback right now. Malik, just run around a little bit. Use your legs. Don't turn the football over. It's Brian Flores. Just keep this within 16 and a half. So here's the tease. real quick, and then I know Billy, you guys, you look very nervous about my pick here. I'm worried about this. I've got, so it's Ravens minus five and a half at home against the Texans, dolphins plus 16 and a half

at home against the Vikings. They're on the road. Shale. Dolbians are on the road. To be clear. Oh, boy. This is a good, guys. See, this is, okay, so this is a little point for maybe me to run my picks by you guys.

Carol cheese in town this weekend. We're sticking with them. I've always said, A leak Willis, saw in the road, indoors. That's a spot I'm comfortable with. You have always said that historically. Here's the bad two shield. They have been outscored by 50 points through three games.

So they've only scored 36 points. They've given up 86. And quick math on my calculator, you need them to lose by no more than 60. They have been outscored by an average of 16.6 points a game. So they're going to need a slight improvement in this game to get to the 16 and a half. Slight, very slight improvement. And we win this bet. As you've always said, never doubt Malik Willis

indoors in Minnesota. That's where he thrives. Week four is usually where he kind of finds himself, Tom. I know you've noticed this in the past. He's one of those slow starter. Week four, he's like, I'm locked in. I'm going to cook Brian Flores here. The Brian Flores Revenge game.

Does that play any role in this for you, Sheal? God dang it. I really should know. You are a Miami and a Minnesota guy. I really should have run this one by you guys. But I will say, though, on which side revenge game? You know what I mean? Do the dolphins want to, like, show up and embarrass him?

Or does he want to, like, really, like, lock in and embarrass the dolphins? How do you say, what left? Is there anyone from Brian Flores' Dolphins that's still on the roster? Just the ownership group, if you really want to share. Yeah. New front office. They're more focused on F-1 and stuff. Yeah.

But Tom, I did hear Kevin O'Connell say he's like, Jeff Hathley's one of his best friends in coaching. You think maybe he takes a little bit easy on him. Aftly's played him tough. Go back to the Green Bay games against the Vikings. You know, they, JJ McCarthy had a terrible game against them last year. I like this one, the familiarity. That's a, that's a notch in my belt. We're back in, baby.

Wasn't a Belichick move kind of like throws some scraps at some of his former coordinators, like when they had things locked up? Like, ah, we'll toss one here to, you know, Josh McDaniel, get him another fraud head coaching job or something. I don't remember. Maybe. I think it's tough. No Devon A. Chan. They are, they're playing really hard for Halfley.

If you watch, like last week, all their games so far, you know, they've played the Raiders, which now in hindsight looks like a tougher game. They played the 49ers. It might be the best team in football. And then last week they took the Chiefs of the Wire. Like, he is going to max everything out of that team and they still might be a two-win team. Like, he's in the spot, Brian Flores was back in, what was his first year? 2019, where it's like they won five games.

It's like, guy, you can be coach of the year for doing that. Like, Halfley's got those guys playing hard. They just, year one of like, you know, conservatively a three-year rebuild. I don't know. If I'm Kevin O'Connell, even without Justin Jefferson, potentially, I'm probably taken this week to go, let's try to open it up a little bit more, knowing that our margin for error might be a little bit wider. And maybe that leads to a couple of picks. And maybe that helps the dolphins keep a close shield. There you go.

You don't need to win dolphins. You just need to lose by fewer than 17 points. You can use that, Jeff Hathley, in your pregame speech Saturday night, if you need to motivate these guys. So those are the picks. Here we go. Recap them real quick here. We've got the Rams minus three at the Eagles. We've got the Lions minus three and a half at Carolina.

We've got the Packers minus three and a half at Tampa. I've got all road teams here. I didn't realize that. Fourth pick, we've got the teaser. Yeah, well, bad job by me. Ravens minus five and a half at home. Dolphins plus 16 and a half on the road. Well, you don't want to face Malik Willis on the road indoors in October.

as I've always said. So those are the ringer. The last pick will come on social media this weekend. Okay, today's Ringer 107 was brought to you by Fandul. Download the app now to find all of our 107 picks and make this your most rewarding season. Fan Duel. Play your game. Odds subject to change.

Shield Capati is Road Warriors week four. We'll be kicking back and seeing exactly how that all plays out come Sunday. We are back with this show on. Monday. I think we're still post-Munday night football for that one. We'll talk about all the games. We'll talk about the week that was spin it forward. I'm sure there'll be some fresh hell that breaks loose between now and then. We'll have planning to discuss as always. Appreciate you all watching and listening to us for Chris Arjun, everybody behind the scenes. Shield and Billy, I'm Tom. We'll see you. 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C.

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