The Ringer NFL Show - Dan Campbell Isn't Concerned With Your Lions Coordinator Questions, With Diante Lee

Episode Date: September 23, 2025

The Ringer’s Diante Lee joins Sheil to discuss, debate, and analyze the Detroit Lions' impressive victory over the Baltimore Ravens in a ‘Monday Night Football’ classic. (00:00) Intro/cold open (2:28) Detroit Lions make a statement win (9:32) Dan Campbell’s influence / The fourth-down play (15:59) Lions' defensive game plan (20:45) Where do the Ravens go from here? (26:39) The Hurry Up: The Nick Bosa injury The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.rg-help.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Sheil KapadiaGuest: Diante LeeProducer: Chris SuttonSocial: Kiera Givens and Brian WatersProduction Supervision: Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. I'm your host, Shield Capati, here with Deonté Lee. We just got finished watching a very entertaining Monday night football game. Lions go to Baltimore, beat the Ravens 3830. Deonti, I think it's the most impressive win by any team through three weeks this season. Is that a crazy take? Not a crazy take. I think that the way I'm thinking about this game, you usually associate with like college football, right?

Your statement win, your identity win, your proof of content. accept victory. I feel like that's exactly what we just witnessed on Monday night. This felt like a Dan Campbell. I'm shutting everybody up who has been talking for the last couple weeks about my coordinator hires. I'm shutting everybody up, you know, who are concerned about whether Jared golf is going to be the same quarterback that he's been with Ben Johnson now that that guy's out the door. This defense obviously dominated. I know we'll get into all of that. But this felt very much like an intentional statement to the rest of the NFC, really the NFL at large, that Detroit's not going anywhere just because some coordinators left the building.

I think we have the same big takeaway. So let's take a break. Let's come back. There's so much to get to on both sides from this game. We'll do it when we come back. This is the Ringer NFL show presented by Fandul, and the NFL is officially back. So if you're going to be in it, be in it with Fandul. They've got the goods, futures, live betting, SGPs, Your Way bets, all of it.

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Must be 21 plus and present in select states. We're 18 plus and present in D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-HALP.com. Call 1-88-78-97777 or visit cpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. Paid endorsement. All right, we're back on the ring with NFL show. Deonti, I couldn't agree more.

That's my big takeaway from this game is that this is as much of a statement game as you can have in week three. You know, the lion said, we're still here. Don't forget about us, especially the coordinator thing. You mentioned, it's like, you can shut up about our new coordinators now because we are a complete team and we can win the freaking Super Bowl. There's just been so much talk about them, their window. Did they miss their chance? And those were legit concerns with the coordinators, you know, would they be up for the challenge, the new offensive linemen who were in there? But teams don't go into Baltimore during this era of Ravens football with Lamar Jackson,

healthy and win in that impressive of a fashion. I mean, the core of this organization, the Lions, just continues to impress. They're now 29 and 8 over the last three seasons. Most wins in the NFL. And I know it's early, but I feel like they have as good a chance as any team in the NFC to get to the Super Bowl. You'd have to think that way. And I was going through power rankings before those run, probably around the time that you

guys will be listening to this podcast. The statement I made about Baltimore is that, Lamar Jackson aside, you've got to look across that sideline in Detroit and say, hey, isn't that the team that we're supposed to be? Wow. You're supposed to be the team that matches you up front that can run the ball at will,

that can take the run game away from you whenever we want to. They can pressure your quarterback at will. And that was exactly what Detroit did to win this football game, especially once you get outside of the opening script that Baltimore had, you know, and this was actually, it was funny seeing how the game flow worked out. Because early in the game, I thought that Baltimore was really owning the line of scrimmage on first and second down, especially when Detroit had the ball.

There was really no room for Jemir Gibbs and David Montgomery to work into. A lot of their possessions were being sustained by third down, long yard age. They're able to convert and move the chains. And we've watched that kind of game a bunch of times. And you think like, okay, eventually this stuff is going to start eveninging out. You're not going to convert these third and sevens, third and eighths, third and twelfth time over time. And maybe Baltimore is going to be able to stack a couple of good defensive possessions together to take control of this game.

And then you look up midway through the second quarter, and it's like, wait, that's not happening. Actually, it's the opposite. And the more that this game goes on, the more that Detroit is really kind of leaning on this defensive front that Baltimore has. I'm obviously missing now in Madabika. And I think that his absence was sorely, sorely missed in this game on Monday. But I just could not look away from how often first down, second down, Detroit is getting

in heavy personnel. You know the run game's coming. There's nothing that Baltimore can do to stop it. And specifically in the second half, you really saw those pass rushers start tearing off once they figured out that Baltimore really couldn't block them up front. Even when they were only rushing three, we saw Lamar Jackson really kind of struggling with managing the pocket

because his tackles and guards were struggling up front. It's a great point. I didn't think about it that way, but you're absolutely right. I mean, the Ravens, when they're clicking, are the team where it's just like, man, they're unstoppable. There's too much physicality at the line of, scrimmage and then with Derek Henry and their run game.

And that was the Lions today with two, again, I know the Ravens had injuries. We get that on defense. Listen, a lot of teams have injuries this time of year. And I know those are good players that they were without. But it was just such a big two weeks for the Lions when you look at their offense after week one in Green Bay where you say like, uh-oh, this could be a problem without Ben Johnson and without the veteran offensive linemen. And you have two young guards in there.

And then to do that in Baltimore, where statistics. Diante, based on EPA per drive, this was the best game by any offense this season. Because I know it might not feel like that way to everyone, but when you consider they had two touchdown drives of 95 plus yards, like, that doesn't happen in the NFL. It's so funny. I like Akeman as an announcer, but I also like that it reminds me of sort of the old school way of thinking a lot of times where he'll just be like, you know, I would take the points here or, you know, you just want to get a first down here. Like he was, and that's not wrong. lot of coaches think that way that you're backed up at your own five.

You just want to get a first down, get in position where you can get a good punt off. But it's like, that's not how the lions operate. That's why I love watching this team. They are like what I want for my football team where they're like foot on the gas. We're at our own five. Okay, let's pick up the first, first down. Then the second one, let's get an explosive. Let's run the ball.

And they run for 224 yards in this game. Jared golf not sacked. To your point, I mean, Jared golf not sacked. in this entire game. And then I think the John Morton, you know, aspect of this is big. Because let's be honest. It's not like we know John Morton well. And it's like we have a long history with this guy.

But we know him because he replaced Ben Johnson. And we know Ben Johnson was very good at his job last year for the Detroit lines the last few years. And so I felt like, are we going to see that type of offense? Even if it looks good, is it going to feel the same way? And that call on fourth down with the handoff to Amman Ra, St. Brown. and then he flips it to Jemir Gibbs for the touchdown. I mean, the crispness of a play like that and the execution, that just speaks to how well of a coach team you are

when you're able to execute something like that. 1,000 percent. And I think that it speaks to exactly what is typified at Detroit win over the last three seasons, right? That they can rip those types of plays off kind of at moments notice because they are so sharp in their execution. but the reason why the trick plays, the deep play actions, the double moves are so effective is because it is all grounded in this foundational belief that they can line up and take five yards

whenever they want. And if you're not ready to defend those five yards, it will quickly turn into 20 with Jamir Gives. It will quickly turn into 35 with Jamison Williams. It can quickly turn into 15 with San Leport and Amonrod, St. Brown. And to be able to do that against a Baltimore defense, which I think we need to have a maybe longer conversation about the state of this defense in general this year because of how they've looked against other top competitors in the NFL so far this season. But to be able to do that against the Baltimore defense, that does sell out on loading up the line of scrimmage to take away the run game that wants to play tight coverage.

I mean, we said this at the top of the show. So much of this, I think, just speaks to who Dan Campbell is as a temperature setter in that building that you can go on the road against another competitor, another contender in this league and feel like there's nothing they can do to beat us at the line of scrimmage. Yeah, let let's stick with Dan Campbell because you're so right about all the, and I love what you said about, you know, it's about the basics of sort of just smash mouth. We can run the football and now you have to be ready for that. And so now we can do if you just are doing all the pretty stuff, it's not going to work without

the stuff that is actually at your core. So I think you're right about that. But Deonti, we got to have a moment for the nerds. You know, you're talking about the beautiful exes and O's, but you know, you got some nerd in you as well with me. And I'll try not to get preachy here with it. But 156 left, Lions up 3124. They have a fourth and two from their own 49.

No hesitation. They're going for it. They don't want to give Lamar Jackson the football back. Beautiful play called play action. Jared Goff, Tom, Monra, St. Brown, 20 yards. and then David Montgomery runs it in for the long touchdown. They put the game away. Now, Deonte, let's have a little hypothetical here.

If that pass goes incomplete, the talking heads are going crazy about how analytics have ruined football and coaches no longer have common sense. But guess what? Now all those people are quiet. Or now they'll say, you know what they'll say now? Deonti, they'll say, well, of course you go for it there.

You are liars. And I know who you are out there. how you would have described this if they would have failed in one of those instances. But we know that it's about process over results. And that's not just something you say. It's just the fact that you don't know the outcome when you have to make the decision. And this was another example that the Lions have a terrific process. They mentioned it during the broadcast that John Morton knows when they're in four down territory.

So he can make a play call on third down knowing that we're going to go for it on fourth down. There are teams in the NFL that don't do that. We all watch the games on Sunday. And so I love that. They don't waste time making decisions. The players know what to expect. And they've practiced the fourth down calls. Like a lot of times it's like, all right, you decide you want to go for it.

But are the players confident that during the week, we have rep this and we know what plays we want to go to in this situation? So I thought today was just such a, like, beautiful example of what it's supposed to look like. You know, they converted three huge fourth downs in this game. And even if they got stuffed, it still would have been. been the right decision. So let's remember next time with another team and it doesn't work out and people get all up in arms about the analytics. Go check their timelines and say, hey, did they have anything to say during that Lions Monday night game? So sorry. You knew that was coming. Do you part with me enough to know that was coming?

1,000% I knew that was coming. And I would say, I would say this. And the funny thing about the conversation about fourth down decision making is that so much of it, so much of the reaction to it, I should say, is based on reputation. Right. And it's one of those things that like we have biased, we bias ourselves so heavily to the teams that win and go forward on fourth down. Right. And negatively, you know, the inverse of the teams that lose when they go forward on four down, right? You think about Brandon Staley. And I think that he probably existed on like some pretty extreme ends of the margins at times. But I think that's also reflective of the fact that he knew he was dealing with a flawed roster. They just came up short in quite a few nationally televised fourth down decision making. I think that what you spoke to. not only the decision. Like when we went to the two-minute warning, I was trying to get my laundry together,

and I had a moment where I was like, I can't leave the room because I need to see this fourth down. I know they're going for it on fourth down. I want to see this play out, right? And for them not to just run like, you know, a sprint out to the sideline, and we're going to try to hit Sam LaPorteur literally an inch and a half past the yard, you know, the line to gain.

We're not just going to run a toss to Jemir Gibbs and just hope that he can make a guy miss on basically a glorified punt return. They go play action. And Jared Gough doesn't take the little dump off out into the flat. He sees, oh, we're getting manned coverage. I like my matchup with my big receiver running this big corner route. Why not take the shot, right? There's nothing to lose.

And I think that, again, this speaks to the confidence that I think Dan Campbell has breathed into his team. The fact that they do prepare, I think that you look at the way that they execute on fourth downs and how they've executed prior to John Morton taking this job. It's the same way you talk about like the best teams in the NFL and two-point conversion situations where you know, like there's no hesitation. Nobody on the sideline is waiting to see what the decision is. We know what our two point play is. We're getting right on the field.

We're going to execute it. And we know we're going to have a great option. And then you look at the other side of this game when Baltimore has got a goal to go situation, three straight opportunities within a yard and half of the goal line, stuffed, stuffed. And I thought, an awful execution of a play call on fourth and goal trying to do this rollout. You've got Zay Flowers running the back line of the end zone. I don't understand why your smallest wide receiver is the guy running on the back line of the end zone because you would like for Lamar Jackson to be able to lay the ball up,

especially when you have a guy that has freakishly like alien-sized hands on this team in DeAndre Hopkins. And you have another big jumper, you know, in Rashad Bateman and Mark Andrews, right? There are so many other options I think they could have gone to. So you just kind of see those differences in late game execution. And to me, again, I think that there are a lot of ways you can look at it. We haven't even gotten to the Derek Henry Fumble yet. But to me, I think that this game, the story of this game is the second half because that is where adjustments were made by Detroit. They really felt confident in their run game.

And they basically held Baltimore at arm's length the rest of the way. After they take the lead, they were able to kind of keep them away for the rest of the game. And I think that that speaks so highly of just how well this team has executed and he's got to have it situations, especially bouncing back from the way they looked in the second half of the Green Bay game to open the season. Yeah, no doubt about it. Let's take a break. I want to come back and talk more about that. Talk about the defense. We've got to give the Lions defense some love. And then, like you alluded to, where do the Ravens go from here?

It's a one and two team that's going to Arrowhead next week. So what does this look like? How do they look better? And how do they bounce back after this loss? We'll do all that when we come back. This episode is brought to you by NFL Sunday ticket on YouTube TV. NFL Sundays are back and you won't want to miss the action. NFL Sunday ticket and YouTube TV lets you catch every game, every Sunday all in one place.

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Commercial use excluded, no refunds. All right, we're back on the Ringer NFL show. My last thing on the Lions, Deontes, I want, you know, the Normies. On behalf of the Normies, I want to be able to claim Kelvin Shepard before the hipsters get to them. I'm with you. I'm too late. Okay, you're with me? No, no, yeah.

It's not too late. He's ours. He's ours. I mean, dude, that was an impressive defensive game. I know you can look at the box scored. Say, what are you talking about? The Ravens scored. If you watch the Ravens every week from last year to this year,

you know that that was a very impressive defensive performance. I mean, they were forcing Lamar Jackson to hold on to the football. Seven sacks against him. I don't remember seeing a defense. Like, you see defenses get in position to maybe bring him down, but that's the beauty of, like, Lamar Jackson. He just, he's going to shake that off and come free. Seven sacks tied for most of any defense against Lamar.

Jackson in his entire career. And so I thought that was so impressive. Guys like Al-Qadine Muhammad was terrific in this game, just the effort he was playing with, Aidan Hutchinson with the big forced fumble and then the sack later. So I thought even though the numbers might not necessarily show this, that the Lions' defensive performance might have shown me as much as, if not more, than what they did offensively. 1,000 percent.

I remember, you know, in last year's iteration of the podcast, when we got on after the Sunday after the Bengals that played the Ravens the first time, right? That went down to the end. There was the fumbles and it goes overtime and eventually, you know, the Ravens were able to kick a field goal to win this game. But I remember that game because Lou Aniruma threw the kitchen sink at Lamar Jackson. Every third down, you've got seven, eight guys walked up to the line of scrimmage. We're going to try to blitz you like crazy.

Then we're going to try to drop guys out from all these different angles and change the picture on you. And the Mar Jackson was just able to dice that defense up. I remember watching that game down the stretch and feeling like, well, if this is the level of quarterback play that we're getting out of a guy who was just supposed to be the most mobile quarterback in the league, you've got no answers. And then you look at a game like this, and it wasn't perfect the entire way.

I thought that Baltimore really kind of had their way in the passing game early in the action. But I think that eventually you see Kelvin Shepard start to figure some things out. Okay, you know, Aidan Hutchinson is having a great day. Al-Qaeda Muhammad was having a great day, even against Ronnie Stanley, you know, in these one-on-one situations, they're able to rush three and get home or flush Lamar Jackson, get him off his spot. Now you have a spy to go collect him when he starts to break contain.

I thought they did an excellent job in the second half in coverage. I mean, you know, you saw some of those in-zone shots from ESPN on some of those sacks late in the game. I mean, you're looking at where Mark and go with the ball. There really aren't that many options, you know, especially with all the stuff working over the middle of the field. I think that that speaks so highly of Kelvin Shepard and his ability to kind of adjust on the fly. And I felt like on this staff, he was, I mean, Ben Johnson obviously leaves a huge gap. But I think that you can kind of borrow from an infrastructure that exists there offensively. We've seen that in Tampa Bay over the last few years as coordinators kind of phase out and phase in.

They've been able to kind of maintain their level. I thought it was going to be much more interesting to see whether or not Kelvin Shepard could step in and replicate a style of defense that Dan Campbell has been very intentional about maintaining, being aggressive, playing tight coverage, blitzing, you know, attacking in all these different ways. Not everybody has the stomach for that, right? And to see Kelvin Shepard have that in him and also be able to know, okay, we can dial it back here and still be effective in reaching all of our goals, this was exactly what you'd want to see from a guy who is wearing that headset for the first time in his career.

Yeah, when they said on the broadcast that his inspirations were, Spags and Aaron Glenn. I'm like, all right, it's my kind of guy. This is my kind of guy. Now, I don't want to hear any of this. Sit back and too high and limit explosive plays. No, that's not how defensive players are wired. I've made this argument before. Give me, give me someone who's going to be aggressive. And yeah, I want my defensive coordinator to say that like, I spent three months watching Rex Ryan and all the right. I want to see, I want a guy like that, right? I need to know that you kind of have a little bit of a screw loose in there. Be, you know, be intelligent, be well, for. prepared, but I need to know that when the chips are down, you're sending bodies at your problem. And that seems to be how Kevin Shepard is wired. Yeah. And it's a, it wasn't reckless. It was strategic. It was smart.

I mean, there aren't a lot of games where Lamar's holding the football like that to your point and doesn't have anyone open. I mean, this Ravens offense has just looked so unstoppable for a year plus now, even beyond that. But this version of the Ravens offense. So, yeah, I thought that was really impressive from the Lions defense in this game. All right. Let's finish with the Ravens, Deontay, and where they're. go from here. You mentioned it earlier. They look

across and maybe they're like, hey, that's the team we might want to be here. They've had injuries on defense. They're one and two. Like I said, they're going to Arrowhead. So either the Chiefs or the Ravens after next week will be one in three. What's the temperature check? If you have a Ravens fan in your life who calls

you up tonight and says, hey, man, how should I be feeling? Is this panic mode? Is this relax? Is this, hey, it's fixable. Where are you with this team after three weeks? It's layered, right? Because like, if you're calling, if you call me and you want to talk about the offense because of the fumbles or whatever, I'm going to tell you to take a breath, right? drinking glass of water, go to sleep. You'll be fine in the morning.

You know, like you put up 30 points in this one. You lose to the bills. You put up a bunch of points in that game too. Like, I think on the whole, you know, if you lose two games in which you score like 70 points combined in those two games, chances are the office is do it just fine, right? So like, there's that level of it. I would say on the other side of the ball,

you kind of got to be at orange, orange is reddish alert levels. I would think with Zach Orr, when you just think about the whole, on the whole from the start last season to what we've seen in these key games against top competition, there's been a major split to me in how this defense looks when they're playing inferior opponents and when they're playing their equals or teams that can look them eye to eye. And I think the second half of this game and the second half of the Bill's game was very instructive in that regard. And if you're going to like success rate in EPA, you can make the argument that they're the worst second half. defense in the NFL right now. Now, you have to adjust for quality of opponent. Opponent, yeah. And, you know, removing garbage time for other opponents, you know, for other teams. So that way you can get a more representative sample size. And it is early, but it is striking to me that this team, when they have played against their best competition over the

last couple of years, we have been left wanting with this defense, whether it's been the pass rush, not getting home. That was the story tonight, I think. You can't, you know, when Detroit is rolling in the run game, they can do so many different things. means a lot of times you're just kind of a hostage to just like whether or not these runs pop me, right? Especially the way that, especially with the Baltimore plays because it wasn't for lack of trying. They've got humongous bodies up front trying to take away these interior gaps and these runs are still going big. So there's only so much you can do from that regard, but to not be able to get after Jared Gough when you know over the decade, almost decade-long sample size of his

career that that's the best way to get him to panic and make mistakes. That's a big issue to me for as the defensive coach on the sideline, not being able to dial anything up to affect that guy. And then in coverage, it has just been way too often in these obvious passing situations where it looks like a quarterback is throwing on air or throwing against twos in seven on seven at practice. And you're looking around like, how could this possibly be the coverage plan where these guys are running digs, running these curl routes when you know they're just trying to get to the sticks and they're not being contested at the catch point? I think that for me, that's something that just has to be addressed. They've thrown every resource I think they could within reason at trying

to bring in veteran defensive backs to fill in that number two corner spot. None of them are really panned out. You've got to be concerned in that regard. And then I think just up the middle of the field, they have just slowly stepped back. Rockwon Smith is not at that same level of your Fred Warner, of your Zach Bond when it comes to working backwards in coverage. He doesn't take away those same kind of throwing windows. And you feel that, especially against a team like this, that relentlessly wants to attack you in the scenes. I just, I don't know where this defense is at. I'm not necessarily saying that I'm bailing on this team yet.

They're still ultra talented. You still have a potential MVP playing quarterback. I think that things will even out once you get to a lighter end of their schedule. I actually think their division shapes up much friendlier now than what we thought, you know, at the start of this season. But on the whole, man, if you're trying to compare this team to the other top five, top eight-ish contenders in the NFL, I don't know if you feel as strongly about what this defense can do if they're matched up against those opponents

as what we would like to believe a Baltimore team could do in those kind of hypothetical situations. Yeah, it's tricky because the defense took a while last year to get it together and then it felt like by the end of the year they were playing really well. So you want to give them all right, they got some new guys, they got some injuries, give them some time.

But it's undeniable. You know, when you give up 426 yards and it's the type for a Ravens team to get, run all over like they did with at home that that is not something that I think we're used to seeing so I'm with you offensively you're fine you're still playing really well you still have a great quarterback you have a scheme in place you have Derek Henry he's not going to fumble every game I don't think so you're going to be fine there and I think the division is a huge point I mean right now you're looking at it like they are heavy favorites to still win even if they lose next week to the chiefs and go one and

I will still say, come on here and say, they are heavy favorites to win the AFC North. I'm not buying the Steelers. The Bengals are going to be playing with Jake Browning and the Browns are the Brown. So, you know, you're the Raven. So you're looking beyond that. You want seating. You just want to be feeling good going into the playoffs, all of those things. But I still think they're kind of in that inner circle of Super Bowl contenders.

But I'm with you. Let's keep an eye on that offense, what it looks like next week against the Chiefs' off. I'm sorry, that defense, what it looks like against the Chiefs offense next week. Chiefs offense that has not necessarily been explosive. That might be a nice data point. What does it look like against Kansas City? I think that's a big watershed moment for both sides of the balls here.

Yeah, big game next week. Ravens at Chiefs at Arrowhead. Deontay Lee will be watching it. Deontay, thank you so much for joining me. I will be right back with the hurry up. All right, the hurry up is our closing segment where I give you a take on news in the NFL and we had huge injury news for the Sanford. 4-9ers, defensive end, Nick Bosa, tore his ACL on Sunday and is out for this season.

I would say, aside from Joe Burrow, this might be the biggest injury of the first three weeks, especially when you consider how the 49ers want to play and how their roster is built. I mean, they have the eighth lowest splits rate in the NFL, and that's not by accident. That's how they want to play with Robert Sala, with Kyle Shanahan. They want to get home with a four-man pass rush. but without Bosa, it's just not going to be possible, in my opinion. You know, through three games, the 49ers ranked 25th in sack rate. Bosa had two sacks and the rest of the roster had three sacks.

They're just not deep with their pass rush. That was going to be an issue coming into the season. So I think the 49ers have three options. One is to rely on guys to step up, Bryce Huff, the rookie Mikel Williams, the vet, Yitour Gross Matos. I just don't think that's a viable option if they are serious about competing for a Super Bowl. So that's option number one.

Option number two is to change how they play. Can you scheme it up and blitz more than maybe you actually want to trust your guys on the back end a little bit more? Maybe, but again, they're not really built to play that way either when you just look at the roster and look at the secondary. Option number three is to make a trade. And I think we got to keep an eye on the Niners

between now in the trade deadline, these 0 and 3 teams, the Jets, the Giants, the dolphins, the other 0 and 3 teams, if their seasons go south, and if there are guys available, the 49ers have to look into it. They're 3 and 0. They've got an easy schedule.

They haven't looked like a great team, but they kind of survived this start with a bunch of injuries. And if they get healthy and start playing well, who knows? You know, the NFC is still wide open. I could see the 49ers deciding, hey, now's the time to be aggressive. So I don't think this is a next man up injury. Guys like Bosa and Michael Parsons and Miles Garrett and T.J. Watt and Max Crosby,

and we can go down the list. When you lose them, it changes everything. It makes it so much easier for opponents to prepare for you. I think the 49ers are going to need to do something. So we'll see if I'm right between now and the trade deadline. All right. Thanks to Christopher Sutton for producing Kira Givens on social and additional production supervision by Connor and Evans.

and Arjuna Rahm Gopal. We'll talk to you tomorrow on the Ringer NFL show. Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Help.com. Call 1-888-78-9-77-7-7-7 or visit ccpggat-org slash chat in Connecticut or visit MDGamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here.

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