The Ringer NFL Show - Drafting the Most Exciting Things of the 2022 NFL Season

Episode Date: September 8, 2022

Sheil is joined by Danny Kelly to pick the things they are most excited for in the 2022 season, including Russell Wilson in Denver (1:00), second-year quarterbacks (19:00), and Jerry Jones’s postgame press conferences (41:00). Host: Sheil Kapadia Guest: Danny Kelly Associate Producer: Mike Wargon Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal and Conor Nevins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, my name is Kevin Clark. I'm the host of a new football podcast called Slow Newsday. I want to tell you about it. On Mondays, Lindsay Jones and I will recap the weekend in football that was, as well as look ahead to what's next. On Wednesday, the normal Slow Newsday, the thing you've been watching for years, current players, current coaches, current analysts talking about the football world. And on Friday, it's a wild card.

Could be some college football. Could be more pro stuff. It's a video podcast so you can watch it on Spotify or listen to it wherever you get your podcasts. Follow on Spotify. It's Slow Newsday. Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. We have made it. It's week one.

It's a game day. Shield Capadia here joined by Danny Kelly, D.K. How does it feel? We got a game tonight, baby. I'm super excited. It's been a long time coming. It feels like the summer has kind of been, well, the preseason in particular has kind of been drag it out.

So I'm very ready for real football. That's right. Real football tonight. We're going to keep it simple today on the Ringer NFL show. At this point, you probably know what if you're, You care. You know what we think of different players, you know, different coaches, different teams. I put up my terrible predictions on the ringer that I'm going to get old takes exposed on for sure. And so we're going to keep it simple. I first heard this on the solid verbal podcast. So shout

out to them a couple of years ago. They did this exercise with college football. And it's very simple. All we're doing is we're drafting things that we're excited about for the 2022 season. It can literally be anything. I told Danny, anything you want. a player, a coach, a team nonsense that has nothing to do with any of those things. And so that's all we're going to do. It could be silly. It could be serious. If you listen and you say, hey, you guys should have said this.

You can tweet at us. You can let us know what you are excited for as you count down the hours to kick off. Danny, I don't think I need any other explanation here, right? We're just ready to go. I'm ready. Let's get right into it. You're the guests. Take the first pick.

What do you got? Wow. So are we ranking these? Like, this is the thing. I'm the most excited about or is just one of the things? It can be anything. I'll be honest. I didn't spend hours today ranking these in order from most excited to least excited.

I kind of just had them all in a bucket. Got it. That's fair. Okay, here's the first one I'm going to go with. Are they going to let Russ Cook in Denver? I think this is obviously one of the biggest storylines of the season, one of the biggest storylines, obviously in my area. I live in Seattle.

So I guess the question is, is this going to be a different version of Russell that we'll have seen over the last few years, obviously, the whole run-balancing that Pete Carroll wants to do. Was he holding Russell Wilson back all these years, or is Russell Wilson basically just going to look pretty much the same just in a different uniform? You know, same type of offense, deep shots, rollouts, lots of running, things of that nature. Or is this really going to be like a whole new Russell Wilson? I think this is going to be one of the most exciting things to see this year. I totally agree. Russ First, the Seahawks has everything I want.

the drama, the juice, Brady Henderson on ESPN.com had a great reported article today that even added more to the juice, were members of the Seahawks front office saying that Russ is declining, then he doesn't have his legs anymore. Like, I love it. And, you know, Russ is just fuming, like, oh my gosh, they didn't let me do it. You know, I should be mentioned with all the greats. And so what I love about this, and I've said this before, is that, like, we get some resolution. We get an answer. You know, as long as he stays healthy, by the time. week 18 rolls around. It'll either be, wow, you know, that Russell Wilson,

look what he was capable of doing there in Denver and Seahawks fans are going to be going to go, I can't, you know, oh my God, we wasted some of those years. How could we? Or Pete Carroll, you know, hey, he's no dummy, you know, they're going to be over there saying, shoot, we got out of the Russell Wilson business at the perfect time because they didn't give him away. They got the right, you know, amount of compensation for him. If you can say that, if you were going to move on, they didn't just say, all right,

let's just give him to the first bidder or whatever. So they could be sitting there going, you know what, we didn't have a great season. We went six and 11, but we've got these picks, we've got these wide receivers, we've got these tackles, and now we have an opportunity to draft whoever, Bryce Young next year. And you know what? It was one season with Gino and Drew Locke. It wasn't great. But guess what?

This time next year, we're going to be sitting pretty. So it's like one of the two things is going to happen. There's not really going to be any in between. I know. And there's not really much excuse for him in Denver because they have a lot of, good skill players, you know, they've got a system around him. Ostensibly that is going to be tailored to his strengths. I think it sounds like they're going to basically let him run the show on offense.

I'm a little skeptical that's 100% going to be true, but I think it sounds like they are going to let him kind of like, you know, do a lot of checks at the line, do a lot of up tempo, you know, obviously pass a lot more. So, yeah, it's going to be very interesting. And the results of that are going to be pretty telling for, you know, either Pete Carroll or Russell Wilson. And even starting Monday night, that'll be fun for a week one.

All right. This is probably a ridiculous one to be my first pick, but I'm excited for the Cardinals in-season hard knocks. Oh, wow. Have you been watching the Lions Hard Knocks? I admit that I have not. Okay. Well, that's fine.

But what's the funniest part about this is at the end of each Lions Hard Knocks, they do like a preview of the Cardinals Hard Knocks, which is going to be in season. And it's just like Cliff Kingsbury in like a dark room with this giant monitor and he's just like staring at it. And I'm just thinking like, whose idea was it in Arizona to allow this to happen? I mean, this is a franchise that extended its coach and GM after an embarrassing playoff loss after a three-year stretch in which they went 24, 24 and 1. They handed out extensions. Then the quarterback's agent goes public with contract demands. The Cardinals give in,

they put in this ludicrous homework clause. Then they take it out. They're a complete embarrassment. Then Cliff has Kyler calling preseason plays just to prove to him how hard it is. This is like, you know, when I ask, I'm like, I tell my like, you know, six-year-old, you have to make your own peanut butter and jelly. You're getting impatient with me. You see how, you know, you see how hard it is to spread these. And so when you squeeze the bread, the jelly doesn't fall out. This ain't easy.

It's like, this is what they're doing to the guy. They just gave all this money to. And now we're getting inside access to this team. And I know, listen, I know. know it's it's not everything. They get to decide what gets shown and what doesn't get shown. But what's funniest about this to me is it starts on November 9. This is a team that notoriously falls apart like right at November 9th every single year. The last three years, they're eight and 16 after November 9th. And so I don't know who agreed to this. This is going to be high drama.

Even if they're not like showing the stuff that we want to see, I just feel like this is going to be very entertaining. And you know what? Maybe I might just save this for myself to like the end of the year. I might not be watching it week to week. It might be one of those in like, you know, early March where you're kind of like, okay, I'm starting to kind of miss football a little bit. Let me get that taste. I'm excited for that. That's going to be fun. This point where you're talking about how that is like exactly where they start to decline every season of the Cliff Kingsbury era is so perfect too. Like, are we just going to be able to see them panicking as they're like, oh, no, it's happening again. Yeah.

How many shows they do? Is it four during the season, too? I don't know what. I think they do it through like the end of the year. So it might be like eight. It'll be like eight weeks or something like that. I don't even, yeah, I don't even think I watched. Last year was the Colts, I think.

I barely watched it. But this one I think is going to be much better. All right, what do you have for your second one? This is another one that's kind of ridiculous. But I'm interested to see what's going on with this Patriots coaching boondoggle or whatever, whatever you want to call it. This is a interesting strategy from Bill Belichick, who, of course, we cannot really question his strategy over the course of the last

couple of decades. He's always been elite, elite coach. But it's hard to understand exactly what he's doing here with Matt Patricia and Joe Judge as co-coordinators, whatever that means. However, it's actually going to work during the season. I don't know yet. I think that it's just going to be fun to see how this all plays out. Is this going to be a complete disaster?

Or is he going to end up kind of having the last laugh? and this thing's going to go a little bit better than we expected. This is, to me, one of the big, like, storylines of the AFC is, like, what is this offense going to look like? Are they just going to ruin Mac Jones right away? Yeah, because it's with any other team, it would just be, like, relentlessly mocking what in the world are you doing? You basically hired the two worst head coaches of, like, the last five years,

and now you're handing your quarterback over to them. I went a step further because I had this one lower on my list, And I just put for, I'm excited for Bill Belichick to get fed up with Matt Patricia and Joe Judge, like just, just waving the tablet in front of their face and then slamming it to the ground or just like, you know, an old wrestling video where he's taking both their heads and just like headpotted off together like a ridiculous third down call. I mean, I have a hard time like seeing it work out for those two assistants. But I think we talked about this before. Like, there's definitely a scenario where Belichick's just like, all right, guys, go do something else.

I've got this and the offense is fine. Like I think it's almost gone too far because I don't think he'll let it get to that point. But I'm with you. It's just like, what is he thinking with this? Why is he doing this and how is it going to play out? That's absolutely a good one. And they're in like Miami all week to practice before this. I don't know if you saw that before like the dolphins game.

They're just like spending the week down there. I guess to get acclimated to the weather. So yeah, the Patriots are definitely interesting this year. I think they're almost more interesting than those years. when you knew they were going to just win the FAC East. And like, those teams weren't that interesting because you're like, all right, we'll see you, you know, the third weekend of January.

They're going to win 11 games. We'll see you in the playoffs. Yep. Yeah, now it's different. All right, that's a good one. All right, my next one here. I'm excited for Brandon Staley videos. This trend last year was outstanding where, like,

it would be, all right, Brandon Staley makes a fourth down call on Sunday. Like Phil Stimms goes on, and it's just like, analytics is ruining football and ruining America. And then like all the nerds like myself, you know, we all are like, oh, stop it. He made the right call.

It didn't work out. You know, process over results. And then like Bundy, Brandon, you know, there's all this talk about like new media with Draymond. Like Brandon Staley, pioneer of new media. I mean, I don't remember a coach just coaching, just recording these selfies in his office, like explaining why he went for it. Oh my gosh.

I forgot. Yeah. Those are the videos. You were probably like, what the hell? is he talking about what videos are these? I love this. I'm talking about those selfie videos where he's just like, we're going to be an aggressive team. I'm putting my players into the, I'm like, this is all I want on like a Monday afternoon when I'm trying not to write and I just want something to distract me. I want these videos. So I'm really excited about all the fourth down arguments.

You know, it's one, it's just year in and year out. You can count on it. The nerds like myself going, yes, they should have gone for it, you know, announcers and studio analysts getting all upset about it. And we all just had this argument and no one convinces anyone of anything. But I thought Brandon Staley added a nice little wrinkle into that last year with those videos. So I'm excited for them. I like that might even happen in week one. Yeah. We might get one right away.

He's like, you know, skipping the middleman, making his own videos, making his own media. I had the, I've had the running joke that he was at some point a commenter on SB Nation. Like not that long ago. Like just getting into arguments with like other fans about, you know, being like caring too much about defending the run. things like that. He was an innovator in like the 2012 to 2015 era on SB Nation. That's my joke. You know, you say joke. I don't know if that might not be that might not be that far off. If somebody wants, you know, there are some great internet sleuths out there who could probably just like, find him. But yeah, by the time there's there's kickoff tonight, they will have

messaged us going, this is his name and this is what he was saying in 2012. All right. What do you got? So you mentioned Miami. I am actually starting to convince myself that Miami is going be a fun offense to watch. Obviously, the Mike McDaniel variable is a big deal. We don't exactly know what he's going to bring. Is it going to be like a carbon copy of what we've seen with a 49ers offense? And stylistically, are they going to be super run heavy and basically run the 49ers offense?

Or is it going to be sort of like a mix of several different types of offense? I think obviously the trade for Tyree Kill over the offseason is huge. Jalen Waddle. I don't know if we've ever seen a team. with that combination of just explosive speed ever full stop? Like, I don't know if we've ever seen that. So I think this is just going to be interesting to see how this works out. The big thing, like, the big, you know, like variable or whatever,

like personality trait that I can picture like 49ers offense is it's yards after the catch. He's so, like, Shanahan is so good at scheming up guys to get him in positions to run off the catch. I think Waddle and Hill are both very well suited for this type of offense. I think there is a world. in which Tua fits this offense really well. So I don't know. Obviously right now, I think people are pretty much down on Tua, generally speaking,

and he hasn't really shown anything in the NFL, to be totally honest. So I get it. But I think there's a world in which Tua kind of like charges back. This is a great fit for him. He has the weapons to do the things that he's good at, which is really quick processing, get the ball out. He's got a pretty deep ball. You know, we saw all that at Alabama.

And I think now he's a couple years off of his injury. You know, maybe I'm just drinking the Kool-Aid, but like, I'm kind of excited to watch this. I agree that they're interesting because the, you know, the Tuaan, the Tua defenders are loud and aggressive, and that's fun, you know, so it's like, if, you know, if they're good, they're going to be letting everyone who doubt of the dolphins know about it. And there is, I'm with you, there's a scenario where they're good. Like, Mike McDaniel, I don't know, but if he's like an offensive guru with the personnel they have, then they're, they're not only, going to be good, they're going to be fun to watch. I'm skeptical of it. You know, I'm kind of like, I'll believe it when I see it. But this is one, like, I can envision myself being wrong. I'm not like aggressively like, no way, this isn't going to work. I'm sort of like, all right, I have to pick a side.

Here's my side. I'll see how it goes. And yeah, McDaniel with like the athlete leisure, you know, with the, he's letting players pick the music if they had a good day at practice. Like, I'm a sucker for all those little things when a new coach comes in and does does those. And so I think that's a good one. They're, you know, like the Patriots, they're another team that many years it feels like they're not relevant. And this year they are relevant. And it'll be like, okay, what did they do this week? All right. I might have my most ridiculous one here, what I'm excited for. But we were talking before we came on about how, you know, we can't relate to. I'm probably older than you. But, you know, some of the younger generation on the ringer, these kids, you know, they don't know some of the

issues people like you and I facing. So I'm excited for the, I don't know, fourth year, fifth year in a row to try to time up my afternoon coffee on Sunday perfectly. I don't know if this is an issue. You have or don't have. Is that what you're saying? Well, so now you're West Coast. So West Coast is absolutely the best coast to watch sporting events. Yeah. There's no, I, when I was in Seattle for the two years, I'm like, this is amazing. I never have to stay up that late. I don't have to kill time in the morning. Like sports are just on when I wake up. I love this life. And then I move back east. And it's a whole different set of issues. And so, you know, I like having the big coffee when I wake up. That gets me, you know, going. But then, like,

this is, you know, this is very old guy first world problems. But like 11 hours in front of that TV. And you got to be plugged in. You know, you have to have notes and get ready for your takes and your whole week is set up by those 11 hours. So, like, I try to time. it up. When do I have that coffee so that I'm still powering through Sunday night football, but I can't be tossing and turning at bed on Sunday night. And then all of a sudden, you know how it is. Monday, you wake up. Oh, my God, I didn't get good sleep. And now I got to do all this stuff. And then your kids are acting crazy. So there will be a segment of the Ringer audience right now who is going like, what are you talking about? No one's ever sounded

older on a Ringer podcast. But these are the issues you face as an old guy. And so I've been trying to time this up perfectly over the years. I've not perfected it. What is the time? Do you know what time you're approximately drinking that coffee? You know, someone told me that like coffee like stays in your system for six hours, like the big caffeine. I mentioned this to my sister who's a doctor and she's just like, that's totally like, no, that's wrong. It stays in there for much longer. There's no way that's correct. She's like it stays in there for much longer than that. It will affect you. So usually I feel like half time of the one o'clock games. is when I go for the second dose.

And, you know, I feel like that'll definitely get me through the late window there in the afternoon. But you know what? Now we're doing the Philly special show. And so we're going to have to record like an Eagles podcast on the Sunday night. So I got to bring the energy on that. You know, Solac. Like, he always sounds like he just had eight cups of coffee.

And so I mean, Solac is the one person. He's the one person that I can't listen to podcasts on anything but like 1.0 speed. You know what I mean? Like he's already talking at 1.5. if you try and up it to anything higher, it's like unintelligible. But yes, I like this one.

I have very little experience doing the sports watching thing on the East Coast. Like, I've gone to a few games on the East Coast, and it's always striking to me. It's like,

this game is getting over at one in the morning. Like, what do people do? On this, like, that's insane to me. And I'm like,

being on the West Coast, we get up, we start prepping immediately because the game start at 10 a.m. And you got to be going, like, we got to be getting

information like collected by like eight o'clock or whatever. So like you're getting everything going for the day. It is kind of like the peek behind the curtain. It is kind of like a long day. You have to be synthesizing all the information. There's just chaos happening across the NFL. You have to be like you said, picking out like the most like important takes, the most important takeaways from the day.

And then you're so amped up when it's all over. It's hard to go back to sleep or it's hard to go to sleep just because it's been such like a crazy day. So I feel you on this one. I think we are around the same age. So I get it, but I have the advantage of, by the time I'm ready to go to bed, it's like, you know, probably 12, 31 a.m. on the West Coast, I can't even imagine. On the East Coast, you guys are just literally staying up all night? How does that even work?

I know, it's crazy. You know, we're not digging ditches. We're not doing anything really important. But these are the problems for football podcasters. Your So lack of note was hilarious, because I just had a friend today, text me. He goes, as you know, I have been doing 2x podcast speed for years and think everyone should do it. but I think Solek has broken me. I need to stow it down for his pods. So I was going to bring that up to him on our next Philly special episode, but since you said the same thing, that's hilarious.

All right, what do you got? What's next? So I'm combining a few here together, and if you want to separate them out and talk individually, that's totally fine. But I'm excited for the second year quarterbacks. I really am excited to watch. I'll just list them off here, and then we can break them down individually. Trevor Lawrence in Jacksonville,

Justin Fields in Chicago, Tray Lance, San Francisco, Mack Wilson, if he does end up playing in New York. Davis Mills, who is maybe a thing. And Mack Jones, of course, in New England, who we already kind of talked about. But, like, starting with Lawrence, you know, obviously with so much hype coming into the NFL, the first year was a complete and utter disaster. And I think it's going to be fascinating to see how much of that is attributable to, you know, the coaching there, the lack of coaching under Urban Meyer.

Like that was, like, it was legitimately maybe like worst case scenario for any rookie quarterback to come into. And now we're going to Doug Peter. who you know very well, you know, from your time covering the Eagles. Like, what do you think Doug Peterson brings for Trevor Lawrence? I guess is my first question for you. Yeah, this was actually, I had, I'm excited for Doug Peterson and Trevor Lawrence on my list here. So I'm with you there.

You know, I'm not like a full Lawrence, I don't want to use the word like truther, but, you know, like there's some people, some people are rationally like, no way. He's the greatest. Yeah, he can't miss. He's going to be unbelievable. And that might be the case, but I'm with you. Like to just think about that situation coming into the NFL and your first experience is playing on that Urban Meyer team.

Like that is not fair. I mean, that is just not not the situation you want to be. And I'm with you. I think it probably was the worst situation for any quarterback, at least number one pick, could come into. So Doug Peterson will bring competence. He will be a players coach, like players are, even if they go four and 13 this year, players are not going to be like, oh my God, we hate Doug Peterson.

He's a joke. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's not going to happen. So that like just being a normal human being, even in Philadelphia, like there were people who thought he should be fired when he was fired and thought his time was up, but they would always add like, but, you know, we still really like him as a person. Like that was pretty much universal from everyone there. So I think he'll bring that him.

With Lawrence, I mean, I think it'll just bring some stability, you know, like Peterson's a calm, a calm guy with the people around him. Like I remember the Eagle Super Bowl year, I did a story where I think I just went around to every assistant coach and asked like, what's Peterson's best attribute? And everyone said,

like, he's the same guy on Monday regardless of whether we won by 40 or lost by 40. And they're like, that just means when you're putting in like all those hours in the office and you know the coach isn't unhinged like their coach was last year,

I think that definitely means a lot. So those are some of the things and we'll see what they do offensive. I mean, I didn't think he was like necessarily an offensive innovator. Like, I don't think he's going to be somebody who you just look at his scheme and go, wow, they're, you know, they're doing unbelievable stuff. He sort of tries to figure it out. I think there were times when he was a great play caller if he has the right scheme in place.

So I think that'll certainly help them. I think they'll make wise in-game decisions. That was probably underrated with Peterson. Like, they'll go for it when they should on fourth down. You know, they won't be wasting timeouts early in the first quarter, all those things. he's really good at. So it's just, yeah, it's just a more stable situation for Lauren. So I'm like, yeah, I'm excited to see what those two guys do together.

I think the Jaguars could win like seven, eight games that wouldn't surprise me in that division. So I like that that's a good one. Yeah, I mean, I think back on Lawrence's rookie season, obviously I think he tied for the NFL lead in interceptions, which was part of the thing was like he was just, there's not much town around me. I'm going to have to like push the envelope if we're going to do anything in this game. Yolo, let's just throw it into coverage and see what happens. I think there was a lot of that. You know, there's a little bit of like inaccuracy here and there, but like generally

speaking, I thought he looked pretty good. He flashed a lot. But the big thing for me was like, man, he was just very calm all year long. Like he never got, I never saw him freak out. I mean, obviously, I didn't watch every snap. But I never saw him like freaking out or yelling at anybody or even getting down on himself. So I think that definitely will, you know, help him in the second year as like we transitioned to like what's, I think it's going to be a professional coaching staff and professional

organization. So super excited for that. Obviously with, you know, the other, the other quarterbacks, Justin Fields, I think, I'm just very intrigued with what's going to have in there. Obviously, I think he's more of like a 2023 watch type of guy. Just this year could be tough for the Bears. Trey Lance, the situation with Jimmy Garoppolo makes things a little bit more interesting. Like there is a chance, at least in theory, that he could get benched now.

If he's playing terribly through X amount of games, like maybe they pull the plug and just like try and win because they're obviously set up to be like a very good team this year 49ers. And so I think that's going to be interesting. But yeah, I think just like this second year, this class of second year quarterbacks could be the future of the NFL, could be like the next generation of great quarterbacks in the league or maybe we only get like one or two. I don't know. Everybody, I think pretty much to a guy other than, well, even Lawrence, like we still haven't really, we can't really tell yet. what they're going to be. Yeah, I think Fields, like, if Fields is actually good this year, it'll say a lot.

If, like, if you can perform with the situation he's in, you know, it's kind of like, with some of these guys, like Justin Herbert was not in a great situation, his first year, you know, with Anthony Lynn was the coach, and they were so conservative in the offensive line stunk, but it was just like, okay, he could just, wow, he's going to lift everybody around. Yeah, yeah. It was very clear. Yeah, you could even say that about Burrow, you know, even like last year. you were playing with one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL,

then you still found a way to be really good. So I do feel like you want the young quarterback to be in a good situation. Like that is no doubt the right way to do it. But sometimes when they're in a terrible situation and they still perform, that's like a, oh, okay, we really know that we're in a good spot and now we can build around. Trust me, I don't think the bears, this is their thinking. I don't think they did this on purpose to, you know, test Justin Fields. But if he does that, that'll be interesting.

And then to me, the 49ers might be the most interesting team in the NFL. I mean, this Lance, Jimmy G, I'm sure Niners fans are just like, shut up. It's going to be fine. They're grown men. They're so sick of it. Yeah. And I understand it, like, from a fan perspective for sure. But I'll tell you what, as like an objective observer, I mean, the potential drama there,

or not even the drama. Like, maybe Train Lynch just comes in and lights it up. And like, we don't even hear from Jimmy G. And he's just on the sideline every week. And like, that would be a fun out. outcome because like peak lance is going to be a really fun player in that scheme especially so that would be fun and then like if lance isn't good then you are getting the jimmy g drama and i'm sorry but for me that's fun too because you just wanted you want to see the world burn is that what you're saying

yeah yeah i mean if jimmy if jimmy plays there's super bowl contenders they have been if jimmy g's healthy in place they're super bowl contenders so that's fun too um and so i i think based on kind of the wide range of outcomes. The Niners are a very interesting team, so I like having Lance in there. Kickoff week one with Fandul, America's number one sportsbook. Join today to get started with $150 in free bets guaranteed when you placed your first $5 bet. Just sign up with promo code Ringer NFL to get in on the action. Then you can turn game day into payday all season long. $150 in free bets. Let's see. You could go with Justin Herbert to win a MVP. You could go with the Vikings to make the playoffs. You could go with Michael Parsons to win

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or visit www.1-800 gambler.net in West Virginia. What do I have next on here? I just have a coach. I'm excited for Mike Tomlin. I mean, I just feel like I have a new appreciation for Mike Tomlin this year. He did that. I don't know if you listen to that interview.

He did. I think it was on the Pivot podcast. and I was just like, wow, I understand why he is such a great coach. And then I got to go to Steelers training camp for the first time and just watching him just be like, all right, George Pickens and Minka Fitzpatrick again, again. And he's just like laughing under his breath. And it gets very intense where it's like very competitive, but there were no like fights. You know, it's like a controlled chaos almost.

Yeah, yeah. Those Seahawks, well, those Seahawks teams, sometimes it was just chaos. But this is a little more controlled. And so, and I just was reading this week about, you know, he had the thing about, he named Chubisky the starter. But 45 minutes before that, the Steelers let out that press release that said Mason Rudolph was the number two and not Kenny Pickett. And they asked him about it. And this is a direct quote. This is via ESPN.com. He said, the cut and paste component was the cut and paste component. Like, do you know how much confidence you have to have to just talk like that?

and answer a question like that. I don't even know. I don't even know what's going on to answer a question like that. So I almost am regretting. Like I had the Steelers at eight and nine. I think this is going to be the first time ever. He finishes under 500. I'm almost regretting that and thinking,

man, I should just pick them to go nine and eight. Like the receivers could be amazing. The defense could be amazing. The coach is going to give him an edge. But I'm just like this last year, the Steelers weren't fun. Like I didn't want to watch the Steelers with Ben Rothesberger at all. And it's not like I'm, you know, oh my gosh, I can't wait to see Chubisky. But it is, I can't wait to see what this version of the Steelers with like new blood

and an energized Tomlin and some of these receivers looks like. So I'm excited for Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers, I guess is what I'm saying. Tomlin is like one of those. I mean, obviously he's been appreciated for a long time. Like people have known he's a really good coach. But he's one of those guys where, you know, it's like a band, like an artist or whatever that becomes much more famous and popular later in life because everyone starts to appreciate them a little bit too late.

Like, Tomlin, to me, is that guy for me. I have started to appreciate him even more and more after seeing what he had to deal with, like Antonio Brown, you know, Ben Rothensberger, all the dynamics there. There's so much, just like the power struggles and internal team dynamics, I'm sure that he has to deal with. And what you're alluding to with like the coaching, it's like almost like mind games in a good way. You know what I mean?

This is like what you picture. This is like a movie coach. Like a coach you see on a movie or like Ted Lasso where he's like getting into each and every one of his players like psyches and learning how to get the most out of them. This is what like everyone wants a coach to be. And so I like that a lot. It's like finding the right like just the right pressure points for each player and applying just enough pressure where it's not too much like but it also pushes them.

Like this is the art of coaching. So I think I'm starting to appreciate how good. Tomlin is with all that stuff. The more that, like, I learn, I guess it's just, like, it required, like, some of these players leaving and just absolutely going off the deep end to kind of, like, get an idea of, like, what he's been dealing with over the last decade. So I absolutely, like, appreciate him as a coach more and more every single day.

Yeah. No, that was, that was beautifully said. You nail exactly what I was trying to say. I think you articulated it much better. I was thinking about it in the context of, like, Cliff Kingsbury, you know, asking Kyler Murray to call plays to see how hard it is. Like, can you imagine Mike Tomlin? Like, I just feel like so many, so often NFL coaches don't understand what their job is.

And he understands what his job is. Like, okay, this is why they pay me this much money is because it's not going to be easy to handle Antonio Brown for all these years. And man, after Antonio Brown left, we also, holy cow, that must have been even harder than we ever expected. Seriously. But he understands, like, that's my job. That's why I get paid like millions.

of dollars and other coaches, you know, you hear him even draft time. Oh, like, oh, shoot, this guy, he didn't run a full route tree in college or, you know, oh, he didn't play under center. Guess what? Your job is to teach them how to do these things. It's not just head coaches. It's coordinators and assistant coaches. And I think, like, you know, some listeners might just be shocked at how often you hear that from NFL coaches. And I know before, like, we kind of got into the industry. I just assumed that if you were a coach in the NFL, like, you were the cream of the crop like man you must have just worked your way up and and then you like learn more and you're like okay no there's like politics involved it's like all right this coach with this other guy yeah in high

school 20 years ago and so he's going to hire him and there's so much nonsense involved i've heard chris long talk about this and like he just will rip some you know NFL assistant coaches like no those guys are definitely not like the best coaches in america the best coaches in the world sometimes they just get there so i think that speaks to kind of our appreciation for tomlin all right Do you have any more? Have you run out? Yeah, I got a couple more. Let's see here.

One thing that I think is going to be very interesting is basically the NFC versus AFC inequity. I don't really know exactly like what is going to be interesting about this, but I think it's fascinating that the AFC is just absolutely stacked. There's just so many good teams in the AFC, so many good quarterbacks. It's a complete gauntlet on that side. And then the NFC is just wide open. So in a sense that both conferences are very wide open, but in totally different ways.

Like the AFC could have, I could see any number of different teams making the playoffs. You're going to have like two or three very good teams miss the playoffs. And on the other side, you get the NFC, which is like some terrible team is going to get into playoffs. You already can tell. Like it's going to be like some, you know, eight and nine team or whatever that's going to get in, maybe even worse. I don't know. Get into a playoffs. And everyone's going to be like, what the hell is going on?

But I just kind of think it's. fascinating. We're at a point, an inflection point in the NFL right now where the AFC is absolutely just stacked. And the NFC is in a rebuild phase, I guess, with a lot of teams. Like, there's no quarterbacks in that side of the ball. Maybe there will after this year. But like, you got sort of a weird vacuum of elite teams in the NFC. Yeah, it's, if you're doing like, you know, getting ready for the season and all right, what are my picks going to be? The AFC was so hard. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I was like, yeah, the Denver

Broncos are a Super Bowl contender. And then I looked had and I'm like, well, who am I going to have them knocking out in the playoffs? And so I was like, all right, I guess they're losing in the wild card round. I mean, if that rust-led Broncos team were in the NFC, they would be a very popular Super Bowl pick. It's crazy, right? And they might be the seventh best team in the AFC. And so the AFC, you're just going, all right, they're like eight teams that could make the Super Bowl. They all have strong cases. Someone's going to get left out. And then the NFC is the opposite. You can't find the teams you want to fill out the playoff bracket. And just as you were saying that, it made me think like it might only get worse because Brady and Rogers right now

have two of the three best teams in the NFC. And who knows what, you know, I mean, Rogers will be in Green Bay next year, but Brady might not be in Tampa and it could get even worse. Whereas the AFC, all these quarterbacks are under 30 years old and amazing. Like any one of them could win an MVP this year. So, yeah, are all those AFC teams just going to beat each other up? Like, is the NFC team just going to be more fresh once the playoffs roll around? Like, they're going to have to play some crappy team in the wildcard round. And like an AFC teams might have to face like the Broncos or the Chargers or, you know, one of these teams in the first round, it's going to be totally different.

This is totally a dorky comparison. But I was just rewatching the Game of Thrones recently where Cersie is sitting there in Kings Landing after, you know, the north and the collaboration, all the people that collaborated to fight the Whitewalkers. and then she's just going to come up and try and take them out. Like, basically let them beat up each other and then we'll swoop in at the end. This is what the NFC teams are going to do potentially in the Super Bowl. I don't know. I just think it's going to be fascinating to see how the two conferences, I guess,

like, you know, compete against each other in the play, obviously in the Super Bowl, but just how they kind of match up during the season two, like when you got like good teams in the NFC, just battling it out and then NFC, you know, in slap fights or whatever. So it's going to be interesting. Yeah, and sometimes weird stuff happens where it'll be like, You know, week 11, whoa, well, the NFC is a lot better than we thought. Look at this, you know, this Panthers team coming out of nowhere. Wow, unbelievable.

I don't know if that will be the team, but sometimes. That was quite the call. Yeah. I'm holding you to that. Yeah. All right. I've got another ridiculous one. I don't even know if I'm going to be able to articulate this one.

I'm excited to get irrationally upset at whoever the TV officiating expert is during a replay. And so let me explain what I mean. here and you can tell me if it makes sense or no sense or what you believe. I guess it's Pereira, Stereator, McCauley. I mean, I was just looking up the names before this. I didn't remember them all. And there's one who's really good and I don't know who it is. But the others, they go to them when there's a key play and there's a replay and they just start describing like the visual. Like, okay, his knee is down there. His arm is doing this. His right butt cheek. Like, no, you need to tell me what is the right call here? And they take 90 seconds and I sit here in the chair to my

right like an idiot week in and week out. And I'm going, well, what's the call? What do you think the right call is? And half the time they don't get to it. And then the referee makes the call on the field. So listen, this very well could be a me problem and not in anyone else's problem. But as I was going through this exercise, I'm like, oh, that's going to be really fun on Sunday to just yell at like Mike Pereira as you're doing one of these breakdowns. I just, man, I really, I'm just hoping it's not going to be another season where I'm just like really angry at the refereeing, like the just the officiating. It's just been so bad lately.

And it seems like they have just an absurd amount of rules that like and focuses and emphases that they just, why do you do it? Why is this an emphasis? Like, why do we need to worry about this? Like the taunting thing, you know, for instance, is just like, can we just freaking play? Like, stop worrying about this. Like, the NFL just can't get out of its own way, particularly, I mean, with a lot of. lot of different things, but like, especially with the refereeing and officiating, I don't know,

it's just like so frustrating to watch. So I'm hoping they're just a little bit in the background, a little bit more this year than normal. I know that's probably not going to happen because for whatever reason, the officials just feel like they need to interject themselves to every game a lot. But yes, I'm with you. I just hope, man, I hope it's another season where we just constantly just pissed off at what these calls are, because it seems happened every year. And it always feels like it's like the first month of the season.

It's especially bad. So yeah, that always is annoying. And the emphasis, I guess, is what defensive holding they said this year, which is like, wait, what? Why? Who, nobody asked for this. What do you do it? Like, with the taunting thing, nobody asked for this.

And then they, you know, blame it on the coaches and the competition committee, whatever. We will be your committee. D.K. and I will be your committee. Ask us every season going forward. And the officiating experts just tell me what you think the call. should be, don't, you know, put on your six-piece suit and go through all the descriptions of what's happening there. All right. Sorry, that was, again, that was a me problem. All right, let's finish it out. Do you have one or two more here? Yeah, since I'm a draft guy, I'm talking about

the rookie class. I'm excited to see what the rookies do. I mean, this is a very general, generic thing, but like, I always love to see, you know, how these guys end up playing in the rookie year, how they can make that jump. Obviously, a lot of them are going to be busts. That just happens every single season. But maybe some of them are going to be superstars. I mean, last year, obviously,

Jamar Chase was one of the biggest stars in the NFL, full stop. Like, he was, he immediately ascended to being like a top five receiver in the NFL. You know, and then obviously you got like,

guys like Jaylon Waddle, Kyle Pitts came out of nowhere, but like they came and immediately made huge impacts. So I'm just excited to see what these rookies do in the NFL. And if they can, like Drake London,

is he going to be immediately be a star? Are you going to see, you know, I'm excited to watch Jordan Davis on the football field and see, like, you know, if his physical advantages that we saw in college that were so clear can really translate to the NFL, you know, things like that. I'm just super excited to see Tron Walker. Like, is he worth the number one overall pick?

Is he flashing immediately? Yeah, I think that's just going to be a lot of fun. It always is fun for a guy who studies the draft during the off season so much. Yeah, I think it is especially fun this year because there wasn't like a sort of consent. You know, like all these guys you're mentioning, it's sort of like, There were these big arguments on them, you know, like Trayvon, what if Trayvon Walker just comes in and is an absolute monster? I mean, that, you know, I was critical of their process, but I also, like, can see him and be like, wow, if that hits, that is going to be really fun. Totally.

Watch. Jordan Davis, you mentioned it, like, played 25 snaps a game in college and had, what, two and a half sacks? Is he going to be on the field, these key third downs on Sunday night football against the Dallas Cowboys and bring down Dak Prescott? Or is it going to be like, all right, he's still got a ways to go? Kyle, Kyle Hamilton with the Ravens. I mean, I think that Ravens defense has a chance to be awesome. And so we'll see how they use him right away. But he's a guy who slipped further than anybody expected.

But you're like, okay, well, he went to the Ravens. That might end up really, really well with the sort of infrastructure they have there. George Pickens, you know, I know you love. George Pickens, love him. I love, too, just watching game play. Like the first clip of George Pickens just knocking over a defensive back because he feels like it. Like, I'm in on that. Yeah, give me that. Damien Phaerce. I mean, he's such a fun back.

My favorite guy. Yes. Yeah. Yes. I think the other thing that's kind of fascinating about this is I think I saw this that from Field Yates. This is the first season since 2007 that a rookie is not starting week one at quarterback, a rookie quarterback. So we got all these other, basically we don't have to think about the quarterbacks yet because rookie quarterbacks by and large look pretty terrible if they're starting in week one. So yeah, this. is definitely focused on, for me, especially as someone who's, like, really into fantasy, you know, like Chris Oliva, is he going to make an immediate impact? The Saints gave up

so much to go up and get him. Is he going to be the type of impact player that can really turn this offense around it? Well, they're not not turn it around, but like really take this offense over the top. You know, Treeland Berks, one of the, I guess, most controversial picks of the draft, not controversial, but like a lot of people thought he was very overrated, schemed up production. And his offseason has not been good. And so, I'm excited to see if he can really turn the corner and start to find his groove in this offense because the Titans need him to. So, yeah, the rookie class is always really fun. But this one in particular seems pretty just all over the place and exciting.

Good one. Absolutely. All right. I'm excited for Jerry Jones post-game press availability. Nice. I mean, because this could be a very interesting year in Dallas. I mean, it could go sideways for them in a hurry. it could be Sean Peyton going on national TV.

He's now an analyst, just being like needling Mike McCarthy, you know, being like, well, you know, in New Orleans, we practice that all the time. And yeah, I can't remember having an issue with what they did there in my, you know, 12 years or whatever. Like I could absolutely see that happening. I mean, Jerry Jones is his language. Like he always says this thing. He compares it to like circumcising a mosquito.

Have you heard him used this? No. Yeah, he's always probably got all these good. like expressions. Yeah, he's got all, he's like, I used that in a column once and then I Googled it to like make sure he said it. And like, he didn't just say it once. Like he has said this multiple times in public forums. It's kind of his thing. Yeah. So I'm excited for all of that. He just holds court there right after a game, raw emotions and just says whatever he wants to say. I think the Cowboys will be an interesting team for that reason. I was thinking earlier, like I think on

our Ringer, you know, staff predictions that we had today, I don't know if any, anybody picked the Cowboys to win the NFC East. It's almost like swung too far where everybody is maybe there. Super into the Eagles. Yeah, maybe there were a couple. But it's like Dak Prescott is still clearly the best quarterback in that division, you know. And so I'm checking. I'm pretty sure that I put the Cowboys.

Let me check. You had them. Maybe you might have been the only one. Hold on it. I was pulling it up. There were a couple. Let's see. Yeah.

No, I had the Cowboys. I had the Eagles as a wild card. So I'm representing. I'm still, I'm still a believer in the Cowboys. But I'm with you, like, there's a lot of variance, potential variance, like the offensive line could be an issue. You know, they don't have a lot of receiver depth right now. Obviously, they'll get Gallup back at some point. But this is a team that's always been so stacked at the skill positions over the years.

And that's been such a strength that there's especially offensive line and skill positions. And that's been a huge, like, weight off of Dak Prescott's shoulders this year. He's going to have to do a little bit more. And I believe he can. But, I mean, there's definitely, I feel like more variance. with what could happen with this offense. The defense probably be really good, but I think that the offense has wider range of outcomes than normal.

It's kind of like he gets with the quarterbacks we were talking about earlier, like who can lift up and the people around them and like make up for the shortcomings. Like we'll probably find out where on that range, Dak Prescott is this year because, yeah, it's not going to be perfect for him in Dallas. I have one more. Do you have one more to finish off with or do you want to just give you mine? Sure.

I can do one more too. Yep. Okay. Yeah, go ahead. Lamar Jackson. I'm excited to watch Lamar Jackson. I mean, that's just, this is very basic. I just, he's one of the most fun players watch in the NFL.

I think this is, so it's Thursday morning. I think he set his deadline for a new contract by on Friday for Friday. So we'll find out if he's going to be basically just, you know, quote unquote, betting on himself. It's unclear exactly what's going on with this negotiation. He's acting. Is he acting as his own agent or? Yes.

Yeah, and that's probably, of course, complicating everything because then you kind of get like, it's a little more adversarial, I guess, with the team when you're doing it that way. But yes, I think to me this is going to be very exciting because he's, I think, very clearly betting on himself and wants to get like a massive contract and the team is balking at his demands.

So he's going to go out there. If I'm just picturing it, I think he's just going to go out there and totally put together in an incredible season. So I'm excited to watch what he does. I think they're going to go back to like the MVP era type offense where he's running the ball a ton, maybe a little less passing. Obviously, they want to be efficient passing the football, but I think they want to just dominate

on the ground, and he can do that in a very, very unique way. So I just love watching this offense. I think it's just an exciting, unique offense. It's almost more interesting if he doesn't get the contract before week one because of what you said. I mean, then then it just starts the clock on, all right, you got a couple franchise tags, and then that's it. And there's nothing else you can do. He hits free agency after that.

And he entered the league so young that if he goes through this and just says, all right, franchise tag me, franchise tag me, I think he'll be like 27, 28, which pretty much we've never, never seen a former MVP at that age, just hit the open market and see, all right, what is the actual market value for a player like this? So, I mean, I would be surprised, I guess, if it got that far. You never just because you never have seen it, but this already seems like a unique situation. And he'll like tweet back at people, you know, about his contract and stuff.

That's always on my timeline where I'm seeing people retweeting that. So I'm with you. I think the Ravens are an interesting team. And yeah, it's just more fun when he's healthy and they're running and they're doing stuff like you said, an offense that no other team in the NFL is running. So that's a good one. All right. My last one, and this is a fantasy one.

So I need your help. Nice. Nice. Nice. I'm excited to hate my fantasy team by week five. So I love the draft. I love drafting fantasy teams and find, you know, which players do I like? Where do I disagree? And then it gets to week five. And I'm two and three. And it's Tuesday night. And the kids have probably just been crazy at bedtime. And I got a hand in some column. And I forgot to do something else. And then I look at me, you know, I got this things to do list. Waivers. Like, oh, my, why? Why do I still do this to myself? I do not want to be looking at the waiver wire right now. I think the solution for me is to just do best ball leagues, which I have not made the transition to. Yes, absolutely. Is there any other solution to me? Like, have you thought about, like, there might be a business opportunity for you for people like me who just want to

outforce waivers. And like, I would absolutely trust you because I'll just be looking at your advice anyway as I'm doing this. So, like, cut up the middleman. You know, you can. You can just do the waivers, may make a little side business or something. I don't know how it will work. I don't want to get us in trouble as Ringer employees, but I feel like how can I avoid this feeling in week five? Do you have any advice for me? I mean, we could talk. I could give you my Venmo a little bit later. We can figure out some sort of like payment plan. Plus, I want a little equity in this team, you know, part of the winnings, things like that. I like that. But yes, no, I think best ball is a great solution, honestly, for someone that like you who loves drafting but doesn't so much love the

day-to-day minutia of managing a fantasy team. Because the best part about best ball is you just draft it and then that's it. In true bestball, you don't do anything. It's literally just, hopefully you don't have a whole bunch of injuries and like your team becomes obsolete by week five or whatever. Like that's part of the strategy of drafting is like you want guys that you want to have enough depth at each position. Plus you want to have guys that are maybe going to break out later in the season. You want to have a few of those guys in your roster. But you also don't want to have too many guys that are just not going to do anything because then you're at a huge disadvantage. So I love basketball. I think it's really fun. And it is definitely going to be up

your alley if you don't like worrying about waivers. If you don't like worrying about setting your lineups, if you don't like worrying about who's injured, who's on the injury report, who's going to play like last minute inactivs, all that stuff. A lot of people really enjoy that. I think it makes it the strategy very fun. But for the set and forget people like, you. I absolutely recommend it. We can get a league going. Okay. So I'm going to just be, I'll go through one more year of this and the next year. I have to convince everyone that we're doing best ball leagues. That makes a lot of sense. All right. D.K., anything to plug. I know you're doing a million different things. What do you have as we kick off the season here? Check out the ringer fantasy football show.

We're going to be doing at least four shows a week. Plus, we got the ringer fantasy draft guide slash ringer fantasy rankings. We're going to be doing weekly rankings this year to help you set your lineups, help you do sit-start and things like that. So check that out. And yeah, that's it for now. I love that. So that I can just be like, all right, I'm debating between these two players. What do they say? And then if it goes wrong, everyone can just yell at you. I mean, you, listen, we aren't there. That's what we're here for is to get people, if people want to blame us for their bad sit-start choice, that's really our role here. You do all the stuff that, you know, the more scared writers and podcasters and NFL content creators,

They're not brave enough. Like, you're just going to draft takes, fantasy takes, all the stuff that people care about and they want someone to tell them what's right and what's wrong. You go out there. So I love that. All right, definitely check that out. I've got my picks against the spread up on the ringer.com that will run Thursday every week during the season. You can also catch me on the Philly Special podcast that we just launched with Ben Solac for Eagle-specific

content. everyone enjoy the games. Set your fantasy lineups, get your Pickham League stuff in, do whatever you need to do. Stretch out the hamstrings. Get the coffee schedule ready for Sunday. Enjoy week one.

Thank you to Mike Wargon for producing additional production supervision by Arjuna Ram Gopal and Connor Nevins. We will be back with the Ringer NFL show tomorrow.