The Ringer NFL Show - Five Big Questions Heading Into Super Bowl LIX

Episode Date: February 5, 2025

Sheil, Steven, Diante, and Nora bring their pens and whiteboards to The Ringer's Radio Row booth at Super Bowl LIX and collectively work out some of the biggest inquiries concerning the Eagles and Chiefs as they prepare for the big game. They discuss which players have the most at stake on Sunday, share their under-the-radar Super Bowl MVP picks, and much more. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Sheil Kapadia, Steven Ruiz, Diante Lee, and Nora Princiotti Producer: Chris Sutton Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal and Conor Nevins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's happening? It's Todd McShay and I'm back with a new home and a new show at the Ringer and Spotify. The McShay Show. It's a video and audio podcast coming to you year round with all my NFL draft information, big boards, mock drafts and player movement. Plus, I'll be chatting with some of my best friends in football, including some of your favorite football analysts. During the week, we'll have episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays that'll include discussions about my player rankings, who's rising, who's falling, and who your NFL team should be keeping an eye on. Plus, we'll be reacting each week to the college football playoff polls and giving you previews and picks for each Saturday's slate. In addition, I'll have episodes

on Saturday nights with my immediate reaction to the full day in college football every week. So if you love the college game, the NFL, the draft, or all of it like me, make sure to like, follow, subscribe, and get ready for the McShay show on the ringer, Spotify, and wherever you watch or listen to podcasts. Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. Shield Capadia here with Stephen Ruiz, Deontay Lee, and Nora Princeati. We are talking Super Bowl with days.

Tuesday, Tuesday of Super Bowl week. Teams had media night. Teams talk to the media again. On Tuesday, the buzz is growing. People are showing up. Brandon Marshall's walking around. Nora, how are we doing? I'm doing great.

I'm a fabulous time. I didn't know that about Brandon Marshall, but already learning. Deante, I heard their podcast. pot over there that was getting a little like loud. If I'm like, we need, I want to be the fun loud pod. So we might have to step it up here. You know, I think that having like Lindell White and Brandon Marshall

and some of those other guys over there probably helps the situation a little bit. But no, to the point, it's been good. It's nice to be recording in a place that's not actually a garage, you know. Step up. We're trending in the right direction. 1,000 percent. I have to say, that was your strongest welcome of the season. Oh, thank you.

Very strong. Wow. I've been, I've been workshoping different ones. There you go. It's been a lot of welcomes this season. Only a few more left. All right, here's what we're doing. We have questions.

We have whiteboards. So if you're usually listening to the show, you've been waiting for that motivation to, should I really subscribe to Ringer NFL on YouTube? Do I really want to watch these people? This might be the show for you. You can watch it on your phone, iPad, computer, whatever. You can put it on a TV now, the smart TVs.

I sound like an old man. You can put it on TVs now, too. So you can watch this one on our Ringer NFL YouTube channel. We have a series of questions Super Bowl related. We're going to ask the question. We're going to put the mics down. We're going to write our answers on these monstrous whiteboard. I mean, Nora.

How are you feeling? I feel great. This thing's, I'm going to be bonkin Ruiz in the head. Space. Space to. We're all artists here. More room to express yourself. Okay.

More room to express yourself. So we'll express our answers on the whiteboard. Also, Sheila, let's not act like we haven't had some penmanship issues with this form. not in the past. Last time I wrote mine very small, I thought maybe we would let bygones be bygones, but I guess not. So we will write on the whiteboards, reveal our answers and then discuss them. Is everyone ready?

Does everyone know the rules? I was born ready. Deante, don't make the same mistakes I made. Make sure that font is ready to bumping right now because my handwriting is not the greatest. It looks like you're all going horizontal with the whiteboard. So I guess I'm going to go horizontal with the whiteboard as well, unless I want to be different. First question. person with the most at stake

depending on the result of this Super Bowl. Notice I said person. You can go with it. You can go player, coach, GM, Big Dom, your friend who's a favorite. Stole my answer. Whatever you want to do, any of those person with the most at stake

depending on the result of the Super Bowl. Get those pens ready. Here we go. All right. Ruiz was the first one done. I believe it's not a contest, but I do appreciate the efficiency. Everything's a contest.

with me. All right. Okay. I like that. Everything is a contest. I am ready. Is everybody ready? All right. On the count of three, we reveal. One, two, three. I have Jalen Hertz. Ruiz, who do you got? I got Jalen Hertz too. Deonté, who do you got? Nora, who do you got? I've got Travis Kelsey. Travis Kelsey. All right, well, let's start with that one. Travis Kelsey. Why does Travis Kelsey have the most at stake for this Super Bowl? Let me ask you a question about all of your guys's pick. Does Jailen Hertz want to retire? is Jalen Hertz thinking of nothing at every waking moment

other than the life that he could live if his team just simply wins this football game and allows him to ride off into the sunset potentially to his life with the most famous woman alive if only he can just have the storybook ending that will unleash him from this this prison of excellence that the chiefs have built around him? What could possibly be higher stakes than that?

Do you feel, do you actually think if they win this game, that's it for Travis Kelsey? Like almost absolutely. Wow. Really? And if they lose this game, you think he would continue to play? I think that's a harder question to answer. I just, you know, it is admirable how much he is able to preserve his body and try to turn it on in the postseason. But I think we saw it pretty clearly during the regular season this year. His body is just not capable of holding up to an NFL season the way that it used to be. He is not as productive. He is just the wear and tear is showing. And there are so many things awaiting this man after football. It's he he's got to want to get out of there. It does feel like a one last job

proposition for him this year. We talked so much last year about them limiting his reps. And this year, they haven't done that at all. So it's almost like, yeah, we got one more year of this guy. Let's just ride them out. No, Noor, I did see that you had a tweet. I believe you were what, baggage claim you overheard to people talk. Can you share that with the audience? That, A little wrinkle into this whole conversation. Well, so I've been, I mean, I'm obviously interested in the Taylor Swift of it all, but I'm also, I'm working on a piece this week about the idea of chief's fatigue and the idea that people have just sort of gotten sick of seeing them win all the time

or looking for something novel. And so my ears are kind of peeled for, you know, what people are talking about, what people are thinking. And I'm at baggage claim. I'm waiting for my luggage. And I hear a guy and a girl chatting. and it was the guy says something like, if they went, he's going to propose on the field.

And she's like, he would never do that. That's too corny. And the guy's like, he's the corniest person alive. And the girl's like, no, Taylor would say no. My theory on that is that it would never get to that point because Taylor's Tree Payne, who's her sort of publicist slash like guiding force behind the scenes in the Taylorverse,

would tackle Travis to the ground. And I do believe that she would bring him down. And it would be a buy-the-books within the rules tackle. And she would prevent something out of the... The rest would still throw a flag. It's the chees. But yeah, that was a funny welcome to New Orleans moment for me. All right, since we have you here,

I'm in the foremost expert on these matters. Let's say they win. He retires. What do the next five years? Because you said he has so much waiting for him, which I was like, I mean, he's got some things. I was wondering, like, what, you know, how much. Play it out, right? I know you must have thought about this before. So what do the next five years look like for Travis Kelsey and potentially someone else in his life?

In the next two years, they will try every possible TV, movies, hosting. They, Travis and Jason. We're Travis and Jason, but also Travis and sort of like team Travis, right? Because there's been, he used to, up until a little over a year ago, his management was basically, you know, he had an agent, but he had a couple buddies from college who was really close with and they did all of his stuff. And I think those relationships are still good, but a little over a year ago, he professionalized that operation. So there's a lot of people who I think are working pretty hard at, I think he's writing a children's book. Like there's a lot of stuff going on. And I think they'll see all of those things out. Obviously, they've got the podcast and take a look in a year or two and think,

okay, what worked? What could actually be more sustainable? Like, we'll probably see him in a broadcast booth at some point. Whether that sticks or not, I don't know. But they're going to throw a bunch of stuff. We're going to get a Kelsey Brothers cast in the mold of the main cast. Yeah, we're going to get a manning cast with the Kelsey brothers. The Rotten Tomato score for Kelsey's first movie.

29. That's way too high. I was going to say, I'm talking to, the teens to me. Don't underestimate the Swifties, guys. Don't underestimate the mobile. Now, you didn't mention, you were,

so you just told us all the things he may want to pursue, but you did not mention her name during that. Is he just following her and when he wants to? And what's the... I mean, look, she is at a juncture right now where she could actually take a break for the first time and a long time. Will she? I don't know.

I don't think that woman sleeps. So I know she's been in the studio in ways that it really, like can't be for anything other than new music. Like the timelines just don't match up. There's a couple re-recordings that still have to come out. There is some sort of documentary movie, something with the tour that has not been released yet, but they were filming a lot of the later shows. This is something separate from the concert film that went out.

So she's got a lot of stuff that's probably in the can. So they have some runway where they could just like, you know, vibe out and be a couple. Okay. Which they haven't really gotten to do outside of the context of really, really busy periods in their lives. So I think there will be some of that. But I don't think she's, I don't think she's ready to call it quits. That will be, all right, that segment will be most likely to be aggregated from this. One million for sure.

And also, uh, segment. Also, most likely for people in the comments to be like shut off. No, I don't think. Also most, uh, best segment according to Naya and Lila Capadia. Well, that's what really matters. If they listen to any of this, that will be the segment. they're listening to. All right. That was great. I mean, what a amazing. Jaylon Hurst pales in comparison. Yeah, I know. I got no expertise on anything compared to that.

All right. So that was why Travis Kelsey has the most at stake. Deonté, the three of us went with Jalen Hertz. Why did you choose Jalen Hertz? Same conversation. We just had our buddy Ben Souleck over here for Philly Special, right? And we were talking just about where his place in the NFL so much about this season, the start of this season. You talked about the Tim McMahon's piece when we were with Ben, just the reporting on, oh, I want to be in an offense. challenges me to work the ball in the middle of the field. I want to have a bigger drop-back game, a bigger menu of calls in a drop-back game that allow me to process things and go through full progressions in a way that didn't exist under Brian Johnson.

And that just that old school of offense that they had before they made the change for Kellan Moore, regardless of how we can, regardless of how we evaluate how he executed within this offense, I think so much of the story for him is going to hinge on, were you able to prove that when you needed to change your style as a quarterback and be safe with the football, that you could do it. In the middle of the season, which he has done, and then you needed to prove again that you could win playoff games. Obviously, if he has another performance like he did last time

they were in the stage and they end up winning the game, that is obviously a huge watershed moment for him in his career. But I think just getting over that hump, I think we'll say a lot for him. I think that ultimately how he's going to be remembered as a quarterback in Eagles history will be as the winner guy, the leader guy. And a lot of that, I think, is going to be contingent upon playoff success and getting a Super Bowl and bringing that back to Philadelphia.

I mean, that's the reason for my answer. He's been the winner guy. In order to continue to be the winner guy, you have to continue to win. If he doesn't win this game, I think the conversation about him next year, especially if the season plays out like it did this year, I think it gets a little awkward.

Right. Because there is a lot of money involved. He hasn't really taken advantage of this passing game that's been built up and they poured so many resources into it. They barely even use it. So I think, though, that if they win, he wins a Super Bowl, it doesn't matter.

Yes. It doesn't matter. The nightmare scenario for him would be not only that they lose, but if it seems that he is the reason why they could not finish the job this year, where the defense shows up, the run game shows up, there's critical passing situations.

He's holding on to the football. It takes five sacks. He takes five sacks, three throwaways. We're all looking at the film on Monday saying this was open, this was open. If it's that type of game, which there have been those games this year, and the Eagles lose this game, then I think Ruiz is right.

Now all of a sudden you're having this conversation that it's a conversation we've had all season. Are they winning because of him, in spite of him, what's his role, how important is he to them winning? If he wins the Super Bowl, it's just you're in that class. Like, you know, people can say what they want. It doesn't matter. Because you were good enough to win a Super Bowl.

And we can all have conversations about, was it because of X, Y, and Z? But you were the quarterback on the team that won the second Super Bowl in franchise history. it doesn't really matter. I mean, you see how this franchise treats Nick Foles? I was just thinking the same thing. For his Super Bowl win.

100% is true. I mean, you would think that he had a literal statue. Exactly. Can you imagine for a guy like Jalen Hertz whose resume would far exceed anything they've gotten from Nick Foles in his time as a starter here? So I think it would mean a lot for him in Philadelphia and a lot for just a conversation around him. Whereas if you lose, it's entirely possible that we could be here in 2026.

And the conversation around Jalen Hertz isn't just can you win a Super Bowl with them? It's, does Philadelphia need to find a new starter if they're not anything? able to get over this hump. You know, and it may not be fair considering the fact that he's been so successful, but I think that for where this team is and what the expectations are and what's been built around him, it is now on his shoulders right or wrong to be able to be the guy that gets his team over the hump.

If the conversation shifts from, are we winning in spite of him to are we losing because of him? Yes. Especially in that city. Because they were, it sounded like fans were kind of getting a little frustrated with him in the middle of the year when the passing game wasn't working. A.J. Brown was frustrated.

I don't know if it was about. specifically, but I mean, it's been boiling there under the surface, and I think a game like that, like you said, if he's the reason they lose this game when everything else is in place, the defense, the offensive line, the receivers, the running game, it's all in place. And I think he has the most pressure on him, at least, if it's not the most at stake.

Yeah, I think that's probably right. All right. Let's take a break. We come back. We've got a bunch of more questions to get to. Super Bowl 59 is your chance to hit the jackpot on Fandul, America's number one sports book because with Fanduels, $5 million touchdown jackpot,

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Bonus issued as non-mustrawable bonus vets, which expire 21 days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fandul.com. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Halt.com. All right, we are back on the Ringer NFL show. Next question we have for our whiteboards. And this one, we need to, don't rush to start running stuff down

because we need to define this. This is under the radar player who could win MVP. Now, under the radar, obviously, is a subjective term. I almost said objective. Yes, I still get that confused from time to time. Because if you look at the odds here, like Patrick Mahomes is the favorite at plus 110. This is of course, according to Fandul. Sequin Barclay plus 280. Jalen Hertz plus 350. Travis Kelsey is plus 1,800. Everyone else is plus 3,000 or higher. So let's say, for example, AJ Brown. Now, I think generally speaking, you would say AJ Brown's an under the radar player, but he is plus 3,300 to win the MVP.

So how do we want to define this, which pool of candidates we can choose from? You could tell I'm just a fun guy, you know, just let it rap. Who cares? I don't need to be a stickler for the rules. Let's exclude Mahomes, Hertz, Kelsey and Barkley. Those four. That's what I would have said to. All right.

So let me just get, I'm just going to reel off some names for the people watching at home. The next people on the list here, according to Fandul, are. Are Xavier Worthy, A.J. Brown, Devante Smith, Marquise Brown, Kareem Hunt, Chris Jones, Jalen Carter, Zach Bond. We can stop there. Those are the next group of MVP candidates. So under the radar player who could potentially win MVP, Whiteboard's ready. Go ahead. I just realized how important spelling was to this bit and how bad I ended spelling. I have one of the worst bees you're ever going to see. I mean, if you're not watching this and you were on the fence when I started the pod, you're going to want to see how terrible this bee is.

I tried to fix it. Now it looks deranged. All right. Whiteboard's ready. One, two, three. All right. We are showing our answers. I see Nora's got A.J. Brown.

Deonti, who do you got? I got Cooper DeGine. Trent McDeafier. That's a bee? I told you. Listen, it was either going to be, use the eraser and go back. Or just let it rip. I don't know what it looks like.

There's a lot to unpack with that bee. I never set out. That's a pregnant bee right there. I was going to say that bee is casting a long shadow. It's very lumpy. Is there a third? A third hump? The bees.

That's a little extra section at the bottom. The bee's been spending time in your Orleans, yeah. Enjoying themselves. A little too much into fame. We don't shame here. Yeah. A bee has gout. My bee's been having a good time.

The bee's got gout. All right. Let's start since Nora and I both have AJ Brown. Nora, why did you choose A.J. Brown here? So I'm thinking through the scenarios and the narratives, right? And I do think that it's easier to go Eagles with this than

to go Chiefs because I just think that the Chiefs are in a little bit of a zone where it's really hard for me to see a Chiefs win outcome. That's not Patrick Mahomes MVP. Yeah. I can see a few more Eagles outcomes where maybe they win

Hertz plays okay. but you don't come away feeling like, oh, the quarterback went and won that game for them. And if it's not Sequan, because Seyquan doesn't count, then, you know, you sort of pick your poison of the talented playmakers

that they have on that offense. And so I can see a scenario where if A.J. Brown breaks a couple great plays, maybe a touchdown in there, and you come away feeling like, oh, my God, the Eagles won, and they did it because they're just more talented, at the skill positions, they've just got more talent on their offense,

and that's the reason they won the Super Bowl, then I think AJ Brown makes a lot of sense in that scenario. Yeah, I had a very similar reasoning. Like, if the Eagles win this game, Seke one doesn't go off, Hertz is okay, but the big plays are a slant or a screen to AJ Brown that went 40 yards, or he just mosses someone. He's double-covered down field.

Jalen Hertz is as he's down there somewhere, and he comes down with the catch and has 125 receiving yards and two touchdowns. I don't think Jalen Hertz is going to get the MVP, in that situation. I think AJ Brown would get the MVP. And, you know, Brown, it's been such an interesting season for him. He had the book on the sideline.

He had the comment after a Panthers game in December, like not that long ago. In December, but they said they won the game, what's wrong with the offense? And he said passing, he was being honest. The passing game sucked at that time. Since then, he's sort of been like, I think I've said on the ringers Philly special,

I'm basically, you know, AJ Brown and I are on the same wavelength this season. All season, we're like, they're not good enough to win with this passing game. not good enough. And now we're like, I don't know. They're in the Super Bowl. What do you want us to do? Well, and you can see a scenario where if the Chief's defense, if they make Seque one priority number one, right, then that opens up some avenues for AJ Brown to potentially have a big game. And he's usually the guy. When defenses sell out against Barclay,

Brown is the right? Yeah, the guy that gets the ball. Well, Deonti, what do you think? Trent McDuffie will get to in a second here, but the Chief's coverage plan, you know, when they're playing man, not to say they're going to play man on, uh, they could play it on a high percentage of snaps. I think they might play a little more zone here. But when they have matchups, do you go, do you want Trent McDuffie on AJ Brown? Do you want, is there a double on AJ Brown and Trent McDuffie on Devon? I think it's an interesting sort of schematic decision. I think they borrow from what they did last year where you put, when they put Trent Mcduffey on Devo Samuel, because I knew that was a guy that was working in the middle of the field.

They wanted a physical guy to be there. I think that you do the same thing with DeVante Smith and Trent McDuffe. Okay. He's usually the guy that's running the overrout. He's usually the guy that's presenting himself in the middle of the field, running up the scene. running the corner routes, things that will be like your typical man-beater types of plays. You're going to see a lot of that from Devante Smith within the structure of this offense. And we've seen Devante Smith, it's not necessarily that he struggles against physicality, but you can see the ways in which he tries to avoid contact at times. One of the things that Trent McDuffie does really well because of his change of direction skills,

because of how fast he is, he can stay attached to guys even when they're trying to slip by and get away from him. I think that if he's there, that matchup makes it really tough on Jalen Hertz. because now you don't have an easy way to access throws in the seam, right? You don't have an easy way to work the intermediate area of the field that forces you to hold the ball longer. And that's where, to the point that we were making earlier, who had the most at stake, that's where you get the mistakes from Hertz, whether it's forcing the ball where it doesn't need to be or holding the ball so long that you're now inviting pressure. I could see them making that move at McDuffie,

and now you're playing Jalen Watson or one of their other corners over A.J. Brown with a little bit of help. And I think that ultimately the biggest thing is going to be taking away Devonce Smith with Trent McDuffie and then blitzing the rest of the way and just trying to create as much stress as possible on Jalen Hertz. Because the truth of the matter is that you can't match up body for body against the Eagle skill position group no matter what you want to do. Ruiz, you had Trent McDuffie down. Why was he your true? What's the game? What does the game look like where Trent McDuffie wins MVP? I think one, he has to get a pick, maybe two picks.

I think he's going to get an opportunity to get a sack. We know Spags likes to blitz the defensive backs and the cornerbacks specific. And really when we've seen these random MVP's in the Super Bowl, it's usually been like the defensive back who comes out of nowhere and gets two picks. Like, you've been going back to like the 90s, Larry Brown with the Cowboys.

The Bucks, I think it was Dexter Jackson, had two picks in that game and one MVP and nobody had heard of either of those guys. I think it's going to be a defense. In that 13-3 Patriot's Rams game, there was a while. I was like the most impactful play was a Cory Littleton interception

early in that game, you know? He was in running to be a Super Bowl MVP if they would have won. Michael Smith with the Seahawks wasn't a defensive back but a defensive player who got some turnovers. I haven't heard of the name Corey Littleton in so long. Mammagal alumni, man. That's San Diego.

If I googled Shield Capadia, Corey, like I was writing about this guy free agency. He was going to turn the Raiders defense around. He got a big contract there. That's my guy. That all season. All right. So that's the case for Trent McDuffey from Ruiz. And then Deontae, Cooper deGis, an interesting thing.

Similar sales pitches as Stephen here. I mean, it's obviously going to require force and turnovers. I will say one thing to Philadelphia's defense has done. And I think that we've noted it in the potty. when we've been reviewing games. It's not necessarily that they've changed their identity. They just weren't forcing as many turnover early in the season.

And you're just seeing the turnover rate really spike over the last couple of months. And I think that that's going to be a big piece of if Philadelphia is going to win this football game, it's stealing an extra possession. You know that this is going to be probably a 10-drive-a-piece game if both offenses could have their way where you're really just using up a lot of clock.

Exactly. And being able to tilt the balance in the offense and your offense is favored by forcing a turnover, I think that Cooper DeGine is going to be in position to do so, whether it's contesting an RPO, whether it's taking a guy out of the flat or taking away one of those mesh concepts, making a lot of open field tackles,

and he's a blitzer as well, the same that Stephen was saying with Trent McDuffie. So that gives him an opportunity to get TFLs, maybe force a fumble, get a strip sack, something to that effect. And I think that it's kind of a narrow band of outcome, no matter what, if we're talking about guys that are not,

Sequan Barkley, you know, Patrick Mahomes, Jalen Hurts, the quarterback, Travis Kelsey. But I think that turnovers can be something that really swings this game because you know they're going to be limited in terms of possessions. The Chief's offense, I believe, is first an EPA per play on short passes and the Eagles defense is fourth at defending them. You can just see. Yeah. I mean, these are the two best tackling teams if you go by a yak over expectation.

And so you can, I feel like you could see a play where they throw a screen. Gene jumps it. Does he force a fumble? Is it just a key fourth downstop? Whatever it is. And everyone's going nuts out. He's had those plays. It's been fun to watch. watch all season long. All right. Cooper DeGine, Trent McDuffie and two votes for A.J. Brown. All right. Third question here. More likely, Sequin Barclay has 150 plus rushing yards or Travis Kelsey has 100 plus receiving yards. This is a tough one. I mean, I got to think about this one for a second. Sequin, 150 plus rushing yards or Travis Kelsey, 100 plus receiving yards. All right, I got mine written down here.

Didn't have to draw a B, so that was good. Everybody ready. All right, one, two, three. What do you got? I see Nora has Sequan B. What a cue from Nora, by the way. What did Deontes go with? Sequin going over.

Ruiz goes Kelsey. I go Sequin. All right, Ruiz, start with you. Why did you go go Kelsey here? I was split. I think there's a strong case for Kelsey. Yeah, because I think Seekwon is going to be the priority against the Chief's defense.

And I think the Chiefs have the tools in Spag's playbook to sell out against the run with numbers. And I don't think they're going to want that type of game model. If Sequin runs for 150, they win the game. Right. Point blank. Like, I don't think there's any discussion about that. Whereas I think, I mean, I think Kelsey's going to get a lot of opportunities.

I think just against that style of defense, they do so much. To take away the middle of the field, but I think the Chiefs are going to attack it anyway. And I think this is going to be a lot of the game. big Mahomes mobility game, out of structure game, against that pass rush, against that interior pass rush specifically with Jalen Carter. And Kelsey's usually the guy that gets the ball in those situations. Yeah. I mean, Eagles are zone heavy, obviously, so it's not like, hey, one guy matching up with Travis Kelsey. But Kelsey has been their guy against zone for many years, even this year when he's slowed down a little bit. So I could see him having a big game if they get down a

little bit. I mean, last Super Bowl against the Eagles, even the last two Super Bowl chiefs have been trailing, right? halftime. So you're throwing the football maybe a little bit more. So yes, I could see Kelsey certainly having a big game. Deonté, why'd you go? Sequan over Kelsey here? I think that it is close. And I think that for both guys, the argument is pretty similar, right? It's just going to be volume. I think that for Seekwon or for Philadelphia, I think the moment they get any kind of lead, you're going to really try to see them settle on the football as much as possible. We've seen the Sequan can still be explosive when teams are loading up the box. Obviously, I think a big

piece of this game is going to be how Philadelphia handles the run blitz. That's going to tell us a lot about how this game is going to go for Sequin. Obviously, the last year when Kansas City was in this position and they were rumblitzing San Francisco, the 49ers didn't have many answers, especially in the second half, when Spags really turned up the early down pressures. I'm interested to see whether you see enough RPO's to back them off of it. If they're able to get into some of those designer outside plays, you saw a pin and pull scheme, obviously that scored on the very first play in the conference championship game against

Washington. That's something that they've leaned on is just getting Barkley out on the perimeter when they think that teams are trying to blitz them. I can see one of those plays going big. And like I said, if they're up in the second half at any point in time, you know what the game plan is going to be. They're going to get in the pistol. They're going to be in the gun. It's going to be a bunch of duo.

It's going to be a bunch of inside zone. And they're going to trust Iquan Barker to bring it home. I think he's going to get a ton of carries as long as this game is within a possession or possession or a possession. Or something else that threshold faster than Kelsey would get to 100 yards. Yeah, there was like a 20-year stretch where any time the Eagles lost a game, the dominant conversation on local radio or the post-game show was, look at the box score. They didn't run. Why did they get away from the...

That's not a problem with this team. I mean, it's all... They didn't come this far to not give Sequin Bach for the football. He's going to get it in the first quarter of the second quarter. Even the, like, the conversation about, well, if it gets out of the, you know, a certain game script, I'm always like, if they're down two touchdowns, like, early in the fourth quarter, they're still running the football. They're still running the football.

It's almost like, unless it's six minutes or four minutes left or something and they're down two scores, there's literally, I don't think any other scenario where they would have... run the football. So, Nora, you went with Sequin too. Why? Yeah. I'll reiterate what you guys have said, which is that this is a really good question because I agree. It's really close. I agree with Stevens point that in general, the Sequin over 150 yards, there are a bunch of scenarios in which that's actually a bad game script for the Eagles. That to me is the version where it's at five yards of pop, right? Once one of those rushes is 72 yards.

Then we're just in a completely different situation. And I do think that he's shown enough of an ability to still be able to get those explosives even when opposing defenses are selling out to stop him. That I would rather, just given where they both are in their careers, I would rather bank on Saquan being able to just really break one. And then other than that, have a pretty normal Saquan game. Other than, rather than Travis, who, you know, this is the time he's, year when he turns it on, but it's, it's increasingly, you feel like he's really scraping the bottom

of the trial to get it done. It's like 14 targets for 80 yards. Yeah. Exactly. I do think this game is going to be about making Jalen Hertz the ball carrier when they do those option plays and he has a choice to give it to Sequin or keep the ball. I think Spag is going to sell out to keep it in Jalen Hertz's hand. That was the, that was the plan in the last Super Bowl when we saw this matchup.

And the Eagles did run the ball well, but if you look at those carries and who had them, it wasn't the running backs that were running the ball well. It was the quarterback. It was 70 yards, yeah, rushing. 70 yards rushing in that game. Last year they played each other, and it was 29 yards. So, the, this is the first guy I remember the broadcast, and we've had this conversation, I think, before,

talking about, like, the dangers of loading the box against Sequin Barclay because he breaks through the first line, the scrimmage, and, like, you just see these safeties. We got no shot. You got no shot. It almost is like, do you want to live that way with that risk where you might get some TFLs and one-yard runs, but you risk a longer run, or do you just kind of play levels to your defense,

stack the linebackers, play two safeties deep. And you might give up 6, 8, 12, but maybe you're not giving up. I've literally never heard that conversation on a broadcast about a running back before. It's crazy. But I think the Chiefs will find a way to stay in too high and blitz the run. We've seen them do that against Philadelphia in the past. I think last year they did it in the Monday night game. So I think there's ways to kind of guard against both.

Yeah, yeah. Spags, man. This is like... This is his Super Bowl again. Both defensive coordinators, really. I mean, we could, I have like a strong suspicion that when we're on the mics on Sunday night, in the first 10 minutes, we're either talking Spags or Vic Fangio, most likely for whichever team won this game. The reason the Fangio tree kind of exploded a couple years ago was in reaction to Patrick Mahomes and stopping him and stopping explosive passes.

So, yeah, I think both of these teams are kind of set up perfectly to attack the other one and what they do on offense. Yeah, I love it. All right. Let's take a break. We come back. We have two more questions to get to. All right, we are back on the Ringer NFL show. Ruiz, this was your special.

I like this one. Most likely Chief's referee in controversy, player and penalty. Now before you want to get you... I want to say something. I don't actually believe there's some conspiracy against the chief, but we're just playing into the bit. In the zeitgeist, you know?

When people are just going nuts about whatever they want to go nuts about, and trying to get their little clips going viral and all that, this will, Ruiz is saying, this will be the play that they're trying to bring to your attention. All right. Most likely Chiefs referee in controversy, player and penalty. I mean, this is a harder one. It's a longer one. You know, you're not just running Sequin.

So, yeah, I didn't anticipate it was going to take that much time. It did. My hand, the spacing in between my words is a little weird here. A lot of stuff going on. We get paid to write. This is why we get paid to type. All right. All right.

All right. All right. All right. Let's show. One, two, three. All right. there we go. I see Nora has Mahomes flop.

Deonté, what do you have? I have Chauncey Gardner Johnson with a late hit on Xavier Worthy. Okay, that was on my list with Chauncey Gardner Johnson. Ruiz. What do you have? I have a forward lateral by Travis Kelsey. Oh, that's good.

That's a good one. Jalen Carter body weight on Mahomes. All right. Nora, start us off. Well, I feel like yours and mine could kind of combine, right? Because this is not, obviously,

I was asked to write down the penalty, I didn't actually write down the penalty. But I think the most likely is the scenario in which the conversation is a defensive penalty against Patrick Mahomes. And we're talking about whether or not Mahomes milked it a little bit and whether or not it was fair to the department. A sideline one? Or in the pocket? I like the sideline. I like the sideline.

I see it on the sideline. I mean, maybe that's just because that was the last time that we saw it and it caused controversy. But yeah, that's what's in my mind's eye. I was skiing last weekend and I was in the lift line and there was a little kid who's like, you know, you're decked out on all this gear. And if you're a small child, you're a little wobbly. Kids wearing him a home's jersey over his ski jacket and he just falls over. And some other guy in the line like totally out of nowhere just goes flop. And everybody starts laughing.

It was really funny. Get that guy on the pod. That guy's funny. It was good. It was well done. It really got a chuckle out of me. No doubt about it. I had like Jalen Carter, either a sack or a QB hit on Mooms key play.

I'm talking third or fourth down, fourth quarter. And you're showing the replay and you're like, wait, did Jalen Carter move his body to the side? That shouldn't have been a body weight. Like does he have, he has one hand down. People are like slowing it down, circling the hand when it hits the ground. You know, his weights on his wrist. His weight isn't on the homes. The rest call it anyway.

and, you know, Eagles fans forget things very easily. So it only gets brought up for like a couple hours after the game. Can I ask you, before we move on, Jill, can I ask you a question? How do you feel and how do Eagles fans feel about being like the good guys? About being like the team that is once again tasked with bringing down a dynasty that people are growing increasingly resentful of? I don't think Eagles fans like that. I think they would probably be like how we would rather be the hated.

And I think they'll probably find a way to make this a little more balanced. It's like so funny because I think the Chiefs fans are really uncomfortable with the idea that they're villains. Yes, it's a role reversal. And then we have the warm and fuzzy Philadelphia Eagles. I really love it. No, the whole, I mean, the whole thing is no one likes us, we don't care. That's literally like the, that's on T-shirts when you go to like school events. There's little kids.

Who doesn't like them? Well, this was the, who doesn't like them? What do you mean? Eagles fans? No, who likes them? Oh, I meant the eagle. No, no, this is about the fan. Because the team's going to come and go.

You know, like, yeah, you can say, oh, they're doing everything the right way. And that is probably true. You're right now. They're like the bell of the ball. Oh, my God, too. But that's not the fan base and, like, down the line, you know, other stuff will happen there. All right. Deonté, yours.

I mean, John, the first name that popped into my head was Johnson'se Gardner Johnson. Of course, the infamous game this season when Fox came back from commercial and Chauncy Gardner Johnson was being escorted. Loving his mind by Dom DeSandrel. And we didn't see why it was. You went full name with Dom? Yeah. That's crazy.

Never heard anyone say that. Very uncomfortable. Dominic DeSantrell. Jeffrey Lurie, I think called him. Dias. I asked him a question yesterday about that. I think he said Dominant. And he's like, Domit.

So maybe he got in my head there. All right, Deontz. No, I mean, I've always just going about like the emotional constitution of the players. The ones who's most likely to lose it is probably Chauncy Gardner Johnson, like, I'm thinking about the, I'm thinking about the Super Bowl from a couple of years ago. I don't know if you remember this in that fourth down drive while the sheets were trying to put it away. Or maybe it's the drive before. He was like flying down the field.

There were multiple helmet-to-helmet hits that would cost you several games and game checks. He was one of the only defensive players who showed out in that game. 1,000 percent. And I can just see the drag route to Xavier Worthy. He's tiptoeing down the sideline. He gives his body up. Johnson Gardner Johnson is frustrated because they're moving the chains. And now you get an extra 15.

tacked onto it and you're giving up a score. That to me just feels like the most likely scenario. Well, you know it would come on, like the pass would not be remotely catchable. 1,000 percent. And now you're going to get Xavier Worthy at 170 pounds, limbs flying everywhere, Chauncey Gardner Johnson screaming at the ref for the flag. We're going to get the whole thing.

Ruiz, I had to be honest, when you read yours, I was like, if I could change mine, that just feels so on the nose. The Travis Kelsey. I came up with the answer before. The question. Okay. It was one of those situations. So I kind of cheated.

But no, I can totally see it happening. Like you said, we're slowing down the replay. I remember the, what was it, the Titans Bills, the Music City Miracle. That's still, like, 25 years later, we're still don't know whether it's forward or backwards. And we know Travis Kelsey loves a pitch. Nobody loves a pitch like Travis Kelsey. Can I be honest? Every time they show a replay of one of those, I never know.

Like, they're explaining it. I'm like, that looks backwards to me. And they're like, no, you know, someone slowing it down. Look at the yard line. where he let go. And I'm like, no, sorry, still looks backwards. So I can never tell. So I will not be the one complaining about that.

But yeah, that is on the nose. I love that one. All right. Last one to get to. More likely, Jalen Hertz has more passing yards than Patrick Mahomes. Or Kareem Hunt has more rushing yards than Sequin Barclay. So Jalen Hertz, more passing yards than Patrick Mahomes. Or Kareem Hunt, more rushing yards than Seekwan Barkley.

What are you got? Likely. Oof. I'm ready. Can I admit when I write an S, sometimes I start at the top and sometimes I start on the bottom. Is that serial killer behavior? I got to get on Mike to say 100% serial killer. Serial killer with an S that you started from the bottom.

Yeah. And it's also like the first letter on my name, so it's probably the letter I write the most. You would be writing the most. Yeah. Never said, never said I was a normal person. Let that be on the record. All right. One, two, three. Nora, what do you got? I can't see anything. Deonté and Ruiz almost hit each other in the head with the All right, Nora has Hertz, Deont. Hertz over Mahomes. Ruiz has Karim Hunt, and I have Hertz.

Ruiz, give us the scenario. Karim Hunt, more rushing yards than Seek-1 Bark. I mean, I don't feel confident in this one either way. I think it's just going to be, it's more me not picking the Hertz over Mahomes one, because I think it's just going to be a pass-heavy game for the Chiefs. I don't think they're going to be able to run the ball all that well until the Eagles have to adjust their defense to stop the passing game. And I think if the Chiefs get up, I think they'll get a lot, he'll get a lot of carries in the fourth quarter.

But I don't feel confident either way. And either of these things happen. The Chiefs, we talk so much about their explosive plays this season. And part of it is passing. But if you look at the, you know, their rate at producing explosive plays on the ground, it's like 31st or something in the NFL. Even when they're running it well, they haven't been able to break off those big runs there. All right. Deontay, why did you choose Hertz?

What's the scenario where Hertz out passes? Patrick Mahomes. I mean, part of it is just that I don't think Kareem Hunt's going to have enough volume of carries to get over Sequin Barkley's rushing number. We talked a little bit about that earlier in the show. And then the other piece of it is, I think if they're going to find success in the passing game, a lot of it is going to be taking that vertical shot early

in the game to an A.J. Brown or a Dallas Goddard on one of those slide routes or screens makes a guy miss and gets 30 yards of yards after the catch. And that's usually how this offense operates best in the passing game anyways. We saw when they played in the Super Bowl a couple of years ago. A lot of that was just kind of getting the ball

out and guys creating or just laying the ball out in the air and guys coming down with it for Jalen Hertz, I could see that going similarly in this game. And I don't think it would be, I think the more passes you see, the higher the volume of passes for both guys, the less likely it is that Hertz would beat him. I just can see big vertical shots for them. And maybe Patrick Mahomes being forced to dump the ball off so often early in the game that just by volume and the fact that that offense isn't very explosive that he might be out gained. Nora, same thing, same thinking. It's the chunk playability. You know, I think if the question were,

who's going to have a more consistent game passing the football, I feel very different. That would have been a real nerdy one that I'm surprised I didn't come up with. I would not have part to. Who will have the higher success? The higher CPOE. I would not have participated in such. Let's revisit the rules and who's eligible to.

Sorry, Sheila. It's okay. I like it. All right. Same thing. I mean, when Jalen Hertz plays well, he is chucking the ball downfield and giving those guys

chances. And you can put Trent McDuffie on one guy. The other guy is going to have Jalen Watson or Tamari Connor on them. And that is advantage Eagles in that matchup. And so you do want to find that matchup. You mentioned it. The yards after the catch with guys like Dallas got it. Like he has a chance to throw for a lot of yards in this game without a lot of volume. I think that would be a great outcome for the Eagles. If that's the case, obviously, then he still doesn't turn the football over. So that's why I've got that. I'm with, you know, you guys, I think the chiefs, I'm going to be, I'm really curious to see how many carries those backs get. I just feel like they're going to be like, we're not going to be able to run the football against the short yardage situation. I can't see

them running the ball very often. I think he's going to be pass first, first down, second down, getting good. They don't even have to get in good third downs. I had a stat in my piece on the ringer this week that third and six plus Mahomes is still the best quarterback in the NFL. So like all those things defensive coaches talk about, get them in third and long. Just pressure them. They do not apply to Patrick Holmes. He still got the production in those situations. So that's something else to keep an eye on here. All right. how do we feel? Good?

I feel like I aced it. I got everything right. All right, you got everything. Will we revisit these? We'll see. If I did well, we'll revisit them. If not, we will not. We will be back on Thursday with the big preview show.

We'll have our predictions in that one. And then we'll be back Sunday after. Super Bowl. L-I-X? Super Bowl Lix. Are we doing the number? What are we doing? I'm not saying.

We're not saying Licks. Okay. Listen, all right. Let's close on that note. Thank you to Norfranciati, Deonte Lee, and Stephen Ruiz. Thank you to Christopher Sutton for producing. Thank you to the whole video team for putting this on YouTube. Ringer NFL.

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