The Ringer NFL Show - Fixing the NFL Preseason and Early Reads on 2019’s Questionable QBs | The Ringer NFL Show

Episode Date: August 23, 2019

We acknowledge the obviously flawed NFL preseason and try to come up with some quick fixes for it (2:14), before running down a list of quarterbacks who have question marks next to their names heading into the 2019-20 season—including Jimmy Garoppolo, Daniel Jones, Eli Manning, and more (22:10). Hosts: Robert Mays and Kevin Clark Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Big news, everyone. The Ringer now has a Facebook group solely dedicated to the NFL. Check out our Ringer NFL Facebook group. It's a place for real fans to have real discussions about the NFL and everything surrounding it. We're talking fantasy, gambling, power rankings, and tons of questions like what qualities make for the best locker room guy and is Matthew Stafford actually a Hall of Famer? The answer to that is no, by the way. Plus, each week, we'll be able to be.

answering a question submitted in the Ringer NFL Facebook group on this podcast. So make sure to join the group and get active. Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. I'm Robert Mays, joined as always by Kevin Clark. Kevin, how you doing, buddy? I'm in beautiful San Francisco, California. Oh, nice. I'm having a great time. I'm in Chicago. I'm still here. I'm going to be here for a while, which is very nice. But it's nice outside. It was actually a chilly when I walked outside today. That's pretty typical. It's pretty typical of a place you live. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm just going to have a nice weekend. My fantasy football draft is tomorrow, which I'm a little concerned about. But outside of that, I'm living a pretty carefully,

carefree life right now. Can you give us a little scouting reporter for your targeting? It's a weird league because it's a dynasty keeper league. So there aren't that many players that are available even. Like before the draft is even going to start, I have seven players. And so it's the pool was very shallow. So I, I, I don't want to throw any names out there because there aren't that many names to go around. The bigger names, I think, that will be available are, like, Levi-on-Bell wasn't kept, Mike Evans wasn't kept. I think Antonio Brown wasn't kept.

But for the most part, those guys were already out of my price range based on how many guys I kept. So I'm not in it for the big fish this year. Well, good luck to you. Thanks, buddy. I'm looking forward to it. It's a very fun league, and I enjoy it very much. But we're not here to talk about fantasy football. We're here to talk about a couple things related to the NFL preseason.

because that is all what's going on right now. The third week of the preseason began last night. That is when starters typically begin to play. But that was not the case in Winnipeg because the field was not adequate. So the starters, for the Packers especially, did not play. Kevin, that was an all-time preseason debacle, one that you foresaw coming a long way away. Oh, it was so hard to see. about fixing the preseason.

It was so hard to see that the Raiders game in Winnipeg designed to save the Raiders some money in the midst of, I don't know, where do you start with the Raiders? In the midst of everything that's going on with them, it was so hard to foresee this would be a disaster, right? So I'm not exactly taking a victory lap that I knew this Winnipeg thing was going to be a disaster. One thing I did not see coming was a hole in the field. Yeah, that was harder to predict. I will say this.

The field wasn't playable, but guess what it had? plenty of NFL 100 logos. They made sure to get that done. You absolutely despise this celebration. I just needed to mention it because when I was rewatching the highlights this morning, it just jumped out to me how many there were. I was like, good. I'm glad they got those down, but the field doesn't work. We got to tell the good people of Winnipeg that the NFL's 100th anniversary since this is the last time.

How would they possibly get along without knowing? I hope Canada gets more NFL games, but let's bring them some things that are a little better products than what will happen last night. So watching this, and this goes to a broader conversation that I think a lot of people have talked about. A lot of people have talked about it to us. Sean McVeigh has talked about it publicly. I mean, I think Sean McVeigh might get credit

for killing the preseason a little bit. The preseason, I don't know if you noticed, is completely pointless. Yeah, it is completely pointless. I've always said this. Did you see, well, I mean, it used to be a little more before sort of A, the load management, to be before, you know, these teams started to realize in the last 10, 15 years that your season's

over if you lose a guy. I mean, remember when freaking Michael Vick broke his leg in a preseason game? I mean, like, how did that not? And that was when Michael Vick was, you know, one of the best, most electric players in the NFL. How did that not change anything? I hope, hopefully these sort of disasters that don't involve the best players in the NFL getting hurt, I hope these are the ones that sort of move preseason games out. I saw an amazing quote a couple of weeks ago. I don't know if you saw it where Philip Rivers said, he learned more from one joint practice than 10 preseason games combined.

Yeah. And I'm sure that's the case. It's just, I don't know. Is there a solution to this? Do you think that they should cut it to two games? I think that the arguments are that you need the younger players to kind of get those reps. It's helpful when it comes to pairing down the roster. Yeah.

I don't think those are things I believe in, but these are the reasons that I've heard from other people in the past. when I've said we should just do away with two of these. Well, I mean, there are some coaches who want like 15 preseason games. Because there's some coaches who are obsessed about roster spots 51, 52, 53. I don't care about those people. Like, I'm not saying I don't care about those players. I'm saying I don't care about those coaches.

I care about their future. And I hope that they do well. No, yes, I don't care about that process. I think that if you can't figure out how to fill your roster, you're probably a bad coach. Like, let's just, let's, let's, let's, I just. what's not sacrifice. And also, by the way, this is kind of a broader point. If you're one of these guys that was thrown out by the Packers to play on this field

because the guys who were important weren't allowed to play, how are you feeling today? They pulled 33 starters, 33 players, which includes most of the starters and most of the primary kind of set backups. And then they said, well, there's a hole in the field and we're going to play on an 80-yard field and the turf's not great. you guys go out there. And this keeps happening with, you know, the Eagles have not played Carson Wentz. The Ravens decided not to play Lamar Jackson yesterday.

Every team is realizing that this just isn't necessary. Why would we take the risk of doing this? And you're probably right that McVeigh is the guy that set this all into motion, but I just don't see why any team is going to keep doing it. I mean, I think that Belichick probably is old school enough where that's the only reason that Brady is playing. But even when Brady was out there last night, I was like, what the hell is going on right now? Well, I mean, also, Brian Horner didn't play because they were giving a look at Jared Stidham.

So did the cam, uh-oh, auto play video, just the curse of any podcast. Did you see the Cam Newton foot sprain? Yes. Yes. So they're cautiously optimistic. He's going to be able to week one. But if you're anybody this weekend, you know, if you are anybody who hasn't played and you see the Cam Newton foot sprain, wait, why did we risk? Cam Newton so that he's cautiously optimistic. I talked to Ron, to the point you're cautiously

optimistic for week one. I talked to Ron Rivera a couple weeks ago about this very topic, and they were doing so much to keep Cam Newton healthy. One of the things he told me was essentially if Cam Newton is good at something, if they're just doing a day where Cam Newton's set, they're just not going to have Cam Newton practice. Okay, that was one of the things he told me. They're just going to keep one of the game. Right. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying that how do you have this whole load management plan And then, you know, obviously it's because that's sort of what you do. You play starters in the preseason. But I just don't know why this keeps happening.

I think you have more joint practices. I think one of the things that I would really enjoy is more joint practices at a stadium. So the fans can come and see it a little bit more. I think that that's the way you could get into it. If you want to give it to season ticket holders, I mean, like, listen, I understand there's a financial element to this. But, you know, the last TV contract, I think the total. Well, no, yes, there is because, but I need to make this point. The last TV contract, I think the total from the network, is not even counting money in football, is $22 billion.

And the next TV contract will be even more. I think we can move along without too much damage if we get rid of two preseason games. If you're relying on ticket sales, you're already, you know, you should probably be able to find some money somewhere else. That's what I'm saying. I mean, the preseason games aren't even a part of that package. They're all broadcast locally. So it's really just the game for two games that are three quarters away filled. No, I'm talking about how what I'm saying is that NFL teams are swimming with cash from the regular season network deals.

And they shouldn't have to rely on preseason ticket sales. That's what I'm saying. No, we're on the same page. I completely agree. If you have to rely on, again, the gate from two preseason games as part of your revenue, you're probably screwing up somewhere else. So what do you think? Do you think that joint practices are the answer?

have anything else that you feel like could help this? Or is it just a matter of kind of cutting this and figuring it out later? I think that the first thing you have to do is cut two games. And I don't know. I think that you do more joint practice. Maybe you do more sort of local joint practices where the Ravens and the Eagles get together somewhere like that where you're not flying across the country. I know that the 49ers flew across the country to Baltimore a couple years ago,

just that the Harbor brothers could be together. The Saints like to go out to California because Drew Breese obviously has that connection out there. they do the Chargers during practice. And, you know, I just think that there are so many different ways that you can approach this where you're not just having live game reps in Winnipeg's case on Terrible Turf in front of 20,000 fans. I just feel like there's a lot of different ways we can evolve this and all of them are better. Yeah, I'm with you.

I just think two games is enough for the young players. I think it's two games is enough to see those guys in action and understand. who you want on your team, who you don't, all these different things. Because for the most part, these teams are not using the offenses and the defenses they're going to use in the regular season. I mean, this is all vanilla stuff because everyone wants to show anything.

Right. And now what is there to be gained? Did you see the weird Lamarcus Joyner thing about how he called the Cardinals like Pretty Boy Football or something? No. Did you see this? Okay. I mean, that's that's it. I just explained the entire story to you. Lamarcus joiner called... In what context?

I mean, what do you think? I'm just, that, that's what he said. And so, but the, the,

the, sort of the response from the Cardinals correctly was like, what are you talking about? Like, we're not showing anything. Like,

what, what, what have you seen? What have you gleaned from this? That, like, they're, they're not running their offense.

Nobody runs their offense. We talked about this in the last episode. Nobody runs their offense. Like, you can see Lamar, Jackson just juke three guys out of their, out of their shoes or like, you know, it looks like everyone on the, on the defense is torn their ACL because he's so good at avoiding tackles. But that's not actually what, I mean, he will do that in regular season games, but the

offense is going to look very, very different. For the most part, the thing I pay attention to the most is what does a young guy that I've never seen look like against some NFL town? You know, does he look like he's moving at the speed we want him to? It's mostly for position players, like skill position players. When I watch Justice Hill, it's like, okay, that guy looks like an NFL running back, even if it is the backups. With quarterbacks, I'm typically a little bit more apprehensive about anointing them after a couple good preseason starts. Again, because teams aren't running their offense and their defense.

And for a quarterback, how you're playing against a certain scheme matters much more to me than a running back that's trying to get around people, everything else. So with that in mind, Blake Bortle's 110 rating his first preseason. So here we go. This is what I wanted to talk about. next Monday is quarterback day at the ringer.com. And we're going to kind of preface that a little bit by discussing some of the quarterback performances so far in the preseason. So I would like to start with not the rookies or kind of the teams that are a little bit

more unsettled. I want to start with Jimmy Garapola. Because I, so many people were asking me the other day about whether or not I'm kind of getting panicked about Jimmy Garapola, whether it was people in San Francisco or just kind of people I was having conversations with. And I was just, I wanted to say, like, first of all, it's the preseason. So no, I'm not getting panicked. But I just think that I am more concerned about the first three starts he had last season than I am about one weird start against Vic Fangio turning it up in a preseason game against a vanilla offense.

Am I wrong? Hmm. I am worried. I met like, I don't know, 40% panic on that one. Like, that's. Yeah, I'm right there too. I'm at 0% panic on Tom Brady, right? That's sort of the baseline.

I'm at 0% panic on Tom Brady, like 5% panic on like Carson Wentz because of his health and 40% on Jim Grappalo. How's that? And I'm at like 90% on the dolphins. The 40% I think is fair. And so that's where I'm, anybody under 50 I'm not too upset about.

But he's definitely on the watch list for me panicking. Okay. I think that there's, I agree. I think that, again, preseason is really hard. I thought it was interesting. I saw a tweet last night that Scott Zolak in the Patriots broadcast said that Jimmy Groppo was one of the worst practice players they had there. Maybe he's just not the kind of guy who is going to look good when it's preseason.

Maybe he's just a game guy. But I agree with you. The beginning of the season last year was really concerning. I think in a weird way that Shanahan's play action success and his ability to scheme up those guys last year the backups is going to hurt Gropolo because people are going to be saying, hey, look at what he was able to do with basically anybody last year. So I think that that's

going to be an interesting storyline is kind of Gropolo versus the perception of what Kyle Schananenhan can create. And that's the one thing I'm really interested in. I don't it's really hard for me to sit here and say preseason doesn't matter, get rid of all the games

and then also say, like, I'm really worried about Jimmy Gropolo. It's all fake. you know, Kyle Slaughter is crushing it right now. I just, you know, we're going to get to Daniel Jones in a second. But like,

I don't even know who this is. Jake Dola Gala. Do you know who this guy is? I have no idea. You could tell me he's on any team. He's on the Bengals, 138 rating on 12 passes so far. 83% completion percentage.

So there you go. It's, I'm just saying it's hard for me. I am not at practice every day. I don't know, you know, all the intricacies of it. I am extremely hesitant to make any judgment on Jimmy Garoppel until, you know, October 10th. Yes. I feel the same way.

And I will say that I am worried. A 40 out of 100 is pretty much where I am as well. It might be a little bit higher than that just because, again, it's compared to what Shanahan has been able to do with Western quarterbacks. I'm mostly worried about just the health part of it because, you know, I'm, I remember talking to a GM who was talking about Carson Palmer. And we're talking a little bit about how Carson Palmer obviously didn't really thrive in Oakland. And they were saying, you know, listen, it was because he wasn't, he did not trust his leg enough and wouldn't step up in the pocket and make those confident decisions.

By the time he got to Arizona, he was much more confident. And that dove tale with Bruce Ariens being the quarterback whisper and everything clicked for them. So it's, you know, I think that those sort of injuries are mental injuries as well as physical injuries. And the ability to trust yourself is really, really hard. Even if you have the guts of a cat burglar, you will struggle a little bit to say, I can do this. I have a broken foot right now. And I didn't really go to the doctor for it. And I'm just walking around with a broken foot. And I am having a really bad time walking. and my point is that I would be really bad as an NFL quarterback right now. How did you break your foot? A little weight mishap.

Goodness gracious. And listen, I'm a veteran of breaking this. This is like the second time I've broken this foot in the last three years. So I definitely know what it feels like. I haven't broken any bones recently. But I was talking to Matt LaFluor about this when I was in Green Bay and just him tearing his ACL or him tearing his Achilles while playing a knockout. And I was like, oh, man.

Like, this is the, this is where we're getting to in our, like, mid to late 30s as we get there. So you just start tearing stuff for no reason. So that might be on my horizon, but I'm not getting the level quite yet. It's not for no reason. I mean, like, the first one was getting hit by a car. This one was kind of a heavy weight. So it's not like I'm just kind of randomly breaking my foot here. It's, it's, these are well-deserved breaks.

Sure. But I think that there is a point in our lives coming very soon where it might be a little bit more random. That's what I'm getting at. Oh, 100%. But as long as the car is, it won't take nearly as much. as stay on the road on Gower Street. I'll be okay. So outside of even the injury stuff with Garoppolo, I think I am a little bit concerned of just about how he functions in that offense. And I don't want to read too much into it

because this is a silly thing to do as well. But if reading some of the quotes from Shanahan after that game the other day, I think he's probably getting a little bit frustrated. Because I feel like he has some issues with how Garapolo functions in his offense and decisions that he makes and how quickly he makes them. And even he said the other day, I wish I could have kept him in that game for longer, but we can't do that to the rest of our starters. So I think there's a tiny bit of frustration. And I feel like the interesting part about Garoppolo this year, just kind of also how it relates to the fact that, you know, what is Chattellan and John Lynch's job security. But do you know how much dead money Jimmy Garoppolo has on his contract after this season?

Not a lot. $4.2 million. Yeah. Well, that's the point. And you wrote the story about this. That's the point. I mean, I'm not saying being able to cut him is not the point. But what I'm saying is the flexibility of giving a guy $41 million.

in one season is pretty important. Yes, and that's why they did it when they had all that cap space, and now they can easily get out from under it if they want to. So I'm not saying they're going to want to, but I feel like this is, you know, people are talking about how huge of a season this is for John Lynch and Jimmy and Kyle Shanahan in terms of them sticking around in San Francisco. I think it's a huge season for Jimmy Garapolo standing or sticking around in San Francisco

because they could easily move on from him next year if they wanted to. Yeah, no doubt. That's, that's, you know, 80% of the NFL. And that's what I find so fascinating about. I mean, the only difference is that, you know, congratulations to Jimmy Groplo for making like $60 million. But it's totally possible that this goes south pretty quickly. I'm not saying it will.

I still believe, here's the thing, dude. I really believe in Kyle Shanahan's ability to scheme up anybody, and that would include Jimmy Gropolo if he's not very good this year. Does that make sense? Like, there's a possibility that Jim Gropo is just not ready for to be a franchise quarterback, but we don't ever notice because Kyle Shanahan can, can scheme this up. Now, the best case scenario is both of those things hit at the same time, then they can win the division. But I'm just saying, what if the struggling quarterback Kyle

Shanahan turns into a scheme lord is Jimmy Garoppel? And then you're having to pay $25 million for that scheme lord rather than however much if Nolan's is going to make, which is a whole different question entirely. It's the cost of doing business. We're both writing about this on Monday. For over 20 years, DirecTV has been the exclusive home to NFL Sunday ticket. The only way to get every live game every Sunday. Good news, NFL fans. Direct TV has expanded the service. If you live in an apartment or an area where DirectTV

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fantasy football. Let's move on. Let's get to some of the younger quarterbacks that have been playing this preseason. And let us start with Daniel Jones. Are we willing to admit we were wrong about Daniel Jones or is it too early for you? So Pat Schumer, yeah, yes, it's way too early. Pat Schumer came out yesterday and said, and said, hey, why don't you ask the people who didn't like them what they think? Because he's taking a little victory lap here. So there's a couple things I want to unpack here. Number one is that Pat Schumer should ask literally everybody who works in the NFL who is outside of the Giants building. That's a slight overstatement.

I saw a tweet the other day or yesterday from Jeff Duncan in New Orleans who said that one of the Saints executives really liked Daniel Jones. So one of the Saints executives plus Dave Gettleman and he got a little Daniel Jones fan club building. I would love Daniel Jones to be awesome. I think that would be really fun. I think that, you know, all of us who made fun of the Daniel Jones pick, there's so many of us that it wouldn't actually be like a huge problem for everybody. It's kind of like, I am Spartacus kind of thing. We're like, we're all in the same boat. And so if we all got dunked on, it's like, it's not really that big of a deal. I think it'd be a great humbling experience for all of us. Because I think that, you know, I think that the NFL media can get a little, myself certainly included, can get a little, you know, on their analytic high horses and make fun of people like Daniel Jones. I think that Baker Mayfield meant what he said.

I'll leave it at that. But yeah. I don't think he was wrong what he said. I don't think he was wrong at all. But so Daniel Jones 140 grading, 83% completion percentage. As I said, there's a whole group. He played well against the Bengals ones last night. How much doc you put in that remains to be seen.

But listen, there's, again, Kyle Slaughter, absolutely crushing it. Ryan Tannahill, 130 rating. Here comes Tanny. I'm really curious to see what happens there. You know, he's also just thrown 30 passes. So there's kind of a rare group. Matt Barkley is on fire,

having thrown 24 passes. Kyle Loretta, by the way, also on the Giants crushing it. So Brett Hunley, hey, look at that. He's looking at this, 117 for Brett Hundley for the quarterback rating. comes Brett Hunley. I think this is all we need to know about how much stock we should put in the preseason.

I'm also watching Daniel Jones highlights as we speak. Every single one of these completions is underneath. Yeah, I'm just watching the highlights right now as you're talking. Every single one of these completions is just like an underneath throw. It's like, okay, good job, Daniel Jones. I look forward to retweeting that Shermer quote on like November 6th. Also, I thought Elon Manning was supposed to still be good. I haven't told Eli Manning was good and they were going to do the Kansas City model.

And now we're sending Elon Manning out of town. the one pass down the field Daniel Jones completed was a jump ball that somebody had to go up and get which okay I'm not saying the guy's going to be good or bad I'm just saying that what's happened so far is not nearly enough for me to start changing my tune about Daniel Jones. I feel the same exact way

about Daniel Jones I did on July 3rd or whatever like nothing is changed the preseason doesn't change anything I'm super glad that everyone's having a good time super glad that Shermer is you know all hyped up but I just do not think there's a lot you can extrapolate from preseason. I think, I just think, I think nothing. And I think that if you read too much into it, that's a, you know, I'm making really bad mistakes. So I'm sure Eli Man is going to start week one.

Daniel Jones will start by November and then we can make decisions based on that. Again, I cannot sit here and say, Jimmy Garoppolo is bad because of the preseason games, blah, blah, blah, blah, Daniel Jones is great because of the preseason games and then say, by the way, the preseason should be completely eradicated. You cannot do that. Nothing matters. Don't want to be philosophical here. But nothing we're seeing matters. Injuries matter. I'm with you. And like practice reps matter.

And last year matters. I will say that one of the skills, one of the skills from college that's definitely translated to the NFL for Daniel Jones is being able to take a hit. Good Lord, did he get whacked a couple times yesterday? He seemed to get up and wasn't even phased by it. That's what happens when you go to Duke.

You get used to taking that kind of punishment. All right. Let's get to some of the other younger quarterbacks around the league. What do you make of the Dolphioux? often's meaningless quarterback competition. It matters to absolutely know and accept the men involved, but there is a tiny bit of intrigue there. Speaking of meaningless,

Brian Flores-Kennie-Stills thing is a top-five weird thing that's happened this preseason. That's something that matters. Can you believe that? Weirdness. Honestly, it's impossible for me to have a take because I don't understand it. I don't understand it either. And his reasoning that it was to motivate Kenny Stills,

I don't. back up and explain in case someone missed it. So, so Brian Flores played eight straight Jay-Z songs to start a practice after Kenny Stills came out against the NFL deal with Jay-Z. And then people were like, I think it's a message. And other people were like,

I don't think it's a message. And then Brian Flores confirmed it was a message to motivate Kenny Stills to catch more passes. I don't understand anything. In what possible way does that make sense? Like, how do you trek that from point A to

Point B. If you're Kenny Stills, the only reaction is to just be like, this is weird. It's not to be angry or excited or motivated. I would just be like, this is, this is strange. Just bizarre. That was exactly how I responded. I was like, that is just a very strange choice, sir. I just, uh, whatever.

That's a really, really other way is to say about it. I think that you're right. But it is a truly puzzling decision by Brian Flores. I just got my Twitter my tweet about Winnipeg was added into a Twitter moment about the Winnipeg preseason disaster Look at you buddy

You made it this is a huge moment for you I don't know no no I don't care about that I'm it's about the tweet was about How this is going to kill the preseason And this is one more step towards it All right back to the Dolphins quarterback situation Do you care who gets this job? Does it matter to you? Well yes I care because if Fitzmagic gets it

I think that's, that's the end of the line for, for Rosen for a little bit. Rosen's going to have to really, really, really rehabilitate himself. Now, he looked pretty good against the Jags backups last week, yesterday in the fourth quarter. Don't, I saw some of those plays. But he looked okay. But this, this seems to be sort of a blowout. Like, if you're just reading the tea leaves of the Dolphins beatwriters, Trey Akeman said it yesterday.

It would be, for some reason, Ryan Fitzpatrick seems to be walking away with this competition. Okay, so that may be true. Let's say Ryan Fitzpatrick is the better quarterback in Dolphins practice. I can see that that may be the case. If you're the Dolphins, is that a good enough reason to make him your starting quarterback when you consider where you are as a franchise?

Are you saying the tank? Yes, not even just a tank. So are you trying to, are we trying to lose or not? I'm not saying you're trying to lose. I'm just saying, is it smarter to take a look at the cheap 23-year-old quarterback that could potentially be a building block for your future if given the right opportunity than it is to pay a guy who's in his mid-30s that's not going to be a part of your long-term plan? Yeah, I mean, I can't, it depends what they want to do.

I think that if they thought that Rosen was a legitimate starter going forward, I think you have to give him the shot, right? If he's not, you get him out of the way and you lose a bunch of games. That's the most important thing. You get what I'm saying? Either give Rosen a shot to be the quarterback at not only 2019, but 2020, 2020, 2021, 2021, if you think he has that potential, or just go O.N. 16. Those are the two options.

So if you were writing off Rosen already, that's fine. But get him out of the way. Don't let him win any games. Fitz might win some games, brother. Like, he might. I think that's part of the issue too. I'd rather go with a known quantity of being bad that is Josh Rosen for a little while and just see how he takes it then.

I mean, he had one of the worst supporting cast in football last year. Guess what, buddy's going to have another one this year. I know. I mean, it's untenable. And that's another argument for why you probably wouldn't pay him. I think that when you're doing this kind of thing and you're doing this calculus with an NFL locker room, part of the issue is you can lose the other guys. If Ryan Fitzpatrick has been clearly better and you trot out Rosen knowing he's a lesser player,

you risk losing your locker room. But here's the thing with the dolphins, man. How many of those guys are going to be around beyond this year anyway? Are you really risking losing your team long term? When I don't, how many of these guys are going to be here? I mean, pretty much everybody on this team are good. Yeah, and it reminds me, it's funny. Xavier and Howard, Laramie Tunsell, but that's really it.

Robert and D.J. Patrick, but it's the young guys. Do you see Robert and D.J. couldn't complete a win sprint last night? I don't have you saw that sweet. I probably couldn't either, so I'm not trying to judge people here. Well, I could before I broke my foot. But I, the tank is definitely on.

If he makes the team, then we're just in full tank mode. I saw something he might start on the Pup list or something. But if he's even around the facility, the tank is on. The tank is. I like it, man. I support this plan. I think that the, I think that the thing about that quarterback competition is I don't actually think anybody in the locker room cares who wins.

Does that make sense? Like, it's not exactly. I remember the argument. I remember this was talked about when Russell Wilson beat out Matt Flynn. And for those, of you who weren't around or maybe you were younger, that was a legitimate quarterback competition in 2012. And the point someone made from the Seahawks was like, you can't be Mr. compete as Pete Carroll is and then let someone who got beat out in training camp start.

That was Matt Flint, right? So they named Russell Wilson the start of the rest is history. This is the exact opposite of that. I don't think anybody cares about this. I don't think anybody in the locker room is sitting there saying, like, we're learning the wrong lessons or something. I think everybody knows the Dolphins ready to take a step back. King has reported this. The idea is Ross just told them find a quarterback no matter what, whether that's through a trade or whatever, but more importantly, probably in the draft, whether that's Tua, whether that's, I mean, maybe they go full Sashi Brown on us and just tank for two years so you get

Trevor Lawrence. Let's just do that. It's certainly possible. I mean, they have the roster to do it if they want to. Again, they could pretty much get rid of everybody and not pay a lot to do it. Just keep trading back. this year, get your, get your Miles Garrett, and then next year, try to go 0 and 16. But the problem with that is I think Brian Flores wants to win.

Well, yeah, because coaches don't last that long. But with the G. Yeah, they should have hired, they should have hired Mike Malarkey, right? Or like dirt cutter. Hiring a coach that's just hired to be fired? Yeah, and to lose. Like, you don't have to tell Mike Malarkey a thing. You don't have to tell him a damn thing.

He just goes out and he tanks. and then you build the team up, and then in 2021, that's when you hire Brian Flores. I can't disagree with you. I understand the merits of that plan. All right, is there any other team that we want to get to here? The one thing I want to note after yesterday's performance is Trace McSorley is really fun, man.

I really enjoyed watching Trace McSorley play last night. He's one of those guys that watching him in college, he was so enjoyable that I want him to succeed in the NFL. And it just really seems like he's the right person to kind of be the second guy on that offense after Lamar Jackson. I kind of like it. I agree. I agree. And I think it gives you a different,

I think everyone is just going to talk about Taysam Hill for the rest of time. But I just think that anything you can do in the offense that's change your pace is important. Anything. And with that with that. I liked him in college. He's a nice player. I don't actually agree with the Taysom Hill experiment. But I'm saying when you don't have Drew Brees, 99% of the time change your pace.

offensive pieces are good. Yeah, I agree. And there's a lot of changes of pace on that offense, man. There's some fun players over there. He's just another one. All right. Is there anything else you wanted to hit on before we get out of here? No, I think we're good.

Hopefully nobody plays their starters in the preseason. Hopefully there's not a problem. And hopefully the CBA can include just getting rid of two preseason games. Would you be in favor of a 17th game? I think it depends on how you do it. I think if you play 17 games, there should be two by weeks, at least. Well, and also, so the very popular thing around the league, very, very popular. I mean, not, no one's, I don't know if the league office talked to this, but some of the ideas I hear from people when I'm there is have a 17th game, but the 17th game is always a neutral site.

And so this is sort of an idea that the primary league had about a decade ago that got abandoned, where they'd have a 39th game. And it's basically just like, you know, everyone would play their full schedule and then two teams. would just go to a random place. Whether that's Winnipeg, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Berlin, whatever it is, Tokyo. Just go and play that game. And that is your international footprint. That makes the schedule more,

even though it would be an unbalanced schedule, obviously, but every NFL schedule is unbalanced. But it would not mess with the home in a way. Nobody would have an extra home game. So I think that is a little bit of, I think that might be an interesting option, right? That's fine with me. I think that the home game side of that makes sense.

And then I feel like you have to take some precautions with player safety if you're going to add another game. And I think that that means another by week somewhere. Yeah, and probably expand the roster. More rust, anything. I mean, I think that you need to do something to offset. Or don't expand the roster. Just make 53 players active on game day.

Sure. That's fine, too. Which is not currently allowed. I think that what's interesting to me, so when I was the Lost Eternal, the CEO of Liverpool came in, and we talked a little bit about that idea because the primary league was the one

that came up with it, but they never went through with it. And he said that one of the reasons it had so much resistance was because of, there were some people who were Liverpool fans who had just been to every game forever. And they didn't like,

it was really unfair for those people. And it's a not insignificant amount of people who just like followed Liverpool around England for 20 years, 30 years at a time. And now you're just saying, oh, by the way, our 39th game is in. in Beijing.

Like, sorry, dude. And that was why there was a lot of resistance. That doesn't happen in the NFL. Like, only beat writers travel with the teams to all 16 games. I'm sure there's some people. Don't email me and say, I travel. I've traveled every Bears game for the last 20 years. I'm sure there's some people, but it's not the same.

And I don't think there'd be as much resistance with that. And nobody lose a home game. Yeah, I mean, it's, England is how big? I mean, it's, England would be the 12th biggest state in America, right? I feel like. No, I'm just saying it's much easier to travel around England for every single game that it is to travel around the country. Just start a fight with England. See what happens.

Listen, all I'm saying is it's practically much easier to travel around England that is to travel around America. I love our English listeners. And I would never call them small. I'm saying the nation of England is small. That is what I'm saying. It is relatively small. At Robert May. Our international listeners are pretty much my favorite listeners.

All my favorite goods are. Now you're taking on the American listeners. It's just a tough day for you, buddy. Favorite listeners? Just alienating everyone. Just alienating everybody. I'm just playing both sides. All right, anything else?

Let's end this podcast before I do any more damage. No, we'll be back next week. I think we're both of the opinion that the preseason needs to be over and real football needs to begin. That's where I'm at right now. My body shut down yesterday. I was sick after the training camp tour. Every single element of this just lends to football needing to start. and us need to have some real football games.

I'm ready. QB week or QB day is on Monday at the ringer.com. Please come check out the ringer.com on Monday for quarterback day. We'll have a whole lot of quarterback material, including two stories from Kevin Clark and I. And we'll be back next week with two more shows. And until then, enjoy your weekend. Enjoy your fantasy drafts this week if you have one.

And we'll talk to you soon. Thanks, guys.