The Ringer NFL Show - Handing Out Gifts to Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Justin Fields, and Others! | The Scramble

Episode Date: December 22, 2022

This week, Sheil is joined by The Ringer’s Lindsay Jones to give out gifts ahead of the holidays. They share what Patrick Mahomes can expect to find under his tree (2:00) and explain why Josh Allen could use a heating rock (8:00). Plus, they pick which coaches need a coaching seminar (13:00) and discuss the best gift Lions fans can hope for (36:00). Finally, they close the show by answering mailbag questions (42:00). Do you have a question for Sheil? Email [e-mail] for a chance to have your question answered on the show. Host: Sheil Kapadia Guest: Lindsay Jones Associate Producer: Mike Wargon Additional Production Supervision: Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey everyone, it's Peter Rosenberg from Cheap Heat. Join me and the fearless, physically large stat guy, Greg, and of course Super Agent 35 under 35 Dipperstein as we tackle the biggest stories in pro wrestling each and every week. To hear us, follow the Ringer wrestling show on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Stay Mage and enjoy yourself. Welcome to the Scramble. I'm Shil Kapadia. Coming to you on the Ringer NFL feed every Thursday with the guest. And today, excited to have my friend, my editor, my colleague from the Ringer, Lindsay

Jones stay. It looks like staying warm inside in Colorado. Cannot go outside today in Colorado. Yeah. So I am here in Colorado where I just checked my weather app and as we're recording here on Thursday morning, it's up to negative 8 degrees. It was at least 10 degrees colder plus significantly colder real temp or it feels like temp with the windchill. But I'm here to preview what's coming for the rest of the country. I don't know if you've seen the forecast for this weekend's NFL games in Chicago and Buffalo, I believe. I mean, it's going to be brutal for most of the country for a lot of these games on Christmas

weekend. So bundle up. It seems like a good weekend for us to be home watching on the couch. That's right. Stay inside. Listen to Ringer podcast. Read the Ringer. Watch some football.

No need to go outside this weekend. We're going to make it simple for this episode at the holiday season. Maybe you're celebrating Hanukkah, Christmas, whatever. Maybe you're giving out some gifts to some friends, family, colleagues. We're going to give out gifts. We're going to each give out. This is like an old school, I feel like idea has probably been done in newspapers in like the 70s or whatever.

But listen, I like reading those. So we're just going to steal that bit and go with it here. Here, we're each going to give out three gifts. It can be to quarterbacks, coaches, teams, fan bases, whatever, anything. I have no restrictions on it when I messaged you with the idea. So I don't know what you're going to choose. You don't know what I'm going to choose. We're just going to give out three gifts for the holiday season.

And then, of course, we will end with the mailbag as always. All right, Lindsay, you are the guest. Lead us off. Who are you giving a gift to first? All right. I'm going to go with my easiest one, the simplest, most straightforward one here. And this is probably a preview of some stuff that we'll talk about here, you know, across our network in coming weeks. But I'm just going to go ahead and give Patrick Mahomes the MVP award this season.

And I know this might be a controversial take. I know this is a pro Jalen Hertz podcast. There are probably a lot of Philly special crossover listeners, and I do not want to anger you right now. All I am saying is that Patrick Mahomes, year after year after year, is the best player in football. And we as MVP voters, and I am an MVP voter.

I haven't voted every year over the last 10 years, but I have been consistently over the last few years in the APs voting pool. and we collectively, I don't want to say we always get it wrong, but sometimes we get distracted by the new shiny thing, the narrative awards of this is new, this is different, look at, you know, this innovation and offense, all these different sorts of things. And sometimes that pulls us away from just appreciating the greatness that we're seeing on a week-to-week baseness. And what we're seeing out of Patrick Mahomes right now is arguably his best season. He's not

not going to quite reach the statistical heights that he hit in 2018 when he won the MVP award, his first year starter, when he threw 50 touchdowns and really just kind of took the NFL by storm. And that is unfair that we're always going to be comparing him to his historic heights. I say this was kind of my easiest take because Roger Sherman wrote about this today, Thursday on the ringer.com. So I spent a lot of time thinking about this, talking about this, looking at numbers and stuff over the last couple weeks. But why I think Patrick Mahomes deserve this award and want to give it to him right now

is not because Jalen Hertz got hurt. And I think that's disappointing for Hertz, I'm sure, for his MVP case. But it's just what Mahomes has done to this season. Statistically, he's right there. I mean, he's going to end up leading the NFL in passing yards right now. He's either leading or tied for the lead

in total touchdowns when you add in his passing touchdowns and his rushing touchdowns. He's extremely effective as a runner, not the same way that Jalen Hertz and Justin Fields are, but he uses his legs in a way that is extremely advantageous for the chiefs. And then he's top three and all the other kind of major categories. And he's also leading ESPN's QBR. He's the top of our own, Stephen Reeves' quarterback rankings.

And he's still doing the really cool shit, right? Like every week, there's one of those like, oh, my God, I can't believe Patrick Mahomes made those plays. And the point of Roger's story that I want everybody to go and read, which I thought was really, really smart that Roger took this angle, was that we may have reached like greatness fatigue with Patram your homes, where he's made the ridiculous routine, and that kind of takes some of the specialness off of it, and maybe we're looking for something else. So I am open.

I will say I am open to seeing what happens over the next three weeks of the season, but if I was voting here today and, you know, if the season continues over these next three weeks, the way that has gone, it's very clear to me that Patrick Mahomes is the MVP and that I would like him to be unwrapping that on NFL honors on February 10th or whatever night that show is going to be. Yeah, no, I'm with you. I think Solek and I both on Philly special

when we were talking about it, we both felt like Mahomes was the MVP. We felt like if Eagles fans were watching Mahomes every week or it was kind of flip. And I get it. Like you stump for your guy. I mean, that's a part of being a fan. Like you watch your guy every week.

And if your guy's in the mix, usually you're just arguing that, yeah, our guy should win the MVP. There's nothing wrong with that. That's normal. And I agree with you with the greatness point. It's almost like it reminds me of like Michael Jordan, you know, growing up as a kid. And it's just like there's always a new challenger and no, this guy's going to be the next Jordan. It's like, nope, it's always Michael Jordan.

And I think there are other guys who certainly can catch Mahomes in a certain year. I mean, Josh Allen could certainly beat him out for MVP's in the years ahead. Joe Burrow certainly could jail, you know, Jalen Hertz could. there are probably Herbert Lamar. You know, any of these guys are capable of putting together that season where you're saying, all right, you know, yeah, Mahomes might still be. Like if I'm zooming out and saying who's the best player, it's Mahomes. But for this year specifically, this other quarterback has played better than Mahomes.

Like, that's probably better. That'll happen. You know, we've seen that happen. That will happen in the next five years. It hasn't happened this year. I mean, you mentioned it. Statistically, he's there, some of the advanced stuff, you know, EPA per pass play. He's first.

I'm pulling this up because I was curious when you said that. I was wondering how that compared to him in 2018. And so if you look at the last one, two, three, five years, Mahomes in 18 had the best quarterback season of anyone in the last five years compared, you know, in EPA per pass play. Mahomes in 2022 is fifth. So it's like not that far off. Like it's conceivable that if he has a strong finish here to the season,

that he actually, you know, if you're looking at the advanced stuff and per pass, he could actually match that efficiency from 2018. So I think what you said is right. You know, like just my week on Mondays, I catch up on all the games I missed on Sunday so that I can get ready for the podcast we do on this feed, extra point taken. And I was like,

Chiefs Texans, I don't really need to, like I'm not going to dive into that. I'm not going to have a strong take on the Chiefs beating the Texans. So then I look later in the week, usually when I write my picks column, and what he did in that game statistically, I mean, he attempted over 40 passes, completed more than 85% of them, and surpassed 300 yards passing. So that's been done one other time in NFL history. Lamar Jackson did it in 2021.

And so it's stuff like that. You know, I'm sure there are a lot of people like, what? The Chiefs, you know, went to overtime to beat the Texans. But when you're isolating the player from kind of what the team's doing, to me, he's been the best quarterback on the best offense in the NFL, and he's deserving of it. So I'm with you there. You ready for your next gift? Yes. Or your first gift, I mean.

I started out weird here. Okay, so bear with me a little bit. The weirder, the better. Let's go. I know. I started weird and then I was like, do I have anything else weird and you? You can't force the weirdness. When the weirdness comes to you, you go with it, but you can't force it.

So I'm giving Josh Allen a heating rock. Lindsay, I don't know if you know what a heating rock is. If you know what I'm talking about. No, could you send me one though? Like right now. Yeah. So, yeah, you could use one right now. So my wife got this thing.

it's like, I guess it's like an infrared heating pad type thing. And I'm like, what is this? She puts it in this like thing. It plugs in. It charges before bed. And, you know, sometimes we'll watch a white lotus or something in bed on the iPad. And she takes it out. And then you just kind of like, you can put it on your legs or your chest or just

hug it or snuggle with it. And it heats. It heats up. And so it provides warmth. And first I was making fun of her. And now every night, I'm like, hey, can I get that for, you know, like 20 minutes over here? And then I'll give it back.

So it provides like a calmness, a warrant, a sense of comfort. So, Sheal, what are you talking about? What does this have to do with Josh Allen? I was thinking about Josh Allen going into this game this weekend against the Chicago Bears. And I was thinking of the greatness of Josh Allen is that he treats every single play like the Super Bowl's on the line. Like, I mean, he is just hurtling and getting airborne and lowering his shoulder. It doesn't matter if it's week six, week 12.

It's the actual Super Bowl. He plays the same way. There is a sense where he feels like he's invincible. And that is really fun to watch from a viewer perspective. I know Bill's fans love it. I'm sure his teammates love it. Normally I love it. However, we are three weeks away from what could be an epic AFC playoffs.

We've got Mahomes. We've got Allen. We've got Burrow. We've got the Chargers. We've got the Ravens. We've got the Dolphins. There are going to be so many storylines. I can't wait to watch it.

I want to make sure Josh Allen is healthy going into the playoffs. And I watched Eagles Bears last week, and I saw Jalen Hertz go down on that soldier field. Grass, I guess it is. It feels like a very hard grass there. Grass, air quotes. Yeah, grass. I saw his shoulder get crunched. I saw Bears defense that while they're not very good, they play very hard, they hit.

They're competitive. They're feisty. I checked the weather, Lindsay, the weather theme to this episode, high of 10 degrees at Soldier Field on Saturday. I just want Josh Allen to just hug that rock on the sideline, hug it before the game. It'll relax you a little bit. You don't need to go 120% in this game.

You need to do what you need to do to win the game. Pick your spots. And I know Brandon Beans talked to him about this. And Sean McDermott's talked to him about this. And it really doesn't kind of get through and they just kind of hold their breath on some of these. But this is kind of the thing with the last three weeks. of the season. I don't want to see any of these great, I don't see anybody go down, obviously, but the great players that were looking forward to watching in these huge moments in January,

I don't want them to go down. And so that's what I'm going to give Josh. I know beans tried everything. McDermott's probably tried everything. Maybe this rock is the answer to provide him that sort of sense of calm, sense of comfort before the game on the sideline so that he can just dial it back a little bit. You don't need to be jumping over the line of scrimmage on a quarterback sneak. You don't need to be, you know, you can get out of bounds sometime and just kind of preserve yourself a little bit here for the final three weeks. Yeah, you can just sit there on the sideline hugging it. Protect the rock. Hug the rock. Protect the rock. Yeah, I like it. I like it. I like it. It's kind of like. Yeah, no, it's, uh, it's good. I can send you a, uh, a link.

It's not quite like the turnover chain, I guess for like the University of Miami. You know, it's maybe a square touchdown. You go hug the rock. Hug the rock. I like it. Gets the rock. Uh, I don't know, but I think there are possibilities. I just look at this Bill's team. You know, they're 11 and they feel a little like disjointed and volatile when you watch them. But at the end of the day, they're 11 and 3. They have the second best point differential in the NFL. They haven't lost a game all season by more than three points. They've lost three, one score games. And so I feel like this team is right where we kind of thought they were going to be before the season, even if it doesn't always feel that way. And so I think they just need to kind of stay healthy, get healthy, and hold on to that one season. and they've got a really good chance to get to the Super Bowl. All right, hit me with your second gift. What do you got?

Okay. I'm going to get weird. I'm going to get weird here since you started the getting weirdness here. So here in my like own family and in Christmas and now that we're adults, I'm really big on like giving experiences, you know, and like when my parents ask, like what do you want, you know, those type of things. Like I like to give experiences. I like to, you know, ask for experiences back.

And I apologize to my mom. I still have not used the. cooking lessons that I asked for when she gave me last year, but I promise I will do it right after the NFL season ends this year. But so my next gift is going to be for all NFL coaches or at least at least like three quarters of them. And I'm going to give them a game management seminar. And we're going to do this after the season. We're going to send them somewhere nice. We'll go to the Bahamas. We'll schedule some golf in the afternoon. But every morning of this seminar, and this is going to be different. This is not going to be like our league meetings where you're talking about, you know, league business and stuff. This is going to be very specific and specific to game management. We're going to use seminars like how to use a timeout. We'll do analytics for dummies. We'll do when to go for two 101. Why you do not punt in plus territory. The instructors for this class, we're going to recruit some of our best, the best like 30 to 35 year old Madden players in the world.

Sheel, I would like to formally invite you here today on the Scramble to coach or to instruct one of these seminars. You can pick whichever one you want, maybe the analytics for dummies ones. Stephen Ruiz, I'd love to also extend an invitation to coach one of these seminars. It has been infuriating this year. How many NFL coaches? It's impacting our enjoyment of the game, right? Where it's just happening every single week.

it is going to happen in the playoffs. There are going to be big moments where, I don't know who it's going to be, if it's going to be Andy Reid in a two-minute situation, or it's going to be, it could be anybody, right, who's like making just some, you know, boneheaded call where they don't know when to use a timeout or they use a timeout inappropriately. And literally right now it's everybody.

Even the guys that we've always assumed are good at this stuff are blowing it. But we've looked so much at the final sequence of the Raiders. a Patriots game last week. Obviously, the Chandler Jones scoop and score touchdown there at the end. Or actually, it was a pick six. Excuse me.

It was almost a fumble return. It was a pick six, which was odd to even call it. But if you go back to what the Patriots did in that game, they were mistiming timeouts that wiped touchdowns off the board. I mean, it was just like Bill Belichick is making these mistakes. So let's just go back to basics. We're going to start this off from scratch and say, listen, dudes, this is how you use a timeout.

this is what a timeout is. This is how you call for it. Let's just go right to basics. We'll make it nice. They can bring their wives, bring their kids, get some pool time. But for four hours a day, for three straight days,

we're going to actually learn how to do this. Such a great idea. It says something about me and where I am in my life that you were like, Bahamas golf football analytics. I'm like, all right,

this sounds like my ideal. Like, I'm in. Like, I was waiting for the invite and I'm like, this sounds like a perfect vacation for me. It's a great idea. I heard Bill's on Bill Simmons podcast, Warren Sharp was on, and he was saying that he was recommending, like, you know, coaches go to, like, crisis training and stuff. And, I mean, that's one thing.

I was sort of thinking, like, probably doesn't have to be that. I'm with you. Like, yeah, play a little Madden. You know, you can play some video games. You can tell you some stuff. Like, it really shouldn't have to be that complicated. You can assign it to someone on your staff. Like, I would say, every coach, bring the staffer who's going to be in charge of this.

You don't have to do it yourself. They can bring their families. Like you said, it's a great idea. It's always so funny to me just because we've both covered teams, been on beats. And it's like these coaches, they're just like, oh, yeah, we sleep in our offices. Oh, yeah, no, we haven't seen our families in like six weeks. And you see him a press conference. It's like, well, I see Nick Siriani in some of these press conferences.

And I'm like, when has this man last slept for more than like two hours in a night? What is going on here? And they do all that. And this isn't about Siriani. He's been good with game management. but some of the other guys, like, they'll do all, you know, they're looking for that little thing on film. Oh, you know, the right guard, his foot was pointed in this direction. So we knew they were running an outside zone to the right.

They're looking for all that. But then this stuff, they kind of just take for granted. Like, oh, it's an easy thing. We'll figure it out on the fly, no big deal. And it's not that. And you have coaches that have really gained an edge from realizing, no, you're like, it's hard in the heat of the moment. Like, sometimes I feel bad, you know, making fun of them or whatever, because it's like, it's the heat of the moment. and I could see it. I'm sure I'd screw it up if you're calling a play and a wide receiver's

yelling at you. And all of a sudden, you're not sure if the guy got the first down or not. That's why you have to delegate it to someone else on your staff. And so the more coaches realize that it actually can give you an edge. How many close games do we see where this really is a factor if you're on top of this or not on top of it? So I think it's a great idea. I formally accept my invitation. I don't care whatever else is on the family calendar. You can bring them. You can bring the girls. Bring the girls.

Yeah, it doesn't matter. They're young enough. We'll do it. I'm going to add one more seminar to it. Maybe it's just a day. These guys can fly in other private jets. But let's bring in like owners or hiring managers, whoever it is that hires. They can have their own seminar on how to vet your coaching candidates about if they know

how to do this stuff. Yes. Like a seminar of how they, you know, how to find out if your coach coaching candidate knows how to call a time out. Yeah. I wonder how many times they get. I feel like a coach never gets asked in an interview. Like, what if you just hit him with, hey, it's, you know, you're down by, let's say the example we've seen, you're down by 15, there's three minutes left, you score a touchdown.

Do you go for two on the, we just saw Kevin O'Connell mess this up in their comeback last week. You go for two the first time because you want that information as soon as possible about whether you got the two or didn't get the two so that you know how to manage the game going forward. He just went for one. and then they did get the two-point conversion, so it didn't matter. But if you don't get it, and now all of a sudden you say, okay, you know, we're down by nine here. Well, now you probably might have to try an onside kick or something where you're thinking about kicking the ball away. So I feel like throwing those questions at them in the interview process would probably be good. And the smart ones, even if they couldn't answer.

How many hours do they spend talking about, like, culture? Like, how do you build a culture and stuff? And like, maybe let's focus a little bit at that time of like, how do you manage a two-minute drill? Yeah, right. It's not the most important thing, but it's an important thing. but it's an important thing. It's a little important. Yeah.

I'm looking at, I just have the standings pulled up here. So I'm going to quickly go through and tell you the coaches that absolutely have to attend this conference. Andy Reid, sorry, you have to attend. Andy Reid's gotten better, and that's been because of Patrick Mahomes. Yes. If you watch it, Mahomes waves him off and just takes over. And so he absolutely gets the credit there. So he can wear his Hawaiian shirts.

It'll be fine. That's right. Belichick, sorry, Belichick, you need to go, my friend. It has not been pretty this year. I think Robert Sala's been okay, but after last week, you know, they didn't, they didn't, they let that clock run down where they're attempting a 58-yarder with a timeout in their pocket. So Sala, you have to go, Josh McDaniels. I mean, you better be first in line in every one of these. I don't know if people have noticed this.

I mean, he might be the most conservative coach in the league with a defense that stinks and like a run game that's been awesome. and no one likes punting on fourth and one from midfield more than Josh McDaniels. So McDaniels has to go. Tomlin is a tough one because I think Tomlin is not very good at it, but he's so good at everything else. I don't want to be the one who tells Tomlin he has to go. But, you know, if someone who knows him well, since Mike, we'll go hang out for a little. But I've heard Mike Tomlin is kind of fun to hang out with.

So maybe he'll have a good time in that environment. He's the MVP of every league meeting for sure. Right? Yeah. I was going to say Hackett, but Lindsay, I don't know if. I mean, he might not need to go. Well, if we held this next week, he would need to go. Yeah, that's right.

Same with Cliff, right? I mean, I'm fast-boarding to the NFC West. Yes, yes, that's a good one. I mean, Kyle Shanahan is another way. He definitely would need. This is like a weakness for Shanahan and McVeigh. They're both so good at so many things. You look at their game management and it pops up in these playoff games,

not good. Todd Bulls probably put him maybe in that Hackett category. Mike McCarthy, you know you need to be there. I think those are the big ones probably. I have to say, it might be faster if we figure out who is exempt. I know, you're right. Yeah, I was going to say Dennis Allen, but I'm like, I don't know if you need to go. Dennis Allen, he would be okay.

All right, I love that one. That was a great one. Honestly, that's a great idea. I actually want that to happen. It's not weird. That made perfect sense to me. Okay. My second gift.

I'm giving Justin Fields an offensive line and some pass catchers. This isn't really an outside-the-box idea, but I'm coming off having watched the Bears Eagles film this week, and it was the full Justin Fields experience. I mean, there are plays in that game where you're going. No other quarterback in the NFL can make this play. Like he is electric when he takes off, when he improvises. It's so fun to watch.

And then there are throws that he misses, routine misses, where you're like, all right, if that doesn't get fixed, he might have a hard time here. And then there are other plays where you're just going, he has absolutely no chance on this play because of the protection, because he's looking at Byron Pringle and Equanimius St. Brown, all respect to those guys. So I was looking at the Bears, and this is a look ahead one.

You know, this is for 2023, the thing that'll pay off in the future. They've got, according to overthecap.com, $103 million in effective cap space. The next team is at $55 million. And I know like those numbers, they will change. Teams can release players, all those things. But the point is they have a lot of resources to work with. Right now, they have three of the top 66 picks in the draft. They could trade down. They're the second pick overall now. They could trade down and get more picks. If they don't, if they're not drafting a quarterback, there might be a team

coming up and saying, yeah, we'll give you a big time draft capital to get up there to number two. So in other words, this is like the dream scenario for a rebuild for, hey, we need to help our quarterback, do we have resources to do it? Yes, Ryan Poles, you do. You're very patient last offseason. You didn't do a lot. You added some defensive linemen. Well, that's got to change this offseason. They've got to get Justin Fields help. I feel like, I don't want to say ignore the defense. I know you have a defensive minded head coach, but like this has to be priority number one for them. And so they have like a couple offensive linemen who, you know, maybe two or three that could be back and could be okay, but you've got to upgrade there. And then,

most importantly, we've seen this year with the AJ Browns and the Tyreek Hills and Justin Jefferson, how like that number one receiver can just make all the difference, can make up for so many other weaknesses on your offense. And so I feel like the bears have the resources. You need to gift Justin Fields with the pieces around him and really see what this might look like in 2020. Because I've been like kind of impressed with how their offense has evolved. If you look at it, just the plays that Justin Fields has played, they performed like the 14th ranked offense in EPA per play, which is like pretty good.

Like if you told me that coming into the season, I would have been like, oh, okay, Fields has made some strides. So now kind of take that next step and see what you got. I'm sure Justin Fields would like this. My one concern here with the fact that just the bears have a lot of cap space here is that the best player, like the guys that you are going to have available on the free agent market,

it tends to not be, I mean, there's a reason that those guys end up becoming free agents. And I don't want to fast forward to spoil your impending free agent lists. And we're going to be doing a lot of free agent coverage and looking at that list. But one of the most frustrating things about free agency is you look through that list in February and you're like, oh, this can be really exciting. And by the time we get to like March 10th or whatever, the best players have all been

franchise tagged. So I'm going to be really curious how Ryan Poles in his first, I mean, last year was his first offseason as general manager. but this is the first time where he's really in build mode and how he's going to attack that. And if this trend of if you want to get a number one receiver, getting him through free agency is probably not your best route there. It's going to be through the trade market

or through really smart drafting, how he's going to navigate that. And if there's, you know, who is this year's Devante Adams or who is this year's Tyree Kill or A.J. Brown, the borderline unhappy to expensive number one receiver from another team who, could move and if the bears can pounce there. And then I would say the one other point about them rebuilding this offense is Justin Fields makes them really attractive. You know, this is a place

where I think offensive players are going to want to go because they seen the same highlights that we do every week and say, wow, this guy is really special and he'd be really fun to play with. So I think they're going to be one of the most interesting teams in the offseason for all those reasons. And I wish nothing but the best for Justin Fields. And I would also like to give his dog a whole bunch of treats also for Christmas. There you go. His name is Uno. He's adorable. Okay. O-line, pass catchers and dog treats for Uno. There you go. I mean, that is a care package. No, you make a good point. Yeah, you're right. Like, if you go the free agency route, then you're doing something like signing Christian Kirk to $18 million a year, which, you know, he's been a fine player for them.

Yeah. Yeah. But the, I think you're right. The more attractive move for them would be. All right, let's go find that unhappy wide receiver. We'll give up some draft capital, but we're getting someone who's really a difference maker. Hey, we've got the money to pay you. Hey, you want to get like 179 targets next year. You will be our number one guy. Go out and get that guy. I think that would absolutely make a lot of sense. All right. What do you have for your third and final gift to give out? All right. I'll do my Homer local to Denver gift here. And I just want to give, and this is unrealistic, it's impossible to happen, but I would like to give the Broncos a do-over. I'd like to give them a time machine. George Payton, the new ownership group,

I'd like to gift them a time machine to go back to March, to go back to August, early September, and just do things a little bit differently. And I have less, it's less about going back to March and the entire Russell Wilson trade because it completely made sense in the moment. And where they were at with a franchise and who was available and what they needed to do. I think the thing that they really need to do over on is the contract, because the contract is what is going to set them up for failure in future seasons. It'd be one thing if they could write this off is like, hey, it didn't work. But at least we're not committed through, you know, multiple years.

I mean, they're really committed through, I believe, 2025. I need to look at all the exact. But it's, I mean, it's a couple of seasons, at least until after the 2024 season. And then after that, there's still a lot of money attack. but you could finagle some outs here. That was the big mistake. And I just feel really bad for Broncos fans, and I feel really bad for the Broncos defensive players.

Guys like Justin Simmons and Kareem Jackson and Patrick Sertan, but really those like veteran safeties, you know, Justin Simmons, who was drafted here, I believe, in 2016. So, you know, he kind of came in in the post-Super Bowl wave and has been really, really good for all of those seasons. and has never kind of gotten to, like, experience winning, right? And that this year they bought into this hope of, like, that we all did, right? Like, the entire NFL world was like, wow, the Broncos are going to be exciting and they're going to be fun and they're going to be winning a lot of games.

And Russell Wilson's going to be exciting, you know, making them relevant. And that just hasn't happened. And I think it's been really hard for, you know, it's been hard for fans. I mean, there were 18,000 no-shows at the game against the Cardinals last week, which was the perfect storm of like two backup quarterbacks, three, actually, because that, Colt McCoy ended up going out of that game, but it was all backup quarterbacks. The Cardinals don't have this, like, massive fan base that travels, you know, so they weren't buying up tickets from Broncos fans on the secondary market. And then it was also really cold.

So, like, but it looked bad, right? I mean, so I just feel bad for their fans. So I just would love to gift them that time machine to go back. If they could, if they wanted to go back, the hard thing is, like, if you were to go back to March, what would they do differently? Ride it out with Drew Locke, Carson, you know, I mean, there wasn't like some great other alternative. there wasn't a guy in the draft that I think you would have said,

oh, we'll take him with this first round pick instead. So I'm not sure if it's like sending it back to March. But I think I would like to send them back in this time machine to, you know, after the ownership, the new ownership group took over in August and just say, we're not doing this deal yet. Let's see how it goes. Let's figure out our long-term plan, what we want to do with a stadium, what we want to do with marketing, what Russell Wilson is going to look like with Nathaniel Hackett,

instead of making these huge long-term commitments to something that you didn't know how it was going to work. Because knowing what we know it now is that this offense has been very, very bad. And now we all get to watch it on Christmas. Christmas Day, Nickelodeon. My six-year-old and I talked about this yesterday because that game is going to be on Nickelodeon against the Rams. But the thing is to get all like the cool stuff with Nickelodeon, like they have to score. Oh, gosh. You have to get in the slime zone, which is like,

Inside the 20, it's the red zone. But are the Rams and Broncos getting there? Yeah. It's pretty... They should go all out. Yeah, if anybody scores, they need to just whatever you have to do, like, do it up because you're not going to be a lot. I mean, you get across the 50?

Yeah. Like, get down a punt inside the five. Like, let's bring this time. I mean, I was, you know, with how depressing it is, I was looking at tickets for last Sunday's Broncos Cardinals game because my daughter's been asking to go. And I'm like, well, you know, it's a Sunday afternoon. but like I'm not going to spend a couple hundred bucks to bring my six-year-old to a game. But I was like, well, I could get, I could probably get two tickets for 75 bucks.

And I was trying to figure out, could I get really close to where Miles the mascot is? Because that's really all she wants. And she likes to watch the horse run, Thunder. They have a real horse. But Thunder only runs if they score. So I was like, well, I don't know. It was going to be worth it to like drag my kid on the light rail just to maybe see Thunder run after a couple brand of McManus field goals. I don't know.

I don't know if it's worth it. We didn't end up going, but I thought about it. Thunder's legs are fresh, very fresh this year. And have been fresh. Thunder's been resting since about 2014, to be honest. Thunder's ready for, yeah, Thunder's got, is ready to, if they need Thunder to go all out, be able to at this point. I think it's a great one.

I mean, it's hard to, like I was thinking as you were talking, you know, when they make the Russell Wilson trade, he had the no-true. trade clause, right? So he obviously was looking for a team where it was, are you going to pay what I want to be paid as part of this deal? And so I wonder, probably if you're the Broncos, you make that trade. And like, that's just part of the trade is that, you know, maybe he didn't agree to the exact terms at that time. But you had a ballpark. What's he looking for? What are we willing to pay? And we're just kind of going all in with it. I mean, yeah, I'm with you. Hindsight T, T, C now. I mean, I thought they were going to make the playoffs this year. I think I had him at 10 and 7 as

a playoff team. I thought he still had, you know, a few years left where he could be accurate and not turn the football over and be a good quarterback for him. And it just has not gone, it couldn't have gone any worse. I mean, when I was preparing for this, I thought about doing a Broncos one. And I was just going to say, like, give Broncos fans a hug because I don't know that there's like a fan base. Like, it's just, the worst thing is to just feel sort of hopeless, you know, and that's kind of what it feels like. Yeah. Like, like what is the fix? And the two of like had hope and then that hope ripped away. Right.

And it was ripped away so quickly. Like, it was gone by half time of week one, right? I mean, when they got kind of, the Seahawks took off the beginning of that game and Russell's getting booed and, like, it was like, ooh. And then Nathan O'Hackett was getting booed at home week two. So, like, that hope was there and then it was gone immediately. And there has been very little to look forward to. So yes, hugs.

All my friends and family would appreciate your gifted hugs. Yeah. It's like, you know, what can they do to fix it? I mean, you would really need like an offensive mastermind who just felt like there's some way, and who was really a believer in Russell Wilson to be like, there's some way to make this work. And I'm just not sure that person exists. I mean, if Sean Payton has his pick of a bunch of places, is that what he wants to take on where it could be something much more attractive? I mean, I sort of feel like their best option might be to, if they like a Gero Evereaux in the building and feel like he's

deserving of a head coaching job and like his leadership qualities. Their best move might be to promote him, you know, keep that defense together the best you can. And then just be like, is there any one who wants a chance at playcalling who's a really innovative play caller and smart and looking for that shot who's been overlooked and bring them in, hey, we're going to hand you the keys to the offense. You get Russell Wilson, you get Jerry Judy and Cortland Sutton and, you know, figure out Tim Patrick comes back and figure out how to make this work.

like that might be their only option, but even then, it's like you're in a division with, you're still, Mahomes is still there, Herbert's there. So it's tough for Broncos fans. So hang in there. I don't know. If you're, if you were ever thinking of taking a break from, you know, football for like a year or two and doing something else on your Sundays or whatever, the next couple years, the problem is like that had already happened. Like that was the like the case keenam, Joe Flacco, Trevor Simeon, ever, you know, they were there and then they were back in, you know, with a beam, like just when I thought, you pulled me back in and now, I don't know what. I know, it's true. You're right. That's the worst part of it is that there was hope after what

happened last offseason. Sometimes you just go in and you're like, our team's going to suck this year. It's all good. You know, hopefully they're brighter years ahead. This was very, very mean-spirited the way it happened. So we'll say, maybe there's hope. Maybe they'll do something. They have a plan we don't know about. All right. My third one, I am gifting Detroit Lions fans a playoff birth. guess. They deserve it. Let's get them in there. They're a fun team. They're a good team. They're a competitive team. They've improved the offense. I mean, you know, I did not know who Ben Johnson was in August. And now I'm like, has anyone done more with less than Ben Johnson? Not that they don't have good players. I mean, the offensive line is finally healthy. They've Amon Ross St. Brown is healthy. They've

gotten Jameson Williams back. But to produce the sixth ranked offense in DVOA, with Jared golf. Like, you've got to be a really good offensive mind to be able to do that. And that call last week, fourth and inches, Brock Wright, I mean, one of my favorite calls of the year. That was awesome. I loved it. I love that they're willing to try stuff, the fake punts from their own territory.

They're willing to be aggressive. Campbell's probably a little inconsistent with some of his stuff late in games where you're like, I don't know if he should be doing this. But overall, they definitely have that mind. set of aggressiveness over being conservative. And I really enjoy that from them. And even their defense, I was looking the second half of the season, their 10th in DVOA defensively.

I mean, this was a historically bad defense through what, the first four, six weeks of the season. I mean, they were getting lit up week in and week out. I remember putting stats in the picks column. Like, this could be the worst defense we've seen in 10 years. And they've turned it around. And that's not easy to do. I mean, some of it is going to be health-related, but you adjust.

Do you find different players on your roster who could help? And so they absolutely deserve credit for that. They would have a legit chance at winning a first round game. There's no doubt in my mind. I mean, you compare it to like the Giants and the commanders. No, no, no. I want to see the lions in there over those teams. It will make for a much more fun first round.

So listen, I've made my Dan Campbell jokes in the past with the kneecaps and the Starbucks and everything. You know what kind of sold and this is going to sound dumb, but the hard knocks, and I don't know if you watch this or not, but when they were cutting players and getting down to 53, and they were the showing the meetings of him telling guys, they weren't on it, I just thought he came across as so authentic and so sincere compared to those scenes we've seen in the past with some people.

And I was like, all right, listen, now I'm kind of getting what he's going for here and why players kind of like him. So don't blow it. You're going to Carolina this week. You're two and a half point favorites. This is kind of the classic. If you're not totally sold on the team, they blow this game and it all comes crashing down. Don't blow it.

Get it done. I believe in you. Let's get the lions in the playoffs. So I'm going to think just, I'm just going to like take your gift and expand on it a little bit. Like have you ever had one of those either received it or given a gift where like you open the first, you open the big box and there's like a present inside and you open it. And it's like, oh, it's a playoff berth. Yeah, sure.

But then you realize there's like another present kind of tucked, tucked down inside. you open that the real present is a playoff win. It's a 7-2 upset over your division rival Minnesota Vikings. Okay, I like it. These fans, don't get mad at us. Yeah, listen. I mean, I want better for Detroit, but they, you know, it's not just getting in. Like, they have made the playoffs occasionally, right?

I mean, it's been a minute. But they haven't won a playoff game since 1990. Is it longer than that? It's been a very, it's been a very, very long. time. Oh my gosh. Their pro football reference page, like the first bar goes from 93 to 2002 and the only playoff berths you see in there lost wildcard round. So it was 1991. Wow, you were on it. Okay, it was close. 1991, 12 and 4 team with Wayne Fons, Barry Sanders, Eric Kramer, Brett Paraman. I was about

to say Brasad Paraman, were old Brett Paraman was their leading receiver on that team. They were 12 and 4 and got to the conference championship. So that was 1991. Oh my goodness. So yeah. That's my gift. Sorry to the Vikings fans. I actually had like a bonus gift. If I decided to switch one of mine up, that was actually going to be very nice to the Vikings. So now they, I didn't, I didn't put it under the tree and now they're going to be that. Did you want to give it out quickly? I mean, if you want to give it out for the weekend, I'll throw it out. I'll throw it out there really quick. My bonus gift for the Vikings is a non-fluky win. I just want to see them go out there and win a game like 28 to 14.

nothing weird happens. Kirk Cousins plays great. The defense gets a couple turnovers, and we don't have to talk for at least one week about, oh, look how weird they're winning. They're only winning in fluky ways, and they're not as good as their record, you know, bump up their point differential a little bit.

So just like one nice, normal, non-weird win for the Vikings over the next couple weeks. I think if I were a Vikings fan, I wouldn't, like, read anything other than my local coverage. Because, like, if you're a fan of the Vikings, you don't like you really shouldn't care that it's happening in these weird lucky fluky ways you know what i mean like every sunday is pretty awesome this year if you're a viking fan your team is playing entertaining games they've won 11 of them uh after a bunch of years where it was very a high tense environment

there kevin o'connell's crying after um you know he's getting emotional in the locker room after wins like everything about this season if you're a vikings fan has been pretty entertaining and enjoyable so you don't have to listen to people like me and linds you know, tell you that your team is not as good as their record is. We appreciate it when you do that. Yeah, we appreciate when you do. But if you want to just like watch the Vikings hype videos and watch the games on Sunday and talk to about it with your friends and maybe like find local bloggers that just tell

you how great they are, like that would be a fine way to experience this season. Watch the TikTok supercuts of Paul Allen just like crapping over on all of like the officials and the opponents. I mean, it was great. And it was like my favorite bit of content this week was. the Paul Allen radio call of the Vikings Colts game. Go find that if you haven't heard it. It's fantastic.

There you go. That's the way to enjoy your season. All right, those are the gifts. We will come right back and we will get to the mailback. Santa Barclay is coming to town and he's delivering $20 million in gifts this holiday season to all fan dual customers. It doesn't matter if you've been naughty or nice. St. Chuck has something for everyone. Just check your Fanduil app for no sweat, same game, parley's, bonuses, and all sorts of stuff that'll fill you with holiday cheer.

Thursday night football, Jaguars at the Jets. I like the Jaguars minus one and a half in this game. Looks like it's going to be Zach Wilson. Trevor Lawrence has been on fire like the Jaguars to win that game, a close game. How about Garrett Wilson? Anytime touchdown. Garrett Wilson has been on fire. I don't love that Jaguars defense.

Maybe he can find the end zone. And then how about an under on Christian Kirk receiving yards under 50 and a half? I like that Jets defense. I don't think it's going to be easy for the Jaguars. I think they're going to win, but I think they're going to have to work for it. New to Fandul, now is the perfect time to sign up and remember to use promo code Ringer NFL. The app is easy to use. They're always hooking you up with great promotions.

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A reminder. Email us at the scramble mailbag at gmail.com or you can just tweet at me. All right. First question. SRM chef, loyal listener to a bunch of ringer pods, says here's a very ringer mail. mailbag question based on vibes, not record, who should make the NFL playoffs this year?

And I think SRM chef has listened to a lot of pods, listen to me, say that, I think I might be too old to use vibes. And, you know, I think Nora was telling me, no, you're, you can do it. You can use vibes. You're part of the ringer. Go ahead and use vibes. So I think this was directed at me. Listen, I couldn't come up with a whole field of 14.

I don't know how you did with this question, Lindsay. but I think it's a way to at least talk about the teams we feel like have the best vibes at this point in the season. Yeah, so let's go through this. And I will, to be clear, I'm actually older than you are. So I don't know if I'm allowed to be using the word vibes either. This is the like elder millennial are we? Can we say vibes or not? I'm not sure if that's allowed here on the Ringer podcast network. But yeah, I don't know if I have a full 14. I mean, I think a couple of the teams that we've already talked about earlier in the podcast definitely need to be in that field. The lions need to be there. the Seahawks need to be there, even though they haven't maybe earned it over the last couple weeks. The Seahawks have been sliding, vibes aren't quite as good. But the overall vibes of that season, Seahawks absolutely need to be in that field. I hate the NFC South. I don't want to put an NFC South team in there.

But the vibes of the second half of the year for the Panthers are pretty interesting. Because this is a team that, like, they basically indicated to all of us that they were giving up, right? They fired their head coach. They traded their franchise player. They traded their number one receiver. This was the sign of a team that was like, no, we're out. But the fact that they're still in it and they're playing competitive games, it tells me that the vibes should be pretty good.

San Francisco, absolutely, vibes-wise. So maybe I'll do the NFC. Maybe you want to run through some AFC-V-y teams. I think the Niners vibes, very good. Definitely have to be there. I think the Eagles, are the Eagles still the one-seed? Vibes-wise? Yeah.

they freaking made a Christmas album. Like, I mean, like, vibes are good if you are, if your offensive line is recording a Christmas album. So I think, honestly, I think like the Eagles Niners may be in a vibe off for the number one, the number one seed. And maybe the Lions could get in that mix. Am I at seven yet? I don't know if I'm quite at seven yet. That's okay. You named a bunch.

I might keep the Giants vibes-wise in the playoff field just because of like the energy that Brian Daibble. has brought like dable's a good like vibes coach um bears are out rams are out cardinals definitely out yes the worst vibes you could possibly have saints are out falcons out packers vibes are turning but i don't think they make my all vibes squad um okay i like that bucks i think the bucks are so far out yeah no no no no they are the i've made the joke a hundred times they are the one two three cancun team i mean And they are ready, they are ready to go to the Bahamas and attend that conference. Like now, they don't need to play any more games. I think they have no more interest in this season continuing.

And I don't really have a good feel for the Cowboys vibes. I don't think they're on the vibes playoff roster, though. Okay. I like that. The teams you mentioned, I think the Lions might be like the one seed in the NFC. I mean, just with how much we just talked about it, how much that franchise has kind of stunk over the years. And now to have this team the way they do and to be.

be making these plays on special teams and make that fourth and inches call. I think they're right there with anyone. I'm with you on the Eagles. I thought that was a good one. The Niners are, especially the Brock Purdy led Niners, I feel like, are a good one because it's this weird change-up and everyone sort of rallying around the seventh-round rookie, so I think that's a good one. The Viking, did you say the, I feel like the Vikings have probably belonged.

I mean, they might be like a wildcar team, but I feel like they probably belong there because they're probably tired of, again, people like me and you saying they're not very good. I didn't mention them, but they always end up somehow in my like TikTok algorithm. Like, they're locker room videos and stuff. So like, maybe the vits are good. Yeah. I was reading the stories after last week's game and like, you know, Eric Kendricks was like crying at his lie. And like Jordan Hicks is putting his arm around him and we saw Kevin O'Connell there.

I mean, Justin Jefferson is always going to be fun. So we don't talk about the quarterback. It's just really hard for me to like link like Kirk Cousins and. I know. That's why I mentioned everything. Like he's even less like less equipped to talk about vibes than you and I are. I would agree with that. And it's nice to have a quarterback who is less equipped than you and I to talk about vibes.

I like that. A couple of a few AFC ones. I got the Bengals like at the top of the list. I mean the they're coming off that, you know, Super Bowl. And then this year you're thinking, all right, are they going to take a step back? They haven't. They've gotten better. I love, you know, Burrow is great.

Chase is great. I love when they talk about each other, they're one of those teams when you read like the beat stories. Like Burroughs like, I'm glad you guys are, you know, finally noticing how good DJ Reader is. And, you know, like Tyler Boyd's like, we got Joe Burrow. We could be to anybody. Like they talk about it in a very like endearing, authentic way where it feels real.

There was the play last week. I can't remember if it was an interception or a fumble. And it might have got called back. But the guy, like, took the football and, like, candidate to Zach Taylor on the sidelines and he was like really surprised and started laughing. So I got the Bengals up there. And how about a sneaky team, the Jaguars? I mean, after last week's game and especially the last three weeks, they're feeling good.

They're feeling themselves a little bit with Tanna Hill out now. They've got a really good opportunity to, well, we're recording this before Thursday night football. But I like what I've seen from them over the last three weeks. All right. Last question. Let's finish it out. Trevor says, remember when the Ringer NFL show did a podcast about the top 10 GMs this last offseason and didn't include the Lynch-Shannahan BFF duo. That seems a little silly in retrospect, doesn't it?

I understand if you want to claim the Brock Purdy pick as a lucky guess, but consider Charverius Ward signing, McCaffrey trade, 49ers, impeccable ability to draft and develop late round picks into viable starters. the Lynch-Shanahan success isn't limited to players. They've now developed and promoted three legitimate NFL head coaches, if you include future head coach Studd Demiko Ryans. It's time to give the Lynch-Shanahan romance due credit. I sent this one to late, Lindsay, so do you want me to start and give you a one? I think of this or do you have something new or something on it. I will say, how about our guys like catching straight, our colleagues at the ringer.

We weren't here. Listen, we didn't do that podcast. We didn't work here. We got nothing to do with it. that thank you for emailing the Scramble Mailbag. But who knows what we would have had as our top 10. That's their fault. I think it's hard to judge drafts just like you need a bit.

You need like, you know, a lot of years of data. And pretty much every team is going to have hits and misses. I will give them credit for landing like blue chip players outside of the first round. I mean, if you look at the core, George Kittle in 2017, Fred Warner, 2018, Debo-Samiel, 2019, Hufanga even in 2021. And then he mentions, like, Purdy has already exceeded expectations for a typical seventh-round pick. I mean, if he's just like an average backup, that would be exceeding expectations.

And he looks a lot better than that. So they've absolutely found late-round value. Now, we could look at other stuff. We could look at their first draft of Solomon Thomas and Ruben Foster in the first round. We could look at J. Von Kinlaw has not exactly worked out in 2020. me, the trade, Lance trade is kind of the elephant in the room right now. I mean, parties, like the offense has looked, I haven't looked at the statistically. It's felt like it looked better or more kind of functional with Purdy than it did with Lance. I'm not writing

off Lance. I like Lance and hopefully he has a great career and gets healthy, but it still is fair to question whether that move, trading all those picks to get up there really worked out. And even the McCaffrey trade, I mean, we'll see. I was skeptical of that trade when it happened. I liked it because it made it fun and hopefully he stays healthy. But to trade for a running back who's had durability issues and give up what they gave up and pay him what he's due, I don't know that's going to look like a great move there. So I don't know, I look at the 49ers and they definitely have blue chip players.

They're not a deep roster, I think, and they get injured all the time. I generally look at them more as a great coaching job than a great kind of roster construction job. I'm like, all right, Shanahan knows exactly how to use these guys. Demika Reince knows exactly how to use these guys. Salah knew it before then. And so that's just kind of how I view them. What do you think? Does Trevor have a fair point or not?

Yeah, no. I mean, I think it's, I think it is a fair point. I do think when we evaluate GMs, it gets really tricky because in places like San Francisco, Seattle, New Orleans for a really long time, it's sometimes hard to separate who exactly is making which decisions. Right. And if you're doing any of, and if you're kind of pull back the curtain a little bit and you're doing the like podcast planning, it's offseason, we have to figure this out. Like it's sometimes hard to categorize a guy like John Lynch when Kyle Shanahan does have as much personnel say.

And John Lynch is making a lot of decisions there, right? And I think there's a lot of things that he has done a really good job with, especially when it comes to like deep roster construction and player evaluation. you know, Kyle Shanahan isn't making as many of those late round decisions. You know, John Lynch does a lot of that stuff. And Adam Peters, the guys that he has on his personnel staff. But it just makes it harder when you're making these sorts of lists. And then the one other side, and you hit all of this, is that when you're considering the success of a front office and who is a good general manager, who's not a good general manager, etc., the big moves just carry a lot more weight than the later round based on the investment that you make. the financial investment, the draft capital investment. And, you know, I don't think that this is a bad

duo by any means. I think you've made the argument to put them in the top 10. And I think that is a really valid case. And when we go ahead and do this exercise next off season, and that probably will happen at some point on this ring or NFL feed, we'll want to consider all of those type of moves. But I just think it's like it's not quite as like a black and white type of situation. It will be interesting to look back next season when we do this because some of the guys who have always been there, the Chris Ballards,

who are always kind of just like, the process is great, maybe some of those guys plummet and it leaves room for some of these other guys who maybe haven't gotten the shine to start moving up. This isn't related. It's not directly an answer to this question.

But Kyle Shanahan, I want to check his coach of the year odds and how those have changed because he has gained, I mean, we'll see how this ends, and those votes will have to go in, I believe, January 11th or something, where the Niners are at. Because if he gets the Niners to the two-seed, which is certainly possible, I mean, they've already won the West.

If they get to the two-seed there with three different quarterbacks, including a seventh-round rookie, that's one of the most impressive coaching jobs and keeping that team together after losing Trail-Land. and then after losing Jimmy what they've done defensively. I mean, I just, I think he has a really strong coach of the year case. And I know this is a GM discussion,

but this might be Kyle Shanehan's best coaching job that he's ever done. It's a good point. I haven't heard anyone say that, but you're right. We kind of take for granted that a seventh round pick has come in and played well. And I think we take it for granted because of the sporting cast and because of the coach. But, like, yeah, that wouldn't be happening with every coach. I mean, it would be a disaster for some coaches,

for most coaches, if that were to happen. So he absolutely deserves credit there. All right, that'll wrap up this week's edition of the Scramble. Thank you to Lindsay Jones for joining me. Thank you to Mike Wargon for producing additional production supervision by Connor Nevins and Arjuna, Ram Gopal. Stay tuned for the Ringer NFL preview show on this feed. Everybody have a great holiday, and I will talk to you next week.