The Ringer NFL Show - Jaylen Waddle Trade, Plus NFL Comps for March Madness Teams!

Episode Date: March 19, 2026

Sheil is joined by The Ringer’s own Steven Ruiz to share their reactions to the trade that sent WR Jaylen Waddle to the Denver Broncos, and analyze some of the other big news of the week. They then take a look at some of the big teams competing in the men’s March Madness tournament and find comps with like-minded NFL teams. (00:00) Jaylen Waddle, NFL news, and March Madness teams! (00:59) Denver Broncos acquire Jaylen Waddle (20:45) Maxx Crosby gives his side of the Ravens trade debacle (30:03) NFLPA elects JC Tretter as executive director (34:50) NFL March Madness comps Visit us in stores and online at ⁠https://Warbyparker.com/RINGERNFL⁠ The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit ⁠www.rg-help.com⁠ to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Sheil Kapadia Guest: Steven Ruiz Producer: Chris Sutton Video Editor: Stefano Sanchez Production Supervision: Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. I'm your host, Shield Capadia. We had a trade in the NFL, Jalen Waddle, going from the dolphins to the Broncos. We're going to talk about that at the top of the show, along with a couple other news items. And then a little March Madness. We're leaning into it with the Ringer's Stephen Ruiz. Aside from the NFL, his other passion is college basketball. He's writing about the men's tournament for us at the Ringer.

Last year, we did this exercise where he comped tournament teams. to NFL teams. It was a lot of fun. We said, we got to run that back. And it was a lot of fun once again this year. So that's what we're going to do today. Let's take a break. We'll come back with Stephen Ruiz. All right, we are back here on The Ring of NFL show. With Stephen Ruiz, we got a wide receiver trade. Always exciting. Maybe not the one that has been rumored for most of the offseason. But Denver Broncos acquired Jail and Waddle for a first, a late third and a late fourth and another fourth goes the other way in this trade. So I think if you use some of the charts out there,

it basically evens out to a first round pick, maybe in the mid-20s or something like that. Let's start with the Broncos side of this. Because they hadn't done anything really for most of the offseason, hadn't had a splashy move. And now they add waddle. What do you think? Would you have made this move?

Do you like this move? Does it change your opinion of the Denver Broncos? I really do like this move. I like a team going forward and not, It's kind of related to the Dan Campbell message to his team a couple years ago and he's like, hey, we might not be back here. And the message there is kind of like, don't rest on your laurels. Like, just because you got there before doesn't mean you're going to come back there. And I think the Broncos very easily could have gone into this offseason.

They're like, we're the number one C. We have this ascending quarterback. This is Sean Payne's, what is it, third year, third year with Bo Nix at least. Yeah. We could make natural progression. But I do think they needed to change something. You look at their schedule and you look back at their wins and there just weren't a lot of wins that you could feel proud about.

In hindsight, you don't feel proud about it. Like go back to October whenever they played the Eagles and they pull off that upset and it's like, oh my God, that's a huge win. And they do the same thing against the Chiefs. You're like, oh, my God, it's a huge win. And then even the Packers late in the season, but Packers didn't win another game after that Broncos loss. The Chiefs won six games.

The Eagles, we saw them fall apart down the stretch. and the Broncos were in a lot of close games. They didn't really blow anybody out. The teams that they blew out were bad teams. They played close games against the Raiders. So I think you could look at this season and be like, yes, they got very far. And they had Bo Nix in the AFC title game. They probably make the Super Bowl.

But I think you could look at it the other way and be like, this team needed to evolve in some way. And I think you're not going to replace Bo Nicks. So I think giving him something that makes him a little bit better, I do think it's a positive move for them. And I don't think Jalen wattle's like this wide receiver one who's going to do what A.J. Brown did for the Eagles or do what Tyreek did for the Dolphins.

But I do think he's one of those players that puts a constraint on a defense. It's kind of like a booster seat for a quarterback where I know if I get single high outside, I could just throw up a deep ball to this guy. And he's probably going to beat his corner unless that corner is Patrick Sertan, who plays on my team. So I know it's not going to be him. But I think that's a good move for them. And it's going to be tough to defend.

them with Sean Payton putting it together. I know Sean Payton's no longer calling the plays. I don't know how true that's going to be. He's putting together the game plans. And the way they play with all those big bodies on the field, they like to run the football in early downs. You put a guy like Waddle out there, a speedster, and we've seen what that type of player has done in a Sean Payton offense

all the way back in New Orleans. And when it was like Lance Moore and Ted Ginn Jr., this is a way better version of that. We've never really seen Sean Payne cook with like this type of piece. So I'm really excited because I think it's going to deter teams from loading up the box against them. It's going to make Bo Nix's job really easier. And I think it's going to make Davis Webb, the first year offensive quarter,

I think it's going to make his job a lot easier. Yeah, I like the fit. It's a nice compliment to what they already have. It's not duplicative of the players they have on their roster, totally different player than a guy like Cortland Sutton. It's the old, hey, you know, quarterback on a rookie deal. Do you want to go for it? And I think you're right.

They probably, once they took a step back, looked at last year with clear eyes or clearer eyes than when you're kind of in the middle of it. But Sean Payton, to his credit, you know, he went into last season telling everyone we can be a Super Bowl team. And like you said, they were very close to being a Super Bowl team. And then that season ends and you have to look at it and say, all right, what went our way that might not go our way next season? And how do we kind of offset that?

It's all the conversations we have in August when we're like, this team was six and one and one score games. This other team feasted on turnovers last year. Like within your organization, you have to have those conversations. as well. So yeah, I'm in on this move. I don't think it was a crazy price. I do think here's a pet peeve of mine. Now that I think we need to start, you know, fixing here, Ruiz, is that we can't look at every first round pick the same. You know, like if you look at it,

like they give up a first, a third, a fourth, but it's like a first, you know, the number 14 overall pick is very different than the 30th overall. Right. And the 90th pick. Yeah, and the 90th pick. And in the later rounds too. So again, you, you know, add it all up and they're basically giving up the equivalent of, let's say, like the 25th overall pick. So if another team, because I'm thinking about the AJ Brown trade and like, all right, what's the compensation going to be for that? And then it's going to get compared right away. We just got to do a better job. It's not just the round. It's the overall pick and not treat those all the same. I might make that my platform here for 2026. I think that'll be, you know, the social

numbers. I think it'll be just really popular among the football viewing public. That's what everyone is clamoring for, right? All the football fans. They're like, can we actually say what these first round picks are instead of just saying a first round pick? But the other perspective I like this move from is there's kind of a lull in the AFC right now. Like you have Baltimore going through a transition period.

You have Buffalo going through a transition period with the new coach. You have the chiefs not going through a transition period, but obviously they took a downturn last year and they probably should be going through a transition period. Why not strike while the iron's hot in the AFC? Like, who are you afraid of? This is the time to make those moves,

just kind of go all in. And I could see the Broncos being a lot better than they were last year. That doesn't mean that they're going to have the number one C going into playoffs. But I think they're a more dynamic team today than they were before this trade was made. Maybe you're feeling more confident about them or you like the team more. But yeah, so much of it's going to be the rest of the AFC landscape. But, I mean, the offense wasn't great last year for just being honest. It's not like that's the reason they were in the NFC championship game.

The defense was great. they had some unbelievable comebacks. They had that stretch that you alluded to where for two and a half, three quarters, you're like, does this team suck? And then the fourth quarter, I remember we were to get that Giants game, right? We had our ringer core week and that was a wild win that they had as well. So I'm with you. I like the idea behind this move.

I like the fit. He should still theoretically be in his prime. The other thing is his contract is reasonable. When you look at some of the deals that free agents, you know, wide receivers like Wondell Robinson got on the open market, it's not like you're taking on. some type of wild contract. And I was even looking at its numbers last year. You know, with Tyree Hill only playing four games at an uncertain quarterback situation, Waddle ranked 10th in yards per route run among all wide receivers, which that surprised me. I'll be honest, when I looked at it,

I'm like, okay, I wasn't watching football last year being like, man, Jalen Waddle's having an incredible season. But that's pretty good efficiency for a guy, 64 catches, 910 yards, averaged over 14 yards per reception. So he's been a very efficient wide receiver with less than stellar quarterback play with a good offensive coordinator. And I think, like you said, now you're upgrading that

because Sean Payton can scheme guys open down the field. How often did we talk about it last year where we're just like, man, there are guys open. Bo Nix wasn't hitting them. But now you supercharged that position and you have a chance to get more explosive. Yeah. And I just think from a scheme perspective,

it just makes Sean Payton a little more powerful. just because let's say you want to play single high against them. If you play man, you're kind of screwed if you don't have a cornerback that can run with Waddle, which not very many teams have. If you want to play single high zone, now you have to have, like, you put Waddle in the slot and have run that deep crossing route across the field. Now you have a linebacker running with them. You kind of have to have a safety on the other side of the field waiting for him,

kind of like a Vic Fangio-style quarters coverage. And that opens things up in the box. Now you have to be a really good defensive coordinator and kind of manipulate the run fits because you have two safeties back deep, which against a Sean Payton offense, like he's so good at finding those cracks in your defense and your scheme and your structure and exploiting them. I think this just emblocks them even more.

It's going to be fun to watch. I hope that wide receiver course stays healthy and we see a healthy Boat Nix. Because I think the ceiling is high on this offense, and that has really nothing to do with what I think Bo Nix is going to do now. I don't think Bo Nix has to take a huge step forward for this team to be back in the position it was last year.

Let's zoom out a little bit. So you say they have a high, ceiling. It's not like you're saying Bo Nix is going to carry them to, you know, or is going to have to carry them. Right. I think they're an interesting team because I feel like Sean Payton giving up play calling duties is still one of the most unders discussed storylines of the offseason. Like that kind of just still feels crazy to me that this guy who I feel like has been one of the best play callers and best offensive coaches of the last 25 years coming off a season in which they go 14 and 3. and reach the AFC championship game to keep Davis Webb,

who now it's like, you know, I'm sure people like Davis Webb, but, you know, not proven to be Bill Walsh yet in his career. So to keep him and empower him, he's like, I'm going to give up play calling duties to Davis Webb. And then there was the weird stuff.

I don't know if you followed this at the end of the season where like Peyton described Bo Nix's injury one way. Yeah, yeah. And the Knicks, like, had a press conference. It was like, clarifying. Like, no, that's wrong, actually. Like, I don't know why he said that. about my injury. And so I watch them going like, is this just a healthy quarterback coach

relationship where there's some friction and strong personalities? Do these guys hate each other? It's just like, well, it doesn't really matter if they love each other. We're going to make it work. But there's a lot of moving parts there, I feel like just offensively for a team coming off of what was a very successful season. Like what is your sort of radar tell you about that situation and what's going on coach quarterback play caller with Denver? I mean, I think it is is like a healthy quarterback coach relationship, but I'm with you on the play calling thing. Like we make such a big deal during the coach hiring cycle about like,

oh, did he call plays and who were the play callers and you want to get a play caller? Then we have one of the best, like you said, and he just gives it up. Imagine Kyle Shanahan tomorrow would be like, I'm not calling plays anymore. Sean McVeigh doing that. You're like, what the hell? That's like what you do best.

So I think that is interesting, but I think this is a pro move. And I'm kind of disappointing you and not like kind of picking up on it. Because this is perfectly for Sean Payne. about this before, so let me hear yours. I think I am on the same page with you. I mean, this sets up perfectly for Sean Payton. Like, he doesn't get blamed if the offense gets off to a slow start.

Everyone's like, oh, you got Waddle, you got Bo Nick's supposed to take the leap in year three. If that doesn't happen, he's like, hey, it's not me. I gave it to the kid, the headset to the kid. And then he gets to come in in like October, November, and saves the day. And like, maybe they improve down the stretch. And he's like, hey, still got it, don't I? That, I wouldn't put it past Sean Payton.

I'm just saying. I actually did get to that. You do know me well because I did get to that exact conclusion. Now that I'm remembering, yeah, at first I looked at it and go, okay, well, all right, you know, he's being unselfish giving it to Davis Webb. And then I'm like, wait, what do I know about Sean Payton? No, no, no. He, yeah, this has to do with Sean Payton. The exact scenario you described, he can let Davis Webb come in.

We're all looking at the numbers going to Broncos offense ranks X, Y, and Z over the first six weeks. and then Peyton comes in and says, I had to make a move that was best for the football team. We still have a lot of faith in Davis, but yeah, I'm going to take over play calling to us. Or maybe he doesn't even say it at a press conference, you know,

slips it to one of his pals in the media. And then all of a sudden, Jay Glazers on there on a Fox Sunday morning saying, Sean Payton's going to be calling plays today for the Broncos. It's going to be against the worst defense in the league, too. Yes, yes. It's the worst defense of league. They're going to put up 30.

So, yeah, we're putting Davis Webb. What is it? It's March. We're putting Davis Webb on Cubs. Cuckwatch already in March. Yeah, I think by, definitely by Halloween, maybe a little bit earlier than that. And then if they play well,

Sean Payton comes in and, you know, we all say, well, yeah, Sean Payton, yeah, he's an arrogant ASOB, but man, he can coach offensive football. There he goes. He's doing it again. So I think that's a very plausible scenario. The other side of this, Ruiz,

is probably not as interesting, but is worth hitting on a team then. We don't talk about a lot on the Ringer NFL show because they don't, they haven't done a whole lot, up the Miami Dolphins, trade Jalen Waddle. And now, if you go to the Hourlands depth chart over there, the wide receivers you will see, 2-2-at-well, Jalen Tolbert, and Malik Washington. Now, on one hand, we could say, well, they're rebuilding, they're getting their cap in order, what's the big deal? On the other hand, they did sign Malik Willis to a two-year deal

where you would hope that he would have something around him or you could be able to evaluate him as a quarterback since he doesn't have a lot of experience. So what do you make of this from the dolphin side? I feel like we're discussing the Malik Willis signing on a curve because we thought he was going to sign for $40 million. He didn't end up signing for that. He ended up signing for something. If you account for inflation, it was lower than the Justin Fields deal.

And when Justin Fields went to New York, we weren't like, oh, this is going to change their trajectory. They need to build around them. Like, why aren't they putting more pieces around him? So I kind of get what they're doing. I don't think this is like some disjointed build in their first season. And John Eric, is it John Eric Sullivan or Eric John Sullivan? The gun to your head, could you do that?

Could you call it right? I think John is the first part of that. You don't usually see like hyphenated first names. I don't know. I have never met another John Eric, if I'm being honest. I don't know about you. How do you decide John Eric, Eric, John? I guess it's his middle name.

But I digress. That's a great question. Is that how it works? like Eric is his middle name and he's going by both of these. I'm doing some research. Then you don't hyphenate. Then you go like, it is hyphenated. You're right.

You go Jay Eric Sullivan. I've never heard of a John Eric before. And there are not a lot of GMs that go by one name, like the first name. Like if you think about it. Maybe we should start it with John Eric. We should just call him John Eric from now on. Maybe it's a great marketing move by him because we haven't discussed another GMs just the sort of, you know, the description of their name before until this time.

And now he's getting some pop. Howie. Howie, that's the one. Howie's the one that has the one. Look, he gets more credit than anyone, maybe a little too much credit. But, no, I think they're just taking the Green Bay approach to roster building. They're like, we're going to get a bunch of draft picks. We're going to clear out the bad contracts.

And we had a lot of bad contract from the Chris Greer tenure. And John Eric said in his introductory press conference, he said, I am going to draft a quarterback every year. And like that kind of goes with the Packers model where they were like the quarterback factory before Howard Roseman said the Eagles were, but that Packers actually are one, it seems like. And I don't think this Malik Willis signing precludes them from drafting a quarterback, and maybe they use that 30th pick.

That's like one of those mid-level bets that can really hit off if you get a starter there. The Ravens got Lamar Jackson at that range. Malik Willis is another one of those mid-level bets. Like if he's bad, who cares? He spent 20 million. I think it's like a two-year, $45 million deal. It's what it works out to. Like, if he's good, you get a starter.

for a cheap deal. So I kind of understand what they're doing. They're going to be bad. They're going to be a bad football team. But I don't think they're in this mode where it's one extreme or the other. Like we're going to kind of eschew the rebuild and just try to build a contender, which maybe you thought when they spent money on a quarterback. And then it's not going to be like, we're going to tear down and rebuild because we saw

this organization do that before. And I do feel like the Brian Flores lawsuit has to have some bearing on how they approach this. you can't shamelessly tank when you're getting sued in part because you told your coach to tank. So I think that's part of it too. Yeah. But I don't think anything like, I don't think this is a bad rebuild. Like I don't think it's destroyed it at all.

Like I've seen worse rebuilds where teams are kind of in between two places. I think it all makes sense and it all tracks. And I thought they were going to keep Waddle just because he was a younger player. His contract wasn't that bad. He was still very productive. He was in the prime of his career or going into the prime of his career. But you look at the timeline. and by the time they get good,

you don't really want that archetype of receiver on your roster as they saw with Tyree Kill, who has been aging poorly up the last couple years. Yeah, I think you make a good point. View Malik Willis not as the guy they're anchoring everything to for the next five years. View it as a, you know, taking bites at the apple. Maybe you strike something.

Maybe you don't, but that's not going to dictate what you do with the rest of your roster because the rest of your roster might be the worst in the NFL or one of the worst in the NFL when you look at it. So you got to take a slow approach to the rebuild. Meanwhile, you know, Malik Willis is going to be put in a tough situation. Like if I'm Willis or his agent, I'm like, oh, man, this kind of sucks, you know. But you know what?

You got money. You're in Miami. You're going to start. And there were probably, you know, what, maybe two other options for you to do that in the NFL. Arizona was one of them. And it wouldn't have been any different in Arizona than it is in Miami. So you kind of knew what you were getting into with this situation. So yeah, I think that's the right way to look at it.

And they have draft capital. Maybe they get a wide receiver who's, you know, not jail and Waddle, but, you know, pretty good as a rookie. And now all of a sudden, all right, you have a little bit something to work with, someone you can grow with who's only 22 years old versus 28 years old. So they maximize value, I think, with this. No one looks at this and goes, oh, my gosh, they gave Jalen Waddle away. It's not like they forced it. They were obviously working behind the scenes going back to last year at the trade deadline, fielding offers. And I think you can look at it and say that, yeah, that's about as good as you would expect to do with Jalen Waddle there.

So could be a tough year for the dolphins. Over Under for wins is four and a half. And Ruiz, I look, they're tied with the Cardinals. The least likely teams to win their division, according to Fan Duel's odds are the dolphins and the Cardinals there. But maybe Malik Willis will be fun. So who knows? You have a new coach, a new quarterback. Maybe you'll at least get some entertainment. value if you're a Dolphins fan. All right. Let's take a break. We come back. We got a couple other news items to get to, and then we get to the main event.

Ruiz comparing these March Madness teams on the men, the men's bracket to NFL teams, the exercise we did last year. I can't wait for this. Look, I got my bracket printed out and everything. I haven't filled it out. I haven't filled out one name here. I got to hear what Ruiz has to say before I turn this thing in. Let's take a break.

We'll come back with all of that. This episode is brought to you by Warby Parker. You know, I used to wear glasses and it was so complicated and overwhelming trying to pick a new pair, so many styles to choose from, and don't even get me started on the price. This is why Warby Parker is great. Their virtual try-on is a total game changer. And when it comes to price, Warby Parker gives you quality and better-looking prescription eyewear at a fraction of the going price.

Our listeners get 15% off plus free shipping when they buy two or more pairs of prescription classes at Warbyparker.com slash ringer NFL. After you purchase, they will ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them our show sent you. All right, we're back on the Ringer NFL show. All right, this Max Crosby story just keeps giving, Ruiz. Obviously, everyone had the initial reaction, then you have the secondary reaction.

And now Max Crosby on his own podcast gives his side of the story. The most interesting things I got from this, and you could tell me if you had anything else or just react to this. One is he did not meet with Jesse Minter or Eric DeCosta until after his physical. So how many times do we see the social media videos, new player, comes in, everyone's greeting him in the parking lap, entrance to the building, damping him up, giving him something, everyone's all smiles, so excited. That did not happen here. Crosby said, actually, quote, in this via the athletic, I didn't get to see the GM at all. I thought I was going to see him when I first got there. I didn't see him for five hours. I don't know why.

I'm not going to speculate. I even asked, where's Eric? You know what I mean? He just made the trade. I didn't see him for five hours, Ruiz. Does that, what do you make of that? Because that, to me, was the juiciest part of the Max Crosby version of this story. First of all, I got to commend you on your voice acting there. That was well, well done. I'm available if anybody is an author and audiobooks, you know, I've always wanted to do that. I thought that would be pretty fun. So, yeah, thank you for that. Thanks for someone for noticing. Very good. But like, I think it just lends credence to the conspiracy theories. And then there was the other part of it where he flew to DC. They flew him into Reagan instead of BWI, which BWI is right there. Yeah. It's just as big of an airport. But then he was like, well, we flew first class and it was the only direct flight in. But I was still thinking, like, maybe that's, they were trying to delay the time, two extra hours. He said it took two hours to get there, which means he was going during Russia. hour because that's an average tribe tops yeah baltimore dc so i if if you are subscribing to the conspiracy

theory that they kind of figured out that they could get hendricks in at a much cheaper deal and they didn't have to give up the first round picks like it all makes sense with the timeline like they were this was i think on monday the deadline for them to lock in the trade was just a couple days away like that's the thing is they didn't back out of a deal because the deal was never made an official they didn't really back out of anything it was well within their rights to back out um and they took it but I'm with Crosby here. I don't think this MRA is something they didn't expect. I don't think they found something that they didn't expect on it.

You've got to take his surgeon with a grain of salt, but his surgeon has been saying he's on track, like he's going to return in time for off-season activities. I think the Ravens just came to their senses, and they were like, we are spending a lot of draft capital. We are giving this guy a lot of money. He has been on the decline statistically.

He's coming off a knee injury. And we have this guy who, doesn't do everything he does, but he does 75% of what Max Crosby does. We don't have to give up the first round picks. We don't have to pay them as much as we would pay Crosby. I think that's what happened. They got more information before the start of the new league here, and they made a decision. I honestly think in the long run, it's going to work out for them.

I know there's this talk and this blowback from agents and teams. They're not going to want to deal with them anymore. Please, like, this is the NFL. A team wants a player they have or a draft pick they have. They're going to trade with them. We've seen this throughout the history. This isn't the first time a team has done something like this. This isn't the first time the Ravens have done like this.

And their reputation hasn't really been tarnished by that. Their dealings in the past, Michael Brockers, Ryan Grant, they backed out of those contracts. We haven't seen agents steer their teams away from them. Going back to 1997, Brock Marion was traded from the Cowboys to the Ravens. They back out of it after they find something in his shoulder. He plays seven more years and goes to three Pro Bowls in Miami. Clearly, there was no long-term risk there. And guess it was in that front office.

Eric DeCosta, working under Ozzy Newsom. So I think it's just their M.O. to this point, which, I don't know, does make you look at them differently. And I think this whole past year where last year didn't go as well as they wanted, obviously there was the hardball stuff, the Monk and stuff and all the whispers about like whether the team wanted him back and his relationship with the players and his relationship with Lamar Jackson. And I think it just reinforces my theory that Lamar Jackson has been covering up for a lot of incompetence for this franchise. And if you go back to the few years before Lamar Jackson got there, right after they signed that Joe Flacco deal, which I think a lot of people were like, that's a pretty bad deal at the time.

He won the Super Bowl, but that wasn't great value for them. And they went downhill after that. So I'm losing faith in the Ravens front office. And I think Lamar Jackson is the one reason why you have faith in them going forward. But even it's going to be tough for him. If he doesn't have a great team around him, we've seen him struggle with injuries. So kind of stocked down on the Ravens,

right now. You know what? I love that it gives us a sort of villain aspect to the Ravens. Yeah, 100%. You know, because we don't have a great villain. I think in the NFL right now, you know, the Chiefs were down last year. The Patriots had previously been villains, but I feel like their run last year, no one could kind of get to that level with this new era. It wasn't like Belichick and Brady. It was so new and so different. So now when the Ravens play next year, if you're like a neutral fan, you're going to feel some now. You might love watching the Mar Jackson and maybe that I'll just, all right, who cares? I'm still rooting for them.

But if you're a neutral fan, you're like, these guys, man. And it's not rational to your point. Like this is the NFL. Teams act in horrible ways and all the time and back out of stuff all the time. And there's stuff that we probably, you know, we certainly don't know about with some of the ways they operate. It's because it gets kept in-house. But it doesn't have to be rational. Fandum's not rational.

You sit down and watch a game and you feel some way about a team or a player. And it may be rational, it might not be rational. But now you have more reason to be like, oh, those guys. You know, like back, I can't believe what they did. They backed out of that Crosby deal. And I'm with you. I honestly don't know how anyone looks at this in any other way than what you described. You know, when it first happened, I was on the fence.

I was leading towards what you said just now. But I was like, well, I guess there's a chance that, you know, that something came up in the fiscal. Everything that's happened since then only reinforces the conspiracy theory. I don't even think it's a conspiracy theory. Only reinforces what you just laid out, which is the fact that they had a change of heart,

they changed their mind, they had time to back out, and they decided to back out. I mean, what, Crosby is telling you what he thinks happened with the way he describes that, you know, when he's saying, I didn't see the GM for five hours

when I was in the building. Again, watch some of these other social media clips when they sign a player. The coach and the GM, they're there. It's like a huge celebration. They make a big deal out of it. And to be like, well, let's go hide while he takes the physical means you were probably at least thinking about this.

Well, he took the physical. And the physical turns up a certain type of way. Meanwhile, you're talking to Trey Hedrickson's agent. Right. Price is coming down a little bit. He's not signing with somebody else. And you're saying, we don't have to do this, you know? In many life situations, someone just says,

We don't have to do this. I think somebody said in that room, whether it was DeCosta or someone else, we don't have to do this. And they were like, you're right. We don't. It'll get a little messy. It's okay. By the time September rolls around, we'll have Trey Hendrickson.

We'll have our two first round picks. And you know what? If we win, who cares what people think of us? And DeCosta, I think he even said, he was asked about the conspiracy theories. He was like, I understand why people think that. He like, I don't even think he shot them down strongly. agree with that. Yeah. So it's, it's a rough look for them either way. But I do think the move is the smarter move. Like, I would rather have Trey Hendrickson without giving up the first round picks than I would

totally. I think most people, yeah, I think they, I don't know there would be consensus, but I think certainly, you know, if you pulled whatever it was NFL media types, GMs or whatever, I think you'd be at least around 75%ish, you know, and maybe much higher. It might be over 90% if you're just saying this basket, Max Crosby, this basket, Trey Hendrickson, and two first round picks. I think most people are going to choose that second basket. Yeah, I don't think the Ravens problem is really run deepens. Like, that's the difference between Crosby and Mendrickson

is you're getting a three-down player versus a guy that's like a pass-rusher. And the Ravens, they can stop the run without that. They haven't had this pass-rush winner on the edge like Hendrickson or Crosby in a long time. So I think that was part of the calculus. The one thing I will shoot down, Eric DeCosta said, like, we were planning on getting them both. And hell, that was not happening. Give me a break.

I've seen Baltimore operate for the last decade plus, and they do not invest a lot in pass rush. And all of a sudden, this is the year, and they're signing to, like, 30-year-olds with a lot of tread on their tires. I did not. No chance. Yeah, that makes you question everything, you know.

And that gives you, again, more reason to question everything else they're saying there as well. All right. Last news item we want to get to. We'll probably do more on this. in the weeks ahead, but the union elects former president, J.C. Tredder as its new executive director. And like, you might forget this, but Pablo Tori, Kaelin Kaler of ESPN, a lot of great reporting on what a total dumpster fire disaster, whatever you want to describe it. Just the corruption involved with the NFLPA. Treader at one point told C.

sports, I think it was, that he had no interest in this position. That was just months ago. He said that and now he gets elected. So this is from Kalin Kaler says the NFL has been searching for a permanent leader since July when then executive director Lloyd Hal Jr. resigned following ESPN reporting that he had charged a pair of strip club visits to the union. ESPN also reported that he worked part time for the Carlisle Group, a private equity firm, that is seeking minority ownership in the NFL and NFL franchises and that the Union and League had struck a confidentiality agreement to keep an arbitrator's rulings about possible collusion by NFL owners from players.

And that last thing, that confidentially confidentiality agreement, there was more reporting that Treader was very, you know, very involved in that, although he denied it. So Ruiz, this is very in the weeds, but it's just one of those stories that everyone looks at it sideways. And it's like, how did this happen? And sort of the union representation continues to be a mess for these NFL players. Yeah, this has to be the worst players union in professional sports. I think definitely.

They always lose. Every time they go to the negotiating table, they always lose. And this kind of speaks to why. And I think I don't want to blame the players because I think the NFL is very much. you know, rig the game against the players. But, like, I just don't think you have enough players paying attention. And, like, you need players to be actively engaged in these topics. Like, this guy sold you out if you believe these reports that he was in on, like, tamping down

the collusion, not letting that get out. He sold you guys out. And the players voted for this. Like, it's hard to wrap your head around that they had a choice and they did this, but they did vote for it. You have this guy who hasn't proven that he's competent. You have, he has shown that if it behooves him, he will, you know, take shortcuts. He won't do the job that he was elected to do. I wish I could draw a

wider metaphor for this. I wonder if there's something going on in real life that I could draw a metaphor, but it's escaping me. I'm struggling. And, you know, Roger Goodell is, when Roger Goodell is, when Roger Goodell is putting out a press release saying, you know, we look forward to it. That's how you know. Yeah, you know, you're just looking, you kind of, this isn't supposed to be, this is supposed to be a combative relationship because you're supposed to be fighting for the players on their behalf, but they just haven't been able to sort of rally everyone to the seriousness of this and change is necessary. Now, not everyone's on board. The athletic spoke to one player representative who wished to remain anonymous. And the player said, we have utterly failed the union

and its members today by voting in J.C. Tredder as executive director. This felt like a backdoor deal from the beginning with some members of the executive committee. The NFLPA needs change in its leadership from top to bottom. We have not listened to our current and former members about concerns regarding J.C. We have decided to fall back on friendship deal. So it's just like this just happened. And to this player representative's point, they haven't been able to mobilize and get the message out to enough players about like, this is a problem. This isn't what's best for us. And it ends up being that J.C. Treader now gets this role. So this will again, this will continue to be a story. I'm sure it'll be talked about at the owner's meetings in a couple weeks there.

And really throughout the offseason and then into the next labor agreement, whether they're playing 18 games or every team has to play one international game or whatever else is coming down the pipeline. It doesn't look like the players as currently constructed are kind of equipped here. to battle the NFL, the owners on some of these things. So this will be a continuing story, but just wanted to mention it there briefly. All right, we're taking one more break. Then we're coming back.

It's time to get to the March Madness Coms for these NFL teams. All right, we're back here on the Ringer NFL show. The main event, now Ruiz is writing about men's hoops for us. So this is the men's bracket. Ruiz, you'll be writing throughout the NCAA tournament. is that correct? Yeah, I'm going to be doing winners and losers.

I got another thing coming that's separate from that but yeah, I'm going to be ready for the next month. He's got a piece up there right now. I'm looking at it,

breaking down the 2026 men's NCAA tournament bracket. I like this. This is like a ringer thing. You know, you have your main thing

is the NFL and then you kind of get to pick a side thing. Like my side thing's like, oh, I'm going to go on a Philly special with Anthony Dubundo and talk about the Phillies

for an hour and a half. Let's go do that. You've got college hoops here. I have not watched much college hoops at all this season. It sounds like it's been a very entertaining season. It sounds like we're set up to have a pretty entertaining NCAA men's tournament. And you are going to educate me, educate the audience by comparing some of these teams to NFL teams. So go ahead, give us one. Where are we starting? Let's start with Michigan. Because that's the team that's

kind of been dominant the whole year. It's the team that's been favored to win the championship the whole year until very recently. And I wanted to pick them because my con for them is the Seattle Seahawks. This is a team with personnel on defense that allows them to do basically whatever they want and they can get real tricky, they can get

real simple, but whenever they do it, they do it at a high level because of their defensive personnel. But the offense has kind of taken a dive over the last, I mean, they're still winning games, but the offense hasn't been what it was. And turnovers are the real issue. And if they turn the ball over in the tournament, I think they're going to go out maybe in the sweet 16 around that range.

If they don't turn the ball over, I think they're going to pull a Seahawks and just kind of trounce through the field and win not the Super Bowl, cut down to the nets. I mean, what a start. That's beautiful. We're starting with the Super Bowl champs. Okay. So blistering defense, high ceiling, like you said, are they are they the favorites or they're among the fans? I know they're among the favorites to. I'm pretty sure Duke is the fair.

Maybe Arizona is the favorite now. I haven't checked the actual betting odds. but just based on the discourse, I would say Arizona is definitely the favorite to be picked, and then I would put Duke ahead of them right now. Duke gets healthy. But this team is fun to watch. They're my pick to,

I'm picking them to get to the finals, but they have this center, the seven-foot center. And I guess the best comp for him is... Nicky Minori? Maybe. But now that I'm thinking about, maybe not. Maybe it's DeMarcus Lawrence.

But this guy is awesome. His name is Aday Mara. He used to play for UCLA. the transfer first year. Seven feet tall, legit seven feet, seven foot seven wingspan. And they just kind of let him patrol the paint. And then they switch everything else. And they got these big guys up front.

Yaxel Lindbergh is good on both ends. He can handle the ball. He can guard point guards, one through four. So they switch everything else. And they have this one guy in the middle that just kind of dominates the paint. And you can't score on them around the basket. They did have an injury. L.J. Kaysen got injured.

And there's not really a comp for him. I would say he's the Rashid Shaheed of the team. But Rashid Shahid obviously played in the playoffs. But without him, that's when their offense has kind of had to make an adjustment. We've seen the turnover. The turnovers, the guard play isn't really what you would expect from a national title contender, but their front line is one of the best. So I'm going with Michigan because I think we have the same question marks about the Seahawks heading into the playoffs.

Can they, how are they, can they shoot? How are they? Are they a three-point shooting team or middle of the pack or great? Because I'm thinking about that, like the explosive plays from the Seahawks. They're very explosive. Okay, they are. They go on a lot of ten-o runs. They go on a lot of runs.

That's what I'll say. I think 10-0 runs, people call them kill shots, the nerds, the college basketball, hurts. See, I've never even heard that. It's a new one, okay. It's been a big thing the last couple of years.

It's like if you go on a 10-0 run, like your winning percentage is like way up or something. I forget what it is. But they go on a lot of those. So, no, that's not the problem. The problem is like when they don't get the shots up because they're turning the ball over. And part of that's because they play so fast.

It's part of their playing style. But it's a fun team to watch. And I just want to say this. I know a lot of people don't watch. ratings are up, but I think that's a lot of degenerates who are betting on, you know, they have new things to bet on. But the product is better than ever. I know a lot of people complain about it and they complain about NIL and all that. Look at the stats. Like, they're up to like around 2018 MBA levels of offensive efficiency. They're not jacking up

threes at nearly the same rate. Like you see the NBA like the three point of temp rate is spiking. It's not like that. So you get a little variety in how they play. Teams have different styles. Like for me, it's one of the best sports. The regular season's a better product than NBA regular season. Okay. I'm looking forward to it. I can't wait for these games to start. All right, what a great one to start on. So if you like the Seahawks, if you like blistering defense, can score.

Explosive offense. You know, they might have that game where they're turning it over and now of a sudden you're biting your nails and they're getting knocked out in the Sweet 16. But you know what? Every team has a flaw. The Seahawks had that flaw and they didn't turn it over on their entire run, right? To the, to the

Endarming. No turnovers. Yeah. So maybe Michigan will do the same. It looks like Arizona's the favorite. Michigan is second and Duke is third, but those three teams are bunched here at the top for the national championship. All right, that was a fantastic start. All right, what have we got? Who's next?

I'll go with Duke next. I'm going to go with the Rams here. And I'm going to put Cameron Boozer in the Matthew Stafford role. Like that's where the comp largely derives from. Because Cameron Boozer, I'm not exaggerating when I say that. It's going to sound like a hot take. going to sound like hyperbole. I think he's one of the best passers ever in basketball already.

Wow. Like ever. Like I'm saying NBA, I've never seen anything like this where I almost gave him a Herbert comp because he's kind of got that robot thing where like in an instant, if something happens, he makes the pass the decision instantly. Like, if you send a double team at him and you have to send a double team because he's so good on the block, he passes it before that defender even gets anywhere near him. and he can either lob it up to his big man

and he throws a lot of alley-ups to his fellow big man, he's a power forward. He brings the ball down and runs the break. It's amazing to watch. Like he swings the ball. He passes out, skip passes, like from one block to the other side and the other corner. I've never seen a player make it like him.

I'm not exaggerating. He is, there's Nicola Yokic in terms of passing big men. And I would put him second in basketball right now. He's that good. And I just, I saw that with Matthew Stafford, his ability to just make passes all over the field really opened up that offense.

And that's why I'm making the comp. But there is another layer to this where they lost their center. He's kind of been hurt. Patrick Gongba, a really good rim protector. When he's out there, their defense is a lot better. But when he's not out there, they have size issues that you could really pick on.

And I thought we saw that with the Rams, especially with their secondary, when they went up against bigger receivers who could win at the catch point. So I think there are questions about their defense because they lost their point guard, Caleb Foster. that's something they can kind of manage

because they have Cameron Boozer's younger brother a freshman was a number 15 recruit in the nation. He's pretty good so he can replace Foster but they don't have a replacement for that center. You know, this is why I love doing this because that the Cam Boozer, because I thought Stafford

the thing Stafford brings to the table that I think maybe more so than any other quarterback in the NFL right now is the problem solving. You know, it's like who do you trust the most against an elite defense last year? I think the answer was Matthew Stafford. Like when you see how the Rams performed against the Seahawks

versus how literally like every other team performed against the Seahawks defense, it was night and day. They didn't lose that game because Stafford, you know, Stafford couldn't figure it out. Stafford can figure it out, these great defensive coordinators that we talk about, you know, that give great quarterback's problems. He is able, like, that doesn't really apply to the Stafford McFenn.

I'll put McVeigh in the Stafford McVeigh partnership. Like they're going to figure it out over the course of a game. And you're telling me, Cam Boozer is going to be able to figure it out over the course of a game as well. Yes, and Duke and Michigan played like a month ago, like in a non-conference game. It was really random. They played in Washington, D.C. And it was a great game. It was like a great game to watch.

Cameron Boozer was the best player on the court. And Duke upset Michigan. And that's where you started to have the conversation. Oh, is Michigan really the best team anymore? So I think we kind of saw that with the Seahawks and the Rams. But, yeah, Cameron Booser, like, like you said, he could solve any problem because they can kind of put him into any situation. He can be the ball handler on a pick and roll. He could be the role man on the pick and roll.

Like I said, he can bring the ball up. He can guard mostly any position. He's just such a dynamic player. He's so fun to watch. He's not going to be the first overall pick because I do think the questions about his athleticism, which apply to Matthew Stafford as well, are going to hold him back in that regard.

But, like, that's another thing I'm going to say. There are a lot of PSAs here. One, watch college basketball. Great product. Number two, this idea that like NIL and like AAU and like, though, the kids aren't, the players aren't trained right. They're not brought up right anymore. That's bullshit, man.

Watch this freshman class. They all play the right way. Like, Cameron Boozer makes every pay. He's not selfish at all. AJ DeBonza, who will get into later, I'll say that for their comp. Great player, plays hard on both ends. Even Darren Peterson and other, and then Cooper Flagg last year was just like the ultimate do-it-all player.

So that's a bunch of nonsense. And I also make him a sport. Don't forget my boy, Vijay. Vijay, he was the only person on that team. He does everything the right way. Yeah. And he, if you watch Baylor. last year, he was the only player on that team that tried.

So it was like kind of, it was hard to watch and play in that situation. You saw it at the draft when he was crying. He was like, I'm going to take advantage of this. I'm going to, you know, I've been working hard. And you really believed it. Like, that's what this freshman class and these young basketball players looked like. I'm tired of the people shitting on them. All right.

I love it. See, this is this, again, when you do one thing for most of your job, but then you get this little side thing, the passion and the teams come out, you know? And that's what we're seeing now from Ruiz. All right, Ruiz, Ruiz, what do we got? Who's next? Let's go with, let's go with the,

since we were talking about the Ravens earlier, and I brought up Darren Peterson, let's bring up their comp. I'm going to go Kansas to the Ravens. I don't know if you were following the Darren Peterson storyline at all. Playing doesn't play. Don't know when he plays.

Don't know why he doesn't play. Is it legit? Yet he's probably going to be the number one overall thing, right? That's kind of the cliff notes. Yeah. And I think he's kind of gotten typecast as this like, this poster child of NIL and

could go wrong because of that. It seems like he's kind of doing a load management thing and he's not trying to tank his stock. I don't buy that at all. Like when you watch him play, he plays really hard. He plays on both ends. He plays defense well. Like the Kobe comps is what he's getting.

And they're spot on. I know I'm prone to hyperbole, but this freshman class is really good. But he doesn't miss when he's wide open. I haven't checked it in two weeks. But when he is taking a contested three-pointer, a catch-and-shoot, he was shooting like his effective field goal percentage,

which weights three-point. more than two-pointers so you can go over 100. His effective field goal percentage was 105, like a couple weeks ago on contested threes alone. It was like 90 on uncontested threes. So this guy could really shoot. And the thought was like, oh, if he plays and he, you know, he's ready for March, this is going to be a national title contender. There's going to be one of the best teams. When he didn't play, it was like, oh, they're going to, they might win a game in the tournament, but that's it.

He's kind of come back. He's healthy there now. And I think that we've realized, oh, this team. isn't as good as we thought, even with them back. That's where the Ravens comp comes in. He's obviously the Lamar Jackson part of this, where they could just get to the playoffs and get Lamar back, they could do something in the AFC because the AFC's down,

but I don't think that. I don't trust them at all. I wouldn't put them past St. John's in that second round of the bracket. All right, so you're in on Peterson, but you're not in on Kansas as it seems. So you think he's got to carry a heavy load. He can do that. He can have moments,

but it's ultimately not going to matter because the supporting cast, the infrastructure there is not good. The supporting cast isn't that bad, but yeah, it's, it's, I think they've really hurt

not having him on the court and having that chemistry and having that. It's like two different teams. And Bill Self talked about it. He's like, sometimes I have to have this team when Peterson doesn't play

and I have to have this team. And I think you can draw a comparison between Self and John Harbaugh where Self is kind of like two years ago Harbaugh, where you're like, oh, he's still a very good coach. But it's kind of declining with him.

There's some signs. Okay. Yeah. They're plus 10,000 to win the national championship. So it looks like a lot of people agree with you there. This is great. I mean, I can't. Now, I'm going to crush you.

I might win my bracket this year. All right, who's next? Let's go to BYU since I brought that up. I'm going to make them the Patriots because of the DeBonza thing. And he's Drake May in this situation. Obviously, they went the opposite way with the schedule. They played a very hard schedule, which I think makes them look worse than they actually are. They also had this injury.

I think it was like a couple weeks ago. Richie Saunders was probably their second best player. Second best score, definitely. Maybe their third best player. But DeBonza is Drake May to me because there is just nothing this guy can't do. And it looks so easy at times that I think he's kind of a little underrated. And I think Drake May was a little underrated for some things. Just because he was busted into this MVP conversation.

I know they hadn't really played anyone that he has this bad, terrible postseason. And I would not be surprised if AJ DeBonza has a disappointing postseason because there's so much riding on him now that Richie Saunders is out that he's going to have to do a lot. And there's going to be a lot on his plate. And I think defense are going to come after him. I wouldn't be surprised if he falters. But that shouldn't take away from what has been a brilliant regular season campaign.

And DeBonza, I mean, he's six, nine. He can get to anywhere on the court that he wants. He can pull up. He's really good around the free throw line. Like when you watch him, you're going to see him just cook around the free throw line. But he passes. he plays defense and he really tries and he's really smart. I think the hype kind of overshadows that,

the physical talent kind of overshadows that. And I think that's true with Drake May is he's not just like this physical freak. Like there's actual intelligence under there in terms of like football slash basketball intelligence. All right. So you're all in on him, but you don't think they're going to have a great run. And if they lose and people are ripping him, you're going to be defending him saying everyone's,

Everyone settled down. Look at this situation. There are Josh McDaniels in the knowledge right now that I can just rip in this situation probably not. Look at coach, Kevin Young. Yeah, you could call him the Josh McDaniels. But that's like the other part of it is like, nobody wants a root for BYU. No one wanted to root for the Patriots. But these guys are so cool that you kind of begrudgingly want to watch them.

Yeah, that is true. Like I said earlier, Patriots weren't real big villains because no one's like, oh, I hate Drake May. Yeah, this guy's so annoying. No one was saying that about Drake May. All right, that's BYU. All right, who do we got? Who's next? I'm going to go Florida, and I'm going to make the comp.

This is probably a lazy comp, but it does make some sense. I'm going to go with the Philadelphia Eagles. Obviously, both teams were defending champions this season. And Philadelphia, I feel like it just didn't feel the same. Like, a lot of the major pieces were the same, but it just didn't feel the same. And the one missing thing was kind of the thing that powered them was Seekwom Barkley's explosive runs. And for Florida last year,

especially during that tournament run, it was Walter Clayton just making ridiculous threes. And then making threes. This year they couldn't shoot threes until like a month ago. They, for like a 10-game stretch, they shot like 40% from three. But before that, they were literally one of the worst three-point shooting teams in the country.

And they lost that thing that really made them special. So while it feels like they're in position to win again, there's just something off. And I just don't trust them to go all the way this year because of it. That always makes me nervous, the tournament team that can't shoot because it's just like over the stretch of this, thing, you know, it just feels like even if you have great athletes and you play great defense,

that that is going to bite you at some point here and that you're not able to withstand that. So that's good intel because they're plus 750 here to win the national championship. But now as I look at my bracket, the way you're mentioning that, you know, I didn't trust the Eagles at various times this season. And Florida looks like a team. Maybe I'm going to have to pick to have a little upset here because they can't shoot like Ruiz said. Listen, Ruiz has a lot of these.

So if you're wondering, Schman, Shields just throw us saying, get to the next one. That's because he's got a lot of these and I want to get to as many as we can. So, all right, Ruiz. What's the next team? What are you got?

I'm going to go with Illinois and the Chicago Bears, which is another one that seems very easy. And they're from the same state. They wear the same colors. But bear with me here. Okay. This is a very great offense, like a very good offense.

At one point this year, they were tracking to be the best offense ever in Ken Palm history, or in the Ken Palm era, which goes back to 19. 97, I believe. They kind of fell off at the end and Purdue got them.

But I'm going with Keaton Wagler, he's the point guard, probably going to be a lottery pick. He's the Caleb Williams, where, I mean, he's good at a lot of things, but he's really good when you just kind of isolate him and let him like cook behind the three-point line. A lot of what they were doing early on

before they started struggling was teams would switch against them because they have these two big seven-footers. They're brothers and they both can hit threes and they're both like legit seven-footers. So teams would, at first, they would try to play drop coverage where the big man would drop off so the guy could pick and pop and be wide open. He'd hit the threes. They started adjusting to that.

They started switching it. So this Keaton Wagler guy, he's like a point guard, kept getting matchups with these big centers, and he would just like dust them, do a step back three, hit a three in their face. The Purdue game from earlier this year just cooked them like that. Which I think Caleb Williams, you know, just let him cook. He's not like a guy that's going to get his offense, or, his production in the rhythm of the offense, but he's going to get it out of structure, and he's going to take advantage of his athleticism against bigger guys against past rushers.

And then Brad Underwood, who's the coach, is the Ben Johnson. He's just been a great offensive mind for as long as I've been covering the sport. And then of the two seven-footers I mentioned, I think those are the two tight ends, where, like, if you don't adjust to them, and that's, you know, Lovelland and Colcomet, and if you match them, then, you know, you create problems. If you don't match them, you create other problems. So this is an offense. It's very dynamic, but I have no trust in their defense.

And they kind of went the opposite way of the Bears where they lost a lot of close games rather than winning those close games. All right. So if we see the coach ripping his shirt off after, you know, one of their wins, he won't do that. But I got another layer to this. I forgot about this. Chicago is apparently like a cultural hub for like Serbians, Bosnians,

people from like the Balkans. This was like a big deal for Illinois, like the transfer portal. It's all those guys. Oh, they got a bunch of European guys. I mentioned the two brothers, the Vizich brothers. I'm forgetting the one guy's name, but they have also had Pages Stoyakoff, which is son coming off the bench.

He's been starting, but he's pretty good. He's pretty damn good. He's not his dad, can't shoot like him, but he can get to the basket. They have a lot of good pieces. Like, this is the, on paper, it's the best offense in the bracket, and I am picking them to go to the final four.

Yeah, that got me pretty excited. had great offensive mind, great lead player. Now, they are taking on the Penn Quakers here in the first round, who are creating some buzz locally in Philadelphia. They have Fran McCaffrey, who was the Iowa coach. But I think. DJ Power, the Duke five-star Duke Transfer, who had, what, 44 in the Ivy Final. So that seems like a fun little game.

Penn. It is a fun game. Illinois just has so much firepower. That's going to be tough. It's a bad matchup for Penn. But I'm excited to watch Illinois. I think they're really good. All right.

I like that one. All right, what do you got? Who's next? Let's go with Texas Tech. And I'm going to comp them to the Indianapolis Colts where about midway through the season, you were like, this team could, you know, I didn't know if they could make a deep run. They made a deep run last year, but then they lose their best player. Indianapolis didn't lose their best player, but they lost their most important player

in their quarterback. And it just hasn't felt right since then. And like you can look at their resume and look at their seating. and I think they're a little overseated. They still have a great, great player in Christian Anderson who can take over games, just like that prototypical March Guard who's kind of undersized but can, like, hit pull-up threes. But they're really undersized now without topping. Like, without him, it's just not the same.

So I would fade them if I was you in your bracket. See, again, you know me well. I've just been ripping the poor Colt fans just are very upset with me, this entire offseason. I'm just ripping them. What are they doing? How could they do this? They mismanage this situation.

And now you're telling me Texas Tech is the com. I feel like, yeah, just out of principle, I'm going to have to pick them to lose early. Or I'm going to feel like a fraud here. Now, I'm looking at the favorites here, Ruiz. And there's one, the actual favorite of the tournament, I don't think you've had a comp for yet. And that's Arizona.

Arizona? Okay. At plus 370. I don't know if they were on your radar with a natural con. Okay, okay. But I know from last year that you could just do this on the fly. This is in your wheelhouse. feel like we can't leave and we can get to a couple more, but we can't leave without getting to

Arizona. Arizona was my toughest one to come up with because you only have the teams you have in the NFL, like it was really tough. But then I thought, like, I can go back into other seasons. Previous years. You remember. And they are the Eagles from the season before that, the championship winning Eagles, because I think Arizona is going to be very good.

And what was the big question mark with the Eagles? Can a team in 2024, 2025 win without a pass first off? offense that you can hang your hat on the past game. They don't like to do it a lot. And that's the question with Arizona with three-point shooting. Now, Arizona is good at three-point shooting, but they don't shoot a lot of threes at all. But they kind of get it done old-school style. They have two bigs and they play through the post.

They play good defense too. And I think that when it comes time, they're going and they're going to have to shoot a lot of threes in the game. I think they're going to be able to make them like we saw Jalen Hurts kind of come through in those last two games of that season. I think that they are the most well-rounded team, and I'm picking Michigan, but I would not be surprised at Arizona wins.

That would be my second pick. So is that a bad coaching job if they're good at shooting threes, but don't shoot a lot of threes, or they just do other stuff well, so it's like they haven't had the need to do it? They just haven't had the need to do it. I just think their coach, Tommy Lloyd, comes from Gonzaga. They've underachieved in the NCAA tournament,

so there are question marks there about him. but they run a good system. I think they run a system that a lot of teams copy. So I would say it's not bad coaching. But there is question marks about Tommy Lloyd just because of the lack of success. They got upset a couple years ago when they were two seed by Princeton the first round. So I don't know if they, I'm not sure if they've been past the Sweet 16 under him. He's only been there for three or four years.

It's so funny when you say a team and then the way our minds work, I'm just thinking of players from tournament. I'm like, oh, man, as you were talking, I'm just like, man, Mike Bibby, that Mike Biddy, Miles, Simon. team and Mike Biddy was awesome on that team. All right, I think we got time for a couple more, Ruiz. So I'll let you pick because we got to the big ones. You got Duke, Arizona, Michigan, Florida. There is one I'm, you know, somewhat curious about. Hit me with them.

Who is it? I am curious about Yukon just because. Okay, I got a Yukon. Hurley, you know, they are a high profile team. I know maybe not quite as good as they've been in years past. But, you know, I always look at the coaches and I'm like, that guy's pretty special. All right, where are we with Yukon?

I was going to do the Dan Hurley, Nick Siriani comp, just because they're kind of, you know. But, no, I'm not doing that. I think Hurley would take offense. No, I would take offense to that. I'm a big Hurley guy. I love Hurley.

But that was the only reason. But no, it's an easy comp. It's very easy and it may seem lazy, but I think it's a good one. It's the Chiefs. They're the Chiefs. Obviously, the Chiefs didn't make the playoffs. Youcons.

That's the big difference. But we've seen this team be dominant in the past. But it's just not the same. same. And then like the big difference is you can't be relied on to hit threes. Like their defense was a problem last year, but they got it back. That's not really synonymous with what the Chiefs did this year.

But the offense is still designed well. You still have Andy Reed. You still have Patrick Mahomes and you still have Dan Hurley. But they can't hit the long ball and the Chiefs couldn't hit the long ball. And I think that makes it easier to defend everything else. And don't

trust this Yukon team. That would be another piece of advice. And I've always been you con like I picked them both times they won. I was really championing them. I thought they were the greatest team ever two years ago. I picked them as a three seed to win it all four years ago, but I'm off I'm off this trade this year. That's tough. When you can't hit threes, when you can't create explosives, the margin for error just shrinks. So all right, he talked me out of picking you can. All right. So what's your final four, Ruiz? Let's get your picks on the record here before we say goodbye. What's your final four? What's your championship?

game and who are you picking to win at all? I'm going Duke, Illinois, Arizona, and Michigan. So that's three ones in a three seed. Okay. I've gone back and forth. I haven't locked it in yet. Oh, you don't have the official yet. All right.

But the Michigan-Arizona game, whoever wins that game is going to win the championship. But I'm going to go Duke over Illinois. And then since I picked Michigan earlier, I'm going to stick with Michigan. But Arizona is right there for me. I might change my mind. You might flip eventually. Okay, all right. I like that. Well, we are, as we record this, what, about 16 hours away from tip-off for the NCAA men's tournament. Let me throw in one more comp.

Let me throw one more comp. Please. Listen, you did the work. I don't want to, if you've got to get some up. Go ahead. I had the Cameron Boozer, Matthew Stafford thing, but I have another comp for Matthew Stafford in general. I just really want to implore everyone to watch this game. Watch the St. Louis, Georgia game. Robbie Avala, he's the center for St. Louis. I'm trying to be nice here. It's like if Peter Griffin played college basketball, it looks wise. Like, it is not a guy you would expect to be as good at basketball as he is. It's like Adam Sandler.

You ever see the clips of Adam Sandler playing basketball? Of course. That's how he plays. He's a center who does trick passes and he's like the hub of his team. Like he runs the offense. It's very Matthew Stafford S where you're like, this guy should not be like physically dominated. this sport that's dominated by athletes.

But he does, and it's just fun to watch St. Louis. Watch that game against Georgia. It's going to be high scoring. And Robbie Avala, man, star of the tournament. Creme Abdul-Jabbar is what they call him. You know what? I have seen that, actually. Now, I remember Cream Abdul-Jabar, that was sent to me.

I didn't know who he was. I didn't know what he did. We've been waiting two years for him to get him the tournament, and he finally made it in this year. So finally. St. Louis, let's go. Let's watch the Billikins, right? St. Louis, Billicans.

There you go. We'll watch the St. Louis Billikins. All right. His name is Stephen Ruiz. Just, you know, talk about just letting a guy cook for an entire podcast where I can just sit back and listen to his comps with these March Madness teams with NFL teams. This is a tradition. I mean, as long as we're working together, we got to do this every single year. Check out his work on the ringer.com, both NFL and college hoops over the next month here.

I thank you to Ruiz. Thank you to Christopher Sutton. for producing. Thank you to Stefano Sanchez for a video and additional production supervision by Connor Nevins and Arjuna Ram Gopal. I'm Shio Capadio. We will talk to you next time on the ringer NFL show. 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C. Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-Gambler or 1-800-My reset, call 1-888-7-8-9-77-7 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit MD gamblinghelp.compancombe.M.A.org or call 800-327-50-50 for 24-7-7-7-4-7 in Massachusetts

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