The Ringer NFL Show - Josh Allen Is An Unstoppable Force and the Other Main Characters of Week 2

Episode Date: September 18, 2026

Tom, Sheil, and Billy get together to share their takes and analysis from the Buffalo Bills' stunning victory over the Detroit Lions on ‘Thursday Night Football’. They then talk about who they think the main characters will be over the course of the NFL's weekend slate. Sheil ends the pod by revealing his Ringer 107 picks for Week 2.(00:00) Intro(1:41) Takeaways from Lions-Bills(27:30) Main characters for Week 2(57:12) The Ringer 107 picks Check out Tom Pelissero's newsletter 'The Sweep' on Substack!: https://tompelissero.substack.com The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit https://fanduel.com/playwithaplan to learn more about the resources and helplines.Host: Tom PelisseroGuests: Sheil Kapadia and Billy GilProducer: Chris SuttonVideo Editor: Curtis SchultzProduction Supervision: Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It is the Ringer NFL show Friday, September 18th. The bills are 2 and 0. Josh Allen already being anointed, the NFL MVP. We'll dig into everything from Thursday night, a momentous night in Buffalo on this show. We'll also get two, all the other games in week two. Who are the main characters heading into the bulk

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Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gampbellar. Call 1-888-8-8-9-77-7-7-7 or visit cccg.org slash chat in Connecticut. Tom Pelliserro, Billy Gill, Shield Capadia, all with you. Some of us on a little bit more sleep than others. Guys, I feel like you can ever exhaust everything

you have to say, especially about a, you know, a high profile game like that. I do feel like me and Bill got a lot out of my system. Last night, post game, live on Netflix. So, Sheila, I come to you. Once again, the bills put tons of points on the board,

77 points now through the first two games of the season. What did you make? What were your key takeaways out of that bills went last night. I think there's another level of offense teams can reach where it's just like shocking when they don't score a touchdown. Remember the 49ers last year

they had that stretch or it was just like it feels like they're scoring on every single possession. The Rams have been there before the Ravens a couple years ago. We're at that spot. And that's where the bills are. Eight possessions, six touchdowns, two punts in that game.

You know, the one time they punted, it was like, oh, okay. I thought the lions were going to like dump Gatorade on Dan Campbell or something. It was so exciting when they finally got one stop in that game. But Josh Allen is just at the peak of his powers. And it's been like this for a while. I do feel like this is an annual tradition, Billy, where it's like, oh, you know, the bills, do they have enough?

And then it's just like, oh, they have a top five offense again. And, yeah, Josh Allen is really incredible. And then that's what kind of last night was about once again. I don't know. I kind of feel like this might be different. for the bills this year. And it's just two games, right? But the story with the bills has always been it's Josh Allen. It's Josh Allen. He doesn't have weapons. And like granted, Josh Allen has had two incredible performance to start the year. He's been clean, hasn't turned the ball over.

Last night, a little lucky, right? They went 41, 31, a 10 point win. He had that interception inside the 10 that was deflected. It wasn't his fault, but it was deflected to the lines. That gets overturned. So that's not an interception. They go back and they score. He had a fumble, but his team recovered it. So he didn't lose that one. So in that sense, he's been clean, but there have been ones where the ball has kind of bounced his way. But I kind of been looking at the receivers, right? So DJ Moore goes out last night. And that was the big guy that they bring in for him to be the number one. But Dalton Kincaid has really stepped it up for him this season. He's been the leading receiver in both games so far. Last season, he had 571 yards receiving. This year, he's already at 225. He's almost

halfway to his production from last season within two weeks. Josh Palmer has been a nice little find for the bills where it's like, you know, he's going to be open for a long one and he'll get the one reception again, but if it's a 43-yard touchdown, a 39-yard touchdown like he had last week, like you can go to him and he's a weapon for him. He's going to, he's halfway to his career high in touchdowns through week one, or through the first two weeks going back to his rookie season with four. So, I mean, if he has these guys and he finds the roles for them, even with DJ Moore, Hurt, when he comes back, you're starting to kind of see he's got options here.

He may not need the number one big guy. that everybody has and wants. But if he can figure out the roles for these players, it's going to put together. And Dawson Knox, by the way, he threw him a touchdown yesterday. It was just because he likes Dawson Knox because he could have easily walked that in.

It's just like, hey, Dawson, I don't know if you have like touchdown incentives, but here you go. Like, let's spread the wealth around. So I kind of- Brady did that too, Billy. He's like, you know, I told James Cook, don't reach the ball over the goal line.

I'll get you a touchdown later. Like when you're at that stage of offense, that's a different stage of offense. So you're just like, oh, I got to make this guy happy by getting him a touchdown. But it's good to see them have their roles kind of be defined, right? Where we have so many question marks. Like, is it going to be Kincaid? Is it going to be Shakir?

Like, who's going to be the guy? And it's like, well, we're figuring it out now. Did James Cook? I was thinking that last night, watch him go into the pilot and be like, don't do it. Now, I appreciate it. Two hands on the ball. It's not like the long lunge with like the one hand where it's more likely to come up.

but it's still like, if this goes sideways, it happens all the time. I guess if you're going to trust anybody, it'd be James Cook to be able to balance when to go for the goal line or not. But are you guys in any way, she'll amaze that, like, you still see that? It's like the guys dropping the ball at the goal line.

It's like, yes, 95% of the time. It's totally fine. But it's that other 5% that's, like, catastrophic if this goes wrong. Well, you know what? It doesn't annoy me as much. much right now because several years ago, what really annoyed me is every time that happened, all the Bill Belichick, you know, psychophants, psychophants. Is that the way? I don't think I've ever used that word on a podcast. So I don't know if I'm using it. Sick of fans or are you saying

psycho fans? Yeah, I don't know. I think it is, it is sicko fans, right? It was the SAT back in the day. But I thought you said psycho fans. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like sound a lot of life. Yeah. But I, you know, they all come out, oh, Billaichick always teaches his players to never do that. If you do that on a Bill Belichick team, it's like, everyone's settled down. He's not the only coach who's ever told the players not to reach the ball over the goal line. So yeah, it is surprising.

But then at the same time, I'm like, I don't know. But most of the most stuff like that, I'm like, it spur of the moment. You go out there with like the 240-pound linebacker ready to rip your head off and you want to score a touchdown and you're trying to score a touchdown. Like, it's not the end of the world. But, you know, with the post-game,

so James Cook did get a ball in the post-game celebration. And Tom, I've been dying to get Billy's take on this. Billy, did you see the game balls in the locker room? No, what happened. Okay, so Josh Allen gets a game ball, obviously. James Cook gets a game ball, obviously. But then I wanted your take on this move. Josh Allen's like, oh, wait a minute, everybody.

I have one more. I don't know if he said Mr. Pagula or Terry Pugula. He gave it to the own. Oh, we're opening a new stadium. Is this like, is this? Is this like good? This is what you want the face of your franchise to be doing. Is this teacher's pet behavior?

Like if you're in the locker room there, let's say you're like a backup, maybe, you know, backup tight end. You're a special team. You're like, all right, Josh, you already got the money. Everybody loves you. You don't need to be doing this. What was your take on that? I'm kind of with you on that.

It's like, Josh, you know, like we get it. You're a good guy. You know, you're married now. You have your kid. You know, you took a little bit less money on the contract so they can give it to other people. you wear the hats every week because of your partnership with like pediatric hospital like you know i almost wonder shield could it be like josh is just like what does he do with another game ball like where do i put this ball like i don't want this ball i don't

run out of storage yeah i mean it's the first game in the new stadium so you give it to them displayed in the stadium somewhere have the owner do with it but also at a certain point it's like this is just another game to josh you know like the first game the second game of the season like who cares at this point. He's had so many game balls. First of all, if someone paid me $500 million to do anything over the course of my career, I'd probably give him whatever he wants. You want every game ball from every

single win. Here, Mr. Pagula, take whatever. I was also struck by this with Josh, who's obviously playing at a phenomenal level. And last week, they took it to the number one defense from a year ago in Houston and hung 36 on them. Then last night, I mean, the lines are beat up. We have to

remember that. Brian Branch, Kirby Joseph, are on the pup list right now. The corners are banged up. DJ Reed's not 100%. They've got a lot of different issues. But Josh is truly playing at a level where you're like, there's no one else that can play like this in terms of it's the arm and the legs. And it's also the fact that he's the rare quarterback who like,

if he's barreling down on you, you don't want as a defender any part of that. And if there were any question about, you know, Josh's had, you know, all these, like, kind of little things through his career and different injuries. Like, how is he going to play? The first drive last night, in my head, I'm watching Josh on that scramble in the red zone and just going like, okay, so he's going to slide, right? It's week two. It's the first drive of the game. No, head first through the defense, gets hit like three different ways.

And then, all right, well, now let's hand it to James. Nope, nope, nope. It's a quarterback sneak. He's pushing his way into the end zone. Like, this feels like there's absolutely nothing. that Joe Brady is going to take away from Josh Allen. Like as much as they've been an offensive team for a long time, in my mind, this is them leaning into this is our identity.

We are the biggest, baddest dudes. It starts with our quarterback shield. And if that requires him to play at a certain level, that requires us to simply go into every game going, you know what, we're going to embrace that we got to win in a shootout. They seem willing to do it, even though last night, if the, you know, lions don't go three out in like eight seconds there when they get the ball back late, you know, they seem to mostly have control of that game. I think that's the most encouraging thing through two weeks. And you made the great point with Bill is that they seem to know what kind of team they are, especially early

in the season when the defense might not be where you would want it to be. And it's not like, oh, we have a 17 point lead in the second half. Let's just run the ball. It's like every time they get the ball, let's just assume we have to score a touchdown. Because you don't know. And it wasn't a 10 point game. You mentioned that possession. The lions do have the ball down 10 where you're going, okay, this could get interesting if they score here and they don't. But I think that's a great trait for a coach is just like, what kind of team are we right now? Let's lean into that. Let's not assume that our defense is going to be fine and stop the lion. So Allen for years, I've always said, he plays every snap like it's fourth down and the Super Bowl's on the line. And that can frustrate

people at times and you know sometimes that can lead to boneheaded mistakes and you look at it and go what were you thinking why did you do that you didn't need to do that there but it also leads to way more positive place i mean this is six straight they've had a top five offense for six straight years they've won 11 plus games for six straight years i just got to the point this summer where i'm like i'm not going to try to be ahead of the curve on this bills team and be like oh this is the year you know they're going to have the 12 best offense and they're going to be nine and eight this year it's just Like that doesn't make sense. I think he may be right now the only quarterback in the NFL where if he's on your

team, I feel like it guarantees you a playoff spot 10, 11 wins if he's healthy. You know, maybe Lamar Jackson and maybe Patrick Mahomes and maybe Joe Burrow. There's some other guys you could maybe, not Joe Burrow, actually, because they haven't done that. Not Mahomes. Not Mahomes. He was healthy until December, until the game where they got to limit. It might be a class of one.

Yeah, Billy. But do you guys, I know that we shouldn't speak this into existence. distance or manifest this or whatever, however you might say. But like, because he hasn't gotten hurt, we assume he's just never going to get hurt because he's a big guy and he plays kind of like with reckless abandon and he has that streak of 120 plus games that he's started. Some of those are like, you know, last game of the season. He goes out for exactly one snap and then he's off the field.

But because it hasn't happened, we just assume this guy can never get hurt and this guy's awesome and he makes all these plays. At a certain point, it just takes one bad hit or one wrong move on his part and you would hate to see it, but that is, I think, should be a major concern for the bill and the fans. It's like, look, I get that this is your style, but bigger picture here, granted, this is a big game. This could be a Super Bowl preview potentially, right? And last week, they needed to have that win over the Texans, and he hasn't. But at a certain point during the regular season, I wonder if there's a game maybe next week against the charge where it's like, Josh, just like, I know this is your style.

But like, let's not risk bigger picture stuff here putting yourself in harm's way for no reason. driving headfirst into things. I just don't think they're going to take that away from him. I don't think he can do it, though, either. It's the first drive of the game in the home opener, and he's diving head first into a crowd when he could have slid at the four-yard line. Yeah.

You know, when Josh has gotten banged up in the past, it's usually been, like, freaky things. Like, he hits his hand on a helmet or something happens in the pocket. I'm less concerned with him out there running and making things happen, because he is pretty adept at knowing, exactly the last possible second right before you're going to take a hit and not holding it a

second too long and getting wiped out like Jared Gough did along the sideline last night. And also he's able just because he can do, he might have the hardest pump fake in the entire NFL. Now that Ben Rathesberger is gone, like the Josh Allen pump fake where it's like a full 90 degree torque and he pulls it back, that has a way of backing off defenders. He can create space with pretending to pass the football. I think that stuff keeps him healthy too. I'm more worried if he gets in the mode of like,

we're holding it in the pocket for five seconds. Defenders are at his feet and he gets rolled up. Like that's the stuff that would concern me. Josh, he really, over the course of his career, he's known how to take care of his body to not take those humongous hits, which I think bodes well because that's the whole identity of the team. I know I said this on Bill's Pockets, but I texted Bill before the game last night.

I'm like, the bills are going to score 40 in this game. But that was based on, I thought DJ Moore, against the decimated secondary was just going to light him up. DJ Moore didn't get targeted. He got hurt with his shoulder and sounds like it's a shorter term issue, not anything long term, which is fortunate for the bills. But like he's off the field. And then to your point, I mean, Josh Palmer, you say he's a heck of a find Billy?

Like the people who didn't find him last night were the Lions. There's no coverage that he would ever design where Josh Palmer is 20 yards behind everybody down the field. But you find ways with him. You get Dalton Kincaid going. Don Quakeetade, by the way, pending free agent, they haven't gotten a deal done with him. What do he score? Four touchdowns in a five-day span to kick the season off.

That price is going to keep going up. But the question with Kincaid's always been the health. If he stays on that type of trajectory, he's going to get paid a lot of money. And the fact that they have all those weapons, Billy, despite the fact that you have had those complaints in the past of like, why aren't they aggressive? Why aren't they trading for receivers? I'll tell you this, Brandon Bean has been aggressive. He tried to trade a first-round pick for Jalen Waddle last year within the division. The Dolphins ended up not taking the offer.

They've tried. And now even with DJ Moore, the big acquisition of this off season, out for the moment, they still, Billy, had plenty of places to go with the football last night. It all starts with the guy who right now is playing like the best player on the planet. Well, we haven't even really talked about Keon Coleman, right? Like, at a certain point... Big game for him, yeah. At a certain point, like, he's also going to be a massive weapon for them.

And that's when, you know, Josh Palmer's like, you just forget about him. him. And that's when he's open for 40 yards in a touchdown because you're too busy covering everybody else. But I think the big thing that happens with great quarterbacks is, and this happens throughout the NFL for my entire life, it's like the quarterback's unbelievable. And then everybody else starts to get a little piece of the credit. You know, like if you took this exact supporting cast and all right, I don't want to pick on Justin Herbert, but let's say it's with the charge you. It's just, it's not going to look the same. And we're going to be having conversations about, well, how good is this supporting cast? You know, it's like, all right.

Like DJ Moore, anyone could have traded for DJ Moore. To Thomas point, anyone could have signed Josh Palmer. Khalil Shakir is a late round pick. I'm not saying those aren't good players, but the definition of the great quarterback, the MVP caliber quarterback, is that he makes everyone around him better. He's getting guys head coaching jobs, left and right.

Josh Allen, it's like you put that at the top of your resume. And owners are like, oh, man, that builds offense. Look at those numbers. They were pretty good. It's like, all right, well, was that the coach? was that Josh Allen is the future Hall of Famer who's in his prime currently. So I do think it's, again, I like those players, but I still think it's him making everybody look better

versus he's in a great situation. The funniest moment of the game last night is Josh breaking pocket and flipping the ball to Khalil Shakir, who at that point is just assuming Josh is going to scramble and it hits him right in the back and he looks around like, what happened? It's like, no, he was flipping you a backhand pass. It's just, He's playing at a different level of times, even some of his teammates can possibly understand. Yeah, he had the pick that got overturned in the red zone. He missed Shakir by like an inch on that sideline out.

And I know that he kind of made the face like, come on, I got to make a better throw than that. But my question, this leads me into a broader thing. And, granted, we're going into the bulk of week two. We'll talk about all these games that we got coming up this weekend, including the Patriots opportunity to bounce back against the Steelers. but Sheel, in your mind, remember, Patriots for the division winner last year. They were the one seat. They went to the Super Bowl.

Is there a gap in your mind right now between the bills and everybody else, not just in the AFC East, but in the AFC? I'm going to say no. I don't think they're, you know, like a team like the Ravens, they were excellent last week. We'll see what they do this week against the Saints.

But I think there are, you know, I think it's bunched up. I don't think there's a big gap. And the reason I say that is because that bill, defense I'm still not sure about. You know, they have moments. Deion Walker showing up the way he has in the first two weeks is maybe one of the biggest developments in the NFL where it's like, oh, the bills might have another guy up front

where they can rely on that pass rush. And I think with the bills defense all, you know, even going into the season, it was like, this isn't going to look great right away. This is a matter of, hey, can Jim Leonard figure things out? And you get to November, December, and you're saying, okay, this defense is really finding itself. But I think they're a very good team. If you were like, Sheila, you have to pick one team right now to get to the Super Bowl from the AFC. I think, you know, it might be a recency bias, but I'm like, yeah, I'll just go ahead with Josh Allen and assume that it's going to happen this year.

And I think you could pick the bills to get to the Super Bowl any year. As long as Josh Allen's healthy and his prime, you can literally pick them every year. And it's not a bad pick. But I'm not ready to say quite yet that there's a big gap between them and everyone else in the AFC. Howard. Week two, you're not ready, not already. You're saying yes? No, I mean, look, here's the thing. They've had two great wins over teams that are quality teams.

They're like, okay, these are great signs. But also, last week it came down to a turnover where the Texans were driving and could have won that game. This week, they didn't turn the ball over again. At some point, these balls are going to bounce the other way. And then we might see different results. And it's not to say that the team is different. It's just they've had strokes of good luck. Also, I wonder, because we haven't really talked that much about the lions, we did a little bit, right?

But I feel like we're just, this is a mulligan for them, right? Like, they're beat up. You know, Jemir Gibbs ran for a million yards last week. You didn't have as many carries this week. It was a short week for everybody involved. So they're going to be a good team. I saw that you kind of tried to fan the flames a little bit last night and say like, hey, it's not panic time in Detroit. And the question becomes like, whoa, is, you know, is this time for a hot seat for Dan Campbell?

And you're like, no, you know, like they did choose Dan Campbell. Essentially, they chose Dan Campbell over Ben Johnson. We're surprised that Ben Johnson stayed as long as he did. You're going to fire Dan? Was that what you wanted them to do? No, not me. I'm just saying people are out there. People are saying.

People are saying. Yeah, not me. I would never say these things. But, like, I, you know, is it time to panic in Detroit? Like, I think collectively as a group, this podcast is like, no, like, it was a short week. It was a tough game. They're a bit depleted now. But we haven't really focused on the lines at all.

We've just been praising, you know, the bills the whole time. time. Go ahead. I was going to say the problem with the lions is they don't have guys on defense right now. And it's just like you look at it and we always talk so much about coaching and coordinators. And I'm always like, can a guy do more with less? And I'm just looking at the guys they're trotting out there. And I'm kind of like other than maybe Mike McDonald's, is their defensive coordinator that would be like, oh, this guy could get this group to a top 10 defense.

And so I think there is a figuring out period for them early in the season. And I thought their defense was going to struggle early in the season, not to this effect. I mean, they've given up 10 touchdowns on the last 14 times they've been on the field, which is just like, you know, you're not going to win any games when you're doing it that way. So I think the big thing for them has always been when we get Brian Branch and Kirby Joseph, I don't know, maybe Tom can fill us in on how realistic that is. But if internally they feel like those safeties are coming back at some, point, you know, in the first half of the season, let's say, we're going to look like a different

defense at that time. I can live with that if I'm a Lions fan. It's like our offense still looks pretty good. We had some offensive line injuries and we still put up a decent amount of points. Defensively, if we feel like getting healthy is really going to help us. That's one scenario. The other scenario is how much pressure are they feeling to say the NFC is pretty open. We've got a really good offense. We are the team that needs to make a big move. before the trade deadline, whether that's someone like Max Crosby or Joey Porter or someone I'm not even thinking about where they're like, this is the year. Let's go for it. We got to give this defense a boost. Otherwise, we don't have a chance. That's the other thing, Tom, that I have my eye on with the way this Lions team could operate here in the next four to six weeks.

The Lions have not been a big trade acquisition team since Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell got there. Obviously, there was the Matthew Stafford trade, but they were getting assets in addition to getting their quarterback in Jared Gough. They really haven't been a team. They've done some player for player trades like they did in the case of David Montgomery and they got two Scruggs back who was starting at center last night. But they've not been a team that's like traded huge draft capital for players. I hear you though on if you're going to do it, this would be the type of scenario. The corners are a liability.

The number of people within the NFL off week one who said to me like they can't play with those corners. Rock Yucin is starting for him. DJ reads out there after tweaking his foot in practice this week. The best player on the lion's defense is Aidan Hutchinson. But the most important player on the lion's defense, in my opinion, is Brian Branch. That is your attitude guy. That is your culture guy.

He's the tone setter. And you can play him all over in different spots, moving around like a chess piece on the board. Without him there, you lose some of that. You lose the juice and you also lose the versatility that can cause some of those problems. Kelvin Shepard tried to throw different things, corner blitzes and whatnot at Josh Allen. Frankly, I don't know with the Lions personnel what they could have thrown at Josh Allen that was going to make much of a difference in the game last night. Max Crosby might be pie in the sky thinking because he makes so much money.

And the Raiders are going to want what they got from the Ravens before they didn't get it from the Ravens, which is two first-round picks. Joey Porter, that's an interesting one. We'll see where that goes in Pittsburgh. They're not doing an extension with them. deadline passed, do they take a second round pick? Would he be willing to go even without a contract in place somewhere else? That is going to be one to watch here, you know, as we move forward. And as the Lions examine all options to try to make sure that defensively they were able to keep up with an offense, that

less we forget, in a game they were down 21 to nothing, did not fold up the tents. They made that thing interesting, end of the first half and into the third quarter as they try to set themselves up. to turn that thing around coming off of a difficult short week, Billy. Well, they also have time to get right. Like, we look at their record and it's, okay, they're one and one, and they're behind the Vikings and they're behind the Bears, but the Vikings and the Bears play each other as it's week. So one of them is going to take a loss.

And then if you look at their schedule, they have a nice little bounce back here. They play the Jets, Panthers, and Cardinals, before they get into division play between the Packers and the Vikings the following weeks. So they have three weeks against lesser opponents to figure it out and get healthy before they start playing the games that really matter to them. These three weeks are huge because it's kind of like that the opponents are not great.

If they're getting shredded by Gino Smith, Bryce Young, and Jacoby Bressett, and listen, those guys all looked competent in week one. But like if you go through that stretch and we're like, they're giving up 30 plus points every week, then it's just like that pressure gets ratcheted up a notch. If you're like, okay, we played better against these teams. We're still not sure against great offenses. Then maybe you can buy some more time until those guys get healthy.

They also had at least one of those Thursday night injuries, as I would call them, where if it were a Sunday game, guys probably would have played. But because it's Thursday and it's short week, they don't have time. Like Blake Miller should be back soon. They didn't have them. That's their right tackle. They didn't have their left guard, Christian Mahogany. They had a lot of challenge. I have no doubt it is. It is one of my favorites, rich mahogany. But there's plenty of reasons to believe this Lions team is going to continue to be competitive, regardless of what they're dealing with. And a lot of that boils down to Dan Campbell. and the culture they built. So, I was taking a quick break. We've got all sorts of fantastic matchups in week two. But who are the main characters? Who are the people who are going to turn the second Sunday of the NFL season? We'll tell you after this. The Ringer NFL show is presented by Fandul.

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Call 1-888-78-9-77-77 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. This segment is presented by Orgaine. and we're talking about the main characters, week two of the 26th NFL regular season. Who are the people that are going to be most important? The ones we're going to be talking about when we're doing this show on Monday. I'm going to start out,

there's all kinds of players and quarterbacks I can talk about here. I want to talk about a coach who got a week one win and a week two win on top of it would be something that that fan base has not experienced in a long time. I'm talking about Aaron Glenn with the Jets.

Goes in last week, they had a pretty solid all-around dominating effort against the Titans and the former Jets head coach, Robert Soler. They get off to the one-and-o start. A.G., who suffered a lot of losses last season, we all know that, made huge changes to his coaching staff, replaced both coordinators, brought in a new quarterback, brought in all kinds of, you know, the old heads on defense just to try to become a more professional operation on that side. they got the Packers at home. Jets are going home 1 and 0 for their home opener. If they beat the Packers,

not only a team that we've talked about all offseason as potential Super Bowl contender, this would be the first 2-0 start for the Jets since 2015. That was Todd Bowles, Ryan Fitzpatrick. That is like a lifetime

ago in the NFL. You get that win it's going to be pandemonian in New York. And there's a long season ahead, and we just talked about the gap of the AFCEs. You know, just had the bills. Yeah, the Patriots you have to catch as well. But the Jets being relevant in mid-September

shouldn't be a story. I know they had a pretty good start one year under Robert Scholar, but it is a big story, Sheel, if they're able to get off to that type of a start. It's a good reminder that just, you know, happiness for different fan bases, it's not equal, you know? Like if you told Jets fans this year, you can be 9 and 8 and like you're going to have a chance to make the playoffs in week 18.

They will be like that will be one of the best seasons of my lifetime versus, I mean, just think of the team they're playing this week. Packers fans are like, we're 0 in 1. You know, if we go 0 and 2 here, we're firing everybody and our team's in disarray. So it just depends on kind of what your lifetime experience has been. I know, you know, and like I remind that of my kids. They're like, settle down. like, hey, I'm telling them how good this Philly stretch has been. They're like, who cares?

You know, we don't care that you were 10 years old and they made the playoffs for the first time. So it just kind of depends. But I think they got a chance here because I think if you look at what's sustainable from that week one game against the Titans up front for the Jets, specifically that offensive line against that Packers defensive line, like the Jets' offensive line is flat out a better unit on paper. And if they can run the ball, if they can protect GM,

Smith. I think they have a chance to do some things offensively here. And so, yeah, they signed all those guys to one year deals in the off season and you tried to make sense of it. My take was that they're trying to give Aaron Glenn a chance here to prove that he should keep the job while at the same time not locking themselves into these bad deals in 2027 and beyond because they're being realistic that we might have a new coach and we might have a rookie quarterback and we want to build this thing the right way. So I actually have no issue with what they did in the off season. And I'll be honest, I thought, you know, if you would have asked me in August, who's the coach that you think is most likely to not have a job by Thanksgiving? I would have said Aaron Glenn without really

thinking about anybody else in the NFL. That's what it felt like to me. So it would be a great story if they could go to an O, if they could look like a frisky team, if he could say, hey, I took my lumps in year one. But you know what? I'm a better coach than I showed that year and the Jets are relevant here. So yeah, maybe. I mean, that is a, you wouldn't have thought going instance, Jets Packers, week two. Wow, that's going to be an interesting game. It's a very interesting game in week two. I mean, it should be fun too, right? Because you look at it and you're like,

wow, the Packers, like, they got blown out, they lost by 17. Not the case. They had over 400 yards of offense. They outgained the Vikings. They blew like a 22-point lead at one point. They had 29 unanswered points. They should have won that game, right? So that was just kind of a collapse that happened at the end, which if you're

Packers fans, you're like, can't happen to our division rival. We all know what a big rival game that is. Sheila and how much I love that rivalry game. So, like, big rivalry game, that's something that you don't want to happen. But if you come back and you lay a goose egg to the Jets, like that, I think, would be panic mode in Green Bay. Can I do small pictures? See, like, big picture.

There would be pandemonium, 2 and O, it's been a long time since they started 2&0. Small picture, and I'm going to say small picture prediction here, right? I think this is the first ever, small picture prediction here on the ringer NFL show. Presented by Orgain, of course. Of course. Orgain was in. they reached out, they said, Billy, and you have a small picture prediction. The jets...

You have a small picture, Billy. And with Orgain, you can have a bigger picture. Exactly. The Jets will intercept a pass this weekend. And that is when the pandemonium will strike at MetLife. As soon as that interception happens, there's going to be a wave of emotion. And that's when the momentum is going to shift this Sunday. I'm waiting for it to happen.

I can't believe it hasn't happened yet. but it's going to happen. And I think this is the game that it happens. Shield, main character, week two, who you go? Man, I got so excited. I got goosebumps just thinking about the Jets. I'm not even a Jets fan. I'm like, man.

Sheel, how great is that intercept you going to be? If you're in the stands, that would legitimately be such an exciting moment. I think they may sought the game for it. Like, I think they may, and they'll present the ball. Yeah, they send that ball off to, you know, Canton and it's a whole thing. All right. I, you know, I started with the quarterback.

And then I started, you know, I like to do a lot of podcast prep. You know, I don't just show up here and just fire off takes. It might sound like that, but I do do some prep. And I'm like, you know what? The coach here is actually more interesting than the quarterback. And that's Liam Cohen of the Jacksonville Jaguars because they're going to Denver. They're two and a half point underdogs. Billy, do you know what Liam Cohen's record is as an NFL head coach right now?

I mean, one season, right? It's a lot and a little. one season and one game. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he won like 13 and 5. Yeah, you won like 13 last year. 14 and 4.

He's 14 and 4 in his first 18 games. That's crazy. That's like one of the best starts to an NFL head coaching career in recent memory. And so I was thinking about this more. Here's my Liam Cohen take. Is he Ben Johnson in a smaller market with worst PR? Oh. Liam Cohen.

You know? Could you make the case? Okay. Because you look at this. They're 14 and 4. You know, if you look at the quarterback, the same situation, you had a very talented quarterback. It hadn't happened for the guy before you're the smart offensive coach. You come in and all of a sudden the offense looks a lot different right there.

And I'm like, huh, is he actually doing stuff that's that different than what Ben Johnson is doing with Caleb Williams? I think the difference is the Jaguar's defense has been, you know, better than the Bears defense has been. But the Jaguar sent out this tweet, which is, I was like, wow, this is wild. since week 9 of last year, they have outscored opponents by 177 points. No other team is better than plus 96. And they went back and they looked at it.

This is the highest point margin over a nine game span by any team since 2021. So I'm like, man, I wish I would have read that tweet before the season. I wouldn't have picked them to miss the playoffs this Jaguar's team. But it's like, you know, they killed the Browns in week one.

Trevor Lawrence looks great. But now I'm looking at this. They go to Denver. Last year they beat the Broncos. Sean Peyton made the comment about their like a cute small market team or whatever. And Liam Cohen responded to that in his press conference. I like that he's a character. You know,

we go back to the days of like Buddy Ryan and Jimmy Johnson going at each other. And I know Liam Cohen and Sean Payton are probably friendly here. But I do like that he's a character that will cause opposing coaches to threaten his life after games. That is entertaining for me as someone who enjoys, you know. football content. I feel like you're bearing the lead of this game and who the person of this game might be. There's a big return this week.

I don't know if you saw who's going to be returning to Denver for the first time since 2012. 2012? I didn't see this note. Yeah. So the alumni of the game is going to be Tim Tebow, who will be returning to empower field for the first time in 14 years when he was. that playoff game with an 80-yard touchdown pass, Demarius Thomas, has not been back since.

They're bringing him in to be the alumni of the game, plant the flag, whatever it is that they do there. Now, here's kind of like another note and maybe some showmanship here is, Tebow's like a Jacksonville guy. That was like his home area team. He also ended his career technically as a Jaguar when he was brought in by Urban Meyer to play tight end

for the hometown Jaguar. And apparently he's like, I don't feel comfortable assigning him a mentor to Bo Nix. But Bo Nix said he loved watching him growing up. And this was his favorite quarterback. And they have since built some sort of relationship. So I don't know why it is that they picked Tim Tebow for this game after 14 years, if it is or is not showmanship. But there's going to be a guy.

And like, say what you were about Tim Tebow and his NFL career. And everybody, you know, can laugh at him and say he wasn't a good quarterback, whatever. That was a huge moment for the Broncos franchise. And had they not gotten Peyton Manning might have been their last huge moment before they went on those Super Bowl runs. They had to get Peyton Manning. Well, because of Tito. It was the only way that people would shut up about Tim Tebow. Like, there's a lot of reasons. But you remember Peyton, he didn't play in 2012. He had neck surgeries and like, nobody knew if he was ever going to be able to play again. So the Colts cut him loose. They rebrand.

boot with Andrew Luck. Denver was in a spot where people were so obsessed with Tim Tebow that they couldn't just go, you know, bring in whoever off the street and say, well, here's another good quarterback. It would have been, no, it would have been pandemonian. Like, Tebow was on that level for, you know, different, there's different reasons with all these guys. But it's in like a Colin Kaepernick, Shedur Sanders, like Cam Newton. The people that you can't have a rational conversation about, because people are so passionate about those people and those players. And Tebow was there. That touchdown pass, Billy, look up what Tebow's stats were in that game.

If I remember correctly, he basically didn't complete passes, most of the game, and then drops back and it's against the Steelers and just heaves one down the sideline. And the place goes absolutely nuts. It's the winning touch sets. The define is the best moment of his career. you had to do something. And Peyton Manning, even at that late stage where, you know, he didn't have much arm left. He had more in 2013 that he did a couple years later when they won the Super Bowl.

And it was like, it pained me watching Peyton Manning trying to throw the football at that point. But then the full circle back to there were, I don't even think Tebow playing tight end was top ten weird things with the Jaguars in that season, which I think was 2021 with Urban Meyer. There were so many bizarre things. He had Travis A.T.N. playing slot receiver. He had the meeting with the coaches where he explained that he's a winner and they're all losers. And like all these different things, but like, Tebow at tight end is up there for the funniest, strangest, assides to the less than a year, Urban Meyer was an NFL head coach. What were his stats, Billy? He was 10 of 21, 316 passing yards.

But then 316, you had 80 to that on that one play. Listen, his rating was 125.6. It's QBR was 96.7. Like, on the stats, it doesn't look terrible. It completed nine passes in regulation for a lot of yards, obviously. But nine passes. Like that, it just, you know, I can still remember like the draft day scene. Remember it was Josh McDaniels was the coach.

And they get Tebow at 20, whatever, 22 maybe. And he's like going nuts. And Josh is hugging everybody and they're pumped up about it. Josh was gone before this entire thing. happened. With Tebow having that play in the playoffs, but it's just like all these ripple effects of all these different decisions. And somehow all lines here, She'll trace back to Tim Tebow.

Listen, Liam Cohen, I just want you to know if you need some more fuel for your disrespect campaign, Shield Capati at the Ringer NFL show, tried to give you some credit, tried to point out, good the Jaguars were. And Billy Gill is so bored by your team and thinks you're so irrelevant. and thinks no one cares about you that he got us into a Tim Tebow conversation. Mr. Cohen. All right, Coach Cohen.

Okay? Listen, I'm just saying if you need to have something that's Saturday night meeting in Denver, you're at the hotel. You're trying to get the guys fired up. We can, I'm sure producer, Chris, can get you a clip of this, and you can play that for your entire team.

Don't forget. Don't forget we get Robert Solow versus Liam Cohen, Week 10 and 12 because he's now with the Titans. You remember the whole signs, they steal signs better than anybody and Liam took it personally. It's one of the weirdest post-game interactions

where it's Liam getting pissed. Then Sal was going, I was giving you a compliment. I was giving you a compliment. And like that was the whole post-game interaction. Go ahead, Billy. I don't know how you would rank like moments. So like there's the moments in NFL history.

You're like, I know exactly where I was when that happened, right? The Tim Tebow 80-yard touched. is not there because I have no clue where I was when that happened. But I remember when it happened, like seeing it live, because I believe it was first game of overtime or first play of overtime, right? Like, it was right away that that happened. It was like a broken cover. Like, how did this happen? So I don't know where I was. I don't remember that. I remember when it happens like, oh my God, like, I cannot believe what we just saw. It was pandemonium in the stadium. But again, it wasn't the level that I know where I was. But it was a huge moment for the franchise.

I think we should do, this is probably an off-season joint, so someone remind me about this in like six months. We should definitely do a top moments you remember where you were. But they have to be not just like great play. They have to be something quirky. I feel like we could have an endless list of those moments. My mind went straight to the butt fumble. As you were describing that, and I'm like, I have a terrible memory guy. You know, I'm not going to be able to remember any of these.

All right, let me see where my mind goes. head was in Jim Harbaugh versus Jim Schwartz post game and chasing each other off the field and PR guy Bob Lang getting in between him like all time all time moment Billy your main character week two

my moment was Antonio Brown burned his feet training when he was on the Raiders and he couldn't walk anywhere because he burned his feet froze his feet in the hyperbaric chamber the cryo chamber and he froze off the bottom of his feet So my main character for this week, I went back and forth because I knew the game,

I knew what we wanted to do, but I couldn't figure out who the main character was. So my main character is Romeo Dobbs. I was going back and forth and I was like, who do we pick from this team? Who is it that we really need to focus on? Should we do Drake May? I feel like we do Drake May a little bit too much. So Romeo Dobbs has a moment here. And Tom, I'm wondering because you're an...

inside of you're plugged in. You know all of this information. So Romeo Dobbs, he's brought in. He's there to effectively replace Stefan Dix. He signs a four-year contract, I think 39 million guaranteed. He can get up into like the $68 to $80 million range. So he had no receptions last week, three targets. It was not a great debut. But they also brought in A.J. Brown, who during the off season, you know, Diana was very strong. Ruchini was like, this is a move that they're going to make. This is a move they're going to make pissed off all of the Eagles fans. They're like, this is she's just making this up. This is a whole situation, right?

So they bring in Romeo Dobbs months before. That ended up being true. They were trying to trade for AJ Brown. But I'm wondering if when they brought him in, he thought he was going to be the number one. And then when he wasn't the number one, if there was kind of a mixed feeling. And I'm wondering what you know or what you heard on that situation.

Because because of the injury to AJ Brown now, he has the ability to step up, which we didn't see him do last week. So did he think he was going to be the number? number one. He was getting paid, is getting paid, like a high end number two. 20 is not the mark for, you know, you're talking 30 and now 40 million dollars a year. It's a very good solid contract for a guy who remember this. Romeo Dobbs, it was not that long ago, was upset with his rolling green bay. He left practice. He got suspended for conduct detrimental to the team.

So there's a history of maybe a little bit of riding the wave of emotions that he has. And lest we forget, he had a drop in that game against Seattle that felt like one of those gut punch, this is not going to be R-night type of moments. I don't know that that flips the entire game, Seattle, even with Drew Locke in there, seemed pretty well in control for a lot of it. But it was a huge play. And I know Vraebel was asked this week about, you know, you know, what do you say to open?

It's basically like, guys drop passes. And that's the thing we always have to remember is it's like, you know, the greatest coaching points is always, catch the ball. It's like, yeah, we know. You don't need to yell that. There's no need. So I appreciated why how Vrabble was just like, guys drop passes. Like he's got to come back and play well.

But to your point, Billy, now with A.J. Brown out, Romeo is not going to just like slide into the A.J. role because A.J. is all outside and try to get him isolated, you know, singled up. and go attack that match. Romeo can move around the formation. I anticipate that between him and some of the other receivers, they're kind of going to take a multifaceted approach here. But taking A.J. Brown out definitely changes how you game plan.

If you're Josh McDaniels, you know, you liked having that you could put A.J. Brown out there and let him go one-on-one against somebody all the time. Now, yeah, I think there is more pressure on Robio Dobbs. There's no doubt about it because not only did you pay him and the fans know that you got paid, you also had the big drop last week, and now you're clearly the number one guy, at least from a perception standpoint. It's a huge week,

as you're also trying to bring your quarterback out of, what was a, I mean, frankly, a really awful performance and uncharacteristic for Drake May in Seattle. And then the other thing is Patriots fans are so fired up about this Kishan booty trade. It's like his legend grows every time that they, you know,

every time that they're going to have an offensive performance that's not great. They're like, why did we trade Kishon Booty? but I think for Josh McDaniels and this Patriots offense, up front, they got to figure out how to protect to get Romeo Dobbs and these other guys the ball. And I do think it's a big spot to not have AJ Brown

where you can just throw him a slant and it could turn into a 35-yard gain because he's so physical and so good after the catch, because that's what I would be concerned about if I were a Patriots fan going into this game. And they're four and a half point favorites. They don't want to lose. They don't want to go 0 and 2.

They've got a tough schedule here the next two weeks. but in the offseason, they tried to address the offensive line with signing Elijah Verit Tucker with moving the center, Jared Wilson over one spot, and then obviously in the first round with Caleb Lomu. But I'm not convinced it's a good offensive line. And this Steelers defense, I know it was the Falcons last week, but it's just like they have guys up front when they're healthy,

T.J. Y, Cam Hayward, Alex Highsmith. I mean, they are deep where they can really rotate guys in and out. I think they've got a good defensive coordinator. in Patrick Graham. So if we're kind of cooking up, what's the recipe here for an upset for the Steelers? I think it's one of those games or maybe you're watching Red Zone

and it's like, oh, there's TJ Watt again. Sack fumble. Steelers are in the red zone already and they take the lead here in the second quarter. I think that's the big thing I'm watching with this game. I think this will be a first real test for both teams also, right? Because last week, you know, if you're the Patriots, you're playing the Seahawks, defending Super Bowl champions,

you can look bad against the Seahawks, right? And if you're the Steelers, you can look good against the Falcons. So it's going to be an actual test. You know, T.J. Walker looked good last week. He had the two sacks. He had the interception return for a touchdown. Alex Hyacov had two sacks. So it's going to be a tough game.

I didn't want to make Drake May the main character, but he kind of is the main character of this situation because you did have the questions last year, how much did the Patriots actually benefit from that softer schedule? So that last year, the opponent win rate was 410, right? which was the worst, I think that it's been in 20 years. They were 7 and 3 and 1 score games, which really could go one way or another.

They were very lucky with a turnover margin where they went from minus 11 the year before to plus 3. So that is something that, you know, also you can improve on, but that can go either way. Last year they were also very good in the first quarter, and they were good in first quarter success rate and first downs, right?

Last week, they didn't score a touchdown until the second quarter. And last week, the Steelers allowed a touchdown. to the Falcons in the first quarter, but then they kind of clamp down. So these are things that you start looking at as the season progresses, and you start actually figuring out

how good were the Patriots last year and will there be kind of like a regression to the mean this year because they're playing a tougher schedule? If they're not doing the things that made them successful last year, like scoring early, scoring off, and having successful first downs. And here's the other big thing to add to that is that they were the healthiest team in the NFL last year

when you look at that, just had games lost metric, which kind of tracks that stuff at the end of every season. And Mike Rabel in August is like, I don't really like the depth on our football team. And I'm like, I agree with you. I agree with you, Mike. And now you look at it. And they're only in week two. AJ Brown's out.

Carlton Davis, we don't know if the corner, I think as we record this is going to play in this football game. He's had a neck injury. So it's kind of like, you know, some of the flaws on the roster that when all your starters are healthy, you're like, okay, we can make up for those. It's not a big deal. Once the backups start to get in there, it becomes a lot more difficult, and that's something to track with this Patriots team as well.

Trayvion Henderson, full participant practice yesterday. Spoke with the media, which is since, you know, for 25 years, that's been the tell that a guy's playing, because if you're not playing that week, they hide you in the back room and don't have you out there for the media availability. So you would hope that having that level of a back in the backfield also is something that's going to help the Patriots. So I will admit, you talked about T.J. Watt, Billy,

I had the thought, getting the news Sunday morning, Miles Garrett's going on IR out at least four games, and then watching T.J. Watt single-handedly take over. I started to think, is T.J. Walking to win another NFL defensive player of the year? I know that he's a little bit in advanced age, but he's on a team that's going to, you know, they're going to play good, solid defense. He does have some other marquee players around him.

He does have balance in the past rush with Highsmith. I wouldn't be surprised. Based on everything I've heard, how he's attacked training camp, how he's looked, in week one and what he did in the second half, that guy might have a chance to be the best defensive player of football again, which is a pretty wild thing to say. Could you imagine

being JJ Watt having this storied career, Hall of Famer, and it's like, you're the second best in your family. Well, TJ's stayed healthier. T.J. stayed healthier, other than the whole lung thing last year. Like, he's been pretty healthy. J.J. at the end, especially in Houston. Like, he was

missing a lot of games, you know? The longevity with T.J. I think is part of what's impressive out of all this. We still got to make picks on this show. More accurately, Sheel and Billy need to make picks. It's the Ringer 107. We've also got some key injury updates could impact games this weekend. That's after this.

A couple quick injury updates. We don't as we record this have all the injury reports. But Joe Burrow on the field for the Bengals for the second straight day, had some back issues early in the week. From everything that I understand doesn't sound like this is a major concern. Joe knows his body better than anybody. Full expectation that he's going to play, bar in some type of setback before Sunday.

They're playing the Texans in Houston. We talked about them on Monday as a team that you start 0 and 2 against a couple of ASC contenders at home. That's not the world you want to live in, even though they were 0 in 3 made the playoffs last year. Nico Collins not on the practice field again today. He's had a history of hamstring injuries. At this point, I would say there is virtually zero chance

we see Nico Collins play on Sunday against the Bengals. I get concerned, again, based on the history and where we are in the schedule, is he going on IR? Is this going to be a multiple game type of an absence? Because if it is, that is a massive player for the Texans to be without a time that they need to get this thing rolling. Shield, you got the Ringer 107.

You know the drill. I turn it over to you. Let's do it. Today's Ringer 107 is brought to you by Fandul. Make this your most rewarding season. Download the Fandul app to check out all our 100. 107 picks and boosted teaser every week this season.

All right. The Ringer NFL show, guys, went three and two last week. You know, we're going to stack up those three and two weeks. We're tied for first place with my guy, Tony Buns, Anthony Dubundell. You can find the standings on the ringer.com. Here's how it works, if you're a new listener. We make four picks against the spread every week and one teaser. I'll explain how a teaser works if you're not sure.

When we get there, we'll do four of the picks. now and then the fifth pick will be on social media during the weekend. All right, here we go. First pick, gentlemen. We haven't talked about this game. I don't know that if you're just like a casual NFL fan, you're going to be locked into this one. But we're going to Atlanta and my first pick is the Carolina Panthers minus two and a half at the Atlanta Falcons. I kind of just want to pick against the Falcons while they have this weird quarterbacks. If they don't know who their quarterback's going to be, you know, on like Fridays every week, I think. feel like, and if it's a two and a half point line, I'm just going to take the other team.

I thought Bryce Young played really well last week. Jalen Coker looked really good last week. So always the chance that there's some NFC. South weirdness and Bajon Robinson runs for like 250 yards. And I will say the Falcons defense played well last week. But I'm going to take the risk a little bit. Panthers minus two and a half at the Falcons. What does Jack Strand have to do to get some playing time? you'd not to get taller.

He's a very large man. This is your option. Did you see the video of the drills of the quarterback drills where they're doing like the long lunches backwards? And Cooper Rush just kind of moonwalks back there as slowly as possible. Jack Stramman is a big physical athlete. He's like Ryan Mallet if Ryan Mallet ran a 4-540. Like that's Jack Strand.

He played D2 football at some small college in Minnesota. an interesting prospect. But I also get where, as much as we all want to see the Jack Francho, it's like, you got Bejohn and Drake London and pitch like, just get Cooper Rush out there where he can kind of distribute the football. He won a lot of games in Dallas.

They got Cooper Rush's record there. I don't blame for doing that, at least until one of the other guys, Pennick-Sertua is healthy enough to go. Yeah, the two-yard pass where then Bejohn-Robinson makes like seven people miss and picks up 40. That's a good play. Keep that in the same thing.

Keep that in the same thing. the playbook, lean on that as much as you want to. That looked pretty good at times last week against the Steelers. All right, that's the first pick. Second pick, we're going to Baltimore, and I'm taking the Saints plus eight and a half at the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens had a great first week one win. However, it might have been kind of costly. You know, they lose the rookie Jacoby Lane. Zay Flowers has not been practicing this week. Even guys like Tray Hendrickson, Ronnie Stanley, those guys were on the insurance. reports are like a lot of their key players it feels like are not going to be 100% for this game.

That Saints defense was under the radar last year and the big thing that they do with Brandon Staley is like we're not going to give up explosive plays. Now, that could result in Derek Henry running for 200 yards in this game. Yes, that wouldn't shock me. But at the same time, just throwing over the top of their DBs, that's what they prioritize over everything else. And so I think they're at least going to make the Ravens work for it a little bit. Tyler Shug, he'll chuck it.

You know, you got to look at some of the times the back. door covers. The Saints could be getting dominated in this game, down 14. They get the ball with two minutes left. It doesn't really matter. But they drive the field and they score a touchdown. So I'm taking the Saints here plus eight and a half. I just think it's kind of a big number.

Billy? I like I don't like it. I mean, I do. I don't think you like it, Billy. I like to read your facial expressions. When Billy goes silent and just goes, you know something's up. He said it all. I don't know what to take. Look, here's the thing, right? Shield's got the hot hand. So I'm not going to question me.

has us right now as a show in first place in the Ringer 107. So, Sheila, if you're feeling this, like you keep going, man, I'm not going to doubt you. I like that.

Good teammates right there. All right, they're not going to make fun of me. You can make fun of me after the fact, you know, when the Ravens win. Oh, by 40,

yeah, like, yeah, or just text me, yeah, like, you know, 2 o'clock on Sunday afternoon.

What were you thinking with that pick? All right. Third one here. We're going with the 49ers, minus 13 and a half. At home, Billy, sorry against your Miami Dolphins.

I'm just not going to overthinking here. Kyle Shanahan with what looks like a pretty healthy offense going up against one of the worst defensive depth charts in the NFL. Sure, weird stuff could happen. Special teams, turnovers, but it's just like series to series.

I don't think the dolphins are going to stop that 49ers offense. And I was thinking, we probably didn't talk enough about that 49ers defense after that game against the Rams. I mean, Rahim Morris, I thought coached a very good game for them. Fred Warner,

looked 100%. They looked healthy. So I like the blowout potential here. Maybe we get stung with the backdoor cover, but I like the blowout potential for the 49ers against the dolphins. So the dolphins and the 49ers are playing. Obviously, there was that game in Australia between

the 49ers and the Rams and the Rams get the extra day off or they have Monday and the 49ers get the dolphins. So like they basically have semi-by week as long as everyone stays healthy, like don't go out there, don't get heard, like kind of get back in the swing of things and we'll see you next week for the 49ers. I don't think it's going to be close. I heard someone say, I think it might have been Joe House with Bill.

I heard someone say, like, we're going to get a real idea of who the dolphins are this week. It's like, I think we know who the dolphins are. Like, I don't think this is the week where we're going to get a good idea who the dolphins are. Like, we know. They may not win a game this year. Bobby Sloick, who's the Dolphins offensive coordinator, former Kyle Shanahan assistant, Bobby Sloak and Domeko Ryan's actually shared an office when they were both quality control coaches for San Francisco early in the Kyle Shanahan tenure. there's going to be no surprises. Obviously, Bobby's a really bright coach,

but it's like their scheme has a lot of similarities to what San Francisco runs. You're not going to be able to surprise people and catch them off guard. That Miami team, like watching them last week, they're a well-coached group. They're just not that talented. It's the youngest team in the NFL

going up against the oldest team in the NFL in San Francisco. And, you know, less than anybody think, you know, it was just the Rams and the travel and all this stuff. I had one Rams coach told me after that game when I was asking kind of what happened.

It was just that's the best team that we're going to face this season. That's how strong the 49ers are. Wow. Can they withstand injuries? Can they withstand all the different things that could happen through the year? We already decided lost the Zon Stribling for like the next 10 weeks. You know, if you were to lose a kill, you lose a McCaffrey, obviously that changes the game.

But it's a really good veteran group. They got some juice, you know. They brought the linebackers back together with Drey Greenlaw coming back and rejoining Fred Warner, Debo being back. That was the best Debo we've seen in like three years. You know, let's see, because older teams, we talked about it with the Rams and now Miles Garrett's on IR.

Older teams, it's harder to stay healthy just statistically. But week two against these dolphins, it's an uphill battle for Miami, put it that way. Shield, can I ask Chris to do a fair? So earlier you asked Chris, hey, cut that up and send it to Liam Cohen and the Jaguars and use that as bulletin board material. I would say use that fact from Tom and send that to the Seahawks. Said that to Mike McDonald and be like,

do you hear what these coaches are saying after that game? This is the toughest team they're going to face all year. Disrespect for the Seahawks again. It's a combo, though, it's the players, but it's also Kyle. I mean, Kyle is the best, maybe the best adjustment coach in the entire NFL. Like with the way that they came out in the third quarter and just tweak these little things that completely had the Rams bam bamboozled up front. And they just ran it up the gut.

We did a great job running to the bubble and like doing the different things we see Kyle do. He's just, he had such a great feel for how the game is going to unfold and how you set things up. It's one of his superpowers. You know, and now he's going up against again a Miami team, the youngest in the NFL, all the challenges that they've got. I expect them to come out and fight hard. Jeff Hathley, by the way, another former Kyle Shanahan assisted. Like the whole building. We talk about it's Green Bay South.

It's also San Francisco East. Francisco East. Yeah, I think that works. Sorry. Fourth pick here. This is a teaser for those who don't know where a teaser is. Okay. You pick two sides, but you can move the line six points.

This is part of the competition. You have to pick a teaser. I'm not telling you, you know, maybe I would have just picked one game, but we've got to pick a teaser here. So here's what we're doing. We are teasing the bucks. The bucks are eight and a half point favorites against the Cleveland Browns. We're moving that to two and a half.

So the Bucks have to beat the Browns by three for us to cover that side of it. And then we're going to Monday night football. I'll be honest. I'm a little nervous about this one. Dangerous. But the Rams are seven and a half point favorites against the New York Giants. We tease that down to one and a half. So here are the two things that need to happen for us to win this pick.

Bucks need to win by two and a half against the Browns. And the Rams need to win by one and a half against the Giants. Those are the two sides there. I really don't think the Bucks played poorly last week against the Bengals. I thought it was just a weird game with turnovers. And I still like the Bucks quite a bit. I think they're kind of a little bit of an underrated team there. Offensively, I thought they looked good.

And defensively, I'll just kind of take any defense against Deshaun Watson until he proves me otherwise. Oh. Well, does that mean? I'm sorry, Billy. I'm sure he's a nice guy. Oh, no, he's not. He's not a nice guy. Deshawn, Deshawn versus Baker for the first time since the Browns shipped off Baker and acquired Deshawn Watson.

Okay. That makes me feel even better about this. A little birdie told me, Tom, you're going to have a deep dive in that in the sweep this week. I will have, I will have an interesting look back. I've done a lot of digging back into that trade in recent days. So stay tuned for that over the weekend. Real quick, Sheel, I just have a quick confession to make. I don't know what the hell you're talking about with the teasing down.

I wasn't on this show last week. for the audience and mostly for me, just re-explain what you mean by that? Yeah, yeah. So it means, so the line's eight and a half. So you move it six points, eight and a half to two and a half.

So we get two and a half, whereas if you were just betting the bucks, you would get eight and a half. And why do we get that? Because you have to get two picks right. So we have to get that and the Rams. Correct. If we don't get the bucks and the Rams,

correct, then we lose the pick. If one of them doesn't get it, So you're accounting on two teams coming through for you versus one team there. So there you go. By the way, those are the rules. By the way, where can we read or subscribe to the sweep?

Yeah, good question. It's on substack. So if you go to tompelicero.com or come close to spelling my name correctly and Google it, it'll pop up. It's called The Sweep with Tom Pelliserro. All the good stuff that you should be thinking about and what you should be thinking about next. We do it every week. So finally getting into rhythm since I'm not editing things on a 15-hour time difference like last week.

So it should be a good one. There you go. Check up the sweet bar. So the second game there is the Rams Monday night. Again, they host the Giants. We just need them to win by one and a half. So there's a scenario here where the Giants really beat them up up front that has me a little nervous. That Giants old line looks good last week.

Giants have some pass rush. but also the Giants defense was not great last week. They were only on the field for six possessions and the Cowboys scored three touchdowns. I think that gets lost a little bit. It was really all the Giants' offense just possessing the football. So I was going to ask you, Tom,

because there's this theory about the Australia stuff, and I know we've talked about this a million times, but that the 49ers made the best decision to win that game, but the Rams might have made the best decision for the season because they're going to get reacclimated to their usual time zone quicker. Is that something?

you heard. Is there any truth to this? Can this help us get the Rams to beat the Giants by one and a half points at least on Monday night? What Sean McVeigh told us was he did, you know, they experimented with staffers and players and charted a lot of different things. He also talked to athletes like people do ironmans around the world about like, how do they do it? And the feedback from everyone was, no, getting there isn't the problem. Coming back is the problem. That's where you get slammed. I don't know that it makes a massive difference because they got 11. days in between games, essentially. So, you know, by the time we get to Monday night, are they really feeling the effects? It's what? Friday, I don't have to play a football game, but I feel

spectacular. And I didn't get back until 1 a.m. Sunday on multiple delayed connecting flights. I don't know that it's going to make a big difference for either team. And I don't know that it made a big difference in the opener either. But I would bet we'll be talking about it again, because the NFL, I'm confident. I think I don't know that the NFL will be in Australia regularly, particularly over the next five or six years until the 2032 Brisbane games to promote flag football and all the various initiatives here.

So buckle up. Can't wait to be back there next year. That's to you, Sean McVeigh. I like that. I like that. I never want to, we're never playing there again. I never want to go back to Australia.

Yeah. That was amazing. If he had won, maybe feels... Yeah. That's true. A tiny bit different about it. So that's the T. So those are the picks here.

We've got to recap. We've got Panthers minus two and a half at Atlanta. We've got Saints plus eight and a half at Baltimore. We've got 49ers minus 13 and a half at home against Miami. And then the tease is bucks minus two and a half at home against the Browns combined with Rams minus one and a half at home against the Giants. And then you can see our fifth pick on social media this weekend. So yes, Billy. Shea, I saw a fun stat, not an advanced stat that you would necessarily like or see,

but I saw it during the Bills game last night that's applicable to the Browns game. So Josh Allen has nine total touchdowns in five days. DeShawn Watson has eight total touchdowns in 1,041 days. And that comes courtesy of Anthony Lima of CBS 19 and the fan in Cleveland. So to your point, Deshawn's going to have to prove that he can do this to a lot of people. There you go. I like it. Let's get another three and two week.

Today's Ringer 107 was brought to you by Fandul. Download the app now to find all of our 107 picks and make this your most rewarding season. Fandul, play your game, odds subject to change. Real quick, Shield, do you feel any worse about that Saints pick knowing that Ronnie Stanley, Trey Hendrickson, Zay Flowers,

all back on the practice field as we speak and as we report this? See, the timing of this, you know, it does hurt a little bit. Now, listen, if I were not, a man of honor. I would say we are not live and we can redo that segment. Let me go look at what the line is. But you know what? I'm a man of honor and Tyler Shug. You know what? They didn't believe in Liam Cohen. They don't believe in Mike McDonald and some people don't believe in you.

But you know what? You're going to throw some bombs downfield to Devon Valet this week and you're going to make the ringer NFL show look smart. So there you go. Said like a true psycho fan. All right, we are back on Monday, the Ringer NFL show. We're on every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Appreciate you all being here. Juna, Chris, behind the scenes for Billy Sheel. I'm Tom, enjoy the weekend, everybody. See you.

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