The Ringer NFL Show - MVP Tiers: The Long Shots, Sleepers, and Favorites After Week 6

Episode Date: October 15, 2025

Sheil and The Ringer’s own Diante Lee employ a tier system to analyze and debate who should be the frontrunners for MVP after six weeks of NFL action. (00:00) The MVP Tiers Breakdown(2:10) Tier 3: The Long Shots(9:54) Tier 2: You Have My Attention(19:34) Tier 1: The Favorites(27:08) The Hurry Up: More Dolphins dysfunction The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.rg-help.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Sheil KapadiaGuest: Diante LeeProducer: Chris SuttonSocial: Kiera Givens and Brian WatersProduction 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. It's time for a little MVP check-in. Now, some people will tell you it's too early to talk MVP, and those people would be wrong. I mean, we're a third of the way through the season. Football's supposed to be fun. Everyone relax.

We can talk about MVP. So this is a predictable award. MVP goes to quarterbacks on the one or the two seed who put up big stats. That's it. That's the qualification. So I've got three tiers here, tier three, the long show. shots. These are guys with odds at plus 3,000 or higher. Tier 2, you have my attention. These are guys with odds at plus 1,000 or higher. And tier 1, the favorites. These are guys with odds below plus

1,000. So my guest today is the ringers Deonté Lee. We talk about who we like, lay out the case for a bunch of the candidates. And Deonté just poured cold water on a popular pick right now. That was just incredible, incredible take from him. So really fun. conversation with Deonte. We'll get to it after the break on the Ringer NFL show. This is the Ringer NFL show presented by Fanduel. And if you're betting on the NFL, fan duels the place to do it. They've got everything. Same game parlays, quick bets for when you want to jump in live and your way so you can set your own lines. The app's fast. It's easy to use. And best of all, when you win, you get paid out instantly. Download the Fandul app or go to

vandul.com slash ringer NFL to get started. The ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit RG-Help.com to learn more about the resources and help lines available and listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Must be 21 plus and present in select states and 18 plus in D.C., Kentucky and Wyoming. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Help.com. Call 1-888-889-77-7-7-7 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. All right, we're back here with Deontay Lee. MVP tears. Deonti, you wrote about MVP candidates

for the ringer like a week ago. And since then, I feel like I'm looking at some of these names and they've already, the odd stuff has already changed, which is a good reminder of how fluid this stuff is early in the season. 100%. And I think that I noted it in the article that I wrote that like some of the usual suspects, right? Your Patrick Mahomes, you start off the year a little shaky. You think about Lamar Jackson being hurt in the rough start for Baltimore's year, it's usually pretty easy to put your thumb on the scale and say, all right, the guys that we think of as top five quarterbacks, they'll be top five in odds. And because we've had this kind of rickety start across the league and there's a lot of parity across the league, I think that the odds are a little bit more even with some of the more

unconventional candidates, right? And that makes for an interesting conversation when you're trying to handicap who actually will have a shot to win this award come on January and February. A good setup for me for the first tier here, Deante, the long shots. These are guys who are plus 3,000 or higher. And there are a couple of guys in this tier I wanted to talk about. Dak Prescott is plus 5,000 to win MVP. I actually think there's a strong case that he's flat out, been maybe the best quarterback in the NFL this season.

Like that doesn't feel like a hot take to me. Statistically, he's third an EPA per pass play. Now, a bunch of guys are bunched there at the top, but still, he's right there with all of them. He's been without C.D. Lamb. He's been without multiple offensive linemen. The issue for DAC is going to be, can they get enough wins? You know, they're two, three, and one here right now. They have the eighth hardest schedule. So you have to be able to convince yourself that there's a scenario where they can win the NFC East.

Now, maybe that's not the craziest scenario when you look at some of the other teams in that division and how they're performing. But Deiate, the reason I liked him the most is because for some of these guys we're going to talk about, there's a conversation about like, is it them? Is it the scheme? Is it the supporting cast? Like, if the Cowboys win the NFC East and Dak continues on this pace statistically, no one's given Brian Schottenheimer credit. No one's saying, oh, anyone could do that in that offense. They're going to be like, Dak Prescott's playing amazing football right now. So I thought plus 5,000 was a pretty high number for him. I like him in this long shots category. I do too. I think that plus 5,000, I'm probably just more of a reflection of what you laid out, right?

Like, he's ultimately not going to meet the most important criteria, but is that you kind of have to win 70% of your games as a quarterback if you want to be considered for MVP. They're probably not going to be an 11 and 6, 12 and 5 level team, right? They're probably going to be scratching around 8, 8, 1, 7, 9, and 1 this year. But when you look at just like some of the key metrics for what is the quarterback doing to lift the level of his offense, He's been excellent when he's been pressured. He's been excellent. You know, one of my favorite things to look at is a quarterback success rate on throws of third and four plus, right? That means defense knows passing down.

They're going to give you their most exotic looks. They're going to try to take away your best receiver. They're going to load guys up on the line of scrimmage and bail them out, right? There's going to be a lot on your plate as a quarterback. The fact that he's been able to do that from the pocket, right? Like we'll get to guys like Baker Mayfield, who might be doing something a little bit more unsustainable with the scrambling and all that. But with Dak, you show up, whether. this on Red Zone, if you're watching from Snap 1 to the end of the game,

you know every time there's a key passing situation, he's making the right decision with the football. He's basically going to get George Pickens over $20 million for a year on his next deal if this season keeps up. And he's doing this without his best receiver, right? Like so much of this, I think, has just been centered around, at least with Dallas, his specific impact on a down-and-down basis, and the fact that he can get them out of any hole that this team has been digging itself in,

both on and off the field when you consider the defensive struggles they've had, because of how they've built this roster. Yeah, when CD comes back, I mean, they're already a tough offense to deal with. But when C.D. Lamb comes back, and now you have Lamb, pickens, offensive line gets healthier. I mean, they are going to be a tough team to deal with. Their defense stinks, which we know.

But, you know, he's going to be able to put up a lot of statistics. It just depends on the number that. I was thinking as you were talking, like, man, quarterback discourse, it's not perfect, but it has come a long way from quarterback wins to now, like, hey, you can isolate. guy's performance on third and long, under pressure, these types of things. So we're not perfect, but come on, it is getting better from at least when I was a kid there.

All right. Other guy in this category, Deontal, wanted to talk about Sam Darnold. I can't believe I'm saying it either, but statistically, first in EPA per pass play, third in success rate. He's made some high degree of difficulty throws. I thought last week was maybe the first time where I'm like, oh, okay, these guys are wide open, Kubiak scheming up some wide open stuff for him. There's been other games this season where you're like, no, Darnold is making tough

throws in tough spots here. So he's got that going for him, the statistical foundation. The Seahawks are four and two tied for first place in the NFC West. They've got a chance to win that division, be a one or a two seed. And while I don't feel great about it, there is a profile here that if he's statistically in the nerd stats, you know, top five and they're a one or a two seed, he's definitely going to be in the conversation. I mean, he would have to be, right?

Like, I think in the piece I wrote, I made the comparison this year to what Brock Purdy was in 2020. And the thing that Darnold has, that's working in his favor that worked against Purdy, is he doesn't have a Christian McCaffrey in the backfield that's going to be taking the credit away from him and what he's doing for this offense. Or a Kyle of Shanahan. Exactly. There's going to be a lot more narrative thrust behind Darnold if Seattle continues to win

because there's not all these different ways that the credit can be divvied up. And I think that when I think of Purdy in 2023, it's not necessarily that he's being the most creative passer, right? And making that comparison to Donald, it's the fact that when the deep dig is called, he's going to throw it. I think that the explosion of Jackson Smith and Jigba, not just as a slot, but a guy that can at times take the top off of coverage has really opened things up for Donald. And you can just see that confidence growing week over week, right? Like, I can take these chances to these receivers. On third down, in the red zone, I can get the water, AJ Barner, and he can go. go get open and create yards after the catch.

I just think right now we kind of have to treat them as wild as it may be. And I know that we had a lot of these conversations last year. We've only got to treat him like he's just a regular good quarterback right now. Or he's playing at the level of a regular, consistently good quarterback in the NFL. And if Seattle continues to win, if they mess around and win the NFC West, his odds are going to continue to improve week over week in that respect. I can't believe how much of my life, Deonté, has been spent talking about Sam Darnoff the last two years. You imagine, right?

Life throws you some curveballs, man. That's one of them for me. Sam Darlow. I thought that Monday night after the seeing ghost game would have been it, right? For most quarterbacks, that's the book on you. And this guy is, you know, stacked up to back-to-back really strong starts to his season, which has been, you know, a nice development. I'm glad you brought up the chemistry with J.S.N.

They feel like one of those tandem states, like, oh, they've been playing together for like 12 years. And, you know, like Philip Rivers and Keenan Allen or Peyton Manning and Marvin So I'm not saying it's like quite at that level. But when you watch them, it's just like it's a surprise when he targets JSN and it's not a completion. It just feels like every time he goes his way, something good happens for the Seahawks. Those are the guys who are in the long shot category, odds of plus 3,000 or higher. So that's tier three. Tier two, you have my attention.

Ods of plus 1,000 or better. I've got three guys in this tier, Justin Herbert, Jordan Love, and Drew. Drake May. And if I'm being honest here, Deonte, Drake May might be the best bet on the board right now. And you were all over it. Last time we potted was, was it after the bills game or before the bill. It was. Okay. But you were already dropping that. And then he has another great game last week against the Saints. And now if you look at it, fourth in EPA per pass play first in success rate. So he has the numbers. I don't think it's the narrative thing we mentioned with that. Like no one's going to argue, oh, come on. Drake May is a product of Josh McDaniels and Kishon Booty. No one's making that argument. And the internet, you know, you can find any argument. You're not going to find that argument anywhere. So he's the guy making it go.

Their run game has been terrible. And really, you know, if you plug in a different quarterback into that system, it's not going to look as good. So passes the eye test, passes the film test, passes the stats third test, passes the narrative test. And they're four and two right now. They've got the easiest remaining schedule in the NFL. when you look at the betting market.

So I'm not telling you they're definitely going to finish in first place and win the AFC East, but they have a chance. And so I think Drake May is probably like the best sleepery guy on the board here. I think so. Again, I mean, a lot of this is going to come down to your faith in the rest of the supporting cast, right? Like, are they going to actually be competitive in the AFC East come seasons in? I mean, hey, based off of Monday night's result where, you know, Atlanta was running all over Buffalo, maybe that ends up being a little bit more interesting down the stretch.

than we initially would have thought at the open of the season. When we think about Drake May, I think the biggest story over the last three or so weeks has been, when the turnovers aren't happening, we don't have to qualify the level of play we're seeing. This is not a matter of, hey, you know, they just scraped by. Drake May had a bad interception in the first half, or he had like this oblivious, you know, play in the pocket where he didn't feel pressure, fumbled the ball. Now that some of that's being separated from what's going on with New England and we can just focus on the decisions he's making, how he's throwing the football, how he's handling pressure.

I think we're noticing, A, how much is on his plate, actually, on a down and down basis? So much of New England's offense right now is just, Drake May, whether you're scrambling, whether you're playing from the pocket, whether you're checking us out of a bad call, I need you to do all the heavy lifting for us. And the fact that a guy in his second year has had the capacity to do that without a number one receiver with running backs that have fumbling and pass protection issues all year long, an offensive line that I don't think the highest of, not that it's the league worst, but I would say probably about average-ish.

And a defense has been dealing with injuries and these up and down performances, he has stayed steady and he has been there for the team when they need them in fourth quarters, in second halves. I do think from that surprise element, if we're talking about guys, that you wouldn't have necessarily dropped in these buckets to start the year, Drake May of this list of guys, maybe outside of Jordan Love,

which I think we could have an interesting conversation about, is the guy, I think, in this group that I would probably feel strongest on if I was trying to pick a guy with these odds that I think could actually be in the conversation come years in. Yeah, I'm with you. The other guys here, you mentioned Love. He's won Herbert. You know, if you wanted to throw golf or Stafford or even Daniel Jones in there, you could.

But let's talk about Love because he's one of those where he's got the profile. There's these plus 1,800. He's top five in all the nerd stats. They're three one and one. He's completing 70% of his passes, which I don't think any of us ever expected at Georgia. Love all to complete 70% of his passes. To me, just watching it, I still haven't watched it and been like Jordan Love's on fire. He is the person making this thing go.

I felt more like LaFleur is a great offensive coach. He's executing the offense. He's not making mistakes. He's making some plays each week where you're like, okay, that was nice, but it's not to the level of even a Drake May. So he's one like, I've got my eye on him because he has that upside and he's had those games before where you watch it and go, all right, that is high level quarterback play. I don't feel like I'm seeing that as consistently this year.

So he doesn't necessarily pass my eye test, but that doesn't mean that, you know, he could change my mind over the next 12 weeks. Where are you with Jordan Love right now? I'm trying to divorce myself of some of those preconceptions, especially when we start talking about guys like Daniel Jones. You talked about Sam Darnold. We're going to get to Baker Mayfield, right? Jared Goff.

Some of these guys on this list that we have feelings about, as quarterbacks and are producing maybe at a level where they should be considered if you can take away, you know, what your preconceived notions are of these guys. I think that he's in that boat for me. I do think Green Bay is going to win so often just because of how they scheme things up. They do take big chances down the field. And Jordan Love is willing to throw them. They've been pretty efficient in the run game.

They forced turnovers on defense. Maybe not to the level this year as they did in 2024. But you know that they're going to play high variance football. And the variance seems to just land in their favor. more often than not because they are aggressive. But on a down-to-down basis, when you're comparing him to a Dack Prescott, who is just hyper-efficient,

when we're comparing him to a Josh Allen, you know, more often than not who's hyper-efficient on early downs, on third downs, even to a guy like Matthew Stafford, who hasn't been turning the ball over and has been performing really well when he's under pressure. Jordan Love compares well statistically.

It just doesn't always feel the same, I think, when you're actually watching him play. This is probably the one guy on this, list that we're just going to need more time with, I think for me to get comfortable with when we start talking about guys who can actually win this award. Yeah, I think that's right. Like he had a third downplay last week towards the end of that game where, you know, he rolls to his left and makes it like those types of plays.

They are in there. We've seen them before. It feels like he hasn't had to produce as many of them this year. But again, that doesn't mean that like we could see him go on a heater. We've seen him do that in the second half of the season before. So I like the way you laid it out. than the statistical profile, the wins, he's going to be in the conversation. The eye test, maybe not quite there.

Now, Herbert, you know, the numbers have to get better. He's been in a tough spot with that O line, but he has had like some throws at the end of these games that have been unbelievable. So I don't want to count them out yet. You know, if they get help, they get Joe Alt back and they're winning. They would have to win the AFC West, I think. But he's capable of putting up big numbers, even though you haven't seen those just yet here. Jared Gough, I just feel like it's never.

going to, he's not going to get the credit. Unfortunately, I just don't see it happening for him. We've got the first half of his career in L.A. where, again, preconceptions matter so much. Reputation matters so much. He was Sean McVeigh's baby at that time, right? And you filter all of that for all of those performances through that lens. Then the first few years in Detroit, he's Ben Johnson's kid, right?

Like, this is a Ben Johnson thing. This isn't a Jared Gough thing. And I think there are a lot of Sundays where I feel like that's not fair to him, because he is asked to make ambitious throws at times. He is asked to fix things when this offense has issues at times. The issue is he's surrounded by all this speed. You know they have good play calling. And similar to his head coach, they've been so good over this stretch.

You're not going to be rewarded for it, unfortunately. I don't think Dan Campbell's ever going to win coach in the year, even though he deserves it. And I don't think Jared Gough is ever going to win MVP, even though Detroit's had the number one offense in terms of passing EPA and success. assess rate basically over the last three to four years and he's playing better football right now, I would argue, at least statistically than any other time in his career.

Unfortunately, people are just going to look at the name on the back of the jersey and say, no, that's not an MVP of the NFL, unfortunately. You laid it out well. I think that's right. Maybe it's unfair. Maybe we do a show in a month and we're like, hey, he should be in this conversation because the numbers are going to be there. The wins are going to be there.

But I'm with you there on golf. Stafford, the numbers actually aren't great. And I would argue that the Rams are a Super Bowl contender, but you are seeing some signs of decline. And it's almost like Sean McVeigh is doing a great job. And Puka Naku has been awesome. But I don't have him quite there in that tier. I can't believe we're having a conversation about Daniel Jones.

But, I mean, they have the best record in the AFC. He passes all the statistical benchmarks here. Now, they have a much tougher schedule going forward. So I don't think we need to spend time on Daniel Jones. But I feel like he deserves a mention here. just because if you're saying the first six weeks, the profile fits, but I don't have him quite there just yet. All right, let's take a break.

We come back. Let's get to the favorites. The Ringer NFL show is brought to you by Fandul. The Fandall Sportsbook app is your home for all your favorite NFL bets, from yards to touchdowns to who will win with Fandul. Any play can be the play of the game. And when the Steelers and Bengals play Thursday night, Van Duel is giving all customers a 50% pbt.

That's Fandul. com slash ringer NFL to bet the Steelers versus the Bengals with a 50% PBT. Play your game with Fandul, an official sports betting partner of the NFL. Must be 21 plus and present in select states or 18 plus and present in D.C., Kentucky, or Wyoming. Opt-in required, bonus issued as non-mustrable profit boost tokens. Restrictions apply, including any token expiration and max-wager amount. See terms at sportsbook.fandul.com. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Helpshelp.com.

Call 1-888-7-8-9-77 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. All right, we're back on the Ringer NFL show. The favorites here, Deonté, Patrick Mahomes is plus 200. Josh Allen is plus 300 and Baker Mayfield is plus 350. I'm sorry, I have to stop you right there. That's insane to me. The number is insane. To me, the odds on that is I'm having such a hard time wrapping my head around this

because of all the guys that we've talked about, if there's one player. And this is, it's rich for me because I feel like I'm the guy who has been arguing most ardently on Ringer NFL properties. You have that, no doubt. You have the belt. Baker Mayfield is a better quarterback than he gets credit for. And then the one year where he's legitimately being considered for an MVP, I'm the guy that's like, hey, man, we got to pump the brakes.

and we've got to recognize what is and what isn't sustainable. And maybe things start to even out as guys get healthy, right? Tristan Wurfs' impact is already being felt for this football team, both in the run game and in the passing game. If you had a good-decky, if Cody Mock was not out for the year, maybe we wouldn't even be having this conversation because everything in structure would be just fine. But I'm sorry, man.

I can't watch this guy be dead to rights two to three times every single week and squirt out and turn that into a 10. 10 to 12 yards scramble that's going to move the chains and believe that that's going to stay that way throughout the course of the season. I don't believe it. I'm sorry. I struggle with that. I admit that maybe I'm just wrong. But when I hear like plus 350 on odds, especially next to the names that we're discussing, Patrick Mahomes, who was playing better than he's ever played before, in my opinion. And Josh Allen, who is as steady as it gets in the NFL, I just don't see Baker Mayfield in that conversation, even though he is 100 percent.

been the reason why Tampa Bay is winning games. He's just not at that level to me. So he's winning the narrative, I think, the first six weeks. Like he, you can't tell the story of the first six weeks of the NFL season with like Baker Mayfield's name has to come up within the first few sentences of that. I think people like the story that he bounced around. They've known him for a long time since college. It's something different. You know, we see this with MVP's in every sport. You kind of get tired of some guys and then a new guy emerges or someone who who's been around is playing really well. So the case for Mayfield would be that, like you said,

maybe he regresses in some of those areas. He's not ducking a sack and scrambling for 12 yards and bumping a defender and getting everybody fired. However, we haven't seen him with a full group yet with Mike Evans and Chris Godwin and Emeka Gbuka all on the field together. So like statistically, the numbers could actually get better in the second half of the season. So I love that. You were fired up.

I'm like, wait a minute. He's the Mayfield guy. Why is he going against him here? So, okay, you think that's too high. I would tend to agree that this is probably going to be the highest. His odds will be all season long. And that's taking nothing away from him. We just said he's been the story of the first six weeks,

just the sustainability of some of these things outside a structure, I think, or maybe the reason to ding him a little bit. So the other two guys, I'm very interested in what you said about Mahomes there, because I feel like Mahomes has been awesome the last three weeks, and maybe we're bored by it. I don't know. He threw the one pick six against Jacksonville. Other than that, I think he's been lights out.

He's getting Rishi Rice back. They're three and three. They're the favorites to win the NFC West. There's a real scenario here. We're just the next 12 weeks. Patrick Mahomes is the best player in the NFL, puts up monster numbers. The chiefs go on a run. And we're saying, of course, you know, end of December.

All right, Mahomes did it again. So that's kind of where I'm at with Mohan's. I don't think this is a crazy number at plus 200, making him the favorite because I can see the way the next three months go and easily get there. I mean, we've been watching this guy do this for long enough now where you can just tell, right? There are certain players where you can just tell for as great as they've been,

they have accessed a new level of play, right? The look. He's got the look, yeah. Right, 100%. And I think that, again, he's doing this without Rishi Rice, who was supposed to be his yards after catch guy. Travis Kelsey, to me, has been better through the first six weeks of this season than he was through the first six weeks last year, in my opinion. But still, it's not like that mind-meld where on every third and 11,

this guy is 11.3 yards downfield exactly. And they get the ball to him after scrambling around, right? You're not seeing as much of that. The scrambling thing has been a note in every cheats game basically for the last three weeks, right? Like, oh, this guy's on pace to run for over 1,000 yards, and 11 touchdowns or whatever. Oh, he's still the least. beating rusher for Kansas City. He's got the most carries because of these scrambles, right?

All those things have been, you know, noted on broadcast. I mean, this guy's at the peak of his powers, and they're three and three in spite of how tough of a schedule they've had to play this year. And in spite of the fact that quietly, Kansas City's defense is not the same as it's been. If you had the 2022 Chiefs defense, this team is 6 and 0 right now, and probably 6 and 0 going away in a lot of these games. A lot of this has been on his shoulders, and I feel like he was rising to. the occasion even better than at any other point that we've seen in his career, especially over the last three to four seasons. Yeah, we're on the same page with Mahomes. We're seeing playoff playoffs in the regular season with the scrambling and the running because they feel that sense

of urgency. He feels like this is what I have to do for us to win game. So yeah, I think he's right there as well. Josh Allen, we don't need to spend a lot of time on. We know who Josh Allen is. They didn't have a great game Monday night. I think they're going to be okay. Yeah. I will say for Alan, I do think that where he's at right now is reflective of the level of player he is and that we all kind of recognize like if he wants this to be his league this year, he can play at a level where he can just run away with this. I do think for his candidacy, and it's not fair, but this is just how MVP works, it's going to be dinged every time an issue that exists outside of Josh Allen pops up

and costs Buffalo a game, right? Like Buffalo's run defense. Honestly, the explosive plays they give up, period, end up impacting Josh Allen's MVP case, not because of anything wrong with Allen, but I think that Monday night was a great example that the margins for error around him are just as tight as I think as they've been for Patrick Mahomes over the last two to three years. And it's been relatively quiet because this team has maintained a level of depth and just kind of competent play.

I think that if they do take steps back because Kansas City's been playing so well offensively and they might get even better when Rashy gets back, it's entirely possible to me that Josh Allen goes 13 and 4 and ends up not getting a lot of first place votes, right? If anything comes up where we, that makes us believe that this team cannot contend at the level we expected to start the year. Or maybe it goes the other way and the defense is struggling and he's got to put up those monsters.

If they're going to go 13 and 4. If you get like a 55, right, he's going to have to put up monster numbers. Right. So that could happen to us. So I think his case is maybe a little bit more wobbly for reasons that are outside of his control.

then I would have thought at the start of the season and certainly coming into October. Yeah, they feel a little unsettled right now, but I still feel like once we get to, December, January, we'll be talking about him in this top tier if we do that exercise again. All right, MVP tiers with Deonté Lee, brought the juice. As usual, thank you, Deonti, for coming on.

I will be right back with the hurry up. All right, the hurry up is our closing segment where I give you a take on something happening in the NFL and the situation in Miami just continues to get weirder and weirder. In case you missed it, Tuotunga Vailoa, spoke after Sunday's loss to the Chargers about leadership and expectations and volunteered that the dolphins have had guys show up late or not show up at all to players-only meetings. He was using that as an example of something the dolphins need to get cleaned up.

Well, of course, reporters were going to follow up with Mike McDaniel about that on Monday. and McDaniel said that wasn't the proper forum for Tua to communicate his message. He said Tua has directly communicated with teammates about his comments and will, quote, live and learn from the experience. That's per ESPN. This Dolphins team is one in five. Their season's over. But the weird thing is they're not just laying down in these games.

Like they're not a pushover. They've been competitive in losses the last two weeks to the Panthers and the Chargers. but everything aside from that on-field product, like during those three hours, is terrible. The vibes are terrible. And now they've got the Browns on Sunday. We've already seen the Titans move on from Brian Callahan. And looking at this Dolphins news, I just wondered, is ownership going to let this play out if they fall out to one and six and lose to the Cleveland Browns? Or are they just going to say, let's get ahead of it.

We all know what's coming. It's another in-season firing and Mike McDaniels out of a job next week. So no real reason to watch Dolphins Browns on Sunday, but the point is it feels like there could be repercussions after that game with how things are going in Miami. All right. Appreciate everyone listening. Thanks to Christopher Sutton for producing Kira Givens on social,

additional production supervision by Connor Nevins and Arjuna Ram Gopal. I'm Sheila Kapagia. Talk to you tomorrow on the Ringer NFL show. Must be 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 visit RG-Helf.com. Call 1-888-7-9-77 or visit cpg.g.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit MDGamblinghelp.org in Maryland.

Hope is here. Visit gambling helpline, MA.org or call 800-32750 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-8778-Hope-N-Y or text Hope and why in New York.