The Ringer NFL Show - NFC Championship Game Burning Questions With Ben Solak!

Episode Date: January 23, 2026

Sheil and Ben Solak from ESPN get together to take a hard look at the NFC championship matchup between the Rams and Seahawks and debate which team is more likely to represent the conference in the Super Bowl. (00:00) NFC championship game preview (3:23) Seahawks offense vs. the Rams defense (13:27) Seahawks defense vs. the Rams offense (26:30) The Ringer 107 Quit overspending on wireless with 50% off Unlimited premium wireless. Plans start at $15/month at mintmobile.com/RINGERNFL The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit ⁠www.rg-help.com⁠ to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Sheil Kapadia Guest: Ben Solak Producer: Chris Sutton Video editor: Stefano Sanchez Social: Kiera Givens and Brian Waters Production supervision: Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. I'm your host, Shield Capadia. Today we are breaking down the NFC championship game, Rams versus Seahawks, part three. Rams offense versus Seahawks defense, such a fun matchup there. And then, of course, a little Sam Darnel talk. How much will he have to do in this football game?

We'll get into all aspects of the matchup. And then at the end, I will give you my picks for the Ringer 107 contest as that winds down. All right. Returning for this two-parter is. ESPN's Ben Solac. Let's take a break and we will come back with Ben. The Ringer NFL show is presented by Fandul. FanDul's got it all. Same game parlays, quick bets for jumping in live and your way so you can build the bet that fits your play. Plus, don't miss out on the NFL playoffs all month long. Download the Fandual app or head to

fandul.com slash ringer NFL to get started. 21 plus and present in select states or 18 plus and present in D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming, gambling problem. Call 1-800-G-Gand-Halt.com, or visit RG-8-8-8-8-9-77-7-7. Or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. All right, we are back here with ESPN's Ben Solac. Once again, finishing our previews of championship weekend. We're doing the NFC championship game today.

Solek, Aaron Schatz of FTN tweeted out that this is the best NFL matchup of the last 47 years by DVOA, does that surprise you? Are you like, that makes sense? What was your, I was a little surprised by that? Well, I'm not surprised by it because DVOA is like catching all three phases there.

I think it's catching special teams as well. Yes, it is. Yeah, yeah, for like that specific sort of a measurement. And just like, there's, there is something to like about pretty much every single unit in this game. Ram special teams are kind of reaching just based off like the improvement since they made the special teams coaching change. But in general,

like Seahawks defense. I mean, just a masterpiece of a unit. Just so much fun to watch. Rams offense. It's the coolest offense that they've been running there, I think in McVeigh's entire tenure, arguably. Like, it's just these are stealth units. And then you have like Rams defense.

The Chris Shulov at all, like, you know, rising a head coaching candidate. And the way they've retooled and reimagined that group, they're doing a lot of the stuff that like, it's really hard to do with the light boxes. And then the Seahawks offense is a perfect unit, no, but it's got the Clint Kuback aspect. It's got the JSN aspect.

Like, there is nothing about this matter. No particular area of this game where I look at a unit. I say this unit will fail to win the game for the team. This unit isn't capable of taking over the game for the case of the team. I always use the phrase like, oh, there's some universes where this happens or that happens. In Ramseok Part 3, every universe, it's like Dr. Strange multiverse, dude. Like every possible thing can happen in this game because the talent level is so high. Great year for DVOA.

I mean, you know, people are doing a lot of EPA. But, hey, last two teams standing in the NFC, they've had those of the two best teams for a long, long time. DVOA. That's the talk of the town. DVOA. That's right. This is how you get the viewers So lack on Netflix. You lead into the DVOA. All right, let's start with the juiciest part of this matchup. You mentioned it. Rams offense

versus Seahawks defense. Rams offense in week 16. I don't know if everybody remembers this. Played really, really well. Even though they blew the game. Basically, the best performance by far against the Seahawks defense. Week 11, they won the game, but the Rams

offense was kind of put in a blender by that Seahawks defense. So Sean McVeigh, go inside the mind of Sean McVeigh here. He looks at those two games. He looks at how just dominant this Seahawks defense looks right now. What is his game playing? What is he focused on? What does he need to be ready to adjust on going into this matchup? First and foremost, let's put this team in the dirt if we have a lead. They should have one week 11. They should have one week 16, right? Both times they have these big leads. Week 11 comes down to a field goal miss. Week 16 comes down to an overtime two-point conversion. Both times the Seahawks got their way back into the game.

The first game, you know, a little bit less of an amazing comeback. The second game, you're up by 16 points in the fourth quarter. You know what I'm saying? And they defensively started playing a lot off and giving up free access underneath. And they let Donald, I think, get a little bit of confidence back. Like, number one thing, you have led these games both times. It's the postseason. Kill it, right?

Like, you know, like you said of Broncos Patriots yesterday, this is not like a step on their next sort of a game. This is a step on their next sort of a game for the Rams. But is that in McVey's DNA? Because, I mean, last week... That's why I'm saying it, Sheel. Yeah, I mean, last week, that was just incredible, where it comes down to the end.

And I was ready, and I like McVe as much as the next guy, one of the best coaches in the last whatever, 20 years. I think if I had to pick any coach to run my franchise, he might be my number one pick right now. However, those moments killed me. And I thought he got over the hump this year. He was being more aggressive. It was like, oh, my God, he's founded.

He's changed. And then the end of that. Bears game, he turtles with Matthew Stafford. I was so positive they were going to lose. I was so positive. that third down, he's running the football, and then they don't even try to score at the end. So it's a good note. It's a good point. I don't know that he will approach it with that mentality. Now, in terms of what changed for them in offensive success-wise, in the first game, the big runs early, but Stafford had 4.6 yards per attempt. And the second game, 9.6, right? More than doubled. If you look at success rate or if you look at completion percentage, it wasn't really that big of an improvement.

It's not like they, you know, oh, just like figure something out and they hit it reliably, or staff were just like hitting every single one of his throws. It's that they were willing to be a lot more aggressive, pushing the ball. And Seattle's defense has the lowest air yards per attempt for opposing quarterbacks facing them. Structurally, this defense tricks you, base you, convinces you, you know,

whether honorably or dishonorably, to throw the ball underneath, and then they rally up and they tackle unbelievably. And one of the things about the Rams is that the Rams don't have actually a lot of like yards after the catch guys in those underneath target ranges, right? Like when they throw the ball to Tyler Higbee on the flat or like Kyron Williams on the swing,

it's not bad at all, but these are not like, you know, go create explosives, make six guys miss. Now, their yards are for the catch come when they get throws over the middle of the field, intermediate to deep and they hit those guys on the run. And so the Rams, I think, decided to kind of swim against the current and cut against the grain of the Seahawks defense and say, we're going to push the football, right? Zaffert had one deep attempt in that first game.

He had six deep attempts in that second game. You're going to miss some. You're going to have some three in outs. You understand that. But if you can get that hit between the linebackers and you get Pug and Kukinakua running in space, the Seahawks are not accustomed to dealing with that degree of explosive passes, right? They've been one of the best defense in preventing explosives of the last 15 years, not just the last year.

And so you look at your guy in Stafford, who obviously were four years removed, or five years removed from the golf trade. And like, oh, this will allow you to do more in the dropback game and, like, how he changed the offense. But you look at your guy in Stafford, and you say, the reason we play postseason football, the reason we're here this late in the season, is because you are capable of making throws that a lot of guys aren't.

And we're going to ask you to make those throws, spectacular ones to Pug andukuwa over the middle of the field, take advantage of these linebackers, and that's how we're going to win. Now, did you watch the Panthers game? Do you watch the Bears game? Stafford not necessarily hit him the way he was hitting a month, two months ago.

So that's a little bit of a thinner conversation, but it's what you got to do. You have to try to punch these Seahawks where they're strong because you can't play their game defensively. They're too good. You can't just, yeah, you can't methodically move the ball down the field. It's almost like, did you ever do like a backyard football game where it's like wherever you caught the ball?

That's where you started the next down. That's almost what it's like to face the Seahawks. It's just like, you know, we've seen it time and again, it feels like they're playing with 16 players out there. And they're the best short yardage defense in football on downs of two and less. They have like a 52% conversion rate allowed. It's unbelievable. It felt impossible for the 49.

It was like, it was like fourth and one and you're like, they have no chance. They're unbelievable. And the Rams, as we very well know, are just the best Russian team in football, unless you only need one yard, in which case they are abysmal. And so like you don't want to be living string eight plays, string nine plays, 10, 11, 12 plays, to score on these drives.

No, you want to be, you know, first and ten run the same other thing, 38-yard gain. Like, you have to ride the lightning a little bit in this one. You're built for lightning with Stafford, and the Seahawks are not accustomed to dealing with that defensively,

so that's where you got to go. All right, you mentioned the Rams' offense as of late. And I'm curious about this, curious what you think about it, because it feels to me like they are not the same offense they were for much of the season. I can't tell you this is exactly why. Maybe you can tell me,

but even if you look at it statistically, you look at kind of the last four games. Like they haven't played great here in the postseason when you just look at how they're playing offensively. They had a very good offensive game. Week 18 against the Cardinals, week 17 was not great. The game against the Panthers was not great.

And this last week against the Bears was not great when you look at it statistically. Is it just a matter of like you mentioned? Is Stafford just, hey, he's an old quarterback? There's going to be some ups and downs this late into a season. Is there something you see that they're doing differently, something that defenses are doing differently. How do you kind of go into this game thinking,

are they the offense we've seen all season? That was one of the best in the NFL, or kind of the one that for the last month has been way more up and down and inconsistent. Yeah, I'm worried that Stafford's like hurt to some degree, right? Just because. Finger, yeah. Yeah, finger. Also, I wouldn't be surprised at the back hurts, right?

Something else. Like, just like even if you take away, like let's say you had never see the finger got hit against Panthers. Cameras never picked it up. I tell you that 36, 37, 35, 36, I think, 36-year-old quarterback who started the season with back issues is seeing his play deteriorate in the 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st weeks of the season. What's the most likely explanation?

Right. I mean, it's probably that the guy's dinged up. Everybody's playing dinged up, right? Now it's just going to affect an older pocket quarterback so he got back issues more than everybody else. I do think that the Panthers and the Bears' Deavits have showed you that when the Rams want to get to their play action pass, you can get after them by blitzing them by changing the picture.

You can, you know, when Stafford turns is back there, you can find a way to manufacture free rushers, and Stafford just cannot be a free rusher right now unless he sees it, because he's not twitchy enough and he can't move off it, right? And he's like, he's big and he's strong, but if Stafford hits 19 sidearm throws on you, then he does. But just as we've seen in these games, this is not a consistent, reliable answer, you know?

Also, like a lot of times when he's hot, he ends up throwing the one-on-one vertical. And if it's Pug and Kuhniko, you're terrified. If it's everybody else, like you used to be scared of Devante, but Devante's just not fast right now coming off the hamster. If it's Terrence Ferguson, if it's cannot a Mumfield, we've seen these targets. These are just not high percentage targets. So you can get them to a point where they're going three and out fast because you're just

blitzing the run looks. You're getting the early stops with the bears we're doing. And then when they go under center and it's play action pass, you're blitzing it anyway. Because you think if we just get one rush or at Stacker, we can just kind of break this whole thing. And so I am dubious of their ability to immediately return to like that MVP level that we saw in the regular season. It's still Stafford and McVeigh. If it happens, I'm not going to be like, oh my God, we're this kind of

from. I'll be like, yeah, freaking, of course, because that's the caliber of guys we're talking about. Can I say how proud I am of you, So like, because we just talked about for what, 10 minutes, the Rams are going to say against the Seahawks defense. And you not, not once did you bring up the Rams 13 personnel. Now, you know I'm team content and I want to see a great game. I don't really care who wins. But I can tell you this. If the Rams lose, you might see me pop in some champagne because I don't have to hear about 13 personnel for at least three or four months until it's trash. So 13 personnel is one running back in three tight ends.

Well, here's the thing. They didn't run it at all against the Bears, which was very peculiar to me. Barely ran. It was their second highest game of 11 personnel pretty much all season. They've also changed how they've run the personnel. It used to be three tight ends and a sacrificial receiver, right? Just a guy to run the corner off and to make the safety run around. And, you know, we're going to try to get the tight ends the ball or we're going to run the football

in the football. postseason, they've been running it with Nakuwa on the field. And that's just, like, not working well. Like, I don't know, like, the spacing is not as good. I don't know if they need to get more speed on the field. Like, what the change is there. But since Devante's come back, they haven't really wanted to run the 13 personnel.

So while, like, the 30 personnel thing was cool, like, when they did against the Jaguars were, like, sick, no one was ready for this. At this point, like, it's not getting the drop on anybody anymore. Like, the Seahawks have seen it two games now, and they've seen more film on it besides. Like, it's no longer the curveball that it was because you know it's coming. You've seen the pitch.

Yeah, and the Seahawks defense, if any defense is the one that's built to shut that down and it's not going to be an advantage there. All right, let's take a break. We come back. Let's get to the other side of the ball with Sam Darnold against this ramps defense. This episode is brought to you by Mint Mobile this January quit overspending on wireless with 50% off unlimited premium wireless. Plans start at $15 a month at Mintmobile.com slash ringer NFL. Limited time offer, upfront payment of $45 for three months, $90 for six months or $180 for 12 months, plan required $15 per month equivalent, taxes and fees extra initial plan term only, over 50 gigabytes

may slow when network is busy, capable devices required, availability, speed, and coverage varies. Seamintmobile.com. All right, we're back here on the ringer NFL show. All right, Sam Darneth, what are your expectations, Benny Souls? Is he going to have to, how much is he going to be? asked to do. Do you trust him? Do you trust their run game? Is this going to be close enough where he's going to have to make some plays? Is it going to be a blowout where we're going to be like, oh, the Seahawks are in the Super Bowl? And Sam Donald hasn't really had to do that much in the playoffs.

Where are you with that aspect of this game? There's no Sam game that would like shock me, right? I just can't like the thing about Sam is that he is more than even the other like inconsistent quarterbacks. He is so mercurial, right? Like when Sam is good, he is ripping tight windows with unbelievable accuracy and he fears nothing and he's seeing it fast. And then the moment he gets got by the coverage rotation and he throws a tipped ball pick wasn't even that badly his fault.

He is just down, right? Nobody vacillates inside of a game like Sam. The two games he's played against the Rams, which is obviously a defense that terrifies him. Like I'm not much one for like this guy's got bad guy's number like, you know, the psychology,

the heuristic aspect of it all. But like Sam's clearly terrified. quite a crucial at Jared version of this Rams defense. We have enough data now to say it. In the two games where he's, you know, he found the passable game more in Week 16, but in both games, like, you started playing better once,

you know, you're kind of like down 11, down 16, fourth quarter. It's kind of like, all right, if I throw another pick, no one will be mad. Like, they'll be mad about the first four, but like the fifth one, who cares? So, you know, it worries me

that the only time I've seen good Sam against the Rams is when it's kind of like, well, you know, whatever. Like, and it chips are down. I have no idea how I would approach this game if I'm Clint Kubiak. I know the running game is dramatically improved, and you should test the Rams run defense,

and you're running the ball better out of 12 personnel, like, that's all well and good. But if my number one objective is to get Sam confidence so I can get good Sam faster, then I would want to start the game with rhythm throws. And that's what he didn't be 16. It didn't go great. He's just not a consistent quarterback.

So it's a complete mystery to me. I really don't know what I expect from Sam Donald. in the third game this season, fourth game in the last 12 months against Chris Shulah. You should have answers by now as a quarterback. I just don't know if he does. You mentioned the run game.

We'll come back to Donald in a second, but do you try, I can't get a handle on this run game. When it's going, I'm like, they look unstoppable. Like, yeah, they're ripping off explosives with Ken Walker. And then you look at it statistically, and it's like it hasn't been that great.

And then I was looking before this pot. I'm like, well, maybe the last month has been really good. No, the last month is still been kind of up and down, depending what week you look. at it. Any, like, do you trust them? Any reason to any prediction? Do you think they're going to be able to run the football in this game?

Or is this a classic? Let's do a great job of analysis and just say, yeah, we don't really know. We'll watch the game on Sunday and get back to you. I think they've played the Niners twice. Like, you know, I think that's the reason why we feel better about it. It's kind of a little bit of the defense that they faced and obviously the context, because those were still really important games. I've never been as down on the run game for Seattle as I think even when they were

like bad early in the season and we did that whole week of discourse. was like they pass this and have the run, like it's, you know, the bluff the threat and they still get base defense. Kenneth Walker is, when Kenneth Walker's, you're running back, you are not going to have a good success rate.

No matter how many carries you get to Zach Charbonnet, made nothing going to save the way Kenneth Walker runs the football. You can get redonculus explosives. And one of the things that you see Seattle do in their bigger games, they do this against the divisional balance, is they'll throw Kenneth the ball a little bit more because they're saying,

let's try to get the explosive without suffering some of the tackle for loss and some of the success rate issues. So I generally just, I like, I like Kenneth Walker as a player. And the stuff that he can create is unbelievable. He's going to run you into some trouble. It'd be great if you had a quarterback

and a passing game that was a little bit better getting out of that trouble. You don't. And so with Walker, you're just rolling, you're rolling dice in this running game. You're rolling a dice. Like, I think in the first half of the season,

there was a lot of like the Seahawks running game is bad. And I would watch and I'd be like, the Seahs running game is just kind of getting bad outcomes. Like the explosives are all be hitting for 12 and the negatives are hitting for three. over like, you know, the second half of the season, now the explosives are hitting for like 24.

And, you know, the negatives of which there are still very many are hitting for like zero. And so I'm, I have like average level faith in them to do things. I just, I think that a big part of this game film will be getting the ball in Kenneth Walker's hands in space. You saw the big screen they had in week 16. I continue to do that because I like challenging this Rams third level to tackle these smaller DBs.

And Walker's just so good when he gets into space. All right. I have some splits on Sam Darnold for you. I want you to tell me. which of these are meaningful as they pertain to this game, which are not meaningful. So the first one here is he is 28th in EPA per play. When pressured, he is fifth when kept clean.

A very big difference there for Sam Darnold, whether he's pressured or not. Next one, he is second in EPA per pass play on play action. He is 21st without play action. So when play action is not a factor, he turns into a mediocre or slightly below average. quarterback. And then man versus zone. I think he's top five against man coverage, yet he is 16th against zone coverage. And the Los Angeles Rams, of course, plays zone at the fourth highest rate.

So pressured versus non-pressured, play action versus non-play action, man versus zone. We can get to as many as you want. But what's the one there that you say, no, this is a big factor in this game specifically? Man versus zone, I think is a JSN stat. I think that it's, oh, it's man coverage. That guy. There's really good. I'll throw it to him. Zone, I'm 16th. I'm an average quarterback. To me, that's very standard. Plaction versus non-Plaction? Yeah. Like, if anybody out here was thinking that Sam Donald

was not a plaxion quarterback, like that we saw what made it successful in Minnesota. I know they didn't run a ton of play action, but it was a big part of their offense. And then obviously here in Seattle, like it's a Kubiak offense. They are showing you formations and personnel and run plays with the whole intent of getting to big play action pass. That's the philosophy.

Pressure on pressure is the one, right? Like when you get these three matches in the postseason where it's a divisional opponent, one of the things that really ends up mattering is just the level of comfort you have with the other guy. You know more than just what the film is telling you, but you've played it multiple times. You've got narratives and you've got storylines. You have a relationship with the opposing team. You can get a better feel for like this is how they're going to do their change of this is what they want to get to. And just if you're Jared Verse and you're Byron Young and you're Puna Ford and you're Kobe Turner,

I mean, you are just every single day you're sitting in the meeting room, going through the click or gone like we are going to, you know, absolutely embarrass. this dude on national television, right? Like, you just, that you, you, Cam Curl was on the podcast, the whatever, I don't know the name of it,

but Skip Bayless and I keep to leave and Jay Gruden and have whatever. And he got asked about it. And he, Cam, Carl was just like, yeah, like, you know,

we know what that quarterback is there in Seattle, right? And he didn't, he didn't say it in like a bellicose way where he's like, oh, you know, we've got him. But he was just like,

yeah, we know the DNA. Like, we know the script. And this Rams team, even when they don't get you down, they just have such a good power rush with their edges that they always make these pockets muddy. And like I said, there's nobody that kind of spirals down the mountain back than Sam Donald. And so to me, the pressure is the absolute biggest aspect of it.

And we have to remember, Charles Crossman, I'm playing this game. It's day to day. So you might be playing Josh Jones if he can come back from the knee or a UDFA third string offensive tackle, left tackle. Like, there are lots of worlds, some of universes where like this game they're all so excited for ends 24 to 3 because the Rams just pressured Donald with 48% of his dropbacks. Like this side of the ball, like you said, there's such a wide range of outcomes for Darnold. And it's not like the Rams defense has played great so far in the playoffs.

They've had two mediocre games here. Even when you look at the games against the Seahawks earlier in the season, you know, it's like, well, how much of that was the turnovers? You get six turnovers, what was it, six interceptions? Yeah, I had to turnovers, baby. They're picking them. Right. Yeah, six interceptions against Sam Darnold.

Now, some of those, it was beautiful scheming. And like you said, you confused him. And it wasn't just luck. you found a way to kind of create those. So can you do those in this game? And then the explosive plays. Again, we talked about it in the last show. Broncos Patriots, big factor here too.

Seahawks are third and explosive pass rate. Rams defense is 20th at allowing those explosive passes. And recently are like 30th, right? They were like good to start the year. And as of the way, they've been falling apart. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, it doesn't have to be perfect from Darnold.

Can you hit on some explosives? Can you run the ball in this game? Because your defense is so good that they're going to keep you in this game. And then, of course, the special teams factor working in the Seahawks favor in a big, big way. All right, let's finish with this. Somebody on that, I should say, for that side of the ball when it's Seahawks' offense, Rams' events. This isn't a hipster group? Is it a hipster take break?

No, no, no. Next question. Okay. Somebody's getting it. Like, Chris Shula's up for jobs. Kuback hasn't really interviewed yet. You know, they're going through the process. Somebody's getting a job on that side of the ball on Sunday night.

Like, for sure, somebody's winning that scheme more and is getting a head-coaching job on the bulk of that game and that performance right there in front of everybody. Who would you want? You're an owner. You have your pick of Chris Shula or Clint Kubiak. And they say Solac, you make that deciding vote. You're like the coaches and the Keon Coleman, draft room. You know, you get to actually, you get to pick here. Who would you go with? On pure like scheme X's and O is cool stuff, I lean Clint Kubiak. From what I've like read and, you know, heard about and talk to coaches about, whatever, I think I'd probably give a slight as Shula. Just like, you know, you're like, Kubiakki here is like, like, you know, very good, like, positional coach and whatever, like, head coach. There's, like, manage the room sort of questions, personality sort of questions. Shula seems like the sort of guy who's, like, a little bit more destined for that. Obviously, the last name helps in that regard. But, like, I don't know, good answer to that.

I don't have enough information about other guy yet. I guess Troy Aikman didn't recommend Chris Shula to the dolphins, huh? Yeah. You got to, you and I got to get into the recommending coaches business, man. I've been thinking about this lately. I like these, I like these firms, right? These research groups. They're like, who should I talk to?

And then what we would do is we would sort the league by EPA for play, top five offense, top five defense bag. Man, Anthony Campanile, I really love him, just off the basis of like Jaguars, fourth and success right? We'd make millions. Billy Gill and I were cracking up about that earlier this week. The Falcons hired two search firms that led them to their most successful quarterback of the last two decades somehow.

And then Kevin Stefanski, the one person who everyone knew in this cycle was going to get another head coaching job somewhere. I wonder what they paid because, yeah, that's very interesting. there. I think I'm leaning Shula. You know, I feel like Austin Gail and I have had that debate where he's like, no, I think that Rams defense is really talented. And I'm like, I don't know, it's like good players up front.

I don't know that it's, I don't feel like he's underachieving the talent. I feel like he's maximized the talent of that Rams defense. So yeah, I kind of like, I kind of like Chris Shula there, but both guys have done a tremendous job so far this season. All right, let's finish with this. I asked you this on the last pot.

I'm asking you again. prepared for this one. Well, I didn't want you to prepare. You're good off the cuffier. The hipster group chats, what's something that is making the rounds this week for this Ram Seahawks matchup? It can be an X factor and under the radar player. Like, oh man, why don't people realize how good this guy is?

A scheme thing, a prediction. It can't be 13 personnel because I already made fun of the hipsters for that. So you can't do that. But anything else on your mind, what do you got? Yeah. So this is actually a good one. I'm fine in the NGS packet. now. In week 11, when the Seahawks went 12 personnel at two tight ends, the Rams largely matched

them with nickel, right? They kept five defensive backs on the field. They said, running on us, if you dare. That nickel defender's Quinn Lake, who just got an extension from the Rams, good player. He got injured, though, before the week 16 game. And when the Seahawks went 12 personnel in that game, the Rams went base, right? They put five defensive alignment on the field. They didn't like their nickel into that matchup, and the Seacocks threw the ball out of 12 a ton, right? A ton of play action, ton of rollouts, big explosive passes, out of 12 personnel, because you only had four DBs on the field. Now, Lake is back. He's healthy for this game.

So presumably, nickel to 12 personnel. Lake is back, but Lake is not the guy we saw in the first half of the season in terms of health and NFL readiness of the Panthers are going after him. And even that he had some bad plays against the Bears too. And so, okay, now you're back to nickel against 12. A, can the Seahawks run the football? And B, is Quint Lake going to get tested when he's in the slot that over JSN against against those 12 personnel sets.

So when the Seahawks have two tight ends on the field, look for the personnel that the Rams are running on defense, and if they're trying to run the football against them, or throw the football against them. 37, I think is Quinn Lake's number of memory serves. Listen, he knew he couldn't go 13 personnel. So he went to the other offense too, okay? I didn't go, leave me alone. I thought, listen, I thought Colby Parkinson was going to get a mention. I'm just saying, I thought he might get a mention.

So I think Kobe Parkinson is getting a little bit gas by my football hibster community right now. But that's a hipster. That's a hipster take on a hipster take. That's far too redundant. That's the lane you need. Parkinson's an unbelievable blocker, though. And he washes stuff down. He's so good.

He's so good, dude. Then you go back and all right. There you go. All right. His name is Ben Solek. You can check out all of his work at ESPN on TV, on ESPN.com with our friend Mina Kimes. Check all that out. I will be right back with the Ringer 107.

All right. Today's Ringer 107 is brought to you by Fandul. We are currently tied for first place with the Ringer Fantasy Show, 50 and 49 for the year. One game over 500. Eight picks left to make for this week. and then four for the Super Bowl. So this week, the rules are pick both games against the spread and then any two picks that are minus 120 or better odds.

Here we go. First pick, I'm taking the Broncos plus four and a half against the Patriots. It doesn't feel good. I'm not going to lie to you and tell you it feels good to take Jared Stidham here. But you know what? As we discussed yesterday, I think the Broncos defense can keep them in this game. I think Sean Payton can scheme up some stuff on offense. and I just think they can make this a competitive game in the fourth quarter.

Maybe it's a backdoor cover or whatever. I'm going to take the Broncos with the points at home. Second pick, Seahawks minus two and a half. This to me is about just one team peaking at the right time. And that's Seattle. They look like some version of last year's Eagles. I don't think this Rams team is peaking at the right time. I don't think they've played great for like the last month here.

And so I think the Seahawks win big here like that. minus two and a half. And then two props. I am taking Jarrett Stidham over 19.5 completions. This has a lot to do with what we just talked about with Ben. Layups, easy completion, screens.

I think those will be schemed up for Jarrett Stidham. So I think the Patriots are going to be hard to run on. I don't think you can just come in and say, we're going to run the football on them. So I think it's going to be more of those first and second down. Let's get some easy completions for Jarrett Stidham. So over 19 and a half completions, that is minus 118. And then my final pick, Kenneth Walker, longest rush over 16 and a half yards.

That's minus 120. They don't have Zach Charbonnet. So we know he's going to get a lot of carries. We talked about the Seahawks run game with Solac. He's going to get a lot of touches. There's some boomer bust there. They're going to take some tackles for loss. But he is a home run hitter.

And I think he'll break off at least one explosive that will be more than 16. and a half yards. All right, today's Ringer 107 was brought to you by Fandul. Odds subject to change. Thank you to Ben Solac. Thanks to Christopher Sutton for producing Kiera Givens on social, Stefano Sanchez on video editing, and additional production supervision by Connor and Arjuna, Ram Gopal. I am Sheila Kapadia. We will talk to you Sunday night with our first impression of the Super Bowl matchup. Have a great weekend. Everyone talk to you Sunday on the Ringer NFL show. 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-Helpshelp.com.

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