The Ringer NFL Show - NFL Panic Index! Where We're At With the Ravens, Eagles, and Steelers

Episode Date: December 2, 2025

Sheil is joined by The Ringer’s own Diante Lee to talk about some of the NFL teams whose fan bases may have a heightened sense of anxiety as we head down the stretch of the 2025 season. (00:00) The... NFL panic index(1:24) Baltimore Ravens(9:46) Pittsburgh Steelers(18:41) Philadelphia Eagles(26:30) The Hurry Up: Patriots improve to 11-2 Shopping. Streaming. Celebrating. It’s on Prime. 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

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. I'm your host, Shield Capadia. We are doing a little panic index today. Three teams who are still alive to varying degrees, but three teams coming off of week 13 losses and teams that could be facing disappointment in the weeks ahead if they don't figure it out. I'm talking about the Ravens, the Steelers, and the Eagles.
Starting point is 00:00:28 Is there hope? Are they doomed? Is it something in between? We'll talk about all the scenarios. with my friend from the Ringer, Deontay Lee, is today's guest. All right, let's take a break. We'll come back and we'll talk to Deontay. This episode of The Ringer NFL show is presented by State Farm.
Starting point is 00:00:47 Having insurance isn't the same as having State Farm. It's like expecting the leadership of a team captain on the football field, but getting a C captain? Sure, they're both captains, but who is going to run your offense? You wouldn't settle for just anything for your team, so don't settle for just any. insurance. When it comes to getting the help, you need state farm is the real deal. Like a good neighbor, state farm is there. All right, we are back here with my friend Deontay Lee. We are talking
Starting point is 00:01:28 panic index. We're putting teams into one of three categories. Okay, the three categories are settled down. Category two is they have a chance. And category three is panic. So I don't need to explain those two. You are a mature, knowledgeable audience. You know what each three of those means. Deante, let's start with the Ravens here. So ugly loss, Thanksgiving night, five turnovers. Based on EPA per drive, it was their worst offensive game that Lamar Jackson has ever started in his career. And so they won five in a row and you're like, all right, this is what we thought. They're back in the driver's seat.
Starting point is 00:02:03 I don't know that they figured anything out. So where are you with the Ravens right now? I'm so glad that we're having this conversation today and not on Thursday night because Thursday night, I would have been ready to punt this. team right out of the race altogether, right? I think that given some time, you kind of go and rewatch and then you start looking at just what the rest of the season can look like for this team. This is probably the one team that we're talking about today where I feel like we can say settle down because they still have control over their destiny. That is the argument, right? The argument you're making is you show up on Sunday, you beat the Steelers, boom, your season has been
Starting point is 00:02:39 made and all you've got to do now is drive straight the rest of the way, right? Like they can really split these games with the Steelers and depending on how Pittsburgh plays the rest of the way can still end up winning the division, right? I think that in the aftermath of Thursday's game, when you're looking at the turnovers and the lack of accuracy from Marr Jackson on third down and in those key passing situations, and then you're comparing that to Joe Burrow, who was just like the definition of like a sheriff at quarterback, right? Like that was probably his most Peyton Manning-esque type of performance where he's sitting in the pocket, he knows where all the blitzes are coming from, he knows the coverages, he's throwing the ball perfectly.
Starting point is 00:03:13 it was a very stark contrast between the two teams. I do feel, though, if you're Baltimore, you take your lumps, you've got a mini-buy, you've got some time to kind of wash this one off. Pittsburgh right now is playing probably as badly as any team that is currently still in the playoff picture. And you've got to just feel like, let's beat them. We get a chance to rematch Cincinnati. We can go get this right in two weeks.
Starting point is 00:03:35 And then they have the Patriots, which I think if you're just looking at the depth chart, they're a more talented team than. We could very much be looking up, you know, after Christmas weekend, when they've got the Packers and see a team that's kind of got this thing sewn up if they handle their business, right? The big thing is, do you trust that if in the hypothetical? That's what I was going to say, because the Ravens are about expectations. It's like, I'm with you. If it's about making the playoffs, I'm probably with you. Settle down. Doesn't mean they're definitely going to get in, but they're in good position to get into the playoffs. But if it's like a limp into the playoffs and
Starting point is 00:04:06 losing the wild card round or even losing the divisional round where you never really felt like they were a contender, that's not going to be looked at as a positive season for the Ravens, and you're going to be asking yourself what kind of changes are coming in the offseason. And just offensively, even with Lamar Jackson Healthy, I was looking at the numbers today, like, this has been a mediocre offense all season long. And I think coming into the year, everyone thought top three offense, they were the best offense in the NFL last year. They've got it figured out.
Starting point is 00:04:35 Todd Monkin. And it's just never really happened, either earlier in the season or now that Lamar Jackson has gotten back here. I think a lot of it, when you just look at the numbers, is with the run game. The run game has not been nearly as it has, as good as it has been in previous years.
Starting point is 00:04:48 And I was thinking about this, Deontay, like, it would be so frustrating for me if I were in Lamar Jackson's shoes or even someone else in that organization where timing is so unfair in professional sports. And it's like, if this were the 2024 or the 2023 Ravens, this year, we are probably,
Starting point is 00:05:07 everybody's picking them to go to the Super Bowl. and probably win the Super Bowl with the state of the league right now when you look at the landscape in the AFC. We'd be saying, oh, you can win. Lamar's playing like an MVP. Their run game's great. They can win.
Starting point is 00:05:20 They figured out their defense. They can win with special teams, all this stuff. And it's like, this happens to be the year where they can't really hang their hat on all those things. Maybe they'll figure out, but they kind of just look mediocre
Starting point is 00:05:31 in every area. So to me, it's not about the playoffs. Like, do you have a scenario where you feel like five weeks from now? We're just talking about them differently. And we're saying they figure things out and they look more like last year's team, or are you like that is probably not going to happen this year? I mean, if you're really just judging how you feel exiting every weekend, I haven't had a week all year where I felt like
Starting point is 00:05:54 Baltimore is definitely the team. Even though they lost, but you're like, they looked awesome. Week one is probably the closest that they've been to looking like that version of this team. And I would say that ever since that loss to the Lions on Monday night, like this team has just been kind of flailing to try to keep its head above water. Injuries have obviously played a part. And I would say if you're comparing them to a team like Buffalo, who I think is in a similar position, right? If we're talking about the bills from the last two to three seasons in this version of the
Starting point is 00:06:24 AFC, you're like, oh my gosh, finally, we've got the shot to get over it. We can make good for, you know, the wasted years of Thurmond Thomas and, you know, Jim Kelly and all of that, right? Like, you would be feeling great under those circumstances. Right now, though, I mean, these teams are just. just been so flawed. And I think it's possible if you're a Ravens fan to kind of squint your eyes and say, hey, if we win the division, we host, maybe we host Buffalo, maybe we host Indianapolis, we should feel like talent for talent, if our quarterback is healthy, we can win at home.
Starting point is 00:06:57 And then let's say, you know, you're the four seed and you've got to go see New England, or even if it's Denver on the road, you should feel like we've got the quarterback advantage. All we've got to do is get the right breaks. The issue was that those breaks have just never come, right like i'm a big believer that variance matters in football but you have to demonstrate that that you have some kind of skill to create that variance to tip in your favor and this is not the only team we're going to talk about in this light right because i think that Pittsburgh Philadelphia or a lot of other teams in the NFL as well that kind of fit um that criteria but when i watch baltimore you just don't see the hallmark of a true super bowl contending team they don't crush you up front the way that
Starting point is 00:07:32 they used to they're not forcing turnovers they've had accuracy issues in the passing game even when Lamar was healthy. He has not looked at his best, especially not compared to 2023 and 2024. And it does just feel like this team is going to limp in. Maybe you get the worst AFC South team in the playoffs and you eat by. But if I've actually got to take what we're seeing on the field and go take that to Denver, go take that to Indianapolis, go take that to Buffalo, I don't trust that this team is going to get it done actually on the field against those teams, even though I think they're just as talented, if not more so, than the team. that we're talking about right now.
Starting point is 00:08:08 So that's the bull case, I think. Okay, so if you're a Ravens fan and you're like, come on, give me something here. You still have the quarterback, granted, like I'm with Deonté. He doesn't look like the same guy and he's coming back from injury. So that all has to be taken into account. But there is still five weeks of the regular season where maybe we're saying in week 18, hey, he's looked different the past two or three weeks. And he looks like normal Lamar here.
Starting point is 00:08:31 So you've got that. He's got the talent on defense. Here's what you want to be, the Ravens. This is your destiny this year. The team that nobody. wants to play. It is a weird season. You might not have Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs. You probably won't have Joe Burrow in the playoffs. Like Deontes said, that Bill's team with Josh Allen is not his best Bill's team. You're not talking about having to go through all these different quarterbacks
Starting point is 00:08:52 to get to the mountaintop like you're probably going to have to do in future years like you've had to do in previous years. So can you figure some things out, John Harbaugh? Now, like you got defensively, you got to get that defense to be playing well offensively. What's not? working. Why does Lamar Jackson not look like the same guy? If the run game is not going to be the same, what can you lean on instead? So they've got talent. They've got the quarterback. That's where, that's like where they want to be. So I'm putting them in that they have a chance category if it plays out like that. Because I do think they're going to get in. You think they're going to get in. It's not guaranteed, but their minus 210 right now to win the division. So their favorites to win the
Starting point is 00:09:30 AFC North. But it's not a matter of get in and disappoint. It's a matter of can you get in and actually maybe be a surprise team and change the narrative on the 2025 Ravens. All right. So that's the first team. Next team is the team that's fighting them. The Pittsburgh Steelers, Deontay, they lose to the bills on Sunday. According to Mike Defabo of the Athletic, there were fire Tomlin chance in the stands. It didn't sound like one or two people because Tomlin was asked about it after the game.
Starting point is 00:09:59 And usually don't ask that if it's just a couple of guys. What are they? I don't even know. It's not rolling rocks. more. Sorry, I don't know what they're drinking. But I apologize, Pittsburgh. I don't know what you're drinking. Maybe it is rolling rock still in Pittsburgh, but if it was a couple of guys, they wouldn't ask him. Tomlin said he shares the fans' frustrations. You got Aaron Rogers with the bloody nose, mad at Jonu Smith. You have 10 total first downs, 166 yards against the
Starting point is 00:10:26 Bill's defense that has really struggled. And now all of a sudden, you're six and six in the AFC North. We're on paper, if you just showed me the standings, you're tied for first place. but we know it goes beyond that. So where are you, Deonti, with this Steelers team? You'd have to say it's a disaster right now. I'm panic. Yeah, full panic. You would have to be full on panic, right?
Starting point is 00:10:48 And it all comes down to this question, which I don't think any Steelers fan can answer with a straight base. What does this team actually do well right now? I wrote down the same thing. I literally have in my notes. They don't do anything well. Like you're leaning on, you're going to say that your biggest skill is forcing turnovers.
Starting point is 00:11:04 Congratulations. You're the fakeest. over 500. Your biggest 500 or over 500 team in the league, if that's all that you have to lean on. Right? We just saw the Panthers beat the Rams because they won the turnover marcher 3-0.
Starting point is 00:11:15 Nobody believes that the Carolina Panthers are within a field goals margin of of Los Angeles if it's an evenly played game. And I think that Pittsburgh has often been able to skate by on the fact that, hey, we force turnovers, we're going to manage possessions. And I will say the one thing that they've done well offensively is they pay off their trips to the red zone with touchdowns more often. and the not, right? That has kind of been there saving grace offensively, but outside of that,
Starting point is 00:11:41 they don't get any explosive plays. And when Aaron Rogers gets pressured this year, I would say you can make an argument while I think the end results have been better. The way he looks in the pocket now is as bad as he did in the first half of last season before it seemed like he kind of caught a rhythm and everybody got fired in New York. He still is having those same kind of jittery reactions to pressure, that inability to shake loose of pressure because he's not as explosive of an athlete anymore. and they just don't have enough juice on the perimeter to help them get over the top. If this team had gone and gotten a Jacoby Myers,
Starting point is 00:12:12 not that he's a world changer, but just one other guy who can work the middle of the field that's just athletic enough to be able to move the chains for them, maybe I would say they've still got a chance, but you try to carve out this pathway for them offensively. It is going to be a slog for them to score more than 19 to 20 points in any game for the rest of the year. And I just don't trust a team to win consistently
Starting point is 00:12:33 if that is the metric that we're going by. Yeah, they've lost three or four. They're at Baltimore next week. So listen, we just talked about the Ravens. The Ravens are beatable. We're not going to be shocked if the Steelers beat the Ravens next week. And if you do that, you're going to have a chance. Even if you don't do that, you're still going to have a chance.
Starting point is 00:12:50 But again, it comes back to what you said. Mediocre on offense. Mediocre on defense. Maybe you say they can run the ball well. All right. I think, you know, it depends on the week or the possession or the opponent. Yeah, and the opponent, whether you can actually do that. It's like a Mickey Mouse scheme on offense.
Starting point is 00:13:06 You know, it's just, all right, let's throw the ball short and not turn it over type thing. Defense, I look at the depth chart and I go, that's a front seven. I can win with. It hasn't shown up. It just hasn't shown up consistently. Yeah, that game against the Colts earlier this season. We're like, all right, that's what it's supposed to look like. That's the only time.
Starting point is 00:13:23 I mean, you had T.J. Watt, Nate Herbig, High Smith, Cam Hey, or they all played on Sunday. And they had a combined zero quarterback hits or sacks, as a lot. team the Steelers had one hit on Josh Allen. In a game where the bills don't have Dionne Dawkins. And the game where they are fresh, and they are fresh off of getting their heads caved in by Houston on Thursday night football. So if there was ever a time for these guys who have been licking their chops, I mean, the Steelers should have been in practice all week saying, please, God, just get us to obvious
Starting point is 00:13:52 passing situations. And we are going to win this game with our pass rush alone. And it never really felt like Josh Allen was affected. He turned the ball over, but it wasn't really because of the pass rush. It was just because of poorly throwing balls and kind of like some inopportune timing for Buffalo. You don't feel Pittsburgh's effect up front on either side of the ball. And the guy who was supposed to paper over all of this, the two guys really is Aaron Rogers, who looks like he's 41 and probably should retire at the end of the year.
Starting point is 00:14:18 And Mike Tomlin, which is why you're hearing those fired Tomlin chants in the crowd when things are going poorly. I would have called them foolish at almost any other point for saying that in the stands, given all the success that Mike has had. with this team. But I mean, you're looking now and asking your head coach, what winning edge are you producing for this franchise? You're really running out of answers right now if the defense is going to continue looking on a down-to-down basis the way that it has. Well, that's the thing. It feels like a repeat of last year with the defense. Remember,
Starting point is 00:14:48 we were having these conversations about what's going on. There's some weird quotes coming out of that locker room. They can't stop the run. I mean, they couldn't stop the run against the bills. This is T.J. Watt, for the athletic said, I've never seen a team run the same play as much as they ran it and have as much success as they had out of words for it. Like, that's a pretty troubling quote at this stage of the season from a veteran like T.J. Watts. So I don't have a lot of faith. Now, here's how they make it. So little BS Tomlin ball, you know, little turnovers, special teams. And then maybe they sneak in and they lose in the first round. But it's just, I'm tired of this. Like I need a, I need a Tomlin coaching
Starting point is 00:15:27 trade, Deontay, like I need air right now. I need this in the office. I can. can't do this again. Another year of, well, they kept him and they're adding them, Roger. No, it's, it's been a great run. Every coaching relationship, I was going to say every relationship, but that's not right. Not every relationship comes to an end. Every coaching relationship comes to an end. And there's no path going forward with this. It's been a great run. Get together. Say thank you to everyone involved. You'll have people saying they're not going to do better than Tomlin. And it's probably going to be true, but that doesn't mean you just stick with him and keep going. I see New York and maybe Miami and Tennessee.
Starting point is 00:16:04 Let's get a little rejuvenated. I want to read a rejuvenated Tomlin story in the offseason in August that he just needed a change of scenery. And he's doing all these things differently. And he's hiring from this coaching tree and this coaching tree, which he never did before. And let's have another, you know, a lot of great coaches. They have another second chapter. And sometimes it's a great chapter. Andy Reid, it's his second chapter right now.
Starting point is 00:16:27 Maybe he's his second chapter. and the Steelers, you take a step back and say, all right, let's think about what we want to do next. We're a stable organization and let's build this thing the right way. I love the optimism because I'm looking at the present day and I'm looking at the Steelers and I'm saying this is a team that is teeming to lose to Miami in a couple of weeks to be fresh off of a loss to Baltimore, get the dolphins in a game where you should feel like by identity and by the way these two teams are built, Pittsburgh should dominate that game from wire to wire. and we're going to look up and say,
Starting point is 00:16:58 how did Divine A-chan go for 230 yards on the ground in three touchdowns? How did Tua Tugaviloa throw for 300 yards in a touchdown? That's what it feels like this team is heading towards, unless they're able to genuinely live on the luck that is gained by forcing those turnovers, getting a ball on short fields, and not having to ask this offense to really do any heavy lifting at all. This is not a recipe for a contention. I think that for me, maybe spiritually,
Starting point is 00:17:24 when we talk about the playoff field, this is probably the one team maybe outside of San Francisco that can make the playoffs that I look at and I'm like, this is what bringing in the seventh seed has done to us is that now we've got to add teams like this to kind of be cannon fodder for the top seeds in the AFC and the NFC. I just don't see it with Pittsburgh
Starting point is 00:17:43 and I don't see based on style of play than really being able to turn this around. Yeah, I'm with you. All right, well, so we're both panicking about the Steelers. Let's see if we're right or wrong. All right, let's take a break. We come back and we talk about the Eagles. This episode is brought to you by Amazon Prime.
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Starting point is 00:18:35 Need some holiday magic. It's on Prime. Head to Amazon.com slash Prime to shop now. All right, we are back on the Ringer NFL show. Last team here, the Philadelphia Eagles, who are coming off an embarrassing Friday loss to the Chicago Bears, still in the driver's seat in the NFC East, again, another team where if you just look at the standings, you go, it's not so bad.
Starting point is 00:19:00 But then you watch them and you go, oh, and actually might be very bad, Deante. So where are you? I've been dying to get your take here. Where are you with this Philadelphia Eagles team right now? You know, Shil, I kind of want to pose it this way. I make an analogy. I don't know if the gifted and talented program was existed in primary education when you were in school. That's not to beat you.
Starting point is 00:19:23 Yeah, I didn't get in, much to the disappointment of my parents. But I think a lot about the Eagles is like one of those gifted and talented kids, right? And then they go on. They're kind of ushered along. You get to fast track everything early because you've got all the talents. You've got all the ability. You learn ahead of your peers at that point in time. And then they get to high school and they're coming home and their mom and dad are asking,
Starting point is 00:19:44 hey, how do you have a C plus? And how do you have a C plus in pre-calf? How are you failing your English class right now? And that kid looks at their parents and says, oh, man, well, all the homeworks in my backpack. I just got to turn it in. Oh, we've got an exam coming up in three weeks. I'll just cram for that. And I'll pass a class, no problem. That's how I feel about Philadelphia, right? It's that, it's that kid. It's the person in a relationship that was responsible for washing the dishes. And their partner comes home and says, why does it stink in this apartment right now?
Starting point is 00:20:14 And they keep looking at you and saying, hey, well, I said, I'll get it done, right? I've gotten it done before. You know that everything's great when I get the job done, right? And I think that maybe just for me, I'm kind of landing in this place where I have heard it all before. I've seen what happens when this team waits and waits and waits to make necessary adjustments to change its identity mid-flight. And when they don't, we have seen this thing crash and burn, right? In 2021, they would not change their style of play. They got to the wild card around.
Starting point is 00:20:44 Tampa Bay absolutely ran them off the field. 2022, they make changes. Get to the Super Bowl. 23, very similar to 21 in that respect. You have a certain identity. you're not adjusting on either side of the ball. Again, the bucks run you off the field. And then in 24, after a slow start, they make some changes.
Starting point is 00:21:00 They really lean on their defense. They force a bunch of turnovers. They're able to run the ball. They limit possessions. Everything is great. And then the offense kicks into gear in December and January. And things turn up and they're able to go win a Super Bowl. This year, it feels like Kevin Petulow and Nick Siriani come to the podium every week and say,
Starting point is 00:21:19 I promise you, I'm going to turn in my homework before our professor. closes a class and that'll get me from my C minus to my B minus and everything will be just fine. And I'm the parent that's saying, if you could do it, just do it. Right? Like I'm tired of the platitudes. I am tired of these one week patch over solutions where they do under center for a week and it works great. And then they do it the next week and it works great.
Starting point is 00:21:44 And then the second they run into some resistance from an opposing defense, they just ditch it. Because when's the last time we have seen this team really commit to under center play action? I know that some of that is six offensive line looks. They haven't been able to access because Lane Johnson is hurt. But if that's the only way you can get into under center, then you haven't spent enough time investing into the package. You know what? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:22:05 So, yeah, that's good. But I feel like that stuck out so, like, glaringly in this Eagles Bears game because the Bears had this coordinated offense where it's just like, man, everything looks the same and the Eagles defenders are in conflict. And it's under center and it's a handoff. But Caleb Williams is carrying out his fake on the bootleg. and you've got three Eagles defenders taken out of the play because they don't know what to run play
Starting point is 00:22:27 until it's eight yards down the field. The Eagles in like week nine, we're like, hey, under center run game. Let's throw it. What an idea? Google this online. What do we do? Okay, we do that.
Starting point is 00:22:38 And they do it. And like you said, so of course it's not going to look the same. You haven't committed to making it like you don't have a coordinated offense. You know, coordinated is the key word there. And I love your analogy because every, they came into the season and they were defending Super Bowl champs. They came in with a hubris that our players are going to be better than your players again.
Starting point is 00:22:57 That Sequin's going to break off a 50-yarder. That A.J. Brown and Devante Smith are going to beat band coverage. That Jalen Hertz is going to make plays with his legs. That our offensive line is going to push you around. And look around. None of it's happening. No big plays from Sequin. Jalen Hertz is struggling.
Starting point is 00:23:11 The O line is injured and not effective. A.J. Brown in some of these games looks checked out. And there's no plan B because you came in saying, we won the Super Bowl last year. there was no foresight, and this is almost all on the offensive side of the ball, there was no foresight about, hey, let's have some chain jobs, let's have some wrinkles. We're going to get every team's best this year. Maybe some of this stuff won't work as well.
Starting point is 00:23:34 Like there was regression stuff that should have been predictable with this offense. That you're not going to get that from Sequin this year. He might take a little step back or a big step back, and they had no foresight. And I'm telling you, that offensive film against the Bears was worse than it was live. I mean, the players look like they have no confidence in the scheme. Guys are not on the same page. This actually, in my opinion, could get worse. So despite their record, Deonti, I'm going panic for the Eagles.
Starting point is 00:24:01 And maybe I'll be wrong. I will laugh about this in a month. I don't think it's getting better for this offense this year. I'm kind of with you with that, right? And I'm so glad that you have brought up their ethos, right, that we have the best players. We win games because we have the better players. They don't coach like they have better players. They have this 2025 version of this team, which is loaded all over the place,
Starting point is 00:24:22 and they coach it like the 2021 team where Jalen Hertz was trying to throw to Quez Watkins, right? That's how they play, is let's shrink possessions, let's hope nothing goes wrong, and maybe we'll just win out at the very end. They do not play like the team that existed in 2022 and 2023. We're almost like a big FU. No matter what you want to do on defense, we're going to take our shots, we're going to be efficient in the run game, and we're going to dictate the terms of action to you, You don't see that.
Starting point is 00:24:48 You don't even see that in spurts with the Eagles as much anymore. You might find them maybe access one specific solution, and then they lean on that until it's not available anymore. It is just hard to live that way in this league. And the last point I will make is the Eagles are the exact example you need. That process matters more than results. Because if they were playing aggressively and they were eight and four, then we would just say, hey, strength of schedule, you've got to see the Broncos,
Starting point is 00:25:14 you've got to see the lions. The cowboys are actually much better right now. than the version of the team that you saw at the beginning of the year. You saw the bucks before the injuries really wore them out. You got the Rams while they were still fresh and playing really well. That's not the case. They have been skating by against a tough schedule in a way that's not sustainable. And I think that that's exactly why you feel like they should be in a panic.
Starting point is 00:25:36 That's why I feel like they should be in a panic. And the fact that, again, they come into this week and say, we're not really changing anything offensively. If you're an Eagles fan, you should read that the way that I tweeted about it, which is to say we're not really planning on making the necessary changes to go out and compete for a Super Bowl. If we fall backwards into one, great, but we're not going to do anything proactively to make it happen.
Starting point is 00:25:56 We don't have answers. And it looks like they don't have answers, honestly. So we'll see what happens. And they have the fourth easiest remaining schedule. They're in the driver's seat in the division. But to me, this feels like a, you know, sort of like we were talking about the scenario with the Ravens. Or maybe you get in, but it's like 20, 23.
Starting point is 00:26:13 And first round, you're out of there. and then we start talking about the offseason changes. Maybe we'll be wrong. We'll see. Maybe we'll be wrong about all of these teams. All right, he is Deontay Lee from the ringer. Deontay, thank you for joining me, my friend. Always thank you for having me.
Starting point is 00:26:28 All right. I'll be right back with the hurry up. All right, the hurry up is our closing segment where I give you a take on news in the NFL and the Patriots won again Monday night, beating the Giants for their 10th straight win. They're 11 and 2 on the season. The Broncos are 10 and 2.
Starting point is 00:26:45 So Patriots are the one seed right now. And no other team in the AFC has more than eight wins. So I think we're at that point where the Patriots have to be taken seriously as a Super Bowl contender. I know it's been an easy schedule, but you can only play the teams on your schedule. And they beat the bills in the bucks. And they haven't gotten tripped up by teams like the Panthers or the Browns or whoever, which is actually pretty hard to do. So sometimes there's a season like this.
Starting point is 00:27:11 And what we do is we assume, oh, they're a team on the way up. they're playing with house money. It's the first of many opportunities. But football just doesn't work that way. There's too many factors, schedule strength, injuries, luck. And sometimes your best chance to get to the Super Bowl comes earlier than you were anticipating. That might be happening here with this Patriots team. We talked about it earlier.
Starting point is 00:27:33 It's possible Patrick Mahomes is out of the playoffs. Joe Burrow is probably almost definitely out of the playoffs. And these aren't the best Ravens and Bills teams with Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen. So this is kind of a golden opportunity for a team like the Patriots or even a team like the Broncos depending on how the next five weeks go. So Drake May is playing great. He's passing every test. Mike Ravel's doing an excellent job. Special teams gave him a big boost on Monday night.
Starting point is 00:28:00 And the Patriots have a real chance here, given the weird circumstances of the 2025 season. All right. Thanks to Deonté Lee. Thanks to Christopher Sutton for producing Kiera Givens on social and additional production supervision by Connor and Evans. in Arjuna, Ramgo-Pal. I'm Sheila Kapadia. 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-Hallp.com or visit RG-HamplingHelp.com. Call 1-88-7-8-8-9-7-7-7 or visit C-CpGamblinghelp.org in
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