The Ringer NFL Show - Philly Not So Special? Plus the Sneaky Good Titans and More Week 4 Reactions | The Ringer NFL Show (Ep. 312)

Episode Date: October 1, 2018

The Ringer’s Robert Mays and Kevin Clark open the show with reactions to Ravens-Steelers, Eagles-Titans, and Tyler Eifert’s gruesome injury before discussing whose stock you should buy or sell after Week 4 (hint: buy Mitchell Trubisky stock!) (2:00). Then the guys throw challenge flags on judging young QBs, the Giants as a team in general, and the Earl Thomas situation before predicting tomorrow’s headlines (46:30). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's show is brought to you by Yahoo. Show me the football. Are you ready for live football in your phone? With the Yahoo Sports mobile app, you got it. Watch local and primetime NFL games on your phone or tablet all season long. Never miss your local game. Never miss a big national matchup. All you need is the Yahoo Sports app.

Get the Yahoo Sports mobile app and you are golden. To the Ringer NFL show on the Ringer Podcast Network. I'm Robert Mays, joined as always by Kevin Clark. Kevin, how you doing, buddy? What a day of football for you, Robert Mays? It's been one heck of a day. I got to enjoy the Mitchell-Trabisky experience and definitely have the most fun bears game

that I've had in at least six years. I mean, maybe longer, but since the 2012 season where they were forcing six fumbles a game, at the very least, my new dog ate my microphone cover. Yeah, so, Let's paint the picture for the listener here. We started the podcast 15 minutes late, and your excuse, which was a valid one, is that the dog chewed all over your stuff. I got a dog yesterday.

That's a fairly, fairly generic excuse for like a fifth grader. It's true. But it happened to you. I got back from my trip from L.A. on Friday. My suitcase was still in the kitchen slash living room area. it was slightly open and she managed to eat the cover off my microphone, which, to be fair, it does look like a big ice cream cone. I'm not sure if she knows what ice cream looks like, but I don't blame her for eating it or eating anything at this point. She's been here for 24 hours.

So she's a good dog and it's okay. I would never be mad at her because I cannot be mad at anything today. I was ready to just unload on you for being 15 minutes late and then I found out your good dog is the cause of it. And I said, you could be 45 minutes. late. It's fine. Yeah, she's, she's worth it. She's very cute. It's been a good day all around. That game was phenomenal. We will get to that. I mean, Mitchell Trubisky throwing six touchdown passes is something we probably have to address on this podcast, no matter who is hosting it. But we're going to start on a somewhat more dour note for a couple of teams. And the first of those teams is the defending Super Bowl champions. So our lead today is going to be about what sort of

of trouble the Eagles might be in and we're going to fold in what sort of trouble that other Pennsylvania team might be in in the Pittsburgh Steelers. But first and foremost, we are going to start off here with the defending Super Bowl champs. The Eagles lose in overtime to the Tennessee

Titans. And the loss is one thing. But for me, it's more about the second straight week where they haven't necessarily look dominant with Carson Wentzback. The offense really sputtering against a defense that maybe we're starting to figure out it's pretty good,

but you wouldn't necessarily pencil in as one of the best defenses in the league. I mean, this is a group that kind of looked out of sorts at times against the Titans today, and I just did not expect that. So Rodney McLeod goes down, and we were recording a podcast while that happened, and we sort of looked at each other and said that could be problematic down the road.

It's problematic, and the secondary, I don't really know what happens going forward because at this point I have the number in front of me the Eagles have allowed over 1,100 passing yards so far and that's the second most

in franchise history. That's bad. Elliot Shore Parks had this little chart here that I'll read out now. The Titans, by the way, and he makes this point here, they basically did not like

a functioning offense last week. Some of that was the Gabbard stuff, but they have not exactly... That's something that was Marcus Mariotis. elbow not working. They're also, they're not the chiefs here. Okay.

They're not the Kansas city chiefs. It's not Patrick Mahomes. But on the final drive, they converted a fourth and four, a fourth and 15, a third and 19, a fourth and two, and a third and goal from the 10.

The Eagles have got to figure out how to limit those plays. I know that there's a lot of problems to be fixed there, but one of them is just make a damn stop in overtime on the final drive. Let's talk about the Titans very briefly, because I also wanted to mention the Titans here.

I feel like, you know how when teams win games ugly, we don't necessarily give them a lot of credit for it. It's like, you know, who cares? I mean, they won this game so ugly. Are they any good? Does it really matter? Did that with Jacksonville this time last year. We did that with Jacksonville last week when it came to Tennessee.

Yeah, and you know, they're going and they're playing Jacksonville and whatever. They lost, but, you know, it's, we're like, oh, man, What an ugly game. Who really cares? You know, this Tennessee team, they went ugly against the Titans. They went ugly against the Texans. They went ugly against Miami. Are they really any good?

They lose that just disgusting game to the Jaguars. And then they come out. I believe we gave a stock down to everyone involved in that game. That's how bad at all that was. That's exactly right. And then they come out and do what they did today. And I feel like the reason that it's important what they did today is because Marcus Mario's elbow did not work last week.

he could not grip a football because of the nerve damage. Did you see the glove he wore today? It was so weird. I've never seen that before, but it clearly worked. It was a glove with two fingers? Yes. So, I mean, whatever it was, it worked because he was able to throw the ball down the field. They had some shots down the middle field, one of which they didn't even hit early in overtime that would have broken the game wide open even earlier than it did.

They were able to take some shots, take advantage of Rodney Claw not being there. Corey Davis made some big play. Day 1st, Taylor was a threat to make a couple big plays. They've survived long enough. Now they're 3-1. Who else is going to win the wild card of the AFC? They could win the AFC South for all we know. They went long enough to keep themselves alive.

Their offense is going to be fine. When Mario is healthy, we just saw that. And their defense, I have a feeling, is for real. Their pass rush has enough piece. their secondaries playing well, they're blitzing at the right times, all the way across 11 guys, their defense is really solid and they're playing with a certain energy. I like this team. And I think that what they did to stay alive over this four weeks actually becomes,

it goes from forgettable to impressive after what they did today. Okay. So a couple things. Number one, they were down 17 to 3. And that's, that's an impressive accomplishment in and of itself. Marcus Marriota, even though he was not himself, he looked comfortable in the office. Enough.

And he's still efficient. Do you know his touchdown interception ratio in the red zone? It's insane over the course of his career. 41 to zero over the course of his career. 41 to zero. And I know that he has not, you know, had, he has not opened up in an offense like a, you know, like a Mahomes or he hasn't had like the,

statistical success even missed Trubisky today, right? Obviously, he's a better quarterback than Trubisky over the past two years. Hey, hey, okay, over two years is fine. What, over a one game, well, over a one day sample size now? I'm joking. I'm joking. We're just taking it one day at a time. That's all we're doing. Continue.

But he takes care of the football. He has really good athleticism. I think Matt Lufour is going to be good for him. I feel a lot better about Marcus Mariotta today than I did at the beginning of the season. See, it's not that I necessarily feel better than I did at the beginning of the season, because I felt good at the beginning of the season. I had high hopes for this offense. I feel so much better now than I felt at the start of today.

Because I really didn't know what was going to happen with that elbow. And to see the progression he made from last week physically gives me hope that this is something that's going to get marginally better over time. And if it's going to keep getting better and their offense is going to be able to improve as a result of it. Combined with the way they're playing defense, it's like, oh, we're cooking with gas now.

I mean, this team can really do something in a watered down AFC. I was so impressed. Okay, so can I ask you a question? So you keep, we, we have talked all the time about how the AFC might suck and it still might suck. But

at this point, you have the Jaguars and Titans, both three and one. It looks like the Ravens are good. Okay, it looks like the Ravens are good. So do you believe in any of the dolphins, Steelers, Bengals,

I guess, we'll talk about the Texans in a second, but do you believe in either of those teams to contend for one of those wild card spots? I was really disappointed with Miami today. Oh, absolutely. It's a disaster.

I mean, we'll get to these games. That was almost like regression in real time. That's exactly right. James. The Patriots were due to just destroy a team and the dolphins were doing to absolutely lay an egg. It just, it was all, it was, it was probability playing out in real time. I expect it's so much more of the Dolphins offense against New England.

Are you mean scoring a point? Yes. I mean, it's, we knew that the Patriots were not going to play as bad as they did last week. We knew that Miami probably wasn't this good. I, now I'm going to need to see it for an extent of. period with the dolphins. When it comes to the Bengals and the Ravens, that Atlanta defense is out and out disaster.

They cannot stop anyone and they manage it. I mean, that's why they lost today. We will get to Cincinnati, but we'll see with the Bengals. I think they have maybe enough firepower on offense, but we'll diagnose that. When it comes to the Ravens, I still don't know.

I still don't know about Flacco. Also, there's an AFC North playoff spot. So it's not, it's if, yeah, but the Steelers are one, two, and one. I still look like they're ready to run away with that division. I still am picking the Steelers. I still am picking the Steelers to win that division. I know that might seem crazy, but it's only one two and one. They're game and a half behind those two teams.

It's not as if this is over. Their talent is such on offense that I just have to believe they'll do this by the end. But tonight was another terrible example. Here's, I will say this right now. in terms of their future and extended playoff chances and what they will do in the playoffs, I am much more afraid about the Eagles than I am about the Steelers. How about that? Oh, let's explore that.

So is that a, you just don't like this defense? You don't like the way Wentz looks now. Where are we on that one? I feel like their offense does not look great, even though they dropped a lot of passes today. I think that cannot go overlooked how many balls hit the ground in key situations. Aguar dropped one, but also their receivers made a couple plays. Jeffrey goes up and makes that play. They had a couple contested catches.

It's the defense I don't think is there all the way across the board that it was last year. I think losing McLeod, you see kind of the domino effect, something like that, starts to have. That being said, the Steelers' offense is also kind of a mess right now. I mean, from the beginning, you saw how much them not having Mike Hilton hurt them on the first play of the game when John Brown scored that touchdown. So here's my only thought. I think the Ravens can be a pretty good team this year. I think their defense is good, and I think that their offense is good enough

to take advantage of a good defense. When I look at the NFC East, I just don't see a team right now. The Redskins are two and one and look fine. The Cowboys are the Cowboys and the Eagles are two and two. I'm writing the Giants off. I'm sorry. As you should.

I cannot deal with the Giants right now. Get them out of this conversation. Within the division outlook, I feel like is rosier for the Eagles 100%. I mean, at best, you know, there are a half game back going into next week because Washington's not playing. So that's great. I mean, I think that they absolutely can win their division and whatever. But it's more so just about the long-term health and what I can feel, what I feel they

can do within the conference at large. And I still feel like right now what the Eagles look like compared to what some of the other teams the NFC look like. I'm not exactly sure that they're one of the best three or four teams as it currently stands. I did not know buys started. I just, it just slipped my mind to snuck up on me until I saw. I always knew because it was one last game,

but they were only eight early games. I was like, why are they only eight early games? And then I saw Josh Norman in Los Angeles today and I said, well, I guess either there's a massive scandal going on or their Redskins are on a buy and Josh Norman's in Los Angeles. That's great.

It was literally like the, early, it was like the 1 p.m. window. Oh, there's Josh Norman. Okay. I guess the Redskins are on it by. I guess we're at that point of the season. All right. Yeah, yeah, that's the only way we knew. and I totally understand. I've been preoccupied with the things today as well. One of those things I was preoccupied with today and a reason I didn't necessarily tune in the same way I always do to some of the early games is going to be our first stock up. And that is Mitchell Trubiskey. Good Lord. That was fun. I don't even know what to say.

At one point, I was just sitting there laughing because it just seemed like every ball that went up in the air got caught for like a 30-yard touchdown. Dirk Cutter called for his own firing today. I don't blame him. When you give up that to the dude who has looked often inept over the first three weeks in the season, it might be time for you to go home.

So I want you to talk about Mitch Chubisky. I want to talk about the bear's defense for a second. There are a couple throws he made today that people are going to write off as, well, the guy was wide open. And that's totally fair. You know, it's the one he threw down the left sideline to Bell and me for the touchdown. That is a great design. It's a fake screen to Cohen. Today was the day we found out what kind of weapon to Rick Cohen could be in an offense, by the way.

As a decoy, as a receiver, as a runner, I feel like Jordan Howard is going to be a guy they use in select situations now, and Cohen is the focal point. It almost becomes an almost exaggerated version of the Kareem Hunt in Kansas City thing when they're playing the way they want to. Mr. Chibisky is not Patrick Mahomes, let me be clear. But what the running back in that situation can be at the best version of it. So, you know, they got a few of those throws. But even the first touchdown to Burton down the right sideline, Evans fell down late.

that ball was released when he was still running with Burton, and that would have been an on-target throw, even with the defender there. So a lot of the throws he made today while schemed open were on-target throws. And there were two that I found very impressive. One, he made a throw across the field to Taylor-Gabriel on a play-action pass

that was almost identical to throws he's missed over the first three weeks. And what happened was, instead of trying, to float that ball to a wide open guy, he changed the plane of the throw and just threw it right to him on a line. He often overthrows Gabriel. And I know those look bad.

Taylor Gabriel is 5'8. And these are balls that are not being thrown to him down the field that are bombs that just go get it. He's a very real receiver in this offense and it requires some recalibration. And that one was very impressive to me. And he had another where

he moved outside the pocket in a calm way, reset his launch point on a play action throw, and delivered a strike to Terry Burton. And it's like, all right, there we go. You did not bail out of control. You moved the launch point out of the pocket when you knew you had max protection and you hit the throw. It was so encouraging,

and it wasn't just he's throwing to wide open dudes. There was some of that, but there were a couple throws he made today. It's like, this is what needs to happen for this team to be very real. and the other element of that is, God damn, that defense is good. Yep.

So that's what I want to talk about. I just want to say from a team profile perspective, when you're just looking from 35,000 feet, no one has blitzed less than the Chicago Bears and no team has more sacks. That is the recipe for not only a dominating defense, but a dominant team. Like, that's the profile of a team that gets far in the playoffs.

Just they can generate pass rush from anywhere. And that's what I think is really exciting. If Trubisky can be above average, this can be an 11 and 5 team. Yeah, they're a wildcard team. If he plays like this today, they were 100% a wildcard team, not even this. If he plays like this, they win the Super Bowl. He played five touchdowns in a half. If he is an above average quarterback, they're a wildcard team, 100%.

Without a doubt, there was a lot. a stat we did out JJ Stankovitz had this okay they're the seventh team since

in this century since 2000 I've 18 sacks in four games okay the 2000

bucks the 01 Packers the 04 Eagles the 13 chiefs 15 Broncos 17

Jaguars every single one of those teams got to the second round of the playoffs this is the best

defense in football right now well yeah made the best defensive player in football right now who is just forcing a fumble every week. It's incredible. And it doesn't even feel like it's out of character.

It doesn't even feel like, oh, man, how can he keep doing this? No. Because I felt like today it should have been more. There should have been at least one more. I mean, James Winston slipped out of like two sacks that were 20-yard losses. This should not be a sustainable thing and it's sustainable. And my favorite thing, it's like when I watched Jacksonville last year.

When you watch a defense like this that just has it, every single one of those dudes is hunting for the ball. They all believe it's theirs on every play. And we talk about the not blitzing thing, and it's such a good point. But what really good defenses do is they essentially make it look like they're blitzing when they're not. Yeah.

And the bears have done such a great job of using stunts with Mac. They had one today that I thought was so perfect. they put Floyd as the defensive tackle on Mac's side. And Mac does this all the time on his own volition. He'll crash in on certain plays because he knows they're setting him for speed outside. So he's crashing in. He's taking two guys with him and Floyd comes around the outside.

Floyd is not a bender outside pass rusher, but he's an excellent change of direction player. He does a very good job of putting his foot in the ground and going. And letting him have those lanes because of Mac makes him even more dangerous. Akeem Hicks one-on-one makes him even more dangerous. But while Nichols had a play today, Kyle Fuller was all over the place.

Bryce Callahan, their nickel corner right now, is reminding me of the way that Mike Hilton played last year. Very physical as a nickel corner, making tackles around the line of scrimmage. Danny Chervaithin almost had a pick today. Adrian Eddie Jackson did have a pick today and made a couple of great plays. Roquan is really starting to figure it out in terms of his play speed.

Aaron Lynch looks really good. They didn't even have a Mukamara today. Yeah. And what I think is real interesting, just in general about this team, is that the Jaguars last year had the incredible defensive line, but then they had individual talent on the back end.

E.J. Boyer and J. Boeh, and Jalen Ramsey were the two best cornerbacks in the NFL for basically the entire season. I mean, it was both sides of the field were locked down in a way that we hadn't really seen in a long time. And I don't think the best. Bears had that individual talent in the secondary.

Not at all. I mean, I think Adrian Amos is a very, very good player. I don't argue their safeties are better. Yeah, I would too. The corners. Yeah. The corners on Jacksmore. It's not even close.

But the fact that the bear's defense looks like this is just a tribute to what Vic Fangio is done with that front seven. And also just the individual dominance of Colomac who would be, obviously, he's better than anybody on that Jacksonville defensive line. He's been amazing, man. I mean, it's been so much fun to watch. And this doesn't really matter the modern era because run defense is not a real weakness,

you know, when you consider what you want to be. But the Bears don't want you run the wall. I mean, the Jacksonville run defense was kind of a disaster at certain stretches of the early portion of last year. You can't run on the Bears. They have maybe the best run defense in the NFL right now. So it's the Jags, past defense was a buzz saw last year. It's four games. You know, they need to sustain it. But

when you see what they did to what had been one of the more efficient passing offenses in the league over the first three seats, over the first three games this season, it's like, all right, now I'm ready. Like this, this team is like getting me excited now because this defense is for real to a terrifying degree. All right. Wait, no, no. Now I'm not letting you get away from that. I don't want to move on. Give me your prediction for the. rest of the season. I think they go 10 and 6 and get a wild card. Okay.

Me too. The Trubisky thing is going to be up and down. But wait, who, do they, do they finish above the Green Bay Packers? I was not impressed with the Packers today. Okay. Their defense looked great against Josh Allen. It's that bill's offense is horrendous. Aaron Rodgers seems very mad.

He seems very mad. He's very frustrated. They did not move the ball consistently on offense. They looked out of sorts. It's there for the taking. that's what I'll say. It is there for the taking. The Vikings have fatal flaws

despite all of their talent all the way across. I mean, they have a ton of talent that team, but they have fatal flaws right now. And if the defense can play like this and they can get the scattered games

from the quarterback, the most important thing in my mind today about how they played is that he looked like a quarterback and a player afraid over the first three weeks. And if you can get him with a little bit of juice,

it might be the most important thing. And for him to have, have that game, I think, could be a massive, massive thing for his confidence and for just the trajectory of this offense moving forward. Maybe that's a rosy way to look at it, but I absolutely think that it could have that sort of play. All right, let's move on. Let's go for another stock up. Let's go with the Bengals offense and Mr. Andy Dalton. First, I want to address the sadder, maybe the saddest moment of today. I mean, we can throw the roll. The saddest moment of the season.

The saddest moment of the early slate for sure. Tyler Eifer was having an awesome game. I was pumped about him coming in against his Falcons team. His snap percentages had gone up the first two games. He was running more routes. He was firmly entrenched as the Bengals number one tight end. I was like, oh man, all right, here we go. Tyler Eifer, this is awesome.

He's healthy. He's playing. And just another fluke thing. It's not an elbow. It's not the back. that we've seen from him is not the knee. It's just a snapped ankle on a fluke player where he was fighting for more yards

and he is again done for the season. And his face, I'll tell a story. I was, when I was in Los Angeles last year, November, or in October, I was at the Venice Whaler inbound Venice Beach. I just landed and the Cubs were playing in the playoffs. So I didn't want to go all the way to Hollywood.

I was like, all right, let's get up really quick on the west side. I don't want to catch the rest of this game. And Tyler Wright was at the table next to me. And he was there to get that final opinion on the imagery that eventually ended his season. He needed a second one. He was put on the show for good. And he and I started talking a little bit.

And I was just like, yeah, I heard why we're out of here like da-da-da-da-da. He's like, yeah, you know, just figuring out. And I was like, you know what? Good luck, man. You know what? I really wish you the best and stay healthy. He and I had met a couple times. And I just, I really fell for him.

because there is nothing sadder to me than a guy whose body betrays him in the NFL, a player who's clearly so talented and seems like a good dude and whatever else and just cannot get a break. And I mean, for the whatever season in a row, that's it for him. And I think their offense is a ton of ability outside of that. Tyler Boyd has really come around. I think that it could carry them with an uneven defense. But with him, they would have been such a just forced to be reckoned with.

And now that's over again. Yeah, I mean, one of the things that bothers me in the macro sense in the NFL is how little attention is paid to injured players. Yeah, I totally agree. When Chris Bowen and I did that podcast last year with Bill, we talked about kind of watching football practice and the most depressing part of football practice. And I'm sure you've seen it. I've seen it. Borland certainly has seen it is when a guy gets hurt and it looks like. a bad one and they move the drill and they just let the guy lay there. I've seen it like maybe

five or six times my life, especially in training camp. And you're just like, okay, well, the drill move, the other players maybe thought about it for 10 seconds and kept going. Meanwhile, the guy on the ground who blew his Achilles or broke his ankle or whatever he did, his life is dramatically changed. Yeah. You have to do it that way. I want to be clear that I'm not judging how they handle those because it's such a regular. that if you every single one becomes devastating, you'll never play. But and Tyler Eifford is signed for one year, five million right now. Yeah.

Obviously, his financial situation is a lot better than the vast, vast majority of people. And we're not, this is not a financial thing. But it, it's just about, you know, his career is dramatically altered because he has that injury. And I think that a lot of times, you know, especially injured players are just no longer part of the team in the NFL. They're treated as second class citizens. It's all very bizarre.

But I think, I guess the point I'm making is, when you see a guy like Tyler Eifert literally crying on the cart, it's because all of these things, the one-year deal, the fact he's been so injured, all of these things all add up to make a very, very emotional thing. To come up,

to come back what he's had to come back from. Just time and time again. It's not about money. It's about getting to do what you want to do and how hard you've worked for it. And to feel right and I'm sure he felt so good today. And then to have it all taken away again is just, it really it hits me really hard and that image hit me really hard it just of all the guys to have

that kind of fluke injury again you just feel for the guy so much but all right let's talk about the bangles offense outside of tyler riper which again we're moving the drill because we have to they they do look good and i think that their offensive line let's let's say this i will say they looked good today with a caveat the reason they almost lost that games that they could not protect Dalton for stretches. And the Falcons have a better defensive front than other teams they'll face in terms of speed. You know, Tech McKinley had some moments today. Grady Jarrett was hurt for a little bit, but he was definitely in the mix. You know, Vic Beasley is not the player we thought he was a couple of years ago, but he's still athletically

gifted. They had some issues and we'll see if those kind of pop up again moving forward. But the line is undeniably better than it has been in the last couple of years and allows them to be a functional offense. When Dalton has protection and when Dalton has weapons, we've seen that he can be decent and that he can play. They'll get mixing back soon. Bernard

will step back into the kind of secondary role he fills that he's very good at. They still have AJ Green. Again, we talked about Boyd. John Ross just cannot stay healthy. He tweaked that hamstring or groin or whatever it was today while playing and could barely run. But I feel like they have

enough to be, you know, a real bother for teams going forward here, especially in a wateredown AFC. As we talked about, at a certain point, when you win these early games ugly, you keep yourself in the tournament and they are three and one in the same way that the Titans are three and one. Say what, he only had 78 yards. I'm ready for an AJ Green comeback season. He was monstrous against the Ravens. No, I know. But he won the game for the fangles today. He's always, he's going to be around in the right scenario. And that's what I'm saying is that I feel like the Bengals might have the right scenario offensively. I think because he sort of settled in to, I mean, last two years, he's basically gotten a thousand yards.

He had 1,078 and 964 before that. I feel like we've sort of forgotten how dominant he was in the 1400 yard season, the 1,300 yard season. I mean, he is a dominant, dominant force. I mean, I think that the 2016 season sort of ended the debate between him and Huli. I'd love to see him kind of reemerge in that space and get that going because I really do think he's as talented of receivers as in the NFL. I think we're having the same conversation

because again, I think that because they have a sustainable infrastructure now, we get to see the player that he is. When Dalton has other guys to throw to, when Dalton's not on his back every two seconds. Yeah, when he has a line. I mean, the line has been the killer for that offense last couple years.

Totally. And I don't, you know, Andy Dalton's not great, but he's a very, feasible NFL quarterback when you have the right pieces in place. And I think that they do this year in a way that they have not. And I think that it makes them real.

You know, their defense, I'm not impressed by the Falcons move the ball pretty easily a lot of this game. But their offense has enough, again, in an AFC that is completely up for grabs right now, I'm excited to see what they do

moving forward because I think that they have a lot working for them. Okay. Bangles, hold on one second. Bangles, Ravens, Steelers. Who makes the playoffs? Ravens Steelers. Okay.

I'm still standing there. I just think that there's more talent on that Ravens team in terms of what they have on defense. I literally, I literally just don't feel great about that. Open Twitter for five seconds to check something. And the first headline I see is Big Ben, Colin, I'm not on the same page with anybody. Great. These Steelers games are fun. And then they go to the AAC championship game again. No, I know. I know. It's the opposite of the Patriots. I want to talk with the Steelers for one second. All right. It's the opposite of the Patriots. And I'm literally, this, I just thought just came to me now as I'm reading this. The Patriots start one and two. Tom Brady looks like trash. The skill position players look like garbage. And everybody is like, well, this is fine. They're going to win the Super Bowl still. And the Steelers have maybe a little better start in the first three games. I mean, it, They still look okay.

They still have Antonio Brown. They still have individual talent on offense. And yet, there's just this sense of impending doom that would never happen in New England. And I don't know why that is. They're both sustainably good franchises who are always in the playoffs, who are always in the second round, at least, usually the AFC championship game. And yet, every time they lose the game, they lost to the Jaguars last year in October. And Big Ben said, maybe I don't have it anymore. Could you imagine Tom Brady saying that after like a bad game to learn

for net? Because the Steelers have this like weird drama about them. But I don't understand. Like bad teams have weird drama around them. And the Steelers have this weird drama that just seems to just exist in October and November. Excuse me. September and October. They figured out by November and December and they get to where they're going to go.

But is it just because Ben and Antonio Brown and I guess maybe the levy on contract stuff, just did those guys like acting like everything is? the sky's falling. I don't understand the psychology of it. I mean, I think it's a coaching thing. I think it's a locker room culture thing. I also think... I don't know about that.

Do you think Mike Tomlin is responsible for everybody thinking the Steelers are done every September? Yes. Oh my God, yes. Wait, because of his personality or because you think he's a bad coach? Oh, absolutely.

I think he shuts everything down. I think he doesn't care about any... I don't think he... I don't think he feeds into it in any way. I don't know if he feeds anyone anyway, but that no one would say that in New England. That is a what can you say and what do you think you're allowed to say sort of deal. And that's fine. I don't think it's a bad thing. So you're saying that because Mike Tomlin is a little more player friendly that Robertsberger gets to say, I'm not on the same page with any time.

Definitely. I guess. Okay. I thought you were saying like because Mike Tomlin is there. They all think that the sky is falling. Not at all. I just think that they're allowed to talk like that because they have more freedom and that's okay. I just, I think that that is a product of how loose those guys feel at certain times. And I think that overall, we talk about this all the time. inertia occasionally takes over early in these seasons. Because guys have been a certain way, because teams have been a certain way in past years, we're like, ah, whatever, they'll be fine.

We did it with the Patriots and we were right. Eventually it ends. Eventually is the year where it doesn't. hasn't happened. For quarterbacks we've talked about this, and for teams, it's true, too. And maybe this is the year where it's true for the Steelers. Maybe this is the year where, you know what, it really is bad and it's over, but I'm not willing to say that yet. Both the Patriots and the Steelers remind me of, I grew up in Florida and everybody's a Braves fan in Florida. And every year, I'd be like, well, they're not going to win the NFCs this year.

And then they just won it every single year. And then I just stopped watching baseball. And until the Steelers don't do something in October and until they're not, like seven and two and one or whatever it's going to be. I'm still going to have this thought. All right. One more stock up very briefly. Staking in the AFC. The Texans pulse is now stock up because it exists again.

I was on assignment today and I didn't have anything to do with really the script here. We didn't have a normal conversation before this. I'm going to let you take this. This is a huge whatever from me with the Texans. I totally agree with you. I totally agree with you. And I absolutely hate them. I don't blame you whatsoever.

I thought the offense had signs of life. The Colts defense is terrible. But Watson made some throws. He was moving around. I think that their past catchers are very good. They're only two games back. And I just think that right now they have a shot. You know, in an AFC that's watered down with Watson playing like that,

if he can give that offense some life, even behind that wine, they're now alive. And if they had lost today, it was over, it may still be over at one and three. I just was not expecting them to pull that game out in that sort of fashion and say, you know what? Maybe. Maybe. I just think we had to mention the way that that game ended.

I mean, Wright goes for it. I don't blame him necessarily. You're a team that's not going to be a contender. This is year one of your regime. You want to instill a certain mindset. I don't mind that whatsoever. But the Texans are not dead in the water anymore. And I just felt like we need it to talk.

talk about it even if it was very brief. Could you imagine what Ben Rosberger would say if you played behind that line? I'm not on the same page with anybody. He would have sent it after the first game. Could you imagine the press conferences after he's just constantly getting hit? Whatever. All right. But my official ruling on the Texans is me.

That's totally fine. I'm just saying it has to be stock up when you are flatlining for the first three weeks. Before we move on, let's take a quick break. Today's show is also brought to you by MintMobile. The big and big wireless provider stands for a lot of things. Big contracts, big bills, big fees. What Big Wireless doesn't want you to know is that there's a way to cut your wireless bill down to just 15 bucks a month with MintMobile.

MintMobile has taken everything wrong with big wireless and made it right. With MintMobile, you can save over $1,000 a year without sacrificing quality. MintMobile makes it easy to cut your wireless. bill down to $15 a month. Use your own phone with any Mint Mobile plan and keep your old number along with all your contacts. Choose between 2-5

or 10-gibite 4GLTE plans. No more paying for unlimited data that you'll never use. And if you're not 100% satisfied, Mint Mobile has you covered with their seven-day money-back guarantee. To get your new wireless plan for this $15 a month plus free shipping on your Mint Mobile SIM card,

go to Mint Mobile. mobile.com slash NFL. That's mintmobile.com slash NFL. Cut your wireless plan to 15 bucks a month and get free shipping on your mint mobile sim card at mintmobile.com slash NFL. Today's show is also brought to you by Fanduel. Football season is underway and I'm sure a lot of us already have major regrets about our season-long fantasy teams. It's like you spent all off-season researching and getting excited for the season and then comes the pain. Trust me, I am in the Ringer Fantasy Football League. It's a two-quarterback league, which is nonsense anyway, and my team is an absolute disaster. I barely want to look at it anymore.

That's why I'm so excited to be playing on Fandu all season. At Fanduil, you get the excitement of researching and building your team each week. Every week is a new season, so regardless of the outcome, you get to do it all all over again. Fandual has never been more fun or easy. It's the place to play even if you're not a fantasy expert. Van Duel has something for everyone, and there are more ways to win than ever before. Like their gridiron pick-em contest every week. It's a free contest. All you need to do is pick winners, no spreads, and 10K is split among the top pickers.

I paid a bunch of fan duel this week. I had a ton of daily lineups. I was really excited about it. I had Andy Dalton and a bunch of them and Matt Ryan, and I did okay. You know, I won a little bit. Not to the degree it seemed at the beginning of the day because the Giants just never trust the Giants. That's all I got to say. But it was fun and I am really excited to keep doing it all year.

New users get a $20 bonus when they make their first deposit on Fanduel. So come play with me at fanduel.com slash the ringer. That's fanduel.com slash the ringer. Now back to the show. Stock down. We talked about this a little bit in regard to the Bengals offense. the Falcons defense is done. And my stock down is on their recipe for winning right now,

which is we need to score 40 points to win because we're going to give up 38. The chiefs can do that because they're a death star. The Falcons are not. They're a very good offense. I just don't think with the injuries they have on defense, they have any shot at winning a wild card this year and being relevant at the end of the season.

Their stock down and their defense was done could have been penciled in or written in Penn in early September when Keanu Neal and Dion Jones go down. Totally.

But the Ricardo Allen thing is even worse. Yeah, of course. But now you have three of your best players on your 53 man roster who are out for the season. And I just don't, I don't think there's any way,

I kind of think in this new NFL where teams are just going to put up touchdown for touchdown for touchdown and the teams are going to set the record for touchdowns every single week, probably for the entire season. Because of this, I think the best you can hope for on defense is a couple of individual skill guys just making a difference and forcing the defense into mistakes. Not with my team, baby. I think you win with

Blue Chippers. Well, I would argue that there's Colomack there, ready to make offenses have mistakes, right? And so I kind of think Blue Chippers, obviously always important, but, they're the best line of defense against these high octane offense is just one guy making a play. You needed Dion Jones. You need a Keanu Neal to make, to kind of force those errors. And that's what I think is important. And once they lost those guys, they're screwed. Yeah, I totally agree.

As a Matt Ryan fantasy owner, it's going to be fun because they're going to need to score 50 points a game. They're going to throw 60 times a game in order to get there. But as far as this team's contention chances, I think they're over. You know, we'll see what happens next season. I still feel like they have a ton of talent on this roster. But windows closed, man. They have one of the more expensive offenses in the league. Grady Jarrett needs to be paid.

We'll see what they have to give to having Coleman after the season's over. You know, this Falcons team that looked like it was going to be on the verge of contender status in the NFC for years when they went to the Super Bowl a couple years ago, that slam shut much faster than you think it does. So it's a lost season. And that's a bummer when you're a guy who's a guy who's a super bowl a couple of years. had to build a team on a certain timeline like Thomas Tometroff has. All right, let's go to Stockdown, the Dolphin Sleeper potential. Oh, Jesus. They played their first real team of the season pretty much.

And goodness gracious, that was not fun. What was that? The elements of their team that I thought looked excellent over the first three weeks did not look excellent this week. They could not run the ball. they could not stop the run, which it's not exactly as if the Patriots are the 2016 Cowboys. So not sure what that was about.

Their defense was not in any sort of fundamental sound, you know, assignment-based state the way that it had been over the first couple weeks. I think the dolphins have a chance to be much better than they were, but I'm still not excited. The euphemism assignment-based. base state. I'm trying to be nice.

Used in place of basically not playing organized defense is a mood, as the kids said. I'm trying to be nice. Yeah, they were all over the place. And what I was impressed by is that they were not all over the place for the first couple weeks. They seemed like they were just so on the same page. It seemed like they ran plays, that kind of thing. Yeah, the Dolphins headline over the first three weeks is, man, I'm on the same page

with everybody. Yeah, ran plays. So they did beat the Titans, who I think are pretty good. And then they beat the Raiders. In that weird game, though. Oh, yeah, I know. Then they beat the Raiders who suck and the Jets who I think,

I think suck. And we didn't really know that. We'll get to this. We'll get to this. We didn't really know the Jets sucked then because they had just played the Lions game, which was the one of the weirdest games. And the Lions suck. So here we go.

I know, I know. But the Lions also beat the Patriots last week who now just pasted. I mean, here's my advice for everybody at home in the car. Don't use the transitive property in 2018. Not what football. Don't do it. So let's get to our last stock down.

And the stock is up, or excuse me, the stock is down for last week's, wait a second, teams. And those are the lions and the bills. The lions and the bills still bad. I'm not sure if we have to do much more than that. The lions could not stop the Cowboys. I mean, a team that had absolutely no just functionality as an offense last week against Seattle where they're hitting plays down field. The play action game

is working. Zieg's scoring on 50 yard touchdowns on screen touchdowns. The lines are not very good and the bills are exactly what we thought they were on office. A couple of mad teams. I mean, I never really bought into any of these. I did think Josh Allen was going to look better. But again, I

just go back to this. Josh Allen, one out of every five passes, looked absolutely awesome in training camp. And three out of five were mistakes or bad or underwhelming. And then one of them was just fine, right? That was how I viewed it in early August when I saw him.

And so what ended up happening against Minnesota is all of those good throws were cobbled together in a string. And there were coverage breakdowns. He was mostly running the ball. I mean, that was a fluky game. He's, he, let's hitting open guys for Josh Allen. is not a given. And I would say the same thing about Trubisky.

I mean, I've seen enough. I would put Bortles in this, in this category as well. Sometimes they have weird misthrows, and I'm excited and happy for them when they hit open guys because it's not a given. Yeah, that's fair. That team is going to be all over the place, and for the most part, it's going to be bad.

But I want to move on, and let's stick with kind of the same theme you were talking about. Let's get to our challenge flags of the week. And the first challenge flag I want to throw is on early judgments on quarterbacks. And there are a lot of guys we can throw into this conversation, especially the rookies. And I want to chat about a couple of them. But us anointing Sam Darnold as the second coming was probably a little bit early. Whatever Josh Rosen did today against a bad Seahawks team, we should probably take a step back.

Baker Mayfield loses today against the Raiders, but he was pretty good. I mean, it's not his fault that there's a fumbled snap, a call that should not have been overturned that was that should have ended the game, dropped past by Antonio Calaway that turns into a pick six, and a strip sack that the pocket just crumbles. Baker Mayfield made some ridiculous throws today. Let's take it easy on well, he lost to the Raiders as we try to judge these guys early on. Wait, were you implying Josh Rosen looked good against the,

Seahawks. He did not. He did not. Okay, that's why I was good. I just wanted to make sure at 180 yards. I just wanted to make sure we weren't crying. No, I said, let's take it easy about Josh Rosen and the Seahawks though. You know, Mike Sandel. It's going to be, it's probably going to be okay, but it was a rough start. Mike Sando made the point. It was last week. He said he asked to scout what he thought about the season so far. And the scout said, oh, you mean weeks, you know, week three of the preseason? Exactly. And this is just going to happen. And I think. think that we we learned a lot of lessons from the Seahawks and one of them was that you don't have to be good in September to be good November and December. We're learning that from Patriots. It's where I'm worried about my team. We're learning about it from the Patriots increasingly and we're learning about it from the Steelers who can't stop absolutely freaking out every September and October about their lot in life. But I, you know, these teams come together. And one of the things that

I've written about the last couple of years is how young NFL rosters have gotten. And it's a labor thing. And it's a, it's kind of bullshit, quite frankly, because a lot of the veterans are being pushed out of the league, because they don't make $400,000 a year, like a bunch of third round picks. And the more third

and fourth and fifth round picks were expected to play immediately, the more the learning curve is. And that's why you're seeing so many mistakes in September and October, because these teams are learning on to play football by and large. And, you know, it's interesting to me that, that I saw a quote the other day about Sean McVay about how he teaches football. And it's not, and Belichick does this too. They're teachers. They're not coaches. And there's a process of just learning the game that team needs to go through over the course of a year. And the point of all of that is just informationally

to be ready for November and December and January. And if you're playing well and September, usually, there's not, has not been a huge correlation last couple years between September success and December success. I'll leave it at that. I totally agree. One more thing, though, I just watching that Oakland game today, which I watched a lot of, I'll call it the Browns game. I think Baker Mayfield's going to be really good. Whatever the judgment is on his play today, I can understand that it be mixed because of the turnovers, which again, not his fault for the most part. I think that dude's going to be really good. All right. I agree. Let's get to a couple more of these very quickly.

The Giants suck. I don't know how else to put it. Like, the Giants are bad. That game was there for the taking against a Saints team that wanted to give it away. The Giants are not good. I had a bunch of notes about the Giants and I accidentally closed the tab. You didn't need them. I promise.

And I'm so angry that I don't want to find it. I just don't want to look at those stats. I'm sure you can remember something. I'm sure you can remember something. No, I remember. Sequin Barclay, 44 rushing yards. I certainly remember that. The other thing I remember is that Odo Beckham had 60 yards.

And beyond that, you know what else I remember? A little number for you, Robert? Sequin Barclay was the second player selected in the 2018 NFL draft. I feel bad for Seqlon Barclay. Okay, no, here's the thing. The point of this pick, it was a win now pick as much as I don't know if they ever use those words but the entire point of that pick is to do almost with Zeke Elliott did 2016 which is rush for 1,400 yards, be a

playmaker in this case in the passing game which they want him to do and and be an offensive weapon that changes the face of the offense and then they win now and then they extend Eli's career. They get to honor that contract and Odell's contract, you know, contract with great and and their defense already has the pieces with Vernon and Jenkins and all those guys they brought in a couple years ago plus the guys they drafted Landon Collins right that's the plan well it's not working and maybe you should have drafted a quarterback I don't think I don't think you can harp on this enough it might have been a franchise altering mistake depending on how all this shakes out and again I don't know if darnal was the guy or if he's

going to become the guy I have no idea but I do know that right now the plan around Sequin Barclay, it does not look particularly good. I totally agree with you. I still think Seekwon Barclay looked awesome at times today. I feel so bad for Seekoine Barclay. I love him as a player. I absolutely

adore him as a player. I think he's explosive. He's great. We love Seqqa. We are both on board with Seekoine Barclay, but just as far as what the Giants franchise is doing right now, I'm disappointed. I totally agree with you. There are moments, though,

where he's on the field and it's like, oh my God. He had one cutback run today where he just looked like he's twice as athletic as everyone else out there. And his touchdown, he literally jumped from the five-yard line, I think. He had like 50 receiving yards. The guy is such a dynamic player. And it is not his fault that his team does not understand value and put him in a position that he cannot succeed. He didn't ask him to be drafted second overall. By the way, I just want to go back to this.

the Giants have not scored 30 points since 2015. Can we just figure this out? Can Pat Schumer just sit down and say let's score 30 points this week, guys? That was the whole thing. I mean, my worst picks of the week thing, the video I did with Fantasy over the week over on Wednesday, my only good point, maybe of the season, was that how did we expect the team that hasn't scored 30 points

in since 2015 to hang with the freaking New Orleans Saints. Really? Because the New Orleans Saints could not move the ball.

And they could not move the ball for a huge portion of that game. Yeah. And then they scored 33 points. And that's exactly right. And it speaks to just how dangerous they really are. Alvin Camaro is at a whole hum season, right?

Yeah. You know, he's been fine. You haven't really talked so much about Alvin Camaro. this year. It's been like, ah, whatever. He's been all right. Do you have many yards from scrimmage, Alvin Camaro is on base for? I do not.

244. Yep. Do you know how many touchdowns he scored so far? How many? Six. So, it was just, I was watching that game and they're settling, the same settling for field goals, they don't look at fish

in the red zone, and they, whoop, nope, quietly they've scored 33 points. That dude is always the get his. The Saints on accident do what the Giants have not done in over 30 games. There's just too much talent. I mean, Breeze is making the right throws, all that

stuff, which is a huge help, but there's just too much talent. By the way, yeah, there's a lot of talent. You know where else there's a lot of individual talent? The New York Giants. No, they have two guys. They have two. They're really good. That's fine. But there are two guys and one of them is not the quarterback.

So that's their problem. I mean, the Saints have all that. And the quarterback is really good. I think that Kamara could break records this year. The problem is that Mark Ingram comes back next week. It's the only thing that could kind of dampen his usage and everything else. I think he could be a better football player from here on now with Mark Ingram back, not running into as many stacked boxes as he talked about last week, everything else.

But it just in terms of his overall raw production, I think that that like 2,500 yards is probably off the table just because he's not going to see the same amount of snaps. Hey. Mike Gillisly does not get the run that Ark Ingraham is going to. Hey, Robert, would you take Alvin Kamara with the second overall pick in the draft? I would absolutely not.

And I love Alvin Kamara with all of my heart. One more quick one here. This Earl Thomas situation is bullshit. I said it when it happened today. And it's like, oh, I was being sarcastic. And I said, yeah, what a dick Earl Thomas was for wanting a long-term contract

and not wanting to be in a lame duck situation for a team he knew was going nowhere. and then he gets hurt today, he gets carted off, he flips the bird to someone on his way off the field. And it was like, oh, you know, he shouldn't have done that. And da, da, da, da, da, da. You're like, if you were the Seahawks, what would you have done? I would have fucking traded him because you just had the greatest era of your entire franchise.

This dude does not want to play for you. He wants to play somewhere else. He deserves a long-term deal. He's about to hit 30. He has been an absolute warrior for you for I, cannot remember how long he has been the heart and soul of who you've been. You are not going to be a playoff team this year. He does not want to be there.

He has asked to be traded. Trade him. Put him in the situation he deserves to be in and let the man live his life. Instead, he's out for the season. He's going to be looking for a new deal. He's on the wrong side of 30. And I have no patience for this. I don't give a shit that he had a contract.

I never care about that ever. When guys stopped getting cut with years left on their deals, we can talk about how players should honor their contracts. So this is a really, really good podcast. Obviously, it's not ours. Yeah, clearly.

No, we have an amazing podcast. It's a boxing podcast, Max Kellerman and Chris Mannix a couple months ago. And Max Kellerman made the point that boxers and fans have the exact opposite interests in mind. Fans want to see

the best fight immediately. They want to see wars. They want to see knockouts. They want to see all the things that boxers don't want. Boxers want to fight five, six tune up fights, get the

one money fight for $40 million and really get tested every couple of years. There's a reason we don't see money fights in boxing all that often or we don't see mega fights in boxing all that often because they're managing their career because boxers are the only people who are in charge of their career and that's why boxing is run in a way that it is because the boxer's best interest is to run it like they do which is just you know kind of a slow slow and steady don't fight people all the time whatever right

and that is kind of happening right now with NFL fans and NFL players and teams NFL players, where the most efficient thing for a team is to do the rookie contract, is to screw their players, is to as soon as a guy hits 30 to replace them with the third round pick who makes $400,000 the next four years, cost controlled. That is sort of the thing that the CBA is wrong. Cost controlled rookies instead of veterans. Even a guy like Earl Thomas can be replaceable because, the salary cap makes it so.

And you're starting to get in a situation where we have to start thinking about the players and we have to start looking at this from, I don't want to say an ethical standpoint, but just I think this is the reckoning that's come to baseball a little bit where people are just looking and saying, why are we treating rosters like as soon as you get expensive, you have to leave? I think it's a very interesting dilemma right now when you watch football. because a team and a player's interests have never been more opposed, ever. No, and I understand you have to make pragmatic business decisions when it comes to all of

this stuff, but he didn't want to be there. Just do right by the guy. It's not that hard. What is the downside in trading him? You're going to have to pay him the same amount of money and you get an asset out of it. It just doesn't, how can we not have an honest conversation between the two sides? I understand that their interests are diametrically opposed often. I also feel like there's a way to do this without both sides hating each other.

We don't need to bleed every ounce of value out of these dudes when they've given everything to a franchise the way that Earl Thomas has. Yep. I mean, as much as we praise teams for finding value, and managing the cap and all this stuff we do. And both of us are extremely intrigued with the team building element of it. There is the fact that the other side of team building is there are players who are getting absolutely screwed.

If you got a second for Earl Thomas this year instead of getting maybe a third compensatory, which are not anymore, by the way, because he's coming off an injury, that is value. You got more value if you traded him for a second round pick this year and you got another team to take half a salary. Yeah.

I don't it just just none of this makes sense to me and with the like armchair GM let's look at the fucking spot track numbers crowd. Everything about what this conversation devolved into today on the internet drove me nuts. All right. Very quickly. Let's get to tomorrow's headlines. What you got for me? Besides dirt cutter firing himself. Yep.

That works for me. I mean, it's phenomenal. I think we're going to see some, uh, I think we're going to see some Steelers panic. Yep, I absolutely agree. I think we're going to see some giants panic, a little Eli panic. You know, Eli, I don't know if you saw this, but like literally I linked to this in the matchups column on Friday.

Literally there was a giant story that was like, is the quarterback of the future, Eli Manning? That was on Friday. That was on Friday. They were talking about an extension. They were talking about an extension, dude, in the media on Friday. I love that so, so much. What are we going to do now?

Dot, dot, dot, Eli, Manning. Dude, I highly recommend it. Oh, that's amazing. I think there's just going to be panic among some of the one in three, oh, and four teams. I know you're apparently extremely high on the Houston Texans there. I'm not doing that. You love them. Hey, my obligation on this podcast is to talk about as many games as we can.

Oh, yeah, I can't wait to talk about the Texans every single week. There's a couple of teams who are... Listen, man, I'm in the content business. I don't know what you're doing over here. I'm not in the content business. No, I mean, I think that there's just going to be a little bit of panic among some of these teams. The Colts 1 and 3. The Buccaneers are in a weird spot because they look so good on offense for three games.

and now they just had this game, now they're two and two. I mean, it's over. The Fitzpatrick thing is over. No, I mean, it's Winston is back.

I understand that. But what I'm asking is, is the Winston thing? Is that just dead in the water? I kind of think it is. I never thought they should go back to him. I didn't even think you should ever get his job back no matter what. And that was before the season even started.

I have one more headline of the week for you that I want to mention because we did not record on Friday, just very briefly. This is the week where, the RAM 16 and O buzz starts. I haven't thought about that. I don't know if it's, I don't agree with it. I think that going undefeated in the NFL is almost impossible.

But I absolutely think this is the week where it starts. Okay, so they play the Packers and the Saints. Let's not get into this now. I don't think it's reasonable. I'm getting into it. We have to go. We have to go. I don't have anywhere to be.

They play the Chiefs on November 19th. I'm on West Coast time, brother. I got all night. It's not what it's about. They play the lion. I have directions. They play the Bears on December 9th. How's that going for you?

That's a mega game. I'm not looking at that as a mega game quite yet. Let's be honest. The money fight. Yeah, it's the one we've circled on our calendar since the start. Kabid McGregor. Okay. We're done.

All right. As always, guys, thank you so much for listening to the Ringer NFL show on the Ringer podcast network. We will talk to you on Thursday. Today's show is brought to you by Fanduel. Football season is underway, and that's why I'm so excited to be playing on Fanduel. Fandual has never been more fun or easy.

It's the place to play if you're not a fantasy expert. Fanduel has something for everyone, and there are more ways to win than ever before, like their gridiron pickum contest every week. New users get a $20 bonus when they make their first deposit on Fandual. So come play with me at fandual.com slash the ringer. That's fanduel.com slash the ringer. Thank you.