The Ringer NFL Show - Predicting the Best Games, Letdowns, and Dark Horses for Week 3 (Ep. 145)

Episode Date: September 22, 2017

The Ringer's Kevin Clark and Robert Mays preview the four most intriguing matchups in Week 3 (04:00) and discuss the future of international games in the NFL (21:00). Michael Lombardi joins the show to examine the Texans going into New England (29:30) and Dallas playing the Cardinals (36:00). Then Danny Kelly calls in to give out some fantasy football dark horses (45:00). Finally, Kevin and Mays wrap up by predicting next week's NFL headlines (57:30). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's the Ringer NFL show. Kevin Clark here with my friend Robert Mays. And because we talk about football, people think it's a good idea to ask us who to bet on. I don't bet on football. I had no idea betting the over on the Rams 49ers game was the best bet last night. I don't think anybody did. If you did, you're a genius and we should be taking advice from you. But where people should bet, no matter what they're betting, it's mybooky. They have an awesome mobile site that makes betting so easy.

Right, provided you know what to bet, which was apparently... Yes, that is important. The Rams and the 49er scoring 80 points. We all saw it coming. If you did get that bet in on MyBooky, you'll be getting paid within two business days. And if you didn't, you should join now, and MyBooky will match your deposit with up to a hundred percent bonus. So get with it. That's MyBooky.orgie.org, with the promo code Ringer NFL to activate.

You play, you win, you get paid. Welcome to the Ringer NFL show, part of the Ringer Podcast Network. I'm Kevin Clark, joined as always by Robert Mays. Robert, I'm starting to think that Jeff Fisher was not a good NFL coach. It is amazing just to watch the difference. It's unbelievable. I wrote about Jared Goff for the ringer yesterday. Just his progression and him looking so much better this year.

And it's striking. I really can't believe it's the same guy. And just beyond that, the entire offense looks decent. I mean, I know it's the 49ers. They beat up on two pretty bad teams, but it still is remarkable just how different it looks. So, yeah, I mean, there's two ways to look at it. Obviously, we need to pump the brakes. a little bit. It is the Colts and then the 49ers

who are probably two bottom five roster talent teams in league. Having said that, it's reminding me a little bit, and it's not going to be the same. I don't want anybody to make the comparison, but just a stark difference between one season to the next and guys who I didn't think were good, looking

good, reminds me a little bit of when Harbaugh took over the 49ers. Just like guys who you didn't think had anything in the tank and they were giving you something last night. And I'm not just talking about golf. I'm just talking like all the on the offense. I mean, Robert Woods looked okay last night. I think everyone around the ringer was making fun of the Robert Wood signing for the entire summer, basically. And so I just think that

McVe's ability to make this team look competent when they looked so horrendously incapable of doing anything last year, it's really a testament to how good of a coach he is. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, he's a real NFL coach. And I was talking to Trent over this week about Jared Gough, and he just was talking about how it's a system league in so many ways. We don't give we don't credit that enough. We don't credit what those circumstances do for players and the spots they put players in. And I think that what you're seeing with the Rams right now

is the best possible example of that. Yep, absolutely. Okay, so as always, we're going to be here every Friday getting set for the weekend, and we'll be back on Tuesday to react to everything that we'll see over the weekend. I love our colleague, Danny Kelly, joining us for our first installment of Fantasy Fridays.

I think we're both looking forward to that. And our in-house GM, Michael Lombardi, will be joining us as well to explain why he didn't tell us that he was going to be in ballers on Sunday. I had no idea. That was like the biggest shock. If you told me 25 things that would have surprised me about this show when we were prepping for it, our producer telling us that was the most shocking thing I could imagine.

You didn't watch it? No, I did not watch it yet. Sorry. I've been traveling, man. I'm on the road. The thing is Lomba would love to be in other HBO shows. But not, like, you know, he's a big Sopranos guy. He could probably do Thrones.

we'll get them in. We'll just work him through. Okay. Yeah. But for now, let's get the car wash. They show a car wash. Exactly. Just a cameo in every single HBO.

He's an insecure next season. I mean, that's pretty much what Carcetti and Littlefinger do. I mean, he has a cameo in every HBO show. Exactly. All right. But for now, we're going to get to our favorite four. These are our top four matchups of the weekend. Kind of a weird weekend.

I think a lot of people are making fun of the Niners' Rams game as, you know, the low point of a kind of a weird weekend in which Washington and Oakland are playing in primetime. and the 930 game is Jaguars Ravens. But there are some gems in here. Who's your first four? It's a strange week after last week when it seemed like we had so many marquee games. This one is a bunch of like good teams that are interesting to me playing against each other. Maybe not the best teams around going against each other like it was last week.

The first one I'm going to throw out there, I mean, two undefeated teams that should play what I assume is going to be a pretty entertaining game. Not as entertaining as Rams Niners because nothing is. But Lions Falcons is something that, I mean, coming into the year, you thought the Lions were going to be pretty good. I did not think we'd be set up like this, set up for a game like this between these two teams. So one thing very quick I want to say about Rams Niners is, and Tariko and Collinsworth talked about it last night,

is it's almost like the old boxing thing. Styles make fights. It's not about this is the heavyweight champion, this is number one contender. It's about these two guys want to go out of each other and they're appealing to watch visually, right? And so this could be a game, that I think kind of mirrors the Thursday night game

as far as the Falcons and the Lions because these are two teams that are obviously have great quarterbacks. They will be okay opening up the offense. I think this could be a really, really fun game. Who do you give the edge to at this point? I just think Atlanta is better. Top to bottom, I think Atlanta is better.

Their defense to me, the Lions have been more promising than I thought coming into the season. I thought their defense had a chance to be really bad. They've been okay. But I still think that... I believe you rushed to me. I believe there was a roast when I said that the lion's defense could be okay.

I still don't have much faith in them for the entire season. I think they'll be fine. I don't think there'll be anything close to what Atlanta's defense can do. I still think that group is much better. So there's a couple of things going on here. I wrote this morning on the ringer.com that, and I had thought about this for the last couple of months, if anyone's going to be this year's Matt Ryan and Matt Ryan was just last year's Cam Newton, you know, just the quarterback who goes from good to great, it would be Matthew Stafford.

Absolutely. Because I think that you need a couple of things. Number one, need continuity. You can't be learning a new playbook. You know, what did we see from Ryan last year? We saw year two of Kyle Shanahan. Cam Newton had it all set up. He'd had the same coordinator and head coach for four years. And so this is the first, excuse me, the second full season with Jim Bob Cooter in Detroit. And Stafford is comfortable. He knows what to do. He's actually, I don't know if you've seen this. His yards per completion is down almost. almost two full yards from last year. So he's going a little bit more toward the dink and dunk that the rest of the NFL is. They did that at the beginning of last season. That's really how they survived. And then they went away from that later in the year. I think that's what they want to be pretty much

with this group of guys. That was after Riddick got hurt. I mean, with their full slate of receivers, that's who they were. Sure. But I mean, if they can stick with that for 16 games, that's going to be pretty important. Because I think that there's a lot of teams around the league that are going to that with efficiency.

Now, there's a general argument of whether or not Short passes are good for the game. I'm going to leave that alone right now. But what I will say is that the Lions have a pretty good chance of winning 11 games. I'm excited for this game just to see. I don't know if they're both contenders, but at this point, they're 2 and 0. It's going to be probably the most exciting game of the weekend. And I'm fired up about this game.

We knew, I mean, that's my thought about the Falcon, or excuse me, the Lions coming into the season is this team can be entertaining. Yeah. I don't know how good they're going to be, but they're going to be entertaining. we don't need to convince ourselves that about Atlanta. We know Atlanta can be entertaining. So I think it's going to be fun. I'm curious to see how the Falcons deal with that group of receivers to the Lions. I think that top to bottom, Detroit will struggle with Atlanta's weapons.

I don't know how it'll be on the other side of the ball. And I want to see it because last week, you know, Atlanta got to play Green Bay, but her offensive line, Jordan Nelson goes down. I think this is a very good test for Atlanta. Wish Dick B's who we're playing because that'd be a nice little test for that offensive line. Yeah, and also on the other side, one of the bigger reasons that Detroit's defense looks better, Zeyans is here. Yep. I mean, him being hurt all season last year was a huge deal for them.

And the fact that he's come back and looks really good, that matters. He's the most important player for them on that side of the ball. It's not close. At the time I went to in Damok and Sue's house for a story, Ansa was just sitting on the couch the entire time, never talked. You did tell me that. That was years ago. That's probably before we worked together that you told me that. It was very weird.

Well, I guess it wasn't that weird. Well, we're going to talk about. Is it Gianzzi On the couch. I'm there. What are we going to talk about football? I don't know. All right. My game, first of all, is Chiefs Chargers.

And the reason, there's two reasons. Number one is that I'm just excited to see the Chiefs play. I just love their style of offense. I have no idea what's going to happen. You know, I was talking to a friend the other night. And they were saying basically, like, you know, they and the cameraman both get tricked on like every other Chiefs play. It's like, where's the ball?

Oh, my God, that's not there. And that's a really fun, almost collegiate way to watch football. And I just think it's really fun. And they had the speed, obviously. Compared to a high school offense. I mean, it is weird. They have the speed. It's really good.

So a couple of things about this game. Number one, PFF posted this stat the other day. Alex Smith has 100% adjust to completion percentage when under pressure this year. So he's completed every pass or he's thrown it away or there's been a drop pass. So essentially, Alex Smith has been perfect under pressure. here comes Joey Bosa, here comes Melvin Ingram. I'm excited to see that. Now, the other thing, and this is just a general narrative thing,

is I don't know if either of these teams are what the record is. And I understand the old Bill Parcell as you are, what your record says you are kind of thing. But I don't know if the chiefs are going to be as good as they've been as good as they've been in the first two games, and I think the chargers might be better. And so I'm really, I think that if they go 3 and 0 and 0, then we're talking about a very different situation.

and then yes, they are what they say they are. But I'm intrigued to see just how these two teams compete because the season is essentially on the line for the Chargers and, you know, less is on the line for the Chiefs, but it would be a nice little statement if they could just put the Chargers away out of the division early. I think this is going to be a good game. I mean, I don't know if the Chargers are going to win,

but these two teams always play each other close. Remember that week one game from last year where the Chargers lost in heartbreaking fashion? They're always close. And I think that, again, the Chargers defense is good. I mean, it is a good group. They struggled a little bit against Denver in week one, but they, Miami

did not run them over. The Dolphins did not score a will last week. That Chargers unit is decent. And I think that they'll be a good test for Kansas City. I mean, I don't think it's a good point that we don't know how good Kansas City necessarily is. They jumped on the Patriots, everything else, but I have a lot of faith in how they look right now. I don't think the chiefs are bad by

any means. If I were to bet right now, I would say that they're going to make the playoffs. I'm just saying, I'm just saying that I was so down on them in the beginning of the year that it's going to take me a while. I apologize to Chiefs fans. I love the Chiefs. I love the Chiefs as an organization. Stylistically, I really do like that offense against San Diego's defense.

I think that it's just a good match. The talent-wise is there. The one thing about the Chiefs is their offensive line isn't full of stars. They don't have any Joe Thomas's or whatever else, but they also don't have any weak points either. There's Mitch Morris's hurt. I like Mitch Morris. I also love Duvonne-Tardee. I mean, Droomette Tardy is a solid guard.

Fisher's gotten so much better at left tackle. Mitch Schwartz is one of the best right tackles in the league, but he's not a star by any means. It's just a very good group. And that collection of guys against Ingram and Bosa and everything else, that's a fun thing to watch. I mean, it's the type of offensive line that can make your offense go, and we just don't have many of those anymore.

How many Chiefs fans at Step Up Center? 24,000 of the 27th? I was going to go percentage. I was going to say there at least 30% of the bill. building. 30%? You think more than that? I think more than that.

How many Chiefs fans live in Los Angeles? I think that there are a lot of Chiefs fans around the country. They call themselves the Chiefs Kingdom. I swear. I was not aware of that. The Chiefs travel very well. Because they're one of these teams. They're like Washington.

They have large swaths of America because, like, you know, that area doesn't have a high concentration of teens. people in Nebraska or like the NFL Chiefs fans Oklahoma Chiefs and the Broncos baseballs yeah yeah that entire area all right my second one this was one that I just think is fascinating

is Seahawks Titans and for one specific reason Corey Davis being out sucks I wanted to see that entire slate of receivers go against Seattle's secondary but I still feel like that Tennessee passing game that looked really good against Jacksonville last week

just the offense that looked really good with more Derek Henry that group against the Seahawks defense is a really good litmus test for what the Titans are on offense. I just think we're going to learn, maybe we're going to learn a lot about what they exactly are, how good they can be, the way they stack up against really good defenses. I think this is a really good indicator of that. Demarco Murray washed? Seems like he's just not right.

And that's the thing about them. I wrote this a little bit in my recap about week two. It's nice to have deep stables of weapons. because if something doesn't work, you can go a different direction. I mean, if Murray's not running the ball effectively, you can turn to a 240-pound monster who was the best running back college football two years ago.

If you don't have your downfield passing game working, you have a Delaney Walker. You have a guy like Johnny Smith, who they took that little tiny screen for a 35-yard touchdown last week, it was nothing. It just seems like they have so many options now, and I would like to see how those avenues fare

against what might be the best defense in football. I just think it's a very good bar. A couple things. Number one, I think the Titans realize that Derek Henry is the guy and needs to be not a bell cow back because there are no more bell cow backs in 2017, but I think that he's going to be the focal point of the offense

essentially for the rest of the season. That's a good thing. I'm really excited to see Marcus Marriota against this defense. Really excited. I mean, Marcus Marietta has had some of the most exciting plays to watch I've seen since the end of the league three years ago. I mean, he's had over an 80-yard run. He can basically do anything in any play.

And there's going to be a defense that has almost no holes that wants to destroy him. And I'm really excited to see him, you know, against a team from the Pacific Northwest. Obviously, has a lot of familiarity in that area. I'm just, this is going to be an awesome game. And both of these teams are physical. The Titans offensive line, guys like Jack Conklin going against Seahawks defense, I'm fired up for that. I mean, this is just, I know that Titan Seahawks doesn't seem amazing. It's not cowboy stealers, but this is going to be an awesome game.

Just stylistically. I feel like, I feel like, you know, we talked last year about the Seahawks and the Cardinals being like a giffable game because it was like Pete Carroll was going like, what the hell is going on?

This is going to be like just a football only giffable game. We're going to see so many cool matchups that we're just going to be giffing this for the rest of time. I feel, I agree with you in a lot of ways. And I think that, yeah, that Seattle defense,

that Seattle front, against the Titans' offensive line is just porn for me. I mean, I love that shit. I mean, I will love watching that entire aspect of it. So, of course not. But I think this game can be uglier than it seems. Just because I feel like Seattle's defense is so good that there's a chance they frustrate Marioata.

They really shut down the running game. The Titans have a hard time getting anything going. And I think that the Titans defense is not a good group top to bottom necessarily, but they have really good players up front. I mean, Morgan, Casey, and A Rockpo can. absolutely destroy that Seattle offensive line. So I think that we can be looking at a 17-14 game here. That's a very well-played game.

Counterpoint, anybody can destroy that offensive line. There was a really set up to do it better. There was a really great statistic that field goals, Danny Kelly's old stomping grounds, tweeted out yesterday, that the top two players in pressures in the NFL have both played the Seahawks. Who is it? It's Nick Perry and...

Yeah. Did you see that Nick Perry broke his hand again? I did. That guy has the worst luck. Also, how do you have fragile hands? Like, it's not just that he broke his hand once as a fluke thing. This is the second time he's hurt his hand. Have you broken?

Have you ever broken a bone to me? I've broken nine of my fingers. So was that all football related? Yes, yeah. So my fingers all bend in very weird directions. And I broke my arm falling off the back of the couch when I was six years old. That's it. That's the only bones

I've ever broken. All my fingers and one arm. DeForest Buckner is the other one, by the way. Oh, there you go. Yep, that makes sense. God.

He was a monster last week. I broke my leg in high school and it was kind of a soft break. Soft break? Yeah, I was skateboarding. And I just feel like it shouldn't have broken. Just imagining you skateboarding makes that worth it.

Why is that weird? I don't know. I just never been on a skateboard before. I was dropping it on a half flight. I used to shred. Oh my God. How old were you at this part? Is this like high school?

How old was I then? I was like, yeah, I was like 15. I had to retire. It was a career ending skateboarding injury. I forgot about your skate punk days. They still going, buddy. Little mention,

still going. Never end. Skate punk days never end. All right. Hi, buddy. What's the fourth one here? Redskins Raiders. And this is one of those.

Come on. I mean, there's just not enough games. And this is the Sunday night game. I'm, I'll be intrigued by this game. No, I'm generally intrigued. by this game for a couple of reasons.

Number one, I think the Raiders might be just completely freaking awesome. Yeah, that's kind of what I'm thinking too. And I'm thinking that the Tennessee Titans win is going to look more and more impressive after we see that they can at least compete with the Seahawks and even if they don't win. I don't know what the hell is

going to happen in that Titan Seahawks game. But I do know is that the Raiders result where they just boss them around, it looks very impressive. I think the Raiders might blow out the Redskins. I'm intrigued to see Kirk Cousins against that defense, because that defense still has a lot of holes. And I'm intrigued to see Derek Carr.

Derek Carr, I don't know if you saw this, Maze, is getting the ball out of his hands quicker than, like, any player in history? Yeah, they do that. And I was wondering what style they would play this year with Downing getting there, whether or not they'd push it a little bit more. They've taken some shots,

but he still does like to fire it. And we'll see. We'll see stylistically what they end up becoming in the passing game. I still want to see them push it more often than they do. They haven't really had to do that, especially last week. And so much short stuff. I mean, Richard's making plays and everything else.

I mean, they're doing stuff at every level of the field. I want to see what they are against a team that has good corners that really pushes them. They haven't had that yet. Yeah, no, truly. And I think that they've, I think, I don't think this. They're not going to have it this week. Yeah, by the way. That's what I was stammering to say is that this Redskins defense is not going to be the test for them.

I don't know when that's coming, but it's certainly not going to be that. I mean, I just think that, you know, the Sue of Cravens thing was really weird. I don't know what the hell is going on in that secondary. I think Josh Norman is obviously talent, but you can just throw away from Josh Norman. Sunday, October 1st, the Raiders play at Denver. That would be fun. That would be the test. And then they play the Ravens.

Here's the thing, though, when you're a really good team, you should beat this shit out of teams that are worse than you. I mean, that's just how it goes. They won against Tennessee in a really nice win, and they beat up the Jets the way they were supposed to. And if they're the team we think they might be, they should go in and they should beat up Washington. I mean, we don't. We like close games. We want to see teams go at it.

But there are times where it's just as cool to see a really good team, just take care of business. We see the Patriots do it all the time. And if Oakland wants to be on that plane, these are the type of games where they need to go in and win by two touchdowns. I mean, yeah, I would be disappointed

if they don't win by two touchdowns. And even if it's not a close game, I'm still going to enjoy watching that because I do think that this Raiders team, like they were last year. Last year I think they were appointment viewing because it was exciting. The games were close, everything else.

But one of the problems with the Raiders last year is that they would let teams that weren't that good in, and they would just beat them. Because the defense was so bad. Yeah, but then they would, they would, with 35 seconds left, put together a 93-yard drive. They ended in a 30-yard, freaking, you know, Andre Holmes touchdown or something.

And that's its own sort of fun, but I also enjoy watching really good teams. Just be really good. It's interesting because the Lions and the Raiders both had a ton of fourth quarter comebacks this year, excuse me, last year. And you wonder if maybe they've taken the next step where they're just not going to have to come back from those kind of things. Which is what you want.

Consistent offense and okay defense throughout the game. That's the next step from, okay, we erase eight point deficits every time there's 30 seconds left in the game. But what do I know? Okay, it's time for my hottest take that I actually kind of believe, again, this is just an informed opinion. It's not really a hot take. We can leave that to the other guys

on other media outlets. For me, and this is an off-of-field hot take. We should play as many games as we can in Europe. The first NFL game... Explain yourself. The first NFL game in London is this weekend for the season.

It's going to be four. Flacko, Bordels. Get pumped. It's... Blacko versus Bortles. Bortals. Although, Robert, we live in an era when Rams Niners is the most exciting game of the week. So, Jerry Gough is the best quarterback in the league now. So no, I'm just saying it's now in the problem.

The solution to the NFL's bad football problem was getting really bad and just showcasing their horrendous teams. And now it's fun. That's how we did it. We shot our way out. Two good defenses. I'll watch it. What's at 9.30 in the morning on the East Coast?

6.30 on the West Coast. Yeah, you should probably be asleep. I have no excuse. I'll be up at a period. Let me know how it goes. Sounds good. I think that they, I think a couple of things.

Number one, I think, and this is, this part's boring, but the NFL is essentially trying to get to $25 billion in revenue. That's not, that's not in America. And they're trying to do it,

I think, in the next six or seven years. That's not going to happen in America. The TV contracts are not going to keep exploding like they have been. The cord cutting thing and TV is shifting. And they'll make more money on the next contracts. But Amazon and Netflix and those companies are not going to pay the billions of dollars that CBS and NBC have. There's a million reasons for that, and it's all very boring.

Having said that, I love this time zone thing. I think we should be weird time zones. I think we should have a 930 game every other week. I think it's a good way to expand the footprint of the sport, which is incredibly important. Again, especially as they try to grow the game and maybe it's tapped out. Maybe part of the ratings problem, and I think this is true. true in the NFL is that there's just, they've maxed out the number of people who like the NFL in America.

And you sort of had to go and say, you know, they want to do a game in China and they will at some point. I think they want to do more games into Germany and, you know, they're playing a game in Mexico. So I think that they should, I anticipate at some point, this is just an educated guess, I anticipate the next round of CBA negotiations that there might be a 17th game. if they do that, the Premier League tried this a couple years ago and it's been voted down

and it gets resurrected every couple of years. It's just to have another game and in that situation would be I think the 39th game in the Premier League. It would be the 17th game in the NFL. If they do that, they should just have one game a year

in a neutral site. It could be international. It could be whatever. I think that'd be a really interesting wrinkle to a otherwise stayed schedule. Do you think it's sustainable for the teams, though, just travel-wise?

That's my concern about this. Well, you would still only be doing it once a year And you have the bi-week afterward Yeah Or you know You could even have You could even have

You know If you're doing 17 games Why not have 19 weeks I think that's an old Bill Simmons idea Why not every team has two guys I understand that That makes sense

Where you give people a little bit more rest The idea is interesting to me I mean like playing a game In like the Byron Munich Stadium That's fun Allianz Arena Robert My skater punk days Overlapped well with my soccer punk days

100 guesses at that All right So we'll get to mind this week Every week I'm going to try to find something That we might be missing As we're looking at the slate For me, it's the bucks And kind of what kind of test the Vikings present them

I think that we were so excited about Tampa Bay coming into the season We haven't really learned anything about them Because they played the bears And the bears played about as badly as they could Last week They were a mess all over the place And the bucks with Deshawn Jackson coming in there, Mike Evans, we liked the weapons.

OJ Howard, that's kind of the conversation that dominated that team coming into the season. Can James Winston take the next step with an increased amount of weaponry, with a bigger arsenal? I'm curious to see whether or not that offensive line can hold up to make them that sort of group. And I feel like that Minnesota front is a very good test. Damar Dotson played great last week, but you still have Donovan Smith, you still have guards that we don't feel necessarily great about. So that front four from Minnesota giving us a test for,

can this Tampa offensive line hold up to make them a great offense? That's something I would be watching. So if Sam Bradford were 100% healthy, when he was playing, I would have this as one of my games of the week. Absolutely. It would be awesome. It would be awesome.

Without that, I cannot in a good conscience name a case key. helm team in any sort of game of the week. That's just unprofessional, right? And that's why I'm kind of looking at the other side of the ball. No, no, I know. I know. I know.

So having said that, I'm really intrigued, as you said, to see that because the Bears didn't, they don't teach you anything. Although they, you know, they did give a nice little run to Atlanta, which makes me think that maybe the bucks are better than we thought. I just think that Tampa is, I mean, the Bears defense is fine. It's not a bad group. They just were a mess last week. It was just a bad game.

Yeah, I agree with that. You know, it's interesting. Someone tweeted, I wish I had it in front. May I apologize to whoever tweeted it? But I know we want these guys like, well, Twitter reacted. It's like, no, there was one guy and he sent the tweet. It was that Jeff Fisher, that era and with the Rams just didn't seem real. And the John Fox era will feel the same way.

It was just like the entire time. It's like, what are we doing here? It's like a mirage. It's unbelievable. It never happened. Why did this happen? It just felt doomed. all the time.

Like, it felt like it was ending all the time. Very, very bizarre. Okay, so the Bucks offense, I mean, they looked elite last week. The only thing that's keeping me from just ratcheting up the hype on them is I still think the 16th straight weeks thing is a big, big deal. I think in 2017, our player safety and player health and player arrest is so important than not having a bi-week to recuperate. It sucks.

It really sucks, man. And that, I honestly think it keeps them from a long play. off-front because they're going to be drained, man. I hate that. I mean, it's a team that I was really excited about and even when they were proposing this idea, it was like, God, why wouldn't they just move the game? Like, having, not having that break at any point is just brutal. I mean, that week is so big, we know this,

that week is so big for players to recover. And it, yeah, it does, put a damper on. Did you just imply that we've played in the NFL? No, I think just having conversations with people. It's like, we don't have an off week. We're here, potting twice a week, Robert. And by the end of the season, I'm worn down.

I need my week off, man. No days off. It's going to be, yeah, that it does, it's rough. I mean, it's not something you like to see for a team that we were excited about. Again, though, I think this is really weak is a good test. I think it's a good test for the offensive line. I'm really curious to see what Evans and Jackson going against those corners is going to look like. I one weekend

am no less excited about what that offense can be, and I'm really curious to see if that sustains after playing Minnesota. Robert, it's the time of the year when we start traveling all over the country, and we don't always have to book a hotel in advance. It's all very spontaneous. I just flew into St. Louis on a whim a couple days ago.

Watched the Rams game at sports bars here. Shocking, no one cares. We go where the stories are, and that's why Hotel Tonight is such a clutch app. They help us find great deals on rooms last minute, so it's perfect for our Fly-by-night style of travel. If you go where the stories are, why do you go to Santa Lowe?

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It takes three taps and a swipe. We're talking 10 seconds total. So what are you waiting for? Get into these killer last minute deals and download the Hotel Tonight app now. Okay, it's time to welcome in our in-house ringer GM Michael Lombardi. Welcome to the show, Mike. Hey, Kevin. How are you guys? Good, Mike. How are you?

I'm great, great. Just enjoying the great Thursday night game, the Jeff Triplett special. Okay, so Mike, we want to talk to you about some matchups that seemed great for the season, but now not so much. Texans at Patriots, Cowboys at Cardinals. Let's start out with Texans and Patriots. What do you say? You know, I still think this will be a good game because the Texans have always played the Patriots. They understand how their offense runs. You know, the Texans, when you look at them on paper, they have. You know, Watt doesn't have a sack. Whitney Morcellus doesn't have a sack. Clowny doesn't have a sack.

Yet they're 26% on third down. Their defense gets off the field, which is somewhat remarkable. And the injuries in the secondary, I think, will play out. But the Patriots are hurt as well. No Marcus Cannon, perhaps, at right tackle. You know, I think this game's going to come down to the Texans have to keep it below 20. Can they do it? Their defense is good enough if they play well enough.

I don't know. The Patriots right now, to me, after that win last week, I think they have a sense of confidence. Plus, I think they're defining what they do. They may not have Burkhead in the game. They'll get Amadola back. Is Gras going to play? I think so. So I think it'll be hard to hold this team under 20.

I think Deshaun Watson will struggle to consistently, accurately, throw the ball against good man coverage. We were both, I think all three of us were co-presidents of the Deshaun Watson fan club coming into this season. What have you seen from Watson the first two weeks? I think he's acting, you know, he plays like a rookie. I think the most disappointing thing is Hopkins for me is, you know, here. the guy is averaging under 10 yards. He's in that Tavon Austin category right now. He's under the 10 yards of catch. That's as bad as an insults you can give. We know how you feel about Tavon Austin. Oh, I know. It's just what he scored last night. Everybody was going crazy. And then they took it back from him.

You know, I think this whole jumpball receiver, this push-off receiver, rebound receiver, however you want to clarify them, you know, if you can't get open with separation and he doesn't look like he can. Now, he might be hurt. It might be something we're not really aware of. But right now, to me, that's been a concern. and then the receiving core hasn't played as well as I think they thought they could. Yeah, it seems like a group that doesn't have many other options. I feel like that's the problem is that they're force feeding him and putting him to a role that he may not necessarily be best suited for. I think you need him as not a complimentary piece. He's the highest paid receiver in football now, but you have to have something else around him in order to allow him to succeed.

And it doesn't seem like they have anything right now. Yeah, I think that that's the problem. He's the highest paid receiver in football. And he doesn't have highest paid receiver traits in him in terms of, Yes, he catches the ball well, but he's always covered. Yeah. You know, and he has to push off. And, you know, that becomes problematic.

I mean, you can't really have to push off to get open, and I think you have to separate. But look, it's early in the season. Watson, to me, has to prove he can throw the ball into tight quarters against man-coverage and not always make plays with his feet. I mean, this running game, if you take the Watson's big runs out of it, this running game hasn't been very effective. And I think it's been a struggle for them to really make plays. Gronks health is obviously a huge question. I know that the answer is everything, but what changes when Gronk is out of the game stylistically for the Patriots?

Well, you know, they want to attack the middle of the field. Brady loves to throw the ball in between the hash marks. So it takes away that element. It takes away a big third down player. It takes away a matchup guy that they don't have to worry about. They can play normal coverage. Of course, the Saints try to play normal coverage. Look what it got them.

Typically, you want to try to double Gronk in and out. Keep him from making the plays on those jump on the inside cuts. And it forces the ball. You want to force the ball to go outside with Brady. want the ball outside the numbers and make a live and doing that. Without Gronk, it becomes a lot easier to do that. Mike, I have a very important question for you. We did a video this week in which we discussed what the worst quarterback Bill Belichick could take and still win this game. So if you give him a week with Scott Tolzeen and we decided, yes, he would win this game

with Scott Tolzeen or any of the Jaguars quarterbacks, when that went up, I got a lot of feedback and it was all the same question. And I want to throw it to you right now. Now, could Bill Belichick win this game with Tim Tebow? Oh, I definitely could win it with Tim Tebow. Seriously, he could. What would the game play? It would be a single wing game. Okay.

It would be a single wing game. I mean, he would probably go back into his library and look at all the single wing plays. When I used to get on the airplane or airplane, when I used to drive Bill Walsh around, he would be always doodling plays. Sure. And most of the time, he was doodling single wing plays. Like, this is what they ran in the 40s. This is what they ran. And a lot of where the quarterback carried the ball a lot.

And there wasn't the passing game that we see today. So with Tebow, it would be 10, 12, 13 passes, and it would be a lot of runs, and it would be from spread, and it would be half-back pass. I think it would be a single-win game, and I think that he could do it. I mean, look, Tebow took a team to the playoffs without throwing the football, the Denver Broncos. So it isn't like you're giving him somebody who's never actually won a game, and he'll make a couple throws, and they'll make a couple plays. Let's make this happen. I mean, we weren't that far away from that last week or last year when Brissette had to play against the Texas. That's what started the conversation.

They took a guy who clearly isn't very good after we saw that Colts Cardinals game last week, and they basically dominated the Texans. So I think Bill Belichick, I compare him to John Taffer in Barr Rescue. He was 11 for 19 for 103 last year in that win. But he made the key play. He made the bootleg for the touchdown and run. He ran.

They gave the ball to Blount 24 times. And they kept him off bounce. Now, the other factor in this game, which we haven't discussed is the heist. he played quarterback for the Texas. Yeah. And whenever you have the heist of the game playing quarterback for you, you have a chance for them not to score many points, which they didn't do. And I think that helped as well.

Having Oswald on the other sideline always helps, Michael. It always helps, especially when he's taking the snap from center. Mike, do you feel like Watson being in the game right now behind that line is a good thing? Do you think him getting these reps is ultimately good for him? Yeah, I do. I think that, look, that line is, if Tom Savage was back there, he wouldn't be last, but a core. quarter and a half. I mean, you know, so you have to have somebody, plus it forces, like the Patriots dilemma this week is do we play our normal man to man and or do we sit in zone? Well, if you sit

in zone like Cincinnati did, you give up a 45-yard touchdown pass and a 45-yard touchdown running zone with all eyes on the quarterback, which technically on the blackboard shouldn't happen, but it did. So I think what you have to do is play your style. You've got to try to find a way to use your defensive ends to keep him in the pocket and not run past the quarterback and give him those lanes to step up and out. So I think it'll be more of a calculated pass rush for Watson, but you have to play man to man. You have to force him to throw the ball from the pocket and be accurate. I think that'll be the game plan. Mike, what intrigues you about Cowboys or Cardinals? You know, this cowboy team, I just don't think, Kevin, they're explosive on the outside.

I think this is a team that if they're not running the football effectively, then they're not a really good offense because they're passing game. Adez is a little bit like Hopkins. Doesn't separate from anybody. He does, I mean, he's making $16 million a year, and I promise you, you watch the tape now, Des isn't separating from anyone. He's not getting open. Jason Witten's not getting open. Now, if you want to play zone against them, they can get open. But if they have to get away from press and separate and give windows to throw the ball in, it hasn't been that good. And I think that the formula to beat the Cowboys is you have to stop them and make them play left hand. And their left hand is throw the football. And Denver

did that last week, and Denver was successful. We talked about this with Oakland earlier in the show, Mike, just that, and Tennessee as well. It just seems like these offenses that continue to find explosive plays do it because they can look in a lot of places. There are a lot of options to get them. They have deep rosters of weapons. Dallas doesn't have that.

Dallas isn't getting these random plays from a Tijuana or whoever because they just don't have that stable of guys. They don't have any real, I mean, other than Beasley in the slot, who's a really good player. I like him a lot. He has the right matchup.

Beasley can separate. That's why they're such a good third down team because Beasley, if you play man against him on third down, Beasley usually can win against the third corner. But against Chris Harris and Denver, he couldn't really win that matchup. So that becomes a problem. Can he win this week against the Honey Badger?

If he plays him in the slot, I think that'll be a good matchup for Arizona if they go in that direction. I think Dallas is in a situation. And last week, Dallas tackled poorly on defense. It's one of the worst tackling teams I've seen from the Cowboys. Can they play good enough on defense and limit the big play? Because Arizona is it's either a chunk play or no play.

Mike, do you feel like you were, ahead of the curve and thinking that Jason Garrett wasn't very good. Do you feel, are you going to take a lot of credit for this? You know, I think Jason Garrett makes everybody associates because he went to Princeton that makes him a smart football coach. You know, you can go to Princeton and be smart. That doesn't necessarily make you a smart. Like I just, to me, I don't know what his role is.

Like last night, you know, Sean McBay clearly showed you he's the offensive coordinator. When he sits on the bench in between things, he knows his role. He's not too embarrassed to admit it. And he's done a great job doing it. Don't get me wrong. But, you know, to me, Jason Garrett's supposed to be the head coach, and they continue to make blunders in the head coaching role. Don't go for it on fourth and three in the fourth.

When you went for it on fourth and three in the third, when you were down 25, but you don't go for it on fourth and three in the fourth. I just, to me, the team, and when you break down his offensive ability to me to call plays and all that, it just was never there for Jason. How do you feel about McVeigh doing that? Do you think that that comes back to get them eventually? I mean, obviously he's brilliant, but it just seems like watching that. And him sitting on the bench last night, I was, got that, it's such a striking image.

It was so weird to see a head coach do that. Well, he's not a head coach. He's in charge of the, he's in charge of the assistants, and he's running the offense, and he's doing a good job. But the defense, I tweeted this last night. I never thought I would say it. But the Rams offense is actually better than their defense. Which is so bizarre.

Which is bizarre. I mean, look, they couldn't stop Washington. Now, Washington's not a great defensive team. and Washington handle them. I, for some reason, San Francisco decided not to blitz golf last night, which I have no idea why they didn't, because when the Redskins did it was a problem. But I think what Sean's trying to do is grow into the job. That's, to me, if you're a pro-Shawn, he's trying to grow into the job.

If you're sitting there like I am, he's not really a head coach at 31. He's kind of running the offense, and he's letting Wade and Fossil run the defense and special teams. And look, they're doing good. They've won two games, and they've been much better on offense because he's running it. The way that McVeigh improved the Rams offense so quickly and made it better than the defense, as he said last night, confirms me that Jeff Fisher should not only not work in football again. He should never be allowed to look at a football.

He shouldn't be allowed to watch football. He should have to leave the country. I mean, what the hell was that? Well, I think we're a little too early on. I think it's September. Like, let's just slow down on the Rams. I didn't see any. I'm not saying the Rams are good. I'm not saying the Rams are good at all.

Look, I'm saying that you're right. offensively, what they tried to do with the Rams last year was bad. And McVeigh's given them some life and enthusiasm. But I think when they start to play, like the 49er defense, if I were, if I were John Lynch today as the general manager of the 49ers and I drafted Solomon Thomas with the second pick overall, and I can't feel him in the pass rush, I'd be worried. If I had Armstead and I can't feel him in the pass rush, I'd be worried. If I'd had Bukter in the pass rush and I've drafted him in the first round, I'd be worried. I mean, they've got three first round picks. Now, John didn't draft them all. But he's got, they're all. They're all.

his now. Yeah. And they had no rush whatsoever. I mean, Elvis Dumerville was the only guy got close to the quarterback and that was in the first quarter. Watching. Go ahead. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. Watching them and we're going back to the Hopkins thing, seeing how much separation that they create solely by scheme and that offense and then watching Hopkins run ISO routes one on one on the outside for 60 straight minutes, it's frustrating. It's just frustrating to see how different coaches give their players opportunities and how some don't. I think that's correct. I think that's 1,000% correct. I think Hopkins is a guy you have to motion and stack them, put him in a bunch formations, let him get some free releases

so he can get going. I agree with you. I think Sean has done a tremendous job. Plus, he's thrown the ball on first down, and he's been ahead of the chains. If you watch the grams closely, anytime they get behind down in distance, second and 20, they're going to punt the ball. I mean, that's why the third and 11 play at the most crucial time in the game, the 49ers played zone and they checked it down to Todd Gurley and he got the first down? You're just wondering are the 49ers watching the same game? I agree. McVeigh's done a good job and I agree.

Billy O'Brien hasn't done that in his entire time in Houston in terms of offensively. Mike, you were on Ballers last week. Yeah. Was it an honor for you to be on the same network that the Sopranos aired on? That would be the claim to fame yet because I've never watched ballers before. That was the first, I've

still never watched. I haven't even watched the episode I was in. My wife did. I haven't watched it. I know what you said. I know what I did. I I read the lines and I knew the people. Actually, the best thing about that episode was I love this show with Kelsey Grammer. It was called Boss. It was two years on The Stars Network. And the guy that played in that scene with me, Troy, he was one of the actors on Boss.

So I spent most of my time talking to him about that show, Boss. I consider myself a pop culture connoisseur. You never heard of Boss. I know Frazier. Mike LaBardi was on a show with The Rock. And the most exciting thing he says about it is that he got to talk to a guy who was on a Kelsey Grammer show two years ago. There's two years.

Mike, I promise you, Kevin. A lower tier. I promise you. I promise you. No. This is not a lower tier. This might be the best written show I've ever seen. It's in soprano's category.

It was two years of one of the finest shows you have to see. I think I know this show, yeah. It was, it's way better than House of Cards, way better than House of Cards. And it kind of never, it just like stars. They just let shows like Magic City. Did you watch Magic City? I did. They just let that disappear.

They were good shows. I knew they should, boss should never named Jeff Fisher's showrunner. That's what he was. I think that's what happened. I think somebody came in. It was too good. It was really, it was well written. Anyway, I admired the show.

Mike, every time you come on from now on, we're not talking about football anymore. It's just pop culture. Talking about his ballers experience. It was fun. I mean, we were sitting there. It was a long, long day. I mean, it was, and they said we were filming

that it was based in Miami, and we were sitting somewhere in, I don't know, somewhere in the valley. I have no idea with the townless I was in. I have no idea. It was fun, though. It was good. Thank you so much, Michael.

Thanks, Mike. Talk to you later. Coming up, our buddy, Danny Kelly, is here with Fantasy Friday and he's got some great advice for week three. I need it because I need to win desperately considering Pierre Garcin was on my bench last night. We're also going to talk about some storylines

that will be huge next week after the weekend's action. But first, let's give some love to our sponsors. Robert, I'm hooked. I can't stop sending people to my bookie. coms. It makes sense because as we say over and over again, where you bet is almost

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Now let's welcome in our good friend, the Ringer zone, Danny Kelly. Danny. What's happening, guys? You're going to be, you're going to be. here on Tuesdays to geek out and point out some of the finer things that no one knew we wanted to know. But on Fridays, we're going to be talking about fantasy football. Danny. Absolutely. Something fantasy owners always struggle with is the flex position. Do I play an extra running back, tight end, Sammy Watkins? So what Danny is going to do, it's going to solve all

of your problems. It's going to give us his top five flex plays for week three. Go for it, Danny. Guys, I don't know if you noticed, but the Saints' past defense isn't very good. No. So far, is that new? This is the knowledge you bring to this show. So far, they're giving up 388 yards a game. The opposing quarterback rating is 141.4. That's almost perfect.

158 is perfect. So one of my flex plays this week is Devin Funches. He looked really good last week. You started to break out a little bit, you know, at times over his career, but never really, really caught on in that offense. And now that Greg Olson's out, he could have a bigger, you know, bigger role and see more volume. Last week he had seven targets, he caught four for 68.

I think going forward, especially against the Saints this week, he could be a potential, you know, breakout guy that starts to get a lot more attention to that offense. Somebody needs to. I mean, it just seems like that passing game is really dormant right now. I mean, Benjamin just isn't doing it. And again, somebody against the Saints is probably going to. How many people do you think own Devin Funches right now? You've got to be in a bad way if he's on your team.

Yeah. That's actually true of both fantasy and real life. That's fair. This is the other thing I was going to say is these flex plays are going to be, I mean, there's some, I guess, subjectivity to the term flex. It depends on if you're... There's stabs in the dark, right? I mean, that's exactly what these are kind of.

Guys that if you are searching for an option and, I mean, I know that I know that I the ranger league is three wide receivers and a flex option after two running backs. I mean, there's nobody on the last spot. It gets bleak. Right. So, and some of these guys are going to be like more well-known.

So it'll vary a little bit. But yeah, Funchus is kind of like one of those guys where if you're, you know, if you got injuries or your guys are just not performing to what you thought based on the draft, like maybe he's a guy that you could pick up. My second guy is a little more well-known.

And he's coming on, he's coming from a team that generally speaking, you want to stay away from in fantasy, but just Jermaine Curse, his ability to be kind of the number one guy in the Jets offense is, I mean, fantasy is a volume game, guys,

and I think even if you don't like the Jets' offense, you don't like the Jets quarterback, I think Kirst is just going to get enough volume to be a producer. And so last week he had a couple of touchdowns. He's already in both games he's played so far for the Jets. He's led them in targets and receptions. They're playing Miami this week.

Miami did, I mean, I'm not comparing him to Keenan Allen, but Miami did just give up nine catches on 10 targets, so 100 yards to Keenan Allen. So they're not necessarily shutting down number one receiver. So I think Curse could be one of those value plays this week.

It's not a sexy name, but maybe it would get you some production. All right, Danny, I have a question for you. This is relevant to my fantasy team. Yeah. Germain Curse or Buck Allen. Oh, well, that's a trick question because Buck Allen's on my list also.

There we go. Give me your case. That's a good segue. But, all right, so for the Ravens, they are going to be playing the Jags this week. You know, so far in two weeks, they've run the ball 74 times, I think. It's second most in the NFL. The Jaguars have a pretty solid defense, and Marshall Yonda has, you know, been lost for the season. So I don't know how that's going to go, you know, this week in London.

But I think that Buck Allen's a good play for a couple of reasons. First, he actually out carried Terrence West last week. He got, I think West got a little dinged up, but he's back for this week, at least at some level. But I think that Buck Allen can almost kind of be taking over for the leadback role. Plus he's really good

in the passing game and if the Jaguars managed to make this a game, which I think they could because, you know, the Ravens lost Brandon Williams this week. He didn't even make the trip to London.

You know, the Jags were on to run the ball and they're just kind of basically go to that, the whole game. So I think they could make it a game. And if the Ravens need to end up passing a little bit,

Buck Allen could be an option. And he showed a little bit of explosiveness last week. I'm kind of, I'm high on him. and a little bit down on Terrence West at this point. I jumped on him just because I feel like, one, if he's going to get that carry load,

I mean, he got 21 carries in week one. He got the ball a lot in week two. And also with Woodhead out, he assumes that role as well. So it just feels like the touches are always going to be there for him. I spent a lot of money for him after week one in our free agent pool, just because I do think the touches are going to be there all year while Woodhead isn't playing.

Absolutely. I think I spent 21 bucks in the auction league in one of my leagues. And so, yeah, he's a kind of guy that I think could get better as the year goes on. And, you know, he's got low tread on the tires. He's, he's looked explosive. And the Ravens' offenses looked better than I thought it would be. So it's not quite as scary going with the Ravens guy. Another guy that's kind of similar to the Buck Allen situation that I'm high on this week is Chris Thompson of the Redskins.

You know, the Redskins ran the ball 39 times last week, 229 yards. And they're probably not going to do that again. But I think they have a very strong sort of, they just want to run the ball. And now Thompson only got three carries, but he turned it into, I think, I don't know what it was, 61 yards and two touchdowns or something. So he broke out. He's kind of a home run hitter. But he's also, again, Mike Allen, he's a big part of that passing game. And so they're playing Oakland this week.

I could see them falling behind. I can see them leaning on the past game. And I think that Thompson has, you know, a lot of flex appeal in terms of the PPR league. It just seems like, you know, when running backs get hurt, it's hard to understand. what the load is going to be. Remember when Woodhead got hurt last year in San Diego? And we were thinking, oh, well, who fills that role? Well, Melvin Gordon just did.

They just threw the ball to Melvin Gordon more. So with Kelly getting hurt, it's going to be interesting to see, does Thompson assume more of the rushing role? Does he stay back and just play as a receiver like he normally does? It's hard to pinpoint the way the workload is going to be distributed when guys get hurt. So Thompson's one of those guys. If he gets, you know, five carries a game plus his receiving load, that's a guy you probably want.

Yeah, it's risky. is risky on some level, but I think the upside is he's at home run hitter. And when you're talking about flex plays at times, especially if you have injuries and things like that, like just having a touchdown upside kind of guy like him is big. You're going both ways right that, right? Curse is the opposite way. I mean, he scored twice last week, but that's about target share and volume. And then you have a guy that can score a touchdown.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and he's just going to get so many targets. I think that McCown trust curse. You know, he's kind of got a really, really young crew there in New York. I'm guessing that Curse is kind of like the wily vet that he's going to trust and go to most of the time. My final guy, Mays, I think you're going to like this one, Deshaun Jackson with the Buccaneers. He was pretty quiet week one. He caught three of seven targets last week, but I think he's due for a big game.

Playing the Vikings this week, they're going to have, most likely have Xavier Rhodes follow Mike Evans around, which I think is probably the smart play. And that leaves Deshawn Jackson kind of typically on the Vikings number two, whoever that is going to be at the time. Last week, per Matt Harmon of NFL.com, he averaged 19.3 air yards per target. So he's, you know, as you would expect, the deep threat in that offense.

And it's another kind of guy who has a lot of that home run potential, the touchdown upside that, you know, if you're really looking to sort of stretch your roster this week, he's a potential guy to look for. Seven targets for him is pretty solid. I mean, that's a lot for a guy that has that sort of depth in every single throw. I mean, that's, he doesn't normally get,

I mean, seven's a lot. If he gets seven targets a game, he's going to make good on that. Also, my concern with him this week is that he has one catch for 25 yards, but Trey Flour or Trey Wayans commits like 17 pass interference penalties. So, Deshaal, it gets no stats, but it destroys your fantasy team while just absolutely controlling the game. Yeah, absolutely. They need to add that into the stats. I agree.

I agree. That's tough, though. I mean, how you do it is difficult. We talk about it every year in my league, though. The one stat I thought it was interesting. interesting about Deshaun Jackson this week, and this is early, obviously, but for preferable outsiders, they track kind of how teams do against their first number, the number one receiver, number two receiver, tied in, three receiver and running back.

Right now through through a couple of weeks, the Vikings are the worst in the NFL per DVOA against number two receiver. So that's an opportunity right there to kind of just find some, you know, value and efficiency. So hopefully Jackson will kind of go off. And I got him in one of my leagues. I think I'm going to plan this week just because of that touchdown potential. I mean, James Winston, he's never afraid to test guys deep. How many leagues are you in, Danny?

I'm in four. Last year, I was only in two, but, you know, I'm kind of getting into the fantasy thing again this year. So it feels like maybe a lot too many. Absolutely. The ringer, so far in the ringer and two, no, Robert, we're going up against you this week, Claire and I. Whoa! I wish all the worst for you in your family, Danny. Are you feeling good?

about this matchup, Danny? So far, I think, Mays, who did you have going last night? Because you got a lot of points already. We had Garcone on his bench, as he just said. Garcone. No, no, no. I had Garcone in this one.

I can't not play Garcone in this one. I don't have the choice. Yeah, so so far, he's off to a pretty good start, but we'll see. I'm feeling pretty good about it. Whatever you guys do, remember that on Monday when this is all done and you guys, one of you guys is one,

remember that I don't care. That's fine. We absolutely will keep that in mind. Nobody text me, any of that stuff. So part of this we're doing is a dark horse every week too. And for my dark horse this week, I've got 15-year-old skater punk Kevin Clark. Yeah. How long have you been on the line, Danny?

You're only going for like 10 minutes. I got people. You know, I know things. Now, my real one is Geron Brown with the Cardinals. I think he's probably not a guy that you're going to be able to trust every week because, you know, he's still playing probably behind. J.J. Nelson and John Brown. But John Brown's out this week.

Jaron Brown had 11 targets last week. He kind of assumed a bigger role in that offense. And I think Brown is out, or at least, at the very least, he's limited. So I think he could be a guy that, you know, if you're really desperate, go with Geron Brown for the Cardinals. Excellent. You had Carlos Hyde going last night, Danny. What the hell are you talking about?

Hey, I mean, I'm not complaining with our start. I just worried about, you know, you got some good guys on that team. bit worried. We'll be all right. All right. Good buddy. Thank you very much. Thanks, Danny. That was fun. Thanks, guys. Danny's new fantasy segment was pretty great, huh? It was. And now that we have the fantasy football fans' attention,

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make your first deposit. But you have to use the promo code, The Ringer. We give away the coolest stuff on this ship. It's just another one of them. Just search Draft in the app store or go to Playdraft.com and play free with promo code the ringer. Okay, so there's one thing left to do before we park it on the couch and enjoy week three. We're going to let you all know what next week's biggest headlines are going to be. Now, Robert, start us out.

I just think this could be the week where the drumbeat for Marvin Lewis's job gets definitely loud. I mean, they're playing Green Bay at Green Bay. Even with the Packers banged up, it just seems like the Bengals are such a mess. Even if Nick Perry doesn't play, even with all those injuries, I still feel like Green Bay has a better shot to beat this Bengals team in the way they're playing. And if they lose, is there anybody that's going to say Marvin Lewis should still be the coach here? It just feels like we're nearing the end of the road. Mike Brown.

If they look like such a disaster. Yeah, exactly. But Mike Proud isn't the one right in the headlines. Everyone else is. And I just feel like this is the week where it gets really, really loud. Not enough, we don't write the headlines either. No, we don't. We don't.

Our editors do. It's me, you, and Mike Brown. Don't write the headlines. I'm just saying, I mean, that's, can you see that next week if they look like a disaster again that just feels like this is coming to the end? I think, I think bringing Bill Laser and his office coordinator is a really interesting thing. You are for Chip Kelly. He's a top five assistant coaching interview for me. I really think he's impressive.

As a person, I don't know what to expect about. I remember when he was the coordinator in my name. In Miami, yeah, exactly. And so I think that there's a chance that there's a little bit of a rejuvenation for Andy Dalton this week. I don't think it's going to be significant enough for them to win the game. I think that it's going, I think that one of the problems of the Bengals is they're so hesitant to change anything. Someone said that one of the beat writers down there in Cincinnati said that Zampeze was the first in season coaching change in 50 years in Cincinnati. So this is not a thing that they

I mean I The franchise is probably 50 When they formed in the 60s I mean so it's like This is the 50th this is the 50th years of my 50th year of Bengals football Right and so it's that means it's the first time it's ever happened or happened in the first First season and so I think that people are going to realize that Mike Brown is so hesitant

To change that We're going to slow our role on the drumbeat a little bit I think that anybody With a brain after this game is going to say like yes It's time to start are looking at Marvin Lewis's. Let me be clear. I don't think he's going to get fired. I think that he will finish the season there.

I think he'll finish the season there. I just feel like it is going to be a din by if they look terrible again. Again, you're totally right. I mean, this team does not ax people. The Zambizi thing was crazy. But I still feel like there's going to be an uproar about this if they look terrible. I just can't imagine what the Bengals are going to look like as a depressing team. I've never, I have no evidence of that.

It has been a little while, though. I mean, they've been solid for a few years. I don't know. I mean, really, it's, it's, it's, it's,

it's, it's been kind of a grim existence, because they can't win a playoff game. It's even worse. That's fair. I mean, yeah,

it's a weird thing. I mean, with Peyton in New Orleans and with Lewis now, I mean, both of those teams are likely going to be O and three. And,

I mean, they're two of the three longest tenure head coaches in the league. Speaking of O and three, my headline for next week, is going to be the New Orleans Saints and the Carolina Panthers playing.

The Carolina Panthers dominating that game. And then the Carolina Panthers being the hyped up Super Bowl team DeJure next week. I think the people are going to start to turn and realize how good this defense is. It's really great. Cam Newton is going to

get healthy as the season goes along. I don't really know what's going on there at this point. Mike Lombardi has been sort of down on Newton all week and I can see where he's coming from, but I do think he missed so much of training camp, you're on that pitch count. It takes a while. I can't keep harping on this enough. September

is now an extended preseason. And so if Cam Newton doesn't look great, that's okay. As long as they're winning games, McCaffrey's going to ease into things. I'm a little bit worried about the Greg Olson thing, but I think that they still have the talent. It's going to be them in Atlanta and Tampa Bay, maybe competing for three playoff spots.

I mean, maybe all three of those teams make the playoffs. I'm not sure. I don't know. Obviously, I picked the Giants to make the playoffs, and I don't really think that's going to happen anymore. And so I think people are going to see after they contain the Saints on Sunday, that this Panthers defense is absolutely elite.

And we're going to start talking about the Panthers as legitimate contenders. I'm not there yet. I mean, other people might be. I'm not even close to that yet. It's the same thing as your thing. I don't think they're going to win the Super Bowl. I just know how the media works. I think that the bigger story,

if this isn't as sure to happen, I think the Carol, the Panthers are going to win. If the Lions win this week, then we're going to have the, is this Matthew Stafford's year, the Ascension, everything else. That's the conversation.

I feel like we'll be louder if things break a certain. I wrote that today, so this is Friday's headlines for me. There you go. I'm looking backwards now. So no, if I hadn't read that today, I may have said the same thing. But no, I wrote that Friday just as far as Matt Stafford being the new Matt Ryan. And maybe he's next in line to take that next step. And, you know, Michael Lombardi kind of laughed at me a couple weeks ago when I said that the contract is now made Matthew Stafford underrated.

And my argument on that is that just I think we look at him as a joke and just an overpaid kind of, of above average quarterback, and that's not the case. He has a lot of talent. He has an infrastructure. He will make the jump. By the way, on this show, we told you about Matthew Stafford for MVP at 50 to 1. Just to throw it out there. We sure did.

We also, I banged Stafford hard on that. I also floated Kirk Cousins. So if Jim Cunningham, you could go back and just cut the cousins part out. That'd be great. No. That's it. No, thank you, Jim. That's it for today.

We'll be back on Tuesday to wrap up week three in the NFL. As always, thanks for listening to the ring around NFL. on the Ringer Podcast Network. Thanks, guys. Things change. The weather changes. Your mood definitely changes. So why lock yourself into plans that might change?

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