The Ringer NFL Show - Raiders' Crazy Overtime Win, the Bears' Quarterback Situation, and Week 1 Surprises and Disappointments

Episode Date: September 14, 2021

Jason Goff, Ryan Shazier, and James Jones start by discussing the 'Monday Night Football' thriller between the Ravens and the Raiders (2:48). Then they discuss the Packers' rough start to the season and the Bears' quarterback controversy (27:50). They wrap up by discussing their biggest surprises and disappointments from Week 1 (1:01:44). Hosts: Jason Goff, Ryan Shazier, and James Jones Production Assistant: Isaiah Blakely Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal and TD St. Matthew-Daniel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, I'm Mallory Rubin. And I'm Van Laithen. Check out the Ringerverse podcast from The Ringer for all things, superhero movies, nerd culture, and fandom entertainment. We have instant reviews and fun takes on all the latest news and more, available now on Spotify. Welcome into The Ringer NFL show here on The Ringer. This is Jason Goff, and I'm with Ryan Shazir and James Jones.

And we're going to give you a player's perspective every Tuesday here on The Ringer. James Jones, Parker, former Raider, and of course, Ryan Shazir, former Pittsburgh Steeler by way of Ohio State, James by way of San Jose State. Fellas, you can continue the introductions because I don't know how much ego-stroking is going get done on this podcast going forward. So, Ryan, tell the people a little bit about yourself. James, we'll get to you and then we'll get to the week one that was in the NFL.

Yeah, it's Ryan Shazir from the Ohio State University. Oh, God. You know, and then I was at the Pittsburgh Steelers. You know, man, I'm, you know, I'm just glad to be back on, be back on the ringer, be here with James and Jason. Looking forward to it. I thought it was going to be the Black Ball podcast, but I forgot James got here.

So, so, no, so, yeah, that's me. That's me. He's got the good genetics going on over there. But don't worry, Ryan. We're rocking it for the ball guys out here. I actually thought you said, the Black Ball podcast, which means that none of us should be on here if we've been blackballed, but we haven't been blackballed here.

But it's only episode one. You know, anything can happen. Anything can happen. James, of course, you being a former Green Bay Packer, I'm very aware of what you've done to my Chicago Bears over the course of your playing career, former Oakland Raider, right? You were Oakland. Yeah, Oakland Raider. Let the people know a little bit about yourself before we jump into week one.

Yeah, man, well, it's James Jones here, man. Hey, I'll be bald in a minute, man. I'm out here coaching these kids, so I'll probably be bald in a minute just like y'all, you know. Yeah, but no, man, yeah, you had it right, man. Ain't no need to pump in all the type of crazy stuff, man. Played for the Packers, play for the Raiders, man, ready to get down, talk some football, talk some life, man, with y'all, man,

have some fun, bring people into the locker room, you know, and let's turn them up, man, and I had this show cracking. But, yeah, man, we got to come up with a fresh name, too, though. So hopefully as we continue to go, we keep cracking jokes on each other, we'll come up with something crazy. Yeah, yeah, no doubt. I mean, it's up to AR. You know, it's up to AR about which, what we name this thing.

And, of course, our guy Isaiah Blakely is behind the keys doing the production for this pod. All right, we can jump right into it. Monday night football. We actually talked about it in our pre-show yesterday, our pre-show meeting about Monday night football and what has been over the last few years. There's been some duds in there. There's been some games you can kind of sleep on. Sunday night football obviously has turned into the main of true. from a production standpoint and seemingly from a scheduling standpoint for the NFL.

But last night's game in Vegas with the Baltimore Ravens versus the Las Vegas rated, first of all, that place was cracking. Like they had Steve Ioki, they had the other Buffer brother. I forget my man's name. What's the, what's the, not Michael Buffer, but his brother. Yeah, Bruce Buffer. I'm not a, you know, I don't, I'm not a big martial, a mixed martial arts guy, a UFC guy. So I know his saying is his time.

And man, he was about to bust out that jacket when he was introducing the game. And you had the whole stadium going crazy. And it looks like a beautiful place to watch a game. You had fans in the stands for the first time in a couple of years. So it was a lot of juice. And then the game started. And Lamar Jackson versus Derek Carr, that's a pretty highly anticipated matchup. But we saw both teams with deficiencies.

And I want to start with you, Ryan, and get to you, James. Defensively, you hear a lot about the defense being ahead of offenses in the early goings of a season. There was some issues for both offensive lines, actually. It was some issues injury-wise for the Raiders' offensive line. Richie Incognito wasn't playing. The young boy, Alex Leatherwood, had a tough, tough game. And then the other side of it, you know, Bill and a waiver, man, that was, you know,

Max Crosby. and in Gakway before in Gakwe got hurt, them boys out there doing work. Is it true that the defense is ahead of the offense this early in the game and then we'll get to what actually happened in the game last night? To me, I think it's just depending on the team, you know, because sometimes the offense,

I feel has the jumpstart on the season because, you know, they're always changing up the rules and making it easy for the offense. Now we see. Now we're too. No, but not even go with that, though. But honestly, I feel like the offense, they normally start off pretty high. And then you start seeing towards the end of the season

where some of the top defenses actually start, you know, is selling more. You know, normally the top offices, they always feel in, they always kind of get into some type of groove and it takes a little bit longer for the defense to get in the groove. Because to me, I feel like that's what it is with the Steelers and some of the teams I've been around. But last night it definitely looked like the defense has stepped up.

You know, the defense made a huge play on Lamar to end the game when everybody thought they sealed the deal, you know, while even the Ravens defense made a big play with the Raiders. You know, so to me, the biggest problem I have with teams is in the red zone, man. Man, you get four plays on the one-yard line. Yeah. And you don't give it to one. one of the best runnerbacks in the NFL?

You know, so. I'm sitting here saying, I'm sitting here saying the same thing, man. And I'm not just saying that because I got Josh Jacobs on my fantasy team, but I'm just saying it because, man, we in Las Vegas. The crowd is going. We're trying to win the dang game, man. Hand the ball off to the boy four times. And going to win this game, even if that's something that you got to do, man,

and find a way to win. But it's crazy that you say that because I always feel that defenses are ahead of the offenses no matter who you got as your quarterback. I don't care if you got Aaron Rogers, Tom, Brady, I always feel like every time we open the season, I'm like, man, we play in Jane. I feel like, okay, we got install one, two, and three in. I feel like the defense has got all their installs in. Y'all boys is rolling to this and rolling to that, bringing this pressure,

bringing that pressure. I'm like, man, we ain't got no answer. We're playing Jane early in the season. So they hear you say that you feel like the offense is, you're not. You don't have the edge. It's crazy because we sitting in the office of meeting room. Like, man, we need to put some more plays in. He's getting at us right now.

We two play Jane over here. And that's why, like, early in the season, I always pick, when I'm picking games, I always pick the teams with the good defenses going up, even if it's a high-powered offense because I'm like, man, early in the season, these defenses are going to be coming after. Now you get to week three, week four, and everything is in and into the playbook and all that. I think that's a little different story.

So both players have already caught pleas for their sides of the ball. So now we can move on to some other things because Ryan, Shazier and James Jones already don't agree on who starts the season with an edge. I like the way this thing is going. By the way, we'll be joining you every Tuesday for the entire NFL season right here on the ringer NFL feed. All right, let's talk about the game. Raggedy but entertaining, I'll say that.

You talk about the pre-snap penalties. I was a nine offensive penalty. for John Gruden coach team. And by the way, shout out to the director of that game broadcast because every time in the second half there was a penalty, we got the John Gruden shot

that we were looking for in terms of him grimacing. I love the end of the game too, by the way. John Gruden just threw the damn headsets. Like, you know what? Give me up out of here so I can go yell at these boys for the rest of this week.

OT game, the turnovers. The turnovers. Lamar Jackson had a couple of fumbles and he talked about it post game. Ryan, Lamar Jackson. He's immersed in his contract situation, said he's only worried about the season right now. He's trying, don't smile.

Don't you smile because we talked about it in the pre-show and you're going to have to give up the goods here. I thought he looked okay in a pocket that was steadily collapsing on him. And also, you know, Mark Andrews and some of those other boys had to help out on that right side with Alejandro Villanueva and the division Csies that he had going up against Max Crosby. Hollywood Brown turned in a terrific second half performance. Sammy Watkins made a few plays.

Lamar Jackson was, I won't say scrambling for his life, but there was a couple of times that that pocket was uncomfortable. How do you think he played in week one of this NFL season? So I'm going to be honest. I'm not the highest person on Lamar. And the reason I say that is because, you know, when I look at quarterbacks, I hold him to a really high standard. You know, especially, obviously he won an MVP and this and that.

but when I think of best quarterbacks in the league, I just feel like, hey, they can carry the team. And sometimes everybody has different ways of doing that. So I feel like Lamar did a good job of playing yesterday, but he did a better job of throwing than I feel like we've seen him in the past. And that's one thing that I need to continue to see him do, but he has to do a better job of taking care of the ball.

You know, I understand that you want to run and he can run, and he can get away from people, But sometimes you got to understand, like, hey, this situation, I might need a slide. I understand you could juke the whole team. But, hey, you juke the whole team might lose us a game. You know what I'm saying? Like, you're trying to make this, you're trying to break a tackle every play. It might lose us a game.

And to me, that's why, like, I kind of get frustrated with Lamar sometime because I feel like he has all the talent. And, you know, some teams are stopping, respecting him as much as a passer. And we've seen it last night that sometimes the Ravens would be like, oh, we're going to sit back. And Lamar did throw a well. And that's what I wanted to see. But sometimes he got to understand, like, hey, let me just press this double X button

and slide real quick, you know, because, you know, every play don't have to be a big play. And I know James was taught that on offense. Every play don't have to be a big play. Five yards is a great game, you know what I'm saying? And I feel like every time Lamar want to make five into 25, you know? Yeah, yeah, James, last night did the Las Vegas Raiders kind of snatch that thing or did the Ravens choke it away? Because I'll say this, there was a lot of times where, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, it was some cover one coverages that I was like, okay, you got one high safety, you manning up across the board.

I mean, Derek Carr, even on the Brian Edwards not to be touchdown, and as Ryan mentioned, you got four chances inside. five you don't get it. And, you know, you don't give it to Josh Jacobs. But it was, there was some, if you don't trust your jam, if you can get off that jam, you got somebody wide open. And that's what happened with Brian Edwards down the, down the stretch of that game. Do you think the Ravens gave up that game or do you think the Raiders took it? You know what?

It's crazy because I heard raggedy in the minute. You know, last I heard raggedy, I was a little kid in a mom all. Like, boy, you look at raggedy walking out this house. Come here, let me. And that's exactly how I gave it was a little bit of both. And I think it was, I think it was week one of the National Football League. And Ryan knows when you play this game early in the season, crazy stuff like this happens. You're going to have the penalties.

You're going to have the turnovers. You know, the teams that can overcome that and find ways to get through that is going to win the ball games. But that's what happened last night. The Ravens came out. They went up 14-0. You know, they had the Raiders exactly where they wanted them. And the Raiders' defense stepped up. and got a couple turnovers.

And that's all we've been saying, even going back to last year, like you got this big high-powered offense with the Las Vegas Raiders, right? But last year, I think it was something that John Gruden and Derek Carr was talking about. They didn't start a drive in the enemy's territory all season. They was going 80 yards long all season

and still putting up 30 a game. And all we kept saying was, man, if this defense could get a couple of turnovers, they ain't got to be a top 10 defense like a pitch. But if they can just get a couple takeaways of game here and there, be a middle of the pack defense, this team is going to find ways to win game. And last night when I was watching the game,

I'm like, man, is this going to be the same old Raiders? Lamar Jackson about to just go down the field. They go kick a field goal, win the dang game. You know what I mean? And in overtime, that defense buckled down, man, got another turnover, man, from Lamar Jackson and got the job done. So I think it was a little bit of both. I think the Ravens made some mistakes to get a game up.

But when you look at it, I feel like the Raiders play very good, man, on the defensive side of the ball, man, to create them turnovers and get the ball back to their, back to their offense and found a way to win a game, which the Raiders don't necessarily do. They find ways to lose games. Yesterday, they found a way to win a game, man. And, you know, I know them walking off the field, man,

that confidence that's in the locker room, they probably feel like they could beat everybody. There's fillers, the Chiefs, whoever it may, be, you know, coming out of the field, I know Ryan looking like, not the Steelers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're going to find out this week. The Raiders, they should be feeling really good about themselves,

man. But to Ryan's point, I want to go back to Ryan's point about Lamar Jackson because everybody always gets on me when I say this, too. If I'm a defensive coordinator, I want to see Tom Brady over Lamar Jackson. If I'm a defensive coordinator. Because I don't want to deal with all to putting in these packages. to go with the runs and all this

and try to stop him with all that. He's more electric than Tom Brady. But if I'm a receiver, I don't want to play with him. And not saying he can't throw, but I'm just saying when he drops back and it gets a little ugly, he's out of there.

We seem to make some phenomenal throws last night to Sammy Watkins and Hollywood Ground and this and that. But if he sees anybody around his feet, he don't want to step up in the pocket and make a throw. And as a receiver, you need a quarterback that's going to step up in the pocket, make a throw, standing there.

Even if he gets outside the pocket, he's still looking down the field ready to throw. Lamar Jackson is ready to run. So I always say, if I'm a dec coordinator, I don't want to lose sleep trying to figure out how to stop Lamar with his read option and, you know, all these run plays. And then I got a drop back. I got perfect coverage. And then he comes out of there and gets 20. I don't want to have to deal with that.

I'd rather deal with a quarterback, put a plan together of a quarterback that's going to stand in the pocket. a receiver. You know, I don't, I don't know if I want to play with Lamarck. I mean, I ain't saying I'm a stats guy. I know they say receivers is all about their stats, but I ain't going to get my stats. Yeah, yeah, I love the fact that I'm not going to say that I'm a stats guy, but I ain't going to get my stats. So, yeah. You can be both. I need my numbers, man. I need my numbers. Hey, cover Roddy White for a little bit. It was a different world for him from Michael Vic to Matt Ryan, right? Like, you know, a lot of tight-end.

love those running quarterbacks because sometimes your security blanket is just sitting right there in front of you. It seems as if a Y receiver would love that traditional dropback quarterback. Speaking of Lamar, when I asked both of you guys with as much, the NFL is a hierarchy. Quarterback's most important person in the building, whether he's great, whether he's average, below average, he's going to lead you the way that you're eventually going to go. And what a quarterback's responsibilities are throughout the season. knowing, having to know, not just the playbook, but pretty much everybody forming relationships

with everybody in the building and being kind of like the, you know, the CFO of the team. Financially now, you also in Lamar Jackson's situation, have to be immersed in your own contract negotiations and not just negotiations, but you're talking about one of the biggest deals, maybe in NFL history that you have to be immersed in. I heard a long time ago, you hire agents to make sure you don't hear how much your employer doesn't like you. You know what I mean? Like you're fighting.

Like you send your agent in there with the hatchet and say, hey, come out with blood. Having to hear how your employer feels about you or what they want to pay you or what they think your market value is, along with being a quarterback of an NFL team that has high expectations like the Baltimore Ravens do, what do you think? what do you think is going on in terms of not just the daily, but the weekly for Lamar Jackson and what's weighing heavy? Because I know people can say, all right, I'm not thinking about it and all that. That's BS, man.

You're thinking about your future, especially in a game where one play, whether it be in practice or on the field, you know, during a regular season or a playoff game, can change the direction of your career. What do you think is going on right now with Lamar Jackson and the responsibility in the heavy weight that's on his shoulder is not just being a quarterback, but also being involved in his own contract negotiations. To me, I feel like I wanted to focus on football, you know,

and that's why I had got an agent, you know. And everybody a little different, everybody handled their business different. But I wanted my agent to be able to hear those talks, oh, Ryan don't do this well or Ryan don't do that well. You know, Lamar about it going there and they can be like, hey, man, Lamar, we understand you want the MVP. Like, to be honest, that's the only thing keeping Lamar, really in the conversation for top quarterback in the league.

That's a big thing, though, Roy. That's a big thing. An MVP? No, no, no, no. That's major. That's major. That is. But, like, for instance, like, they can go to him like, hey, you haven't been top 10,

top 20 in passing. You know what I'm saying? And if we can pay you off of your production, but your production is running the ball. So we could pay you like a, we could pay you like a running back. You know what I'm saying? Like, and I'm not saying he's a running back. But I'm saying, but at the end of the day.

they, you know, they can start looking at, like, what he provides and what he don't provide to the team. When it comes to passing touchdowns and things like that, Lamar's not up there when it comes to quarterbacks. And then you got to start looking at turnover. Like, they start adding all that stuff when it comes to contract negotiations. And he does have that MVP. So, hey, I need, I need, not my homes, but I need, you know,

DAC money. Dak don't got none of that, you know. I need Josh Allen money. But then, but Josh Allen, they offense is potent, you know. But then people would say the same thing about the Ravens, but their office is potent, but it's just like potently just running the ball down your throat, you know?

So it's not like, you're not scared. As a defense, you're scared of Lamar, like James said, because of all the athletic ability he has. But the difference between Collar and Lamar is Collar can run like Lamar, but Collar is still going to throw that thing. And that's the difference between him and Lamar. Lamar don't have a lot of 300-yard games. He might have one here or there,

but that's not something that you're expecting. Collet can do that to you on a regular basis. Josh can do that to you on a regular basis, and they can beat you with their legs or their arms, and then especially because teams are doing this now with dual-threat quarterbacks, I think that's going to hurt him when it comes to the contract negotiations

because he was like, hey, you got the MVP. But in the MVP year, they had their chance to win a championship. I don't think the Ravens will win a championship no more. I think their window is closed, me personally. I think they have a solid team, but I think their window is closed. But especially when Lamar get his contract. Is that because when you start to pay the quarterback, then certain pieces of the team start to slip away in terms of who you can pay under the salary cap and all those other things?

Or are you saying that there's a certain cap, so Lamar, Jackson's career. And we've seen... No, no, no. I feel like Lamar is going to get... Like, he's getting better constantly at throwing. Like, he's getting better at throwing the ball. You know, he's not at, you know, Tom Brady lover or nothing like that, but he's getting better.

But when you start paying the quarterback, it's a lot harder to start paying all these other guys, $15 million on your team, $20 million on your team, because the quarterback's taking up most of that money. You know, they paid everybody early, but now who Lamar's. are going to throw it to. You know, now who's going to be, like, Marlon Humphrey got, like, they pay all these guys first because they need Marlon Humphrey, they need Ronnie Stanley. They need, you know, but like, like, but think of all the other D-Lyman, like,

Kaleas Campbell probably ain't going to be back next year, you know, Brandon Williams probably won't be back next year. You know, Marcus Peters, I don't know what their contract situation looks like, you know, so, like, once you pay that, that big 40-piece, 30-piece to somebody, that's taking 20, $20, $15, $10 million a year, good money. That's a good player. You know, you taking all that from somebody, you know? So that's why I say, I think they don't win this year.

I think they win though gone. Yeah, the NFL blueprint is if you draft a quarterback and he is a star or a burgeoning star, make sure you win in that first four or five years because when you have to pay him, that's when, you know, it's the Russell Wilson formula, right? Like, Russell Wilson is one of the top three or four quarterbacks in the game, but when it was time to pay him,

you saw the camp chancellors and the Richard Sherman start to slip away and some of those defensively the cliff aviples of the world start to go elsewhere. So you got to win in those first four or five years and then when you've won,

hopefully you've won, and then you paid a guy. Now the guy has to, you know, transcend and make up for the deficiencies maybe around the team because of his large cap number. Nowadays it's a little different. You know what I mean? Because you've got these quarterbacks that,

whether you want a Super Bowl or not, but just the deals are getting bigger, you know, years a lot. So you see the Josh Allen taking me six-year deals. You see the passenger malls taking these 10-year deals. So you're able to spread out their money and still keep guys like Tyree Hill and Travis Kelsey and those guys around. So, you know, my thing is I really got an agent for the small print stuff.

You know what I mean? I didn't go to school to go into all this contract stuff, so I wasn't confident. Now, Lamar Jackson is truly blessed. He's truly blessed because he knows he's going to get the bad. You know what I mean? And beyond what anybody says, kind of like Dak was, the situation Dak was. Everybody's like, he's not Tom.

He's not Aaron. He's not Matthew Therapeut and he's dude. How he won as much money as him? It's not about him being him. He's the next man up. Yeah, right. And as you know, if you pull it and your numbers look like the next best linebacker in the National Football League,

And they like, well, shoot, Ryan might not be as good as Bobby Wagner and all this. Hey. I'm next up. But I'm the next man out. And I'm balling. And the price keeps going up for the linebackers at my position. And it's my time. So Lamar Jackson, he's seen John.

I ain't saying he going to get Pat money. But he's seen Josh Allen's contract. He's seen these dudes' contract. I want my money to be like that. I don't care how many years y'all give me. But I'm the next man up. I'm going to get it. but the small print stuff.

You know what I mean? When you start talking about the injuries, when you start talking about roster bonuses and all this stuff, you know, he don't really know all the ends and out to Josh Allen's contract. He don't really know all the ends and out to Aaron Rogers contract. That's what agents know.

You know what I'm saying? And that's why you get a lot of these, hey, we're not showing up because this was in Josh Allen's contract. Y'all ain't trying to put it in our contract. You know what? We're not signing this deal. Does Lamar Jackson know all that? I hope he does.

It's not about the money. We'll see across the 10. sticker very soon. Hey, Lamar Jackson, 250 million, you know, but does he know the small print stuff? You know, he's going to get the money. So I don't necessarily think he's worried about getting injured and worried about the contract and all that because the money's going to be there. Just like if we on this pod and we're talking this pod and we're like, man, whatever I say on here, my check going to be in there. So I ain't really worried about what I'm talking about tomorrow. I'm going to go out here play ball.

I'm not really worried as long as you know the small print stuff, man. But it's crazy you say the window's closing, man. Yeah, that was, Ryan, Ryan got that AFC North hate in his heart. No, it ain't no hate. It ain't no hate. I'm just saying, hey, man, hey, it is what it is.

Hey. Hey, that's that AFC North hate. That's what I'm saying. I feel like everybody in the AFC, every team's getting better. But everybody in the AFC is getting better. Like the Chiefs, they're top dog. Obviously, Chiefs top dog right now.

But the Browns, they're getting better. The bills are better. You know, the Steelers, we're always going to be in the mix because we just have good defense. Our offense will be up in the air. You know, we don't know what we're going to do. Like, you know, but our defense, like, but Coach Thomas is a defense of coach.

He's going to make sure, hey, I'm going to make sure I'm in this game by defense. Like, I'm going to be in every game by defense. And there's other teams that's getting. better. Like, obviously the coach, they didn't play well this week, but I feel like they're going to be good with Carson Wins, you know, so I feel like the charges might be coming too.

Yeah. Yeah, and the charges as well, like, you know what I'm saying? And in Denver, they got defense, you know? I'm just saying, they got defense. Don't do it. Yeah, see, they got defense. You know what, Ryan got got to the point where he was naming too many damn teams, you know what? Hey,

hey, I'm winning, Ryan, though. He was going to get to the Jets, but, but Oakland. But, Oakland, Oakland, they got, but Oakland, they got defense now. You know what I'm saying? So, like, hey, you know, they ain't got defense, they got turnovers. They got turnovers. You know what I'm saying? But I feel like that's going to be, you know, that's going to be like, if more teams are getting better, that means other teams are getting worse.

You know what I'm so. I also think the Ravens, I mean, you brought it up, right, about the run heavy offense. In the last two, three years, they've led the league in rushing yards per game. It was like a buck-knife. or something crazy like that. Obviously, when Lamar Bray is contained, he's going to get you 50, 60 yards a game. And their running game has been suitable over the last few years

with Mark Ingram and all the other boys. But now this year, your top three backs get hurt in the preseason. So now you got to count on guys who haven't been with the program or guys off the practice. And shout out to Tyson Williams last night, who I thought probably should have got the ball a little bit more. but as James Jones put so articulately, and as Fat Joe once said,

the price yesterday is not the price today. And it seems like no matter what happens, Lamar Jackson, because you can't replace a talent like that with another Lamar Jackson readily, right? So once that guy is in position and it's his time to roll, you go from there. Speaking of a guy being in position and his time to roll, James, what's up with your Packers

and your boy Aaron, Rogers. You ain't think we was going to get more than 10, 15 minutes into this joint without me asking you. That was a whooping. That was a head whooping by the New Orleans Saints. James Winston out there not turning the ball over. Five touchdowns for a buck 50, buck 48, whatever it was. Three throws and two interceptions in those throws. And we never see that out of Aaron Rogers. So is it just week one shenanigans? If this would happen in week 12, we wouldn't be talking about it. What do you see happening in Green Bay right now, especially with Aaron Rogers? First of all, I want to start off with James Winston going out there balling,

because I've been, even when James was in Tampa throwing these interceptions, when he came to New Orleans, I was always on the TV saying, James Winston is a $100 million quarterback. I've been saying that. The skills that he has, he's a hundred million dollar quarterback. They didn't take him in the first round for nothing. James Winston could throw the ball with the best. It's just the stupid play at the wrong time that takes everybody away from James. James went out there and he played like a hundred million dollar man, but I didn't want him to play like a hundred million dollar man against the Packers. I wanted him to do that a long time ago, man. I start right now week one, but listen, Ryan knows, I mean, I know he went to Ohio

State. They didn't take too many ales. I went to San Jose State. I was a part of a lot of hell. But Ryan has been beat up too. Sometimes you just come out in a game and you just get beat up and Ryan, you look into your buddy next to you like, we weak today, bro. We ain't doing nothing out here, bro. You just have those type games. Yes, it's not Aaron Rogers to go out here and throw, like those two interceptions that I've seen them throw, that's not him. You know, I'm watching him and I'm like, hey, that's not 12. But I've been in games like that with Aaron, not with him turning the ball over,

but I've been in games like that to where nothing is going right, man, we just getting beat up and nothing was going right nowhere. Beyond him turning the football over, these dudes is running routes and ain't nobody near him to cover them. I mean, they're running routes in the red zone. I'm like, man, the way I'm seeing them run routes in the rare zone, I'm like, man, let me go get my cleats, man, and get to this field, man, and start training,

because I can do that. You know what I mean? They didn't get on. No, they're just running wide open. So I'm like, man, where's the defense? It was just one of those games. They ran into the same. I don't even, to be honest with you,

I'm wondering if they had my mindset because I was going into the game watching the TV. Like, man, they're going to beat these boys by 30. You know what I mean? Like James Winston is here. They still trying to get their little mojo going. How they're going to be? Is it going to be a two-quarterback system?

You know, I'm like, shoot the Packers is, you know, when the Super Bowl contention, on paper. I'm like, man, they're going to one and O, we're going to beat these boys up. So obviously they took on my mentality and went out there and the Saints was like, hold up. We still got defense like Ryan's eight to. We've been to come get this quarterback.

And that's what they did. Man, they put pressure on 12 all game long. Twelve made some bad decisions. We weren't able to get the run game going or Devante going. And like I said, on defense, man. I mean, dudes are still open. They still open right now. If the game was still going, if it was in quadruple overtime, man, they still open.

You know, so the Packers got some stuff to fix up, man, because, I mean, obviously, you know, to being a good football team, Ryan knows every single week, you're going to get everybody's best shot. You know what I mean? And, you know, it's times you turn on the tape and you're like, oh, yeah, we've been a beat up on the bears, beat up on the lines. They don't even play hard. And then you get out here on the field against you, and you like, man, these boys diving all over the place.

They're playing hard. They're playing hard. Like, well, we didn't see this on film. But, hey, you know, man, if you're that team, they're coming after you. The Packers need to know that, man. You're going to get everybody's best punch. They wasn't ready.

They wasn't ready. Yeah. No, thanks. The facts. First, JJ, I'm going to let you know. I never got to beat that bad before. At a Hall State, all the Steelers. First don't have to start off with that.

We're going to have to have AR look up the game logs and see if there was ever a third. You're going to look at the game logs. I promise you, you're going to look at it from a Ohio's, from 2012 to this point, I have never lost that bad. You got to go back to high school and so, all for you? I got one.

It was a preseason game versus the bills, but it was preseason. And it was, you know, so, hey, after that first quarter, I was like, hey, yo, like, I was looking at my teammate. I'm like, hey, uh, hey, I'm like, yo, this is the worst I ever lost.

I'm like, luckily, ain't playing no more. I'm not, but it was crazy, though, no, but, nah, but y'all lost to the funniest quarterback in the NFL by far because James is hilarious. But the thing that is crazy to me is that, like you said, Aaron doesn't normally show that, man. Like, he had, like, them two throws he threw them. Like, the first one, I'm like, all right, you know, he had pressure.

You know, I'm thinking, like, all right, he's trying to force it, dude, jumped it. Then, you know, they come out. It's like right after, right. right after the kick-all, boom, they run the ball. That man just punted the ball. I'm like, hold on. I'm like, oh, hold on. I was looking at my wife.

She's like, man, is he doing this on purpose? I'm like, no, Michelle. I'm like, no, he ain't doing that on purpose. I don't know. He's just having a bad day to day or something. But, no, but the Saints did step up. The Sten stepped up. I'm happy for James.

And then I think it's pretty cool to see that he has a coach in the system that's kind of, built around, like to help him succeed. Because everybody liked to use James, you know, abilities and thought it was best because James got a big arm. So he's like, hey, let's throw James.

Let's throw, like, honest. Yeah, yeah, we check the tape. You check the tape on your ass. 2014, week two at Baltimore. Steelers lose. By the way, thank you, AR. Steelers lose, 26 to 6. might have six tackles, you know, he made a few stops or something.

But that ain't, that ain't 35, though. That ain't 35. They lost 30, they thought it was 38 to three. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We just wanted to let you know that you been on the other side of some of that. No, no, I lost bad before, but I never been 21, 20, but never 21. We've been quarterback heavy. We've been quarterback heavy so far on this pod.

I want to ask you guys about, shout out to James, by the way. Like you said, James Winston. you want to see a dude kind of do the reclamation project of his career. This is the number one. Not just the first round pick like JJ said, but that's the first pick overall in the draft. So him getting his mojo back. He had the eye surgery.

He had the LASIC. You went to charm school. He talked different. Like things look like they're looking up for James Winston. But the young quarterbacks around the league, we saw Trevor Lawrence, you know, we saw Mac Jones, we saw Zach Wilson, we saw a little bit of Trey Lance.

And we saw a very, very little bit of Justin Fields. And I'm here in Chicago and I got the full goal podcast that comes out Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursday nights right here on the ringer posted by me. I was very upset. I was very upset. I went on a 42-minute rant that I thought was 12 minutes to start off to first show. And the only reason I was upset, fellas, is because I didn't see anything that Andy Dalton did in that game

that Justin Fields couldn't. have done in that game. So James, I want to start with you on this, and, Ry, you could pick it up after that. Starting a rookie quarterback, I'm hearing a lot of caping by former GMs, former player personnel guys, former scouts about why Justin Fields ain't in the game. But I'm not hearing this about Trevor Lawrence, not hearing this about Zach Wilson, not hearing this about Mac Jones. And it ain't like, you know, shout out to all the schools in the swag or something like that, Back in the day, it used to be, you know, Steve McNair, Alcorn State. He's got to sit a little bit.

You know, he hadn't seen these kinds of schemes and all this other stuff. And then Steve McNair, you know, guy rest of his soul, went on to have himself a great career sitting on the bench. The Patrick Mahomes argument. Nick Wright from Fox Sports has made the argument like, hey, stop bringing up Patrick Mahomes because he should have been starting halfway through the season. And that's the reason why they lost that playoff game later on in his first year. Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, like I mentioned, Mack Jones,

what's the difference between them and why aren't people saying, well, these guys shouldn't be starting because they're not behind great offensive lines, but Justin Fields can be talked about in this manner. The rookie quarterback, when is it time, when is it not time? I know it's case-by-case James, and especially with the Justin Fields situation, when you got a guy like Andy Dalton, who's shown you? He's a quantifiable entity, if I could put it like that.

They put it in the best terms possible. You know what Andy Dalton is. So what's going on? there when rookie quarterback step into the league and who's ready to start, who's not ready to start, that kind of vibe. Man, I could tell this is getting under your seeing a little. Man, hey, hey, I'm already mad about the podcast. I got to tape today on the full go because I'm going to talk about it again because now it's

the defense's problem. Now it's on the defense so we can get off the offensive-minded Matt Nagy, whose team has scored less points per game every year since he's been the head coach of the Bears. The reason why you're so frustrated, embarrassed fans are so frustrated. Number one, you've been looking for a quarterback for the last 25 years. 40.

Number two, he is in the building right now. And number three, there is no difference between Mack Jones, Trevor Lawrence, these boys that's in the game right now, than Justin Fields. Justin Fields might be the best one. And it's really crazy to me because at the end of the day, when you play these games,

what's the ultimate goal? The ultimate goal is to win the dang game. The best quarterback in your team is on the bench because you're telling me he a rookie? No, he needs to be in the football game because he makes your team better. He showed you that in preseason, and everybody can tell me,

oh, he's going up against the twos, the threes, all that. All these quarterbacks are going up against the twos and the threes and all that. But what he showed us is that he can win. in games for your team and he makes your offense more dynamic. Justin, everybody said the bear's old line is trash. Why you want to put him out there? Where if my old line trash, I want to do that can move.

I want to do who that can get outside of this pocket and make some play. Buy some more time for Alan Robinson and those boys. Mate, defensive coordinators kind of play him like they play Lamar Jackson. You got to leave an extra spy in there on Justin Fields. That's going to help the past game. It is no extra spy in there or nothing like that on Andy Dalton. And we know what Andy Dalton brings.

Andy Dalton brings eight games a year. Know what eight games a year gets you fired. Everybody going to be fired and Justin Fields going to be winning games for some other coach. You know, so Justin Fields needs to enter into the game. He makes them that more explosive. And I'm going to share a story before I let Ryan get at it.

But Derek Carr's rookie year, we traded for Matt Schaub. Matt Schaub was a veteran. Matt Schaub coming from a. from Atlanta. He'd make it $10 million a year. Every single time Dennis Allen came in the team meeting, he said, Matt Schaub is our quarterback. We would go to the practice field and Derek Carl be throwing these slants, these B lines, these comebacks. And he's slanging the ball all over the field. And as offensive players, we like, oh, my goodness, this dude is special. You know what I'm saying? So then coach are coming in there the next day and say, Matt Schaub is the starter. He's our guy. Then we play one free season game. Derek Carr goes out there, he's slanging the ball all over to y'all.

Coach coming the next day. Matt Schaub is our quarterback. And now you got the defense looking, Ryan. Now you got the defense like, hold up, now. I've seen this young boy out here spinning this thing way better than Matt Schaub and we're trying to win. Now what y'all want to have us on the players or 80 plays a game? We can do with the young boy.

So then you start getting that talk at practice. It's like, man, why is Matt Schaub still in the game, man? Derek Carr is special. They drafted him high. Put the young boy in the game. Let him go get his growing pains and all this type stuff. Let him have his ups and downs. That's fine.

But what we've seen from him, this young dude is special. Right? Then our final preseason game, we plan on C-Hawls. Derek Carr throw three touchdowns in the first half. And I never forget Charles Woodson went over to coach. And he said, you keep on saying this match shop stuff. If you want Matt Schott to be a little start, you better take that young boy out the game right now

because this young boy's out here spinning it and you're going to have problems on your hand. After that preseason game, the next day, after the final cuts and all that, we came in the team meeting and coach said, this is the hardest decision I had to make. You know, had the conversation with Matt Scha. You know, he took it hard,

but he's going to be in support of Derek Cartman. And I promise you, everybody in the room said, because we knew what the young boy brought. I promise you right now. And Khalil Mack was in that locker room. I promise you right now, that's what the bears are thinking. Like, man, we got this young boy that we see every day of practice. And I was at a couple of the Bears practice.

He looked better than Andy Dawkins. We got this young boy that gives us a better chance to win. and he's sitting over here on the bench because whatever egos or whatever these these coaches and GMs is trying to do, put that young boy out there and let's go play. Everybody O and one, you still got a chance. Everybody in first still in the NFC North.

Everybody's over one. So you still got a chance to go out here and make some noise, man. Put the young boy in the game before it's too late. And I hate when people say, well, let's wait three or four weeks. For what? So you're going to wait until you owe and four, one and three or whatever, to be like,

all right, Andy Dawn, ain't, ain't the, I mean, Andy Dogg ain't doing his job. We knew that started a season. You know, and now you're going to put the young boy out there one and three. Come on now. Come on now. Hey, James. Hey, James.

What was your record at you? Oh, see, now you're going to bring that up. I will say this. We was raggedy. We was raggedy, you know what I'm saying? But it wasn't because of Derek Carr, man. It was raggedy because of people around their car, man. You know what I'm saying?

You know, we ain't have a good roster, man. I love all my people. We could have a good roster. I got the feeling that any time there is a dissenting point of view from my man, Ryan Shazia, over here, he's just going to ask what your record was because he played for the organization that he played for. I feel like by episode three or four,

James is going to be done with the how many losses did you take conversation that Ryan leads every damn question or answer with. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. No, but I see where you're coming from. Honestly, I think I've been thinking Justin should start the whole way through. One thing I don't like is how people, you know, comparing Andy Dalton to, you know, Matt Sharp, though. And the reason I say that is because Andy Dalton, he almost won an MVP one year if he didn't get hurt.

You know, he led the Bengals to a really good season one year, but he got hurt. But I still don't feel like he's better than Justin Fields. But I don't think Justin should have started versus the Rams, who were the number one defense in the NFL last year. And the reason I say that is because I feel like you want to get his feet wet and you don't want to drown him. And I feel like if you would have played him versus the Rams, it kind of would have been drowning to him because he's already going,

they already don't, like, their team is all right, but they're not like what they need to be. You know, and then now you're going to throw him in there with the best defense in the lead. You got Jalen Ramsey all over the field. You got Aaron Donnell all over the field. They got the best D-Limon and the best secondary player in the NFL.

So when it comes to that, it's kind of hard. I feel like it would be like throwing them off guard. I feel like this week, I feel like if you have Justin playing, I think he'll be all right because he's not going to have that type of pressure. Then in the back end,

he doesn't have somebody that can just completely cover the whole field in Jalen Ramsey. I disrupt the whole game in Jalen Ramsey. So I feel like it was a, obviously, I think Matt Nagy, I don't know what they're going to do this week, but I feel like Justin should play a lot more or start. I don't like how they're doing this dual threat quarterback thing. Like that, that's stupid to me.

Like, I mean, not dual threat, but dual quarterback thing. This ain't college. Don't put Justin in to run. Quarterback reads. Like, he, like, Justin is a passer. Like, you know, he's, he's not a runner. Like, he runs because he has to. He doesn't run because he wants to, you know.

But at a day, he can run, he run a 4-4. He can run. You know, but I feel, I feel, I feel just as good or better than all the quarterbacks. It was crazy to me how everybody was like, I feel like Trevor's going to be good. But everybody like, yeah, Trevor's the next gift to football. This man never lost a game and he lost his first game, his career this week versus, probably the worst team in the NFL. then he lost, and then he threw three picks in his first game,

probably to the worst team in the NFL. You know, so it's just like, if you're doing that first, the worst team in the NFL, man, what does this season about it look like? You know? I can't wait until Justin Fields is allowed to throw three interceptions in the game. I can't wait. I'm a cheer for each one because get him out.

Andrew Luck through three interceptions in his first game. Peyton Manning through three interceptions in his first game. Ryan, I just, I know you, and you make a good point with the Rams. point. I understand that. But at what point, because now you got, you're down to your fourth tackle, right? Offensive line ain't getting no healthier as the season goes along.

No, I understand that. So like, but the thing is, who do the Bears play this week, Jason? They got the Cincinnati Bengals, Ryan. All right, Cincinnati Bengals. All right, so they have a good D-line, but their D-line is not the Rams. You know, they're not the Rams. Their secondary is good, but Jesse Bates ain't Jalen Ram, you know, you know, they DB's all right.

So it's like, hey, Cincinnati, it's a soft, you know, he can, you know, work his way up, you know what I'm saying? Like, he can get his feet wet, get, he can gain a bunch of confidence this week if he, if he, if he play. I'm not, I'm not saying that he's going to go out there and stretch Cincinnati. I'm not saying that. But I feel like he can gain more confidence this week than trying to throw bubble screens to, you know, Mooney and have bird blocking and Jailen Ramsey just blow up the

whole play. You know what I'm saying? He'd be like, damn, all right, that don't work, but he could do it versus the Bengals and it might, you know, so I feel like, I feel like if this week and, you know, later on, it'll be a little bit better for them to work his way into the season. I always think outside the box. And when we've seen Justin Fields coming to the game, the very first play, they thought he was going on running. He ran that fake redos and threw a little out route, got about seven, eight yards and reds. The next play he was in, he kept it, he scored a touchdown.

Ryan, as you know, dude, you don't prepare for, and they enter into that game. It takes you about three quarters to be like, what in the world is going on, man? No, no, no, face. So I felt like, man, everybody said,

don't put him out there, but they don't know what Justin Fields is going to look like. They don't know what he's playing Matt Nagy can put together for him. It could be a Lamar, Jackson game plan. It could be a stand-in-the-pocket game plan because that's the type of quarterback Justin Fields is.

So I'm like, if you bring him out there and he running these read options and he's getting outside of the pocket making these those, number one, that's going to slow down that pass person here and Donald because they're like, okay, shoot, number two, that's going to mess up the defensive coordinator. All right, we've got to switch this up. We prepare for Andy Dalton to stand in his pocket and come get him and have these dudes out here to be ready to jump on routes because we know Andy Dalton ain't taking these shots down the field. You know what I'm saying? So I felt like if they would have came and gave

even if you don't start them, gave him some drive, some series just to keep them boys off balance and let him go to work. It would have caught the Rams off guard. It would have slowed that passengers down. It would have helped that old line. That's just my opinion because the unscatted looks you're not ready for. That's why he had those explosive plays when he was in the game. And to wrap up this going back to our Packers Saints situation. Our guy, AR threw up here. 2016, week three, at Philly. Steelers lost.

They lost the Battle of Pennsylvania. Oh, yeah, that was a bad game. That was a bad game. No, no, no, no, no, don't worry. Don't worry. We know. 34 to 3 was the score. And apparently, Ryan, maybe.

I did play. I did play. Oh, you played? Okay. Ryan had two tackles in a game. that the Eagles scored 34 points. So there was multiple opportunities to get ball carryers down, but he did it twice in that game.

And shout out to pro football reference for having all the game logs right on tap for us. So he didn't get beat by 35, but he got taxed for 31. And I guarantee he was on the sideline. I guarantee he was on the sideline. Like, bro, what are we doing? Man, we look raggedy out here.

That game was bad. That must be the Pee Wee's Playhouse Word of the Day, Raggedy. Ladies and gentlemen, right? We all have some days, man. It's all to the next week. The next topic for us, Cam. Cam Newton is without job right now. And he sat down with Cecil Newton, his pops at Westlake High School,

sat down at the 50-yard line, did a sit-down, and talked about his experience with, Bill Belichick and New England Patriots. Don't know how much of this you guys got a chance to catch. But my first blush is, is it good form? Is it bad form? You know, in this portion of his career, if you're still trying to get back in the game,

and I don't believe Cam is going to go this year without getting back on a team because there's going to be injuries to that quarterback position around the league. And he's still enough of a weapon, I think, to be on an NFL roster. But, James, you think it helped his call? Do you think him talking about some of the ins and outs

of what went into the decision-making, some of the conversations that he had with one of the more secretive teams in the NFL and the New England Patriots, do you think that sit down with Pops helped to hurt Cam Newton's cause not only with fans around the league, but also with NFL teams looking to acquire his services?

Well, see, so I'm always a guy that looks at it as, you don't say no funny stuff, or cause any controversy until you have a job. That's just me. You know, like I tell people all the time, you know, I tell the kids on time because they're on Beesmo.

You know why I'm here and all that. I said, number one, Beastmo won like that as rookie youth. Beesmo one like that and second. Beesmo earned that. He earned the right to talk crazy like that because he was that valuable. to the team.

You young fellas is not that valuable to the team. You can't be out of talking crazy like that. All right, wait until you start making some big time money, some big time plays. They didn't talk crazy like that if you want to. I can't stop you. But for Cam, you are trying to get on a football team. You are trying to continue to still play.

You said you do not want to retire. Don't be out here doing these interviews, talking that funny business, until you have the number one on your back that say, Newton, whatever uniform you wear and then talk your junk, man. So that's what I got out of the interview. I'm like, man, why are you even doing this right now?

And yes, it's good TV. It's good for people to hear, relationship with Belichick and all that. Dang, dang, that's what happened. This would have. But man, wait until you get on the team, because we all know how this is right now, man. We all know all these owners is on the same page, all these head coaches, his buddies

and all that type stuff, you know. So once the work is around, man, Cam, doing this, doing that, because I thought he handled itself the perfect patriot way when he was in New England. He never was in the papers for nothing crazy. He never said, came in and any interviews and said anything crazy. He did everything right. You know, so to get released and then to come out and have this interview,

I just feel like it's the wrong time. Like, Kim, you could have waited until you was on a team, and then you could have set out with Pops had this interview and all that while you were on a team and had a job. That's just my two sense. With me, first is the first of the first. It was crazy because I was like, man, me and my dad don't talk like that first. Hey, no, but...

It's a different dynamic in the Shazier family, huh? Yeah, it's a different dynamic, you know. It's nothing wrong with it. I think it's pretty cool how they got a buddy-buddy-bud relationship like that. But me and my dad don't chop it up like that. But, like, I'm with you, James, man. When it comes to trying to get a job, trying to find a job, man. Man, my dad always taught me, man, try to have your bag as clean as possible.

You know, when you take it out of garbage, you don't want no baggage. You don't want no, nothing to, you know, cause any distraction, anything for people not to want to have you. You know, and why would somebody, you know, I'm not, why would somebody not want to go with a young guy that has no baggage and they can develop, then go with an older guy, you know, you already know what he's about. And, you know, he might bring extra baggage with the media and this and that and just talking. And like you said, everybody's buddy, buddy. So to me, you know, I always like to stay below, keep my head down until I could pop

my head up, you know. So honestly, you know, everybody's going to do what they want to do. But in my personal preference, I would have just would have chill too. All right. So we mentioned Pat Mahomes when we were talking about some of the young quarterbacks and who got in and who didn't get in. We saw Pat Mahomes do Pat Mahomes things against those Cleveland Browns, those celebrated Cleveland Browns over the last couple of years. And Ryan, you are familiar with the Cleveland Browns after being an AFC North for your years with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Browns seem to be making that turn. Baker Mayfield has kind of, you know, not changed his image, but people are talking less about the other stuff and talking more about Baker Mayfield, the quarterback. He looked phenomenal in the first half of that game. And then the end of the game, you know, there's some throws that weren't made. And then the punter, it does what the punter did. I mean, the Browns kind of browns themselves in week one of a season where everybody's looking at them as maybe one of these dark horse picks to come out of the AFC, them and the bills and some other teams out there in that same echelon, trying to challenge the Chiefs. And you get that matchup week one. And I believe the broadcaster was like, you know, maybe we'll see this for the AFC championship game.

How do you feel about this Browns team coming into this season and what you saw in week one? I'm going to be honest. At the beginning of the season, I had, you know, I'm a die hard stiller. I had the Browns, you know, the winning division. You know, I had the Browns win the division. I said the Steelers going to be second and then probably the Ravens will be third. It's going to be like them three going to mess around.

You know, I think all three of them make the playoffs, honestly. But the thing is with the Browns, I just feel like they're just, Super hyped up. Everybody wants the Browns to be so good. And I don't know if everybody wants it to be so good, but they have all these name brands, all these name brand guys, you know, all these household names.

Oh, they got clowny, they got Miles Garrett. They got Cream Hunt. Odell. To me. Odell, you know, and Jarvis Landry and Hooper, they got all the pieces. But at halftime, they did, they, they was the Mont Stars.

Them boys went in the halftime, Hey, we got this, da-da-da-da-da. Hey, they failed to realize at halftime, Ken City always taking that secret juice, and they turn up. And the Browns did the Browns, like you said, man, like that's the one thing they're going to have to realize how to win. Like, the one thing with a lot of good teams, the Packers, when they're playing well, you know,

and I'm not trying to take any shots, when the still is when they're playing well, you know, even the Ravens. In the second half, it's time to turn up. Defense lock up, you know, it's like, hey, it's time to win. Like, it's serving teams is like, hey, we good. We got to lead. Some teams is like, hey, man, like, we thriving. And the chief show you, they thrive through adversity.

The Tampa Bay, they thrive through that. So, like, we might be down for a little bit. Hey, don't worry. We know how to win. What Bruce Ari is saying, hey, we got to play better, but my team know how to win. We're going to win games. And the thing is that the brown is always in the back of the head. and we need to win this.

The distillers in the Tampa Bay and Green Bay is like, we know how to win this. Let's go win this. You know, and I feel like they have too much of, let's not lose it and instead of let's go win it, you know, and I feel like when they figure out how to win it

and actually push through adversity and it, because once they lose the momentum, a lot of times the Browns don't ought to get it back. Like from now until, like they said, the Browns having won a game in the opening game of the season since Instagram was out. Like, Instagram wasn't even invented the first since the Browns won the opening, the opening, the opening, opener in the NFL. That's 17 years in a row.

That's crazy. Like, you got to win one. You know, so all I'm saying is they got to figure out a way to, hey, man, we got to win these games. And I don't think they're figuring it out. They're just so scared of losing game. James, you high on the board. Browns this year. You're exactly right, Ryan, because that's the same thing I was saying about the Raiders. I'm like, man, same old Raiders we're about to see. You know, they got

this game up. They went out there and made some plays. That's exactly what I felt about the Browns. The Browns had that game won. You're up by nine. You give up an 80-yard touchdown to Tyreek Hill. You've been playing good defense all day, letting them nickel and dime you down the field. you give up a bomb, okay, that's fine. Then you come out, Nick Chubb fumble. Then you come out, you can muffle punch. And then you come out, I don't know if Baker was trying to throw it away, whatever he was doing, but then you throw an interception.

I don't know what he's trying to do. I ain't in the locker room. Got to ask him at some other time. That's games, those games right there, if you know how to win, you win those games easy. The Chiefs coming out of half the time, they know how to win. they've been in games like this before and came out on top. So the confidence is there, you know, on that side.

I like, don't trip. We good. We got Pat back here. We got rig. We got Kelso. We're going to find a way to win this game. Defense going to make a play. But if the Browns knew how to win, that's a game that they win easy.

It's a perfect teacher for the Browns because you're going up against all you're the best team in the NFL and you had them on the rope. You really had them on the ropes the last two times you played them. But you came out of there with two. two else because you did not finish the game. You know, so the Browns got to learn. I took out of that game that the Browns, number one, is going to be problems, you know, and I agree with you, Ryan.

They probably going to win this division. They are going to be problems. They are that talented on both sides of the ball. Once they figure it out and find a way to win these close games and not make those stupid mistakes, they're going to be a problem to mess with, man. And this is a, this is a game that truly let people know that they're not ready to win just yet. You know what I mean?

They still have some work. to do of finding ways to win games and making the plays when the plays need to be made. The Chiefs did that, they did it. But once they get it and once they learn and know how to win, the Browns are going to be problems. All right, as we wrap this thing on up, and it's been fun listening to you, two fellas,

chop it up on week one in the NFL. Biggest surprise, biggest disappointment in week one of the NFL. I'll get it kicked off. Biggest disappointment for me, was Tennessee Titans performance. There's a team along with the Browns and along with who else were talking about, the Buffalo Bills, you know,

who's going to challenge in the AFC? Who's going to meet that Chiefs team if they're healthy in that AFC championship? And the Tennessee Titans was a real sexy pick for a lot of people. And I'm not saying, you know, week one overreactions happened. I do it as a fan and observer.

But when you get Julio Jones and you pair him with A.J. Brown and Derek, you know, King Henry is out there. And Ryan Tannenhill, who people had as like a sneaky MVP pick, if you look at Ryan Tanyhill's time in Tennessee, he putting up some numbers with quarterbacks who are respected around the league. And for them to just get punched in the mouth continuously in that game, I was like, oh, damn, like this, I'm not saying the Titans going to go five and 12

and nothing like that. But that was eye-opening. That was eye-opening. So I got them as my biggest disappointment in the in week one. And my biggest surprise in week one, and I don't know how much of a surprise it should be, but, you know, the Chargers and Justin Herbert to go on the road and to face a team in Washington who say what you want about that offense,

but that defense is ready. That defense is here. You know, Chase Young is going to mess around in this year or next year and start to challenge for a defensive player the year type accolades because Chase Young is just a freak, right? And of course, he comes from the Ohio State University, so I'm sure Ryan is very happy about that mention. But Justin Herbert, three third down conversions on that final drive to give them that 2016 when I remember when he came out of Oregon, people were like, you know, he's got all the tools, but there's some mistakes here and there.

And I'm sitting there like, can he sling it? And does he have the anticipation and the accuracy? And in that fourth quarter, those third down conversions. I shouldn't be surprised because we saw it a lot last year, but that charges team might be a little bit more ahead than I think most people think they are. So my biggest disappointment would have been the Tennessee Titans in the week one, and biggest surprise, I would say, or teams are trending in a way that I like,

is that L.A. Chargers squad. Ryan, would you see in this first week, whether it be player or team, biggest surprise, biggest disappointment? So my biggest disappointment was, like, the lack of ball security. A lot of big-time players cost their team the game. Dalvin Cook, Nick Chubb, Lamar Jackson, like all of them fumbling the ball. Big time fumbles overtime. You know, those guys, you don't expect them to lose the ball.

That kind of was like my biggest disappointment. My biggest surprise was Jimmy G with the 300 yards throwing. And the reason I said, obviously he didn't have a lot of touchdowns and, you know, it was a bunch of yak. But at the end of day, like, everybody, everybody, like one of my good friends, he hate Jimmy G. Like, he hate him. Like, he wants him out of there so bad. And I'm like, man, Jimmy's not that bad, man. Like, Jimmy knows how to win.

And my biggest surprise is Jimmy because he constantly like, hey, I don't care what y'all say. when I'm healthy, we win. And he went out there and won. And they almost lost, but they won. You know, so I think he did a good job. He didn't turn the ball over, you know, and led his team to a win. James?

You all already know my biggest disappointment, man. You got to say it, though. We got to hear you. My whole body language changed, man. It's like you get smacked after a game and you're doing an interview and they like, what happened, Ron? You're like, man, you watch the game, bro.

You know what I'm saying? We didn't do nothing right, man. There's an old body language. So that was me watching the Packers game, man. I'm just sitting here, man. Like, come on now. But that was my biggest disappointment. We just wasn't ready.

We didn't come ready to play, man. This is the National Football League. Man, you got to come ready to play every week. You know, we just weren't ready. The Saints got after us, man. So that was my biggest disappointment. My biggest surprise are, you know, was the Cincinnati Bengals.

I think the Cincinnati Bengals are a better football team than a lot of people think. I think they're going to surprise a lot of people this year on how well this team plays. They got a lot of good young guys on that defense. When Joe Burroughs steps on the field, this team gets more confidence. Jamar Chase dropping every single ball in the preseason

and he come out here looking like Jerry Rice and we've won catching everything, scoring touchdowns, looking like the Lamar, chase at LSU. I think this team is going to be proud of it. And this was another team that found ways to lose games. They nutted up. They found a way to beat the Minnesota Vikings, you know, in overtime, you know, making

plays. They caused some turnovers on the defensive side of the ball to win that game. He talked about the Dalvin Cook fumble. But this Cincinnati Bengals team is going to be a very good football team this year. I think they're going to make some noise and they're going to surprise a lot of people. All right, man. I think they're going to have us back for another episode.

I think this went pretty well. I think it went well. We found out that Ryan Shazir takes all of the bad losses out of his memory and we can't wait to remind him. And we also found out that James Jones is still a packer at heart and we'll always be a packer at heart. So hopefully next week they give him something to feel a little bit better about, you know, because he had to go get a couple,

a cup of coffee before the show. So he had to get pepped up because he knew he was walking into the Lions den, talk about the Packers getting stomped into wine. So, and I'm a Chicago Bears fan, so I'm going to be perpetually angry on this podcast. So for my guys, James Jones and Ryan Shazier, I am Jason Gough. Next up on the Ringer NFL feed is Kevin Clark talking about if the NFL defenses can catch up to the offenses on Wednesday.

We'll be back, like I said, every Tuesday on the Ringer NFL feed for the entire NFL season. Also, you can check out the full go with me, Jason Gough, every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday night on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. But we all know Spotify is the gang. Thank you to production assistant Isaiah Blakely for production on this episode with additional production supervision from our guy, A.R. Arjuna Ramgapal, and TD St. Matthew Daniel. See, we got a cast of thousands behind this show. hopefully everybody's proud of it and if not we'll come back next week and do the same thing so for j jay my man ryan i'm jason goff signing off we'll talk to y'all next tuesday