The Ringer NFL Show - Rodgers Shines Again, Week 4 Likes, and What’s Wrong With the Dallas Cowboys | The Ringer NFL Show

Episode Date: October 6, 2020

Ryan Shazier and Cole Wright start by discussing the Houston Texans firing Bill O’Brien (3:45). Then they talk about both 'Monday Night Football' games (13:50). They give out their Week 4 likes (30:05), and Ryan gets into what’s wrong with the Dallas Cowboys (50:09) and Arizona Cardinals (01:01:04). Host: Ryan Shazier and Cole Wright Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, yo, football fans. On this episode, Ryan and I were going to discuss the Bill O'Brien firing, Monday night football, and an in-depth conversation about DAC and them cowboys. All that and much, much more coming up next right here on the Tuesday edition of The Ringer NFL show. Today's episode of The Ringer NFL show on The Ringer podcast Network is brought to you by State Farm. Getting great car and home insurance from State Farm at a surprisingly great rate. Well, that's like drafting a player that becomes an all pro. The real deal. State Farm agents provide personalized service so you, you can customize your insurance to fit your needs, like a GM putting together their very own roster. You need a team that supports you, and State Farm's got a great one. In addition to agents, the award-winning mobile app helps manage coverage, pay bills, file claims, and more. With a great price and even greater service, State Farm goes from strength to strength. Choose insurance that always brings its A-game. When you want the real deal, like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

Hey, you've been waiting all week, and the time it is now. This is the ringer, NFL. show Tuesday edition. He's my guy, Ryan Chazir. I'm Cole Wright. Make a note, we have a busy week here on the pod and across the network as well. Make sure to check out all the NFL show podcast. You can hear them five times a week since those NBA finals are rolling as well. You're going to want to check out Rajabell.

He's an NBA veteran, and he's rolling on the real ones. It's the ringer NBA show. Make a note and be sure to tune into that. But, Ryan, I'm going to be completely honest with you, man. I don't know about you, but I've watched barely a drip. of the NBA finals. I don't know if it's just the fact that this is usually when it's NBA preseason or the fact that when they ended their season, it almost seemed as if things were over.

Then they restarted it and then football was getting ramped up. Baseball was in full swing. But, I mean, it's been a little bit of a tough watch to sit there and watch the NBA finals. But I think maybe it's also a tough watch because I know where things are going. It looks like the Lakers had this thing sewn up, man. Yeah, no, I'm not going to lie. I've been watching it. My wife, you know, she played collegiate basketball.

So, like, we definitely watch basketball. I definitely feel like the Lakers are going to win it. But Jimmy Butler had an incredible game the other night. So I just wanted to see if he can do it again. But you all right, it kind of feel weird watching basketball right now because it's normally, you know, when it's basketball season, that's when it's starting to get important in the football, you know, and, like, basketball doesn't really matter this early in this season.

But right now it's like basketball really matters if football really doesn't kind of, you know, like it does matter right now, but it's not as important to like the scheme of how important, like the finals is. So it's just kind of weird. It's kind of backwards compared to how it normally is. Coach Tomlin heard you right now, Ryan, he'd be so upset saying that this football season doesn't matter.

Every game matters. You know, like Coach Tomlin says, I want volunteers. I don't want hostages. So every game matters, one through 16, Ryan. You know what I mean. I'm talking about like to the typical fan that watch all. the sports. You know, obviously every game matters because if you're in the NFC East, all you got to do is win for you're in the playoffs. So, yeah, we're going to get to that.

I know also that you've been thrown in the mix on Madden once again. So I see you smiling right there. I know what that smile is all about. You know, me and Madden have a bitter sweet relationship right now. I'm going to keep, you know, kind of trolling them until they let me give some insight of the game. But yeah, they dropped my Madden card. It's a 91. And I think that's one of the highest cars of the game right now. You know, your cars that keep going up and eventually go up the 99, depending on what player you are. And a 91 is like one of the highest cars in the game right now. So it's kind of dope. All right, let's get this show on the road. Let's talk a little football. We're going to talk Bill O'Brien specifically because we know that he was relieved of his

services as the head coach and the general manager for the Houston Texans. And it seemed almost instantaneous that, you know, he was given himself the play calling duties. And just like that, he took the fourth L of the season. And at O and 4. Well, it appears that they just weren't really ready to see any more of that futility go on. But, you know, taking a look at what Bill O'Brien actually did as the Houston, Texas head coach, I mean, Ryan, he's the most successful frontman in the history of the franchise. Now, I know it's a short-lived franchise, but what Bill O'Brien was able to do in not necessarily a small sample size, but he was able to win football games.

He was able to take that team to the playoffs. But this season, I mean, you know, he fell victim to the scheduling bug. So I know some guys on that team. and they weren't a big fan of him. Obviously, he's winning. You know, everybody wants to win. But sometimes at what cost, like I think he was trying to fit too much on his plate

just felt like he was almost God in the moment and just felt like he can do everything. And, you know, sometimes that backfire. You can't trade the best player. One of the best players in the league. I don't know, he was rated in the top five, I think, by his own peers. What did his Madden card look like, though?

His manic card is a 98, I think. Oh. Come on, man. Come on, man. No, but honestly, man, like a lot of guys that play for him weren't a big fan of him. And then he just tried to, he's trying to do too much, man. That, like, that Bill O'Brien tried to be Bill Belichick. And sometimes everybody can't be Bill Belichick.

You just got to be in your role, understand what you have to do and work together with a GM. And I feel like he was just trying to do a little. too much, had too much on his plate, and thought that he was just such a great coach that he can overcome anything. And sometimes you got to understand. The coaches tell me this all the time. It's not about the coaches. It's about the players.

Sometimes you have to do what's best for your players and not what's best for you. And I think he was trying to do what's best for him instead of what's doing what's best for the team. Yeah. One thing I've always heard about Bill O'Brien, you know, even from my days when I worked in New England and, you know, was at ESPN and covered the Big Ten with him at Penn with him at Penn State. I always heard that Bill O'Brien, it was, is his system or no system? And the adaptability didn't really come into play until he got a player like Deshaun Watson. And his ability to

adapt, even as we saw this season, it wasn't able to adapt it into wins. The translation, it just didn't seem to be there. But in the past, it was, okay, you're not able to run this system, too bad, then you're not going to be able to fit into this system. And when you say he's like Bill Belichick, that's the biggest difference because Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots, we know what do they do the best, they get the best out of every single player and what they do exceptionally well, whether it's a guy like Rex Burkhead or whether it's a guy like Tom Brady back in the day, Bill Belichick knows, okay, Tom Brady does this well. This is what we're going to cater to. We're going to cater to everything that that is positive with Tom Brady, the player. And we didn't see that

with Bill O'Brien down there in Houston. And that's probably the reason right now where he's at the the house updating that LinkedIn page, right? No, 100%. He's definitely updating that LinkedIn page. And I'm still trying to figure out how to update mine. But, no, but the thing is it's just you have to, sometimes you have to realize what you have. Like, I don't think he realized what he had. He had one of the best receivers that might go down in history. Honestly, the man doesn't drop the ball.

He had a, what did the coach from Clemson say? Michael Jordan-type talent. Yeah, Dad Bow Swinney. Michael Jordan-type talent. I don't know if Sean is that, but I, Deshaun is a great player. Like, he's a great player. He's definitely one of the rising star for the young quarterbacks.

And I think that Bill just wanted to do it his way so bad. And, you know, with everything going on with Houston the last few years and then giving him that role, I don't feel like he had, he was ever scared that nobody will come over top of him and question his decisions because he was winning a few games. But at the end of the day, you always have to have somebody that's looking over all you're doing because you're going to have to need somebody

to correct you when you're wrong. And he wasn't getting any correct thing, especially when he made that DeAndre trade. And once everybody up top seeing that, hey, man, you just traded ticket sales. Obviously, it's not a lot of ticket sales because COVID, but you just traded ticket sales, jersey sales. You brought in somebody,

he's a good player, but he's not how he used to be. You know, we don't have a first. Not the same player that he was with the Cardinals once upon a time. Right. We don't have a first round pick or a second round pick anymore. Like, man, you just took too much away from us and we're not getting enough back. And I feel like they, it was like, it's time for you to go. And I feel like a lot of the players might be happy about this too.

The only thing that's going to be a little tough is transitioning mixed season with a new coach. I think that's going to be a little tough for the guys. Even though that they already had the coach there, but it's always tough having a new voice telling you. what to do. Yeah, but Romeo Cronnell, he has that head coaching experience and, you know, from everything that's, you know, been said from around the league. Romeo Cronnell seems to be more of a player's coach than Bill O'Brien. I don't think that Romeo Crenel is ever trying to be like Bill Belichick, even though he and Bill O'Brien both come from that Bill Belichick coaching tree. Romeo Crenel, I think things will be just a little bit different, even though he is the oldest

coach in the National Football League, even though he's an interim coach right now. The biggest thing about coaching is how you can relate to your players. If you can get your players to back you and want to play for you, those are the guys that's going to go out there and play the best. When the guys trust the system, they understand what I'm doing is going to win us football games, going to pick me in the best position to be the best player I could be to help my teammates win. Man, we're good to go.

You know, so I think, you know, if you 73, 72, it doesn't matter. You know, you see 69-year-old Pete Carroll's over there, got his guys up and going, trust in the system, ready to go. You know, and I think that, that, you know, Romeo Cornell can do the same thing for the Texans. Watch, I feel like they're going to turn things around quick. Yeah, because like we said, that's scheduling. I mean, it was unbelievable.

It was like a briar patch for Bill O'Brien and the Houston Texans off the top and things are going to get a little bit easier from Romeo Cornell. And, you know, real quick before we move things along. I know you touched on the fact that Bill O'Brien was the general manager, but did he necessarily earn that? I know he put up some of the best numbers in the history of the franchise, but sometimes it's not just the best to be the only cook in the kitchen. And that's what Bill O'Brien was.

And when the meal doesn't come out tasting right, guess who they're going to come to? The guy who was in there in the kitchen cooking everything up, and that's exactly what we saw Bill O'Brien. I've been noticing a lot of coaches are trying to do this more lately. I think Adam Gates does this right now. I don't know if that's a great example. No, I'm saying.

I'm saying, like, Adam Gates is trying this right now. It's a few other coaches. I don't know how everybody else is doing. doing, but I know Adam Gates and Bill O'Brien, the main two people I see that's trying to do what Bill Belichick is doing and are not that successful. You know, so all I'm saying is guys just need to start understanding how to work well with other people. I feel Coach Tomlin, Kevin Colbert, do an awesome job working out, hey, this is what's best

for the team, this is the guy I would like to work with. And they figure out, all right, these are the guys that we want on this team. These fit our system. These fit our locker room. bring them in and that works. I feel there's too many guys with ego issues and they're like, man, I don't feel like this guy is going to like who I like

so I don't even want to have this guy here. And I don't think, I think guys are just trying to do too much right now. I feel like you have to be in the league a few years, understand what's going on, and actually have a great resume before you actually get that kind of opportunity or that kind of leverage.

I feel you have to earn that. right. And I feel Bill Belichick's earned that right to be like, hey, I can take on all these responsibilities. I feel Bill O'Brien was trying to do that, but it was just too much to handle. He's trying to be the GM, the head coach, and calling the plays. Like, bro, you have to, you have to allow other people to do their job, too. Yeah, I think a lot of people also forget that Bill Belichick has Ernie Adams up there who roams those front offices in Foxborough, who is one of the guys who goes hand in hand with Bill Belichick when it comes to making those big time decisions. So, you know, if you want to be the GM and you want to be the head coach, be careful

what you wish for because when everything goes the wrong way, we all know who's going to be left looking sour. It's only one person to blame. You have nobody else to point at. Right. Absolutely. Any quick pieces of advice you have for any Texans players that are going to have to go through this mid-season change?

You go from Bill O'Brien to Romeo Cronel. Things are going to be a little bit different this season, right? I think the biggest advice I have for them guys, you know, I didn't really experience it, you know, with the coaching change mid-season. But I think the best thing for me, just in general, was just, all right, hey, they're going to have to think about this. We're in a new quarter.

They already started off O'N-Four. We're in the new quarter of this season. Hey, we have a new coach. Just dive into what he says, trusting what he says, and just see what we can go from here. Because it's no point of trying to contest what he's talking about now because you're already O'N-4.

With the way the NFL is set up now, 17s can make it to the playoffs, so you still might can sneak in there. So just try to focus in on what he's telling you to do. And I think they can definitely turn this around. Their division is tough, but it's not the hardest division in football. But in the days, I think they can turn around,

but they just go out to really dive in on what the coach is talking about. Okay, let's make a move now because we've been talking about the guys that fell off that Bill Belichie. at coaching tree in Bill O'Brien and Romeo Cronnell. But let's go right back to the source, the New England Patriots and Bill Belichick. They took one on the chin, courtesy of the Kansas City Chiefs, 26 to 10. That was on a Monday night affair. We know how everything went down.

That game, of course, moved to Monday night with all the COVID-19 testing. But, you know, we saw Patrick Mahomes struggle. He struggled in the first half. And that's something that Bill Belichick has been able to do. Every time he's gone up against Patrick Mahomes, limiting him to zero touchdowns in the first. half. So, you know, as you and I talked about, it's basically, if you need a team and a head coach to stop Patrick Mahomes for a half of football, then Bill Belichick, he is your guy. But all Kansas City showed me in this one on Monday night in front of a national audience is that they may be

down, but that team, especially with Patrick Mahomes under center, Ryan, they're never out, man. No, they're never out. Their offense is too good. Their team is too good. You know, their defense has questions to it, but, but hey, that's the goat, man. He always comes in there with a strategy, understands how to take and pitch you in situations that really hurt. I think that game

would have been a lot closer or can't play, man. It was close all into the fourth quarter. You know, then, you know, they started changing quarterbacks and throwing picks for six

and, you know, and it was controversial calls that could have been winning the Patriots way, but, you know, at a day, Mahomes got that LeBron factor, you know,

sometimes calls may go your way. They might fall. your way. So I thought my homes and the chiefs, they're a great offense. And I think I see something today that said that they're favorite to win the rest of their games in the season. And I'm not surprised. But Bill Belichette, he's the greatest coach of all the time for a reason because he understands how to take away what you do best. And I think he did that. But I just don't think he had enough firepower to fight back on offense today. I would say you're showing your youth and inexperienced, but we know you have plenty of experience. I'm just going to say that

you're showing your youth because you said that Patrick Mahomes has that LeBron factor. Ryan, come on, man, you know better than that. You know it's that Michael Jordan X factor. I mean, they wrote a book about it, the Jordan rules. What does Michael Jordan get, especially when crunch time is in the mix, he gets those calls. And that's what we see with Patrick Mahomes. I mean, let's just be honest, Patrick Mahomes, even though he's not the MVP like Lamar Jackson, he's won a MVP, he's won a Super Bowl MVP, and he's the face of the league. The league doesn't want Patrick Mahomes getting hurt at all. So if Patrick Mahomes hits the sidelines

and you brush up against him, if you breathe on him too hard, that's going to be a problem, man. You're going to see flags flying. Oh, 100%. I remember a few games we played Tom Brady, and I'm like, yo, like, we hit Tom Brady in bounce and it was a flag.

And I'm like, how is this happening? But you guys understand. And you're right, it is the Jordan factor. I'm sorry about that. You know, I'm just saying LeBron because I was actually watching the finals unlike some people, you know, So, uh, wow.

I mean, is that a passive-aggressive shot at me for not watching the NBA finals? Like, I'm not over there watching two Monday night football games. I mean, hey, who knows? It was, it was actually, it was actually on Sunday. It was two nights ago, I know. I was watching. I was watching Sunday night football too, though. Yeah, I was too.

No, but, no, but you right, now, uh, the Mahomes definitely gets the Jordan, the Jordan rules. It's certain things you can't do to the face of the league. Everybody in the world know who Patrick Mahomes is. Man, he's the best armed talent since Aaron Rogers, the guy that you're not a big fan of anymore that we're about about with the next Monday night football game. But, like, he just... Wow.

Threw me under the bus, just contorted my viewpoints altogether, saying I'm not a fan of Aaron Rogers, but I'll let you finish your point there. Go ahead. No, no, but... Any day, you can't touch the guy, man. He earned the right, though. Like, he's done everything right,

but it's still things that you have. have to do to make it fair because at a day it's all these guys are out here and they're playing a game for their lives, their livelihood and this game is not easy and sometimes I feel like these calls can make it a lot tougher on a team than it already than it already is like the Patriots are already against against the wall and then now when they have an opportunity to make a play you're calling bad calls on them like I'm not saying that the Chiefs would not want this with or without those calls. I'm just saying that I feel like we have to do a better job of making it fair

for the offense and defense. Yeah, it's almost like it was a point where Bill Belichick said going to this game, guys, we play a perfect game. If we get all the calls to go our way, then we can win this. But if not, it's going to be a long 60 minutes, and that's exactly what the Patriots saw. But when it comes to being able to contain Patrick Mahomes, I mean, that was the knock back in the day on Michael Jordan.

It was like, hey, guys, we're not going to stop them. What do we need to do? We need to at least contain him. him. And Bill Belichick, he does a better job than anybody in the league at doing that. We saw by the numbers, you know, Patrick Mahomes, no touchdowns in three games in the first half and all those games versus Bill Belichick and the Patriots. What is it about Bill Bee and his scheme defensively that makes him so good versus Patrick Mahomes, right? Bill Belichick, he does a really good job and just taking away what you're great at. So obviously, their offense is a West Coast scheme.

And Bill Belichick, you know, he's going against Andy Reid. I think they said they're, they're second for the most wins combined as coaches. So they played a lot of games versus each other. You know, so at the day, they understand the things that each of them like to do. And I think this goes back to more of Bill Belichick going against Andy Reid than actually going against Mahomes because he understands what the type of coaching and the type of play calling that Andy Reid likes to do. Obviously, Mahomes a game changer.

It doesn't matter what system he is. He can make something ugly into it. something beautiful, you know, but at the day, Bill Belichick understands, hey, they're about their shots. They confuse everybody. They're going to dig and dunk you with its West Coast passing, but they have an incredible arm with Mahomes. So we're just going to focus on those two things, and then we're going to, when they focus on

those two things, it pitted them in situations that they didn't want to be in. When they're in third and longer situations, they're great at capitalizing those, but the Patriots defense is also great at stopping people from converting. in those. And that's the type of situations that they pit Mahomes and the Chiefs into, and it really made it tough for them. So I think this is more about Bill versus Andy than Bill versus Mahon. Yeah, we just always see Bill Belichick. He's the master when it comes to game planning, you know, if it's almost like if it's a street fight and he says, okay, this dude has a knockout punch, then guess what I'm going to do? I'm going to try to take it to the ground.

I'm not going to get punched in the face by this cat because Bill Belichick, what does he do? They know that they take all your strengths away and they make you make your weakness. your strength. And if you're not ready to do that headed into game time, then shame on you. How about that second game, the nightcap, the originally scheduled Monday night football game? And, you know, I take a little exception with you saying that I'm not a big Aaron Rogers fan. I'm a huge Aaron Rogers fan. I just think that over the years, Aaron Rogers maybe just a taste, a taste, a hair a little bit overrated because, you know, I'm a Russell Wilson guy. I say Russell Wilson is the superior quarterback to Aaron Rogers. But, I mean, this season and last night,

Aaron Rogers, I mean, he's making me eat my words here, Brian. Yeah, like, I swear Aaron Rogers is like, every Tuesday night, he's like, I'm about to check out and see what Cole Wright say about him. It's like he's just opening up the paper checking all the hate. Okay, and then taking notes, box check, box check. I'm going to go show these cats this week. Yeah, 100%. Because A-Rod, man, he's a dog, man.

Like, he doesn't have his number one receiver. He doesn't have his number two receiver. And then he's throwing to a tight end that, from Illinois's where you're from that nobody knows about. And he has a hat trick. Like, come on, man. Like, who else is doing that type of stuff? But, you know, Russell Wilson, he's out here bawling.

And obviously, he's breaking, he's breaking records. He's tied for the NFL and touchdown passes in the first four games. And he's on a record set in pace. But Aaron Rogers, man, I still don't know if he's my MVP, but I was still, like he said, Russ is bawling. But he just, he's just doing something different, man. Everybody was saying he's declining, but last year they went to the NFC championship. I don't know how that's declining.

Then he comes back and he just, they say he has the highest QBR rating. And I still don't understand that QBR rating stuff. But he has the highest QBR since it is this. And I don't understand how he's still doing it and he does with no weapons out there. The only guy everybody knows that he's playing with right now is Aaron Jones. Everybody else is just, hey, hey, Robert, come in here. You want to have a good game? Here you go.

Jamal Williams, we're going to get you in a little bit more because we don't want to overuse Aaron Jones. Here you go. It's just like, he's just like, here, y'all, I'm going to just give y'all the ball. Don't worry, I'm going to get it done. That's the one thing about Aaron Rogers is that. He is the one player that makes everybody better. He doesn't necessarily need a first-round draft pick. He can take a dude off the street.

I mean, you can see a cat walking outside at Culvers right outside of Lambo field. Like, hey, as soon as you get done with that Butterburger, man, why don't you come over here and catch a few passes? Because, you know, Robert Tonion, he's from Woodstock, Illinois. He went to Indiana State. I mean, that's a school that's primarily known for basketball. But he's a big man, this cat, six, five, almost 240 pounds. And we saw what he's able to do and how Aaron Rogers can make every player just that much better. And we saw the post.

I don't know if you saw the post game. He was on with Scott Van Pelt. And he said, you know, I was just trying to make a name for myself and to come out here and catch three touchdown. and get an interview on SportsCenter, I mean, that's life-altering, and that's what Aaron Rogers does. Yeah, right. Is it Indiana State? That's what, Larry Bird was in school.

Yeah, Larry Bird, right. The powdered baby blues, man. They're known for basketball. I didn't even know they had a football team, to be honest. The Sycamores play football? Who knew? I didn't know that at all. You know, so like, this let you know how good Aaron is.

Like, Aaron is like, obviously Robert Tion did his job. Like, he was open. You know, every time the ball went his way, he caught it. You know, so, and they said that he's been training with kiddle, and you've seen he had some kiddle-like things. Yeah. So if he continue to do this all season long, now Aaron has a, now Aaron has another weapon

that just came out of the woodworks and just showed up on a Monday night. But I think all this, all this hate was motivated by Jordan Love. And I'm not even saying it was Jordan Love's fault. I feel like Green Bay was like, man, we went 13 and 2, Aaron is good. I think we're going to do Aaron like we did Brett. And, but Aaron is like, hell no, y'all ain't doing me like that at all.

Talk to me. Like, you're like, you're like, you're like, this ain't about to happen. And I feel like this kind of happened in Pittsburgh before, you know, I feel when when we first got drafted, when we first got drafted, everyone was like, hey, why we got another receiver? We got a lot of receivers, you know. But it wasn't like the team, we wasn't mad. I was like, man, yeah, keep getting bin weapons, you know.

But then, you know, Martavius threw shade at him. Then, and then later on, A.V. through shade at him. We was like, man, like, why y'all getting mad at this younger player? You should just try to help evolve this guy or you get better. You know, receivers, that's the diva position, man. I mean, those guys are out there on an island. Everything is singular with those cats. So, you know, if a guy comes in that's going to take catches away from them,

you know, it's going to be like the picture flip. at the player-hater's ball. When they flip over Rosie O'Donel or they flip over Osama bin Laden, that's how receivers are going to do another receiver that comes into the fold, man. Yeah, you know, they're all selfish. But the thing is, that's what's crazy

is Juju's not. You know, like, Juji just came in there trying to work and just ball, and everybody threw shade at them. And I think that's the same thing with Jordan Ludd. Joy and Ludd's coming in and just trying to do work. But the thing is, I think that Aaron was just like, hey, man, I might just go out here

and show everybody what I can really do. and Jordan Love, if you want to jump on the bandwagon, learn from me. Hey, man, here's the template of being a great quarterback. You know, like, and how many, how many, man, how many yards he got this year? He got, what, 1,200 yards and four games, exactly. 13 touchdowns, zero picks. Man, if you're trying to learn from somebody, this is the guy to learn from. You know, so I think he just motivated about showing everybody,

and I'm still Aaron Rogers, but also, I think he's also still trying to help motivate Jordan Love to show him like, hey, you're a first round talent. Obviously, I went through the same situation. I don't want you to take my job, but if you're going to take my job, you have to do better than this. Well, it's almost like our guy, Agent 89, Steve Smith. He said there's a lot of youngsters out there that want to take my job, but as long as I'm out here on this field, not today. And that's exactly what we're seeing from Aaron Rogers. I mean, did he want a first round wide receiver? something he's never played with, you know, except for throwing passes of past catchers.

He's got Mercedes-Lewis, but, I mean, Mercedes-Lewis, obviously on the back nine in his career, Aaron Rodgers wanted a receiver, someone that he could really just incorporate into this offense. They went out there and they picked a quarterback. So if there's any disrespect that was going on inside of that franchise, I mean, Aaron Rogers, I don't know if he viewed that as disrespect, but he's certainly going out there in playing and showing Jordan Love that this may be your job one day, but not today, man. He got a receiver. He got Robert Tyin.

Yeah, exactly. Indiana State, the pride of the sycamores and Woodstock, Illinois, Robert Tanya, and getting after it right there with three catches on Monday Night Football. I mean, Aaron Rogers, when it's all said and done, who knows? Maybe he will be the MVP this season. We've seen him do it before, and maybe we'll see him do it again, because when any time you slight a champion, that's when you see some of those championship qualities really come out of the word work.

Now, we're going to continue to roll right here, but we're going to take a quick break because these bills are not going to pay. themselves because on the backside, we're going to hit you with our week four likes. That's what we do around here on the Ringer NFL show. It's a Tuesday edition. He's Ryan Shazir. I'm Cole. I'm Cole Wright. We're bouncing back in a second. I'm going to tell you about my new favorite bet concept this season. Now, I've been playing the same game parlays on Fandual Sportsbook, and it's the most fun I've ever had betting. They're pretty simple. All you have to do is combine multiple bets from one game into a single parlay. This way, the payouts are even bigger when you win. What's cool, too, is Fanduel will

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And this is a weekly staple here. You know what time it is. We hit you every single week with our likes. And Ryan, I'm going to let you set it off first and foremost. What are you liking on this week, man? Man, Stefan Diggs is like he having fun in Buffalo. Man, honestly, man, I feel like in Minnesota, they had him almost feeling like he was a two. You know, they always say, we have a 1B and a 1A.

And Minnesota 1A was stealing. So, I mean, he's the 1, and 2 is Diggs. And I feel that Diggs is a true number 1. and he's showing it in Buffalo. And I think he's having a great time. And to me, it's like they were comparing him to Jimmy Butler. Like he was the problem. And you see what Jimmy Butler is doing.

And I feel that Stefan Diggs doing the same thing. Okay. Well, the bill's 4-0 right there, Josh Allen, having a new life. Not necessarily a new life, but we see a newfound success up there. And right now they look to be the frontrunners in the division. So we'll see how that all shakes out. You know what I'm liking this week? I'm liking another team that's playing a serious brand of football in a division.

that you know quite well over there in the AFC North. This is Cleveland Browns and Baker Mayfield. How about it? Taking out the Dallas Cowboys, big time win right there, three and one for this Browns team on the year. And, you know, we're really starting to see Odell Beckham Jr. go out there and play some football. And it almost seems to me like when it comes to Baker Mayfield,

it's like, okay, Baker, we know you're the quarterback, but what we need you to do right now is we need you to be the point guard. We don't need you to be the star. We need you to be the guy that facilitates, that distributes and gets everywhere. one involved. And right now, that seems to be the secret

to their success at three and one, Ryan. No, I think the Browns looking good, man. They're looking real good. I think their coaches just focused on football, and that's what Coach Tonney used to preach, just focused on football. I think the Browns used to just focus on everything else. And their coach is like, hey, man,

we're about to take a step back after the first game. Let's take a step back and figure out how we can get these guys the ball. And that's what he's doing. He said, hey, Baker, can you be Alex Smith for me? Honestly, I know you might not want to be. you might want to be, you know, Russ, but you're not. But we need you to be Alex right now. And I think that's what he's doing.

He's getting all his playmakers the ball, figuring out the best way to give him the ball. And because all his playmakers, honestly, are better than Baker. So just give them the ball and they're going to keep winning. And they're doing good. It's going to be a tough division this year. Absolutely. It's almost like you look at Baker Mayfield and say,

hey, Baker, we just need you to be Alex Smith with commercials. You've already got the commercials taken care of. Now, now we just need you go out there and manage the game. And if you keep winning ball games, then guess what? You're probably going to get a few more commercials because we know that he is that endorsement darling right about now when it comes to the National Football League. You know, another thing that I'm liking this week, you know what? I'm going to let you get to yours.

I'm going to wait just a minute. I don't want to jump the gun. I'm going to let the folks sit there on the edge of their seat. I'm going to let you tell everybody what your second week for like is. What is it this week? I'm not going to lie. I like that Brett and I, you. Man, he just jumped over a whole grown man.

You know, and it was it like, you know how, like, Levyon, they jump over somebody when they're trying to cut him, like, four. He jumped over him, like, running towards the end zone. Like, he did a hurdle or something. It was great. God didn't even touch him. And I just love that play, man. I think that was, like, my top player this week.

And I think this Ricky Class is just looking really good. They're looking really good, man. You know, Jerry Judy, you know, you have guys all around the league that's balling right now. And Brandon I, Uke is one of them. Yes, especially when it comes those wide receivers, though. Those youngsters, I mean, they're going out there and they're playing like nobody told them that their rookies in the league, huh? Yeah.

Man, and I think that's a big thing for the NFL. Like, C.LAM having a good game. We had two touchdowns last week, even though they lost. But I just think these rookies are stepping up and just really showing everybody, hey, man, we're here to play. Man, obviously, we didn't get no preseasoning. We didn't get no COVID, nothing like that. But we're just out here just ready to play football. And when you have guys that are young coming in and playing right away,

man, that makes the game that much better. So I'm really excited about this rookie class. Yeah, you got to be feeling pretty good. If you're a coach with one of those working ride receivers on your squad because the way they've been getting after it this year, you know, it's pretty impressive. Also impressive, I'm a piggyback on your like. You go with Brian Ayuk.

I'm going with C.J. Beatherd. The way C.J. Betherd came in. We saw Nick Mullins, you know, not able to get the job done. Now, I know San Francisco, they weren't able to close the deal either. but the way C.J. Bethard came out there. And, I mean, he just looked, he wasn't rattled. He came into the game and didn't miss a beat and got everybody involved. And I don't know.

I don't necessarily think that he'll be the guy moving forward. Once Jimmy G. gets healthy, it's going to be Jimmy G's show. Man, I don't know about Jimmy G., man. I'm not a fan. He's from Illinois, too, just like Robert Tanya, you know, Arlington Heights's own. So, I mean, we don't need to be throwing shade on a native Illinoisans in this show. I'll show a lot.

I'm feeling more, I'm feeling Robert Tion a little more than Jimmy man, I don't know if, honestly, man, I'm not a fan of Jimmy G. I just, I think those other two guys are better than him. I just feel like he's just a scheme guy. Like, he really just fits in the, in the scheme. I don't think he's a good quarterback, man. Like, obviously he got him to a Super Bowl and all that, but I'm not a fan of him, man. Like, those guys that play Mullins and C.J. Belford,

they still almost came back and won that game. And they didn't have nearly as close of the talent that Jimmy G. would normally have on a regular roster, man. So I'm not, I'm not really a big fan of him. I think he's just a guy that just fits into a role, but he just get paid tremendously. Isn't every football player in the league? Isn't everybody a role player? Isn't everybody a system player? I mean, except for, you know, you have some exceptions to the rule. I think Patrick Mahomes would probably be pretty good on any team. But if you put Patrick Mahomes on the Jets, guess what? The Jets are not a good football team. They're not a well-coached squad. So maybe we'd be talking about Patrick.

Patrick Mahomes as, you know, a guy who is not able to fulfill all that talent. But is Jimmy G. Is he one of those system guys? We saw him come from the ultimate system in New England. And now he's fit in quite nicely with Kyle Shanahan and San Francisco. Maybe it's just the system that's propped him up a little bit. No, I'm not going to lie. I'm definitely going to dive in the systems a little bit later when we talk about this

playbook team I got. But, man, he's definitely a system guys. A lot of NFL guys are system guys. You know, they fit in the right system. But to me, I just, I'm not a fan. I just think he's just not that good to me, man. He just, he doesn't turn a ball over, which is a great thing, you know, but Alex Smith does the same thing, you know.

I'm not, you know, Alice Smith made a lot of money too. But I just, I just don't, I just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm thinking he's not consistent. He has great talent around him, you know, he has a great running game around him. He has all the pieces around him to win, you know. And it's a lot of people. that don't. I just think he's somebody that just, you know, they plug in, hey, don't mess up and do your job. And I think all three of the quarterbacks that they have in San Francisco are one and the same,

but the other guys just don't have the pieces around them right now. So it's almost like, you watch Chopped, Brian, you're the cooking show? I probably watched it one time. Okay. So it's almost like Jimmy G. He opens up the basket and he has four different amazing ingredients and he doesn't even transform him at all. All he does is just put him on the plate. That's not going to get you a win and chop, man. That's going to get you sent home first round. You have to be able to transform them and make them better.

And essentially, what I'm taking away from what you're saying is that Jimmy G does not do that. He's just a guy that pretty much is a placeholder right now with the San Francisco team. And I'm just translating what you said. I'm putting that in. If I'm off base, then let me know. No, no, you're on base. I'm going to let you get to your next leg. Okay.

I think we've maybe lost a lot of fans in Charleston, Illinois, the home of Eastern Illinois University. That's where Jimmy G spent his college days, man. So I don't know. Maybe we'll check in if I take a road trip through the great state of Illinois and I pass through Charleston. I'll just roll my window down and ask people, hey, what you think about Ryan Shazir's take on Jimmy Garapolo? And if, you know, they boo me or tell me to keep it moving, then I'll know exactly where we're at with that right now. But you know what you said you're going to let me get to my next like? Hold on.

You said Chicago is North Illinois, right? Yeah, absolutely. I won't be down there anyway, so I don't care. I'm not going down state anytime soon either, you know, unless that we have some softball tournaments where I have to go to another state with my little one. but that's here nor there. But, you know, one guy I want to get to with these likes before we move on to our playbook is Lamar Jackson. Because, like I said, we saw Lamar Jackson take one on the chin, courtesy of Kansas City,

which I think pretty much everybody on KC schedule is going to do this year. But he bounced back. We saw him go out there and get that win. He had a 50-yard touchdown run, the longest touchdown of his career. And he was able to do it with passing as well. And that's one of the inefficiencies we've seen with Lamar Jackson. We know he's gotten better this season. but when it comes to building blocks and making him get better

and making everyone else around him get better, I mean, we talked about Aaron Rogers earlier, how much better he makes everyone on his team. That's where Lamar Jackson's at right now. And I think that bounce back ability for him after taking a loss, especially to a quarterback like Patrick Mahomes, who everyone says Lamar Jackson, he's really, really good, but not as good as Patrick Mahomes.

For him to go out there this week and get that quality win, that's huge for him. Yeah, 100%. 100%. That was a big bounceback win. for him. Yeah. You know, and they, they play the Washington football team, which is, you know, they have a

little, they have a few struggles going on right now. But I thought they had a great deal to be able to go against Lamar. But the biggest thing, I think to stop him in Lamar is really making him pass. I think a lot of teams try to, let's try to stop his run. I think guys just have an ego problem sometimes. Let's try to stop his run. Let's rest of passion. No, sitting contain, let him throw the ball.

And then he's going to try to scramble. And when he starts scrambling a little bit, contain, and just don't let him outside. You know, I feel a lot of guys want to get that sack so bad and you're not going to get it. You know, so I think just really just sitting back and just forcing him to throw the ball like he's Mahomes or force him to throw the ball like he's Aaron Rogers.

He's not going to beat you like that, you know. But I don't feel like Washington had the pieces on offense to help either. Okay. Your next like, you're going to keep it in the nation. You're going to stick with that Washington football team? Yeah, I'm keeping it in the nation's capital. I think that the Washington football team does a great job of support in Ron Rivera, man. I think, like, I love how football is more than, more than just football.

It's like a family. And this month is the critical catch month. It's really about, you know, cancer support, trying to help people get above it before actually, you know, before they actually get diagnosed with it, you know, going and getting screening and checks. And I think they did a great job supporting him, having his family in the stands, and then cutouts and just just doing a great job supporting him because coaching is already hard. It's already extremely stressful. And then having canceled with it, I know it's really tough for Ron Rivera.

You know, so I just really respect the fact that they just supporting him like this and just really have his back. You know, and I think he could eventually turn his team around, but it's just right now it's a little tough. So I really love how they're supporting him in the nation's capital. Yeah, I love how they're supporting. and Ron Rivera, you know, former Super Bowl champion with the Chicago Bears. Ron Rib, just a class act all the way around. And that Washington football team is certainly showing their love for that, man. You know, I'm going to go with my last like.

I'm going to go Tom Brady with that comeback win over the Chargers, man. I know a lot of people are counting Tom Brady out down there in sunny Florida. But, I mean, this guy is one of the best to ever do it, if not the best. And his five touchdowns, I mean, that really just reaffirmed and cemented the fact that, hey, Tom Brady and this Tampa Bay Squad right now, they're down there in the NFC South, and they're making some noise. So Drew Breeze and the Saints,

forewarned as fair warned. You better watch out because once the dust settles, Tom Brady and Bruce Ariens, they might be cooking with gas down there. Yeah, I think they're cooking with gas, man. You know, a lot of people dying them. One of our producers doubting them, but it is what it is.

Wow, you're throwing everybody under the bus today. Whether you're a producer on the show, if you're from Illinois, I mean, Ryan's, he's holding no punches back here. No, but Tom Brady's really showing everybody why I chose them to go to the Super Bowl, man. Man, you got to always count on this dude, man. He was a seventh round or sixth round drop pick. He understands that, hey, everybody's always dotted me.

And then now he has weapons galore on his team so he can give the ball to Scotty Miller. He can give it the Scooby Miller. He can give it to Mike Evans. And then he even have guys hurt. And he got guys that people don't forget about that have huge contracts. Like Cameron Bray, who's out here to catch the touchdowns.

So I just think it's amazing how he can just spread the ball around and he has weapons galore. And I think that this team is going to be working with gas. We will see how things work down there with Tom Brady. It's tough to doubt Tom Brady because we know how good he is and we know how great he can be. And, well, you know what? I think it's time for us to get off of those topics.

And let's get to our social timeout because we're going to head over to Twitter for that timeout. Every single week we want you to send us your questions at Ringer NFL, at Ryan Shazir, at Colwright. If we get a few good ones, then guess what? We're going to put them on the air. We're going to answer your questions just like that. This week, Justin Finger, well, he was pretty good.

He asked us, is Dak just Jacoby Brissette, but with an O line? And Zeke? Right. I mean, I don't know if that's good for Dak or if that's just terrible for Jacobi Percette. Jacob Percet, he threw a whole lot less interceptions last season than Philip Rivers. And Philip Rivers, he's a starter indie right now. man, Jacobi's Versa's a really good quarterback. Like, he's a really good quarterback, man.

I feel a lot of people really don't pit respect on his name. But at a day, if a Hall of Famer comes to your team, he's started. Like, I don't know what else to say. But I'm sorry, I'm going to have to take DAC over Jacoba Bissette, though. Okay. So one thing I also just took from that is you're saying Philip Rivers is a Hall of Famer, not just a compiler? No, I feel like he's a Hall of Famer.

I'm sorry. All right. You don't think so? Eh, yeah. He might not be first ballot, but he's a Hall of Famer. Okay, all right. Eli's a Hall of Famer. Eli, much more of a Hall of Famer than Philip Rivers.

Eli has two Super Bowl championships. Philip Rivers never even been to a Super Bowl. New York defense has two Super Bowl championships. Wow. Okay. David Tyree is on line one, taking exception with some of those comments. All right, let me say this. David Tyree is in their defense, has Super Bowl championship.

Oh, wow. Okay. All right. That's where you're at with that one, huh? All right. Well, you know what? Since we're talking about DAC and we're talking about the quarterback position,

since Eli's a Hall of Famer, let's take a look at the Mount Rushmore. Let's play a little, what we're going to call it. We're going to call it four for four. That's what we're doing here. Since it's week four, we want to take a look at some of those quarterbacks, and it's perfectly fitting that there's four faces

up there on Mount Rushmore because when it comes to the four faces at the quarterback position, I think it goes without a doubt. It's Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rogers, Russell Wilson, And do we go Lamar Jackson since he's the reigning MVP or do we have to go with the guy with a bunch of Super Bowl championships? I don't know.

I don't know. Where are you going right now with that Mount Rushmore? And if there's a top four, who's your second four? Who's five, six, seven, and eight? I know Drew Breeze has to be on that. And Ben Rothesburger, he has to be on at least that second flight, at least for me. So let me hear your four. I want to hear your four.

Okay. Well, at least today in the present day NFL, the top four have to be Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rogers, Russell Wilson, and Lamar Jackson. That's the four. Mount Rushmore, present day. Not for a complete body of work. So then if I have to say my second four, I'd have to go Tom Brady, Drew Brees,

Ben Rothesberger. And that last one I was kind of searching, I mean, I know it's not body of work. I was thinking Josh Allen, what he's done so far this year has been pretty good. But, man, that Prescott's putting up numbers, even if those numbers aren't in the win column. Yeah, that's a terrible list.

I'm sorry. Okay. The second list or the first list? No, your second list. So, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Ben Rolfesberger, and what makes it terrible? The fact that I added Dack Prescott in? No, no, no, no.

You didn't add Dack. You added Josh Allen. No, no, I have Dack, but I thought about Josh Allen. It was just a thought. That's all I did. I mean, he's got his team at 4-0. The Buffalo Bills at 4-0. No, no, no.

No, no, I like Josh Allen. Okay. So, like, you have, like, your, Your team is like 100 years old. Like, come on, I mean, so, okay, I mean, you're going to sit here and throw rocks at my top four at my second flight stage of four.

So who's in your second four? I'm going to have to go with Josh Allen, back. I'm going to throw Tom in there and Joe Burrow. Wow. So, okay. So, I mean, your boy, Ben, you play with him. He's not in your top,

your second four about Rushmore quarterbacks? No, like, are the Steelers in first place? No, are we talking about, like, this season or like over like a lifetime. I thought we already clarified that. I thought we already said that it was for this season. It wasn't for a complete body of work.

But either way, look what Ben's doing this year. No, Ben is having a great season. Ben is having a great season. It's just, you know, like I feel honestly, Ben's having a great season, but he's still working over a few things. And like, I feel like towards the end of the season, I'm going to put Ben in there.

But I feel right now these guys are just playing out of their minds. Obviously, Dax not winning. but he's playing out of his mind. And Josh Allen's playing awesome. Tom Brady's playing awesome. Now, I just love Joe Burrow coming into the league right now. He only throwing two interceptions on a year, man. And, you know, his team is, he doesn't have a lot of work with.

Like, he has offensive weapons, but, like, his old line is just absolutely garbage can. So I just, I just love what he's doing. He's really composed for a rookie quarterback. So I just, I like him a lot. right now. Okay, well, I'm still going to stick with my second flight of 5, 6, 7, and 8 with Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Ben Rothersberger, and Dak Prescott. I'm not backing down off that. That's what I'm going to go with, and that's what it is right now, man. Even though you say it's old, nothing, nothing with that. 43, 43, 43, yeah, that's, that's 100, that's 100 and, like, that's

almost 110, 120. And then you got it with a 20, 23-year-old, yeah, you're like 150. Your team is like 150. Well, they have, I think, nine Super Bowls between them, though, if I'm not mistaken. So I'll roll with that. I thought we were talking to present day. That's what you just said. We are. We are. But still, I mean, it's not like you just take those rings away from them.

I mean, they still come to the party with their rings on. I mean, you're not going to take off your best piece of jewelry just because it's a, it's a this year award. I mean, you know, they're coming with that. Drew, Tom, Ben, Dak, he's still, he's still on the lookout. I don't know if he's going to get that ring anytime soon or ever. You're walking into the club with a caning and an inhaler. With one of those rolling walkers with the brakes on it. Either way, those guys are going to make plays.

No, 100%. They're in my second flight when it comes to Mount Rushmore. They're great. They're great. I love all of them. You know, Ben's my guy. If you're listening, make sure you get Ryan on the horn because he said that you and Tom and Drew are too old to be in that second flight.

No, I didn't say that. I didn't say that too old. I just said that your second flight is old. I just said they are old. Old and experienced. Let's just say that. They're seasoned, seasoned veterans. And Justin, thanks for that Twitter love, man.

We appreciate it. Up next on the show, since we're talking quarterbacks, and we're talking about Dak, who's the only young guy in my Mount Rushmore's second flight of top fours. How about them Cowboys? We're talking Dallas right around the corner. Stick around. All right, back here with the playbook and the Dallas Cowboys,

that's going to be our focus today because they took one on the chin, courtesy of the Cleveland Browns, 49 to 38. And I said in my week four likes, I like the way the Cleveland Browns are playing football games right now. But if you're a Dallas Cowboys fan, you can't like the way the Dallas Cowboys keep losing. But the one silver lining, though, Ryan, is the fact that the NFC East, well, you made a reference to Garbage Can a little bit earlier in the show. And that's exactly what that division is that. I mean, it is trash. I mean, last season we saw the Philadelphia Eagles. They

won the division at nine and seven. And that could be what happens again this year. I don't know if it's going to be the Eagles. I don't know if it'll be the Cowboys, the Washington. the football team, it won't be the New York Giants, but someone's going to win this division with a less than desirable record, that's for sure. Like, it's garbage cam and throw a flame in there. It's just really bad. Like, they have a combination of three wins as a division.

Like, it's bad. But I'm going to be honest, I like that. I mean, I like that. I like the Cowboys' offense. Like, their offense is just ridiculous. Like, they have weapons all over the place, almost like Tampa. When it comes to offense, you can pick them up. against anybody in the league.

And when it comes to scoring, you can put them up against anybody in the league, and that's what they're doing. But when it comes to defense, you can put them absolutely last in the league. I think they gave up over 300 yards rushing last week. Like, if you're going to win any football games, you're never going to win a football game

if you're giving up 300 yards rushing. Like, never. You know, and I just don't like their defense at all. Like, obviously they have some key pieces hurt, Van de Rest is hurt, Sean Lee's hurt. You know, I know they lost Byron Jones last year in Free Agency. And Diggs is a great young talent.

But sometimes, man, you got to focus on what's important right now. Obviously, I think it would have been really important to pay DAC at the beginning of this season instead of paying everybody else. It's cool to have all these weapons around him. But if you're going to pay Amarie Cooper $100 million, why are you drafting a receiver? Sometimes that means you have to draft a corner. because you just lost a Pro Bowl cornerback.

You know, I feel like they're so focused on trying to pay points on the board and trying to outscore people. You need to focus on stopping people. And to me, I just think the Cowboys, it's just, man, they just have a lot going on right now. They need to really focus on winning football games and tighten up that defense. Like, I think the schemes that they have right now are not good.

They have to focus on stopping the run because everybody just been shredding them on the run. And then, you know, once, because if I could just run it all day, then I could pass when I want to. I could do reverse passes with my receiver when I want to because you can't stop it. You know, I can do reverses with my receiver and run for 60 yards because you can't stop it.

You know, literally people are just like, hey, let me see if this play works. All right, let's do that. Let me see if this play works. Let's do that. And I just feel like the Cowboys aren't just, their defense is just, is really bad right now. You know, they really should be 0 and 4.

You know, but I just don't like it right now. They really have a lot to work on. And I think it would have been more important to pay DAC. Obviously, you see he's doing what he have to do and then focus on the defense. Obviously, I know when you pay quarterbacks, then it's kind of hard to focus on other areas because they take so much money. But I think that would have been a smart move right here. They pay Dak, focus on the defense. Because if Dak is a good quarterback like he's been showing, you know, obviously people didn't want to lose them.

Mark Cooper. But they could have lost of Marry Cooper, you know, got Dak, got some defense, it still got CD Lamb, and still would have been okay. It still got Gallup. You know, they still have other weapons, you know, but they're trying to have the best offense in the league, but

where is that leaving you? Yeah, I mean, and Dak, he's getting, he's getting somewhat paid on the franchise tag this year, so I don't think he's right now cutting coupons. I mean, he's getting almost $32 million. But like you said, though, he wants that long-term deal. He wants that Carson Wentz. He wants that Jared Gough security that he sees other guys in his

draft class with and right. Timmy Gropalow. Absolutely. And I mean, what he's been able to do, I mean, he's won divisions and some of these guys, they just don't have the same pedigree as Dak Prescott. All he wants is to be treated fairly like the other guys, you know, his peers, the other quarterbacks that he came into the league with. And, you know, it just seems as if this offense right now, they have everything rolling, but it's defense. And like you said, the defensive schemes, when you look at this team. It's almost like other teams say, hey, we need to try something new. Well, save that for the week we play the Cowboys. Because if there's any time to implement a new game plan, it's against this defense, which looks to be a mess right now. And if you're Mike Nolan,

the new DC, on the Dallas Cowboys, that's not really a great look for him. Man, you know, Jerry always have his hand in the pot somewhere. And I feel bad for Mike Nolan because he might lose his job. You know, and I'm not saying it's his fault, but they sacrifice, sometimes you have to sacrifice something for something else. They're sack. They, sacrifice defense for offense. That's what they did. And now it's really showing. Everybody's trying to have the, oh, we have to outscore Kansas City Chiefs mentality.

But people got to remember, Kansas City Chiefs still have Tyrone Matthew. They still have Chris Jones. They still have guys that can make plays on defense. If you just over here don't have any playmakers on defense and the playmakers that you do have aren't making plays, man, it's going to be a really tough season for them. The thing that's crazy about them, though, I still see them winning their division. because obviously the division is high garbage. Yeah, not super hard to do. I still see the, I think they're going to win a division with probably seven wins,

eight wins. And eight wins is tough, seven to eight wins. And, you know, getting to the playoffs, unfortunately, New Orleans are going to have to come to Dallas to play them and they're going to get smashed. But that's all I'm thinking. That's probably the way things will shake out with the way the records are going right now. But I just see this Cowboys team, you know, as the rest of this, season shakes out. I think it's going to be a similar situation than what we saw last year.

You know, the division champion is going to be right at nine and seven. I just, I just don't want to say that'll be eight and eight because, I mean, that's, I mean, that's just, that's just rewarding mediocrity. And that's right now what, what that division is. I'm saying seven and nine. I'm saying seven and nine. Making the postseason at seven and nine. Wow. Okay. Think about, think about it. The, the, the team that's winning the division is winning a division because they tied with the bangles. Yeah, that's not, that's not great.

They got a lot of fixing to do. Yeah, Dallas Cowboys, they do have plenty of work ahead of them. And this we know, but it almost seems as if it's the same team with Mike McCarthy as it was with Jason Garrett. And I mean, you know, I'm no talent evaluator when it comes to the league. But I would think that this team looked maybe just a little bit better when Jason Garrett was at the helm. Like I said, I don't know, I don't know much, but I do know what I see. Honestly, the team looks the same to me. And I think it's because Jerry Jones has way too much hand into the pot.

his hand's way too far in the pot. And I think it's starting to show up. And he has too much. Obviously, the owner is controlling the team and you have say so. But at a time, you have to delegate and allow people to do their jobs. And I don't think that he allowed people to do their jobs, man. And it's starting to show up right now. Okay.

Well, this week we'll see what they're made of because they have a division game. They welcome the New York Giants, a sagging team right now. So whether or not... They're winning this game. That's a win. Yeah, that looks like a double. That might be a tie, but I think it's a win. Yeah.

When most teams see the New York Giants on their schedule right now, they're licking their chops and saying, Joe Judge and this squad, well, they need to go back to the drawing board. So we'll see. I have them at nine and seven. Ryan has the Cowboys at Seven and Nine. And once all the dust settles, of course, we're going to be jabbing back and forth because I think that the Cowboys will finish at nine and seven and the division winners. But only time we'll tell.

But until then, let's get to our mic check. It's what we do here on the show. You know, every single week, I'm going to hit the mic and I'm going to let you know something that had my blood boiling or something that got me all fired up. And Ryan, he's going to let us know something that he saw that maybe we didn't as we sat back and watched the week four landscape around the league. And, you know, I'm going to go first because Dan Orlovsky had the chance to work with him

before. We called a flag football game at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana. I mean, he's just a student of the game. He loves football front and back. And we know what he did. He spent some time up there with the Detroit Lions and Jim Caldwell. And we know that everyone was saying that Matt Patricia and the Lions right now, well, they just weren't.

He wasn't given a full cupboard. And Dan Rolowski, boy, oh, boy, did he sound off. Let's have a listen. First of all, we were 11 and 5 in 2014 and a really good football team. 2015, we go 7 and 9. It's because we turned the football over. But the last eight games, we were 7 and 1. So flipped our season around.

The next two years were 9 and 7. And I believe in Week 17, we were playing Green Bay in both years for a chance to win the division. Okay, so to come in and say that you had a lot of work to do is completely false. It's a bunch of trash. Who, Ryan, I don't know if you heard that, man, but I sure did. Dan Orlovsky, I mean, he said that with his chest, pretty much letting everybody know that there was no problem. This team in Detroit, they were on an upward trajectory. And Matt Patricia's come in and essentially, well, he shot himself in the foot.

I mean, I think I saw a number that Matt Patricia would have to be 23 and 2 or 22 and 2 the rest of the way for. his tenure to be able to match Jim Caldwell. I mean, Jim Caldwell, all he did up there in Detroit is win games. And he was shown the door, Matt Patricia, right now. And you know what? I mean, I know it's been said before, but Matt Patricia has a pencil behind his ear every single game. And there's not one thing, not one thing on that sideline that he can write on with

a pencil. Everything's laminated. Everything uses a dry erase marker. Man, no one's using a pencil. Come on, Matt Patricia. Win some more football games. man you know sometimes people will try to do too much they see somebody's winning and there's like hey man we might need to get somebody that can just push us over the top and that's what they thought that

matt patricia can do and he's not doing it man and you're going to have to do the same thing in matt petition that you do the gym carwell if you if he's not winning games and not give you what you want to be it's time to call it reps yeah like like biggie small said don't be mad uPS is hiring yeah because we know right now matt patricia i mean he's looking like he's looking like he's He's about to deliver some packages and not good packages because all these Lions games coming in the form of losses. How about you, man, Mike checking this week, what you got for us? The kind of packages you can write a pencil on with, right?

Yeah, maybe he can autograph it in pencil, and it can get erased a little bit later with that. He has that Dixon Taekonda Roga behind his ear. I don't know, man. I'm getting lost in the weeds. What do you got on the mic check this week? What did you see that maybe we did it? Man, so my mic check is Arizona.

Arizona has a superstar on their team and they do not know how to use him. Man, like, this is what we talked about with schemes, man. When you put somebody in the wrong scheme and have them doing too much, that's when things can get funky. And I think that's what they're doing with Isaiah Simmons. Isaiah Simmons is a great player.

At Clemson, he did everything. He played linebacker. He played safety. He played D.N. And Arizona does not know how to use him. They have a superstar ability, a superstar type of player, and they have them all over the field.

They have them trying to do too much. And sometimes you have to let somebody focus in, especially the first few years in the league, it just put him in the right fit. He's a great linebacker and let him play linebacker. If you want to play safety, let him play safety. But don't keep moving around and confusing the guy because the guy is still young, man.

And once you go to a team and they don't know how to use you, that can really mess up who you are as a player and kind of mess up your mental. And I think Arizona's really messing up Isaiah Simmons ability right now and misusing him ridiculously. Well, a loss to Carolina and Teddy Bridgewater, that's one they're going to have to put in the back pocket and keep it moving, 31 to 21.

But the good news, Ryan, is that the Arizona Cardinals, they have a road trip this week, but you know where they're headed. They're headed to East Rutherford to take on Adam Gase and the New York Jets. So you can already count this in as a win for Arizona and Kyler Murray because you know they're not going to fall to the Jets, man. The Jets, I mean, trash can city right about now. Yeah, New York, obviously, I love all my New Yorkers, you know, but y'all football teams are a big, fat trash can right now, big fat dump right now. Yeah, not good.

I feel like there's a bunch of doo-wop singers right now, warming their hands, singing a tune around the Jets and the Giants. So we know, we've seen enough movies where we know what's going on with that. They're trash can city, like Ryan said. And you know what, that's going to do it for us this week. It's a wrap on this week four Tuesday edition of the ringer. NFL show. He's Ryan Shazir. I'm Cole Wright. And as always, we're part of the Ringer Podcast Network. And you can follow us on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. You can also follow us on Twitter at Ringer NFL. And that's what you need to do because every single week,

we're going to bring you what you need. And it's here every single Tuesday. Now, next on Wednesday on the Ringer NFL show, it's Warren Sharp and Chris Vernon, week four analytics and some betting insights. They're going to help you put a few extra bucks in your pocket. So until next week, he's Ryan Shazir. I'm Cole Wright. Make the week a good work. Peace.