The Ringer NFL Show - Takeaways From Broncos-Chiefs, Plus the Biggest Winners and Losers From Week 1!

Episode Date: September 15, 2026

Tom, Sheil, and Billy get together to break down the Kansas City Chiefs’ dominating victory over the Denver Broncos on ‘Monday Night Football.’ They then turn their attention to the biggest winners and losers from the first week of NFL action, before shining a light on the possible repercussions of Myles Garrett’s knee injury.(00:00) Takeaways from Broncos-Chiefs, and Winners and Losers from Week 1(1:22) Chiefs defeat the Broncos on ‘MNF’(25:59) Week 1 Winners(47:27) Week 1 Losers(1:14:16) Myles Garrett injury update The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit https://fanduel.com/playwithaplan to learn more about the resources and helplines.Host: Tom PelisseroGuests: Sheil Kapadia and Billy GilProducer: Chris SuttonVideo Editor: Curtis SchultzProduction Supervision: Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up, everybody? Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. Tom Pelliserro here late, late on Monday night. Just got done watching the Chiefs take it to the Broncos. Wrapping up week one. We'll get into that game. What does it mean for the AFC West? We got winners and losers from week one. A lot of news around the NFL, some quarterback situations. Miles Garrett to IR will hit all of it right now. The Ringer NFL show is presented by Fandul. The NFL is here, and it's your most rewarding season ever on Fandul. With the all-new Fandul Rewards Club, every eligible bet can earn you points. Win or lose, the more points, the bigger the rewards you can unlock. Head to fandle.com slash ringer NFL to start earning with Fandul Rewards Club. 21 plus select states, 18 plus D.C., Kentucky, or Wyoming. Gambling problem? Call 1-800 gambler. Call 1-800. 888-78-9-9-77 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. All right, Shield Capati is here. Billy Gill is here. It is, as I said, late here.

As we wrap up week one of the season watching a chief's team, that I think it's fair to say looked a lot different than the chiefs that we have seen in the past. I go all the way back to March. When the chiefs do something that I don't think, anybody could have possibly predicted, which was pay top dollar for a running back. They signed Kenneth Walker to three years. It was like $43 million in chains, up to $45 with incentives.

And my first reaction when we broke that deal was, what's Andy going to do with them? Because Andy Reid throughout his nearly three decades, his NFL head coach, like that's, like the running thing, which is just Andy doesn't want to run the football. Andy doesn't really need running back. See, if he's got a Brian Westbrook, he'll get it to him in the flat. If he's got a Lashaw McCoy, okay, he's going to run it a little bit more. But some telling stats here, okay? So the Chiefs win this game 31 to 10.

And Kenneth Walker runs absolutely wow. It's the most rushing yards Kenneth Walker has ever had in his career. It's the most rushing yards by a running back for the Chiefs in the Patrick Mahomes era. It is already over a quarter of the way to the rushing total that Kareem Hunt led the team with all of last season. And in my brain, again, week one is weird, right? There's just, there's so many things schematically that are different. There's coaches that are different. It's a huge action, reaction game, which is why.

And Sheila, I know you've got your winners and losers and we'll talk through all of it. And I'm as fired up to talk about it as everybody else. But I'm always trying to remind myself, like, these games might mean nothing. This might just be like the aberration of the season. And we look back and it's like, hey, remember when the page, Patriots beat the Bengals in week one in 2024 and then basically didn't win a game the rest of the season. Remember when the Raiders beat the Patriots last year and the Patriots went to the Super Bowl and the Raiders were the worst team in football? Like, you always have some of those outliers.

Like to me, what my brain is doing is like what, you know that Shaq weight loss drug commercial that runs constantly? I saw it again during the game tonight. And it's basically it's shack comes on the screen and he's like, hey, I lost another week taking this pill. And that's it. And then the rest of the commercial is like 50 seconds of it. walking around silently, like, high-fiving people while the narrator talks about all the side effects of the drug. Like, that's me.

Like, I watched that. I'm like, holy cow, like the chiefs are a running team now. They got an undrafted left tackle blocking the heck out of people. Kenneth Walker cannot be stopped. But then the other part of me is going, can they keep doing this? Kenneth Walker, up until last year, had never stayed healthy over the course of the season. I don't know what his final touch total was tonight. But it was a lot.

Like, is that sustainable? Can you play that way? And by the way, it would have been even higher if they hadn't pulled them out at the end and then let Evan Johnson move the pile as well. Can they continue to do that for the Broncos? All right, they have all these problems on offense. And the commentators, Joe and Troy, Troy in particular,

are just like taking it to Davis Webb calling plays. What is wrong with this offense? And it's ugly. It's like, is that real? Is that actually something? or are we all just reaching immediately for the easiest possible answer? I know there's a lot to unpack right there, Shield, but this was one of those games that it felt like, yes, the Chiefs are back,

but they're also different. They haven't had a thousand yards of a rush since Kareem Hunt in 2017. They haven't had anybody do. What we just saw Kenneth Walker, the third, do tonight. It also felt like this was Denver. Frankly, they're in a little bit of a transition phase. Remember, they lost some key players off that team last year. Jonathan Cooper's on the exemplar.

John Franklin Myers was a really good player for him. Obviously, they tackled terribly. You could address tackling, and I imagine they will. But the idea that Sean Payton is going to take the reins back from Davis Webb after an organizational decision to hand it over to him after one game, to me is far-fetched. It's the question everyone in the league's been asked all summer, which is, when will Sean do it? But I don't believe that one game, again, especially week one, is going to trigger some type of a catastrophic catastrophic. cascade of changes anywhere. But it did look like a Chiefs team that after such a frustrating 2025,

Mahomes comes right out and is scrambling on the opening drive for a touchdown. They run the football a lot more effectively. That defense, we had all kinds of questions about even with Mansour Delang get knocked out with a shoulder injury. They looked pretty good. To me, that's the one thing I did take away that I feel comfortable with, which was I thought last year was an aberration for the Chiefs. I feel pretty good about, after watching this team tonight,

even though the past game was up and down, that last year is not going to defy it with the 2026 Chiefsar Shield. Yeah, I mean, like you said, there's so much to unpack here with Kenneth Walker in the run game. You mentioned that deal in March, and I was one of the people going, come on, it's 2026. You don't fix your run game by paying the top running back on the market, you know, free agency dollars like you're doing.

It comes down to scheme and blocking and all this other stuff. Lo and behold, I'm looking at the numbers today. Last year, the Chiefs had three runs. of 20 plus yards all season. Kenneth Walker had two of those runs tonight in week one. It really felt like whatever their blueprint was, like in Brett Beech's office and Andy Reid's office in the spring with and they're like, hey, what if we were to sign Kenneth Walker?

And all of a sudden we could just run for like 200 yards and we could reel off these 20 yard runs, 50 yard runs. Let's do that. That's literally exactly what happened against, by the way, what is supposed to be, and you said it, they were a bad tackling team tonight, but what is supposed to be like a top five, top eight defense. So, yeah, I think if you're a chiefs fan,

you're feeling great about this. Not only the run game, Patrick Mahomes looked spry. He didn't have to put the team on his back, but he didn't look like he was limited in any way. And then defensively, I'm watching Spags going, can you just hand him any 11 guys and like anyone in the secondary and it's going to look good? Because this seems to me like the most under the radar investment

an organization can make is just finding that veteran defensive coordinator, who can do more with less. They break up their entire secondary and all they do is hold the Broncos to their lowest yardish total in the Sean Payton era. So yeah, I think sticking with the Chiefs for a second there,

I think you feel great if you're a Chiefs fan tonight. Billy? I feel like the Chiefs are back. I mean, call me crazy, but they have a rusher now. Patrick Mahomes looked great. We didn't really see any signs of injury there. He was running the ball.

He ran one in for a touchdown. They called it back. He ran it back in right after that. Travis Kelsey. looks great again. I felt bad for Travis Kelsey that he didn't get that touchdown after the long, like 59-yard reception. And I was hoping, like, come on, have this be one of those things where he just kind

of throw it up to him in the corner, get him that touchdown. But he was probably gas, honestly. And that's why he wasn't back in the game. Is this Eric B. Enemy coming back? Like, I don't know. I don't know. The Chiefs back. Like, is this the Chiefs from like five, six years ago?

Travis Kelsey of, let's say, three years ago probably gets in the end zone. Travis Kelsey of five or six years ago definitely gets in the end zone on that play. That was, if there's one thing that, I don't even want to call it a concern because they didn't need to throw the ball. But the passing game was a little off tonight, I think to say the least. You know, I was sitting there late second quarter going like, is Rishie Rice still on the team? Like I kept, I was seeing him physically. Intellectually, I know I see number four lining up there. But like every read, the first read, the Holmes is looking the other way.

They finally got it to him. And what does he do? He catches and he breaks a tackler to and scores a touchdown. You know, you didn't really see much of Xavier Worthy tonight. You didn't have to. You didn't see Kelsey. I think his first catch was late in the second quarter. And then obviously he had the big one where she had the one big one.

You know, we'll see. Like, you know, can you redefine yourself? I don't put it past Andy Reid at all to see the way the league's going in recent years. I mean, Andy's kind of, he's done similar things for a very long time. He also is not afraid to, you know, I know, I know, Mahomes said after the game, like that play were in the, at the goal line, where Mahomes in a three-point stance, like that's an old play that's been in for a long time that they brought back. But Andy's also looking at trends around the league and figuring out what can we do.

Well, you know, the Seahawks ran with literally the same guy and ran all the way to a championship. You've seen some of the best teams in the NFL run the football a lot more. And that's been part of the direction offensively of the entire NFL. So they spent the money in it. Again, I'm thinking about all the side effects. I'm thinking of all the things that could potentially change or go wrong or become an issue. I mean, if it's something that were to happen to Kenneth Walker, can you run like that? With Emmett Johnson, he looked like it, especially at the end of the game when he's still moving the pile.

But, you know, how long can you potentially sustain that? And will the passing game come along? Again, week one is strange. I do want to zero and two a little bit more on the Broncos play calling thing because this was as direct as you. you're going to hear a broadcast team come at a first-time play caller in his first game. It was not just, boy, the Broncos offense looks off. It's like, I don't understand why Sean's not calling the plays. I would want Sean Payton calling the plays.

And I mean, listen, Sean's one of the best offensive minds we've seen in the NFL over the last several decades. But Davis Webb is a 31, whatever he is, young coach who, yeah, you're finding. out in real time and there's no harder game again than week one. Like, it wasn't Davis Webb that couldn't snap the ball. It wasn't David Davis Webb that couldn't hold on to the ball. I mean, how many times did Bo Nix lose control of the football tonight? And I know they were saying it was, it was whatever, damp and humid and all that stuff. And I'm sure that's part of it.

But there was a lot of that. You know, Davis Webb didn't drop that slant. That was Jalen Waddle you traded a first round pick for. It just felt like to me, it's not, God, they screwed this up. The defense now sucks. that was one of the best in the NFL. No, they tackle bad. The offense didn't go from being really good to, oh, my God,

they're a disaster because you changed the play caller. They didn't execute very well. They had a lot of weird stuff happening. Let's see. The book will be written on Davis Webb in this offense over the course of the season, certainly over the next couple of months. Sean Payton's not taking back play calling. So take that out of your mind if you're a Broncos fan, Billy.

That's not what's going to happen tomorrow. The real question to me is just how good of the Broncos? We know what they were a year ago. They make a big trade to go get a Jalen Waddle, which was, I mean, that's the type of move you make when you think we're one player away. We're a legit speed thread, big player receiver away from being able to compete for a championship.

They didn't look championship caliber tonight. It is week one. But do you in any way recalibrate how you were feeling, Billy, about the Broncos after watching that game? I mean, I think there were question marks last year about the Broncos. They did well, but it was kind of like, is Bo Nix actually? this, you know, and then he gets injured. They can't really kind of complete their playoff run because

he doesn't finish the last game. You mentioned Jalen Waddle. He was a non-factor today also. He had one reception, he only had like three targets. Evan Ingram was the one that led them in reception. So they have things that they need to figure out. Honestly, I felt super old when I saw Davis Webb was their offensive coordinator. Like I missed the fact that he rose to the ranks so quickly that he's now the OC of a team. And he's only 31, so I was like, okay, good. I'm not that crazy because I remember when he was a player and it felt like it was years ago, like a couple years ago.

And he just shot right up the ranks. And here he is calling plays under Sean Payton, which, you know, to the point of the broadcasting, it's a little weird that Sean just kind of turned over the reins. Imagine how hard that job is. You're taking it knowing Sean is right there. Everyone in the building knows Sean is right there. everyone in the stadium

no Sean is right there. But Davis Webb is a highly confident guy. I mean, he was a legitimate head coaching candidate last year. And obviously, if the next 17 weeks go better than week one went for them, he'll be in the mix, potentially, for a coach's job.

Again, you talk about how it makes you feel old. How about this, Billy? 2017, Davis Webb is in that same quarterback class as Trubisky, Watson, and Patrick Mahoney. Holmes. I go down to Texas to do two pre-draft stories on two of the top quarterbacks in the draft, who both happen to be from Texas and were teammates at Texas Tech. It's Davis Webb and Patrick Mahomes.

And I went out to breakfast with Mahomes and his parents and went to the gym with him. I just thought this guy is like the most unique athlete. Everything he did was so chill. And I'm like, this guy either doesn't know how hard the NFL is or he's like some type of a super freak who is. He's like, just going to be better than everybody. And then I go to Davis Webb's house and like we're sitting at his kitchen table at his parents' house. And he's like bringing out this notebook where he's been like jotting plays since he was in high school. He's basically putting together his playbook. And he's telling me like, yeah, I want to be a coach. I want to play in the league. But really, I'm setting myself up to be a coach in the league. And he gave me the quote that I remember.

And I'm pretty sure it was in my story that I wrote about Mahomes, which he goes, you know that one guy on the playground when you're playing sports and he can just do it, that's Patrick. And I've always thought about that, which is whether it was baseball, whether it's football, like Patrick is a guy who could roll out of bed and throw for 400 yards. And that's just him. It's not that he doesn't work at it. It's just that he's so naturally gifted at everything that he does. Take the fact that we saw him taken off the field last December with a tour at ACL and LCL.

I mean, ACLLCL is a major injury. That's the Carson Wentz injury. That's the RG3 injury. He played tonight. Nine months later, I'll be with a big brace under his pants and on his knee. But to play at that level, to move like he did, you didn't she'll get a whiff that this was a guy who suffered a major knee injury last season, much less at the end of last season. Yeah, I don't think you would have known. I mean, like you said, he scrambles for the first touchdown.

they're running some option runs. You know, on one hand, we're like, oh, Andy Reid, you know, smart gameplay. He's running the football, let Mahomes ease into it. And then they're calling like a speed option with Patrick Mahomes later. But yeah, I do share your concerns with the wide receiver stuff still. There were stretches of this game where you're like, all right, that looks a little like last year or even two years ago

where he's sitting back there and Aikman's showing the replay. No one's open. You know, he's got nowhere to go with the football. And so I do still wonder, as you said, this is one game. it's going to be a long season. There are going to be different forms that the chiefs take. Will there be a time where we look back at it

and go, okay, you know, that was a nice early start to the season. Andy was running the ball, but the wide receiver situation is still an issue. But I wanted to circle back to one thing, Tom, because you're mentioning Aikman, and you're right, it is very rare for an announcer during a broadcast to be that.

And this is like a new version of Akeman. Aikman 10 years ago was not like this, and I think he's improved. And I love the honesty. I almost felt today like he was speaking for me. He was speaking for other members of the audience watching it. Because here's the thing about the Davis Webb, Sean Payton thing. I've said this for a long time about Sean Payton. I don't know him personally, but

Sean Payton thinks he's God's gift to coaching. And he's also kind of like God's gift to God. Like he's one of the best coaches in the last 20th. So the ego he has has been earned. And you've been around a lot of NFL coaches. The NFL coaches I know are not like, let me get, especially at that stage of their career, not like, let me give up a little control. let me do this guy a solid and give up the thing that I've kind of built my career on, which is being one of the best offensive minds the NFL has seen over 25, 30 years. And so there's people like me, I still have not been able to wrap my head around this. I'm sure Davis Webb has a great reputation.

He might end up being a great offensive coordinator, a great head coach. He might be one of the best coaches of the next 30 years. But at this point in time, you're Sean Payton. You're coming off an AFC championship game. You have maybe the best roster in the NFL. You are trying to win a Super Bowl. This off season, I felt like this was the most bizarre storyline that still had not been explained to me

why on earth this man is giving up play-calling duties when I did not think that was a problem with the Denver Broncos. I think that's where Aikman's coming from. That's where I'm coming from with this situation. Again, with the caveat that it's only one game. Can I float out a theory? Yeah, please. Maybe he doesn't believe in Bo Nix.

and he doesn't want to be the fall guy thinking that Bo Nix is not actually his guy. So Davis is here. He's getting this attention. Oh my God. This guy could be a head coach. And he's really just sent, he's setting him up for the old Ken Dorsey and Buffalo, right?

Where he's the hot shot OC that's going to take the next step. And then when they don't get to that level, it's like, well, Ken, sorry, buddy. You're out of here. And we haven't really seen Ken Dorsey reappear in those conversations since. Maybe he's trying to humble Davis sweep a little bit. Well, also the other conspiracy theory to go along with that. and I don't know that Tom's going to use to respond to either. I'm a funny to say.

Okay. The other conspiracy theory was that, all right, Fonix is coming off the ankle injury, right? Okay, so it's all right. We have a tougher schedule this year. Maybe we get off to a slow start. I'll let, you know, my friend Davis do a little bit of this. But a month from now, if it's not going great, the offense is struggling,

I can come in and I can just grab that. I thought he might grab the play call sheet in the second half, to be quite honest when he did the interview with Lord Rutledge. I'm like, I don't know. He does not. look happy right now. And just to put numbers behind it, this is the lowest yardage total the Broncos have had in a game

under Sean Payton. So it was kind of as bad as you felt like it was as you were watching. All right. They have a set of a street. Russell Wilson, Russell Wilson in that first year. And they had other challenges. Listen, I'll tell you this. It's not that stuff for starters. Sorry, both you, a little off.

Maybe. I would say, here's the factors that I know play into it. One is that Bonex loves Davis Webb. Boeux had a guy in Davis Webb who had head coaching interviews. He also had interest for offensive coordinator jobs. And even though teams can block guys, like you can't just because one's a play calling and you're not play calling, they can still block you. It doesn't happen a lot, but you could. But then what type of environment are you creating? You're going to have a guy who probably doesn't

sign his extension with the team. And now it's Davis Webb's in a contract year. And he's going to be leaving. They wanted continuity with Bowenicks with a guy that he really has a great relationship. Number two, he is a very bright young coach who maybe, maybe, not any time soon, but maybe could be the successor in Denver. And maybe if you're thinking, Sean's in his early 60s, maybe if you're thinking, we want Bowdox be the quarterback for 15 years, you want to make sure that you've got that person in waiting. I'm not saying that's a direct thing. They also extended Sean this summer, which you would think would quiet some of the ideas. that this was a torch passing. But number three is,

Sean goes hard, man. Like, Sean burns the candle at both ends. And when you're the play caller and the head coach, and Sean has always had a great deal of influence over everything in the building. It's part of his superpowers. It's not just the play calling. It's also that he kind of runs everything.

Like, when you're older, like that can be a lot. And so it made sense organizationally to figure out, okay, we want to keep this coach. Sean is probably not going to be, you know, calling plays into his 70s if he's here. And Bo wants this guy around who maybe, you know,

this might be an important part of the relationship. Like Bo Nix would go to bat for Davis Webb. How do we balance all this out? And so it took weeks, obviously, of conversations because it wasn't until February. I mean, it was Super Bowl week that they finalized the hire, I believe, at Davis Webb, which I remember breaking that story standing in a convention center at the Super Bowl.

they didn't announce the play calling thing until the combine. So there was a lot of discussion and thought that went into this, which is why I go back to, it's not going to be one game and you give up on it. Like this was part of a broader type of a plan. I also do think that you're correct on this guys, which is think of the best play callers in the league. And at what point, if ever, they gave up play calling. Sean did it once before to Pete Carmichael.

He ended up getting it back. Mike McCarthy did it once. upon a time with Tom Clements in Green Bay. He took it over in like December of that same season. Kellyn Moore called plays with Mike in Dallas for a couple of years. Then ultimately, everybody was ready to move on. Kellyn went and became the Chargers offensive coordinator. Mike took back over.

Those guys, when that is your superpower, which is being able to be one step ahead at every turn, I'd always be reluctant to do it. Like with Sean, it's not a complete cold dead hand situation, obviously, but it's close. And I don't think that Sean goes into it saying like, I want to actively get it. I don't want to call plays anymore.

This was about what's the best thing for the Denver Broncos now and into the future. And it was keeping Davis Webb there, keeping that continuity with the quarterback. You know, time will tell how this plays out. They have, the chiefs have the Colts next week, by the way. So if you want to see if they can continue to run the football, the Colts just became the first team since like the 1920s to give up six Russian touchdowns. in a game. So a lot of adjustments that obviously need to be made on that front.

The Broncos go and they have a home game against the Jaguars. Wow. That's a team that just, I mean, granted, they're playing the Browns who just, it's the first game of the new coach. You have the Sean Watson. He throws the early pick. Like, it wasn't the best thing out there. But that's a tough game in week two.

Week three, the Broncos have the Rams. Week four, they're at the 49ers. Week 5 they're at the Chargers. We'll get to that. And what happened to the Chargers on Sunday? And then they're home against the Seahawks. That's not the six games that I want to see out of the gate if I'm a new play caller. Those are some really good defenses.

Those are some tough teams. And we'll see whether or not they can turn this thing around. Being at home should help. I think that always helps. And having tape on people, that's the biggest difference week one and week two. Every coach, including, you know, Sean McVeigh and Kyle Shanahan, who I spent time around going into the game in Melbourne last week. Everyone will say there's so much, yeah, you can watch last season's tape,

you can watch preseason tape, like they haven't shown you what they're going to do with this new player. They haven't shown you if they're going to completely change their front or play different coverage styles now. So like five, 10, 15 plays into the game, you're just trying to figure out. You're trying to run plays so that they show you what they're going to do and then adjust off it. Let's see in week two where everybody is. But first, week one, winners and losers, there is so much to get into. We'll do it after this. The Ringer NFL show is brought to you by Fandul.

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I don't know if it changed it all Monday night as the chiefs took it to the Broncos. But you got three winners and three losers. Where do you want to start in this thing here, Shield, for week one? Let's start with the winners. Let's be positive. I was kind of mean to the Broncos there. And by the way, this is Shield's scoreboard. Yeah.

And named it myself, that's what calling it. There you go. Very saleable. Billy, you have a question already. I haven't even started yet. Well, can I ask you a question? Just one last thing about the chiefs. Did you guys feel conflicted when you saw the Joe Buck pictures at Travis Kelsey's wedding

that they were showing? Because I was kind of like, you know what? I didn't think about it at the time. But now that he's covering him, like, I don't know, this feels a little bit weird that he was at his wedding. Aikman literally works for the dolphins. Yeah, well. Brady works for the Raiders.

Like, if we're going to get Joe for throwing on the old 007 suit and showing up with Michelle to a wedding? That was a little weird. Why was Tom Cruise there also? So that, all right, that is one thing I meant to bring up. And we'll get to the winners and losers momentarily here. But the Rishi Rice catch and he goes into the end zone. It's a big moment.

Like, Rishin's been through a lot. Okay. Like, he's been in jail. He's had knee surgery. He's had all kinds of things take place this off season. And as he's in the end zone and two seconds later, all I'm saying is, why is Tom Cruise in that luxury box hugging Taylor Swift? I started Googling.

Like, where did Tom Cruise grow up? Not Kansas City. I have no idea. Shield, do you have any idea? Why was Tom Cruise? I know Tom Cruise was at the wedding. Now we're going to do it because I heard Ross Tucker, the CBS broadcaster, tell a story about how Tom, his wife kind of ran into Tom Cruise at the wedding.

So I know there's some type of relationship there. Now, I don't know how tight-knit you had to be with Taylor Swift or Travis Kelsey to go to that wedding. But obviously, he's sitting in the box with Taylor Swift. so there must be some kind of friendship there. I was like, is there a movie coming out? What are we promoting? Why does he need to be seen? Because if he's there, he's going to be seen, obviously.

He's been all over ESPN stuff. He popped up with McAfee recently. He's promoting something potentially. There's got to be, oh, well, he's got days of thunder. They're making a Days of Thunder sequel. But like, I don't think that that was like guerrilla marketing. I think it's just Tom Cruise being Tom Cruise. And he's like, I'm just going to be at a Chiefs game tonight.

Let's go watch some ball. Yeah. Shee Rice, what a hey. Maverick. All right, Sheal. Let's go. Shield scoreboard, Week 1. Let's hear it. All right, so you guys have to help me.

So I'm going to give you three. We'll go one by one. And then I want to pick one. Who actually won the week? We don't want to be one of those podcasts. It's flip-flop and all. We name six or seven winners. No, I think we need to settle on one at the end here.

So I'm going to give you three candidates. Here's the first candidate. The Chicago freaking bears. You had to know this one was coming. 59 points, 552 yards of offense. Ben Johnson does that big profile in the athletic in the offseason, says, we want to be the greatest scoring,

biggest, highest scoring offense of all time. And then he puts up 59 in his first game in the season. This is why I call him millennial Sean Peyton, Ben Johnson. So here's a little stat for you guys. Okay, 25 years, Billy, I'm going to make you guess this one. Okay, are you listed? Yeah. Okay.

25 years from 2000 to 2000. The Bears played 413 football games. How many times do you think they had 500 yards in a game? 24 years. You can guess too, Tom. This is 413 games, 25 years. How many times did they have 500 yards in a football game? I'm going to say 32.

32. Tom, your guess? 7. 7.32. Okay. It's good. I thought Tom might just go 31 to boxy in there, Billy, but he played it fairly twice.

Twice in 25 years. They had 500 yards in the game. The last two seasons with Ben Johnson, they've done it twice, twice already in 20 games with Ben Johnson. So I'm watching that game. I think Bears fans are over the moon with the way their football team played.

And since it's just us three, I've been having some irresponsible thoughts. Can I let you guys in a little secret? Well, are they going to get you any legal problems? No, I think it'll be okay. We're on Netflix. Yeah, be careful. Just remember.

Because it's only one game. Tom was reminding us at the top. It's only one game. Everyone settled down. I was watching Caleb Williams and going, is he about to have an MVP season this year? Because, no, because here's the deal. I'm watching him and the physical tools.

I know. That was a heavy raspberry situation right there. He didn't crowd himself after a touchdown. Okay, but here's the deal. I'm watching the physical tools. Like if you watch him run in for those touchdowns, you're like, is he the fastest quarterback in the NFL? You watch him throw that touchdown to Cole Komet.

You're like, that's absurd. How did he fit that ball in there? And I'm thinking of the most talented quarterbacks of my lifetime, just physically gifted. John Elway, Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rogers, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson. Like all these guys were winning MVP's. And I see Caleb Williams, the physical gifts,

I'm telling you, are in the same category. So Bears continue to be one of the most entertaining teams in the NFL. And I was thinking, man, maybe I should have just picked Caleb Williams to win the MVP this season. So they're my first winner. Billy, thoughts? You know, obviously, it's cheating, if we're going to be honest. You want me to settle down. You picked a team that scored 59 points.

Like, yes, obviously they're a winner here. It feels like a cheat code. You didn't exactly go out on a limb here, Sheel. No, I did choose players and teams that performed well in one. week one, Philly. That is accurate. I'm not going to choose the Broncos. I could have gone off the radar, but listen, is week one, I thought I'm going to come in.

We'll have some conversations. You know, it might be a little obvious. And then we get to week three and I can name like a long snapper for you so that you're more entertained. No, but like you talk about that game. You say, you know what? Like the Bears looked great. They put up 59 points. Caleb Williams.

Maybe he wins the MVP. But like the real winner of this game might be Bryce Young. You know, he came out and he impressed in a year ago. He essentially lost his job. took a car accident to the red rifle to come in for him to get his job back. And then he came back. And we said, you know what? I don't know if you know this, Tom, you know, because you started with us a couple,

a couple weeks ago. But this is a Bryce Young pod. We decided last year, Sheila and I that we were Bryce Young fans. And we said this is the most normal. I think we nominated him as the most normal quarterback in the NFL, right? Him and Sam Darnold, Tom. Yeah. The only normal quarterbacks in the NFL.

The most average guys that you could just have like a normal quarterback. conversation with. So we are somewhat invested in his success because we want him to succeed and do well. The problem is he had a great game and he still lost by 22 points, which is not his fault, obviously. He really did look good in that game. I mean, it's spreading the football around. Chuba Hubbard for all the offseason hype about Jonathan Brooks. Chuba Hubbard was eating in that game as well. They just couldn't stop anybody. We saw a few of those and, you know, you might get to some of these later. But there was a lot of discombobulated defense. week one when you're talking about you know how the panthers looked how the polts looked how the

cowboys looked and again week one there's some things that hey you haven't seen it on tape and so maybe you don't have it like the number of missed assignments and blown coverages in those games and wide open receivers just felt like it was at a really high number but back to oh i'm going to fact check myself on this because i cited the wrong team it was not the ravens it was the bears who were the first team since the 1920s to run for six touchdowns in the season opener this is my favorite stat of the week. The Bears recorded six rushing touchdowns in week one, this is from the NFL,

tied with the 1920 Detroit Heralds, 1920 Rock Island Independence, and 1922 Canton Bulldogs for the most of the season opening game in NFL history. Three teams that don't exist, at least not in name now. That's

how long it's been since somebody did what the Bears said. The Ravens also put up ridiculous yards and scored a bunch of touchdowns. So my apologies for messing that up. I would say this was Chicago. And you made the comparison, you know, with Mahomes. That that's what I feel like we're seeing Caleb evolve to. It is, you know, his first season in particular. But then even out of the gate last season, there was just kind of this wild stallion component to his game. He saw it back at USC. And the fact that, you know, his final season wasn't as good as the one before

because he was playing so much hero ball, so much of it was just run around and try to make things happen. Now what you're seeing is the guy who's getting more dialed in. And Ben Johnson made a comment about that after the game that he slept well the night before because he knew how dialed Caleb was. And that's what you're seeing is Caleb's making the on

schedule plays, the on time plays. You know, Patrick Mahomes, even though they ran a zone read with him, like a read option with him and Kenneth Walker in like the third quarter of the game that, which I'm like, Andy does remember he's got a torn ACL and LCL nine months ago.

Like we're putting him out there and he's taking the hit. If you're a quarterback running that play, like you're getting hit. That's beside the point. But like he's not a designed run type of guy very often. And neither is Caleb. And I don't think either one is like the top five fastest quarterbacks in the NFL, certainly not Patrick at this stage. Caleb maybe is in there.

But what Caleb has this functional athletic ability where he can move around. He can make things happen off schedule. But then, yeah, if you give him a lane, like straight line when he starts running, like he can get himself moving just like Mahal. But Holmes never been like, he's not Lamar, he's not shifting in traffic. But he'll get out there and he'll just kind of, it's kind of like these old man moves where he just like slows down and like, let's guys go buy him. That's what Caleb can do as well.

I was really impressed about what the Bears did in that, in that opening game. I mean, they looked, remember, they traded away. I don't know if DJ Moore led him last year, but I'm pretty sure he was their leading receiver. They carried away the leading receiver and still looked unstoppable in the passing game. I mean, Ben's on another level. we'll see, you know, coming into week two, I would say, I would also say this, before I come back to you, Shield for another winner.

We're going to be, you know, we want to be the greatest offense in NFL history, highest scoring offense in NFL history. That, through one week, aging better than Justin Herbert will be, go down as the greatest quarterback to have ever played the game. Week one only looks a little bit better. Who else you got? Winner number two on Shield scoreboard.

We're going to get to that one, maybe in the next section there, Tom. So good, good, good setting it up there. All right. Next one. Billy, this is also obvious. Now you got me in my own head because I did, you know, maybe I did choose too obviously. But I thought the way the bills went into Houston, when they had gotten cooked by the Texans, the last two years were some of the worst games of Josh Allen's career, the last two years to go in there,

334 yards, four touchdowns. And it was kind of the way they did it. It wasn't like Dick and Dunk. There have been some times in, you know, last year where you're kind of like, oh, the bills are now a ball control offense. where they're just running the football and getting these easy completions. This was, no, let Josh Allen just chuck the football downfield. And they were completing just a huge explosive plays all game long against what I thought was going to be the best defense in the NFL coming into the season.

So he nearly had the backbreaking interception at the end of the game, which it's very funny how one play can totally shape the narrative of a team or a player or a week where if that ball is caught by Camari Laster, we're like, oh, no, Alan, another mistake in crunch time. there. But you know what? Lassiter didn't catch it. And for most of the game, Josh Allen was incredible there. And so the start of the Joe Brady era to go into Houston put up 410 yards of offense, they are a winner. Are you awake, Billy? You might be asleep. No, I'm here. No, I'm locked in, Sheel, on this game. I love this game. I was going to say, you know, also something that happens with Josh is, and that didn't happen in this game was they were driving. The Texas were driving. CJ Stroud was there. They were within striking distance. And then he, coughed up the ball and it kind of, I mean, it's just week one. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We've mentioned this a number of times, but it kind of starts feeling like, again,

just week one, it kind of starts feeling like are we starting to check off some of those boxes for Josh Allen? Is he starting to exercise some of those demons that he has had in his career? Oh and four coming into this game in Houston. Wins this game in Houston. The four losses, all heartbreaking fashion, all one scored. games. This time he wins it in heartbreaking fashion for the Texans. Then you start saying, well, what else has he not done? What else can he do this season? He's never won a game in Lambo.

Oh, and won. He has an opportunity to win in Lambo in week 14 this year. Then if you continue checking off some boxes, well, Chiefs are looking good. I mean, last year they missed the playoffs, but this doesn't look like a team that's going to miss the playoffs. Is this the year that Josh Allen faces the Chiefs in the playoffs? And he beats the Chiefs in the playoffs. He's done in the regular season hasn't done in the playoffs. Can he then get to the AFC championship game and check off that box? Then get to the Super Bowl. Check off the box of getting there. Check off the box of winning the Super Bowl. Did we watch in week one the beginning of a journey for Josh Allen by simply

beating the Texans in Houston where he is now slowly checking off all the boxes that he has been missing? I would say two things on this. One, I did kind of walk away from watching. I watched a lot of that game that you kind of kept waiting to feel the Texans defense, the one that, as you guys said, like, it's the vaunted defense. It was the top defense in the league last year. One of the best passers. They sack Josh Allen twice in that game. And if you think off the top of your head, like, I can't really remember those plays. They didn't have a huge impact in the game. I thought the DJ Moore edition immediately, like that's paying dividends. Everybody in the world has been

begging the bills to get a receiver. It's not been for a lack of trying for Brandon Bean. They land DJ more, he immediately comes in and makes an impact for him. And then the defense, even though, yes, it was another CJ Stroud fumble and taking a sack late and those things, like that stuff will get picked apart all season long until CJ Stroud finishes some games, wins some games, and then all that will go away. But a Bill's defense that a lot of times, it's not been Josh Allen at the end, it's been the guys on the other side, if I'm not able to get a stop. Like, call it what you will. Yeah, they cough up the football at the end. The Texans do. But the bills are still on the field.

they didn't have that one too many laps. We'll see how they progress under Jim Leonard over the course of the season. But certainly to go in there on the road, too, in week one, before a quick turnaround. Imagine if you lose that game to Houston, then a quick turnaround coming back home to face the Lions, staring down the barrel of 0 and 2,

if you don't show up on national TV. This just takes a little bit of that pressure off. You got a new head coach. He got him his first win. He took his shirt off after win number one, which Joe, if you're watching, like it feels like there's nowhere to go from here, right? You already kind of skipped the head.

Ben Johnson was on like the 10th win last year. You took the shirt off. Pants would be next, but I think, Billy, that would be frowned upon by the NFL. If it's just like a full-on, you know, strip poker game through the course of season. But good for Joe. Fun to see him get his first win.

Third winner, Shield, what do you got? All right, third winner. This is a team where they swish head coaches in the offseason. And some people were saying, is this coach on washed watch, I believe is how the kids might have been describing it saying, look at this clip. He's in front of his team just saying, New York Giants. You're playing for the New York Giants over. Everyone's making fun of him going, oh, my gosh, the Ravens fans, they were ready to get rid of this guy. Thank God he's gone.

Everyone's looking at saying, oh, my God, this guy's not going to turn the New York Giants around. and all they do is just go up and down the field. 29 first downs, 394 yards. What really stood out, they looked like the way more physical team against the Cowboys and the better coach team against the Cowboys en route to a 2820 victory. So the New York Giants, I think, are my third candidate here. Because honestly, an incompletion in that game, and maybe we'll get to the other side of it in the next segment here.

but an incompletion by the Giants in that game felt like a miracle. It felt like the ball never hit the ground. They were doing whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. I'll put my hand up as someone who was making fun of the Giants in the offseason saying, wait, you're bringing in Greg Roman and Brian Callahan and Matt Nagy? And this is the brain trust you're putting together. These guys are going to work well together, and this is going to get the most out of Jackson Darwell. One weekend, it looked incredible.

So the New York Giants, they haven't had many of these moments. second fewest wins in the last 10 years in the NFL, only ahead of the Jets, they had a nice moment on Sunday night. They're my third winner. Billy? It was a nice moment. No, it was a nice moment for them.

And look, defensively, they held the greatest offense there is to only 20 yards. So that's a kind of rough start for the Cowboys there on their quest to be the greatest offense there is. You know where they lost me? When John Harbaugh said that this win ranked, as his number one career win of all time. Because when he grew up, his dad taught him

that the last win is always the biggest win and the most important win. And like that's nice. It's like podcasting. Billy's just the mantis. Like this is the best podcast you're going to do this year because this is the podcast you're doing this year. It's a mentality thing.

It's not, you don't have to take it so literally. It feels sincere to me. Come on, John. Like we won a Super Bowl. You know what I mean? Like this is not the big, this is a nice win.

I mean, I think there's question marks. Jackson Dart looks good. Like, that's fine. I think they might be a surprising team. There were questions as to whether or not, you know, like you mentioned, the Ravens were kind of happy to get rid of him. And the Giants brought him on and it was a back and forth. How is he going to, you know, how is he going to be interacting with their GM?

Who is he going to be reporting to? He was holding out. They're having these secret meetings in the restaurants. Eventually they got all that sorted out. He comes in. He's going to take over. And there's all these expectations because of his name. But, like, since that Super Bowl, he's kind of.

you know, hasn't been the greatest coach in the NFL, as some people might think. So there were question marks as to whether or not he can do it. And sure enough, he comes in Monday night football opening night. He has a big win. I'm happy for them. They're big winners. But biggest win of the weekend, I don't know about that. She'll pump the brakes a little bit.

Scataboo looked healthy. Jackson Dart took a hit that got flagged out of bounds and didn't end up in the blue tent. Neighbors looked healthy. There were questions. And I don't know to the extent. Sometimes those things get exaggerated. I don't know how much in doubt he really was. But he looked like Malik neighbors on the field.

I mean, he is capable of being a top 10 receiver in the NFL. If he could just stay on the field, it's been the injuries that have been the issue for neighbors. So having him out there, Isaiah likely, who, I don't know if I was the only one, but for those of us who lost Brock Bowers and couldn't start him in week one, Isaiah likely just sitting there on the waiver wire going, hey, how about me coming out with a couple of touchdowns,

him combined with Theo Johnson, like that, I've got to get this microphone in a better spot. Those two combined, like, you can create some different things physically, like the way that they can match up with you. The defense played well in that game. I thought, yeah, Dallas was just, there was some slop.

I mean, the pickings had a terrible drop, you know, defensively. It was just, you know, you turn a guy loose in the end zone for a touchdown. You got two guys both covering, like, the hook. And it's like, how does that happen? And it happened to him a bunch of times. Like, these are things I'm sure. that they're going to get, going to get cleaned up.

I also would say this. I don't think the bar is high enough, as it has been discussed as being high enough for John Harbaugh with the Giants. He's one of the highest paid coaches in the NFL. This was a splash move that the Giants made. It's unlike anything they've done in their history. Like to go out and get that guy and to woo him and to send the plane and like make sure and give him the things he wanted organizationally

and how we wanted the structure set up and getting some of his own people in. Like, they turned over. What's been a family business, they turned over a lot to somebody from outside the family. And I haven't seen people picking the Giants in the playoffs. John Arbor went to the AFC Championship game, his first year with the Ravens. I'm not saying that's what the Giants are going to do, but you pay that money because you're expecting to get that type of an impact. And after watching the games yesterday, as much as, again, we don't want to overact the week one,

I came up with the same impression I've had the entire time. and we've talked about it on the show, which is, I don't know who the favorite is in the NFC East. I can see cases for anybody coming out of the NFC East. The Eagles of the team, they find their way every single time. It was a grinder. It was a little bit ugly at times, but they found a way to get a win,

which is kind of what they do. Jalen Hertz looked more comfortable running that offense than I thought. The commanders had their moments too. Again, first time play caller on both sides. Defensively, they look pretty good in that game. Jaden Daniels finally looks healthy again. The Cowboys, that's the team. was gassing up and picking to go to the playoffs, if not the Super Bowl.

And they just came out flat. We'll see where the season goes from here. But I think the NFC East is completely wide open, at least as we head on to week two here. We'll get some losers, but first this. All right, so we covered the winners from week one. Let's hear some losers. Who do you got? Well, I think we should just stick with the team.

You were just mentioning the team that everybody can now raise my hand here. was gassing up saying, you know what, if they could just get like the 24th ranked defense this year, given how good that Cowboys offense is going to be, you said this verbatim. You said that verbatim. Yeah, I said the same thing. Yeah, I think it was the exact number I probably said.

They're going to be a playoff team, and it was, and they come in here and against the giants where you felt like, all right, there's a good draw for them in week one. You don't have to be perfect. You should be able to slow that defense down. It was one of the worst defensive performance. we've seen by a team in the last two years.

If you just, you can slice this one up any way you want. If you want to look at the nerd stats, it literally was one of the five worst defensive performances by a team in the last two years. If you want to do what Tom was saying earlier, which is a great way to do it, hey, I watched the game, and it looked like guys were running wide open

and Cowboys players were looking at each other. It's kind of like the palms up defense. When the play just happened, and everyone's looking at each other going, wait, why were you there? It was like, if you would have told me they didn't practice all summer, And those 11 guys just met each other in North Jersey before the game and had to go.

It was like some weird movie. Some weird type of movie situation where they just had to call them up that morning and have them play together. That's kind of what it looked like. In that game, again, when the ball hit the ground, it felt like a miracle. They got out physical that was embarrassing seven possessions. They gave up four touchdowns because some people are saying, well, the Panthers gave up more points. The thing about this game, they were only on the field for seven possessions. They gave up four touchdowns.

And then remember, end of that game, they're only down by eight. Where if you can get the ball back, you have a chance to win. Giants takeover with 521 left. And they do not get the ball back. I mean, I don't know. We keep saying we don't want to overreact. I'm kind of overreacting to that Cowboys defense. I know it's a new coordinator and new personnel,

but that was pretty much as bad as it could have gone for that team. So they are absolutely one of my losers here. I'm conflicted, chill, about how you're playing this game and about how you just sold us on the Giants or big winners, but you're telling us really the Cowboys were the losers of that game. Well, that's how sports works, Billy. There's a winner and a loser in each game. This isn't that, it shouldn't be that confusing.

This is a cop-out. This is a, you know, the classic situation. Did this team win the game or do the other team lose the game? And you just told us, wow, the Giants, they should be the big winners. John Harbaugh did this and that and Jackson Dart looked great. and scataboo looked healthy and wow Isaiah's likely had two touchdowns who could have seen it coming

which by the way Tom you missed out on this because you were in Australia but we played a little game on Friday called Monday headlines and in Monday headlines we predicted that Isaiah's likely would have two touchdowns you predicted take credit you have to say we thanks for trying to be a team player

we're sure we predicted that he would have two touchdowns we also predicted that at the end of the game Jackson Dart would throw it away and the Cowboys would end up winning on an interception so half right on the prediction, half right on the prediction, but the two touchdowns. I mean, I don't know how we got that right. Anyways, sheel, it can't be that the giants are the winners, but then also the cowboys

are the big losers because they couldn't do any of this up. Every game literally has a winner and a loser. But in this game, we're trying to position it as this person for sure. Now I'm thinking, well, we have two left. So what are we going to do? Well, the Texans are obviously going to be another loser nomination. And then the Panthers are because they're just doing winners and each game here. So just to be clear, not only is Billy under.

able to follow directions of games that we create for him. He's going to tell you he doesn't like the rules of the games that we create. So no matter what, he's the worst guy at the party when the board games come out. Listen I have faith that the Cowboys defense is going to get better.

You know, Christian Parker's first time out. And they just, like, missed assignments is a lot different than, man. They were just getting manhandled. You know, but you got money in Quinn and Williams, who did make a big play in that game at the strip. You know, you've invested now. Could they use another edge rusher?

Probably. Max Grosby. But you need to be able to, you need to do better against Cam Scatimo before you even get to that. All right. Loser number two, Shield.

All right. Loser number two. This is really, if I had to rank them, this would be loser number one. Because the Green Bay Packers, I can't imagine being more upset. Upset this week as a fan base

than the Green Bay Packers. I mean, they get outscored 29 to in the second half, 22-0-0 in the fourth quarter against a backup quarterback in Carson-Wance. Here's how the game ended for the Vikings. Turnover on downs, fumble, interception, turnover on downs. That's for the Packers. Then the Vikings last four possessions, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown. And if this were a one-time thing, we could say, all right, and it's weird, the NFL,

it's just a weird week-one result. This is what happened to the Packers last year in the playoffs, before the playoffs. week 16 whenever they played the Bears in that game. And I just don't know how you fix it. It feels like once things start snowballing for them, they can't stop it. And it's not just one thing. It's special teams. It's their defense. It's their offensive line. It's Jordan Love. It's Matt LaFleur. So I think the Packers are still going to be a solid team. I don't have them as a playoff team. But what a bummer to start your season with such a disastrous loss. So they have to be on this list. I'm with you on this one. You cannot lose that badly to Carson Wentz, especially when

Kyler Murray was a solution and you're like, I don't know if Kyler Murray is actually going to be that good. And it's like, well, he beat out Carson Wentz for the job and Carson Wentz to start and he beat on JJ McCarthy, which is like, what a mess that quarterback situation was. But you knock out Kyler early, you bring in Carson Wentz, you're not expecting him. But then you literally were giving away points that you scored. You kicked a field goal. You then decided, you know what, because of penalty. We're not, we're going to give you those three points back because we're so sure in our team. We're going to get those extra two yards there. And then we're going to drive. We're going to score a touchdown. And then you don't. And then you hand the ball over to them. Did you like the

decision? Did you like the decision to take the points off the board? It was fourth and one from the 17. I did. I thought it was the right decision. I, you know, you look back at it and of course you can question it. But at the time, you know, I think even if they kicked the field goal there, they were what going to go up? I forget what... Eight. Yeah. But 13 minutes to go.

Did you like it or not? Did you like the decision? With hindsight, no. Absolutely not, obviously. Outcome-based analysis is not what I'm coming to you for. When you saw it happening, did you like the decision? Would you want them to do it again?

And maybe... I'm sure they ran that play for a reason. They saw something on tape. They didn't anticipate big citrus would blow the thing up. Did you like the decision? you like your coach going for it. Yes, you like your coach going for it. If you're a Packers fan, you're like, I like the intensity here.

In a rivalry game, and then you lose, it's like, oh, what are we doing there? So, yeah, at the time it was fine, but it immediately felt bad when you don't get that extra yard there. Well, I would say this too, because everybody wants to connect it back to the games at the tail end to last season and in the playoffs. But the common thread here, I mean, the Packers did something completely out of character for them a little over a year ago. which was trade two first-round picks for Micah Parsons. Micah Parsons got hurt in that Denver game last year in like week 14 or 15, whatever it was. And from that point forward, they've had this issue. One of the best pass rushers in the NFL isn't out there.

So when they're trying to close these games, like they don't have their best player. It is hard. It's not impossible. We see teams do it. But it is hard to play without your best player, your highest paid player, at a premium position. If you don't have your quarterback or your pass rusher or to a lesser extent, in some cases, your left tackle, like the game becomes much more difficult for you.

Not having Michael Parsons is a big deal. Guess what? Fourth and one, that might have been a Josh Jacobs play normally. You might have been handing off to him. You don't have him on the field either. And I'm not making excuses for what happened in the game. It absolutely was the momentum swing. I mean, I had that.

I live in Minneapolis. And so that was on the main screen while I was watching Scott Hansen call everything else on Red Zone once that started working about an hour into. of the games and you could feel it in the stadium, that that was where all of a sudden it was like, I mean, this was a disaster. Okay, Kyler Murray throws an interception on the first drive, then gets knocked unconscious, I think on the second drive. Carson Wentz is coming in. Like, you could hear a pin drop in US Bank Stadium, which was, you know, so lively before

the game. And then from that point forward, the Vikings go right down the field and they score it. It just felt like the proverbial like tip the table and everything started rolling that way. And then it was the Packers can't function offensively. Vikings get the ball back again. There's a turnover. They score again. Carson Wentz, man, that wasn't by accident.

They brought him back. And everybody had questions about when they re-signed him back in March. What does that mean? Like, is it, are they trading JJ McCarthy? No. Kevin O'Connell, in three of his five seasons, or two of his four seasons to this point, has played at least three, if not four quarterbacks starting. His other two years, he won a ton of games.

Those two years, it was a mess. They wanted to make sure they had a third guy in the room who could go out and win football games for you. It just so happened that Carson Wentz makes more sense coming in in relief than J.J. McCarthy, even with limited reps, which is what you get when you're a backup quarterback, as Carson's seen so much in his career. That's not to say that they're going to consider going to J.J. McCarthy as a starter this week, but J.J. presumably, he's going to be the two. He may be one snap away, and we could already in week two, beyond to the third quarterback for Kevin O'C.,

McConnell in this season, it's just the Vikings have had, you know, the staff they showed during the game that since 1993, the Packers have had three starting quarterbacks and the Vikings have had 17 in week one, 17 different week one starting quarterbacks. Packers have had three. That's just, that's life if you're the Vikings. They've just always had these different issues. It's a cool win. And I would not. I don't care if I'm up, down, up 20, down 20. I don't want Brian Flores on the other side. He's going to do the same stuff. He is going to blitz the living crap out of you. And he absolutely took them out yesterday. Even when the Packers are moving the football, it just creates so many challenges, all the different fronts, all the different things he can do. Harrison Smith coming back and being able to be the quarterback

of the defense and move guys around. The Vikings are going to be a tough out. But I agree. It's a gut punch type of loss for the Packers. There is no doubt about it. For the fan base, for the locker room, and all that. Mataflour will have him ready to go.

in week two. And I'd much rather be answering questions about why I was overly aggressive than why I didn't go for the jugular, go for the throat as he put it, while I could. Third loser, Shield. Sorry, third loser here. We go to

Los Angeles. Oh. And this was supposed to be a fireworks display. Justin Herbert, Mike McDaniel. The league's never seen a quarterback this talented with such a brilliant offensive mind. And Billy, you know what I was thinking back to?

I was thinking back when you said we should play the game, does Tom think or does Tom know? And one of the first things Tom said on the ringer airwaves, he was just asked a question about coaches who might be under pressure this year, and he threw a big curveball out there as Jim Harbaugh. And I said, Tom, what are you talking about? Jim Harbaugh wins 11 games every year.

Come on, okay Jim Harbaugh. there's all these other coaches. They're not coming anywhere near as much success. But then Jim Harbaugh's team in week one as nine and a half point favorites, just get flat out outplayed by a team that's supposed to be a joke in the Arizona Cardinals this season. Jacoby Brissette's going up and down the field. They miss Jesse Minter. They have one sack on Berset all game long.

Even that was for zero yards. So I don't even, does that even count if you're not losing any yards? No takeaways that defense. And again, the offense was a dud. It wasn't like the worst offense I've ever. ever seen. But I sure thought it was going to look a lot better than that with Justin Herbert getting sacked three times, throwing an interception against that Cardinals defense. So the Chargers came into the season with one of the hardest schedules in the NFL. And when you have a hard

schedule, you can't afford to be dropping games to the Arizona Cardinals at home as nine and a half point favorite. So they have to be on this list of losers from weekend. I was expecting a Browns was going to come up here because we didn't talk about the Browns. It just bore me to be quite honest. Yeah. I was thinking maybe the Saints would come in here because they rallied all the way back, then they went for the win and they lost.

But no, you went with the Chargers, which I think we should have seen coming because the Chargers were a huge disappointment. And, you know, there was a lot of talk in the off season of Mike McDaniel did a lot of talking. Mike McDaniel came in, oh, I've never had a quarterback with this skill set of Justin Herbert. I have all these plays that I've come up with.

that I just could simply never unleash on the world because I didn't have the talent at quarterback position that I have now. They're going to put up historic numbers. And, Shil, are we a little bitter because we had our Monday headlines and we predicted because we bought into this hype that Justin Herbert was going to have a career passing day

most yards that he never passed for? I mean, us as a show, we predicted that. Were we going to, were we upset about that? No, we're fine. We're professionals. We're not going to bring that situation up. By the way, credit to Nick, who is the defensive coordinator of the Arizona Cardinals because I saw a lot after the game

where we were looking and it's like, oh, Mike LaFleur gets it done. It's like, oh, yeah, kind of, but also like their defense had this, like they held this, this power offense, only 14 points a whole time. And I guess you do give credit to him because he did this with Chacobie percent, who had 277 passing yards and was, you know, pretty efficient, 27 to 37. So I like, I like the Chargers as a big loser here. She'll, I think, this is a good nomination on your part. Nick Rollis, by the way, from the same hometown as me, he died in Minnesota.

Wow. Think about what he goes through last January. So his boss, the guy who brought him to Arizona, Jonathan Gannon, gets fired. The Cardinals tell their assistants, hey, you're still under contract. You can't look elsewhere. And that included Rollis.

So he's sitting there for like three weeks, and he has to go through the same interview process as everyone else. They were a terrible defense, the second half of last year. I mean, awful. That's part of the reason Gannon, who's also a defensive guy, got fired. They're giving up 40 points, like every time out. Rawlis gets the job. But it took like a month.

And in that time, you can just imagine, like, the fan base has to be going like, all right, who's the new guy we're going to bring in? His own coaches are sitting there going like, are we going to be sticking around? Nick doesn't know what's going on. Finally, they give him the job. And it was like, oh, yeah, yeah. he's a highly regarded assistant. Like, everybody thinks he's got a bright.

He's like, he's still only like 32 or 33 years old. He's got a bright future ahead. So, I mean, like honestly, like a personal level, you're just happy for Rollis. Like, he came out. He's like, hey, yeah, like, I can coach. You know, like just reminding everybody. Like, I can do this, you know, I would not, if you had the Lafleur Brothers parley with Mike winning and Matt losing, I think you, you were the only person on earth to call that.

But back to the Chargers thing, I just... The concern all along. And the reason I said that, the pressure thing, it wasn't Jim's going to get fired if they don't win the Super Bowl. It was the same thing I just said about his brother, which is when you're being paid that much money by an organization that historically has not paid that much money that's a family operation,

and you basically turn over your entire organization to that person. They hire the GM you want. They run the building the way you want. You've got all the power, all the control. It comes with a level of expectation. Jim Arbaugh has gone on the playoffs. You're right. two times. Brandon Staley went to the playoffs once with the Chargers.

And he had Justin Herbert. And if they don't blow one of the biggest leads in playoff history, because Jay Gores, Brandon Stanley still might be the head coach of the Chargers. But like the bar is not getting in the playoffs and going one and done. It's winning big. When you fire your bullets of we're going to clean out the offensive staff, the coordinator and the O-line coach, and bring in somebody like Mike McDaniel, this is your play. This is it. And by the way, you also had to replace his defensive coordinator because Minter went to Baltimore. This is kind of the move.

And my question all along, and this is, again, not judging off week one other than, yes, it was a dud. It was a highly disappointing performance by the Chargers' offense. But my question all along has been, how are Jim and Mike going to communicate? Because Jim is not the type of guy who just goes, all right, Mike, you're the coordinator.

All you. Jim wants to be involved on everything. He wants to be in every type of. a meeting. He wants to have a voice in the game plan. He wants to have voice in everything that they're doing. He wants to be involved. How are these two guys going to go forward together? Now you just suffered a really embarrassing loss. It's called what it is. It was an embarrassing loss to a Cardinals team that was like nine and a half point underdogs in that game. Nobody. How many people got knocked out of their whatever elimination pools, suicide pools,

whatever you call them in week one because they took the charges. It was like the obvious game on paper. How is that building going to be this week? What to have? of stuff, are they going to change? Is Jim going to want to exert more influence? Like, I don't know that. I would just say, I think it's going to be an uncomfortable week because that's generally how it is. Jim is very much more is more. And it probably needs to be that way, because that was a really bad performance. But I just wonder, as this thing goes on, does this more look more like what we've seen Jim do in the past, or does it look like what Mike has done, especially at a time, let's remember too, Lab McConkey, they're saying his day to day and they'll evaluate him through the week. Like,

I'd be surprised if he plays. They got the Raiders this week. Look at that hit, and you tell me if Ladd-McCocky's playing this week. I just put it with that. I think Ladd-McCocky's going to be down for at least a bit here, and that's one of your most effective weapons on offense that you're not going to have, I believe, at least this week and maybe beyond. We also did this earlier with the Broncos,

and unless this is like a kick in, like, you know, the ass, basically, you have the Raiders coming up this week where you're hosting, and then you have Bill, Seahawks, Broncos, Chiefs, Rams, Texans, Ravens. So unless you figure it out, this could get ugly really fast for the Chargers. And then McConkey, I mean, like you said, if he is out, there were many snaps in that game where Herbert was protected and it felt like either there was nowhere to go with the football or he wasn't throwing the football.

If you look at the numbers, this wasn't one of those games where he was being pressured on 45% of his dropbacks and he had no chance, there were a lot of snaps where it was just like, what's going on? I thought this was supposed to be offensive wizardry. You would think that some of these guys would be open and maybe you give Rallis credit partially for that, but part of it

has me a little bit concerned about that Chargers offense. Big piece of Mike McDaniel's offense too is the motions and it's moving people around. I know that kind of varied in Miami, did less of it last season. But still, like McConkey's your move piece. That's the guy you're moving around the formation.

Like Quentin Johnson, like we all know what he is. Like he's a vertical stretch type of a receiver. You take a lad out of the mix. It's not like you've got a bunch of other lads sitting there that you can plug in. So they're going to need to find some offense if, in fact, he's not playing for a little bit here. You've got to find a way to run the football more. You have to do everything better than they did in that game. Yeah. You know, scoring one touchdown with that offense, it's not, it's not good enough. I don't think anybody would argue that it is. We mentioned very briefly, the Saints going for two. And Billy, I'm going to kick this back to you because you said

you liked ultimately the floor decision? Did you like Kellan Moore's decision to go for the win? I did like it because they shouldn't have been in that position, right? Like if we're going to be honest, it's a game that they should have lost. And in that game, there was like weird things that was going on going back to the second quarter where it looked like the Saints had scored a defensive touchdown on a ball that we've, everyone, I think, thought like, oh, well, that clearly was a backwards past. That's a live ball.

They picked it up. They scored a touchdown. And then Mike Pereira comes on and he's like, oh, no, absolutely not. And he knows this like rule that no one has ever heard of because it seems counter to what we all thought was the rule, which was basically, I think we all thought. And Tom, maybe you knew the rule. But I think we all thought, okay, if you throw the ball and it goes backwards, that's a live ball. But then Mike Pereira and the replay review and the crew comes on and they say, well, no,

because his arm was moving forward and he intended to throw it forward. but because his body twisted backwards, his arm was still in a forward motion. So even if it went backwards, it's not a backwards pass. It's a forward pass that went backwards and we're like, whoa, I'm just never going to understand the rules of football. So had they gotten that,

they wouldn't have even been in that position. They wouldn't have gone to overtime. It theoretically could have won the game, right? So then when you get to the position, it's like, they had no business. The Saints had no business hanging with the Lions. The Lions are someone that a lot of us think might make it to the Super Bowl

through the NFC, and the Saints are on the opposite end of that spectrum and where they are. So if you get a chance week one with Tyler Shuck, who by the way, leads the NFL in passing yards right now, he is the lead leaguer in passing yards. Well, he had to. They were down three touchdowns. Four hundred and ten yards. Like if you're the Shuck family, like print out this, you know, all the newspaper articles cut them out, frame them, put them on the wall because your boy is leading the league in passing yards. that's probably not going to be the case next week. But they got this incredible performance. They get right back in this game. I think you go for it if you're the Saints.

Because what do you have to lose? The game, right? But you should have lost the game anyways. And also, Kellyn said after the game, he was also concerned the Lions have a high-powered offense. There was like a minute 30, I think, on the clock. So if you tie it, the Lions still have the chance now to go back down and score again

or take a long field goal and it's over. I liked the logic on the play. I thought it made a lot of sense. Obviously, you'd like, I mean, it's clear they're trying to get the guy out in the flat. They're trying to run a game. It's not there. It's covered. And then there's just no, I don't know if there wasn't the second option.

The second option was covered too. But it felt like we thought this guy's going to be open. He was not. Now we're chucking it up to the back of the end zone. It's a tough break. I mean, you're running the highest percentage play that you can. So the play you feel best about just didn't work out in their favor. In terms of that, that rule.

Because there was also a play in the game tonight that I saw a discussion on social media. about where the pass is going forward and the ball gets hit directly and it's an incomplete pass even though he never let go of the football. These are two separate rules. But what I would emphasize to everybody who's wondering about this is the rules haven't changed. Neither of these plays, again, there are different rules in the rule book. Neither one, this is not some new interpretation. They didn't change the rule in the offseason. I saw Matt Judon on social being like, hey, what's up with this new rule? It's not a new rule. The first one, the Lions play. if your arm is in the throwing motion prior to defensive contact,

and then you get contacted, which makes the ball go someplace else, that is an incomplete pass. That's the rule as it's been on the books. I am with everybody else who has not seen it overturned in replay, the way that this one was. And then the one tonight you see a lot more often, which was, I think it was Knicks, that had the ball coming forward and then, like, the ball basically, it's palmed,

and then goes sideways, and that's not a fumble. And that's a rule you see more commonly, which is his arm's moving forward. forward with the ball. So that's an incomplete pass, even if it doesn't leave his hand, if the arm is moving forward with the ball. It may seem counterintuitive, but it is, this is not some secret thing that they pass. This is not some new interpretation of the tuck rule. This was the rule, and if it happens a few more times, frankly, I'm sure it's one of those rules that's going to come up in the offseason. Sheel, you said you wanted an actual pick on the winner, right? The one

winner for week one. So who is your, who is your selection? Or do you want us to come up with this collectively? Yeah, who do you guys? So the three candidates for the winners. Recap your winners. The winners and the losers. What do we have? Bears, Bills, and Giants were the three candidates for the winners there.

Candidates for the losers, the Packers, the Chargers, and the Cowboys. So I'm trying to think which teams we kind of were most impassioned about for the winners and losers. And maybe that leads us down the right path. Billy, you look like your mind's working over there. Yeah, I'm writing them down. Can I vote for the loser first? You want the winner first. Who's the loser?

I'd vote for the Chargers for the loser, I think, for this week. That feels right, right, Tom? And then nine and a half point favorites and they lost. Biggest disappointment. Chargers are the losers. Biggest winner, I'm going to go with the bills. Because this on the road, new head coach, again, the quick turnaround to Thursday night. Like the meaning of this game, even though it's week one, just to get that.

win. You're going up against the defense everybody's talking about. You go into their building. I mean, Giants, that's a cool program win for them. I just, you know, the Cowboys were not a playoff team last year, you know? Like, there's a lot that still needs to be written. The Bears light up the Panthers, but it also felt like this was just, you know, a Panthers team that was completely overwhelmed. By the way, the Bears defense was not great in that game. Yeah, that was a close game in the third quarter. You're right. Yeah. Right. That's, to me, that, that's separate. Great performance by Caleb. Ben Johnson's unbelievable. But I just go with the Bills because that's a hard game in week one.

That's one if you're being realistic and you were going down in the calendar, you're like, that one might be a loss in week one. You're going to have to come back and get the win in week two. I just felt like that. To me, the Bills are the biggest winner. Billy, you on board? I voted for the Bills also. That was going to be my nomination.

Perfect. We're aligned. There we go. Bill's biggest winner of week one. And who do we pick, Chargers? biggest loser of week one. There you go. Before we wrap, too,

some big news over the weekend that I broke on Sunday, Miles Garrett going to injured reserve for the Rams. Let's briefly touch on this one. My antenna was up on this because just talking with Miles, both, you know,

when we had our production meeting with him and he was talking about still having pain, and then I interviewed him on the sideline before the game, and I asked him, you know, you told us you're in pain, how are you feeling, and how much of it all do you anticipate

it's going to impact you today? And some guys go like, oh, I'm ready to roll. And he was not. He gave a very thoughtful answer. And like his overall point, I don't want to paraphrase it even because I was,

when you're on the sideline, doing a pregame interview with a very large man in pads, like you're not necessarily processing every word. So I won't try to paraphrase it. But the overall point matched to what he told us before, which was like,

I'm going to, you know, whatever it is, like I got to deal with it and I'm going to try to put my best foot forward. Well, watching him in that game and I said it in the broadcast, he just, he didn't look like himself. He was gas coming to the sideline. He played, I think, 40 snaps in that game. He'd be like two plays in, two plays out. He sat out, you know, a pretty good chunk of the third quarter.

And he just wasn't effective. He wasn't playing with his legs. You know, just like the Miles Garrett we've seen, yeah, he was giving it as all. I never mean for like gas to come off like, oh, he's just, he's loafing or something. No, he was doing everything he could. But when he said after the game, like, that's the worst version of myself I've ever put out there. To me, this always was pointed toward if he doesn't look right, they're going to have to do something, whether it's rest or surgery. He ends up having the scope on the knee.

The hope is he's back after missing four games. And by the way, I mean, you can pull up the Rams schedule. Their next four, they got the Giants this week at home, which Giants played well. We'll see how that one goes. then they got three games against teams that were in the playoffs last year. It's a challenging stretch. And you're doing it without the defensive player of the year, who you just gave up first, second, and third round picks,

and Jared Verst for a guy who's healthy and granted on a Brown's defense that didn't exactly show up in Jacksonville. But you're talking about a guy who was like, this was the centerpiece of everything you did. Aaron Donald may be back this week. I know that was what Sean's hope was, was they could get him going, get a long layoff after this game and get him back into the lineup.

but it wasn't out of nowhere to me. Just talking with Miles, watching him in the game and seeing how he was coming on and off the field and seeing his comments. I give him credit for this. He wanted to tough it out. He wanted to be playing. He thought he could give it a go.

He hadn't practiced hardly at all in training camp. It just didn't work out. And now the Rams are going to have to find a way. They got to be better offensively too. Defensively, they didn't stop the run very well in that game once Kyle Shanahan just decided to jam it up the middle. And offensively, they just, they weren't in sync. I think they'll be much better.

They might have to score a lot more points. If not this week, then in the future weeks. But that's a big, that's a big loss, Sheila, as you know, because we talked a lot about Miles. I mean, this was the marquee blockbuster trade of the entire offseason. And now for at least the next month, he's not going to be out there. Yeah. And again, nice job by you.

You were giving us the news during the sideline report, Bill, I remember during that. we're like, oh, I don't remember hearing that before. And Tom's giving us news on Miles Garrett. I think the analytical part of my brain wants to say, Sean McPhase had a winning record in all but one season. And this was a great team last year. And they can survive without Miles Garrett.

And even though they don't have Jared first, they're going to be fine. There is a part of me sort of just like the gut reaction where it's like what you were saying, Billy before the season, where it's just like, when a team is hyped up this much before a season, how often does it actually? work out. And now you look at, they lose their first game and now Miles Garrett's out for a month.

So I think it may be a shifted a little bit to, hey, this team's going to be a juggernaut to, I think it's going to be a good team, but the mentality shifts to like they need to be playing their best football in December. Everybody's back healthy. That's the first thing I said. When you're talking about that team and it was like, well, what's, you know, the only concern I have is the age. Right. Guys don't become more durable or get better beyond age 30. Like it just, it doesn't happen. I think the example I gave was like, if something happens to Stafford,

it changed the whole season. Something happened to the Stafford of defense. And so I still anticipate, you're right, Sheila, in my opinion, like this is still a really good Rams team. But this is exactly the type of thing that can Billy change the entire outlook on your season.

It is, I mean, it rips it, rips the carpet out from under your defense. And you hope in the locker room, this is the rallying cry, which was like, hey, guys, we were pretty damn good last year without the guy here. We love Miles.

He's going to be back. He's going to be great. But like, let's go kick everybody's, ask and remind people we were doing it before he got here. Yeah. Guys, have faith, you know, I feel like you're already kind of giving up on this season. You're saying, oh, you know what, you know what? It didn't go perfect. So what are we going to do? We thought we were going to have Miles Garrett and Aaron Donald. Now we don't seem to have either one of them,

potentially. Maybe we'll have Aaron Donald back this weekend, but it could be an extended period with none of them. Like, the season's falling. Like, let's just, let's calm down. Let's, let's all just, let's take a deep breath. Like, everything's going to be fine here. they're going to play the Giants. Giants are flying cross country to play them. You had them as big winners. I still was kind of like, I don't know. But that, you know, to Tom's point, that could be a game that you win.

You get back on track. And then you have Broncos, Eagles, bills. That's going to be a difficult stretch there. But maybe Aaron Donald's good. He's in. He's playing by them. And you know what? We're saving up.

We're resting up. Hey, Miles, you go. You get healthy and you come back when you're ready. We're going to hold down the four without you. Like, let's not, no fire alarms here, Shio. It's like, it sounds like it's like, you know, when Paul George got suspended for 50 games in the NBA, then he came back, it's like, wow, that was a great rest. I feel great. Maybe that's the story will be with Miles Garrett.

We's like, you know, having those four weeks off, my body has never felt better in December. And he's just getting like three sacks a game, maybe. Who amongst us couldn't use a good knee scope, you know? I know that's right. Yeah. Moral of this pod, moral for everybody there, good or bad, don't overact week one. Yeah. If week two looks the same, then we can start to panic. Tune in next week for that episode.

We're back on Wednesday. Another episode of the Ringer NFL show for Sheel, Billy, Chris, our producer, everybody behind the scenes. We'll see you that. 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming, gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler or 1-800- Gambler or 1-800. 1-800-My reset, call 1-888-7-8-9-77-7 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit MD gamblinghelp.companmer.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gambling helpline-ma-ma.m.m.

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