The Ringer NFL Show - The 2017 NFL Season Is Officially a David Lynch Series (Ep. 162)

Episode Date: October 17, 2017

The Ringer’s Robert Mays and Kevin Clark recap another wild week in the NFL, including how the biggest losers in the Aaron Rodgers injury are the fans (04:30), why the Seahawks are now the favorite in the NFC (08:15), and how the NFL came to have its most even playing field of all time (19:30). Then Danny Kelly joins the show to explain why the Saints defense is legit (32:15) and how the Falcons are systematically flawed on offense (37:00). Finally, Ringer NBA writer John Gonzalez stops by to celebrate NBA opening night and discuss whether Carson Wentz is the MVP favorite (42:30), before Robert and Kevin offer their lasting impressions from Week 6 (53:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's the Ringar NFL show. Robert May is here with Kevin Clark. Kevin, did you know that Miller Light is brewed not only to taste great, but also to be less filling? Now, how do they brew it to be less filling? They just do, all right? We just have to accept that that's the way it is. Okay, well, I know it's only 96 calories, which is great. You can enjoy it from one game through the next. It's been the original light beer since it first showed up in the stands back in 1975. We're also brought to you by Seat Geek. Buying tickets can be super annoying, but it's way easier with Seekeekeek. We all love Seat Geek, but no one.

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your first ticket purchase. Donald the Seeky Gap and enter promo code Ringer NFL today. To the Ringer NFL show, part of the Ringer Podcast Network. I'm Robert Mays, joined as always by Kevin Clark. Kevin, how you doing, buddy?

I'm just fired up about Brescent Mariotto. It's big time. I'm back in, I'm still in Los Angeles. I'm looking at you. You're wearing a hat, which I haven't seen you do in a really long time. You look great. I know. Six weeks in, and I don't know.

It was a weird football Sunday. One of the weirder ones of the year so far. First of all, no one's good, which we'll get to a little bit later on. And then just some bizarre games. Pittsburgh, Kansas City was bizarre, which we'll get to. The Lions Saints game was one of the weirder games I can remember. It seemed like every time I turned around, another defensive lineman was returning an interception for a touchdown.

Just nothing about the week makes sense. I love that the Saints and the Lions are the exact same team, and we knew how that game was going to play out. And if you saw the score, you would think, oh, I know how that played out. But if you saw the game, it was not that at all. That's my favorite part. You could see a 90-point game between those teams, but not in the way that it happened.

and rumbling down the field to score a touchdowns. The same is going three defensive touchdowns. And one of them was a pick six in the end zone, wasn't it? Yes. Cameron Jordan tipped a pick to himself. And then they had a fumble return for a touchdown. And then Marcus Ladimore, who might be really good return interception for touchdown. One of my favorite weird NFL moments, and this was like pre-internet's and one ever talked about it, was when Mike Martz challenged a pick six in the end zone.

Like he didn't, they were like going to lose the game. I think it was a lost season for them and he got all pissed off. So he was just like, I'm throwing the challenge. Like something's got to be wrong in that play. My favorite play of the week, though, was the Bears against the Ravens. Uh-huh. The Ravens are in the red zone. It's third down.

Joe Flacco doesn't have anybody open. He decides to run. So he's three yards past the line of scrooge. And then he stops. He realizes how terrible of a decision that was and throws the ball. It was incredible. Just that you could see the machinations kind of in his mind. It's like, well, fuck it.

I'm here now. There's nothing else to do. It was amazing. And then Tari Kullen through touchdown pass in that game. The two best plays of that game were touchdown passes, one that didn't count and one from a running back. What a sport. It's great stuff. A lot to get to today.

Danny Kelly is going to join us to talk in part about that Saints defense and how surprising they've been. Plus, the Eagles are one of the only two lost teams left in the league. And we've got Philadelphia native. Is John from Philly? Philadelphia native and Ringer Staff Writer, which is new. You can always guess that anyone who's not us from the ringer or Bill is from Philadelphia. Well, the first time I met John was in Philly at an Eagles game, so he used to work there, but I didn't know he's from there. John is one of our NBA writers.

The NBA opens tonight, so we wanted to have a little cross-pollination there, but he's also a big NFL fan. Before we get to all of that, though, let's get to our four downs, our four biggest stories from week six. All right, first down, Kevin, pretty obvious. Yep. We have to start with the most depressing bit of news from the NFL weekend. probably the biggest new San Manifo weekend. Aaron Rogers suffered a significant injury in the game. He'll require surgery.

He'll be out of the minimum of a significant amount of time, potentially. And then, you know, potentially the season could be over. Not good. We just were saying last week how them having Rogers seemed like the biggest advantage for any team. just because there's so much mediocrity, every team has such a defiant weakness, no one has separated themselves yet, especially in the NFC,

and it just felt like having the best player by a considerable margin in that conference was the biggest boon for any team around. And now they will go through the rest of the season without having it. Rogers was literally the tiebreaker in our minds between all of the teams in the NFC and the Packers. We believed in the Packers because of Aaron Rogers,

and we almost felt in a weird way like that was by far the safest pick. Even though the Packers had so many holes, even though they had offensive line injuries the first couple weeks, if you have Aaron Rogers that not only soes up all the holes the Packers have, in a lot of ways it shows up a lot of the holes the league has.

Because who are the good marquee teams you can just stack in primetime? Because the Raiders have four primetime games. It's not them. Nobody's going to want to see them in three weeks. Nobody's going to want to see the damn Colts who are on Monday night and Sunday night. all the time, apparently, and the giants who nobody wants to see.

You know what people want to see? They want to see Aaron Rogers. I wrote about this on Monday, just the idea without Rogers, and then a week after Beckham and Watt getting hurt, all of the truly transcendent players in the league are hurt right now. I mean, not all. You have a couple more. Tom Brady is still a star by virtue of being Tom Brady,

probably throw Antonio Brown in there. Who else? I mean, name the last guy who was in a commercial that you watch on Sunday. The guys that we... Terence Knighton, remember those? Yeah, Jesus. There's nobody that casual fans My mom doesn't know who any of the players in the NFL are anymore

And that's just It's interesting because it just feels like the NFL My mom knows who Richard Sherman is I've run this past her I'll be curious Richard Sherman is the least famous person my mom can identify My mom knows who Jay Cutler is But that's for an entirely for a reason

Yeah, exactly So it just feels like we've lost all the players That are marketable solely on their own Right And it's such an interesting backdrop with the NBA starting tonight. Because the NBA is on the entire other end of the spectrum. It always has been.

The NFL has never relied on stars for a lot of different reasons. One, injuries are a huge part of the game. Two, they wear helmets. I mean, there's a ton of stuff. But the league has gone so far to marketing itself based on the game all on its own. The tagline for Thursday Night Football is literally when it's on, it's on. It's literally the sign of a bit.

Why are people going to watch this? Because it's on TV. That is literally Thursday Night Football's Gambit. That's what they're hoping. Is this the football being a perfect television product is enough to sustain it through all of this bullshit. And I don't know. I mean, we're going to see that. The experiment has kind of been whittled down to its purest form here.

We have to find out if people really, really low football. Yes. That's the test. That is the test now. Do you actually love football or do you like watching Aaron Rogers do magical things? Ordo Beckham take a six-yard slant and break 11 tackles? I just don't, I'm intrigued to see it. I think the ratings will still stay up and ratings are up on CBS 7% on Sunday.

And so I think they'll generally be fine. But I do think that, you know, you're starting to push the nation as a sporting culture when it's Jacobi Perced every week. And that brings us the second down a little bit, just the idea that without Rogers, the league suffers. But without Rogers, what happens to the NSC? because last year by this time Atlanta had started to emerge a little bit you had those secondary teams Dallas was hot as hell they were the story in the NFC last year

right now who's the second best team in the NFC after the Packers with Rogers I mean so this gets into what have we seen versus what are we going to say because you'd say it's a Philadelphia Eagles you'd say it's maybe the Panthers Rams the Vikings I don't know It's a ridiculous conversation. That's why we're having it. That's the resume.

This is like the end of the end of the tournament. That's the resume conversation. The conversation I want to have is what are we going to see. And luckily, my preseason pick of the Seattle Seahawks making the Super Bowl is something I'm still confident. And isn't that so boring that the Seahawks are going to be the team that ends up winning the NFC? We can't have anything new. It's just ridiculous. They've only given up 87 points.

Their defense is going to be fine. Yeah. The offense will figure it out. Russell Wilson's going to be in two walking boots by week 16, and they're somehow going to make the Super Bowl. One of the teams that intrigues me just after watching them on Sunday, and it's a pretty good case because they played against Aaron Roger, as Packers all Sunday, as the Vikings.

The defense are still very good. The weapons are still very solid. McKinnon look great. And they're built to win, obviously, without their starting quarterbacks. So who's going to be the starting quarterback? Right. Well, so. Teddy Bridgewater is practicing this week.

Okay, so Andrew Luxman practicing for three weeks. He had a less significant injury than Teddy Bridgewater. Everyone's had a less significant injury than Teddy Bridgewater. So practicing and coming back are two very, very different things. True. I'm just saying. So there's a couple ways I look at this. Number one is, I mean, how healthy does Teddy Bridgewater have to be to be better than Case Keenum? That's a great question.

I just don't understand how we could play. way. The fact that he's even practicing is unbelievable. I'm uncomfortable talking about this. I don't I'm worried he's rushing because everybody in the NFL was like no way it would be ready at this point in the year. People don't think he'd play again. Yeah.

Yeah, it's going to be something to wash with it. So I think there's a couple hurdles to clear. Number one, can he actually play a game? Then is he healthy enough to be better than Case Keenom, which I know sounds like a gag question, but it's not. Case Keenum knows how to get the ball into Stefan Diggs and I mean,

Treadwell's catch. Treadwell's catch is incredible. Kyle Rudolph had two ridiculous catches. Adam Feehan's still very good. They have a lot of weapons. I've been harping on this post-quarterback NFL thing. The Vikings have it down, man. The Jaguars have it down, but so do the Vikings. They know how to just get the ball in skill position players' hands, win with defense. I like the Vikings team. I think that, I mean, I would venture to guess that the Vikings are probably going to win the ANSI North by two games. I don't know, the Lions have the best quarterback in that division. He was hurt on Sunday.

You could definitely tell. 186 passing yards. He could not move. I mean, there was just, every time there was pressure, he struggled to just have any sort of subtle mobility, fumbled twice, had another one overturned. So I got a team for you. Hmm.

New Orleans Saints. Brian, I'm not saying, I'm not saying they're going to make the Super Bowl. What I'm saying is the Saints are going to be a, bigger NFC threat than we thought. Their mistakes where they're giving up, I think, 350 passing yards for the first two weeks, that is no longer happening. They figured out, and I was talking to some people yesterday about the sands. I did a story on The Ringer.com about why this season is so unpredictable and why it's probably going to forever be unpredictable in the NFL because of just the way that the league is set up at this point. We'll get to that in a second.

But one of the things they said is you look at the Saints. So they're an example of a modern NFL team where they figured it out on the fly. and they had Lattimore back there. They had Crawley, who was a college free agent in 2016, and then you had Marcus Williams back there. The first couple weeks, they literally didn't know how to match up when teams ran two receiver sets on one side. They had no idea what –

Dennis Allen had never seen a football game before, is my working theory. He's the head coach of a team for like two years. Was he? Yeah. Which is great. He might have never seen a game. Was that an NFL team? That's a good question.

I remember that era of Raiders football, but I certainly don't remember that being an NFL team. And so, you know, they're an example of a team that just got baseline competence from some young guys. They already had Drew Brees. They already had the offense. And so I think that they... I mean, this running game, it's been impressive. That offensive line is good.

I just think they've got a chance to win 10 games. That defense can get right. And right, right being relative. Yes. And it's just competent. Yeah. That defense can be competent. I mean, this is a three and two team in a conference where there's only one team that hasn't lost two games.

I mean, they're one game back of the rest. I mean, obviously in the lost column, they've only played five games. But they're one game back in the lost column from the number one seed in the NFC. That's what we're dealing with right now. It's unbelievable. They're a good pick. I mean, I think that their offense is going to be right there as long as Breeze is healthy. And you're getting trying our side back most likely.

The Kamara Ingham thing is much better. It gets Peterson a little bit later. But that doesn't shock me at all. It's not as if Atlanta's running over people. Hell no. I mean, it would be, I mean, Carolina's pretty good. Carolina is fine. Carolina got beat up by the Eagles.

I mean, it's not beat up, but the Eagles looked like a much better team on Alvin Kamara is 7.7 and a half yards per carry. They've got some weapons, man. That's getting roasted for loving Alvin Kamara in April. I liked Alvin Kamara. I enjoyed watching him. I was all in on him because he could jump. And then I got roasted by some folks who said that guys who don't get a lot of carries in college

or who are backups in college don't project well in the NFL. He looks just fine to me. Scoreboard. All right. let's get to third down here, and it's a similar conversation, but over in the AFC. The Chiefs, you know, they were the story of the season so far. They're running people over, just putting up points at will.

And the Steelers come in and really just push around the last undefeated team in the league. Here's the snap. Ben steps up, throws the back shoulder fake. It's 10, and he's winning. A-Bs to the 20th, 15-10, touchdown, Antonio Brown. Two defenders were converging one of the. Philip Gaines got a piece of the ball.

It chipped right into his hands, and he said, see you later. Coming into the season, I thought that Pittsburgh would have this high-flying offense to be able to put up 30 points a game with Martavis Bryant back. And watching them be this potent but very antithetical version of themselves on Sunday, defense running the ball. If they can win games like that, I feel like they can be a real force down the stretch here. It's just not the type of team I thought they were going to be. A couple things.

Ben Rothesberger has now multiple times referred to himself as this old cowboy. What's going on with Ben Rothesberger? He keeps saying, this old cowboy. See, on Friday, he was like, this old, I forget the context, but he referred himself with this old cowboy. And then after the game, he said, I guess this old cowboy has something left. So I'm watching that new show, Big Mouth on Netflix,

the next Coral Jomelani one. And there's a bit where there's like a very angry dog that has become aware of itself. So when it looks at itself in the mirror, it has this kind of existential dread on its face. And I feel like that's what's happening with Ben Rathesberger. He's become aware of himself this late in his career.

He just knows how to handle it. And he's trying out some sort of weird cowboy shit. I guess that's what it is. That's Ben Rathesberger looking into a mirror and seeing himself for the first time. He sees this old cowboy. What was interesting to me was that the chief just didn't do anything

that they've done well on Sunday. Could run the ball. Right. And I thought that they were a, contender based upon the fact that you couldn't stop them for running the ball. And I just, I don't know. I mean, I still think the cheats are a better team than the Stewards. I'm sorry, I know that the eye test disproves that, but I still feel like over 16 games, the Chiefs are going to win way more games than the Steelers. But I have no idea what to look at in the AFC, because it's exactly what we talked about in the NFC, which is resume versus what we're going to see. I, a hundred times out of 100 will pick Bill Belichick to get better on defense. He will get better on defense. And then, he will get better on defense. And then, they will not have the 32nd ranked defense in the NFL being in the season. They are so good at making adjustments. Bill Belichick gave his 700-word answer on improvement throughout the season in the modern area.

It is, you get 20 practices. And basically, by the time you start the season, that's not enough. I wrote about this today on the ringer.com, check it out. But just as far as why things are so wacky. And it's because teams aren't ready. The defense wasn't ready. They'll be ready by November. They'll be ready by December.

That's why the Seahawks, that's why the Patriots, they always peak at the right time because they know how to peak post-CBA. That's what we're seeing right now. There are teams that are making their runs, but I believe the Patriots are going to be the team. So how does this shake out then? So we have the Patriots are going to be there at the end. You have to guarantee that. I think Pittsburgh is the best team in that division. By a lot.

Baltimore's offense is totally untimable. By a lot and by default. Yes. I think that's, yeah, that's fair. Kansas City is still the best team in the West. who knows what hell is going on with Oakland. And the Broncos, we'll see. I mean, maybe that's just a blip on the radar against the Giants,

but it still seems like the chiefs are the team to beat there. So we're just going to get here again where it's Pittsburgh, Kansas City, and New England, and no one else matters. Well, everyone in the AFC South is three and three and three teams in the AFC South. There's three three and three teams in the AFC South. I don't think any of those teams are going to emerge and challenge anybody. I'm glad we're here again. We're the Seahawks are just going to win the NFC

and the three teams that are always in the playoffs and the AFC, you're going to be there again. I had Seahawks Patriots at the beginning of the season. It's all happening for me, buddy. I don't know. I mean, I think that it's wide open. I just, I think it's going to be a wacky playoffs. I think that I could see a Tennessee Titans winning a playoff game or two.

I could see Denver Broncos. They're going to win that division. I mean, I don't know. The Colts might win it. They're two and four, for Christ's sakes. Jacksonville goes in and loses to the Rams. We don't know how good the Rams are. Hey, are the Raiders going to get better?

I don't think so. Do you want to buy the Derek Carter? feature I've had in the can since last December. I'm going to sell it like framework to Jay Peterman. I'm just going to sell my the feature. Is there a chance that Derek Harder is not very good? It's a chance that this feature just never sees light of day. Just keeps holding until it retires.

Have you ever rooted harder for anything than you've been rooting for the Raiders for the last year? It's him not break his leg? Yeah, I was rooting for that. I showed up there the day after he did it. It was not a fun time. Classic. All right. All right.

Yeah, I just, I don't know. the hell is going on with the Raiders. That tied down anything looks weird. Yeah. I mean, and Cardis doesn't look good. I just hate their approach. Just the fact that they're, there's such an aversion to pressure with that team.

They just hate the idea of, or Carr hates the idea of anybody getting close to him at any moment. And it just doesn't allow them to do anything on offense. It's bizarre. Watching them is just a weird exercise. All right, let's move to Fort Down. And let's kind of zoom out here a little bit

and get to something that you've been writing about and kind of talking about a little bit today. There is so much parody in the league right now. Everyone is right around 8 and 8. Just give us beyond kind of the points you've already talked about a few of the reasons that that's happening and why people should go read it. Okay.

You should go read it because I wrote it. That's fair. That's fair. 60% of underdogs have covered the spread this year. That number is higher for road underdogs. To say you can brick an NFL game into 2017, it's ridiculous. We saw that on Sunday night. and we've seen multiple instances of it.

The best couple of explanations. Number one is how weird this spending has gotten that is sort of leveled the playing field. What I mean by that is we talk in the story about sort of the number of teams who are spending more than 22% of their cap, or in some cases, 25% of their cap on two players. That's not a viable roster construction. Those are the teams with the superstars. and that's not a way to build a great NFL team. The highest spending team in the salary cap era was the 94-9ers by percentage.

They spent 21.5% of their salary cap on Steve Young and Jerry Rice. No team has ever spent a higher percentage on two players and then won the Super Bowl. Well, that's also a aberration because they signed Dion Sanders for less money than he was worth. Well, I mean, the same could be said for Tom Brady, but that's a chicken and egg thing. Sanders had like six interceptions that year, and they signed him. No, October. What I'm saying is that the Patriots routinely, their top two players, combined for 15%. And that's because of Tom Brady.

But it becomes a chicken and egg thing. Do you win? Is that the correct number because Tom Brady takes less? Or do the Patriots win every year because Tom Brady takes less? I mean, it's a total, it's a very, that is a dicey. That's a different. There's no way to follow that model. That's what I'm saying.

No, the Tom Brady takes less money, the same cap number as Mike Glennon? If everyone's going to be married to Giselle, then you can do that. Right. But what I'm saying is that that's the model that works every year and that wins in the Super Bowl. That's the deal. Having said that, no team has ever won with more than 21.5% going to their top two players. And that's an over-the-cap number. And I talk to some of the guys who've done the study.

And so what's happening is there's a great smoothing out where the superstars, teams like Pittsburgh, teams like Atlanta, have to pay their top guys. Is that just the way business is done in the NFL? I can't blame them. But then there's teams like Buffalo who would pay their quarterback 6% who were just as good because they're able to get the roster talent around them. So it gets into stars and scrubs versus 53-man rosters being more talented. And I think that there's a great evening out as far as that's concerned because everyone is coming towards the middle.

And I think it's really fascinating to see what's happening. You compound that with exactly what Bill Belichick's talking about, which is it takes a really long time for these teams to get ready. And so the first month of the season, maybe even second month of the season is very preseason. You know, you're still installing the playbook in a lot of ways because you just don't know what's going on. And then teams get better at their own pace. There's so many young guys. We are a young man's league in a way we've never been ever.

The average offense, I think, has dipped a year and a half as far as average age, even over five years, I think, which is insane when we think about the number of players in the NFL. So teams are getting better as season goes along and you have no, who is good in week two has no bearing on who's going to be good in week eight now. The league changes all the time. Technology changes all the time. This isn't even addressing the story. I'll probably get to it later in the year. But technology, you know, the fact that tells can be, you know, you talk about Carson Wentz last year and, you know, his delivery. You know, that came out as the season went along and teams started harping in on Wentz. Wenz, obviously, is a great quarterback now. There's certain things where with the advent of iPad technology, being able to watch 800 cutups of somebody's throw, that changes things. Because information just travels faster and teams are able to adjust or get exposed quickly. So there are a million reasons why the playing field is as flat as it's ever been.

And I'm not totally sure we'll ever see. The great unequalizer in the last five years was the quarterbacks. And the quarterbacks are not as great as they want. There will never be a generation like Brady Manning Rothesberger again. And Rogers. And Rogers and Breeze. We talked about there is a void after those guys and there aren't as many of them anymore. In five years, when the best quarterbacks in the league are Matthew Stafford and Carson Wentz and Deshawn Watson, those guys will make a difference, but they won't make that much of a difference.

And we're going to see an entire league of the best teams being 10 and 6 is my guess. And I think the other, if you want to go beyond quarterbacks now, what might be the great equalizer in this version of the NFL is coaching. Because when you watch what the Browns have done, they've done exactly what you said they should do, just about getting as many cheap players as you can and building your roster that way. But then watching them fail to develop those players,

you realize that you can't have one without the other. Hiring Greg Williams and having him be the guy that coaches your defense, when you have three first round picks and a million assets over there, it doesn't matter. At a certain point, you need the people to put the right players in the right places and to have some level of player development. Yeah, and I think generally what's interesting, you know, Jeff Schwartz, who I spoke with for this story, made the point that essentially because everyone knows the deal six years into the CBA, there's actually less variation in coaching. Everyone's doing sports science now. Everyone's got the same practice schedule. We used to have huge variations in how teams rank. in their training camps. You know, you used to hear about Tom Coughlin's, you know, torture camp every August in Jacksonville and then even up in New York. And so, you know, that is becoming less of an advantage.

So it's really coming down to schemes, talent evaluation, and, you know, a couple of minute details here and there. But the difference, it is harder for great teams to become great on the practice field. Yeah, it's not necessarily on the practice field. I think that scheme more than coaching. I guess that's what I meant. Sure. It's about just teams having some level of creativity and just the teams that understand how to put their players in the right spots have such a bigger advantage now than they used to because it's there are there is that level of youth. There aren't the quarterbacks that can completely change the game.

It just feels like watching Andy Reid do what he's done all season and watching a team like the Browns. It's such a stark difference. All right, Kevin, let's get to your craziest headline of the weekend. All right. So I got to tell you something. I think that the Packers signing a quarterback question has been a very interesting thing to me. Why do teams have backup quarterbacks if we're going to have this conversation every single time? Yeah.

So I think that Brett, I think this is the wrong place to have this. Should they sign Tony Romo or Colin Kaepernick? I mean, Colin Kaepernick should be in the NFL. He should probably be a starter in the NFL. Like, are you telling me that freaking, I'm not saying he's better than this? But, I mean, Cleveland, who's going, maybe going back to Deshaun Kaiser? They shouldn't have gone away from Deshaun Kaiser in the first place. I mean, it makes no sense to me.

Why are they not saying, hey, Colin Kaepernick, here's $6 million for the rest of the season? Why are they not doing that? Who the hell knows? I'm so done with that team. The regret I have for thinking they might be a legitimate NFL team for this season is so strong. I just can't believe I was having this conversation two months ago. Now there's this question about whether or not they're interviewing GM candidates. Jesus.

Are they going to just start over again? Why not? Colin Kaepernick for Brown's GM. All right. So anyway, I was going to say, you know, so there was, you know, I guess Ed Wurter reached out to Brett Favre and Brett Farrv said he's not coming back. A hundred percent happened. He tweeted about it. That's my craziest headline of the week.

But no, I just think that Brett Hunley is not particularly a great quarterback, but he's been the developmental program for three years. He's their backup quarterback. When your quarterback gets hurt, the backup's supposed to play. I remember talking to Brett Huntley when he was a rookie in 2015, and we talked about the Packers' very specific development plan. And so the idea of the Packers are going to go out and sign anybody, including Tony Romo. Hey, uh, freaking Aaron Rogers has a broken collarbone.

I know how to solve this. Let's just go out and get Romo. It makes absolutely no sense. Remember when Aaron Rogers got hurt last time? Scott Tolzee. Scott Tolzee. Fred Huntley's better than Scott Tolzeen. Anyway, Colin Kaepernick should be in the NFL,

but not with the Packers. Yeah, that entire thing just drives me crazy. When Jay Collar got signed by the Dolphins, I wrote, is Jay Keller better than Matt Moore? I don't think he is better than Matt Moore. I don't think he's been better this season than Matt Moore would have been. Hey, would the Dolphins be scoring more points per game

if they had Colin Kaepernick? Because I would leave the answer to be yes. I think the answer is probably. I think they'd definitely be scoring more points than that more. For the beginning, I didn't understand any of this. Jake Cutler is just throwing the ball receiver's feet.

It's unbelievable. It's so fun. I haven't seen that since vintage bad Donovan McNabb. All right. Let's get to my segment for Tuesdays, which is my ringer of the week. Typically, we go with more unsung heroes.

Guys, we don't really think about. This guy was written off. He was written off, but he's not a under the radar name. This old cowboy's got some juice left in him. Adrian Peterson still isn't aware of himself. It's Adrian Peterson, which I feel like this is one of those trades. Like, no one cared.

It happens. It's like, yeah, okay, cool. Good for you, Adrian Peterson. Good luck. Adrian Peterson comes out, riffs off 134 yards on 26 carries. And legitimately looks really good. I mean, he's not, he doesn't have the suddenness that he had in 2012. I mean, this isn't Adrian Peterson is back in all his glory.

but Adrian Peterson looked very good for a team that needed that sort of presence. It's also great that a decade later, Steve Kheim gets to come around on this Adrian Peterson thing. I feel like the biggest regret of that front office was drafting Levi Brown instead of Adrian Peterson. And now 10 years in, Adrian Peterson is finally on the Cardinals. Also, this is a weird thing to say, but it looks less jarring, seeing him in a Cardinals uniform. I don't know what it was. It just looked right compared to watching him play for the Saints. And maybe that's the offense.

Obviously, the style is much more in tune with who Adrian Peterson is, just under center, downhill. And I don't know, man, they looked really good. Maybe that's just because the Bucks defense is pretty hapless right now. And the Bucks are maybe the most disappointing team in the – probably in the NFC. I'd say the Raiders are more disappointing in the AFC. But in a conference where no one is good, it just feels like the Cardinals team is 3 and 3. I mean, who knows? It's not out of the question at all to me.

that they could make a run to get a wild card. David Johnson Ewing theory? No, absolutely not. The offensive line was much better with Adrian Peterson running the ball this week than they have. Do you think he can keep this up in any form? I don't know. That's the question. I don't know. It just feels like this might be the one week,

but he did look pretty good. The bucks are bad. The bucks are terrible, man. I may be, maybe I made the same mistake with Mike Mularky too. Dirk Cutter Look out, buddy Not good We were having this conversation

Last week when they played the Pats Is Dirk Cutter good? We're sure Dirk Cutter's good? He's not They should just bring back John Gruden The league is so bad I'm sitting here looking at the standings

And it's just so depressing It There's nothing about it that's fun I'm in a bad place I'm not doing very well right now Should we bring Danny on? I can't think of anything better than to interrupt this conversation

Breeze in the shotgun Ingram on his right hip Breeze retreats well protected throws over the middle to a crossing Ginn and Ginn turns it upfield diving for the pylon and he is in for the score 20 yards on the touchdown

as Ted Ginn Jr. on a shallow cross takes it home. Of all the calls we could use to set up that Lion's Saints game the fact that it's a Ted Ginn touchdown can only mean one thing and that's a Danny Kelly is here to join us Danny how you doing? I'm doing great guys Gin, he's finally starting to kind of fit in there.

It was a weird thing because it wasn't a typical Ted Gin touchdown. It wasn't a 60-yard bomb. He actually broke some tackles while moving across the field, which was impressive. Wild game, we talked about this a little bit at the top of the show, but very different than the wild game you'd expect with 90 points between the Saints and the Lions. What stood out to you about the Saints' defense? Well, first of all, the secondary is playing really well. I mean, I think having Marshawn Ladamore out there is going to be huge for them. I saw some stats from Nathan Yonke.

He allowed, he got a pick six, 6.3 pass rating allowed three pass breakups. I mean, he is just balling out right now. He had that, yeah, he had a pick six where he kind of got fought through like a screen or whatever, picked the ball off and ran it back in. And I mean, that is totally foreign from what we're used to. I think, you know, obviously, and I was going to bring out, this is kind of like the bizarre saying it's like the defense and run game are kind of carrying the team right now. Yeah, it's not what you'd expect.

I mean, Breeze has been fine. It's not as if Breezy has been bad, but it's not the version of the Saints that you would expect. Pretty damn good first round of the draft from the Saints, by the way. To get Latimore and Ramchek and have Ramchek matter. And because of the injury to Zach Streif and Threatt, Armstead being out, they really got two guys that have played a huge role for them. And, Dan, we talked about this a little bit earlier.

It just feels like removing Peterson from that equation, having it be Ingram and Kamara, allows that to coalesce in a way that it didn't. Right, right. Yeah, I mean, even I think Sean Payton said after the game, like when you got a three-headed beast like that, it's just hard for anyone to get a rhythm going. Yes.

And I think, you know, that's sort of like a, again, it's a hard thing to measure that rhythm factor, but I think it really does matter for a lot of guys. It's like getting into the flow of the game, starting to kind of see the blocks better, just feeling more like in tune with how the offense is run and things like that. I mean, it's really, you know, it's all kind of hokey or whatever. but I think it is true.

Like, you know, it really does matter. And we saw that. Those two guys combined for, I don't know, like 189 yards or something like that, like on the ground. Inger looks so much better than he has in any other game this season. I mean, he really looked like he was locked in and they're going to need that. I mean, that offense, to add the running element to what Breeze can do makes them truly terrifying. The other guy, I feel like we have to talk about with the Saints, somebody that was always too good for the players around him. And now maybe that's shifting.

Cameron Jordan's one of the best players in the NFL. It's kind of ridiculous. I know. I wrote about him in the offseason, and it's just like it's striking to me when you watch him play. Like, how is this guy like not a household name? He had two sacks, three-batted passes, an end zone interception, touchdown. I mean, he was just everywhere. It was pretty ridiculous.

And it was funny because Rick Wagner came out at some point and they put the backup tackle in. And you could just see the first play. Cam Jordan's licking his lips. He just ran him over. I mean, it was almost like he disrespected him on purpose. It's like, yeah, I'm not even going to try to do any sort of move or any sort of speed approach here. I'm just going to push you back into the quarterback. He used the right tackle to knock over Matthew Stafford.

It was almost mean, yeah, that play was awesome. I mean, yeah, he's a game changer and a game wrecker. And I mean, yeah, it's interesting. The one stat, and I agree with you that Breeze has been playing really, really well. But I think this is actually really interesting. He's on pace for 4,20027 yards. That's his lowest since being in New Orleans. He hasn't thrown into that many touchdowns either.

It just feels like when they've gotten down there, they've punched the ball in a lot. It's been a weird season. And let's stick with weird seasons. And weird seasons in the NFC South. It's all weird seasons. We're in a David Lynch series. That's so true. The Falcons did not score the second half against the dolphins.

No. What the hell is wrong with Atlanta's offense? Nothing seems to be working. Yeah, it's weird. It was like the Twilight Zone because, I mean, obviously the stakes are totally different, but it felt like the Super Bowl because they jumped out to a big lead and then they abandoned the run. And it was like the same issues that they had in the Super Bowl. Freeman was fine.

Yeah, he was playing well. I think they averaged like five yards of carry. You know, and add in the fact like Julio Jones is still not getting any red zone targets, not that that's necessarily different from his entire career. But, I mean, they're still trying to figure out how to use one of the best players in the NFL, which kind of boggles the market. I know he's been hurt a little bit, but he's still out there making plays.

And the other thing that was interesting is they haven't used Freeman and Coleman in the passing game as much as they did last year. It's almost as if Kyle Shanahan is better at this than Steve's Rukesian. That's a good indication. I mean, it's like those two guys were one of the reasons

the Falcon's offense was so terrifying last year is because they have complete like versatility in the run in the past. Like those two guys are essentially, you know, receivers. On the field at the same time a lot. Coleman in the slot. And I feel like especially now that Sunu is hurt, there isn't a secondary receiving option on that team.

So this is when you should be using those guys more. And also when you should be forced feeding Julio Freaking Jones. The reason that their offense was so dynamic last year is because it was equal opportunity. You could go wherever you should go with the ball. And now that you don't have Sunu, that that offense isn't clicking like that in the passing game, this is when Julio Jones should get 15 targets a game. That's when it's okay because it's not actively hurting. you because there isn't a better option.

It's very frustrating to watch. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, as a Falcons fan, it must have just felt like, you know, just all the memories of the Super Bowl come rushing back. I mean, this team has a serious problem with holding leads. I mean, that goes back to much before the Super Bowl, really. I mean, like, they blew a few big leads in the second halves of games last year, too.

So, yeah, it's concerning. I think that, I mean, I do think there's enough talent on this offense to get things fixed and start to, like, start to, I guess hit their stride or whatever because you expect some fall off with Sarkisian taken over. But I mean, I don't know. It's just, it seems like a bad game plan so far.

It's also frustrating. My least favorite thing watching an offense is passes completed short of the sticks on third down. And at one point, Ryan was seven of eight on third down, but they were four of eight on third down. That's just not acceptable. You should be scolded for that.

Especially when you have Julio. I mean, he can beat coverage, anytime. I mean, it's like we saw what the Texans were doing with DeAndre Hopkins, you know, early going with the Watson thing, like, just feed the guy that's the best player on the field and why can't they do that? I just don't

understand. I mean, it's not like... The Steelers are doing the same thing with Antonio Brown. The Steelers passing game right now is Antonio Brown. End of list. Yeah, it's super frustrating. Yeah, I just don't know why they don't do that. It doesn't make any sense to me. But then again, like a lot of this stuff that they're doing just doesn't make sense to me. Like, why don't you use Freeman and Coleman in the passing game? I don't know.

I'm writing about this a little bit later in the week. I'm going to want to go back and just dig into all of these games. But that division and just kind of the bizarre word we're living in. I mean, the Falcons offense hasn't been bad. Let's be clear. I believe they're seventh in DVOA coming into last week, but they're 14th in passing DBOA. And that's just not something we expected. They just burned teams last year. And they haven't had that element. And it's been so stop and go. And to see so many of their drives, just short circuit early on has been a frustrating thing to watch as a guy who love watching that team last year. Yeah, it's got to hurt. It's got to hurt. It's got to hurt. Because

You were like probably the Falcons offense biggest fanboy last year. Absolutely was. I was on it pretty early. To see a crater like, I'm not crater, but take a significant step back has been a not fun experience. Absolutely. All right, buddy.

Thank you so much for doing this as always. Danny will be back on Friday with more fantasy. Hey, big week for you at the fantasy football calls, by the way. That was going to come up. D.K.'s Dark Night. Austin Svary and Jenkins, and you had another big one too, right? Well, I recommended Will Fuller.

That's right. a good game. We'll forward had that huge touchdown again, which excellent coverage by the Browns, by the way. Oh, I know. That was bad. All right. Thank you, buddy. Really appreciate it. We'll talk to you on Friday. All right. Sounds good. Coming up, the ringer's John Gonzalez. Here to talk about those five-and-one Philadelphia Eagles and much more,

plus our lasting impressions from week six after the short break. Time for a quick reminder that Miller Light is brewed not only to taste great, but also be less filling. It has only 96 calories, and it's been the original light beer since its first showed up in the stands back in 1975. So crack a cold one and enjoy the game. We're also brought to you by NetSuite from Oracle. This is for you business owners and business leaders who are tired of wondering.

Why is it taking accounting so long to close the books? How come I'm not getting sales information in real time? What do you mean we're getting audited? Have you ever been audited, Kevin? I have not been audited yet. That sounds like the worst process. It's a lot. So I've got a long life ahead of me.

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That's net suite.com slash football. Listen, I am so proud of everyone. It took every last one of you guys to get this job done on a short week on the road. I am so proud of the coaches staff, the players, the way you practice this week, and to finish that game the way you did, listen, sky is the freaking limit for this football team. And now we are welcome by Ringer, NBA staff writer, and Philadelphia native John Gonzalez. John, how are you doing? Gang, this is wonderful. They sent me over from the NBA side. I feel like it was like a prisoner exchange program. I'm happy to be here. Who do we have to give them? I don't know. Danny Kelly's awkwardly stammering about the Sonics.

The NBA situations of all NFL writers right now are pretty grim. Danny has a non-existent team that hasn't been there for a decade. You're a magic fan, which is just this perpetual purgatory that seems awful. and Casey Johnson, who covers the Bulls for the Chicago Tribune, tweeted the roster last night. It was just a picture of it. And oh my God. Yeah, it's not going to be good. Seeing it all in one place is just. Jamir Nelson got waived last night by the Nuggets.

And I was thinking like, oh, Jamir Nelson, like maybe for like a one last stop, he could like retire as a magic or something. And then I realized Jemir Nelson would be maybe our second best point guard. Maybe he would get actual meaningful minutes and he's about. Like he should retire right now. That's where I'm at with the NBA. It's sad.

I saw that tweet and I was ready to arm wrestle you for Jemir because I think he should go back to Philly where he's really from. Yeah, he's adopted Orlando. Yeah. And you know what? Maybe I kind of want you guys to have him because, as you said, it's pretty grim. And in Philly, for once, it's nice and positive. And the Eagles are exciting.

Everything's exciting in Philadelphia. And I said to you earlier, I'm not cool with it. Yeah, we're discussing the Cubs and how this is more my sense. speed when it's bad and when they're bad and I'm miserable. Yeah, I'm miserable is something I understand. Hope and being positive and optimism is something I am not comfortable with. So speaking of miserable, the NFL community is going to be miserable when Carson wins the MVP, which he is now favored to do.

Is that seriously true? He is the Bovado released these odds this morning. Carson Wentz is the favorite for the most valuable player award in the National Football League. All right. So how real do you? think this is? Not at all real. The Eagles or Carson Wentz?

Any of it. Okay. So the last time I believed in things was, I stopped believing in 2004, as you might remember, the Eagles played the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. And this was before they were like, they were very, very good and they had won,

but they weren't like the multi-decade dynasty that they have since become, right? The Eagles have been a relevant team for 20 years. Yes. Well, relevant, but I'm saying that the Patriots team that they were facing was at this multi-decade dynasty that they had. The Eagles have never been a dynasty of any kind, certainly not a multi-decade dynasty. But at the time, they were playing a very good team, but not like the Patriots, as we know them now.

And I believed. And then I watched Andy Reid and Donna McNabb run a two-minute drill that took nine minutes. And then I realized, oh, right, I've spent my entire life watching this team. Of course, that's how it is. So to your point, I have a lifetime of watching this. And at some point they're going to, I made this point before, I'm going to make it again. The Eagles are Charlie Brown and every season is Lucy with the football. You've also had a year and a half watching Carson Wentz.

It's not just the Eagles. It's just you know Wentz. I like Wentz. Yeah. We both kind of shrugged. Yeah. That's 100. That's exactly.

We all shrugged. That's exactly. That is the state of the National Football League right now, by the way. I like Carson Wentz. Yeah. We did that thing. I look at the Eagles, I like, I like the Eagles. I like, okay, they're all right.

Here's what I fear. And I'm starting to get sweats about it. If my wife tweeted this, I don't know, some people might know this, some people might not. My wife forces me to watch football because she is on air at the NFL network. So it's in our pre-nup. She gets the controller when the games are on and she makes me watch it. So when the Eagles went to five and one, she had said she was really looking forward to Kansas City and Philadelphia in Minnesota. for the Super Bowl.

I'm not. The city of Philadelphia would fold in on itself. It would implode. It wouldn't be good for anybody. There would be no hot takes to go around at all that week. I'm sure everyone would be totally reasonable, very measured. That's how all the coverage would do. I was at that Super Bowl that weekend because I'm from Florida, so we were able to drive up.

And I've been to many Super Bowls as a journalist now. There was never a fan base that took the Super Bowl as seriously as the Eagles did. Because, as you know this. The fan bases of the Super Bowl, they're always just happy to be there. It's so true. It's so true. It's all like they own. Landers everywhere.

Guys who own the Cadillac dealership on the outskirts of town and they got their like $600 jersey. And like they don't really, they're not that into it. That's the big myth of the Super Bowl. And the Eagles fans just super into it. They were booing the mayor at one point. I remember that. Yeah. cheering at Ed Rendell, the governor at the point.

I would expect all of that. It'll be much, much worse. if they face Andy Reid in the Super Bowl. I mean, it would be really terrible for the country, I think, like, we're already at a critical point for the nation,

but this would probably be the end. That would mark the end. The team is still 5-1, though, and like Carson Wentz has been, what about this team do you enjoy? That noise was not nearly optimistic enough. Eh. He's more of being like, eh, eh.

Say Nick's a Nickroll and too much sooner. You guys are good at that. You should take that show on the road. I do enjoy. Okay, so part of it is that, like, it's been beaten into me that I shouldn't believe, right? Because I've had a whole lifetime of watching them not do what you want them to do, right? Sure. There was those Eagles teams of my childhood when Randall Cunningham and Reggie White and had that amazing defense.

And like, Brace Pop comes along and, like, blows out Randall Cunningham's entire body. And then that's the end of it. And you see this over and over again. But I watch now and I go, oh, right, well, there's no dominant NFC team. And Aaron Rogers went down, right? And Wentz does look good. Maybe. But then, like, that Philadelphia native history kicks in.

And I'm reminded that, like, that's a dangerous path to go down. I like this team. I liked them before the season started. I think getting Fletcher Cox back is huge. I just feel like they're going to be around for the rest of the year. I like them maybe more than any of the team in the NFC right now. I like the Seahawks more. Listen, I mean, I don't know who's going to give them a run in the NFC East.

I'm not totally sure that the Redskins are good. What a weird game from Washington this week. Yes. I mean, watching C.J. Bethard, which, that's a whole different story, come in and move the ball pretty well on them, was very surprising. There was a lot of tweets that were like, one thing about C.J. Beth in the scouting report, he's tough. It's like that's code word for he just absolute horseshit. Is he not good if they say that?

It's a total euphemism. Yeah, it's like when a boxer has a strong chin. It's like, oh. He's a grinder. You get punched a lot, though, if you have a strong shot. He stays up as he gets punched a lot. It was really funny watching that offense run and him just being completely out of sorts,

panicked in the pocket, just throwing desperation heaves. But that was a better version of the 49ers offense. That's the state that it was in with Brian Hoyer. You're right. The NFC is such garbage. Maybe I'm talking myself into this. No, look what you've done to me. Now all of a sudden I'm imagining a scenario

where they actually are hanging around all you. Do I have to go to Minnesota? You have to go to Minnesota. It's going to be cold there. When the Giants win the NFC is to 10 and 6, it's going to be really heartbreaking. How did they pull that off, by the way? I really enjoy when the Giants just lose all the time, and then they won that game, and that's not as preferable.

What kind of odds would I have to give you to bet against the Giants making the playoffs at this point? I guess you don't have that sort of dread. I don't know what sort of odds I have to give Simmons. Yeah, just somebody that's watched the Giants do this bullshit. too many times. Oh, I would bet against them. They're a garbage team. They're a terrible.

I know they're terrible. Terrible coaching. Like, Coughlin was a good coach. I know we made fun of Cawfman a lot. Well, because it's easy. Yeah. Yeah, he just, you know, he looks ridiculous. Yes.

He's a ridiculous person. Let's be fair. Ben McAdoo. Ben McAdoo also was ridiculous. This is an important point because you mentioned Ben McAdoo. The Eagles wanted him before they wanted Peterson. And they didn't get him. And that's wonderful.

And I'm happy about that. Before we let you go, The NBA starts tonight. Cleveland, Kyrie. It's a lot of fun stuff. It's hard for me to really care about because the Cubs are going to be playing. I should care more than I do. What excites you most about this NBA season?

That rivalry is very interesting. I'm excited to see what's happening in Houston and whether or not Harden. And Chris Paul can play together. For me, though, not to be a homer and also not to bring this up because apparently there are like quite a few people from Philadelphia at the ring. and now I'm another one. Have you heard about Joelle and B? I have heard about you L&B. The guy's played 31 games?

He plays 32. Think about how much fun that'll be. You're giving me a horrible look. I'm not even shrugging in your direction. I just, I mean, he's played 31 games. How many games can the Sixers realistically win this year? How many is he playing? Say he plays 50 games.

Then I'll take the over on the 40 and a half and they make the playoffs. Wow. 50 is the number that I put out there for. They can be a very good team if he can clear that bar. He's that good. I mean, the guy is an absolute monster. I mean, did you see what he did to poor Hassan Whiteside? And then he clowned him afterwards on Twitter.

And that was just in a preseason game. I mean, there's nothing, there's no one out there who can guard his combination of skill and size. I mean, he's a monster of a man. I've interviewed a lot of people. But his size alone and his ability to shoot from the top of the key and then go down low. He's so smooth. Watching him move is amazing. The idea that you should get excited.

I want you to get excited because you're not going to be excited about Orlando. Come and be excited about Philly. I'm not going to be excited about Philly. Be excited with us. It's got a league pass team. It'd be great. I have the league pass where you can only watch one team and it's magic. I swear to God, that's not a joke.

That's a terrible league. I don't know what you paid for that. Justin Carrier was like, why didn't she just get all the teams? Like, I don't watch basketball like that. I just watch the fucking magic. Yeah, I watch basketball like that. Especially this year, I will watch basketball like that. You'll not watch my team.

excited about. Yes, I will watch a lot of Sexers games to share because I will not be watching the Bulls. So I'm going to have some time. After baseball ends, I'm going to have some time in my hands, and it's going to be a lot of teams like the Sixers. I'm bringing you into the fold. We're going to talk about it.

You'll come later. I'm not coming over. John, thank you for doing this. Really appreciate it. Get excited about the NBA guys. It's here. See, dude. All right, Kevin, before we get out of here,

it's time for our lasting impressions from week six. What's going to stick with you? The NFL needs to decide what kind of league it's going to be. because number one, I think there's certain things they can't do. You cannot protect O'Dell Beckham from breaking his ankle. You can't necessarily protect Aaron Rogers from the hit he took. That was probably legal and there's not a lot you can do. Such a bang, bag play.

Deadspin had the take that the fact that it was legal as part of the problem. I agree it sucks that those hits happen, but I don't know what you do to solve it. Aaron Rogers is pissed off, but I don't know what you do. Unless you can not hit the quarterback, there's something like an easy solution. Right. And then, yeah, exactly. And then what the quarterback just gets free rain back there? There are no quarterback sacks anymore?

It goes down, it opens up a box and I don't think the NFL is prepared for. But the NFL needs to figure out its good team problem. Because if they really do want eight and eight and they really do want nine and seven and ten and six and what the future of the NFL is unfolding, that's fine. I don't think they want that. I think they want to talk about that and then have a 13 and 13th and 3 team that everybody wants to watch. Absolutely. They like the Patriots.

There's a reason people tune in to see Barcelona play Real Madrid or the Warriors play the Calfs, okay? And the NFL needs to figure that out. And I think the remedy for that probably a little more practice time, probably ways in which the salary cap, maybe it's not even a hard cap anymore. Maybe it's a softer cap. And that's how you get there because if you give the concession of more practice time, you're going to need to give the player something as well. And this is all going to come up when we discuss the next CBA, which is it's on the horizon. We're not far away. Yep.

And people keep talking about these dumb givebacks. Oh, you know, players, one of the things that they think is going to collect with bargain is marijuana, use something like that. I mean, I think all of those things are sort of secondary to the fact that the NFL players need to find ways to get more money. And one of those ways might be, you know, the soft cap plus more practice time. That would be a nice little give back that I think that would work. And so I think the NFL just needs to solve it's, I guess you could say,

mediocrity problem. And I think they need to start looking at it now. I think the shrug we gave to Carson Wentz is kind of how I feel about the league in general at this point. And that's my lasting impression. It's watching the games this weekend. It's like a meh. And it's the good teams, and it's 8 and 8.

But it's also, it goes beyond that. It's the style of the game right now is frustrating to me. I'm watching so many of these. teams and we're getting excited about shovel passes and oar motion because it's the only thing that's new and different. And the idea that Jacksonville is going to run the ball 35 times a game and that makes them fun is such a bizarre world. I just haven't been excited about different stylistic and schematic elements of the game

like I have been in the last couple years. There is no version of Atlanta this season where we're just like, God, look at all the crazy shit they're doing. This is fun. It just feels like there's a shortage of that. And it's making watching the games frustrated. It's made writing about the league frustrating in some ways. So I just feel like a little bit of an injection of creativity and style and energy is something the league drastically needs right now.

And it drastically needs it because there aren't any good teams. It needs it because the personalities we've long attached ourselves to are falling one by one. It just feels like it's a necessary element. One word. That's where we're at. All right, that's it for today, buddy. Six weeks in, the season is flying by. We back on Friday to set up week seven for you guys.

As always, thank you for listening to the Ringer NFL show on the Ringer Podcast Network. Thanks, guys.