The Ringer NFL Show - The 2024 NFL Schedule Release Draft

Episode Date: May 16, 2024

Austin Gayle, Sheil Kapadia, and Steven Ruiz discuss the best matchups and draft which holiday, prime-time, regular-season, international, and stream-only games will be the most enticing for the viewers to watch. Plus, why are people so hyped about schedule release day? The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Austin Gayle, Sheil Kapadia, and Steven Ruiz Producer: Cliff Augustin Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal and Conor Nevins Video: John Richter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Bill Simmons. I am thrilled to announce our newest YouTube channel. It's called Ringer Movies. If you're a fan of our movie coverage here at The Ringer, then you're in luck. Because every episode of The Rwatchables and The Big Picture, now on YouTube. Like Bill said, Ringer Movies will feature full episodes of my show, The Big Picture, the Rewatchables, as well as special live episodes, deep dives into movie history, and a bunch of other fun stuff featuring other movie-loving Ringer personalities.

Search Ringer Movies on YouTube and Experience the Joy, Chris Ryan impersonating Wayne Jenkins on camera. Welcome into the Ringer NFL show. Austin Gale here with Stephen Ruiz and Sheel Capadia. We are 24 hours out from being 24 hours out of announcing the 2024 NFL season schedule. Just kidding. It's already been announced. Everyone's talking about it. I don't know why this random May Wednesday we turn announcing when all the games are, not even who the opponents are, but when all the games are into this three hour affair. there's a Twitter account called nerd on NFL or nerding on NFL that leaks or tries to leak every single game. It had 88% of the games leaked before NFL network actually put all the games out. I don't understand why we get so obsessed with this, but here we are.

She'll all start with you. What's your take on just the NFL schedule release becoming this like massive online event? I wouldn't even say it's like a big TV event. Like a lot of people are just doom scrolling Twitter looking for the memes and the schedule release videos. I like how you're. opening by, you know, ripping the sort of big, they're making a big deal out of it. And then you're revealing that you follow an account called, what is it, nerd on NFL that has schedule leaks?

Like Austin, the normal, the normal NFL citizen does not know me who covers the NFL for a living. I have never heard of this account nerd on NFL. So I don't know. I understand your take, but you might be part of the problem, my friend. Right, right. You're the demographic. You're the audience for this stuff. You're the reason why they do it.

I just want to preface this, that I did not follow the account until yesterday. I saw that nerding on NFL more than two hours before the NFL network was just going to release all of the schedules anyway and all of the individual NFL team accounts were going to release their individual schedule videos and their graphics and all that stuff. He had 88 percent. This guy had 88 percent of the games already leaked via one of the Twitter accounts that was leaking them was called Thigh Doctor. Another one was random beat reporters across the league. And then the only reason this is notable is he put together a 272 game Google sheet that around the horn, ESPN's around the horn, then broadcasted a screenshot of two hours before the NFL was going to release the games. And I'm like, we are jumping the shark here. Like, this is too much.

It's too much. I disagree. Announce the games like in the middle of the night. I want the NFL to like make it like a sneaky thing. Like, oh, you just woke up and all the games are announced. That's what I would like. Just a little breather. You know what I mean?

And with the schedule release videos, the Chargers are in a league of their own. They continue to like go double down on animation. A big shout out to the Chargers social media team. It's three years in a row now that they've done deep, deep, thick animation, two anime style videos in 2022 and 2022 and 2023. And then this year, committing full on to a Sim style video. It's easily the best one.

Everyone else is just either trying too hard or over-indexing on TikTok trends or are trying to bring in a celebrity. I think that even the schedule release videos. video Cold War in the NFL among digital media teams is being laughed up by the charges. Am I even wrong there? I feel like I'm just, I'm hitting on 100% of these takes. Sure. I guess. I just don't think there are a lot of stakes here. Like, who can't just don't, scroll past the tweets. I will say this, the Titans like, two, they did it two times in a row. Like the, I don't even know what the bid is, but they had the woman guessed the logos last year and

it was a big hit. I don't think you go back to that well. I really think you got to go back to the drawing board and come up with a new idea. So I'm disappointing the Titans were just going back to it. And it wasn't as funny this time because the people actually knew what the logos were and they were just making jokes about the team. So I do agree with you there. Oh, sorry, sorry. Yeah.

I'm usually the curmudgeon, you know, on these episodes. But I do remember as a kid, even growing, like the schedule comes out and it's like exciting to see, oh, my team is playing this team. Oh, we got a Monday night game. That's going to be awesome. Like the juices, this is around the time. May. the juices start flowing and you're like,

I, like I miss it. I'm looking forward to it. Austin, you, again, I have to double down on this. You are part of the problem. I don't know any Twitter account named Thigh Doctor. I haven't consumed a single team video releasing. Really? Yeah, you can avoid the stuff.

I'm telling you, it's possible to avoid the stuff if you want to avoid it. I honestly think this is something that is fun for individual fans. It's almost like baseball where you follow your local. I don't think if you're a Packers fan, you care about the Monday night football schedule. But yeah, it's cool to look at your schedule and text your friends. And I like doing, you know what? I like doing the win loss. I like listening to that on sports talk radio as a nine-year-old when I'm on my way to school.

And I like to hear, oh, go win loss, win loss, win loss on the Eagles. Oh, my God, I can't believe this idiot has them losing in week 13 to the Cowboys. And like, it's just part of the fun consumption of the NFL. So as much as I like to rip the NFL generally and, again, be the curmudgeon and bring everyone down. I can't do it for this. I do feel like Shield's defense for all this is like nine-year-old me like this. But what about grown you? Shouldn't they be appealing to adult shield? Not nine-year-old shield? That kid doesn't exist anymore. It's hard because now, you know, I'm in the content game. You know, you're collecting a paycheck for doing it. So it is a little different. So yeah,

I wasn't totally, I wouldn't have been totally locked in on all the different games if I wasn't preparing for this podcast. You know, but it's okay. You know, I ended up doing it. And I looked at it and I got caught up. So it's all good. So you're just telling me to look in the mirror. You know, if you're upset, look in the mirror and blame yourself. I will say last night, I had an hour and a half conversation with my buddy in a fantasy football league. And we also talked about getting tickets to the Raiders in the Chargers game in week one.

So it did spark real fan interest in the, and you bringing up the, the win-loss stuff with individual schedules. I don't understand why every single team's going to win 10-11 games next year. I feel like if you really want to raise the stakes, pick all. All 272 games. Pick all 272 live on NFL network. I want to see you get to the Super Bowl over four hours. Let's go. That said, we did prep some content for the NFL schedule release, which I think this is premium, premium stuff. We are going to draft. It's going to be a snake draft. Starting with you, Sheal's going to go first. Ruiz is going to go second. I'll go third. Then I'll pick again because it's a snake draft. If you haven't done a snake draft, this is what it is. I go again. Then Ruiz, then Shield, then shield again, et cetera. What we need to do is we need to pick five games from the 272 game schedule. One of them has to be a primetime game.

So that's Thursday night football, Sunday night football, or Monday night football. One of them has to be a holiday game, limited sample there. One of them has to be an international game, another limited sample. And then a streamer only, so that's streamer exclusive. So that's Amazon Prime. So any of the Thursday night football games, that's the one Peacock exclusive game at the start the season and I think they're going to maybe have another one, maybe towards the playoffs, but then there's also some ESPN plus streamer exclusive games.

That one's going to be a little bit. You're going to have to get in the weeds, okay, to find that game. I have one question. And then the last one, you have to pick a regular game. So it can't be a primetime game, a streamer only game, international holiday, etc. Essentially any regular game. Do we understand the rules? I do have one question.

Are we counting the Black Friday game as a streamer only game or a holiday only game or does it count as a black situation? Okay. That is a holiday game. I'm pretty sure Black Friday is a holiday. She'll, I'm going to come to you for the check. It's exclusive on Amazon Prime is all I'm saying. Well, no, it's a good follow-up question.

So if it's something that fits in two categories, I assumed you could pick it for either one. Is that not true? Like if it's a holiday and a streamer, you can pick it for either of those ones and then it can't be used again. Do we agree with that? That's fine.

Let me call Desem Hill situation. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, let me call Godell. Let me call Godell. He says it's good He says it's fine As long as Netflix gets their money Is Netflix getting their money? Is Netflix getting paid out of this?

Okay, okay, cool, then we're good. We should be fine out of this. Does this violate Harrison Butker's sensibilities? Okay, we didn't bring that up in the Chargers social team video But that again, just like they're ahead of the curve They're modern, they know what they're doing The Chargers is the only social team taking it seriously.

All right, well let's get into this, Sheal. You want to kick us off with the first overall pick in the 2024 NFL schedule release draft you are up oh I didn't know if I said this in the rules but you can pick in any order right you just have to fill your roster it's just like a fantasy draft like you don't have to pick quarterback in the first round then running back in the second round you can pick any order where you want to head first shield first overall pick yeah and shout out to Ruiz for coming up with this exercise because now like before I was like uh schedule and now as I'm get anytime you're getting ready to draft it's exciting now I'm like oh you know I don't know about a board

You got a draft board? You're making this fun? Yeah. I've got my board. I'm like the GM, who the, you know, scouts, everybody spends all these months working on a board. And you have the board. And you know what I'm doing? I'm pivoting at the last second.

I'm in the owner's ear. Because at first I thought, you know what? Holiday is like a limited inventory. So let me make sure I get something good there. And then I looked at and I said, you can't make that the number one pick, you know? That's ridiculous. So I'm going regular season. The worst category to pick with the first pick because there's so many options.

But you know what I want to look at my board? I want to look at my board and say, Buffalo Bills at Kansas City Chiefs, Week 11, 425, Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, so much history. 13 seconds. Last year, the missed 44-yard field goal.

Otherwise, maybe we're not talking about the inevitability of the Chiefs. I mean, think about that. They lose that game. If the bills win that game, the conversation this offseason is out of the Chiefs not do more to upgrade this roster. but I know, that's not what happened. The Chiefs ended up winning the Super Bowl.

But I just want to look at it. Number one overall pick, Bills at Chiefs. So there you go. I'm knocking out my regular season, random game with the first pick. I got to be honest, that was going to be my pick at three.

I was going to take that one at three. I thought initially I was like, okay, I'll go with scarcity, right? I'll go with either the international games or I'll go with the holiday games or the streamer games. But that game is,

people are already tweeting about Taylor Swift's concert schedule because of that. game. People are already talking about that game as being a very large opportunity of being flexed into a prime time game, which would be a benefit to you in terms of, I don't know how we're grading this draft, but I do think ratings would come as a piece of this. I think that that's a rightful first overall pick. I honestly, I was all over that game. I was going to take it at three. I do think it's a good pick, but I feel like we're overrating that the quality of the game.

I do think the quality of the matchup matters, but I'm going to continue on the regular season train, and I'm going to go week 10, Eagles at Dallas, give me the NFC East ratings. I don't care. That's what I'm going for. I don't care about the quality of the matchup. If these two teams play, these fan bases are tuning in, and fan bases across the nation are going to be forced to tune in because it's the NFC East, and that's what this league does. So I think we're going to get the highest ratings there. I debate it between week 10 and week 17.

Week 17 is just a little too risky. One of these teams could fall out of the playoff race. There could be injuries. I'm going to take the short thing. I'm going to go week 10. I'm thinking like 25 million guaranteed in terms of rating with this matchup. And we did a whole Ringers Philly special on the schedule. I think this is the first time I saw since 2003.

Neither of the Eagles Cowboys games are in prime time. You're just used to every single year. One of those is in prime time. And this year they have the exact same odds to win the NFCE. So that was kind of weird to me that neither of those went in prime time. But yeah, that will be a fun one. Are you kidding me, Sheel? You are soft.

He's picking, he just picked a matchup that plays twice in the season. What does that matter? What are we talking? With the second overall pick? Every year, too. Every year they spend. What the second overall pick? You're picking a non-prime divisional matchup where they play twice a year.

That's horrible. That's a horrible selection. There's so many other games to pick there. This is, see, you don't know ratings. I've studied the tape. Like, I went through the ratings week by week. There's a website that has them. is a good pick. You just don't know. I am, well, I am the Patriots. You are the commanders

taking Jaden Daniels because he won the Heisman and he runs a four three. Stop, stop. I am letting Drake may fall to me. I can't believe what you're even saying right now. I can't believe it. The game gets played twice in a single season. You took it. And we watch it every year. They force us to watch it. All right. Well, I'm going to Is that website Ruiz that has the rating? Is that thyddoctor.com? That's the same one. It's the same guy. He's got, he diversifies his content port I didn't think we were going to go three for three picking just the regular game first, since there are so many. But like, I was a run.

I do think, I do think it makes sense for me to take. This was number two on my board. Number one on my board was Bill's Chiefs, which I do think has a very high percentage chance of being flexed into Sunday night. Football. This one, October 20th, one o'clock slate here on the Pacific time zone. So late afternoon slate, chiefs going to San Francisco to play the 49ers. Why? Those are the two teams in the NFL, favorite to win the Super Bowl. Those are the two best teams in the NFL by market and applied odds.

The worry I have, and I'm glad you brought this up with your game shield, or Stephen, is it is in October, right? I think this is always the hardest part. This is the hardest part you've been thinking about the schedule in May. It's like, oh, man, that week six game or that week 10 game is going to be so sick. I can't wait for that. We have no idea who's going to be healthy for those games. Obviously, you can bake in not a ton of risk at the quarterback position.

I looked at week one, 32 of the 32 starting quarterbacks from week one, of those quarterbacks that started in week 10. There's only like, I know we had a lot of quarterback injuries last year, but it was only like 29. Like still, you're still seeing like a lot of the same guys starting through the first 10 weeks of the season. So I don't think we're going to, you know, you can bake in less injury risk, but like if a tackles out or if Debo Samuels out, like that changes the entire landscape of that game.

Still, it's going to be must watch TV. I think the ratings will be okay with two of the top Super Bowl contenders. I will say this. I don't believe that Bill's Chiefs has any chance of. getting flex. There's no way in hell CBS allows that to happen. If you think CBS has given up that game, you're insane. They were probably promised that and they probably protect it. It is not budging. How does it work? They can each protect one. Is that right? What is the rule? I believe they can protect one, but I would imagine even if that rule wasn't in place that CBS would fight tooth and nail for that one.

Yeah. That feels like a good take. I'm surprised no one picked Tom Brady's opening debut call, Browns Cowboys, Week 1. That's the thing. I also don't care. I'm more upset. Who's standing for Greg Olson? Okay, getting demoted out of the primary booth spot. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on now. I am. What do you mean? He's good.

Okay. I know. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. Like, where was the, we could have used an RIP to Greg Olson yesterday. Like everyone's, everyone's celebrating Tom Brady, obviously getting, you know, promoted to the top booth and him having his debut. And like, he's coming off this big roast where everyone made fun of his family and put his kids in whatever. Like Greg Olson was so, so good in the booth since he's joined the booth. And now being moved to the number two team because of Brady, it just doesn't feel right. I saw, maybe that's why we avoided it.

I saw a tweet from one of those like aggregation sites. I don't know, MLF football. Like one of those ones. And they reported that he was getting a pay cut because of this, a $7 million. No, a pay cut. It's a massive pay cut. They're like, oh, great job, Greg. you really change the game.

You're the best color commentary guy out there this year. By the way, as a reward, demotion and huge pay cut. Yeah, here, I've got it. That's what you get for trying. Andrew Marshand of the New York Post from $10 million to $3 million from moving to the two team. It's massive. It is a massive pay cut because that's why they do.

It's slotted. Where are you in kind of the broadcast hierarchy? listen, as the person who said, everybody, you don't need to feel bad for Kirk Couss, he's going to be okay with the $90 million and the starting job. Greg Olson's going to be okay. This is going to be temporary. I'm with you guys. He's awesome.

It's going to be temporary. He'll get a number one job eventually. We'll be talking about Greg Olson for a long time as a great broadcaster. It does suck for him. I can be more empathetic to this, honestly, than the Kurt Cousins thing. It does suck because he did his job. He did a great job at it. And now he's taking a lesser role with less money.

but he'll get back up. He's Kirk Cousins. Greg Olson was like the Mahomes of commentary last year. And by the way, it does say something about all of us that like our news sources. Like mine was like the MLF football. Yours is thigh doctor and then she'll has like a legitimate like. I will say I have two reactions. One is $7 million pay cut after being objectively the best Keller commentator in the NFL last year is insane.

I know he's going to be fine, but he probably could have been budgeting for a yacht or, you know, whatever. There could have been some thoughts on like a big purchase that he's going to have to, you know, reel back to future years. Two, I kind of want this pay cut stuff to work in the NFL. I think if you get bench at the quarterback position, guy comes up top, he better take a, he better take a game check or two. Honestly, this feels a little, this feels like a little bit of opportunity in the league.

I think game checks should be kind of transferable depending on who starts or who plays the most naps. Now, now we're getting interesting. Now we're really interesting. Patrick Mahomes can relate, though. Patrick Mahomes just won back-to-back Super Bowels and he just had to watch a Jared Gough make more money than him. It kind of does happen in the NFL.

I'm so happy I wasn't on this podcast for the Jared Gough contract conversation because I don't think that would have been all that rate. All right. To recap, after round one, I'm going to go. It's a snake draft. I'm going to go next. But, She'll, you have Bills at Chiefs as your regular game. That one I think is going to be great.

Then you have, Steve, you have one of the Eagles Cowboys games. Did you, I can't remember which one. Sorry. It's just, I'm sorry? Week 10. Okay. And is it in Dallas? It is.

Okay. And then I took Chiefs going to San Francisco to take on the night. For my next pick, I think I'm going to the primetime slot. I'm going to the primetime slot. Obviously, a lot of primetime games to pick from. We're going Sunday night football, Monday night football, Thursday night football. I tried to put a game over this one. I think there are a lot that are going to be interesting. I'm taking the opener, though.

Ravens at Chiefs. Ravens at Chiefs is the opening game of the season. obviously one of the highest rated games every single year. It's two of the best teams in the NFL, not the two best teams in the NFL like I have with Raven or Chiefs Niners. But now I get two of the best teams, at least the two best teams in the AFC. They're two favorites to win the conference.

Opening the season in Kansas City, yes, three bags full. I'll take that pick and I'll run to the bank. All right. It was number one, yeah, on my primetime big board for sure. Yeah, I think that's going to be awesome. There are a lot of good prime time games. So that's the only reason I was saying. Do I wait a little bit?

And after Ruiz, I have to make a correction, Andrew Marchand now of the Athletic. Sorry, listen, if we're going to be, you know, if we're going to attribute properly, previously of the New York Post. All right, sorry, Ruiz. Ravens, too. That's like your game, Ruiz. You love, I mean, who loves Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes more than you?

I have one direction as well. It's thy doctor of the athletic. That's on me too. That's what I'm the doctor of the athletic. No, go ahead, Ruiz. I'm not sure who MLF football's with that. I think it's like outkick or something. but I don't know about the opening night game.

They do do massive ratings. But I can't get past week eight Sunday night football. Cowboys 49ers, man. That's just a ratings bonanza. And I know no matter who's playing in that game, people are going to watch the rivalry, like the NFC, the rivalry of the 90s. And I think it's been carried over to this decade over the past few years.

Mike McCarthy, Brock Purdy, Dak Prescott on Sunday night football. I just think that's going to do crazy ratings. We're going to be talking about. about it all week that the hype for the game is going to be built up through the six weeks or six days of the week. A lot of people are going to tune in for that and a lot of takes are going to be had. I like Cowboys at 49ers. That's my pick. 49ers. It's obviously a highly rated game every single year. People will be watching that game forever. You also are getting another Sunday night football broadcast. So you are going to get Torrico and Collinsworth.

The season Oprah is going to have Torrico and Collinsworth. I think who is on the call does matter. Now it doesn't matter. No, it doesn't. What do you mean? Sheel, have you ever tuned into a broadcast specifically for the broadcast crew? No, I'm more with Austin on this. I think it absolutely, I don't, I don't tune in specifically, but it absolutely enhances or takes away. Well, yes, of course. We just talked about in a big way, I would say, not like a, you know, a little thing. Like, I love, if Greg Olson, like sometimes, because I'll have multiple, you know, games on, as I'm sure you guys do, on a Sunday afternoon,

Where am I putting the sound on? It's not really the quality of the game that I want the sound on. It's the announcer who's going to show me something, Greg Olson. And you guys say you don't care about the Tom Brady. I think that's legitimate. I do want to hear what Tom Brady sounds like in week one. You're going to have to have a take on that. If you're in the content space, you've got to have a take on whether you think

Tom Brady sucks or is awesome at this. Come on. He sucks. I already have my take. What do you mean? On a scale of Greg Olson to Drew Brees, who literally they had to like rush out of the booth. after some disastrous calls, that's where he's going to end up,

and that will be exciting. It doesn't change ratings, it's my take. No one's going to tune into the sun. If I tune into the Sunday night game, I'm going to be like, oh, man, Tariko's calling it and then turn it off.

I'm just going to watch the game. No, I'm talking about, of the primetime calls. Torrico calls. Yeah, Torrico is a great play-by-play. I'm sorry. I'm sorry we care about the game,

man. I'm sorry we really care about the game. You're on Twitter. You care about the guy talking, the 60-year-old man talking about the game in the booth? I have to fire off a take about play-by-play. You know who's the best play-by-play guy? I don't know that I've unveiled this take on a ring of pot.

Rich Eisen is awesome at play-by-play on those international games. You agree or disagree with that? That is one of the worst takes I've ever heard. People hate Eisen's commentary. No, no. Twitter search Eisen on a game day when he's calling a game. Oh, please. Twitter search any play-by-play guy on a national podcast.

Give me a break. I'm not taking my cues from there. I'm taking my cues from whether I enjoy it. Eisen's fantastic. And I don't know. Actually? I'm not like, you know, Eisen's not my neighbor.

It sounds like Eisen paid me for this because no one else would possibly have this ridiculous take. But anyway. Actually, Shield, Twitter search Rich Eisen's name. They don't like him. No, I do think that Rich Eisen, Kurt Warner, that combination, 630 AM PT. I remember hitting the treadmill. I'm like, you know what, it's not that bad. It's not that bad.

And for like obviously like a D tier booth, you don't have high expectations, I did kind of like it. He mixes in some good jokes. I like the Eagles. I think the Eagles are stunning. Both Noah and I and Eagle. Both those guys are phenomenal, you know, play by play. Across sports, I like those guys a lot right now. All right now, primetime slots.

I have Ravens at Chiefs, the season opener. Ruiz, you have Cowboys at 49ers, a Sunday night football game in the middle of the season. Ruiz also has his regular game picked Eagles at. Cowboys, one of the two games that they will match up. Bill's at Chiefs was the first overall pick. She'll, that's the one that you have. That's another regular game. And then I had Chiefs at 49ers.

Jill, you are up. All right. I'm up here. And I'm snaking this, right? So I'm going to use this on my international. And I'm going to do Packers at Eagles week one, Brazil. If you look at the international slate, yeah. Yeah, some hits, some misses.

But excuse me, I think that's by far the best international game. That's going to be week one on a Friday night, 815. I think that's a peacock game if I'm, yeah, peacock game there. So I'll use my second overall pick here on Packers and Eagles. And just to be clear, that's my international pick, not my streamer pick. That's a good pick, man. I think he might have won the draft with that pick. No, we made a mistake by not.

There's a scarcity play to the international drafting because not only is this game a good game between Jordan Love and Jalen Hertz, Packers, Eagles. It's also the first time we're seeing the NFL in Brazil. It's also the Friday night after prime time after the Thursday opener. We have not had a Friday double tap to start the season. So I think a lot of people are going to be dialed in for that. It is the best international game. It probably should have been drafted earlier.

I think this is a steal at the spot. and the other reason for it, the other four international games, two of them involve the Jags, so there's horror there. You also have one in Munich, Germany. Giants, Panthers, November 10th. That's going to be Drew Locke and Bryce Young's like dishevelled body if he's still alive behind that offensive line. That's going to be a really, really tough game to throw on.

I don't know if that game's obviously going undrafted here, but that one, to put Germany through that just feels wrong. That doesn't feel right. I disagree with that part of the table. Have you paid attention to history? What do you mean? Good Lord. Watch the games, man.

Maybe deserved. Maybe deserved. All right. Ruiz, you are up. You're up. He's got a back. Oh, sorry. Sorry.

The state. Another draft order. Real quick, though. I know we have international listeners. You know, if there's anyone in Munich who wants to do the tepper signs, I will gladly promote them on every social media account I have. before that get go ahead tepper try to flip a lid of one of my guys in munich all right we're gonna have it we're gonna have a story there for sure all right uh i'm gonna go i'm gonna do another scarcity uh play here and i'm gonna go holiday and go ravens at texans on christmas 4 30 p m now this isn't i know ruiz is talking ratings you know i guess it's a standalone on christmas and it will get good ratings but it's not like you know the two marquey franchises but man lamar jackson c j stroud love watching both of those guys play football i think these are two uh of like the five teams i have

that can get to the super bowl from the afc uh and so i've got ravens and texans 430 on christmas what's that a wednesday they're just throwing in a christmas wednesday right that's what we're doing this year okay there you go that's my next pick i think you might have just won the draft with that turn i honestly the the ravens at texans games it's not only one of the best holiday games it's also one of the best streamer only games it's also one of the best streamer only games Netflix and the NFL announced that three-year contract where they're going to, Netflix is now on Christmas going to always have games for the NFL, no matter what day it is, whether it's Wednesday, Tuesday, it's Wednesday this year.

So it's not only streamer only, it's a holiday game and it's easily the best holiday game on Christmas this year. The only other holiday game is Steelers or the Chiefs going to Pittsburgh to play the Steelers, or the only other Christmas game, rather. That you might have won the game I'm going to take. Spoiler alert. I'm running the pickup right now. Go ahead.

Like, I feel like you guys are too hung up on the quality of the game and not who, like these fan bases are going to tune in no matter what. The Steelers fan base is going to watch them matter what. They have nothing else to do on that day besides hanging out with their family. And I'd rather watch the Steelers get killed by Patrick Mahomes. So I'm going to take that because Christmas Day, I believe last year was the most watched day in NFL history, basically. Like, they got the best ratings ever. So if you get to count that as a streamer-only game, that's how I'm counting it as that's my pick for that one, that category. And I think it's a steal because we're getting like 20 million.

off of that and you're not getting that from other streaming game. So you're counting, you're counting that as your, um, your streamer only, not your holiday pick. Just right. Yes. Yeah. Wow. This is, this is getting tough.

This is getting tough. I'm like, uh, I'm in a little bit of a bad spot here. I don't really know where to go. Um, I think I'm going to take the only other international game that is even worth it. Saul. I'm, I'm, I'm going to go Jags, Bears in London. Trevor Lawrence, Caleb Williams. It's either that or Jags Patriots with Drake May.

I don't like it. Obviously, I don't like the Munich game. I don't think Jeremy does either. I'm going to go ahead and take Jags, Bears in London, as my international game, which might even just be a crumble right now. Might be a crumble. That's not bad for an international game.

That's week six. So it's like, all right, Caleb Williams has played a little bit, got his legs underneath him, but it's not so late in the season that maybe one of these teams is a couple. complete disaster. Your schedule is easy early on to. Yeah.

So I don't think that's bad in terms of an international game. I'll tune in for that one. And then for my holiday, holiday pick, I will go Dolphins Packers, Dolphins at Packers. That's the Thanksgiving game, the night game on Thanksgiving.

Going to get a little to a tongue on Vailua. Hopefully he's healthy. Obviously, we have Jordan Love and the Packers. And night game on Thanksgiving. I'm chasing ratings there as well. So you got, so we left. out. So we all have a holiday game now. Oh no, Ruiz didn't do a holiday. I still have my. All right. I'm going to,

I'm going to wait for my take then until I see what he picked there. Okay. Is it my turn? Yeah. Would you like me to read you the board before before you get in? No, I'm running my pickup again. Okay. Okay. I'm going to go with my Thanksgiving pick. I'm going to go with Giants Dallas, my third Cowboys game. Give me a New York Dallas audience on a holiday with nothing else to do? Like, that's a ratings banana. So your strategy really was, I'm going to bleed the biggest fan bases in the league. I'm going to chase Cowboys all day long, chase Cowboys rivalry games all day long. And maybe, honestly, I hated the strategy to start.

I hated it. You heard me. The more I think about it, the more I like it. Because if the game is ratings and the game is viewers, you are getting close there. Versus I do think I went with a strategy of the best game, right? the best quality of games, the best storylines, the best, you know, the best team strength. And I don't know if I'm going to win the ratings battle. I don't know where your head's at, Sheal, but how are you feeling on the, the ratings versus, like, team strength, quality of game balance.

Let me just say one thing before Sheal answers. You guys have been in content for years now. You guys don't realize just cowboys. That's what you do. The Cowboys, the Cowboys click. I'm too busy turning on tweet notifications for Thigh Doctor to get any of this data. So, She'll,

how are you feeling about your draft? I didn't, you know, in my head, I wasn't, like, get the biggest ratings. I felt like it's the NFL

with Mahomes, like, I don't know, if people are going to watch, people watch all the games. So it's going to be, okay, I wanted the board that,

like, if this gets tweeted out on social, and they're like, oh, my, Shaill Slate. Like, if there are five games, I'm not missing this year,

and it's the five that she'll pick. That's how I kind of went. Like, the games I do not want to miss that are going to be high quality, fun, like the opponent. So yeah, we had different strategies. All right, I'm going to read the board before you go, Shiel.

I think we got to know what everyone has. I have, for my primetime slot, Ravens at Chief, the season opener. For my holiday spot, I have Dolphins at Packers. That's the night game on Thanksgiving. For my international spot, probably my least favorite pick and makes me want to throw up saying it out loud, Jags at Bears in London. I got Caleb Williams versus Trevor Lawrence. I hope that does something for me.

And then my regular game is just Chiefs going to San Francisco take on the 49ers, two best teams in the league. Ruiz, you have your primetime game. Cowboys at 49ers, which I just love how much you have Cowboys at 49ers is your prime time game. Giants at Cowboys is your holiday game that I think is the middle game on Thanksgiving.

So that's Prime Nap Territory though. I don't know. That's Prime Nap Territory. TV's still on. You don't have your international game yet. Then you have your streamer only is the Chief Set Steelers game on Christmas. I think that's going to be one of your better picks

because not only is it streamer only, you're also getting in an island spot on Christmas Day. TVs are on 100%. And then your regular game, probably your worst pick, but still it's the Cowboys, Eagles at Cowboys. Sheal, you have two spots left, your primetime spot and your streamer-only spot. The three games that you have picked,

Ravens at Texans, that's your holiday game. You also have for your international game, the Friday opener, Packers at Eagles in San Paolo, Brazil, and then regular game, Bills at Chiefs, probably the best pick of the draft. First overall pick, I really did like it. Um, Sheel, you're up to bat. All right.

I need primetime and streamer. Prime time, there's a lot of good stuff, uh, still on the board here. You know what? I'm going to go ahead and take, you guys are going to make fun of me for this one. I'm going to take Jets at 49ers, Monday night football week one. That's a good one. Yeah, I'm looking for it. Listen, it's week one.

So Aaron Rogers is going to be out there either maybe the Jets surprise them and all of a sudden their fan base is in a tizzy that, oh my gosh, this is actually going to work this. year or they're going to get blown out and everyone's going to be making fun of the Jets, which Jets fans are used to and sensitive about, rightfully so, for the last two decades or so. So I've got Jets at 49ers. But yeah, I'm looking at this. A lot of good prime time games still on the board. I could have gone in a number of different directions.

Are you going to bury the lead that it's Monday night football again for Aaron Rogers? And if he plays more than four snaps, it'll be like an absolute heroic fee. I mean, this is going to be, I feel like everyone's going to be dialed in for this game. Not only is it Niners, which nine. when you think about Cowboys in their ratings, Niners draw on a lot of fans too. Then you have the fact that like, if Aaron Rogers finishes the game,

the Jets season is already a win from previous year. It's going to be a, I feel like a very, very interesting game for the narratives. Because also, say Aaron Rogers does go to San Francisco and does play well, something we have not seen in a Jets uniform and beats the 49ers.

The team right now favored to win the Super Bowl, that would be good content. The team he can't beat in the playoffs in Green Bay too. Like the team has given a problem. I think that game, I think that game, I was surprised, you know, that was another pick. But I guess the Cowboys aren't in it.

So Sheel wasn't even thinking about it. Wasn't even on the sport. Wasn't even on support. Go ahead, Sheila, your next pick. Listen, maybe even the unofficial start of election season. Some might say there. All right, all right. You're done.

You're done. All right. All right. My last one here, what do I need? I need a streamer. There's some good streamers here still available. Now, it's mostly Thursday night football. I think I've got three games I'm looking at on Thursday night football.

I feel like we haven't given the Bengals much love, and that's my brand, is to give the Bengals love. So let's go Bengals at Ravens Week 10, Thursday night football. Cincinnati Baltimore, those Cincinnati Baltimore TV markets that everyone wants to get into. Listen, I don't care about the TV market. Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, keeping Al Michael's attention, you know,

is this going to be fantastic? I'm in on that. I was picking between three games, and that's the one I'm going with as my streamer. This is my last pick of the draft. You know, sometimes you take a fly. on day three. Maybe these teams are both very good. There's division stakes up there. Yeah, I was actually picking between multiple division games, Austin. So you would have made fun of me for either.

Well, I was going to, I'm good with my pick. I was going to bring up, I think Thursday night football really put their thumb on the scale to getting more division games. Week two, it's, it's Bill's at I agree. Week three, it's Patriots at Jets, four, it's Cowboys at Giants, five, bucks at Falcons, six. Niners at Seahawks. All of those games are divisional games. Then their first pivot outside of the divisional game starts in week seven with Broncos at Saints and then they go to Vikings at Rams. But they still have a lot of divisional games on the Thursday night calendar. I think that it's been so common on Twitter and I think other places as well, wherever Sheel gets his information, the election, the voting lines. I don't know. It's very common that

Thursday night football has had some duds, like consistent, consistent duds in terms of like, oh my God, who is turning on this game? If you make them all divisional games, no matter how bad they are, usually people are going to fire those up just because obviously they have higher impact. So I think an interesting strategy by Thursday night football,

Ruiz, you're up, you just have to pick your international game. There's only a handful of spots here. Are you going to Munich, Germany? Did I pick a streaming only yet? I thought you already had picked your streamer only as Chiefs at Steelers. Oh.

That being your Netflix game on Chris. You had that as Spieler over holiday. Which I do like. Which I do like. So do I need, no, I need an international, I think, right? Yeah, you need internet. I'm going to go, oh, this is a tough one. I'm going to go, uh, give me New England, Jacksonville.

I'll take, I'll, I'll bet on Drake May being good, the Patriots being decent and that being like an interesting wild card matchup for the AFC. Okay. I think that's a very good possibility. Like, I don't, why is Jags bear so much better? It's not. It's not. I mean, I think, I think, I like riding on the same thing. Drake May. I think, I think, yeah, we are kind of better. No, it is better. The Bears are a much better team than the Patriots. A much more relevant team than the Patriots this year. Yeah, Ruiz, what are you talking about? What are you talking about? But the draw is the quarterback, the rookie quarterback. And I think Drake May has a chance of being just as exciting as Caleb Williams, even though I think Caleb Williams is better player. I'm going divisional game. I'm going for my streamer only because I'm looking at the Thursday night football schedule. And I'd rather have.

an island game for my streamer when I'm thinking about ratings rather this is the game rather than some like um rather than some like ESPN plus game playing at 4 a.m from jupiter i'd want i'm definitely dialing in for thursday night football uh primetime i'm gonna go divisional game my first divisional game of the day i think yes i'm gonna go rams at 49ers in week 15 in week that what i was expecting Not what I was expecting. I could have gone. I could have gone Dallas at New York. I could have gone that to prey on Dallas Cowboys fans.

But I'm going. What do you mean, reach? It's the last pick of the draft. You know, what are you talking about? Listen, they're good. It cannot be a reach. This is a five-round draft. There's good players still available.

I mean, you Packers live. Packers at Lions. No, I'm not picking. What are you talking about? Are you looking at ratings? Packer, what are you talking about? Why do I have to care so much about ratings? Brian Curtis of the Ringer reminds us

Ratings do not affect your life. Ratings do not affect my life. They affect this draft. They affect this fairy tale draft. We just put it together. Yeah, the whole point of the game is to pick games that people are going to watch probably, right? Fantasy points don't have...

Are you just like picking your personal favorite games that you can't... Fantasy points don't affect your life? Now's where I admit that I didn't know... I didn't know ratings. We're picking these games for ratings. I mean, too... by now, I'll just come out and say it.

I was trying to be vague about it, but I had no idea. Now that I remember that one of you did say that when we were setting up the show, but as I was setting up my board, I did not remember that I was supposed to care about ratings. So I'm going to team Brian Curtis. Ratings don't affect my life. I think to finish this out. One, I don't think it's all about ratings.

I do think that's like some composite ranking or composite score of, of course ratings. Of course ratings, but then also like quality of game, team strength. And like I also baked in some like injury risk, but that kind of fell off at the end. I was like, you know what, I don't know, week 15, who knows what's going to happen? Let's just give this a shot. I'm going to read off all the teams now. And I think a good, a good finishing suiere here could be pick your favorite pick of your own draft and then your least favorite pick of your own draft. So I'm going to go with mine first.

Primetime slot. I have Ravens at Chiefs. Season opener. I would have picked that every day of the week. I love that selection. Holiday game, Dolphins at Packers, the night game on Thanksgiving.

I really wish I got one of the Christmas games if I'm being out. Those got snatched up. I really wish I got one of the Christmas games. I think those are going to do Numbies. International, I also botched it and got Jags at Bears. I hate that.

I wish I got that Friday game. The more I look at what Shields done, even though he didn't fully prioritize ratings, you did pick a really good holiday game. Howie Roseman draft. then I have streamer only Thursday night football week 15 Rams at 49ers praying on the 49ers audience in the same way that Ruiz is with the Cowboys. And in my regular game, I mean, this one's going to be fantastic. It's an October game between the two best teams in the league.

It chiefs at 49ers. My favorite pick I do think still is the opener. Getting the opener without the first pick in the draft, I think it's nice. I didn't take them until the second round. And then my least favorite pick, I shouldn't have forced international Jags at Bear. I mean, what's the difference between Jags at Bears and Patriots at Jacks? I took them way too high in the draft. I should have been looking other places.

It's honestly going to be the death of me. All right, Ruiz, for you, you have your primetime game as Cowboys at 49ers. You have your holiday game as Giants at Cowboys. Your international game is easily the worst of the slate, Patriots at Jags. And then your streamer only is the Christmas night game, Chief Sat Steelers, which is going to be hot. And then your regular game, just preying all over the Cowboys, Eagle. at Cowboys. What's your favorite pick, your least favorite pick?

My favorite pick is the Cowboys game. Just all of them. All of them together. No, my first round pick. No, actually getting Cowboys Giants on Christmas, on Thanksgiving, it's a good one. I want to sign a UDFA right away. Am I allowed to do that? Can I sign Kansas City, Las Vegas on Black Friday, standalone game, Island game? No, no, you can't just sign, what are you talking about? You can't just sign undrafted primetime games on holidays. Yeah.

What are you talking about? No, that one's already, that's a bidding war right now. Like Nora Prunciani just bought that off the bidding. Like you're not, you're not, you're not getting free island Black Friday games

between the divisional opponents with a rematch from Christmas Day last year. Come on. What are you talking about? Well, whatever. Okay, the game I hate is obvious. I hate,

I hate New England Jacksonville, of course. I'm probably not going to watch that myself. It's a game I hate. All right, Sheila, let me give you your full team here. You got primetime game, you got Jets at 49ers.

That's the week one Monday night football game. Aaron Rogers, his Achilles has the ability to do the funniest thing ever. Holiday. I have a question. I have a question about that. If he gets injured, like early in the game like he did last year, good for ratings, bad for rating. Well, last year they still won the game, right?

I would still, I would say bad for ratings, bad for ratings. I think some people are going to tune out. I think a lot of Jets fans might even tune out. He gets hurt early in this game. I think they might like eat their TV. Like it would be, it would be a very aggressive, a very aggressive end of the season. I would not. But imagine you're not watching.

Imagine you're not watching. You get a breaking news alert. Aaron Rogers hurt. You're not tuning in for the sideline shots, the update. No, you are. You are. I still think, I still think it's a net negative. It's a net negative.

And then if you expand it out to the ratings for Jets games, the rest of the season, the drip effect, it's, it's toast. It's absolutely toast. All right, Shield. Jets of 49ers, Midnight Football, revenge game. with Aaron Rogers, Achilles, holiday. Ravens at Texans, the Christmas game on Netflix, live on Netflix, international. You have the Friday, week one, Packers at Eagles in Brazil.

Streamer only, you took Bengals at Ravens, one of the Thursday Night Football games, one of the several divisional matchups, and then your regular game, probably your best pick of the draft, bills at Chiefs, that one's going to come like a freight train, everyone's going to be excited for that one, Swiftie's going to be involved, I'm going to be involved, everyone's going to be involved. So favorite pick, least favorite pick. Yeah, I do like Bill Zett. Jeez, I like the pivot.

I like going away from what the scouts told me leading up. It just, listen, say if that game is on the schedule, any season from now until those guys can't play anymore, that would probably be my first pick. So I like that. I'm looking at the prime time. You know, I took Jets at 49ers, week one. I think it's fine. I mean, there is some bust potential for that game. There are some other primetime games that are on the board.

49ers at Bills, week 13, Bengals at Cowboys, Week 14. at Ravens week four, no one took. So I think if I had that one to do over again, I might go in a different direction, but I'm okay with it. And honestly, what I was going to say, the holiday game,

I can't believe, got left out. Bears at Lions early on Thanksgiving. Like, think of all the bad Lions games we've watched. Like, that, to me is a fun game.

So I was surprised that, uh, that one. Like, I would rather that over Giants of Cowboys. But again, I did not know the rules, uh,

of the exercise. So don't listen to me. The best pick of a draft. You would not rather have that game over a giant and cowboys. Yeah, I guess, oh, you're not really thinking about ratings. Of course, I don't want to watch the Giants. Are you crazy?

I forget you don't care about the ratings. I forget you don't care about the whole point of the game. You go to a fantasy football draft. You say fantasy football points don't affect my life. I'm drafting Daniel Jones. Honestly, kind of how I do it is I just draft the players I like and then I end up losing. So yeah, this is on brand for me. You're still going to win somehow, though, because I think the best pick of the entire draft

was Packers Eagles. like just the categories it filled and it's going to do crazy ratings that it's like drafting gronk like in 2011 because you're not getting no other tight ends i do think so maybe what does this say um she'll did not know the rules but i do think he came out of this best draft i still i still feel like his draft is the best because like ravens at texas for the holiday spot jets at niners week one money night football for the prime time spot packers at eagles friday night opener the only international game that's going to do absolutely huge numbers. Streamer only Bengals at Ravens and then regular game, you get the bills at cheese.

That's good. The holiday game, Ravens at Texans Christ. It's a Howie Roseman draft. He drafts the names that we all recognize and everyone thinks it's good on draft day. He gets a, he gets an A plus with his draft grades, but in the end, the Cowboys will have, the Cowboys are better. They're better for rating. It was a better strategy.

I don't know what you're talking. Hold on. Let me text Schefter and tell them what to tweet about how great my. draft budget. Did you guys, but before we close out, I got MLF football tweet mine out. Before we close out, we obviously have the week one lines

already on Fandle. She'll, every single week, you write a piece for the ringer.com picking against the spread for every single game. I know this interests you. I know you're getting excited. I know you're looking to spend some cheddar. Maybe your daughter's college fund

on a week one line. Who knows? You know, let's get irresponsible. any lines jump out at you in terms of shock factor in terms of I need to go get my wallet. One of the lines that jumped out at me before you go, Sheel, I want you to start after me. Bears at home

favored by four and a half over the Titan. And I get that the Titans aren't good. I get that. But Caleb Williams led bears already getting four and a half points in week one, I feel that's a lot. I feel like that's a lot. The Titans maybe being a bit undervalue there for Will Levis was playing last year, right?

They did add, I mean, I don't know. I think four and a half points for a rookie quarterback and new offensive coordinator, all this stuff. I wonder, I wonder if that's too much. Or am I just like maybe not buying enough of the Caleb Williams type and not realizing how bad those Titans are? I don't know. I do look at week one lines sometimes maybe overreacting to a big draft,

overreacting obviously to adding a new quarterback. that Titans plus four and a half. It might be the worst bet I ever make, but for whatever reason, it stands out to me. Yeah, no, I usually like to go with the dogs in week one

because we spend all these months coming up with who we think's going to be good, who we think's going to be bad, and the hype. So I think that's a good one. I'm looking, this is honestly the first time I'm looking at it. I'm scrolling on Fandul right now.

The Steelers plus three at the Falcons kind of stands out to me. Mike Tomlin generally as an underdog is fantastic. You got Cousins is coming off. The Achilles in a new system. Are we sure they should be getting three points there? I wonder if that one moves before week one. So yeah, that's the one just as I was looking at it quickly.

It stood out to me. Ruiz, one line before we go. Seahawks, four and a half are giving four and a half to Denver. Mike McDonald at home, that arena against a rookie quarterback making his first start, assuming it's Bo Nix and not Jared Stidham. the Seahawks are better on paper than the Broncos are, and I think they have the home field advantage, and the matchup is just bad for them.

But looking at these games, like, there are a lot of games that I think have to win in week one. I'm putting some teams on must-win watch. Like the bills, if the bills don't win in week one, I'm done. Like, they're over. Guys, my favorite, my favorite analysis in all sports, and this applies absolutely to the NBA playoffs, because this is where it happens the most, is this a must-win game?

is this a must win game? Whoever came up with it is legitimately one of the best content entry points to any conversation you can have. Like, you'll have game one of a seven game series in the NBA and they're like, is this a must win game? And they're like, ah, it kind of is.

It kind of is a must win game. And then the next, then they'll lose, right? And then the next time they'll be like, honestly, down 01, this feels like a must win game. Or a team will be like up to O. And it'll be like the Timberwolves up to O looking to go 3O and the wolves

or the nugs. And they're like, I think this is a must win. game win game for the wolves. It's just so good. It's so good and it works every single time. I can look at NFL week one schedules and be like, I can go through the whole week one slate and make an argument that every game's the week. Like the Bengals, the Bengals don't beat the Patriots in week one. I'm giving it. It's a must win game. It is a must win game. Your favorite by eight points, you got to win that game. That's the widest spread of week one, right? Bengals are eight and a half point favorites at home over the Patriots. The other big spread that I'm actually

betting Opposide, Arizona going to buff. flow plus seven. Why do I kind of like my cards as a plus seven dog? I'm thinking about it. Of course I'm thinking about it. Of course I'm thinking about it. Guys, this has been fantastic. I know you didn't know the rule shield, but I think you won anyway. So there, there you go. It shows don't, don't show. Don't over prepare. Don't do the little note card thing when the teacher's like, you can do a three, three by five inch index card and write all that stuff. Don't do it. Show up and ball out. And you did. Ruiz, you're as good as always. I mean, I should have just sent you the Dallas Cowboys schedule. And you could have just picked from that. And it would have made it a lot

easier and everything would have been fine. Big shout out to Connor Nevins, Arjuna Ramgapal, Cliff Augustine for all the production support. This has been Austin Gales, Steve Mawesi, Rueh, NFL show. Must be 21 plus, 18 plus D.C. and present in select states. Fandwell is offering online sports wager in Kansas under an agreement

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