The Ringer NFL Show - The 2024 Wins Draft

Episode Date: August 16, 2024

Sheil, Steven, and Diante draft the teams they think will have the most regular-season wins this season. Hosts: Sheil Kapadia, Steven Ruiz, and Diante Lee Producer: Isaiah Blakely Social: Kiera Givens Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal and Conor Nevins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the fall of 2014, a group of hackers pulled off the biggest Hollywood heist of all time. They broke into computer servers belonging to Sony Pictures and released hundreds of thousands of top secret documents. The attack would cause an international incident, upbent thousands of lives, and changed the movie industry forever. From Spotify and the Ringer Podcast Network, I'm Brian Raftery, and this is the Hollywood Hack. Listen on the big picture feed, starting August 19th. Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. Shield Capati here, joined by my friends, Deonté Lee, and Stephen Ruiz. We're doing a draft.

What's a better podcast format than a draft? I feel like most NFL podcasts have to do this at some point in August. It's the wins draft. It could it be easier to explain. You pick the team that you think is going to have the most regular season wins. We're going to go one, two, three, snake order. We'll keep track of this the entire season. Deante, how are you feeling? You feeling confident you're going to win this one?

Of course not. I absolutely changed my list two or three times since we came up with the idea. I still don't know what I feel, like how I actually feel about teams like 11 through 18. So this is probably going to be a mess on my part. How about you, Ruiz? I just feel like I have like a humanly urge to draft things of late. It extends beyond the NFL podcasting realm. Like I watched like a reality show. Like I've been watching like Love is Blind.

to have a new season in England on Netflix. And I was like, hey, to my wife, I was like, hey, do you want to draft who you think is going to actually get to the altar? That's good content. That's actually good content. We did. I'm ready to drive. What's more fun?

I mean, yeah, it's the best format for any type of conversation is to just do a draft. So I can totally, totally relate to that. Yeah, I'm kind of with you, Deonté, like, I'm like, all right, I like this team. I like this team. I have, like, the bad GMs draft board. We're like, it's not nailed down. Like, I'm going to be on the. clock going, yeah, well, I don't know. And then my time might be up and then one of you might go. So yeah,

I'm the type of GM right now that I typically am making fun of during draft season. But all right, Isaiah did the random draft order before we started. Deonté got the first overall pick. I don't think there's any other rules to explain. If there is, we'll make them up as we go along. But Deontay, with the first pick in the Ringer, 2024, NFL wins draft. Who do we got? More NFC and North propaganda. I'm taking Detroit first. Oh, I'm going to take Detroit first.

I do think if you're going to make a kicks against it, and that's where I'll start. It's obviously just how competitive of a division they're in, right? But I do have a lot of faith that because of the big volume of indoor games that Jared Golf will be good throughout the year, I think that they have, we talked about this with the top 10 offensive shield, they have the right kind of infrastructure to lead the league in regular season wins. Their explosive play rate has been good. The offensive line, I think, has basically

been intact, which is something you really don't see outside of losing Jonah Jackson, right? Like, they're pretty well solid across up front from last year, the last two years and then really kind of building this thing up. And I really like what I'm hearing about James and Williams. I like what I've heard about Aaron Glenn's defense and what they've added to the defensive backfield. I think the only thing outside of the schedule that could get in their way is that they don't get much production from their pass rushers. And I'm going to go ahead and bank on them being able to cross that baseline to be a good enough defense to lead the league and win. So that's number one for me. Ruiz, you looked a little surprised by the pick. I know who you're going to take, but did

the Lions shock you there with the number one over? I was sprinting up to the stage to turn in my ticket. And I have to agree with Deonté, not on the pick, but on the fact that he was not feeling confident going in. I wouldn't feel confident if Jared golf is at the top of my list either. No, no. No, but like I'm done questioning this offense after last year. I think it was, there were valid reasons to question the sustainability of the success they found in 2022. But Ben Johnson, I think, has the answers. And he's still around. And as long as he's around, as long as they have this offense line, I think they're going to be good on offense.

I have question marks about the defense. I think any question about this team has to do with the defense and their ability to play man coverage. I've been kind of talking about this all offseason. They've been trying to bring in dudes to play man coverage for the defense. the last two or three years. It comes down to that. And it comes down to the performance of Rookings. Tarian Arnold, if he's a player from day one, I think there's a chance they win 12, 13 games. If he's not, maybe the Carlton Davis signing doesn't work out. Maybe another guy, like, you know, disappoints. I think it's going to be tough for this defense to be what they're envisioning.

I think that it's a very boom or bust build for this defense. And I could see it, you know, kind of not backfiring, but like being what it's been the last two years and not taking that leap, which I think the defense needs to take a leap but this team's going to be a championship contender this year. It's a fine pick. I just think there's a no-brainer pick. I think it's taking Drake May when Caleb Williams is on the board is how I would put it.

But maybe Drake May will end up being better than Caleb Williams. Listen, we're keeping track. Deonté might be having their Detroit, 12 and one. The one seat in the NFC, he'll be tweeting out that graphic. I've definitely got the lions in my upper tier of teams here. Like I said, I'm a bad GM, so I don't have them ordered.

perfectly. But yes, since they had that slow start two years ago and then had that rebound, 22 and 9 in their last 31 games, very good, maybe the best home team in the NFL, 12 and 3 at home in their last 15. I don't think there was anything fluky about their 12 win season last year. So I feel like even if what Ruiz says is true, and it is a good, I feel like this time of year, it's so hard when you look at rosters and you see the rookie in there and your instinct is to be like, oh, they fixed that. They drafted a guy in the first round. And then I'm like, no, shield. Half these guys are, you know, it's not going to work out at all. And especially as rookies, it's even harder.

So that's a hard thing to kind of project this time of year. But the Detroit Lions off the board, number one. All right, Ruiz. We all know who you're, well, actually, I'm like 95% sure I know who you're taking. Yeah, I'm taking the cheese. But there are two, I just said, I made the Caleb Williams comparison. That was a bad analogy because there are two Caleb Williams is in this situation, the 49ers and the cheese.

But I'm taking the Chiefs. And I've taken the cheese for reasons that, like, I don't need to break this down. I'm taking them because they have Patrick Holmes. They have Andy Reid. They have Steve Spagnolo. And I think the strides we saw with the offense and the passing game, in particular last year, late last year, and into the playoffs. I think that's going to carry over.

The Rishie Rice situation is just, I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen with that. He has eight pending felony charges out there, but it seems like he's not missing time yet. But if he plays, and he kind of continues what he did last year, where he really became like that juju-Smith Schuster replacement, that guy, that receiver that can catch tough passes over the middle on third down, which obviously has been Travis Kelsey's role, but they needed a second guy to be able to do that.

And if he's there and he continues that, I think his offense is going to be just fine. I do have concerns about the defense just because you lose Sneed and like he was so integral or like such a part of that identity, that bullying identity of the secondary that they're going to miss them in some way, but I trust Spags to overcome that. I trust Andy Reid. I don't think he, like, he doesn't give away games at all, like early on in the season.

They're always ready to play. They always talk about them having, like, a tough camp. They play their starters. Patrick Mahomes is playing, like, the whole half in week two of the preseason. They're going to be ready in September. They're going to go, like, three and one, four in one to start the season. And I think they're going to figure them, like, their problems out from there, like we saw last year. I've been saying this all off season.

I think they'll win 14, 15 games. Like, I know there are questions all over the depth chart, especially at receiver. But I look at the depth chart, and my eyes go right. to that quarterback position. And as long as he plays 12, 13 games, they're going to win, you know, a dozen games. So to me, the benefit for Stevens pick is that over four of their six division games, they get to see Aiden O'Connell and probably Bo Nix, right? So, like, if you could bank those, I do think they'll probably be positioned pretty well

to be in the top three in the wins in any ones in the NFL. And nobody, I think, with the brain is going to debate, you know, leaning on Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reed and Steve Spagnolo as that kind of brain trust or that top three for that franchise. I do want to see what this wide receiver room looks like. For all the issues that Marquez Valdez Scantling had and for how long it took before they really found a role for Rashi Rice to create kind of that intermediate area or what yards after the catch, I do look at this wide receiver room sometimes. And I'm like, so who wins on the outside that's not just going to require Patrick Mahomes to make magic? And that feels foolish to say, you know, questioning whether or not Patrick Mahomes can get the most out of these guys. But it is something that I'm looking at with this offense is if Travis Kelsey is not going to be that ISO X receiver throughout the year.

And that's something we saw last year was that they were very intentional about not putting too much of a load on his plate in terms of targets. As a nicer receiver. Right. So if that's the case, if they're going to keep them on that pitch count throughout the regular season, I do want to see what this defense looks like first before I felt good about. making them my number one pick, but they weren't in my top three. So I'm not mad at that at all. Yeah, high floor, high ceiling. I will say this about like the outside receiver thing. I agree, it's been an issue. But like the answer to that question in the, in like the last two years has been Justin Watson. So I feel like Hollywood Brown is like such an upgrade over that.

Like when you're relying on Justin Watson to win one-on-ones on the outside when they play press man, like, and that you still win the Super Bowl, I'm just done like kind of like being concerned about this team. I'll be concerned. when they're like down by 10 points in the fourth quarter in January. That's when I'll start to be concerned about them. And even then. All right. We're snaking.

The chiefs are off the board. The lions are off the board. Back to back picks. All right. It actually makes me a little bit nervous, but I have to take the 49ers here. Like all signs of a Super Bowl hangover are present in what is happening with them this summer with having 23 guys unavailable and canceling the joint practice

and the Brandon Ayuk situation. the Trent Williams contract situation. At the end of the day, I mean, they brought back their entire offense as of right now. They're 25 and 9 the last two seasons. So even if they take a little step back, it's hard for me to envision a scenario unless they just get killed with injuries, which is always possible where they're not at least a playoff team. And I think they've got that high ceiling. So I've got 49ers for one of my picks.

The second one's difficult. I'm like the GM's looking at the board. The clock's winding down. NFL network's not sure what this team's doing. They're mismanaged. You know what? I'm just going to stick to type. Give me the Green Bay Packers.

You know, I'll give you a Green Bay Packers clip out of every show we do from now until week one. Matt LaFleur wins a lot of games. He's 56 and 27 as a head coach. You know I love the quarterback. I think between the Packers and the Lions, I just, I keep going back and forth every day, which team is going to win the division,

which one do I have as the wildcar team. I think the wins at the end of the day are going to be pretty similar. They're in the NFC. I like that. So I've got 49ers and Packers as my two picks. Did I surprise you, Ruiz? Bad GM moved by you. What you should have done is taking the Packers first and save the 49ers for fourth.

So later on you'd be like, I got the 49ers with four. He's just thinking about the grade. In the Hays slot, you've got to give them a little extra money on the signing bonus. Too, bad GM moved by you. But no, like, I think that's fair. Like, I really don't hate, like, the Lions pick or the Packers pick because I feel like it's going to be either of those two that wins 12 or 13 games, and it's just a matter of which team does it.

I kind of lean towards the Packers just because they have the quarterback that I think can offer a higher ceiling than what they had last year. Like, I think there's a very good chance that Jordan Love is a lot better than he was last year, like even compared to just the second half. Whereas Jared Goff, you're probably getting Jared Goff from last year, which isn't a bad thing, obviously. they went to the NFC championship game. But it's just the competition in that division

that's kind of like keeping me away from them. I feel like you're disrespecting a team here in the AFC that should have been taken by now. And I'm very happy to take them if no one else will. I know where you're going to know with this. Yeah, we know who you love. Okay. I already got the best team from last season.

I'm getting the second best team from last season. And I could make the argument that Baltimore was actually the best team from last year. And if Zay Flowers doesn't fumble at the goal line, that Baltimore goes on and wins the Super Bowl. I get the question marks. Mike McDonald is gone. They've lost some of those like reclamation projects along the defensive line that really

helped them, like clowning. There's still question marks about the receiving court. Especially like Zayflowers looked great as a rookie, but is he a number one? He doesn't look like a number one. I don't think he plays like the number one. I think he's like a high end number two potentially. Injury concerns are still all around this team. Like Mark Andrews went down last year.

We don't know how he's going to kind of recover. Lamar Jackson has been an injury concern in the past. He has an immune system that I think has been questionable. He's sick all the time. But if they just get an average number of breaks, I think this team, their floor is 11 wins. And I think their ceiling is what we saw last year. And they're going into the playoffs.

They look like the best team in the league. I think the offense could be better than it was last year. I know that's hard to say about a team that kind of finished in like the top five. But I believe in Todd Monkin. And I believe in this partnership with him and Lamar, like you listen to them talk about one another. And it's clear that there's like trust in this partnership. And I think that just makes the whole offense better. So I'm really high on the Ravens this year.

I think they win 12 games. And I think they win that division by, you know, two games. They wrap it up by mid-December. Interesting. I'm more concerned about the things you mentioned than you are, you know, and the three new offensive linemen, the Tyler Linderbaum injury. What are you getting out of Ronnie Stanley? like that is something that I think the floor is going to be high with Lamar Jackson as your quarterback. I don't think the ceiling is going to be as higher that they're going to look like

as much of a juggernaut as they were last year. I mean, when you lose what you lost on defense and you lose the guy who many consider maybe the best defensive play caller in the NFL, I just feel like it's natural for you to take a step back. Having said that, when Lamar Jackson is on the field, I mean, their record's crazy. They're 58 and 19. They went 75% of their games when just he starts remove everything else. Greg Roman, wide receiver one, whatever you want to do, they win a lot of games. So I did consider them. They were in my upper tier, but I do have some of those concerns there that you just talked about. All right, Ravens are off the board. Deonté, what do you got? Anything on the Ravens before you make your two picks here?

I mean, the point I was going to make is that the only thing I'm concerned about with this roster, honestly, is right guard and right tackle. It's just can Daniel Follelae really like last as starter. Obviously, he's had problems his entire NFL career with training camps and practicing hard and trying to be in the right physical condition. And then that doesn't even get into evaluating his play on the field, right? And then there's Roger Rosengarten, who I like as an offensive tackle, but isn't the most powerful guy. So it is a little bit of a departure in the body types and a play style up front that I think Baltimore has been known for over Lamar Jackson's career. And that's something that we talked about with the top 10 offensive podcast. But to me,

This was, if Stephen didn't take this, I would have been laughing at all you guys, spreading out to, spread enough to turn in the card. Because when I look at like this defensive backfield when they're all healthy, and I see Kyle Hamilton, Marcus Williams, Brandon Stevens, maybe Nate Wiggins, Marlon Humphrey, you have Arthur Millett in there. Jalen Armour Davis is a bench player there. Like I, and they have Roquant Soot in the middle. I have no reason to believe that this is not going to be the number one defense in football again

with or without Mike McDonald. And then you add in Lamar Jackson and having. Derek Henry in a run game and both tight ends when they're healthy, giving them the, you know, making more things available to them in the run game and in the past game in a way that makes me not as concerned about them not having a true number one wide receiver. I'm not even a Ravens fans in that. And what you just said, Deonti just gave me chills.

Listening to talking about this team, like, if this team hits its ceiling, I think it's going to be not only like the best team in the NFL, I think it's like we're going to be talking about them as if they're maybe one of the best teams in the modern era. Like you look at DVOA last year going into the playoffs. That's the company they were in. They were like one of the top 10 teams by DVOA of all time. And that was with like, it wasn't a slow start, but I think they were like figuring themselves out on offense to start.

I think, I don't know. I really think this could be the best team in the NFL. And I get the concerns about the offensive line. I think there's a world where this offensive line is better than it was last year, like at least functionally because they couldn't run the football at times last year. Like when they had to line up, get under the football. center and run the football, not when they could use Lamar Jackson as kind of a McGuffin in the run game.

When he wasn't there, it was kind of hard to run. And I think they might have gotten worse, like, on paper and a little younger on the offensive line. But I do think they got nastier. And I think they got bigger and stronger, stronger. I think there's a chance like Andrew Voorhees was a hyped up prospect coming out of USC. And he got hurt in the office, like the draft process. And he dropped to the seventh round because of that.

Like, he could have been a day to, an early day to pick. and you're kind of putting him into the lineup, there's a chance that he plays like a day two pick. And then we're like, why are we concerned about this offensive line? It's actually pretty good. I think there's a very real possibility with that. I do like the idea of hanging the banner, DVOA champs for the team every year. FTA not even champs, like seventh best DVOA.

Yeah, anything should start doing that. All right, Deonté, what do you got? You got back-to-back picks here. So I'm going Texans here. I think this was probably the next clearest pick. at least for me in this process, I had them like number three, basically right behind. It was the chiefs, the Texans and Ravens is like my cluster of AFC teams. One of these three is going to be the one seed in this conference.

And yeah, I think, you know, everybody's wax poetic, not just us, but every other, you know, national media outlet is wax poetic about C.J. Stroud and what he might be in year two, what they've added to this offense, watching them in the preseason game against the Steelers. And it just kind of became apparent to me that this team is really. going to be able to lean on being an 11 personnel in a way that they couldn't last year, especially after Tank Dell got hurt and still be able to be explosive, right? And I'm not even concerned as much about what they're going to do with the run game because I had to remember the fact that they never had a healthy offensive line at any point last year. And that not only took

away a lot of run game stuff, but it put a lot of stress on C.J. Shroud's plate. And you can see that on third down with how much he would have to create or work through bad pockets or have to fast track his process, if they get any level of median play out of this offensive line and C.J. Strow continues to be who he's been and this wide receiver core is what we're projecting it to be, then you can make just as many arguments for them being the number one overall seat in the NFL as you could for Kansas City or for Baltimore or for either the NFC North teams. So I have no problems making this pick. And the only thing that will hold it up is whether or not I think this defense takes its next step. Yeah, they've got that ceiling. No argument here.

They're on my short list as we're getting ready to make our season predictions and what we think is going to happen and who's going to make the Super Bowl and all that. I think they've got all the elements like you mentioned. If the offensive line gets in better injury luck, love the quarterback, the past catchers are there. And then I kind of just the coach, D'Amico Ryan's like, all right, even if it's not the most talent, not even if not every player hits, I kind of trust him to do more with less or come up with specific game plans in specific spots to leave. them to victory. So yes, I am buying the Texan's hype. I think that's excellent pick here. And then you get one more. It's

snaking it back. Now, I feel like now it's getting pretty interesting here. This next cluster, I think we might disagree with each other's order through the first, what was that six picks? But I think those teams deserve to be grouped together probably. I might have one or two that

I might sneak in there also. But Deonti, I'm curious who you have now as we reach a second phase of this. Well, you made a point that I was just going to say, right? I think that now we've left the tier of teams that you should feel really comfortable leading their conferences. And now you're kind of talking about talented, but maybe flawed teams and then how much you trust like their quarterback situation. So for me, I'm really kind of caught between two, but I'm going to go a Buffalo here. And this is just trusting Josh Allen and trusting Sean McDermott with this defense.

I really consider Philadelphia here based on what I'm seeing in the preseason and what I think that offense could be. But when I just, think about the fact that Josh Allen has been able to make more with less at times, that they really kind of rebuilt this offense around, you know, protecting him on early downs and then allowing him to be himself on third down and go create. It's something that I was maybe not as comfortable with until I went back and watched the second half of the year last year. I was like, oh, yeah, that's right.

When I really wasn't watching Buffalo, Josh Allen was playing some of the best quarterback some of the best quarterbacking in the NFL. And I maybe just didn't appreciate it because I was more focused on the defensive backfield being hurt or the things that weren't happening when the run game was losing a rhythm. I think, or Stefan Diggs not getting targets the way that I expected him to. But when you watch play by play, Josh Allen was playing at such a high level. And I think that with the year of them being healthier, finally churning some of the older guys, some of the more injured guys off the roster, I do think there's an opportunity for them to be in that conversation late into December about

being one of the top two seeds in the AFC. Yeah, I was just that Bill Steelers joined practice yesterday and like just the quarterback play on one side compared to the quarterback play on the other side was quite striking and you're just like yeah like like they're doing a red zone drill and he just fires this laser to Khalil Shakir in between the two split safeties in the end zone and I'm like man I think it's one of the most interesting stories of the season is how high can Josh Allen elevate this group around him like this is going to be what we they've been such a great regular season team. They've had some bad luck.

They've had some bad moments. They haven't gotten that one season where everything falls their way. And now it's phase two. It's a reset. They've changed stuff. All the veterans we've seen in previous years, a bunch of them are gone. But it's like, how low really is their floor as long as that guy is healthy and on the field? It's not that.

I don't think it's that low. So, yeah, I like that pick, Ruiz. What do you think? I think, like, the underrated thing here is how much room Josh Allen has to grow as a quarterback. I think more so than any of the elite quarterbacks, and I would put him in that category without even thinking twice about it. I think he has the most room to grow. He is still like a silly quarterback at times who makes some dumb mistakes

and leave some layups on the field. And just based on his progress so far, like I'm assuming he's going to get better again this offseason. He's going to be an even better quarterback than he was last year. And if that's the case, this team is going to win 10 games. And I do think Sean McDermott having a fresh start on defense, Because, like, the last couple of years, it's been, like, we're trying to maintain this thing that we built with this defensive backfield. We have Trey White.

We have Poirer. We have, I'm forgetting the other guy's name, Michael Hyde. We have Matt Milano who just got hurt. I think that kind of puts a, you know, that kind of puts a dent in their chances. But I do think Sean McDermott is going to be able to design this defense as he envisions it in August and maintain it throughout the year. Whereas the last couple of years, he's kind of been playing whack-a-mole with all these injuries and trying to fill in gaps. here and there. And I think the defense at time just taking a step back because of that, especially against the good teams, I do have more confidence in this defense. And then I just,

like everything Deante said about Josh Allen, which is one of the best quarterbacks in the league, a top 10 offense starter pack on his own. Unless he gets hurt, I think there's going to be a top 10, top five offense. And that's enough to win 11 games. Yeah, the numbers for it. The same, like I, the numbers I gave out with Lamar, when Josh Allen has been healthy the last five seasons, they're 58 and 24. They win over 70% of their games. Their last 50 regular season games, they've lost by more than seven points once. They're just in every single either they're blowing teams out or when they're losing. They're in the game in the fourth quarter.

That's a pretty nice recipe right there. All right. Let's take a break. We come back. Get to Ruiz's next pick. All right, we're back on the Ringer NFL show. We're through seven picks. I'm keeping an eye on the clock.

I'm like, all right, are we actually going to be able to get through 32 before like we have to go to bed or do something else? The pace is okay. I think we'll pick up the pace once we get to some of the teams that maybe we don't care about as much. But Ruiz, what do you got? You're up with the eighth overall pick? I'm definitely trying to make this pick before you're on the clock because I know you're going to pick this team. I'm taking the Bengals. Oh, how dare you?

Yeah, yeah. If you weren't behind me, if Diate was behind me, I might have left him on the board and I could hope I might get him on the way back. But no, I'm taking the Bengals. We saw this team's floor last year. Joe Burrow was hurt for half of the season. and when he was playing, he was hurt, and he could, it wasn't Joe Burrow. It was like, it was 2020 Ben Rafflesberger, take the stab and get rid of the ball as quickly as possible.

I don't care if anyone's open or they're like if the checkdowns there, I'm just throwing it either way. And they won nine games. Jake Browning played a lot of football and they won nine games. And I think Burroughs time out, seeing how the offense operated, seeing how good it operated without him out there because they were doing more of the Sean McVeigh, Kyle Shannon, style of office, they were getting under center, they're running the ball. their run game was so diverse under center after Burrow got hurt. And that's just something they've

never had. So I think if Burroughs healthy the whole season and like he kind of runs Zach Taylor's offense, like it's designed to be run, I think his offense can be even better than it has been in the past. And then I trust Big Lou. Lou Anirumo, like last year, they had some injuries in secondary. Some guys didn't step up, some young guys who they were banking on stepping up, didn't step up. And I think there's been like a transition with their things. thinking on how they build the defense, whereas like last off season, maybe the off season before, it was like, all right, we need to get a lot of young guys because we got to pay this offense and we got to develop these young guys. Now I think it's more like, all right, we can bank

on the offense being a top five offense. Let's just get a good enough defense. It doesn't matter if they're young or cheap. It doesn't matter if they're old or like a little expensive because you sign them in free agency. Just get a good enough defense and the offense will carry us to a Super Bowl. And I think that's a much better approach to building up a championship style off our team. That hurt my feeling true. You know, I actually considered them with my fourth overall pick.

I thought about it. Do I want to blow it up this early? But then I know your Ravens guy. I thought Deontes is going to be high on the Ravens. The Bengals might cut. It's like when you're in the fantasy draft. Now this guy's more likely to be there when it comes back to me. Because I knew the other teams weren't going to be there.

Waited too long. Should have been doing love. Love is blind draft. See, I know. Yeah. I need. Listen. This is reps month, Ruiz.

August and you're right. I need to be doing more drafts in my real life. One other nugget for the Bengals, their schedule, like you mentioned, they went nine and eight with an injured borough and Browning. Their schedule was the eighth hardest in the DVOA database that goes back to 1979. And this year, they have the fourth easiest schedule in the NFL if you just go by Super Bowl odds or opposing win total. So it's a different slate. A lot is set up for them to be a successful team this season. All right, I'm up, oh my goodness, I'm looking at these teams. All right, I'm going to listen. I'll do what everybody expects me to do and go ahead and take the Eagles.

There's a boomer bust quality to this team. I've been saying it all off season. You can tell me we all know Nick Seriani's fired by December 1st. You could tell me they're playing in the NFC championship game with a chance to go to the Super Bowl. I would believe both. But at this point in the draft, I just have to look at talent. I have to look at Vic Fangio as the defensive coordinator. I have to look at the sixth easiest schedule.

in the NFL, and even for as bad as things went last year, they still won 11 games. So there you go. Eagles are going to be my one pick here. And now, all right, now I think we go to a different tier, my friends. I don't know if you guys agree or not. I could do that. Yeah, I could. You know what?

Let's go with the JETS jets, jets, jets. Let's go for the ceiling. I know the bus potential. We all know the bus potential that you, could all be laughing at me in week six when this thing looks like an absolute train wreck. There is upside here. They got the fifth easiest schedule in the NFL. They won seven games with Zach Wilson.

Come on. How bad can you be when you won seven games with Zach Wilson the year before? So I was debating between the Jets and this one other team where I'm curious where the other team will go between you guys. I don't think they'll be available for my next pick. But Eagles and Jets, I'm going for the upside. I'm taking the big swings there. Deonti, you looked especially surprised with my Jets pick.

I'm just, I can't do it. I can't get, I can't do it. I can't do it. That's the disappointed. It's August. This is when you do it. Oh my gosh. I'm not,

I'm not going to be able to get myself there. And this is, this is having said, like I'm saying this, having been on a podcast, I think my first podcast I did as an employee of the ringer was talking about top 10 defenses and expecting the Jets to still be number one unit.

in the NFL this upcoming year, right? And I don't know. I don't know if it's vibes. I don't know if it's Aaron Rogers. I don't know if it's me just looking at the pass rush depth chart with Hassan Redick not there yet and saying this is not as deep as it used to be. And some of the losses that they've had up front really kind of concerning me, I think that as far as ceilings picks go, this makes all the sense in the world.

Breeze Hall was great last year and that was not having a threat at the quarterback position for the majority of the season, right? I like what they've done up front with at least trying to patch holes, right? It just couldn't be what it was over the last two or so seasons. So I like what they've done bringing in some vets that can give them a certain baseline. Obviously, you're banking on health there because they don't have very much behind them. But I think of all those guys are available, John Simpson, Elijah Verituck and Morgan, Morgan Moses. I do think that they can keep Aaron Rogers upright long enough to really kind of lean on what I think the strength will be,

which is just finding Garrett Wilson moving him around and making him that kind of mismatch. guy to take advantage of when they're not running the ball. So there is reason to believe I'm just not, I wasn't going to do it. They were on my, my do not draft list, no matter what happened. Oh my gosh, I need a do not draft list. You can't have a do not draft list. Deontze, we got to pick all the two teams. It's red flags all over the place.

The MetLife Stadium turf had them on my do not draft list. I had a couple do not. I wasn't drafting the Eagles. I'm sorry, Big Dom has like a 1% influence on the success of this team. I'm not drafted them. Should be, I think it's much higher than one. I know, I was going to ask. Yeah, I was going to ask more than 0% and is that a problem?

When now, would you have taken the Jets here, Ruiz? Now, what is it, what is your pick? And would you have considered the Jets or, or no? Because you were clapping for, Deonté looked disappointed in me, but you were clapping for me. No, I've been trying to talk myself into the Jets all off season. I get the concerns. It's a boomer bus pick.

I actually don't think it's a boomer bus pick because the defense gives them such a high floor. But now I'm with you. I think it was a good pick. Like, I think it's a good shot to take. I think there are some teams on the board that I would have preferred, like, would have preferred. And I think a more solid bet. But I think there's a very good chance this Jets team is at least a contender to play in the AFC title game.

If everything goes right. Now, if everything goes right, if everything goes like. And there's a chance that everything goes wrong. All right. You are up with the 10th overall pick, Ruiz. Who do you got? I'm stuck between two teams. Okay.

I'm going to go with the dolphins. I'm going to go with the high end. potential, I'm going to go with the coach that I trust more than Mike McCarthy because the Cowboys with my other team. I know there are question marks. There are question marks about the offense of line, especially with what they lost and what it's been in the past. But I just think Mike McDaniel has earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to concerns about the offense. I think he's just going to find a way. He's going to find a way to make it work. Like, if you go back to that first season, the first couple weeks, when they were really trying to run like the

shannon and stuff, they were trying to get under center and run the wide zone. And and their offensive line was just getting hammered, just getting blown up. And then Mike McDaniel found an answer in like three weeks. I think that's going to happen if they have any offensive problems this year. I don't think there's a – we talk about how Shanahan puts pressure on linebackers in his scheme. I don't think any offensive play caller puts more pressure on cornerbacks and forces them to tackle and make decisions in a hurry than Mike McDaniel. And I think that's the key to playing good offensive football in the NFL today.

Make those corners tackle. The teams that do that the most are the best offenses in the NFL. I think they're going to be one of the best offenses in the NFL. I'm very interested to see where this defense goes. Because I think there was a disconnect between the talent and the coaching staff. Just look at these players' social media feeds during the offseason if you want to look into that. I think having a guy from the Mike McDonald tree, kind of the new version of the Fangio defense that was like taking the league by storm the last couple of years, I think they're going to be better on defense. Their injury luck has to be better.

it was so bad last year, especially at the end of the year and the meat of the season, the heart of the season, when I think they had their biggest games, and when they had those losses that make us question their ceiling, I think injuries played a big role in that.

And maybe they're just an injury-prone team, but I'm betting against the injury luck being bad again this year. I think they can win 11, 12 games. There you go. Dolphins go off the board at number 10. Deontes up with a back-to-back. I don't know, Deante,

say if you had your eye on the Miami Dolphins or was this one of those where you go, I hope he takes the dolphins because I got these two other teams that are better than them. Anyway, what do we got? I was hoping he took the Dolphins even though I like the pick because I had these two, well, I have these two teams tied together for similar reasons, right? Because I think they're really leaning on quarterback play and it's going to kind of determine where they land even though I see them both as playoff teams. So my back-to-back picks are going to be the Rams and the Cowboys.

I thought about the Cowboys with my Jets pick. was the other team I was debating between. And for me, the Cowboys, there's just so much that I have to see with this defense, right? No matter how much I like Mike Zimmer, and I think that like Trvon Diggs and Durand Blan will actually find a lot of success playing in this defense at corner because so much of this defense is kind of built on not asking those guys to always be on islands and always have to play one-on-one coverage. And I think that more zone coverage, more soft shells will actually kind of liberate both

those guys to do what they do best in terms of jumping routes, being aggressive. you know, trying to get ball production. So I do like it from that perspective. I just have to see the defensive interior, but that's not the sales pitch for the Cowboys, right? The sales pitch for the Cowboys is when Dak was at his best, he looked like he was going to win MVP. And if the Cowboys were able to hold it,

if the Cowboys defense were able to hold it together over the last six weeks of the year, he probably does win MVP, right? Like I think that them kind of falling off and maybe some bad turnover luck, ultimately undid that MVP campaign, but he was playing quarterback as well as anybody in the NFL going into the playoffs. before everything fell apart. And I don't have any reason to believe that he can't replicate that, right? I do think that the factors that made that possible are all still there.

I think that the offensive line from looking at, you know, what it's looked like from training camp reports and preseason and all that, it looks like that offensive line is actually going to be better served this year than I would have guessed, having lost Tyron Smith, you know, moving some pieces around them not having to move Tyler Smith to tackle and allowing him to play where he's best at. I am pretty hopeful about that. The only issue is, and we talked about this shield, is the fact that so much of it is going to be on DAC's shoulders

because Ezekiel Elliott is still this team's lead back in 2024, right? That part is probably not so sexy, but I think that having CD Lamb there, I expect that contract to get done sooner than later. And I just trust the mind meld that he has with CD Lamb, that being Deck Prescott. And then the same thing is this on the other end with the Rams, right? The Rams defense, when I look at the DevT,

chart, there's really not much to be inspired with about. But I know that this team is being built to really lean on this offense lighting it up and having been at their practices and watching the ways that they're really leaning into the gap scheme and really starting to build on some of the things they were able to do in the run game to set up the play action game and seeing Matt Stafford totally healthy again, able to navigate pockets, get the ball out, seeing Cooper Cup be healthy. It's just a reminder of like when this team wants to, they can get into the dropback passing game and be as good as anybody in the league. When Stafford's Dowled in and Cooper Cup is playing at his best

and then obviously seeing what Pooka NKua gives them as an outside receiver, they have so many pieces, I think, to beat you in multiple ways offensively that, well, I don't think they're going to be a top three team in the NFC. I think they've got an argument to be, again, one of those teams you don't want to see in a playoff environment because they can catch fire at any time. So those are my two picks. It feels like the perception of Matt Stafford has kind of just been based on

like how the league operates, like offensively. Like, you think about early in his career, he was like the big armed prospect who gets drafted first overall. And those guys kind of like fell out of favor, especially like around the time of like Jamarcus Russell. And like we started to chase quarterback prospects like Tom Brady and Payton Manning. And I think Stafford's reputation kind of went downhill.

And then he got like Jim Bob Cooter as his offensive coordinator. It was throwing like five yards. And he was like trying to become that quarterback. And then now that the league is back to like, I think defenses were able to take away those short throws. And what you really want is a quarterback that can find deep completions against like too high and those types of coverages built to take those throws away. And now we're recognizing Stafford as like a top five talent in the league,

even though he hasn't really changed too much as a player over the last 10 years. I mean, I'm saying that as a good thing. And I do think he's the type of quarterback that can elevate an offense at this point in his career. My question marks are totally about the defense with them, totally about the defense, especially with Aaron Donald being gone and what he did for them. He was such like a load-bearing player for them that I just need to see it. I need to see it. I'm all in on the Rams offense. I don't know what that defense is going to look like. Yeah, but both picks make sense. I mean, to what you're saying, the Rams have that high ceiling.

There's no doubt about it. If the defense is good enough, if they stay healthy enough on offense, you absolutely could be talking about them as a Super Bowl contender. And in the Cowboys, I've been going through this, you know, like struggle of what do I think the Cowboys are going to be? The last three seasons, only the Chiefs have won more regular season games than the Dallas Cowboys in the entire NFL. It's crazy. They're 36 and 15. More wins than the 49ers, the Eagles, any other NFC team. And I'm just like, am I letting the way they're mismanaging the roster influencing what I think they're going to be on the field too much?

Because I love Mike Zimmer. Like I think Mike Zimmer is one of the best defensive coaches in the NFL. I can't wait to watch that defense. And then you mentioned it. You still have DAC. You still have CD. Lamb, you have the same offensive scheme. Like on paper, I'm like analytical side of my brain or just like, what is Jerry doing

side of my brain? How am I going to pick how many wins this team has? But yeah, I was debating between them and the Jets with my last pick. Yeah, it's the bus meme, right? It's just like the dark side of it is thinking about Jerry Jones, the brighter side of it is I like watching Dak Prescott. And I think I'll just lean on Dag Prescott here. That's right.

There you go. All right, Ruiz. You got third pick number. 13. Who you go? Yeah. So I have I have like the the list of teams sorted by their win totals. And there's one team of the 9.5 win total that we haven't drafted yet. That's the Falcons. And I want to pick them. But there's a team at the top of the 8.5 wins category that after last week's round of preseason games, I know Shield doesn't watch preseason. I don't know if he saw Caleb Williams play. I'm taking the bears. I'm all in on. I'm telling you,

right now people are going to be furious with where I put Caleb Williams in my quarterback ranking. when they come out. They're going to hate me for this. I watch that tape. That's top 10 quarterback stuff. I'm not putting them to the top 10, by the way. So don't worry about that. But that is top 10 quarterback stuff from day one, man. That's what it looks like. That's what it looks like. I have no question marks about this offense now. And that's all I needed to see was the what was the two drives. I saw him go through his progression once. And I was like, all right, that's enough. I saw him throw the 30-yard pass rolling out to his right, not breaking stride whatsoever. Like he was, he did it on a dead sprint and threw a 30 yard laser on target with a

pass rush or chasing him. That's enough for me. I think this team is going to be very good. Hold on. Hold on. Now, I, I, I like the bears. I'm in on the bears. But did you just say two drives in a preseason game? That was all you needed to see. Yeah. Yeah. If you had never seen Patrick Mahomes before and you watched two drives of Patrick Mahomes and you were like, oh, I actually need to see more. I'm caught. I'm like, no, you don't. Like, you just need to, this isn't like a production thing. It's not like, oh, I saw him average 13 yards per dropback, which he did, by the way, 13 yards per drop back and I think he's good now.

No, when you can throw on a dead sprint 20 yards downfield, if you could do that once and it make it look easy, then I'm assuming you could do that all the time. When you could go through your progression on third and 12, the first third and 12 of your professional career and they take away your first two options and you still find a guy on time and on target past the sticks. like I think you could do that again. You could repeat it again, especially with what we saw at USC,

especially when it went well at USC, when he had good protection, when he wasn't trying to chase the game because his defense is giving up 45 points a game. He checks every box. He's a good quarterback already. I've seen enough. I'm in on, yeah, I want to be clear.

I'm in on Caleb Williams. I'm debating whether I think the Bears are going to be a playoff team this year. I just think the baseline play of quarterbacks, rookie quarterbacks in the NFL is way lower than anyone thinks. I mean, on average, if you look at the last 10 seasons, the average rookie in the NFL, and a lot of these guys are top 10, top five, first overall picks is the 26th ranked starter in the NFL. So I just feel like any conversation you have about a rookie quarterback should be based like, all right, 26 is the

average. How much above average do I think? So do you think Caleb Williams is going to have like a top three rookie quarterback season you've ever seen in your life? I think he has the talent to do it. I think he can individually play like that. There's a lot of factors that contribute to the production. But like those numbers you're talking about include Zach Wilson and Kenny Pickett and guys that I would have never drafted in the first round. Like Caleb Williams, yeah, I think they're very possible.

They probably also include guys you were high on who then sucked. That's a good point. But some of those guys like Trevor Lawrence also had like Urban Meyer coaching him. And he was like going around kicking the kicker and not knowing who Aaron Donald was. I think he has a good infrastructure. I've never seen a supporting cast this good for the top pick in the draft. I was going to say to me, the reason why I like Stevens pick really has less to do with Caleb Williams and what they've built around Caleb Williams. Like when you look at the starting lineup, outside of like the number two edge rusher and having to rely on Keenan Allen as a slot receiver,

this is a pretty complete roster for a rookie quarterback to be stepping into. They've got a lot of pieces that you're looking for. And I think that the infrastructure there is strong enough to have taken this pick, even if it were Drake May, as this team's starting quarterback as a rookie, right? Like, there's a lot of reason to like this team without just going off those two preseason drives. And to me, like, I'm with Stephen. When I saw that third and 12 and him be moved off his spot, step up, stay strong, and then drill, you know, that dig route, that crow route on third and 12 to move the sticks. I was like, okay, he's going to be just fine. There are going to be a couple of disaster games, but this defensive.

looks good. I think they'll be able to run the ball pretty well. And they have enough, enough talent across the board in terms of pass catchers to where it's not going to be Caleb Williams just leaning on DJ Moore, right? Like, whatever they get out of Roma, dudes, they only adds to this offense. If this offensive line is decent enough, I think that he'll be able to create in the way that we expect Caleb Williams to be able to create. So I think this is a safer pick. And one that I probably would have made if Stephen didn't. There was like some smaller things, plays in there where, like, it didn't really matter on the field, but you see it and you're like, God, this guy is comfortable.

This guy, like, already feels like he belongs. Like, there was, like, a rollout. It might have been the 20-yard pass. I don't know if it was, but he was, like, rolling out, and there was a defender kind of, like, chasing him. And he stuck the ball out with two hands to kind of make sure that the guy didn't come from behind and strip it. And I'm just like, that's a play that, like, a 10-year vet makes.

That's a play like Russell Wilson used to make performatively, like, when he was going to the sideline, he was stretching out. And you weren't getting the yards, Russ. but he's doing all that stuff and he did like a screen pass where it it kind of got blown up and he had to throw it like over his like left shoulder and to the side and kind of like a basketball pass

and it was right on the money. And then I watched the other rookie quarterbacks play. I see Bo Nicks like firing a screen pass right at his running back who's two yards away. I see Jaden Daniels throw one five yards over his running back's head. I see Drake May miss a lot of throws. And Caleb, Caleb's the one that looks comfortable.

He looks most like he did in college is the best way I would put it. the 1% throws, but if it was also like, hey, just play point guard here for, because we're having no line issues or something and we need to string together a nine-play drive with six yards completion. That's what really stood out from watching him, like, close in college. I've seen the highlights before I know the highlights, but man, he can just operate in repetitive accuracy over and over again. So yes, there's reason for sure to be excited about the Chicago Bears. All right, take a break. Come back, get to my back-to-back picks. All right, we're back on the Ringer NFL show.

What am I looking at here? All right, this is just, I'm usually team content. This is not team content. This is just, they're on the board. Take the Atlanta Falcon Shield. They have the easiest schedule in the NFL. Their division stinks. If you get average quarterback play, they should win a number of games.

So there you go. We don't need to have a long Atlanta Falcons conversation. I'm not going to give you three minutes on why I think they're amazing. That's one. My next one, I'm going with the Seattle Seahawks. They are my surprise team in 2024. I think this is a playoff team. It all comes down to the offensive line.

I was joking. I did like a Seattle radio thing and I was like, I covered the team in 2015 and 2016 and it was like, it all comes down to the offensive line. I'm like, how is this still happening in 2024? But if the offensive line can be a round league average between Ruiz's boy, Gino Smith, the past catching group, the excitement of the new offensive coordinator,

grub, there's enough there to me to have a pretty exciting offense. I mean, last year, their offensive line wasn't that good. And they were 12th in offensive DVOA. It's not like they sucked last year and fell apart. So that's the offense. And then defensively, I continue to look at this roster and think it's underrated. I think they've got professional players in here. I think they've got a nice mix of younger players who have shown at times that they can be really good, even if they haven't put it all together. And then vets who can come in and Mike McDonald's who can figure out a way to piece everything together. So like those Ravens team might look ugly in September as they're trying to figure it out,

but this is a team that I think is going to get better and better is going to be frisky in the second half of the season. And I think they can win 10, 10 games and potentially be a playoff team. So there you go. I've got the Seahawks as my second pick. I think that's one of the best picks so far of the draft. Maybe I would have waited around, but like I have been talking myself into them. All the stuff I've seen out of training camp, the clips with like Rick Woolen and his improvement.

and yeah, I think the offense could be like a top five offense. If everyone stays healthy in the offensive line, like you said, like you get the breaks you need and the offensive line is league average. Gino's a top 10 quarterback in my mind. This is a top 10 receiving core in my mind. I just want to see a run game. If you can give me four yards on first or second down, I think the offense takes care of itself.

And then defensively, I trusted McDonald's. Like you said, I agree. I think it's going to be like September. We're going to see some coverage bust. They're going to give us some long. touchdowns where no one's getting guarded. But then October, they're going to get a little bit better. And by November and December, we're going to be like, oh, this is a top 10 defense.

There you go. All right, Ruiz, you're up. 16th overall pick. It comes back to you. Who are you going to convince us of is going to the Super Bowl from this group? Oh, that's what I got to do? Oh, man. I was just seeing if you were paying attention as you were looking at your board.

I'm going to do the Vikings thing and let you pick in front of me. No, I'm going to go with the Colts. I'm going to pick the Colts. I'm all in on Anthony Richardson. Like, either he's going to get hurt or I think he's going to have a fringe Pro Bowl type season. I trust in Shane Steichen. I think he's one of the better play callers in the NFL. Like, I think there's a very clear, like, elite tier of play callers that I'm not putting him in just yet, but he's right below that to me.

Like, I would put him in the Ben Johnson category right now, actually. I like the draft picks. I like A.D. Mitchell. I think, like, that's exactly what they did. They needed that type of player. I don't know if he's going to be that type of player, but they needed to take a swing on like an explosive type of receiver because they haven't had that.

They thought Alec Pierce was going to be that, and that hasn't worked out at all. I think me and Nora joked last off season that, how is Alec Pierce like the X factor in the AFC South? And he kind of was. So I like the pieces. I think they're still a year away because Anthony Richardson didn't get that first rookie season to, you know, work out all his problems.

But I could see nine wins, 10 wins. I think they got close to that with Gardner Minshu. They were in week 18. They had a chance. to make the playoffs with Gardner Minchew playing most of the snaps, and he is not a quarterback when they designed that offense that they had in mind. They had in mind a mobile threat who can kind of contribute to the run game. They had to scrap that after, what, three weeks, four weeks, and kind of reshaped the offense. They were able to do that on the fly. So I trust this coaching staff.

The defense scares me a little bit, but I think it will be good enough. So nine, ten wins. That's good value at this point in the draft. Yeah, they're one of the tougher teams to project for sure, but they've got that upside with Richardson. All right, Deonte, we're officially halfway through, which is, if you listen to this going, how are you only halfway through? Yeah, we're going to pick up the pace with some of these. So Deontes got back-to-back picks here. I think we're all going to be looking at our boards in about three minutes and being like, I don't want any of these teams. You can have all of them. But Deont, there's still a few interesting ones on the board. Who do you got? See, I would take the stance that I think there's one interesting team left on the board. And

And the rest of it is a lot of like wish casting for the best here. And I would say maybe this team, I think, kind of falls in this category as well. But my first pick is Jacksonville. I'll take the Jaguars here. And it's almost like the inverse of what Stephen was talking about. Like my biggest concerns is really just like this offense and not the quarterback, but just the offensive infrastructure. Press Taylor is a play caller, what they have in the running back room, an offensive line that I don't love all that much.

But when I look at this defense and I think about Ryan Nielsen and what he can do with Trouin Walker and with Josh Allen Hines, right? That is really exciting to me. I'm really interested to see what Devin Lloyd looks like in Nielsen's defense, right, whether or not they can get him back into doing what he does best, which is just kind of being a, you know, point and click, go get the ball type of guy, you know, not putting a lot on his plate in terms of coverage. I'm really interested to see what they do with him. And then I look at the defensive backfield and I feel pretty good about it. I don't know if there's a glaring hole in it in the ways that they had been before, even if I did want them to go out and draft, you know, another defensive back to kind of

add some depth to this. When I look at Ronald Darby and Antonio Johnson, Andre Cisco, Tyson Campbell, and Darnell Savage, it's like, all right, there's enough there to have a, you know, median level, baseline level, past coverage unit, especially if Trayvon Walker takes that step forward as a pass rusher to speed quarterbacks up. And I'm really just going to bank on Trevor Lawrence being able to kind of fix some of the problems that this offense is inevitably going to have, especially on early downs. I don't know how they're going to move the ball on first and second down, besides Trevor Lawrence just solving all their problems

and who's really going to win a one-on-one coverage if Ryan Thomas Jr. has to spend more time in the slot to learn what the NFL game is like. There's definitely some questions here, but I'm banking on their ceiling being high enough to make it happen. And then my second pick is probably like very uninspired and just I'm going to take the coach. I trust more the most out of this group.

And it's the Steelers. Yeah, you're guaranteed not. eight wins, right? Eight, eight and one is the floor. The defense is stable. I like the pieces they have there. I'm not going to talk about this quarterback room at all because all of it is depressing. Watching the, watching the Steelers Texas pre-trial.

Don't drag DTR into that. Or DTR. What did he do? I watched the Steelers, Texas preseason game. And I think fields had like two fumbled snaps, a botched handoff and missed a couple guys and took some bad sacks. And it was like, oh, yeah, this is all the stuff that I try to ignore, that I try to

ignoring he was in Chicago, wanting him to get a second chance. And I don't think that any of that is leaving his game. But I do think that they have enough around him. I like this offensive line a lot. And I think that they'll be able to run the ball and just play good defense and, you know, make it the ugliest eight-win season that you could possibly see in the NFL. And that's just been such a safe bet with Mike Tomlin in this era of his coaching career in Pittsburgh that there's no reason not to believe that they can do it again. I just tip my next pick because I like, I was looking at my list and I just said DT. Yeah, I was. I thought, did he get traded and I missed something?

Or what's Roos yelling about DTR for? I was thinking about quarterback rooms and quarterback rooms we don't want to talk about. And I was looking at the Browns on my list. The team are looking at up to say they definitely qualify. That's the one. That's the quarterback room we don't want to be talking about, except for DTR. He hasn't done anything wrong. But I want to pick the Browns for obvious reason.

I think they have a floor. I'm not inspired by that quarterback room. I would make the argument that their backup quarterback might be better than their starting quarterback. The defense is good. I think they win eight, nine games. I don't think they're a Super Bowl contender, but it's an easy, simple pick.

Oh, my gosh, this is slim. The one thing I wanted to follow up there on is, is there a case that we're overreacting to the way the second half ended for the Jaguars last year? Like, are some of their issues explainable? Because I'm looking at them. They got killed by drops. We know that. They got killed by turnovers.

We know that they sucked in short yardage. Like all these things that generally don't always translate from one year to the next. and Trevor Lawrence was dealing with four different entries. I'm like, and they still won nine games. Like they weren't, you know, terrible. So, yeah, I think that was a good pick, Deonté. Like, I'm debating it. And then I step back and I'm like,

Doug Peterson's won like nine games every year except for that one Super Bowl season. So I don't know that the ceiling's high. It's the Cowboys thing, right? The thing you said about the Cowboys. Like, yeah, if you think about it, like, they're good, they're probably going to win 10, 10, 11 games. But you think about how they're built and all that. And then it kind of brings them down to the hodge.

Yeah. Yeah. No, I think. I think you can look at this depth chart without having any, any knowledge about the front office and be like, Trent Balke built that, that. Right.

Yeah. He has a type. There's no doubt about it. All right. I am up here. Oh, my goodness. All right. I'm going to go with the Los Angeles Chargers for one of my picks.

I love that you got forced into picking like all the teams you've railed against like you had to pick the Falcons and how you have to pick the Chargers. I feel it. The chargers, I don't, I only railed against the chargers when they disappointed me. I haven't been generally, yeah, I'm pro-chargers into this next era. Yeah, they did stuff to frustrate me and annoy me like everyone else when I banked on them when I shouldn't have. But yeah, that one, now I was actually quite high on the chargers before that Herbert injury. I thought they were a sneaky playoff team potentially.

They have the second easiest schedule in the NFL. They get the hardball bump offensive line. We'll see. but has a chance to be like good enough. We're not going to talk about the past catchers. Those don't, those don't matter. Just throw three guys out there and we'll figure it out. And then defensively, can you do a little more with less?

So I don't know. This is basically banking on the coach who has, what, a 700 winning percentage or whatever it is in the NFL and assuming Herbert's going to come back and be able to do enough where he looks like an above average quarterback and then crossing my fingers compared to these other teams I'm picking from. Even if this like turns into like a Jim Hardball office. offense three yards in a cloud of dust. Like three yards in a cloud of dust is a huge improvement over what they have been getting.

They'd be getting like one yard and usually an offensive line injury. Yeah, that offense, the one yard and an offensive line injury offense is not one. You want to go to. All right. Come on. What am I supposed to do here? I'm looking at these teams. Now these now we're getting to the teams for reasons that I, yes, generally will just be

crushing. The hype team. You know what the hype team is this off season. Pick them. The hipster pick. I'm not going with the hipster pick. I will leave that for you guys. No, I need to be able to later in Ringer NFL show episodes,

rip against the people picking them as the hipster pick. So I'm not going to do that. Oh, my God. I'm going to get killed. Well, this one's, is this like a higher floor one? All right, give me the Tampa Bay Bucks. I'm going to go with the Bucks. I think they're the safest team maybe of this group.

But you don't want to pick them, though. No, I didn't want to pick, Baker Mayfield. Yeah. Again, this is when you're in a fantasy draft and you're like, oh, well, this guy's still on the board. No one's picked them and then you hate yourself the rest of the season because this team screams regression to me, the turnover luck. If you look at their offense last year, stunk on early downs, great on third down. Now you have an offensive coordinator change. Is it really going to translate?

I do think Todd Bowles gives you a certain floor for your defense. Again, the division's not great. I feel terrible about it, but I'm going with the Tampa Bay box. There you go. is up with what pick is this now? 22. Oh, we're getting down to it now. Oh, my God.

You just realize what teams are left, Deontes. Did you see him? I'm not going to pick the hipster team. I'll let DeAte pick the hipster team. I'm debating between two teams that, like, I'm going to go with the Vikings. The Saints were the other team. I think the Saints have a chance at finishing second in this division. If Kirk Cousins gets hurt or like isn't what he was,

I think they have a chance of winning this division. But I'm going with the Vikings. I think we had this conversation shield a couple weeks ago. But I think Sam Darnold is fine. And I think what he can offer this year is probably going to be better than what JJ McCarthy would have been able to offer before he got hurt. I think like the veteran know-how. And that's not something you typically-

I completely disagree with this take, by the way. But we went over that. Go back and listen to the feet. We had this argument. Yeah, I just think he allows you to do more stuff just because he's been in this. he's been in this league before and he can handle more stuff he can get them in and out of the huddle. So I think the Vikings are going to be fine. I like Brian Flores.

Obviously, I think he showed last year he can make more with less. And then the offensive line is potentially good. The receiving court has the best receiver in the NFL like Kevin O'Connell. Like he earned my trust last year with everything that happened with them in the quarterback room. Eight, nine wins. No more than that. No less than that. There you go.

I don't know Deonté's official Sam Darnel take is, is Deonté with, uh, let's see him with this group, or is Deante more with me? Like, oh my gosh. I just want to be on record. Sam Darnold is not a good quarterback. You can look at my entire writing history and realize that.

All I'm saying is he'll be fine in this system. Josh Dobbs was fine in this system. The floor we've talked about with Darnel, just to reiterate, is worst starting quarterback in the NFL. So I don't know how the floor gets that much more. Ada O'Connell exists. Bonix exists.

All right, Deonti, you were shaking your head when I asked if you're in a lot. darn us. Well, my thing, I have a thing with quarterbacks, right? And like, I've gone back and forth with, like, Stephen and I have some buddies that are a little bit more forgiving with certain quarterbacks. And, like, this has actually been a conversation I've had about Trevor Lawrence, too. Like, sometimes guys are talented and the circumstances are bad. And I think we like to explain some things away at times. And in there's just sometimes where you have to, like, ground yourself in reality and be like, the play sucks right now. It doesn't mean that he sucks,

you know, persistently, you know, for the rest of his NFL career. but let's just be grounded in reality. And Donald is one of those guys. Like, yes, when he's dialed in or when you see him, avoid a sack and then rip a throw in the middle of the field, there are some things about his game where it's like there are 60% of quarterbacks in the NFL who just wouldn't even dare to try that in that situation. And that cuts in both directions, you know? When it looks good, it looks good. I do think that Kevin O'Connell will be able to get something out of him and really be able to tap into that, I think, a little bit more responsibly.

did some of his other offensive coordinators have in his career and having Justin Jefferson helps and so to Jordan Addison and T.J. Hawkinson, but no, no, I got to see it first. He's not going to be good. He's not going to be good, but I don't think he's going to tank the Vikings offense. Yeah, okay. That's fine. I'll just go far and say he may tank the Vikings. All right. Deonti, you're up next with your back-to-back fix. I'm curious. This is tough. Who are you going with? These stink. These all stank. If just for a fantasy draft, this is where you turn an auto draft on and just go, you know, play the PlayStation or read a book. Yeah.

You know, and I'm surprised. I don't know who you guys see is the hipster pick. I would have guessed the Vikings are the hipster pick. So if that's not them, I don't know what that leaves behind. He is. I will say that. No. Yeah.

Okay. So my back-to-back teams here are going to be the New York Giants and a Tennessee Titans. Oh, okay. Didn't go with the hipster pick. The hipster. I might have to take them now. You might have to take them. If not, I'm interested to see what they, I'm interested to see what that is for you guys.

For me with the Titans, well, both of these teams, right? It's like, I think that the defenses can be better. And if the defenses are better, that gives them a certain floor and baseline, where they can be like a six, seven win team at their best. And maybe the, as long as the offense isn't turning the ball over like crazy or taking set or the quarterback isn't taking sacks like crazy, they can be functional on O. But there are some real concerns here.

this could be a 7 and 10 team or a 4 and 13 team. And I think that the odds for both are probably about even because I don't trust either quarterback. But like with Tennessee, I think if they can get this running game going and obviously they've really tried to lean in a building in the trenches on the offensive side of the ball. They have Tony Pollard and Tadje Spears who are explosive types of running backs on outside zone. If that happens and you're able to protect Will Levis by having the threat of the run and being able to push the ball down the field in the play action game, that's a route for them to be. competitive in the AFC South where I feel like they're all going to be one-score games outside of like Houston which should be able to run away with this. I think the rest of the three teams are really going to be battling on a week by week basis. And then with New York,

it's like, do I really trust Brian Dable to be able to get the most out of Malik neighbors to be able to get some of Daniel Jones's bad habits back out of this offense in a way that he was not able to at all last year? I don't know. I don't know really where I stand. This is really me just picking them so that way I don't have to pick teams like the Raiders or the Saints or the Patriots, you know? So this is more just like, I just think that their depth charts are a little bit better than some of the other teams I'm judging them against. And I'm choosing to believe that the offensive play callers, Brian Callahan, with the Titans

and Brian Daibowell, with the Giants are able to protect their quarterbacks in ways that the other teams can't. My biggest hips are take right now is probably that are the, the Giants might be quasi interesting to me among this group. I don't think they're going to be great, but I wonder if it's gone like, I don't think they're going to be the worst team in the NFL. I just look at some of their premium positions. Like, all right, left tackle, great player, defensive tackle, great player, Brian Burns and Kvon Tibado. Like, you have good edges if you think, like some of their young guys, a Deonti Banks, a Malik neighbor, those guys could dictate. Is this a competitive team or is this like one of

the worst teams in the NFL? But, yeah. Yeah, I don't, I don't dislike that pick. I actually thought about them. And then I'm like, I'm just going with the bucks. I'm playing it safe here. Yeah, I don't think it's that bad of a pick. I think, like, I don't think Daniel Jones is that bad. Like, I think it's bad that they took him with the sixth pick.

I think it's bad that they paid him what they paid him. But, like, he's a useful quarterback. Two years ago, it was a competent offense. I mean, it wasn't the best offense we've ever seen, but it was a competent offense. But if you want to go full hipster on the Giants Shield, you have to be like, you know what? The biggest acquisition they made this year is defense. coordinator, Shane Bowen. That's how you be a real hipster because hipsters respect Shane Bowen. I need to name my all hipster team, don't I? Yeah, it would be, well, I think we know the team.

I think Ruiz, you and I are aligned on who the team's going to be. So we'll talk about it. And I'm going to make you pick the hipster team. And I'm going to make you pick the hipster team. Donald is the quarterback. Colby Parkinson is the tight end. I will say that. He's the tight end. That's a good. That's a good. The all hipster team. Bowen's a good defensive coordinator. Yeah, I might need to put that all together for one of our future shows. Just go every category. I'm going to go anti-Hipster team. Okay.

Like the quintessential anti-Hipster team and go with the Saints. I'm going to pick the Saints. I'm going to make you pick the Hipser team. I think there's a chance this defense is very good again. Like, it's been very good under Dennis Allen. Derek Carr is not that bad. Like, I hate watching the man play football. He's in that Kenny Pickett Rome of football players.

Like he, and the most frustrating thing about him is he, has the talent. I watched him for the quarterback reins a couple weeks ago, and I was like, this guy's pretty good. Like, he's probably a top 15 quarterback in terms of talent, but I just hate the way he approaches the game. And maybe they unlock something in him. They have the receiving court to do things. The offensive line is concerned. I don't know how this team's going to run the ball, but I like that they moved on from that Sean Peyton style of offense. I think they could play an easier style of offense, and the defense could be a top 10 unit. And I think in a bad division, that's enough to win eight games, seven games. I have a lot of team when a lot of

teams winning eight games. Yeah, you got to add these up, Ruy, this is what I do when I, like before I add to all my records and then I got to do,

you know, some column, some it's got to add up. The wins and the losses do have to add up. The Panthers, the losers are going to do that the doctors.

The Panthers are going to take care of all of us. They're going to have all the losses for all the teams. I just realized that I'm going to have the last two picks. So I'm going to be stuck with whatever two teams. This is terrible. All right. And now you have to pick the hipster team. You have to because I'm looking at the board.

I'll take the hipster team. Deonti, That was the only other team I thought it could be. And honestly, I'm in on the half hipster take there. See, I can throw on a what a plaid and mustache and drink a PBR from time to time. I don't do it every weekend, but I can do that. I can go hang with that crew from time to time. I think the offense does have a real chance with their run game with Marvin Harrison,

Trey McBride with Kyler Murray. Like when he came in last year, I think if you just look at the Murray games, they were like around 13th in offensive DVOA. and now you add Marvin Harrison to that group. Like you could see it, take a little bump up. And if your offense is around that range, you're definitely going to win some games. I don't really understand what they did with their personnel on defense after having the worst defense in the NFL last season. Now, maybe it was just, hey, we only have so many resources and we're committing them to the offense.

So that's why I'm not in on them as like a really frisky, you know, playoff wildcard team. But there are some things with the offense there that I like. I do like a Drew Petzig. So I think at this stage, the draft. I'll go ahead and take them. And then this next one, oh my goodness. All right. So we're going. There's five teams left. We got the Raiders,

Broncos, commanders, Patriots, and Panthers. I'm just going to give me a blind Sean Payton. I'm going to go with the Broncos. Listen, they just, he hasn't had a, has he had a terrible season? Like he's won seven games, I think at least, right? Every season in the NFL.

Last year, they won eight games last year. The offense was 15th in DVOA with Russell Wilson playing like Russell Wilson. So, all right, I'm not going to go any further and talk here. There's not a lot to choose from. And this is just a blind Sean Payton. At least I know the coach has been good in the past type bet. Yeah, yeah, they had Russell Wilson playing like Russell Wilson last year. This year they're going to have Bo Nix playing like Bo Nix.

And that's much worse than Russell Wilson. But I think there's a chance. There's no good picks in here, right? There's no good options. I'm going to go with the Raiders just because I think there's a chance they take the momentum from last year in the second half and that carries over. And like the defense was really good at the end there. They gave the Chiefs problems. So as much as I hate that quarterback room and I don't understand how you go into the season with that quarterback room,

I think the Raiders are going to be frisky and they're going to be in every game. And maybe they get a couple coin flips and they get a couple breaks. And they're one of those teams where we're like the fan base hates us because we're telling them that the team's not as good as the record and look at the point different. and then, you know, it all falls apart eventually. But I think that we'll get to that point. One of my favorite parts of every NFL season, if I'm being quite honest. What's more fun than that? Nothing.

Just the fan base, like, like hating you with such a passion when you're just trying to be like, no, look at this. I don't think they're going to be able to keep this up. So yeah, thank you. Now I was already like kind of excited about football season, but now you're really talking to the stuff that speaks to me there. All right, DeOte, you're up with your final two. picks. You've got Raiders. Wait, do you have two picks? Did I do my math wrong? I'm only going to have one

left. Okay, yes, that's right. So you get two here. Ruiz gets one. And then I get one. We've got Raiders, commanders, Patriots, and Panthers. So you guys are going to decide for me who's going to have the worst, the fewest wins in the NFL. All right, Deonté, what do you got? God, this is, this is nasty. All these picks are just so gross. They're so gross. I'm going to take New England. to start here. This is the safest. This is the only one that I can take here that's not just like, if they're bad, it's fine.

And I think that they have a chance to be better than what the over unders have been in terms of their win totals, right? Like the defensive line, even with losing Matt Judon, I think can be fine in terms of just like generating a certain baseline of pressure. I really like the defensive backfield. Jonathan Jones and Marcus Jones

were both really good to have for them. And that was without having Christian Gonzalez. Right. So I think that if they're able to kind of carry over a little bit of what Belichick was doing on the defensive side in terms of mixing up looks and really being creative and inventive with how they use personnel with Kyle Dugger, with Jabil Preppers, with Marte Mappu, who when he was healthy, was being used kind of like that big nickel or extra linebacker when they needed them. I think if we see that again, they've got the front to really stop the run against anybody that they play this year. And that's been, you know, the kind of sales pitch for this defense is that they were going to play very old. school in terms of tough up the middle and then try to be as versatile as possible on the back end. And they still have the ability to do that, even if they don't have a lead pass rush type.

I don't really care about what this offense is doing until Drake May is on the field. And I think that the offensive line is going to be an issue. Obviously, we've all talked about this, especially when talking about Drake May and what their plan is with trying to protect him and not put up too much scar tissue by putting him behind offensive lines that can't really keep him upright. But I'm not paying any attention to that side of the ball, no matter what. what, like, it's going to be Remandjeri Stevenson, getting 22 to 26 carries a game. The passing game is probably not going to be the greatest.

And I'm just going to look at the defense and say, hey, that's going to be probably the most competitive five and 12 team that you'll see in the NFL this year. I think, like, look, yeah, looking at this team, I would just say it reminds me of that Mack Jones rookie season. I think they can have a similar type of build, a similar type of setup where the offense just does its part. You know, we're built on the run game. We're built on, like, constraint plays, dump, like,

dump-offs into the flats, green passes, reverses. I don't think you have to put too much on Drake May's play for this to be a six-win, seven-win type of team. All right. Now, listen, I feel like I can still do math. There was a time in my life I was good at math. I did screw up the math and everything I've been saying for the last 10 minutes. There's 32 teams.

We have three people. We are not going to have the same number of picks. So now we have to make an executive decision. I think the remaining two teams just get left in the team. Justin, maybe if one of them makes the playoffs, we all have to like buy Isaiah, Blakely, our producer like dinner or something. They can just be his teams. I don't know.

Is there another way to solve or we find each of us got 10 picks and we let the remaining two blow in the win? I'm going to pick the Georgia Bulldogs to have more. I'm going with the Georgia Bulldogs. And I know they don't play in the NFL. I know they don't play in the NFL, but there's a chance that they win as many as many NFL games as some of these teams. No, I'm going to take the Panthers.

You don't have to take them. We're finished. We each have 10 teams. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I'm going to take them anyway. 10 teams. Because I never stop pounding. Okay.

You can keep pounding, but they don't count towards your official win total. So guess what? They weren't going to contribute anyway. That is interesting. So you would have taken the Panthers. So the commanders would have been the last team taken. Well, no. Well, Deonté would have had to it.

It's very confused. It's not that confusing, but you know what I'm saying. All right. So we each have 10 teams. The commanders and the Panthers don't get picked. no one gets them for their win totals. Were you guys tracking who you picked here or no? I am.

I'm trying to reorganize it now so I can see. I'm doing the same thing. We don't need. All right. Yeah. So when you get that organized, I'm going to do the same for me. So I hear I can go first. I will tell you who my 10 teams are and then you guys can do the same.

I've got the San Francisco 49ers, the Green Bay Packers, the New York Jets. Am I missing a team that I picked? I've got the This is great podcasting. Yes, season four on the podcast. The Seahawks,

the Chargers, the Bucks, the Broncos, Vikings, and Cardinals. I have no idea if that added up to 10 or not, but that's who I think I have on my 10. Do you guys have your 10 ready? I do. So I have the lions,

the Texans, the Bills, the Rams, the Cowboys. Jags, Steelers, Giants, Titans, and Patriots. I don't know if this adds up to 10, but I have the Chiefs, Ravens, Bengals, dolphins, bears, Saints, Vikings, Colts, and Browns. I don't know who I'm missing. But honestly, I don't care.

I'm good with those nine teams. I feel like I have 11. How do it? All right. Listen, we're going to do some housekeeping after the pod. We're going to figure it out. We'll put it on social media, who we actually ended up with. I blame being an old man who had to drive four and a half.

hours from Pittsburgh this morning when my routine gets messed up. I can't function. And listen, that's what aging does to you. But nevertheless, it was a fun exercise. Maybe, maybe Ruiz was supposed to pick one more team. Maybe I screwed it up. Who knows? We'll figure out who our team. The Raiders. The Raiders are my other team. Oh, there you go. So you had one. Okay. I don't know why I have an extra team. Maybe one of these teams is not actually my team. I'll figure that out. Appreciate everyone listening. Fun exercise. Appreciate Deonti Lee and Stephen Ruiz and Isaiah Blake Lee for producing additional production supervision by Connor Nevins and Arjuna, Ram Gapal. We'll talk to you next week on the Ring of NFL.