The Ringer NFL Show - The NFL Draft Story Lines That Do and Don't Matter

Episode Date: April 14, 2026

Sheil and The Ringer’s own Billy Gil shine a light on the upcoming 2026 NFL draft and talk about some of the biggest draft topics that are currently buzzing around the football media sphere. (00:59) The NFL draft story lines that do and don't matter(03:28) Fernando Mendoza buzz(25:17) Story lines that don’t matter to the average fan(30:10) Is it possible to have predraft fatigue?(33:25) Qualifications for an accurate mock draft(43:44) Overall thoughts on the NFL draft-day presentation The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Sheil KapadiaGuest: Billy GilProducer: Chris SuttonVideo Editor: Stefano SanchezProduction Supervision: Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. I'm your host, Shield Capadia. Today we're zooming out. We focused in on a bunch of prospects and mock drafts and team needs and all that stuff in the previous episodes. Today we're zooming out. What are the big picture storylines in this draft? And are they interesting?

Is this a good draft? Does this draft lack juice? We're going to talk about all that. Get into Fernando Mendoza as the number one overall pick. And of course, the perfect guest for a show like this is our friend at the ringer, Billy Gild, because you know what's going to go in a number. of different directions from Mendoza to whether you should draft a running back early to has draft content gotten out of control. We're going to get into all of that. Let's take a break.

We come back with Billy Gill. Back here on the Ringer NFL show with our friend, Billy Gill. I think you once called yourself, you know, the every man. And so that's the theme of today's show. What is the every man interested in with the 2026 NFL? We've done all the deep dives and the prospect, but like does this draft have juice? What are the storylines we should be talking about? The every man is talking about. So I think that's the theme of today's show, but we'll say. Okay.

Well, thank you for having me back. I've missed you, Sheila. It's been a little while, you know? Listen, you are. To keep track of your whereabouts, really, without social media, without Instagram reels, I would have no idea. But you pop up. I'm like, oh, there he is.

On ringer tailgate. Oh, there he is with Bill. He's talking some baseball here. There he is on this other thing. And then you've got this whole other thing where when you're not doing podcasts, you're doing all this other stuff. So I'm thrilled to have you back, even though you're on the road for Zach Lowe's live show that you're going to be attending.

You got your little knapsack and your lights and your camera and you look great. Thank you. I appreciate that. If it's hard for you to keep track, it's hard for me to keep track too. I told you in confidence earlier today. And I told Chris earlier today, when I agreed to do this last week, I was so excited. I was like, oh, wait, no, I'm not going to be in town. I need to figure out how I'm going to make this happen

because the last thing I was going to do was going to be back out of an appearance on this show. It's not going to happen. I thought, I thought, Sheel, we had this nice thing going. We were on every week, a couple times a week, and then the season ends, and it's like, boom, get out of here. I was like, whoa, we're doing deep dives. We're having all this fun.

I'm not involved. I don't know why you don't want me for the deep dives. How did your deep dives go? If we did deep dives, they went well, but I'm just trying to show. I don't want to be, you know, too, like, oh, he belongs to me. Get out of here.

Zach Lowe and Joel Anderson and Bill Simba. Get out of here. He's mine. I claimed him during the scene. So I didn't want to do that. Give you a little space. But now you're back. And I'm ready to talk draft, Billy.

So you get us started here. I know we've both got some topics here. I have some stuff. I want to get your thoughts on. You have some stuff you wanted to throw out there. Give me a draft storyline you're actually interested in. An angle you're actually interested in to get us started. Okay.

I think there's a lot of things I like to talk. about drafts we can get into later on draft prep how do you do it what do you do where do you watch who are you with all of that that's not we're going to start because we're going to be focused a little bit on the draft then we can kind of get away from it and have those conversations as they come up naturally so big storyline of the draft this number one pick fernando mendoza shield he came out last week and he said you know what i'm not going to be attending this draft i'm going to be staying home i'm going to be with my family i'm going to kind of try to have that moment with them make it more of a private situation. It's something that I feel like was a lot more common back in the day.

And then recently, we haven't really seen it all that much. There's been a handful of guys here and there that have opted to not go to the live draft. But he is the assumed number one pick. There's no indications that he won't be the number one pick. This is going to be a coronation for him, right? This might be a core memory in his life. This is what he's worked his entire life for is to be the number one pick of the draft, potentially win the Heisman trophy. And he's opting to stay home for this. And I found it kind of curious. I don't know how you experienced it,

but there's different theories being floated out there. Maybe, you know, he's kind of like more, he's not your typical guy that's like super flashy, he's going to be out there in the moment. He seems somewhat more subdued, a little nerdy, if you will. I was reading the comments sections, which is never a good place to be is the comments sections. But they were theorizing, hey, you know what?

As the season was going on last year, he started seeing his parents in the stands, his family in the stands. And one of the main focuses was his mother's battle with MS. Maybe it's a situation where the travel and all of that will be difficult on her and the family. And maybe they're trying to keep it from being one of those situations where a Tom Rinaldi type is going. And it's like, let's do, how do we fill four hours? Let's do stories on his mom and her battle and all of that. So people are theorizing maybe that's something that they're trying to avoid is kind of making that a thing

where anyone's uncomfortable in the family. Just, you know, for him, I wish, obviously it's his choice. For him, I wish he'd be there just so he'd have that moment and remember that moment forever because that's what he's worked so hard for. But he's chosen not to do that. I'm fine with it. The more I think about it. Yeah, I mean, what's the big deal, Archer?

You're going to get in a suit. You're going to go from Miami to Pittsburgh. You know, you're going to hang out there. They're going to call your name. Now you've got to tap up everybody on your walk up. You got to pretend like you like Roger Goodell. You know, he might mess up your name like you did with Marcus Mariotta back in the day. God forbid the commissioner tries to learn the pronunciations of maybe like the top five picks in the draft because that would be asking way too much.

So you get up there. And it's a lot of, like you said, it might just not fit his personality. I'm sure he has a nice home there in, you know, the South Florida area where he can, all right, I get to choose who's here. You know, it's like, all right, these are my people. These are the people who have been with me. we have our spread. They probably have a go-to place they're ordering the food from.

And we get to just hang out. I'm still going to remember this moment. I'm sure someone's going to be... Everybody has an uncle who likes to take the photos, right? You know, you had the one uncle who's like, it's not just the camera, the iPhone. It's like, oh, no, man, he got the real one with the lens. And they're taking photos.

So I'm sure he'll have that. And I say if you don't want to be there, don't be there. I think it's perfectly fine. I don't think as, you know, from our perspective, as viewers, consumers, I don't think one way or another it'll really impact our viewing of the draft. Oh, no, I mean, it doesn't impact.

Listen, it's none of my business. It doesn't impact me whatsoever, right? Yeah, like, I'll be there, I'll watch whatever. But, you know, I kind of wish for him you would have it because also, and this is probably like, something that maybe we don't want to discuss or go into too deeply, right? But what if he ends up being a little bit of a bust, you know?

and this is like then the career high is being the number one pick or is it a situation where you protect yourself from the potential busts of it all where it's like, well, I don't want to be a Jamarcus Russell where I'm there and I'm there on the stage

holding the jersey and then forever for the rest of time they show him holding the number one jersey on the stage being the number one overall pick career doesn't pan out and then you have that because let's be real you're not going to go back and show you know a video of him

in his living room with the dog and all the family around when it's like, oh, Fernando Mendoza didn't, you know, pan out for him the way that we thought Dan Orlovsky was right. He never played in any big games. It isn't a thing that, you know, we should have done. Ty Simpson was really the man all along. And they're not going to go back to show video of him in his living room. So maybe he's hedging here and he's protecting himself

from a potential embarrassing situation down the road. I just realized he gets to use his own bathroom the entire time. If for nothing else, you know, that's going to be good for him. Now, you did allude to earlier. You said he's kind of nerdy. And I've actually wanted to get your take on this for a while, the Fernando Mendoza personality, because you, you know, you're on ringer tailgate,

you're locked into college football. I basically, you know, I throw on games on Saturday, but I'm not locked in until then the playoffs. I start watching a little more closely. So, like, those on-field interviews in the playoffs or after the Big Ten, that was when I got my first exposure to like, oh, this guy's a little bit different than everyone else.

And so I feel like there's this idea of this guy's going to go to Vegas and spend the next four or five years there. And I also think there's this question of, because whenever a guy has a little different personality, like I've seen Russell Wilson Combs, I'm an outsider, but I feel like watching Mendoza, it's more about, he feels authentic to me. Like this is actually who he is.

He's not putting up a facade because he thinks, this is what I'm supposed to be like. It's like, this is who he actually is. And I think that's a big difference because I think when you're inauthentic and people feel like you're trying to be someone, you're not, that's when it becomes an issue with your teammates or with fans or with media or whoever.

He feels more authentic. So I actually am fine with him being nerdy, corny, whatever, if that's who he actually is. So are you with me on that or am I wrong? And that it's like, no, Shiel, you actually should, you know, make fun of this guy a little bit more. I like that's the direction. that you went in with the Russell Wilson comp

because Russell Wilson, God bless him, does not come off as authentic at all on a lot of these situations. It feels a bit of a put on. You wonder if behind the scenes like, oh, maybe it's not just like, gee gosh, golly, all of this stuff. Like there's a different side.

There's the danger rust that's out there, you know, that he keeps away from us when he's being Mr. Unlimited. So Fernando seems like he's just Fernando, and this is who he is. He was probably like in the robotics club in high school, growing up and he has like this whole side to him.

You know, I was thinking when I was looking at this. So let's say he goes to the Raiders. Like we all assume he's going to go to the Raiders, right? The Raiders probably have the safest quarterback room that you could have in the NFL for people being in Vegas. You have Kirk Cousins who's there, who's probably not going to be out partaking in Las Vegas very much at night. You have Fernando Mendoza,

who it seems like, especially early on, is not going to be out partaking in Las Vegas. He's going to be there in the film room. You have Aidan O'Connell who's been there a couple of years, and I don't know, he may have like a dirty dark side to him, but he looks like a state trooper with his mustache. So I feel like this is the safest possible room there. And Kirk has kind of hinted at like, yeah, I'm just kind of here to,

I mean, without saying it, he's just there to continue to cash checks, if we're going to be honest, right? Like, Kirk Cousins, his entire career, no one has been better at finding ways to cash checks and get paid than Kirk Cousins. no one's getting bigger deals for, you know, comparatively their skill level than Kirk Cousins. And I think he's fine with like, you know what? I'm going to keep signing these big number one starter checks. I'll probably be a backup here.

I know the future isn't long for me here in Las Vegas as it is. And I wonder, I guess age is playing a factor against him, right? But I wonder when Kirk says, you know what, I'm going to settle into like the backup, like clipboard quarterback. I'm going to ride this out for another like four more years, just collecting an extra couple million dollars a year to not get hit and never go on the field. Kirk Cousins, by the way, maybe not the greatest player of all time. Maybe not a Hall of Famer. Maybe a Hall of Famer.

Maybe not a Hall of Famer. No. In terms of the business of football, first ballot Hall of Famer, Kirk Cousins. Yeah, no, he's done a nice job and I think you're right. I also think like we picture Vegas. Have you been to Vegas, Billy? I went to Vegas. When was it?

Three years ago for the Super Bowl. But I stayed off of the strip. I was at the circus, so I was over by Old Vegas and Fremont Street and all that. You're like a Vegas hipster. I like that. Well, it was where my job assigned my hotel. So I was like, honestly, while I was there, I was like, I wish you were staying at the strip because I want to go.

Look, I'm not very different from Fernando Mendoza. I'm not going out there partaking in the vices of, Sin City when I'm in Las Vegas. You know, I was there. I was like, you know what? I want to go to the Venetian. I want to see like the canoe inside the hotel. I want to go see the fountains outside.

Yeah. I want to see these like typical things. There's Sigfrida Royce going on. Like I want to see that Vegas. Didn't see any of that Vegas. Yeah. The other thing is, you know, the reason I asked you is because I feel like we assume that you go to Vegas for two or three days, you might have a certain experience.

There are people living in Vegas who are not just. like engaging, I would think, in debauchery 24-7. Yeah. So I think Mendoza's going to be okay where he can find people who might not want to go out, drinking, gambling, whatever else is happening. Like he's going to be okay. There are people who live there, like raising kids there.

It's not like everybody in Vegas is there and they're just at a poker table every night. You know, so relax with that stereotyping. Here's another thing about Fernando Mendoza, Shield, before we move off from him. Yeah. He's been down in Miami and he has been spotted around town. He's already made it known I'm going to spend draft night here in Miami.

I guess he's done, you know, being up in Indiana and he's made his move back down here and he's kind of been a man about town. He has been spotted at some, you know, some locations that you have maybe some situations where you're wondering character issues. One place that he was already spotted at and I saw some paparazzi video of him that People were taking cell phone videos when him unaware that they were taking videos of him, kind of a private moment,

but sure enough, someone was there with a cell phone taking video. He was at church. So Fernando Mendoza is early back and he's going to Sunday church and he's been spotted at church. We all have different devices. So yeah.

He's been there celebrating Easter with his family or whatever. His video came out of that. Then recently he was at a Miami Heat game. They gave him a jersey with his number on the back. his name on the back. It ended up being maybe he wasn't just at the game. His little brother who is, who I guess is in like middle school or something,

wants to be a broadcaster when he grows up. So they had him there doing some stuff on the jumbo-trons who was supporting his brother. So this Fernando Mendoza, he's making it hard to find the character issues. You know what I mean? That you see and you're like, oh, I don't know,

maybe this is a little bit of a risk here at the number one pick. We have, you know, we know his talent. Maybe we have certain questions about his abilities, but let's look for the off-the-fifes. field stuff. No one's found it yet. No one's found the off the field stuff. And usually that would have happened by now. You know, we are what, 10 days away from the first round. It hasn't happened yet. Usually you get the anonymous scout saying, you know, X, Y, and Z about every single player. That has not happened yet with Mendoza. I like him. I'm

rooting for him. I feel like he seems like a nice guy. I think he's authentic. He seems like he works hard. I hope he has a good time. And the other thing, he's only, you're at the team you play for for like five months out of the season. You know, like then you go back and forth in the spring. I get that, but it's not like you have to live there. He can still go to his church there in Miami. He can still go to heat games. He's going to be okay.

So thumbs up. Would you like to potentially bring him down and be the person to reveal dirt on him? I may have a character issue in him that we can reveal if you would like. But if you don't want to, we don't have to. Yeah, well, I like how you said would I like to be that. It sounds like you're going to be that person. Well, but you are based, you know, in Miami. You have the college football connection.

So I feel like you probably are going to be in charge of this. So you need to make a judgment call. I, of course, as someone who loves content, would say yes. Here's the thing. Okay. When you turn on Netflix and you go to watch this show on Netflix, the face that appears is your face. So if this gets out and it ends impacting his draft stock one way or another,

and then it comes out and it says the ringer NFL show and you know, the Mendoza family is frantically looking to see this clip. The first face they're going to see is yours. And mine will be, while the one that's delivering the dirt, mine will probably be the forgotten one in the equation. So I'm just, I'm letting, I may have some character issue things that we can reveal here, but, but it may stick to you. So I'm giving you, I'm giving you the out.

I'm comfortable with it. I trust you. Give it to me. We're here to report the truth. So we may belong to similar circles, if you will, right? We're both down here in Miami. I don't know him. He doesn't know me.

But, you know, even big towns are small towns and you have, you know, mutual acquaintances and the like. And Fernando Mendoza went to the same school that I went to. Did he really? I didn't know. Christopher Columbus High School? Not that school. Not that school. Oh.

Oh, okay. So here's the thing. The school that I went to was a 6th through 12. So you start in like middle school, it's all boys school, 6 through 12. You start out there, 6, 7, 8, and then you do the high school 9, 10, 11, 12. Belenz Jesuit is what it's called. Okay. Ando Mendoza went to Belendezuit.

Then Fernando Mendoza went to Christopher Columbus. Now, Christopher Columbus is by some known as the, more athletically accomplished school, let's say, where maybe the other school is the more academically accomplished school. You know? So for whatever reason, and I haven't done a ton, I should have done more investigating, but what I've been told is maybe the switch was made

from one to the other because of potential playing time situation where in retrospect you look back and you're like, you had the number one pick in the NFL draft and the Heisman trophy winner. What was the coach thinking? not getting this guy enough playing time? Who on earth was he behind that he didn't get playing time?

And maybe that's why the switch was made. So that's the rumblings that I've heard is maybe that that's why it happened. But he went from one school to another. And here's another interesting fact about that. Well, on Jesuit and Christopher Columbus are rivals.

So, Sheal, this guy went, and it's potentially a situation where when the going got tough, Fernando got going and he didn't stick around and go through the adversity. And not only did he do that, possibly even betrayed, betrayed his school by going and playing for a rival. Now, I'm not saying that this should have him slide from the first pick to, you know, the 15th pick or have a Laramie Me Tunsell situation where it's like, whoa, major character issues. But his his permanent record is not unblemen.

as far as I'm concerned. And there's lots of questions here as to what exactly went on there and why he felt that it was right to leave one all-boy school and go to the rival all-boys school. So something maybe some people should look into, you know?

Is he a foxhole guy? Maybe not. Maybe not. Maybe not. Perseverance, you know, things to microwave society, you know, things don't go your way. That 60 say you're going to the next thing,

all of a sudden, so I like that. Maybe we've been pronouncing his name wrong the whole time. Maybe it's not Fernando Mendoza. It's Fernando Midoza. Wow. Fernando Midoza. Now, I just, before we go to break, just want to make sure, Billy, because I did think you made a valid point about the coach there.

You know, you're not playing, all due respect to whoever the coach is. Sure he's doing. I'm sure he's doing a fine job out there. Fantastic job. But when you're, yeah, I would think when you have the potentially the first round pick in the NFL draft. and that I hope whoever he was sitting behind was worthy, but I'm also a little concerned about you.

Now, we all know you are, you had a very prolific athletic career as a pole vault both at the high school and the collegiate level. Did you feel that you faced any of that when you were there where they were like, sorry, you're not participating in this meet yet. You got to earn your strengths. Maybe it was a culture thing at your school more so than a one-off thing with Mendoza. I didn't face those situations.

but also, you know, as a pole voter, it's kind of like no one really is paying attention to you anyways, so it was fine. But I will say this, in defense of the coach who, you know, maybe overlooked Fernando Mendoza. Yeah. A great number of coaches overlooked Fernando Mendoza. True.

I mean, he went and he played in Cal. He didn't really get many offers out of high school. Yale, I think it was. Yeah, he then goes over. And if I'm going to be honest, and this is another point of contention for me, me. You know, I had someone look into the two, four, sevens of the world and see, like, where the offers were made and all that. And then we, we had that wonderful story of, oh,

he didn't really get any offers that were made to him. And he had to go to Cal and he had to walk on and this and that. And when behold, when you do a little bit of digging there, you find out there was a school that did offer him. And that school was FIU, which was my school, which he also spurned. So it seems as though, you know, this is a nice guy, but he seems to be taking, I don't know if he's doing it intentionally or unintentionally taking these little jabs at me saying, hey, Billy, the life that you live, not good enough for me. I'm going to go this way. I'm going to go that way. I'm going to zig where you zagged. So this guy, I'm keeping an eye on this Mendoza guy because here's the thing. He went out there. He went to Cal and then again, Fernando,

me, Dosa said, you know what, Cal, thanks for the memories. I'm not going to go to Indiana. And I'm going to head over there. And in terms of like coaches overlooking his talent, If we remember, his father was a teammate of who, Mario Crystal Ball, who he then ended up playing in the national championship. And sure, Mario Cristobal went out there and he threw a lot of money at Carson Beck because that was the diamond and the rough that he thought he was going to get. But, you know, Fernando Mendoza would have liked to come home to Miami and play for Mario Cristobal, his father's teammate.

And that didn't happen because then again, another coach overlooked him. So, you know, this Fernando Mendoza might not be all that we think that he is. He's a complicated fellow here. He's not just this guy that goes to church on Easter and goes to, I don't know if you saw the videos in Indiana, he would go to these Christmas festival, like craft festivals where students were like taking things, like, oh my God, Fernando Mendoza's here.

And it's just like all like 80-year-old women who have their like gingerbread houses and stuff. Like he's just going around there. So he has this nice guy thing, but I think there's a bad boy in him somewhere, you know? So we've uncovered that, you know, you are older than him. We've uncovered that.

He saw you go to a school and then he chose to go to another school. I don't know that he was keeping, I don't know that he was keeping an eye on me. I'm just saying, I'm just saying, as an athletic great of the school and a man of media,

as you have named me, it's possible that, you know, he was somewhat familiar with me and he saw the choices that I had made and he said, you know what, I can be better than Billy. That's what I'm saying. I take offense to this somewhat.

You should, as you should, because then he gets offered from your school and he says not good enough for me. So I think what we've uncovered is there's a little rivalry brewing between our very own Billy Gill and Fernando Mendoza.

They might be in the same circles there in the Miami area. But if you are a Miami listener, you're probably going to have to choose a side pretty soon, maybe between now and the first round of the NFL draft. All right, let's take a break. What a deep.

Wow. Fernando Midoza, he says. I like that, you know? All right, let's take a break. We'll come back. We'll get to some more storylines that might or might not interest Billy Gill. All right. We're back here on the Ringer NFL show.

I do want to get to some of your other questions and storylines, Billy. But I was thinking about whether this draft has a lot of juice. Okay. And so, like, I went to the big board, you know, and there's a lot of big boards out there. You guys have covered this on Ringer Tailgate. We've got Danny Kelly's big board on the Ringer. We've got Todd McShay's big board on the Ringer. Now Joel Anderson comes out with his own big board.

And now speaking about choosing sides, Mendoza or Billy Gill, now us at the ringer. Well, which big board are we actually going by? What's the official big board? So that's something we can get to as well. But I was going through and I was like, all right, let me see. What are the big storylines here I can ask Billy Gill about? And I went through and I instead titled this portion of the pod, storylines that the average fan probably doesn't find interesting.

Oh. With the NFL draft. Because I was like, these are things, you know, when I'm in my football bubble, it's like, oh, you know. And then I was like, I actually don't know if the every man fan would care about any of these. So I'm going to give these to you and you tell me, I'll just run through all of them. And then at the end, you tell me, are any of these actually interesting? Or do you agree with me that this draft might lack some juice here?

Okay. You ready for this? I'm excited. I'm going to write this down. I got my pen here. Well, there's going to be a lie. You probably aren't going to be able to. I'm going to forget is a thing.

If I'm going to be honest with my memory is not where it used to be. Okay. All right, here are some storylines. Does it make sense to spend a high pick on a running back? That's one storyline. Of course, Jeremiah Love, Notre Dame. Some people say he's the best player in the draft. The nerds like me say you can't spend a top five pick on a running back.

What are we doing here? That's one. Is Arvell Reese from Ohio State more of a pass rusher or an off ball linebacker? Oh. I mean, I don't know. Does that have juice? We'll say. Does it make sense to spend a top five pick on a safety or a linebacker?

So you got sunny styles. You got Caleb Down. There was all these guys are awesome. College football fans agree. NFL fans agree. And then it's like, well, I don't know. Do you actually spend a top pick on one of those positions? You got that.

How scared off should teams be with Jordan Tyson's medical history? I don't even know if Billy's aware of this. Jordan Tyson, great wide receiver, but it's like he doesn't play a lot. He gets injured a lot. No, he had a lot other things. Maybe he had mono. I don't know. He had other things as well.

A kissing disease. Okay. Yeah, college, yeah. You know, listen, we were all young ones. All right. Would you take Jermad McCoy early, even though he didn't play football last year? This is the cornerback.

He got injured at the end of 2024, didn't participate in 2025, and now people are saying maybe he'll be a top 20 pick. All right, a couple more here for you. Wow. Seven offensive tackles could, go in the first round. Is that moving the needle?

Is that getting the downloads and the page views and the social media engagement? Billy will tell us in a second. And then the last one, you alluded to this one earlier. Ty Simpson. I mean, Billy, I went through the whole thing and I'm like, these are actually the most interesting things in the first round. These don't have a lot of juice. Billy's not going to find any of these interesting.

Am I right? Am I wrong? Is there something in any of those storylines that you say you're wrong, Shiel? that actually is interesting. Well, okay, so if we're going in order, I guess. You don't have to do all of them. Okay, good, good. We won't do all of them then.

No, just anything in there. The high pick on the running back, right? The running back position is interesting because at one point, the running back was very valuable. And then we went through all the years where the running back was very replaceable. And in the last two seasons or so, you had a very strong running back free agent class

like two seasons ago. and then slowly we've been seeing more like money thrown towards the running backs in free agency. But do you spend a high pick where you guarantee the money to the running back early on? Or then do you kind of try to get one at value so you don't need to be overpaying the running back? The running back has been going up and down in terms of relevance and importance to a team. And I feel like we're treading back up, right? And you could take a running back high if you feel like it's the right pick. How do you feel about the team that just goes after best available?

And then they're like, we'll figure it out after. There's no such thing. This is what GMs like to say this time of year. And it's never true. It's like if you have Patrick Mahomes and your best available as a quarterback, you're not taking the quarterback. If you have, you know, a great left tackle and right tackle and your best available as a tackle, you're not taking the tackle.

So GMs like to lie all the time about that. I feel like I've been pretty consistent with the running backs. It's like I love Jeremiah Love. Looks great. Hope he has a wonderful career if I were a GM. There's no chance I'm taking him early in the draft. So I think some of the things you said, you know, maybe we can get to a point where there's this idea,

Billy, that the offensive line and the scheme, that kind of sets the floor of whether your run game's going to be good or not. But then if you have the dynamic running back and you have those other things in place, now all of a sudden it can elevate it to even a more explosive. running game. So honestly, I feel like we've all said what we need to say about the running back stuff. You know, I don't know that anyone's changing anyone's mind at this point. No one's certainly changing my mind. I don't need to change anyone else's mind. So if that's one of the most interesting things about this draft, it's almost like, it was like last year when it was like,

man, the biggest story in the NFL is Daniel Jones. Like, does this season suck? You know? Are we possibly, and I don't, I don't mean to offend anyone. I don't want to upset you or any of the listeners, Sheel. Are we getting to a point where we may have pre-draft fatigue, where we are over covering the draft a little bit? Oh, yeah, raising my hand. Here's something that I have seen this year where I was like,

come on, which is we talked about all the big boards, the godfather of the draft, the godfather of the big board, Mel Kiper Jr. I've already started seeing this year already the stories of are people finally seeing what Mel Kuyper saw before everyone else? There's something along those lines. It's like Mel knew what this draft was going to be before anyone else knew what it could be. And it's kind of like, this is, I think, the third or fourth year in a row where we're putting out this exact same story.

Well, Mel Kiper is the guy who essentially invented the draft and draft coverage and no one believed in it as a TV product and a media product quite like Mel Kiper did. And it's like, I got it. But we still have two weeks to the draft and we did this last year and we did this the year before. I love Mel. Seems like a great guy. We've had him on different shows that I've been on over the years. Very nice. He goes out there and he has his months that he just goes out on his boats there in Maryland and he loves it, right? But kind of a quirky guy too with his like, you know, his pumpkin pie or whatever it is that he eats. But also, we're two weeks away from the draft. why are we putting out this story again?

We keep doing this every single year. Wait, what's the story? I don't know what you're talking about. Just that the draft is a big thing and Mel Kiper knew it was going to be a big thing before. That's the story. I didn't even know what you were talking about. Yeah, I'll send it to you.

Every year we haven't come out. Please don't. Someone writes a profile on Mel Kiper Jr. And it's basically he saw what the draft could become before anyone else did. And he put this focus on the draft and made it a year-long thing before anyone else. And I feel like maybe, maybe we've gone a little bit too far.

Because we still have two weeks to the draft. And to your point, there's not the huge storylines out there yet. I mean, we have kind of like some breaking news that have come out this week with Ruben Bain, that that might impact his draft stock. And there's more news to come on that front. But, you know, it's still a situation where we don't have all the information. So kind of speculating on how that's going to impact his drafts is somewhat reckless at this point with the information that we have.

But over the next two weeks, stuff is going to be coming out on different guys that may push them down the slider. Maybe now we look more at tape or someone falls in love with this one or this person, their agent is whispering sweet nothings into this GM's ears and all of a sudden they go to our rocket ship

and they're flying up people's draft charts. Here's the thing about the mock drafts. There's a 1.0, there's a 2.0, and they go up to like 7, 8, 9.0. and we know the 1.0 and the 2.0, sometimes if we're going to reveal the secrets of the audience, those are put out there knowing

we got to get to a 7.0. So like my 1.0, my 1.0 is going to be moving up and down. My 2.0 is going to be moving around because we got to get to draft A and 7.0 and if this is the same all the way through, no one's kind of coming in and checking on what our 1.0s and our 2.0s are doing.

Where's your mock draft, by the way? Why don't you have a mock draft? We did a combo mock draft on the ringer NFL show. So if you're yelling at your phone or your Apple car player or whatever, saying, you hypocrite, I just listen to you do four hours on a mock draft. And now you're saying draft content has gotten out of control or whatever it is. I understand. But I actually do tend to agree with you.

And I was trying to think about this earlier today, you know, as we prepared for the show, that there's so much out there now. You know, you mentioned Kuiper was ahead of the curve that, no, there's a huge interest in the draft. You got to televise it. You got to do all these different things with it. He was right about that. To your point, all right, we get that by now, perhaps.

But it's a little overwhelming because there's so much out there. And I do feel like there's sort of an echo chamber with a lot of it, you know, whether you're mentioning big boards or mock drafts. And I think my main issue and why I get annoyed every time around this year is that how confident everyone is. Like everyone has total amnesia about. how bad they were at it the previous year. And I don't mean like they're specifically bad at it, just that it's hard. Like it's very difficult to project this guy's going to be.

But then we get to this point in the year and like you pull up all these mock draft, all these, you know, big boards and like the biggest difference will be like, oh, someone has someone at four and someone has someone at nine. Like how does everyone agree on the top 20 prospects in the draft? That seems like it shouldn't be the case. So I was wondering this, Billy. You know, we always, we like to give advice to the young content creators out there. I feel like there needs to be more of an accountability

with this, maybe a relegation out there. Now, listen, I'm open to anyone doing it. Because, like, I get stuff wrong all the time, but I feel like at least then I can come on here, be like, oh my God, I thought Sam Darnold was going to stink. I thought the Seahawks on. And then I have to account for it or everyone's yelling at me. I think that's good.

But I feel like with the draft, that doesn't happen because you have all your takes one year, and then you might be totally wrong on a bunch of them, and then you get to the next year, and then we all just assume you're the expert. So is there a way for a young content creator out there? And they don't even have to be young. I would say anyone with free time who knows that I put together a spreadsheet.

Let's track everyone. And you say, all right, okay, we have a five-year tracker. This person said this, you know, whatever, and they nailed it with that. I feel like every draft analyst should have to have like three takes that nobody else has. There are your takes. Like you were mentioned in Orlovski earlier, at least, you know what? Go out on it. You got to go out on limb with three of them.

And then we'll track them for five or ten years. And we'll see if anyone actually knows what's. they're talking about. Your thoughts. Okay, here's my question to you in terms of tracking. Why was I yelling? I shouldn't be that fired up about this. Listen, it's draft time. I get it. Everybody is like very energized. Here's the thing about accountability and draft tracking. And I wonder where you fall on this situation. Because to your point, a lot of people are just faking it if we're going to be perfectly honest with you. You know, the McShays of the world, the Kipers of the world, they're out there. And this is their thing all year long. And they're grinding.

tape and they're doing all the stuff that they do and they're in their basements and they're, you know, neglecting their families or whatever it is that they do to spend all of this time watching all of this stuff, right? But for the most part, everyone else is like, I watched last college season. This is what makes sense to me. You know, like they're not deep diving. They're not following these kids from like, you know, second grade talking to their elementary school teachers, seeing how they were in PE class, none of that stuff, right? And I'll share, I'll share with you, And, Gilles, last year I was tasked at my previous job with hosting, the last two years, I was tasked with hosting a draft watch-along.

So while the draft is going on, I was there somewhat hosting the situation and kind of setting up here's the stories who we think might be picked by this team, that team, and you're kind of, you do the research. And it was just for the first round. So you go to the first round, to your point, you look up like the 35 guys. that it's going to be, right? Because you have everyone, like you mentioned, has the same, like, 30 guys,

just slightly, one has them at 6, one has them at 8, one has them at 4, one has them 7, right? But for the most part, it's like the same 32 guys, and then at the tail end, you'll have, like, four guys that are different. So you can get away with a first round, like, draft situation where you only really look into,

like, 36 people, maybe 40, if you're feeling crazy, right? But I'm not going to go and I'm not going to grind tape. So what do I do? I go out there. And for a month, I just start going. I listen to every episode of Todd McShay. And I go and I take my notes on Todd McShay's notes. And I go out there and I hear Kuiper and I take my notes on what Kiper said. And I go out there to Dane Brugler and I see that he's released. Bruegler, yeah. Bruegler. Yeah, it doesn't matter. Listen, the important thing

about that is just that his research is called The Beast. And if you're connected, you can get the beast not as a PDF in print. And it's like 600. pages long, right? So I go through the beast and I'm taking notes and the margins and I'm highlighting and I'm doing this, and I'm doing that. I'm making sure I know these 40 guys at the beginning of the draft so that when we get through the first round, I at least faked it enough so that you think like, wow, Billy really knows guard playing. It's like, no, I know like four guards. And I know it based on my own like combination of research that other people did. If we're going to be honest, that's what most people are doing here, right? They're going out there.

there and they're seeing what's going on and they're kind of making their informed opinions based on what's happening. But no one's really doing the deep dives except like four people out there, right? I was going to say 10. Yeah, I was like how many, like, I feel like if we just needed 10, you know, we've got Danny Kelly and Deonti Lee doing the ringer draft guide. You mentioned, McShea. I feel like we should, I should, I just name? I don't know. I don't want to just name everybody. Just name everyone at the ringer. Yeah. You know, Dane Bruegler does a fantastic job. My friend. The beast is all you care about. The name is awesome. Beast. My friend, Fran Duffy from All

City, he does a great job. We need Tyson at the Super Bowl. He does a... So we could... I could probably give you, and I probably left someone out, I apologize to one of my friends, but I don't know who it was, but I'm sure I left someone out.

All the Shields friends do a great job. You all do a great job. But I feel like we need 10, we need like 10 people. Yeah. And everyone else, like, I'm good. You know, let's just... These 10 people are really going to get into it,

and they're going to watch them, and they're going to research, and they're going to look at historical precedent, and they know what they're talking about. Let's go with. what those 10 say. And, you know, but see, but then I don't want to discourage people from doing it. If you love it, you should do it.

Just me as a content consumer, me as a consumer, I only need like the 10, is what I'm saying. I'm discouraging anyone from doing these things until you and I are out of the game. You know what I mean? I like that. We don't need these young people coming up and the whippersnappers coming up and, you know, coming and taking our job. Stay out of the game, okay? We got the 10 that are covering it already.

and those are the mama birds, and they are feeding us baby birds the information that we need to know. And then we are consuming the information and we are getting the nutrition and then we are putting our own little spin on it and putting it out to the masses. Do I then go look at like Dan Orlovsky

or Danny Kelly's list and say, you know what? They have this person. One of them has them at four, one of the has a six. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to put them right smack dab in the middle at five. That's what I'm going to do.

Well, this is the next thing I wanted to ask you about. I'm glad you brought this up. So what you're doing, and I may or may not do this too, I may or may not have a spreadsheet here to my side. Have you heard of the idea of the consensus board, Billy? Are you familiar with this or not? I like this idea. I think it can piece together based on context. You can piece it together. Yeah. Okay. So I believe Arifasan, I think he was the first person to put this together online where he said, I'm going to take every freaking big board out there. I don't care. Like, there's 300. And I'm going to make an average. And so we're going to come up with a composite ranking of whatever, the top 100, 150 players. So if one guy had someone

at four, another one had one at 11, you know, you're putting that all together. And then they kind of looked at this for a while. And it was like, is this sort of outperforming actual some NFL teams, Billy, where they're pouring all these resources, scouting and research and analytics and coaches get involved in GMs. And, you know, sometimes this doesn't happen as often anymore. But remember, like back in the day, remember that when the Patriots took Cole Strange? You remember that one? That guard. And then they asked like McVeigh, you know, McVeigh afterwards might have had a couple drinks or whatever at his press conference. He's like, they took Cole Strange. And the first, we loved him, but we were going to take him in like the third. So those.

outlier picks where all of a sudden you're just so shocked on day one that oh my gosh there's this crazy pick here those don't happen as often and teams are incorporating these consensus boards so they might have their own right here's our rankings of these players based on our scouts gym but then we're also going to use this consensus board just to get kind of capture all the information out there what do you think of that idea i i think it's been a great sort of innovation in the draft space i saw not just consensus boards, but I saw articles being written, Sheel, and I don't want to alarm you or panic you at all. I saw articles being written about how teams are incorporating AI in their draft plans now and how they're going. And like, let's say this guy decided he's not going to run the 40. Well,

we have plenty of tape and we can use AI to measure certain things and we can get a more accurate number of what is 40 time might actual be. So influencers out there, content creators out there, just know it's not just us or who are rooting against you and your future endeavors. It's also, you know, the NFL teams out there already saying, you know, we don't even need your thoughts. We're going to go to AI. The last generation of thoughts that we need are shields and Billis and Nate Tice and Danny Kelly's. Their thoughts we're fine with. Everyone after that, forget about it. We're going to AI. We're going to the robots. We don't need you anymore. How do you, can I just, let me ask you a question. Let me take a break. We'll take a break.

we come back, you asked me a question, and then I had another question for you on this same topic as someone who knows nothing about AI. I had an AI related question for you. We'll do that when we come back. All right, we're back on the ring or NFL show. All right, Billy, what was your question for me? I mean, what a tease we kept everyone listening through that. So when we're talking about grading people and how they did on the draft predictions, how much, I guess, how exact does their hit need to be? So I asked that, Meaning, let's say they hit the player at a number, but that player was taken by another team

because the team traded that pick. Or let's say you have like, I don't know, the Colts taking a wide receiver at 11 or whatever number the Colts are picking up, right? And the Colts trade down to 16 and they take the person that you thought, but it's five picks later than you predicted. Do you count that as a hit or not a hit?

So I think there's two ways, two things we're looking at a hit. One is, are you somebody who, was out here saying, I'm grinding the film or whatever. I can evaluate talent. You know, I can just look at someone and kind of the, you know, the cut of their jib. Did I use that right? I think so. Okay. I can look at the kind of tell if they're a player or not. Whatever. Whatever method you're using, you're saying I have my own rankings and this is how good I think every player is going to be. So you can do it that way and then you can compare for five years down the road where they write on better than the league average, worse than the league average or whatever.

But then the thing you're talking about, I think, is the projections of where guys are going to go, which is more of, I think, like, do you know the league? Do you have connections in the league? Is there a GM telling you, nope, I know all the media loves that guy, but we have X, Y, and Z concerns about him, and he's not going to go. So I think you have to look at it both ways to determine who we're going to relegate and take away their ability to create content. We have to be, you know, cautious and make sure we know what we're actually grading them on. But when you mentioned the AI thing, again, I know nothing about AI, but I was thinking like, if you looked at certain cliches you used on players, you know, in draft reports, like high floor,

low ceiling. Do you remember who they said that about a few years ago? I read a lot. Who's a high floor low ceiling? Jackson Smith and Jigpa, who is now like the highest paid wide receiver in the NFL. So you had that. Then you have plug and play, which I swear if you're a guard, then we just, oh, plug and play. Guard, it's not that hard. You just got to get there in the middle and push guys around.

Anyone can do that. If you can do that in college, you're fine. So you have all those. I wonder if teams took draft reports and we're like, which players did we say this about over the last 20 years and how many of those were accurate? How many of those were good players? What is the profile of a guy we said was plug and play? They could probably learn some things. I feel like doing that. There's got to be a way to do that, right? I think so. I saw a commercial. I don't remember what it was for. I think it must have been a technology company or something, right? And they were basically like showing how teams were, it seemed like a mock NFL draft situation, right? Where they had them and they had all of their

notes on their certain players and like, who is it that we're going to take or whatever? And they were like touting the use of technology and AI or whatever. And it seemed like it was just like an Excel spreadsheet that they were using where they're like, we need a guy with a great motor and a this and of that and whatever. And it basically was like taking out like the people that didn't have like the high motor classification on them, whatever. And like, this is your pick. And it's like, I feel like this is just like, and this isn't AI.

This is just like a keyword search on your notes on like a spreadsheet, right? It might work. Yeah, I guess. It's hard. The point is it's very hard. Like you were saying like the baseline, it's what, like 40% of the picks in the first round will actually be quality starters, not like all pros or Hall of Famers.

Yet at this time of year, it's just like, this guy's going to be. I'm so sure. this guy's going to be incredible. This guy's going to be incredible. And then I do find it interesting, the scout stuff, Billy. So I'm going to read you this thing I read in The Beast here. Oh, the Beast.

A Scout said this, because I want to get your take on if someone said this about you, or, you know, one of your loved ones, how would you feel? So here's what it is. Scouts say, and I'm not going to tell you the player, Tilly. Scout say his practice habits have matured, and that, quote, he is learning to love the process, end quote. When you hear that, is that a positive, a negative, a neutral? Like, what's your reaction to that?

Do you want me to read? I'll read it one more time. Scouts say his practice habits have matured and that, quote, he is learning to love the process, end quote. It's a very backhanded compliment. It seems like, it seems. It seems like it's like, you know, school's not for everyone. It's like, wait, wait, what does that mean?

Hold on a second. I don't like that. It's like, yeah, this person has potential. They were, there was a disaster years ago. But now, like, sides may be, now they can tie their shoes. Yeah. Yeah, like if you tell them to get somewhere, like they might be late,

but they will eventually get there. So that was about David Bailey, who is, you know, potentially going to be a top five pick. So even when it feels like they're not. not ripping the player and honestly, I read something like that. And now I'm like, man, I actually don't think that sounds great that he's now learning to love the process here. How do you feel about the beast and the PDF version? I'm assuming you're going through the PDF version of the beast, right?

No, I used to, but now I just go on the athletic and you don't, I, this is the first year. I just, I'm reading it as it is online. I feel like it's beautiful, actually. They didn't nice job. Yeah. So, like, a lot of these things now are put out as PDF. instead of like a hard cop because I guess it's like, why are we going to waste all of this time and effort printing out all of this stuff?

Oh, no, I don't. The only thing I print is coaching soccer, the lineup because I don't want to be looking at my phone the whole time. Wait, are you a head coach for soccer? This year for the first time. And how did that go? We're struggling, but, you know, one-oh lost last weekend, but we're going to bounce back, you know? What age group is this?

It's just an intramural. It's 11 to 14. Yeah. Okay. It's very relaxed. That's a wide range there. No practice. Yeah.

It's kind of like... No, it's like if you don't want to... If you're not really into soccer, it's like if you don't love travel and all that, but you kind of just want to play a pickup game once a week, that's what it is. So it's very low stakes here. Can I tell you something and don't take this the wrong way?

It sounds like the players that come out of this team are going to get the David Bailey assessment a couple years down the road. Like, they're starting to understand the practice and the process, but they didn't really get it at the beginning. They might say that about the coach, if we're being quite honest here. All right, Billy, any other storylines with this trip?

We went all over the place, but I'm glad we got to talk about the draft content machine. If our friends at the press box are listening, and you want to use some of those clips, you know, because I do feel like there was some media analysis in that they had Mel Kuiper Jr. on recently. Great interview there. They're allowed to use that. But are there any other draft storylines you wanted to hit on before we say goodbye? I feel like we're going to get to them, right? I think that it's not time to judge whether or not this is a good draft.

based on the stories that are out here, what, 10 days away, week and a half away. As it gets closer, I feel like they're going to present themselves. I'm kind of wondering your thoughts overall on the draft. Now that we're like what? We're like 10 years now removed, I think, from having the draft in different cities out of, you know, New York, Radio City Music Hall, whatever. It became like this touring road show. This year makes it stop at Pittsburgh, which has, I think, the 21st pick in the draft.

and they have Mike McCarthy as their head coach now, and we still don't know what's going on with their quarterback and Aaron Rogers. So while it should be like a festive celebration, it doesn't seem like Pittsburgh is all that invested in this draft and hosting. I guess people will come from cities all around to celebrate their teams. But how do you feel about like draft day, the live draft process, and what is your draft day and draft experience like?

Are you like a party guy? Are you taking notes? Are you checking off your boards and your projections? Billy I host the Ringer NFL show. So these are work days for me during the draft. Now, before that, when I was a fan, I wasn't like the biggest draft guy where I'm like, I'm going to sit here, you know, the entire time.

Remember, it used to be on Saturday and Sunday. You might be too young for that. Do you remember that? I don't know if you remember that or people have told you about that. No, I remember that it was a weekend thing, and I remember that there was like the parents of like friends of mine and stuff like that would all get together and watch all the days of the draft.

and they really wanted to see who the dolphins were going to take. Okay. It was like a two-day affair where everyone would get, just the parents would get together and like get the brats out of here. We don't have time to watch our children. We need to lock in on the draft today. They took it seriously. They did take it seriously.

That's why I'm wondering you as a man of football how you do this. No, yeah, I didn't do that back in the day when I was a fan. Now, yeah, now as I've been working in it over the years, now if you cover a team, you go to the team facility, it's usually pretty relaxed. They sometimes, Billy, don't tell anyone, they'll open up the cafeteria for you for the media. Like the only time, it's kind of fun to do that.

And then you watch the draft and then the GM or the scouts come out afterwards or they get the player on the line, you know, and you all gather around a phone and you call him. So that way I always enjoyed covering the draft. Like you said, it used to be Saturday and Sunday. And I wanted to ask you this, actually, because we're talking now about NFL games. And are they going to be on Thursday?

and are they going to experiment with Tuesday? I'm actually shocked, Billy, that they have not done this with the draft yet. And I've pitched this before, but like there's all this lead up to it. And we just talked about it. Pluses and minus is. It might be for you. It might not be for you. But the actual draft is only three days.

And is that the best way to actually do it? Like what if they started the draft every year on April 1st? Oh. And they said, we're going to do one pick a night. televised, get your bids out, everybody who wants a piece of the NFL, we're going to televise it, one pick every single day.

And so a player gets picked, we all analyze it, we start thinking about who's going to get picked second, then the second picket, then the next day. So it's the whole month of April is the NFL draft, and they just,

I don't want to say, own the month of April. We still have, you know, baseball starting and had the Masters last week. March madness. Yeah, but it's a little bit, it's, yeah, in April,

the end of it. It's just sort of like the NFL saying, let's spread this out a little bit more. You know, they can sell it like we wanted to give every prospect their own day. You know, they work really hard for this. We don't want it to be rushed. So you do that kind of thing. So you could do that or you could do just a week and you say every round is a day. So maybe it starts on Monday, Monday or maybe it's Sunday, whatever, is the first round.

See, the next day is the second round. And you do a round a day rather than squeeze everything in. to three days here. It's only a matter of time, right? I might be a grandpa or something by the time. It actually happens, but that is going to happen eventually, I feel like. Well, I was going to ask, so if it's the April plan, is the April just the first round and then, like,

you have a lightning two through seven rounds, or then how do you stagger that out? No. Okay. Every. Okay. Okay, now I see what you're saying. Okay, because then, yeah, the rounds two through seven, how would, you know, I had it gotten that far.

What if those are, like, okay, so April, like, like what is it? I guess you do 32 days so it carries over into May. Every day is one pick. And then like May 3rd or whatever it is when you would reach round two, it's rounds two through seven all on one day.

It's lightning the rest of the draft. That sounds great. I love it. You know, then all your, like you said, all your friends' parents, they all get together. This is the day. Block this off this day

because we're the real draft people and we're going to do every pick in one day. Yeah. Two through seven. Started early. Like they used to start at like 11 a.m. Start at 11 a.m.

and get going there. You can also. You can also probably skip like, I don't need to watch day 22 of the draft, you know. Like, I don't need to know who the 22nd pick is. Yeah, I'll find out after. Not a position that we're interested in. Like, not that important.

I can skip around. So it won't be that exhausting because you can kind of like check in and check out as it kind of suits you there, you know? Okay. So you're in on it. It sounds like. You know, you know, you know, Here's another thing that I was thinking.

Let's say we stick to everything being exactly as it is, right? Okay. But to your point, the NFL is always kind of about, you know, good or bad, how do we make an extra buck here or there, right? Of course. What if we get into a situation where we have the NFL draft selling the picks to networks? So you're not watching it all on ESPN or you're not watching it all on NFL network. You're watching picks 1 through 3 on Peacock this year and picks 4 through 7 are on

you know, CBS and then 8 and 9 are on Apple TV and go to Netflix for pick 11 and 12. And you really confuse everybody because it's hard enough to figure out where the games are now, but you have a draft really like, we're going to maximum make money off of this and confuse everyone. So they don't know where they're going to watch these picks. Wait, that's, but you're keeping the draft how it is now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would just have to. You just Switch channel? No, no. Back and four channels.

You have everybody involved. Like, oh my God, what are we going to do? Oh, look, here's Kay Adams talking about this. And here's, you know, boomer Osceison's talking about that. And oh, look, Shannon Sharp's back. And he's talking, you know what I mean? And just we're jumping all over the place getting people. Unless Netflix wants that, Billy, I don't want that, I think.

Right? That's how we feel about it, I think. Sure. Yeah. Whatever Netflix wants is what Netflix gets. Okay. Yeah, that's how I would feel it. But I think with my plan, you could actually do that because you're selling a night.

You know? Okay. All right. Yeah. So now you do for the, I don't want to have to change the once I start. I don't want to have to flip the channel. But if I have to go somewhere else the next day, then maybe I'm willing to do that. So the NFL could sell 32, think about that, 32 different one hour packages in the month of April. I mean, just think of how much money they could just, you know, be, I don't even know, wiping the sweat off their foreheads with $100 bills if they can't do that now. So there you go. All right, Bill. I think I got to all my stuff. Do we miss anything? Anything you wanted to get off your chest here as we are 10 days before the NFL draft? Or are you good? You're ready to go. You're locked in.

I feel like 10 days out. We're good for now. We're good. We're patiently waiting. We're not like shutting it down. We're not too excited. We're patiently waiting to see what news comes. We're not going to create the news.

I mean, we did go out there, Sheila. I was going to say you were burying Fernando Mendoza earlier. And it's kind of a shame. He seemed like such a nice guy, great family. and you're just out there, kind of spreading all of these things about him, which is unfortunate. But someone's got to do it, I guess,

and you did that earlier today. But aside from that, we're kind of just kind of taking the news as it comes and figuring it out as we get closer. Yeah, I think everybody's excited about their own teams, who's my team going to pick, like you said? But in terms of the zooming out here, I wonder what storylines will emerge between now

and that first pick in Pittsburgh. I do like the live draft. It was a way to get, basically get owners to stop complaining, because they're like you're not getting a Super Bowl, but we will give you this. And the cities were like, all right, fine, I guess we'll settle for that.

It looks cool on TV, Pitch, but he's a great football city. It'll look cool, good for them. We'll watch it. It's better than having the same venue every week, I believe. All right, there you go. That was our episode with the great Billy Gill, who will be on seven other podcasts, potentially, by the time you listen to this one,

but we're glad he carved out some time for his old buddies here. at the Ringer NFL show. Thank you to Billy. Thanks to Christopher Sutton for producing. Stefano Sanchez on video editing and additional production supervision by Connor Nevins and Arjuna. Ram Gopalal, I'm Shil Kapady. We'll talk to you next time on the Ringer NFL show.

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