The Ringer NFL Show - Time Capsule Takes For The 2023 Season

Episode Date: August 2, 2023

Nora Princiotti and Steven Ruiz return to give their bold predictions for the 2023 NFL Season and place them in their time capsule.  The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Nora Princiotti and Steven Ruiz Associate Producer: Stefan Anderson Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal and Conor Nevins Musical Elements: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Right now on the Ringer game on feet and all throughout the entire month of August, the East Coast bias boys are getting you ready to bet the NFL this season. We're going through each and every single division and revealing our favorite futures, predicting division winners, and even giving you some award winners. Do we think the Kansas City Chiefs will repeat or will they be the throne? Tune in now to find out on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Hello and welcome to the Ringer NFL show. I'm Nora Printiati.

As always, I am joined by the fabulous Stephen Ruis. Stephen, how goes it? Not great. I try to poach an egg this morning. Terrible results. It was my first time I ever tried. Terrible results. What egg poaching technique did you use?

Because there are many. I did the, I put vinegar in the water, and I did the vortex. I put the egg in, like, a ramekin and try to get, like, the lighter of the egg white out. I poured it in. It was just, it was a mess. It was a mess. I don't think my vortex was good enough. I know.

You got to try again because I'm going to be honest, Stephen. I don't know that I, I underestimated you here. I was really ready to get up on my high culinary horse and say, what did you think I did? I just poured an egg in a place. Yes, I thought you boiled some water and dumped an egg in it. So in this, in this scenario, I'm Nathaniel Hackett. You're Sean Peyton.

Well, yes, there is so much intention in everything I say. That's right. And every time I criticize someone, I am playing four-dimensional chess. This is my favorite storyline. All right, but that's not what we're here to talk about today. We're going to put some takes in a time capsule. The 2023 NFL season is fast approaching. We have thoughts.

I know you have thoughts, Stephen. We're going to get some of them out there and... revisit them after the season, see how we did. So we're each, we've each come with three bold predictions and we're going to share them with each other, share them with you all, lock them up, bury them underground, revisit them either at the end of the regular season or in February or sometime when we can see what the outcomes are.

So without further ado, Stephen, do you want to kick us off with your first? Yeah, I'll go first. And I'm a gimmick analyst. Like, if it's broke, don't fix it. I'm going to ride it. And I used this one last year. I said Trevor was going to end the year as a top 10 quarterback.

I'm going to top five quarterback this year. Trevor ends the year as a consensus elite quarterback, Trevor Lawrence. I think he has the one thing that I look for in like an elite quarterback is the ability to avoid pressure while still keeping downfield throws viable. And I think he's as good as anyone in the league at that. And you can see the physical talent whenever you watch him play. Like he can throw to his left. He can throw running to his right. He has the arm strength.

He had that one big throw against, I think it was the Cowboys in Crunch Time. He made a couple of just impressive throws down the stretch of that Chargers comeback. Here's a good stat. There are only two quarterbacks that finish in the top 10 in pressure to sack ratio and then ADDOT on pressured throws. it was Josh Allen and it was him. I think that sums up what I was just saying. And if he can just get, just get like his accuracy shorted up a little bit.

He's not an inaccurate quarterback, but when he tries to drive the ball, you can see him spray it a little bit. If he can fix that one little issue, I mean, I could see him putting up MVP numbers this year. He's that good of a quarterback. He's that good at like the little things that quarterbacks need to be good at to be elite on top of the physical stuff. So I would not be surprised if he throws like 35 touchdowns this year, 35, 40 touchdowns, especially with Ridley. All the talk out of Jaguars Camp is like he's just been the best player in camp. And I really want to see that pairing hookup this year.

I do too. Calvin Ridley, I think now dealing with a little bit of a toe injury, but apparently not seeming too significant, though that's definitely something to keep an eye on. I like this. I'm into this. It would be very fun to see Trevor Lawrence as a top five quarterback. Here's the thing.

Here's what I want to ask you about. Because I think your statistical argument is really, really, really reasonable. We know Trevor Lawrence is a great quarterback. We know that he has made strides through his time in the year so far, the league so far. And why should he not continue to progress in that way? I think the addition of Ridley is significant for that offense. I think Doug Peterson kind of getting another year and being able to implement the system is significant. The issue is just a narrative thing, right?

Because the one thing he cannot change is that he is in Jacksonville. Good thing about that is that they seem like they have a decently clear-looking path towards winning the division. But I think for Trevor Lawrence to do this, he's going to have to make a little bit of noise in the playoffs, which is not fair. Right? It's not fair to put that all on him. But I do think that's how perception of someone as a top five quarterback works. So when you envision this, when you envision us, you know, digging up our time capsule here and opening it up and you,

beaming, triumphant, because you are doing so with the knowledge that you've been proven right. What has Trevor Lawrence accomplished in the postseason? I think he wins at least one game. And I hear you as I think the gauntlet in the, the AFC, especially like the quarterback position, is so arduous, it's so daunting. But we've already seen him beat another top five

quarterback in the playoffs in Justin Herbert last year and do so in very impressive fashion. I know everyone gets hung up on the four interceptions in the first half, but like two of them were tipped and like another one was like under pressure. Like I don't think he shared much of the blame for those interceptions. But he beat Justin Herbert. And then I thought he held his own against Patrick Mahomes. Obviously, Holmes ends up getting banged up in that game

after like a crazy start. But Lawrence kept them in that game. And I thought going into Arrowhead in your first road playoff game, like that proved enough. I think like the narrative is starting to build. You have the 27 point comeback. You have him going toe to toe with the best quarterback in the NFL

in the toughest environment and keeping his team in the game. So I think that foundation is already there. If he wins another playoff game against another top five guy, like let's say they played the Bengals, or whatever and they pull an upset. I think we're having that conversation right after that game ends. So that's what he needs.

I think he needs one playoff win against another quarterback who's widely recognized as a top quarterback. And then he's, that's like the bar he has to clear. And then after that point, I think it becomes about talent and what he's actually doing on the field

rather than narrative. I think that's exactly. I think you hit it on the head. I think he has to win something against Burrow, Josh Allen or Mahomes. Or maybe Lamar, but I don't know if I just think people are too critical of Lamar and it wouldn't get him there. If we're talking about the narrative people, I agree with him.

Yeah. Like Lamar, yeah, I don't think the narrative people view him as that type of quarterback. But that's, I can totally see that happening. So maybe my tape, maybe my prediction wasn't bold enough. Maybe I should have said like MVP. Top five is pretty bold. Okay. It is. It is. You want to go MVP? I mean, go for it, Stephen.

I mean, why not? Yeah, MVP, Trevor Lawrence. Okay. Can I give you my first one? Let's hear it. I think we're going to have the first ever 2000-yard receiving season this year. You have a name? So I think, you know, Tyree Kill has said that he's going to do it. I would probably rather, rather pin this to Justin Jefferson. who had over 1800 last season.

He's, I think his receiving totals have gone up a couple hundred yards per season, like steadily since he entered the league. So he's on the path. The question would be what happens with Addison in the mix. And does that take targets? Does that take yardage away? Or conversely, does that,

open up the field a little bit. So if, if that happens, Jefferson, I think, would be the guy to do it. Although I can see, I mean, even with the amount of targets that have to go around in Miami and the uncertainty about to his health, if things really click there to have in a 5,000 passing yard season and Tyree Kill hitting hitting 2K, I think would be totally feasible. I just think it's time. I mean, we've had. plenty of receivers, not plenty, but we've had a handful of receivers who have been close, right? Like Cooper Cup had over 1900 in 2021. He got to 2000 in the postseason, but that doesn't count. It has to be the regular season. Obviously, the addition of the 17th game helps.

And then also the fact that the average pass rate, you know, for the last five years or so, it's been hovering around teams passing like 58, 59% of the time. And that's been pretty steady. So I can't say like it's going up, it's going up, it's going up as the reason that I think this is, that it's time. But if it's going anywhere, I do still think, even though we've been having conversations about maybe some reemerging value in the running game, I still think a lot of the heavy analytics folks would tell you that there is still meat on the bone there. and the conversation online about run-pass balance or lack thereof and the value of the passing game over the running game, it is always a little bit more past focused and interested in advocating for a lot of passing online than it is with the teams.

So if we're starting to come around the bend and maybe go the other way, I still think that. that in your average NFL coaching room or on your average NFL sideline, they are still inching more and more towards that and towards early down passing and all of that stuff. So you put together the fact that

there have been a fair few players who've sniffed it recently. You have the extra game. And then the fact that some of those analytics trends I think still could be in play. Someone's going to do it eventually why not this year? Yeah, I kind of, now that you mentioned his name,

I kind of like Cooper Cup to do it. There's a good chance that becomes a one-man show. And there's a good chance that the Rams are throwing it a bunch because they're losing a lot of games. So Cooper Cup apparently is also banged up now. But, I mean, it's only training camp. That is the other way to go with this, right? is like, I was thinking Jefferson because he's incredible.

And I do think, again, under O'Connell and based on what they did last year, I think the Vikings will continue to throw the ball a lot and maybe more and more. The Cooper Cup is a good one because of the game script stuff, because I agree with you. They are probably going to have to really be chucking it. And assuming he stays healthy, I'm not sure who else it's going to. So I like that one. Do you want to put like a little,

a little mini take of if a receiver hits 2,000 yards, it's Cooper Cup? You want to stick that in the capsule with mine? Yeah, let's do the Babe Ruth thing and call her shot. Let's point out to let feel. I'm going Justin Jefferson.

Okay, I'm taking Cooper Cup. I do like the Justin Jefferson pick because I think they're, like you said, there's a good chance that either he becomes like a one-man show in Minnesota, especially like at the receiver position because they do have T.J. Hawkinson, because Addison is a rookie receiver and it's always hard to rely on a rookie receiver.

Or it goes the other way and Addison is good and he just opens up, he takes away attention from Jefferson. I think it's going to be somewhere in between and that's still going to work out for Jefferson. He's going to get a bunch of targets even more than last year. So I think that's a good pick. And I think the Vikings are going to be behind. Even though they won a bunch of games, a lot of them were close. they weren't in like game scripts where they had to throw a ton except for like the comebacks against the Colts and the bills.

So I could see them being a little bit more past heavy this year, especially without Dalvin Cook in the backfield. So I really like the Jefferson pick. But I'm going with the Cooper Cup. The Rams are down by 20 in the second half every week and they're just giving Cooper Cup a hundred targets. And that's enough because he's going to average, he's going to average like 10 yards per completion in that offense.

But it's going to be enough. it's getting there is averaging, I think, 117 receiving yards per game. It's not crazy. It's almost crazier that it hasn't happened. And that's part of the reason that I like Jefferson here. He's just so consistent. And that's really what you just have to consistently put together

117 yards a game for Justin Jack. Like he'll probably have a 200-yard receiving game at some point this season. the problem is we're relying on Kirk Cousins to supply in the fastest year. I mean, and maybe that joke would have been better like four years ago, because I do think Kirk has gotten better. Yeah, I was going to quote you to you. Kirk Cousins is good now. Okay, we need to stop bringing up that quote.

I will never stop. It's going to haunt you for the rest of your life. No, I actually think, like, Kirk is probably a benefit to Justin Jefferson at this point in his career. I think they had like some chemistry issues two years ago, but it seems they've worked those out last year. Did you watch quarterback? I did. What did you think of the Kirk scenes?

I haven't finished it, but I've watched more than half of it. I'm going to keep my comments to myself. I just, when I cueed that up and the opening, if people don't know, this is the Netflix documentary that the Mannings, Omaha productions did, and at least in the first season, followed Mahomes Cousins and Marcus Marriota

over the course of the season. One of the very first scenes is just Kirk Cousins in like a one-on-one sit-down interview quoting Margaret Thatcher. I knew you were going to say that. Unironically, by the way. Completely. ironically quoting

Margaret Thatcher sincerely in a direct-to-camera sit-down interview which honestly Not wait not only did he quote her it was basically

a direct comparison to her he was like she's just like me for real does that meme which I don't disagree with I don't know what that means for my take but I'm still going for it

and it wasn't interesting there were some interesting moments where you could get, like the best, mic'd up is just the best. The thing about those sports stocks, like some of them, especially in other sports where players are a little bit more like willing to show personality, can be really,

really great. The thing with NFL ones, I feel like, is they always, they have a pretty high floor because they can just use a bunch of mic'd up stuff. And as long as it's even like somewhat interesting, I will watch every second of it.

And there was some good stuff between cousins and Jefferson, and it seemed like they'd gotten to a very good place. Although I can see how there used to be. Like, I can see how that took some figuring out because Kirk just seems like he has a lot of feedback. He does. And he gives it to himself, too. But he just, like, he just always has a comment. He's a very intense guy for someone who doesn't seem very intense, like, off the field.

like I think he gets himself worked up a little bit and I think like I've heard Will Blackman like former teammate in Washington say like that's one of the reasons he probably struggles in prime time is because he just works himself up over the course of the day and by the time it's like 8 p.m. He's just like a mess and it makes sense.

He's been stewing for 12 hours. He's just like completely going to blow. That's really funny. That's a really, really funny idea. Oh, Kirk Cousins. Very funny guy. There was also a funny he had a quote about Jimmy Garoppolo in there somewhere

where he was talking about like, I don't know, I mean, the guy just, he just wins a lot of games and consistently puts up stats and he kind of got really into it and kept going. And I was like, Kirk, did you say Jimmy Garapolo, but what you really meant to say was Kirk Cousins?

I think all those guys, they should start a union. I wonder if they've ever had like a Zoom call, like the running backs, It's like the Kyle Shanahan McVeigh quarterbacks. The play action quarterbacks just have a meeting. And it's like about me disparaging them all the time. They just have like a dartboard with your face on it up in their little clubhouse. I love it.

All right. People can go watch quarterback. It's enough quarterback talk. We have some more takes, but we're going to take a quick break and hear from some lovely advertisers first. It's the Ringer NFL show presented by Fandul. The NFL season is right around the corner and there is no better place to get in on the action than with Fandul, America's number one sports book. There are a ton of NFL futures markets from player props to team markets and Fandul has exclusive offers, boosts and more all month long for the MLB, golf tennis, UFC, and NFL. When you win, you'll get paid fast.

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All right, we're back. Stephen. Next one. Okay, you said enough about the play-action quarterbacks, but that's exactly where I'm going. My next prediction is that someone other than Brock Purdy will start and win a playoff game from the 49ers. Okay, wait. I said enough about the Netflix series quarterback, and I have to make that clear because if I had meant it the other way, I would be incredibly hypocritical. Because since this is yours, I will just share my next one with you, and we can tie them in a bow and put them in the capsule together,

which is that Sam Darnold is going to win at least one start. Okay, that's where I'm going with because I'm Sam Darnold's my pick. Keep going. Okay. Lay out the logic. So there was a stretch. There was like a month stretch in Carolina. I know you remember this when like the Panthers were like three and oh and everyone's like,

whoa, Sam Darnold, they figured it like they fixed them. He's, he's left the Jets. He's left Adam Gaze and he's figured it out. And like the only thing their offense was doing was. We all did. trust me. I'm a Panthers fan. The Panthers fans were talking themselves in Sam Darnold. But the only thing the offense was doing was running Christian McCaffrey option routes where he just had to stare at Christian McCaffrey and like throw to him when he got open. And then like play action boots. That's the entire 49ers offense. And like that's the best we've ever seen of Sam Darnold. So I think if you put him in this offense, if he gets an opportunity, I really think he's going to thrive in it. And my argument for him taking over for Perkins,

is that I think he's just the more talented version of Brock Purdy. Like the problem with Sam Darnold has been, he's a little too willing to compete. He's not scared to compete. He's a little too anxious to compete. And that gets them into trouble. But I think that's how you describe Brock Purdy. And I think when you put Sam Darnold in the structure of a Shannon in offense,

which really, I think, limits a quarterback's ability to improvise unless he gives them the leeway to do so, which I think he's more open to do after seeing what Brock Pardy did. last year. But I think that's going to rain him in a bit and we're going to see the best of Sam Darnold. There is like talent in there. So if he gets a chance, I think he's going to do well. And like, I think this is the best Kyle Shanahan stat that I've come across. PFF has, they put out a quarterback annual every year. And this year they have this one stat in there. It's the most yards per attempt on, on throws that they graded as a zero. So like PFF's grading scale works as like

plus two points if you make like an extremely good throw. You get minus two if you make a extremely bad play. If you do like something that anybody can do, like a replacement level play, you get a zero. So this is basically like the quarterback did nothing. Who gets the most yards on those plays where the quarterback really didn't do anything. Every like every quarterback is between 4.9 and 5.9. Jerikoff is third place at 5.9.

And then they're there are the top two quarterbacks and they are Jimmy Garoppolo and they are Brock Ferdie. And like, Brock 40's at 6.6. Jimmy Garapolo's up to 7. Like, it's like them and then the rest of the league. Put Sam Darnold in that. He can do the same thing.

So I think this is a, this is an offense made for any quarterback, especially one as talented as Sam Darno. I think like this is the perfect offense for him. It seems like he's having a, I'm going to not fall into my own trap and say good training camp. He is having a, a training camp so far that is generating some buzz, that he looks good in the system,

that he's slinging it. Purdy is practicing, I think, two out of every three days. And then Lance and Darnold are getting heavy work days when he's sitting. But if you read some of the reports out at Niners Camp so far, there is just a lot of, hey, Sam Darnold looks pretty good, which we all knew what's going to happen. and we all predicted this. But the other thing that I've noticed is that it really seems like, because look, if Sam Darnold pushes Brock Purdy at some point,

or just is very clearly the backup and clearly wins that number two competition that seems going on right now, they are going to have to answer a question of what they're going to do with Trey Lance. And the other thing that is happening is it feels like, and maybe I'm reading too much into this, but it feels like the writing is being put on the wall a little bit to kind of try to create a context for why Lance has struggled so much and hasn't, you know, lived up to his draft status there.

That might be in the interest of, okay, if we were to trade him or if we were looking for a partner there. Because, okay, so Nick Wagner had a big piece for ESPN going into a lot of detail about how the whole mix-it quarterback in San Francisco happened and when they knew Purdy was the guy they wanted to go with. and just sort of the timelines of everything. And there is a lot of detail about how big of a set bath it was for Lance when he chipped a bone in the index finger

on his right hand in his rookie preseason. And there's just a lot about, you know, team sources saying he developed some really bad tendencies after overcompensating after that injury. It messed up his team. timing. It messed up his footwork. And also that he spent this entire offseason working with Patrick Mahomes, working with private quarterback coaches, working with Jeff Christensen, like doing all of these things to try to correct a lot of that stuff, which is really interesting. And it makes sense that that injury would have been a setback. And especially for someone who's so inexperienced in the league at, at, that point and just overall, I imagine if you develop some bad tendencies, it's harder to get over them because you just don't have as much muscle memory built up. But it just stands out to me how

willing they are to talk about that. And if you're starting to sniff a little bit about like, okay, what's, what's end game here with Traylands and the 49ers? I just wonder if this is setting a stage of like, hey, you know, it hasn't worked out for us and we're going with Brock and Sam's the number two, and maybe we'll see what happens there. But Trey really could have something. And we really believed in him when we drafted him. And somebody else really might want to take a chance on this guy. That's just that's what it smells like to me.

Nobody ever has a better camp than the expendable backup quarterback. Have you ever noticed that? Oh, the report's out of camp. The expendable Kyle Shanahan backup quarterback especially. They're always a quarterback that might be worth trading. for. But yeah, also the reports out of Niders' camp are that like Brock has had a little bit of trouble knocking off the rust. Like he seems to be throwing interceptions, holding onto the ball a little long. But also like I'm hearing the reports and like the descriptions of the

plays. And I'm like, that just sounds like regular Brock Purdy, like holding onto the ball a little bit too long and trying to do too much. That's just, I don't know if that's the elbow or that's just him. Well, and all of it is like, a lot of it is like, well, you know, he hasn't been out there. so he just wants to sling it. Like he just wants to, he wants to throw 50-yard bombs every play. So of course, you know, of course some of them are getting picked.

Of course some of them are overthrows. Yeah, yeah. I also saw like someone celebrating the overthrows. There's like, oh, look, his arm is back. He's overthrown receivers at a high rate. This is good. It's a good sign. I love, but I also, like,

if he goes into week one as a starter, which I think it's going to happen, definitely, based on where he left off last year. He does, play a style of quarterback with his body type that might lead to injury. I don't think that was the case on the Philly play. I thought that was just unlucky and it was maybe a bad play design. But you combine that, his play style, which is bordering on reckless, I would say.

And that's like part of what makes him better than Jim, like a better option than Jimmy last year was his willingness to get outside the pocket and hold on to the ball. You combine that with the Kyle Shanahan offense where there are. questions about his ability to keep his quarterbacks healthy. And like, you, I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that Darnold, even if he doesn't win the job, is going to like start for a month or start for a three-week stretch. The 49ers have not had a consistently healthy season of quarterbacking in, what, since 2019? No, yeah.

I don't, even before then, like, it was touch and go. So I would say, like, there's a chance that Purdy doesn't play his way out of the starting. job and Darnold still gets this chance and gets an opportunity to start a playoff game like Purdy did last year. I think that is probably more likely than Purdy loses the job on a

performance basis or Darnold wins it in practice somehow. Let me ask this. Let me ask this. What do you think Purdy would have to do to lose the job? Like how many questionable games in a row?

Two or three? He would have to be he would have to be throwing a lot of picks or taking a lot of sacks. Because again, this offense is going to be okay. The offense is going to keep it afloat. So there's not like, he would have to be making a lot of sort of extreme mistakes because if the issue is just

he loses a little something in accuracy, he loses a little something in some of, some of that playmaking that was that made them feel like they wanted to commit to him. I still think, like you said, options to McCaffrey, it's fine. It's completely fine. It's going to be explosive. It's going to be efficient. The odds that this is a bad offense or that Purdy is sort of sinking their overall operation,

he would have to be so bad. So that is just not what I think isn't happened. But if he were really, I mean, and it could be a byproduct of the elbow or it could just be that, you know, we don't have a big sample size with this guy and maybe we're a little over our skis with Brock Purdy. If he starts making a ton of mistakes,

that's what it would have to be. But it's not just like mediocrity at quarterback is completely fine in this office. Kyle has made it work before. They do like, they're scheduled to start. They go to Pittsburgh. I think that could be a game where he has a bad game, and they could possibly lose that game to a team that, like, on paper,

we're not expecting them to lose that game, but the Steelers are always tough, and then at home in week one, that's like a tricky game. And then they get the Rams, which their defense is a mess outside of Aaron Donald. They get the Giants, which could be tricky. Like, Wink Martindale can throw a curveball at you, and then Cardinals and then the Cowboys. If they're two and three, like they lose to the Steelers,

they lose to the Cowboys, because of Brock Birdie. Going into week six, I think we start to hear questions. And then they go on the road to Cleveland, and they go on the road to Minnesota. Two tricky games again, if they, like, struggle in those games, I could see there be,

they're being talk at like the biweek, around week eight, week nine, about making a change. But I think, I agree with you. I think the leash is pretty long, longer than you would expect for a guy that was drafted with the last pick just two years ago. But I could see a scenario where there's question marks. Because I do think Kyle, though we haven't really seen it at the quarterback position,

he has been a guy that can, like, guys can end up in his doghouse and then end up on the bench. We've seen it at the receiver position. I think that might be like a different thing because he did play receiver in college. So it might be a more personal thing. But I don't know. I think Kyle's been known to have a quick hook. One thing about Darnold, who famously had an unfortunate experience in New York that had to do with seeing ghosts. I just want to draw a little bit of attention to a story from a week or so ago or a couple weeks ago,

where he was talking about how he lived in George Kittles' pool house this spring when he was looking for his own place. and he claimed that he thinks it's haunted. He said, I woke up, and you know how sometimes you have a dream and then you wake up and you feel like you can't move for maybe four or five seconds, whatever it is? And, you know, I felt that. And I woke up and it was like 3 a.m. I went to go take a pee, came back, fell right asleep. And then that next night, the same thing happened.

And I couldn't like, I had to keep focusing on this thing. There was something else in the room. Was it Bill Belichick? Is Sam Darnold okay? First of all, Sam Darnold, you don't get to say anything about ghosts anymore. You lost all privileges. Like, I'm not saying like he doesn't get to say it, but if I'm him, I'm never bringing up ghosts again.

It's just not a good idea. Yeah, like don't bring up ghosts. Actually, I retract my prediction. I'm not saying Sam Darnold isn't going to start in a playoff game if he's still hung up on these ghosts. I didn't know Belichick did that much damage to him. The ghosts in George Gittle's poolhouse could probably put up like 27 points per game, though. And Shannon is off.

That's the moral story. Yeah. Yeah. That's the moral story. All right. One more quick break to hear from our lovely sponsors. And then we'll finish things off. All right.

We are back. Last take going in the time capsule. Stephen, what you got? I'm going to go with the Packers are going to win the NFC. Oh, who-hoo-hoo. You could hear me talking myself into the Packers when we did the NFC North TV pod, and I'm fully there now because I watch some more Jordan Love, and I'm there. Like, he's not a good quarterback at this point, but he's good enough. And I think LaFleur, Matt LaFleur found something down the stretch last year.

Like from week 12 on, they go four and two. Their two losses are to the Lions, to the Eagles, by combined 11 points. They score a lot more points. their offense is back in like near the top 10 in terms of efficiency. And the way they did it was like dialing down the Aaron Rogers parts of the offense, which I think bode well for the first year after Aaron Rogers. They went more under center, a little bit more play action. Christian Watson became a factor in the offense,

became like a movable piece before the snap. They used them on jet sweeps and stuff. And there were only five receivers who averaged more yards per route run after week 12. minimum of 150 routes run. Justin Jefferson, DJ Moore, Tyree killed, Jerry Judy, and Drake London. And then Kristen Watson. Like, he became a real factor in this offense.

So I think there's a scenario where I know right now we're looking at that receiving core and being like, I don't know, especially with that quarterback situation, but I think there's a scenario where Watson emerges as, not like a top receiver, but like as a fringe pro bowler. I think if he does that and Romeo Dobbs is a little bit better, and then the rookie tight end, I'm forgetting his name.

Luke Musgrave has a good rookie year. Apparently he's had a great offseason. Rookie tight ends are always iffy, but apparently he's been good in the offseason. He's a big guy, too. I think this could be a nice little offense. And I think Matt LaFleur is a good coach, and I think he proved it last year

by finding a way to get a good offense out of that disjointed collection of players, and Aaron Rogers was at the top of that disjointedness. And then I think the offensive line stability could be a big thing, if David Bactiari, who's entering year three of his ACL already had, by the way. But practiced yesterday. So, you know, three years of an ACL injury versus one practice. We can say the arrow's pointing up there. Yeah, he might be back.

He's on track to play by December. But no, if they have like a solidified offensive line, they don't have to shuffle guys around a lot. I think this could be like a top 10 offense, even if Jordan Love is just I would say slightly below league average as a starter. I think that's enough. And I think Jordan Love has a lot of tools

that you can build a good offense around without relying on the dropback passing game. I think this is going to add another layer to LaFleur's run game that just wasn't possible with Aaron Rogers. You're not going to run like read option and zone read with Rogers. And I think you have to do that with Love almost.

And I think if they can figure out a way to mesh the offense they already have with the run game, the quarterback run game, that gives them another button to push because they can go under center, then they can run it from the gun. I think that makes their offense harder to defend.

And then the defense, it comes down to Joe Barry. Like, they have the bones there of a good defense. It's up to him to figure it out. He's never coached like a top 20 defense in his career as a defensive coordinator, but maybe this is the year. He's due. After three years of being heard, David Bogdiari is going to be completely fine.

And for the first time in his career, Joe Barry is going to coach a top half defensive unit. It's not a high bar. I'm just asking Bakhtiari to play three years after an injury. And Joe Barry to take this collection of very good players and turn it into a mediocre decision. I don't ask for much. 50 first round picks and be half decent. When you put it that way, it's hard to see this not happening. What could possibly go wrong?

I like this a lot because agnostic of whether or not I think it will happen or if it should happen. The funniest possible outcome for the NFL in 2023 involves the Packers being really good. And they don't have to win the Super Bowl or whatever, but just the Packers being like consistently a good team. Right? Like, Rogers, the fact that we would, you know, see what LaFleur would have to say about it. We want this. We need this.

You don't have to, like, lay out the scenario. We got it last year with the Seahawks making the playoffs. Right. And the Broncos imploding. Like, that's what we want. If we can get it two years in a row, the NFL is, kudos to the NFL. Make it happen, Roger.

All right. Here's my last one. All right. I think Tom Brady's going to unretire. Oh, my God. Enough. Enough. No, he's not allowed to.

Not if I can help it. I thought about, I was talking to a friend recently, and we were talking about the fact that Taylor Swift has never dated an athlete. And she is somewhat newly single. And my friend was like, do you think she ever would? like, do you think that'll happen? And I was, my answer was like, it's honestly weird to me that it's never happened before. So why not? And we were running through names and this person was like, Brady.

And I was like, I live in fear of that every day. I wake up every morning and where Sam Darnold sees extraterrestrial activity or paranormal activity, I go, I live in fear of a page six report that Taylor Swift and Tom Brady have been spotted somewhere together. Anyway, I just needed to get that off the check. There was a rule that came up. This is why I think this is going to happen. It's a rule that came up in the passing of the approval for the commander sale that blocks the distribution of equity in a franchise to players or to team employees.

So if you play for the team or you work for the team, you can't own a chunk of the team. I'm not totally sure how that works in the case of, like, Jerry Jones but I guess if you are already the owner then you can give yourself a job but if you have a job the owner can't give you equity

that's my best understanding of this. How many points would Jerry Jones put up in a Kyle Shannon in offense at quarterback? Just a little less than the ghosts. Okay. It would be just a little bit less efficient than the ghost. But there was one guy who was really upset about this proposal in the meeting.

It did pass but there was one man who voiced strong objections. Would you like to guess who it was? Did he have an interesting haircut? He did have an interesting haircut. Interesting haircut and an affinity for chain Chinese food restaurant. That would be Mark Davis. So he goes in this big thing about how he doesn't want this rule to pass

because he's planning to employ Brady as part of the deal for Brady to buy a part of the Raiders. Roll passes anyway. Everyone says, screw you, Mark Davis, get a better haircut. So Brady now can't be both part owner and a team executive. Gotta assume that puts that deal back to square one, which means that basically every significant post-playing career endeavor that we hear about Tom Brady ends up falling through. He's like not actually going to work for Fox apparently.

He's not actually going to own part of the Raiders. what is left for this man to do is when Jimmy Garoppolo gets hurt in the middle of the season to come back and play for the Raiders and play for Josh McDaniels and I just think it's going to happen. I'm sorry.

I don't even want it to happen, but I feel it in my bones. You know what else he has to do? Date Taylor Swift. It's one of the other. One of those two things is going to happen. See, that's your worst nightmare. Brady coming back is my worst nightmare.

And it's not because he's going to come back. It's for when he retires again. Like, I'm tired of writing the Brady retirement pieces. There's too many, there's, like, I was living in fear every day when there, that off season, when there was talk of him retiring. And then he did it. And it just disrupted everyone's night that works in our business because he had to write about it and pot about it.

And then the guy comes back a month later. Enough. If he retires again, if he comes. comes back, I'm not talking about him. I'm not covering him. I'm going to pretend like he doesn't exist. That's how we'll cover it. Honestly, it's good that we're doing this because we could just clip this portion and then just play it. Or just keep it really short and sweet, you know? Some guy named Tom Brady on retired today. He's going to play for the Raiders. That's it. So, okay, Tom Brady comes back. When does it happen? And what are the results?

I think he would be smart to do it late in the year. I think if I have to pick one, I'm saying Jimmy gets hurt and he goes to Vegas. It just seems like there is still. He's been buzzing around the Raiders for too long. And the McDaniels thing, the opportunity to stick it to Jimmy Garoppolo one more time. I just don't think that he could resist. if it happens because of an injury, there's some element of not being able to control the timing on that basis.

However, I do think he might have learned a thing or two from his pal Grog that there's something to be said for just hopping back in the mix in like mid-December. And I don't know that I'm predicting a big playoff push for the Raiders, but who knows, right? Say they hang in there, they stay in the mix. Brady gets to go on one last ride. He'd be smart to wait as long as possible. Keep that pliability up.

He's also been on vacation like nine times this summer, which you could say lends itself to he's not going to do this. He's enjoying life. I think he seems bored. He's been like, he's on a yacht one week. He's on, he's on Safari. Mari in Africa another week. Like, he's looking for stuff to do.

He's not just sitting at home. So I don't, I see it. All right. I, like, I think that there's a chance that this happens. I just hate the fact that it's realistic. I don't, I hope it doesn't happen. Please. Also, like, Rogers is, you know,

we're starting to hear from Aaron Rogers that he might want to stay with the Jets for two years. three years, Brady might start getting antsy about proving that, like, he is the ultimate, he will always be the ultimate old man quarterback. We'll see what happens. I'm in favor of an age cap for quarterbacks. No more over 40 quarterbacks. I'm sick of it. We need it. We need an age cap on the presidency, on Congress, and on NFL quarterback. Yes. I don't want to see Tom Brady mumbling in the pocket, okay? That's like 80 in quarterback years.

We've never seen a 45-year-old quarterback. Yeah, but it's not 80 in the mechanics of speech years. Don't normalize old quarterbacks. That's all I'm saying. All right. On that note, this has been the Ringer NFL show. I'm Nora Pryanti. As always, he is Stephen Ruiz.

We will be back next week. And we will also be back at the end of the season. When we dig up all these takes and find out if there was a 2000-yard receiver, if Trevor Lawrence is the top five quarterback, if Sam Darnold wins a start, if Tom Brady unretires, what am I missing? The Packers win. The Packers win the NFC North. Love it. Can't wait.

Thank you so much to Stefan Anderson for production on this episode and to Connor Nevins and Arjuna Ramapal for their additional production supervision. Must be 21 plus and present in select states. Vandal is offering online sports weight. entering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit fandwell.com slash RG in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, and Virginia. Call 1-800 next step or text next step to 53344 in Arizona.

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