The Ringer NFL Show - Using the Likert Scale on the Hottest Topics in the NFL

Episode Date: September 2, 2022

Sheil and Danny go through the hottest topics in the NFL including Russell Wilson’s new contract, Jimmy G staying in San Francisco, Justin Fields, the Jets, and more (00:46). Also, Sheil answers some of your listener mailbag questions (43:22). Hosts: Sheil Kapadia and Danny Kelly Associate Producer: Jessie Lopez Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal and Conor Nevins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mac Jones is ripped. Matt Patricia's calling plays. The Celtics are title favorites. And the ringer has a new Boston show. I'm Brian Barrett, host of Off the Pike, the show covering all things Boston sports. I'll have shows multiple times a week covering your favorite teams and with your favorite ringer and local guests. Plus, maybe Bill will stop by to rant about the socks. Follow off the pike with me, Brian Barrett, now on Spotify.

Welcome to the Ringer NFL show, Shield Capadia. joined by Danny Kelly. We are nearing week one. And so we're going to have a little exercise today using the Lickert scale. I don't know if Danny knew. That's what it was named. I didn't know until I looked it up. But yeah, the Lickert.

You've probably used this before, right? You go agree, strongly agree, disagree, strongly disagree, or neither agree nor disagree. I promise. It won't be that confusing. But I'm sure you probably use this in some walk of life. Oh, yeah. I've definitely filled out some multiple choice quizzes on this.

And so I'm ready for it. I'm a little bit bummed out. There's no, like, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, maybe like a little more gray area. But no, this is perfect. You got to have some kind of stance. And so we're just going to go through a bunch of topics. You know, I tried to pick some that I haven't been able to talk about as much,

but then there are some topics that are in the news. And so we're just going to run through them and kind of go on the record here. You know, it's almost week one. So you have to go on the record. You've been going on the record with all draft takes and fantasy takes for months. So this is nothing new for you. Yeah, I'm ready. All right.

Let's do it. Let's get it started. Number one, Russell Wilson and the Broncos will be playing on divisional round weekend this year, Daniel. What do you got for this one? So I'm going to agree. I think I had them, when I did my picks, I had them as one of the wildcard teams in the AFC. The AFC is so freaking stacked right now. It's definitely kind of tough to figure out who they're going to be playing in the wild card round

and who they're going to have to get through and all that. but I'm just going to say, I think they are a strong team. I think they have, obviously, their offense is going to be dramatically improved this year, in my opinion. Russell Wilson will elevate the skill players that they have there. I think they're still probably going to be relatively balanced with a good running back talent they have there, but obviously they're going to run more. They're going to run more plays. They're going to pass a lot more, I think, at the rate compared to last year.

And so I think they're going to score more points, and that is going to be the foundation of our team. They do have a pretty, like, talented defense. say I have to have a couple guys, I think, step up on the pass rush and things like that. But overall, I think they're set up to be a competitor right away with Russell Wilson. So I'm going to say agree. I don't know exactly who they're going to have to get through to get to the divisional round. But yes, I'm going to agree. That's the thing with the AFC.

You look at like any team individually and you're like, oh, yeah, that team should be in the divisional round. Oh, yeah, that team can win the Super Bowl. And then you're like, wait, you know, there can only be four here. And so I went with disagree just because of that. I think they have that Super Bowl ceiling. Like it would not, if things fall their way, like you mentioned, I think defensively, Randy Gregory, Bradley Chubb, if those guys can stay healthy,

if the offensive line can kind of come together, I do see a Super Bowl ceiling with them. I've got them in the playoffs. I have them losing in the wild card round to the Chargers. And so, you know, it's like you said, you just got kind of got a pick between sort of six teams or so. Now, Wilson got the five-year, 245, million dollar extension this morning before we started recording. So 49 mil per year puts them behind

only Aaron Rogers, 165 million guaranteed, puts them behind only Deshawn Watson. And so it's just like, you know, we did the all index at the ring. Oh yeah. This is all in time for the Broncos. So I feel like maybe there's some more tweaking to the roster they need one more offseason to maybe you really get to that, you know, Super Bowl caliber level as some of the other AFC teams. But I, I can, could see it, so we'll see. Yeah. I mean, in this contract, I think this is a good reminder for, you know, Seahawks fans who are a little bit sad today or whatever

because Russell Wilson signing this mega contract. This really is probably the biggest reason they traded him is they didn't want to pay him this contract, the Seahawks. And so I mean, of course, it's going to be interesting to see how he ages in terms of his playing style, like he doesn't run as much as he

used to, is he going to be, and I'm talking about Russell Wilson, is Russell Wilson going to be, you know, the guy who can carry a heavy volume passing offense, or does he actually more suited for what the Seahawks have always kind of done, which is, well, not always, but like for most of the time he was in Seattle, balanced, run heavy, lots of play action, things like that. So it's going to be very, you know, intriguing to see how this all plays out. But I do, like, at the bottom line, I think they're a good team.

The aging QBs is just, like, impossible, you know, it's like Tom Brady ruined it for everybody. Then Aaron Rogers is ruining it for everyone else. And now it's like, oh, yeah, a guy can play until, you know, his late 30s, early 40s, no problem. And maybe he can. We'll see, but you're right. I feel like once the Broncos decided they were going to trade for him, you were like, you know, you pretty much decided you were going to pay him one way or the other. And so we'll see how that goes. But you had a good segue, because number two on my list here, I had to ask this with you coming on, of course, the best long-term outcome for the Seahawks is to stink in 2022 so that they're positioned to draft a

quarterback in 2023. What do you have for this one? agree with that one. I don't, so like I, I came into the season. I came into the off season, I should say, kind of, I think maybe a little bit more bullish on the Seahawks overall than maybe everybody else. Because there was a lot of talk like, oh, they're going to be the worst team in the NFL. They're going to have the first overall pick. They're going to, the over under is set for five and a half, I think, at least the last time I looked. And I'm like, well, I can't remember the Seahawks ever being that bad, like, in the peak Errol era. They always have sort of this floor where they're going to drag people down to their level. They're going to pull them through the mud, rely on variance to win a few. games. This is the way that the CX have always kind of operated under Pete Carroll. And then I watched them in the preseason. And I am far less confident in what they were going to be able to do this year. I think the defense looked

worse than I was expecting. I would say, like, Gino Smith looked better than I was expecting. So maybe that'll be like enough of a, like a, you know, at level things out to like have them actually compete and beat that over under a five and a half. But you know, after watching them in the preseason, I think this is certainly a rebuilding year

for them. Like, it's just that's what's going to happen at the end of the day. And so it probably behooves them to, you know, have a higher pick. They do have two first round picks. So that gives them the flexibility to move around in the first round. If they really have a lot of conviction on one guy, you know, at this time of year, it's so hard to know, like, who the top quarterbacks are going to be next year. But it feels like there's going to be like three or four guys in the first round that are worth sort of, like, you know, rebuilding your franchise around.

And so, yes, I think absolutely it makes sense for them to just tank this year. and, you know, go out and get a good quarterback next year and kind of start from scratch. Yeah, my line on them all offseason has been their rebuilding, even if they don't know they're rebuilding. Because, I mean, we know how Pete Carroll is. Like, you know, in the NFL, it's not like you're trying to lose games, but I was thinking, what would their offseason have looked like if they came out,

like let's say they came out and said, we're just going to rebuild, we're basically tanking. I know this would never happen. But let's say they said that. What would have been different, really, about their own? Exactly. I mean, it really wouldn't have been that much. You know, they would have said, yeah, we're just going to go with Gino,

Gino Smith, Drew Locke, quarterback competition in the summer. We'll see how it goes. We're going to implement this huge, you know, defensive scheme change. Yeah, cornerback, we'll, you know, we'll figure that out in the first month of the season. We're going to let these young offensive tackles sort of figure it out as they go in. So it really wouldn't look that different. So I can just see a scenario because I think Pete Carroll does this sometimes where he has, you know, he's got his core messaging.

and then after the season, you know, he kind of is more honest. Right, come on, you know, you guys knew we weren't going, you know, we were in a period of transition. You said it, like, and that is the word I always use with Pete, it's messaging. He's all about messaging. He's like a freaking salesman. And, you know, it's getting guys to buy in. It's kind of like the Dan Campbell and Lions thing. Like, I'm sure he wants his team to play hard, tackle hard, you know, give their all.

He's never going to be the type of coach he's going to admit that this is like just a wasted year kind of deal. Like, he's never going to be that guy. And he probably, like, in his heart of hearts, believes that they could, like, surprise people. I mean, we saw the first year he came in with the Seahawks. They went seven to nine and made the playoffs. So he's like, he always is like, his whole philosophy is something good's going to happen. Like, he says that all the time.

And so I think he probably, in his heart of hearts, is like, yeah, we could do something. The NFC is wide open. Yeah. But like you said it, I'm looking at their roster. Outside of the special teams group, there's like five guys that are over 30. this is a very young team, six guys, maybe. This is a very young team.

They're resetting at a lot of different position groups. I think that there's reason to be pretty optimistic going forward with their offensive line. So far Charles Cross has looked like a really good pick. And that's something that you really have to hit because if you're trading Russell Wilson, you better freaking hit on those picks. So, yeah, there's a reason to be optimistic going forward. But yeah, right now it doesn't look like they're ready to compete even in a wide open NFC. Yeah, they had 10 years of Russell Wilson, and so now if you have a season, now, I'm like, my philosophy is like sports as a fan. You want to be entertained and have fun. I'm not like tank everything and just do everything to win a championship. I'm like, screw that. You know, I want to sit down on the couch for three hours and be entertained if I'm watching a team I like. But really, they could have one down year here. And if some of those things you mentioned, if both the tackles look competent to very good, now you have two tackles who are young, now you have two wide receivers who are very good.

you know, you're implementing this defensive scheme change, which is forward thinking probably, you know, took a while to get there, but you're getting there. And so you have guys in the scheme this year who maybe can take their lumps and learn it, and maybe they're better next year. And then you mentioned it, two first round picks. I mean, if you stick like a Bryce Young

into this offense in 2023, if you're a Seahawks fan, you're like, all right, we had one bad year. I know. And now we're really excited about the next five, six, seven years. And so it might not turn out that bad. So it's almost like the, I hate to say the worst thing that could happen because, again, I don't like believe that you just try to lose games.

Man, if they get up to like six, seven wins and now you're in that middle ground and there are a lot of teams that need quarterbacks, then all of a sudden you're screwed going into next year's draft. So that's why they're kind of a fun team to me this year just to see which way that goes. Absolutely. Yep. All right. Next one here. And I almost like hate myself for even including this one because I don't want to be like the one defending the Patriots. But here's what I've got.

By the way, mind on that was also strongly agree with the Seahawks. I think best long-term outcome would be for them to not be good. All right, number three, the pendulum has swung too far on how bad the New England Patriots are going to be this year. You know, Bill Simmons is he's looking up odds for six and eleven. You know, it seems like no one's picking them to make the playoffs. Where are you with that statement that it's swung too far? So I agree with the statement.

The pendulum has swung too far, I think. I think we've both been talking to Bill too much lately. The vibes are terrible right now, I will admit. The idea that they're going to be running an offense with two guys offensive coordinator that have never been offensive coordinators, or at least not at this level, and with Patricia and Joe Judge as offense coordinators, like that this plan seems terrible.

Everything we've heard out of train camp so far is that this is like the worst this offense has ever looked in like the last, 30 years or whatever it is. So the vibes are terrible, I will admit. But at the same time, I do think that, like, once the rubber hits the road, they're going to be a well-coached team, like, generally. Maybe not the Trish and Judge. But generally, like, there'll be a well-coached team with a good strategy every week.

That's Bill Belichick's calling card. I'm still, like, a believer in him. I do think that Mack Jones is better than anybody, or at least most people are giving him credit for. I think that they just have that floor where, you know, they're going to still be a competitive team. They've got some talent there. It is going to be interesting to see how this like scheme change goes.

But yeah, I'm like just confident that like Mac Jones will do enough to kind of make them a competitive team. I don't think they're going to really suck, you know, as like Bill might think. But yeah, it's going to be interesting to see how that all goes. Plus, like playing in this division, obviously the bills are good, but the jets are going to be terrible. The dolphins, TBD. So, you know, I don't know, we'll see. Yeah, I just feel now, listen, I'm on board with, if you crush the Joe Judge, I mean, really, two of the worst coaches we've seen in the last 20 years, two of the worst head coaches. Why are they doing this?

Yeah, it's if any other franchise did this, I mean, they would just, I mean, the Patriots are getting made fun of. But man, if I think about just like random team acts, yeah, it was like, hey, we're going to bring in Matt Patricia and Joe Judge to run the offense for our second year quarterback who showed a lot of promise in his rookie year. I mean, it would be the biggest laughing stock in the NFL. Now, having said that, I mean, isn't Bill Belichick just going to take over the offense if the offense sucks? You know, hey, Matt, yeah, yeah, go over there. I know we were talking about the offense. Yeah, go over there. Hang out with the special teamers.

Get our kickers to do a good job. I'm not going to watch a whole season of you guys screwing this up. I just feel like that's what Belichick has done his entire career. You know, like Josh McDaniels left. And guess what? The offense was still very good. those years because Bill Belichick was still there. Now, I know that was with Tom Brady, but I just feel like, you know, he might go into that. I don't like his plan, but I feel like

if the plan starts going off track, he's just going to kind of take over. I mean, we've seen all those clips, remember of him and Brady in the Tuesday meetings, watching film together. Like, he is the one, you know, giving the direction for the offense. So I agree with this. I think it's won too far. I don't think they're a great team. I don't have them making the playoffs, but... Same. I mean, yeah. Yeah. You have them out? Okay. I have them out of the playoffs, but I don't think they're going to be terrible.

Right? Well, I'm intrigued. Okay. The dolphins to me are... You look so scared right now about saying something nice about the dolphins. I love that. Yeah. I'm, I... Like, this is purely based on vibes, I think, because, you know, on paper, you'd think they're probably not going to be very good, like, especially in the first year of a new

coach with Mike Daniel. There's a lot of, like, things that could go head. Haywire, like Tua just not really being all that good is like the biggest one. But I don't know, like just watching them playing the preseason, it was kind of fun to see like Tua like booting out and like throwing with his left hand. And like you kind of can like start picturing them like being better than like people thought. Tyree Kill, Jalen Waddle, like I don't know. You know, they have like a lot of speed at running back.

I don't know. I'm just, I'm imagining thing like the absolute like bowl case for them. But, you know, I think I don't, again, I don't think they're going to be playoff team. Same with the Patriots, but I do think they could be a little bit frisky or whatever and be better than people think. Yeah, I've got them close. I've got the Patriots 9 and 8, the Dolphins 8 and 9, neither team making the playoffs. So I would say agree just based on, you know, I guess what Patriots fans are saying about their own team right now, that we feel like it's won a little bit too far. All right. Next one here. Number four, Jimmy Garapolo will start games for the 49ers,

even if Trey Lance is healthy. What do you got? I thought about this one. I'm going to strongly disagree. Really? Okay. I'm going to strongly disagree because I think the plan right now, well, I'm hoping this is the plan. Otherwise, it could completely just backfire for the 49ers.

But I'm hoping the plan is really just they're going to hope for an injury at quarterback and then trade him. Like basically, they've moved on from Jimmy Garoppolo. Like this offseason, he wasn't practicing with them. They like basically put him on elbow, like, Napoleon, like he's just like away from the team. You can't come near us. You're not going to be in the meetings. You're going to be like off doing whatever. It's so mean, isn't it? Yeah. Very mean spirit. I don't even know what he was doing over there. So that's my opinion. It's like they have moved off from him. This is the Tray Lance era. Like if they want to like develop Lance the right way, they need to like commit to him and not him and ha and not be like, oh, you're not playing very well. We're going to put you in. This is maybe just me projecting what I think they should do. But I think right now, the reason they didn't release him is because they didn't get a strong enough, you know, interest him in the trade market. Basically, they didn't have much leverage because teams were just like, oh, you're just going to release him anyway.

So now they're sort of calling teams bluff and saying, while we restructure his contract, he's going to be here this year. We feel good about him being the backup, all this stuff. And they're just essentially going to hope for a situation with like Sam Bradford a couple years ago where Teddy Bridgewater got hurt. And then I believe they got a first round pick for Bradford or whoever. Yeah, that was the Eagles. Yeah, that was in the preseason. then, yeah? So that would be my guess.

Like, this is just me reading the T-leaves, that they're going to just hope that some team is either, A, like, not confident in what their quarterback is doing early on in the season, or B, they have, like, an entry. They just need, like, a competitor needs to trade for a quarterback and, like, get the guy in who can, like, keep the boat of float kind of deal. So that's what I think they're doing, but we'll see. It feels like they've been trying to call teams bluff for, like, eight months now.

Yeah. You know, like, they didn't, you know, there was no deal to be had before the draft. and then after the draft, and then, hey, maybe someone will get injured in the preseason, like you're saying, and it hasn't happened. And so that could be, that very well could be their plan right now. Like, that could be what they're saying internally, that this is the plan.

And, hey, if Lance gets injured, now we have Jimmy G, it's all good. That plan requires a lot of discipline. That's true. Their numbers, I didn't realize this until, there are numbers with Jimmy Garoppolo, and I know it's, you know, we're not QB wins over here, but still, it's fun to look at. 31 and 14 with Garoppolo,

8 and 28 Kyle Shanahan without Jimmy Garoppel. Now, I know they've had bad quarterbacks. These have not been, you know, guys you would say, all right, their starters in the NFL. Having said that, like, Trey Lance hasn't played a lot of football. Trey Lance is going to take his lumps. It's really hard to come in and be good right away. And so I can't help but read it as a bit of a hedge.

Like if Trey Lance, you know, remember when Patrick Mahomes was like practicing with the chiefs and every report was like, oh my gosh, they found like, got it, quarterback. Like, we haven't read those reports with Trey Lance. It's been, okay, he's been a little bit up. He's been a little bit down. And for a team that has had Super Bowl aspirations, they've made a Super Bowl, they've gotten to the NFC championship,

are they going to be able to, like, let's say it's two games, two games in a row in October that you lose, and maybe it puts you under 500, and Trey Lance isn't playing well. And there's this film on film Twitter. It's like, okay, you know, this is that play action concept where he's supposed to boot out. And, you know, that crossers there, the safety's going back. That's supposed to be wide open. He didn't throw it.

And Kyle Shanahan's going, oh, my, you know, he's just pulling his hair out. Like, I can see this scenario. I mean, it takes a lot of patience. Like, if you're going into it saying, this is about Tray Lance, Tray Lance is our guy, that's fine. But guess what? Like, Kyle Shanahan is, you know, like, he's been coaching a long time. You don't just throw away years when you feel like you have Trent Williams and George Kittle and Debo Samuel and Brandon Ayug and Fred Warner.

Like they've got some blue chip players there. They showed last year their Super Bowl caliber team. So it could look brilliant. You know, one of two things happens. One is if, like you said, another team has a quarterback injury. They trade Garapolo. They get better compensation. That's a huge win.

It could also work great for them if Trayland suffers an injury and you have Garablo and you're not stuck with Nate Sudfeld. That's a win. it could also be a disaster if Lance plays poorly and the locker room is like everybody sees it What the hell are we doing? Shanahan's frustrated

and Garapolo I mean have you looked at I just saw this today I think Mike Garifolo had these incentives that Garapolo has I don't know if you've seen In his contract?

Oh no. Yeah. He gets 250,000 for every game in which he plays 25% of the snaps and it gets another another 100,000 for each of those games

that he plays and they win, he gets 500,000 for every playoff game where he plays 50% of the snaps. Like Carapola is a lot. I know he's, you know, he's not hurting. He's not like, shoot,

you know, I can't go buy coffee for $4 today. But, you know, people like money. NFL players like money. Humans like money. And so he's got a lot to gain from this. And so to me it's just like the most,

maybe the most interesting story in the NFL is how that 49ers situation plays out. So I agree. Can I change? changed my answer to disagree from strongly. Yeah. You did a good job of describing the scenarios where this could go really haywire. So yes.

Okay. You disagree. I agree. And that's why it's a fun one. Because, again, there's a scenario where it looks brilliant and there's a scenario where it goes terribly. All right. Number five here.

The Falcons. I feel like I have not talked about the Falcons once on any podcast I've done since I joined the ringers. So let's do it here. The Falcons will pick first or second in the 22. in the 2023 NFL draft. When you're doing your first mock, you know, of next offseason, you're going to have the Falcons in that one spot.

What do you think? One or two. Yeah, I agree. I think, I mean, look, we're splitting hairs because it's going to be somewhere in the really high, like, top five or whatever. But I was looking at this, from the Football Outsiders Almanac, I didn't realize this, but they were dead last in DVA, all but two weeks last year between week one and week's team, week 16.

Wow. They were by far the worst team. And importantly, and again, this is from the football outsider's almanac, they had basically one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL by every metric possible, and they brought back all five guys. So, like, this is going to be interesting to see how this all goes. This is like, they're to me a very similar team to like the Seahawks. This is definitely like a bridge year for them, you know, reset kind of the salary cap,

reset the roster, trying to get some young guys in there. Obviously, with Drake London and Kyle Pitts, like, it's going to be some exciting things that they can do on offense. But overall, I don't think this is going to be like a high-end offense. You know, the defense, again, has some interesting, like blue chip players, like AJ Terrell. He's really good, and they could potentially start to build around him. But, you know, I think they're probably a year or two away. And so, yes, I would agree that they'll be picking first or second. Yeah, I've got the Falcons and the Bears, as I think.

Well, we'll get to the Bears in a minute here. But, I mean, it's everything you laid out. Like, all the advanced metrics on them were just so horrible last year. Like, it was like when they won games, they won by a field goal. And when they lost games, they lost by like 40 points. And so it's like, that's hard to sustain. And that was with Matt Ryan for 17 games. You know, even if you like, that's the thing I didn't even mention it or whatever.

Yes. Yeah. They had very good injury luck last year. They were third in football outsiders, adjusted games lost. And so, like, I looked at their starters and I'm like, I don't really like these starters. And now if the backup that's play. it could get really, really ugly. How many games did they win last year?

They won like seven? Seven. It was crazy. I think they had to be the worst seven-win team of all time. I think, and I know I'm sure that Falcons fans just are sick of hearing that. But yes, I think they probably like in the all-time list of worst seven-win teams ever. Yeah. But again, like you said, they're like the Seahawks. I mean, if it goes badly this year, you get one of those quarterbacks, you have pits. If you like London, you know, at least there are some pieces around him, like you mentioned,

and AJ Terrell, where maybe you could be a little bit better next year. All right. Number six, the New York football Giants, another team I feel like I barely talked about the Giants all summer, will avoid a last place finish in the NFC East. I'm going to disagree. I'm going to say they probably are going to get last. It's tough because part of me wants to get excited about what the Giants are doing

with dayball coming in. There's some definitely good vibes around that, like the scheme couldn't get any worse from last year and then going to this year, like that could make a big difference for them obviously. But I look at, so basically, of course, it's probably going to come down to the commanders or

the Giants in last place at this division. I would say that Eagles and Cowboys look like the clear-cut favorites to be pretty good and maybe playoff teams. So I look at the commanders, I think they got a pretty big, and I would never be, you know, mistaken for Carson Wins defender, but like he's a big upgrade

in my mind over Heineke. And this defense was one of the all-time underachievers last year. And I think that they still have a lot of talent. And so, like, I could see, and we've talked about this a million times, but, like, defense, defensive DVA is not very, like, predictive year over year. There's a lot of variables that go into it. I'm not sure exactly why, but it's probably the fact that it's like, quarterbacks are just going to help the offense be more consistent year over year.

Defense is just more variables. So I think this defense has a chance to make a big jump. I love the talent on the defense, especially the defensive line. So I think I'm just going with like, I think the roster is better for the commanders and the quarterback situation awash, I guess. And honestly, just like the injuries that the Giants are having at like the receiver position and sort of like the uncertainties there,

it's just not looking good for them right now. So I'm going to say they probably, to me, look like the favorite to be the last place team. I've got the biggest cop out here. I did neither agree nor disagree just because. Yeah. I mean, what a, I mean, really, what a pathetic job by me, not being able to have a take on this dumb one. Take a stand on the Giants, come on.

The Giants, but I go through it. I do all the records for every team and make sure it adds up to the right numbers. And so I had them both at seven and ten. There we go. It'll come down to a tiebreaker. Yeah. I think you're right that there's a more reasonable, like, analytical case for Washington. I just feel like that thing's going to go horribly.

I mean, I don't see Carson Wentz leaving Peterson, leaving Frank Reich, and then go. going to, you know, this wonderful stable organization in Washington and all of a sudden being fantastic. Like I just feel like that's going to end terribly. I'm with you on the defense. I think they probably settle into kind of where they were two years ago and where they were last year. So like a mediocre unit, you know, they've got enough talent to be that. I was more like I was ready to, you know, have this take when training camp started, but it's kind of like what you said, you know, if we were saying, wow, Kenny Ghaladay's back to the guy he was in Detroit. And Cadarius Tony has has stayed healthy.

Looks electric. Yeah, it looks electric. And Daniel Jones looks a lot more comfortable. That's just not how their camp has gone. You know, it's just been like, poor Golodei is just getting, every time I opened Twitter, he's just getting crushed by a Giants reporter. Tony will, you know, the injuries are going to be a factor. And so they've got some things going for them.

You know, maybe the tackles will be a lot better. Like you mentioned, if Dayball just passes the ball more and like goes for it on a few more fourth downs and doesn't run QB sneaks on third and eight or whatever it was, Like, that's going to be a big upgrade for them. And so we'll see. And so I think they have the easiest schedule in the NFL when you look at projected win total. So that's interesting. Yeah.

But yeah, I went neither agree nor disagree. The most gutless tape on the Ringer NFL show. You'll have to beat that one if you want to beat me in the 2022 season. All right. Next one here, Justin Fields will be the bear starter for the last time in 2022. I'm sorry, Bears fans. I don't mean to be mean here, but let's see what, what, D.K. thinks of this one. I strongly disagree with this.

I actually think he's going to be better than people are expecting. Not to say that the Bears are going to be a really good team, but it's actually a very similar situation to, like, how I feel about the Giants. Like, anything is better than what Matt Nagy was running with Justin Fields last year. Like, he was running the Andy Dalton offense for Justin Fields. It made no sense to me. For a guy who, you know, coming in, like, the book on him, the Scouting Report on him was like, he's not quick enough.

He doesn't operate quick enough in the pocket. Like this is something that they're going to have to develop, blah, blah, but they designed a bunch of quick game stuff, which I understand on one hand, like you have a rough offensive line. Got to get rid of the ball. But like, I don't know. I just feel like they are going to have a scheme

that's more designed around his strong suits. And we saw it in the preseason. They were like just having him run a lot of like bootlegs, getting out of the pocket, things of that nature. You know, I think they are. are for sure a team that is in flux right now. This is a rebuild year. This is a reset the roster.

This is a reset the salary cap. They have a ton of flexibility in the cap like two years down the line. This is like by design. But I do think Fields is going to show enough that they're not going to want to move on from him right away. There's going to be enough flashes there among the sacks and things like that that I think they're going to like, you know, keep it going on for another year or two. Okay. I think I think that's valid.

I obviously went with the grid. I mean, I came up with these prompts so that, you know, you can imagine that I said agree. And it has very little to do with fields and more to do with just sort of their, what the new regime did this offseason. You know, like you mentioned, they didn't have a lot of flexibility. Like, they weren't going to go out and make huge splashy moves. But at the same time, you could have said,

hey, let's get a great, let's put him in position to succeed. Let's make sure that he's not developing bad habits. Instead of signing like these three, you know, mid-tier defensive. lineman. Let's just put that money to the offensive side of the ball. We have a defensive-minded head coach. Maybe he can do more with less. And they didn't do that. I mean, they've got a bottom five offensive line on paper. They've got a bottom five pass catching group on paper. And so I'm just looking at it going, do they like care about developing Justin Fields or are they just like, let's get through this year and figure it out. And so it could be really tough with the circumstances he's in. Now,

if he is like a special quarterback who can just say, I can overcome some of these terrible circumstances circumstances around me, that's a great outcome for then. And then it kind of changes their mind going into 2023. But there's also a scenario where he can't do that because the circumstances are terrible around him. And so if he's taking a lot of sacks and he's, you know, getting skittish in the pocket because he's under so much pressure. If wide receivers aren't getting open, if they're dropping the ball, like that's how young quarterbacks get ruined. And they've set him up to be ruined one way or another. And so in that scenario, if you're like a four-win team or something and picking in the top five, now you have a really interesting decision to make where it's like, well, you know, this wasn't our guy.

He was the previous regime. And we didn't like what we saw the last two years. And so we're going to get our guy and add a quarterback. And so it's a tough one. You know, I think it would be the more fun outcome would be him showing the ability to overcome those things and really flashing kind of the high-level traits and talent, even if they're not a great team. but I, you know, I just kind of worry about the situation there, so we'll say. You're right, though.

The biggest variable really is, like, they're probably going to have a very high pick next year. And so, I don't know. I think, yeah, you're right, though. All those things are very valid. I'm just, like, hoping he doesn't get completely, completely, like, psyched out. That's the biggest thing, like, this year that they got, like, take away is just, like, not, you know, not ruining him psychologically, I guess. So, yes, I think those are all valid points. But I still think, I'm, you know, maybe I'll just like die on this hill, but I'm like a big Justin Fields believer, like his talent, his skill set.

I still think he has the ability to develop into a high level quarterback. But yeah, they didn't do. I've been very, you know, negative about their offseason. You know, I can understand why they did it. Like, they really did have to reset after, you know, the last, you know, front office was basically like trying to like keep things afloat forever. They're like mortgaging the future. Now they get now, you know, the new GM gets in here and has to sort of just like, look, we have to fix our cap.

We have to fix our roster. There's no easy way to do that. So we're basically just going to like suck this year and like bite the bullet more or less. But yeah, I agree. I think the biggest thing to me was like not only did they like not do anything on offense, but like picking a 25 year old rookie in the third round. It's just like, like, you know, insult to injury kind of deal. It's like there's so many good receivers in this class.

And like you had to pick the 25 year old like special teamer to like be. like the guy to like help Justin Fields. And look, Velaus Jones might turn into a good player. But that was just like, the optics of that to me were terrible. Process. Yeah.

Yeah. The process was terrible. And that was their first offensive pick, right? I mean, they didn't pick anybody. So yeah, it was the other thing. Like,

and free agency, you're like, all right, maybe they'll make some moves in the draft. Nope, they didn't, you know? They didn't pick an offensive player until him.

And then they're signing a, they're drafting a 25-year-old wide receiver who had one year of production there. So, yeah, very... And like, Kahlia Shikers sitting there, on the board a couple different times. They're trading back.

He's like a guy that I really like, and he's flashed a lot in Bill's camp. It's like, just take a couple guys. Come on. This is driving me nuts. But yeah, overall, I still believe in fields. Okay. Let's do one last one.

Another team that I guess is maybe in a sort of a similar situation. The New York Jets will be an attractive QB destination in 2023. And so the premise here is that, you know, Zach Wilson doesn't look great, maybe he will look great.

And this won't even be a question. But let's say he doesn't look great. You look at the pieces around him and you say, well, they actually are positioned to plug a quarterback in there and maybe be a good team. What do you think? I have said agree. I think they are, regardless of how the Jets feel about Zach Wilson after this year,

they are still going to be a team that we all talk about as like an attractive QB destination. Like, I think this knee injury that Zach Wilson had in the pre-season, season is potentially like monumental for like the future of the jets because yeah number one it like puts Zach Wilson behind schedule you know obviously like the reps getting the reps with all these guys in the preseason was important getting the confidence going was important getting this like monkey off his back where literally every quarterback on the team is like way better than you at your rookie season like they kept bringing in like third fourth fifth stringers that are like performing

better than you like the vibes are absolutely atrocious with that um And it's not like, of course, like, you know, his teammates, he, the offense running better with all these other random guys, Mike White. I believe Josh Johnson even came in and was like running like a fairly competent offense. It's like at some point he has to show that he is worth that number two pick. He's going to be the guy for the future. And this knee injury really derailed, I think, what his big opportunity to kind of like hit the ground rolling this year. And like, you know, there's all this talk about him like getting in shape over the outseason, blah, blah, blah. now it's to me in peril that that's ever going to happen.

I was actually, like, over the summer, I was pretty excited to see how this would all go because the Jets have done a lot of very good things and their roster-wise to surround him with talent. Obviously, Garrett Wilson was my number one receiver coming into drafting. He's very talented. Elijah Moore, a guy that I love, like big-time playmaker. Breece Hall was my number one running back.

They did some good things on the offensive line. Even though McKay-Beckton is out, they got Dwayne Brown at left tackle. now. Like, he's to me a very serviceable veteran left tackle. You know, so they did a lot of good things on the, on the offensive side of the ball. You know, the defense has more playmakers now. So it's not going to be so much like pressure on the offense to always be carrying the team. They're doing the right things from a team building point of view. I just don't know if they pick the right quarterback like straight up. So like that to

me is like a big question mark here. And again, like him basically getting injured and missing a month of the preseason, missing potentially a few more weeks of the regular season, makes it very, very difficult for him to come back. If he struggles, it's going to be the same situation with, like, Trey Lance. Like, if he struggles, what are the Jets going to do? Like, are they going to just play him regardless of how terrible he's playing?

Kind of deal? Like, this is, it just makes everything more complicated. I don't think, remember Robert Saul after the Mike White game last year was like, hey, he could be our guy. Oh, my God. Yeah, I know. Yeah. I think of another quarterback plays well,

So I was going to be like, we're going to go with that guy. But it's a great point you make it. I mean, that injury just adds so many layers to kind of like what the next year looks for them. Because let's say he comes back and he doesn't play well. Are they going to go into next off season and say, you know what? He was coming off the injury. He was dealing with the knee all year.

We'll give him another year. Like, you kind of just want to know one way or the other because they're another, you know. Yeah. And the Darnold thing is weighing on this too. Right. Like they have all this history of like, oh, we waited too long with Darnold. Like, you know what I mean? And so maybe they decide.

And look, the Cardinals are another example of a team who said, we recognized we made the wrong pick. When turned around immediately drafted Kyler Murray, like Rosen has not panned out in the NFL. And they recognized right away that they just, they just look, we made the wrong pick there. And we need to like write the ship. And obviously the results have been a little bit mixed for Kyler and for the Cardinals. But overall, like, their trajectory is like good. Like they've gotten better every year. Whereas like the Jets just need to find a guy.

And like I think that Darnold history is also a factor here because, you know, Darnold had some similar things. Like he got mono. He got, I can't even remember like off the top of my head. He's just like had set back after set back. Yeah. And so like they just got, like they probably waited way too long to like move on from him.

So yeah, it's going to be very interesting to see. And like it would be a different discussion if Zach Wilson had posted, you know, some good stats as a rookie albeit obviously he was on a bad team but like there's like very few things to look at and be like yes this is very promising like the stats are atrocious

you know his footwork had really struggled here and there his accuracy scatter shot obviously the arm talent is there no one's denying that but like can he play in the NFL I think that's still a huge question mark yeah I mean the roster it's like

they have so many young players that they don't need all they really don't need all of them to hit Like you mentioned Elijah Moore, Garrett Wilson, Breece Hall, Sauce Gardner, Jermaine Johnson. Like, they've got so many, you know, if a few of those guys look like they're really core, you know, quality starters in the NFL. I like their defensive line.

Their offensive guards are very good. They got to figure out tackle. Their wide receivers should be pretty good. If Gardner is good, then the secondary should be okay. Like if you plugged in like a league average starter into onto that team this year, they could win seven or eight games. Like Joe Flacko? Be.

For instance. I was thinking Jimmy, Jimmy, Jay, but you're right. The numbers are startling from last year. Like, when I look this up at an EPA per play, when Wilson played, they operated like the 30th ranked offense. When anyone else played, they operated like the 13th ranked offense. Oh, my gosh. It's a small sample, so I don't want to, you know, like go crazy with it. But it could play out again this year.

I mean, what if Flacco plays the first two weeks and they're not great, but they look like the 20th ranked offense? And then Wilson comes in and the next three weeks. they're a complete disaster. It's like, you know, that that is possible. This, and this is, again, you know, the preseason a lot to me is just vibes. The vibes from Jeth Camp were Flacco looks like a pro quarterback. All the receivers are raving about him. Like Garrett Wilson's talking about his catchable football.

You know, I think the beat reporters are saying like he looked really sharp. And then bring that into the regular season. Like if Flacco is like just solid, I mean, he's been, you know, like an average level. bad conversation. You know what I mean? But to me, this makes it a tough decision for the, for the jets because, yeah, what do you do? Like, are you thinking about the short term? Are you thinking about your jobs and, like, worrying about, like, another losing season where

everyone, like, is, like, kind of doubting the vision and all that? Or do you try and win as many games as you can and, like, play Flacco or play Mike White even, you know? Yeah. I don't know. It's going to be very interesting. We shall see. This got very dark, I feel like, at the end there with that conversation. but this was fun. I appreciate you joining me for this segment. We went through it, eight topics. That's good.

Not bad. On a bunch of them, Danny's got the Ringer Fantasy Show, the Ringer Fantasy Guide, which is just the most beautiful fantasy guide you'll find on the internet. Is there anything else, DK, that we should plug for you as we approach week one? No, that's it. Check out Fantasy Football. Dot the Ringer.com. That is our Ringer fantasy draft guides slash fantasy draft rankings, which will be updated throughout the season as well. so you can set your starting lineups. And then, yeah, the Ringer Fantasy Football Show, four times week, Danny Hyfitts and Craig Coralbeck. Very entertaining. I was very jealous of Craig had the take about how if vanilla ice cream was pink, everyone would be okay with that thing.

I was like, God, that is like, that's like, I don't even have great takes like that in me. Like the best version of me doesn't even have a take that good. So I love that one. They're very entertaining. I listen to them. I'll have the Ringer Fantasy guy here on my monitor right here on Monday. when I have some friends over for my draft, so that'll be fine.

All right, D.K, thank you for joining me. We'll do it again soon. Sounds good, man. Kickoff week one with Fandul, America's number one sports book. Join today to get started with $150 in free bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. Just sign up with promo code, ringer NFL to get in on the action. Then you can turn game day into payday all season long. What should you do with $150 in free bets?

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Tennessee red line 1,800 889-9-9-1789 in Tennessee, 1-800-2-2-470 in Wyoming or visit www. W.w.W.W.000 gambler. .net in West Virginia. All right, let's finish the episode with a little listener mailbag. Thanks to everyone who hit me up on Twitter with your questions for the Ringer NFL show. Let's start with Jack. Jack says, which of your 22 takes are you most looking forward to being wrong?

I love how you phrase that, Jack. You know, I have to go on the record with all these takes before the season. And some of them you're like, all right, by the time December rolls around, I'm just going to be getting crushed for this. I'm going to be getting old takes exposed for this. And so I have an easy answer for this. I've got the Vikings winning the AFC North. And this could absolutely end in disaster for me. I feel like I've enraged Packers fans this offseason.

And so I've got them in second place at 10 and 7 making the playoffs, but not winning the division. And of course, this could go horribly wrong. for me. You know, you look at Aaron Rogers, he's been healthy for 12 seasons, and in 10 of those seasons, the Packers have had a top eight offense. So Green Bay absolutely could be really good. Maybe their defense will be better than I'm expecting. I just didn't like their offseason. You know, I really feel like they missed their window there over the last two or three seasons. They trade Devante Adams. They don't really make a significant move to replace him. And so now it is on Rogers to really figure it out, where he kind of has to play like an MVP again and make up for

some of the other shortcomings on the offensive side of the ball for them to be that, you know, 12, 13 win team that they've been here over the last few years. So that's why I picked the Vikings. Of course, you know, I had the Vikings initially, maybe like as a 10-win team. And then I said, you know what? The Neil Hunter stayed healthy. Dearius Smith has stayed healthy. They have a coach who's not going to hate their quarterback.

They have a coach who's not going to hate offensive football. So maybe they can bump up a little bit with Kurt Cousin supporting cast. maybe their offensive line can be okay and they win 11 games. So I've got the Vikings as an 11 win team winning the NFC North. I might have said AFC North before, but yes, NFC North. And of course, this could be a disaster where, you know, I have to like wear a Kurt Cousin's jersey on a show in December just as punishment for this ridiculous take.

So that's easy. That's definitely the one that I'm most worried about during this season. All right. Sam asks, what are your favorite future? prompts heading into the season. Okay, that's a good one. We went over some of our kind of like award winners here recently on an episode, Justin Herbert plus 900 to win MVP. I like that one quite a bit. If you look at MVP, there's a very specific formula for who wins the award. It's a quarterback. It's a quarterback who puts up monster numbers, and it's a quarterback whose team

like wins 11, 12 games or more. And so I've got the Chargers winning that. division at 12 and 5. Justin Herbert, if you look at his numbers last year, over 5,000 yards and 38 touchdowns. I mean, that is hard to do. So even if those numbers come down a little bit, he's still going to put up monster numbers. It'll really just come down to whether they win that division or not. So I like Herbert there. Michael Parsons at Plus 1,000 to win defensive player of the year.

We went over that one on a previous episode. I like that one. Damien Pierce to win Offensive Rookie of the Year at Plus. us 1100. I like that one is sort of a long shot. He really could be among the league leaders in rushing yards. And I'm not sure those other offensive players who got drafted early are going to have great seasons. And so those are three of the individual ones I like. Some of the team ones, Bears under five and a half wins. And we went over the Bears earlier. But at plus 125, I really feel like it's going to be a rough go for them unless Justin Fields just proves he's special

and kind of puts the team on his back. The Raiders, under 8 and a half, minus 105. No, the Raiders have the third toughest schedule in the NFL. They've got questions on the offensive line. They've got questions in secondary. I've got questions about Josh McDaniels. Maybe he'll be great as a head coach here. I'm not convinced that he will be.

And so I think the Raiders will be a fun team. I think there will be weeks where they really look like sort of a contending team in the AFC. I think there's enough pieces on offense. for them to be that kind of team. But when I just look at it overall, I've got them as kind of like an 8-9 team finishing in last place in the AFC West.

And then the last team, the Saints, under 8.5. A lot of people like the Saints this year. I'm not in on the Saints. You know, I have huge questions about this drop-off from Sean Payton to Dennis Allen. I mean, Sean Peyton, one of the best offensive minds the league has seen in the last 20 years or so.

Dennis Allen, what, 8 and 20? 28 or something as a head coach with the Raiders. This Chauncey Gardner-Johnson situation, are we going to look back at this as a red flag? You know, it seemed like they had a contract dispute and the Saints way of resolving the contract dispute was basically to trade a 24-year-old defensive back who's been really good and get nothing for him.

Like, this is not like a selling high situation. You know, if you looked at that and said, you know what, they're not going to pay him, they want to get rid of him. That's fine, but you've got to get that value. You can't just give away a player like Chauncey Gardner Johnson and barely get anything in return. And so that is a concern to me when it comes to how they're going to sort of operate there with players who they might have some issues with. I can't understand why people think James Winston is going to come in without Sean Payton and be like an above average quarterback. I do not see that happening.

And so most of the offseason, the Saints were operating like, hey, we're going to be okay. You know, we can operate like we did with Peyton and Breeze. we're going to try to win right now. Then they trade Gardner Johnson, and now you have, what, three members of their secondary from last year ago who are not on the team anymore. And so I've got a lot of questions about the Saints. I think they've got enough talent to be a competitive team.

You know, I'm not saying they're going to win like four or five games, but I've got them, I think, as eight-win team, maybe a seven-win team going under eight and a half. So those are some of the ones that I like going into the season. All right, let's get to two more here. Al Sailor says, if the NFL weren't your profession, just as a fan,

what do you think would be most exciting about looking forward to this season? He also says, by the way, love how you bring laughter to the podcast. Well, thank you. I remember when I first did radio, I said, you know, a listener said

my laugh was annoying and they couldn't listen to the show. So, you know, like 10 years later, this kind of balances that out. So that's very nice of you to say. The Lamar Jackson situation is near the top of my list. I did a podcast with Ben Solac recently

where he's convinced that they're going to make some offensive changes and their offense is going to be really good. I'm a little skeptical. I don't see a great supporting cast for Lamar Jackson, whether we're talking about the past catchers or the offensive line. I'm not convinced that the offense is going to make some kind of monumental leap.

I think it's going to be solid. I think it's going to be okay, probably above average. I don't think it's going to be like a top five, a top eight, top 10 unit. even. And so that to me has so many repercussions because Lamar Jackson, his contract situation sort of hangs over the Ravens season. If that doesn't get done by week one, it could really go in a number of different directions where all of a sudden he's going into next off season, potentially

playing on the franchise tag. If he doesn't get the deal he wants. And so the Ravens to me are a very interesting team. I think their defense is going to be fantastic. I sort of need to see it with their offense. It's been trending in the wrong direction here for a couple of years, and I don't think it's just injuries. I think some of the stuff they're doing schematically, they're still trying to figure it out what kind of offense they want to be. Other storyline I'm excited about, which one of these young quarterbacks is going to emerge as a star? I mean, Trey Lance, maybe, he's probably got that kind of upside. He's in a good situation, but we talked about the Niners earlier. That could go one of two ways. Trevor Lawrence, is he going to get this big bump

with Doug Peterson after being in just this train wreck of a situation with Urban Meyer. I wasn't as high on, you know, Zach Wilson earlier we talked about him, but maybe Zach Wilson or Justin Field surprises and all of a sudden those fan bases feel a lot better. And then Jalen Hertz, I mean, in as good of a situation as probably any quarterback in the NFL with that offensive line, with the weapons around him, with A.J. Brown, is he somebody who's going to put up big numbers this year? And we're going to be talking about him different. going in to next offseason. So those are a couple of things that I'm really looking forward to getting answers to.

Russell Wilson is certainly another one. And then there's just a lot of fun quarterbacks, Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert. Watching all those guys is going to be fantastic. All right, we will close it out with Nick. Nick says, which 1 o'clock and 4 o'clock week 1 games will you be watching live? Which will you watch later? and which will you just skin through the highlights. So, you know, on Sundays, I've got the three TV set up.

I've got two games on. That was a flex, by the way. Two games on. And then you've got the Red Zone channel on at the Capadia household. And I, of course, watched the Thursday night, Sunday night, Monday night live. And so I don't know what games are going to be on here. I have to figure out which games. I mean, Eagles, Lions will be one of them because I'm in the Philly Burbs here.

So I'll have one of those on at 1 p.m. I don't know what the other 1 o'clock game is going to be. in that 4 o'clock window, that Chargers Raiders game has my attention, you know, with the way last season ended with the tie or no tie with, hey, what's this Josh McDaniels offense going to look like? What's this Chargers defense going to look like with Khalil Mack? And so that's one that I'm looking forward to. And so I watch whatever games are on live here along with Red Zone, like I mentioned. I'll watch all the primetime games, Bill's Rams to kick off the season.

That'll be fantastic. Bucks Cowboys on Sunday night. Love it. Bronco Seahawks initially. I was like, why are you giving me Bronco Seahawks and Russ's return to Seattle in week one? But you know what? I don't want to risk an injury to Russell Wilson or anything where we don't get to see that game. So I'm fine with that being on Monday night.

And then, you know, Monday, I just go through all the games that I missed, wake up early, spend all day watching them, taking notes, forming analysis, opinions, and then get ready for Monday night football. So that's how my week one will be spent. All right. Thanks to everyone for the questions. That was fun. doing more mailbags in the future on the Ringer NFL show. Enjoy college football this weekend. Have a great Labor Day weekend when the Ringer NFL show returns.

It'll be game week. Week one for us is finally here. I love it. We will have a lot to talk about. Thanks to Danny Kelly for joining me during the first segment. Thanks to Jesse Lopez for producing additional production supervision from Arjuna Ramgapal and Connor Nevins. We will talk to everybody next week.

Thank you.