The Ringer NFL Show - Week 1 NFL Power Rankings and QB Rankings

Episode Date: September 14, 2022

Jason and Austin are back to discuss how the NFL power rankings have shifted following Week 1. They start by talking about how it’s not time to panic about the Packers (3:39), before talking about the nightmare start for the Cowboys (12:20). Later, they discuss the Dolphins and other teams rising and falling in the rankings (21:34). Finally, they are joined by Steven Ruiz to talk about how his QB rankings will change after Week 1 (34:49). Hosts: Jason Goff and Austin Gayle Guest: Steven Ruiz Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal and Conor Nevins Associate Producer: Carlos Chiriboga Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey everyone. This is Chris Ryan from The Ringer. As many of you have heard by now, we lost a treasured colleague and friend over the weekend. Jonathan Charks passed away on Saturday. John was 34. He leaves behind a wife and a son, and we are obviously mourning his loss and sending all of our love to his family right now. If you go to the ringer.com slash Jonathan Charks, that's J-O-N-A-T-H-A-N-T-J-A-R-K-S. You will find a memorial page for John, which has links to his GoFundMe that benefits his family. family and the amazing writing he did throughout his experience. I encourage you to go there, and if you can, please support the Charks family. Briefly, I will just say that John was among the first people that we hired to work for The Ringer, so he was instrumental in defining the voice and perspective of the site. He has as much to do with what this place is as anyone else. And throughout his experience with Cancer, John communicated eloquently about the challenges

he was facing, both through his writing and his podcasting. You could never stop John from talking about his passions. It's one of the things I loved about him. Over the last few months, whenever we would talk, whenever I would reach out to see how he was doing, I would try to keep it very John focused, and the next thing I knew we would be talking about James Hardin or Better Call Saul. He really loved this stuff. He loved talking about it, celebrating it, debating it, illuminating it. We're going to keep putting out our pods and writing while we grieve, but we wanted to let folks know that John was in our hearts and that his family was in our thoughts. Thanks for listening.

Welcome into the Ringer NFL show. It's Austin Gale and Jason Gough with you. A.G and J.G. We have our power ranking show that we will be bringing to your headtops every single Tuesday. And we finally got some results. Week one is in. The ballots have been counted. We now can either react or overreact to all the things.

And of course, we love lists. We love power rankings. You guys love to click on them. And Austin Gail pours a whole ton of time into them. So, A.G., the fact that the fact that the football wasn't crisp wasn't shocking to me, right? You know, short and preseason these days. You don't really hit that much.

A whole bunch of people in new places, new coaching staffs, new offensive coordinators, new D.Cs all around the league. So the product wasn't as fine-tuned, obviously, as it'll be eight weeks from now. But it was definitely fun to sit back from Thursday to Monday night, take in as much NFL football as possible. The notable games is where we want to start. Obviously, the rises and falls will get to that, and then we'll get to Stephen Ruiz's quarterback rankings.

But what stood out to you in terms of not just what you took in, but how you kind of look at it the day after week one has all, you know, wrapped up. I think first and foremost, it's so important, especially if you're betting week two and week three lines to not overreact to week one, right? It's the first week of the season. And I think it's in your human nature to overreact to the small sample size that we have, the games that we have, the scores that we have. Some people want the Green Bay Packers after getting blown out against the Minnesota Vikings

to be not even a top 10 team in the NFL anymore when they're already, what, nine and a half point favorites over the Broncos and we do. So I do think that you can't overreact in these situations, but key injuries like the Dallas Cowboys, and that's the team we're going to talk about today, you have key injuries, you know, T.J. Watt, you know, losing out or potentially out for the next six to eight weeks with the torn pack, those are reactions that are just, right? Losing Dak Prescott for six to eight weeks is a massive change for the Dallas Cowboys,

but don't focus on the score, don't focus on single game sample sizes. And I think that really does give us a good transition to Green Bay Packers. A team that lost to the New Orleans Saints in week one last year, 38 to 3. And Aaron Rogers went on to win the MVP, right? So don't overreact to this situation. Green Bay right now, number five in my rankings, they go down from four to five. My preseason rankings had them at four. And I'm keeping them at five.

They are a flawed deep postseason contender, in my opinion. The flaws being in the receiving core, Christian Watson, with a terrible drop, the rookie at North Dakota State, who I had in my pre-draft of now evaluation for Watson, attacks the ball like an amputee. This is literally some of the worst ball skills I've seen from a receiver coming out in a long time, especially one that was drafted as highly as him.

So I'm not surprised, right? He is a big, fast, athletic receiver that improved as a route runner over a course of his career at North Dakota State. But really, man, the ball skills are going to be a work in progress. This team also didn't have Alan Lazare, Elton Jenkins, David Bactiari. The offense has injuries, and that is the concern. Not necessarily, I'm not worried long term about this Green Bay Packers team.

I think in the short term, they need to get healthy. And defensively, they need to find a way to stop Justin Jefferson, 184 yards alone for Justin Jefferson in this game. A lot of deep crossers. They played mostly quarters in cover three, very little cover one. And that really just gave a lot of holes for Kevin O'Connell, the first year head coach in Minnesota, to rip it up with Justin. Vikings move up two spots for me from 11 to 9.

Packers down just one spot. Don't hit the panic button just yet. You know how I feel about the Minnesota Vikings. I picked them to win this division to start this season. I thought Kevin O'Connell was going to bring something to a team that had admired and archaic offensive stylings because, let's face it, Mike Zimmer is an old school defensive football head coach, and he treated it as such. He treated Kirk Cousins as strictly a guy who was going to fake a stretch handoff here,

fake a stretch hand off there, get out in the waggle, get out into the boots and do play action. I mean, you saw more motion and more moving in the Vikings' offense in that first week than we see probably five, six games. And the snaps in motion were evident. Justin Jefferson being putting the slot, being putting X, being putting Y, moving all around the field. You're getting him a two-way go as a slot receiver. I mean, it's kind of like when we saw Larry Fitzgerald for the first time, like eight, nine, ten years into his career. Like, wait a minute, you could put these big motherfuckers in the slot like that. And when Justin Jefferson is moving, then everybody has to understand, okay, all alerts are up.

way too many times that one of the three or four best receivers in all of football probably was running free. And when he's running free, you should expect touchdowns and shout out to my fantasy team. This is probably the last time, hopefully that I mentioned it, but Justin Jefferson did exactly what he had to do. As far as the pack's concern, I think the things that you mentioned and you didn't gloss over because you pointed them out, your top two tackles are out, right? And when your top two tackles are out and you're trying to hodgepodge that align together, you know, Aaron Rogers needs not only short hands, but he needs to understand what people are going to be and got to be on time, got to be on schedule, and counting on Randall Cobb and counting on

a bunch of rookies, counting on these guys who you haven't had to count on before and his security blanket being in Las Vegas now and Devante Adams. Yeah, I think I don't know how far we're going to see them drop, but I'm not enthused about the prospects going forward. I know he's done the whole relaxed thing before, but they were proven commodities in other places that you knew would kind of offset some of the issues that they have. I don't know how many proven commodities are going to offset some of the issues they have. Defensively, you can't figure out, hey, we can't let this dude run around like this anymore, right? No, 100%.

Yeah, and don't, you know, we can't discount the fact that Zadaria Smith is no longer over there. Like, their pass rush is solely on Rashon Gary and those boys. Can they live up to that, you know, to that pressure? So I think the packers are good, right? And where you have them now, I think is okay. I look to see how these tackles are going to get attacked throughout the rest of the season. Elton Jenkins will come back, bacteria will come back. But at the same time, you know, hurt tackles this early in the season, you don't get a lot healthier.

And then on top of it, waiting for two guys to come back that you count on and rely on and throwing them in there. I think the Packers are in a little bit more trouble than I would even like to think, you know, because of who Aaron Rogers is, it'll offset some of that stuff. But I saw some things against that Vikings team that I really didn't like. think it's important to note, too, that the markets aren't over adjusting to a week one blowout for Green Bay, right? And I spoke earlier, they're nine and a half point favorites over the Bears, not the Broncos, over the Bears in week two at home. And right now they're minus 280 to make the playoffs on Fandall. And that's a really just line, right?

This is a team that's going to go into the postseason still, even after losing two Minnesota is the favorite to win the NFC North. Relax, as Aaron Rogers would say. Now, the frustration and probably the long-term concern is, can they stay healthy? Can a receiver step up? A.J. Dillon, the running back, led this team in receiving yards with 46 this past week. That's not acceptable. You need Sammy Watkins, Watson, Dobbs, or Cobb to really step up or when Alan Lazard comes back healthy to make some plays. I think it's fair for Aaron Rodgers to be frustrated with this offense because Watson drops and essentially a touchdown after burning Patrick Peterson down the field. And he's still growing comfortability. And we've known from covering Aaron Rodgers for as long as we have, he is a guy that really leans into comfortability with his receivers.

right, he doesn't target rookies. And, you know, you saw Tonian back. He got a lot of lion's share of the targets. The running backs getting targets. I do not think Aaron Rodgers is really going to feel comfortable in this offense without, like you said, his security blanket, Devanti Adams, until he gets more reps with these guys and sees the ball caught. Obviously, Watson, I'm going to mention that drop just one more time.

All right. You mentioned them at number five in that tier of flawed, deep postseason contenders. They drop down one spot. Give me your one through four so we can kind of set the stage for the people for the rest of conversation. season, the Buffalo Bills were plus 600, the favorite in the NFL to win the Super Bowl after a dominant

week one performance to open the season. They're now plus 500 to win the Super Bowl. No change there. They're the number one team in the NFL and rightfully so. Josh Allen was awesome in week one, a near perfect game. Number two, the Kansas City Chiefs, I moved them up from three to two. I think that dominant display

against Arizona was exciting. Obviously 44 points in that game, Mahomes throws five touchdowns, but I shit you not. Patrick Mahomes will never be blitzed. Oh my God. I'm so glad. I cannot believe Vance Joseph is the only defensive coordinator that has ever blitz Mahomes on more than 50% of his dropbacks in those two games that Vance Joseph has called. He's thrown for freaking nine touchdowns. That's insane. I don't understand how you keep going back to the well with that blitz heavy scheme. It was a preposterous. preposterous. I think they had like

33 first downs on like 66 offensive plays. It was insane. A disaster class. I'm like, what are we doing out here? You got Ed Reed back there? Like what the fuck is going on? So yes, all of the narratives are like, oh, no Tyree kill, no problem. He completed nine passes or passes

to nine different receivers, but okay, he will not get an easier game plan than he got against Arizona. I promise you that. Not for the rest of his career. So let's not necessarily pump the brakes on the chiefs. I'm just not ready to put them ahead of the Buffalo bills after what was a dominant display. At three, I have the Tampa Buccaneers, still a really good football team, the favorite to win the NFC, minus 1,200 on Fandle to go to the playoffs. And then I put the Los Angeles Chargers up at four. There was six before that. Chargers

go into four. I'm buying the Justin Herbert hype, and I'm buying that this defense is better. J.C. Jackson, the new quarterback, didn't even play in this game, and they still look dominant. Three picks against Derek Carr, Khalil Mack, the former Raider had three sacks. Defensive line looks improved. I think the chargers are a top five team now. And so then we have Green Bay at five, and then the Los Angeles Rams at six, Baltimore Ravens at seven, and then Bengals at eight. That is your top eight. The first four being the best of the best.

The second four, that's Packers, Rams, Bengals, or Ravens, and then Bengals, those are my flawed deep postseason contenders. That charge of situation is going to be very interesting to watch. Kaleo Mack seems like he was reborn. Obviously going up against his former team, this little added effort there. But Kliu Mack looked like 2015, 2016, Kliobank. And then you've got an all pro seemingly. every level of that defense as well.

I mean, Derwin James, one of the best in the business when he's healthy. You mentioned J.C. Jackson, the place that he's going to make on the ball throughout this year. Justin Herbert, he stays healthy. He's got the receiving court. He's got himself a decent offensive line. This might be one of those things where it's like, is it too early to put this much pressure on him? Because everything is in the make. I want to sit at three with you for a little bit because the team that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers went up against in the Dallas Cowboys is already in shambles.

where do you have the Dallas Cowboys and what do you make of what the Tampa Bay Buccaneers did on defense against that team before Dak Prescott's thumb injury? Because we knew the defense was going to be, on the Cowboys side, was going to be a little shaky to say the least. No Randy Gregory. They didn't really do a lot in the offseason to upgrade that defense.

The offense, offensive line has been banged up. And this is kind of what we thought would happen two years ago when Dak Prescott got this money. At some point, the attrition, not just by injury, but also financially to the rest of the rest of the, of that roster is going to happen. Ezekiel Elliott is another year of taking a pounding as a running back. So when you give a dude that kind of money, you're saying you should be able to cover up

all of these warts. And what we're doing now is looking at some of these younger quarterbacks who have already surpassed Doc Prescott in our mind. And that's before he's going to have this thumb surgery. So where are the Dallas Cowboys? Where were they before that thumb injury? And how far did they fall in your rankings? Yeah.

Before in the preseason, I had them at 12. You know, right ahead of the Philadelphia Eagles, 12 in my preseason rankings, they were minus 225 to make the playoffs and tied with the Philadelphia Eagles as the favorite to win the NFC East at plus 150. Now the entire house is on fire. They are the meme with the dog and the house on fire. And when the quote says, this is fine, guess what? This isn't fine. Odds go from plus 150 to win the division to now plus 600. They were minus 225 to make the playoffs.

Now they are plus 250 to make the playoffs. They're going to be starting Cooper Rush for the next six to eight weeks. Dak Prescott with the thumb surgery probably doesn't. come back until November. And I think, you know, Seth Galena, an analyst at PFF, a former co-worker, I think he summed it up best, you know, the theory that if you put worse players on the football field, your team looks worse. That's what happened.

They lost Lail Collins. They lost Amar Cooper, Cedric Wilson, Connor Williams. Like this, Randy Gregory, this team lost so much talent this offseason and did not add additional talent to really mitigate some of those losses. Jalen Tover, the rookie out of South Alabama, was a healthy scratch. They're running Noah Brown out there. It was an embarrassing receiving core for Dak Prescott. It was a tough offensive line, especially after the Tyrone Smith injury.

Michael Gallup still hurt. James Washington still hurt. This Dallas Cowboys team could not have had a worst start to the 2022 NFL season. I think all Cowboys fans know that it's not necessarily in the tank for them, but they're looking at Sean Peyton, right? Mike McCarthy is a meme at this point. He is being laughed out of the building. Jerry Jones is playing doctor on radio saying Dak Prescott might come back earlier.

It is a comedy club in Dallas right now. They go from 12 to 18, and I even think that might be too generous, right? I just don't want to significantly, significantly overreact. It's still a talented roster. There's still reasons to like the Cowboys say over the Raiders, Patriots, Steelers, commanders. But depending on how this offense looks with Cooper Rush in Week 2

and moving forward, I think I could see them tumbling down even further into these long shot playoff hopefuls, not necessarily a team that could be eyeing the number one overall pick, but definitely a team that could be outside the top 20 sooner rather than later. Yeah, this season is essentially done. If Dak Prescott's missed, you know, a month and a half to two months,

it's going to be too big of a hole, I think, to dig, unless there's some miraculous Jimmy Garapolo trade out there. And right now, you wouldn't be trading from a position of strength in terms of what you have to give up draft capital-wise for that guy. So as we press on here, you mentioned the L.A. team, but you mentioned the Chargers, the Rams. as we, you know, a few days away from seeing what took place for the lid lifter of the NFL season. How do you feel about the L.A. Rams going forward and some of the flaws that they kind of showed on opening night?

So they dropped from five to six in my latest rankings. It's another team where I'm not really excited to hit a full-on panic button. What was a blowout loss to the best team in the NFL, right? It was a blowout loss to the best team in the NFL, arguably the best roster in the NFL. That Buffalo defensive line looks so improved. Von Miller now in the building. He obviously made some plays in that game. So don't hit the panic button yet for the Los Angeles Rams.

I think the principal concern or the long-term concerns for the Los Angeles Rams are in the trenches. Aaron Donald was by himself alone creating pressure on that defensive line. Him and Great Gaines were the only two defensive line and to even create pressure in that game. No edge defender for the Los Angeles Rams created pressure against the Buffalo Bills. That is a problem. And then when you look at the offensive line, Joseph Knopoom, who is replacing the now retired Andrew Whiteler from last season, allowed eight pressures. alone in that game. Andrew Whitworth allowed 20 in 18 games last season.

Like, that's a problem. And I think that the offensive line is a bigger concern than the receiving core. A lot of people talking about losing OBJ, losing Robert Woods. I think this receiving core is still really good. And once Van Jefferson comes back healthy, I think that's going to be a Jefferson, Alan Robinson Cooper Cup combo that can be lethal if Matthew Stafford can have time. I think the offensive line and the defensive line are bigger concerns in Los Angeles.

I'm not hitting the panic button yet. they are 10 and a half point favorites, I think, over the Atlanta Falcons in week two. If they don't cover that spread and look dominant against a bad Falcons team, that is where you start to worry and maybe they come out of the top eight, top 10. All right, let's stay on the West Coast. The San Francisco 49 has brought their tails here to Chicago and they brought the bad weather with them. It was 80 degrees the day before and then all of a sudden the monsoon, tsunami, hurricane,

everything hit Lakeshore Drive and Soldier Field was flooded. The new Bermuda grass didn't stand a chance, but both teams played on it. So, you know, all that stuff about, well, it slowed down. Hey, this is the most exotic run game that we've seen in the NFL in the last couple of years. When Elijah Mitchell goes out, all of a sudden, Debo Samuel is put in a position that he didn't want to be put in and talked about this offseason in terms of the amount of carries he was going to get. How do you feel about Trey Lance, the San Francisco 49 is offense, and Kyle Shanahan after week one? It's really, I think it's really important to say before we get into the Trey Lance discussion,

which is all any talk show is talking about today, any radio station, any ESPN first take is talking about Tray Lance and the Leaves being shortened with Jimmy Garoppel behind him. Before we even get into that, it is so difficult to take anything away from this game. It was a monsoon in one of the sloppiest, ugliest, ugliest fields I've ever seen. Neither offense could really make anything happen. All of the big plays were really unbroken plays down the football field.

No one could find their footing. Justin Fields didn't play well. He had more big plays than obviously Tray Lance and came up when it mattered, but he also did not play well. They could not run the football, and the San Francisco 49ers were, no different. Now, on to Trey Lance. This man has four starts since 2019. In his football career, four starts. He has started four games since 2019. And when that 2019 season that everyone drafted

him for was all against FCS competition, he never played an FBS team. Like, he is one of the more, when you look at the ratio to inexperienced to expectations, I don't think it gets more, it greater than this, right? He has not played a lot of football, let alone play a lot of football against good football teams. And now he's, you know, getting money on the, on the market to win the MVP. He's supposed to take this team to the Super Bowl. I just, I think it's so unfair what's happening with Tray Lance right now. He's reading every tweet. He's reading every website. Who made it unfair to him, though, AG? The Niners, the Niners. The Niners made it unfair on him. They did it to him. I said this, you know, when we talked a couple weeks ago, right? It's,

this is a, he's not a bust. I'm not saying a bus, but teams can hurt or negatively impact players when they set lofty, lofty expectations in the media and on the football field when you trade mortgage the future, essentially, to go get this man. And now Jimmy G's still on this team, so the narratives are being produced. They traded the two first-round picks. Like, Traylance is in such a hard situation. Then you factor in week one was in a monsoon. This guy can't catch a break.

This guy cannot catch a break when the unluckiest players in the NFL. Now, I put my rankings. They go from 9 to 11. They drop two spots, only because I think the Vikings played really well. I think it's important to keep the Denver Broncos there at 10. The Niners are okay for now. Let the team dry off. I don't even think the jerseys are dry.

Let the team dry off before the San Francisco 49ers are called out to walk. And Trey Lance is put on the bench and all those things. Let's see them this upcoming week. They're eight and a half point favorites over the Seattle Seahawks. A Seahawks team that will probably get to later, that averaged 2.1 yards per play in the second half. Everyone wants to have the hot take that Russell Wilson lost to his former team and the team look terrible. Two goal and fumbles, two other red zone possessions and went for field goals. and in the second half, the Seahawks could do nothing.

Gino Smith looked terrible in the second half. Two sacks in that game was dropping way too deep. I think the Seattle Seahawk could be a little bit overhyped, getting some public money. Eight and a half might be too small. I like the Niners to bounce back, and I like Trey Lance to bounce back, and we too. Definitely important to see where George Kittles' groin is at,

and I don't want to ever say that sentence again. And also, you know, it's also important to see what Mike McGlinchie is after being injured last year because there was some, There was some uh-oh moments in that Bears game where Dominique Robinson and the converted wide receiver was getting a lot of pressure and he was lining up around or over Mike McGlenshy with that quad coming off the last year. So going to be interesting to see how that offensive line holds up, Noah Lysha Mitchell going forward, what does this do for Jeff Wilson's role?

What does this do for Debo Samuel's role when it comes to running the football? So an exotic and often vibrant running game, a running game that catches your eye is missing some pieces and also trying to figure some things out on the offensive line. All right. So from there, we go to the Miami Dolphins. Everybody's favorite Madden team actually looks like everybody's favorite Madden team out there on the field. Tyree Kill, Jalen Waddle, doing the Wado dance to a Tung of I allure, performing admirably

so. How much stock do you put into what you saw in the Dolphins in week one? Or is this what you expected? And will there be some kind of market correction as the season carries on? So I said on this podcast last week, I made two predictions. I said the Miami Dolphins are probably going to jump up a little bit. I think I might be too low on the Miami Dolphins. They go from 17 to 13 in my power rankings.

The other prediction I made, I think I'm too low on the Seattle Seahawks. And they made a little bit of a jump after just not playing terribly, right? I think they were viewed from the markets and from the public as a dormant in the NFL. And they jumped up a bit after what was a objectively better performance in what people were expecting. There were six and a half point dogs in that game at home. Going back to Miami, they didn't necessarily super. exceed my expectations? I think what was exciting is that they met them. Right? Like, Tootung of Iloa played well. Mike McDaniels went for that fourth and seven. Jalen Wattle scores a

touchdown. Tyree Kill making multiple really, really impressive plays in this game. The offensive line looks improved. And defensively, they really bottled up Mack Jones and this Matt Patricia led offense. I think this Miami Dolphins team is very legit. I'm not putting them in the top 10. I think you need to see a larger sample size of this McDaniels offense. You need to see a larger sample size of two of pulling the strings. But really encouraging start for the Miami me dolphins. I think there's a lot of reason to believe that this team offensively, including McDaniels, who I don't know if I brought this up on this podcast, I talked to a ton at the combine. He, among a sea of coaches in the NFL, is not drinking at the combine. That is a

feat. That's an edge in this league, my guy. If you are not drinking as an NFL head coach, that is an edge in this league. I don't care who knows it. Mike McDaniel being a sober fella at the combine this past year is an edge. And I think we're going to continue to see him rise up the I mean, that just means all the stories are shitty. That's all that means to me. All right. Let's go to the Monday Night Football game. Let me tell you this, because I'm going to talk about this on my personal pod, the Fulgo podcast. But I grew up where Monday Night Football was an institution. Like, I was the nerd-ass kid who recorded on VHS tape.

And for kids out there, go ahead and Google what VHS tapes are. But I recorded on VHS every single Monday, the Monday Night Football, matchup and then would watch it every night until Sunday rolled around because Al Michaels and Dan Durendorf and all of Frank Gifforda, those are my guys. So the fact that Monday night football rolls out with Troy Aikman and Joe Buck and it's a game where Russell Wilson is returning back to Seattle. The atmosphere was set. He gets his ass boot in the beginning. By the way, Seattle fans are assholes for that. Like I understand that you got to do the 12th man thing, but y'all some assholes. And then the Seattle Seahawks PR team putting out, you know, shout out to one of the greatest Seattle Seahawks quarterbacks of all time.

Like, wait a minute. Who else is in that team picture? Dave Craig? Like, what do we talk about? Like, how hard are we going to go on the Russell Wilson slander? So I was looking forward to the atmosphere, looking forward to the environment. And the game was entertaining, sloppily played, but it was entertaining. Gino Smith, Russell Wilson, the Denver Broncos, what they're going to be in that division.

how do you see those two teams going forward from week one? Because we can get into the Nathaniel Hackett decision-making process and some of the worst clock management I've ever seen. But what did you think of the last night's game and where does this put both those teams in your rankings? We have to start with the banana land that was the end of that game. I put in my notes here, biggest effing concern isn't Russ, the defense, it is Nathaniel Hackett.

That was some of the worst late game management I've ever seen. And it is in the same week that Scott Frost, the late game king, got fired at Nebraska. I could not believe. So I'm going to walk the play by player. If you didn't watch my night football, you didn't. If you didn't record it on your VHS, come right here. I got it right here. It's third and 14.

It's third and 14. Russell Wilson gives Javonte Williams, I think, is 12 target of that game. I think he finished with the team lead of 11 receptions. Third and 14, they dump it off to Javante Williams. Brakes a couple tackles, moves it to gets it to fourth and five. Essentially picks up nine yards on that one. And he is tackled with one. left on the clock.

Stays in bounds, by the way. stays in bounds. So that's also part of the coaching. Yes. That your player didn't know that you should got his ass out of bounds. Nathaniel Hackett then with 102 left, all three timeouts. But let's give him two seconds. Say, you know, kind of fumbling around.

Say he could have stopped it at a minute, a minute left. He doesn't. Clock keeps ticking. Peyton Manning on the Manning cast calling for timeout, calling for timeout. He knows they should be using one of their three, one of their three timeouts. Just let you know, J.G. You can't take those home with you. There's no left to points or the timeouts

and you keep them in your back pocket. So he doesn't call the timeout. And then to avoid their third delay of game penalty, their third one of the year of the game, they call a timeout right as the play clock is going at 20 seconds. Then opt to kick a 64-yard field goal that I think has been made twice in the history of the NFL. Two for 41.

Two for 41. I cannot believe that Nahakken did that. And I think the decision to kick the field goal with 20 seconds left is not nearly. not nearly as egregious as the decision to hold your timeouts. It made no sense. If you call a timeout as soon as Javante Williams is tackled with 1.2, one minute left on the clock,

and you give yourself an opportunity to consider this fourth and five, get a good play call in. The odds are so much better that you move the ball forward. And if you don't get it, you have more time on the clock for other things to happen. I just cannot believe that end-of-game scenario. Now, that is a real problem area for Nathaniel Hackett. He's still a first-year head coach.

I think he improves on that. For the rest of the game, I thought Denver played well. Call me crazy. 6.2 average yards per play offensively. That's top four in the NFL in week one. Defensively, yeah, they got beat up by Gino Smith early on. They couldn't really create pressure against two really good rookie tackles and Abe Lucas and Charles Cross.

But in the second half, that offense averaged 2.1 yards per play. Gino Smith was 6 for 10 for 31 yards and I had a sack fumble that Charles Cross caught at the air. This Denver team is fine. Nathaniel Hackett is not. We need that to be fixed. And I am so disappointed. It's the wrong word.

Maybe surprised that in that postgame press conference, I would have gone up there and be like, I'm an idiot. I completely shit to bed and that's on me. I wouldn't make excuses for McManus or any of that stuff. It's like, no, I should have called time out. That was bad. And that I think players would buy into and all that stuff. I think it's a huge learning moment for Hackett,

but not necessarily a massive detriment to where Denver is cascading down these rankings. When it comes to other teams and other fan bases, I'm just here for the story and the entertainment value. And if you're going to take the ball out of the hands of the dude who is, having his homecoming, $260 some odd million richer, if you're going to take the ball out of his hands,

thank God that you did it in that mind-numbingly dumb way. Like, I'm glad it wasn't, because he had made the decision. That's the other part. He had made, he knew what he was going to do. I don't think there was consternation of,

okay, are we going to give the ball to Russ here? No, no, it seemed as if he had made the decision to kick the ball. He just forgot to stop the clock. And I was wondering, and it's the first time, by the way, that I've watched the Manning Cass, because Shannon was on it, right?

And I've heard people talk about how fun it is to watch and all that. I just, I don't think of it while I'm watching Monday night football on the regular ESPN broadcast. So I switched over last night and to see, see Payton actually like, all right, now it's a good time to call time out. Or you can do it right now. And then you start to see him actually, like the quarterback in him starts to jump up in him. He's calling time out from his office or studio, whatever the hell he is. Shannon Sharpe's having a tough time watching the, seeing the TV because it looks like he's squinting. And Eli Manning's just sitting there.

all agape as it is in the first quarter anyway. And I'm like, wait a minute. Is this happening? Are you going to take, like, if you call those timeouts and then say, hey, we just had to get it together. I wanted to make sure this is the right play. But to call the timeout and then to send your kicker out there on top of it, oh shit, man, that shit was beautiful television.

Like, I can't wait. I cannot wait for it. And you know why he didn't say what he said? Or what do you think he should have said at AG? It's because that is your first interaction with those players in that moment. That is your first inter, your first post. game interaction. And some people can't wait to be accountable, can't wait to acknowledge

their wrongdoing. And some people can't wait for you to acknowledge it at some point down the line, right? We're always the last to know that we've lost our integrity. So in this moment, he's looking at those cameras saying, hey, y'all, we just need to play a lot better knowing inside that his ass needs to coach a lot better. That is a elementary kind of coaching decision. But there's a difference between being a play caller and being the CEO of a sideline when everything is flying.

exactly. I've never played in the NFL. I played in the high school for four years, but that's about it. But I'll tell you what, I would have appreciated it. Like, I think a lot of, you would appreciate accountability in that postgame press conference. It's just hand up. Like, dude, I should have called a fucking timeout. I should have called timeout. That's on me. That's on me. We're moving past that.

We're going to be better than that. We played good in this game. We're moving past it. And to go with like McBanis said he could hit it. It's like, stop. Just stop. Please stop. And I do think that it's not that Peyton Manning's asking for a timeout,

a guy who's, you know, a hollow-fane quarterback in this league. It's that your grandma at home on the couch is probably calling a timeout in that situation. Right. And again, like you said, everything's flying around, all that stuff. But you had 40 seconds, essentially to say, like, wait a second. He didn't call it at a minute. He didn't call it at 50. He didn't call it at 30.

Wait it until they were about to get their third delay a game and call it at 20. It just made no sense. All right. Taking a look at some of these other teams, where would you like to go right now? Or would you just like to tell people who the worst team in the NFL is in your estimation? Let's close up shop with the worst team in the NFL. I think it's important reminder too. Probably should have said this at the top.

If you go to Ringer.com right on the homepage, you can check out the full list of these power rankings. Jason and I are going to be hitting on these every single week, trying to mix up how we talk about the ups and downs of the NFL as we go on. but go check out the full list on the ringer.com. The last team, they go from 28 to 32, a pitfall. I think a lot of it is because of the injury is Zach Wilson. The New York Jets are the league's punching bag. And I was crying, laughing at Robert Sala, the coach of the Jets,

saying that he's going to keep receipts for people making fun of the Jets. Bro, this team stinks. This team stinks, and you're starting quarterbacks hurt. I don't know what to tell you. You asked Joe Flacko to throw for like 45 times in this game and still lost. It was baffling to see kind of solid turn heel like that. And you saw Arthur Smith do that with Atlanta. You guys are bearing us in May.

You're bearing us now. We've got 16 more games to go. Getting frustrated with the media, I always find hilarious because looking at this Jets team, looking even at this Falcons team, you are the dormant of the league and you are not exceeding those expectations. The Jets, especially not with Zach Wilson out, really concerned with this defense, still not creating a lot of pressure. And also giving up too many big plays.

The secondary still really, really bad. I worry about the Jets. And I think it's one of the worst situations in the NFL too, even looking long term, because you won't have this full season opportunity to see Zach. Wilson and really get a picture of, is he the long-term answer? That is super concerning. Right now, the Jets, 32nd, right behind the Houston Texans. Yeah, battling with the media in my travels, in my 21 years of doing this,

it is always a fruitless venture because in the end, all you're doing is pissing off the people who are going to have insight and stories coming out of your locker room because there are going to be some angry people at some point, whether you have a Super Bowl contender or you have a team that's going to go one in 16. It does not matter. Things will come out of that locker room that aren't too fun for you. And all you do when you talk shit to the media or about the media or talk about keeping receipts, all the receipts that you need are in the win-loss column player.

And when Robert Salas starts to do that, it reeks to me of a desperate, desperate man. He understands that the water is already coming in on the boat one weekend. And he's going to have to bail at some point. I don't see the percentage in Everett saying, I'm keeping receipts on the media. Like when John Moran did that shit walking off in game three against the Golden State Warriors, like,

ah, you still got some time to go, player. You can keep all the receipts you want. You could do the whole nobody ever believed in this thing. But guess what? It's up to you to make people believe in you. And after that week one performance, nobody in their right fucking mind should believe in the New York Jets.

After the defense that you've seen that team play for a year now underneath Robert Salah, nobody should, unless you turn it around or unless you show those results, your results are your receipts. That's the receipts that everybody's keeping on you. So it's never, I understand, you know, you're in a corner and you got a punch until the beating is done. But, yeah, you get a chance to prove it every single week. And after the first week, talking that kind of nonsense, it ain't going to be good.

It's not going to be pretty in New York Jetsland for a little while. Your results are your receipts. My new tattoo, I might get that across my chest here, Jason. I think I like that. I like that. I like that. Your results are your receipts. What a fantastic week one.

We are already talking about tattoos. of bad slogans. I have already mentioned George Kittles groin, and you said that we are in Banana Land. So I feel like this is a great start to week two coming up here. As we continue this pod here on the Ring of NFL show coming up next, we will chat with Stephen Ruiz. We'll see how these quarterback rankings have changed, if at all, after week one's results. All right, it's time for us to bring in Stephen Ruiz. He's like the featured artists on this mixtape every single week here on our Ringer NFL show Power Rankings list vibe that we do. And we bring in Stephen Ruiz because he's the man who tells us how good Gino Smith is and Gino Smith backs it up for

first half of football. And then the Denver Broncos defense and Patrick Sertan start to get a little physical, start to play a little bit of different ball out there. D.K. Metcalf did not have the game that I thought he would have, especially in the second half. So Steve Irweese, I hate to start with Gino Smith, throw you, but give us that top 10 and then we're going to get into what the young man from West Virginia did in his first start back as a starting quarterback. So yeah, we shook up the top five. Patrick Mahomes is now number one. I made a mistake not having number one before.

I mean, Aaron Rogers had won two MVP. He had a great year last year. Mahomes had the shaky year, especially in the middle of the year. But man, he made me look like an idiot, didn't he? And what I want to say about Mahomes' performance, it's like we hadn't seen something like that from him. Like we saw the deep stuff like his first couple years. We saw the underneath stuff last year.

this game was like mid-range Mahomes. It was like he had like the late career Jordan evolution already. Like he's already got the mid-range game now. He gets better every year. But behind him now is Justin Herbert. He jumps from number three to number two. Perfect game. Another perfect game.

Did not make one mistake. Really the only reason they didn't score more points is because the offensive play caller was just, you have Patrick Mahomes and it's like they're trying to get five yards every play. I really don't understand. They took the foot off the gas in the fourth quarter. I think Joe Lombardi, the offensive coordinator, admitted that after the game. And then number three, Josh Allen. Like, I know Thursday was a couple days ago now, but, man, that looked different too.

That looked different. He's, he's evolved too. He's leveled up. He looks like he's getting rid of the ball quicker. He's more accurate. That's a scary thought. Those three quarterbacks. Say it with me, Cam L way.

I'm not like, I'm the biggest cam stand on earth. And I'm not pushing back against that. Cam Elway. Josh Allen is a monster. If Cam had organizational support throughout his career, I think this is what he ends up looking like. Unfortunately, he did it. And now we get to see with Josh Allen, which is still fun.

But those three for me, like far and away, tier one, everyone else is playing behind them. Everyone else is trying to catch up. But just to round out the top five, we have Aaron Rogers dropped a fourth. I didn't want to drop him too much. It was just one game, although the tape is a little concerning. And then number five, Tom Brady, who I think he just stood pat

like he it wasn't like a bad game wasn't a good game he just did what he what he usually does but that's the new top five I have no disagreements with that top five I do think that the young guns up top Mahomes Herbert Allen really in any order depending on the week are the tier one

of quarterbacks in this league the future of the NFL and I think you Herbert like you said near perfect game Josh Allen even though he had the two picks near perfect game one of those interceptions wasn't even his fall I think that Mahomes I was bringing this up earlier in the show. Can we talk about that Cardinals game plan?

That was banana. It made no sense. It made no sense what they did to Patrick Holmes, which I do think unleashed a lot of that. Bance Joseph is the only defense coordinator that's ever blitzed that much against Mahomes. And now he has nine touchdowns in those two games and over 50% dropbacks. Like, I do think Mahomes looked unreal. But the Cardinals kind of gifted him a lot of that. This is one thing I'll say.

If you look at the splits between blitzes and non-blitzes, the blitzes actually were far more effective. The only average, like, 5.6 yards per attempt on the blitzes. The problem was it was like third and short most of the time when they did it. And it was first down. So the play worked. But really like when you watch the film like Mahomes outside of the Cardinals game plan, I agree with you.

It was very naive. I kind of expected it just because that's what Van Gogh does. But still there are a lot of plays where the Cardinals actually have are doing a decent job on defense. And Mahomes just it doesn't matter. He throws a sidearm pass. He like throws going across his body. Just a ridiculous game.

And there was no deep balls. We didn't even see the deep ball yet. He did not complete a pass over 25 yards. I don't think maybe I got that. No, he did the one, the deep over to Kelsey, but no like vertical shots. And I, if they can unlock that part of this and then you get mid-range Mahomes and then he's still hitting the checkdowns on time, who, buddy? Who do you see as some of the droppers in your next published rankings at the quarterback

spot? Are we talking Joe Burrow? Are we talking, you know, are we talking, Kyle Murray? Where are we at in terms of some of the people who were high up in your list? Maybe not, you know, top 10, top seven, but guys who after week one, you might have to take it back to the drawing board a little bit. Joe Burrow, I'm going to give Joe Burrow one another week. Just because he was bad in ways that I don't think he's going to be bad going forward. Like, he made some bad decisions.

And he's usually a smart quarterback. I do think the arm strength, like, I've been beating that drum for a couple years now. That's where it really showed up. He was trying to make some throws into tight windows and he just didn't have the juice. All three interceptions, same coverage, same kind of decision where he's throwing. into a tight window and he just didn't have it. But my biggest dropper, I think, is going to be Matt Stafford. He's the one that I'm coming away from week one and I'm concerned.

And it wasn't just the elbow. The elbow looked weird. The way he threw, his throwing motion didn't look normal. There was a noticeable lack of zip on some throws to the outside. I thought he still made some good throws. But I think that's the thing when your elbow is messed up. Like, it's inconsistent. And it's like, I can't make these certain throws.

I could still make these ones. And I think that's something to watch. And then if you watch the tape, there was some open throws downfield and he just didn't make them. So the combination of those two things, I think it was the offensive line was really getting to him, but I'm not optimistic about this team going forward. So I'm like confident in dropping him a few places in these rankings.

And then another guy I would say is Mack Jones. And again, not really not entirely his fault, just playing in that offense. It really highlights his weaknesses, I think. When you have a coaching staff that doesn't know what they're doing, like here's here's how I look at it. I cannot critique high-end art. Like, I'm not, I don't know anything about art.

But if I see a 12-year-old drawing a horse and it's terrible, I can be like, that's terrible. That's the Patriots offensive game plan. Like, I could tell when it was like a 12-year-old made it. It was bad. But Mack just, he just doesn't have that plan B where he can create offense on his own. And when you watch guys like Mahomes and Allen and Herbert and see where this league is going, it's hard to feel optimistic about him being like a long-term answer.

that you're excited about. Stephen Ruiz, shitting on your kids' creativity. Week 1 already in the books. What else do we expect in terms of some of your quarterback ranking some names that we haven't tapped into as of yet? Before we get into, two quarterbacks I wanted to get into was Derek Carr and Kirk Cousins. I think they're in a similar tier of quarterback.

Kirk Cousins had a really good performance. First time we've seen with Kevin O'Connell. Justin Jefferson goes for 184 yards in a touchdown. It looks really good. And he was under pressure a lot in that game and made a lot of it. And then with Carr, I thought when you talk about uncharacteristic decisions, like, I thought a lot of these picks were just not what he normally

is doing. And I thought there was reasonably that, you know, my God, like Derek Carr is crumbling away, and Devonzi Adams is all that he has, and he's, you know, forcing the ball to him and all that stuff. Are you moving Carr down and cousins up, or you kind of having standing pat with those two guys? I think I'm standing pat with those two guys. They're going to hover around the same area.

I agree with you. Like, the thing with Carr's performance, those interceptions were really ugly and really weird. But, like, around those interceptions, he wasn't that bad. He was averaging nine yards per attempt at one point. I thought he was making good decisions for the most part. It was just those three plays.

So I'm not going to drop him. Kirk, it's still same old Kirk, Kirk, man, still play action and throwing it downfield, the open guys. I know Kirk played well and he avoided pressure and he made good throws that were there. Like, he took

advantage of the opportunities. But it's the same old Kirk that we've seen. And I'm not going to change my opinion on him unless I see him do something that I didn't know he could do. Playoff game. And under pressure, in a playoff game. Right.

I think that game was really easy for him. I'll say that. I think the coaching staff did a really good job. And to his credit, he took advantage of it. James Winston, you know, Jalen Hertz, like any, Jacoby Reset, any of the J names that you want to focus in on at this moment? I'll give you, well, this isn't like,

I don't know if it's going to make for good podcast discussion, but we are adding, we are adding two quarterbacks to the to the rankings this week. Joe Flacco gets in after his, what was it, 58 dropbacks? No, that's not a good start. I watched all 58 of those things, man. Sorry, bro. They were rough.

But the thing is, it was like so bad it was good. Like, it was legitimately entertaining. Oh, it was fun bad. Okay. It was fun bad. It was fun bad in like the Carson Wentz. I'm going to throw an interception left-handed. It was like, this guy approaches playing football with the enthusiasm of like a stone teenager

working at a grocery store. He does not want to be there. He wants to get the hell out of there. He just wants to get paid. And then we got Cooper Rush. I went back and watched Cooper Rush's one start in the NFL for these rankings. And let me say this. He's better than Joe Flacco and it's not even close.

All right. He's better than Joe Flacco and it's not even close. If Cooper Rush had any arm, if he had any arm strength, he'd be a decent backup. Unfortunately, he has my arm strength. And I dislocated my shoulder over the weekend. There you go. There you have it. The health update from one, Stephen Ruiz.

I know I love ending a pod on Joe Flacco and Cooper Rush. I don't know about you guys, but, you know, ladies and gentlemen, week one, the rankings are there for you at the rigger.com. Steve Ruis' quarterback rankings will be up. He's got the fancy, you know, the fancy decals and the fancy symbols for everybody. He's got the washed watch, which pretty much should be tattooed to me at all times. He's got all the other stuff going on. So, hey, man.

enjoy this week coming up here. You are going to catch it from a lot of NFL fan bases the same way AG is catching it this morning. Give out you guys a Twitter feed so they know exactly where to send all the hate. You can find me at Austin Gale underscore. You send it all to him.

No, yeah. Dean Steven Ruiz. AG, what about you, man? Austin Gale underscore or you send it anywhere you want. I'll find it. I'll find it. Yeah, he'll find the hate. and don't follow me and don't send me a damn thing. This has been, this has been, what is it, now week two of the ringer NFL show here

on this Tuesday, we give you your power rankings, we list the quarterbacks for you every single week. We're going to switch up, you know, we're going to do coaches sometimes, we're going to do rookies sometimes. We did the teams because the season has given us some results and we'll go from there. So for Stephen Ruiz, for Austin Gale, for our guy Los. Shout out to Carlos jumping in with us now from here on now. I'm Jason Gough.

Thank you guys for listening to the Ringer NFL show. We will talk to you next Tuesday.