The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Annual NFL Top Five at Every Position With Sheil Kapadia. Plus, Stanford Steve Previews Texas–Ohio State and CFB Week 1.

Episode Date: August 26, 2025

Russillo is joined by Sheil Kapadia for the annual rankings of the top five at every position in the NFL! They go through each position and discuss what Josh Allen needs to do to be considered the best QB in the NFL. Then, Stanford Steve comes on to share the teams that could have the biggest variance this season, preview the biggest matchups of Week 1, and reveal the games he’d most like to attend this season. Plus, Life Advice with Ceruti and Wargon! (0:00) Welcome to The Ryen Russillo Podcast! (0:40) Sheil Kapadia joins the show (1:11) Ranking the five best players at every position, starting with QB (4:28) Is Josh Allen the best QB in the NFL? (5:47) RB (11:10) WR (14:57) TE (19:31) O-line units (23:06) DT (26:58) DE (32:14) CB (36:24) S (40:39) LB (49:51) Russillo welcomes in Stanford Steve (52:12) Teams that have the biggest variance in college football (1:02:11) How should we feel about Dante Moore? (1:06:39) Thoughts on Ohio State–Texas (1:09:39) Notre Dame–Miami Preview (1:14:20) Don’t sleep on Texas A&M or USC (1:17:59) The game Steve most wants to go to this season (1:25:52) Stanford Steamers win totals (1:33:21) Is Ryen still a Bears fan? (1:42:41) Life Advice! (1:47:11) Should I kayak to work? (2:00:10) My ex-girlfriend demanded money from me Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, livestreams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Sheil Kapadia and Stanford Steve Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, Mike Wargon, and Jonathan Frias Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How much football can you handle? Do you want even more football than you can handle? We're doing top five at every position in the offensive line units, which you'll probably would do it every year. So a lot of fun conversations about trying to figure out who the five best in the NFL are at each position. And some Stanford Steve picks. We're talking college ball. he's on the road. We go over the rank

matchups in week one of this season and pick the game we most would want to be at in 2025. Excited to do this annual top five at every position in the NFL. Shield Capote who joins us from a little bit of free time from the Ringer NFL show now five

days a week. My protect the shield pitch I guess we'll have to wait another year for that one because considering this is you protecting football content. daily resources. What's up, man? That's right. Five days a week, you know, 30 to 35 minute episodes on the Ringer NFL show. So there you go. That's my plug. Now we can get to the good stuff. So the way I do this is, you know, I looked at, shout out to Jeremy Fowler and ESPN.com

for having some of the executive stuff and they had voting at all the positions. And they go through the top 10 and then other people being mentioned. I checked out a lot of the PFF stuff as well. And there's a massive amount of disparity between what executives have voted and then what some of the grading stuff is. You can find things you like and complaints with all of it if you want. And then I think there's just a little bit of an eye test and status thing that I combine into mine. She'll knows it far better than I do. Let's start with quarterbacks. I already spent an hour on this with Sandoz, so I don't think this needs to be something we spend a lot of time on. For me, it's Mahomes, Alan Burrow, and Lamar. You could probably flip Lamar with guys in front,

maybe even Burrow if you wanted to. I think the real question comes down to fifth, who you think the fifth best quarterback is in the NFL. Yeah, I mean, the fifth quarterback spot has just been a gift from the content gods this all season. I mean, how many TV segments, podcasts, just the fifth spot, you know, you can take it any direction you want. I didn't learn my lesson from last year. So last year, I went CJ Stroud.

And I was like, I love this guy, rookie ascending. And of course, he takes a little step back. This year, I'm making the same, maybe making the same mistake, maybe not. I went Jaden Daniels, number five. And I thought you could make a case for a bunch of guys. I'm curious to see who you have Herbert, Hertz, Stroud, love, if you want. I looked at it and it felt like Daniels did one of the hardest things the quarterback has to do, which is lead a top five offense when you don't have a great supporting cast.

And I don't think he had a great supporting cast last year. I think he lifted everyone up. So as I was saying, hey, if you swapped out Daniels for Herbert, would they have been as good? If you swapped out Daniels for another guy, would they have been as good? I kept coming back to, I don't think so. I think he was the engine there. So, yeah, I have Mahomes, Allen, Lamar, Burrow, and then Daniels has five. If we stay on the fifth thing, like I really liked in Sandos piece that Stafford was a tier one guy.

It felt almost like a lifetime achievement award for a quarterback where I feel like he was dating far too much because of the obsession we have with just looking at wins and losses to quarterbacks and not being fair about what's happening around him. But if you're talking about fifth best at his age, you know, I could see the argument against it. I still feel good about Herber. I know the taste in everybody's mouth after a playoff game like that. You know, it doesn't feel great to say this starting up. I mean, if you redrafted the entire position, I don't know that he would go sixth.

I would imagine he would go fifth. The Jaden call, he was fifth from the executives in the NFL on the ESPN page. I just think it's a little soon for that. It hurts. I would not put fifth. So I guess I'm still going to stick with Herber, although it feels a little stubborn. Yeah, and there's a case for it, obviously, I think, I test, he matches it. He has all the tools.

I think you're right with the redraft. I love Terbert early in his career, and I still like him, but I feel, I'm like, I feel like we should have been further along by now. You know, there should have been more of a moment, and I know it's not all his, fault. And even statistically, it's not as impressive in recent years as maybe you would want it to be. But I'm with you. He's in the conversation. Okay. I think we do need to address this a little bit because I saw some of the social breakout from some of it are Fearless Leader Bill going with Allen at number one. I understand the statistical argument against Mahomes the last couple of years. If you dig into some of the QBR stuff, I think he's eighth over the last two years.

there's no quarterback I would rather have. I can't even fathom wanting anyone else at that position if Mahomes is an option. And if you really want to dig into some of the other stuff, like it's, I think last year he's number one QBR and third downs. I mean, if there's a third in seven, I cannot understand how anybody could watch a sport and want anyone other than Mahomes in that position. Yeah, that's become popular in recent years, whereas we're always trying to figure out how to analyze quarterbacks is what do they look like when the defense knows you have

to pass. And when it's third and long last year with a bad offensive line, with a bad wide receiving group, guess who was the best quarterback in third, third and long? It was still Patrick Mahomes. So I'm with you. That was my argument with Bill, was that like someone has to take it from him. And they didn't, I don't think they took it from him last year. Now, by the end of this season, maybe there's a case. Maybe we're saying Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, But for now until someone does that, I still feel like he's done more with less the last two years. Okay, running back. It's a position that we've kind of spent a lot of time on being disappointed by.

I think in past years, we've done this, like, who am I putting down fifth? Do I feel good about whoever's fifth? And for whatever status thing that we're talking about here, I do think, you know, it's part of the Jaden thing. But, you know, if you're going to be considered one of the five best in your position, I probably need to see a couple years from it. But then again, I kind of conjured myself on some of the guys that have been heard a little bit. But the list starts with Saqon. I mean, what he did last year, MVP push. I don't know how anybody else who get a vote is the number one running back in the league.

Yeah, I've got Sequin one. I think the first year we did this, I went with Bejohn before he had played a snap. And you almost, I think, kicked me off the podcast that year. But it also spoke to how weak the class felt. Yeah, it did. I was like, yeah, I would take him over these other guys. I don't need to see a snap. I'm not doing that this year with Ashton,

Gentente, though I thought about it because I thought it was a fun bit. But I went Sequin, Bijon Robinson, Jemir Gibbs, Derek Henry, and Christian McCaffrey. To me, still, I know he was injured last year, but let's see what it looks like this year. He's still, what, 28, 29 years old? He could be number one if we're doing this next year. I came into this thinking I wouldn't have Henry, too. And it sounds like you're okay with it. He's 31 years old.

But considering what he did last year, and he's just a couple numbers here, he's got 3,654 yards after contact since 2020. That's 945 more yards after contact than any other running back in the NFL. So we're talking about almost 1,000. If you want to look at some of the decline, you know, maybe going into this, going into 24, I'd be like, okay, you know, we'll see, see what happens. And it's not so much of a team moving on from somebody like Henry, because Tennessee was just a mess. So it's almost like you don't, you shouldn't even have him.

Like it doesn't really make a lot of sense for you guys to have him. But almost 2,100 total yards last year, 18 touchdowns. I thought I was going to put him three, but he was just too good last year for me to have another ring back ahead of him. Yeah, I'm done trying to predict the cliff with Derek Henry. Sometimes there's a guy who's an outlier who's the exception, led the NFL in 20 plus yard runs last year. You mentioned it the yards after contact.

The situation got better for him when you're with Lamar Jackson. The running back's always going to have an edge. But, man, he maximized all the potential that was there. So he's got to be in the top five until he has that year where you're like, okay, now the decline is showing. I went Gibbs three, but John at four, maybe feels a little dirty after 1900 total yards and him after a disappointing rookie season where it just felt like it wasn't even him. It was just opportunities. If you want to go with him over Gibbs, you'd say, okay, well, this is somebody who has over 300 carries. Gibbs is at 250.

But the yards per carry favors Gibbs. feels like just his explosiveness flips the field in a way where, you know, when they took him in the first round, it wasn't a knock on Gibbs. I think a lot of us knew how special it was. It was just like, is this position really this much of a priority to continue to draft this way, especially at the time with the Lions who've done a really good job putting together this roster through the draft the last few years and adding golf. But there's just this dangerous feeling when he has any kind of space with the ball that I think I'm favoring a bit going into this year, knowing that Robinson, if he continues on this,

if he improves on what we just saw here from, he's going to be in the conversation for number two. So I'm now outraged by any of it. It's just a preference for the times where like when I think of Gibbs in space, how scary it feels. Yeah, it feels like if your offense is stuck, he's one play away from just changing the game with a 25-yard run or something. Also, as a receiver, I mean, he's averaging like 10 yards per reception for a running back, which is a very, very, very, uncommon. I mean, that, you know, usually good running backs are usually around seven or eight. And so he's explosive in the passing game as well. Bejohn's kind of, he's still explosive, but he's more of a sustainer. Like one of the stats I look at is success rate, which is just

how often are you producing a positive play for the offense? And he leads all running backs in that one. So he's more of a sustainer. I think Gibbs is more of a big play threat. So it just depends on what you're looking for there. I went McCaffrey fifth. And it felt like, hey, I'm just going to keep him in the top five because everyone I know he's right. this isn't even a question. Last year was his first season ever in his career with zero touchdowns. We know the injury risk. And even going back to the Niners, making the trade for him, it's like, man, this guy just has a really hard time staying healthy. So does this make a lot of sense for this kind of investment? They make it to a Super Bowl. It's totally fine,

especially in that offense and him being a toy with Shanahan. But I don't, I also think it speaks to the drop off of the position because like you're going to sit there and say, how can you guys have McCaffrey fifth? Okay. Well, like, who, who, tell me who like i was i was tempted to go bucky irving yeah he'll approach here because i just love them but i i don't know that that's fair to take away mcalfrey's top five status after that kind of down year and put in a rookie yeah i'm with you but bucky irving i mean josh jacobs has had good years but i'm still like yeah i'm trying not to overweight what happened last year unless it's a guy who's in his mid 30s or something where you like all right that was the start of

something i think mcalfrey give you one more year two more years a very high high level play. He's got, he's got that ceiling. So I left him in there as well. 29 in June. Receivers are coin toss at the top. So I'll let you go first. I went Chase. I feel like you went out on a ledge and had Chase, I want to say last year or the year before. You're looking good for that one. He had the Triple Crown last year. So yeah, you can't go wrong with Chase or Jefferson. I went Chase 1, Jefferson 2, really just recency bias. I'll admit to it. Chase over Jefferson. I had AJ Brown 3. I had CD Lamb 4. thought those were a strong four and then five.

It's not, you know, it's not going to get the same TV segments as the quarterback thing. But you could do a nice, you know, eight minutes or something on who's the fifth best wide receiver in the NFL. I ended up going Pooka Nakua. I think if you look at a lot of the efficiency numbers and just the film watching him play, he's like when he's out there and he's healthy and he's running routes, he is more productive than almost any other wide receiver in the NFL. So thought about Nico Collins.

You could make an Amman-Ross, St. round case. I think this time next year, we might be talking Brian Thomas Jr. I think at this time, but I went Pooka Nakua as my number five. Yeah, I've been on Chase just because of watching both players in college. I've said it every year that we've done this, is that I just think there's an edge that he plays with, even though Jefferson probably better hands, definitely a better route runner. I don't know that I've ever heard anybody say anybody's superior to Jefferson's a outrunner. And if you wanted to scream and yell and say that Jefferson's number one, I can't say that you're wrong. I'm saying that I just prefer Chase. And a big thing last year,

too, was just the yards after the catch. 787, 190 more yards than the second closest receiver, which is Shakir with the bills. So, you know, the stats backed this up, but I've felt this way for a while about Chase. Now, the Jefferson argument is look at Chase gets Burrow. And Jefferson just puts up Hall of Fame numbers every single year And it doesn't matter who's back there So that's certainly an argument in favor of Jefferson Number three, I went CD

I don't know I think that's just a preference I was a little surprised that so many executives on ESPN.com had Tyree Kill third He ended up third on that list Maybe it's just a declining year maybe it's just a down year for him. I don't know, even in that system where I think that Miami kind of pride of themselves

on being like, hey, we're just not going to have this guy to go routes the entire time. We're going to make him a more complete receiver. And I think early on, that was a lot of stuff that was happening. So maybe it's just a down year and it's totally unfair for me to not have him in the top five. I went to St. Brown 4 just because I think there's a dependency on him in that system where it's like, hey, I need a first down, like I'm looking for him. And he just feels so steady, if not as exciting, as maybe as some of the other top guys that we're knocking around here. And the only reason A.J. Brown is as low as five for me is if you have him, would you have him third?

I had him third, yeah. Right. The thing that's working against him is the system. I think he's 43rd in targets. Yeah. I'm sure he knows that number, too, by the way, 43rd in targets. Yeah, it's probably a bias of me doing all. the Philly stuff and watching him on film every week and just being like, man, if this guy was in a different system that threw the football a lot, he's so versatile too. He can make plays downfield. He can run after the catch. He's a physical specimen. So they, that's the context for these is always tough. Like you said with Jefferson, I'm sure he's like, man, go put me with Joe Burrow. I'll get you some yards after the catch, you know, too, if you want there. So that that's tough. But yeah, I don't think you can go wrong with any of those guys. Tight ends. Is it Ernie Bowers?

you know what i incorporated the rissillo rule and said show it to me for more than one year here you know we're not just handing it over to you after what because hey you've been on every time we do it you chastised i say this guy's done it for one year and i'm like all right he might be kind of right with some of these mistakes i've made him the past so i'm going kiddle still number one i mean he was awesome last year uh both as a receiver average 14 yards per reception uh and he's the blocking thing not to be the hipster you know film guy but he's just in another class from all these guys and that matters to coaches that matters in certain schemes that can you count on your tight end to hold up as a blocker uh and i think

he does that better than anyone else so yeah i still have kiddle with the belt yeah look if i'm sitting here telling you the difference between gronk and kelsey is the blocking then i can't knock kiddle uh because i mean it's just so much fun to watch tight ends that love to block and it changes everything i mean especially when you go back to the i mean look it doesn't mean even a size thing with and the difference in girth against Kittle, but it's like all of this movement that we see with offensive linemen and how creative offenses have been and just realizing like,

hey, we have better athletes now that we've ever had before at the offensive line position. So let's get creative and get these guys out on the move. And when you have a tight end, they can do even more of that stuff. It's like having an incredibly versatile offensive lineman when he's not out in the route. So, yeah, I think Kittl still has the belt.

Now it gets interesting. Yeah. Bowers is too. I'm not going to put him any lower than two. He's amazing. And, you know, I've been always questioning, taking tight ends early in the first round just because the history is so bad when you look at it. He was the exception last year. There's no doubt about it. And he's going to be the focal point of that offense, obviously, when you look at the Raiders pass catchers. So Bowers two, Trey McBride, three, who's awesome. I still have Travis Kelsey for, I know he's 36 in October, not the same guy. I had a hard time.

finding guys. I still thought were better than him. And then Sam LaPorteur, fifth, it came down to Leporta and Tucker Kraft to me. So it was easy to do a top six. It was a little harder to narrow it down to five. All right. So I have McBride third as well. Shout out to Fort Morgan. I think he's one of the most underrated players in the league. I mean, he's outstanding. I mean, if it wasn't, if we were just talking about, like, who would you want the most out in a pattern or something? It's hard to go put anybody ahead of Bowers, honestly, at this point. And, you know, back to the Rosillo rule, you could argue, well, sure, it's one year in the NFL, but there was also a stretch at Georgia where he looked like the single best player in all of college football. All right.

And then there was a little bit of a drop off. And then it was kind of like, hey, what are you getting here? And it's like, don't even worry about it. And he's right back to, I mean, just a. absurd production. So McBride, I don't know if it's a tight end branding thing, but it's almost like tight ends have to find, like Kelsey certainly has had different variations of his brand. I don't even know if Bronc tried to be a brand as much as it was just like, this is who he is. Kittle has certainly, there's just a thing about Kittle too that's a little wild and the wrestling

persona and his love of wrestling. It feels like the tight ends that make sure they're noticed and have some kind of personality like with McBride it's like maybe we need he needs to work on that more or something you know just because I don't know that he's ever it just doesn't feel like he's brought up enough with some of the other guys and now with Bowers onto the scene so we both had McBride third I had Laporte of fourth and Kelsey fifth and you're right um I do like likely a lot though I wonder if a year from now we're going to be talking about likely yeah he's flashed he's had he's had moments for sure I think it's just a matter of playing time opportunities but yeah when he uh he has those high moments there's no doubt about i like

your tight end you know tight ends need a gimmick i think that's true they tried to make like tight end day a thing it was like no one's really into this uh really you know no i thought it i don't know you were into it okay well look was i was i watching the live streams at this time of year no i like to be on the move i like to take a little break from it but i don't know i saw some shirts i think i saw a guy walking around the caribbean with a tight end view shirt I was like, is that a donation or what's going on here? Look, I'll just be honest. Tackles and guards, I can look at lists and I'm not comfortable with it.

I can tell you which tackles I like. I can tell you which tackles I think are a disaster. I mean, if we're talking to interior linemen for the offensive line, we just be like, okay, how many are all the chiefs guys on it? So let me just, I'm really curious to who you think the best tackle in the league is because I'm wondering if we're going to get an Eagles pick here. Yeah, I'll do a little homerism. Yeah, I mean, Trent William certainly is in the discussion.

Penae Sewell's in the discussion, but Lane Johnson's incredible. I just, I just, you put him on an island, all the numbers back it up. They don't give him any help. He goes up against the best pass rushers on the other team, pass blocking, run blocking, quarterback holds onto the ball. It doesn't matter. So, yeah, I'll say Lane Johnson. So you're not going with Milana?

No. My lot is very good, but I think Lane Johnson is a better player. Okay. So Worf's is in everybody's top three. Yeah. I think the Sewell part of it is I probably like him the most. And announcers freak out the most about his, you know, some of the stuff we were just talking about his versatility. In space. Yeah. Yeah. Like actually like getting on one guy and then pulling off of that guy. And next thing you know, he's running down the field with the wide receiver. And you're like, what is this? There is, if we're talking about the best tackle in the NFL, I guess you could point to some of those. the pass block win rate stuff with him that's below what you would want for the guy to have the belt his best tackle in the NFL. So we're nitpicking here a bit. Maybe he's number one next

year, but it does look like some of the grading stuff would ding him versus some of the other tackles that we're talking about as far as their pass blocking numbers. Yeah, that metric, I'm a little on the I think it's so hard to quantify offensive line play with the metrics.

I feel like it's probably the hardest position to look at. So shout out to Brandon Thorne. It's like you carve out a little niche and he watches all these guys and ranks them. So yeah, I usually look at what he says and I don't stray from it too much because he's got the film breakdowns down.

So really what we've always done in the past, we want to throw out a couple of the tackles there. I guess the goal of this segment is usually not to get yelled at by Jeff Schwartz after it's posted. So if you go just units, give me your five best units at

the offensive line. I've got the Eagles first. I have the Bill's second and the Bill's old line health has been huge. Like the last two years, they rarely have to play a backup. That's been huge for them, something to watch this season. The Broncos are a third for me. The bucks are fourth.

And the Lions, even though some uncertainty with a couple new guys this year, I still have them fifth. Got to see it with the bears. Yes. You know what the weird thing is with the bear? Like, I've been on the fence. guys. Well, it's also like, you know, I've said the chiefs were like, we want to improve our

offensive line. We're trading Joe Tuny. The Rams are like, we really need to shore up our offensive line. Let's give the bears Jonah Jackson. You know, the Falcons are like, who can we let walk with a young quarterback our center? And those are all guys on the bears. Now, I understand it. I think it upgrades over who they had, but we've all been burned too many times by the bears. Like, listen, week six, hopefully they're playing well. And Caleb Williams is protected. Just my guards up a little bit about proclaiming that, definitely a great unit. That was a huge bear's fan last year,

and then the Washington game just broke me. Yeah. Moving on. All right, defensive side of the ball. We'll start a detackle. So the interior guys, this one's kind of all over the place. I think after Dexter Lawrence,

then it becomes a taste thing. It was hard. Yeah, there were a lot of guys here. I actually put Chris Jones first, even though I guess that's kind of cheating because he'll do. He's defensive end and defensive tackle. So it's hard. I didn't know where to put him.

I had Dexter Lawrence second, Jalen Carter, third, Leonard Williams, fourth, and Quinn and Williams, fifth, left out a bunch of guys. I mean, Cam Hayward was awesome last year. Zach Allen on the Broncos has been terrific. Jeffrey Simmons, Namdi, Matabuque. So I think Edge and D tackle where maybe the, the, the, two hardest in this whole exercise. Vita Vaya.

Not even. Vita Vaya. Yeah. Absolutely. So I still love Simmons and I wonder if last year's just such a disaster that you look at Tennessee and go, okay, would I still want him? You know, the quarterback thing that we're talking about there with Mahomes, if you're redrafting it.

Again, maybe I don't know if we're talking about season or career. It kind of pivots depending on the argument here. I usually always have Chris Jones there, but yeah, you could get into some snap count stuff and say how much they move them around. I think to Jones, the Jones argument is end of a game, hey, we need to play. I think he's the best in league when it comes to that. It seems maybe it's just because we're all watching more Chiefs games there, but it feels like when he needs to wreck the game at the end from that position, and this is including him with the interior guys and not just focusing on the pure edge guys that we'll get here to, you know,

his win rate at the end of games is still number one, depending on what you want to look at. A huge snap count last year for him overall as he gets a little bit older. Dexter Lawrence, the double team stuff, he had a double team rate of like 75% last year, which is the highest of any of the interior linemen that were qualified for this kind of stuff. And adding in to like, you already knew he was one of the best run stuffers at the position,

and then he starts adding in more pass rush wins. And it's not just the sactoil stuff there. So it feels like most people are looking. looking at those two guys, and maybe there's with Jones, it's when it matters the most, but Dexter's maybe steadier as a younger player throughout the entire course of a game. Yeah, I mean, you made the right point that I feel like if Dexter Lawrence were on the chiefs right now, we would just see him in more big spots and big games, and he might be making those plays too in the playoff.

So yeah, I'm with you. I just, Jones, in those big spots, we've seen it. He's done it. And so I gave him the nod, but it's basically a coin flip between those two guys. How much of Jalen Carter being third? I have in third as well is about watching enough Eagles games to realize that it may not be a counting thing with him. But when you see it, it's a guy who's crushing that side of the protection and that other guys are winning off of that. Yeah, that's it.

I think if you showed me like a reel of the top 10 plays for all these guys, you might be like Jalen Carter's first. Oh my gosh. Look at what he just did to that guard. And so I think he's got to be a little more consistent throughout the season. but he also in big spots I mean that Eagles game against the Rams in the playoffs last year where Stafford's in the snow

what was it the 14 yard line or something and he makes two plays in a row where if he doesn't make those plays who knows what happened so a little bit of the Chris Jones thing definitely applies to him and yeah I think he's on the rise there's no doubt about it.

I have Simmons 4th I realize there's arguments against it and it came down to Quinn and Williams and Vita Valle for me for 5th I'll go Quinn in just because I think talent-wise, there's no way he would still be available if you were drafting all the interior defensive linemen. There's just no way. All right. Let's go edge guys. Do you remember what you had

last year? I don't. No, I did look at it as I was prepping, but I can't remember which five I had to be. Actually, the top four were probably the same. I think I do remember. And I had Max Crosby fifth. So I had, I think Garrett Parsons, Watt, Bosa, Crosby, that feels like what I had. We're going to get IT on that one. I know Serrity already sent it to me, but then I close up to tap. It's Garrett one. Yeah. Here, we do have it.

So last year, you had Parsons, Garrett, Bosa, Waugh, Crosby. Okay. I think it became, as we've done this, like, there's years where you don't think you can be wrong, but then if you just want to make an argument for one of the other guys, that argument's incredibly strong. Last year, I had Garrett-Watt, Parsons, Crosby, Bosa. So I was still, I was digging Bosa a little bit there, I guess more so than you were, even though Prime Bosa was probably, I don't know if it's better. I mean, who's to say any of this stuff is better than Gera? I think it's Garrett 1. It's incredibly steady. The team isn't very good. 14 plus Sacks,

four straight seasons, first player to ever do that since I started tracking Sacks in 82, which is an entirely fair to the older dudes there. It just, It feels like the cleanest, safest bet as an edge guy, even though there's T.J. and Micah arguments that if I gave you space for two minutes to make them, you'd be like, how are you picking out? How are you picking any other player of that position over the argument that you just made? But I'm just going with Garrett. I'm not going to worry about it all that much. I think I've got Garrett one. Also, I went to the Eagles and Browns had these joint practices that I went to. And like the Eagles couldn't get plays off. They couldn't practice because Miles Garrett was just wrecking every. He had to, like, hold up because the practice was just getting ruined because they couldn't even run. And this was against Jordan. This is like against Jordan Milata, who you just mentioned one of the better tackles in the NFL. The way guys talk about Miles Garrett in the NFL, this is always interesting to me when people at the top of their sport are still in awe of one of their peers.

And that's how they talk about Miles Garrett. They're like, you know, this guy's good, but Garrett is he's like an alien. I don't know how he does the things he does. So, yeah, I had Garrett one. I had Parsons, too. I think you're right at the end of the season. We could say Parsons was the most impactful guy. Watt, three, Bosa, four, can't go wrong.

Five was so tough. I was flip-flopping back and forth. I ended up going Aiden Hutchinson. And I know he was injured last year, but I think he might have been the best defensive player in the NFL when he was healthy last year. He's back healthy this year. And so I felt terrible leaving off,

Trey Hendrickson, Max Crosby, Will Anderson, Jared Verse is awesome. Daniel Hunter. So it is a stacked group. I ended up going Hutchinson 5th, though. I love that. I went with it fifth as well, but I switched it up a bit here.

I went Miles, Micah Watt, and then I went Crosby 4th. My favorite number that I saw from him, 59 and a half sacks is 2019. No other Raider has more than 10 sacks. That's crazy. And it's going to be more of the same this year,

by the way. And he's playing. His snap rate is ridiculous. The motor is not. on-stop with him. You know, I can, again, we could do a ton of great stuff here with T.J. Parsons, I think because of his versatility, the way you can line him up anywhere. I know you could get into some of the BS that's going on right now. And I don't mean a BS is like I'm frustrated with him, not getting

more money. Honestly, with the way the salary cap goes up every year in the NFL, these teams, whether it's Dallas or Cincinnati with the Chase extension, I don't understand these front offices and ownership. Just go, like, just get in front of it. Whatever you think, the market is pay the 10% tax on it because now when you're paying the guy a year down the road like wendy where are the wins unless somebody was hurt and the market just dries up on some of these players i love hendrickson i think just sheer talent compared to garrett parsons watt and those kinds of guys maybe even prime bosa did i don't know that anybody would put him necessarily in that class despite the production being there and the fact that it feels like he's doing a lot of this

on his own. So I think that's an argument for Trey, but I didn't have him in the top five. And I had Bosa outside of it for, well, I had him fifth last year, so I was training in that direction. I think Aden was that good. He was that, despite the injury,

he was that good for such a long stretch of the season that it's totally, I think it's totally reasonable to put him five. I feel like it's acknowledging how special it felt he was in a conversation where you're like, we're going to add another guy to this group of Premier Edge guys because the position's stacked. Yeah, I totally agree with Hutchinson.

Bosa, most quarterback hits in the NFL the last three seasons. So he's got a case. And Hendrickson, I'm with you, and I'm looking at the numbers. And they're just kind of crazy that he has been top three in the entire second in the NFL in sacks the last three seasons, second and quarterback hits the last three seasons for Trey Hendry. So it's like, well, I'm still leaving him out, but I don't feel good about it. no but again it speaks to the position the position is that deep i mean it's different than some of

these other groups all right corner is also deep uh i've seen stuff all over the place um i think it's a coin toss with the top two guys but i may surprise you that i think that and how i went with number one i went stingley number one because of the ball skills okay nice i like it. This is your new version of Chase. I feel like Stingling. Yeah. You know, opposing QB, not QB, or passer rating number one in the NFL for anybody over a qualifying number of targets. His coverage grade has been number one, again, if you buy it and all that stuff. And people get pissed about those things. So he's blaming me for the LSU thing, but it worked with Chase. Well, I guess it's not really because Jefferson was there as well.

Yeah, that's a totally fair thing to do because I'm going to, I mean, I'm going to guess, go ahead. I mean, you have one. I have certain one. Yeah. To me, it's just more about what he's asked to do with the how much man coverage he's asked to play. I think fifth most snaps in the NFL of man coverage. So not that that's everything. Teams are moving more towards zone, but still in a key spot, third down.

Hey, go lock this guy up. I think he's able to do that better than anyone else. But I had Stingley two. I had Sauce Gardner three. Not the best year last season, but cornerback play can be volatile, and I still think he's really good. Trent McDuffie, four, who I feel like we pretty much have every year. We're just like, yeah, Trent McDuffie's really good at football. I don't know what else there is.

But he's even better now. I mean, the fact that they moved him outside as much as they did. Yeah. So, you know, I think it was in the 60% number as far as how much he was lined up outside. It's over 80% now. And that versatility. And look, I think Sartan, to win the argument, against Stingley is, to your point, he is assigned a number one wide receiver in a way that

maybe no other corner is that's at this level, you know, where it's just, there was something I was reading today that was really, really smart. It was like he's still great at the boring stuff. Yeah. Like he stays locked in where Stingley's more aggressive and maybe I'm rewarding him a bit too much for that. It was kind of like the digs conversations that we used to have with the Cowboys. It was like, oh, it's another pig. It's another pig. Like, are you watching the rest of the shit. Because something like that, you know, sometimes we fall in love with interception numbers and completely overrate defensive backs here. But I like the saw, I feel like the sauce gardener status run. He very well could be atop this list again in a year,

even if 24 felt like a decline where it was accepted, he was the best corner in the NFL. Yeah, I think this time last year, I was saying coin flip between Sertan and Soss Gardner for the one spot. Stingley was just a matter. staying healthy. Everyone knew he was good, maybe not as good as he was last year, but stayed healthy last year and was incredible. So yeah, those guys all belong there. I went Christian Gonzalez in the fifth spot. I thought about Quignon Mitchell on the Eagles, who's incredible, Christian Benford on the bills. I mean, he might be one of the most underrated corners in the NFL. Garrett Williams on the Cardinals, that's like the hipsters, you know, they love him. And I think

they're right. He is really good as well. So yeah, there are a lot of corners. in there. I do remember, I think last year at the end, you're like, we didn't have any Patriots on this list. So I'm like, oh, well, this year, Christian Gonzalez, you get at least one Patriot on this list. Okay. Shout out Foxborough. Denzel Ward, the health part with him, I mean, he misses less games than you think as often as we're talking about him not being available. And there's some incredible numbers from last year. And he's older than these other guys that we're talking about. I think it's worth, at least for my argument, I'm going to put him fifth after McDuffie.

And I do think Mitchell, it'd be a shock to me if he's not top five. We're doing this year from now. Yeah, I think he's an all pro this year. I mean, he just has the full arsenal. Again, I just incorporated the Rosilla rule with him too, especially with cornerbacks. You've got to be careful. It's a little volatile. I'm like, let's see him do it for another year.

But I was very tempted to put him in the top five. The Fred Warner Award of why are you guys starting the list at number one? Are we doing the same thing? it's safety. I think so. Yeah, I would be shocked if everybody didn't have the same guy at one and Kyle Hamilton. I think there is a gap between him and everybody else. I would agree.

This is an eye test thing. It's a bit more like the Janele and Carter conversation where, and look, I'm not professing that I'm locked in on individual assignments on every one of these guys that we're talking about. It's just a really tough sport to keep track of that way. but Hamilton's versatility, what Hamilton, there were some numbers, too, I was looking at it, like, once Hamilton is lined back up, it's safety, like what it means for Roquant Smith and just the, the kind of ripple effect of Hamilton's ability to impact games back there. So I don't know how anybody. I think there was a Winfield argument when he was healthy as far as, like, who the best safeties are. So it would be disrespectful to say, oh, it was this Hamilton gap and everybody else because I think Winfield with Tampa Bay was that guy.

but obviously last year was super disappointing. We'll see where he ended up having him if he's even in your top five. But I went Hamilton one. And then I went McKinney too. In my top five, I went Hamilton one. To your point, that Ravens defense was struggling at the beginning of last year. And they couldn't get lined up and communicate and learn what they were. And then they're like, put Hamilton in free safety, let him do it.

And their defense was amazing, the second half of last season. So the fact that he can just do those different things and is so smart, I think he's one. I had Brian Branch on the Lions, number two, just good at everything, can cover the slot, can play, free safety can play in the box. I had Jesse Bates third. I was looking this up. The last two seasons, Jesse Bates has 10 interceptions and seven forced fumbles.

So like, think about, he's creating a turnover opportunity every other game, one player at free safety. So I think he's just, I mean, their defense has stunk, but he has been the bright. spot there. I had Buda Baker four, had a great year, maybe the best year of his career last year with the Cardinals. And then I had McKinney 5, I think. He's incredible. I love the, just the ball hawking safety, old school. Hey,

we're playing one high safety. Can you go sideline to sideline? Can you make plays on the ball? He's as rangy as anybody. Him and Jesse Bates are kind of similar in that respect just when it comes to play style. So me having Bates fifth, you would have a problem with that? Not really. I mean, McKinney

and Bates, like interceptions and stuff there is a randomness to it how many opportunities do you get i think i think those guys are in the same class of safety seems like i really rewarded the ball hawkers now that i'm looking at my rankings here uh i have branch third just because i think that he's so complete as far as his stuff not only against the past but also against the run um and some of these other guys that you're not going to count on as much and look i know that like even esPN dot com had winfield seventh i just don't think that's fair to him so i went mckinney branch winfield three fourth and then Bates fifth.

Kirby Joseph, a lot of love out there, which I think a lot of fans, like you're just so used to hearing about all the bullshit stuff with Kirby, but it, I don't know. I guess it's like no one ever seems to talk about how good he is. Yeah. No, Derwin James, Winfield, and Kirby Joseph for the three I had just out of there. All those three guys are awesome. And, yeah, Winfield, you're right. If he's healthy this year, easily.

could be back up there when we do this if we do this next year. Another thing with Baltimore's defense that I remember from last year, too, it's like, hey, what's going on with this group? And it's like, okay, they played Mahomes, they played DAC, they played Allen, they played Burrow, they played Jaden, they played Baker. And then they had Burrow again in that 35, 34 win, first week in November and week 10. So sometimes, and I think it's always important to look at this stuff, it's like, okay, is the defense really that bad?

and did it improve that much or like let's which quarterbacks are you facing in eight of these 10 weeks and for Baltimore I mean they were going up against a hit list of pretty productive guys

linebackers Fred Warner won the whether it's the past grade I mean that's the thing with him yeah I don't know well there isn't I'm sorry like maybe there's a guy that has that clip on his YouTube page

but running down the field back to the line of scrimmage and then coming up and reading the receiver and anticipating this kind of stuff, there's just nobody like them. And once again, I don't know how anybody could offer up anyone else in this position. Yeah,

he lets you do things defensively that you just cannot do if he's not your linebacker, the range, the coverage, the smarts, all those things, the lens. So Fred Warner won. This was a hard one to find five. Honestly, I was like, are there five impactful linebackers in the NFL?

You know, Edge, we're like, man, I can't narrow it down to 10. And here I'm like, oh, this isn't this isn't a great spot for the position. So I had Warner 1. I had Zach Vaughn to of the Eagles. Has only done it for one year, but was incredible last year. Roquan Smith, third. I went with the hipster pick at four.

Deion Henley, the Chargers. He is an up-and-coming ascending player who played really well last year. Not a household name. I think if he has another strong season at this time next year, we're probably talking about him as a better. known guy and then just sort of the career achievement award to mario davis until someone comes up and it's like hey i'm i'm better than demario davis which again i had a hard time finding that guy i'm like you know what 36 years old i'm an old guy let's give a shout out to the old guy to mario

davis 36 years old still getting it done so those were my five i was wondering if you wouldn't put bond just to avoid the one year with the eagles like oh here we go again with shield and then to some of the stuff. It's like, okay, but if you have all that talent and the defensive line, it's Zach just eating for free. And the production is just so incredible last year. And it's the rest of the class. Like, I think if you go Roquan Smith, number two, I have him

two. I have Bond third. Roquan's run numbers as far as like how often he's stopping running back at the line of scrimmage, behind the line of scrimmage, second best run stop rate of any linebacker that's on this list. I still like Nick Bolton a lot. So I have him

fourth after those guys. And I'm going to put Trey Greenlaw 5th, because I think when he's back and he's healthy, we'll feel bad if we left him off of this list. It was funny because when you said hipster, I don't think Matt Milano was hipster level anymore because he's been around for such a long time. Milano at least deserves to be mentioned because I think when he was healthy, he's, I find a way to get him here on this top five. I was wondering if you could go Edger and Cooper from Green Bay.

He was just off. Yeah, that's probably the hipster all star. You're right. You know what I love about sports, particularly about football because of how many guys can get lost. But just those moments, we're like, who fuck is that guy? Yeah. And when you're watching Green Bay on defense, and then you're like, oh, you know, this A&M, okay, all right.

Well, now let me watch him a little bit. He has that, who the fuck is that guy? 100%. On a Sunday afternoon. So he's not, it's a weird group. But when you said hipster, I was like, oh, no, is he going to go with? Because I don't even, I didn't have the balls to put him fifth. And I didn't do a deep dive.

I'm sure I could find some sort of grade that tells me that, hey, I'm on the right track. He just seems like such an incredibly impactful guy for one season in. Yeah, I thought about having him instead of to Mario Davis. And then I'm like, all right, let's see him do it a little bit longer. But the way you described it is perfect. When you watch the Packers defense, you notice him. Maybe it's the opposite of your Tobias Harris rule is the Edgren Cooper rule. You can't watch the Packers without noticing this guy.

It's the opposite because he's flying downhill. He's athletic. he's awesome against the run. I think some of the other stuff maybe is where he needs to improve a little bit in past coverage. But absolutely, it would be no surprise if he's a breakout star this year. And next year, he's in the top five. Okay, long snappers. Yeah, this one.

Can we do like a YouTube special on this, like maybe a 30 minutes? Because I got a lot to say. Okay, because I have some metrics here. Do you think long snapping is, do you think the public thinks long snapping is easier than it actually is or harder than it actually is? Because I've always had this thing where like, can't you just find somebody else on the roster to be the long snapper, save a roster spot? And every time I bring it up to NFL people, they get so mad. You don't understand the practice it takes to do that and you can't have a bad snap. So maybe I just take the L on there.

I don't know if you had a strong take on that. I'm always surprised every single guy who played in the NFL grew up running around his yard or somewhere with the ball. And so to think that there's

53 guys that are good enough to be on an NFL team that there's not somebody who could figure it out. Now, this reminds me a little bit of the first base thing. Like I love Kevin Millar. He's been on the show a few times

though he's going to have a soft spot for being a guy with that first Red Sox World series team but i remember again when i used to watch this stuff religiously it was probably some like nessen rain delay video and i'm at home watching it and they were talking about playing first base right he's like you know a lot of people think like the first baseman's the worst athlete of all the infielers are the worst you put your worst guy there defensively and just have him play first base but you know there's a lot of stuff like figuring out how to play the ball in the line

and then getting back in a position and understanding like who has the coverage on stuff and you're like Okay, yeah, fine. All of those things are, but there has to be someone amongst the shortstop, second baseman, third baseman and first baseman who's the worst defensive player. And there has to be someone who's fourth of those four positions. And I can tell you who it isn't. It isn't the other three guys. And it's okay. Yes, there's some stuff at first base that's really hard. Like you can't be in cement, but it's four. It's fourth of the four. Like it's just. And so first baseman, I don't know how many people got indignant about. It wasn't like Milar was like losing his shit, but he just, I just remember being at home going, like, that's such a pointless argument. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Just saving a double down the line and diving and getting back up to your feet and being able to anticipate the underhand toss to the pitcher who's covering first. Sure.

But it's not harder than shortstop. Yeah. It's a perfect comparison. I mean, yeah, this happened last year or the year before Bryce Harper's injured for the Phillies and they're like he's going to play first. And I'm like, he'll be able to play first. no you don't understand how are like he's pretty good at baseball like you said he's been he's been probably played first at some point in the thousands of games he's played it guess what he's fine at first base they're not losing games because he's playing first base and every little league team

you've ever been on like who do you stick at first base no no no no no not the best player i'm talking about who's oh you you mean like the best hitter that's very little when you're really little it's like that's where the action is but you're right as you get older it's different oh see i used to always well i guess it would always be right field because there weren't a ton of kids that could, you know, they're just, I don't know. Now I'm turning this, breaking down a little league baseball. The general point is that I agree with you. And it's not a diss on long snappers, but you just, anytime you ask anyone in any

special, it doesn't have anything to do with sports. Like, you know, this is actually a little bit harder than you would think. Like, is it? Is it? Is it? Because all the other things are actually harder. Yes. Like, all of the other things are harder. And, yeah, and especially now with the rules of what you can do in lining up.

over a long, long snapper and the top of everything else. It's like, so I don't have my top five. Maybe we'll do that next year. Yeah. That is Shield Capati. It's our annual top five at every position. We have anything else to add? That's it.

Thanks for having me. Talk to you soon. What do you got on today, tomorrow, just so everybody can listen to more Shield Capadian? Yeah, we got Anthony Dubondo on this week. Solac return this week on the Ringer NFL show, trades and stuff this week. We'll do them as well.

So it'll be a lot of fun. and we got a good lineup. All right. Thanks, man. You're the best. All right. Listen up. It's finally here,

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college football was back because this guy was tweeting out where can i watch alex orgy where's the unelv game uh how do you look stanford steve joins the show um orgy is i mean you like you like short shorts orgy was playing in boxer briefs right like it's like knee like tier You could see the teardrop in his thigh, and he made Bruce's Freaks list a couple years ago. We know he's a specimen. But it was insane. But the biggest factor was when I found it,

after watching Farmageddon in Ireland and them having an issue with the field and how, I guess, rain washes away the lines on the field to see UNLV in the Raider Stadium and actually have lines back on the field was kind of a visual. But Mullen's got his... His work cut out for him. He's got every transfer there is.

You know, we had talk to coach Saban the other day. He's like, man, I feel like I recruited those guys like seven years ago. I'm like, yeah, you did. Jojo Earl getting snaps. But no, Mullen, once he gets it organized, it was just chaos. It's one of those deals. Idaho State had a couple guys, and their offense is just nuts. And they caught him off guard, and then they played catch up.

But they got it done. You and LV be a fun watch all year. They did get it done. It's just a lesson that I learned every summer. I learned it years ago, and I applied it to last year's Michigan buildup, was like, because we had heard her orgy for such a long time, and then it's like, so he didn't win the job.

Davis Warren won the job. And then, you know, they were a mess on offense. It sucks because that team defensively was just staff. So I didn't expect to spend this much time at Michigan. But I think it's always a lesson for the freak, the guy that you're hearing about running around in the spring and he's doing all this shit. And then if they lose the job to an unharolded guy, then that guy ends up getting bench. She's like, okay, well, fine, we have that guy. That kind of tells you everything you need to know about the quarterback position.

And now he's the backup to the Virginia guy at UNLV. So whatever. I don't want to spend a ton of time on that. But that told me college football was back because Steve was so fired up about it. I think we could start there, though, because you sent me a list last. night of like either or playoff or I don't know if it's out of the playoff disastrous year how wide this is something that I've talked with some other guys about the variance from your best case scenario to worst case scenario you have a bunch of teams on there so let's run through

them yeah you mentioned Michigan Ryan and watching their stuff and going back and watching the Ohio State game and then the Bama game in the bowl game people could say what they want about the bowl game but I'm watching the personnel and Michigan had guys sit in that game too So it was more about the defensive personnel, the youth that they have. And those guys brought it, man. I mean, they brought it in those two games. And that's why when you listen to their guys talk, there's obviously that culture that's fallen from Harbaugh down to Sharon Moore.

And there's just an instilled confidence. You saw it in the Ohio State game. That was as ugly a game as you can make it. But they were so comfortable in that circumstance. and now you get to see Underwood. And boy, let me tell you, I mean, we've seen guys on the sidelines all over the place in whatever conference you want to talk about.

But for this kid to look like this as a true freshman, I think they said he just turned 18, if they get average to better than average play from him, they're going to be fine. They're going to go to the playoff because they have two running backs. They've instilled that physicality on the offensive line. their offensive line really took a step back last year. And when I think about Michigan offensive lines, it's more of a mash system.

Why their guys haven't done well in the NFL pass protection. That's not their strength. That Michigan, they don't care. It's all play action. So Michigan is a team that sticks out to me just because of the mentality and they already have that culture. So I'm really, I can't wait. We're going week two Michigan at Oklahoma.

those are the two best defensive fronts that I think there are in the country right now. And that's going to be a war of attrition for both offensive lines. So Michigan is in that list I have of, I'm not going to be surprised if they make the playoff. I'm not going to be surprised if they miss the playoff. And a couple other of those teams, Oregon, you read what Oregon is done in the transfer combined with the recruiting. And that's where the list starts to get small.

You know, teams are going to, when they do well in the portal, they're going to talk about how they got a top portal class. When they do well in recruiting, you don't hear about it as much because that's their chance to develop the guys. Texas comes to mind with that's done great still recruiting. And Oregon and Lannning has done a fantastic job. Loop boy to D.C. has been one of the best recruiters forever. He's on that staff. But the quarterback, they've done an unbelievable job. And, you know, this is a couple offensive coordinators before Stein.

it was Kenny Dillingham. And Bo Nix had his best years we've ever seen him. You know, Dylan Gabriel comes in. They don't lose a beat. And now you bring in Moore, who was a guy I was fired up to see in Chip's offense. In his first game, he starts at Utah and he got swallowed. I think he threw a pick six on his first throw. And then he just went away and Chip went with a veteran guy.

But Dante's been on campus. He was there all year last year. And it's another talking point we could get to later is just looking at the top 10 teams. this year, one has a quarterback that is in his first couple months on campus. And that's Miami and Carson Beck. Every other team has a quarterback that's been on campus, been on the team. And that's just different because you just go back to the national championship game last year, Riley, Leonard, Will Howard. They just parachuted in and quarterback their teams. So with Oregon, they have the foundation. I just don't know how much the upside more can get them to.

They lost a ton in the receiving group. They have pros. I do love the tight end, Sadiq. Stein said he's going to get him 80 touches. Give me all that. That'll make me watch Oregon a lot more. But how's he going to do it? How efficient is more going to be?

They got the running back from Tulane, who's an Al-McChi Hughes, who's a stud. I don't know if you've seen him. He's, I know you've liked Oregon running backs forever. He's going to be that. He's a bell cow. I think they're really going to lean on him. but the defense has to replace a ton, and that worries me. And they got some tricky road games.

I don't, you know, we think we know what teams look like, and then they go to, like, Iowa on a night game, and they just totally flustered. Even last year, they went to Wisconsin. They should have lost that game. You know, they pulled out the Ohio State game. So Oregon, again, not going to be surprised if they make it, not going to be surprised if they miss it.

And the other two teams there on that list, to me, are Miami and LSU. Miami loses his top six pass catchers. New D.C., who's going to go back to the fundamentals. You could tell they tried to run too much stuff and get exotic with blitzes, but their foundation. Cristobal, say what you want. Offensive and defensive line, they're as good as anybody, and they got pros on both sides.

So, again, not going to be surprised if they make it or miss it. And LSU, just the wow factor. Not getting Underwood, I think, help them make more change. is it gave them the ability to make more changes and pay more money to get more players. And you saw that they did that on the defensive side. And now you get weeks back. And now you get Perkins back.

The secondary corner from Houston, Hawsey, who's phenomenal. So what Baker likes to do, he has better players this year. And the receiving group should be as good as anything in the country. The issue I have with LSU going back and look at is Sloan calling the plays. loan calling plays. It's been three years, two at the school previous and last year. He's never come into top 100 in rushing. That's a problem for me with LSU because when you look at LSU last year, they didn't run the ball. And they had four guys drafted. You know, Campbell's as good as anybody. I'm at the South Carolina game last year on the

sidelines. And the O line coach is basically trying to figure out a run game in the dirt because of the pressure that those guys from South Carolina brought. So will LSU be stubborn? enough to run the football. And the other thing is, I could just see it a mile away. They lose by a field goal or something at Clemson, and everybody there wants Kelly fired. But this is a new age, man. You still can get to the playoff.

And that's good. And the way the committee has talked, and people can tell you what they want, strength the record, strength of schedule is going to count more. So it's not going to, I know what you're going to want to go home. Yeah.

Yeah, that's what they say every year. I know. I know you're sticking to your guns on that one. but LSU is a team again I'm not going to be surprised they miss not going to be surprised that they make it but the fan base feels like they really need to make it I do think they will I think all six of these teams playing it in the rank versus ranked this week Ohio State Texas Notre Dame Miami and then LSU Clemson I think they all make the playoff do you think Clemson wins at home though yeah yeah yeah I do too I just in this day and age

we talk about, and this is different, too, for me to try and get my head wrapped around. We can never even speak to our coaches in the summer. Now you get workouts all the time. So they're with these guys, but still, the interchanging of personnel and the returning production at Clemson at Clemson is going to be on the same page and going to that environment and LSU being a little chaotic at times with just the way they have in their personnel, it's a lot to ask for in that game. So I don't see them playing a clean game, and that's been their problems, right?

Nuss thrown picks and turn the ball over and the defense is back on their heels. Neighbors punt return years ago, which is like easily forgotten. I'm with you on the Kelly thing because if he loses another opener now, which basically has happened every year, it just sets this tone. I mean, the SC loss, I was there and you're like, like, how do they lose this game? And they lose that game because the secondary, like their problems last year were the secondary. The running thing is crazy because when you think LSU and just going down the street and getting some stud running back, especially with the expectation of what that O-Line unit was as far as comparing them at other college football units, it wasn't there.

And as much as I love Noz-Meyer, you know, you know, like, the thing I love about him is he's not afraid. And the thing that scares a shit out of me at times is like if it's third and long, and maybe he has somebody at the sticks, but he has somebody else, like on a post route 20 yards down the field. and the safety, second save, like he's leaking over, he still, like, prefers, he'll want. He'll want it all. He's going to want it all. Yep. So we'll see what that situation is like if that's a tight one there late with him who, you

know, again, some people think he's the best overall. I don't know if, you know, Clubnik. I mean, he's going up against Clubbnik here. But again, when we were looking at mock draft stuff from 2026, you're looking at the quarterbacks, all of the stuff is comically wrong. And I'm not even ripping the draft people, but looking at the draft. get the draft stuff a year ahead of time at the quarterback position. Anytime you want to look at a draft, a mock a year before the actual draft, the quarterback stuff is always a mess. I think

that Dante Moore thing is really interesting because we've had Danny on, we've had Feldman on. And, you know, when you talk about the top eight teams, six of them have question marks of quarterbacks. We've already done this topic. But I think, you know, Arch and Sark is like a really good one to bet on. Will Stein at Oregon seems to just figure it out. And that's an credit to Lanning, just turning it over and having everybody be on the same page of what they want to do. We've talked about the lack of continuity. I think Oregon's second to last, maybe third to last as far as returning numbers just in the big 10 alone. And nationally, that number is obviously really bad. I guess I just wish I felt better about it. I'm not saying, because I've got

to be careful here, I'm not saying that I've heard anything negative about Dante Moore. It just doesn't feel like there's any juice to it, whether it's some of the camps, um, Him at UCLA, maybe it was a little bit too soon. He didn't play really at all last year at Oregon. No. But is it that he's the best guy they have or their sight they have him? And I, look, there's plenty of propaganda where we're reading about how fired up a program is about a guy who's going to be benched by week five.

But with more, it feels, am I wrong to say lukewarm about who he is at this point? No, because I feel like we have to be that way because we haven't seen him. And a day and age of the transfer portal, we got tape on everybody. But that's why I go back. That Utah game, I remember, I was like, wow, Chip's going to go with the freshman. And boom, pick six right off the get. And I believe I had UCLA winning the Pac 12 that year. And I'm like, oh, boy, I don't know how long this is going to last.

The one thing I lost was kind of like the turning point for all of it. It just was like, all right, you know what. So go ahead. You're right. Here's the deal. I go back to the situation. And you say being lukewarm. I think the idea of the receiver room is a problem.

You lose Stewart, who's a kid that I had huge expectations for. I think he's out at least eight games. I don't know if he's going to be healthy at all. And when you're talking about a receiver with a leg issue, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's dicey. But the thing I keep coming back to is Stein, the offensive coordinator, because when he went there, he came in with Bonnix having a great year at Oregon already. Dillingham had set that thing up. But as an offensive coordinator, how do you go into that situation and put your, you know, your footprint on things? But you already have a kid who's playing sky high.

I thought that was one of the toughest situations that anyone stepped into and they hit the ground running. He had an even better year. And then you bring in Gabriel. So the idea of that offense, it's not a deep ball concept. And if you have guys that create space and they do that already with their splits and their speed, and now you have a bell cow running back, it sets up for a great situation for the quarterback to have success. You know, I think there's similarities in its different level,

and I'm sure we'll get to them, is Indiana. Everywhere that offense is gone, the quarterback has been super efficient. But, you know, Oregon, you know, they have this year's Jeremiah Smith supposedly into Cory and Bennett, who's the number one receiver in the country in this class. It's a lot to ask for your true freshman. And I don't want to compare him to Jeremiah Smith

because I feel like he's the best player in the sport and you could put him in the conversation in last year. So it's, you know, you look at the schedule. There's some tricky, tricky road games. I do like, you say what you want. I do like that they go on the road and play Northwestern before they go play at Penn State. But at Penn State at night is something Dante Moore's never seen.

At Iowa, which I would expect. You love that at Iowa Appesira. Kinnick, listen to you. I want to go to Iowa. this year for one of those night games i'll say that i really do um so i just in in my big picture thing this gets back to and i put oregon there because of the loss of what they lost they got to replace nine guys on defense you mentioned what they got to do with with returning uh not having a lot of returning guys the middle of the big 10 is the biggest mystery because teams have to lose

games but when you look at Oregon Washington Indiana Illinois Iowa Nebraska like somebody's going nine yeah Minnesota uh love Lindsay to quarterback can't wait to watch um but somebody's going to go nine and three and somebody's going to go to multiple teams are going to go seven and five and they're going to be good football teams and that's what I think it's important because when you look at the top tier Penn State goes to Iowa Ohio State goes to Illinois and Washington and when you first look at it you're like they're not going to lose those games Ohio State's got a ton to replace on the line of scrimmage and And that's what I think of when teams go on the road.

So that's going to be the deciding factor in the big 10 for me is how many teams because I almost put them in the middle upper tier of the teams that I mentioned. But they're going to knock off a couple of the big boys. And how many times do the big boys get knocked off? That's going to be the key to how many of they get in the playoff. Ohio State, Texas this weekend. Yeah. Your thoughts.

Everything I thought going in. told me Ohio State. They're at home. It's still Ryan Day's offense. You know, the personnel on defense, the guys that you have, the quarterbacks in both styles and downs, is everything I want in a home game to start the season. But then when I start talking out loud, I'm like, Patricia, first game calling a defense with these guys versus maybe the best play caller in the sport with a guy in Arch who everyone wants. wants to talk about when I go through Texas's numbers. And I went back and watched their losses. You know, the two losses to Georgia, they couldn't do, they averaged 40 yards rushing

a game in those games. I think it was 13 sacks. And I was at both of them. It was, it was amazing to see you or actually hang in there and complete balls and come back in the SEC title game. I was, I was really impressed with that. But you're going to get a lot of that from Texas because they, when you look at what they bring in. Texas is at the top of recruiting guys and the portal. So I believe the D-Tackles are all

transfers, but they're all former four-star guys. The offensive line, I don't doubt, Flood. They got to replace four guys, but it sounds like they're going to start a true freshman, and then you still have Goosby at left tackle. So it's a, it's, I feel a lot better about what I'm going to see from Clemson and LSU than I do Ohio State in Texas because there's so many new faces in key positions. Texas has two game changers. in the linebacker position. So I feel like Ohio State still can hang it up. They got enough personnel on defense.

They got the transfer Atkinson at defensive end. So I still believe Ohio State causes enough problems, and that's why I lean Ohio State. But when I keep talking out loud, it tells me to take Texas. Mine's really simple. I think getting Ohio State this early, knowing that they're going to have to figure out stuff. Like usually, Ohio State, I give all the credit the world to because they're always, and you and I've talked about this. You already know what I'm going to say. Like, do you play somebody? Do you play another decent power for? We know that there can be changes when you're scheduling them out years in advance. It's like, hey, we scheduled this four years ago. And now this team isn't as good. But Ohio State is always signing up for these games. Always. Okay. And there's a bunch of SEC teams that do the exact same thing. And it's why I have such a frustration with some of the big 10 arguments about scheduling. It's like, have you gone through some of these? Have you gone through some of these schedules? It's like, okay, three non-conference.

it doesn't matter. And then that ninth game in the Big Ten, like a lot of the times that ninth game is way better than even some of the outer conference stuff that other teams are doing. So way better for the team that's playing them. So that's kind of my point. But Ohio State,

I just, I love that Texas gets in this early. That's it. It's pretty simple. What are the game do you want to do from the rank, first ranked? Notre Dame Miami is super, super interesting to me. I talked about Miami, but I want to focus more on Notre Dame,

and I feel crazy saying this because they had the number one pass defense last year in the country, and they had a great defensive quarterback who they lost, but the defense is deeper than it was last year. And you want to go talk about, you know, we know that atmosphere will be what it was when they went there and what was that 17. But Notre Dame is built to go on the road, the foundation of the offensive line, I know they lost Jagassau, but, you know, they lost their left tackle to start the year and went to A&M and ran the ball when they needed to in the fourth quarter. And that set them up for the season, even though they lost the following week to Northern Illinois.

But I don't think there's a bigger upgrade in the sport than what Notre Dame did at wide receiver. And listen, you love lacrosse, I love lacrosse. I love the Faison kid that played for them last year. He was like the leading pass catcher. And now you bring in the kid Pauling from Wisconsin and then the kid from Virginia. Reardon is a stud at tight end. He's just got to stay healthy. Love's the best running back in the country.

I would take love over any other running back in the country. And I think it's kind of good. We talked about quarterbacks and winning positions. I think it's good that the other kid challenged Carr as much as he did. So Notre Dame is going to have more balance on offense. And you look back and figure, like, in that comeback and how they did it against Ohio State is just amazing. Like, Riley Leonard just put his unit on the line and said, I'm going to get this done. And they did.

And they just gutted out the comeback. He looked like he was going to go out like Delova over there for a little bit in that game. Yeah. Are we going to have to med-fact this guy? Is he going to make it? I'll run through every screen. But Miami, like I said, the way they are. Bill, I cannot doubt them because

it's the lines of scrimmage, but when I look at Notre Dame, that's who I want to go against that. And Beck, I think I read third in the country in QBR in 23, and he was 7th in the SEC last year. Now, I will say

the mind games that the Georgia staff had to do last year with drop balls, guys were in the wrong route, just constantly quarterback receivers, not on the same page with super eye opening. I believe Branch is one of the biggest difference makers that you could have got in the portal and Georgia got him.

So Georgia, I think, is set up great. But getting back to Miami, it's a super, like, it's an under game. You know, Notre Dame usually has some tricks up their sleeves on these road games. Freeman's not a, not a care in the world. He's not afraid of anything. So I think it's a super great matchup because it's going to be, it's just like Notre Dame going to A&M last year to, you know, line of scrimmage.

who's making plays on the line of scrimmage in the fourth quarter. So it sets up for a fantastic game. There's going to be plenty of juice. We know the history of these two teams playing, but I still believe no matter what happens Sunday night, both of these teams are going to the playoff. I like what you did there because I think it's important because I really don't like however year

it turns of the exact same thing that nobody's good and nobody's played anybody. And I think there are games that matter. And people can laugh when I say like the Penn State U.S.C. win last year was a really good win for Penn State because I watched the whole game. I go, that's a good win. All right. I don't care what SC's record ends up being. And then it ends up kind of getting turned into like, oh, well, you know, and I certainly can be guilty of nitpicking some of this stuff too. But I think to your point on the A&M Notre Dame game last year, that was a tough fucking game. Whoever won that game should feel like, hey, we're a really good football team. And A&M loses it. They win. seven in a row after that they have that disaster against south carolina they lose to auburn that ends up being you know the one that really bites them and then everything kind of falls apart and they end up losing the bowl game too at sea like i look at a and m going you know whatever the record is eight and five like that was a good football team last yes okay yes so

then you have norder name losing northern illinois and it's like oh hey i thought these are good you know and then it's like well a and m also sucks too i just would try to remind everybody even though my preconceived notions on some of these teams through July and August, I'm going to use some of the results if I can do a few monologues thrown your way, too. So we all know we're all doing here. But I just can't emphasize this enough. The appreciation for some of those games in those spots, big time programs, all sorts of expectations, and that it may not be pretty,

but let's just not write these teams off so quickly. You can't do it. I'll tell you right now, not every eight and five, well, seven and six, maybe stretching a little bit, but like there are some really good nine and four teams out there that had maybe two bad breaks and a brutal schedule that are better than these 10 and two teams. And that's kind of back to my, look, I'm not, I don't know one's going to sit there and say, Rousseau was going to make a great point here. We got a, you know, we got a eight and four team he wants in the playoff because that

would be what we're looking at here over a 10 and two team. And that's not necessarily the case, but there is a massive sprint to try to dismiss so many of these teams so early when we know week to week, teams can be completely different and there are results at certain nights, certain games. If you're watching your whole thing, and you're like, this is a tough ass game, man. This is the brutal game. And it actually kind of spoke to both those teams in Notre Dame, you know, having to letdown against Northern Illinois and running it all the way until a national title appearance. Anything else you want to do before we get to Stanford steamers? You mentioned those two teams right there that I feel like if they play to their ceiling,

their playoff teams, and that's A&M and SC. Looking at what SC has coming back. And the moves they made, you're in the middle of it. You will start to see more of the Trojan hats walking around. They're just better built to play in the Big Ten this year. They get a couple of the big guys to come out to their place. It did feel like portal-wise, they go, we're changing up the identity and getting some guys out of here that just doesn't fit with what we're doing.

So I think your points, like when you look at their portal stuff, as I went through it with all the teams. It's like all these other teams are psyched. They're getting the SC guys. But it seems like S& they're fine. Yeah, we're good. And like Eric Gentry is a kid that has played forever. And he's like a defensive player that you, you, there's no one else like him in the country.

He's like six, six. He plays middle linebacker. He rushes off the edge. He drops in coverage. He's just a dynamic dude. And they get him back for another year. And they didn't have him last year. and you totally saw the difference

but when I look I didn't agree with the quarterback move I'm still a big Miller Moss fan I think it'll do great in Louisville but love Miller Moss I can't argue with what Lincoln Rally has done offensively I just can't do it so SC

is right there for me as those middle tier teams I said could go to the upper tier and A&M I absolutely love Elko I went to practice the Thursday before they played Notre Dame. And I'm like, oh, boy, this line.

Now they had absolute studs on the defensive line, but I'm like, this offensive line isn't going to be able to block. You just mentioned it. They rattle off seven in a row. They're running backs, as long as they're healthy, are as good as, I mean, everybody's going to talk about Penn State. Everybody's going to talk about Michigan. They're as dynamic as there is.

In Concepcion as a kid from NC State, I put up in the Zachariah branch. It's exactly what a quarterback is. is I love Marcel Reed. I really like the kid, like seeing him practice, knowing he was the backup last year, and then getting his opportunity, he's only going to get better. He was thrust in a brutal situation in that South Carolina game, but you see what he did the LSU, and he's going to be more consistent.

And the way Elko has built this team, they're set up for success, and they're going to be heard from for sure. Game you most want to go to this year. You go to any game right now. And you'll probably be going to it, by the way, with game day. So, I want, it's more of the situation. I want Texas undefeated in Florida undefeated when Texas goes to the swamp. You and I have experienced the swamp when it was pretty darn good.

When it's right. And I'll put it up there. And I want that back. Napier, I don't think I root for anybody more. I absolutely love his demeanor when you look at what he was thrust into in that situation where the fan base is like, I don't know if we wanted this guy. The five-star quarterback's going to take him the court because he said he was doing this. He's got Richardson, who still has never played better football than when he was coached by

Billy Napier. And then he goes up against the toughest schedule in the country last year. No one had him go to a bowl game. and they win, I think they won eight with the bowl game win. His steadiness, and when you look at who he's coached under, it makes all the sense. He's taking stuff from everybody. He doesn't get too high. He doesn't get too low.

But I would love to play for that guy. And I'm really rude for them because you said it. When it's right and Florida's going, I just go by the hateable factor. And they are maybe number one when they're good because that fan base is as rowdy as it gets. in the swamp oh man it's we need it back because this after this year they're doing construction and we're not going to have it for a couple years so i'm really rooting for florida and i really believe in what napier has done there um and then when you talk about lagway i mean his good is is right up there i just wish he's not in a sling or a walking boot or something it feels like he's always

nicked up but if they could get him um to be better and i like i said i trust the world when napier with quarterbacks. So I look at that Florida, Texas game as being as big as we can have this year. Gainesville is a special place when it's right. It's a haunting place. You know, we can talk about all the places. Not on Thanksgiving Eve or Thanksgiving. No, worst. The shit I used to say yes to. Not no more. Like, are you going to do, are you doing thanks? Well, yeah, I'll do. Was it Tebow's last game? Yeah. It was Tebow's last game.

You know what else happened Friday? Tiger. Well, all the Tiger stuff? Yeah. Remember in the front yard of that frat house? And I was like, where's the bathroom? They're like, go in the house. I'm like, no way.

I went in the house. Oh. That's right. I did the Friday after Thanksgiving show solo, and they were building the set because the guys were so hung over. They didn't build it on Thursday. Yes. And then I got feedback back at ESPN.

Be like, your solo show on Friday. it wasn't very good. I was like, really? I was in a tent. Amher's clanging in the back. What's that? Yep. I could have not done it.

That's what I went to, I went to Walmart and my Thanksgiving meal was, I watched A&M in Texas and I eat beef jerking and drank Gatorade because it was the only thing that was open up there. But yeah, we had some good memories, some good swamp, getting the car towed some great some great memories i a lot of those are still on the road things are still up which i shot the early the early travel experience we didn't do a blog for st barts but we did the audio version of it all okay so i can't believe you also picked a texas game

uh because i thought about that one because i can't like all the guys of the hype guys i think we saw enough from lagway even just last season where you go okay this guy actually is deserving of all of the accolades. And it's certainly not like if you're paying attention to the recruiting stuff. It's like, hey, no shit, guys. But then once you actually saw his physical gifts on the field and stuff that he was doing, you're like, okay, he's like they've got the quarterback. You just hope it works out.

And you're right. The fact that he just recently, like what if the last couple of days is the latest news that he finally took first team reps with this stuff. And I know Nate Beers said, hey, this schedule isn't tomorrow. Game one isn't tomorrow. So we'll be good. But it's not my favorite thing because I'm so excited to see them play. this year. But I also picked a Texas game. I went a little later in the season. I want to go down to

Athens, Texas at Georgia. Yeah. So that'll be the middle of November. You know, look at who knows what the schedule will do to Georgia to that point. Georgia's actually, their non-conference stuff here, they don't have that haymaker to start the season like they do a lot of other years. How many years? Yeah. Right, right. They'll be at Tennessee. They've got Bama, Ole is at home, Florida's at home, and then that'll be that Texas game at home, and it'll close with a spunky Georgia tech team led by my guy Haynes King, who just is not afraid. He's not afraid. All right, let's, again, in honor of Scott or Ryan, about Georgia. They haven't lost the home game since 2018. They haven't? No. Their seniors are 53 and 5, 25 and 0 at home,

four trips to the SEC title game. All right. buckle up. There's a very quiet confidence from Tuscaloosa in Athens that I would be very wary of. We haven't even mentioned those two teams on this pod. And just be wary of those two teams, letting Texas, LSU, all those teams get all this preseason talk. They're taking notes. I love that DeBore got grub back as his OC. And we're going to have a Bama defense.

That's like the Bama defense of all. The secondary's sick. Last year felt like year two of a downward year post-sabin in the first year. So that kind of scares the shit out of me. We knew post-sabin. There was nothing you could ever do. But there was non-sabin stuff that was happening way too soon for a team that still was coming off, you know, a playoff appearance with a lot of guys that were still there.

And then you had Ryan Williams of the whole group. I feel like we talk about Bama so much. We'll get to it. I think the Ty Simpson thing scares me a little. that, and it may have been, I've talked about this before, it may have been Saban just going with like, hey, it's Mill Row in the locker room.

And then DeBore's not going to come in and change it. No, and that's the biggest thing, Ryan, is when you look at that roster from what it was, he had to keep guys in order to keep the roster. Every school in the country, when Saban retired, came in for every player, every one.

And like to see what DeBore had to do to keep guys in order to have a team. And now you get a whole other year of his culture. I think they're in a way, way. There's stuff you can't even explain that was happening in that program that you could write a book on. So just the stability factor, they're in a way better spot than they were, way better. All right. I might go to the whole week to Athens.

I haven't been in years. A little widespread cover band maybe. There you go. I know you'd be down. Make sure you get the Chuck's fish. I know it's crazy. Athens in Tuscaloosa It's the best sushi in the world

Best sushi in the world in Tuscaloosa In the country I don't leave the country I'll say the best best It's the best that I've had It's incredible There may be some pushback on that I totally understand it

But it's worth I need an assessment Don't knock it till you try I could just hear this podcast On a Japanese restaurants right now Somewhere outside of Tokyo Being like Athens They're Googling it right now

Big fans Give me a couple in honor of Jimmy Donan, give me a couple Stanford Steamer's totals on the season. I love Utah this year. And it's been tough the last couple of years because you had to play the Cam Rising saga. But when you look at a couple teams this year

that, you know, you're saying like, you know, Penn State followed the Michigan, Ohio State model, right? Keep our core guys here. And then we're going to piece together. This idea that Oklahoma brings in a, new quarterback along with the OC, that's what Utah did. And Devin Dampere is a kid, you watch him at New Mexico, runs all over the place. But in that, bringing his offense coordinator to Utah, I think says a lot about

Whittingham and where he, how comfortable he is. They basically did the Vandy, except not replacing. There you go. Vandies. Vandies. Yeah. So their offensive line, they have, I mean, to ask Todd that the two tackles are first rounders, maybe top 10, one of them.

So, like, Utah, when I know there's a stability of offensive line and I know they have dynamic runners, give me that in a conference where we saw it last year, Arizona State. And then, you know, for people to say it's not easy to move up the rankings, I looked back when Arizona State went from unranked to the four seed in three weeks. So if your schedule allows you to do what they did last year, that was when we had. had the, I mean, I just can't believe how bad people are in this sport of organizing things where the fuck up has to happen for them to make the change. Like, hey, you know, this could potentially happen. Well, whatever. We'll see what happens.

And then they only change it. So that one, because they were still like, what, 13th or 14th? Yeah. I think they were behind Alabama. Yeah, I think they were 15 going in the last week. So to your point, I tried in the seminars this year to bring up overtime because that's the next thing. Somebody's going to lose a playoff game or a right to go to the playoff or a deep playoff game because of two-pointers.

That's what we do in the third overtime, two-point plays. Like, that's going to happen. Like, get out in front of this, please. Utah over. I'm really curious about UCLA. I breed in what they lost and what they looked like last year. And listen, Deshaun is top three players I ever was on the same field as. think the world of Deshaun Foster.

Defensive guys back in the day would come off. The phrase was, man, that dude's an ultra beast. We can't get him on the ground. And I'll let you know he was a true freshman. It was like his second game ever playing. So Deshawn's the man. What conference is UCLA in? Who's in it?

The Big Ten. That's right. They're in the Big Ten. Monster game against Utah. There's some five and a halfs. I would look at the under in USC, or UCLA, sorry. Oklahoma State is a team that I think it's going to be, it's in real trouble when you look at what they've done.

And I look at the under and stillwater and, under and still water. Yes. I like, I'll give you, oh, we mentioned them, Minnesota, over. I like what that team brings to the table. You know, it's four and a half total right now for Oklahoma State on Fandu. Wow, it went down. Wow.

I guess people, wow, that's not good. They're on it. You were on it. Did you already give it out? I don't move lines. But the talk, the talk has been there in the circle. Are you sure? You should ask Van Pelt if you move lines.

Maybe the greatest segment that wasn't a segment to ever segment. I have two questions. it's for you. No, but I, by the way, Minnesota, Minnesota, six and a half over. Yes. I love it. Yes. Yes.

I mean, they've lost three defensive coordinators. They don't lose a beat. They play great defense. They're super sound. They always have some stud coming on the offensive line. Lindsay's a guy who I trust. I loved what, I mean, bros. Quincy Avery, our guy, he loves the quarterback whisperer.

Yeah. He loves him. I saw, I was texting Quincy about, a couple high school games the other night. And he's had, of course, he's worked with him. And I felt great to get his confirmation of guys that was watching that I loved. Shout out, Quincy, great Hulu special. I'm tempted a little bit on Fandall right now, Illinois, under eight and a half.

Oh, eight and a half. I could see under. There was a seven and a half out there I saw that I went over. This is, okay, you did. You went over seven and a half. And it's not, I mean, maybe Illinois just continuing to build. They have the same quarterback. But this is that middle of the.

big 10 where yes exactly it's really competitive and then there ends up being this team you're like how do they only have six or seven wins and you just go well you know they're just a lot of these teams in here i don't really know what to do with even though illinois with them end them off of last year incredible bull win and belemma kind of doing a lane kiff in a tennessee light you know the last couple months uh so all right so utahs is seven and a half right now how about the bear how about i don't know are you guys even friends or nemesies? We've been going back and forth.

He has South Carolina under seven and a half because of the schedule. Man. I worry about like you talk about losing guys to the draft. Like look at the defense. Look where they all got drafted higher than than what people thought.

Not dudes that had South Carolina on a screen. Yeah. That's true. I mean, watching them against LSU. I think it was a week three. I'm like, this team's a problem. But I'm blanking on their best player. Stuart.

Yeah, he's a D.C. kid. I couldn't believe how big he was. I mean, within like four years, it was Chase Young in a high school uniform at DeMatha. And then you saw Dylan Stewart. I'm like, oh, my God. Teams are going to be able to prep for him now. You know, offensive line game plans.

Last year, it's like, oh, where do we start? Because what no one talks about is how Kinnard was, and the 2D tackles got drafted high. Those guys were Saunders was stud. But I look at what they lose defensively. And it's, you know, we talk about, you talked about before the season, all these quarterbacks. If you're on sellers and he continues to improve, he's going to be the guy. And then he falls into the arch category. Is he going to come back for another year?

because of how much you can pay the college guys now. Yeah, Kinar made Dylan Stewart's life a lot easier with the sack totals, the pressure totals and all that kind of stuff. It's just, I know the schedule is brutal. I know it's brutal. But I was, I liked the balls on Felica for going. I'm actually just completely zagging on all the South Carolina love here.

Everybody liking the quarterback and, you know, even losing even worry to the draft on top of something else. They had some, some dudes back there. Okay, I know you want to finish with some stuff. so the floor is yours. Are you still a Bears, man? Funny you brought that up because we were doing this with Sheel a little bit earlier,

which, by the way, Edgerman Cooper was a guy where I think the whole point of this was like when you're watching football and you're not familiar with all the personnel because it's a lot to keep track of. And then you see somebody and it was kind of, I didn't even get it in when you were talking about Notre Dame, but Leonard Moore 15, the corner for Notre Dame, right? So he is a, the phrase, I used was who the fuck is that guy? Yeah.

And the first time I saw Leonard Moore, I think I even texted you within minutes going, okay, give me the goods on this guy because you're so plugged in with all these coaches and all the recruiting people throughout the country, which is a credit to how hard you worked and how seriously you've taken this job. But I brought up Bears. This isn't related. I think the loss of Washington broke me. So I was a Bears fan for.

like what two months maybe i still have all my caleb william stock i thought the sando stuff was horrifying for any of us with a large californian position of that yeah did you listen to it yeah big cat texted me i think an hour after it posted being like fuck sando and then he was like parenthesis he's just kidding so sando hears this it's not it's not personal but when i'm like i think even surrudi was like you were rattled for a few minutes after the caleb williams part yeah like i was losing track he just kept going it's not it's not didn't end when is it going to end he's like what did he say he's like I'm up to 50 people I talk to or maybe it's 100 I don't even know it's like and he's like the majority that I'm like gee no this is the

line he's like he's like I have 50 voters and he goes you know I used one or two quotes for people who didn't like Caleb he's like the problem is is there was like 20 quotes I could have used yes I was like oh my this is awful uh it was depressing yeah I mean it was almost like when I was interviewing the linebacker, Brandon Marshall from the Raiders, and I thought I was getting the receiver. And if you really listen to that interview, the first couple questions, you're like, what, what's going on with their guy? Like, whatever, whatever the scouting report, pros and cons are, I'd like to think the pros are that he's, I'm pretty steady with this shit at the stage of my life. And when that Caleb Williams' waterfall of negativity

hit me, you know, I'm like, you know, do you like the nuggets off season? Like, I was looking in my list. I didn't know what to do. I almost tapped out of that interview entirely. What else? Your threads game is second to none. You're on the gram when you want to be. Why don't you

ever credit your photographer? Did I Oh, you mean whoever's taking a picture of me? Yeah. Because it's multiple photographers and they are not being paid. Okay. Just I mean, they're tremendous pictures.

Tremendous. A lot of them are fishing guides. I don't think they care. A lot of a lot of curious guy because then when I, that's what I'm thinking of. It's just some guy out there and is, I think there was even a guy. I was like, hey, do you want me to, do you want me to tag the shop? And he's like, what is he was like, what? Yeah.

Where in why? Where are we? Yeah. Right. I've got one on horseback from Bamp this past week. Oh. People's fucking minds. Internet's going to go watch.

child. Chaps? No, but I had to wear a helmet. I brought a hat from Bamp that said, I love Bamp. Nice. I'm just kidding. No, no, you had to wear a helmet. To be honest with you, the horse I had, the weight limit was 2.30, so it was close. So they gave me the biggest horse, and then a female elk, because I guess the female elks are real pain in the ass. Actually, I'd be honest with you, it felt like a pretty sexist horse tour in general. I could talk about BAMP for an hour right now. I won't do that. Maybe I'll do it with Adnan. But an elk came up onto the scene and we had like a horse, you know, there was like 10 of us single file, trying to keep it in single file. And I had the biggest horse and all of a sudden it was like somebody floored a Tesla. And you don't know,

like you're in the passenger seat. So I'm not kicking the horse and being like, let's go. You know, a couple things you have to do to get the horse going. The horse just decided on its own to accelerate. And then I was able to like calm it down a little bit. It was all because this fucking elk that was harassing the shit of just you know it's a female right yeah so that happens i don't know if that's an analogy uh just a couple NFL things it wait have you talked to anyone that thinks the dolphins are going to be good no okay and watch out for chip with two tight ends and mayor and brock that's all i'm going to say just watch out yeah i haven't seen chip at a while watch out when i heard about i couldn't when i was like oh my god i'm

like, they're not screwing around with these offensive coordinator salaries to get this guy to come back. No. No. If you could just get Chip in an honest moment, I imagine he would just be like, so I can make this and just be the OC and not have to deal with any of this other stuff the rest of my career. Yeah, I'll do that. I mean, I think it's just always tough as a competitive person. And clearly he's wired as a very competitive guy. And the New England part of it where it's like, do I really not want to be in charge? But my God. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Look out. Look out. Raiders. I don't have anything else.

Where are you right now? You're at Clemson? Van Pell and I are doing a sports center from the U.S. Open tonight following the matches. Oh, so you're in the city. Yeah. And we go to Columbus for college game day Thursday. Going to be a one-of-one show with how much we're pouring in for coaches last show. meetings have been pretty crazy about, you know, people spilling out.

If you haven't watched a special, it's incredible, the editing, and the way they put that together, I thought was fantastic, talking to Fowler last night. He was very happy with the product, and that made me feel. He's a hard marker. Correct. And then Sunday morning, we are going to fly to Chapel Bill and be there for Monday night and Coach Belichick's debut, which I cannot wait to be there. I if I didn't go to Stanford I was going to go to North Carolina I know how good that campus can be and sold out for the first time I think when our guy Jeff Saturday hosted Florida State college game day was there in 1997 I think that was one versus five Saturday old blue eyes hosted you right yeah oh yeah and I'm really fired up to be in Chapel Hill for Monday night because it's that place hasn't been like that this century so I'm I don't I don't I don't I don't I Every clip I see, the players still don't have numbers on in practice.

So it's pretty interesting, as, you know, our newest member of the show pointed out, how's it going getting information in Chapel Hills? So, Belichick is going to work you guys so hard. He's going to make you all think he's his best friend. He's going to put on an absolute media show. for you guys and then it will be different. I think it already is different because what he pulled on the ACC training camp shows in West Durham hosted, West knows of the ACC history better than anyone.

And Belichick's honoring the 1980 team at some point this year. They're going to wear the old uniforms. And that, of course, was Lawrence Taylor's team. And Belichick rattled through the whole roster, explained why Lawrence Taylor wore 98 in college because he started out as a nose tackle, went through their schedule, pointing out they led the country and points given up. And that was with

a game of giving up 45s to Oklahoma. Like, he's history is unbelievable. If you get a chance, go back and watch it. How he just rattles it off. But it's, I have no idea what to expect. And that was one of the things we talked about in our meetings. Like, how much

time are we going to spend on a topic that we don't know the outcome? Because of the unknown in the roster, 70, players, 70, and Belichick, and his son, I thought, did a great job at D.C. at Washington last year, and kind of a similar joint with the roster

turnover. So you know they're going to play good defense, and that's why I'm kind of fired up because I love the quarterback from TCU, and he's got his hands full for that night. By the way, speaking of rankings, Jeff Saturday, top five makeup room. Yeah, Jeff Saturday was one of their

favorites. I tell me tell me who has a bad word about Jeff Saturday Not the makeup room No not when I was there Crip all right So proud of you man You know how I feel we probably do it every time you come on

But you're just kicking ass part of game day Sports Center SV pod every week You guys two days a week during college football right Yeah we'll do a Saturday night show All right sounds good we'll be listening talk to you soon See on the road Yeah or L.A You want details?

Bye. I drive a Ferrari, 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required.

Life advice, Life Advice, R at gmail.com, Sir Rudy and Wargon. When is Kyle back, by the way? Not a complaint, just a concern. Not even a concern, just a question. Next week. Next Tuesday show, we'll be back. So next week, we're Tuesday, Friday, correct?

Correct. Yeah, we're going to react to the opener. That's right. We're going to react to the opener. NFL is back, baby. Are you excited? Yeah, I am. I just want games, both college and the NFL.

I just want games. Like, let's go. So I feel like a lot of my college football stuff, I'm just, I could talk about it all day, but it's just, hey, you think this quarterback's going to be any good? You know, they're like, oh, did you see that schedule? or whatever like I just I need a weekend of games to feel really fired up to talk about the sport so you know what I'm also kind of excited about and this is like when NBA comes back to is I've got this weird habit of you know I'll put my daughter down around like 830ish so like by the time everything

settled it's like nine o'clock and then I'm just so over like the chase of like what should I watch now and then I spend like a good hour just going through all the damn streaming services that I subscribe to not figuring out what I actually want to watch it's like I just need a sport I seen something to watch. Like, I was watching the U.S. Open a little bit last night. Shout out to Alcarez and the total 90 kit. Like, I just, I need sports because it just makes my decision making much easier. I see, I kind of like this time.

I did get into the old movies. I would just throw on an old movie. I'm going to do it tonight. What did you watch? I watched Quest for Fire. Did I see that one? I think freaked the shit out of me in the theater. I don't know. My mom brought me to that.

Check that out. Watch the trailer first. Time out real quick. We get a new mug in the mix here from Oregon. What do we got going on in there? I don't know if I'd say new mug, old mug, a little wicked mug. It's new on the show. New on the show, maybe.

Yeah. Love Sean off mugs. Yeah. Did you get that there? What did I get? Did you get the Wicked mug when you went to go see Wicked? Yeah. I got a collection of Broadway mugs.

I can start circulating them. yeah let's let's get that going yeah maybe we just give you a minute or two to announce it then give us your uh actually yeah give us your synopsis on wicked was this this was this was the broadway show not the movie oh um great show first half upper second half downer what's not to like all right okay should i kayak what i've seen neither i haven't seen the movie or the show I feel like I saw the movie, but didn't. Yeah, that's true. That's a good point.

Should I kayak down the Hudson for my commute into New York City? All right. So I've kayaked, not an expert. We have Wargon here, so maybe the city commute. As a fellow Broadway-loving runner living in New York City, I feel akinhip to Michael Jordan, Oregon. He was skeptical at first, but he's far exceeded my expectations, and I love when you guys let him cook.

We do, too. NBA comp Eduardo Nahara always liked him 44 year old man living in Upper Manhattan recently started a job at Hoboken just across the Hudson River from Midtown I run marathons personal record one mile is a 525 5K 19 minutes 10K 39 minutes half marathon 126 Marathon 309 Pretty good huh

Borgone Yeah pretty good I try to give a whistle on enough that came through. You did? Didn't hear it. Yeah. Give another shot?

No, man. Too high. Yeah, I don't know. So, Rudy, you just texted me that, by the way. Did you need to text somebody else that? Nope. My wife got home. My dogs are barking and I was like, hey, I'm taping.

Just a heads up. You sent it to me. And I was like, I'm aware of your taping. Two people I text the most probably are you of my wife. So there you go. Well, that's hysterical. Like any dick picks, I'll understand now. All right.

Run home from work 10 miles, one to two days, or excuse me, one or two times per week if it's not too hot. All right. So we're dealing with a specimen here. I recently saw a news clip that has me intrigued by the idea of taking my commute to the next level. It was about a guy Tommy Lutz who paddles himself in a self-made foldable boat from his home in New Jersey down to the Hudson River to his job in Lower Manhattan. I love this idea. I'm now strongly considering doing the same thing by purchasing a foldable kayak and paddling to work. I've done some research.

I found a model with good reviews that I'm considering. We could click on the link, but we're not kayak guys. I don't know what to tell you. I have no affiliation with this company. It can handle somewhat choppy water, tracks well, and has decent speed, comparable to a similar priced traditional kayak. It weighs 32 pounds, folds up. It can be carried as a backpack.

My commute would be walking 15 minutes of the river, setting it up, takes 10 to 15 minutes with practice, paddling eight miles, one and a half hours, then folding it back up five to 10 minutes and walking five to 10 minutes of work where I freshen up. and completely changed clothes. I found good sites to launch and land. All right, just so we're clear here, let's say 50-minute walk to the river,

15-minute setup, that's 30, hour and a half paddle, two hours, fold it back up, we'll give you five because we gave you five the other way, so 205, walking five, so let's just make it 215. That's 215 one way. I have some kayaking experience on calm lakes rivers,

but not advanced. I would only go during daytime in a good way. weather and water conditions, wearing a life jacket, just the worst case, water immersion, wetsuit, et cetera. I wouldn't do this every day, but maybe once every one to two weeks when the weather is nice and ties are favorable. It, of course, wouldn't save me time on my normal commute, 45 minutes by public transit, but it would be for fun with stunning views, including in Midtown Manhattan.

I would stay close within 100 feet to the shore so that worst case scenario, if I capsize and I couldn't get back to the boat. I could swim to shore and abandon the boat if necessary. One limitation of the foldable kayak is much more prone to filling with water. when flipped. The most risky part of the trek is crossing from the New York City to New Jersey side on the river, which is about one mile wide. Yeah, right. So at some point, you've got to, you know, cut this thing in half, so you're not going to be next to the shore. I would cross before hitting heavier boat traffic near Midtown. Above this area, there isn't a lot of boat track, especially

during early weekday morning hours, recall Sully landing of jet there and didn't hit any boats. Shout out to Sully. And the occasional large commercial boat is slow and easy to avoid. My wife is cool and trying to be supportive, but is worried about an accident. It keeps telling me just to make sure I don't die. So what's your verdict go for or am I crazy to consider it? Look, I love it. I don't know where you work or what the office is, but I mean,

it can go one of both ways here where you could be just the legend kayak guy that kayaks to work every now and then. It sounds like you're married, so I don't know if it's going to help you with sales. It also grew the other way and be like this guy the least efficient dude ever. I love what kind of physical test you're putting yourself through.

It seems like your life has been a series of physical tests. Then you want to challenge yourself an entirely new way all over again. If you're saying this was five days a week, I would think it's like, it's going to add up and maybe your wife's going to get a little pissed at you. And, you know, that's a lot of hours. But if you're saying maybe every other week, every now and then, fine. But I think you'd have to talk to somebody that truly would understand what it would be like to be in a kayak if the weather. You're saying you get ahead of the weather, but is there a way where you may not understand it and it's choppy? Look, as a boat guy, I look at the charts sometimes and I think I'm fine.

And then I get out there and I'm like, this interval right now is like really bad for even. a decent-sized boat. And that's why there's no other boats out here, which usually a pretty good indicator if you want to leave the marina. So I love it, but I don't know enough about what you would be. Like, would you be a massive nuisance to any of like the worst case scenarios of more boat traffic? It sounds like your launch area is north of everything that you're saying. So I kind of understand what you're talking about there. Look, I'm just not educated enough. on this other than I'm fully supportive of it. I mean, kayaks are sick.

I just, I don't think I would want to take one to work as someone who doesn't have a commute. I'm not trying to add anything else to a commute. But the other thing, too, is I always thought about this with guys that bike to work. Like, my father-in-law loves to, he loves to bike, used to bike like an hour to his job multiple times a week. I think they ran back.

Sometimes my mother-in-law would pick him up on the way. And I just always thought about, like, the stench of it. So, like, our guy, is he, like, putting in time, for a shower too because you're going to work up a huge sweat right and you're going to work oh you're about to change a clothes but like you're still you're still kind of gross so i don't know if that's kind of the you know you probably have to pencil another half an hour to like shower again i would personally to shower again and get cleaned up again because i wouldn't be at work smell like ass like in front of all these people i mean sounds cool like hey i did this huge cool

thing before it work i kayaked here like that does sound cool in theory but i don't know i i i think that would be my biggest worry this is definitely worth doing once just because you want to do it. And, like, you're not, you're not the only kayaker on the Hudson. You might be the only one going from the New York side to the Jersey side in a given day, but, like, there'll be other people out there. I could see this being a situation where you kayak there, maybe take the trains home. I don't think you want to have, you know, a 12-hour day with both commutes, but I think

I can't kayak up river either, right? It's definitely a one-way commute. I don't, I'm not sure on that. I don't know. Can you get out there? Wargon, is there any way you can boots on the ground? Yeah, research on this one and just kind of like maybe just go up

and you're like, hey, what are you doing? You headed Hoboken? You guys like, what are you nuts? You know? I would love for you to just the next month get out there. Think you could do this? Yeah, bring a microphone.

Yeah. This isn't a bad idea. We'll get back to you. Wargan on the street. Wargone on the street has a nice ring to it. I'm not kidding. Can you actually go to the Hudson and just like one afternoon look? I can make it happen.

All right. That's all we need. Close enough. We'll get back to this guy. Yeah, well, I'm not going to pretend I'm an expert on any of the stuff. So I'm not going to say other than I just think it's badass. I love people that want to do badass things. So go for it.

All right. The post lonesome dove syllabus. Oh, this guy's. I mark this one. I guess I'll read it now. Blood Meridian. I already read it. Lonesome Dove is like a PG version of Blood and Meridian.

Next Step Concept album based on Blood Meridian by Ben Nichols. Blast Pale Light in the West. Then we jump to Ben Nichols' little brother, Jeff Nichols' movies. Shotgun Stories are Mud. We connect the loop with all my friends are going to be strangers by Larry McMurchie. Chris Ryan can walk you through that if you have any questions. Okay, cool. Yeah, so I think I'm already halfway there.

This was I think it was I guess some people were giving me shit about my buddy calling When we had the guy who was living at home The Australian guy? Yeah so oh here's the title of this joyous email Defending Ryan co-dependency is weakness

There's a Reddit thread going on about your response So that must be fucking fun. What else are you guys doing today? To the dude that had to call his wife every night when we're on the golf trip. The dude was weird and I'm on Ryan's side. Here's my Reddit response to those guys that have go with everything with the partners. I go to things by myself all the time, which I've never had a problem doing. I would consider myself a great partner.

I'm in a healthy relationship. I don't ask my partner to go to the things that she would not enjoy. We're at concerts together. We both like the band Mumford and the Postal Service. Hey, who sings that song, Revival? that's Zach Brian right is that the one where they say put Johnny on the vinyl

yes that's Zach Brian yes that song's dog shit that's so I'm I don't know that song is so fucking bad you might be aliening yourself here because I think I'm not a Zach Bryan guy. I'll listen to a few songs here and there, but I do think that's like a crowd favorite when the concerts

and the concert scene and he brings up like a famous person to sing it with him. And it's like a thing. I think he did Springsteen once. I think Portnoy's been up there. Although that's not a great relationship anymore to imagine. So yeah, I think I don't know. Big song in the in the Zach Ryan community, I think. Oh my God.

Yeah. I can't. I hadn't, I guess I hadn't really heard it before. And then I heard it like three times. At least one of those ones you could just, you know, you just, it's easy to remember the words, you know. Baptize me at a bottle of beam, put Johnny on the final. That is the hardest trying lyric in country music, modern, modern era, perhaps. I don't even, I didn't really have an opinion on Zach Ryan.

So you didn't listen to the new album. No, no, there was a few songs that I heard. during my Vermont trek. I went in a country phase there. I was getting it. That's the whole Casey Musgraves just all over now. She's unbelievable. Her first album. Oh man. Golden Hour. You got to be kidding. Anyway. I would I would say there's a few Zach Ryan tunes that came on. I was like, I really like this. This is really good. So this isn't

an overall thing. I'm just telling you, that lyric tough. As a writer, you wouldn't have you wouldn't have written that. I think somebody in the studio has to go, dude, are you serious? so he needs more no men you're already you're established this is

you know what I'm confused about now that we're on the Zach Ryan thing have you heard the story about how he was like in the the Marines he was in the military who Zach Brian

oh I didn't know this so he was this could be total BS this is what I at least had heard he was in the Marines and then they're like oh you're so good at music like you could just leave

and pursue your your music career. I was like, is that how the Marines work? Maybe I'm getting this wrong. I was like, that doesn't seem right. David Robinson number one pick of the Navy.

Nope. Zach Brian of karaoke on leave. Hey, dude. In all honesty, we've got a lot of guys. I don't know. That's what I heard. Yeah.

So again, Some Zach Bryan stuff that's made its way through the Spotify shuffle, I liked, even saved a few. I had never heard it, I think, or really listened to it, other than this, this Bamp run that I went on, and I heard it a couple of times. And that lyric, it just smells bad. He was in the Navy. In the Navy. Dude, honestly, you could just go. Okay, so we murdered this email.

So anyway, that was the Australian guy where it was living in home and then I kind of took it in a different direction was basically sharing a little bit of growth. I felt as a little bit older is that there was just all these things and relationships where I was a lot younger where I'd be like, that is fucking stupid.

Why do I have to do this? This is so fucking stupid. And I think as I've gotten older, I'm like, hey, I still think this is really stupid. But if it's not really that big of a deal, why not just do the thing that maybe there's that disconnect among the genders of just not understanding how things make each other feel, right?

So I don't know if I'm getting ripped on this one or defended. I have no idea. I don't ask my partner to go to things she would not enjoy. We first started dating. She went to a few games with me, but I later found out she's not a sports fan. It was just doing it to hang out with me. That makes me feel like such an ass. She's come to a game with me since.

I'm going to guess he says zero. We live together. We go on dates together. Things are good. We don't have to do everything with our partner. I told her early on there are things I'm going to say no to. More often than not, I will say yes. But your friend's party celebrating her 17 year anniversary with her Honda fit. No thanks. Tell me the things I have to be at and I will. When Endgame came out, I was hanging out with a woman I was dating. I had to leave at 8 p.m. to go see Endgame.

She could see it with me the second or third time I saw it. She's been in a work conference for four days. We haven't called and barely texted because we aren't codependent. She's busy and having fun. Don't waste your time calling me. too many dudes are too attached to their partners co-dependency is weakness okay thank you um to sponsor that yeah yeah so why don't we just read one more email ex-girlfriend's demand for money ooh here's a spicy one six four two 15 bench 225 10 to 12 times 405 squat five times five sets deadlift not anymore in my prime three four years ago squat 585 deadlift 625 but once my best friend told me No girl cares how much I squat. I just cut 40 pounds and decided to keep it light. No girls care?

I don't play pickup basketball, 11.2 handicap, all right? Good stick. So the situation I'm dealing with, my ex-girlfriend of three years, left seven months ago. She caught me sexting with a woman from my past. Ouch. Moved out of my house that day. I took everything she bought for our house, literally everything. I try my best to fix it, but she wouldn't talk to me.

did it was clearly she hated me i gave her all the space after those first couple weeks trying to fix it she would reach out time to time about mail any mail she got i would just put right in an envelope or box and send it to her questions about her car even offered to get a gift for my daughter's birthday all right let me clear that one up a little bit later so she offered to get a gift for his daughter's birthday so it sounds like a daughter from a previous relationship the other week she sends me this text at six a m on a monday i attach the text at the bottom of this email okay here's the email here's the text quote i've been doing some thinking and would really appreciate if you would financially compensate me for a fraction of the money i invested in you your home and your

daughter well i do not regret the money i spent on this is i guess the daughter's name leave that out specifically the reality is you let me believe for three years we were building a life together all while lying to my face and sneaking around behind my back i made final decisions one of which being that i purchased a seven passenger vehicle because i was under the impression they were starting a family of our own and we would need the room for additional children which now only drives one person around. I feel stupid every time I get in it. I happily took on the bulk of the day-to-day purchases when it came to the daughter,

whether that was clothes, hygiene products, room decor, Christmas presents, etc., because I was all in and helping you raise a child who I shared no blood with, but loved like she was my own. And now I have nothing to show for the three years I spent loving you, making your house into a home and investing in a child. I will never see again. Not that it's any of your business, but I'm at the point where I'm looking to purchase my own home, something you constantly held over my head and joked about at my expense,

saying things like, quote, you can't leave me. where would you go? Now, you know, if we're giving our email or the benefit of the doubt, maybe you was saying something like that, but those are those things you say to somebody thinking it's joking because it's obvious, but it's like sometimes you have no idea the damage that you're doing by joking about something that is still true. But I mean, it's, it's fun and quick. I know context definitely matters, but it's not awesome. I don't know how you explain. No, I'm not. I'm not. What are you going to do without me? Yeah. Yeah. Loser. You made me feel so small like I could never make it without the home you provided.

Although, look, I remember like a guy that owned the bar that I worked for and he would have like a stack of five grand. And I was, you know, fairly, I don't know that I remember when I deposited check for $4,000 once in my 20s and I was like, holy shit. This is awesome. And he did something like, he was like, he showed it to me. And he was like, this five grand would change your life, wouldn't it? I was like, yeah, yeah, having five grand in the bank would be awesome. And he's like, I don't even think about it. I was like, all right, man, awesome.

You know? And you're just like, God. Like, he thought he was just kind of funny. We'd known each other a long time, which is sort of fucking with me. And it's funny because one of my other friends that was there that saw, it's like still brings it up sometimes. He's like, I can't believe how fucked up that was. Anyway, so sometimes you don't, you think you're doing something and it's like, whatever. Again, we weren't even banging.

We just worked at the same bar. You made me feel so small. Yeah, yeah. Never, never got there. You made me feel so small like. I could never make it without the home you provided or the money you made. I deserve better than that. And I deserve to be paid back for the investments I made in someone who never truly loved me in the first place. I think $3,000 is more than fair. This is still part of the text.

More than fair, considering is a fraction of the amount that I actually spent on a life with you over the past three years. I'm hoping that all the growth you've allegedly done over the past seven months will allow you to put your pride aside in this moment and realize that this is really the least you could do as a true sign of remorse. I don't want or need handles gift cards in the mail or care packages with my favorite candies are homemade cakes. So he's still sending her stuff, I guess. Back to the text. Keep saying email. Maybe I'll get at the next one. While they are kind sentiments, they don't help me rebuild my life after being unbelievably blindsided by you. I hope you'll actually consider doing this for me. And text back to the email. So my dilemma is, I am still madly in love

with this woman. Then pay her the fucking three grand. That's my opinion. Back to the email. I made the biggest mistake of my life by sexting a couple times in the woman. I feel so bad for what I did. I put in a ton of work therapy, 12-step program. Jesus, to work on myself and fix myself. No one comes close to how I feel about her. My problem with this message is it feels so dirty, so demanding and almost manipulative. It makes me feel terrible that she thinks so low of me in our relationships that she wants 3K for her time. Like what the fuck? I have the money, so it's not even about that. It's more the tone of the message, but appreciate the life advice. I don't think I'm going to be real popular on this one. You just said the money

means nothing to you. You're madly in love with her. We can talk about cheap. We can talk about tone or whatever. But you probably have a better chance getting back together or to cut her check for three grand than you do of just saying like, no, Wargon is already shaking his head. Go ahead. There's absolutely no way you're getting back together. There's app. This isn't, this isn't like, oh, if you pay me $3,000 for getting back together. No, that's not what she's saying. No, no, I understand that. I just feel like this, this email is just a walking red flag. and the girl should have no no no the guy

oh you think he's a red flag I think he's a huge red flag and this girl should have realized this during their relationship and ended their relationship a lot sooner than she did maybe the worst place to live yeah well yeah there you go

and that money is sort of your your punishment for you know staying in a bad relationship as long as you did you're not entitled to financial compensation you know this is that's not really how this works Entitled is not the debate. I understand that, but I think you sell your car

if you're this girl and you move on. There's no way she's getting back together with this guy. I didn't love the car part from her. Because most people will like,

oh, you're going to get, wish you had a coop. I agree that they're not going to get back together, but the, like, 0. How are you guys so certain of that? Well,

I'm saying, I'm saying the point. People get back together all the time over the crazy shit. I'm leaving the door open. I'm leaving the door open more. There's like a 0.0.0.1. percent chance. I think paying her actually is worse in this scenario.

Because then you're basically admitting like, okay, I don't care. I'll just pay you off and it's over. You know, like I almost like that's so dismissive and I don't know. I would take that as like, oh man, he really doesn't. He really like all he thinks about me is this $3,000 and like I'm, I'm just money to him anyway. Like I don't, I think if you want her back, it's not going to be great. It's probably not going to happen. But you have to like fight for her more than just. like a monetary check cutting situation. Having said that, I think it's absolutely insane for her to ask this of you. Like when you're in a relationship, like, you don't, this is just it.

Like, you know, clearly you thought it was going somewhere. It didn't work out. That's just life. Like, you don't get paid, you know, on the back end for your disappointment. So I think that's insane from her to ask that. So she might be pretty desperate. I think it's insane for you to be so dismissive of any of her expenses when she was helping raise a kid that wasn't even her.

hers like he said that she bought all of this stuff for the house now she took all of it so then we can get into accounting thing but that's life you know that's it is really do we have are you guys nuts do you have any emails we get from roommates being like I bought the table but then he bought the couch and they're not even supposed to get married these are just dudes in their 20s that get an apartment together they can't figure out anything and are still pissed about utilities but she took all of her physical stuff you know you're trying to act like she didn't spend any money. I'm sure she did. I'm sure she did. But like, when have you ever heard this is like an okay thing to just cut somebody a check because you were like a nice step mom in this

situation? Also, like he has money. So why are you buying stuff? Like, why are you buying anything of significance? If he's the one that like, because it's a little girl. And she probably doesn't want to be like, well, I'm not going to get her any school clothes because the dad can pay for him. She probably wanted to feel involved and felt like a mother to this child. All right, but, like, those are smaller expenses. Like, I, I, I, you're not like buying her, three years, you know, her tuition to, you know, to, you're not like, you know, funding her, her 403B or whatever. Whatever, I don't even know what the term would necessarily be for that. Like, you're, how much could that have added up to?

Like, you're, those, that's the price of just like being a relationship and being nice and, and whatever. You got your heart broken. It sucks, but I just, I, that's, you're not getting paid for that. Right. It's not like you have, like, a receipt of, like, dinners that you paid for that you're going to go and, like, try to get back. after this. Like, it sucks, but, you know, it's kind of life. So if you guys wanted her back and she said, you know, look, this is what I want to do. I understand him not liking the tone or whatever. Maybe I just have more sympathy for her

knowing that if he had all the money and then she was still spending money for years and like, look, I don't think it's a running, hey, gas, seven miles, you know, $0.49 a mile, you know, Like, I'm not going that far with it. But if he really wants her back, I think his best chance, especially if the three grand is nothing to him is, you know, just write the check and say, okay, fine. Do you say, hey, three grand, if you're gone, six if you move back in. Oh, man. No, that feels a little dirtier. That's dirty.

Yeah. No, but I mean, you're saying, you're saying you pay the three grand and then like, then get her flowers every week or then, you know, start doing the other stuff to try to get her back. You're saying that would be better. I just feel like if you exchange the three grand and the money, that's icky. Well, both of you guys seem to think it's over just because, and if he's telling the truth that it was a one-off with this one person from his past a couple times and she saw it, that can be fixed. She's describing it as being like blindsided by years of betrayal.

And I can see it being like interpreted that way by her. And who knows, who knows who to believe with this whole thing. But usually that's not a one-off though for the record. record. That's what I agree with. Multiple times with the one person. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what the guy did or didn't. He only go on the email. But you guys are way too dismissive. But more people are going to be on your side that you shouldn't cut the check where I think if the money doesn't mean anything to you and you desperately want her back, she'll appreciate the check more down the road, even if the transaction feels wrong, feels dirty, feels like it's this final moment. People have a really weird way of coming around on stuff from points of no return. I've just seen it too many times. Hell, I've been a part of a couple of them when I'm like, well, that's not going to work out. And you're like, what happened?

Yeah, I figured it out. Although I never had to cut a check like that. Well, you would cut the check in the situation. I don't know. Imagine if that got out. That's such a just, you think people would think you're a better person because you got the check? Or would they give you the,

you give them the ick more because you cut the check? I think it's already one of those things where everybody's, I mean, unfortunately, I think too many people have just decided exactly they're going to feel about everything before they would know any part of it. So we're going to get a lot of feedback on this one. Yeah. It's going to be a lot of passionate feedback about this. And we'd see that Reddit thread later. Yeah.

If you guys could just give us a heads up on what that one's titled. Dig through it. Okay. Thursday, Big Cat. And who else do we have? Adnan. Adnan Verk. Big Cat.

Adnan Burke, he wrote a book. He's going to read the entire book on the podcast. He would, actually, if we gave him the opportunity to do it. He's going to do it in a British accent. He could burn through that, too. Yeah, than the audio book. So excited to talk some college ball with Big Cat and then big football day-to-day and then gearing up for the season, getting started for real after a week zero.

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