The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Cousins to Atlanta, Saquon and the RB Market, Fields’s Future, and More on NFL Free Agency With Kevin Clark

Episode Date: March 12, 2024

Russillo starts the show by sharing his thoughts on the start of NFL free agency (0:37). Then he’s joined by ESPN and Omaha Productions' Kevin Clark to break down Kirk Cousins signing with Atlanta, discuss the running back market, and even touch on the state of Formula One (12:06). Plus, another Alliance Parlay (48:20) and a heavy edition of Life Advice with Ceruti and Kyle (53:21)! Check us out on Youtube for exclusive clips, live streams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more, or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Kevin Clark Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, and Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NFL free agency we're gonna dig into it cousins to Atlanta what the numbers really mean the biggest fake contract headline of the first day and the running backs a lot of them sign. But it's actually bad news. They continues to get Kevin Clark on the landing spots for a bunch of players and where Justin Fields could end up and what's going on with Miami. We've got our alliance pick, don't lose faith. We're back, we're rested, we're ready to go and life advice. We're going to get the day started with a little thoughts on NFL free agency opening up this week. And then Kevin Clark is going to join us to go a little bit more in depth.

So just a lot of football, especially with the Tuesday after the Sunday pod with Bill. Let's start with Kirk Cousins. All right, here's what we know. He's in Atlanta. We know that he's 36 in August. We know that he's coming off the Torna Killies and that he's won in four in the playoffs. Trust me, Prime, Rosillo probably, well, how do I sit there and say who knows? Because never suggested you're already past your peak, but I was not a cousin's guy for the longest time. There's probably a monologue in me two years ago where I'm destroying Atlanta for doing this. Like, what are you doing?

You're gonna be kidding me. I would tell you that when you add up all the Kirk Cousins career earnings, he's just been great. Like once he kind of got on track to get out of having a team control him, and then he was just like a real, real free agent as a starting caliber, top half of the league starting caliber quarterback, that's just a whole new world.

That's why I always argued that you could guarantee the contracts. It would just be moving the math around. If these quarterbacks ever got to true free agency in their prime, especially with the cap numbers, we'd be talking like historic, historic numbers of guaranteed money. Ruling out the DeSean Watson got all of that, but that transaction was obviously very, very rare for a bunch of specific reasons. So the headlines four years, 180. Like, all right, well, there was probably competition. They had to kind of figure this out. It's really more like a two slash three year deal. It's a hundred million guaranteed,

but that hundred millions with a $10 million roster bonus that happens in a couple of years and 25, or the off season of 26. So it's kind of like 90 million guaranteed. I've seen a couple of different things here. It feels like it's just a hundred million. And it seems like if it's a disaster after two years, they'll have paid Kirk Cousins the 45 million a year

plus this roster thing that I think is gonna happen anyway. And if it's really good, they already have him in place and then they can worry about it later on. Now he's gonna be late 30s at that point, but the real issue here is just Atlanta. Now as bad as the quarterback stuff for them has been, their quarterback drought isn't nearly as bad as some of these other teams,

but that's what it feels like they did like hey Let's just get this right and if he's coming off in Achilles And if he's 36 and he doesn't win in the playoffs and he costs us like 90 to 100 million guaranteed like whatever Let's just do this. We just got this massive bump in the cap of the last two years Desmond Ritter third round pick so not a massive resource wasted there. Taylor Hanakie and Marcus Marriota, but that's all just two years past our post, I should say, of Matt Ryan. So, you want to look through some quarterback droughts, like look at what Cleveland had gone through and the resources that they had used for years and years and years to understand the thinking behind actually giving

to Sean Watson all of that money. And this was still even less. The other part of it is the investments in who they've selected in the top of the first round the last three years. B. John Robinson, eighth overall, Drake London receiver, eighth overall, Kyle Pitts, tight end, fourth overall, they have to figure out who these guys are and not having a quarterback that's at least serviceable, even if he's expensive and even even if he's older, and even if he's coming off a pretty serious injury, it actually makes a little sense. So I'm not going to open up the show today going like, I can't believe they did this because I completely understand why they did it. All right, let's talk running backs. My numbers show that on Monday, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine running back sign contracts out of the gate

Does that mean running backs are back? Absolutely not because if you look at the total money that they're making here This thing is going still like you thought the running back situation was going in the wrong direction for years It's going in even worse direction. Remember when they got together in like a zoom call You're like we need to figure this thing out. Here's a tip. The Zoom call did not work. I think it has way more to do, not so much teams prioritizing running backs. I think it was agents and the running backs going, we better take up whatever money we can get right now. I'm going to go through the guarantees. I don't have the full details of all nine of the contracts here, so you're going to allow me a little creative math here.

But if Seguin Barquay to Philly is for $26 million guaranteed, Josh Jacobs to Green Bay is $12.5 million. Tony Pollard, he's three years $24 million. I don't have the guarantee number on that. So let me just say it's half, and I'm going to be nice because it's probably not even half for the guys that I'm guessing. Austin Eckler Washington is 4.2 million guaranteed. DeAndre Swift of the Bears is 15.3. Devin Singletary's his thing is three years, 16.5 million. So let's call it 8.25. Zach Moss in Cincinnati, two years, 8 million. We'll throw a four on that. Gus Edwards, 3.37 guaranteed to go to the Chargers. Antonio Gibson, not a bad player in New England, 5.3 guaranteed. So if you take those nine guys and allow me some, some

rounding probably up on this, those nine running backs signed for 90 million guaranteed this week, which is actually less with the roster bonus than what Kirk Cousins got. Staying with Saquon, six years in, he's probably played in more games and you'd think if you're not a Giants fan, who's obviously been locked in on this every single week, or maybe I should say he's played in maybe more games than I thought he did. 13, 16, 14 the last three years, after only two games in 2020. But the numbers are okay. If you want to beat him up for the 18 rushing touchdowns, you know, a lot of that's play calling depending.

You think he was because of his build and how just dynamic he was that maybe that number be a little bigger, but it doesn't mean like, hey, this guy, he's certainly not washed or anything like that. And he's a complete bat. I'm a little surprised Philadelphia was so aggressive about it. Allotting their money to a position that, as we know, you can kind of figure out, like, I just, I wouldn't want to be wrong with more money at that position. And even if you can't be wrong about Saquon, the player, because you know how good he can

be when he's actually playing, I just don't know that I'd want to take that injury risk on top of everything else, even though, again, he's played in, what are we talking, 43 games, less than years. Here's a really good number for next-gen, though. With the Giants, the expected yards per carry at running back was 3.5 yards per carry, which was, again, expected yards per carry for a team. That was last in the NFL. With the Eagles, it was 4.7, which is the best number in the NFL in 2023. You should also think about these numbers because this is some Bill Barnwell stuff that I enjoyed on ESPN.com this morning. When you look at where the running

back contracts are going in relation to percentage of the new cap numbers in the NFL, I always thought a really good exercise in the NBA when they had their cap spike is to go like, Hey man, the $25 million player is kind of just the $40 million player. Now, when you're seeing a player sign for like 10 to 12 million or using the mid level, it's like 12 plus million this year in the NBA, realize that before the spike that was just kind of a $6 million player. So you kind of need to just figure out the math and how it all works out instead of just going, I can't believe they paid this guy this much. Well, that's not, it's not they just decided to pay that guy that much more. It's that they

had that much more money available to them to then go ahead and pay them. I mean, in the NBA, you're paying guys, teams are resigning their own players that they don't like for contracts that they hate because they're just that afraid of losing them and then not being able to replace the asset once you're over the soft cap in the NBA. So to put this all into perspective, what Barnwell did, which I think is really important here, if you look at how the running back money is working out, because I just saw a lot of stuff yesterday like, hey, running backs, man, they're making a priority. No, I think they were just like, let's take this cash now, because in four more days, this money, which isn't even good historically, might be better than we're going to make on a Thursday. So if you go percentage of

cap and try to use today's money with this, Adrian Peterson, we call them AP and ESPN, and then the Oklahoma people got really upset. I think there was an internal memo sent around ESPN at one point Saying it's actually AD for all day because that's what we call them in Norman. It's like sorry. He's national property now Peterson's deal in 2011 was for six years $86.3 million in 2024 if running back salary had kept pace with what Peterson made, and by the way, Peterson's probably one of the guys that'd be like, yeah, if you want to sign him for all your cap space, I'd agree with it because that was maybe the last running back that

could just carry a franchise that we've seen in recent years. But that deal for six years, 86.3, is a six-year $180 million deal based on today's cap percentages. So that's $180 million in 2024 dollars, and that's not even close to happening. Speaking of money and numbers, fake contract alert. Let's give it to Baker Mayfield. When I was driving around, knowing he'd come off the $4 million deal from last year, the one-year hit with Tampa Bay Bucks, which worked out for everybody. It was terrific.

Congrats to him for being the guy that can be that top pick to go somewhere else and actually win a playoff game. But the initial reports is I was getting my day going. I'm like, he got three years, 115 million. But wait, you've done this before, Racillo. You love this stuff. You love the headline, and then you love digging in to see what what could happen or you like the second headline. So the first one was three years, 115 million, I was surprised. Then it was three years, 100 million because we found out that 15 million was an incentives based on each year, totaling 5 million. So I don't know how tangled they are or not.

Then we realized that it's not really three years, 100 million, that it's 30 million guaranteed in 24 and then 20 million guaranteed in 25. So however you want to frame the years or the totals or all that, it's that he's guaranteed to make 50 million the next two years as of today, which makes way more sense than Baker Mayfield three years, 150 million. But the first headlines we see, remember this, we keep going through free agency, the first headline that you see on the contract detail, because it's most likely coming from the agent to the reporter, it's always the high end and the most favorable stuff. And there's deals that I'll look at like two weeks later, where I go, oh my God,

that's not even close. I mean, again, some of these running back deals are just one year deals. And again, the nine guys basically banking what Kirk Cousins got in one new contract. Fandals put in the ball in your core for the rest of the NBA season because right now new customers get $200 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet. That's 200 bucks if your bet wins. We have our alliance coming up later today. We are locked in. Bet on the NBA with a wide range of bets, including quick bets, live, same game parlays, player props, and more. And the wait is over, North Carolina. Fanduil is officially live in the Tar Heel State. So visit fanduil.com slash Ryan, RYE and make your first bet a layup. Fandule, official sportsbook partner of the NBA. Must be 21 and older and present in

select states. Gambling problem call 1-800-GAMLAR or visit theringer.com. 4 slash RG. First online real money wager, only $10 first deposit required. Bonus issued is non-betrable. Bonus bets expire seven days after receipt. See terms at sportsbook.fandule.com. drawable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. From ESPN, good friend, Kevin Clark is with us. We may even sprinkle in a little F1 at the end of this. Yeah, it goes. We're a day plus in to NFL free agency. It was kind of an exciting first day. Not a shock, but Kirk Cousins now with the Atlanta Falcons the money is is significant It depends on really if he gets to that third year

Especially with the cap going up and all the assets it's up to talk talked about in the open But just kind of like immediate reaction cousins in Atlanta your thoughts Coaches love Kirk Cousins because he makes throws the coaches want quarterbacks to make and there's not a lot of guys Who do that he throws the ball. I think last year before his injury. He was one of the best quarterbacks and not the best at ten yard throws Throwing in rhythm, which is according next-gen stats 2.5 seconds to four seconds Desmond or couldn't do that Marcus Marriota before that couldn't do that Probably only 16 or 17 guys in the NFL or on the planet who can do that. And so I love this because they needed to figure out what do they have, can they actually

get the ball in Kyle Pitts's hands? Can they actually get the ball and drag one in his hands? Can Bijan, who breaks tackles at an almost like supernatural pace, can he be that guy in this offense? I feel like Arthur Smith was such a good offensive coordinator. And then he got to Atlanta and it felt like he felt like one of these guys, you see this sometimes like on Twitter, like it felt like he let his critics define him to where he was like, no, of course, of course, I'm not gonna give up fantasy football. And of course, I'm not gonna use Kyle Pitts and Drake London and B. John Robinson and the roles of the fantasy community wants it. But really, like football is about getting the ball into really good players' hands.

And Kirk Hudson is going to be able to do that. And so I think this is immediately makes them the favorite in the NFC South. I don't think they're like going to win the Super Bowl or anything, but like they had a problem and they solved it literally as well as you could solve it. Okay, you said something very interesting about coaches like why did Mike Zimmer not like them then? I think Mike Zimmer, well, first of all, Mike, I think Mike Zimmer liked him more than, I mean, I don't think Mike Zimmer liked Case Hennem. I don't think Mike Zimmer likes a lot of people. He just, he was kind of a commudant. Mike Zimmer was also a defensive head coach.

Offensive head coaches, they love his ability to stand in there, make those blind throws, the play action thing. Like those Shanahan McVeigh guys, they just want guys to run the plays as called. They're like a director where they're just like, dude, what are you doing? Why are you adding words to the script like just just do it and Kirk Cousins does that and I was funny I was talking to Denny Carter about this on my show this morning but it was like the Tre Lansing is a great

example where I remember a couple people in draft Twitter and I took this because I love the phrase they said well Tre Lance is in a scheme fit for Shayna and he's a scheme expansion and then he got there and then the Shayna hand was like oh wait, don't expand my scheme. Don't do anything. Don't do anything special. And obviously there were other concerns there, other genotch scheme problems, but all sorts of problems with that process, the Trellance situation. But Kirk Cousins performs what's on the script. And I think that's why, to a man, I remember when I was doing that Matt LaFleur thing a couple of years ago,

I talked to literally every single McVan Shanahan guy and they were all, I get one point or another, something came about how great Kurt Cousins is. Like they love the guy. Okay, that's good. That's good stuff. Because I always felt like with my cousin's position, it was reinforced with Zimmer,

like Kellan Mond getting snaps. And I was like, what, okay. I was like, what else? But he hated Kellan Mond. I'm not even a Mond guy either. It was just, it felt like it was Zimmer. You nailed it though with the Kermudgeon thing. Like I talked to the guys that used to play form

when he was the coordinator with Dallas and they kind of like loved him, but hated him. They loved that they knew where they stood, but they like, he wasn't gonna make it fun. Do you remember they were like, do you wanna see Kellen Mond? And he was like, well, I see him every day in practice. So not really.

Yeah, right, right. Like he, maybe it's just, maybe he's just that guy that doesn't even like music. You have one of those friends who were like, do you actually not like music? Like who doesn't like music? So Stephen Ruiz, a couple of years ago, we went to a fan duel killers party. The killers were playing and so I'm amped up, I'll

listen to some killers, what's up? And he leans over to us and was at me and Ben Solak, and I forget who else was there. And he just goes, this is my first concert. And I was like, so first like rock, like what, what's that? I was like, no, I've just never seen live music before. Oh, that's new. Never had that lean over past the age of 30. Yeah. Levy did that to me at some big blowout brass horn thing in New Orleans.

Oh, and I were like dying to go see this. Yeah. It was the Maple Leaf. And we were like so excited to get into this place and then see it. And this whole band, 12 pieces, they just start going nuts. It's unbelievable. Just rigged it. Norland's just pouring out of your body.

And Levy just turns to me after five minutes. It's like, so this is it. I'm just doing this. pouring out of your body. And Levy just turns at me after five minutes. It's like, so this is it? Just doing this? It was like, what was he looking for? I don't know. I don't know. I just, I was like, what?

What's going on? So, yeah. I met Levy when I was like 10 years old at an NHL all-star game Today they're unbelievable these are unbelievable anecdotes. We might have time we might not have any time for the football Yeah, so it's a rebirth that brass band and it was like this it's like a church experience Anyway, if you have if you have the time, I would recommend it. Leavey did not leave a rave review on Yelp. Okay, Arolina, let's talk about the Panthers. Everybody's favorite team to beat up on right

now. That might be because of the owner, Tepper. But it's hard to look at all the assets in, assets out, and now Brian Burns moves on when we know that the reports seem pretty strong about them potentially getting too first and some other stuff from the Rams turning it down and now Burns is gone for less of a return than what was reported they could have gotten with LA. And then you factor in the Bryce Young part of it and then paying a guard all of this money. Is all of this criticism actually fair of the Panthers? I think starting from scratch and for agency is a very hard thing to do.

I understand why you would overspend for offensive line. You need to keep price young, upright and even skill guys. Like some of the receiving play last year in Carolina was like historic, watch the cut-ups. You have Jonathan Mingo running out of bounds for no reason, like in the middle of a catch, just flinging himself into an incompletion. And I saw another clip where basically

the ball just fell straight in front of Mingo. He's made no attempt to, it would have been a touchdown, a walk-in touchdown. He was like, yeah, I'm good. And so to keep him upright, for me, free agency is a decent way, and that's not a decent way,

a great way to fill holes and answer questions on your roster. It's a really hard thing. Great number was floating around this week that seven of the top 11 guys in the 2022 pre-agency class, so the 11 highest paid players two years ago, seven of those guys are no longer with 13, So the 11 highest paid players two years ago, seven of those guys are no longer with their team. And of the four who remain, two of them had to take pay cuts.

So overpaying for mediocrity is a pretty good way to get yourself in salary capout. My feeling on it is either pay like elite guys like Christian Wilkins or sign a bunch of guys for $7 million because there's a lot of those guys that fill your gaps. What Carolina is doing is they have to overspend. I mean, it's a little bit like what Cleveland did a couple of years ago. I remember John Dorsey saying this when he got to Cleveland with Baker Mayfield where he was like, you actually have to build a roster up before you can get guys to sign mid-level contrast, because

nobody wants to come there. This was in 2018 or 2019. I think Caroline is in a similar situation now, where the words out on the ownership that maybe he's not an unbelievable owner, maybe there's some interference, the roster was a disaster, guys are getting flushed out of the league. And so you're're gonna have to overpay for anybody to fill those gaps. They have the cap space. I like the Brian Burns Saga was a disaster for the Panthers But it wasn't a disaster for Dan Morgan the new GM and and the new and Dave can house a new coach because they weren't the Guys who turned down to first-hand picks a few years ago. So they did they're doing the best they can right now

I just think that it's like a three year build. I remember O'Loughlin's on my show a couple months ago, and I was like, what's the key to Bryce Young turning around? He was like, don't get mentally broken because this isn't going to get solved in 2024. This is his prove it here. Bryce Young's prove it here is going to be 2025 because of how bad that roster is. So I think they're punching back. They get into the kind of the Twitter meme zone where you get no pushback if you tee off on the Carolina Panthers. I think they're doing fine.

You're just gonna have to overpay to get pieces around Bryce Young because that's what FRAGENC is. And that's what the market is. And that's who wants to go to Carolina. It's guys who are making a ton of money to do so. Take one Barclay to the Eagles. This one got weird, because I don't really blame the Giants for going, maybe we can't afford

to have this luxury item at running back, even though there's not really a number out there for running backs that you would equate to luxury money. But it just feels like the Eagles. Like the Eagles will say, we'll just go get that guy, and then we'll figure it out. And maybe it's part of the Hertz reception deal where they think they get something out of Barkley.

They weren't getting from other guys, but that also may be more on Hertz because you can look at some of the numbers with the backs and say like, maybe Hertz actually just doesn't throw to those guys all that much because I think Barkley's the complete guy. He's probably, as I said in the open, a little bit healthier than

the reputation of him. You know, the last few years, it's just that when he came on to the scene, he was like, wait, is this guy going to save the running back position? That's not been the case here a few years in, but I just think how he rose from the Eagles like doing stuff like this, because they're still in the main. Do Marco Murray, remember, do Marco Murray, even that was the Chip Kelly era. But I think that it's more about it. I think they see an inefficiency at some point. We're like, okay, the market is so low on running backs. Let's go get what is considered a top of the line running back.

I completely agree. I think this can work. And also the cap is rising so much that it's not that big of a risk to try to utilize him in the passing game, to destabilize the Giants. Like the Giants fan base is in some weird civil war right now over Saquon Barkley, including Tiki Barber saying, you're dead to me.

They didn't offer him a contract. They did not offer him a contract. And like the people who seem to care about Barkley's legacy in New York the least are the New York Giants. And so I think the locker room loves Saquon Barclay. I think that they should have done a little more to bridge the financial gap and try to kind of take care of him. This doesn't mean giving him $60 million, but giving him a little more financial security

when you're giving out a bunch of money to Daniel Jones, who I don't think is A, the answer, or B, has a lot of respect in the building. I think St. Kwan did. And so, I think that this is a fine move for the Eagles. I don't think it's a home run. I don't think it's a disaster. I just think it's in line with the rest of the running back market, which is, as the cap goes up, is becoming a little more palatable at that position. I think a couple of years ago, we swung way too far and be like, all right, let's just draft a bunch of guys

in the fifth round and they'll make $800,000 and then we'll discard them. It's becoming a happy medium. And I think this contract is probably pretty good ammo as far as what the future of top tier wearing and masking day. Follow up alert, I have to ask, what gives you the sense that Daniel Jones is not exactly

the number one dude with the giant hook room? Did you see the cave on tibidow video? Did you see this in the Super Bowl? So he did it. I lose track of this stuff. Yeah, he did an interview. First of all, he's not very good. He's not very good.

There's that very good. He's not very good. And like, there's that. And one thing that is important here is like, whenever somebody gets paid in a locker room and like Bill Belichick was the master at this, understanding the dynamics of, hey, if we pay this guy, then we have to pay this guy. And you hear stories about like, I've heard stories about Legion of Boom where it's like the order in which those guys were paid kind of would cause problems. And that's just natural. That's not just that's just the story I once heard.

That's every single locker room. So I don't, I think anybody who gets paid in a locker room will always have a target on their back because there's other guys saying, hey, I should have gotten paid before this. There's a couple other things, but more than anything, I think that the, and this is not the best, I think this is not admissible in court,

but if you look at the KVNTB video, you gotta ask who was the, who's gonna be the week one starter next year in New York? That was the question. And KVNTB says, oh, Daniel Jones. And then he just stares straight into the camera, like Jim Halpert, and just kind of like a knowing like yeah I know man. I don't know about this one. It was an incredible look, but I don't think I the vibes I've gotten

from the Giants organization people who just are in the NFL is that They I don't think that they're they're eager to you know Lock in Daniel Jones even longer than they currently have. I think that they're the type of team where if they could upgrade a quarterback, maybe even now, they would. This is going to be a good transition into Miami because sometimes you just have teams that are in cap health because they're planning.

Well, they're either in cap health because of bad decisions. They're in cap health because they actually have a talented roster or they know they have a big bill coming due Although the $50 million spike in two years in the cap should Should have alleviated some of these problems. So before I get to Miami and some of the players leaving here It's just a thing that was explained to me, you know years ago when I was still trying to figure out the NBA and how all these things work is that, you know, whenever you can sign a free agent, other than the obvious ones in the NBA that have already decided like, hey, behind the scenes, this is where I'm going to want to go. And the winner's curse, right? The curse of, well, wait, yay, we signed this

free agent. It's like, why did the other team let him go? The NBA is not a perfect example to it because it could just be the player power of like, I'm just going here so you're not regretting it, but maybe the tier below that. Okay. Hey, this is a player that we really like. Now, the NBA is also a little different too because you just have to spend this money. A lot of times bad teams are spending on the guys that don't even want no or too expensive. Let's say, sign a deal, but it's the only guys that they can sign. But if you look at, say, Barclay and the fact that giants

don't offer them a contract, right? If you look at cousins and that Minnesota is like, no, no, no, we're good with Sam Darnall. Like, does that ever set off your radar or, you know, even Miami deciding, okay, we can not necessarily afford to lose this guy, but we're not going to make it a priority to keep them. Some of the players that have signed in the last couple of days where I've been like,

why didn't they just use the franchise tag on this dude at least for one more year and then figure out where you're going to be a year from now instead of just letting this talent walk? Are their names, are their players in these scenarios who are like, is the incumbent team telling us something that we're ignoring right now with the headlines of the money? That happens a lot in Fragency, a lot a lot. And I think that, first of all,

like the most overrated player in 95% of situations, the NFL is the guy who's just been released. That's kind of a separate bucket where it's always like, you know, like Julio Jones a couple of years ago. It's, I think we had an emergency Julio Jones pod and it's like the league told us they don't care about Julio Jones because he had no market yet. Here we are doing an emergency pod.

But separately, like I think the, an example when you talk about Miami here, they let Christian Wilkins hit free agency. And I can't tell if that's just, hey, we can't figure this out under the cap or like Christian Wilkins is really good. He had 18 double team pressures last year, which is more than the entire Raiders defensive tackle core. It's really hard to do. I think it was fifth overall in pressure as a disposition. I don't understand why they didn't try. Like a great example is the Bengals. They franchised tag T H Higgins, and they're going to ignore a straight request.

Like I promise you, they're going to ignore a straight request. People said that yesterday, like, good luck getting Mike Brown to cave on this kind of thing. They did this to Jesse Bates a couple years ago, where they said, all right, Jesse, come back for one more year. We're going to play out the string, maximize it, and go from there. I think the Bengals are going to be really good this year.

But I think that I think a lot of times, I mean, almost everybody in Frigency is a little bit overrated because if they were actually the player that the market thought they were, then the team would have taken care of them two years ago. Now, sometimes it's a positional thing. It's a reason guards it for Frigency and not tackles. It's a reason quarterbacks on it for Frigency. It's Kirk Cousins who does it every three years. It's a reason, I mean, like a bunch of safeties at the market this year, a bunch of linebackers at the market, it's just positions where they don't prioritize getting a deal done as soon as they're

extension eligible. I can't figure out the Wilkins thing. I think the Dolphins lost a ton yesterday. I don't think that I don't think it. I know the Dolphins lost a ton yesterday. They were capped out, they're gonna have to spend a bunch of money on Tua, losing their offensive line when Tua doesn't do as well under pressure.

It's not good there. It is not good there. And I believe in Mike McDaniel's ability to grind out an offense at all times and that Tua is going to be better than he was under Brian Flores, Chateau Shea and Chen Galey and all these OCs. But I think that window that was open last year, which by the way, I think they could have made a serious one if they were healthy.

But once the past rest of the goes, and all of a sudden Jalen Phillips is out for the season, Terza Killies, all that stuff, that window closed, I think they're going to have to do a lot of roster work to return to where they were last year, where they're actually a legitimate AFC threat if everything breaks right. I don't think that's going to be the case for the next 18 months. Wilkins, I don't get. Haun, I get. You just go, okay, Carolina, you want to pay that

much. I mean, the guards are making money left and right. I don't really believe that, oh, this is what Kansas City does. Well, there's also some other stuff that Kansas City does, specifically behind center that's probably a little bit more of the investment that they've made in their guards. But even being game cool, you know, like, sometimes I'll see stuff like that or like, there's a great basketball comp of like, we're trying to be the golden state warriors, but, oh, are you? Are you? You're just going to get two guards out there are going to be the best shooting backcourt of all time and the greatest shooter we've ever seen and one of the best teammates. Are you just going to do that? Oh, cool. How come more teams?

Or the teams who are like, we're going to do the Mahomes model and have a mentor for our guy. And it's like, yeah, Alex Smith is the reason that this all happened. It was Alex Smith. That's it. That's it. Mahomes would be like, I can't believe it landed in trade for me five years later if it wasn't for Alex Smith. I mean, look, I even like Van Ginkel considering all the injuries that they had had. And you're like, this guy's still out there making plays. And I know Miami still has some other guys that they go to worry about keeping throughout this whole thing.

So I just like discussing that part of it. Um, can you also not quit Sam Darnold just for the record? Now I can quit. I can quit Sam Darnold. That seems like a U thing. Um, that's fine. I was, was it me andolaac that were just way too excited about the week where he was supposed to start for Purdy?

Because I was in the Solaac's pod and I was like, yes, someone else gets it. Well, I don't necessarily know if that was about Darnold as much as it was Brock Purdy. I think people wanted, like not to, I used to joke about this with Formula One where it's like the thing about how the two people have the same cars and they're so competitive, it's because if you could see Brock Purdy run the Shanahan offense with those weapons and then see

Darnell in the same exact situation with just a couple of tweaks that are customized to what the quarterback wanted, it would be much more competitive. And so I think with, with Darnell, for me, I had that excitement, but it was just to see what the dropoff would be between those two players. I don't think Darnell, I, I, I'm not one of these guys who was like, we got to see Darnell. Like Darnell got a second chance in Carolina. It was okay.

I guess he had some, I saw some of the dorks saying he had a great six game stretch. Well, you're going to need a little more than that to be, to be a good quarterback. Whoa, calling out the dorks. Would you say you're dork overlap though? I'm dork adjacent. Yeah. Okay. I'm in. I'm like, uh, like the guy in high school has had a bunch of different friend groups and I'm definitely, I'm tapped in. I'm tapped into the dorks. A text with some dorks. Do the fairest work of the army. I'm kind of in the failures of the media? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm kind of in the middle of everything. I'm a connector. I can introduce the dorks to the jocks. Connectors are exhausted people. I don't know that you're a connector because you still have other stuff that you're doing on your own. But connectors, just people that live to connect, it's like, what do you do? You just connect people all the time? Yeah. I don't know.

I'm more of a check-in guy. I just have to check in and then that's it. That's all I want to do. I don't want to connect anybody. I just want to go, how's my guy? And then that's it. I don't respond to actual. All right. How's our guy, Justin Fields, doing? Not well. Not well. That's someone who needs a connector. He does. I'm a little disappointed in the market. You should want to coach Justin Fields. Now, I understand that the market is soft. And once I saw Mac Jones go for a six, I'm like, this is not going to be good for Justin Fields. I thought that was in the high end. For Matt. I think that there's not many options here. I saw a couple of people suggest New England maybe trades for Justin Fields

and then draft somebody else a three. I don't think you let Justin Fields stock dropping impact how you feel about these three quarterbacks. I don't. Maybe Denver wants to take a flyer. If I'm Justin Fields, I start to think, and this is the way, like we just saw Sam Donald get $10 million, basically because he knew Kyle Shanahan and had an incredible six game stretch with the 2022 Carolina Panthers. At some point, do I think about the rehabilitization process and maybe go into a Kansas City, maybe

going to San Francisco and just saying, like, hey, I'm just going to take reps under some smart offensive coaches. And then my agent a year from now can be like, oh man, like the best example of this ever is when, there's a million of them, including Sam Darnold today. Like, remember when Mitch Trubisky went to Buffalo and then everybody, the leak was, wait till you see Trubisky. He's been in the lab, his release is quicker.

He's a different guy. And then he got to Pittsburgh with real money and it turned out he was not a different guy. He was the same guy. So if your goal is to get a good role and money and it's not happening this year, instead of going to compete with, in a dreadful situation, at some point,

if Poles really wants to quote unquote, do right by Justin Fields, it would be to go to a home where they're going to at least make him better. And he can sell a new story this time next year. I feel like it's confirmation of everything that I've thought about Fields. That actually he wasn't really that good. Two years ago Twitter blew up because of his runs and they were incredible. The rushing attack wasn't as good this year and we could talk about coaches.

We talked about skill guys and everything around him. Um, I think I was listening to Mark Dominic the other night, former Tampa Bay Bucks, general manager, uh, who I really liked when I worked with the DSPN. He was on one of the late night serious sports shows and I was just driving around late, coming back from the boats on the set, you know, you get it. And I'm listening to him talk about fields and he was just like, he was nice but dismissive. And it felt like Fields lived a different life on social media and the arguments for him, which again, they're too much a small sliver

of like what's really going on. But the reality is the league saw all the tape and they were like, I don't, we'll see what happens with them, but I don't need to go get him. I don't need to make this happen right now. Um, and who knows? I mean, granted he's going to land somewhere here, but as far as being a week one starter somewhere next year Uh, doesn't feel like it. Okay, Russell Wilson at Pittsburgh. I love it because I hate it I don't I don't want this for the people of Pittsburgh

Okay, but I kind of can't wait I don't want this for the people of Pittsburgh. Okay. But I kind of can't wait. I can't wait to see. In what regard? I think people are like, oh, that's gonna be a bad culture fit. I think he's gonna be all in on the Pittsburgh culture. Does he have a saying yet?

The ins? Let's see ins. No, he can't do that. I don't think he can do that. I think I saw somebody say let's rivet. Oh, I he's working. He's in the way. He's workshopping it.

That's for sure. We can help. We can help. Um, why, why do you hate it? I find him exhausting. None of us is new. I covered it with Bill. I've, I've already talked about this too much, but I just I I'll never understand a human being that is that determined to be that disingenuous

proper use of word I Didn't in for a for a city like Pittsburgh like I know he's free, right? He's free. No problem Pittsburgh. Give it a shot. Thank God He's free. No problem Pittsburgh. Give it a shot. Thank God, Belichick's not still running New England because this reeks of a Belichick. Free used to be good. Love it. You know, big name. You seem to like it a little bit. Who is your most frustrating Belichick flyer? Was it Reggie Wayne? I think the chat. Ocho Cinco one didn't make sense.

Um, Haynesworth didn't make any sense because he just wasn't into it. The weird thing with Chad was that I remember doing the Super Bowl show with van Pell back in our ESPN days. Really can you ever imagine a scenario where Chad Ocho Cinco is with the team and we're not even hearing about him the entire time during Super Bowl week because he was just once Brady realized he couldn't trust him He was he was over it. He just wasn't part of anything. So yeah, that was that was one that always stood out I mean that was that was Bella checks MO. It's like, oh wait

Talented player at some point who's now free. I'll do it. It's like, yeah, wait, talented player at some point who's now free. I'll do it. It's like, yeah, there might be a reason he's free. All right. So I like the Wilson signing a little more than most people for a couple of reasons. Number one, what were they going to do? Like Omar Khan, the GM said a couple of weeks ago, well, we're totally comfortable with, with Kenny Pickett. All the faith in the world, I think was, was his, um, his phrase on Pickett.

And then the, the suggestion was that they were going to be able to make some Rudolph back and there might be some sort of competition. When the best hope is that the GM is lying, that's real bad about a roster going into that year. And they have a bunch of talent. George Pickens is really good. They've got T.J. Wilden, if it's the side of the ball, they've got a good front seven.

They've got talent there. They needed something. Russell Wilson could complete passes. He can throw touchdowns. Kenny Pickett had the lowest touchdown percentage in the history of football with guys who've thrown over 500 passers and like that. Russell Wilson had more passing touchdowns last year than the Steelers have had since Ben Rotsperger retired two years ago. It's an upgrade on a guy who can just get the ball in playmakers' hands. Now, he didn't throw the ball downfield particularly much last year. I think his average step of target was among the lowest in the league, but slightly higher than Kenny Pickett. There's a bunch of stuff there where I think, okay, they upgraded. Now, the difference is,

is like, they upgraded into the Tomlin zone, which means they're going to win 10 games. They're not going to, they're not going to win 13 games. So huge gap upgrading on Kenny Pickett is one thing. Upgrading so much and competing in the AFC is a completely different thing. It's really hard to win the AFC. But I think they can probably get a playoff spot with Russell Wilson and this can work. And I think it temporarily staves off some frustration from some of their skilled guys who deserve better. And I think it temporarily staves off some frustration from some of their skilled guys who deserve better. Let's go abroad Yes, sir. I'm happy to be a son. Da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da 1.5 million. So we're two races into the F1 season here in 2024. We're stopping this at first place. And I ask you this, is Max Verstappen actually Yukon Women's Hoops?

Is he bad for the sport? He's not bad for the sport. I mean, the way things are set up right now is objectively bad. Like he wins and there's no excitement about it. And it's like, it's almost, I didn't watch the race live on Sunday and he like, you see the tweets and it's like, Max for Steppen wins

and there's just no debate around it. There's no anything. What's happening now with his future is, and this is like, maybe F1 is becoming at the NBA where the inaction is more important than the action and we're just going to do gossip and rumors and that's its own thing. But what's happening now, so Lewis Hamilton goes to Ferrari for next year, a couple weeks ago, that was one of the biggest transactions in modern F1 history.

And now, I don't know how much he's been following it, but so there were these allegations as Christian Horner The person who gave the allegations has now been suspended. Yozef stop and Max's dad says That basically suggests that that there could be that this could change Max's future and now Red Bull The reporting around it Red Bull has sort of now said if Max really wants to leave we're not going to stand in his way It seems like it's becoming Helma Marco as well as futures in doubt it's becoming a slightly toxic environment and In the absence of actual competition and there won't be Master Shack will win the title Red Bull win the constructor championship

The the gossip the tee has has come front and center. And I think that's probably in the long run bad for the sport. That is bad for the sport that the sort of silly season is now more important than the competition. I accidentally proved your point in my answer. Yeah, you kind of did. I did. I withdraw the beginning of my statement. He is Yukon's women's hoops. If you con if you know or ammo was might quit So what would happen with max like what what or even like let's just say he wants to leave Red Bull Which you would think doesn't make any sense at least from a performance standpoint because great just beyond Everyone else

What would even make sense? I mean, granted, he can go wherever he wants, but he could go every once. From a performance standpoint, you stay at Red Bull, but what does he need to prove? Ferrari is obviously those seats are taken by Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. McLaren is currently third in the Constructors' Championship. Mercedes is fourth. My guess is if he left, he would go to one of those teams. Obviously, there's an opening at Merck. Poor George Russell, if that happens, by the way. Poor George Russell. George has been better than Lewis now for what? A couple years. I mean, I don't know what the

final, let me look at the final standings last year. Just double checking here. Uh, no, do we just do it as out of Lewis right now? Lewis was seventh and ninth this year. George is fifth and sixth. Mr. Consistency. So I was going,

I was going off of, of this year, but the, I think the lost in Max's dominance last year is that's right. It's like Lewis finished in and of finishing third and points last year and Russell was, was a, I guess maybe it just felt like Russell

wasn't Although Russell's a fiery fiery cat, too. I mean all these guys are you told me in the beginning when you're watching the show Which is now the new season is out on Netflix again, which I'm excited about But I think it was I forget who it was. I'm lose track of all the awesome quotes I know it wasn't will though, because I didn't, somebody wasn't trying to make me cry. This race could determine the fate of the Middle East. Some are saying the McLaren's turbo systems.

No, it was that basically the rule was you have to be a bit of a bastard to be an F1 driver. That's right. And if you don't, if you don't have that in you, then you would have never even gotten to this point in the first place. So yeah, I don't know what this, like, did you have more depth on why Lewis decided to bounce? So... Is it because of George?

No. I think so. He's always sort of said Ferrari was the dream. When you grow up as a kid in the 80s and the 90s and you're watching Schumacher, it's funny because there's a great line in the Schumacher documentary, which had its moments on Netflix, where they said when they're trying to recruit Schumacher to Ferrari. And Schumich's manager says, if you win a Ferrari, you can throw away your passport because you'll be recognized by every single human on the planet.

You'll be the most famous person on the planet. You no longer need identification at the airport. Probably an overstatement. Schumich, they probably checked his passport. It's going forward even after he won a bunch of championships. That's what it is. It's funny because it reminds me a little bit. Remember when Urban Meyer was just winning 20 games in a row and every time he'd be like,

well, Notre Dame's my dream job. It's like, well, you're not going to go to Notre Dame because you can't get the Pouncy Twins into Notre Dame. The kids are not going to have. You're not going to get the Lakeland kids and the Jacksonville kids to go to Notre Dame. No, you're not going to get the Lakeland kids and the Jacksonville kids to go to Notre Dame. So no, you're not going to go to Broward County and get those guys and bring them to Notre Dame.

Although some of our, you know, Broward County, shout out Sam Young, Dan Wenger, to Notre Dame. But it was always, I felt like the Ferrari thing with Lewis was very similar to that, where it just felt like it was rooted in his childhood watching. And he's probably looking around and being like, all right, I can't win a Mercedes anymore. This project seems to have solved. It made some fatal errors in development on the new regulations. So let's go to a different car.

Let's have a change of pace and let's just see what that looks like. And so it seemed like it was him cashing in on his dream move at the right time. And I think that he probably, it sounds like he probably would have regretted it if he never did it. So let's go. That is the great Kevin Clark.

Thank you so much for joining us. Promote whatever you need to promote right now. This is football. Two episodes this week. Next week on Monday, we have JJ Watt coming on. Great episode that we already filmed. So this is football, find on your pod feed or on the ESPN NFL YouTube page.

Thank you, Kevin. We gotta do better. We're gonna try to do better. The alliance is back now, brutal, brutal start last week. Tough to do, tough to go on for. And we weren't even shooting for the moon. It was like plus 12,000 deals here. So we have as the game that's been selected here, Milwaukee at Sacramento. The line as of right now is Sacramento plus one point at home. Good luck on some of these totals and trying to chase the unders because the stuff Bill and I talked about on Sunday and you know the constant observations of like what's getting called even though I feel like the numbers are significant with the drop-off after the all-star game

We'll see how you know and we got to give it some more games to see how it all kind of plays out. So I don't know if you want to just start going after all these unders even though Vegas is always ahead of this in comparison to the rest of us. So all right, Ceruti, we got to do four legs here. Why don't you get us started? All right four legs Bucks Kings. I'm gonna take the monster subbonus eight plus assists. It's minus 170 You know, he averages this Per game. He's been on the terrace of blades. So, you know, I like subbonus to have the ball in his hands I don't also don't really know what the The bucks front court's gonna do with him in that in that way. So

Give me the well one of the things with this game And I got into some of the Sacramento, Milwaukee scheduling stuff here, but when they played in Milwaukee, it was a one point win that totaled like 285 in overtime. But Subona said 15 assists based on the way Milwaukee decided to let him live. Now that was still with Adrian Griffin. So Milwaukee's defense is much better now as they figured some stuff out, but they're struggling a little bit.

But they're also on this extended period of being away from home. But I like the over eight assist for Sabonis just because you try to figure out like, okay, what are they going to let them live with? But then again, you know, I don't really love Milwaukee's perimeter defensive guys unless they sick Yanis on somebody, but nobody's gonna be switching into him There's always the occasional cross matches and when people are kind of lost, but I like that. I like that one. All right. So Kyle, what do you got? Okay, I've got one that seems pretty attainable. It's Kevin Herter over eight and a half points He's been in a slump as you pointed out pre-show the last couple of days but he's averaging like 10 and a half points per game. And you and Bill just did that whole list

the other day of like, how many dudes could store 20? And it's like, it's probably a bigger list than you think. And I think he could probably definitely be in that list to score half as many points. Plus, I just listened to a long Kara Top interview and there was a lot of ginger talk. So I'm supportive right now. So Kevin Herter Over eight and a half points. He also kills the bucks. All right. He kills the bucks bucks ownership group is what you're saying Yeah, okay. Yeah, he's had a tough month All right

When you see a line like this and you go came a walkie's front line against Sacramento's front line Like how what's the like? How is this only minus one from a walkie at the time of this taping? Well, it's one home game in the last seven games including tonight for Milwaukee. It's their fifth and eight days They got stopped by Golden State They struggled in the matinee against the Clippers when the Clippers only had Harden and Norman Powell 24 Savage. But that, that's the kind of line when you look at it and you go, hmm, that line should be different. And when it's that, that makes you not want to take the Milwaukee Bucks despite clearly liking them better as the team. So we'll do a little scheduling here.

So Sacramento Money Line. So those are the three parts. Do we have the other ones, Suryati? Yeah, the Iron Fox. Correct score. Oh, the Iron Fox. We're gonna take the Iron Fox two plus threes as well. Correct score is always an interesting one.

I don't know who has the stones to bet those. Like, all right, and then plus 38,000, Kings 114, Bucks 111. You know, you're really, you're really trying to thread the needle. If you go there, plug that in, just see what is it? What are the odds?

If we plug it in. I can't find out. We, I'm not going to try to find out. You could do a final score, even or odd too. It's just like, just completely random. You might as well. I just would hate. Yeah.

I mean, that's why that's some of the ones that we hit. Like I never want to do first basket. I mean, unless it was Oklahoma City back in the day with Kendrick Perkins, where they used to run a post play for him to start every single game. And then you'd be like, all right, first place, a park miss. And then you'd be like, okay, that one I can, because then, you know, if you throw something down and like first basket will be this, right. Three other parts of it.

You're like, all right, time to change the channel. So there you go. What's the payout against Rudy plus 457? So Kevin Herter over a half points to Montesobones eight plus assists Deer and Fox two plus threes and the King's money line plus 457 Good luck fingers crossed You want details by I drive a, 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 is brought to you by CVS Health. Today, healthier is happening at CVS Health in more ways than you've ever seen. It's wellness destinations for seniors, including select locations with Oak Street Health and CVS Pharmacy. It's doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and everyone in between offering quality care and support

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Eligibility and services vary by location and individual. Our email address is lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. Kyle, you would be proud, but I don't know. I don't know how he's going to feel. I went out on a Monday night. Whoa. Monday night? Well, special occasion? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What am I even saying?

It's a tool back in town. Yeah. Another tool, Valentine's bender. They added shows? No, I went to go see boss last night. So nice cool Yeah, I was I'll get to be honest you your boy was on the fence He was supposed to golf at a high-end club on Monday The invitation was was canceled late Because originally I was like if you golf you're you're if you golf, you're then not going to go to a concert.

You're not just going to hang out up there all day and then come back. So I ended up having the day, watched all the hoops I needed to watch, including an incredible Yokeitch third quarter against the Raptors and their comeback. But then I was like, you know what? I'm just going to go see him. I'm going to go see him and see how it goes. And a couple of reaps. And then I was like, make sure you get out of here.

Like get out of here. You get an early morning. And then Derek, his manager was nice enough to hook me up, bring me backstage, said hello, and then Boss handed me a shot at Casa Azul. And I was like, all right. Closet. All right. I was like, what's that? Closet Azul, right was like all right Classy all right. I was like what's that class is all right. Oh is it class?

Like you've been there dude have how embarrassing Take a picture No, we didn't you don't do that with your face like yeah, I'm not doing that with you anymore because the last one went so well Yeah, I had my doing that with you anymore because the last one went so well. Yeah, I had my shoes on for those wondering. Good, let's start. But we were chatting and then somebody was like, hey, Roadhouse, drink up.

I was like, okay. And then I left immediately. But I got a hoodie out of the deal. I was like just walking around my goods. Well, I'm happy for you, man. That's great. That's great news. Yeah.

It's since a little tone there. Did you know that's not a genuine. I'm over it. I'm over it. The shtick is done. I've accepted my fate. And you go out early, dude. You go out way earlier and go out late.

If I got invited late, I don't know what to say. Yeah. All right. Next time, next time. Check it out. The egg sort of situation, right? Isn't it? Isn't it always? Yeah. All right. Next time. Next time. Check it out. The egg sort of situation, right? Isn't it?

Isn't it always? All right. Let's go to this one. We covered that one last week. All right. It feels like when we do the Tuesday, Thursdays, I was like, I haven't talked to you guys in forever. That's what it feels like because there is that massive gap.

I was like, oh yeah, we haven't done this in a while. I was like, well, it's also called Thursday. All right, 41 years old, 6'2", 195, grinding to keep the bench and squat above my body weight, ProCom Bill Cartwright's free throw form without the accuracy. That's specific. I'm a physician that rents clinic space and performs surgery in my hometown hospital. Congrats to this guy. The 100-year-old building used to be a fixture of my hometown, but has gone into disrepair since being bought by a larger faceless corporation headquartered in another state. Taylor's all this time. My group is outgrowing our clinic space and needs to make decisions about whether to build their own clinic

quoted at $8 million. That's lofty. Or wait for the hospital to plunk some cash down to improve the professional building or possibly build a new one A friend from high school is part of the local administrative team for the hospital We were not core but core overlapping. I love how core has just been Thrown around in a way that makes sense for all of us like everybody's adding kind of their own Interpretation or Jason. Yeah,. Like these pivots off of like cores, main tenant and yet I love it. Is a great way to describe a lot of core overlapping friends. Yeah. This isn't even wrote. This is a applause. So this is not like people have just kind of taken the core fringe thing and then gone in their own directions. And I for the most part think it

always works. So core overlapping, not each other's weddings, but in multiple weddings together. Great definition. I had hoped to use our personal relationship to garner some professional information about the hospital's next step, but my emails have been returned with an ode to the business classics. He's going to circle back.

Yeah, people love circling back. Yeah, buzzword. Nice. He looks forward to continuing this conversation. These are quotes. No one. How many times do you actually look forward to the conversation? You said you did indeed at one point look forward to.

And we'll hope to have some information for me in, quote, the near future. I find great humor to hear these phrases from a man who I once saw eat a goldfish on a drunken bet. But I've ultimately grown frustrated by the stonewalling. I brought this on myself but need to help with the next steps. Do I chide his corporate lingo forcing to recognize me as a friend in need and not another task? Is it time to pull an end around with some of my other professional connections? Are we even friends if you don't work around your corporate overlords to help a brother out? Hopefully such thought leaders as yourselves can help me maximize my outcomes through your collective synergy.

Much appreciated. Okay. All right. So you're 41. So I assume this guy's around the same age. There are people that you know that are thrilled to just be grownups immediately. All right? And if this man has chosen local government,

essentially, then he really wants to be this guy. Now, in fairness to him, there could be a chance that because of like his email based on his position is something where he can never have an email come back and look bad. This is why he's talking to you this way. But I also totally understand the frustration. We had a friend in our core group in college

that just decided like senior year, he was 40 years old. It was the weirdest thing ever. He decided like he hadn't done enough in college, he hadn't put enough into it, and everything was about the next step. And really looking back, like how can you be critical of him? But it wasn't an easy audience.

We were like, what are you doing? What is up with you right now? Like, why are you prioritizing all this bullshit? That's not- But he's sucked now. Yeah, right, he's sucked pretty much. Like, what happened to you? What did you do this summer

where you came back and you sucked? So this is different because he's actually 41 and not 21 or 22. But if he has chosen a path to be involved in this administrative world where he would have some influence or some information on like the logistics of something like this that has to be approved by people and aboard and all this kind of stuff, he clearly wanted to be that guy. So that's why he's talking to you this way. But like I said, he may also be very careful about the way that he talks, knowing that if there was ever anything that came up where emails had to be investigated, not specific

to your hospital, your cause, or what you're talking about. He may just be talking like this forever with everybody at this point. So why don't you just get a lunch? What do you get a- Mike's got chilies in, yeah. Chili's, right.

It's a small business. Underrated. It's a place to do business, right? It's a new golf course. Yes, it's a new golf course. At least it's a new golf course. What a fucking line. There's just so many good fucking lines in that show.

I don't really know what else to. I mean, I know how frustrating. Like if I started talking to Kyle where I was like, thank you. You know, if you work on this, you've really been an asset to what we're doing. Although that sounds really nice. I think I would be like, what's up? Yeah, you're like, what's wrong with Ryan?

Waiting for an HR email. Yeah. Guys? I think maybe he just needs more than the run around email thing. That's why Chili's is the joke. But maybe that's how business gets done. I can't believe I said that. But maybe that style of that's how business gets done. I can't believe I said that, but maybe that style of things

is how business gets done. If he wants to be able to talk freely about this stuff, but all these electronic footprint is not the way he wants to do it. So maybe you just, hey, can we just meet normally? And you blend the two things, you blend the business and what's been up, bro. And I think that might be the way to do it. Just you two guys.

No evidence leaks out anything. So if he wants to be like, honestly, I couldn't tell you this before, but there's absolutely no way this is going to happen or whatever. Maybe he just needs a different setting to be able to talk some real shit with you. I got to be honest, I don't think it's a good sign. I've definitely had some core, what was the term core overlapping guys

who have reached out to me about different things. And I certainly have not been this dismissive, even if I didn't have any interest or desire to help them out. Not because I didn't want to because I just knew it wasn't going to happen. This is, it's very cold. I think you definitely have to take this offline.

You know, if you like the Chili's thing is a good idea. Maybe he's just going to give you the corporate lingo over email like he guys said, but I would definitely grab lunch with him. But I'm going to be honest, it doesn't sound like he wants to help you. I feel like it would be a little bit more friendly and a little bit more open, especially if you guys kind of know each other in that way. Maybe he's just all business on email and that's just how it is. You got to get him to be a little candid off air, as they say. But I don't think it's super likely this guy's going to help you out.

What kind of stuff do your buddies ask you for? My buddy asked me for World Cup tickets. I'm like, why do you think I have anything to do with World Cup tickets two years from now? He asked me this two years ago as well. Where do you think my thing overlaps with FIFA? Yeah, I'll call FIFA. My guy at FIFA, we're good to go. Bill probably knows a guy. But no, I've had guys hit me up and who work in the industry, who work. I know a guy who works for a PR company who will float me different guests and things like that guy that I went to college with. I usually try to help him out, but like if it's not realistic,

I'll kind of tell him it's not realistic, but I'll at least kind of like be nice about it. I won't just give him like the corporate jargon of, well, let's circle back and let's deliberate and all this bullshit. Like I at least kind of like talk to him like a human being. People ask me for shit all the time. Yeah, I'd imagine so.

The tickets thing is funny. Well, the tickets thing is the dumbest thing because we don't have them. Even at ESPN, like rarely did I ever get tickets for anything for myself. So then the idea that I was gonna ask for tickets that I wasn't even gonna use to give them to somebody else,

like it just didn't really work that way. It always felt like, well, first of all, the sales guys are in charge of all of that stuff. They're the ones with all the tickets because they know how it all works. And then all of a sudden there's like some QPA that's like, oh, I'm going to the World Series. Oh, no way. No way. Where'd you get those? Like, oh, Brad and Sales had two extras.

Did he? He just had two extras. Right he? He just had two extras. Right. That guy just cashed in his raise. He just cashed in a favor. That was worth a raise for that. Right. His wife didn't know.

Like, then were you in the World Series? Like, I couldn't give those things away. So we don't have any tickets. I get asked for different stuff now, and it's just, it's constant. It's all the time. And that doesn't really have anything to do with the email. So anyway, the point is is that even though this guy is part of the administrative team of the hospital and it sounds like you're

you're asking the real questions here, it would be great. But I think the bureaucratic side of things that it I don't want to generalize here, but it it seems like that world likes to just kind of wait, leave things open-ended, and they hate the idea of anything that's a definitive answer, right? We're just getting stuff done in general. Yeah. Yeah. So, I think you're sort of stuck here, but maybe he's looking at you, like, that's the

other part of this, is if somebody is, you know, express lane to being a grown up, even though he's only 41. I mean, 40 is kind of a 40s is a interesting age in that you'd be like, what the hell is that guy doing? He's still 40 and he's doing this. And then the other guy's like, why is that guy acting like he's like, he's only 40. the other guy's like, why is that guy acting like he's like, he's only 40. Right. There's this wide range of kind of how you carry yourself because I think some people are looking to be like, Hey, at 40, you know, you, you're old, like, not old old, but you get the point.

Like what you need to be professional about everything that you're doing, right? I mean, in theory, that's, that's probably the expectation for some, but he may look at you as like totally out of line, but I'm just guessing here. So I don't know. He may be like, so what? Because 20 years ago, we did something stupid at a wedding and I'm supposed to tell you inside information that you're like, I don't even know if you're supposed to have this

information. I mean, look, the way the world works is that you're going to try to figure out this information because it impacts you. And there's likely a path of getting to this information like, hey, what's the latest of this or what's going on there? But I would try to just get them off the email and be like, can we just catch up and then throw it all out? And then you're going to have your answer one way or another. He's either going to actually give you a little bit more information because it's in a nonformal setting, or you're going to have your answer one way or another. He's either going to actually give you a little bit more information because it's in a non-formal setting or you're going to realize that all the emails are reinforced by the in-person meeting. You're like,

this guy's just decided that this isn't how he's going to operate with me despite our history. Yeah, I think your biggest thing is you're going to have to put his mind at ease that, like you said, you have partners, right? But if you're on a one-on-one thing, you're trying to catch up, like, it's all about the way it's framed right if he's just like oh this guy just like he's about to once I give him this information if I give it to him like this isn't going to work out well for me like there's you got to make it seem I don't know in the way that you're framing whatever you're saying that it's not like you're not just getting this and going to tell your other guys your other partners it's like, like then that could be that information could come back

to you. So I think it's all about like putting this dude's mind at ease if you're even gonna shot at this. Yeah, there's just no, there's no chance. He's just not going to care about your relationship. I don't know if the emails are confirmation of that or as we've already said, the emails are just a form of the way he operates.

And then if you get him in person I mean, that's actually not that rare right where you get somebody away from all that kind of stuff. But yeah, it's You're also young enough at 41 where you're like, are you serious dude? You're gonna talk to me this way So, okay, let's stay in that age range 39 year old midlife crisis 6 3 2 50 basketball comp poor man Sean Brad lie been the height since age 12 So always was designated to the five and step out and hit a 15 footer Decent interior defense, but also occasionally get punked by a smaller guy that has no business getting a shot up in me Sorry for the long email ahead of time

That was two sentences man. We're okay. We're moving. A tale is old as time. Second time we've used that. My wife and I have been married 10 years and it's been a rough time to say the least. We constantly fight, don't have too much in common. I recently began talking with a coworker of mine.

You guessed it, one thing leads to another, yada, yada, yada. We hook up. We text throughout the day. We've actually gotten together a few times now we've discussed us being together as she is also in an unhappy probably worse mirrors on my own. Now I've actually separated from my wife for about a month. She's absolutely devastated by this while I have felt fine with the whole ordeal. Or am I?

I've been starting to get cold feet over everything questioning if I've done the right thing. I haven't really missed her that much. My anger has been non-existent, and I've enjoyed my freedom to do what I want when I want. I understand that, brother. But then that little voice creeps up, am I doing the right thing or do I go back,

never speak of this, stepping out and try to work on it with the wife? All right. Pretty serious one. Uh, all right. Pretty serious one. Kids or no kids. Yeah. It's a good question. Doesn't sound like you probably would have mentioned the kids. Yeah.

He probably would have mentioned those. There are kids. It sounds like he've already ripped the bandaid off. I'm glad that this wasn't like, should we both leave our partners and get together? Because I mean, then you're bringing outside odds into this. And I think that odds drastically get worse. So yeah, I'm glad he's not trying to do a same gamer here. But it sounds like he already did the hard part.

And now like, is he just saying like, it's almost like how are other people gonna look at me? Cause you're unhappy and you're like, wow, I've been noticeably happier. I don't miss her. She's sad. But I mean, you just got out of a 10 year thing. Like you're kind of, you're just one of your chances, right?

I mean, you don't think like in two months you're gonna be like, yeah, I feel exactly how I did before. Except for now I've got this weird guilt that like I've done this thing and that's just with me every day. So I think you've already done the hard part. And I think like, yeah, she's sad, but like at least the band-aids off your separated,

divorce isn't clean, but I think it doesn't get cleaner than this if you go back. Well, she's sad. I wonder if she was upset because she was not the one who initiated it. Like, is she as out on the marriage as you are? You know, did she try to win you back? Is that, is it,

or are you just really, really unhappy in the marriage? Because then, you know, it sounds like that part. It sounds like he's just, that's the sense I get from the emails that he's just unhappy and he's been happy out of it. Like being alone. It's like, one is one is two. Yeah. He answered all the, all the questions you're like, oh, so you feel better as a person. You like this other girl. Like you're generally not as angry as you normally are.

Sounds like he's just like, what are people gonna think if I don't? I mean, I will say a lot of people stay in shitty relationships because they just don't, they're just like afraid of what else is out there. You know, like, hey, could it be worse? Like, am I, is being alone worse? Yeah, not getting any of that from this guy. No. This guy's already hooking up.

Yeah, so like, it's Kyle's point, you did the hard part. But no, I get the idea of like you being a shitty person though, because like if people find out that you broke up, you know, you're divorcing your wife and you've been with this other girl, like, but to be honest with you, it's not a great start to meeting people or like people, you know, getting the wrap on you. So I understand why you'd be like a little bit, you know, scared to step out and tell people the truth. But if it makes you happy, man, like it's your life. I think you got to, you got to pursue your own happiness, right?

I don't get the same read that you guys have on like, because he's second guessing it, he's second guessing it because of outside opinion. I think it's strictly where he's at in his own head. I don't know how you would go through this where you wouldn't be questioning yourself the entire time. The idea that, you know, people are like Billy McFarland in life where they're just like, no dude, one lane, one speed, you know, not a problem. We're about solutions, not problem. Like no one's actually that definitive with really complicated stuff.

with really complicated stuff. I would think most intelligent people that are thinking out all the different ways something could go. And then, you know, when you know how you're thinking about something a lot, it may take you a while to get to that conclusion. And then once you're there, I would still think most people are kind of like, was this the right move?

So it sounds like, I don't know how he hears himself when we read the email, because you're like, yeah, I like this freedom, I feel a lot happy. Like the only thing he really mentioned is that, that you feel bad about perhaps is that she's sad. Right. But, you know, getting back together with her only because she's sad is not a very good reason.

Yeah, it doesn't solve... It might seem like you're doing her favor, but it's actually not going to be a favor. Right. Obviously, you care about this person despite the lukewarm nature of the relationship as the relationship aged and is both of you aged. But if you're going to be with somebody that long, like you'd have to be a pretty heartless person to not actually care about the other person's feelings, even if you didn't want to be with them anymore, right? So if your motivation is trying to end her sadness, that's not very good motivation to get back together because you haven't pointed out anything, you just sit in and you miss her.

So likely you're wasting her time to even get back together with her. And then on top of everything else, the moral dilemma of, do I get back together with her and then tell her that I've stepped out? Now, as I've aged and understanding marriages, despite not being in one, but I have friends, believe it or not. I've seen some movies. And, right. Yeah. I've seen every episode of Crazy Anatomy. Yep. So, there's just, when I was younger and I would think about how marriage is, you know, somebody doing something they weren't supposed to, I was a lot harsher about it when I was

younger because I was younger and I didn't understand what happened with some of the more mature relationships. And I can also, without being married, understand the concept of, which we've covered here before, new attention. Okay. And that new attention is incredible because you don't get that anymore at home because it's not fucking new It's impossible almost I should say damn near impossible to to feel that that energy that excitement about the new thing Even if you're not supposed to be doing it, but what is it replacing? What is it? What is it compensating for? You know,

that's that's a challenge of being together with somebody that long, because it's just not likely that it's going to stay. It's just not going to, right? It's just now you have to find your way through it and all those different things. So I'm not as maybe judgmental about it in general as I probably was when I was a little bit younger and I just have enough understanding. I wasn't mature enough to understand all the moving parts of relationship and all the challenges that come with it. It doesn't sound like you are desperately pining to be back together with your wife.

Even though you think about her and you feel bad, you just said you don't miss her. And this wouldn't even, I don't even know if this is a band-aid for her feelings because then you're going to have to be going back and lying. And I know there's probably some guys listening to you like, hey, look, stepped out and nobody found out. Like if you do want to get back together, you can't tell her. I would go ape shit if my wife cheated on me and then came back and didn't tell me. I mean, obviously the first one I wouldn't be thrilled with either, but if then she never told me and then imagine finding out. I mean, granted, maybe there's scenarios where

it's like, hey, no one's ever going to find out here, but maybe you're just in a spot here where none of it seems like it's a great Solution I mean that's kind of what it sounds like here a little bit It's like all right, so now I'm hanging out with this other one in her marriage is a mess We've talked about doing stuff But maybe I don't really want to do that and I don't really miss my wife But I you know, I mean you're going through something a lot of people go through this but I would I Would say that like to just get back together with the other person as some temporary solution

for her or for you isn't likely the fix to this stuff. Yeah. And his context clue there was like, he did a really good job filling out the questionnaire here. Like, were you happy before? No. Are you happy now? Yes. Like he did a lot of the questions for us, but he said it's been a rough 10 years.

And I feel like he was specific enough that if he was just like the last three, last couple of years have been rough. He was like, this whole thing has been rocky to like, to say the least. So I think it's probably, there probably wasn't an awesome period of it either. It sounds like it was just like, this has been pretty steadily plateau of sadness for us.

So two big life advices this week. I mean, should we pull the trigger on this $8 million project and should I divorce my wife? I mean, this is a little heavier. Marry 10 years, constantly fight, don't have much in common. Then obviously he stepped out. Now that I've separated from my wife for about a month, she's absolutely devastated by this while I felt fine with the whole whole ordeal. But by him saying like, or am I, and now I'm questioning everything I've done, I don't, I think you'd be insane if you weren't having a moment in the car or you weren't questioning just devoid of feelings like, yeah, he's like, what'd you do today? I forgot. Yeah, I will say it too. And I think I've said this before when talking about just relationships and breakups, whether it be marriages or dating or anything, like, you can, you can be right. You know, you can, you can have good intentions and just not see the relationship going forward and

want that for yourself. And no matter what, you're going to be the bad guy to some people. You know, you're going to be the bad guy to your wife. You're going to be the bad guy to your girlfriend here. Her friends aren't going to like you. People aren't going to like you. That doesn't mean it's not the right decision. It doesn't mean that you're actually both better off not going your separate ways just because the breakup is hard. That's how that's what breakups are. They're hard. Very few of them are like, oh yeah, you know what? Great call. I was going to do it, but you did it first. So God bless you. Hope you have a great rest of your life and we'll see you when I see it. That's just not how it first. So like God bless you. Like hope you have a great rest of your life and we'll see, you know, see when I see it.

Like that's just not how it works. So like if you're, if you're hung up on making her sad or making other people around you in her life, you're probably mad or upset with you. That's just part of the game, man. And unfortunately, you know, it's something that you have to go through. But you, as Kyle said, you answered all the questions

and it sounds like this is the direction that is probably best for everybody. If you took an online quiz, it would say yes. Definitely. Definitely move on. I just always think the best exercise is if this were your friend and they told you that this is what was going down, what would they say? You know, what would they say? Like, no, man, definitely get back together.

And tell her. You totally do the right thing. You were talking to somebody else and that during the separation, you started hanging out with this person. You explored the idea of moving in together and leaving both of your spouses. But like, you know, bring her favorite meal. All right. Thanks to Mike, Kyle and Steve. Life Advice has brought to you courtesy of CVS Health,

where Healthier Happens Together. To learn more, visit CVS Health.com slash Healthier Happens Together. Ryan Rossell of Podcasts, Writers' Club. Must be 21 and older in present select states. Fanduil is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC. A gambling problem called 1-800-GAMBLER or visit fanduil.com.com. In Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and Vermont. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXT-STEP to 533-42 in Arizona.

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