The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Jaguars Comeback and What If Staley Stays? Plus: Coaches and Their QBs, Wild-Card Recap, and Football War Stories With Willie Colon.

Episode Date: January 16, 2023

Russillo shares his thoughts on Daniel Jones leading the Giants to an upset win over the Vikings, coaching and its impact on NFL games vs. other sports, the Chargers' collapse vs. the Jaguars, and more (0:32). Then Ryen is joined by Super Bowl champion Willie Colon of SiriusXM to discuss the scrappy Giants, questions about Josh Allen after a close win vs. Skylar Thompson and the Dolphins, what to think about Trevor Lawrence after his turnover-fest and massive comeback, Bengals-Ravens, stories from Willie's career battling on the football field, a look ahead to Cowboys-Buccaneers, and more (21:36). Finally, Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (55:20). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Willie Colon Producer: Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A wild, wild card weekend in the NFL. We're going to go through every single one of the games, including a good chunk of time spent on Jacksonville's comeback against the L.A. Chargers and what it all means. We'll cover every game, some not as much as the others. Willie Colon comes by, does the same thing, and also an incredible story in a game against Teddy Bruschi

and the New England Patriots. And we got life advice. Hot off an unbelievable wildcard round. Let's run through all of it. We're going to have Willie Colon join us here shortly. A couple different things to get to. All right, let's start with Daniel Jones.

He ends an 11-year playoff job for the New York Giants. This is a quarterback who before the season started, his fifth-year option was declined. That doesn't happen a lot. 379 total yards. He was everything in this game.

When you're sitting at home and you're watching and you're going, can the Giants just run all over him today? I guess they can do that. And it looks like Deanna Jones, not only his rushing attack in the first half, but he threw for over 300. That's something he doesn't do very often, but we pointed out at the end of last week that he has done it a couple times. His second highest passing total was against the Vikings in the regular season.

They ran it for 142, 4.7 yards per carry, and it was weird. It was weird because we see when we watch these games, especially the ones we're really focused on, playoff games, we're like, okay, what are they going to try to do? What are they going to try to take away? What's their goal? What's the thing that they're trying to rely on? And with the Giants against the Vikings defense that we said

was the worst of any of the teams in the playoffs, it feels like they can kind of do anything. This happened twice during the weekend where the team that has doubts about them was kind of sold to us during the broadcast. It happens a lot. It's not that big of a deal. It happened with the Miami Buffalo game, which we'll touch on briefly here.

But at some point in that, once it was competitive, you're like, you know, we were talking to Mike McDaniel, and he was like, why is no one giving us a chance? We already beat him once in a regular season. Yeah, that was with the quarterback that was two steps ahead on the depth chart of the guy that's playing right now at Buffalo. So, yes, it's a little different, Mike. This also happened in the Vikings game where they showed, hey, look at the 11-0 record

NFL record for a team to be 11-0 in the one score games. This is incredible. And then they started showing some of the other numbers and it's like, yeah, they have sort of conditioned themselves to win these games, except that didn't happen this weekend. Cousins threw it all day.

And I know that some of you are already predicting that I was going to do some big Cousins victory lap. I'm not. He wasn't the problem. It's this defense. It's why we doubted him. It's why we kept looking at the point differential. It's why we were like, all right, it's a really good record. But I mean, how do you feel at the end of a Vikings game?

I don't know that any of us were all that surprised, but as bad as that throw was at the end of the game, fourth and eight to Hawkinson, TJ Hawkinson had been terrific. He was one-on-one on the right side. It's fourth and eight, and Cousins throws it three yards past the line of scrimmage. Hawkinson's going to make a one-on-one play with five yards to go. It was a really tough spot considering the way the ball was thrown,

where he was going to catch it, where he was going to be on the field, and the angle the defender had. It was a lot to ask, especially on fourth and eight, to not get it past the sticks. And yes, in the past, that has been one of my biggest concerns with Cousins. It's why I think teams have been like, eh, I'm not sure. But I don't really feel like on a Monday morning, it's some big victory lap

of your anti-cousins because he's not the problem. He was tough all season long. I think statistically, he was better in some categories. There's some overall numbers that tell you that's actually the worst year he's had in four years. But my biggest thing is giving your team a chance to convert on that first down. And on fourth down in that spot, that's not what you want. But again, chance to convert on that first down. And on fourth down in that spot, that's not what you want. But again, that's not really what it was. It was Daniel Jones.

And I can't imagine what his journey's been like where the agent goes, yeah, they declined your option. Like, okay. All right, we got a new coaching staff in here. We'll see what happens. And by the way, just some of the defensive skill individually on this Giants team, specifically Dexter Lawrence, who I can't wait to talk to Willie about. That guy is an absolute game wrecker.

The Clemson first-round pick who went 17th a few years ago. All right, so congrats to the Giants. Classic football scores all across the entire weekend. And what I mean by that is, as much as we all love this game, I will admit sometimes I'm like, is this sport just stupid? As much as we all love this game, I will admit sometimes I'm like, is this sport just stupid? And really, we had multiple examples of this throughout. And this is based on, too, your preconceived notions on what's going to happen, who you think is going to be better,

who you picked, the confirmation biases you're watching anything in sports. I like this guy. Hey, he's really good. You know what I mean? We all do it all the time. But Niner Seattle, I didn't think there was a chance in hell of all the double-digit spreads.

This was the one where I was like, yeah, I think you're okay on this one. There was nothing that told you Seattle was going to be able to match up well here. I thought Geno was regressing a bit despite him individually being an incredible story. And honestly, the Seahawks, great. If you're a Seahawks fan today, you're bummed out that you're out of the playoffs,

but this was a season you did not expect. And as a fan, especially as a fan who has a championship in their back pocket, recent memory, these are some of the great seasons where you're like, oh my, I can't believe, I thought we were going to be tanking the entire time. So the Niners come out,

they're up 10-0 after the first two possessions. We'll get to Purdy more on him in a little bit here when I talk about coaching and then Seattle's up 17-16 at the half you're like how did what wait how did this happen it's football Buffalo's up 17-0 their possessions to start the game fourth down they don't convert touchdown touchdown field goal. And then it's 20-17 at the half against Skyler Thompson. And you're thinking, wait, this is going to happen? I'm getting texts from Bills fans going, this is the worst. We're the worst.

And more on that a little bit later as well. And then you have Cincinnati with Baltimore. Cincinnati gets a field goal. Huntley looks absolutely terrible to start that game for Baltimore. They get the interception. Cincinnati touchdown. They miss the extra points, 9-0, and then it's 10-9 Baltimore at half. That's why we keep watching. That's why the coaches yell at everybody all the time. That's why they keep preaching constantly, we have a chance, because everybody kind of does, even when it feels like you don't. The Cincinnati game may have been,

I don't know, that Skylar Thompson one is probably the most surprising, but Cincinnati's right up there with the fact that you look at the first half stats, you go, both teams only had three possessions. There were six total possessions combined in that first half. Both teams ran only 30 plays.

So if you're Baltimore's defense, you're thinking we held Cincinnati's offense to 17 points. We did our job because it looked like Chase was going to go off because Burrow was fighting him the entire time. But then Burrow starts getting hit a little bit more, sack four times in this game. The offensive line part for Cincinnati is going to be a huge part of it. They're probably the happiest people ever that Vaughn Miller is not around, even though I miss Vaughn Miller and love watching him play, Not rooting for anybody's injury, but that would seem to change that matchup as we go into next week. But really, this comes down to a

98-yard fumble recovery by Sam Hubbard. On this play for Huntley, third down. Now, he's at the two. QB's sneak and reach at the one seems far more doable. I don't like the way players reach, but it's a really hard thing to tell them not to do.

Sometimes it can feel a little selfish. But man, if you're a skill guy and you're running to the pylon and you know you're not going to make the angle and you want a fucking touchdown, you're going to reach. If we ever heard the guy get credit, be like, hey, that was great. He went right out of bounds, didn't reach for the pylon, therefore never chanced or risked fumbling the football in a big spot. So I saw, obviously, reaction of not reaching when it's third down because it's not necessarily do or die in that spot, but it's hard to tell a football player, don't try to do everything you can.

Do we ever see the guy convert it? It's like, oh man, he shouldn't have done that. Because we see plenty of guys go up the pile and then they reach over. But from the two, even though it was a really tight formation under center, all sorts of blocking and push help, Huntley's a smaller guy and the fumble pops out. And Mike Tirico was so good on this call. I'm just assigning a little credit here because I would admit, like you, there are so many times I'm watching the game and play-by-play is a little weird. It can be a little hard.

You're trying to pay attention to different things, but it can feel at times the play-by-play announcer is late on the thing that actually happened. I mean, how many times in the game were you going like, no, the ball's already out. Like, how did you not see that? No, that's not what happened. And then it's on the third replay

and you feel like the commentator's finally caught up with you at home on the couch. That should not be the way the deal goes. On this, Tariqa was on it immediately. Like he was in the play, like on the field. It was perfect. And then Hubbard's running away. You think, is there any chance he's going to get there?

For any of you suggesting that was a block in the back on that, that's total bullshit. I saw a couple screen grabs on it. It wasn't a block in the back. It was like incidental contact where a player's hand was sort of on, was it Andrews who was chasing him? And then Andrews

sort of dove forward. If they had called that a block in the back, that would have been a huge mistake. So I didn't think that that was the problem at all. Anyway, Cincinnati moves on

and they have Buffalo next Sunday. Let's stay with coaching because I think it's an overall theme of what we saw this weekend. And let's be positive here. We've gone over Shanahan's resume, who is now 49-26, including the regular season in the playoffs, with Brock Purdy, Garoppolo, Lance, Nick Mullins, and C.J. Beathard.

Now, again, the Trey Lance number is limited because of the injury this year. This is what I loved about what I saw, not only from Shanahan and the Niners, but I see more and more, and I think this is the way football should always be played. Brock Purdy wasn't great in the first half. The overall numbers are incredible. 18-33, 32, three touchdowns, stays clean on the turnover number there for the interceptions. But with 108 left in the first half,

and there were some numbers that would tell you, I didn't think he was great in the first half. All right, that's fine. But Shanahan's going, all right, 108 left. We've got a possession. It's football. We can't give these away. We don't get many of them.

Look at Cincinnati. They had three in the first half. So let's see if we can't sneak out some points out of this deal. They threw it seven times, went 49 yards, kicked a field goal. I don't know. Well, I know for a fact growing up, coaches wouldn't have done that. You know, there's a Jim Trestle joke in here somewhere, but Trestle's teams were always way better than everybody else.

Bill Cower, you know, would he have done that kind of stuff? Again, that's kind of the way football was played. Brock Purdy in this spot at home. I mean, look, hell, we even saw it with Stetson Bennett at Georgia against Ohio State in the first half where he threw a weird second down pass, and then Kirby and those guys were like, all right, let's knee it, get the hell out of here. We're not doing that.

Shanahan in the spot's going, hey, we have a chance. There's still a minute plus left. I know it's still Brock Purdy, but Purdy's done some big things in the regular season for him. I love the confidence in the player from the coaching staff. Let's look at the Giants and Daniel Jones. Jones, as we mentioned, looked like he was going to be a backup, maybe even out of the league.

You pick that high, the options decline. The people in-house are making that decision on you, although it's a little different because Joe Judge was there before Dable. But Dable comes in in and he looks like a completely different guy. Completely different guy. And then on the other side, if you're the patch, you're like, we want to be in business

with the guy that coached him before. Mike McDaniel. Speaking of people looking entirely different, Tua. Yes, some of the blitz stuff that i saw booger mcfarland pointing out on social media which i thought was really accurate like if you're going zero coverage sending everybody not giving everybody back um and then it works you can't just do it again you can't do it like back-to-back plays and i don't know specifically it was back

back plays but suggesting mix it up a little bit here but this isn't necessarily just about this play call working or this play call not working it It's about the faith and the confidence, and it's deciding to push it. Because Skyler Thompson, if you watched him against the Jets and Pats to close the regular seasons, he still, despite 45 pass attempts, ended up right around that five yards per attempt, which isn't a great number. But it was pretty clear that McDaniels was like, we're not going to just hand it off. We're not going to go power I here all day.

You still have to let Thompson, like in today's game, to keep up with the Bills. You have to figure out a way to score some points. And Miami did that remarkably. And they had a place in Buffalo where they don't lose playoff games there. They've only lost one ever. So if you would watch Thompson against the Jets or Pats at the end of the regular season, you would have thought, wait, you're going to bank on this guy. But it's minutes. You don't really win those games unless your defense is awesome. And against Buffalo at their place, despite liking some of the talent on the Dolphins roster defensively, that wasn't really

going to happen, right? We could talk about Geno Smith and Pete Carroll. And maybe the most impressive of all of them is that, do you realize how great it was for Baltimore to have a designed offense around Lamar Jackson and go, okay, no one's Lamar, but with Tyler Huntley in here, as bad as it looked to start, maybe we can do some things to combo it up, make them look differently. That short yardage conversion was an incredibly well-executed play where they ran out all these blockers sweeping in front of Huntley where he had enough time and protection to make a decision and decide which hole that he wanted to go for. And yes, there are individual things we can all get to, but I'm just saying

there's so many coaches in this league now that find ways to have faith in a quarterback, even if they're limited talent-wise at that position. On the other side of it, you would say, well, when you have an Allen, when you have a Mahomes, you have some of these other guys, Burrow at times, just can fix everything. You don't have to worry about it as much. But these teams went into a massive deficit talent-wise at that position and still found a way to battle. And it just speaks to how much coaching matters in this league more than any other one. You could argue coaching in college is different because it's perhaps even more important as far as who you are as a program or recruiting and all that kind of stuff but as far as winning games nothing's even close to the nfl forget baseball hockey they

fire everybody the entire time as we know in basketball if you don't have one of the main guys you have no chance okay this is a perfect transition to coaching not working out because we saved it for last let's talk about that jack's comeback it's 27 nothing charges in the first half it's 27 to 7 at the half i made the joke about the way Chargers in the first half. It's 27-7 at the half. I made the joke about the way scores work in the NFL again that it's really only 3.9-1. But the problem here for Jacksonville, or maybe the hope

was they were minus five, five turnovers in this game. It reminded me a little of the Pats 28-3 Atlanta Super Bowl in that when you watch it, you're like, okay, this score is not good, but does it feel like they're getting dominated? When you're down 28-3 Atlanta Super Bowl and that when you watch it, you're like, okay, this score is not good, but does it feel like they're getting dominated? When you're down 28-0

because you're screwing up the entire time, that's different than just another team lining up four straight possessions, going 70-80 yards and pushing you all over the field and you never converting a third down because you can't get anybody open on third and seventh. So it felt a little different and I think we just are way too dismissive as if we've never

seen any of these games before where teams are like, you know, look, 27-7. They can't score three times while also holding the other team to zero points. In this case, three. But teams that were plus five in the turnover margin, 142-4-1. The fifth team to win that game, Jacksonville. It's the biggest blown lead in franchise history. We knew that Mike Williams was out with a back fracture, which is just unspeakable that that could happen last week. Carter's out of the game at receiver, so Let's hammer in on a few plays here. I want to thank Daniel Popper of The Athletic who did a really

good job recapping some of the stuff. Michael Brady on that jet sweep that didn't work out, he's a practice squad player this year. He's now getting the handoff in the spot on a kill to the jet sweep if Herbert didn't like the look to run it up the middle, which he did. Carter didn't know that there was a handoff on that play. A jet sweep that the Chargers have run four times this season for negative 21 yards. Okay, why don't the Chargers run the football more? They had seven yards on seven design runs in the second half. Now, Lawrence looked lost. It looked like he was confusing man and zone coverage in the first half. It's not all on him. I didn't think necessarily every pick was on him,

but some of them were too, of course. But then the Jags go up-tempo, 12 no-huddle plays in the second half. It didn't feel like the Chargers adapted to that. Let's talk about Bosa's neutral zone to negate a sack there. That one's a little dicey. They drew a line on the broadcast during that game where I was like, what is this line? It looked like if I had a two-year-old, I would imagine that would be the line they draw, but I don't

have a two-year-old or any of them, so I don't know what their lines look like. That ends up leading to a touchdown, so it's 27-14. Bosa, I'm bringing that up because he's already pre-mad about everything else. He took his pre-mad workout. Later on, he gets mad about a false start

that's not called and then throws his helmet down, which actually was a big deal because it moved the two-point conversion to a one-yard line instead of the two-yard line. And at that point, you just feel like you have many more options from the one-yard line. Now, on the replay, I thought the official was right. And when we slow-mo these things sometimes, a lot of stuff can look like false starts. Everything in slow motion looks like it's pass interference. So I don't know that Bosa, look, he's lined up across the guy,

so he sees him move a little bit. But I'm telling you, it's not this perfectly precise thing on the snap of the football all the time. There's always a little bit of movement in there. And so for Bosa to go that crazy and then give up the penalty in a spot that big of a deal all the time. There's always like a little bit of movement in there. And so for Bosa to go that crazy and then give up the penalty in a spot that big of a deal in the conversion,

I understand it's frustration, but it seemed like a lot. You also have Staley not going for the touchdown on the missed field goal attempt, 30-20. That's with 847 left in the game. It was fourth and two

at the Jacksonville 22. I do think field goals have become undervalued. When I hear it's the one possession, two possession argument, it's like, you know, sometimes six or seven is way better than three or four, you guys. So why are you making this argument? Certainly when it's the six or three yard, but in this case, it would have been 13 instead of 10. That seems to go against the stuff that Staley would normally do in the past. Jacksonville goes 81 yards and 10 plays, kick the game-winning field goal.

That's your ballgame. You know the Chargers wore the black cleats in this one because Staley wanted them to honor the second three-peat Bulls. Can a wildcard team do that? There's a lot of chargering, which is now becoming a national branded thing. I would say to Chargers fans,

there used to be a thing called Clemsoning. I never quite understood it. I remember Van Pelt did a feature on it. I think he got a little annoyed with me on the air where I was like,

so what's Clemsoning? Have hopes, have a pretty good record, and then you lose late in the season? Huh. Do any other college football teams ever do that? You know, you can have this angst that you feel is only about you and your fan base,

which is kind of selfish, right? Like I said yesterday, Bills fans going up. This is what being a Bills fan is like. Cincinnati, tie. Like, oh, never have nice things, you know? Honestly, the Cleveland fan base, prior to LeBron's championship in 2016, you guys were more than justified in having all the bad times.

But even though the Chargering thing is now a nationally recognized deal after that kind of historic loss this weekend, and real specific stuff that we can point to with the coaching. Again, Mike Williams being hurt is inexcusable. They're a completely different team with him in there. I can't believe that happened last week. All right. They win the game if he's playing this week.

Also on this game, welcome to the doubt portal for Justin Herbert. Mike Sando points out that he's had only six tier one quarterbacks in his quarterback tier column that were still on rookie deals. Herbert's the only one without a postseason win.

Does that mean something? Are people going to start comparing him to Wentz because we're all wowed by the physical throws? Well, the Wentz thing would seem impossible, but it also seemed impossible for Wentz to become Wentz because we're all wowed by the physical throws. Well, the Wentz thing would seem impossible, but it also seemed impossible for Wentz to become Wentz.

If you go back to 2017, I'm not even saying that now. It's just going to suck for you Chargers fans. It's just going to suck. And everybody seems to think that Staley's going to get fired, but it feels like people that understand the Chargers history, like that's not really how they work. Mike McCoy, four years, 27 and 37. Anthony Lynn, four years, 33 and 31, including that 45 to nothing loss to the Patriots, which I think is

still one of the worst coach games I've ever seen in my life. And I don't really like saying that because I know these guys know way more about football than I do. I'm just not one of those guys. It's like, oh, this coach sucks. This coach sucks. Yeah, every coach sucks. I can't believe they called this, right? Staley's 19 and15 in two years. They did make the playoffs. He had a really bad day. I don't know if he's going to be gone. Okay, great time to recap all the playoff games. My man, Willie Colon, Super Bowl champ, Pittsburgh Steelers.

Also, SiriusXM, Mad Dog Radio, Channel 82. Morning, man. Good morning to you. What's up? Morning, morning, morning. Happy New Year's, man. I feel like you're one of those people that don't do New Year's resolutions. So I just assumed that because you're always jacked and on the go, I feel like you're always on top of your stuff.

That doesn't mean I can't improve, man. It doesn't mean I can't take a year off. I feel like you're one of those guys that, you're like, I don't do resolutions because I'm always on my game. So there's never, there's never no, like people do New Year's, people do New Year's resolutions

because they're, you know, they're lacking. So I don't feel like. Yeah, I don't know. I'm pretty tough on myself, but I don't, I wouldn't go like, all right, I'll wait two weeks like on december 10th if something's pissing me off i'll try to handle it right you know i'm gonna be like all right we'll get to the holidays here i mean we don't have any kids running around or anything

like that you know like you kind of in your own head enough that you don't need to you don't need to wait to a specific date to decide to have change. Right. Well, the thing is I'm going to be 40 this year. Right. And so I had this, I hate to say it. I kind of had this coming to Jesus moment where I'm like, well, I know what it is to be fat.

Let's try the skinny part. Right. So let's try to get in the best shape possible. Let's try to get, let's try to smuggle my, my, uh, my little ass and some speedos and see what it looks like.

Tell me the summertime. So I'm trying to get, I mean, I've beenos and see what it looks like in the summertime. So I'm trying to get, I've been on this workout kick. I'm down 20 pounds. I feel good. And I know it's very cliche to lose weight coming out of the new year, but I've really been digging in and listening to pods about dieting and meditation

and metabolic and all this other nonsense. So that's where my head's at right now. Really? Okay. We'll have you back on then. We'll do like a life advice for weight loss for big dudes. It's, and listen,

I just saw, I was watching TV and I saw Vince Wilford. He's doing like a tailgating show on Food Network. He's lost a bit. It looks like he's lost over a hundred pounds. It looks amazing. And Vince Wilford used to look doing a tailgating show on Food Network. It looks like he's lost over 100 pounds. He looks amazing. Vince Wilford used to look like he was a house. Me and him used to tip

the field. He's slim. He's fit. He looks great. I got to catch up. I got to get right. I'm happy to hear that because I think we talked about this last time because you were just telling me. I remember I'll never forget the line. You're like, my wife can burn some pots now.

So I was like, oh, OK. And then she said that she liked you fat. She does. She likes you. The thing is, she says that until I get on top. And then I can look down and she's holding her breath. And so that's never a place you want to be especially when you try to boost your confidence like i'm not sure how to transition

out of this to get into the playoff game so i'm just gonna i'm just gonna make it because it feels like daniel jones is on top great segue Man, just to stay in that car with you, Daniel Jones has won my respect. And I think he has won the respect of many New Yorkers. A guy who's 25 years old, supposed to be the protege of Eli Manning, who's taken a lot of help. And I think at this point, after watching Saturday's game, going into Minnesota, looking absolutely stellar, it's weird because I think if anybody was

looking at Daniel Jones this year, felt like he was on his way out. I don't think anybody gave him a shot of buying himself a contract or potentially being the future for the New York Giants. And I think he did it. And I think Brian Dayball admitted too, like, hey, I threw a couple wrenches in this guy's process. And I think he did it. And I think Brian Dayball admitted too, like, hey, I threw a couple, I threw a couple wrenches

in this guy's, you know, process. I didn't, it wasn't easy for him. He's actually, he did it and he's kind of surpassed a lot of our expectations. And I think we were able to watch it. The Giants look scrappy. They look scrappy good.

And so I'm not a Giants fan, but I can say I'm starting to slowly become a Danny Dimes fan. Yeah, because look, I think we're on the same page with this one. It wasn't the same as the people in the building going, hey, if you don't like them, you're not picking up the option. How am I supposed to like? But it wasn't apples to apples because we had a new group coming in

and they were trying to fix this. And I spent a good chunk of the open just raving about coaching up and down the lineup for uh for this entire weekend of playoff games you know even teams that lost i go man look what they did like they even had a chance with this a quarterback um and i think it's just different because i feel like and i don't again this is part of the open but like you remember with the steelers you guys were loaded though so you know it's not as fair but yeah I feel like when you played if another team had a quarterback they're like this guy's not going to get it done then they would almost make it even harder on the quarterback by like we're not going to let you do anything we're going to trust you with nothing

and see if we can just figure out a way to get two turnovers from them the entire game and that's just not the brand of football we're seeing anymore it's like hey we're kicking it off so we're gonna give the full playbook to this guy and see what happens and and with jones it could be the vikings defense a little bit because we can't get too carried away from like a playoff win but the fact that it's even a question because in august i was like why are we even talking about this anymore okay cool they spent the pick on him we all know how this goes. We don't really see these kinds of turnarounds. So it's Dable, it's Jones, it's all

of this collectively. But yeah, there's part of me that still kind of can't help but be like, alright, are you going to be even close to somebody that can carry a team against Philly? Because we know how bad the Vikings were on D. Yeah, I also think, one, I think you got to credit to your point for Ronnie Dableball because he's a

guy who didn't come in with a whole lot of rules or a whole lot of like look look i'm the guy follow me he was like listen i'm gonna because there wasn't a lot of overhaul with the with the roster right they didn't bring in a lot of clunky pieces to kind of make the giants who they are today i mean obviously they got the big time draft pick out of Thibodeau, but roughly, this is the roster they've had. He's just been able to make it work with what he has. What's a testament of a good chef, right? He doesn't go out and source

a cow from Nova Scotia, right? He hits local and he makes whatever ingredients he has, he makes the best dish, and that's what Dave Ball has done for me. And so that's why I'm a little enamored or maybe impressed with Daniel Jones

in his process this year because I think he just realized, like, listen, this is who I am. I have the ability to run the ball. As long as I don't turn over the ball and I keep us in range,

we're going to win most games. And they were able to do so. And I think the Giants are at this point right now where they're fielders. The confidence is high. And they got a lot of young guys who are making impact plays. By the way, Kirk Cousins didn't play awful.

He didn't play awful, and he played well enough. Obviously, that bonehead play on fourth and eighth and then gets nothing from it game over. I go Justin Jefferson for over half. I think he only had several receptions. They needed more out of him. They didn't get that. But credit Danny Jones and the Giants. They went in and got

it done. Yeah, I mean, that defense, the staff, everybody, they deserve a lot of credit. Jefferson, seven catches, but only 47 yards. And I thought the broadcast did a really good job of showing us how they're bracketing him where no matter where he was going to turn, there was going to be a second guy waiting for him. So there wasn't going to be much yards after the

catch. I wanted to ask you about some of that talent on the Giants' defense because we knew they were getting a lot healthier real quick, even though Ogilari ended up leaving the game with a quad injury, who's terrific. Kayvon does make plays, and he got his hand stepped on, so when he was down, we were like, oh, they're going to lose him now too after losing Ogilari. But Dexter Lawrence, man, that guy.

So give me your thoughts on him, where he's at right now. Man, you know, the testament to a good nose tackle is not just his ability to eat up space. It's his ability to eat up the pocket, to close that cushion. You know what I mean? And when you saw, there's so many times during that game, man, and I've, listen, you got to say, when I got into the league, I played nothing but war days, right? I'm only 6'3", 350 pounds, but I was playing guys like Sam Adams.

I was playing guys like Bonnie Holiday, Trevor Price, the Williams brothers out of Minnesota. So I was playing against big-time war daddies who just not only could just move, but they could move you and move you to the quarterback. By the way, let me just jump in. I cannot believe the Vikings had two of those dudes. Ryan, in real time, dog, I'm going to be

honest. So if you've ever been to Minnesota and you go to the away locker room, the whole locker room's in pink, right? They paint the locker room pink. You have to walk you go to the away locker room the whole locker rooms in pink right they paint the locker room pink they walked you have to walk a mile to the to the this is the old Vikings by the way then you have to walk a mile to the to the floor once you get on to the to the floor onto the field it the place is rocking but nevertheless when you get when the game starts I'm I remember playing in Minnesota I'm looking at Jared Allen

and the Williams brothers, and I'm saying these are probably the most biggest men I've ever seen in my life. That doesn't equate to how fast these dudes move and their footwork and how they just tore ass

as far as closing up space. So I'm never... I'm never... I'm never overly wowed by anybody who's like a super freak. But there's some dudes out there who just like, there's no reason you're that big. You can move that fast with that, that,

that type of footwork. And the Williams brothers were, they, they both packed. Kevin, both can do that. And that's the type of ability. So that's why I'm like,

man, this guy, he can collapse the pocket in real-time speed. There's no dial-up with this kid. It was incredibly impressive. And I know for Giants fans, they're like, hey, welcome. Welcome to watch. But to have your eyes just on one guy the entire time

and to see how disruptive, it really kind of changes some of the stuff because now you're thinking from the interior, we have to, like, we have to, he's not just going to stand up and let the linebackers make plays. No, he can play a gap to a gap. He can chew up guards.

And what he does well is, you know, when you saw that rough, first of all, that rough in the passer was absolutely atrocious. I can't take it anymore. They have to figure out what is rough in the passer because I don't think that's it. I don't know how you can allow a man that size get to the quarterback. And what do you – because he didn't land on him. He didn't even chuck him hard.

He just had to get him to the ground, and he did so. And so that play was a greets. But once he got there, man, it just shows you the type of power and speed he has and his ability to just that quick pop off the ball. And he has it, man. He has all the intangibles and the Giants got one. They got a war debt. He's it. The Bills went at home.

It's not the score we expected. Skyler Thompson, again, it wasn't like he was great. It's just I appreciated the faith they had in him. You know, Bill still outgained him by 200 yards. But just a couple of those turnovers again, including the fumble there by Allen. So I don't know if it's a defensive concern question about Buffalo,

because that might not be fair. I guess, I don't know. Like with Allen, I don't know that there's ever going to be something that he does where I go, well, all right, now I have to change my mind about him. Because I think once you need him to be a superhero, he always seems to find a way. So I guess the long or the short answer of this is that is there anything about Buffalo from this weekend that makes you think differently about them?

Josh Allen, bottom line. I mean, Valley, he threw for 200 plus yards. And we talked about it on my morning show. People were like, you guys are being hard on Josh Allen. He had two picks, man. He had legit two picks. And would you feel like, yeah, he could throw the ball a Mississippi mile. Yes, he could run it.

You know there's times when he can put on the cape and he can win you games with either his legs or his decision-making. But sometimes he does reckless bonehead things and he'll throw the ball to the opposition and so i'm looking at josh allen like man this team is going to win or lose with you and right now you're in a point of the season playoffs where you can't afford you can't afford the careless turnovers you can't afford the interceptions and you just expect him to just be a lot more polished at times than what he is and uh yeah i think it all comes down to him because I don't think the defense can play.

Von Miller's not out there, right? So the two linebackers that have Emmons and Milano are absolutely phenomenal, but they don't have that kind of turnover, that kind of dominant guy on the edge because Von is not there. So they're not going to

get the ball a lot. You know what I mean? They're not going to be a takeover, a turnover machine. And Josh Allen right now, he scares me. He makes me nervous. He actually makes you nervous. Yeah, I think so. He makes you nervous because just when you think he's playing

big-time football, it's a turnover. And then sometimes it's another turnover. And then sometimes they just have enough pieces and they're, you know, a well-balanced team enough where they can overcome it. Most teams can't overcome a two-and-a-turnover game.

But Jacksonville proved me wrong, so I can't say that. All right, well, let's just get to that game then, and we'll figure out the rest of it. Have you ever been involved with anything like that? No, I haven't.

When I saw Trevor Lawrence through his third pick, I was floored. I wasn't going to ruin my Saturday watching that nonsense. I thought the Chargers When I saw Trevor Lawrence through his third pick, I was floored. I wasn't going to ruin my Saturday watching that nonsense. I thought the Chargers were going to roll all over Jacksonville. I was happy that – I was happy the way they were able to come back. But I'll be honest, I had to go back and watch the game.

I thought the Chargers were going to just roll them. And Trevor Lawrence, to this point, I don't know. I can't get a gauge on him. I don't know if he's good or not. I mean, I'll trust your honest opinion. Do you think he's where he needs to be as he arrives? Like, I don't have a gauge on him. I would say that, you know, I thought it was a little concerning how confused he was at this stage of his career

on the way they were disguising a guy sitting in zone. That one that was left to right in front of him, that's not like the linebacker that you're not accounting for. When I see a quarterback throw a pick to a linebacker a lot of times, I'm like, I just didn't even see. You missed him. Yeah, he knows. He'll go back to the sideline and look at the stupid iPad and then he'll kind of figure it out right that one was weird because it was in his site and it was like you you still made that throw because you thought that guy was like going to trail the other receiver like you thought you thought that side was going to be open um there

was one that definitely wasn't his fault but to say say he's arrived, no, I'm not going to say that. I'm also not going to now think everything's different because he had been turning the football over for a long stretch. It was a completely different guy this year versus last year. The best part of it for Jacksonville is that you know if you're down big that he can put some throws together to get you back into the game. that he can put some throws together to get you back into the game. And that, right at this point, despite being down and all the turnovers, that you have him on your side

and that he can help you get back into something. Maybe that's a Peterson's Daily conversation that we'll get to here too. But there's still more positives for this one despite how ugly it was, I think. I mean, look, if he goes out there and throws them all over the place again, then we can have that conversation. But I'm not going to

write it off, even though it was pretty bad. I think so many people were going into this game, or even watching the telecast and listening to football around the channels. People were just so enamored with how many young quarterbacks were actually playing in this playoffs in the weekend. And a lot was talked about

how Trevor Lawrence, he's kind of gone through his maturation period and he's gone through in the weekend. And a lot was talked about how Trevor Lawrence, he's kind of gone through his maturation period. He's gone through his woes. And now he has arrived. And I remember listening to that and I was just like, because I watched him this year

against the Jets. And I was like, I don't know if he arrived or the Jets were just that god awful on offense where they couldn't compete or combat anything he was doing. And so when I saw him throw the three picks,

I said, well, he maybe has in a row. And then I turned it off. Then I turned it back around to Jags win 31-30. And it all talks about how in the second half, he just turned it to a super same. Had Doug Peterson called probably one of the best second halves of football in

modern day history. And how, you know, Brandon Staley pretty much blew it in layman's terms and how he pretty much forced Justin Herbert to throw himself out of that game. Eckler only had 13 rushing compared to what Herbert was throwing the ball

in an insane volume. I'm still scratching my head like is Trevor Lawrence that guy? I don't know. What do you mean? Could be replaced at some point? Is he not be replaced? But to the point, should they hand him the keys?

He's locked, done. He's our guy for the next 20 years, like 10 years. 20 is a long time. Yeah. Look, I'd be shocked if he wasn't the guy for the next five years. He gets the contract. Maybe I'm being too light on him here. I felt like what he had done, turning around the regular season,

same page with Peterson, some of the stuff here, it felt like, okay, this is now heading in the right direction. Because even though I liked him and it made sense he was going to go number one there were plays last year i was like what the hell are you looking at like you know zach wilson stuff in there where you're like what are you doing and i don't you know everybody's capable of a bad throw here or there i mean it kind of happens to most of the guys except for, you know, probably prime Brady who just never seemed like if it was a pick, it was always somebody else's fault. But I look at Lawrence and I don't know,

as a young guy turning around, coming back, they went no huddle. I wouldn't say he has the best weapons ever. He's got some nice receivers. Yeah, Kirk's good, but no one would ever, I mean, I know he got the contract, but nobody confused him as a number one game-changing guy that's going to separate from everybody all day. Hey, can I ask you about one player on that Jacksonville team?

Sure. I look for Trayvon Walker. Yeah, fine. I find a guy running into somebody and then it's over. What? I don't know. I'm just – just look I'm totally just I don't know enough about it right like what he's supposed to be doing but when I'm looking

for him coming up Richard Seymour 6'5 275 pounds he's supposed to be the next Richard Seymour he's supposed to be a guy who sets the edge, hulks down, running backs from behind. Can't find him.

You can't find him. You can't find him. I'm with you. I watched him. And listen, I'm a hater by nature when it comes to defensive linemen. Like, when it comes to people like, oh, this guy's dumb, and he's going to have all this range. He's going to do all this stuff.

All right, put it on tape. Let's see what he got. I watched him. I watched him enough. Can't find him. Unless they call his number out next to his name and he went to Georgia, you can't find him. That's it.

Yeah, because they were talking about how he and Sailor, the left tackle, how they had gone against each other. And I was like, is this the reason why this is happening? Because there's just certain dudes that alright the ball snapped I don't have an angle okay we'll get him see how the second down goes how much fun

was it when you had a dude that you were lined up against you're like once I have him then he's not going to work like he's not going to work to do anything it must have been the best because I mean the game's hard enough you're like oh this guy doesn't have the second thing this is going to work to do anything. It must have been the best because, I mean, the game's hard enough. You're like, oh, this guy doesn't have the second thing. This is going to be awesome today. I've gone against a lot of guys like that, believe it or not,

especially in my steal days because we were usually kicking the shit out of them. For instance, I remember one time we were playing the Browns towards the end of the season, and this is when they had big baby Sean Rogers and they had Cameron Wembley and they had all these guys. And I remember we're in Pittsburgh and we're just laying it into them. And it was towards the end of the season.

And we were in tank mode. We were just going to run the ball, run the ball, kind of run the clock out. And I don't want to bash him because I don't feel like. But we had a double-team block, and we were going to the frontside linebacker, and I remember telling my right guard, I was like, we're going to dump this motherfucker.

Like, we're just going to dump him on his head. Let's get the touchdown and move on. And he sees it coming. And I can tell, like the normal technique, he's supposed to take a drop-me technique, you know, eat the double-team up and let the linebacker go make the play. This dude didn't do that.

This dude squared up my guard, let me slide by him, and I actually depleted the linebacker. Like this took his head off, right? And I can remember getting up, and I looked at my right guard time, Donnie Stapleton, and I was just like, damn, that was insanely – I knew he played that wrong. I looked at him. He turned around and he goes, listen, man, ain't nobody trying to get hurt

out here. He's like, my bag is already packed. My vacation is already done. Let's just get this over with. He had a folded shot and he was not trying to get this work. He's like, do you see what quarter it is? He's like, it's the third quarter. I'm not.

I'm contracts up. Let's just play the role. And it was weird. There were some guys who had resumes, who were good guys that I would go against. And towards the end of the season, we were up late in game. They were just like, all right, big fella, come on. Let's have this brother-in-law rep. Let's get the brother-in-law rep real quick. I was just like, come on, man. I'm not giving you that. I'm not going to lay off you because you're laying up. I'm going to keep getting after you. I'm definitely yawning at these guys who are just

kind of like, hey, man, let's just turn it down a little bit. Let's just get it weaned down. Ain't nobody trying to get hurt. They've got money on the line. You know, we're 4-12 right now. Let's just turn it down a little bit. So, yeah, I've definitely been a part of some of those games.

And just for everyone that's listening, you guys are spending, wait, what does this mean about Trayvon Walker? We're not saying this about him. We're not saying this about him. It's just that for a number one overall pick in that kind of profile and then during a game and I'd rewind some stuff. I'd be like, what did he do here? What did he do there?

I mean, Josh Allen's the guy that's doing stuff. And with Trayvon, I'm like, man, I don't know. I don't see a ton there. What's the funniest thing anybody ever said to you in a game? Oh, man. Man, you know what's so funny? One of my best friends is a principal in

Virginia, and one of the games he actually came to, and I think he happened to be in Boston at the time, was me versus the Pats. And this is probably my second or third year in the league, and I was going against Teddy Bruschi, Rodney Harrison, and Mike Vrabel was actually an outside linebacker. He was actually in the league. And I was going against Teddy Bruschi, Rodney Harrison. And Mike Vrabel was actually an outside linebacker.

He was actually on that defense. And they had a nasty defense, man. They had Roosevelt, Coleman. And they had some guys that could play some big-time football. Tyrone Green, I think, was on that team, too. Anyway, fast forward. I was getting into a Bruschi. I was getting into a real nasty.

We're talking like we were talking boo-boo shit to each other. And I didn't, first of all, I didn't really, not that I didn't know who he was. I damn sure didn't care. And he just seemed like he was like Captain America. He just had the neck roll and he's just standing in his goddamn stance. And he's like, you know, barking out orders. And, you know, and I was just annoyed by his just face. I don't know what it out orders and you know and i was just annoyed by his just face i don't know what it was about his damn face i was just annoyed by it and so me him

me and bray will start getting into it and then me and bruce he started getting into it and uh he he said something i said something i think i may have said something about his mom i honestly i may have said something out of bounds and we had some very unchristian like words towards each other and then i remember going back in the uh huddle he goes hey 74 he said shit your buck ass you and your buck ass teeth your teeth and i've never heard somebody talk about my teeth right and brian i remember saying i was like my teeth and i was like you know fuck you mother then all this other stuff and for like the whole first quote i kept doing like this touching my teeth i said my teeth but he had me questioning my teeth and i remember saying i remember i said uh my right guard at the time kendall simmons i said hey man i got a bucket that's t and he's like

no your teeth are fine i was like you sure i was like he's like he's like wow he's like bruce he just has some buck ass teeth and i'm physically away it. Mind you, this man had cussed me. He had cussed me. Like, we were getting nasty with each other. And I remember I was like, yeah, I remember the whole first quarter, like, second quarter, I was like, I kept doing like this. Like, is my shit out here like that? So that was one of the things that stood to me because I just,

I laugh about it now, but, like, I'm in this, you know, dirty war-trained game going against the Pats. And I can about it now but like I'm in this you know dirty war game going against the Pats and I can remember for a quote I was like not paying attention like my teeth out here just buck on national TV because Brewski called me out so yeah that's so good I have a lot of it I mean it's my own

story so that's so good Pat Steelers one of the meanest nastiest toughest dudes in the field and somebody says you might have buck teeth and you're like feeling them stuff trying to get an angle going to the sideline the fact that he left that little implant in the back of my head but i just he just i'm gonna leave that one right there for you big fella that's perfect perfect, too, because I love Bruschi. He became one of my favorite guys

when I worked at ESPN. Loved him. And you'd love him. I do. I have a lot of respect for him. I love him to death. I think he's a kick-ass. I can't wait to tell him that story. That's going to be so funny. Okay, a couple more games to do here. Cincinnati-Baltimore. Again, another example of Baltimore

kind of hanging around, finding a way to find it. Where are you with the reach from two yards out where the ball is snapped and where Huntley is? People can knock it. I don't know how you tell a guy in that spot, you're not thinking about not reaching. You're not getting the handoff and then going, oh, a lot of bodies.

Let me pull this one in. It's just not the way any of you are programmed. I don't know. He was told to go low. First of all, you don't have Pritchett and the boys behind you thinking you're going to jump. First of all, how tall is he? 5'11"? He's small, yeah.

Not a big quarterback. If Ben Roethlisberger made that, I can see it. Ben's 6'5", 6'6", and he has a reach. If, I don't know, another tall quarterback, or Brady or somebody, I can see that. You have to know you're not going to make it. They were two yards out. That play was designed for him

to punch low. They had another try at it after that. So I just don't understand. I can understand being a gamer, wanting to make that play, excuse me, but I just didn't seem smart. I don't thought it just didn't seem smart. I don't know.

I didn't like it. I thought it was dumb. I was like, why would you do that? You're not that tall. You're not going to just punch it in from two yards out. Did you ever play with a QB who kept it because he wanted to keep it? And you guys are like, what do you do? Ben?

Yeah. Yeah. Ben would be that. Ben would. I mean, sometimes it would be a quarter it would be designed or a quick dive. He's a big dude. Big, powerful dude.

He felt like he would get it. He would just keep it and go for it or punch it in himself. Right, but he wasn't doing it because he wanted the touchdown. He just knew he was bad in his size and that kind of stuff. Exactly. He wasn't doing it for clout. He was doing it because I'm big Ben Roethlisberger. I can get this.

We knew Cincinnati. I mean, what did they say last night? There's 15 different offensive line combinations. How hard is that? How hard is that to do that, not only for a team that's average, but a team that's trying to get to a Super Bowl again? Well, because it's trust.

People are saying, you know who, specifically in your room, you know which guys are built for the lights and which guys aren't. Even though we all train and prepare and kind of be ready for when our numbers fall, but when you have multiple combinations, trust means a lot on that field, especially amongst the five, you know who guys are who are competent, who are like, all right, well, you know, if we go into two minute here, this guy knows his job and I don't have to worry about it. Then there's some guys out there. You're like, man, I know this guy's been sleeping all week and means, I mean, I know he doesn't know, or he's not as quick as he should be in this moment. And that causes a lot of confusion and distrust, especially when communication is flying all over the field, especially in between the lines.

So it's, it's, it's hard. And on top of just playing, not having that time next to a guy who, you know, you're not used to playing next to. Because most of the guys, you know, they flip-flop. Some of you have swing tackles. You have guards who go to center.

Guards who, you know, have to now kick out to the edge. And that's a lot. But I think any time you see a patchwork group play well together, that's an offensive line who has them. An offensive line coach who has got those guys on the same court. That's preparation.

We know Jensen's back at center for Tampa for tonight's Monday nighter against Dallas. Okay, so tell me who you thought was going to win this. Has it changed? Did you like Dallas? And now you're like, I mean, I know Jensen's a huge part of what they're trying to do. I mean, just to have anybody that knows what's going on, considering what they've had to do with the O-line, is a huge win.

But I don't know how you felt about it before because we didn't talk. So just kind of give me your thoughts on Monday night. I didn't think too much from that angle. I've been honed in on just Dak being a turnover machine as of late. And I think going into this game tonight, going into the game in Tampa,

you know, I don't know. and I think going into this game tonight, going into the game down in Tampa, I don't know. Somebody asked me the question, if McCarthy loses this game, do you not have to look for Sean? Do you have to fire? And I'm like, I don't think so. I don't think you have to fire Mike McCarthy if the Cowboys lose this game.

I think it's just a matter of that, one, you're going against Tom Brady. Enough said. You can't count Brady out in any situation, especially at home. But I don't know if this should be on Mike McCarthy's head if they don't win this game. Because remember going in just to pivot back, people are now saying,

how is it possible that Brandon Staley has a job if you lose to the Jacksonville Jacks? Well, he did lose, and currently he still has a job. I don't know if that's the same situation for Mike McCarthy. Well, I think we all collectively lose our minds like somebody's supposed to be fired all the time uh why like no i don't know i don't know why because it's just easier you know why you know i'll actually i know the answer why because if you're a fan you want to hope that all these players that your team has signed and drafted are still good. Because that sucks way more than it just being the coach's fault.

But it's really – I don't think people understand how hard it is for a new coach to come in and, like, regain and implement a culture within a new team. You know what I mean? Like, Dayballs, I think, is a little bit of a nick. Right? I think he's a great coach who didn't do much. Like I said, I think he's just a great chef using ingredients that he was given.

Mike McCarver, I think, is a good coach. I don't think he's a bad coach. He's had some little foobars along the way, but I don't think he's – I don't consider him like, oh, just get rid of this guy. You know, he hasn't been able to unlock Dak. All these other issues. I think he's a good coach. I think Dak has failed him at times, but they're still averaging

28 points a game. They're still putting up numbers. I don't think you sit back and say if they lose to Tampa, that he should go. That narrative is kind of annoying to me. My biggest thing with it was the pass he should go. That narrative is kind of annoying to me. My biggest thing with it was the pass rush win rate for Dallas is number two in the NFL behind Philadelphia,

and you're going to be going up against. Is with Jensen back and Tampa recalibrating post the regular season going to look different? No, they're probably going to throw it 50 times tonight. If you're going to throw it that many times against those pass rushers, I don't know. I mean, I get it and it's Brady and the guys figured out a way to win games this

season. You know, I'm not even like down on the guy I thought against Carolina, he looked as good physically in that game as I've seen him all season long that, that drive to Evans, the way he was throwing the football was like, damn,

look at this guy. But you know, you can't have him break the all time attempts record at 45 years old I wouldn't think that'd be something you would want to do and that's what happened and if they throw it 50 times tonight against that

Jensen there better be 5 of them out there well I think one thing that Jensen does a real good job of because I've watched him play he not only controls the pocket with his calling and shifting lines and all that stuff, the guy's a scrapper, man. He sets a tone.

A lot of when it comes to talking about him specifically, they always talk about his antics after the whistle. That's a guy who's keeping his offensive line in tune to like, listen, we got a battle up front. Because sometimes if you watch a lot of offensive line play, it becomes passive, right?

And you understand you got the GOAT behind you who's 45 years old who dropped dimes. You got to bring the fight. And so I think great. I think from an energy standpoint, Jensen's awesome at that. I think he keeps his guys in it. He keeps them scrappy.

And on top of that, you keep Brady upright. You're going to have a shot at winning. Enjoy it tonight, Willie. Willie Colon, Super Bowl champ, doesn't have buck teeth. Mad Dog Radio, Sirius XM, 82. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari, 355 Cabriolet.

What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Okay, we got a couple good ones here. We have one here that's, uh, that's fun. Sort of like maybe not. Maybe it isn't fun kyle just check in how are you doing i'm uh i'm doing okay i'm doing okay small slide backwards on friday but that's about it but i'm doing oh it's a smoking thing yeah i don't know on sunday i came in uh just early in the day and and uh my buddy behind the bar was like what am i supposed to do with these cigarettes here i was like oh no what are you talking you talking about, man? And I didn't black out or anything.

I just forgot that I did it. So I didn't have anything on Sunday. But I talked about it so much. And I guess I did it on Friday. Yeah. But Saturday nothing, Sunday nothing. Do you want me to get you that book, that cult book where you quit smoking? Yeah.

I'd say yes. I didn't want it to be a waste. I would just want to know how many pages it is. I'm one of those guys where I like. Why don't I? How about I do this't want it to be a waste. I would just want to know how many pages it is. I'm one of those guys where I like... Why don't I... How about I do this? Text me your address. Okay.

Okay, life advice. The email address is lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. Okay, this one is a saucy title, Kyle. Buckle up. I hooked up with an influencer and I need Ryan's finesse and Kyle's realism.

Oh, finesse. I don't know. How much finesse I got left. Okay, please Kyle's realism. Oh, finesse. I don't know how much finesse I got left. Okay, please change our names. Well, you could have done that. Yeah. All right. Stories medium length.

No, we've gone through it. It's fine. The stories of an average Joe, me hooked up with a prominent influencer last weekend. He gives her name. He's 62, 225. Solid build. 30 years old still believe I have my desk my best days ahead of me I believe that too whether I'm talking

about you or myself is up to you to start from the beginning we both grew up in the same hometown okay the hometown is a very specific place that a lot of people are not necessarily from so I think that helps our guy. If I were to say like, hey, she's from Martha's Vineyard, I'm from Martha's Vineyard, okay, there's a real connection there. If you say I'm from Chicagoland,

well, tad vague. All right? So they've known each other as friends of friends. I dated one of her friends in high school. The influencer moved right after high school to another location that I got to change on the fly here. Our guy was playing professional sports, but I think we're going to say semi

pro, so he'd be an awesome candidate for the bachelor. Yes. After he moved to hurt, dude, you got to do a better job with this or i'm gonna burn you um okay so anyway the same small hometown she moves to the town she's in now he plays sports sort of but does hey look i would you know how long i would still be in the minors if i were good enough to ever have been in the minors the first time.

I'd be like, oh, you know, you never know. Love skating with the boys. So then they ended up living in this same town. Okay. That they had never put it together. Are you as confused as I am, Kyle? No, it's a roundabout way they found it in the same area. I don't know if what I'm doing is impressive or horrible because I'm reading

and not saying the words I'm reading while I'm talking. Yeah, you're multitasking. I think you're doing all right. I'm getting this. Okay, so fast forward to 2023. Last weekend, I go home, hometown, see friends, family for the weekend.

I'm at a local bar during the day. They have the best halibut sandwich during the daytime. All right. I'll have to get the name of that place. It's always my first stop. Although it is great when you go home and there's like that one sandwich you want so bad

and you're home and you get it. There you go. Sitting at the bar, I see her post that she was also home as well. Instead of scrolling past, I decided to DM her and see if she'd have a drink and catch up to my surprise. She says, quote, yeah, sounds good. We meet at the bar for three, four hours later.

Can only be described as the best time, laughing, flirting, touching. At this point, I'm ready to accept the natural progression of the night and give her a ride home or move on because I still thought there was no way this was going to actually happen. I had dinner planned at my aunt's house,

actually 45 minutes out of town. She asked if she can join me for dinner oh with them uh and of course i accept without saying it it was understood we would continue to drink up there and stay the night we have an awesome time with my family so this guy brought her to the aunt's house day of day drinking this guy's a fucking legend and without without conversation that like hey i'm gonna be passing out here like i'm not because without conversation she's obviously staying the night at my auntie's house right so we have i don't know if that's obvious but go ahead well i we have an awesome time with the family imagine the family being like this guy's

our kid's awesome now uh so even at one point a crazy thing happened to discover my uncle and her dad were hunting buddies and talk every day we even had a baby photo of her in the house oh dude dude this is like a black mirror episode she has no chance but but she only can hook up with you at this point. There's a picture of her in the house, or like it's a rehearsal with Nathan Fielder, where like he would put baby. I don't know. That show kind of lost me in the middle of it, even though I respect the fuck of it.

I respect that it exists. Okay, so the stars basically align perfectly. You had a magical night that ended with some pillow talk about marriage in Vegas. Oh, man. Now, Vegas and marriage didn't happen, but now we've retreated to realities. Wait, wait, wait.

So did they not hook up? Stars basically aligned perfectly in a magical night that ended. Yeah, magical night. I think they probably hooked up. Yeah. That would make me. How aggressive is it to just be hooking up with a new girl? Although there's a baby photo over there.

So they're probably all rooting for it. It is always a little weird. Like when you're first going through that young phase, you're coming home with your girlfriend to the parents house. Again, I was the oldest of five. So the first time that I did it, I was like, you know, get away from me to bring everybody over my dad's house. It was like everybody. My dad was like, are you kidding me, man? And I was like, you away from me. I used to bring everybody over to my dad's house. It was like everybody.

My dad was like, are you kidding me, man? And I was like, you have no shame. I was like, no, it's great over here. And you guys are nice. So yeah, I was sort of the opposite back in the day. All right. Shout out to Kyle. First date.

Come on over. I just would never want anyone in my family to know what I was doing ever. Not even that I was doing any sketchy. I just super like now. All right. Anyway, so they didn't get married. They didn't go to Vegas.

But now that we've treated her to realities, she's filming a show. She owns a business. He works in the next state over. We've texted a few days, but I can already tell she's not into it anymore despite her claim that she couldn't stand her current situation and obviously,

you know, the connection with me. So the question is, should I accept that this was a lucky one-off and she just said, maybe what I wanted to hear is there something there?

How can I best pursue this? I'm starting to think this might be the year of Mr. Irrelevant. So he attached some photos. So yes, I was able to check out her deal.

She is gorgeous. And this guy's not a bad looking guy. Actually, he's a good looking dude. And he's 6'2", 225 on top of it all. All right, here's the thing. I did do some research on this. She and I have been DMing now for a few days.

And we both just want you to get past this that's what we decided i'm just fucking with you man i wouldn't do that i mean his his heart probably dropped into his stomach right now look uh there is a little sweet home alabama in this you know it feels like you're just back home and it's all making sense and she's hanging with you. Let's go over the possible scenarios. She could have been really fucking bored at home

and you provided an escape from the border. It would feel a little disingenuous for it to have just been that thing and now she's back in her world. You're not near her. You may have been this like reminder of simpler times, you know,

not that you're simple, but that, you know, some people when they leave home, it's like good luck. But I think even most of us, even if you don't necessarily love the home part, there's the nostalgic feeling about it.

I mean, we can only be really from like the one place we're from. And whether you hate it or love it, whatever, there's the nostalgic feeling about it. I mean, we can only be really from the one place we're from. And whether you hate it or love it, whatever, there's still this moment of appreciation maybe for the familiarity. And then there's other people that absolutely fucking love it. They can't wait to move back to their home. They can't wait to

be near everybody and all these different things. And she's doing something that's incredibly competitive that is very time consuming. You never feel like you're doing enough if you're in that world. And I wonder if her being transported back to a simpler time, you also represented that to her. And it all made sense until it didn't make sense anymore. Because she's like, we do decide ultimately to do the things that we want. and what she wants is what she's pursuing right now she doesn't want to be back home you don't even want to be back home right you're pursuing the things that you're doing

i get the point because there's a connection there where it's an amazing story she's smoking um you're a good looking guy though so don't beat up on yourself so i don't think you're necessarily mr irrelevant maybe a fourth round you know third down edge guy make some plays i i don't i like you could you could do you could do one of three things you could totally ignore go that move and think like oh if she's wired a certain way and i totally blow her off and act like she's kind of like oh yeah i'll get to you later. Oh, that's cool or whatever. That could work, but you got to be a really special dude to pull that one off. And not a lot of dudes.

I would not advise most dudes to go that lane because she's only going to be, right. She only gets attention when she's outside. And then even inside, probably sometimes too, right? She's getting attention when she's outside. And then even inside, probably sometimes too. She's getting attention literally everywhere she goes. She lives in a city where she's only getting attention. So if you're not giving her any attention, probably not going to work.

You could do the full-blown like, hey, laying it all out there right now. To be honest with you, that doesn't work that much now hey here's the deal i dig you you know like that doesn't really work ever uh you could do kind of a like a a temporary ignore for three to four weeks and then do a oh hey big and rich i'm coming to your city and it's a casual like i already have plans i'm already going to set up i'm staying here whatever and so it would be weird if you got the full blow off on that one like what you can't do what you cannot do is text her about a name bullshit just to have a dialogue and to

keep it going because then you just become so unattractive when you keep reaching out you can be in great shape you can have a great job you can have money you can have prospects you can be all of these things but when you're the person that keeps fucking texting all the time the other person just becomes unattracted to you i don't know what science is behind it, but it's what happens. So if there's anything that's concrete, don't do that. I would do a casual drive-by of the, hey, guess what? There's a thing and I got to go and give it four to six weeks. Have there be a couple of weeks of no communication. You know what I'm saying? Because if you're not getting that, look, if she were telling you, oh, I can't wait to see you again and all these different things, then I would say, hey, play its normal course. Maybe you're not getting that look if she were telling you oh I can't wait to see you again and all these different things then I would say hey play it's normal

course maybe you're gonna be a little bit more proactive you're gonna start thinking about resources uh as far as living conditions work and all this stuff start putting some of the old resource bucket uh into that one relationship and that kind of stuff but what you have to do is you have to play it cool but for your own sanity you're probably gonna have to take some kind of swing at it and if she's like hey dude was six weeks ago. I've already dated two different dudes and they both have McLarens. Then you're going to get your answer and you can chalk it up to an amazing night that maybe didn't end up being the amazing story. Yeah. I think this is, this is, you know, prop in the back door open with a piece of cardboard. This is like, this is you, the reason

that you could even have the back door open is because you had this awesome night. Right. But you know, like, you don't, you're definitely not texting just to text us to be like, Oh, it's been like a few days since I've texted her. I don't want her to, I don't want to lose my chance to ever go back in there or whatever. That's all right. You got the piece of cardboard in there. That's the magical night. So I just think that, um, I don't know, maybe like you said, like, Hey, I'm going to be in your city next week. I don't know. I'm doing this. I give it. Yeah. I'm not saying next week. I'm just saying when that happens, like when you could be like, hey, you know, next week when and if next week's a month

and a half from now or whatever, I'm just saying that's when you do it. Maybe she is on. She's an influencer. So she's on Instagram a lot. Right. You guys follow each other. Perhaps you could like a witty reply to her content that's on her story. If she's an Instagram person, maybe she's got a story. So that way you're not texting her in her phone, but you guys follow each other. So it wouldn't be in the inbox of the message requests because I'm sure her DMs aren't open in that way. So there's a way that you can maybe be seen there just by like saying, hey, I watched your content. I like what you're doing. And you're just saying something funny, witty, not a big whole paragraph thing. Just that's a way to kind

of be in each other's lives. And then when you're going home, it's like, hey, it's Thanksgiving. Didn't know if I'd see you out tonight at McSorley's or whatever your hometown bar is, you know, it's just like there's a few points in the year. But yeah, I wouldn't be rushing. I think if you're rushing it, then I think that you're definitely not going to have a shot. And I think it's going to drive you nuts to ignore her forever. So I think there's a way to just prompt that backdoor, but find a piece of cardboard and just, just do your best.

I would say coming off of Kyle's point, another thing to do, if you're going to comment, be cool about it. Things that you might want to avoid. I promised you that we'd be great. I can't wait to name our kids. Hard eye emojis, maybe.

Who is Topher? You know? So stay away from those. I think you need to try. You know? I mean, again, no is better than never asking, right? So you need to try.

You're just going to be really, really cool about it. And usually when the other person is way more attractive than us uh it's tough to not fuck up so good luck and let me know if it doesn't work out all right let's do let's do one more uh okay this one is kind of a standard one, but I felt like it needs to be addressed again because it's happened a few times. Okay, should I move in with my friend or continue to live in luxury? Hi, guys.

And also, shout out to New Dad Cerruti. 24, 6'1", 160, get back to the gym, so no major stats, but feeling great physically and mentally. I have a red tint to my hair, but think it would be disrespectful to Kevin Herter to compare my game to his. I can shoot a bit, though.

Yeah, let's not do that to Kevin. But you already did. So that's fine. That's fine. You didn't do it, is what we should say. About a year and a half ago, I moved into a large condo unit with my two best friends from college who've been dating for a few years. We all were in a situation where we needed to continue saving money post-undergrad, and it worked out great. We all were in a situation where we needed to continue saving money post-undergrad, and it worked out great.

Fast forward to this past December, and she moved to a foreign country while he moved to a different state for a new job. That's what happened. Wow. Yeah. I stayed in the condo, moved into the bigger room, walk-in closet and bathroom, and found a roommate. Man, 24 walk-in closet. Who's living life? Right?

Awesome. Right, Kyle? You going to walk in over there no do not yeah right fuck this guy's this guy should be doing life advice i never even dreamed of a walk-in by the way i'm not i'm 29 i still haven't dreamed of it so i think that's in the future you'll get there you'll get there i didn't have one until uh You'll get there. You'll get there. I didn't have one until, I don't know. It was a while. It was 30s.

Yeah, it was 30s. And even that one fell apart. Yeah, that sounds about right. And that one fell apart. Too many jackets on the rack there. There's just too many Banana Republics, a couple Ike Bahars. No, just kidding. That was always Van Pelt's joke. When he started making a little cash.

Be like, you got a 16 and a half Ike Bahar? All right. So, okay. Fast forward to past September. All right, she moved. Sorry, I lost my place there. I found a roommate.

Let's call him Jake through mutual friends. He's an EMT, so I barely see him. And when I do, we were both friendly, but do not feel obligated to hang out all the time. Here's my slight dilemma. My friend, let's call him Brad, who I live with freshman year of college, wants to either move into the

place or find a new place with me when his lease is up. I initially thought Jake would move out at the end of our lease in July, but when I asked today, he said he would likely stay. I'm completely fine continuing to live with Jake, but after my really close friends moved out, I've been missing hanging out with friends a lot of the time, which is why living with Brad would be a perk. Moving out, however, would not be easy. Not only is the unit spacious with a

great kitchen and bedroom, many of these listed above, but I also have an underground parking key. I have underground parking, which is key for the winter in the Midwest states. Totally. Included in the rent, which is less for the winter in the midwest states totally uh included in the rent which is less than 800 a month it's also near downtown a larger city with plenty to do and has a gym to work out and so i don't have to pay for a gym a hundred a month is that for real wow yeah crazy less than 800 a month parking gym although most of these

he's claiming the gym is a good spot we had had a gym at the condo thing in Connecticut. That wasn't a gym. Elliptical and like a mat on the ground? It's a fucking museum. Overall, should I leave this place of luxury to have a close friend like Brad live with? Again, much higher rent price, less amenities, or risk making Brad mad and continue living in this dream home

for a single guy in his early 20s. For context, I'm just starting out in sports media, not earning much. Oh, man. I was leaning so hard one way until the guy said sports media. My general rule on this one is this. There's going to be a time like so many of these emails. I'm telling you right now, some of you guys are doing great. You've got all these friends.

The dilemma is wrapped in some friend riddle and these people and all this stuff. I would murder a small animal that has a low approval rating to have a go-to buddy every Friday. And I know people are like, dude, he's your co-host on the podcast. He's staring right at you. Kyle knows what we're talking about here. Hey, what's going on? You know what I mean?

What are we doing? Yeah. I don't need it every Friday. I don't want it Friday and Saturday. I would say a guy once a month where I'm like, let's put together a plan tonight. All right, let's put together a plan tonight. I don't have that. I actually haven't had it in a long time. And I haven't had a long time because I cared about the career. And then I stopped going to stuff and people stopped inviting me

and all this kind of thing. So I just be like, look. So when I listen to younger people talk about the draw of like, hey, should I do this and live with buddies? And you want to, right? You want to live with your friend. You miss hanging out. You're 24, so you're still in this weird post-college incubator deal where you're not realizing like, oh, it's not going to be normal to be having all these great times all the time. There is one steadfast rule with all of this. If that is important, you do not be in a hurry to grow up. All right. Or maybe I should say it this way. Don't be in a hurry to be old. I shouldn't say grow up because that gives connotation of remaining immature. Don't be in a hurry to be old because I promise you,

you will be at some point and you probably will be for a really long time. One thing when I was young, okay, when I was young and I would hear guys that were like 30 going, oh, I'm getting old. I would get annoyed when I was 20. You want to know how annoyed I'd get in my 30s when somebody was like 33 being like, oh, I'm just getting so old. And some of these people that you're going to encounter are just in this race to be fucking old. And it's like, why would you hurry up something

that, I mean, look, I'll admit it. I started thinking about my plan like if I were 70 plus, 80, like what, what are you going to do? And I'm like, I maybe get Red Sox season tickets and tell fucking awful stories that go too long to people.

I don't know. It's in the cards. It's not Alex club. I don't think I'm that kind of guy. I think I don't know. I don't know. Probably whatever awesome 80 year old steroids are available. And you know, I don't do them now, but 80-year-old steroids are available. And, you know, I don't do them now, but fuck it.

Fuck it. Yeah. Yeah. 78. Fuck it. You get those from the wheelchair or are you natty? So don't be in a hurry to be old. That was a little dramatic.

But if the friendship thing is a major priority i would always lean that way like have those times live with your buddy you know what i mean like you're 24 do it because there's going to be a time where it's never an option anymore whether it's where you live your career your family all the other friends families like people have kids people have time for this shit they don't have time for your calls they don't have time for this shit. They don't have time for your calls. They don't have time for all the stuff that's happening. That moment is going to happen. In the Midwest, it happens earlier.

South Atlantic and the Midwest, you don't have much time. Don't be in a hurry to be here. Sports media, every dollar is going to matter here for probably the next decade, maybe less if you kick ass. sports media every dollar is going to matter here for probably the next i don't know decade maybe less if you if you kick ass so uh you know it depends on what you want to prioritize but again putting away a little extra money for an industry that's not going to pay for a long time

or having you and jake recap the night before over a couple meatball subs at one local time because you missed the first hour of the Packers game. Although you guys would never miss the first hour football game, but go ahead. I mean, I think this is super simple. It's time. It's selfish time. You got to plot and you got to get nice EMT Jake out, right? I'm assuming you sublet it, right? Because your, your roommates left and you found a roommate, which makes me think you've sublet it, right? Because your roommates left and you found a roommate, which makes me think you've sublet it. So I think you got to put your heads together.

You got to figure out how you can do this. And I did it in a way that I wasn't proud of. I just literally invited my buddy out who stayed on a couch and then he stayed for like eight months. And then the other guy got the hit and he left. And then that came crashing down, you know, a year and a half, two years ago. But we had some good times there. And I came crashing down a year and a half, two years ago. But we had some good

times there. And I knew that's what I wanted. And I did it in a kind of a gross, rough around the edges, like this is what's going on sort of way. Maybe there, I mean, it sounds like Jake's cool. He said, you know, he thought he was going to leave. Then he said he's probably going to stay. There's got to be some sort of excuse you can give him for him to get out as long as he's a subtenant. If you guys signed a lease together, I don't know. I don't have any answers for you. Maybe you just want Jake to figure out a way to move out. But I think this is, this could be a good bonding experience for you and your buddy. Figure out how we can get this guy out and not hate you at the same time. That'd be, that'd be really impressive if you

could do that. You could pretend you have a girlfriend that's moving in and, and that's not like, it's just like, it has to happen this way. Sorry, dude. I mean, you know, like give you two months or something, give you a month to figure this out. But, um, I think there's a way for you to keep the place that you love and just replace the roommate that you're fine living with, with the roommate that you're, you know, considering moving, which sucks. Cause the other part is moving sucks. It's expensive talking about money. It sucks. So if you can avoid moving and you can get your buddy in there and, you know, then you don't have to worry about him being mad at you, which I wouldn't really be concerned about in the first place. But I think the answer is you got to figure out how to get this guy out. And you know, maybe that's just, maybe that's just like, Hey, so what, what's

your plans for like, for leaving? I know you said you were, and you weren't like, I don't know. You said you were staying. So your followup is what are your plans for leaving? You know, You said you were staying, so your follow-up is, what are your plans for leaving? You know what you could do is... Well, remember, though, the EMT was introduced through a mutual friend, so there's that. So it maybe doesn't allow him to be as cold as you would want to be in this. There's more than one way to get a cat is all I mean. There's got to be some clever, awesome way to get in this guy's head that maybe I should be thinking about getting out of here. He could say this.

He could be like, hey, my buddy's moving in. And then he goes, well, what are you talking about? He's like, no, no, the previous arrangement was that whoever was in the master was in the single and then the people that were here last time shared the room. Yeah, that's right. Shared the room. So you and my buddy can

share the master now and I'll move into the smaller room. It'll be great, trust me. Yeah, that's what you're talking about. No, no, no, this is all temporary. So you're saying if the EMT is not share the master now and I'll move into the smaller room. It'll be great. Trust me. Yeah. What are you talking about? No, no, no. This is all temporary. So you're saying if the EMT is not on a lease, you have to just tell him you're out of here or find a way to make it seem like it's his idea to be out. I don't know. That's kind of what I did with my situation. I'm not proud. What would be that way? Hey, the other day when you were blacked out, when you said, I can't wait to move. I totally agree.

That's what I'm saying. You guys, you and your buddies should have some suds. Think about what we could do. This could be a fun little project. But if you want this to happen, I think the way I would try to go about it is get this guy out. And like you said, try not to be a cold hearted bastard. You said that he's a mutual friend. So you might have to, you know, angle this thing a little bit. Could be like a girlfriend thing. Maybe he's a mutual friend, so you might have to angle this

thing a little bit. Could be like a girlfriend thing. Maybe you have a mutual friend that's a girl. You can pretend you're like boyfriend or girlfriend, and now this girl's just over all the time. I don't know what, that might be a long time to break that guy down. Or maybe you just like say, hey, this is what it's going to have to be. Or you could pretend like you're moving, and then he'll maybe just move, and you'd be like, actually, I'm not moving. I don't know. That seems kind of mean too, but there's got to be some sort of way you can figure this out and you and your buddy should take higher hire a female actress to pretend she's your annoying girlfriend and have her be there all the time but remember he says because he's an emt hours he's not even

around that much you're not normal annoying hours aren't even a possibility here on this might have to be up late start smoking in the house i don't know man i don't know what you got to do but i I think... Maybe bonus. Maybe bonus them. Just be like, hey, look, and you and your buddy, I guess, you know,

money's tight or whatever, but like just go, what if we give you two grand to leave? There you go. Right? You're going to make it back up on what you would have spent

in the new place and the gym membership and the parking and all that kind of stuff. All right, good luck with that. Keep us posted. We're dope. Thank you to Kyle.

Ryan Russell Podcast. Please subscribe, download. Keep us posted. We're dope. Thank you to Kyle. Ryan Russell Podcast. Please subscribe, download. Ringer. Spotify. See you Wednesday. Thank you.