The Ryen Russillo Podcast - NFL Week 1 Reactions With Trent Dilfer. Plus: Russillo’s Weekly NFL Awards

Episode Date: September 14, 2020

Russillo introduces a new weekly NFL awards segment (2:28) before he is joined by Super Bowl champ Trent Dilfer to discuss NFL Week 1, including Tom Brady and the Buccaneers’ cohesion issues, the Eagles' meltdown vs. Washington, a good start for Cam Newton and the Patriots, Aaron Donald’s defensive dominance, “the James Harden of QBs," and Cowboys-Rams, Falcons-Seahawks, and Packers-Vikings (11:15). Then Ryen shares some NBA playoff thoughts, followed by a very important edition of Life Advice (1:03:32). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Rum with natural flavors and spices. 35% alcohol by volume. The plant, Trent Dilfer. Almost an hour with Trent Dilfer. We're going to talk about brady his debut the saints team that i kind of love um what else what else a ton of different stuff the issues with dac what is golf carson wentz disastrous performance that was brutal so we have a bunch of stuff that we want to get to and then i'm going to touch on uh i'm going to do this i'm not quite

sure how it's going to come out but i'm going to do this. I'm not quite sure how it's going to come out, but I'm going to do it at the end, maybe with one life advice. But I need to talk about what happened with Toronto Raptors fans over about a 24, 48 hour period. And it's actually not stopping.

And it's probably the grossest thing that's ever happened to me as far as my career. And so I didn't really want to tweet about it. I didn't know how to address it, but I'm going to address it at some point a little bit later on. But if we get the music going, I want to introduce to you something we're going to do every single week because no one loves NFL awards like you people do. So instead of waiting for the quarter awards, the halfway awards,

why not give out awards after the first week? And then they're kind of my awards. So it's award seasons early. We're going to get it we're going to get the jump on everybody else and we start with the mitch travisky game of the week award that goes to mitch travisky who started 410 against the lions 59 yards he had that dig route on that i think it was a fourth down where everybody immediately was like ah mitch this guy sucks like how did he beat out Foles? Now, remember, a lot of people said you've got to start Mitch. You can't start Foles and then go back to Mitch because then he's not going to be any

good. Well, that's kind of the whole reason Foles is there would have been the start in the first place. So I never really buy into that. Like the whole you have to start with this guy because if you don't start with him, you lose him for the rest of the season. I don't know if that's really where you're at head game. Why then you're never going to be any good anyway in the first place,

but three touchdowns in the fourth quarter. Okay. So now everybody's like, wait a minute. I thought this guy was different. Granted. Yeah. D'Andre Swift dropped one in the end. It would have been a game winner for Detroit and Matthew Stafford continues kind of in his weird Matthew Stafford career. I think it's all going to be over after Stafford retires. We're all just going to shrug and go, all right, what the hell just happened there?

Like it never worked ever. But with Mitch, this is probably the worst thing that could happen to Bears fans because all the bad stuff is still there. And the good stuff is fun. And a win is a win. It's great to be one to know you beat a division rival, but it feels a little bit like a missed call from an ex-girlfriend that

mistakenly dialed you, and you're like, oh, wait. You know that deal where somebody would be like, well, do you still like her? You're like, you know what, dude? It's crazy. I don't even like her, bro. I don't even care. I'm like that. I'm not even... I'm like, she called? What does she want to talk about? What if she

showed up right now and said, I want you back? What would you nothing dude she's outside is she so that's what this bitch thing feels a little bit like but that's our first winner and it's fitting that the first winner of the mitch travisky game of the week award goes to mitch travisky okay the bill belichick tom brady power rankings officially have come in after week one i have bill belichick ranked one. I have Tom Brady right behind him at number two. And the reason is because Bill won and Tom didn't. Now, I'm being very sarcastic with all of this

because I'm going to update it all season long. Because here's the thing. Think about what this conversation really means. And real people that I respect have had this conversation about what it means for Bill, what it means for Tom. If you're going to rule out 20 years of evidence that Bill's probably the greatest coach of all time and that Tom's arguably the greatest quarterback of all time, but yet that somehow those 20 years, like, okay, thanks for those 20 years.

But now in 2020 at age 43 for Brady, again, that stat only seven games have been started in NFL history by a quarterback age 43 or older, only seven. So if Brady plays a full season, he'll have doubled that record just by himself, 16 games. But if you're going to say, well, you know, let's see what this Tom Brady guy is really all about. That would be like talking about McDonald's, say, if you were on one of the financial shows. And yes, granted, maybe McDonald's has up and down years. The market is more competitive.

We all know that, right? A lot of burger places out there. But a McDonald's ended up having like a really bad run and somebody went on tv and said you know this mcdonald's thing i always kind of thought it was a little a little iffy you're like did you did you where have you been for 70 years like you just you were you were that ahead of it that for 70 years like i was kind of knew this was coming so if brady like i don't know it goes eight eight misses the playoffs you're gonna have people that actually go out you know really really was bill so what you're also saying is that tom would have protected his legacy by retiring and never exposing this the fact that maybe bill's really pretty good or

if bill were to have a bad year because it's still possible although they were never tanking what it mean you know if it weren't for Tom. Look, they're both great. They're both really great. And to say that the previous 20 years don't really matter for these two guys is insane. Next award. The Dan Orlovsky is going to lose his shit on Get Up Award. That goes to Dan Orlovsky because Philly and Carson Wentz,

his guy, Philly up 17-0 on Washington. It is the worst loss of the entire week. Teams that were up 17 points in 2019, their record was 224 wins, 7 losses, 1 tie. And out of all of those games, no teams that lost actually lost by double digits after being up 17. Washington won a game where their average yards per play was 3.4 yards per play, and they won by 10. In 2019,

if you average less than three and a half yards per play, those teams went 0-18, 0-18, and they lost by an average of 20 points. Wentz, 15 possessions against pressure. He was sacked eight times, six incompletions, one completion. They were a total of negative 52 yards against those 15 pressures, and he had zero throwaways. The Eagles had 13 yards in the fourth quarter. This is not making fun of Dan Orlovsky. It's just that he will most likely lose his shit,

so he wins that Dan Orlovsky is going to lose his shit on get-up award. And finally, we can very easily lose track of this. I will do it this year. Scores that happened this week, and then we look back, we start looking at a team's resume after seven or eight games. You're like, hey, that team, you know, they were pretty close there. That was a good game. If you look back on it, you may say the Packers and Vikings, 43-34, you know,

just wasn't a one possession game, but it was under 10. No, it wasn't. That game wins the fake podcast rankings, fake downloads of the week award. It goes to the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings. Green Bay was up 29-10. They were dominant. Aaron Rodgers was on fire.

Minnesota was actually terrible. I think Kirk Cousins has completed two passes at halftime. And then they had, I don't know, 24 points in the fourth quarter there from the Vikings. So that will be a misleading one. So don't ever let you or any of your friends, your favorite talk show host, or least favorite talk show host say, you know, whatever. Minnesota's played really well against the good teams.

No, they didn't. They got trounced in that one. So those are our week one awards. Okay, before Trent Dilfer joins us here in just a minute, this season's going to look a little different, as we already know. Many fans won't be watching the stadium or bars, but from home. If you're a cord cutter or don't have some special sports package, that means resorting to streaming football through some sketchy illegal streaming site. Fortunately, Miller Lite has an idea on how to bring the game to everyone.

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And a buddy drank it i'm just kidding um i i guess i could send out a picture of it a little bit later the buddy part was the joke yeah the buddy the buddy did not drink it it actually would be sort of dangerous to drink when the antennae is uh fully extended so why would miller light do this because even though football season might look a little different this year miller light wants to bring fans together in a new way the easy to-to-use digital TV antenna does more than bring fans to the game. It creates more time for Miller Time because when you aren't focused on finding illegal streams

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If you want to try to grab one of these for yourself, go to MillerLiteCantena.com to enter for your chance to watch high-definition football on a beer. No purchase necessary. Starts 9-11-20. Ends October 12, 2020 at 1159 p.m. Central time. Must be legal resident of the 50 United States and D.C. 21 years of age or older. Cantenas are only available to residents of Colorado, D.C., Florida, Idaho, Louisiana,

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Okay, week one. We are almost done and joining me throughout the season. We're going to look at it. You know, we'll figure out the days Super Bowl winner and a colleague and a guy I consider a friend. It's Trent Dilfer. Okay, Trent, let's break down what we saw in the first week. We have our notes. We've gone back and forth. I want to start with the Brady and the Saints game just because it was Brady. We wanted to see how

it was going to look, how it was going to be different. I have my thoughts, but I defer to you. We know they lost. I think the Saints are really good, but what did you see at least in their approach, the stuff they were doing there with Tom in a new system now for the first time in a while yeah kind of what I expected you know Bruce Arians is historically the most aggressive guy and say him and Mike Marks are two guys in the last 30 years that are the most aggressive with the vertical passing name um that was going to be new for Tom I thought it would

invigorate him energize them um but at the same time there there's risk that comes with that type of style that tom hasn't been a part of for his entire career so there's going to be an adjustment period there they also haven't got a ton of reps on it i mean every conversation we have has to be in the context of covid spring no otas no summer workouts hard to get on the same page with guys, limited padded practices, short training camp, no preseason games. So you take all that, now you take a higher risk passing game, and there's going to be some hiccups.

I could see this for three to four weeks being hit or miss in the vertical passing game. But it was definitely there, right? I mean, like, I'm not imagining things that I saw more shots down the field. Way more shots. And design. Right. Okay. And there's only going to be more. I mean, I listened to some stuff last night. I listened to some stuff this morning on my way in.

Guy saying his arm can't do it, or he's not the same guy from a throwing standpoint that's not true he can do all the stuff i really think he has to um i think he has to bring more tom brady to bruce arians than have bruce arians influence tom brady i think that's probably the easiest way to say you you will get these shots naturally if you're a surgeon playing and play out. Like Tom has always worked up, meaning he'll go low to high. Bruce is a work high to low guy. There's nothing wrong with Tom putting his fingerprint on this

and getting some cheap completions on first down, moving the chains, waiting patiently for the shot to come because he's got the dudes to get downfield. They'll eventually get downfield. First, I'm not going to panic on anything for four weeks. Even when there was a preseason, I wasn't a guy that freaked out over the first four weeks.

I thought it was an extended preseason. Now with no preseason, I don't think there's going to be anything we see in the first four weeks. You can like stamp it and say, that's going to be this team for the rest of the year the other interesting thing about tommy's been the beneficiary of one of the greatest head coaches of all time that believes in building a program around three phases and each phase complementing each other that's never been bruce's mo uh bruce has been a you know an offensive first guy tries to be an aggressive defensive coordinator in the years they've struggled on special teams. So the NFL is a true three-phase game.

I think the Bucs need to become that type of team. And Tom's going to have any type of success in terms of the wins and losses. Offensive line held up enough for you in that game? Because I know that was one of the concerns. Well, one of the concerns is this. When you're a vertical passing team, you're holding the ball longer in the pocket. So we judge these offense. I remember when the Steelers offensive line used to be judged poorly because Ben was holding the ball for three and a half seconds.

Well, is that the offensive line or is that Ben? And then Ben started getting the ball out faster. And all of a sudden that becomes one of the best offensive lines in football. The quarterback running back part of offensive line play is just as important as the five guys blocking. So it takes all seven, the one running back, backer, the five guys blocking, the quarterback to all be on the same page, have the same timing, to understand the schemes the same. Once they do that, then all of a sudden people go, wow, the Bucs offensive line is so good.

Well, yeah, Tom's average catch and throw time is going to go from 2.85 to5 to 24, where it historically was with the Patriots. On the other side for the Saints, it's not like Breeze had some huge day. He only threw for 160. But in a lot of these teams, one of the weird things about the NFL, we always have to remind ourselves of, not you necessarily as much, but we'll look at these teams week one and get really excited, and you'll see all these weapons, and you realize, hey, two or three of these guys are probably going to be missing by the time the year ends or the teams

that we really like so it's almost like you become a new team two or three different times over the course of the season and what we see this first month may not even matter just on injuries but when i look at the saints at least week one you just put that on a loop brian what you just said right there is put on a loop and everybody that talks to you or put on your twitter just put that on a loop it's not what you are now it's what you are in week 12, 13, 14. And that's going to be totally different. There's just so many times when they'll be like, what happened? And you're like, well, they're missing two of their interior offensive linemen.

They're missing both their safeties. They're missing their number two wide receiver. They're like, the coach doesn't suck. The quarterback isn't a choke artist. Like sometimes guys are just missing all of these guys. And granted, if this sounds like a defensive Matt Ryan, it's sort of low key is. times guys are just missing all of these guys and granted if this sounds like a defensive matt ryan it's sort of low-key is uh but when i watched the saints yesterday and the taste something whatever i mean it's just it's just a window dressing thing and and i'm still kind of surprised by

the fascination with him but when i watched latavius murray carry the football i always am like man i love that guy um even though it wasn't necessarily nasty at any point. I'm not putting him in my Charlie Garner one handoff for my life category, which I love watching Charlie run the football as much as anyone I've ever seen play running back. But Kamara, we know how it would have stood. He is Deontay Harris, the five, six kid from Assumption, who's so small. But like you see him out in space with the ball, you're like, OK, there's something here. And then you go cook. Obviously, Thomas maybe being the best receiver in the league.

And then Emmanuel Sanders, who was for a stretch and then closed strong. It feels like the Saints have a lot of different body types and skill types to throw at you with this game. And that, if they stay healthy, I think is really scary because other times it's felt like they've been really limited after one or two options. 29 personnel groupings Sean Payton threw on the field last year. There's two ways of looking at offensive football.

You have your player driven or your system driven. Um, system driven is we're going to run these plays. These people are going to line up every single time in these five spots. Uh, and we're going to kind of let the defense dictate who gets the ball. And that there's nothing wrong with that. It's been super successful for a lot of people. Then there's player-driven where you have these unique plays that we really don't care what the defense does. We're going to throw unique players on the field

and get them matched up with advantageous matchups. And that's kind of how Sean Payton looks at offensive football. It's very much how Bill Walsh looked at offensive football back in the day. It's, okay, I have Jerry Rice early on. I'm going to put him over there on the right. He's going to be on the right all the time. Oh, then two, three years in, I'm going to motion him. He's going to be in the backfield.

He's going to be in the slot. He's going to be left. He's going to be right. He's going to be six yards from the tackle. He's going to be 18 yards from the tackle. All of a sudden, he's stacked with roger craig together and what you do is you create all these stressful situations for defense and it allows you to get the ball to people so instead of the defense saying hey we're gonna play cloud on this side

and take away aj green right you're saying no you can play whatever coverage you want we're gonna smoke and mirror this thing to make sure aj Green touches the ball. That's Sean Payton's brilliance. There's probably there's six of those guys in the NFL right now. They still believe it. And ironically, at the end of the year, those are the six typically have the best offenses and the most balanced offenses, because it's also a way you can get to true balance. And that's one thing Sean does a great job with. And that's how he'll protect Drew and his older age,

to be quite honest with you, a lot of screens they're going to find. And you saw this last night with the Rams. I'm all over the place, but it's all one big story. You saw this with McVay last night with the Rams. They threw a bunch of these little screens. They want their back to get the ball in space. They want the slot player to get the ball in space. You can throw screens to every person on the field now.

Sean does the same thing. So if you want Taysom Hill to get a touch, a screen, the double pass late in the game, a reverse, there's creative ways of doing it. You want Kamara to get isolated. Well, you can isolate him just eye back run game, but you can isolate him as a wide receiver, motion across formation, making the safety come down. He runs an option route on the safety. So it takes more work. The preparation to this type of football is exponentially harder than the system-driven people um but it's worth it because now you can dictate terms to the defensive instead of the defense dictating terms to you okay let's transition then into the rams because

rams cowboys for me is is the game between two quarterbacks that i still don't know he said i know this sounds nuts with dac like I don't know if he's amazing or just pretty good with weapons. Uh, golf went from, Oh my God, I guess this guy, like I thought he was a bust to this guy's going to be incredible to wait a minute. Are they going to be replacing him here soon again? But when it's right, when it's play action, when they have a run game, the Rams offensive line on one website that I trust graded them out 31st in the league last season and last year or excuse me last night it was only really one sack so if we start on the ram side because they got the win what do you see in I don't know if symmetry is the right right word but when they were showing some of the play action looks where handoff was the same exact blocking downfield as some play

action movement I'm thinking how did they without any pre, how are they this crisp already? Which is really impressive considering everything you just talked about with the lack of prep. Well, I think Chris Collinsworth might have called his best game I've heard in a long time last night. They did a really good job teaching people about the Rams and the subtle little adjustments they've made. He talked about the offensive line play and how last year their wide zone was more of a stretch outside lateral type stretch zone, which has been successful for some people. But this year it's a way more vertical stretch zone. And he showed two or three times where the offensive

line is not just moving wide, but they're moving vertical at the same time. When you have that as your base run game, the play action off of it is dirty. I mean, it is literally unstoppable because you're actually, sometimes you're running passes and you're not telling your offensive line. It's what an RPO is. But in the NFL,

these are pocket movement plays where you're teaching your offensive lineman to stay on their tracks. So they're running their tracks as if it's a run. And then Jared's putting the ball on the belly of the back, pulling up and getting the ball out quick before those offensive linemen

get down the field too far. And then the variation is off a bit, the misdirection with the back, the tight formations. It looks really complicated, but it's very simple in terms of getting it ready for the regular season. It's Mike Shanahan. Kevin O'Connell coming back to the Rams, I think, is one of the – there's going to be a few coaching changes this year you've got to keep your eye on.

That's definitely one of them. Jack Del Rio is another one. These are fantastic coaches. They're also little blankies for their head coaches too, like the baby blankie. They make them feel more comfortable. Sean knows he can give Kevin anything. They think the same thoughts. They're simp give Kevin anything and that they think the right, they think the same thoughts.

They're simpatico in the way they look at football. And then he knows that Kevin kind of handled that behind the scenes and things are going to be run the way Sean wants it. He can go be the head coach. So I think there's a lot of elements to the Rams. You saw last night that Chris pointed out. It's going to make them more dangerous to answer your question about Jared. I think Jared's a really good quarterback and I always struggle with this conversation because what are

we comparing them to? Are we wanting Jared Goff and Dak Prescott to be Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rogers, Tom Brady, Drew Brees? If that's the discussion, then no. I don't think he's any of those four. I think he is somewhere between seven and 15. And there's probably eight guys. You don't know where you put them in that seven to 15 ranking in the NFL. He's very talented. He's very tough. He's versatile. He's a good leader. He makes good decisions. He can throw it vertically. He can throw it short. He has better movement qualities than people think. But when you say, gosh, my quarterback is not as good as your quarterback, well, who's your quarterback? If your quarterback's Drew Brees, yeah, the guy saying Drew Brees is probably right,

but you can win a lot of games and you can win a Super Bowl without having Mahomes or Rodgers or Brady or Brees. Okay, so then let's take that discussion to Dak because I would still think Dak is better. I feel like every, and again, we're week one here, so we're in love with all the names because it feels like every team's so deep to start the season. But when I'm looking at all the names on Dallas, I'm like, what is their salary cap at? Because why does it seem like they have more dudes than everybody else? And yet, in classic Cowboys fashion, everybody thought Jason Garrett was the problem, and here we are again. So now Kellen Moore is getting crushed

because of the same thing. It feels like Dak is really good, but maybe late, there's just plays that you expect him to make that haven't happened as consistently enough. And I'm still admitting with Dak, every night I watch him, I go, I know he's good, but I don't know in our obsession of what he'll ultimately be. I don't know if he's ever going to be the guy that everybody hopes he's going to be one day.

Yeah. I'll try to give a shorter answer. Dak, I think Dak has been at his best when the play caller does the things he does best. Instead of saying, he does everything well, okay? But what he does best, and what he does best is when you use him as a threat

in the run game so when you have him and ezekiel and a jet motion guy you know a fast guy going across the formation and there's that misdirection quarterback call or run option type stuff i call him quarterback driven runs because that's why you're calling them. That when he's getting involved in the game, that way it makes Ezekiel's job easier. He plays better because his DNA as a quarterback has been also being a dude in the run game. So these kids start in high school and their identities are shaped in high school of what they are. OK, and what Dak Prescott's always been is a very physical runner, not a run first guy, but a physical runner. He wants to run. Lamar Jackson wants to run. Carson Wentz, believe it or not, wants to run. There are guys that want to run. Josh Allen is a great example of this.

Josh Allen's so physical. It's what he does super well. He wants to be involved in the run game. We're not talking 12 times. We're talking two, three times early in the game. When that happens, I think their offense goes better. He's also better as an action passer. He's better putting the ball in the belly, some type of play action, cut the field in half. He's super decisive when he does that. He's actually a very talented vertical passer, second layer, third layer passer, off play action. But he's a good drop back passer. So the danger is, okay, I'm going to call a bunch of drop backs because that's what looks good this week, when really you don't have to as a play caller. You can just focus 80% of your time on the things he does best. When you do that, Dak Prescott, I think, could be a top

six, seven, eight guy in the league. I think he's super talented. The problem is that too often you see in these games, and unfortunately, some of them have been primetime games. They're always primetime games, by the way, every Monday. Yeah, it's like it's a primetime game that he has 26 dropbacks. And you're looking at it going, he should have 10, 12. I mean, Matt Hasselbeck's one of my best friends and was a very, very, very, very, very good NFL quarterback. He was way better off action. And I used to just yell at Mike Holmgren when he'd call a drop back. No, call an action.

Some kind of action pass. Matt's as good as anybody in football. Drop back, he's good. He's still really good, but he's not great. You know, let these guys do what they're great at, and you're going to have more success with them. Speaking of Wentz, I think that's arguably the worst loss of any team on the schedule.

I really think it is. There's all sorts of history that I already pointed out in the open of today. The team's up double digits, or up 17 to lose by double digits. It just doesn't happen. He was terrible late and it dawned on me last year it finally dawned on me last year and i don't know if i talked with you about it at some point maybe you've heard it where i felt like there's all these personnel

people that i know the former quarterbacks that just will tell you like man as far as arm talent there's there's like maybe one two guys that are better than Wentz. And you fall so in love with it that it can blind you to the fact that he still is like this young cult that trusts his stuff too much. And we saw it against pressure. And I kept wondering because I would watch him. And I don't think last year's the most fair diagnosis of who Wentz is once you looked at their personnel towards the end of the year because because it was just a bunch of street free agents playing receivers. So that's not fair. But I would go, why is it that the guys that have played the position? Why is it that the guys that have evaluated this position for their career? Why is it that they all still love Wentz so much? And I realized, I'm like, I just think because he's still young and he's missed some games

because of injury, there's not enough of an NFL resume for people to start getting on his case about the decision-making part of this. And the decision-making part of it against Washington, despite all the talent that's there, this is not who he's supposed to be. And it's incredibly frustrating for, I think, those that still defend him. Yeah. So I think I fall into this every offseason, evaluating quarterbacks is um you're watching tape right so you're watching just hours and hours of tape and there's the ooh and on the splash and oh wow yeah that guy's going to be able to play beyond the x's and o's meaning that the x's and o's breakdown his giftedness is

going to get a get out of jail free card um and you do all, but then you go back and you watch Critical Downs and you go back and say, okay, it's third and seven, up four on your own 38. What kind of decision does he make? At the end of every evaluation process, that kind of becomes the balancing act of talent over production. Carson is an interesting study. he's wildly talented. He's a guy that definitely plays beyond the X's and O's and he's a human highlight film, uh, certain weeks, you know, pulling out a sack sidearm, ripping the ball, 40 yards, rolling to his left, throwing it back deep posts. Like he does stuff that only a handful of guys can do. And you'll always have the crowd that will defend that and say, that's worth it. Any mistake he makes is worth it because he can do that.

And then you're going to finish eight and eight, nine and seven, ten and six at best. Because so much of this position is decision making. It's no longer schoolyard ball. It's not throw out the balls and see who is the biggest, baddest, strongest dude. So much of it is decision making. So much of it is decision-making. So much of it is discernment. I mean, look at, I mean, we just use Tom. Tom's the greatest that's ever lived, not the most talented that's ever lived. He'll be the first to tell you that. He's beaten people with discernment. He's beaten people with decision-making. He's beaten people

with patience. He's trusted the process of a game, a 60 minute game. Uh, too many of these guys play each play. Like it's, it's the standalone, most important play they've ever played. And they have to make a play. Otherwise it's a failure. Um, and you can't play this position that way anymore. And, uh, there's too, too many complex defensive schemes. There's too many things going on that they just beat you before the ball snap. Like there's a lot of times on third and nine,

you're beat before the ball snap. They're going to overload your protection. They're going to double your hot receiver and you have no other answer. You dirt it, you run around, maybe try and make a guy miss, then throw it out of bounds and punt. I mean,

that's the reality of this league. Um, so I think Carson still has a lot of growing to do. Now I wouldn't give up on him by any stretch. I'm not giving up on him. I'm just simply saying that this stuff needs to be better now. And it needs to be coached. I'll give Jim Zorn a lot of credit.

He was the first coach in my career. I was seven years in the league. I was in Seattle. And Jim was a guy that played the position frenetically. If anybody remembers Jim Zorn playing for the Seahawks, he was a frenetic type guy. And he would tell us the mistakes that would get him in. He said, yeah, I'd make these splash plays and everybody would ooh and ah, but I also fumbled too much and I also forced too many balls and also put my offensive line in bad position. So what he did with Matthew and I, as he trained us, was he trained us in practice. We had no drills. We're just like dropped back

and jumped over a cone or shuffled our feet or went over bags. It was noodles hitting us. It was medicine balls being thrown at us. It was him trying to strip the ball. It was having an offensive lineman back into us and bump us. It was big shields going in front of our face to create. And what I learned from you had to create chaos in practice to handle chaos in games. And I think that that's been an art that's been lost in the NFL. I don't know if it's because of time schedules. I'm not an NFL coach, so I couldn't go through what the now the practice schedule is. But if I was, I would make time for at least 10 minutes every day for Carson Wentz, 20 minutes every day, where you created chaotic situations in practice so that he could make better decisions in chaos during the games.

So we're not to the point where we think Carson Wentz is just a nicer Jeff George? No, no, I don't think. I can't believe you brought up Jeff. Why, is Jeff your guy? Are you buddies with Jeff? I like Jeff a lot. He played with me in Seattle and I tore my Achilles. He's a really good guy. Uh, wait, so why did everybody not like him? Was he just when he was younger? He was very nonchalant. He didn't put in the time he was, he wasn't a pro. Uh, he became a pro late in his career, big time.

But I think Jeff was one of those, prima donna high school college kids that took that mantra in the NFL and it took him a few years to to shed that uh and kind of learn that the professionalism of the of the position no I think Carson's a true pro he's a tough guy again I'll use that because that matters in the locker room like fans go why do you keep saying tough guy because it might be the most important thing when you're playing that position is your mental and physical toughness and the respect that gives you in the locker room. The leash it gives you with your teammates when you do turn over three times, let a team come back against you, that he'll show up this morning

with his shoulders pulled back and have energy and get in that weight room and get after it, not sulk and bring energy to everybody else. No, I think it's a training thing. To be quite honest with you, I think Carson needs to train better in season in these chaotic situations, and these are all correctable mistakes. More with Trent Dilfer,

including is there a James Harden at quarterback? And I'll explain that later in the interview, and we'll get his answer on that. The Ryan Russula Podcast is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. By now, you've probably heard about FanDuel Sportsbook, world-class sports betting app. FanDuel makes it easy to find and place your bets.

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You tell me. The other number two, I was like Baltimore, Houston, because everybody's probably going to bet Baltimore under seven at Houston because nobody likes Bill O'Brien. Shout out to Arizona. What a great win against San Francisco. We didn't even get to that with Trent here in this interview. So, you know, spared you on that one.

There's another number here that everybody's going to bet. Oh, yeah, it's going to be Kansas City. The numbers already moved pretty significantly. Kansas City opened as minus five and a half against the Chargers at the L.A. Chargers. And now it's Ernie at 8.5 here on Monday as of this taping. All right, so look, if you're ready to bet on the NFL this football season, just download the FanDuel Sportsbook app and be sure to sign up with the promo code Ryan, R-Y-E-N, so they know that I sent you.

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First of all, I think you and I are on the same page here. And our good friend Colin, who loves this segment idea of the Pats tanking. Well, Bill wasn't calling his players telling him to opt out because of COVID. And that one week that got lost, you're looking at the two deep going, man, did they lose some names here? And you kind of remind yourself as you're ramping up. The defense looked incredible. Yes, it was Ryan Fitzpatrick. Yes, it was the Dolphins.

But just the pressure and the movement they were getting from their linebackers I thought was really good. But if we look specifically at Cam, it's a very similar hybrid offense that we're used to seeing with Cam before. it's a very similar hybrid offense that we're used to seeing with Cam before. What did you see in at least the early ways that they used him that's something you're going to keep thinking about as they probably open it up a little bit more for him? Josh McDaniels, if people remember, go back to the Tim Tebow time in Denver. Josh really understands this type of football. I'm not saying Cam is Tebow. I'm just

saying the style of football. There's a lot of fun to be had with a quarterback that can throw it, can beat you from the pocket, but also gives you a lot of other options. Your critical situation football, your short yardage, your tight red zone, four minute, things like that. It gives you a lot of rule breakers for the defense. And honestly, every offensive coach loves to draw up stuff that the defense can't figure out. And when you're quarterback 6'5", 240, there's a lot of stuff you can do that is hard to defend. So I think they're embracing this style of football. I thought that, again, watching that game closely yesterday, the announcers did a really nice job of explaining how it complements your special teams,

it complements your defense. This is a defensive-centric team. This is a special-team-centric team. Offense is really the third most important part of the New England Patriots right now. So you're going to call the game. You're going to create plays. You're going to highlight players that complement what you're really trying to do, which is build the best defense in all of football.

And as Bill has always done in his career, destroy people in special teams. So I'm not surprised at all. It's not going to be glamorous. They're not even going to lead off Monday morning shows very often in a few weeks because it's going to be the same thing. They're going to win 19-16. They're going to win 23-15. They're going to win 9-6 one of these weeks.

You know what I mean? It's going to be that all over again. And then the next thing you know, it's going to be another 10 plus win season for Bill Belichick. There'll be a pain in the butt in the playoffs. And if they're as good as they can be defensively, now a lot of this has to do with attrition, as we talked about earlier,

but if they stay healthy defensively, they can build the best defense in all football. I'm going to point out two plays though that I always look at like third and six, third and seven. And if you're not one of the studs, how does the staff, um, like how do they, what, what plays are they calling there? You know, are they letting you take the shot or do they not trust you? And it's my old Trubisky thing at moments last year where I'd go, they don't even trust them. Like they don't even trust them. They're throwing it out in the flats. You know, there's some sort of like little wheel route or some sort of cut by the running back

up and in hoping to get one-on-one with a linebacker there was a third and six or seven and cam took a bad sack took him out of field goal range and then the next time they handed it off and i thought oh i wonder i wonder what that is and we can say it's week one we may look I'm admitting that maybe but it's just always something I look for and it's going to be something I'm going to keep paying attention to like third and seven third and nine what's their tendency there with cam now if they feel great about slowing down the opponent that's fine but that was Miami and it's not going to be that every single week yeah I would I would want to know what happened on that situation in practice my guess um is because I was the guy at times to have a bad Thursday,

they didn't trust me to take their all the ball in third and seven. You know what I mean? If you don't execute Thursday, your third down and medium, your must pass day, then they're not going to trust you in the game if you're a good quarterback. And still there is a little bit of this, how much of the offense's cam know, how much drop back have they done, how much protection, change, recognition have they done. And there's a bunch of that stuff that nobody really cares about. But I think at the end of the day, I think you're going to pull their hair out and look like me over time, but this is going to be a team that's going to be fine punting the ball a lot, that they're going to be fine protecting it,

taking the air out of the ball, letting the other team have it, getting the ball back, play field position, capitalize on some opportunities. I think you'll see some trick plays. I think the number one thing you should write down about the Patriots right now, if you're a Patriots fan, is start charting how many trick plays they run here for the next six, seven, eight weeks, I could see being two, three a game. You're going to see some of the, you're going to see Edelman trying to get Edelman in space

so he can run after the catch. You're going to trust that for your big plays. You're going to see your backs a little more involved in more of a college offense, misdirection, two backs in the backfield, a white Michelle, Cam, cross-action, Baltimore Ravens stuff. You're going to see a lot of this Saturday-looking football that's conservative in the run game show up for the Patriots

because that's what they want to be. And then as Cam gets more comfortable, I think what Cam has always done a really good job of as a passer is piercing you. He can rip it in that 15- 25 yard area as well as anybody. I wouldn't call him a great deep ball thrower, but that second level getting the ball in tight windows, I think they'll start working on it.

There's a great example of the one they showed the end zone copy where he turns around, fakes ISO, turns his back to the defense, comes up. Edelman runs a little option route takes inside option gets about 18 it's a play they've been running forever there you're gonna see a lot of that two back power uh play action you know 15 to 25 yard stuff and that's what he's gonna that's what he does best and again goes back to this conversation doing guys do best with back they're still finding what Cam does best. And it would not surprise me one bit of Josh,

this very second as we're talking, is going back and looking at Carolina Panthers, Cam Newton, MVPCs and stuff that he did best. He's probably calling Norv Turner and saying, Norv, when you coached him, what's he do best? And we want to put in stuff that he does best. The great thing about the Patriots, they don't have a system.

So they don't have like a playbook that every year it's the same stuff they're going to evolve they're going to they're going to be play driven they're going to be people driven uh Josh is going to find what Cam does best and and do a lot of it okay let's talk approach and changing things around because I think there were some jokes about Seattle and Pete Carroll Pete Carroll in particular establishing the run for 27 years and the lead up for this year is they're going to let Russ loose. That game he had against Atlanta yesterday, 31-35, 322, four touchdowns. They couldn't really run the ball and it didn't even matter. Look, Ryan had to let it fly all day. He actually threw for 450. Is there another

level that Russ is going to get to that I'm not even sure? Because coming into the year, I think he's the second best quarterback in the league. Yeah, I always have been my top four. I mean, when people make me do lists, which you know I hate, he's always either one, two, three, or four.

I demand to know where you have Stafford. No, I'm just kidding. After yesterday. I'll just make this one really easy. Russell makes incredibly difficult things. Things that those of us that have played it that go, wow, that, I mean, that's hard. That's really, really hard.

He makes them look so easy. It's different than Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes, but it's the same. Those are the three that do things. What's that mean? They make throws. They feel things. They see things that I'll go back six, seven, eight times and watch them. I have no idea how he saw that.

None. I know the defense. I know the front. I know protection change he made. I know his progression. I have no idea how he saw that. Oh, not only that, he saw it and his right foot was behind his left foot when he threw it. Or he had a free rusher coming from the field that he knew he was going to get hit by, but yet there was total calmness. There was no flinch. There was no rush. Like he just kind of know that Steve Young, you say the spatial awareness, you know, knowing the space around you. And I don't always look at Steve on camera and go, I don't know that. I'm not familiar with what you're talking about, Steve. I guess you Hall of Famers have some spatial awareness thing that the rest of us didn't get.

But that's what Hall of Famers do. They make the incredibly difficult just look routine. And Russell does things that just look routine. And when you're a defense coordinator preparing for them, okay, so you got to prepare for their quarterback run stuff, which they'll do. They showed true option yesterday like true 1977 oklahoma option they showed all verticals like spread you out and be four wides and run spread and go verticals they show power i they showed about eight different screens like they're that that catalog of offense is large and it's a lot to defend. And then at any time,

you know, you have DK Metcalf out there who can run faster than anybody, he's bigger than everybody and the best deep ball throwing quarterback probably in the last 30 years. You got to protect for the home run every time. Now they got Lockett inside more and they ran a play in the first series

where Lockett lines up the place. I haven't really seen him line up a lot. He's done before, but not often. And he runs like the air raid, little option route inside. And you're like, well, okay, now they're still on the air raid stuff and put Lockett in there. So, um, it, it, again, it's first four weeks, but it would not surprise me if the Seahawks offense becomes one of these, uh, hyper explosive nuclear offenses.

Okay. This is, this is felt like something you were just excited to even do. You probably would have been happy if I led with this, but with all the Aaron Rogers stuff, the last couple of years, which again, I don't think anybody can dismiss some of the numbers.

Like some of this stuff was alarming. Some of it was regressing. He put on an absolute show against Minnesota, where that final score will end up, as I said earlier, being a misleading one. Weeks from now, people will say, oh, Minnesota was competitive. No, they weren't.

Green Bay diced him up. I don't want to say, hey, now is Aaron Rodgers back, but I guess I'll just let you take it in any direction that you want to go to. I don't even want to ask a question. I want you to talk about Aaron Rodgers the way you want to talk about him. You want to get the most out of Aaron Rodgers, piss him off. Don't pour, don't pour sugar on him.

I mean, he is, he's a guy, we have to be a psychologist. And I think the love drafting, I think how you coach them, I think it's all very strategic. I would have done the same thing and people would have hated me and blah blah I'll do the same thing to my players I coach if I think I can do something to get greatness out of somebody I'm gonna do it and I think that's exactly what the Packers did you play that long you're that successful you have that many pelts on the wall, it gets boring. You can become complacent is the word I'm looking for. You can become complacent. And Aaron would never admit he's complacent.

He would probably be pissed off at this interview. But the bottom line is that when you light a fire up his you-know-what, that's what you're going to get. And I wouldn't stop. I mean, somebody go talk to Joe Montana and Steve Young about how Bill Walsh coached them when they were winning MVPs and multiple Super Bowls. It was never enough.

Always find – why do you think Steve Young came to the Niners? Has everybody asked themselves that question when Joe Montana's at the top of his career? Because you have to do things like this to continue to pull greatness out of great. And I think what you saw yesterday is just the beginning of what Aaron can do. He's got these young, talented receivers that a year to work with. They're very talented kids. They're long, they're fast. He's got his

blankie and Devante Adams, who's a really, really good receiver and his comfort blankie all the time he can go to. They're going to run the football. They've done a nice job drafting offensive line, which I always thought was their weakness. Everybody shows me his numbers, how great the Packers offensive line is, and I watch them snap by snap. I never thought they were that great. Now I think they're a lot better. They're going to play three phases of football.

That's what LaFleur did last year was he made sure this became a complete football team. So he's going to be supported in a Belichickian type way. If you, again, week one, I could care less about. But preseason, you ask me top five teams in the NFL, I would have put the Packers in that because of all of these reasons. Wow. Okay. Because I always felt like last year at 13-3,

I'm like, I don't know. I don't know if they're really that good. And the way Rodgers framed it going into this season was like, look, they can draft Jordan Love, and they can try to make these comparisons to my age and Brett Favre, but Rodgers was right in that Brett had been flirting with this retirement thing forever, then flirted with it for another four years,

and the team wasn't as good. And he's like, we're a game away from the Super Bowl. I'm like, yeah, but I just didn't feel that way about the team. I'm just curious, how do you feel about last year's 13 and 3 team that i felt like was a little misleading because of record and final standing versus what you actually think they can do this year it sounds like you think they're just a more complete team no matter what going in when you're looking at the 2d i didn't think they're i mean they're 13 3 13 and 3 team obviously but yeah but I don't think a lot of us liked them that much.

Yeah, I think we did a couple shows last year. We're like, yeah, they're good, but nothing screams great. But they got a taste of how three-phase football looks. And they're going to get more of the quarterback. I mean, Aaron did not play great last year. He played really well. I mean, I think he's one of the top five of all time. So I'm not saying he wasn't fantastic, but he wasn't dominant.

You're right. I mean, there's no argument really against it. I mean, this stuff is there. So I can still like him. I think my narrative around the Packers is this, is what everybody's paradigm of how the Packers handled all this comes from the media. That's the only way we can consume information, right? But there are people that know what goes on in those front offices.

And it's very different than what the media tells us is happening. And I can guarantee you in those front offices, there are some wise people that said, I'm done with him just being good. We need to be great again. How do we make them great? Well, you think, you think they drafted Jordan Love on purpose to piss him off and make him better? Heck yeah. And you get a really talented player that needs two to three years to develop. Yeah, you do. You absolutely pull, you're a puppet master. If you're running an NFL organization, if you're a head coach, you're absolutely a puppet master and you're pulling the strings to get the most out of the people you have. And sometimes that hurts feelings. And sometimes that's not nice. And that's okay. This is professional football and feelings really don't matter that much. And if you need to get the most from somebody, you do anything you possibly can to get the most from. And I think all of that was very strategic. Look at Bill Belichick. He dropped, he drafts Garoppolo when Brady's in the height of his career. I mean, all these guys, they're cut from the same cloth. They're assassins.

And it's like college recruiting, right? You got a really good five-star kid you bring in to Oklahoma. Well, you know what you're doing? You're recruiting the class behind him. As soon as he signs on the Don line, now you go public that you're recruiting the five-star from Texas. It's right behind the guy

because you don't want the guy who just signed on the Don line to get comfortable. You know, you can't have, there's no room for entitlement in the NFL. There's no room for entitlement at Lipscomb Academy where I'm at entitlement kills football teams and I think what you continue to need to do as a leader of a football program is find a way to create competition to pull out the best in people if that takes hurting their feelings and oh well

go grab some Kleenex um but we're getting after this thing okay I have two more things for you this week I could watch Aaron Donald all night I find myself watching the center of the field way more when the Rams are playing um and it's something I've definitely got better at you know you sit with enough players you go stop watching the ball stop watching the ball it's a hard habit to break but now I'm pretty good at not watching the ball knowing that the ball they're going to show me a replay where I can watch the ball anyway. But when it's the Rams, I don't ever want to watch anything except for Aaron Donald. I can't believe it exists. I can't believe somebody exists that disrupts the way he disrupts that continuously. That play where he comes off one block to his right and then smashes two other human beings that are offensive linemen males and tosses them to the side and then cuts back and makes the play on the quarterback. It's just stupid. I'm not saying he's the greatest defensive player, but give me your story of a defensive player that disrupted things as much

as or to... I don't know if it's anybody that's even disrupted it the way Donald has, but give me your guy. Well, Aaron's unique, and there's only one guy that was this unique that I played against. That was Johnny Randall. And who really started the glory of the three technique. You know, the three technique became a glorified position because of Johnny Randall. There are other really good three techniques, but John Madden hadn't highlighted them yet. You know, really it was John Madden pointing out how Johnny Randall was the most dominant player on the football team and he played defensive tackle. So I'd say that's the comparable. Now, you've had your saps and all these other guys have come after Johnny that have been Hall of Fame players that Aaron's been able to look up to and say, I want to be like that.

So you got to credit this column of six best in the past 20 years of these three techniques i put sap and and johnny at the top of that list um johnny plays every snap hard now the most disruptive player in the history of defense in my opinion is reggie white now the difference is that he only played about 40 plays super hard he conserved his energy he would just he go 60% and still stop the run. But people, before you jump on the Aaron Donald might be the best inside defensive player of all time, Reggie White and talk to any offensive lineman from his generation, Reggie White was, he was a God out there. He was Thor. He was, I mean, he was, he was unhuman. He did things that it wasn't based on effort. He was just supremely better than anybody on the field at all times.

Then you put your Dion Sanders as a corner. I would put him kind of that category too, where there's been a lot of great corners, but they'll, I'll, they'll all tell you when Dion was healthy, just better again, unhuman out there. So I'm the same way as you. I love watching interior play. When the Rams play, my eyes tend to be there most of the time.

In fact, I missed some Dak Prescott stuff because I was watching Aaron. I was afraid you were going to ask me, like, go over every Dak player. I'm like, I probably didn't see half of them cause I'm watching the offensive defensive line. But, uh, he's fantastic. He does.

He does one thing that I don't know if I've, maybe Johnny did a little bit, but his ability to have his, like his legs will be in one area and his body will be in the other area. And that's a really bad athletic position. And he's somehow can move 350 pounds that way. So like his feet go one way and that's what they're tracking, but his body's staying opposite of feet and he's swimming and pushing and

pulling and grabbing and getting up inside. And Johnny did a little bit of that, but I've never seen a body that can bend like that and still have the strength. And I don't know how often so I'm a block. Should we have included Lawrence Taylor in this? Yeah, but I didn't play against him. You didn't play against him, right? No, I didn't. I only go against guys I played or studied hard.

I've heard LT was just. Okay, because I think that'd be the one other name. But I was pretty sure despite the age joke that I can insert here, which I'm not going to do. Yeah, there's other guys people put in this category. I just didn't play against them or didn't study them, so I try not to talk about things I didn't experience. But yeah, I mean, obviously LT was an animal.

Okay, I have this longstanding theory about production in sports right now where we have pitchers that put up these huge numbers because all anybody wants to do is hit home runs and the defense behind them is advanced and i remember arguing years and years ago being like i actually don't think we're in this golden age of like unlimited aces i just think the game is different um the same thing with basketball right now where if you look at like somebody james harden and everybody's arguing like how great he is offensively and you're like yeah i think this is all like skewed by 25 based on system and usage rate and I really think the same thing is happening with quarterbacks where you know 300 yards used to be a nice game you

know 20 for 30 a couple touchdowns no picks you know threw it away at the right time good turn down 300 yards you're like now it's every single guy for the most part is there it's happening so I don't this I don't even think this is a theory it's a real thing we're seeing just different production levels because of the evolution of the game and math has something to do with that too but do you think there are moments where you have almost the quarterback james harden where it's like hey everybody kind of talks this guy up because they bring up his numbers but in reality like some of those real crunch time moments i don't know that i trust him as much as the numbers say that I'm supposed to.

It's a hard one because a lot of it's a play calling too. You don't want to diss anybody? Is that what you're telling me? Well, no, I don't have any friends anymore, and it doesn't matter. I'm your friend, Trent. I'm sensitive because two years ago I I said without flinching Kirk cousins, like without a doubt, the number one number guy that doesn't have the substantive stuff to back it

up would be Kurt. But then last year he was very substantive. He corrected a lot of the stuff that we were critical of him for. And I was actually a big fan of how Kirk grew as a player last year. And when you're good at the deep ball, like he is, it'll make us even more convinced that you're actually, you know, like, oh my God, look at all this arm talent. I think that can help a lot of guys perception wise.

Matt Ryan falls into this, but I don't know if it's Matty Ice's fault. I mean, why are you calling so many? I guess this is where it gets me is balanced football is the hardest to defend. And you score more points when you're balanced. So you're trying to score more points. You're not trying to get yards. You're trying to score points. It's been proven that the more balanced you are, the more points you're going to score.

So I don't know why these play callers fall so in love with calling pass after pass after pass. And at the end of the day, it's 48 passes. When really, if you get 65 plays in the game, I think ideally you're 33 run, 32 pass. And you look at some of the great play. Sean Payton's a great example of this. Even when Drew was rolling, now there's games you do have to throw 45, 50 times. The game dictates that. You go back at the end of the year and you want to be 55, 45, 50, 50.

I think that's what makes Sean such a great play call over time is he's learned that. And that's how you get other players involved. And that's how you score more points. So part of it is the play callers fault. I don't, there's a lot of reasons, reasons you know people will bring up fantasy football they'll talk about limited practice time offensive line play isn't as good as you use or isn't as physical as it used to be these guys are coming from the college game the rules allow you to throw up more i agree with all that stuff and it is way easier to throw the ball but sometimes you have to like

tom brady we talked about this at the beginning of the show, discernment wins. And when you can sit there as a play caller and say, yeah, it's first and 10, we're getting this great throw look. However, my runner's only touched it seven times. I got to be very cognizant of how many times my runner gets it. I got to be cognizant of how many times, Mark Schoenert, you say this all the time, how many times your offensive line doing this

and how many times are they doing that? Pushing their hands forward, going back. The more you're going to get out of them. The more times you're doing that, the less you're going to get out of them. And it might just be that simple. If you're looking at how many times your offensive line is going forward, or how many times it's going backwards. Maybe this isn't even a quarterback issue.

It might just be a football issue. You want your bigs to be going this way because you add that up over 60 minutes and they're going this way enough, you're probably going to win the game. That's Trent Dilfer at Dilfer Dimes and more importantly, the head coach of Lipscomb Academy, the Mustangs.

Great gear, by the way, and in the win column this week. So I know that one meant a lot to you to get the big win against Paige. Anx in the win column this week. So I know that one meant a lot to you to get the big win against Paige. Anxiety level way down this week. Thanks so much, man. We're going to do this again soon. Thanks, brother. Talk to you. Tread Dilfer joining us quite a bit this season.

Missing a little thrill in your life right now? Look no further. Wireless is here and it's available only on Quibi. It's a new streaming platform that offers fresh original shows. I'm going to jump the script here and just share with you. I remember meeting with Quibi, and it's a really, really cool concept, which, you know, unfortunately, a lot of the stuff that was going on, a lot of production things, creative things were held back. But essentially, it's smaller, shorter segment television shows. You're watching this stuff on your phone.

And conceptually, I've always thought it's a terrific idea. All right. Okay, back to Wireless Show on Quibi created and produced by steven soderberg uh he did haywire oceans 13 bunch of other stuff big fan of his comes a survival thriller like no other set high in the colorado mountains high in the colorado mountains dave nice follow college student andy braddock played by ty sheridan as he is stranded in a blizzard with nothing but his phone to keep him alive. Okay, I'm in. Experience this heart-pounding race against the clock from dual perspectives

as you simultaneously watch what's happening to Andy in the real world and the events transpiring on Andy's phone. Download Quibi from the App Store now to watch wireless with your free two-week trial. That's Quibi spelled Q u i b i give the people at quibi a shout they've probably paid a lot of your favorite content people to put some content out there okay two things before i get to a life advice i think i'll still do one um here because it was the worst worst question i've ever been asked on life advice. And I kind of want to give it its due. But I'm not going to do a big victory laugh

of the Rockets lost to the Lakers. Almost all of us picked the Lakers, thought they were going to win. I just think it's just something to remind you. Like the next time Harden's putting up 35 a game and the Rockets are winning enough games and somebody's on TV talking about him and they're conveniently ignoring what we really see in front of our face and looking at some of the overall

averages in the playoffs and some of the averages in elimination games and are not seeing that there's just something wrong there. Just remember to not take that person seriously because they're either friends with Harden or they're connected to the Rockets somehow or whatever. But I mean, it's just so bad. And you can tell me how great his overall line is in game five, but did you watch the first quarter when they were immediately down 20 and they have no energy? And there's just little things that Harden

does that are so terrible. They're just terrible. Like there was a fast break where he had the deep guy to the right and he pointed him out with no one behind him because Harden just didn't feel like running with him. I mean, that's bullshit stuff so look I'm not going to do like this this debate the Westbrook debate's been done for years the Harden debate I think's been done I think the Harden debate kind of was put to bed last year when Steph dropped 30 plus in the second half and Houston couldn't win at home with no Durant. So that's why I say these things to you guys on the podcast

because I believe in them. And I think the track record over the long term when you're like, I think this player is this and I think this player is a little limited here. And you never know. Somebody can eventually hook up with someone else and do it. I can't. The most interesting thing and the hardened thing

isn't to constantly point out like, hey, guys, something's wrong there. Something's wrong with him. I mean, and by the way, game four was atrocious, yet he took 20 free throws and he's just not built for it. You know, this whole we're built for this. We're built different. All this says Harden's not built for it.

And I don't know how much more evidence you need to see to realize this. And it'll all go away. Like all of that's a great thing about time moving and sports is that Harden's going to have another unbelievable stretch. But when you start arguing about him perhaps being one of the greatest as Daryl Morey said the greatest offensive player of all time you're like yeah it's also system usage and kind of bullshit like 25% bullshit so that's I don't know how anybody argues against that stuff anymore and people like writing articles that like him not moving in the offense is good. Okay.

You know, again, time and time again. And the thing that was funny about Houston, too, is like their defense wasn't really the issue until they were going to play the same team again over and over and over again. And the team that actually the debate of should the Lakers go big, should they go small? It's just, look, Davis and LeBron are that much better than Harden.

And then the disaster that's Westbrook, and Westbrook right now is a disaster, but he put a ton of energy making sure Rondo's brother got thrown out of the game because that's kind of what Russ is about. So we already know how I feel about Houston. I'm not going to keep doing it over and over again. And I just, you know,

you're not going to hear a lot from Houston people because it's painfully obvious. However, you're going to hear a lot from Toronto people. And I don't know that I've ever, you know, I'll mention like, hey, you know, so-and-so was arguing this or this was something people didn't like that I said and all this different stuff. And what happened with Toronto Raptors fans over the weekend, Friday into Saturday, is the most disgusting, ridiculous, line-crossing stuff I've ever experienced with any fan base

and being on the air 18 years. It's not even whatever their line was of like, Hey, that's kind of crossing the line. Raptors fans shattered it face first. So I want to back up and explain the dynamic of going back and forth. Now I'm really happy about what I got to do with my career. And I also understand what I was like as somebody that consumed a ton of sports talk radio and watch every single show and watch a million games. And I used to think there was far more guys that did the job that sucked than guys that I actually liked. And it's a thing that's deep down where I think if you really love sports, you look at anybody that does this for a living and you're

like, I could do that. And my thing would be, yeah, you probably could, but you didn't. So what are we talking about here? And when I was early on in my career and somebody would say, oh, you're so lucky. I'd be like, yeah, there's part of that. But then I would explain to somebody else, well, how'd you do it? I'm like, well, I haven't taken a weekend off in like three years. I made 12 grand, 26 grand, 26 grand, 34 grand, and like 38 or 43 grand in the last year. And then I was into my thirties. I drive back and forth from Boston to Bristol for the first three years of my time at ESPN. And I get back to Boston like four in the morning because they wouldn't pick up my hotel, um, until later on. And, you know, I would explain these things, but like, I'm not married. I don't have a girlfriend because I don't want anybody to tell

me that like, Oh, we had plans this weekend when I know I have to say yes to that shift. Although, you know, the other big secret about these careers is that nobody really keeps track of you working all those terrible, terrible shifts as much as you think they should, or think that they will. They don't, if you're good, you're going to get paid. If you're not, you're not going to get paid. All right. So whenever anybody goes like, oh, you know, I would have loved to have done that. And then I explain what I've done. They go, that kind of sucks. Like, yeah, it really, really sucked. So whatever level of fame that I have, that's very minor, uh, in, in the grand scheme of things. Like, it's not like I'm a cool athlete,

which is far cooler than anything I've ever done. Or like somebody who's like created something great, you know, great actor, actress, a great screenplay, you know, a screenwriter. You know, that's the kind of stuff where I think it's really cool. So I'll even admit sometimes, like you spent your entire life

talking about people that do things way better than you. How great is that? But whatever it is, it's better than working for a living. But there will always be a divide, a resentment between the people that consume this stuff and then the people that do it. Because back to the beginning of this whole point was that a lot of you listen to me do this going, I could have done this. Where do you go? Vermont? You didn't go to Yale. He's not that smart. Oh, cool. He read another history book he's going to tell us about. This fucking guy? Give me a break. By the way, the language

is probably going to get pretty vicious here, so earmuffs. But I look at the person that kind of looks at me with some contempt and says, yeah, but you made a decision early on where whatever I had to do was something you weren't going to do. And yes, we can get into levels of talent and some people just sort of have it. Some people don't,

but there's plenty of people that just grinded and grinded and grinded. They're not the most talented. They don't have the best voice. They don't have all the instincts of timing in their head. Maybe they're not the greatest at making all these analogies, but they still found a way to carve out some sort of career. And I'm sure there are plenty of local guys that do what I do. And I started local that look at me and they're like, ah, he's not that good because you've been in local for 20 years and you have some animosity towards me that I was national for 14 years at ESPN. So that is always going to exist. That's never going to go away. Maybe the resentment that some of you even have when you watch an athlete holding out and you're mad because you were good

at sports once, or when you look at an actor and hear about how much she or she makes and you think, well, that's ridiculous. Now, again, that doesn't happen as much. There's more animosity towards athletes than there are actors. There's certainly not nearly enough animosity against CEOs and heads of companies and how they can screw over tons of stockholders and then empty out the cash reserves on their way out to getting fired. I mean, that shit's way, way worse, but we're not keeping track of it every Sunday for 10 hours like we do football. So when I say something you don't like, that contempt is only amplified because then it's like, wait, this guy said something about something that I like, and now I'm really pissed off. And sometimes I'll say stuff, and like I just did with the Rockets. I've already

done this where I go, hey, I don't like the Rockets. I'm going to root against them. I hope they lose. Cause I can't stay in the style. And I'm just sick of hearing about these guys all the time. All right. Done and done. And that was after I'd watched them way too many times. I'm like, why do I keep watching the Rockets? Like I already know what's going to happen. And plenty of Houston people, people online were coming at me and I like, I got it. I was like, whatever. I just said, I want your team to lose all the time. I, if I were you, I would be mad at me too. Very easy, very easy. But with Toronto, going back to last week's pod, I said something that I actually think is so not aggressive that it's unbelievable to me that Raptors fans took it to this level. And I'm going to share some of that stuff with you here very shortly. I said, I don't think Lowry's a Hall of Famer.

By the way, he's going to get into the Hall of Fame. He's going to get into the Hall of Fame because everybody gets in the Basketball Hall of Fame. i personally think the standards should be higher the thresholds should be higher however you want to phrase it and i look at some players going like if you're not really considered one of the best of your position over a good chunk of your career i don't think you should be in the hall of fame i just don't but everybody gets in the basketball hall of fame lowry's going to get in he's got the ring but if he didn't have the ring i don't even know that people would even be bringing it up right now because there's plenty of basketball writers like oh yeah hey wait like he might be a hall of famer. So that was

my point. I said, you know, I wouldn't have him in. And if it weren't for Kawhi, I don't think we'd even be talking about it. So a couple of places up in Toronto, those friendly jovial Canadians who we always think, oh, the Canadians, they're so nice. Um, they posted a bunch of different media outlets up there and that led to, and I don't know if it's an orchestrated thing, outlets up there. And that led to, and I don't know if it's an orchestrated thing, but an absolute barrage of insults, slurs, racial, homophobic, um, and threats. And then it went way too far. We started making fun of a one-year-old niece and another friend of mine's, you know, another friend's son, because I take a lot of pictures on Instagram. My whole Instagram thing is a joke, basically kind of making fun of Instagram, but despite not having kids, I do really like kids.

So that's kind of the joke where I'll take a picture with a little kid I'll be like hey now I know what it all means but Raptors fans thought it was cool to make incredibly disgusting remarks about kids I've gotten over thousands of DMs and comments and the threats are nothing because let's face it if most of you saw me not like I'm some badass but you would just go oh hey love the pod you wouldn't do shit so the threats I can handle the insults I can handle. Hey, white boy stick to hockey is actually kind of funny because I never talk hockey. Um, and it was everyone, but it's nothing. I've never experienced anything in 18 years of being on the air that even matches the venom. The, I don't even know how to explain it like i could read a bunch

of them hey go die all right fine i hope your dog dies fine um you know i've gotten called a million things i remember getting into it with ohio state fans at one point and ohio state fans i actually kind of sided with early on because like wait we get blown out in two national championships and no other teams are playing in these games and we're losers no i had kentucky fans coming after me when i said hey you can have that team and then they made a run and lost to yukon in the national final which was crazy for that basketball team because i felt like they were totally underwhelming and then they put it together in the tournament to the point where i was on a vacation after that title game and kentucky fans they were writing not kentucky fans kentucky media members wrote that i had to take a leave of absence to deal with kentucky

success in that run i was like all, that's the dumbest thing ever. I had a vacation booked. Mississippi State fans weirdly got into it with me one time when we said we weren't bringing game day there, which was kind of nasty. So the threats, that's all part of it. Most everybody gets made fun of. I've actually throughout the course of my career avoided because you guys know I'm not a dick. I'm not trying to be a dick about any of this stuff. But Toronto fans, and it's not all Toronto fans, but unfortunately for now, that's how

I'm always going to look at that city. That you guys crossed a line and made suggestive things about kids, and you thought it was funny. And then you guys kept liking it all. Then you were DMing me stuff, saying you were going to do stuff to my family. And unfortunately, then I have family members that are like, what the hell? Because they don't understand this. They're not used to it. I think I'm pretty numb to it. But I just want to share this because I want people to understand that Toronto fans, Raptor fans,

forever for me now, will be the worst fans of any major sport in any city, college, anything. From now on, I'll never look at you the same. And I know it's not all of you, but I don't really give a shit. 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. Life advice. You can email us lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. I have this one because I thought it was urgent.

We'll do a bigger one later in the week. By the way, new schedule is new again because we got game seven. I don't know what to tell you about the Clippers right now. When they put up the graphic and say it's been 50 years, they haven't made a conference finals. I can't believe it. That's some weird Babe Ruth curse stuff going on right there with that team. So I'm not going to break down.

I got to go back and watch because it was happening during football. So I don't feel comfortable telling you like I could just fake it and whatever. But Bill and I are going to be doing a Tuesday night night pod so that's going to be after game seven so whatever that game seven is bill and i will be doing the pod immediately after it's going to come out tuesday night in a little earlier obviously in the west coast because that's how time works so it was really important that i told you how time zones work if you haven't figured that out at this point i don't even know how you get to this podcast so uh that was a little bit too much information and almost insulting that you didn't know that so um that's what we're gonna do so yeah kyle bill and i are taping on

tuesdays but normally now through this football basketball overlap we were gonna be thursday so that's why there was no sunday and that means i'm gonna be wednesday then so you're gonna get me three days in a row i think or i'll do thursday i don't know we'll figure it out we'll figure it out we will figure it out i could probably go look at the text while I'm on. So why don't we do that? Why don't we do that? Okay. Tuesday night.

Okay. So I'm going to do Monday, which is now, and then I'm going to do Thursday. All right. So that way I won't be three days in a row and that's good to break it up a little bit. Okay.

All right. Again, life advice, RR at gmail.com. Ryan, longtime fan and a fellow writer. All right, man.

Good company. I'm 28, recently married, living in an apartment in Pasadena, California. My wife and I want to buy a house in the next couple of years, but the Southern California housing market, as you know, a little out of hand. It is out of hand.

Man, is it ever. Even in Pasadena? Yeah, Pasadena. A lot of people like Pasadena. I'm kidding. I like Pasadena. I don't think you like Pasadena. I think you realize you've insulted. I went there. I worked the NAACP awards there. I liked it.

You did? What were you, security? Yeah. I had to take it. Wow. No. I was the guy that put all those hedges together, you know, when they make those walls out of nowhere for the walk and repeat.

That was me. I actually enjoyed it. I had to take an Uber, $50 each way. Wait, so you were doing physical outside. Was that because because your parks and rec background that they trusted you with the hedge was that how did you get that kid after after bill's show went under uh the person who uh was like the director of the the uh what is it line producer she was like hooked up with that and she hit me up i was a good worker and they gave me the option to do a bunch of stuff and i was like you know i'm not really interested in getting coffee can i move those that guy looks

fun big like a eastern european guy just me and him were just you know dragging hand trucks around it was a good time pasadena nice convention center the big guys always get any of those deals when you're the bigger guy you always get screwed on on the deal um i kind of like that work i gotta be honest with you go at your own pace go at your own pace was the first thing you said not that you're outdoors not that you're working in your hand we're gonna get manual labor it was that i basically didn't have to do a ton because there was so much other chaotic more important stuff going on that's what it sounds like okay all right i might just do real life advice my bad no no you didn't i asked you about your clarification on pasadena uh I've been up there. I would not pick it to live as far as the outer Los Angeles towns, but some people really like Pasadena. I think it's a little older. So 28. So that's why my man probably wants to get out of there. Okay. All right. All things being equal, we're looking at the usual out-of-state cities to relocate. When the time comes, Seattle, Austin, Denver, Boston, Seattle had been the favorite,

but my wife has always wanted to live on the East Coast, and Will Hartford and New Haven have come up. This is why we had to get to this one immediately. I'm going to just finish reading the email. I've obviously researched both places online, but there are obvious limitations to that. People say it's expensive with high property taxes being cited frequently, but I don't know, maybe it's the fact that I'm jaded from California's high cost of living. So the housing prices seem incredibly cheap by comparison. What do you think about the

potential move? We're not into the crazy nightlife scene, but we do enjoy going out to dinner together and having a couple of drinks in a nice-ish bars. I'm a big sports guy, but the internet is a thing. Is the weather a bit big of a factor? We hate the summers here. Okay, I know you're from the area, so I figured I'd get your perspective. Thanks in advance.

Love the show. Okay, all right, a couple of things. Alex, this is the worst fucking idea I've heard of any of the emails that we've been given. You just went from, I'm thinking Seattle, Austin, Denver, Boston, Seattle has been his favorite. And then he threw out Hartford and New Haven. Okay. I'm allowed to say this because I'm, I was born in Hartford. Okay. And then I actually lived at downtown Hartford for a couple of years.

And I'll be honest with you, I didn't have a terrible time and I actually like West Hartford, but don't move there. It's just, I don't know what to tell you. Like I'm trying not to be really mean here, but there's like one street in Hartford and like, dude, one time I came back from a Sunday flight and game day and I was kind of over the Hartford thing already.

And I pulled up and there was an actual parade going on and there were no people. It was like a horror movie scene. No one was there. Like no one really lives in downtown Hartford. Now, West Hartford, if you want to get a little place with walking distance into the center, it's terrific. New Haven isn't that great either. It just isn't. I wouldn't want to live there either. So just don't do this stuff. And as far as the tax thing, it's the real thing. It's local tax decisions. Your local tax decisions. And Connecticut, for a bunch of different reasons, has decided to just tax the hell out of people that have property value. So what happens is, once you buy a home, let's say you're a $500,000 home, say your mortgage is, you know, whatever the note is, if there's an HOA insurance and all these different things, let's say it's around $3,000 a month.

Okay. You're fine. And so what's your property taxes on that? All right. Well, 500,000 property taxes in most places would be maybe 10 to $12,000 a year. And then you go and granted the property tax thing is different in every single state, but then your local politicians decide, oh no, wait, why don't we just do this? Anybody that has higher end, which the higher end is its own moving definition all the time.

And I'm giving you a bit of a tax lesson here, but I'm also admitting, I wish I had done this before, is that think about this young couple here. They're almost 30. And young people are getting absolutely screwed with these student loans and the cost of attendance that schools just keep jacking up and up and up. And then this deal where you're having schools invite students back and then getting their money, getting all the costs and then saying, I actually go back and do it online. It reminds me of like a Red Sox rain delay where they would make sure everybody paid for parking, make sure everybody

bought food, bought beer, sat down in their seats. And then like at 715, 10 minutes after the first pitch, they call it after everybody spent all of that fucking money and it's dirty and it's dirty the schools do it and i feel terrible for younger people right now where like the rest of us came out of school i had like 40 grand in debt and it took me forever to pay it off um but it was just kind of accepted you guys like it's accepted that you're supposed to just take on like a hundred thousand plus worth of debt and now you're supposed to buy a house so say house, and I'm just going here because it'll make sense in the end here, or maybe you guys have already checked out, but like, Hey, when's Dover back on? You want to buy a house, right? You want to start a family, your late twenties, early thirties, you know, most people aren't

crushing it and making over six figures. And then sometimes depending on what your tax situation is, you know, a hundred thousand, two kids, it depends on what you're schooling, you know, all these, these numbers, like the stuff adds up. So if you're saving a hundred grand to do the 20% down, um, that's kind of where you'd be at. All right. So 20% down, first time homeowner, there's a bunch of different products out there as far as the mortgage and all this stuff. But if you do the 30-year, which most people don't really... Well, I don't want to say most people, but we grew up, at least my parents' generation grew up understanding, hey, 30-year, you do your money down, 30-year, and then that's your retirement nut at 65 or 60 if you sell your house. And then you can either go to Florida and spend it all, or you can give it to your kids. That was the baseline plan. But now people don't do that anymore because the mortgage companies and the banks want to have more products so that you're actually changing your loan more often. So they have more products to sell you. And it's something that blew my mind when I moved to Southern California that I'm like, why would anyone do interest only and not pay any principal down? Like I'd done principal-based

loans back in the East Coast. I'm like, now I'm doing like one interest only. And I thought it was like the dumbest idea ever when it was first pitched to me. But then you start looking at appreciation and you go, okay, that's the play is that it's less money out each month. It's still the same money down, but less money in. So these people can kind of live above their means a little bit. And then you bank on, if you're buying houses in nice areas that it's going to be worth a little bit more. But again, the scary part is when the housing collapsed because everybody got approved for a loan with no credit and no work history, because then everybody somehow was going to be in a house, which no way like that didn't work. I mean, it's so stupid that we didn't see it coming, but we didn't. And you're like,

wait, everyone got approved for a mortgage that shouldn't have. And then the banks failed. That's weird. Okay. But that's exactly what happened. Um, but it's because there were just so many different products. Now look, you can't, the, the rates have been low for a while. Uh, the products are a bunch of different things, but back to our guy here and why the property tax thing really is so important. So say it takes you, I don't know, five years to put away 20 grand every year, you and your wife. That's hard to do. It's hard to say that discipline, but that's what you're going to have to do. So then you save that 100 grand. So you feel like you have your 20% down payment on the $500,000 house, but then you also have to have enough reserves to carry a payment for like 12 months. So that's really on the discretion of the lender. Sometimes

you can mess with that a little bit. Sometimes you can't. So say you needed to carry 12 months of payments. Some places are going to want 24 months of payments. They're probably going to want to see like another 50 grand in cash in some other account. So just so they don't give you keys to a house and they take your a hundred grand down and you buy whatever mortgage product and then it's gone. But then what happens in the middle or a year or two after that purchase, the property taxes get cranked up, which is exactly what happened in Connecticut. And that's why everybody that had a high end house, their house is now worth 30% less. So I don't think it's selfish to worry about that for voting locally. I don't think it's the wrong thing to go, oh, sweet, my life savings to this point. And I want

to start a family. I did the right thing. I saved, I put my life savings to this point, and I want to start a family. I did the right thing. I saved. I put my 20% down on the house. I've had good credit. I've made all the right decisions in the seven years it takes to clear out any bad decisions in my credit history. And now the town or the state that I lived in totally jacked up the property taxes because they needed somebody to cover a bill that they screwed up for years of bad decisions. I really don't think that that's, I don't know how that's, that's deemed as like an asshole way to look at things. Like to me,

that's a real way to look at things and it doesn't diminish the other things that are non economic with worrying about who's representing, whether it's your state, your town or your country. So, uh, that's, that's the thing with Connecticut where,

you know, it sucks. It sucks when you save and then you do the things the right way. And then they're like, Oh, by the way, because of these taxes, now your house is worth less seven years later than when you bought it.

You know, like, Oh, okay. Now don't cry for me, but I'm just saying like the regular guy, like I have a lot of friends that that happened to. And it's like,

New York's like that too. Yeah. So the, the longest answer ever to what could have been a very short answer would be, no, don't go buy a house in Hartford. There's not that many restaurants either. That's life advice. All right.

We'll check in Tuesday night, Bill and I. And then Thursday, I'll be back with a couple of different plans that are in the works. But we have a really good guest list coming up this first month of the season. And please subscribe, rate, and review to the Ryan Russell Podcast. Thank you.