The Ryen Russillo Podcast - NFL Week 8, Trades and QB Futures With Mike Sando, CFB Top-Four Prediction, Plus Stories From Halloween Weekend

Episode Date: November 1, 2021

Russillo shares his thoughts on the Jets’ upset win over the Bengals, the Patriots’ win over the Chargers, and Titans-Colts (0:38), before talking to The Athletic’s Mike Sando about the upcoming NFL trade deadline, Von Miller to the Rams, teams that will be looking to make a QB change next season, Derrick Henry’s injury, and more (12:10). Then Ryen makes his choices for the CFB top four (47:29), before sharing some stories from the Halloween weekend and answering some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:01:45). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Mike Sando Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

coming up we're halfway there sort of the nfl a headline team that didn't live up to the billing we're going to run through a bunch of stuff that we saw also with mike sando on the trade deadline which is the day away but we have one big deal we'll get to at the end of it that's the von miller trade quarterbacks that could be on the move all the good stuff and a big college football just a day away, but we have one big deal we'll get to at the end of it. That's the Vaughn Miller trade. Quarterbacks that could be on the move, all the good stuff, and a big college football kind of preview of what the playoff committee will do and the four teams that I would have in as of today. Halloween stories and life advice. Sunday felt like backup Sunday back in the early, early ESPN radio days.

We used to love doing this. If it was a big Saturday or a big Sunday and we were doing the weekend night show, we'd try to come up with titles of the day. Be like, today is your back is against the wall. How do you respond on the road conference Saturday? And he would just go, what? And be like, today is show yourself. And yourself and i'm like no it's just week seven it's just week seven all right so we had backups win whether it was trevor simeon for new orleans

against tom brady that was that was weird that was that one stung a little bit but i think things have worked out for tom over the last 20 years so a late interception that derails a comeback we can all handle it emotionally geno smith just lighten up the jags and mike white i don't even remember when we used to do i was going to do it again this year but i didn't um i think i actually did it two years ago so i've been slipping on this one a bit where i used to just go through every single backup because i was just always amazed every time i looked at the two deep and then half the teams that carried a third quarterback, how little game reps any of those guys actually ever got. Like it was a stunt. Like you'll look around and go, hey, there's a guy. I remember. Oh, that's who their backup is. Okay. That's interesting. I would say half, you know,

I'm just kind of throwing a number out there. Half the teams would seem like they would have backups that you've never seen in a game because there was always this hope that they were grabbing something new, put them through a couple camps, and then on. But the thing that I'd always said is that the NFL eats its young when it comes to quarterbacks because they draft somebody third or fourth round,

have them on the roster year two, guy never gets in a game, probably gets minimal reps during any of the training camp stuff and then they just replace him with another guy that's never played and it wasn't about developing depth it was about hoping you know are we gonna maybe back our way in here to a Dak Prescott type of thing right or a Russell Wilson type transaction so that's always been kind of the state of backups and for one yeah, it doesn't mean anything.

They're 8-21 on the season going into yesterday. And I guess you could even say Heineke's a backup or whatever. I mean, that little guy's out there just slinging it left and right. The real headline, though, is Cincinnati. Because if you go back to the beginning of last week, not just me, everybody else. I mean, we talked about it. It's like everybody's going to be on the Cincinnati thing now because they are a good team. They are talented. The couple losses

were pretty close. It wasn't that big of a deal. Everybody likes Burrow. Jamar Chase is a matchup nightmare. They have depth in the receiving game. They have nice running backs. It seems like defensively they've upgraded enough. They can hang with teams. I think their defensive ranking is going into this week. You were

looking at a team that was really balanced on some of the overall efficiency stuff, right? And so they're up 31-20 on the Jets, and the Jets score a touchdown. Cincinnati has a tip ball that ends up being a pick with 436 left. Jets score another touchdown. Cincinnati punts because they have all their timeouts, and it looks like they're going to get the ball back. There was a couple things that happened late in this game that didn't make any sense. It looked like there was a Jets running

back that could have actually gotten the first down and was more worried about staying in bounds. So he just dove on the ground, shy of the first down marker. And everybody's like, what the hell's going on? And then you had New England diving all over the place and running out clock, which was smart. But the announcers act like no one, they were acting as if like no one had ever, ever thought of it. Like, my God, these guys, they just go over every single scenario. There's nothing that surprises them. They don't go out of bounds when they want the clock to run. Has anyone ever done this before? And you're just like, yeah, I think a lot of people do it. I think it's pretty much a goal

to stay in bounds. There was another thing. The Micah Parsons are trying to forget who the chess guy is. Look that up, Saruti. I know they did another chess graphic with Micah Parsons last night, but there was someone else too that they were doing it with where it's just the stuff I catch over the weekend sitting on the couch for 20-something hours watching football, but it was like,

this guy loves chess. Then they'll just do a chess thing. It helps me anticipate my my opponent's moves like no it doesn't no it doesn't you're just sick athlete and you can chase guys and you're good at tackling the chess has nothing to do with that nothing i i know there's gonna be a chess guy out there that's upset chess community may not like the podcast um it's just bullshit it's total bullshit chess is great good for you awesome i don't really think it helps you make tackles or avoid them. I don't. The other thing that's total bullshit, too, just while we're on this topic of other things that I've noticed, it is Micah Parsons-Serruti.

Yeah, yeah. Oh, my God. He beat Amari Cooper? Yeah, they did the chess graphic on the football thing again so i think that's twice i've seen this chess breakdown i can understand the mental aspect of it i just i don't think as much as we want to turn into a beautiful mind that parsons just sitting back there dissecting what the offense is doing and their strings attaching and he's just seeing things differently it's all slows down for him because he understands the bishop.

The other thing that's bullshit that's going on out there, and it came up with a Mark Ingram thing because he came back to the Saints and he's wearing number 14 because that defensive back that punches everybody is still wearing number 22 or he gets punched by everyone because he's so tough to deal with out there. This whole retired number deal, and then the guy says, I'd love to maybe just wear it even though it's retired to honor you. It's not to honor you. It's so I could wear a cooler number.

That's the whole point. There's nothing more important in this world than retired numbers. I would like to see this thing stop. But I just think it's funny that everybody was smart enough to try to figure out. They even hinted at the idea that Ingram was going to reach out to Archie Manning because he was like, there's no cool numbers left. So he grabbed 14. I don't know. But every time I've noticed that that now I think I fell for it a couple times it was like oh so and so said that he was going to do this and then he thought it would be a great way to honor this guy like no it wasn't

you just don't want to get stuck with a number that you don't want alright so Cincinnati loses that game to the Jets on one of the worst now I shouldn't phrase it that way they end up losing and on the possession where they punt it back to the Jets I'm not sure if they're going to get the first down or not. They're on third down. They're going to be shy of the sticks. And there's a play to the right, swing pass out, and they hit the Cincinnati Bengals with a targeting call.

getting complaints. I've tried to explain this to everybody all the time. When you have a league that for years thought everybody hated it because it wasn't safe and concussions were on the top of everybody's mind. Remember football was going to end? No one was ever going to play football again there. I don't know, a couple of years ago, probably remember that. I think they got through that. But one of the results was we have these absurdly, I don't even know if strict is the right word, cautious, the way they call it. They're very cautious with it. And the one we saw against Cincinnati yesterday was one of the worst. It wasn't even a play where you go,

oh, that could potentially be, what's going to happen there? The defender was going low as he could go on the offensive player, and the offensive player lowered himself into the defensive player. And there you go, first down, Jets win the football game.

So what does it mean? It means it was a bad call, but it doesn't guarantee victory for Cincinnati because I don't like playing that game where an awful call goes against you and you're like, all right, well, we shouldn't. Okay, you were still losing them. You were still losing. A lot of other stuff has to happen for you to then go ahead and turn around and win that game.

What it means is that Cincinnati, who was kind of all of our darlings there more nationally too, which you probably weren't used to, Cincinnati fans, is that they go from the number one seed to the number five seed in the AFC playoff standings, which, as we know, don't really mean all that much. Did you know that Tennessee is, as of today, the number one seed in the AFC, which seems weird for two reasons. One is that was a real shootout

there with the Colts, Carson Wentz, who had actually been pretty mistake-free for a good chunk of the middle portion of this season that we've seen so far as two epic interceptions. And they still almost, you still almost were in this game. And then the Derrick Henry news that he has the foot injury and he's going to be out for the rest of the year.

I'll get to Derrick Henry here in a second as we finish this up. So as we look at the AFC and it's all shuffling, it's kind of crazy. And again, it doesn't mean anything halfway through whatever we're dealing with here. Tennessee's the one seed. Vegas is the two seed. Baltimore and then Buffalo,

who there's probably still a lot of people that feel like they're better than everybody else, but they lose out on the conference record and the tiebreaker's there, but that Cincinnati goes from, hey, look how awesome this is, to a five seed. And now Pittsburgh,

only a half game behind Cincinnati with one less game. So they're in it. The Chargers were another headline team. Remember that? Everybody liked Herbert over Mahomes a couple weeks ago. They lose to New England and honestly, that wasn't really that

fluke. I mean, Herbert had a pick six there up 17-16 in the fourth quarter. I'm not quite sure what happened on the route out to his right side. I read a couple different things of it, but Herbert's now had two awful games around a bye week. We know the Baltimore game, bye week, New England comes into town.

And look, I don't like doing the, hey, you could always be this, because everybody basically argues why they should have more wins, and then if it's a team they don't like, they'll argue why they should have more losses. New England legitimately could be 7-1. They had a fumble in the red zone against Miami week one. They missed the kick against Tampa at home. The overtime loss to Dallas, that one's the least surprising. Look, they just straight up lost to the Saints.

6-2, 7-1 for New England. Then I'm like, are they really that good? That's not who they are. We realize that. They're 4-4 at this point. But I'm not going to put them in that. I'm not going to say, hey, they're really good or they're dangerous or all those things,

but they're good. They're not terrible, man. They're not. And at one point, I thought, all right, 1-3. They're probably not going to be any good here. The Texans game week five is their 1-3, and they're battling Davis Mills. And you're like, is this really a game?

Like, what the hell's going on here? And at that point on, they've been a pretty good football team. So the whole AFC has been thrown around here. And I'll end it with this. Derrick Henry, number one versus number two. Derrick Henry in attempts, 219. The number two running back had 137 attempts. Derrick Henry in yards, 937.

Number two in the NFL, 564. He was an outer space for running backs to this point this season. I don't know if that's exactly why he got the injury. I know there's going to be a lot of rest and they used him and all this kind of stuff. That's the position and he's the most he got the injury. I know there's going to be a lot of rest and they used him and all this kind of stuff. That's the position. And he's the most dominant guy at it. And that changes a lot for Tennessee. It really does.

Because he is something that doesn't happen very often in this league. We go years without seeing it, where a running back is completely carrying a football team. And he was doing that for the most part because Tannehill hadn't been as good statistically this year as he had been the previous two. Great to be joined again by Mike Sando,

excellent NFL writer for The Athletic. His six every Monday. I went through it this morning and I was like, okay, this is perfect. This is everything I want to get to. But I do want to start with the trade deadline is tomorrow. We know it's always a little underwhelming. The headliner is still Deshaun Watson. And I believe there's something to these rumors on that. There was an understanding that at least the compensation part of it, Mike, was figured out of Deshaun getting to Miami, but we're running out of time here. Yeah. Yeah. I'll buy that too. I think in the big picture, once, remember when the attorneys were going back and forth, Deshaun Watson's attorneys, and it was like something was coming out every day, right? Remember for a while? Yeah. that they'd work something out because the parties might be motivated to do it. But we don't know if that's going to happen. I think that's a prerequisite to really doing a deal.

Picture this, right? Is there a team that can have their general manager in a news conference sitting next to Deshaun Watson right now and saying, hey, look, we don't know if he's guilty. We don't know if he's going to jail. We don't think he can play this year. But we are sure excited to welcome Deshaun to the city of Miami or whatever. And we are so optimistic about the future. Now, this week, we're all in on Tua or whoever your starting quarterback is. That is a tough, how do you even get the compensation right? He could be

exonerated. He could be going to jail. He could be suspended for two years, for two weeks. You got to sort of know those things to make the deal, right? Yeah, I guess one of the things that I'd heard was that if the civil part were going to be fine, the criminal part may not be as big of a deal. but if there's a settlement, then that means you're now in the crosshairs of Goodell because of the commissioner's exemption list. And how would Goodell look at him and say, okay, is it time served for the NFL and then you're good to go? Or is it, hey, it's wherever you're traded to, if it even happens. Now you're out for the rest of the year, but you're good to start next year. That's where ownership, that's where if you're Steven Ross, you have to know where Goodell's leaning, I would think, ahead of time. Because if you're talking about trading multiple firsts, potentially for somebody like Deshaun, you have to know you're at least good to go by next season with him. You would think so.

This is also the organization, as I pointed out in my column today, that paid $5 million for a fifth-round draft choice used on a player who didn't make it out of camp. So when you have ownership that is not good ownership, anything can happen. I mean, he could do everything. They could trade for Deshaun Watson and not have a resolution. I mean, what makes anyone think Stephen Ross knows what he's doing at the football

operation based on what we've seen? Right? No, that was when you had in your column this morning, because I was going over the draft capital stuff that you have that I think is important to get to, too, before the deadline. That's what they did, huh? They took on Tlaib's $5 million hit, paid Tlaib, and that was just to be able to have the

fifth rounder attached to it, and the guy they took in the fifth round didn't make the team. Right. I mean, which is typical of fifth round picks. I mean, you may make it, you may not. You're probably not going to be Richard Sherman. You're probably going to be Curtis Weaver, who they picked, and is on the practice squad of the Browns.

So, you know, they just made a series of moves that aren't good. And I think when ownership gets involved at that level, it better be good ownership. And I don't see any evidence that it is good ownership there okay let's take then a look at you actually

this is good because Miami did move a bunch of pieces out put together all this draft capital and you have a to a question mark who I know this might not be popular i actually think he's played pretty i don't know i mean i think he's been better he's been fine right it's been okay um and if you can get to sean and you feel good about what's going out

and what joshua's ultimate penalty is going to be and you know that you can sell it to your fan base because selfishly deep down they're going to be going the majority of them are going to be going hey we just got a top five quarterback who's in his mid-20s. This is awesome. Because I think that's just kind of what happens, unfortunate or not. How bad of a job has Miami done, though, preparing the roster with all of the movement that they've made over the last few years? Yeah.

Well, to put it to you this way, I'm not trying to stump you. Who's their three best draft picks they've taken up before he's there? I mean, we'd have to look through them to see who's he is. Is he before them? Yeah, no, he'd be, he's probably no, yeah.

Yeah, he is before them. He was with Adam Gates. That's right. You're right. Yeah, you know what I mean? So you know, and I've got, I really worked this last week to put together what i'm calling a cheat sheet and it's just the bottom line look uh at what they've given up and what they've gotten okay and so the reason i asked the question is because i know even though we cover football all the time we follow the draft You don't even know who they've picked

really. I mean, we know Jalen Waddell this year, but you can't name... I mean, Waddell's like the guy you would just go with. I don't know if Raekwon would be the other one. I mean... You wouldn't say like, hey, you know, trading Laramie Tunsil hurts. I hate to lose a good left tackle, but hey,

they got Austin Jackson. They got Eichenberg, the second-round pick. Robert Hunt, Michael Dieter, Saul McKinley. I mean, those picks, I mean, we're going to ride those guys. That's really what's doing it, right? You wouldn't say – I mean, even Trayden Tannehill's been played like a top-five producer, right? I mean, shoot, Charlesden Tannehill's been played like a top five producer, right? I mean, shoot, Charles Harris was a bust with them.

He's been leading the Lions and Saks. You know what I mean? So, Minka Fitzpatrick, is there a good DB they've drafted? You just can't find a place really where they've truly upgraded. And then when they've tried to correct themselves by going into free agency, which is what free agency is for, it's Byron Jones, it's Kyle Van Noy, it's Will Fuller, it's Shaq Lawson, it's Eric Flowers. It's a bunch of guys who are either not on the team or are on the team, but aren't doing great. So what can you hang your hat on if you're Miami?

Well, we drafted Tua. Okay. I mean, you're not hanging your hat on if you're Miami? Well, we drafted Tua. Okay. I mean, you're not hanging your hat on that yet. We're saying he hasn't been too bad. But he's not. You're not going to win because of him. You have to have the support around him to win, which clearly they don't have.

And so I think they're in trouble. Yeah, I was kind of going through it here again, trying to find the guy. The Mick of Fitzpatrick one is one of those deals where they had to have thought the pick was going to be that much better. When that kind of guy gets traded, it's the same thing at Howard at corner,

where they're like, oh, maybe move on from him. It's like, no, aren't you trying to get those kinds of guys? I'm critical usually when teams get rid of good players. Now, sometimes you have a situation where it's just not going to work or the cap. And Jamal Adams is probably a good example of that with the Jets.

Jamal Adams is an example of that, but they will probably not draft somebody who played as well as Jamal Adams did for them over a four-year period. That's just the odds. Now, maybe Seattle tanks this year and they get the 10th pick in the draft out of it or whatever. That's where it would be now. But Russell Wilson's going to come back. Seattle's not going to be 10th. That's not the pick they're going to get. So

I think almost any time you give away a top player for draft picks, you don't get a top player usually with draft picks, right? I mean, you do sometimes, but it's not something you can bet on, especially if you're getting picks late in the first round. Take Detroit. I understand why they traded Memphis Stafford, but right now they would get the 32nd or 31st pick from the Rams. Okay.

Who's that player? Every five years, it's TJ Watt. But nine out of 10 times, it's somebody who, you know, it's Rashad Penny or just somebody who's in the league, but not making a big difference. So when you give away good players for draft picks, it's really great until you have to pick players.

And then you realize that unless you're really amazing, like if you look at Seattle 10 years ago, when they ever, when they drafted became an all pro, you know, that's unlikely. Okay. This is a good transition then because that Colts Tennessee result that we have yesterday, we'll get to the Derrick Henry part of it in a second here. So Titans win that game.

They're actually the one seed in the AFC as of today. Let me, let me actually go there. Is there a team in the AFC that you go, you know what, through all of the shuffling of the last couple weeks, we've had moments with Baltimore, we had a Chargers moment there because we were post-KC. Then we thought, hey, Buffalo's the team.

I think you would surprise a lot of people if you said, give me your one and two seeds in the AFC. I don't know how many people would get Tennessee and Vegas right. Is there a team? Is you sneaking back maybe towards Buffalo going? You look at their losses. That's probably still the team.

Oh, I totally feel it's Buffalo. I feel like Buffalo has actually had statistical regression on offense with Josh Allen, but they're so freaking good on defense. They've been so effective. It doesn't matter. And Allen's doing fine. I mean, their offense is fine. So I do think it's Buffalo. I think Buffalo's a team you can rely on.

What are you afraid of going to hell for them? You know what I mean? I feel like defensively, they've got a good mix. It doesn't have to be dominant, but they're well-coached. They have good players. They have great of their pass rush. There's nothing – you know, Josh Allen, we know every once in a while

he's going to do a crazy play and it's going to cost him, but he's going to make three others that are good. You know what I mean? I feel pretty good about him. I don't see the fatal flaw. I thought yesterday was a great day for the Raiders. You know, the Raiders are just interesting to me

because everyone got so excited with the Chargers and oh, Brandon staley and i uh and i i like brandon staley but he didn't just invent the game in the last month right i mean he's they're gonna have their ups and downs too you know what i mean but no he knew he knew and you would know far better than i would i think those moments to be able to say like hey here's how i feel about the world like when you do it in two minutes like unless you're just a total asshole like it's it's kind of an opportunity to show off like hey here's my worldly perspective on and especially when you're new then it turns into this guy's amazing like you know it was pretty amazing when he was it was it was but but you know we're in year two of

justin herbert there's going to be up and downs there, too. You know what I mean? They're going to have theirs. So what so intrigues me about the Raiders is the coaching change. You know, I think this year in the NFL is all about seeing different people in different environments. It's about what happens when you take Matthew Stafford and you put him with Sean McVay. Ooh, okay, well, now we get to see. What happens if Jared Goff goes to a bad team?

Oh, well, you know, okay, that's kind of what we thought was going to happen. What would happen if you moved Carson Wentz to Indy? Well, he'd still do some Wentz-like things, but maybe it would look a little better. Will it be good enough in the end? And I think, what happens to the Raiders when you remove John Gruden? That's something that you would never know could happen. But the comments that Josh Jacobs made a week or so ago about how there's a calm on the sideline. You know what I mean?

It's a different team without John Gruden. Is that good? Is that bad? They didn't even have to play yesterday, so they haven't been exposed or advanced their case but i think they're just sort of a team that we've been able to kind of you had your preconceived notions about car you didn't really buy the defense but there's some fundamentals in place there the defense is fairly sound they have a good pass rusher they're not a bad scheme on defense and then their cars Carson playing well.

They have some weapons. I don't know if they're going to figure out their offensive line. It was better against Philadelphia, but they're just sort of a team that, look, we anointed the Chiefs. That was a given. And then we loved Herbert. So that was kind of the next given. But how given are those givens? Why can't the Raiders be in that mix too? And I'm kind of the next given but how given are those givens why can't the raiders be in that mix too and i'm kind of excited to see what happens with them i'm not guaranteeing anything but they intrigue me so the titans without henry uh where are you on the injury his usage all that stuff um and then i mean look who are we kidding without, they're an entirely different team offensively. They are, but first off, it's terrible that he was injured. But what did I just say about this is the season of getting to see,

test all of these things we had in our minds? Would Stafford in a good place be a different thing? Hey, what would Tannehill be like without Derrick Henry? It's been easy to say he'd be nothing. Tannehill, totally dependent on the run game. They're the unique team that is down 14 points and still at every turn for different personnel moves or Arthur Smith leaving. And they just kind of prove you wrong every year. So what's Frabel got up his sleeve? Henry's been their identity.

They did pick up Julio Jones. They do have an excellent receiver. Do they make some kind of a trade? Everyone's thinking the trade for running back. Maybe they will. Do they add a receiver? Do they become more of a passing team? I don't know. They have won with bad defense in the past. That doesn't happen unless you have a top quarterback.

I'm kind of excited to see what they're going to do and what they're going to be. Does it open the door for a team like Indy to hang around in that division? Yeah, that's what that game felt like. This're going to do and what they're going to be. Does it open the door for a team like Indy to hang around in that division? Yeah, that's what that game felt like. This was going to decide the division. I'm not surprised the Colts hung with them. I don't think Tennessee's been as good offensively. The Tannehill part of it hasn't been because the stats were so incredible for Tannehill there for those two years,

especially when we talked about your QB tiers. You're looking at those stats going, man, if you did a blind resume NCAA tournament style, like this quarterback, this quarterback, this quarterback, the number of times you would get the Tannehill numbers wrong. They would just tell you. And Cousins, too, has had those types of numbers at times, too, even though you know they're not that type of quarterback. I didn't even talk about Cousins today after last night again.

I just said I don't have to do it anymore. Every time he has a bad game, everyone gets to believe what they've always believed. But if you look at their passing efficiency over the last few years, they're going to be way higher than people think, kind of in a Tennessee type of way. So, yeah, I think it really hurts Tennessee. The Henry thing, we didn't get that report till Monday morning.

Right. So as I was writing on Sunday night, I didn't know how bad he was going to be, but you know, Tannehill got banged up in that game too. And I've been a went skeptic this year because he got hurt in camp. And then I just didn't think it was a great thing that you're, you're with all the COVID stuff going on,

that your quarterback was going to be the guy who has to put on his mask afterwards it's just the whole thing felt like I wasn't excited about how it was going and we could say that again off of the game yesterday the game against Tennessee but the Wentz investment is a long-term investment it's not about seven games it It's about the long-term. And if Tennessee is going to waver here and fall off a little bit, there's still a chance that Wentz generally plays pretty good over the course of the season, and they're right there in a bad division because Tennessee's injuries knocked them out of it.

So I think that's a fascinating race. That's a good way to take a look at the top picks, though, because the way it sits now, the Lions would have the number one pick because they won the game. Texans have second. So what do we know about the Eagles and how many picks they would have and how that impacts the Wentz part of this? Because this was a great note that you brought up.

Yeah, so they get the third pick from Miami. That was in the receiver trade-up that Miami did. So they get the third pick, which looks like that's going to be a top five pick, probably from Miami. They would have the ninth pick from the Colts right now, which seems rather amazing. I don't know if the Colts are going to be that low,

but that's where they would be in the order right now. A lot of teams would be bunched in there. And then they have their own pick, which is the, which is eighth. And we'll see where they are in that. All of these could move around, but I think there's a good chance they could have three picks in the top half of the draft, the top half of the first round. Wouldn't you say if they, if they've got three, eight, nine, I think they're going to for sure have one in the top 10 and probably two that aren't lower than 20, wouldn't you think? It seems like three in the first half, no question. Yeah, I think it's three in the first half with a good chance probably of one in the top eight.

I'd say that. So now you're talking about the Pitt quarterback, right? You have a lot of flexibility for your team which just sounds great until you pick like the dolphin's fish yeah i mean that's also for philadelphia who's likely going to make a change a quarterback or at least invest back into the like it's the wrong year but again it can be the right year and everybody's wrong it could be the wrong year and then it turns out to one of these guys from this quarterback class that we're talking down already here at the end of the fall,

the end of the winter. And then we'll look back and be like, hey, remember nobody liked this quarterback draft? There ends up being two guys that are all pro. So who knows? Yeah. And then remember, too, that that's not the only way to get quarterbacks anymore. We've seen things happen like Wentz be traded or Stafford be traded

or Brady leave or Rivers leave. I think there's been a little bit more fluidity in that. We don't know what that's going to look like right now. Who could possibly become available? How ridiculous do you think the

quarterback shuffling could be? Because we want to do this later this week, Mike, where we take a look at all the teams where it felt like, I would say the last couple of years, and this is one of the things you look at, you'd be like, okay, look how many guys haven't started games. That means they've secured the job because they have to give them the chance. We're less patient ever with quarterbacks, I believe,

as far as like, hey, you're the starter, you're not the starter, all that kind of stuff. It felt like maybe we get to like 26 teams or so, like, hey, we at least know who's behind center now for them. But if you factor in the Rodgers part of it, you factor in the Wilson part of it, factor in the Deshaun, what does that mean for Tua? All of these different things.

What do you think the preliminary list would be of potentially different quarterbacks for however many number of teams I'm putting you on the spot here a little bit, but I think I could run through it. Yeah, I think it would be. So let's, let's go with those three guys you mentioned as who knows.

I mean, do I think Russell Wilson gets traded golf? They would be stupid trade them probably, but you never know. I mean, it could come to a head. You would, you would think that Garoppolo is going to be available,

right? I mean, certainly. Yes. Yeah. He would have to be available. Somebody to be available, right? I mean, certainly. He would have to be available. Somebody who has started games and they've been able to win. What happens with let me think here. Well, Pittsburgh would be one.

I have all this. I'll go through it. There's a couple guys that have had their fifth year options picked up. I guess that means they're going to stay with where they're at. No, probably. Houston, Houston would be a team that's going to have to invest in the position.

Oh yeah. Philadelphia. I think we're on the same page, right? Oh yeah. As far as teams that will need to be looking. Yes. Yeah.

And then we can plug in kind of the rest of it. Um, Washington. Absolutely. Denver, absolutely. Denver. Denver. For sure. The Teddy Bridgewater experience long-term gets worse.

Just really isn't, he's not much of a solution. Correct, yeah. He's the classic tier four, you know, that you probably don't want him to go the whole year, but you might be okay with him for a little while. Yeah, exactly. It's kind of like I used to always think about like a right fielder that had to play for a couple weeks for the regular. And then you'd watch him and you go, how come this guy's not starting all the time? And then if you played three months, you go, oh, this is why. Because everybody's like, they're actually a game plan against this guy now a little bit.

Right. Yeah. So they're going to be plan against this guy now a little bit. Right. Yeah. So they're going to be in it. Carolina, New Orleans. Oh yeah. New Orleans. New Orleans is so interesting because you've got Sean Payton,

a great infrastructure. Their defense is good and you're indoors. If I was one of those quarterbacks like Rogers or Wilson, who sort of has one eye, you know, kind of on, Hey, what would be a better situation?

That's pretty good. Yeah, that's pretty good. I know the Panthers had a decision to make on Darnold, and you didn't know what it was going to be beyond this year. But, I mean, they at least have him for another year. And now, you know, a guy that we thought maybe figured it out post-Gase may be more like the guy we saw up there. The post-Gase teams aren't exactly enjoying that bump. Where's that bump in Miami and the Jets? No, it hasn't happened.

Maybe it's coming. They picked up the option on Darnold. What that means is they changed the rules around the fifth-year option in the last couple of years to where when you do it, it's fully guaranteed money. So an example, like a couple of years ago, I think Tennessee maybe had a couple of those guys like Jack Conklin or somebody. It would have been guaranteed for injury only and you decided not to do it. That can come back to bite you. Now, though, come back to bite you if you do exercise it because it's fully guaranteed. So Sam Darnold has a fully guaranteed 2022 salary of $18.8 million.

So if you want to play in that free agent world and, you know, hey, owner, tepper, we're all in, we'll give you whatever, well, you're not going to really acquire a quarterback with a $30 million salary, right? I mean, it could be a little bit harder to wedge that in. Speaking of salary decisions, you got Baker Mayfield, who is hurt. They lose to the Steelers.

I don't look at that one a ton and go, you know, the Browns, this team. We know that they're up and down. But is this maybe the same team we saw last year with just different results? Yeah, you know, I've been kind of saving this note until this week, but they were 7-1 last year in games decided by six or fewer points.

And they're like 1-3 this year. So I think some of that is they're banged up. You know, they probably lost a little bit of their edge. You know, they, they probably just lost a little bit of firepower there. But some of those just even out to, you know,

I think that was going to happen and here they are, you know, I think they'd be four and four, probably a little better. I think the injuries are a factor in that Mayfield's injury is a factor in that, but they're in on Baker Mayfield for $18 million next year, too. They've picked up the options.

So that's probably an affordable, good price for them with him, right? I mean, I don't see any reason for them to rush into a huge top-of-the-market deal, do you? No. I don't want him to go. They can have him. Put it to you this way. They could have him for the 18 and franchise him for 30 or

32, and now you've got a quarterback on a $225 million Garoppolo deal. It just feels like the agent is always able to play the guy card, meaning, hey, if he's your guy, you have to step up. Almost as if it's this premium.

If you want to live in this nice place, hey, by the way, there's an HOA here. This is just the way it works. You know what I mean? And that's always felt like the rules for the start. If you're telling our client that he's going to be your guy, then this is the price you have to pay. This is the guaranteed money. This is all the comps.

These are all the other guys. It feels like, and of all the things that Washington has done horribly as a football franchise, I always respected that they looked at Cousins and said, we like you, we don't love you, and we're not going to do this. I actually always thought that was kind of interesting. And that's how I would treat Baker that way at this point. Yes, but I think the Browns are much more skilled at how they would handle that and not be in the acrimonious way that it was done in Washington. If you watch Stefanski, it's interesting, this is an aside, but like Baker Mayfield at his news conference yesterday sounded exactly like Stefanski, like he's taking on the, it was very interesting to me, but Stefanski

would say, hey, look, we are all in on Baker. I mean, we left him. He's our guy. Now there's a negotiation that's separate from that. And we're hopeful we're not going to enter into something that's not in the best interest of the Browns. And we're hopeful, um, the same time. I mean, you know, we're evaluating everybody and the last two years are, we haven't gone as far as we wanted in the playoffs. And, and so we're monitoring all of that. You could say that or say half of that, but you don't have to say we don't think he's our guy. You can just keep saying he's our guy, and we hope to have something worked out.

But I think no one's going to look at that situation and say they've won because Baker Mayfield's been an amazing quarterback who's carried them. I think you can make the case that he's benefited as much from them or more than the other way around. So, um, you know, maybe they can get a reasonable deal because those have sort of gone away a little bit. You know what I mean? Remember, remember eight or 10 years ago or seven, eight years ago, like the Bengals were able to do Andy Dalton for a middle tier deal. You know what I mean? Or like that's how long ago it was now. It's a starter.

tier yeah deal you know what i mean like that's how long ago it was now it's if you're the starter it's yeah kaepernick had an awful deal his deal was like the fakest 100 million dollar deal i've ever seen where it was hey cap we got our guy 100 million dollar deal and then you dug into it you go this is a one-year guarantee with like a option for the second year which will granted he'll be on the team next year remember those guys yeah now Now the difference was those guys were later picks in the draft. And so they had less money and they had more incentives to enter into a deal that gave them 15 million in their pocket today. You know what I mean? Baker's the number one overall pick.

He's got all these commercials. He's not in that world of those guys. But if I were like their organization did a deal with Nick Chubb, people you'd say on the surface, well, what are you doing paying running backs? Right. They're the analytics guys.

Yeah. But they got them to it. You didn't pay him at the top of the market. They paid him in a pretty darn good deal for the team. So are, are they able to buck that thing? And where does Lamar Jackson come in? Right.

I think we would all say that, that Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen out of that class deserve to be a higher than him than baker wouldn't everybody say that yeah i would watching them play and looking at the team results so but that might be a good piece you should do that the extinction of the middle class quarterback contract because it doesn't i used to think it was kind of interesting to be like wow they're going to push back on it it's like no now it's just when you look at the golf deals and that's why the dac stuff so ridiculous, the criticism of it. It was like, hey, DAC turned down a huge number to get an even bigger number after he was hurt.

It wasn't what people made it out to be. Yeah. And this is an interesting thing too on Mayfield. Let's just say, okay, let's just say they went to the top five of the market, right? Okay. If it doesn't work out in a couple of years, they can trade them just like golf and wedge got traded, right? You can still get out of it. So yeah, it'll be fascinating to see what they do. I see them as a disciplined organization, though. And they're all on the same page, it feels like to me there. I know that's amazing for Cleveland, but I think Andrew Barry, Stefanski, these guys are real cool customers who sort of make logical decisions and then explain it in

a way that's not offensive to anybody. So they, they may be able to, maybe they can ride this thing out without it, without appearing to be dissing their guy, kind of like it was in Washington. It's going to be fascinating. Yeah.

I like, I like that a lot. All right. Um, I'm going to end on this note backups uh is there anyone ever in the history of the league that will be better with backups than Sean Payton oh that's a great well it depends on the makeup of your team so you could say you know Don Shulo uh you know had Brian Greasy and then went to Earl Morrill and they did pretty well.

You know, so there's been some, there have been some situations where the backup did a great job. Shoot, the New York Giants, you know, put in Jeff Hostetler, won the Super Bowl. But there's things about your team that usually have to be true if you're going to have a lesser player at that position. You got to be really darn good on defense. And then the Saints pretty much are. I think what's interesting about the Saints is Sean Payton has also shown a willingness to totally change up his offense. And I think that is a differentiator a little bit with coaches. Not everybody's willing or able to do

that, certainly to that degree. I think Sean Payton enjoys it. Certainly it helps when you're winning like they have been, but I think he does enjoy it. I'm very anxious to see what they're going to do. If anybody can do it and keep them in the mix, they can because they were winning with Jameis Winston. If you watch those games, it wasn't like Winston was great. There were some hard games to watch and they still were winning them at the Patriots at Seattle. were winning them at the Patriots at Seattle, right? Yeah.

No, I mean, that's – it's just unbelievable when you look through the run of guys that he's had and then it turned – like a couple times it was like, well, you know, look at what so-and-so did. And then you would always point it out and be like, the defensive number that you would get of support was always really high. That law is not changing by the way, the longer Sean Payton plays with the backup guy, the closer to 500 he's going to get.

I mean, I believe that the longer you're in the league, if everyone could be in the league a thousand years, they'd be 500. You know what I mean? Belichick too. Cause he, cause it would just even out.

You'd go through some bad breaks. You'd have a bad quarterback. Um, you know, so you're not going to outsmart the system and always win with bad quarterback play, but they're pretty darn interesting the way if they can manage the game, have the defense, mix of run and pass,

be a little unconventional, they can be more successful than a lot of people would be. Hey, good timing on this. One of my favorite players, Vaughn Miller, is being traded from the Broncos to the Los Angeles Rams. They will run into each other. Two second-day 2020 draft picks. So that means the Rams...

This was always the problem for the Vaughn Miller part of it. Now, he didn't play in the Washington game. Now I wonder if he didn't play in the Washington game because they knew they were going to trade him. So give me your take on this one,

because it's still a relatively big cap hit, which I think prevented maybe some other teams from being able to get a deal done for him or whatever they think is left of Von Miller. But I would think with Aaron Donald, that changes totally for whatever you think Von Miller still is. Yeah. Von Miller's been on my list. I mean, it was last week or the week before when I did a list of possible trades. He was just someone to watch. I was curious about how Denver would be able to tell Vic Fangio, hey, we're going to do something that could undermine your ability to keep your job. That's always a hard thing to do when you're coaching for your job,

but your GM is new. You know what I mean? Yeah. And I think George Payton is a collaborative is new. You know what I mean? Yeah. And I think George Payton is a collaborative general manager. I don't, you know what I mean? I don't think he generally wants to do something, not that any GM does, but I think he's less apt to probably do something that quote unquote pisses off the coach, right?

I think he's going to work with the guy at the same time. It makes total sense for where they're at as one of those teams that needs a quarterback. What are they going to do? Enter into a long-term extension with Vaughn Miller after this year? Because he's up. So he was going to leave in some capacity anyway. That day was going to come.

So as long as you could internally sell that, then it makes total sense. If you're going to look at what team would acquire him, it's absolutely the Rams for that type of team. They're into it for the star power. They've got Jalen Ramsey, Vaugher and aaron donald on the same defense so um that's not a surprise at all that would be them um i think it's a good move uh an interesting move for the rams as an all-in team that looks pretty darn good to me. Right. And just to clean up some of the details,

because this is all happening in the moment, whenever these trades happen, you always feel like. So the wording on it was two second-day 22 picks, which means either a second or a third. So I'm like, man, that seems like a lot, knowing that the cap number is what it is. But apparently now Denver's also going to be paying $9 million of the $9.7 million remaining.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I mean, I'm not dogging Miller here, but that felt like to get two picks out of it, how are the finances on that working? And clearly Denver's helping. Actually, so the things that I wondered about on that front before we knew that was, okay, would the Rams enter into a new deal with him? That would be a little bit hard to do probably because the Rams might,

you never know with them. They could, but I don't think they want to lock themselves in if he's just going to win the Superbowl this year and not be as good for three years to come. Right. You don't want to do too much. And if you're Von Miller, you want to be doing that from a position of strength, you're close to free agency, right? If he wins the Superbowl, maybe he cashes in. So that element of it the the uh you know the the broncos picking up some of the money associated with the deal um is great for the rams and makes sense and i applaud the broncos for

doing this he's a franchise icon they won a super bowl Bowl with Vaughn Miller. It's very easy for you and me to sit here and say what they should do with their players because they're chess pieces on a board dots. We don't walk past Vaughn Miller for the last five years in the locker room. So those are hard decisions to make. I think it's an excellent decision to get draft picks because they have to have maneuverability to try to upgrade from Bridgewater. Look at their division. Derek Carr, Justin Herbert, Patrick Mahomes. They are irrelevant if they're trying to get the Teddy Bridgewaters of the world for the next five years.

They have to be able to get somebody else. I love it for the Rams because I love Von Miller. I can't wait to see what he's like with Aaron Donald in the middle of a defensive line. I'm not telling you. It's prime Von Miller, but I don't think it's... This is not some reclamation project or anything like that. I'm pumped for it.

Hey, Mike, thank you so much. This is Mike Sando. You can read his Monday morning column, The Pick 6 on The Athletic. It's a must-read for NFL fans. We'll talk to you again soon. Thank you. The college football playoff rankings come out Tuesday night. I'm excited.

I'm not quite sure what they're going to do with it. We're going to get to a bunch of different things here, and I'm going to kind of go over the top teams. And as I've always said, okay, whenever you look at these rankings and how the committee votes on it, whether it's the AP, whether it was computer, whether it was the coaches, whether it was guys on TV, nobody likes any of it, all right? I'm reading that book, Peril, about the transition from Trump to Biden, and I'm almost done with it. And there's this portion of the stimulus packages they're trying

to pass, and they don't even go into that much detail about all the pieces of it. But the times they do share from sourcing on what the discussions were, I don't know how anything, like we all kind of sit there on the outside in the country and be like, oh, Congress, you know, these guys just get in the way,

and the House, the Senate, blah, blah, blah. You know, even if you're the president, you know, these are all just very remedial kind of topic of trying to figure out what the hell goes on and reading any of that stuff. You're like, I don't know how anything ever happens. I don't know how anything ever happens because as soon as you propose this

bill, whether you are on the low side or the high side of what the stimulus should have been, there was, if you wanted to just sit there and poke holes and all, you could do it all day. You could do it all day. You could do it all day. And that's what this is. Because I may do this exercise and just throw out the tweet. I'm going

to do it. I'll do it after the rankings come out Tuesday night. I'll be like, what did you have the biggest problem with? And whatever argument is being made, I guarantee you, I would say over 90% of the time, I could poke a hole in whoever's argument is arguing something against what had happened. And I'm serious because what you're going to do is you're just going to, you're going to categorize, you're going to look at, oh, you know what? I'm going to use top 40 wins for my team. All right. You know what I'm going to use is top 25 wins. Well, what I'm going to use is how many wins against teams that are currently ranked. Oh, then I'm going to do this. I'm going to go how many, how many wins against teams over 500. Like it's, you don't want to do

it with me. You don't want to do it with me because I've been doing it now for like 17 years, and I think we're going to do it. So let's look at at least what we have right now. So George is number one in everybody's. Look, they got every AP number one vote, coaches vote. That's the way it should be. They've given up 53 points in eight games. N'Kobe Dean, number 17, their linebacker, is one of my favorite players in the country.

I love watching him. They're doing stuff statistically on defense that we haven't seen in like 30 years. They're doing some SEC defensive stuff that we haven't seen, I think, in 50 years. And they're also doing it in an era where it's not exactly defense heavy. You want to tell me their schedule isn't loaded

with 2001 Rams? I will agree with you. But there comes a point where you've got to just move off of that, Danny Connell. And you have to just realize that this team statistically is doing really, really special stuff. Their depth on the front, the personnel on the front. Maybe we don't love their secondary, but they're putting it on a lot of teams here. And the weird thing about that Florida game was it was 3-0. Well, like a couple minutes ago in the first half, and then Georgia's defense ends up leading to 21 points there in

2-16 to close the first half. They're up 24-0. On the other side of the ball for Georgia, JT Daniels was cleared to practice who was going to be better than Stetson Bennett, and Bennett played again. And Bennett wasn't exactly great in this game. And I could give you some offensive... We know what Georgia is. They're going to run the football. They're going to throw those tight ends at you.

I don't know they're going to beat you with a ton of outside guys, and it hasn't mattered. I mean, it doesn't matter. When you're giving up like six points a game, it doesn't matter. So they should be one, but I don't look at them saying that no one could ever possibly

beat them. You just have to kind of have one of those Saturday night games where everything's just out of control. I don't know if that's going to happen against them, and I don't know what's going to happen with the quarterback stuff because I'll look at Bennett and I've watched it and I go, all right, look, he's not one of the best guys in the country. And then you'll look at some of the numbers, and they're actually still pretty solid, except for the fact that he's not going to have the accumulation numbers

because they don't need to. They don't need to have him out there throwing it 45 times a game. Michigan State beats Michigan. Michigan down 30-14 in the third quarter, ends up 30-30. Michigan gets a field goal. They're up three. And then the last three possessions for the Wolverines fumble where their backup was in because their starter was in the tent.

So that was awful luck. Downs, and then a late interception that pretty much sealed it. So what do you do with Michigan State? They're number five in the AP. They have to be in the top four for the playoff committee. I would hope so. Their strength of record is actually number two. So if we want to start looking at who have you played

and all this different stuff, we knew that the Michigan-Michigan State game, even with the headline, it's not always the case for all these teams. You're going, all right, well, who have they actually played? I mean, hell, Nebraska has given both Michigan and Michigan State a game. Beating Northwestern by 17 probably isn't enough,

even though that goes all the way back to week one. A one-score game against an Indiana team that hasn't won a game in the Big Ten doesn't really get you excited. But look, Michigan was sixth, and Michigan State came back and beat them. So I think they should be number two with the committee. I'll get to Bama. Don't worry about it. Let's round out the rest of the top four because Cincinnati is actually number two in the AP

and there's going to be all sorts of freak out if they're not in the top four of the college playoff. The two are not connected. The AP usually follows the committee rankings, but I still have Cincinnati in. I have Cincinnati fourth. Their only ranked win is against number nine, Notre Dame. Notre Dame is good, not great. They figured out the running game a little bit. They're actually eighth now in the AP. When Cincinnati beat them at their place, they were ninth. Cincinnati was favored, by the way. Cincinnati was the better football team. After the Wisconsin-Notre Dame game, I was kind of off of Notre Dame altogether. football team. After the Wisconsin-Notre Dame game, I was kind of off of Notre Dame altogether. Since then, they beat Virginia Tech, they housed USC last week, and they beat UNC, who's probably one of the most disappointing preseason-ranked

teams in the entire country. Let's play strength of record, strength of schedule here for Cincinnati. Cincinnati has a number six strength of record, which is one of the metrics that ESPN has up there for some of their stuff. I don't love all the ESPN FPI stuff for a couple of different reasons, but you're just going to go and shop around, right? Shop prices, try to figure it all out here. Because for Cincinnati, you can think, wait a minute, strength of record, six overall, that's amazing. Wake is somehow fifth. And that's clearly way too heavily weighted on

a team being undefeated because even though congrats to Wake and a top 10 ranking, let's just review Wake's resume real quick. Old Dominion, Norfolk, Florida State, Week 3. And we're going to make this point here too because sometimes these wins

and losses are about when you play the team, not who the team is at Week 9. Virginia, they beat. They beat Louisville by a score. Syracuse by a field goal. They beat Army 70-56 and then they housed Duke this past week and Duke is 0-4 in ACC play. That gets you 10th in the country. They're 8-0. I'm not complaining about it. There's no way they're the 10th best team in the country. That schedule just sort of worked out the way it did. If you look at teams behind Wake, Oklahoma State would beat them. Auburn, who I was as wrong about as anybody because Bo Nix kind of calmed down finally.

Auburn would kill them. A&M would smash them. Baylor would beat them. Ole Miss would beat them. BYU would smash him. Baylor would beat him. Ole Miss would beat him. BYU would beat him. I'm not going to go as far as Iowa because I don't... Blueprint game there out of Wisconsin. It just finally caught

up to Iowa. It finally caught up to them. That was terrible against Wisconsin. And we'll use maybe Iowa as an example here a little bit as I continue to ramble. So Cincinnati's got the strength, the record number that looks really good. But Wake has one that's one slot up against them. And to me, that's irrelevant. I am

really unforgiving about the group of five versus the power five. There's no comparison. There's no comparison in opponent's schedule. Now, you want to tell me Cincinnati can go and hang with Michigan State? Absolutely. I might pick them. I might pick them against Michigan. Am I guilty of the name brand stuff where I'd have a harder time

picking Cincinnati against Alabama? You're damn right. No doubt. Like I said, we'll get to Bama. Cincinnati, depending on where you shop here, you can find a strength of schedule that's number 43, which didn't make a ton of sense. You can find a strength of schedule that has them at number 94,

and you can find another one that has them at 100. Ohio State, by the way, and the same one that had Cincinnati strength of schedule at 100, Ohio State's 74th. So I'm not holding Cincinnati down because Navy ended up 27-20. Navy scored 10 straight points to close that one out. It was 14-12 this week against Tulane at the half, and that's without that Pratt quarterback for Tulane, who I do really like. So yeah, it hasn't been as impressive the last couple weeks. Yes, Cincinnati,

it feels unfair that people want you to blow everybody out the entire time, but that's what's going to happen when you're a non-Power 5. And having said all of that, I would put them fourth in my playoff ranking as of today. Let's get back to the Big Ten, because No. 22 Penn State's the only three-loss team in the Top 25. There is no question Penn State is the top 25 team. They may end up with five losses this year. I don't know what to do with them, and if they have five losses, I still think they're going to be a top 25 team. Do I think they're great? No.

I think they're tough. I think they're physical. If you watch the Saturday night game against Ohio State, the fact that they were out there swinging wildly and trying to make it happen, I have a ton of respect for them, but they may end up as this weird team that the committee will look at and say, well, what am I supposed to do with them? Four or five losses? What does it really mean? That one's going to be tricky because in the moment, I always feel like Penn State's a worthy adversary. But with five losses, people are going to hold it against them once you start looking at, say, a Michigan State or an Ohio State the rest of the way.

And by the way, if Michigan is anything close to what we want them or at least what they think they are, then they got to at least split with they can't lose to Penn State and Ohio State because we're already starting to see it. Fine bomb. Yeah, Harbaugh sucks. Harbaugh sucks because they lost the Michigan State game after being undefeated to this point. Is Harbaugh disappointing long-term? What you'd expect? Sure. Fine. I'll have it.

But when you're a top five matchup going into last week, you're still kind of doing things the right way. But if Michigan is any good, you've got to win one of those games. I just don't think they're going to have the juice in the receiving game to match up with what's going on with Ohio State because Ohio State is just going to be better than almost every other team with their receivers running around. And I think that's what we kind of fell for the previous four weeks before a real battle with Penn State. All right. What do I do with Oklahoma? They've got one ranked win and that's against Texas. And Texas has more double digit blown leads. They have three games now they've lost with a lead

entering the fourth quarter, which doesn't happen often. That's why it's a big deal. I still will think Texas is probably one of the 25 best teams, but I'm not sure what it will mean for the resume. So I have Oklahoma out. That leaves one more. And by the way, look, I already know all the Oklahoma arguments that are going to happen. Caleb Williams, everything's different now.

Oklahoma's number four in the AP, the number four in the coaches. I would have them out because I'm not sure about the resume part of it. And I'm going to put Bama in. I would put Bama in as the third team. So I got Georgia, Michigan State,

Bama in Cincinnati, Ohio State and Oklahoma out. Here's my problem with any anti-Bama stuff. They're still good. You guys get that, right? The A&M loss on a night, if you watch the game, Calzada, who I think I talked about for a month straight this season, A&M had a night, and they also have five or six guys that are going to be top

50 draft picks. If you're in the room for the committee, and you're looking through where Bama's at to this point, it's not excusing a loss against an unranked team. It's being realistic about who A&M was and continues to be at the time. They were disappointing

based on preseason expectations. They couldn't figure out a quarterback. They finally started to figure some stuff out. Now A&M is a tough out. It's not the team that played Mississippi State. Couldn't figure out their offense. Bama, for all their problems, 21st

on defense, 10th on offense. If you're saying, hey, we're giving Bama the benefit of the doubt, yeah, we are. We are. You want to know why? Because we do it all the time. We don't just do it with Bama. We do it with anyone who is historically good,

and we still think that the team is really talented. You could say it's unfair, but it's almost impossible to do it any other way. You want to know why? Because, look, post-Tebow with Florida, we're like, man, have you seen that John Brantley guy? He's going to light it up. No. We gave Florida the benefit of the doubt.

Remember when Colt McCoy got hurt in the national championship game against Alabama and Gilbert came in? And we're like, man, they might be better with Gilbert. No, they weren't. We gave Texas the benefit of the doubt. Remember after Jameis won the national title with Florida State and we're sitting there watching him going, all right, next year, how come we were holding him a higher standard? We're year, how come? We were holding him a higher standard.

We're like, how come? What's going on with him? Like, they're winning all these close games. It seems different. Something's wrong. We talked about it every single week. They get into the playoff, and they get smashed by Oregon.

USC was number one in the preseason rankings in 2012. They ended up seven and six. We gave Clemson the benefit of the doubt because of Uwe Ungelele. All right, we watched him, and we said, no problem. This guy's going to pick it right up. Clemson's benefit of the doubt because of Uwe Ungerle. We watched him and we said, no problem. This guy's going to pick it right up. Clemson's defense is still sick. They're a coin toss every single week. So if we're going to do it for all of these other programs, for a bunch of different reasons, when Bama has the best run that we've seen in the history of

the game, going back to when Princeton would give itself a championship for going 1-0-1 in two games against Rutgers, then I think it's okay to look at Bama at 7-1 and go, all right, that one loss actually was to a talented team. It was a three-point loss, and they'll still have plenty of chances, certainly with an improved Auburn team at the end, to solidify any of the benefits of the doubt that we're actually giving them. You want details? Fine. I drive arari 355 cabriolet what's up i have a ridiculous house in the south fork i have every toy you can possibly imagine and best of all kids i am

liquid so now you know what's possible let me me tell you what's required. Let's do a little Halloween recap if we could. Kyle, what happened to you? I didn't really do any Halloween stuff yesterday. I did go to SoFi and watch the Patriots kick the shit out of the Chargers at home, if you know what I mean. Yeah, I do, brother. How was that? It was goddamn incredible. Actually, I was, brother. How was that? Oh, it was goddamn incredible. Actually, I was a little scared of myself at the end.

And I was definitely a bit over-served before we went. But that's okay. I tried to keep it in between the buoys, as Al Jackson says. But I just kind of felt like at the win. I mean, first of all, the stadium was beautiful. We were in the end zone. Shout out to Tate Frazier for the tickets.

And everything was great. But as we won, I kind of felt like I was beautiful we're in the end zone shout out tape brazier for the tickets um and everything everything was great but as we won i kind of felt like i was turning into the hulk like i was um i don't know i just was like felt like i was like an angry college white guy or something i don't know what the hell was going on with me i was just like my chest was out my fist was clenched but we won i don't i was kind of waiting for somebody to say something to me and everyone was kind of really gracious but i just didn't like just didn't like what was happening to me but i couldn't stop couldn't turn it off give me give me some give me some more specific um i don't know i think like honestly i think from afar like if you were just looking at me you maybe would be embarrassed by me i don't know i think i was just i was doing a

lot of yelling uh and i think i was starting to lose my voice more like i'm surprised i have what i have now but i think it seemed even more like i was um gonna have nothing to say to anyone because i just was i was just kind of screaming probably a lot of let's goes it wasn't looking back it's just not what i it's not what you want to see but i there was nothing i could do about it you were hammered at so far you were you with your dad no no no so tate oh tate got me the um the tickets and then he was like so sorry buddy i'm going to outside lands this weekend i was like but that means that i am gonna go to the game right because i've done this whole thing i'm bailed from the bill simmons podcast so he was like yeah so i just took my buddy buddy Carl, who I hadn't seen in a while, but is a Pats fan from Boston.

Does Carl have a van? No, no. His girlfriend did pick us up afterwards, though. We Ubered on the way there. I met her for the first time, too. I was probably like a piece of shit. Her daughter was in the car. I sat in the front.

I kept my mouth shut, though, mostly. I think. I don't know. Wait, so was there more to the story or is this I mean I mean you don't have to share everything was this the end of your Halloween you guys keep going no I went back to frolic room um after I probably should have just went home but it's really not not that big of a difference I went back to frolic room and like showed was showing off my cups that I got from SoFi. I don't know what the hell's wrong with me. I just like I probably should have just went home. But I went back to frolic room for another like hour and then I just

I went home and fell asleep. I really didn't. I didn't have any Halloween spirit. It's actually really hard to follow the games like you know any any other games while you're at a football game. But I mean, I don't know. I I guess the Halloween was there was a demon inside me yesterday for five hours. That was my Halloween. I mean, I love how the hostility, too, sort of carried over on Twitter. Because I saw you tweet, and you started doing the all-caps thing, which was great. And then, I think it was right after the game, I will really knock you out right now.

Hashtag go Pats. And I was like, all right, Kyle, feeling himself. That's good. A couple minutes later, can't tell me nothing, all caps. I was thinking about checking in with you and seeing like, hey, are we okay? What's going on? But the fighting words carried over to Twitter. So I was all about that.

I know. It was just everyone was being really nice and gracious. And even at the gas station waiting to get picked up. Like, I don't know. I just did. This guy had a look about him. I was like, come on, say something. Let's do something here. It's been a while,

but nothing happened. So wait, you were trying to fight guys at the gas station 24 hours ago. I wasn't trying to fight. I was just like, you know, it sounds like you were. He was hoping somebody would try him. Here's some chargers guys like that.

Just, you know, set it in motion. And honestly, I don't like any of it. And it was in the moment. Even I was like like why am i doing this why is it this way but it just felt really good it's been a tough season like you said earlier you know we could be seven and one but we're four and four and we're you know we almost weren't but we were because we kicked the shit out of the chargers uh can we just back up to when you said let's maybe get it going because you you're you're beating yourself up here a little bit but you're admitting that you loved every minute of it so that's what's scary about it though you know what i mean so so did anyone

any chargers fan look back at you and be like relax or let's go or did you guys do kind of the stare down it was a lot of stare downs but we were keeping it moving you know because uh once it releases from sofi there's just so many people and a lot of them were Patriots fans. So a lot of them were good. I was basically seeking out a lot of the Patriots fans and giving extra hard, loud high fives and then looking at the Chargers fans around. But then, you know, we were all kind of moving in the same direction. But then when you get to the outskirts and there's like there's people are going to break off into their Uber lines. Other people are like, oh, where should we go? There's like a couple of restaurants, a couple of gas stations.

So they took my cigarettes when I went into SoFi. Do you know, you can't bring cigarettes into SoFi. So anyway, that was my first thing was like zipping over to some sort of gas station, just get started again. But I don't know. It was like,

once we stopped, once everyone was like not moving out of way from the stadium, it was like, everybody was kind of like doing their own thing. I was like, all right, well, what's going to happen here?

But all the Chargers fans were really gracious and nobody really wanted any problems well that's what i was gonna say of all 32 stadiums like away stadiums you could have gone to the one you're least likely to get into a fight is probably a chargers home game correct there by way more pats fans there anyway yeah it was probably about 50 50 it may even have been more there was a lot of chargers saw some rams jerseys there that was fun probably about 5050 may even have been more there was a lot of charters, some Rams jerseys there. That was fun. But I guess my thing was I hadn't been to a Pats game. And I've never even been to a Pats home game. But the last time I went to a Pats game was they beat the shit out of the Jets like almost 10 years ago, maybe like eight years ago now. And those

fans were like, they were still talking shit, even though they got beat like 30 by 30 points. So I was just hoping for something like that and nobody was doing anything like that so i just kind of had to bottle it up and go home so nothing happened i just didn't like the way i felt and i didn't like the i was watching myself make actions and like hating myself for it at the same time so i might just stay away from pat's games for a little while but it was good to watch our guy get a win. Did you wear your Nikhil Harry jersey? I wore a Wes Welker jersey, actually, and then I brought my buddy a Josh Gordon

jersey to wear because he didn't have a jersey with him. That's smart. I don't even know how to follow that one up. So, Rudy, what'd you do? We're local um saturday we had a it was my wife's birthday so we did a little brewery situation the weekend before i actually had a buddy puke in the back of my car

which was a bummer on the way home from boston did did pay to detail my car but this weekend halloween we were just getting us candy at the the house. Not a big deal. Wait, so your buddy, you were driving back to Connecticut. It's about two hours from Boston. Yeah. My other buddy got engaged. We were up there. We were getting after it. We were going to stay in Boston, but there was no hotel room. Everything was $700 a night.

Come on. It's Boston. I like Boston. I'm not paying $700 a night to stay there. I was like, all right. I'll drive back. I'll be that guy. I drank a bunch of soda waters at 2 a.m. I'm like, all right, I'll drive back. I'll be that guy. So I drank, you know, a bunch of, you know, soda waters at like 2 AM, like, all right, we'll go back. And my buddy was really banged up. And I was kind of thinking, I'm like, you know what, should I, should I leave the window down in the back for him? But he passed out. So I was like, I'll be fine. I'll just sleep the whole way home. And about 15 minutes into the ride, he just pukes all over my car, all over the side panel, all over the inside, a little bit,

a little bit outside, which obviously we hoped a lot more went outside. And it was one of the most atrocious smells I've ever had in my entire life. And we had about an hour and a half of just a terrible, terrible puking the back of my car. And like I said, he paid to detail it. But needless to say, my wife was not super pumped. And I was thinking, I'm like, we're in our like mid 30s now. Like, I don't know if that was like a high point point i kind of figured like puking in cars was you probably

peak out in your late 20s on that one so did it in our early 30s i don't know he like i said he paid to do this he played to clean the car so it wasn't the end of the world but it was one of the worst ride homes i've ever had i think it happens i don't think you could you could sit there and pretend you're not supposed to have it happen after a certain age but i wouldn't yeah i wouldn't worry about that and if you get the car detailed, there's no hint of it. There's no hint. See, I keep here's the thing is like I have PTSD now. I think the car was beautifully clean.

It's spotless now, but I still smell puke. I don't know if it's like my brain playing tricks on me because the last time I was in the car, it smelled horrible, but I still smell this faint puke vibe in there. And my wife's like, no, no, it's fine. It's fine. It's fine. It's fine. So I'm not actually sure right now. I might. And it's a lease, too. And my wife's like, no, no, it's fine. It's fine. It's fine. It's fine. So I'm not actually sure right now.

And it's a lease too. And I got to give it back in a month. So hopefully they don't notice. I don't know. Are you a smell puke then puke guy? Am I a what? Are you a smell puke then puke guy? Like if you smell it, it's just...

No, no, no, no, no. I was fine. I mean, it was among the top five worst smells I've ever had. But I never felt weird just because it was lingering. It was just a horrible ride home. But my wife is kind of like that. So we had, it was cold that night. It was like, you know, by the time we were driving home, it was like 3.30 a.m.

And we had all four windows down middle of the night. And it was freezing cold to ride home. But if you didn't have that, I mean, somebody might have puked in the car. Oh, dude. Last weekend, my girlfriend like kind of nauseous we were leaving a function and uh she she thought she was gonna puke i was like oh well we're almost there we get the thing she she waits till we get into the elevator she pukes in the elevator and then she we we run back to the from the elevator to the apartment and then as soon as

we get in the apartment she pukes on the floor in the apartment and it's like she just kind of picked these bad spots to puke like i would have rather you puked in the parking garage instead of the enclosed elevator. But, um, but then I had to go puke somewhere else while before I went to clean her stuff up. So you are that guy. You are the deceased pukes guy. No one showed up. No one showed up in my house last night. Um, I went I went to the gym in the morning and then ran to the grocery store to get supplies for the day. And then it was like, you know what? You better load up on some candy. Because I remember how terrible I felt the two times that I'd never bought any because I just figured no one was going to come to my house. In Connecticut,

I always bought it because I always knew. We were in a townhouse community. So it was just, it's a good spot. You know what I mean? High volume, hit up a bunch of houses, very efficient. So Connecticut, I always had to be on, you know, supplies had to be high. When I was 22, Hartford, Pete and I, we were trying to stay in our house that I lived in my senior year. So my senior year was me and five other guys, six guys, four floors, sick, sick house for college kids to be living in. One guy had a hot tub in his master bedroom, but then- Oh, Josh Rosen? Yeah, it was a really weird deal. But then he never let us in the room. No one was ever allowed

in his room. So he had the best room and no one was ever allowed in it. So anyway, we were supposed to keep that house and I was the only one paying the landlord any rent over the summer. And then the next year going into the fall, guys stiffed me on checks. They sent me checks, then canceled them. And then two guys decided not to come back to college. I mean, the whole thing was falling apart because it was our senior year house. I still had a couple of semesters that I had to finish up and then all my other friends had left. So then Hartford Peep and I were stuck and we're like, where can we go? We had to go live in like an older person's community in another part of town. So it wasn't like a retirement community, but it was adults. It was like real people. And I was 22 and I'm managing a bar. He was bartending like four nights a week

and he was only a year older than me. And we were in a bar. He was bartending like four nights a week and he was only a year older than me. And we were in a different part of Burlington altogether. And the reason I bring it up is because we were getting ready to like, I don't know, we're doing whatever we're doing, waiting to go into our shift at eight or nine o'clock. Usually we were going pretty late because the places we worked at didn't get busy until after 10 anyway. And we got a knock on the door and we're like, oh my we mean we knew it was halloween but we're just like we didn't think anybody were like oh my god this whole place is like families and stuff everybody hated us too by the way they just hated us there and we deserve to be hated

um and i was like i don't know so we were like grabbing i think we grabbed a couple protein bars for kids or something i mean it was really it sucked and our bars right and then i was like, I don't know. So we were like grabbing, I think we grabbed a couple of protein bars for kids or something. I mean, it was really, it sucked. And our bars. Right. And then I was like, I don't want to go to work early now though. So I was like, what do we do? And we made a sign. It was like, do not, we said, we do not celebrate Halloween.

I think we cited some religious thing. And then we were hearing kids come up the stairs because across the hall, there was another unit, that poor old lady. And they were giving out candy over there. And then you could hear people looking out from the peephole in the door. And it would be like, no, don't go in there. And you hear a little kid be like, should I knock? You hear a parent go, no, don't, don't.

And then they'd like look in and Pete would be like, dude, they're reading the sign and he's dying laughing all because we didn't want to have to go into work early. And we couldn't, you know, back then do something like, Hey, should we grab some candy? So we have it to give out to kids. Like we just didn't know any better because no one would ever come to any of the college houses or apartments. They just, they just wouldn't. The parents would be like, we're not going through this area. So I bought kids.

No one came. So I didn't do anything. I've got a ton of candy here. Halfway through the night, did you put up to sign out of spite to say that you didn't? Again? Just because nobody showed up. You're like, well, fuck you guys. I don't even celebrate Halloween.

No, I just want to make sure I had it. If somebody came by, great. No problem. I even did individual baggies. So normally I would do full-size guys which is the way to go i'm gonna say you are definitely adult rusillo is definitely gives out full-size candy bar guy yeah right but i didn't i did it so last minute and i you know look it's one thing to go to the grocery store on a bad christmas day or thanksgiving wednesday before and you're like, oh, why did I do this? Halloween was packed.

It was packed for Halloween on a Sunday. So I don't know what was going on. And I'll admit, like Friday, I can't really do anything. I stuck my head out for a little bit and I wore a Chris Herron jersey and somebody was like, that's pretty lazy costume. And I'm like, what do you mean? Costume? What the fuck are're talking about and the girl was like wait are you are you dressed up i was like no i'm just i was down the street

i thought you wanted to get a drink she was just like oh okay all right yeah no she's like because then she realized like am i insulting him right now and And I was like, no, I don't know. Let's fucking watch the Lakers game. Um, and so then Saturday, I'll admit Saturday night after like 13 hours on the couch, I was kind of like, there'd probably be a couple calls I got. Maybe I would stop in somewhere, but there's a few others I would probably say no to.

And I just was antsy. I don't know what it was. And I went and found a park and started shooting hoops at like 8.30 till 9.30 in the dark. But there was enough moonlight that I could still see. I actually shot the shit out of it too. It's like one of the best nights I've ever had just shooting around. I couldn't believe it. And I was listening to old school Jamaican stuff from my days in a grill, shout out 1999. And I was having a blast. And then I was just covered in sweat. And I was like, what if I get an invite here last minute what if i am that popular and i'm just sweaty in my jeremy scott fitness t shirt i didn't know what to do so i was like what would i do and then i was like maybe i could just

say i'm anxiety not that i have it at that moment it's just i could be all sweaty and then people could be like what are you dressed as you're like oh you really want to ask that question Just as you really want to ask that question. Did you think you look good when you left the house? So I ended up not doing that. I watched the rest of the Virginia game and made some pasta. Sick night. Mac Jones style.

Sick night. Anticipated everything just like Mac Jones. By the way, if there were, we'll get the life advice and promise. If there were... We'll get to life advice and promise. If there's a quarterback that Kyle looks most like versus the quarterback that most looks like Harry Styles, Cerruti's favorite guy, we had that match at Pat's Chargers. Something to think about.

All right. All right. Life advice. The email is lifeadvice at gmail.com. Okay, we got a classic here. 28, 5, 11, and three quarters. So like 5, 10, 180, 190. Depends on the fast food intake.

85% body fat. Forgive the provocative subject line. Oh, all right. It's fine. We don't have to read it. But there's a situation as old as time that I'd love your take on. Last week, a buddy got married in Wilmington, North Carolina. Small wedding, less than 100.

They invited all the young folk up early for days of festivities. Wow. You guys did like an Adam Sandler movie wedding week lead up to the wedding. If you can pull it off and you have the schedule and you have the means, good for you. So the wedding's on Saturday. Most arrive Tuesday, Wednesday. I know 50% of the people are very social. So this is a good time for me. The second day I met a lovely blonde gal. Let's call her Amanda. I'm immediately attracted to her. She's fit, fun, giggly. Not only that, but a total team player when it came to the new group dynamics and logistics. The kind of girl you'd want to saddle up with.

We have a great chemistry. Granted, she's not a flirt per se, but does have good chemistry with pretty much everyone. Warning sign. I slow play it, being very friendly and not coming on too strong. Fast forward to Thursday. So they've been hanging out 48 hours. Fun, not flirty,

but a vibe Amanda. Thursday night, Matthew, a groomsman in the wedding approaches me and asks hey you and amanda got a thing going on i shrug it off downplay it saying i think she's cute and i've enjoyed getting to know her her intentions uh she's mentioned she's oh wait a minute wait a minute so matt goes hey he's i'm interested matt wanted to know where he was at but that he's also seeing another girl back in new york city so this fucking matt guy groomsman matt asks our email or hey are you interested in amanda who's fun and then says well by the way i got a girl back in New York City. And so then the emailer says, I tell him I'd strongly consider asking her out after the weekend if the vibes led there and hope that they would.

That is until she told me she's turning 35 in December. Practically dead, bro. Again, I'm kidding. The emailer's 28. She's turning 35 in December and while I don't know if she wants kids soon I know I don't want them for 8 years at least 8 years

he just knows that at 35 that's when all the dad stuff is going to kick in alright I'm ready control her down I get that let's go. This new info diffuses the sincerity of my interest, and I decided to lay low. So this guy was into it, said he was going to ask her out,

tells the other groomsmen to back off, finds out she's 35 because his kid's schedule is eight years from now at least, and he's like, no. All right. Okay. All right. Fine. Whatever.

I will say Amanda showed interest in Matthew, and they danced like, no. All right. Okay. All right. Fine. Whatever. I will say Amanda showed interest in Matthew and they danced at the wedding. They were also together throughout the week and several old couples came up to them at the wedding saying they should get married. Except Matt has a girlfriend back in New York City that could get in the way of all that. But all right.

Whatever. We all rode to the airport together and Matthew got her number. I asked him if he was going to take her out and he said, yeah. We shared a good chuckle about it all. Very friendly. They're closer in age and seem to have more chemistry. So honestly, I'm happy for them with whatever happens.

But as soon as I got to my gate, Amanda and I were joking over text and she followed me on Instagram. Note, she lives far out from the city, but commutes sometimes, and told me I should come visit with a winky face and the shock a hand surfer thing emoji. So what's the move? Do I let Matthew ask her out first and see if it works? Do I not go for it at all because I don't want kids right now?

And she's looking for something serious. I got to be honest with you, the way you've described her and the fact that she was hitting up Matt the same day she was hitting you up, I don't know that she's worried about settling down right now. Okay. What's the point of order if you and your buddy catch feels with the same girl at the same time? It's especially annoying because I don't like being aggressive.

You definitely don't like being aggressive. You let Matt the groomsman just bulldoze right over you when this girl clearly liked you. But then you had your own hang of about 35. I feel like as this email closes out, I'm rooting for none of you. That's not an email. That's me.

What's your take? He did say it's hard to act natural when there's a predator on the plane. So you just basically let this other guy dominate you. And I don't think you even cared though. I think you clearly were like, hey, she's older so I'm not really down but then I get the sense

that you kind of are into her and you wouldn't mind hanging out. Here's what you should do. Stop thinking about it this much. All right? That's the first thing I would do. Do you want to hang out with her? Then hang out with her.

She invited you to come visit her. Hit her up. Like the 35 thing, who gives a shit? It doesn't matter. Clearly, you just sent a show an email so you've been thinking about her you were attracted to her doesn't mean you have to get fucking married although i've run into plenty of like hey how come we can't just stop

talking like normal people you know like what the fuck um but i'm not saying that's going to happen here it sounds like old amanda's just playing the field so why don't you get a little bit more Amanda in your brain and out Amanda, Amanda, and just go out and visit her and hang out. And if you like it, you like it. Fuck Matt. He's got a girlfriend and he had no respect for your deal, even though I don't know how much respect I have for anybody in this entire organization. Word. It seemed like he almost thought he was going to be doing this girl Amanda a favor. Yeah. Because she's like older and it's like oh man and now he's just kind of you know sitting there twiddling his thumbs and i thought weddings that granted i've only been invited to one wedding

um my it's coming back uh june 2022 so our july 2022 i'm excited but i don't know you know like i said i've only been invited to one before that i don't but i always thought it was like a a hookup it's like yeah this is her friends that we don't know about and here my friends you know, like I said, I've only been invited to one before that. I don't, but I always thought it was like a hookup. It's like, yeah, this is her friends that we don't know about. And here are my friends, you know, I'm part of the groom's friends that we don't know about. I thought it was sort of like, you know, the rehearsal dinner, you start kind of looking around.

But again, I don't know. I'm just assuming that like, this is the kind of stuff that happens at weddings, right? When like people that you don't know come together and then they're like all dressed up and people hook up, right? Isn't that normal? Well, I think that's definitely the way we thought about it when you went by yourself in your 20s, you know, but it's normal. Yeah, it depends on the wedding. Like if it's an all 20s college wedding and there's a bunch of single people flying around, yeah, it's likely to go down.

single people flying around yeah it's it's likely to go down but you start getting a little bit older and you're like on the prowl at a wedding when there's like real people there and stuff other than just the relatives that nobody talks to yeah you know you know on the prowl what everybody's celebrating can you describe can you disguise your prowl as just celebrations yeah love is in the air dude prowl celebrations kyle celebrations. Kyle, you do whatever you've been doing. You keep doing what you're doing. Seriously. We got to get Kyle to more weddings. We just have to.

I mean, I'm excited for you. 2022 big year for Kyle weddings. But I will say the same thing. I thought the same thing as you, Kyle. But I actually recently went to a wedding of two of my wife's friends who met at another friend's wedding. So it's possible to find love at a wedding. I'm just saying it's not impossible. But my first

reaction to you brian was yeah fuck that guy matt i don't know why this the the emailer should concern himself with anything that matt thinks he's got a girlfriend he clearly is just you know i wouldn't worry about him whatsoever but it's a little bit of these guys sideways like i love that movie sideways i didn't understand it when i watched it 20 years ago but then i got it later on it was like the guy was kind of rolling around napa Valley and he had to hook up. He had to hook up to feel like he mattered. That was his, even though he had this gorgeous wife, you know, a decent career and he was about to get married and all this stuff, like he couldn't, he didn't, his self value was wrapped up in knowing that other people wanted him. Um, and it didn't matter. Yeah. And honestly, I would say, based on the choice of the movie,

it's still up for debate in that one. But, you know, Kyle, I'll get you here pretty quickly. But, Kyle, you made a great point, though. Like, this guy, sometimes the arrogance, and I don't think the emailer meant to be arrogant at all, this at all, but the arrogance of, well, I don't want to do this to Amanda, or I don't want to do this, oranda or i don't want to do this or

my schedule i don't think amanda's thinking about any of these things man i don't think she's thinking about any of them so don't think so much of yourself that her life is going to be like dictated by your terms and that that's going to lead her you know what i mean so i would if you want to hang out with her you could be really direct and just go hey here's what's up we're hanging out this weekend and i wish it had happened at the wedding. And then boom, you throw it out there. And if she says, oh, actually, I'm meeting up with Matt, she's probably not going to because if she gave Matt her number and then was flirty texting with you and the whole Instagram deal and all that kind of stuff, if she was doing that stuff afterwards, she clearly had interest in you.

So you just say, I don't know know i wouldn't even bring up matt just ask her out and she's probably going to say yes she's going to say yes and come out and visit and then worry about it after the fact man stop thinking so much so rudy the only thing i would say is how do we know that she's not also texting matt the same stuff she might be who cares and and yeah so it's all about whatever your expectations are i mean i would say like he clearly has thought about like the long term ramifications of marriage and children. And I would assume that's where he wants a relationship to go. So, you know, if you're looking at this, you know, 35 single, obviously was very friendly with several people at the wedding. Like maybe maybe a little bit of red flag.

There's just you might not be for you. But if you're looking for just kind of like a fun fling thing and you're in your late 20s, who cares? Yeah. What do you have to lose? Totally. He was like he originally counted her out because of her age. And then he was kind of like sitting there, you know, getting ready to go home. Like, man, I kind of blew it.

It's like, yeah, you did. But now, you know, now now there's no doubt about what what you're going after. So just fucking do it, bro. Yeah, you could do some real Don Draper stuff where you go, you, like he's talking to Sylvia, just go, you are going to not talk to Matt and I'm going to come out and I'm going to spend the night and you're going to enjoy it

and we're going to have a great time. I'm never going to hear about Matt one more fucking time. And whatever it is, I actually think she'd respond to that. That's, so have you decided? That's when Don Draper and Sylvia are there having, I'm on a Mad Men kick again.

So, sorry. I can tell. I can tell. Can I just ask real quick, did this guy change the names or did you change the names or did nobody change the names or did nobody change the names? And is everyone going to know?

I didn't change any names on that one. So. Oh, boy. Nice. Nice. Matt. Some revenge. Matt A.

Fucking Matthew and Amanda. What's up, Matt? Like, so my girlfriend dumped me because on a pretty popular podcast like i just wanted to dance what do i tell my ex in new york city i just wanted to dance well the nice part is only matthew is the one that's getting any damage from this and he's the one that kind of was being a scumbag anyway so what could he do what could he say yeah okay i'm gonna do this one because we're already uh a long Monday pod and I would normally never do this because I just don't want to make a habit of this, but it seems so sincere and earnest that I think we're going to

go with it. All right. Hey, my name's Ryan Jones, 24, 5'11", 195, run 50 miles a month, hits Planet Fitness a few times a week for some light lifting. Huge fan of the show. Listen to every episode. I mostly listen for Hoops talk and life advice, but love the other interviews as well. I just finished the last episode and thought it was hilarious. So Rudy had the nickname Brutes. Well, there was an attempt to give him the nickname.

Yeah, I think we shut that down pretty quick. The tone in Rudy's voice. Do you catch it, Kyle? Whenever the roots thing is brought back up he just turns into a different person completely shuts down yeah yeah all right okay tough time okay so here's the deal by the way you were single for a while during mike and mike right uh during the early part yeah but i mean i didn't really have a nightlife because i was constantly tired because i was sleeping in like four hour intervals so it wasn't the happiest

moment of my life if we're being honest and roots just didn't it didn't do it any uh it didn't help me at all did i work on mike and mike ever work in your dating life uh no absolutely not but but but i'm not sure that i work on sup and rassila helped either so it's not like we're not i'm not i'm just trying to play it equal here i'm not saying that it should have i just it did how didn't didn't you want to know that kyle probably never thought about it yeah i don't know if if the well i mean you just say espn right isn't that the worldwide leader that's what what you say? I don't know. I would have just loved it if it was like she was on the fence until she found out that I was AP2 on Mike and Mike.

She's a big cowherd guy. So she was kind of offended by that. She was like, what was that Mike and Mike the mess thing? What was that? I don't really get. Were you involved with that? I don't get that. All right.

Okay. So here we go. Ryan Jones, huge fan of the show. Roots. I actually own, this is, here we go. We're giving him a plug. I actually own a small local business called Roots and Jones. I handcraft wooden pens with my grandfather in Louisville, Kentucky. And it started as a way for me to get back to my roots with him and learn his

craft of pen making. This is so damn earnest and that I would be so bummed out to find out if this guy sucked that I was like, there's no way after I got done with the email. I was like, are you kidding? Wooden pens from reclaimed wood in Louisville, Kentucky to connect with your grandfather? All right. So he listens to the show every day. He makes pens while he's listening to the show. It helps me stay entertained. And for that, I'm grateful. I'd love to send each of you a pen, no strings attached.

I could send some made out of Kentucky bourbon barrels, specifically Pappy Van Winkle. Remember we had our boy Wright Thompson on. I can even make some of the old reclaimed seats from the Boston Garden. I consume all, or wait a minute. I consume your all's work. You want to know why I like that? This guy's from Louisville saying y'all or your all's.

Y'all's been co-opt. I've talked about this before. Some of you fucking people need to stop saying y'all. If you're from Worcester, don't say y'all. If you're from Worcester, don't say y'all. If you're from the Pacific Northwest, don't say y'all. I don't know who decides. Like now everybody just says it. I don't like it.

I haven't liked it from the jump. It's getting worse. We got to stop it. There are certain geographic areas where you're not allowed to say y'all like you're some dude that grew up with it. I never even heard y'all except for like hee-haw when I would visit my grandmother. And I still didn't even know what the hell it was. And you know what I didn't do? Use it because I'm from New England.

So, Rudy, anything on y'all quick? No, I think there has been this weird movement in the Northeast for people to want to to be Southern in a way, you know, they, and they use the term y'all and I don't, I don't, I don't get it. Like people from, yeah, Connecticut, like why you've never known your family's ever said, y'all don't do that. I don't know if it's like the SECification of whatever, or people just like in the sun down South or country music becoming more popular, but I, I don't understand it. I'm totally with you. Kyle, anything to add? Um, y'all will sneak into my thing every once in a while.

My mom's a redneck. What can you do? But I want to say that this guy is real. His dad looks sweet. The guy looks like Theo Vaughn, and I joined his mailing list. Nice. So I have no actual evidence of this, by the way, but runners usually feel like good people. I don't know why, but I know a few runners,

and they're all good dudes. Maybe it's a small sample size, but this guy, runner, I feel like he's an all right dude. I'm not signing off on that. Why not? I think your sample size of runners, that's great.

I think there's part of it, the self-discipline. Running sucks to say, hey, I'm going to do this, and I'm going to punish myself mentally because it's not even the physical part of this. I ran track for one year and I was really good at it and I fucking hated it. And it was just like, so all I do to get better is keep going?

This sucks. So I respect that part of it, but I'm not willing to sign off that we have a higher percentage of people that are the runners. I'm not feeling it. So anyway, I'm sorry because we've got to keep going. The emailer says, the podcast is not anti-runner. It's just not so pro-runner that we're going to start saying that runners everywhere are awesome dudes. I'm not ready to say that.

Just my observation. That's it. Yeah. So Rudy's pockets are different than my pockets. I could be wrong on this one. I'm just not ready to make this. Just my observation, that's it. Yeah, that's just, Cerruti's pockets are different than my pockets. I could be wrong on this one. I'm just not ready to make this a full-blown pro runner podcast. All right, so the question is,

what's the best way to get your name, service, and product out in the world so they'll notice it and also take a chance on you? There you go, Roots & Jones, man. We gave you a shout. And make sure you send a pen. We'll have somebody get an address out to you, but include one for Simmons with the Boston Garden seat. I don't really care. I got to tell you, I don't think Cerruti's going to send a pen. We'll have somebody get an address out to you, but include one for Simmons with the Boston Garden seed.

I don't really care. I got to tell you, I don't think Cerruti is going to want a pen that says roots on it. So maybe we just change it to something else. No, I would take a pen. I think that's cool. Yeah, but I don't think... Go ahead. How does he just get the Boston Garden stuff though?

Is that just readily available? That seems like it's something that would be expensive. You know what's the funniest story ever is a bunch of my south shore buddies shout out mcgurk uh they they told the story when we were in college when they tore down the garden they were like yeah there was like this dude he was like a wicked lion in town and he just was like dude you gotta come by the garden next tuesday we get with like my crew we're doing we're doing xco and you know like whatever the seats everywhere seats for fucking whoever you want him you want a seat we got a seat for you and everybody thought this kid was like he's like so dude we just figured like oh whatever he's a liar there's no way and apparently there was just a free-for-all of being able to grab old Boston Garden seats during the excavation.

It's not like black market. Yeah. Boston Garden seats. Yeah. It's like selling copper on a job. Yeah. Yeah, right. Bubs.

Bubs on the job. Shenanigans. I forget what the hell the other, what did Johnny call it? Capers. Yeah. I always thought it was funny to be like, hey, what's up? All right. Now I'm just talking hell the other, what did Johnny call it? Capers. Yeah. I always thought it was funny to be like, Hey, what's up? All right. Now I'm just talking about the wire again.

Uh, I don't know why I said XO in there. I don't think anybody's ever. Does anybody ever done that? I don't know. We're doing pioneers over here. Okay. Uh, that'll do it. We have a post college football ranking podcast on Wednesday with this guy called Big Cat.

This guy's an up-and-comer. We enjoy his podcast and looking forward to it. So we'll talk to you on Wednesday. Thanks to Kyle and Steve and to everybody. Please subscribe Spotify and ring. Thank you. you