The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Perception Win for Miami, Comeback for the Vikings, and Bill-Tom Legacy Update With Ben Solak. Plus a World Cup Recap With Ceruti.

Episode Date: December 19, 2022

Russillo shares his five biggest takeaways from NFL Week 15, including the Vikings pulling off the biggest comeback win in NFL history and an updated Bill Belichick-Tom Brady legacy rankings (0:35), before talking with The Ringer's Benjamin Solak about the Bills' Saturday night win over the Dolphins and why Miami fans should be proud, Colts-Vikings, the Bengals' late-season push, preparing for a wild AFC playoffs, Cowboys-Jaguars, and more (16:37). Next Ryen is joined by Steve Ceruti for a World Cup recap (57:28), before Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:12:13). Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Benjamin Solak and Steve Ceruti Producer: Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm excited about today's podcast. Amazing Week 15. A million things to get to. We'll try to get to five. We'll get to more with Ben Solak. We'll talk with him about a bunch of the quarterbacks and loving Cincinnati, handicapping the AFC, NSC. Just a bunch of stuff.

So, Rudy, World Cup final, going abroad with father, so Rudy, life advice with Kyle. And that's a show. This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats. Winter is here, so be prepared and get

almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. What do I mean by almost anything? Well, you can't get a ski slope, but dish soap, definitely doable. Sunshine, that's no. A bottle of wine, yeah. And a snow day, again, no.

But blueberry muffins with the delicious crumb topping, total yes. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol and select markets. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details. It is Monday. It is five things from week 15.

And I would like to acknowledge that this NFL season, the last four weeks, I don't know, four or five weeks, has been an absolute heater. This is incredible how special this league has been, the outcomes, Saturday alone,

the endings. But before we get at any of these kyle just a mental health check with you what's going on buddy yeah this isn't a filter actually i just have no color left in my world after yesterday that was that was quite awful um for those listening kyle kyle's filter today's kind of like the old timey movie filter. It's sort of washed out in this kind of sandy, sandy brown. It's sort of how I'm seeing life the last 12 hours. You look terrible.

I feel terrible. Yeah. And it was, it was, it was like perfect. I mean, it was, I went from like, guess i don't it just was sort of like one of those what the fuck happened wasn't even like a no no it was just so it was just over like that i mean the terrible mac jones tackle you see brandon bolden and and chandler jones two formal patriots both who of whom i miss uh ending the game for us it was just uh it's terrible i don't want to get into x's and o's but uh that was that was ugly was at frolic for that, and then I zoomed home to

try to get all ready to work in five hours after that. Yeah, that was probably one of the saddest moments of the season for me. We're going to get to it because we're bringing back the Tom Bill legacy rankings. Let's start with number one. I'm going to go back to Saturday. Miami

going into Buffalo. We knew what the weather was. We knew what the expectations were. We expected I think a lot of us expected I think this is going to go back to Saturday. Miami going into Buffalo. We knew what the weather was. We knew what the expectations were. We expected. I think a lot of us expected. I think this is going to be a continuation of the Miami decline and therefore the Tua decline. I think that's what a lot of us were waiting for. I don't know that we were rooting for it.

It just kind of felt like, all right, enough of this Miami story. At least that's what it felt like for me. It felt like that was kind of the collective NFL part of it. And you can recuse yourself if you're a fan of either of those teams. I think the neutral part of us was just looking into this being like, I think we're going to get some big Miami correction.

Looking at the five-game win streak prior to this three-game losing streak for Miami, wins against Pittsburgh, Detroit, who we actually kind of like now, Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, that's four last-place teams depending on what you want to do

with Pittsburgh or Cleveland, both at six and eight but that's not what we got okay that's not what we got that was a perception win for the Miami Dolphins I know it's not what you want to hear it's still an L it's still three losses in a row that that felt like a perception

win sometimes I'm like that sometimes teams they're losing I go you know what I kind of like that team sometimes there are teams that are winning that I'm like you know I don't really see it, even though they're winning games. So with Miami these last few weeks, I was like, here we go. I liked what they did. I liked that they went into Buffalo against a team that's statistically one of the better defenses in the NFL,

a Miami team that couldn't run the football coming in, 29th in yards per game, 25th in yards per carry, go 25 for 188, 7.5 yards per carry. Mostert goes for 136. Tua was good enough. I still think he has a really lucky run of should-be picks. We can look that stat up a little bit later. But they're up 29-21 at Buffalo.

The snow's coming down. It's freezing cold. The weather for the start of the game wasn't as bad as everybody thought it was going to be. The snowballs all being part of it. But being up 29-21 is against Josh Allen. for the start of the game, wasn't as bad as everybody thought it was going to be. The snowballs all being part of it. But being up 29-21 is against Josh Allen. The last two Buffalo possessions, they go 161 yards, win it on a field goal, MVP conversation.

I think that if Allen were to win it, that's the kind of stuff that we need to remind ourselves of what the recency bias can do to us and how this plays out, where I know I've talked about Hurts. Mahomes is always lingering. Allen. But, you know, keep track of those. Keep track of those MVP moments where it's like, hey, you have to figure out a way to go ahead and do this and bring us back on your own.

And that's what they were able to do. Buffalo's the one seed. They and Philly are the only teams without a what the hell happened loss. Philly, the Washington game, not worried about it. Washington's better, as we've seen, even though they lost last night to the Giants. Tough one for

Commanders fans. Kansas City's almost added another one to their Indy loss by having to beat Houston in overtime. But Miami's the seventh seed this morning, but I actually feel better about them. And a little aside there, if you're a Bills fan, Mitch Moore's center leaving the game

clearly kind of slowed down their offense a little bit. Concussion, we'll see what that means for the Bills O-line. Number two, you've asked for it, you're getting it. Bill Belichick versus tom brady legacy update i can't think of a better week to do it we needed more data it's been about a year i think since we've done this we're still crunching the numbers not we just i'd hate to make an error with a small sample size for these two okay how about your tampa bay buccaneers up 17-0 on Cincinnati they've got their defensive secondary back

and you're like wait is Tampa going to find a way to be kind of like hey you know I don't love the you know you don't want to play in the playoffs for the most part you don't want to play a lot of teams that are in the playoffs because they're good they made the playoffs and we'll pick some weird team

that's like a 5, 6, or 7 seed they're going to be kind of tough out. Like, why? Because they won two of their last three, and there's like a defensive lineman you like now. All of a sudden, all right, back to this. Stay on target. Up 17-0.

You're kind of like, wait, I thought everybody liked Cincinnati. How's this happening? And then these were the possessions in order after being up 17-0. a fourth and one punt which technically isn't a turnover but boy was this a a harbinger huh you like that i like words very ardently um it's a snap to the up man who apparently didn't know that they were doing it then you've got an interception then you get a fumble with Brady and a handoff, and then just a fumble get blasted, then an interception where he got

blasted. So over the course of 15 plays, it's four turnovers and on downs, but the punt kind of felt like a turnover because it's a short field. If you want to take it out even further, the four turnovers, interception, fumble, fumble, interception, those were over 11 plays. Brady had four turnovers

through 11 games. He Those were over 11 plays. Brady had four turnovers through 11 games. He had four through 11 plays. The first 27 plays Cincinnati ran in the second half were in Tampa Bay territory. I don't even know. That has to be close to a record, right? If it isn't. So since he's your three seed, they're 10 and four. They've won six in a row.

We all like them. I would take Jamar Chase over any other receiver in the NFL. Of the elite guys, he's the toughest. I'll hear arguments for Parker, for JJ, for Diggs, for Tyree Kill. I don't like saying JJ, but I'll just say Justin Jefferson. I might be wrong on that one. I'll ask Ben Solek about that a little bit later.

So that's the Brady part of it. Not great, Bob. How's he going to be number one in the legacy rankings? Well, did you see the Pats game yesterday? The Pats where it looked like the Raiders were now going to blow their fifth double-digit lead

of the season. This is number three, by the way. The Pats offense, which I don't know, Pats fans, you have fun watching this team on offense? The sad thing is it's like my talent void argument that I've made here throughout the season about I still think New England's the least talented team in the AFC East, but they're starting to develop some of the guys, some of their defensive linemen. They got Boromir back, who I think is terrific, Jones, the corner.

They're starting to develop some of those guys. And then on the other side of it, you're watching this offense being like, what are they doing? And they're also just making uncharacteristic mistakes for a team throughout all of this run that Arizona, they got kind of lucky. It was just all these things. You're like, what do I do with them? Is it good enough to...

You have to be worried or you have to be prepared to play them, which is kind of the case for almost every NFL team. But then they're going to come back and win this game against Vegas. And now you're starting to feel bad for Vegas all over again. Then Carlson catches the touchdown. I thought his toe was clearly out.

I can kind of understand that on the replay, they felt like it wasn't clear enough to change the touchdown. I thought his toe was clearly out. I can kind of understand that on the replay. They felt like it wasn't clear enough to change the call. Again, submission 1,012. Why replay is fucking stupid? Because we all want it, and then we get it, and then it still doesn't solve everything. So let's just stop wasting time and get rid of all of it. No one agrees with me on that one.

So the game is tied. Third and 10, New England zone 45. They run Ramadre Stevenson up the middle, goes 23 yards, and then he laterals it to Jacoby Myers. Let me tell you something about the lateral in football. Once the first guy does it, everybody wants to do it. It's kind of like a chant at a wedding i was listening to smartless i think it was the one with steve carell they were talking about this comedian writer h john benjamin you may know him as the voice of archer and many other things i think he's hysterical i love everything he does i think i do i don't know maybe there's some stuff he's done

that sucks i do not i'm not associated with that stuff. So apparently there was a story they were telling where there was a wedding and it was a bunch of actors, a bunch of comedians, writers, and H. John Benjamin was there with some other people. And the groom starts going through the exchanging the vows and he starts crying.

And it's serious. He's crying. It's the happiest day of his life, fulfilling. I forget who was getting married. And apparently, H. John Benjamin just started chanting, cry, cry, cry, cry, cry. Trying to do his voice. Not quite there yet. Everybody started chanting.

Well, maybe not everybody. Probably older women weren't doing it. Other people, comedians, started chanting cry. When a chant gets going, everybody wants in on a chant. The lateral is the chant NFL play. So once Jacoby gets it, he's like, we're fucking doing this.

It's on. And then he, in a tie game, a tie game, which I've never ever seen before, decides to lateral it back, to throw the ball back to the middle of the field to that game breaker juke stick of a player, Mack Jones, who Chandler Jones grabs it, trucks Mack Jones. Somebody suggested he was trying to take a charge.

Game blouses. So what does that mean well it means I have to come up with a Bill Tom ranking after this week I know what you're thinking what's worse than that right what's worse than that have you ever seen an ending like that thank God I don't care about the outcome of past games anymore I would have been off the rails till Wednesday.

But let me ask you this. Can you imagine being a Pats opponent coming up the playoffs this year or maybe even next year if they don't make it to the playoffs and in the back of your head be like, this team will fucking lateral in a tie game? Imagine the reps you will use in practice and preparation for this kind of stuff that nobody else is doing. That's why the Legacy Ranking Update has Bill 1 and Tom 2.

Number four, Vikings comeback. 33-0 at halftime equals a 39-36 win. To be fair, when it's 33-0, it's really 4.8-0. Doesn't seem as big of a comeback, does it? Bills come back in 93. I remember that one. High school, 35-3. They come back, beat Houston,

the Oilers back then. I know exactly where I was for that game. That's one of those games I'll never forget. And the same case here, except I did change the channel to watch a little Zags Bama. Check out that freshman Brandon Miller, by the way, for Alabama. The Colts offense hadn't really done much. No one believes me. I don't care.

When it was 28-3 Atlanta, New England in the Super Bowl, watching that game, I was like, the weird thing is I don't feel like New England is out of this. I really felt that at the time. I really did. This one felt a little different because everybody was so mad at the Vikings. Right? I want to ask a look about this, too. Everybody was like, yeah, we knew the Vikings sucked.

Good. Enough of this. Enough of you and your good one loss record. Remember the Dallas game? You guys aren't that good. And they come back. one loss record. Remember the Dallas game? You guys aren't that good. And then they come back. It's the biggest comeback in NFL history.

Yes, I did change the channel, but it wasn't nearly as bad as my World Cup move. We're up 2-0 with Argentina. I'm like, okay, I got shit to do. I sat and watched football and basketball all day yesterday. I watched basketball Friday night. You got to get out of the house, man. You got to go do something. And next thing I know, I'm

an elliptical watching extra time at the gym because I was afraid I was going to sit at home and watch American football after football all morning long. So I did change the channel in the Vikings for a bit, then came back to it because I was like, wait, they're coming back in this game. I still, I think I regret the World Cup

one a little bit more, but that's my own thing. All right, finally, number five. I looked at the playoff seeding stuff this morning versus last year because we're always looking at which teams are we going to switch out because every year it basically comes down to half the team cycle out from the year before. All right, the Bills, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Tennessee, those are your top four seeds as of today,

which all made the playoffs last year. Behind them, Baltimore hanging on, the Chargers, and Miami. Now, if you go back to last year, you go, well, those teams are actually decent last year. Baltimore 8-9, the Chargers 9-8, Miami was 9-8. Let's look at the NFC. The top five seeds right now, Philadelphia, Minnesota, San Francisco, Tampa Bay, and Dallas. Philly made it, San Francisco made it, Tampa made it, Dallas made it.

Minnesota did not, but they were 8-9. So it's another 8-9 team. So basically every team I've mentioned so far until we get to the bottom two teams in the NFC, we're all in the mix or in the playoffs. The Giants are the real story of the absolute turnaround so far based on projections, because they're a 6 seed today, 4-13 last year. And Washington, who was sneaky kind of a pain in the ass last year,

7-10 ten so not a massive turnaround the team that's missing Green Bay 13 and four last year one seed out of the playoffs they stink so what do we learn here a couple things Green Bay sucks and the turnover of playoff teams at least right now isn't looking as severe as it has in other seasons. But it also speaks to what this league is. And as great as the results have been, I've always kind of struggled with, wait, how much fun am I really having? How much does this really matter? How much of this really means something?

you can talk about culture and 21 personnel and passing on first down and revamping your scouting department and having a new ownership group that completely buys in in your culture and t-shirts and signs and all this stuff when the reality is you may have been a team that didn't recover as many fumbles last year as you did this year. That's the only difference. That's why you're in the playoffs and buy into your own stuff. I never know if that makes the game great or actually

not as impressive, although these last few weeks have been great. Let's talk some NFL with a great guest. It does great work all season long. Also part of the Philly Special Podcast with Shiel Kapadia. It's Ben Solak.

In that most recent episode, the postgame of Philly and Chicago, which may have led this interview, had that game gone in an even weirder direction. All right, so let's start with Saturday. Buffalo beats Miami. I started the podcast today feeling like, you know what? All of us were kind of just ready for this awful scenario for Miami.

So granted, yes, they've technically lost three in a row. I felt like it was a perception win for Miami, just because I think a lot of us were just kind of ready for this blowout Saturday night game. And that's not what happened. It was really competitive. Miami could have won it. How did you feel about the outcome of that one based on what your perceptions were of the two teams going in?

Yeah, absolutely. Miami stopped the snowball from rolling down the mountain, if you'll forgive a very bad weather joke. But that quarterback, Tua, in a game setting, right, just within the context of one game, he'll snowball. And that's the issue you've seen over the last two weeks is the Niners and the Chargers did some similar things defensively, some different things defensively, scheme-wise, whatever. But at the core of the issue was once Tua felt flustered, once the offense wasn't working, he started making really bad mistakes in the second half. Easy inaccuracies, passing up on open receivers,

forcing the ball to unopened receivers. Like he just, Tua has always snowballed, right? You start hitting him, you start pressuring him, and he just kind of, he struggles to hold his water. So you had a player like that with a first year head coach in Mike McDaniel, who after flying high, like MVP odds, the best offense in the league, had two bad weeks.

And now they're going up against a divisional opponent on the road, in bad weather, tons of playoff leverage, and you're asking yourself, is this team ready to stop the bleeding? Does this team have the maturity? Do they have the leadership? Do they have the adjustments necessary to hold their water and to stay alive in this playoff race?

They lost, but they showed that they stopped the bleeding. They showed that they got the trauma kit out showed that they you know they got the uh the what is it the trauma kit out and they at least like dressed in the field and they figured out some new stuff the running game was much better raheem monster on first down they're handing the ball off their schematic changes right two i was having a bad night and then he had a couple of good throws like it there was enough there to say okay the dolphins are figuring out the next counters they're figuring out the moves on the chessboard. They still got to win games, and they have not the easiest schedule coming down

the slate here. They're around a 50% chance to make the playoffs. They're behind the Chargers now, but they at the very least showed that they stopped the avalanche. They stopped the rock slide, and now it's a question of what can you do in these final games? Get yourself into January football, and once you get into January football, slate's wiped clean.

It was very apparent against the Chargers where they were screwing up the timing routes, right? Because I think that's where Tua was kind of at his best. It's a very predetermined throw. Hill is a complete field changer. And Waddle is really, really good too. I even like Tusecki. But I don't know that

we saw it as much against buffalo uh maybe it was just felt so dominant as far as the storyline and so obvious against the chargers do you think that that was something like what did you notice there was and and was that something that maybe surprised you because it felt a little bit like uh-oh like is this what everybody's going to try to do now? Yeah, absolutely. So the timing aspect of it is very important. And I talked about this with Nora on the Ringer NFL show immediately after that game. You and I analysis kind of in the space, we talk about big dials, right? Press man coverage. You should play more man and less zone.

You should press, right? Boom. Turn the big dial. Turn the press dial up to the max. When coaches build out game plans, we're talking about how football is won and lost. We're talking about little dials, tiny adjustments. And so the Tyree Kill touchdown on Tredavious White is a perfect example of this.

Tredavious White's in press man coverage. It's exactly what the Chargers are doing. Backside Michael Davis on Tyree Kill. Same thing. Okay, the Bills are going to go Tredavious White. Backside on Tyree Kill. But Tredavious White plays that like, you know, a star corner would play press man coverage.

He's not going to overstep. He's not going to sell out to make contact. Tyreek Hill is going to try to mirror. He's going to make sure he sticks with him down the field. And Tyreek Hill just burns him off the line. Michael Davis had one job. Hit him. If he beats you, he beats you. But just shove him. Just make sure he's a little late off the line right that's the little dials it's press coverage but there's different modes there's different methods there's different priorities right and so on third down against the dolphins you saw the bills be very aggressive at the line of scrimmage taron jackson the nickel kair elam first round pick out of florida big long player they press they got aggressive but on first and second down they tried to play a lot of

the same stuff they played in week three they They tried to be really good in zone coverage. They try to pass off routes and communicate. And you can do that well. You can do that at a high level for a long time. But once you bust one time against the Dolphins team speed and the quick release and the intelligence and the aggressiveness of Tua, once you bust one time, they don't just get like a 15 yard gain on you. No, they get the Jalen Waddle 67-yard touchdown. You make one mistake in zone coverage on this team. And this is why Mike McDaniel blows my mind. I think he's an incredible coach. It's because he understands, okay, once I get my advantage, I can't just cash him with like a 20-yard gain. No, no, no, no, no. If I get a bust, we are house called. We're scoring every time. I need team speed. I need

guys moving left to right. I need guys moving left to right. I need guys moving down the field. If they make a mistake, I want seven points. And that's what the Dolphins have done. It's how they beat the Ravens in week three. It's how they get over Buffalo early in the season as well. When you make one mistake, house call. They get seven points out of that.

And that's how they put so much pressure on you. Yeah, that's the thing. You're sitting there going, we've got to be perfect. We've got to be able to pass stuff. And I still, lifetime of watching football, I'm still amazed there's not more busts, that waddle route, that there's not more of those. And it actually speaks to how special the preparation can be

for an NFL game where you're like, when you're passing guys off, is everybody on the same page? And yet when it happens like twice, you'll lose a football game. And you're thinking 70, 80 snaps, like how does it not happen more often? And then when it does, you're like twice you'll lose a football game and you're thinking 70 80 snaps like how does it not happen more often and then when it does you're like right you know um and those passing offs yeah the uh the one of the another incredible thing about this mcdaniel offense is how much he uses motion and how much he changes who the outside most receiver is at

the snap so when we talk about rules and zone coverage they're often dictated by okay who's the outermost receiver who's the slot receiver and then who is there's a third receiver on the inside who's that and mcdaniel's entire offense is it's going to look one way at first but i'm going to put tyree kill in motion i'm going to snap the ball and he's going to suddenly become a slot receiver who's outside outside inside switch release he's moving to the wheels moving this and we're forcing you as a defensive secondary to figure out on the fly okay wait who's number one who's outside who's the slot this really got on top of teams early one thing you saw seen from this Niners film the Chargers

film and even the Bills film is that teams have started to figure out the buttons like okay like you know you watch that Chargers film they kind of get the defense gets into alignment and then like you know Drew Trankville Kenneth Murray Kyle Van Noy and Nasir Adeli somebody points to a receiver and goes right he's moving he's gonna be guy in motion. And they're right a lot of the time. So one of the things for McDaniels, all right, you knew how to break the rules. Defense has gotten wise. Now you got to break the adjustments and you see this chess match kind of grow. Yeah. The other thing too, first of all, for most are to go off like that, a team that can't run the football against the bills, depending on kind of what number you want to look at.

I mean, we're talking about a top five defense. Statistically, I think going into that game, it was number two in a lot of stuff as well. Allen proves his MVP candidacy those last two drives. Like, that's what he does. It's the Herbert throw to Williams yesterday. It's like, okay, we've got one of these guys. We can go ahead and do this. But bigger picture for the Bills,

where does this leave you? Yeah, I have been over the past few weeks a little bit bearish on Buffalo. The Von Miller injury is a really big loss because they're kind of now a jack-of-all-trades master

of none pass rush. They got depth, but they don't really have a one guy going to win a one-on-one consistently when you need him to on third down. And then Tredavis White's back from injury, but Tredavis White's not back. You watch him play

and it's just, you know, we're still getting to 100%. I don't know if we'll get there. That leaves this Buffalo defense a little bit starless, right? Jordan Poirier's a great player at safety. We know Micah Hyde. Milano. I mean, I think Milano's a star. Milano's really good. I think he's a very good call. Milano's a great player, but they're

very well coached and they're very disciplined and they generally have great communication. But it's just when you get to the playoffs, I like guys who can take over games, right? And Buffalo's a little bit lost from those players on defense. And then offensively, to that point about the Josh Allen MVP candidacy, Buffalo took a bold stroke this offseason at receiver. You know, they said, all right, Cole Beasley's out the building.

I'm not bringing Emmanuel Sanders back. And, you know, Sanders was at the end of his career. We're going to trust Gabe Davis, who's our guy in the building, to develop. We're going to trust Isaiah McKenzie, who's our guy in the building, to develop. I'm going to bring in Jameson Crowder as their big wide receiver addition. Davis is good.

He's a useful player, but their non-Diggs pass-catching options entering this Miami game have been struggling down the stretch. They're only two players in the top 100 in yards per route run where Stephon Diggs, who was like top 15 and James Cook, the running back, who was like top 25, right? Because whenever they get him out there and he runs routes, he's been useful. And then Gabe Davis was third in yards per route run at 144th, which some of that's because Gabe Davis was always on the field, but they just weren't getting return on their other receivers and so they had a little bit of issues on offense a little bit of issues

on defense still a great team but you're you're trying to poke holes in contenders now in December trying to figure out who's got weaknesses where and then Josh Allen walks out and just reminds you that he can Superman whenever he likes and and and you get a good Dawson Knox performance right and say okay well he can step up and he can have his one week and you start to realize like, okay, yes, you know, Buffalo may not be super consistent offensively down the stretch, same as last season. But all they need is three superhero Josh Allen games. And we've seen now from Josh Allen in December and in January, he tends to step up late in the season, they get him running the ball more. And so I very much agree with you, Allen was a it was a reminder on Saturday, how how integral he is and when he decides to take over,

it's one of the more impressive takeovers, one of the biggest leaps of any quarterback kind of adding value to their offense that we see in the league. Yeah, I was looking at some of the stuff this morning

and they ran kind of like an NBA plus minus. It's one of the Bills writers for the Athletic. With Diggs on the field, the Bills gained 432 yards, 7.2 yards for play. On the 11 plays, Diggs

wasn't in. It was a yard of play. Tough. One game, 11 plays versus all the other plays, but it is very clear. I feel like that loss at Miami, too, because so many of the players are struggling with the heat, like having Diggs come off. Remember, he had to keep coming off a little

bit there at the end. All right. Let's move this to the Vikings. Watching the Vikings get stomped in the first half against the Colts was kind of funny to see it played on social media because people have been kind of like season-long pissed off at the Vikings. And

I know I haven't been the biggest Cousins guy, although I tell you, like there's versions of him this year where I feel like it's some of the best football he's ever played. I don't know if the stats back it up. You know, when you have that many comebacks, that was kind of what he wasn't for the longest time. I always felt like he was taking the least risky throws all the time. So you're like, no, no, you need to raise your level of risk.

And now I think because of risk and now i think because of jefferson and the trust he has and arguably the best receiver in the league maybe that that that cranks up his risk meter now but now we're left with like wait i thought we were all on the same page in the first half like these guys we've thought they were frauds and then they'll win again and then they win again and then they pull off the greatest comeback in NFL history. I don't know what it's going to take for the public to all agree that maybe we have to take them more seriously. But where are you now? So and that's absolutely the case where from weeks like one to 10 weeks, one to 12.

A lot of our job is like a football consuming public that's trying to be smart about it is to say, OK, well, like wins or wins and losses or losses. But like, what are the efficiency metrics say? Like, what, what are the, what does the eye test say? Who's really legit and who's really not like how, how much metal is there to this one loss Vikings team? Once you start to transition to like December and playoff positioning and yada, yada, whatever wins or wins or losses or losses, you got a home playoff game, you got a home playoff game, right? I'm an Eagles fan. I saw Nick Foles go through the playoffs. I watched that Super Bowl. I cried my eyes out when they won it.

I know that once we get to January, it's 0-0. And if you've made it to the building and you are healthy and you've got a home playoff game and a home crowd, you have a chance to run. So are the Vikings legit? No, they're not legit in the same way they haven't previously been legit. But they're going to be in the playoffs. They're going to host a playoff game. They have a star receiver. They clearly have the ability to win shootouts. They clearly have the ability to win from behind. Like at this point, they've done it enough that they're going to act

anytime they're in a hole. Yeah, we've been here before. We've been in worse spots than this. And so the Vikings are not as good as the Niners, not as good as the Cowboysboys not as good as the eagles but it doesn't change the fact that there's going to be seven teams the nfc playoffs and they're one of them and at that point it's a bangles run just start making coin flips and if you can win late you can win late okay so you have them fourth in the nfc because i think that was the other part of it too which is totally fair like when you're looking at everybody going okay let's look at all the teams at the top let's look at the top three seeds for what doesn't matter in each conference and then you're looking at everybody going okay let's look at all the teams at the top let's look at the top three seeds for what doesn't matter in each conference and then you're looking at some of the statistical profiles and your own inherent history with certain players and you're going

okay this Vikings team isn't like those other teams like I at no point was I going yeah I put them in the group with Kansas City with Buffalo with Philadelphia um and I'll be honest, I'm not doing it today either. I'm not doing it today, but it was a collective confusion with that result where you went. I was so happy that this was happening. Not me personally, but it was kind of like the Dallas game where it's like, okay, all right, enough of this shit. This matches the stat. This matches like, I know I'm not supposed to believe in you so now i feel so much better and it was this just after four hours of it you're going all right now what do i do and it sounds like you like them more than others do at least you know the national side right i to me like i right i've been i think a pretty vocal like this vikings thing it's not

legit like this passing offense has issues, like, whatever. But it's once we, like, I'm a very big believer in once we get to January, you got to, like, stop and reassess. What happened in week two? The Eagles Monday night football against the Vikings. They won 24-7, dominated, right? Three red zone picks of Kirk Cousins. Oh, the Eagles trounced them.

Okay, well, once we get to January football, I don't really care about what happened in week two, right? Who's healthy? What have you done for me lately? And for the Vikings to be in a one-score game with the Mike White Jets two weeks before being like a one-score game with the Jared Goff Lions and then later being down 33 points to the Colts and to continue to come out with wins is irritating.

It's very annoying. Like, just be what you are. Lose some of these games. Make my job easier. But again, they're secure for the NFC North. They've won the division. They're going to be in the dance. And then once you're in the dance,

you're going to put the same pressure on opposing defense as you have all season. What are you going to do about Justin Jefferson? To your Kirk Cousins point, Kirk, over the course of his career, has been the prototype for this under-center, play-action, Kyleanahan offense right he started in it with with washington back in 2014 and it's kind of run since then well this year with kevin

o'connell they don't run as much of that let's run some of that but there's more shotgun uh there's more spread and critically kirk isn't seeing the same coverages that he's accustomed to seeing right uh kirk over the course of his career, was dominant against cover three. Because when you're in these heavy personnel sets, two tight ends under center, teams feel like they have to get heavy boxes on defense. We got to get an extra guy in to defend the run. So now we're going to be single high in coverage.

We're going to play cover three. Kirk ate cover three alive. He knew exactly what he wanted. This season, he's had to see new coverages. He's had to see a lot more spread stuff and throw the ball to different areas. And a lot of his solutions to new looks

and new challenges has been, where's Jefferson? That's not too bad, man. When Jefferson is as good a contested catch as he is, it's kept the Vikings afloat as Kirk's kind of, you know, settled into this new offense with O'Connell. So, Jefferson has been a lifeboat

to this offense and the changes it's made. It's been unbelievable to watch. Porn is a lifeboat. Whose lifeboat? Sorry, say again. No, just succession line. Oh, my bad. Anyway, that derailed everything here. Yeah, because some of the stats,

the stats for Cousins, I need to check them again too. I used to live on NextGen with him because I'd be like, okay, let me see how many air yards this sticks. I'd be like, okay, here's the number. Actually, some of the overall numbers, if you just wanted to go basic QBR, it's down on the other side. I would imagine those are the worst games,

dragging down some of the other stuff. I'll give him this, man. He's getting his ass kicked this year. He's had some games where he has gotten beaten up and he's a tough quarterback. He really is. And here they are again with another win. Okay. This is a good transition then. Jefferson, into your love for Cincinnati. Let's start with the Cincinnati part of it. Then I'll share my Jamar Chase take with you, which I know a lot of people are

not thrilled with, but you love Cincinnati right now. Do you like them better than anyone in the AFC? It's difficult because I do still at this time, I put certainly Mahomes and also Allen in a separate tier of quarterbacking as Joe Burrow, which is something that gets Bengals fans

very upset, and Joe Burrow's been very successful in his career, but in terms of what they're even... How is that even controversial? Listen, myself and Stephen Ruiz were on Bill's pod on Thursday and we had like a Burrow-Herbert conversation. It's just not great. Cincy fans have been like entrenched since the Super Bowl run because last year, this team was a fragile build.

They were min-maxed, right? It was, okay, if Burrow wins on his downfield shots to Jamar Chase and Tee Higgins, this team is awesome. And if they don't, they don't have much else. The reason why I really like them this year is they've really rounded out the picture. They don't need to be downfield all the time to Jamar Chase and Tee Higgins.

They have a much better short passing game, intermediate passing game. They're better against too high, which was a huge issue for them to start the season. The offensive line, which was shaky to start the season, has improved. It's settled in place. Lyle Collins, still an issue. I'd still be very worried about that. But overall, the offensive line settled

down. The running game, holy smokes, the running game. They were siloed on offense, where anytime they were under center, it was run. And anytime they were in the gun, it was pass. passed and like bangles beat writers were like tweeting out live during the game like it's halftime the bangles have been under center nine times and eight of them have been runs and one was a play action pass and you're like this and if we're on this everybody else is on this their their shotgun running game has gotten so much better their rpo game they've rounded out

the picture on offense defensively luana rum Lou Anarumo, man, the defensive coordinator, this Bengals team walks out and looks different every single week on defense. They got the Titans and they're in these 5-1 fronts, 6-1 fronts, Bill Belichick against the Rams nonsense. They're up against the Chiefs and they're drop bait and they're blitzing from depth. They got Mike Hilton in the run fit.

They change everything. Every picture every single week is different. You have to be so well coached to do that. And they're doing it with like Cam Taylor Britt at corner. Eli Apple, man. Jermaine Pratt is like a starting linebacker. Nobody knows these names. Trey Hendrickson was like a joke of a contract.

They're like Carl Lawson now. He's been double-digit sacks for multiple seasons. They are just as, it's as cool as you'll see a defensive lead. Just no name, well coached. We know what you're doing. And then the second half adjustments, even when they get got 17 points to the Bucs in the first half, goose egg

for all the meaningful time for the rest of the second half. They tend to be extremely good coming out of the halftime locker room. Such a well-coached defense. And then offensively, the coaching's caught up. So the Bengals are versatile. They beat you in a myriad of different ways.

They give you the stuff that you don't like. I love that in an AFC playoff picture. They're eventually going to run into Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes. And then it becomes, can you withstand the superhero nonsense? But, I mean, they've beaten the Chiefs in the last three meetings. They have a little bit of a number. They have confidence that they can survive those runs. And so I think Bengals are extremely dangerous entering the AFC playoffs.

Okay, here's how I feel about Chase. I like him more than any other wide receiver in the NFL. I understand arguments for Jefferson. Certainly Adams. He'll tilt the field the way Steph Curry does when he steps on a basketball court, where now all of a sudden the gravity of that player is like, okay, now I have to do all these things. I like Chase because then he turns into like Gronkowski after the catch and that's what he was like at lsu um if you want to go route

technician on me i will defer to you but i like chase i'll take him over anybody at the position pound for pound he might be the strongest receiver in the league right because i remember last year uh the nerds would put out all these graphs. It was like yards after catch over expectation, like, you know, where do you get your catches? How far from the line of scrimmage you get your catches? And then how do you produce after the catch? Because a player like Debo Samuel, for example, incredible yards after the catch, but he was also getting like touches behind the line of scrimmage, right? He's going to get like a bubble screen thrown to him, tunnel screens. He's getting like, you know, there's just the quick throws over the middle of

the field try to hit him in stride and turn up field and so there were three players who were like insane in terms of yards after the catch over expectation and it was Devo Samuel Cooper Kopp you know people always think like Kopp's this like small scrappy white guy he's like 6'3 2'10 you know what I'm saying he's like a big dude and they're throwing him short and then Jamar Chase with a depth of target of like a hundred who's just getting the ball like 40 yards downfield is massively above everybody else in yards after catch over expectation he's like 6-1-200 and you look at him he like he looks a little wiry like he doesn't look like he's super thickly built and then guys just bounce off of him he's a pinball machine out there. The wide receiver has gotten so wide. The body

types we get at the position, the play styles we get at the position, the way that the different guys are used, speed threat down the field, yard after catch threat, contested catch threat, middle of the field contested catch. There's just a myriad of dudes. Every team's got three receivers and they all can do different things. Chase, and so when we talk about top receivers, you brought it up,

like Tyree Kill is like a gravity thing, right? We have to have like a different paradigm for a player in that particular role. For what Chase brings at all three levels of the field, because he's a downfield contested catch guy, he can separate on routes and he can create after the catch. He's got one of the most balanced portfolios of the top receivers, right? Like Tyreek runs out of bounds. Tyreek doesn't like contact. Like Tyreek doesn't try to break tackles. Jamar Chase regularly breaks the first tackle.

And so that like who's better? Difficult to say. But for that particular trait and the role that serves in the Bengals offense, you need a player like Jamar Chase. You need a guy with that level of toughness. So figure out who's the best receiver is very difficult. But what Chase has in terms of his skill set and balance there, the number of things he brings, the strength at all three levels of the field, it's hard to find a good parallel. I don't know if it was you talking about it. I think all of us were talking about it.

But in that Kansas City game when he got that third down conversion on that pass to the right side and he had no business converting that. None. I don't know that there's many receivers that would do that. And other guys make somebody miss. that there's many receivers that would do. And other guys make somebody miss. But in that lack of space in that play, the magnitude of that play,

like he's looking for you. He is looking for you. He wants to make contact. I'll allow Jefferson. Too many smart people have told me it's Devontae Adams. I get the Hill impact. Diggs, numbers, we've been over him. With Cupps healthy, all that stuff. I mean, it's the depth at the top.

It's a preference thing for me i love that he wants to blast you and make you pay for also trying to tackle him which again probably you know marvin harrison's like oh cool you mean instead of doing what i did where all i did was you know i lasted forever so um anyway all right so that's there's just there's so many good receivers that every year there's going to be a new who's the best receiver like yeah three years ago we were doing like who's the best receiver michael thomas or deandre hopkins like last year it was like cooper cops the best receiver this is a triple crown of receiving this year gets injured and we're like yeah don't worry about it we got five new top guys it's just there's too much talent so you

gotta pick a guy and then just like yeah he's the best and eventually within the next few years he'll like have the crazy season and you can just catch him like yeah i was right the whole time yeah hopkins is one i don't like turning the page on it just he's in a tough spot now with everything to he had a catch that was out of bounds last week where yeah i was like i'll watch that again i'd watch highlights of things that don't even count with DeAndre Hopkins. So, you know, the whole point of this, as you've said a couple times here, is trying to figure out like the AFC part of it. And the league, as I mentioned too in the open, is just on this absolute heater of results.

I mean, yesterday, I know that's the design, but it feels like four or five weeks in a row now, you're getting done with your Sunday going, I can't believe what I just saw. I can't believe we were this lucky to get this many games that mean this much. I mean, we haven't even touched on Jacksonville-Dallas yet, but if we stay in the AFC part of handicapping this,

it feels unclear because of the outcomes. And I feel like there's just a lot of teams I like in that conference. Yeah, I think I'm piloting the stakes. I'm going to have it for a ringer show later tonight. I think the AFC playoffs is going to be completely off the wall insane. We're getting at least like three superhero quarterbacks in, in my opinion. is going to be completely off the wall insane. We're getting at least three superhero quarterbacks in, in my opinion,

and Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, and Lamar Jackson, who Lamar has to live on a completely different scale than these guys because his leading receiver is Demarcus Robinson or something like that. But a healthy Lamar back in is just another issue, a whole other thing to have to deal with in terms of a quarterback's ability to take over, his ability to embarrass you as one-of-one player.

And then you get a team like the Bengals in the building. If you can get, you know, like, if you get the Jaguars, and the way this offense has regularly been putting up 30-plus points in the building, even if the Jaguars don't make it and the Titans make it, well, now you've got to deal with the Titans beast, which they've lost four in a row, but the Titans are really good against AFC contending teams because they're

super physical. They make you play a square peg into a round hole really good against AFC contending teams because they're super physical. They make you play a square peg into a round hole sort of a game. They make you play outside of your structure. The AFC's got just a wicked amount of talented teams and then also teams that have particular builds. Let's say the Jets get in. I don't want to face that front in the playoffs. Mike White, Garrett Wilson, whatever, whatever.

I do not want to face that pass rush, that corner room. That's just a headache. That's a nightmare to deal with. I think we're going to see wildcard teams beat divisional teams. I think we're going to see some star quarterback leave way earlier than we think. Like I just preached the Bengals praises. And if like Cincinnati's got to play the Ravens for the third time in a season in round one of the playoffs, it's hard to beat a team three times.

It's hard to play them that third time. I i think we're gonna see wicked wild crazy stuff in the afc i think the nfc is gonna go exactly as expected and that'll be boring afc will be fun though okay why will the nfc be boring then are you just saying philly san francisco yeah i really thought dallas had the team that was gonna make the run about a month ago and then the injuries just started to catch up and that's the most heartbreaking thing is whenever you catch the injury bug in December. Jordan Lewis and Nickel goes down. Then Anthony Brown, the outside corner, goes down. They got a good rookie out there, and they're on bland now,

but they're a carousel at the other outside corner spot. Trevor Lawrence is picking on Kelvin Joseph the entire second half. They benched him for Nayshawn Wright. Donovan Wilson's hurt. Van Der Esch is hurt. Jonathan Hankins, who was a defensive tackle. They traded for him from the Raiders at the deadline. It was hugely important to helping solve their run defense issues.

They needed a big guy in the middle. He's on IR. So they got first and 10 snaps. So they have one 300-pounder on the field. Their second heaviest dude is Osa Degizu at 280, playing defensive tackle. And the Jaguars just ripping off runs through the interior. They've gotten so beat up defensively when when this defense really looked like it was going to be consistent it had brought what they needed to bring from last season the offense was

settling into place like the douse looked so legit and then the injury bug catches it makes me sad but I think yeah I think the Eagles so long as they stay healthy are a clear juggernaut there and then the thing with the Niners is Brock Purdy, seventh round pick. Like how legit can this be? Well, number one, Kyle's pretty good at this.

Shanahan kind of knows how to press his buttons around his quarterback. Number two, D'Amico Ryans is really good at this. The Niners can walk in the NFC playoffs and win a game or two on defense alone. I believe that wholeheartedly. It's an incredible group. But once you get one playoff win with a quarterback like Purdy,

you start to believe, yeah, I think the Niners can make a run. So I think Eagles-Niners chalk for the NFC Championship game is extremely likely. And then if Purdy's not killing them, not collapsing, that Eagles-Niners game is going to be very fun. Eagles have not faced a defense like that all season. It's going to be a crazy matchup. But until then, I think the NFC playoffs might be a little sleepy.

Two quick things that I want to finish with, but let me just slide in that Jacksonville result because I thought that was just really impressive. And we've seen it a couple times with Jacksonville, the Baltimore game, and Jacksonville's felt a bit like a tease. But I think the end of this season is just going to feel like a win for them, no matter what, in the development line. Absolutely.

The beginning of the year, I've been over this timeline, so I don't want to exhaust everybody with it, but it was kind of like, hey, look at the start. Jacksonville's for real. Trevor Lawrence looks a bit better. Then there's bad losses. I think the Baltimore win, I think yesterday's win, whatever the season ends up being, this is nothing but a step in the right direction. Do you have a comfortable comp for who you think Lawrence will be? Watching him yesterday, and especially watching the throw on the move,

rolling out to his right, the touchdown to Zay Jones, that looked quite Herbert-y. Just the length, the limberness, and then the arm talent, the way that thing just spins off his hand, man. Graceful, effortless. That one play, I saw Herbert in my head, and then I went, no, no, no, no,

don't do that. That's bad. That's bad. That's very tempting. I know Nate Tyson, the athletic, has talked about he's like a taller Matt Ryan, just in terms of when Ryan was in his prime, it was so good in the pocket, it was so accurate intermediate. I see that. I think Lawrence has more of your arm talent. I've seen the

luck comparisons. He's obviously not as big, he's not as dense, he doesn't break as many tackles, but he's still for a wiry, tall guy, he's still weirdly good through contact. I don't have one that I love just yet. About 20 minutes before I got on this pod, Riley, my editor editor was like hey i want you to write trevor lawrence for wednesday so i'm diving into lawrence tomorrow so i might

i might shoot you a text and in the afternoon be like this is it this is the guy um but i'm nowhere on that just yet what i will say is that uh lawrence is such a perfect example of how uh things need to coalesce for a young quarterback in every game he's played since like even the urban days like the the four traits of like accuracy plus like risk management plus like pocket management whatever you want to talk about there's always like two or three of the four in one game and then that one that was off was just killing them and then these last few weeks you've just seen the picture come together it's a reminder that development is not linear we don't get better a little bit week in and week out in the NFL coaches like to say that doesn't just seen the picture come together. It's a reminder that development is not linear.

We don't get better a little bit week in and week out in the NFL. Coaches like to say that doesn't really happen. What happens is a spark catches and development shoots up. And that's what you really see with Lawrence, like the return on all of his starts, the return on his saturation, getting to NFL speed, getting Doug Peterson in the building. It's been really cool to just watch the fire cast for him over the last month, month and a half. Yeah, that's what was so strange about when he was bad last year. And I think if anything, you're always wondering, no matter where you pick a guy,

but certainly with the resources of a number one pick and then kind of what it just does to the fan base and everything else, it's like, oh, we got this wrong. Like, you know, you got it right. Like, I think that's the part of this Trevor Lawrence story, at least in year two. You're like, OK, we got it right like i think that's the part of this yes trevor lawrence story at least in year two you're like okay we got it right now what is his ceiling is is the next part of that question for him because last year which was so surprising and you know there's a lot of people that actually that are in the quarterback world that will tell you like clemson doesn't always do the greatest job with their guys and that it's been getting worse um He didn't make mistakes like he made last year, like some just Carson Wentz,

like a pinch of Carson Wentz in there. You're like, what the fuck are you looking at? Yeah, buddy, relax. It's okay. You don't got to do this. Yeah, and I think, you know, granted, the run that he conversed the first down on yesterday, he'll likely never do that again.

And with the game in that spot, not saying he's going to slide forever, but going, hey, you already had the first down on yesterday, he'll likely never do that again. And with the game in that spot, not saying he's going to slide forever, but going, hey, you already had the first down. You needed to get down. He fumbles. It looks like they're going to lose the game that way. And then they end up pulling it out. So that's one of those plays that'll not be remembered. It's like the Burrow sack against Tampa. We should never, ever forget that. And if I hated Burrow, I would make sure everybody, that was one of the worst decisions a quarterback has made all season long, if not multiple seasons. And because of a penalty, it gets wiped out.

I don't know what the hell he was doing. I did a huge... The most impressive thing about Burrow this year is he's gotten his sack percentage down. He's scrambling a lot more. He's managing the pocket. He's totally changed. I did it last week.

I was like, he did it. He fixed it. And then he made that play. And I was like, buddy, please. I thought we were over this. Yeah, yeah. Go ahead. No, the Lawrence transition out of Clemson,

it just goes back to how we talk about draft quarterbacks. Clemson played and as gimmicky, as collegey, as RPO-y, as we run three total concepts of an offense, as you'll find in the college level. And there was no, we have processing concerns. How can he read a field? Like if you put a black quarterback in this offense, it would have been, you know, a heyday on like, can he process?

But with Lawrence, it was just presumed that this was going to be okay. And I was, I liked Lawrence as the top quarterback in that class, but I was a little bit lower on him than consensus. And my thought was like, it's going to take a bit to get the full menu of concepts, to get the full field read concepts, get the full field read to understand the speed. And that's what you saw in year one with no training wheels. Right. Because yeah, and the roster and like, you know,

Gerald Bubble and Brian Schottenheimer for what they are, like helping him do a miniscule degree. But Urban really dragging things down. Doug, man, Doug is so Doug is so good at this. He's not like a savant. He's not a genius. He's not like a savant he's not a genius he's not a revolutionary but Doug's just a pro just the the little tweaks just like the you know rubs and man coverage and the zone coverage identifiers just like a lot of the stuff that football nerds go out for Doug just gets it he just he's a guy at a control panel he knows all the buttons to click and it's

made things so much easier for Lawrence and And you see him get up to speed. You see him with more confidence, know where his guys are. And that's how you get like crazy Evan Ingram games, crazy Zay Jones games. It's because schematically Doug's got it to like, all right, here's our matchup. And Trevor's like, all right, I know where that is. And then they hammer it and they hammer it and they hammer it home. Okay, last thing. Seeing what Mike McDaniel has done with Tua.

And I think we all like McDaniel as a coordinator because he was funny and his quotes were funny. Yeah. He also took that halftime interview in the Buffalo game. He took that as serious as any coach I've ever seen, which is just speaks to his personality, but it works as you've already touched on not only today, but multiple times a season. Anybody that's watching is going,

okay, it's, it's working. You think about McVay with Goff, right? Although Goff is starting to make us think, which would be a whole other segment that we don't need to get to today. Yeah. And then the Purdy stuff with Shanahan. I remember when I first started thinking about baseball general managers. This

goes back like 20 years ago, right? You're like, man, that'd be a cool job. You're like, well, how much do those guys get right? You're like, man, that'd be a cool job. You're like, well, how much do those guys get paid? Like, wait, that guy only makes like a million bucks a year. Like, why would you pay the person who's in charge of making every decision for your franchise less than your backup middle infielder? Like, that doesn't make any sense to me.

Why would he make less? And then eventually, you know, the salary's caught up and whatever, and they get paid more. When I think about Shanahan and what he does with quarterbacks, what McDaniel's done here, what McVay's done in the past, like, isn't that person worth like $20 million a year to your franchise? Now, I'm not sitting here going like coaches are underpaid and that's my – but I think we become so accustomed to what the associated value is of somebody that's paid a certain amount.

Like there's a good example. I've used this one before. When I look at late night talk show hosts, it's always an eight figure deal because it's just what it's been. People that are on TV that host these shows, there used to only be a few. Now there's a ton. It's like, well, hey, if you get this show, like this is 10 million plus a year. And then I'll look at some of their ratings and I'll go, this person has less viewers than some of the most successful podcasts. But nobody would ever say like, hey, this podcast should make as much as the guy hosting late night on CBS or NBC. Like this guy doesn't have any viewers anymore. You know, there's podcasts that aren't even on the top. So, like, there's an association for what we're accustomed to that people are supposed to make just based on historically how they've been compensated.

Again, this is not some rant about how underappreciated, underpaid NFL coaches are. But when you see what a Shanahan or a McDaniel or whoever else is capable of fixing your quarterback, or in Shanahan's case, making you competitive, apparently, with your quarterback, or in Shanahan's case, making you competitive apparently with any quarterback, I don't know that there's too much that you can pay for that job. Right. I agree with you.

I think the most helpful way to look at the calculus is this. I need a good passing offense to win in the modern NFL. Non-negotiable. Can't do it without it. I have two options. I can pay a quarterback $30 million, $40 million now per year. Or I can play a head coach like this. If I can find one, you know, $20 million, right? Make up the number. The real thing that matters is one of those figures goes against my cap. The other one doesn't. And that's the real big competitive advantage, right? Now, if we're stepping into owner's shoes and we're making this decision

you are taking yourself down a road where you have to understand where it might end and that's always the difficult thing with ownership is you're playing a probability game you're rolling the dice if the dice turn up the way you don't like you're just going to fire everybody because you're mad you knew you were rolling dice you knew there was a chance that you didn't get the numbers you needed when you commit commit yourself to a play caller who can lift the floor of quarterbacking like this, look at just the arc of Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco. Firstly, Niners fans,

there's like a decent contingent who are like, this guy is not actually that good. This guy sucks. And it's because Kyle keeps overachieving relative to the expectations of their quarterback, but then not winning the big game. And it's hard to win the big game with these players, even when you're as good of a schematic guy,

even when you're this smart, right? Like the Goff and McVay year in 2017, they were rolling through everybody. They didn't meet resistance. It was effortless. And then they found Vic Fangio on a chilly Chicago night in December, and they scored six points.

And then fast forward two months, they're preparing for the Super Bowl. Bill Belichick's watching Vic Fangio on a chilly Chicago night in December, and they scored six points. And then fast forward two months, they're preparing for the Super Bowl. Bill Belichick's watching Vic Fangio film and goes, yeah, I can put the game in this guy's hands. I can take Sean out of this and I can make Goff beat me. We've been referencing this quote a ton on the Ring NFL show, but Mike Girardi on NFL Network before that Rams Patriots Super Bowl said, listen, in front of Mike's Patriots defenders are effusive about their praise for the Rams offense for Jared Goff. They think they're great behind closed doors.

They're saying that if we give Goff a look that he doesn't know, he will bleep in his pants. That was sound NFL Network, baby. Like that to be talking about the matchup like that before the game is incredible, right? So if you go and you get one of these, you know, I like to call them like, you know, like puppeteers, right? They're like guys in the chairs operating these automaton quarterbacks are operating these robots. They're pulling all the strings, just point and shoot, do what I tell you to do. Okay, you can go down that road. And there's a lot of competitive

advantages you get from it. But when you get to the Super Bowl, you're going to want to have a different quarterback, you're going to want to have Matthew Stafford down four against the Bengals with six minutes left. And Sean says, you know what? We're just going shotgun, no huddle. Matthew, just find Cooper Cupp. We're just going to get Cooper open. Just keep throwing it to him.

And we're going to actually be able to walk down the field and score that game-winning touchdown. So you can go that route. It's very reasonable. If you find one of these dudes, Shanahan McVay, McDaniel, I absolutely commit to that guy. Keep him in the building. He's the man. But just know that when you get to January, it's going to be a sweaty

experience because you're going to have Tua against Mahomes. You're going to have Goff against Brady. And that matchup is an uphill battle. You can follow him at Benjamin Solak, S-O-L-A-K. And again, the Philly special with Sheil,

who has joined us throughout the season as well. Thanks, man. Appreciate it, Ryan. I'll tell my World Cup story in a moment, but we bring in Cerruti. We're going abroad. He found time, even as a new dad, to watch soccer. I set the alarm, making sure I was up for it. Then I forgot pregame and all that kind of stuff, so I didn't really need to set the alarm

because I'm usually up by then. This was an all-timer. I know people are calling it the greatest one ever. I think if you've watched only two or three, maybe hold off on that, but I don't know. It was so much fun, Cerruti. Give us your perspective of Argentina's win over France. Yeah, I mean, I've only really been watching closely since 06.

Like 06, when Italy beat France, there was the Zinedine Zidane headbutt, which was pretty dope. You know, obviously, my last name is Cerruti, Italian. Like I kind of got into the sport then. So I don't have like this huge, you know, back catalog of all of these different World Cups

to say whether or not this is the greatest one of all time. I will say, I don't know that I've ever seen a better game than that. Just an individual game with not only just like what happened. I'm sure there have been wilder things or higher scoring games, but just like the sheer star power of like Messi, Argentina going up to nothing. Everything that's basically on the line for him as far as like, will he be crowned the goat if he

wins this game, which we can get into a little bit. I think it's kind of annoying. They give up the penalty. It's a game in the last 10 minutes, and then he loses the ball. Then that leads to the tying goal from Mbappe, which is just a stupid goal out of absolutely nothing, which showed you how incredibly good he is. It's two things.

One, I'm happy for Messi because the discourse around messy like you think the lebron versus jordan stuff sucks and is toxic the the the ronaldo messy stuff is even worse i mean like dip your toe into soccer twitter for a second any tweet about messy any tweet about ronaldo is always somebody and not even somebody hundreds of people just crushing the other guy being like oh score a real goal dude dude, or like, oh, Pinaldo, classic Pesci. And it's like basically

just like a bunch of Stu Gots just trying to, you know, downplay all these accomplishments from these two great guys. And I like Stu Gots. Nothing against Stu Gots. Sounds like you love him. It's kind of like this bit

where it's like, oh, nothing is ever actually good enough. And it's so annoying. So for Messi, if he had lost that final, man, like, I think he's, listen, he's the best player

I've ever watched, you know, for, gun to my head, I would pick Messi over Ronaldo. I I think he's listen he's the best player I've ever watched you know for it gun to my head I would pick Messi over Ronaldo I still think Ronaldo's great but if he had lost that final he just would have never heard the end of it blowing a two nothing lead it's like blowing a 3-1 lead for the Warriors like you just don't live that down so one I'm happy for Messi and two I'm just happy for the sport itself because you have so many people throughout the this tournament kind of like checking in for maybe the first time soccer's kind of blown up a little bit in the last four years specifically. And they're still kind of like, oh, soccer, there's no scoring.

No, no, this is boring. Oh, these games get into the tie. For that game to be that good and that universally accepted as, holy shit, this is freaking awesome. I mean, you've got like Bill in text groups being like, this is the best sporting event I've watched this year. Like, that's cool, man. And so I think, you know, I think Messi and Argentina deserve to win.

France are still, obviously, they were defending champs. They're probably the second or third best team in the world. They might be the best team in the world talent-wise. For all those things to come together and we got that game and that final and Messi finally being able to, at age, what, 35 to be able to lift the trophy, it was kind of perfect. It really was.

To get that star power and then to have it play out that way, because I think that's the knock with soccer, is at least with two dueling quarterbacks that are Hall of Famers, you're going to see some stuff. If it's two of the best NBA players, you're going to see some stuff. And you're so dependent on, like, is anybody going to get a chance? Is there going to be any space?

Can somebody actually get this off? And then it's like, wait, no, these two dudes, Mbappe and Messi, are actually going to go back and forth the whole time. Now, this in the open I haven't told you this yet so the audience has already heard it's Rudy hasn't I get up I'm planning my morning around it but this is off already one NFL day with a ton of NBA and so now I'm staring at a 2-0 lead for Argentina and I'm going you got to get out of the house bro you going, you got to get out of the house, bro. You got to get out of the house. You got to go work out or something because you're all

football the rest of the day trying to mix in a little NBA with Jokic's last night 27 boards. Talking about international talent as the World Cup was Jokic inspired. I don't know. Magic Celtics too. Not a big deal. No big deal. Yeah, Magic Celtics. Yeah, Tatum wasn't there the second game. Bad matchup second game bad matchup not worried about it not worried about it yep

we'd hate that in the 1-8 so um although milwaukee actually had now i from the time i turned it off was like go work out you're gonna be watching football all day from the time i grabbed my bag got in my car and turned the car over as I was driving away. It was 2-2. And I'm like, you have to be fucking kidding me. So I missed the two Mbappe goals, the penalty, obviously, and then the equalizer. That's what I would call it, right? So anyway, when I went to the gym, way more cardio so I could watch the rest of it. And then I'll admit, I even worked over towards the tv area just did

some dumbbell stuff because i was like i have to keep watching this it was look it is the best sporting event in the world it is i i turned the corner 10 something years ago with watching the champions league stuff where i'm like this is insane how much fun this is how good it is and when it's played at that level the field actually is as as big as the pitch is, as large as the surface area as we're talking about. These guys are so special, they actually make it look small. That's the part of elite soccer

that I didn't really quite understand until I started. Again, I didn't pay a ton of attention to this World Cup. It was tough overlap for me, but I'm happy for you guys. I'm happy for you guys because I usually can't stand you most of the time. That first penalty, I don't want to derail it, but I'm happy for you guys. I'm happy for you guys because I usually can't stand you most of the time. Like that first penalty. I don't want to derail it, but that first penalty is a joke.

I sent you it. So I saw your tweet because you were like, I think. Well, did you? People were saying it was a trip and I'm like, he absolutely isn't. I don't understand how people can watch athletes. He did get him. He flops the flops before their feet touch. So that's not what the penalty was, that he was going down.

It wasn't the trip. His feet were already going down, anticipating it. And that's something I don't understand is that once you're inside the box and you have the defender out of position, that they're going to give that penalty all the time. By the way, soccer people were saying it was a terrible penalty. So that was part of my 2-0, I'm going to go to the gym thing here because I was so pissed that I'm thinking like,

oh, and I don't want to derail it because I don't want this to be negative. I'll just say one more thing that's sort of negative because soccer people will constantly say NBA guys flop too. And I'd be like, yeah, well, if an NBA finals, if game seven of the NBA finals and the fucking final score was three to two

and somebody got a free throw to make it three-two, then you'd have a point but you don't you don't have a point because in that moment i'm mad on behalf of the game i'm mad on behalf of the sporting audience so and again i i've i don't want it i've already done what i said i wasn't going to do because i couldn't help myself there's way too many things that are positive for me to spend more time on. What was that first thing that bummed me out? So I'm totally, that's it. That's it. It's a soft, it was a soft penalty.

I was a penalty. I mean, the thing is, as soon as there's contact, the guy's going to go down because of course you're going to get a penalty. It's not going to get overturned. So if you get touched, go down immediately, even if it's like slight, slight contact. So it's hard for me to hate on them. And, you know, again, I know. Let's, let's go back to the positive.

Let's go back to the positive. Well, the positive would be that, you know, obviously, you know, again, I know. Let's go back to the positive. Let's go back to the positive. Well, the positive would be that, you know, obviously, you know, you've got this guy who is now potentially the greatest player of all time who finally gets the monkey off his back. I mean, you have to understand for years, you know, Messi, he's won the most Ballon d'Or. He's won, I believe, six, which is one more than Ronaldo. He's won the Champions League four times. He's won, you know, this is the second, I think, Golden Ball. He's won the second time. He's won best player at the tournament,

but he had never won the actual trophy, the one trophy that Diego Maradona, the other Argentine legend who a lot of people do consider the greatest player of all time, did win, even though, you know, listen, I never watched Maradona. Hand of God. He has highlights. He's fantastic. Yeah, a lot of people were saying that, like,

if they had blown that lead yesterday, that was karma for Argentina, for the Hand of god situation um but like i said i'm just happy for messi because i just hate the discourse around it like just because this guy first off he it's like it's in like any other sport i mean like one guy can't do everything and you know they're he's he's carried some some good but not great argentina uh teams to to trophies or to a world cup final in 2014 when they lost to germany and by the way germany was the best team in the some good but not great Argentina teams to trophies or to a World Cup final in 2014 when they lost to Germany. And by the way,

Germany was the best team in the world. So they lost to the best team in the world. And that's somehow being held over his head. It's kind of like, you know, like when LeBron goes to the finals and doesn't win for a bunch of years or at least gets there with the Cavs team and loses to the Spurs.

You're like, yeah, but he wasn't supposed to be there. It's amazing that he even got there in the first place. So why are we holding that against him? It's stupid. So I am just happy for Messi.

Because what I think is just a stupid argument that people kept holding over his head. I'm just happy that we can finally put that to rest. Am I ready to say that he's the greatest player of all time? I didn't watch Pele play. I didn't watch Maradona play. I've seen highlights of them. What I have seen is I think Messi does some shit with the ball that I've never seen anybody else do.

Some of the passing that he makes, the one touch that he had to Alvarez, which quickly got them on the break to score that second goal. That's just stupid stuff. I mean, the pass that he had against the Netherlands, that was just like nobody else on the field would see that kind of stuff. That's, I mean, that's like John Stockton on steroids. I don't even like who's the greatest passer of all time. John Stockton, LeBron on steroids.

There's just stuff that he does on the field that is legitimately magical. So I am just so pumped that he that he finally got this monkey off his back because even in his own country Ryan he wasn't really accepted because he didn't win the big one he didn't win the world cup like Maradona did you know you sound like you're talking about Chris Paul well yeah I mean I like Chris Paul but you know I don't know I don't know it was the first thing that jumped to my head you want to get back to parenting yeah sure

okay I think that's all we needed to talk about right yeah I mean I'm just like again I am happy that guys like you guys like Bill hopefully maybe Kyle got into it a little bit this was like a great showcase for the game and you know I'm not one of those guys I like that when guys were tired it's such a free got into it a little bit. This was like a great showcase for the game. And, you know, I'm not one of those guys. It was unbelievable.

You know what I love? I like that when guys were tired, it's such a free-for-all at the end. Oh, it's a disaster. Yeah, the last 10 minutes of that game were as chaotic as anything that there ever was.

Yeah, but I think it actually made it more exciting. You know, maybe some people would say it wasn't to the class that you would expect. The one thing I'd say is like penalties,

I still don't love penalties. Like and I know like, you know, it's not really at some point, like after 120 minutes, like you can't just keep running these guys in the ground. It's kind of why I think

they should play golden goal at the end. Just play the first one to score wins because that's everything on the line. Like, as you said, it's kind of chaotic

at the last 10 minutes. Someone's probably going to score a goal. Penalties aren't my favorite thing in the world. But, you know, the sport's not perfect. I don't think anybody, any soccer fan isn't saying the sport is perfect. Like if you

enjoyed watching a 13, three Browns Ravens game yesterday, and you think that's the most enjoyable thing that you did on your Saturday, who am I to tell you you're wrong? Like, but that, but the NFL isn't perfect as well. I mean, look what happened in the, in the, in the giants commanders game last night, there were like three penalties that went against the commanders and they should have easily won that game. But like, you know, just that's the sport soccer is the same way. It's not, it's not a perfect sport, but I think, you know, if you just accept it for like the star power and the, and the amount of like talent that we've seen on the field, I, I just, I just think there's nothing like it, man.

And especially when guys are just representing their country, it's just, there's the pressure is unlike any other sport there is in the world. So yeah, there's my, I, I, uh, I loved it. I loved it. And I wish I hadn't left and derailed my view. You got to see the end. So that's fine. I got to see everything that I needed to see to feel like, you know, but it wasn't the same experience if I had just been locked in for those two hours. But I'm with you. I'm like, I know the penalty kicks. Everybody hates it, whatever. And I used to think, well, you have to do it eventually because it'd be 0-0. I think guys get so tired that mistakes would be made because the anxiety of that game is such that it's not even just a normal 90 minutes in extra time.

It's the 90 plus minutes of the most stressful game of your entire life. And once you've run through the subs, I would think something would just break. So what you're asking for is kind of like a mistake. But it's the same thing in hockey. Like hockey, sudden it's the grit but so many times it's like oh shit this puck got tipped in because something stupid happened at the very end and like that emotional

peak to decline for hockey even though a lot of times the goals because something stupid happened we all seem to love that so i don't know why, but I'm not here to fix soccer. I already feel guilty about pitching about the first penalty kick because it deserves all the credit for being the thing that soccer guys were always telling us that it was and probably hopefully grabbed a few more fans because that lived up. It didn't live up to it. It exceeded everything when you have two guys going like it.

It just doesn't really happen. To have a soccer match play out that way where the two guys that everybody's watching actually go back and forth like that like exactly we were really lucky i'll leave you with this two things one i mean mbappe was invisible for like 80 minutes and if it carried on like that if messy had done that in the final we wouldn't have heard the end of it okay but the thing with mbappe though that i would i would say is as an observer of athletes now for 40 years it is that tilting of the field ship okay i'm not i'm not saying mbappe sucks i know there were some tweets so i don't know if you're getting into the worst take category because there was a tweet yesterday that was we're gonna say the worst take of all time you are our worst

take spirit animal and that segment is is suffered without you and we need to revamp it a bit we need to revamp it a bit and we do we need to not do it every week but i'm not giving up on it because we have one that happened we're not going to say exactly what it was it's so incredible that i i don't know that we're going to even allow it be into the contest because nothing's ever going to beat it so go ahead at first yeah so that yeah. So that I'm not anti-Bapa. I'm just saying like that's what's so cool about the sport is like he didn't he wasn't even in the game for 80 minutes and all of a sudden in the blink of an eye scores two goals in his time.

The last thing I'll leave you with, though, is what's so freaking cool about the sport too, is that on the first game, Argentina's first game, they lost to Saudi Arabia. So the Argentina, the champions of the world, they just won the World Cup. Saudi Arabia were, I believe, the lowest rated team or ranked team in the entire tournament. They beat Argentina in the champions of the world. They just won the World Cup. Saudi Arabia, where I believe the lowest rated team or ranked team in the entire tournament, they beat Argentina in the first game. So that's how much like there's we're talking about in 2026 about adding more teams or making this bigger. The parody is actually perfect right now.

It is so perfect. A 32 team format to two winners or two teams from each group go advanced to a knockout stage. The tournament is perfect. We shouldn't absolutely not change it. But the idea that the champion could have lost to the lowest ranked team in the first match of their World Cup

run, it just tells you how awesome the sport is, man. Agreed. Thanks, buddy. Talk to you soon. Later, guys. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could possibly imagine.

And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. All right, let's do life advice. Life advice is brought to you by Chevy Silverado. The email for life advice, lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. All right, this one do life advice. Life advice is brought to you by Chevy Silverado. The email for life advice, lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. All right, this one's in Kyle's wheelhouse.

21-6-8. Ooh, maybe it's not in Kyle's wheelhouse. 220. Build and pick up play style reminiscent of a college rec center Poku. Poku's good. Now, I i mean he's always talented but he was

he did some of the dumbest shit ever in games it was just hard not to laugh at it and he also would get annoyed when he was younger i know he's still really young so he's gotten better at this too of like kind of going like this is my possession um but his passing anyway did you want a pokoku breakdown right now? Probably not. All right. So the point is this. I like that.

I like those cops. Some of you guys are a little aggressive with the cops. I'm like a quicker LeBron, but like. Basically John Stockton with size. Yeah. Yeah. I'm white and short and have hairy armpits too. I'm a lot like Stockton.

Do you make every shot? Okay. 21. All right. We covered that. I'm writing about you seeking answers to help in adjusting a family member regarding the always painful awkward conversation around money payment. No, it sucks. My uncle, late 30s, married, father of a one-year-old, is traveling with his wife and son to Cancun

on all-expenses-paid trip through his friend's company during the winter break. He's on the wealthy side, relevant in a minute, owning his own house in a rather expensive part of an art expensive city uh further evidence to his fat pockets are uh the fact that they pay their full-time nanny an annual salary is 75 000. uh though this is according to my undoubtedly biased father half brother to my uncle okay got it keeping track you're writing all this down i have no idea of 75k for a living i don't know it sounds like it's it's your whole life for 75k so i don't know i'm sure there's they work out their their own break and days off but it's a lot it's a lot it sounds like it's on the higher end but again i have i have no you know i've not researched i feel like

it's a lot of work, so I don't know. I don't think I'd be jumping at that. You wouldn't do 75K right now to be a full-time nanny? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know right now. Again, I can say this often. A couple years ago, maybe I would, but I don't know.

I just feel like... A couple years ago... Sorry, you know, you got to work weekends, pal. First of all, for those wondering, I have no idea how much Kyle makes uh and then also the other mistake everybody makes with Kyle is that they think that Bill just gives him free money all the time which is the most fucking annoying thing that I see for Kyle constantly and I see some of the stuff and it's it's all bullshit um that rant's over uh I'm just sticking up for my guy kyle because i see it all the time it's like you guys have it yeah it's just not the way it works kyle works his ass off and has a job uh

there you go 75k you would have done it a couple years ago but again i don't know what you make so i'm not asking you don't have you don't have to tell us right i kind of like this as a separate maybe we'll get back to this topic bring saruti in 75k for me in my 20s no i agree i think i think i'd be having a few conversations where the the guy's screaming at me that's what the money's for and I'm like but it's Saturday what am I supposed to do and you know that's what I think 20 year old Kyle would not quite get that like yeah that's the full-time nanny the live-in whatever I don't know if it's living or not but like the the only person yeah live-in is that's the part I think I'd have trouble with it's like

it's Saturday what do you mean they're like yeah it's Saturday for us too we want to living is that's the part i think i'd have trouble with it's like it's saturday what do you mean they're like yeah it's saturday for us too we want to go out that's why you have to say be like but what do you mean so i think i think there'd be a couple of those you know those like what don't you get about it yeah so i don't think i'd sign up for that now probably a couple you know what i think we could solve this nobody would ask either of us in our 20s to be there nanny good okay all right back to the email. Sorry, man. To return the matter, to return no shit. As a matter of hand, he asked myself and my sister to dog sit, house sit his place for five days, taking care of his two rather low

maintenance dogs for that time. Neither my sister or I do this regularly, and regretfully, we both accepted. Uh-oh. Not realizing how much of this, how much this house sitting situation would inconvenience our holiday plans, meals with family, family outings, doing, getting anything as his place is in the northern outskirts uh outskirts of the city and so we decided to meet him at his house to discuss the house sitting arrangements slash how to take care of the dogs

wait so like over christmas you're going to be doing this or the pre-christmas days or yeah you guys fucked up all right after touring the place which is significantly nicer than what i'm used to as a college student. No kidding. We discussed specifics regarding the dogs with my sister and I sharing glancing looks, hoping the other will have the courage to discuss how much we paid during the stay. Up to this point, money has not been mentioned a single time since the moment our uncle texted us asking for our help. And my sister and I are too afraid to ask our relatively wealthy yet newish father uncle for payment. In fear of seeming greedy and not fulfilling the favor for the sake of helping the family out the conversation continues without

either my sister myself building up the courage and overcoming our codependency to ask for payment next you know we're driving home reflecting on the facts that neither of us asked and that we're likely gonna do this gig for free yeah i mean unless this takes we have two more lines here so it could be a twist my question how should i address the issue of payment my uncle probably probably that other time when you were going over everything yeah uh do you think my uncle should would pay without us even asking part of me thinks he's a thoughtful enough person to realize how this might be inconveniencing us and we're doing him a big favor so we'll slide us a little money on the side one potential approach i thought of involved asking him a more jokey way maybe like hey uncle jay would you be able to discuss our rates for

the house sitting and we'll make sure to include the friends and family discount i don't think so you don't want to make it too much of a joke at this point when it's already in the awkward stages yeah um any advice would help the longer it goes the more awkward it'll become this might be one of the rare cases where you might just have to let it play out because you already kind of fucked up that window um you said that he's thoughtful you said that he's you know you hinted at a couple things here he also has to cover 75k apparently for a nanny so he's probably thinking this is sweet uh let's try to examine from all sides he might think hey this house is sick these kids are young they could stay in a sick fucking house for free and you know maybe they can have a couple friends

over and it's going to be like really cool for them and they like the dogs and whatever that could be one part of it uh there could be another part of it where he's hoping everything goes fine which it likely will unless you're shitheads and he's going to throw you guys, you know, 500 bucks a piece at the end of this whole thing, which, you know, if he's making this much money,

that shouldn't mean anything to him. And you're kind of feeling like, all right, at least this is worth it because you're being to yourself. Yeah. You should have asked, but I, you know,

look, all of us, this isn't about being young. It's not about being naive. There's still times where I'll go, no, make sure you say something now. Make sure you say something right now because if you let this go too long,

you're going to miss your window and you definitely missed your window. So if he comes back and he stiffs you, it's a lesson. That's about it. If you were to ask for money, it could be like a real dynamic changing ask because he's going to think the whole time oh they like think how he'll tell the story think whenever there's

two sides how one side tells it how the other side tells it okay and like go through that exercise and be like wait they never said shit or whatever they can stay in this nice house and then at the end they hit me up for fucking money. Oh, I never liked their dad anyway. You know, like with family, you get really, really weird. The only other thing I could offer up is that you're 6'8". So maybe you could ask. Because guys who are 6'8 usually win a lot of like stare downs.

I'm not saying you have to fight the guy, but like, you know, maybe use that 6'8 to your advantage. But like, hey, how about a little something for the effort? Carl's backward. Carl? I mean, if I were you, I would probably just be like, dude, where's the good wine at? Like, I would enjoy the staycation. Like, do the nice things. Like, I've housed that for wealthy people before.

And, you know, I'm not like, hey, so what do you think? Like, 90 bucks a day or something? Like, it's cool. If you didn't want to do it, you should have been like, I'm actually not able to or whatever. Like, because he's, you're right. He's probably is in the thing in the headspace of like, yeah, these are kids in their 20s. They probably got a shitty apartment with a guy. The guy probably would love to get away from his roommate for a week. It'd probably be nice for

him. Probably love that, you know, chilling out in the backyard instead of on his fire escape. I don't know where you are. I'm just assuming, you know. So I think I think, yeah, you should let it play out. But also, like, you should try to enjoy the nice things like if maybe maybe you open the Johnny Walker blue. I don't know if he's got a lot of it. I don't know how rich this guy is, but I also don't assume that this guy is like Scrooge McDuck where he's like, he's going to be like,

yeah, like I, I got it. I'm using my family to make sure I don't have to spend any more money. I think it's more like he probably thought it would, it'd be like fun for you to get out of your, your shitty apartment, which I just assume you're in a shitty apartment.

I don't know in your twenties and, and you'd like enjoy it. And you'd be like spending time you to get out of your your shitty apartment which i just assume you're in a shitty apartment i don't know in your 20s and and you'd like enjoy it and you'd be like spending time i thought you know so i and and then when he gets back probably he will throw you something but i think i think another thing is like not if you're drinking all my good shit i'm gonna interrupt i think that's the wrong play because if i'm not saying find where it is and be like what do you think can i have this wine or can i have the other one you wouldn't even know you're in your early 20s you don't know what the fuck you're talking about so what i know is that rich guy is that i don't know so i asked like hey is this the wine i could have or not yeah you're already fucking this up no offense i don't think so what do you mean he's my uncle yeah but if you're if i'm the older guy if i'm the uncle and then i've got the 6-8 version

of kyle in this spot going hey what's the best pinot noir i'm gonna crank one of those no which one should i not use this is what i'm saying like and then and then i'm basically opening the door with them be like oh you know what yeah here do that one grab this one get the sea smoke i don't know like it's just like i'd say try to enjoy it instead of like focusing on how bad it is and then if it goes well like yeah wouldn't be surprised if they venue if he venmo's you 200 bucks or something, not a ton of shit though. That's my,

that's my point. I don't know. Don't turn it into your own little tasting session. That's why he's not, that's why he's probably not like talking about the money up front. Cause if he was talking to somebody, be like, all right,

here's the service you're giving me. And here's what I want. Like he's trying to make it more of like a nice little staycation. And there's somebody he trusts keeping the lights on and his nice house and take care of his dogs. Like that's cool. So I think it's, I think it's what I want. Like he's trying to make it more of like a nice little staycation and there's somebody he trusts keeping the lights on in his nice house and take care of his dogs. Like that's cool. So I think it's,

I think it's a win-win. And if it all just goes smoothly, maybe he'll send you money. Maybe it won't, but I wouldn't like beat yourself up about it, even though it's a little inconvenient. It's still nicer for you than staying in your apartment.

So I wouldn't worry about it. I would just like be cool. I'm just saying, if you started sampling a bunch of his stuff and then he gets back, then he's definitely not going to pay you any money. So there should be a limit.

You should kind of put a little ceiling on how many things you're going to enjoy. And look, I had a long time ago when you mentioned the Johnny Walker Blue. It's really funny because I had a full bar at this one apartment that I had when I was a lot younger. I thought it was like the coolest thing ever. I bought it. I stocked it. And then it just fucking sat there. Like, good thing I bought Campari.

You know what I mean? It's just so fucking dumb. Right. I'm still a little immature about it. Old bartender. I was like, oh, this would be cool. Never had anybody over. Actually, when I moved from Connecticut, I still had it.

And it was loaded with all this stuff. And I just, I think I gave it all. Yeah, no, I know just i think i gave it all yeah no i know i did i gave it all away i was like just and they were like you don't want any of this booze i was like no i don't care but i had a bottle of johnny walker blue that van pelk gave me and i didn't open it because i'm not like a sipper guy at home and i was like i'll just have it in the bar i'll do whatever one weekend one night i was away for college football some guys asked if they could have my apartment for a night for a concert. I said, no problem.

And there was a million other things they could have picked from. And of course, it hadn't been open. And it was just them going like, oh, he has it, so we'll open it. And granted, it was probably the end of the night when they were already so fucking drunk, they wouldn't even notice it anymore. And then they said they brought like girls in off the street in my house i was like you know what i think that's the last time i think i've let anybody ever stay at my house they were like yeah i got a little weird here and i was like oh great good to know it's cool i had fun yep

like oh yeah johnny walker blue huh the 70 other things you could have picked from you went you went with this huh okay all right. All right. Next email. Good luck. Yeah, good luck. Let us know how it goes. Guys, 5, 10, 1, 75. I do a rotation of P90 workouts to try to avoid a full-blown dad bod.

The gym I work out at has a morning basketball run at 5.30 a.m. and a lunch run. The morning run is two and out and generally caters to a lot of old dudes who are just there because they wake up that early and have nothing better to do at that time of day. Maybe they just want to fucking attack the day. Magic Johnson

taught me that he gets up at four because he's making money when people are sleeping. It's one to grow on. It also caters to guys who can't spend two hours a day at a lunch pickup run. Yeah, see, that's the thing. It's not that they don't have anything better to do. They're so successful.

They can't. Like, you know when I played the most lunch basketball? When I was the least successful. And yes, I know there's another category of guys that are so successful they can play lunch basketball whenever they want. They can play late lunch, early dinner basketball because they're killing it. Most guys playing a lot of lunch basketball don't want to open up an argument. Okay.

The lunch run is winter stays. There's a guy in his late 60s or early 70s who plays at lunch and no one wants him there. He wears a black jockstrap and a mouth guard and I'm not sure the point of either. While he is terrible on defense, it's the offensive end where he really kills the team because his man just stands in the lane so there's no way to drive to the hole and score or drive a dish.

Oh, so you guys go like full-blown Ben Simmons on him? Nobody plays him? That kind of sucks. Again, if it's really competitive, I totally understand. Okay, so there's no way to drive to the hole, score, drive and dish.

It makes it nearly impossible to score. Typically, it's a lunch run. Three passes will get you a good shot. Not when Dave's on your team. We have a text there going with a lot of the guys that play and we're trying to figure out a way to get rid of Dave. Most of the guys suggest that I talk to them

and tell them no one wants them there because I'm an asshole. I feel like the better play is to have two of the nicer guys take him to lunch and explain. He can't go to lunch. He's playing basketball. Explain things to him and let him know that this level of basketball is not meant for guys like him and that he'd be better off

migrating to the 5.30 a.m. run doing an exercise class or playing pickleball. How old are you guys? You guys must be young. Just tell him, hey, go to the 530, Dave. Don't fart. There's nobody in the racquetball courts, man. Get over

there. Maybe he doesn't want to get up at 5 and play basketball at 530. Unfortunately, option A is probably not going to eradicate him. At Wednesday's hoop run, I had the misfortune of having Dave on my team and told him directly in front of everyone, quote, is probably not going to eradicate him. At Wednesday's hoop run, I had the misfortune of having Dave on my team and told him directly in front of everyone, quote, alright Dave, no dipshitting

around today. You have to play defense and stick on Brian because you can't leave him open. Jesus. These are fucking really taking it out on Dave. We really didn't have a matchup for Dave, but me calling him out did lead to him playing the most inspired defense I've ever seen him play we got a real leader of men

here emailing us today we won two games in a row but the third game having Dave on our team along with some other shortcomings caught up to us and we lost well it sounds like it wasn't all Dave in game three just saying I think I could say pretty much anything to Dave and he'd keep coming back on top of that I don't think he understands

that no one wants him on their team. One guy told Dave that he has to move down to the next squad. I do realize I will be Dave someday and I would like to think that I will stop playing when that happens. Another thing you could weigh in on is his naked hot tubbing in the men's locker room.

I don't have a problem with it, but some guys in the basketball tech string do. I noticed it's about 50-50 split as far as guys who go nude and guys who wear a suit or something else when they hot tub. Well, the sign does say by the hot tub that it prohibits naked hot tubbing.

It also requires people to shower first, but nobody does that. Nobody does that. Don't do that in Europe, man. Fucking kill you if you don't shower first in Europe. Little thing there. Weird. Reminds me of the south of France. I don't know. This past summer, I was able to hit up a bunch. Alright.

I know what young me would say. Middle-aged me feels a certain way about it. I fucking like Dave. I'll say it. I like him. You like his chops? I like that Dave's like, I don't give a fuck. I'm going to keep showing up.

Now, would I want to play with Dave? No. Would 20 year old me hate it? Yep. Would he send an email to show? Yeah, if this existed, I would have done the same thing the emailer did. So I get where the emailer's coming from. Hey, the nude hot tubbing, we've said it multiple times. Once you're north of 60 and you still have a gym membership,

part of your gym membership, when you sign the waiver, like the rest of us sign waivers for no liabilities. The older people have a thing where they have to check where it says, your balls will be exposed as much as possible. And then when you're over, you're like, yeah, got it. Everybody's going to see my dick and balls all the time. Everywhere, I'm going to sit on couches, nude, watch a little TV, which, by the way,

there's another part of this email that he points out that I was like, yeah, we've covered this. There's some sort of health club policy that you have to agree that you will show your balls as much as possible once you're over 60. So that Dave does this just further. Of course he does. I already knew that without you telling me. It doesn't sound like he's leaving.

So do you want to yell at an old man all the time about this? Right? I don't know, Kyle. Maybe I'm getting soft. Maybe I don't want to say that. I don't. Maybe I'm getting soft. I don't want to say that. I don't feel like I'm getting soft. Maybe I'm just getting... Maybe I'm just thinking about his mental health. What if you scream at Dave all the time

telling him he has to go to 5? He doesn't want to fucking get up at 5. That's why he shows up for lunch in the first place. He's aware there's a 5 a.m. run. And I know that he shouldn't be there. But I know that it sucks. And I know it sucks when you get stuck on your team. But here's what I'd also ask. There's guys your age that suck

to get stuck on your team too, right? Is everybody else fucking diming everyone else up? Everybody's making every shot. Everybody else is playing good defense, boxing out, rotating, getting back on defense. Young guys fuck up all that stuff too. So I think what you're doing is labeling here a little bit with Dave.

Yeah, you got an easy scapegoat with him too yeah you guys could you guys could have a bad game be like but we had dave so it was obviously dave was you know submarining this team but maybe not always yeah i guess my question is like isn't the rules like i've been on different courts where things are different and maybe maybe when it's a gym and not an outside court maybe it's a little more strict about everyone getting to play but it was always just like i felt like when when there was like a bunch of people at a court and it wasn't exactly clear who's there first and and all that stuff like you kind of pick up your you know it's like you call next right and then you get your five isn't that sort of how it goes or

is it like or is it like in a gym it's more like everybody's kind of got a certain amount only a certain amount of time on their hands so if like the first five guys that show up or or like like oh no he was waiting too like i thought you kind of get to pick your your squad right because like yeah it's always one that's not dave available or you just because you or do you feel bad that you have to pick dave because dave was you have working on the no no no okay it's not like you're right and basically everything you said is right um you know whoever is like if there's is five on five and you're the first guy to show up you have next and then you add your forward it should be based on who's been there not oh okay you know no no you can't you can't just start

i mean look guys will do shit i'm not saying it doesn't happen, but it's pretty interesting. You can't be the second guy. If Dave is the 12th guy there, the 11th guy can't go, well, I'm not picking you. And then Dave just waits until somebody picks him. I was going to say, maybe that's the way you could do it.

No, Dave is allowed to run in that next five. Right. So, I mean, look, I've seen it where guys will be like, you're not playing with me or I'm not playing with you or I already got my four.

I always love like, oh, I already got my four. Like love like oh i already got my four like you'd show up like that would happen to me in hartford a lot not too hard to figure out why okay where i'd show up and i'd be like you have next and then he'd be like yeah but i got my four already and be like where are they they're around man don't worry about it it's time when it's time they'll be here and then what would happen oh and then what would happen that little white man can't jump uh all right yeah i think that'll do it i mean look i i agree i agree with the emailer i i i totally get where you're coming from i'm not comfortable now at this stage of my life to fucking belittle dave yeah and shit him and, and tell him to go do something he doesn't want to do. I'm proud of Dave. It's hard though. It's hard when you're

trying to compete, right? This is one of those things where as an adult outside of organized sports, you know, I can see why it's frustrating too. So I think you're right in being frustrated and confused. A bunch of emotions about it. It could be super frustrating. It sounds like, so like so i'm sorry i think i think try to focus on how you're a good guy by getting dave some some people time just try to be nice i don't know i don't know what to do you're a good guy i say next time you come down you let dave let it fire from three and then the opponent's like shit i gotta close out on dave opens up the middle yeah maybe you could just be like super hard-o teammate guy. And maybe Dave will either respond to it or he'll stop coming.

He's like, I can't play with Chris because he's always coaching me up and I'm sick of it. So maybe he'll just voluntarily get this by you being so invested in his success. Maybe that will get him to not want to play with you. I don't know. Other than that, I don't know. Yeah, you can't yell at Dave in a bad way. You can yell at him in a good way. Like get over there you left him or like caught man you gotta cut you see i'm telling you to cut you're not cutting like maybe you could just get so

like over like in on dave's game that he will just recuse himself next time yeah but i would also say like based on the size that you dialed in here 5 10 175 like i don't know how big dave is but like if dave is still running around at 70 that means he was probably pretty good at one point and he's already taken enough of shit from everybody and so i'm just giving you heads up look out there there's like when the dentist in west hartford i think his name was dick screamed at me and i was like boy you're getting pretty fucking chesty for an old timer huh but he had he had the i pay for the membership you're invited by the athletic department yeah so when i was bitching about something he was like you can shut the fuck up you don't even fucking pay are you gonna remember here yeah right he went to are you even paying

i was like no i'm not why would you even live on this street bro yeah are you kidding this is the worst team i've ever seen i'm not i'm just coming here to run hoops with you guys like what's up um unless this is westbrook emailing in about capella but that would seem that this email is not that old all right that'll do it for life advice today's life advice was brought to you by chevy silverado learn more about chevy silverado at chevy.com thanks to kyle thanks for saruti stopping by a little going abroad and thanks to you have a great well I'm going to be here all week let's talk to you Wednesday let's not make it dramatic Ryan Russell podcast ringer Spotify Outro Music