The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Prime-Time Giants! NBA GM Survey Thoughts. Plus: Jeff Darlington on Baker’s Career Turnaround, Shanahan Love, and Belichick’s future.

Episode Date: October 10, 2025

Russillo starts with a rare fun Giants prime-time game and why he’s still unsure about Jalen Hurts. Then, he and Ceruti talk about the most interesting parts of the latest NBA GM survey. Next, ESPN NFL reporter Jeff Darlington stops by to talk about this weekend's 49ers-Bucs matchup, the banged up Ravens, eventually taking the Jaguars seriously, the surging Colts, and more. And finally, they close it out with some listener-submitted Life Advice including marrying a former stripper. (0:00) Welcome to the show! (1:45) The Giants are fun again (14:03) Ceruti talks NBA GM Survey (35:44) Jeff Darlington stops by (37:37) Is Kyle Shanahan the NFL’s most impressive coach? (40:18) Baker’s career turnaround (52:40) The banged up Ravens (1:01:15) McDaniel’s future in Miami (1:11:57:00) What is the Colts’ ceiling? (1:18:22) Life Advice Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Jeff Darlington Producers: Kyle Crichton, Steve Ceruti, and Jonathan Frias _ _ _ 15% off $15+ on NFL Gamedays with CODE: GAMEDAY at https://littlecaesars.onelink.me/vc9i/n15m71zn The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's podcast is a long one. So we have an announcement for everybody in front of life advice. We've got the alliance. We've got a really long life advice and some other stuff as well. Teasing Cannell joining us on Monday. But the headlines, Giants win. Giants football, baby. division win against the Eagles, excitement for the Giants in a way that you probably haven't felt

in a long time because it's new and there's hope. And then a bunch of Eagles questions. So we've got Jeff Darlington previewing Tampa and San Francisco. What do we make of the Bucks? The Baker story that continues to be the perfect fit in the NFL. He's done games with the Chiefs, with the Ravens, with the Colts, some love for Shanahan once again. So a big, big NFL conversation, including the future of Tua and Miami staff. there in his home state. So enjoy the podcast. This is the Ryan Mercillo podcast presented by Fandul, and if you're betting on the NFL, Fandul is the place to do it. They've got everything. Same game parlays, quick bets for when you want to jump in live and your way so you can set

your own lines. The app's fast. It's easy to use. And best of all, when you win, you get paid out instantly. Download the Fandul app or go to fandul.com slash Ryan, Ryeen to get started. The ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit RG.shelph.com to learn more about the resources and help lines available and listen to the end of the episode for additional details must be 21 plus and present in select states 18 plus in DC Kentucky and Wyoming gambling problem call 1 800 gambler or visit rg dash help.com call 888 789 777 or visit ccpg dot over 4 slash chat in Connecticut Giants prime time I saw it on the schedule I was like okay this hasn't always been fun but guess what Giants fans it was fun Giants dominant the second half against division

rivals, the Philadelphia Eagles. Tough night for Philly. Tough night for Philly in general. I don't know if anyone on the Sixers got hurt. I hope that didn't happen because walk off play at home plate against the Dodgers. I mean, just all sorts of stuff. Not going great. But that's enough. We've covered. All right? Because you won a Super Bowl last year. We're not going to feel that bad for you. Phillies have a World Series. Anyway, Villanova. Remember that? Dynasty. the prime time giants I don't know that I might be at the forefront

of this just out there navigating uncharted waters I'm just like this is the worst it's the worst when they're on prime time and yet last night it was amazing it was so much fun I don't know if the Jackson Dart Scadaboo thing is going to be like a lot of kids are going to be buying posters you know those shirts are going to start

getting pumped out it's going to be a lot of product with these two guys out there you know Yokic Trump you know white running back just you know tracking these things so the giant scoring stuff

right the last time the Giants were better than 14th and points per game in the NFL was 2015 when they scored the sixth highest point per game right so you go 10 seasons

from that point on they've averaged 25th in the NFL in score and then that was always the prime time version that we would get because I would go through the numbers and be like, okay, they average this many points per game or the regular season, but here's what they do in primetime games. And it was like, there was a stretch where it was the last eight, whatever. I don't even remember. I just would look it up all the time. I don't know why I would do that. Like, hey, this thing that really annoys you spend more time understanding. And then it was basically like,

I want to find a reason to justify my annoyance. And it'd be like, they've averaged 12 points per game over the last eight to 10 primetime games. And it was just brutal. But last night was about newness. Last night was about hope because Jackson Dart, I would argue in the Chargers game, it was about defense and starting field position. The New Orleans game was not a good game. Also, the fact that they would turn the ball over five straight possessions, like, I don't know the next time I'm going to see that. And Daible afterwards, it's like, yeah, you know, you don't see that a lot. So you've got one kind of whatever game, and it starts first performance. So even though maybe I was a little bit more on the critical side of it, I get, I resist the, hey, this team won, it was new. So that

means all the stuff that was new was the own reason why they won the game. But last night to do this at home against Philly and then just have this celebration of these two dudes, running all over the place, making big plays, dismantling this Eagles team that now we're like, what the hell do we do with these guys? The Amazon part of this, which I do think is like a real thing, the TNF crew. Yeah, I'm a little biased. I like some people on that, on that desk. And it's this party where everybody's hanging out afterwards, Scataboo's taken off his shirt with. Fitzpatrick. Darts mom comes up and she's part of the interview. You know, they're in Chris's ear going like, hey, now we're tossing to a neighbor from eighth grade. But I just,

I thought it was something Giants fans kind of needed because it's been one of the most boring franchises now in the NFL for a decade. And I don't know if it means everything's fixed. It just, you just know that at least it feels a little bit different and then it's not going to be the same. And in the beginning of the year, it felt like it was going to be the same. Like, hey, maybe we have some good defensive players. The offense can't really push the football. And you're waiting on Dart. You're like, okay, this unknown thing. Like, is this really going to work out? Who knows with the first round QBs? The fact that they were so motivated to go get him, maybe feels like they weren't just drafting a quarterback based on need. It's that they really evaluated this guy and

thought he was special. And the coolest thing about Jackson Dart when you watch him in college, whether it was SC. I remember the first game I saw him play for SC. I was like, what fuck is this like this guy doesn't care like he he's just going for it and then a more refined version of that against old miss but then i i'd say like last night he has a couple plays we're just like i can't believe this guy's wired this way as a quarterback so so maybe this is all really exciting and hopeful for the future philly was up 1713 in this game outscore 21 zip to close from the end of the first half again to the close of the game. So I was looking at third downs for Philadelphia because they came out running the football. They wanted to run

the football against a Giants defense that I think was 25th against the run on opposing yards per carry. 26th in rushing yards allowed per game. 29th, as I check my notes, on yards per carry. So you're like, all right, let's just line it up. Now we know that the Eagles are missing some people. You can argue the Giants, too. It's like, hey, we're missing one of the best receivers in the NFL. But no, Jalen Carter. That's a big deal. Landed Dickerson out, Quinyon Mitchell, and he played 13 snaps.

Big snap count guy this morning going over it. So we already were worried about the Eagles on the other side because they wanted to get away from Adori and then play more Ringo. And then it's like, now Quinyon's out after 13 snaps. So now Adori, who had one snap total the last two weeks, played a season high, 57. Nolan Smith has been out, but when you're the best roster, like, this isn't, this isn't supposed to happen to you. And I promise I'm not going to do a Jalen Hertz thing every single week, but he was awful last night. And the third downs, they're one of nine in the game.

I stopped keeping track after they were one of seven. If you go through it, they had two fourth down completions would save him a little bit. Third and eight, sack, third and ten, he scrambles for nine, he's short, third and six. That's the missed of Devante Smith, which would have been a touchdown, would have made it 2420. Quarterbacks missed those deep shots. All right, that's fine. But for the criticism of like Hertz going, could he just be average in the greatest setup

in modern NFL history, that throw didn't help the counter argument to that point that I'm becoming more and more comfortable with all the time. Here's a thought that's totally unfair, but I'm sharing it with you. When I was watching him, because we always know, like, oh, he's so reserved, he's so reserved.

Like nothing, nothing phases him. I let it creep into my head that after that misthrow when he looks at the iPad and then just sits on the bench and then he's stoic the whole time. I was like, is he actually doing this on purpose now? It's like, I just missed a wide open touchdown. I've been criticized for my passing attack now for a while. And I'm going to sit here right now

and remain absolutely unfazed to show that this does not bother me. I let it get in my head. I don't even know that's true because I think the first thing that impressed me the most with Jalen Hurst is when he gets benched. and then comes in and saves Alabama after two would get hurt. And just the way he carried himself back then. So I think it's far more real. But even I was allowing myself to have a kind of negative reaction to the stoic nature of the whole thing,

being like, is this starting to become like a bit more of an act? Let's stay on the third downs. Third and seven sack, third and 12, a Saquan pass that's short. Second and ten at the Giants 15. That's the interception. On the field goal in the opening drive, he had a third and ten. 10. So I didn't even put this one down. He threw it five yards. So it's like, okay, hey, maybe we can just play for a field goal. It's the giants. We're going to be able to hold them off,

even with our defensive injuries. Maybe that was kind of the approach. He had a third and three where clearly they had had two plays. They were down. They were going to go for it and fourth down. So maybe Hertz is thinking, hey, I can throw it short to Sequin. But he throws it short and they lose a yard on that play. They convert the fourth down. It was fourth and four on that. Those possessions you're like, man, like this, this isn't good. They're 27th, the Eagles are, the third down conversion rate right now in the NFL. Let's go through Hertz's career.

Last year, they were 11th. In 23, they were 5th. In 22, they were 3rd. In 21, they were 4th. His first season, 20, they were 28th. Whatever, he was a rookie. He looked pretty limited. The AJ Brown, 30-yarder, that throw stood out to me.

because it was one-on-one, and if it's A.J. Brown, you should throw the football. Hertz pick that he had last night is his first regular season pick, because he had one of the Super Bowl since week three of last season. I've talked about this, about a lot of quarterbacks. It's really cool when you don't have many interceptions. And there are certain players like Rogers, there's just that dialed in at the peak. you know, Brady just that dialed in. I think Lamar's had a couple seasons where it's like, you know, it's okay.

But I, yeah, I'm going to say it. I'd like more interceptions from Jalen Hertz. Because it's clear that whatever version of this offense is right now, it's so limited. And that A.J. Brown throw is a throw where I'm like, good. I mean, it was a great ball. And A.J. makes a great catch on the thing. but the point is, it's like, sure, the defensive backs step for step with him. But you've got to start raising the risk a little bit.

Like maybe this defense isn't going to be as good with all of these injuries. Their defense was terrible last night. I thought they were bad angles. I don't like to use lazy, but they're guys that looked like they were just kind of giving up on some stuff. And I'm talking about early, not even when you're down, two scores. And the Jackson Darts scramble from 20 yards out, like granted, he just worked Zach Vaughn in the open field, which is what Darts should be able to do against the middle lineback. And by the way, the middle linebacker numbers, if you look at those snap count stuff, it's just not, there's not a lot of options there other than your top guys.

So now you're wearing down a really group there hoping on my guy, Nicoby Dean. But there's no way Dart should be able to run that out. So I wonder a bit too, like that pitcher that gets through a few teams and nobody's really familiar with this stuff. And the next time he starts playing teams the second time, it's like, okay, now we know kind of the way this guy attacks, the movement on his ball, all the stuff. maybe Jackson Dart running from 20 yards out is the Eagles going like, what the fuck is this guy doing? Like he's going to try this. So yeah, there's a bit of that

that I wondered with Dart and his success last night. So ugly night for Philadelphia, not impossible for them to fix this thing. Injuries played a part, but again, I'm less sympathetic to you when we keep talking about how you have the best roster in the NFL the entire time. I also couldn't help this thought.

After the Eagles averaged 3.7 yards per carry against the Giants. this was a different thought and it was the post game and it was watching dart just all smiles scataboo's just you could tell like you're surprised that there's not a missing half a finger from scataboo and some sort of firecracker accident when he was a little kid and I'm like look at these two guys and it's New York City and it's this is the only game in town type of thing meaning the NFL schedule on a Thursday nighter and it's like these two guys are sitting there being like we are going to run the fucking world And I don't know the answer to this.

None of us know the answer to this. And this is going to be the beginning. It's something special. But I also couldn't help myself from thinking, like, what if we look at that picture of those two guys and it's three years from now? I'd be like, remember everything we thought about these two rookies then? And look, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that any of us have an answer, don't have an answer for it.

Because at least now, it's fun. And it's not. I mean, Russell Wilson's job right now for this team. It's like, hey, here's the deal. You've been benched. But when Jackson goes in the tent, you're going to come out for third down, and yes, they will be really long. And then everybody's going to boo you. They're going to be impossible downs, but you're going to come out and snap the ball, maybe throw one in the dirt, maybe a third and 26 in there.

It's going to be tough. It's not a great gig. But that's your role right now. None of it really matters. Because if you're a Giants fan, you wake up today, there's a version of hope that you haven't had in a really long time. What a run! This champ is picking up. Well, they found a lane.

Phenomenal launch into the air. Absolutely incredible Air Transit! Fly the seven-time world's best leisure airline champions, Air Transat. I want to add a little extra content to the show today because one of my favorite content pieces every year from NBA.com and more specifically, John Schumann, who does a great job on this every year. It's the annual NBA GM survey, 49 questions ahead of the news. season. Surrey and I going to go over some of this stuff.

I love it because, I mean, even though some of it's predictable, hey, who's going to win the 26 NBA finals, 80% of the vote, Thunder, Cavs got a couple of votes, Denver got a couple votes. I'm thinking about leaning Denver. What's that? Yeah. Look, I love it. Yeah, that was actually one of my, I just have a bunch of takeaways written down. Yeah, let's go. So the Celtics were 83% last year, so slightly higher. And I kind of have a hard time finding who I think that team that's really good. Maybe it is Denver, but it feels like I don't know who I even like to challenge OKC.

Like I feel like it's even more of a landslide than last year. And it isn't more people have the Celtics repeating last year than they had OKC. Slightly. The only reason I picked OKC last year. And if they if they hadn't done it, right, there's what's wrong with them type of thing. So it's like twofold. It's do they repeat because they're going to be even better with their growth and Chet being even better, you know,

and it's not like this team was getting eliminated earlier than they should have three or four playoff seasons in a row. So the whole monkey on their back thing seems ridiculous for a group like this. So I'm actually not doing that. But the unknown part of like Janele Williams in the spot and some of the Dallas games when they got eliminated two years ago, you're like, all right, you know, is this guy going to have? And he did. And the other thing, too, is like there's up and down moments for almost any of these guys, unless you're like a surefire, like one of the greatest players ever, or even a bad playoff game for those guys is like 25 points. And I'm not saying that that's what Janele Williams is, but there's stuff. They've gotten through this whole thing. So it's a much safer pick than anything else I can really come up with other than I was just like, hey, unless I just want to be different, like, do I just want to go? And hey, I'm going to try something different, which definitely goes into me.

picking against a heavy favorite just trying to be like I know I'm going to try to do something a little bit different than everybody else on this one but like beyond Denver like who which I get and I think that will probably be people's default if they don't want to pick not not this isn't like a negative thing towards you but I feel like people probably just pick Denver it's like yeah I don't if I don't want to pick okay C but like I don't know Houston feels like a stretch anybody from the east feels like a stretch like I just I'm like I'm sitting here going even if I want to pick against okay see I don't even I don't feel that great about anybody else. Yeah, the way they picked the West was OKC, Denver, Houston, Minnesota, Golden State.

They were way down on the Clippers. Only one voter had them in second. Like, just down on the Clippers in comparison to some of the total stuff that I've seen. I'm with the GMs on this one. I like what the Clippers did. Like, good for you. But, oh, that's just because they signed Chris Paul. No, he's talking about John Collins.

I think I could do what John Collins, like, I could probably do this for every player in the league. Not every, I wouldn't want to have to do 450 of these videos. But if you just took like the top 100 and you could just like, John Collins is a perfect example where you go, what's his career been like? You go, hey, maybe pretty good. Wait a minute. Is this guy kind of not that good? Like, hey, look at his stats.

Like, hey, he's available. Hey, he's available again. Why does no one want if he's available? Maybe this guy isn't any good. Hey, you know who's better than people think? oh hey you know what that's a great trade he's not that great but he's still pretty good that would be john collins you know who else that was thadius young i remember i forget i wish i could give the credit to this person but somebody was like all every nb the perfect example is

thadius young and every NBA player is underpaid until they're overpaid that is perfect that's perfect and then thadius young always pops up in some weird graphic where it's like for last player to do this since it's like bird LeBron Carl alone and then it'll just be like Thaddeus Young pops up on a couple of those every now and then like all right my all time favorite question

is this one if you were starting a franchise today and could sign any NBA player who would it be Wembenyama 83% of the votes so that means four votes for SGA and still one vote for Yokic last year Wembenyama had 77% of the vote that's that actually probably feels low I had this down as an interesting one for a different reason

yeah like obviously Wemby's going to be the runaway pick and and this was I think Nick Angstatt on Twitter kind of had this too is just like the decline of what we think of Luca as like 2021 he was first he was 43% 22 he was 45% that was second 23 10 last year 3 this year zero he's younger than SGA and no one thinks Luca would you would take Luca I think I would take Luca over SGA

especially now he's in shape you know he's motivated he got the trade like he's looking good like I'm just my mind is obviously Wembe is in a whole different stratosphere so he could be 100% and I wouldn't argue it but if we're if we're talking about the guys that are you know the second and third because I think what is it SG had 13% Yokic had 3% I would take Luke over both of those guys to start a franchise with

the Yokish thing is tough because he's 30 and it's like he's going to age well, too. Yeah. I don't know. I would take Luka over SGA, too. Like, if I think about the best players in the world, and we'll do this once we start up the new show, like, I'm going to give it a month in, and then I'm going to do top

10 players, and then I'll do it again. Like, I'll do it before the playoffs start, because I think whenever you start doing playoff result, player ranking stuff, it's when you really start to screw up here. So, yeah, I mean, anybody, like, going, no. take this player over Yolkich right now, even at Yolkich's age. I just don't really want to do that, but I think the worst that Luca could be is the fourth best player in the world. So maybe you put SGA ahead of him there. I would still, well, unless it's an SGA never gets hurt thing versus Luca being hurt. Maybe. But I think if I'm starting a team, like in this hypothetical scenario,

you're doing like a fantasy draft of the whole league, there's a good chance that SGA is. not going to be playing on a team as good as the Thunder. And that's not even being, I'm not even trying to be disrespectful to, to SGA, but if I'm building a team, like Luca has proven to take, he took what,

the maps, a pretty, oh, I don't want to say average, above average. That wasn't a great basketball team. Nope, to a Western Conference final

and an NBA final. Like, do I think SGA is capable of taking either of those teams to that, to those heights? Maybe I'm being a hater. That's where I just think

Luca is a different cat. Thinking someone is fourth best in the world as opposed to third best of the world to stop being a hater. And everybody needs to do a better job with that kind of stuff. So it's a bad time to be picking somebody ahead of SGA for the same reason why I wouldn't do top 10 players in the world after the NBA finals are over. But the Luca point that you make is really good.

It also gets to like the confusion on Luca. So if you look at the best position awards, so best point guard in the NBA, SGA 73% of the vote. Luca is second at 17%. Who's the best shooting guard in the NBA? And it should have been higher. He got 70% of the vote.

I don't know who you would put behind him. Donovan Mitchell's the only actual true shooting guard, I think, that's in this conversation. Evan Booker didn't even make the list. Crazy to me. Or that down on Devin Booker. Yeah, like the one guy that gave Steph the vote, couldn't give it to Devin Booker.

Or the one guy that, or there's two guys that gave SGA a vote here, and they couldn't give it to. So Luca actually got two votes for Best Shooting Guard. He got, I'm trying to do the math here, five votes for Best Point Guard, and he won Best Small Forward with nine or ten votes. Tatum probably would have won it if his Achilles wasn't blown. So Luca was top five in three different positions.

I don't know how he said. a shooting guard. I will never understand that. Remember, too, that you can't vote for your own guys. So Best Power Forward, Janus, 93% of the vote. That was low. Mobley had two votes. So that means Milwaukee voted for Mobley and then somebody else voted for Mobley. That, I like Evan Mobley a lot. That seems ridiculous that one person that was not ineligible from voting for Janus. Best center in the NBA, Yokish, 97% of the vote. So I guess that means Denver voted for Victor. Let's dig into the off-season stuff. People love the Hawks off-season. It confused me. People love the Hawks in general, I feel like. Everyone but Trey.

People are so excited about the Hawks off-season that when I was recapping some of the off-season moves, because I was like, did they do more? Yeah, well, they got gnaw. They brought in Canard and then obviously Prozingis is the thing that everybody's really excited about. And I would say to anybody like, yeah, when it's good with Prozengis, it's pretty good. But there should be a governor on your potential excitement about what that's going to be for the next however many months. Because the track record is atrocious. But they won the best off season, which seems a little dismissive of the Durant acquisition for what the Houston Rockets did here. So it's Perzingis, Canard.

And sometimes when I look at the best off season reaction, it'll be about like quantity, not necessarily always quality. But I was laughing because when I was going through it last night, you know, when it's dig deeper into AI mode, even AI was going, Trey Young was incredibly valuable on his influence in bringing in all these players. AI was on Trey Young's side. I was like, this is nuts. Did you like the Desmond Bain reaction?

Yeah. Well, listen, I had this written down. A lot of magic love here, which I don't know that I should be excited about or terrified about. Because usually like, you know, whoever wins the off season, like that team never in any sport, that team never does anything. Just going back to like, what was it, the dream team Philadelphia Eagles. But like magic picked 47% to be the most improved. That's number one. Third best team in the East. Franz was on fifth on the breakout list, which I don't know that I like the Franz breakout thing. Franz is now we're getting into like my Lori Mark. parking in territory where it's like he's already been around for so long he's going to have another breakout maybe hope he does but he's there fourth best off season and bane was the number one most underrated player acquisition which i think that is a true ball knowers know that that was an excellent trade for the magic doesn't i don't want to hear about how many first round picks it was they're not going to matter sorry to chris vernon but like it's a great it's a great acquisition no matter how how you look at it dude heads up to the non ball knowers you just got you just got called out son You just got God.

Yeah, there you go. The MVP, Yokic 67%. I think that would be like a shift on, hey, if he and SGA have the same seasons, then SGA will lose the momentum part of it because it's not new. And then they'll give it back to Yokic when Yokic should have won it last year anyway. I'd be stunned if SGA won an MVP next year. Stunned. Yeah, Luca got three votes on this.

One Binyama got two votes. I'm going to say it again. Is there any chance? See, I don't even like doing this because it's a lot. going to turn into me being like a non-Wembanyama guy. But is there any chance the NBA world is collectively losing their mind about what Wembenyama will be this year? He's 7-5 now, though, officially. I think he was officially. What I mean by that is it's not a stats thing. It's not the defense thing. It's just, are you going to be a go-to bucket? Because that's what you have to be

to be the kind of player we think you can be. You have to be a go-to, solve our problems, get us a bucket. So the starting the franchise thing, when do you think the last time, what's the last year LeBron won if you could start a franchise with any player? So I went back, I was on this all night.

So he's drafted in 03. Yeah. 2012? Pretty good. Pretty good. 2015. Wow. I didn't think it creeped into the second calf stint year as well.

That's a good guess. Yeah. That was a good guess. So AD won it in 16. And then as everybody knows, that was the 2015-16 season for AD when he won it. And then they got off that quick because 16-17, cat won this.

which I've referenced many times he won it with 48% of the vote so that means like half the NBA GMs that voted on this in 1617 said if I could start my franchise with any player in the NBA it would be Carl Anthony Towns AD had won at the previous year with 86% of the vote there was a couple breakout season hopeful votes for Andrew Wiggins in year 3 and 1617 he did have a better season the average 23 a game and be a champion yeah let me see if i can even read my handwriting the best player in five years from that draft from the ben simmons draft the best player in five years chris dunn got six votes oh man so that's you ask the gms here are the rookies it'll be like hey who's going to be the best rookie but then they'll say okay of this rookie class who's

going to be the best six general managers watch chris dunn playing college and said he'll be the best player from this draft bus in five years. I did write down because the one this year, obviously Cooper Flag is 93%, right? Yeah, so that means only one GM didn't vote for him because Dallas can't vote for. Right. Reed Shepherd, the Reed Shepherd love last year, he won

most likely to win rookie of the year and he won best player in five years. And I'm still not, I'm still holding Reed Shepard stock. So like, I'm not getting rid of any of it. But that's crazy to me. I got, I forgot how high we thought of him because that draft was such a question mark. And he just barely played. Now, I did double check the intro on this piece, at least for 25, 26.

Percentages are based on the pool of respondents to that particular question and not necessarily all 30 GM. So maybe I'm, I'm being, but like on the Wembe Niamma one best center, I think that's pretty self-evident that if one guy to cited enough. O'Frey Doakish, it's probably his own team on that one. So six votes for Chris Dunn. Steele of the draft. Henry Ellenson, three votes that year.

Shout out to Big H. I kind of like to. Huge. Did you see who has voted most likely to be the best player in five years, five years ago? James Wiseman. Yeah.

Damn. Do you want to go over those numbers. So Wiseman had 36% of the vote. Mello had 25% of the vote. Ant

had four votes. The guy who was picked one, only four people voted that he would be the best player in five years. He was the best player in five days. Not really true because there was a lot of mellow stuff there very early on where it was like, oh my God,

Oh, my God, oh, my God. But James Wiseman, that means 12 people voted for him and only four voted for Ant. So again, shout out to those guys. We saw something about the possibilities of what it could be NBA GMs. They can be just like us sometimes. This isn't to make fun of them

because in 2018, they said that the steel of the draft was Neil Alexander Walker, 17th overall, to New Orleans. The best player in front. The best player from the Zion J. J. Morant draft, the best player from that, also knows the R.J. Barrett draft. In five years, Zion's 67% of the vote. J.A. 19% of the vote. Cam Reddish had two votes. Oh, man. In five years, Cam Reddish would be better than all those suckers. Where's he, China? He's on the league, right? There's some fan base going, like, look how long he is. I mean, because you want to talk length.

Steal of the draft. Lithuanian. Lithuanian League. My bad. Seal of the draft, 2015. Rodney, you can feel good, good about Hood. He was nice. Nice. Nice is a great way to describe.

Man, you know, he's got some nice game. It's Rodney Hood. Lionel Hollins also got to coach vote for best coach in the NBA. Yeah. I better said would be a vote for coach best coach um there was a ton of 2015 and a 16 javari parker hope just outrageous amounts

uh there was also three votes for emmanuel moodye to be the best player from that rookie class in five years it's hard folks but sometimes they do a good job 2021 breakout player 15% of the vote SGA 2021 his second year there and boy did he ever break out and then you have the other ones where Durant went to Golden State and 4 GM

still voted for Al Horford going to Boston is the biggest impact move like hey Durant's going to go and probably put together the best starting five in the history of the game yeah but have you seen Horford defend a picture and roll.

Yeah. Not as nice as Al Horford. That's one of those when you're on the air all the time and you'd be like, you know what I'm kind of thinking? Like, yeah, this Durant thing. Andreig Wadala, I would tell you. I get it. I get the Durant part of it.

But I think what people are missing here is you want to talk about boxing out on free throws? You want to talk about verbalizing, switching? want to talk about just a nice silky 17 footer that he may not take a lot of like there's a there's a glue factor to Horford that I think and then you're just talking yourself into this terrible fucking segment

and then you're like I've got it no it's just it's just prime spite and I honestly respect it that's exactly I respect the hell out of it and I won't criticize anyone who did that all right good stuff Thank you to the NBA GMs who do this. And thanks to John at NBA.com. Yeah.

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off your order online. Max discount, $5. Limit one per person per day cannot be combined with any other offers, plus tax were applicable. Prices may vary, delivery available from participating locations with online orders only copyright 2025, LCE Incorporated. Jeff Darlington, ESPN covers the NFL. It doesn't just cover the NFL. He's become international. He's great on the show, so excited to talk to him. What's up, man? Good to see you.

Good to see you too. Yeah. You know, I'm a football guy during football season, though, Ryan. It's none of that golf and tennis show. at this point. You should, I don't want you to lose any of those assignments because I understand. I love it. It's awesome, truly. It's very fun, very different. Yeah, it's great, man.

It's great to kind of even crack into some of the golf stuff at ESPN too, especially. I think there's like a long list of people that go, can I do some majors? Can I travel for all these things? So good for you. And obviously after your Schiffler moment, I mean, that was that was a whole other level. So let's start with, let's start with a couple of teams. teams here, San Francisco, that Tampa, you've got that game. You've been around these teams. It's four straight for the Niners. Last year's game was terrific. You know, they're the one and two

seeds in the NFC today. So I think the simple question is like, all right, we can get into the matchup and everything, but do you think these teams are better than, say, the kind of understood trio of Green Bay, Detroit, and Philadelphia in the NFC? I don't know that I'm ready to go there yet. I think it's just, I'm just not someone who commits to any narratives at this point in the season, whether it be about a team success or an MVP conversation or whatever it might be, I will say what I think is unique about both of these teams,

the Bucks and the 49ers, is that they're both doing it despite some injuries at some, the 49ers more so, at some very key spots. And I think that that speaks volumes to where they could potentially go with this season. 49ers incredibly impressive. And I think it's just a continuation of the belief that Kyle Shanahan can make chicken

salad out of chicken shit, quite frankly. He's so good at it. And if they can get healthy at the right time, something they haven't been able to do even in the postseason in recent years, I do think that they are right there with those other teams that you mentioned, Detroit, Green Bay, some of those other NFC Power houses. Yeah, I know it seems weird to say Philadelphia after last night, but I still, by the way, I'm not going to jump on, I'm not jumping off that bandwagon either. Like, are we going to fire Nick Siriani again in week seven? I'm totally with you. I mean, it was really bad last night.

There's also a collection of names, but I mean, there's certain teams where, you know, I would say about like the Eagles O-line specifically, and we'll get back to the other game here. But, like, if you are without question the best O line in football. Although, look, you can make an argument for what Denver's able to put out there every single week. But when you're losing one player on the O line, like, I just don't have as much sympathy for you when you can't run the football. Like if every one of us are sitting there going, look at this guy, look at this roster. So that makes me think like there's hope. But last night's performance was terrible. And it's not just because Landon Dickerson's out of the game. That's right. It was terrible. I agree. It's just so early. I mean, again, I just,

I think that we jumped on the Eagles so early when they came out of the gates like 10 and O a couple of years ago. And then we're going to jump on it again when they're, at this point, I just think that we need to give them a little bit of time. I'm still not, anyway, I know we're not even talking about the Eagles, but I'm not guys falling with them just yet. Yeah, because you can just look, and I think we're totally aligned and I'll move on here. But it's like, okay, but the cycles of how a season goes. It's almost like three or four seasons within a season for every single team. And so when you look at the roster and go, okay, well, these guys aren't on. I are here like there's a path to figuring this out there are better go ahead to no to bring it back

to the matchup that we're talking about the 49ers and the bucks like I am I've been fully in on the bucks for years just because of the way the GM Jason light does things I think he he builds and they have the best deal in football with Baker Mayfield given what they're paying him but they still with this team and these players do need to prove that they're more than just a regular season squad Like, to me, I'm willing to give more grace to the Chiefs and the Eagles at times like this, because I know in January what they're capable of, and it does take a different type of football. That's why I'm very impressed by the Bucks, but I'm still not going to say that they're ready

to go win the Super Bowl with this team just yet. I think in previous years, I was just straight up dismissive of it. Like, hey, nice little story, and as Baker gets better every single year, you know, the online issues that we saw in that Houston game in particular. And I'm just going to reference that game. I feel like all season long because I was on a plane. That's all I was going to do. And I was just completely locked in on like every single snap. And it was just such a wild. You feel super smart because you watched the whole game. Like that's how I am too. Like these guys who like break like are Lobski who like watch every game every week. I watch one game and I

swear to God, I think I'm like, you know, Chris Berman. Yeah. Because I'm like, oh, this is, okay, they're having a really hard time with this defensive. tackle and all these different things. Give me kind of like the larger view, because you've referenced Jason Laii in the post Brady thing, their draft approach, and where this roster

is, and a defense that, no, I don't know that they ever get talked about, maybe they shouldn't statistically, but it's a defense that definitely, it feels like it's disrupted games in a way that maybe I wasn't always banking on in previous versions the last two years.

True. You know, when it comes to Jason, I think that there's two players that really symbolize what they've been able to do in the post Brady era and the first of which, of course, is Baker. And like, I'm not saying that there's not a degree of luck in, you know, acquiring. I think that there was a part of Jason Light that's like, no, we could take a chance on this guy. And I think he just has sensibility when it comes to risk management with players. So you go get him, and you're paying him, what, $3 million his first year, and then you say, wow, this guy's performing really well. Let's get out in front of this. Let's give him a nice deal

that's, you know, not top-end market, but let's get ahead of this and make sure we reward a guy who feels like our franchise guy. And then this year, before that they can, you know, before Baker is saying, God damn, I'm underpaid. This feels like a, you know, there's dissension, kind of what we see with the Cowboys. They go and say, hey, Baker. We're going to guarantee you your salary in 2026. Don't even come to us. Don't even worry about that. That's yours.

And then we're going to figure out your contract soon too. I think the sensibility of all of that is what leads to both good morale in a locker room, but also good deals with players. And then you go out and you draft a guy like a mecca Abuka at wide receiver, who, by the way, they knew this summer. You could tell talking to them that they knew this guy was going to be a stud. So when you can wisely pick up free agents like Baker-Mayfield at key positions and get homegrown talent, that's the key. And I think that they've done that.

Now, will that translate to a Super Bowl? I don't know yet. But I think that they've been wise in the way that they've built a roster at a time when they should have really been in purgatory after Tom Brady retired. I think the cycling, too, of the NFL is like, it's likely that four of the teams maybe we had in front of them in the NSC, like two are going to struggle. you know we don't we don't know what's going to happen with green bay uh Detroit looks like the best team in the NFL right now but yet you go back to that green bay week one thing and I think all of us that have done this long enough it's like oh my god green bay looks incredible and then it's like are you surprised that they are not looking like that every single week of course not

that's the sport it's just at least for me it's more of an open mind you know I just was dismissive of Tampa there's a cap there cool story got to be ready to play them maybe they get a playoff game, but I'm not going to let you convince me that there's something they can do beyond this. And I think in 25. Do you still feel that way? No, that's the point. Now it's like, what if what if Philly doesn't get healthy? You know, what if what if the Green Bay thing was kind of a fluke? What if Detroit has some, you know, I don't want to base it all just down to injuries and all this different stuff, but like just the way Baker's played and to be able to get at Bucca, knowing that Mike Evans is still, you know, a major factor, but

probably not banking on his health and that it doesn't really matter. And if the old line's right, yeah, I think that's where I'm at. It just looks. They also, they've just got some shit to them too, right? Yeah. You always look for that. And, you know, you could go the other way and say that they've won all these, like, close games that easily could have gone the other way and we'd be like dismissing them. You know, are they going to be built for, to win these games in January? worry, you can make a case either way that they aren't blowing teams out. So maybe they're not that good. But you could also say they're going to be battle tested, all the cliches that we can throw out there, depending on what narrative we want to, you know, we want it to fit. Yeah. It's the same

thing that Baker even referenced in one of the press conferences. I don't know if it was this week or an earlier week, but it was, I mean, he nailed it. He's like, now it's moxie. He's like, I used to be arrogant. Perfect. He's awesome. We're doing, I'm doing something on that for a Sunday countdown about basically built off that quote um which you just referenced but he said before i was immature and uh what was the other word he used i was immature and um uh that was cocky arrogant cocky and immature and now i'm a dog and i have moxie it's so true i mean he really hasn't changed that much i will say that i think that there is a more mature baker in there to pick his spots, but when you see him talking trash to the Seahawks fans, like, when you're winning,

you love that in your quarterback. And I also think that I really think that he fits Tampa more than people realize. Like, I'm from that area. Like, you got to have, I know, Tampa thinks, you know, that's the ultimate Florida man territory. Like, there's some freaks in Tampa. And I think that Baker's got some of that grit that just sort of fits that community in a way that people probably don't realize. If they lose the Seattle game

and he's yelling, you're a pussy to a fan. That is processed. Yeah. It doesn't work, but if he's yelling it when you're winning, I tell you right now, those pirates in Tampa will love you. I'd say the most important thing of all of that, because I'm not going to sit there and praise

that I think that's cool just because they won. I don't know that I would lose it. We already know. Like, if this were an average season from him and maybe they're two and three because the bounces go the other way. They don't get the pick late against Seattle. He's screaming, you're a pussy to a fan. I mean, it is, it is his point, too.

I mean, that's on, that's on us. That's not on him. And I think that's his point. Like, we can call whatever we want. He's sitting there saying, I'm doing the same stuff that I've always done. Call me whatever you want. It's just who I am. And I think that that's true.

And if you know Baker on any level, I mean, he's, he's really, I hate to use the word, Like, normal is not the right word. I hate when people said, I almost just did it. But he's just a dude who plays really good football and has an edge to him that he's carried with him. And you talk to people in Tampa who will tell you on days when it's good, like when they're doing well and coming off a win and Baker doesn't have something to have a chip on his shoulder about,

that's when he's in the absolute worst mood. He'll come in there and you don't even want to talk to him because he's just manufacturing it inside of him. it's just that's just who he is for good or for bad yeah i even thought the carolina like steve wilkes thing was was weird because i'm like you weren't first of all you weren't even that good when you were there and no i think it was bigger than i think there's very that's very tom brady esk where you're like you're around tom and he's in a bad mood and it's like oh wait you're doing the thing where you where you manufacture something completely out of thin air

the most important part of this and you're around football for your essentially your title professional career but the most important thing is like as long as his teammates when they break to huddle believe in him and love all this stuff like that's the most important thing 100% and that's real and it's very likable again when you're i mean right yeah i don't know that he ever did he i'm trying to go back to even cleveland when he was doing this kind of stuff did he lose the locker room there i don't think i just don't think he was healthy he was playing there were games i remember with him in Cleveland. And I'm not sitting there suggesting that I thought he would have this redemptive arc and all this kind of stuff. But I thought he was pretty here. I don't remember.

I don't remember. His arm was her. I just don't remember if he, to your point, like, I mean, these guys love playing for him, you know. And I think that that's, you know, that goes a long way too. So on the Niner's side of this, and it feels like a Shanahan question, because I just like talking to you guys that are in so many meetings and get that time that we don't necessarily see on camera. But I really, for whatever reason, I've liked the Niners organization for a long time. I kind of feel the same way about the Rams. You know, I just liked how proactive both front offices seem to be. Clearly, it was McVeigh and Shane Ann. It's on a short list of the best coaches here. But that Niners win against the Rams, like what I loved about that win is you could tell

that Lynch and that staff that they went into that going, we have no chance to win. I mean, maybe they pretended they did. They pull that game out with all of those injuries. So it feels a bit like a Shanahan question. So if it's Shanahan, go ahead. But I'm wondering of the people that you've had multiple interactions with, who do you come away with when you talk football with other people in the media or just your friends? You're like, this person is just so impressive every single time. Yeah, well, that's Kyle.

I mean, but that's always, and I think that the underrated component to Kyle, like I go back to, I mean, I think when I first covered him, and I've known him very well for almost two decades now. He was the offense coordinator in Houston, and I think I was covering the Dolphins for the Miami Herald, and I remember Matt Schaubb, like the last play of the game in Houston, Matt Schaub was the quarterback, and they ran a quarterback draw, like designed up the middle to win the game.

And I was like, who the hell called that play? And it was Kyle, and it was to do what he did. And I always remember from that moment being like, he's different because, and I think that that's just a very small, a small microcosm kind of look into. It's these games against the Rams where he thrives the most because he's a mad scientist. And you ever watched the bear? Do you watch the bear? So you know how, like, his big problem is that he wants to change the ingredients every single night?

that's Kyle like Kyle never wants the menu to be the same and there are Sean McVey always fine having the best six things on the menu at all times and Kyle always wants to change it

and that can get you that can bite you at times because you're worn so thin you're grinding so much throughout the week with this new game plan to take advantage of your opponents but it's games like this against the Rams when you have nobody

when you benefit the most from that. that. And I think that that is the genius of Kyle, but to a degree, that's also probably the thing that maybe hurts him the most at the end of the season. Yeah, I mean, the Mack Jones part of it and it's like, this is him. And it's funny, too, that you bring up Matt Schaub because it's like, hey, that was, remember when he had that weird little run? That was Kyle. I mean, it's unbelievable. Kyle, Kyle is like, nobody wants to ever hear this because of the cursed Super Bowls and just and by the way like I said a lot self-inflicted but if you just take the body of work like he is on a Hall of Fame trajectory as a head coach and if he gets fired in San

Francisco there will be 31 owners looking very hard at their head coach saying do we want Kyle instead I'm telling you like inside football I understand the frustrations but inside football, he is still like respected to a degree that few others are. Okay. You had Kansas City for that Baltimore win, right? And it was a, hey,

Kansas City is going to be fine. But then it's also like, look at what's happening to Baltimore because of all the different injuries. Were you able to gather anything from that game? Because you were, there was a lot of stuff that I was reading that you were covering, you know, I'll point to a couple of them here as we're chatting.

But it was like, hey, this Lamar thing looked a little bit more significant than maybe just he's leaving the game. And so, you know, now they get blasted by Houston. Again, the top six paid players on the team weren't even active in that game. They were missing at the end of the Chiefs game. Were you able to gather anything else from just being around it there on what Lamar is or where this team is long term? The Ravens, I feel like are, the problem is they, even before the injuries started to mount, they were having issues on defense to the point where the defensive coordinator

is starting to get questioned right away and then all of a sudden you're like well they've got to creep themselves out of this hole the entire defense gets hurt multiple guys going into that game and then during that game and then Lamar to me that was sort of I mean I again I don't like to write teams off

at any point but at that point you're like okay this is not the Ravens here there was a part of me going into that like the Ravens could still be that team where they flip the script and maybe they're not as good in the regular season, but they get hot in the postseason, unlike years past. But I think that sometimes you just don't have that year.

Defense the side of the ball, they're going to have to go into a full evaluation mode of how they want that to look after losing the coordinator last year. I just think, and from, so I'm not saying right the season off, but I feel pretty certain that the Ravens are just not. Which, by the way, you could come out of that game saying the chiefs still feel vulnerable, but they got that win. I would say, though, that you take the Bengals out of the mix, you take the Ravens out of the mix. The bills obviously look really good for the most part,

other than, you know, maybe, you know, look, I think that Bill's defense, even at moments, I don't know if it's a Saints game more than the Baltimore game. You know, the Baltimore game, it's like, all right, opening week and that rushing attack looked like impossible. The Henry Lamar stuff that they were doing week one. You're like, okay, maybe this isn't entirely on the bill's secondary because this is really, really hard to do. They come back, it might end up being the best win of the entire regular season. But whether it was, you know, look, the turnover thing was finally going to happen to him after 26 straight games winning the turnover battle, which was an NFL record. But there's stuff even with the bills where it is stupid.

We can't help ourselves. But it's like we forget that the best teams generally are going to go 13 and 4, 12, and 5. So that means there's going to be a month of. football where it doesn't work out for you. And they're not all going to be great losses. That's a good way of looking at it. But I also, and I'll say, you know, it's funny because I, what, two, three years ago, you would have said, man, the AFC is impossible to get through and you want to be in the NFC at that time. And now it's kind of flipped because of this year and the way, I mean, it's obviously somewhat injury oriented with Burrow going down, but you're taking some of those top teams out of

the mix and the chiefs are going to get Rishi Rice back. They are, like, that is a, big components have all those guys on the field you saw they're better with worthy i just i mean it's it's going to wind up being the chiefs and the bills at the end of the season again i just i don't i don't know who else is going to really step up and challenge them okay but that's that's good too because like that chiefs win against the ravens it just was like okay at least even with all the raven's injuries here which you know is was a huge factor because we're talking about like the best defensive no no huge huge huge Right. It wasn't just a couple of guys who are like, hey, we have 11 guys on defense, who are the five best?

It's like, okay, well, they're all not going to play. But it looked like that Mahom style of quarterbacking that looked like basketball again. And then they get that Jags team where I'm like, okay, well, coming off of where they're at now, this Jags thing, again, I'll just admit, it feels a little fluky because of the turnover margin being so dramatic in their favor, something that is just not sustainable. And I was like, it's going to make sense that prime time, they'll be on, and they're going to win. And then they don't, all right? And it was the pick that Lawrence threw, despite me feeling like he just might be average and we have to kind of get over it. Like there's some of these quarterbacks, like,

we're going to be having the same conversation about this QB in five years. And that should tell us that like, hey, this might be it. I've seen some other people argue that it has been better with Coleman's offense and that, like, there's things that feel better about. Again, that interception was a completely missed call. But that's a huge win in that spot where now it was kind of like twofold. It was, did I get too excited about this inevitable chiefs thing where I give them the benefit of the doubt? And am I just writing off a Jags team with a really good record and an ASC, to your point, that's more open now?

No, I think that that's probably the most, one of the most interesting games of the season. And I'm not going to go so far as to compare it entirely to the last night between the Giants and the Eagles. But there was a little bit of that there for me too where I'm like, Jackson Dart and Scataboo feel pretty energizing. Like this Giants team is putting up points and everybody's just pointing to the Eagles and the issues that they have. And I would kind of look at that Jags game similarly in that, you know, the Jags looked impressive no matter who they were up against. Does that mean that the chiefs are just a more vulnerable team? To me, it's definitely one of the more compelling. I didn't expect the Jags and the Chiefs to be as compelling a watch.

I was very entertained by the game, but also sort of sucked into the idea that maybe this Jags team really is worth watching, which, by the way, still, I still subscribe to the fact that neither of us will probably talk about the Jags until probably week, team like i don't know what it's going to take for us to really be like no that team is is ready to go yeah i mean i don't they're going to be at home against seattle in the rams i mean does does leon feel any different does it does it feel different because i don't know what to do with lawrence and that was the whole point is that it's supposed to be better and again i've seen some

people that i do respect trying to make the argument that it's that it's better than it's been statistically it's you could argue it's worse well there were still some moments in the game where you're like like when he didn't have I'm never I'm not I think Trevor Lawrence is awesome like I really I really do I've been pretty pretty positive on him but there's there's these moments when he like crosses the line of scrimmage and throws and he gets penalized for that like little things like that where you're like oh man I feel like those things should be out of your system by now the clock stuff I mean winning that game is one thing and he makes the unbelievable play of getting back up and Chris Jones apologize for just stopping.

And that was after he had taken the inside on a rush, on a pass rush that let the quarterback get out earlier in the season. So whatever. I mean, we're not going to do a Chris Jones segment here. But I guess I'm with you. Like, what if they beat Seattle and the Rams? They're at home, you know? If they win both of those games, I think we're on the clock.

But think about that. Think about what we're saying. to beat the Rams, the Seahawks, and the Chiefs for us to start to respect them. Like, no shit. And, you know, again, they beat the Niners in that game where it was, what did they end up with? I mean, it was four turnovers for the Niners. Yeah, and I think that that's part of the problem is you like, at some point you just

want everything. And we just need more of a body of work. That's the truth. Even if they were to lose one of those games, if they're. turnover free and have some turnover they're getting some picks and good offensive output i think that i'd start to respect it you're right though if you're a jaggs fan you're like so we're gonna beat the chiefs seahawks and rams and then you guys would be like hey maybe they're the fourth best team in the nc like that's bullshit and you're right to be upset about it but um dbd okay let's

talk a little dolphins sure mike mcdaniel um You know, this is a very Baker conversation. This is just like we were talking about with Baker. Because when they got things rolling offensively, and the biggest thing is like, look at the defensive numbers from last year to this year, okay? But my point with McDaniels, Ben, he was brought in to do one thing and that was fixed to a.

Do we have a franchise QB? Because it really didn't look like you had anything remote. It looked like a backup, okay? And then that part of it's fixed. And the audience already knows this part because I've already done this timeline a million times. And the quirky weird reference personality thing, like when they're scoring points, it's like,

Baker, that's a great analogy. Right. And then when they're losing, it's like, I can't believe this guy is a head coach. And we're showing him rambling at the podium, which he had always done. Okay,

just looks so bad before they show. And by the way, like this is my biggest thing on the body language. Who gets their ass kicked in sports who looks like they're having a good time? you don't want that either I'm going to be alarming that's it would 100% be alarming I mean and you can't

you can't win in these moments like you just I don't have a tough time with this one too because I really do have huge amount of respect for McDaniel and have been on record for that for many years and I don't believe that you just get stupid overnight

to where you were running in an offense that led the league both when you were having success in that first year and then again again when things were, I mean, like his record coming into the year when two was healthy, when he had a starter. You look at just the numbers and you're saying it's hard to just think this guy is suddenly a dumb coach.

I do not subscribe to that belief. And I, you know, I understand I get eye rolls from Dolphins fans when I say that because they're in this moment of frustration. But, you know, there's coaches all around the league right now, whether it's Ben Johnson who was in Miami or Dan Campbell who was in Miami. And I'm not saying they got ran off. but we see it all the time in this league. We're talking about Baker Mayfield.

You know, he was a laughing stock not long ago. I just think that it is very difficult to evaluate right now who is at fault for the Dolphins' woes. Is it the personnel? Is it an offensive line and a defensive line that seem vastly incapable and on an offense undersized? A secondary that we knew coming into the season. I mean, can you name the starters in the secondary for the dolphins? No. And even if you did, would you have ever heard of them?

No. We kind of knew that these problems were going to rear their head. So do you just blow it up all of it and say, we don't know where the blame is? So we're just going to blow it all up? Or do you go about it with more nuance? I think that that's what Stephen Ross has to do right now. I don't indie it, but I will say

I do not think that Mike McDaniel is suddenly stupid. Is Storm Duck healthy, though? Yeah, so you do know. I just looked it up. I mean, other than me, I've ever heard of that? I mean, first of all, it's a great name. But, like, that's, that's, it's just, I just looked across the roster and you can, you can obviously pick out the people like every other sport and every other

team who believes in who. And obviously it sounds like I probably think that Mike McDaniel is a pretty good coach, so I'm going to point to the roster. But I understand that there's a defense to make, you know, across the board. The two apart of it, though, I mean, disastrous stuff at the end. And, you know, this is crazy. Like, if you ever want a study in how irrelevant completion percentage could be. Like, look, if you're sub-50% completion rate is an NFL QVE today, you're not going to be around very long, all right? So that's one part of it.

But he's at like 71, 72% completion rate the last two years. And I think because of everything that he's gone through, clearly they've been like, you've got to play to protect yourself. It's pretty obvious that he's internally. That sounds like you want to be in as a coach quarterback. back. He was always like between 35, 45 rushes a season, 17 last year, only seven this year, hasn't had a rushing touchdown, I think, in three, four years, maybe three. But he is, it's getting, at least if you can a couple times a game, burn somebody on a third and six scramble, which he always could do. And now when it's like you should never do it, it makes

it even harder. And I mean, there's a confidence thing with him. that is that is different i mean we could point to all sorts of stats but there's just not much juice there if that is the case and if we're going to let's just use that as the exercise here and this is why like this comes across as being hate toward two but if that is the case where you have to and i think too is immensely talented again we've seen that but if you're having to call an offense differently that was why i really never understood and i was on the record saying it like Why would you have paid him going into that fifth year when you could just evaluate him after? It wasn't as if the deal that was on the table was going to be like that much higher after the season had he won.

They were paying him top of market dollar going into that fifth year. So why not just evaluate the fifth year and make the decision after? To me, the math didn't make sense. And it was almost like an emotional decision. And like, we're going to support this guy who has, you know, been through so much and show him that we believe in him. And it's like the economics of football and beyond just the economics of it, suddenly you find yourself in the situation where what we're doing right now, well, is it his fault? Is it his fault? And you know you have two and next year as well contractually, or you're paying $55 million for nothing.

So now you're in this weird situation where, you know, I was talking about with Jason Light with Baker Mayfield. just these smart decisions at the right times. And you can get ahead of a contract with a player when it's merited, like the Cowboys should have done with Micah or DAC. I think in this situation, you weren't going to get a deal economically by paying him before the season as opposed to after it. I just don't think they ever should have paid them.

I think you'd agree, though, and I'm not disagree with anything you said, but it seems like the way business is done in all these sports, It's like there's always something where it's like, well, why do you do it that way? Or, you know, the NBA, one of the things that I'll always point to is like sometimes the front office just as the agent to favor. And the fan can just go like, well, that doesn't make any sense. Like, why would you do something like that? And granted, it's not like you're just giving your players away to go, hey, get us in a couple years, buddy. But with quarterbacks, it does feel like there's kind of this stupid, this is our guy decision, is if there's just, hey, we have, we've solidified the position.

this shows how much we believe in him. And there's so many quarterback contracts that are done where it's like we're just showing our guy, he's our guy, and you're really raising the risk. But it seems like that's the way, you know, again, it's the time. And I get that. I get that to a degree. I get it more from a business model standpoint.

I get it from the standpoint that like if we don't pay him now and he goes out and he's the MVP of the league, we're going to be paying him $70 million after this year. I understand that component. But when you looked at that situation, Even if he was the MVP of the league, it wasn't like you were going to pay him 70. It was still, you couldn't find another team that was going to do that. And I don't really need, I don't really want to make this some debate about whether you pay to or not.

It's more philosophical to your point about, like, what is the right approach to take with quarterbacks who are, first of all, you're paying them $60 million a year, but more than the money, which I always tell fans all the time, why do you care? Like, don't care about the money. Care about the cap hit and all that, but it's not your money. You give us a damn. But it's more about like, are you going to put your team in a situation where if it's not the right decision or if this doesn't work out that you're now set back several years? And to me, I'm looking at this now saying, I don't know, I don't know that it was the best choice. The other thing about it, though, is, and this isn't even about two anymore. It's like the only discounted quarterbacks are the real.

retreads, the bakers that we're talking about, right? If Tua doesn't work out in Miami, that's two in two years. And I'll probably go to you know, like Ryan Tannehill went to Tennessee and balled out and Dolphins fans were like, well, what the hell? You know,

it's cyclical. It really is. It's true. Do you think the dolphins would bring in Belichick? Oh, no. I just, hey, look, I'm just checking the boxes of these thoughts I have. What, what do you think, what is, what's next for Bill Belichick, Ryan? I think he'd be sitting next to McAfee soon.

No, I don't mean that as like a did. No, I know. I just, they get great guests. I think, you know, look, that whole million dollar buyout thing, like, I'm so miserable. I'll kick in my own buyout as opposed to getting fired and getting all that money that's not usually how that thing works no I don't know that I mean that one would kind of shock me

I guess I'm just wondering if there's another if if Ross would go hey look like we wanted to get Brady wanted to mess with the crafts the thing is that the crafts would be like go ahead are you kidding yeah no I don't even like I as far as your I love the way you think, I always enjoy it, this might be the biggest stretch that you've ever made. I'm aware, but I had to talk to you about it. I just don't even know.

I'm very curious to see what happens next with Velacek. An NFL, I mean, if an NFL team wasn't hiring them before UNC, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Okay, let's end on the Colts because you've spent some time with them. This offense is incredible. I mean, this is, this is Tanna Hill on steroids from Miami. I mean, although Giants fans are feeling really good this morning.

It's been to be touched on that in the open a little bit. Give me, well, I don't want you to sell me on something you don't believe, but if you're in your pre-show meetings and everybody's sitting around and be like, what do we do with this cold story? What's real? What is and what can this team do? Like, summarize what they've done so far. You know, it's a good question.

I really can't pinpoint it either. And it's probably similar to some of these teams that we've already talked about, whether you feel like they're real or not. I think the Jonathan Taylor component, like, I know we can talk about Daniel Jones and that resurgence, but I think when everything else around you is going well, it's kind of what we were talking about to the idea of a retread. You know, it's a system type of league. And the one thing I learned when I was there about Jonathan Taylor is that his, I don't know if you know this, but his past protection has improved drastically. Is this something that, like, so I didn't realize that he was never really that much of an every down back when he was succeeding earlier pre-injury. And he has really studied up on pass protection and receiving to be able to be in there on third down. Like he was coming off the field on third downs, which really eliminated kind of his ability to impact the offense in the way that he is right now.

I don't know if that's, you know, the number one reason for why this is happening right now. but that was one thing that I learned where it's like, all right, Jonathan Taylor was great, but now he is kind of graduated to an even higher tier of running backs. It is funny, though, when you think about week one, right? And you go, hey, the dolphins will be rolling.

They're going to come out, score a ton of points. Yeah. And, you know, Colts have Daniel Jones. This thing's a mess. And it's like, oh, now. I mean, it's so true. The through line for the dolphins is like it's still a problem. But just the way that loss felt week one versus now what we're doing with this Colts team.

That's a great point. The Colts are unquestioned. Daniel Jones is by far the surprise of the season, but the Colts in general. I mean, you're right. Anthony, I remember when they signed Daniel Jones, like, that's your response? Like, that's your fix? And here we are. So we'll see.

Even the Broncos game. It's like, oh, they blew it. They blew it to the Colts. And yet now it's like a good loss on the road for Denver, one point loss, the field goal situation, you know? They feel like they're built too for a run, just the way that they kind of the vibe that I got when I was there. But again, it's early.

I'm not a, I get it. We have to at this point. But, you know, we'll see what teams, whether it's the bucks, the Colts, the Jaguars, like which team is actually going to be there when it gets when it's when it's when it's time in week 17 week 18 you're the man enjoy bucks niners and yes catch up again this season good thanks right with amex platinum access to exclusive amex pre-sale tickets can score you a spot track side so being a fan for life turns into the trip of a lifetime that's the powerful backing of amex pre-sale tickets for future events subject to availability and varied by race

Terms and conditions apply. Learn more at mx.ca.com. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ, built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move. Lift with confidence while Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton cross-training tread plus at OnePeloton.ca.

Hit pause on whatever you're listening to and hit play on your next adventure. This fall get double points on every qualified stay. Life's the trip. Make the most of it at BestWestern. Visit bestwestern.com for complete terms and conditions. The Alliance takes breaks and then continues. So Rudy is with us. We need the three of us.

We got off to a great start, getting you in the money. week one um kyle and i tried to piece it together last week can't get him all right uh so let's uh some of us can't anyway well i had to do two picks yeah no i know you did you did they're and i were all over the texas thing i mean gave it out but then Purdue uh you know per down that last two possessions i mean it's nothing like betting on a game we're watching Purdue. You're like, I shouldn't be watching Purdue right now, but I just need a late touchdown here with this. And then they had every reason to score a touchdown just to cover. Like those, the Kirk Cousins time. Like, I'm definitely getting a touchdown here and then we're going to

lose. But look at this. 70 more yards, another touchdown. I actually need to dig into whether or not Kirk Cousins has that many touchdowns during some of those years because I always felt like that was auto of him. Anyway, do you want to hear more about me recap and me being upset about Purdue losing? Typically, my strategy in the evening. is like if you want to take that on your own that's fine but like to subject other people to watching a bad team do something that they're likely not going to do is just I don't like to do that so Purdue having them do anything to me have it on your own don't put it in the you're sleeping you're sleeping on Purdue's offense and again if you watch the very end of

those two possessions I did not that's just not the urgency we need to get a cover out of I didn't watch the end of the Purdue game all right The bore is yours, man. All right. Yeah, no pressure here. I am one and no. What's up? I had Alabama against Georgia in our first alliance.

I'm going to take Florida and Texas A&M. I'm going to go over 47.5 points. I'm not going to explain it. I'm just going to take the over. Oh, you're taking the over? Okay. All right. Kyle?

I too am not going to explain my under pick here, but I was really jazzed up about this South Florida thing that's on Fridays. I think it's just we want it all to be clean. So I had to pivot and I went back to the South Carolina thing. and I look at LSU and I say, ooh, I don't like that at all. So I just went with the under 44.5. And I guess I did kind of explain it.

So we're taking under 44.5. That's minus 115. Okay. A lot of interesting stuff here. Tempted on the Oregon thing, just to stay in with the headliner games against Indiana. But then I think people are just going to think I'm doing that. Although that line, I think, went from eight and a half to seven and a half.

might be screaming at you to try to take Indiana there. So we're going to stay away from that one. Look, the Oklahoma mature part of this is probably frustrating slash confusing. But it's minus one and a half in the Texas Red River rivalry. Give me the Sooners minus a point and a half. So there you go. They see a line so you can check it out. Yeah, what do we got?

Yeah, they get you almost plus 600 on that. So, oh, oh, scary. For more lines, check out sportsbook.pando.com. You want details? Bye. I drive a Ferrari, 355 cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine.

And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Life advice is the email address Life Advice RR at gmail.com. Real quick, before we do that, Monday is going to be my last show at Spotify. I would announce more,

but I'm afraid since the war gone, goodbye was edited out if I say anything more. I don't want that to happen. I want to be straightforward with the audience because I know there's been a lot of stuff out there, but I just can't address it on the show. So get in while you can, folks. Monday will be my last show at Ringers Spotify.

Let's read some emails. Can I send one in real quick? I'm just kidding. I don't have anything to ask. I'm just joking. Let's see. Danny Connell Monday, too, by the way. Yeah, Danny Cannell.

So definitely too now. Way to bury the lead, dude. I missed his last show at ESPN. Yeah, man, I remember that day. I took layoff week off. I was like, I don't want to be around for any of this stuff, especially considering I thought there was a chance it could happen to me. Whoa, so that was like, I was in L.A.

I was in Manhattan Beach. You didn't have any inside info that you're good. You're just like, when I come back, we'll just see where the chips landed. Like, what? That doesn't sound like you at all, honestly. Here's what happened. It was about, I met with Skipper because we usually got together once a year. year, spent an hour together right before I was supposed to meet with them, the story leaked that

there was going to be massive on-air layoffs. So I sat and listened to him, bitch about the leak for one straight hour. We didn't talk about my career at all. And then as I walked out of the office, he said, hey, just so you know, like, a lot of this is going to be me just delegating authority and trusting the people that want to make these kinds of decisions. So I went from like, oh, I'm just listening to this guy vent because he was really upset about it to, oh, my God. I think he just told me that I could be gone. And so that I went down to the townhouse. Right. Yeah, I went down to the talent office. It was like, hey, I just met with Skipper. That wasn't my favorite meeting. I was like, is there a chance like I'm done. And he was like, yeah, there is. There's a chance you're probably done. And I was like, holy shit. That's crazy. And then I was like, all right. And then an NBA team was like, well, if you get let go, why don't you come work for us and you're not going to make as much money, but you'll make this money. So I was like, all right. So then I went back to the talent office. I was like, can I be done now then? And they were like, no. Reverse psychology. Yeah. And so then it was. And so then it was. was like back and forth, I'm done. And then I would talk to Danny about it. And then the funny

thing is that his agents, who used to be my agents that didn't really like me anymore, which is fine. I was like, what are you hearing? He's like, oh, just they keep saying how you're done. I was like, yeah, but didn't you say to them that I told you I thought I might be done and that there's a really good chance to just repeating back to you what you said to them, which again came from me. He was like, I don't know. He's like, they're adamant. Like, you're done. And so that it went on and on and on for a while. And then I was done on. I was like, I'm just going to go to Manhattan Beach that week and look for a property and, you know, rent a place and see where life takes me. And then right before I was leaving, I met with somebody who's like, you're going to be done.

And I was like, okay. I was like, that's good. I was like, oh, that was my last show or whatever. And so So then I think I had to work one more day or something before I was flying L.A., and he was like, hey, you're not done. I was like, well, I'm still getting on a fucking plane, man. So I already put him for the time off. Like, I don't want to be here tomorrow. And they were like, okay, no problem. And then I woke up, I don't know, it was like 6 a.m. Manhattan Beach time. And it was a pretty high up person.

And they were like, hey, you're not done. You know that, right? I was like, yeah, yeah, I found out yesterday. So, like, you know, you never were done. And I was like, oh, really? Sound is like it, yeah. Yeah, that it was like, um, weird game of telephone I was playing, right? Don't move out there and take a job with Fox, like he kind of jokingly said.

And I got along with the guy. He's like, don't, don't move out there and take a job with Fox. I was like, all right. I was like, no problem. I was like, I'll see you guys Monday and I'll be back. And right before that, he was like, by the way, Danny's gone. And I didn't know anything about it. And I saw it's like, shit.

So, yeah, it was, um, it was, uh, look, you know, I don't know that people have a ton of sympathy for people that are on air and, and carve out pretty good lives. But look for, for a lot of my friends that day, there was a lot, I lost a lot of friends that, uh, that I worked with that lived near me that were, that were part of kind of our, our group, our hang. And it, uh, it was tough. It was a tough day for a lot of people. So, I don't, I can't, I can't imagine. and just like, oh, hopefully after these next two years, everything's still the same. Like, you know, a lot of, most people get, like, have a job until they are fired or until there's like an actual layoff where it's like not just like contracts aren't getting, you know, renewed or whatever. So I don't like that life at all.

I'm glad I don't have that. I haven't had to live that life. The Danny thing suck too because I know, like, there's obviously this perception of Connell. He's like the nicest dude. He just. What is the perception of Connell? that he's like a shitster you know SEC hater

which is all true which is also true okay I wouldn't agree all right that's why I thought personally and he's just like

an incredibly good nice person and you know I think you know he had I think just bought a house I mean it was he was kind of fucked

like it was he was good at his job like I don't know he's he's one of the better college football people I can say what you want about where he leans or whatever but he's he's

I don't know he he watched just gains, pays attention, and gives a shit, and he's a good dude, and that's what matters. And I thought he was done pretty hard done by that day. Because I remember, like, yeah, it was like 9.30 in the morning. I get a phone call. And we were, you know, he showed up to work. Yeah. No, I saw me. I saw him that day. But then it was

like, hey, Adnan, I think was going to host the show solo today because he was filling in for you, Ryan. It was like, it was a disaster. That's a disaster. Yeah. Adney and solo. Yeah. A little planning went into this. Because I was like, I'm gone. I'm like, I don't want to be here for any of this stuff. Because, I mean, I already's like, you know how many times.

times I left ESPN where I was like, this will be my last day here. I think I had five different walks out to the parking lot. I was like, this might be it. This might be the last day. And then it happened so many times. It was kind of funny because then I end up like, either I would decide, hey, this is until the best place for me re-up or they would go, we don't know what you do with you, but we're going to re-up you after they were like, we're done. And so I was like, all right, that's fine. So this is not, I hope none of this is framed is like, it just was tough. It was a tough little stretch and then it was just so weird because then after it was all done like a couple people that really mattered were like hey do you know you never ever like they were never

you weren't even in the discussion i was like i find it hard to believe that there was never i think you have to discuss every single person so that's probably not something that's true maybe that was an exaggerated version of like when it came down to it it was like hey you know you go around the room you're like he's fine he's good he's not breaking the bank here i was just thinking did you like develop some sort of like routine when you thought you were leaving for the last time, like touch the top of the door frame or something, be like something cool as you're like on your fourth walkout. You're like, I've got this down to a science by now. Anything cool? You're like, last time I'll be doing this, boom. No, but I think the most important thing in any

industry, depending on like what you want out of your life, at least on the professional side of things, is that you've learned to prepare for the next thing way before you think you should have to. Right. You know, and part of it's just like, Sometimes it's a mental approach of like, hey, I wonder if I could do this. I wonder if I could figure this part out. Or is this a spot or, you know, whether it's a conversation with someone or whatever. Like you have to be, like I've been lucky enough. I've worked at two places now for 20 years.

I've, the only time I've ever been told we don't want you to work here was the first job that I had. was sporting news, which was local radio. And they had signed me to a contract that was three years, like $100,000, $1.205 or something like that. So it was like $3,000, $325,000. I was just about to be $30. I hadn't made any money. And I was so fucking psyched. I was going from like $25,000 to $38,000 to like I'm going to make $100,000.

Like, this is the best thing ever. Yeah. Agreed on the contract, turned down other offers. offers. I was like, this is good. I'm going to keep getting the reps. You know, I'm in a good spot. Nobody can hear our station. That's fine. This is going to be good. There were things, you know, I didn't like about it when I wasn't making any money, but I was like, okay, this will make sense. Like, you can, you can buy more hangers for your closet. And the wood ones. That was the one place, like, of all the dirty shit that's happened to me. That one had a special place because it was like, I don't know, Trenton didn't go great, but it was the first point. Yeah, but heard great things about Trenton. Yeah. There seems to be a theme here.

Go cover that field real quick. The rain's coming down. They, look, they gave me the contract. I signed it. My agent was like, okay, we're good to go. And then they, talent or whatever people that were making decisions and hiring contract extensions, the whole thing, they were on a completely different page of what was happening, like in the corporate offices.

And the corporate offices is like, we're pulling the plug on all of these shows. Like, sporting news, radio is an office. working we're done and they're like yeah we just signed this guy in boston like three years 300 grand like well did we sign it and they were like nope oh so that's the only time so i don't even count that one really because i i did sign i signed the contract uh and did i see any of that money nope they apologize they apologize which was nice i appreciated that is hey we're sorry sorry we did this too. So anyway, I didn't mean to go down memory lane with that, but that means Danny Cannell. Now you have the full back story. Connell Monday. Don't go anywhere. The show is going to do

huge numbers. Huge. All right. Girlfriend and I are fighting because of the way Ryan is. Great. Wow. 25, six feet, really 511, but I'm always a roundup guy because of being an athlete, 170 pounds. Hey, rosters, don't worry about it. Jim stats, bench 205, everything else I do on a machine. Basketball Comp, Gorin Dragach, former D1 walk-on, but loves to prove myself by scoring as much as I couldn't pick up. Well, if you were a walk-on at D-1 and you're not six feet, or you are, excuse me, you probably can absolutely light it up. Do you know how good you have to be to walk on as a D-1 basketball player?

Especially if you're not just a 6-11 project? Right. Like, what's up with that guy? What's up with stilts? Like, we saw him at the cafeteria. The Dragon's a great NBA comp, too, actually. Because he's not incredibly athletic, smart player, good, could do a bunch of things well.

Heady, yeah. Like, it's just a realistic. Oh, yeah, I could see that. I played with Anton Davis, who's two points shy, Pete Marevich, the all-time scoring. I'd love to hear your take on him, almost doing it in five years, and how insane Pete's record is.

Um, I don't have, I don't have a ton of time on that. But yeah, I mean, look up the Marevich scoring stuff. It's nuts. Well, wasn't there an argument then that there was a college player, a women's college player that actually like broke Merovich's thing. And that was being, that was being promoted. Because the Marevich thing is just that, I mean, what he played three seasons, right? That's what it is.

Does anyone care about this right now? I don't know. I mean, I'm just counting. I'm like, wow, it's been like 14 minutes since we started the segment. We haven't got past his stats. Yeah, you couldn't play as a freshman. Oh, Caitlin Clark. Yeah, let's say I'm do it to Bar.

Caitlin Clark. That's right. That's right. All right. So, been with my girlfriend two years, but known her my whole life. We have a very strong relationship, rarely fight. She's an amazing person and someone who always pushes me to be my best by being honest with me sometimes brutally. So here's what happened.

I always listen to the show, usually by myself, on the drive to and from work. But this time I left life advice play while driving to dinner with my girlfriend. I've told her many times how much I've told her many times how much I, I love listening to you guys, but Ryan specifically, I always tell her how much I think Ryan and I are alike. I tell my dad the same thing and he agrees with me. Our takes on sports are always pretty similar and your outlook on some things seem to be as well. She did not agree when she finally heard life advice. I made her listen and she could not stand your, quote, condescending attitude, end quote.

And straight up said you sound like an asshole. She then asks me, do you have your own family? And I said, no, but that's just the way he is. She says with a smart quote, maybe if he wasn't such a dick, he could get one. wow damn dude well you could have tricked her into a live show but now you can't you know guess we won't see you in denver on the next ones i do not expect her to actually feel so strongly about you she says you seem like you're a narcissist and a know it all as well as a bully once we got to dinner she begins to bring it up once again and it says i can't believe this is the

guy you've told me you like so much and think you're similar to over the years she says she still loves me, but it makes her question me a little bit. It sounds like a good dinner. Did she pay for it? I'm just kidding. It definitely made dinner awkward, and I thought she was joking, but then she brought it up again once we got home. It's been three days, and there's clearly some tension between us, and I haven't backed down from me saying, I'm still similar to Ryan in my head, so what should I do? Back down from my take about Ryan, stand my ground, and tell her this is just who I

am, something else. Thanks, Guy. Love the show. and Ryan always. P.S., she said that Sir Rudy sounds like he is sweet and a great dad somewhere in this argument, too, so not everyone hates to speak. I get a compliment. This is incredible. Dude, this is like backward shit. What is going on right now? Wow.

Yeah, I would love to know which one it was. Like, what life advice did you have or listen to? Because I'd like to listen back and maybe you did come up as an ass that. There are certainly days I feel like where all of us can, you know, put out certain things that might not be like who we are as people. Maybe he was doing a bit. like during us during that part and she she just didn't understand that that was a bit i don't know yeah look small sample size could be could be the issue here right you know we're a we're a

long game show maybe it was like a heavy f bomb show and we grow out just takes the likeability away i don't know yeah um i've i'll admit there's times when i've done stuff on the air where i would like think to myself if i didn't know me and i were in the car listening to me it's like would you hate me? I'm serious. It's a little exercise that I do. This is like, okay, but like the know-it-all thing's fine. Yeah, I mean, I think I'm...

No-it-all. Yeah, it's right there. Yeah. I mean, do I really think I know it all, of course? I know what the job is. There's going to be a million things that I get wrong all the time. But my process, right? Just like the golf swing.

If my process is right, I still will feel better about, like, the long-term results. hey, maybe the sixers should trade Mb. Took a few years on that one. Hey, Tua looks like a backup to me. You know, it wasn't great timing when I did it. But, you know, some of the long game stuff, you guys are still keeping track. So the Indiana, no it all, you know.

Yeah, the note, I mean, I just sounded like a dick right there. So the narcissist thing is the only thing I would really push back on. Because I've spent time with narcissists and I think narcissists are incapable of caring about other people's feelings. And I think if you get to know me pretty well. I do care about, I don't want to constantly monitor how people think about how I make them feel because then that's the other end of the spectrum of things. But I think a narcissist is incapable of understanding how your actions make them feel. They just can't even like conceive of the idea because they're so cut up in their own stuff.

So yeah, look, if she caught one episode, it's the wrong episode, all those things are totally fair. Bullies not true. But I don't know. I would back down. It's your wife. Like, maybe you should just say, hey, look, he's on the fence about this Hurst thing. Yeah, like, this Jalen Hurst thing's getting worse. He's kind of going like, this dude might just be average.

It has way more to do with that. He's been big on, you know, he was really early on the pitchers thing with the second and third time through. They basically described what baseball would become 20 years ago. So it's just a lot of stuff like that, honey. I got two few years. be all right. Yeah, you like it. He'll grow on you. I got two things here. One, can we put you side by side with like, like a real, like a real narcissist or a real like terrible podcaster where it's like next dinner? It's, it's like, here's the Nick Fuente show or here's the whatever. Here's the, you know,

even Tim Dylan, who's like I listen to, but he basically does a bit his whole show, Tim Dylan is just like, you know, why the Riyadh comedy festival is actually good and why it's like, you know, who cares they're chopping off hands? Like he's just doing comedy bits or whatever. whatever. And like, so maybe you could do that where she's like, maybe that's not so bad. The other thing I was going to think was I was thinking is, do you think that like the words narcissist and sociopath are getting thrown around like like gaslighting a little bit? Because I'm actually not, I'm not exactly sure what sociopath means. I've heard it attributed to people that I think I like. And I'm just like, I'm not really sure what the actual. Can we get

a running definition of those two words? It's not just those two words. I feel like that is it selfish? Like does one of them just mean self? like I'm not I don't know but which one would I don't like right does one of them mean just selfish like I just I'm having a hard time is like a steroid version of selfishness you know but you're right

like the you just keep throwing these words around like like racism being called the racist used to be like I'm rooting for the downfall of another group of people based solely on the way they look and now it's like hey I didn't think Black Panther was Citizen Kane like you piece of shit you know so just that Irish guys drink

would agree would agree I'll also add I think there are a lot of people that say this is maybe your girlfriend or your wife is listening to this you should have her listen to this I think there are a lot of people who I made that mistake they want to say hey I think I'm like Ryan or I'm like Riscilla but they actually aren't you know I think I think that's just like an easy thing to say and two you never know like was she in you know you ever know you catch somebody in

wrong mood and they just aren't really willing to hear something like this happened to me the other day in the car with my wife we were listening to the new taylor swift album i made a comment that like and you know me i i like taylor swift i'm not afraid to admit it i went to a concert we talked about that i don't love the new album don't think it's very good um i don't think it's her best and she like got mad at me for saying that so sometimes when you present people with information they're just not in the right mood to hear that information so maybe again maybe give her a life advice that you know is like a good one or that's funny or that brings an endearing side of ryan just so you can give like a different perspective of it because sometimes it's just kind of like you know you need to be

in the right mood to be able to hear something that day maybe that's the case with you ryan yeah let's another one from a few years ago or i totally call myself out for not having a family and the thought process that you know i was going through at that time in my life but that's all right that's okay sensitivity to criticism is one of these key tenets of narcissism i'm reading it right now so oh just keep that in mind thank you thank you all right here's one i don't think a narcissist would do this. Ryan's fruit guy six foot and a half, round up to six. We get a couple round uppers here.

Yeah, that's all right. I was doing it. 1.80 can bench 225 for at least 10 on a good day. Great numbers. Player cop Brandon Bass. You know you're going to be hard in the pain if you're throwing up 10 reps. Love life and advice. Just

I like Brandon Bass. I actually love Brandon Bass. I was so mad. I was so mad about that big baby trade. I mean, I wasn't thinking about not becoming magic band but that really shook me to my core yeah i'm like i'm psyched you got that in there because i don't know but you don't understand like for like obscure dub mbbba trades that trade pisses me off so much but again we don't have to who's dwight's buddy yep then you left a year later cool just wanted to know who the manhattan beach fruit vendor was that ryan mentioned in case

i'm in the area wanted to pick them up yeah tuesdays the manhattan beach farmer's market uh this guy is just a scientist i don't know what's going on back there but you You know, there's a couple different fruit people. He's behind the pizza ovens. And by the way, the pizza at the Manhattan Beach thing, some guy learned how to do it in Naples, make some single oven pies. I mean, it's just, it's actually off the charts how good it is.

It's a little tough to smash a large pepperoni in the middle of the day for your boy. But sometimes, sometimes we've already gotten the work done. It's going to be a slow Tuesday around the Casa. Sometimes I'll let myself do it. But there's a couple different fruit stands. I'm just telling you, like, this guy has signs and he has toothpicks out for all the different experimental fruits that they have going on. Are we talking fruit in a cup guy and then like a little bit of tahine if you want? What?

Fruit in a cup? No, no, no. I mean, like, is he like chopping it all up and like, you know, do you want to go mango heavy? Do you want to go pineapple? That's not that. It's like, because you're getting, you're getting straight up fruit and then you're putting it and you're on your counter. I think what you're describing, Kyle, is like a street vendor in like Tulum. that's i don't think that's what hollywood i'll be honest that's kind of what i was thinking i think

i think the hollywood farmers market like i mean so much melon in here yeah exactly but you know he kind of hypnotize you with the knives it's you know it's really he's got a nice routine going on next thing you know you are yeah you are 70 percent green melon it's like oh damn green melons underrated i it's fine it's fine it's fine but the pineapple's the fucking star and it's like there's you know four pieces on top i don't know all right yeah i don't i mean basically like he's he's combining cherries and plums and uh what are you talking about man what i don't know yeah i don't know what that is well look that's why i keep talking about i can't stop talking about this guy's fruit i got a flight next week and i was like

if you if you if it's today if you book at that time you get back for I'm going to miss the fruit window. You could have missed the fruit. Hey, look. You know, your priorities change as you get older. This guy's fucking fruit is off the chart. Never had anything like it. I'm going to eat some as soon as they get done with this today.

That's going to be my pre-workout. I don't even know what it is. I was like, I'll just sample and be like, what? I'm like, you know what? I'm like, you know what? The notepad be like, I was guessing this was actually the cherry hybrid. Is that right? Is that, no?

Okay. Sometimes I'll be like, hey, do you still have that other one from Latin? me like no man he's like that's like a 10 day window all right uh last one here about to propose then huge red flag hey guys especially war gone i dm'd him the other day not a nude it's just uh didn't miss you you have his number yeah that's strange it is strange that's fucking weird man we're out of group chat did he block you what didn't Didn't go through? Oh.

Did he say, did he reply to you? Yeah. He gave an earnest, but he's like, oh, man. That makes me feel really good. Yeah, it was a bunch of sentences, but I mean, it's a DM, so I don't want to share that because I think he has approval ahead of time. 6-1-205, 27 years old. Haven't maxed a while, but usually throw up 225, five reps. Everybody's checking in right around 6-1.

Good 225 numbers, too. Can also do a non-embarrassing pyramid. I'm not a basketball guy. a runner, but I did play junior hockey before going to college. Again, junior hockey's, you know, that's the gateway to professional hockey. Technically. Right. I mean, yeah.

What pyramid is this, is this, is this like, I'm thinking pyramid like a weird thing you do like as a stretch or is that a hockey term that I don't know? I thought it just many, they had a couple buddies and they just do pyramids. I was like, is that really, okay? No. All right. Am I wrong to think it's that upside down thing where it's not necessarily like a headstand or handstand,

but it's some sort of contortion, right? The elbow thing? Yeah. Yeah. I don't know what that's called. Okay. Do you look that up, sir, really? Yeah.

All right, thanks, man. I have a dilemma that I want life advice for. I'm just thinking like, boy, should we throw together a pyramid right now? You thinking what I'm thinking? that would be great to do if you were like the odd man out of a bachelor party because like a new thing that we're doing at golf i think i said this before but it's like if you're paired up oh yeah we did already do this before because it's ballsy to do if you're the single with three other people but if it's two and then it's two people you don't know and then you and your buddy are in the car and you're laughing and you just

we've already talked about this but it was like just go up to the strangers after like three holes like where are we on tips like you guys if i see something i don't like you guys open the tips It's funny. I mean, it's just, right, like totally piss them off. I think if you're the odd guy out in the bachelor, right? You're the brother-in-law that got invited with the eight friends that have all been kind of going like, what is the vibe? Is you going to throw it off? Like, is this just a little bit too much NACL into the beaker? And you just go, hey, like, first night at the hotel, you've downed a couple so things are sort of mellow, but you ramp it up and be like, hey, you know, it'd be sick. It's just let's throw together a pyramid right now in this room, set the timer. A couple of days, yeah. Yeah, I see a couple strong middle layers in here. You guys are actually the key to the pyramid. Yeah. If anybody does that, get back to us. Let us know how it goes.

All right. Sir Rudy, do you have a definition? I think it's just called an elbow stand. So probably should have learned that one on top of our heads. But yeah. Okay. How to do an elbow stand.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're trying to do one. I'm going to read the next few lines. All right. You've got space now in the back there. I do.

I got a lot of space. I have a dilemma that I want life advice for. Currently living with my girlfriend of two years in a large Midwestern city. Everything is great between a shared interest, hobbies, physical attraction, chemistry in every way. We've been living together for about six months and we've openly talked about getting married. So

she won't be surprised when I pop the question, which is tentatively scheduled to happen right before Thanksgiving this year. Ring has not been purchased as of yet. Both have professional jobs. You don't have to give us the jobs, but they're good jobs. When things were getting serious, the two of us, between the two of us, we were deciding whether or not to moving together. We had a few of the

sit down, quote, tell me about anything in your past that I should know, end quote talk. What? What does that? Were you moved in together? Who the fuck does that? Hey, but things are going well. Does that do you, does anyone want to want to ruin this real quick before we take the next step? Throw a couple grenades in here before we make it.

What an idiot. This isn't normal, right? No, this is not normal. Yeah. It just is like, do I actually not trust you? And I don't know. To give me some information. Sounds like her friend or something was like, you know what you should do?

And she just didn't not take the advice. Like, I don't know how you'd arrive at this for your own life. Like, I just don't know why you'd want it. You know what's funny? It's like, well, yeah, I'm glad you ask because I've got a list of things I need to get off my chest. I can't. Are you familiar with the difference between murder and manslaughter? A lot of its intentions.

We both respect our privacy about the past didn't need extreme details about each other, but we both wanted to share enough so that if something gets brought up about our past in front of friends and family, the other one isn't embarrassed. What in God's name? Just for example.

She told her that she probably know that I got a DUI when I was 23, things like that. Yeah, I mean, look, there's been times. What an awesome one to have and be like, that's it. That's all I have. Like, that's like a great, that's like, it's hard enough to be like, I don't have to tell her anything else. That's a good one. Lucky you. Obviously, you know what I mean. I mean, again, it's a level of maturity that you'll have to have. If you feel like you need to

have this, it's just like I had a crazy like orgy summer. It just was my thing. But it's out of my system. I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you. Like, you can totally be in love, but you'll want to have her be the mother of your children. But there's just no way you're going to look at it the same way. And so it's probably better just not to get any confirmation. I mean, instead of like something that is actually like derailing, like the DUI thing makes a lot of sense. I mean, unfortunately for me, if I meet somebody new,

I have to explain a little trip to Wyoming with basically everybody. And some people understand and some people think it's, you know, Like, especially if it's somebody who's divorced who has kids, you know. So it's come up a couple times. It sucks. But whatever, I understand. You know what's crazy, though, about that is, like, all those red flags, right? Like, you could be perfectly happy with someone for two years and not know something that, like, hey, yeah, you got a DUI in the past or like something happened or whatever.

And that would be a non-starter from day one for a lot of people. Like, your relationship wouldn't even get a chance if some of these people knew from day one. So, like, I always said, like, you know, I don't really particularly care about knowing a lot of the stuff or anything that happened with my wife free me knowing her. Like, I don't, not that I don't trust her or whatever, but it's like what's probably for the best, dude? What good is that going to do any of us? Like, for me to, I always say multiple times my wife. Like, if we met in college, you wouldn't have liked me. Like, we wouldn't be together right now.

So you know, this is probably great. The lost tapes of bullshit of my life. You don't need that. Yeah, I mean, I, I, I wouldn't do this now at my age. Imagine me at like 53. You're like, okay, which decade do you want to start with? So we feel like we know each other well enough to get married. I won't tell the whole story because it's too long, but out of nowhere, I found out that much of her senior year await.

So she told me some of the other things about herself, definitely not a complete open book, as I don't really care what she did with guys in her past. You feel similar about me and girls in the past. Okay, all right. So that makes a little bit more sense. All right. All right. All right.

you're fine then. But, right, it's on. But I found out that much of her senior year in college, in college, and a little bit after she graduated, she worked as a stripper. She never once mentioned this me ever. I brought it up to her and asked why she didn't tell me. And she said, it was just a phase. I needed some money and I don't really like thinking about it. My obvious follow-up was, is there anything else like this? And she said, no. Now, I don't care at all that she worked as a stripper when she was 22 and wouldn't have cared if she had told me. My question for you guys is, the fact that she kept this from me a big enough red flag to rethink the whole engagement, marriage, et cetera.

Now, am I going to be thinking about other red flags on my horizon? Should I let it go and consider the fact that I'm marrying a girl that was hot enough, hot enough to be a stripper a few years ago, which is kind of cool, parentheses, which, by the way, if she would told me before, I found out, that's how I would have felt. Thanks, you guys are awesome. So really, this isn't about for our guy here. This isn't something that she did It's just the fact that she didn't tell him

And now he's worried about it So go ahead I think only fans made strippers cool again I don't know if strippers were ever uncool But I think it's certainly like It's like analog you know It's kind of cool But I think it's different

Like it's different when you It's different if you tell somebody That you're an only fans model Versus if you tell somebody you're a stripper I think there is a difference there Yeah I think people have more respect for the stripper well i just think the ties have changed you think so i thought the ties have changed i mean strippers aren't really dm in anybody or anything like that they're just sort of like up there picking stuff off the ground

there's like a a a businesswoman aspect of the only fans thing that i think garners more respect i could be wrong on this um yeah maybe but i i have a question of just the whole who initiated this again who initiated the she asked to come clean so maybe maybe she maybe she did just wanted to tell you and didn't know how to tell you and just wanted a vessel to tell you this before because it was eating her up you know on three we both say one thing right right one two three huh I think strippers are cooler than only fans people I'm not saying I'm not saying this isn't I'm not dissing either one I just think the perception of an only fans model is probably higher would would there be a red flag like would you have a scenario here where

it's not about what she did and he is pointing this out it's that she didn't tell him he finds out he's like hey i mean they kind of like it's a point in my life i don't feel like talking about like okay but isn't that what we're we're doing here yeah right how long ago was it was it like you slept up my sister though look it's a time of my life that i no no no that's not who i am that's betrayal though bro that's betrayal he's fine with the stripping part he even says it's kind of cool that she was hot enough to be a stripper that he's marrying her the whole

time uh I would guess this couple's a little bit younger you know and I'm just telling you man you meet somebody that you really connect with and it seems like everything is really good here like you can understand where she's coming from it's probably like if you're thinking long term and being the mother of your kids it's probably cooler

that she doesn't think it's cool, right? That she doesn't think it's cool. And she's thinking, hey, this thing is really stupid or regret doing it. I don't like talking about it. Yeah, it'd be great if everybody just came clean on every single thing. But this might be one of those things you have to think about the differences in genders. And you have to think that it's probably something she just is like, I don't want to talk about this. I had a buddy that manages strip joint and he didn't want to talk about it.

And he had his clothes on the whole time. also dude if you if you do pop the question you guys are going to win whichever thanksgiving you go to that's like a huge thanksgiving uh if you're like newly engaged at thanksgiving that's sick it's gonna be great that's true yeah is that a thing talk to you yeah just the news you know the family gets excited yeah it's a big it's a big one might get like a great aunt and uncle actually make a trip and you're like oh they're they're going to thanksgiving they just got married or they just got engaged like uh it's like dude you totally won thanksgiving yeah strippers usually don't like anybody and she likes you so that's you know that's a win whenever you can

actually pull that off i went on a couple dates with a stripper and her big thing i was fine with it uh was very young and she shout out to miss shelby actually yeah active i don't think she's active now that was retired now probably but that would be a Cal Ripkin type run on the on the TB 12 plan yeah exactly so it was when I managed that dump and the owner was like hey I'm letting a bunch of my buddies have like a bachelor party thing and I was like during the day I was like we got like Tom Glavin Kevin Brown on you know like come on man and he's like dude you have to open up so like I was pissy and I opened it up cut up some fruit and I had seen her around but I'd never seen her strong

strip. And so then she stripped, but I didn't turn off the TV and I watched baseball. And of course, like the muscle guy for the strippers is always the worst. Well, let me, let me not shame the entire industry. It felt like during the run in Vermont, the particular muscle guy for all the different stripper companies for different stuff that would happen. Again, when you bartended, but you, you were just, it would happen more often. You'd be around a little bit more often. And those guys be like, all right, boy, like, we're going to, we're going to get those singles out. And like, let's get this, let's get this TV off. chief you know

we gotta have the attention on the lady and I was like dude it's not even he comes over he's like can you turn off the game he's like focus needs to be on the woman I was like no

I'm not even watching you know and I can think so you like all right this is where we start asking if Priscilla can smell colors and he's like there's 112 knobs on that time but I would say at that point

my life, like, I probably took booze for granted. It's like, you don't think I could see a boob in eight hours? Like, I just, like, it was a good, it was a good run. Yeah. You know, I took it, I took it for granted. I was like, dude, I just ply myself, a couple of beam of coax. Like, I'll see a, see a boob tonight. Come on.

Kuh. Killing it. So I didn't really care, right? And I wanted to watch the baseball game. And I was like, the TV isn't even, those guys are over there. I'm in the over here. You can't even see it. He's like, you're really not turning off.

And I was like, no, I'm not. Because I was already pissed that I had to be there. So then randomly, like later on, a couple of dates. And she's like, wait, have you ever seen me strip? And I was like, actually, I was like, is this going to be a deal breaker? She's like, yeah, kind of. She's like, you never said anything. I was like, so when I first met you, I was supposed to say, hey, seen you work.

Huge fan. Yeah, actually. Like, you think that was going to be normal? She's like, well, I just feel like you're, you've known this whole time. I was like, of course I knew this whole time. I didn't fucking care I thought it was awesome Like two of my buddies were like no way

I was like way And she was like Okay so you saw me And I was like I didn't really pay attention And that actually made it way worse So it was like If you've seen me I can't go on dates with you And I was like all right no problem

I actually inverted my eyes I was like I didn't watch in particular that day She's like so then so I couldn't win Yeah Because if I had just been a customer or it's like you're done. It's like, but I was actually there and then you've watched baseball.

You're a stripper adjacent. It doesn't work. Yeah. Damn. Nice guys finished last, man. Who knows what would have happened. Yeah, listen. Who knows?

You get a long rate. But, you know, ships in the night. All right, that'll do it for the show. Thanks to Surrey. Thanks to Kyle. Thanks to Jonathan Frius. Monday will be the last.

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