The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Purdy Struggles, the Real Bengals, and Cousins’s Future With Mike Sando, Plus Love for the Oregon Ducks

Episode Date: October 30, 2023

Russillo opens by recapping Week 8 of the NFL season and giving his biggest winners and losers (0:45). Then he breaks down his top 12 in CFB (14:52). He is then joined by The Athletic’s Mike Sando to talk about the NFL trade deadline, Kirk Cousins, Brock Purdy, and Bill Belichick (24:48). Finally, the guys close it out with some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (58:33). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Mike Sando Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, and Stefan Anderson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

on today's podcast i want to run through the headlines including jacksonville cincinnati's big win also that ugly jets giants game and a few numbers with burrows big day that finally looked like joe burrow i'll give you my college football top 12. Also, some serious love for the Oregon Ducks. Domination against Utah. And Mike Sandoe will go over some of the quarterbacks. And also, one thing with Kirk Cousins that we should pay attention to, and clearly some of the contract stuff, which could be new for front offices. Life advice and the Alliance.

Getting a dub. This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats. Winter is here, so be prepared and get almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. What do I mean by almost anything? Well, you can't get a ski slope, but dish soap, definitely doable. Sunshine, that's no. A bottle of wine, yeah. And a snow day, again, no.

But blueberry muffins with the delicious crumb topping, total yes. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol and select markets. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details. We start recapping week eight with the headlines. And my headline's a little different to start. And that's Jacksonville. Jacksonville's 13 and four in their last 17 games. They beat Pittsburgh And that's Jacksonville. Jacksonville's 13-4 in their last 17 games.

They beat Pittsburgh at Pittsburgh. Tough weather. Weird game going in. The line was only 2.5, so you're kind of like, wait, do people think Pittsburgh is good here? Is it a weather-related thing? Is Jacksonville not really that good? Well, they wake up today to the three seed in the AFC after the win. The how good are they part of it, because I was watching them.

I go, look, this is different. It's different because Trevor Lawrence on 3rd and 7th and seven, third and eight, I think has a chance. I think he has a chance to actually move the sticks a little bit. And that to me is the most important thing about that position, whether it's college or it's pro or thinking any of these teams that actually have a chance of winning their conference. I feel like Jacksonville has some stuff, at least when you look at the resume of how they've been winning and how we think of the AFC, that they need to be taken seriously. But there's a lot of stats that don't necessarily point to anything all that special. Their defense, as far as yards allowed per play, is middle of the pack in the NFL. The opposing points per game is 10th now, which is good, in 23.

It was 12th and 22. The offensive yards per play, they've been middle of the pack for a while. On third down conversions, my whole third and long thing, they're actually not that good. So that might just be the idea of Lawrence as opposed to the stats because they're not really converting third downs at a great rate. They're 22nd in the NFL, but they do get off the field. And this may be the accumulation of talent, especially Josh Allen at the edge and Walker had a better game yesterday, but they are getting off the field or they're getting the other team off the field. They're fifth and opposing a third down conversion rate. Lawrence is definitely

a tick better. Some of the numbers are last year better. But then you're like, okay, well, how come they have these middling stats in some of these categories, but they have this record? Well, you immediately have to look at turnover margin. They were sixth coming in, but facing a Pittsburgh team that was actually third. So what does a win against Pittsburgh, who was four and two at that point mean? There's two ways of looking at it. If you watch the entire game, which this is one that I had on for the entire time, Jacksonville was clearly the better football team. They also kept Pittsburgh in this game throughout. I would say it felt like, wait, like here's, here's like, I'm not going to say like up until 15 minutes, you didn't know. Cause you still felt like you knew,

but here's a perfect example. Um, it's seven to three going into the end of the half. And when Pittsburgh had the ball, I'm like, wait, is Pittsburgh going to score a touchdown here? It's 7-3 going into the end of the half. And when Pittsburgh had the ball, I'm like, wait, is Pittsburgh going to score a touchdown here and then be up? Actually, it was 9-3. Are they going to be up 10-9? And then you're going to be sitting there after 30 minutes going, how the hell is Pittsburgh leading this football game? But that's the NFL. It wouldn't have been a classic NFL situation.

Pittsburgh got screwed on the offsides, penalty call on the field goal attempt. Pickett also got blasted on that last series there at the very end. Two different quarterbacks going out late in games, or not late in this situation, but late in the first half. Cousins, obviously, with Minnesota a little bit later on, which we'll get to. But as I'm watching it all play out, I'm going, wait, this is a game? And part of it's the turnover for Jacksonville. they had a fumble uh they had a terrible lawrence red zone interception it was on first down i don't know what he was looking for if he was trying to throw the football away then they fumbled it on their first possession of the second half so jacksonville who's usually pretty good in turnover margin at least this season thinking okay they're just they're keeping pitt keeping Pittsburgh in this the entire time. But for the most part, I'm left looking at Jacksonville with this record of 13-4 over the last 17,

making the playoffs last year, having the big comeback, and feeling like they've been attention-drafting behind Kansas City, behind Buffalo, behind Cincinnati, and even Baltimore as far as who we're really paying attention to, who we think can come out of this. Now, Cincinnati, we'll get to here in a second. Buffalo's got their own issues. Kansas City, weird loss. Baltimore's defense, I want to mention that a little bit later. But halfway through the season, Jacksonville definitely has to be seen as a real threat.

Cincinnati, finally, 4-3 now, 9th seed in the AFC. They're actually behind the Jets as of today, but they've won four of their last five. The Titans' loss was so bad in this stretch that it's like, wait, is Cincinnati actually going to be good? Because against Tennessee, they lost 27-3. They were out gained 400 to 211 yards, and they were even in turnover. So it wasn't some crazy turnover game where they feel like they just gave this one away. But this is the best Burrow has been all season long since his win at San Francisco. I mean, by far. Chase even said, quote, welcome back, Burrow has been all season long since his win at San Francisco. I mean, by far.

Chase even said, quote, welcome back, Burrow, welcome back. Logan Wilson, linebacker, Wyoming, 10 interceptions since 2020. It's four more than any other linebacker in the NFL. And Burrow, as far as the health stuff, I'm like you. You probably don't know what to really believe.

Everybody says the right things. Then sometimes you're like like is he playing bad or is it really the calf well they were adamant that he was actually this was the healthiest he had been all season long and it definitely looked like it so on the other side you have this purdy issue where like wait what happened here because anytime somebody you know as i've mentioned far too often when i love talking about quarterbacks being like wait is he just this smart dude who doesn't make any mistakes and he's perfect for shanahan or are we starting to see the the general shanahan decline of some of these younger quarterbacks that come along you're like man nick mullins cj beth likeard, he's finding a way with these guys.

I mean, Garoppolo was there a lot longer, so it was a little bit different, but do people start to figure out, is this why it's too bad Shanahan can't ever get one of these high ceiling guys, because eventually people start to figure them out a little bit? I don't know the answer to that. Booger McFarlane, who we love, he had a really interesting tweet. I thought he talked about the bare front. It's a defense. Buddy Ryan apparently originated this thing a long time ago. The bare front is where you have your tackle, your defensive tackles, and you have your two other down defensive linemen directly over the center and then both guards. And you're essentially playing with five guys down on the line of scrimmage, which the downside could be if you don't win at the line of scrimmage, you don't have as many people to rally to the tackle. But Booger said, hey, bare front by Philly against Miami, bare front by Cincinnati's defense against San Francisco.

Again, those guys would understand it a lot better than I would. And the picks late, you're like, wait, the Purdy pick against Minnesota where he threw it, that's kind of his throw. That 15 to 20 yards down the field, middle of the field, throw it in the pocket. Kibble's coming underneath. Debo's coming underneath. Granted, they don't have Debo. They don't have Trent. So maybe that's part of his throw, that 15 to 20 yards down the field, middle of the field, throw it in the pocket. Kibble's coming underneath. Debo's coming underneath. Granted, they don't have Debo. They don't have Trent, so maybe that's part of it. But it's definitely concerning if you're the Niners,

but it's great for Cincinnati to finally look like Cincinnati. Last headline is protected QBs. Yesterday we saw Brett Rippin in. Apparently Stafford hurt his thumb hitting a helmet, but then aggravated again after they ran him in for a touchdown catch. Jaron Hall in. It sucks for Kirk Cousins. He was so good. Had I done the show differently, I guess, depending on how we were doing some of the content. His game against San Francisco, that's one of the best Kirk Cousins games I've ever seen. Not just the numbers, his toughness.

I know I'm not the biggest Kirk Cousins fan, but he was incredible in that game. And now he's just cost himself a ton of money with this Achilles injury. Taylor Heineke got in for Desmond Ritter. He's better than Ritter is, but Ritter's going to get the chance because he's the recent draft pick and they put the resources into it. He was checked for concussion, but apparently cleared. Then afterwards, Arthur Smith was a little weird about, no, he wasn't pulled because of his play. Well, he probably was pulled because of his play.

Will Levis, he originally was going to get the start for the Titans anyways, because Tannehill was hurt. He was terrific. He lit it up. So maybe he shouldn't be on this list. Minshew's already the starter because Anthony Richardson's hurt. Mitch Trubisky got in there, who loved being down 20-10 to Jacksonville, just throwing it to five yards beyond the line of scrimmage. Eventually, you look at some of the scores, and this happened with Purdy a little bit yesterday too, where you're like, do you guys know the score? I'll get to Mahomes in a second why he's different than everybody else for a million different reasons PJ Walker's in because Deshaun's hurt I thought we were going to get Darnold and then we get Tommy DeVito who was

in for Tyrod Taylor is in for Daniel Jones the point is this is I know everybody hates some of these calls that'll happen with quarterbacks and some of them are egregious they're terrible there's a point. The quarterback safety thing is actually the right thing. So even every now and then, your seven hours on Sunday or 10 hours at the late game, how annoyed you're going to get about some flag that shouldn't have happened, well, you should actually be rooting for those flags because if we get Tommy DeVito, Zach Wilson all the time,

you're not going to be as into it. Speaking of awards time, the Thanksgiving award goes to the Jets and Giants. And I was thankful that was not a Sunday night football game because normally it would be. This was incredible. Well, it was terrible, but the numbers from it are just more points, excuse me, more punts than points, 25 to 23. Red Zone said there was 15 combined punts in this game between the Giants and Jets, which was the most combined punts in the first half of the game since they started tracking it 23 years ago. And the Giants had negative nine net passing yards on the game. So nothing necessarily against DeVito and Wilson, but if we didn't prioritize protecting quarterbacks, if we didn't

have the bad flag every now and then, if this was the matchup you were getting by week 10 in almost half the games, the league would not be as strong. The best win, it's Denver at home against Kansas City. Granted, I could have picked Cincinnati against San Francisco, but I already used that one. This is a great example of a couple of different things. Now, granted, Mahomes, flu game for him. Apparently, he was sick. Felt better leading up to the game. Mahomes, you still expect to do everything, so maybe that was part of the problem. The five turnovers are probably the bigger issue. Now, the second interception from Mahomes, you look back, if somebody will run through a game log and start

saying, ah, he's getting a little loose with the football. He's making bad decisions. That's okay. At times, I think we've seen a few of those things with him. But the second interception was fourth and 22. And the difference is Mahomes actually went for it. And he'll throw that pick. Like, he doesn't care. He's not worried about his QBR.

He's going to make that throw. There's other guys that I swear half the league would check it down on fourth and 22 with no chance. The fact that Kansas City even had a chance in this one when it was minus four in the giveaway takeaway, but five total turnovers is a lot like the Philadelphia Jets game. We were like, how is this a game? Well, most teams, if they were minus four or minus five in turnovers, have no shot to even compete in a game, and yet they still could. Denver had five possessions inside Kansas City territory. Wilson, no picks now in four of his last five games. He had the two against Kansas City just a few weeks ago

where he threw for only 95 yards. Everybody watched that game. I'm not telling you Wilson's necessarily back, but he was good enough, and I don't want to do a Zach Wilson wins. Hey, he's been okay. No, he hasn't. You scored 13 points. I really like some Bryce Young throws yesterday, and I love for him as the number one pick, you know, winning head to head

against CJ, who's been the better quarterback as a rookie so far, there were some nice Bryce Young moments, but you know, he's a rookie. The standard's a little different, but sometimes these guys will score like 15, 17 points in a game or like, you know, he made the right plays, but dude, they're just not scoring enough. What are we talking about? So for Kansas City losing this one, it could also be the worst loss. So I'm just going to do that. See above because Detroit, excuse me,

Denver was 0-12 against Mahomes and they finally got one. Numbers you should know. Let's go back to Burrow. So Burrow's throws 10 plus air yards so far this season. Week one through four, 29% completion rate. Weeks five through eight, 61% completion rate. This is who he is. I know there were a lot of jokes about the contract. I know it really looked ugly. Yes, we've referenced the Tennessee

game, but I feel like he is back and that's the version of him that we saw yesterday that you should expect to see because that's kind of who he's been since he's come in the league the yards on those throws 191 to 321 in the same amount of games and touchdown interception ratio weeks one through four on 10 plus air yard throws zero touchdowns two picks four touchdowns two picks the last number you should know here, Baltimore. Now, Arizona was down. They beat Arizona, but they were down 31-15. So we could look back in a couple weeks going, man, that was kind of a close game because it ended up being 31-24. It kind of wasn't. Arizona, I think, scored what, 17 points in the fourth quarter. Arizona, for whatever reason,

is far more competitive than we would have thought despite the 1-7 record. They play hard, and it might be the worst talent on any roster in the NFL. So, you know, pew, Jonathan Gannon finding a way to get this group to compete here. But the big thing is that Baltimore's 6-2, and here's the number. Not that they're number two in defensive yards allowed per game, still behind number one Cleveland, but they're number one in opponents points per game in the NFL, just over 15 points per game is what they're giving up. They did throw up a weird graphic comparing them to the Superbowl defense of 20 plus years ago. I do not like that. I don't like anything ever being compared to that Ravens defense. Granted, I was too young to really

appreciate the bears other than I thought the Super Bowl shuffle video was really cool and the sunglasses and everything, but I don't want anything to be compared to that Ravens defense because I think for a single season, I know I've never seen anything like it. However, with this group, and I don't know that you'd look at Baltimore's front. I know Roquan's been terrific, but I don't know that you'd look at their front and say, that's how you'd want to build your defensive roster. But this coaching staff is incredible. McDonald to DC, and it's another team kind of thrown into this mix with Baltimore, Jacksonville, Cincinnati being confusing, Buffalo feeling like they have their issues. The Kansas City loss, I'm not going to put a ton on that. And Miami

feeling like, okay, they killed the bad teams again, beating up on New England, but how are they against the good teams? It feels like the top of the AFC is loaded in a different way than we expected. College football top 12 and the playoff committee will let us know their top four here.

And that's kind of where I'm going to end this whole thing. All right, let's run through it. I got Georgia number one, 25 straight wins, dominant against Florida, no Brock Bowers. But Carson Beck's been really good for them. We know the defense was going to fall off a little bit. But this is why I flipped Georgia and Michigan here because Florida would be the best team Michigan has faced. I don't even think Florida is nothing special. That's why I flipped them. Number three, Ohio State. That was a tough win against Wisconsin.

Wisconsin was up for it. They weren't perfect. They're on a backup quarterback. They're down to one running back. Their defense is pretty good, but Ohio State's defense is just another level. Now, I know statistically they're tied with Penn State, allowing 3.8 yards per play on defense. They're technically slightly behind Penn State on that one, but when you look at the opposing schedule and then what they just did to Penn State, this Ohio State defense is incredible.

I don't even think McCord is that good. I just don't. I don't know if the light is going to go on for him at some point. They still can't really run the football as well as you would think with Ohio State. But Wisconsin, despite being competitive, still never really felt like they had much of a chance in this one. Trayvon Henderson being back clearly will help the running attack. He helped them close this one out. And at this point, I do not have a Heisman vote, but if I did, I'd give it to Marvin Harrison. If they didn't have him and this was their offense, there's probably two, maybe not two, but I still look at Ohio State as having a chance in the playoff and it's because of that defense, but I just don't see how McCord matches up to

some of the other quarterbacks we've talked about. All right, Florida State four. They're going to close with Pitt, Miami, North Alabama, and then at Florida. With the ACC kind of falling apart a little bit, maybe that's more because of the UNC stuff we lost again. Louisville is probably somebody you could take seriously. Clemson, you don't at this point. They're most likely going to be the cleanest team going through the final stretch of the college football season. So I'd say they're the easiest of the teams. And why four doesn't really matter because playoff-wise, they might have the strongest case of any of the teams. Number five, I have Washington. Okay.

This is weird, the Washington-Oregon thing here, because I'm going to spend some time with Oregon. But with Washington, they beat Oregon. I made excuses against Arizona, but shout out to the Wildcats, Jed Fish, Fafita, that kid's awesome. They're much better than we thought at the beginning of the year. They beat Oregon. 15-7 against Arizona State. I made excuses.

I talked about all the turnovers. Then against Stanford, that was a game. They won at 42-33. Stanford had the ball down 35-33. Stanford scored six points against Oregon, seven points against UCLA, and 33 against Washington. And these games just happen. So I'm not the biggest transitive property guy. Every week is kind of different, but that's two performances against other defenses. And Washington wasn't even close to them. So I can't put Oregon ahead of Washington, even though I think Oregon's the better football team. But the Huskies got them.

So Oregon coming in at six. I think they're one of the four best teams in college football. The playoff committee can't do it. I'll get to this in a bit here. They're going to close with Cal, USC, Arizona State, and Oregon State. Washington's going to close at USC, Utah, and Washington State. Oregon State is in there as well. That's three teams that are ranked now, four teams that were ranked. Number seven, Texas. Ewers is going to be out two to four weeks with a sprained shoulder. I like Malik Murphy. I know he got off to a tough start.

Big kid. Everybody really likes him. We'll see what happens there. Eight is Bama. The defense is 10th in opposing yards per play. That's actually number two in the SEC behind A&M. We're going to guess that one. Burton's a real stud at receiver now, and they're minus four and a half at home against LSU this week. Number nine's Ole Miss. Number 10, Notre Dame. Number 11, LSU. Jaden Daniels leads college football in quarterback rating at 204, but their defense is 106th in yards per play allowed. That is not good.

per play allowed. That is not good. And I'm going to go with Oklahoma 12 after the loss to Kansas. Kansas is actually competitive. Maybe I feel like that's being a little too harsh. The voters still have Penn State. They moved Penn State up. I imagine they had to run errands during the Indiana game. I thought about maybe going Louisville 12, but I'll stick with Oklahoma. Let's get to the playoff thing here with the top four teams. As I said with Oregon, if you're saying, because at the inception of the entire playoff, there was one mission statement, and that was to pick the four best teams. I remind everybody this time of year, and I'll remind you probably too much, but the committee is vague on purpose. The committee doesn't tell you that this is

definitively worth more. They'll say it's part of it, right? Conference championships, part of it, head-to-head, part of it. They'll never say this is more important to us because when they do that and then they don't follow the rule that they shared with us, then we're going to rip them even more. So they are vague by design and I actually think it's kind of brilliant. So whenever you're thinking about just, hey, well, who are the four best teams, you still can't do it right now if you're the playoff committee. I don't think you can put Oregon ahead of Washington, even though I think most of us would all go that way. And I know that's going to be super annoying for Huskies fans, but I'm sorry. And there's definitely this

Oregon momentum with their win against Utah. They beat Utah in a place where they don't lose. They don't lose there. And if you go and remove, I think the COVID year, they hadn't lost there in years. So I love that Oregon's getting a ton of love. And when I gave out that pick, I'm going, I'm really going to bet against Utah because Utah's like everything I love about college football, toughness. You may not have the same amount of talent, but there's going to be a toughness that you're signing up for for 60 minutes that not every team is going to be into. And Oregon dominated Utah on both lines of scrimmage. That doesn't happen. Bo Nix, I wasn't always sure. I know last year's numbers were really strong, but there was always a trust

thing with him that I wasn't always on board with. Well, this year, the numbers are absurd. He's completing 78% of his passes, nine yards per attempt, 21 touchdowns, only one pick. He's fourth in QB rating behind Jay Dan is who we mentioned, JJ McCarthy, Michigan, and then my guy, Michael Pratt at Tulane. Nix is running less, which I actually like to see. That means that's how comfortable you are dissecting everything. The Troy Franklin touchdown to put him up 21-3 from three yards out. What he dealt with, the chaos on that throw in a very quick amount of time, get that ball out. There were some audibles that he made that I'm like,

wait. He really seems, and I probably feel a little late to this because other guys are like, have you seen him play this year? But yeah, there was some real first impression, second impression stuff with Knicks for a long time where I'm like, look, don't just hit me over the head with numbers. I need to see some of the little stuff. And we saw all of that. Now, I know non-SEC fans hate this, but when I look at the defense,

I see real SEC guys on Oregon's defense. I granted some of them a couple transfers. And look, Michigan has the guys in the trenches. Ohio State has those. Number one, Williams for Ohio State, the D tackle, was a menace against Wisconsin. Texas has some of those guys. There's other teams that have some of those guys that are going to be at that defensive front position that are going to get drafted into the NFL. But when I look at what Oregon throws at other teams, number three, Dorless, the 50-year senior, he was a menace. Jordan Burch came over from South Carolina.

Blake Purchase is a freshman. Every time he seems to be on the screen, he pops. Number five, the corner, the Bama transfer, Jackson. Evan Williams, who came over from Fresno, the safety, is actually

leading them in tackles. They have as much physical talent on that side of the football outside of, again, I know the SEC thing, but that's kind of what's been happening here for a decade and a half other than Ohio State having teams and Clemson certainly as well. Clemson's loaded. So I'm not saying those players only play in that part of the country, but Oregon checks that box. Whatever you think of Oregon, if you haven't watched them play, if you're like, oh, they're just scoring a ton of points. No, man, it's a little different. And Joel Klatt was giving them all sorts of love. It just felt like everybody in the country watched that game, you're like, that was a massive statement for a team that still probably has to be outside of the top four in the committee rankings, especially with a head-to-head against Washington. One last thing. All right, let's talk Big Ten West. you real quick, making sure we have this locked in. In the Big Ten West, we have Minnesota, Iowa,

Wisconsin, Nebraska, all at 3-2. Plucky Wildcats turning things around at Northwestern, 4-4 on the season. Many did not expect that. Let's go yards per game offensively for four teams tied for first place right now in the Big Ten West. Nebraska's offensively for four teams tied for first place right now in the Big Ten West. Nebraska is 102. Minnesota is 111. Iowa is 132. Iowa's the second worst offense in college football. You want to talk air raid, run and shoot?

How about Wisconsin? 67. They are the spitfire, despite the loss of that group offensively. Tied for first in the Big Ten West. Read his pick six column every Monday morning, Sunday night, depending on where you're at on The Athletic. It's Mike Sando, so good to visit with him. Okay, let's start with the trade deadline, which you put a huge pin in, uh,

in this piece here, the trade deadline. We love talking about it. We're just, um, you know, not that far from this thing actually happening, but historically, although it is improving, like some of the numbers were crazy, how limited the transactions actually were, but what is this market? Like what's the? What's this event seen like from the inside? Yeah, I think it's really, I mean, it captures all of us, right? I think the fun part of sports is wondering what might happen, right? Like, oh, what could happen in the draft? What could happen this season?

We love the offseason. So I think there's a huge distinction to be made, though, with trade deadline for the most part between the out of season trades okay think of howie roseman getting a you know going and getting you know aj brown right a huge type of addition to their team that really moves the needle that is not usually what happens in the season and if you look i broke out howie's october moves since like, you know, the biggest impact needle mover was like JGI. Right. But we don't really think of that because we think of how he's always in the

middle of everything. Oh my gosh, you got Kevin Bayard and, and maybe Bayard will be somebody who moves the needle, but that's usually not what happens in the season. It's hard to assimilate someone from a different program into your team, into your locker room, into your offense.

The talk about Kirk Cousins maybe could have been gone here. Bull. They're not bringing in Cousins to learn a new playbook in week eight when Aaron Rodgers is coming back next year for the Jets, for example. There's just way more complications in the moves. The number of moves has gone up. But if you really look at them,'s a lot of like uh you know late pick swaps this player who's going to never start more than one game for us or doesn't even start any with a seventh round pick and we get an earlier seventh round pick back it's almost like laundering

of players so the numbers have gone up last two years we've had about 16 of these uh per year if you go back before that it was about six a year you go back before that, it was about six a year. You go back before that, it was about three a year, going back maybe 20 years. So there's more activity. Just don't mistake it for the really big ones. That being said, you can sometimes get a Von Miller on a good team, right? Somebody who comes in, he may not be a fixture for you for years to come. He may move the needle a little bit. I think Roquan Smith was a good one last year. The Ravens obviously had some issues. Lamar was hurt. They didn't really pay off in a playoff run, but you can get a good guy. It's just not where most of the really impactful trades are made. Yeah. If you look at the Roquan Smith one, that is one of the few, you know, I think obviously Von Miller is one that you go, okay, but it's just,

it doesn't really happen that much. But I was going through some of Baltimore's defensive numbers here. It's pretty significant. Granted, it's not just Roquan Smith, but there's been a significant bump for this team since the date of his acquisition. I felt for a while there, they were sort of back slipping in their overall defensive culture. You know, if you go back just over a year until they got him. And sure enough, I was kind of waiting for this. This was Roquan Smith's 17th game with the Ravens. Over that 17-game span, they're like number one in some of the main stats that I would look at. You know, defense, DPA per play, some other stats, points allowed by just the defense.

And I went back to 17 games before that. They were like bottom five, bottom six. So you have to acknowledge his impact on the defense. I think he did kind of do too. You know, until recently, or maybe even overall, the Bears haven't been as good on defense probably since he left either. Yeah, that's certainly. Those are always the transactions where I'm like, Bears haven't been as good on defense probably since he left either. Yeah, that's certainly.

Those are always the transactions where I'm like, okay, you don't want to pay him, but is it really worth the unknown of wondering if you're going to get another guy like that? It's not specific to the Bears. It's just the trade market in the NFL in general. There's a lot of times where it doesn't make any sense to me for the price going out for a player. We're like, no, he's good. And the hit rate on the picks. So go ahead. A problem you really want to have on your team is too many good players.

I just think they're really hard to replace. that are really hard to replace. So if you have one, the cost of not paying them sometimes can be greater than whatever savings. What are you going to do with that money? Look, I don't think anybody should go overpay for a non-premium position.

I'm not saying that, but why couldn't Roquan Smith be an important part of what you're doing defensively? You drafted him. He's successful. He just doesn't fit the new coach's scheme. I don't know.

It better be a pretty good scheme, right? Yeah. That's just always something when I look at the price, I go, wait, why is that all you're getting for somebody who's still this impactful, even if you don't think that they're necessarily perfect or whatever? So whatever. Because of the price. Look, the flip side of that is, is it smart to give up a relatively high pick for the right to pay a huge premium, a free agency price on somebody? That's not always a great way to do it, too.

You don't want to do too many of those. I just think as a team, when you have a good young player, it's hard to find them. So careful when you give them away right and the uncertainty of the guy that hasn't actually played on some days yeah you know but nobody ever thinks no front office is ever going hey you know it's funny though we're not great at drafting so we shouldn't trade for picks right yeah no one will ever say that that's ever had that job they're gonna go oh cool we got picks and i'll figure it out this time and you know last time i was just unlucky okay let's talk uh at least you brought him up here because he wasn't going to be traded that's kirk cousins sucks kill his injury

uh i was raving about him just in the beginning of the pod like how great i thought he was in that san francisco game i haven't always been the biggest fan we've gone over these reasons a bunch of different times what does this mean for him with an Achilles at his age and the market for him? Because, you know, look, nobody's hit it better timing it right financially for who he is as a quarterback. But now that luck's obviously turned. You know, within five minutes or 10 minutes of that injury, I just texted somebody saying, look at Kirk Cousins. I mean, he took that big body weight hit from Rashawn Gary. I think it was flagged.

And then like the next play, he's just standing in the pocket throwing a strike to hawkinson as his arm gets hit he's getting twisted down at that man i actually sent a text to somebody like uh look at the cousins toughness here you know and we're going back and forth yeah it's kind of underrated and then that happens so um i think he's been an interesting player the last year or so. When you think of the Netflix special on him, right? Or was it Netflix or was it Peyton Manning special? Wherever it was. I think that he has developed something with Minnesota,

despite the organization's sort of big picture, wanting to get out of his deal and all of that. I feel like he found a home in Minnesota. I feel like he has found a level of happiness that has eluded him throughout his career. Remember, it was a money play largely when he was a free agent. He could have got more from the Jets, but he got the first fully guaranteed or whatever three-year deal. he got the first, you know,

fully guaranteed or whatever three-year deal. And I just felt like they were going to, at the end of this year, like he was going to be their best option. And it felt like a good match to me. And so now it, to me, it just really opens the door for them to do what they sort of wanted to do anyway,

which I think was look at someone who might be cheaper, but I don't know what it means for him. Does he, I think he has to sort through like what does he want? Because one of the main reasons he wasn't going to be traded this year was he didn't want, he had a no trade clause.

He didn't want to be traded. I think he likes where he's at. And, you know, we saw the documentary. I mean, he's got some roots there. His family's there. I think that stuff's important to him. So, at his age, with this

injury, I don't know, I think there's a period of reassessment for him, in terms of what he wants to do. Would he want to stay at a different type of a contract and be part of the mix? Depends who they draft, or all that type of thing. Does he just, you know, does a need arise somewhere else that's just a great situation?

The injury's tough because it happened now, not week one, right? Rodgers could be back maybe for the start of next year. Wynn's cousin's coming back. What team is going to pay him a big deal to be their week one starter next year, right? And what is he going to be 30 is he 35 or 36 i mean i have way more questions than answers on cousins i think it's really uncertain he'll be 36 in august so yeah yeah 36 going into next year and the weird thing with minnesota too is it you know the way the season started you're going oh okay wait a minute would they move cousins

because they know that they're going to be fighting for a draft pick for one of these quarterbacks? Then whether it's the Bears win, the Niners game is terrific. The Packers game probably has more to do with Jordan Love than maybe anything yesterday. Then when you look at the rest of the schedule, it's not so tough even with Jaron hall you know like i guess you know the cousins thing is always funny uh with me is because you know as i've said i i

just felt like there was a ceiling there give Kellen Mond reps, remember? And I went, oh, wait, I go, that's telling me what I need to know. Because he's like, look, we're at a certain level here. It's why Washington was like, we actually don't want to pay you all of this because we know that there's kind of this built-in ceiling and that's not how we're going to spend the money in a weird way like i almost gave washington credit for being one of the few teams it's like you know we're just not paying the quarterback tax of we don't have one now granted it didn't work out for them it's worked out for cousins we've been over all this stuff but the problem is even at four and four when you look at the rest of the schedule look

they've got to try two more times the division game but there's some wins or there's some bad teams i should say so i don't even know that it's a lock that they're just going to be able to tank the rest of the way out. Not that an NFL team would tank the way in. Yeah, but this does give them license to, you know, they don't have to, this gives them license to lose some games. I'm not, they're going to try to do that, but you know, not that they have a lot of great options, right?

You're not going to suddenly acquire a savior and make a run this year. I feel like on the Cousins thing with the player with the ceiling, yeah, that's 28 of the quarterbacks, right? And his ceiling is – his floor is really high, and his ceiling is not bad. So the problem you get into is when you pay him the same as you pay Mahomes. That's the problem. I don't have any problem paying Kirk Cousins. I mean, he's a good quarterback.

I think we've all accepted that he's probably better than we thought. The quirkiness things was stuff that people liked and not liked about him. The ender current of that was always, he's not that tough. He's not a guy's guy. He's not one of the guys. He just seems a little off. I think that quirkiness has kind of become endearing almost with him. He's owned it.

All that stuff with wearing the chain on the plane and kind of poking fun at himself a little bit. The documentary showed his wife picking out these old man shirts for him every day. It was kind of endearing. wife picking out these old man shirts for him every day you know it was kind of endearing i just feel i feel like you can do so much worse than him that the only problem comes is when you mistake him for being something he's not with a huge over-the-top ungodly contract but i'd much better pay the 30 million dollar 30 you know 35 million dollar deal to him than to just about any of those other guys making that type of money like their car right you'd rather do cousins yeah yeah and look car i i think has been a really interesting guy especially when you look at your

tier history with him because there was that one year going in coming off a nice year was like okay he's going to take this bump i mean did he max out at like a top 10 guy at one point was there an eight or nine flirtation for car it was an upside driven thing yeah early on there was an upside driven thing because of because people could see the talent but i think people soured on him and other than this past week like even late into this colts game you know where there was part of me that was like hey maybe i'm going to do a little on the colts of going look at these last couple games you know new where there was part of me that was like, Hey, maybe I'm going to do a little on the Colts of going, Hey, look at these last couple of games, you know, new coach they're, they're down their quarterback, you know, Minshew serviceable. And then, you know, finally car got it going with these receivers, because I couldn't believe, like, even if you're

the biggest anti-car person out there, I still couldn't believe the offense would be as bad as it had been prior to what we saw this Sunday. Absolutely. You have to be careful not to overreact over six games or one game. But I thought the game, you know, the primetime game they had with his going off on people just looked so bad that I thought it would be hard for him to overcome. But nice for him and them. They finally got it going a little bit. And it is really, I felt like they were the team that should win that division, you know, because they would at least be getting a mid-level quarterback with some consistency

and they have a good defense maybe that'll still be true in the end we'll see it's a long year we're only we're not even half the way through you're right opponent schedule that defense car being an upgrade over what they had i thought they would definitely win the division but look it's still in play here all right i want to get back though to the Minnesota Packers game there. Again, the Vikings won that one, but we've got only eight career starts, seven this year for Jordan Love. Any thoughts from, you know, I know you kind of recap a lot of stuff with talking to different coaches and executives that are all watching on Sunday.

Where are the Packers now with the guy that was supposed to be next? I think there's an acknowledgement that the problems go beyond him. You know, that it's been a little disappointing on the coaching front in terms of just the way they're scheming it, that obviously they probably went a little too young at wide receiver. I think they were so excited to move on to the new era of football. Jordan Love, let go of these young guys. We don't have to carry all these old friends of Aaron Rodgers. They probably got a little young at wide receiver. I think they're the sort of team that could use somebody to help him out. But it has been disappointing. I mean, you put three years in,

you're expecting someone to be a little bit more polished. I think he's somebody that he sort of plays with this kind of flair where he's backpedaling or throwing on the run, flicking the wrist, all these sort of Rogers-like mannerisms, he's just got to complete the pass. I think it's just sort of a return to let's just take what's there.

Let's make this look a little bit easier. Everything there looks like a difficult, high degree of difficulty, almost unnecessarily so um i don't know i don't know how it works out because it's really in some ways kind of the first year on the job for a lot of these people there because rogers really ran everything and if you look at some of the cap stuff that came out before the year so i don't know if it's to the

dollar the same way but the packers are 32 in the league in offensive spending. It's 17% of their cap, which is like, it's not just last, it's 7% lower than Tampa. Now, part of that, you can say, well, they're not paying the quarterback, so they're saving it. But I mean, 17% is like off the charts, though, number one. Yeah. Yeah, they're young i think you know one of the possible lessons for this i've always think about this what's the best way to kind of support a young quarterback i don't think you necessarily want a bunch of 35 year old receivers you know like

that was a little bit what the cardinals had when kyler murray came in and and you had these guys that were almost on a different part of life there's not necessarily that connection but i think having a bunch of guys that are totally unproven and don't know what it's like to be pros around them probably isn't the answer either. So maybe a little bit of a mix. My colleague, Randy Mueller was like, they should be a team that's in on Hunter Renfro, somebody like that. It's just a, you know, a veteran security blanket that could really help out a young quarterback. Purdy, not the same guy. Now, granted, no Trent.

Debo's been missing some games here. McCaffrey's kept it going. I think it's just been the throws. I think it's surprising to see somebody we thought, okay, we know physically this is why he went as late in the draft as he did. No one's going to watch the throws going, oh my God, this looks like, again,

my favorite reference ever is Kyle Bowler. No one's going to watch the throws going, oh my God, this looks like, again, my favorite reference ever is Kyle Bowler. But the Minnesota picks where it looked like he just missed, this is not supposed to be who he is. There's a limitation on the physical part of it, but there wasn't supposed to be a limitation on his understanding of decision-making, and now we're seeing that as well. And granted, look, he was in concussion protocol this week too so maybe this is a blip but it also could also be the the shanahan correction on the lesser prospect and and this so all of it feels sort of unfair but it's all on the table as a table as a discussion it really when you have some when you have so few games of somebody each one of them matters way more it's like at this stage of our career if my homes has a bad game we're not like god i wonder what's going on you know you just you had a bad game with purdy It's like at this stage of our career, if Mahomes has a bad game, we're not like, God, I wonder what's going on.

You know, you just, you had a bad game. With Purdy, it's like, my gosh, how do you have 10 amazing games to start your career and not be good, right? I mean, at a certain point,

you just have to say, this guy's a good player. And I wouldn't necessarily come off of that. I think the limitations, though, were always suspected. I mean, and that was just going to be when it's not going well,

when you don't have all five top eligibles, so you have fewer guys open, maybe you've got a little bit more pressure in your face, maybe the windows are a little muddier, maybe there's someone putting some pressure on you, maybe you're behind now, whatever. All those things that happened in the NFL over time, people didn't think that he had shown he could handle.

And based on his pedigree, probably want him to prove that. So I think the skepticism that existed when he was 10-0 as a starter was justified. Doesn't mean he's bad now. And really, when you look at it, I think he had, I think I wrote this today. So obviously a couple of bad throws. He averaged 11.8 yards per 10 and had nine explosive pass completions. I think he had, I think I wrote this today. So obviously a couple of bad throws. He averaged 11.8 yards per 10 and had nine explosive pass completions. Nine.

I mean, that's like a month for some of these quarterbacks. So, you know, and he didn't practice all week hard. So, you know, I think it's a great time for the bye for them. The truth is somewhere in between. It almost always is. I wouldn't be totally out on Brock Purdy. But you get, there's a reason you got to prove this over full season, right? It was a partial season last year.

It's a partial season now. You're going to get hurt. You're going to have your receivers out. You're going to have your left tackle miss games. It feels like some of these things all happened at once for him and them. And, you know, we'll see. I always felt with them like the depth would be the concern over the course of the year. Some guys who get injured on offense, maybe not the same pass rush rotation depth that they had.

So what were they going to look like in December? What's Purdy going to look like in December when maybe he's playing with an injured hand or the things that just happen over the course of the year? I think we've seen them at their best. And that's not necessarily what it's going to be like all year, late in the year. So Denver finally beats Mahomes and Wilson, I would say is serviceable. You know, he didn't, he didn't make mistakes. It's very clear inside, outside that Wilson playing at this level is not going to be what Peyton wants.

But as you point out, and it's easy to forget the extension that he got after the trade still hasn't kicked in yet. Okay. It was just a thought that I had. With the salary cap spike going up significantly with new revenue coming into the NFL, where in the past we always felt like, man, teams can't carry that kind of dead money. And I remember the Antonio Brown debate when he was still with the Steelers. And there's people being like, no one's ever taken that much dead money for one year on the books. I don't know. History tells us that never really happens.

And then they did it. I wonder whether it's Wilson or a Watson, Kyler Murray to a lesser degree, granted the situation's different financially than ownership in Cleveland or Denver, to a lesser degree. Granted, the situation is different financially than ownership in Cleveland or Denver, but do you think we could see teams go, hey, look, if this is going in the wrong direction, we just screwed up and at least we're getting a bit of a relief here with projections of salary cap numbers going up maybe 40 million over the course of two years? There's levels to this thing. I think where people missed the boat on Antonio Brown was, thing i think where people missed the boat on antonio brown was and i said this at the time having a high cap number that doesn't go way way way higher once the player is released is not a bad dead money money problem antonio brown was already counting whatever 18 20 million

on their cap people were like oh gosh, you can't cut him. No, no, the problem would have been if you cut him and that number went to 50, right? Then you have a real choice to make, like, shoot, we don't want to do that. He was already budgeted for the amount that he was going to cost off the roster. So you take him off the roster, that number on this didn't change. So to me, that was a much easier, that's an easier dead money thing to take. that was a much easier, that's an easier dead money thing to take. Now, with some of these expensive quarterback contracts,

there's two decisions to make. One is, is your owner willing to eat whatever money is involved? So for, even though Wilson's extension hasn't kicked in, they've already paid $85 million to him, okay, out of this deal. They owe him another $39 million no matter what, no matter what they do, okay? That's a 2024 base, I think a 2024 option bonus totaling $39, I believe. So he's getting that no matter what. Now, some owners might say, we're not eating $39 million to have this guy off the roster.

Sorry, coach, right? You got to play with him. And we're all sort of waiting to see is that going to be the arizona approach if it comes to that with kyler murray right they're not owned by the waltons who just bought the broncos they're owned by a uh uh owner who isn't doesn't have billions and billions and billions of dollars made off some other pursuit right so that may be a different consideration for them. Stan Kroenke, he trades Jared Goff each some of the money, right? Because he's another guy with Walmart ties. So in this case, the Broncos can move on from Russell Wilson very early in the 2024 league year.

So what that would mean would be like in March. If they do it, then they will carry a massive cap hit from that date until June 1st. They can designate them as a post June 1 designation. So from March to June, like this huge balloon is going to count on their cap. And then after June 1, a good portion of that moves

into 2024 becomes rather affordable so i would think just all reading the tea leaves on sean payton i feel like he's plugging his nose and playing this style of offense like early in the year he was trying to do more he got frustrated with wilson remember he was like we're going to wristband this thing we're not getting the plays in and then all that went away but but it kind of went away because they're just not even really trying on offense right there it's really uh kind of remedial what they're doing you're not going to do that long term while paying i believe if if he stays on the roster going into next year another i believe his his 2025 base of 37 million becomes fully guaranteed right so now you're now you're basically having a three-year cash commitment if you keep him next year i just can't see them doing that if they're going to play this

style of ball he just doesn't seem like a marriage with Peyton, does it? He doesn't feel like, oh, wow, there's this synergy, and this is Sean Peyton's guy. And in defense of Russell Wilson, I don't know if anyone there feels like they're Sean Peyton's guy. Sometimes when the big coach comes in, no one can measure up to what Drew Brees was or whatever. And instead of trying to do your best to win with the guy you've got and maximize it, you just want a different guy.

That happens when you have a super empowered coach. So I'm not putting this 100% on Russell Wilson. It just sort of is what it is to me. So all of that's a great answer, but I guess I'm not asking you for a definitive yes or no, I'm not asking you for a definitive yes or no, but should we all open our minds up to the idea that whatever the rules were in the past, and I think it's a great point too that you make about ownership cash. Some owners will be like, we're not eating that money. I'm not paying. And as you point out, Russell Wilson's already been paid this money. So when you look at his salary chart and all the this year cash out cap and all that stuff. Okay, whatever. He already gets to keep all that stuff. I just wonder if we should be more open-minded about it being a possibility for some of these super high-priced guys in a way that we've never had. Teams have not had that option before. Absolutely.

To that point, I agree. I think the idea that the cap is an impediment is very overrated. The teams use that all the time. Like, hey, you know, cap's tight. And we sort of buy that sometimes as the reason why they're unable or unwilling to do certain things. But there's no doubt that as a couple things have happened. One, teams have become much better at managing the cap. I think we used to see teams get sideways and all of a sudden, oh my gosh, they're way over the cap. What happened? We got to cut players. We just don't

see that. The cap is tightly managed. They can now roll unused space into future years. That's a nice rule for accounting, right? And so you'll see a team like Cleveland right now has 37 million cap space. Yeah, but they're going to push a bunch of that into the next year so they can pay Sean Watson and have him under the cap. So there's all these mechanisms to create room, to push room into the future. Then you have the growing cap, right? Whatever it's 225 million, if it goes to 250, 260, that gives you a whole another level of room. So yes, I think you definitely seeing teams more tolerant and able to handle a one-off bad cap contract situation, especially in a key position where if you don't want the guy, it's a real problem. You had a note on Bill Belichick months ago that I haven't forgotten. They lost again.

They're not good. It's, I would say, one of the four or five least talented rosters in the NFL. The Mac Jones thing continues to get worse. I know it was a bit of a blip with the comeback against the Bills, but I mean, eventually somebody's, you know, there's plenty of bad quarterbacks that have game-winning drives. I mean, it's still going to happen. The pick he threw yesterday was so atrocious. He sees pressure that isn't there, which then leads to him getting stalled up so i go on and on and it might be just nice to remind people of the four-year anniversary of belichick trading a second round pick for 30 year old muhammad sanu for eight games um when you want to talk about

trying to figure out pricing of trades like that one's still to this day i'm like what what and we're like well belichick did it in 2019 maybe we thought like oh this system oh yeah, it makes all the sense of the world. But the anecdote that you shared from other people talking about Belichick was that he doesn't want to coach coaches at this point of his career. So the reason he's going back to people that he has familiarity with is he doesn't want to coach them to do it his way. And I've thought about it a lot because then I think about Nick Saban who has to do it literally every single year with new coordinators and he just figures out a way to make sure they understand his process in the Alabama way. And then there was the piece that leaked out of nowhere, where normally Belichick contract information, no one ever really knows what the hell is going on.

At the highest point of turmoil during his tenure in New England, it leaks that, oh, actually, he did a nice little extension here this past offseason. What do you make of it? Is there any kind of like, you know, sometimes you share this stuff with us, sometimes you don't, so I don't want to put you in a tough spot here. But I find the whole thing like driving towards an end that I still can't predict. Yeah, I don't think the fact that he signed a contract matters that much.

I mean, Robert Kraft is 80-some years old, has a ton of money, and if he feels like it's time to move on and it's not working anymore, I think he'll do it. I just don't think, I think if it's untenable, they're not going to just keep going forward with it. The part about training the coaches and all that I think is really interesting because while obviously Tom Brady's departure was a big deal, there's so many long-tenured coaches there that were bedrock of that program. You know, Dante Scarnacchio was probably the number one best-known guy on the defensive line.

They could always get their line going. on the defensive line. They could always get their line going. I think the brain drain there has left Belichick, who already, by the way, has kept one of the smallest staffs in the league as it is. He's never been one of these guys with a 25-man staff. It's like been 16, you know, and look who it is.

His sons are on it. You know, it's guys who've been around a long time that are, it's almost like you're, you know, you almost have to have worked there before. The gene pool is real small there, put it that way, right? So if you're a coach for a different team, you might consider any number of coordinators on the opposite side of the ball of yours, right? You may be like, you know what, we're going to go with a Shanahan offense. Who can I get? Okay. Pete Carroll says he wants Shane Waldron, just whatever, you know, something like that. We bring them in. Hey, Pete's going to have some influence on what the offense is and how we play it, but Shane Waldron is going to put in his system. It doesn't have to be Pete's system,

right? That's a big advantage. That gives you access to anybody. Now, the advantage of Belichick was always, hey, he's got a system, a set way that works. But when you have only a few people that can do that, you're really you really become stuck. And I think the other part is at this stage. You probably can't get anyone you want to go to New England. you probably can't get anyone you want to go to New England. Right? I mean, it's a tougher place to operate, in my opinion. I mean, you don't have a good quarterback, right?

So it's not like the top coaches who are established on, let's say, an offensive coordinator. You almost couldn't imagine them going in there, could you? And having autonomy over their offense and how they're going to play it and any of that, could you? It seems like it just all goes through Bill for better and now worse. I just thought it was an interesting anecdote because it was revealing, but it also is just more of an indictment to your point. And if there's one thing that's happened with coaching in the NFL, as much as people made fun of the Shanahan and McVay connections, there's way more success than there is failure with that. Okay. There just is when you look around the league and by the way, the non-labeled coordinators or whoever, like it's like the college coach that comes in and

fails. It's like, Oh, he's college. Well, yeah, well, there's a million NFL guys that called plays for years that were terrific, were the next hot coordinators, and those guys failed too. But it appears that whatever's happening offensively in this league, that you needed to kind of get in the game. And he was going to try to zag on everybody. And I just, I don't know. I don't like, you need help.

You need help. Maybe you needed that outside perspective. You needed a different energy, a different perspective. And I understand when you do what he's done for two decades, you don't think anyone could ever help you. But I've always, I can't stop thinking about that anecdote because honestly, it's, it's way more of a negative than it would be an explanation of where he's at. Yes. The other thing I think, I think the people that have been in New England over the years in coaching and leadership capacities have underestimated the role Tom Brady played

in the success of the program. Not just as the good quarterback and the great quarterback, but as the example setter for everyone else, the deals he took and the tone he set and the work he did for them to get people to play along in a in a tougher environment in a less fun environment and so i think his departure is a huge is way bigger than they probably realize that's just what i sense because when you talk to some of the people from new england who've been there sometimes you just get the feeling that, hey, we set up Tom.

Tom was set up in a great way, man. We did this and that. And I don't know. I think Tom was pretty important. The minute he left, he won the Super Bowl at a place that had about a 40% win rate over the last seven, eight years. So it's pretty important. Always good to visit with you, Mike. Appreciate it.

You can read him on the athletic his pick six column on monday's an absolute must read and we'll talk to you in the season thank you they say money can't buy happiness look at the fucking smile on my face ear to ear baby you want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari. 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could possibly imagine.

And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Life advice. Before we get to it, though, email address is always lifeadvisorr at gmail.com. What's up to Cerruti and Kyle? A nice little W for the Alliance.

You know, we were due. Yep. Felt good. It did. I mean, we needed it. Kyle and I needed a W. I needed it more than anybody. I'm 2-8.

I've hit two bats all season, and both times we've hit the parlay. Skip Bayless would say that I have the clutch gene. The biggest shock for me was that there was five people that showed that they actually bet it. I couldn't believe there was five people that were still unironically doing that. I actually bet it.

I had a good feeling. I bet it. I put $10 down. It was plus $5.50 odds. It was a nice little payday. Yeah, good for you and all those five other guys. So I was looking at some of the FanDuel tickets of people that did it because they sent it to us on X. And I don't know the numbers. I'm just kind of doing this off the top of my head when I looked at it.

The payout for it was 5-1, depending on... So I don't know what the payout was for the first one that we won. And then it looked like there was an odds boost for one of the tickets that I saw. So is there an argument to be made that if you bet it every single week, you're actually ahead because of the payout. Yes, actually. I mean, I believe the first one was around plus 500 odds, too. So, yeah, you're slightly up if you bet $10 every week.

If you bet the same amount every week, you actually are slightly in the black, which is great. Hey, we're beating million-dollar picks right now. I mean, that's pretty good. Okay. Good stuff for everybody. You're home for winter right here. Yeah. I don't know.

I don't know if I get into any of this or not, but I had like the worst Sunday ever as far as having to do stuff. Well, no, there's definitely worse Sundays than what I had, but I had to stay on top of all the football. Then I had to get this garage door thing figured out while I was navigating it, trying to coordinate it with movers, taking out the squat rack from one place to another place and getting a place empty for tenants to move into. And I had to do it all in this like short three hour window while I was watching the second half

of the second half games on my phone. And then I recorded it and watched it while I watched the Chargers smash the bears. But I think I'm in smash the Bears but I think I'm in a good mood I think I'm in a good mood because it's actually done done it's like for real done and I would just offer this up when you have something that you have to get done and you're like I don't really have to get it done now the pain tacks on thinking about it for as long as I had to deal with this thing because i couldn't quite get it done until i needed to um i'm not really giving out life advice now maybe i am to myself because i'm promising myself i'll never do that again just get it fucking over with rip the fucking band-aid off and instead i just delayed delayed delayed because i'm like oh well i can't

even do this yet because of this and all these. There's definitely part of it I could have done. And then I land on a Sunday where I'm like, is my door even going to open so I can move the stuff in? Because there was a version of things where the garage door wasn't going to be opened. And then I was going to have a moving van full of stuff. And then I was going to have to just park it somewhere, which is a disastrous scenario. And then I'm paying for the rental of the van. So I don't even know why I brought this up. It was,

I was so pissed about it yesterday. And then when it was done, I was like, I think I'm happy. It's over. I've got your own advice. That's great. I've got about 70 cardboard boxes in my garage right now.

We've just had a lot of shit going on. You know, Marla's birthday was over the weekend, which is great. Uh, by the way, it was, it was great. I was a little bit, you know, I don't know, you know, family comes around, it's the weekend, which was great. Uh, by the way, it was, it was great.

I was a little bit, you know, I don't know, you know, family comes around, it's a little bit stressful. It was fun. She had a great time,

but you know, we, we've been getting Amazon things here and there. I've just, my entire garage is full of these fricking boxes. And every time I go in there, I'm just, I get depressed cause I'm like,

man, I just, I gotta figure this out, but I keep putting it off. It's been raining here. Uh, it's kind of cold now. So I,

the feeling of when I actually get that done, you're right. It's going to be incredible. And my garage is going to be free again. off it's been raining here uh it's kind of cold now so i the feeling of when i actually get that done you're right it's going to be incredible and my garage is going to be free again it's an incredible feeling you don't smoke weed either right well i've been known to you know maybe basketball party or two get a little weird but not not like at the house no sativa steve the way you started that because i was like like, wait, do I not know Steve? And it's like, okay, so every now and then. No, no. Randomly.

I think that's where the guys who smoke weed are winning, where they're like, I'm just going to fire up a J and break these boxes down. You know, it's like they have a thing to add to it. It's like guys that dip while they hunt. Well, hunting's actually fun but yeah like i could see hunting guy who dips be like all right i'm gonna throw a dip in and then break these boxes down yeah you know so you don't really have anything like that so basically we're saying smoke more weed or start dipping and then your boxes would be done i could get some right kyle you know get weird yeah hard to do stuff with cigarettes like the no hand cigarette

gets in your eye like it's not it's not really additive to stuff unless you're driving really or drinking i think not separately obviously well thank you thank you for that clarification okay all right let's get to it speaking of driving here's an email split the speeding ticket uh 35 year old female what's up? offered to chip in. He did admit to going way too fast, but he was trying to help us out. So we feel guilty. We were all employed adults making similar income. So money is exactly type of money is always a little weird help. Uh, I think it's great that you feel this way, but I don't think I've ever heard of anybody going like, Hey, I got a speeding ticket. Like he decided to drive too fast. He's the one that didn't figure out how to make it work.

I would say no if you want to offer, that's great. You're a better person than a lot of people. If it were my sister giving me a ride somewhere, then I would probably say, hey, let me help with that or whatever. I don't think we want to make this...

I don't think this should be something that's normalized. it's it's up to the person behind the wheel to decide what kind of game they want to play yeah i don't think it's wrong if you don't but i think it's really nice if you do so i don't think that i don't think the guy should be like hey you know you were part of this uh excursion so what are we going to do here but i i think that's that's and you probably should have done it like immediately if that's the case like if it's if it's like two weeks later and you're like hey i was thinking about it you know it's a nice thing to do in the moment but i think it kind of passes if if you if you miss it i think that's totally fine is it weird though if you like you like chip in for gas money and you don't that's not weird you don't add you don't add the

extra you know yeah i'm with you i'm with those you guys i don't think either way i don't think it's like a big deal it'd be incredibly nice if you did do it i don't add the extra, you know. Yeah, I'm with you. I'm with both of you guys. Either way, I don't think it's a big deal. It would be incredibly nice if you did do it. I don't think you have to. But if you're already paying them for the gas money, I'm throwing an extra speeding ticket. Where does it stop, though? What if he crashes his car? Do you chip in on his deductible?

Yeah. Where does it stop? That's a good point. I would say no. So I don't think you owe this person anything. And if they're kind of being pushy about it, that's a little bit weird. I don't know if I ever told you this story. Greatwoods, concert venue, Massachusetts.

If you're from the area, then you spent some time at Greatwoods. And I think it was an Allman Brothers show. And there's nothing better than when you were in college than the guys being like, Hey, do you guys all want to meet up at Great Woods for something? And it's like, Hey, we get to hang out with each other again, even though everybody, especially like in your younger years, it's like, Oh, all the college guys get together. So I take the ferry over to the Cape, get a ride up. Guys are coming up from Connecticut. Guys are coming down. You know, it's on it's on

somebody rented a flatbed truck they said they were going to have a pool to tailgate in but that immediately was broken and it didn't really quite where there was there was definitely truck there was definitely some talk about other things being cranked up a level there was one guy in the crew who we loved dearly but he was known to maybe upsell it a bit um on on what was going to go down but it didn't matter it was the almonds and dudes were going to be back in the mix 20 plus deep and there was a guy that was borrowing i think a parent of one of his parents car and um you know guys are pulling in i think i think by the time you got into the venue, beers were cracked and everybody's trying to figure out like where to park. Imagine, imagine no cell phones either. It's like, dude, I think they're at like P two or whatever. And

again, I, I don't, I'm not doing that. And so as, as the cars are like kind of stop and go, stop and go figuring out how to get parked. Cause the guys are waving you in and everything we're headed over the buddies are like already by this truck yeah you know giving giving everybody the the what's up sign we're here yep yeah we're here and then the dudes are here and the guy behind the wheels like yeah yeah fired up like let's do it and he turns to them and, of course, rear ends the car in front of us. And I'll tell you, if that car was on fire, guys wouldn't have gotten out as quick. They all had like a couple grams of something on them, right? Well, not quite, Kyle. It was more of like...

They didn't want to be associated. It wasn't a flee the scene. It wasn't a flee the scene situation. It wasn't a flee the scene. It was a, sorry, dude. Hey man. I'm going to go tailgate now.

While you deal with this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And no one, no one helped. Then everyone went over to the tailgate. And then of course everyone laughed because they were like,

if you could have seen it from our vantage point, all you dudes, the window everybody's so excited it's on it's on it's on the driver's like yeah dudes what's crunch and then he had to call his dad to not conveniently drive up to great woods and help deal with this while the rest of the dudes just sat and partied. And no one had, right, right. Because it was the almonds on top of everything else. And I'll never forget his father opening up the hood because the hood was crunched in and he wanted to assess the damage. I think it took his father two hours to get there.

So we were like getting ready to go into the show. And I think it was pretty much understood that the son was not going to be allowed to then also go to the concert. His day was over. It was implied. His day was over. Our day was not. And his father opened up the hood of the car. I think it was like a Volvo station wagon too, which is awesome.

And he opened it up and there were like four beer cans, empty, crunched under the hood. Somebody just was like sliding them in there because the hood was open and there was like a little, little plow, just chuck the can in there, you know?

And his father just taking the cans with no expression on his face, except disappointment, just taking the cans and throwing them off to the side while he was going to have to tow. I guess there was enough damage that the car had to be towed. You had to call the dad. He had to drive the two hours. It must have been kind of bad. Yeah, because it wasn't the kid's car.

It wasn't the kid's car. But no one that group wouldn't offer to pay for a speeding ticket is the point. Yeah. Yeah, that's not on that group. Honestly, I think that's correct. I wouldn't, you know, you fucked ticket is the point yeah yeah that's not on that i honestly i think that's correct i wouldn't you know you fucked up dude you were driving you hit somebody you know it's like i ruined my day my buddy hit a parked car bringing us to mcdonald's during my suspension year we were it was like two in the morning we're like please the only thing that's

opens a drive-thru and he's like no i don't want to go we finally beg him to he he didn't let the it was like a cold night he didn't let the uh the defrost thing happen yet so he was kind of driving blind and we were like dude we really want to go to mcdonald's but don't you think maybe you could wait he's like no i'm good he's peering through this tiny little hole in uh in the thing style yeah he drives yeah he drives under a parked car and it goes completely on top of us. And in front of it, I think it was an ambulance that was at an intersection. So it was immediately over. And then the guy in the front seat had, I don't know, a couple warrants and fake $100 bills.

That guy goes to jail for a while. And his dad has to come pick him up. It's totally crazy. And then I'm standing on the sidewalk waiting for his dad. He's like, what are we going to do? And that's where I was like, wait,

you think I've got something to do with this? So, yeah, I mean, I was, I was so out on that too. So I got pulled over. Don't pay for the ticket.

I got pulled over. I didn't get a ticket, but I got pulled over my senior year on senior skip day. Everyone, we went to the beach. We went to like Hammond asset, which is in wild. Yeah.

Like, you know, it's not a great beach, but it's beach and uh we got pulled over and i've never been there's probably you know five it was it was in my jeep uh it was a 94 jeep grand cherokee i love that thing was a tank i probably six miles to the gallon um but you know we did that thing where we put like the cooler of beer you could basically fold the seats and like put stuff under the seat so i get pulled over and i'm like i must have been sweating fucking bullets i don't think i've ever been more nervous in my entire life but i'm down and i'm thinking but i'm like thinking in the back of my head i'm like there's no he can't search my car right and like i

think everybody else in the car also kind of knew like how scary the situation was potentially going to be but the guy ended up letting us off and he was like all right you know we told him it was senior skip day he was like yeah all right have a good day i think he just didn't want to ruin our day which is great but i've never been more scared in my life and i was like man if he if that had gone badly like i'm sure my buddies would have had a good day at the beach and i would have just been fucked you know it was it was what it was do you guys see that photo i sent you that was the car crash kyle this this is like an end of days, children of men car crash. This is the first photo on my Instagram.

It's the first one I ever put up for anybody who wants to see it. It's all the way down at the bottom for me. And he, like, I just remember standing on the side waiting for his dad to come. And, like, the cops brought our friend to, like, he's gone. How fast was he going? This is absurd. He wasn't going fast at all. He wasn't going.

It was raining. So we're, like, maybe the wet, like, somehow, like, being wet. How fast was he going? This is absurd. He wasn't going fast at all. He wasn't going. It was raining, so we're like maybe the wet, like somehow like being wet, like the car slid on top of us, but it was fucking nuts. And I just remember him being like, what are we going to do? I was like, I'm going to go home. Just to recap here for a second, I love that we just quickly ventured through some stories and Cerruti's was senior skip day

and my deal was guys grabbing brews headed to the almonds and Kyle had a counterfeiter with warrants on him riding shotguns. He was way older than us. I don't surprise. I really thought he had his shit together. Did not. I'm going to guess that most counterfeiters aren't college age.

At least back then. I don't know how the game works or whatever, but you saying he was way older than us, then I'm like, yeah, I hope so. Okay. All right, let's get to another one. This one I kind of love. How old is too old to legitimately fight in MMA?

25 is the age. I think that's very important. 6'1", 190. Pickup compass, Kevin Love. No other current gym stats, but play pickup two, three times a week. Not going to enthrall you with lifting tales of years past. To get to it, I recently got in the air to start learning a martial art, at least be able to get a functional workout of the gym with body movement

or striking with technique that won't dislocate my wrist. Not intending to be a weird mirror shadow box stare guy. I live in a major city, so there's no shortage of facilities where I get some instruction or potentially become a member before my current gym privileges expire. Shout out last year on parents' healthcare. Okay. I'll be sure to do my research so I don't end up being taught by a strip mall BJ Penn. The issue is that I know if I dedicate the time that it takes to get competent at the various disciplines, I'll inevitably want to at least spar pretty seriously and maybe enter an amateur event of some kind. Knowing myself, there is no way I would spend the years it takes

to get in shape, learn to probably strike with all four limbs, defend role a little without the competitor in me wanting to know how I stack up. That being said, I have a corporate desk job and can see a career of my current company. There's a guy that starts showing up to the office with clear fight marks immediately appear in a crisis. And if the time were to come, how pitiful is a 28,

30 year old Washington High School athlete entering event that have guys a decade younger that hope to legitimately have aspirations of fighting professionally.

Appreciate the crew's advice. Okay. This is a little cart before the horse, isn't it? Do you want to take this one kyle no he's just like i he's like i'm he's not like i've got a great gym or something he's like well it wouldn't be that hard to find a place that's good and then you know what if i get really good and then i become a competitive guy and then what happens to people at work and i'm in line for this promotion they're like well that guy's got a

shiner what's his deal do we really believe like you haven't found a gym yet right he hasn't even found the gym okay i just want to make sure we're here i just wanted to make sure we're clear on on the the timeline of things he's not like you know it's not like the big events coming up and he's worried about it it's like should i maybe take the first step in the door on one of these places maybe you suck at it. I'd put this on the back burner until you know if you're good or not. I like that he's thinking long term. I do like this.

But it sounds just like you're in your own head. Yeah, I'm kind of with Kyle. Do you have a good jab or not? We should probably start there. I don't know. Yeah, you don't get to be the president without thinking about the campaign right though like if you come in and you're you know you're trying to like climb the corporate ladder and you kind of constantly look

like you got the shit kicked out of you it's probably not gonna you know be a plus on the on the old resume but i don't know maybe your boss is in mma you kind of explain it to him i don't think you need to worry about your career yet right so Kyle I think the first thing you said was the right thing I respect the hell out of this email I love this email okay as someone who was never the tough guy and will never be I was never

the guy that was like hey you know you have to look out for I was never that guy and I don't aspire to be that guy anymore but I wanted to be that guy anymore but i wanted to be that guy all right and so when i first did the movie tie stuff it was about having self-confidence it was about uh there was a guy in high school who like wanted to kick my ass and then he saw me doing that shit with old men and like he it was it was unbelievable was a

total game changer kid was like super nice to me immediately afterwards like you think about where that kid's head was at like you saw me hitting tie pads with somebody and then decided you didn't want to fight me like you know soft so anyway the point is is that i too flirted with the idea of like, I wanted to know what it would feel like to walk in to an octagon and see what it was going to be like. And I don't think the physical pain of getting my ass kicked was going to be the problem. It was going to be the emotional pain of like, you got fucking killed.

You're a loser. And people saw people there. Yeah. Yeah. People saw it. So what you have to understand is that look not every guy that trains mma or every guy that's ever been like i went to two amateur kind of mma things when i was in boston they were it was a rough crowd man but i went to like two amateur ones to watch to kind of be like

let me see what's going on at these things and most of these guys are like the tough kid that grew up especially back then all right like oh what does that guy do he turns wrenches oh what's that guy do oh he has four older brothers they were all college wrestlers they beat the shit out of him you know his entire life and now he's like the toughest dude oh what did that guy do? Oh, he was all American wrestlers. So if you want to just see how you would do competitively, I'm not going to tell you to not do that. You're 25 by the way. All right. So your whole five-year window of like, by the time I'm 30, then a 20 year old is going to kill me. Now, if you were 35 or

40, I'd say, Hey, you're probably not going to have, if you're just starting this now, you're probably not going to have it in you to deal with the athleticism of a guy who's actually training in his early to mid, just say 20s, all right? But I would look at this as like, don't lie to yourself. Like, are you actually one of these dudes? Are you one of these dudes? Because you can train, you can learn all the movements, you can have the skill down, you can be a sick athlete, you can be strong, you can check all these boxes. But when it really

comes down to it, are you one of those dudes? And very few people are. And if you're not, what's wrong with just getting in shape? Okay. Now, if you get in shape and your coaches are like, whatever, I think your coaches too, by the way, are going to be very honest with you because they're not going to want to coach somebody and then put them in some amateur fight and then have you get killed where it somehow is going to make them look bad. So they'll be pretty honest with you. And I, it's going to have less to do with your technical ability and all the stuff that you learn. Cause I love doing it. It's great. It's one of my favorite things. I started doing it again. The last few months I worked out with a private coach. I just got sick of thinking about

it. And I was like, I'm sick of thinking about this. Let's just do it again. I mean, it's, it's actually been incredible, but at my age, like, I don't even, I mean, yeah, I can be like, oh, I wonder like, no, I know what would happen. Cause I also know I'm not wired like those guys that actually are like, I can't wait to fucking fight somebody. I can't wait to do it. Um, and maybe you have that in you or, you know, whatever, but the coaches are going to be honest with you. You need to be honest with yourself. I think it's a great idea.

I wouldn't worry about it, but I think it's a great idea to start this part of it without putting this pressure on you of whether or not you're going to have bruises on your face from some Thursday night open cage thing. Also, depending on the work environment, you know, if somebody thinks that, you know, you could kick some ass, maybe that helps you rise the ranks. I don't know what your bosses are like, but that guy, he's had a weekend. What if we don't give him the promotion? He's going to kick my ass.

Yeah, I wouldn't worry about that at all because I think guys are pretty predictable with this stuff. Like, you know, sure, maybe there's some work cultures, but I think most of them, even in some of the corporate stuff be like you know who kicks some ass is brad like brad brad's done two amateur fights no guy's gonna call no guy's gonna think you're a loser and if they do that means they're just jealous so if anything like if there was a just a a badass ringer guy and granted it's a little different than normal normal corporate structure but if there was just some badass ringer dude, like, hey, do you know like so-and-so? Like that would make the rounds.

Guys would have like this weird respect for him that just kind of happened. So I wouldn't put this much pressure on yourself, to Kyle's point originally. Trust your coaches. If they say, hey, we think you have it, go for it. But I think all of us need to be super respectful of who the guy is who really walks into that cage. It's like, I can't wait to fucking do this as opposed to most of the population that even if they got to that point, they'd be scared to death.

Because I remember when I went to one of the amateur ones, one of the guys was so bad. And it wasn't because he just didn't know how to fight. He just, he was helpless. And the ref was like, this is over. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not even going to let you really fight. And then they handed out. I could lose my license for this shit.

Right. They handed swords to the winner, which was really cool. They would give you swords to each guy that won. And like the guy got his sword that won the fight and was like, this is stupid. And he was pissed off and he won. He got the sword. He was pissed off being like, what are you even doing here? Like I turned you around three or four times.

You ran away from me into the corner. And the ref was like, this guy has no, like he hit the bag. His coach is training. His cardio is probably sick, he thought he had all these moves down. And as soon as he went in there, he was like, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. And the guy that won was madder than anyone else in the entire arena because he didn't get to punch anybody.

It reminds me of, do you remember John Henderson, the defensive tackle jaguars guy you ever see that video of him like in a pre it's like some pre-game thing he's in like the locker room and some trainer he's telling him to slap him and he slaps him in the face he's like make me bleed make me bleed and he's the guy slaps him in the face he's just like oh and then he runs out on the field it was like one of the coolest videos of all time they were like yeah he does it every week by the way i remember in high school i remember that i think that came out when i was playing high school football and i you know i'm not a big guy

i wasn't a hard hitter in high school shocker but i like football but i remember thinking like oh yeah i'm i'm like not i don't have football player dna i remember watching that video and being like i am not built that way senior night will be my last and so it's so it's it's no i continue to play but like i'm just i just wasn't built that way it wasn't in DNA to be like, Hey, make me bleed before I step on a football field. Like I want to feel alive. And Ryan, you're right. Like that's like the MMA guys. Like, I just think of like, like McGregor, like he was like a, what a plumber before he became big. And he was probably just street fighting, hitting dudes. Like remember Kimbo slice, like I was just getting hit. Like he just loved doing that stuff. You either have that or you don't. So if you have it great,

I think this is the career path for you. If you don't, then maybe just hit the gym and start looking good and getting the muscles up there, but it might not be like, maybe don't come home with a bunch of shiners. I'm all for testing yourself. I'm all for all this. I love the idea of it,

but I also know that I'm not one of those. I've never been, never will be, and I wish I was. I'm not. You get older, you just go like, this is shit. But don't lie to yourself about it. If you're actually with any coaches that are worth anything, they'll tell you the truth.

Okay, that's life advice. Thanks, Kyle. Thanks to Steven, Saruti, and Stefan. We'll be back on Wednesday, every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Ryan Russell podcast. We'll be right back. Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com forward slash RG in Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, and Virginia. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 in Arizona, 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org forward slash chat in Connecticut, 1-800-9-WITH-IT in Indiana, 1-800-522-4700, or visit ksgamblinghelp.com in Kansas, 1-877-770-STOP

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