The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Richardson and Levis Drama Plus Favorite and Least Favorite NFL Draft Picks With Kevin Clark

Episode Date: April 28, 2023

Russillo shares his Tales From the Couch from Celtics-Hawks Game 6 (0:37) before he is joined by The Ringer’s Kevin Clark to discuss the first round of the 2023 NFL draft, including Anthony Richardson being drafted fourth to the Colts, some puzzling Lions selections, the Texans trading up for Will Anderson, Will Levis falling, favorite picks, and more (21:24). Then Ryen and Kevin go abroad for an F1 check-in after three races (1:04:30). Finally Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:15:28). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Kevin Clark Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

on today's episode tales from the couch boston finally takes down atlanta all the different things that happen in the game in a bigger picture question for atlanta kevin clark we're talking draft we're recapping everything. Our favorite picks, the biggest storylines. Will Levin's still sitting there. And we go abroad again. Three races into the F1 season. Life advice. Let them swing. Enjoy.

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.

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Tales from the Couch, playoff edition. Let's go to Atlanta. So we all know how the series has gone at the beginning of it. I was like, okay, it's playing out pretty much how I thought it would. And then self-explode a couple of leads. And then game five was the really crazy one, right? Because you're sitting there going, how did they lose game five at home to close out the Hawks? Given Philly a little extra time as well. It's 12-2 out of the gates, Boston.

Will this game be easy? No. And that was kind of one of the first things early on in the first half. I'm writing down going, hey, this is going to be a game. And it's 68-67 Boston at the half. I always look for the free throw stuff to see how a game is going to be called because I do think that there are crews that are more impressionable than the others. I think the playoff crews are less impressionable. You can just have a regular season night where you go, okay, this person's not even the closest official and they're making this call from like the other side. And I thought when Trey got two

of his initiating contact fouls, I was like, oh, Boston could be in some trouble here because he got two of those. I had the bullshit foul counter at four for this one, but it's that drive parallel and then lean into the defenders. The defender's not even doing anything or initiating any of the contact, and they started calling this. Whereas game five, Trey did not even attempt a free throw until 139 left in the game. So that was something I was looking at.

It really was Jalen Brown against Trey in the first half. Trey had 18 points. He was incredible. So not to, I don't want to, maybe I should have said that part first instead of the free throw thing, but because I have another part of it a little bit later on. 34 of Atlanta's points, of the 34 that they scored to start this game Trey had 18 and once the foul part of it comes in and his ability to make plays for his teammates that are around the rim like it can be a pretty helpless feeling at times against Young because of his incredible offensive talent Jalen Brown was kind of carrying Boston there for a while Trey had 25 in the first half, but really it wasn't so much about just Trey that was keeping him in this game. It was that the others were really good. The depth that I talk about for Atlanta, if you're out there and you're playing 20 to 30

minutes a night, it means you're pretty good. And that if you're open, you're probably going to hit some shots or you're going to make some good decisions. But John Collins, who had nothing in the first four games, had 22 in game five. Last night he had 16, but it was six to eight shooting. He was hitting everything, which is not always the case with Collins. And I don't know if it's the finger thing. He's never felt like a fit for his talent. I'm not telling you I love him,

but it's just never quite felt like it was the right thing, even though I understand him not wanting to lose the asset and paying the money. DeAndre Hunter, who I legitimately do like. I know everybody hates the contract. He had 20. The shooting wasn't necessarily terrific. But the other thing with Hunter that you'll notice when you're trying to figure out what Boston is doing offensively, because Atlanta is not that hard to figure out offensively because Trey's going to run it all. And having said how predictable I think they can be, they were better offensively in the second half of the series than I thought that they would get to.

Because I think it's actually you get more used to them and then you start realizing what's going on. And that wasn't necessarily happening with Boston's last couple games. And that's the part, if you're looking at least from Boston's hopes and not my geographical attachment, but if you're a Celtics fan and you're thinking, wait, is Boston going to have a Milwaukee on their hands here? Now, granted, that was five games the other way, but is this series actually getting harder instead of easier?

Is Atlanta feeling themselves a little bit more? Do they have so much confidence after game five that this thing could be going back to Boston for a game seven when I do think it's fairly clear to me, when I watch both teams play that Boston is the superior basketball team, but the depth that I've always liked, um, part of that is Hunter defensively who maybe can get a little upright because

of his size, but his size alone was an impediment at times where Tatum would be setting up on the wing, trying to figure out what he wanted to do. And he was less likely, at least it felt like to attack Hunter in some of those spots that I saw from last night. On top of that, Bogdanovich had 12 points in his 20 minutes, so there's balance now with Atlanta. Even though Trey had taken 33 shots in game five and won that one, which is an absurd hero-level finish,

this was more about balance once Trey had gotten all his points in the first half because they needed that balance because Trey didn't shoot it all that well in the second half. I started really looking at the Celtics defense in the fourth quarter. This is completely this is not to the number. It's not complete.

I was just tracking the fourth quarter stuff. Maybe Atlanta had like 28 possessions. I felt like there was great defense from Boston, like 18 of those. They still gave up 20 points. So if you just look at the box score and go, oh, well, they scored 20. It's like they completely shut them down. It actually spoke to, I thought, the shot making around Trey and Murray falling apart at that point.

There's also a stretch there where it's 759 left in the third, and it's a five-point possession, right? A five-point possession because they call a flagrant on Horford, a flagrant one on Horford on a closeout against Trey Young. And aside, when I'm at home watching these games, and I see that the offensive player's foot drifts forward and that's why he landed on the closeout and the announcers are like, oh, that's an emphasis. That's his landing area. You got to give the shooter room. And then the officials watch the same video I'm watching. I'm like, well, clearly his foot swayed forward. They're not going to call that a flagrant. And I think everything's going to be a flagrant now. And then it ends up being a flagrant. And then everybody's just in some unison agreement. I start to lose my fucking mind.

I don't care who the player is. I'm serious. I don't care who the player is. When I see it, I go. Now, one day they're going to go, what happened to that guy, Rosillo? Like, oh, yeah, it's kind of sad. Went crazy. Really?

Oh, it's because he's by himself all the time? No. Drugs? No, he's not a drug guy. Loves ski towns, went to UVM. Actually, he'd seen fish recently, but no, no, he's not a drug guy. What happened? The closeout fouls. Yeah. He just, a drunk guy. What happened? The closeout fouls.

Yeah. He just fucking snapped. He was just home. He had the TVs on. He couldn't do it anymore. So there you go. Five-point possession. Atlanta in this.

In this in a real way. 5-0-1 left in the fourth quarter. Hawks are up 1-13, 1-10. Jalen Brown makes an incredible three against a nice closeout. Really good contested shot there, right? At 432, hey, does a coach want to make an awful coach's challenge? Step right up. Boston Celtics.

So there's an out-of-bounds kind of melee off a rebound. The ball goes off of – it looked like it went off the Celtics to me, but it was kind of close enough. There's only nine seconds left on the shot clock. All right. Spolster, who's better than everybody. If you didn't learn from him, keeping that challenge in his back pocket, how important that was in closing out Milwaukee in game five, then none of you guys are ever going to learn. It's almost like there was an NBA coaches seminar, but it was like, hey, the purpose, our mission statement at coaches challenge seminar is to try to have you use them

at the wrong time. It's gotten worse during the playoffs. We had one in the first half the other day, Bud's challenge. Bud had honestly one of the worst nights ever. It was funny because somebody asked me, he's like, do you think Bud will get fired? I was like, yeah, I think he might. Do you think he'll get another job again? I'm like, these guys always get jobs again. But I would honestly interview Bud just to ask him what happened that night. Like, if I owned a team, I'd be like, hey, do we have Bud in? Like, yeah.

Like, all right. We're not giving him the job, are we? No, we're not hiring him. I just want to ask him. I just want to be like, so what happened with this? What happened with that? It's like when LeVar Ball went to a sneaker company

and was in, this is a real story. He was in a conference room with the people that mattered and he asked for like a billion dollars. And guys started texting other people at the company that had nothing to do with it

to be like, you have to come down here right now to conference room C. This is unbelievable. Get in here. And it's like, oh, hey, this is Dave. He's part of the ops team. They'd be like, oh, what's going on? And it was just such a show when they knew there was no way there was ever going to be a deal to be made. That's what I would do with an interview with Bud. Okay. All right. So the challenge is stuff doesn't make any sense. I'd have a pretty hard and fast rule about that being in the last two minutes of a close game. There would be exceptions. Perhaps there could be an exception for a player who's getting his third personal foul in the first half.

But in this case with nine seconds left on the shot clock and one that didn't look like you had any chance, like Kerr's challenge where it led to the Chris Weber, Steph Curry timeout, that challenge didn't make any sense. It was almost like, well, I just have the challenge, so I guess I'll use it. So coaches have to be better with these, okay? They have to be better, and oddly, they're getting worse. Okay, so 113-110 to 121-113. We mentioned the Jalen Brown three.

The thing that happened here, all right, during this 11-0 run, was Tatum against the double team pressure at the top of whatever they were trying to run on offense. Now, we've seen it before in this series, but the plan would be Tatum is at the very top and Atlanta would want to bring up as much pressure as they could. And a lot of what you'll see with a basketball team and a coach and how they'll figure this stuff out, it's like, okay, well, where do we want the ball to initiate whatever we're doing? Do we want it on the side?

And then you can get kind of caught in some trap stuff. There was some stuff that Boston was doing to Trey Young where if he was later in the shot clock and he was against the sideline, they'd actually trap that, try to trap him there. And Trey is usually heady enough to kind of get out was against the sideline, they'd actually trap that, try to trap him there. And, you know, Trey is usually heady enough to kind of get out and make the right play, but at least you're putting the pressure on him getting a little late in the shot clock. We're like, all right, what's he going to do? Atlanta was doing it this stretch late in the

game like they had before, but it almost felt like Boston was going, all right, don't go to a side, keep it at the top. Or if you're going to go to the side, don't go to a side. Keep it at the top. Or if you're going to go to the side, don't go too far to the side because what they want, and it's that old Golden State stuff that they used to do whenever anybody would try to trap the basketball, is it'd be that short roll where now all of a sudden you have Marcus Smart as this outlet who's a passer, right, who's a really good passer. I know I'm not trying to act like he's Steve Nash, but he's

capable of seeing the plays that are out there in front of him if he wants to. Smart was able to do that really well last night. I feel like Atlanta almost helped Boston out a little because Boston was so ready for it. Tatum did such a good job against it. They got open looks against it every single time where I have to wonder, like, if you're on Atlanta staff the next day, if you look back on it going, did we actually make it a little too easy? Because that's what happened.

That's what happened. Tatum was ready for it. He's big enough. He makes the pass. Now you're playing four on three. It's the Horford three. There was the tip back dunk, which maybe really sealed it here from Tatum,

where unfortunately for Atlanta, Hunter just kind of let him drift right past him. But here's what I think is even more interesting. As you're watching all this play out, which leaks into my head a little bit about some of the reluctance that I've seen from Boston, and I'm only looking at Boston the same way I was in Milwaukee, being like, can this team win an NBA championship?

So I'm going to be a little harsher about this. I feel like the ball gets stuck with those guys a little, man. I do. And that this defensive scheme actually kind of unstuck them because they were just so ready for it. It was so consistently the same thing that they were facing. Now, if Boston had lost this game, I promise you, this is what happens today.

Locally, big time. Nationally as well, TV shows. Tatum took two shots in the fourth quarter. Two. Two field goal attempts the entire quarter. If they lost that game, you'd be like, what's up with Tatum? Because Tatum does have a lot of games where you're like, how dominant is he being? Only because we look at him separately than we do Jalen Brown and the other 475 players league going, this dude could win an MVP, right? And that's,

that's what, that's a standard that Tatum has held to. And I, I'd admit there are parts of me where I'm like, you know what? He's awesome, but it just might be a sliver below the awesome of the awesome. So now that I think we're probably on the same page with that one,

I'm not asking you all to agree with me here. I just think it's one of those things no one will ever remember he only took two shots in that fourth quarter. If they had lost, like if Atlanta had made a bunch of their shots, Boston defense wasn't as good. Or if Horford doesn't make the three, Jalen doesn't make his three, Smart doesn't make his three late.

It's like Tatum only took two shots and he's your alpha. Well, he only took two shots because it was by design because of what Atlanta was doing to him. Sometimes we want guys to be like, I don't care. Just take five shots against a double team and have them all be terrible. Show us that you're a closer. Really interesting, at least to me. Maybe you don't find it as interesting. All right. So final thought on all of this. The Celts-Philly thing. Last Sunday, Boston was up 3-1. And they hadn't played game five yet. And I'm feeling really good about Boston.

But if I'm holding these teams to the same kind of standard, Philly getting this extra time is huge because the Embiid part of it. I still like Boston, the series, but them struggling in game five, it scares me a little. Yeah. I was like, eh. But then I think sometimes we're all incredibly unfair about these teams that we think are the title contenders.

Anytime somebody's like, oh, they'll probably sweep them. I never think anybody's going to sweep anybody. I just feel like today's NBA player, more so in the last couple years, it's like, all right, we got these guys. We can relax.

That's why I never think anybody's actually going to sweep. I don't think Denver necessarily relaxed against Minnesota in the one game that they lost because then they almost stole that one and came back anyway in overtime. I don't know that that's one

where you're saying they're taking it off. So maybe Denver's actually better than everybody else. It still feels weird to say that. So yeah, I like Boston in this series, but I felt a lot better about it when it felt like they were clearly dominant against Atlanta. Last thing here, the Trey Young part of it. I know I'm hard on him, and I'm hard on him because if you're going to have the keys to a

franchise, then I'm going to start talking about you in comparison to the other 19 or 20 guys that matter in that conversation, and the all-star accolades and all that stuff. The positive is a trade. I don't know if I've ever seen anybody better on the dribble drive and then plays at the rim. Harden,

prime Harden in Houston was incredible, ironically, with Clint Capella. Then they had a trade so that Westbrook could actually make layups. Harden was great at it. I think Trey's actually better, even though Harden has more to him with the size and his drives. But when you're playing backwards against Trey on those drives, and he's so quick,

and his timing and his hands, and then throwing the pass when you're not expecting it, throwing the pass at different areas around the rim, it's really hard to deal with. Now, your entire offense can be based on that kind of stuff, even if you're constantly feel like you're stuck in between as an offensive player, or excuse me, as a defensive player on that. Because if you go up on trace or on throw on the passer on the top of you, if you constantly retreat without anyone else rolling, then you're just in between and you're fucked. Like you watch Horford on those, who's an awesome defensive player,

great instincts, one of the smartest players in the league. There's not much you can do. So you have that part with Trey that's great. The other thing that I would give Trey a ton of credit for is that he, for all of the things that I worry about with players coming out of the draft, how's this guy built or whatever. And we saw it against Philly two years ago. And it was really kind of funny because I'm like, Ben Simmons is scared to death. And the guy, the least scared is the smallest. And that's what Trey has had to be his entire life because he's small and everybody's doubted him. And he plays that way. The heart inside of that kid is incredible.

Now, let's see what it's going to be like with a full year with Quinn Snyder. I think that's what's important. It would be great if anyone could get through to him going, hey, those five to seven possessions where you just decide to do whatever you want to do. I know you can make the deep three, but sometimes it's just awful. Sometimes it's just an awful decision. And if you can eliminate those and it's five extra shots for your teammates, like, dude, you can get 30 every single night if you want to get 30. But can you get 24 and have

everybody else feel a little bit more engaged? Because I thought the rest of his supporting cast, if you're scoring, you're more engaged defensively. And even though they fell apart there at the end, they fell apart. I thought more because of scheme and how tough those rotations are going to be once Tatum started making that pass.

So I don't know if that part of it would get through to Trey. Cause the other, the negative side of this is that I've never felt like any teammates have stood up for him publicly or anonymously, or publicly in a non-bullshit, predictable way. We could talk about all the coaching changes, the front office changes, the

ownership dynamic, the son part of it, all these things that I don't like about the story the last couple years. What would scare me a little bit is I think even if you're a Trey fan or you look at me as like a hater, I think we'd all agree it needs an adjustment because this team is too good to be in the play in the last two years. Be a fucking six seed. That's all I'm asking here. Went like 48 games and not 41. I wonder if that game five empowers Trey. Like, I'm fine.

I'm good. It's clear I'm good. Look how deep the game winner was. As much as it's a positive that Atlanta ended up being more competitive at the end of this series than the beginning, I wonder if it's just a continuation of everything we've seen because Trey leaves this going, hey, they're better than us, but did you see me in game five? Did you see me hit that shot? I wonder if that actually could be thought to have a negative influence on his willingness to change. Because I think we would

all, again, at both ends of the Trey Young spectrum, we would all agree it needs some kind of adjustment for him to be thought of as somebody who's... I'm not even talking about being a one seed or winning the East or any of that kind of stuff. I'm just talking about not being disappointing two years in a row because the full result for that roster, I believe,

is actually disappointing despite the positives against Boston. The NBA playoffs are here and you can turn crossovers into cash with FanDuel. Just visit FanDuel.com slash Ryan RYE and right now and place a $5 bet and you'll get an instant $150 in bonus bets. Win or lose. I will take Sacramento plus seven and a half points tonight at Golden State. I don't think there are seven and a half points worse than Golden State.

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1-800-522-4700 or visit ksgamblinghelp.com in Kansas. 1-877-770-STOP in Louisiana. Call 1-800-327-5050 or visit mahelpline.org forward slash problem gambling in Massachusetts. Visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. 1-877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY to 467-389 in New York, 1-800-522-4700 in Wyoming, or visit 1-800-GAMBLER.NET in West Virginia. It's been a bit, and we're excited

because we're going to talk NFL Draft. We're going to talk everything that happened last night, maybe a look ahead, as well as checking in on the F1 season, three races in. Kevin Clark, our good friend, congratulations on the advancement of your seed.

I appreciate that. Cerruti and I have gone through it the last couple of months. It's been enjoyable. Cerruti and I are going to meet in central Connecticut and have a meeting of the babies at some point. Cerruti, is that New Haven for us? No. Yeah, Fairfield County. I'll come

down closer to you. That's fine. It's not pretty for you to get to Connecticut, isn't it? That's fine. I live like 20 minutes from Connecticut. It's fine. We'll meet at an outdoor bar. We can compare notes. Bar in New Haven. It's a date. Okay, great. See? I'm glad we did this. Sucks I don't have a kid or live

in Central Connecticut. I could show up, but that's all right uh a lot of new kids on nfl rosters though let's talk about the draft yeah uh there's a couple different starting points here story-wise i think anthony richardson at least the headline yeah there was a good sense price was going to go one we can get in this cj part of this and then houston's draft at the top with both picks but richardson going to the colts i don't blame the colts for going rivers wentz matt ryan i actually don't i i mean for all the jokes like oh they can't do that again i wonder though how much that

influenced ursae ownership and all the way down of them saying let's just do it a different way now with richardson who it would be kind of surprising if he was ready to go week one. Yeah, I completely agree. Richardson is tantalizing in a way a lot of prospects aren't. Like I saw the quote from the post draft press conference is basically like from psych and there's just not a lot of guys who can do that. And that's why, by the way, that I feel like Levis fell is because Levis was a toolsy guy who needed to be coached up and Richardson was just a significantly better version of toolsy guy who should be coached up. It's a quarterback driven coaching staff. It's

a quarterback driven franchise. They want to have the Peyton Manning, Andrew Luck, let's have him sit for 10 years and they were going to keep rolling over, be there for 10 years. And they're going to keep rolling over until they found that basically, they weren't going to try to draft a quarterback until they knew they had the guy. They think Richardson can be that guy. I'm fascinated to see it. I agree with you that ownership, the shorthand in all ownership meetings is what's our plan of quarterback. Every GM, every assistant GM I talked to, they say that if there's not a quarterback, the owner just wants to know, well, what's our plan? What's our plan to quarterback every GM, every assistant GM I talked to. They say that if there's not a quarterback, the owner just wants to know,

well, what's our plan? What's our plan to quarterback. And if you don't have an answer, that's when you start either getting fired or about to be fired. And so I understand Ballard wanting to, to answer that question once and for all his wagon is hitched to Richardson. This is kind of make or break for him.

I'm with you. And I don't blame them for playing sort of the quarterback roulette wheel every single year instead of just going all in on a mediocre guy in the middle of the first round. We know how sometimes that can bite guys. So I'm intrigued to see how this Richard thing goes. I would just like to see him in a franchise that just gives it a little more patience because I think at this point, he's always had this sort of marketing problem around him, which is that people can't stop talking about how amazing he is. Like Billy Napier came out before the Kentucky game on SEC Network and said he was a mixture of Cam Newton and Dak Prescott.

And then he lays an egg against Kentucky and everybody says, what the hell is this? And now we're coming out and we got all these quotes about how generational. Napier again said he was generational yesterday. Now a couple people around the Florida program said once in 50 years type of guy.

Like, let's all calm. Let's let him be Josh Allen. Let's let him be Josh Allen and have low expectations to get coached up in the offensive scheme and let him come along as the season progresses

and have a great year two and a year three. Let's not have these expectations where he's going to set the world on fire in september because i think it's going to be a little slower development track i'm i'm so like i don't know as i've i've talked about this over the years the quarterbacks in the first round like i'm i'm more uncertain than ever before now because i'm combining the history with all the times you're like, well, nobody thought this guy would be any good. So I'm not for it.

I'm not against it. McShay last night said that he was the best physical prospect he's ever seen at the quarterback position. Okay. But I mean, I understand his point. He's like between how quickly he gets the ball, how strong it is, and the fact that he's running a four, four and it all size. Like I don't blame the Colts for doing it. I don't, it would scare the shit out of me. But then again, I could take somebody that, you know, played more than 13 games and feels a little bit more prototypical behind center. And it doesn't mean that guy's going to work out either. So, I mean, that's kind of why with Bryce Young,

despite my concerns about his size, I was like was like whatever you guys screw this up with dudes that supposedly check every box physically so you might as well take this one so um i can't wait i can't wait to see what happens i just hope that they don't they don't throw him right into it because it depends on what you watched uh with him if you watched him two years ago you're like i can't believe he went fourth if you watched him earlier this season, you're like, I can't believe he went fourth. If you watched him earlier this season, you're like, okay, this makes sense. And then it depends on what you read or what you hear and what you believe on what he was really dealing with. Was it an offense where Napier was throwing so many things at him so soon in his first year that

you're like, what are you doing to your guy? Was there an adjustment to him defensively? Because I've heard all these things. I've read all these things. I just know that this is a massive bet by a franchise that I wonder if they just got frustrated by their own history. Okay, when you break down the Texans moving up to No. 3, Arizona moves out of No. 3. Houston gets that one. Arizona got 12-33, a first and third in 24.

That felt like a massive price to move up for a non-quarterback of Will Anderson. And I really like Will Anderson, but he's not. We've heard this from so many of the sort of media scouts, Daniel Jeremiah, McShay, Bucky Brooks, all those guys. And then just my own eyes. Well, Will Anderson is not on the level of a Bosa or a Miles Garrett where the athleticism was such that he cannot fail. There have been reports that he's one of the hardest workers who's ever come through a program. I love that. He's a culture guy.

I'm in on that stuff. But to give up that much, it gives me pause. And I wonder a little bit if some of the rumors about Nick Casario getting fired didn't kind of creep in here where Nick Casario says fired didn't kind of creep in here where Nick Casario says, okay, we need to solidify things right now because there's

already, not only was there a rumor that I'm going to get fired, there was a rumor that literally they named the replacement, which was Adam Peters. And so like, you don't want that. You don't want, I'm getting fired rumors and you definitely don't want, here's who's replacing me rumors. Those are the two things you don't want. And so I wonder if they're trying to accelerate the timeline a little bit. I'm a little bit.

If I were Houston, I really have tried to roll myself over and try to be a Drake May, Caleb Williams team. I really would have tried to do that and take one more year. You don't have any place to go. It's not like you were ready to accelerate the timeline from a competitive standpoint. have any place to go. It's not like you were ready to accelerate the timeline from a competitive standpoint. If I'm an NFC team right now, looking at the way that that conference is aligned, I would do everything I can to be good this year because I think it's wide open. If I'm an AFC team, I'm looking at how many nailed on playoff teams there are. I'm going to say, you know what? What if we took an extra year? What if we took an extra two years? Because

Houston is definitely not in that mix. And that's why I would have probably rolled it over another year. Now I'm wondering what happens if Arizona becomes a top two team next year and maybe has to take a quarterback. There's a lot of scenarios there. And who those top two teams are next year is as intriguing as anything in this draft, in my opinion. But if I'm Houston right now, I just don't know. One of the things that I've talked about a lot with Houston is how self-aware

their rebuild has been. They knew they were going to be bad. They weren't trying anything special. They were just getting a bunch of draft picks and taking it slow. And I wonder if that's still the course after last night. I really do like CJ Stroud, and I do believe he is. He throws the prettiest ball of anybody in the league. I'm sorry, in the draft last night. I'm in on Stroud as a prospect. I just don't know the timeline right now in Houston. Will Levis is the ultimate headline from the first day, and he is still available on the second day.

I would easily place him fourth of the four quarterbacks. This is still a surprise. There are some teams in the second half of the first round where you went, okay, would they maybe add depth to it? Sometimes when somebody falls, it's like, wait, the evaluation was totally off. I was reading

Bruce Feldman this morning at Athletic and they had a bunch of quotes. Again, Bruce is the kind of guy where you're like, look, he's heard this before. They're not doing a play the results thing. But it just was kind of like, hey, I never really saw it or he didn't do this. It was funny. Even last night on the post-draft wrap-up, McShay was talking about how in meetings,

Levis really bummed some teams out. So he's still sitting there. Let me just get your reaction to the overall story instead of a question. Yeah. All right. So I heard the same thing

about the interviews were not sterling. What's funny to me, Ryan, is you and I watch a lot of college football. And with Stroud and Young, from the time they were starters, like September

of their first year starters, we're like, all right, they're going to be one too. Right. And with Levis, there was especially a lot of buzz when he had Liam Cohen as our offensive coordinator last year, 2021.

Um, that took a step back in 2022 a little bit when they didn't have Liam Cohen and Liam Cohen's with the Rams. He's back at Kentucky, by the way. Um, everybody's very happy about that in Lexington, but I think that,

um, everything shook out the way it was probably supposed to. And I don't think Levis was really ever a first round talent. I think he was, I said earlier, a toolsy guy who was out tooled by Anthony Richardson. So if you're intrigued by that, and then I think the fact that there are two legitimately great prospects next year starts to shade this. I also think that you look at the Jordan Love thing in Green Bay. If you have a quarterback right now, you don't want to destabilize your franchise by taking a guy like Will Levis and saying, we'll let him develop for three years. That screws with everything now. We already learned that. And so if I'm just looking at

these teams and I was going through it earlier, I did a pod with Lindsey Jones. I'm looking and I'm seeing what matters here. Do the Rams say, screw it? We don't know what the deal with Stafford is. He's played in Liam Cohen's offense and knows the McVay system. Let's just take him at 36. They have other needs. Are there a bunch of teams? Do the Raiders say, let's get a developmental guy? I just don't know. Do the Cardinals try to get a stopgap thing? I just don't know where this goes. So I think that Levis is probably going to get drafted probably where he belongs.

I don't think, I saw Joe Banner this morning talk about the toe injury and how it's probably a little fake and how they leaked that sort of as a cover for other things in the process that you alluded to. I don't think that there was some debilitating toe injury that got him out of the first round.

Everybody's leaking C.J. Stroud's S2 scores, and we don't find out that Will Levis has some toe injury that's concerning all teams. I do think that's overblown. So I don't... I feel bad for Levis, just in the sense that, you know, he's sitting there on camera, and he's got three people around him,

and they're all trying to put on a brave face. But I don't think this is some football tragedy. This is not, you know, there was no market for him. And that's being shown. The sitting around and watching all the time. You know, it's it becomes like doom porn in a way where. There are times when players fall and I'll be at home going like, well, what did you think?

Did you think you were going to? But I cannot say this enough. Players will listen to the most positive version of events when they're about to be drafted and then believe those. The number of times where you'll hear from somebody be like, well, I was actually supposed to go here and be like, well, who told you that? An agent, somebody close to you. Was there somebody who was like, hey, you're kind of in the eight to 20 range.

And then when eight comes up and you don't go eighth, that guy freaks out. Like even Aaron Rodgers, that was always weird because when he fell he hit that and it happens to quarterbacks a lot you'll hit this stretch in the first round where you're like wait if he doesn't go here then i don't see how like the next seven teams take him yeah and that's happened with guys in the past but i know it sucks i know it sucks for him and it's part of the broadcast so like these people go and stop showing them. The thing that bothered me maybe the most about him sitting around was that I think this is now a line in the sand. Like last night was a part of history.

Okay. History happened last night. We will always forget or excuse me. We will always remember. Never forget. remember never forget uh we will always remember that espn created an analytic that told the audience the percentage chance that this player would still be available and once it went to 1.8 1.8 chance espn analytics that that will levis would be available i was like wait what the fuck is that for everybody the

imbeed and yokich soldiers out there battling the last three years you know they would the imbeed side would say well you guys are just making up stats you'd be like what do you mean the stats that imbeed is also incredible in as well like i know vorp sounds stupid but it actually serves a purpose baseball has been doing it for decades i don't base everything on vorp so even if people were like oh this is a made-up thing well it for decades i don't base everything on vorp so even if people were like oh this is a made-up thing well it's just math you may not like the math you may not like the route you may not like the conclusion but it's this is actually made up i looked it up i was like i have to know what the formula was and i'm not trying to dog it here because now i kind

of feel bad that this is being so specific but it was based on mock scouting reports and team needs. That was what went into this. So now it's like, oh my God, Will Levis has gone to 1.8% available to now 0.8%. Does he know? And so I'm looking at that going, that is unnecessary. And I feel like we were all part of history. Agree. I will say the one thing that did surprise me is nobody traded up in the back half of the first because one of the value parts of the first round is you have the fifth year option, which you don't have in the second round. And so if you like a quarterback at all, if you have any inkling you like him as a quarterback, you want to take him so you can control him next year.

It's basically the football version of service time manipulation, right? Where it's like, okay, we have this guy under contract for one more year. It's great. So I am surprised. But the Chiefs weren't going to trade out at 31. I mean, Clark Hunt is, you know, given out. He's got the trophy up there. They had no chance.

And then at 30, the Eagles really wanted Nolan Smith. And so he was kind of locked out in that regard. And I think the Eagles obviously crushed the draft last night. But I just think that there weren't a lot of options for Levis in the the obvious places at the end of the first yeah okay um I could not you had no issue with the analytics on that one uh I I do not think uh I don't think they should bring it back I don't't know. I don't know if this guy is going to go here. Analytics is as cut and dry as OPS. I just want to know if one guy watching last night

turned to his buddy over a couple of beers. He's like, you know, only about a 12% chance that guy was going to be there. It's funny because we watched Formula One and it's like exactly like, all right, well, and Hamilton is going to get caught by Max Verstappen

in three and a half laps at this turn. And it's exactly right. And it's like some guy from Oracle spent 30 years just kind of going through all this stuff. And then meanwhile, at the NFL draft, it's like, uh-oh, well, we didn't.

Jameer Gibbs wasn't supposed to go there. Our entire model was erect. OK, perfect segue. Running backs back in again. Atlanta takes Bijan Robinson at eight. And I feel like everybody was like, hey, this is really good. And you know what? He is that good.

If you use him the right way, if you want to do a Le'Veon Bell, Christian McCaffrey thing, they were talking about lining him up in the slot like he is that good. If you use him the right way, if you want to do a Le'Veon Bell, Christian McCaffrey thing, they were talking about lining him up in the slot. Like he is that good. I just feel like running backs, man. It's like drafting an awesome post player in the NBA. Like it's cool. You can do all those things,

but we're probably not going to use it that much because there's other things that get us more yardage, more points than handing off. Running backs cannot control a football game the way they did when we grew up. And so that's another part of this and why you don't want to go ahead and take them i think it's kind of funny that we've been all on the same page like we all agreed on something that was right and because we all agreed on it now there's kind of this proud zag on running backs being like you

know the running backs actually like some of the dumbest stuff that i've seen presented where there should be like a running back salary cap on its own. And just why? So you can pay a guy even more that isn't primarily that important to you. Having said all of that, I'm cool with it. Jameer Gibbs at 12, who is awesome. I don't really get it. I still wouldn't do it even if I like the players.

Yep. I thought Robinson was going to go top 10 because there were not a lot of first round grades floating around the league. I don't know if you saw it, but a couple of reporters said the number was probably between 15 and 17 first round grades on most boards. Brandon B in the bills GM was asked last week how many first round grades he had. And he said, I'm not going to tell you the number, but it's not great, which is not what you want to hear going into an NFL draft. That's low. It's usually on the low end years.

It'll still be in the low 20s. Yes. And so I figured there were going to be teams in the top half of the first round, probably in the later stages of the top 10, where they're going to say, you know, we don't love these guys. Let's just take a running back. He's a top player on our board. Daniel Jeremiah had him third. And most teams had him as the cleanest prospect, not a lot of red flags, not a lot of issues. So I'm not surprised by that.

The Gibbs thing is disappointing to me because we talk so much about how a rebuild should go and how there should be a proof of concept by the end of year two that you're on the right track. Who did that better than the Lions last year? And I was with Brad Holmes, their GM, during the season last year. And he talked about the rebuild that they were doing and how basically the Stafford trade year and all of that, that was all kind of accidental. That they didn't mean to tear it down, but they just kept making these moves. And all of a sudden they looked and they had to tear it down on their hands. And so he referred to the sort of first, I guess you'd say 14 months as the HVAC year of the house where you're just building the house and you're getting the things in. And now you're getting in, he said, the chandeliers and all that stuff. So what I was intrigued to see once he said that was what the identity is going forward. I love Jack Campbell as a prospect. I love Jameer Gibbs as a prospect. You just alluded to it. He's awesome. Jameer Gibbs played against Miami at Georgia Tech and I was in hell for an afternoon. Miami won that game by the grace of God. But man,

he was really, really good. Nick Saban really wanted him. He was one of the best transfers in the country last year. I understand why you'd want those guys on your team. Having said that, I saw someone had they do the kind of picks versus the consensus mock. And I believe that the Lions reached

by about 44 picks combined. And I just think you could have traded down, gotten for your troubles, gotten a few more mid-round picks. Jameer Gibbs would have been there. If you're that in love with Jack Campbell, fine. But they also just paid a running back and a linebacker, fairly significant veteran money, Montgomery and Anzalone. And I just think the reason the union wants free agency before the draft is that you don't fill up

your needs at the draft. But one thing you can't do is fill your needs in both at the same time. So I just, I really don't, I love what Detroit does. I love what they're building generally,

but I just felt like they missed an opportunity. We look what Seattle did last night where they get Witherspoon and JSN. And it's like, these guys are going to help now. They're going to get better.

Pete Carroll said that he's never really seen anybody like with this point, they're going to build Legion of boom 2.0 with Tariq one on the other side. Like that to me was what the lions had an opportunity to do where you go, okay, I see this.

The team is complete. Let's go compete for, for, for damn Superbowl, honestly. And I know golf is not the quarterback you want in that situation, but still, they leave the door open for Caleb Williams, Drake May. If they really bottom out, they still have extra picks, all that stuff.

Having said that, I just feel like they left some meat on the bone, and that's what disappoints me. Yeah, it's a good point about the projected mock stuff and all that. I remember the first time a GM just destroyed the whole mock process to me years and years ago in the NBA. And it's just something I've never forgotten because I think he's right. He's like, if there were no mocks, drafts would be different. But the problem is that it becomes kind of common acceptance.

You're like, well, this guy's supposed to go here and this guy's supposed to go there. He's like, we'll take somebody 10 that was supposed to go 14. And the fan base is like, what the fuck? And it's ridiculous. Having said all those things, it felt like Detroit reached twice. I mean, it was so bad for Jack Campbell at one point. They were like, did Dan take his son? Like, well, no, that was.

He's an incredible athlete. He's an incredible athlete in the inside linebacker combine data. He is one of the most athletic guys at the position this year. I really like him. I just don't know if that's the difference between year three being as special as it could be. Look, I'm telling you right now, America needs football. Iowa, NFL factory.

NFL factory. I point out I don't like their offense a lot, but it is always one of those things where when you look at how many guys will be on a roster opening week of the NFL season, there's more Hawkeyes there than they get credit for as far as that program's concerned. Okay, give me... I do

want to say one thing. I do think it's funny that Arthur Smith did this, the trope that is just so funny. Every time he dropped a running back in the first round, you have to go, he's not just a running back. He's not just a running back. He's not just a running back. He's an impact football player. He's a football guy.

And that's what Arthur Smith did. He said, yeah, conventional wisdom. He's a lot more than a running back. Impact football guy. That's what he is. And it's like, no, you know what? You draft a running back. It's fine.

It's fine. You don't have to pretend he's going to do 11 things. But you're right. Jameer Gibbs was horrifying. Like, that's how good he was. Yes. So none of this is about it. i'm i like alpie shingun all right and they got him later so it's not like they took him top 10 in houston he's incredibly talented i think he has the best post skills maybe in the entire league i'm serious his footwork his hands and all that kind of stuff

it's great nobody throws the ball to those guys anymore. You know what I'm saying? So when you have an awesome running back, like it's cool, but it doesn't, you know, what's going to happen, you know, third and four, what do you got? What does the fan base want? You hand it off to the left side and it's crushed. You're going to be mad to even pass the football. So that's kind of where I am at the position. All right. Give me, this is a little simpler here. Give me your favorite pick. Nolan Smith, probably one of the most athletic guys in the draft. I think that something is happening here that I don't know if the NFL world is slightly as reckoned with more than it should.

So here's the deal. I was following some of the recruiting guys last night and they were talking about the amount of five stars that were getting drafted in the first round. And it's higher than ever. And that Cooper Batagna, former personnel guy for a bunch of college teams, was talking about this. The tape's gotten better.

The evals have gotten better at high school. The camps have gotten better. The data. Georgia does a lot of GPS stuff to the point that we're actually pretty good and pretty efficient at figuring out who the guys are going to be. They're going to be picked in the first round three years later.

And I think 13 five stars went in the first round, something like that, depending on what service you looked at. And when you start just taking Georgia guys, Kirby Smart recruits a high school defensive all-star team and then teaches them how to play football

and implants that dog in them. And then they get drafted in the first round after winning a national championship. That's the structure. And you cannot go broke on just taking those guys over and over. Daniel Jeremiah had a funny tweet two years ago that somebody recirculated last night that was like,

I'm watching Georgia, just draft them all. Just draft them all. And I think because we're kind of used to the talent being spread out, I think we're kind of like, well, you can't just sit there drafting Georgia players. Yeah, you can. You can. Because the way recruiting has gone over the past decade,

about 60% of five stars went to the same five schools over and over again. Georgia has had, at worst, the second most talented roster by recruiting rankings in the last three years. So the entire time that Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith were there. And they take guys who are risks, frankly. We know that. We've talked about that offline. They take guys who are risks, frankly. We know that. We've talked about that offline. Just the way Kirby tends to recruit.

He takes risks and he says, we'll kick you off the team if you're a bad guy. Some of those guys do get to the NFL. I think Philadelphia has a real advantage in that regard because you really can't be a shithead in that locker room because everyone's having a good time. Ryan, you ever been on a trip with your buddies and you want to be the shithead, you want to be a jerk, and everybody's like, we're actually having an amazing time, so you actually have to be a good guy?

That is what happens when you're in a winning locker room. You're in a locker room with Jason Kelsey and Fletcher Cox and Lane Johnson and guys who are going to try to be a pro. You can't be a jerk in that locker room. And if you are, you're going to feel like an outsider immediately. There are teams, I was talking about this earlier today. I remember there was a really weird trade a couple years ago. And somebody said, I asked somebody, I said, why did

this trade get made? Bad value, big star. And they said, because that's the kind of guy who can't be in a losing locker room. Can't be in a losing locker room. Can only be in a winning locker room. And I think about that with some of the, like a Jalen Carter, where there are red flags. Ian Rappaport and Mike Florio

both alluded to the fact that Georgia coaches didn't give glowing reviews. But if he's going to thrive anywhere, and if he's just going to ball out and put everything else aside, it's going to be competing for a Super Bowl, which is Philadelphia. And so I'd put Kansas City in that bucket where they can take chances other teams can't. It'd be really hard for Houston to take that chance. It'd be really hard for Arizona, who's busy tampering with Jonathan Gannon, to take that chance. Philadelphia has that advantage. Nolan Smith, by the way, no red flags. Like, great guy.

Everybody loves him. He had the pec injury, which nobody was worried about. 239 pounds, which is a problem, but so athletic, and you're going to be able to figure out what to do with them. So until further notice, I'm taking Georgia guys over and over and over again. I remember somebody with the Dolphins years ago had said to me, if the Dolphins, the Dolphins took, I think, one glory days Miami player, it was Vernon Carey.

They said, the Dolphins should have just taken the best Miami player available for like a decade and things would have been great. Just don't overthink it. And we're there with Georgia now. And I don't think people really get it. I agree with you only because, you know, I watched Nolan two years ago. The fact that he's a little undersized at the high 230s, knowing he's going into Philadelphia's front, which along with Jalen and the receivers, was the other scariest unit in the NFL. And now you just start to cycle through a position of strength. I like when teams do that. Like, hey, you know what?

We're really good here. Let's be even better. Because you know you're going to lose a couple of them anyway. good here let's be even better because you know you're going to lose a couple of them anyway and you're absolutely right with the jaylen carter stuff because it wasn't it wasn't all the stuff that everybody heard about it was the stuff after like the first glimpse of like wait what's going on with this dude and it was it came down to a point with him if you ask around where you know he had to be asked like hey are you into this like some really weird shit for a guy that could have been the number one pick and

i shouldn't say it we're just a professionalism a dedication to be like are you are you aligned with the rest of us and so to your point about in philly like it's just not gonna like you know he can't walk in there and pretend that it's his show where if it's a lesser roster he's probably going to go about it a little bit differently depending on what you believe and what you've heard of Georgia and let me just emphasize it again when I say weird shit I just mean the staff having to go hey where's

your head at with us like are you all the way bought in because the rest of us are and that's I think what was so surprising and frustrating for the Carter story in his last year. If he comes in and doesn't fill it up, what are you doing dude? Like no one's going to really even pay attention like, okay, there's a little weird like do your

own thing. The exceptions that you have to make for great talent in football at every level is significant. I heard a story years ago from a scout who was talking about Greg Hardy and he was saying that I guess I guess Greg Hardy would just not come to practice at Ole Miss sometimes. Just,

just he's doing his own thing. Hey, where's Greg? I don't know. He's not, not, not a practice. And so the scout was like,

Hey, I'm going into his junior year. I guess it's like, I'm going to tell the Hardys like, let's, let's let's start showing up to practice. Let's just like, there's a low baseline.

You got to clear. Let's clear it. Okay. So I guess Greg didn't take it that well and was like, yeah, I'm going to keep doing my own thing. And I always slipped in the draft and we kind of saw how his career played out.

And so I was telling somebody else that story. And I thought that was a crazy story I'd ever heard that Greg Hardy wouldn't show up to practice. Right. And I'm talking to this GM at training camp and the GM is like, Oh, we got a guy like that. And he named the guy,

the guy was a top 20 receiver. Okay. He was like the guy, that guy would just skip practice in college all the time. And the GM is like, oh, we got a guy like that. And he named the guy. The guy was a top 20 receiver. He was like, that guy would just skip practicing college all the time. And I was like, well, what the hell? And he's like, it is way more common than you think for a guy to be a historic shithead and then just turn it around at the NFL level. Like they get in the right system, they get in the right structure, or just the money motivates them. I get that. And so you have to take chances. And you have to do things that make you very uncomfortable. And you will hear stories from the college level that make you very, very, very queasy about a guy.

And if the guy is a unique talent, you kind of got to eat shit. Yeah. And I love that Philly did it at the top. And then the only concern when it's a peck tear like that, nobody cares. Nobody's worried about it. With that speed and the fact that it's not like, hey, we took this guy ninth and we have no other interior lineman. We have no one on the other side. Our linebackers aren't that good.

And then all of a sudden you're watching him going, like, does this guy ever make a play? You know, the focus is never going to be on Nolan Smith and the rotation of all those players. Certainly not early on. The pick I loved because I had Nolan Smith down as well. Dalton Kincaid to go to Buffalo. I love it. I think he's really more than just hey, this guy's got good hands and he's tough and he's all these different things. There's some juice to him at the position. I would elect Mayer, too.

I'm surprised Mayer is still available. I'm not surprised that Washington is still available. Now, hold on. Why is that? Because Washington is 20 pounds heavier than Mayer and faster. Because I watched enough to know that he's not the guy. That was my thing with the mocks when I would see Washington ahead of Mayer.

I'd go, no. I just don't think he was... I think the highlights are fucking awesome, but I think over the course of the game, he's not the matchup nightmare that people project him to be because of his physical gifts. I will bet money that Mayer has a better quarterback.

I would bet you money Mayer has a better career than Washington. Interesting. I'm not surprised either of them didn't go in the first round. I just wouldn't stake much of a claim in Mayer. I don't know. I like Washington. I like Washington's athleticism, but I'm not going to stick my neck out for either of those guys.

I do like Kincaid. I like the idea that, I mean, first of all, he was not supposed to stick my neck out for either of those guys. I do like Kincaid. I like the idea that, I mean, first of all, he was not supposed to be the guy at Utah. Brant Kuthi was. And the fact that he was able to take that, be an athlete, Brandon Bean talking about his elite hands last night, I just really like that weapon. And what he does, Bean was talking about this last night, what he does to defenses and the structures they're going to have to be in,

I think it's really going to help Buffalo this year. Another note from last night's coverage, Tampa at 19 takes Kalajikantse. Here's a rule I have. If the player that was drafted is compared to Aaron Donald, then he should go higher than 19. Yeah, I thought that was... He's a pit he has black six one i guess size question yeah yeah yeah and it's like oh well pencil him as an ex aaron donald's like oh cool he's at 19

excellent wonderful win um the um the i just have certain players. I'm sorry. There's just certain players I don't ever want to see a comp up next to. Yes. I think the Bucs are a pretty good Drake May, Caleb Williams team, by the way. I was thinking about that this morning. Who's going to totally bottom out? Who needs a quarterback? Who wants a quarterback? Who's not going to feel?

Who's going to be in a market where you can kind of take a year off? I wouldn't be surprised. Okay. I have a question for you. I was thinking about this. Football, it's so hard to do this. So you still have to operate as if you're trying to be competitive. And, you know, no offense to your sport, but I do say this quite often.

Everybody wants to talk about like, man, the games are so close, they're so competitive. It's like, yeah, but if you just turn the ball over, which is a lot of luck anyway on fumble recoverers especially, like all of a sudden a team that should be, well, in today's case, six and 11 can all of a sudden be like nine and eight. Like that's it. That's kind of what the sport is.

So I don't think football can go in with a predetermined plan of like, we're going to try to like maybe halfway through the season, you go, all right, we suck. And let's start doing some of these things. I would ask fans this question. If you were Tampa, all right, let's just do it. You're a Bucs fan.

I will guarantee you the number one pick next year, but your team doesn't play football this season. So they take it off. I think most people would take that no no I think most people would take that I think so

I think most Bucs fans would take that yeah yes I think Cardinals fans would take that I'd bring it up open up Sundays

nice weather in both those places what if it's the season plays out but you get your ass kicked every single week I mean I think that's already what happens remember the Dolphins a couple years ago they were just losing by 45 points every weekend so it's no football so no tailgates no sunday like you can say hey

your sunday's open up now i don't know i mean people can start hanging out with their families i think that's what football football isn't family football is an escape from your family it depends i'll say this it depends the market. So like one of the reasons I think people are so emotional about college football is that it's in a lot of places where there's not a ton of competition, right?

So like if you're a huge University of Florida fan and you live near Gainesville, like you don't, it's not like you can just pop down every night and see the magic or whatever, right? Iowa, Nebraska,

that kind of stuff. And if you're a Cardinals fan, you can just be like, ah, man, we only have to wait a month and a half and we get Suns preseason, or we can go to the Coyotes 3,000 seat arena and just see them muck it up. I think it just depends on the market.

That's why I think, not to bring this into a weird place, but when COVID was happening and they were like, we're going to cancel college football, people were really mad because it's kind of the only thing a lot of people do. And I know a lot of those people. I love those people. And I get it because I'm obsessed with college football. But there are a lot of people where it's like college football is their only thing. Yes. Yes.

I think NFL fans are much i think nfl fans are much likelier nfl fans are much likelier to be like you know what i'm good with taking one year off exactly one year to get caleb williams or drake may depending on who your front office likes and then we'll roll it over well the city of los angeles went 20 years without a team all fair i'm just saying it sounds easy for two guys to just theorize on it but then it comes around it's like november and you go i kind of miss football what team what team are you what team would say no what team do you feel the most passionate about in the sports vermont uh probably not red sox um i don't really know that i have one anymore no that's what i'm Vermont? Probably not. Red Sox?

I don't really know that I have one anymore. No, that's what I'm asking. Look, if St. John's were to go on a run, that's when I would kind of be back to me being pretty excited. Like excited, and I would measure my excitement based on would I actually be bummed out if they didn't win? Like that's the thing. I mean, I know this sounds weird to do this this long, but now when something that I rooted for loses, I don't care.

Like I'm on to the next thing. I don't. Which, yeah. So I'm bad. I'm an awful person to ask. Look, if St. John's are in the final four and lost to Duke, then you might see a bummed out version of me back to my early 20s. Like, I was still mad.

I left my own house when they lost to Gonzaga in the tournament as a two-seat. I walked out of my own apartment. I had people over. My girlfriend. Where'd you go? A bar. Yeah? Yeah.

And then her girlfriend started giving me shit. She's like, you take sports way too seriously i was like fucking leave me alone i really liked i looked at st john's team i went to a couple iona games uh i live right down the street and i saw patino coach him up it was good he looks good i heard he's good i heard he's good. He is good. Anyway, yeah, I think teams would, there are markets that would take one year off for Caleb Williams. All right, yeah, it's a nice little exercise.

Maybe the funnier exercise is which team wouldn't. They're like, nope, we're not doing that. And I'm not talking about the good ones, Kansas City fans going, well, we wouldn't. Yeah, we kind of knew that ahead of time. All right, I have F1 stuff that I want to get to. I want to last draft thing. Last draft thing. Did Sham Sharania just decide to do a minor flex

on having some of the top picks, and then he just stopped tweeting them? What happened there? I don't know. I've never met Shams. I saw him at a fan duel party before a Killers concert at the Super Bowl. It's the only time I've been in the same room with him. Sounds like a good time.

It was a great time. I have more respect for the Killers than I used to. Oh, yeah. I love the Killers. Yeah. I just wasn't a Killers guy. And then I saw him and like Brandon Flowers, you know, huge hair. You know, nobody looks like that anymore.

Nobody looks like that. He's wearing a suit. Yeah. Nobody looked like that anymore. Nobody looks like that. He's wearing a suit. Yeah, nobody looked like him when he first, first off, he looked like do you want a smoky Moscow mule? Like the killers were first on the scene. You're like, this guy is quite the mixologist. You're like,

oh no, he's a great singer. The one thing about him is that he kind of shoots his way out of cringe. Like he's cringe, but he's so like, I don't mean cringe is the wrong maybe the wrong phrase for it he's so into it no i'm talking about brand of flowers i'm just saying he he he is so into it and so earnest that he then somehow becomes cool but it takes like four songs to be like oh okay this is fine it's a little springsteenish a little springsteenish like he's

so into it that you just have to adjust how you're viewing it. All right. I think we covered it. What was Shams doing? I don't know what Shams was doing. That was not something I expected. No, but it was definitely a, I can do this too. If you wanted me to.

And then it was like, yeah, I don't know. I don't know if that's what's happening. I mean, at some point, people thought that he broke Trump having COVID. And it just, the tweet had already happened a minute before. And then he was like, Trump has COVID. And people were like, this guy's on fire.

Where's, is Mark Jackson coming to the Nets? You're like, yeah, I don't, what? What's happening here? Okay, all right. Before we go any deeper, let's go abroad. We are supported by YouTube and YouTube TV, the new home of NFL Sunday Tickets. So if you're going to be watching NFL Sunday Ticket,

you're going to be watching on YouTube and YouTube TV. Now's your chance to catch the lowest full season price. Get $100 off when you sign up today at youtube.com slash Russillo r-u-s-s-i-l-l-o and i've seen some things in the draft that i'm obviously excited for now the first thing is i want to watch all the rookie quarterbacks play right because i have no idea every team says yeah it doesn't really matter we're going to give these guys plenty of time we're going to we're going to develop and we're going to coach them up that always feels like week one the guys running out there and then they'll run a little bit. Like, man, look how dynamic this player is.

And it's like, all right, we'll see what happens. So some screens on the rookies. Other rookies that I'll be looking for, Kincaid, Buffalo. Witherspoon's probably my favorite player in this draft. The corner at Illinois going to Seattle, where he probably ended up going as high as he possibly could, considering the defensive linemen and the quarterbacks that went ahead of him. And then I'll probably throw a screen on when Kyleyle comes over watch some pats and you can see

christian gonzalez out of oregon all right that's probably what will happen on sundays thanks to nfl sunday ticket on youtube and youtube tv for sponsoring this segment if you're as into football as i am it's time to sign up for nfl sunday ticket on youtube and youtube tv so you can watch it all go down this fall check out your favorite teams teams out of market Sunday afternoon games and stream up to four games at once with multi-view on NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube and YouTube TV. Sign up today and get $100 off at

youtube.com slash Rosillo R-U-S-S-I-L-L-O Terms and embargoes apply. Offer N66, no refunds, device restrictions supply. continued economic responsibility demands restraint and government expenditure and last year we achieved the largest ever recorded reduction in the budget deficit 1.5 million okay max verstappens won two of three races uh Bahrain, Australia, although I'll tell you the Sergio Perez stuff in Saudi Arabia was perhaps my favorite part of this early stretch of the season.

Red Bull looks terrific again. Lewis has a podium on top of a fifth and a fifth. There's a bunch of different things. Where do you want to start? Let's start with Max and his dominance because i think we all saw this coming where verstappen was gonna have a bit of a route and that no car could catch red bull and that's what's happening um i think that for the sake of the american f1 boom something needs to happen whether that's fernando alonso continuing to improve improve getting podiums he's third in the driver standings

right now I love that there's some weird Taylor Swift rumors I don't really understand the next race after Baku is Miami I'm going I leave on Wednesday I'm intrigued to see how this kind of all develops because we really can't

have like American sports fans are kind of going to tune out if as much as it is a soap opera as much as it is is kind of, as I've said before, like the Real Housewives of Monaco, there needs to be some sort of compelling on track drama going forward. And I don't know if if Red Bull being so good is going to help with that. Yeah, it's interesting. You know, I feel like the number of people that still talk about it all the time like was it a moment and now it's like okay we're back to normal uh it isn't for me and i thought i wondered like wait is this was this a fad for you and then i caught myself watching two of the last three races and the one i didn't watch I had taped and I went back and watched it so I was like yeah I guess I really am into this so Verstappen's dominance uh not surprising I mean

even Leclerc has the poll this week and he's like I'm not going to hang on to this which is so funny to hear you know in this version of events an athlete where no athlete be like yeah I know we took the first two games from we're going to lose this series. And he's just like, yeah, we're not going to be able to hang on to this lead whatsoever. The one thing I like about this year is that Fernando Alonso putting pressure on these guys is allowing

younger fans to understand who Fernando Alonso is. So Fernando Alonso, multiple-time world champion in 2005-2006. Like, on track to be one of the best ever and then is kind of an internal politics nightmare to the point that things would just

go south for him he was in a handful of kind of internal scandals never really got along well with a lot of the team principals all that stuff a little bit it's funny because pre welfare scandal I used to compare him a little bit to Brett Favre, where it's like this is a guy who really had

the talent and was on track to do really special things and was just kind of like actually let me go play for the Jets and the Vikings and feud with everybody and be weird and also randomly throw 30-yard ducks in overtime of playoff games, right?

Like it was a little bit of that. Fernando probably will have a better second half of his life. But I just think that having him relevant is important to this and him putting pressure on those guys is really, really cool. And I think that, you know, I saw a couple quotes from Baku, I haven't been able to pay all that much attention this week to Baku because of the draft, but it's like the Hamilton-Alonso rivalry, which was a real thing for a long time. It's almost entering this new chapter. It's not almost. It is entering this new chapter where they're kind of elder statesmen of the sport and how that develops. They're three and four right now in the driver's championship. To have those kind of battles and an improved Aston Martin car that Alonzo's in. I think it's really cool. And I think, I think it's enough to keep me interested. It's enough. I'm obviously it's my job to be interested, but I'm just saying from a, from a casual fan standpoint, I think it's enough to have to get eyeballs on it. I think that people are kind of grasping the history through, through that. So that's a

really cool thing about this year. And if you just cut out sort of, I mean, it's almost like college football, right? Where you just have to kind of cut out Georgia from the rest of everything. If you just cut out Checo and Verstappen,

there's a pretty interesting rest of the grid. Okay, but the reason I love Saudi Arabia, though, is Sergio is ahead of Max. Max is going back to Horner being like, okay, what are we doing? And Red Bull's like, well, Sergio's winning. It's like, okay, well, Max is basically saying,

aren't you going to tell him to let me pass him? And it's like, it's the second race of the season, dude. It was the second race, I think. And at that point, it's like, hey, maybe the end of the year we're fighting. And then I think think max actually says we're fighting for a world title here and so we knew it was a little pissy between those two and the whole dynamic at the end of last year i mean this is really good stuff you want drama this is all the soap opera stuff and i don't know i probably just entered at the wrong time because i don't know if i'd root for Max if I was like a longtime guy. But I enjoy him being such a cyborg that I can't get enough of it. Like hearing his accent and the way he phrases that, the absurdity of it at the time, the second race into the season, knowing all the stuff they're coming off of at the end of last year,

where he and Perez clearly had issues with each other. I love that stuff. And it's a version of this sport that we just don't get in other sports. I thought that bringing Ricardo in as the reserve guy was really interesting because I think it was a message to Checo, because it's not a message to Max. It's a message to Checo like, hey man, keep this harmonious and it's on you to keep this harmonious

or else we have Daniel Ricciardo who everybody loves just hanging around making TikToks and going on Instagram lives and stuff and he's ready to hop in the car whenever he needs to. That was a really interesting statement. Right. Ricciardo, everybody's favorite guy from the series doesn't have a car right now and it's been

a slow trickle down like what he's the reserve so what does that mean like they think he's going to be in the seat next year no i mean it's possible there's some sort of secret agreement but beyond anything it just means every everybody has like nick devries was this for for mercedes there's been a couple of van dorn was a reserve from for mercedes i think and um there are guys you know i think esteban ocon was a driver uh reserve driver in the year he was out of it. But I think that he's a backup guy. I mean, that's what it is.

But when it's a guy with that stature, that's sending a message. I mean, it's not a million miles away from when the NBA coach is in trouble and they hire Mike D'Antoni to be the number two guy. And it's like, wait, why is this guy here? Hold on. Is he here to turn it? What was the Red Sox do that a decade ago where they brought in a really empowered bench coach and then he took over? Maybe two decades

ago, maybe we're just old. But it's like that kind of thing where it's like, all right, I just want you to know that looking over your shoulder in the paddock is one of the best drivers of this generation. Just a little FYI. Okay, the Mercedes dynamic. We're looking at Lewis, who's had two fifth place finishes and a podium. I think the Mercedes part of this is still very interesting.

They feel like they're in the mix. And George Russell is not Valtteri Bottas at all. And that's, I think, the part of this where I've really enjoyed that. Like, we're talking about the Max Sergio part of it. Russell's not. He doesn't care about Hamilton's resume. And there's certain weekends where he looks like the better driver. I don't know if it comes down to a car thing.

I mean, he loses his shit. But then he's also very formal this week i think he actually said oh sugar over the mic when he was upset about something um although he runs pretty hot during the races that is not i'm just happy to be here at all uh which was certainly understood with botas so mercedes was always in a weird spot because total wolf even coming into the season was basically saying they don't think they're going to figure out the car until mid-year I think that there were a lot I think so many teams were behind the eight ball last year that they always knew with the lead that Red Bull

had that it was going to be a while and so I think there's been a little bit of awkwardness all season with Mercedes because of that because they knew that they weren't going to be in much of a fight in the first half of the season. So I don't know how this develops. Lewis clearly is going to be... I mean, there were a couple of years there where there were kind of retirement rumblings every year for Lewis,

especially when he was winning titles. I think he's more competitive than the type of guy who would just walk away from all of this. So Toto's whole thing is empathy, people managing. I think he did a podcast a couple, like a year ago, and the title was Empathy Over Engineering. And the whole thing was like, we just love people. We just love people.

And it's like, okay, well, put your people hat on because you're going to have to manage these relationships. And also, by the way, you're going to have to manage engineering because the car needs to get better. So the whole thing, and this kind of goes back to the Eagles locker room thing, right? It's a hell of a lot easier to manage a locker room when you're winning

world titles. And even the Botas year where he was, you know, getting upset at drive to survive over the Instagram comments, they were still winning world constructors championships during those years. So now you're not, you don't have that carrot.

What do you do? What's your next move? And that's, I think, the fascination with Mercedes is you're not the dominant team. You're not even close to the dominant team. You don't have the chance to be the dominant team. So what's your next pitch? Because you don't have what you used to have. Great to have you back.

What do you have as far as your schedule now so you can promote it slow news days this week travis kelsey von miller uh we had lindsey jones and we had sauce gardner sauce gardner said it's going to be easy to make the playoffs on slow news day this week um next week some john morant vibes a little bit as people were actually saying that when he portrayed it and tried to walk it back and people in the comments were like, we're good in the West. It's like, oh, yeah. On Monday, I think I'm going to have a recruiting

guy on. I think I want to talk about this recruiting thing that I alluded to earlier about how their recruiting pipeline is getting clearer to the NFL. It's a little bit NBA-ish. It's a little bit NBA-ish where it's like a lot of times there'll be a rookie and the NBA media will be like, where'd this guy come from? It's like actually it turns out he was a ninth player in his high school class

and he was a five-star and already had a Gatorade deal when he was 12. I'm intrigued to see that. I'll get a recruiting guy on. I'll make some calls this afternoon. That's Monday and we also have a first-round recap this morning with Lindsay.

Great to see you, man. Thanks for everything as always. And we'll catch up later in the season. See you soon, pal. You want details? Bye.

I drive a Ferrari three 55 cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required.

Life advice. Lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. Kyle, my man, what's going on? What's up? Is this the part where we talk about Christian Gonzalez? Is it the life advice we talk about Christian Gonzalez? Is it the life advice part? Or I was just wondering. I mean, you guys did so, so much.

And it was like a steal in the draft. And everyone was like happy. Bill was getting all these texts yesterday. And I was like, I wonder what Ryan thinks. And I don't really know what you think. So I guess maybe next week, you just need to iron out some thoughts before you say anything. Why would I care about the Pats draft?

Why would I do that? God damn it it i saw your tweet they traded down you're all fucking upset you did like single word dot single word dot sentences like to really emphasize the point how depressed you were how much did you know about christian gonzalez 48 hours ago oh dude it's the same that i knew about patrick chung when he got drafted all those years ago but then i was like all right the oregon guy let's take a look i'm in i love it so uh i mean i love it i don't know i was hoping you who who does all the work uh normally could have just said a few fucking words but i guess uh off to a good start friday continues yeah yeah right uh a little concert update i may be going to see Willie Nelson this weekend at the Hollywood Bowl with a couple big time famous people. Wow.

They're like Rosillo's spring concert tour. It's just it's incredible. No one even knew it was happening. Even me. The Bowl is your spot, huh? Is that your favorite place to go? Dude, this is all brand new this isn't uh hollywood bowl is incredible though like if you haven't been to it and you live near it you've been who did you see their corn kyle me i haven't been to the bowl i went to i went to see johnny he said

johnny at the uh at the uh what's it at the Coliseum, but not the Bowl. Never been invited, actually. I guess I'll have to take a look at the schedule and just take myself. Wait, you said Willie Nelson? Yeah. This is like back-to-back big drug guy concerts for you. You're just going to be sitting there probably most overdue there. There you go. Good for you.

I guess Paul Dano was at the fish show that I was at. Love Paul Dano's work. Like Paul Dano's an auto for me, but I can't fathom talking to him about anything. Like there's no way he's that good of an actor. Like, could I be like, hey, man, what's going on? I don't know. He's so good in prisoners. I love him everything he's a fantastic actor but yeah like you only picture him as like the weird creepy guy in every role he's ever played i can't imagine him being anything other than that he's probably

like over the top graciously nice a lot of the the artists you know just hey what's going on um but i don't know there would be any real connection there maybe maybe i don't know okay so i don't know i don't know if i'm gonna go to connection there. Maybe. Maybe. I don't know. Okay, so I don't know. I don't know if I'm going to go to this show. And by the way, the big-time famous guy is not entirely true. It's just sort of one guy. Whatever. We'll tell the story. If we have a story to tell, we'll tell it. I was kind of like, all right, I don't know.

Would I go to William Ellison by myself? Would I go with someone else? Would I go with somebody that wasn't my friend? No, no, and no. All right, life advice. We have an update. We have an update. Remember our guy

chiming in about his brother-in-law, George? The Amway guy? It was a brother-in-law, wasn't it? Yeah, it was a brother-in-law. Alright. Update. Major amway relapse i'm sad i'm saddened but also somewhat giddy to report that george has suffered a major amway

relapse his activity had tallied off but this weekend he drove his wife up to las vegas for a giant amway conference somehow they ate at two different Nobu's in one weekend, and George won a grand playing roulette. So nobody can say selling Amway doesn't pay. The next day they headed to a sold-out Thomas & Max Center, home of your Runnin' Rebels, for an 11-hour all-day event. From the videos he sent,

which is an awesome part of this story that's kind of easy to overlook. Just keeping everyone updated. Yeah, he was sending videos to these guys being like, from the videos he sent, mostly seemed like inspirational speakers and an Anthrax cover

band. That can't be true. It may have seemed that way. I't you're right right i know what would you name your anthrax cover band that's a stumper right there i don't i don't know that's right either yeah i don't have one i could pull out pass uh would you want to be in a cover band if you could be in any cover band kyle what would your cover band be cover band ah shit uh bob seger cover band checks out that would be badass kyle or excuse me kyle saruti uh the hive why don't we just the killers would be fun we'll go off the kevin clark vibe i don't know i like the killers killers is the best

pick for you yeah doesn't seem like you really mean that I do like the killers I don't love the killers but I feel like everybody likes their songs

they're easy to sing you know Mr. Brightside get everybody happy you'd have more good nights than bad nights yeah I'm not a good singer so like if I'm just

going to sing songs that people like then yeah that's a pretty easy one to do got it yeah okay 70s Joel I would do as well yeah one to do got it yeah okay 70s joel

i would do as well yeah 70s joel not 80s just 70s well i know that's out there already so i figured 70s would be good like you can't go queen because you're just never going to be able to live up like i would love to sure i'd love to sing queen songs but i'm never going to be able to sing freddie mercury like properly so that's kind of off the table yeah a bad queen cover band like all the guys are great. And then they're just like, dude, he can't hit any of the notes.

Oh yeah. I got absolutely hammered on my 30th birthday in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. And we went to a karaoke bar and I sang, don't stop me now. And I thought I killed it. And video footage the next day was not great. Not awesome.

So we'll do it once. Did not kill it upon further review all right let's see here uh so all right um talk about a bender that's what he says uh oh i i also think he's gotten botox when i saw him recently he looked at a little diff a little different i asked him if something happened and all he said was quote, most salesmen think they're selling the product, but they're really selling themselves. It's a smart investment to make sure you

look your best. George is back, baby. I'd have George on, but I'm afraid I'd start buying stuff. Yeah. You know your subscription plan? Yeah. Right. Yeah. All right.

Let's do this. This is simple. Okay. 510-158. Pickup game reminiscent of Jose Alvarado crossing small-handed rondo. A small-handed rondo. Okay.

I belong to a small gym in New England. A couple months ago, I sent a girl a like. I sent a girl a like on Hinge without realizing she was the same girl I'd been seeing around the gym. I immediately regretted sending the like as I realized it would be unlikely she would match with me considering I sent a like on Hinge rather than approach her in person. I've been seeing her at the gym a couple times per week ever since and have avoided making eye contact considering she decided not to match with me. Recently, I've noticed what seems to be behavior on her end inviting me to start a conversation, electing to do exercises with equipment adjacent to me, eye contact, etc.

Should I approach and risk making an awkward situation worse or stay the course of avoidance considering my like was not reciprocated oh okay so that's the issue right you guys are gonna have to talk dating apps you're gonna have to i so is a like like a poke on facebook where it's like an innocuous like not sure what to do i guess i'll poke you back or maybe i won't because i don't want to be poked back by you. Or is a like like a match? A like isn't a match, right? Because Hinge is like a profile, right? And there's like things on it.

And where Tinder is just like, it's like you match or you don't. I think a like is send nudes, no? It's on. No. But I don't think a like is like a match, right? A like is like. Yeah, I think you're right. I think the poke analogy is on point there.

I got to think quickly here. This is how does a hinge like work. Do you get a like? From who? Well, no. The only dating app I ever used was Tinder. I kind of missed that whole boat. I started dating my now wife kind of when that thing blew up.

But anyway, this says when someone likes you, they have a they have to match a certain thing on your profile whether it's liking a picture or commenting on one of your answers you get a notification when they do that so basically you have a you have some sort of common ground situation i don't know that means it's like fully on but it's like a you know a starter yeah right so what did he like did he like her fitness passion or did he like a photo where she looked hot like we don't we don't know exactly what it was that he liked right yeah it sucks you're

getting married kyle because this would be like you're right no i'm sorry actually it's congratulations for you but it actually sucks i didn't even think about the podcast i'm sorry yeah yes next time dude seriously all right so um i think kyle was right i think the initial thing kyle said what were pokes all about dude how so fucking weird so weird looking back i think about how creepy that is hey dude you poker yeah man let's see what happens that was the thing that people said it really i think i've said it she didn't respond you know what you should poke her again definitely you know do it a couple times a week but then also my like my grandma's poking me and my my drunk auntie's poking me and then this hot girl i'm like in a poke thing with her and like a dude in my class is poking me because i don't

think he knows how it works it was just it was a strange collection of of individuals i think yeah what were the dude pokes like? I don't know. It was French dudes at best, I mean. Right, because a guy could poke, but you'd be like, I'm sure some guys were like, what are you? Come on, man. Don't poke me.

All right, so here's what this guy has. He thinks he has a problem, and I think he actually has a solution. Firefest. Great starts are hard. You have a bad start that now is a way to actually start. Like the whole debate about like what's harder, starters or closers. I think starting is harder. I mean, closing is more rewarding, but I think starting is harder. Honestly, my move for, I don't know, late teens through a majority of the twenties was an awful start that then gave me an advantage as a conversation starter where I'd be like, oh, hey. And then I had a leg up because I was already past all the initial stuff. It was just now I had something to talk about. And then now the comments are flying and the conversation's real. And it's not that weird, awkward,

fucking birthing of the entire relationship. You know what I mean? So I think you have something here um if all of the other signs are on point like i would ask you a little self-scattering report do you notice when other women have been interested in you right do you notice like are you good at this are your reads generally good you know or are you thrown into too deep all the time? Have you, have you had, like, you're telling us that she's making eye contact. She's, she's being around you a little bit more. You know what I mean? Like if all these things are true,

then you have a great start. Now I didn't realize like maybe the not liking you back or whatever. You know, maybe, maybe she's just not like that, dude. But I cannot emphasize this enough. There's so many times where you think you get off to this bad start. And in reality, you got off to a great start because you have something that differentiates you from everybody else. That word's always a bit of a challenge. So I like this. I think if this nonverbal contact part is real, this communication that's going on, if this is actually a real thing, I think you actually have an advantage where you could then say like, hey, I liked you on Hinge and now I'm super embarrassed about it. So, you know, whatever, like slow play it a little bit because you're not embarrassed, right? Not fucking remotely embarrassed, dude. But you have a unique opener that every other guy does not have, even if you feel like it's kind of awkward. you've got more like more face time with her you actually have more opportunities i was going to say i don't really know how to how to uh talk to a woman in the gym i was always just like man keep

your keep your eyes front and you know stay off of people's videos of you know i mean there's some phones military school yeah but uh i don't like i'm not i'm not i wouldn't be a person to do it in that situation but if you've done it before and now you're saying that you seem in your head that you're you know that you that she's in front of you more and around you more than it, this should be actually pretty easy. As long as, as long as you're correct about it, man, as long as you're not, as long as it's not in your head, cause it can be in your head that, uh, you know, Oh dude, she's just, she's near me now all the time. I don't know what the, what's that about? As long as, as long as that's true, then yeah, you're good.

So just to add a little more context too, apparently when this like thing does happen, you get a notification and that person can either reply to you, remove you, or click like match, and then you could initiate the conversation. So he liked one of her things, right? And then the move was kind of her move, and he didn't mention that she did anything.

So that's kind of, is that maybe a red flag that she didn't really Maybe she's backed up though, you know? Maybe she's backed up with likes. Could be backed up. Could be backed up. I mean, look, there's obviously another version of this where it goes terribly wrong. He's not reading anything correctly. He's going to go up to her and be like, I like John Hinge. And she's

going to go, yeah, I know, loser. That's why I didn't like you back. Or she's going to go, you did and you stopped me at the gym to tell me you liked my hinge, which went unreciprocated. Like, no. All right. I don't know. Look, it's like if you have no money and I tell you to do something and the two end results

are one, you're going to have no money, and the other one is you're going to have some money, why not try? I mean, I'm going to talk about robbing banks here, but in this situation, you're at zero now. If it doesn't work out, you're just at zero again, if you're cool about it. Although, the hitting on, asking girls out at gym thing, I don't't know how anybody does it you might be writing a whole new email after that yeah yeah i'm in big trouble guys hey that guy from equinox that lost his

shit there and they got mad at you guys for criticizing where does he work out now yeah do you ever let you know after he told you guys to go fuck yourselves did he did he leave a forwarding gym that he was at by any chance all right uh let's do this one crank it up a notch do a little kid alert all right there's your alert that was that was at least three seconds. Yeah, right? You go too long. Look at us, I'm Mike and Mike. I actually can't laugh about it because it's bad,

so I can't get too specific, but my co-host decided to do a moment of silence without telling anybody else on the show, and it was live radio. And there's a computer program that will shut down everything, like 300 to 400 stations. It will shut down the entire network, the United States of America, if the program doesn't recognize any audio level.

And I didn't know that because I'd never had a moment of silence on the show. And the co-host did it for a good reason, but didn't tell anybody. Right. And then in my ear, the producer's going, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. And I'm thinking, like, how do i balance not interrupting this unprompted moment of silence on live radio jesus what was the moment of silence for do you remember i'm not i do and i'm not you can't i don't want to i don't want to cut it out because it's it's something that you would have a moment of silence for it's an awful thing that happened no one would

have an issue with that right yeah no the problem is is that it's not being insensitive when you don't want your entire network to shut down so what did you make a noise like or did you or did you actually or did you actually say like and one thing to remember as we think about this moment yeah like you know i do think the mavs you know i don't mind that the mavericks have moved on from some of their vets but uh yeah it was a tough one that was a tough one i i talked i mean eventually i jumped in because it was like talk i'll never forget because i know talk talk talk talk talk and then he's going like the the system's going to shut down the system's going to shut down. The system is going to shut down. I know. I was like, whoa. I obviously will never say that. Okay. All right. All right. So look,

now I've built this up too much and it's not. Let's just get to it. Newly Christian. No, not newly Christian swingers. That wouldn't make newly Christian swingers balancing friend group dynamic. Although I'm sure. Yeah, whatever. Okay. It would have just been a

more obscure title hey boys love the pod six foot 170 215 bench 300 squat 345 pound deadlift working on all three you know what you do you wow seem like the ideal swinger good for you live you see you have six foot one 70. Those numbers tell you. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, you're saying you read that stat line.

You're thinking, you think swinger immediately. No, I'm just saying it's like, it's not like, like you don't want to show up to an orgy with a bunch of like, you know, 250 pounders,

men and women. It's like, ah, this isn't what I thought. So, uh, I don't know. I think once like,

that's not bad. That's not bad. If you're like a, a, you know, an extra to a situation, especially, you know, I don't, I'm just thinking it sounds like, uh, I don't know. I think once that like, that's not bad. That's not bad. If you're like a, a, you know, an extra to a situation, especially, you know,

I don't, I'm just thinking it sounds like, uh, I'm going to stop. Yeah. I didn't want it to stop. I wanted to see how long it was going to go. Cause I get your point,

but it was so funny, Kyle. Like as soon as you heard those numbers you're because you're right six seven squat 715 like uh-oh you know right i get it partnering up with yeah six foot 170 kyle's going hey not not small but not intimidating all right i can fight This guy can hook up with my wife. All right. Not freaked out.

All right. So this one may be outside your normal realm of life advice, you think? But I think you guys will be able to offer some unique insight. My long-term girlfriend and our closest friends that are married. Ooh. Non-married married. I don't know what the rules are for this. I just think this guy's like, yeah, I'm good to go. I'm not marrying her.

All right. Long-term girlfriend, closest friends that are married recently went on vacation together. We've always been flirty with each other. And after drinks and amazing first couple of days of vacation, we brought up the idea of swinging the following day. We did the deed. And then a few more times before the vacation was of vacation, we brought up the idea of swinging. The following day, we did the deed. And then a few more times before the vacation was over. Went really well.

We all enjoyed it. Once we returned to normal life, we stopped until we recently discussed continuing as we all enjoyed it so much. All right. Here's where you guys can help me. Me and my newfound Eskimo brother are best buddies in a very tight group of core guys, along with their significant others. We all hang out every weekend, regularly going to events, sporting events, just chilling on vacation. We decided as a group to not tell anyone. So it just wouldn't be awkward. Um, uh, so it wouldn't be awkward, weird feelings, et cetera. Uh, I'm now a little worried we're going to be drinking and it's going to slip out or someone may catch the four of us all hanging out unannounced which would be very weird in our friend group because we all have group chats asking to hang out or making plans every week it sounds like this guy's got a ton of friends which would make sense for a swinger um my question is this do we rip the band-aid off now and tell everyone and apologize for not coming clean immediately or continue with

our little secret and hope this weird guilt for lying to my core friends doesn't bother me so much moving forward. Also, my Eskimo brother listens, so maybe he can follow up. I mean, by the way, my wife listens. She's always found you attractive, Priscilla. Not so much the Rudy.

Uh, Hey, don't worry about it. I think this is a real, real bad play for you to tell everybody else. You know, I think swinger code, I don't know that world all that much.

Uh, uh, I, much. I really think everyone else in your friend group is going to be like, what? It's going to freak them out big time. That's my guess. I would think in most cases that would be the case. There are always exceptions. But if you don't want to change the core guide dynamic, I don't think you can ever tell them or ever screw up or start recruiting them, which also

can lead to some... Usually when you're asked any kind of swing or problem, it's like, oh, the cross-matching and transition, they actually met up in a non-game like you know what i mean all of a sudden it just turns into an affair and then there's all sorts of code breaks going on left and right and then that's kind of a disaster um look i think it's

i actually think like whatever you're doing like if everybody's happy and cool with it whatever like i'd almost admire that. I don't, cause I just couldn't imagine watching my buddy, you know, get down my wife in front of me. I just, I don't,

you know, I'm not even married and it bums me out. So that would be something that I'm not mature enough to handle. Uh, and I can only imagine the fucking fights that I would have if I were married and I did do that. and then my wife's like oh you cuddled you definitely fucking cuddled at the end you never

cuddle with me and you know like so I think anyone that's you know there's probably some people listening to this going like this is awful or whatever but like I just think anyone that's mature enough if this is what your thing is and then you can handle all the stuff that I can just never possibly handle maybe I don't know if admire is the right then you can handle all the stuff that I can just never possibly handle.

Maybe, I don't know if admire is the right word. I guess I'm just, wow, that's, but it just changes the dynamics so much in a friend group. Like play this exercise out. Imagine you with your core friends and the wives, as you mentioned here, like the wives are all hanging out too. There's going to be some people who really really think this is awful and they they can't believe it like you're talking about this is some betrayal that you're keeping this secret from i mean yeah i would say still keep it a secret it's not a betrayal though not at all like you're

not betraying them by not like you don't have to tell them every little intimate detail of your life so yeah i mean like are the wives into you guys telling this like you know are they into that or are you like as the other couple like are they like straight up like are they seasoned swingers or is it the first time for them too like they don't they don't necessarily know what comes with being out in the world and being a swinger i don't i'm not sure i'd say that like if you tell the dudes in the group like they might they might even be like not ready to be mature enough to handle that and like start making jokes like you know your buddy doug's gonna be like oh shit dave's wife was looking at me at the barbecue did you

see that like that might be a joke that that's like that that circle shouldn't be having and you'd be like god damn it i wish i didn't fucking say anything because um you know you might not be cool with how people talk about it and And I don't know. I mean, dudes are still dudes, even if they're your core nice friends, they might say some shit that might seem fucked up to you when, you know, take something nice and make it ugly. So I'd say unprompted, you shouldn't feel like you have to do any of this, bring in anything to light. And if you are, I definitely ask both the both the wives in your life if they're cool with this being out, because maybe even the even if the dude's fine,

the dude tells his wife and maybe his wife's like, I don't want her over here. Like she's going to be, you know, whatever. And I don't want him looking at me. Like they might just look at you like you're weirdos,

even though it's just sort of a piece of, you know, piece of whatever it is you do. Like, so I would say, I would say unprompted, don't say anything. You have nothing more, Suri? No, I would just say like, I'm not here to like kink shame anybody but i do feel like it is really complicated when you do it with your a close core friend group person you know like it's so much easier i feel like if you just do

it with randoms that and i know there's probably websites but i don't know i don't get into the weirdness of this but like check out some websites. Let us know what's out there. Swingers4u.com. Number four. I just think about this like with my friend group. I just, I don't know how I would even talk about this with my other buddies. You know, I just,

I, it would just be so incredibly awkward and we're all pretty open about everything. Just the jokes they would make. Yeah. It would be a non-starter. I wish we did. I wish we did know who,

like, so he said, all right, yo, if we're hanging out and it slips out, no pun intended. I wonder which... Dirty roots. Who is he referring to? You're worried about somebody, man. You're worried about somebody leaking this information. Is it your buddy?

Is it one of the girls? I don't know. You seem to be the one worried. Are they all worried about this as well? Is one of them kind of peppering you to be like, yeah, just talk about it maybe we can get more people involved because that would scare the shit out of me but um but without knowing any of that information at a bare minimum you owe them nothing to tell them if you're enjoying this and you guys are having fun go for you you know do you go go for you but or each other yeah i just i could not imagine doing that with

a close friend i mean i couldn't imagine doing it anyway but at least in my head it's a little easier if you do it with a stranger than spend like your buddy's wife all right but just a thought exercise like if you were swingers with another one of your core buddies like who so look i think i think this guy knows that he's going to say something. So that's kind of what, like somebody's going to get, it sounds like he's really close with everybody else. But I'm telling you, if you do this as a come clean thing, one, as Suri said, there's no betrayal here. You don't have to tell everybody everything.

And if you do do that, either one of the husbands, more likely one of the significant others, is going to have a major like challenge hanging moving forward or if it's like what if because here's what non-swingers don't want to do you've seen mad men like they don't want to like you know if there's what if it's you what if it's the email or his his girlfriend and then instead of the other couple they went on the vacation with they're switched out for something else, for a little lake retreat or whatever. And then they think they're probably going to say no now. They're probably going to straight up say no.

So I would keep it secret as long as you possibly can. But it sounds like if you go on these trips, like what are you going to do? What if it's four or five couples and you're out in Colorado and you're doing something? Does that mean you guys are going to sneak off into each other's cabin? Because you're going to get caught. You're eventually going to get caught. It's going to be awkward. And I don't know.

I mean, guys are hurting for friends all the time. You've heard the emails here. So, you know, if you're going to do if you're going to continue doing this, like just make sure. I would go out of my way to make sure the rest of the group that's not going to be comfortable about it. I don't feel like I need to tell them and I like just make sure I would, I would go out of my way to make sure the rest of the group, that's not going to be comfortable about it.

I don't feel like I need to tell them and I want to make sure they don't find out. So that's what I would do. Yeah. But great. And I don't, you know, the intro to that conversation is so scary too.

Like I just, it's not as easy as like, Hey, do you guys want to hook up with each other's wives? Like, yeah, sure. Let's do like,

there's such a big lead up to that. Like he said, they were always flirty. Like I just, once that like first domino falls, man, that's just, I can like, yeah, sure, let's do it. There's such a big lead up to that. He said they were always flirty. Once that first domino falls, man, that's just, I can't imagine having that conversation with my buddy and his wife. Yeah, I think we covered it for people that have no idea what they're talking about. Yep, fair. Okay.

Thanks to Kyle. Thanks to Steve. Ryan Rosillo podcast ringer spot Thank you.