The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Shedeur Sanders or Jaxson Dart as QB2? Plus, Senior Bowl Takeaways With Todd McShay and a Memphis-Portland-All Star Tales from the Couch.

Episode Date: January 31, 2025

Russillo starts the show with Tales from the Couch by recapping wins from Memphis and Portland and sharing his thoughts on the All-Star selections (0:47). Then, he’s joined by Todd McShay to learn more about the QB class and how they looked at the Senior Bowl, discuss team plans heading into the draft, and rank which positional groups are strongest (23:34). Finally, Life Advice with Kyle and Wargon (60:15)! Did I react wrong to my girlfriend sending me a nude photo? Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, live streams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Todd McShay Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, and Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's episode, Little Tales from the Couch, Memphis, Big Win. We'll talk a little bit about my trailblazers and All-Star Snouts, one of my least favorite pieces of content out there. Senior Bowl draft stuff. We've got football. McShea is back home full of information. How the quarterback class is shaking out a bit. Did you just go Abdul Carter?

A lot of good stuff from McShea. And we've got life advice from Kyle and Wargon today. This episode is brought to you by Amazon Prime. You know, Amazon Prime is not just a shipping subscription, right? Amazon Prime isn't just one thing, but a collection of excellent services. Amazon Prime offers a range of services, including Prime video, Amazon music and Prime Fast Free Shipping. They also have great shows, great movies.

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Let's create the agent-first future together. Head to salesforce.com slash careers to learn more. A little tales from the couch for you, but I'm not gonna run around to everything that we saw the last couple nights. And don't worry, for those of you that love this, we will hit it hard post Super Bowl. So the main game that I was really into last night,

although I did have a bit of a detour, was Memphis' comeback win against Houston. It was a fun game. And if you wanna start doing the seeding stuff, which is way too early, but we can do it a little bit looking at the number two seed now Memphis a half game behind Houston after finally getting a win against the Rockets. You can get into as I said, it's too early to do this

some of the two seed versus three seed stuff being like, Hey, is it better to be the three seed than it would be the two seed you playing again?'ve already said two early three times. Would you rather play, let's just, if you played it out, would you rather play one of the LA teams in a three six matchup if that's where they were to land as opposed to Minnesota figuring some things out,

a healthy Dallas, a healthy Phoenix. Like I can see how I would rather play the Lakers than Minnesota and Dallas. Phoenix is just really tough for me. Um, even cause even when they were winning, I didn't necessarily like what I was seeing, but then you have this Clippers team, this 27 and 20, uh, what this group has done, what the front office has done, what Ty Lue has done and the coaching staff, they deserve more credit than they're getting.

And I know I already touched on it a bit on the last episode when I talked about them moving on from Paul George and not wanting to give them that fourth year, which I think about every time I watch Paul George. But Kawhi's back, nine games in, a career, well, not a career high. A career high of 29 minutes would be not that great of a number, but it is a season high, 29 minutes the other night when he had 27 at San Antonio in that win. He played in his first fourth quarter in the Phoenix game where they took him out and had they kept him in, maybe they get that game too. So it's not like they've been just pushing as hard as they possibly can here in the standings, but they've found a way,

whether it's the high, hard usage again, but Norm Powell, we can get at some of the All-Star stuff here at the end a little bit, but then also having just multiple wings that they like. If you look at the defensive numbers, did you know that the number two defense behind OKC, they like Clippers. OKC's an insane 3.4 points better than the number two defense behind OKC, the LA Clippers. OKC is an insane 3.4 points better than the number two Clippers. Like the gap there is ridiculous. Last 10 games

defensively the Clippers are number one. So maybe you don't want the Clippers, especially if Kawhi who you saw it look better than just the first games back when he was barely playing to see him go off for 27. Not surprising based on what I saw in some of the Phoenix minutes there. So back to the Memphis Houston part of this, Memphis had lost three straight this season at Houston, guys missing all over the place. If you go through those things, like whenever I look at like the season series and I try to get ready for the playoffs, looking at this stuff, like you just have to keep going back and back and back.

It's like every fan base will just go, yeah, but we didn't have this guy. And we're like, yeah, I know I'm right. It's like, it's just impossible to keep track of last night though. No job for Memphis for Houston. No Shungoon. I did wonder as I was watching it, I was like, what's a bigger loss? Is it jaw? You're not maybe this season of job, but you know, the best version of

jaw is probably the bigger loss because the way they run their stuff offensively, so much of it's through Ja, where Houston's depth, also Vince Williams is missing games. Gigi's been back, not afraid of letting it fly. We'll take it easy on him with some of the shot selection. Maybe he just sees Aldama get those shots up and he's like, well, I might as well take a couple if he's gonna keep shooting like this.

One of the things I was looking at, and again, this is all some of the draft stuff with Zach Eaddy, but we had a lot of debates about Eaddy before the draft. And you find out like he's, you hear he's like, he's definitely going lottery, especially that year, 24 for a weird draft class. And then he starts putting up some numbers and then it kind of turns like back the other way.

It's like, oh, all of you people that doubted him. And my thing would be, okay, his floor is good, but is his ceiling anything more than a rotational big? Or do you envision him being like a starting center in this league, like playing 30 minutes and because of his size and his shooting touch and all that stuff. Like it was never about is ZD good or bad. It's it's how do you use him in today's NBA and against Houston? I don't like it.

I think it's a problem. And if they were ever to like face each other in the playoffs, like this is the kind of stuff I think about when I'm watching some of these games, because it was very clear that Houston was like, let's get him in the actions when he's out there. Um, in the 17 minutes that he played last night, I didn't like really any of them. He was a minus, uh, he was a minus two. Um, but that's not really what it was because I went through all of it and

kind of looked at like game, game one, he was a minus 11, 13 points, nine boards. Game two, he was a minus four, four points, three boards. Game three, he was a plus 11, 2.7 boards. Last night, he was the only minus of the starters. So everybody else averaged a plus nine on plus minus and he was a negative two, which isn't a huge number. And yeah, plus minus can get a little weird throughout all of that. So there's not some egregious collective number on his plus minus

against Houston in these matches, but I can just tell you that. It's not like Jenkins wanted to close with him. And I can tell you that also when you're asking Edie to get into the ball screen action and you're bringing them up, it's a lot to ask of him. And this is the part of like the draft evaluation where you go, okay, you're not going to get run into pick and roll like a 90 possessions in the course of a game. But you can see that if Bant Vleet's coming off the screen, there's going to be space to dribble up into a pull up because Edie is trying to play too. And I still think the hardest thing we ask any NBA player to do in this game

is the center that has to show on the high ball screen and potentially contest a three against a decent shooter, stay in position to try to stay in front of somebody quick with the ball in their hands, and then also be able to retreat and follow the rolling big that was their original defensive assignment. So as you saw all these possessions playing out, there's just a lot of room. If you're coming off of that, keeping the ball and going at Edie, because he's trying to backpedal. And as I said, it is hard as it is, like that's why prime Rudy Gobert was insane in this. I don't know that there was ever anybody that's played two as one as well as Rudy has.

So you're asking him to do something really hard already, and it's something that he's never done before. know that there was ever anybody that's played two as one as well as Rudy has. So you're asking him to do something really hard already. And it's something he'll understand a little bit better positionally, I guess, as he gets more experienced. But the other side of this is that Steven Adams took nine shots last night because he knew roll hard because he's going to be slower to recover back to me. And when the guard knows that they're're gonna pass it back to me. Adams had nine shot attempts last night.

That's a season high. The dude averages, I think two shots a game on the season. So just something to think about and definitely something to think about if they were to face each other in the playoffs. Bain was great. Numbers are down because his shots are down. I think he's down like four or five shots per game.

His career 41% from three, so you know that's always there. But what I love from him last night is that when he knew they needed him with Jaren Jackson, his foul trouble, because that would be the number one option with no jaw last night, of course, offensively. Bain just as smart. He's just smart about this stuff. I think Aldama got a little shot happy.

I mean, he takes some really tough shots, even though he is a really skilled offensive player. And Aldama ends up playing center last night, defensively in some of the small lineups for Memphis. But Bain just with momentum, coming off some kind of handoff. They don't run a ton of ball screens. The takeoff on Bain's layups,

I think he's in the dunk contest, or the less impressive layup contest, which they have not installed into all star week. Jared Jackson, my guy, my all star starter, um, 31 minutes last night got into foul trouble. Not a shock is tied with Sabonis with 154 total fouls on the season. Although it makes more sense that Sabonis would have more fouls because he's playing center and just getting destroyed over the course on the season. Although it makes more sense that Sabonis would have more fouls because he's playing center and just getting destroyed over the course of the games.

And he's played way more minutes. Like I thought I had the number here, but like way more minutes than Jackson has played. So whatever, but Jackson hit the big floater. You know, Brooks does a good job on like not letting Jackson get depth. Uh, Brooks defensively was doing some really nice stuff. Like some possessions, he's got Jaren Jackson, other possessions. He's got Bain coming off the screen. So you want to talk about versatility, but Jackson in a huge, huge possession, you know, got down, found a way.

He even went at Eamonn Thompson, who a man didn't even look, I said his name twice, two different ways. He didn't even look like he wanted to drive on Jackson. He didn't even look, I said his name twice, two different ways. He didn't even look like he wanted to drive on Jackson, which is pretty rare if you've been watching this Thompson experience the last couple of weeks. But there was a huge bucket there. And then of course, he hit the free throws after the ridiculous timeout that the ref gave to Memphis when they didn't ask for it, when it looked like Wells was breaking away for the game. Both the go ahead layup, which I shouldn't say the game winning because Houston was going to get a possession again. So we talk fouls there a little bit.

Let's talk clutch offense for Houston. These clutch numbers for Houston, you know, you're never going to see this. I don't think they're number one in clutch wins. They lose last night, but they still have 17 wins. That's the most in the NBA. number one in clutch wins. They lose last night, but they still have 17 wins. That's the most in the NBA. Despite having the 19th ranked clutch offense.

So are they doing it with defense? Well, a little bit. Their point differential, they're 17 and 10 now in clutch games. Their net rating is a negative 1.2. I think they're like 19th in net rating is a negative 1.2. I think they're like 19th in net rating for clutch games, except they have more wins than everybody else. And so yes, some of its defense or whatever,

I went through the Van Vliet stuff for it because you have a late turnover, you've got the missed three, the last play down one, you know the rules, tied down one, down two, you gotta go for, down three is when you go for two. Now I'm kidding, but you understand the point that I'm trying to make here is nobody,

everybody hates two pointers when they're down one and the game is tied. There's some Van Vliet stuff here in the clutch minutes that are about as bad as you would think. His shooting splits are 29% from the floor, 25% from three. Clutch shooting numbers just go down basically for kind of everybody because the shots are just harder. Like if you look at Jalen Green, it's not like he's lighting it up at 33 and 27 shooting splits

there. But then when you think about Houston and where they're at offensively, because it feels like there's a lot of like these late Van Vliet things and the numbers have been pretty bad with it. If you look at like his offensive rating in the splits on some of the stuff that's happened, he's actually, even though he's under size, that you think he'd be attacked defensively, his defensive numbers shake out better than his offensive numbers. But are you going to run a play for Chengun at center on the last second shot, because what they ran is they imbued it to a men and then there

was a handoff look and then a fake handoff look essentially for Amanda drive, but Clark actually played him really good on his, on his ball hand. So then a man had to throw it back to Van Vliet and then he gets a switch on to Jared Jackson, which you're thinking, do you really want that against defensive player of the year? Maybe it's cause he had five fouls, but he actually got some space in the step back three. It's just still a very, very tough shot. I know we did the trade value stuff with Bill.

I was like, as much as we all love Thompson right now, is he gonna be somebody just opening up the side for running ball screen last second, whatever. He kind of got me on, they just did it with Boston. I would argue it was four seconds left. It was an inbound and they just sort of like make something happen. Will Thompson be somebody that they're gonna be doing

that stuff for because they don't like the Van Vliet options? I don't know that's asking a lot in his development one year in for playoff games Although that pull-up mid-range jumper that looks a little clunky because he kicks out his legs Uh, he's doing it more and more and I love the fact that he's even taking that but again if you're running through these houston options You kind of understand why it keeps coming back to van vliet so much. Unless you just think Jaylen Green should run something on the high pick and roll, pick up, drive, try to get the free throw line. That's fine. Much as I love Jabari, you're not doing that with him. So some very weird clutch numbers, three possessions there at the end

where it didn't work out for him. Now full transparency. I got a little behind on Houston Memphis because of my Trailblazers playing on one of the other televisions at my home. Taking on the magic. I'm not gonna worry about the magic yet. Let's have everybody back and playing together for a little while, but God, their offense is terrible.

But the Trailblazers on the positive side, they've won six to seven. By the way, Paolo's been back, Franz is back too, for those that may be not paying a ton of attention here. And there's some nice wins in there in the six to seven, by the way, Palo and Palos been back, Franz is back too, for those that may be not paying a ton of attention here. And there's some nice wins in there in the six to seven. Cause sometimes I'll just look at stuff and be like, is that the schedule or what's going on? They beat Orlando twice.

They've got Milwaukee. Um, and everybody there was in that bucks game recently, just the other night, uh, Chicago, a Miami win. So it's not just that. Uh, if you look at this stretch, this could be the stretch where you're like, Hey, that was the stretch that cost us Cooper flag. If you're trailblazers fan, although look, realistically with their record, there's seven behind seven, I guess, wins ahead or losses behind the bottom four. So I don't know.

I think they're just probably too good to have had one of the top four chances at landing in there. The defense by the way, I think they're just probably too good to have had one of the top four chances at landing in there. The defense, by the way, because it's not the offense, they're 21st in offense the last 10 games. They're eighth on defense. And if you actually really want to dig into this seven game stretch for the trailblazers during the seven again, winning six, seven, they're the number two defense at the NBA. You want to know who number one is. You're never going to guess that your Toronto Raptors, but look, it's Abdiah playing well.

It's sharp. Who I think is their best player is the best hope for what they could have. You know, like again, we're talking about the number one option. So that's a very short list of players that I like having that role. Um, you know, Simon's is a bucket talking about the number one option. So that's a very short list of players that I like having that role. Um, you know, Simon's is a bucket.

I'm not an Aiden guy. We already know that and we can talk scoot. We all know my history with scoot loving him before the draft and it looking just viciously ugly at times last year. Uh, this has been a really nice stretch for him. I don't know if he's going to be like a multiple time all star the way I kind of, when I first fell in love with him, the hope that he could be that, that would be his ceiling.

And I understand like athletically, it's not just lightning off the dribble stuff. And I don't really like comparing people to Derek Rose with the ball in the beginning, cause it's just, I mean, even that was absurd for NBA guys. Uh, nobody should be compared to like Westbrook's first step. I'd say Levine's first step, like prime Levine. So, you know, to ask like, Hey, is Scoop going to be any of those things? Well, no. And, but he didn't shoot it well.

And then you could just tell he was, he was just lost. And even in some games this year where I knew he had better moments and bigger box scores, there were just still possessions where I would watch. I feel it just doesn't feel like it's processing. And if that's not happening in combination with not loving the shooting numbers and that he's probably not going to be a rim finisher, um, against size, like, you know, what am I working with here? Well, what we're working with here is a guy that's way more comfortable and his

reads and some of the stuff that he's doing off the ball, which is again, some of the stuff when I really liked him the first time through the G league, you were like, Oh, that's really smart for a guy his age or he's thinking about pushing the ball up the court or he's trying to get rid of it here. Like he had a read to Aitin that was incredible. Um, and then he also had some really nice drives in there too, but I think this is the most important thing on the growth and the hope that scoots going to be like a long-term starting point guard is that, you know, we'll see how this number

shakes out the rest of the way. Uh, but Tom Haverstrow, part of the broadcast always good with the numbers. Top pull up three point field goal percentage in January, minimum 30 attempts. Uh, scoot is number one in the NBA hitting about 52% of those shots. That's an absurd number. He's not going to do that the entire time. And yeah, it's a snapshot at one month there, but it's been consistently better for longer stretches, despite there's still plays where I'm like,

what did he not see? Is he unsure? And I also think there were stretches last year and into this year where his confidence looked absolutely shot, which is the last thing that I saw from a guy that I was so excited for before the draft. So there's a little trailblazers for you. Okay. Last thing, All-Star Snubs. I do not like snubbing content because I would, and again, this is not going to be super popular with the audience. I would rather a little disappointment in society than absolute contentness.

Sorry. When it comes to competitive things, when it comes to competitive things, it should be special. It should be like, man, I got left out. Now it got really weird pretty quickly. Devin Booker, my guy, was going off. Trey Young, never accused of being my guy, tweeted out, now it's just, you got trade. Like that's a little narcissistic, but point guards and quarterbacks can be.

We know corners are. Um, look, winning seemed to be a deciding factor on this, or at least standings. I would say coaches care the most, media cares the second most about winning and fans care the least. The standings were rewarded in some of the arguments with Shingoon over Sabonis. Numbers wise it's hard to make an argument for Shingoon over Sabonis. That's clearly Houston being like they're not going to have any all-stars like you get to put somebody on them when they're the number two seed in the west. So I think that's your story there. Harden, they're not going to have any all stars. Like you get to put somebody on them when they're the number two seed in the West. So I think that's your story there. Harden over Norman Powell.

The counting stats are still better for Harden. If you want to beat up on Harden, I've seen it before. It'd be like, Oh, he's below 40% shooting from the floor. Uh, even I wouldn't do that. It's 399. We round up in this game. So, you know, he's at four again, not an awesome number. The usage is up for him.

There's some metric stuff. They'll tell you norms better. Uh, but norms play 39 games and Harden's play 44. Kyrie's played 38. Mark Cuban had an interesting tweet. We want to talk about like just being all in on it. Now, I think he was ripping the all-star ratings potentially because Kyrie and Luca aren't going to be there.

Lucas played 22 games. I mean, I'd love for Luca to be there as like a top five guy, but you can't really make that argument when you'd be leaving off some other guys that have played more games. We have the Trey Young thing that we touched on. Yeah, what was Cuban's tweet here? Because it was pretty aggressive. Those TV ratings for the All-Star are going to be crazy. LOL. NBA gonna, NBA. Just insane. Luka and Kai aren't going. I would hear a Kyrie argument for it. I would. And if you want to talk about standings, I mean, I think they were a game behind the Clippers in the Western standings when the announcements were made is a game and a half behind today. Is it really because Harden's played 44 games and Kyrie's played 38? Now people are like, what the hell's Rosilla going to do with a Kyrie Harden off here? I would give the nod to Kyrie.

I don't think the standings are enough there. Luka, tougher 22 games. Proud I would give the nod to Kyrie. I don't think the standings are enough there. Luca tougher 22 games, crowded field, probably not going to happen. Um, Trey hero, whatever. I like probably Trey better than hero. Not going to get super worked up about it. Um, here's what is not a snub. Lamelo wall.

You're like, he's just warming up. These are his warm-up. This is bullpen session. LaMelo is not an all-star. The coaches agree. Your kids don't, but the coaches agree. He's also played, even though I know the counting stats are really impressive, he's played 31 games this year and the team stinks. So it's not like he has all of his averages with a full slate of games and a team that's in the play and they're not even in that. Here's a stat that you need to remember if you're a low mellow guy over 14 years old. I looked at it because I was like, you know what? I want to see where this number's at right now.

This is a massive stat. Lomelo takes over 34 field goal attempts per 100 possessions. All right. So if you go with a per 100, which is like a good indicator. If you're like looking at minutes, cause every now and then I like look at cam Whitmore's per 100, like how many shots is this dude taken? Cause he takes a lot.

Cam Thomas last year, I had him fourth. Although cam Thomas can make some shots. All right. I'll give him that. Uh, I wouldn't be that stupid to deny the ability, but it's kind of like, all right, that's a lot of shots. You know how many shots 34.3 is? I had to go all the way back to Kobe Bryant in 2006, the Kobe Bryant 2006

season where he took 35 shots per 100 possessions. So that's, Lamello has the highest field goal attempts per 100 possessions. So that's, Lamello has the highest field goal attempts per 100 since Kobe Bryant in 2006. And it was fucking Kobe Bryant, okay? Are you sensing a theme here with Lamello's game? And I know some of you don't wanna hear me talk about him because I didn't think he was gonna be even this good for the draft.

He's incredibly talented. He's big. His start, stop, start again is incredible. His vision, the passing, but. And he's kind of like. You know, what do you think the coaches would actually tell you? Like, yeah, this is awesome. No, it's no, it's awesome.

I love it. I love having this guy have the ball in his hands this much and shooting all the time. It's not even healthy right now. I'm not even going to, you know, I don't want to knock them there, but like if you're, if you've gone through puberty and you're pissed that LaMelo was snubbed for the All-Star team, I don't know, I don't know what to do. We've got Todd McShea. It's been a bit fresh off a senior bowl visit.

So he's back in familiar territory. Um, let's get into it, man. It's good to see it. Scrambling this morning, man. Flight landed like one 30 bags, then got home like two, unwound 330. My camera wasn't working. I'm clicking on the wrong link, but I'm happy to be here. I feel like I'm finally settled down. How you doing, bud?

I'm good. So I was watching again, the McShay show. He was with Steve Minch throughout the week, watching the video. And I was watching the quarterback episode too, because you guys got multiple days with all these guys. It just feels like Jackson Dart is the headline of the entire experience. Yeah.

It's weird, right? Cause, cause coming in, he's absolutely the headline. And the more people you talk to in the league, it's like, remember last year, we had the conversation, it's like Caleb Williams is number one. Then who's two? Is it Drake May? Is it Jaden Daniels? I'll give you credit too,

because like the closer we got to it, you were basically saying like, I don't know if there's really that much of a gap. If not, you like Jaden as much as I think you like Caleb. Yeah, I did. Which is kind of like defaulting to, well, Caleb probably go number one. Everybody's been talking about him for a couple of years.

But as that was building towards the draft, I remember you. And again, maybe our conversations off the air where you were like, it might be a toss up and I actually might like Jaden better. So there you go. And to that point this year, I'm not saying that people were like Jackson Dart is better than Chidor Sanders or even Cam Ward,

but I'm saying the conversations in the league sometimes are different than the conversations you see in social media and in the media in general. And so I took time before the senior bowl and watched a couple more tapes of Jackson Dart. And I'll be totally honest, like early in his career, I thought maybe, you know, that I don't want to say that system, but the way they ran the football and, and the fact that it was so run heavy and some of the throws were kind of lined up in vertical shots from Lane Kiffin and that offensive system. I didn't write him off, but I didn't know that he was ever going to progress to where

he progressed this season. And so we'll get a lot more into Jackson Dart as we continue to get closer. But going into the senior bowl and starting to talk to people and then on the field and practice field and talking to different General managers and scouts and stuff. I think there's a I Think there's a healthy debate in terms of the quarterbacks this year I think majority right now would say cam ward over Chidor, but that doesn't mean you know It's probably closer to a 60 65 percent majority

In and the percentage of that would be Shador. I haven't talked to anyone who thinks Jackson Darts QB won, but the conversations I was having is that there are some teams that think the conversation between Shador Sanders and Jackson Dart is a lot closer than people might think, okay? So with that as the backdrop, you're coming in and it's like Jackson Dart and Jalen Milrow's there.

And can Jalen have a big week? And we know how talented he is, but the accuracy issues and some of the struggles we saw this season, what are we gonna see there? So while Jackson Dart clearly is the best and was the best quarterback throughout the week, it wasn't like he set the world on fire and it wasn't anything that Jackson Dart did. It's just kind of a progressive week there, right?

The first day is installs and there's a lot of figuring out who the receivers are and getting on the same page with them. There's throwing an NFL football. There's understanding the verbiage, getting everyone lined up. There's just so much swimming through all the quarterback's heads. It's not as physical a practice and not as many live game type reps. Second day is much more physical. Second day, you've started to figure things out and you saw Jackson Dart make a kind of a nice big step the second day. And the third day I thought he was really good as well but it was a lot of

you know installs, red zone area, confined area throws. So it wasn't like during the week you walked away or like holy shit Jackson Dart blew me away right? But it also wasn't set up that way, if that makes sense. I just think when you watch Dart, everything's good to really good. He doesn't have Josh Allen's arm, but he's got a really good arm. Doesn't have Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen's mobility,

but he's really mobile. He doesn't have the elite accuracy, but it's really good. And then you couple that with his experience and his improvement and the things I'm seeing on tape in terms of setting protections, reading coverages, throwing on time. I like him a lot more than I thought I ever would like Jackson Dart. Let's just leave it at that right now. I thought he had a really good week and I'm excited to see him in the game. And then I'm excited to talk to people in the league about his process,

where he is on the board, the interviews, and just kind of how teams are getting to know him more. I think he's got a chance to climb up. I'll be surprised if he's not at least the third quarterback taken. I think there's a really good chance Jackson Dart winds up in the first round. Yeah, see, that's where I wanted to go with this and it worked out perfectly. Because when I think about the class for this year, uh, it's underwhelming. And then it's like, is Jackson the guy that's the best of all the other options? Is it that he's improved? And there's a lot that I like about him.

I like Elvis can point to a couple of games, the Florida interceptions, management at the end of the couple games, the Florida interceptions, his management at the end of the Kentucky games, a disaster. But I know he's tough as shit. And I never watched him thinking like, oh, there's some real limitations on what his throws can be. So I've liked him.

I remember the first time I watched him at SC, I was like, this guy is like afraid of nothing. I'm afraid he's gonna get, I was afraid he was gonna get both his, I was afraid he was gonna get like both his legs broken at some point because I was like, this dude is like so aggressive, it's almost dangerous. But he's filled out, I think quite a bit. I think body type wise,

not to go like baseball hips and ass stuff, but like that stuff's really important. Right, Jimmy Touchdown, never forget, walking behind Jimmy Touchdown at Santa Monica one time. And I was like, small hips, small hips, man. Anyway. I love you as my measurables guy, body types. I've tried to get better.

I've tried to get better. Mark Dominic loved that story so much. He was like, that's it, never stop scouting. Never stop scouting. And I was like, never. I was like, we were leaving, we were both around and we didn't talk to each other, but I just remember walking behind Jimmy Claussen going, man, man, those are some thin hips.

Anyway, doesn't, maybe it doesn't mean anything. Maybe he just was, you know, he was born at the wrong time. So if you go through the guys back disappointment, right now he's somewhere else, um, we'll get to Milro you were staying, but you know, in the mix, Wigman, A&M now he's going to be gone. Like you had all of Nussmeyer's sides of state, you had all of these guys potentially like who could be the first round group and you're missing like 75% of them. Yeah. Because they were so disappointing, they're at another school and they were like, and I'm coming back. Nussmeyer to me is not in the disappointment

group of all those guys. So like, is Jackson, is he just better than everybody else? Or is he just better than all of these other projected options? Which I think is a big part as much as I like him with the, with the limitation on that, I think that probably has as much to do with it as it does the evaluation, just the options alone. It absolutely can play a part in all this. There's no question.

And as a personnel staff, you've got to guard against that, right? Because what happens is you live in this bubble and now, okay, what's the class? And you condense this class as you just detailed. And then from that point, you start comparing and contrasting. You put on one tape from Shador, you put on a tape from Cam, you put on a tape from Jackson, but you're not putting on a tape of, and a lot of good organizations will do this, but

you're not putting on a tape of Jaden or Caleb at USC or Drake May. And so I think everyone agrees in the league, the jumping off point is at minimum four from last year's class. And most people, if you go back and evaluate, I think that JJ McCarthy rated ahead of any of these guys. And some had Michael Penick's rated higher and some had Bo Nicks rated higher. So I think you're talking about like fourth or fifth quarterback when you get to where this year's top quarterback would have fallen into the ranks last year in 2024's draft class. So yeah, it will absolutely factor in and it certainly will help Jackson Dart in terms of

what number overall he's drafted. But at the end of the day you got to figure out can this guy be our starting quarterback? And if the answer is we really believe he can be, he's gonna be a first-round pick. Okay. The other guys that I know Mel Rowe got off to a rough start. It sounds like you started to like him more towards the end of the week. I don't want to say I liked him more. Quite honestly, quite honestly, it's kind of what you expected, but you were hoping for better. Um, he's just not there yet as a passer.

Everything's a fastball. I think he was like seven or eight in a row. He missed on, on, um, the second day of practice, I want to say. Then missing by sizable margins. You're watching all these other quarterbacks. He's making the easy throws look hard. He's just not naturally accurate at this point.

He doesn't have that touch. The weird part, man, and I know not everyone's but like when he goes like this when it's when he's going to throw the vertical he's got the best touch and Trajectory and the smoothest like release and the way the ball drops in the bucket. It's beautiful Okay, and then you got the mobility aspect of his game, which is sensational But that gets the interesting part of the senior bowl, right? Is like, okay, mobility, we're going to kind of put that aside for three days. We're going to bring every scout and GM and coach in the league and sit them down in the

stands or up in the press box. And now we're just going to focus on you as a pocket passer essentially, right? Decisions, timing, accuracy, all of it. And that's the weakness of his game. But it also was the weakness of Lamar's game. And Josh Allen was inaccurate. And Jalen Hurts was inaccurate. So the league has changed and for the better in that quarterbacks with mobility can buy

themselves time early in their career to answer some of the questions they're not ready to answer, to not need to make some of the throws that eventually they'll have to make, and that Lamar now makes, and has been making for a few years, and that Josh, in a couple years, with great accuracy, started to make. And the same with Jalen Hurst, to a certain degree.

So, it's not like, oh, you had a terrible two days of practice. I'm writing off Jalen Milrow because the tape wasn't good and senior bulls suck, right? I'm not doing that. But I think what we got to all see live, like on the field or in the stands is that it's gonna be a real project.

It's not just like, yeah, he's close, and oh, I saw some things that I didn't see on tape. It's gonna be a real project. And yeah, he threw with a little bit better touch. I thought he kind of settled down the third day of practice and he did get better. And I think he's gonna play well in the game because now the biggest asset that he brings

the quarterback will be back in play in the game. So I think he'll have a really good Saturday in front of a home crowd there in Mobile, Alabama, and all of those things. But I think it kind of cemented the fact that, yeah, the project is a big one. We saw it on tape and it absolutely is there. No way he'll be a first rounder.

No, I mean, Tim Tebow, there was no way he was gonna be a first rounder. He was, so, I'll be Tim Tebow. There was no way he was going to be a first rounder. He was so like, it only takes one team. I know it's the cliche, but it's like when you live it and you get burned by it or shocked by it, however you want to phrase it, you know, several times in your career, evaluating players, you come to understand that it's absolutely true. And so if one team sees it and is like, we're going to bet on it, and we're going to develop it, we got a veteran, we got a year or two,

maybe it could happen, but I have not talked to anyone in the league and I don't see first round and I see a date to developmental project that you take a chance on. Is there any, and I know it's, you know, leans into gossip a little bit, but as the draft order settled and it's all these people like different, are there any theories? Consensus things that you can share with us that it's like, you know, this is something that people think could be an option, whether it's the quarterback order or it's one of the quarterback needy teams going, we don't even like this group.

Like we're not going to move maneuver around for it. You know, I think everybody kind of looks at it like the Cleveland situation. And at this point, like it'd be one thing if it was just Watson's contract, but now it's health. But do they just go, you know, we don't care. We're theoretically taking a knee on this position and drafting Abdul Carter? I think the question that a lot of people in the league outside of Tennessee and Cleveland are asking is, are they just going to take the best football player? Is it going to be a little bit more like, um, 2022 was it?

With Pickett and, and, um, and that group, group, Malik Willis, or are we going to see a team just say, hey, we need it. He's the best here. And listen, I don't want to say, it's not like Cam Ward, Shador Sanders, Jax. They all have starting potential. They're just not at the level of guys we've seen in kind of recent years and especially last year, right? But to answer your question, there's a lot of questions around the league. You got Abdul-Kardas sitting there. And I know they came out and made the quote of, we're not going to pass on a generational talent. Well, like- And by the way, is this, this is at number one with Tennessee.

Yes, at number one. Down, right. With Tennessee. Right, right. Just take the best player. And generational talent, I think everyone initially was like, well, Travis Hunter's a generational talent.

We've never seen someone who legitimately could play both sides. It will have to be limited to wide receiver comparatively if you were just drafting him as a wide receiver. But he's got a chance to be a significant playmaker on both sides of the ball. That's generational. Even Deion, for all the excitement, the punt returning, the offensive plays in certain situations, I think he only had like 60 something catches. Champ Bailey didn't have Charles Woods. Those guys only had fewer than 10 catches their entire career. So that's a generational talent. Bailey didn't have Charles Woods, those guys only had fewer than 10 catches their entire

career. So that's a generational talent. But I also think it was, hey, come up and get it because we'd like to move back down and package picks because we got a lot of work to do. So there was some gamemanship there. So the questions are, almost the consensus question is, is Tennessee going to kind of do the right thing organizationally and take the best player? And you look at the organizations that have built, they build in the trenches and then

they find their quarterback at the right spot and they go take them when they've built their roster, or are they going to take the quarterback in Cam Ward at number one? I think there's a consensus around the league because of the urgency with the people making the decisions that if one of those top two Quarterbacks is available at three the New York Giants they're taking that's what I keep hearing and I've I Feel good about that. I'm not gonna say anything more, but I feel good about that based on some conversations. Okay Yeah, I think that's kind of,

that's where everything's kind of leading right now with the top three picks. Cleveland, again, if you're staring at Travis Hunter versus Cam Ward, I think Cleveland's more likely to take a quarterback than maybe Tennessee is because Tennessee's got a chance to either A, move out, or B, take an elite player in Abdul Carter at the second most important position on the field. He's a stud. I mean, with one arm, he was still wreaking havoc in that Notre Dame game.

I don't know what the film's gonna look like there because you can see how limited, because there was one moment where he got turned in and you could see like it kind of reset him or it hurt again. Yep, I saw that. And you're like, this dude is that hurt. And the way they were trying to line him up, it was almost like, can you, can you go out there and play with one arm?

And he did. And I, if Tennessee took him one, if I'm a Titan Sam, like, you know, this is actually awesome because I, in theory, get somebody who can just wreak havoc off the edge here for a bunch of years. And I'm, I'm with you. Like it's just changes everything that you can do defensively when you're in the game, you know, you're in the game wreak havoc off the edge here for a bunch of years and I'm, I'm with you. Like it's just changes everything that you can

do defensively when you have this absolute mismatch on the defensive line. Um, but it's not exciting. Right. No, I get it. And his other teams have told me, and I remember just the simplicity of it. I was like, what do you do?

What do you do? And they go, you just keep drafting them. You just keep drafting them over and over again, because like what, what other option do you have? And if you have these higher picks, you just have to take those guys. And I was like, God, that's going to be so frustrating when you know that there's probably teams staring at Cam Ward or Chador gone. You know what, we actually don't like our grade. You know, we don't like where we have ranked in this class. Like he might be the 28th best player in this entire draft. And we're just going to do this because we need it. But

then it kind of gets back to your other point is that should you, when you're a bad football team, go let's build out the rest. So if we're taking what's kind of like a B graded quarterback this high, then we're putting them in a situation where we feel like it's even worse. And then we need to ruin our own resource that we've been using. Here's the hardest part, bud. And I think you can relate. Actually, I don't know in the NBA that you can relate to this because it's a much more individualized. I think one of the hardest parts in all of this is being honest with yourself. Okay? Like truly being, because you're a general manager,

you're an owner, cause owners don't, like don't fool yourself. This decision is absolutely depending on the place, but there's an element of ownership, and ownership driven. Especially when it comes to quarterback stuff. That's what I'm saying. Right.

So, do you have the people, do you have the power, do you have the strength in your convictions? But most importantly, do you have the ability to be honest with yourself? If I'm Tennessee ownership, if I'm running the organization, do I have the right guy to develop him? Do I have the talent around him? Are we ready to do that? Can we do what Washington did this year? I know Cliff Kingsbury, there were question marks coming in.

It didn't have great success in Arizona and the NFL in the first half of seasons and then people figure them out in the second half of season. All those things. Does it marry with what we have? You know what I mean? That's a hard thing to do because everyone's got the answers. And I'd like to think if I put together my staff

and my personnel people and my coaching staff and had everything in place and believed in it, that I would believe that we could do it, right? Yeah, see, I love this, by the way. I'm really enjoying kind of like the thought of this, because if you're, like you probably bring in the GM like the first time, you're like, hey man, it's gonna be your call.

And you could even see like an owner deferring you in your first draft with your staff, because he just wants to like set the tone that it is gonna be your call. But then you're eight and nine, you're not a quarterback. And I'm not even talking specifically about Tennessee. I'm just saying like this, this team, right? Whatever this make believe eight, nine team is quarterback was terrible.

The salespeople are like, Hey, we're, we're actually starting to like, not get as many renewals season ticket. People are on your ass. And there's just all these different things where if you're the talent evaluator, you're like, hey, you want me to make the right choice or the wrong choice? It's like, we want you to make the right choice,

but we want you also thinking about all these other dynamics of the business. And that's where like a couple bad years, you don't have the quarterback, then the owner's like, I know I told you it's your call and you're gonna have autonomy and all this kind of stuff, but like, we want a quarterback. We want a quarterback. Like, that's why I thought that Joe Shane access that we had in hard knocks

with Giants ownership and them being like, Hey, we really don't want to see Saquon in Philly. And Joe Shane's like, yeah, I get it. But the reason I liked what Joe did in the access that we had of that was like, sure, it'll be embarrassing. And by the way, Saquon was an absolute stud and might win a Superbowl. And it was unbelievable this year. Like everything that you could have feared as a Giants member of ownership, personnel, all that stuff, like, oh man, we look, but Joshan was right. He's like, why do we need him? What are we doing with them?

Why are we spending all that money at that position? We're probably not even going to be any good anyway. And we're giving like Daniel Jones a gap year on all this stuff or offensive. Like, sure, fine. It'll all be embarrassing, but none of it actually fucking matters. None of it matters. And that's a really hard thing to be able to do, even though it's supposed to be your job to tell the person that owns the team, Hey, this is what we need to do.

And that's why, like at the top, are you just seeing owner being like, I don't care what your grade is, we need a quarterback. Yeah. And there's not a lot of people in the, in the league. Everyone's got the answers right in the league after, you know, every personnel person you talk to in the league is a hoof. See the hard knocks and you know, so it's like everyone's always throwing darts and daggers at other people. But back to, to our, like our discussion though, here's the other human element of it.

Like, all right, I got a GM job, I'm here, I've arrived. I don't know the years on the contract, five, six years, whatever it is. Well, yeah, I mean, the first time guy, no way it's that long, right? Well, Joe Douglas was six years. So I don't know, I gotta look at it. But my point is, like be even bigger picture,

not just Tennessee, but any team sitting there, there's, there's two things that are running through your head. That's in addition to, um, in addition to your actual evaluation, they can skew the evaluation, right? The first thing is, all right, I'm the general manager. This is my first year as the GM, right? And the product on the field is going to be what if we don't draft Cam Ward? Will Levis, a retread veteran, you know

what I mean? So that factors in. And then the second part that factors in is like, all right, yeah, I could go draft a great player in Abdul Carter, but we're going to suck again. draft a great player in Abdul Carter, but we're going to suck again. What if I take a hack here and it works out? What if we hit strike gold and we got a Jaden situation or even like the promise of a Michael Pennings or Bo Nicks? You know what I mean? What if we have that in year one and we can start then building and now I get four, it's like that pot of gold, right? It's like, now I get four years on this, four more years after his rookie year. And now I feel good about him and there's momentum and I've got his rookie contract. He's worth nothing against my cap.

And I can plug free agents and go draft picks and all that stuff. And so it's like this enticing thing that can draw you away from what probably is the right decision, which is just draft the best player in the draft also happens to be a pass rusher. You know? Yeah, I'm leaning that way because it's just been, it feels like the default of, well, they need a quarterback. They have to go ahead and take one and maybe it'd be different if Carter wasn't so impressed with me all season long.

Would you take Carter over Hunter in a vacuum? Yeah. Yeah. For a couple, for Hunter is going to be a playmaking really, really good cornerback. I actually think he's a better wide receiver, but I think it's harder to find corners. And I think, I don't think if you're gonna,

if you're planning on, and you absolutely need to plan on him being different than anyone we've ever seen before, you've got to find a plan, but you've got to do it as your folks would say with the load management. And that's gonna be the trickiest part. It's gonna be the trickiest part of this whole thing

is everyone wants to see him play 140 snaps a game in both sides of the ball and all that stuff. Well, now he's tackling NFL running backs and NFL tight ends and NFL receivers. And like, is he gonna hold up with that frame? He's already nicked up his shoulder and been dinged up here. So like, you gotta figure out a way to keep him healthy.

And I think that's gonna be the tricky part. He's going to be a really, really good corner and a difference maker. And he's also going to offer you some something on the offensive side, you're hoping it's 20 or so snaps a game, maybe four or five targets or three or four touches a game, right? I think that's probably the realistic view. But with Abdul, you know what you got and you've got an absolute stud as a pass rusher

and just like intangibles and everything that he brings. And it's hard to, not hard to find, it's not like this unicorn, but when you can get one, you get one. Okay, I'm gonna stay on Hunter here because anybody that grew up playing baseball, you'd be asking your dad, be like, Hey, how come, you know, whatever, like everybody knew the best athlete on the team was the pitcher who then played shortstop, right? And he was the best

hitter. And then, you know, in high school, it's still the same. I don't know what the college numbers would have been, but at that point, it starts becoming more and more specialized. And you're just convinced you're like, nobody can do it. Like nobody can do it. Like I think Madison Bumgarner is somebody who I used to love watching hit as a pitcher, he had a hundred, he had 103, it's his career batting average. And then Otani comes along and is MVP, Cy Young caliber. And you'd think, okay, was this, just everyone thinking the impossible was, or there's something that wasn't,

that was actually possible. Cause Ot, or there's something that wasn't, that was actually possible because the Tony proves it's possible that everybody just accepted that it was impossible. Is it something with American sports? Like how is it that Otani was like, no, no, you're going to do both and you're going to be fine. And granted he's not pitching now because he got hurt, but he is the thing.

How many years in is that? How many years in? I think he's six years into his career. Yeah. Um, could be seven. I mean, so in a physical and in a physical sport, I just think there's, I think there's a lesson there too. How long can you do it? Sure.

But I know it's a different sport, right? So this was his seventh season. He did the thing we all had agreed on that can't be done. What is the argument? Is it just the snaps, the physicality of it? I mean, because like we know, like there, there are corners that never tackle anyway.

So is there, is it just a old school resistance to the idea that he can do what he just did in college? Or is there something more practical that I need to understand? I don't get that. Talking to people, I don't get, I think a lot of that old school stuff has been pushed out. The more I see, like we sat down with Nick Casario and really we're going to do a whole GM series, right? Part of the McShea show, Mention I sat down. We kind of started it out with Nick Casario and really, we're gonna do a whole GM series, right? Part of the McShay Show. Mention I sat down, we kind of started it out with Nick Casario and Eric DeCosta

with the Texans and the Ravens respectively. They're general managers. And just talking to those guys and obviously having conversations with a bunch of other guys, you know, not interviewing them. I don't like, we went through this like old school, right? And like, you know, the movies are made even about baseball scouting and football scouting

and all the conversations. Trouble with the curve. We had this era of like these old crusty scouts and blah, blah, blah. And then we started to get a little progressive. And then it went through this, I don't know, let's call it five, seven years of like the nerds versus the meatheads, you know, like the analytics versus the foot. I was, I study football tape, right?

And we went through that phase and I think we've actually in the last couple of years, man, like I'm here to announce, I truly think we've gotten to the sweet spot of personnel. I think, I think coaches and scouts are more understanding. When Nick Saban talks about how he's completely like retrained his whole way of dealing with players and, and being understanding and worrying about this and that. And you talk to Scouts and general managers and you talk about like the analytics and the miles per hour, the zebra technology, and you talk about all the different things that are being implemented. And talking to Eric DeCostin said he has 124 data points that he puts into a cocktail and it spits out.

And that doesn't decide where they're drafting him. decide where they're drafting him. But he was talking about how, you know, the grades matter but then within that grade, that bucket of grade, like that helps to sort them out. So like, I think we've gotten to an era in scouting and personnel where like, people are open to everything and are seeking more information but how to utilize it properly. So with that all as a backdrop, I haven't had one conversation where it's like Dion couldn't do it, Champ couldn't do it. I haven't had any of those conversations. There's trepidation, there's concern about just holding up physically, but everyone I've talked to has had a progressive mentality about

it's going to be fascinating to see with all the technology we have now and the bands they play and the heart monitors and all the technology, every single movement on the practice field that everyone makes and the way they monitor these players, figuring out that sweet spot for Hunter, a player like that. How many plays can we play him on offense? How many plays on defense? How many reps does he get in practice in order to keep him fresh?

How do we do that instead of a 12, 13 game season for a 17 game season in the end? So like, there are people who are fascinated and intrigued about Travis Hunter as this like new experiment and how could we do it? But with it comes concern that you don't do it the right way. And instead of just getting a great player on one side of the ball, you wind up messing the whole thing up.

Yeah. Fair. You know, the answer. All right. Last couple of minutes here before we finish up. If I'm a fan and my team needs this position, I should be thrilled. And then on the other side, uh, the units that you feel like are weak. Running back is loaded.

And so you don't need to get one early. If you want to get Ashton Gentile, he's, he's phenomenal, uh, from Boise state and I think he's, he's different. So it's, it's worth the pick somewhere in the top 20. Uh, is it a Jamiro Gibbs type different or even better? I, I think could be, I don't want to say more complete, but like, and more of an every day, like Gibbs ideally can get, keep that rotation going to keep

him, um, healthy and all that. But we saw when he wasn't how dynamic and explosive he is, but yeah, I mean, he's going to be a top tier running back in the NFL if, if things go well. And there's just a little bit of help in the offensive line. He's that type of player. Trevion Henderson from Ohio State, man, talking to people in the league, he could easily be RB2 in this class. But the bigger point is that running back classes, I've never seen anything this deep at the running back class in 25 years. So you can get really good guys

later in the draft. Coming off the senior bowl, I think two positions really jumped out to me. And it's in addition to all the other guys, right? But the tight ends were kind of a big hit. Let's just put it that way. The tight ends, Elijah Arroyo from Miami, my goodness, he looks the

part. He's an F tight end. He's athletic. He can get down the field. He's smooth. You had Fanon from Bowling Green had an awesome week there. Harold Fanon, highly productive, like, record-setting production. That Penn State game. Yes. When you do that tape, because for whatever reason, I watched that whole game. I think it was because it was early with

Penn State's offense. I want to see what it looked like. He was it was ridiculous. It was like, hey, we have one guy. Right. Can you find a way to keep us in this game? And I was doing it. I guess I I talked to a personnel director who was like every time. Like when you get a guy like that, a smaller school guy, not.

They've got to dominate the big games and all the great ones when you go back. And he went through a list of all these smaller school guys and like specifically the recall was awesome of like that game or two games against the big programs. And that's exactly what he pointed to as Penn State. But beyond that, like Terrence Ferguson is so consistent, the Oregon tight end catches everything,

just gets open, makes it look easy. And Mason Taylor, I talked to two different personnel guys who were like, he's just absolute dude. And so all of those guys- He's a total stud. I mean, I don't know why they got away. Maybe it's because all the receivers LSU had had over those years, but my God,

like when he first came onto the scene I'd be shocked if he's not like a really productive long-term and that's what everyone the league thing Everyone's like kind of scouts are like kind of glad that they they didn't feature him that much Because maybe we can get him in like early second, you know But that's not even including my point on this too is yeah Warren is is just phenomenal out of Penn State, right? Mechanics bill shout out. I mean, we were we were all over all year on him. So this is the least surprising thing ever. And then Colson and then Colson Loveland. So like this tight end group has turned out to be really

good. Then the defensive line, like it was dude after dude after dude at the senior bowl. And that doesn't even include, we talked about Abdul Carter, Mikel Williams, right? Joan Walker from Georgia. Like those guys weren't there, but I'm looking around and it's like Mike Green from Marshall was friggin dominant. I mean, won almost every single rep against good offense. He plowed, I don't know if you saw the clip, against Connerly, who's gonna be a first round pick,

the Oregon offensive tackle, just ran over him. And that was the highlight, but there were so many other plays. Shamar Stewart is quickly becoming one of my favorite players in the draft. He was there for the first two days from Texas A&M. Long, physical, tough, powerful. Then you got

the all three Ole Miss guys, starting with the defensive tackle, Walter Nolan, who's going to be a first round pick. So you got all of those guys. And then other guys are stepping up, like Ola Dejo from UCLA, number 99, a Mike Linebacker for three years this year. He breaks out as an edge, comes to the senior bowl, he's outstanding. Dunovan Azuraku from BC, had an awesome week. This guy, Darius Alexander from Toledo, 305, long, body beautiful, defensive tackle, can play all over the defensive front.

I got fired up watching these guys. And that's not even including like all the SEC guys that were there and just doing what they do throughout the week. Like, Deion Walker from Kentucky, and Tim Smith, Alabama's a big, powerful guy. Omar Norman Lott, Savion Jones, Jared Ivy. It was wild to watch.

This might've been one of the better defensive front groups I've ever seen at the senior bowl. Okay, my man, The McShay Show. Check it out on Ringer, Spotify, subscribe. They got some good video going, a lot of good recaps from all the senior bowl stuff. I'm glad it was a great trip. Thanks for the time. I appreciate it, brother. Talk to you soon. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari, 355 Cabriolet.

What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you 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. We've got Kyle, we've got war gone. So Rudy still in Mexico, I sent him a text or he sent me a text this morning and asked me

something and then I was like, wait, I had a work question. I go, are you still in Tulum? He said yes. So you know what? Enjoy Tulum. No more questions for me. Our email address is lifeadviceRR at gmail.com. Today's life advice is brought to you by Amazon Business. And before we begin, here's my first piece of advice. You absolutely need to try Amazon Business. Amazon Business offers smart business buying solutions

so you can spend more time growing your business and less time doing the admin. I can see why they call it smart. Okay, let's jump in. We covered the spectrum on the last episode from children's books to breast augmentation. We've had a lot of feedback on this. Some of it-

I had a good book recommendation, so I'd be interested to see what you've uncovered. Yeah, well, there was one, well, there was a lot of people that alerted me to something that I didn't know about certain children's books, that they become like part of public domain, so you don't need the copyright part of it. Somebody was like, hey, you fucking idiots, do better. I'm like, how are you this mad about not knowing a copyright rule with children's books? But you know, people can get really upset sometimes. It's weird, like Mickey Mouse became that way and now people are making like horror movies with the old timey Mickey Mouse and like Winnie the Pooh, it's just like a hundred years old and you can just pervert it any way you want.

No more rules, no. Yeah, so, you know, some terms a hundred and then somebody's gonna do something weird with it. So I guess that applies to children's books too. We had a lot of people saying you can read my children's books. I just don't know that it's that easy to go ahead and do that without something being signed.

People pitching me their books that have nothing to do with children. Actually one book pitch we are going to give, because I've seen this one before. Michael Meyer wrote this Ben Franklin book called Ben Franklin's Last Bet. He said six, two, one 90 runner, trading for Edinburgh, Scotland in May, player comp Malik Sealy. That's why I read it. Shout out to Malik Sealy. Ryan, you have my permission to read my book, Benjamin Franklin's Last

Bet, Harper Collins, Introduce Kids to Franklin's Love of Boston and Philly and Hatred of Lawyers, Taking Over the Federal Government. His last will and testament is still paying young people to learn trades today. I hope the copyright, oh, I hold the copyright and can help choose a section that will put even toddlers wearing worsted hose and a tricorder to sleep. Yeah, that would be boring to a kid, but I'm excited about it. That's a great pitch. Sir. So I've seen that book in stores. I think it did really well.

So let's, uh, figure we give him this. I mean, look, once he said Malik, silly, he was in, um, some guys sent us pictures of their wives. Do you guys are getting way too comfortable? But, you know, there's just not a lot we can do with that. We're, we don't have video yet. And we would never do that if we, if we ever get the pictures.

All right. Speaking of pictures, let's just perfectly segway into this. What is the correct way to respond to a nude? Here we go. 6'3", 188. Between a bachelor party and a full week of greedy eating after it doesn't feel right down to 185. Super specific. Thanks. Gym stats 245, bench 345. Squat. God I read that weird. Don't deadlift because

frankly I hate it. And I don't want to NBA comp to Nilla Gallinari can beat you with a drive and pull up from mid range, but ultimately not as good as you think I would be context. I'm 30. She's 32. This is the first nude she had sent me in our pretty short relationship. And she wasn't incredibly upset. I actually told her today, I was going to write you guys in and ask for your

opinion onto the story after particular bad day at work earlier this week, I was texting my girlfriend how frustrated I was and sent her the I'm dead inside Michael Scott gift right before heading into my first workout post bachelor trip. Trip was three days of clubs, tequila, 6 a.m. bedtimes in a tropical city. As you can imagine, after, how old's the guy again?

30? 30. Yeah. 30. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean at that point 30, it's gonna hurt. As you can imagine after suffering through a two day hangover workout and almost passing out

in the sauna, I was running on fumes as I walked home. As I checked my phone, I see my girlfriend sent me a super sexy, if she's listening, nude photo while I was at the gym. The conversation is below, her, nude, I hope this makes you feel a little less dead inside. Me, ha ha, that does very much help, thank you. Oh, there's a kissy face emoji in there.

Okay, that helps. Helps a lot, actually. I appreciate you wanting to help and successfully doing so, but enough about me, how are you? That was your response? What are you, the accountant? I appreciate you wanting to help. Yeah, that's just very formal, man.

I will add this relationship is very new, three months, which might weigh in on your advice. A couple of texts later, she mentioned my lack of enthusiasm and she publicly wasn't going to, oh, and that she will publicly would be a different. She said she probably wasn't going to do that again. I was pretty surprised at her reaction as I figured my responses were respectful

and it showed appreciation. I thought back to two years ago and I was dating my buddy's girlfriend. Oh, buddy's girlfriend's friend. Jesus. That helps. You don't deserve any nudes. Yeah, there's, I've had like three in here.

I thought that Danilo's sentence was weird. I was dating my buddy's girlfriend's friend and he mentioned her being weirded out after I replied to a nude she had sent me with, you guessed it. Thank you. I texted him about it and he was flabbergasted that I was wrong. Thank you once again. Grantedanted I guess I should learn from my mistakes but now I'm wondering what is the correct response to a new?

Was I not horny enough? Is this obvious and am I just a moron? Would love to hear your thoughts on my response how if you would have responded differently. Love the pod, been listening since Southwest canceled everyone's flights back home in 2022. And my boys and I listened to life advice for six straight hours in a rental car. I've attached the nude below in case that helps. Damn it. He did not.

He did not. Very funny way to end it. Sorry that I mangled your email a couple of different times there, but we're getting fresh here. Fresh long day. All right, Kyle, why don't you take the lead on this? What do you think the correct way to respond? Well, there's two avenues,

and I'm not gonna cover the second one. If this is gonna launch into a full, you know, you got 30 minutes to sext, and we're gonna close the door, that's a whole different thing, not gonna get into that. Then I think you maybe get a little more in-depth with your answers, maybe see the bubbles,

the text bubbles going for a little longer before you respond. But I think if this is just like a, this is a fun point of my day. I think maybe to keep it light, it's like emojis and gifts. I was thinking maybe the Chris Pratt emoji from Parks and Rec where he's like, like that one. You know what I mean? You want to show your excited. Yeah. You want to show you're excited, but you don't want to over-talk. What about Chris Pine? Yeah, I mean, hotter, but I don't know if he's doing anything with his face that would warrant replying to an impromptu nude. But I think emojis, maybe like a thank you, smiley face, something like that.

If you guys have been together longer than that, I would say like maybe throw a love you in there, but he said it's new, so maybe that would be a weird time to say the first I love you. But yeah, I like keeping it light, showing that you're happy. The very formal like, you know, thank you, ma'am, and a good day to you.

Like I just, I don't think that's- You don't want to be given like a handshake emoji. Right, correct. Correct. I think hearts, the heart eyes, just like showing her that like she took a step and you don't want like that kind of spotty naity to be crushed, which it sounds like you may have just crushed it. She's like, well, I'm never doing that again.

So I think you want to show that you're excited without like being a creep. But yeah, I think emo's like a thank you, whatever would be good. But not the Dwight Schrute, it is your birthday period. Banner, right? Yeah, I mean, it sounded like she thought you were having like a bad day. Like maybe tell her like, hey, this like made my day.

Like, you know, like show like some enthusiasm. And maybe tell her like hey this like made my day like you know like show like some enthusiasm and what i'm confused about is like did he tell her that he was sending this question into us after she sent him this yes sounds like they had a whole conversation about it that doesn't seem like the right move to me i think it's possible you have no game I think it's great. You have no game. It could be totally possible. Well, no game isn't accurate. You know, no game is not accurate. Yeah, no, no, you're right. This is the second time that he's done the exact same thing. It's incredible that he's just trying to be really polite. He's trying to avoid being creepy when he's kind of getting the green light to be creepy. Yeah, if you overreact, you'll be like,

this guy's a loser. Well, if he act like you've been there before. Right. So he's trying to keep a poker face, I guess. Right. Like, are you into cannibalism? You know, like follow up. It's like, whoa, dude, I just got out of the shower.

Like, huh? Uh, I just, I just think it's really funny that he's trying to be like super polite and not cross any kind of line. And now he's talked himself into just being like the HR of nude recipients. And so that's a tough, I don't. I, well, yeah, I mean, look, you've done it twice. Adjust and tell her that. I think that's what you need to do

is that you need to tell her like, I didn't know what I could do. I didn't know like how you wanted me to go with this, but I think you have to be in that moment, like incredibly appreciative of the person that you're with opening up that door, right? You have to show the appreciation. And again, it's a generational thing. of the person that you're with opening up that door, right? You have to show the appreciation.

And again, it's a generational thing where like it just becomes standard operating procedure when you're south of a certain age. Although I still think one of my favorite ever pandemic tweets was when the guy was like, if you're asking for nudes during the pandemic guys, seriously? And it was like the ultimate pandering tweet.

I don't even know who did it, but it was just like of all the things that people were worried about, it was like, this guy's like, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna stand for decency. Yeah, I'm gonna stand for decency. I mean, it's probably not as bad as this one writer

that tried to tell millions of Americans to just bail on Thanksgiving. But I don't know, man. Don't let there be a third time, okay? Explain to her. Next time, just text back eight out of 10. Right, wow, eight out of 10. That's the dumbest thing.

I know, I know. Oh, you were kidding, Kyle. All right, very good, very good, Joe. Sorry, sorry, eight out of 10. That's the dumbest thing. I know, I know. Oh, you were kidding, Kyle. All right, very good, very good, Joe. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Yeah, you just have to learn. You've been invited to, into a room, man, that you need to open the door to a little bit more. Yeah, peruse the GIFs in your iPhone app

and just see like, just one that you'll have in your back pocket and be like, oh, this is perfect. Have like five. Yeah. Maybe type in like, I got a new photo. See what comes up. Probably, probably nothing. Um, do you send her the one that says, if you don't hawk to, I don't talk to you. Just, yeah, mess around with some prompts and see, see what you like.

And then, uh, when this comes up, you'll know exactly what to do. Big cat turned 40 yesterday. So he sent me that one yesterday. Cause I was like, now that you're 40, you can send old memes, two week old memes. Incredible. So he sent me that one. Um, I was like, you're just, that might be even too new because it's the first thing I think that's it's not your eyesight.

It's what should I send? And then what you think is sendable, just the threshold is lowered quite a bit on all that kind of stuff. So I think that's probably the best advice. Have like, again, I kind of hate the word, but like angling toward mild orniness, give responses, huh?

Is that good? Yeah. Do we nail it? I think that's right. Let's move on. Uh, okay. This one's so depressing and it's a Friday. I'm not reading it dating advice. No, I don't think we're reading this one. All right.

I gotta go. I got to search for it. I know where it is. We'll find it. Joy, Joy ride with sister in Log On Wrong. Love the pod, six foot, 240, player comp, Big Baby Davis, bored man gets paid mentality. And I am known to set some mean ass screens.

Big Baby had some footwork though too, man. Nasty footwork. I have a little bit of a dilemma on my hands. My fiance and I get invited to her brother's birthday party at their home over the weekend, her brother and his fiance. So I don't know if he changed the names or not guys, but let's call her brother Gerard and the fiance will be Minnie. All right.

Interesting choices. Very nice. Yeah, yeah. So Gerard and Minnie. Very nice, I've always gotten along. We had some drinks, celebrated her brother's 28th birthday. Everything was going well until I was outside alone ripping a heater, marble or red.

Shout out, wow, Kyle. This guy does not, this guy does not fuck around. And when I was approached by my soon to be brother-in-law's wife, the conversation was pretty normal until she suddenly said she was bored and wanted to show me her new car and suggested we go take a look at the vehicle. I work at a dealership selling cars, so I thought she was wanting to show me some specs and get my opinion on her new vehicle. We've always been cordial and friendly with one another. And I've always thought she is a nice girl and nothing else.

After showing me the car, she suggested we go for a joy ride. And I always been cordial and friendly with one another. I've always thought she is a nice girl and nothing else. After showing me the car, she suggested we go for a joy ride. And I was pretty buzzed at the time. I thought nothing of it. So we both got in her vehicle and took it for about a 20 ish minute ride around the town. Nothing happened. We listened to some Jelly Roll, her favorite artist. Where are you guys at with Jelly Roll? No, okay. Blind spot. I know he's had quite a big couple of years here, but I got a blind spot. But again, I'm stuck in like 2012, so I don't know.

All right. No problem. No problem. Just asking the crew. Told a few jokes, kept everything lighthearted. When we got back to our house. We were greeted by my fiance and Gerard both of whom had concerned looks on their faces Gerard looked visibly upset But was trying to hide it by saying whoa guys

Where did you go in a somewhat joking tone before I could respond my fiance also chimed in and said you guys were gone for a While in a very serious and concerned voice a while in a very serious and concerned voice. Um, many laughed it off and said she was just showing off her new ride. And I responded by saying, what a great car she has and commenting on how she got a great deal from that police board guy. He's just trying to have a Marlboro red and now everything he does looks guilty. Yeah. Yeah, seriously.

Maybe I've never seen windows go down that fast. That's incredible. I'm trying to think what cigarette could he have been smoking where he would've gotten the benefit of the doubt. Not that one. Probably not cools parliaments out. Uh, from that point forward, the night was incredibly awkward. We all managed to keep tensions at bay on the ride home.

My fiance informed me that she was pretty upset by the entire thing with Minnie and asked me several questions about why I went on a ride with her. I laughed it off jokingly and told her I was being nice. Didn't want to make things awkward by saying no. My fiance proceeded to tell me how much of a whore Minnie is and that she has a history of being unfaithful to Gerard. Well, the name like that, you know. She then asked me flat out if we did anything.

I was disgusted by the suggestion and told her it's a ridiculous accusation, she had nothing to worry about. Since that night, things have been pretty awkward around my fiance and she keeps side eyeing my phone when I'm on it. Well, you probably wouldn't be texting her immediately afterwards if you had done anything.

Did I mess up by accepting this joyride? Any tips on how to manage the situation going forward would be greatly appreciated. You're just gonna have to go full siege mentality here. You have to go on the offensive. You have to go, hey, we got to get this right. We got to get it over with right now. What's on your mind?

Like lay it all out. And this is the last time we're going to talk about it. Because if you're going to hold me, because if somebody else's track record, when I'm assuming giving you the benefit of the Dallas emailer, a clean track record, nothing to to ever suggest now you could just be dating somebody incredibly insecure you know the answer to that already and it doesn't mean it's the worst it just means that things like this happen there's just all this stuff

and it can be in your own girlfriend's past because anybody that knows has been out there and in the wild there's just some people that are so defeated by previous experiences that literally you're starting at such a deficit that everything that you're doing is kind of being questioned and it completely sucks. Now in this case, like this is something, this isn't somebody you're just dating. This isn't a three month nude, right? This is your live in deal, right? The whole thing. So is this new behavior, you know, that's actually kind of better if it is, obviously it is better than if it's new behavior, because then you can just go, what is going on with you? And just because of what her track record is and the stuff that's happened with your brother and all

that, like it has nothing to do with has nothing. Do you think I would do that? Do you think I'm that stupid? And can the problem is with women, really, I don think I would do that? Do you think I'm that stupid? And Ken, the problem is with women, really I don't know man or women, because I doubt women would just be smart enough to never say it.

But if you were a man, you'd be like, hey, if I'm gonna do it, you think I would do that? And then it's like, well now, now you just admitted that you're gonna do it, now you have a whole different argument, much more serious. So then what's your plan, Todd? Right.

Are you gonna pull it off? Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. So who is? You just, you can't let it linger. I know this sounds a little mean, but you almost have to make them feel guilty about ever thinking it and be so determined to go like I'm not giving, because you didn't do anything, right? You didn't do anything.

We're giving you the benefit of the doubt. You didn't do anything. And you have to be like kind of forceful about it. And I know this sucks the dynamic, but look, people get into arguments and all that kind of stuff. This is one of those deals where you're like, let's go. Let's go. Say it all.

And I'm just going to let you know right now, like, my goal is probably going to be making you feel bad that you even thought all. And I'm just going to let you know right now, like my goal is probably going to be making you feel bad that you even thought it, which is, I know it sounds shitty and mean, but it's probably the right way to go end it. Nip this thing right now. Yeah.

I think the overt way is definitely the approach. Definitely bring it up, be like, listen, I can tell, I can feel that something's off and for multiple reasons, let's talk about it. You can even be like, I'm a people pleaser. So sorry, these people are attached to your family and we're gonna be, this is a forever thing as far as I'm concerned.

So I didn't want weird feelings with, you know, somebody attached to your brother. So I just I just tried to keep the peace and it seemed okay. So I think you could just you can be like go that way. It's like, dude, I was I was doing this because I want to feel like a part of this family and whatever. Like, obviously, I didn't know all this other stuff. And we could talk about whatever you want. But just you know, maybe Maybe there's a way to seem like you were a good guy. Maybe you were just like, listen, I didn't want her to go by herself. She was buzzed. I was just making sure everything was okay. I think there's a ways to show that you're a good guy in this situation as well as like, hey, say what you got to say because we can't. I don't know if it's been a month

has passed, if it's just been a couple of weeks, but that's a gross feeling when they're just acting different and you're like, until this is solved, it's been a month has passed, if it's just been a couple of weeks, but that's a gross feeling when they're just acting different and you're like, until this is solved, it's just gonna be this, it's not gonna fall away. So I think definitely you're go on the offensive, bring this up instead of how many passive aggressive things can be exchanged between you two before somebody starts yelling about it.

Yeah, based on the information from the email, the email did nothing wrong. And I think you just need to like make that super clear that all you did was go for a drive. Like that's all. That's his business, it's his industry. Did the emailer even know that she was being unfaithful? Like did he know that she was being unfaithful?

I don't know. Or did the girlfriend inform him that after? We don't have that information. I don't know. The girlfriend informed him that after. We don't have that information. We don't know. So like, I think you just gotta, you know, nothing happened, you gotta trust me on this one. Won't happen again, you know, we'll steer clear of her, but I didn't do anything wrong in the moment.

All we did was go for a drive. Just trying to keep this family close, you know what I mean? Yeah. Or a lead on a trade-in. You know, I know your family, Or a lead on a trade-in. Yeah. You know, I know your family, but I think that transmission was a little. Was hoping for a December to remember.

Yeah, some walk in there. Jesus. Maybe not that freezing. Yeah. Nice pull. Yeah, that's really good. Was that Lexus? Yeah.

I had a Lexus once. Traded in, left some stuff. Sales guy was like, Hey, I think I left like a couple portable speakers and they're now see it. It's like nothing against Lexus. It was, it was the one, one guy that I had. Um, I think ultimately the goal should be in all this kind of stuff. And like, this is, this drives me crazy.

It's like the relationships are hard enough. Somebody else's history and the dynamic of their thing, whether it's your brother's insecurity or her track record, and then your influence of all of that. That somehow I'm the bad guy out of all the characters. That's what you need to avoid. You need to figure out a way to avoid that. So speaking of getting business done, today's life advice was brought to you by Amazon Business,

the ultimate time-saving tool for business buyers. Visit business.amazon.com to learn more. Thanks to Kyle. Thanks to Oregon. It's already back next week. Make sure you check out our YouTube page and subscribe to that as well as three days next week. So normal schedule next week, trade deadlines, so a lot going on. Ryan Roussillo Podcast, Ringer Spotify. Must be 21 and older, present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star

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