The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Super Bowl Contenders Struggle, Top 10 NFL Prospects, and the Best CFB Win This Season With Todd McShay

Episode Date: October 16, 2023

Russillo opens by recapping Week 5 of the NFL season and giving his biggest winners and losers (1:24). Then, he breaks down his top 12 in CFB (18:27). He is then joined by Todd McShay to talk about Washington-Oregon, his top 10 prospects, and Jalen Hurts (24:55). Finally, the guys close it out with some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (54:22). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Todd McShay Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, and Stefan Anderson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Okay, what is up good teams in the NFL? Those that won didn't feel like they won and some others that lost, but whatever. It's kind of that league. We'll dig into that. We'll do it with Todd McShay as well. We'll also go over Washington's big win against Oregon, get an updated look at his top 10 to 12 prospects for the NFL draft,

and a breakdown of Caleb Williams' awful night in South Bend. We have life advice. We have our FanDuel Monday night pick. There's one parlay out there that everybody seems to love right now. And a final announcement for this, we'll do it again on Wednesday as well, live show from the 900 Club in Manhattan Beach, right on Manhattan Ave. The doors are going to open at 4, right now. And a final announcement for this, we'll do it again on Wednesday as well. Live show

from the 900 Club in Manhattan Beach, right on Manhattan Ave. The doors are going to open at four. So it's going to be first come, first serve. There are no tickets. I repeat, there are no tickets to the event to be sold. We're just doing it this way because it's actually the only way we could do it if we wanted to do a show in Manhattan Beach. So shout out to 900 Club and Dave for letting this happen. Guests developing, very excited about some of the developments so far. But again, it's going to be this Friday. So if you want to go, I don't know how early you're going to have to get there. I don't know how busy it's going to be, but it's a small venue.

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

And a snow day, again, no. But blueberry muffins with the delicious crumb topping, total yes. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol in select markets. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details. So week six in the books, sort of, until our Monday night game.

We'll have a pick for that a little bit later, but it feels a bit like a WTF week in general. Now, the NFL will do this every now and then. Reminds us what it is capable of doing, even with the best team. So let's run through it. The Bills win on Sunday night football against the Giants. They're down 6-0, shut out through three quarters after the Jags loss in London where they scored seven points the first three quarters. So you're like, alright, you need to be kidding me with this. Credit the Giants defense for hanging in there. But on the other side of it, it's Tyrod

Taylor. It's not Daniel Jones. The offensive line is a mess. Both tackles are gone. They lose the backup third tackle. And then Justin Pugh, who's introduced, is off the couch, which I will get to later on. Then he swings out the left tackle. He didn't even look like he was filling out his uniform. I mean, granted, I know he's a very big guy, but he wasn't playing football and he goes from left guard to left tackle in the same game. So it's not like the Giants were doing anything. I think there's a little bit of a like, hey, Brian Dable and this offense, they're doing some good things. They weren't asking Taylor to do too much. Like, dude, they scored six points. The Bills scored zero through three quarters. We know the defensive injuries that they've had that we've covered already,

but I'm starting to think the Miami win for Buffalo was worse for Buffalo than it was for Miami. Because since that game and and some of it's injuries, but it's almost like Buffalo's like, all right, we've got this, this is our division. And granted, I think they're still a really good football team, and I think Josh Allen is really good, but Miami said the right things after that game where they were admitting,

yeah, we probably needed a bit of a wake-up call here. So I don't know if that game means something or if it means that Buffalo started feeling themselves too much and Miami needed some sort of confidence reset. I thought Allen was bad last night. Even the second touchdown, I can't believe he made that throw. I thought there were three or four throws. I was like, what is he doing? He's completely parallel to the line of scrimmage. And then he's just throwing it. And we know like on this podcast, I say all the time, like stop worrying about perfect

mechanics. There's very few throws that are perfectly set up. Great foundation, all the things that you would want. But sometimes these guys get into these bad habits and like Alan feels like he's in a run. Now, I also think this isn't really making excuses. I think it's true. When he got hit and he went backwards and they buzzed to go check him for concussion

protocol stuff, he had actually been hurt earlier in the game. He went down and he immediately grabs his throwing shoulder. Okay. Immediately goes for it. And I don't know, like last year when we talked about the interceptions, it's like, okay, well, clearly this elbow thing's the big difference, but I think it's all part for it. And I don't know, like last year when we talked about the interceptions, it's like, okay, well, clearly this elbow thing's the big difference, but I think it's all part of it. And I was just, I'm really surprised to see them play this poorly. I know they got the win. Diggs had 16 targets. Everyone else combined had 12 targets. They're missing one of their tight

ends again, who I was really excited about, but a weird, a weird win for another Superbowl contender, but at least they won. Like I said, I think I feel better about Miami now, even after that head to head matchup Miami, who's down 14, nothing to Carolina, then scores 35 straight points. You want to talk about a score where you're like, wait, is this going to happen? Is this going to add to all the absurdity of this weekend? Not the case. Most are now has what, 11 touchdowns in six games. A-Chan didn't even play in this one. And also, I need to correct this Carolina mistake that I've made now

whenever looking at the top quarterbacks in the draft and then going, like, would a team now, because Carolina's 0-6, would they ever do it? They don't have their pick. It was part of the trade. So you don't have to worry about that. I have made that mistake. So I just want to make sure I clear that one up on Bryce Young potentially being replaced by a draft pick. At least not the number one pick or wherever

it ends up landing. So Philly loses. So as much as you're worried about the Bills, because that was ugly, it just was. I mean, cool, you won, but what's going on? You have Philly who loses to the Jets. Cool, you won, but what's going on? You have Philly who loses to the Jets. Hertz was terrible. He had three picks. The third one, I couldn't believe he threw. You know, two defensive backs are basically bookending the receiver. They're all at the same depth.

So, you know, if you're expecting your guy's going to be able to make a play on the ball before the defenders are not really the case i mean in considering game situation score all that kind of stuff like that was that was rookie stuff like i you know again some of the best quarterbacks still make mistakes but that one for hertz on another bad day where depending on which game you're looking at this season this game game or the New England game, two of the worst games that Hurts has had in a while. Explosive plays are just down for this team. For whatever reason, they have the personnel for it,

but explosive plays are like less than half of what they used to be in the passing game. Hasn't mattered. We've talked about their rushing attack, that they can go to that when the passing isn't working. Well, not against this Jets defense. It's funny, but this Jets defense is that good. That's why the whole Aaron Rodgers thing is so absurd.

Because Zach Wilson, if you want to go through some of the playing the result stuff that we do with quarterbacks far too often, Wilson's, I would say, had one game where you wouldn't want to bench him the next week. The Denver game. Or, no, no, I should say the Kansas City game. The Kansas City game. Look, if you dig through all the numbers on those other games, the fact that they're even competitive in any of these speaks to how absurd this defense is, how great the linemen are.

I mean, every single level has something where you're like, oh, it's a D-line game. Oh, it's their linebackers all over the place. I feel like their linebackers are involved in everything the entire game anyway. But this is turning a bit into like, oh, well, Zach Wilson isn't that bad. It's like, yeah, I actually still think he is that bad. Most of the games aren't that good.

On the other side, for Philly, you lose Lane Johnson. Three guys from the secondary actually left the game, so we're starting to get to that point. We saw it with Buffalo. We saw it with San Francisco. We're going to get to there in a little bit here on some of the injury totals and some of the stuff that starts adding up here. And Hurts, by the way, seven picks this year.

Jalen Hurts had seven against six all of last season. All right. San Francisco loses to Cleveland. Cleveland is now allowing. We're definitely not making I think this will be the week where people start realizing how absurd this defense is. Cleveland is allowing 200.4 yards per game. Okay? The last time we saw a team do this. Now granted they've got to do it for the whole season to keep up with what's happening here historically we're talking like 50 years ago over 50 years ago

um the vikings in 1969 a leverage uh average they allowed an average of 194 yards per game um in 1970 it was 200 yards a game. So we're talking in this version of the NFL, Cleveland is doing something that we haven't seen since 1969 and 1970 was one of the great historic defenses of all time in Minnesota. So we know that they've been really good. Going back to week one against Cincinnati, we're like, are they really good? Is Jim Schwartz really that good? Was it just the weather? Like what's going on? That was a sign. And by the way, Cleveland has lost every turnover battle of every game they've been in so far this year. And that's also, as you probably knew this, without Deshaun Watson even playing in the game.

Now, on the other side of San Francisco, some really good numbers when you look at what's happened with McCaffrey, pre-McCaffrey, now with McCaffrey, and then without him. So he goes out, Trent Williams goes out at left tackle. He actually came back in. Debo went out. So before McCaffrey was on San Francisco, they were 19th in expected points added, right, offensively. So they get McCaffrey in, and they're first. Now, my issue with the

McCaffrey trade wasn't that he wasn't awesome. I was just like, he's just going to get hurt again. And I thought, you know, it's just right around the corner with him. And he had, and he's a perfect fit for all the different things that San Francisco could want to do. You look at him certain nights, you're like, oh, it's because he's doing this in the passing game. It means the other team has to play man coverage a lot more, and Purdy's actually better against man, but it's because he has McCaffrey because they don't want to just let McCaffrey do whatever he wants.

Well, you take all of those pieces away. Now, all of a sudden, Cleveland's playing a different kind of man, and Purdy looks like the guy that was the last pick in the draft. And there's a very weird thing that happens, and it happened with Josh Allen, and he turned into a really good quarterback. It was somehow like it wasn't good enough for a fan base to just have a quarterback who's really good. It has to be that everybody was also wrong about their quarterback. To this day, I'll never understand

the Josh Allen thing of like, they came up with some petition where they were like, we want you to repent for not thinking he was the man his first couple of years. I didn't think he was the man because he didn't play like he turned into a better quarterback later on. That's okay. But somehow that's not good enough. And it was happening with Purdy too, where it's like, oh, everybody's only saying this about Purdy because of this, this, and this. We're like, well, I don't know. Teams pass on them for seven rounds. There had to be some reason that happened. I think we all agree that Shanahan is the guy that figures this all out. So you take away some of those pieces like you do for anybody else. Like the really special quarterbacks are the guys that find a way, even when you take away all their toys.

And Purdy may eventually become one of those guys that would still feel like a reach. But we saw yesterday, finally, you know, I mean, look, he'd been really clean for a long time, hadn't thrown an interception, hadn't lost a game. So you can't just sit here and be like, oh, I see, I told you he wasn't that good. But we saw for an afternoon, he really struggled against a really good defense there. So I know it sounds like I'm knocking him a bit. I guess I'm just surprised at all the, you get a good quarterback in Purdy, it seems like he can be your guy, but you also want everyone to admit that they were wrong for something that every team in the NFL did by passing on them

numerous times. Best win, worst loss. I'm going to go with the Lions against Tampa Bay. Tampa had been three and one. You're looking at teams that are leading their division. With Tampa, you're like, could they actually be a sneaky division winner and it feels that way with some of the same stuff that's going on um golf goes for 340 yards james williams back in the end zone who doesn't have a lot of catches in his career for the weird start that he's had to it whether it's the injury the suspension but just seeing him out there remembering just how special he was at bama there's no reason why he doesn't become a big time weapon for them even if it looks a little like it like it's just not smooth as of right now. Even the touchdown was kind of a weird deal.

But anyway, he's going to be able to take the top off of defense a lot, depending on how he wants to play, and it just adds something else to them. They go 9-16 on third down, 2-12 for Baker. Look, Tampa's one-dimensional again. We knew the story from last year but at least with detroit you start looking at them at the nfc overall in their conference both at five and one after this weekend with philadelphia and san francisco losing worst loss i think it's the saints i'm going to stay in this division they lose 20 to 13 to houston it's not because it's the texans the texans are a viable

opponent um watch them throughout this year. They are in games. I mean, D'Amico might be coach of the year. At least that's the way it feels a third into the season. But for the Saints to go from what I thought could be the best team in the NFC South to maybe the third best team after Houston and Tampa and losing to both of them in two of the last three weeks, and it feeling significant, feeling this offense can't do enough to go with what I thought would be a really good defense.

I'm now worried about the Saints, a team that I was much higher on before the season started. I guess the other worst loss could be Philly against the Jets, which is totally fine too, but we've already covered it on that one and we all respect the Jets' defense that much more. All right, numbers you should know. Hurts has been pressured now in that game. He was pressured on 21 of 50 dropbacks.

He is 3-7 in 10 starts where he's pressured on over 40% of his dropbacks. Philadelphia also has the No. 2 toughest remaining schedule. Think about this. They've got Miami, then they've got Washington, they've got Dallas, Kansas City, the Bills, the Niners, and Dallas again. So that's six to seven games of the Washington matchup there against the Commanders lumped in between. Cincinnati has the toughest remaining schedule as of right now,

but Philadelphia, that is brutal at number two. How about this one? Miami now weeks one through six is averaging 37 points per game. That's the fifth highest since 2000. So I was like, wait, this actually feels a little low. Do you remember the Denver Peyton Manning team that actually got smoked in the Super Bowl against Seahawks? They started their 2013 season weeks one through six averaging over 44 points per game so they were a touchdown better than what miami is doing now and that was 10 years ago as the season played out that number did dip from the first six weeks to what their ultimate number was where they averaged just under 38

points per game and again smoked in the playoffs final thought recapping all the weekend introductions. I kind of like the introductions, but I, even as somebody who like definitely isn't an Ohio state fan, I just think it's wrong for anyone to do the also different university. Like you just, I don't understand why anybody does it. I don't understand the SUNY purchase. No, no, there's one. The Ohio state guys got to it. Maybe there's some Reddit thread about somebody actually did it from Kentucky and nobody paid attention. And then the Ohio state guys did it. I just don't like it. I don't like it when the other guys try to do it.

The high school thing, who knows what somebody went through in college, you know, no issue with that one. Um, when you make up something though, that's like way out there, like Terrell Suggs used to have a field day with this thing, but at least he was really good and also kind of scary. So I felt like, you know what? Let him have it. If you're good, if you're really good and you're going to get creative with the intro, that's okay. When you're a nickel that just got brought in from the practice squad, let's just keep it between the lines here. Tell us where you went to school. Keep it moving. No dramatic pauses whatsoever.

Justin Pugh, who played offensive line for the Giants last night, he said right off the couch, that one I'm okay with. At first I was like, wait, what? And I was like, oh, that's right. He just got signed. He hadn't been playing. And now he's out there running around like a crazy person. And when he moved to tackle, I don't think he was having as much fun as when he was playing guard. So just something to think about if you're listening to this right now and you're an NFL player and didn't go to the Ohio State University. It just sounds weird when you do it with the other school. The NFL season is going strong and FanDuel wants to help you enjoy it even more with two great offers.

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Restrictions apply, including token expiration. See terms for both offers at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Okay, here we go. College football top 12 rankings, and I don't like them again. All right, five different teams have first place votes on the AP poll, which is kind of what is going on. I actually, I actually kind of like it because it makes you think, all right. Georgia has 43 of them. Michigan has 16. Ohio State has one. Florida State has one. Washington has two. Oklahoma actually has a first place vote in the coaches poll as well, despite being seventh in the coaches poll. So they have both polls have Texas is the highest ranked team with a loss, eight in both the AP and the coaches. All right. So here's my deal. Michigan. I don't like it. We'll find out November 11th against Penn State, won't we?

Number two, I have Georgia. They're number one in both polls. The Florida-Mizzou-Old Miss-Tennessee run, a little bit more depth there than people thought. Certainly more impressive than the Michigan stuff leading up to Penn State. So, you know, Georgia very easily can be back in this without the big dramatic showdown against somebody else like we're going to have with Penn State here

and Michigan very shortly. I have Oklahoma third. I want to, you know, we did this with McShea a bit, but basically when I look at who has the best single win, if we were doing playoff resumes with that, I still feel like Texas, despite being neutral field, is a better win than anybody else has at this point. I'm going to go Washington four. I could honestly put Washington one, two, three, or four. Four is maybe the lowest I could put them, but really impressive them.

Beat an Oregon team that I thought had more answers on defense and they just didn't. So Washington wins that one at home. I've got Texas five. I have Florida State six. I have Ohio State seven, which feels really low. I know the Notre Dame win is better than, I don't know. I mean, it's better than anything George has done. And it's certainly better than anything Michigan has done. But I think this is partly me holding Ohio State to a higher standard. But obviously the coaches and the AP love them and give them the better for the doubt. I have Oregon 8. I wasn't going to drop them a ton, although their resume with that loss to Washington, the best thing they have is Colorado 19, which is a fake

ranking win because they're ranked at the time and Colorado is not going to be ranked. It's going to take some massive repair work for them to be ranked again after blowing that game to Stanford. I have Penn State at nine. They've got Ohio State this weekend. So here we go. The other little dirty secret that's happening here in the Big Ten again, and this is just what happens in this conference a lot, is there's two maybe really good teams and then the third good team might be Penn State, but it's up to them to beat Ohio State or Michigan one of these times. So we feel like it's a three team league. And I know other people in the past have been like, well, that's, there's Iowa playing in the Big Ten championship

game, which is looking like it's going to happen, that's going to be gross. Unfortunately, when we start getting into some of these playoff race stuff and trying to figure out how everybody fits in, a win against Iowa, if it's Iowa in the Big Ten Championship game, and that's after they beat Wisconsin and Mordecai broke his hand, had surgery already, that's not going to be the bonus chip that it's going to be for other conferences, whether it's a rematch of Washington and Oregon, whether it's a rematch of Texas and

Oklahoma in the Big 12, if it's Atlanta with Bama and Georgia. The ACC thing is kind of weird because some of those teams are going to miss each other in the regular season, but it's lining up with a couple of really nice teams at the top, whether it's North Carolina or Florida State. season, but it's lining up with a couple really nice teams at the top, whether it's North Carolina or Florida State. The Big Ten, if it's close, right? Look, if Michigan's undefeated, they're going to be in anyway.

But if something weird were to happen and you needed that Big Ten championship game to help you get back ahead of somebody, beating Iowa is not going to be the one the committee goes, you know what? That's kind of nice. Throw the records out when those two play. I have North Carolina 10th, Tez Walker. Apparently, that guy is pretty good at receiver.

There's a reason they were so upset he wasn't going to play. Well, he gets ruled eligible, three touchdowns, and the rest of the way for North Carolina, the only ranked opponent on the schedule will be Duke as of now. Duke is 16 in the AP. And then potentially Clemson, who was 27th, if you include others receiving votes. UCLA dropped to 25. James Madison is ahead of Clemson. So there you go. And then I've got Bama, who I think after letting Arkansas get the football back, down one score. That was a bit surprising after the way that game started.

And I think it just speaks to the part where Milrow is going to have some really shaky moments in a game. The A&M game does not mean it's all fixed. And then I went 12 with Ole Miss just because I like a couple of their wins. And SC now, Notre Dame, you know, with the Louisville loss, it's going to be tough to put them ahead of some of the one loss teams here. But I had one last thing on USC Notre Dame. There's a video of a Notre Dame fan running towards Caleb Williams saying, let me see your fingernails now.

Now look, I think there are times where I'm probably more sympathetic to the fan getting absolutely blasted by security when he runs out onto the field. And I know you can say, hey, look, you have no idea where that fan's head is at. Take him out without any discretion whatsoever. And you're probably right. And I'm wrong. I just think there's a couple of times where it's, it's kind of hard. Oh, guy. Who's like, I'm going to murder this dude running out on the field. Then I'm going to make a point that everybody kind of laughs and it's good. And it's like, all right, maybe, maybe you didn't have to go that far. If a player ends up just destroying a kid

who comes up with a video camera to then harass him, embarrass him after this guy's just lost an emotional game and Caleb Williams didn't play well. Like, I have no idea where this is going, but I don't like it. I'm not a fan of where it's going because I'm actually a little worried.

But I don't think I'll have any sympathy for the fan if that transaction ever goes a lot uglier than it did with Caleb Williams and the guy from Notre Dame that was saying, we did it, when it was like, well, yeah, but I mean, you didn't play, so how much did you really do? Another visit with Todd McShay on a Monday. So excited about that. So, look, Washington, Oregon, Todd really was everything we could have hoped for. You know, really impressed with Pennix. You're just kind of new at that point.

Like, oh, they're getting the ball back after the fourth down stop two plays later. Then Fowler gets greedy with it, man. Fowler's like, oh, they went too quick. And I'm like, man, you're trying to win the game. Like, you know, you can't be like, let's get him on the fourth pass attempt so there's less clock. But it just is automatic with Penix, and it wasn't really surprising that he was the better quarterback that day,

despite some of the numbers telling you that Oregon actually controlled the game a little bit more than Washington did. But there you go. Huskies win. Yeah, I was so impressed with Pendix in this game. I really was because it was clearly the best competition that Washington had faced defensively all year. Pendix was dealing with pressure all game long. And how about the toughness, like getting knocked down, limping throughout the game.

There were times where you wondered if he was going to have to come off the field for a little bit. And he just kept fighting. there were times where you wondered if he was going to have to come off the field for a little bit and he just kept fighting and and to have to be put in a situation in this big of a game where you've got to you've got to lead your team you're you're playing from behind and it was two plays like one two and yeah did they score too fast sure you can make that argument but I agree like you take what you can get and that's that's the nature of their offense. The thing that impressed me most, though, from an evaluator standpoint, just looking forward to the next level with Penix, these are NFL-style throws. These are 20, 30, 35, 40 yards down the field.

Anticipation. The ball just fires off his hand, and he does it with placement and trajectory and layering the ball when he needs to you know watching Bo Nix we can get into both more but like there's so much to love about what he's doing and how how physical and aggressive and tough he is but it's hard to evaluate him with an RPO based offense primarily versus Penix it's like all right that's an NFL throw that's an NFL throw over and over again. And yeah, he has great wide receivers, but McMillan was injured and wasn't as big a part. It really wasn't much of a part of the game and certainly not what they expected him to be in that game. But his accuracy down the field, throwing for 302 yards,

playing smart but aggressive throughout the game. I just saw a quarterback that's in complete control, understands his system, understands post-snap what he's seeing. And the confidence is just exuding in him in terms of making throws that are not easy throws, and he's not thinking twice about it. He's going out and just reacting and playing and his skillset with the mobility he has to extend, but most importantly, the way the ball just snaps off his hand is really impressive. Yeah. You know, anybody that's watched him and then seen him do this, I think on the Oregon side of it, you were a couple fourth down decisions by Lanning I didn't like. I know that's kind of Lanning's personality. Yep. And he was unapologetic, although taking the blame for the loss after the fact.

The last fourth down, the more I thought about it, the more it's like, hey, they're probably going to make up to 20 or 30 yards if they would get on a punt here pretty quickly with Penix and these receivers. But I have a really hard time with anybody in a game that you know is going to be tight. People are just way too dismissive of those three points for some fourth down situations that are ideal, especially when it's fourth down in the red zone. You're like, if you're more than three or four yards, there's just not a lot of room for you to get those passes off. And people are just acting like those three points are worthless now, when you don't benefit from the the field position all the time now

granted this isn't as egregious as some of these teams that do it with like two seconds left in the half and you go you're not even getting the ball back if this doesn't work um your thoughts on landing who who definitely there's some people that just think like hey this guy's wired this way um there's also another group of people who tell you he's just flat out making mistakes with this stuff. Yeah, I think you live and die by the sword sometimes, right? You know, he said it pregame. He stuck with what he wanted to do, and it's an aggressive approach,

and he believes in his team. When you have a quarterback that's playing at the level that Bo Nix has played in, played the second half numbers, especially for Bo Nix. And, you know, the way they were converting, the efficiency of the offense. I mean, they weren't making a lot of mistakes in the second half of that game. So I get it. I understand. But I also, I think you wake up the day after and say, well, you said you wanted to be aggressive. You told your players we're going to be aggressive. You had that mentality going in, but yet you weren't making aggressive coaching decisions. So I think either way, we're going to, you wind up looking back on it. If you do lose regardless and saying, well, he didn't live up to what he was saying, you know, the

aggressive approach that he wanted to take, or we're sitting here, you know, on Monday having the conversation we're having now that there's a difference between aggressiveness and playing it smart. So personally, I know what you're saying. I appreciate what you're saying. But I also get what Lanning was doing. And I get that when you trust your offense, when you trust your offensive line, when you trust your quarterback,

at some point you've got to live with what the design is. And I think that's what he did. And I think more often than not with that quarterback and with that team, it's going to pay off. Maybe it didn't this time. They'll probably have another shot at it in the Pac-12 championship, which I obviously can't wait to see. But at this point, I look at it and say, you know what? I understand what he was doing, and I obviously can't wait to see. But, um, but at this point, you know, I,

I look at it and say, you know what, I understand what he was doing and I know why I know, you know, what goes into the mindset of that. Yeah, no, I mean, I can't, I also would like to know, I mean, there's just so much that goes on in the sideline, like, Hey, here are our numbers. Here's what we believe. Here's the look here. We're getting what we want in the look which is what he said i think on two of them the last one in the moment i didn't like it but you know what i was like washington's probably gonna score no matter what here anyway so you might as well go for it you almost have to take risks that you you maybe don't want to because you you know what can happen if you if you're not aggressive and we saw yeah yeah i just the end of the half stuff though always always bothers me because it's just like you're not

getting rewarded the field position by doing this when you're when you're when you're going for it at their three yard line and if it doesn't work then it's just oh okay you know and then we'll just we'll kick it off in the second half you know because i i think sometimes that I'm totally okay with it because it's like, all right, well, cool. Now they're backed up anyway, and you should probably, you know, the way they do the math on the expected points per possession, like the next time you have the ball, it's probably a much better expectation because of the field position. All right. I'll be interested to see if the mindset changes or the approach changes if they are fortunate enough to get another shot at Washington. You know, does he go back and self-scout and say, you know, if there is a situation or two

in that second game, if they play it differently, if he learns something from it or if it's like, hey, this is what we do. This is who we are. We're going to ride it. So what do you think is if we're doing like the committee stuff, there's still a lot of work to be done here with teams finally playing somebody. What's your favorite win of any of the teams? I'm going to say Washington over Oregon in this game. Honestly, like you look at some of the others like Texas over Bama, which we've talked about, Oklahoma over Texas.

I would rank it this way. So far, I would go Washington over Oregon. And yes, you're playing at home and it's a decided advantage, especially there. But you had to have a fourth quarter comeback, right? It was a back and forth game. game clearly the opponent you're playing is what weeks we we thought the opponent was coming in which wasn't necessarily get over the goal line stand by the way too but the whole line stand you're like okay needing both sides of the ball not playing well offensively early on neither team you know there are a couple punts early on kind of slow slow starting for both teams playing, playing to your strengths. And we knew that Pennix was going to have to have a big game. He throws for over 300. We knew that they were going to have to

attack Oregon. They do it in the secondary. I just thought it was, these are two of the most complete teams in the country. And when you go out as a Washington team and you know what you have to do, but also the opponent knows what you're going to do and you're still able to execute it, that to me, you know, and it's such a close game. Neither team really crumbled. You can, we talked about the coaching decisions and moments here and there, but both teams were up to the task. I compare that. And at the time, there was no better win. It was early in the season. But Texas versus Alabama.

And we said the biggest surprise coming out of that game was that Texas was dominant in the trenches. And you don't see a Nick Saban team. We haven't historically seen a Nick Saban team kind of get pushed around the way that they did. Well, yeah, the defense has gotten better for Alabama, and it's still surprising that Texas on the offensive line was able to kind of push Alabama around. But Alabama's not the team that we're used to seeing from a Nick Saban team. And even this past weekend against Arkansas, struggling, a three-point win,

it is not what we're used to seeing from Alabama. So I don't want to say that win is diminished, but it's certainly not as impactful in my mind as what we thought coming out of what was a week two of the season. So I would say Washington over Oregon would be the biggest, the most impressive win to me if I was on the committee of all the wins so far this season. Number two would be Oklahoma over Texas. Because while Alabama isn't quite as good as we expected, that's still a damn good football team, Texas has. And you have to factor in the three turnovers. You'd like to think if they have a, you know, if they rematch in the Big 12 championship, Texas is going to protect the ball better.

Quinn Ewers himself turned the ball over three times with two interceptions and and a fumble um but oklahoma forced it too i mean oklahoma was part of the the transaction there so and it was a rivalry game and they got shot what was it 49 49 nothing the previous year and to bounce back from that so to me that would be the second most impressive win oklahoma over texas and be the second most impressive win, Oklahoma over Texas. And then the third most impressive win of the season would be Texas over Bama. And then, listen, strength of schedule, I don't know what the numbers say, but I think Florida State getting a win over LSU and Clemson at Clemson, that combination of two wins is pretty impressive and stands out in my mind.

And the way Clemson struggled against Syracuse. I know Syracuse isn't a great team. I know they played at Florida State. But it feels like Florida State, just watching this past week with Keon Coleman now becoming an even bigger factor in the return game and what he's doing. Florida State, the quarterback play scares me a little bit for Florida State because while Travis is so elusive and such a dynamic athlete,

there's a lot of inconsistency in the passing game there. But Florida State has been impressive with what they've done, in my opinion, so far. But clearly to me, Washington over Oregon is the most impactful win. I don't know if you agree. I would have Oklahoma-Texas just because it was neutral. Yeah, I get that. It's not far off, and then I would have it there.

And you're right. As I watch the ups and downs of Milrow again, A&M was a bit of a tease, but he's still getting sacked all the time. So this big, giant offensive line for Bama. So look, this all just kind of plays into it a little bit. I mean, maybe it still is. Texas at Tuscaloosa on a Saturday night, but it's just, you know, every week that plays out with Bama,

we just know even if they're going to end up in Atlanta against Georgia, who, you know, who knows what Georgia with Brock Bauer is now out for the season with this ankle surgery that he's going to have, which is a devastating blow to this team. Yeah, I was talking last week how he should be in the Heisman race. That's how important he is for Georgia. Okay, so let's do your top 10 prospects

and how much it's changed potentially here halfway through the season. Yeah, listen, we'll get to Caleb Williams, I think, at some point here for USC. I could argue his sloppiest start, his sloppiest game. I would argue the sloppiest game that he's played. You sent me five clips last night, and I was like, Mike, you were worked up. I was sitting in my living room on my couch. I was like, give me that tape. Give me the coach copy tape.

I got to watch it back. I watched it live, but there were two other games going on at the same time, you know. So I was kind of flipping back and forth in different games. And I went back and studied. Kalen Williams, his footwork, you know, I've made the comparison with Patrick Mahomes, right? Patrick Mahomes, though, coming out, sloppy footwork, didn't play within the system, made a lot of spectacular throws, but made a lot of questionable decisions. And you wondered if he was going to be able to kind of take that next step in the league. And obviously he's become Patrick Mahomes, right?

But Caleb Williams is kind of the same sloppiness that you saw out of Mahomes when he was at Texas Tech. Throwing off balance when he doesn't have to throw off balance. Not getting his feet underneath him. You know, making decisions where you're like, come on. I know how talented you are. I understand it. But I sent you the three interceptions. Two of them were really bad decisions, not seeing the field.

One of them, the first one I think it was, was him. I don't know how many people are watching the video, but one of them is he's got time. He's got time in the pocket. Set your feet, throw it over the middle, and let the ball fall in. Instead, it's that same shit that we saw from Mahomes at Texas Tech where it's like a shortstop. From Mahomes to Texas Tech, where it's like a shortstop, you know,

like my two feet are parallel instead of perpendicular to the offensive line. And it's like flinging it, coming out like a shortstop turning two. I get you can do that. And there were, you know, four or five of his best throws in that Notre Dame game and probably, you know, 20 other of his highlights are him throwing off balance, changing his arm angle, flicking the ball, and you're like, wow, how did he do that? But when you don't have to, don't do it. And that's what Mahomes has learned.

Trust your mechanics when you have the time. It's when everything else breaks down and you have to flip the ball and throw off balance. That's great, you can, but don't make that your norm. And so there were some things in that game that concern you, but he's still, to me, he's the most dynamic playmaker in college football, the most special quarterback that we've seen in years coming out in the draft. But I'll say this, talking to the guys in the league,

and this goes back to my top ten, Drake May, in many people's eyes that I've talked to in the league, it's either very close. Some guys I've talked to have Drake May from from North Carolina as the number one quarterback built a little bit more traditionally has, you know, can endure, they think, you know, contact and the physicality of the NFL game. So regardless of where it winds up being, Caleb Williams and Drake May are going to be the top two quarterbacks off the board and very likely could be the top two players drafted in next April's class. Marvin Harrison Jr. still up there at number three, a wide receiver. Obviously, the quarterback play has not been great this year, but he is just, he's a phenom. And we've seen so many great receivers. I talked about, he's going to be in the class of like Calvin Johnson, Julio Jones, Jamar Chase, like that high of a grade.

He'll be the first non-quarterback draft that I'll be shocked if he's not. Then you kind of get to that next tier, but it's still a great tier. Ole Fashanu, the offensive tackle from Penn State, I have at number four overall. I still have Brock Bowers at number five. You know, we're just getting kind of news about the injury and season ending. Let's see how the surgery goes and what the doctors say. But Bowers is going to be the first tight end off the board,

most likely somewhere in the top ten. Joe Ault, offensive tackle from Notre Dame, is number six. Cornerback Kool-Aid McKinstry from Alabama, I've got at number seven. And then you've kind of got to run on wide receivers and edge rushers. I think we're going to see a ton of receivers and edge rushers kind of in that top seven to 20 range in this class. Liatu Latu from UCLA, I've moved up to the number one edge. His durability after retiring from football, the neck injury he had prior to the transfer, I think that that will come into play.

It could drop him a little bit. But on tape, Latu has been the best edge rusher in the country. Jared Vers is the next guy at number nine, Florida State's edge rusher. Just a great story coming from Albany. Impactful player versus the run and the pass. I've said it before. That LSU tape from 2022, the best edge-rushing tape I've seen in the college ranks in years. I mean, he's just dominant in both sides, both as a pass rusher and versus the run.

Then at number 10, I've got Keon Coleman from Florida State, who's kind of risen as the season's gone on. He's not a burner. He's a long strider. He'll kind of kill your pursuit angle. But I think if he's not a top 10 pick, it will be because he lacks a little bit of that suddenness. But at 6'4", 215, he's a huge target, and he's become just a dynamic playmaker.

And then the OLI, the outside looking in, Chop Robinson is an edge that I think is going to be a top 15 pick from Penn State. He's been just all over the field for the Nittany Lions. I can't wait to see what he does against Ohio State this week. And then my fast riser, I don't want to say he's in number 12, but he's moving up. I think he's going to potentially be a first-round pick. Tez Walker from North Carolina. With his size, his length, six foot three, six foot four,

somewhere in that range, around 210, 212 pounds. Six catches in his first game back, didn't even start. This past week, he comes in and he was absolutely dominant. I mean, they put on a clinic against a good Miami defense. And Tez was a huge, what, he had three touchdown catches in that game. He was just dynamic, both after the catch and as a vertical receiver. So in that game as well, what's going on with Tyler Van Dyke? Because, you know, I go back to the A&M tape.

He doesn't see it. He doesn't see it. It's frustrating. Big arm. Moves okay in the pocket for such a big quarterback. He's got – you know, physically looks the part. Can drive the ball, as well as anyone in this class and most classes,

makes some throws where you're like, damn, you know, this guy's got it. And, you know, there's a chance that he gets in the right system in the NFL and winds up being a more better NFL player than even college player. Because this, I mean, even Justin Herbert wasn't as prolific at Oregon in this kind of system and this kind of team mentality as he has been with the Chargers. So there's hope for his future. But the thing I keep coming back to and I keep seeing on tape, he's locking on to guys,

leading safeties or other defensive backs to his throw. And even with that strong of an arm, he's giving guys too early of a jump. And he's not going through progressions as quickly as he needs to. So if he's making one read and he knows where his primary target is, he's just locking on to that guy. He did it. I had him live against Texas A&M, I think it was, last year. Did the same thing. I've studied, you know, because now we thought maybe he would come out last year. So I was studying his 2021 tape going into last season.

I studied his 2022 tape thinking he could be a prospect for this past draft class. And now I'm studying this year. I'm just not seeing the progression you would think now like three years into into starting that you would expect to see from a quarterback it's just not going the way it's supposed to go again new system new coaching things go the right way in the NFL maybe he winds up exceeding expectations but when you got a class like this right and he's got all that arm talent in the world and we we talked about him potentially coming into last year off of his first season at Miami, that Van Dyke could be a potential first rounder. Like he was that talented and that impressive in his first year in 2021.

But when you're not progressing the way you need to, and you've got a class that includes Caleb Williams, Drake May, we talked about top two picks likely in this year's class, Shador Sanders, Michael Penix Jr., J.J. McCarthy from Michigan, who I think is very underrated, Quinn Ewers, Bo Nix, and Riley Leonard. That's eight guys, Ryan, eight that could go in the first three rounds and belong in the first three rounds based off of the tape this year. So if you're the ninth quarterback, you're talking about day three.

And Van Dyke was projected coming into last year as a potential first-round pick. That's the lack of progression that he has shown. Yeah, look, the last pick against North Carolina, I was like, what are you doing? And I just think even the – it was the end zone pick, so I don't know which number it was against georgia tech but yeah you know he had a receiver and it was i think it might have been

on the scene to the left side i mean it doesn't matter if it was the outside receiver the inside receiver but it was so clear like hey guess what when you make that throw a safety's coming over from the other side like he doesn't have to go deep he only has to stay within the boundary and it was just surprising for a guy that's had as many snaps to do some of that stuff um you know granted everybody's making mistakes you know those horses and like horse racing but not the goggles but the binders right you put the blinders on you're the horse racing they struggle with like other horses that bother bother them when they see him coming the peripheral right and left it's like he has the blinders on something like they put those little blinders on and he's just

that's my guy. That's where I'm going with the ball. My arm's stronger than every other quarterback you face, and I'm just going to drill it in there. And that worked in high school, and it worked his first year before coordinators got a beat on who he is. And then you come back year two, and coordinators, I mean, they sit there and study the tape over and over again.

Hey, shit, if he sees his primary, and that's where he's supposed to go and he based off of the initial read all week in practice they're drilling let's show him this cover too shell let's go show them the single high shell pre-snap post-snap when his eyes go there you better be creeping early and then bolt it And that's what we're seeing. They've adjusted to what he does and the blinders have got to be taken off at some point. All right. Let's talk about a couple NFL guys here. You know, look, I don't want to do this every week where it's like, Hey, Josh Allen had bad throws. I've already did this in the open today. Uh, Jalen Hurts had a couple of throws. The third pick that he threw i couldn't believe he threw it uh so unlike jalen hurts right especially when it's like you've got two guys waiting to pick

this off man two guys and and game situation like you want to tell me you're up to yeah right especially that moment but but i don't i don't want to do this every week i don't want to do this every week where it's like oh hey this guy who's really good had a bad game. I think the Purdy one, though, is actually interesting. It's like, oh, wait. Can I go back to Jalen for a second, though? Sure. I mean, look, the numbers aren't as good this year,

but I fear doing a weekly segment where it's like, hey, good quarterback played bad. What does it mean? I know I have a lot of weaknesses in what I do, and I don't know all of my weaknesses. But I would like to think one of my strengths is being rational. The sky's not falling.

29 other teams would like to have the problems that the 49ers and the Eagles are waking up to. Right? Certainly. Or 30 other teams, probably. So it is an issue though that has to be resolved and worked on for Philadelphia. I think we've talked about it throughout the season with Jalen Hurts. It's not the same. He doesn't look as comfortable at times. The

consistency has not been the same this year as we saw last year. Shane Steichen left this offseason. And remember, the play calling was turned over to Shane last year, and things just got better and better and better and better. And he really was a big part of helping develop Jalen Hurts. I'm not saying Steichen's the only reason Hurts is great. It's not even close to what I'm saying. But I do think sometimes we're like, oh, new coordinator, guys calling the same plays, everything's going to be fine. Something's been a little off. I think when you look at it, it's just like Devontae Smith has not been

as involved in the offense as normal. Obviously, A.J. Brown's the number one guy. We get it. I think their utilization of Devontae has not been the same. And I think there's a lot of like comfort throws and underneath throws and throws with run after catch opportunities that have not been utilized as much. And to see Jalen against this defense that clearly that, I mean, the Jets defense is one of the elite groups in the league.

I don't think anyone would argue that, but they're playing without their two starters at corner, including Sauce Gardner. This is a game with those two receivers. And yes, they were missing Lane Johnson in offensive tackle. So pass rush was dealing with it more last night against a really good and deep Jets pass rush. But if you watch back the game, and I was studying this as I was watching it, it was a lot of three-man rush and four-man rush. That was a high percentage. They would mix in a blitz here and there,

but they were taking away, in part because they knew the Jets, that they had the secondary issues. They were taking away the deep ball. It was a game plan defensively that required Philly to be patient and efficient, and Jalen doesn't seem as comfortable. There were several times where he would get to the top of his drop and you could see, and if this is not something I'm used to seeing from Jalen, his eyes dropping, his posture wasn't up looking. It was kind of down. Where's the rush coming from? How do I get out of here?

And it kind of reverted back to some of the stuff you saw as a rookie and some of the stuff that you saw, honestly, at Alabama. So I'm not, the sky's not falling. Jalen Hur back to some of the stuff you saw as a rookie and some of the stuff that you saw, honestly, at Alabama. So the sky's not falling. Jalen Hurts is one of the premier players at any position in the NFL, but there's some stuff that has to be ironed out between now and the end of the season when they go to make the playoff run and try to get back in the Super Bowl and win it this time around that has got to be fixed and addressed.

And I think it's going to start with the coordinator getting on the same page with Jalen Hurts. And then also Devontae Smith, I think, has got to be more of a consistent factor in what they're doing. Yeah, I mean, A.J.'s been lighting it up. I mean, this run of productivity is pretty rare when you're over 125 in four straight games. And, you know, I think with Philly, the thing I've liked about them is like,

hey, we know the defense is going to be good enough. We know the deep ball stuff should get better. We know they can run the football when they want to. The lane thing hurts. But, like, look, everybody's going to lose, like, one or two really good players. That's what the sport is. Right.

So you're just going to have to figure out how to get through it. But, yeah, look, he's turning the ball over more now than he was last year he's already surpassed last year's number for that yeah and you know at least the jets the jets can get pressure with less guys i mean that defense is so nasty so it's so nasty that they're just going to survive they're going to survive some of these games so even though it's's Zach Wilson, I wouldn't want to play the Jets. They're a tough out, man. And Zach's getting better enough to the point where they can hang around in games and win with their defense. And if he continues to just show a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more, we may see a scenario where Aaron Rodgers is like, yeah, week 16, week 17, I'm able to come back.

And if he's back to anywhere close to 100%, they're a scary team that you don't want to play in the playoffs. I know I'm going way ahead of ourselves here, but this team is playing like a team that could win 9, 10 games. It really is, even despite the quarterback play. If Zach plays well, you think about maybe trading Rodgers to add more depth? I love you, bud.

Probably not. Let them know, let them know. Just, we don't want to get the segment wrong. Thanks as always. Appreciate it. Always fun with you.

They say money can't buy happiness. Look at the fucking smile on my face. Ear to ear, baby. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari. 355 Cabriolet. What's up?

I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. It's life advice. Life advice on a Monday here with Kyle and Steve. What's up,

gang? Got a few. One's a little aggressive. Feels a little aggressive this early on a Monday, but maybe we'll just ease into it here a little aggressive this early on a Monday but maybe we'll just ease into it here a little bit um we had a lot of follow-ups about the guy who found out that his wife had sent the one picture on whatsapp we're not gonna read a lot of them we're gonna read none of them because that guy already feels bad enough so we appreciate guys sharing their stories, but, you know, that guy's probably having a...

Audience engagement, it's good, but... Yeah, no, we appreciate what you're doing, but I don't think we're just going to turn it into like, hey, this is what happened to me for this guy, because there's just a lot of emails that are going to bum them out even more yeah basically no one is like yeah yeah it's probably just that one time you're good yeah just a just a slight miscalculation one day so um do i do this one's kind of

do I do? This one's kind of, uh, um, no, here we go. How to not sound like a pretentious dick. 48, six foot two, 215 dumbbells at the home. You don't, you don't have to include it. If you don't work out, you don't have to tell us. So's i'm not getting on this guy but i feel like some people feel a little left out and they're like well i don't really work out but i have some band work that i do it's like okay so uh played high school baseball great while listening to rossillo's uh interview with stewart copeland something came up as a topic of oyster head emerged and for those of you that may have not known about Oysterhead, Trey from Phish and Les Claypool decided to play in this band together.

It was this trio, obviously brought up as Stuart Copeland. Some people would be into it, some people would not. It was a very, very big deal. It was a very big deal. These three guys got together and played. They even came out with an album. I would argue seeing it live because you didn't really know what was gonna happen

was better than the album. Anyway, I worked in music for a long time, still hold a lot of deep connections to some prominent touring artists i did pro bono publicity and design uh philanthropy campaigns for some major touring acts that continue to deploy these efforts today i'm also a singer songwriter guitarist that's played some cool stages with some names and even done some freelance journalism or uh on some rock and roll uh philanthropy uh philanthropy anyway um all to say that i've had some notoriety but since stepped away from that scene to pursue some other more sustainable paths so why you all were waxing nostalgic about oyster head stories of my time in that scene with some of those artists just flashed and i get a grin note chris long is the only other sports podcaster able to authentically what hop industries with ease oh okay thanks uh thanks for injecting music into sports die hard

commanders fan born and raised in va uh i've struggled with sharing some of these tales in a manner that doesn't make me sound like, well, this one time I was backstage with Trey or yeah, I was on stage when Bruce Hampton died. It sucked. I was. He was a friend. Wow, that sucks. But I sound like a dick to say that. Hell, I even feel like a bit

of one taking the time to write this. I know it's situational. I know how to deliver, et cetera. So for folks with less renowned than you, but a bit of a skosh of a niche notoriety, what's your suggestion? I would say who gives a shit? Like if you have awesome stories, like why are you going to apologize for having awesome stories? I now look, I went through it with a couple of my friends early on, but I also realized it was kind of the friends that were rooting against me that were saying that they were

excited for me when deep down, they kind of wanted me to be a loser because they were more comfortable being a loser. So like one friend straight up was like, you know, Hey, you're kind of talking about yourself a lot. I was like, Ooh, okay. Ouch. That stings. And then he was like, you know, it's kind of guys are bringing it up. I was like are bringing it up guys are bringing it up he's the guy it's come up he's like yeah dude he's like you know so i was like all right and then i thought man that really doesn't i was like i'm not really doing it that often like i came back from something it was an incredible experience and i just kind of got on the phone and started railing away on the story and the guy just wasn't having it.

So of course I called the other two guys. I was like, Hey dude, I feel terrible. Like I just found out supposedly like, and they were like, yeah, absolutely not.

Not even close. Never come up. Never bothered us. You have awesome stories. And I'd want to hear about a story. It was something like that happened. So I was like, Oh,

okay. So I'm like, so the other guy made it up. He's like, yeah, that's all about him. So there was, there was something in there where you don't want to be the person that's always, Hey, I have a story for that. I have the topper like there you, and you can even lose the self-awareness. And I think sometimes there were times I was doing it, um, where, you know, if guy went and told his story or told his story, but then somebody would normally

in the group, if I hadn't seen my buddies for a while, would be like, Hey, give me, give me a good story about something from work or give me a good story of like one of the best college, you know, give me, give me one of those or give me one of those. Right. So if you're a good storyteller and you're not an egomaniac about the whole thing, and you're around people that are interested in the thing that you have more expertise in, which is clearly some of this music stuff that I just, I don't think you should feel bad for it. You know, you just shouldn't. I really feel like, like if you have good stories and really cool, rare experiences, if it bothers the other person

now granted they may just not care about music they may not care about this genre of music that you have the connection to but a good story is a good story and if you're a decent storyteller i don't think you should have any hang-ups about this whatsoever i mean has anybody ever called you out for maybe everybody likes your stories you You know, there's also that too. Yeah, I think the the thing that's on this guy's side is that these are old stories, too. It's not like everyone's checking in. They're like, Oh, I got a new Honda. Oh, you know, got a new lawnmower, got an award at work. And you're like, Wow, I was just backstage with Metallica. And this happened. Like these are old stories. This isn't like you're checking when everyone's doing their check-in and yours is way cooler you know what i mean i got an award at work i was backstage with metallica that was good well i just i think there were levels like yeah because these are story times these aren't like the check-ins when you're like shitting all over everyone's check-in maybe you're shitting all over everyone's story but as long as you can like prove it too i think that's awesome and as long as you don't you know look sound like napoleon dynamite talking about

his bow staff skills or something and you're like okay dude but like you have you know photos and you could prove this stuff like i don't see why anyone would have an issue with any of this stuff especially if it's just if it's just when that when it comes up and it's appropriate if you're like super jazzed to just you know get unlock the vault and tell a story when there's a little bit of silence i think maybe you know somebody would tell you about that but if it's if you're like oh, I got a great story that matches this conversation we're having. It's not I don't think it's an issue. And especially because it's it's not like I said, it's not your your check in your your you said you've moved to a more humble line of work

now. So, you know, you can have the regular boring stories for all the all the normies out there, too. So I think you're all good. Yeah, it's one of those things where if you're interjecting into like every conversation like a meaningless anecdote from something that happened to you that's cool that's annoying you know be like oh you know you guys are talking about sports you'd be like yeah one time i said actually tom brady and you're like that nobody cares it's not a good story but if you have stories that are interesting that pertain to whatever people are talking about you don't bring them up constantly because you don't want to beat people over the head with it but you know like i'm sure like ryan that got like there's there's gonna be people that don't like you and

they don't want to hear your stories or your success stories no matter what and they're going to be people that you know want to hear you talk about being on the sideline at lsu or doing this and doing that different things you've done in your career so i think it's two things one there's like a line between just like interjecting your you know experiences that may be cool into every story and two you know making sure that they're like actually a full good story and they pertain to whatever setting you're talking to or the people that you're talking to and there's some people that just don't like you and people that do like you so those those are the two things i wouldn't worry about it sounds like you start a podcast for all these stories no No, that's a really good point.

Both you guys made good points. Like the completely unprompted awesome story, even though it's an awesome story, you can be like, did you just want to tell an awesome story where you sound awesome in it? Like you're the main character in some really good story? Like, okay, I'm going to keep an eye on this.

We'll monitor the situation. See what your patterns are information yeah yeah right uh something else i've noticed is if you're in a certain status let's just say like okay i'm at whatever status i'm considering what status you're at which uh lower than lower than other people think. If I'm around some guys that I think have a higher status than me, they don't necessarily want my stories to be better than theirs. There's a bit of a laying out based on the status hierarchy.

It's not so much just alpha stuff, but I've noticed, like if I'm with somebody that clearly has like more of a resume in life than i do and they're kind of holding court you're you're almost supposed to lay out a little bit it's yeah it's almost like it's really weird it's almost like if you're like a really you know successful rich person but you're which is somebody who's on a completely different level like you don't brag about the stuff you own or the stuff like, Hey, like I don't care about your vacation house, dude. I own an Island. You know, like it's the, there's just level again, there's just levels to this.

Yeah. So, um, that's something I've definitely, you know, I've noticed over the years and be like, Oh wait, wait. It's like, I'm, I'm batting sixth in this line of dudes. All right. Uh, wait wait like i'm i'm batting sixth in this lineup of dudes all right uh this one is a little bit more intense blackballed at a bar due to a threesome let's go for it i know it's my cool stories yeah right you think you think you hung out with some bands listen what i did 511 165 no gym sets per se i go five six times a week run a sub seven minute half marathon uh so i imagine he means his mile pace frequently apologies for the long witness here but have a serious dilemma with some serious intrigue my girlfriend of five years let's call her Kate, and I share an apartment in a major West Coast city. About six months ago, a new bar opened up

in the old 1800s fire station across the street. It is all caps, perfect. They love this place. Great food, relaxed neighborhood vibes, plenty of TV showing every game you want. Kate and I become semi-regulars at the bar. I've gotten to know the awesome bar staff. They've even become friends with some on a texting level basis. About a month ago, one of the bartenders, let's call her Anna, asked if we wanted to grab drinks that coming weekend. We had hung out at the bar staff and larger groups before, so we didn't find this out of the ordinary and certainly were expecting what lay ahead.

That Friday, we met up with Anna at another local watering hole. After a couple rounds of drinks, Anna confessed she had a crush on my girlfriend, thought I was hot too, and asked to make out with us both. Now, my girlfriend is a tall, short-haired blonde who gives 90s supermodel vibes. Picture below. By the way, the pictures did not upload, so I'm

as left out as the rest of you. She's been approached by other interested females in the past. She also identifies as bisexual. So the conversation of us potentially having a threesome wasn't exactly new either. That being said, the actual manifestation of such dalliances,

dalliances have never presented themselves thus far in our relationship. While we were both flattered and interested, we raised the seemingly very important issue that Anna was dating another one of the bartenders at her neighborhood spot. Let's call him Justin. She said it was no big deal and that she and Justin were in a, you guessed it, open relationship. And that he had actually encouraged her to invite us out with the apparent green light. Drinks at the bar floated.

Drinks at the apartment would float it into one of those nights. Magic. All right. One of those nights that mere mortals will never, which was just like, what, what does that mean? But I don't know.

I mean, this guy's five 11, one 65. Apparently he's dating Cindy Crawford. Uh, so, you know, but he's also hot. So, you know, there there's just there's just invite some of these people

getting the rest of us aren't getting gang don't worry don't let i'm glad we did read this on a monday you know because you don't want to set the tone on a friday yeah guys being like what the fuck right this is this guy's problem this is a problem problem. Oh, poor. Oh, no. Poor you. You can't get apps now at the fire station. So I guess you're just going to have to settle not having any more threesomes outside of your super hot girlfriend that likes you. Poor guy. All right. Cut to the following week where all appeared well and good.

We went over to watch the Thursday night game at the bar with no issues. And your girlfriend is this hot and she likes Thursday night football. Jeez. Things all changed the next weekend, however, when Anna texted Kate privately asking if she'd be interested in a threesome with Justin. And her. Or solo. A.K. solo aka without me uh my girlfriend politely declined saying that's not really what she was interested in or our style as a couple to which anna responded

totally understood all right all right that i thought was going to be the bigger problem nope this guy doesn't know how good he has it. So for the past two weeks, post the declining things have definitely not been okay. Justin has become an out and out ass test whenever we're at the bar, serving people around us and walking away, trying to spread stories that were rude to other bar staff and friends of ours, even going so far as to once threateningly walk around with a baseball bat in his shoulders for security when the bar was largely empty outside of my girlfriend and I. Dude, what is that, like a Jalen Rose NBA countdown? Just walking around with a bat. Nobody can quite figure out why. Anna is retroactively apologetic for his actions when she's working solo, but is petrified to talk to us when they're working together. Petrified,

that's not cool, which has become more and more commonplace since the hookup. My question for the council is how should I handle this situation? Do we put our heads down and try to ride out the uncomfortableness? Do I try to have a man-to-man conversation with the guy and tell him to chill? Do I talk to management about how weird this is getting? No. I don't think you go to management. So we had a threesome, and this is just out of hand.

Like I said, this bar hits every box in the wish list and i'd really only prefer to uh not have to give it up because going uh just because of some guy's personal relationship problems yeah look i mean i think if as long as you're okay with it it's kind of the boss move here to be like and i'm gonna keep showing up on thursday night right then i'm still gonna integrate apps and i'm getting a couple drafts. And you know what? You were cool with it until you were left out. And then once you were left out, now you're not cool with it. So you're going to act like a fucking 12-year-old? So

go ahead. Be mad. Walk around with your bat. And we're going to get six more rib sandwiches. The mini ones. I mean, look, unless you don't feel uncomfortable enough to not go anymore,

I think it's kind of awesome for you to be like, yeah, we're going again. See you guys there. Because this guy's just trying to do like passive weird shit, you know? And based on all the information we have here, I mean, I can understand his disappointment of being left out out but it

appears he signed off on the the beginning part expecting it to pay some sort of dividend down the street and he he has invested in a non-dividend stock he didn't realize he got dough coins yeah yeah it's not like it's not like you agreed to a future threesome later like this there was no trade that happened like this was just something that happened and he thought i'll do you a favor and you'll do me a favor and that's not how it worked out so uh and the other thing too is like i love that like what's he gonna hit you with the bat like loser i that's such a lame move to like walk around with like a weapon and act like you're like gonna do something and you're not uh i think you just keep going there's no way i would not go

to that bar anymore you keep going you prove a point you are gonna be you're to be, you're going to like out hard. Oh, that, that guy. And, uh, cause you didn't do anything wrong. You did nothing wrong. So I think you're fine. Yeah. I, I actually, at first I felt really bad, but then I realized when he said black ball, like he didn't mean 86. Like he's just, it's just the vibes are off behind the counter over there. Not like I found this amazing bar and through this crazy misunderstanding you know i can't go back here so that's cool uh what i would say is uh if it's a security type bar just make sure you're making the rounds talk to those guys too because if one of the guys that worked there has a beef with you as long as everyone else loves you everyone's gonna be like to that guy like

shut up dude shut up dave doesn't matter nobody gives about nobody cares about your shit um so that's that's one thing but um you the headline is you still get to go to your awesome cool bar and then i'd wonder are these have these guys been dating forever or is this going to be like one of those messy you know co-worker things this is why they tell you not to screw people at work because then it's going to get weird so if these people have been together for like eight years or something this probably won't break down soon but eventually it's going to be like if it's uh just kind of a short beginning relationship like this will probably end and then you know he'll he'll move on uh so i think i think talking to him is not off the table as long as you don't go like aggressively like hey man is

everything all right i just feel like uh you know if it's slow you can just be like hey we all good man i just and just see well it's definitely not yeah we're not we already know that the answer is not going to be yeah but i'd want to know what he says baseball i'd want to hear what he says at least because he might even seem like a fucking idiot saying it what if you knew he could like from a physical thing do you want to ask that yeah because i wouldn't ask him like dude we got a fucking problem here i would just be like hey man are we like are we all right i feel like uh tab's been getting a little steep lately i don't know i probably wouldn't say that but i'm just

like uh you know just just let him know like i know something's up but like i want you to say it like would you feel like a fucking complete tool saying why you why you're feeling this way i would just want to see what he says because we already know that i'm getting i'm getting his wrath behind the bar and when all the all the all the shit he's he's doing to make me feel it i just want him to say it out loud at this point and you know i don't get rowdy like i try to do everything i can when i have my perfect spot to like not rock the boat but this isn't rocking the boat this would just be asking just to see if he's like embarrassed when he says what he says or if he's even going to admit it it's a good point because yeah if all the other people there are not even on your side

but just like don't really care then this is this is a non-issue for you at all i mean i think the problem too is this guy's ego is obviously dented and i'm sure people at work who know about this are probably like wow that dude are you know our guys you know girl hooked up with two other people and he didn't even get anything back like what a loser so it's just like a it's a it's certainly probably an ego hit to him and everybody's kind of like i don't know probably looking down on him a little bit so he's probably acting out as a tough guy because he you know wants to show his masculinity in the situation but if everybody else around him is cool that works there then you ain't got nothing to worry about yeah i just say be cool to everyone else and keep being nice keep going keep cementing keep putting your roots down yeah good tips for everybody else like you know that's i yeah i

i think you're fine yeah nobody feels bad for you by the way yeah guys are listening there's no one going poor guy i like that kyle the beginning was really upset that he may not be allowed to go back to this bar that he liked like kyle's first angst was oh man that fucking sucks yeah can you talk to the owner have you tried okay all right that's uh that's life advice on a monday thanks to kyle thanks steve and uh stefan for working on the show today. Ryan, this little pack. Let's finish. Bye. We'll be right back. sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit fanduel.com forward slash RG in Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan,

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