The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Week 1 Recap With Chris Long | The Ryen Russillo Podcast

Episode Date: September 9, 2019

Russillo is joined by two-time Super Bowl champion Chris Long to discuss a wild slate of Sunday games including Patriots-Steelers, Ravens-Dolphins, Lions-Cardinals, Browns-Titans, and more. They talk what's real and what's not from Week 1, Matt McConaughey, bar fights, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

okay week one of the books chris long joins me every monday here on the ryan rossillo podcast and our presenting sponsor is of course belvedere in partnership with our friends at belvedere vodka join us for a live ryan rossillo podcast City for Monday Night Football at the new Moneyline Bar and Book at the Borgata on Monday, September 16th at 7 p.m. We'll be enjoying cocktails made with Belvedere Vodka, the first super premium all-natural vodka. Watch the Browns versus the Jets in talking football. And Jets and Browns fans probably could use a couple extra vodka sodas after what you saw after week one. I have never been to AC. I know that sounds weird, but maybe it isn't because the closest I ever was to it was 2002,

which longtime listeners know was not my peak year. And I didn't have enough money not only to gamble when we had some people from the Trenton Thunder that organized a bus trip. I didn't have enough money for the bus trip. So I lied and said I was busy, and I basically stayed at home and played Final Fantasy X. That was basically if I wasn't watching baseball or working, I would play final fantasy 10. That

was my escape from reality. And that makes a lot of sense because I was collecting different gems and trying to combine them. And I had a, I had a sack where I could only bring out so many different things and different sword combinations and whether or not to use fire or ice or magic. And yeah, so I was not cast in the first episode of Stranger Things despite my ability to fit in. So enough about Final Fantasy X. Let's see in Atlantic City and make this feel real. So anyway, let's get to it. We said Chris Long will be here every Monday, two-time Super Bowl champ, 11 years in the league, and a guy that's about as good as a guy you're ever going to meet. So you were in AC just yesterday? Yeah.

That's crazy. I was in the city by the sea for my inaugural football Sunday where I watched the shit out of eight games and actually absorbed what happened in half of them. These Mondays are different, man. I don't know if they're better or they're worse. What's this like for you? Well, first off, I am sore today, but I'm sore from sitting on my ass and straining my neck looking at games. Uh, I don't have the tort all hangover that I usually would, but I anticipate

a lot of Mondays I'll be struggling with a regular hangover, uh, because it seems like it's fun to drink and watch games which i didn't do last night because i just studied my ass off for this pod you were really into this there's so many guys that that i've worked with over the years and maybe they're just naturals i don't know they're naturals or they didn't even care i'd be like hey are you ready to go i'd be like yeah man i'm like what are you excited about uh yeah man i can go in any direction i'd be like oh so you're you're, you're like not much. And that's just be like, Hey, just call us up at nine o'clock. That's not what Chris was doing. I don't know. Yeah. I'm a rep guy. I mean, just like in football, I'm a rep guy. I'm not a natural. Did you know on Wikipedia right now,

though, it doesn't list you as part of, um, the Ryan Russillo podcast. Instead it says tight end for Texas Southern. What's it, it says tight end for Texas Southern. What's it like being a tight end for Texas Southern? Am I living my best life down there? There's less pressure on you. I can imagine that. All right, let's get to a bunch of the stuff here because we've been going over all the games and all the different notes.

I think there's a few different headline things, whether it's Lamar Jackson, whether it's Cleveland Browns, the Philly win. But I want to start with the Pats demolition of the Steelers last night, only because it transitions into the biggest story from the weekend. That's Antonio Brown and all these different things. We knew the Pats defense was going to be really good. I remember Damian Woody saying back in July, he's like, this is going to be one of the best defenses they've ever had. You were part of a group that maybe was misunderstood defensively when you were there in one ring a couple years ago.

What did you see from these guys? How are they built differently? I want to definitely get into what's different about playing your role in a Patriots defense versus other stops. Yeah, I mean, as for the game, New England kind of owns Pittsburgh. What did we learn from that? Not much. Is Pittsburgh worse defensively, or is New England that efficient on offense this year? To be starting that way, we all know they get better.

How scary and potentially boring is that for everybody who doesn't want to see them get another ring? The defense, though, is the thing that if you're playing the field, it's got to make you nervous, right? You talk to guys in that locker room and they say, and these are guys that were there for that 16 run that I was a part of where we averaged giving up 15.6 a game, I believe, which was first in the league. They say this could be the best defense they've had while they're there. And the secondary is the strength, right? They're elite. Collins is back. They added Bennett inside, who looks super funny in that number. They added Winovich in the draft. And while Hightower, you know, might not be part of that defensive back end, he is the most important guy on the field on defense for them. He's a total stud. And, you know, last night, no exception. They really controlled the game. Connor had 20 yards rushing, which is something that if you're not going to be able to get the run game going on the Pats, you're not going to be able to get it going. That's why we were able to

play so well against them in the Super Bowl in 17 as we ran the ball up their ass. So last night, no dice for Pittsburgh. Don't know if they're that bad offensively or if this New England defense is historically the real deal. But on offense, too, I mean, shit, Brady carved them up and didn't even have to get the run game going. You know, that man coverage on those backs, it's impossible. And four receivers over 50 yards, hit seven different targets. And how about this?

First rounder, first time they ever took a wide receiver in the first round under Belichick. The guy's hurt. He's on, I think he's on short IR. The kid from Arizona State. Yeah, Nikhil Harry. Neil. Yeah, and most teams are saying, shit, our first round pick,

the first time we've done this in 20 years, he's hurt. The sky is falling. Not so much. It's a total afterthought for them. And obviously with the news that came out a couple of days ago, that receiving court could get even more crowded. So this is the thing that I've always thought when I lived up there and this run started and a lot of Pat's reporters used to take this great pride and this myth of the Patriots way where it's like, oh, the Patriots only bring in certain guys. And it's like, actually, no, they're bringing anybody.

Like they will. And it's more about bringing in somebody that they think they're getting at a discount versus what the open market would say about them. And apparently there was a story with Antonio Brown where they were trying to trade for him and the Steelers were like, well, no, dude. We can't beat you now. We don't feel like trading you, arguably one of the best receivers in the league. So there'd be all these other headlines of how will Brown fit in? How is this going to work?

You were there a year. But I mean, is it really that different? Like, why is it that guys kind of go there knowing they have to be on their best behavior? And then it still feels like a reach to me that Antonio Brown, with everything he just did, and let's face it, like everything he did, if you like him as a player, a lot of that stuff was bullshit, what he did. And so to say like, oh, hey, it's just all going to work out and flip the switch. We've seen it so many times with other Patriots. I still think it's a bit of a gamble, even with the way the contract is structured,

that he's just going to accept the Patriot way. Well, it is a gamble, but it's a gamble evidently that they're willing to take. It seems to me they're getting a little greedy offensively. The risk, and you saw Teddy Bruschi tweet it yesterday, if you follow Teddy. Somebody from inside that kind of, that Patriots sphere is, like Teddy, is a little bit concerned about the touches, right? This offense is, it's in flow right now in week one, it's in flow right now in week one, and everybody's got their role. Can you distribute that football with enough equity to keep Antonio happy? But I think in general there, the thing they have going for them is they have a clear precedent set. And it's not that Bill doesn't

take guys who are up to bullshit. Bill takes guys knowing that these guys know what time it is, and the boundaries are clear. It's one of the reasons that Bill's so great is he keeps boundaries clear, and he doesn't make personal connections with players. And that's not even, like, you could argue that he doesn't have a real personal connection with Tom. He keeps a boundary with the most important player in Patriots franchise history, because there will come a day if he's still coaching and he outlasts

Tom, uh, that he will have to cut ties with Tom in some fashion. Um, so knowing that you come in and they have this capital that no one else has, the Raiders certainly didn't have it, which is a guarantee that you're going to be in it at the end of the year with a big chance that you're playing the last game of the year. So for AB, he knows what time it is. He knows there are clear boundaries and he knows that if he wants a chance at a ring, this is his best shot. And I also don't want to get lost in the fact that I thought Mayock did a good job. I think Mayock's taking a lot of heat out west, but that's Gruden all the way. Gruden's running that ship. Look at his paycheck.

And Mayock was the one who hard-lined AB. And that's the reason AB eventually decided to orchestrate, at least on the back end, this move when his guaranteed money was in jeopardy. So listen, for the Raiders, you give up all this for AB and really get nothing for it. You're happy to have him out, but it costs you draft picks. And then for the Steelers last night, it was funny watching Big Ben say, you know, he's asked about AB. He says, whatever. And Tomlin's acting like he doesn't give a shit either. He hasn't paid attention, but it's, it's exactly like this thing where you, you have this ex-girlfriend who is just an 11 and she's, she's gorgeous, drop dead gorgeous, but she's crazy. And, uh, you guys are talking to me or are you talking to the podcast? No,

I'm not talking to you. Do you have any 11s in your, uh, so, so you break up and, you know, as the Steelers do with AB and they seem like, okay, he's going to go to Oakland to die and be somebody's headache. But that X of yours has found the one guy that can make her happy and it might work with, uh, and they have to watch it opening week as they get ready for the Patriots. I know it's in their heads and I know it's got to frustrate the hell out of them. By the way, listeners, as we go through the season here, uh, you'll notice a constant theme that Chris doesn't have a lot of confidence in me and finds me unattractive. And, and now I, I used to bother me. I was like, man, Chris thinks I'm

really unattractive. And then I realized you're such a nitpicky guy that I don't even take it personally anymore. You're just a hard marker. So I just find things wrong with everybody. But also, I mean, like if you have 11s in your, in, on your resume, good for you. I, yeah, I hadn't seen. No. Okay. No, I'm just, I'm just saying that I don't, I don't rank people. I find that to be inhumane. And in 2019, I'm a little disappointed in you. Well, 11 is not a real ranking. So we've transcended the ranking system. That's right. That's right. They don't even exist. Something that should not be lost in all of this. And this is always like one of those is I don't know what people think of Drew Rosenhaus. Like it's super easy to go Miami, Slickster, you know, right out of Central Casting.

I hate this guy. I hate agents and all those different things. you know, right out of central casting. I hate this guy, hate agents and all those different things. The thing that I know for a fact, cause I was told somebody told me, somebody told me this, like that's close with Belichick years and years ago is that Belichick's always liked Rosenhouse because he just thinks like Drew goes, Hey, let's get a deal done. You know, we can do the, I'll do the public posturing, but behind the scenes, like, let's come up with a number, let's get a freaking deal done. And let's not screw around. Not to say that like every Rosenhouse client is the easiest deal with with certainly it's not the case but bill feels like drew doesn't want to waste time like if he wants his client there and bill

wants the client that bill trusts him enough to figure this thing out and that's why people can talk about tampering all the time but those two dudes have a really good relationship and some trust no i mean you make a great point and that's that's a strange rapport right i mean that's really a couple yeah that's why like when i heard? I mean, that's a really high couple. Yeah, that's why when I heard it and it was explained to me, because I was like, what do people think about Drew Rosenhaus?

You hear all sorts of stuff, but they're like, you know who really likes him is Belichick. Yeah, I mean, and there's more to the takeaway from this game than just, you know, Pittsburgh is uncharacteristically bad and New England is boring good again. I think you asked me what makes the Patriots so good. I think along with

Bill's, I mean, along with having the best quarterback that ever played the game as a failsafe for almost 20 years, if you're talking about coaching and scheme, Bill has done a great job of creating boundaries and he's also done a great job. I mean, you hear so much about this Patriot way, and there's this preconceived notion that everything's really stringent. In New England, they mold into whatever they need to be to win. And you saw it down the stretch last year where they just pounded the rock on teams like the Chargers or the Chiefs in the playoffs, the Chargers or the Chiefs in the playoffs, and they use the fullback with such effectiveness compared to the rest of the league. Last night versus Pittsburgh, New England ran 25 plays without a tight end. And all of 2018, New England ran 24 plays with tight ends, without tight ends. Without, right?

Yeah, without tight ends ends so they exceeded the amount of snaps they had last year uh utilizing no tight end sets in just one game so it's just it's it's another layer to them just changing and and molding and fitting the personnel they have and not seeming like they miss a beat but if you're new eng I think you've got to worry a little bit about tackle depth. Tooney had to slide out. You've got your center situation with David Andrews, which was life-threatening, it sounded like. And you want to keep your 42-year-old quarterback upright.

They don't have any dominant edge rushers, but that's not how they win, right? So, I mean, you look at Chandler Jones, you look at some of those people they let go, and their defense hasn't really missed a beat um i think it affected them the super bowl year they lost to uh us in minneapolis but other than that they don't really miss a beat they don't miss edge rush so uh interesting and we'll see how the the ab living with tom situation what do you think about that situation did brady offer up um any lodging for you

nah dude it's kind of edelman how bummed out is edelman hearing that brown gets to live there oh yeah i mean jules immediately um was pumping out the pro brown um you know propaganda i won't call it propaganda because i do think he's excited uh on on all his social media outlets but i think deep down he's he's feeling a little bit but you know here's the thing i mean like you've seen pictures of tom brady's house right yeah yeah they're all air they're all aerial pictures so when you see someone's house and it's just aerial that means the house is pretty fucking big right i i don't think i mean i know tom's being a good guy and extending uh the hospitality but he he could be a half mile away in that house

i mean he's basically you don't think it's a real it's not like a real favor he's basically saying like there's a compound and there's a guest house and you can go do your stuff over there but like this isn't going to be hey you're in my spot on the couch no he's not going to be walking downstairs and ab is going to be eating um you know nabisco premium saltines in the kitchen uh well tom's tom's trying to make a healthy shake i mean uh i think tom lays down a few ground rules, one of which I think would be no docu-series in the house, which, by the way, I love that. That was incredible.

That video, the production was fuego, bro. I mean, it was like, you know, I tweeted something that A.B., he might be in on an Oliver Stone reboot for any given Sunday, but like Blair Witch style and we're all the extras. Like, I started to wonder for an hour if he was of course i'm i'm i'm baked and that that video comes across my my my timeline and i'm just like my jaw hits the floor i'm like this is remarkable um and turn around the best part is the turnaround's amazing it was all with within it. And listen, he wiretaps, essentially wiretaps Gruden.

What the hell's going on, man? I'm going to put that as the ringer for my wife when she calls me. I'm going to pull John Gruden's what the hell's going on, man, and put it on the ringer for my beloved wife, Meg, because that's usually kind of what she's calling me about is like, what the hell's going on? Yeah, i was reading

this article this morning and i want to transition to the rest of the stuff because we're going to get to it but there was this real feeling out there they're like gruden just got so mad he's like all right get this guy out of here when they could have suspended him they could have wrote it out for a little bit he wouldn't be around the facility maybe they're able to trade him maybe he ends up not on the patriots and piss everybody off but the video production to be that quick black and white pool shots i mean that's if anybody questions ab's work ethic not that anybody has like that's a lot of hours that's a lot of filming no all those different cuts quick cuts star wipes um okay all right it was beautiful i gotta get to the next game because

i feel like people are going to be worried that it's going to be an all Patriots podcast. And they already have that one here at the ring. It's called Bill Simmons. It's called the Bill Simmons podcast. Let's talk about your Eagles. Ugly early. And then what do they put up? 32 straight points.

Not 32 straight, but they get a late touchdown. It was a lot. Redskins. Yeah. So what was going on? Give me the whole thing. I picked him to go to the Super Bowl. So where are you at with your other squad?

Man, listen, I had concerns coming in, and I still have some concerns about some things, but this was a quintessential Philly day, right? You got Mike Scott, who's my boy out of UVA, who's a Sixers beloved Philly athlete, in pajama pants and a Sean Taylor jersey, just throwing down with Eagles fans outside of a tailgate that has a white casket by the buffet line. I mean, it was unbelievable. And by the way, Eagles fans, I love you to death.

No city owns a player's fandom. I'm a Knicks fan. I played in Philly. I love you to death. No city owns a player's fandom. I'm a Knicks fan. I played in Philly. I love Philly. The Eagles are my favorite team. But I'm a Knicks fan. Mike Scott gives this city a lot. He's a Redskins fan.

You want him to... Listen, it'll only make him mentally tougher. Let him be a Redskins fan. That's bullshit. Don't fight your pro athletes. I mean, how hard is this? Booze. We had booze before the half, right? mentally tougher let him be a redskins fan that's bullshit don't fight your pro athletes i mean how hard is this booze we had booze before the half right uh you know washington scored their first touchdown on an opening drive of the season since 04 keenum and the skins are up 17 nothing

you got vernon davis hurtling people like it's like frigging 2005 at Bird Stadium in Maryland and Keenum hits Terry McLaren for 70 yards and a touchdown and at the half you're like where's Zach Ertz he's got two targets one catch five yards they've only got one productive play and it was really ironically out of play action the run game hasn't done anything. 16 yards on eight carries. And then if you backtrack, the Eagles are four and five trailing at the half in 2018. So I'm in a sports book in Atlantic City and, you know, the consensus is the skins are going to the playoffs and the Eagles suck. It's like a huge oh shit moment. And then the sequence, right? I mean, they come right out of the half and this is just

what I would expect from Doug Peterson. You know, you put the fire out by running the football. You feed Sproles right off the bat. He looks great, by the way, to be 45 years old coming off the couch right before camp. You get that big O-line, the best in the league in rhythm. Sanders looks good. The draft pick, you get Alshon involved. That 75-yard drive is the biggest of the day. And then the defense starts imposing their will. It gets loud. Graham makes a play. Fletch makes a play. There's a penalty. It's third and 20. Field gets flipped. Another Deshaun bomb, right? And then Keenum misses a sure touchdown on a shot. And there's like three drops. And you're like, okay, this game's over. And it was just over just like that. And the second half was a different story. And, you know. Yeah, the Keenum numbers, like you this game's over and it was just over just like that and the second half was a different story and you know yeah the Keenum numbers like you look back on it you go okay

all right so Keenum had that crazy Minnesota run because you keep going like this guy starts for a lot of teams and you always wonder do coaches watch film of them going oh we got this like we can fix this like this is pretty good or like hey we've been bad at quarterback let's just at least be average and then he was below average with denver and so they move gone from him they bring in flacco to hope that's an improvement and then you're looking at keenum and you go this dude threw it 44 times for 380 against the eagles and yet well it ended it ended the way it was supposed to end because wentz ends up reminding you of why he almost won an mvp a couple years ago. And I would put, as an observer, I'd ask you this. As great as Brady is, I think Brady's greatness is mobility in the pocket,

knowing the call, adaptability, but on just throws, he's spectacular with throws being like, okay, this is like an end zone seam and I need to put it on his left shoulder as opposed to his right shoulder. And he can do that as well as anybody. No, yeah, yeah. Right. Whereas Wentz— Carson is a guy that makes you say, holy shit, three, four times a game.

Right, right. Carson, I think Russell Wilson, certainly Rodgers with just throws with bad form and just all arm and all that kind of stuff. Wentz, to me, is up there with the rarity of throw. And he had a bunch of those in the second half. You're like, okay, all right, yep, here we go again. And everything like looked right again for Philadelphia. Well, and here's the thing. I mean, you talk about Keenum. Keenum is a stopgap plus. Like, I think of him as a starting quarterback, but you have to have the right pieces around him.

And on the positive end, you know, Washington, after this loss, will clean themselves up and they got a pretty good defense. And Keenum has probably a better offensive line than he than he had when he made that run I mean definitely a better offensive line than when he made that run that ended in Philly at the NFC championship game in 17 I mean that offensive line was poor you know I think he he actually has more around him than you'd think but it really was more about the Eagles deciding that they wanted to commit to the run game. In the second half, they were north of 100 yards. They committed to it. A trend here, though, with the Eagles is that generally they start slow in that first quarter. They got to start faster.

Last year, I think they averaged like 2.6 points a game per quarter in the first. And you have to start faster. quarter in the first and you have to start faster. And since 2014, uh, they, they've been outscored, uh, 74 to 42 in the first half of openers. Uh, and, and in the second half, 125 to 24, they've outscored opponents. So there's definitely a trend going on here. I don't know what it is, but it's something they got to rectify. But Carson adding Deshaun Jackson is the biggest story of the day. He's only behind Jerry Rice when it comes to touchdown catches of 50 yards or more. I think Rice has 36. He has 31, and guess who he's two ahead of is Randy Moss. So this guy at his age should be able to take the top off the defense. You have to decide whether you want to play single high or two deep.

You play single high, he's going to kill you. And you play two deep, take care of Deshaun, worry more about those shots, they'll bleed you underneath. And in the second half, you know, Ertz was targeted a lot more. They got the run game going more. And that just looked more like them. So I think in Philly, running back still a bit of a concern. You saw they tried to trade for Gordon even after grabbing Howard from Chicago.

They actually tried to send him over to San Diego. So I don't know if they don't love Howard. They're still looking for that answer, that first and second down back with a home run threat. I think they like the draft pick. They still need somebody at corner to emerge and play better. You know, just having numbers there doesn't mean that you've got it figured out. But I like a lot of those young players. And at the end of the day, it's going to be a big year for Carson Wentz, however it comes down. You know, adding that piece to him being able to take the top off the defense, being healthier, being slimmer this year, changing his workout routine. We'll take the top off the defense, being healthier, being slimmer this year,

changing his workout routine. Pretty cool day for Carson Wentz. And also a great day for Brandon Brooks. Achilles in the playoff game. 360-pound man. And he's back on the field playing well week one. Other injury news, Malik Jackson seems to have somewhat of a serious injury, MRI today.

So we'll see what happens there. But the Eagles, the sky's the limit for them. Clement didn't get a carry yesterday. I'd keep an eye on that as well, though. Right. And for those that don't remember, Corey had that huge catch in the Super Bowl. So that's real. We know the Pats part's real.

We know Philly looking good feels real based on expectations. The biggest thing of the early part of the day was Lamar Jackson, who I don't know. I'm going to point this out because no one will ever get this trivia question. The highest rated quarterback for Baltimore yesterday was actually RG3. Oh, RG3, who, by the way, outlasted Andrew Luck. How about that? That would have been something.

Although I still don't know if this is 100% done with Andrew Luck. We'll see. But RG3 ended up 6-6. I don with a 99.7 qbr which is 0.3 away not point yeah 0.3 away not percent away from being perfect lamar was a 99.4 lamar 17 to 20 five touchdowns he could have kept going they put up 59 points on the Dolphins. And as somebody who sat here on this podcast going, this running approach with him and Baltimore collectively as they changed our offense on the fly, credit to Harbaugh and that entire staff, and they get into the playoffs, and I'm like, okay, but what exactly is this? Let's not fall for the one loss record the way we did with the beginning of Flacco's career.

And what are we really getting out of Lamar? And then I felt like against San Diego, excuse me, God, I can't stop doing that with the Chargers. Against the LA Chargers in that playoff game, it was terrible. We had a fine system in our locker room. Every time a coordinator said San Diego, he got fined. Okay, well, let's go. It happens in the NFL locker room. Five bucks for me right now.

So he wasn't good in that game. They were down 23-3. He put up a couple touchdowns late with like six minutes left. And so we're going, okay, what do we have out of Lamar? And then it turns into the biggest highlight show of any game. It's the deep throws. It's Hollywood Brown. It's slants underneath.

And I'm sitting here going, I hope this is who he is, but I can't help but get over the fact that half the dolphins that played in the game asked for a trade apparently in the locker room. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, listen, and first off, when are we doing the, is RG three back segment? I thought, I think we just did it. Could they get a first round for him? That's right up your alley. Side story, when we got all those picks for RG3 in St. Louis and we went to play Washington at Washington, a game which we won, I told Jeff Fisher he should trot out all the players that we got in the trade. Yeah.

Yeah, it was like 30 minutes before the game. I said, hey, Fish. He's like, what's up? I'm like, I got an idea. He's game. I said, hey, Fish. He's like, what's up? I'm like, I got an idea. He's like, I'm all ears, buddy. And I told him not expecting him to do it, but he was like, I love the idea, but that means y'all got to go out and play well. And I was like, okay, well, what have we got ourselves into? Of course, we got to play well.

But I think when you look at Lamar, there's two separate conversations having that people are conflating and it becomes really hard there's obviously the the conversation of which stem from the draft process you know is he a quarterback which i think is a conversation that we're past right we should be um the question is is he this guy you know is he this guy guy for 16 weeks? Obviously, he's not going to put up 62 or whatever part he played in 62 points against the lowly Dolphins every week. But is he a guy who can consistently keep your offense two-dimensional? I think the jury's still out. Man, I think he's worked really hard in the offseason. Again, we talked about this earlier. He's seen improvement, and he's a guy that seems to work his ass off and wants to develop.

I think if you're the Ravens, you're excited. But if we're asking straight out, is that production real, I don't know yet. And that's not any disrespect to Lamar, because I think we are well past that conversation, which was sort of silly, in that should he be playing another position? One guy kind of said it. Honestly, I think this has turned into this thing that was like the entire landscape was saying

that he should change position. Bill Polian suggested to ask him to work out. He may have been more forceful in it, and now I think it's turned into, like sometimes I think about these public arguments, Chris, and I think like a Matthew Stafford. They turn into straw man. The straw man. They turn into a straw man these public arguments, Chris, and I think like a Matthew Stafford. They turn into straw man, the straw man.

They turn into a straw man conversation. Certainly. But then I also think like sometimes the argument goes on for so long that it's like, hey, do we remember what the original argument was about? Like Matthew Stafford is a perfect example. And I think we could put together like a long list of these kinds of arguments. The argument isn't Matthew Stafford is awesome versus Matthew Stafford sucks. It's kind of like, I think one side is arguing saying,

Hey, he's not top five. And the other side's like saying, we never said he was top five. Yeah. We just said he was a top half of the league or top 10 quarterback or friends. Top 10 guy. Yeah. Yeah. Cause I think the Lamar argument isn't this, this massive number of people saying he can only be a wide receiver. I think it's all the people that watched the throws last year, watched him at Louisville. I'm certainly one of those guys that watched a majority of them going, I don't know if it's going to work because it was so inconsistent. Open throws, plenty of time, airmail at Louisville.

And I thought I saw some of that from him in his rookie year. And then you look at this and you go, hey, I'm not anti him. I just don't know what it is. But I don't want him to line up in the slot either. So then it became this, oh, hey know all you guys that want to play receiver like how many people want to like maybe he did what a lot of other quarterbacks do put in a ton of work tighten up the tighten it all up and and figure out just sometimes that you know when qb's are inaccurate they're always going to be inaccurate and spare me the completion percentage stuff here's the thing about coaching and development in the nfl it's not as good as

you think it would be. And it's not all it's cracked up to be. And I can't imagine. Well, because coaches, they're batting about, I don't know, 300 at being really effective and being teachers. And I don't know what that's like in a quarterback room, but that's what it's like in a D-line room. And I know that in my 11 years, I've seen a revolving door of quarterback coaches. I'd have to go back and look at how many quarterback coaches I've had on teams I've been on, but it's got to be closer to 11 than it is 5.

So I think just in general, you have to be wary of assuming that players are going to develop because they get in front of these, these, um, these pro coaches and whatever they're doing in Baltimore, they certainly haven't taken a step back. So I'm happy for Lamar. I think, uh, he certainly has some doubters. I do think there is a straw man element to, you know, we are past that, that people are having about should he play a different position. I think at this point, you want to see if he's a guy who can possibly propel them to win the AFC North, because as it looks right now, it is wide open. You know what the best part of fall is? I don't even have to say it. We know it's football. That's why you're listening to this podcast. That's why I have a job. I know I'm personally going to be glued to my couch all season. And if you are too, you deserve the best couch out there. It's a burrow. These are customizable.

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slash dual. That's B-U-R-R-O-W dot com slash dual for $75 off a new sofa. Okay, well then let's transition into the other AFC North theme that everybody loved here, and that's Cleveland. Disaster on opening day. All the hype in the world. I only left him out of the playoffs because of stubbornness, even though I looked at the roster and went, hey, these guys are good. And you know what? There's something to Baker. The way he gets the ball out, the way he moves in and out of the pocket. I'm not talking about his – to me, mobility for a quarterback

isn't how many times can you run on a zone read. It's how many times can you avoid pressure. It's how do you move in the pocket. Yeah, that's it. That's it. Like Brady's one of the most mobile I've ever seen when i say that people roll their eyes like i'm just high and i go no no i'm not i'm not talking like you know an end you're getting into you're doing semantics you know you're like well you know yeah we're just using different words and and to your

point i mean matt stafford's not that fast but yesterday i watched him move in the pocket pretty well so that's it right right and i see that from baker okay i see that from baker and then they lose to a titans team that i never feel that great about 43 13 they had 20 penalties called on cleveland 18 accepted the most since 1951 and this is this is what happens they send the number one cbs team romo nance all the hype all the national games all the talk all summer long. And they were all a part of it. Freddie Kitchens, when they had that practice with the Colts, they got in the skirmish and they thought Kitchens was going out there to help break it up. And he started yelling at Colts players and saying, let's do this. And then when you're

getting your ass kicked, I start to worry about coordinator face. Cause I go, man, Freddie Kitchens really has coordinator face. But at one point I thought Doug Peterson had coordinator face and it worked out for him. So let's not worry about coordinator face but hey one point i thought doug peterson had coordinator face and it worked out for him so let's not worry about coordinator face but right it was it was doug doug does not no but i thought at one point he was i'm trying to i like the term i like the term though i mean but the funny thing about yesterday was you know they scored on their opening drive of the season for the first time since i guess it was like 95 uh and and by the time I turn on the tv to catch that game uh it's sloppy and you know I got brown browns fans are surrender surrender cobraying like in the third quarter uh as if they just lost the super bowl because I

think they know that they got out ahead in front of their skates a little bit in Cleveland, everybody. And, you know, to me, quite frankly, I still think that until somebody proves that they're as consistent as the Steelers in the division, although I will say it looks a little bit more wide open than I thought. But, you know, listen, we put a lot of stake in Baker. I really like Baker. Second half of the year, they were a little bit more electric, and you just think things automatically translate, and there's no such thing as a sophomore slump. But these things are risks, and their offensive line is a unit that's just been largely effectively ignored. So there are certainly holes in what they do. I love their front defensively. Ton of studs there. But when you're going to play that sloppy,

you don't have a chance to beat damn near anybody in the NFL. And it's one of two games this weekend that I thought became so much about the team that was disappointing that we, we forgot to talk about the team that won. I mean, Tennessee, man, you said it. I can't stand Tennessee. I think it's because they came back from 20 down and beat us last year. And they're just generally a boring physical team to watch that finds a way to win. That's kind of got this identity of their head coach, who's one of the only guys from New England that go elsewhere and seem to be having any success.

But you got to give it to the Titans, man. I thought they were dominant. Big shout-out to Delaney Walker coming back from a dislocated ankle, scoring two touchdowns, who doesn't look like he's lost a lot. Speaking of old tight ends, Vernon Davis had a big day yesterday. So shout out to him again. Hey, by the way, there are people watching that Vernon Davis highlight that were like,

what a baby. No, but like Vernon Davis. Oh yeah. Yeah. Well, there were two things. There was the, there were people watching like, wait, Vernon Davis is still playing. Yeah. Well, there were two things. There was the, there were people watching like, wait, Vernon Davis is still playing. Uh, and by the way, I got a lot of respect for Vernon. He was me and him exchanged so much CTE in San Francisco, uh, at the old candlestick park

and at the Edward Jones dome and in St. Louis, I got infinite respect for that guy and he's a great guy. So I'm really happy for him. and obviously with the loss of a loved one, being able to kind of put that highlight reel play together. And his emotions, you just let them go. And it was funny. I was in the sports book, and some people were like, what's wrong with this guy? He's soft.

I'm like, you might want to wait a second and see what's up. And then the story came out that he had lost somebody, and he was emotional about that. So I just think in Tennessee, you look at it with the injury to Nick Foles, which is going to cost the Jaguars probably six to eight weeks, the impromptu retirement of Andrew Luck, and really a lot of question marks in Houston in my eyes, it opens the door for them the way they look. And they're a team that I was really low on this year and i think i think uh i got partial because i don't like them uh but but you got to respect them

um yeah right i mean that part of it i seriously think there was there's so many guys every now and then that week one you go wait a minute you know is that guy there but i think there were probably people at sportsbooks going oh why are they running oh seven highlights like what's going on yeah like yeah? Yeah, what's the deal? I didn't know Vernon Davis was with the Skins. I had to follow up on this. Did you just call Vrabel boring? Well, no, I don't think he's boring, but the style of play,

it's got some New England fingerprints on it. You know, I think they're a little bit limited with what they do offensively because of Mariota. And sometimes that's frustrating to watch. But they seem like they're trying to settle into this identity. And I know they've been 9-7 a good bit, but I think they're a team whose ceiling's higher than I thought this year. I don't think they're a contender team because at the end of the day, it's just like with Pittsburgh. We find out last night that they still can't beat the patriots uh i don't see them making a run in the playoffs and beating the chiefs or or the patriots uh but they can hang with just about anybody else because of their

identity and what they do um so yeah i mean afc south also kind of a shit show a little bit right now. And the Colts game had a bunch of interesting takeaways as well. Okay, so give me your Colts thing and give me your AFC South thing because I feel like we always do kind of overlook Tennessee and then you do look down and you're like, oh shit, the record is better than I thought it would be. They're always going to be right in it um and 10 and 6 generally is in the neighborhood of what you need to win that division i believe uh but gosh if you're the colts um

you gotta be kind of frustrated and kind of really happy with the way that game went yesterday. Listen, most people look at the Chargers as a contender team, and two weeks after the impromptu retirement of Andrew Luck, they go there and take him to overtime. Our boy, Jacoby Brissett, starts off 5 of 5 for 49 yards, hitting five different receivers, ends up 21 of 27 for 190 in two TDs. He looks incredibly poised. The tight ends, there's a little lag in production, which might have something to do with Andrew or, you know, a little bit of adjustment. Two for 28 yards combined. That includes Ebron. But TY was automatic, like nine targets eight catches 100 yards but here's the biggest takeaway

i i have from that game is that one marlin mac is a stud goes for about 175 but they they had a bunch of self-inflicted wounds uh autry was lined up over the center uh on the field goal block unit the first drive i think it was and the Chargers turn what would have been a field goal then into a touchdown because of the subsequent first down. They get a touchdown to Ebron, called back, overturned. They miss two field goals and an extra point. Vinatieri does that. Like, this stuff just doesn't happen.

They get a punt partially blocked and, in general, just shot themselves in the foot and the worst one of all which feels terrible to a D lineman is their offsides on a strip sack and somebody else's strip sack gets negated because Houston's a little early and then two plays later I think it was the Chargers go in and score. So all that stuff doesn't happen, and they are getting after the Chargers' asses a little bit. And so it's impressive. I think Frank Wright, who people didn't give enough credit for his job he did in the Super Bowl year in Philly, you talk to Colts players, they love him. They'll play for him. And he's the guy that can get him

through this. They'll be in that mix at the end of the year too no doubt about it all right you mentioned something about the expatriates other than um vrabel having having a bad day and none worse than matt patricia with detroit so they're yeah a first down away from sealing this game kyler murray and the air raid from texas looks absolutely terrible in the first half i make a joke between baker's game and kyler Murray and the air raid from Texas looks absolutely terrible in the first half. I make a joke between Baker's game and Kyler's game that I was like, maybe Jalen Hurts isn't going to go number one now, now at Oklahoma under Lincoln Riley. And you know, look, Jalen Hurts isn't going to go number one, no matter what he does at Oklahoma. And the Kyler stuff, there's always this thing. By the way, he played really well, but how many yards after catch were there that opening game against Houston?

Anyways. What, Jalen? Yeah, Jalen put up insane numbers. I love Jalen. Right, right. I love Jalen. I just think there's a different level of reading that Kyler and Baker have had. And who knows?

Look, with Lincoln Riley, the way everybody – the way people talk about Lincoln Riley behind the scenes, I was just like, this guy – I know this sounds nuts, but it's, it's kind of Saban dabble. And then if you had your third pick of anyone in college football to run your organization,

Lincoln would be the highest. Well, I mean, he, he looks exactly like these guys that are getting jobs. He, he, he,

he looks physically unimposing. Um, you know, it looks like he could be a young kicker in the nfl um and could join the ranks of you know a mcveigh or uh your guy down cliff in arizona or lafleur's uh he's got a little shoulder on him though like you stand next to mcveigh and so let me ask you this then yeah who wins who wins in a fight mortal combat style um in a tournament if you put lincoln because we'll just we'll just throw him in the mix as an incumbent i don't like his chances with this thing starting already i'm sorry okay so you got

lincoln let's see that lincoln fights cliff and gets the winner of Sean and LaFleur. I think Sean mops LaFleur with LaFleur. Whoa! Who do you have? That's about as anti-LaFleur as Cliff is going to. Look, I'm not going to pick Lincoln to beat anybody. Maybe Kellen Moore, if Kellen Moore is a head coach here. Oh, yeah, Kellen Moore.

Kellen Moore's got potential here. I think McVay seems aggressive. No, McVay is aggressive. I've seen him. here oh yeah kellen moore kellen moore's got potential here i i think mcveigh mcveigh seems aggressive no mcveigh is aggressive like i've i've seen him and he's got a little shoulder thing and he kind of gets into you when he talks to you not in a bad way he makes a real connection with you personally at least that's how i feel is he like a strong handshake guy i mean i've shook his hand but did you remember yeah you know it's a it was a good firm. He's assertive. He looks you right in the eye. He may have been a little intimidated by me.

Yeah. I don't know. I'm not quite sure. I mean, I know he's probably not around. Used to being around tons of huge guys, but whatever. I think, I think he comes out of that field and, and we got into the, the Mayock thing, not to go down this hypothetical path, but we got into this thing with, because Mayock almost fought ab uh if if you if

you listen to the rumblings out of oakland i was like i think mayock's a top five gm when it comes to fighting to the death i i like him over almost anybody but like john lynch and joe douglas joe douglas would just smother people okay joe douglas it's like not even it's not even fair um but we need to do that i think you're overrating mayock i think there's there's age there i think you're kind of fallen for the the cadence in his language a little bit okay no like there was that there was that piece i forget who did it at espn but they did that whole thing on belichick and my favorite part of it was one anonymous other front office guy going, Hey,

when did he become a fucking tough guy? You were an offensive lineman at like Wesleyan. And you know, like who, who are you fighting? Who are you getting? When were you beating up? Evidently.

I don't know that I know of any, any specific hand to hand-hand combat situations, but listen, for me, everything's word of mouth. And my dad, at a certain time, I believed, and most kids believe their dad could beat anybody up, but my dad could beat up most people. Your dad actually could beat up most people. Yeah, he's a total badass.

And he gave Mike the badass stamp of approval because he knew Mike from, yeah, because he knew Mike from when Mike, because he knew Mike from when Mike... I think Mike hosted him on a visit. At BC? And I think it was BC, yeah. Yeah, it was. This is back when BC wanted my dad to play guard. And I think he was so scarred from that ego blow

that he told me that I wasn't athletic enough to play defensive end in single one in single a football and I had to work on my guard set so that's uh that's how the Mayock thing went down uh and and he's and he he says Mayock is a is a badass dude so I like Mayock in the top five because um not to name drop but I guess I'm allowed to if I was there and you were there but when you went to bed and your father and I stayed up and watched episode of West wing at your house, we were talking about, we were talking about him growing up in Charlestown and his thoughts of, of our favorite movie, the town. And I was like, look, I I'm, I'm left out of this conversation.

I lived in a part of Austin and I was in my twenties and like, it wasn't, I'm not a, I get overrated as a Boston guy, even though I lived there and I grew up. Okay. Wait a minute. Steve Kime. Well, he, he wanted to pull, he wanted to pull you in and get some common ground on like, yeah, you remember all those, you know, those tough places. And you were kind of like, ah, not really. Listen, my dad, like, you know, my dad was from a rough area and my dad was from a rough area, and my dad was a tough, tough kid growing up. He talked about how dangerous Charlestown was, and when I was with the Pats, I had one off day. I went in the city maybe three times when I was with the Pats. I drove up there one day on an off day.

You were more of an Attleboro guy anyway. Yeah, I'm more of an Attleboro guy. Provo. Really like Provo. I think that the ride, I thought more of an Attleboro guy, Provo, really like Provo. I think that the ride, I thought I was lost. I was like, well, here's the Bunker Hill Monument, but these are all like, this is the most yuppie place I've ever been. And I call my dad and I'm like, what the fuck happened to Charlestown?

This isn't the place that you described. Are you full of it? Or he's like, man, it's it's changed and and everybody's getting you know triple value for their house now it's like so um gentrification has hit charlestown okay well uh all that all that's accurate there but i didn't have a lot i just sort of nodded my head a lot was like yeah no doubt no i remember that spot and i i felt like i was just playing along because i didn't want to offend your dad all right so if your dad signs off on mayock that gives mayock way more street cred than he would have had that's going to be the biggest thing exactly podcast is that mayock street cat but

let's not leave out um yeah we're not going to put belichick at the top of the tough guy power rankings there what about john dorsey no i don't i don't think i don't think i don't think belichick's afraid to die which is dangerous dangerous. That's true. And that was kind of my Dimitrov thing. I know he's smaller than a lot of guys, but his cardio, he's going to be going all day, that guy. He's like a Peloton. Definitely a guy who counts his steps every day. Absolutely.

Peloton sent him the bike that you can't even get. No, he's got a Peloton in every room of his house which which is undoubtedly you know um mid-century modern decor really sharp interior uh and he's got a peloton everywhere and maybe even like an architecture set up with a t-square but it's just a hobby and it's off to the side he just where were we what on this this podcast we i just want to go through all the gms quick yeah uh you got any other entries i'm elway you think you're gonna knock out elway with one punch no elway elway's jaw is made of like it's just calcified yeah right so good luck good luck beating on him and then you did mention because we didn't do this because we didn't mention him but john lynch

is probably ranked number one uh i'm still take listen total animal on the football field just because joe douglas wasn't a pro i mean he was a college player who's an imposing guy. I mean, he's a guy that looks like he walks around with the guy that has a lot of money and will make people go away. And another thing is Howie Roseman. Somebody asked me, where does Howie Roseman sit in this conversation? I said, he sits in his office because let's not rank Howie Roseman. Howie's my guy, but he's going to be low. He's going to be low. I think he'd tell you that

him against Joe Douglas is a bad matchup. I want to throw Les Snead in there, though. He's a little bit off his rocker. Oh, no kidding. Because I would say he's more sinewy than he is a size guy. But I see him out here all the time. He's paddle boarding. I don't question his cardio at all.

I think, and I've even said this, I go, do you think because you look like Thor, there's a higher expectation that you're just going to be successful? And I think there's a chance you're buying into the Thor theory. No, I think what I'm buying into is his heart rate doesn't deviate from like 50 beats a minute in any dangerous situation. I just don't think you can move him easily. He might get his ass kicked by Joe Douglas, but he's not going to be afraid at all. I'm totally cool with the Joe Douglas ranking. He actually was at Richmond with McShay.

Yeah, total stud and a great guy. But if the guy with money says somebody needs to go away, Joe makes them go away. Perfect. Okay, we're going to get your best plane ride home and worst plane ride home in a second with Chris Long here. But first, from CBS Sports HQ, this episode of the Ryan Russillo Podcast with Chris Long

is brought to you by CBS Sports HQ. If you watch much football coverage on TV, you know it's full of a bunch of dudes yelling at each other and throwing out hot takes. They probably don't even believe themselves. Tearing players down and throwing out massive overreactions are part of the course. Well, CBS HQ is here to change that. They're a 24-hour streaming sports network that's just focused on the game with highlights, news, stats, game previews, game reactions, fantasy advice, and gambling picks. No fake debates, no politics, no made-up drama. It's just sports for real sports fans.

Even better, it's free. Seriously, you can watch CBS Sports HQ 24 hours a day, seven days a week, totally free. And no, I don't mean free for a week or a month or if you already have some special cable package. It's completely free for everybody. You don't even need a login. Just open the CBS Sports app and and watch anytime anywhere on your phone or at home on your apple tv roku or fire tv it

couldn't be easier so download the cbs sports app and watch cbs sports hq today i also have an awesome um austin sideline story for you from texas lsu that i have to end the podcast with that i i don't think i've shared this with you yet. So please tell me it's McConaughey. So it is McConaughey related. Yeah, we'll get to that. Okay. Give me, this could be a good way of doing what was the best win, worst loss thing.

Cause sometimes we used to do it before the weekend. We could do whatever you want on this podcast. No rules. Yeah. What would be the worst plane? No rules. Just right. Yeah, exactly.

But then I want, I want a story from you on your worst plane ride ever as a, as a professional football player. Oh shit. Uh, God, there've been so many. Uh, let me start with worst plane ride ever. I don't know if this was the worst plane ride ever, but coincidentally it was after a tie. Um, we go play the Niners, who were absolute bullies against the rest of the league, but couldn't bully us because of our front and the way Fish coached with physicality. It was ironic. I think we went 4-1-1 in the division that year and missed the playoffs by a sizable margin.

And along the way are beating teams like Seattle and Davis, Delaney Walker, they were stacked. And we're getting after him. We knock Alex Smith out of the game. We concuss him. We knock Alex Smith out of the game. We concuss him. And next thing you know, this skinny guy with a fro trots out on the field. And we're like, who's this guy?

And their offense just catches fire. Of course, it's Colin. And I played one of the better games for sure of that year, um, and was all over the place. And at the end of the game, we tie them and I just don't know what to think. And I've never been a part of a tie. So I get on the plane and naturally I tie one on and I've got, um, you know, Captain Morgan or whatever, Crown Apple, whatever's the D-line drink of choice. And I'm just housing it. And I'm getting on the bus afterwards when you get off the plane. Because of course, when you're drinking on a plane, you get drunker. And then when you're drinking and you're completely dehydrated and you played 70 snaps, you're at risk to be blackout

pretty quick. So I'm getting on the bus and I hit two steps and face plant right in front of the driver. And I look up to look at the driver and I'm looking and I see that Jeff Fisher's sitting right there. Uh, and fish just looks at me. He said, well, you played great buddy. And, uh, pat me on the back and I go back to the back of the bus. And, uh, that played great, buddy. And pat me on the back. And I go back to the back of the bus. And that was probably my one post-tie plane ride. It just shows you how cool Fish was. But Arizona last night seems like Detroit's best chance to get out to a fast start. I mean, you really don't know what Arizona's offense is going to look like.

I think they're definitely in a rebuilding phase, even if you like Kyler Murray, even with his progression late in the game. By the way, he's 14-17 for 154 and two touchdowns in the fourth quarter. So you see how he grew through the game. Imagine how he's going to grow through a season. And one thing he's always been is really even keeled. I mean, you look back at the, uh, the playoff game, uh, I think it was against Bama. Was it Bama? Yeah. Bama. So, so, I mean, you look back at like the Bama game, I mean, and he's, he's just powering through it and he, he, he's got an even keel the entire game and you saw the same thing in his first pro start, by the way, of all the question marks about a Detroit team that I think is going to be a lot better than people realize this year, I like what they did in the offseason with Daniels, with Trey Flowers, with their front, you know, obviously Snacks last year in the trade. You know, they've got Slay on defense. They picked up a guy that kind of fits that

Belichick mold, a backer out of Hawaii, and I think it was the second round. I think their defense, which was really good the second half of last year, will pick up where they left off. So Kyler making those strides against a defense like that is impressive to me. But on the flip side, this loss was, or this tie was as much a loss for Detroit as it was a tie because you had to get out and start fast and pick up some confidence on the road with a new

coordinator in Beville who made Stafford look pretty good through much of the game. But how about Beville in that timeout? I mean, everybody saw it. Stafford's saying, trust me, and the timeout gets called anyways. And I guess there's some talk that it was Beville who called the timeout. It was. I mean, unless they got it from somebody else, but you saw the replay from that far side. Yeah. And at the end of the day, I think Patricia has to sign off on that timeout. But how about Beville giving the Patriots a ring a few years back?

gets a ring a few years back uh and then you sign him and he probably costs you a huge opportunity at a road win to start off the season uh the just the position of of of that relationship with maddie p uh you know because obviously famously he didn't run the ball with marshawn can i jump in on that real quick can i can i know this is completelypopular. It's far more popular to think that Seattle's, and even Lawrence Tynes today is making fun of Pete Carroll saying he beat Seattle in the Super Bowl. With clock, timeout, game management, all those things lined up, they had to throw the ball at least once.

They were going to have to throw the ball once. I get that if you just hand it off to Marshawn, everybody's giving you the automatic that he waltzes into the end zone, which hadn't happened on the previous tackle with Hightower clipping his feet and making an incredible play. But there was going to have to be a throw likely in the progression of plays there,

but it's far more fun to say that it was the worst. Most dangerous. Yeah. But most dangerous place to put the ball down on the goal line is, is right in that slant window with a timing throw. The ball, you know, it was a bullet. You know, Mount caught it, but that ball could go up in the air, a whole host of things.

And I also like just buying into that lore because I think coordinators are extremely arrogant. So I'm a little bit partial to heaping it on the coordinators when they just don't do the right thing. It's kind of like Shanahan in just don't do the right thing. It's kind of like Shanahan in the Super Bowl against the Pats. They throw the ball when they should have just ran the ball, and the game's practically over after Julio catches the ball on the sidelines.

But they hold me, Trey has a sack, and they're out of field goal range. If not, I think an entire legacy is altered altered in in atlanta and we're talking about matt having a chance to be a hall of famer as crazy as that sound as that might sound to some people he's uh he's gunning for all their franchise records and he's probably got a ring well you don't have to explain that i'm a very this has been a very pro matt ryan podcast over the years although they looked oh has it they look terrible yeah i'm a big um you know uh so that plane that plane ride had to suck that yeah that plane ride sucked bad yeah it had to be listen because the time change the length of the flight in arizona you're like a long ass way from the from the airport um you know after losses it just drags

out when you're out on the West Coast, man, you better win those games, especially the Sunday night games, because you're going to pull in about 6, 7 a.m. You know, I'm sure that was a 2, 3 a.m. night for the guys on the Lions, but the way they lost it, the timeout, letting them back in the game,

letting a rookie quarterback back in the game. You know, Amendola, who had a great game, my boy Dola, looks like he's got a lot of juice left in the tank, couldn't get Amandola, who had a great game. My boy Dola looks like he's got a lot of juice left in the tank. Couldn't get out of bounds on that two-minute situation. And then Stafford, this is right after I explained to Lions fans on Twitter that they might be different this year. Maybe they're just trying to take you to the brink of doing Lions shit, and they're just going to pull out of it, and the year will go better. They all reminded me we're still the Lions and Stafford tried to throw right the ball right to Brock and he drops it. Otherwise, the Cardinals probably win that game. Yeah, that's the scariest thing about that whole

deal is you go, oh, wow, he almost picked it up. You're like, no, no, you would have picked it off and kick the field goal if he doesn't run it back in. And by the way, the Lions now have the L.A. Chargers, the Eagles, Kansas City, Green Bay, and Minnesota for their next five games. And that was the importance of getting off to a fast start there. Obviously, the best playing ride, I think, would be Tennessee. Would you agree? Yeah, because all they had to hear, like they had to hear about how great the Browns were. I mean, it's like, I know how you guys are a little bit. I mean, I'm not trying to say I understand how every one of your heads work.

But when you're a team like Tennessee that is consistently overlooked, as we've already brought up, and then you hear all summer long how good Cleveland is, and you kick the hell out of them at their place. Now, granted, it's not too long of a flight, so I don't know how loose you're going to get. You may be asking. Well, no, I think that's what makes that ride back great because you get to go to nashville you just go to nashville so this this factors you said it it's a short ride your buzz is going to be good when you hit the ground and you catch an uber to what do they call that area in tennessee or in nashville electric avenue is that what it's called

i don't know it's stage fucking electric i don't know what it's called? I don't know. It's fucking electric. I don't know if it's called Electric Avenue, but it is electric. It's a city I haven't spent enough time in, but I can imagine after a win, it's pretty fun going back there. And you just have to feel good about what they just did. I mean, that's a team that seems real tight. You heard Delaney Walker talking about it.

He was like, they are who we thought they were. You want to crown them? You know, the homage to homage. about it he uh he was like uh they are who we thought they were you want to crown them you know to the the uh the homage to uh homage is this soft h in in in homage it's supposed to be anybody say homage i don't think they do i think you do or you did uh but i don't know jay-z say homage it's jay-z i think his his are different, especially if you're a rapper. I heard Juvenile end an entire song with, ha, every single line. That's a great song, though. It is a great song. I'm not sure that there's a ton of rules being followed there. So I think

you can actually get away with that one. Had you not self-corrected, I think you would have been fine. So don't worry about it. Yeah. Well, I like to self-correct and keep it 100 on this pod um let's talk about things you thought might be real or or or fake coming out of week one because you know we always overreact i mean week one last year the the bucks lit up the saints to the tune of 48 points uh you look at like last year indy ind Indy's, you know, you let some people tell it, their dog shit told damn near half the season. Then they're everybody's hottest team. Uh, the skins were in front for a lot of the first half of the season. What, what, what are you not sure on what's real? What's not real to you? to be and I totally understand the Titans feeling that way. The Ravens, I thought Lamar looked as good as any single player in the NFL

yesterday. That was an all-time video game performance, even though I hate using that video game cliche because we've all been doing it 20 years. I just got to see it a couple more weeks. I got to see it not against the Dolphins. I think the Vikings putting up a really impressive performance. That's

real. I thought the Vikings were one of the best teams in the NFC last year. I expect big things from the Vikings this year, whether that's an NFC title game appearance and all that stuff. The Eagles thing we've been over real, Pat's real, all that stuff. What about – see, this is one of my favorite things. I want to agree with you on the Vikings, and I want to tell you why they're my favorite in that division, and they were before Thursday night.

Dalvin Cook, everybody's talking about his reemergence and him being healthy. Sure, the running back depth scares you, but if he can stay healthy with the addition of Kubiak and Denison, obviously Kubiak helping the coordinator out and Denison working with the O-line in the run game, they're going to be tough to beat. And I buy what they did yesterday. I still worry about the tackles in protection, but you got 2,000-yard receivers. You take the pressure off Kirk Cousins. I think everything that we're conditioned to know or think we know about Kirk Cousins,

we can toss out the window a little bit more this year because this is the best team he's had in Minnesota. And I think if they get home field, it's going to be tough. But long year, a lot of time for him to regress into Kirk Cousins form. But man, Kubiak, Denison, into Kirk Cousins' form. But man, Kubiak, Denison, Cook being back healthy. I like it. They're the best team off the bus in the NFC North. The Dalvin thing is great because if I think of Dalvin, I go, is he a guy in the league that is...

So this is year three. He played four games his first year. He played 11 games last year. I mean, we're talking about somebody that we know he can catch the ball a little bit too, but 354, 615 goes off yesterday. Is he the best bet to finally establish himself, not just as a star, but a superstar, dynamic, game-changing kind of player, a position we haven't

seen it a ton lately like who exists like we know how good he is but he could be reached star status like saquon type level not saying he's the same player but that kind of oh my god we get to deal with that guy like is he the closest to that of somebody who's actually already has been in the league now in his third year? Well, I think he's the biggest opportunistic gain for a team. I think he fills the biggest void on a team that is otherwise very, very good. And, you know, certainly I don't know where he stands when it comes to, you know, top five or 10 backs league. I think we need more time, you know, obviously, you know, had a season ending injury

his rookie year and then a hamstring for, I think five games last year. We need to see a bigger sample sample size, but, uh, as far as a team that addressed the need with a player, this one could be as impactful as any offensively, certainly in that division, but in general. Yeah, I think that's kind of the exercise here. At the end of the year, we said Dalvin Cook's one of the 10 best offensive impact players in the NFL. I don't think any of us would necessarily be surprised. We just can't possibly say that about him when we're on his third year.

We're wondering if this is real or not. Like Sammy Watkins is a different version of this. this would be my question about sammy watkins now with the chiefs who went off yesterday and you go is this the longest it's ever taken a guy to look like the guy we all thought he was going to be when he left college considering it's year six now i'm not saying he's well he showed he showed flashes in buffalo but yeah i mean this that i think this is a bit of an anomaly but you could see a bigger year for him for sure um but I mean in Minnesota as much as we're talking about um Cook we should be talking about Kubiak they go hand in hand you know that zone run scheme really takes a lot of

pressure off um off of O'Lyman you, I mentioned them having some issues historically up front. It also helps moving Kirk in the pocket and doing some things that are more on brand with what Kubiak does. And I think it's just going to be a big key. Another thing I really buy offensively, I mean, we talk about Minnesota's offense, Dallas is offense, man. I mean, who's not high's offense. Dallas's offense, man. So you think that's real?

That's real. Against the Giants, you're week one, you're like, Dak looked that good, Kellen Moore, the stuff there. How different is the stuff that they're doing now with Kellen Moore? Well, it's way different. I think they're doing... I mean, Kellen Moore, I mean, the guy looks like he's like

23, and nothing makes you feel older than seeing these young coaches flourish. Me being 34, these guys are babies, but he's on the hottest seat in pro football, and I'm not saying that because there's jobs on the line. I'm saying that because the Cowboys are still thought of by a lot of people as America's team, and they have a Super Bowl contending quality roster. And the thing that lagged last year, especially before the Amari trade, was the offense. So in comes Kellen Moore, Dak's asking for a contract. And if I'm Dallas, I'm waking up this morning like, hey, this is a good problem to have, but we should have paid this fucking guy

a couple of days ago because he looked awesome. And I'm somebody who's doubted Dak at times. I respect him as a leader. I respect his toughness. I think he's plenty capable, I respect him as a leader. I respect his toughness. I think he's plenty capable, but I didn't see this coming. He got everybody involved. I saw him take a deep shot to a full back in the second half. A dude with high blue socks that was playing full back, he threw the ball 40 yards downfield to this guy. He's hitting Jarvis, the young tight end, who, by the way, has to be super excited. love him there and he gets Witten to kind of tutor him uh early in his career they get Witten back for whatever that's worth they love Gallup he he was involved in a big way um and you've still got that that piece that made them less one-dimensional late in 18 in Cooper so you

replace Cole Bezu with Randall Cobb, which seems like it could be a relative wash or have some upside for them. And Zeke was expected to get 25 snaps out of his usual 50, you know, coming off the beach, which by the way, it's astounding to me how talented somebody is and can come off the beach. It's like Clowney hasn't played football in months and goes right up to Seattle a weekend and he plays 42 snaps yesterday. But they didn't have to run the ball. And Dak became the first Cowboy with 400 yards and four touchdowns in a win in franchise history. And the two other times it happened were not Troy Aikman. They were Romo losses. And from Dan Arlovsky, who if you don't follow Dan,

he's like one of the best followers if you're trying to learn football, which any retired guy is trying to relearn football. This is the most interesting stat to me. Cowboys used play-action pass 47% of the time, and Dak was 14 of 15 with play action. Last year, they were 25% play action, and the Rams led the league at 36%, to put that in perspective. So it feels like Kellen Moore

unlocked a bit of a Dak cheat code, and I am buying it. I mean, they're doing a lot more to move him, RPOs, play action. They did give up 500 on defense. Red zone and turnovers kind of covered that uh that pimple for them and uh at one point saquon was 10 for 107 they gotta they gotta fix that but um i i buy it

i do buy dallas cowboy fans are gonna love hearing that one um the play action thing is always funny though because i just whenever i see those numbers You see how successful in the QB ratings And golf, hey play action versus Other stuff that they're doing I mean I understand the difference between play action and non-play action But you can't just run play action Every single play I think New England

Heavy sets Run it at you a few times That's basically like old school football What New England did against Pittsburgh Let's set up the you a few times. That's basically like old school football, what New England did against Pittsburgh. Let's set up the run here a little bit. Let's bring in extra guys, even though usually those extra guys were blocking tight ends, and now they've got this offensive line,

even though the right tackle went down last night. A lot of times you just have to show commitment, not even be that prolific on the ground. Just the threat of a commitment to a running game opens up play action. Right, because you just can't help yourself sometimes. And you know there's going to be a few guys in your defense, even though they're pros, that they're just going to not be as good as other guys. I'm sure there are players that you were teammates with that just had a hard time watching the football. Well, bad eyes on the back end.'s it's a quick i mean for you to lose a

foot race or bite on something uh and be behind the eight ball on the back end those guys have a tough job i mean i always make fun of them because they don't hit anybody in practice and you know they they listen to to terrible music in the locker room. And they're generally, I don't think they have to work as hard as linemen, but I respect DBs because they have the hardest job on the field outside of a quarterback. And there's so little margin for error.

And when you get that play-action game going, one false step, especially you saw it in Philly. Like I said, I think they were 16 yards on the ground or less in that first half when they took that play action shot to deshaun if you have somebody like that just the threat of a commitment to the run game one step and it opens things wide up speaking of people uh who don't execute play action well or anything lately i'm also buying the jamis winston struggles did you get a chance to see that

game i did see it and i don't know why anyone ever expects this to be different you know we do this a lot with quarterbacks where it'd be like year six and we started saying oh you know maybe we could do like we did it with jay cutler for his entire career where it was yeah but if if this this or this and i do think there's a couple lean years there with the offensive line where I thought Jay Cutler was going to end up in a stretcher. That Giants game in particular was one of the worst beatings I think I've ever seen a quarterback take. But we'll do this with some QBs where we hang on to this idea that as long as the approach is going to be different, that the result's going to be different. And for Jameis, the result has

been the same every single year except for maybe one year and this is why they didn't pick up his this is why they didn't give him the extension and they did the one year fifth year option because they're the guys in the building every day with this dude and they know that he's not he's not the goods i mean did you think it was going to be different uh i did so i i uh i hook line and sinker i don't know if you you saw. Well, I broke two rules, evidently, with my fantasy draft. One, the internet reminded me that nobody gives a shit about your fantasy team. I've never played till now, so I was gushing with excitement. And I live tweeted my draft, not knowing that rule.

I also didn't know the second rule, which was that you shouldn't draft Jameis Winston. I took him in the ninth, and as I took him, I kind of had that, like, you know when you're a little bit proud and you look up to see the reaction and you're like, yeah, not too much praise, guys,

but people, it were audible gasps at my fantasy draft when I took Winston. How many teams are in your league? A hundred? I got fooled. There's like 15 or something um okay

right we just had to make sure that he wasn't the 90th player taken so there's 15 no i mean like i mean it's still you know maybe it was like 105th i don't know but so wait a minute the math's off here somewhere but we'll move on yeah i'm deflecting how bad that pick was. But Arians, who is supposed to be this quarterback whisperer, I'm imagining him whispering in Jameis' ear. Go ahead, do it. You want to do it. Do the whisper routine. Make better decisions, Jameis.

Burn the ball in the red zone. Just burn it. You know, shit like that. And he's like, yeah i got this coach um but but none of that happened not having a former quarterback in the room with him uh i should have known arian's shit on my rams in 2000 and like 11 or 13 when we were struggling what he said he made some slick comment about Jeff Fisher, and that's why that team's always watching on TV

and we're always playing in December or in January. And I should have known at that point, I should have just canceled Bruce Arians. The beret, the glasses, all of it. Should have just freaking canceled it but he he wrote me in with this quarterback whisperer stuff so i took jamis winston and uh as i watched man he was worse than i remember um eclipse their san francisco eclipse their their their pick total from last year just in last game alone they had two picks last year they had two for

touchdowns yesterday um 17th game for for jamis with multiple ints and he just passed blake bordles for most since 2015 when he came in the league um so i don't know if jamis has gotten a pass a little bit or he's just got so much talent that again it's like tantalizing everybody all these coaches think they can change people I don't think he's getting a pass I think he's been pretty heavily criticized but you're right like if you bring up some of the numbers like I did this when I was doing my quarterback depth chart thing the other day Chris where I go you know you look back at Tannehill's seasons individually when he wasn't hurt and you go wait a minute like that guy was actually all right and you go you know what he wasn't he wasn't like I can look at some box scores yesterday and go hey this guy moved he got the ball down the field

there a little bit it's it's not just about 300 yards anymore it's not just about a good no it's not percentage anymore it's not even hell like i used to think oh the guys that don't throw any picks they're the best and then you start to realize like hey on third and seven you gotta get you gotta take some chances you can't never ever let the ball fly when a guy's covered up like sometimes you're just gonna let your receiver make some kind of play. So I've always, I think the numbers for quarterbacks have evolved so much that maybe I'm even more confused as to what is just a good number. And that's why I think I'm more back on my eyes than anything else.

And I know that when it comes to pick sixes or his freelancing with the football, I mean, he even had another on fourth down. He had another one that was going to be picked in the red zone, but at least on that one I knew on fourth down he had to throw the freaking ball anyways because it was going to be a turnover. But, I mean, this is who he was. These are the same things we were saying when he went number one. Hey, he needs to take care of the football.

Some guys just never figure out how to be better with the football. Well, they should have just – it was easy. All you had to do was go, take care of the football. Hey, stop throwing to those guys over there. Hey. Speaking of whispering. Okay, so that's basically, we almost got it all in there. You can't worry that we're going to touch every single game.

I got to tell you about my game this weekend. Austin, Texas, baby. I was there last year on the sidelines for the USC game. Texas looked good. I'll admit to you, even though I know guys understand my affinity for LSU, I do really like Texas. I like Tom Herman a lot. Thanks to the entire staff for bringing us down there. But going into that game, I thought LSU had more dudes and I was incredibly impressed that Texas made that a game after really having two positive plays the first half and still being in it. But it felt like, to me, LSU was the better team, and then the thing got out of control.

It was hot all weekend. I know Texas fans think LSU players were dropping on purpose to slow down momentum, but in reality, they'll play much better. You can attest. I was on the sideline. You were a attest you're i was on the side vodka tonics deep on the side actually i didn't pre-game at all for that one they have this new thing where i forget what it was called but it was a soda water in a can so it looked like i was drinking ipas and guys were like hey do you want a beer i'd be like yeah get me another one of those the rambler and oh yeah yeah this thiszer. Is it the seltzer movement?

But it wasn't a hard seltzer. It was a virgin seltzer. So I was sitting there pounding virgin soda waters the whole day and nobody knew I wasn't drinking. It was awesome. And so by the time- That's like the trick. You got to do the trick where if somebody buys you shots at the bar, have I done this around you? Yeah, we did it in Montana. Just dump it out? Yeah. No, no, no no this guy wanted to do shots with me and he was shit-faced and of course he's the same guy telling me you're not as big as you look on tv yeah we were out that was uh hold on just we gotta give a little more context

chris no chris and i were out in big fork montana last month and that guy almost ruined the night he was so drunk because it was just like, I don't mind. Look, if a guy wants to come up and tell you how cool it is, but he thought he was going to be in the friend zone the rest of the night. He thought he was going to get the two-hour hang. No, it was a weird way to get in the friend zone. It was a weird way to get in the friend zone to walk up to me and grab me by the shoulders and shake me and tell me,

you're not as big as you look on TV there, buddy. I was like, I'm about 250 pounds. What do you weigh? And then he's stumbling over himself to try to get shots. So what I started doing was having the bartender. I said, okay, you want to do a shot? Here you go. Let's do rail vodka.

So I sent him rail vodka and I take a shot of water. One shot, two shots, three shots. The guy disappears. I hope he's okay. But if you're annoying me. He didn't disappear because as you were telling me what you were doing, because I've done the just dump it. And then I've also done the thing where I'm like, okay. And then I end up hating myself for doing it.

But I just hate letting down 20-something-year-old dudes. But I saw you doing it. And then a fight broke out, which is hilarious. And I almost got rolled up from behind, like an offensive lineman who's holding up his side, but the play is on his backside. And then he'd get tackled back into his legs. I almost got rolled up in this fight. And I just immediately got hard yeah i just darted behind a beam and just put my hands up like i

don't want anything to do with this and that fight lasted about texas game in a donjoy i just i didn't know what was going to happen i thought it was going to be a donnybrook there i had a beer dumped all over the back of my hoodie and um your mom was when you fight it you fight at a bar when you fight at a bar in uh in in montana they don't actually kick you out of the bar no they let everybody stay you just usually like listen usually you get in a fight at a bar you got to talk about it at home but you can literally just go back and order a pitcher and sit back down and talk about the fight that just happened that you were involved in exactly so unbelievable that was that was fascinating because it was like a real quick melee two guys punch each other in the head as hard as they can

a beer went flying up in the air it got all over my hoodie i ran away from the whole thing and then you and i just sort of watched and laughed i mean we weren't really in the mix it wasn't like uh no definitely not let's clear that up yeah right So people understand it was a very, like, I don't want to make fun of it, but it was actually a funny fight because it was like an older guy versus a much younger guy. And they both whacked each other in the head immediately.veland that insulted your frame um what you don't understand is he was already hammered and then you he he's drinking zarkov light rapid fire with you thinking he's bonding with this nfl player and you're drinking warm water from a gun which is a weird way to bond to like talk shit to nfl players like Like quick way to get headbutted suddenly in the nose. Yeah, exactly. That's my move.

That's going to be my move now. I mean like, yeah, I don't fight anymore, but I will headbutt somebody in the nose. So when you said he disappeared, we had the Uber come grab us. We were headed back to the compound and um he was outside sad dart smoking by himself leaning up against a fence and i went oh yeah he was that's that's what the well that's what the well vodka is going to do to you because he went past his he just you know i could already see the math the science of it all was like wait a minute i didn't think i was going to do four shots of vodka in an hour on top of and there's and there's no cabs. There's no cab.

There's no Uber. There's no cabs. And one time after the bar there, I thought that I could call a cab. No answer. Me and a buddy ended up walking like five miles in the middle of the highway, you know, full moonlight, um, eventually had to thumb it back to our spot. This is like four years ago. I'm walking from probably 2.06 a.m. to... You don't realize how frigging slow five miles goes when you're walking and you're drunk. I mean, I think it was 4 a.m. I got picked up. I can't believe how far away that was.

I can't believe because usually... I don't know that you're a great planner, but you're not afraid to put a plan in a motion to have a car ready to pick you up to avoid walking home five miles around a lake in montana yeah um but you know what that's how you're always in shape that's why you'd be ready to go right now because you even jogged it a little bit because you're psycho that's what tommy dimitrov did that's what tommy dimitrov does if he goes out for a drink yeah he just walks home burn it all like i have i have an option now because i want to jog back Tommy Dimitrov did. That's what Tommy Dimitrov does. If he goes out for a drink. Yeah. He hates Uber.

Yeah, he just walks home. Burn it all. I have an option now because I want to jog back to Cherry Creek. Okay, I'm going to leave you with this because McConaughey, speaking of good times, was there at the game. So great game. Can't say enough good things about Austin and how great Texas was to us. And then I went out and did the LSU thing the Friday night before.

I'm telling you, I'm getting closer and closer to maybe getting a condo down in Baton Rouge, maybe a timeshare for just, you know, end of September. I don't know if I can ever have a job

where it's like, hey, Russillo moves to Baton Rouge for four months every year. So I don't know if you guys can sign him to anything. But McConaughey's there and he's the minister of culture now from Texas.

And he's in it and he had this awesome hat i can't pull off those kinds of hats that was awesome that was a really good looking hat i don't think you could pull it off i think you're too big for it shut up dude if this fucking pod had video i would superimpose that sick picture of me at a festival two weeks ago with the indiana jones hat on anyways wow got, you get upset there right there with me talking about your lack of accessorizing. So I'll take that back. So here's,

we're going to end on this note. McConaughey is on the field kind of at this little pregame thing. And he's, you know, up on the big screen the whole time he's, he's crushing it. And some like student assistant or you know somebody who like a game day ops person comes up it's like hey mr mcconaughey you know we need you to move

kind of over here and mcconaughey just looks at the person i'm paraphrasing the five different versions i've heard of this story where he just looks at this this kid and goes hey man i'm just free flowing i am just gonna be all right This is too big. You understand this? You dig? And the kid was like. Oh, can I use that at home? Can I use that at home? Like when my wife's like, hey, I got to run out.

You got the baby for a little bit. I'm just free flowing. Yep. Like, I'm just going to be. Hey, Chris, can you pick up some milk? I'm just going to be. And what do you say to that? Now, first of all, the kid should have known better.

Like crazy ops guy being like, oh, my gosh, we have to move this guy in 90 seconds. You think you're going to move McConaughey that way? McConaughey was just like, nah, it's too big. You dig. You don't move McConaughey. That's like rule number one. No, Corso's allowed to stand wherever he wants. McConaughey would be allowed to be outside of the coach's box,

and I think the NCAA would understand that. I agree. All right, we can follow you on Twitter at... Oh, Joel91. J-O-E-L. Number nine. O-N-E.

I was going to say we should have McConaughey on the pod one week. We could probably do one week. I know he liked me. He likely liked Van Pelt more, which is usually the way that worked out.

That's fine. We could do it under a false premise that Van Pelt's going which is usually the way that worked out. That's fine. We could do it under a false premise that Van Pelt's going to join us and then just be like, oh, he's late. He's just being. McConaughey would have to understand that. Be like, he's free-flowing. Today's his free-flowing day, so he may not join us. McConaughey would be like, I totally—

Schedule, schedule. I totally understand it. We're going to be doing this every Monday. Subscribe to the Ryan Russillo Show podcast with Chris Long. Again, every Monday. I'll be back on Wednesdays and Fridays. And enjoy the rest of the football week. Thanks, Chris.

Yeah, thank you, Rock. Outro Music