The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Week 4 Recap With Chris Long | The Ryen Russillo Podcast

Episode Date: September 30, 2019

Russillo is joined by two-time Super Bowl champion Chris Long to discuss NFL Week 4, including the Buccaneers hanging 55 points on the Rams, Bills-Patriots, Browns-Ravens, a Chiefs-Lions nail-biter, Saints-Cowboys, and more. They also share some space movie reviews, celebrity stories, and Russillo’s Mike Jones concert experience. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

week four and we're ready to break it down for you chris long and ryan is still here on the podcast part of the ringer network and brought to you by belvedere produced in one of the world's longest running distilleries belvedere vodka is the world's longest-running distilleries, Belvedere Vodka is the world's finest all-natural vodka. Part of a 600-year Polish vodka-making tradition, Belvedere is made with 100% Polska rye, pure water, and no additives. And, yeah, I don't know. What's up with you this weekend? Nothing. No drinking.

My DirecTV was broken, so I had to, like, download every streaming app known to man and toggle back and forth between sunday ticket i had to get a cable box with an antenna to watch virginia lose to notre dame oh my gosh it was a yeah real bare bones that's uh that's like um i don't even know what that is that's just like going back in time so it was back in time it was it was terrible all right well we're gonna break all this stuff down luckily you had the streaming and the antenna to make that work um a lot of streaming going on in my house i'm like what is sling like what what is hulu like i don't know what this stuff is and and back in the day, you'd get cable.

I'm sure they didn't need any information. Now you're just giving them everything, passwords, location. It's getting scary. I had a rough week one DirecTV deal. And now the compound is all off. We're not aligned. We're offline, I think is the best way to describe it. We got all sorts of issues.

TVs aren't working, but we're going to power through this. We're going to be good to go. I was living in my parents' house a month ago, as you know, so the game-watching experience has improved, no doubt. I'm not complaining. That's right. That's right. Are you in the new pad now?

Nah, not in the new pad are you in the new pad now nah not in the new pad not in the new pad okay so let's uh let's do this here's the game plan for today we're gonna do best worst flights right off the top we're gonna try to figure out who the third best team in the afc is because that's way harder than you realize especially when i looked at it was like wait a minute could i do i even have the right answer here? We'll go through the NFC teams that Rams lost, the Bucs putting up big points. We've got to do a little on Dallas, New Orleans, and Tom Brady's one of the worst games he's ever had as a professional quarterback. So there's a bunch of stuff that we want to get to, but let's go. We have some story time too, but let's do the plane ride out of town that was the best? I'll let you go first.

It's got to be Tampa, right? Put a 55 on the Rams? Yeah, we're speaking the same language. Bruce is up there in first class just, that was a good game, Jameis, just whispering. And the legend of Arians and the Bray in Tampa grows. They are a different-looking offense, man. That's right, and that's your fantasy guy too.

So did you get spooked? Yeah, I mean, it was – yeah, I had a lot of second guessing, and I was wrong. I was wrong about it. I remember the first week on this pod, I canceled culture. I canceled Bruce Arians. And I'm back on the bandwagon, but we did not cut ties with Jameis Winston. He's lighting it up on my fantasy team.

All right, that's good. That's good. What about worst flight? I'm going to throw you a curveball. I'm going to say it's New England. Short flight, but everybody offensively, their assholes are puckered so tight because I know firsthand what it's like in a Bill meeting on a Monday.

And half the team is going to be pretty relaxed, sitting back with the popcorn, watching the offense get absolutely dug into in front of the entire team. Because Bill is one of the few coaches who still watches the tape first play to last play with everyone in the room. And that is an uncomfortable proposition if you didn't play great. Can you put us in that room and and tell us what that really is like maybe some specifics and i mean that's that's going to be brutal and he's probably rewinding it the whole time so how many hours does that take well it's a long meeting and i think more i think more coaches should do

this i think there's way too many coaches in the league that they have their offensive specialty or their defensive specialty and And one thing that makes Bill great is he can coach any position better than the position coaches, maybe short of scar, uh, on the offensive line there, but he's a legend. So I think in general, it's a lost art being able to coach with nuance and, and, and, you know, with detail, the end zone tape offensively and defensively, all the way through. And that room is dark. Everybody's in the room.

It's an enormous room, and the tension is palpable, and anybody can get in that room. And you better load up on coffee. You better not look like you're sleeping. You better not look like you're not paying attention. But chances are you won't be able to fall asleep because you're scared shitless that you're gonna be next did he ever yell you um he called like um he called a play stupid i think which it was uh i actually roughed tyrod taylor coincincidentally, our Bills game at home, I think it was week three,

Jimmy G got hurt in the Miami game, and Jacoby had to come in. We played bad from a standpoint of the details and lost to Buffalo at home. Offense couldn't get it going, but the defense, we had a lot of dumb penalties, and I was one of them. I got yelled at once for that and then for missing a sack. But Jamie Collins also whiffed on the same play. So misery loves company. Could you ever say, like, hey, don't talk to me like that?

You know who my dad is? No. No, no, I can't say that. My dad can definitely beat up your dad though i mean you know in general that's that's just generally something i'm pretty i will say though gardner minshu's dad is pretty i don't think he can beat my dad up but the guy's imposing yeah there's a lot going on there i mean i just wonder if i were a scout i would worry about minshu's hips as he as he ages like is this guy gonna fill out like this dude it's a big cat bro because that's a big big dude yeah i

just i would just think it'd be kind of funny if you would try that once but like hey bill you know my dad no i would tell jokes to bill sometimes i would try to keep it light with bill and he would do that kind of like half smile where you're not sure if he's laughing or if he's smelling shit. But he actually has a better sense of humor than people lead on. I think, though, yeah, the film room thing is it's really good for a team to hear the head coach break everything down. Everybody's on the same page. Not enough teams do it.

Some head coaches don't even bother with the defense or vice versa so we're looking at the new england team that's 4-0 and i was going through i think barnwell had this up today but if you go through every start brady's ever had and use this one metric that's arguably the eighth worst start of his career uh they couldn't move the football against the bills defense that you now for two weeks have been telling us how good they are. And Brady, of those eight bad games, six of them were before 2007, which is always like this weird kind of thing about Brady and how he's evolved. And it wasn't, you know, Mahomes from day one, it wasn't even close. But as you stretch it out, like you asked me this question, and I know it's ridiculous a month in to do, hey, these are what the playoff standings would be right now,

but your one and two seeds are Kansas City, New England. The other four AFC playoff teams are Houston, Cleveland, Buffalo, and the Oakland Raiders. No Chargers, no Colts, no Titans, even though they had a nice win, no Ravens. The Steelers are a mess. They'll play tonight. I think if somebody said,

who do you want to bet on being the third best team in the AFC is, I would just be like, you're just going to have to shoot me. Like, I don't have an answer for you. Because every time I think of one of these teams as an answer, I'm like, wait a minute, that can't be right. Yeah, I mean um it's certainly good news for teams like buffalo we can get to buffalo and why they're good why they're not so good and what we learned from that game yesterday but there's there's a gap for sure and

and uh it's good news for teams like buffalo because of the wild card i mean the depth in the afc is just not the same as it's been in years past. I actually think if you're looking at who the third best team is, it may not be today, but I like the Chargers. I'm not giving up on the Chargers. I still love Phillip. They're getting Melvin back. And, you know, when you talk about Melvin Gordon, he's the perfect guy to help them put that Texans game away. I mean, we talked about

his trade value with Eckler and them getting yards on the ground the first couple weeks and how we perceived his value might be going down. but it wasn't the Colts or the Lions games that they needed a Melvin Gordon. It was that game where they're up big at home against Houston, can't control the clock in the third quarter, can't pound the ball. I think they get him back.

He adds that dimension for them. They still got the Chiefs twice. They got the Bears coming up, Packers. But I trust Phillip Rivers. So I trust them to be the third best team. I like that answer. And I normally have a really hard time quitting the Chargers. But I don't know.

I mean, I think a big part of this weekend, and I think this is like an awesome thing, but Cleveland being 2-2 and beating Baltimore with all the stuff right all the extra because when you have all that extra stuff and then you don't live up to the expectations everybody has for you like you're going to get it way worse and that's

who Cleveland is and it's not fair but you could have argued hey this is fake good this is fake success they haven't done anything you, Baker and the whole thing. And they get smoked in that first game against Tennessee and now have turned this around a little bit and beat a Ravens team that the first couple weeks in people were wondering if that was the best team in their division

or is that a team that could be a one or a two seed in the AFC. I mean, they still didn't have anybody ahead of New England and Kansas City. But that win for where this team started and four weeks later feel like they have this thing figured out with some of the changes they've made. That's, I don't think it's a terrible answer to go, Hey, you know what? Maybe Cleveland is the third best team in the AFC. I don't think it's a terrible answer. I think there's so much overreaction as you know, in the first couple of weeks and you know cleveland uh dead in the water a week ago uh now we could over correct and and and count out uh the ravens after the past two weeks

or say that lamar is not there yet i think the ebb and flow of the season is going to tell us where these guys end up from a development standpoint but the reason I would say San Diego over these teams is they're good defensively they got two great rushers um and and they're getting a central piece to their offense back and they're not too far in the hole and I trust Phillip um you know maybe not from a standpoint of um avoiding implosion and a deep playoff. But when you're talking about being a top four team in the AFC, it's something they've done year in and year out. I think the cream will rise to the top there. Where did you want to go in the rest of the AFC?

Anything else? No. Listen, I mean, as you mentioned, the AFC is just not real deep right now. There's a lot of games that you're like, hmm, it's not that interesting. Hey, I want to ask you about the hit thing because the hit on Josh Allen, I didn't really understand. Now, this is your first time ever sitting at home watching Twitter react to these hits.

What do you make of how everybody just is out of control on Sundays? Yeah, listen, I think we've just reached this point here where we're forgetting that the game is moving very fast and we're seeing everything in super slow motion on HD cameras. And I think people are discounting the bang-bang nature of these plays. Now, with the Burrfect, who the story just broke, he's suspended for the season. There's a track record.

I mean, he's literally tried to decapitate people for years now. Mind you, we love watching old highlights. We love watching LT. We love watching these guys back in the day that would take your head off, Tatum, guys like that. The NFL's built a brand on that. We still love that. But we're saying now the game has changed. So what we're punishing these guys for is not progressing. I think Burfecht has the track record, so you have to judge him independently.

When you see a hit like Jones, you've got Josh Allen, who's 6'5", 6'6". He's lowering his head at the sticks for a key first down on third and eight. And Jones, who's probably not even six feet tall, actually lowers his head, probably to adjust his angle, and make a play. Now, when I say that the intent is not dirty, it's not abhorrent. It wasn't malicious. I had people in my mentions like, nah, fuck him. I said, fuck him. Really? Well, you got to at least give me the fact that he hit him in the head. Nobody's disputing that. He'll probably be fine. Um, but I'm not ready to make an intent judgment on a hit like that at all. Um, it's a key play in the game. Alan's a runner and he's basically a tight end stretching out for the sticks

he's not defenseless but we've come to this point where we we overcorrect and overreact a lot there are hits we want to get out of our game we know which ones those are but let's not conflate the intent with the fact that sometimes

it's hard to hit people accurately. Like if you told me to hit somebody on their belt line, that's a really hard place for me to hit at full speed with the angles taken into account. So I didn't think the Jones hit was a big deal. Yeah. I, I, I, after the game and some of the bills players like, Oh, if we had done that to Brady, if we had done this, you know, I think it's just, we all need to sit back and go, hey, the NFL doesn't want these hits in there. And sometimes they're going to go throw flags that seem excessive. And sometimes they're just going to miss some, too. And it's OK.

Like, it's not ideal. It's not, hey, we want to miss a bunch of calls this week. But you're right, especially when it's the secondary and the guy already has the offensive player teed up lined up ready to get him and then the guy lowers his head and then it looks like it's this vicious on purpose hit more often than not i don't i don't think these guys want to do this i don't think you guys are out there wanting to hurt your or hurt each other you know i mean i know that sounds naive, I mean, I think there's a certain element of guys wanting to... I mean, we want to hit people really fucking hard.

But at the same time, we care about the consciousness that's arose when it comes to CTE, concussions, and you're certainly not trying to headhunt anyone. But at the end of the day, I do think there's still this double standard when it comes to offense and defense. I mean, you looked at that hit, the tackle from the Bucs put on Marcus Peters. Marcus Peters got absolutely drilled right in the side of the head. And it was as bad as any hit we saw on Sunday, save for the Berfic hit.

And nobody gave a shit. In fact, people were the same people I saw on my timeline earlier who were grandstanding for player safety and using Jones' hit on Allen or the Berfic hit, which was bad, are like, look at this guy. Look at this O- at this old lineman level Marcus Peters I mean he just he he just gave him a concussion on you know and and the play was I mean Peters is crossing the goal line and he completely hits him in the side of the head but

there's this double standard it's like the same thing when you see a running back lower his his shoulders and and uh and and his helmet goes parallel to the ground and nobody cares. So I think they need to work on that in general and just try to be consistent. I know that's hard, but the consistency is the key. I think you'd have less people pissed off. The game itself, if we wanted to just finish that one up there and kind of compare it to some of the other things,

because I think what we're learning now a month in and this is not new. I hate when people are like, hey, all the teams are flawed. They're like, yeah, because there's rarely ever these perfect teams that are at the top of both offensive and defensive rankings. It doesn't really happen that much anymore.

But New England's got some O-line problems. They're not able to run it. We mentioned Brady and that defense. It feels like even the best teams one month in were staring down some major flaw. Oh, absolutely. I mean, you look at that game. I mean, New England has historically not played great in Buffalo, even though they haven't lost since 11. And Brady's numbers, as you mentioned, haven't been great against the Bills. But he was out of sync yesterday, and they couldn't get the run game going. They're bottom third in the league in yards per carries on the year.

Brady goes for 150 and 3.8 per completion, but he really hit two plays. That's all it was. I mean, it was a James White down the sideline, man coverage with a linebacker, and then Josh Gordon a bunch of yards after the catch down into the red zone. So, I mean, that's 50 plus yards on those two catches combined. He's under 100, 18 for 39. His rating's below 50. Doesn't throw a touchdown, below 50. Doesn't throw a touchdown, bad pick in the red zone, very uncharacteristic of him. And the way they're not getting into sync, I really think it's more Devlin and Gronk than it is Wynn and Andrews. I know the O-line problems are an issue, but they've had those

before. They've had games early in the season, like Tampa, I believe it was a year or two ago, where you're looking at him and you're like, how are the bucks beating the shit out of Tom Brady? Is, is, is this done for them? I think the difference is now, you know, they, they tried to use the fullback yesterday. They didn't use as much. They had the rest, the rest of the season Devlin's out the run games getting interesting, uh, because that's something they leaned on late last year and they don't have Gronk. They can't get in heavy packages. They can't do the play-action pass stuff, create mismatches. So I'm a little bit worried about the Pats offense. I'm not in panic mode because they always have these games, and Bill always talks about there's two seasons.

The first half of the season is less relevant, and the real season starts uh late in october and november so i don't think the panic button is the way to go yet but the fact they can't get the run game going seven three and outs yesterday he had to burn a bunch of balls i mean screens you know off target all day so an an interesting day uh but we should be talking about Buffalo as well. Yeah, the defense has been something you were on very early, and here we are. We're looking at a 3-1 team that competed against maybe the best team in the AFC. If it's not, Kansas City. We have that moment in that game where it feels like Stafford's going to have this throw,

and it's like, man, they're going to beat the Chiefs, and then Mahomes is like, nope, that's not happening. And so I don't think that was really that surprising. I think the crazy thing is we just expect that Mahomes is going to be able to do that whenever he wants because that's the standard this guy's at right now. Right, right. And he missed a few throws yesterday,

and I think that's, when you look at that game, if you're talking about weaknesses, certainly it's not the offense in Kansas City. I think their weaknesses are more the secondary and the pass rush. I mean, their pressure rate is down almost 10 points. Frank Clark, who I was really excited about, hasn't quite come on yet. almost 10 points. Frank Clark, who I was really excited about, hasn't quite come on yet. You know, Houston's gone. Dee Ford's gone. Maybe they underappreciated those guys. They got three new starters in the secondary. So I think the Chiefs more often, you know, that defense is going to be the topic of conversation. They don't have to worry about stopping the run because nobody has to run the ball on them. They're always playing catch up have to worry about stopping the run because nobody has to run the ball on them they're always playing catch up uh when people are playing the chiefs so um at the end of the day mahomes hits five or six of those deep throws that he missed that game's a completely different game and we're saying um you know wow this team is the class of the afc right now he actually and that was one of

the things i think it was the pro football focus where the grading came out and I was looking at the email. I get it sent to me every week. And watching these games, I was like, yeah, there are a couple things where he's missing. And they graded him down for that. They had him behind all these other people. And then it turned into like, wait a minute, is he really the fifth best quarterback? No, no, that's not the point. The point is that if you're watching every Chiefs play,

you could see that there's a few things that he's missing there. But on the defense, whether it's Houston moving on or they let Dee Ford bounce, I'm with you. Whenever I looked at those sack numbers, you had to remember, well, wait a minute. Everybody's dropping back against them every single time because of what the score is. So did they really lose two premier edge rushers? Did they lose two guys that were good but had a million opportunities to get some stats? Well, I think you'd have to look at this year compared to last year. Like, hey, listen, are their leads similar? Are they controlling the ball? And are they making teams play catch up through the first

four games? I mean, I would assume they've still had a lead this season at a similar click as they did last year. But the numbers are down from a pass rush standpoint. So they really need Frank to come on. And they need somebody to emerge opposite Frank. I mean, you know they have Chris Jones inside. But, you know, you look at duos in the league and a lot of these teams, one pass rusher's not enough.

You know, you see Chubb and Von Miller in Denver. You see the guys in San Diego. And now I think in Dallas, you add Robert Quinn to Demarcus Lawrence, and you have a duo there that's going to be formidable down the stretch. By the way, they stole him for a six-round pick, and we'll get to that. But in general, you need somebody to step up opposite Frank Clark. It's really hard to do it alone.

And you will, I think at some point, have to confront the reality that their defense is a bit of a liability, and they have a new system. So we'll see. Incomplete when it comes to evaluating their defense, but I do think it will rear its ugly head at some point this year. You mentioned the Dallas-New Orleans game. That one is not what we expected, although maybe it's just with Bridgewater.

We know it's not going to be Breeze, we so used to Dak lighting it up and then they score only 10 points what did you see in that one was there anything that scared you um I think what scares me about Dallas is their inability to get pressure I just you know I mentioned um Robert Quinn being a huge addition I I think his acquisition for a six-rounder is highway robbery, and that trade will turn out to be just as impactful defensively as the Cooper trade did pan out to be on offense last year. I really do. That's lofty.

And they're going to have to win games. Well, Rob Quinn, I mean, people forget about Rob. Rob played in obscurity in St. Louis, and, you know, he's had a 19-sack season. You know, he had 30-plus over three years, 40-plus over four years. He's a stud, and he went down to Miami after a couple back surgeries and just wasn't the same. Well, it wasn't a couple back surgeries. I believe it was just one.

But people were kind of like, ah, he's older. He's getting to be on the wrong side of 30 here coming up. Not quite the same player. But also a guy who's incredibly bendy and explosive. And playing on turf is a big deal. He's back in Dallas, crowd noise, turf. He can really bend that inside knee. He's going to have a really big deal. He's back in Dallas, crowd noise, turf. He can really bend that inside knee. He's going to have a really big year. What I worry about with Dallas is them not being able to get

the run game going. Last night, they were pretty abysmal on the ground, and that's uncharacteristic of them and their offensive line. They struggled to sort games last night in protection. Dak got hit a lot. And at the end of the day, you can see why everything's predicated on them running the football with Dak in that offense. So they've got to shore that up. But Zeke might be out of shape still a little bit. Zeke might not be seeing the field well. It's like preseason for him still.

I mean, he just got off a flight from Cabo like a month ago. Yeah, but if you go to Cabo and you just relax, you know, you can, yeah, I did a relaxing Cabo trip. Yeah. And, and ironically,

you guys probably both flew Southwest back. I couldn't believe that, you know, he, he rushed back to sign his, his huge deal. And, and he was just walking through the airport with like paparazzi chasing him.

Like, dude, get a PJ. Maybe that's where, maybe his head's, you he's like look at private jet private aviation's great but you know you get that bill lunch pale guy i mean i i i'm not worried about this what happened to dallas last night does not concern me down the line for them. They were missing Gallup. And I think at the end of the day, you look at them last year in that game against New Orleans, what was the final score of that game?

13-10. The one thing I worry about them with, though, is this phenomenon where the rush game just kind of disappears. And it happened in the playoffs to him last year it's the last time they had under 50 yards rushing they had 45 last night they had under 50 against the rams and and uh and they ran into a brick wall okay irresponsible question of the week you ready let's get irresponsible would you rather have haskins than cousins would you rather have Haskins than Cousins?

I don't like watching Cousins play football. I don't like watching Cousins play. I don't think the Vikings do either. I mean, this is one thing I was really wrong about. I was really high on them. And I said, I think I said something to the effect of whatever you know about Kirk Cousins, it goes out the window. That Kubiak system, the zone run, moving the pocket. When Dalvin Cook can't pick up yards on the ground, he has to win a game for them. And, and you don't see he's one of the worst under pressure in the league. And so I was wrong. What, what drives me nuts. And I don't know if I'm right when I'm watching this, Chris, or if I'm, if I'm wrong, but like, I look at golf yesterday and they're trying, he's trying, right. He's got his three picks, but he's out there

going, all right, you know, I got to let it fly here a little bit. We're down two scores. And, you know, as I've, I've talked about quarterbacks and going, I got to let it fly here a little bit. We're down two scores. And as I've talked about quarterbacks and going, I kind of give up and I don't know who's good anymore. And everybody's numbers are way better than they used to be in completion percentage and all these different things. And then I used to think no picks was the best. And then I realized if it was no picks, that meant you were never trying to do anything. And I'll watch golf and be like, okay, this guy's trying to get them back into this game. And I'd watch Cousins yesterday and go, what is he concerned with here?

Completion percentage? Like what part of him, I don't know if I'm off base on that. I don't know if it's just another amazing day against a great defense in the Chicago defense, but that's when I was watching Cousins, I'm sitting there really frustrated going, well, I guess I don't really care, day against a great defense in the Chicago defense. But that's when I was walking, watching cousins, I'm,

I'm sitting there really frustrated going, well, I guess I don't really care, but I just, you know, there's just throws where you're going, what is the point of this one? And that's, that's what it feels like too often with him.

I mean, I think at this point there's enough sample size of, you know, we've seen who Kirk cousins is to start to wonder if this is truly who he is. And I know some people are going to say, well, I knew who he was in Washington. You're late on this. Maybe I am. Maybe I thought that, you know, him having probably the best roster off the bus, top to bottom in the NFC North would make a difference. Bringing in Kubiak, taking the pressure off him with Dalvin Cook healthy.

He's still got to win games. And I think if you look at Minnesota and LA when you're talking about weaknesses, those are two teams that have similar themes going on right now. They're quarterbacks that, and I would take off in a heartbeat over Cousins, but they're quarterbacks who are running systems that are predicated on the run game getting going. And yesterday was an example of when in Minnesota they can't get it going. And more weeks than not, Dalvin Cook will be able to pass the century mark with relative ease if they commit to running the football.

But when you play teams like the Bears, and there aren't many, but in the playoffs, that margin for error gets smaller. In L.A., everything was predicated on play action and that zone stuff. And their run game has not been able to get going, and that's what's concerning in L.A. You know, throwing the ball 60 times for Jared Goff, it's not sustainable. When you talk to Tampa Bay, you know,

they talk about their game plan was to force Goff to beat them, stop the run, and that's something they've done well defensively in Tampa. And Goff moved the ball a lot, but eventually he had enough bad misses and he wasn't seeing things underneath in coverage through a couple of picks. 60 is not sustainable for him. That's not a number you want to be at. No, it's a really good point. And I hate doing this because I know he's your guy, but when I watch Gurley, I mean, people that are holding

out hope, like, Oh, it's fine. They're just using him this way. They're limiting him. He's not the same guy. And it sucks to say that at 25 years old. But I'm, you know what I do sometimes? I'll watch guys that I wonder where they're at health-wise. I'll watch them after the play. I'll watch them how they get up.

I'll watch how they walk back. And, you know, he's five for 16 yards yesterday yeah and that's after not cracking i mean he had 97 in the first one everybody said he was back he had a bunch of catches yesterday so that's you know a little different but for a guy that you go okay he's the number one running back in the nfl and i'm i'm it bothers it bothers me because i think it's pretty obvious that he just doesn't look like he's ever going to be that guy. I don't know. Well, you worry about Todd's knee.

You certainly do. But there's a couple of factors that come into play here. Historically, the Rams, even when health wasn't as much of an issue for Todd, have gone away from the run game a little bit. And that's something that these new coaches who are really offensively inclined tend to do. I mean, the Atlanta playoff game, I think it was in 17 when Atlanta beat them. And then we had to buy and then they came and played us and we beat them.

The Rams really went away from that run game and it burned them. And then down the stretch last year, they sure could have used him. I don't know if it was health or what it was. And then down the stretch last year, they sure could have used him. I don't know if it was health or what it was. But, you know, last week when the Bucs played the Giants, I was watching Saquon Barkley before he got hurt. And I had a rooting interest because I took Saquon Barkley to rush for over 80 yards, and that was really stupid, and I lost money on that.

But they shut Saquon down. I mean, there was nothing going on the ground and I think that's a credit to Tampa. Also a credit to Tampa being up 21-0 in the second. So yeah, the girly thing is a poignant conversation, but I just don't think yesterday alone is kind of the example to cherry pick and say, well, this is why it looks bleak in the future for them in the run game. A culmination of factors, not committing to it, worries about his health. I think they miss Roger Saffold, who left for Tennessee up front. The entire thing's predicated on that run game. And I'm worried that if you're going to force Jared Goff to beat you, he's not going to beat you too many times against good football teams.

No, it's a good point off of the Tampa thing the week before. So because of that, I guess I will wait it out. Would you rather be then the Bears and their offensive problems? They lost Trubisky to an injury. Chase Deano comes in, they get the win. The defense is great again. This LA Rams thing, you could kind of see it it coming you know you you'd be watching the games and it was kind of funny the way they were talked about out here you know on 710 radio they'd be like all right they're undefeated but do you really feel

great about them and that's you know because it's a team coming off a super bowl appearance and i didn't feel great about them but they were still winning games so to see them give up that many points to jamis like that's a lot but to have them lose a game where they didn't look great or golf didn't look good like okay they're three and one not the end of the world who would you rather have as far as their flaw la's flaw with the uncertainty yeah i'd probably i'd probably rather have the bears and you were on this last week about la and you were like i'm i'm worried about them and i said i kind of shrugged that off i'm i am worried about LA, but I'm kind of worried about them. It's not golf. We knew golf has been a middle of the pack quarterback, and that's not a slight. There's a lot of great

quarterbacks in the league. But at the end of the day, if you can't run the football, it's too much on his shoulders. Same thing in Chicago. I'd like to see them commit to the run game a little bit more. Take pressure off. I guess it's going to be Chase Daniel, who out-dueled Cousins yesterday. It was like a duel on horse tranquilizers. But I think Daniel had three attempts over 15 yards, but he was accurate. Defensively, they were missing Smith and Hicks. I would rather be the Bears.

Their defense, I mean, they played with energy, man. And it wasn't like they had a lot of lead time knowing they were going to have to win a game with Chase Daniel on their center. Although some people would now at this point say, well, Chase Daniel looked pretty good. I'm not ready to call that a quarterback controversy, but I love their defense.

They were missing a few key guys yesterday, and they shut down, completely shut down, an NFL offense, which included Dalvin Cook in a big divisional matchup. That's going to win you more games down the stretch than making Jared Goff throw the ball 45 to 60 times in a game. And it doesn't look like LA has much of a defense either at this point when it comes to keeping the points down because as you look closer at their games, they got lit up a little bit against Carolina and they haven't been consistent.

How brutal is it when you're out there and it's just, you're like, they're going to score every time against us? I mean, I know that really well. You know, it's funny because I was looking at a stat and the Rams had, this was like the third most points they'd ever given up in franchise history. I guarantee you I was on the field for the first two. It's ugly.

I mean, you feel really small. In the Super Bowl against the Patriots in the second half, we couldn't get a stop to save our lives. And that can really put a lot of pressure on the offense. And that's why, listen, when your defense is giving up 54 points, you can't really make a complete assessment of the offense and vice versa. It's the reason why I think Chicago's defense is better than the Patriots' defense. Not only have they played better teams offensively, but the complementary football aspect of it, which is just the continuity of knowing we're not turning the ball over. We're going to possess the football. We've got Tom Brady.

At least we're going to be productive on offense, whereas in Chicago so so far you just don't know and for them to still look this good it really puts defenses under stress when the offense isn't moving the ball or productive or hanging on to it so that's why i think chicago's defense is better than new england's as a sidebar let's do a little story time um we have brought hip-hop artist Mike Jones back into the consciousness of people after last week's segment. Did he ever leave? I feel like he did a little bit because people needed to be, I don't know, I don't want to say awakened, but maybe reminded. And so I went back and listened to it. Yeah, yeah, totally.

And it's good. It's a good start to finish. So people were hitting us up yeah i was reading about him i was trying to figure out if he's going to get his cell phone number back all that stuff and then uh out of nowhere people were like hey do you know that mike jones is playing down the street from your house friday night and so i was like i have to i have to do this and then i realized you know what i don't know if i do want to do this so i was home and it was late and one of my buddies was there and he goes he still hasn't gone on yet dude i'm like are you serious i go i'd already ruled it out

like i wasn't gonna go he goes come on you have come on, you have to do this. You have to do this. So we went. And Mike Jones is not going to give in to the crowd because he didn't play any of the hits. You love it when an artist is confident enough to roll out their new stuff when everybody wants the old stuff. Yeah, I wanted Screw Dat. I wanted Flossin'. I wanted it all right um that's what i want i want some flossing he didn't play flossing

i may have missed it i may he may have been a song in by the time i showed up you may have called me at 6 30 AM East coast time on the phone. No, it was actually 9 30 AM East coast time. I'm sorry. Uh, and we had a full conversation. I was helping my children with breakfast. No, it was a good show. Very good show. So show went late, show went real late, real late. And so the the funny thing is is my buddy was like hey do you want to meet him and i go okay but i know you don't know him like you're just and this is kind of the whole protocol right and i go okay so you don't you don't know him and yeah i did kind of come down here and maybe we'll try to get him on the podcast at some point and so my friend

just like went up to the manager and was trying to like explain to him who i was which again you know i hey check this guy out he's got this podcast and then i just say hey look man i go it's it's me it's my friend chris long and we were talking about mike jones and it was unbelievable you guys are here this week and you know we'd love to maybe try to figure something out and have them on if that would help and he was like yeah no no problem no problem but what it led me to that's not really the story the story is more about the story was you name drop me which is not a it's not a strong name drop yeah but i was trying to explain it i was trying to explain it in a way like normally i wouldn't name drop you but i i figured there was a good chance he didn't know who the hell I was. So I thought, I don't think Mike Jones knows who I am either.

So my guess is going to be my guess is going to be no, he doesn't know. So here's the question, though. How do you handle or did you have to learn? Because I had to sort of learn, like, just because you had a guy on the show and you interviewed him for eight minutes, it doesn't mean you're going to be boys now the rest of your life. Yeah. I mean, for me, I never had a show, right?

So I'd play people on the field, and I'd run into buddies, like, wherever. But the problem is, like, a lot of times as football players, we're a little bit different. Like if a basketball player wants to walk up and talk to somebody like you could be, you know, the third guy off the bench on the Rockets and most people know who you are and what you look like. But as football players, if you don't play in a big market, if you don't play a big position and, you know, people don't watch the game closely you have a helmet on so for me i just assume usually nobody knows who the fuck i am which is a good assumption um but i've uh

i've had some some missteps where i've where i've overextended myself uh i the problem is i i'm i'm way too regular and so for me i'm like, this dude probably thinks he's regular too. It's not a big deal. If I see somebody in passing, I'm going to say, what's up? I'm not going to bother people. I'm not going to fanboy over shit. You know the Javon McGee story, right? No, which one was that?

Where were you? Javon McGee was, well, I was at Supper Club in LA, which is a nightclub. I don't do nightclubs a lot anymore, but I used to do nightclubs. And I had had a few too many patrons. And, you know, this was back in my gung-ho fantasy basketball days, which, by the way, I still play,

you need to help me draft my team again. Uh, and I ran into Javon McGee who had been getting buckets for me. I don't, I wouldn't say I ran into him because as I was walking by, I extended my hand for the dap, you know, drunkenly just in a hallway, like it's probably on the way to the bathroom. And I was like, Javon McGee getting buckets for my team. And, uh, and just dap, you know, hollow man dap, nobody on the other end. He just, he just walked by me. Like I was, uh, you know, like I wasn't there. And, uh, I learned my lesson then, like, just don't assume anybody knows who the fuck you are. It's not that I was assuming that he knew who I was. I just assumed that he cared about, you know, people who owned him in fantasy, which is also a mistake. Yeah, I don't think he would have cared about that.

And he's a tough one to figure because I don't know if he'd know who you were, right? He wouldn't. He wouldn't. And again, that's the thing. It's like. That's the lesson. You know, and this is when i was uh i was a dog but you know even at my peak there was there was no there's no name recognition there's definitely no facial recognition i think he

just thought i was like i get fast bender a lot he probably thought i was fast bender and he hadn't watched a lot of his movies yeah it's probably it's probably a fast bender and he hadn't watched a lot of his movies. Yeah. It's probably, it's probably a fast bender thing. Totally. It was a fast bender mix up. He didn't like, I used to do that when I was younger, when I was younger, I didn't, I, you know, it just, it took like a year or two where I go, Hey, yeah, this isn't like a lot of these dudes, they're not connecting with you. And you're, by the way, you're a lot older than a lot of these guys are still like take

it easy. And, you know, we had Dwayne bow on before the national title game in new orleans and you know lsu receiver had a nice career we were talking about watches because he was he was checking out mine i was checking out his we were talking it up and you know lsu guy dapped it up all good and then three weeks after i'm talking about watches yeah talking about watches talking about you know lsu and baton rouge the whole deal g-shocks g-shock yeah i'd be like man the g-shocks just they're not making them the same anymore um they just either that or we got older so then i saw him three weeks or so later and he was with

he may have been talking to ray lewis I went, hey, man, what's up? And he was like, motherfucker, step back. He didn't say that, but that was the look on his face. That was the vibe. It was like, are you fucking high, son? It's all good, man. It just wasn't media availability time for him the one the one that was bad for me was and this is somebody who i busted his balls about uh this was uh marcellus wiley who's the coolest dude ever but he i saw him at the bar i think

it was at the espies or something and i was talking to gary sheffield which was a big victory for me was gary sheffield knew who i was So I was very excited about that. And then Marcellus comes up and he's talking to Gary cause they know each other. And he called me Kyle at least seven times and you know, Gary and me are just going along with it. Uh, I I've, I've definitely gotten called Howie and Kyle a good deal. Um, so, so not only have I been absolutely big time by JaVale McGee, but I get the Kyle treatment a lot. In front of Gary Sheffield. Gary Sheffield, I remember that night because he was in the lobby

and I think he's a big time consumer of sports talk. Well, listen, there's first rule of Fight Club. You don't embarrass me in front of Gary Sheffield. I know. I wasn't going to do that. Is that what you thought I was doing? No, I know. Well, Marcellus did, but we talked it out.

Oh, Marcellus. Yeah, yeah. That's all right. Marcellus, that actually makes sense. I'm trying to think of another one. Oh, I went to go see Rick Ross, and this one wasn't great. Oh, boy. Yeah.

Sterling Sharp, who I don't know if you've ever met him. He couldn't be nicer to me in the two times that I've dealt with him, and he was really, really cool. And we were standing up front, and he was with Warren Sapp, and they had like a magnum of Belvedere. Seriously, I'm not even saying that because they're the sponsor. And Sterling looked at me. Well, that just worked out.

Yeah, Sterling just looked at me and was like, here you go. And then Sapp got like pissed just because I was standing there, and then a guy came over to say hi to me, and Sapp was like yelling at the guy and i was just like i got i was just like i don't know what to do here right now and then i told warren i was like no hey i met you i was at the saint jude's charity thing he's like i've never met you i'm like no we definitely we met you hosted the floor no but as soon as he says he hasn't met you you just accept that as gospel and move on or you could have name dropped me like you did to mike jones we weren't really buddies then but it was a i tried to like go no no no dude we we've met

i do know you you know me i i don't know you and i was like okay all right i was like no problem we're good it happens to the best of us i wasn't trying to talk him into it um but that's that's the thing is you just have to understand and the lesson for those listening right now is that the self-awareness thing is a really great great thing to have where you start to go. Oh, yeah. Because it happens. It happens to people on radio and TV and in sports. Like, I know buddies. I've seen plenty of teammates that geeked out, you know, because somebody was there. Like, you should have seen these guys on the Eagles when Kobe came to talk to the team. And Kobe couldn't have been nicer to everybody.

But guys were acting like teenagers, man. And I'm just watching. I'm like, don't get embarrassed. Don't get embarrassed don't get embarrassed alcohol is the thing that that messes it up for everybody though you know and right because you start thinking right you'll think like oh hey this guy will definitely want to talk to me yeah and fans don't and fans and players alike i guess when you fanboy out you know and meet somebody um they don't know when to exit.

That's the biggest. That's the number one rule of fan fight club is just know when the conversation is over. If you got nothing else to talk about, just keep it moving. Do you expect to become new friends with that player i don't expect to become new friends with joval mcgee i just wanted to tell him he he'd been doing great on my fantasy team he didn't give a shit and i knew it was time to move on fans can take a page from our book that's always the fascinating thing about um about van pell

is that if we've been out and you know it's been years since i've i've gone out gone out with him um based on schedules moving him having three kids uh but if people come up to talk to him he would he would talk to him the entire time so they could if they had two hours if they had two hours of of content he would be there for it and i would just be like dude you know you gotta tell that guy to bounce man like we all well you need friends you need friends that can swoop in you know i would try i would try safe word yeah yeah apple um apple apple uh gardner minshu um i i did um on a random note i saw ad astra this weekend oh yeah that's right you wanted me to do a movie review but i didn't have time with football this weekend but yeah i mean you're so busy right now um hanging out with mike jones

man i've never seen a movie that was so close to being good i'm not going to spoil anything a movie that was so close to being really really good but wasn't really it was remarkable yeah brad pitt was brad pitt so acting wasn't the issue and this isn't a spoiler they were narration heavy and some of the dialogue was really heavy-handed I don't know how you feel about heavy-handed dialogue I like my plot peeled back like an onion I don't know how you write your screenplays Ryan I just try to um you know I want it to feel real. That's, that's, that's my thing. Like, would that sound like something somebody would say? Okay. Yeah. It didn't sound real. And of course I don't know

what real is like in the future, but another detail in that movie, that's not a spoiler that absolutely sucked, uh, was that Brad Pitt drove a car to the airport to get on a commercial flight to the moon. Like that's not happening. Like by the time we have... Brad Pitt drove in a motor vehicle, like a standard car, not a flying car, not a floating car. There was no underground railroad system where like the trains like fucking hovering. There was no underground railroad system where the train's fucking hovering. You know how you picture 2060 being to the airport to board a commercial flight to Mars.

Huge oversight. Details like that really bother me. So I would say definitely worth seeing visually. It's a masterpiece, and there there were some cool themes and i look forward to your review my review was that i love space movies and i couldn't quite get behind this one i do like a good space movie but are you one of those guys though that hates inception or excuse me not inception interstellar no i love interstellar interstellar is one of my favorite movies yeah i like wasn't as high on the martian the martian's like a disney movie i read the book the martian and it's one of the first yeah mad damon um i had i had read the book because i was just trying to do something different right i've never read any science

fiction before although i'm reading a science fiction novel right now which has started off and it's really cool and it's not usually what i'm into but the martian i mean the guy that wrote the book all of it was based on like the science of trying to stay alive up there so he was like legitimately a botanist who was a brilliant guy but i think even he would admit that a lot of his jokes were pretty corny and they were corny in the book and they weren't real funny and then they just basically took those and made matt damon that guy and the the humor part of it i was like these are just you know like when you make the three's company joke 2017 like all right yeah we get it misunderstanding and you know everything happens at the end guy ate a ton of potatoes though tons of potatoes tons of starches but if you're solo on mars i'm having a panic

attack like the mental fortitude of just hanging out in your little fucking greenhouse like it had to be way grittier than that this dude was just way too even killed i know astronauts are just are otherworldly but um yeah i wasn't buying it. So Interstellar over The Martian with Ad Astra somewhere in between in my book. Oh, wow. So you have it above The Martian. Okay. Yeah, because it was such a tease. I was sitting there blown away at some portions. It really got good when he started to go to Neptune. That's all I'll say. Oh, okay. Neptune in the mix.

Yeah, Neptune is definitely in the mix. You know, we're kind of going down the space movie rabbit hole, which is enjoyable. But I don't think we've given enough credit to Sean Payton. I think we talked about all these games, and we talked about Dallas. And, you know, Hey, what about Dallas? How about the team that's been in it every year? The Saints losing a generational quarterback two weeks ago, having the Rams on the road, the Seahawks on the road, and then the Cowboys at home. If I'd have told you they'd be

two and one coming out of that and lose Drew Brees early in that game in LA, what would you have said? Yeah, no way. And especially when you think about how the Cowboys had been playing and then you still feel like having to go up to Seattle. Although that was such a ugly Seattle game from them where it made me kind of go, wait a minute, you know, Seattle's usually when they're missing that piece in the run game, they look different, don't they? Yeah. And it's, you know seattle's well when they're missing that piece in the run game they look different don't they yeah and it's you know they're they're a little bit like your chargers call earlier where i feel like there's just teams they never give up on or i always expect to be kind of good and maybe sneak into the playoffs and seattle's always that

team for me like there'll be times i'm like nope this guy i mean i think i was even arguing russell wilson for mvp two years ago you know? So I don't know what the Seattle one means. I mean, that's kind of where we're in, this stretch of what do these wins mean? Well, if Dallas is lighting everybody up offensively and you hold them to 10 points, I think that might be the great thing with this New Orleans team is that, yeah,

Teddy is a significant drop-off to Drew, but the Saints... But their defense is going to have to learn to win games. Yeah, right. And they, you know, And they flashed before, but nothing can sharpen a defense like having their backs football aspect of it. It's a double-edged sword. Like, yeah, you'd rather have Drew out there lighting it up and, um, you know, possessing the football, which they did. Um, they, they possessed the football. Well, 36 minutes last night. Um, but I wasn't sure what Kamara would do. Kamara's been good the last two weeks. He went for 89 last night, kept moving the chains late. And Zeke, who has more around him, accomplished less.

You know, Thomas was targeted nine times, nine catches. Sean Payton just found, like, different ways to win with this team. And Bridgewater, like, we all love Teddy. He's not a franchise quarterback. And that's no disrespect to him, but Sean Payton's been able to manage him. And I'm just, I'm blown away. Like, you know, before this started,

I doubted that they'd get out of this thing in a position where Drew could come back and they'd have home field and this, that, and the third. But it's not out of the question. I mean, the rest of their season, they have two more teams with winning records that they got to play. That's the Bears of the question. I mean, the rest of their season, they have two more teams with winning records that they got to play. That's the Bears and the Niners.

So, I mean, like, it's all there for them. The question is, when Drew comes back, is he truly healthy or is he like NFL healthy where they say six to eight weeks and you come back and you're not quite there? So, we'll see. I don't know what the implications are, but I think that if they keep winning

the sky's still the limit for them yeah you point out the rest of that schedule um but you had that injury did we already talk about this injury with you which one you had it because that's a really good point oh yeah healthier NFL healthy so what you know yeah no I mean like you could probably, have you had any surgeries? I'm not even being a dick. No, I just,

I've declined every time I've had to have something. I just said, is it mandatory? And they're like, no. I was like, okay, not doing it.

Like when I broke my finger, I got that hammer finger thing and that celebrity. Oh, the hammer finger, huh? Yeah. Yeah. You got the hammer finger thing. Yeah. Richie, the hammer finger, huh? Yeah. Yeah. You got the hammer finger thing?

Yeah. Richie, John, I think John Richie was like, oh, it's hammer finger. I was like, what? What's that? He's like, your fingertip shattered. I was like, is it? And then I went in and that was after I asked out Meghan Markle. You asked her out?

No, no. It's a joke. There may have been a DM, but then i don't know what happened to her um oh my god you dm megan markle okay this is a whole another i want to go down this this rabbit hole too but i mean like yeah i mean drew's no we were teammates what did you say and we got along and it was like hey you know you ever want to come on the show and talk about your show suits she was like oh she's like what's your show about i was like i played a lot of pickup basketball i declined surgeries unless they're absolutely necessary uh when i get an x-ray on the finger they were like hey it's

basically like stitching a eggshell back together like we could maybe do it but it's probably not going to work so i go so you have to cut my finger open and then try to sew these shattered bones back together he's like yeah i go i'm out no thanks yeah it doesn't make sense like surgery doesn't always make sense and in the nfl it makes more sense because you're trying to have things heal in an abbreviated time frame now i can't tell you for sure if his injury to his thumb i think it was gamekeepers um needed surgery if he were just a civilian if you could just rehab that but um you know i have a plate in my hand because marshawn lynch exploded my thumb joint i was trying to arm tackle him I was engaged in a block by the way in this fourth quarter of a fucking meaningless week 17 game

and uh they put screws in and um the screws were like external screws so you could like see them outside my hand and I go to the bar and like people were trying to get me to this bar trick where I'd bend the screws. Uh, so that didn't work out well. And then, um, I actually had to have a second surgery because my, my hand was completely arthritic and there was no joint left. So they put a plate in there, but I can tell you that thumb injuries change the way you do everything. And, um, for a quarterback who's north of 40, I'm not saying I doubt it. He's going to have the best of everything, rehab, you know, et cetera. He's not going to be in the bar bending his screws. Probably not. But he is a quarterback who's

going to come in and have to contend with the timing thing. He's never really had to deal with this. I don't think where he's come back late in the season from an extended time frame recovery. Is he going to be able to feel the timing simultaneously with getting a feel for the ball again? It says six to eight weeks, but it could be one of those things that you're not going to feel right for 10 to 12 weeks. That's usually how it goes in the NFL. They put out a six to eight week number and it's more of a carrot for the player as much as anything. And also sometimes they say that, and that just means the, the tissue is structurally safe, which doesn't mean it's safe to go play football or that you're going to be this, you're going to be, have the same effectiveness. So I think it's a big question mark for them.

I'm surprised that Teddy's played as mistake-free as he has and that they found ways to win special teams in the Seattle game. Obviously, they're well-coached. They picked up that fumble. I mean, I know that was a coaching point, right? Remember the Rams game? You know, the Cam Jordan sack that should have been a touchdown? Yeah.

Sean knows that this is going to come up the next week and they're going to let plays play out. And I guarantee you he had a whole meeting about that and his guys were on top of it, picked up a fumble in that Seattle game that everybody thought was dead and went and scored with it. They scored on special teams. And then last night they won with defense. So they beat the Cowboys with four field goals

so at the end of the day sean deserves a lot of credit and i was maybe a little bit uh premature on on sinking them um you know with this drew hiatus the defense is such a big part of this man so um and sometimes them and look the defense was i don't know if off the top of my head statistically what they were last year but i thought they were good right um i'll have to and sometimes them. And look, the defense was, I don't know off the top of my head statistically what they were last year, but I thought they were good, right? I'll have to look it up. They're one of those things that, like,

historically your confirmation bias is like, the Saints defense is a problem. You know, like, you can't, you just remember them as not being great. I mean, the Spagnola years there were historically bad. And generally, you're always thinking of Drew Brees throwing the ball around 40 times and some of those wild NFC South games that we've gotten used to.

But the NFC South looks way different now, and their defense is pretty good. Yeah, and if I'm looking at the DVOA stuff right now for New Orleans, now that doesn't have week four in there, but they're one of the worst defenses in the league. Last year, they were 11th. Yeah, year they were 11th yeah so they're 11th so that makes sense I know you have one last thing and the shout outs that you want to get to here before we uh call it a day oh yeah I mean we really didn't get into the the bills and and and what their weakness is it seems like they're one player away and unfortunately it could be the quarterback.

But at the same time, it's a good news, bad news thing, because as you look at it, who's the most ready to compete in that division when Tom retires, whenever that is? It seems like the Bills have built the best team. Part of that team is obviously somebody who's not going to presumably be around the next three to five years, but who's ageless, and everybody loves him is Frank Gore and somebody who I played a lot in those years in St. Louis when he was in San Francisco. Somebody you just respect a great deal. Just past the 15,000 yard mark and I don't know how much you track that

stuff. The big question right now is, is there going to be ever another 15 000 yard rusher i mean is he the last one it's a really great question because you know at first you're like well wait a minute why would that happen i remember you know when cc sabathia's first six or seven years of his career they were like he might be the only one that has a chance of 300 wins and then you know that's that's done i don't think there'll ever be another 300-game winner in baseball, especially with the way they take everybody out now all the time. And I think it's a great call on Frank Gore. He's fourth now.

Emmitt's at 18, 355. Walter Payton's 16,700. Barry Sanders is 15,200. Gore's just at 15,000. And the only other active names on the all-time rushing list are peterson he's at 13 000 but you know and ingram it's like are shady is it shady next yeah leshawn is uh 23rd i mean leshawn's got 10 000 yards that's almost 11 000 yards for his career wow but you can't see him getting another 5,000.

I mean, this year he's going to pick up. I mean, last year he had a really rough year in Buffalo, and here comes Gore with the same surroundings, more or less. Now, granted, that offense has made leaps and bounds, improvements over the past 8 to know, eight to 12 games. Brian Dable, who came from New England, has done a great job. And part of why they came on the second half for just one possession, it looked pretty good. Allen's got to get rid of the ball quicker. That's a whole nother topic. But Frank Gore comes in the same situation. He's, he's a guy who could be a thousand yard

rusher at 36 in his 14th year. I went back and looked at who had the best 14th years, uh, in NFL history. I think Riggins and Allen both had about 800 yards plus in their 14th years, respectively. And this, this might be more impressive when you look at the offense around him and the age in which he plays. He's such an outlier. He's also been good on four teams. I mean, Miami and Indy, you could argue that there were moments where he wasn't himself, but he was very productive. Obviously, San Francisco made a lot of hay doing that, productive. Obviously, San Francisco made a lot of hay doing that, running the ball there. Four teams, consistent, a guy that never gets into trouble, a guy that's a great teammate, a guy that is the last of a dying breed, and that's a true power back in the NFL who's playing

well into his 30s. And yeah, I think he's going to be the last to ever get 15,000 yards. playing well into his 30s and yeah i think he's going to be the last to ever get 15 000 yards yeah i can't find anybody else here where i go you know who's going to be putting up these kinds of numbers consistently for like 12 years you know i don't see it i don't see it you know mark ingram's it i mean mark ingram's 76 overall, and he's been in the league since 2011, and he has 6,300 yards. Like, give me a break, you know? Yeah, and it's going to get, it's like, for instance, okay, so if you look at like a stat like sacks, now with the way, you know, the game is going, that stat's going to be easier to crack the top 50 or 100 with you know the way the league's changed in the past five to ten years where this is the opposite it's really going to be hard to be given enough carries and have enough longevity and fight that stereotype that

which I think is oftentimes misguided that running backs are dead at 30. So it's going to be a challenge. You can follow me at Ryan A. Russillo. You can follow Chris Long at Joel91. And we'll be back again next Monday, and I'll be here Wednesday and Friday for the Russillo podcast on the ringer. Thank you.