Transcript of An OKC-Houston Slugfest, MJ on NBC, and a Seven-Week NFL Awards Draft With Danny Kelly, Danny Heifetz, and Craig Horlbeck

The Bill Simmons podcast brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. We are also brought to you by The Ringer podcast Network. I put up a new rewatchable on Monday night. It was the last episode of Redford Month. We did quiz show, a movie that he directed. It was me and Brian Koppelman, so you can find that wherever you get your pots, preferably on Spotify. Also, Prestige TV, we broke down the last episode of Task. Is it the season? Is it the series? I guess it's just the season. We will find out. But it was me and Joanne Robinson and Rob Mahoney talking about that. On theringer. Com, we did a bunch of basketball stuff this week. We have a bunch of basketball podcasts, and we're about to talk basketball at the top of this podcast. I had the shrewd idea, veteran experience, because we have a full podcast. We did a whole football thing, me, Danny Kelly, Danny Hyfe, it's Craig Korebeck. We handed out some after seven weeks awards. We came up with a dopey draft gimmick that was really fun, actually, and basically broke down the whole season. It could have been its own podcast, but something in my head was like, OKC versus Houston.

We should wait to see what happens in this game, and maybe that could be the lead of my podcast. So my instincts were correct. The veteran, Bill Simmons, he's seen some things in his day. Anyway, we're going to talk about that at the top, and then a big, big football After seven weeks, I don't even know what the gimmick is that we did, that you would call it, but I had a really good time. It's all next. We'll take a break. Then, Pearl. This is the Bill Simmons podcast presented by FanDuel. If you're betting on the NFL, come on. Fanduel is the place to do it. They've got everything. Same game parlays, quick bets for when you want to jump in live. Your way, so you can set your own lines on just about anything. The app's fast, it's easy to use, best of all. When you win, you get paid instantly. I've been in Boston, Massachusetts, recently. Guess what I did? Use Fandle. Super fun. Download the Fandle app or go to fandle. Com/bs to get started. Must be 21 plus President Select States, 18 plus in DC, Kentucky, and Wyoming. Get in a promo call, win a 100, gambler.

Visit rg-help. Com. Call 888-789-777 or visit ccpg. Org/chat in Connecticut. All right. Okc versus Houston was the first game tonight. It was on MBC, so was Warriors-Lakers, which is happening right now as I'm recording this because I'm recording after the OKC Houston game. Listen, we've seen a million Warriors games. We've seen the Lakers without LeBron. We know what we're getting from that game. We did not know what we were getting from OKC Houston. And what we got was an absolute masterpiece, double overtime. Houston had chances in regulation. Okc tied it with two seconds left. Sga just went into MVP kick-ass mode down the stretch there. Okc and OT had big leads, started missing threes, missed a cruce of dunk. Houston comes back. Tie game. Kd does the Chris Webber timeout. We don't call it. We're going to double OT. And then SGA just took over. And then all of a sudden, he didn't because Schengen hit this runner and Houston was up. And then the last position in the game, SGA on the side, KD guard him. He does this triple spin thing, gets KD to foul, makes both free throws, and OKC wins the game.

We're about to break it down on a very special segment. Look at this. I got some Mikolo Bultra is next to me. We're going to open a six-pack. This episode is brought to you by Mikolo Bultra, the official beer partner of the NBA. As the NBA season starts, one of the big questions I had was, what's up with this Houston team? They're on a point guard. They have all this size. Who is going to be the guy they go to at the end of games? Well, this game, they lost. They lost in double OT, but it felt like a win for them. I went under for them on the 52 and a half. The first thing I wanted to do out of my six-pack, I felt like Houston... I know Jalen Williams wasn't in there. You have to mention that. There was no Jalen Williams. It was basically only SGA controlling the ball in the fourth quarter in both overtimes. But the piece that I thought stood out to me. I was like, I've gotten into the UFC the last seven, eight years, and sometimes it'll be two takedown artists going against each other, and it becomes a battle of who is actually better at this one thing.

You have OKC. They want chaos, they want disorder, and they want everything to run through SG at the end of the games, but they just want this chaotic. They're pressing, they're all over the place, defense, athleticism. Then Houston's basically going, Yeah, we like that, too, but we're just going this giant team of guys. They're starting lineup, average 6'10. They had size, they had defense, they had power, and the rebounds. At one point, they were plus 12 in rebounds. But they were basically like, We're going to try to do what you guys do, except who are much bigger and we have some really goofy one-on-one stuff we can do beyond what you guys have with SGA and Jalen Williams when it comes back. So they have Ahmed Thompson at the top, just trying to beat people off the dribble. They have KD, obviously. Jibari Smith, who I thought looked really good. And then Schengen, who was one of the big sleepers heading in the season with the Eurobasket, where he just was awesome. And it was a real question of, where do we put this guy? Well, he was toe to toe with everything. I think, I I don't want to overreact after one game.

I'm really trying hard not to... I'm taking a lot of overreaction medication, just trying to chill out, watch these games and not think too much. But I really wanted to see over everything else with this first batch of games, what is he going to look like without a point guard? Can they do this? Can they take turns just bringing the ball up? Can they get into their offense? The answer is they could. I thought Thompson looked like he went up a level. Of course, he gave so much on offense and on defense, guarding Shay, running a lot of plays, getting to the basket. He was the crunch time guy at the end of regulation, over and over again, getting to the rim. Then his body gave out. He had crampss, and they wisely sat him for the rest of the game, which I think was a good move. But He went up a level. Schengen went up a level. Djabari went up a level. There's going to be games where teams just pressure them, try to put Miles on them, try to make it hard for them to get in their offense. We saw it a bunch of times in this one, especially with Reid Sheppard, who we'll go into in a second.

But they convinced me tonight that they just bring so many things to the table that this one glaring flaw they have. I think guards matter. I don't think that's a take. We see this over and over again, especially on the road. Somebody has settled on offense, somebody run pick and roll, somebody guard the best guard in the other team. There's a million reasons why we are not going to have a championship team that just doesn't have a guard. You're always going to need one. But Houston's like, We're going to patch this together and this might just work for us. And tonight, I thought their ceiling was a little higher than maybe I was anticipating. I think the over-under was 52. 5. After what I saw at a night, it's a little bit of health dependent with KD, but man, with the Schengen and Thompson both going up a level, which they clearly did. That was my first takeaway. I'm taking this team more seriously than I did 48 hours ago. I think you look at the West, I had okay seeing Denver at the top. I had Minnesota and the Clippers right underneath them. Then Houston, they're probably in that five spot.

But then San Antonio is lurking. Then you have Dallas and there's another West I'm just Golden State. It was just a question of who is going to actually go up a level. I didn't think Houston could do without Van Biet, but maybe they can. I'm at least inviting the possibility that this might be a mid-50s win team. That's my first takeaway. I've just changed mentally where I had this team in my head. Second one, you had Chet, you had Ahmed Thompson, you had Shungun in this game today. Chet had the big first quarter and, of course, fouled out, but looked like the healthy version of what we were seeing down the stretch last year. I had him as a top 20 guy. So top nine, Joker, SGA, Giannis, Luca, Wembe, and then Mitchell, Brunson, Curry. That's got to be your top nine in some order. The next group had Cade and J-Dub and AD and Palo and KD and Booker and Towns Chet in some order. The question for Chet is, and I probably have Chet high. I don't even think some people would have him 18. But the question for Chet is, can he start climbing up that ladder?

I had Thompson in the high 20s, and I had Schengen in the hop 20s when we did our Ringer 100. The Schengen thing, I already am revising in my head because he looked like a top 20 guy tonight. O'keecey was trying all kinds of different things, especially they settled on just Caruso, just pointing himself right in his chest. And Schengen figured out all these different ways to exploit that. And on top of that, he had five threes. If he went up a level and Thompson went up a level, I just think they have to be considered a real contender regardless of the Van Buit thing. And they can always fix that at the trade deadline. Chet, we'll see. Did some good stuff, but I thought the big winners of today, Thompson's two-way stuff, the stuff he did against SGA for three quarters was ridiculous. And the fact that he was getting his offense a little more, that started last year. I'm trying to get into the basket. But all right, that's enough nerdy basketball stuff for you. Next thing on the six-pack, Reid Sheppard. So we were thinking maybe this guy was going to be the next Mark Price.

Look, it's one bad game, and he's going against probably the worst possible team for him to play. He's the opening night. It's NBC. He's going against SGA. He's going against Dourt and Caruso and Caeson Wallace. This is a nightmare team with some pressure on him. They need him because he's the only actual guard who can get them into their offense, who can run little pick and rolls for them, who could beat guys off to dribble and kick back out and things like that. He was awful. We were thinking that maybe he could be the next Mark Price. He looked like Brent Price today. I actually was texting House about how I can't wait to see Reid Sheppard on the Wizards. He's like, We had him. He was Brent Price. They need him to be, need us to say, way better than he was today because they actually They need him. They need some point guard. If it's not him, they're going to have to go trade for somebody and make some moves. But he was relentlessly targeted on defense. He just got, I thought, demolished by Wallace in a couple of points this game. He would get heat checky sometimes, and it was inappropriate because it was both he was playing terrible, but also had a lot of confidence, which I didn't mind.

But it was really rough. He's the guy to on this team. I feel good about everything else that they have. We'll see with KD at age 37, how he ages over the course of the year, how many games he misses. But I think Sheppard, these first 20 games, can they build him up? Can they shade him more toward Mark Price and less toward Brent Price? Would be the thing I want to watch. I can't imagine the way he looked tonight. That can't be somebody you rely on in a playoff series, I don't think. That is my third take for the six-pack. The fourth one, the NBA and MBC. We were back. It was a great day around Roundball Rock. It was a kinder, gentler, happier coverage of the NBA, of the National Basketball Association. Just pleasant, very reminiscent of their Sunday Night Football in America, which is just basically a big love letter to the NFL. This is something that I think was very important to the NBA as they went into these meteorite things where you had the TNT guys, really critical, which I support, but really critical of of the league the last couple of years.

And then the ESPN guys, we don't have to talk about ESPN, the first takeization of how they treat the NBA. So the NBA was just like a pleasant hang with a song that we like. And what's interesting is, Roundball Rock was underrated, then it became properly rated. And then over the last year when the NBA got basketball, I was like, Oh, my God, we're going to get Roundball Rock back. And it actually became overrated. I was like, all right, Roundball Rock's fine. It's not this amazing. We don't talk about it all the time. Then it started and it was like, This is the best. I love it. I love Roundball Rock. It was great to have Mike. Good to have Mike Torrico back call on Basketball. I thought Jamal Crawford was fine. The thing I liked about him in a three-man booth, you need somebody to lay out and not try to get off too many shots. I thought he found a nice little balance and actually had some decent points. Then Reggie Miller was Reggie Miller. He did have his first argument with himself in overtime. So that was the official start of the season.

He thought Jabara Smith traveled and moved his pivot foot, and then they showed the replay. He's like, He moved his pivot foot, and then they show it and he didn't. He's like, he didn't move his pivot foot. I think he invented that. The self-argument during a broadcast is a Reggie Miller staple. The weird thing, though, it really struck me today that TNT doesn't have the NBA. We think about every opening night with this massive Barclays show for an hour beforehand, then the rings. It felt like our entire lives, that was the opening. I know it was probably 22, 23 years, but it was really notable how different it was for the opening night. It almost didn't feel like opening night. Then the game started and it did. But yeah, R-I-P-T-N-T, and welcome aboard Roundball Rock. We'll see how it goes this season. Speaking of MBC, fifth thing for the the 6-Pack. They had this Michael Jordan thing. They've been playing it up a lot. They called it Degrees of Excellence or Insights in Excellence or something. It basically just turned out to be an interview with Mike Torrico that they probably filmed for two hours and they're just going to cut segments out of.

I can't think of a single thing that happened during the halftime thing, but it's riveting to watch Michael Jordan. I realized it doesn't really matter what he says. His insights, his observations, his thoughts about the league, it just doesn't matter because anything he says, I'm captivated. He told some story about he run in a house and there was a basketball career. I didn't even know what happened. I was nodding like, Yeah, this is great, Michael Jordan. I think the next one, he's going to come back and just be like, Yeah, I went to dinner last night. I ordered a steak. I got it medium rare. I had two glasses of Pinot Noir, and then I paid the check. Then they're like, That was Insights of Excellence from Michael Jordan. I'm like, That was great. Could watch him talk about anything. He might be the first person who's ever been on a pregame halftime show where I literally don't care what he says. I just like having him around. It's just nice to have MJ aboard. Congratulations, MBC. Last one. Okc, their fans booed Kevin Durant lustily again. He left nine years ago. Think about how long that was.

That was like, if you take nine years and then add another seven. That was the last time the Yankees won the World Series. That's how long ago, nine years ago is. Nine years ago, I had... Did I still have a show on HBO? No, they might have canceled it by then. But yeah, nine years ago, really long time. The Ringer is 10 years old, and they're still booing him, and they still hate his guts. On the one hand, I love it because I love the real fans, and that's just how they feel. I would never tell them not to feel that way, But on the other hand, it's been nine years, and they have a new team, and they won the title last year, and SGA is now the best player in the history of the city. And at some point, this is starting to feel petty. There might be more things going on, quotes that KD said over the years that I missed, but it made me think like, they're just never going to forgive them. And I totally get it because I felt the same way about Roger Clemens, which I think my second or third piece for Page 2 on ESPN was called Roger Clemens as the Antichrist.

And Roger Clemens was even in the booth last year for Nesson for a Red Sox game. It was either this year or last year. And I was just pissed off that they even let him in the booth. And this was a guy who left the Red Sox in 1996, almost 30 years ago. And I'm still mad about it. So I get it. Listen, I'm not one to judge, but I just want to point out, he did have an awesome nine years there, and they did win the title. And if there was ever a time they were going to be like, You know what? You've had a great career. Let's let bygones be bygones. It would have been tonight, but it wasn't. So this is just the way it's going to be forever, I guess. They're always going to hate him. And it made me think like, and I think I've talked about this before, but this really banged it home. I always thought he was going to work it out with the OKC. Like Cleveland forgave LeBron. Lebron's at a different level than KD. But for the most part, you always feel like it's eventually people get older, they forget, they don't remember why they're mad.

And then, I mean, John Skipper was on this podcast once. As time passes, you forget why you had animosity for things. But I don't think it's ever going to happen with this. So if he's never going to be in good graces in OKC, and I don't think it's going to happen with the Warriors either, definitely not Brooklyn, no way in Phoenix. So you have this situation where he might retire and just not belong to any team. And I really genuinely thought it would be like years later, be like, okay, so you'd be like, all right, fine. We had nine great years. You win the MVP here. You're a great story. We'll take you But he might never happen. This happened with Clemens. I don't know what Clemens all these years later is Clemens belong to the Red Sox, the Astros, the Yankee, Blue Jays, like nothing. But he's a Hall of Famer. He's one of the best pitchers of the last 50 years and he made a ton of money, and maybe that's all that matters. Kd signed this new extension, and now he has the money record. He's made almost $600 million. It's the most money any basketball player has ever made.

I guess I guess he's going to have to settle for that. But unless this Houston thing goes fantastic and he ends up being a guy in Houston, he's just not going to have a place to go back to after he retires. And I do think that's mildly important. I see with the Celtics all the time. When people like Antoine Walker come back and lustily cheered, everybody that's ever had a meaningful moment with the Celtics that I can think of, they've been able to come back. And I don't think this was ever going to happen with KD and OKC. So it just struck me the night like, wow, this is forever. That's it for the six-pack. That's all I got for you. A lot of observations from one game, and we have 82 games for every team. This is the first game in the air, but a lot of moments are worth playing for. The ones that taste best or serve cold. And whatever happens this season, catch every moment with Mikola Bultra, the official beer partner of the NBA. They're getting fans close to the game with the chance to win courtside seats A trip to All Star Week, and custom merch, and much more.

Mikola Bultra, superior, is worth playing for. Enter now at McLeoBultra. Com/courtside. Mcleo Bultra Courtside 2025 to 2026. No purchase necessary. Open US Residence, 21 plus. Begins on October first, 2025, so it already began. Ends on June 30th, 2026. Multiple entry periods. See official rules at McLeoBultra. Com/courtside for free entry, entry deadlines, prizes, and details. We'll have more basketball coming up on Thursday's pod. We're going to take a break. Come back, and we're going to talk a lot of big picture football angles with a little draft with the fantasy guys Danny, Danny, and Craig, up next. The Bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Basketball is back. Fanduel is putting you in control right from tip-off. Every day, it starts the season, you get to choose your award. Play it safe, go for a Feeling Bold, that's your move. Whatever your style, you're in control. So what better are you? If you look at those Wednesday night games, I really like Charlotte at home against Brooklyn, parlayed with Milwaukee at home against Washington. Kind of like that Charlotte team is being a little frisky. I like Milwaukee as a playoff team, and I think Washington and Brooklyn are going to be two of the three worst teams in the league.

You parlayed that together, it's almost even us. Knock yourself out. Have a great time. However you play, FanDuel is giving you the power to choose your award and own your game every single day to start the NBA season. Here's what you got to do. Head to fanduel. Com/bs to make your choice. Must be 21 plus President, select states, or 18 plus and present in DC, Kentucky, or Wyoming. Opt in, Rewards are non-metrable. Restrictions apply, including bonus and token expiration leg requirements and max wager amount. See terms at sportsbook. Fanduel. Com. Game problem, call 1-800. Gamble or visit rg-help. Com. Call 1-888 789-777, or visit ccpg. Org/chat in Connecticut. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Having insurance isn't the same as having State Farm. It's like expecting the leadership of a team captain on the football field. But getting a sea captain? Sure, they're both captains, but who's going to run your offense? You wouldn't settle for just anything for your team, so don't settle for just any insurance. When it comes to getting the help you need, State Farm is the real deal. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. All right, we're taping this on a Tuesday afternoon.

All the Ringer people are in town, including our fantasy football guys. So we get together before the season. We do the buy guy fantasy draft. Some losers that we had in that one. Man, some And winners, too. Agbuka.

Yeah. Jsn.

Jsn. Who else did we have? What else did we feel good about?

Mccaffrey was good.

Oh, yeah. Did anybody like Taylor? No. Who's been probably the best guy?

I feel like we whift on that one.

I have a league where I have Bauer's Tyreek Hill and Mike Evans, who made this amazing catch yesterday, dropped the ball, rolled over and died for five minutes.

It was awful. The rare broken shoulder and concussion in the same place.

It was just like, is he going to get up? Yeah. All right, we're going to talk about the NFL season. We have a really dumb gimmick draft that we're going to do. But before we did that, Danny Kelly, your Seattle Seahawks. We were the only ones. You don't want to talk about it.

I thought you were going to bring The Mariniers, yeah.

How you're up the Mariniers. How you got three-one in the seventh binning to go to the World Series for the first time.

Yeah, we don't need to talk about that.

Third and second, you pitched a George Springer, who has 22 postseason home runs, now 23. Now, I'm not going to bring that up. That What a magical ride for the Mariniers.

It was fun. I will say that. It was a really fun playoff run. I mean, it's going to be memorable in the team lore and everything like that. Definitely brutal to end that way, but so many great memories. The Suarez Grand Slam the other day. I went to that 15-inning game.

He's still shaking. It's like, man.

But yeah, I was like, he was at the 15-inning game, which is awesome. They should have gone after Springer's other knee. That was the problem, I think. I know.

It had to be Springer, didn't it?

He was actually pissed about the Ohtani, the best baseball game ever played because he felt like it overshadowed the Mariner.

His best baseball game, yeah. That makes sense. Well, I thought if it was going to be a one-run game in game seven, I thought Mariner's every time with the Blue Jay's bullpen and the whole thing, but somehow it didn't work out. Tough one. The two expansion teams. I'm old enough to remember when they joined the league in 1976. It's like, look at these two clowns, Toronto and Seattle. What the hell are they going to do? But yeah, so That was the closest you've come.

Yeah, the only team now in the majors have not been to the World Series.

I really thought you had a better team. What do I know? Well, on the bright side, the Seattle Seahawks, the team that we were both high on heading into the season. I think even Mina, I don't feel like she gets to jump on the bandwagon for this.

I feel like she was pretty positive, generally speaking.

Yeah, pretty positive.

We were not as confident on the Darnold thing, I think, even though I thought the Seahawks defense is going to be really good.

Well, they're five and two in Plus 270 odds for the division. Is that our best division, NFC West? Because the Cardinals are probably the best two and five or under team. They've been in a lot of these games.

Yeah, I would say so.

Let's see the AFC West, maybe.

If Perset's playing, it's the best division in football. Kyler, three for four is not bad.

What's been the biggest surprise for seven weeks for you, non-giant related?

I mean, non-Giants related, still Giants related. Daniel Jones being six one and just looking... I mean, the Giants released Daniel Jones 11 months ago, and he just is six and one. I rooted for Daniel Jones for six seasons. Nobody said anything nice about him that wasn't a Giants fan for six years. I could keep waiting for just a flood of public apologies from everybody. But Daniel Jones looks like a completely different player in some ways.

I don't understand how he's so accurate now. Was he accurate on the Giants? How do you explain that?

I'm a big believer that I think there's a certain group of quarterbacks that had injuries that weren't quite the same after the injury. We don't talk about him that way. Carson Wentz after the ACL, and he had a bad concussion with the Eagles and then was never the same. Marcus Marota had a nerve injury to his throwing arm. No one talks about it that way. Jones had not just a knee injury, but a neck injury, and his deep walls, his arm strength, everything was totally sapped, combined with just bad production and all this stuff that... I used to joke that I would be worried about him walking through Hoboken. I thought he'd get hit by a cab. He had no pocket awareness, couldn't see anything around him. But I think he's actually a lot like Darnold, where you look at Darnold, and even four or five years ago, he's bouncing around the Vikings, the Niners, the Panthers. Sometimes a guy like Jaden Daniels, it feels like the game is slowed down for him in two weeks. I think Daniel Jones this year is like Darnold last year, where it took six years, but the game is slower for him, and you can tell that he just sees receivers later in the play, and he's not losing track of what's happening on the field, even four or five seconds in the play.

That all sounds great, Craig, but it's Daniel Jones. At some point, this makes no sense.

We said that about Darnold, and he's doing it again. I think at a certain point, if the fit is right, the fit is right. Also, these guys are wide open on the cold. Tyler Warren, there's never anybody within five yards. What Steigen is doing. Steigen, there's a reason why he's the leading candidate for Coach of the Year. It's just all working. The line is working, everyone's open, and Daniel Jones is competent enough to do all that.

Yeah, I was shocked. I said this to Sal Sunday night. You have them second and 10, and you just feel like they're getting 8-9 yards. It's just guaranteed that somebody's going to be wide open or Taylor is going to slash through.

All their pieces work, too. They have their deep threat guy with Alec pierce, who's good. You have Tyler Warren, who's this big tight end. Michael Pitman is good on the outside. Josh Downs is an overqualified slot wide receiver. Jonathan Taylor is the best running back in the lead. The line is good.

They could run, they could pass. It's an argument also for stability and keeping the GM. I think Chris Ballard was one of the GMs that people were maybe going to be out of. He wouldn't pick a quarterback. Richardson bombed out. There's a world where Chris Ballard gets fired at the end of last season. They keep him and you're like, oh, all these players who are balling out are homegrown players. The lines homegrown, the players.

The weirdest part is that it was reportedly a tough QB competition in August between Richardson Daniel Jones. Apparently, it was tight. How is that possible?

Weird stuff happens.

I think they were lying.

Yeah, I think they were lying because they jumped on Jones pretty quickly.

Why? To make Richardson feel better? To make Daniel Jones work harder?

I think the idea was Daniel Jones was like, they were just supposed to make Richardson jealous, and they were just as shocked as anybody that it's working this well. I think that's one of the reasons the Titans fired Brian Callahan is I'm sure the Titans out on their list should be signed Daniel Jones and have him compete with Cam Ward. And the Titans, Brian Callahan probably said, No, he's no good. And now he's leading the cults, the 6-1 record. All these teams could add him.

Can you blame Callahan, though? I feel like most teams would say that. The culture is in a terrible situation. He was so good.

He was so good. He signed with the Vikings during last season, and nobody was like, Oh, savvy. Smart move.

Example, 7,691 in the NFL. That success in the NFL is really hard to explain. And even the Ravens took a tight end before Lamar Jackson in the draft. Even the teams themselves sometimes don't have any clue how successful something will be.

The craziest thing to me about Daniel Jones is, like Heifetz was talking about, he was worried about him crossing the street because he just didn't have the pocket awareness. Daniel Jones has taken very few sacs.

At least in the league, I believe, percentage-wise.

I want to say I saw a stat the other day that they haven't taken any sacks on third or fourth down this year, which is incredible for a guy like Daniel Jones. I never would have guessed that for Dave Jones.

I know we have a whole category thing to do here. The term deer in the headlights is overused, but it actually is applicable because what actually happens to a deer is the eyes are really adjusted to the darkness, and then the headlights are the brightest thing possible. So the reason the deer freezes is.

I'm having the scientific No, but I'm serious.

But it's just you in the bathroom, and now you wake up and you turn the lights on, you're like, oh. You're a deer in the headlights. That's it. It literally takes your eyes time to adjust to the light. That's pressure in the NFL. You see the pressure and everything just... It's that moment in the bathroom between the morning, you just can't see anything. When Darnal, it does feel like sometimes the light comes on in their head, but really, they just aren't... Their eyes are adjusting to pressure and they're able to see a pass rusher and they don't lose track of like, Oh, there's Michael Pitt on a cornerback four inches shorter than him, and he gets in the ball.

That's why you don't turn the lights on when you pee in the middle of the night. You got to just keep them off.

He sits down while he pees.

I do. In the middle of the night, you got to sit down and pee.

I've heard you talk about this in the pie. Is this a bit or do you actually do this?

No, of course. You're standing and peeing at 2: 00 in the morning?

Is it a sitzpinkler?

Is it That's the German word for it. If we bring back the hottest take, though, I got a lot. I'm sitting on a lot.

The German sit.

You're not just sitting to pee, you're sitting on a lot.

Pea sitters. That's your fantasy team there.

Sitzpinklers?

My biggest surprise might be Craig's biggest pleasant surprise is that Aaron Rodgers is still good. I completely wrote it off. It wasn't a bit. I just watched them last year and it was like, this guy doesn't have it. He doesn't want to get hit anymore. This is a wrap. He just wants to get rid of the ball in two seconds. Even when they played the Patriots, I didn't think he played that well. I just thought he wanted to get rid of the ball. He could only make two throws. The way he played the last two weeks really looked like Rodgers. I don't really have an explanation for it. Now, you could pick the Stewards apart in all these different ways. They're one of those teams that their record could be a lot different in one or two places. I still don't know how the Patriots didn't beat them. Yeah, their schedule- But, Rogers looks good, though. He looks great. You have to be delighted. You're a Stewards fan.

Incredibly delighted. Everyone's coming around. I feel like we're, what are we, seven weeks in and everyone's like, Oh, yeah, Rogers isn't washed. After all of the vitriol that came out of last year, it'll never work. He's terribly ruined all this stuff. And now we're just seven weeks in and everyone's like, oh, yeah, he's one of the best five quarterbacks of all time.

His arm is- You just have to count him out and then he'll be good again. He's a baker.

His arm is still, to me, he can make throws that only a few quarterbacks can make in the NFL still right now.

The hell, Mary. I mean, throwing a ball 70 yards at 41. I mean, honestly, he's played well enough. And it's what we always joke about, but we're not joking, where it's the year after the injury.

That was the big thing we talked about in the offseason was like, he was coming off a torn Achilles.

Second year injury, guys.

Yeah, you can't.

He's coming off a torn Achilles. He's 40 years old.

It's bad for Tatum, I guess.

Yeah.

Everyone's like, Oh, my God. He's on a basketball court five months after. I'm like, What do you think he's doing? It's been five months. It's like, Kim Akers played in the fucking Super Bowl.

So Peter He's the only guy ever who came back under a year and still looked like himself that I can think of.

Yeah, and that was ACL, though. That was the main one, yeah.

I would not, for your emotional health, count on Jason Tatum returning to the court. I'm not.

I'm trying not to. I'll say Diggs. Diggs seems pretty close to where he was, but he's not playing. He's playing 30 snaps, 32 snaps.

I mean, was she right? It looks good. Was it LCL or ACL last year?

Was it LCL?

Lcl. Lcl. But the Roger's thing's different because he's in his 40s. And it was in Achilles. And he was the only... I saw on a social there was some unbelievable stat. Braided has the second most... It's either rushing or receiving yards of anyone over 40. Did you guys see that?

I think it's receiving yards.

Tom braided, number 2 receiver, 40 to over.

We got to throw a flack on Rodgers a pass.

I think Roger is what's helping as well is that he's willing to play Arthur Smith's game. He's not just doing the, I'm going to sit in shotgun, I'm on the Jets, I brought an Alan Lazard and all my guys, and I'm just going to do that. He's actually running play action. He's He's like, booting. He looks pretty mobile to me. I just think we always underestimate what you can do the year after a terrible injury.

He looks like what the Jets thought they were getting when they traded for him. Frankly, they got to be going nuts because Adams, too.

Adams has looked good on the ramps. They just had to be like, we had these guys.

And Fields. I mean, the Steelers got rid of Fields. People thought they should have brought Fields back. Fields is terrible. And Rogers has been fantastic.

But you knew that that Sunday Night game, that was the spotlight game for him where it's like this guy doesn't have- Rogers versus Green Bay this week, it's going to be biblical.

He's going to He's going to have five touch-down passes. But speaking of teams not knowing what they're doing or getting is wasn't Rogers was not their first option. He was not their first choice.

No, they weren't staff for this. Staff. But if you think Rodgers was mad to be able to get Jets in week one, what do you think? He had 10 days. He's had 10 days to prepare off a loss Four of the packers.

So Baltimore is plus 135 on Fandil for the AFC North and Pittsburgh is plus 130. They're basically even.

That's crazy. Which is remarkable. Four and two versus one and five.

One one and five team has ever won a division. It's happened one time ever.

Technically, it's 17. So the extra game, I think, skews it a whiff, right? But not that much.

Stealers schedule gets super hard, and the Ravens schedule is pretty easy.

They also play each other twice.

But the question for me is, can the Ravens go nine Starting at one and eight? I think so. Starting at one and five. That's eight and three the rest of the way, which means then the Steelers, what are you, four and two or five and one? Four and two. Four and two. So you would have to go five and five, basically.

The schedule gets tough. I do think it's going to come down to a Stealers Ravens game late in the year in the winter.

Well, you have it. It's week 18.

Yeah, that game will matter.

Good. I was like, Let's rig that game so it means something. I don't know what voice that was.

That was good. I'll do it again. That was good.

I'm going to turn that to...

A little Dr. Evil or I don't know.

Bingo's plus 470. Harden your nipples at all, Danny. A little bit.

It's cold here. A little bit.

The Flacko thing. Flacko and the receiver.

Yeah.

Kind of discount your mobile Dak Prescott with his two guys, basically, the AFC version.

Pathetic Steeler's defensive performance. Maybe the worst I've ever seen in my life.

Well, so that's the case against the Steeler's is your defense is not good. I felt like against the Pats, we should have had 500 yards in that game. We just kept fumbling the ball.

If somebody told me that week seven of the NFL, Rodgers is like, fourth in shutdown passes, and the Stealers, the most expensive defense in the NFL, gets shredded by Joe Flacko, I'd say I was on Mars.

Well, what were the odds Rodgers was going to be starting for Fana fantasy teams midway through the season because that's a thing that's happening now. For sure.

Lo. Craig actually wanted us to rank them higher, and I personally vetoed it. I was like, I absolutely refuse. I was like, There's absolutely no way we're ranking Rodgers as a top 20.

I just kept thinking back to the Steelers are not going to be worse with Aaron Rodgers versus Kenny Pickett or Mason Rudolf. We had a winning record with those guys.

Watching Rodgers, you remember why we put up with him for the last five years?

I just can't. With these old guys, I can't figure out how to gage it anymore. It's a prediction either way. Like LeBron right now is sciatica, apparently. He might just play 20 games this year and this is it. He's like, LeBron's body broke down. He played 6,000 minutes. This is what happened. It's usually what should happen. You just don't know what year it's going to be. But it happened. I never thought it'd happen to Jerry Rice. You guys, were you old enough to remember Jerry?

Yeah, a little bit. He was a Seahawks legend, Jerry Rice.

Best receiver still I've ever seen. Yeah, he had that little Raider Seahawks era. But it felt like as long as he was going to play, I was like, well, he's Jerry Rice. He'll figure it. And then at some point, you hit late age and it's over.

Well, that's the reason they call it an age cliff. It's like just all of a sudden you don't got it anymore.

And it is a cliff, a receiver, especially. There's a lot of data on this. You keep going. And then when you fall, if you don't get back, like a Mark Cooper just DOA.

Rice is the only one where there wasn't a cliff.

But that's the thing. The cliff was just at the end. The amazing thing is that with Rodgers, what we're seeing is there's one thing for braided to reset the age curve. Derek Henry reset the age curve at running back. Obviously, tennis, Jokeovich, all these every sport, you're having the age reset by someone. What's amazing about the Rodgers thing is to tear your Achilles at 40 and it's still for 39 and still get back. That is completely new.

To have a back in front of injuries. Rice had one of the worst injuries I've ever witnessed in a game on Monday Night Football. And Warren Sapp, I always had the joke, it should have been like a 100-yard penalty. It just should have been an automatic breakdown. It was like a reverse or something. And Sapp did this close line where he almost like, exorcist headed him and his knee just like, blew out. And this was like Rice at the peak of his powers. And he came back from that and played.

Was that '97?

Something. It was '96, '97 range.

Jerry Rice was 35. Yeah. And then five years later, had a 1,200 yards.

It's the best point of his career.

That's crazy. 1,000 yards of 40.

If a receiver now. It's like Keenan Allen is like 33, and we're like, I don't know. Eight years later, Jerry Rice was still putting up 900 yards in the season.

He's a classic, you need better PR guy. There's certain great athletes. Jerry Rice? Yeah. It's just like when people talk I think about goats and different things. To me, Rice is clearly... Rice and LTA are just clearly head over heels above anyone else ever.

I feel like Rice has respect. The guy I always think about who doesn't have enough PR, I feel like, is Barry Bonds, where I understand that there was a lot of controversy there, but Barry Bonds has no- That got pretty dark. He's like avatar for movies where it's the biggest thing that ever happened has no cultural imprint. No one ever talks about it or anything.

He certainly, of all the baseball players from the last 35 years, is the first one that jumps into my head for seeing in person other than maybe Pedro. Now Now Shohe would be the third one. But these guys that you're just like, I remember going to see this person and sitting in the stands and watching how crazy they were. Is there a team... I don't think this question steps on the categories we're about to do. Is there a team that is highly ranked to win the Super Bowl? I'll give you the top seven odds. Kansas City, Detroit, Buffalo, Green Bay, Philly, Indianapolis, Rams, Denver, and Baltimore, all the 20 to 100 teams. Is there a team you're just like, I don't see it. I don't see them putting it together in the next 12 weeks, Danny?

I mean, in that group, I probably would circle the Broncos.

Because of Knicks?

Yeah.

I mean, after three quarters of just this last Sunday, we were like, Broncos are on fraud watch. And then, of course, they went and scored 33 points. Sorry.

But that was probably- I forgot. So thanks.

I completely forgot about that. Sorry, Danny.

So I would probably circle them.

What do you have, Craig?

Yeah, Broncos is a good one. I don't know. I've been a little bit unimpressed with the Packers this year. I feel like the Micah Parsons trade, everybody said packers, Super Bowl favorites. They start the year by beating the Lions. And then since then, I've been unimpressed. I mean, they lost to the Browns. They tied the Cowboys. They barely beat Jacobi Brissette and the Cardinals. I don't know. I still think the Jordan love.

I don't know if I'm there yet. That's my team, too. It's like watching an NBA team where I'm like, I like those guys. I like this guy. I like that guy. Why aren't they winning? Why are they down 10?

The Ravens are top 10 in Super Bowl odds, and they're one in Yeah, that's a good answer. If they were five and one with the injuries they had, that would make sense.

Good answer. All right, we'll take a break, and then we're going to do... I don't even know what the title of this is going to be. All right, so we did the My guy draft before the season, and that was basically snake fashion. We do a title or a thing, and we try to draft one, and we go in order. We're not going to do that this time. I sent you guys a bunch of categories. Most valuable player, coach of the year, offensive or Defensive Rookey of the Year, Next Coach, Fired, Breakout Star, QB offseason, a Hot Seed guy. Can't wait for this one. Number one seed, AFC or NFC. Team that will get the number one pick, fantasy MVP and fantasy murderer of the year. So after seven weeks, we're going to predict what the outcomes will be for those categories. And the catch... What are half of the podcast now, Draft Podcast.

Except ours, funnily enough.

I think we do the least draft.

We don't really draft that much on our show.

So some of them were that you have to match with the categories like Big Picture does that. We're going to try to match with the categories. And part of the art here is if there's a category you don't like, maybe you grab it right away because you're worried about the depth in the category. And then we'll see at the end of the year who won. It's probably the easiest just to have high fits go first and go this way. I get to go first. Plus, high fits, Well, you decide, Craig. Who had a harder loss between Kelly and Hyfitz here on Sunday or Monday? What was more devastating?

Well, this is funny because we were talking about context. With context, DK, because the Mariners could have made their first World Series ever. Without context, it's Hyfitz. Because if that game were in the playoffs, I think it'd be the worst collapse in sports history. But because it was a random week seven game and the Giants stuck, it doesn't matter.

I had Giants fans who were like, I know we're not going to make the playoffs, but that was one of the worst losses I've ever had.

I didn't know I could feel that bad about a team that's not going to make the playoffs. I feel like I've been so guarded in my heart for the last eight years, nine years, really, for the Giants. I feel like the Eagles game, they won, and I was like, Man, I'm in on this team. I love them. I'm letting him. I'm going to go all... The Giants are better than the Eagles. Hell, yes. I'm being vulnerable again.

And then they did that. He even called me drunk at midnight on Thursday after that Giants-Egals game. I was like, Craig, the Giants are better than the Eagles. And I was like, I think you might be right.

I was drunk and I wanted to do a topper. I wanted to record the show and I was I watched it at a bar and I was like, Let's do the show. They were like, No.

Did you think you were going to the play-off after that game?

Yeah. Of course. He thought he was winning the Super Bowl. I got Charlie. I bet in February, 500 to one. I have a fan to win the Super Bowl. I bet. Wow. That's 500 times? Well, I thought they might get Stafford. I was like, If they get Stafford, that will be an amazing ticket. But I got Charlie Brown, man. The moment that I was like, Oh, I'm in on this team. They had a one in 1,600 collapse.

So is that worse than what happened in Danny where he was up 3-1 in the seventh any with a chance to play the Dodgers? Probably not.

Probably not, but it is easier if we just start with- You go first.

I get to go from any of these categories.

Any category. You grab a guy and once you pick the guy or the team, off the board, you're done with that category and we can't touch that person.

There is one category in this entire list that I think there is just an objectively correct answer. The next coach fired will be Mike McDaniel for that.

There's not really a good number two on that one. No.

The only zag for that is if... Well, first of all, it seems like he's trying to get fired with the glasses he wore and the weird press conference he gave and just whatever the... Blaming the players. Yeah. I don't know if we executed because we didn't really play football today or whatever he said. The only thing I can think of is that they're trying to tank and you're putting him in almost as the mole to ruin the team. That's a great pick. I think he's got to be the heavy favorite. Craig, you're up.

Man. Okay. I'm going to go chalk here. I'm going MVP Mahomes.

Okay.

I think Mahomes is playing the best season he's had since 2022. Looks like the old Chiefs are back. The last three years of the boring ugly Chiefs offense is completely gone. Mahomes is playing incredibly. All the receivers are back. The offense looks fantastic.

I think he's the one I thought heading in this season, Josh Allen is the best QB in the league. I'm still not going to jump off that, but Mahomes has the most fantasy points, which I think is interesting. I will say with the Mahomes' back, it just has to be casually mentioned. They were about to beat the Jaguars, and then he threw a 99-yard pick on a pass that most terrible quarterbacks in the league would throw. It's just that caveat. He did cost them a game with a terrible thing, but I think he has the best odds on Fandel.

In that game, I think he was throwing to Taekwan Thornton and Xavier worthy on one leg.

At least they've branched out. And then his deep ball stuff is still pretty erratic. But for the most part, he looks way more like Mahomes from three years ago.

Dan Europe. Yeah, just the vibes. I'm going to go also chalk here. Shane Steigen, Coach of the Year.

It feels like the runaway favorite. I thought these would be the first three picks.

I'm going back and trying to remember what we were thinking at the beginning of the year. I remember laughing. I specifically laughed at the Colts for choosing Daniel Jones over Anthony Richardson, just because the fact is they drafted this guy. I think it was number four overall a couple of years ago, with the knowledge in that they are going to have to give this guy some time. And they just gave up on him so quickly for a guy like Daniel Jones, who I just had zero confidence in. And the fact that he not only made that really tough decision to go to Daniel Jones, face the ire from the media, but now he's turned this into legitimately one of the best offense. Through seven weeks, one of the best offenses we've ever seen. If you just look at the stats, through seven weeks of the season, they're up there with the '07 Patriots, the 2013 Broncos. In terms of scoring, points per drive, yards.

What's the worst record they could have where he still wins Coach Deer? They go 10 and seven. Can he win?

I think Vrabel would be the big competitor, right? Yes. It's basically whoever has a better record between those teams probably wins it unless there's somebody we're not thinking of.

Well, if the Bills win the division, but the Pats still win 11, 12 games, can Vrabel win it?

When the division, they're to have to go through Foxborough to do it, motherfuckers. Come our way. Come take it. That's the right pick. I think he's done a great job. I also like when a coach makes an emphatic before the season decision. That's It's like if this doesn't work out, I'm getting fired anyway, fuck it. But in this case, it actually worked out. I thought this had to be one of the first four picks. We have a breakout star category. There's some good choices, but I just think it has to be Drake May because, first of all, very vindicating to the Pats fans. I've talked about him in a bunch of my podcasts. He sucked in week one against the Raiders and was probably the main reason they lost the game. He just wasn't good. He was throwing Salem balls and then he's just gotten better every week. And it hasn't been all cream puffs because they won in Buffalo and he was great in that game. But really looks like he's in that Elway area for the athleticism combined with the arm strength and The way he throws. I don't think anybody's throwing a better deep ball than him this year.

I'm in shock by his deep ball.

I can't believe how well he moves around the pocket. There was a three-minute super mix of all his plays this year. And you're just watching him. He looks like a Jedi. It just looks like he's year five. I think he's 22. It's ridiculous how good he's been. And I think it's sustainable. I don't feel like there's anything fluky about it.

Totally. He kills you from the pocket. He kills you when he scrambles. He can kill you with the deep ball. He kills you in the clutch. When they actually need to score at the end of games, he can kill you off platform. It's not like a Jalen Hertz or Bo Nicks, where if he's not really set the right way, he can't make a throw, he can make any throw, and obviously, he can run. But also the little stuff, too. When he was at... This week, I think he broke the record for completion percentage by a Patriot's quarterback. He broke Brady's record for completion percentage. They were like, What do you think of that? They obviously wanted him to do something about, Oh, braided, it's an honor. He didn't do that at all. He was like, Honestly, I scrabbed a couple of times when I should have ran. I ran when I should have thrown, and I actually missed some reads and I didn't know what to do, so I ran. Actually, I left some plays in the field. I'm like, That's the right answer. He's the whole package. While we're here, can you stop complaining about the Joe Milton thing where you're upset you got cost, Abdel Carter or whatever because Joe Milton, because I just see Jake May, and I'm mad that Tommy DeVito was a meme for the Giants, and he caused the Giants, Jaden Daniels and Jake May.

That is a lot worse than the Joe Milton thing.

Is Abdelkart a player in this year?

He just got concussed.

Because what does he have? Half a sack? One sack?

He's doing fine. But I mean, Brian- No, I like Abdelkart.

He's been fine. I was making it a joke. No, it seemed like a catastrophe not to get him or Hunter, basically, it was like, Ward's first, these next two guys. And then it's like, Will Campbell, Tyler Warren, Mason Graham. And then you would redo the draft. Will Campbell has been really good. I think Mason Graham's a monster.

Yeah, he's been good.

Then Tyler Warren, I'm sure he's going to come up at some point. But it did work out for the pets. You know what didn't work out is the Trey B.

On Henderson pick. He's coming up.

We'll talk about him as well.

He's on the list.

He's in one of these categories.

Are we snaking?

How are we doing this? Are we going back to Hyfetz?

Are we going back to Dike? What's the protocol?

I think I should pick next. I think we go opposite what Hyfetz thinks.

So snake. Oh, man, I'm up again. Wow. So I have my breakout guy.

All the favorites are gone now, I feel like. Now these are a little tougher.

So there's a category we have, Pick a One Seed in the AFC or or NFC. And I'm going to take Indianapolis.

One Seed in NFC.

As a one seed because I don't like the other choices. And they won me over in that chargers game. I don't love their defense. I think you can throw on them. But offensively, they're just absolutely outrageous. I can't believe-It's weird. How efficient it is and how many weapons they have and how easy it is. There's been very few teams over the years where it just seems like it's just easy for them to get eight yards anytime they want. And they have so many options. The Warren thing has been like... The fact that the bears passed them up, I'll never understand that. That should be like a 5,000-word feature from somebody. How did this happen? How did everyone think Tyler Warren was the best tight end for 11 months? And then somebody was like, Actually, zag. Actually, zag with the 10th pick. But the way they use him, he's like a combination of 11 I've loved in my life.

I think the draft process is too long because by the time the draft comes, people talk themselves out of all of the right takes. If the draft was just February 20th, I feel like we'd be way more accurate with all of our predictions.

I think it's a really good idea.

You know what I mean? It's just so much more fresh. It's like, Oh, I watched Abuka. He's good. Just draft him. But everyone's like, Well, the measurables. He's never been the best receiver on his Ohio State team.

What about Will Campbell? His arms are a half inch too short. He's ready to fall out of the top.

Did you ever notice that watching the games? No. No.

He When he was in the SEC, looking great. All right, Danny, you're up.

This is tough. Let's see here.

It gets hard right around now.

I'm going to go with... I think I'm going to go with fantasy MVP.

Okay.

And I'm going to take Jonathan Taylor. Speaking of the Colts. He was the running back nine in average draft position before the year, 18th overall. So you could have gotten him in the second round quite easily. We didn't know what to make of him because- Nobody did. No one really knew what to make the Colts offense in general, because number one, we didn't really know who the quarterback was going to be for most of the preseason. And so we were just... Everybody on that team got pushed out.

You could have probably drafted 10 teams. Everyone's like, Oh, you got to find the breakout team. That's the way to win in fantasy football. It was like, Oh, finding the bangles from two years ago. We're finding... And it was like, Who's going to be finding the Texans that first year with Stroud? I think you could have probably drafted 10 teams before you picked the Colts. Yes. It was the bears. It was the Jags. There were so many teams. Nobody thought it was going to be the Colts.

I mean, Siken was It was on the hot seat.

For sure, 100%. Nobody thought he was a great coach.

Really strange pro football reference page for Taylor. Because first year, he ran for 11, 6 to 9, 11 TDs. Then his next year was his great 18, 11, 18 TDs. Then it got hurt. Then it got hurt. 11 games in '22. '23 was maybe a holdout. He only played seven.

That was when the Jimmer was going to give the money to a whale. Then the whale died, so Jonathan Taylor got paid.

Then last year, He was good enough.

Jonathan Taylor killed the whale.

Last year, 14, 31 on 11 TDs. And yet, I don't think he was mentioned as a top three running back. There was always this, I don't know.

Well, part of the reason is he doesn't catch passes like the other guys. And so some of these league-winning type runningbacks, Christian McCaffrey, Dawan Achan, I forget. The couple other guys that are really involved in the passing game, those guys just get pushed higher because it's just more ways you can win. But Jonathan Taylor, he's just so head and shoulders above everyone and running this year. He's got three games with three touch downs. He has three games with 30 plus points. He leads all skilled players in points per game, and that's not even catching a ton of passes. So he's got zero back.

So he's going first if you're redoing a fantasy draft right now.

Yeah, probably. I also do think part of the reason he's not that famous is if Jonathan Taylor was named Saquon Barkley and played on a New York team, Saquon Barkley was named Jonathan Taylor and played for the Indianapolis Colts.

He's on a Shippen Colts team his whole career.

And he's a boring name. Boring names matter.

He's having the third best fantasy running back season in the last 15 years.

When you're on pace for 20 rush TDs, you might get more of that. What's the record? Saquon has it, right?

No. The total? Tomlinson has both.

Tomlinson has 20. What's the just Rush TD record?

Sean Alexander?

No, it's Lydanian Thomas. He was 28 on the season. He had 31. That was 2006.

But I think he's going to have a game where he has five.

But no one's had 20 rushing shutdowns since 2006. Tomlinson set the record on both, and then no one's had 20 since then. Never mind, 28.

Kind of a running back resurgence this year because- Totally. Dijon and McAfree, they built the whole game around that. I think Gibbs has been electric this year. He's been really fun.

Especially in fantasy. The receivers are so deep. It's going back to old school where it's like, you should just take a running back in the first round, get a good quarterback, and then figure it out later.

Finishing last, Trevian Henderson.

That leads me to my next category. Uh-oh. Fantasy murder of the year, I will be drafting Trevian Henderson.

I can't argue with it. I paid $30 for him.

An unmitigated A disaster. I mean, this guy was going like top 40 in draughts.

I'm in multiple conversations with Pats fans trying to piece together what happened.

What do you have? Do you have inside info? What's going on?

The first preseason game. First touch of his career. First touch He broke a kick return. Then had all these electric plays. Anytime they put him in, he decked the dude and basically knocked a guy out. Then the season started. I was on one thread. We were trying to remember one good play he's had all year, and we couldn't remember a good play. He just runs into the line and falls down. So now we're like, Is he hurt? Did he lose his confidence? Is he going through something? He got passed by the number three guy who...

Yeah, Terrell Jennings.

Tarell Jennings. I didn't even know he was on the team.

Undrafted free. Never heard of this guy. I've been starting Trevian Henderson every week. I have him in me.

He's a cut. He's absolutely cannot be on a fantasy team anymore.

I'm terrified that the second I drop him, someone's going to add him, and then Vrabel is going to start mixing him in and he'll be good.

Fear is the mind killer.

My dad came up this as we all are trying to figure out. Maybe they're saving him for the second half of the season because he's little. That's the best I got.

Him being little is- The best excuse I have. I think him being little is related. I think him being little is related. I think Vrabel likes big people. They don't throw to him.

Why? Why aren't they throwing screens to him? He's fast.

He's too busy throwing 20-yard touch down.

He's listed at 202. When small people are listed at 202, it's like 6 feet tall. It's like he probably plays at 190 something and Vrabel just thinks he's small. Ramondre is big.

Why did they draft him?

It's my worst call of the year.

They knew his weight when they drafted him.

I was like, bragging about how Cleveland took Judkins over him. Now it's like eight weeks later. It's like, oh, my God, I wish we had Judkins.

I'd like to go on record. This season, he will suck. Henderson will be fine long term.

He'll be Kevin Fock eventually for us. But it seemed the preseason And it really seemed like this was Jamir Gibbs.

I'm not cutting him.

I refuse. It used to be super adorable for runningbacks not taken in the first round to need a full year to acclimate to the NFL. It's normal.

Also, the reason, one of the big talking points around him coming into the league was he doesn't fumble and he's really good in pass pro.

He's been terrible in pass pro.

He's missed huge plays in pass pro. And the fumbling thing, apparently, does not matter to Vrabel because Ramondre Stevenson is leading the NFL in fumbles and he doesn't care.

Hi, if it's your up.

I will take if... Well, speaking of the Patriots, this one, I'm surprised this one fell to me. In terms of scarcity, I'm going to go Coach of the Year, Mike Vrabel. I'm surprised that that fell to me. I mean, this is really simple. The Patriots, what do you guys, five and two? Coach of the Year, you guys win the division. Coach of the Year, you guys have the easiest remaining schedule. So not only are you five and two now, but the Patriots have the easiest remaining schedule. So if the Patriots win 11, 12 games, you have the tiebreaker against the Bills already. I'm like...

He's three to one on FanDuel.

You're talking about when you mentioned Stuyke and what happens, how does Stuyke lose? Well, the culture is six and one. So what record do they need to finish? But if they finish the stretch with three or four losses down the stretch, that's the part that weighs in people's minds. The beginning fades. The Patriots, I hate to say it, and I hate the Patriots, and this is not me sucking up. Actually, as you know, I really, really hate the Patriots.

I hate the Giants as well. We're celebrating when you lost.

The best moment of me working at this company, bar none, was you talking about how much pain- This is going to make me mad. Core Week is just getting started here. Sorry, hold on. Five days left. How much pain the second Giants Super Bowl caused you? You didn't know I was in the room, and you thought it was just Mallory and Sean, and you were like, we lived here for five minutes. You just vacariously were listening I was just an intern listening. You just were like, when you turned around, you're like, oh, shit, Hyfitz heard all that.

That was the best thing. Hyfitz is like, stroking a cat.

He was like, stroking something else.

But having said that, so with that said, I think the Patriots could win 12 or 13 games because I think Varejable is such a good coach and Bayes is playing so well. The coach and/or quarterback advantage they have in so many of these remaining games.

Now you are sucking up.

No, he's right. Our schedule is just... It almost seems like a rounding air accident. You just can't believe there's no So hard teams. It's like at Tampa, I think is one of the hard ones. They play Buffalo in New England, and then maybe there's an at Baltimore, Baltimore. There's basically three playoff teams left in the schedule. Right now on Fando, they're plus 175 to win 12 plus games, which they're five and two now, so that's seven and three. They're going to be favored in, I think, every game except maybe two. So I think it's the right pick. I think it's Stake and Herverable for I was thanking Herb Rable for the Coach of the Year. What do you have, Craig?

No, Hyfetz gets another one, right? Oh, yeah.

Oh, wow. I do. Good point, Craig.

You don't have to point that out.

Teacher. Good point, Craig. In that note, on that, similarly, I will take For MVP, it's tough. Craig took Mahomes, which is smart. There's not a lot of awesome options left, but for that reason, I'm going to take Matt Stafford for the ramps. Interesting. For a very simple reason. Bad pick. You have to win 12 games to win the MVP. There has been in the last 20 years, one MVP quarterback has not won 12 games.

This is why Doug can't win. Yes.

Oh, you won nine games and 10 games and threw a lot of yards. It does not happen. Even the quarterbacks who did win 12 games to win MVP, they all got a first-round buy when they were a two-by era. Now in the 17-game season, you need 13 wins. I'm looking around. Josh Allen for the Bills has better odds than Stafford. The Bills are way too injured, I think, to win 13 But I look at the Rams, and the Rams are five and two. Stafford has 17 touch downs and two interceptions. He's playing so well. The Rams are another team where I'm like, if the Rams win 13 games and Stafford has 35 touch downs, things are good.

It's smart. I like it.

I can't tell. I think the guy I'm about to take applies to multiple categories. I'm going to go fantasy MVP Jackson Smith and Jigba, who is the wide receiver one in fantasy. How dare you? And has immediately become... He's on He pays for 1,989 yards this year.

Just almost 2,000.

Almost 2,000. And he's just like, I don't know, the fifth best receiver in the league now, and he's only going up.

He's always open.

I was going to have him as One of the breakout players, too, maybe.

I was going to as well. But there's been a lot of breakouts this year. I feel like fantasy MVP.

I'm with you.

In terms of where he was drafted and how you feel about him now, he's the most untradable player in the league.

He was drafted as a wide receiver of 14. Yeah. And he is number one receiver in terms of total points this year. He's on pace, like you said, for almost 2,000 yards. No signs of slowing down. He's number one overall in target rate. He's the Seahawks' offense, their passing offense.

He's been their leading receiver in all seven games. Yeah.

And I would say just- And he's a peaceful man. When it seemed like there might be an altercation yesterday, he sat on the bench and held the hands.

The ref like, guarded him.

Like that meme of the guy taking all the arrows for everybody.

He's a peaceful dude.

He just moves differently. That's the thing that always comes to mind when I watch him play. I'm just like, he has incredible body control, incredible acceleration, great hands, tracks the ball expertly, is like just all the superlatives you could throw out. He's just really good natural receiver.

He's a great roster fit for the squad I'm building today.

There's just some guys are just open.

Yeah.

And that's it. And that's why my Trey Van Henderson thing will probably live on video-wise in infamy before the year, comparing him to Jameer Gibbs. You know what won't live on is me talking about how awesome JSN was to Danny Kelly. At this very table, you picked he was your guy this year. And how there was a four-game stretch last year when he was open for four straight games, and then the offensive line fell apart. That video won't live on because that's how social media works, Danny. It's a cruel beast. You like it when you're wrong. It's only the losers that live on. What do you have, Danny Kelly?

Let's see here.

We should start a Twitter account called Great Takes Exposed.

Oh, wow, that's good.

How about the good takes?

Just some positivity. I was right. Rodgers is decent.

Rodgers is decent. It's pretty good. What a take.

You did plant your flag on, I think we're fine island with Aaron Rodgers.

It was good. I don't know if this is too obvious to even count, but the QB offseason hot seat guy, Tua.

I really regret not grabbing that when I just went. I forgot. I was going to snake and crushed it.

Can we talk this out?

I couldn't stomach the idea of seeing Tua on a roster of mine in any fashion.

Yeah, I guess he- We're not building fantasy teams here.

We're trying to be right.

No, that's the right pick because...

I wrote Duh next to that.

I have Tua, too obvious.

Too obvious. He's got, what, 50 million bucks on the books for 26.

That's the only problem is they're going to have to eat a ridiculous amount of money to get rid of him.

But then eventually they will. The truth is he will have that one season as the Patsy, and then he's a backup quarterback. That is what he will be.

That video of the Browns guy saying, throw it to me, Tua, throw it to me, Tua. The Browns' safety, it's before the snap. He's like, throw it to me, Tua, throw it to me, Tua. And then Tua throws it to him. And he's running. Tua.

And then he gets up and running with the ball. And I thought he was going to freak out. And he just repeats it like he did before the plan. Throw it to me, Tua, throw it to me, Tua. I couldn't believe it. That was unbelievable.

How could you come back from a quarterback with that after that happens. You have to leave the team at that point.

I almost wish to had gone to the press conference after and be like, you know. Starts with the leadership. Guys are late to players, only meetings. Just keep saying it every week.

I think if they cut him post-June 1, they have a $67 million dead hit. So they're just going to have to eat that.

What's funny is, throw it to me blank is something that I say when I'm watching the when it's a bad QB and you have the other team and from a betting standpoint. I think I was saying it at the same time as this guy. It might not have been the same scenario, but when 2 was in his own end zone, basically, and he threw that pick to Cleveland in the 10. When he went back to pass, he was like, Throw it to me, throw it. I think he's the throw to me all-stars.

It's an incultation. It's like what Van did this week or whatever the hell he was doing with trying to jinks LSU or whatever. I think that was the same vibe.

Well, the Manning, Arch Manning, is another throw to me guy. Man, throw it to me, Arch. Come on. All right. I am-2 to you, Bill.

Two to you.

I have to grab a hot seat guy, and there's only two left for the QBs that I really focused on. I wish I could take them both. You can't?

Oh, I guess you can't.

I'm going to take Trevor Lawrence here. It's just great value. I just can't believe some of the he's had. And then I used to have a joke about the Portland Trailblazer soccer moms when I was writing, way back when, about how protective they were of their own players. And I think the Jaguars fan base is like this with Trevor Lawrence. It's everyone else's fault. It's Brian Thomas Jr. Because he won't catch balls over the middle and they're calling the wrong players and the offensive line isn't good enough. And meanwhile, this dude just sails balls over people's heads and makes terrible decisions and runs around aimlessly. Runs past the line of and then chucks a ball. And if they had lost that Chief's game, which they should have, this season would already be a wrap for them. But unfortunately, it's not. Anyway.

You know the Lombardi rule? Just like every NFL quarterback has to throw through the door and then the good ones can hit the door knob and The elite ones can hit the keyhole. Trevor Lawrence, every quarter, misses the door and breaks a window.

Yes. It's that simple. He just is not accurate and his receivers can't catch. So it's just like a double whammy. He's inaccurate and his receiver I just can't catch.

But he is accurate. I would have paid, I don't know how much for video of the rest of the Jaguars team watching that commercial with him and Travis Hunter for Adidas, the Footloose parody.

What was that? How did nobody stop that? What is that commercial? Then it runs all the time and you're like, How did nobody in either of these guys' life just throw their bodies in front of this? Have you even seen Footloose?

I think a long time ago, but yeah.

That is a deep cut. That's a movie that came out in 1984. It's like, Let's parody Footloose.

There needs to be some rule. You need to be an all pro before you can be in a commercial. They're shoving too many guys in commercials. Travis Hunter being in a commercial.

He's in multiple commercials. We'll take a break. We'll finish your draft.

Number Baker is in the commercials.

Progressive a lot.

All right, come back with the draft. I am going to tackle the team that will get the number one pick overall in 2026 category. And with apologies to Dolphins, Titans, and Saints, I am going to take the 0-7 New York Jets. Fair. Because I don't know what the move is. They could play Ty Rod Taylor. He had two interceptions and a half. Wilson's out for a little while. It doesn't seem like the coach is good, which is a problem. And they're in a division with Buffalo and the Patriots. They just seem like the most reliable to me.

You could nicely stack that with Aaron Glenn, first coach, right? That'd be a nice stack for you and your team.

I could definitely do that. Dk, you're up.

Okay, let's see here. I just need to... I want to take this guy off the board. So I'm going to do... Actually, no, I need to own something because I was in favor of Brock Bowers this offseason, and he is the fantasy murderer of the It's not all his fault because he got hurt.

There's a question with murderers, whether an injury is their fault. But I think this was different because he was hurt in plain.

It's involuntary manslutter if they get hurt. But Trevon Henderson literally stabbed me to death.

The problem with Brock Bauer is he was hurt for four extra weeks where you had to start him, but he wasn't healthy. And then they're finally like, he's hurt.

He's fine. He's hurt. We'll do points per game. Brock Bauer has fewer points per game than Jake Tontas.

It was brutal having to play him. He was limping around like Sean at the end of one battle after another, just for three weeks while you're still starting him.

I paid $36 for him in my knockout week. I thought I was like, he's a $40 receiver. I'm getting a discount at a position where there's no good people.

You paid $36. He has under 36 points. And believe it or not, Darren Waller matched it in like 36 snaps out of retirement.

I don't like these stats. It just makes me feel terrible inside.

By the way, he had one good game, and it was that week one Pats game, which is going to be in the running for weirdest result of the year If the Raiders are like three and 14 and the Pats are 13 and 4, he'll be like, Wait, what happened in week one?

I think part of the reason, too, that I wanted to highlight him, even though obviously the injury is the big reason here, but the Raiders have been so much worse than I expected their offense to be. They are uncompetitive on offense. What was it? They had 30 plays in this last game.

Chiefs had 31 points. Raiders had 30 plays.

Under 100 yards. It's funny because you would mean it, we're complaining about Pete Carroll for the last couple of years there. Correct. Then he took time off And then he- And came back and seems just as incompetent. Here's the deal.

He got older, weirdly.

Yeah, we were complaining about him.

We were complaining about him, but then when he got fired or whatever that was that happened, it was like, you have this emotional connection to him, and then you're mad about it because they fired him. But I thought he was going to be... I thought he was going to turn this Raiders team around much more quickly than this is happening.

I picked him to make the playoffs. I was battling Colts versus Raiders versus Jags for that last spot in the AFC, and I couldn't get there with Danny Jones. Carroll might not be done in this draft. He might be popping up again for all we know. Craig's up.

I'm going with QB offseason, hot seat guy. I think this is the last guy in his tier, and I had him second. I'm taking Kyler Murray.

Oh, I had him, too.

Had him as well.

Who? It's in red.

The worst place to be in the NFL is giving the big contract to a quarterback that you know can't do it. It's Tua, it's Trevor Lawrence.

It's Bradley Beal in the NBA. It's like, We got to...

Kyler, the Cardinals have the 27th most wins since Kyler was drafted. That's just like they have zero playoff wins.

And they're way more competitive with Percet.

Yeah. Yeah. Anytime there's a backup, the team seems fired up. Yes. What's great about this, so we had the QB Hotseat guy. I have Lawrence. Craig took Murray. Danny has Tua. And there's still great value in the board for Hyfetz. I'm blown away. Hyfetz played this perfectly.

I was going I'm going to take someone right now, but then I'm like, I'm waiting. I'm waiting. I don't need to. Wow, we're going to put it off. Wow, I'm shocked. Okay. In that case, I'll take fantasy MVP. I'm going to go with... There are a lot of good options here, too, but I'm going to just take a moment to talk about Christian McAfree from the 49ers. Yeah, that sounds good. You could argue that maybe there's other guys because McAfree probably took in the first round and maybe there's other values. But it's funny because all we talk about this year is Jonathan Taylor, Jonathan Taylor, Jonathan Taylor. In full PPR league, Jonathan Taylor is not the number one running Christian McAfree is the number one running back in full PPR Leagues, and I feel like it's glad to be getting discussed. Mcafree is up here- Playing with Mac Jones. He is on pace for over 1,000 receiving yards.

He's third in the league in receptions.

He is 11-Including, receiver. He's 11 fewer receiving yards than Justin Jefferson.

He's so good that when... He's been so good this year, when it's third and six, you're like, just run the play where you split McAfree out as a slot receiver. Nobody's guarded him all year.

The craziest thing about it is as good as Mccaffry has been this year, and I feel like everybody thinks about the 2023 Niner season when Mccaffry went crazy, he's having a better fantasy year this year than that year.

Yes. It's 23 points per game. He won offensive player of the Year in the 2023 season, and I think he had 590 receiving yards, 580. He might pass that this week.

The only reason why I think somebody like Taylor is better is because McCafee was taken like sixth overall. This is what he's supposed to be doing. I guess the fantasy MVP thing is it just who's been the most awesome or The value versus- Like JSN and Jonathan Taylor, you could have had him and Macafrey.

Well, not to get too meta here, but by your logic, Jonathan Taylor went in this draft three rounds ago.

True.

Interesting.

True. Yeah, because Taylor, you guys did not have him in the top five. No way.

He was like a third rounder. He was like top 20 guy.

Second round or third rounder.

I got him in the rear draft, two-quarterback League, but like the fourth round. Yeah.

I have to have one more.

Oh, yeah, I do. I can't believe I get to just cherry-pick later.

I just want to point out, nobody has picked an offensive or defensive rookie of the year. That category is wide open.

It's because I think it's deep and I don't feel confident about who's going to win it.

It is deep. I agree with that. In that case, I guess I might just dive in there and just... Or actually, no, I don't know. I'm going to because that one- You tried to bully him and then taken that.

I know you did.

In that case, all right, we need to have a conversation for a second. Breakout Star, what does that mean? Of all these categories you sent, I just didn't know what that meant.

Fairly.

Because in that case, I'm just going to throw someone out.

It's up for interpretation. Just give us your pick.

It's Cam Skatebu for the New York Giants.

I think that's fair. It's somebody that wasn't being discussed before the season as somebody who there would be lots of conversations about. And now it's week seven and people are talking.

I think Skatebu has rocketed to Fame more than anyone, including Drek. Drek May is a better player and joining a higher category of quarterback. But Kam Skatebo is honestly one of the... Bill, you always talk about the conversations around the game. I don't know if online, a player has actually been talked about more this season than Kam Skatebo. The photos, everything. He's like, again, my favorite thing about him, when he was a kid, he'd put on his older brother's shoulder pads and he would run into telephone calls. You hear that story and you're like, Yeah, that totally makes sense. He's just- I didn't understand it.

He had white running backs. I was texting you guys because I wanted the pats to take him in the third round. He just kept following in the fourth round and nobody could explain it because everybody liked him and thought he was going to translate it. But he's not slow, though.

When you watch him, he's- He's got short area.

Once again, if the draft were on February 20th, you watch him play at 1900 yards in college. He's good.

He doesn't win with speed. He wins with power, and he has enough acceleration to make the power work. People don't want to tackle him.

These are NFL players.

They're like, he's a psychopath.

Yeah, he's a maniac. He's a pitbull.

He's awesome. I'm so not surprised by him.

He's lowering his head a few yards into the end zone to take a guy out.

He's a maniac.

Crazy. Oh, God.

Wow. I can't believe it got a scataboo pick. That's a really good pick. Craig, you're up.

Next, Coach fired Aaron Glenn.

Yeah.

Kind of surprised that he was still there. I think it gets tricky after him.

It does. It definitely does.

I'll let DK figure out his pick here. I'll just say it's funny that the Jets were like, Yeah, we hope Aaron Glenn learned something from Dan Campbell. And now it's like, You know the other coach you started 07, Dan Campbell, 011.

Well, I did this on Sunday's pod because I looked this up and somehow it's harder to look up stuff now now that everybody puts AI in the Google, just It spits out weird stuff. But Kam Cameron is 0-13. I had forgotten about. He was in the mid 2000s on the Dolphins.

0-13 start. The Dolphins quietly have had some of that. I mean, that, nick Saban. I mean, man.

Let's see here. So there's some good options in this one, but I'm just going to go with it. I'm going to go with the team that will get the number one pick, the Titans. They have pretty comfortably the hardest schedule of the zero and one win teams right now. They have to face the Colts, Chargers, Texans, Seahawks, Jags, Browns, 49ers, Chiefs, Saints, and then the Jags again. I could maybe find two wins in there, maybe.

I looked at them, too. It is crazy because everyone thought the AFC South was probably going to be bad. Now it might have a 14-win team. The Jags are frisky. Houston's got a killer defense.

Yeah, exactly. I think this is also a team with an interim coach that nobody really believes in. A rookie quarterback. There's no skilled player talent right now.

I like when teams are like, listen, Jeffrey Simmons, no way we're trading him. It's like, why not? He's in his late 20s. Why wouldn't you trade him? You get some of a first and a third for him. I'll do that in five seconds.

Dude, this all the time. I mean, Max Crosby. Bill Barman- Max Crosby is another one. Years ago, Max Crosby. I'm like, you could have got two first for Max Crosby if they traded him two years ago. The teams don't want to get rid of guys competitively, but they never want to do I have Mya and Simmons for the Pats.

Brable Connection. I don't think they trade with Brable, but I think he's potentially the best guy that could be available.

For Jeff Simmons?

Or Crosby. Even in the one quarter, he played against the Pats. He It's like disrupting us. Then he went out and it became a lot easier.

Wow, he is 28 already. That's crazy.

When are you going to be good again, Tennessee? Yeah. D. K, was that your pick?

That was my pick, yeah.

You're right. So I have two. Okay. Let's do... Do I have to... You know what? I'm going to bang out an offensive or defensive Rooky of the Year. And the odds are pretty high for everybody because there's no favorite. There's so much consensus. I mean, so much lack of consensus. I'm going to take Tyler Warren.

Nice.

Even though Agbuka has been Awesome. And Dart will have some sexiness because he's a QB in a New York market. But I just think Tyler Warren is honestly one of the best football players. Could he be the first-team All-Pro as a tight-end?

Yeah. It's so clearly obvious that he's good. The Immediately upon getting on the field.

Nobody can tackle them. They can line them up everywhere. I love when tight ends can be used as a running back every once in a while or a slot receiver. We had that with early gromp where you could just put them around the field and you could just see the defense like, oh, fuck, they spread them out wide.

And I don't think a tight end has ever won offensive rookie of the year.

No, I mean, Bauer had the most catches, like the second most catches ever for any rookie. It didn't even win rookie of the year last year.

All right, so then I'm going Coach of the Year. Hyfe, it's already has Rable and DK already has Steiken. I think the only guy left who can win this is Kyle Shanaan, and I'm going to grab him. I think he's seven to one with FanDuel. Five and two. He's Turned Mac Jones into somebody that is probably going to get a $20 million a year contract from somebody at some point and be terrible when he gets it. All the injuries, the fact, the way they showed up for this last game with nobody on defense and just dudes I've never, ever heard of in my life.

Shanaher does this shit every year. No receivers. So Kendrick Bourne and Mac Jones. I think the craziest Shanaher stat is the nick Mullen stat.

Oh, yeah, my favorite.

The most yards in the first 16 games of your career, it's Mahomes and then nick Mullen's.

And then it's like Andrew Luck, Kurt Warner, and Tony Romo.

The most yards in the first 16 games of your career, Patrick Mahomes, and then fucking nick Mullen's because of Kyle Shanaher. That's unbelievable.

That's crazy. Yeah. Dk, you're up.

Okay, this is the guy I wanted to get off the board here. So I'm going to go breakout star.

Yeah.

Igbuka.

Yeah.

Amika Igbuka. His case is probably only going to get stronger going forward here, obviously, because...

He seems like the The greatest guy, too. I think I'd vote for him for President in '28 if he decided to get the right partner. Everybody loves him. How are you a captain as a rookie? That's impossible. It'd be like when Hyfetz joined as an intern, we were like, Hyfetz, you're now a captain.

He's got it.

This kid's got something. He's a leader.

And also, by the way, with Mike Evans, likely missing most of the season, Abuka is going to be their pretty clear-cut number one. It's only going up for him. And obviously, I trust Mayfield to feed him the rest of the season.

I really like Tez, too. I know. I did, too. His story is the whole thing with him and Bo Nix's family. That's the story that hasn't gotten enough play.

It's really cool.

Really, really cool. But that guy, I thought Mayfield was awful on Monday. I thought he missed a lot of throws. He missed Tez in the end zone at one point, but I thought Tez was open most of that game.

I mean, yeah. Tez also thinking the MVP chance were for him a couple of weeks ago is one of the funnily things the players said all year.

He's good. Just genuinely awesome. Bukas lights out. He's been lights out. I remember when we talked into my guy stuff and you guys were saying, Can guillotine be careful with young guys, rookies? It takes a while. Bukas came in, he had two touch downs in his first game. He's immediately lost. Craig, you're up.

I think I'm just going to take Jackson Dart for offensive rookie of the year.

Yeah, that's the right pick because I'm shocked, Dike, you went with break out of the year for Buka and not rookie of the Year because I agree.

That was because I think Dart's going to win it.

Okay. Well, he has Dart now. Yeah. The reason I left Dart this long is my only... Obviously, Dart's the favorite. My concern is the Giants is the hardest schedule remaining in the NFL, and I feel like they'll lose a lot of games. And I also wonder if Dard is going to just get hurt.

I was going to say the bigger concern to me is he's a fucking maniac.

They need to run PSAs for him and show him all quarterbacks are taking dumb hits. He's going to get hurt like eight yards past the line of scrimmage, trying to juke three guys as some linebacker hits him from behind. He just doesn't care.

This is Dable's toxic trait as a coach is that Josh Allen had no sense of self-preservation early in his career when he played for Brian Dable. Daniel Jones We kept joking that we thought Dable was trying to get Daniel Jones hurt because Daniel Jones took so many hits. And that's why Giants fans have no bad blood with Daniel Jones is he put his body on the line for the Giants. He would always take hits, and now it's Dard. It's like goal line, important third downs. You can't take hits getting the extra yard on its first and 10, and you're going for three yards and you're taking it to your four.

Dirk Bay figured it out this year. I'm convinced it spent months.

Also Dirkman has the body for it. Dard is a little bit slice.

He's a good runner, but he just go down. But he's His friends, I don't think... Maybe it's that Cam Skatebu. Maybe he can... He's rubbing off on him. Maybe Skatebu will tell... Yeah, literally with his face.

They're human smelling salts their faces on each other.

What's your other pick?

No, it's two to high if it's no.

It's two to me.

I thought you took Jackson Dart. I wish. Oh, you took Jackson Dark.

Good pick. Yeah, I was definitely going to make that pick if you didn't do that great.

I'm like P. Carroll. I forgot who took a pick. Like, put in a Poland Macalum. No, we have.

Damn. So the Rooky of the Year now, we're getting a little- Well, Trevian Henderson is still there.

He's 150 to 100.

You can go defense, though.

I can go defense. That is true.

The defense of Rooky of the Year list was really grim.

I'm not going to go defensive Rooky of the Year because I think everyone voting is going to be like, wow, I don't know. I think everyone looks that up. The voters looked it up in December 20th. Yeah, they're reading PFF stats. Yeah, they just sort by... Yeah, great. Man, so you have Dardabouk and Warner gone. Part of me, I guess the only answer left here is, it's crazy to say this, but I mean, Quin Sean Judkins. I honestly have no idea if he'll win the award because of the off-field stuff. But the other- That's what's the Browns. It's the Browns. They have an easy schedule remaining, but I mean, he's You're in pretty good.

He looks good.

I don't feel great about this pick. It's probably my... Oh, Henderson's gone. That's too bad. You're right.

No, you could still take him in a different category, right?

No, that's how it works.

Oh, if I took Henderson in one category, can no one take him in another?

No, it's just for that category. We can double Oh, okay.

Jackson Smith and Jigbo could be fantasy MVP and breakout star on different teams.

Oh, then I'll take Demeke Abuka for Rookie of the Year. Oh, my God.

Yeah, that's what I was saying when I want to take him off the board.

Well, glad I clarified that. Thanks, Well, then that's definitely... Yeah, I mean, everything Dike said. Yeah, Mike Evans is like... It's just if Abuka is banged up, so it darts the favor.

You guys should be eligible for two categories. I think so, too.

Perfect. Then I think Dike, I screwed you there.

Yeah, I haven't told me that. It's his fault.

I was wrong. But yeah, I mean, Abuka is amazing.

You got a second one now.

The second one, I will... I think I got to dive in a fantasy murderer here. Man, there's some great pics here. There's two guys left that I'm perfectly happy with. But I think I have to take Brian Thomas Jr. From the Jaguars.

He's been brutal.

I thought I was going to get him.

It's because A. G. Brown has been bad, too. But A. G. Brown has had a Here's the difference. Brian Thomas, you took him in the second round. If you didn't know anything about the Jaguars, and Bill, if I told you there was a receiver on the Jacksonville Jaguars who also plays cornerback and doesn't really practice with the offense that much, you'd think it was Brian Thomas.

Also, if somebody just told you, Oh, the Jags are four and three this year. They beat the Chiefs. You'd be like, Oh, my God. Brian Thomas must be going crazy.

He must be doing great.

I feel like I've watched too much of the Jags, but I I also have him on multiple fantasy teams. It's not just that. It's not a situation where the quarterback screw him over. He's just dropping balls, too. It's a combo of when he is open, he's overth or he drops it. The scenario is always bad. Last year, it just felt like he was just beating guys downfield over and over again and getting wide open. I don't know what happened to that guy. Really weird. I don't understand at all. You got one more pick.

No, because I took a boot camp. Oh, yeah, you got to.

All right, Craig's up.

I'm going to go with... God. I'm going to go with a team that will get the number one pick in the draft, and I'm going to take the Miami Dolphins.

There you go.

I like it.

But they're so hot right now.

They only have three easy games left. Saints, Jets, and Bangles, if you can count the Bangles at this point. I'm like, I think the Saints are better. I think the Bangles are better. It's brutal. The two of them, I don't know if he's going to be playing the rest of the year. They might fire Michael Daniel. This team I might just completely quit.

I think it's the right pick. I took the Jets, you have Miami, and DK has Tennessee. So really the Saints or Vegas are just sitting there. Okay. What do you got, Danny? All right.

I'm going to go with MVP, Josh Allen.

It's pretty good value at this point in the draft. Josh Allen?

You guys forgot about Josh Allen.

I'm really upset it took Stafford like five routes.

I was surprised by that.

You don't get the odds. I panicked because I forgot. I was doing two pics in a row.

In addition to being- Which leaves Drake May for Bill. An absolute alien, the Bills have a pretty easy schedule down the line. And again, he's this alien quarterback who can run around and do all the most insane physical things. But he also doesn't have the benefit, or I think narratively, he doesn't have a number one receiver. He doesn't have a superstar running back. He doesn't have an elite defense. And so it does feel like he's just putting the team on his shoulder, even though I think they're solid across the board. You know what I mean? It just feels like he is elevating them.

I really wanted them. And if you look at his next few games, they just have some cream puffs left. But the AFC is really like that. At least they have to play Philadelphia in week 17, and they're at Houston. But yeah, I think Josh Allen has been under the radar this year, all these other stories, and it does feel like we're due. Plus, he's got the Oscars coming up. Maybe his wife gets nominated.

That was a good pick, D. C.

Yeah, that was a good pick. Thank you. I only have a couple of ones left here. Oh, yeah. I need to do My fantasy MVP. So, Craig took JSN, Hyfitz took McCaffrey. Danny took Taylor. Man, this is tough because I was between Mahomes and Dak. I think it's Dak.

You can make an argument he's been one of the most valuable picks because of where you could get him.

I think in general, if you could pick a team, you should just say Dallas. I mean, the fact that Pickins, Javante Williams, out of nowhere at Dak, they've all been so… Jake Ferguson is the number one tight end in fantasy. Everybody's cleaning up.

Dak, if you extend the grace of what he's done for them overall, is probably the correct answer. I still think he's still on maybe between the rules, but yeah.

He's also been awesome. Yeah.

He's been incredibly nice.

I think him and May are playing consistently the best on throws. Just the guys are in stride all the time, the deep balls, everything. Big time throws. Big time throws. That game he had against Green Bay, I thought it was the best quarterback game I've seen this year.

The three of us couldn't watch that. It was at 5 AM in Dublin. So we actually literally had to go to bed.

It's hard to watch when you're out of the country with the geo-locating. They got good at that. So we were just following the box score live.

We're like, Wow, everyone's playing great in this game.

I'm the only one who didn't have most viable player. Craig took Mahomes. Heifetz took Stafford. Danny took Allen.

I mean, come on. It's sitting right there for you.

Well, a week ago, I would have taken Mayfield, but Evans has gone for... I think that's a mountain too high for them.

You're going to pretend you're not going to You're not going to do it? It's a different- Stop dancing in the backfield.

Just do it.

Not Mayfield. Just do it.

A different man. I looked at Jonathan Taylor, but runningbacks never win. Oh, my God. Runningbacks never win. Runningbacks never win.

Why are you pretending? What are we doing? You're edging me. You're trying to show that you didn't work for this.

This is plausible deniability. Come on, just say it.

Jared off. Get the fuck out of here. He's not winning. Stop.

Tell us about Jackson Smith and Jigmoth. He's good.

He's 100 to one. He's good. He's 100 to one. They're going to win nine games.

I feel like the Game of Thrones, the guy's on fire. Kill me.

He's going to do it. Daniel Jones, 22 to one. He's not winning. Jordan Love is even playing that one.

Anyway, your next pick, Dike.

Lamar, 33 to 1.

That's not bad.

Jake May, third best odds, 7 to 1. It does fit that top two seed thing if they can beat Buffalo again.

I hate to say it, he does.

Fourth best odds. I wanted Allen, but I think that's the right outcome.

You could go back to Daniel Jones or Jonathan Taylor. I don't know. Toss up. You picked Colts for one seed, so by that logic.

Then I think I have I see murderer left. This is my last category. What is that category?

Yeah, Travian, Brian Thomas, and Brock Bowers have been taken.

This is really tough because I wanted to take Garrett Wilson, but his stats actually aren't that bad. Started really well. It just feels philosophically like it should be him. More because he was a murderer last year, so he's like a double murderer. I think he's like a murder victim.

He's just been with the worst. You can take Fields. Fields has been super up and down, ruined a lot of people.

Yeah, but anyone who's like, I'm devoting my fantasy season to Justin Fields.

You have to spend a certain amount of a high pick on a player. That's why I think Henderson is as low as you can go. That still is a murderer because you reach for this fourth-run guy and he's the only hype. But it has to be a high pick.

Did we mention Saquon or Henry?

Saquon and Derek Henry are eligible, I think. Henry got dinged because of Lamar getting hurt.

Saquon has literally done almost exactly half of what he did last year.

He's the It'll be 18.

Well, so I think Saquon is my pick. I did look at Nico Collins, too, because I paid $50 for him. He is not been a $50 guy, but he is scoring touch downs in some of the games. That's not really awful. And then the only other one I was thinking was Genti just because he was being treated like a top five guy. But I think it has to be Barkley. Barkley was- You took him first overall. Yeah. And he was supposed to be a sure thing. There's no doubt about this guy.

It's funny that the person who's actually made people the angriest this season that we've heard about is probably A. J. Brown, and a different eagle got picked. A. J. Brown didn't even get picked.

That's because the last A. J. Brown has been on the up.

But are people mad at A. J. Brown or are they mad that they don't throw A. J. Brown the ball? They're mad at the angels. Right. Okay. Danny, you're up. And it looks like...

So I've got... I still have to do offensive, defensive, rookie of the Year. I fucked myself on this one because now the good players are taken. I'm going to go off the board here. I'm going to take a sleeper. And I'm going to say Travis Hunter, who is trending in the right direction. He plays on both sides of the ball. If he finishes strong... So last week, he had eight catches for 101 yards.

The game was over for two hours. I know, but he started I know.

But if you combine the Brian Thomas stuff, him trending in the exact wrong direction. Travis Hunter, they're playing him more and more on offense now. If you look at some of his snaps and target rates on offense, they're all going in the right direction. So this is more like a prediction of what's going to happen and a narrative pick because he's the number two pick. He plays both sides of the football. Obviously, it looks terrible right now, but in 10 weeks from now or whatever, we're talking about Travis Hunter having 80 to 100 yards a game and is emerging as their number one receiver, that narratively, I think, will pay off. But obviously, I don't feel great about it right now.

Gladstone is texting Liam Cohen like, We're getting fucking killed. Throw some screens to Hunter. Boost the stats. Craig, you're up.

I'm going to take the Patriots as the one seed in the AFC. They're five and two. They're the easiest schedule in the league. I think 12 wins minimum.

I appreciate it. Thank you.

I guess I'll just be the... I'll do a deep cut here. I don't know if you guys have heard of this team, but I'm going to take the Kansas City Chiefs to be the one seed in the AFC, the best team in football.

That's Totally. I think that's... I thought about it, but they already have three losses. They have some hard. They can basically only lose two games to have a shot the rest of the season.

I think they will. The Chiefs are going to... Look, the Mahomes thing for MVP, I'm jealous. Mahomes has 11 touch downs and one pick last month. They're going to go on a warpath. They're also the healthiest good team. They play the Colts. So if they win that game, they make that up right there.

They play the Colts, they play the Bills, they play the Broncos twice still. They have Houston, the Chargers.

I'm not worried about them playing the Broncos. The Chiefs, eight teams in the AFC are between six and four wins, and the Chiefs, to me, are clearly the best of the eight.

I think it's the right pick. You have one more.

I have one more here. And so I guess now I double-dip. I have to dip into the categories that you guys just left to me. There's one boring one the quarterback offseason Hot Seat or teams that get the one pick. Bill, what do you want to... You don't care. You do whatever you want to do. I am so thrilled that you guys left me JJ McCarthy for the Vikings as the quarterback offseason Hot Seat. Wow. This guy... The Vikings had a very difficult situation to decision, where do you pay Darnold $30, $40 million a year or do you go with McCarthy? And that's a hard decision. So it's not back Monday morning quarterbacking, but they clearly made the wrong decision. Because Darnold is playing, I mean, last time is tough, but Darnold's playing overall totally, really well for Seattle. And then on the other hand, McCarthy, I agree with what you were saying on Sunday, Bill. We all wonder if the McCarthy ankle thing was a shadow benching. There's probably some injury there, but I'm like, they are hiding this guy. And also the Vikings, to this point in the season, had the easiest schedule in the NFL.

The Vikings going forward have the hardest schedule in the NFL. So McCarthy comes back. He's going to get rocked. He's clearly not ready for the NFL, and the Vikings are a win-now team. The timeline lines are totally mismanaged. He's not going to play well. And if he doesn't, the whole offseason is going to be, what do the Vikings do? They're going to go in with just JJ McCarthy again? They had Daniel Jones last year. Let him go. They had Zamdarnold. They let him go. And he has more pressure on him than any quarterback going into next year.

It's the longest high ankle sprain, I think, in recorded American history. It's like six weeks now. It's like, yeah. I mean, we have so much good technology. It basically means you would have to have a stress fracture in your ankle to not be playing.

Well, they're in just clearly in no rush.

He also looked horrible and unprepared on that Sunday night football game. It was the same night as the Emmies. He just looks not ready, but the Vikings are ready.

He's basically want to know.

Yeah. Well, I'll say you have that postgame locker room speech with O'Kano. It's like, This guy, we never gave up on him. And McCarthy's like, Yeah!

But also, it's the highlight of his year. Do you have ever had any friends who had a girlfriend, but they were never there? They were never around. You never met them? There's always some reason. She goes to a different school. Yeah, he goes to a different school. She's in Canada. It's like, Oh, yeah, last year, what happened? He was like, This medescus thing. He was the only rookie. It's like, Oh, where is he now? He's got a high ankle sprain. He's never there. When are we going to meet him? I know.

Craig. I'm going to take Coach of the Year.

Wait, can I interrupt on the high fits thing for a second? Sure. I'd like to apologize to C. J. Stroud for not getting drafted for QB offices. I thought about it.

I certainly thought about it.

I almost took him over Lawrence. Are we sure he shouldn't take the blame?

Well, I'm not saying he shouldn't.

I don't think he will. Did you like anything he did in that game yesterday? How many times can you blame the offensive line?

He hasn't been good since his rookie year. The last two seasons, he's been genuinely bad. The Trevor Lawrence point that you made about everyone's creating excuses around Trevor Lawrence, it's the same for Stroud. The offensive line is a disaster. It's like maybe this play collar is also bad.

I thought their defense was awesome. The only times the Seahawks moved the ball was like, JSN was incredible, or they had that crazy field position. But Texans were like, there was like 10 guys hats on the ball in some of those plays.

There were three defenses that are actually good at all three Those were two of them.

They have to be so mad at the offense. Like, what the fuck?

He might just be so gun-shy now and just scared in the pocket because he just gets drilled on every single play.

The Texans' offensive line was so bad last year that they actually just swapped in five guys and changed everything. Dimeo Ryan is like, I've never seen a headline that was the head coach being like, I deny that there's a toxic culture in an offensive line room. I'm like, I don't... We've come to a League of Dec. Who said that? Yeah. But it's Occam's Razor. The line It sucks. Yeah.

Sorry, Craig.

You're all good. I'm taking Coach of the Year fell to me. I really like these odds. Mike McDonald, Seattle Seahawks. I love that. If they win the division with Sam Darnold, year one, 12 wins or something like that, absolutely Mike McDonald could win Coach of the Year.

I had him as my fourth spot. The only thing holding that back is- He could give a speech about, I'm sorry, I was such a puss in week one. And then later that other game.

I don't think he'll use that word. Okay. He It seems a little bit too straight-laced.

Well, now he believes in the team. When he went from fourth and two, it was a turning point. Yeah. It's like, I believe in you guys.

They should be seven and now, Seattle.

They're really good. Well, the only thing holding him back, and I agree that he's done a really good job, and the offseason decisions, that's something we talked about with Steiken. You're making these really momentous offseason decisions. They're trading away Dike and Mike. They're trading away Gino. And all those decisions look really smart. So that is going to help him. But the only thing holding him back is Seahaw has won 10 games last year. So that's generally the Coach of the Year is like you're bad and then good. But I like that.

It's also Coach of the Year is the stupidest award there is.

It's a narrative award.

The Coach of the Year award is called the Lombardi Trophy. Sure. It's the dumbest thing ever, a regular season Coach of the Year award.

I'm only down to... I got a few more.

We have one more, I think, right?

So I have to go with the one seed. I'm going with the bills. Seventh easiest schedule, according to Warren Sharp. Very smart. And obviously, I'm done. I'm stacking here with Josh Allen, MVP. So, yeah. Okay.

And then I'm up? Yeah. Why do I have... Pause this for a second.

I have one more. Right?

I feel it. Maybe I went three times in a row.

Are you done?

I have picks for every pick.

Did you pick next coach fired?

I have- No, you don't have next coach fired. Okay.

Neither does DK.

Yeah. I think that's my last one. Yeah.

But he should have two. Bill should have two.

I should have two. I must have doubled that.

You don't have fantasy MVP, Bill. Who did you pick for fantasy MVP?

I took Dak.

Dak, right. Barclays.

I probably went twice.

Heifitz only has a team that will get the number one pick. Bill did.

Yeah, maybe Bill went three times around.

So just go once then, Bill.

No, because we all have... Well, I don't know.

Whatever. I do have Bill. I do have... Oh, wait, no, no, no. Bill, you don't have Coach of the Year? He took Shana in, right? No, he took- Oh, you took Shana in? Okay. Yeah.

Bill took Shana in.

All right.

So... How did we... I have no idea. I don't know what we did.

You just got to go once and then we'll swing back.

Pretty exciting. So I have next Coach fired as my last one. Yeah. Okay. And I will do... Okay. All right, coming back. I'll do it differently. All right, I'm up with next coach fired, and somehow this is my last pick. So we think maybe I did three pics in a row at some point. I'm making fun of Pete Carroll, and I've just about tripled up on my spot.

I mean, you remember the 1976 Mariner's being introduced. But I will say in Ringer 107, you changed the lines of the Broncos game. I didn't change it. There's cheating allegations.

There's no cheating.

There's an active investigation. Okay, that's fair.

We lost the pick anyway.

How do you feel about us three?

There's a pattern.

How do you feel about us three in first place, Ringer 107?

Won't last for much longer.

Wait, what is the meme you said this morning? The gambling contest, we're tied for first, and you said we would come in last.

The happy Gilmore when he's like, The pathetic thing is, you've been doing this your whole life.

I thought you'd come in last. I didn't know Shiel was going to get bit by a black widow spider this season.

What's great about it is we legitimately spend three minutes a week. That's the way to do it. It's going all right.

We're the people who draft our teams in February.

You're the intern Every week we're like, Should we just take the Colts again?

We're like, yeah, let's do it.

Smart. Next coach fired. I got to do it. John Harbaugh.

I like it. What?

John Harbaugh.

Yeah.

Lamar has been hurt. Okay.

I think if this goes badly this year, Lamar comes back and say, Oh, they're going to be fine. They're going to make it. And if it goes badly the next five weeks.

I agree that John Harbaugh has at various times been closer to getting fired than you would think. Yes. There actually hasn't been a coach-quarterback pair in this one of Super Bowl. It took longer than five years. Having said that, firing John Harbaugh after the most injured season the Ravens have had in 10 years They've had two bad seasons in 17 years under Harbaugh. He would then probably get his salary doubled to be replaced. The Browns or Bangles would just fire their coaches.

We live in a world where Andy Reid got fired after one 6-10 Eagles season. People are like, he's done, can't coach anymore. I think it's on the table. They've never made the Super Bowl with him and Lamar. They're having a bad season. If you're ever going to press the Eject button, this would be it. I couldn't come up with a better coach idea.

It is hard, actually.

After Danny goes, we'll have to go through who didn't get picked.

Yeah, and I also have a problem. I probably messed myself up by not picking this earlier. But I think the reason I didn't is because I'm going out of left field, too. I'll put Jonathan Gannon for the Cardinals.

So he was the other guy I was looking at.

I think it's more of just a vibes and lack of progress thing. That would be the reason. I don't feel strongly that he deserves to get fired, but I think just...

I had him on the list. Yeah.

I had him on the list. I do I feel like that team has played reasonably hard for him. It just seems like they're a 50-minute team, and they seem to run out of gas.

I don't think it's a Jonathan Gannon problem.

No, I agree. But I think just...

That's the thing. There's not a lot of next coach fired candidates. My two I mean, the other one I was thinking about Glenn or McDaniel.

That's why I took McDaniel with the first pick in this whole thing.

Part of me thought if the Giants were really bad, they could fire Dable.

I'm shocked nobody took Dable.

I think Dable bought himself time, which is exactly what you do when you take- He's tied in with Dard.

They got something going. I'd be surprised if they fired him.

You'd be more Are you surprised if the Giants fired Brian Dable at the end of the season, then the Ravens firing John Harbaugh?

No.

I think it's even for me. I think this Raven season could go really badly where they're just like, We've got to figure out something new here. You know what I mean? If it's ever going to happen, it's a year like this where it's like the year from now. And then there's got to be a fall guy. Because that's the other thing that happens with this stuff is people start... There's the political stuff, and it's like, well, somebody's going to get blamed. Maybe it's this guy's fault. And that's when the finger-putting starts.

Also, there's an impression among some people in the NFL that if you've been there a certain amount of years, the message just doesn't come through anymore. I don't know what the Ravens feel about that, but that was part of the reason the Pete Carroll thing ended in Seattle. At some point, we don't- You've taken this as far as you can go. We don't listen to all the stuff that you profess every practice or whatever. It just gets... You just get numb to it.

You guys are right. John Harbor should have a medical degree in the last six weeks and just fixed everyone on the eighth of their top.

I didn't realize Heifetz was this fashion about John Harbaugh.

It's like my 39th pick in the draft.

Fair enough. Welcome to my life, Phil. The name of Jonathan Gated.

Fair enough.

I couldn't even come up with another idea.

I have to deal with this four times a week.

It's true. The fact that Deket has killed me by now.

I feel like the Dert Dayball thing really bought Dabal another year.

I did, too. Yeah, we could see, but when they were winning. But now they had the worst... They were allowed 33 points in the fourth quarter. Shane Bowen in the defensive quarter is going to be sacrificed in the next month.

Who? Craig, you're up.

My last category is breakout star. I'm happy to just fall back on Jackson Dart.

Yeah. Smart. Did no one put Daniel Jones? Does that not count?

I thought about it. He would have counted. He didn't know he was qualified. I just think Dart- He's a character. Well, I also compared to what everybody thought about him coming in. Sure, that's true. 1% of people thought he was going to be a starter in the NFL. And not only is he going to be a starter, but he looks great for having played six games, five games.

It's thrilling.

So Hyfetz has the last pick, and it's team that will get the number one pick. Jets, Miami, and Tennessee off the board.

My cup runneth over getting to pick between the Raiders and the Saints. This is unbelievable. It's pretty nice. I mean, this is- Cup runeth over.

That's incredible. I mean, they're all good. I mean, there's five terrible teams. Everyone's going to get a good one.

I have many thoughts here.

I think the Saints are competent.

For that reason, I'm taking the Raiders because I can't get over the fact that they had allowed more points than had ran plays.

That's really brutal. I feel like they threw that game away, though. They knew Bowers wasn't playing. They knew they were going to lose the Chiefs. It felt like a rollover.

Yeah, they're going on by.

Well, it's really early to roll over. It's not even Halloween.

I don't think the Raiders are going to have the first pick.

I think Kamal Harris maybe will come in and just take over in the middle of the season to be Carroll. Yeah, you're right.

What was the other option?

The Saints. What?

So you didn't support that decision by the Democratic Party?

Sometimes That's the timing.

She had 100 days.

Sal was saying that's the name of Ringer 107.

All right. She had 107 days.

People have asked why it's 107 instead of 103 because the correct number is 103 for five.

Is that right?

Well, Because we're putting props in. The extra games are when we get to the playoffs, it's going to be props plus the game.

Yeah. I don't know why everyone just doesn't know that immediately.

I don't know why they didn't ask. Right here, they could have asked me. I'm standing right here. Here's the case for the Saints. It seems like they might want the number one pick. I don't think Rattler is that bad. He was bad in Chicago, outdoors, whatever. The Bear's defense is actually pretty good. But for the most part, he's not bad. They replaced him with Shuck, my shit detector is going off. That could be one of those, Oh, I see what you guys are up to.

I think the same reason they roll the cap over every year, they don't do that. They're Mickey Loomis, who runs the team for reasons we don't have to get into quietly as entrenched It's just anybody in the league. The deal is that they'll be competitive for Gael Benson, who owns the team, and the deal is we're competitive.

So your case is they're not competent enough to even plan a tanking strategy.

No. The Dolphins can.

They don't think that way.

So I'm going to recap the draft. I'm not going to say everybody's name, before each pick, but I went first. No. Danny went first.

Me, second.

Wait, why did I do it this way? This is how you got three picks. I'll just do it this way. I'll go me, Craig, high fits, Kelly in these orders. So I'm first, Craig, second, high fits, third, Danny, fourth. Most valuable player, May Mahomes, Stafford, Allen. Coach of the Year, Shanehan McDonald, Vrabel, Steiken. Offensive, defensive, rookie of the Year, Warren, Dart, Agbuka, Travis Hunter. Why not? Very exciting pick. Next coach fired, Harbaugh, Glenn, McDaniel Gannon, breakout star. Jake May, picked twice by me. That was great. Who could have seen that? I love how that worked out. Dart, Skatebu, Igbuka. Who wasn't picked in that category? Which one? Breakout Star.

Daniel Jones. Warren wasn't?

Warren probably had a case. He's probably upset. What about Dautl? Dautl. Qbiqb offseason, a hot seat guy. Rogers, Breakout Star? Rogers. A re-breakout. Qb offseason, a hot seat. Lawrence, Murray, McCarthy, Tua. Apologies to Stroud. He can't believe he didn't get drafted.

Honorable mention, Stroud.

One seat, AFC or NFC. I I took Indy, Craig had the Pats, Hyfitz had the Chiefs, and Danny had Buffalo. I think those are four good picks. What's interesting is no NFC teams. Nfc is wide open. We all passed on Philly.

Well, because it's Detroit's there, Green Bay's there. There's a lot.

You also have the third hardest remaining schedule also. Yeah.

I think we also have the same way.

I also thought Dan Campbell would get a coach of the year pick because of the lines without losing Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn and then all the injuries, and they get the one seat anyway.

I think he has the fourth best. I got to say for one seat, I did have Seattle as my fifth backup. Team that will get the number one pick, Jets, Miami, Vegas, Tennessee, no surprise there. Fantasy MVP, I had Dak, Craig had JSN, Heifetz had McCafree, and Danny had Taylor. Then The most important, the best picture award nominee for this thing, fantasy murderer of the year, Barkley, Henderson, Thomas Jr, and Bowers were the big four. Bowers is the only one I feel bad about because he did get hurt, but they also didn't tell us he was hurt for five weeks. We're going to go after we do one crazy prediction, Heifetz, which is your craziest prediction for the rest of the year.

I feel like Joe Flacko is going to play so well for the bangles that they're actually... We're going to have a debate whether Joe Burrow should even go back.

Stop.

This is good. It was crazy. Hold on. Where's our hottest take?

Obviously, healthy Joe Burrow is better. I'm just saying, you said craziest prediction. The single craziest thing I believe.

I will say there is online discourse that now Burrow is a system quarterback. Burrow is Flacko dice him up.

Flacko is like, Wait, just throw it to Chase? This is so easy. 23 targets to Jamal Chase? Obviously, Joe Burrow, healthy, is one of the best players in the entire league and would be a question. I think if Joe Flacko... I actually wonder, obviously, maybe the Steelers are just idiots and couldn't cover Jamal Chase for some reason. That's correct. That's his 23rd target. But if Flacko keeps us up, and the whole idea is if you just get a good enough record to get to Burrows returning in December, then he can finish up the season, bangles can make the plays. If Flacko does that, if they go eight and three or whatever in the next 11 weeks or whatever, who's going to be better? Joe Flacko having won seven of his last nine games or Joe Burrow rushing back from an injury with three months of rust? And imagine if Burrow comes back and then doesn't play well because he's hurt and rusty and everyone's going to be like, damn, should Flacko play next week? I think this will happen.

It's pretty good. It definitely will, but it's a crazy tradition.

It's a good hot take.

Craig was jealous of it.

Yeah, I know. Mine's not as hot as that. What do you got, Craig? Mine is more offseason, but I think the Steelers are going to resign Aaron Rodgers. I think they're going to extend him. Oh, he's not done.

No. Because he said that he's retiring after this year.

No, I think they're going to go 11 and 6.

No, they're going to draft a player in the first round, and then he's going to be like, I want, I'm back.

They're going to win a playoff game, and he's going to come back because the quarterback class this year is bad. They're going to have a bad pick. Their team is old. Their defense is old. They are in win now mode. It seems like it's working, and the locker room likes Aaron Rodgers. He mixes well with Arthur Smith and Tomlin. I think they're just going to bring him back and extend him.

I think he's dumb, but that's going to happen.

He's got that second wind, the third wind. It does remind me a lot of the time when the packers were like, he's cooked. We're going to draft Jordan Love, and then he won two straight MVPs.

When does the... Braided played until he was 45. When does that become?

Yeah, Roger's is only 41. That's spring chicken compared to Katie.

Oh, my God. This is going to five more years of Rodgers.

Think about all the anti-aging stuff he's probably doing.

The herbal tea he's drinking. We can't even imagine what he's having.

Who's the guy who wants to live forever? What's his name?

Brian Johnson. Brian Johnson. You know that guy who lives in Venice? Brian Johnson?

I've read about that guy.

He's like, he measures his morning wood.

Inerections every night. He takes his son's blood every day. The vampire. The funny thing about him is- The blood bag guy. I believe he is like, 45 years old, and if you see him, he looks 45. He says he's the biologically youngest 45-year-old in the world.

When you do all that stuff, it's like you're going to die being electrocuted during golf. He'll get hit by a bus. Hit by lightning.

Or like, what in a million odds. Also, you live in LA, the worst air pollution city. You're just breathing that in every day.

Dk, what do you have?

I'm stealing this from the online discourse, but JJ McCarthy will never start another game for the Vikings. I don't actually believe this, but I'm starting to maybe think it's true. It feels like they are, Why don't you just go get some work on your ankle? Just keep working on it. They watch them in practice.

Daddy's taking the dog to the farm. He'll be back. The dog will be back.

Don't worry. Amazing take.

I think it's also funny because- It's like on TV, somebody just is off the show for a couple of weeks and they never come back.

What happened? Weren't they in the credits?

They kill somebody off of Grey's Anatomy.

And then McCarthy sued the Vikings in two years. The Vikings' quarterback room last year, Sam Darnold, Daniel Jones, JJ McCarthy's on IR. I think Daniel Jones is actually on a practice squad for most of the time. But it is crazy that they let Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones go, and they are two of the best quarterbacks in the NFL this year. And now they're playing Carson Wentz.

I know. If the Vikings were smart, they get rid of McCarthy, and then they should trade for Trevor Lawrence and O'Neill just fixes Trevor Lawrence.

Speaking of online discourse, you know who's the hot topic right now? Anthony Richardson.

Jesus Christ.

Let's do this. Let's do this. Solak was tweeting about it today. It was great.

Richardson to the Vikings?

To the Viking? Oh, because they wanted him at number 4.

Yeah, and there's an NFL Films behind the scenes thing where KLC was like, hugging Richardson and talking to him.

That's O'Kunal getting way too cocky, being like, I can fix anything. He's like, I can fix it.

He's like, I can fix it.

Well, O'Kunal, I mean, Darnold, Daniel Jones, he really helped guys with What's going on in their head? And Anthony Richardson just broke his face with bandwork pregame. So maybe K.

O. C. A lot of pain going on in his head.

It's just bad vibes happening there with Richardson. He needs to go find a new home.

I'm so excited to unleash mine. I'm glad I'm going last. I'm even going to give you the week. It's going to be in this range between week 11 and week 13. Ben Johnson will bench Caleb Williams and start Tyson Bajian. He'll be the starter. Tyson Bajian will be the starter in time for week 13, week 14. My God. This is my crazy prediction. Why? Because I think the bears are pretty good, and I think Caleb is holding them back, and Ben Johnson is just going to be like, Fuck it. And he loves Tyson Bajian.

They're four and two. They've won four straight. Yeah.

They're They're like a playoff team, and Caleb has not been good for them.

You must have been talking to Treygman a little bit too much.

Treygman, not the biggest Caleb Williams fan. Was Caleb supposed to call you and missed it? Is that what happened?

I don't know what the impetus will be, but there were a lot of breadcrumbs being dropped Tyson Bajian's way before the year about what an unbelievable teammate he is. I think at some point, their team's pretty good. They just need somebody to drive the car, and they could go 11 and 6.

Do you think Caleb is not on the bears next year?

Here's how I played it on my Some minor injury where they're just like, We're going to sit him this week and play Tyson and Ben Johnson is going to be like, Please God, have him be fucking awesome.

To make up something hypothetical, like a high ankle sprain or something.

Yeah, maybe it's low ankles. Some are like a pulled groin, or he took a hit.

The thing I hate about this is how it makes me nervous because it could be real. Former Ringer colleague, Reino Hamlin, has started texting me with the hashtag Baygent Boys because he just thinks me. He's like, I think Baygent I think Bajint's better than Caleb.

They extended Bajint. It's offseason.

They love him.

They like his work ethic.

They talked about how much they love him, and he's one of the best people I've ever been around. They did all this stuff.

But the old coaching staff or the new coaching staff? The old coaching staff really threw Caleb under the bus.

New coaching staff. I don't know if you guys watch the States game. We had it in Ringer 107. Caleb was bad in that game. Caleb's been bad every game, except for the Dallas game.

He's just really inaccurate. That's the problem. It's like in Ben Johnson, you could see an offensive Coach doing this. It's like the Shanehan thing. It's like, I don't care who he is. I don't care if it's Trey Lance. We drafted him third overall or whatever it was. Our third guy is running the offense the most clean.

The entire Patriest thing happened because they gave Bledso $100 million contract and Belichick still kept Radian.

It's a little Trevor Lawrencey with Caleb Williams, where you can see the physical tools. There are moments where you're like, Jesus, Caleb's making throws two people in the lead can make. But just normal downs where a guy's open.

Just throw it to the guy who's open. Here's the thing, though. I'm torn with Caleb because on one hand, I wonder if there's smoke with fire with all these, I guess the word is unsubstantiated rumors about all the stuff that was said by the previous staff anonymously. But the flip side is I also am just a radical about really telling quarterbacks needing time. I don't know. You remember the Mariner since '76? Remember when quarterbacks weren't supposed to play? I just couldn't believe you said you remember 1976. It was a big deal.

We had two new American League teams. It's like, who are these guys?

It's just a I don't know anything to say. But your whole life wasn't the deal. Quarterbacks had to sit for a long time. Caleb Williams, to me, the comp for him the whole time was everyone said Mahomes. It's like, It's Aaron Rodgers. And that's not even the size, the way he plays, off platform, a little personality-wise. How dare you? I'm just saying, though, but it's not just me. Caleb Williams himself, if you ask him, he's like, I based my game off Aaron Rodgers, everything he does. And so how did Aaron Rodgers do a year and a half into his career? He didn't play.

What was Hyfitz's crazy prediction? What did Did you just have four minutes ago for your crazy prediction?

I had you would take Drake in two different categories. No. No, I had Joe Flacko go to the bank.

He like, Burrow won't come back. Hype it said Joe Flacko was going to nudge a healthy Joe Burrow out of the last two weeks of the season. And now he's giving a passion discourse for why my crazy prediction was too crazy.

I actually forgot it was the craziest prediction because I actually the last three, I was like, damn, that's actually going to happen. I feel like they got more realistic as they went through.

It's interesting. It was so non-crazy. You forgot it was It's a crazy prediction category because it is crazy. Them benching Caleb Williams would be crazy. But I also wouldn't be like, oh, my God, they bench Caleb Williams. Mine's nuts.

Yours is believable. That could happen.

Yours is believable if Burrow's hurt, though. If it's like Burrow can limp around, but we're going to throw them back in. And Flacko is playing well, they're not going to change it.

They said December for Burrow, but they meant January. They're being optimistic.

But now, are you right about the Caleb thing? Yeah. If Caleb blows some game to the bangles against Flacko, throws four picks, and it's a disaster, and it moves the bears to under 500, maybe Ben Johnson gets a little fed up.

See, I think he does it if he thinks they have a chance to actually be good. Because Swift has never run like this. I think he's the best he's ever run.

He's made the run game look really good.

Yeah. But Dunse is a real number one, legitimate guy. I like their team.

All their pieces are really good.

I thought their defense was awesome on Sunday. I know they're playing against the Saints, but it was hats on the ball.

They I think a lot of takeaways. Yeah.

I don't know. Like their team. And then the emotional Dennis Allen game ball after.

The speech and everything was good. I think Dennis Allen knowing Rattler's, the whole roster's strengths and weaknesses. But also that was a weird game because Rattler got displaced by Caleb at Oklahoma. The whole ego death that Rattler has gone through started with Caleb just came in and just immediately was electric and Rattler had to leave tail between his legs to go to South Carolina. But I think that's relatedly the combo of... I think Rattler was pushing the ball a little bit because I do think subconsciously he was trying to prove something. Also, Dennis Allen was just weirdly equipped to take advantage of all the holes on that team.

All right, we're wrapping that up. What do we call that draft? I don't know if we'll do it again. I don't know.

The midway draft? I don't know. Midseason draft?

My guy was such an easier title. That was like a midseason check-in draft. Danny Craig, great to see you guys. You can listen to them on the fantasy football show, the Ringer fantasy football show on all of our platforms. Good to see you all.

Thanks for having us. Thanks.

That's it for the podcast. Thanks to you, Danny and Danny and Craig. Thanks to Eduardo and Gehow as well. I will be back on this podcast on Thursday with some basketball and some football. Looking forward to seeing it. Must be 21 plus in President Select States for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus in President DC, Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem, call 1-800 Gamble or visit rg-help. Com. Call 888-79-7777 or visit ccpg. Org/chat-in-connectget or md-gamblinghelp. Org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelp-line-ma. Org, or call 800-327-5050 for 24/7 support in Massachusetts, or call 877-8 Hope, N-Y or text Hope, N-Y, in New.