Transcript of Hello Cleveland, Week 4 NFL Picks, NBA Award Leans, Raiders Realities, and Boston Despair With Joe House, Tom Pelissero, and Bill’s dad

This is the Bill Simmons Podcast presented by FanDuel. Make every NFL week more rewarding with FanDuel Rewards Club. You heard me. Just bet like you normally would, earn points on eligible settled bets, win or lose. Keep collecting points, level up, and unlock bigger rewards. So keep an eye on your Rewards Club progress and see what you can unlock. This is your most rewarding season ever, and it's with FanDuel. 21+ select states or 18+ DC or Wyoming. Game problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER, call 888-789-7777, or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut. All right. I was just doing a tweet, Haus. It's the Bill Simmons Podcast. We're live on Netflix. Very good sports night. Joe Haus is here. You can also listen to him on Ringer Wise Guys and Fairway Rolling. Uh, I have a new Rewatchables coming on Monday, Haus.

Yeah.

We're doing Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Wow. The OG from the '70s?

The OG from 1974. It's on every streaming service right now, including Netflix. So Sierra and I are going to break all of it down.

Wow.

Very fun movie to research all that stuff. Okay, so we had a pivotal best-of-3 baseball game, which we're not going to talk about. We have—

well, it was over in one inning, so it's fine.

Yeah, it was over in one inning. Phillies shut the door with their pitching. We have Fever Aces, which we will talk about in a little bit. And then we had an incredible, for a Thursday night, Browns-Steelers game. The Browns win in the end, 56-yard field goal. They almost blow it. They kicked the ball right at the end zone. They learned nothing from, from the Cowboys 4 days ago. But then Rodgers throws a pick. That's it. The Browns are 3-1 and looked really competent, and they were underdogs in this game. I stayed away. If we had done Ringer 107 and included the Thursday night, I would've thought about them 'cause I, I didn't think they should be underdogs, but— I was impressed. I don't think it's like gonna be a 1 seed or a 2 seed, but I do think they have a chance to make the playoffs.

Yeah. I, I feel kind of bad. I'll confess. I have 2 apologies. One, one to you. Mm-hmm. And I'll, but, but the first one I want to—

Why are you apologizing to me?

Because you and I had a conversation about the Browns and you were like—

You soured me on them. I was gonna—

Yeah.

I'm not sure that I really wanna, to, and yeah, I tried to talk you out of it, but I, I also owe—

'Cause their over was 5.5.

Yeah, yeah, I know. I owe Anthony Jeselnik an apology because on this program last week you made mention of Anthony and his new podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network.

Jeselnik Book Club.

Yeah. And you tried to get some enthusiasm out of me in support of this. And I had been on a business trip. I was unaware of the arrival of the Jeselnik Book Club. I was barely aware that you had interviewed him last week, and I thought it was a bit. I thought you were setting me up for something, so I was kind of dismissive. I'm a big fan. I'm a fan of Jelznik. I'm a fan of the book club. I'm a fan of the pod. So apologies to AJ.

So they— so you want to be invited to the, uh, on the AJ book pod now?

That's—

that was your— no, that was your official resume. No, I think— listen, you're eligible. Ringer people go on the pod.

I mean, I volunteer for every Ringer pod, so that goes without saying.

What do we do with this Deshaun Watson resurgence? Because this is now 2.5 games in a row that he's looked competent. Um, and it started with that Tampa game that cost both of us money, where in the second half, over and over again, he was just completing passes and doing things. Today, there were moments when he was moving around like Houston Deshaun. Yeah, it was kind of shocking. I didn't even know he had that in him anymore, you know. And he made a couple dumb throws, and, uh, it wasn't like he was perfect, but he's certainly So far ahead of where we were a couple weeks ago when we were talking, we were doing the countdown to last games ever to bet against Deshaun Watson. I think he's, he's kind of shoved that whole thing away, right?

The true credit, I think, goes to, to, uh, Todd Monken. I think the combination of just the confidence that Monken has, plus Monken is— we, we've now are having this experience where we're seeing superlative offensive coordinators. And when you see it, you're like, oh my God, he's in his bag. This guy is calling a game where he understands where his advantages are. And the amplifying effect that it has on quarterbacks— we just watched an out-of-body experience out of Case Keenum on Monday night.

Right.

And then, and then that same kind of concept reinforced here tonight with Deshaun Watson we haven't seen in 5 years? 6 years? How long has it been since you see him playing with, with confidence, with instinct, right? He's not thinking anymore.

No, he had a couple like create a play when there was nothing in the play place.

Yeah.

That he used to do when he was at Houston.

Right.

Haven't seen that in forever. Well, it really helps that they nailed 2 drafts in a row, which was one of the cases I had for trying to figure out if they were gonna go over or not. And the quarterback situation looked so bleak in the preseason. It just wasn't a responsible pick. But Concepcion and Boston, they nailed both of those picks, right? Big time. And they're, and they're 2 different types of receivers.

Yeah.

That complement each other perfectly. And it's like, all right, they were 2 top 40 picks, like congratulations. But listen, the Patriots have been drafting 2nd round receivers and end of the 1st round receivers for this entire century and haven't nailed any of them. And they nailed both of them. Like you're lucky to go 1 of 2 in those situations. And then, I thought Judkins had some life too. They lost, they lost Mason Graham in the first half, which, which wasn't, didn't seem like a good omen. And they let Pittsburgh hang around.

Yeah.

And it was the kind of game that I feel like the Browns would've blown.

Browned away.

In years past. And by when I say years past, I mean the entire existence of this Browns expansion franchise.

Last year, earlier this season.

Yeah. And the 2010s, pick a year, they probably would've blown this game, but they did not.

The interesting thing to me is also, speaking of Monken, I'm just gonna do this whole Monken dance.

I like it.

Um, they have, uh, a, a completely revamped offensive line, which is to say, you know, nobody will— of any particular acclaim or vintage, but scheme-wise, because of what they are trying to accomplish with, with their, their run scheme especially, you see Judkins getting, um, getting loose and it creates an advantage for the, for the pass offense. Uh, yeah.

And again, that's a fan in too. Like, they have—

That's right.

This place is— Jeudy, I forgot, was on the team and then all of a sudden he had a couple catches.

Important.

So they go, House, they go at the Jets next week.

Mm-hmm.

Ravens home, at Titans. at Steelers. I'm just looking for easy games on the schedule for them other than at Titans. They have Texans, Raiders, Bengals, Falcons at home. They're at the Giants, which the Giants might be tanking at that point. And they're home Colts and at Bengals. There, there might be like 9 wins in there. I don't know if that's— I don't know if there's 10.

Yeah, that's a— I mean, the, the challenge now is like the Raiders, that's not a pushover team. The Jets, I don't think are a pushover team. Like where, where you would go through and say, okay, they, they—

2 Bengals games left, 2 Ravens games left.

Yeah.

Basically they do have 2 first-round picks and they could potentially do one of them. The better they are though, the stranger these broadcasts are gonna be when they have to, they force themselves to have the obligatory Deshaun conversation too, where they, it's like, ah, we got kind of gotta do it. And then they wanna do it, but they don't wanna spend too much time on it and they gotta kind of rip through it and I guess that we're just gonna be doing that forever too.

Well, I mean, 4 games in, let's see how this week plays out, but he's in the top half of the league of quarterbacks. Is he in the top 10?

Where, where, where is this crazy? I mean, he was so bad in that first game.

Yeah.

That it felt like they, it almost felt like Monken was throwing him to the wolves in those first 2 games so that he could start Shedeur in week 3 at home and just be outta this and be good. And I don't know if it's gonna happen. On the, on the Pittsburgh side, they're 2-2. Another confident Aaron Rodgers game.

Yeah.

But you know, he had—

Almost 300 yards. Yeah.

He had a couple across the body throws. I thought he took some hits. I didn't get the feeling from him that, you know, he was just trying to get rid of the ball and not get hit at all like you do sometimes when you watch them. And I thought he was good last week too. They figured out something with the tight ends. Metcalf, who I think only had 5 catches, but they were over 100 yards with the catches. Uh, and Jaylen Warren, just, just turning the, uh, running game over to him seems like it's okay. They're fine. They're gonna be in that 8-9, 9-8, somewhere around there too.

Of course. Yeah, the defense is good. The defense turned the game with the, the 2— generated the 2 turnovers that you expect out of Pittsburgh. That's what put the game in, you know, within arm's reach of them winning. Do you think they could've used Joey Porter in that game? End-of-game possession. Maybe, maybe they could've used him.

Couple plays, Boston going deep.

Yeah.

Good Thursday night game though.

Really good. Like good spirited divisional game. Well played. I'm interested in looking at where the EPA and success numbers come in, 'cause it felt like it was pretty efficient. I didn't feel like I was watching a lot of bullshit tonight.

Yeah. And Bills-Lions was good in week 1, at least fun to watch. Last week, Green Bay didn't show up, but Atlanta, they were kind of fun to watch. So maybe, maybe Thursday nights are back. Thursday night, who knows?

Fingers crossed.

We're gonna do a lot more NFL in a second 'cause we have Ringer 107. We gotta talk Fever Aces. How much, how closely did you watch what was going on in this game?

I watched like the entirety of the second quarter, and to me that was the sort of difference in the game. It was, that stretch where towards the end of that quarter, the Fever couldn't score.

Yeah.

And every possession looked like it was hard. They were laboring on offense. There were step-back 3 attempts. They weren't getting offensive rebounds.

Yeah.

And that was the margin the Aces needed, 'cause the Aces were getting buckets when they needed to throughout the game. And you knew for sure after the first quarter went 31-31, like a, like a giant scoring quarter.

Yeah.

In an elimination game, you knew it was gonna ratchet down. And then, you know, you're looking at for the balance of the game, quarters where the highest scoring quarter was, was, uh, the highest scoring team was the Aces in the 4th quarter. And that's just 'cause they're getting the fouls at the end.

Championship game.

Yeah.

This is a team that's won 3 out of 4 years. They have the best player of all time in the league who put up 36 today. He was 12 for 15. free throw line. Watching it and thinking the Caitlin side too, Caitlin goes another year now without winning anything. It felt a little 2005, 2007 range Nash versus Duncan to me.

Hmm.

Watching it. 'Cause I think, I thought the Fever were really fun to watch this year. I love the way they played. But the worst habits of them were when they weren't running as much, things slowed down and they would just start jacking up 3s. And I, and I think the 2 guards today for them, Clark and Mitchell, were 6 for 23 from 3.

There you go.

Right.

That's big.

But here's the thing, in the last 5 minutes, they had the ball with a chance to tie twice.

Mm-hmm.

Right. Mitchell missed a little bunny one of the times, and then the other time Caitlin threw her the ball and, and it just kind of ricocheted off of her outta bounds. And then you go on the flip side, those, those 2 Vegas guards and, and Asia are just, I, I don't know how he's— Da'Asia, like, I guess you gotta double her. Maybe we'll see somebody do that in the next— I would never have her have the ball alone at the top of the key ever.

And that's what they run.

I would say, everybody stop it. I know, just send a second person. Let everyone else beat me. I don't, you know, and then Chelsea Gray had a couple hand-in-the-face crazy shots, but this game came down to like 5 plays and they just made all the plays 'cause they're the champs.

Yep.

And if I'm the Fever, I'm like, all right, it's little differences. But that was what that Nash-Duncan era was like, where it was like the Suns were right there and, you know, it was just a couple different plays. There was some style stuff and then there was Duncan and Asia.

Like, you know, if they, if the, the Fever could figure out offensive rebounding.

Yeah.

What was the final they got? Yeah, Mitchell was 7 for 23, by the way. They just, they just didn't play well. You know, the smartest thing Asia did was not playing the FIBA thing.

Uh, yes.

Rested the legs. She—

I think she needed the rest. Leave it at that.

So Caitlin, the narrative now will be, hey, she's never won anything. Congrats on your shoe selling out. I think she's incredibly fun to watch. I have— there's no There's gonna be no jabs at Caitlin coming from my side. But it is true that she has never won anything. Today she was 6 for 18 and had 6 turnovers.

3 for 12 from 3.

Yeah.

Not getting it done.

And got nailed in the mouth at one point and looked like a— one of the things I noticed when I watched, I mean, this is probably one of the biggest non-finals games in the history of the league, right?

Sure.

And the officiating was bad yet again. Um, I just, I'm always like, what's, what was that? How was that? Are they gonna challenge that? You're just kind of constantly asking. Um, but I think the way Asia plays is just kind of perfect for that chaotic, the refs kind of don't know what to do. I don't know how you call anything one way or the other on her. She's creating contact all the time. Um, and they're the best team and they're probably gonna win the title.

She went 12 for 15 from the Free throw line.

We're gonna get Aces Liberty again. That's what's gonna happen.

That's fine. Yeah. I'm just— did you follow the links? I wanted the links.

I know Miles got hurt though.

Yeah.

Yeah. She wasn't remotely the same. Do you follow the controversy at all? The guy pointing at Asia and Asia kind of leaving the court, walking toward him and then—

I saw it. Don't think she needed to leave the court.

It was a weird one.

Don't mind her yelling at the guy. understand, you know, from her perspective why that felt the way it felt. But to leave it—

Yeah, I don't know what the buildup was in those Indiana games with the fans.

Yeah.

And if it's other stuff and that was the culmination, but just as an isolated incident, that was ridiculous. And, um, I didn't think that was a great thing. This league, over and over again, every time they're circling a great moment or a great game, they have to have some dumb shit They just got— it's like the league can't help stepping in it every single time with some dumb event like that. And this is Asia, the best player in the league, coming off a crazy Game 1, crazy in Game 3. And then tomorrow the dialogue will probably be more about her and that fan. 24 hours of, you know, why didn't the WNBA have any punishment and all that stuff. It's just the league can't stay out of it, House.

They'll figure it out. Or they won't.

You seem— did you lose money on this game? You seem kind of low energy on that.

I just want to, I just want to be very careful. I feel like it's—

It's a scared house.

This whole thing, the whole, the whole kit and caboodle. Just, I, I admire the Aces handled their business. They—

The funny thing is 5 minutes from now, you're going to be telling somebody to eat a big dick in the, in the NFL, but WNBA, we're going to be careful. Who you've been betting on?

Yeah, we are.

You've been betting on WNBA this year.

I did. I did. I, I had a nice run with the Mystics. The Mystics were very good. They made a, a push to get to the playoffs. It was absolutely the worst possible matchup for them going against the Dream. The Dream have their number.

It was sad.

Yeah.

We're gonna do Ringer 107. It's brought to you by FanDuel. Make this your most rewarding season. Download the Fando app to check all our Ringer 107 picks and boosted teasers every week this season. The biggest question I got for the past week was, did we find a sponsor for Eat a Fat Dick yet? And are there gonna be t-shirts was another question.

Oh, that's— somebody's gonna do that.

There were t-shirts about my colonoscopy.

That's true.

So now people are wondering, Are there going to be Eat a Fat Dick t-shirts? Would House be on the shirt? What are the shirts going to look like? Is there a logo? It seems like there's some, some interest. And the sponsor stuff, we did get some approaches for some sponsors. And, uh, yeah, I, I wouldn't say they were any mainstream sponsors. There was one that seemed like it might have been, um, a sex toy company.

That feels right.

There was a couple sausage places.

Sure.

Yeah, but didn't— nothing that really caught my eye yet. I'll, I'll, I'll keep you posted.

Okay, thanks.

But I don't know if you're— if you need me to set you up later for somebody to eat a fat dick, tell me.

We'll see how, how this all plays out when we start talking about these games.

What's your record in Ringer 107? Mine is 7 and 8.

I'm 8 and 7.

I'm 7 and 8, but if you just remove Tampa Bay, I'm 7 and 5.

What a fun, fun way to do it. Sure, just remove whoever the biggest loser is.

Last week's strategy of Tampa can't possibly break the record for most times not covering the spread, this would be the week, didn't work, and Baker Mayfield broke his thumb. Yeah, wasn't awesome.

This is their week.

Yeah, I have a— before we get to, uh, Ringer 107, I do have a couple mailbag things just really quickly.

Great.

I got a bunch of people sent Drake May names.

Oh.

That I didn't really appreciate, including Drake Bortles.

Oh no.

Drake Mayday, Drake Madoff, and Drake Maybe Mac Jones seemed to be the more, the most competent ones. Walker from Georgia is a Pacers fan who thinks you should give the Eat a Fat Dick Award to the NBA scheduler who scheduled Halliburton's first game to be against the Pelicans on League Pass.

Oh wow.

He said all the Pacer fans would love for that guy to munch on one.

Well, I don't understand. What's that mean?

They just felt like the guy made the finals 2 years ago. He's one of the league's best young stars and his first game back from a really traumatic injury. And it's like, eh, go find it on League Pass.

They get to, they get to play the Pelicans.

Yeah. But maybe they, maybe they should be playing like, I don't know, somebody good.

I guess, I guess, I get it.

Sam from Nashville heard me and Brian Curtis talking about Mike Tomlin and how he's been the first real football media star we've had since Romo broke out that year. And he mentioned that it was a day before we found out about this Minecraft thing that Tomlin had when he spelled out the city that he built in Minecraft 12 years and how he really got into the Jack and Jill bathrooms. And he doesn't think this is a guy that's getting back into coaching and we're going to have him announcing for a while. I don't understand Minecraft, do you? I don't— I didn't really know what was going on there.

My kid plays it and he plays it with other kids and there is this concept of building things, but I don't know to what end.

Well, I guess you build whatever you're building and then What do you do, show people?

I don't know. That's what I mean. That's exactly what I'm saying.

Do I compete against other people?

I don't know. I have no idea. Haven't gotten engaged in it. Just see him doing it. It feels like it's productive. It's more—

Neither of us are going to judge what somebody does in their dumb spare time.

No.

I've certainly done a bunch of dumb stuff, but the Minecraft, I just don't understand what it is.

With the video game stuff that's out there, this feels wholesome to me. Minecraft. Although, no, I don't think I should reference it.

Great.

Kieran in Manhattan Beach asked if I'm worried that the Seahawks Super Bowl was Drake Maye's version of the Atlanta Hawks Game 7 that Ben Simmons had when he spiraled the wrong way.

That's a tough one.

Kieran, didn't appreciate the email. Patrick in Canada was one of many to point out that Jim Harbaugh theorized that if this Chargers season goes badly, he'll be looking for the exit door to go back to college.

Yes.

Well, he can't because he's suspended for multiple NCAA things.

Oh.

So he actually, he can't go back to college, which I didn't realize.

Wow.

And he can't go back to college for a while. So it's either get fired, Um, go into TV or I guess resign.

Or, or, you know, battle it out like a man.

Um, I think the, the point is I think Jim Harbaugh is sticking around. All right, Ringer 107. I have first pick this week.

You do.

It's week 4.

It's week 4.

Hmm.

You know, there's a couple lines that are at -3.

Mm-hmm.

And I was kind of wondering if they might drop to -2.5 for Sunday and be my 5th Sunday pick, 'cause we pick 3 today and then teaser.

Yep.

And then we have a 5th pick on, on Sunday. I'm just gonna roll the dice with this first one 'cause I don't think the line's gonna go down. Texans -3 against the Cowboys. Texans home. It seems like Nico Collins is back.

Yes.

I assume he's back. He's practiced today. We won't know officially until tomorrow. I was gonna wait until Sunday to make sure he was back, but I think if people know he's back, I think this goes up. Houston's 0-3. I think I've had them at least 2 of those 3 weeks in Ringer 107. I thought they should have won last week and they just kind of gacked the game. Dallas is coming off that weird Brazil game. Dallas's defense, they traded for Joey Porter this week and might actually throw him out there.

Why not?

It's an all-time must-win for Houston, whose season ostensibly could be over anyway, 'cause they've been 0-3 back-to-back seasons and nobody's ever made the playoffs after 2 0-3s in a row and made the playoffs both times. But I, you know, looking back at those 3 games, House.

Oh my God.

I'm not saying they could be 3-0, but I'm saying they could be 3-0. It's one of those like either 3 either-or games. And, and I just don't see how they go 0-4. I like the matchup with them too, 'cause they have that secondary that they can throw on the Dallas receivers. And Nico is where, if, if Nico wasn't playing, I think this line would be -2. I think he's worth more than a point. So anyway, Texans -3 is my first one.

Yeah, I like it. I couldn't get myself there just because I had to get out of the Texans business.

I don't play him yet.

the first couple weeks the same way you did. Um, but Nico was— I, I was trying to be stubborn and say, oh, they, they could still have success without Nico. My real problem with the Texans is going back to, to week 3 in Indianapolis, they just needed a stop and they couldn't get the stop.

Right.

They just needed to keep the Colts from getting the ball and going down the field to get into field goal range, and they couldn't do it. And the defense has been giving up explosives. And the one thing that Dallas can do, it's, it's in a dome, it's a fast track. Um, I like the Texans here, um, but I'm just not willing to, to go the extra mile with it. I think that they're gonna win, um, and I think they're gonna win by, you know, 3 or 4.

To me, this is a big picture pick where it's almost, and I know we're not supposed to think this way going game to game, but Is this Texans team really gonna go 0-4 with the amount of talent that they have? And just because Nico Collins got hurt for 2 games, I just, I can't buy it. So I'm gonna have to lay the points and just do it. All right, what's your first pick?

I was worried that you were going to take this one when you started off with the idea of laying the 3. I have no problem whatsoever laying the 3 with the LA Rams going into Philadelphia. and taking on this Philadelphia team where something inside seems rotten.

Yeah.

I know that we've learned over the years to not overreact when it comes to Philadelphia, but their defense is not elite. Their defense was supposed to be elite. It is not elite. They are not getting pressure. They let Case Keenum get whatever he wanted. They got out-schemed and this is a must-win for the Rams. Puka is back.

Puka's back, but it's the one thing that worried me about this game is he's back, but am I, would I bet my life he's playing on Sunday? I don't know. They're like, it's looking like he's gonna be back, but he, it feels like he's got like a hip hernia type thing.

See, I, I wondered if they're doing a rope-a-dope with that a little bit so that Philly can't easily game plan for him. But there's some indication that DeVonta Smith is possibly going to miss. He's definitely banged up. Um, and as a, you know, general proposition, that receiving core and Hurts still, you know, in, in search of— Goedert's injury is a big deal. Hurts got a catch. Zach Hurts, welcome back to the NFL. He had a great—

he was on, he was on Schrager's show, I thought, the first week.

Oh, amazing.

Schrager renamed the show. He's calling it Get Back Up.

Is he?

No.

Okay.

No, I don't think that's true.

It was a, can it, it was a link to get up. It was in the outro. Oh, get back up. Get back up.

Get back up.

Exclamation point. Get back up.

Shakes.

I, uh, I'm with you on the Rams and that was my next pick.

Oh, good. Okay.

Yeah. So I'm piggybacking you.

I, cool.

I think it's 2-1 on piggybacks.

Look at us.

Rams coming off a loss. I like it.

Yeah.

Puka, I hope you're right on the rope-a-dope. Rams would be 1-3 if they lost this game. That seems inconceivable. But the biggest thing to me is I just don't think— there's a couple teams I went against this week, or I'm thinking of going against, that I just don't think are good.

Yep.

And I don't think the Eagles are good. I don't think the Case Keenum thing was an accident. I don't think he took anybody by surprise. I don't think this was, oh my God, Ben Johnson was in his bag. I just don't think they're that good. They have one receiver. Barkley is clearly not the same guy that he was a couple years ago. Their offensive line is not even remotely close to what they've had in years past.

Not close.

They're one of those teams where it's like, what, what is your, what's your like major strength that stands out? 'Cause in the old days you'd be like, the Lions, they own the trenches. Defensive line, offensive line, Carter. They, he has an injury too, but he, Carter hasn't been the same guy. Yeah. And I, I, I thought the, I thought they could have easily lost in week 1 to your team. Right.

Yeah.

And then week 2 wasn't impressive either. And then last week was embarrassing.

Could have and should have lost to the Titans. I mean, it was a pretty extraordinary drive that Jalen Hurts led them on to beat the Titans at the very end of that game. Week 2.

Yeah.

And you could excuse it 'cause there was humidity and Some other stuff. But last week I just, I wasn't surprised. I liked the Bears in that game.

Yeah. Eagles through 3 weeks, 24th in the NFL in defensive pressure rate. That sucks.

Yeah, that doesn't sound like them.

Nope.

And when you watch the lines, sometimes I just, when I watch the TV, I just like to see what, which way the lines are going when the ball gets snapped. And the Eagles line always used to go forward and now it kind of doesn't.

Yeah.

So that was my second pick, Rams -3. I thought about, that was the other one I thought about waiting until Sunday.

Yeah.

But I don't think that goes down.

No.

Especially if Puka's gonna play. I think that could bump up to Rams 3.5.

If there's news of anything, like if, if DeVonta Smith misses, I mean, that might move a half point in the other direction. Might be 3.5 by game time.

The other thing, when you talk about home field advantages, and obviously if things are going well, Philly's got one, but I think Philly's one of those NFL cities where if it's not going well, you can really feel it.

Yeah. And those fans do not like it.

I could see this being one of them where you can just kind of feel the vibe through the TV of the fans. The, you know, the Phillies lost today, they're out. And the Eagles, if they blow this game, you could feel the whole city kind of mentally shifting toward the Sixers. The Sixers, they're getting ready for the Sixers. They're getting ready for LeBron time. It's like officially, if the Rams are up 27-10 early in the 4th quarter, it's like LeBron time, baby. Embiid said LeBron came to Philly to help him win a title. That was his number one reason. I love that Embiid, he's so sweet that he believes that.

He only, your, your best bit this whole week was Embiid just play once a week. Amazing. Let's do that.

Yeah.

Why not? Why's he gotta play more than 30 games before the playoffs?

It should be like a TV show where one of the stars just isn't on every episode.

It's great.

They just kind of, it's a 22-episode season and they're just on 10 episodes, but they still get to be in the opening credits.

Yeah.

All right, so I have Texans -3 and Rams -3. You have Rams -3. What's your second pick?

Um, this one's a great 50-50 game, and I'm fascinated to see how it plays out. I'm gonna go ahead and take Cincinnati at home laying only the 2.5 against Jacksonville, and it's— there's 2, 2 pieces to it. The first piece is I feel like Joe Burrow and his weapons haven't gotten entirely on the same page yet. They're not completely firing on all cylinders, but I think that this Jacksonville, they have a pass funnel defense, which is, you know, part of their thing. They're very good against the rush.

Yeah.

But they're okay with teams throwing and I, I think that this is a spot where Cincinnati comes in and we start to see those guys on the same page. The other thing about Cincinnati that I like is their ability to generate some pressure, and the numbers are pretty dramatic when you're looking at, um, uh, the beautiful one under pressure. Lawrence, his splits under pressure versus clean—

Just call him the beautiful one.

I mean, with the, the luscious locks and everything.

Oh, I didn't realize they were luscious.

They're not? You don't think they are?

Yeah, he looks like a professional wrestler from the '80s.

So we haven't really seen him against pressure, um, Lawrence. You know, Cleveland didn't really get to him. New England blitzed, but they didn't get any pressure out of the blitzes.

Defense was a little banged up too.

And then Denver in that second half especially, they got to him and he was 4 for 13.

Mm-hmm.

On dropbacks when under pressure and much better when he was clean. So I'm, I'm sort of part of this wager is on the idea that the Bengals defense is gonna be able to, you know, they, they run, they just rush 4-man, they put 'em down, but they generate, they're top 10 in pressure with that 4-man front. So I like the idea of Cincy getting some pressure on Lawrence and I like the idea of the offense getting going and I'm fine. 2.5 seems like a fair number.

It's funny, I, I had the Jags as one of my almost picks and I didn't like the +2.5. If it was 3, I would've really thought about it.

Sure.

I watched that entire Bengals-Steelers game last week. I think you can throw in the Bengals.

Mm-hmm.

And they had a lot of trouble over the middle with tight ends and running backs coming outta the backfield. They got beaten deep a couple times and it feels like to me the Jags have the perfect personnel. to attack them.

Yeah, they do. It's 3 very good receivers and a very good tight end.

It's a classic if you like the Jags.

It's—

they're coming off a big awesome win. The Bengals are coming off a loss. You never want to take the team coming off the awesome win against the team coming after the annoying loss.

Yeah.

But I do like the matchup for them and Cincinnati's defense. They gave up 27 to Baker. And they gave up 30 to Aaron Rodgers. So it's a little bit of a, are, are we sure they have a good defense? I know some of the stats have been favorable, especially against the run. But anyway, I stayed away from that. My next one's gonna be a tease.

Hmm.

And it's the most chalk tease imaginable. And I just gotta do it because I think maybe twice a month there's gonna be one where it's just like, I just feel really good about this first part. Seattle is -7 against Herbert and the Chargers.

Yep.

I love this 'cause Seattle's coming off a loss. If Seattle had won last week, I think I'd be more nervous about this because the Chargers about to go on 4. But man, Seattle coming off a loss. Darnold, who we all made the mistake last week of forgetting that he just hadn't played football. And that was being thrown. I kind of wish Locke had played last week. I would've felt much better about the bet.

I handicapped this game as though Locke was going to play.

Last week.

Yeah, last week on our Ringer Wise Guys program on Friday. My wise wager was Seattle to win the first quarter. And when Darnold came out, I was like, oh, I'm, I'm, I'm dead. And then I was especially dead because Ja'Darian Price put the ball Right on the floor on the 20-yard line, and Washington got a touchdown off of that. And that bet was, was dead, which I was kind of fine to, to live with because Washington—

Yeah, because your team had a great win. Your team might be alive for the season.

Yes.

But I like that they're coming off a loss. They know that they have real running back issues now.

Yeah.

Which means that they spent the week trying to figure out an actual plan for the running back issues. Charbonnet's not coming back yet.

Emmanuel Wilson touches are fine.

Yeah. And I'm sure they have some, some wrinkles for that. So you have Herbert on the road, you have an exceptionally loud crowd going against an offense that doesn't seem like it knows what it's doing yet, that feels like it's still learning all the signals, all the movement, everything. Herbert's a mess. They have a bad offensive line and just a weird offense in general. And the big thing to me is Seattle is really gonna lose back-to-back games to Washington, a game that they probably should have won, and then they're gonna blow a Chargers game at home. I don't see it. So I'm bringing them down to -1.

Mm-hmm.

And sadly, I am teasing them with the Buffalo Bills down to -1 against the New England Patriots. Um, I think this game will be rock bottom for the Pats. I, as you know, I took the Jags last week. I did not think the Patriots were gonna win last week. I think they're even in worse shape this week with a ton of pressure on Maye, who's been the talk of the town. Him and the Red Sox, what's wrong with him? Has been all week, all anyone's talking about. AJ Brown's not back yet. Their offensive line, they're on their 3rd right guard. The backup for Onwenu got hurt last year. He's out now.

Yeah.

I think the middle of the offensive line is really rough. I don't think they're gonna be able to run the ball even against the Bills. They really don't have a deep threat at all. They don't have anybody that I think Maye trusts. The 2-tight-end offense with Henry and Raredon, the rookie, Raredon got hurt, so they can't do that. And I just don't, I don't think they're gonna be able to match points with Buffalo. And that's before going in all the defensive issue injuries. I don't, to me, this isn't like our season's over if we lose this game because I think they're supposed to lose this game and I think they will.

Yeah.

And I think next week is when you start figuring out you'd be 1-3. You get AJ Brown back. Where are we? Okay, time to, time to kick ourselves in the ass and get going. I just don't think they can match points with Josh Allen, a guy who has owned them over the years. So Seahawks -1, Bills -1, both of them have to win, 6-point tease, which is -110 on FanDuel. And that's what I'm going with.

I'll go ahead and do my tease as well because I also have Seattle as one of my legs.

Okay.

Um, my second leg, I've been really going back and forth. I kind of want to do the Falcons because it sets up properly for the +8.5. You get through all of the key numbers that way.

Don't do the Falcons.

I, I, I don't, but right, it's, it's the Katrina thing.

It's the Katrina game. It's a stay away.

And the stay— right, that's where I'm, that's where I'm going to end up landing on it. So I, I'm going to violate the teaser rules a tiny bit, um, in terms of the, the, the math that supports the play.

Just going through the zero.

No, I'm gonna back— I'm gonna back Washington getting 9.5 and take Washington from 3.5 and go all the way up to 9.5. I don't think Washington is going to lose by 10 to the Colts. Both—

So this is the London game. You are breaking a cardinal rule of teases.

I'm breaking a lot of rules.

Putting Europe Slash London in a tease.

Oh yeah, I'm breaking every rule.

It's— if you'd put that with Kyler Murray, I think you would get electrocuted. You'd get hit by lightning bolt.

Yeah, I don't— I mean, the case is both teams coming off of, you know, really important wins for, for their seasons, both potentially season-saving wins. Yeah, neither team has an advantage in terms of like the travel circumstances. The spot is the same for both teams. And I think Washington under the numbers, really good rush defense, one of the best teams in the NFL in rush defense. And if the Colts can't get explosives against the Washington secondary, 'cause Pierce is gonna be out again, then I like Washington within 10 points. That, that's the thesis for it.

I like it. I wish it was actually 10 points, right? 9.5. I'm not sure what that's getting you.

I got it. I understand.

I know.

You, it got you over 8.

Yep.

So basically you don't think they're gonna be beaten by 2 scores. All right. So you have Seahawks and then you have Washington.

Yeah.

The 1 in Washington.

Yeah. Plus 9.5. Okay.

Yeah. I, I, I'm acknowledging, I'm conceding that the math is not supportive of a 3.5 up to 9.5.

I can't believe I'm doing this 3rd pick and you're gonna laugh.

Okay.

But I do think I'm gonna grab this number while it's the number before it comes down. I'm going to take the Tampa Bay Bucs yet again.

Yeah.

Plus 3.5.

Fine.

Against Green Bay. This will be the 4th week in a row. They might single-handedly kill my Ringer 107. This Daniels. So Pelissero and I are gonna talk about Daniels in the next segment a bunch. This Daniels for Mayfield. If Mayfield was the QB, I think the line would be Bucs -1.5.

Mm.

Right? Do you think the Bucs would be favored with Mayfield with how banged up the Packers are all over the place?

Yes.

Their offensive line issues.

Yep.

Their defense. I just think the Bucs are favored. So they're saying, they're basically saying this is a 5-point swing if you're operating under the premise Bucs -1.5, now Bucs +3.5. And I don't think Baker Mayfield, the way he was playing, is worth 5 points. I just don't. Tampa, Tampa is 32nd in EPA in offense right now. They have, by EPA, the worst offense in the league. If anything, Daniels' ability to run for his life is probably gonna be better than Mayfield's. There's some other Daniels stuff that I'll cover when I talk about it with Tom, but 13 straight Tampa Bay non-covers if they don't cover this.

Right.

This is really a bet against Green Bay, who I don't think is a good football team. I think they're closer to being a bad football team. They have 2 receivers left.

They have Tucker Kraft— They lost 3 free agents.

Who's not 100%.

Yeah.

I think they have the worst running backs in the league. I don't think they can block. I don't think they have a pass rush. I think you can move the ball up and down on them. And this feels like a 3-point game to me, and I get the hook out of it. I'm in Tampa. I don't know what the weather's gonna be. Hopefully it'll be nice and hot, make Green Bay tired. But I think Tampa can cover this and maybe even win. And I'm not scared with Daniels.

Yeah.

What's he gonna do, like turn the ball over and fumble it like Baker Mayfield did? It's not gonna be any different.

Yeah.

I mean, some of this I'm, I'm interested in seeing. Part of the thesis this season for why I, I liked Tampa Bay and thought they were gonna be successful is the offensive coordinator, Zach Robinson, who, who's out of the McVay tree.

Yeah.

And, and was the architect of an offense that really did work in Atlanta. when they had stability at quarterback in Kirk Cousins, like the second half of that season, the offense was not the problem. It was game management and some, some defensive lapses for Atlanta that kept them out of the playoffs. But for whatever reason, Robinson and Baker and, yeah, I, you know, I'm not— the offensive line hasn't been good, but I—

Yeah, that's been the weird one for me that their offensive line can't block, at least the way they— we thought.

Right.

I mean, but we just haven't seen any signs of it. They can't establish the run with Bucky. But I do like the idea of a backup quarterback. I think there's some sneaky good angles, some trends out there that, you know, where it makes it really hard for a team to plan for a brand new quarterback. And this kid's undrafted. I mean, there isn't, you know—

He was in college for 6 years.

Yeah.

So he's got plenty of experience.

Well, I, I talk about this in the next segment with Tom, but they love him.

Great.

He, I don't think they understood what they had as the undrafted guy. And then they thought he was going against Jake Browning for the backup job. And by the end of training camp, they're like, that's our guy. We're, we're in on Jaylen Daniels.

Well, I, I, I'll have this on the Ringer Wise Guys. I have him over 34.5 rushing yards. That's one of my favorite bets of the entire week. I think he can run, run, run the football.

Yeah, I like this as it'll be something weird will happen in the last 5 minutes to one of these teams, but I think it's a close game. Hopefully it'll be nice and humid.

I—

the Packers, 2 receivers left plus Kraft coming back and no running game at all, feels perfect for Tampa. They'll blitz the hell out of them and And shut down the run. What's your last pick?

I'm gonna go ahead and offer up a nice glass of settle-down juice to the Las Vegas Raiders. Uh, gonna go ahead and lay the 4.5 with Kansas City. Um, it's a little bit of a rich number, but, you know, based on what we've seen out of Kansas City thus far, um, in terms of their success rate, their ability to run the football. And, you know, surprisingly, the defense has been— now, maybe it's not that big of a surprise because the schedule has been favorable for Kansas City. Like, your defense—

No, but the young guys, we didn't know, and the young guys have been good.

Yes.

So they answered that question. We didn't know if they were going to be good.

They were good against Denver. They were good against Indianapolis, and they did exactly what they were supposed to do. against Miami. Um, I like, uh, that this, um, situation here where the, the Raiders, their numbers are inflated by playing the Chargers and the Dolphins, which kind of makes sense.

Yeah.

Um, but I think this is a whole different cat, a whole different ball of wax. And, and Mahomes and, and these guys are ready to serve up some settle-down juice. I have Kansas City laying the 4.5 as my 4th and final for this week.

I like it and I respect it. I test drove the Raiders at +4.5 for a little bit. The 2 games I came the closest on other than Jags +2.5, which I, I think if that gets to 3, that could be my 5th pick, but Raiders +4.5 and Saints -2.5 in the Katrina game. And I don't think the Falcons are good. But the reason I couldn't get there with the Raiders is actually a little different than what you laid out.

Okay.

I wish this game was in Kansas City. Mm-hmm. I think there's gonna be like 25,000 Chiefs fans there.

Oh, and in Vegas?

Yeah. Okay. I think it's, I think it's gonna be a really lively atmosphere, but I also think there's gonna be a lot of Chiefs fans. Chiefs are the most popular team in the league. Nobody knew the Raiders were gonna be good during the offseason.

Right?

If you're a Chiefs fan, this is a great trip. And I just think they're gonna have a good crowd. And I think, I don't like when the Chiefs are on the road in a location where they have a lot of fans going against them. You feel stupid in the second quarter. Like, Kelce happens, Kelce play over the middle, you just hear like a loud noise and you're like, the Chiefs aren't even at home. What's happening?

Yeah.

I think that, I do think this Raiders thing is pretty real though.

Oh no, no doubt about it. I, I don't mean to, to be salty, but they, but you're right.

This is a whole other level. And I think the Chiefs have a bye next week. This is a classic. We kind of fucked around in Miami. Let's lay the smackdown in Vegas. Let's go to the bye. We'll be 4-0 feeling good about ourselves. So yeah, I looked at that. The other one I thought about with a tease, the Lions-Panthers over.

Mm-hmm.

I got burned last week on the under on Steelers-Bengals thinking that was like the lock of the year. I just had bad luck with over-unders. But Panthers with both cornerbacks out, the Lions with no secondary to begin with.

Yeah.

And being able to tease that down to 41.5 on a Monday night and just, you know, 24-20, I win. 23-20, 23-19, basically somebody just has to get in the mid-20s and I win.

Hmm.

Or the Lions get to 27. So I thought that was spicy. And then the, the, the other one I stared at for a second was Washington +3.5. in London, but I wasn't dumb enough to bet on the London game like you. It's 'cause I went, you know what it was? I wasn't gonna wake up at 6:55 on Sunday morning and turn on the TV and it's like Colts 10, Washington nothing.

We'll be back.

Yeah.

And I'm just like, oh, I already lost. I just woke up. I haven't had coffee yet.

I'm so prepared for it. I'm so prepared for it.

I know.

Well, in East Coast it's easier.

Yeah.

No, I understand. But it'll be the same thing. I'll be in, you know, Pajamas. I will have my coffee and it'll be first quarter.

So to recap, well, it's fun when it's your own team.

I know.

Plus you might get, uh, you might get your guy JD back.

He could be back.

Unbelievable.

I do think there's a decent chance this guy right here.

So my picks: Texans -3, Rams -3, Bucs +3.5, and a tease was Seahawks -1, Buffalo -1. You have Rams -3, Bengals -2.5, Chiefs -4.5. And then a tease with Seahawks -1, Washington +9.5. I kind of like these picks. I can't believe I went back to the well on the Texans and the, uh, Bucs again, but that's what happens on Ringer 107. It was brought to you by FanDuel. Download the app now to find all our Ringer 107 picks. Make this your most rewarding season. FanDuel player game odds subject to change. The other thing that happened today was Jalen Duren signed.

Oh, I missed it. With the Pistons.

Guess what? He ended up taking the 5-year, $200 million.

He listened to the pod. You and Goldsberry laid it out for him very clearly.

Yeah, it was a great offer.

His agent listened to the pod. Maybe you're gonna be one of the top 5 paid centers in the league.

Take the offer.

Yeah. What are the economics of the league? What direction are they headed in?

Well, the question is, did he take the offer basically to force the trade down? Or did he take the offer and it's like, oh, it's forgiven. I've taken your offer.

Yeah. It's, it forced the trade. Where's he going? If there was a trade out there, everybody had plenty of time to step up to the plate and make offers. The most compelling trade I heard was the one that you guys cooked up, you and KG, that Atlanta team, that Atlanta team, by the way, just keep an eye on how they continue to build assets. That's solid. I know that's the, that's, that's a GM who knows what— Anssi Saleh, Saleh, however you say his name.

Yeah.

Not, not related to Robert, but last name the same. He is building stuff. Keep an eye on them. Just keep watching how they, you know, they're slowly, you know, this guy for that guy, that grabbing 2 guys at, at very low price from Oklahoma City. 'Cause Oklahoma City's rotating players out.

Yeah.

Really shrewd.

I really like it. We need to, we need a Netflix poll. Is Jaylen Dern worth $200 million for 5 years? I wanna see that before we wrap it up and go to a break. We had a poll already. Will the Browns make the playoffs? And no was 60%. I agree with no.

I agree with no.

I thought that, honestly thought the no should have been higher. So we're doing, we're doing the over-unders with Zach in a week and a half.

Let's go.

And I know you've been doing some homework.

I saw that.

Been doing some homework. You know, I have been.

Can I spoil one team that I like for you?

I'm listening.

'Cause I know you like the same team 'cause we've known each other since 1988. Memphis is 29.5. Yeah, it's too low. That was the one that jumped out to me in the West. I was like, oh, 29.5. There's no tanking this year.

That's so—

that team's gonna play hard every game.

That's the challenge. This is the thing with, with a team like Memphis. The reason that we like Memphis is because they, they have their guys. They've done an amazing job of getting their kind of guys all under the tent in, in— they got rid of guys that are not their guys, and they have a whole bunch of guys that are their kind of guys. They fit the grit and grind.

Verno's kind of guy. They— I think Verno's in the front office now. It's like, would you like this guy? And Vernon's like, I would, I would like Cam Boozer.

But to your observation, 30 wins in this league now is, is not— you don't just coast to 30. You gotta go win. I mean, yeah, who, who's, who's gonna suck in the West? We know that the Clippers are gonna suck, suck, suck, suck. The Kings are probably gonna suck. Uh, and, and who else in the West?

The Kings aren't going to suck from a comedy standpoint. They're already giving us nuggets left and right. They're giving us magic.

Yeah.

I know you like the light skins too, Al.

So annoying.

What did that lady say? Ben Simmons, Zach LaVine?

We never—

and it kind of went away.

Good job. I'm glad. Let's let it go away. Let it die. Those girls didn't do anything wrong. They're just talking their truth.

Hot mics. Watch out for the hot mics immediately.

If you and I on hot mics. Oh my God.

I mean, that's, this is why we can't, I mean, this is when Gahow blackmails us.

I got so close.

Oh, Gahow's gonna have the results for the Jalen Duren poll. What is your prediction for the $200 million? Oh, is Jalen Duren worth the $200 million? No. 82%.

People, America has weighed in.

It's—

the answer is no.

So was Memphis your favorite? Because we're gonna do more stuff, we might change our minds. But that was— did you have a team that jumped out to you like that?

Uh, not yet. No, I'm still, I'm still working through it.

I mean, my other one was Toronto, but I got to do the mental gymnastics with them more.

I'm not there yet with Toronto. I'm, I might be on an island with Toronto. Go look at how they did against teams with winning records.

I know, but now they have Kawhi Leonard and Murray-Boyles is a year older.

Congratulations.

Maybe Jakob Poeltl won't be stumbling around with a bad back.

I mean, this is the conundrum of Kawhi. We're gonna see. Um, I, I mean, I'm not here yet. I'm not, I'm not talking shit about Toronto. And Toronto made me so much money last year. I was the one of the most bullish—

I know—

of our panel on Toronto last year. I'm already way over the top with the Pacers, so I don't need to keep talking about the Pacers. I think the Pacers are still being slept on.

Can I give you one bet that I liked where there's actually been action and it's dropped a little bit?

Okay.

Luka Dončić to average 36+ points per game.

Hmm.

It was like +450 a few days ago and it's down to +340.

How many games to be eligible for that? Does he have to play? It's, there's a minimum number of games to be eligible.

It's not, it says the player must take the court in a minimum of 1 NBA regular season game.

What?

Yeah.

Oh, to average. Yeah. Okay. I see. So if he plays, wait a minute though, that doesn't make sense.

If he plays 30, he plays 50 games and averages 36 points a game, you win the bet.

If you, if it, what if he plays 30 games?

It has to, it can't be that, that I'm just reading you what it says.

There has to be a threshold. You can't play 30 games and average 36 and win the bet.

It seems like he can. We'll find out from our FanDuel friends. But, um, I was trying to think what is a realistic number for him for points in my head, 'cause he's always around 33.

Mm-hmm.

But now they have a team that's built around him even more that's probably gonna play a little faster.

And it's—

I had him in my head around 35, so 36 doesn't feel like a stretch.

Okay.

To average 34 a game is -105.

I don't wanna mess with that. That, that tells you exactly That market is so sharp, it tells you exactly where the number is.

+340, I thought was pretty intriguing. Giannis to average 32 a game is +290, which seems outrageous. Nah.

That doesn't make sense.

Yeah.

And there's some other ones, but that was Luka, 36 a game. Only a couple guys have done it.

It'd be great.

Harden did it. MJ did it.

Here's part of why I think it makes sense. I'm, I might be on an island with this. I think the Lakers are gonna suck. I don't think they're gonna be good. They can't defend. They're in the wrong conference for what they're trying to do.

I knew they were in trouble when they were talking about how important Matisse Thybulle's gonna be. I was like, oh, we're at that stage already? That's usually February.

So him getting—

talk about that in September.

He, if he's, if he goes nuts scoring-wise, it does take some of the stink off the situation, but they didn't, They, they, their team building was below par. That's the way I'll put it for, for now. I'll save my real comments for later.

Well, their defense seems like it's hinging completely on Kessler, who played 5 games last year.

I mean, good luck.

He'd have to play 2,200, 2,300 minutes for them to—

Good effing luck.

Be feeling good about that.

Good effing luck.

You know who the favorite is to win MVP?

It's gotta be Wemby.

Yeah. 2-to-1.

Yeah. Makes sense.

Luka's 5-to-1. I personally think Luka should be the favorite 'cause he's never won it and he's gonna have a giant stat year.

I'm sick of betting on Luka to win MVP every single year and, and then losing that money.

Yeah.

See, this is the great thing about having a vote. I don't have to lose money on the award votes.

Yeah.

Wow.

Yeah. Wemby's got Defensive Player of the Year is -330 and to make the All-D team, he's -500. So those are basically just You're, you're betting on him to get injured.

Yeah. 65 games. That's it. That's exactly it. Will he play 65 games? That's the proposition.

Minus 330. 6th man of the year right now, Mitchell is +500 and Dylan Harper is 7-to-1. Like, we actually might have good 6th men this year.

Hmm.

Simons is 15-to-1. Ayo's 15-to-1. DeRozan's 18-to-1. Peyton Pritchard's 20-to-1, which should be the I know. Well, he's— they're gonna turn the whole second unit to him. Pritchard's 20-to-1 would be the other one I would look at for that, 'cause I think they're gonna bring him off the bench.

That would make sense for the Celtics.

And then Coach of the Year, Sean Sweeney, 12-to-1 on the Magic.

Yeah.

Jumped out to me. I mean, he's replacing somebody who was not a good coach, which is usually the recipe.

They're— they, they are telling the world exactly what they think about their situation. They brought back the whole goddamn team.

Right.

They're basically like, it was the coach's fault.

Yep. Yeah. We're gonna run this shit back and we have a guy that we trust. Now the problem is they have been a below average offense for 15 seasons now.

Yeah.

And Sweeney's a defensive guy. So get Desmond Bane open looks and, and beg him to knock them down. Get Suggs to, to, to get his 3-point shooting back, and then we can talk.

Nick Nurse is 14-to-1, both for Coach of the Year and to be thrown under the bus in January with an anonymous piece from somebody.

That's 2-to-1 under the bus.

Sources, anonymous sources say the team is frustrated with Nick Nurse.

Jesus.

Spoelstra's also 12-to-1. The leader of all these bets is the Raptors coach and the Jazz coach, Will Hardy.

Sure.

Are both 10-to-1, but it doesn't seem like there's a consensus for, uh, for that one. And then I talked about this a little with Goldsberry, but Rookie of the Year, Boozer is the favorite. It's Boozer, Wilson, Peterson, and D'Abansa are all 3-to-1, 4-to-1 range. And your guy's 4th just 'cause it doesn't seem like he's gonna have the ball as much as some other guys.

Totally fair. Not, not gonna knock it. If Washington sees a way as their season progresses to feed him and to build him up so that he can get Rookie of the Year. I mean, I will— this, the, the two, it's hard to compare them, but I'm not going to—

Are you regretting?

Quiet about— no, Cooper Kupp winning Rookie of the Year last year, that was a fucking abomination.

It—

what, what Dallas did, you know, in, in bringing him back and getting him a 50-piece at the very end of the season I know he's a teenager. It was impressive. It was the lowest leverage situation imaginable. Charlotte had a genuine jump, a significant jump into actually competitive basketball because of Con Knipple. And for Cooper Flagg, history will always show that Cooper Flagg won the Rookie of the Year. So what I'm saying is, if Washington season goes a little wacky because AD gets hurt, because Trae gets hurt, whatever. Yeah. And there's 35 games left, then the thing they're gonna play for is to banter to win Rookie of the fucking Year. And they'll, they'll, they'll try and get him compelling case. They'll, they'll try and get him to that, to that.

I voted for Khan, but I rooted for both of them because it was Khan, my guy, or Flag, who's gonna be on the 2030 Celtics. So, Both of those. I root for both of those guys. Future Boston Celtics.

Cooper Kuppelag.

I don't wanna vote against him.

You'll have cap room 'cause Paul George's contract will be off the books.

Listen, the, the buzz with Paul George has been great. Great vet in the locker room. Really looking forward to playing off Jason Tatum.

When, when, when are you gonna give me permission to start calling him Beta Tatum? 'Cause it is like how many games in after, after, you know, how far along am I gonna be? How about, how about Memphis?

They won a title. What did Bradley Beal win? Nothing. Bradley Beal's already hurt.

Yeah. Well, they did win a title.

Not before he took Chris Paul's number.

You know who's not on that? You know who, who won Finals MVP? Yeah. Not on the team anymore.

Jaylen Brown should not have won Finals MVP. That was ridiculous.

Okay.

One of my things that I would change about the NBA is more than 5 people should vote on the Finals MVP. You should not be able to win Finals MVP by a 3-to-2 vote.

Fair enough.

Have 15 people. You have a million reporters there.

Fair enough.

Are you gonna ask anybody to eat a fat dick or should we go?

I don't have anybody this week.

It's kind of your signature. I think you stumbled into this signature segment and now you're just gonna let it go?

Well, you don't wanna overdo it. You don't wanna come right out. You gotta save it. when I'm really upset, uh, right, I'll break it out. I did call it— I, I thought long and hard about offering, uh, giving Jim Harbaugh an invitation to eat a fat dick after the performance of, of the Chargers. Yeah, that's great. But he's like a grandpa. He's a mouth breather. He's standing on the sidelines like this, and the, the— he's like, I think we're gonna go for it. It's 4th and 10. There's 5 minutes left. We've got all our timeouts right at midfield. Yeah, I think it's a one-score game. I think we're gonna go for— I mean, I don't— I kind of keep making up this accent that he doesn't possess, but it's my, my, my best version of a mouth breather moron. Uh, what the fuck are you doing?

It sounds like you're offering him a big fat one.

It was 7.5. The COVID was sitting there staring me in the face. It's like I, I agonized long and hard. You're really gonna just Boot your season this way. You can't get on the same page with your, with your, you know, Mikey Mixtape, the, the DJ doctor, and, and run plays that are coherent with a, with a, a game plan. Third down, a run. Fourth down, a run. If you're gonna go for it on fourth down, then let's have the plays make sense. Fourth and 10 with 5 fucking minutes left. All right. Hey, Jim Harbaugh, please go eat a fat dick.

Oh, that's great. I wish you could offer that same thing to Chad Tracy for taking out my starter in back-to-back Yankee games before the end of the 5th inning for reasons that remain unclear.

Didn't they extend him?

Oh, they sure did. I'm gonna be talking about that with my dad later.

You're gonna have him in your life for a little while.

All right, we're gonna take a break. We're gonna get to Tom Pelissero, and then my dad and I are gonna talk Boston Red Sox. You'll be on Ringer Wise Guys tomorrow.

Let's go. That's great. Get 'em all up.

All right, taking a break and then Palisero. The Bill Simmons Podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. FanDuel has a new one this Sunday. It's called Touchdown Tally, and this is pretty fun. Basically, you want touchdowns everywhere all day because the more touchdowns scored across the NFL, the more 100% profit boosts you can unlock. It's like a game. 30 touchdowns gets you 1, 50 gets you 2, and if Sunday gets completely ridiculous and hits 70, You can unlock— that's right, 3 100% profit boosts. So TD Picks, look, Lamar Jackson going against a bad defense, that sounds good. Jahmyr Gibbs, who's on, uh, on pace to have like 500 touches and 35 TDs or something, grab him. Parker Washington on the Jaguars, I like that. I like Puka Nacua against Philadelphia in a comeback game. I always like how the Rams play against Philadelphia. So there's 4. This Sunday, we're rooting for one thing: touchdowns. A lot of them. Doesn't matter what team, just get across the goal line. Check out touchdown tally on FanDuel. Make this your most rewarding season ever. 21+ select states or 18+ DC or Wyoming. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Game problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER, call 888-789-7777, or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut.

This episode is brought to you by 7Up. Okay, here's a case for Conspiracy Bill. Let's bring him in. Ever notice lemon is everywhere, from lemon recipes to lemon-scented cleaning supplies? Hmm, when it comes to lemon-lime sodas, why is lemon always first? There's a reason. A shadowy organization called the I-Lemonati that's been padding the stats and keeping big lemon in the lead. for decades. Yeah, I studied this, but the sip is about to be flipped. 7Up fighting back, swapping lemon-lime for their new lime-lemon soda. That's right, lime-lemon. Now lime comes first. 7Up, flip the sip. Let's go. Tom Pelissero is here. He is just scooping everybody left and right. Joey Porter trade this week, which seemed like one of those logical trades that might happen And then it actually happened, especially after our Cowboys lost. We're gonna open up a 6-pack. We did this last week, we're doing this this week. And also we should mention you have the newsletter, The Sweep, which has been excellent. And you're on the Ringer NFL Show as well. First thing in the 6-pack, Cowboys. Now, have they officially spent more assets than they got back from Micah Parsons in that trade on other defensive players?

Where are we? Where's the seesaw?

I mean, It depends how you count it because the last actual pick, I believe, from that trade was in the, the Malachi Lawrence pick that they made in the draft this year. I mean, you talking about moving 2 picks for Quinnen Williams, which was a second and then a first in the following year. And then you had, obviously they traded a pick for Logan Wilson, who's no longer with the team. Now you're trading for Joey Porter. They traded for Rashawn Gary. This is, I mean, the past 12 months or whatever you wanna call it, 10, 11 months. I've never seen anything like it in terms of completely making over one side of the football through trades. You know, Jerry said it though, if you remember that press conference after Micah, it was like, oh, all the stuff we can do with the additional resources. Well, they've done it. They've turned that into a lot of different players. And now, you know, the 2nd round pick they gave up in the Porter trade's out in 2028. So once again, you're going well beyond the point at which you might even not know that that guy's even going to be on your team.

And yet they're not as crazy as what the Rams did. It's kind of like the discount version of all the assets the Rams gave up. I guess the question for me is, like, first of all, who else was in on the Porter thing? It seemed like his draft pick was second round, was probably the range, but was there— were they even competing against anybody?

It was really just the Cowboys. Yeah, there were other teams that had inquired. His agents were kind of shopping him around over the past several weeks. Like, the chronology on this is, They had negotiations going back through camp. He's saying he's got a back injury, didn't practice. You know, the first time they saw Joey Porter Jr. in pads with this new staff was like last Thursday.

Mm-hmm.

So he didn't practice at all. Well, then they got the organizational policy. If you get to week 1, that's it. There's no more negotiations. So at that point, it was either Porter was gonna sit, he was gonna play for the Steelers, or he was gonna have to go someplace else. And what he told 'em was, if I'm gonna play this thing out, I'd rather go someplace else. Pittsburgh was still, because they didn't have the level of offer that they wanted to move him, they were still trying to ramp him up. So last week they went through the week, they thought, hey, this might be it, go and play against the Bengals. Got to the end of the week, uh, he's not quite ready. And they had had him, they listed him as limited, but you have to do that because he was playing scout teams so they could test him against DK Metcalf and Michael Pittman. This week he, you know, they didn't practice much because it's a short week, but on Wednesday it was all right. It's looking good. He was listed as full on Monday and Tuesday. He's in the middle of practice yesterday and goes like, ah, I don't— my back doesn't, doesn't feel quite right.

Mm-hmm.

And at that point, the coaches, as much as anything, were like, we, we can't keep doing this. We can't keep planning for the guy. He doesn't want to be here. The Cowboys had a strong offer. So really ramped up last night. They had to get the final sign-offs there. You know, Joey Porter Jr.'s 24 years old. If he were to hit free agency at some point, he's gonna make a lot of money. He's gonna be a $30+ million corner, even though the Steelers and basically everybody else didn't really value him at that level.

Seems too high.

Yeah, so I thought it was hard to get a deal done. It was hard to get a trade done before the season because no one was going to be willing to do that on a contract. But Bill, you and I both know in free agency people spend stupid money all the time. This could end up being like George Pickens where they tag him And he plays another year in Dallas, and then we'll find out what they do. Maybe they do sign him to extension. Maybe they let him walk and they take a comp pick. There's a lot of ways it can go. But make no mistake, this is a move for the Cowboys who have watched that defense not be able to get the stand. They saw the 7 seconds in Rio, which sounds like a bad rom-com. Or a porn. And they're just like, we need, we need a cover corner. They've needed it all along, and they went and they got the best one available.

Yeah, but ironically, you know who else needed a cover corner? The Pittsburgh Steelers. I watched them last week. They, they couldn't stop the 2 receivers on the Bengals the whole game. And they even benched the guy they started, Samuel, and they put in, I think, a rookie in the 4th quarter. So it's not like they didn't need Porter, but this is, I don't know, this feels like a bad trade for everybody. 'Cause you have, you're getting a 2nd round pick in 2028, but you have a 42-year-old quarterback. So what are you trying to do this year? I, I don't get it.

If you came to the conclusion this guy's not gonna play, and we might— maybe he'll play one week, and then all of a sudden my back hurts again, he's out for a month. Like, that's, that's the spot they were in. Like, the whole— the way holdouts are used now, you know, this is really ramped up in the last 5 years. Like, a hold-in is not a thing. There's not like a thing in the collective bargaining group being like, hey, you can show up and say, ow, my back hurts. Like, no, the teams can fine them, they can punish them, they can suspend them for conduct detrimental. But players have started to learn that they've got power. And a back injury, as I know from personal experience, may not show up on an MRI. There's no way to prove you don't have a back injury. So Jalen Ramsey did it, Micah Parsons did it, now Joey Porter Jr. did it. Is it a coincidence they all have the same agent in David Moolagetta?

Oh, look at you. I like this.

We can all judge, we can all judge based on that. But Moolagetta is a big believer You don't give up money, you don't hold out, then you get fined and then go after your bonus. If you show up and maybe you're just not quite ready to be on the field, they can't take away your money. If they try to, it's gonna end up being a fight. Once again, you know, Joey Porter Jr., like Jalen Ramsey back years ago, he got what he wanted and magically, maybe even as soon as this Sunday, his back's gonna be healthy enough for him to play.

So you're not disgruntled, you're not gruntled. You're kind of ungruntled.

I suppose ungruntled being a temporary—

Ungruntling.

Yeah.

It's a temporary state until you're gruntled again.

You're degruntled. All right, Joey Porter. Uh, good luck to the Cowboys. I don't think they have it regardless. JJ McCarthy got traded. Is that a— is that 6-pack worthy or no?

I, I mean, I think so. We talked about it last week. I, I wish we could play back your response when I brought up JJ McCarthy as a possibility for the Giants. I would say scoffed would be a fair, a fair reaction for me. And I get it. I, I get it. It's, you know, he's had good moments, but the bad's been really bad with JJ McCarthy.

Yeah.

The Giants look out there, there's not a lot of starting options available. You know, I, I thought that it, it was one of those deals that kind of makes sense for everybody. Maybe JJ McCarthy succeeds in New York. If he does, it's in part because he needed a fresh start. He didn't need to be in the place where he had become a meme and had all the injuries and he was gonna be compared to Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones and even Kirk Cousins. You know, go to the, go to the Giants where they just need somebody different. It's a completely different environment. You're not being asked to step in and start, and maybe it works out. You know, the Giants add a guy who at least can do some of the quarterback movement things that Jackson Dart can do. So you can—

Hmm.

That 20% of your offense that just goes out the window with Jameis Winston 'cause he's never been able to move. You can maybe run some of those things with JJ. And for the Vikings, they get out from under over $4 million in guaranteed salary. They get a 5th-round pick, which is market value for these guys. You know, you go back through time, like Mac Jones went to Jacksonville for a 6th. Justin Fields went from Chicago to Pittsburgh for a 5th that could become a 4th. Baker Mayfield was the same from Cleveland, uh, to Carolina. Kenny Pickett was like a bunch of weird picks. So I spent like— 5th-round pick is kind of the value. And it's like, well, why didn't they trade him sooner? Because they weren't being offered a 5th-round pick. They got—

They almost waived him, right? I mean, they really seriously—

They were never going to waive him because they thought—

Because they had to eat the money.

They'd have to eat the money anyway.

Yeah.

And they thought somebody's going to trade for the guy eventually. There's enough teams that had high grades on McCarthy coming out that they're going to go, you know what, like, let's take a stab at it. Like, there's something in there. He won a lot of games. Jon Harbaugh talked to his brother. You know, you get a little bit of an idea what makes the guy tick. I, I like the trade for everybody involved, including Minnesota, which now Kyler's on a 1-year deal with a no-tag clause. Carson Wentz, I mean, he'll come back as long as you'll have him on 1-year backup deals. You can start with a new GM completely fresh now in 2027 and avoid whatever scenarios would have existed next year of JJ and are you going to trade him and are you going to start him. You just, you wipe the slate clean and start over.

5th round picks, nothing. I never understand, like, if I was a GM 5th, 6th, 7th round picks, I would take an actual player over those all day. How many times do those actually pay off? Like, who's the team that has a 5th round D-back right now?

I'm blanking.

Are the Raiders maybe somebody?

I mean, Seattle over time has had a lot of those day 3 picks, and the Vikings' new GM Nolan Teasley came from the Seahawks. Like, they've lived with those.

I get it, but JJ McCarthy was like the 10th pick, the 8th pick. He's like 22 years old. The reason I was surprised they traded him was because I didn't think anybody would offer like a 2nd or 3rd for him. But a 5th is like you're giving him away at that point. You just want a matter of building.

So $4 or $5 million is also— that's a player that you can add for the guaranteed money that you'd be sinking into a 3rd, you know, a number 3 quarterback. Like the 5th round pick, that could be, you know, top 150. All right, maybe, yeah, the percentages are low like hitting on that, but like you can get guards in the 5th round, or you can use that as a chip to potentially move up if you're targeting a quarterback again in 2027. That's, it's part of why, like, some teams philosophically have really gotten into the pick swaps where everything's like, we're going to trade a 2nd for a 4th, we're going to trade a 5th for a 7th. Like, the way that, that Nolan and that front office is going to operate, like, pick swaps, you still ended up with the same number of players. At least here I can get a player with the 5th round pick and maybe another player with the money. So yeah, it's not a frontline uh, type of a pick. But based on where JJ is and based on what the precedent is, it's pretty clear, like, a 4th to 5th round pick, maybe a 6th, like somewhere in there is what you're getting for a former 1st round pick who's lost his job, who's still on a fully guaranteed rookie contract, and you're offloading the money because they're not even allowed to eat the money under NFL rules.

In year 3, you can't even eat that money.

It makes sense where these guys bounce around. And sometimes they bounce to the right spot and all of a sudden, and we've seen it over and over again this decade.

The thing— Yeah.

You might've even been the one that wrote this. The fact that the Giants offense is a little like the Michigan thing where it's just like, you're gonna run the ball and play action and the quarterback's gonna use the legs, but we're not gonna ask too much of you and just steer the ship. Just be a good driver of this car. Maybe he can do that.

I didn't—

Built to be, built to be physical in the running game and, you know, use a lot of tight ends. And then, yeah, like the boots and stuff. Again, Jameis is like a— even when he came out, he was a 2-sport athlete at Florida State, but he's like the least athletic-looking mover that I can ever remember being like a high draft pick. Even Jared Goff, like, you kind of know what Goff is like. Jameis is just limbs flailing everywhere. Like, he has to play from the pocket. Where Dart, everything they were doing was like, there's, you know, designed runs and there's play action and there's boots. Like a lot of that stuff goes away, right, with Jameis. At least JJ can do it. The question is, you know, can he stay healthy doing any of that stuff? Which is also part of the reason that if you game it out, all right, what's the best they could have done? JJ goes, he gets the reps next offseason, he looks pretty good, he manages to stay healthy through the preseason, which he hasn't been able to do. Maybe you get a 4th.

Yeah.

next year. It wasn't going to be more than that. Take the 5th now, rip the Band-Aid off, and move on.

Maybe he grows some facial hair. Maybe he, maybe he matures in some way. Maybe, who knows, maybe he, maybe he becomes more of an adult. Um, is Jayden Daniels worth a 6-pack spot?

Sure. I mean, I think the fact that he's already back on the field after that grotesque-looking injury—

I mean, I saw, I was watching, uh, one of the ESPN shows today and they had footage of him in practice And he didn't have a giant thing on his arm or anything. And they, they weren't— I mean, he had something on his arm, but it wasn't like he wasn't like moving like this. And then they made it seem like it wasn't inconceivable he could play this weekend, which I find hard to believe. But what are you hearing?

I would say it's a long shot that he plays this week, but the fact that he's already practicing, A, gives him a chance, and B, bodes pretty well.

Yeah.

For him being back on the field in Week 5. He is gonna be wearing like the big Barry Bonds type brace on it. Like, that was part of the discussion. I wrote this in The Sweep too. Like, he's probably going to have surgery after the year to tighten up the elbow, but he met with a bunch of different specialists who were all like, yeah, if you want the elbow to stop popping in and out, you're going to have to get surgery, but you're not at any more risk to make the injury worse now. You might aggravate it. I mean, obviously, if he gets tackled and he lands on it, even with a brace, it's not going to feel good.

Yeah.

But it's not like he's going to do additional damage. Jayden did not want to have surgery. He wanted to come back and play. Surgery would have been minimum 3 months. It's effectively you're out for the season. Like, he wanted to get back. And so we'll see when that is. Again, it's possible this week. I think, you know, especially with the way Marcus Mariota played last week and they got a win, they don't need to push him out there in an international game. But it's not inconceivable. And, you know, it does bode well for him being back on the field. in Week 5, which that Jayden Daniels we saw from the second half of the opener. Yeah, the first half in Dallas looked a lot like the Rookie of the Year. Like, I agree, moving well, they have some rhythm. Like, Stefon Diggs has been really good in that offense so far. Like, they seem to have—

I was genuinely impressed in that Seattle game.

I—

because I thought Washington was going to stink this year. Um, yeah, they were well coached. They, they kind of took it to Seattle. There were a couple points in the game when it felt like they were gonna die, and they just didn't. Their defense was actually doing pretty well and they, they're blocking way better than I thought they were gonna block. I thought their offensive line was just gonna single-handedly kill them. They kind of held up against Seattle and I, it, it wasn't one of those where it felt like Seattle was asleep and didn't want the game cuz Darnold was back. Like they were, you know, they really got JSN involved. They really were going for it. But Mariota just played great. And I was impressed and I, I know there's some coaching stuff with them too that People are excited about the offensive coordinator and some of the stuff happening there.

For David Blough, he's calling the 3rd game of his life against Mike McDonald in what, I mean, kind of feels like a must-win. Like, if you're 0-3, and now you're kind of like, oh my God, this thing's unraveling. If you go back through that game, like, he had some really great calls and some schematic things that kind of threw—

Especially at the end of the game, they got those 2 3rd downs where it was like, oh, Seattle's gonna stop them here. They're gonna come back down the 1 by 1.

And they've got the 3rd down both times.

And he's doing it with a backup quarterback. It's not Jayden who can make something out of nothing. Like Marcus could do that once upon a time, but now he's kind of a, you know, a pocket passer too, even though he can run a little bit at this stage. I was really impressed, you know, both David Blough and Durante Jones, they're both first-time play callers. This is all part of Dan Quinn's plan. Don't let the good young coaches out of the building. You, you roll the dice a little bit with that and you definitely have risk early in the season as those guys, we've seen it. You know, with Davis Webb and all the scrutiny on him in Denver, like, it's your first time being a full-time play caller. Like, there's a, a growth process there. Not many guys step in and immediately it's like just taking off, not just because of you, but because all your players are learning a new system and you're learning how to teach it to 'em. I, I, I thought Blough did a really impressive job in a tough spot. And if they can come out and find a way this week, you know, all of a sudden you could be 2-2, getting your starting quarterback back in the lineup in a division that depending, you know, how it's in Dallas.

Yeah, what happens with the Giants? The Eagles are, you know, 2-1 and everyone's predictably losing their minds over it. Like, you're not out of it. I, I said from the beginning I thought Washington was kind of a sneaky team that could be relevant, and if they can find a way to get a win this week, get Jayden back and let's roll.

9-8 could take the division. What was that year when Dayball and Daniel Jones, what were they like, 9-7-1 or 8-7 and I thought they won 10. 8-8-1 or something.

I forget.

But 2022, they went on the road.

Did they win 10?

I think they won 10. Or 9. And then they went on the road to Minnesota and beat the Vikings in Minneapolis in a wildcard game.

This wasn't on your 6-pack list, but I'm throwing this at you because we're talking about Jayden Daniels and unexpected QBs. I've become intrigued by the Tampa guy.

Jalen.

And the whole story, I admittedly slept on it. I wasn't following the Tampa Bay backup quarterback battle with him and I think it was Jake Browning.

Yeah.

But the story of this kid who was in college, like, for— he's one of those guys who was in college forever and got hurt and redshirted a couple times. But there's like good vibes with this dude. And I'm wondering, I don't— I'm not saying this is gonna be Kurt Warner and the Rams 'cause the Bucs aren't that good, but Everyone has written them off because Baker was hurt, and Baker has been bad this whole season. Is it conceivable that, that this rookie backup could actually, you know, give a little life into the Bucs? What are you hearing about him?

So Jaylen Daniels, when I did my annual, uh, quarterback story every year, like, I had him 7th round priority free agent. He was the top one that was kind of on that border where some people liked him, but I didn't get the sense anybody liked him enough to draft him. So he slides through, they signed him for like— it was like a solid guarantee, like $270,000, which usually if you commit that type of money to a guy, you're saying, all right, he's at least going to make the practice squad, so we're not going to lose all this money, he'll at least be around. And what happened in camp was exactly what you said, which was he came on and flashed. Like, I kept, you know, when I'm trying to figure out trades and things like that through training camp and up to cutdown day, I'm always asking, all right, like, you know, you're looking at the depth charts going, who needs a quarterback? And like, Tampa was one that was just jumping out. Like, clearly they got Jake Browning, who's not performing very well.

Yeah.

Who's on a minimum deal. You got this undrafted rookie in Baker, and everyone was like, no, they haven't called, haven't heard from the Bucs on the quarterbacks. And a big part of that was they liked Jaylen Daniels and everything that he brought to the table. Um, you know, he— you brought up how long he played. It was 6 years. He's the rare guy, 6 years of college football, zero transfers, played all of it at Kansas. Now we get used to these guys play at 3 or 4 schools. I went back and looked, Jaylen Daniels first game was against Coastal Carolina in the 2020 COVID season. In that game—

Wow.

For the other team, for Coastal Carolina, Isaiah Likely caught a touchdown. Isaiah Likely is already on his second contract in the NFL, was playing in that game against Jaylen Daniels. That's how far back he goes. Like, he's got— he's one of those guys who, when scouts talk about, they're like, what's the player's dominant trait? You know, do you have the big arm? Do you have the elusiveness? Jaylen Daniels doesn't really have a dominant trait, but he's pretty good at everything. And so, you know, without the dominant trait, he's not the guy that gets drafted, but maybe he comes out and plays pretty good. You know, they, they only added— they didn't go out and trade for somebody, at least not yet.

No, they seem fine with this.

They signed Brett Rypien to the practice squad. They'll have Easton Stick backing him up on Sunday. Like, they're rolling with Jaylen Daniels as an 0-3 team that that really needs a win, which says a lot about, you know, what they think of him.

I did some recon. I read, I went back and read the August stories when they were like, yeah, we think we have our backup. This guy's been good. And there was a lot of stuff about, you know, he, he was supposed to have his senior year, he was like a, you know, like a dark horse Heisman candidate and that chance to be the Big 12 Player of the Year. And he hurt his back.

Right.

And basically they had to punt on the year. And it was the second time where he just had a blank year, which is why he was in college for 6 years. But he did have moments in college where people were like, huh, this guy, there's something here. And obviously, it all came together in Tampa. But from watching that team, I can't imagine anybody could be worse than some of the stuff I saw from Baker in those 3 games. I just thought Baker was the worst we've seen him since he was getting waived and passed around.

It seems like it's the classic hero ball thing where the harder you're trying, the more things go wrong. Even the way he got hurt, It's like a 4th down and he's scrambling around like the game's probably over, but like Baker's a competitor. He's always going to compete on every snap. So he's like 20 yards behind the line of scrimmage, falling out of bounds, doing circles. Yeah. And then smacks his— and then his thumb just disappears on the replay, which is never a good sign. It's dislocated. I mean, they've got a lot to clean up here. Here's, by the way, Bill, I just pulled up my story from pre-draft. This is one of my favorite quotes, by the way. 19-26 as the starter at Kansas.

I don't think it was ever better than 6 wins.

Yeah, a football mecca. He's 6'5, £219, so he's not a big guy. The line from an AFC scout: Jalen scares me. That guy should be a doctor by now with all the college football he's played, and he still makes mistakes that are just goofy. You'll want to see this progression. Like, that was it. He had injuries. He had the back injury. He had a shoulder. He just never really took off. Well, maybe get out of a place where you're throwing to future dentists and go to the NFL where you've got some weapons on that Bucs team with Jalen McMillan. Now maybe that, maybe that helps you as you're not throwing to guys who are overmatched every single week.

And they're playing the Packers. This is on your 6-pack. The Packers are terrible. Uh, now they have 10 days between that Thursday night disaster and this next game against Tampa, but, um, I, my, my guess is the Bucs 0-3 They'll run the ball, they'll try to pound the ball down the Packers' throat. The Packers are down on receivers, they're decimated all over the place. And the offensive line thing, which was already bad, is somehow worse. Is this— what are you hearing, like, about what happens to this team? Does this— do they even think they, they can make the playoffs at this point, or is this just a lost season already?

I would say this: they did some very un-Packers things. After that loss on Thursday night to the Falcons. Like the Packers for years, going back to certainly Ted Thompson, even to Ron Wolfe, you were just, you were a draft and develop program and we're going to play the young guys. Yeah, they might struggle, but they're going to get better. If you go back to the tape of that game against Atlanta, there are, by my count, 4 times where they are sliding one direction. Okay. They're slide protecting. Like we're not going to get beat on this side. and they get beat to the slide side on a 4-man rush. That should never happen against Atlanta.

Atlanta, who doesn't have their 2 pass rushers, right?

That's how bad the guard play was in particular. You know, you can cover up a tackle, but like covering up 2 bad guards. So what do they do? Again, they've always been drafting help. Let them play through it. They go and they sign Kevin Zeitler, they sign Mekhi Becton, and they poach Laken Tomlinson off a practice squad. Like 3 guys who have between them probably made 200 NFL starts. They're like, this is a problem. And we got to fix it. Like, I'm not as panicky about the Packers as I think other people are because Micah Parsons is going to be back. If it's not Week 5, it's going to be Week 6 that he should be back in the lineup. Josh Jacobs, we'll see. I think he comes back at some point, but you just never know when a guy goes on the exempt list. And they do— like, the receivers are playing some of their best football. Watson and Matthew Golden are both playing the best we've seen them. Tucker Kraft still doesn't look like he's 100% yet.

I totally agree.

That he gets— you'd think he gets better over the course of the season.

By the way, they have no other receivers. They just have those 2 because Reed's out now. And even if you're—

Sky Moore playing.

Yeah, I was looking at fantasy because, you know, that offense has been reliable over the years. I was like, oh, I wonder if there's a 3rd Packer receiver that could be potential, like grab them, maybe, maybe a play. And it was like Melton, Bo Melton, Sky Moore. I was like, oh my God, this is— this team used to have 6 receivers that you've heard of.

Not anymore.

Tucker, Tucker Kraft needs to be, along with Jonnu Smith, who also we forget is there, like those guys need to be the additional receivers. Like they're a team that is built to in many ways run the football and have everything come off of that. They haven't run the football well because the offensive line's been so bad, and their 3 running backs right now are all like third-string caliber, if not practice squad caliber guys. Like that makes it really, really hard. I do think that they figure some things out, especially if they're able to just plug the holes with the guards. And defensively, once Micah returns, like, they still have a chance to be a really good defense. They're just not playing well right now.

Their running backs are awful. Um, 2 receivers, Kraft not Kraft yet. I just don't— I don't see where the offense comes from in this team. And by the way, Christian Watson isn't exactly, um, Cal Ripken Jr. from a durability standpoint.

So no, he is— he has not been. But this is, you know, knock on wood, this is most durable we've seen. Like, you see why they paid him. Yeah, when he's out there, he's, he's unbelievable. Like, he's a— I mean, easily a top 20, if not a top 10 receiver in the NFL. He's that good.

He's just not durable.

Yeah, it's just all of a sudden then he'll have a hamstring and he'll miss 6 weeks. Like, that's been the issue. But like, he's everything that the Packers want their players to be other than able to stay on the field.

And meanwhile, speaking of the Packers, the Jets now have this Colts pick They have the best of the Packers-Cowboys pick. I feel like this is the biggest story in the league that barely anyone's talking about. And then they have their own pick. They might have 3 of the top 10, you know, in this draft that has a bunch of quarterbacks. And I kind of like what I'm seeing from the Jets anyway. I think they're, they're at least frisky. They have some talent. I think they easily could have won all 3 games that they played this year already. And now they have all this stuff. Do you feel like— They're not gonna try to shop any of those picks and talk themselves into maybe actually being good this year, right?

I don't have any anticipation that they're doing that. Um, but they do already think that their roster should be competitive every week, and you've seen that. You know, what you've also seen is they've just— they don't know how to win yet, whether it's how the games are being managed, you know, timeout usage, just making the big plays in the big moments. Like, that's The Green Bay game obviously got away from him in just sort of a wild type of a way. But you look at, you know, their frontline guys, they really did. Not many teams totally rip it down like Darren Muji did in that building. He's done that. They got all the capital. Then you bring in some veteran players to try to help you understand how to win those games. I mean, DeMario Davis on a 2-year deal and the other older players, Minka Fitzpatrick, who's banged up right now. That's, that's been the plan. Like, they're anticipating we're in it this year.

Yeah.

And that's the launching point to then with all those picks, we really figure it out. You know, who knows what happens with Geno? This is probably a 1-year stopgap and they're drafting somebody in 2027. He could play his way into sticking around for another year. But with 3 first-round picks, Cleveland has 2, and then there's gonna be some really bad teams like Miami, even though they're competitive every week, they just don't have the Yeah. Um, they're, they're gonna be in position. The Jets are gonna be in position to either have one of the top picks or package those picks to go get one of the top picks, whether it ends up being Arch Manning or Dante Moore or Trinidad Shambles, whatever, wherever we net out in this whole thing, they're gonna be able to go get one of those guys. And I'm with you, put a young stud rookie quarterback in there with, you know, Breece Hall once he's able to be back. He's week to week right now. Kenyan Sadiq, that first— I mean, can those first touchdown catches go? Yeah, that was a cool one. Garrett Wilson, hey, we finally have a guy who's alive.

Garrett Wilson, the ball, and he's nasty. Like, he's a really good player. They've got some, some exciting pieces there.

They easily could have beaten the Lions. They were throwing on them. Now it's hard to say with the Lions because their secondary is so bad, but that was about as good as Geno's gonna look in a game. And Geno is somebody I think we all gave up on last year. But I don't know, if I'm the Jets, I'm watching what happens with the Pats because you had these 2 behemoths in your division, but the Pats might not be a behemoth, which leads us sadly to Drake Maye.

What are you hearing?

This is—

this has to be— what's the number one topic where people going, what's going on with blank? Is it the Chargers or is it Drake Maye in the NFL right now? Who is hitting you up the most?

Big picture, it's the Chargers.

Okay.

Just because the Chargers, they don't have a clear win on the schedule and they don't really have a clear out of like, how would you fix this if this thing keeps going as south as it seems to be? I mean, the Patriots were in the Super Bowl last year. The Chargers have gone to the playoffs twice with Jim Harbaugh. They've won 11 games. Yeah, good for them. But like, they've gone one and done in the playoffs, which is not what you pay a lot of money, which the Chargers generally have not done, to go get one of the, you know, ostensibly the top coaches in the entire NFL in Jim Harbaugh. You know, they go to Seattle this week. You feel— you fall to 0-4, you know, Seattle— like, I, I would be mad.

Seattle coming off a loss, by the way.

Right, exactly. I would be mad if I were the Chargers. Like, why'd they have to lose that game in Washington? Just get them sitting pretty this week. They're going to be pissed off. They're going to come out willing to stick it to them. And you have, you know, the comments Jim Harbaugh made this week, which I think everybody interpreted as like they're about Justin Herbert, where he's just doing like, you know, what do you need him to do? It's like, be better, be better, which is classic Jim Harbaugh where it's all just, we're gonna do better, we're gonna work harder, we're gonna have more effort. Like, that's kind of his answer for everything. I read it as much about Mike McDaniel, where he's talking about like, we gotta look at the scheme, we gotta look at what we're doing and who's doing it.

Is this too complicated? Are we trying to do too many things? Are we not doing enough things?

And Jim's around. Jim's around. Like, he's in the meetings. He's in Mike McDaniel's offense office a lot, trying to learn. Like, he doesn't know the system. And Jim himself doesn't have a system that he's leaning back on. Like, he's the guy who runs the culture.

He's the CEO culture guy.

Yeah, completely. You know, he talks to the team a couple of times a week, but he's not in there diagramming plays. He's not overriding calls. So now that you're 0-3, And this was something organizationally they wanted to do with bringing in Mike McDaniel, and let's put Justin in this office. Like, there's all these questions now that Jim's got to answer. Whereas what I think with Mike Vrabel and the Patriots, it's pretty straightforward. Drake's not playing well. He's not playing.

Yeah, but why? What's your take?

He's not— he's okay. I mean, I'm gonna write more on this on The Sweep for this weekend, but I would tell you it's not the shoulder. I know the shoulder's back on the injury report. he's been fine. He's been ripping the ball all through camp. He landed on the shoulder last week. Like, it's not that. It's not the personnel per se. Losing AJ Brown definitely hurt. It's all these different moving parts right now, and like, none of it looks good. I've talked to people who have played them over these first few weeks, and they're just like, it just looks like the whole thing is disjointed. Like, nothing is connecting.

Yeah.

So what tends to happen, especially with young quarterbacks, is then you start pressing more. And I, I write him part of it on, you know, the play last week where he throws the interception right before halftime in the end zone. Like, that's one of the most basic plays you've got in the playbook, which is like, it's a quick play action and then it's a roll pass. You got Rhamondre Stevenson. If he's covered up, you know, you either throw the ball to him quickly if he's covered, which he kind of was, like, buy some time, let him try to work. He's going against the linebacker, he should be able to get open. Or Drake, take off running. Or Drake, throw the ball out of bounds, kick a field goal. Instead, he's throwing the ball across his body for Efton Chisholm, who is not even an option on the play.

Who's standing— who's standing behind the D-back.

Standing next to Travis Hunter.

Yeah.

And he's not— Efton Chisholm's role in that play is just run around and try to make people follow you. The ball's never supposed to go to him. And Drake's like across his body, flipping it softly at him. It goes right to Travis Hunter like, Those are the things that happen when you feel like, I got to make a play, I got to get us going. What they need more than anything is to stop pressing, just calm down a little bit, play with urgency. But that's different than panic. He's playing with panic right now. And so I know that it's like, it's not the most direct answer, but it's not the play calling per se. It's not— yes, it is AJ Brown not being out there that makes a difference. But like, it's not, you know, we traded Ke'Shawn Booty, that would have fixed it. Like, he's got 6 catches in Houston. It's not that. It's really just nothing's working and Drake is trying way too hard to make things work.

And he lost his number one guy an hour into the season that they had built a lot of the offense around. I don't understand why they're using the running backs the way they're using 'em, how they've used Henderson. But the big thing with me, he had a swagger about him last year. And Diggs, who I, I think they miss from a personality standpoint, I think he was really important behind the scenes in building up everybody else. and just had a swagger that these current guys don't seem to have. But the quotes that really jumped out to me last year was the way the guys talked about him. And they'd be like, well, we have Drake. Well, this guy, nobody has a guy like this. And they were really talking about him like pretty reverentially. And you go from that to what, how the Super Bowl played out to what we've seen this year where now you see a guy who he just seems like he's, Like, he almost looks like a high school kid who has a big paper coming that he knows he's not prepared for and just has that glazed look on his face.

So I think it's more head than shoulder, but I don't love how he answered the shoulder question this week.

I, I would agree. A lot of it's between the ears right now with Drake, just in terms of talking to people who know him, who've been around, who've played against him. It's a lot of it, it's confidence-based.

It's just It really feels that way. It's like a Rocky, Rocky III situation where he— that like for the first time Clubber Lang hit him and he's like, oh shit.

Right. And think about where that started. You just brought it up. They moved the ball. I know they didn't score a lot of points in that first half against the Seahawks, but AJ Brown had 3 catches. He had like a 34-yard DPI that if Drake just layers the ball out there a little bit more, it's a long touchdown. Like AJ Brown was— I know the numbers weren't huge, but he was impacting that game. And so much of what they built in the offseason was, well, we're going to be able to isolate AJ Brown on one side, and then when we get one-on-ones, like, he can win every ball that we're going to throw that way. You don't have another guy like that. So what else happens? He goes out, Romeo Doubs has a huge drop in that game, and then it's the 4th quarter where Drake throws 3 straight interceptions. It was really just at the tail end. They moved the ball okay up until that point. So there's definitely a correlation between AJ Brown being out He's eligible to come back week 6. I know he's pushing to be back.

He was in cleats in the locker room this week for some reason.

So that definitely— he can't practice until after week 5, so we won't know for another week.

So they lose the AJ Brown piece, but they also— this Reardon, this tight end that they drafted that they really loved, and they were going to be able to play him and Henry together, and they had this big tight end lineup that they were going to throw at people, and then he didn't play last week. So they lost that look too. They couldn't do the big tight ends. They didn't have a deep threat. Um, and for whatever reason, Jacksonville's D played good, and it just—

I don't know.

I mean, this Buffalo game, the timing of this couldn't be worse.

Or, or it could be great, honestly. I mean, the Bills, they didn't look great. They didn't look like the Bills. No, here's the point is, no, it's not, it's not easy, okay? This is not the team you want to be going against knowing that they can put you in a points race. from go, and all of a sudden you're like, well, shit, we got to score 35.

Well, with half my defense not practicing right now, that's not helping us either, right?

But if you can hit on some of those plays, even last week, I know like it doesn't do you any good, but like they had 5 explosive pass plays, 7 of their 10 drives went past the 50. There's a near miss to Mac Jones, there's a miss to— or, uh, Mac Hollins— there's a miss to Pop Douglas. Like, you're pretty close. Like, you have some explosiveness, you are moving the football. It's just the turnovers are absolutely killing you. And this—

Yeah.

There's a Murphy's Law aspect to it too. Like the center is bleeding on the football and that leads to the ball slipping out of your hand. Like, like to see Drake, you know, find the ball and fall on it in that particular spot. But like, there's a little bit of luck. Like if you can just have the luck fall your way, I know that that's a vast oversimplification, but like come out and just play a little bit better, execute a little bit better, you know, and find a way to win that game. All of a sudden you're 2-2, you're a game back in the division again. It's not an easy opponent at all. But look at it, look ahead at the schedule after this game. It looks like you've got some winnable games out there in front of you. You steal this one, like the narrative flips like that. You come out and play like you did and you continue to turn over the ball at the rate that Drake May is, it's going to be a lot more, well, now what? And the panic level, all the external noise and people going on the radio and saying Mike Vrabel hates Drake May and things like that.

Like it's just going to ramp up.

We hit that stage this week. That was fun. It's funny with the Chargers and the Pats, you can talk yourself into the same glass half full. The Chargers, it's like, yeah, we sucked against Arizona week 1. Fine. Week 2, we lost to the Raiders. It seemed like a terrible thing. Maybe the Raiders are pretty good. And then last week we gave away the Buffalo game. We kept, we, you know, we got a million turnovers and we still screwed the game up. And that was stupid. That's not gonna happen every time. So I don't know. The Pats are the same thing. Yeah, we were right in that Seattle thing and then we blew it. We beat Pittsburgh in week 2. They put up a bunch of points against the Bengals a week later, and then Jacksonville throw it away. Raiders, let's end with them on the 6-pack. I'm not ready to go there yet to predict that they're a playoff team because the schedule's really hard. But man, they remind me a lot. The more I look at it and research it and and study it. They remind me a lot of what happened with the Pats last year, where new coach following just a catastrophe of a coaching staff, um, competent quarterback play.

They can block. They block better than the Pats did. They hit their draft. They hit a bunch of guys in the draft that I think are, you know, were meaningful. And then Bowers, if he's gonna play, which he did last week, is one of the 5 or 6 most impactful receivers in the league. And I think they kind of know who they are. There's an identity. Like, I was watching the Kubiak— his speech in the locker room after the game, and, you know, there was a little, like, nobody believes in us buzz. So they have my attention, is my point. Where do you stand on the Raiders?

The other corollary is, remember the Patriots went on that huge spending spree on their defense before last season?

Right.

They got Milton Williams and a bunch of other guys. The Raiders did that. Yeah, you know, they— when they trade Max Crosby for the 4 days or whatever it was that he was traded, uh, in the meantime they spent all this money on other defensive players. Then they accidentally get back a guy who's still one of the best players in the league in Max Crosby, who last week like was absolutely dominating at the end of that game. Like, he hasn't gotten to close games like that because they haven't had a lead in 5 years.

It's a great point.

The best part of the fit with Clint Kubiak going there, besides the obvious fact that he's a very smart offensive coach, when you're developing a quarterback, you want to run a proven system that's won at the highest level. It's also that Clint— it's frankly the reason that a lot of people within the league, even people who are friends with Clint, didn't think he would ever get a head coaching job, is he is so flatline. He is so low burn. I think that helps them. I think that these guys have been in absolute chaos for so long. So many firings, so many changes, controversies. Now they've just got like a pretty normal group of humans. I mean, their 2 quarterbacks with Kirk and Fernando are the 2 most like unassuming guys you're ever gonna have in that room. Like, they're the anti-Raiders right now. They have a God room.

The quarterbacks have a God room with the 3rd stringer.

They are—

they just talk about religion. They're even keel.

Like, this is the Raiders.

Yeah.

You couldn't come up with a less Raiders group. I mean, I thought Pete Carroll was the ultimate anti-Raiders guy. This is even more so. Like, it is absolutely— like, it's a very positive group of people. You're not expecting them to, like, get in fights in games. You're not expecting them to have 200 yards in penalties, go get in trouble on the strip. Like, I say that and anything's possible, but it just seems like Clint has managed, along with some of the other guys he brought in, like Andrew Ginocchio, the OC, Rob Leonard, who's really well-liked in the building.

People like him.

Yeah. They're, they're just like a bunch of just kind of normal guys who've just calmed down all the bullshit. And I'm not saying that's enough for them to be a playoff team. This is the biggest game though that they've had in probably 5 years in that stadium. Place is gonna be absolutely rocking. Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs coming in. If they win this game, I think that we have to start at least talking about, is this an actual playoff team in 2026?

I'd be—

I mean, if they had the schedule the Pats had last year, we would be talking about them as, could this team win 12, 13 games? But their schedule is brutal. Um, this game that they have against the Chiefs, so the line is +4.5 for the Raiders, so they're baking in like Chiefs-Raiders history, Mahomes, all that stuff. The real thing is the Chiefs fans, and I think there's going to be— I don't know if it's going to be good or bad for the Raiders, but I think that energy and that stadium with all the Raiders fans who are just— beating Mahomes would be the ultimate, right? But then you're probably gonna have 25,000, 30,000 Chiefs fans there, and it's gonna— I think it's gonna feel like a soccer game. I think it's gonna be really cool. I— to me, it's the game of the— it's the game of the week other than Bills-Pats, because Bills-Pats is like—

They gotta win.

Yeah, if the Pats lay an egg in this game, this is— then I think they're a write-off. Raiders-Chiefs, if they— if the Raiders can stick it to the Chiefs and throw a couple haymakers and just have a good game, I think they could be a playoff team.

I believe they've got the number 1 crew calling this game too. Unbelievable.

For CBS.

A Raiders game in Week 4.

Right.

Mahomes.

It's pretty wild. Like, enjoy it, Raiders fans. It's, uh, it has not been like this very often in a long, long time.

And we think Puka Nacua is healthy before we go.

Everything I've been told is that he's feeling a lot better. Uh, consulted with a bunch of specialists, everybody agreed does not need surgery right now. Um, seems like he's in a better place than he was a week or two ago. And so it appears to be, as far as I know, all systems go for him to be back against the Eagles.

All right, looking forward to the sweep on Saturday. You can hear Tom on the Ringer NFL Show as well. Thank you. I will see you next week.

Sounds good. Thanks, Bill.

My dad is here. Recording this on a Thursday afternoon, less than 24 hours after the Red Sox were knocked out in consecutive games by the Yankees.

What do you mean? We're not playing at 8 o'clock tonight?

We're not playing. It was the best 2 of 3. We lost. Oh yeah.

I thought it was 3 out of 5.

We didn't have high hopes. We had a lot of injuries on the Sox, but there, there's some big picture Red Sox stuff, including the fact that they extended the manager. who was reprehensibly bad in the playoffs, but it's fine. He's a young manager, maybe learn in the playoffs. But they also extended the GM, Craig Breslow, through '29 and '30, which seems a lot scarier of a decision for Red Sox fans because it came off the high of the 32-5 winning streak and some good vibes. But for the most part, I do not know if Greg Breslow is the right guy to run the Red Sox. How do you feel about this?

Well, I think you're right. We had that terrific 15-game winning streak.

Yeah.

And suddenly Craig Breslow looked very safe. But I think before that, I'm not sure he would've lasted the season. I mean, the Red Sox have a history of only hanging in there for 3 or 4 years with general manager types. And that's the frustrating part. We had that great 15-game winning streak, I actually went to game 15 of that streak. We lose a couple and then we win 9 more in a row. We won 9 in a row.

32-5 in 37 games.

Crazy. Unfortunately, it wasn't in September. It was, not unfortunately, but it was when it was. But then the bats got silent in September. And you talked, you and I talked a lot about how The guys that had gotten them that winning streak, suddenly all of them weren't playing anymore because people like Roman Anthony was suddenly back in the lineup.

And Trevor Story.

And Trevor Story.

Hangdog Trevor.

Yeah. And went to one of the games and suddenly the spunk didn't seem the same. It's like same old, same old. Uh, it was kind of weird how that happened. Not to say that if those guys hadn't come back and the same second-string type players had kept playing, things would've been great. I don't know. We'll never know. The other thing that happened was—

Well, wait, hold on on that point.

Okay.

'Cause it was like a sports movie during that 32-5 streak.

Oh, it was.

And it was night after night, a different hero, and Monasterio.

Yes.

All these guys. And then the same guys came back, Who were all part of the team that we all couldn't stand watching in April and May and the beginning of June. And then we kind of slowly reverted back and then there were just so many injuries. I mean, Rafaela was a zombie in that Yankee series. He didn't even look like himself.

But you know, you and I think you and I were, were at the game when Rafaela got hurt.

Yeah. The third base coach stopped him. He was running full speed and, and he stopped him against Seattle.

And that third base coach the entire year had many suspicious decisions, running guys or not running guys.

He was awful.

That was, that was awful. That you, and we saw him, he stopped so short, it looked like he got hurt. And sure enough, a couple days later he's outta the lineup. Yeah.

My buddy Hench said our third base coach was the only third base coach with a negative WAR, that stat WAR. He was like -5 for the year.

Yeah.

'Cause he kept taking out our guys or sending them into collisions. But yeah, Rafaela was never the same after that. Contreras got hit in the hand with 2 weeks left in the season. He was never the same after that.

Well, and not only that, you, you had said throughout the last couple of months that once he got hit in the head previously and it looked like he got concussed, he never came back the same. He just didn't look the same. He looked like he was foggy almost.

Right.

In a trance.

Well, even in the Yankee series, see that one when they, uh, You know, the pivotal play of Game 2, we get a strikeout. Rutschman takes forever to go get the ball, throws it to first, and Contreras is on the wrong side of the first base bag instead of stretching. And it was little stuff like that that sunk this team ultimately.

And, and, you know, obviously a mental mistake. And you wonder, mental mistake because he's not 100% mentally after being hit twice. Yeah. That I've never seen that happen where the first baseman's way back of the bag.

It was crazy.

If he's in the front of the bag, I think the guy's out.

Well, have you ever seen when you make one of your big trade deadline moves, when they get Curtis Meade and he gets hurt within an hour of the first game, and then we never see him again, and then he comes back for the last game?

I—

that was the weirdest Red Sox career I can remember.

Very strange. Um, almost as strange as putting Chris, uh, our, our ace pitcher who hasn't pitched in 4 months up there. Yeah. For relief appearance in Game 2.

Yeah. I don't think they were gonna beat the Yankees with the team that they had, but the manager was awful.

And—

Well, I want— let's talk about the manager. You know, it, it was, he, he got so outcoached. You know, he seems like a really nice guy and I, I'll give him a lot of credit because he got the clubhouse together. He certainly was, responsible, greatly responsible for bringing them back from the dead.

Yeah.

I liked a lot of the small ball decisions he made, bunting runners over, all that sacrifice stuff, all of which disappeared in the playoffs, by the way.

Right.

And he looked like he was managing scared in those 2 games. I was thinking back to Game 1, we're down 1 to nothing. We're still in the game even though our bats have been silent for a while, but we're down 1 to nothing. And he takes Peyton Tull out of the game for no reason. I mean, the guy, his pitch count was still low. And then we see him see the same thing in game 2.

Well, and then brings in the same guy who's been dogshit for a month. He was good when we got him. And then the last month was, I didn't trust him. I didn't want to see him in that spot. I thought our only chance in the series was Tolyan, Gray, and then if it got to a game 3, Suarez, just, just having 3 awesome starts or 2 awesome starts, whatever. And he pulled both of the starters, you know, before the, before the 5th inning or the end of the 5th inning.

Well, he didn't leave, he let neither pitcher finish the 5th. And you know, you look at what the Yankees did with their starter, yesterday. He was what, 115 pitches or something?

Yeah, that's what you're supposed to do.

And our guys, he just seemed to manage scared. And it's so unfortunate because I thought he managed very well during the year, and now he's only going to be remembered for these 2 terrible decision games. I wish our starters had been allowed to go 7 or 8. I don't know what would've happened.

Well, and that's before you get into Roman Anthony. Was he hurt before the series? Why did he have 2 at-bats before they decided he was really hurt? You're pinch-hitting for him, but you knew he was hurt before the game. Why is he on the roster? All of that was weird.

All good questions because when he came back, he— I don't know if you remember, he was like 8 for 12 or something. He was hitting really well.

Yeah.

And then all of a sudden he was not hitting very well, but they kept him in the lineup. Then they took him out, put him back in. I don't think he ever got healthy. Somebody should teach him how it's not a good idea to stop your swing midway through the swing.

All the time.

'Cause yeah, all the time. Just go through with it.

And maybe to swing, not wait till 2 strikes before you attack any pitching count.

Yeah. Maybe.

Maybe he's a really frustrating player. It's funny 'cause you go to the games and I went to a couple this year. And the 19 jerseys everywhere. He's, he's the guy they're pushing. He's the guy that the fans want to grab onto. And, you know, it's a lot like Drake Maye and the Pats. But he's a really frustrating player to watch. And it, it seemed like by the time we got to the end of the series, it seemed like the team was really frustrated with him. And there's a lot of buzz about that behind the scenes about them wondering, you know, should he have played through pain? Is there stuff he could have done?

Yeah.

where you have Contreras. Contreras probably had—

Contreras said stuff.

Well, that there was, you know, there's buzz, but meanwhile, Contreras probably had a broken hand that he was just playing with. Like, we don't even know how, how hurt he was. I wonder, like, the big thing— it's funny because this is 3 seasons. This was the most depressing Red Sox season, like, since I was a kid, the first, I don't know, 12 weeks. Then you had this improbable streak that really Lit the city on fire, combined with the World Cup, really like rejuvenated everything. And Fenway was packed. It was impossible to get tickets. People loved this team.

And then they made— And I went out and I bought a Red Hat.

Yeah. You got a new Red Sox hat. You were excited about it. The old one we had to finally bury. And then it became a question near the trade deadline of, hey, if we can get all these guys back and then add a couple trade deadline pieces, this could be one of the best teams in the league. The bullpen was deep. At that point, Slayton was pitching, and Guerrero came out of nowhere, lights out. Both of those guys, you know, didn't make it to the end of the season. But they make these 2 trades. One was for Meade, where they trade a lefty starter early that I thought was good.

Oh, I, I never would've traded early.

Yeah, but they needed a bat. I get it. And they're rich in pitching. I wouldn't have necessarily done it, but whatever. But then the Rutschman trade was the bigger one because He has a big contract coming up and watching him all the time here, he's injury prone. He doesn't look in shape to me. It's like having Engelbert from Bad News Bears in breaking training. Even when that, that drop strike, he's just slow. Everything about him.

Yeah.

Just seems kind of doughy and outta shape and slow. And he's in his 27, 28 year range. It makes me think like, how is this guy gonna age? We're gonna give this guy a giant contract. to justify giving 3 prospects up in that trade. I don't want to do that. Everything about that, I just think was a failure looking back.

Well, looking back, you know, I was excited when they traded for him, but I was going on past history and I knew he had been hurt and he hadn't really played this year. But when he showed up, he looked about £20 overweight.

Yeah.

And they showed a rookie card of And he looked £25 overweight. I don't know. And as you said, he was slow and I never trusted he would get a hit, which was really strange because you look at his baseball card and he's done very well.

Yeah.

But he's not, he's not the same guy.

He'd have a couple swings, like he hit a couple bombs at Fenway to places that I've only seen a couple people, you know, like really big ones that wrapped around the pole in spots in right field that home runs don't normally go. And it's like, oh, that's interesting. This guy's got some power. But ultimately, for what they gave up, I don't think he's a sure thing.

A couple of things. Yeah, he did have some hits, but if I— you look back, most of them were not when people were on base, right?

They were like solo in the first 5 innings.

Yeah. He was not a guy I wanted to come up with 2 outs and men on second and third, and you needed the hit to drive in runs to tie or go ahead. He didn't do it. He'd have that soft fly to the outfield, or if he was hitting lefty, the ground to the second base.

Right.

He just, he wasn't the guy I think they hoped they were getting.

He was still somehow better than Connor Wong.

I don't know. I, you know, for what they gave up, Yeah. You, you talked about their pitching.

Yeah.

They gave up early. They gave up their 2 top prospects, pitching prospects in the minors.

Yeah. And you, you actually go and you look at these guys' stats. It's one of, one of your weird things. You like looking at our minor league stats, our best guys. You were the most upset when Jeff Bagwell got traded out of anyone I know.

Yeah.

You were like, I was looking at his New Britain box scores. They give up a lot for Rutschman though. And it seemed like he was the leader of that Baltimore team. And I liked the reactions of his teammates. I was like, oh, that's a good sign. They seem really bummed out. They seem like they really liked him.

Yeah.

But now you look back and you think they had this 32-5, and then other than that, they were basically, what, 15 games under .500 for all the other games? And you wonder, like Red Sox Stats, this Twitter account I follow, the guy's great. And he was saying like, if, if all of the wins had just been scattered across the season and there was no streak like that and the team was just the team, Would the GM have survived today? Would they have extended the manager? You know, it was really that streak really, really broke everybody's brains, it felt like.

Yeah. They got put in a tough place with the manager after he brought them back. Yeah.

He kind of had, they kind of had to commit to him.

I agree. But I would've not touched the general manager.

Yeah.

Like, so he, so he signs last year, they don't get Alonso. But they get Contreras and they get the 2 pitchers, Suárez and Gray.

Well, let's back up.

And he spent a lot of money on Suárez and Gray, but those were also 2 of the best starters available, and they just paid for them. I don't know how much credit you get for that.

Well, but he paid the Alonso money for Suárez.

Who we never saw in the Yankee series because we lost the 2 games.

Exactly. And, and what did Alonso had, 41 or 42 homers, was a threat every day. And, and he never gets, seems like he never gets hurt. Contreras, a likable player, always hurt.

Well, part of the problem is he stands over home plate daring these pitchers to hit him. I like Contreras. I think that one was a little more defensible, but I just, when I look big picture, the Devers trade, nobody's left, right?

Right.

The Roman Anthony extension, that they gave, which was a really big commitment that you give if somebody is the all-time can't miss. Obviously he's not an all-time can't miss. The Christian Campbell money they gave, that was kind of ridiculous.

Right.

I just don't know if there was enough there. And then a bunch of young people that were, you know, were pretty disappointing. But I think he got a lot of mileage from Tolley and Early and, you know, this young generation of arms they were able to develop.

I would've rather have seen them stick with Tully Early and Sonny Gray.

Who's probably going to leave now because they yanked him. His quotes after the game were disturbing.

Very understandable though. I mean, they had a video of his facial expression when the manager came out to get him. The manager put his hand on his shoulder. I'm surprised he didn't slap it away.

I mean, what? Well, especially to bring in Miller out when we had just seen this the night before. It was like, this isn't gonna go well.

Yeah. Yeah.

The whole thing was they weren't gonna beat the Yankees. They, I mean, the Yankees, because they didn't have Judge, like even for this series, the Yankees were only like -170 favorites. And I was saying this to Sal on Sunday night, I was like, I don't get it. Like, we can't hit. Right. They said the only way we're gonna win is if the pitchers go nuts. And this is like 2-1, 1-0. Did you feel, we both hate the Yankees obviously. Did you feel like this hurt extra 'cause it was the Yankees, or this was just— we— they just— they were obviously gonna win, they had way more talent?

This hurt way extra watching the Yankee fans for 2 nights in a row.

Yeah, that was my answer as well.

Come on.

I didn't even talk to Jacko. Jacko texted me today. He's like, you all right? You okay? I was like, ah, I told you we were gonna lose. That was bad.

You know, it's funny, I have a friend who's a strong, Chicago White Sox fan. And I was saying that I wished, you know, the downside of that streak we had was—

Yeah, it pushed us into that Yankee matchup.

Yeah.

We were talking about whether we should have tanked and just brought up all these dudes from the minors.

I mean, Houston looked dead.

Yeah.

I think I would've liked to, maybe eventually you have to play the Yankee, I don't know.

Yeah, try to avoid them as much as possible. The other thing that hurt was the lockout, because the one guy they didn't trade to the Orioles for Engelbert was Arias, the shortstop who seems like a phenom.

Right.

And I think there was a lot of stuff written about this. If the lockout wasn't happening next year, they would've brought this guy up in September. And I think he would've played much like the Yankees had Lombard, who became a big part of their team down the stretch. I think Arias would've played. I think they would've fit him in somewhere and he would've maybe given them a little bit of a jolt, but they couldn't bring him up. 'Cause once the lockout happens, you can't even let those guys in the facility.

Yeah, maybe. But it wouldn't have helped given the decisions the manager made pitching-wise.

True.

True. I mean, it felt like he panicked in the 5th inning of both games. He just panicked.

Are you gonna give him a nickname like Second Row Chad?

No, I like the guy. I like the way the camaraderie— I mentioned camaraderie on the bench brought the team together. Everybody liked each other. They did go south most of the month of September.

Well, I remember when we went to the game on Friday with Zoe and Zoe's boyfriend and Carrie and—

Oh, you did? I didn't get invited.

On Friday, you didn't get invited. Not after you wouldn't walk home the other time. But you wouldn't have liked it anyway because the weather was bad. But we had our lineup coming up and these different guys were coming up and Hank and I were being, you know, we're like, oh man, here comes a ground out. This is gonna be a strikeout. Trevor Story. Trevor Story struck out all 3 times in the game we went to. But, and my wife was like, you guys are so negative. Like, why aren't you, why aren't you being more positive about the team? And I was like, 'cause I watched this team. Like, we're, we've stopped hitting. Like, this is not gonna happen.

Yeah.

We, our bats are dead. This is just the way it's gonna be. And, you know, we won that game 2-nothing, but that was really their only chance. I mean, they— the injuries they had this year. First of all, Tristan Kassus, I, I guess he's just gone. He's been gone for 2 years.

Well, he's like, he's still a Red Sox, but he's still hurt.

Yeah.

He—

who misses 2 straight years? So he's gone. Um, that crochet we lost basically in April for the whole year. And then you go through the other guys, like people you haven't even thought of probably forever, like Cutter Crawford. Gasper comes up right as the team's about to die, turns into Babe Ruth for 3 weeks, and then gets hurt right before the playoffs. He's the one guy I would've trusted in the Yankee series. He's just gone, you know?

But it would— Right. With that, you know, you're right. With that short right field porch. And, and he gets hurt Friday.

Right.

Should he have been playing? And the doubleheader. We didn't need those games.

And then Anthony seems like he got hurt in the very last game where they made everybody fly to Tampa Bay for no reason at all to play the Cubs. But so big picture.

Well, big, you know, I was talking to a friend, this friend Paul, and we were talking about a year and a half ago, and you and I had the same discussion. We were riding high. We had, a franchise quarterback.

Yeah.

Looked like he was gonna be a stud for the next 10 years. And we had a franchise, our next Ted Williams, the lefty hitter.

Roman Anthony.

Roman Anthony.

Right. He's gonna start for the WBC for America.

Yeah.

And now, and things, and we had a stud leading the Celtics to 70, to 56 wins. It's funny how in sports things, things just change. You, you can't count on things anymore.

I don't understand why we can't count on Drake Maye. I don't know what happened there. I, he was the last person I ever thought we'd be worried about. And yet we watched the game on Sunday together. And then when I was driving around in Boston on Monday listening to WEI and he had the interview and was talking about his shoulder and yeah, just really wouldn't answer questions about it. And then he tried to clarify it yesterday, I guess. I don't know what's going on with him.

I don't know if you saw, but for the first time this season, I think he was on the injury report yesterday for the shoulder.

Right.

So they, they did put him on the report. I don't know. Yeah, the shoulder's one thing, but I know we switched to football, but it's just the decision-making. It's the funny feet in the pocket.

Yeah.

It's, it's not hanging in there the way other quarterbacks hang in there to have that last second to make the throw.

Well, and then the deep throws last year versus this year is the weirdest one to me. He had the best deep ball I've ever watched regularly in my life last year. He was just on it all the time. And this year he's either short or it's all over the place. Orlovsky did a thing today actually on NFL Live about his right foot and how last year it was pointed out for leverage. And this year, his feet are straight and he's like, this is bad. This is why his— Right.

I don't know.

There could be 19 things. Other, you know, obviously I talked to people and media people, and one of the consensus thoughts is like, this is all in his head. This is just, he got the shit kicked out of him in the playoffs last year by a couple different defenses in a row who threw all these different things at him. Well, and now he's in his head.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we talked about how he, he really got beat up in the playoffs.

And, and with way in, in ways defenses throwing things at him that he hadn't seen. So like this weekend they play Buffalo who doesn't have a good defense at all. You know, a team that he's had real success against and I don't have any confidence at all.

But Jacksonville supposedly had, didn't have a good defense.

Right.

And they got to him, or he thought they were getting to him, which is part of what I'm seeing. He thinks they're getting to him. And these wild throws off the back foot often too, which he didn't do last year.

Yeah, I think they're gonna lose this weekend. AJ Brown will come back and then week 5 will be the week where they have the come-to-Jesus week where it's like, what is this team? Is this team gonna rally or not? You know, it's not like there's 7 AFC playoff teams that we can count up right now. So you can go 1-3 and be fine. I would expect that they lose this week, but big picture, like the AJ Brown was such a big piece of what they wanna do. I also, McDaniels drives you and I crazy.

Right.

I don't understand how they're using Henderson at all. Makes no sense to me. They've had a lot of injuries. Like even we're taping this today, Gonzalez didn't practice today. He's another, I saw that.

Yeah.

He's another one that it feels like we can't get 4 straight good weeks outta him in a row.

Is there a reason why McDaniel doesn't have Henderson run wide? I'm, I'm so tired of swing passes or swing passes where he's out, out in the open. It's so tiring to watch first, first down pass, second down, second down run.

Henderson. Yeah. Run into the line.

2-yard run right into the line.

Yeah.

Our line is all beat up, so why are they doing that?

Yeah.

Frustrating. Yeah. Obviously the last 2 nights were terrible. I had, and I was pretty positive about our pitching lineup.

Yeah.

I liked all 3 starters.

I thought, I thought they were gonna win game 2. I really thought Gray was gonna come through and I thought it was, I thought it could be like a 1-nothing or 2-1. I was, I would, I wouldn't say I was confident, but I had higher hopes than game 1. I, I just think Schlittler's the best guy in the league. Like he wasn't, we weren't getting hits off him.

He was pretty unhittable.

He's ridiculous. Yeah. That's—

But totally, you know, matched him for, except for the one pitch, he matched him 1-nothing till he got taken out.

How do you feel about the fact that we've had 5 years of Trevor Story?

He's so horrible.

This entire half decade of Trevor Story and his .296 on-base and kind of the sad look. I was saying to Hench and my friends in the Red Sox, thread. He has the same kind of face and body language of all the guys from the '86 team. Like, he could have totally fit in with Rich Gedman and Bob Stanley and Giraldi. He just, just feels like something bad's gonna happen when you see him. And as soon as he showed up after the streak, it was like, ah, we're back. I, I just feel like he's the jinx.

It— I wish he had never come back, but, you know, I understand he's a real nice guy.

Yeah, he seems like a great teammate.

And he's probably a good family man and a good teammate. But watching him at bat, it's a struggle to watch him at bat.

Oh, that was mostly you guys.

All the strikeouts.

Jaren Duran, Jaren Duran, I think I'm—

Oh, he's another one.

I think I'm good on.

But you know that, go back to, we won 15 and then lost 2 and won 9 in a row. It wasn't with Trevor Story.

No.

He wasn't part of that picture. And the guys they had, some guys I never heard of until this season, but they seemed to get big hits at the right time. Big hits meaning they were hitting with guys on base.

Yeah.

And suddenly the month of September, we were not hitting with guys on base.

No.

Trevor Story would come up, guys on first and second, second, third. You weren't confident at all that we were going to get runs.

Or IKF was another one. None of these guys.

IKF, I, I don't understand why he's playing.

Well, Siegler got hurt.

Yeah.

It's just, yeah, just everybody got hurt. You'd get used to these guys. I, I can't remember a baseball season quite like it, but I will say it was the most fun I've had during a season in the, probably the 2020s.

Right. Yeah.

But really since Mookie left.

Putting the 3 weeks, last 3 weeks of September aside. And the last 2 nights, it was a very, it was a fun comeback. Yeah. It was a fun season. We probably never deserved to be in the playoffs the way we're playing. The downside is now we have a general manager, like you said, who's, we're stuck with until 19— until 2030.

Well, the other downside is the Yankees have a legitimate chance to make the World Series and they can't win again. It's the one thing we have. We have 4 this century. They have 1. We, we need Tampa Bay to take them down. You need to become a Junior Campanaro fan.

I ordered a Tampa Bay shirt today.

So they were really good. I thought that was the best team we played this year.

They were good.

They're just like, they do everything right and they have an absolutely terrifying main hitter and they have a really good bullpen. And I, I just thought they're impressive. Yeah. So Pats, you're still Holding on. And then Celtics starting in less than 3 weeks.

Yeah, pretty soon.

You talked yourself into the Paul George trade. We can announce it now. No, you didn't.

I, when did I do that?

Oh, I thought you, I thought you might've, I thought by opening day, I thought you were on a schedule going to a therapist every day.

I want to see if he plays, how many games he plays this year. I guess that will tell me something. It seems like When he plays, he contributes.

Yeah.

But he misses, he missed so many. I know he was suspended 25 games.

Says he feels really healthy this year. He's really excited to play off Jayson Tatum. He said all the right things at media day.

He, he has said all the right things.

He loves playing off superstars like that.

I like the Robinson addition, obviously, and I like the Garrett addition in his 20th year. I think I, I, I like the articles. Yeah. He's mentoring Pritchard.

Yeah.

They, they become fast friends and all of that is good. Maybe we'll, we'll more well-rounded. I don't know.

The vibes are gonna be great on this team. And Detroit'll be way worse. Philly's a wild card. Toronto is gonna be the, probably the, the team that jumps into the Detroit spot. I think Toronto's gonna be really good. Cleveland'll be around the same. The, the, East is good.

East is good.

We're not gonna win 56 games again.

But again, it's so early. You don't know about injuries. You don't know about the Greek in Miami, how he'll play if he got hurt again.

Right.

It's so early when injuries play such a part during the season.

Sounds like you're like a C+ for excitement for the season.

No, I'm probably a B-. You know, nobody's talking about Tatum Who is still not that far removed from an Achilles injury. Yeah, hopefully he's 100%. I don't know. Uh, I hope so.

It's your—

it certainly wasn't—

it's your 33rd year with tickets.

No, it's—

I mean, your 53rd year.

No, 54th year.

54th? '73, '74, Suzanne. Oh, it's your 54th year.

Yes, it is.

Damn.

Yeah. Maybe except for people who give their tickets after the dad dies to the— or mom dies to the family.

You think you're the longest continuous season ticket holder?

Oh, I'm certainly up there. I'm certainly up there.

God forbid they figured this out. Take them like 2 minutes.

Maybe I'm the only one who's still thinking and speaking coherently.

Still getting upset. I think this team's gonna be good. I, I really, uh, I think they're gonna be fun to watch and they'll just be a better version of last year's team. But the league's gonna be harder because there's less shit teams.

Well, I'll just segue one quick second. I watched most of Two Channels the other night. The Bruins look pretty good in game 1.

Really?

Yeah.

You're in on them too?

3-nothing shutout, game 1.

Well, they made the regular season longer. It's 84 games now. You're the only person who watches all 84.

It's a long season when the first game is on September 30th, I guess. That's weird. But hey, we got the Patriots, we got the Celtics, we got the Bruins. We had, for the most part, a great run with the Red Sox until the manager imploded.

Yeah. Well, here's what we have with the Pats. If they lose to Buffalo, the next 2 games are home, Las Vegas and the Jets. Those are both winnable. At Chicago, at Miami, they'll at least split those. Miami's the worst team in the league. Las Vegas is home.

Home.

Okay.

Yeah. So that they could be, they could be 4-4 after 8 games. They play Green Bay week 9. Green Bay's terrible this year.

Yeah.

At Detroit, at the Chargers, which seemed like a really hard game, but the Chargers are terrible. Buffalo home, Minnesota home, at Kansas City, at Jets, home Denver, home Miami to end the season.

You know, it's not the schedule, it's are we gonna see a confident Drake Maye? Right. Is he gonna, is, is he going to stay in the pocket? Is he going to not make those dumb decisions he's been making? And is his shoulder okay? I mean, everybody gets banged up. Is it okay? I guess we'll find out enough in the next couple of weeks.

I wonder if we were the year from hell team. I've been thinking about it a lot.

Yeah.

Feels like everything's gone wrong since the Super Bowl, starting the night of the Super Bowl. And all the signs were there, and I chose not to look at them. But I can't think of 7 playoff teams in the AFC, so maybe we have that going for us. Vegas might be good.

Would be—

we'll find out more about Vegas this week, but—

Well, Vegas has played well. I don't— they've played well. They've been home though.

Wait, before we go, can you, can you tell people what it was like to try to watch Sunday football with me with the multi-view?

It wasn't— you had, you had 4 games on the screen, the big screen.

Yeah.

And then you had a game on your iPad right in front of me. Yeah. and you had the sound on only one game and you kept switching it off the Patriots to other games. And I know when I went downstairs, I took, I think I took 4 Tylenol. My head was spinning.

You did.

You left after 2 hours, less than 2 hours. You were like, I'm out.

I know that you have to do it because it's part of what you do and you have to talk about it Sunday night. But as a fan trying to watch his own team, who's not all that interested in the other teams this early in the season.

Yeah.

It was difficult.

Well, I would say the good news, it was distracting you from a really horrible Patriots-Jacksonville game.

Yes and no. Yeah, I guess a little bit.

Wait, before we go, what TV shows are you watching?

Well, the new shows start this week.

Okay.

So what are we looking forward to?

Oh, we're looking forward to the 3 Chicago shows, definitely, on Wednesday night. What's that?

Chicago PD, Fire, and—

And Med.

Med.

Okay.

And then on Tuesday, on, uh, Tuesday night you have FBI and CIA. Those are, those are pretty good.

That's CBS too?

Monday night, yeah. Monday night you have NCIS and NCIS Origins, which I really like a lot.

Um, wait, what was the show LL Cool J and Scott Caan, NCIS New York?

That's a new one. NCIS New York is a brand new show. Yeah, it's in the lineup.

Okay.

It, it's in my lineup. I'll give it a try.

And then did you watch The Pit or you didn't?

No, I didn't watch The Pit, but, um, I like the, uh—

You like the Taylor Sheridan shows?

U.S. Marshals show.

Yeah.

That's pretty good. Um, in, in The Line or The Line of Fire or Line of Duty, I can't remember the name of the show. Brand new.

Yeah, Line of Fire, I think it's called.

Land of Fire, I gave it a try. I'm gonna watch the second episode. I have no more Red Sox, so I have time for my shows that are starting.

It's really sad when, especially when you get in the habit of having it on every night and then it's just gone. But I'll still, I'll watch the baseball playoffs. We're taping this before the third game of Indiana-Las Vegas for WNBA. WNBA's been really good this week.

Yeah.

There's some things to patch it together. You have regular season hockey.

A final thing though, you just kind of alluded to it. It's so hard to watch the 162 games and you're really into it. You get in the playoffs and in 2 games you're gone. And the 2 games you don't get a home game. Maybe someday they'll seed them according to records. But you have Houston playing the Chicago White Sox. Houston's the home team. Does that make any sense to you?

Yeah.

And they were, they were a 500 team, right? They were a 500 team. They should have seeded the teams. I don't know where we would've ended up, but we wouldn't, wouldn't, wouldn't have started with the Yankees for sure.

Well, it's still better than how we did it in the '70s or like 1978 when we tied the Yankees. That, that the playoff game, we had the 2 best records in the American League and we didn't even play in the playoffs.

It's better, but how hard would it be just to seed them by record in each league?

Yeah, no, nobody from the AOS should have hosted a playoff game.

No.

I think that's fair. All right, well, all right, uh, good luck to Drake May. Thanks for popping on. Um, I'll see you next week.

Thanks for having me. All right, I'll see you, see you, uh, next week when, yeah, your daughter's team suddenly starts winning.

Yeah, well, I hope so. I really need to win at this point. All right, bye, Dad.

All right, bye.

All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to my dad. Thanks to Tom Pelissero. Thanks to the one and only Joe House. Thanks to Eduardo and Gahau and Chris as well. Enjoy the weekend. I'm gonna be coming back on Sunday live on Netflix after the Sunday night game. And, uh, don't forget to watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre this weekend because that is gonna be the next Rewatchables. Enjoy the weekend. See you Sunday. Must be 21+ and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino, or 18+ and present in D.C. or Wyoming. Opt-in required bonus issued as non-withdrawable profit boost tokens. Restrictions apply, including any token expiration, max wager amount. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut or mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplineMA.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24/7 support in Massachusetts, or call 877-833-7577 Hope NY, or text HOPE NY in New York. For Louisiana, call 877-770-7867.