The Fifth Annual “My Guy” Fantasy Football Draft With Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck LIVE on Netflix for their annual “My Guy” Fantasy Football Draft. (0:00) Intro (1:26) NFL fantasy prep discussion (11:36) “My Guy” Fantasy Football Draft Host: Bill Simmons Guests: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Producers: Chia Hao Tat, Eduardo Ocampo, Chris Wohlers, and Trevor Rabone Put ChatGPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects. Get started at https://ChatGPT.com by selecting Work mode. Available on Plus and Pro plans The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit https://fanduel.com/playwithaplan to learn more about the resources and helplines Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Bill Simmons?

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• 0:39Bill Simmons?

  This episode is brought to you by one of my best friends in life, NFL Sunday Ticket. Man, I missed it. Kickoff's coming. Yeah, we're getting close. We're within a month. With NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV, you get every game, every Sunday, all in one place, and it's magnificent. And there's no other way to follow the NFL season. I'm so mad I didn't get YouTube TV until a couple of years ago because it's the best. New users, that might include you, can get NFL Sunday Ticket for eight payments of just $30 a month. You heard me correctly. New users pay $240 or eight, eight non-cancellable payments of $30 a month. First charge at purchase. Availability varies with NFL Sunday Ticket for out of market games and YouTube TV for

• 1:24Bill Simmons?

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• 1:59Bill Simmons?

  It is the fifth annual My Guy Fantasy Draft? Fourth, third? How many years is this?

• 2:07Speaker 01

  I think 2022 maybe we started.

• 2:08Bill Simmons?

  I should have been more prepared. I'm Bill Simmons. Have the fantasy guys here for the Ringer Fantasy Show or Ringer NFL Fantasy Show? I can never remember.

• 2:16Speaker 02

  Ringer Fantasy Football Show.

• 2:17Bill Simmons?

  Ringer Fantasy Football Show.

• 2:19Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:19Bill Simmons?

  We're off to a great start.

• 2:22Bill Simmons?

  Danny Heifetz in town. Danny Kelly. Craig Olback. We like to pick, we do our guys, the guys that we like. We go around, we have dumb categories. I'm gonna start before we do the draft. Pretty kinda lousy fantasy prep season, in my opinion. I don't, I don't feel like there's enough kinda crazy, crazy pill guys. There's not enough variance. I'm just a little worried. I'm worried that, I'm worried that this is gonna be a fun podcast, honestly. I just think it's very down the middle. It's just hitting drives down the middle of the fairway this year and not a lot of variance. What do you think?

• 2:59Speaker 02

  I also just feels like nowadays, all the sleepers that like, I don't know, maybe five years ago, you could have gotten in drafts, these like secret guys you could like in the preseason, it's all out in the open now. Everybody knows about Parker Washington. It used to be like five years ago, you could actually get him. Now, all those secrets are out.

• 3:14Bill Simmons?

  Except for A.J. Barner.

• 3:16Speaker 01

  Ooh.

• 3:16Bill Simmons?

  Oh, mild secret. Do you agree with this, though? We just have too much information now?

• 3:21Speaker 03

  I think, I mean, yeah, I think that, I mean, this becomes like a Brian Curtis media podcast, but I think that like social media has almost replaced regular media as like where people are getting the source of information. So things just go viral like as a starting point. So like Dejounte's dribbling with the 49ers, like a video goes viral and then that's all people see. So it's almost like people are kinda through the looking glass. And then also, a lot of, a lot of interesting people are just hurt and banged up, which is also detracting.

• 3:43Speaker 01

  I was gonna say that, yeah. This has felt like, and we say this every year, but really this year feels like one of the worst seasons, preseasons for injuries for some of these top skill players. I mean, every guy that we've kind of mentioned on our show, it feels like it's kind of a running joke now that every guy we mentioned, he just immediately gets hurt.

• 4:00Speaker 02

  The new zag now, I think, is because guys like Parker Washington and Dejounte's dribbling, everybody knows about them, you almost have to go the other way and it's like boring veterans that no one wants to take in a draft anymore. That's where you can kind of find.

• 4:10Bill Simmons?

  That happened in baseball, too.

• 4:12Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 4:12Bill Simmons?

  Yeah. Like in the early days of baseball drafts, just take the dude who hits 290 with 20 homers, 88 RBI.

• 4:18Speaker 02

  It's like, no one's gonna want Mike Evans, but it's like, you should probably just take Mike Evans.

• 4:21Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, I was wondering if there's like a, just a zag theory to do with drafts now.

• 4:25Speaker 02

  You go boring vets, because you're, they're not gonna get, they're not gonna go super high in drafts. Everyone's gonna reach for all the sexy players and it's like, you could just take a vet, Devante Adams, it'll be fine.

• 4:34Bill Simmons?

  But last year, there was a bunch of those dudes that nobody was really excited about, and then it turned out they were good picks. But like this year, I look at Garrett Wilson, who I think everybody has either been burned by or wanted to take him and was glad they didn't. And now he's kind of residing under some line, but he could.

• 4:51Speaker 01

  Afterthought, yeah.

• 4:52Bill Simmons?

  Maybe be awesome this year.

• 4:53Speaker 02

  T. Higgins is another guy nobody talks about, nobody thinks about. T. Higgins is like as dependable and reliable as you could get.

• 5:00Bill Simmons?

  So you think we, do we need to zag back to a different era where we have less information? Cause actually, I tried something this year. I tried to do, I don't wanna say less prep, but I almost felt like I was over-prepped last year.

• 5:12Speaker 03

  Well, I, I think it depends on what you mean by information, because I also think just because there's practice videos going around without any context, doesn't mean people know what they're talking about. Ashton Gentry being the perfect example, there's, it's like a game of telephone. Ashton Gentry gets hurt and they're like, well, the team, everyone's surrounding him and everyone's like, oh, he's out for the season. And then he's like, oh, he has a low ankle sprain, he has a high ankle sprain, no one knows anything. And actually, I think this coincides with real football where Mike McDonald was talking about this and he said, you know, coach of the Seahawks, and he was like, there's less, it's harder to get information than ever before, which makes actual information more valuable than ever before. It's like you used to motion receiver across the formation, like, and if the cornerback follows, it's man coverage. Now you don't even know that anymore. And I think that there's a media thing with there, too, where you're like, oh, I saw this video of this guy, and you're like, that doesn't necessarily mean anything.

• 5:56Speaker 03

  So sometimes knowing a little bit's worse than knowing nothing at all.

• 5:58Bill Simmons?

  Did you notice when he said Mike McDonald, Danny just kind of?

• 6:03Bill Simmons?

  He just seems so happy.

• 6:04Speaker 01

  He's so dreamy. He's the best.

• 6:06Bill Simmons?

  He's probably the best coach in the league.

• 6:07Speaker 03

  Have you been watching Hard Knocks?

• 6:09Speaker 01

  A little. I've been watching bits and pieces. I'm gonna wa, I'm gonna like binge it right before the season to get like really psyched.

• 6:14Speaker 03

  Back.

• 6:15Speaker 01

  It's actually been good.

• 6:16Bill Simmons?

  It is, I feel the other way. I feel like it's the most irrelevant it's ever been.

• 6:19Speaker 02

  I have not watched it.

• 6:21Speaker 01

  I haven't watched it in a long time, to be honest.

• 6:23Bill Simmons?

  Does social media ruin Hard Knocks?

• 6:25Speaker 03

  I have seen it kinda did. The Giants ruined Hard Knocks because the offseason Hard Knocks was supposed to be, it's such a better product, having four months to be distilled into like, why did the Giants lose Saquon? It's like such a better, and then it comes out in July when there's no football, is so much better than Hard Knocks being made in like three day spurts of training camp where they don't wanna reveal anything. It's such a better product. And the Giants were so embarrassing on Hard Knocks offseason that, and.

• 6:48Speaker 01

  You think that would be a draw, though?

• 6:50Speaker 03

  No one wants to do it, but I'm like, the Giants literally just filmed losing Saquon Barkley to the Eagles and then everyone's like, I'll never do that ever again.

• 6:56Bill Simmons?

  The one thing that we don't have enough that I would actually be excited about is the, when the teams kinda do the scrimmage things, what are they called?

• 7:05Speaker 02

  Like the joint practice.

• 7:06Bill Simmons?

  The joint practice.

• 7:07Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 7:07Bill Simmons?

  They're great.

• 7:08Speaker 01

  Those are better than preseason games.

• 7:09Speaker 03

  Totally are.

• 7:10Bill Simmons?

  I was devouring, like literally devouring the A.J. Brown highlights.

• 7:14Speaker 03

  Eagles hat.

• 7:15Speaker 02

  That was the best preseason game.

• 7:17Bill Simmons?

  I was watching different fan angles, like I was like.

• 7:19Speaker 01

  Searching on Twitter.

• 7:20Bill Simmons?

  Deep dive, and it's like, I would just pay for this if they showed it, because then the actual preseason games are horrible.

• 7:26Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 7:26Bill Simmons?

  So why not just have the joint practice, the gambling guys talked about this on Monday, that, that we would all pay for the joint practices, basically? Cause it seems like that's the only way to really evaluate what's happening. I watched the second pass game, nobody played.

• 7:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:39Bill Simmons?

  You know?

• 7:40Speaker 01

  Well, the coaches are, the coaches talk about, if we have a really good practice today, we're not gonna play our starters in the preseason games, because they're just, I think they play harder in those games than you see in the preseason games. And the starters play like one series, whereas in these practices, they're probably playing the whole practice.

• 7:55Bill Simmons?

  Before we get to our draft, I wanted to mention, you posted another picture of you guys on Instagram together, eating. And I think Heifetz has mastered the 40-year-old virgin poster smile when he's in these pictures, where he's like.

• 8:12Bill Simmons?

  And I just wanna, I wanna flag it.

• 8:14Speaker 03

  31-year-old virgin, I'll have you now.

• 8:16Bill Simmons?

  No, you're just, you're always, you're the most happy guy to be photographed, because their house had a picture of you and DeBundo and him with golf, same thing. Heifetz is just, he's the most paparazzi friendly guy at the Ringer.

• 8:28Speaker 02

  He's already prepared to be a dad. You already have like the dad, I'm with my kids in Hawaii vacation photo smile. It's great.

• 8:34Bill Simmons?

  How is he gonna pull off the, I'm pretending to be asleep with my young newborn on my chest photo?

• 8:40Speaker 03

  Just excited at all times.

• 8:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, you fill in the screen.

• 8:43Bill Simmons?

  Love life. I don't think we take advantage enough of it.

• 8:45Speaker 02

  No.

• 8:46Speaker 01

  Meanwhile, I'm like Forrest Gump, my eyes are closed in every picture.

• 8:50Speaker 01

  I just blink blink every time.

• 8:52Bill Simmons?

  Danny, how has your life changed since the Seahawks won a second Super Bowl?

• 8:56Speaker 01

  Honestly, it's been kind of a weird Super Bowl afterglow. It doesn't it doesn't almost feel real. I don't know. It's been it was like a weird Super Bowl.

• 9:04Bill Simmons?

  Because you've got no respect from anybody.

• 9:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, like everybody's like everybody. They won the Super Bowl and everybody kind of moved on.

• 9:10Speaker 02

  Well, this is what happens when you don't have dynasties, when it's like random rings. I feel like people don't even really think about the team. You need to win two or go to two or three years.

• 9:17Speaker 03

  No, as a Knicks fan, I had the greatest summer of my entire life.

• 9:20Bill Simmons?

  But that's the thing. Basketball is so different than football.

• 9:23Speaker 03

  I agree. I will say.

• 9:24Speaker 01

  I mean, it's been great. It's been great.

• 9:25Speaker 03

  You did not enjoy the Seahawks winning.

• 9:27Speaker 02

  We had 20 years of Brady going to every other Super Bowl and then Mahomes going to like five and seven years. So I feel like when a random teams now sneaks in and win, you kind of don't know how to take it.

• 9:36Speaker 01

  Right, right.

• 9:36Speaker 03

  Well, he didn't. You didn't enjoy the Seahawks winning the Super Bowl.

• 9:38Speaker 01

  I didn't enjoy. No, I didn't. I didn't enjoy the game. I enjoyed it afterwards.

• 9:42Bill Simmons?

  19 and 0.

• 9:44Speaker 01

  What's that?

• 9:45Bill Simmons?

  You would you lose two games?

• 9:47Speaker 01

  Three, two or three games.

• 9:48Bill Simmons?

  And all of them, you could have won all three games.

• 9:50Speaker 01

  Right, right.

• 9:50Bill Simmons?

  Like that. Nobody kicked their ass the whole year. Now this year, people are like, can they go 10 and 6?

• 9:55Speaker 02

  You had the fake win against the Rams. You have to factor that in.

• 9:58Bill Simmons?

  That was ridiculous.

• 9:59Speaker 03

  The Sean Martin 2.0 version is like the most.

• 10:01Speaker 01

  This is lighting doors.

• 10:02Speaker 02

  It's a coaching point. Pick up the ball. Advantage in the playoffs, which that but.

• 10:06Bill Simmons?

  It almost caused Al Michaels to retire during the game. He was so confused.

• 10:10Speaker 03

  Rashid.

• 10:12Speaker 01

  Rashid. Oh, come on. That's a coaching point. They teach him to they teach him to pick up the football. It's something they do from Pop Warner.

• 10:19Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's a super normal rule and everybody knows it.

• 10:22Speaker 01

  It's frickin'.

• 10:23Speaker 02

  It looked normal. It was a normal looking play. Yeah.

• 10:26Bill Simmons?

  We are going to do our fantasy preview, our my guy draft. I have categories. The only thing we're doing different this year, I'm just going to read all the categories and we'll go. And if we all agree on a guy, we'll move on because I thought, you know, the pace got a little slow. I'm here for the fans. I'm here for the for the listeners. Want to want to have a little bit of a better pace. I thought I don't think there should be a two hour podcast.

• 10:47Speaker 01

  Tight 90.

• 10:48Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, I feel like it's. Horrable back rule?

• 10:51Speaker 02

  It's 100 minutes or less.

• 10:52Bill Simmons?

  100 minutes. It's like.

• 10:54Speaker 02

  It needs to be like the movie Speed. If the pod goes below 50 miles an hour, we slow up.

• 10:58Bill Simmons?

  Do you guys know about the whole thing where Craig was getting bummed out because people were mad about the Horrable Back Rule?

• 11:04Speaker 02

  They misinterpreted what I the whole point of it. It wasn't like there will be bloods too long. It needs to be 100 minutes. That's not my point. My point is that we need to appreciate when a when a movie is great, that is short and it's hard to do.

• 11:14Bill Simmons?

  You're not going to believe this, but the internet took it and ran it the wrong way. It's like Craig thinks every movie should be 100 minutes.

• 11:21Speaker 02

  Not like the Odyssey should have been 90 minutes.

• 11:24Bill Simmons?

  Is the Odyssey like maybe 10 minutes too long now?

• 11:26Speaker 02

  It was too short. I agree. It was too short.

• 11:28Bill Simmons?

  Too short.

• 11:29Speaker 02

  I thought some of the scenes, I thought Nolan was jamming in every scene and it was like, man, that like whatever the three headed monster that came out of the cliff was, I'm like, that was like a two minute scene.

• 11:38Speaker 03

  Is it true? The IMAX projectors can't go more than three hours, so it had to be under 30?

• 11:42Speaker 01

  They heat up? They overheat?

• 11:43Speaker 02

  No, I don't believe that's right.

• 11:44Bill Simmons?

  That's a good one.

• 11:45Speaker 03

  I I don't know. It should have been longer. It's the only movie I've ever seen where I'm like, that was half an hour.

• 11:50Speaker 02

  The shots have to be short because the IMAX camera can't run more than a three minute take.

• 11:54Speaker 03

  Okay, see, that's you know what? I'm not. I'm not going to go on this podcast and give my thoughts.

• 11:57Speaker 02

  I thought it was a little rushed.

• 11:59Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 11:59Speaker 02

  Legitimately, I felt it was a little rushed.

• 12:01Speaker 03

  It's a 10 year journey. I'm like, I mean, it's fine.

• 12:03Bill Simmons?

  Would you have thrown in a touch football scene or just something to get the guy started?

• 12:07Speaker 02

  Top Gun beach scenes? Yeah.

• 12:09Bill Simmons?

  All right. Fantasy preview. First category is my one true love. This is this is basically how this whole idea started of who do you just love the most? Who has your heart? So, Hi Fitz, you go first. Who has your heart?

• 12:23Speaker 03

  It's Brock Bowers, man. Tight end for the Raiders. I it's it's probably bad.

• 12:27Speaker 01

  We do this every year now.

• 12:28Speaker 03

  Probably a bad thing to love and I'm probably too early on it for the Raiders, but I just I just think Brock Bowers is such a baller, man. And it's it's he literally had as a rookie year, he had the second most catches of any rookie ever. And it's not just tight ends, like only Pukunaku has more catches as a rookie than Brock Bowers. Last year was incredible and then he hurt his knee and he came back. He looks incredible this year. And I just look at the the coach, again, speaking of the Seahawks, the offensive coordinator last year, Clint Kubiak, is at the cutting edge of getting the best player the football. Jackson Smith and Jay but last year had the receiving record in yardage for the Seahawks by week 11. And I just think those principles, if not the exact same routes and everything, the principles apply of Bowers is going to get the football and I like him so much better than the receivers in that range, Nico Collins, Drake London. Bowers could just have a better season than those guys straight up.

• 13:12Bill Simmons?

  I was going to have him as my one true love guy and also like Brock Bowers is so underrated. And then I went to our draft guide. We had him for 35 bucks. I was like, you know what? That's a fair price.

• 13:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:22Bill Simmons?

  It's basically 90% of a receiver price.

• 13:26Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 13:26Bill Simmons?

  I had him last year in every every league I was in.

• 13:29Speaker 01

  Right.

• 13:30Bill Simmons?

  And he got hurt and he came back and he wasn't 100%. But the guy is a psycho.

• 13:34Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 13:35Bill Simmons?

  Like you're watching these games. They're down 17 to like Kansas City in the third quarter and they're throwing over the middle and he's like bouncing off three guys.

• 13:44Speaker 01

  Stepping on people.

• 13:45Bill Simmons?

  And you're just like, don't get hurt, Brock Bowers. Just make it through this game. You're down 17.

• 13:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, there was a video this offseason of like tape on his knee and people. There was like one video of him on the sideline and he kind of hopped on one leg like he was avoiding the other and people were freaking out.

• 13:56Speaker 01

  That's because of the Pierce all thing.

• 13:58Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 13:58Speaker 03

  Well, then he caught two touchdowns in the way of practice, which is why the videos are nothing. But I mean, Kubiak called him a football robot from heaven.

• 14:04Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 14:05Bill Simmons?

  I love him as well. He's number 20 in our Ringer fantasy rankings, which is a great thing that you should check out out there.

• 14:12Speaker 02

  He's going to be hard to like. He's going to go early in drafts. I think it's going to be hard to get.

• 14:15Bill Simmons?

  So you have Jefferson at $41, Lamb at 42, and then Brock Bowers is 35 and Nico Collins is 34 as as wide receiver eight. And I think I agree with that.

• 14:26Speaker 02

  I like that you're talking talking auction prices. We're doing snake. Are you an auction guy? Are you a snake guy?

• 14:31Bill Simmons?

  No, I just I think it's a better way to assess. I'm still auctioned for the other league I'm in, but but I think that's right because

• 14:41Bill Simmons?

  how many tight ends can sniff within 80% of his stats to share if he's healthy, right?

• 14:48Speaker 02

  Not many.

• 14:48Bill Simmons?

  McBride.

• 14:49Speaker 03

  Trey McBride.

• 14:50Speaker 02

  Just McBride.

• 14:50Bill Simmons?

  Tyler Warren, maybe.

• 14:51Speaker 03

  Love, London, Warren are the only guys that wouldn't be surprising. Even Kyle Pitts or Hail Shannon would be really surprising.

• 14:55Speaker 02

  No, yeah.

• 14:56Bill Simmons?

  Okay. All right. Good start. What do you got, DK?

• 14:58Speaker 01

  This one is the one that I just can't be unbiased on. It's Kenneth Walker, the third for the Chiefs. I tried. I tried to think of my one true love. This kind of goes back to your intro. Like, it's kind of a weird season. My one true love is Jameer Gibbs, but he's the first overall pick. So like, what's the point of talking about that? So I went with Kenneth Walker. It reminds me just a little bit of

• 15:17Speaker 01

  I guess it's maybe a bad analogy, but that Saquon Barkley going to the Eagles thing, like a really good running back going to a team where they're going to make him the focal point of the offense and really get him involved. And then he just goes absolutely ballistic. I think Kenneth Walker has a chance this year to really, really break out in a big way based on like, number one, I've just always loved him. I think he's one of the most elusive running backs in the NFL. If you look at the numbers, it's that that really bears out. He breaks tons of tackles, explosive playmaker, has like a ton of big plays. I think that's huge for their offense. That's the reason they focused on him in free agency is because they need to get some explosive runs from the run game. They had like zero last year. It was crazy. And I just think he's going to be used in the passing game more than more than he has in the past. That's a big part of their game that Andy Reid loves his screen game.

• 16:02Speaker 01

  I think he's great. I think Kenneth Walker is perfect for that.

• 16:05Bill Simmons?

  Durability?

• 16:06Speaker 01

  If he can stay healthy is like the big question, but I feel like you have to ask that about pretty much everybody in the top 20.

• 16:11Bill Simmons?

  Craig, who's our number one if he could stay healthy guy?

• 16:14Speaker 02

  McCaffrey.

• 16:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:15Speaker 02

  Every year he's healthy, he's the best player in fantasy or he misses the entire season.

• 16:19Speaker 03

  If it's not him, it's Mike Evans. And if it's not him, it's George Kittle. So I think it's the substation.

• 16:23Bill Simmons?

  They just quadruple down on a whole team of those guys while they play their sort of electromagnetic.

• 16:27Speaker 02

  Proving a point. Parlay injuries every year.

• 16:29Speaker 03

  Where is Conspiracy Bill on the substation in the 49ers?

• 16:32Bill Simmons?

  You know, ironically, I went Conspiracy Bill, not me, Conspiracy Bill went on the Wait a Second podcast with Jason and Tyler this week and we talked about it. I'm all in on.

• 16:42Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 16:43Bill Simmons?

  You know, it's one of those things where it's like, ah, it can't be true. Would you want to play with it? Why would it?

• 16:48Speaker 01

  But you want to live by that?

• 16:49Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, no, you wouldn't.

• 16:50Speaker 02

  You're a you're a corded headphones guy.

• 16:53Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 16:54Speaker 02

  A little bit of substation parallels there.

• 16:56Bill Simmons?

  It's very early on. Everybody's doing these wireless AirPods. I mean, I also don't wear a seatbelt, so I'm not I'm not the greatest guy for self health, but.

• 17:05Speaker 03

  Why don't you wear a seatbelt?

• 17:06Bill Simmons?

  I've been wearing it lately and it's it's I don't know. I always felt like it was confining. I didn't like.

• 17:11Speaker 02

  That's the point.

• 17:12Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, I know.

• 17:13Speaker 01

  Right. It confines you. It confines you from flying through the windshield.

• 17:17Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 17:17Bill Simmons?

  People people really made me feel bad about it in a real way.

• 17:21Speaker 02

  That's because they care about you.

• 17:22Bill Simmons?

  Well, then my wife was like, I've been telling you wear a seatbelt for the 27 years we've been together and you've never listened to me.

• 17:27Speaker 01

  Sometimes you just need people on the internet.

• 17:29Speaker 02

  You you make a point to note that like you can get to Vegas faster than anyone in your car.

• 17:33Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 17:33Speaker 02

  And then you don't wear a seatbelt.

• 17:35Speaker 03

  What are you doing?

• 17:36Bill Simmons?

  Listen, it is. It is confounding.

• 17:39Speaker 01

  The duality of man.

• 17:40Speaker 03

  Ever thought about how lame it would be to be like dying at 19 miles an hour in the middle of a cryo parking lot? Like you're trying to like, you're doing you've been very healthy the entire time I've known you. You're doing all this stuff. And like, I just I just fear that you're it's like, it's not just.

• 17:55Bill Simmons?

  I've been wearing it. I'm really trying it. I would not want to play next to the electromagnetic practice field, substation, whatever the fuck it is.

• 18:02Speaker 01

  Where you can hear the buzzing from it?

• 18:04Speaker 02

  Can they at least put a wall up? I hate that you can see it.

• 18:06Speaker 01

  But you want to build a wall.

• 18:07Speaker 02

  Yeah, well, just in that in that one case. But yeah, can we at least conceal it? I don't know why we have to stare at it. Put a tent over it or something.

• 18:13Bill Simmons?

  They were talking about it on NFL Live yesterday in these grim tones, like just.

• 18:19Speaker 01

  This they should.

• 18:19Bill Simmons?

  The most grim thing possible. And I was thinking like, if I had been on the show, it'd have been like, maybe it's the electromagnetic thing drove him fucking crazy. All of a sudden, he's in a trailer park in Ohio. Too much exposure.

• 18:30Speaker 01

  It's like lead from like the 60s or whatever.

• 18:32Bill Simmons?

  He's just lost it. Okay, so our number one, if he stays healthy, guy is still McCaffrey.

• 18:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 18:39Bill Simmons?

  All right.

• 18:41Bill Simmons?

  Danny, I could zag on your pick.

• 18:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:46Bill Simmons?

  I don't know, maybe he was just really healthy last year and maybe he's not really meant to be healthy every year.

• 18:51Speaker 01

  I know.

• 18:51Bill Simmons?

  I have concerns about Kenneth Walker.

• 18:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:54Bill Simmons?

  Cause they, the rub with him with the Seahawks was always like, we can't count on him for 17 to 20 games. We need Zach Charbonneau. We need, we need insurance. Just, he was a just in case he gets hurt guy.

• 19:05Speaker 01

  Right.

• 19:06Bill Simmons?

  Now the Chiefs, who are no stranger to injuries, are now counting on him. But the upside is crazy.

• 19:12Speaker 01

  That's what I'm chasing and, and I admit fully, I'm not, I'm not unbiased on this. I just love him. I think he's just so good.

• 19:18Bill Simmons?

  When was the last good running back they've had?

• 19:20Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 19:21Speaker 01

  Kareem Hunt, 2017, probably.

• 19:23Bill Simmons?

  Kareem Hunt, almost 10 years ago.

• 19:25Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 19:25Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 19:26Speaker 02

  I don't know. I, I agree with DK. It's like, don't overthink it. The Chiefs and Mahomes have a really good running back.

• 19:30Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 19:31Speaker 02

  And there's only like 12 good running backs in fantasy and I think he's one of them.

• 19:35Bill Simmons?

  What do you have for your true love?

• 19:36Speaker 02

  So I know I kind of just pitched the whole like, don't buy into preseason hype. Get a veteran.

• 19:40Bill Simmons?

  Oh, wow.

• 19:40Speaker 02

  Be safe. Luther Burden, I'm just.

• 19:45Bill Simmons?

  It's a recurring theme on your podcast.

• 19:46Speaker 02

  I don't care that he's got a hurt groin. I don't care about any of that. I completely buy it. I think he's like a Monroe, St. Brown, mixed with prime Debo. And I don't know, I think.

• 19:56Speaker 01

  Wow, those are some names right there.

• 19:58Speaker 02

  Whatever. If he was gonna come out of college the year before he did, when he was, like, he wasn't eligible after sophomore year. If he came out that year, he would have been like a top 10 pick. And then the Missouri, the final season wasn't as great. But on talent alone, I feel like we're not, when you watch him, he looks like one of the best receivers in the league to me. And I fully buy the Ben Johnson thing. There was that big piece on him, I think it was in the Athletic. He's a psycho. I think it's gonna be, it's now like McVay, it's Shanahan, and I think it's Ben Johnson. And I'm just, the quotes around Luther Burden are crazy. I think he's gonna be healthy week one. And I don't know, I think like next year, he'll probably be like a first round pick or something.

• 20:30Bill Simmons?

  It was interesting with the rankings. You would have thought a Dunze would have been the number one bear, the highest thing, but people, Burden seems to have psyched people up.

• 20:39Speaker 02

  I think the way, I think a Dunze is more, more high variance. Like, he, he's getting the, the deep shots, the, the balls that Caleb has struggled with a little bit more.

• 20:47Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 20:47Speaker 02

  Burden is in that Debo sense where they're like, getting him screens, little crossers, reverses. They just like get him the ball so much. And when the ball's in his hands, he's one of the best players in the league.

• 20:55Bill Simmons?

  We have Burden 24 for receivers and we have a Dunze 28.

• 20:59Speaker 02

  Yeah, I'd rather have Burden. I think they're all good. I, I think like the, the big three on the Bears are all worth taking. But I do think Luther Burden is very special. If you look at his rookie season, you know, people can go nuts on the stats, but it's like, basically the last 15 years, it's him, Odell and A.J. Brown in terms of like.

• 21:15Bill Simmons?

  There's some good long haul stats with him. Yeah.

• 21:17Speaker 02

  He's, I think he's very special. And so maybe there's been so much.

• 21:20Bill Simmons?

  He really means a lot to you.

• 21:21Speaker 02

  Well, I'm, I'm sticking to my guns, even though his groin doesn't work right now.

• 21:26Speaker 03

  Well, speaking of groins, I'm shocked you didn't have Luther Burden for the, one of these is the Caleb Wilson, there will be no semen left in my body category. And I just thought that was gonna be like a show.

• 21:34Bill Simmons?

  The history of all stars?

• 21:35Speaker 02

  I, I, I'm reserving that for Drew Aller when he uncorks his 70 order.

• 21:40Bill Simmons?

  Can we?

• 21:42Speaker 02

  I'm, I'm all the way in.

• 21:45Speaker 01

  Craig, see enough.

• 21:45Bill Simmons?

  There were like four throws he made in the preseason where I was, I, it was like, oh my God.

• 21:51Speaker 02

  He made two throws in the last two weeks that very few quarterbacks have made in the last few years.

• 21:56Speaker 01

  God.

• 21:56Bill Simmons?

  And he's, and he's big too.

• 21:58Speaker 02

  He's huge, cannon. His whole problem was like footwork and can you read a defense? McCarthy getting his hands dirty. It's already kind of paying off.

• 22:06Speaker 03

  I think you're getting your hands dirty.

• 22:07Speaker 02

  I am. I'm getting very dirty.

• 22:08Bill Simmons?

  I, I got, listen.

• 22:10Speaker 02

  He looks legitimate.

• 22:11Bill Simmons?

  I can't stand the Steelers, but I, the, he looked legit.

• 22:14Speaker 02

  You can say what you want about him. You have to admit that he looks way better than anyone thought.

• 22:17Speaker 03

  Our comp for him coming out of college was with Justin Herbert couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat. And I mean, it's Penn, he broke his ankle. Like, if he had improved at the end of Penn State, like, I think he would have been a look way better.

• 22:27Bill Simmons?

  Wasn't he supposed to be like a top three pick at one point?

• 22:30Speaker 02

  There was a time. He's a Heisman favorite.

• 22:31Speaker 01

  Well, just because of the tools too. I mean, he's a big guy with a big arm.

• 22:34Bill Simmons?

  What round did you get him in?

• 22:36Speaker 02

  Third.

• 22:39Bill Simmons?

  Steelers are interesting. Sal and I are doing Thursday, we're doing the two conferences and the win total of runners and.

• 22:46Speaker 02

  There's some buzz.

• 22:47Bill Simmons?

  You know, every year there's two coaches that take over a new team and it's always pretty easy to identify who the jumps coaches are gonna be. Like Dan Quinn two years ago, Frable last year. A little harder this year. McCarthy coming in and doing better than Tomlin did, just seems objectively insane, but might not be insane.

• 23:08Speaker 02

  No, I think the offense is objectively gonna be better.

• 23:10Bill Simmons?

  Might be way better.

• 23:11Speaker 02

  Yeah. And I just think the roster's better. They just like brought Michael Pittman and I think they drafted really well. I think the tackle they took is good. Jeremy Bernard, the receiver seems good. They brought in Brisker and Jamel Dean and their, their new defensive coordinator, I think is gonna be better than what they had last year. I think they're just a better team.

• 23:26Speaker 03

  Well, we always joke McCarthy, Sean Payton and John Harbaugh, just their resumes on paper with wins, losses are almost identical.

• 23:33Bill Simmons?

  Especially the John Harbaugh thing where McCarthy's, we've all talked about this on our pods, but McCarthy's considered like this retreat and John Harbaugh is like the savior. And it's like, I don't know, how do we know McCarthy's not a better coach? I'm, I'm, I'm down on Harbaugh and I'm up on McCarthy.

• 23:49Speaker 03

  So in the name of pronunciation dyslexia, what would happen if I said retreat? You guys are fucking silent.

• 23:54Speaker 01

  I was biting my tongue.

• 23:55Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's what I thought. When I said.

• 23:56Speaker 02

  He's my boss.

• 23:59Speaker 03

  It's retread, which is okay, cause I have pronunciation dyslexia.

• 24:01Bill Simmons?

  Speech dyslexia off of type that's.

• 24:04Speaker 02

  Well, Hybys is now like attacking Bill every time he mispronounces.

• 24:06Speaker 01

  Don't, don't treat, don't treat on me.

• 24:09Speaker 03

  I'm attacking you. Yeah, don't treat. I'm attacking you two for not saying anything to him.

• 24:14Speaker 01

  Ah, look, I bit my tongue on that.

• 24:15Bill Simmons?

  Call me out every time.

• 24:16Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:17Bill Simmons?

  For some reason I said retreat and it's retread.

• 24:19Speaker 03

  Scarcity's my favorite one you have.

• 24:21Bill Simmons?

  Scarcity.

• 24:22Speaker 03

  Scar, I have him too. I can't say anything right. So it's okay.

• 24:25Speaker 02

  Scarce is like a British accent thing, maybe he was doing.

• 24:27Bill Simmons?

  Oh, yeah. I think scarcity should have been the way it's pronounced. How about that?

• 24:30Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 24:31Bill Simmons?

  My one true love.

• 24:33Speaker 02

  I can't wait. Cause I, wait, I wanna, I wanna give you credit. Last year, I believe it was Jackson Smith and Jigba was like your big guy last year.

• 24:39Speaker 01

  No big deal. I kind of poo-pooed that, I think.

• 24:42Speaker 02

  We were talking about that last night. We were like, Bill, pick JSN.

• 24:44Bill Simmons?

  I had some good ones last year, the last two years. What do you think my one true love is this year? If you had to guess?

• 24:49Speaker 02

  Oh, well, give me.

• 24:50Speaker 01

  I think it's A.J. Brown.

• 24:52Bill Simmons?

  What do you think, Craig?

• 24:54Speaker 01

  He's, he's looking up Twitter videos.

• 24:56Speaker 02

  Would make sense for you, probably. Uh, Ibuka?

• 25:00Bill Simmons?

  What do you think?

• 25:01Speaker 03

  I would have said Ibuka before the toe injury. Now I don't know.

• 25:04Bill Simmons?

  He was my crazy pills guy last year.

• 25:05Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 25:08Bill Simmons?

  My one true love is A.J. Brown.

• 25:12Bill Simmons?

  I am all the way fucking in on this.

• 25:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:17Bill Simmons?

  He destroyed the Eagles last week. There were Pat's reporters tweeting stuff out like, in all the years I've covered the team, I've never seen anyone dominate the joint practices like A.J. Brown just did. This guy's unleashed. It might just be one year.

• 25:33Speaker 02

  Or it might just be one game when they played the Eagles in practice.

• 25:36Speaker 03

  No, stop. I tot, you know, I'm not a, I'm not like just being like, oh, Patriots. Like, I hate the Patriots. I total, he's my crazy pills guy. I, I don't understand why everyone's not in on A.J. Brown.

• 25:47Bill Simmons?

  He was in the worst possible situation with this weird Eagles offense that used him.

• 25:52Speaker 01

  They won 11 games.

• 25:53Bill Simmons?

  They used him basically.

• 25:54Speaker 03

  Stop it. He was, he was contenders.

• 25:55Speaker 02

  One of the worst picks in fantasy. So frustrating.

• 25:58Speaker 01

  No, I'm not gonna stop it.

• 25:59Bill Simmons?

  Danny, would you go 50% completely used wrong with him?

• 26:04Speaker 01

  Hmm, I think he just checked out, which is what worries me.

• 26:07Speaker 02

  Stop, stop, stop.

• 26:08Speaker 01

  He did check out.

• 26:09Speaker 03

  No, but that's the point is everyone.

• 26:10Bill Simmons?

  He have checked out.

• 26:11Speaker 02

  So because they weren't using him right.

• 26:12Speaker 03

  But that, exactly. And I, I, I think it's George Pickens this year.

• 26:15Speaker 01

  He's on a winning team. They're, they're, they're like contenders to go to the Super Bowl.

• 26:18Speaker 03

  He wants the ball.

• 26:19Speaker 02

  He's one of the worst offenses in the league.

• 26:21Bill Simmons?

  He wants the offense built around him and he's gonna get it now with the New England Patriots.

• 26:24Speaker 03

  I a hundred percent agree. I to, it's, receivers are more like NBA players than football players. They want the ball. They, they couldn't get him the ball. And it's George Pickens where he's a head case that gets his head on straight. Drake May is a better overall passer than Jalen Hurts. You have going from Kevin Petula running the offense in Philly to Josh McDaniels in New England, who not, doesn't have to compare him to Randy Moss in '07, but Devante Adams got like 1,500 yards, 31 years old, Josh McDaniels and the Raiders. And you look at this Eagles team.

• 26:48Bill Simmons?

  You, wait, you left out two other key points. Mike Frable, who he loves.

• 26:53Speaker 03

  Obsessed with him.

• 26:54Bill Simmons?

  Grew up as a Patriot fan.

• 26:56Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm.

• 26:56Bill Simmons?

  Like, this is like, I've, I got divorced with the wife I never liked and now I'm dating somebody and I've lost 20 pounds and I have a new haircut, new clothes, and I'm just so fucking happy. This is A.J. Brown right now. Anyway, keep going.

• 27:11Speaker 03

  No, it's fine. There's just an in and out. There was an easy layup there that we're all gonna just pass over, but the.

• 27:15Bill Simmons?

  What, what was the layup?

• 27:16Speaker 03

  No, it's okay.

• 27:17Speaker 02

  You thinking Frable?

• 27:18Speaker 03

  Yeah, well, he just went from Frable. It's fine. But the.

• 27:28Speaker 03

  Anyway, no, but to your point about using A.J. Brown around the offense, just powering through. But if you look at the top 120 receivers. Anyway, my Pro Football Focus stats. Uh, but the 120 top receivers last year, if you just look at how often they were in the slot, A.J. Brown was last.

• 27:45Bill Simmons?

  I would say he was used incorrectly last year by them. The guy should get eight to 12 touches a game. Craig's not, well, you might be old enough to remember this when Randy Moss came to the Patriots.

• 27:55Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, I'm familiar with that season. Yeah.

• 27:57Bill Simmons?

  How old were you? You were like 12. Yeah, you remember.

• 28:00Speaker 03

  You remember the Giants beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl?

• 28:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, I watched that game.

• 28:03Bill Simmons?

  We got Randy Moss, I think for a fourth round pick from the Raiders.

• 28:08Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 28:08Bill Simmons?

  And everybody had decided Randy Moss was no longer redeemable as a professional athlete. And he mailed it in with the Raiders. And meanwhile, if you go back and you look at that Raiders team, he's playing with crap QBs, crap situation. And he's just unleashed when he gets to the Pats. I really think this is gonna happen with A.J. Brown. And for some reason, everybody's talking about with the Pats, like, oh, the schedule's gonna be so much harder. But the Pats are just distinctly better than they were last year. They, depth is probably the biggest issue, but their offensive line's gonna be better. It's the second year of the coaching staff, and they have A.J. Brown and Romeo Dobbs. They didn't, their best receiver last year was Diggs, who played 35 snaps a game, right? They just traded K. John Booty, who was their, their second best receiver.

• 28:52Bill Simmons?

  They basically traded him for a backup safety and a sixth round pick. Like, they had terrible receivers last year. And I just think he's gonna be awesome. And I don't know if it's gonna last more than a year. It might just be like, it might be one year and then next year he's unhappy, wants an extension, like, whatever. This year, he's gonna be happy.

• 29:09Speaker 02

  I agree with that.

• 29:10Speaker 03

  I totally agree. And it's, yeah.

• 29:12Speaker 02

  You shouldn't say that your crazy pills guy is also A.J. Brown, but in the other direction.

• 29:15Speaker 03

  Yeah, I had A.J. Brown crazy pills.

• 29:17Speaker 01

  I just, I sit next to these two guys all day long and they just can't stop talking about A.J. Brown. I'm just like, did you, do you remember what happened last year at all? Like, he was one of the worst guys to have in fantasy. He was the most frustrating player to have in fantasy.

• 29:29Bill Simmons?

  He was absolutely miserable and seemed like he was trying to get traded during the season.

• 29:33Speaker 01

  Reading books on the frickin' sideline, he was completely checked out. I just think we're kind of like selectively forgetting that.

• 29:40Speaker 02

  But why would he be checked out again?

• 29:41Speaker 03

  That's the point. He has something to prove.

• 29:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, but he, I mean, they were on, again, they were on a competing team that had a chance to be like a Super Bowl contender.

• 29:49Speaker 03

  Ball, the offense was so limited. He literally tweeted, to quote A.J. Brown, quoting Jesus, "If you're not welcomed, not listened to, quietly withdraw, don't make a scene, shrug your shoulders and be on your way."

• 29:59Speaker 01

  That's not the guy I wanna bank my entire season on. That's all I'm saying.

• 30:02Speaker 02

  So you're saying that the fear is if he doesn't get targeted enough, he'll just bail?

• 30:06Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 30:07Speaker 03

  Well, they traded a first for him.

• 30:08Bill Simmons?

  DK counter. He's gonna get targeted enough. They're gonna throw him the ball all the time.

• 30:13Speaker 01

  I'm pushing back a little bit on the hype, that's all. I feel like I'm taking.

• 30:16Bill Simmons?

  Is it hype, though? I don't feel like there's been enough hype.

• 30:18Speaker 03

  Any hype. He just hates, no, he hates that. I like A.J. Brown. That's it. You're tired of me liking A.J. Brown.

• 30:23Bill Simmons?

  Like ESPN did that Jeremy Fowler piece where they did the top 10 for each position. And they had A.J. Brown ninth, which is like, he should be in the top 10. The Patriots didn't have anybody in the top 50 last year. They didn't have anybody who could get open. Seattle's whole strategy was like, these guys can't get open, we're gonna do this. And they just pulled our pants down for four quarters.

• 30:42Speaker 02

  How many receivers would you take ahead of A.J. Brown in fantasy drafts?

• 30:45Bill Simmons?

  I think he has to be top five.

• 30:47Speaker 02

  So what, so we have, you have like Jamar Chase?

• 30:49Bill Simmons?

  I would take him over Jefferson, FYI.

• 30:51Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think that's fair.

• 30:52Bill Simmons?

  I want, I'm gonna trust the, the Kyler Murray, J.J. McCarthy, however that plays out combo over like the Patriots with Drake May, who throws the best deep ball in the league?

• 31:02Speaker 02

  I don't have a problem with that. So you would do Jamar Chase, Puka, Amon Ra, you would take those guys over A.J. Brown? And then it's like Justin Jefferson, C.D. Lamb, JSN?

• 31:11Bill Simmons?

  Would you take Puka over A.J. Brown? I'm just asking.

• 31:14Speaker 01

  I would.

• 31:16Bill Simmons?

  Talk about red flags, Danny.

• 31:17Speaker 01

  I mean, yeah, but when Puka's on the field.

• 31:19Speaker 02

  Name one thing.

• 31:23Speaker 01

  I mean, first of all, first of all.

• 31:25Speaker 02

  The biggest red flag is going on Logan Paul's podcast. That's the biggest red flag.

• 31:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, Matt Stafford is the kingmaker. I mean, look back through his career, like, the Cooper Cup triple crown.

• 31:35Speaker 02

  Receivers need to be crazy. We've learned that.

• 31:37Speaker 01

  Puka Nakua, if he's healthy and playing, which is obviously like a big, big if, if he is going to be the highest scoring receiver. He outscored JSN last year.

• 31:45Speaker 03

  You always make the good point that Stafford is for the top 20 fantasy receiver seasons ever.

• 31:48Speaker 02

  I would take Puka.

• 31:49Speaker 01

  Stafford is going to feed him. That, I mean, I, I.

• 31:53Bill Simmons?

  I'd probably take Puka too.

• 31:55Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 31:55Bill Simmons?

  Push comes to shove, but the red, I mean, he was like, I'm fine, I'm fine. I, I got my shit together. And then there was a story out that he walked through a glass door at the Michael Ruben White party.

• 32:05Speaker 03

  Which he told.

• 32:06Speaker 02

  He himself told us.

• 32:08Bill Simmons?

  Well, it was less than two months ago.

• 32:09Speaker 02

  He's, I'm like, why would you say that on a podcast?

• 32:12Speaker 01

  Stop going on podcasts.

• 32:14Speaker 03

  He said this week, he started talking about McDonald's, and I'm like, who's allowing him to do these media appearances?

• 32:18Bill Simmons?

  If we had a ringer Christmas party and Craig walked through a glass door.

• 32:21Speaker 02

  And then I go on Logan Paul's pod, and I'm like, last month was crazy. I ran through a glass door.

• 32:26Bill Simmons?

  But he's supposed to be getting his shit together, and then he walked through a glass door.

• 32:30Speaker 02

  That was months ago.

• 32:31Bill Simmons?

  No, it wasn't. It was July 4th.

• 32:32Speaker 02

  Well, well.

• 32:33Bill Simmons?

  It was less than two months ago.

• 32:34Speaker 03

  Problem with the deep ball tracking is you can't be like, well, my eyesight's not good. Cause you're a receiver. Your eyesight, you know, he definitely saw the glass window, right?

• 32:41Speaker 02

  Well, it's very clean. It was a really nice party.

• 32:45Bill Simmons?

  You make a key point, though. Do you need to be crazy to be a receiver like that? Like, the way Puka played, played was so reckless and so crazy that maybe that's part of how he's successful. Or maybe it's all of it.

• 32:57Speaker 02

  Every time he catches a pass, I'm worried he's not gonna get up, but.

• 33:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, he peels himself off the turf like six times a game.

• 33:03Speaker 02

  Nobody is as good as him when he's healthy.

• 33:05Bill Simmons?

  All right, we are gonna to take a, take a break.

• 33:09Speaker 03

  Quietly withdraw.

• 33:10Bill Simmons?

  Quietly withdraw and come back with the rest of the categories right after this. This episode is brought to you by ChatGPT. Imagine you're running a professional sports team. Nice, that'd be a dream of mine. Imagine the player contract report is due today. Not so nice. You've got performance notes from the coaching staff, you got a salary spreadsheet from your analyst, three rounds of back and forth emails with the agent, and all of it is scattered absolutely everywhere. Well, that's where ChatGPT Work comes in. It's a new way to use ChatGPT for bigger, multi-step projects. Give ChatGPT Work access to your apps and files and can create real work documents. For instance, spreadsheets, slides, structured reports.

• 33:55Bill Simmons?

  You can bring all those to your next meeting, and when you don't need answers, you need help just getting the work across the finish line. Guess what? ChatGPT Work can move your projects forward while you stay in control. Put ChatGPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects. Get started. Just go to chatgpt.com by selecting Work Mode, available on Plus and Pro plans. All right, so because we're live on Netflix, we have polls. We have a first poll. What's the first poll?

• 34:28Speaker 02

  Uh, we, we asked people to vote on our one true loves, and I guess who, who they agreed with the most. The winner was Brock Bowers, 46% of the vote, then A.J. Brown at 22, Ken Walker at 19, and Luther Burden at 11. Everyone's wrong.

• 34:42Speaker 03

  Well, Craig's feelings are hurt. We're not even done with the pod yet.

• 34:46Speaker 02

  Don't take him.

• 34:47Bill Simmons?

  One of the best things about having Brock Bowers is when they go to him after the touchdown, and he's just bald and looks like a fucking maniac.

• 34:55Speaker 01

  Hey now.

• 34:56Bill Simmons?

  And he's just like, high-fiving dudes and just looks like he's gonna be cast in some action movie.

• 35:02Speaker 01

  All he cares about is ball.

• 35:03Speaker 02

  He would've been such a good Raider in Oakland. Such a bummer.

• 35:06Bill Simmons?

  Next category.

• 35:07Speaker 02

  You know what I mean?

• 35:08Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, he would've. Next category. My bear from obsession crazy pills guy. We're named after bear from obsession.

• 35:16Speaker 02

  Oh, great, okay.

• 35:16Bill Simmons?

  Crazy pills for bear. Uh, Craig, who do you have for this?

• 35:21Speaker 02

  I feel like I'm taking crazy pills with people drafting Zay Flowers, the Ravens receiver, so high. I'm like, what are we, why are we in on Zay Flowers? Like, what's changed? This guy, like, I don't know what's crazier, where he's going in drafts or the contract the Ravens gave him. Four years, 140 million. That's, that's, that's Keegan Murray money on the Kings. Come on.

• 35:41Bill Simmons?

  I thought the same way. I thought it was so weird, the contract.

• 35:44Speaker 02

  He's never had more than five receiving touchdowns in a season. And I, I guess, like, sure, the new offensive coordinator's gonna be cool. He's like 5'8", 180 pounds.

• 35:53Bill Simmons?

  So you're saying he's basically the Amy Adams of fantasy receivers?

• 35:57Speaker 02

  Oh, what? Amy Adams just, just.

• 35:59Bill Simmons?

  Can't be an A-lister, but you know the name.

• 36:02Speaker 02

  Lot of Oscar Dobbs doesn't win. Has she ever won?

• 36:05Bill Simmons?

  Think Zay Flowers is gonna be on Cape Fair in 10 years? People wondering what's happening.

• 36:08Speaker 02

  I didn't, I just pointed this out. Zay Flowers is the only Ravens receiver ever to make a Pro Bowl. Did you know that? Ever? Ever. One. He made one Pro Bowl, and then they gave him 140 million dollars.

• 36:18Speaker 03

  My theory is twofold. One, I think that the Ravens gave Zay Flowers this contract because they're like, this is the best guy we've ever seen, and they haven't seen enough people. But my real theory is because the Ravens were the Cleveland Browns, and the Ravens scouting system was set up in a Belichick-y way. I think that it's Bill Belichick's fault the Ravens can't draft wide receivers.

• 36:35Bill Simmons?

  Reason to blame Bill Belichick. Sitting here watching on Netflix.

• 36:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, we're getting so creative on this. Um.

• 36:42Bill Simmons?

  Danny, who do you have?

• 36:43Speaker 01

  Well, I had A.J. Brown, but I wanna pivot a little bit here to the other guy that I kind of am not crazy about. It is Cam Scataboot with the Giants. I, I feel like I'm taking a little bit of crazy pills, sitting next to these guys, going all in on this maniac who played, what, six games last year before he got hurt?

• 36:58Speaker 02

  I want that crazy bastard.

• 36:59Speaker 01

  He's like a kid in Toys R' Us. I can't be around him.

• 37:03Speaker 01

  He's a maniac. Derogatory.

• 37:06Speaker 02

  You need that.

• 37:06Speaker 01

  No, derogatory.

• 37:07Speaker 03

  I like in the words of Bill Parcells, football's not for the well-adjusted.

• 37:12Speaker 01

  I just think, I just think a kid who would used to run into telephone poles for fun.

• 37:17Speaker 02

  That is exactly the type of player you want on your football team.

• 37:18Speaker 01

  He's gonna get hurt, is what I'm saying. I mean, yes, it is like a good football trait.

• 37:22Bill Simmons?

  I agree. He's on my D and D list.

• 37:25Speaker 02

  Really?

• 37:25Speaker 03

  Stop. He just don't like fun.

• 37:27Speaker 01

  I mean, it's fun for a few games.

• 37:28Bill Simmons?

  I like running backs that might play 10 games.

• 37:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:31Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, I don't trust him at all. I think that's a good one. He's being treated like he's a top 20 running back, right?

• 37:36Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think he should be.

• 37:37Speaker 01

  I mean, when he's in, he is a top 20 running back.

• 37:40Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 37:41Speaker 01

  I will defend you guys on that, but I just don't know. I just, I can't trust it for the whole season.

• 37:45Speaker 02

  He's been preparing his whole life to withstand concussions.

• 37:48Speaker 01

  He is the guy, he's like, he flies too close to the sun on every game.

• 37:52Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, we have him 18.

• 37:54Speaker 02

  At the, at running back, yeah.

• 37:55Bill Simmons?

  Like, we have David Montgomery 20 and Cam Scatabo 18.

• 37:59Speaker 02

  Oh, I would rather have Cam Scatabo.

• 38:01Bill Simmons?

  I'll take the David Montgomery 12 points a week for the entire season.

• 38:05Speaker 03

  Look, if you're not first, you're last. Come on, like, this is like.

• 38:09Bill Simmons?

  All right.

• 38:09Speaker 01

  Also, the Giants, not for nothing, last five years are 30th in touchdowns. Do we think that's gonna change dramatically this year?

• 38:16Speaker 02

  John Harbaugh, baby.

• 38:17Bill Simmons?

  John Harbaugh is gonna get fired before he started playing Lamar.

• 38:20Speaker 02

  And then Matt Nagy will be the head coach. It'll be great.

• 38:22Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, I think it's red flags galore. All you have is the, oh, one-score games, bad luck last year, it's gonna be better. That's like the only case for the Giants.

• 38:33Speaker 03

  I don't know if John Harbaugh is any better or worse than Brian Dayball. Uh, I'm not, I'm not like super, I'm not as excited about the Giants as everyone. It's always a red flag when you hire a coach and everyone unanimously is like, this is the most amazing hire, what a great job. And then the fans of that team are like, good luck. Yep. The Ravens fans are not upset.

• 38:49Speaker 02

  There's some Pete Carroll Raiders core parallels to Harbaugh this year.

• 38:53Speaker 03

  Yeah, just all the, Craig, talk about his speech.

• 38:56Speaker 01

  Talk about his speech to the team.

• 38:58Speaker 02

  Did you see the speech that Harbaugh gave his, the Giants?

• 38:59Bill Simmons?

  Oh, of course. It was awful.

• 39:01Speaker 02

  He just kept saying, you guys are New York Giants. He had like nothing else to say. It was worrying. It was a little worrying.

• 39:08Speaker 01

  I'm worried.

• 39:08Bill Simmons?

  I think when the fan base that you get the person or coach from, the reaction, the fan base, I remember this happened 20 years ago with J D Drew with the Red Sox. When, I can't remember if it was Phillies or the Cardinals, but all their fans were like, good luck.

• 39:22Speaker 03

  Dude.

• 39:23Bill Simmons?

  I got so many emails about like, you're gonna hate him. I was like, oh no. And it turned out we did hate him.

• 39:28Speaker 03

  I was at, so Mallory Rubin threw out the first pitch at the Orioles game a few days ago, and that was amazing, and I got to go. And they did this giant meet and greet with all these House of R fans, and some of them listen to our show, and they came up. I couldn't, in Baltimore, I could not believe six different people brought up Daniel Filelele, the backup guard of the Giants who started for the Ravens and ruined their season last year. And they were like, God, can you believe Harbaugh brought him with him? Like, he still doesn't know. And I'm like, when people are bringing up your backup right guard to you,

• 39:55Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 39:56Speaker 03

  that's a horrible sign.

• 39:58Bill Simmons?

  Who do you have for this?

• 39:59Speaker 01

  They just traded him for what it's worth, right?

• 40:01Speaker 03

  Well, they traded him to Jaguars because he got, he blew, he almost blew a block in the preseason. My crazy pills guy is A J Brown. I just don't understand why people, I, I won't name any, but why people think A J Brown has a physical issue with the Eagles. I'm like, he had a focus issue.

• 40:15Speaker 01

  Didn't he also have a physical issue?

• 40:17Speaker 03

  He has a chronic knee issue, but he's also had 1,500 yards with that issue.

• 40:20Speaker 01

  So that's something.

• 40:21Speaker 03

  He was second in yards per outrun two years ago at a Puka.

• 40:25Speaker 01

  What about last year?

• 40:26Speaker 03

  Jalen Hurts couldn't get him the ball.

• 40:28Speaker 01

  Sure, okay.

• 40:29Bill Simmons?

  I have a deep cut crazy pills guy. It's Parker Washington, but not for the reasons you think.

• 40:34Speaker 01

  Oh, interesting.

• 40:35Bill Simmons?

  Parker Washington, Craig alluded to it earlier, like, a lot of buzz, people love him, and now there's a Parker Washington backlash to all the buzz. People thinking, this is crazy, Parker Washington. I had Parker Washington in fantasy.

• 40:49Speaker 02

  It's great.

• 40:50Bill Simmons?

  He was fucking awesome.

• 40:51Speaker 01

  Wonderful experience.

• 40:52Bill Simmons?

  He was unleashed.

• 40:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 40:53Bill Simmons?

  And like, we have him, we have him wide receiver 30 for 13 bucks. And he's right in that no man's land, and maybe, oh, maybe Myers, and he might be the third best JAG. Lawrence loved this guy. He threw him all the time. He was always open. I actually feel like he can sustain that for the whole year. And to me, like, the fact that Zay Flowers is considered a better fantasy receiver than Parker Washington, I don't get it. I watched it, I was very focused on him. It was a little like the JSN in 2024, where it was like, I had him on the team and I was just watching him get open every, every play for eight weeks. That was why I had him as my crazy pill guys last year. I just, I think that offense is gonna be maybe even better than it was averaging, what, 32 a game for the last eight?

• 41:39Bill Simmons?

  Like, I don't, I don't like their defense. Their schedule is really hard. They have six home games, basically. They have nine road games and two in London.

• 41:48Speaker 01

  Oh, they have two in London, yeah.

• 41:49Bill Simmons?

  Bonkers. They have six actual games in Jacksonville. So, and there's some harder schedule of that, but I think he's gonna be awesome. So that's my guy.

• 41:57Speaker 02

  I totally agree. I think it's honestly, he was a sixth round pick and he's not famous and people are unwilling to admit that he's good. And it just like takes longer for guys who aren't first round picks.

• 42:06Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 42:06Speaker 02

  The way that Cohen talks about Parker Washington is like, he's his favorite player on the team, like, first guy in, last guy out. And he has that like sixth round, like, dog mentality, you know?

• 42:15Speaker 01

  Chip on his shoulder, yeah.

• 42:15Speaker 02

  Yeah, the chip on, it's like the Amon Ra thing. I totally agree.

• 42:18Bill Simmons?

  Very similar to St. Brown, very similar to JSN. I just think he gets better the next couple of years because of the work ethic. He's just always open. I always gravitate to the receivers that are always open. That's why A J Brown, who I know can make catches and traffic and stuff, but if they use him correctly, he's just gonna be open over the middle.

• 42:36Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 42:37Bill Simmons?

  Anyway.

• 42:38Speaker 01

  He's one of those guys that.

• 42:39Bill Simmons?

  I thought that would be more controversial.

• 42:41Speaker 01

  Well, I, because I think we all like him. I think the question is, is the hype pushed him up too high?

• 42:45Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's like, how early are you gonna have to?

• 42:47Speaker 01

  There's a lot of mouths to feed that offense.

• 42:48Bill Simmons?

  My zag is, I don't think the hype has pushed him up far enough. I think he is a top 15 receiver, and I think he's the best receiver on that team, and it's not close.

• 42:56Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 42:56Bill Simmons?

  Like, we all had, well, we'll talk about Brian Thomas Jr. later. Okay, next category. The, my hate, I absolutely hate myself for doing this guy. This is always a lab of category. What do you got, DK?

• 43:10Speaker 01

  Jalen Waddle for the, for the Broncos. I have like a long-running bit now that I just refuse to take any Sean Payton team players because he, you know, just kind of decides who he wants to feature in any game or any week, and then throughout the year, these guys are not playing enough snaps and everything. But I, I was the Jalen Waddle defender last year when he was on the Dolphins, and now I feel like I, I just have to be the Jalen Waddle defender on a much better team.

• 43:34Bill Simmons?

  You're pigeonholed now.

• 43:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, a much better team, better quarterback situation. They're gonna pass more, they're gonna score way more points. I think we're gonna finally see the real, true version of what Waddle could be as like a former, you know, he was like a top 10 pick in the draft. The way that they're gonna deploy him, I think, could be really big. Like, basically last year, he was running routes as an X, and now he could be off the line, moving around, run after the catch. Just let Courtland Sutton run like those outside routes and have him more in the slot where he can have a little more space. I think he's just gonna be highly featured in this offense, and he's another guy, if he stays healthy, he's gonna score a lot of points. And I kind of hate myself for, for falling for a Sean Payton guy again. Uh, but I guess I can convince myself that he's not the play caller for the first week at least.

• 44:17Speaker 02

  Waddle is one of the, like, the fantasy darling, like, the analysts really love Waddle.

• 44:21Bill Simmons?

  Mina, Mina's big on him, on him in Denver. That's, it seems like all the nerds really.

• 44:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:27Bill Simmons?

  I'd call Mina a nerd, even though I think she's probably the nerd queen for all this stuff.

• 44:29Speaker 03

  If you win Jeopardy, you're a nerd. I think that's fine.

• 44:31Bill Simmons?

  But I think everybody's like, this guy had Tua as his quarterback last year, so nobody's more prepared for a Bo Nix ball that's sailing over his head trying to make a crazy play.

• 44:41Speaker 01

  Right.

• 44:42Bill Simmons?

  But yeah, it seems like a good spot for him.

• 44:44Speaker 03

  I had Jalen Waddle in this category too.

• 44:45Speaker 02

  Really?

• 44:45Speaker 03

  I had Jalen Waddle. We've literally have disagreed in Jalen Waddle for the entirety of our show. We, Craig and I, we joke about the Waddle model, which is like to have the little projected points, uh, next to the guy's name, and if it gets under that number, you're furious at that person, and Jalen Waddle never hits that number ever.

• 45:00Speaker 02

  Like Yahoo never learns about Jalen Waddle. Like, it always says he's projected like 12 points, and you're like, great, and then he scores six every week. And you're like, stop projecting him for 12. You're ruining my life.

• 45:09Bill Simmons?

  I've spent so much time in my life getting furious at fantasy model for predictions for what's gonna be this week.

• 45:15Speaker 02

  It's hard not to let it influence you when you see that.

• 45:17Bill Simmons?

  How are we not better at this in 2026?

• 45:20Speaker 02

  I don't know.

• 45:20Speaker 03

  It's infuriating, but I'm afraid.

• 45:23Bill Simmons?

  This was Drake May last year. He was always too low, the Drake May stats. It's like, Drake May's one of the top five fantasy guys. You have him thinking he's gonna score 12 points this week.

• 45:30Speaker 02

  It's almost like they decided at the start of the year what the projections are gonna be for each game, and they never change it, despite how they're playing, yeah.

• 45:36Speaker 03

  And I'm afraid, but we hate Jalen Waddle for that reason, and I never wanna take him.

• 45:40Speaker 01

  You guys are the biggest Jalen Waddle haters.

• 45:41Speaker 02

  He's been brutal.

• 45:42Speaker 03

  I'm, I'm in on him this year because, and I hate myself for it, but

• 45:47Speaker 03

  God, he's been playing with Tua, and Tua, I think, might be even so much worse than we even realize. And part of me thinks Mike McDaniel might be a genius after watching him without Mike McDaniel for like two preseason games. I mean, Tua's gonna be the first quarterback to lose a quarterback battle where the other guy couldn't even practice.

• 46:03Bill Simmons?

  Not to step on Thursday's pod, but that's my biggest position on and under is the Falcons.

• 46:09Speaker 02

  Yeah, we're joking.

• 46:09Bill Simmons?

  I just can't believe how bad their quarterback situation is.

• 46:11Speaker 02

  Michael Penix beat out Tua in a quarterback competition that Michael Penix wasn't even in. He wasn't playing.

• 46:17Speaker 03

  He was hurt.

• 46:17Speaker 02

  And he won the battle.

• 46:18Bill Simmons?

  The Falcons are like, he can't tear his ACL again. He's torn it three times. There's nothing left.

• 46:22Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 46:23Bill Simmons?

  Just an empty cartilage.

• 46:25Speaker 03

  But I just think Waddle going from Tua to Denver with Bo Nix, and then also, Matt Harmon did a great job pointing this out at Yahoo, where, I mean, Tyree Kill did all the fun stuff at,

• 46:35Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 46:37Speaker 03

  with everything in the Miami offense for so long. And now Jalen Waddle's gonna be the guy, and it's as simple as, Jalen Waddle was on the line of scrimmage, and he was playing the X receiver, and he was outside. And now Jalen Waddle, so, is gonna be off the line of scrimmage, so no press coverage, no getting hands on him early. And then he's gonna be in the middle of the field in the slot. So you can go, as you always joke, Craig, when you're in the slot, you can go right or left instead of just out of bounds or left.

• 46:57Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 46:57Speaker 03

  And that, those two differences of no Tua, and you're gonna be in the slot without dealing with press coverage, and he's so fast, I just, he's.

• 47:04Bill Simmons?

  I'm always, one of my weaknesses with fantasy is I overrate concussion guys. Did this with Alave, like, he was a D and D for me last year. Waddle's had a couple.

• 47:13Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 47:14Bill Simmons?

  That was, I think, why his stock kind of plus his quarterback situation. But then a couple of years passed where you don't have one, nobody thinks about it anymore, but he has had a couple in the past.

• 47:22Speaker 02

  I do agree, though. Alave's a guy where I'm like, I, I hope somebody else takes him.

• 47:26Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 47:27Speaker 02

  I don't, I don't dislike him, I just probably just want somebody else to take him. I kind of feel that way about Waddle.

• 47:33Bill Simmons?

  Did you go yet?

• 47:34Speaker 02

  No. This is the, I absolutely hate myself for doing this.

• 47:37Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 47:38Speaker 02

  I'm gonna do Rashi Rice. I'm gonna take the guy who had to rehab his knee in jail.

• 47:44Speaker 01

  Right.

• 47:45Speaker 02

  Which sounds like a plot of The Longest Yard.

• 47:48Bill Simmons?

  I think that happened in shot caller.

• 47:51Speaker 02

  Look, man, I don't know why, but I've had Rashi Rice on my team every year. And every time that guy's on the field, he's awesome. And the Chiefs, once again, have no good receivers and didn't do anything to add to it. And like, he already came back from the ACL last year and was immediately good. And he's just gonna be on the field again this year, and everybody thinks he looks fat and slow and trick camp. I don't care. Rashi Rice is good every time he plays. He's like a top five guy, literally, every time he plays.

• 48:14Speaker 01

  They beat him.

• 48:14Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 48:15Bill Simmons?

  It is one of those things where if you have him, and then he plays, and he has like the eight catch for 120 and just

• 48:22Speaker 02

  He does it every game.

• 48:22Bill Simmons?

  He can't be stopped, and you're like, oh, my God, I just won my league.

• 48:25Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 48:25Bill Simmons?

  And then the red flag's next to him two days later.

• 48:28Speaker 02

  A hundred percent.

• 48:29Bill Simmons?

  Or he's on TMZ.

• 48:31Speaker 02

  You know, he's got, his last 17 games, he has 120 catches, last 17.

• 48:35Bill Simmons?

  He's really good.

• 48:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, I had him last year for a while, and it was glorious.

• 48:39Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 48:39Bill Simmons?

  The Chiefs are really the Niners of the AFC with, uh, with, yeah, but guys.

• 48:46Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 48:46Bill Simmons?

  Mahomes coming off an ACL, Kenneth Walker durability, Kelsey, 35, has a dad body now and probably doesn't even want to play football anymore. Rashi Rice.

• 48:56Speaker 02

  Worthy.

• 48:57Bill Simmons?

  Worthy, who got hurt in the first half of the first game last year. This new rookie that everybody's trying to get us excited about.

• 49:03Speaker 02

  Cyrus Allen.

• 49:04Bill Simmons?

  Yeah. Do you buy in on that?

• 49:06Speaker 02

  No.

• 49:06Bill Simmons?

  Okay. Uh, my guy.

• 49:09Speaker 02

  There's always a Chiefs, like, fifth rounder that was like.

• 49:12Bill Simmons?

  They always do this. They always do this. My guy is, um,

• 49:18Bill Simmons?

  I love Judkins.

• 49:20Speaker 01

  Oh, interesting.

• 49:21Bill Simmons?

  And I'll go further.

• 49:22Speaker 01

  Did not see that coming.

• 49:23Bill Simmons?

  My, I absolutely hate myself for doing this, guys. Judkins, Concepcion, and Boston.

• 49:27Speaker 02

  Oh, wow.

• 49:28Bill Simmons?

  I like the Browns' skill guys. Then you throw in Fannin, it's like, I'm in.

• 49:32Speaker 02

  You were.

• 49:32Bill Simmons?

  Who's the quarterback? Oh, no. But I love.

• 49:35Speaker 01

  Oh, no.

• 49:36Bill Simmons?

  I thought Judkins had a stretch last year where he was completely unstoppable, and they had no quarterback. I don't even think their offensive line was very good. And he was just fucking Derrick Henry-ing.

• 49:46Speaker 01

  A hundred percent.

• 49:47Bill Simmons?

  Everybody he played.

• 49:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:48Bill Simmons?

  And now, I was more excited for him 72 hours ago, because I think he just randomly didn't show up for a practice the other day, and there's uh, concerns about his professionalism, and he could easily also be out of the league in about, you know, nine months. Um, but that guy is one of the eight most talented running backs. And then you throw in the two rookies they got in the second round, the 30s. Those guys are monsters. Concepcion, they look like they're gonna use him almost like old Percy Harvin style or Shaheed style.

• 50:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:19Bill Simmons?

  And then Boston, the equalizer, uh, has been a revelation so far. So, man, if they can just get a C minus at quarterback, I think that team is unleashed.

• 50:28Speaker 03

  Excited about Deshaun Watson giving them a C minus? Excited for that one?

• 50:31Bill Simmons?

  I think he's gonna play two weeks, and they're gonna bench him for the home game.

• 50:34Speaker 03

  Right.

• 50:35Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, I think they're, I think it's a last guess. And I also think the owners telling them to do this.

• 50:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:40Bill Simmons?

  Yeah. The owner's like, you gotta at least play him for the two games, see how it goes.

• 50:44Speaker 03

  Deshaun plays remote, and then Shador Sanders will go to the office and actually work in Cleveland.

• 50:48Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 50:48Speaker 03

  But I do think, I, I, what's your favorite part? It's the lack of professionalism, it's the broken leg he's coming off of, it's Deshaun Watson at quarterback. And then the other part is, that I always think of is underrated with the Browns. Every game they have is outdoors in like snow or rain weather from week nine on. They literally, all the, the good weather cities are coming to Cleveland, and all the bad weather ones are there on the road. So it's just like, the lake effect snow hits in Thanksgiving, and you're like, oh, my God.

• 51:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, you stole my answer for the next category.

• 51:11Bill Simmons?

  We have him 22. Come on.

• 51:14Speaker 02

  Really? They're not gonna, they're not, are they gonna be in the red zone?

• 51:19Bill Simmons?

  I'm just telling you.

• 51:19Speaker 02

  Is he gonna know what the, the end zone looks like?

• 51:21Speaker 01

  Hates himself for it, Craig.

• 51:22Bill Simmons?

  It's true. He hates himself.

• 51:23Speaker 02

  I mean, I think the Browns.

• 51:24Bill Simmons?

  DK knows. You've, you've, you've obviously crunched some Judkins footage.

• 51:27Speaker 01

  I mean, I love Judkins. He's great. He's really good.

• 51:30Bill Simmons?

  He's fucking awesome.

• 51:31Speaker 02

  One of the more under the radar rookies from last year. I totally agree. But I feel like the Browns are just a classic, like, year away from being a year away.

• 51:36Bill Simmons?

  There was one game where I bet against them in the second half of the season. And he just kinda took over the game, and it was like, oh, my God, they can't fucking tackle this guy. He's one of those, so.

• 51:48Bill Simmons?

  And then the other two, um, I had, that team is, I, I just wish they had a normal quarterback. That team would be one of those, like, I want everybody on that offense.

• 51:57Speaker 01

  A hundred percent.

• 51:57Speaker 02

  Totally agree.

• 51:58Bill Simmons?

  Uh, speaking of that, the next category is, I'm staying away from that whole team team.

• 52:02Speaker 01

  Browns.

• 52:04Bill Simmons?

  Do you have the Browns?

• 52:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 52:06Bill Simmons?

  I was gonna say, is this Giants and Jets are just the two answers to this?

• 52:09Speaker 02

  The Browns! Well.

• 52:11Bill Simmons?

  It's the Browns for you guys?

• 52:12Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah. I'm picking the Titans.

• 52:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 52:15Speaker 02

  That's fair.

• 52:16Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 52:17Bill Simmons?

  Not buying the Tate stock?

• 52:19Speaker 02

  No. I, I'll, I'll take a year off on Tate. I'm not buying Cam Ward. I don't want Tony Pollard, Wondell Robinson.

• 52:25Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, people, like, Raheem was trying to get the worst of first game wagon going for Titans. Is Cam Ward good?

• 52:33Speaker 01

  That's a, that's a good question.

• 52:34Bill Simmons?

  His stats were awful last, I know there was a rookie bad team and all that stuff, but his stats.

• 52:38Speaker 02

  Fired. I don't know.

• 52:39Bill Simmons?

  His stats were bad.

• 52:40Speaker 02

  If I'm wrong and Dayball fixes Cam Ward, I'm happy to take that L, but I, I don't think I'm.

• 52:45Bill Simmons?

  Also, you're in a division with Houston twice. That, they have a couple other good defenses they're playing against, yeah. They go, they, don't they go against the NFC North? I think they do. They have this somewhere. But yeah, I didn't like some of the defenses they were going against. So you had the Browns?

• 53:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, I had the Browns.

• 53:03Bill Simmons?

  And you had the Browns team?

• 53:03Speaker 01

  I mean, he stole my answer. It's basically that, in addition to the quarterback situation, which is atrocious, terrible. And I, and I really like all these skill players. Love Casey Concepcion, love Boston, love to hear that he's doing so great. I just think I'm gonna wait on all these guys till next year, when they have maybe, hopefully, a quarterback high in the draft or whatever.

• 53:22Bill Simmons?

  Well, my thinking is like, I feel like you get all these guys for dirt cheap.

• 53:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, definitely. That's true.

• 53:27Bill Simmons?

  Either like, after the 10th round or in an auction, like, you're, none of these guys are going for more than five bucks. I don't think anybody's spending 25 bucks on Judkins.

• 53:36Speaker 01

  Probably not, yeah.

• 53:37Bill Simmons?

  You know?

• 53:38Speaker 01

  But the, but the eight out of the last nine games outdoors in cold, either at home or in cold weather city, like Cincy, Baltimore, and New York. It, this is just, I, having a Browns player late in the season sucks, because it's like, oh, there's gonna be three feet of snow, and it's gonna be a three to nothing game.

• 53:55Bill Simmons?

  Right.

• 53:55Speaker 01

  Or whatever.

• 53:56Speaker 02

  It's week 15, and it's like, I need Shador Sanders to throw for 400 yards in the snow.

• 53:59Speaker 01

  It's like, he's gonna pass for, he's gonna pass for 125, maybe.

• 54:03Speaker 03

  That was the be, that was the beginning of the year of CR, was Chris making one waiver move the entire Ringer Fantasy Football League, and then adding Shador Sanders, and Shador Sanders was the number one quarterback that week.

• 54:13Speaker 02

  And then Chris won, or Chris got, he made the finals.

• 54:16Bill Simmons?

  I will not have anyone from the Giants or Jets in any league I'm in.

• 54:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 54:22Bill Simmons?

  My shameless homer pick.

• 54:24Speaker 03

  Cam Scataboo for the Giants.

• 54:26Bill Simmons?

  That's what you have?

• 54:27Speaker 03

  I love Scataboo, man. I just love.

• 54:29Bill Simmons?

  So, Hightons is a Giants fan, DK, Seattle, Craig, Pittsburgh, um, Pats, obviously. So you have Scataboo. Who do you have?

• 54:36Speaker 01

  I mean, does JSN count for this?

• 54:38Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 54:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's JSN. I think even I logically have been talking about this, there's, it's probable that he will regress this year based on what he did last year. I mean, like, a 35% target rate last year and 1,700 yards, 10 touchdowns. It's gonna be hard for him to match that, but I'm start, starting to talk myself into the idea that he's not gonna fall off that much, like, maybe a little.

• 54:58Bill Simmons?

  Wouldn't the shameless homer pick be, you think he's the number one receiver?

• 55:02Speaker 01

  He could be.

• 55:03Bill Simmons?

  You can't really have him be the.

• 55:04Speaker 03

  Offensive player of the year again.

• 55:05Speaker 01

  I mean, I think he is one of the top three receivers in the NFL.

• 55:08Speaker 02

  People are kinda down on him because they lost Kubiak, and it's like, eh, is it gonna be the same?

• 55:12Bill Simmons?

  Pat's fucking shut him down in the Super Bowl. I don't know if you guys saw.

• 55:15Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 55:15Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 55:16Speaker 02

  And that's what I remember from the game, yeah.

• 55:18Speaker 01

  That, that's the take, that's the big takeaway from that game, yeah.

• 55:20Bill Simmons?

  Shut him down. Is that in his head?

• 55:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 55:25Bill Simmons?

  Who do you have? Drew Aller?

• 55:27Speaker 02

  Absolutely. If I can pick him, I'll take it.

• 55:29Bill Simmons?

  You can pick whoever you want.

• 55:30Speaker 02

  Uh, I mean, because Drew Aller's not a fantasy pick, but I, I would, I would say that. Any Steelers pick, player I would pick would be half-hearted. I don't know, maybe Michael Pittman would be underrated, but like, I honestly, there's not a lot that I could pick on this team.

• 55:43Speaker 01

  He has no homer.

• 55:44Speaker 03

  Well, what about Jalen Warren being the new Kenny Gainwell? I think that has to be it. It's like, it, every play is gonna be for Metcalf or Pittman, and then if they're not open, it's a check down or a throwaway.

• 55:52Speaker 02

  The real guy I think could be underrated is Pat Frymough, who used to be a pretty good fantasy player and is still young, and I think is really good. And John U. Smith is now gone, and I kinda think there's a chance that Frymough could kinda pop back into being a top 12 tight end, so maybe I would say him.

• 56:04Bill Simmons?

  Can you guys do 40 seconds on your whole tight end theory this year? I've heard it on your podcast, but just for my audience.

• 56:12Speaker 02

  That there's a, there's only a handful that you want, and the rest of them will just score eight points, no matter where you get them.

• 56:17Bill Simmons?

  Just take them in the last round, like a kicker?

• 56:19Speaker 02

  There's no point in taking like.

• 56:20Bill Simmons?

  It's like, I'll take Frymough last round, why not?

• 56:22Speaker 02

  If you're not getting Bowers or McBride, literally, the, the odds are that the rest of them will just score eight points.

• 56:26Speaker 03

  Basically, the gap between like the number nine tight end and the number 17 tight end is like a point a game, not even, and that's assuming you're playing them in their best weeks anyway. And so, I, I think getting like, I mean, DK's favorite sleeper this year, or at least my favorite sleeper of yours is Jawan Johnson on the Saints.

• 56:40Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 56:40Speaker 03

  Who, now that Jordan Tyson, the rookie, is out a couple months, Jawan Johnson's probably gonna be second in the Saints in every category, and is borderline undrafted, and you get him in the 14th round, and like, you don't have to reach.

• 56:49Bill Simmons?

  That's so good.

• 56:50Speaker 01

  He had like 800 yards last year.

• 56:52Bill Simmons?

  Like watching a basketball player play football.

• 56:54Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 56:54Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 56:55Bill Simmons?

  My shameless homer pick is, uh, Drake May, who's been disparaged by Sal all year. Um, I think Drake May is gonna be number one in fantasy points this year.

• 57:03Speaker 02

  Huh?

• 57:03Bill Simmons?

  Yeah. He was, by the way, third last year.

• 57:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 57:06Bill Simmons?

  Um, but I think he is the, not only the number one quarterback, but I think he will get the most points. All the stuff that happened last year. Where he basically had nobody to throw to. Um, and his weapons are better. The schedule is more competitive. There were some blowout games last year where he was just out in the fourth quarter, like he's, they're actually going to need him.

• 57:26Speaker 02

  More shootout potential, yeah.

• 57:27Bill Simmons?

  Thirty-one touchdowns last year. He's gonna have to run the ball in more games this year. I think they were little baby kid gloves with him last year. With the running, because they didn't want to get hurt. I could see around the goal line, maybe doing it more. But I just think he's gonna have a better season.

• 57:40Speaker 03

  What I hate about you saying that is that there's a world where if A.J. Brown falls to the third round in a fantasy draft, if you can start running back, running back, A.J. Brown, and then Drake May, and then A.J. Brown has the season, you think, like, that actually would be probably a pretty incredible.

• 57:52Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 57:53Bill Simmons?

  That was the last time I won my, my fantasy league with Sal was, was, uh, having the oh-seven Pats, like, trying to build around them and a couple other things. But yeah, um, okay. I think Dobbs is gonna be good, too.

• 58:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, he's underrated.

• 58:07Bill Simmons?

  He's another concussion guy, so that, you know.

• 58:09Speaker 02

  But he's got the big helmet.

• 58:09Bill Simmons?

  He's got the big helmet now, but, um, I just think that Packers team was weird. They, they had these five receivers and two tight ends, and it didn't seem like there was any rhyme or reason to who got the ball.

• 58:19Speaker 02

  I think Dobbs is super reliable, like, a great third down.

• 58:22Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, they love him.

• 58:23Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 58:24Bill Simmons?

  All right, your veal chop guy, Danny. Veal chop, we, we did this concept a couple of years ago. The veal chop, hit or miss at a restaurant.

• 58:31Speaker 02

  It was on the menu last night when we got dinner. We did not order it, but we thought about it.

• 58:34Bill Simmons?

  Chang, this is the most infuriating take I have for Chang. He's, he thinks the veal chop's amazing. It's the bad take. This is wrong. This is fundamentally flawed exercise. Um, fuck you, Chang, would be my response. Yeah, you're not the food, you're not the food czar. I am on this podcast. Yeah. Well, we argued about it on Friday, though, because he's gonna be in the draft.

• 58:55Speaker 02

  He's in the draft, yeah.

• 58:56Speaker 03

  Yeah, Dave's in the draft.

• 58:57Bill Simmons?

  Live Ringer Fantasy Draft on Friday, so we can argue about veal chop.

• 59:00Speaker 03

  We.

• 59:01Bill Simmons?

  Your veal chop guy is who, Danny?

• 59:02Speaker 02

  I bet you we all have the same guy.

• 59:03Speaker 03

  Well, I want to, we're gonna run a Netflix poll because whether people understand what veal chop guy means. My understanding of what this means is when it's done really well, it's elite. But also, if you, if it doesn't go well, you feel dumb for getting it, and also expensive.

• 59:17Bill Simmons?

  It's the riskiest, most expensive order. And it might be an absolute, like, you can't believe how good it is. It's like, you gotta try this, this, or it could be like, oh, fuck.

• 59:29Speaker 02

  I've never had one.

• 59:30Speaker 03

  Never had veal chop.

• 59:31Bill Simmons?

  Neither.

• 59:32Speaker 02

  Is it that different from a steak? Like, what is, what is different about it?

• 59:35Bill Simmons?

  It can be too rare, it can be too fatty.

• 59:37Speaker 02

  But when it's so good, how is it different than a good steak?

• 59:41Bill Simmons?

  It's just, there's something different about it. I can't explain it.

• 59:44Speaker 03

  It's the youth of the meat.

• 59:45Bill Simmons?

  Chang is now driving into traffic in downtown L.A. He's trying to run over people.

• 59:50Speaker 03

  Yeah, he's putting his seatbelt back on, yeah.

• 59:52Bill Simmons?

  Who's your veal chop guy?

• 59:53Speaker 03

  It's Omer and Hampton for the Chargers. It has to be him, because, I mean, on one hand, the Chargers' offense, Mike McDaniel made Tua look good. Now he's got Justin Herbert, so he's going from like the most physically limited quarterback to the most physical, one of the most physically talented in Herbert. And the whole offense could just be supercharged. And Mike McDaniel compared Omer and Hampton to Terrell Davis, who ran for 2,000 yards. So that's the upside. And the downside is you have a second-year running back who already had an ankle injury last year in a three, uh, three-man backfield on an offensive line that will probably just everyone get hurt again. And you're gonna take him in the second round over like Derrick Henry and Chase Brown and Ken Walker and A.J. Brown.

• 1:00:25Speaker 02

  I have the same guy. To me, Hampton is the only guy that is going like in the top 20 in a draft that you don't officially know is good.

• 1:00:33Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 1:00:34Speaker 02

  Every other guy, you're like, I know this player is awesome. I think Hampton's good. Yeah, I think he's good, but you don't know. Also, the interior Chargers line already kinda looks bad.

• 1:00:43Speaker 03

  I hate them losing Tyler Badish right off the jump at center. And I, and they have Jake Slaughter coming in, but it's still a rookie center in a league where you don't want a rookie-slept center.

• 1:00:49Bill Simmons?

  It's a fucking center, come on.

• 1:00:51Speaker 03

  It's the most underrated position in the league.

• 1:00:53Bill Simmons?

  When you lose your left and right tackle.

• 1:00:55Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, definitely. But the center does the protections when all these like defensive lines come up and have to.

• 1:01:00Bill Simmons?

  We've seen teams win Super Bowls after their center got hurt. I'm not, I'm not as scared about that. I think people are like, oh, here go the Chargers again. It's like, I don't know.

• 1:01:07Speaker 02

  Where are you at with Hampton?

• 1:01:10Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, it's interesting. As you guys know, I watch football for 11 hours on a Sunday over and over again. He never really jumped out of the TV for me. Like, even like Judkins, I was like, oh my god. Hampton was, was good, but like, was he better than R.J. Harvey? Like, I just never saw him. Now, his offensive line was so bad, maybe we never saw it.

• 1:01:31Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:01:31Bill Simmons?

  But I, he never jumped out of the TV to me.

• 1:01:33Speaker 03

  I think he's a, Omer and Hampton is a fake analytics guy where I think that, for the most part, I'm not like anti-analytics or anything, but I think that like the advanced stats, which usually are right, he's really great in yards after contact per, uh, per attempt. But almost all of that, and people love to cut the sample size down. This is why advanced math is hard in football, because sample sizes are small. They cut it to the first six games when the line is healthy. And then within that, he did great, but all the carries are just against the Giants in Week 4. And the Giants were the worst run defense in the NFL for the first half of the season. So it's like all these advanced things pointing out Omer and Hampton are based on one game with a defense that like was switching systems, basically, and was like doing terribly. And yeah.

• 1:02:10Bill Simmons?

  That's like the Pats' schedule stuff, not to defend last year's Pats' run. But we had the easiest schedule like in a long time. But then if you actually go game by game, we caught some teams kinda before they sucked. Like, we played Miami when they had all their guys, you know, and people thought Miami was gonna be like a nine-man team.

• 1:02:27Speaker 03

  So what do you say, it was hard? It was a good, it was a hard schedule?

• 1:02:29Bill Simmons?

  I just don't think it was the easiest schedule of all time, because I think how some of the teams performed in the second half skewed it a little bit. It was definitely a fucking cream puff schedule, don't get me wrong, but, um, I have a different guy for this.

• 1:02:41Speaker 02

  Okay, same.

• 1:02:42Bill Simmons?

  Tooten.

• 1:02:43Speaker 02

  Oh, I like that.

• 1:02:45Bill Simmons?

  That's, that's super fair. Travis Etienne, last year, was, uh, in my league, which is the normal fantasy league, he was 10th for points.

• 1:03:00Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 1:03:02Bill Simmons?

  Tooten's getting the points. I don't, maybe they won't use him out of the backfield like they did with, with Travis, but, um, I just think the other running back is Chris Rodriguez, who I just don't think is very good. I just think Tooten, I liked him. I thought, I liked when he was in last year in that offense and Liam Cohen. Um, I don't know where we had, where do we have him on a?

• 1:03:22Speaker 03

  He's like a top 60 player.

• 1:03:23Speaker 02

  He's a good example, though, because kinda like Hampton, I don't know if I know he's good yet. You know, Tooten? And it's like, you wanna bet on Liam Cohen. Liam Cohen had Bucky Irving in Tampa and made Bucky Irving great his rookie season, and now you have Tooten.

• 1:03:34Bill Simmons?

  But this is a key point. He, we have him 27.

• 1:03:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:03:37Bill Simmons?

  Uh, to me, those guys should be like this, right?

• 1:03:40Speaker 02

  Who, Omer and Hampton?

• 1:03:41Speaker 03

  I think that's, that's fair, because I've been skeptical of Tooten, because I'm torn, but I, I, the idea that you'd rather.

• 1:03:46Speaker 02

  Hampton was a first-rounder.

• 1:03:47Speaker 03

  Yeah, Tooten in Round 5, oh, yeah.

• 1:03:49Speaker 02

  In the real draft.

• 1:03:50Bill Simmons?

  Who was?

• 1:03:50Speaker 02

  Hampton.

• 1:03:51Bill Simmons?

  See, that's insane.

• 1:03:54Speaker 03

  The Chargers tried to trade out of the pick, though, they couldn't.

• 1:03:55Speaker 02

  I mean, he, he was a highly thought-of prospect, and he's big. I don't know. And Tooten's small. Right. Chris Rodriguez is like the, the boring, reliable, like, you need three yards guy. Cohen coached him at Kentucky, so he has a connection to him, and I think he likes how consistent he is, and Tooten's more like the homerun guy. He's the Charbonnet. So I think the fear is that it's a little bit more of a split backfield than you want.

• 1:04:16Bill Simmons?

  You know who, uh, who I like, the running back on a team that scores 30 points a game? This was Givante Williams last year, right? Who nobody took. But I think if you have the running back, that's, that could be 10 to 12 touchdowns. He's gonna get the, inside the five carries, so, I don't know, I just, I, uh, I think he's gonna go low, but I, I think he might be worth it as like a top 10 guy. I would rather take three swings at guys in that range than pay $65 for Jameer Gibbs.

• 1:04:41Speaker 03

  I do think Chris Rodriguez is worth drafting, though, solely because he's a good example of a player that will probably go like in the 12th round of a draft, because no one, no one is who he is.

• 1:04:48Bill Simmons?

  If you take Tooten, you also have to take Chris Rodriguez.

• 1:04:50Speaker 03

  It's worth it with him, because Rodriguez, no one's heard of him. Like, even people who play fantasy football every year might not know who Chris Rodriguez is or have ever heard of him. And he also is the rare, maybe starting running back that just is getting no buzz. Like, it is possible that he just leaves the Jaguars in carries in Week 1, and he's just not as exciting as Tooten.

• 1:05:07Bill Simmons?

  I just don't think he's very good. House was like, eh. All right, one of the most fun character, uh, categories for us, the D and D list. Do not draft. I don't think we have to go into this in a ton of detail, but we can just go around the horn. Who do you have on the D and D? Go, you start, Craig.

• 1:05:26Speaker 02

  Xavier Worthy. I, he's at equal risk to be hurt by his own teammates as he is the opposing team.

• 1:05:32Bill Simmons?

  Right.

• 1:05:32Speaker 02

  I just, every, every game, he goes down like a sack of doornobs. I don't even think, the whole thing is how fast he is. I don't even think he looks that fast.

• 1:05:39Speaker 03

  This is your best take.

• 1:05:41Bill Simmons?

  It's your best take.

• 1:05:41Speaker 02

  I just don't, I don't, it always just feels like.

• 1:05:43Bill Simmons?

  Fastest guy at the combine ever, not that fast.

• 1:05:44Speaker 02

  I don't think he looks that fast. I kinda just feel like it's always a gimmick with Xavier Worthy.

• 1:05:47Bill Simmons?

  I like this, Danny will get this, you guys won't, because you're not kids, but when your kids have friends, there's always the one friend who gets hurt all the time.

• 1:05:54Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:05:55Bill Simmons?

  It's like, ah, Bobby got hurt in the bouncy council, castle again. I ran the playground, Bobby fell off the jungle gym. That, that might be Xavier Worthy.

• 1:06:02Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:06:04Bill Simmons?

  Who do you have?

• 1:06:05Speaker 01

  I have Jordan Addison for the Vikings. I just don't want to live that life. He's, he is, I think he's a good player. And he has scored a lot of touchdowns in the league, but I just think in this offense, we don't know what to expect from Kyler. We don't know what to expect from Justin Jefferson. I think Jefferson's going to have the vast majority of the targets. And it's going to leave Addison with a very low target rate and he's going to be very reliant on big plays and touchdowns. I think he's going to be a guy that's just on the waiver wire during the season. People are not going to want to have to deal with it.

• 1:06:35Bill Simmons?

  The flip to this is like what happened with Jameson Williams last year, who was like the Jordan Addison of the Detroit Lions. And then all of a sudden was awesome last year.

• 1:06:43Speaker 01

  I think JMo's way better though.

• 1:06:44Bill Simmons?

  Yeah. Who do you have, Danny?

• 1:06:46Speaker 03

  I have Alec Pierce, receiver for the Colts. He did 1,000 yards a season and then he waited, he waited to get his surgery until after he got his free agent contract. So he delayed it by two months just to get paid. He's trying to return to practice this week. I'm like, I don't want a guy recovering from ankle surgery because he delayed it two months.

• 1:07:01Bill Simmons?

  Yeah. And in general, little fluky.

• 1:07:04Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. Forty-seven catches.

• 1:07:06Bill Simmons?

  Forty-seven catches, some bombs. Some things went right. Yeah, that's a good stay away. I have a Jackson Dart. I wouldn't take if he was free. I'm sorry.

• 1:07:16Speaker 03

  How dare you?

• 1:07:17Bill Simmons?

  I just think he's going to get hurt.

• 1:07:19Speaker 03

  That means you wouldn't add him off waivers.

• 1:07:22Bill Simmons?

  Not on my team. Don't have a spot for him. Guy, the guy is a full-fledged maniac. He just seems like he's determined to get hurt. I've never seen anybody with less self-protection, awareness. What, I just don't want him. I don't want to deal with it.

• 1:07:36Speaker 03

  That's why him and Scottie Pippen get along.

• 1:07:37Bill Simmons?

  Because the worst part about him is like, his stats were good last year. And he tantalizes you into thinking, oh, man, I fucking nailed it with this Jackson Dart pick. And then he tries to take on a 275 pound defensive end and he's out of the game.

• 1:07:50Speaker 01

  He's been in the blue tent. What was it? Scott Barrett.

• 1:07:52Speaker 03

  Every other team.

• 1:07:52Speaker 01

  It's like 47% of the time he's played.

• 1:07:55Bill Simmons?

  He just cannot figure it out.

• 1:07:56Speaker 02

  You gotta take him and then another quarterback and then you just ride Jackson Dart until the car crashes.

• 1:08:01Speaker 03

  Honestly, you should have him and Jameis.

• 1:08:03Bill Simmons?

  You have him and he gets hurt in the second quarter and he, you lose the week because he got hurt. I'm just not going near him. I'm also not going near Jaden Daniels this year. The tonsil injury, I'm out.

• 1:08:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:08:13Bill Simmons?

  Thanks anyway. I didn't really love your offensive line or your schedule or anything to begin with. Also, Jaden Daniels got hurt a bunch of times last year.

• 1:08:20Speaker 01

  Especially at cost. I mean, he's very expensive. Yeah.

• 1:08:22Bill Simmons?

  I have a couple more. Can we, can we go in more?

• 1:08:25Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 1:08:25Bill Simmons?

  You guys can do a second round if you want.

• 1:08:28Speaker 02

  Um, I can do one. George Kittle?

• 1:08:30Bill Simmons?

  I had, he was on my list.

• 1:08:32Speaker 01

  Interesting.

• 1:08:32Speaker 02

  Like, why are we betting that the one, we're betting that the one guy who practices next to the substation who's coming off a torn Achilles? We're assuming that's the guy that's going to stay healthy?

• 1:08:43Speaker 03

  Yeah, that one.

• 1:08:43Bill Simmons?

  Also, tight end torn Achilles seems like a bad combo.

• 1:08:47Speaker 02

  In his 30s?

• 1:08:47Speaker 01

  He's, he's always been really reliant on run after the catch.

• 1:08:50Speaker 02

  He tore his Achilles in 2026.

• 1:08:52Bill Simmons?

  Right, in January.

• 1:08:54Speaker 01

  He didn't get, didn't he like wait a while to get surgery too?

• 1:08:56Bill Simmons?

  He's the, I think the number one guy this year that people don't remember that he got injured pretty recently.

• 1:09:01Speaker 03

  Yeah. It's because he came back. I'm usually the most skeptical of injuries on this show, but I, I believe in Kittle's recovery. I just, I'm not as worried about it.

• 1:09:08Bill Simmons?

  The problem with Kittle is that we've all had him at this point. And he'll have these weeks, like week six Arizona, where he's like 10 catches for 140 yards and three TDs and just destroys everybody. You're like, I love George Kittle. But yeah, I'm not reliable. Any other D and Ds for you?

• 1:09:25Speaker 01

  I'm going with Brian Thomas Jr. Just ruined my, he ruined my league last year. I was like, I can't do this again. I mean, he might be a good player, but I don't want to go down that road again.

• 1:09:35Speaker 01

  He was supposed to be so good last year and then he completely, I mean, he was hurt, which you know, you have to take into account. But I think he also lost his confidence. He was dropping everything, just completely unreliable. And I think Parker Washington is the truth.

• 1:09:46Bill Simmons?

  Honestly, it was devastating. It was devastating to watch in real time. I was able to rally with Parker Washington, but watching, and then the social clips from it. It just sucked to have him on a team. That's a good one. What do you got, Danny? Any, any second one?

• 1:10:01Speaker 03

  You're talking about people I just hate and just emotionally. It's Kyle Pitts. I just kind of don't want Kyle Pitts. DK is wiser than me and always talks about like, don't, you know, you gotta cut out toxic people from your life and Kyle Pitts and I have a toxic relationship and I don't want him in my life anymore.

• 1:10:14Bill Simmons?

  Fair.

• 1:10:14Speaker 01

  Like the George Clooney movie where you're like taking things out of your backpack?

• 1:10:18Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:18Speaker 01

  Yeah. You just don't have him in your backpack.

• 1:10:20Bill Simmons?

  Daniel Jones is obviously on here coming off the Achilles. I just don't trust anybody coming off an Achilles injury who plays football like eight, nine months later. The big one for me, a little controversial. Now I would take him if he was free, but I wouldn't actually pay for him. I'm just out on DJ Moore.

• 1:10:38Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 1:10:39Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, I'm out. That's another one where the Bears fans are like, good luck.

• 1:10:44Speaker 02

  Yeah. Well, he's a little bit of A.J. Brown to him.

• 1:10:46Speaker 01

  I was going to say, he's very similar. Yeah.

• 1:10:49Speaker 03

  I think that exact feeling is why DJ Moore is a great value this year because you know who loves DJ Moore? Joe Brady, the head coach of the Buffalo Bills, who have given him a prop.

• 1:10:57Speaker 02

  They were together in Carolina. I don't know. I think DJ Moore is going to enjoy being the star in Buffalo.

• 1:11:03Bill Simmons?

  I thought he had a shit year last year for what the expectations were with the great coach. And I think a good quarterback. Um, why was he unhappy? Is he just unhappy?

• 1:11:13Speaker 01

  This is the A.J. Brown.

• 1:11:15Bill Simmons?

  A.J. Brown, I understand why he was unhappy. It's like, if I was A.J. Brown, I also would have been unhappy. Why was DJ Moore unhappy?

• 1:11:21Speaker 01

  His balls were sailing 12 feet over his head too often, I guess.

• 1:11:24Speaker 02

  I think Caleb was missing him a lot. You know, there's a lot going on in Chicago, a lot of mouths to feed.

• 1:11:28Speaker 01

  I don't think he likes Caleb either. I think they just don't like each other.

• 1:11:30Speaker 02

  Who else is Josh Allen throwing to? DJ Moore's talented.

• 1:11:33Bill Simmons?

  They're brutal.

• 1:11:34Speaker 03

  I had DJ Moore stepping on another category, but look, somebody's got to get points. Yeah.

• 1:11:39Bill Simmons?

  All right. This next segment is brought to you by PNC Bank Fantasy Football. All about strategy and planning. That's what these guys do in the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. If you want to win your league, you have to be willing to do the boring research or just find some experts you can trust, like us, do that boring winning research for you. Same thing applies to your finances, guys. You're better off leaving it to the financial experts at PNC Bank. We're going to do smart and steady draft strategy. Um, each one of us is going to do one player that we think is the smart and calculated lock. 12 to 15 points a week, not flashy. Um, just somebody you can just throw in the lineup, trust, not think about. Who do you have?

• 1:12:19Speaker 03

  Bo Nix, the quarterback for the Broncos. Bo Nix, he had the most pass attempts in the entire NFL last season and you can get him, he's affordable and like he's, every week he's going to be good.

• 1:12:27Bill Simmons?

  Does his ankle work?

• 1:12:29Speaker 03

  I think he's going to rush for even more yards this year.

• 1:12:31Bill Simmons?

  Right. His ankle works. Who do you have, DK?

• 1:12:34Speaker 01

  I'm going with Chase Brown for the Bengals. Tough, durable, reliable. He's in there, but he plays a ton of snaps, which is really important in fantasy, obviously. And he's in a good offense. And I think that's going to be a big part of it. He's going to score touchdowns. He's going to catch passes. Um, he's going to get a lot of touches.

• 1:12:51Speaker 02

  Can I go with Brock Purdy?

• 1:12:52Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, you sure can.

• 1:12:53Speaker 02

  Speaking of finances, he kind of looks like he should be your accountant, but quietly like a top 10 guy every single year, very dependable. Also can run a little bit.

• 1:13:02Bill Simmons?

  I'm going with Trevor Lawrence, who, um, that offense scored 32 points a game down the stretch. His weapons are better than ever and I don't think people think he's a top five quarterback. But he was last year from points wise and you could probably get him for pretty cheap. And it's not that exciting of a pick because it's not like he's a sleeper anymore, but that's what makes it a fun pick. Anyway. That's the smart and steady draft strategy. This expert fantasy football draft segment was brought to you by the financial experts over at PNC Bank. Brilliantly boring since 1865.

• 1:13:39Speaker 04

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• 1:15:03Bill Simmons?

  Are Aaron Brooks, please don't ever watch him. Just check the box score Sunday night to see his points guy. This has to be Malik Willis, right?

• 1:15:10Speaker 01

  That's who I have.

• 1:15:11Bill Simmons?

  I don't want to watch one minute of him. Just give me your 23 points and we'll shake hands at the end of the year.

• 1:15:16Speaker 01

  He had.

• 1:15:17Bill Simmons?

  But he's clearly going to be like a top 12 to 15 QB.

• 1:15:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, he, he's the, uh, he's the fantasy loophole. You know, it's the rushing thing. It's rushing point or rushing yards are worth more for quarterbacks than running backs. And the rushing, uh, yards or rushing touchdowns are worth more than passing touchdowns for quarterbacks. Uh, last year I saw this from in the force, in the four starts he made, um, he had, or over the last two years, he has a 17% scramble rate. Last year, the NFL leader was Drake May at 10%.

• 1:15:44Bill Simmons?

  And he was running for his life on 90% of those scrambles.

• 1:15:48Speaker 01

  And I think that just means in addition to that, he's going to have a lot of design runs. He's just going to be running a lot and that is a cheat code in fantasy. He averaged in those four games as a starter, 10 rushing fantasy points per game. Josh Allen last year averaged eight for, for reference. So he is, I mean, obviously he's not going to have the upside as a passer as Josh Allen, but like, he's going to be running all over the place. He's, that gives him a really good floor. If he throws a touchdown or two in a game, that's a bonus. I think he has a chance to be a top 12 quarterback.

• 1:16:14Bill Simmons?

  How many quarterbacks do you think had 100 plus rushing attempts last year? Hundred plus, seventeen game season. Six a game.

• 1:16:23Speaker 03

  Like four?

• 1:16:24Speaker 02

  Not many, yeah, four or five.

• 1:16:26Bill Simmons?

  Three.

• 1:16:26Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:16:27Bill Simmons?

  And the leader was Allen at one twelve, Hertz was one oh five, and a lot of those were the fourth and ones. And then Drake May, one oh three, probably ninety of them running for his life with three guys behind him. Willis might have like a hundred and fifty rushes this year.

• 1:16:40Speaker 03

  Especially the garbage time, it's gonna be like so much like they're, Miami's gonna be losing by a lot, and then Willis and Achan are just gonna be like, like just absolutely dinking, dunking down their way down the field as they're playing.

• 1:16:50Speaker 02

  We always do this, though. It's like, remember the Justin Fields year? It's like, well, Justin Fields, he could run a lot, and he'll, he'll be a fantasy loophole, and then it's like, the team will be horrible.

• 1:17:00Speaker 01

  He like, it literally couldn't pass.

• 1:17:02Speaker 02

  Malik Willis, good? Do we know that?

• 1:17:03Speaker 03

  No, but it's the, the whole point of like, the point of those, Malik Willis is not a top hundred player. I think the difference is Malik Willis is legitimately like a thirteenth round pick.

• 1:17:10Speaker 02

  Sure.

• 1:17:10Speaker 03

  And the point being that, what's the point of that is like, I want someone not who's gonna sit on my bench all year and be like a, like a slightly below average. You want someone who will either be really helpful, or I can cut. And Malik Willis to me is like the perfect example of that.

• 1:17:21Speaker 02

  You gotta take a second quarterback with him.

• 1:17:23Bill Simmons?

  Yeah. Well, I would go further. I think there's enough good quarterbacks this year where you could argue you just take like four one dollar guys.

• 1:17:30Speaker 02

  That's your move.

• 1:17:31Bill Simmons?

  This is the year it might actually work. You're gonna see it again at the Ringer Fantasy Draft.

• 1:17:35Speaker 01

  Just do wait.

• 1:17:36Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, no, there's twenty guys I'd be fine starting.

• 1:17:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:17:40Bill Simmons?

  Right?

• 1:17:40Speaker 01

  Same.

• 1:17:41Speaker 02

  You go all the way down to Tyler Shuck, and it's like, eh.

• 1:17:43Speaker 03

  You're just gonna get like Mahomes and Stafford and Malik Willis and Baker, and you're just gonna figure out who to start every week.

• 1:17:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:17:49Bill Simmons?

  My, that two thousand twenty-five booty call isn't happening again, guy, for the guy last year in fantasy who, in November and December, good things started happening, but maybe that's where it ends. Um, I had Travis Etienne for this. Because I don't think good things are gonna happen in the same way in New Orleans. I don't, I, I, that was the only year last year that he actually put a whole season together. I don't trust it. They paid him a lot of money. I just don't trust it. So that would be mine. What do you have?

• 1:18:22Speaker 02

  Um, I have Travion Henderson.

• 1:18:25Bill Simmons?

  Who?

• 1:18:25Speaker 02

  It's fair. I had a lovely time with last year. I had a great night, a hundred and forty dollar night with him. It was wonderful. He, what do you like?

• 1:18:32Speaker 01

  West Palestine, Ohio, yeah.

• 1:18:33Speaker 02

  East Palestine, East Palestine.

• 1:18:34Speaker 01

  Sorry, east.

• 1:18:35Bill Simmons?

  You and the, he took him to the trailer park?

• 1:18:37Speaker 02

  Yeah, it was, it was great. You know, we got down and dirty. Cause Travion Henderson was just like randomly would just have a fifty yard touchdown every game.

• 1:18:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:18:44Speaker 02

  And to be honest.

• 1:18:45Bill Simmons?

  He had one game where he had two.

• 1:18:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, and like, the way you say that Marion Hampton didn't jump off the screen to you, I kinda feel that way about Travion.

• 1:18:53Bill Simmons?

  Listen, you're preaching to the choir with Pats fans.

• 1:18:55Speaker 02

  I, I think he's no good vision.

• 1:18:57Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, it's, but he goes down with the first guy who hits him is the problem.

• 1:19:00Speaker 02

  And I was having a blast with these fifty yard touchdowns. Kinda don't think that's gonna hold up. Remandre's still there, and I think he's probably gonna be the starter, so I'm kinda like, I think I'm okay. I think it was a great time last year. I'm gonna let it, I'm gonna let it be.

• 1:19:09Bill Simmons?

  I think that's fair. I didn't watch every play of the Pats last year. I didn't really feel like he could be a reliable, give him the ball over and over again, move the chains guy.

• 1:19:18Speaker 03

  Remandre did everything he could have done if he was gonna lose the job, and all the fumbling, and they still get, Remandre is literally one of the five or six best blocking running backs probably in the NFL, and Henderson's maybe in the, running for the worst blocking back, and also coaches hate when you have a run designed that they don't hit, and Travion Henderson doesn't always just set up the blocks to hit the home run. Like, he's striking out a lot.

• 1:19:37Bill Simmons?

  So you have anybody else for this, or are those two good ones?

• 1:19:40Speaker 01

  I had a repeat in Pierce, Alec Pierce.

• 1:19:42Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:19:42Speaker 01

  That's a good, that's a great one. I think it was just too high variance.

• 1:19:45Speaker 03

  I just had Tucker Kraft. It was the first half of the season, he had six touchdowns in eight games.

• 1:19:48Speaker 02

  Dang.

• 1:19:49Speaker 03

  And it's hard, but I'm like, if he had, and he tore his ACL, and like, then he kept playing.

• 1:19:52Speaker 01

  He's the same deal. He had like, a couple of huge.

• 1:19:54Speaker 02

  So you're good on Kittle, thirty-one years old, torn Achilles, Tucker Kraft, twenty-three, and his ACL's recovering great. You don't like that?

• 1:20:00Speaker 03

  Well, there's like a forty, forty spot gap. If people don't like the little questionable list of Kittle, it could be like five round difference. I'm like, I'd rather have George Kittle after the top hundred. I don't wanna take Tucker Kraft over like DJ Moore.

• 1:20:10Bill Simmons?

  I had him.

• 1:20:10Speaker 02

  Going twenty-five spots apart.

• 1:20:12Bill Simmons?

  I had him in two of my three leagues. He was honestly devastating when he got hurt. He was so good. He kinda looked like Gronk. He really did, like, look like baby Gronk.

• 1:20:20Speaker 02

  I believe in Tucker Kraft.

• 1:20:21Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, I'm, I'm not out on him either. Um, my look, somebody's gotta get points on that team, right, guy?

• 1:20:29Speaker 01

  I know this one.

• 1:20:30Bill Simmons?

  Who do you have?

• 1:20:31Speaker 01

  Wondell Robinson for the Titans. Just a PPR cheat code.

• 1:20:35Bill Simmons?

  That was your guys' best take last year. That Wondell Robinson was Travis Hunter with, with PR.

• 1:20:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:20:43Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, whatever that was.

• 1:20:43Speaker 02

  Expensive Wondell?

• 1:20:46Bill Simmons?

  You were on that in August, and he had like a thousand yards. That was great.

• 1:20:50Speaker 01

  They just used Travis Hunter for like screens and stuff. It was terrible. Uh, I think Wondell is, look, he,

• 1:20:57Speaker 01

  he had the eleventh highest target rate in the NFL last year. Eleventh, twenty-seven percent target rate. That's an elite number, and I don't think that's gonna change this year. I think it's gonna be, he's gonna be a huge part of this offense. Dayball brought him over and paid him a whole bunch of money. Talk about the Zay Flowers contract, like the Wondell Robinson contract. It's kinda crazy.

• 1:21:17Bill Simmons?

  But Dayball seemed like he was all in on him, which I think is probably a good sign for Wondell Robinson.

• 1:21:21Speaker 03

  Wondell's like a hard worker, big Kobe Bryant guy, like, like, like, the kinda stuff coaches love.

• 1:21:26Bill Simmons?

  And Tate's?

• 1:21:27Speaker 01

  Tate hasn't done anything. Yes, well, quite a bit higher.

• 1:21:29Bill Simmons?

  See, I don't agree with that.

• 1:21:30Speaker 01

  I mean, Tate has, in two preseason games, five targets and zero catches. Like, they're not on the same page whatsoever.

• 1:21:36Bill Simmons?

  And usually the rookie receivers don't put together a whole season. Like, even Ibuka last year was good for half the season, fell apart.

• 1:21:44Speaker 01

  I think Wondell's gonna be an extension of the run game, lots of screens, lots of designed plays, you know, just get him the football, let him do his thing, get five yards a pop or whatever, and just be good with it.

• 1:21:55Bill Simmons?

  I like it. Plus, he's gonna be in some blowouts, catching some dumb touchdowns at the end of games. Who do you have?

• 1:22:00Speaker 03

  Maybe I'm cheating, but I just, I have DJ Moore. Maybe the Bills are too good, but I'm like, the Bills are a top five team, and none, and the only receiver, pass catchers who've been drafted are DJ Moore and Dalton Kincaid, and I'm, I just think DJ Moore is like the epitome of like, he's gonna get everything.

• 1:22:13Bill Simmons?

  Their two, three, four is Shakir.

• 1:22:15Speaker 03

  It's, they have Khalil Shakir.

• 1:22:16Bill Simmons?

  Is your guy Palmer still on that team?

• 1:22:17Speaker 02

  Mm-mm.

• 1:22:18Speaker 03

  Uh, he, he's still alive. He was just hurt a lot of last year, yeah.

• 1:22:21Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:22:22Speaker 03

  And then they still have Keon Coleman, the first-rounder, like, he's still.

• 1:22:24Speaker 02

  Who just got hurt, though, but yeah.

• 1:22:25Bill Simmons?

  Who they can't stand and undermine four times a year.

• 1:22:27Speaker 03

  That's the thing. So it's like, and again.

• 1:22:29Bill Simmons?

  Pretty rough.

• 1:22:29Speaker 03

  If Skyler Bell.

• 1:22:30Speaker 01

  Michael Hart, man.

• 1:22:31Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's, it's not.

• 1:22:32Speaker 02

  Tyrell Shavers got hurt, yeah.

• 1:22:33Bill Simmons?

  Danny, nine and eight.

• 1:22:35Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 1:22:35Speaker 03

  The Bills? The Bills are going nine and eight?

• 1:22:37Bill Simmons?

  Just throwing it out there.

• 1:22:40Bill Simmons?

  Why do we think the Bills are good?

• 1:22:40Speaker 01

  Bills third place in the division, maybe?

• 1:22:43Bill Simmons?

  Why are the Bills good? Reason one, Josh Allen. What's your second reason?

• 1:22:46Speaker 02

  Offensive line, run game.

• 1:22:48Speaker 03

  James Cook led the NFL in rushing last year.

• 1:22:50Bill Simmons?

  Cool, you're gonna score points. What else you got?

• 1:22:52Speaker 02

  Well, that's pretty good, right? You have the best quarterback in the league, and they can run the ball. Defense is okay.

• 1:22:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's like average.

• 1:22:58Bill Simmons?

  Not great. I don't know. I feel like we're better than them.

• 1:23:02Speaker 01

  You got a, you got a superhero at quarterback.

• 1:23:03Bill Simmons?

  I think we're better than them.

• 1:23:04Speaker 03

  Like, like, cause of coaching or cause of the roster?

• 1:23:07Bill Simmons?

  I just think we have a better team. I think we have more good players.

• 1:23:12Speaker 01

  That might be true, that might, that might be true, but you don't have Josh Allen.

• 1:23:16Bill Simmons?

  I can think what I wanna think. I think we have better players.

• 1:23:18Speaker 03

  That's, well, cause you have your quarterback rankings, and Drake May's at the top.

• 1:23:21Bill Simmons?

  Josh Allen, I think, is the best regular season quarterback in the league.

• 1:23:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:23:24Bill Simmons?

  And it's very far-fetched to ever think of him not going ten and seven.

• 1:23:28Speaker 02

  Would you rather have, you're emphasizing regular season.

• 1:23:31Bill Simmons?

  You bet I am.

• 1:23:32Speaker 03

  Oh my, are you just gonna count Drake?

• 1:23:34Speaker 02

  Right now, would you rather Drake May or Josh Allen in a playoff game?

• 1:23:39Bill Simmons?

  Is Drake May gonna be healthy for the playoff game?

• 1:23:40Speaker 03

  Yes, they're healthy.

• 1:23:41Bill Simmons?

  Drake May wasn't healthy last year. Jesus Christ.

• 1:23:42Speaker 02

  They're both healthy. Who would you want?

• 1:23:44Speaker 03

  The Broncos quarterbacks weren't either. You're giving Drake May a championship game win?

• 1:23:51Speaker 01

  You're forcing him to do it.

• 1:23:51Bill Simmons?

  I'd probably rather have Josh Allen.

• 1:23:55Speaker 01

  He's like, how can I, how can I play this?

• 1:23:57Speaker 02

  This is gonna be on Twitter, on my status.

• 1:23:59Bill Simmons?

  I'd rather have Josh Allen. It's fair. You, you checkbaited me. Uh, my somebody's gotta get points guy is Jalen Coker.

• 1:24:07Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 1:24:08Speaker 01

  Oh, I like that.

• 1:24:08Bill Simmons?

  I'm a huge fan. He got hurt last year. He's a Holy Cross guy, so I, I was always monitoring him. And was gonna be like a real valuable guy for them, got hurt, missed most of the season, came back in time and was important for them in the playoffs. They went big on him, they gave him a new contract. And I think that team, the two receivers, that's really all they have. They don't even have a third receiver.

• 1:24:30Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:24:31Bill Simmons?

  It's gonna be those two and running back by committee, but I think, I think Coker is gonna be a thousand yard guy. That's my most random dumb prediction of the, of the pod.

• 1:24:40Speaker 02

  He's another guy that fantasy analysts really like as a player.

• 1:24:43Bill Simmons?

  He's another one who just makes big catches, especially like, they had a lot of dumb fourth quarter games last year, and, you know, you, you sat down the stretch, it was like third and eleven, and somehow he would get open and make a play, so I'm a fan. Did you have one for this?

• 1:24:57Speaker 02

  I was gonna go, I, I think if I had to pick any Brown, I would take Harold Fannin, who I think.

• 1:25:03Bill Simmons?

  I do like him.

• 1:25:03Speaker 02

  He set the catch record for Browns rookie last year, and I'm just like.

• 1:25:06Bill Simmons?

  They have good skill guys. It's incredible skill.

• 1:25:08Speaker 02

  Well, I'm kinda like, the easiest throw for these quarterbacks is probably just gonna be to Harold Fannin, and Monkin has always done good with tight ends.

• 1:25:13Speaker 01

  Especially Shador as the starter.

• 1:25:15Speaker 02

  Yeah, I'm like, they're just gonna throw screens to Harold Fannin, and I think I would, I would pick him if I had to take any Brown.

• 1:25:19Bill Simmons?

  See, the reason they have to start Shador, at least by week three, regard, he, I didn't think looked good at all last year. The crowd's gonna be so into it.

• 1:25:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:25:27Bill Simmons?

  You're just completely flipping the energy in the stadium, and they're gonna be, it's gonna be like watching a bunch of parents rooting for their kids in a youth hockey game or something. Like, everyone's just gonna want it so badly.

• 1:25:39Speaker 01

  Skip is gonna, Skip is gonna lose his mind.

• 1:25:40Speaker 02

  Oh, Skip. Did you see Skip yesterday on Twitter? Went.

• 1:25:43Bill Simmons?

  Only cause you reposted it.

• 1:25:44Speaker 02

  Yeah, did you watch all nineteen minutes?

• 1:25:46Bill Simmons?

  I didn't watch one minute of it.

• 1:25:49Speaker 02

  Um, it was good. It was a little long, but you know.

• 1:25:51Speaker 01

  Craig, somebody pointed out that there was a, another like 17 minute skip diatribe from like a year ago.

• 1:25:58Speaker 02

  About Shador.

• 1:25:59Speaker 01

  Same, same exact thing.

• 1:26:00Speaker 02

  I just, I just like the way that Skip is approaching media in the, in 2026. It's an interesting, it's an interesting strategy, what he's doing.

• 1:26:08Bill Simmons?

  Okay.

• 1:26:08Speaker 02

  20 minute uninterrupted, direct, direct camera.

• 1:26:12Speaker 01

  Yeah. What people want to see is a 20 minute video on Twitter. It's what people want.

• 1:26:16Bill Simmons?

  Brings his wife in sometimes, right?

• 1:26:18Speaker 01

  Ernestine.

• 1:26:18Speaker 02

  They're talking politics. Yeah, there's a lot going on there at the Bayless household.

• 1:26:23Bill Simmons?

  My, sorry, that's a little too rich for my blood guy. Uh, for me, it's McCaffrey. He's just, um, once it gets over 30 bucks.

• 1:26:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:26:33Bill Simmons?

  Out. Good luck, everybody.

• 1:26:35Speaker 02

  It's so hard.

• 1:26:37Bill Simmons?

  I thought last year he defied expectations that the advanced stats weren't even that kind to him.

• 1:26:42Speaker 02

  No, but he caught 100 balls. He was the number one player in fantasy. And if you drafted him, you won your league probably.

• 1:26:46Speaker 01

  It's like having two players in one starting position in your, on your roster.

• 1:26:49Speaker 02

  I don't know. Yeah.

• 1:26:50Speaker 03

  McCaffrey has literally in the last seven years been maybe the most important player to have on your team in four of the years. And the single most important player to not have on your team.

• 1:27:00Speaker 02

  He's literally the Ricky Bobby first or last.

• 1:27:02Bill Simmons?

  He really should be the Vialchop, I guess.

• 1:27:04Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:27:04Speaker 03

  He's the all time.

• 1:27:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:27:06Speaker 03

  All time fantasy Vialchop.

• 1:27:07Bill Simmons?

  Because like when Tomlinson had his run in the 2000s, he was just good every year. There was no, you just could pencil him in for the numbers. McCaffrey, you have no idea.

• 1:27:15Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:27:16Bill Simmons?

  Um, but two people would bid on him and it'll become an eBay auction and somebody will spend $58 on him.

• 1:27:22Speaker 02

  And every week that he plays, he'll probably be the best player in fantasy.

• 1:27:24Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:27:24Speaker 03

  It is like if Tomlinson just missed three of the years in the 2000s, like he played like two games those seasons.

• 1:27:30Bill Simmons?

  Danny, who do you have?

• 1:27:32Speaker 01

  Chris Olave for the Saints. I think it's just one of those guys where the, the price has gotten so high now that I'm just like, I'll let someone, Craig said it, I think perfectly. I'll let someone else take him. It's like, he's one, you know, this is morbid, but one head hit away from missing the rest of the season. You know what I mean? It's like Tua kind of a couple of years ago where it's just like, ah, don't want to see that. It just worries me the, the, uh, like the odds that he could miss the like entire season.

• 1:27:59Speaker 03

  You're a parent. This is why the football didn't score top five in the, uh, the youth sport rankings.

• 1:28:04Speaker 02

  By the way.

• 1:28:05Bill Simmons?

  The CTA story this week wasn't great either.

• 1:28:07Speaker 03

  That was a huge downer.

• 1:28:08Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, that was a.

• 1:28:09Speaker 02

  I thought volleyball was a great call.

• 1:28:11Bill Simmons?

  Yeah?

• 1:28:11Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:28:11Speaker 01

  Craig's a volleyball guy.

• 1:28:12Speaker 02

  I played in high, I just think it's a great sport.

• 1:28:14Bill Simmons?

  It is.

• 1:28:15Speaker 01

  Craig got recruited.

• 1:28:16Bill Simmons?

  Cover as a high school reporter.

• 1:28:18Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:28:18Bill Simmons?

  Just like really easy to keep track, sets, kept your attention, good parents.

• 1:28:23Speaker 02

  It's a great coed sport too. If you have like a son and a daughter, they can kind of play together. It's, it's just like an easy family sport.

• 1:28:27Bill Simmons?

  You can play after in your twenties.

• 1:28:29Speaker 02

  Beach volleyball is great. Yeah.

• 1:28:31Bill Simmons?

  Did you have a?

• 1:28:32Speaker 03

  Oh, the too rich for my blood?

• 1:28:34Bill Simmons?

  Yeah. Did you have one?

• 1:28:35Speaker 03

  For me, all, all season, it's been Drake London for the Falcons. Nothing to do with Drake London. Everything to do with having watched Tua have to get my receiver the ball and I don't want to watch it. If Penix plays, I, I, the idea that Tua might lose his quarterback competition without Penix playing is funny to me, but.

• 1:28:51Bill Simmons?

  I love it. They're like, you've lost the competition. Who did I lose to? It doesn't matter.

• 1:28:55Speaker 02

  The guy in the brace over there.

• 1:28:56Bill Simmons?

  You, you've just lost.

• 1:28:57Speaker 03

  He's in the blue tent.

• 1:28:58Bill Simmons?

  All right, let's do, we're doing bad on pace. So we're going to speed round. Uh, give me a $1 QB guy, Craig.

• 1:29:03Speaker 02

  Tyler Shuck.

• 1:29:04Speaker 01

  Hey, you stole mine. Yeah, that's, that's Shuck.

• 1:29:08Speaker 03

  Daniel Jones or Jacoby Brissette?

• 1:29:10Bill Simmons?

  I'd Chuck and I have CJ, AKA C plus Stroud.

• 1:29:13Speaker 01

  Hmm. Yeah, he's another one.

• 1:29:15Bill Simmons?

  C plus Stroud, I think could for a dollar, probably have some big games.

• 1:29:18Speaker 01

  Now with Booty.

• 1:29:19Bill Simmons?

  Is Mendoza in the running for this?

• 1:29:22Speaker 02

  He's not going to play for a while.

• 1:29:23Speaker 01

  Not going to play till, we, we, I think he's probably.

• 1:29:25Bill Simmons?

  You sure he's not going to play?

• 1:29:26Speaker 01

  No, we're not sure.

• 1:29:27Bill Simmons?

  They said this about Drake May and he was out there in week four.

• 1:29:29Speaker 03

  The difference is Tom Brady is, is you have to have an owner who has, is Tom Brady to do it. I think it's the only situation you'll ever have where you actually could have the number one pick not play.

• 1:29:38Bill Simmons?

  Cause Tom Brady's been making great decisions this year.

• 1:29:41Speaker 01

  Did you see his GQ?

• 1:29:42Bill Simmons?

  That's your guy.

• 1:29:45Bill Simmons?

  We're very happy with all the Super Bowls we win with Tom and we wish him the best in his next endeavors.

• 1:29:51Speaker 01

  Is that what you say with Belichick too?

• 1:29:53Bill Simmons?

  I love Belichick. I'm like the last Belichick defender. This is.

• 1:29:56Speaker 03

  Is he Hall of Famer though?

• 1:29:57Bill Simmons?

  It's a witch hunt right now.

• 1:29:58Speaker 01

  Is he a Hall of Famer?

• 1:29:59Speaker 03

  Is Belichick a Hall of Famer?

• 1:30:00Speaker 02

  We have a good UNC year coming. What do you think?

• 1:30:03Bill Simmons?

  Uh, I, I'm, my attention's on UCLA.

• 1:30:05Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 1:30:06Bill Simmons?

  That's all I care about.

• 1:30:07Speaker 01

  We're on to UCLA.

• 1:30:08Speaker 03

  Do you have a comment on Adam Vinatieri making Hall of Fame before Bill Belichick?

• 1:30:12Bill Simmons?

  I had a comment on him coming in as a Colt. This was very upsetting to the Pats fan base. And my challenge with this as always is can anyone name one kick he made with the Colts? Can you name one Colts kick from Adam Vinatieri? Just one.

• 1:30:29Bill Simmons?

  You can't.

• 1:30:30Speaker 01

  No, I don't know.

• 1:30:31Bill Simmons?

  You cover football for the Ringer since we've had the Ringer.

• 1:30:34Speaker 01

  I'm notorious for not.

• 1:30:35Bill Simmons?

  Can you name a big kick?

• 1:30:36Speaker 01

  Not caring about kickers.

• 1:30:37Speaker 03

  But they won. Was that not?

• 1:30:39Bill Simmons?

  Was it because of an Adam Vinatieri kick?

• 1:30:41Speaker 02

  No. You're just saying he was on a team that won a Super Bowl. I don't think that counts.

• 1:30:44Bill Simmons?

  Nobody can name a kick. Even I, I, I was going to do a thing on my podcast about this and I didn't, but I watched an entire YouTube video of his biggest Colts kicks. And all of them were like, week eight, week 10, week 12. Anyway, it annoyed me.

• 1:31:01Speaker 02

  So he's like a Josh Allen type, only, only a regular season guy.

• 1:31:04Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:31:04Bill Simmons?

  No, he was, he's made all of the biggest kicks in the history of our franchise.

• 1:31:08Speaker 03

  He signed with the Colts in 06 and they won the Super Bowl and he finished his run with the, he had set the record for most field goals in a playoff run for the Colts.

• 1:31:16Bill Simmons?

  Great. Can you remember any of them?

• 1:31:18Speaker 02

  Cheryl in the first quarter, Hivis.

• 1:31:22Bill Simmons?

  Uh, my DeMar DeRozan anti-litex guy.

• 1:31:26Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:31:27Bill Simmons?

  We came up with this snack last year. I have Rico Dowdell.

• 1:31:29Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 1:31:30Bill Simmons?

  I like Rico. Not that fun to take 13 for 78 with a touchdown every week and just grind it out. Good carries.

• 1:31:38Speaker 02

  Underrated guys.

• 1:31:39Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, I like him. He, he won the job, right?

• 1:31:41Speaker 02

  I think it's about to.

• 1:31:42Speaker 01

  It's going to be a split.

• 1:31:42Speaker 02

  It'll be the first, um, second.

• 1:31:43Bill Simmons?

  He'll get most of the carries. I like Rico though. Analytics don't love him.

• 1:31:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:31:47Bill Simmons?

  But who do you have?

• 1:31:48Speaker 02

  Mark Andrews. I think everyone's kind of giving up on that old man. Yeah.

• 1:31:52Bill Simmons?

  He's a good zag guy. Everyone's had him. Everybody's given up.

• 1:31:55Speaker 02

  Kind of unreliable, can't catch in critical moments, but sneaky late, late round dart throw.

• 1:32:00Bill Simmons?

  More fun to take care of Fannin.

• 1:32:01Speaker 02

  I'm kind of like, Isaiah Legley's gone.

• 1:32:03Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 1:32:03Speaker 02

  Mark Andrews might have 10 touchdowns.

• 1:32:04Speaker 01

  I know. He's probably going to score double digit touchdowns this year.

• 1:32:07Bill Simmons?

  Danny?

• 1:32:08Speaker 01

  Mine's Devon, uh, Devon Achan for the Dolphins. Everyone's out on the Dolphins. They're going to have a horrific D offense. They're going to lose every game. They're going to be behind. I just love Devon Achan.

• 1:32:19Bill Simmons?

  My question with the Dolphins, and I'm going to dive into this more with Sal on Thursday, but are they going to be kind of funky to play? In a way that's actually good to have some of the Dolphins guys. Like are they going to have this really weird?

• 1:32:31Speaker 02

  Cause they're playing like Army?

• 1:32:33Bill Simmons?

  Yeah. You're playing them and it's like, you have to practice the whole week to prepare for their weird style.

• 1:32:38Speaker 03

  Willis and Achan is like, instead of thunder lightning, it's lightning, lightning backfield. And then the offensive line is huge.

• 1:32:44Bill Simmons?

  I think their offensive lines in the, it's above average. I don't even think it's average. I think it's okay.

• 1:32:49Speaker 03

  They have a lot of raw developmental guys, but it is just, um, like the people on that line are like Patrick Paul left tackle and Proctor. I guess Proctor's going to start as a guard. Like they're just massive people. And again, I mean, I always felt like Derrick Henry, Lamar Jackson was like this unprecedented backfield. But Achan Willis is kind of too, like they're the fastest quarterback and the fastest running back in the league are playing together. That's weird.

• 1:33:09Bill Simmons?

  Their over under is really hard because they, I don't know what their goal is for this year, other than they need to shed the cap.

• 1:33:14Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:33:15Bill Simmons?

  Right. But they're going to have like two games where they just run for 270 yards on people. And people are like, oh my God, the Packers just gave up 270 yards rushing to the, like whoever.

• 1:33:27Bill Simmons?

  Who do, did you do one?

• 1:33:28Speaker 03

  My analytics guy is just David Montgomery. He's a classic like dead zone running back, like.

• 1:33:32Bill Simmons?

  Craig made a face about him earlier.

• 1:33:33Speaker 03

  Yeah. He's 29 years old. I just, I love the way, I love the way he plays. I love David Montgomery as a real player.

• 1:33:38Speaker 02

  I like him as a person, but I feel like we let that influence the fact that he's just going to be running for three yards and carry on the Texans.

• 1:33:43Speaker 01

  The Texans run game has been horrific.

• 1:33:45Speaker 03

  It has been, but if it improves, which the bar is, and I love when we swap out linemen for other bad linemen. We're like, well, it could be better now. But it's also the Texans defense is so good. There's just going to be so much carries in the second half.

• 1:33:55Bill Simmons?

  Also they had Nick Chubb coming off, losing his entire knee, basically, who just retired. That was their starting running back last year. I mean, they, they had the worst running backs in the league.

• 1:34:05Speaker 02

  Woody Marks.

• 1:34:05Bill Simmons?

  Just didn't need a C plus from him and a C plus from CJ.

• 1:34:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:34:09Bill Simmons?

  Just give us two C pluses. We're good. Uh, my, I can't resist, even though I know I'll be afraid to look on Tuesday and see the red flag guy. This has been Mike Evans for seven years. I think we, RIP that one.

• 1:34:21Speaker 02

  It's Mike Evans and this year it's.

• 1:34:23Bill Simmons?

  We should name it to Mike Evans.

• 1:34:24Speaker 03

  We should name it to Mike Evans award. I have Laporta.

• 1:34:27Speaker 02

  Ooh.

• 1:34:27Speaker 03

  Oh, that's a good.

• 1:34:28Speaker 01

  He's got a back injury right now.

• 1:34:29Bill Simmons?

  Laporta red flag next to him basically for the last two years, even though we all love him. I don't trust him to stay healthy. Takes big hits. Um, always seems like it's a different body part. So I had him.

• 1:34:41Speaker 01

  What about Abuka? Amika, Amika Abuka.

• 1:34:44Speaker 02

  Man.

• 1:34:44Bill Simmons?

  And he's already hurt this year.

• 1:34:45Speaker 01

  And he's got a turf toe thing maybe, or a toe injury. And I'm just like, and, and he showed last year.

• 1:34:50Bill Simmons?

  He fell off a cliff last year.

• 1:34:51Speaker 02

  He would have been my favorite pick this year if he didn't have a toe injury. I think he's going to be great.

• 1:34:55Speaker 01

  We kind of saw this in college too. He got, he got banged up and then his performance dropped pretty significantly. Like he's one of those guys that maybe.

• 1:35:01Bill Simmons?

  This is his quarterback. It's the exact same way.

• 1:35:03Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:35:04Bill Simmons?

  Where he starts out great and then by week 16, he's got injuries.

• 1:35:07Speaker 01

  Eight injuries. Yeah.

• 1:35:08Speaker 02

  They're like an injury parlay team where it's like, I need to hit all three.

• 1:35:11Speaker 03

  This is the off season thing where like, well, whoever's hurt last year, they'll get healthy. I'm like, no, just everyone's rehabbing now and can just get re-injured, which happens all the time.

• 1:35:17Bill Simmons?

  Danny, who can get to nine wins in the NFC South if you had to pick a team?

• 1:35:22Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 1:35:24Bill Simmons?

  Cause Carolina's already having a year from hell.

• 1:35:25Speaker 01

  I think I still would take the Bucks. I'd take the Bucks.

• 1:35:27Speaker 02

  I would take the Bucks.

• 1:35:27Bill Simmons?

  I feel like by default it's the Bucks, right?

• 1:35:29Speaker 01

  I think their offensive line is key.

• 1:35:31Speaker 02

  Talking to the Saints.

• 1:35:32Speaker 03

  I like Kellen. The reason I'm out on the Bucks is that it's, it's very obvious that this is the last year for bowls and that usually goes poorly. He's an, he's quietly one of the older coaches in the league. He fired a lot of his staff, like.

• 1:35:41Bill Simmons?

  You had that with Dayball last year.

• 1:35:43Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:35:43Bill Simmons?

  Kept him a year late.

• 1:35:44Speaker 03

  This is, yeah. That's why I don't like the Jets. Aaron Glenn's not coaching that quarterback to techy next year. I'm like, like it's just, that's every, the vibes disintegrate as soon as anything goes wrong.

• 1:35:55Bill Simmons?

  My 2022 Cooper Cup. It's a year after the year guy named after Cooper Cup having just the most insane single season and then never approaching it. Would you go Drake London or Michael Wilson for this one?

• 1:36:10Speaker 01

  Ooh, Michael Wilson's a smart one. Even though I like him, yeah.

• 1:36:13Speaker 02

  What about Jonathan Taylor?

• 1:36:15Speaker 01

  That's who I wrote down.

• 1:36:16Bill Simmons?

  Do that as well.

• 1:36:16Speaker 03

  I thought it had to be Jonathan Taylor or Jackson Swift and Jigba. Like, I just thought it had to be one.

• 1:36:21Bill Simmons?

  I'm just so tired of counting out Jonathan Taylor and then he just looks like he's the best 45 degree angle running back in the history of the sport.

• 1:36:29Speaker 03

  He's amazing. Our buddy Scott Barrett had this great point where it's Jonathan Taylor, Derrick Henry are the two team running backs that have the biggest delta between their fantasy points per game and wins versus losses because they don't catch a ton of passes. So they're really great running with good game scripts even against when the defense knows they're going to run. The difference is the Ravens are probably going to win eight or nine of their first 10 games because they don't play a playoff game in the first two months, a playoff team in the first two months. The Colts, when they're winning all those games, Jonathan Taylor is incredible. Daniel Jones gets hurt. When they're losing, Jonathan Taylor is just not going to rack up the carries, 20, 30 carries a game. So I don't believe in the Colts winning more than eight games this year. So Taylor's tough for me.

• 1:37:04Bill Simmons?

  I want no part of Drake London this year. None, zero. I don't want to go near him.

• 1:37:09Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:37:09Bill Simmons?

  And if anything, not only it's the combo of having a terrible QB, but then also having a terrible QB throwing you balls that could get you hurt.

• 1:37:17Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:37:19Bill Simmons?

  Out. No, thank you.

• 1:37:20Speaker 03

  Well, every, just every, you need to catch it. It feels like a miracle, as Greg always says, like, it's just the worst feeling in fantasy.

• 1:37:25Bill Simmons?

  And I still don't know what happened with Michael Wilson last year. I didn't understand it as it was happening.

• 1:37:29Speaker 01

  He turned into the best receiver in the NFL.

• 1:37:31Bill Simmons?

  It was just unstoppable.

• 1:37:32Speaker 03

  Volume. Cause he ran the most routes in the league over that stretch.

• 1:37:35Bill Simmons?

  It felt like they were always down 10, having to throw the ball.

• 1:37:38Speaker 02

  Out of principle, I, I, I will take Michael Wilson over Marvin Harrison Jr. I just like, what I saw last year, I'm like, Michael Wilson's better. He just is.

• 1:37:45Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 1:37:46Speaker 04

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• 1:38:40Bill Simmons?

  Who is your, I just want everyone on that offense, I don't care who, team, Craig?

• 1:38:45Speaker 02

  Detroit.

• 1:38:46Speaker 01

  Hmm. I got the Bears.

• 1:38:48Bill Simmons?

  Shocked.

• 1:38:49Speaker 02

  Bears. Interesting.

• 1:38:50Speaker 01

  I, Loveland is a bit expensive, but if he falls a bit in a league or whatever that you're in, just people aren't dialed in.

• 1:38:56Speaker 02

  Bears are very pricey. I think the Lions go deeper.

• 1:38:59Speaker 01

  The Lions could lead the league in scoring.

• 1:39:01Speaker 02

  They have the easiest schedule in the league.

• 1:39:02Speaker 03

  I want the Chargers. I just think Mike McDaniel will, it will be like, oh, right, he made Tua look really good. I, I think Mike McDaniel's going to be amazing for the Chargers.

• 1:39:10Bill Simmons?

  I like Jacksonville for this. Um, I think Dallas is the case too.

• 1:39:14Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:39:15Bill Simmons?

  If you just have the quarterback, running back, and the two receivers, I'm just, just loading up and those are my guys. I'm going to go with my year too early fuck it guy.

• 1:39:26Bill Simmons?

  Honestly shocked by the price for this guy. Let me look at where he is on the ringer.

• 1:39:33Bill Simmons?

  He is, oh, wow. Oh my, I'm still, oh my God, 25th. I'm all in on Price on the Seahawks.

• 1:39:42Speaker 01

  I knew you were going that.

• 1:39:44Bill Simmons?

  I'm all in. I love the Seahawks. I've already made the case. I think it's just bizarre that they're not being treated like the favorites again and a team with a legitimate chance to go back to back. I think they have the best coach in the league. They might have the best receiver in the league. They have one of the three best defenses in the league, maybe second. Um, they're going to be able to run the ball. We've seen that no matter who is running the ball for them is usually going to be okay. And, uh, and the only reason we don't talk about Price is because he wasn't most of the starter last year in college. And that always throws people off, but we've seen this happen over the years where the guy who didn't get all the reps in college, all of a sudden is awesome as a pro. Um, Charbonne, I don't see at all. Not to mention, he kind of sucked last year anyway, but then he got

• 1:40:28Bill Simmons?

  hurt. And people are like, oh, it's a time share. There will be no time share. They're going to play. The question is how many carries can you put on him? Um, not to mention the way they play, like some running back is going to get points for them. He's 25th. I think he should be top 12, in my opinion.

• 1:40:45Speaker 01

  I had Price written down too. It was, it's kind of a zag because there's not a lot of hype on him right now. I think everybody kind of feels like he's going to be in a committee with Hulani and then Charbonne is going to come back at some point.

• 1:40:57Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 1:40:57Speaker 01

  But I'm like, what if Jadarian Price is just awesome? I mean, everything you've seen.

• 1:41:00Bill Simmons?

  Also, Hulani? Like, come on.

• 1:41:02Speaker 01

  I mean, I, I think he'll be a good role player for them, but like, it would not surprise me if, if Price is just 70%, 65% of the rushes.

• 1:41:10Bill Simmons?

  Yeah. Like 18 to 20 a game.

• 1:41:12Speaker 01

  And ripping off long runs, you know, and I think he could be more in the passing game than he showed in, in college. The, the one thing I will say, the tidbits that we've gotten from Hard Knocks is the teammates raving about Price, how he's looked in practice.

• 1:41:25Bill Simmons?

  As you know, this is one of my favorite things in August, when the teammate buzz about the guys.

• 1:41:30Speaker 01

  They're like, damn, who's, this guy's fast.

• 1:41:32Bill Simmons?

  Yeah. People are like, yo, holy shit.

• 1:41:35Speaker 03

  I think it's a, I, I love this point. I, so we do the take purge at the end of each. It's like one of my favorite episodes and we can't, I can't do it anymore, but one of my.

• 1:41:43Bill Simmons?

  Good gimmick.

• 1:41:43Speaker 03

  One of my ones was going to be that Jadarian Price would just be straight up better in fantasy football than Jeremiah Love for this season.

• 1:41:50Speaker 01

  Oh, that would be, that's good.

• 1:41:51Speaker 03

  It's not as fun anymore because Jeremiah Love has a high ankle sprain, so it doesn't really count.

• 1:41:54Bill Simmons?

  But even healthy, I think that might've been the case, right?

• 1:41:57Speaker 03

  Well, that's what I was going to say is I think Jeremiah Price will be better. Cause he was just stuck behind Jeremiah Love at Notre Dame, but Jadarian Price, I mean, he was one of the most explosive players. Like, he was unbelievable. He just had a couple of fumbling issues at Notre Dame and he got benched a couple of times, but I think he's incredible.

• 1:42:11Bill Simmons?

  Who do you have for this?

• 1:42:13Speaker 02

  Uh, it's, it's really stupid to usually bet on a rookie playing with Kyle Shanahan, but Dejounte Stripling, I'm like, the preseason stuff, I'm believing it. I think he's going to be really good and I think it's going to be like Mike Evans and Dejounte Stripling.

• 1:42:26Speaker 01

  Evans, by the way, has a groin injury right now, so.

• 1:42:29Speaker 02

  Kittle's hurt. I'm like, Stripling looks legit.

• 1:42:31Bill Simmons?

  Evans has a bunk bed in the electromagnetic complex with McCaffrey.

• 1:42:35Speaker 01

  He's like, it's like in the back to tank.

• 1:42:37Bill Simmons?

  Radiation. Just getting killed.

• 1:42:40Speaker 02

  You don't like Stripling? I saw you make a face.

• 1:42:43Bill Simmons?

  I don't. He feels like an August type guy to me.

• 1:42:45Speaker 02

  Really?

• 1:42:45Bill Simmons?

  People are pretty split on him in the draft. You were.

• 1:42:48Speaker 01

  I mean, I liked him, but it felt really early.

• 1:42:50Speaker 02

  Everybody thought it was a reach.

• 1:42:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:42:52Speaker 02

  The second he got on the field, I was like, this man looks like a professional athlete. Like, this guy looks like an NFL receiver.

• 1:42:56Speaker 01

  You know what? I think human nature does support your position on this because there's a part of me that thinks Shanahan's going to be like, fuck all these people that said we picked him too early. I'm going to feed him 150 targets this year.

• 1:43:08Bill Simmons?

  So ironically, him, Unfando, him and Price. I've seen, oh no, Price is lower. Price is plus 650 for offensive rookie of the year. Stripling was plus 850. Boston has dropped to 22 to one. It was 45 to one.

• 1:43:24Speaker 01

  When you came on.

• 1:43:24Bill Simmons?

  When I was able to do the bet, but I, I think Price is the best, like, out of all the favorites. Um, and Stripling would be the other one who's, who's, I just don't trust.

• 1:43:36Speaker 01

  He's looked pretty legit, though.

• 1:43:37Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:43:38Speaker 02

  Everyone's hurting. It's like, Mike Evans, is he going to be healthy? George Kittle, is he going to be healthy?

• 1:43:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:43:42Speaker 02

  Stripling's looked great.

• 1:43:44Speaker 03

  I had Stripling for this category too.

• 1:43:45Bill Simmons?

  You know what's sad? This almost could have been a category with, is Debo coming back? What would that category be named?

• 1:43:52Speaker 03

  Well, sad reunion here because it's Rogers and McCarthy, it's Debo, it's Gino back to the Jets. It's just like this, all these sad.

• 1:43:57Bill Simmons?

  Pop culture is a sad reunion.

• 1:43:59Speaker 02

  J Lo and Ben getting back together?

• 1:44:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's like a, it's like a second marriage.

• 1:44:02Speaker 02

  It's bad reboots.

• 1:44:03Bill Simmons?

  Why are we doing this?

• 1:44:03Speaker 01

  Officially divorced.

• 1:44:04Bill Simmons?

  We already know how this is going to play out.

• 1:44:06Speaker 03

  It's bad reboots. It's.

• 1:44:08Bill Simmons?

  Bad reboots.

• 1:44:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:44:10Speaker 03

  No one asked for Gino.

• 1:44:10Speaker 01

  I kind of like Debo. I kind of want Debo this year.

• 1:44:15Bill Simmons?

  He's another one that just took too many hits.

• 1:44:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:44:17Bill Simmons?

  Like, they ran too many plays where he just got pancaked by two guys over the middle.

• 1:44:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:44:23Bill Simmons?

  Do you have one for this?

• 1:44:24Speaker 03

  Stripling. I had Stripling, yeah.

• 1:44:26Bill Simmons?

  All right. Um, oh, we've talked about this. We circled this one, but the missionary position, we've all had him. This is getting pretty boring, not even excited to see him in the lineup. So you think Mark Andrews for this? Or somebody else?

• 1:44:38Speaker 02

  Is this a guy that I like or I don't like?

• 1:44:42Bill Simmons?

  Neither. You're just complete, it's completely ambivalent.

• 1:44:44Speaker 02

  It's Terry McLaurin.

• 1:44:46Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:44:47Speaker 02

  I just, I feel nothing. It's like.

• 1:44:49Bill Simmons?

  You feel nothing.

• 1:44:49Speaker 02

  I feel nothing. It's like frozen yogurt.

• 1:44:51Speaker 01

  He's like, this is where you really need to go to, you really need to go to Palestine, Ohio.

• 1:44:55Bill Simmons?

  Let's get frozen yogurt.

• 1:44:56Speaker 02

  Fine, fine.

• 1:44:58Bill Simmons?

  New vegan place.

• 1:44:59Speaker 03

  I literally had Terry McLaurin for this too.

• 1:45:02Speaker 01

  Freaking Terry McLaurin taking shots here. This sucks.

• 1:45:05Speaker 02

  He's perfectly fine.

• 1:45:05Speaker 03

  It doesn't, there's no wiggle when you take Terry McLaurin.

• 1:45:08Speaker 02

  He's never had like, even that crazy year when the commanders were awesome. He was like, the wire receiver like 16.

• 1:45:12Bill Simmons?

  Mine was Devante Adams.

• 1:45:14Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:45:16Bill Simmons?

  He'll put up points. I just kind of know the game. You, you have two catches for 10 yards in the fourth quarter and then he catches a one yard touchdown and his points seem okay. I'm just kind of good with him.

• 1:45:27Speaker 01

  My guy for this is, I'm going way different than you guys. I went with Jalen Hurts. Just, just won the, uh,

• 1:45:32Bill Simmons?

  That's a really good one.

• 1:45:33Speaker 01

  Just won the hottest quarterback competition, Maxim magazine slash Ringer Fantasy.

• 1:45:37Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 1:45:39Speaker 02

  You know, it's, it's, it's spreading. Somebody told Baker Mayfield that he was seventh on the list in an interview. He was happy about it.

• 1:45:45Bill Simmons?

  Really?

• 1:45:45Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:45:47Speaker 01

  He sure, he looked happy anyway.

• 1:45:48Bill Simmons?

  Just like when somebody asked Bernthal about Wayne Jenkins.

• 1:45:52Bill Simmons?

  The teams crossed.

• 1:45:53Speaker 01

  No, but I've, it's like you've, I've had Jalen Hurts a bunch of times in fantasy. It's great.

• 1:45:57Bill Simmons?

  Never feels great.

• 1:45:58Speaker 02

  It never feels great.

• 1:45:59Speaker 01

  But like during the games, it's kind of like, eh. And then in the fourth quarter, he scores like 15 points.

• 1:46:04Bill Simmons?

  By the way, same for the Eagles fan base. I think in A.J. Brown and everyone has played for him.

• 1:46:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:46:10Bill Simmons?

  Okay. Did you do one?

• 1:46:12Speaker 03

  The, oh, we had Terry McLaurin too. Yeah.

• 1:46:16Bill Simmons?

  New category. How many of you watched The Sopranos?

• 1:46:21Speaker 01

  I've watched some, I've some of it.

• 1:46:22Speaker 03

  Out of order, which they think is insane, even though it was 10 years, I was 10 years old for the last season. How was I supposed to watch it in order?

• 1:46:28Speaker 01

  Okay, we don't need to get into that again.

• 1:46:29Bill Simmons?

  This category is called my veto spada for reemerging, coming back to Tony Soprano like nothing ever happened and asking if he could run a construction crew again guy. Michael Thomas Jr.

• 1:46:41Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:46:42Bill Simmons?

  You know what? I'm whacking in the hotel room. We can't, we, there's no coming back.

• 1:46:46Speaker 01

  Wait, Brian Thomas?

• 1:46:47Bill Simmons?

  Oh, Brian Thomas Jr.

• 1:46:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:46:49Speaker 02

  He's like, hey, we're good, right?

• 1:46:51Bill Simmons?

  We're good, right? Sorry about last year. Yeah, we're good. Let's talk on Monday. And I'm whacking him that night. I, I will never take him again. I can't do it. It's, the scars will never heal. And, uh, and that's it. Do you have a guy like that, Craig? You would just never forgive for the rest of your life?

• 1:47:07Speaker 02

  I, I gotta say, I, I will get over it, I think, but Lamar Jackson last year was about as bad as it could possibly get.

• 1:47:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:47:14Speaker 02

  He looked terrible.

• 1:47:15Bill Simmons?

  And especially if he's not going to run in the same way anymore.

• 1:47:19Speaker 02

  I don't know. I, I would still take him and I'm going to trust that that was like a one-off, but like week 10 last year, I was like, I'll never look at him again.

• 1:47:26Speaker 01

  You know who I'm kind of thinking of right now? Lad McConkey.

• 1:47:29Bill Simmons?

  Oh.

• 1:47:30Speaker 01

  Because I love Lad.

• 1:47:31Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 1:47:32Speaker 01

  And then he really betrayed us last year.

• 1:47:33Speaker 02

  He was bad.

• 1:47:34Speaker 01

  It was, it was a tough season. I mean, he's getting beat by fricking Quentin Johnston.

• 1:47:38Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, this is the case, this is why we haven't gushed about Herbert and we are now at the one hour 43 minute mark.

• 1:47:43Speaker 03

  You mean the MVP of the season, Justin Herbert?

• 1:47:45Bill Simmons?

  And it's like, oh my God, he's going to be amazing. And yet nobody seems to like a single receiver he has.

• 1:47:50Speaker 02

  I'm very high on Quentin Johnston.

• 1:47:51Speaker 03

  I love Lad. I love Lad.

• 1:47:53Bill Simmons?

  I still like Lad. I think he's good.

• 1:47:55Speaker 01

  I like him, but it.

• 1:47:57Bill Simmons?

  The Pats, the Pats could have taken him and instead traded back and took Jalen, Jalen Polk, who's now retired from football.

• 1:48:04Speaker 03

  Quietly, one of the worst trades there's been in a minute was that trade.

• 1:48:07Bill Simmons?

  And like a fireable offense. Do you have one for this, Heifetz?

• 1:48:11Speaker 03

  For, uh,

• 1:48:12Speaker 02

  The veto.

• 1:48:12Speaker 03

  Oh, the veto. Man, I,

• 1:48:15Bill Simmons?

  Is there anybody you just?

• 1:48:16Speaker 01

  Who, who hurt you the most last year?

• 1:48:17Bill Simmons?

  Whack in a hotel room?

• 1:48:19Speaker 03

  The Ringer Fantasy Football League carrying Kyle Pitts' dead body for like 11 weeks. And then I released him for the playoffs and then he scored like 30 points and I just was, I,

• 1:48:29Bill Simmons?

  I mean, honestly, he was my guy three years ago. I'll never have him again. I laugh when other people take him. I thought it was hilarious when they gave him an extension. Um, I'm just completely out. Craig has other ideas. My goddamn it, I fell for the preseason hype guy. Mine is, uh, Lane on the, uh, on the Ravens.

• 1:48:46Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, that's a good call.

• 1:48:47Bill Simmons?

  Kind of bought in. Cause I, for what we discussed earlier, I don't really love Zay Flowers. So it's like, if he's good, he might actually get real stats.

• 1:48:53Speaker 01

  I was watching their preseason game the other day and he caught, and I was just kind of, I had the sound off. There was a play, he caught a pass like behind him and reeled it in, kept running. And I, and I was like, who was that? That was awesome. Oh, of course it's Lane. And I was like, man, I'm kind of buying this. But then you get into the regular season and he has probably like two, one or two catches a game.

• 1:49:13Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:49:13Speaker 01

  I'm like, I just can't live that life. It's going to be too, way too.

• 1:49:17Bill Simmons?

  I was impressed by the clips.

• 1:49:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, he's, he, I think he could be legit, but in that offense.

• 1:49:21Bill Simmons?

  Would you have Danny?

• 1:49:22Speaker 03

  Uh, I, the, I, for me, I think it's Cyrus Allen for the Chiefs. I think that like,

• 1:49:27Bill Simmons?

  That's the other candidate. That was the other guy I wrote down.

• 1:49:29Speaker 03

  Yeah, I'm like Jacoby Lane for the Ravens. I, I think he's like Isaac Tisla, where I think Jacoby Lane for the Ravens is going to have,

• 1:49:35Bill Simmons?

  Oh, yeah, the Tisla.

• 1:49:36Speaker 03

  20 catches this year, eight will make SportsCenter and kind of like how Isaac Tisla has all these highlights. And then you're like, where is other catches? Nope, that was every catch. And then I think Cyrus Allen actually has a shot to play for the Chiefs this season in a meaningful role.

• 1:49:48Bill Simmons?

  See, when I get, there's Chiefs hyperbole about young players they have. I, I now react like Yankee prospects. With the Yankees had like incredible PR for all their prospects, like Dominguez, watch out.

• 1:50:00Speaker 03

  George Lombard's, come on.

• 1:50:01Bill Simmons?

  Well, that's the thing. George Lombard is really good, but I was so desensitized to all the Yankee prospect and all the guys that failed and the Volpes and everybody that, when they actually had a good one, I was like, oh my God, they actually have a good one.

• 1:50:15Speaker 03

  That's Cyrus Allen. He's, he's George Lombard.

• 1:50:17Bill Simmons?

  That's, so he would have to be the George Lombard in this. I don't trust the Chiefs at all. And I think probably no team has more media connective tissue to just pump guys up. And I never know what to believe.

• 1:50:30Bill Simmons?

  All right, two more categories. This is probably my favorite category because it really speaks to the person too. My, I'd never root for an injury.

• 1:50:43Bill Simmons?

  But he is one injury away guy. I have Tyron Tracy.

• 1:50:49Bill Simmons?

  Another guy who could probably win your league in the last eight games when he's just getting 25 carries a game because Ken Scottaboo got hurt again.

• 1:50:57Speaker 02

  Come on. He doesn't need this, this, these bad wishes upon him. He's already.

• 1:51:00Bill Simmons?

  These aren't wishes. These are just, hey, just for the record, you're at a draft, you're just in the back of your head like, eh, that guy, wouldn't take a lot for him to all of a sudden be a guy. Who do you have, Craig?

• 1:51:11Speaker 02

  Jordan Mason, if Aaron Jones gets hurt on the Vikings.

• 1:51:14Bill Simmons?

  Another good one.

• 1:51:14Speaker 02

  I think could be, we saw him on the Niners when McCaffrey was hurt, was fantastic.

• 1:51:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, he was very useful.

• 1:51:19Bill Simmons?

  He's another one when you watch the games. He just seems better than Aaron Jones.

• 1:51:24Speaker 01

  He just goes downhill. He, he just gets positive yards every time.

• 1:51:27Bill Simmons?

  Danny?

• 1:51:28Speaker 01

  I have Blake Corum for the Rams, who it's an awesome offense, a coach who has shown the willingness to just lean on one guy and give him all the volume.

• 1:51:37Speaker 02

  Also passes the eye test.

• 1:51:37Speaker 01

  And he's good. I think there's so many plays last year where I couldn't tell whether it was Kyron or Corum.

• 1:51:42Bill Simmons?

  And Kyron was what? He was like a top 12 points guy last year.

• 1:51:46Speaker 01

  Kyron's, yeah, he's been amazing.

• 1:51:47Bill Simmons?

  Awesome year. And I feel the same way. I've always felt like when Corum was in, I couldn't tell the difference though.

• 1:51:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:51:52Bill Simmons?

  But yeah.

• 1:51:52Speaker 03

  So it's talking about a guy that if the person ahead of him on the depth chart gets hurt, an injury, who could, who could really step up?

• 1:51:59Bill Simmons?

  Basically.

• 1:51:59Speaker 03

  I think it's gotta be Chris Ryan. Because, I mean, the guy ahead of him on the depth chart doesn't wear a seatbelt.

• 1:52:04Speaker 02

  Whoa.

• 1:52:05Speaker 03

  And if you think about it, like, I'm just saying, like, you know, he did great.

• 1:52:10Bill Simmons?

  I'm always one injury away with no seatbelts.

• 1:52:12Speaker 03

  Just saying, like, you tell me who's an injury away or just a little word.

• 1:52:15Bill Simmons?

  Chris Ryan's a great pick for this.

• 1:52:17Speaker 01

  What are the, what are the helmet like thing covers? We gotta get one of those for Greg.

• 1:52:20Speaker 02

  We gotta get you a protect, you know, the Romeo Dobbs helmet.

• 1:52:24Speaker 01

  He just wears it everywhere.

• 1:52:27Speaker 02

  Sitting on the brat.

• 1:52:29Bill Simmons?

  Chris Ryan flew too close to the sun with the LeBron signing. That was when the wheel, the wheels have come off now. That just getting LeBron James randomly for $4 million a year. It's just too many good things. Last category, my, I know this is good value right now, but I simply don't want to root for him guy. It can't be Deshaun Watson because don't be able to take him in a draft. Um, this doesn't mean you personally hate the guy. You just maybe you don't like his style of play. Maybe he's burned you in the past, but who do you have?

• 1:52:57Speaker 03

  Uh, yeah, I guess the Brown, the Brown shouldn't count. For me, it's, I know you love Garrett Wilson, the Jets, but for me, it's Garrett Wilson and the Jets because everything on paper, I, I just, it makes so much sense that Garrett Wilson is so talented and Geno Smith and the Jets could be better. But I'm like, Frank Reich's been out of the NFL for two years. The two years before that, he was in the NFL, got fired mid-season both times. He was terrible at Stanford. Aaron Glenn is a, is a, just a lame duck. Fired his third of his staff three weeks after the season ended. I'm like, I, I've seen this Jets season a thousand times. This is like the third time since I've been at the Ringer that they're like trying to make a last gasp to save the coaching staff. I mean, and I'm, I just don't want the Jets. I don't want the vibes in November.

• 1:53:33Speaker 02

  The Frank Reich thing is crazy that he's calling, it's like, this is, remember when like, it's like Francis Ford Coppola making Megalopolis? You're like, yeah, he, he's making a movie. Somebody hired him? He's doing this? Holy shit.

• 1:53:44Speaker 01

  Wait, is Frank Reich, is Frank Reich like just funding the whole thing himself?

• 1:53:47Speaker 02

  You're like Adam Driver, like Shia LaBeouf, Aubrey Plaza.

• 1:53:51Bill Simmons?

  This is, fantasy's just slumped over right now. You just fucking killed fantasy.

• 1:53:55Speaker 02

  I'm like, Garrett Wilson's good, like Donovan DeVine is good.

• 1:53:57Bill Simmons?

  Frank Reich analogy. Fantasy's dead.

• 1:54:00Speaker 02

  Like, we're doing this? Damn. All right.

• 1:54:02Bill Simmons?

  It is. He was probably the worst head coach this decade, right? Was Urban Meyer this decade?

• 1:54:08Speaker 03

  Oh, 2021, so 2020.

• 1:54:11Bill Simmons?

  Frank Reich was the worst coach of the last three years, I think.

• 1:54:13Speaker 02

  It's one of the, it's like the documentary about Megalopolis is better than Megalopolis. And I get, I feel the same way about the Jets. I'm like, I want to know, I'd rather watch the documentary of Frank Reich.

• 1:54:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:54:22Speaker 02

  Calling plays than watch Frank Reich call plays.

• 1:54:25Bill Simmons?

  It's really tough. Who do you have, DK?

• 1:54:28Speaker 01

  Jackson Dart? I don't know. He just annoys me.

• 1:54:33Speaker 03

  I hate Dart, man.

• 1:54:34Speaker 02

  Uh, I don't hate Dart. Now I'm defending the Giants.

• 1:54:39Speaker 01

  I just, I just like, it's partly a bit because I'm just trying to trigger high fits, but.

• 1:54:43Speaker 02

  My guy, the, I know it's good value. I don't want to root for him. Jalen Hurts, I'm kind of like, Eagles offense, maybe I'm putting too much emphasis on the Patullo last year offense, but like, rooting for, I had Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown last year and man, it was third and 10 and I felt like I had no hope. Like there was just no shot. And then Jalen Hurts, it all feels gimmicky.

• 1:55:04Bill Simmons?

  Mine is Kyler Murray.

• 1:55:07Bill Simmons?

  Can't do it again.

• 1:55:09Speaker 02

  You're a body language doctor. He's the worst body language quarterback in a long time.

• 1:55:12Bill Simmons?

  It's really a bummer. Cause he'll, he also, he, he's a false hope guy. And he does put up points, right?

• 1:55:19Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:55:20Bill Simmons?

  You read any, any fantasy piece this year, it's like, hey, by the way, Kyler Murray, here are his stats and they're pretty good.

• 1:55:25Speaker 02

  Him and Malik Willis are the two like late round quarterback. You're going to take anyone Kyler Murray or Malik Willis?

• 1:55:31Speaker 01

  Fantasy.

• 1:55:31Speaker 03

  Kyler was the number one pick and top 10 in baseball and Kyler did, has made a bad playoff for him. Kyler has been elite in fantasy. Malik Willis is six touchdowns in like three, four years.

• 1:55:41Bill Simmons?

  It, it just.

• 1:55:42Speaker 02

  Aren't you saying they're, they're, they're close? They're similar picks.

• 1:55:44Speaker 03

  They are, but Kyler's going to play all year.

• 1:55:47Bill Simmons?

  But it goes deeper.

• 1:55:49Speaker 02

  There's more there.

• 1:55:51Bill Simmons?

  It's just not fun to have him on the team.

• 1:55:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:55:54Bill Simmons?

  It's too frustrating. He'll rope you in. You'll be like, oh, I actually might've struck oil on this. And then he'll be Kyler Murray in the next game. And I just, the body language is bad.

• 1:56:05Speaker 02

  I think that's the big, I think that is probably the number one biggest question in fantasy this year is like, what, what Kevin O'Connell did with Darnold in Minnesota, can that happen again with Kyler? And if it does, everybody on the Vikings is one of the best picks.

• 1:56:17Bill Simmons?

  He's really getting a lot of credit for the Darnold thing, who by the way, was a top three pick in the NFL draft and was in the shittiest possible circumstances.

• 1:56:25Speaker 02

  Can you make the same argument for Kyler? I think he's saying.

• 1:56:27Bill Simmons?

  No, no, I'm saying like, I think K O C is now being presented as a miracle worker.

• 1:56:32Speaker 03

  He's just tall.

• 1:56:33Bill Simmons?

  Where were the miracles with J.J. McCarthy?

• 1:56:34Speaker 03

  Yeah, he's just, I think.

• 1:56:35Bill Simmons?

  No miracles seen in that one. He was fucking terrible.

• 1:56:39Speaker 03

  I honestly do think Grant Yudinsky, who went to the Jaguars was a lot of what's going on in Minnesota. And I think Kevin, again, Kevin O'Connell is just a tall, very striking man with a great jawline. And I do think they made him a quarterback whisperer. I think the key with the Vikings is you take Kyler Murray and Justin Jefferson, but you got to trade him before GTA six comes out. Cause if Kyler loved Call of Duty, but the GTA six drop off for Kyler is going to be.

• 1:56:56Bill Simmons?

  Pretty big. I think K O C is on my first coach fired watch.

• 1:57:00Speaker 02

  Whoa.

• 1:57:00Speaker 03

  Well, that's no way.

• 1:57:01Bill Simmons?

  Yeah. I said it.

• 1:57:03Speaker 03

  First coach fired.

• 1:57:04Bill Simmons?

  I think first coach fired is really, the Ringer gambling guys were talking about this yesterday. The first coach fired is really hard to figure out this year because we had so much turnover. And you're basically looking at Dan Quinn, Zach Taylor.

• 1:57:15Speaker 02

  Aaron Glenn.

• 1:57:15Bill Simmons?

  Aaron Glenn. Aaron Glenn. But why would you fire Aaron Glenn? I'm like, he's my best asset to get the number one pick.

• 1:57:21Speaker 03

  Kevin O'Connell.

• 1:57:22Speaker 02

  Todd Bowles.

• 1:57:23Bill Simmons?

  Todd Bowles. And then probably a wild card that we're not considering. Somebody like, oh my God. The Vikings started out one and four and they just fired K O C. I can't believe it. And then the media would go nuts because they all love him. But I don't know. He's on my, he's on my radar. I think that division's going to be really hard. People don't seem to know where to place him either. But if I had to pick a fourth place team in the NFC North, I would, I think that's the obvious pick, right?

• 1:57:50Speaker 03

  I, I think they'd be, I mean, for, how much could have gone wrong for Minnesota that didn't go wrong last year? They won nine games. I'm like, I just think they're going to make the playoffs. The defense is good enough that like.

• 1:57:59Bill Simmons?

  Players do they have though? Like for real?

• 1:58:02Speaker 03

  Uh, well, I mean, I think Darasaw is good. I mean, first of all, everyone on the offense is a first round pick. Jefferson's a first round pick. Addison's a first round pick. Hawkinson, he hurt his knee. He's a first round pick. Kyler was first pick in two different leagues. I know he's been hurt, but I'm like.

• 1:58:13Bill Simmons?

  Paid Kyler to leave. He was like a $50 million cap hit and they were like, just go.

• 1:58:20Speaker 03

  The flip side, he's got him from, he's one, he's 1,000th highest paid player in the NFL. He's a million dollar hit.

• 1:58:24Bill Simmons?

  Do you like Minnesota, Danny?

• 1:58:27Speaker 01

  Not like particularly. No.

• 1:58:29Bill Simmons?

  I think missing that McCarthy thing. I think when you miss picks like that, it's devastating.

• 1:58:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:58:33Bill Simmons?

  You know?

• 1:58:34Speaker 02

  I've been leaning away from Minnesota more. Like I'm more worried about taking a guy like Justin Jefferson. I feel like all the other receivers, I'm, they're just like more dependable. I just get nervous about like the Kyler thing and.

• 1:58:43Speaker 01

  Yeah. It's weird to be, it's weird to be in that world now where you see Jefferson, you're like, ah.

• 1:58:48Speaker 02

  Yeah. I'm like, nah.

• 1:58:49Speaker 01

  I don't know.

• 1:58:50Bill Simmons?

  Yeah. It was the, last year was the first year it just felt like he wasn't standing out and it was because of the quarterbacks.

• 1:58:54Speaker 02

  Totally.

• 1:58:55Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:58:55Speaker 03

  Uh, but that's why the receivers can't be normal. God forbid, like Jefferson actually was like the most professional receiver, elite receiver we've seen in that situation probably ever, who handled it really well and handled everything professionally.

• 1:59:07Bill Simmons?

  Larry Fitz would like a word.

• 1:59:08Speaker 03

  Fair enough.

• 1:59:09Bill Simmons?

  Larry Fitz had like four years of just shit.

• 1:59:12Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:59:13Bill Simmons?

  Um, all right. That's it guys. So give us the schedule for the rest of the way here for you guys for the show.

• 1:59:18Speaker 02

  So we're doing shows every Monday, Wednesday, Friday until the season. But yeah, so this Friday, the 28th, we're doing the live Netflix draft at 11 a.m. Pacific with all of us, with Sal and Chang and House and Chris and Mal and Sean and Van, Tate. Um, that'll be really fun. And then the week after that, we'll be doing the take purge right after Labor Day weekend.

• 1:59:39Speaker 01

  We got a live show at the Fonda on Thursday.

• 1:59:41Speaker 02

  We got a live show in Hollywood this Thursday at the Fonda.

• 1:59:43Bill Simmons?

  And you have, uh, you're stepping in for rewatchables on the Monday before football season. Do you want to say the movie or keep it secret?

• 1:59:50Speaker 02

  I always like saying it.

• 1:59:51Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, you are. You're a man of the people.

• 1:59:53Speaker 02

  Yeah. I think it's fun.

• 1:59:54Bill Simmons?

  Say the movie.

• 1:59:55Speaker 02

  The three of us are going to do Talladega Nights, which is, which I can't believe hasn't been done.

• 1:59:59Bill Simmons?

  I know. There's still some really good movies left that have not been done.

• 2:00:03Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:00:03Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, we're 451 in.

• 2:00:05Speaker 02

  Down. Yeah.

• 2:00:05Bill Simmons?

  No. Um, but yeah, so you guys are going to do that. And then, uh, and that's it.

• 2:00:10Speaker 03

  And four days, four episodes a week during the season too. So people stick with us during the season as well.

• 2:00:14Bill Simmons?

  And it's on Netflix as well. When are, when are you going to have your Super Bowl pick?

• 2:00:18Speaker 01

  Ooh, right before the season, I guess.

• 2:00:20Speaker 02

  Yeah, we usually do that the Wednesday.

• 2:00:21Bill Simmons?

  Do you know it in your, in your head?

• 2:00:24Speaker 03

  Repeat. You have to pick a repeat. Come on.

• 2:00:28Speaker 01

  I think I might actually.

• 2:00:29Bill Simmons?

  I love it.

• 2:00:32Speaker 01

  Can't pick the Rams. Come on.

• 2:00:33Speaker 03

  Super Bowl champions are under, people always forget how good Super Bowl champions.

• 2:00:37Bill Simmons?

  Do you know how five days in a row I've milled house, the Rams won't make the playoffs, but on Fanduel plus 350. Rams will miss the playoffs. It's like an easier path than you'd think.

• 2:00:49Speaker 02

  Well, they're also an injury house of cards. I mean.

• 2:00:51Bill Simmons?

  That's why it's an easier path. It's Stafford, it's Puka. It's like.

• 2:00:54Speaker 02

  It's Devante.

• 2:00:55Bill Simmons?

  Things and that team is six and 11.

• 2:00:57Speaker 01

  Garrett's already banged up a little bit.

• 2:00:59Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:00:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:00:59Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:01:01Speaker 01

  I can hope, I can dream, you know?

• 2:01:03Bill Simmons?

  So my schedule is me and Sal live on Netflix on Thursday. We're doing the NFC win total over unders. The second one's going on Sunday. I'm going to be in the draft with you guys. Um, I was on, wait, Conspiracy Bill was on wait a second this week with Jason and Tyler. And, uh, it was also on the flops draft with, uh, fantasy and Chris and Amanda yesterday.

• 2:01:24Bill Simmons?

  C R took, we, we vetoed a C R pick. I think he's still upset.

• 2:01:27Speaker 02

  Ooh, a rare L.

• 2:01:30Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, he's still mad. I don't, I didn't, they're worried he might not come back. So that is all that's happening. Uh, thank you fellas. Pleasure to do this as always. Thanks to, uh, Eduardo and Gahow, Jack Wilson, everybody behind the scenes as well. And, uh, I'll see you on Netflix on Thursday.

• 2:02:03Bill Simmons?

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• 2:02:39Speaker 02

  Go long.

• 2:02:40Speaker 06

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• 2:03:10Speaker 01

  The Mosquito Bowl is the incredible true story of four college football stars who walked away from NFL careers after Pearl Harbor to enlist in the Marines. From Friday Night Lights director Peter Berg and starring Nicholas Galatine, Bill Skarsgård, Ray Nicholson, and Tom Francis, comes a story of brotherhood and sacrifice. Four men who traded the gridiron for the battlefield. The Mosquito Bowl in theaters October 30th.