A Quick NBA Power Poll, Minny’s QB Mess, Josh vs. Pat, and Week 9 Picks With Joe House and Peter Schrager

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons and Joe House talk about their “uh-oh” teams before doing a power poll 10 days into the NBA season (4:01). Then, Peter Schrager joins the pod to help Bill and House make their Ringer 107 picks (41:04). Host: Bill Simmons Guests: Joe House and Peter Schrager Producers: Chia Hao Tat and Eduardo Ocampo 15% off $15+ on NFL Gamedays with CODE: GAMEDAY at https://littlecaesars.onelink.me/vc9i/n15m71zn The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit⁠⁠ www.rg-help.com⁠⁠ to learn more about the resources and helplines available. 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.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:25Speaker 01

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• 1:24Speaker 02

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• 1:30Bill Simmons?

  The Bill Simmons Podcast is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. We are also brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network, where I put up a new rewatchables on Monday that was super fun. We did Halloween 2 because it's Halloween. This is my favorite week of the year. Me, Van Lathan, Chris Ryan, lot of jokes. Halloween 2, once scary, now more of a horror comedy, and we had a lot of laughs, so you go check that out. Next week, Monday, we're gonna have a celebrity guest, and we are also, I'll tell you the movie, we're doing Truman Show, which is, uh, which is just an awesome, awesome, awesome movie. And had a lot of fun talking about it. So you have the whole weekend to watch the Truman Show.

• 2:15Bill Simmons?

  I call it Truman Show, but it is the Truman Show. Anyway, uh, that's all coming up. No prestige TV anymore for me because task is done. I guess just waiting for the next show. It's not gonna be the morning show, I'll tell you that much. Wow. I can't believe the morning show. The morning show, not a horror, not a comedy. I don't know what it is. I don't know what's going on with that show, but I've watched every episode. I do like the Murdoch show on Hulu. I've been, I've been watching that one. That one's pretty solid. Although I do feel like everybody's worried about AI taking over Hollywood. And yet all of these true crime shows start with there's some sort of murder that happened and the person's either covered in blood or you see a body and then it goes backwards three years.

• 2:58Bill Simmons?

  Like, don't complain about AI, but then start every true crime series the exact same way.

• 3:04Bill Simmons?

  I do like that show though, and I like Jason Clark. He's in some other show on Apple that seemed pretty interesting, too. But we are back into everything as a B plus or worse. World Series, still recovering from game three. I know I talked about that on Tuesday and apparently the Dodgers are recovering too, because they lost game four and game five. And now Toronto has it all in their hands. Could this happen to the Dodgers again? Where they, they win the 18 inning game and then it derails them for the rest of a World Series. Riveting, riveting sports weekend ahead. We got football, got the World Series, the NBA is in full swing. I've already run the, ran a gamut of emotions with the Celtics season. We were 0-3. I was convinced we were going to win 18 games. Now we're 2-3.

• 3:48Bill Simmons?

  Josh Minny is stepping up and starting to wonder if we could be a playing team again. Austin Reeves is an MVP favorite. Lot going on. Very fun. We're going to talk basketball at the very top of the podcast with Joe House, because I'm going to talk about the one team I'm concerned about. And then we're going to do a nine day power poll. And then old friend Peter Schreger joined us. We did Ringer 107 picks, but we used Schreigs to just talk about all the teams as we did the picks. Then we settled on our favorite ones. That's all coming up first. A break and our friends from Pearl Jam. This is the Bill Simmons podcast presented by FanDuel. If you're betting on the NFL, come on, FanDuel is the place to do it. They've got everything same game parlays, quick bets for when you want to jump in live

• 4:33Bill Simmons?

  your way. So you can set your own lines on just about anything. The app's fast, it's easy to use and best of all, when you win, you get paid instantly. I've been in Boston, Massachusetts recently. Guess what I did? Use FanDuel. Super fun. Download the FanDuel app or go to FanDuel.com/BS to get started. Must be 21 plus, present in select states, 18 plus in DC, Kentucky and Wyoming. Game problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit RG-help.com. Call 888-79777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut.

• 5:31Bill Simmons?

  All right, Thursday afternoon, Joe House is here. We talked some basketball at the top and then we're going to do football with our old friend, Peter Schrager. We're going to do some picks with them too. House, we're 500 down on our picks. We clawed back to respectability. I'm super excited about that. Super excited about this NBA season. I sent you a power poll, but before we go through it, because we did it last week, gotta get time. Me too. There's an uh-oh team through nine days and I, and we haven't discussed this. I wanted to see if you had the same uh-oh team. There's no question about it. We are in lockstep, Bill Simmons. I'm afraid we both took the over for this team.

• 6:14Bill Simmons?

  I'm pretty sure we did. It's a thousand percent the New Orleans Pelicans. What the fuck is going on with the New Orleans Pelicans? West Coast uh-oh. I had an East Coast uh-oh. Yeah, there's a West Coast uh-oh too. Oh, I can't believe we're not in lockstep. No, New Orleans is an uh-oh too, but I mean, they, you know, they're, they're already having like injury stuff and all kinds of things. They competed in their first two games and then just got completely blown out, rolled. Yeah. Well, the good news is they have their first round pick.

• 6:44Bill Simmons?

  Too soon. Listen, we knew with the West, one of those, that there was going to be one team that was probably going to be worse than we thought, but we just knew they're, just by law, there has to be four bad to mediocre teams. You can't have everybody be good. Their over under, I think was 30 and a half. We went over with that. I wasn't thinking of that team. I was thinking of the Orlando Magic.

• 7:05Speaker 00

  Okay. Well, sure. I mean, every, that's everybody's uh oh. That's the uh oh de jour is the Orlando Magic.

• 7:12Bill Simmons?

  Watching them give up the 136 to Philly. Talked about it with legs a little bit the other day, but uh, then doing the deep dive, reading some stuff and there's already some hmm stuff with the coach. What's going on here? Uh, the, the defense piece with them, where like basically everything goes on Suggs. It's like, oh, you have two scorers? Well, we're out of options. We only have one guy to guard everybody. I guess Jonathan Isaac's just not a guy anymore. I don't, I remember, I finally remember the two years ago when he looked like he was like 1965 Bill Russell.

• 7:47Speaker 00

  He's only, his whole career will come down to like, he was just 15% of a guy. Never got to 20% of a guy even, just 15% of a guy.

• 7:54Bill Simmons?

  But the nerds started turning on Palo this week.

• 7:57Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 7:58Bill Simmons?

  Including our, our own Kirk Goldsberry.

• 8:01Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 8:01Bill Simmons?

  Uh, on Zach's pod, when he was talking about how he was just concerned with some of the advanced stats. And then all week, there's been stuff and there's been stuff.

• 8:11Speaker 00

  Give you permission to call him a nerd?

• 8:13Bill Simmons?

  Well, I mean, he's an OG of the Sloan conference. That gives him nerd status. I'd like to consider myself a nerd.

• 8:19Speaker 00

  Great.

• 8:20Bill Simmons?

  If you go to Sloan conference and hang with the nerds, you're a nerd. Um, but yeah, I think that there's some concerning Palo stuff. There is some weird defense stuff. And then there's that trade where they gave up all their first round picks and went all in, a trade that I fully supported. But have you watched him yet?

• 8:38Speaker 00

  Oh, yes. In fact, I was live tweeting during, not tweeting, I'm sorry, live texting.

• 8:45Bill Simmons?

  Yes.

• 8:45Speaker 00

  During that Sixers game, because it was so eye opening to me on both sides of the ball. On the one hand, I wasn't prepared for the speed that Philadelphia's backcourt plays at and

• 8:57Bill Simmons?

  Holy shit.

• 8:58Speaker 00

  The poise of those two guys, but on the other side of it, you know, I just kept smacking my head. It's like, this can't be just Suggs out on the perimeter. It can't be that. And it can't be the case. And our boy Verno, you put in the thread this morning, validated

• 9:20Bill Simmons?

  We were texting with him about the Memphis and a whole bunch of things and then Orlando.

• 9:26Speaker 00

  Validated that it can't be the case that Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was the glue for that, for that defense. Like he was the, the guy for, for that Orlando defense. I'm, I don't, it doesn't make sense because he wasn't there the year before.

• 9:42Bill Simmons?

  Yeah. Well, it's early. They're trying to incorporate Bain. The bench looks, you know, I mean, yesterday the bench had better stats just because they were getting blown out by Detroit, but Detroit kind of worked them. The shooting is still, is still, uh, you know, like yesterday they were 12 for 31 from three. That's like a great day for Orlando. There's also every year in the NBA, there's a team that's a younger team on the rise that gets a lot of smoke and just gets pushed up to the next level without having done anything yet. And I think that might've happened here. I'm not counting them out just because I think the East is just super duper weird. But we're going to go over the

• 10:24Bill Simmons?

  basketball, the, the, the little power pole I did. And one of the things that jumped out to me was there was like five East teams that are all the same team. When you're watching everybody on the TVs, it's like these guys would all, if they were in a tournament, they would all just go four and four against each other.

• 10:41Bill Simmons?

  Which I just wasn't expecting Orlando to be in that group, right? Like you watch Orlando in Chicago, Orlando in Detroit, or Orlando in Philly, whoever. It just seemed like an even matchup and they were supposed to be like a fringe contender.

• 10:53Speaker 00

  Yeah, because their win total projection was like 51 games. And that had them at the top of the East behind only the Knicks and the Cavs. And we expressed skepticism properly, I think, on the preview show with Mr. Zach Lowe. I think we all, oh no, we didn't all go under. One of us.

• 11:15Bill Simmons?

  I think Zach had a.

• 11:16Speaker 00

  One of us zag.

• 11:18Bill Simmons?

  Zach had a lock over.

• 11:19Speaker 00

  I didn't mean to call that out.

• 11:21Bill Simmons?

  He did. You did. You're throwing shots at Zach. He's not even here to defend himself.

• 11:25Speaker 00

  That was unintentional.

• 11:26Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, Zach went over 50, 50 and a half lock.

• 11:30Speaker 00

  Woof.

• 11:31Bill Simmons?

  I told you, I texted you, I've cashed in one of my locks already. Even nine days into the season, I'm cashing in Brooklyn under 19 and a half. I'm just, that is a win. I'm not using pencil. That's a pen. That is one of the worst teams we've had in the league in some time. I asked Leggera the other day whether, you know, that I think the worst team other than the 16 Sixers, which went maybe 10 and 72, 11 and 71, something like that, was the, this Mavericks team from 92 or 93. I think that Brooklyn team has a real chance. But guess who's having a great time? Michael Porter. He's like, this is awesome. Iso.

• 12:08Bill Simmons?

  Hand up, clear out.

• 12:09Speaker 00

  I think Brooklyn suits him. I think he's gonna be able to pursue his interests.

• 12:13Bill Simmons?

  The best, what was Cam Thomas's game? 40.0 assists? That was my favorite. All right, let's rip through the power pole and then we'll bring in shriggs. So, still have OKC as the favorites. I narrowed it down to three contenders. And I have three possible contenders and I want to talk this out because I'm happy moving any of the possible contenders up if you want to conciliate it. But I have Denver and the Knicks and Cleveland as the three contenders. Look, whatever, Cleveland lost to the Celtics last night, but Cleveland doesn't have their team yet. I'm not concerned at all.

• 12:47Speaker 00

  No.

• 12:47Bill Simmons?

  I'm a little concerned about my 56 and a half over. The lock, if these guys are just not coming back anytime soon. But are you cool, those three with contenders, obviously, but then the possible contenders, Houston.

• 13:02Bill Simmons?

  Golden State.

• 13:05Bill Simmons?

  And I put San Antonio.

• 13:08Speaker 00

  So we have to have San Antonio here until further notice. And I don't, I don't have any objection, right? Like if we keep getting these games out of Wemby, the impact on the rest of that team, they are very complimentary. They are deep and you know, it is of course, like we're going to uh hyperbolize because we're only four or five games in to the season. Like remember the Washington Wizards with Spencer Dinwiddie and Montrezl Harrell, five years ago started off the season eight and two, and you were congratulating me on that, that, that team. The first 10 games, things will happen.

• 13:50Speaker 00

  We'll see some, they could be directional, they may not be directional. But this San Antonio team at this point in time with what they're revealing to us about the possibilities, about the potential, they belong right where you have.

• 14:04Bill Simmons?

  I've been betting on them every game. I've been betting Milwaukee and, and San Antonio every game. So San Antonio, they have an MVP candidate. They're second in defensive rating right now, which isn't nothing. They don't have Fox or Sohan yet.

• 14:19Bill Simmons?

  So when you think about that, where it's like their only problem is going to be how do they work those guys back and still have minutes for everybody when everybody's playing well? And even guys like Kelton Johnson are playing well. So I think it's a clear contender, same for Houston, because Houston still has that ass kick gear. And you saw it, who'd they play last night? Toronto, they just like, they put up 139 points on Toronto. But Golden State is the one that I really vacillate on whether they're an actual contender or a possible contender. And here's why I made them possible contender.

• 14:56Bill Simmons?

  I think there's a real chance Adam Silver hates Golden State because I can't think of another explanation when I look at the schedule. This schedule they have, starting tonight, they're playing at Milwaukee, Saturday at Indiana, home, Phoenix on Tuesday, at Sacramento, at Denver on a Wednesday, Friday, home Indiana, at OKC on a Tuesday, at San Antonio Wednesday, at San Antonio Friday, at New Orleans Sunday. These are all games that 17 days, they have 10 games and they're, and they're basically all in different locations. That's a fuck you from, from who, from the NBA schedulers.

• 15:37Speaker 00

  One of the oldest teams in the league.

• 15:38Bill Simmons?

  So that, yes, and that's why let's, I want to see where they are in 1116 for that New Orleans game. Who's already hurt? Who's been sitting? How fresh are we looking? How, how impactful is Kaminga? What else am I leaving out?

• 15:52Speaker 00

  No, that's it. Like, can we continue to get the continued high performance of Moody and Pods? Like this version of Moody and Pods was supposed to be the thing that was propelling them last year that was going to give them. And Kaminga, it's, he's a revelation. Is he going to be satisfied? He's satisfied right now. It's a high level.

• 16:13Bill Simmons?

  You laughed when I threw the Shawn Marion, the Shawn Marion concept. Concept.

• 16:20Speaker 00

  Still sounds ridiculous. Respectfully, respectfully, still sounds ridiculous.

• 16:26Bill Simmons?

  Guarding the best guys on the other team.

• 16:28Speaker 00

  That's a good idea. He's a, he's their, their best.

• 16:31Bill Simmons?

  Run the floor, guard the other team's best guy. That's the Shawn Marion blueprint.

• 16:34Speaker 00

  Okay, that's fine. Now, we have to wait. You're right, though. It's, it's been good. It's a good version of Golden State. I'm happy to have it.

• 16:44Bill Simmons?

  So they can come out of this.

• 16:46Speaker 00

  More chances of, of high effective Steph. I'm in favor of that.

• 16:50Bill Simmons?

  So that, I mean.

• 16:54Bill Simmons?

  At just those 10 games, 10 different locations, but they're also at Milwaukee, at Denver, at OKC, and then back to back at San Antonio. Like, those are five of the hardest road games you're gonna have all season. So we'll see. That's why, that's the only reason I have them in there. But I like what I'm seeing, like the chemistry. The Al Horford thing still hurts my feelings. Next category, the sleeper, which I had at San Antonio, but I think they graduated from sleeperdom. So we put Milwaukee in there. And it's just Giannis and shooting. It's what we liked before the year. This is one of our locks. I think this was the only one, other than Sacramento's under, that the three of us agreed on as an over. It was 42 and a half. Giannis has just been best

• 17:36Bill Simmons?

  player on the court every game he's played so far. The shooting is there. They have these sneaky dudes, man. I've liked Ryan Rollins. I liked him before the season. I like him more now. Did you have him?

• 17:51Speaker 00

  Feels like it.

• 17:53Bill Simmons?

  Think you did. I think you had Ryan Rollins.

• 17:55Speaker 00

  Pretty sure we did.

• 17:56Bill Simmons?

  He passed through the DC vortex. Yeah.

• 17:58Speaker 00

  These guys, yep.

• 18:00Bill Simmons?

  Cole Anthony, Green.

• 18:02Speaker 00

  Cole Anthony.

• 18:04Bill Simmons?

  Kuzma was actually playing defense the other night on Towns.

• 18:07Speaker 00

  He doesn't have a choice. He wants minutes.

• 18:09Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 18:10Speaker 00

  Like, it took him a whole, like, post-trade. He's like, what the, what is this? This is, these teams, these guys are, this Milwaukee team, it took them that long to acclimate, right? If we're being, we want to be Kuzma truthers. I don't know.

• 18:25Bill Simmons?

  If you're being super friendly to Kuzma, you could say, it took them a long time to acclimate.

• 18:29Speaker 00

  Took a long time to acclimate.

• 18:32Bill Simmons?

  I continue to take this team seriously. I think, I had them as a five seed. I thought they could climb as high as three if they got a healthy Giannis season and some other, like, they've had some guys out already, but. I just like the team. I like how it's constructed and it makes sense to me when I watch it. So I have them eighth. Next group, there's four teams. Title is, let's see in March, Minnesota, Dallas, Clippers, Lakers. And I saw Minnesota in person on Friday, moving the Lakers up. And I'll explain why in a second. Move Minnesota down from the contenders just because of the defense. Now Edwards hasn't, he's missed the last two, but Minnesota's 25th in defensive rating right now?

• 19:16Speaker 00

  It's just impossible to take Anthony Edwards off the floor and get any kind of a read. I mean, they, they use all of their energy.

• 19:23Bill Simmons?

  Ever?

• 19:25Speaker 00

  But like who, you know, they, they played Mike Conley significant minutes and he's still a good contributor, but he like they still, he knows how to play. He's got a good basketball IQ. They don't trust Dillingham. They won't play him. They can't get anything out of Terrence Shannon. Like they, this was the concern for the downside case when we were sitting and going through them at 49 and a half wins.

• 19:50Bill Simmons?

  Toughest one.

• 19:51Speaker 00

  Yeah, like the, the bench needs to get a little bit better. Um, even Chenzo's been fine. He's played, he's played better.

• 19:59Bill Simmons?

  I think it's that guard spot.

• 20:01Speaker 00

  Well, they don't have.

• 20:01Bill Simmons?

  They can't figure out the guard spot. It was supposed to be Dillingham at this point, playing, giving them 20 minutes.

• 20:06Speaker 00

  Yeah. And also Anthony Edwards isn't playing. But it's fine to like just say, okay, we're gonna, let's let Anthony Edwards come back. They, they came all the way back against the Lakers team that was missing seven guys the, the other night. I mean, they should have won.

• 20:23Bill Simmons?

  I went to the game Friday, which I talked about the other day. And it looked like Minnesota was going to win by 30. And then all of a sudden their defense went sideways. Marcus Smart started diving for balls. Luca and Reeves just started doing things. And all of a sudden Minnesota was down 15. And it was one of those where you're watching the game going, wait, how are they down? What happened here? Why are they this far behind? I've been here the whole time and it's some, it seemed like they're in the game. But the defense.

• 20:56Bill Simmons?

  I don't know. It's a red flag. We'll see. That's why I said we'll see in March. Dallas, same thing with their weird team. Davis is already now, uh, now, what is it? We hit some weird tendonitis. Who knows? They could be way further down next time we do this.

• 21:11Speaker 00

  Clippers, I don't know.

• 21:11Speaker 00

  We might lose some money on Dallas. We might lose some money on them.

• 21:16Bill Simmons?

  Or there could be the UNAINT here committee. We would have to be show up in Dallas.

• 21:21Bill Simmons?

  Clippers.

• 21:26Speaker 00

  Let me ask you a question.

• 21:27Bill Simmons?

  Am I concerned? Yes.

• 21:29Speaker 00

  Do you think that any of this indictment stuff? Because it is apparent, it's revealing itself that Ty Lou is a pretty central figure in quite a bit of this. That Damon Jones, Chauncey Billups and Ty Lou.

• 21:46Bill Simmons?

  Just say, cause he was friends with them. Yeah.

• 21:47Speaker 00

  Well.

• 21:48Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, I don't know.

• 21:48Speaker 00

  He was in some places at some times.

• 21:51Bill Simmons?

  Well, he, he was involved in two different things because that happened and then the, the whole aspiration thing. So two different things that just are pulling your attention away from trying to win basketball games.

• 22:03Speaker 00

  It shouldn't matter for the Clippers because that is one of the deepest, smartest teams in, in the league. I haven't.

• 22:11Bill Simmons?

  When you have shit like that, it's never good. There's no upside to be like, oh, we have this really weird, ongoing story. That's just happening outside the basketball court, much less if you have two of them. There's just no, there's no positive out of that. It's just stuff that's pulling your attention away from what's important. So I moved the Lakers up and the only reason I moved them up is because Reeves is playing so well. And like I saw it in person on Friday, he kind of took over the game for a couple of stretches. And this was a game where Luca had 48.

• 22:44Bill Simmons?

  And then now that Luca went out, he's been a one man show. That shot that he won the game with.

• 22:50Speaker 00

  Awesome.

• 22:50Bill Simmons?

  Was just, they knew he was getting the ball. That was like a fucking A plus Lister kind of shot. So I don't know what to make of this team now because I don't really like their four through 12 at all. I'm not sure they're going to be able to play defense. But with Luca and with Reeves, and then you're just going to move LeBron back into this and say, hey, LeBron, just do LeBron stuff and set guys up and get, get some stats like it's not nothing. I don't know what to make of it. What do you make of it?

• 23:20Speaker 00

  Well, you'll get in trouble if you ask this, so I can ask it. I mean,

• 23:24Bill Simmons?

  Oh, say it.

• 23:28Bill Simmons?

  You sending the buyout contract?

• 23:30Speaker 00

  They're already out there. I mean, there, there, you already see the trades like, you know, the trade, the trade, we didn't, we didn't have to wait for the maestro. We have to wait for you to be coming up with LeBron trades. The internet is speaking. The internet has spoken.

• 23:45Bill Simmons?

  What is the internet saying? I'm not hearing the voices.

• 23:48Speaker 00

  There's already a trade of

• 23:50Bill Simmons?

  What was your favorite one?

• 23:51Speaker 00

  LeBron and Bronny back to Cleveland.

• 23:54Bill Simmons?

  Cleveland can't trade for LeBron. I went over this some month ago. They're not allowed to make trades.

• 23:59Speaker 00

  I don't know. Just, it doesn't have to be right away. Deandre Hunter was involved. I can't remember. There was picks involved. There was a couple of other things. So, well, that's interesting.

• 24:10Bill Simmons?

  I can't, I can't figure out a trade destination. I tried. I'll do it again. I'll do that tonight, late at night when I can't sleep. I'll, I'll give it another test ride. Um, I actually sent you a task.

• 24:24Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 24:25Bill Simmons?

  If you spent six hours, could you come up with a conceivable Paul George trade? Forget about Embiid. He's off the table. Is there a single Paul George trade? Cause I have Sixers fans in my life. Well, and once we trade Paul George, it's like, where? He's got three years left on his deal. Where are you trading him?

• 24:45Speaker 00

  The, the teams that make sense are veteran teams that could use a veteran guy that will be able to assimilate him and take where they are in terms of the playoff profile and elevate themselves. That's the logic. That's the thesis. That's why it seems to me like Golden State, like a Miami, those are the teams where Paul George

• 25:05Bill Simmons?

  Miami was the only one I gave that one to. Rozier and Rozier's expiring. Wiggins, two years left for Paul George, who says no faster.

• 25:13Speaker 00

  I, I did that. I did that on my own as well. I agree with you. Um, that Rozier. Trade that that contract is a wonderful asset magically out of nowhere.

• 25:24Bill Simmons?

  Okay, you have to pay it.

• 25:25Speaker 00

  Miami gets this incredible.

• 25:27Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 25:28Speaker 00

  Asset.

• 25:30Speaker 00

  It, I think Paul George could make sense i- in Miami. I mean, why is Miami saying no? Because of the third year of that contract?

• 25:39Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, cuz you're thinking, especially if you have Bam and you're paying Hero, could you be in play for the honest types two years from now? Do you want to tie up your cap? And is, is Paul George demonstrably better than Andrew Wiggins? Like is, is he gonna be that much of an upside that it's worth tying up your cap for a third year?

• 26:00Speaker 00

  Fair question. It's a fair question. It's why we didn't.

• 26:02Bill Simmons?

  Philly doesn't have picks.

• 26:03Speaker 00

  We didn't have the answer. We didn't, we didn't reach a conclusion.

• 26:07Bill Simmons?

  Here's what Philly has to do. Philly has to bring back Paul George and hope he plays well for like a month. And then he goes right on the dark web eBay, just like, yo, Paul George, any interest?

• 26:18Speaker 00

  I, I, I would say out loud, I don't even know that they need to, for him to play well for a month. Like, is that, that's just to validate that he has working four, four limbs that work, 10 digits on his fingers that work.

• 26:31Bill Simmons?

  Would you take him on the Wizards?

• 26:33Speaker 00

  No.

• 26:34Bill Simmons?

  If they gave you a pick or any sort of asset to enjoy?

• 26:38Speaker 00

  The pick now.

• 26:40Bill Simmons?

  An appetizer?

• 26:41Speaker 00

  It seems like they're gonna be like a low 40 win team. So that was, was that pick you? They're not like, they don't strike me as a lottery team right now.

• 26:49Bill Simmons?

  Well, we're proving our point. They're not gonna be able to trade Paul George.

• 26:52Speaker 00

  Probably not.

• 26:54Bill Simmons?

  Have you seen the ad for Arby's steak tips?

• 26:57Speaker 00

  It's so funny.

• 26:57Bill Simmons?

  During football season?

• 26:59Speaker 00

  I am literally having this conversation in a couple of text threads right now. Shout out to my homeboy.

• 27:04Bill Simmons?

  Why am I in a text threads?

• 27:05Speaker 00

  For, well, I mean, you know.

• 27:07Bill Simmons?

  How are you in an Arby's thread that I'm not in? That's our place.

• 27:09Speaker 00

  I didn't start it. It came to me as you would expect.

• 27:12Bill Simmons?

  You being in a Papagino's thread and me not being involved.

• 27:14Speaker 00

  No, as you would expect, I am a magnet for, for Arby's threads. It, the, the thread found me. I, I didn't go hunting for the thread.

• 27:22Bill Simmons?

  I understand.

• 27:23Speaker 00

  But there was a review in the Washington Post from my homie, Tim Carmen. I haven't had a chance to read the review. Somebody pointed, put it in front of me.

• 27:31Bill Simmons?

  Um, did he review the Arby's steak tips?

• 27:34Speaker 00

  He, he, he ate them and reviewed them and I'm not going to spoil it for anybody. But here's the thing, they're called nuggets, they're not tips. So this is part of the thing. I've had a really hard time with this because my affinity for Arby's is so well established, so well known. I thought the branding of this was a tiny bit off because they call them nuggets. Now nuggets, that's a word that we have an association with steak nuggets. That, are they breaded? What does that mean? If you called them tips or you called them, you tried to do something like the burnt ends that the Kansas City has made famous. They look like burnt ends. And if what you're doing is conveying to people like here is protein in a cup.

• 28:18Speaker 00

  Here is some, here's some, some animal based protein in a fast food vehicle. But it tastes like barbecue.

• 28:29Bill Simmons?

  It's the worst porn search in 2025.

• 28:32Speaker 00

  That's, well, this is my problem though. The cup isn't appetizing. Like, and it doesn't convey a barbecue vibe. Like you don't eat barbecue.

• 28:41Bill Simmons?

  Chick-fil-A nuggets, you get the box, you're like, oh, you got Chick-fil-A nuggets. Now I want one.

• 28:45Speaker 00

  That little sort of envelope shaped kind of thing where it might look like, yeah, they're all sort of nestled together. Cause we were chopping off the ends and we put them all together and we slapped it on this thing. And we put a tiny bit of slaw at the end, a little vinegar slaw at the end of it. Okay. All right. Now my mind's working. What they're showing on the commercial and the way they're, they're, they're delivering it in this cup and the calling it nuggets? Just had, I had a hard time getting my head around it. I have to tell you.

• 29:10Bill Simmons?

  It's a great point. Like if you had veal nuggets or I'm trying to think, any meat, branzino nuggets, whatever it is. My head immediately goes with nugget to, you took a fish, a chicken steak, whatever it is. You put it, you air fried it, you grilled it, whatever you did. And it's going to have an outside with like a breadcrumb type thing.

• 29:34Speaker 00

  Right.

• 29:34Bill Simmons?

  And that's how I'm going to eat it. And it's going to be soft inside.

• 29:37Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 29:37Bill Simmons?

  I'm getting hungry talking about it.

• 29:39Speaker 00

  Well, I want to try these things now and I have put, set aside a bookmarked Tim Carmen's review of, of, of the, of the steak nuggets. Uh, and I'm, I'm eager to get his, cause he, when he likes stuff, I tend to like it too. So I'm, I'm eager to get this.

• 29:54Bill Simmons?

  Wow. He's, he's like your. Your, uh, your palate.

• 29:58Speaker 00

  My muse, my palate muse. Yes.

• 30:01Bill Simmons?

  Interesting.

• 30:02Speaker 00

  Here in the D M B, here in the D C.

• 30:04Bill Simmons?

  I'm glad we took that detour. Maybe we should do a food detour and everyone. And so I was watching football with some people on Sunday and that commercial came up and I just started laughing and I was like, I just think a house when I see Arby's steak, steak nuggets on a giant TV.

• 30:19Speaker 00

  Let me, did anybody say, oh my God, that looks appetizing. Oh my God, we have to rush out and try these.

• 30:25Bill Simmons?

  No, it's more confusion.

• 30:27Speaker 00

  It's more confusion. That's what I'm getting at. But there's a way to solve this. I mean, I'm gonna eat them. I probably, maybe I'll do an Instagram on it. I'll, I'll get some this weekend.

• 30:36Bill Simmons?

  Watching football. Next Thursday, you should, we should just eat them.

• 30:39Speaker 00

  That's great.

• 30:40Bill Simmons?

  This is not sponsored content, by the way. We're gonna zero for Arby's.

• 30:43Speaker 00

  Better than Instagram. You can do it right here on the Bill Simmons Podcast.

• 30:47Bill Simmons?

  The funniest was, uh, anytime we've driven to Vegas, that one Vegas stop at like the two hour mark and they've got like the 20 different fast food places. And you just like, you see the Arby's and it's like, doo.

• 31:01Speaker 00

  Cause you, you train me like a dog.

• 31:04Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 31:04Speaker 00

  Train me. You train me to understand. I know where it is. I know when it's coming. My, my body starts responding to it.

• 31:12Bill Simmons?

  Next category. So let's say in March was Minnesota, Dallas, Clippers, Lakers. We're about to do a little drop off here. And this next category is called, sorry, I can't tell you guys apart. Detroit, Philly, Atlanta, Miami, Chicago. I just think if any of these two teams played each other in the play in tournament,

• 31:31Bill Simmons?

  any result is possible, or in like the Emirates NBA Cup, whatever you want. The interesting thing to me is that Miami and Chicago played themselves up into this, into this group, right? Miami, I think is, is better than I thought they were gonna be. And, uh, Chicago just seems really comfortable and a big part of it is bizelous, obviously, but they've also been playing the same kind of style now for a couple of years. They're well coached. And I think those five teams are like right near each other.

• 32:00Speaker 00

  Which one of those five do you think is the best? Cause I have an answer to this.

• 32:08Bill Simmons?

  I think Detroit's probably the safest bet for best.

• 32:11Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 32:12Bill Simmons?

  I think Philly has the highest upside because what's happened with Maxey.

• 32:15Speaker 00

  I must be square because obviously I thought Detroit was the right answer. I can't, I mean.

• 32:20Bill Simmons?

  But the Maxey piece, I was talking with Chris Ryan because I saw him after the comeback win against your Wizards.

• 32:28Bill Simmons?

  The Maxey thing is like, if this is just who he is now. This is like, we're now in Jalen Brunson, Donovan Mitchell, like area territory, you know, which, which just changes their ceiling.

• 32:42Speaker 00

  Absolutely, positively cannot rule out that this is just where he is.

• 32:45Bill Simmons?

  This might just, he might just be a 28 points a game scorer now.

• 32:48Speaker 00

  He's effing dominant.

• 32:50Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 32:50Speaker 00

  He is unstoppable. He's got.

• 32:52Bill Simmons?

  He seems like the fastest guy in the league now, other than when Ja decides to dial it up. You know what I mean?

• 32:57Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 32:57Bill Simmons?

  Like from just coast to coast, like he's just like a blur.

• 33:00Speaker 00

  Got a ton of that SGA movement also.

• 33:04Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 33:04Speaker 00

  His body.

• 33:05Bill Simmons?

  Awesome.

• 33:06Speaker 00

  The way he can move inside the lane.

• 33:10Bill Simmons?

  Atlanta is the one that I think could fall down from this group if they don't. Trey, Trey's already banged up. They haven't, the defense just hasn't been there, even though I like some of their defensive guys. But I, they have too many players I like. So I, there, we'll see. The next one is the, I smell smoke. That's Orlando. We covered them. I really, one of the subplots I didn't want to happen this year is for Palo to become the Trevor Lawrence of the NBA. So let's hope that doesn't happen.

• 33:39Speaker 00

  That's very disrespectful to Palo. That's very disrespectful.

• 33:42Bill Simmons?

  Water Tretters is our next one. Boston and Memphis.

• 33:47Bill Simmons?

  Boston stumbled into something really interesting with this Josh Minny, who didn't really play the first two games. And I think if he had played opening night, the way they're using him now, I think they actually would have won. Uh, because there was this moment where they could have brought him in in crunch time when Kada fouled out and they didn't, but uh. I just, I just think he has it like he's a, he's a real rotation guy and he gives rebounding and defense and a little size and, and I don't, when I say this, don't, just be careful.

• 34:15Speaker 00

  You be careful.

• 34:17Bill Simmons?

  He's doing a reasonable Tatum imitation.

• 34:19Speaker 00

  Okay, okay.

• 34:21Bill Simmons?

  Of the rebounding defense piece.

• 34:24Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 34:24Bill Simmons?

  Not the scoring, but.

• 34:26Speaker 00

  Fine.

• 34:27Bill Simmons?

  The ability to actually like protect you a little on the boards and guard people. He did a really good job on Evan Mobley last night. I was like genuinely excited. And then Memphis, uh, we were texting this morning, this Cedric Coward is a revelation.

• 34:40Speaker 00

  There was some, a good sentiment out there coming in that he was going to be a hidden gem.

• 34:44Bill Simmons?

  I think our own. He's unhidden. He's.

• 34:47Speaker 00

  Wasn't our own Tate Frazier on record with that?

• 34:50Bill Simmons?

  No, he's just a gem. I don't even think it's hidden. All you have to do is watch a Grizzlies game. It's like, who's that guy guarding everyone on the other team and making open threes? Uh, so I'll admit defeat on the Bain trade. I'll do it right now. They trade Bain for all those picks. It's like, why are you guys doing this? And their attitude was, we feel like we can replace Bain. Well, they've already replaced him because Coward's going to get all those Bain minutes and he's a better defender than Bain was, not as good of a shooter yet, but, uh, so great trade for them. I, I love watching Coward. This draft is a 10 out of 10 so far.

• 35:22Speaker 00

  They still, Memphis, I need to see the defense every night. I just don't, I mean, they, they have.

• 35:28Bill Simmons?

  They're going to be, they're going to have been 35 games.

• 35:31Speaker 00

  They've had some absolute stinkers on defense already.

• 35:35Bill Simmons?

  Water treaders only because if they can, as Verno always points out, when John Triple J actually play, they're pretty good.

• 35:42Speaker 00

  They need to get their front court back. They're, they're still dramatically undersized.

• 35:48Bill Simmons?

  Can they tread water until those guys come back? Next category is wait, where's our coach? That's Portland. Portland's just legitimately frisky. Uh, professional basketball team. Drew has been really involved. It's been good to see him doing, doing, uh, old school Drew stuff every night. And even though no, you know, the, the scoop piece, they've been able to kind of patch it together. He's like running offense for them. I, I was really interested in that game they played last night, actually with, uh, with him and just like, uh, I don't know. Portland's not bad. And if they were in the East, they'd be maybe in that conversation with some of those other East teams we mentioned.

• 36:25Speaker 00

  No, they're talented. It does remain to be seen. I think they've won every game since the indictment was returned. Did they lose one in there?

• 36:37Bill Simmons?

  I think, well, they are three and two. They've won two in a row.

• 36:43Bill Simmons?

  Interesting team. I like Klingon, too. When you think about that draft, like I think Klingon went after Dillingham.

• 36:51Bill Simmons?

  I think if we redo that draft, he goes, next category, thank God for the World Series. That's Toronto. So we taped the last time they were 1-0 and they killed Atlanta and we were like, oh my God, maybe we were wrong about Toronto. Well, they haven't won since.

• 37:04Speaker 00

  Well, no, I mean, I'm gonna lose a bet. I gave them out as a lock at like over 38 and a half or 39 and a half. I can't remember what it was. I thought for sure they were gonna be in the low 40s. This team makes, still makes no sense. It's amazing. All these years, we've been going on

• 37:21Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 37:21Speaker 00

  preview shows, talking during the course of the season, make it make sense. And still, now, look, last night, they were missing Pirtle and, you know, Houston is huge. So Sangoon, Sangoon got, came within one assist.

• 37:38Bill Simmons?

  Bad match.

• 37:39Speaker 00

  Two rebounds of a double double last night. And I only know that because I lost a parlay. I had Houston and Sangoon getting a double double without Pirtle. That was a good bet. That was a good bet. Plus 135. That was a goddamn good bet. But I lost because Sangoon couldn't get one more assist or two more rebounds.

• 38:00Bill Simmons?

  It's not his fault. You did great, Sangoon. Don't listen to House.

• 38:03Speaker 00

  Maybe I should stop calling him Sangoon.

• 38:07Bill Simmons?

  Where do you think Toronto is in defensive rating? After nine days?

• 38:10Speaker 00

  Near the very bottom. I can tell you with certainty.

• 38:14Bill Simmons?

  They're 29th.

• 38:16Speaker 00

  I watched. They are way down there.

• 38:19Bill Simmons?

  You know the other issue with them? It's a team that makes sense for 41, 42 minutes. But if we're in a sword fight at the end of the game and it's like, all right, that team has Tyrese Maxey. We're gonna run a pick and roll quickly. Or we're gonna try to do the thing where everyone stands around and watch Brandon Ingram. They have all these options that are okay, but every, all these other teams they're playing have like, oh, that they have Yanis.

• 38:46Speaker 00

  And the flip side to just that same point is last four minute defense.

• 38:51Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 38:51Speaker 00

  Hit the stop. It's fine to say we're a team that's going to like get out in transition. We're gonna force turnovers. Okay, that's fine for 40, you know, two, 43 minutes. Now it's the last five minutes of the game. Nobody's running. You're in the half court. Stop somebody.

• 39:06Bill Simmons?

  I'm not ruling them out, but it doesn't look good early. Next category, League Pass All-Stars Charlotte. Fourth in scoring, just doing their job. They, the only criticism I have with Charlotte, Brandon Miller's already hurt, but uh, my only criticism is don't get blown out. Let me enjoy you for more than an hour before you're down 25. Like, I want to see you guys go up and down.

• 39:24Speaker 00

  We had a fun thing, like who's gonna play center? It's Cal Brenner.

• 39:28Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, he's fine.

• 39:29Speaker 00

  He's fine. That's the answer.

• 39:31Bill Simmons?

  Oh, and news flash, uh, Con Knippel's good right away.

• 39:34Speaker 00

  Yeah, immediately.

• 39:36Bill Simmons?

  Only told people that since June. Um, next category, shopping for tanks, Indiana. I, like they've, this is the year from hell already. Um, and then last, last ones. Why are we here? Phoenix, Sacramento, Utah, Washington. Let's just tank. Oh, wait, we can't. New Orleans and then dumping for Darren, the horrendous Brooklyn Nets. So we can talk about with Peter Schreger in one second. He's in the waiting room.

• 40:01Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 40:01Bill Simmons?

  Fresh off arguing Dan Orlovsky on NFL Live. We're gonna take a break. Peter Schreger, Joe House next. The Bill Simmons Podcast is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. FanDuel turning up the heat every Sunday with Power Hour. Every Sunday from 3 to 5 p.m. Eastern. FanDuel is giving you a profit boost to use on live bets. They're in the most intense stretch of the NFL slate. This is when games flip, underdogs rally, parlays hit.

• 40:28Bill Simmons?

  That's pretty fun. I think there's going to be a couple of down to the wire games this weekend. We picked, we jumped on a bunch of them in Ringer 107. I feel like even though we took the Bears in Ringer 107, Bears Bengals feels like that's going to be right down to the wire. Anyway, it's called Power Hour for a reason and it happens every Sunday only on FanDuel. Head to FanDuel.com/BS to get started. You must be 21 plus, present in select states or 18 plus and present in DC, Kentucky, Wyoming. Opting for a bonus issued as non-draible profit boost tokens. Restrictions apply, including any token expiration, max wager amount. See terms at sportsbook.Fanduel.com. Game problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in

• 41:13Bill Simmons?

  Connecticut. This episode is brought to you by Little Caesar's, the official pizza sponsor of the NFL. I love pizza. At Little Caesar's, the pizzas are always large, so you'll always get more bite for less buck on game day. I'm a simple pizza order for football, especially when I have friends over. You gotta get a cheese, you gotta get a pepperoni, and then maybe you get a one wacky one with like, I don't know, mushroom, peppers, maybe pepperoni or sausage, but I don't get too wacky. Every time, I've, this is one of my passions in life. Don't be the person that orders the crazy pizza that then everybody leaves and there's five slices left. Order pizza that people want to eat. Go with the basics. Go

• 41:55Bill Simmons?

  with the safe ones. Right now, you can get 15% off orders of $15 on NFL game days with code GAMEDAY. Order now at littlecaesars.com or in the Little Caesar's app. Offer ends February 8, 2026. Offer good at participating Little Caesar's stores and app and online orders excluding third-party online sites with non-line purchase $15 or more. Only available on NFL game days. Enter promo code at checkout to get 15% off your online order. Max discount $5. Limit one per person per day. Cannot be combined with any other offers plus tax where applicable. Prices may vary. Delivery available from participating locations with online orders only. Copyright 2025 LCE Incorporated. All right, our friend Peter Schrager is here. He's going to do Ringer 107.

• 42:37Bill Simmons?

  With us and talk football and you know, basketball starts shriggs gets he gets a little antsy that he hasn't gotten an invite when we get in October. It's like, wait, I'm right here. Then it's like, you know, then I make the joke about, well, you're McAfee's guy now. Then he gets it and then he doesn't know if I'm serious or not. We had this whole dance we do. And then it always ends in the right place with you here on the BS podcast. It's good to see you.

• 42:59Speaker 04

  You never want to be in the Bill Simmons blacklist or, you know, on the cold seat. And I'd just like to throw a couple of sprinkles in here because eight weeks have gone by and not a single invite. We text all the time, but no invite. And then you said Joe House was on and I got very excited. Let's go.

• 43:17Bill Simmons?

  You've been on during the season, right?

• 43:19Speaker 04

  I think I did preseason where I told you that the Dolphins were going to win the Super Bowl and the Lions were going to be terrible. So I think we have time to redeem ourselves here.

• 43:27Bill Simmons?

  Jesus. My, my apologies for not having you on another time during the season, but I'm glad you're here. Plus you get to be here with House.

• 43:34Speaker 04

  Love it.

• 43:36Bill Simmons?

  House has a hard out hour at eight minutes from now. So we're going to zoom through Ringer 107 possibilities in a second, but um, what, what's been the dominant doing these shows on ESPN? What's been the number one go to story in October?

• 43:52Speaker 04

  Cowboys defense, baby. Let's break it down.

• 43:54Bill Simmons?

  That's what it is.

• 43:55Speaker 04

  Break it down. What is going wrong? What is Matt Eberflus doing wrong? Should they have traded Parsons? Now that they have made this bad trade, what do they do? Should they go get Hendrickson? Lot of Cowboys defense talk. And just this week, we, we shifted a little bit. Lot of Drake May, Bill.

• 44:13Bill Simmons?

  Oh my God. God damn it.

• 44:15Speaker 04

  We've, it was as if we, you know, these, they beat the Bills on that Sunday night and then Monday morning we did a lot of Drake May. Then it went away for a little bit, but then this week it's been a lot of Drake May over at the worldwide leader and I'm, I'm loaded to. Like I'm ready to go. I got so many notes. I'm like, good. My wheelhouse. I only could say so many things about, you know, over shown return for the Dallas Cowboys defense.

• 44:37Bill Simmons?

  Well, House had last year's, uh, last year's darling for the show is Jaden Daniels. Just segment after segment about how special he was. And now Drake May just said, hey, Jaden, have a seat over there. I'll be taking all of these segments now for the time being. Tough matchup this week though with Atlanta.

• 44:54Speaker 04

  Oh.

• 44:55Bill Simmons?

  It's a nice little test. They have a good secondary. There's a lot of momentum now at the Pats. Could they be the one seed? It's just, it's a lot of trap elements. I know House is studying. We are not putting the Pats in Ringer 107. I'm just telling you now.

• 45:08Speaker 04

  Really?

• 45:08Speaker 00

  Not this week.

• 45:09Speaker 04

  Stay away?

• 45:10Speaker 00

  I wanna, I wanna, I wanna ask if I'm, I have permission to do this little segment with Shreks? Because this is the, I think this is the first time we've been on together. Second, second time at most.

• 45:20Bill Simmons?

  We did one. Shared food.

• 45:21Speaker 04

  Yeah, we've hung.

• 45:22Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 45:23Speaker 04

  This is, this is, this is the second time. We did one like, maybe like COVID, like 2020, going through like coach hiring.

• 45:29Bill Simmons?

  I remember any podcast I did for two years during COVID. So I would believe that.

• 45:34Speaker 00

  The segment I want to do is, what the fuck is going on with blank?

• 45:40Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 45:41Speaker 00

  The question, since we're now on this new, this New England, Atlanta thing, what the fuck is going on with the communication issues with the Atlanta offense?

• 45:51Bill Simmons?

  Isn't it weird?

• 45:52Speaker 00

  I don't understand it. What's going on with them?

• 45:55Speaker 04

  Okay, so I did their Monday night game two weeks ago when they beat the Buffalo Bills and I was the sideline reporter and they opened the roof up and we get a production meeting with the Atlanta Falcons and I sit with Raheem Morris, who it can light up a room. And he's like, Shreks, I coached, uh, you know, Cooper Cup, his triple crown season. I coached Julio Jones, our Superbowl year in Atlanta. I was the wide receivers coach. I can go back and I coached RG3 when he had that rookie season. I was in the, on that staff. He goes, this guy Bijon is not only in that conversation, he might be the best of all. And he's like, our entire team runs through him. Our entire offense runs through him. He is the heart and soul of our team. The defense respects him.

• 46:38Speaker 04

  They've scored 10 points since that 250 yard game in two games in a row. And it's so confusing. And Zach Robinson's the offensive coordinator and he looked like he was dialed in. They moved him down to the sidelines. Everything was right in that Buffalo game. They, Penix looked good.

• 46:55Bill Simmons?

  You had guys out for the Bills. The suspended guys weren't back yet.

• 46:58Speaker 04

  You start wondering like, what, like, what the heck? And then they lost, you know, some offensive linemen along the way. And I know people tune out when you start talking offensive line is the reason, because you're looking for a bigger, you know, that Raheem Morris can't get these guys ready to play and that they, you know, to lose to Miami is a fireable offense, all this. Trust me, Falcons are as frustrated as anyone. This game here, for them to kind of be upset, underdog, trap game, like, it's so out of this world if you were there in that building two weeks ago, where it looked like this was a Super Bowl contender. So, House, I am with you. Two head scratching efforts, 10 points in back to back games. I know Cousins looked 100 years old last week.

• 47:39Speaker 04

  Even so, to lose to the Dolphins that way, where the Dolphins run the ball 37 times down their throats, like, that does not add up with what I saw and what they did against the Washington Commanders a couple of weeks earlier before that. So, Atlanta, one of the great frustrations around the league, because everyone thought they made that turn after that Monday night game. And that was a national coming out party for all those young players. And they've been just the pits ever since, no pun intended. He's been actually pretty good.

• 48:05Bill Simmons?

  Well, you know, you know what they did, House? They landed themselves on the D N B list.

• 48:09Speaker 00

  They sure did.

• 48:10Bill Simmons?

  The do not bet list.

• 48:11Speaker 00

  Do not bet.

• 48:12Bill Simmons?

  They're just a fucking stay away. They killed us last week.

• 48:15Speaker 00

  They killed us.

• 48:16Bill Simmons?

  The thing with Cousins, it's like, if you go to a restaurant and they accidentally bought some bad, I don't know, bad Branzino, and the whole table got food poisoning. Do you blame the restaurant or the Branzino? I guess is the question. Like Cousins was so bad, you just, they had no chance, really, from the get go. I, they're a stay away to me. Here's the thing.

• 48:40Bill Simmons?

  The Pats run day has been ridiculous.

• 48:42Speaker 04

  No running back has had more than 50 yards.

• 48:45Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 48:45Speaker 04

  What?

• 48:46Bill Simmons?

  But Bijon on wheel routes and screen passes against these Pats linebackers is a nightmare. This is what my Pats fan friends and I are talking about. Like, if they get Bijon in space, Pitts in space, the one problem with the Pats, the Pats are 28th in defensive D B O A. And their big issue is like, when their linebackers are in space, they can stop the run, they can push the line, they have a really good secondary. But that middle of the field, I think it's, that's what I'm worried about.

• 49:15Speaker 04

  One of my favorite things you've had on a podcast in the last several weeks was Monday. You're like, everyone's raving about.

• 49:20Bill Simmons?

  Spilling 14 visor badass.

• 49:24Speaker 00

  Hens just texting you can't stand up in coverage.

• 49:26Bill Simmons?

  No, yeah.

• 49:29Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, hedge hedge has had a lot of spilling texts. It's tough because there's just times when you get the, you just see the play and you just see in the TV. There's two people in a lot of grass. You're like, oh no, oh my God. Anyway, I have, uh, that game is in the no thank you pile house.

• 49:48Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 49:48Bill Simmons?

  I'll just tell you the forest dayways. Unless we're doing parlays. Chargers minus nine and a half Titans. You didn't have that one house, right?

• 49:56Speaker 00

  Um, why not? The Titans, Titans in a game getting, you know, less than 10.

• 50:05Speaker 00

  But what's the thesis for the Titans being competitive? It's more about the Chargers and the the Jekyll and Hyde when their offensive line. We know that Joe Ald is playing this week. Cause am I right about that Shreks?

• 50:16Bill Simmons?

  That's the word.

• 50:18Speaker 00

  Playing football this week.

• 50:20Bill Simmons?

  They don't lose when he plays.

• 50:21Speaker 00

  And Beckton, Beckton's playing too, it seems.

• 50:23Bill Simmons?

  Possibly. Quentin Johnston. Quinn, Quinn had a zero last week. Didn't do much. I don't know. Was he on your fantasy team?

• 50:31Speaker 00

  I got, I got guillotined with Quentin Johnson zero.

• 50:35Bill Simmons?

  And in our guillotine league, I picked him up. I have, I have him now.

• 50:39Speaker 00

  From my team.

• 50:40Bill Simmons?

  Your zero. Yeah.

• 50:41Speaker 00

  My zero chopped my head off and now you have him.

• 50:44Bill Simmons?

  Did you happen to see the interview with Kamari Vidal last week after the game? Like, I love this because Justin Herbert's not going to give you much like, let's try Kamari Vidal. Not exactly going to be, uh, working on the ringer anytime either. It's just hilarious of like Kamari Vidal is getting the interview. Like usually it's like the Aaron Rodgers or Matthew Stafford. Kamari Vidal had that opportunity, but it wasn't one of many words. I'll say that. I wouldn't say Herbert is Mr. Dynamo either. No, uh, they, he, did you sit near him at that Dodgers game? How close were you? Well, so he was at the, he was, I was at a Laker game that he was at and a Dodger game that he was at. And neither night was he breaking down the Titans defense.

• 51:25Speaker 00

  I like what he's doing this week.

• 51:28Bill Simmons?

  I want to put the Chargers in a money line, uh, parlay situation.

• 51:32Speaker 00

  Fine, fine, fine, fine.

• 51:33Bill Simmons?

  Rams Saints, it's minus 14 and a half. It's just stupid. That's a flash sale price. That shit, that line should be 11 and a half. I don't know, dude. Rams, Rams coming off a bye where they're feeling really good about themselves. Saints in full sale. Fire sale mode. All the veterans must go.

• 51:47Speaker 04

  That might be a 20 point, 30 point game, dude.

• 51:50Speaker 00

  I'm kind of fine with selling on it's it's mother shucker's debut. You're afraid of the mother shucker?

• 51:58Bill Simmons?

  That that's like, how do you get excited for that game if you're the Rams? That's that those games, those 14 and a halfs worry me.

• 52:04Speaker 00

  Every one of those games matters. They need to just go like it matters.

• 52:10Bill Simmons?

  I get it.

• 52:11Speaker 00

  The Colts just did that to the Titans.

• 52:13Bill Simmons?

  The next two weeks, they're at San Francisco and then play in Seattle.

• 52:17Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 52:17Speaker 04

  That's the season.

• 52:18Bill Simmons?

  Let's take a 10 point lead and just start handing the ball off and let's go home. And let's get ready for San Francisco. I don't know. That one worries me. So I had that one in the pile of the stay away. And then the last one was Packers. Panthers, Packers minus 13 and a half at home against the Panthers. Give us, where do you stand with the Packers these days right now, Peter Schrager?

• 52:41Speaker 04

  I think that second half that they had against the Pittsburgh Steelers is as good as any half a team has had all season. And their defense is so good and they've had a couple lapses. There's like two moments, the Cowboys second half was bizarre and then they gave up a couple of big plays against the Browns in that weird loss. But other than that, they have been lights out. And that defense coached by Jeff Hathley, who by the way, is going to be one of these guys that everyone's talking about in head coaching conversations in the next couple of months is only, you know, complimented by an offense that is so dynamic with all of these different receivers and tight ends that you don't really have a way to stop them if they're feeling it. And he completes 20 straight passes and we do all that.

• 53:23Speaker 04

  But to who he's throwing to, it could be Matthew Golden, it could be Kraft, it could be, you know, Heath, it could be all these guys. They have so many different players that it's really hard to defend. And whereas the Eagles, it's so much friction and there's so much like outside noise, like I'm pretty plugged in with these Packers guys and the players and the coaches. It is like kumbaya up there right now. They're all on the same path. Micah is is like the lighting up the room, like a complete joy, anything you might have heard about his personality. He is like house. He is just pure, pure happiness and he brings it the best out of everybody. So Packers to me right now, if you're asking me week nine, like a team I wouldn't want to face, it's those guys.

• 54:07Bill Simmons?

  It's funny, they're so loaded at receiver. I waved Golden in the Guillotine League, not because I don't like him, but because in Guillotine, you just have to have guaranteed points, right? You just gotta make sure. I actually ironically waved him for Quentin Johnson. But the Packers have so many receivers, I don't even know, like, anybody, even like Kraft, who's awesome, who looks like baby Gronk sometimes. Even he might have a game where he has like one catch for 11 yards. They have all these different ways they can go. It's daunting. And they have another tight end, Musgrove, like, they have a lot of different guys. And last week, they got Christian Watson back, and he's a really good deep threat. And Romeo Dobbs, like, so it goes on and on.

• 54:47Bill Simmons?

  The question is, the Lions game is in week 13, like, I'm already circling that. Like, can they keep it where they're a game up, or they're tied with the Lions, then can they sweep the Lions? Because home field is gonna matter. Interestingly enough, everybody's, you know, team that they're picking apart, the Eagles go there next week for a Monday Night Football game. I think we'll learn a lot about both teams. Philly on the road in Green Bay with Green Bay, probably getting all the hype train going into that. Well, and House, you know that the tie's gonna matter somehow with these seeds. It's just law of averages.

• 55:19Speaker 00

  Absolutely, yes.

• 55:20Bill Simmons?

  Like, right now, they're the one seed because they're 5-1-1, and Philly's 6-2. But I think, you know, if they win this week, but I, who could figure it out? But you just know it's gonna come into play. When a good team has a tie, it's always like, well, that could be 1-4. Yeah. House, are you in on that Philly team? Where do you stand on a betting standpoint these days with them?

• 55:44Speaker 00

  I've come around a little bit.

• 55:45Bill Simmons?

  Okay.

• 55:46Speaker 00

  Now, the Giants were lively against them, and I really feel like that bad whistle that the Giants caught was undeserved. I'd be interested in hearing what the scuttlebutt inside the NFL for, you know, around that, because they all deserve better. That was, that was a tough whistle the Giants got. But I, this whole thing, everybody keeps talking about all, I think, you know, Peter Schrager, I'm so happy he had time to break away from a full day. He hosted First Take this morning, for Christ sakes.

• 56:13Bill Simmons?

  Did you host First Take this morning?

• 56:15Speaker 00

  I did. I did.

• 56:17Speaker 04

  Oh, my God.

• 56:18Bill Simmons?

  And then you did NFL Live?

• 56:20Speaker 04

  I did NFL Live.

• 56:21Bill Simmons?

  So we're getting like a gamey like kind of this is like a 15 inning. You're like Will Smith catching the 16th inning for the Dodgers.

• 56:29Speaker 00

  It's a tremendous job, but everybody's talking about this idea.

• 56:33Speaker 04

  Like Michael Jordan, I don't believe in load management. Just cut up this interview 16 times over the course of the season.

• 56:39Speaker 00

  He's here. He wants the people to see him. Goddamn right.

• 56:44Speaker 00

  Everybody loves this idea of the Eagles under center as opposed to out of shotgun, that Jalen Hurts under center. It creates, you know, the uncertainty. There's no question that the offense has been better. And the ironic thing is that it's because the kid can't snap shotgun comfortably. Is that, isn't that the explanation for it, Shreks?

• 57:04Bill Simmons?

  Well, they stumbled into it.

• 57:06Speaker 04

  They never, they never were playing anything under the center to start the season and they were struggling. Now, the last two weeks against the best pass defense in the league, two weeks ago, Jalen Hurts stood for 330 yards. Then last week against the Giants, they ran for 250 yards. That's what scares you if you're an opposing team like, oh, okay, wait, they actually can do both of these things and they're both working. Offensive line's been an issue for them, which is such an interesting change from years past with Jeff Stoutland in that unit. But let's see if they can get healthy and let's see if they can keep it going. But yes, the shotgun versus non shotgun, they were exclusively a shotgun team. And now all of a sudden it's like, wait, maybe we're better this way. It's, it's finally, uh, it's fair to wonder why it took to week eight or week nine to figure that out.

• 57:46Bill Simmons?

  Shreks, do you feel like Hertz has been struggling against the triple umbrella Bernays robber?

• 57:53Speaker 04

  You're hilarious. You're hilarious.

• 57:55Bill Simmons?

  I'm just, one of my things I'm going to start doing on the pod is I'm just going to make up defenses that are just sound fancy.

• 58:01Speaker 04

  I got caught, I got caught on Get Up, uh, last Friday because I tried making an analogy and like you have like, they give you like 15 seconds. And I said with the AJ Brown stuff, I'm like, all right, so this is the equivalent of that couple that doesn't, you know, that's always fighting. And instead of them getting separated, they decide, screw it, let's get pregnant, right? Let's have a kid. And that's an analogy you know, how you know that analogy? People talk about it all the time. It could be.

• 58:26Bill Simmons?

  Fully support it.

• 58:27Speaker 04

  And that means.

• 58:28Bill Simmons?

  Let's have a kid.

• 58:28Speaker 04

  It means let's double down. I mean, we get that. Harry Douglas is next to me, Bart Scott's next to me. The second I said a man getting pregnant, they're like, what? What? And I'm like, oh, God, oh, God. Like, this is, there's not gonna be a, okay, I just put it out there. There's no selling going on. We've talked about this, Bill. You gotta sell me, guys. You gotta laugh. So then I'm like, oh, no, you're right. You're right. Go back to the triple robber, the high safety talk that we just broke down.

• 58:51Bill Simmons?

  Triple robber.

• 58:52Speaker 04

  And that fell, that fell flat, too. And then I'm like, okay, screw it. Just, just, someone break down the slugo, because that's what we do. Break down the slugo. Greenie to his crowd, it's like, they actually threw a slugo this week. I'm like, I know, I know. They threw the darned slugo. Okay, enough. But like, yes, I get, I'm trying to fit in my little analogies on these shows and my little jokes and my little quips.

• 59:12Bill Simmons?

  It'll get there.

• 59:13Speaker 04

  We got it. But in the meantime, we're gonna break down the double high robber Sam scissor route. And we're just gonna have to talk that way for, for the, for the crowd of high school coaches that are watching, you know, we gotta go there.

• 59:23Bill Simmons?

  House wants food involved in some of these defenses. Like, he wants, like, somebody to have a Bernays Blitz, or the Arby's Steak, Arby's Steak Nuggets.

• 59:31Speaker 00

  Savory creamy, yes.

• 59:33Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, the savory, savory should be in there.

• 59:35Speaker 00

  Who's the most savory linebacker?

• 59:37Speaker 04

  Robert Spillane.

• 59:39Speaker 00

  Yeah, Spillane. Savory Spillane.

• 59:43Bill Simmons?

  I have three, three Pats Falcons in the no thank yous. I have three more games that I don't think should be in the let's actually seriously talk about this for Ranger 107. And either of you hit the button.

• 59:58Speaker 04

  Wait, Bill, can I interrupt real quick?

• 1:00:00Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:01Speaker 04

  How, how about everybody going, oh, the, the NBA, NBC and Amazon, they're teaching us basketball. This is what we really want. And, oh, we don't want Inside the NBA being critical. It's similar to what I was talking about. I, let's give this a couple of weeks of everyone being coached like they're a high school basketball. I'll take, slow down with how bad Inside the NBA is. Guess what? When they're on ESPN, when they're on TV, they're pretty damn good. And I can get the basketball history lesson maybe from text winners later on in my life, too. I'm good.

• 1:00:30Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, I still enjoy Inside the NBA.

• 1:00:32Speaker 00

  This is a good moment. I don't, did I text you Shreks? That three, that three, that bucket, that three, when you were, where, why, why were you taking threes on camera?

• 1:00:42Speaker 04

  McAfee invited me down to do the show down there in Indianapolis for when I was talking about the Knicks.

• 1:00:47Bill Simmons?

  Nice form.

• 1:00:47Speaker 04

  Guess what? High school basketball player, good player. Love it. Love, love shooting threes.

• 1:00:52Bill Simmons?

  Shreks could have played three and three with us, House.

• 1:00:54Speaker 00

  I already made it.

• 1:00:55Bill Simmons?

  He could have spaced the floor for our, for our pick and roll.

• 1:00:57Speaker 00

  Well, we already made a joke about protein cup, but I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna double down right now. The stroke was so, the stroke was velvety. It was.

• 1:01:07Bill Simmons?

  Made you want to put some of the protein in the cup.

• 1:01:09Speaker 00

  It was pure, baby.

• 1:01:11Speaker 04

  I was dressed. That was Drazen Petrovic. That was Mark Price. Those were my guys. Those were the guys I used to watch. Yes.

• 1:01:18Bill Simmons?

  49ers, Giants, 49ers favored by two and a half in Jersey.

• 1:01:23Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:01:24Bill Simmons?

  The San Francisco defense was on the field for 41 minutes and 18 seconds last week against Houston that can't block. The Giants just lose major guys that their fans love every three weeks. Giants defense is 30th against the rush and 26th yards per play.

• 1:01:44Bill Simmons?

  To me, it's a stay away unless you guys feel.

• 1:01:46Speaker 04

  You've been following the Dexter Lawrence, Carl Banks controversy in New York this week?

• 1:01:51Bill Simmons?

  Little, he got a little saucy with them, right?

• 1:01:53Speaker 04

  Carl Banks is the in-house guy, usually pretty positive. Out of nowhere, just takes a, takes a very contrarian view on Dexter Lawrence, who has been, no one's been criticizing his play. He's a very highly paid defensive tackle, gets a lot of love reputationally. He's saying this guy isn't playing, he should be dominating. He's playing a, an eighth string center last week against the Eagles and he's getting mauled. Dexter Lawrence fights back. Giants right now with the scataboo injury, with the neighbors injury, with, with, with all the different issues they've had. And then you take in the Broncos loss and the way that thing went down. It has been a very deflating few weeks.

• 1:02:33Speaker 04

  They've won their last two home games. They did it in heroic fashion. And we loved the Eagles game. You love the, the victory against the Chargers. But I don't know if this team has, can get off the mat again after the last two weeks and what's been going on in that building.

• 1:02:47Speaker 00

  So this is crazy because I think that this is the season, the game of the season for San Francisco. They cannot lose this football game and make the playoffs.

• 1:02:58Bill Simmons?

  For that reason. Yes. The problem is, we don't know who's playing for them and their defense was on the field for 41 minutes last week.

• 1:03:04Speaker 00

  I can't name five of their defensive starters.

• 1:03:06Bill Simmons?

  I think it's a stay away, but I feel like on Sunday, I'm going to bet on the Niners.

• 1:03:10Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:03:11Bill Simmons?

  I'm going to be like, oh, he's playing?

• 1:03:13Speaker 00

  That's the best way to do it.

• 1:03:14Bill Simmons?

  I just want to say I'm mildly afraid of Tyrone Tracy if I have a Niners bet in this game. And I have him on multiple fantasy teams this week. I picked him up. Lions Vikings, this was a flash sale price. Lions minus eight and a half over the Vikings feels like it should probably be like six because it's a kitchen sink game for the Vikes. Cashman and Van Ginkle are back.

• 1:03:36Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 1:03:37Bill Simmons?

  They can play the Bernays robber with those guys.

• 1:03:39Speaker 04

  The Bernays robber, we love that.

• 1:03:41Bill Simmons?

  Robber, they might even be able to play the savory steak nuggets blitz.

• 1:03:45Speaker 04

  Isaiah Rogers can go the peppercorn blitz if we need.

• 1:03:47Bill Simmons?

  Right. And yet McCarthy, tell us, what do you, House is the most in on this story of any story of that JJ McCarthy may be terrible?

• 1:03:56Speaker 04

  I think it's the most fascinating story in football this week. Honestly, like I could do, I could do a full hour with you both on this because the way it's stacking up, as much as Giants fans are like, oh, man, Daniel Jones and Saquon, they're just better when they leave us. Think about what was in the room last year. Sam Darnold's five and two and could be the MVP if the Seahawks keep winning. Daniel Jones is seven and one is basically the MVP right now. Both those guys were in the quarterbacks room. They let them both walk. They could have franchised Darnold. They didn't. And then Aaron Rodgers had made overtures, I'm told, that there was interest in Aaron Rodgers going to Minnesota and they were like, we're good.

• 1:04:33Bill Simmons?

  That's a tough one because that, that's.

• 1:04:35Speaker 04

  That would have been a nice one year Band-Aid. Who knows? They bring in your boy Sam Howell. They get him in a draft. They trade for him in the draft and then like after a couple of months, they're like, we're actually good. We're going to sign Carson Wentz in August and he's going to be the guy. All on the thought that we're all.

• 1:04:52Bill Simmons?

  House's faces are great.

• 1:04:54Speaker 04

  We're all good because we got JJ. We're all good and we're all in. Now they traded up in a draft for them for two years ago and House, I will, I will give you this nugget. The commanders thought they were going to get Sam Darnold last offseason in March and then Jaden Daniels was going to be the rookie with him.

• 1:05:14Speaker 00

  A project.

• 1:05:14Speaker 04

  At the last second, Kevin O'Connell offers Sam Darnold more money, $10 million. They go to the Vikings and he's going to basically play that role for J.J. McCarthy. McCarthy goes down with the injury. Everything happens from there. They traded up to get McCarthy and I feel like it was like, we drafted this guy. We went all in on this guy. We're not going to abandon him now, but a 14 and 2 season before those two losses at the end, that's a tough one to swallow if you're a Vikings fan. And now the weight of the world is on McCarthy because you add that on with both of your quarterbacks being in the same draft class, with Bo Nix being in that draft class. And it's like, there's two separate things on his shoulders. There's, oh my gosh, I've got to be the savior of this franchise and we let all this quarterback talent out the door.

• 1:05:57Speaker 04

  And oh, by the way, all my contemporaries, all my peers are fucking awesome on their teams.

• 1:06:03Speaker 00

  Well, the thing that befuddles me is what do you go into that locker room and tell all those badass motherfuckers that were on a team that went 14 and 3 last year? What do you tell Ben Ginkel? What do you tell Cashman? What do you tell Justin Jefferson?

• 1:06:20Speaker 04

  What do you tell Justin Jefferson?

• 1:06:21Speaker 00

  What do you tell T.J. Hawkinson? People are saying, T.J. Hawkinson's having it down here. Oh, is he? Because J.J. fucking McCarthy and Carson Wentz, the corpse of Carson Wentz, God bless him, he shouldn't be on an NFL football field.

• 1:06:35Speaker 04

  He wasn't until August.

• 1:06:36Speaker 00

  He's crying. He's crying on the sideline. And I mean, I have empathy for the man. I don't wish bad things upon him. He shouldn't be playing professional football. That's on the franchise. The franchise did this. What do you tell all those guys that tasted the playoffs last year that had every reasonable expectation to run this back? How do you keep that room safe? Because I think they're going to get waxed this week. I think they're going to get annihilated.

• 1:07:03Speaker 04

  They might. Look, we are very...

• 1:07:07Speaker 04

  We have a great luxury to look back in hindsight and do this now. Those eight days, that final Sunday night game against the Lions and then that treacherous Monday night game in Arizona against the Rams. Darnold looked awful. So it was almost like 14 wins was great. And your comeback win in Seattle was huge. Your comeback win in Chicago was huge and all those amazing throws you made all season. When we needed you most, you weren't there. And I think that's what they put their head on the pillow with, with like, all right, we drafted this guy. When it mattered most, this guy was able, we're not gonna pay him a hundred.

• 1:07:37Bill Simmons?

  There's a money ball piece too, though. Like it's, it would have been at least 30 million a year to keep Darnold, right?

• 1:07:41Speaker 04

  Unless you franchise him and you eat that 40 million for one year and then say, okay, JJ waits another season and then we go to McCarthy.

• 1:07:48Bill Simmons?

  But they use that money to get like a couple of defensive linemen, like they, they tried to spread that money around. It's more a thing of like, like if you're the owner of the Vikings. And you, you moved up to trade for JJ McCarthy and he just got hurt and then a year passes and they're like, hey, here's what we're thinking of doing. Maybe we'll franchise tag Darnold. If I'm the owner, I'm like, what about JJ McCarthy? We traded up to draft him. Are you telling me he can't play? Like Jaden Daniels played last year. Bo Nix played last year. Like, why wouldn't we play that guy? The part I don't understand is why they let Daniel Jones out of the building, who they obviously liked when they got him.

• 1:08:23Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:08:24Bill Simmons?

  And he would have been a cheaper version of Darnold. Why didn't they just do that and try to keep him? We didn't get like 15?

• 1:08:29Speaker 04

  Yeah. And they wanted to bring him back. Um, the Colts offered about the same money, if not more, but basically told him like, you have a real shot at winning this job. And he went to Indianapolis and he left, but Minnesota was very interested in, in, you know, retaining him. They would have loved to have him in the room, but he took Indianapolis' offer instead. So what? Give him 20. I don't know. Like, to me, it's all, it's, it's, it's amazing that they're at this spot where they're like elevating John Wolford. Because they might need him. And this is.

• 1:08:57Bill Simmons?

  People like the backup.

• 1:08:59Speaker 04

  Bosmer. People love the, the backup and you've heard all this talk about him.

• 1:09:01Bill Simmons?

  If he gets announced as a starter, the line might not even move house. It sounds like Shreigs is, has more McCarthy information than he's letting on. You don't sound optimistic about McCarthy.

• 1:09:13Speaker 04

  Here's the other part of it. He's still 22 years old. So it's like, you don't want to bail on it yet. It's just, I love the sliding doors aspect of it, of like what could have been.

• 1:09:24Bill Simmons?

  Another non denial denial by Shreigs.

• 1:09:28Bill Simmons?

  So he's getting a lot of McCarthy stuff. He's a disaster.

• 1:09:32Speaker 04

  I'm that drift.

• 1:09:32Bill Simmons?

  This isn't a Josh Rosen situation, is it?

• 1:09:35Speaker 00

  How could it possibly be? He hasn't played any professional football games. We have no idea. We have no idea. But he sat in the coach's office all season last season. Every Thursday, we have a meeting.

• 1:09:47Bill Simmons?

  They ran through the schedule like he wasn't hurt. All right. So it sounds like we're putting the Lions in some sort of pile.

• 1:09:54Speaker 00

  The good pile.

• 1:09:56Bill Simmons?

  And then Cowboys Cardinals is the other one. Cowboys minus two and a half Cardinals. I just, I don't want any part of this game.

• 1:10:03Speaker 04

  Why not?

• 1:10:04Bill Simmons?

  Huh? Why? Who do you like in this game?

• 1:10:06Speaker 04

  I don't know. I could see Kyler running for about 150 and throwing for 350.

• 1:10:10Bill Simmons?

  How's it? I don't bet on Kyler. We don't bet on the Falcons on the road. We don't bet on Kyler at all.

• 1:10:14Speaker 00

  Dominate in Dallas and you're supposed to take Dallas this week because they're back home, the offense, you know, there's nothing wrong with that offense.

• 1:10:21Bill Simmons?

  I'm not taking them again.

• 1:10:23Speaker 04

  Shotty was pretty fiery.

• 1:10:24Speaker 00

  I loved it. Sticking up the ass, whatever he said.

• 1:10:27Speaker 04

  Like, I don't care about offensive stats. Where the hell, I mean, first time I'd seen him ever talk like that in 25 years. I loved it. But Monday night football, I feel like spotlight game, maybe, maybe Kyle, I wouldn't, I either wouldn't, I would bet on Arizona or I wouldn't bet at all on this one. That defense is so bad. I spoke to Michael Irvin this week, had a very interesting take. I want to hear both of your thoughts on this. I love this take. It's not, it's one I hadn't heard yet. There's a million Micah Parsons takes. Irvin had a different one. He says, even if Parsons goes on and wins Super Bowls and all this stuff, should have never left the Cowboys. I'm like, go on. He's like, the money would have eventually been the same. Jerry was a million dollars off, whatever. You don't pay taxes in Texas. You pay taxes in Wisconsin.

• 1:11:09Speaker 04

  And the podcast that Micah had, if you're a Dallas Cowboy, is infinitely more valuable than your Green Bay Packers podcast. Oh, and by the way, Micah lives in Texas. His mom lives in Texas and the value of being a Cowboy for life is so much different than being a Cowboy for the first three years of your career and then moving on and doing something else. I'm like, I have heard a thousand people talk about Micah Parsons. I have not heard this version because to everyone's naked eye, it's like, oh, Parsons got out of Dallas and is riding high and Green Bay was where it was. But like, Irv was like, no, no, I've never paid for a meal in Dallas and I go everywhere and I'm royalty for the rest of my life. It's the greatest thing in the world. He's like, Parsons can't do that anymore. I'm like, fascinating take, Irv. I love it.

• 1:11:55Speaker 00

  It is fascinating. You're doing a kind of financial modeling because if he wins Defensive Player of the Year, would he have ever won Defensive Player of the Year in Dallas? Like, how do you measure those two trajectories? How you put them next to each other? It's very interesting.

• 1:12:08Speaker 04

  Bill, your thoughts?

• 1:12:12Bill Simmons?

  Michael Irvin never had to pay for anything in Dallas. That's a long list of a variety of things.

• 1:12:18Speaker 04

  He'll be the first to tell you.

• 1:12:20Bill Simmons?

  If I'm Michael Parsons, I'm pretty happy in Green Bay playing. An awesome team versus a deranged franchise owned by a really old guy who just does crazy stuff. We gotta take a break and then I gotta talk about my five favorite games. It's football season and Uber Eats is delivering deals every single day. This week, buy a four piece signature chicken from Popeyes and get another one free on Uber Eats. When your watch party gets hungry, order in and keep everyone's attention where it matters on the game. Order a four piece signature chicken from Popeyes. Get another one free. No matter who scores big tonight, you'll score great deals on Uber Eats all season long because it's not football without food. It really isn't. Popeyes offer valid through November 1st. Add eligible menu

• 1:13:02Bill Simmons?

  item to order prior to checkout. Taxes, fees and terms apply. Product availability varies by region. Exclusions may apply. See app for details. This episode is brought to you by Carhartt. We spend a lot of time talking about football, the players, the coaches, the big plays, but there's a whole other team we rarely Think about the people who make the game possible, the workers building stadiums, paving parking lots, growing the grass, welding the goalposts, even making the footballs. They're committed to their craft and they're doing the work long before kickoff. Carhartt is proud to outfit those crews. So next time you're watching a game, take a second to appreciate the people behind it. Learn more at carhartt.com/jointhetraes. Bills Chiefs.

• 1:13:44Bill Simmons?

  Hello friends.

• 1:13:47Bill Simmons?

  Bills Chiefs yet again. Bills have been a little better in the regular season. Chiefs have obviously dominated the playoffs. There's some Buffalo, some slight injury stuff. They lost Ed Oliver. They just can't keep that defensive line all together. Casey played Monday. That has to be factored in. Buffalo's run defense 31st. But I don't really like any of the Chiefs running backs. Ro Holmes is probably their most dangerous runner. Buffalo first. Running attack. Casey 11th against that and it just feels like a really tight game. Bills getting one and a half at home house. Which Bills as a home dog, there's some good stats with this. Can I interest you in? Moving that Bills line up a little bit into the four and a half, five and a half range?

• 1:14:32Bill Simmons?

  Would that, would that entice you?

• 1:14:33Speaker 00

  I don't want to bet on this game. I would prefer to just watch it and enjoy it because there are to me two very plausible, competing game scripts, phenomena, what, and I can't choose which one I think is going to be the one.

• 1:14:53Speaker 00

  In my mind's eye, I can see this Chiefs offense scoring 41 points. No problem. I can see them firing on all cylinders. I don't like the Pacheco injury. But it kind of feels like they always have another guy coming back, you know, that's like, he's only getting a dozen touches or so a game anyway.

• 1:15:12Bill Simmons?

  Can I interrupt you for a second?

• 1:15:13Speaker 00

  Please, please, please.

• 1:15:15Bill Simmons?

  We're putting this game in Ringer 107. This is a playoff game.

• 1:15:18Speaker 00

  I like that right away.

• 1:15:19Bill Simmons?

  Put the fucking chest hair in your chest. Have a drink of Mad Men Scotch.

• 1:15:24Speaker 00

  We're trying to win. Like you tell me what you think the prevailing outcome is going to be.

• 1:15:29Bill Simmons?

  It's a playoff game. Shreigs, Josh Allen at home.

• 1:15:33Speaker 04

  Yeah, but Josh Allen at home might not be enough because I watched the Ravens put up 40 points on that team in Buffalo. I watched Drake May go into that building and win in Buffalo. I, look, the Ed Oliver thing is huge. It's, he's the best player on their defense. He's been a game wrecker all season. Now you're asking, you know, this rookie Walker to step up and play that role, which is asking a lot. They need Daquan Jones to step up when he gets back and like Bosa and Rousseau have to be better than they've even been. I, the Bills are in a real tough spot here. They lost their best defensive player and they've got a long season ahead of them. And I'll add, they have zero cap space. So whereas your Patriots have the most cap space in the league.

• 1:16:16Bill Simmons?

  $48.5 million, House.

• 1:16:19Speaker 04

  The next four days, they can play around. They can do models. They can figure out, they can make phone calls. The Bills, they can't do crap. Last year they brought in Amari Cooper and he helped down the stretch. I don't see, the Bills can't make a move. They've got like a million dollars of wiggle room. There's nothing they can do. So the injury bug has hit them way too early. But that said, Josh Allen, you've been knocking on the door for all these years. You're right there. This is the, you're the MVP. This is your moment. Go and win your fifth game against Mahomes in the regular season and go control that division, which you should not have to worry about the Patriots in 2025. This should have been a 2027 problem that they're dealing with.

• 1:16:58Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, you forgot about one thing. You forgot about Drake May. Drake. Um, I'm with you for most of that. I think Buffalo can overpower the Chiefs and run the ball down their throats. And when they're not running the ball down their throats, use Josh Allen to continue to run the ball down their throats. That would be, as a Chiefs fan, that would be my fear, that we're just getting pushed backwards and we don't have the ball a lot. And it's just one of those weird games.

• 1:17:25Speaker 04

  Who's this game matter more for? I know it's week nine.

• 1:17:27Bill Simmons?

  I think Buffalo.

• 1:17:27Speaker 04

  I do too.

• 1:17:28Bill Simmons?

  Oh, that's surprising. I think this is, I think this is a must for Buffalo.

• 1:17:32Speaker 00

  You don't think the Chiefs want the one seed? The Chiefs can't lose any more games.

• 1:17:35Speaker 04

  The Chiefs are in a bind with the one seed for sure. And the Broncos and Chargers are going to keep winning. So like, it's a good question. It's not just a, to me, Buffalo psychologically, like if you lose another one, it's ah, at home and the Chiefs again. Like I just, it's a lot.

• 1:17:51Bill Simmons?

  I feel like for Buffalo, this threat of the Patriots is a real threat. Because the schedule that the Patriots have combined with the fact they've already won in Buffalo, that if you lose this Chiefs game and you fall back, who knows what the Pats got? They might finish it like, I don't know what the record's gonna be. I don't even, as, as you know, I feel like this team has holes. They might go like 12 and 5 or 13 and 4, right? So you have that, plus you have the, uh, the, the Chiefs whole, that whole

• 1:18:24Speaker 04

  Dynamic.

• 1:18:24Bill Simmons?

  Whatever that is, the cloud, the cloud of the Chiefs. Whereas the Chiefs are always fine. They could lose any game. It's like, we're fine, we'll be back next week. Like, I, I just don't think, I just don't see the Chiefs being like, we gotta get this. They treat every game the same. They're, every game they have is like a Monday night game or some division rival game.

• 1:18:43Speaker 04

  Which is the most underrated value, like, thing of this whole run ever. I mean, whether it's in Brazil, or it's on a Black Friday, or it's Christmas Day. It's like, the Chiefs have the most unorthodox schedule. The NFL just shoves them in these prime time lone windows and they never complain. And they just go out there and they play football and it's like, it never catches up with them. It seems like they're always ready to go, which is why, to me, it's almost like Buffalo needs this one. And I'm gonna side with you.

• 1:19:07Bill Simmons?

  We didn't mention one thing, Shreks. That Buffalo's schedule is weirdly hard, considering.

• 1:19:13Speaker 04

  It got harder because teams got good that we didn't expect. It's supposed to be a cakewalk. Look at their schedule.

• 1:19:17Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, they have Bucks, week 11, back to back at Texans on a Thursday.

• 1:19:23Speaker 04

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:19:24Bill Simmons?

  And then at the Steelers the next week. They're playing at the Pats in week 15, and then at the Browns, week 16, who at least is gonna be able to throw defense on them. Then week 17, the Eagles.

• 1:19:34Speaker 04

  Not easy.

• 1:19:36Bill Simmons?

  They already have two losses. I, to me, like, they're, what do you think, House, 12 and 5?

• 1:19:42Speaker 00

  That sounds right to me, 12 and 5.

• 1:19:44Bill Simmons?

  This is, probably swings it between 13 and 4, 12 and 5. So I don't know, I feel like they need the game. Um, all right, well, we'll, we'll table that one for a second. House, what's your favorite game in the slate?

• 1:19:55Speaker 00

  I have to. I absolutely adore Detroit. I just think the idea of getting J.J. McCarthy in into Detroit is phenomenal. Anything less than 10 is attractive to me. And then I also like Houston. And I know that people are gonna say, I keep trying to fade Denver, and all Denver does is jam it right up my rear end, especially Bo Nix. Keep doubting Bo Nix. I got a lot of that in the timeline last week. But I do like the idea of this Houston defense.

• 1:20:28Bill Simmons?

  You did encourage it. You did say, if Bo Nix jams it in my butt, then so good. Like, you did like kind of come up with that.

• 1:20:32Speaker 00

  He did it against the Eagles. 18 points in the fourth quarter against the Eagles. Went on the road, won. That's their best. It was an impressive win.

• 1:20:40Speaker 04

  Can I empty the notebook on the Broncos a little bit?

• 1:20:43Speaker 00

  Let's hear it.

• 1:20:45Speaker 04

  So they beat the Giants in this historic fashion, and they're celebrating all this. Sean Payton, Monday morning, has it cut up from his assistant. The last six biggest comebacks in regular season history, the following week, that team lost. So Sean Payton puts together a sizzle reel from Monday morning for these guys of those teams being on the other end of the other team taking a knee in the game afterwards. And he put music behind it. And basically, a Monday morning, when everyone is riding high over this Giants game, it's like, no time for that. History tells us, there is a natural letdown in this. And they go out and they kick the shit out of the Dallas Cowboys. And like, that's kind of the pace they're at, where it's, there is no, this is a sprint for them. There is no

• 1:21:30Speaker 04

  Broncos like, ah, well, that was a good win. Two back-to-back wins at home. So to me, I know the Texans are favored in this game. I don't, I don't quite understand. I know Surtan is a huge player, is Defensive Player of the Year. But to me, like, you're not gonna get a complacent Denver Broncos this week.

• 1:21:47Bill Simmons?

  My answer might surprise you on this game.

• 1:21:50Bill Simmons?

  This is my favorite game on the board.

• 1:21:52Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 1:21:53Bill Simmons?

  I love the Houston Texans.

• 1:21:55Speaker 00

  Let's go.

• 1:21:57Speaker 00

  As do I.

• 1:21:58Bill Simmons?

  I heard your whole case, Shreks.

• 1:22:01Speaker 04

  You didn't like my story of cinematographer Sean Payton?

• 1:22:03Bill Simmons?

  It was good and Payton's done a good job. We've been in on Denver this year. They're six and two. Like I, you know, Houston's defense, I think really might be the best defense in the league. Their top five basically rush pass yards per play, name it. Denver's played five crap defenses, Tennessee, Cincinnati, the Giants, Dallas and the Jets, plus Indy, which I wouldn't call the 85 Bears.

• 1:22:29Bill Simmons?

  And Surtan being out is like massive.

• 1:22:32Speaker 04

  It's huge, but who's scared of?

• 1:22:33Bill Simmons?

  I would say that's the top five most important defensive player to be out.

• 1:22:37Speaker 04

  Which receiver are you scared of from the Texans? Are you losing sleep over Xavier Hutchinson?

• 1:22:41Bill Simmons?

  Nico's back.

• 1:22:42Speaker 04

  I know, but like I don't think, all right, that's fine. Nico, I'll give you Nico's a top 10 receiver in this league. He's been out.

• 1:22:48Bill Simmons?

  Here's what I think. I think this game is just ugly both ways. Cause the Texans won't really be able to block. But I don't think Denver's gonna move the ball against this Houston defense. I really.

• 1:23:00Speaker 04

  Houston defense is awesome. I was on the sidelines.

• 1:23:01Bill Simmons?

  Bo Nix makes me really nervous. Yeah.

• 1:23:04Speaker 04

  They, they lost by two scores to Seattle. They also turned Seattle over four times and their defense was absolutely unblockable.

• 1:23:10Bill Simmons?

  You did that game. They just kept getting the ball back.

• 1:23:12Speaker 04

  It was crazy and they, and no one watched because it was two in the morning Eastern time. Like, but Houston's defense dominated the Seahawks that day. You didn't see it in the box score, but they had four turnovers. They sacked Arnold and Willie Anderson and, and Hunter were unblockable. So like, I'm with you on that defense. It's very good. And in the back end, Stingley and Lassiter are as good a combo in the backfield as anyone. However, I just don't know. I, I don't know if they've got the offense and the offensive line to keep off that, that amazing Denver defense. They are good, even without Surtan, they are good. They get to the quarterback. They lead the NFL in sacks. They're really, they could dominate that offensive line in Houston.

• 1:23:48Bill Simmons?

  Well, if Houston pulls this off, they would be 4-4. And then a little Jaguars Titans combo that have a treat after that, but then it gets, they go Bills Colts, Bills at Colts at Chiefs, three in a row, which is pretty brutal. So they're kind of in must win zone. Whereas I look at Denver, like, all right, if they lose this win, this game, they're playing the Raiders on Thursday, four days later. They'll, you know, they'll win by 20 and they'll be fine. But how so we saw, it's so funny. Like we've been aligned on some of these. We don't talk, I don't talk about the ones. This was the one that jumped out to me.

• 1:24:25Speaker 04

  You both like the Texans.

• 1:24:27Speaker 00

  We do.

• 1:24:27Bill Simmons?

  I felt like this should be a two and a half or a three because their defense at home. I still have Bo Nix questions. I still watch him. I know that he heats up and I know that there's games where he's finished with stats. I think he misses a lot of throws.

• 1:24:40Speaker 04

  He missed a couple last week. He tried throwing a no look pass and it got intercepted last week.

• 1:24:45Speaker 00

  Piece that we haven't talked about that I do like, is CJ Stroud back? I mean, we get to do it that way.

• 1:24:51Bill Simmons?

  He's bad. If he's back, if it's a bad defense.

• 1:24:53Speaker 04

  Can I tell you, I had him in the production meeting and it was when they were really low and it was before that Seattle game. He had so much, so much swag in this meeting. Like he hears it all. I think he knows that people and he's like, don't worry. Like I'm good. And I, I came away. I wasn't Stroud. I don't know. I don't know him that well. I came away walking away like, okay, not a vote, not a huge vocal guy, not an in your face guy, but clearly the leader of this team and has a lot of confidence, even though their offensive line is not even close to what it was two years ago when he had that breakout season.

• 1:25:23Speaker 00

  Yeah. Well, they added a sixth guy and it looked like that might've helped the often the running game a little bit. So if we just get a little variety in that offense.

• 1:25:31Speaker 04

  Their offensive coordinator is interesting. So they had Bobby Slowik, who was tremendous. And then last year down the stretch didn't, didn't gel as well.

• 1:25:38Bill Simmons?

  I still believe Bobby Slowik is going to be a head coach t-shirt from 2023. I don't know if you want it, I'll send it to you.

• 1:25:44Speaker 04

  About 30 interviews. They hired Nick Cali, who I think you like this, this, this guy, Bill. Eight years with the Patriots under Belichick. So he comes from that world and then himself is like, I need to diversify this, goes and works for McVay for two years. So you've got the Belichick influence and the McVay influence.

• 1:26:01Speaker 00

  What a tree.

• 1:26:02Speaker 04

  And they bring him in and it was a little rocky at first, but super talented, young, young offensive coordinator where you get the feeling like he's gonna, it's gonna start clicking as the season goes on.

• 1:26:13Bill Simmons?

  One other thing with the Texans, and I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago, I genuinely like Woody Marks. I think he's good.

• 1:26:18Speaker 04

  Good.

• 1:26:19Bill Simmons?

  And he's good out of the backfield, too. And they might have hit on Noel at least with those rookie receivers.

• 1:26:24Speaker 04

  Two Iowa State rookie wide receivers.

• 1:26:26Bill Simmons?

  He's the one that's always open, or seems like he can get open. And then Collins coming back, that's another one. He, you know, no certain, maybe he makes a big play. I like the Texans. Three more quickly. Colts Steelers, Colts minus three in Pittsburgh, and Colts outdoors.

• 1:26:45Bill Simmons?

  Steelers as a home dog, and there's just a slew of insane Tomlin home dog stats that we don't need to just read through. They're going to have the field goal edge yet again. You're always like minus six when you're playing in Pittsburgh with field goals. But Pittsburgh's defense 32nd against the pass. And the Colts are just a juggernaut ripping through everything. We haven't talked about the Colts yet, Trey. Do you believe? Are you in?

• 1:27:10Speaker 04

  How could I not? And the only issue is I haven't seen him play like primetime or a big game or with a lot of pressure on them. They always feel like they're like the Scott Hanson, like constant break in on red zone like team. I haven't watched, you know, a matchup with them with, you know, all the spotlight on them. I feel like even though this isn't that game, there's a lot of attention this week. Like Steelers on the road and a lot of people now doing this, like, let's poke a hole in it. Let's see. That said, like, Daniel Jones, the stats are insane. I think he's like number one rated quarterback regularly, number one rated quarterback under pressure. And then Jonathan Taylor is doing what he's doing. And then Quentin Nelson's probably the best player on the entire team, just absolutely dominating at the offensive guard spot. The question is, I don't know how they're

• 1:27:53Speaker 04

  doing this on defense, and they are, like, they're stopping everyone and they're getting turnovers with not a lot of names on their team.

• 1:27:59Bill Simmons?

  We know how they're doing it. They're playing shitty teams.

• 1:28:01Speaker 04

  That's, that's another way to look at it.

• 1:28:04Bill Simmons?

  They played Tennessee twice.

• 1:28:05Speaker 00

  That kind of helps.

• 1:28:07Bill Simmons?

  They played Miami week one. They played Las Vegas.

• 1:28:10Speaker 00

  Which way are you leaning on this BS? Because?

• 1:28:13Bill Simmons?

  Uh oh.

• 1:28:16Bill Simmons?

  Oh, boy.

• 1:28:16Speaker 00

  I'm nervous for, for, for the Colts. I'm nervous about for them here.

• 1:28:20Bill Simmons?

  I talked to you into the Packers last week.

• 1:28:23Speaker 00

  I was happy. I was, I, I loved it. I loved it when you did it. It was a great zag. I, I endorsed it. I was thrilled to have it.

• 1:28:30Bill Simmons?

  Things on the Steelers defense, Striggs.

• 1:28:32Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:28:33Bill Simmons?

  Striggs is like, when he hosted First Take, it feels like 38 hours ago now.

• 1:28:37Speaker 04

  Well, we've got a hard, we've got a hard out, so I gotta empty it quick here.

• 1:28:42Bill Simmons?

  No, well, House can leave and we can still go. We can just stay.

• 1:28:46Speaker 00

  I have another 25 minutes. I'm good.

• 1:28:47Speaker 04

  I want steak nuggets. Let's go.

• 1:28:49Bill Simmons?

  So I felt this way when the Pats played the Steelers and really dominated them the last three quarters and turned the ball over five times and just left all this offense on the, over and over moved the ball on them. Green Bay last week, by the time we get to the second half, it was like whatever they wanted, they were just getting. And Indianapolis has a better offense than both of those teams. So why wouldn't they just get everything they want in this game? What, what has the Steelers defense shown us? Fucking Joe Flacco, not Joe Flacco, Joe Flacco. Yeah.

• 1:29:20Speaker 04

  All over the place. I know.

• 1:29:22Bill Simmons?

  Joe Flacco was lighting them up. Like, who can't light up the Steelers? They're 32nd.

• 1:29:27Speaker 04

  Chase was targeted 23 times in that game, which is the ultimate insult to a defensive backfield. Like, we, we will throw, we will tell you exactly what we're gonna do and we know you can't stop it. He had 16 catches and then to see what Jordan Love did, 20 in a row. It's maybe the most disappointing unit in all of football, this Steelers defense, because you go through the lists of names. It's not only TJ Watt, it's Cameron Hayward, and then you go to Patrick Queen, and then you get to the defensive backfield and it's like, it's Jalen Ramsey and Darius Slay. This is not a young team. This is not a cheap team. This is not a bunch.

• 1:29:57Bill Simmons?

  It's a team you would have wanted in 2019 is the problem.

• 1:30:00Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:30:00Bill Simmons?

  Or a defense that you would have wanted.

• 1:30:02Speaker 04

  And it's a Tomlin coached team, which at the very least, you knew they would at least show up every week. This is, this is tough to pick them in any game with that defense being such a sieve.

• 1:30:11Bill Simmons?

  Well, the, they, uh, they traded for Kyle Dugger this week from the Patriots, who was just an atrocity in coverage last year. Like, he's basically was a linebacker playing safety. And this year, Vrabel, even though he had a pretty big contract, was like, I'm out. I'm gonna play this Craig Woodson over you and kinda buried him. The Steelers traded for him this week and I think he's gonna play.

• 1:30:32Speaker 04

  Yeah, because the Sean Elliott is on the IR, another veteran that they brought back that might not have his best football in front of him. So that's where I would say like, I'd. It's home. You got the terrible towels. You got the sticks renegade. I get all that. I don't, I don't know if that can cover up what they have on defense, which as much as we cry about the Cowboys defense, the Steelers defense is way more disappointing because we actually expected them to be a strength of the team.

• 1:30:57Bill Simmons?

  And house Packers. What was that? Would that line end up?

• 1:31:01Speaker 00

  Two and a half.

• 1:31:02Bill Simmons?

  Two and a half.

• 1:31:03Speaker 00

  Finally it went down to two and a half.

• 1:31:04Bill Simmons?

  So Colts are favored by three. So that means the market is saying the Colts are better than the Steelers, which I mean, than the Packers, which I don't think is necessarily true. I just think after that Sunday night game, it's like the big people are like, oh, the Steelers really are bad on defense. And I don't, other than that, the Metcalf plays and occasionally Warren will get like, I don't really know what the Steelers are good at.

• 1:31:29Speaker 00

  The only thing.

• 1:31:30Bill Simmons?

  I just don't think they're that good.

• 1:31:31Speaker 04

  They don't even try to go deep. It's like, and Rogers just.

• 1:31:35Bill Simmons?

  The more tape you get on them, the more you're like, oh, they do these four things, you know?

• 1:31:38Speaker 00

  The only thing you can point to is the Colts defense is super susceptible to tight ends. They're one of the worst, you know, defenses against tight ends.

• 1:31:46Bill Simmons?

  How about giant tall big tight ends? How are they against those guys?

• 1:31:49Speaker 00

  Pittsburgh loves to, Pittsburgh has five tight ends. It seems like, you know, like.

• 1:31:53Bill Simmons?

  Well, they run that tight end Parmesan, Robert Zip.

• 1:31:57Speaker 00

  Offense. Yeah.

• 1:31:58Bill Simmons?

  Sufle.

• 1:31:59Speaker 00

  Parmesan.

• 1:32:00Bill Simmons?

  Robert.

• 1:32:01Speaker 04

  Yeah, carrot.

• 1:32:02Bill Simmons?

  The Colts is going to be one of my picks only because I think getting it at three, I think sounds great.

• 1:32:06Speaker 00

  It's your pick. I just want to say, I can't make a case for the Steelers other than just the voodoo that we watch. That's all.

• 1:32:14Bill Simmons?

  It's the, it's the fucking typical Pittsburgh at home bullshit where they do this.

• 1:32:18Speaker 00

  That's right.

• 1:32:18Bill Simmons?

  Field goal hits it upright.

• 1:32:19Speaker 00

  That's the case. I have no case to make.

• 1:32:22Bill Simmons?

  Running down the field and his knee hits the ball and it bounces up in the air and the Steelers recover. But we thought that was going to happen last week and it never happened.

• 1:32:28Speaker 04

  Well, you look at the numbers for the Colts offense and it's astronomical, like the best rushing team, the best passing team, the best, like Alec Pierce leads the league in receiving yards, you know, per catch. Like it, it's, you know, it's.

• 1:32:42Bill Simmons?

  They're a nightmare. They can do everything. They can throw deep because they're short. They got Warren.

• 1:32:47Speaker 04

  Rookie who's the best tight end in football. So it's like, what the hell? And an amazing offensive line with a Hall of Famer.

• 1:32:53Bill Simmons?

  I honestly think this line's a miracle. I think this line should be minus four.

• 1:32:56Speaker 04

  I think they win by 20.

• 1:32:58Speaker 00

  Daniel Jones is an RPO savant. Like this is the mode, the best function. Now, I know I watched it on ESPN today. You were, you got to watch a lot of it. You were there.

• 1:33:09Bill Simmons?

  All right, two more. Just quickly, Bears Bengals, Bears minus, it's set at minus two and a half in Cincinnati. Cincy's defense, the thing I look at, I don't know if I've ever seen a defense that's bottom three in all the categories. Like, there's not one where they're like 28th. It's just, there's a three in front of every number. Pass, run, first down efficiency, third day, like, it's, it's across the board. And then they can't run the ball either, the 31st and run.

• 1:33:40Speaker 04

  They don't try to run the ball. They don't even give the ball to Chase Brown.

• 1:33:42Bill Simmons?

  Flacco's like Chinese food in the fridge. It's fun for like two days, but two weeks, gets a little gamey. And, and I think the Bears could be the good, bad team. They win this game. They're four and three right now. They win this game. They play the Giants next week. They play Minnesota at Minnesota and then Pittsburgh. Like, as crazy as this sounds, they could be eight and three after, and I don't even think the Bears are that good.

• 1:34:05Speaker 04

  No.

• 1:34:06Bill Simmons?

  Please talk me out of this, because I want to bet on Caleb Williams.

• 1:34:09Speaker 04

  Well, I, it's hard to roll with the, like, Trey Hendrickson, limited in practice, you know, obviously, he's on the trade block potentially. Logan Wilson might want out. He's, he's not practicing. And then Joe Flacco shows up on the injury report with a shoulder injury. So you might be going back to Jake Browning if Flacco can't go. So that, that loss, that loss to the Jets, I mean, I got emotional. I knew, obviously, what was going into that game with not only the Jets, what, what was, you know, their own needs, but with the mangled stuff was like real. Like, that was a wild morning to wake up to that news. And the Jets rallied around that. But that is an inexcusable loss at home of, of that many points to the Jets with Justin Fields and no Garrett Wilson and no Sauce

• 1:34:52Speaker 04

  Gardner. I, I can't pick you in good faith after that, that performance. And I'll add this. We always kill the coaches for time management. Aaron Glenn, who has been the joke of New York for his time management. Bill, did you see what he did down, down, I love it how it's like, like a David Chang, perfect. Down eight, down eight, they go for two to cut it to six. Everyone's freaking out. What are you doing? What are you doing? And then they won in regulation. They like did the analytics the right way, which everyone preaches and no coaches ever actually do. He did it when they were down two touchdowns and then one touchdown. They got the two-point conversion on both of them and it actually worked out. They won in regulation and it's like Aaron Glenn claps to you.

• 1:35:34Bill Simmons?

  It's one of those things when you bet on the other team and the team does it and gets it and they're down six, you just automatically think you're gonna lose. It's like, oh my God, I was up 14, now I'm going to lose.

• 1:35:44Speaker 00

  I had the Jets on the money line in that game.

• 1:35:46Speaker 04

  Did you really? Before the Mangle or after the Mangle passing news? Because to me, that totally shifted my entire approach to this game.

• 1:35:53Speaker 00

  I will confess that I hadn't, I didn't factor in the Mangle aspect of it. Um, no, I hadn't.

• 1:35:58Bill Simmons?

  House just loves betting on bad QBs at home.

• 1:36:00Speaker 00

  It was very hard. It was a tough card last week, finding underdogs that I felt like could win outright. But the Bengals, Jets was like, okay, these teams are not that far apart. That was really it.

• 1:36:11Speaker 04

  See, Bengals were coming off an all-time win on the Steelers, a long 10-day break. Jets, Jets on, how did you even think, give me the Jets. That's an incredible bet.

• 1:36:21Speaker 00

  All the guys missing, yes. Nobody's gonna know who the hell any of these Jets are. Let me have it. Yes.

• 1:36:28Bill Simmons?

  Bengals are bad. Um, last game, Seahawks minus three at Washington. So this line, it wasn't gonna be on my card. Yeah, it was three when we locked the lines. It went from three and a half to three, which was a game changer.

• 1:36:42Speaker 04

  Why? Because of Jaden?

• 1:36:45Bill Simmons?

  I don't know what happened. People like, because Jaden Daniels might play.

• 1:36:48Speaker 04

  McLaurin was out.

• 1:36:49Bill Simmons?

  McLaurin's out.

• 1:36:50Speaker 04

  I don't, why would, why would anyone even think?

• 1:36:53Speaker 00

  Why would it go the other direction? Why wouldn't it be Seattle by four or four and a half?

• 1:36:57Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 1:36:58Bill Simmons?

  Seattle's first in DVOA, which is notable.

• 1:37:02Bill Simmons?

  Third in yards per play offensively, first against the run, second against yards per play with defense. Uh, Washington's defense house, I would describe it much like you, old and slow.

• 1:37:12Speaker 00

  That's not nice.

• 1:37:13Speaker 04

  That's mean.

• 1:37:14Bill Simmons?

  Well, much like me too, we're old.

• 1:37:16Speaker 00

  I can guard my, my man, I can't really guard him. He goes right by me.

• 1:37:20Bill Simmons?

  You're bottom 10 in every category. I'm trying to think what the case for Washington is without McLaurin. And it comes down to, it's a kitchen sink game. And Darnold on the road and that's, is there any other case?

• 1:37:35Speaker 04

  I have no case. I, they have a long break here. The last time they played, I was there. It feels like it was a month ago. They, they beat the Texans in Monday night. Um, I was at Monday night, Kansas City, Washington. They started off okay, but like, Washington is the oldest roster in football. And last year they put these pieces in and it worked. Like, all of those guys were perfect for the position group rooms. This year, all of those guys, they, they look like the oldest team in football. And I gotta say, the two best addition, like Tunsil and Debo are actually playing well this year. Those guys are really good. And Wild Bill in the backfield is really good.

• 1:38:08Bill Simmons?

  Incredible.

• 1:38:09Speaker 04

  It, they've got, they've got guys who are playing, it just, they don't have that same juice. They don't have that same mojo. And I, just watching them last week, I, I can't in good faith say that just because Jaden's back, they're suddenly gonna get that, that thing back. It feels like last year, they were way ahead of schedule. Everything went their way. And this year, we're starting to see a regression and it might be, hey, they actually have the oldest roster in football and it's starting to show.

• 1:38:33Bill Simmons?

  What are your thoughts, House? It's your favorite team?

• 1:38:35Speaker 00

  Um, I've been on this show, every show that anybody put me on, saying that I think this Washington team, um, the ceiling for them is six wins. They, they were, uh, they, they could not lose the Chicago game. That was, that was the season. And it will, we will look back and it's funny. Chicago last year had their season derailed by Washington with that Hail Mary pass. Washington went all the way to the NFC championship game. This season, Washington hosts Chicago. Chicago comes in and gets the win right at the end. Off of a turnover by Jaden Daniels with three minutes left. He can't catch the wet ball. Yep.

• 1:39:12Speaker 04

  We did the hindsight, House. I got a question. We did it with J.J. McCarthy. Would you pay Terry McLaurin now, after seeing what we've got this season? Would you pay him that huge contract he got? We know team leader, all that stuff. But he's paid as if he's one of the best wide receivers in the league. Yeah, they had to.

• 1:39:26Speaker 00

  I never, I never had any issue with it. I mean, it's like, we're trying to establish an identity, a new culture. You have to remember, we're fighting 25 years of a, of a devil. We're trying to get Satan. Be gone, Satan. Be gone, Satan. One of the ways you. Do that is to pay a guy who's a stand up guy who who straddled both of the regimes. Right. And and he is a team leader for a team that made it to an NFC championship game. It is a contract that is a reward, not a prospective.

• 1:39:52Speaker 04

  That's a great take.

• 1:39:53Speaker 00

  Deliver on it.

• 1:39:54Speaker 04

  That's what it is. That's what it is.

• 1:39:55Speaker 00

  It's a reward. So thank you. I mean, I I personally say thank you to Terry McLaurin.

• 1:40:01Bill Simmons?

  Shriggs has a holdout ever worked where the guy came back and was awesome?

• 1:40:05Speaker 04

  No.

• 1:40:05Bill Simmons?

  Has that ever happened in the history of football?

• 1:40:07Speaker 04

  No, I I don't have any.

• 1:40:09Bill Simmons?

  Basketball or any sport.

• 1:40:10Speaker 04

  Emmitt Smith.

• 1:40:11Bill Simmons?

  Legler brought this up on Tuesday. I was like, that's such a good point. It feels like we're oh for a million.

• 1:40:15Speaker 04

  And it was they were oh and two. Emmitt took him to the brink and then he came back and was the best running back in football. And I guess 93 when he did that. That's the last one I remember. But like for all the millions of August, Good Morning Football shows where we're detailing Jade, Jade, David and Clowney's, you know, you know, holdout. What's the latest? Like, I don't remember any of these guys ever coming out and being what they were supposed to be before they got the money.

• 1:40:37Speaker 00

  Levion, Bill.

• 1:40:37Bill Simmons?

  All right. So we're going to figure out rigor 107 here.

• 1:40:40Speaker 04

  The whole season, Levion. That's crazy.

• 1:40:43Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, that was tough. We're putting the Bills in a parlay and I'm going to give you three options. Bills plus four and a half with the Chargers money line against Tennessee. That's minus 118. Chargers pack money line, both have to win with the Bills plus six and a half. That's minus 119. Packers would have to beat Carolina at home. Chargers would have to beat Tennessee. That's option two. Option number three, Chargers money line. Lions money line.

• 1:41:20Bill Simmons?

  Bills plus seven and a half against I knew House would like that.

• 1:41:24Speaker 00

  Finally, finally we got to a number.

• 1:41:26Bill Simmons?

  Some RB steak tips on top of it.

• 1:41:29Speaker 00

  Big nuggets. If they call them tips, I think they'd be flying off the shelf.

• 1:41:33Bill Simmons?

  Here's one of the many things I like. So we get to bed against JJ McCarthy. Or whoever's playing for Minnesota. We get that chart. We get to bet against Tennessee again and then Bills plus seven and a half shriggs. Gives us like cheap touchdown potential, gives us the Chiefs can't run the clock out because their running backs are Kareem Hunt and that other guy and Mahomes trying to run on. So it just kind of keeps the Bills hanging around, which I think would be fun to root for. House is so happy. You're gonna do this bet. I can feel it.

• 1:42:03Speaker 00

  Well, you're giving me a heart attack. I need, you finally got to a number with the Bills where I'm comfortable because to me it's a seven point swing on, on either side. I can count in seven either way. But so give me the seven and a half, four and a half doesn't do anything for me. Six and a half doesn't get you there. Seven and a half. Now we're there.

• 1:42:20Speaker 04

  You like that. You like that.

• 1:42:21Bill Simmons?

  Chargers, Lions, money lines, Bills plus seven and a half. Good to go.

• 1:42:25Speaker 00

  Great.

• 1:42:25Bill Simmons?

  Texans minus one and a half against Denver. Shriggs didn't love this one, but House and I, this was our favorite bet.

• 1:42:31Speaker 04

  I don't.

• 1:42:32Speaker 00

  Shriggs is a Peyton guy.

• 1:42:33Speaker 04

  I am.

• 1:42:34Speaker 00

  It's fine.

• 1:42:34Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, he's a, we, yeah, I don't totally trust.

• 1:42:37Speaker 04

  Broncos and Rams.

• 1:42:38Bill Simmons?

  Too many meals with Sean Payton.

• 1:42:40Speaker 04

  They might be undefeated this year, both of them. Broncos and Rams. Just my, I have my love for my Sean's.

• 1:42:44Bill Simmons?

  Yep. Colts minus three against the Steelers in Pittsburgh. We're grabbing this.

• 1:42:48Speaker 04

  I like that.

• 1:42:50Bill Simmons?

  This is gonna be my pick.

• 1:42:51Speaker 00

  I've heard my cautions. That's all.

• 1:42:53Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:42:53Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, that's all right. I'll take it for mine. Seahawks, they are minus three against Washington. And we're gonna grab that. And then last but not least, Bears minus two and a half against the Bengals.

• 1:43:10Speaker 04

  We got two and a half. That's a great number. That's a great number.

• 1:43:13Bill Simmons?

  Three road favorites, unfortunately.

• 1:43:15Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 1:43:17Bill Simmons?

  But there's nine home underdogs on the slate. So what are we gonna do?

• 1:43:20Speaker 00

  It's a funky week. I'm pro football Hall of Famer Brian Dawkins, and I lived for a long time with something I did not know the name of, major depressive disorder. I carry sadness and anger because I thought I could handle it alone, but I couldn't. Now I want to make sure others know that that support is out there. If you're experiencing similar symptoms, talk to a healthcare professional. Visit MDDAllies.com to watch my story.

• 1:43:47Speaker 01

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• 1:43:59Speaker 02

  I needed more from my antidepressant. So my doctor added Caplyta, lumateperone, proven to provide greater relief from depression symptoms than an antidepressant alone, building on my progress without starting over. Caplyta is for adults with major depressive disorder when used with an antidepressant and is available by prescription only. Individual results may vary. In clinical trials, weight gain was not common.

• 1:44:19Speaker 01

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• 1:44:46Speaker 02

  Ask your doctor about Caplyta. Learn more at caplyta.com or call 888-252-4824.

• 1:44:52Bill Simmons?

  This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Football has a play for just about everything. And whether it's a flea flicker or a tush push, you need a plan that fits your unique situation. That's why State Farm takes the time to get to know you, so they can help personalize coverage for your life and for your budget. Now, that's a solid game plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. So, Ringer 107, brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Final picks, Chargers money line, Lions money line with Bills plus seven and a half, Texans minus one and a half, at home against the Broncos. Shreggs is nervous, but you did get to see that defense in person.

• 1:45:28Speaker 04

  They were awesome.

• 1:45:28Bill Simmons?

  Hats on the ball.

• 1:45:30Speaker 04

  A great line from D'Amico Ryan, what he said, he goes, you know, "We're gonna hit you. We're gonna play this way. We're very aggressive." And he goes, and I tell the guys, "If they don't like playing this way, that's cool with me. You just won't be a Houston Texan." And I was like, "Oh, my God. I must got out of the room. Let's go."

• 1:45:44Bill Simmons?

  Nice. So we got Texans. House is excited that we're get to bed against the Titans and J.J. McCarthy with the Bills. That's two. Colts minus three against the Steelers. Just, this might be our last chance to ride the best offense in the league before people realize, like, holy shit.

• 1:46:01Speaker 04

  Do you remember 99 with the Rams? Like, where they came out? Nowhere and it was like

• 1:46:04Bill Simmons?

  I remember betting on it. It was great.

• 1:46:07Speaker 04

  And it was like, I had, I remember that was, I was, you know, in college and we had fantasy football and I had all those guys, Warner, Holt, Bruce. And I remember it being like, not until they beat the Niners in week like three or four. And then they kept doing it week after week after week. Is that what we're dealing with here? Is this the 99 greatest show on turf?

• 1:46:21Bill Simmons?

  I remember it's, it's such a good analogy because Warner, I remember all of us didn't trust it until like, it was like, it was about week seven and you're like, all right, the every pass the guy throws is dead on to a guy in stride. At some point, this isn't an accident. Yeah.

• 1:46:40Speaker 04

  That's what this feels like. It came from literally out of nowhere, this Colts offense. No one in a million years in all the predictions.

• 1:46:45Bill Simmons?

  They were so fast. And there's some good parallels with that because Fok and Jonathan Taylor just being like these all world running backs. But the Rams were slightly better receivers. They were on turf. Seahawks minus three over Washington is our fourth pick. And then, uh, so we're riding Texans, Seahawks. Those are your two best defenses. Anybody else you would have in there?

• 1:47:07Speaker 04

  Defensively, the Colts are really good turnover and all that stuff, but they're not in that conversation.

• 1:47:12Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 1:47:13Speaker 04

  Denver.

• 1:47:13Bill Simmons?

  Texans, Seahawks, best.

• 1:47:14Speaker 00

  Would have been the Broncos, but was probably third. Not with Surtan out.

• 1:47:18Speaker 04

  Denver, Houston, Seattle are my defenses. And gosh, Seattle was good on that Monday night game that I saw them.

• 1:47:24Bill Simmons?

  And then the fifth pick, Bears minus two and a half at Cincinnati. House, if Caleb lets us down here, um, I'm gonna be upset.

• 1:47:33Speaker 04

  Kyler Murray's zone.

• 1:47:34Speaker 00

  He's not gonna do it.

• 1:47:35Bill Simmons?

  Be upset. He would be Kyler Murray for us after that. He would be on the D N B, D N B list. Triggs, did you have any thoughts on my, my crazy prediction that Tyson Bajin will be the Bears starter by week 13?

• 1:47:46Speaker 04

  I heard it.

• 1:47:47Bill Simmons?

  Even conceivable?

• 1:47:48Speaker 04

  Well, you, you did lay it out that they paid him a lot of money to come back as the backup. Everyone loves him. His dad is a professional arm wrestler. There's this great story there, but I don't think they would. Bench Caleb, it would have to be like Caleb got hurt. This guy did great. And it's all we had to make a decision. That's how I look at it.

• 1:48:03Bill Simmons?

  Okay, that was the Ringer 107. It was brought to you by FanDuel. Odds subject to change. We have House for five more minutes. Shriggs, what, any last topic for you? Is there a new Barclays Pizza?

• 1:48:16Speaker 00

  Let's go on the 107. He didn't give us a 107. Let's go. We need a that.

• 1:48:20Bill Simmons?

  He gives the let's goes to McAfee now. I saw it.

• 1:48:24Speaker 04

  Have you had Lu Cali?

• 1:48:25Speaker 00

  Lu Cali, yeah, of course. I've had Lu Cali. That's a question for me. No, I bet he hasn't. I bet he hasn't. Have you had Lu Cali in Brooklyn?

• 1:48:33Speaker 04

  Ooh, your next trip. We got, we got you on this one. So Mark Iacano is the, no relation to Sal, I don't think, is the proprietor. It's this little shop in Cobble Hill or Carroll Gardens. The line is out the door, only about eight tables, very hard to get a seat. My son's eighth birthday or ninth birthday last week, took him to Lu Cali. We got in there, calzone pizza, no, no alcohol. You bring your own and it's only cash and it's a sit down. And Bill, I would tell you, only cash. We're not going to have any accounting for any of this stuff. Bill, I think it's one of the greatest meals I've ever had. And I'm not looking for a table or anything from those guys. Trust me, they're not worried about me. We gotta go next time you come in town.

• 1:49:16Bill Simmons?

  House, what's, what's your ideal calzone? Is there anything special that needs to happen with the calzone?

• 1:49:21Speaker 00

  It's gotta have spicy meat inside of it because you know, you're dealing with a mass, right? With the, with the dough and the way the cheese is like, you know, it's, it's a, it's a big, like it's a big carbo boat, boat kind of thing. So give me something that's gonna get a little bite to it. And that's like a nice sausage.

• 1:49:38Speaker 04

  Sauce. The sauce. And, and I am such a calzone fan. I love better goat. I love it all. I think it's so good. And I think it's the most underrated food. Everyone loves their chicken parm. Everyone loves their pizza. A good calzone, I usually put pepperoni in there. I don't know. Is that?

• 1:49:53Speaker 00

  That's exactly right. Right down there. That's exactly right.

• 1:49:56Speaker 04

  Drown it in that marinara sauce. And I'll tell you, this is not a commercial for that place or any, but even just talking to you two, talking about a good calzone has me ready to run through a wall. Let's go.

• 1:50:08Bill Simmons?

  I feel like in general, especially with the, with the, with the Uber Eats orders or whatever you're using. I always feel like they're light on the extra, the side of the tomato sauce. Like if I'm getting the chicken parm, I want like a big ass thing of tomato sauce next to it that I can pour all over the chicken parm.

• 1:50:24Speaker 04

  Sometimes on these DoorDash and the Uber Eats, you've got to go to that extra thing where it's like sides and they'll have like a 50 cent extra sauce. I'll put seven of those in there.

• 1:50:32Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 1:50:32Speaker 04

  Just, just give me seven of them. It's worth the $7. Whatever it is, I'm in.

• 1:50:36Bill Simmons?

  And how, with the Chinese food, why don't they just put the mustard in?

• 1:50:41Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:50:41Bill Simmons?

  I know you have the hot mustard.

• 1:50:42Speaker 00

  Never.

• 1:50:43Bill Simmons?

  Put it in the fucking order. Just throw it in the bag. They never do. They act like it's.

• 1:50:46Speaker 00

  Never do. It's the rarest commodity. It's like it's gold. It's liquid gold to the Chinese.

• 1:50:52Speaker 04

  I was the kid, like 12 year old kid with the noodles before the meal. I would be dipping it in the hot mustard. Everyone else is going duck sauce. I was a hot mustard guy.

• 1:50:59Speaker 00

  The flavor of the mustard, what it does for your palate, it sets you up for the rest of the meal. Let's go. All the vinegar in that.

• 1:51:05Bill Simmons?

  People don't realize it, it would get rid of COVID.

• 1:51:09Speaker 04

  Hot mustard did.

• 1:51:10Speaker 00

  Could have. Probably did.

• 1:51:11Bill Simmons?

  If you ate enough hot mustard at certain Chinese restaurants, your COVID just disappeared. It just killed it. It was better than the vaccine.

• 1:51:18Speaker 00

  I can't talk about it.

• 1:51:19Bill Simmons?

  No, I love that. I, the mustard is my favorite and they always skimp on it. It's weird because then other things.

• 1:51:24Speaker 00

  You don't even get it.

• 1:51:26Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, it's true.

• 1:51:28Speaker 04

  I had a great dining experience last spring. Uh, again, we're naming restaurants. These are not to get hookups or anything. Trust me. I just.

• 1:51:34Speaker 00

  They could be.

• 1:51:35Speaker 04

  Have you been to Charleston House? Have you been to Hall's Chop House in Charleston?

• 1:51:40Speaker 00

  I don't, I've been to Charleston. Uh, I haven't been to Hall's. I don't know it.

• 1:51:43Speaker 04

  This is my favorite dining experience, maybe in the last 10 years. I felt like a gentleman. The service was incredible. The food was incredible. The steaks were incredible. I came away from that meal saying, okay, you know, when you have that truly epic meal, I have nothing to gain from this. I'm not going to Charleston anytime soon. Not doing a commercial for them. Hall's Chop House, Charleston. Bill, I gotta get you down there.

• 1:52:04Bill Simmons?

  House, when's, when's the latest you can eat steak where it becomes dangerous for you as an old guy in your 50s?

• 1:52:11Speaker 00

  You mean like at night?

• 1:52:13Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 1:52:14Speaker 00

  Doesn't matter. I'm fine. I can eat.

• 1:52:16Bill Simmons?

  You're just going regardless.

• 1:52:17Speaker 00

  I give a midnight filet.

• 1:52:18Bill Simmons?

  Red meat past like 8:30 gets, gets potentially a little.

• 1:52:22Speaker 00

  I get it.

• 1:52:23Bill Simmons?

  Really miss, I wish we had taken advantage of our twenties more.

• 1:52:25Speaker 04

  I know.

• 1:52:26Bill Simmons?

  I know.

• 1:52:26Speaker 00

  Like we kind of did.

• 1:52:27Bill Simmons?

  I mean, I guess I did with all the cigarettes and Jack and Cokes.

• 1:52:30Speaker 00

  Like we did. Did okay.

• 1:52:32Bill Simmons?

  All right, House, go drive your kid to basketball practice.

• 1:52:35Speaker 00

  Can't wait.

• 1:52:35Bill Simmons?

  Good luck to him. Shreigs, a true pleasure.

• 1:52:38Speaker 04

  It's so fun coming back.

• 1:52:39Bill Simmons?

  Give us a let's go, just for a time.

• 1:52:41Speaker 04

  Let's go.

• 1:52:41Speaker 00

  Let's go.

• 1:52:42Bill Simmons?

  Good to see you.

• 1:52:43Speaker 04

  You're the best, dude.

• 1:52:44Bill Simmons?

  Keep in touch. Uh, thank you, fellas.

• 1:52:46Speaker 00

  Love you, Shreigs.

• 1:52:47Speaker 04

  Appreciate it. House, you're the man.

• 1:52:50Bill Simmons?

  All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to House and Shreigs. Thanks to Gao and Eduardo as well. Rewatch was coming on Monday. We're doing the Truman Show, so don't forget to watch that over the weekend if you haven't seen that already. And thanks to the LA Times for an awesome, awesome story today about the negligence and all the bad leadership and all the dumb stuff that happened that led to the Palisades fire. And I would encourage people to go online and read the piece. Um, this is still a massive story, obviously, in Southern California, and I don't think the ineptitude has has been properly covered. So I urge you to go read that, and I hope people keep reporting about it and writing about what exactly

• 1:53:32Bill Simmons?

  happened here and how preventable all of this was. So I'm gonna leave you with that for the weekend. Enjoy the weekend. I will see you on Sunday.

• 1:53:52Bill Simmons?

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• 1:54:25Bill Simmons?

  This episode is brought to you by 7-Up. Okay, this one's a case for conspiracy bill. Let's bring them in. Ever noticed lemon is everywhere? From lemon recipes to lemon-scented cleaning supplies? And when it comes to lemon lime sodas? Why is lemon always first? There's a reason. A shadowy organization called the A Lemonade has been padding the stats, keeping big lemon in the lead for decades. But let me tell you something. The sip is about to be flipped. 7-Up is fighting back, swapping lemon lime for their new Lime Lemon Soda. Now lime comes first. 7-Up, flip the sip. This episode is brought to you by Core Power Protein Shakes. You know how we always talk about the little things that separate great athletes? Post-workout recovery is a big factor. Core Power Protein Shakes help you keep going

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