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

23:30Bill Simmons:I have a league where I have Bowers, Tyreek Hill, and Mike Evans, who made this amazing catch yesterday, dropped the ball, rolled over, and died for like five minutes. It was awful. The rare broken shoulder and concussion in the same play. It was just like, is he going to get up? Yeah. All right, we're going to talk about the NFL season. We have a really dumb gimmick draft that we're going to do. But before we did that, Danny Kelly, you're Seattle Seahawks. You were the only ones. You don't want to talk about it. I thought you were going to bring up the Mariners, yeah. How you're up 3-1 in the seventh inning to go to the World Series for the first time.

24:08Yeah, we don't need to talk about that.

24:09Bill Simmons:Third and second, you pitched to George Springer who has 22 postseason home runs, now 23. I'm not going to bring that up. That was tough. What a magical ride for the Mariners. It was fun. I will say that. It was a really fun playoff run. I mean, it's going to be memorable. in the team lore and everything like that. Definitely brutal to end that way, but so many great memories. You know, the Suarez Grand Slam the other day. I went to that 15-inning game. He's still shaking. It's like, man. But yeah, I was like... Yeah, he was at the 15-inning game, which is awesome. They should have gone after Springer's other knee.

24:42That was the problem, I think. I know. It had to be Springer, didn't it?

24:45Danny Heifetz:He was actually pissed about the Otani, the best baseball game ever played, because he felt like it overshadowed the memories. His best baseball game. Yeah, that's what I said. Yeah.

24:54Bill Simmons:Well, I thought if it was going to be a one-run game in Game 7, I thought Mariners every time with the Blue Jays bullpen, the whole thing, but somehow it didn't work out. Yeah. Tough one. The two expansion teams. I'm old enough to remember when they joined the league in 1976. It's like, look at these two clowns, Toronto and Seattle. What the hell are they going to do? But yeah, so that was the closest you've come. Yeah, the only team now in the majors have not been to the World Series. Unbelievable. I really thought you had a better team. What do I know? Wow. Well, on the bright side, the Seattle Seahawks, a team that we were both high on heading into the season.

25:29Bill Simmons:I think even Mina, I don't feel like she gets to jump on the bandwagon for this. I feel like she was pretty positive, generally speaking. Yeah, pretty positive. We were not as confident on the Darnold thing, I think, even though I thought the Seahawks' defense was going to be really good. Well, they're 5-2, and so now plus 270 odds for the division. Is that our best division? NFC West? Because the Cardinals are probably the best 2-5 or under team. They've been in a lot of these games. Yeah, I would say so. Let's see the AFC West, maybe.

26:00Danny Heifetz:If Brissette's playing, it's the best division in football. Yeah. Kyler. With Brissette? 3-4 is not bad.

26:06Bill Simmons:What's been the biggest surprise for seven weeks for you, non-Giants related?

26:11Danny Heifetz:I mean, non-Giants related, still Giants related. Daniel Jones being 6-1 and just looking. I mean, the Giants released Daniel Jones 11 months ago, he just is six and one. And I rooted for Daniel Jones for six seasons. Nobody said anything nice about him that wasn't a Giants fan for six years. And I could keep waiting for just like a flood of public apologies from everybody. But Daniel Jones looks like a completely different player in some ways. I don't understand how he's so accurate now.

26:37Bill Simmons:Was he accurate on the Giants? Or like, how do you explain that?

26:42Danny Heifetz:I'm a big believer that like, I think there's a certain group of quarterbacks that had injuries that weren't quite the same after the injury. We don't talk about them that way. Carson Wentz after, the ACL, and he had a bad concussion with the Eagles and then was never the same. Marcus Marotta had a nerve injury to his throwing arm. No one talks about it that way. Jones had not just a knee injury, but a neck injury, and his deep balls, his arm strength, everything was totally sapped, combined with just bad production and all this stuff. I used to joke that I worried about him walking through Hoboken.

27:07Danny Heifetz:I thought he'd get hit by a cab. He had no pocket awareness, couldn't see anything around him. But I think he's actually a lot like Darnold, where you look at Darnold, and even four or five years ago, he's bouncing around the Vikings, the Niners, the Panthers, and Darnold couldn't, sometimes a guy like Jaden Daniels, it feels like the game is slowed down for him in two weeks. And I think Daniel Jones this year is like Darnold last year, where it took six years, but the game is slower for him. And you can tell that he just sees receivers later in the play. And he's not losing track of what's happening on the field, even four or five seconds in the play.

27:37Bill Simmons:That all sounds great, Craig, but it's Daniel Jones. Like at some point, this makes no sense. We said that about Darnold and he's doing it again. I think at a certain point, if the fit is right, the fit is right. Also, these guys are wide open on the cold. Tyler Warren, there's never anybody within five yards. Yes, what Steichen is doing. Steichen, there's a reason why he's the leading candidate for coach of the year. It's just all working. The line is working. Everyone's open. And Daniel Jones is competent enough to do all that. Yeah, I was shocked. I said this to Sal Sunday night. It's second.

28:05Bill Simmons:You have them second and 10. You just feel like they're getting eight to nine yards. Like, it's just guaranteed that somebody's going to be wide open or Taylor's going to slash through. All their pieces work, too. Like, they have their deep threat guy with Alec Pierce, who's good. You have Tyler Warren, who's like this big tight end. Michael Pittman's good on the outside. Josh Downs is an overqualified slot wide receiver. Jonathan Taylor's the best running back in the league. The line is good. It's like, yeah.

28:24Danny Heifetz:They can run, they can pass. It's an argument also for like stability and keeping the GM. I think Chris Ballard was one of the GMs that people were maybe going to be out of. He wouldn't pick a quarterback. Richardson bombed out. Like there's a world where Chris Ballard gets fired at the end of last season. They keep him. And you're like, oh, all these players who are balling out are homegrown players. The Lions homegrown, the players. The weirdest part is that it was reportedly like a tough QB competition in August between Richardson and Daniel Jones. apparently it was tight how is that possible weird stuff happens i think they were lying yeah i think they were lying because they jumped on jones pretty quickly to make richardson feel better to make daniel jones work harder i think the idea was daniel jones was like they were just supposed to like make richardson jealous and they were just as shocked as anybody that it's working this well i don't think i mean i think that's one of the reasons the titans fired brian callahan is i'm sure the titans out on their list should we sign daniel jones and have him compete with cam ward and the titans brian callahan probably said no he's no good and now he's leading the colts the 6-1 record.

29:16Danny Heifetz:Like, all these teams could add him. Can you blame Callahan, though? I feel like most teams would say that. The Colt are just in a terrible situation. He was so good. He was so good. He signed with the Vikings during last season, and nobody was like, oh, savvy. Smart move. Example 7 ,691 in the NFL. That success in the NFL is really hard to explain. And even the Ravens took a tight end before Lamar Jackson in the draft. Like, even the teams themselves sometimes don't have any clue of how successful something will be. Well, the craziest thing to me about Daniel Jones is, like, Heifetz was talking about, he was worried about him crossing the street because he just didn't have the pocket awareness.

29:48Daniel Jones has taken very few sacks. The least in the league, I believe, percentage-wise. And I want to say I saw a stat the other day that they haven't taken any sacks on third or fourth down this year, which is incredible for a guy like Daniel Jones. I never would have guessed that for Daniel Jones.

30:02Danny Heifetz:And I know we have a whole category thing to do here. The term deer in the headlights is overused, but it actually is applicable because what actually happens to a deer is the eyes are really adjusted to the darkness and then the headlights are like the brightest thing possible. So the reason the deer freezes is it's no matter what it is. And having the scientific explanation behind that. But it's just you in the bathroom at night, you wake up and you turn the lights on, you're like, oh, like you're a deer in the headlights. That's it. And it literally takes your eyes time to adjust to the light.

30:25Danny Heifetz:That's kind of pressure in the NFL. Quarterbacks, like you see the pressure and everything just, it's that moment in the bathroom between the morning, you just can't see anything. And when Darnold, it does feel like sometimes like the light comes on in their head, but really they just aren't, their eyes are adjusting to pressure and they're able to see a pass rusher and they don't lose track of like, oh, there's Michael Pittman. on a cornerback four inches shorter than him, and he gets in the ball. That's why you don't turn the lights on when you pee in the middle of the night. You got to just keep them off.

30:49He sits down while he pees. I do. In the middle of the night, you got to sit down and pee.

30:53Bill Simmons:100%. I've heard you talk about this in the pod. Is this a bit, or do you actually do this? Of course. You're standing and peeing at two in the morning? Is it a sitzpinkler? Is it? What's it? It's a German word for it. It's a German word. If we bring back the hottest take, though, I got a lot. I'm sitting on a lot. The Germans sit when they pee, too. You're sitting on a lot. P-sitters. That should have been your fantasy team name. Sits pinklers. My biggest surprise might be Craig's biggest pleasant surprise is that Aaron Rodgers is still good. I completely wrote it off. It wasn't a bit. I just watched him last year, and it was like, this guy doesn't have it.

31:25Bill Simmons:He doesn't want to get hit anymore. This is a wrap. He just wants to get rid of the ball in two seconds. Even when they played the Patriots, I didn't think he played that well. I just thought he wanted to get rid of the ball. He could only make two throws. the way he played the last two weeks really looked like Rodgers. Like, I don't really have an explanation for it. Now, you could pick the Steelers apart in all these different ways. Like, they're one of those teams that their record could be a lot different with one or two plays. Like, I still don't know how the Patriots didn't beat them. Yeah, their schedule.

31:53But Rodgers looks good, though. He looks great. You have to be delighted. You're a Steelers fan. Incredibly delighted. Everyone's coming around. Like, I feel like we're, what are we, seven weeks in and everyone's like, oh, yeah, Rodgers isn't washed. Like, after all of the vitriol that came out of last year, it'll never work he's terribly ruined all this stuff and now we're just seven weeks in and everyone's like oh yeah he's he's like one of the best five quarterbacks of all time his arm is you just have to count him out and then he'll be good again his baker his arm is still to me like he can make throws that only a few quarterbacks can make in the nfl still right now yeah the

32:22Danny Heifetz:hell mary i mean throwing a ball 70 yards at 41 i mean honestly he's played well enough that and it's what we always joke about but we're not joking where it's the year after after the injury that was the big thing we talked about in the offseason was like he he was coming off a torn your injury guys yeah yeah you can't have a torn achilles he's 40 years old it's bad for tatum i guess yeah yeah well everyone's like oh my god he's on a basketball court five months after i'm like what do you think he's doing it's been five months like kim acres played in the fucking super

32:45Bill Simmons:so peterson's the only guy ever who came back under a year and still looked like himself that i can think of yeah and that was acl the main one yeah i would not for your emotional health count on jason tatum returning to the court i'm trying not to uh i'll say digs digs seems pretty close to where he was, but he's not playing, he's playing 30 snaps. I mean, Rasheed Rice looks good. Torres, was it LCL or ACL last year? It was the LCL. But the Rodgers thing's different because he's in his 40s. And Brady was the only, there was, I saw on a social, there was some unbelievable stat. Brady has the second most, it's either rushing or receiving yards of anyone over 40.

33:23Bill Simmons:Did you guys see that? I think it's receiving yards. Receiving yards. Jerry Rice and Brady. Jerry Rice, Tom Brady,

33:28Danny Heifetz:number two receiver, 40 to over. You got to throw Flacco and Rodgers a pass. I think Rodgers, what's helping as well is that he's willing to play Arthur Smith's game. Like, he's not just doing the, I'm going to sit and shotgun. I'm on the Jets. I brought in Alan Lazard and all my guys, and I'm just going to do that. He's actually, like, running play action. He's under center. He's, like, booting. He looks pretty mobile to me. And I just think we always underestimate what you can do the year after a terrible injury. He looks like what the Jets thought they were getting when they traded for him.

33:56Danny Heifetz:And frankly, they got to be going nuts. Because Adams, too. Adams has looked good on the Rams.

34:00Bill Simmons:They just had to be like, two years later, had these guys. And Fields. And Darnold. I mean, the Steelers got rid of Fields. People thought they should have brought Fields back. Fields is terrible. And Rodgers has been fantastic. But you knew that that Sunday night game was the, that was the spotlight game for him. Where it's like, this guy doesn't matter.

34:12Danny Heifetz:Rodgers versus Green Bay this week,

34:14Bill Simmons:he's going to be biblical.

34:16Danny Heifetz:He's going to have five touchdown passes. But speaking of teams not knowing what they're doing or getting, is like, wasn't, Rodgers was not their first option. He was not their first choice. No, they won Stafford. Stafford. But if you think Rodgers was mad to compete with the Jets in week one. What do you think, Rod? He had 10 days. He's had 10 days to prepare off a loss for the Packers.

34:33Bill Simmons:So Baltimore is plus 135 on Fandle for the AFC North, and Pittsburgh's plus 130. They're basically even. That's crazy. Which is remarkable.

34:41Danny Heifetz:Four and two versus one and five. One one and five team has ever won a division. It's happened one time ever. Technically, two.

34:48Bill Simmons:So the extra game, I think, skews it a whiff, right? But not like that much. Steelers' schedule gets super hard, and the Ravens schedule is pretty easy. But they also play each other twice. But the question for me is, can the Ravens go 9-8? I think so. Starting at 1-5. That's 8-3 the rest of the way, which means then the Steelers, what are you, 4-2 or 5-1? 4-2. 4-2. So you would have to go 5-5, basically. The schedule gets tough. I do think it's going to come down to a Steelers-Ravens game late in the year in the winter. Well, you have it. It's week 18. Yeah, that game will matter. Good. I was like, let's rig that game so it means something.

35:25Bill Simmons:I don't know what voice that was. That was good. I'll do it again.

35:28Danny Heifetz:It was good.

35:29Bill Simmons:I'm going to try not to... A little Dr. Evil-er? I don't know. Bengals plus 470. Harden your nipples at all, Danny? A little bit. It's cold here. A little bit. The Flacco thing? Flacco and the receivers? Yeah. Kind of discount immobile Dak Prescott with his two guys, basically. The AFC version. Pathetic Steelers defensive performance. Maybe the worst I've ever seen in my life. Well, so that's the case against the Steelers, is your defense is not good. And I felt like against the Pats, we should have had 500 yards in that game. We just kept fumbling the ball. If somebody told me that week seven of the NFL, Rodgers is like fourth in touchdown passes and the Steelers, the most expensive defense in the NFL, gets shredded by Joe Flacco.

36:10Yeah. I'd say I was on Mars.

36:13Bill Simmons:Well, what were the odds Rodgers was going to be starting for fantasy teams midway through the season? Because that's a thing that's happening now. For sure.

36:21Danny Heifetz:Low. So Craig actually wanted us to rank them higher, and I personally vetoed it. And I was like, I absolutely refuse. I was like, there's absolutely no way we're ranking Rodgers as the top 20 quarterback. I just kept thinking back to like, the Steelers are not going to be worse with Aaron Rodgers versus Kenny Pickett or Mason Rudolph. Like we had a winning record with those guys. Do you remember, watching Rodgers, you remember why we put up with him for the last like five years?

36:39Bill Simmons:I just can't, with these old guys, I can't figure out how to gauge it anymore. And either prediction, either way, like LeBron right now is Siattica, apparently. Like, yeah, he might just play 20 games this year and this is it. Like, he's like, LeBron's body broke down. He played 6 ,000 minutes. This is what happened. It's usually what should happen. You just don't know what year it's going to be. But it happened. I never thought it happened to Jerry Rice. You guys, were you old enough to remember Jerry? Yeah, a little bit. He was a Seahawks legend Jerry Rice. Best receiver still I've ever seen.

37:07Bill Simmons:Yeah, he had that little Raiders Seahawks era. But I just, it felt like as long as he was going to play, I was like, well, he's Jerry Rice. He'll figure it. And then at some point, he, you know, you hit late age and that it's over. Well, that's the reason they call it an age cliff, you know? It's like just all of a sudden you don't got it anymore.

37:24Danny Heifetz:And it is a cliff, a receiver especially. There's a lot of data on this of like you kind of keep going and then when you fall off, you don't get back. Like, you know, a Mark Cooper just or like deal, like deal away. Rice is so many of those. Rice is the only one where there wasn't a cliff. But that's the thing. The cliff was just at the end. The amazing thing is that with Rodgers, what we're seeing is like there's one thing for Brady to reset the age curve. Derek Henry reset the age curve at running back. Obviously, tennis, Djokovic, all these, every sport like you're having the age reset by someone what's amazing about the Rodgers thing is to tear your Achilles at 40 and then still for 39 and still get back that is like completely new

37:57Bill Simmons:Rice had one of the worst injuries I've ever witnessed in a game on Monday Night Football and Warren Sapp I always had the joke it should have been like a 100 yard penalty it should have been automatic touchdown it was like a reverse or something and Sapp did this clothesline where he almost like exorcist handed him And his knee just like blew out. And this was like Rice at the peak of his powers. And he came back from that and played. Was that 97? Something. It was 96, 97. Yeah, right? Jerry Rice was 35. Yeah. And then five years later, had 1 ,200 yards. That's the point of his career. That's crazy.

38:301 ,000 yards at 40. If a receiver now, it's like Keenan Allen's like 33 and we're like, I don't know. Eight years later, Jerry Rice was still putting up 900 yards in the season.

38:39Bill Simmons:He's a classic, you need better PR guy. Yeah. There's certain great athletes. Yeah. it's just like when people talk about goats and different things like to me rice is clearly rice and lt are just clearly head over heels above anyone else ever i feel like rice has

38:54Danny Heifetz:respect the guy i always think about who doesn't have enough pr i i feel like is barry bonds where i understand that there was a lot of controversy there but he's like avatar for movies where it's like the biggest thing that ever happened has no cultural imprint no one ever talks about it or

39:07Bill Simmons:anything he's certainly of all the baseball players from like the last 35 years is like the first one that jumps into my head for seeing in person other than maybe Pedro. And now Shohei would be the third one. But these guys that you're just like, I remember going to see this person and sitting in the stands and watching how crazy they were. Is there a team, I don't think this question steps on the categories we're about to do. Is there a team that is highly ranked to win the Super Bowl? I'll give you the top seven odds. Kansas City, Detroit, Buffalo, Green Bay, Philly, Indianapolis, Rams. Denver and Baltimore, all the 20-100 teams.

39:46Bill Simmons:Is there a team you're just like, I don't see it? I don't see them putting it together in the next 12 weeks, Danny? I mean, in that group, I probably would circle the Broncos. Because of Knicks? Yeah. I mean, after three quarters of just this last Sunday, we were like, Broncos are on fraud watch. And then, of course, they went and scored 33 points. Sorry. But that would probably be... No, I forgot. So thanks. I completely forgot about that. Sorry, Danny. So I would probably circle them. What do you have, Craig? Yeah, Broncos is a good one. I don't know. I've been a little bit unimpressed with the Packers this year.

40:19I feel like the Micah Parsons trade, everybody said Packers, Super Bowl favorites. They start the year by beating the Lions. And then since then, I've been kind of unimpressed. I mean, they lost to the Browns. They tied the Cowboys. They barely beat Jacoby Brissett and the Cardinals. I don't know. I still think like the Jordan Love. I don't know if I'm there yet. That's my team too.

40:36Bill Simmons:It's like watching an NBA team where you're like, I like those guys. I like this guy. I like that guy. Why aren't they winning? Why are they down 10? Yeah.

40:43Danny Heifetz:The Ravens are top 10 in Super Bowl odds and they're one in five. Yeah, that's a good answer. If they were five in one with the injuries they had, that would make sense.

40:50Bill Simmons:Good answer. All right, we'll take a break and then we're going to do, I don't even know what to title this game. This episode is brought to you by TikTok. Did you know you can use TikTok to connect even more with the sports you love? It's not just highlights, it's everything around the game, including the sports community. Find breakdowns of classic basketball plays, deep dives on baseball stats, even videos on how athletes train and recover. There are people teaching strategy, sports, history, even ways to improve your jump shot. It's kind of like the biggest locker room ever and everyone's sharing what they know on TikTok.

41:23Bill Simmons:This message is brought to you by Mariner. It takes the right team to help develop an athlete's talents. Managing your money works the same way. You've ever thought, am I getting the most out of my financial plan? You're ready for Mariner. With Mariner, you get an advisor backed by a full team of specialists. so everything's working together toward your goals. Take the next step in your financial journey with Mariner. Investment advisory services offered through Mariner LLC and SEC registered investment advisor. For more information, visit mariner.com. All right, so we did the My Guy draft before the season and that was basically snake fashion.

41:58Bill Simmons:We do a title or a thing and we each had to draft one and we go and order. We're not gonna do that this time. I sent you guys a bunch of categories. Most valuable player, coach of the year, offensive or defensive rookie of the year, next coach fired, breakout star, QB offseason hot seat guy. Can't wait for this one. Number one seed, AFC or NFC. Team that will get the number one pick, fantasy MVP, and fantasy murderer of the year. So after seven weeks, we're going to predict what the outcomes will be for those categories. And the catch, so some, I mean, what are half of the podcast now? Draft podcast?

42:46Except ours, funnily enough. I think we do the least drafts. We don't really draft that much on our show.

42:50Bill Simmons:So some of them where you have to match with the categories, like Big Picture does that. We're going to try to match with the categories. And part of the art here is like if there's a category you don't like, maybe you grab it right away. Because you're worried about the depth and the category. and then we'll see at the end of the year who won um i it's probably the easiest just to have heifetz go first and go this way okay i get plus heifetz well who you decide craig who had a harder loss between kelly and heifetz here on sunday or monday what was more devastating well we this is funny because we were talking about context with context dk because the mariners could have made their first world series ever without context it's heifetz because if that game were in the playoffs i think it'd be the worst collapse in sports history but because it was like a random week seven game and the giants suck i had giants fans who were like i know we're not gonna make the playoffs but that was one of the worst losses i've ever had yeah i didn't know i could feel that

43:44Danny Heifetz:bad about a team that's not gonna make the playoffs like i didn't i i feel like i've been so guarded in my heart for the last like eight years nine years really for the giants i feel like the eagles game they won and i was like man i'm in on this team i love them i'm letting him I'm going to go all, I'm letting my, the Giants are better than the Eagles. Hell yes. I'm being vulnerable again and then they did that. Heavitt's called me drunk at midnight on Thursday after that Giants-Eagles game. He's like, Craig, the Giants are better than the Eagles. And I was like, I think you might be right. I was drunk and I wanted to do a topper.

44:12Danny Heifetz:I wanted to record the show and I was like, watched it at a bar and I was like, let's do the show. They were like, no. Did you think you were

44:17Bill Simmons:going to the playoffs after that game?

44:19Danny Heifetz:Yeah. Of course. I got the Super Bowl. I got Charlie, I have,

44:27Danny Heifetz:Wow. That's 500 times? 10 bucks win, 5 ,000. Well, I thought they might get Stafford. And I was like, if they get Stafford, that will be an amazing ticket. But I just, I got Charlie Brown, man. The moment that I was like, oh, I'm in on this team. They had a 1 in 1 ,600 collapse.

44:42Bill Simmons:So is that worse than what happened to Danny, where he was up 3-1 in the seventh inning with a chance to play the Dodgers? Probably not.

44:48Danny Heifetz:Probably not, but it is easier if we just start with half. You go first, Seifetz. So I get to go from any of these categories. Any category. You grab a guy, and once you pick the guy or the team off the board,

44:59Bill Simmons:you're done with that category, and we can't touch that person.

45:02Danny Heifetz:So there is one category in this entire list that I think there is just an objectively correct answer. Okay. And it is the next coach fired will be Mike McDaniel for the next. Damn, damn, damn, damn. There's not really a good number two on that one.

45:17Bill Simmons:No. The only zag for that is if, well, first of all, it seems like he's trying to get fired with the glasses he wore and the weird press conference he gave and just whatever the kind of sort of blaming the players. Yeah. I don't know if we executed because we didn't really play football today or whatever he said. The only thing I can think of is that they're trying to tank and you're putting him almost as the mole to ruin the team. That's a great first pick. I think he's got to be the heavy favorite. Craig, you're up. Man. Okay. Okay, I'm just going to go chalk here. I'm going MVP Mahomes. Okay.

45:58I think Mahomes is playing the best season he's had since 2022. Looks like the old Chiefs are back. The last three years of the boring, ugly Chiefs offense is completely gone. Mahomes is playing incredibly. All the receivers are back. The offense looks fantastic. I think he's going to win MVP.

46:14Bill Simmons:I thought heading into the season, Josh Allen was the best QB in the league. I'm still not going to jump off that, but Mahomes has the most fantasy points, which I think is interesting. I will say with the Mahomes' back, it just kind of has to be casually mentioned. They were about to beat the Jaguars and then he threw a 99-yard pick on a pass that most terrible quarterbacks in the league would throw. So it's just that caveat. He did cost them a game with a terrible thing, but I think he has the best odds on FanDuel. But in that game, I think he was throwing to Taequann Thornton and Xavier Worthy on one leg, but yeah.

46:46Bill Simmons:Yeah, at least they've branched out And his deep ball stuff is still pretty erratic, but for the most part, he looks way more like Mahomes from three years ago. In Europe. Yeah, just the vibes. I'm going to go also chalk here, Shane Steichen, coach of the year. Feels like the runaway favorite. I thought these would be the first three picks. Yeah. I mean, I'm going back and trying to remember what we were thinking at the beginning of the year. I remember laughing. I specifically laughed at the Colts for choosing Daniel Jones over Anthony Richardson just because the fact is they drafted this guy.

47:18I think it was number four overall. a couple years ago with the knowledge in that they are going to have to give this guy some time. And they just gave up on him so quickly. For a guy like Daniel Jones, who I just had zero confidence in. And the fact that he not only made that really tough decision to go to Daniel Jones, face the ire from the media, but now he's turned this into legitimately one of the best offense. Through seven weeks, one of the best offenses we've ever seen. If you just look at the stats, through seven weeks of a season, They're up there with the 07 Patriots, the 2013 Broncos, in terms of scoring, points per drive, yards, efficiency.

47:53What's the worst record they could have where he still wins Coach Deer? They go 10-7, can he win?

47:58Bill Simmons:I think Vrabel would be the big competitor, right? Yes. So it's like basically whoever has a better record between those teams probably wins it, unless there's somebody we're not thinking of. Well, if the Bills win the division, but the Pats still win 11, 12 games, can Vrabel win it? If the Bills win the division, they're going to have to go through Foxborough to do it, motherfuckers. Come our way. Come take it. That's the right pick. I think he's done a great job. I also like when a coach makes an emphatic before the season decision. Right. That's kind of like if this doesn't work out, I'm getting fired anyway.

48:31Bill Simmons:Fuck it. But in this case, it actually worked out. I thought this had to be one of the first four picks. We have a breakout star category. And there's some good choices, but I just think it has to be Drake May. Because, first of all, very vindicating to the Pats fans. I've talked about him a bunch of my podcasts. He's kind of sucked in week one against the Raiders and was probably the main reason they lost the game. He just wasn't good. He was throwing Salem balls and just, and then he's just gotten better every week. And it hasn't been all cream puffs because they won in Buffalo and he was great in that game.

49:04But really looks like this,

49:09Bill Simmons:he's in like that Elway area for the athleticism combined with the arm strength and the way he throws. I don't think anybody's thrown a better deep ball than him this year. I'm in shock by his deep ball. I can't believe how well he moves around the pocket. There was like a three-minute super mix of all his plays this year. And you're just watching him. He looks like a Jedi. It just looks like he's year five. I think he's 22. It's ridiculous how good he's been. And I think it's sustainable. I don't feel like there's anything fluky about it. Totally.

49:37Danny Heifetz:He kills you from the pocket. He kills you when he scrambles. He can kill you with the deep ball. He kills you in the clutch, like when they actually need to score at the end of games. he can kill you off platform. Like it's not like a Jalen Hurts or Bo Nix where if he's not really set the right way, he can't make a throw, he can make any throw and obviously he can run. And, but also the little stuff too. Like when he was at, like this week, I think he broke the record for completion percentage by a Patriots quarterback. He broke Brady's record for completion percentage. And they were like, what do you think of that?

49:59Danny Heifetz:And they obviously wanted him to do something, but oh, Brady, it's an honor. He didn't do that at all. He was like, honestly, I scrambled a couple of times when I should have ran. I ran when I should have throw and I actually missed some reads and I didn't know what to do. So I ran. so actually I left some plays in the field and I'm like that's the right answer so he's he's the whole package and while we're here can you stop complaining about the Joe Milton thing where like you're upset you got cost Abdul Carter or whatever because Joe Milton because I just see Drake May and I'm mad that Tommy DeVito was a meme for the Giants and he calls the Giants Jaden Daniels and

50:28Bill Simmons:Drake May so that is a lot worse than the Joe is Abdul Carter playing this year he just got concussed because I what does he have like a half a sack one side he's doing fine but I mean No, I like Abdelkart. I was making a joke. No, it seemed like a catastrophe not to get him or Hunter. Basically, it was like, words first. These next two guys. And then it's like, Will Campbell, Tyler Warren, Mason Graham. And then you would redo the draft. Like, Will Campbell's been really good. I think Mason Graham's a monster. Yeah, he's been good. And then Tyler Warren. I'm sure he's going to come up at some point.

51:04Bill Simmons:But it did work out for the Pets. you know what didn't work out is the Travion Henderson pick he's coming up we'll talk about him as well he's on the list he's in one of these categories are we snaking or how are we doing this are we going back to Heifetz or are we going back to DK what's the protocol I think I should pick next I mean I think we go opposite of what Heifetz thinks so snake oh man I'm up again wow so I have my breakout guy Like, oh, you know. All the favorites are gone now, I feel like. Now these are a little tougher. So there's a category we have, pick a one seed in the AFC or NFC.

51:46And I'm going to take Indianapolis.

51:50Bill Simmons:One seed in AFC? As a one seed. Because I don't like the other choices. And they won me over in that Chargers game. I don't love their defense. I think you can throw on them. but offensively they're just absolutely outrageous i can't believe it's weird how efficient it is and how many weapons they have and how easy it is there's been very few teams over the years where it just seems like it's just easy for them to get eight yards anytime they want and they have so many options and the warren thing has been like i that's the fact that the bears passed them up i'll never understand that that should be like a 5 000 word feature from somebody like how How did this happen?

52:31Bill Simmons:How did everyone think Tyler Warren was the best tight end for 11 months? And then somebody was like, actually, zag! And actually zagged with the 10th pick. Yeah. But the way they use him, he's like a combination of 11 tight ends I've loved in my life. I think the draft process is too long. Because by the time the draft comes, people talk themselves out of all of the right takes. Like, if the draft was just like February 20th, I feel like we'd be way more accurate with all of our predictions. I think it's a really good idea. You know what I mean? It's just so much more fresh. It's like, oh, I watched Ibuka.

53:00He's good. Just draft him. And everyone's like, well, the measurables. He's never been the best receiver on his Ohio State team. How about Will Campbell?

53:06Bill Simmons:His arms are a half inch too short. He's ready to fall out of the top.

53:10Danny Heifetz:Did you ever notice that watching the games? No.

53:13Bill Simmons:When he was in the SEC, looking great. All right, Danny, you're up. This is tough. Let's see here. It gets hard right around now. I'm going to go with... I think I'm going to go with fantasy MVP. Okay. and I'm going to take Jonathan Taylor speaking of the Colts he was the running back nine in average draft position before the year 18th overall so you could have gotten him in the second round quite easily we didn't really we didn't know what to make of him because nobody did no one really knew what to make of the Colts offense in general because number one we didn't really know who the quarterback was going to be for most of the preseason and so we were just everybody on that team got pushed down you could have probably drafted 10 teams everyone's like oh you got to find the breakout team that's the way to win in fantasy football yeah It was like, oh, finding the Bengals from two years ago.

54:00And it was like, who's going to be finding the Texans that first year with Stroud? I think you could have probably drafted 10 teams before you picked the Colts this year. Yes. It was the Bears. It was the Jags. There were so many teams. Nobody thought it was going to be the Colts. I mean, Saikin was kind of on the hot seat. For sure. 100%.

54:15Bill Simmons:Nobody thought he was a great coach. Really strange pro football reference page for Taylor. Yeah. Because first year, he ran for 11, 6 to 9, 11 TDs. Then his next year was his great 18, 11, 18 TDs. Then he got hurt 11 games in 22. 23 was maybe a holdout. He only played seven.

54:36Danny Heifetz:That was when Jim Mercer was going to give the money to a whale. And then the whale died, so Jonathan Taylor got paid.

54:43Bill Simmons:Then last year, just good enough. Jonathan Taylor killed the whale. Last year, 14, 31, and 11 TDs. And yet, I don't think he was mentioned as a top three running back. There was always like this, I don't know. Well, part of the reason is he doesn't catch passes like the other guys. And so some of these like, you know, league winning type running backs, Christian McCaffrey, Don Achan, I forget, a couple other guys that are really involved in the passing game. Those guys just get pushed higher because it's like just more ways you can win. But Jonathan Taylor, he's just so head and shoulders above everyone and running this year.

55:16He's got three games with three touchdowns. He has three games with 30 plus points. He leads all skilled players in points per game. and that's not even catching a ton of passes. So he's going first if you're redoing a fantasy draft right now.

55:28Danny Heifetz:Yeah, probably. I also do think part of the reason he's not that famous is if Jonathan Taylor was named Saquon Barkley and played on a New York team, if Saquon Barkley was named Jonathan Taylor and played for the Indianapolis Colts. He's been on a shitty Colts team his whole career. And he's just a boring name. Boring names matter. He's having the third best fantasy running back season in the last 15 years.

55:47Bill Simmons:When you're on pace for 20 rush TDs, he might get more than that. What's the record? or Sikwan has it, right?

55:53Danny Heifetz:28, no, the total, Tomlinson has both. Tomlinson has 28 touchdowns. What's the just rush TD record? Sean Alexander? Sean Alexander. No, it's the Danny and Tomlinson's 28, and on the season he had 31, that was 2006. I think he's going to have a game where he has like five. But no one's had 20 rushing touchdowns since 2006. Tomlinson set the record on both, and then no one's had 20 since then, never mind 28. Kind of a running back resurgence this year.

56:15Bill Simmons:Totally. Because Dijon and McCaffrey, they kind of built the whole game around that. And then, you know, I think Gibbs has been electric. this year. He's been really fun. And the receivers are so deep. It's like, it's kind of going back to old school where it's like you should just take a running back in the first round and get a good quarterback and figure it out later. Finishing last, Travion Henderson. That leads me to my next category. Fantasy murder of the year. I will be drafting Travion Henderson. I can't argue with it. I paid$30 for him. An unmitigated disaster. I mean, this guy was going like top 40 in drafts.

56:48Bill Simmons:I'm in multiple conversations with Pats fans trying to piece together. What happened? What do you have? Do you have inside info? What's going on? The first preseason game. First touch of his career. First touch, he broke a kick return and then had all these electric plays. Anytime they put him in, he decked a dude and basically knocked a guy out. And then the season started and I was on one thread. We were trying to remember one good play he's had all year and we couldn't remember a good play. He just kind of runs into the line and falls down. So now we're like, is he hurt? Did he like lose his confidence?

57:21Bill Simmons:Is he going through something? I just. He got passed by the number three guy who. Yeah, Terrell Jennings. Terrell Jennings. I didn't even know he was on the team. Undrafted three. Never heard of this guy. I've been starting Travion Henderson every week. I have amnesia. He's a cut. He's an absolute hazard. Cannot be on a fantasy team anymore. I'm terrified that the second I drop him, someone's going to add him and then Vrabel's going to start mixing him in and he'll be good. Fear is the mind killer. The only. So my dad came up with this as we all are trying to figure out, like maybe they're saving him for the second half of the season because he's little.

57:50Danny Heifetz:That's the best I got. That's the best excuse I have. I think him being little is related. I think him being little is related. I think Vrabel likes big people. They don't throw to him. Why? Why aren't they throwing screens to him? He's fast. Drake's too busy throwing 20-yard touchdowns. He's listed at 202. When small people are listed at 202, it's like six feet tall. It's like he probably plays at 190-something, and Vrabel just thinks he's small. Ramondre's big. Why'd they draft him?

58:11Bill Simmons:It's my worst call of the year. They knew he was late when they drafted him. I was bragging about how Cleveland took Judkins over him. Judkins was amazing. Eight weeks later, it's like, oh my God, I wish we had Jenkins.

58:21Danny Heifetz:I'd like to go on record. This season, he'll suck. Henderson will be fine, long term.

58:25Bill Simmons:He'll be Kevin Falk eventually for us. But it seemed in the preseason, it really seemed like this was Jameer Gibbs.

58:31Danny Heifetz:I'm not cutting him. I refuse. It used to be super normal for running backs not taken in the first round to need a full year to acclimate to the NFL. It's normal. Also, the reason, one of the big talking points around him coming into the league was he doesn't fumble, and he's really good in pass pro. And he's been terrible in pass pro. He's missed huge plays in pass pro. And the fumbling thing apparently does not matter to Vrabel because Ramondre Stevenson is leading the NFL in fumbles, and he doesn't care. Hi, Fitz, you're up. I will take if... Well, speaking of the Patriots, this one, I'm surprised this one fell to me.

59:05Danny Heifetz:In terms of scarcity here, I'm going to go coach of the year, Mike Vrabel. Yeah, I shouldn't take that. I'm surprised that that fell to me. I mean, this is really simple. Like, the Patriots, what do you guys, five and two? Yeah. And coach of the year. I mean, you guys win the division. Coach of the year, you guys have the easiest remaining schedule. So not only are you 5-2 now, but the Patriots have the easiest remaining schedule. So if the Patriots win 11, 12 games, you have the tiebreaker against the Bills already. I'm kind of like— He's 3-1 on FanDuel. And you were talking about when you mentioned Steichen, what happens?

59:34Danny Heifetz:How does Steichen lose? Well, the Colts are 6-1. So what record do they need to finish? But if they finish the stretch with like three or four losses down the stretch, that's the part that weighs heavier in people's minds. The beginning fades. the Patriots I hate to say it and I hate the Patriots and this is not me sucking up I actually as you know I really really hate the Patriots I hate the Giants as well and we're celebrating when you lost the best moment of me working at this company bar none was you talking about how this is gonna make me mad how much pain easy Corwin's just getting started yeah sorry there's five days left how much pain the second Giants Super Bowl caused you and you didn't know I was like in the room and you thought it was just like Mallory and Sean and you were like relived it for five minutes you just vicariously

1:00:13Bill Simmons:were listening

1:00:14Danny Heifetz:I was just like an intern listening and you just were like, when you turned around, you're like, oh shit, Heifetz hurt all that. Heifetz was like stroking a cat. I was going to say stroking something else. But having said that, so with that said, I kind of think the Patriots could win 12 or 13 games because I think Vrabel's such a good coach and Bay is playing so well. The coach and or quarterback advantage they have in so many of these remaining games. Now you are sucking up. Now you are sucking up. No, he's right.

1:00:38Bill Simmons:Our schedule is just, it almost seems like a rounding error accident. You just can't believe there's no hard team. It's like at Tampa, I think is one of the hard ones. They play Buffalo in New England. And then maybe there's an at Baltimore, Baltimore. There's basically three playoff teams left in the schedule. Right now on Fando, they're plus 175 to win 12 plus games, which they're five and two now. So that's seven and three. I mean, they're going to be favored in, I think, every game except maybe two. Yeah. So I think it's the right pick. I think it's staking her variable for the coach there.

1:01:16Bill Simmons:What do you have, Craig? No, Heifetz gets another one, right? Oh, yeah. Oh, wow, I do.

1:01:20Danny Heifetz:Good point, Craig. You don't have to point that out. Good point, Craig. In that note, similarly, I will take for MVP. Craig took Mahomes, which was smart. Yeah. There's not a lot of awesome options left, but for that reason, I'm going to take Matt Stafford for the ramps. Interesting. For a very simple reason. Bad pick. You have to win 12 games to win the MVP. There has been, in the last 20 years, one MVP quarterback has not won 12 games. This is why Dak can't win. Yes. Yeah. And you, like, oh, you won nine games and ten games and threw for a lot of yards. Like, it does not happen. And even the quarterbacks who did win 12 games and win MVP, they all got a first-round buy.

1:02:04Danny Heifetz:when they were in the two-by era. Like, now in the 17-game season, you kind of need 13 wins. So I'm looking around. Like, Josh Allen for the Bills has better odds than Stafford. The Bills are way too injured, I think, to win 13 games. But I look at the Rams and the Rams are 5-2. Stafford has 17 touchdowns and two interceptions. And he's playing so well. And the Rams are another team where I'm like, if the Rams win 13 games and Stafford has 35 touchdowns, I'm like, things... It's smart. I like it. I can't tell. I think the guy I'm about to take applies to multiple categories. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to go fantasy MVP Jackson Smith and Jigba, who is the wide receiver one in fantasy.

1:02:40How dare you? And has immediately become, he's on pace for 1 ,989 yards this year. So just almost 2 ,000. Almost 2 ,000. And he's just like, I don't know, the fifth best receiver in the league now, and he's only going up. He's always open. I was going to have him as one of the breakout players too, maybe. I was going to as well, but there's been a lot of breakouts this year. I feel like fantasy MVP, I'm with you. In terms of where he was drafted and how you feel about him now, he's like the most untradeable player in the league. He was drafted as a wide receiver of 14. Yeah. And he is number one receiver in terms of total points this year.

1:03:17He's on pace, like you said, for almost 2 ,000 yards. No signs of slowing down. He's number one overall in target rate. He's the Seahawks offense, their passing offense. He's been their leading receiver in all seven games. Yeah. And I would say just like...

1:03:30Bill Simmons:And he's a peaceful man. When it seemed like there might be an altercation yesterday,

1:03:33Danny Heifetz:He just sat on the bench and held the pants. The ref mounted him. Like that meme of the guy taking all the arrows for everybody.

1:03:40Bill Simmons:He's a peaceful dude. He just moves differently. That's like the thing that always comes to mind when I watch him play. I'm just like, he has incredible body control, incredible acceleration, great hands, tracks the ball expertly. It's like just all the superlatives you could throw out. He's just really, really good natural receiver. He's a great roster fit for the squad I'm building today. there's there's just some guys are just open yeah and that's it and that's why you know my Travian Henderson thing will probably live on video wise in infamy before the year comparing him to Jameer Gibbs but you know what won't live on is me talking about how awesome JSN was to Danny Kelly in this at this very table and saying how like this was yeah you picked he was your guy this year and how there was a four game stretch last year when he was open for four straight games and then the offensive line fell apart That video won't live on.

1:04:32Bill Simmons:Because that's how social media works, Danny. It's a cruel beast. They like it when you're wrong. It's only the losers that live on. What do you have, Danny Kelly? Let's see here. We should start a Twitter account called Great Takes Exposed. Oh, wow. That's good. How about the good takes? Just some positivity. Yeah. I was right. Rogers is decent. Rogers is decent. It's pretty good. What a take. You did plant your flag on, I think, we're Fine Island. with Aaron Rodgers. It was good. So I don't know if this is too obvious to even count, but the QB offseason hot seat guy, Tua. I really regret not grabbing that when I just went.

1:05:12I forgot I was going snake and I crushed it. Can we talk this out? I couldn't stomach the idea of seeing Tua on a roster of mine in any fashion.

1:05:19Bill Simmons:Yeah, I guess he... We're not building fantasy teams here. We're trying to be right. No, that's the right pick because... I wrote duh next to that. I actually also have look I have Tua too obvious too obvious too obvious well he's got he's what 50 million bucks on the books for 26 that's the only problem is they're gonna have to eat a ridiculous amount of money to get rid of him

1:05:41Danny Heifetz:but then eventually they will I mean he's the truth is he will have that one season as the Patsy and then he's a Tua's a backup quarterback that is what he will be

1:05:48Bill Simmons:that video of the Browns guy saying throw it to me Tua throw it to me Tua the Browns safety it's before the snap he's like throw it to me Tua throw it to me Tua and then Tua throws it to him and he's running and he's going Tua and then he like gets up

1:06:06Danny Heifetz:and running with the ball and I thought he was going to freak out and he just repeats it like he did before the play throw it to me Tua throw it to me Tua that was unbelievable

1:06:12Bill Simmons:how could you come back from a quarterback with that after that happens that's like you have to leave the team at that point

1:06:18Danny Heifetz:you know I almost wish Tua had gone to the press conference after and been like you know it starts with the leadership guys that late to players only meetings. I just, you know, just keep saying it every week. I think they have like, if they cut him post June 1, they have like a$67 million dead hit. So they're just going to have to eat.

1:06:38Bill Simmons:What's funny is throw it, throw it to me blank. It's something that I say when I'm watching the games, when it's a bad QB and you have the other team and like from a betting standpoint. And I think I was saying it at the same time as this guy. It might not have been the same scenario, but when two was in his own end zone, basically, and he threw that pick to Cleveland in a 10, like when he went back to pass, it was like, throw it to me, two, throw it. Like he's just, I think he's the throw to me all-stars. It's an incantation. It's like what Van did this week

1:07:05Danny Heifetz:or whatever the hell he was doing with trying to jinx LSU or whatever. Like I think maybe, I think that was the same vibe.

1:07:10Bill Simmons:Well, the Manning, Arch Manning is another throw to me guy. Man, throw to me, Arch. Come on. All right. I am a... Two to you, Bill. Two out to you. I have to grab a hot seat guy and there's only two left for the QBs that I really focused on. I wish I could take them both. You can't? Oh, I guess you can't. I'm going to take Trevor Lawrence here. It's just great value. Yeah.

1:07:41Bill Simmons:I just can't believe some of the games he's had. And then I used to have a joke about the Portland Trailblazers soccer moms when I was writing way back when. about how protective they were of their own players. And I think the Jaguars fan base is like this with Trevor Lawrence. It's everyone else's fault. It's Brian Thomas Jr. because he won't catch balls over the middle and they're calling the wrong plays and the offensive line isn't good enough. And meanwhile, this dude just sails balls over people's heads and makes terrible decisions and runs around aimlessly. Runs past the line of scrimmage and then chucks a ball.

1:08:15Bill Simmons:And if they had lost that Chiefs game, which they should have, this season would already be a wrap for them. But unfortunately, it's not. Anyway.

1:08:22Danny Heifetz:You know, remember the Lombardi rule? Just like every NFL quarterback has to throw through the door and then the good ones can hit the doorknob and the elite ones can hit the keyhole.

1:08:30Bill Simmons:Yeah.

1:08:31Danny Heifetz:Trevor Lawrence, every quarter, misses the door and breaks a window. Yes. It's kind of that simple. He just like is not accurate. And his receivers can't catch. So it's just like a double whammy. He's inaccurate and his receivers can't catch. But he is accurate. Yeah.

1:08:46Bill Simmons:I would have paid, I don't know how much, for video of the rest of the Jaguars team watching that commercial with him and Travis Hunter for Adidas, the Footloose parody? Yeah, yeah. What was that? How did nobody stop that? What is that commercial? And then it runs all the time and you're like, how did nobody in either of these guys' life just throw their bodies in front of this? Like, have you even seen Footloose? I think a long time ago, but yeah. Like, that is a deep cut. That's a movie that came out in 1984. It's like, let's parody Footloose. There needs to be some rule. Like, you need to be an all-pro before you can be in a commercial.

1:09:19They're shoving too many guys in commercials. Travis Hunter being in a commercial. He's in multiple commercials.

1:09:24Bill Simmons:We'll take a break. We'll finish the draft. Remember Baker was in the commercials. Progressive a lot. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Tremphaya offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Tremphaya is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks. If your doctor decides that you can self-inject Tremphaya, proper training is required. Tremphaya is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis.

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1:10:29Bill Simmons:This episode is brought to you by Netflix. The T-Mobile Home Run Derby is right around the corner. Might be one of the best showcases of pure power in all sports. Baseball's biggest sluggers, along with some legendary announcers. Pujols, Rizzo, Bonds, Sabathia, Al Duncan. Yeah. Hunter Pence, Matt Faskersian, a whole bunch of people. And it's the one night where you don't swing to make contact. You swing to make history. I'm interested to see what Bond says about this, actually. Anyway, it is all live from Citizens Bank Park in Philly. Watch the T-Mobile Home Run Derby Live on Netflix, Monday, July 13th at 8 p.m.

1:11:07Bill Simmons:Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific. All right, come back with a draft. I am going to tackle the team that will get the number one pick overall in 2026 category and with apologies to Dolphins Titans and Saints I am going to take the 0-7 New York Jets fair because I don't know what the move is like they could play Tyrod Taylor he had two interceptions in a half Wilson's out for a little while it doesn't seem like the coach is good, which is a problem. Yep. And they're in a division with Buffalo and the Patriots. They just seem like the most reliable bet to me. And you could nicely stack that with Aaron Glenn, first coach.

1:11:59That'd be a nice stack for you and your team.

1:12:00Bill Simmons:I could definitely do that. DK, you're up. Okay, let's see here. I just need to... I want to take this guy off the board. so I'm going to do actually no I need to own something because I was in favor of Brock Bowers this offseason and he is the fantasy murderer of the year it's not all his fault because he got hurt there's a question with murderers whether an injury is their fault right but I think this was different because he was hurt it's involuntary manslaughter if they get hurt right right but Trevon Henderson like literally stabbed me to death The problem with Brock Bowers is he was hurt for four extra weeks where you had to start him, but he wasn't healthy.

1:12:45Bill Simmons:And then they're finally like, he's hurt.

1:12:47Danny Heifetz:I find he's hurt. We'll do points per game. Brock Bowers has fewer points per game than Jake Tonjes. It was brutal having to play him. He was limping around like Sean Penn at the end of one battle after another just for three weeks while you're still starting him. I paid$36 for him in my knockout league.

1:13:02Bill Simmons:I thought I was like, he's a$40 receiver. I'm getting a discount at a position where there's no good people.

1:13:08Danny Heifetz:You pay$36, he has under 36 points, and believe it or not, Darren Waller matched it in like 36 snaps out of retirement. I don't like these stats. It just makes me feel terrible inside.

1:13:18Bill Simmons:By the way, he had one good game, and it was that week one Pats game, which is going to be in the running for weirdest result of the year if the Raiders are like 3-14 and the Pats are like 13-4. He'll be like, wait, what happened in week one? I think part of the reason, too, that I wanted to highlight him, even though obviously the injury is the big reason here, but the Raiders have been so much worse than I expected their offense to be. They are uncompetitive on offense. What was it? They had 30 plays in this last game? Chiefs had 31 points. Raiders had 30 plays. Under 100 yards. It's funny because you and me and me were complaining about Pete Carroll for the last couple years there.

1:13:52Bill Simmons:Correct. And then he took time off and came back and seems just as incompetent. Here's the deal. He got older, weirdly. Yeah, weird that he's in his mid-70s. We were complaining about him, but then when he got fired or whatever that was that happened, it was like you have this emotional connection to him and then you're kind of mad about it because they fired him. Right. But yeah, I thought he was going to be, I thought he was going to turn this Raiders team around much more quickly than this is happening. I picked him to make the playoffs. I was battling Colts versus Raiders versus Jags for that last spot in the AFC and I couldn't get there with Danny Jones.

1:14:30Bill Simmons:Carroll might not be done in this draft. He might be popping up again for all we know. Craig's up. I'm going with QB offseason hot seat guy I think this is the last guy in his tier and I had him second I'm taking Kyler Murray oh I had him too had him as well who Craig gets in red I mean stole it the worst place to be in the NFL is giving the big contract to a quarterback that you know can't do it and it's Tua it's Trevor Lawrence it's Bradley Beal in the NBA it's like ah we gotta Trevor Kyler the Cardinals have the 27th most wins since Kyler was drafted That's just like, they have zero playoff wins.

1:15:07And they're way more competitive with Brissette.

1:15:09Bill Simmons:Yeah. Yeah, anytime there's a backup, the team seems fired up. Yes. What's great about this, so we had the QB hot seat guy, Lawrence, I have Lawrence, Craig took Murray, Danny has Tua. And there's still great value on the board for Heifetz. I'm blown away.

1:15:23Danny Heifetz:Heifetz played this perfectly. I was going to take someone right now, but then I'm like, I'm waiting. I'm waiting. I don't need to. Wow, we got to put it off. Wow, I'm shocked. Okay. In that case, I'll take Fantasy MVP. I'm going to go with... There are a lot of good options here too, but I'm going to just take a moment to talk about Christian McCaffrey from the 49ers. Yeah, this one's good. And you could argue that maybe there's other guys because, you know, McCaffrey probably took in the first round and maybe there's other values. But it's funny because all we talk about this year is Jonathan Taylor, Jonathan Taylor, Jonathan Taylor.

1:15:51Danny Heifetz:In full PPR leagues, Jonathan Taylor is not the number one running back. Christian McCaffrey is the number one running back in full PPR leagues. And I feel like it's not to be getting discussed. McCaffrey's on pace.

1:16:01Bill Simmons:Playing with Mac Jones.

1:16:02Danny Heifetz:He is on pace for over 1 ,000 receiving yards. He's third in the league in receptions. And he is 11... Including receivers. He has 11 fewer receiving yards than Justin Jefferson.

1:16:12Bill Simmons:He's so good that when... He's been so good this year. When it's like third and six, you're like, just run the play where you split McCaffrey out as a slot receiver. Nobody's guarded him all year. The craziest thing about it is as good as McCaffrey's been this year, and I feel like everybody thinks about the 2023 Niner season when McCaffrey went crazy, he's having a better fantasy year this year than that year.

1:16:31Danny Heifetz:Yes. He's 23 points per game. He won offensive player of the year in the 2023 season. And I think he had like 590 receiving yards, 580. He might pass that this week. The only reason why I think like somebody like Taylor's better is because McCaffrey was taken like sixth overall. So you are, you are, this is what he's kind of supposed to be doing. As opposed to guys like -

1:16:50Bill Simmons:Yeah, I guess the fantasy MVP thing is it like, just who's been the most awesome or the value versus - Like JSN and Jonathan Taylor, you could have had him and McCaffrey.

1:16:58Danny Heifetz:Well, not to get too meta here, but by your logic, Like, Jonathan Taylor went in this draft like three rounds ago, so. Okay. True.

1:17:06Bill Simmons:Interesting. True. Yeah, because Taylor, you guys did not have him in the top five. No way. He was like a third rounder. He's like top 20 guy. Second rounder, third rounder.

1:17:15Danny Heifetz:I got him in the rear draft, two quarterback league, but like the fourth round. Yeah. Hey, if it's you have one more. Oh, yeah, I do. I can't believe I get to just sherry pick later.

1:17:23Bill Simmons:I just want to point out, nobody has picked an offensive or defensive rookie of the year yet. That category is wide open. yeah it's because i think it's deep and i don't feel confident about who's gonna win it yeah it's

1:17:34Danny Heifetz:it is deep i agree with that i will in that case i guess i might just dive in there and just actually no no no i'm going to because i tried to bully him and then take i know you did in that case all right we need to have a conversation for a second breakout star what does that mean of all these categories you said i kind of just didn't know what that meant all right fairly because i will in that case i'm just gonna throw something out for interpretation just give us your pick it's cam scadaboo for the new york giants i think that's fair like like it's somebody

1:18:00Bill Simmons:that wasn't being discussed before the season as somebody who there would be lots of conversations

1:18:06Danny Heifetz:about and now it's week seven and people are talking i think scadaboo is rocketed to fame more than anyone like including drake may drake may is like a better player and joining a higher category of quarterback but cam scadaboo is honestly one of the like bill you always we're talking about like the conversations around the game i don't know if online a player has actually been talked about more this season than camp scat the photos every he's like yeah i again my favorite thing about him when he was a kid he'd put on his older brother's shoulder pads and he would run into telephone poles yeah and you hear that story and you're like yeah that totally makes sense he's just i didn't understand it white running back i was texting you guys when

1:18:43Bill Simmons:because i wanted the pats to take him in the third round and he just kept following in the fourth round and nobody could explain it because everybody liked him because he thought he was going to translate it. But he's not slow though when you watch him. He's got short area. Once again, if the draft were on February 20th, it's like you watch him play at 1 ,900 yards in college. He's good. He doesn't win with speed.

1:19:03Danny Heifetz:He wins with power. And he has enough acceleration to make the power work. And people don't want to attack him.

1:19:08Bill Simmons:And these are NFL players. They're like, ah, he's a psychopath. He's a maniac. He's a pit bull. He's awesome. I'm so not surprised by him. He's lowering his head a few yards into the end zone to take a guy out. He's a maniac. Crazy. Oh, God.

1:19:21Danny Heifetz:Wow. I can't believe I got a scout of a pick. That's a really good pick.

1:19:23Bill Simmons:Craig, you're up. Next coach fired, Aaron Glenn. Yeah. Kind of surprised that he was still there. I think it gets tricky after him.

1:19:33Danny Heifetz:It does. It definitely does. I'll let DK figure out his pick here. I'll just say it's funny that the Jets were like, yeah, we hope Aaron Glenn learned something from Dan Campbell. And now it's like, you know, the other coach who started 0-7, Dan Campbell, 0-11.

1:19:45Bill Simmons:Well, we did. I did this on Sunday's pod because I looked this up. and somehow it's harder to look up stuff now, now that everybody puts AI in the Google, like just it spits out weird stuff. But Cam Cameron's 0-13, I had forgotten about. It was in the mid-2000s on the Dolphins. 0-13 stars.

1:20:03Danny Heifetz:The Dolphins quietly have had some of that. I mean, that, Nick Saban. Like, I mean, man. Let's see here. So there's some good options in this one, but I'm just going to go with it. I'm going to go with the team that will get the number one pick, the Titans. they have pretty comfortably the hardest schedule of the 0-1 win teams right now. They have to face the Colts, Chargers, Texans, Seahawks, Jags, Browns, 49ers, Chiefs, Saints, and then the Jags again. I could maybe find like two wins in there. I looked at them too.

1:20:35Bill Simmons:It is crazy because everyone thought the AFC South was probably going to be bad. Now it might have a 14-win team. The Jags are frisky. Houston's got a killer defense. Yeah, exactly. So I think this is also a team with an interim coach that nobody really believes in. A rookie quarterback. There's no skilled player talent right now. I like when teams are like, listen, Jeffrey Simmons, no way we're trading him. It's like, why not? He's in his late 20s. Why wouldn't you trade him for, you get a first and a third for him? I'd do that in five seconds.

1:21:11Danny Heifetz:Dude, this is all the time. I mean, Max Crosby. Bill Barmore wrote a column. Max Crosby's another one. Yeah, like years ago. like Max Crosby I'm like you could have got two firsts for Max Crosby if they traded him two years ago and the teams don't want to get rid of guys competitively but like they never want to do it

1:21:25Bill Simmons:I have my eye on Simmons for the Pats Vrabel connection I don't think they traded with Vrabel but I think he's potentially the best guy that could be for Jeff Simmons or Crosby but even in the one quarter he played against the Pats he was like disrupting us and then he went out and it became a lot easier wow he is 28 already that's crazy yeah Yeah. I just like, when are you going to be good again, Tennessee? Yep. You know? DK, was that your pick? That was my pick, yeah. You're right. Oh, so I have two. Okay.

1:21:59Bill Simmons:Let's do...

1:22:03Bill Simmons:Do I have to... No. You know what? I'm going to bang out an offensive or defensive rookie of the year. And the odds are pretty high for everybody because there's no favorite. There's so much... so much consensus. I mean, so much lack of consensus. I'm going to take Tyler Warren. Nice. Even though Egbuka's been awesome and Dart will have some sexiness because he's a QB in the New York market. But I just think Tyler Warren's like, honestly, one of the best football players. Yeah. Like, could he be the first team all pro as a tight end? Yeah. It's so clearly obvious that he's good immediately upon getting on the field.

1:22:41Bill Simmons:Nobody can tackle him. They can line him up everywhere. I love when tight ends can be used as like a running back every once in a while or a slot receiver. We had that with early Gronk where you could kind of just put him around the field and you could just see the defense like, oh, fuck. They spread him out wide. And I don't think a tight end has ever won offensive rookie of the year.

1:23:00Danny Heifetz:No, I mean, Bowers had the most catches, like the second most catches ever for any rookie. It didn't even win that rookie of the year last year. Yeah.

1:23:08Bill Simmons:All right. So then I'm going coach of the year. Heifetz already has Rabel and DK already has. I think the only guy left who can win this is Kyle Shanahan. And I'm going to grab him. I think he's 7-1 on FanDuel. 5-2. He's turned Mac Jones into somebody that is probably going to get like a$20 million a year contract from somebody at some point and be terrible when he gets it. All the injuries, the fact, the way they showed up for this last game with nobody on defense. Just dudes I've never, ever heard of in my life. Shanahan does his shit every year. Shanahan's so good. So Kendrick Bourne and Mac Jones.

1:23:46I think the craziest Shanahan stat is the Nick Mullins stat. Oh, yeah, my favorite. The most yards in the first 16 games of your career, it's Mahomes and then Nick Mullins.

1:23:56Danny Heifetz:And then it's like Andrew Luck, Kurt Warner, and Tony Romo. The most yards in the first 16 games of your career, Patrick Mahomes and then fucking Nick Mullins because of Kyle Shanahan. That's unbelievable. That's crazy. DK, you're up. Okay, this is the guy I wanted to get off the board here, so I'm going to go breakout star. Yeah. Egbuka. Yeah. Mika Egbuka. Who is only, his case is probably only going to get stronger going forward here, obviously, because... He seems like the greatest guy, too.

1:24:25Bill Simmons:Yeah. Like, I think I'd vote for him for president in 28 if he decided to get the right partner. Everybody loves him. How are you a captain as a rookie? That's, like, impossible. It'd be like when Heifetz joined as an intern. We were like, Heifetz, you're now a captain. He's got it. This kid's got something. Yeah. He's a leader. and also by the way with Mike Evans likely missing most of the season and Buka is going to be their pretty clear cut number one it's only going up for him and obviously I trust Mayfield to feed him the rest of the season I really like Tez too I know I do too and his story is the whole thing with him and Bo Nix's family that's like the kind of the story that hasn't gotten enough play it's really cool really really cool but that guy I thought Mayfield was awful on London I thought he missed a lot of throws he missed Tez in the end zone at one point but I thought Tez was open most of that game.

1:25:14Danny Heifetz:Tez also thinking the MVP chance were for him a couple weeks ago is one of the fun things a player said all year.

1:25:19Bill Simmons:He's good. Just genuinely awesome. Ibuka's lights out. He's been lights out. I remember when we talked into My Guy stuff and you guys were saying like in guillotine be careful with young guys, rookies, it takes a while. Ibuka came in, he had two touchdowns in his first game. He's immediately awesome. Craig, you're up. I think I'm just going to take Jackson Dart for Offensive Rookie of the Year.

1:25:36Danny Heifetz:Yeah, that's the right pick because I'm shocked, DK, you went with Breakout of the Year for Buka and not rookie of the year? Because I agree. That was because I think Dart's going to win it. Okay. Well, he has Dart now. Yeah. So Dart, the reason I left Dart this long is my only concern, obviously Dart's the favorite. My concern is the Giants have the hardest schedule remaining in the NFL. And I feel like they'll lose a lot of games. And I also kind of wonder if Dart's going to just get hurt. I was going to say,

1:26:01Bill Simmons:the bigger concern to me is he's a fucking maniac. Like they need to run PSAs for him and show him all quarterbacks have taken dumb hits. he's gonna get hurt like eight yards past the line of scrimmage trying to juke three guys as some linebacker hits him from behind he just doesn't care this is dable's toxic trait as a

1:26:18Danny Heifetz:coach is that um josh allen had no sense of self-preservation earlier in his career when he played for brian dable daniel jones we kept we kept joking that we thought dable was trying to get daniel jones hurt because daniel jones took so many hits and that's why giants fans have no bad blood with daniel jones is he put his body on the line yeah the giants like he would line important third downs you can't take hits getting the extra yard on its first and 10 and you're going for three yards and you're taking it to you for drink may figured it out this year they might i i'm convinced also drink man has the body for it dart is a little bit slice he's a good runner but he just go down yeah but he's just he's his friends you know i don't think maybe it's maybe it's you know that cam scadaboo maybe he can he's rubbing off on maybe scadaboo will tell you literally with his face human smelling salts rubbing their faces at each other what's your

1:27:04Bill Simmons:pick. No, it's two to I if it's no.

1:27:06Danny Heifetz:Oh, it's two to me.

1:27:07Bill Simmons:Oh, I thought you took

1:27:08Danny Heifetz:Jackson Dart.

1:27:09Bill Simmons:I wish. Oh, you took Jackson Dart.

1:27:13Danny Heifetz:Good pick. I, yeah, I really, I was definitely going to make that pick if you didn't do that. I'm like Pete Carroll. I forgot who

1:27:18Bill Simmons:took a pick.

1:27:21Danny Heifetz:Like, put it in a pull in McCallum. No, no, we have Jente now. Damn, so the rookie of the year now, now, that's, we're getting a little Well, Travion Henderson is still there. He's 150 to 1. You can go defense though. I can go defense. That is true. The defensive rookie of the year list was really grim. I'm not going to go defensive rookie of the year because I think everyone voting is going to be like, wow, I don't know. I think everyone looks that up. The voters looked that up in like December 20th. They have really like PFF stats. Yeah, they just sort by, yeah, great. Man, so you get Dardabuka and Warner gone.

1:27:55Danny Heifetz:Part of me, I guess the only answer left here is, it's crazy to say this, but I mean, Quinshawn Judkins. I honestly have no idea if he'll win the award because of the off-field stuff. But the other rookies... What's the Browns? It's the Browns. They have an easy schedule remaining, but I mean, he's pretty good. He looks good. I don't feel great about this pick. It's probably my... Oh, Henderson's gone. That's too bad. You're right. No, no, you could still take him in a different category, right? No, that's how it works. Oh, if I took Henderson in one category, can no one take him in another? No, it's just for that category.

1:28:23We can double up. Oh, okay, okay. So like Jackson Smith and Jigbo could be fantasy MVP and breakout star on different teams. Oh, then I'll take Emeka Ibuka

1:28:32Danny Heifetz:for Rookie of the Year. Oh my God. Yeah, that's what I was saying when I want to take him off the board. Well, glad I clarified that. Thanks, kid. Wow. Then that's definitely... Yeah, I mean, everything DK said. Yeah, Mike Evans is like... It's just if Ibuka is banged up, so a dart's a favorite. You guys should be eligible

1:28:47Bill Simmons:for two categories.

1:28:47Danny Heifetz:I think so too. Yeah. Perfect. Then yeah, then I think, oh, DK, I kind of screwed you there. Yeah, I haven't told me that. It's his fault. I was wrong. But yeah, I mean, Ibuka's amazing. So you got a second one now. the second one I will I think I I think I gotta dive in a fantasy murderer here and man there's some there's some great picks here there's two guys left that I'm I'm perfectly happy with but I think I have to take Brian Thomas Jr. from the Jaguars he's a man he's been brutal

1:29:19Bill Simmons:I thought I was gonna get him

1:29:21Danny Heifetz:and it's because A.G. Brown you know he's been bad too but A.G. Brown has had a great game here's the difference Brian Thomas, you took him in the second round. If you didn't know anything about the Jaguars, and Bill, if I told you there was a receiver on the Jacksonville Jaguars who also plays cornerback and doesn't really practice with the offense that much, you'd think it was Brian Thomas. Also, if somebody just told you, oh, the Jags are 4-3 this year. They beat the Chiefs. You'd be like, oh my God, Brian Thomas must be going crazy. He must be doing great.

1:29:52Bill Simmons:I feel like I've watched too much of the Jags, but I also have him on multiple fantasy teams. And it's not just that he's not, it's not a situation where the quarterback's screwing him over. Like, he's just dropping balls, too. It's a combo of when he is open, he's overthrown, or he drops it. The scenario is always bad. And last year, it just felt like he was just beating guys downfield over and over again and getting wide open. And I don't know what happened to that guy. Really weird. I don't understand it at all. You got one more pick. No, because I took a boot. Oh, yeah, you got two. All right, Craig's up.

1:30:25I'm going to go with... God. I'm going to go with a team that'll get the number one pick in the draft and I'm going to take the Miami Dolphins. There you go. I like it. But they're so hot right now. They only have three easy games left. Saints, Jets, and Bengals, if you even count the Bengals at this point. I'm like, I think the Saints are better. I think the Bengals are better. It's brutal. Tua, I don't know if he's going to be playing the rest of the year. They might fire Mike McDaniel. this team might just completely quit.

1:30:57Bill Simmons:I think it's the right pick. So we have, I took the Jets, you have Miami, and DK has Tennessee. So really the Saints, or Vegas, are just sitting there. Yeah, okay. What do you got, Danny? All right, I'm going to go with MVP, Josh Allen. He's a pretty good guy at this point. Josh Allen. You guys forgot about Josh Allen.

1:31:17Danny Heifetz:I'm really upset I took Stafford like five rounds ago. I was surprised by that. Yeah, I was... You don't get the odds. I panicked because I forgot I was doing two picks in a row. In addition to being an absolute alien, the Bills have a pretty easy schedule down the line. And again, he's this alien quarterback who can run around and do all the most insane physical things, but he also doesn't have the benefit, or I think narratively, he doesn't have a number one receiver. He doesn't have a superstar running back. He doesn't have an elite defense. And so it does feel like he's just putting the team on his shoulder.

1:31:54Even though I think they're solid across the board, you know what I mean? It just feels like he is elevating them.

1:32:01Bill Simmons:I really wanted him. And if you look at his next few games, I mean, they just have some cream puffs left. But the AFC East really lucked out. At least they have to play Philadelphia in Week 17, and they're at Houston. But yeah, I think... Josh Allen's kind of been under the radar this year. all these other stories and it does feel like we're due. Plus he's got the Oscars coming up. Maybe his wife gets nominated. Okay. That's a good pick, DK. Yeah, that was a good pick. Thank you. So, I only have a couple ones left here. Oh, yeah. So I need to do my fantasy MVP. So Craig took JSN. Heifetz took McCaffrey.

1:32:46Bill Simmons:Danny took Taylor.

1:32:51Bill Simmons:man, this is tough because I was between Mahomes and Dak. Mm-hmm. I think it's Dak. No. You can make the argument he's been one of the most valuable picks because of where you could get him. I think in general, if you could pick a team, you should just say Dallas. I mean, the fact that Pickens, Javante Williams, out of nowhere at Dak, they've all been so... Jake Ferguson's like the number one tight end fantasy. Everybody's cleaning up.

1:33:17Danny Heifetz:Dak, if you extend the grace of what he's done for them overall, is probably the correct answer. Kind of breaking the rules, but yeah. He's also been awesome. He's been incredibly nice.

1:33:26Bill Simmons:I think him and May are playing consistently the best on throws. Like just their guys are in stride all the time. The deep balls, everything. Big time throws. Big time throws. That game he had against Green Bay, I thought it was the best quarterback game I've seen this year. The three of us couldn't watch that. It was at 5 a.m. in Dublin. So we actually like literally had to go to bed.

1:33:46Danny Heifetz:It's hard to watch internet, like when you're out of the country, with the geolocating. They got good at that. It was tough. So we just following the box score live. We're like, wow, everyone's playing great in this game.

1:33:55Bill Simmons:So I'm the only one who didn't have the most valuable player. Craig took Mahomes. Heifetz took Stafford. Danny took Allen. I mean, come on. It's sitting right there for you. Well, a week ago, I would have taken Mayfield, but Evans has gone for... I think that's a mountain too high for them. You're going to pretend you're not going to do it?

1:34:10Danny Heifetz:It's a different... Stop dancing in the backfield. Not Mayfield. Just do it. A different man.

1:34:13Bill Simmons:Well, I looked at Jonathan Taylor, but running backs never win. Oh my God. Running backs never win. Come on. Running backs never win. Why are you pretending? You're trying to show that you didn't work for this. This is plausible deniability.

1:34:24Danny Heifetz:Come on. Just say it. Jared Goff. Get the fuck out of here. He's not winning. Stop edging me. Tell us about Jackson Smith and Jake. He's good. Jack Prescott. They're going to win nine games. I feel like the game of thrones and the guy's on fire is like, kill me. I'm going to do it. Daniel Jones, 22 to one. He's not winning. Okay.

1:34:39Bill Simmons:Jordan Love is even playing that well. Anyway, next pick, DK. Lamar, 33-1. That's not bad. Drake May, third best odds, 7-1. And does fit that top two seed thing if they can beat Buffalo again.

1:34:54Danny Heifetz:I hate to say it, he does.

1:34:55Bill Simmons:Yeah. Fourth best odds. I wanted Alan, but I think that's still right.

1:34:59Danny Heifetz:You sure you could go back to Daniel Jones or Jonathan Taylor? I don't know. Toss-up. You picked Colts for one seed, so by that logic, you know.

1:35:07Bill Simmons:And then I think I have Fantasy Murderer left. It's my last category. Right? Yeah. Travion, Brian Thomas, and Brock Bowers have been taken.

1:35:21Bill Simmons:This is really tough because I wanted to take Garrett Wilson, but his stats actually aren't that bad. It started really well, yeah. It just feels philosophically like it should be him.

1:35:28Danny Heifetz:Yeah.

1:35:29Bill Simmons:More because he was a murderer last year, so he's like a double murderer.

1:35:32Danny Heifetz:I think he's like a murder victim.

1:35:34Bill Simmons:He's just been the worst. You can take Fields. Fields has been super up and down, ruined a lot of people since he drafted him. It's like I'm devoting my fantasy season to Justin Fields.

1:35:45Danny Heifetz:You have to spend a certain amount of a high pick on a player. That's why I think Henderson's as low as you can go. That still is a murderer because you reach for this fourth-round guy, and he's the only high pick. It has to be a high pick. Did we mention Saquon? Saquon and Henry. Saquon and Derek Henry are eligible, I think. Henry got dinged because of Lamar getting hurt. Saquon's literally done almost exactly half of what he did last year.

1:36:09Bill Simmons:He's the RB18. Well, so I think Saquon is my pick. I did look at Nico Collins, too, because I paid$50 for him. He is not but a$50 guy, but he is scoring touchdowns in some of the games. That's not really awful. And then the only other one I was thinking was Gentee, just because he was being treated like a top five guy. Yeah. But I think it has to be Barkley. I mean, Barkley was... I mean, you took him first overall. Yeah. And he was supposed to be a sure thing. There's no doubt about this guy.

1:36:37Danny Heifetz:it's funny that the person has actually made people the angriest this season that we've heard about is probably A.J. Brown and a different eagle got picked and A.J. Brown didn't even get picked that's because the last A.J. Brown has been kind of on the upside but are people mad at A.J.

1:36:48Bill Simmons:Brown or are they mad at that they don't throw A.J. Brown at the ball they're mad at the angles right okay Danny you're up and it looks like so I've got I still have to do offensive defensive rookie of the year I kind of fucked myself on this one because now all the good the good players are taken I'm going to go off the board here. I'm going to take like a sleeper. And I'm going to say Travis Hunter, who is trending in the right direction. He plays on both sides of the ball. If he finishes strong, like so last week, he had eight catches for 101 yards. The game was over for two hours. I know, but he started lighting it up.

1:37:25I know, but if you combine like the Brian Thomas stuff, him trending in the exact wrong direction. Right. Travis Hunter, they're playing him more and more on offense now. He had, if you look at kind of some of like his snaps and target rates on offense, they're all going in the right direction. So this is more like a prediction of what's going to happen and a narrative pick because he's, you know, the number two pick. He plays both sides of the football. Obviously, it looks terrible right now. But if in 10 weeks from now or whatever, we're talking about Travis Hunter having 80 to 100 yards a game and is emerging as their number one receiver, that narratively, I think, will pay off.

1:38:04but obviously I don't feel great about it right now.

1:38:05Bill Simmons:Gladstone's texting Liam Cohen like, we're getting fucking killed. Throw some screens to Hunter. Boost the stats. Craig, you're up. I'm going to take the Patriots as the one seed in the AFC. They're 5-2. They have the easiest schedule in the league. I think 12 wins minimum.

1:38:26Bill Simmons:I appreciate it. Thank you.

1:38:29Danny Heifetz:I guess I'll just be the... I'll do a deep cut here. I don't know if you guys have heard of this team I'm going to take the Kansas City Chiefs to be the one seed in the AFC, the best team in football I thought about it but they already have three losses they can basically only lose two games to have a shot the rest of the season and I think they will the Mahomes thing for MVP, I'm jealous, Mahomes has 11 touchdowns and one pick in last month they're going to go to Warpath, they're also the healthiest good team, they play the Colts so if they win that game, they make that up right there and I just they play the Colts they play the Bills they play the Broncos twice still they have Houston the Chargers I'm not worried about them playing the Broncos Cowboys the Chiefs eight teams in the AFC are between six and four wins and the Chiefs to me are clearly the best of the eight I think it's the right pick so one more I have one more here and so I guess now I double dip I have to dip into the categories that you guys just left to me yeah there's one boring one left and one the quarterback offseason hot seat or teams that get the one pick Bill what do you want to you don't care

1:39:29Bill Simmons:you do whatever you want to do

1:39:30Danny Heifetz:I have to, I am so thrilled that you guys left me J.J. McCarthy for the Vikings as the quarterback offseason hot seat. Wow. This guy, like, the Vikings had a very difficult situation, decision, where do you pay Darnold 30, 40 million dollars a year, or do you go with McCarthy? And that's a hard decision. So it's not Monday morning quarterbacking, but they clearly made the wrong decision. Yeah. Because Darnold is playing. I mean, last time is tough, but Darnold's playing overall totally, really well for Seattle. Right. And then on the other hand, McCarthy, I agree with what you were saying on Sunday, Bill.

1:40:05Danny Heifetz:We all wonder if the McCarthy ankle thing was a shadow benching. There's probably some kind of injury there, but I'm like, they are hiding this guy. And also the Vikings to this point in the season had the easiest schedule in the NFL. The Vikings going forward have the hardest schedule in the NFL. So McCarthy comes back. He's going to get rocked. He's clearly not ready for the NFL and the Vikings are a win now team. The timelines are totally mismanaged. He's not going to play well. And if he doesn't, the whole off season is going to be, what are the Vikings do? Are we going to go in with just JG McCarthy again?

1:40:32Danny Heifetz:They had Daniel Jones last year, let him go. They had Sam Donald, they let him go. And like, he has more pressure on him than any quarterback going into next year.

1:40:40Bill Simmons:It's the longest high ankle sprain I think in recorded American history. It's like six weeks now. It's like, ah, yeah. I mean, we have so much good technology, it basically means you would have to have a stress fracture in your ankle to not be playing at this point.

1:40:54Danny Heifetz:Well, they're just clearly in no rush. But he also looked horrible and unprepared on that Sunday night football game. It was the same night as the Emmys. He just looks not ready, but the Vikings are ready. It's funny that he's basically 1-0. Yeah.

1:41:08Bill Simmons:Well, also you have that post-game locker room speech with O 'Connell. It's like, this guy, we never gave up on him. And McCartney's like, yeah!

1:41:17Danny Heifetz:But also, it's the highlight of his year. Did you ever have any friends who had a girlfriend, but, like, they were never there? They were never around? Like, you never met him? Like, there's always some reason. She goes to a different school. Yeah, he goes to a different school. She's in Canada. It's like, oh, yeah, last year, when I was a rookie? Yeah, he's like, this meniscus thing. He was the only rookie. And it's like, oh, where is he now? He's got, like, a high ankle sprain. Like, he's never there. When are we going to meet him? I know. Craig.

1:41:34Bill Simmons:I'm going to take coach of the year. Oh, wait. Wait, can I interrupt on the Heifetz thing for a second?

1:41:46Bill Simmons:I almost took him over Lawrence. Are we sure he shouldn't take the blame? Well, I'm not saying he shouldn't. Did you like anything he did in that game yesterday? How many times can you blame the offensive line? He hasn't been good since his rookie year. The last two seasons, he's been genuinely bad. The Trevor Lawrence point that you made about everyone's creating excuses around Trevor Lawrence, it's kind of the same for Stroud. The offensive line is a disaster. It's like, maybe this play caller is also bad. I thought their defense was awesome. And the only times the Seahawks moved the ball was like, JSN was incredible.

1:42:15Bill Simmons:or they had that crazy field position. But Texans were like, there was like 10 guys hats on the ball in some of those plays.

1:42:22Danny Heifetz:There were three defenses that are actually good at all three levels and those were two of them. They have to be so mad at the offense. Like, what the fuck? He might just be so gun shy now and just scared in the pocket because he just, I mean, he just gets drilled on every single play. The Texans offensive line was so bad last year that they actually just swapped in like five guys and changed everything. Like D 'Amico Ryan is like, I've never seen a headline that was like the head coach being like, I deny that there's a toxic culture in an offensive line room. Like, I'm like, I don't. Who said that?

1:42:51Danny Heifetz:Yeah. But it's just, it doesn't have, it's Occam's razor. Like, the line sucks. Yeah. Sorry, Craig, you're up. All good. I'm taking coach of the year fell to me. I really like these odds. Mike McDonald, Seattle Seahawks. I love that. If they win the division with Sam Darnold year one, 12 wins or something like that, absolutely Mike McDonald could win coach of the year. I had him as my fourth. spot. He could give a speech about,

1:43:18Bill Simmons:I'm sorry I was such a puss in week one. And then later that other game. I don't think he'll use that word. He seems a little bit too straight-laced. Well, now he believes in the team. When he went for him fourth and two, it was a turning point. It's like, I believe in you guys. They should be seven and out, Seattle. They're really good. The only thing holding him back, and I agree that he's done a really good job, and the off-season decisions, that's something we talked about with Steichen. You're making these really momentous offseason decisions. They're trading away DK McCaffrey, trading away Gino.

1:43:47Yeah. And all those decisions look really smart. So that is going to help him. But the only thing holding him back is Seahawks won 10 games last year. So that's generally the coach of the year is like you're bad and then good. Yeah. But I like that.

1:44:01Danny Heifetz:It's also coach of the year is the stupidest award there is. It's a narrative award. The coach of the year award is called the Lombardi Trophy. Sure. It's the dumbest thing ever to like a regular season coach of the year award. I'm only down to... We have one more I think, right? So I have to go with the one seed. I'm going with the Bills. Seventh easiest training schedule, according to Warren Sharp. Very smart. And obviously, I'm doubling up. Easy schedule. I'm like stacking here with Josh Allen, MVP. So, yeah. Okay.

1:44:29Bill Simmons:And then I'm up. Yeah. Why do I have... Pause this for a second. I have one more. Right? I feel it. Maybe I went like three times in a row. Are you done? I have picks for every pick. you

1:44:43Danny Heifetz:did you pick next coach fired I have oh I wrote you don't have next coach fired neither does DK yeah I think that's my last one yeah but

1:44:55Bill Simmons:but he should have two Bill should have two I should have two I must have doubled up you don't have fantasy MVP Bill who did you pick

1:45:00Danny Heifetz:for fantasy MVP I took Dak Dak right and then I probably went twice Heifetz only has a team that will get the number one pick Bill did yeah maybe Bill went three times in a row So just go once then, Bill. No, because we all have, well, I don't know. Whatever. I do have Bill. I do have, oh, wait, no, no, no. Bill, you don't have coach of the year. He took Shanahan, right? No, he took. Oh, yeah, you took Shanahan? Okay. Yeah. Bill took Shanahan. All right. So. I have no idea. I don't know what we did.

1:45:28Bill Simmons:You just got to go once and then we'll swing back. Pretty exciting. So I have next coach fired as my last one. Yeah. Okay. And I will do. Okay.

1:45:41All right.

1:45:41Bill Simmons:Coming back. We, we, oh, I'll do it differently. All right. I'm up with next coach fired. And somehow this is my last pick. So we think maybe I did three picks in a row at some point. I'm making fun of Pete Carroll and I've somehow tripled up on my spot.

1:45:55Danny Heifetz:I mean, you remember the 1976 Mariners being introduced, but I will say the first in Ringer 107, you change the lines of the Broncos game and in like, there's cheating allegations. There's no cheating. There's an active investigation. Okay. That's fair. We lost the pick anyway. How do you feel about us three? How do you feel about us three in first place, Ringer 107? Won't last for much longer. Wait, what is the name you said this morning? The gambling contest, we're tied for first, and you said we would come in last. The happy Gilmore when he's like, the pathetic thing is you've been doing this your whole life.

1:46:25Bill Simmons:I thought you'd come in last. I didn't know Shio was going to get bit by a Black Widow spider. What's great about it is we legitimately spend like three minutes a week. That's the way to do it.

1:46:36Danny Heifetz:We're like the people who draft our teams in February. You're like the intern in our draft.

1:46:40Bill Simmons:Every week we're like, should we just take the Colts again? Yeah, let's do it. Smart. Next coach fired. I got to do it. John Harbaugh. Oh! Yeah. What? John Harbaugh? Yeah. Lamar's been hurt all day. I think if this goes badly this year, Lamar comes back and says, oh, they're going to be fine. They're going to make it.

1:47:03Danny Heifetz:And if it goes badly the next five weeks, I agree that John Harbaugh has at various times been closer to getting fired. than you would think. Yes. But there actually hasn't been a coach quarterback pairing this one at Super Bowl that took longer than five years. Having said that, firing John Harbaugh after the most injured season the Ravens have had in 10 years, and they've had two bad seasons in 17 years under Harbaugh, he would then probably get his salary doubled to be replaced. Like the Browns or Bengals would just fire their coach. We live in a world

1:47:34Bill Simmons:where Andy Reid got fired after one 6-10 Eagles season. And people are like, he's done. can't coach anymore. I'm just, I think it's on the table. They've never won, they've never made the Super Bowl with him and Lamar. They're having a bad season. If you're ever going to press the eject button, this would be it. And I couldn't come up with a better coach idea. It is hard actually. After Danny goes, we'll have to go through who didn't get picked. So, yeah. And I also have a problem. I have like, I probably messed myself up by not picking this earlier. But I think the reason I didn't is because I'm kind of going out of left field too.

1:48:07I'll put Jonathan Gannon for the Cardinals.

1:48:09Bill Simmons:So he was the other guy I was looking at. And I just, I think it's more of just like a vibes and lack of progress thing. That would be the reason. I don't feel strongly that he's like deserves to get fired, but I think just. I had him on the list. Yeah. I had him on the list. I do feel like that team has played reasonably hard for him. It just seems like they're like a 50-minute team. And they seem to run out of gas. I don't think it's a Jonathan Gannon problem. No, I agree. But I think just. That's the thing. There's not a lot of next coach fired candidates. No. I mean, the only one I was thinking about is Glenn or McDaniel.

1:48:41Danny Heifetz:That's why I took McDaniel with the first pick in this whole thing. Part of me thought if the Giants were really bad, they could fire Dable. I'm shocked nobody took Dable. I think Dable bought himself time, which is exactly what you do when you take... He's tied in with Dart. They got something going.

1:48:53Bill Simmons:I'd be surprised if they fired him.

1:48:54Danny Heifetz:You'd be more surprised if the Giants fired Brian Dable at the end of the season than the Ravens firing John Harbaugh?

1:48:59Bill Simmons:No. I think it's like even for me. I think this Ravens season can go really badly where they're just like, we've got to figure out something new here. You know what I mean? If it's ever going to happen, it's a year like this where it's like the year from hell and then there's got to be a fall guy because that's the other thing that happens with this stuff is people start, there's like the political stuff and it's like, well, somebody's going to get blamed. Maybe it's this guy's fault and that's when the finger pointing starts. Also, isn't there, there's an impression among some people in the NFL that like if you've been there a certain amount of years, like the message just doesn't come through anymore.

1:49:35Right? I don't know what the Ravens feel about that, but that was part of the reason the Pete Carroll thing ended in Seattle. At some point, we don't...

1:49:43Bill Simmons:You've taken us as far as you can go. We don't listen to all the stuff that you profess every practice or whatever. It's like it just kind of gets... You're just getting onto it. You guys are right.

1:49:54Danny Heifetz:John Harbaugh should have got a medical degree in the last six weeks and just fixed everyone. I didn't realize Heifetz was this passionate about John Harbaugh.

1:50:00Bill Simmons:Well, I'm just like, teams get hurt. It's like my 39th pick in the draft. Fair enough. I'm not welcome to my life Jonathan Gannon fair enough I couldn't even come up with another idea I have to deal with this four times a week it's true the fact that Dick has

1:50:13Danny Heifetz:killed me by now I feel like the Dart Dayball thing really bought Dayball another year I do too yeah we'll see but when they're winning but now they had the worst they were allowed 33 points in the fourth quarter Shane Bowen the defensive quarter is going to be sacrificed in the next month who Craig you're up my last category is breakout star I'm happy to just fall back on Jackson Dart yeah Yeah, smart. Did no one put Daniel Jones? Does that not count? I thought about it. Yeah, he would have counted. I just think Dart... He's a character. Well, I also compared to what everybody thought about him coming in.

1:50:46Sure, that's true, yeah. Like 1 % of people thought he was going to be a starter in the NFL. And not only is he going to be a starter, but he looks great for having played six games, five games.

1:50:56Bill Simmons:He's thrilling. So Heifetz has the last pick, and it's team that will get the number one pick. Dude.

1:51:01Danny Heifetz:Jets, Miami, and Tennessee off the board. My cup runneth over getting to pick between the Raiders and the Saints. This is unbelievable. It's pretty nice. I mean, I... Cup runneth over. That's incredible. I mean, they're all good. I mean, there's like five terrible teams. Everyone was going to get a good one. So, I have many thoughts here. I think the Saints are kind of competent. I agree, Craig. I'm taking the Raiders because I can't get over the fact that they had allowed more points than had ran plays. That's really brutal.

1:51:27Bill Simmons:I feel like they threw that game away, though. Like, they knew Bowers wasn't playing. And they knew they were going to lose to the Chiefs. It felt like a rollover. Yeah.

1:51:34Danny Heifetz:They're going on bye. Well, it's really early to rollover. It's not even Halloween. I don't think the Raiders are going to have the first pick. I think Kamala Harris maybe will come in and just take over in the middle of the season. Yeah, you're right. What was the other option? The Saints. What? So you didn't support that decision by the Democratic Party? You know, sometimes the timing, you know? She had 100 days. Sal was saying that she named the Ringer 107.

1:52:00Bill Simmons:All right, she had 107 days. Yeah. People have asked why it's 107 instead of 103 because the correct number is 103 for five. Is that right? Well, because we're putting props in. The extra games are, when we get to the playoffs, it's going to be props plus the games. Yeah, I don't know why everyone just doesn't know that immediately. Yeah, I don't know why they didn't ask. I'm right here. They could have asked me. I'm standing right here. Here's the case for the Saints. It seems like they might want the number one pick. Yeah, that's true. I don't think Rattler's that bad. He was bad in Chicago, outdoors, whatever.

1:52:33Bill Simmons:The Bears defense is actually pretty good. But for the most part, he's not bad. If they replace him with Shuck, my shit detector is going off. That could be one of those, oh, I see what you guys are up to. I think the same reason they roll the cap over every year,

1:52:46Danny Heifetz:they don't do that. They're Mickey Loomis, who runs the team, for reasons we don't have to get into quietly, as entrenched as anybody in the league. The deal is that they'll be competitive. for Gale Benson, who owns the team, and the deal is we're competitive.

1:53:01Bill Simmons:So your case is they're not confident enough to even plan a tanking strategy? No. The Dolphins can't. I don't think that way. So I'm going to recap the draft. I'm not going to say everybody's name before each pick, but I'll just... I went first. No. Danny went first. Me second. Wait, why did I do it this way? I'll just do it this way. Yeah. I'll go me, Craig, Heifetz, Kelly in these orders, right? So I'm first, Craig second, in Heifetz third, Danny Ford. Most valuable player, May Mahomes, Stafford Allen. Coach of the year, Shanahan, McDonald, Vrabel, Steichen. Offensive, defensive rookie of the year, Warren, Dart, Egbuka.

1:53:41Bill Simmons:Travis Hunter. Now, why not? Very exciting pick. Next coach fired, Harbaugh, Glenn, McDaniel, Gannon. Breakout star, Drake May, picked twice by me. That was great. I love how that worked out. Yeah. Dart, Scadaboo, Egbuka. Who wasn't picked in that category? Which one? Breakout star. Daniel Jones. Warren wasn't? Warren probably had a case. He's probably upset. What about Dowdle? Rico Dowdle. QB offseason hot seat guy. Rogers breakout star? Rogers. A re-breakout. QB offseason hot seat. Lawrence, Murray, McCarthy, Tua. Apologies to Stroud. He can't believe he didn't get drafted. Honorable mention, Stroud.

1:54:22Bill Simmons:One seed AFC or NFC. I took Indy. Craig had the Pats. Heifetz had the Chiefs and Danny had Buffalo. I think those are four good picks. Yeah. What's interesting is no NFC teams. Yeah. We all passed on Philly. Yeah. Well, because it's like Detroit's there, Green Bay's there. There's a lot. Eagles have the third hardest remaining schedule also.

1:54:39Danny Heifetz:Yeah. I think we all saw it the same way. It's like, eh. I also thought Dan Campbell would get a coach of the year pick because of the Lions without losing Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn and then all the injuries and they get the one seed anyway.

1:54:49Bill Simmons:I think he has the fourth best. I got to say for one seed, I did have Seattle as my fifth backup. Ooh. Yeah. Okay. Just because I, you know. Team that will get the number one pick. Jets, Miami, Vegas, Tennessee. No surprise there. Fantasy MVP. I had Dak. Craig had JSN. Heifetz had McCaffrey. And Danny had Taylor. And then the most important, the Best Picture Award nominee for this thing. Fantasy Murderer of the Year. Barkley, Henderson, Thomas Jr., and Bowers were the big four. Bowers is the only one I feel kind of bad about because he did get hurt. But they also didn't tell us he was hurt for five weeks.

1:55:24Bill Simmons:All right, we're going to go after we do one crazy prediction. Heifetz. What's your craziest prediction for the rest of the year?

1:55:30Danny Heifetz:I feel like Joe Flacco is going to play so well for the Bengals that they're actually... We're going to have a debate whether Joe Burrow should even go back. Stop. This is good. It was crazy. These are our hottest takes. Obviously, healthy Joe Burrow is better. I'm just saying. You said craziest prediction. The single craziest thing. This is the hottest take. I will say, there is online discourse that now Burrow is a system quarterback. watching Flacco dice him up. Flacco's like, wait, just throw it to Chase? This is so easy. 23 targets to Jamar Chase? Obviously, Joe Burrow healthy is like one of the best players in the entire league and would be a question.

1:56:05Danny Heifetz:I think if Joe, I actually kind of wonder, obviously, maybe the Steelers are just idiots and couldn't like cover Jamar Chase for some reason. That's correct. 23rd target. But if Flacco keeps this up, and the whole idea is if you just get a good enough record to get to Burrow's returning in December, then he can finish up the season. Bengals can make the playoffs. If Flacco does that, if they go like eight and three or whatever, the next 11 weeks or whatever. Who's going to be better? Joe Flacco having won seven of his last nine games? Or Joe Burrow rushing back from an injury with three months of rust?

1:56:35Danny Heifetz:And imagine if Burrow comes back and then, like, doesn't play well because he's hurt and rusty and everyone's going to be like, damn, should Flacco play next week? I kind of think this will happen.

1:56:45Bill Simmons:It's pretty good. It definitely won't, but it's a good take. It's a good hot take. Craig was jealous of it. Yeah, yeah. I know, mine's not as hot as that. What do you got, Craig? Mine is more offseason, but I think the Steelers are going to re-sign Aaron Rodgers. I think they're going to extend him. Oh, he's not done. No. Because he said that he's retiring after this year. No, I think they're going to go like 11-6. No, they're going to draft a player in the first round, and then he's going to be like, I want, I'm back. They're going to win a playoff game, and he's going to come back, because the quarterback class this year is bad.

1:57:11They're going to have a bad pick. Their team is old. Their defense is old. They are in win-now mode. It seems like it's working, and the locker room likes Aaron Rodgers. He mixes well with Arthur Smith and Tomlin. I think they're just going to bring him back and extend him. I think it's dumb, but that's going to happen. He's got that second wind, the third wind. It does remind me a lot of the time when the Packers were like, he's kind of cooked. We're going to draft Jordan Love, and then he won two straight MVPs.

1:57:36Bill Simmons:When does the Brady played until he was 45? When does that become... Yeah, Rodgers is only 41. That's spring chicken compared to Brady. Oh my God. This dude's got five more years of rogers. Think about all the anti-aging stuff he's probably doing. The herbal tea he's drinking. We can't even imagine what he's having. Who's the guy who wants to live forever? What's his name? Oh, Brian Johnson. Brian Johnson. You know that guy who lives in Venice? Brian Johnson. Oh, I've read about that guy. He's like, he measures like his morning wood. Erections every night. He like takes his son's blood every day.

1:58:05The vampire. The funny thing about him is like, I believe he is like 45 years old. and if you see him, he like looks 45. You're like, I don't know. He says he has, he's the biologically youngest 45-year-old in the world.

1:58:18Bill Simmons:When you do all that stuff, it's like, you're going to die being like electrocuted during golf. He'll get hit by a bus. Like hit by lightning. Or like, one in a million odds. Also, you live in LA, like the worst air pollution city and you're just breathing that in every day. DK, what do you have? I'm stealing this from the online discourse, but JJ McCarthy will never start another game for the Vikings. I don't actually believe this, but I'm starting to maybe think it's true. They're like, it feels like they are, you know, why don't you just go get some work on your ankle? Just keep working on it.

1:58:52You know, they watch them in practice. Daddy's taking the dog to the farm. He'll be back. The dog will be back. Don't worry.

1:58:58Bill Simmons:Amazing take. Well, so, and I think it's also funny because it's like on TV if somebody just is off the show for a couple of weeks and they never come back. What happened? Totally. Weren't they in the credits? They kill somebody off of Grey's Anatomy. And then McCarthy sues the Vikings in like two years. The Vikings quarterback room last year, Sam Darnold, Daniel Jones, JJ McCarthy's on IR. I think Daniel Jones is actually on the practice squad for most of the time. But it is crazy that they let Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones go, and they are like two of the best quarterbacks in the NFL this year.

1:59:31And now they're playing Carson Wentz. I know. If the Vikings were smart, they'd get rid of McCarthy, and then they should trade for like Trevor Lawrence and O 'Connell just fixes Trevor Lawrence. You know, speaking of online discourse, you know who's the hot topic right now? Anthony Richardson. Jesus Christ. Let's do this. Let's do this. Solak was tweeting about it today. Richardson to the Vikings?

1:59:49Bill Simmons:To the Vikings? Oh, because they wanted him at number four. Yeah, and there's like a NFL films behind the scenes thing where KOC was like hugging Richardson and talking to him. That's O 'Connell getting way too cocky, being like, I can fix anything. He's like, I can fix him.

2:00:05Danny Heifetz:Well, O 'Connell, I mean, Darnold, Daniel Jones, he really helped guys with what's going on in their head. And Anthony Richardson just broke his face with band work pregame. So maybe KOC can help. A lot of pain going on in his head. It's just bad vibes happening there with Richardson. He needs to go find a new home.

2:00:21Bill Simmons:I'm so excited to unleash mine. I'm glad I'm going last. I'm even going to give you the week. It's going to be in this range between week 11 and week 13. Ben Johnson will bench Caleb Williams and start Tyson Bajan. he would be the starter Tyson Bajan would be the starter in time for week 13, week 14 this is my crazy prediction why? because I think the Bears are pretty good and I think Caleb is holding them back and Ben Johnson is just going to be like fuck it and he loves Tyson Bajan they're 4-2 they've won 4 straight yeah they're like a playoff team and Caleb has not been good for them you must have been talking to Trey Aikman a little bit too much Trey Aikman was Caleb supposed to call you and missed it?

2:01:02Danny Heifetz:is that what happened?

2:01:03Bill Simmons:I don't know what I don't know what the impetus will be, but there were a lot of breadcrumbs being dropped Tyson Bajan's way before the year about what an unbelievable teammate he is. I think at some point, their team's pretty good. They just need somebody to drive the car and they could go like 11-6. So do you think Caleb is not on the Bears next year? I think, here's how I played it on my head. Some sort of minor injury where they're just like, we're going to sit him this week and play Tyson and Ben Jotts is going to be like, please God, have him be fucking awesome. To make up something hypothetical,

2:01:33Danny Heifetz:like a high ankle sprain or something. Yeah, maybe it's some low ankles.

2:01:36Bill Simmons:Some sort of, or like a pulled groin. Or he took a hit. The thing I hate about this is how much, it makes me nervous because it could be like real. Former Ringer colleague, Ryan O 'Hanlon, has started texting me with the hashtag Baygent boys because he just thinks, he's like, I think they think Baygent's better than Caleb. They extended Baygent. It's off season.

2:01:58Danny Heifetz:They had a huge contract. They like his work ethic.

2:02:00Bill Simmons:They talked about how much they love him and he's one of the best people I've ever been around. They did all this stuff. The old coaching staff or the new coaching staff?

2:02:08Danny Heifetz:The old coaching staff really threw Caleb under the bus.

2:02:11Bill Simmons:New coaching staff.

2:02:12Danny Heifetz:I don't know if you guys watched the Saints game. We had it in Ringer 107.

2:02:15Bill Simmons:Caleb was bad in that game. Caleb's kind of been bad every game except for the Dallas game. He's just really inaccurate. Yeah, he's all over the place. That's the problem. It's like in Ben Johnson, you can see an offensive coach doing this. It's kind of like the Shanahan thing. It's like, I don't care who he is. I don't care if it's Trey Lance and we drafted him third overall or whatever it was. Like our third guy is running the offense the most clean. It's a little...

2:02:36Danny Heifetz:The entire Patriots thing happened because they gave Bledsoe a$100 million contract and Belichick still kept radian. Yeah. Yeah. It's a little Trevor Lawrence-y with Caleb Williams where you can see the physical tools. Like there are moments where you're like, Jesus, like Caleb's making throws two people in the league can make. But just normal downs where a guy's open. Just throw it to the guy who's open. Here's the thing though. I'm torn with Caleb because on one hand, I wonder if there's smoke with fire with all these, I guess the word is unsubstantiated rumors about like all the stuff that was said by the previous staff anonymously.

2:03:06Danny Heifetz:But the flip side is I also am just a radical about really talented quarterbacks needing time. And I just, I don't know, you remember the Mariners in 76? Like, remember when quarterbacks weren't supposed to play for, I just couldn't believe you said you remember 1976, but like - It's a big deal. We had two new American League teams. It's like, who are these guys? It's just a funny thing to say. But I just, your whole life wasn't the deal. Quarterbacks kind of had to sit for a long time. And I just, Caleb Williams, to me, the comp for him the whole time was everyone said my home so it's like it's aaron rogers and that's not even the size the way he plays off platform a little personality wise and then i'm just saying though but it's not just me caleb williams himself if you ask him he's like i based my game off aaron rogers everything he does and so how did aaron rogers do a year and a half into his career

2:03:49Bill Simmons:what was heifetz's crazy prediction uh what did you just have four minutes ago for your crazy

2:03:57Danny Heifetz:prediction i had you would take drake may in two different categories no no i had joe flacco go to the bank.

2:04:01Bill Simmons:So Hyphen said Joe Flacco was going to nudge a healthy Joe Burrow out of the last two weeks of the season. And now he's giving a passion discourse for why my crazy prediction was too crazy.

2:04:13Danny Heifetz:I actually forgot it was the craziest prediction because I actually kind of the last three, I was like, damn, that's actually going to happen. I feel like they got more realistic as they went down. Interesting.

2:04:22Bill Simmons:It was so non-crazy. You forgot it was the crazy prediction category because it is crazy. Them benching Caleb Williams would be crazy, but I Russell wouldn't be like, oh my God, they benched Caleb Williams. Mine's nuts.

2:04:33Danny Heifetz:Yours is believable. That could happen.

2:04:35Bill Simmons:Yours is believable if Burrow's hurt, though. If it's like Burrow can kind of limp around, but we're going to throw him back in, and Flacco's playing well, they're not going to change it. They said December for Burrow, but they meant January.

2:04:47Danny Heifetz:They're being optimistic. Are you right about the Caleb thing? Yeah, if Caleb blows some game to the Bengals against Flacco, throws four picks, and it's a disaster, and it moves the Bears to under 500, maybe Ben Johnson gets a little fed up.

2:05:00Bill Simmons:See, I think he does it if he thinks they have a chance to actually be good. Because Swift has never run like this. I think he's the best he's ever lived. Dunze is like a real number one legitimate guy. I like their team. I thought their defense was kind of awesome on Sunday. I know they're playing against the Saints, but it was hats on the ball. They make a lot of takeaways, yeah. I don't know. I like their team. And then the emotional Dennis Allen game ball after?

2:05:31Danny Heifetz:The speech and everything was good. I think Dennis Allen knowing Rattler's, the whole roster of strength and weaknesses, but also that was a weird game because Rattler got displaced by Caleb out of Oklahoma. And so the whole ego death that Rattler's gone through started with Caleb just came in and just immediately was electric and Rattler had to leave like tail between his legs and go to South Carolina. But I think that's relatedly the combo of, I think Rattler was pushing the ball a little bit because I do think subconsciously he was trying to prove something. And also Dennis Allen was just weirdly equipped to take advantage of all the holes in that team.

2:06:00Danny Heifetz:All right, we're wrapping that up.

2:06:01Bill Simmons:So what do we call that draft? I don't know if we'll do it again. I don't know. The midway draft? I don't know, midseason draft? My guy was such an easier title. That was like a midseason check-in draft. Yeah. Danny Craig, great to see you guys. You can listen to them on the fantasy football show, the Ringer fantasy football show on all of our platforms. Good to see you all. Thanks for having us. Thanks. That's it for the podcast. Thanks to Danny and Danny and Craig. Thanks to Eduardo and Gahau as well. I will be back on this podcast on Thursday with some basketball and some football. Looking forward to seeing it.

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