49ers-Rams Takeaways and Week 1 Predictions!

18:07Tom Pelissero:When he guts them on those two runs right up the middle, it just felt like from that point forward, the Rams were on skates a little bit, trying to search for answers, and they just didn't have them.

18:17Sheil Kapadia:Well, it's also nice to see contributions from Mike Evans, Devo Samuel. You didn't know exactly how they were going to fit in.

18:22Tom Pelissero:Mike Evans with like the three third down catches early. He looks incredible. This is why you go and get that guy just immediately.

18:30Austin Gayle:Yeah. No doubt about it. He looked fantastic. I looked at the box score afterwards, and I'm like, that's all he had. I think he had six for 49 or something. I'm like, that was the most impactful six for 49 I've ever seen. Because, yeah, I think at least…

18:44Tom Pelissero:Three on third downs, the touchdown. I don't remember the other two. But, yeah, it was all like tone setter type stuff. They'd never had a receiver like that. There's not many guys built like Mike. and he looked like vintage Mike Evans today.

18:57Austin Gayle:And his chemistry with Purdy in week one is impressive because that touchdown is just like, Purdy's got to just put that in spot where he can go up and get it and he's just winning a contested catch. And that was a beautifully placed pass and he of course goes up and wins it there. So yeah, that was impressive as well.

19:12Tom Pelissero:Luke Kuechly nailed it. That one too where he goes, hey, he doesn't run much of a route. It was like, yeah, he just got to like, this is a play where it's just like, it's backyard or like basketball. It's just like, I'm going to go get it. Just put it up there. And that's something that they've, they've really been coaching Purdy to do, which is like in their offense, that's so like timing and progression based. It's like a lot of times, okay, you come off. If the X is the first read, all right, it's covered. Go to the two and the three. And one thing they've been telling Brock is like, dude, hang with one a little longer.

19:41Tom Pelissero:It's Mike Evans. He's going to win some of these. And those third downs were great examples of it. There were a couple of those that were contested catches, but that's why Mike's going to be a hall of famer. He's just, if you have him one-on-one, He knows how to use his body. He's so big, so physical. He was, again, out of the gate that that really got him going. They only kicked a field goal on that drive, but Mike basically single-handedly kept him moving down the field.

20:04Austin Gayle:Yeah, that's true, Billy. It could have been even worse. I mean, they were at, what, the two-yard line. If they score a touchdown there, this margin is even bigger. And you mentioned Debo Samuel, kind of just like a forgotten addition. And he's just playing for them. And the touchdown to him where Birdie now has to get off the initial read and buys a little bit of time and they improvise and there he is in the end zone on a touchdown. And also coming out of halftime, he had the big return before those McCaffrey runs. I mean, they're starting what? At midfield, that possession. So yeah, all of a sudden, Debo Samuel back in our lives looking like it was three years ago before he left the 49ers and he's making an impact for them as well.

20:41Austin Gayle:All right, Billy, what did I forget? What else do we have to ask Tom before we can let him? He's already worked like a full day. Yeah, I know. Do we have any more questions here for him?

20:49Sheil Kapadia:What did you do? Did you accomplish everything you wanted? Did you miss anything that you wanted to see? You still have a little bit of time left. Are you going to see any sights? Did you get souvenirs for the kids? Are you going to take back one of those kangaroo jackets?

21:00Tom Pelissero:Anything like that? I did not get a kangaroo jacket. I do have an alert on my phone to make sure I find some things to bring back to the kids. Right now, I'm mainly concerned that I didn't realize until I came on, looked at myself up close, that I got sunburned today. So I think the hunt for aloe is going to be a big part of my little Friday afternoon here.

21:21Austin Gayle:Oh, no. I didn't even notice that, Billy. I thought he looked good.

21:25Tom Pelissero:I had the sunglasses on in the second half, and you can see right there that I got the red on the nose and the red on the cheeks. It was a beautiful day. It was cold this morning. I was like, did I misjudge what I was wearing? No. By the second half, it was just absolute perfect, perfect weather out there.

21:44Austin Gayle:Fantastic. I was like, all right, now I do want, let's finish with this, because you had some newsy items there at the end in your report, which I took note of, which we got to hear just in case anyone, they shouldn't have, but in case they turned off the Netflix broadcast a little bit early. You had some updates on Sam Darnold and A.J. Brown. What's Tom hearing? Is that what we're doing? What's Tom hearing on Sam Darnold and A.J. Brown before we say goodbye?

22:09Tom Pelissero:So Sam Darnold spent the night in the hospital because of that hip injury that he suffered. The initial fear was that it was a hip socket fracture, which that is a major injury. That would be bad. So when Mike McDonald went to the podium and said, hey, we just got great news or good news, that's what he was referring to was that it was not a hip socket fracture. He went through a battery of tests. My understanding is he has an unusual muscle strain in his hip area. And everybody who's familiar with those injuries knows like the groin and the hip and the glute, like they're all interconnected. He's got something that's a little bit different.

22:47Tom Pelissero:He's going to continue to seek opinions. The good news is, number one, I've been told as of now, there's no consideration of putting him on IR. Number two, it was not a major injury. And number three, it's really going to be guided, again, pending the additional medical advice, by how Sam Darnold's feeling. If he continues to progress, you know, I don't think he's going to play this week. it's most likely going to be Drew Lockett in that start against Arizona. But if he progresses, he's got a chance to get back in the not-too-distant future. So that was a relief for Seattle. With A.J. Brown, we all saw it, and I think based on any time that a guy grabs that part of his leg, you're like, okay, it's a high ankle sprain.

23:29Tom Pelissero:Underwent tests. The belief is it's a high ankle sprain. I was told there's nothing broken. It's nothing super long-term. but high ankle sprains are generally four to six weeks. We've seen people beat that timeline. There's some that are more severe than others. We'll see where A.J. Brown falls in. He's a pretty tough guy. But in the short term, they're going to have to adjust in terms of what they're doing with that receiver group coming off of a pretty rough first performance against the Seahawks.

23:56Austin Gayle:Wild opening game with a couple of key injuries that certainly could impact the season for those two teams. Two teams that obviously have Super Bowl aspirations So we'll continue to keep an eye on that. All right, Billy. I think we let Tom go here. We'll come back with Austin Gale. We'll talk about the Sunday games, the Monday night game. We'll do the Ringer 107 at the end of this. And Tom, we will see you on Monday to recap week one around the NFL. Safe travels back, my friend. Appreciate it.

24:28Tom Pelissero:All right, we'll be right back on the Ringer NFL Show.

24:31Austin Gayle:The Ringer NFL Show is brought to you by FanDuel. You know how NFL Sundays go. You start with the early games, roll right into the late slate, and before you know it, Sunday night football is kicking off. Well, FanDuel has something for you every step of the way with the Sunday Spectacular. We're talking rewards throughout the day from the first games kicking off all the way through Sunday night. We're going to talk about some of our favorite bets on this show. So wherever the NFL Sunday takes you, keep an eye on the FanDuel app to see what's waiting for you. It's a full day of football with more ways to get rewarded along the way.

25:08Austin Gayle:Download the app to check out the Sunday Spectacular and make this your most rewarding season ever with FanDuel. 21 plus select states or 18 plus DC or Wyoming. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. All right, we are back here on the Ringer NFL show. So welcoming in Austin Gale, which I don't know that there's like three people in my life more excited for a football Sunday than you, Austin. I'm excited, man. It's the first time I've done the jersey countdown thing. I used to not like it, but then I've just been like spraying random jerseys and random football group chats I've been in.

25:52Honestly, I liked it. I think this is the most exciting football season going in. I've been doing this for, this will be year 10 for me since I graduated in 2017, go Aztecs. This is easily, this is easily the most excited I've been going into a season just for, for college football reasons, for NFL draft reasons. And obviously for NFL reasons, I think that the stakes, the, the, the pressure on, on the best teams and like the on paper Rams being a plus 500 team to win the Superbowl, like the expectations are everywhere. I think this season is going to be incredible and teams are going to be looking for Arch Manning by Halloween.

26:26Like there's just going to be endless. It's just going to be endless.

26:29Austin Gayle:Billy it looked like you were about to ask Austin to rank his seasons but I don't I don't think we're going to do that

26:36Sheil Kapadia:I was going to ask him why he was so excited but he touched on it honestly I need more Austins in my life like I need this kind of positivity and excitement headed into things around me because I feel like the older we get you and I the more jaded everyone becomes and the more it's like yeah football but like man it's gonna be a long day and you know we're already starting with a Wednesday game and a Thursday game then We have a Sunday and a Monday. When does it end? What week are we by? But Austin's here to kind of get us all pepped up. He's here for the enthusiasm. Yeah, exactly.

27:05Austin Gayle:He's getting us pumped up. And that's what we're going to do. Here's the exercise. Now, I always like to see who has been able to follow the instructions for the exercise, who has tweaked the exercise, how this is going to go. Now, the exercise was supposed to be this. Predict week one headlines. So in other words, you're logging on to your favorite website, the ringer.com or another website on Monday. Maybe someone's sending you a link. This is what you're going to see. These are the headlines you're going to read. It's a way to predict what we think is going to happen on Sunday. And if you want to go Monday night, you can do that as well.

27:39Austin Gayle:So that's the exercise. Billy, did you follow the instructions?

27:43Sheil Kapadia:Surprisingly, I did follow the instructions. And I think I added to the assignment as well. Not for extra credit, just because I wanted to have some fun.

27:50Austin Gayle:All right, Austin, we're starting with you. Give us a headline. We're going to read next week after the first full Sunday slash Monday of the NFL season. What do you got? The on, I'm calling them the on paper bangles. The on paper bangles look worse again, off paper. I think that the Bucs are a live dog. I think Bill said this on Guess the Lines. I think the defense is good. I think Bowles is good. You know, this is an interesting like coach hot seat game, right? I think there's some who would say, oh, Todd Bowles, you know, coaching for his job this season. Canales walks, Liam Cohen walks. This guy needs to find a new OC.

28:23I think that I actually would argue there's more pressure and more fire under the seat for Zach Taylor, even though, you know, some people, Sheil included, thinks the Bengals are going to walk to a Super Bowl that they haven't been to since 2021. I think that the Bengals are going to struggle against this Bucs team. Maybe they win. Maybe they win. They're favored by three and a half. I hope they do. They're going to struggle against this Bucs team and they're going to look like shit out of the gate like they have to last however long. And we're going to be like, oh, man, what's going on? Why aren't the Bengals as good as everyone says they are in August?

28:55And I think maybe they win this game. Maybe they come get out of the gate. Obviously, they have all the talent. There's a reason, you know, the price is where they are in the market. But I honestly think, like, no one loves to talk about the Bengals more in September or in August or early September. But then when we get to the games, everyone's like, what's happening? Why is it not working? And, like, there's common denominators here. And it's Zach Taylor. Wow.

29:15Austin Gayle:I mean, Billy, you said he's positive. And he just comes in. I know. And he just rips my Super Bowl team. he's saying this is going to be ugly from the start you have them in the Super Bowl? yeah you just said that didn't you? yeah I didn't know you had them in the Super Bowl I thought you had them playing well this year and like you're like talking them up again they're going to the Super Bowl for you oh yeah they're going to the Super Bowl okay okay wow but I actually don't disagree with you in this spot because I also like the Bucks a lot these are two teams that I like a lot I think the Bucks are underrated from a talent perspective and I do look at this and I'm like the Bucs are coming in kind of healthy.

29:52Austin Gayle:Three and a half point favorites for the Bengals? I'm like, that seems a little bit high. Billy, I'm not backing down. I'm sticking with my Bengals, but not every team needs to win week one or blow a team out in week one. I just want Joe Burrow. I don't want to see any reports about walking boots or crutches or looking at his shoulder. I don't want to see any reports like that about Joe Burrow. And even if they lose this game 35 to three and they go 0-1, I'll be like, it was a weird week one game. I still feel good about it.

30:20Sheil Kapadia:So I had a headline for this game as well. Would you like my headline for this game?

30:24Austin Gayle:Oh yeah, I love this because we don't share them beforehand. So this is good synergy.

30:28Sheil Kapadia:So here's the thing. I took it more literally and actually wrote a headline as though I was writing for a newspaper or a New York Post type thing. So I wrote a headline for each game. Ready? So here's how this goes. Ready? Cha-ching Sanati. Fresh off signing his new contract extension, Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers outlast the media-darling Cincinnati Bengals in the game of the day. That's a lot of words, though. You're including game of the day in a headline? Game of the day? The big word is cha-ching-san-addy. Who's running game of the day in 2026? Baker Mayfield is going like this, like Johnny Manziel, cha-ching-san-addy.

31:12Sheil Kapadia:It's cha-ching-san-addy, even though Baker Mayfield plays for Tampa Bay? Yeah, because it's got to be a Tampa Bay thing, right? No, because the game's in Cincinnati. So Cha-Chan, Cincinnati.

31:21Austin Gayle:And then the picture is him like this.

31:22Sheil Kapadia:Yeah, like celebrating like Johnny Manziel. And then all of the other stuff is like getting progressively like smaller as you go down and you kind of get the story of the game. So you think the Bucs are going to win too? I do, yeah. They're going to outlast the Bengals in Cincinnati in the game of the day. So you think shootout or something?

31:41Austin Gayle:That is fun though. Baker, Mayfield, Joe Burrow. That could actually be a very fun game.

31:45Sheil Kapadia:They're just going to be slinging it at the end of that game. That ball is going to be flying all over the field, back and forth. It feels like a game of the day. I do think it will be the game of the day. Austin, do you have the Bengals in the playoffs or no? Or you think they're not even going to make the playoffs? I just did my final predictions. You didn't prep me for this, but give me one second. Let me find it. I'll tell you what I had.

32:04Austin Gayle:I have my heart. I'm walking down the streets and I can tell you who my third wildcard team is. Oh, I apologize for that. Yeah, I have the Bengals missing the playoffs. What?

32:13Sheil Kapadia:Missing the playoffs? This guy.

32:15Austin Gayle:Okay. And I have the Steelers winning that division. Oh, all right. Well, maybe we'll get to them here on a few. Steelers winning the division. Wow. Okay. All right. So Bengals, Bucs, fun game Sunday afternoon. Bengals, three and a half point favorites. These guys think the Bucs are going to win outright. I'm going to say Bengals win. But if I had to pick that game, I would take the points for Tampa because I do like Tampa. All right. You guys both gave me a headline from that one. I'm going to go to my headline here. Kyler Cooks, Murray Vikings, light up Packers defense. How do you like that?

32:55Austin Gayle:Wow. See? Say it again. Say it again. Can I get it again, please? Can I get another read? Kyler Cooks, Murray, Vikings, light up Packers defense. And you know what I want for my photo? I want Jonathan Gannon on the sideline or the booth just looking real sad because he doesn't have Micah Parsons. And that Packers defense, I mean, go look at that freaking depth chart. Who are the players on that Packers defense that are going to lead them to competency this season? Because I don't see a lot of them. They've got injuries on the defensive line. Gannon, I think, will coach to the level of his talent.

33:34Austin Gayle:So I think Parsons will come back, and all of a sudden they'll obviously be better. I don't think he's a more with less coach. I don't think he can just take some group of, you know, ragtag players and be like, oh, don't worry, I'm going to scheme this up and this is going to look great. I think Kyler Murray is going to get off to a good start here. And one of the big stories in the NFL next week, Austin, is going to be, huh, have the Vikings maybe found something here with their new quarterback? So good start for you, right, is a win. It's a win. They're favored by one and a half at home. It's a win.

34:05But also, is it two tugs? Is it 200 plus yards? Is it running? what is success? What is Kyler looking good in KOC's offense look like? Is it different than what it was before when we've seen the peaks and then obviously the valleys? I always think about that clip against the Raiders on that two-point conversion where he scrambles like 150 yards. What do you think good Kyler, what does good Kyler look like with KOC?

34:26Austin Gayle:See, I don't think he has to put, this isn't a situation where he has to put the team on his back. This is why I'm actually bullish on the Vikings because it's kind of like you don't have to do everything here. You've got good wide receivers. I think the offensive line is going to be pretty good. The coach will say he's got to prove himself. I think this year that he's a good offensive coach. And then I think the defense is going to be pretty good. Although in this matchup, certainly against Jordan Love and Matt LaFleur, I'm not saying they're going to totally shut down the Packers offense. But yeah, I mean, numbers wise, I think it's something, you know, if he throws for 212 yards and two touchdowns and, you know, doesn't have that costly turnover and doesn't take a bunch of sacks, like that to me is kind of good enough.

35:05Austin Gayle:And that type of stat line can lead this Vikings team to a lot of wins.

35:09Sheil Kapadia:Do you have more faith in, let's say, and maybe not a fair way of putting it, but you have more faith in Kyler's unfulfilled potential than you do in KOC's role as an offensive mind here? Because I feel like KOC has shown that he can have these quarterback reclamation projects. I just wonder if he's run out of pixie dust on some of these. How many times can he do this? I definitely think KOC is closer to... I mean, I've been calling him Cliff O 'Connell, like Cliff Kingsbury. Like Cliff Kingsbury got a long way for who he knew and what he looked like. And Kevin O 'Connell is pretty hot, right?

35:45The Ringer Fantasy football guys are going to do ranking the hottest head coaches in the NFL. I'd argue Kevin O 'Connell is probably a lock for the top six. And I think that's a piece of it, right? Hold on, lock for the top six? Who else do we have in the top six? It's very specific. Because he missed the top five. I mean, I think D 'Amico has to be in there. It's hard to say, right? I don't know. I think I'd have to do a deep dive. Six, you know. At six, I don't want to reveal it also. It's not going to come out until next summer. Yeah.

36:12Austin Gayle:Yeah, we can't steal the other pot. I mean, Billy, we can't steal the other pot's thunder there. But I did catch that too, that it was very specific. Top six, not top five. And listen, D 'Amico Ryan's good looking man. I think we can all say that with certainty. All right, so I like the Vikings here. Billy, what do you think here? You have your hand up.

36:28Sheil Kapadia:Yeah, one thing that kind of makes me sad, and I'm probably in the minority on this, and I feel like everyone in Minnesota and Green Bay will probably hate me and disagree with me strongly on this, but I kind of miss when this felt like a bigger game, when the Packers-Vikings felt like a rivalry game that you had to watch, where I was like, let me sit down, let me mark my calendar, Vikings-Packers, like, that's going to be a great game that I want to see. And we're kind of just getting it week one, middle of the day, and I feel like that rivalry isn't what it used to be outside of those two cities.

37:01Austin Gayle:I don't know. I think it could be a little, I think the NFC North games are going to be pretty spicy this year. Really? You're looking forward to it? I'm looking forward to it. What does rivalry mean to you, Gil? What is a loud rivalry to you? What do you think the best rivalry in the NFL is? It's a good question.

37:18Sheil Kapadia:I mean, I feel like it's something that I feel like I can't miss. I need to go out of my way to watch that game. I'm not saying they're not rivals. I'm just saying it doesn't feel like a must-miss, or a can't-miss game anymore for me. See, this is where I just can't relate. Every game is must-watch. Well, I know. You're so excited. It's the NFL. There's only 16 games for every team. Or 17. Sorry. There's 17 games for every team. You have to watch every one.

37:41Austin Gayle:Seahawks-Rams is probably the best one right now, I would say. To Billy's point. I think Steelers. Steelers. I think Steelers-Ravens. Steelers-Bangles. Houston, but do you really care about Steelers? I think just the Steelers. The Steelers feel like the last team, maybe the Cowboys, that actually still remember that it is a rivalry. All right. Next headline. Austin, you're up. What do you got? Oh, okay. I just want to, my notes for this were just the text I sent to Arjuna and I did send headlines. So my first headline was on paper bangles look worse off paper. This next one, because sometimes I've done this in the past where a lot of the headlines end up kind of predicting who's going to win.

38:19And even with the bangles one, I think the bangles can win but still look bad in this game, right? And look like not the bangles that Shield thinks are going to go to the Super Bowl. For this one, I have the insert team, Texans or Bills suck because I think And Bill has hit this on his pod too, because whoever loses this game, I think they're going to say they suck now. So with the bills, right? It's going to be like, how the hell did you lose this game? Sean McDermott was right. We need to take the ping pong table out, right? This coach is too loose. Buffalo needs to correct itself. We need to find a way to win.

38:48If the Texans lose this one, Stroud might be under a bus, right? Because both teams think they're going to win the Super Bowl this year. And we love overreactions coming out of week one. Like this game, someone's going to lose. And whoever loses, it's going to be right for the taking for people to be like, oh, now this team sucks because Sean McDermott's gone. Or now this team sucks because Stroud can't figure it out. And that's why they didn't pay him. I think that we have to be careful with this game because someone's going to lose it. And I think we can't rush either side. Right. I think Buffalo could look slow out of the gate because Joe Brady is a new head coach.

39:19Everyone's like, it's all the same. It's all the same. No, it's not. Ask any player. You look at any of the Bills media or Bills reports coming out of camp, the vibe is completely different. right and McDermott's not bringing up you know uh the Taliban anymore right it's more of a buzz it's more of a party and I think that party could lead to sloppiness who knows maybe not out of the gate but Buffalo has a lot of newness even if Joe Brady was the offensive coordinator last year and with Houston the problem we already know CJ Stroud maybe played the worst games of his life last last time we saw him we need to see something different against Buffalo if we don't we're going to be rushing you know with with pitchforks to say that the Texans are cooked and that's why they shouldn't have paid Stroud.

39:53Austin Gayle:This is arguably probably the best game of Sunday. Is it game of the day? I don't know if it's game of the day. On Monday

40:02Sheil Kapadia:it won't be. Headed into the weekend you could say this is looking like the game of the day. Once the headlines come out we'll find out it was not. Yeah because it might not live up to it. And we'll find out that blank sucks.

40:13Austin Gayle:That's true. That's true. Alright which team is it going to be? Because I have one for this as well. that will text it because I'm looking forward to this game. So I have no mind. This is a boring headline, but I'm going to land the plan eventually. So stick with me. So the boring headline is rough start for Joe Brady as Bills drop opener. So I was thinking about Joe Brady, like Austin was just mentioning. It is a different time. And then I go to ESPN.com and I was looking at their Bills coverage. And I saw this story from Elena Getzenberg. Does a very good job covering the Bills And Billy, you're going to like this.

40:51Austin Gayle:Because anytime, Austin, there's a story about how much kind of a caffeine addiction for a head coach or sleeping or whatever, we get very intrigued. And Joe Brady says sleep. First says sleep is overrated. Then he says, no, it's not overrated. It's just, you know, it might be important, but he can convince his brain that he can operate without it. And it says, during seasons past, Brady would sleep no more than three or four hours a night. And he just kind of binges caffeine. Now, he wanted to make it very clear here, quote, not living on caffeine yet. When she interviewed him, this was a morning in June.

41:35Austin Gayle:And he was on his second Gatorade fast twitch energy drink of the day. What? And later, he's going to have a little cafe con leche. Oh, cafe con leche. Where he will get that delivered. He will get that delivered if he can find it on one of his favorite apps there. Wow. Listen, I have some concerns about Joe Brady. I know NFL coaches are a different breed. It's not just the caffeine thing. But I was thinking about this. And it's like every year we make the mistake of like offensive coordinator moves to head coach job. Oh, they're going to be able to do it. And it's just a very different job. I know nothing about his ability to manage timeouts and not waste them.

42:14Austin Gayle:I know nothing about his ability to decide, do I kick a field goal? Do I punt? Do I go for it on fourth down about when to throw the replay challenge? And so that's already in my head. And then I'm reading this story. The guy's going to be so sleep deprived here. By the time he gets to game time, kickoff on Sunday, I worry that he might not have the goods right away. And there might be more of a learning curve, especially when you consider the opponent here. I mean, throw out everything I said just now and just think of the Bills' offensive performance against a great Texans defense that has really shut them down in back-to-back years.

42:48Austin Gayle:I like the Bills a lot. I think the Bills are going to go 12-5 and win the AFC East, but I think they could struggle here coming out of the game.

42:56Sheil Kapadia:Isn't it wild? Look, I love football, Sheil. You love football. Awesome. We know you love football more than anyone on Earth. I like football. You don't love football.

43:04Austin Gayle:Well, I love is, you know, I don't throw around love. You might throw around love willy-nilly. You don't love football?

43:09Sheil Kapadia:You don't love football? You don't love football? Hold on. Yeah, I like football. Not to go too deep here, but how many things do you love? No, skip, skip. I skip. He doesn't even like football. What the hell? Who cares? His mom, his dad. Actually, this is a true story.

43:26Austin Gayle:I got hired by the ringer and before I actually started, they were having a brainstorm meeting at their offices in LA. They're like, you want to just come down for this because the season's coming out. And I sat in there and I heard all my colleagues talk about football. And I thought, wait, do I actually even like football? These guys are speaking with such enthusiasm. So, you know, I think I do like it. But I mean, Austin is at another level. I'm not going to lie and say I'm at the same level as Austin, Billy. So I just need to clarify that. You don't have to compare. You can love football without comparing to me.

44:00I'm a sicko. I'm a freak. And also, like, I can't even get into this. You're having a football life crisis Listen, we're two games in here. We're two games in. I need you. I need you.

44:11Sheil Kapadia:Did you ever feel that way? Like, is this age? Like the love has kind of like died out a little bit?

44:17Austin Gayle:I think the older you get, you know? Oh my God.

44:22Sheil Kapadia:Austin, the future's bleak for you, my friend. It's not going to go well. No, it's not. I'm not going to just... I can't even... I'm out. I'm out. But Billy, you were saying... I didn't mean to interrupt you. How long before you told your wife you loved her? Who said it first? You or your wife?

44:36Austin Gayle:I don't believe it was me.

44:39Sheil Kapadia:Oh, wow. Did you reciprocate those? I reciprocated. I reciprocated. Yeah, that's a good move.

44:43Austin Gayle:I actually can't remember when that was.

44:45Sheil Kapadia:Yeah, all right. Well, the larger...

44:47Austin Gayle:I'm a hopeless romantic.

44:49Sheil Kapadia:The larger point was, we all, minus you, Shield, we love football, right? But it's incredible how these coaches, and we just accept it as like, yeah, that's normal, have all convinced themselves that all this pseudoscience stuff, like, I don't need to drink water. I can just drink Gatorade fast switch. energy drink all day long and sleep five minutes and I'll be perfectly fine because I love football. It's like, no, guys, like we're worried about your long term health here. It's not just the hits. You guys are putting your bodies through horrible situations unnecessarily, and it's not giving you an advantage.

45:21I cannot believe he's just tossing. Yeah, I drink two fast twitch Gatorade energies and then also coffee. That's insane. And also for his sleep schedule, still two to three times better than Tom Pellicero's. I heard he sleeps with his AirPods in. My guy's falling asleep to to text in his ear that's insane that yeah if you you guys know me as this sicko this guy who like watches football all the time if you found out i slept with airpods in i don't know i feel like you guys yeah that would be crazy i guess i get it he's always on because he's always on when he

45:50Austin Gayle:said that when he said that live it didn't sink in and then earlier today i was like wait did he actually say he sleeps with his airpods in so that he doesn't miss a text like because i would have asked to follow up but it didn't even register in my head it doesn't make sense going on you know so i've talked to shefter another insider is like someone who's like anytime i see an outlet i charge my phone like he tells that story i feel like i've seen him at the combine tell a couple times like he's always charging his phone which i think is fair with the airpods thing you know how like sometimes like i think you do this you put your phone on like do not disturb or focus mode when you're going to bed because you don't want to be just getting with all these notifications or whatever tp's in disturbed mode right he's just oh put me he's just like you know what actually send that right to the cerebral.

46:33If Ari Myrov drops an update on Jeremiah Love's ankle, I need to wake up. It's time to get moving. That's fucking crazy, man. I love the guy, though. That's a guy who loves football.

46:42Sheil Kapadia:Ask Tom Pelissero if he likes football. That's what I'm saying. Ask him. Ask him. I can't wait. I can't wait. I can't wait to hear his response.

46:49Austin Gayle:All right. There you go. That's Bills-Texans. Very fun matchup. Josh Allen, two of his three worst starts over the last two seasons have been against the Houston Texans statistically. So they've had a tough time with that Texans defense. But man, if they come out and light them up, because the Texans have become sort of a trendy, hipstery Super Bowl pick. So I think Austin's right that there will be big narratives coming out of this game either way. And guess what? That's not even my take. Bill said that. And too much from now, they're probably both going to be pretty good teams that are headed to the playoffs.

47:22Austin Gayle:One of those teams is going to lose. And guess what? Their season's not over. If Stroud If Stroud looks like shit in that game, he might again, but their season's not over. If the Bills look a little clunky because they have a different coach, their season's not over. I feel like we just got to calm down and enjoy the football.

47:36Sheil Kapadia:No, I don't like this perspective, Austin. I like the crazy one, yeah.

47:41Austin Gayle:Okay, all right, Billy. You're up. What do you got? What's your next headline? All right. You came in hot. Next headline.

47:46Sheil Kapadia:Ready?

47:47Austin Gayle:Cha-ching. Cha-ching. I can't even repeat it. Sorry, go ahead.

47:50Sheil Kapadia:Cha-ching Sanati was the first one.

47:52Austin Gayle:Cha-ching Sanati. Okay.

47:52Sheil Kapadia:All right. Here's the next one. Ready? Now imagine this on the back of a newspaper. Bolts QB shocks Cardinals with electric performance, setting a career high in passing yards with the help of new OC Mike McDaniel, dot, dot, dot. Marion Hampton, Ladd McConkie, and Quinton Johnson each hit triple digits in all-purpose yards. Wow.

48:15Austin Gayle:Billy, what kind of newspaper are we working with? I just legitimately have never seen a headline like that. I've just never read one. I've never read that. I've never seen it. It's not Monday yet. Okay, fair, fair, fair, fair. The Chargers, if you buy them at price right now, if you're playing fantasy football, if you're betting them to win the division, betting they're over, betting anything, Herbert passing yards, any of it, you are buying them at the sky-high top of the market. Because Mike McDaniel is Mike McDaniel, and he could shock, bolt, electrify the Cardinals in week one. I think that the way that...

48:45I play this game sometimes with my friends where you say something, and the only thing they can say is either overrated or underrated. They can't say anything else. They're like, oh, well, but... You can only say overrated or underrated. You can't say properly rated. Yeah, you can only say overrated, underrated. Chargers, overrated. Mike McDaniel, overrated. You can't say underrated. How could you say underrated? It's just week one.

49:05Sheil Kapadia:No, I get it. I think they are going to win. No, I get it. I think they are going to win. I just think that it's just, I think the Chargers optimism, I feel like I've been smoking it since fucking July 1st. I mean, since they got Mike McDaniel. I think that everyone sees that Mike McDaniel is one of the best, if not the best, offensive play callers in the league. what he did with Tua Tungabailoa, who can't even win the starting job over an injured Michael Penix in a random... And he's hurt again.

49:29Austin Gayle:We'll get to that in the Ringer 107, by the way. Mike McDaniel scored 70 points with Tua Tungabailoa. He can't even make a team. The Dolphins are paying him$59 million to not play for them, and he scored 70 points with them. So what Mike McDaniel could do with Justin Herbert, I think, is priced in. I think everyone can feel that. I think they have to prove it, And I still have questions on the interior offensive line. They lost Jesse Minter. That has to mean something. I like Harbaugh. I like McDaniel. I think Herbert's good. I like Hampton a lot. The tackles are obviously good. They stay healthy.

50:01They should be good. They're another team like the on-paper Chargers. The on-paper Chargers should be good. Wake me up when we see it because we just have it, right? And when we get to the playoffs, Herbert has been, you know, I love the little memes where he's like, if guy, Herbert's just been if guy since then.

50:14Austin Gayle:Nine and a half point favorites. The Chargers, I think biggest favorite of any team in the NFL this weekend. I kind of like the Cardinals with the points there. I don't know. You might be right. You know, I would never take it. That's not going to be part of the Ringer 107. I would never take it. But if you forced me to pick a side there, I do sort of lean towards Austin where I'm like, all right, let's see it. There's a chance. There is a chance if you're a Chargers fan, you're like, I guess, stop trying to rain on our parade before week one. That this becomes the biggest story. One of the biggest stories in the NFL were just like Mike McDaniel plus Justin Herbert.

50:48Austin Gayle:they're scoring 35 every single week this is amazing to watch that absolutely is within the possible range of outcomes for this season but I am on the side of let me see it rather than let me predict it they should win this game by 10 plus right I mean that's like they should like the Cardinals are one of the worst if not the worst team in the league I think they're going to be drafting number one overall with LaFoHawk

51:08Sheil Kapadia:headline implies that they win by a lot here yeah

51:12Austin Gayle:well I mean I think the line

51:14Sheil Kapadia:implies that they win by a lot as well the first point spread might imply that Austin thinks they're overrated so who knows I mean if they were overrated or underrated it'd be hard to say they're overrated they have the widest spread of the first football underrated love just love in general yeah the concept of love I think underrated try love

51:38Austin Gayle:I have I'm a little selective you guys are out there it's week one can we not? I was about to call you a bunch of skanks, but you know what? Whoa! Cheel! Who were you about to call a bunch of skanks? The people on this call? You're loving everybody. You're loving everything. Settle down.

52:05Go ahead.

52:05Austin Gayle:Alright, who's next? Next headline? I don't know what's happening here. Am I up? Who's up? I think it's me. Let me go. I have another one. This is a headline, but it's also going to be whispered. I'm going to whisper it. Oh, Mike McCarthy's Steelers look good. One last ride. So I didn't finish that headline. I probably should have wrote something good, but I think the Steelers are going to be very good. And I think very good relative to price right now. I think it's nine and a half wins, right? I think that they're at or eight and a half, eight and a half, nine and a half wins is where they're at.

52:33They think they're going to be right in that Tomlin zone of winning another, another nine and eight season. And I kind of like them to at least get nine wins, if not be a sneaky 10, 11 plus win team. And in week one,

52:45Austin Gayle:11 wins with Aaron Rodgers as their quarterback? Really? See, I think that... So, you know Heat? You know the movie Heat? Yes. I mean, you literally can't get hired here. If I answered no, I would not have a job tomorrow. So, the movie Heat, right? It's an amazing movie. It's a heist movie. It's incredible. The Ringer has documented it. They're coming out with another one in 2027 called Heat 2. Leonardo DiCaprio's in it. Christian Bale's going to be in it. I mean, Chris Ryan's talking about it in his sleep. It's going to be insane. I think the Steelers are Heat 2, right? They have a chance with Leonardo DiCaprio, Aaron Rodgers, Christian Bale, Mike McCarthy.

53:22He hasn't done something good in a while, but I remember Christian Bale was pretty good. You know, the prestige. I mean, are you kidding? The machinist, if you want a deep cut? Now, Mike McCarthy, we haven't seen it in a while, right? I don't know if you've seen Bale's latest. It's not pretty, okay? I missed the big short. But so running with this for a second here, I think Heat 2 has a chance to be terrible, even with Leo, even with Bale, right? Because sequels, legacy sequels, so far removed, can sometimes just be really bad, right? And trying to do it one more time, another heist one more time, can sometimes lead to kaput.

53:52And I think the Steelers are a one-last-ride kind of team. McCarthy and Rodgers. Rodgers said it. The only reason Rodgers came back.

53:58Austin Gayle:What ride are they going on? One last ride. McCarthy, one last ride with McCarthy and Rodgers, right? Rodgers said the only reason he came back, he was going to retire, is because McCarthy came back, right? Like, it's one last ride with McCarthy. One last job. They're going to try and win it. In a division where, you're right, they aren't favored to win it. The Ravens should win the division. The Bengals should compete with the Ravens to win it because on paper, they're the better football teams. But the Ravens have a brand new head coach, right? And a brand new offensive play caller. Those are two question marks.

54:22You want to say they're good now? Let's see the games. And then you go to the Bengals. If you're counting on the Bengals to do something in December and January now, you haven't watched the last three years. We don't know what this team's going to be, right? They've let us down every single year. Burrow gets hurt. Even if he doesn't, they don't make the playoffs. This hasn't been a good team in December and January. since 2021. So then I go down to the Steelers who have been consistently good last year, the last year of Mike Tomlin, who talk about one last ride, the guy's been playing Minecraft since like 2013.

54:51I can't believe he admitted to that. Tomlin wants to leave. He essentially quits the Steelers job, right? And Tomlin last year, that was the worst defense by EPA by success rate. The Steelers have ever fielded since Mike Tomlin's been the coach. So the only, there's going to be positive regression defensively and the offense, I agree it wasn't good last year, but I think if anyone can bring Rogers back to life. I think it is McCarthy. And in this division,

55:14Austin Gayle:everyone has amnesia about how that ended with McCarthy and Aaron Rogers. Honestly, it was so long ago, so long ago.

55:20Sheil Kapadia:When McCarthy last coach Aaron Rogers, we were like,

55:23Austin Gayle:this is a disaster. He like, this is a complete disaster. And Aaron was trying to get him fired. And Aaron was trying to get him fired. And, and then by the way, Matt LaFleur comes in and Rogers wins back to back MVPs. Like Mike McCarthy is the great, does the greatest PR job of anyone I've ever seen. It's like, that's fair. Terrible. when he left Aaron Rodgers. And then it got great as soon as Aaron Rodgers got coached by a new person. And now Aaron Rodgers is 42 freaking years old. Like I actually, I don't totally, it sounds like I totally disagree with you. And I actually don't. I think the Steelers are a competitive team this year.

55:56Austin Gayle:I really like their defense, but I can't get there to the idea that they're going to win 11 games and that the offenses can actually be good. I want it to be framed at price, right? If the Steelers were the favorites to win the division, I'd be buying up every Ravens and Bengals ticket I could get. But the Steelers are third, and I think that there's actually a chance that this division ends up being pretty sloppy. And at the end, it's like a 9-8 or 10-17 that ends up winning it. The Steelers have been 9-8 for the last however many years. And yeah, Tomlin's not there. I think the defense gets better just because it can't get worse than last year.

56:26And the offense, even if it's just as good as last year, which wasn't that good, they added Michael Pittman, they added Jeremy Bernard, who I like. I think Rico Dowell and Jalen Warner saw it. I think getting rid of that tackle they drafted in the first round, Broderick Washington, whoever, actually makes that line better. Right? So, like, maybe the offense is solid or better than last year, and maybe the defense is better than last year, but based off of mathematical regression alone, that again, and again, at price, I kind of like the Steelers, but I don't know. We're going to get to that more in the Ringer 107.

56:53Sheil Kapadia:You know the problem with Heist, though? They always go one job too far. You know what I mean? And that's how they get caught. So, is this them going one job too far? Could be. I think that would be where the public leans. I think that's where... I think most people would argue that the Steelers are going to be either just as good as they were with Tomlin and they win like eight games or nine games or they're going to be worse. No one, right? Sheel's leaping out of his seat, though I think he stands for every podcast, that I'm thinking they could win 10, 11, 12 games. But no one's predicting that.

57:23That tells me someone might be on the wrong side.

57:27Austin Gayle:All right. Good contrarian take there with the Steelers. I have one more.

57:30Sheil Kapadia:Billy, do you have any more here? I do. I have one more as well. All right. Ready? You remember the first two, right? So remember, this is on the back of a newspaper here. Back page. Ready? touchdowns likely. Isaiah likely shines in Giants' debut. However, Jackson's dart missed the bullseye in the fourth quarter as Cowboys late INT cast a shadow on John Harbaugh's Big Apple debut. I like getting Big Apple in there. I think that's fresh. That's trendy. You have to have that in there. It's flowers in spring, essentially. I think your second line,

58:05Austin Gayle:I think when you did Isaiah, give me the first part.

58:08Sheil Kapadia:Touchdowns likely.

58:10Austin Gayle:yeah and then and then i think you can just go isaiah i don't think you have to go another i was thinking that too yeah i was thinking i think if i had an overall note i think i think if i had an overall note for through now the three gill i'm a proud billionaire by the way i don't know what you call your audience but i think billionaire is great as a proud billionaire the the note i'd have is just just less is more i think you can get words out of there and i think we'd be in a really good place i think we're also over indexing we're over indexing on puns you guys don't see this now but when christopher sutton our ace producer first saw my shot i had like 100 more books behind here and he's like you know what we gotta take everything out i think you just gotta take some things down it looks better less is more there you go all right i did have a headline that didn't make the cut but it is on that game it's on that game so okay give it to me nothing has changed the giants are still a disaster i think that now i i think that the giants if i had to like put a hard take i think they might suck out of the gate right and i think part of the reason is they have a really hard schedule to start the season, right?

59:08They start with the Cowboys in East Rutherford, so at home, but still, that's Sunday night football. Bright lights on Jarn Harbaugh, a lot of newness, Matt Nagy, Greg Roman, Jackson Dart, who's missed half the games or been in the medical tent for half the games. Everyone's documented it. This is a lot of newness with a lot of bright lights on Sunday night against a good Cowboys team, right? They could play, the Giants could play Sunday night, the best football game we see, and Metalik Neighbors looks healthy, and they still lose, right? So say they lose out of week one on an island game. In week two, they play Monday night against the Rams in Los Angeles.

59:37So they go cross court all the way to Los Angeles to play the Super Bowl favorite in another primetime game. So you start the season 0-2. Everyone always says 0-2 because it's like 11 or 12 % of teams that start 0-2 actually make the playoffs. They go 0-2 in games where they play well. Let's say the Giants play well, but they still lose games in primetime spots. I brought up how everyone's going to have a take coming out of some of these games. The Giants lose two island games to start the season, they're 0-2. I don't think you're going to put on a TV that's not talking about how the Giants maybe blew this.

1:00:07Sheil Kapadia:Well, I mean, but they have four potential bounce backs after they have Tennessee, Arizona, Washington, New Orleans. Yeah, yeah, it should get back. I'm buying the Giants when they get out of that slate, right? I think the Giants are going to be, like, all the way at the bottom, right? Like, you're going to, like, I might buy a little to, you know, buy a little of their win total at that point, bet them immediately in week three, because I think that's going to, like, risk it all kind of game for John Harbaugh. But in week one, not eager to bet them just because they're not super healthy. Scadabo coming back from a crazy injury.

1:00:30Neighbors coming back from a crazy injury. Dart literally just wants to get hurt. There's a report coming out of New York that he's not sliding in practice. Have you guys ever, have you seen a quarterback have to be told to slide in practice? I can't even think of that. And then he's like, he gets to the podium and they said, he gets to the podium and they say, how are you getting hurt? He's like, I have no idea. I think I have an idea. I think I have a clue. I have a clue, right? You're playing a little reckless, which is fine. I know how to play reckless. But like in the NFL, when you're the most important reason the Giants are going to win every game, you got to stay healthy.

1:01:00That's part of it, right? That's part of it. You can't take unnecessary risk. He's not that guy in Band of Brothers, shout out the anniversary, who just like runs straight through all the bullets and just doesn't get hit. Like that's not how the league works. You're going to get clipped. And I think he needs to learn that. Scadabo's been head-butting cement wall since he was 13. So he's not going to figure that out ever really. But like this is a team that I think plays reckless on the field, has a brand new head coach. There have been worse teams have started out sloppy and they got two island spots.

1:01:24There's going to be a lot of attention on it.

1:01:25Austin Gayle:I can't believe you compared Leonardo DiCaprio in Heat 2 to this version of Aaron Rodgers I mean that's offensive I don't think Leonardo DiCaprio is Aaron Rodgers for what it's worth I think I'd have to find maybe another actor that's showing up in Heat 2 and that's a very loose half-baked kind of connection but I do think it's like a heist movie I think that they're just trying to do one more bank robbery and it's probably not going to fucking work because Aaron Rodgers is 42 years old and Mike McCarthy has been around for 5 years when's the last time Mike McCarthy even coached? All the stuff that you say, Shield, about Mike McCarthy hasn't done anything, it didn't work out then, I think that's priced in into where they are in the division and how many wins they might get.

1:02:03And I think the reasons that this doesn't work is all the reasons we know right now. Aaron Rodgers is too old, Mike McCarthy has lost his fastball, and the defense is too old. I think if that happens, it'll be like, oh yeah, no shit. But then if there are a surprise team, which I feel like every year before the season, we act like there won't be surprises, I think the Steelers could be one of them.

1:02:20Austin Gayle:Alright, there you go. My last one, I'm going to save for the Ringer 107 because it's one of the games I'm picking. So we'll just combine it with that. So let's take a break. We come back. It's Ringer 107 time. I'm going to give these guys my picks. They're going to make fun of me and we'll see where we land. All right, we're back here on the Ringer NFL show. Today's Ringer 107 is brought to you by FanDuel. Make this your most rewarding season. Download the FanDuel app to check out all of our 107 picks and boosted teasers every week this season. Alright, so if you're new to the show or you're not sure what the Ringer 107 is, I'm going to try to explain it.

1:03:00Austin Gayle:These guys can correct me if I'm wrong. So this is a bunch of us compete against one another. It's Bill Simmons. It's the Ringer Wise Guys. It's the Ringer Fantasy Show. I might be forgetting about someone in there, and if I do, I apologize. Raheem Palmer, Anthony Dabundo, Sal, Iacom. I don't know his last name. Everyone calls him Cousin Sal though, huh? Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, Danny Kelly. Right. Shil Kapadia, right? Yeah. Well, the Ringer NFL show. So last year, we came in second. We got off to a slow start. We came back. We were hot in the Super Bowl. Went 5-0, finished 56-51. And we lost.

1:03:38Austin Gayle:You know why? Because those fantasy guys won betting on the coin flip in the Super Bowl. So we're not going to let that happen again. Now, the rules are a little bit different this year. So you pick four games against the spread. and then your fifth is a teaser. So for those who don't know what a teaser is, you pick kind of two different lines and you can move each of them six points. So it can be, I'll get to mine here in a second and explain it, but it can be an over-under, it can be against the spread, whatever, but you have to get both right to win that bet. So that's what we're going to do.

1:04:14Austin Gayle:So I've got picks ready and we'll see how we do it throughout the season. If I'm stinking it up, someone else might say, I want to make these picks, but for now, for week one, I've got them covered. My first pick here. We are going to the team. We just spent like 20 minutes talking about the Steelers. Minus four and a half at home against the Atlanta Falcons. That's my first pick. Tua Tunga-Vailoa suffered an oblique injury in practice. Cooper Rush took first team reps. I do like the Steelers defense quite a bit. I don't love the offense, but you know what? I think they're going to be able to do enough because that Falcons team cannot rush the passer.

1:04:52Austin Gayle:So my first pick, Steelers minus 4.5 against the Falcons. I don't know. Do you guys want to boo me? Do you want to cheer me for these? Do you just want to give some analysis? You tell me how you want to react. So you probably know where I'm at, right? Because I'm big on Steelers. I have a shekel on alt-line Steelers minus 6.5. I like moving it to 6.5. But I mean, for this contest, I think 4.5 makes sense. Tua getting an oblique injury. maybe he's actually hurt maybe they don't want to start him i don't know what's happening there i mean i've never seen i've never seen reporting out of camp right about a potential starting quarterback or even a quarterback situation as odd as the two-a-one like you bring in a guy who is being paid 50 something million dollars to not be on a football team and he can't even make your football team like in an ideal world he wouldn't make your football team that that has to be and he's the one who's supposed to lead every huddle right like it's i think they're going to be dysfunctional, right?

1:05:48It's a brand new head coach, right? And Stefanski's great, but I think he recognizes that this quarterback room sucks, and I think he's looking at Arch Manning, Lenora Sellers, CJ Carr, Darian Mensah, Julian San, I'm probably missing like six names, but he's looking at this QB class and saying, sign me up.

1:06:02Austin Gayle:Alright, we're all aligned there. Steelers minus four and a half against the Falcons. Alright, the next one. This was one of the headlines I left on the cutting room floor. Do you believe in miracles? Jets break interception streak in opener. Wow. So we just need to remind each other that the Jets did not have an interception last year. It's still one of the craziest stats in all of football, maybe in all of sports. Now they go to Tennessee and they are underdogs, one and a half point underdogs against the Tennessee Titans. I just think the Jets are a flat out more competent team. I think that their players are better.

1:06:40Austin Gayle:I'm not telling you they're going to be a good team, but I just think they're kind of one tier up against this Titans team where I don't know what, Kim Ward's going to look like this year. I don't know what Brian Dayball's going to bring to the table. It did not feel like a great summer for that Titans team. I think this one will come down to which quarterback makes fewer mistakes. I'm counting on not a big Geno Smith bounce back, but just like a tiny Geno Smith bounce back where he doesn't look like the worst quarterback in the NFL. He's going to bounce back. Jets plus one and a half. Chip Kelly was calling plays that he did not install in practice.

1:07:15this was the highest paid offensive coordinator in NFL history. That's what was happening last year. That's how bad Geno Smith had it. And the offensive line sucked. And the receivers weren't good. And Brock Bowers was hurt. Like, if Geno Smith is worse this year, the Jets need to relocate and rename the team. Because how much worse can it get?

1:07:35Austin Gayle:Okay. All right. Jets. J-E-T-S. Jets, Jets, Jets. What could go wrong? Right? All right. Billy gives me the clap for that one. All right. Next one here. We talked about this game already. And I think we're going to be aligned once again. Cowboys minus two and a half at the Giants Sunday night football. I got the Cowboys here. Now you're supposed to stay away from games like this. This is like, all right, divisional game. It looks too good to be true. You're going with the road favorite, but I can't help it because I think to Austin's point, this Cowboys offense is going to be pretty good. And I think that this Giants offense is not going to be very good.

1:08:11Austin Gayle:You didn't even mention the coaching staff there. Austin, Matt Nagy, I'm supposed to believe he's going to come back and all of a sudden he's going to be scheming it up after he got quietly fired by Andy Reid. I'm not buying that. It was so weird. So I don't buy this Giants coaching staff, especially at the beginning of the season. I think there's a chance that their pass rush shows up in a big way and that Cowboys offensive line I'm a little unsure of. So that's a scenario where I think the Giants could steal this game. But I'm going to go with the Dallas Cowboys covering two and a half. the Tyler Smith injury, I feel like is probably going to be one that gets under discussed because it happens.

1:08:48Underrated. It's a big injury. It's a big injury. And I, and like, I don't like, you know, I think there's, I think a betting trend about taking road favorites, division road favorites, especially week one. Right. I think the giants could cover this game and look bad. Right. Like I think that, uh, I don't know. It's probably not a bet I'm rushing to make, even though I just kind of try, I think the giants could lose this game and play really well. Like that's my fear. Right. I think the giants could be a good team this year, but start slow and then kind of have the season written off, right? But yeah, I don't know.

1:09:14I don't think I'm co-signing this bet. I do like Dallas this year, though. I think they'll be good. I think the best buy signal you can do for Dallas, and Sal and Bill are all over this. When's the last time you guys heard from Jerry Jones? You seen him in the news lately?

1:09:26Sheil Kapadia:He's been awfully quiet. He's been awfully quiet. And you think Jerry Jones is quiet because things are good or things are bad? It's because things are good. It's because things are really good. And he knows that this team can win, and he doesn't need to get loud about it. He needs to brag about anything. I feel like he understands that this might be a window. And I think he loves Schottenheimer, has been confident with him from the day one. The Ringer Fantasy guys, I love that show. I work on that show. Shout out to Seven. God bless. They brought up how they want Jerry Jones to win a Super Bowl.

1:09:53They kind of just want to see him win one. And I feel like I kind of am on board. I kind of do want to see Jerry just talk one more Lombardi. Because, I mean, the man, you want to see a guy who loves football, Sheel? I think that guy loves football.

1:10:06Austin Gayle:He loves football more than me, too. This list is growing now. We've got Tom. We've got you guys. We've got Jerry. But you know what? If you interview the broader population, I think I'm going to rank pretty high. But you guys, this selection bias here - I hope so. I hope so, Sheil. Yeah. It's working against me a little bit here. That's all.

1:10:23Sheil Kapadia:Not to take this to a dark place, but you know how for most people, they say like, oh, you know, there's like only one big event after retirement, right? Like, I think we all know. Oh, I haven't heard that. Is that true? What we're talking about here. Oh, okay. I know what you're talking about. You know what the event is? Yeah. You know what the event is? I don't know. Are we worried that there's only one event left after Jerry Jones wins a Superbowl for Jerry? Or is the one event that someone dies? Yeah. The person. I think Jerry dying after he wins a ring is exactly how he wants to go out. I think the fear would be him dying before he tucks one.

1:10:55I think, I think I want to see Jerry get one before he goes down because I think earned one is be a little crazy, but we could be celebrating Thanksgiving and looking at it. the Micah Parsons trade and being like, Jerry might have cooked. I don't think we're going to be doing that. Maybe. I'm going to say we're not doing that. We'll see.

1:11:14Sheil Kapadia:Shield doesn't love football, so I feel like Thanksgiving, he's not going to be super into talking about Jerry Jones. He doesn't even eat food on Thanksgiving. I don't even think he likes food.

1:11:21Austin Gayle:I like Thanksgiving quite a bit. Do you love Thanksgiving though? No. Listen, I've heard the theory that Jerry Jones is being quiet because he loves his team. Maybe he's just tired. Yeah, true. He's getting up there. You know what I'm saying? Sometimes you only have so many words. So it could just be that. All right. So I got the Cowboys. He's older than Joe Biden, right? I mean, he's getting up there.

1:11:43Sheil Kapadia:Jeez. I better bring politics into it, Austin.

1:11:46Austin Gayle:No, this is... Yeah, well, listen. Last episode, we did the American healthcare system. So I think we're okay to venture out on these different avenues here. And then finally, my T is here. So again, you can move two lines, six points. So the Denver Broncos are two and a half point underdogs against the Chiefs. I'm bumping that up to eight and a half. So we get the Denver Broncos plus eight and a half. They don't have to win the game. They don't even have to keep it that close. They just have to lose by fewer than eight and a half. So I've got the Broncos as my one leg of that. That's a big game Monday night against the Chiefs.

1:12:23Austin Gayle:And then the Jaguars go into this weekend, eight and a half point favorites against the Cleveland Browns. I'm bumping that down to minus two and a half. So that's the tease. Broncos plus 8.5 against the Chiefs Jaguars minus 2.5 against the Browns I need those two to hit and we hit the tease for our final pick again we all have to do one tease a week so that's mine for this week what do we think? Do you guys bet teasers? Have you bet teasers before? No I've literally never done a teaser in my life until today

1:12:58Sheil Kapadia:Yeah you're doing this one though for sure though right Sheil?

1:13:01Austin Gayle:Well for the Ringer 107

1:13:03Sheil Kapadia:Yeah, exactly. So there's this, I think Bill has brought this up. Raheem Palmer on the Ringer Gambling Show brings this up all the time. The big thing with teases is they say not to... Raheem Palmer? I don't know. All I know about is his hotel room usage in Vegas. I think that's more interesting than his bets. But they always talk about like don't tease through zero, right? Like teasing like if someone's favored by two and a half and you tease it all the way to like the other team now like favored by three and a half. Because so many football games land on it's three, or it's like two, three, and seven, or it's like, oh no, it's three, six, and seven.

1:13:36So you want to, like with your first leg of this tease, you're teasing through three, you're teasing through six, and you're teasing through seven. Because most games, because of how touchdowns and field goals work, land on those three numbers. And you're like taking advantage of, you know, not uniform percentages, right? So with this other bet and the Jags one, you're getting it through three and you are getting that two and a half. But like bringing a big favorite down to three, two and a half, you could lose that bet in a way that just doesn't make sense. A leg I would just offer to replace would take the Lions down to a half point.

1:14:06And it's just they have to beat the Saints. Lions beat the Saints at home. We win that leg. And if the Broncos cover by eight and a half and the Lions win the game, that's our tease.

1:14:16Austin Gayle:Wow. Shield. Listen, it's a good one, but I have actually already sent these in. Oh, you already sent these in? Oh. Listen, we had to send them in. You need to text me, dog. You know I'm around. Listen. Wait, am I a part of this contest or am I a guest picker?

1:14:31Sheil Kapadia:We should make you a consultant on these, but after she has already sent them in.

1:14:36Austin Gayle:Yeah, yeah, I'm down. I think that's good. I like that. I think that was a good process.

1:14:41Tom Pelissero:So we will see how these go.

1:14:42Austin Gayle:Oh yeah, I hate this. I can't do anything about it. So now I'm going to be keeping an eye on that Lions one versus the Jaguars one. And could it burden me? Absolutely. And could Austin Gale be sending me angry texts and calling me a dummy on Sunday afternoon? Sure. And you know what? I won't do that. Because this is all for good fun. You're not going to be on your phone on Sunday. You're probably going to be hiking or something, right? No, yeah. I do put the phone face down because I don't need to be communicating. I'm locked in to the sport that I really like quite a bit. Oh, football. I wasn't sure.

1:15:11Sheil Kapadia:You like quite a lot. Like quite a lot. Like quite a bit.

1:15:15Austin Gayle:Yeah, quite a bit. Just like. Here are the picks. Steelers minus four and a half at home versus the Falcons. Jets plus one and a half at the Titans. Cowboys minus two and a half at the Giants. And then we got our tees, Broncos, plus 8.5 and Jaguars, minus 2.5. Today's Ringer 107 was brought to you by FanDuel. Download the app now to find all of our 107 picks and make this your most rewarding season. FanDuel, play your game, odds subject to change. So there you have it, the Ringer NFL show. Thank you to Austin Gale. Thank you to Tom Pellicero. And thank you to Billy Gill. And thanks to Christopher Sutton for producing additional production supervision by Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgafal.

1:15:59Austin Gayle:I'm Shiel Kapadia. We will next talk to you on Monday after the week one action. Everyone enjoy the weekend. Talk to you next time on the Ringer NFL Show.

1:16:18Austin Gayle:21 plus and present in select states For Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in DC, Kentucky or Wyoming, gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET, call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8HOPENY or text HOPENY in New York. For Louisiana, call 1-877-770-7867.