Answering 5 Big Questions for the 2026 NFL Season With Tom Pelissero!

20:50Get tickets now. All right, we are back here on the Ringer NFL show. Billy, what do you think? Are we getting to no time here? You got any questions before we get to the next football-related topic? I personally was very impressed by those stats, your knowledge of different coverages, cover six. Yeah, well, you didn't reference anything.

21:08Sheil Kapadia:Well, I didn't even get to ask you about Justin Herbert. Can I ask you just a quick follow-up? A 1B for last question? Yeah. Is there any chance, Tom, you're hearing around there that Deshaun Watson might be looked at differently after this season?

21:20Tom Pelissero:I mean, certainly it's possible. You know, we'll see how Shadour does in his preseason start coming up. It seems like the arrows are pointing toward Deshaun. And listen, if Deshaun Watson plays well, all right, and I get all the reasons to think that he won't. He's played 19 games in the past five seasons combined. He hasn't played since he tore his Achilles twice in a calendar year. And he's got to go into every single building, including his own building, where people don't like him. Or he's hearing it from the crowd. And that's part of what they wanted him to experience getting that first preseason start.

21:58Tom Pelissero:Let's say he plays pretty well. All right, I'm not talking MVP. I'm talking like borderline top 10 quarterback. You know, at the time that the Browns traded for him, they thought he was a top five quarterback. But let's say he's borderline top 10. Okay, that's a good, solid year. I have no idea what the market is going to be because of all the things surrounding Deshaun Watson. I think it's really hard for the Browns to extend him. I think it's hard for any other team to bring him in on more than a one-year deal. But we also know there's not 32 starting quarterbacks walking the face of the earth.

22:28Tom Pelissero:And if he plays well enough, we're going to be talking about who's in the mix for Deshaun Watson, which is something that I think there have been many, many times over the past five years that we didn't think we'd actually be uttering that phrase.

22:40Sheil Kapadia:It's the Jets. It's going to be the Jets, isn't it? Oh, my gosh. I think we might get to the Jets here.

22:47Tom Pelissero:Jets are on the relatively expansive list of teams who, if I were sitting here right now projecting who's going to be starting at quarterback in 2027, I would say probably not a guy on the current roster. Yeah. Watch football on Saturdays, Jets fans. And there's a few other teams we can say that about. My favorite Brown staff, Billy, is that the two worst quarterback seasons of the last two years by EPA per pass play, Deshaun Watson in 2024 and Shador Sanders in 2025. So that would be a big leap that Watson would have to make if he's even going to approach average quarterback play. Now, you said you wanted to ask about Justin Herbert, and then you asked about Deshaun Watson.

23:24Did I hear that incorrectly? No, I mean, Watson was one that I was thinking,

23:27Sheil Kapadia:Herbert, you know, is one that I was wondering if we're ever going to kind of know. Because the thing that I'm wondering about, because you mentioned Herbert earlier in your quarterbacks, that maybe we'll look at him differently, is now he's a man in love. Now he's a man that's engaged. We saw the pictures of him, of him sitting on the field with his fiance, Madison Beer.

23:43Tom Pelissero:Part of an ad campaign, apparently. One of those guerrilla adverts of marketing campaigns.

23:49Sheil Kapadia:Wait, is that true?

23:50Tom Pelissero:I hope it's true. Yeah, I think so. Because otherwise, it was a strange, strange scene there.

23:55Sheil Kapadia:I was yeah it was a little bit odd and now like you know is is love an off the field issue we need to be worried about because like we kind of saw Travis last year had a step back but he was also planning his wedding so like should we not want these guys to be falling in love Tom I don't know about you I feel like my years post marriage rhetorical question or not go ahead yeah yeah this is I think you know I let me make sure I get the dates right here I married 2011 I thought I I was doing good work in 2012. You know, my first opportunity to write about football full time, tough season with Andy Reid.

24:31But I thought I did a good job. Tom, what about you? Post-marriage, I feel like it adds a little something to the workflow.

24:38Sheil Kapadia:There's a cliff. You hit a cliff at a certain point. You're like, the first two years is good. And then it's like, oh, now I'm putting on some pounds. And then right downhill. And you're doing a pod with me.

24:47Tom Pelissero:my wife would probably say um that my attention to work has remained high throughout 12 years of marriage let's put it that way 14 years crap 2012 well you proved i was saying you said tom there's no editing on this podcast 14 years it's 14 i don't know why i had 2014 in my head 14 plus 12 equals 26 yeah that's the year we're in you're lucky i didn't know where i am right now I've done that exact same thing on a podcast before and I've lived to tell about it. So don't worry, you're in good company here. All right, my next question. Are the Chiefs gonna be back to being the Chiefs? Because I was just going through the whole, and I'm like, I don't hear a lot of people talking about the Chiefs.

25:27I don't hear a lot of buzz about the Chiefs. Typically, I would think people would be like, don't sleep on the Chiefs. This team's getting back to the Super Bowl yet. It doesn't feel like a lot of people are making that prediction. Where are you with the state of the Kansas City Chiefs and the possibility that they're back atop the AFC this year.

25:44Tom Pelissero:I'm sure Billy's got all sorts of numbers on how Mahomes is against cover nine and things like that. I will stick with the strictly, I wouldn't say emotional argument, but the anecdotal argument that Patrick Mahomes is one of, if not the greatest player I've ever seen in my lifetime. And what he did from the moment that he stepped into the lineup and became the chief starting quarterback is unprecedented because it was not just that they were winning. Tom Brady won early in his career, but it was they were winning because of Patrick Mahomes. He was the centerpiece. He was the best player in football, and he did it really, really quickly.

26:19Tom Pelissero:I still, it feels unreal. It feels like it didn't actually happen that the Chiefs went 6-11 last year. Like that, to me, is such an anomaly. There were different things happening. They were still in the playoff chase until Mahomes tears his knee and Gardner Minshew takes over and what, throws an interception on like the first play, and that ended their chances there. But it just felt like last year was, every single week was an uphill battle. And while I understand, all right, Travis Kelsey's getting older, Chris Jones is getting older, there's all kinds of changes. I mean, they basically overhauled the entire secondary and let some pretty good players go, traded one away in Trent McDuffie, lost Brian Cook to Cincinnati, lost Jalen Watson to the Rams.

27:00Tom Pelissero:They've got a lot of moving parts. They're counting on young guys like Mansour Delaney to step in right away. and receiver remains in a position group where if you look at the depth chart, it's a lot of the same guys. A lot of the same guys, you keep going, hey, is this the Xavier Worthy breakout? Hey, is this year Rasheed Rice stays healthy and is on the field? The only reason that I have just from a strict objective perspective to say this is that I don't see Patrick Mahomes being a guy who's going to miss the playoffs two years in a row. I don't see Patrick Mahomes allowing the Chiefs to have a hiccup.

27:32Tom Pelissero:Even setting aside, like, all right, if this is the final tour for Travis Kelsey and what that means to him and how that can drive himself to be a better version. The past two seasons, the only time we really saw Travis Kelsey look like Travis Kelsey was the playoff run two years ago, where all of a sudden he came out and, like, single-handedly took over a playoff game. Other than that, he's still a really good player. He's still a top, what, 10 tight end in the NFL, but he's not the number one guy. He's not quite Hall of Fame tight end Travis Kelsey. I do think he can get closer to that. I do think that you can extract something at the end of your career.

28:07Tom Pelissero:But more than anything, I just foresee Patrick Mahomes, along with Andy Reid, the return of Eric Biennemi, which people felt like they lost a little bit of that personality because Andy's not really the enforcer on the coaching staff. EB being back is significant. Again, I look at all the same stuff you do. Are they really going to give the ball to Kenneth Walker III? It's Andy Reid. He doesn't want to run the ball. He wants to throw it every single snap. It just feels like that has to be the anomaly. They got to get past the Broncos, which is a really, really talented roster. Obviously, you got to get past the Chargers.

28:39Tom Pelissero:That's in their own division. But I'd really be, not much shocks me, but I would be very surprised if the Chiefs are not right back in the playoffs and we're talking about, can they pull it off again? Billy, you agree? You fade in the Chiefs. You back in on the Chiefs. The AFC West, I've changed my mind on who's going to win the AFC West about 17 times just in like the last three days. Well, where are you at now? You know, I saw that Chargers injury with Biotis, the center going down. I'm like, should I just bet? I think at this very moment, I might be leaning Denver, just being like they have the most talented roster, but I'm with Tom.

29:14I have the Chiefs as a playoff team.

29:16Sheil Kapadia:I think the Chiefs are still like fourth in odds to win the AFC this year. They're up there, yeah. The Ravens, Bills, and Patriots. And I think it's because of what Tom's saying. It's kind of like, well, they're the Chiefs. You know what I mean? like they can't have another down year like they had. And you pointed out Eric B. I mean, like I wonder how much that's actually going to give them because there is a time you guys know where it was kind of like back and forth. Is he the one that really should get the credit is Andy Reed that gets the credit for this offense. And then he left and kind of just bounce around from stop to stop.

29:43Sheil Kapadia:I'm like, Oh, okay. I guess this was really more of an Andy Reed situation than it was Eric B. And me, but it's a familiar face that comes back here. He gets to work with Patrick Holmes. I mean, could this be Xavier worthy's year that he has the breakout? Did you see what happened this year, guys? we have now an annual tradition because it happened for the second time. So I don't think you can have an annual tradition until something happens for the second time. Do you know what happened today at Chiefs camp? I missed this. Tom, did you get this? It's a big story. Everyone's talking about it. What do you got?

30:13Sheil Kapadia:Savior Worthy for the second year in a row ended camp by giving away his PlayStation 5 to a kid and he signed it. So, I mean, if you're going out there, you're giving away PlayStation 5. It's Christmas in August now. Why do you hate the kids, Billy?

30:26Tom Pelissero:Why are you against giving out nice things to children?

30:29Sheil Kapadia:No, I'm saying this is a good thing. Giving the kids the thing is good juju that's going to propel them. It's going to take them to the playoffs. And here's another thing that's kind of like an underrated thing, right? But I think might work in their favor. There is this kind of question, like, are they done? But it's very different than, oh, they're going to be the best team in the AFC. They're going to steamroll everyone. The pressure's off of them, I think, because there isn't this expectation that they're going to win the AFC, that they're going to be even the two-seed probably, right? They may not even win their division.

30:59Sheil Kapadia:So I think that that...

31:00Tom Pelissero:Who's the favorite in the conference, Billy, right now? Because you just mentioned, even with, all right, the win odds are what? The Bills, the Ravens, the Patriots, and the Chiefs, and the AFC?

31:08Sheil Kapadia:Yeah.

31:09Tom Pelissero:Count the teams that didn't make the playoffs last year. The Chiefs didn't make it. The Ravens didn't make it. The Patriots were the surprise team that made a run, and Buffalo lost on a weird play in Denver. In other words, even some of the teams were talking about being at the top. As much as everybody talks about the AFC is just so good and it's so difficult, a lot of that's driven by the quarterbacks. It's like a lot of the teams that we think of as the ones that are tough every year, they weren't last year. They weren't very good. And that's, I think, part of the fun going into this season.

31:38Tom Pelissero:The Chiefs aren't playing on Christmas for the first time ever, right? There's kind of a little bit of a recalibration here, which makes me think that this is going to be really interesting to see how it plays out. One thing that would be helpful, Travis Kelsey not running into Xavier Worthy on the fourth play of the game in the opener last year. Do you remember that? The whole game plan was built around Xavier Worthy in that game. He gets knocked out on the first series. That game goes to crap. It was like the omen of the entire season. Nobody could stay healthy. Nobody could stay on the field.

32:08Tom Pelissero:Everything that could go wrong went wrong. I'm taking a guess that the law of averages is going to even that thing up.

32:14Sheil Kapadia:How close are you to getting invited to that wedding, do you think, Tom?

32:19Tom Pelissero:I think if I had really tried - How do you know he wasn't invited, Billy? Listen, I was not. My kids were passed a hundred times. I would say this, based on, and this is not a shot at anyone, I would just say based on some of the people I saw that were at the wedding and their ostensible lack of connection to anyone involved, if I really, really wanted to go, I bet I could have found a ticket. Really? I bet if I pushed all the right buttons, I somehow could have gotten there. It didn't really cross my mind to attempt to do that. Took a vacation with my wife instead. Sent the kids to Banff. That was plenty good for me.

32:56Sheil Kapadia:Where'd you guys go?

32:57Tom Pelissero:Went to Banff in Canada. Banff? This is beautiful. You're ready to go to Canada? That shows up on my Instagram every day. Me too. It actually looks amazing. I never thought about going there until this summer. It's all over my Instagram, Tom. Give it two thumbs up. Madison Square Garden with 22 ,000 of your friends, your acquaintances strangers closest friends finger foods and not even allowed to put anything on Instagram except for a photo of you in your hotel room because it's all secret or you go to Banff one of the most beautiful places in the world and just see the water that's completely crystal blue behind you I enjoyed it it was a fun trip it does look beautiful Billy now don't upset it we want to you know increase that Canadian audience Billy I saw your reaction when he said that and I'm going to take offense on his behalf okay

33:46Sheil Kapadia:well I mean it could have been like Bali or something you know what I mean like if it's like I'm way out of the way but like you can hop on a plane to Banff at any point in time I don't need to leave North America in July it's great here who's the next wedding I guess now it's Herbert right so do you now like start kind of like getting a little bit closer to Herbert and say like hey you know well if you guys start

34:06Tom Pelissero:like guilting me and if they also get married in arena I will just just for the humor value I will try to get a ticket but no I don't think I like Justin I ended up in his ad for a certain television brand several years ago and I still have a big screen TV to prove it. They took a clip of me. I didn't know if we have a sponsor. I'm new here. I ended up in the ad. We talked about it. I was very grateful even though it was completely incidental. It was me talking on TV about Justin Herbert and not having won a playoff game yet and they stuck that in the ad. It was him sitting on the couch watching me say it.

34:43Sheil Kapadia:Wait, hold on a second. So did you, are you one of the people that ended up with like one of those 95 inch TVs that takes up a wall? That's correct. You have one of those?

34:52Tom Pelissero:That's amazing. I don't know. It might be 85. It's a big TV. Oh, sorry. Yeah. All because I accidentally ended up in an app. That's huge. And I love those guys, man. They're wonderful to work with.

35:03Sheil Kapadia:So do you like, how big is the room this is in? I would think that, does it give you headaches? Like your wife hate this thing?

35:08Tom Pelissero:No, we put a gigantic ridiculous sofa out there and it all kind of like, it fits. you know. Yeah, ratio. It's all about the ratio. All right, here we go. Which team is going to get the first year bump from its head coach? This seems to happen every single year. This is what I do, my exercise in the preseason. I'm like, all right, let me look at all the first year coaches, which one of these guys is going to make a big impact. That team's going to make a leap. We have a lot of these coaches this year. We got Joe Brady with the Bills. We got Mike LaFleur with the Cardinals, Jesse Minter with the Ravens, Clint Kubiak with the Raiders, Jeff Halfley with Billy's Dolphins, John Harbaugh with the Giants, Mike McCarthy with the Steelers, Robert Sala Titans, Kevin Stefanski, Falcons, Todd Munkin, Browns.

35:53Unbelievable. New head coaches all over the place, Tom. Which one should their fan base be like, oh yeah, baby, we're getting the bump from what we saw last year because we hired the right guy?

36:05Tom Pelissero:Listen, this one, I thought it was a pretty strong group of head coaches that got jobs, both the veteran guys as well as the young guys. I think that, you know, everyone certainly has a chance to be successful. But for me, it's not about, all right, yeah, we all have the expectations, right, of like Jesse Minter and Joe Brady, like really talented teams with stud MVP quarterbacks. Like, can they get them over the top? And they'll get all the credit for that, even though these are, again, really talented teams with really good quarterbacks. To me, it's more about who is going to take the awful team and actually just make them better.

36:41Tom Pelissero:That, to me, is the bump. I think Jeff Halfley's got a chance to be really, really good. I think the Dolphins are going to be hard-pressed to be good until 2028 just because of how they're building this. They want to do it the right way, draft and develop. A little bit of the same thing with Michael Fleur. I think it's going to take time. The guy I look at, because he's the antithesis of everything that they were doing a year ago, the antithesis frankly of like what has been the persona of the franchise which now fits together with some other people coming in like that i think it's clint kubiak one of the most soft-spoken guys in the nfl he's really bright of course gary's son gary was also you know kind of a flatline personality didn't say a whole lot what a super bowl you know as the head coach of the broncos clint has that same he comes from the same offensive system he has that expertise and he's got a guy in Kirk Cousins that knows how to run the offense.

37:34Tom Pelissero:They spent a ton. If they do improve, it will all be Clint. I mean, they went and they spent a ton on defense. I mean, Max Crosby gets traded for a few days to the Ravens. He comes back and they've spent like$300 million on defense. He's like, hey, this is pretty good now. Like they put a bunch of money where they needed to. So a lot of questions are like the wide receiver position. But think of how bad the Raiders were last year. Like after I was at the week one game Raiders Patriots in Foxborough, the Raiders won. I will still say weirdest game of the entire NFL season was the Raiders beating the Patriots Patriots lose that game and ruin the first game of the Mike Vrabel era and then after that they were like virtually unstoppable and the Raiders were the worst team in the NFL but like Chip Kelly couldn't call a play correctly you know like they had no idea what they were doing Pete Carroll he's a great guy and he's well established he's a Super Bowl winner but he's like he was doing something he'd never done before which is firing coaches in the season just trying to figure it out Clint is going to come in and calm things down Rob Leonard, the defensive coordinator, is close with Max.

38:34Tom Pelissero:He's going to help calm things down on that side, even though Patrick Graham, who was there, is a really, really good coach. Andrew Ginoco coming in as the O.C. They've got a bunch of guys who have the demeanor for this. They are more talented. They've got a quarterback who knows what he's doing until Fernando's ready, which I really do believe they're going to take their time before they put him on the field. The Raiders won, what, three or four games last year? I can't remember because they stole one at the end that almost screwed them out of the number one pick. But they were the worst team in the NFL.

39:02Tom Pelissero:I wouldn't be surprised if they scrape and claw and they get the six or seven wins. To me, that's a bump. It's as much about what happened last year as about this year. But I do think Clint coming in immediately, they're going to have a plan offensively. They're going to have a different dynamic just around the entire building. I think that based on all the changes, all the appeal for the Raiders, that's a good thing. Yeah, 3-14 last year, you're right. The bar is relatively low. where it's, you know, we're not talking about them making the playoffs. We're talking about establishing some level of competence that you're heading in the right direction.

39:34See Mendoza at some point. Billy, are you buying the... Tom, is it? Let me ask Tom real quick here. The intel there, is this like a Tom Brady edict that this is what you need to do with first-year quarterbacks and that I don't care what it looks like with Kirk Cousins. We need Mendoza to wait and wait and wait before playing him because this seems to be all the messaging coming out of Vegas that we don't care what you all think. We don't care what other teams have done in the past with these rookie quarterbacks. This guy is not going to play until, like you said, 10, 11, 12, 13 weeks into the season.

40:08Tom Pelissero:It's not Tom Brady edict. It's what Clint believes in, and he really wants to take this thing slow. I mean, he just won a Super Bowl in Seattle with a guy in Sam Darnold, who maybe if he had a little bit of time to wait and he didn't go out there week one, like they were pick six, and then they won like 52 to 10 over the Lions. But after that, it was rough for Sam Darnold with the Jets. Like maybe with a little bit more time, he wouldn't have been the guy that everybody made fun of for seeing ghosts for the first five years of his career and bounced around. They want to get this right. And also remember this, Fernando's coming from a completely different system.

40:40Tom Pelissero:I mean, it was shotgun, you know, zone read type stuff. He's throwing, you know, off the play fake to wide open windows. Now it's under center. Turn your back to the line of scrimmage on play action. all those fundamentals of that offense. And so it's going to take some time. And what better person and player to watch than Kirk Cousins? Like Kirk Cousins could step in right now and coach that scheme. He knows it inside and out. So you're going to be able to play. Now, if they start out one and six, you know what the pressure is going to be and you know what the conversation is like. Basically, what's the point of playing Kirk Cousins?

41:13Tom Pelissero:But Kirk's going in there to win. And I think that he'll at least have the opportunity to be a whole lot more competitive, especially if they can get Ashton Gentry and the run game going, which should be part of the specialty for Clint. All right, Billy. Tom's got Clint Kubiak. Who are you thinking is giving their team a first-year bump?

41:30Sheil Kapadia:Before we change, I just want to advise you. We need to be very careful around these parts with Fernando Mendoza because we found ourselves on the wrong side of Fernando Mendoza's fans and family earlier this year where a clip went out that Shia was on and something critical was said about Fernando and his dad commented on it that we were clowns. So you need to be very careful with Fernando Mendoza because these clips get around here. So just all the praise in the world. Billy, can I tell you what I'm worried about if I'm being honest here? What's that? I feel like, you know, Tom has all these sources and he's talking to coaches and GMs and players.

42:03And I'm very worried that like on his first assignment for Netflix, someone's going to come up to him and be like those clowns that we have that podcast with, you know, it's almost like he's not going to do anything wrong. It's like, we're in high school. we're like smoking pot in the bathroom and he's just trying to use the urinal, but he's still getting the other teachers coming by and saying, you three, principal's office now. I do feel like we have to be a little concerned about this, Billy, because we don't want our new colleague here to get in a bad situation on our behalf. And I'm mostly talking about you, but I'm trying to be a team player.

42:35Sheil Kapadia:Yeah, it is something that did cross my mind. And I have thought, you know, maybe I should behave slightly better just because, you know, Tom's not just starting here at a new school, but he's also starting at a new school at Netflix. He's going to go out there. And, you know, the worst case scenario is we say something where, you know, week one, someone pulls him aside and say, hey, I was listening to Bring Her NFL show and I heard that such and such thing was said. And here's the here's kind of like the double edged sword with me and my career and my standing in this industry is that clip might go out.

43:05Sheil Kapadia:No one knows who I am. They're not going to remember it. So it will be attributed to you or you probably. probably so the consequences will be yours more than likely so i need to be on my best behavior i think on this front i agree with that and i can confirm that tom probably has the most to lose on it so that's you know we're just trying to look out for we're just if you say something

43:24Tom Pelissero:stupid enough that i feel like i need to respond i will simply jump in and respond immediately so far okay i think you're on the right side of it so far you're gonna throw us under the bus tom you're not gonna yeah 100 i'm saying i'll call y 'all right here no mid podcast come on man yeah That's good podcasting. You got to be able to yell at each other. That's good podcasting.

43:42Sheil Kapadia:I feel like now's the time, you know, let loose a little. How many suits do you have, Tom?

43:47Tom Pelissero:Right. Like actually in the rotation, probably like 15 suits, five sport coats, somewhere in there. Really? 15? Wait, there's some out of the rotation you still have? Well, I'm saying like some suits you like more than others or they're newer. And so you wear those a little bit more. You know, I mean, I think it was Deion Sanders used to say you can only wear a suit once every five years. Now, my suits are slightly less flashy than his, but there is something to that. If you wear something memorable, you got to put it to the back of the closet. The straight navy, you can wear that every day.

44:17Sheil Kapadia:Outside of the professional obligations, do you have many suit-needed events that you go to? What's your suit usage rate at the moment?

44:27Tom Pelissero:Oh, no. So, I have way too many suits. I think that that's fair. Maybe Netflix adds 15 more games next year. Otherwise, I'll be on the once every five years plan. I like that. Here's what I'm thinking, Billy. If this goes well, this episode, maybe future episodes, maybe Tom invites you over to his house because you're interested in the TV. You're interested in the closet. I do feel like at some point, he might get a little annoyed with all these questions and just be like, just come over, look at what you want, but don't mess anything up. So let's work towards that.

44:58Sheil Kapadia:It's also possible, Shield, that he says, hey, guys, step your game up. This is a suit show now. You know what I mean? and then me and you need to go into the 15-suit game. Yeah. I'm glad you didn't name a store there. I thought you were going to give another. No. Billy, I'm giving my head coach here. Okay. Because I know Tom was saying, all right, it's the big turnaround team. And that's true. That's what you do want to look at. This felt like the hardest question, Shield, that you had, by the way. See, I looked at it and I think Jesse Minter, there's a chance that in Baltimore, I know they're already a good team.

45:26I know they got a good quarterback. I know they're a good organization. But that situation screamed to me like, fresh new voice could really help here. You know, sometimes when a coach is there for that long, it's just like, all right, you didn't do anything wrong. It's just like, we need a new voice here. You hear great things about Jesse Minter. I know he can coach a very good defense. And I think there's a chance that the Ravens are positioned to get over the hut. Now the bar for them is very different than Clint Kubiak. Like they've kind of got to get to the Superbowl for us to be saying, man, Jesse Minter crushed it this year.

45:57And this actually did make a big difference. But Billy, he's my pick. Jesse Minter for the coach who's going to give his team a big first year bump?

46:05Sheil Kapadia:I want to say Joe Brady, just because no one has, like we talked about it. Cause like, there's no one on there that I see that's going to take their team worst to first, right? Like I don't think any of us think that any of the new coaches are. And then the other coaches took over teams that were either playoff teams or like right there on the cusp of being playoff teams. So I feel like if Joe gets them to the Superbowl, that is, while it's only winning one more game than they've been able to win so far, that probably is the biggest bump, right? And he will now have a lot of leeway where if he loses in the first round or he loses in the AFC championship game or whatever, it's kind of like status quo.

46:44Sheil Kapadia:But it feels like the Bills are knocking on the door. And I don't necessarily think that it was a coaching issue. But when you get to that same place so many times and you just can't get over that hump, you make changes. So they made a change in head coach. And if this is a year they finally break through, I feel like he'll get more credit than he necessarily deserves just because he gets them there.

47:04Tom Pelissero:There is something to be said for change for the sake of change. In other words, when you consistently come up short, and Terry Pagula kind of alluded to this in firing Sean McDermott, who, you know, McDermott had guided the turnaround in Buffalo. I mean, they hadn't won a playoff game or been to the playoffs for like 18 years. And he comes in, they get there right out of the gate. 2018 they kind of ate a bunch of cap stuff but then for 2019 on they're one of the best teams in the NFL they're there every time but he said you know he saw Josh Allen crying in his locker and it was like it just it was happening again with Baltimore it was just the fading down the stretch and it was the losing the games late I mean it was the same stuff over and over um to me like that that's it as much as anything you know if you're the Ravens and you're showing up every single year and you feel like you keep having these situations where you're up late in the game and you blow it.

47:57Tom Pelissero:Like that becomes ingrained. You know, the Chargers had that for a long time and they're still not quite over the hump of that too. You know, just like the constant collapses. Like that's a challenge teams have to deal with. And so Minter or Brady, it may not be that they're better coaches or they did a better job. It might just be the change is good for everybody. Change, right place, right time. Cause yeah, I mean, those have been, you know, if you look at the hit the last 25 years, it is very rare for teams to have the stretches that the Bills and Ravens have had here over the last, whatever, five, six, seven years and not even get to a Super Bowl.

48:31So it might just be, all right, little change, a little different voice, get them over the hump. I think that certainly is a big storyline this year. Can one of those two teams finally get over the hump and get to the Super Bowl? Billy, you have something else before I get to the next question here?

48:46Sheil Kapadia:Who do you guys think is the most right place, right time coach ever? That wasn't necessarily the reason, but gets like the glory for it.

48:53Tom Pelissero:Is it maybe Barry Switzer? I mean, Switzer, that's probably the best example of it. But that's, you know, you step in for a team that literally had just won two Super Bowls. I mean, Bruce Arians at Tampa, where all of a sudden, now he was there with Jameis. It wasn't year one. If we're talking year one winners, like that's a different, that's kind of a different category. I mean, Gary Kubiak, go back to that. You know, he'd been a great coach in Houston. He would have been there a lot longer, but he had health issues. and then Denver needed to make a change. That's where he played backup quarterback.

49:26Tom Pelissero:He decided to do it. Won a Super Bowl with the greatest defense of all time and what was left of Peyton Manning. I certainly think that's another good example. If I wanted my audience for the Ringers Philly special to be very upset with me, Billy, I might throw Nick Sirianni's name in there, but I am not going to do that. I'm going to take a break and we're going to come back with the next two questions. This episode is brought to you by Orgain. Go harder and push farther with Orgain Creatine. It helps improve muscle size, strength, and power when combined with a regular exercise and weight training routine.

50:04Orgain Creatine is certified with informed choice, which means it's tested for prohibited substances in sports. Upgrade your performance with Orgain Creatine, available at Amazon, Costco, Walmart, and Whole Foods. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. This episode is brought to you by ADT.

50:29Tom Pelissero:One second, you're enjoying your day off. The next, your phone buzzes. A window's been broken at home. You're miles away. In one second, everything can change. That's why ADT security systems can monitor your home 24-7.

50:42Sheil Kapadia:They're backed by the most company-operated monitoring centers in the industry, so you're always supported during an emergency. When every second counts, count on ADT. Visit ADT.com to learn more.

50:56All right, we're back on the Ringer NFL show. All right, two more questions here. Tom, here's what we got. Is this Rams thing actually going to work out? I mean, there's really a, this just feels like the biggest story in the NFL. The off season they had, are we going to look back and go, that went extremely well, they're in the Super Bowl, or do you have maybe more concerns than the average listener out there?

51:17Tom Pelissero:The wild thing is, I mean, the Rams are the same division as the defending Super Bowl champs. And if you look at, you know, odds or you just, you turn on the TV, watch whatever, like all you hear about is the Rams. You don't hear about the Seahawks. Obviously the Rams, you know, they've kind of done this since they went to LA. They are always interesting, whether it is shedding veterans and going super young, or it is doing what they've done multiple times now cyclically, which is going out and trading for people and just loading up and going for it all. Right now, they're a perfect Hollywood team.

51:51Tom Pelissero:They're a team that you can't look away no matter what they're doing at any given time. Having said that, I mean, listen, anytime that you're relying on some older players, that creates some questions. I mean, Matthew Stafford is one of the toughest guys in the NFL. He's played through a ton. But if something happens to Matthew Stafford, are you going to winning the Super Bowl with Stetson Bennett or Ty Simpson? Can you even get through six games, eight games, four games with those guys and stay on track? You know, Miles Garrett is still in his prime. But I would say he's, if you had to say, he's past the midway point of his prime.

52:27Tom Pelissero:If Aaron Donald comes back, this entire idea that he's going to be the same Aaron Donald is, in my opinion, and based on what I know, far-fetched. He may be really good in spurts, but he's not a full-time player. And then things like, you know, Puka, who spent a stint in rehab in this offseason. What does Devontae Adams have left at this stage in his career and in an offseason where the Rams at one point told him, we might trade you because we're trying to get A.J. Brown? I mean, these are, you know, how does it happen in the secondary? You acquire the two Chiefs corners. It's not like the Chiefs have the greatest defense in the world.

53:00Tom Pelissero:You trade for Trent McDuffie with a first-round pick and he signed Jalen Watson. All of which is to say, the Rams have a chance to be really, really good. And we know that Sean McVay is one of the best minds in the NFL. Chris Shula did a great job overall last year with that defense as well. And they got a weird game in week one. I'll be there. I'll be on the sides in Melbourne, Australia for Netflix. It's 49ers-Rams. It's a division game played a day and many time zones away. It's Friday morning, Australia time. It'll be Thursday night football here. Imagine if the Rams lose that game to a 49ers team that their only storyline has been, hey, they got guys beat up again is at the substation.

53:42Tom Pelissero:Has anyone talked about the 49ers outside of that and outside of guys getting hurt? The Rams lose that game. We're going to have 10 days to sit here and pick apart all the reasons that the Rams aren't going to do it. They're going to be there at the end. I feel confident saying, unless Matthew Stafford, God forbid, misses a huge chunk of the season, they'll be in the playoff mix, but they still got to get past the team in their own division that when it came down to it last year, found a way to, in very weird fashion, get a huge win to kind of turn Seattle's season. Yeah, it feels like the Seahawks probably love this.

54:12You're coming off a Super Bowl win and the other team in your division is getting the headlines. This is perfect in terms of, all right, it's pretty easy to motivate my team this way. Billy, I think it's going to work for the Rams. Really? For content's sake, I've really been trying to zag and be like, all of you are hyping up the Rams and no, this thing's going to not work out and this thing's not going to work out. just the infrastructure of McVay and Stafford. Now, if the quarterback goes down, obviously it's not going to work. We can say that about any team in the NFL. But when I'm just doing preseason projections, I have one team that I think is going to have a top five offense and a top five defense.

54:49And that's the Los Angeles Rams. It doesn't mean it's definitely going to work out. It's football. It's the NFL. Random things happen. But the coach and the quarterback, in addition to all the other things we're adding around them, I'm with Tom. I just, I don't see a scenario where the floor is so low, where they're not in the playoffs this year, barring, again, some crazy injury thing.

55:10Sheil Kapadia:I mean, I'm siding with Tom here where you're making great points. They have all of the reasons for this to work. And the Stars, if they align, would be great, and this should be the best team. But last year, we thought that they were the best team, and the Stars didn't align. And this year, as you're saying, they're older. Like if Stafford goes down, if Puka, kind of how you alluded to, not even goes down with an injury, just does something dumb, because this seems to be something, unfortunately, that Puka has been doing a lot lately to varying degrees, whether it's, you know, the situation where he bit someone allegedly or the situation where he's doing things on live stream.

55:45Sheil Kapadia:It seems like he just has gotten somewhat caught up in the fame there and is inclined to not make the best decisions. And it hasn't cost him yet, but hopefully he can, you know, when football season starts again, kind of get his head on straight and not run into that. But that's always a possibility. And then even if, you know, that's not the case, even everyone does stay healthy. They still have to go through the Seahawks. They still, what are the Eagles going to look like? Are the Bears going to, you know, play them tough again this year? The Lions going to bounce back. We talked about it last week.

56:12Sheil Kapadia:The Cowboys, Dak said that they're going to be the gaudy, which is the greatest offense there is. So are they going to have to run through there? Like there's a lot of teams out there in the NFC they're going to have to go through. Yeah, no, there are reasons. Tom laid out good reasons. Second hardest schedule in the NFL when you look at Super Bowl odds. Bad special teams. I think the O-line talent and depth is a concern. Puka is a huge concern. I mean, he might be the best wide receiver in the NFL if he's getting suspended or if he's just, he needs to have like a tracker of like, how many days without your name in a headline?

56:44And he should just be trying to build that baby up. Maybe he can get some incentives, some bonus tied to it, because it just feels like he can't go more than two weeks without us reading another story about Puka Nakua.

56:54Sheil Kapadia:Honestly, for him, selfishly, and this is very irresponsible, he should have a countdown clock to days until guaranteed money. How about just get a big contract and get your guaranteed money? Stay on your best behavior. Stay on your best behavior always, right? But also, why are you going to do it on rookie deals before you've even made money? You're going to blow this for yourself. Is that a tricky situation, Tom? That Puka Nakua contract situation, given all this stuff that's happened off the field and then the fact that when he plays, he just looks like an unstoppable force?

57:25Tom Pelissero:In some ways, what played out this offseason simplifies things relative to if the Rams had known the various issues that Puka was dealing with and he didn't leave the team and he didn't go into rehab. The fact that it's all out there, it eliminates the questions of like, why aren't they signing him? Is it the thing he did on that live stream? Is it, you know, any number of other things, the legal battles? This is kind of like, I think everybody understands right now, this is always going to be a tricky deal to do because unlike Jackson Smith and Jigba, he wasn't a first-round pick, which means there is no fifth-year option, which means this is the last year of his contract.

58:02Tom Pelissero:You're looking at tagging him if you don't get a deal done. It makes sense for everybody to gather the information for the Rams just to see how this thing goes. And then it's going to be a high-stakes negotiation after the season. Could they pay him tomorrow? Could they pay him midseason? I suppose. But I would think you want to see how this entire thing plays out and then, all right, the Rams have never been scared to sign their players. They've never been afraid to pay top dollar. And at that point then, all right, if you can't get a deal done, do you tag him and trade him? Somebody is going to take a shot on the talent.

58:37Tom Pelissero:Yes, it absolutely complicates matters, but the fact that everybody kind of has an idea, even if they don't know specifics of why there's no contract talks right now, I think actually makes it easier because Sean McVay's not up there every day being asked questions about like, you know, is Puka holding in? Is he holding out? Is he, what's going on with the contract? You kind of eliminate that part of it and everybody can focus on what matters, which is going out there and trying to win games. Yeah, potentially huge story going into next off season, depending on how this season goes. But on field, I mean, he has a strong case to be the highest paid wide receiver in the NFL, but it's not that simple.

59:13If it were that simple, he would have already probably gotten that deal. All right, last question here as we wrap up. which coach is under the most pressure? And this is where, Tom, is the Minnesota nice thing? Do you find that to be true and accurate, or do Minnesotians get annoyed when people are always referring to that?

59:34Tom Pelissero:I think that it's true to a certain level, but it leads to a lot of passive aggression, I would say. Like, yes, you can smile to someone's face and say something that that person's going to walk away going, was that like a dick? Are they mad at me? But they were smiling. that's what Minnesotans are most known for. They won't just insult you to your face. They'll just talk behind your back.

59:55Sheil Kapadia:Oh, that's not nice. Billy, this feels a little bit like the Kapadia family. You know, keep stuff bottled inside, keep your emotions inside, and then maybe like once a year just have a family blow up. People are crying. But for the most part, everyone's smiling and nice to each other. What's happening at your house? I'm sorry. Am I giving to it? Let's get back to football. All right. Which coach is under the most pressure here? Was that all a Kevin O 'Connell setup?

1:00:20Tom Pelissero:No, I don't think Kevin O 'Connell is under a great deal of pressure. I think everyone's realistic about the quarterback situation and the reality that depending on how this plays out, they may not have the guy on the roster. I would break it down in different ways. We already covered all the first-year coaches. Jesse Minter, Joe Brady, to an extent Mike McCarthy, they all have varying degrees of pressure because of who they're following, because of the success those teams have had, because of what's still out there for them. I'd set those aside in a separate category. Mike Vrabel is in a category of his own.

1:00:52Tom Pelissero:He was just in the Super Bowl. Lots happened since. He has his own level of pressure just because you're going to have the scrutiny that's going to take place if the Patriots don't perform. We all can look at it and have all the stats and say they're playing a harder schedule. That's why the team's stumbling. But Mike Tomlin himself said it on the NBC broadcast the other day, which is like, if all of a sudden they're not playing well, that noise is going to get loud. That's its own issue, and the same thing with the guys who didn't make the playoffs last year. But we all know, and the coaches know themselves.

1:01:23Tom Pelissero:If you're Zach Taylor, if you're Shane Steichen, if you're Dan Quinn, any coach who misses the playoffs two years in a row and it's not your first two years, you know. You're probably your back's up against the wall, depending on exactly how things play out. But I'm going to go to one, a guy who has made the playoffs multiple times, has previously been to a Super Bowl, and has not so far delivered what the franchise envisioned. It's Jim Harbaugh. Everyone talks about Justin Herbert, and certainly there's pressure on him, and he doesn't want a playoff game. We talk about all the other things going on with him and his fiancée and these things.

1:02:04Tom Pelissero:He's a really good player who's played through a lot. He's super tough. You think back to the injuries that he's played through. I mean, he's gutted it out through a lot. But Jim Harbaugh is the guy who came in, came back to the league coming off a national championship game at Michigan. He came in as the guy who, in his first two years with the 49ers, went to the NFC championship game and the Super Bowl, and then went back to the NFC championship game again in year three. But for all the other things going on, he could have been the 49ers coach for as long as he wanted to. He chose to go back to Michigan.

1:02:37Tom Pelissero:There were a lot of other dynamics there we don't need to get into. But when you pay a guy as much as the Chargers are paying Jim Harbaugh, and you have the quarterback in Justin Herbert, and you have what I think is objectively a talented roster, you're doing that for one thing, which is like, we're competing right now. We're going to the Super Bowl in the near term. They've made the playoffs twice, but they haven't won a playoff game since Jim Harbaugh came to L.A. I'm not suggesting that Jim Harbaugh gets fired if they don't win a playoff game again this year. But if you go three years without Jim Harbaugh winning a playoff game, if you're Chargers ownership and you're the fan base, you have to start going, wait, isn't this almost Brandon Staley's resume?

1:03:17Tom Pelissero:Haven't we lived this exact same thing for decades here? And this was the guy. This was the coup. This was in a year and really a decade where everybody in L.A., everyone thinking L.A. football thinks about the people who you're their tenant at SoFi, which is the Rams. This year, everyone's talking about the Rams. Who's talking about the Chargers if it's not Justin Herbert getting his hair combed on the field after practice? No one's talking about the Chargers. That wasn't what it was supposed to be. This was supposed to be the story with Jim Harbaugh. He lost his defensive coordinator after last season.

1:03:50Tom Pelissero:He wiped out his offensive staff, now brings in Mike McDaniel. Those two guys, I'd love to be a fly on the wall seeing those two communicate in the meeting rooms on a daily basis. There's so much into it. And what bullets do you have to fire when you're a head coach? It's firing your coordinators, changing things out, right? Well, they just changed both their coordinators, one by choice, one not. A lot of this, you start to look at this and go, this is on Jim Harbaugh. He's got to take a step forward. We know that Jim can coach. We know he's had success everywhere he's been from San Diego to Stanford to the 49ers to Michigan.

1:04:24Tom Pelissero:If it's the third straight year and they don't advance in the playoffs, if they're not in the Super Bowl mix, then there's a conversation to be had about how long do they go on like this? And is this going to be the group and the coach that gets them where they ultimately want to go? All right. See, if I heard that and I were Jim Harbaugh's defense attorney, agent, family member, or whatever, I would say, Tom, give me a break here. They've won 11 games in back-to-back seasons. They didn't have either of their offensive tackles last season and they still won 11 games. I mean, at some point, does Justin Herbert have to be accountable for playing the worst game of his career in a playoff game?

1:05:02And I look at the talent on the roster and I don't look at that and go, they're underachieving. I look at that and go, that's probably kind of where they should be given the talent. So I would defend Jim Harbaugh in that respect. But wasn't Jim Harbaugh also partly hired because he's a quarterback guy?

1:05:19Tom Pelissero:I mean, you think about it, like whether it was J.J. McCarthy or it was Colin Kaepernick or it was Andrew Luck. Like he's been a guy, even if he's not the one, you know, necessarily calling every player being the central figure. Like you hire him in part because it's like, this is the combination, right? This is, these are the guys who are going to work together. We know because Jim Harbaugh keeps telling us how much he loves Justin Herbert. I'm not trying to take Johnson, Jim Harbaugh. I'm just saying you're there for a specific reason, which is to go and do the one thing you hadn't done. You went to college and you got your championship there.

1:05:51Tom Pelissero:Jim Harbaugh himself is there to win a Super Bowl. And if you asked him, I'm sure you'd have a very colorful way of saying it, but he'd agree. He's not there to go one and done in the playoffs two years in a row. Definitely not three. And so there is a pressure level, especially because look around the rest of that division and you've got Sean Payton and Bo Nix and the Broncos. You got still Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes that you're contending with. And now maybe if Fernando Mendoza lives up to be the number one pick, you got him and Cliff to deal with for years to come here. That's a treacherous type of division where right now you're going into the season thinking thinking we should have a shot.

1:06:24Tom Pelissero:We should have a shot every year to win it, and they're still trying to get there. What do you think, Billy? More pressure, Harbaugh or Harper? You hate Jim Harbaugh. I like Jim. What's going on? I like Jim. Billy, you can't, he's, you see that stuff you can't do, Billy. He's got an interview. I like Jim. The bar is high. Would you have said Sean McDermott had pressure on him last year? Would you have said, you know, that John Harbaugh had pressure on him last year?

1:06:49Sheil Kapadia:Sean McDermott, yes, just because it felt like he was out of people to fire. and they just weren't getting over the hump. But Jim's only been there like three years. And now we're getting into like territory where is Justin Herbert going to be a coach killer? You know, because they brought in Staley and he was like the boy genius at the time. Like when does this, like some of the blame, we know he has the talent, but when does this blame shift to him slightly there? Because he also has won no playoffs game preceding Jim Harbaugh's arrival.

1:07:18Tom Pelissero:Right, right. I mean, Brandon Staley's a classy guy. I doubt that he's sitting in New Orleans on his off days is like watching Chargers tape and enjoying their playoff losses. But on some level, team keeps bumping their heads in the same way, kind of reflects better on the Brandon Staley era, especially because he came in there and changed a lot of things, you know, that they were doing and kind of set the table for where the Chargers now. I mean, they absolutely, like, why wouldn't you? We started this conversation by talking about, like, even the favorites in the AFC, two of them missed the playoffs last year.

1:07:47Tom Pelissero:Like, why shouldn't the Chargers be in that mix? Yeah, they lost their center. They still got the tackles. Injuries happen around the league, and that's a huge, sometimes undersold factor. But why shouldn't we be talking about the Chargers? The fact that we're not in year three with Jim Harbaugh, to me, that's the definition of pressure, which is we should be in a certain place that we're not with a coach at a given time, even though it would be a stunning development if he wasn't still the Chargers coach going into 2027 and quite possibly beyond. Yeah, they got a lot right. But I mean, you hire Mike McDaniel, everyone can agree that Mike McDaniel is a very good offensive coach.

1:08:26You've got the tackles. Like you said, you've got the quarterback. If it doesn't happen this year, yeah, somebody, you know, just in the court of public opinion, not that they're necessarily going to make wholesale changes, but we're going to be having these conversations. Could the GM have done a better job with the roster? Could Harbaugh have done a better job coaching? Does Herbert need to be held accountable? All those conversations are in play with the Chargers. Billy, what do you think? You had a coach in mind for this one?

1:08:52Sheil Kapadia:Well, so I was going, I like the way Tom took this because I was going to go with the generic, okay, Aaron Glenn can be in trouble, Zach Taylor can be in trouble, but if I'm going to follow Tom's lead here, I'll ask you, Tom, I'll ask you, Sheil. Stan Campbell may be in trouble if they have another disappointing season because he loses his two coordinators that got him right there to the brink of getting to the Super Bowl. He gets to the most successful season in the history of the team, and then he loses coordinators, and last year they fall off if there's another step backwards. So is things getting a little hot for him?

1:09:24Well, first of all, I think the Lions are going to be very good this year. So I don't think that's going to be an issue. And I would think no. It feels like Detroit still loves Dan Campbell. Their record is incredible since he got there. If you just look at Detroit Lions pro football reference page, like a stretch like this is highly unusual, certainly in our lifetimes for the Detroit Lions.

1:09:43Sheil Kapadia:So I think... A new Lions, Sheel. There's a new standard here in Detroit now that they have to live up to.

1:09:49Tom Pelissero:They went 9-8 last year, and they make the playoffs, if not for the weird Christmas game in Minnesota where Taylor Decker gets sick the day of the game and they have to play without their left tackle and change the whole game plan. And that was, by the way, Dan, he wouldn't say it publicly because he doesn't throw people under the bus like that, but at his core, he knows he made a mistake. I mean, he brought back John Morton to be the offensive coordinator. It didn't work out, and it was pretty apparent. Stylistic personality scheme, like not so much schemes, it's Dan's scheme. It just, it wasn't a fit.

1:10:21Tom Pelissero:So now you bring in Drew Petsing, who was cast off from Arizona. They're continuing to develop with Kelvin Shepard on the defensive side. Kelvin's, he's a really young guy, you know, former player, obviously. He's got a lot to learn. But Dan wants to go on that growth process with him. And he might've had a really young offensive coordinator too if Washington hadn't offered David Blau their coordinator job. So I don't think that there's pressure on Dan Campbell so much as you're right, Billy, like the standard has changed in Detroit. They expect to be there every year, but that's also a credit to Dan Campbell that they're in that place, that they wrote it out.

1:10:59Tom Pelissero:If anybody is not going to, for instance, make a change after the season, it's Sheila Ford-Hamp and that ownership group. I mean, Sheila, to her credit, she did one of the smartest things and it's a rare thing. Midway through Dan's second season and they were like, I think they were 4-21 over two years or something just abysmal. And she came out and just said, Dan is our guy. Like, we see it behind the scenes. The wins are going to come, but Dan is our guy. And from that moment forward, all of a sudden, that's when you saw the offense get going. And that's when Ben Johnson became Ben Johnson. A lot of things changed.

1:11:34Tom Pelissero:Injuries have been a huge part of it, too. The Taylor Decker thing was the last straw. But there were so many injuries, especially on defense. Their entire defense, yeah. Yeah, the entire defense was totally decimated. If they're able to be healthy, and I'm certainly guessing that they're going to adjust some things in terms of how they're preparing these guys for the season, I'm with you, Sheila. I think the Lions are going to be really good. And no, I don't think there's pressure on Dan Campbell any more than there is on any other coach who's really, really good. I could see him being on, frankly, like the Mike Tomlin or John Harbaugh plan where you can have, or Sean Payton in New Orleans, you can have one, two, three down years.

1:12:12Tom Pelissero:and it's cyclical and this is not an ownership group that's going to move on from the people that they believe in. I always think about if a coach did get fired, how quickly would they get hired? And it feels like Dan Campbell would probably be on the top of a lot of lists. Everyone's looking for Dan Campbell. Everyone wants to find their Dan Campbell. What if you could actually just get Dan Campbell? Yeah, maybe. I don't think so. I'm with you. I don't think so. But I took an easy one. You know, you guys are thinking outside the box. Credit to you. But Zach Taylor, who I actually, you know, I think there's aspects to his job that are challenging there in Cincinnati.

1:12:43But to Tom's point, and I think Zach Taylor would probably say this if you injected him with some truth serum, if you go four straight years with Joe Burrow as your starter, and I know he's had injuries without making the playoffs, there's obviously going to be a spotlight on that situation. But, you know, I look at some stuff in Cincinnati, Tom, and I'm like, if they had the resources or were willing to be aggressive for a defensive coordinator like Brian Flores or Vic Fangio, you know, stuff that might be above Zach Taylor's head in terms of are we able to do this as an organization, we're probably thinking about them differently going into this season.

1:13:18So I think the Bengals are going to be good this year. I think he's going to be fine. But I think obviously there's going to be some pressure there in Cincinnati.

1:13:25Tom Pelissero:Well, they're doing un-Bengals things. You know, the Bengals have always been, they get the reputation for not spending money. And there's some things that are founded in terms of like, you know, the size of their scouting staff or, you know, some of the things that they don't have in the building, the fact that their facility is one of the last ones, it might even be the last one, that's just a locker room in the bowels of the stadium, you know, with cement everywhere. Like, all those things are real, but, like, they have spent money. You know, they've done things like, you know, selling the rights to the, the naming rights to the stadium, changing their contract structure when they need to to get certain deals done.

1:13:57Tom Pelissero:And then this offseason, I mean, they traded the number 10 pick to go and get a defensive tackle. I mean, that is not something you ever would have seen the Bengals do in the past. you know, any trades. They made like three trades in season over a 50-year span. Now they're trading the number one pick for Dexter Lawrence. They invested in the defense. These are all new territory for the Bengals. And when you do that, I think that it does show a level of not desperation, but urgency. And if that urgency falls short, Joe Burrow said it, I think it was today or yesterday, you know, it feels like now or never in Cincinnati.

1:14:33Tom Pelissero:And I don't think that means necessarily for Joe Burrow, but it does mean for a guy who has put his weight behind Zach Taylor, they've been to a Super Bowl together, it's embraced the city, and they're going for it here. If they once again fall short, whether that includes another Joe Burrow injury or not, it will kind of feel like an inflection point for that organization, especially with Zach later on in his contract at this point with an organization that typically has not fired people when they owe money. All right. Five big questions entering the 2026 season with Tom Pellicero. Billy, how do you think we did?

1:15:10Is Tom going to be like, I will never work with those two again? Do you think we're okay? Is he going to get cornered the next time he's covering training camp or a game? I mean, is this one and done? How are you feeling about the performance here?

1:15:21Sheil Kapadia:I don't think we said anything today to get him in harm's way. How big are you, Tom? I don't know. I have a hard time like seeing people like when I see him on TV. How tall are you? Are you a big guy?

1:15:32Tom Pelissero:5 '10". Legit 5 '10".

1:15:35Sheil Kapadia:So, I mean, you're in a position where there could be a menacing situation if we put you in a bad spot then, right?

1:15:41Tom Pelissero:It could, but I don't think. Like, again, I'm not. He looks like he's in good shape. I think he can hold his arm. I'm with you. Good shape-ish. no listen I have no problem throwing you guys under the bus so just count on me doing that listen if somebody if somebody in the NFL is getting an hour plus into this podcast who doesn't like something that one of you guys said like I think that at that point they're invested in all of us enough that we can smooth things over

1:16:05Sheil Kapadia:I was going to say when you mentioned it earlier like I don't think your wife's going to hear the part where we were bashing Banff to be honest with you like that was deep enough in that I'm sure you were bashing that is a highly unpopular opinion by the way

1:16:16Tom Pelissero:Banff Yeah, it's tremendous. Fly into Calgary, short ride up. Bam. Looks great. I love it. There you go. All right, listen, if they do corner you, but if they did listen this much, just tell them rate review, and then here's, you know, Billy's email. You can do it, you know. You can tell him whatever you want. He can take it. He's a big boy. All right, that was a lot of fun. Thank you to Tom Palacero. Thank you to Billy Gill. Thanks to Christopher Sutton for producing. Stefano Sanchez on video and additional production supervision by Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopala. I'm Shil Kapalya. We'll talk to you next time on the Ringer NFL Show.

1:17:0021 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.