Jaxson Dart Is Done, the Giants Are Toast, and the NFC Is Already a Mess

19:42Tom Pelissero:So they got something for him and they moved him on. It was just unorthodox. They traded him in the division. This also brings me to, we already hit on several of these. The storyline of the week was obviously the quarterback injuries. It's Jaden Daniels, who has another appointment with a specialist today. I was told you have Caleb Williams looked like it was really bad. Turns out this is something that he may be able to come back from in a week or two. But you have other quarterbacks in the NFC that are also hurt, including Sam Darnold, who we haven't seen since the first series of the season.

20:13Tom Pelissero:My question to you guys is this. Billy, I'll start with you on this one. Is there a team right now in the NFC that you really trust? When you look at, you know, the Rams didn't have two of their best players the other night. the 49ers are like the 49ers always are, where there seems to be a key player going down every week. All these quarterback issues, some teams that have underachieved, like who do you trust? Is there a team in the NFC you actually trust?

20:37Sheil Kapadia:I mean, trust is a funny word, right? Because like you want to say the 49ers and they have the highest point differential if you want to say like who's been the most dominant so far. But they had that weird Australia game to start the season and then they play the Dolphins and they blew out the Dolphins by 22 points. So like you can't really read too much into the point differential for them. Then you have the Vikings, but you have the Vikings who have done this without Kyler. So can you, can you trust the Vikings? Cause they've looked good without their starting quarterback. You have the Seahawks, but the Seahawks have injuries and they've been doing without Darnold.

21:11Sheil Kapadia:The bears now lose Caleb. So you can't really trust the bears even at one and one. The Rams looked great last week, but they're still missing Miles Garrett. So there's not a team that I think you can definitively say, I right now, as of week two, with everyone's health, the way that they are, I trust them. There are two teams on there that I like to watch and I think are surprising so far. And as the season goes on, we'll learn why we probably shouldn't trust them. And they're actually not that entertaining in the Panthers with Bryce Young, who's second in the league in passing. Like he's been fun, but they're going to get a reality check.

21:48Sheil Kapadia:They face the Browns this week and then it's Lions and Eagles. So we're going to see what they actually are probably two weeks from now and three weeks from now. So enjoy them while you can, because that story will probably fall apart. The Saints have been very fun so far. I really like the Saints. They're plus six. They haven't been dominating people, but they won a game that you didn't expect them to win against the Ravens. And that's a good quality win. They lose by one to the Lions, who we thought this is going to be one of the teams, you know, in the NFC. And so far has struggled a bit. but they've been in all their games, surprisingly so.

22:22Sheil Kapadia:And they have Tyler Shuck, who's leading the NFL in passing right now, which after week one, we joked like, we'll take a picture right now if you're the Shuck family, because you're never going to see this again. And sure enough, here we are two weeks in and he's still doing it. So that's probably also not going to last, but that's fun. And this week they play a game against another fun team that we just talked about in the Raiders. So like this is, I would say like, I don't know what title we give it. Maybe like the surprise bowl, right? It's not a Superbowl matchup. It's not like a conference championship matchup, but like these are two of the more surprising fun teams.

22:52Sheil Kapadia:And this is a game that when the season started, you probably wrote off like that game is just an easy skip. Week three, I'd have no interest in watching that game, but now this might be one of the more fun games this weekend. So I don't think there's a team to trust, but there's enough teams and parody, I guess, because of injuries right now, but the NFC is definitely interesting. I mean, Billy, Sean Payton has brainwashed you. I think you don't trust the Seahawks. How do we not trust the Seahawks? I mean, the Seahawks week one, they lose their starting quarterback. They come back and they beat the Patriots.

23:23Week two, everyone going into week two, Cardinals, maybe a surprise team. Maybe they're not that bad. Look at what they did to the Chargers. They start Drew Locke and they just crush them. 31 to seven. I mean, the Cardinals in that game. That's another one I just got caught up on. 10 first downs, 151 yards. Lowest yardage total for any offense through two weeks was the Cardinals last week against the Seahawks. The Seahawks can throw out their backup quarterback and beat teams by three touchdowns. And no one seems to care. I mean, Mike McDonald, his last 30 games, they're 25 and five, and they've lost by more than four points once.

23:57It's almost like I don't even need to see their injury report anymore. They're going to be competitive every single week. JSN is a monster. So yeah, I trust the Seahawks quite a bit. And then I actually did do something here because I knew we were doing this segment. Now, I know there's a lot of power rankings out there. Billy, you might like this. there's a lot of power ranks out there but I was thinking Kapadia power rankings maybe KPR maybe an average rankings and these are different okay because we're not doing all 32 and I know we're talking NFC we're not even doing 16 Tom we're just doing my top 8 in the NFC because I kind of got through 8 and I got bored so I was like why do I keep going bring it on so here's what we have we have the Seahawks number 1 no start with 8 build it up shield come on oh is that what you do?

24:40He kind of gave it away already. All right. Listen, you could have guessed that the Seahawks were going to be number one. All right. Now we're starting over. Okay. Cowboys number eight. Okay. Still not impressed with their defense. All right. Now give us two and then seven. It'll work our way to the middle. No, we're just going to go eight. We're just going to count down from eight. Cowboys number eight. Their defense still stunk last week. The commanders left like three touchdowns on the field. I don't trust them. Lions number seven. in my Super Bowl pick before the season, my gosh, that's secondary.

25:13It is worse than could even be expected. You read the reports out of Detroit, Dan Campbell's just like, I don't know when Kirby Joseph, our great safety is going to be back or if he's going to be back and Brian Branch isn't going to be back this week. So that makes me a little bit nervous. Number six, I got the Bears and this is assuming that Caleb Williams is back in a couple of weeks. I'm still going to trust what I saw in week one with that offense. I need a trade. I need Tom to come on here one week and go, watch out for the Bears in the pass rusher market. They're making calls. I really think that's what the Bears need here is some pass rush.

25:47So that's six. Vikings, number five. I mean, Brian Flores is just killing the NFL right now. Like this is amazing. He is just a one of one with his defensive creativity. They get Kyler back. They're two and oh. I like the Vikings. Four, I've got the Eagles. It's a weird Eagle season where Jalen Hurts looks better than I expected and everybody else kind of looks worse than I expected on the Eagles. But they are 2-0, so I still got them at four. All right, top three. Ready for this? Well, I guess you already know one, so it's kind of like three and two. Let's go. Three. And I feel like we barely talked about this team.

26:26The 49ers. Did anyone watch the 49ers game last week? Brock Purdy went 20 for 22 with 287 yards, two touchdowns. He had two incompletions. He did not take a sack. It's like every drive, it feels like they're going to score. It's a miracle when they don't complete a pass. So I feel like the 49ers are a little undervalued right now. I don't know that they can stay healthy the whole season. Obviously, that's going to be a question with them. And they're a little older. But right now, they are maybe as good as anybody in the NFC. And I still have the Rams, number two. I'm not overreacting to week one.

27:03Sean McVay put it on himself. He said, you know, Sometimes you got an idiot coach who flies 24, 28 hours before you have to be there. We're not going to do that again. We're going to be a good team. So there you go. The Kapadia power rankings, ad folks, your inbox is about to be flooded. I love it.

27:20Tom Pelissero:KPRs. Rams over the 49ers, even though the 49ers beat the Rams less than two weeks ago. I didn't think about that, Tom. I should have run this by you. That's a bold call. This changes week to week, though, Tom.

27:32Sheil Kapadia:Yeah.

27:33Tom Pelissero:Okay. Sorry, 49ers fans. Rams looks great this week, though. Rams were dominant Monday night with no Miles Garrett, no Puka Nakua. The Brock Purdy piece, by the way. At some point, I think we all have to stop being so shocked about Brock Purdy. Like, did you see his numbers this week? He does it all the time. The highest passer rating in NFL history for qualifying passers, okay, and there's like a minimum number of attempts, right, is Lamar at 102.2. Aaron Rodgers has fallen to second at 101.9. Brock Purdy doesn't have enough attempts yet because he has missed time with injuries to qualify for that list.

28:12Tom Pelissero:You know what Brock Purdy's career passer rating is? 104.9. He is significantly above any other quarterback by multiple points as the most efficient passer in NFL history. That's how good Brock Purdy is. So yes, while the 49ers have all these moving parts, they signed Brandon Cooks to the practice squad, All the receivers are banged up right now. Like, yeah, and having Chris McCaffrey does help because that changes a lot how people play you. And obviously there's a ton of dump-off passes and screens you can do to McCaffrey that boosts up your completion percentage. But Brock Purdy performs at a really high level all the time.

28:49Tom Pelissero:Like, we have to get past. It's still the Mr. Relevance. But 20 for 22, come on. 20 for 22 is crazy. But he does it. I'm with you. It shouldn't be a discussion anymore about whether Brock Purdy is very good at football. Brock Purdy is very good at football. How much more can we say it? And Shanahan's offense always gets so much credit and rightfully so. But I think you're saying with the Niners, like Purdy has a mastery of that offense right now. I was looking, you know, next gen stats earlier today. He didn't attempt a single tight window throw according to them. In that game, it's just like he knows who's open and then he can also create and let guys get open.

29:26And you're right. It's like they're banged up at wide receiver. And I'm like, I don't care. They're going to put up 30 points every single week. So yeah, Purdy has been excellent through the first two games here. And so is Shanahan, by the way. I was worried about this team in the summer. I'm like, you got the Shanahan accident. You got the Jed York thing. And where was it? What was the town in Ohio? Ohio, Palestine. Palestine. Okay. Ohio, you had that. I'm looking at their roster. All these guys are over 30. And again, in November, maybe in three weeks, we're like, okay, they're banged up and the age stuff caught up with them.

29:59But early in the season, they look really, really good. So I'm with you on Purdy.

30:04Sheil Kapadia:The Purdy criticism, by the way, also is just because of how deferential we are in the public to general managers, assuming they all know exactly what they're doing, and they hit every pick. Because we're only surprised about Brock Purdy because he was Mr. Irrelevant and he was the last pick in the draft. So we're like, well, he has no business being as good as he is. He shouldn't have been picked there. And it's like, well, sometimes guys miss, right? And they just miss on talents that go undrafted and they end up signing or they take guys in late rounds that should have been drafted earlier.

30:35Sheil Kapadia:Or, you know, guys develop and they mature. Kyle Shanahan helps him grow and become the quarterback that he is. Right. So it's just because of where he was taken. The fact that every single team passed on him that were like, is he actually that good? It's like, well, they miss all the time on high draft picks, too, that don't end up working out. So we shouldn't be that surprised and we shouldn't hold it against Brock Purdy.

30:54Tom Pelissero:But here's the standard that I would put it to. How many people, if in your head you're thinking, who are the top five quarterbacks in the NFL right now, would say Brock Purdy? Is he top five for either of you? Would either of you, if you were making the list of the top five quarterbacks, is Brock Purdy in there? No, I would have top 10, but not top five.

31:11Sheil Kapadia:Top 13.

31:12Tom Pelissero:Highest passer rating in NFL history. The whole goal is to draft the guy that fits your scheme. And Kyle is as good as anybody in the NFL at scheming people open. But you still need to program the quarterback in a way that he's playing on time and getting it to that open guy, as you said. That's the magic part of this. And that's why they committed to Brock Purdy. That's why he's been Kyle's guy and he wants him to be this guy as long as he's there. I think we'd all love to see, unless you're actively rooting against him like you're a Rams fan, I think we'd all love to see, like, hey, the 49ers are healthy the whole year and Brock Purdy's not thrown to the three of us by the end of the season.

31:48Tom Pelissero:Like, what could they do? What could they do in a playoff run? He doesn't take some freak injury to his elbow. You're not going to have that answer. until you actually see the guy back in the playoffs and succeeding at a high level. But statistically, I don't know how you argue it. Let's take a quick break. It's a William Wednesday. Nobody responded when I suggested that's the name for this. I assume that's your name, Billy.

32:12Sheil Kapadia:It's Guillermo, but it's close enough.

32:14Tom Pelissero:Guillermo?

32:15Sheil Kapadia:Yeah, I'm Cuban. Guillermo's Spanish for William. And we do Guillermo Miracles or Guillermo Wednesday. Would that work? Sure.

32:26Tom Pelissero:That just ruined my whole bit. All right. Billy's got some stuff right after this. The Ringer NFL show is brought to you by FanDuel. Thursday night football just got even better with FanDuel. With early win, a fast start could be all you need to win big. For Falcons versus Packers, just bet the money line. Then if your team jumps out to a seven-point lead at any point in the game, you'll win instantly. So whether your team scores on the opening drive or builds an early touchdown lead, you could be celebrating before the game's even over. Check out FanDuel's early win for Falcons versus Packers in the FanDuel app.

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34:31Tom Pelissero:Tons of non-quarterback, non-injury, non-wild trade storylines around the NFL. Billy, what's on your mind on this Billy Wednesday, Guillermo Mirkoleis? What are you burning on around the league?

34:46Sheil Kapadia:First, I want to left you off the hook because you didn't know that. And it's a reasonable assumption to think that my name is William. I'm glad we talked this out on the pod, by the way. No, it's good. It's like, I don't want you to feel bad about that at all. Look, I worked at another show for 15 years. They fully knew my name is Guillermo. And they started doing something called Wild Willie Wednesdays. And no one calls me Willie. So I will let you off the hook on that. What is your last name? My last name is Gil, but it's not pronounced Gil if you want to get into that either. Could have been Gilly Gil.

35:15Sheil Kapadia:I could have been Gilly Gil. I could just be Gilly. I could be any of those things. It's technically pronounced he.

35:20Tom Pelissero:You would have been a wacky FM DJ.

35:22Sheil Kapadia:Gilly Gill here. I don't know. That suits me. I think of myself as more of like a straight laced kind of guy. And Piazza. You went with Billy. Exactly. You can't name yourself, right? People give you your names. Blame my parents for this. Anyways. So I thought, you know what? It's a Guillermo Miracle-Less as everybody calls it around these parts. So let's go around. Let's get some stories. Last week, we were giving you some pre-facts. This week, you know what I was thinking we could do? We can go around the gridiron. So these are all stories that involve the NFL happenings amongst players, not totally off the gridiron because some of these happened on the gridiron, but also not during time of play.

36:00Sheil Kapadia:So this is just stories around the gridiron. What do you guys think about this? I can't wait. Sounds great. All right. So the first one we're going to talk about, this one was kind of going around the web yesterday. So I go around, I try to check to see in the pre-fax areas of the internet, what it is that the people are talking about. And this one caught fire. And I'm wondering what you guys as journalists think, because I'm just a journalism minor. So you guys presumably are journalism major. So you have an elevated level of understanding of these things. So yesterday, clips were coming out.

36:31Sheil Kapadia:Podcasts of Graham Bensinger. He had Mike McDonald on, the Seattle Seahawks head coach. and if you see the clip, Mike McDonald's sitting on the chair, Graham is sitting on the chair, they had the little clapper thing. I always forget what that thing's called. What does that thing call where it's like action and they slam it down? I know what you're talking about. That was a great description. I think it's called a slate. Slate, there you go. It might be a slate, yeah.

36:54Tom Pelissero:I should know that, but yeah, slate. The clapper thing, though, I think is what we'd all call it.

36:58Sheil Kapadia:They hit the slate and it's like ready to go and the two of them are like kind of talking and they just go right into it. There's no like, you know, long setup, welcome to the show. I'm Graham Bensinger, whatever. And throughout that conversation, Mike McDonald tells a story about why him and Sean Payton do not really like each other, as he put it, are not fans of each other. And it goes back to a couple of years ago where Mike McDonald and the Seattle Seahawks realized, oh, when there are open practices, fans take videos and they put those videos on Twitter. And through doing searches on social media, the Seahawks seemed to put together a database of 100 or so plays that they could see from fan videos when fans were taking videos at open practices.

37:47Sheil Kapadia:Sean Payton did not like this whatsoever and said, you guys are cheating and likened it to a situation of Spygate. And he even said it wasn't even like Connor Stallions with Michigan where we were actively sending someone to take videos. We literally just did searches on the internet, if you believe him. We just did searches on the internet of fan videos of plays. And we cataloged like a hundred different plays through those videos. So Sean Payne said, we're going to out you guys. We're going to put this out there. We're going to cause this big controversy. And Sean did what everybody does. Mike McDonald did what everyone does.

38:18Sheil Kapadia:And he said, all right, well, I'm going to sue you. And we're going to make this a big deal because you're going to, you're lying about us. And that is, you know, I don't even know what they would technically be. Defamatory. I guess. Yeah. they say you're defaming us i don't know what grounds this would have gone on it would have been a great juicy story and because the two of them are going back and forth as he compared it to we're gonna hit the nuclear button on you none of them either ever ended up doing so and then that was at the end of the story they go to indy for the combine mike goes for a morning jog he gets on the elevator goes back to his room when he gets out of the elevator who's there but sean Peyton and he's expecting, all right, well, it's about to go down now.

38:59Sheil Kapadia:We've been threatening to blow each other up. We've been threatening to sue each other like this. This might be a tussle here in this, uh, in this hotel. And he says that the exchange was kind of like, Hey, morning coach, morning coach. And they just went on their ways. And that was that. So what do you guys make of this? Because once this story came out, it's like, this is juicy. This is a fun story. But the turn comes when Mike McDonald's like, well, that was off the record. And it's like, dude, you were sitting on a set saying this with the lights on. We already hit the slate. The microphones were on.

39:28Sheil Kapadia:We did the checks. Why would you tell that story in that setting if you thought that maybe it wouldn't make it out? So what are your guys' thoughts on this story getting out and just the story in general? Well, quick follow-up, Billy. Did McDonald actually say, hey, that was off the record? Or is this like the Seahawks messaging? Because I don't know that as of this recording, McDonald, I might have missed it. I don't know if he... I'm sure he'll be asked about it this week, but I don't know that he's actually come out with that as his defense yet. I saw a question when they ask him, why do you do these podcasts?

40:01Sheil Kapadia:Like what is there to gain from it? Essentially, like what was the point of that? I think this is just PR spin of, hey, we didn't mean to get that out there, you know, and they're trying to cover Mike so that I know he doesn't look like a bad guy because people like him. He's a Super Bowl champion. It's like, let's not make him out to be like a bully or like this tough guy that's kind of picking on old man Sean Payton there. So it's like, we're just going to say it was off the record and we'll deal with the blowback from Graham Bessinger and maybe we'll never be on his podcast again. Tom, I got to think that people around the league, this is the juicy, gossipy type story that people love talking about, I would imagine, as you're making your calls this week.

40:39Tom Pelissero:Honestly, no one has said a word about it. Really? Interesting. I think that's because everybody, and I've had a mostly good relationship with Sean Payton for a long time. Everyone's been on the business end of Sean not being happy with you at some point. Like if anybody's going to threaten to go nuclear, it's Sean. And then the next time you see him, everything can be absolutely fine. The other aspect of this is, I guarantee you, all 32 teams do this. The way the rules work in the NFL is if you have a practice that is open and you're not charging for tickets, right? Which is what most teams do in part because of this.

41:21Tom Pelissero:Teams can't send somebody in to record something themselves. If you charge tickets, you know, teams have like their Saturday night, Friday night practice, whatever, obviously preseason games. Teams, other teams can buy a ticket and go in and take notes and do whatever. But all those other practices, you're solely relying on what comes out in media reports. What do the fans in the stands do? The media all have a list of rules about what you're allowed to do, and you have to sign it to get your credential. And there's certain periods that are on and off shooting. But the fans, it's like, you're just putting stuff out there.

41:56Tom Pelissero:I mean, I remember a story years ago that there was a specific trick play that ended up online, and it went viral. And the coach was told, hey, just so you know, coach, it's on Twitter. And the coach lost his mind and then is like, wait, what's Twitter? Like, they don't know. But that's why you see teams mostly shutting it down because that's something the teams can glean. Now, how much are you getting from an August training camp practice when you're playing a team like the Seahawks and Broncos do this year? I think in week six. I don't know. But there's a lot of teams that have specific rules about.

42:26Tom Pelissero:There are some teams that if you have your phone even out of your pocket, they will throw you off the practice field as a reporter. And there are teams that will tell the fans, you cannot shoot anything. But it's mixed. Sometimes you have security that's actively going up there. Other teams are very relaxed about it. It's a real thing, but this is not like unique to the Seahawks. I'm sure, you know, Sean probably implied because Mike was at Michigan at one point that he was somehow attached to things. It's commonplace. It really is in the NFL. I love this story. I love coach rivalries. I love that they play each other in week six.

43:01In my heart, I'm like, man, I wish they would have played in the Super Bowl last year. That would have been such an interesting handshake there at the end of the game. But yeah, just to echo what Tom said, just, you know, I went to some Eagles training camp practices this week and ones I've been to in the past. It's like in the beginning of practice, everyone's allowed to use their phone, record what you want. They're doing drills. They're doing warmups. Once it gets to when it's like team periods where they're actually running plays, they will generally tell you and, you know, very like, you know, like you better not be recording anything.

43:33Like get that phone in your pocket or you're out of here. And they say the same thing to the fans. Now, every team's training camp is set up differently. Like the ones at the Eagles, it's a small number of fans on the sideline. If you go to a stadium practice, obviously, you're not going to be able to regulate that kind of thing. But yeah, I think the Dolphins even said earlier this year, in the summer, they were making a point about how, I forget, it might have been Kevin Petullo or something, told Jeff Halfley, told someone else that, hey, we knew some of your blitz schemes because we were just looking online and people were recording them in the summer.

44:07So the bottom line is the Seahawks didn't do anything wrong here. Sean Payton, I am curious how he found out about this. That was interesting to me, that aspect of it. And I am a little concerned that teams are going to get even stricter about who they allow. Because it is awesome for fans to get to go to these training camp practices. And now I feel like there's going to be even more rules in place, more regulations, and maybe they'll shut them off. So I hope that doesn't happen. But Billy, your point at the beginning might be the most interesting one. a little journalism discussion. Was this on the record?

44:41Was this off the record? Was this fair game? I tell my family all the time, unless you say off the record, anything you do in this house, I can use for content. If I'm having a slow podcast and I need to just have an anecdote there. They know. My daughter literally, I was telling them this story this morning. She's like, unless you say off the record before, it's assumed that it's on the record. I'm like, thank you. That's how journalism works. Now, at the same time, the angle of the shot. It's like, was it clear? It should have been clear to Mike McDonald when you start recording the interview.

45:15And I don't know that it was. Now still, if he didn't stay off the record, he should be more careful. He's been in the public eye for a long time now. He was getting a little loose. He was getting a little comfortable there. But yeah, I don't know kind of what to make of that whole situation, Tom. What do you think from kind of a journalism perspective, someone who's done these interviews before?

45:34Tom Pelissero:I do like the Mike is kind of, you know, he's got, he's such a terminator as a personality. I kind of like that he's now and then whether it's, you can say he's slipping up. It might also be, I just won the Super Bowl in my second season and I can kind of do what I want at this point. You want myself a little bit, yeah. He made the comment at the Celebrity Golf Tournament back in July about somebody with a conflict of interest, gave him information on the Patriots before the Super Bowl. Like he's dropped a few little things in there, which is kind of out of character for him. So I do enjoy that part.

46:03Tom Pelissero:Here's what I would say for anybody who is interested in journalism or anybody who ever sits for an interview, talks to a reporter, there is no such thing as off the record. Off the record is a construct of trust between the people in the room. I can say to you, hey, this is off the record. You can still use it. I may never talk to you again, but it's not like those words disappear. You have to assume at all times you're on the record. if you trust someone, the things you're talking about are always going to be off the record. Again, it's based on trust, but there's not like a rule. Graham Bensinger, whatever his name is, isn't like going to go to jail if he used something and Mike didn't know.

46:41Tom Pelissero:If you got a microphone up your shirt, it's a good signal at that moment that you're probably not off the record. And whether Mike did or did not actually feel bad that that got out there will probably drive whether they do business with that particular interviewer again.

46:55Sheil Kapadia:We also saw in Hard Knocks this year, like Mike McDonald can hold a grudge. He showed a note card that he had from when Rex Ryan in 2022, I think, when he was the DC of Baltimore, called him terrible and he keeps that as motivation. So Mike is here to hold these grudges and air them out now, I guess, now that he's had the success. And the other thing we saw, Billy, in Hard Knocks is the man is in the weight room. You said he went for a jog. I don't know if that's confirmed or not. I would think he was probably in the hotel gym getting a pump in. And the way he was telling the story, he was like, you know, part of me, it was like Sean Payton saw me in that medium t-shirt and was like, I'm not saying anything to you in person.

47:36I'll call John Schneider if I have an issue over the phone. But yeah, I don't want any smoke right now. So I thought that part of it was also fun for Mike McDonald. That's why you get all those reps in for situations where you might meet Sean Payton in the elevator at the Indy Marriott and something might go down.

47:52Sheil Kapadia:I was thinking while this segment was going on, I came up with a new segment. if you guys are interested in playing this. Just a mini segment, a sub-segment, if you will, during this segment. It's called On the Record. So you guys both have reported on things. You guys have had off-the-record conversations, obviously. I'm wondering if in this segment called On the Record, we share some of those off-the-record happenings, but we redact who it is that it happened with. So it's still technically off-the-record. We don't know, but what's one of the more juicy off-the-record things that happened, but don't tell us who it was.

48:27Sheil Kapadia:Any interest? I don't know, Billy. We might have to revisit that one next week. We need to think about this one to not give context clues. She was going to tell us who his daughter's crushes are in school or something. Tom's version of this would be much more interesting than my version of this, I think. But yeah, let's chew on that. We'll hit the group chat this week. Maybe next Wednesday we come back and work on that segment. She was going to be like, an unnamed member of the Kapadia family is really crushing on Jimmy in fourth grade. Won't tell you who it was, though. All right. Not if they set off the record before, though.

49:02They do do that sometimes. They'll set off the record. All right, I'll give you one real quick one here. Oh! Because it's a... Okay. It's a blatant...

49:10Tom Pelissero:No, it's a blatant on-the-record one. I one time... I don't want to out the person because I think they were just a little bit naive to how this worked. And you are, based on all the guidelines that you're given. It's like if you're dealing with people who are unfamiliar, If you do a man on the street type stuff, you're talking to a child, you're talking to somebody who maybe have mental problems, right? You're supposed to. There's kind of a code of like you need to treat those differently. But this was somebody who was the head of a company that was doing business with the NFL. I talked to them in a press box before a game, holding a recorder like this for like a half hour, walked to my seat, wrote a story, posted it.

49:48Tom Pelissero:That person walked up to me and goes, that was all off the record. I'm like, I don't know what you think off the record is, but me asking you questions, telling you I'm writing a story and holding the recorder in your face should have been clues that I was going to use the things that came out of your mouth. I left the story. It was just like, sorry, like I feel bad that you feel bad, but like, what is it you thought was happening here? That's my one. Yeah, sometimes it's a credit to the reporter. Like that person thought, oh, Tom's a nice guy. Tom's a friendly guy. We're just having a chat. You know, that type of thing.

50:22He's not going to be with it.

50:23Tom Pelissero:I'm writing a story on your product being used in the NFL game. Give me the quotes about the product. And then I wrote it. And there was like a little side, like a parting joke about Roger Goodell. It was like not harmful in any way, but that was in there. I think that's what maybe got a phone call or they didn't like. But again, holding the mic in your face. No ambiguity whatsoever on this. ShamWow guy should have known better.

50:51Sheil Kapadia:All right, we'll go through these quick because that one went longer than I thought. Let's do quick lightning rounds of around the gridiron. Joe Burrow was mic'd up during this thing. This is where it gets a little tricky, off the gridiron, on the gridiron, because this was on the gridiron, but it was technically off the gridiron. He was mic'd up after taking a hit from Daniil Hunter. He was caught in the sidelines telling Jamar Chase, you know, I think that knocked my injured rib back into place. Like it hurt initially, but now I'm feeling really good and I'm not feeling that pain anymore. So it's like, okay, like that's just like a funny aside.

51:23Sheil Kapadia:He knows that he's mic'd up. He'll just say something because guys do that sometimes to kind of play up to the cameras. Then after the game, he goes up to the Neil Hunter and he goes up to Will Anderson, shakes their hands after the game. He goes, hey, when you guys hit me, you knocked my rib back into place. Like I feel good now. How do we feel about this? Like, do we think Joe Burrow actually believes that he was cured with a hit? Like sometimes I don't have it on your shoulder. It's dislocated. Then they just snap it back into place. You feel good. Do we think Joe believes that his rib was knocked back into place?

51:51Sheil Kapadia:Do you guys believe that his rib was knocked back into place? And do we think now, okay, he's good. He's healed. No issues with Joe Burrow. A hundred percent. He believes it.

52:00Tom Pelissero:Yes. And I think that it's as much, I mean, he's, he's not looking at an x-ray. He's just feeling it in the game. Something feels weird. Then after he gets hit, it feels normal again. I'm not a doctor. I don't have an intimate knowledge of ribs, but I do know they can get displaced. They can get bruised and different things. I've never heard of somebody taking a shot back in. Everybody's seen at some point the player who dislocates their shoulder, and then they just go and fall on it, right? Just drive it into the ground and pops it back into place. So theoretically, I guess you can do that with a rib, but that's a new one for me, Shield.

52:34Yeah, we maybe need an official medical expert for the Ringer NFL show because, like Tom said, for shoulder, yeah, I could buy it. For finger, you see him on the sidelines sometimes, you're, bam, we're going to pop that back in there. I don't think I've ever heard that for rib. Like just have your rib is injured and just have two of the most fierce pass rushers in the NFL really give you a shot. Normally, I would think that would make it worse or it would hurt you more, but he was convinced of it. Now I do wonder, Billy, we're doing a little journalism, we're doing a little media talk on this episode.

53:05I mean, he knows he's mic'd up there, right? For the entire game. It wasn't like he was a secondary character who got caught. He knows he's mic'd up. He's talking about it to multiple people. Was that sort of a brand type thing that I'm a tough guy, had an injured rib, no big deal. These guys hit me and now it feels even better. I'm Joe Burrow and we're 2-0, maybe.

53:28Sheil Kapadia:I thought it was a joke when he was telling Jamar. And then when he, after the game, went and was telling the other team, I was like, I guess he really believes this. I've never heard of a situation where your rib goes out of place and you knock it back into place. I guess players are weird. I feel like Cam Scataboo is the type of guy that gets a concussion, then he decides to let me head by the wall to unconcuss myself. So that's unconfirmed. That's not a report. That's not off the record. That's just some people are saying that. Not I wouldn't say that. Tom didn't say that either. Shield maybe would say that unless you tell him it's off the record.

53:58Sheil Kapadia:So we believe any of that or no? I guess we believe it. Want to go on to the next one? Okay, let's move on. Let's move on. All right. The next around the gridiron, Devontae Adams appeared on his sister's show up in Adams this week, and something caught the eye of viewers when he was there on the couch. It was a giant, what seemed to be Taco Bell behind him. So people were saying, is this like product placement? Is he doing this interview outside of a Taco Bell? What's going on here? So I did a little digging and I saw a MTV Cribs style video of Devante where he walks around and proudly shows off, one, a golf cart in the middle of his living room for some reason, which I assume he takes out.

54:37Sheil Kapadia:Two, a functioning Taco Bell has been installed inside the living room of his house. So not only does he have a functioning Taco Bell inside his living room, which then he put behind him in interviews, he told us that he has a purple card. And the purple card, if you're wondering what that is, is a card in which he can take to any Taco Bell and he can get whatever it is that he wants, whatever the price, whenever he wants to use it. There are two reported such purple cards out in circulation right now. Devante Adams has one and the other one belongs to Kevin Hart. So would you guys be interested in a purple card?

55:15Sheil Kapadia:If not a purple card, what brand or restaurant would you like that card for? And then side question, would you ever want a restaurant installed inside your living quarters? I have a lot of questions here. Bill. First of all, unless they're sponsoring the Capati Power Rankings, I wonder if we should have kept them anonymous. I don't like the free ads here we're giving them. But that's okay. It was part of the media. We can deal with it. Maybe it'll lead to something down the road with one of these companies. But when you say functioning Taco Bell inside his house, what does that mean? It has all the ingredients.

55:51There's someone working there that'll just make him a Mexican pizza if he wants to in the middle of the day. I don't understand how this actually works.

55:59Sheil Kapadia:Listen, I will fully admit that I have not just shown up at his house at a random time to see if it's operating. When he's showing off the house in the video, there's the menus there, the windows open, and there is Taco Bell on a tray, which I don't know why he'd need trays, but he has the Taco Bell trays. He has the things all wrapped up. So it seems as though, at the very least, it's operable and he could get some sort of Taco Bell at some time if he has the right person working the Taco Bell window at his house. Okay. I mean, listen, in my 20s, the purple card would have been nice. I think that's a little bit of a young man's game where now you get over 40 and you're not going to be really taking full advantage of that purple card.

56:40So I would have to give some thought about it if there's another one I would actually like. But you know what? Good for him, I guess. I didn't know anything about the purple card. Tom, have you done reporting on this? Is this what people are talking? They're not talking about the McDonald Payton thing, but maybe they're talking about this when you make your calls this week.

56:55Tom Pelissero:I'm just unclear on if we really believe there's a Taco Bell in the house. It's there. Because, right. But for instance, there was a Taco Bell kind of in my high school. They had the Taco Bell sign and there'd be somebody working there. But the only thing you could get was soft tacos. And they weren't like the full-on Taco Bell soft tacos. It was kind of like half-assed. But that was the only thing you could get. If we're talking about like you can order gorditas and chalupas and those cinnamon twist things, like you would need a team back there. So is it just a Taco Bell sign and then like he can heat it up in the microwave and like make a burrito every now and then?

57:39Tom Pelissero:Or is it actually there's somebody working the Taco Bell? That is the important thing here.

57:44Sheil Kapadia:I mean, I wonder kind of like, is he then technically the manager of that Taco Bell? You know what I mean? And then does he have employees that he has to send out like the weekly schedule for? And it's like, hey, you know what? I'm going to be out of town Thursday through Friday. Taco Bell will be closed. But the days that I'm there, we're going to have our shifts starting at, you know, 8am, whatever time it is that he sets the schedule. And the two people, you know, have to rotate and he sends out the weekly schedule just in case he wants something. You know, they're there to help him. I would think the only other celebrity, and I'm sure this is like not that crazy because celebrities are weird, if we're going to be honest.

58:19Sheil Kapadia:Tyrese Gibson of the Fast and Furious franchise. You're familiar with Tyrese Gibson, Sheil, Tom? Sure, yeah. So Tyrese, I believe, unless he's moved, had a functioning Benihana in his yard. And you could go to Tyrese's house and Andy Samberg famously would talk about it. And then he got invited over to Tyrese's house and he put out videos of him and Aziz Ansari and some other notable celebrities going to Tyrese's house because they got the invite. he found out they were interested and you could find these videos of them at the Benihana in Tyrese's yard. And then they do like the whole, you know, like onion thing where it shoots up the fire all the way.

59:01Sheil Kapadia:I'm going to send you guys these videos. And if we can, I don't know how clearance works here, but if we can get the videos of this functioning Taco Bell and the Benihana and Tyrese's yard, you guys will be blown away. So you guys have no interest in any of these.

59:13Tom Pelissero:I think I would face such immense pressure if I had a Benihana or a Taco Bell or any other restaurant to like only eat there. Because every time that I didn't, you know, my wife would say like, well, we got a Benihana downstairs and you don't want to have that. Like that would be the mentality or we do it to the kids. Like, hey, listen, we didn't put that Taco Bell in the basement for no reason. We're having Taco Bell again tonight. I just think it's too much pressure.

59:36Sheil Kapadia:Well, and then, you know, heaven forbid one of your children comes home with like drive-through Taco Bell. You're like, we have one of those. Why did you get that? Why Maybe more to Taco Bell. I agree. Too much pressure. And then you got to host people more. You know, we want to come see the Taco Bell. We want to come see the Benihana. Yeah, I don't think that would be for me. Okay. All right. Last fun fact. This was just a quick one going on. This was more on the gridiron, but it was set off the gridiron. So Chase Daniel, notable NFL alum and member of the media, pointed out this is going to be Ben Johnson's first game as either offensive coordinator or head coach that he is calling without the number one draft pick playing quarterback going back to Detroit.

1:00:23Sheil Kapadia:So how do we think Ben's going to look? Is this all a situation where Ben's just relying on these great quarterbacks and he's not really the genius we think he is? Or is he going to be just fine this Monday night against Shields Eagles? What do you think? Is this going to be Case Keenum, we think, Tom? I know Tyson Bajant's in the, I think, concussion protocol. It might just be hard to know at this point in the week.

1:00:44Tom Pelissero:Hard to predict with the concussion protocol. Usually guys miss a week, but also some guys clear it faster than others. They've got the extra day with the Monday night game. I would say this on Ben Johnson. I don't think that people were sitting there talking about Jared Goff as a great quarterback when Ben Johnson and Dan Campbell get him. The Rams literally gave up a first-round pick to get rid of Goff and his contract and bring in Matthew Stafford. That's how Goff was thought of after the initial Super Bowl run. And it was just like it wasn't good enough. And all of a sudden, he earns multiple massive contract extensions in Detroit.

1:01:18Tom Pelissero:That all came with Ben Johnson calling the plays. Caleb Williams, his first year, it was not great in the NFL. And even the first half last year versus the second half of last year, you saw the growth under Ben. Whether it's Tyson Bajit, who I know Ben Johnson loves, another rare backup quarterback who got signed to an extension. or you're talking about Case Keenum, who's played a lot of games in the league, just not in a pretty long time, I think they'll be just fine. It's obviously not the same as having Caleb. Case Keenum's not going to do the freaky type of stuff that Caleb can do. But I think that Ben will have a plenty good plan against a guy in Vic Fangio, who's a pretty good coordinator in his own grade.

1:01:56The other thing is, I feel like the offensive geniuses in the NFL, they relish these opportunities. Like Kyle Shanahan last year, when he's like, I'm going to throw Mac Jones in there and you're going to see a different guy than you've seen the past few years. And he was right. Andy Reid, back in the day, he would get like Coy Detmer in there and they would be winning Monday night games. So I think Ben Johnson will look at this and they had a great game plan against the Eagles last year. And the Eagles defense last year was better than the Eagles defense has looked through two weeks this year.

1:02:26And Ben Johnson and the Bears came to Philadelphia when that defense was playing well, gashed them on the ground. And so he has some extra time this week. He's probably embarrassed about how last week unfolded where they only put up a field goal. I think it was the worst game that Ben Johnson has coached or coordinated offensively since he got that position with the Lions and then with the Bears. So I would expect their offense to be more competitive than maybe we look at just on the surface, regardless of whether it's Pajan or Case Keenum or I guess the outside chance of Caleb Williams.

1:03:01Sheil Kapadia:That's it. We did it, guys. as we went around the gridiron. Yeah, how did that turn out?

1:03:05Tom Pelissero:Enjoy this. Gilly's gridiron. Guillermo's gridiron. Gridiron Guillermo. Right? Okay. Holding in. There's something. We're going to get this thing right eventually. Week three kicking off Thursday night. Packers-Falcons. I got a couple reasons this game is more interesting than you might think. This episode is brought to you by Ethos. Buying a house is one of those moments where you realize, oh, yeah, I have responsibilities now. And if you have a family, you want to know they could stay in that house if something happened to you. Ethos makes life insurance painless. Get a quote in seconds. Apply in minutes all online with no medical exam.

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1:04:29Tom Pelissero:Thank you for this. So Thursday night, the Falcons, who have not started their, the guy who won the quarterback job in camp, also did not have the number two guy, started their number three Cooper Rush, are now going to the guy who, because of health, didn't beat out the other guy who's still not healthy enough. Michael Penix Jr. Started on Thursday night. This has been, for a guy in Kevin Stefanski, who you thought, like, it can't get weirder quarterback-wise to what he had in Cleveland. Like, we actually have. The past few weeks have been unbelievably bizarre, including Tua popping his oblique on the first practice of game week back in week one.

1:05:05Tom Pelissero:This is a big moment in the Falcons' season, Shield. You have a team that is 0-2. They've looked bad. They got booted home last week. Now it's a very quick turnaround. And going into Green Bay, where this is the one week where Penix would get first-team reps, and you maybe have one practice to get him ready, but you're going in against the Packers team that is so gutted by injuries right now that even winning the game against the Jets, they didn't look great in that game. Break this one down for me, what you see on Thursday night. Well, I think Panix, you know, going into the season, I was very close to making the case that this isn't someone everyone should totally give up on.

1:05:42If you just look at kind of the advanced stats from last year and some of the high moments, it was like there's something there where he could potentially be a competent quarterback, but then you added up all the injuries. And I'm like, all right, I'm not going to make that case because I don't know when he's going to be on the field this year. It feels to me like there's kind of an early, I don't want to say culture test in Atlanta, but you have guys like Drake London and Bajon Robinson and you see those sideline shots and you have Kyle Pitts. And they're just so frustrated because they have not been able to get competent quarterback play.

1:06:13And they feel like there's more that they can show. We see this with skilled players all the time. They're like, we can be part of a winning offense, a winning team. And the Falcons have just looked lifeless through the first two weeks of the season. They've had some flashes on defense, but offensively, it's just been a complete disaster. So yeah, I am somewhat interested. Now, to your point, I wish it was like Michael Penix had two, three weeks of practice and you felt really good about him and this scheme. And it wasn't a short week here on a Thursday night. But that Packers defense, I don't think is great.

1:06:44I know they played a little bit better last week against the Jets. But I think it's kind of a gettable defense where I'm curious to see, can the Falcons show some signs of life? Because if they get blown out here and get embarrassed by that Packers team, like, you know, I was already talking about the Arch Manning thing in like August. So everybody's going to be talking about, all right, what do they do now? Is this a tank situation? Do they trade some of these vets who are unhappy? Is it time for a full reset? All that. So I think there are some narratives kind of on the line, depending on what happens this Thursday night.

1:07:16Sheil Kapadia:I'm glad you guys were very positive about this and somewhat talked me into this because I saw this on the schedule and we're coming off of a high, right? Where we had bills lions and we had 49ers Rams. And it's like, Oh, like this is like, this is like the classic, what Thursday night football games used to be where it's Falcons Packers. And then next week it's Steelers Browns. And it's like, Oh, we're going to start kind of getting some of these rougher games coming up now. But you've talked me into this. I feel like, yeah, it would be great if Michael Penix had more time to kind of prep for this one, but we're finally going to see him.

1:07:48Sheil Kapadia:And that's really like the last bit of hope. I think the Falcons have right now, because even last week, you know, the fun joke of like, let's give Jack strand a chance. And there was the fans in the stands with the Jack strand signs, like Cooper rushes in our guide to his injured. Let's see what this Jack strand folk hero has in him. And then we saw him was like, Oh, okay. Like that's enough of Jack strand. Thank you for coming. You've been very serviceable to this team. We'll continue to have your round practice squad, whatever but uh you're not going to be our answer here at qb we didn't find a diamond in the rough so yeah i mean it could be fun we can see what michael pennix has and we can see to your point the packers have been injured it should be a fun little game when otherwise it has no business being in you know might be might be a tune-up but we're gonna watch it and we're gonna enjoy

1:08:29Tom Pelissero:because you guys talked me into this one listen if the jets didn't kind of come apart at the end of that game and the packers escape new york with win this would feel like a really big game you would still have the Packers on a losing streak. They'd be 0-2 coming home and it would be like, oh my God, if they lose to the 0-2 Falcons, it's pandemonium in Green Bay. Think about what the Packers are dealing with right now. They just lost their right tackle, Zach Bacoboeli, to a torn patella tendon. So he's out for the season. Aaron Banks, who barely practiced all the camp, got hurt again. Don't know what his status is going to be for Thursday night.

1:09:04Tom Pelissero:So your offensive line, which has had moving parts and never practiced together in camp, is a series of moving parts now into the season. No Josh Jacobs when you need short yardage right now. And we'll see how that plays out in the coming weeks, but still not back for this game. The wide receivers are banged up. Jaden Reed just got back from a two-day hospital stay after the game. And defensively, you don't have your closer in Micah Parsons. Like, that's a lot to deal with. I think that, you know, coming home, it's the short week. Hennings hasn't had a lot of reps. I still think that this sets up well for the Packers, all right, to hold serve, be able to rest up, maybe get some people back at 2-1, know that Mike is going to come back week six, if not week five, and get better.

1:09:44Tom Pelissero:But they've really been battling a bunch of different stuff to this point in the season. We'll see lowest third down percentage in the league. I think they lead the league in highest third and percentage. In other words, the longest the teams have to coax. They're not doing anything on first or second down either. It's bad on a lot of fronts, but bad 1-1, way better than bad 0-2 and losing to the Jets. So we'll see what version of them come out when we get to Thursday night. We'll be back to talk about that game set up week three in bulk on this show on Friday. We've got the Ringer 107. We'll make some picks.

1:10:22Tom Pelissero:I think Shields got some type of segment cooking that he's going to deliver to us on Friday. We're going to keep having some fun. So appreciate you all being here. We'll see you on Friday for Chris, Sajuna, everybody behind the scenes. Billy and Sheil, I'm Tom Seeler.

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1:11:59Tom Pelissero:Every game day you show up for your team. Now it's your time. We go V. We go V.

1:12:10Sheil Kapadia:Ask your prescriber about We Go V.

1:12:13Tom Pelissero:Semaglutide Injection 2.4mg, a GLP-1. Call 1-833-4-WEGOV or visit wegovy.com to view the medication guide and to learn more about We Go V. Why wait? We go V. 6-7