Jaylen Waddle Trade, Plus NFL Comps for March Madness Teams!

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23:26All right, this Max Crosby story just keeps giving Ruiz, you know? Like, obviously, everyone had the initial reaction. Then you have the secondary reaction. And now Max Crosby, on his own podcast, gives his side of the story. The most interesting things I got from this, and you could tell me if you had anything else or just react to this. One is he did not meet with Jesse Minter or Eric DaCosta until after his physical. So how many times do we see the social media videos? New player comes in, everyone's greeting him in the parking lot, entrance to the building, dapping him up, giving him something.

24:07Everyone's all smiles, so excited. That did not happen here. Crosby said actually, quote in this via The Athletic. I didn't get to see the GM at all. I thought I was going to see him when I first got there. I didn't see him for five hours. I don't know why. I'm not going to speculate. I even asked, where's Eric? You know what I mean? He just made the trade. I didn't see him for five hours. Ruiz does that. What do you make of that? Because that to me was the juiciest part of the Max Crosby version of this story. First of all, I got to commend you on your voice acting there. That was well done. I'm available if anybody is an author in audiobooks.

24:52I've always wanted to do that. I thought that would be pretty fun. So yeah, thank you for that. Thanks for someone for noticing. Very good. But like, I think it just lends credence to the conspiracy theories. And then there was the other part of it where he flew to DC. They flew him into Reagan instead of BWI. BWI is right there. Yeah, it's just as big of a, you know, airport. But then he was like, well, we flew first class and it was the only direct flight in. But I was still thinking like maybe that's they were trying to delay the time to two extra hours. He said it took two hours to get there.

25:25So that which means he was going during rush hour because that's an hour drive tops. Yeah, Baltimore, D.C. So I if if you are subscribing to the conspiracy theory that they kind of figured out that they could get Hendrickson at a much cheaper deal and they didn't have to give up the first round picks. It all makes sense with the timeline. This was, I think, on Monday. The deadline for them to lock in the trade was just a couple days away. That's the thing. They didn't back out of a deal because the deal was never made official. They didn't really back out of anything. It was well within their rights to back out.

25:55And they took it. But I'm with Crosby here. I don't think this MRA is something they didn't expect. I don't think they found something that they didn't expect on it. You've got to take his surgeon with a grain of salt. but as Urgent has been saying, he's on track. He's going to return in time for off-season activities. I think the Ravens just came to their senses and they were like, we are spending a lot of draft capital. We are giving this guy a lot of money. He has been on the decline statistically. He's coming off a knee injury. And we have this guy who doesn't do everything he does, but he does 75 % of what Max Crosby does.

26:30We don't have to give up the first-round picks. We don't have to pay him as much as we would pay Crosby. I think that's what happened. and they got more information before the start of the new league year, and they made a decision. I honestly think in the long run it's going to work out for them. I know there's this talk and this blowback from agents and teams that are not going to want to deal with them anymore. Please. Like, this is the NFL. If a team wants a player they have or a draft pick they have, they're going to trade with them. We've seen this throughout the history. This isn't the first time a team has done something like this.

27:00This isn't the first time the Ravens have done like this, and their reputation hasn't really been tarnished by that. their dealings in the past. Michael Brockers, Ryan Grant, they backed out of those contracts. We haven't seen agents steer their teams away from them. Going back to 1997, Brock Marion was traded from the Cowboys to the Ravens. They back out of it after they find something in his shoulder. He plays seven more years and goes to three Pro Bowls in Miami. Clearly, there was no long-term risk there. And guess who was in that front office? Eric DaCosta working under Ozzie Newsome. So I think it's just their MO to this point, which, I don't know, does make you look at them differently.

27:32And I think this whole past year where last year didn't go as well as they wanted. Obviously, there was the hardball stuff, the Munkin stuff, and all the whispers about whether the team wanted him back and his relationship with the players and his relationship with Lamar Jackson. And I think it just reinforces my theory that Lamar Jackson has been covering up for a lot of incompetence for this franchise. And if you go back to the few years before Lamar Jackson got there, right after they signed that Joe Flacco deal, which I think a lot of people were like, that's a pretty bad deal at the time.

28:04He won the Super Bowl, but that wasn't great value for them. And they went downhill after that. So I'm losing faith in the Ravens' front office. And I think Lamar Jackson is the one reason why you have faith in them going forward. But even, it's going to be tough for him. If he doesn't have a great team around him, we've seen him struggle with injuries. So kind of stocked down on the Ravens right now. You know what? I love that it gives us a sort of villain aspect to the Ravens. Yeah, 100%. you know, because we don't have a great villain. I think in the NFL right now, you know, the Chiefs were down last year.

28:38The Patriots had previously been villains, but I feel like their run last year, no one could kind of get to that level with this new era. It wasn't like Belichick and Brady. It was so new and so different. So now when the Ravens play next year, if you're like a neutral fan, you're going to feel something. Now you might love watching Lamar Jackson and maybe that'll just, all right, who cares? I'm still rooting for him. But if you're a neutral fan, you're like these guys, man. Yeah. And it's not rational to your point. Like this is the NFL teams act in horrible ways and all the time and back out of stuff all the time.

29:11And there's stuff that we probably, you know, we certainly don't know about with some of the ways they operate is because it gets kept in house, but it doesn't have to be rational. Fandom is not rational. You sit down and watch a game and you feel some way about a team or a player. And it may be rational. It might not be rational. But now you have more reason to be like, oh, those guys, you know, they back. I can't believe what they did. They backed out of that Crosby deal. And I'm with you. I honestly don't know how anyone looks at this in any other way than what you described. You know, when it first happened, I was on the I was on the fence.

29:43I was leading towards what you said just now. But I was like, well, I guess there's a chance that, you know, there's something came up in the fiscal. Everything that's happened since then only reinforces the conspiracy theory. I don't even think it's a conspiracy theory. Only reinforces what you just laid out, which is the fact that they had a change of heart. They changed their mind. They had time to back out and they decided to back out. I mean, what, what Crosby is telling you what he thinks happened with the way he describes that, you know, when he's saying, I didn't see the GM for five hours when I was in the building.

30:18Again, watch some of these other social media clips when they sign a player, the coach and the GM, they're there. It's like a huge celebration. They make a big deal out of it. And to be like, well, let's go hide while he takes the physical means you were probably at least thinking about this while he took the physical. And then the physical turns up a certain type of way. Meanwhile, you're talking to Trey Hedrickson's agent. Price is coming down a little bit. He's not signing with somebody else. And you're saying, we don't have to do this. In many life situations, someone just says, we don't have to do this.

30:50I think somebody said in that room, whether it was DaCosta or someone else, we don't have to do this. And they were like, you're right. We don't. It'll get a little messy. It's okay. By the time September rolls around, we'll have Trey Hendrickson. We'll have our two first round picks. And you know what? If we win, who cares what people think of us? And DaCosta, I think he even said, he was asked about the conspiracy theories. He was like, I understand why people think that. I don't even think he shot them down strongly. I agree with that. Yeah, so it's a rough look for them either way. But I do think the move is the smarter move.

31:26Like, I would rather have Trey Hendrickson without giving up the first-round picks than I would Max Crosby. Totally. I think most people, yeah, I don't know if there would be consensus, but I think certainly, you know, if you polled whatever it was, NFL media types, GMs or whatever, I think you'd be at least around 75 %-ish, you know, and maybe much higher. It might be over 90 % if you're just saying this basket, Max Crosby, this basket, Trey Hendrickson, and two first-round picks. I think most people are going to choose that second basket. Yeah, I don't think the Ravens' problem is really run defense.

31:58That's the difference between Crosby and Hendrickson, is you're getting a three-down player versus a guy that's like a pass rusher. And the Ravens, they can stop the run without that. They haven't had this pass rush winner on the edge like Hendrickson or Crosby in a long time. So I think that was part of the calculus. The one thing I will shoot down, Eric DeCosta said we were planning on getting them both. Hell, that was not happening. Give me a break. I've seen Baltimore operate for the last decade plus, and they do not invest a lot in pass rush. And all of a sudden, this is the year, and they're signing two 30-year-olds with a lot of tread on their tires.

32:32No. No chance. That makes you question everything. That gives you, again, more reason to question everything else they're saying there as well. All right. Last news item we want to get to. We'll probably do more on this in the weeks ahead. But the union elects former president J.C. Tretter as its new executive director. And like you might forget this, but Pablo Torre, Kalen Kaler of ESPN, a lot of great reporting on what a total dumpster fire, disaster, whatever you want to describe it. Just the corruption involved with the NFLPA. LPA. Shredder at one point told CBS Sports, I think it was, that he had no interest in this position.

33:19That was just months ago he said that, and now he gets elected. So this is from Kalen Kaler says, the NFL has been searching for a permanent leader since July when then-executive director Lloyd Howell Jr. resigned following ESPN reporting that he had charged a pair of strip club visits to the union. ESPN also reported that he worked part-time for the Carlisle Group, a private equity firm that is seeking minority ownership in the NFL and NFL franchises, and that the union and league had struck a confidentiality agreement to keep an arbitrator's rulings about possible collusion by NFL owners from players.

34:02And that last thing, that confidentiality agreement. There was more reporting that Treader was very involved in that, although he denied it. So Ruiz, this is very in the weeds, but it's just one of those stories that everyone looks at it sideways and is like, how did this happen? And sort of the union representation continues to be a mess for these NFL players. Yeah, this has to be the worst players union in professional sports. I think definitely. They always lose. Every time they go to the negotiating table, they always lose. And this kind of speaks to why. And I think I don't want to blame the players because I think the NFL is very much rigged the game against the players.

34:45But I just don't think you have enough players paying attention. And you need players to be actively engaged in these topics. Like this guy sold you out. If you believe these reports that he was in on, like tamping down the collusion, not letting that get out. He sold you guys out and the players voted for this. Like it's, it's hard to wrap your head around that they had a choice and they did this, but they did vote for it. You have this guy who hasn't proven that he's competent. You have, he has shown that if it behooves him, he will, you know, take shortcuts. He won't do the job that he was elected to do.

35:18I wish I could draw a wider metaphor for this. I wonder if there's something going on in real life that I could draw a metaphor, but it's escaping me. I'm struggling right now. And, you know, Roderick Dell is, when Roderick Dell is putting out a press release saying, you know, we look forward to it. That's how you know. Yeah, you know, you're just looking, you kind of, this isn't supposed to be, this is supposed to be a combative relationship because you're supposed to be fighting for the players on their behalf, but they just haven't been able to sort of rally everyone to the seriousness of this and change is necessary.

35:52Now, not everyone's on board. The Athletic spoke to one player representative who wished to remain anonymous. And the player said, we have utterly failed the union and its members today by voting in J.C. Tretter as executive director. This felt like a backdoor deal from the beginning with some members of the executive committee. The NFLPA needs change in its leadership from top to bottom. We have not listened to our current and former members about concerns regarding JC. We have decided to fall back on friendship deals. So it's just like, this just happened. And to this player representative point, they haven't been able to mobilize and get the message out to enough players about like, this is a problem.

36:39This isn't what's best for us. and it ends up being that J.C. Tretter now gets this role. So this will continue to be a story. I'm sure it'll be talked about at the owners' meetings in a couple weeks there and really throughout the offseason and then into the next labor agreement, whether they're playing 18 games or every team has to play one international game or whatever else is coming down the pipeline. It doesn't look like the players as currently constructed are kind of equipped here to battle the NFL, the owners on some of these things. So this will be a continuing story, but just wanted to mention it there briefly.

37:19All right, we're taking one more break. Then we're coming back. It's time to get to the March Madness Cops for these NFL teams. All right, we're back here on the Ringer NFL show. The main event, now Ruiz is writing about men's hoops for us. So this is the men's bracket. Ruiz, you'll be writing throughout the NCAA tournament. Is that correct? Yeah, I'm going to be doing winners and losers. I got another thing coming that's separate from that. But yeah, I'm going to be writing for the next month. He's got a piece up there right now. I'm looking at it breaking down the 2026 men's NCAA tournament bracket.

37:54I like this. This is like a ringer thing. You have your main thing is the NFL, and then you kind of get to pick a side thing. Like my side thing is like, oh, I'm going to go on a Philly special with Anthony DeBundo and talk about the Phillies for an hour and a half. Let's go do that. You've got college hoops here. I have not watched much college hoops at all this season. It sounds like it's been a very entertaining season. It sounds like we're set up to have a pretty entertaining NCAA men's tournament. And you are going to educate me, educate the audience by comparing some of these teams to NFL teams.

38:26So go ahead. Give us one. Where are we starting? Let's start with Michigan because that's the team that's kind of been dominant the whole year. It's the team that's been favored to win the championship the whole year until very recently. And I wanted to pick them because my comp for them is the Seattle Seahawks. This is a team with personnel on defense that allows them to do basically whatever they want. And they can get real tricky. They can get real simple. But whenever they do it, they do it at a high level because of their defensive personnel. But the offense has kind of taken a dive over the last...

38:56I mean, they still win in games, but the offense hasn't been what it was. And turnovers are the real issue. And if they turn the ball over in the tournament, I think they're going to go out maybe in the Sweet 16, around that range. If they don't turn the ball over, I think they're going to pull the Seahawks and just kind of trounce through the field and win not the Super Bowl, cut down the nets. I mean, what a start. That's beautiful. We're starting with the Super Bowl champs. Okay, so blistering defense, high ceiling, like you said. Are they the favorites? I know they're among the favorites. I'm pretty sure Duke is the favorite.

39:30Maybe Arizona is the favorite now. I haven't checked the actual betting odds, but just based on the discourse, I would say Arizona's definitely the favorite to be picked, and then I would put Duke ahead of them right now if Duke gets healthy. But this team is fun to watch. They're my pick to... I'm picking them to get to the finals, but they have this center, this seven-foot center, and I guess the best comp for him is... Nicky Minori? Maybe, but now that I'm thinking about it, maybe not. Maybe it's DeMarcus Lawrence, but this guy is awesome. His name is Ade Mara. He used to play for UCLA. He's a transfer first year.

40:04Seven feet tall, legit seven feet. Seven foot seven wingspan. And they just kind of let him patrol the paint and then they switch everything else and then they got these big guys up front. Yaxel Lindenberg is good on both ends. He can handle the ball. He can guard point guards, one through four. So they switch everything else and they have this one guy in the middle that just kind of dominates the paint and you can't score on them around the basket. They did have an injury. LJ Kaysen got injured and there's not really a comp for him. I would say he's the Rashid Shahid of the team, but Rashid Shahid obviously played in the playoffs.

40:33But without him, that's when their offense has kind of had to make an adjustment. We've seen the turnover, the turnovers. The guard play isn't really what you would expect from a national title contender, but their front line is one of the best. So I'm going with Michigan because I think we have the same question marks about the Seahawks heading into the playoffs. Can they, how are they, can they shoot? How are they? Are they a three-point shooting team or middle of the pack or great? Because I'm thinking about that, Like the explosive plays from the Seahawks. They're very explosive. Okay. They go on a lot of 10-0 runs.

41:03They go on a lot of runs. That's what I'll say. Okay. I think 10-0 runs, people call them kill shots. The nerds, the college basketball nerds. Oh, see, I've never even heard that. It's a new one. Okay. It's been a big thing the last couple of years. It's like if you go on a 10-0 run, like your winning percentage is like way up or something. I forget what it is, but they go on a lot of those. So, no, that's not the problem. The problem is like when they don't get the shots up because they're turning the ball over. And part of that is because they play so fast. as part of their playing style. But it's a fun team to watch.

41:29And I just want to say this. I know a lot of people don't watch. Well, actually, college basketball ratings are up, but I think that's a lot of degenerates who are betting on, you know, they have new things to bet on. But the product is better than ever. I know a lot of people complain about it and they complain about NIL and all that. Look at the stats. Like, they're up to like around 2018 NBA levels of offensive efficiency. They're not jacking up threes at nearly the same rate. Like, you see the NBA, like the three-point attempt rate is spiking. It's not like that. So you get a little variety in how they play.

41:59Teams have different styles. For me, it's one of the best sports. The regular season is a better product than the NBA regular season. Okay. I'm looking forward to it. I can't wait for these games to start. All right. What a great one to start on. So if you like the Seahawks, if you like blistering defense, can score. Explosive offense. They might have that game where they're turning it over, and now all of a sudden you're biting your nails, and they're getting knocked out in the Sweet 16. But you know what? Every team has a flaw. The Seahawks had that flaw and they didn't turn it over on their entire run.

42:29Right. To the, to the, uh, turnovers. Yeah. So maybe Michigan will do the same. It looks like Arizona's the favorite Michigan is second and Duke is third, but those three teams are bunched here at the top for the national championship. All right. That was a fantastic start. All right. What do we got? Who's next? I'll go with Duke next. I'm going to go with the Rams here and I'm going to, I'm going to put Cameron Boozer in the Matthew Stafford role. That's where the comp largely derives from. Because Cameron Boozer, I'm not exaggerating when I say that. It's going to sound like a hot take. It's going to sound like hyperbole.

43:04I think he's one of the best passers ever in basketball already. Wow. Like ever. I'm saying NBA. I've never seen anything like this where I almost gave him a Herbert comp because he's kind of got that robot thing where in an instant, if something happens, he makes the decision instantly. If you send a double team at him, and you have to send a double team because he's so good on the block, he passes it before that defender even gets anywhere near him, and he can either lob it up to his big man, and he throws a lot of alley-oops to his fellow big man. He's a power forward. He brings the ball down and runs the break.

43:40It's amazing to watch. He swings the ball. He passes out, skip passes, from one block to the other side and the other corner. I've never seen a player make it like him. I'm not exaggerating there's Nikola Jokic in terms of passing big men and I would put him second in basketball right now he's that good and I just, I saw that with Matthew Stafford, like his ability to just make passes all over the field really opened up that offense and that's why I'm making the comp but there is another layer to this where they lost their center, he's kind of been hurt Patrick Gongba a really good rim protector, when he's out there their defense is a lot better, but when he's not out there They have size issues that you could really pick on.

44:19And I thought we saw that with the Rams, especially with their secondary when they went up against bigger receivers who could win at the catch point. So I think there are questions about their defense because they lost their point guard, Caleb Foster. That's something they can kind of manage because they have Cameron Boozer's younger brother, a freshman, was a number 15 recruit in the nation. He's pretty good, so he can replace Foster, but they don't have a replacement for that center. You know, this is why I love doing this because the Cam Boozer, because I thought Stafford, The thing Stafford brings to the table that I think maybe more so than any other quarterback in the NFL right now is the problem solving.

44:54You know, it's like, who do you trust the most against an elite defense last year? I think the answer was Matthew Stafford. Like when you see how the Rams performed against the Seahawks versus how literally like every other team performed against the Seahawks defense. It was night and day. They didn't lose that game because, you know, Stafford couldn't figure it out. Stafford can figure it out. these great defensive coordinators that we talk about, you know, that give great quarterbacks problems. He is able, like, that doesn't really apply to the Stafford-McFay. And I'll put McVay in the Stafford-McFay partnership.

45:26Like, they're going to figure it out over the course of a game. And you're telling me Cam Booser's going to be able to figure it out over the course of a game as well. Yes, and Duke and Michigan played like a month ago, like in a non-conference game. It was really random. They played in Washington, D.C. And it was a great game. It was like a great game to watch. Cameron Boozer was the best player on the court and Duke upset Michigan and that's where you started to have the conversation oh is Michigan really the best team anymore so I think we kind of saw that with the Seahawks and the Rams but yeah Cameron Boozer like you said he can solve any problem because they can kind of put him into any situation he can be the ball handler on a pick and roll he can be the roll man on the pick and roll like I said he can bring the ball up he can guard mostly any position he's just such a dynamic player so fun to watch he's not going to be the first overall pick because I do think the questions about his athleticism which apply to Matthew Stafford as well, are going to hold him back in that regard.

46:17But that's another thing I'm going to say. There are a lot of PSAs here. One, watch college basketball. Great product. Number two, this idea that NIL and AAU and the players aren't trained right, they're not brought up right anymore. That's bullshit, man. Watch this freshman class. They all play the right way. Cameron Boozer makes every... He's not selfish at all. AJ DeBanza, who we'll get into later, I'll save that for their comp. great player, plays hard on both ends. Even Darren Peterson and other, and then Cooper Flagg last year was just like the ultimate do-it-all player. So that's a bunch of nonsense.

46:51And I also make him a sport. Don't forget my boy Vijay. Vijay, he was the only person on that team. He does everything the right way. And if you watched Baylor last year, he was the only player on that team that tried. So it was like kind of, it was hard to watch him play in that situation. You saw it at the draft when he was crying. He was like, I'm going to take advantage of this. I'm going to, you know, I've been working hard. And he really believed it. Like that's what this freshman class and these young basketball players look like. I'm tired of the people shitting on them. All right. I love it.

47:17See, this is this again. When you do one thing for most of your job, but then you get this little side thing, the passion and the teams come out. Yeah. And that's what we're seeing now from Ruiz. All right. What do we got? Who's next? Let's go with trying to think of it. Let's go with the since we were talking about the Ravens earlier. Let's and I brought up Darren Peterson. Let's bring up their comp. I'm going to go Kansas to the Ravens. I don't know if you were following the Darren Peterson storyline at all. Play, doesn't play, don't know when he plays, don't know why he doesn't play. Is it legit?

47:48Is it not legit yet? He's probably going to be the number one overall pick, right? That's kind of the cliff notes. Yeah, and I think he's kind of gotten typecast as this poster child of NIL and what could go wrong because of that. It seems like he's kind of doing a load management thing and he's not trying to tank his stock. I don't buy that at all. When you watch him play, he plays really hard. He plays on both ends. He plays defense well. like the Kobe comps is what he's getting. And they're spot on. I know I'm prone to hyperbole, but this freshman class is really good. But he doesn't miss when he's wide open.

48:16I haven't checked it in two weeks, but when he is taking a contested three-pointer, a catch and shoot, he was shooting like his effective field goal percentage, which weights three-pointers more than two-pointers. So you can go over a hundred. His effective field goal percentage was 105, like a couple of weeks ago on contested threes alone. It was like 90 on uncontested threes. So this guy can really shoot. And the thought was like, oh, if he plays and he's ready for March, this is going to be a national title contender. This is going to be one of the best teams. When he didn't play, it was like, oh, they might win a game in the tournament, but that's it.

48:51He's kind of come back. He's healthy there now. And I think that we've realized, oh, this team isn't as good as we thought, even with them back. That's where the Ravens comp comes in. He's obviously the Lamar Jackson part of this, where we're like, if they can just get to the playoffs and get Lamar back, They could do something in the AFC because the AFC is down, but I don't think that. I don't trust them at all. I wouldn't put them past St. John's in that second round of the bracket. All right, so you're in on Peterson, but you're not in on Kansas as it seems. You think he's got to carry a heavy load.

49:22He can do that. He can have moments, but it's ultimately not going to matter because the supporting cast, the infrastructure there is not good. The supporting cast isn't that bad, but yeah, I think they've really hurt not having him on the court and having that chemistry. It's like two different teams. And Bill Self talked about it. He's like, sometimes I have to have this team when Peterson doesn't play, and I have to have this team. And I think you can draw a comparison between Self and John Harbaugh where Self is kind of like two years ago Harbaugh, where you're like, oh, he's still a very good coach.

49:52But it's kind of declining with him. There's some signs. Okay, yeah. They're plus 10 ,000 to win the national championship. so it looks like a lot of people agree with you there. This is great. I'm going to crush it. I might win my bracket this year. Who's next? Let's go to BYU since I brought that up. I'm going to make them the Patriots because of the DeBonza thing. He's Drake May in this situation. Obviously, they went the opposite way with the schedule. They played a very hard schedule, which I think makes them look worse than they actually are. They also had this injury. I think it was a couple weeks ago.

50:27Richie Saunders was probably their second best player, second best scorer, definitely. Maybe their third best player. But DeBonza is Drake May to me because there is just nothing this guy can't do and it looks so easy at times that I think he's kind of a little underrated and I think Drake May was a little underrated for some things just because he was busted into this MVP conversation. I know they hadn't really played anyone that he has this bad, terrible postseason. I would not be surprised if AJ DeBonza has a disappointing postseason because there's so much riding on him now that Richie Saunders is out that he's going to have to do a lot and there's going to be a lot on his plate.

51:03I think defense are going to come after him. I wouldn't be surprised if he falters, but that shouldn't take away from what has been a brilliant regular season campaign. DeBonza, I mean, he's 6 '9". He can get to anywhere on the court that he wants. He can pull up. He's really good around the free throw line. When you watch him, you're going to see him just cook around the free throw line, but he passes and he plays defense and he really tries and he's really smart. I think I think the hype kind of overshadows that. The physical talent kind of overshadows that. And I think that's true with Drake May.

51:34He's not just like this physical freak. There's actual intelligence under there in terms of football slash basketball intelligence. All right, so you're all in on him, but you don't think they're going to have a great run. And if they lose and people are ripping him, you're going to be defending him, saying, everyone settle down, look at this situation. Is there Josh McDaniels in the knowledge? Probably not. That I can just rip in this situation? Probably not. Look at Coach Kevin Young. Yeah, you could call him the Josh McDaniels. But that's like the other part of it is like, nobody wants to root for BYU.

52:07No one wanted to root for the Patriots. But these guys are so cool that you kind of begrudgingly want to watch them. Yeah, that is true. Like I said earlier, Patriots weren't real big villains because no one's like, oh, I hate Drake May. You know, this guy's so annoying. No one was saying that about Drake May. All right, that's BYU. All right, who do we got? Who's next? I'm going to go Florida, and I'm going to make the comp. This is probably a lazy comp, but it does make some sense. I'm going to go with the Philadelphia Eagles. Obviously, both teams were defending champions this season. And Philadelphia, I feel like it just didn't feel the same.

52:41Like, a lot of the major pieces were the same, but it just didn't feel the same. And the one missing thing was, kind of the thing that powered them, was Saquon Barkley's explosive runs. And for Florida last year, especially during that tournament run, it was Walter Clayton just making ridiculous threes. and then making threes. This year, they couldn't shoot threes until like a month ago. For like a 10-game stretch, they shot like 40 % from three. But before that, they were literally one of the worst three-point shooting teams in the country. And they lost that thing that really made them special.

53:09So while it feels like they're in position to win again, there's just something off. And I just don't trust them to go all the way this year because of it. That always makes me nervous, the tournament team that can't shoot because it's just like over the stretch of this thing, you know, it just feels like Even if you have great athletes and you play great defense, that that is going to bite you at some point here and that you're not able to withstand that. So that's good intel because they're plus 750 here to win the national championship. But now as I look at my bracket, the way you're mentioning that, I didn't trust the Eagles at various times this season.

53:44And Florida looks like a team maybe I'm going to have to pick to have a little upset here because they can't shoot like Ruiz said. Listen, Ruiz has a lot of these. So if you're wondering, man, Shields just throw a saying, get to the next one. That's because he's got a lot of these and I want to get to as many as we can. So, all right, Ruiz, what's the next team? What do you got? I'm going to go with Illinois and the Chicago Bears, which is another one that seems very easy. And they, you know, they're from the same state. They wear the same colors, but bear with me here. Okay. This is a very great offense, like a very good offense.

54:14At one point this year, they were tracking to be the best offense ever in Ken Palm history, or in the Ken Palm era, which goes back to 1997, I believe. They kind of fell off at the end and Purdue got them. But I'm going with Keaton Wagler. He's the point guard, probably going to be a lottery pick. He's the Caleb Williams where, I mean, he's good at a lot of things, but he's really good when you just kind of isolate him and let him cook behind the three-point line. A lot of what they were doing early on before they started struggling was teams would switch against them because they have these two big seven-footers.

54:45They're brothers and they both can hit threes and they're both legit seven-footers. So teams would, at first, they would try to play drop coverage where the big man would drop off so the guy could pick and pop and be wide open. He'd hit the threes. They started adjusting to that. They started switching it. So this Keaton Wagler guy, he's like a point guard, kept getting matchups with these big centers and he would just dust them, do a step back three, hit a three in their face. The Purdue game from earlier this year just cooked them like that, which I think Caleb Williams, just let him cook. He's not like a guy that's going to get his offense or his production in the rhythm of the offense, but he's going to get it out of structure and he's going to take advantage of his athleticism against bigger guys, against pass rushers.

55:27And then Brad Underwood, who's the coach, is the Ben Johnson. He's just been a great offensive line for as long as I've been covering the sport. And then of the two seven-footers I mentioned, I think those are the two tight ends where if you don't adjust to them, and that's Loveland and Cole Komet, and if you match them, then you create problems. If you don't match them, you create other problems. so this is an offense it's very dynamic but I have no trust in their defense and they kind of went the opposite way of the Bears where they lost a lot of close games rather than winning those close games alright so if we see the coach ripping his shirt off after you know he won't do that he won't do that but I got another layer to this I forgot about this Chicago is apparently like a cultural hub for like Serbians Bosnians people from like the Balkans and this was like a big deal for Illinois like the transfer portal It's all those guys.

56:17Oh, they got a bunch of European guys. I mentioned the two brothers, the Visich brothers.

56:25I'm forgetting the one guy's name, but they also have Pajos Storjaka, which is his son, coming off the bench. He's been starting, but he's pretty good. He's pretty damn good. He's not his dad. Can't shoot like him, but he can get to the basket. They have a lot of good pieces. Like this is the, on paper, it's the best offense in the bracket, and I am picking them to go to the Final Four. Yeah, that got me pretty excited. when you said great offensive mind, great lead player. Now they are taking on the Penn Quakers here in the first round who are creating some buzz locally. They're pretty good. They have Fran McCaffrey, who was the Iowa coach.

56:58But I see Jay Power, the five-star Duke transfer who had, what, 44 in the Ivy Finals. So that seems like a fun little game, Penn. It is a fun game. Illinois just has so much firepower that it's going to be tough. It's a bad matchup for Penn. But I'm excited to watch Illinois. I think they're really good. I like that one. What do you got? Who's next? Let's go with Texas Tech. I'm going to comp them to the Indianapolis Colts where about midway through the season you were like, this team could... I didn't know if they could make a deep run. They made a deep run last year, but then they lose their best player.

57:37Indianapolis didn't lose their best player, but they lost their most important player and their quarterback. It just hasn't felt right since then. You can look at their resume and look at their seating. And I think they're a little overseeded. They still have a great, great player in Christian Anderson who can take over games. Just like that prototypical March guard who's kind of undersized but can hit pull-up threes. But they're really undersized now without Toppin. Without him, it's just not the same. So I would fade them if I was you in your brackets. See, again, you know me well. I've just been ripping the poor Colts.

58:07You know, Colts fans just are very upset with me this entire offseason. I'm just ripping them. What are they doing? How could they do this? They mismanaged this situation. And now you're telling me Texas Tech is the comp. I feel like, yeah, just out of principle, I'm going to have to pick them to lose early or I'm going to feel like a fraud here. Now, I'm looking at the favorites here, Ruiz. And there's one, the actual favorite of the tournament, I don't think you've had a comp for yet. And that's Arizona. Arizona, okay. At plus 370. I don't know if they were on your radar with the national comp.

58:39Okay, okay. But I know from last year that you could just do this on the fly. This is in your wheelhouse, but I feel like we can't leave and we can get to a couple more, but we can't leave without getting to Arizona. Arizona was my toughest one to come up with because you only have the teams you have in the NFL. It was really tough, but then I thought I can go back into other seasons. You remember, and they are the Eagles from the season before that. The championship winning Eagles, because I think Arizona is going to be very good. and what was the big question mark with the Eagles? Can a team in 2024, 2025 win without a pass first off?

59:14Like an offense that you can hang your hat on the pass game. They don't like to do it a lot. And that's the question with Arizona with three-point shooting. Now, Arizona's good at three-point shooting, but they don't shoot a lot of threes at all. But they kind of get it done old school style. They have two bigs and they play through the post. They play good defense too. And I think that when it comes time, they're going and they're going to have to shoot a lot of threes in a game. I think they're going to be able to make them. Like we saw Jalen Hurts kind of come through in those last two games of that season.

59:43I think that they are the most well-rounded team. And I'm picking Michigan, but I would not be surprised if Arizona wins. That would be my second pick. So is that a bad coaching job if they're good at shooting threes, but don't shoot a lot of threes or they just do other stuff well? So it's like they haven't had the need to do it. they just haven't had the need to do it. I just think their coach, Tommy Lloyd, comes from Gonzaga. They've underachieved in the NCAA tournament, so there are question marks there about him. But they run a good system. I think they run a system that a lot of teams copy.

1:00:16So I would say it's not bad coaching. But there is question marks about Tommy Lloyd just because of the lack of success. They got upset a couple years ago when they were two-seed by Princeton the first round. So I don't know if they... I'm not sure if they've been past the Sweet 16 under him. He's only been there for three or four years. It's so funny when you say a team and then the way our minds work, I'm just thinking of players from tournament. I'm like, oh man, in my, as you were talking, I'm just like, man, Mike Bibby, that Mike Bibby, Miles Simon team. And Mike Bibby was awesome on that team.

1:00:45All right. I think we got time for a couple more, Ruiz. So I'll let you pick because we got to the big ones. You got Duke, Arizona, Michigan, Florida. There is one I'm, you know, somewhat curious about. Hit me with him. Who is it? I am curious about UConn just because Hurley, you know, they are a high profile team. I know maybe not quite as good as they've been in years past, but, you know, I always look at the coaches and I'm like, hmm, that guy's pretty special. All right, where are we with UConn? I was going to do the Dan Hurley, Nick Sirianni comp just because they're kind of, you know, but no, I'm not doing that.

1:01:21I think Hurley would take offense. No, I would take offense to that. I'm a big Hurley guy. I love Hurley. But that was the only reason. But no, it's an easy comp. It's very easy, and it may seem lazy, but I think it's a good one. It's the Chiefs. They're the Chiefs. Obviously, the Chiefs didn't make the playoffs. UConn's a 2C. That's the big difference. But we've seen this team be dominant in the past. But it's just not the same. And the big difference is UConn can't be relied on to hit threes. Their defense was a problem last year, but they got it back. That's not really synonymous with what the Chiefs did this year.

1:01:51But the offense is still designed well. You still have Andy Reid. You still have Patrick Mahomes. and you still have Dan Hurley, but they can't hit the long ball and the Chiefs couldn't hit the long ball. And I think that makes it easier to defend everything else. And don't trust this UConn team because that would be another piece of advice. And I've always been at UConn. Like I picked them both times they won. I was really championing them. I thought they were the greatest team ever two years ago. I picked them as a three seed to win it all four years ago, but I'm off this train this year. That's tough.

1:02:24When you can't hit threes, when you can't create explosives, the margin for error just shrinks. So, all right. He talked me out of picking UConn. All right. So what's your final four, Ruiz? Let's get your picks on the record here before we say goodbye. What's your final four? What's your championship game? And who are you picking to win it all? I'm going Duke, Illinois, Arizona, and Michigan. So that's three ones in a three seed. Okay. I've gone back and forth. I haven't locked it in yet. Oh, you don't have the official yet. All right. But the Michigan-Arizona game, whoever wins that game is going to win the championship.

1:03:02But I'm going to go Duke over Illinois. And then since I picked Michigan earlier, I'm going to stick with Michigan. But Arizona is right there for me. I might change my mind. You might flip eventually. Okay. All right. I like that. Well, we are, as we record this, what, about 16 hours away from tip-off for the NCAA men's tournament. Let me throw in one more comp. Yeah, please. Listen, you did the work. I don't want to... if you've got to get some up. Go ahead. I had the Cameron Boozer, Matthew Stafford thing, but I have another comp from Matthew Stafford in general. I just really want to implore everyone to watch this game.

1:03:33Watch the St. Louis-Georgia game. Robbie Avila, he's the center for St. Louis. I'm trying to be nice here. It's like if Peter Griffin played college basketball, looks wise. Like, it is not a guy you would expect to be as good at basketball as he is. It's like Adam Sandler. You ever see the clips of Adam Sandler playing basketball? Of course. That's how he plays. He's a center who does trick passes, and he's the hub of his team. He runs the offense. It's very Matthew Stafford-esque, where you're like, this guy should not be physically dominating this sport that's dominated by athletes. But he does, and it's just fun to watch St.

1:04:10Louis. Watch that game against Georgia. It's going to be high scoring. And Robbie Avila, man, star of the tournament. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is what they call him. You know what? I have seen that, actually. Now I remember Kareem Abdul-Jabbar that was sent to me. I didn't know who he was. I didn't know what he did. We've been waiting two years for him to get in the tournament and he finally made it in this year. So finally. St. Louis. Let's go. Let's watch the Billikens, right? The Billikens, yeah. The Billikens, there you go. We'll watch the St. Louis Billikens. All right, his name is Steven Ruiz.

1:04:41Just, you know, talk about just letting a guy cook for an entire podcast where I can just sit back and listen to his comps with these March Madness teams, with NFL teams. This is a tradition. I mean, as long as we're working together, We got to do this every single year. Check out his work on TheRinger.com, both NFL and college hoops over the next month here. I thank you to Ruiz. Thank you to Christopher Sutton for producing. Thank you to Stefano Sanchez for video and additional production supervision by Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopal. I'm Shio Kapadia. We will talk to you next time on The Ringer NFL Show.

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