NFLPA Drama, Preseason Watchability Draft, and More

21:35Steven Ruiz:I'm hoping Dominic Foxworth, you know, he's been on ESPN. He has, you know, experience leading the Players Association on the player side. But I thought he made the best point about this. And he was saying, like, this was embarrassing for the players. But I think that is almost a good thing. Like, I feel sorry for the players. But I do think the embarrassment of all this coming out may lead to them being more engaged and being more on top of these issues. We have Patrick Mahomes. He was on the Zoom call with player representatives saying, like, we need to get the leadership thing right. I think they're embarrassed by this.

22:06Steven Ruiz:I think they're embarrassed that this kind of exposes how out of tune they were with what was going on behind the scenes and how they were kind of taken advantage of. I feel like there's a clear pattern of obfuscation of just not being clear to the players on what was actually going on. And that has to change. And I'm hoping like a guy like Foxworth, who obviously was on the player side and, you know, can empathize with the players and wants what's best for a player, can kind of make the changes that are necessary. Because this, it can't be what it was last, in the last iteration of it. One thousand percent.

22:35Steven Ruiz:All right. Before we get into other news and notes around the league, we're going to take a break and then we're going to come back and talk about TJ Watts extension, among other things. 100 free events 6 ,000 kids One mission Clinic Kids is using sports and evidence-based Wellness coaching to help kids build Confidence, resilience And the tools they need for life's challenges And opportunities Up through August 2026 They're running 100 free sessions for school And community-based organizations near you Learn more at ClinicKids.com That's Clinic with a K Clinic Kids is registered by by 1C3 Nonprofit it.

23:13Steven Ruiz:All right. Welcome back. TJ Watt last week signed an extension for three years, 123 million, 108 million guaranteed. That's 41 million per year, which is the biggest non-quarterback deal of the off season. Before we kind of talk about the implications for the other pass rushers who are looking to get paid, what are your thoughts on this deal? Good deal for the Steelers. Good deal for Watt. Who won the deal here? I think TJ Watt wins the deal, right? Because you get three years and I think it's like 88 % of that contract is guaranteed, right? If you do the math on it, that's great for TJ Watt. It allows him to have a spot where he knows he's going to retire probably at the end of this deal.

23:47And you have that all worked out. I think also for the Steelers, this is not the most punitive thing for their cap, right? Because if you look at what their books are after 2025, it's relatively clear. Like Jalen Ramsey, prior to this contract, Jalen Ramsey would have been the only long-term money they still had tied to guys after moving on from Mika Fitzpatrick with all the players they have on rookie deals. This is actually a relatively young team when you look at contract timelines outside of guys like Watt and Ramsey. So it makes sense, right? Like pay the guy, right? There's no reason. And if you weren't going to pay him, then you may as well trade him and then really signal very clearly, hey, if you're not down to just kind of ride out the end of your deal, then we'll move on for you.

24:27And we'll just try to do what we can with 2025. I'm not mad at it. I think that we'll probably have to have some conversations about the Steelers throughout the season. Unfortunately, because of where their position every week now feels like it's going to be a reflection on every decision that they have made in acquiring talent and the talent that's left and what their timeline is going to be over not just this season, but the next two to three years. But as far as this contract alone, I think that everybody should walk away from the table happy because Watt has been a big time producer for them, even if he's not that defensive player of the year candidate guy that he was, I would say between like 2018 and 2021.

25:02Steven Ruiz:Not only will the team direction be a weekly conversation, it will be discussed on the Pat McAfee show every Tuesday afternoon by the quarterback, which is going to be very interesting to watch. I feel like indirectly the big winner here is the Raiders, who got Max Crosby for$35 million per year. I would take Max Crosby. Yeah, I know there's a debate to be had between Crosby and Watt and the impact plays that Watt makes, but I feel like there's been separation between those two over the last couple of years. And Crosby is just one of the best defenders, one of the most disruptive defenders, every down defender in the NFL.

25:33Steven Ruiz:Another disruptive force on the defensive line is Micah Parsons, who is still looking for a deal. The latest update from Parsons, at least, is that his agent tried to call the Cowboys, isn't getting any responses from Jerry and company. and then Jerry had a very interesting press conference this week. It's interesting in the fact that he was willing to say these things, but I guess it wasn't surprising because this is what Jerry does. But Jerry pointed out that one of the hangups with signing Michael Parsons and why you don't just pay him whatever he wants, even though it should be one of those deals where you're like, yeah, you just pay the guy whatever he wants, like the Steelers did with Watt, is that Michael Parsons missed six games.

26:08Steven Ruiz:And I'm putting that in square quotes because he actually missed four games last year. And he was like, the guy might not be available. So like, why would we pay him? Which is a concern with every football player who has ever signed a contract in the history of the NFL. But we had JJ Watt tweet about that and kind of point out, this guy's like fighting for you every week and you're going to kind of hold it against him that he got hurt doing that. Like, why would you do that? Why would you alienate the player? And then Michael Parsons retweeted that. So I feel like we're not in a good spot. I do think this deal ultimately gets done, but there is some turmoil here.

26:41Steven Ruiz:And I feel like this is just another example of Jerry Jones nonsense where he overcomplicates something that doesn't need to be complicated. Like there is no complication about paying Michael Parsons. He's the best player on your team. One of the best defenders in the NFL. Just pay him market value before that market value goes up. Like you're going to get to a point like you did with Dak Preston where you're paying him more than Miles Garrett is like significantly more than Miles Garrett is making significantly more than TJ Watt is making. And for what? For what? just so you can portray yourself as this shrewd businessman who doesn't take...

27:14Steven Ruiz:He's going to be a hardball negotiator, but it always blows back in his face. It's never worked out. It's never worked out. Ezekiel Elliott got the better of their negotiations. Dak Prescott got the better of their negotiations. An overweight Zeke Elliott, as I always point out. This was not Zeke, the best running back in the NFL. This was like Zeke where we were questioning what his shelf life was going forward. Exactly. And now maybe a guy that's more talented that both of those players are at their respect in their respective peaks is looking for a deal even Trevon Diggs right like I think that the Trevon Diggs might be the most Cowboys friendly deal of the ones that I've listed but even his for a guy who has had health issues got a relatively hefty at the time you know amount of guarantees and annual value so I think that like you said this deal will ultimately get done I think that Jerry Jones likes all the bluster I do appreciate from Michael Parsons perspective and this is where it really gets funny that he's not afraid to do this publicly either.

28:09Not at all. Right. So the fact that he was able to kind of have this kind of impromptu, you know, gathering with media and he kind of got to speak on what the contract situation is and revealed that like, Hey, you know, my agent, David Malagueta has been trying to reach out to the Cowboys. The Cowboys don't want to speak to him. They only want to speak with me. Very funny. Also the Jerry Jones thinks that right now is the time that you can have this pissing contest with David Malagueta of all agents. I don't know if that's going to work out for you. And I'm just waiting for the update. Like you said, at some point now, between now and September, we're going to get that update that he's going to get this four or five year deal, you know, that's going to pay him 42, 43 million per year.

28:45It's going to be like 90 % guaranteed. It's going to be like Dak Prescott, where you've got this basically like no trade clause. I can never be franchise tag. Like Maliketa is going to rake you over the coals for this just so that way you can come out and say, see, I've got this really expensive, shiny edge rusher that I'm paying at the top of the market. This is what it means to be a cowboy. And we would have wasted all this time up to that point because you could just get the deal done now.

29:10Steven Ruiz:I remember last year I wrote a story about Dak Prescott and the negotiations and like the history of Jerry Jones negotiating with star players. I spent a lot of time writing about this and this was like a couple of days before the season, I think. But like you said, like you just laid out, Dak Prescott signs like a couple of days before the season and gets all the money he wanted and maybe even more money. Uh, that's how it's going to work out. And then we have another owner talking about a star pass rusher who wants some money. And that's Mike Brown. The Bengals owner came out talking about Trey Hendrickson, who did not show up to Bengals camp.

29:40Steven Ruiz:The Bengals reported this week, but Trey Hendrickson was in North Florida. And he was basically saying that, I think the deal is going to get done. It's just a matter of time. But now that TJ Watts been signed and he's been signed for 41 million and we saw Miles Garrett get signed, we saw these pass rushers are making a lot of money right now. And I don't know if the deal is going to get done necessarily. We had a man-sized hair who is on good morning football, who also played with Hendrick Hendrickson in new Orleans, apparently talked to Hendrickson and he, and Hendrickson said the deal, the offer was egregiously low, like extremely low, which I like reading the tea leaves.

30:18Steven Ruiz:I'm assuming like it's somewhere in the 20 millions, maybe which is about 15 million below market value at this point, after all these guys signed. So I'm wondering, what do you think? How do you think this deal is going to play out? And if you were the Bengals, would you jump at the chance to sign Trey Hendrickson at a top of the market deal? Or would you continue to play hardball like they are? I mean, to me, if I'm the Bengals, if you've walked it out this far, you can't bend now. You can't bend now, right? And if I'm Trey Hendrickson, and I've tweeted about it, obviously I've written about it with training camp storylines and the whole deal.

30:50But I already did my solid for this organization. Yes. I basically, I played on a prove it deal basically for the last two years, not just last season. I played without guaranteed money for basically the last two years. It was just my game checks. And not only did I play, I produced, at least on sack production alone, as well or better than everybody else in the NFL. Now, does that make him the best edge rusher? No. Like, right, a lot of this is kind of him just tearing off up the field. He's stopping the run, quote unquote, on the way to the quarterback, right? Like, definitely not the best edge setter in the league.

31:23But he's getting after the QB and he produced at a high level. and he's basically the only cornerstone player left from those early runs with the Bengals from that 2021 team that got from the defense right on the defensive end I should say so yeah if I'm Trey Hendrickson I've played nice with you guys on the assumption that you would make do on the back end and now as the Bengals this is what happens when you ask guys to play on prove-it deals after two years of putting together 35 combined sacks you gotta pay me you gotta pay me like a guy who got 35 sacks over two years. Yeah. And that means that, yeah.

31:57And that means that when TJ Watt gets 41 million, even if I'm not making 41 million, you got to pay me more, you got to pay me 35 plus and you've got to really guarantee money. Right. And I kind of detailed this in the training camp storylines thing, but if I'm the Bengals, not only based on my public posturing, can I not bend at this point, they've structured all their guaranteed money to be done after the 2026 season. If you're Trey Hendrickson, three years of guaranteed money is the ask. I'm not playing on your timeline anymore. You're going to retire me as a bangle and pay me what you're supposed to pay me,$40 million over three years.

32:33You're going to have guarantees into the third year. And if that's where the sticking point is, then I just don't know how you possibly get this resolved. And now if you're Trey Hendrickson, because an older edge rusher just got paid you cannot show up to training camp without a new deal right like you

32:46Steven Ruiz:have to make the bangles hurt for this the bangles have leverage so they drafted a guy in the first round you know to play what's going on with that guy by the way i think the last time i was on instagram i saw that he's in college station you know in the indoor practice facility yeah shamar stewart also unsigned and mike brown was talking about him and like i guess the hang up is uh how his money would be affected if he got in trouble off the field which like i don't know They're trying to set a precedent that's not there. And we have precedent around the league that this sort of deal just doesn't get done.

33:16Steven Ruiz:This is not usually included. So I'm on Stewart's side on this part. On this thing, I'm on Hendrickson's side. I don't know if the Bengals are in a position to kind of play hardball with these guys when we know about their defensive problems and how reliant on their pass rush they're going to be this season. I don't know how they're a viable contender without these two players. Well, really without Hendrickson, because Stewart's a rookie and we don't know how he's going to contribute. And obviously his offseason has been derailed by the contract negotiations. But without Hendrickson, like, I don't know if this is a playoff team, to be honest.

33:48It's not a playoff team as it currently stands, just based on the defense. If we're projecting that it's going to be anything like what it was the last couple of years without a Trey Hendrickson available. And then you bring in a Shamar Stewart, like you said, who you need, not just because Hendrickson's going through his contract issues, but Sam Hubbard retired this offseason. Like, you don't have the edge of death right now. You don't have a number two guy you can rely on. Joseph Osai, I think, was a good idea a couple of years ago. Since he's been injured, we just haven't seen the kind of production that I think that some of his advanced metrics kind of suggested early in his career that he might be a breakout guy.

34:22He hasn't been that player. So you need a Shamar Stewart there. Obviously, you need Trey Hendrickson. And unfortunately, the owner of the team is putting out quotes like, we're not going to pay a guy to sit in jail. And I'm looking around like, does Shamar Stewart have a warrant that nobody else knows about? Like, what kind of quote is this? like if Baltimore said that about Mike Green okay I get it right there's a murky enough history to where if that was a sticking point in contract talks even though I don't like it from a player's perspective I understand the teams and their angle on this the same thing was like the Bills and Max Hairston right cloudy history when you were younger if we want to protect ourselves or if that's the argument between their contract situation I get that I don't understand what the issue is for Shamar Stewart it would be one thing if you said we don't want to guarantee a contract for a guy who had four and a half sacks out of college.

35:09That would be funny for me. If you said throw him in jail because of his sack total, that would be laughing. Exactly. That would be funny for me. But hey, man, you drafted this guy, what, 17th overall? You got to pay what you pay, 17th overall picks. You don't get to try to make a new precedent for this guy. And I'm glad that he left. Again, the only way to change the behavior for these owners is you have to threaten to withdraw labor. Hendrickson and Stewart, I think, ultimately will end up showing up and it's going to be on their terms because the Bengals just don't have many other options. And I don't know if anybody in that building wants to continue to show up and look a Joe Burrow in the face, who's in the middle of maybe a career renaissance right now, the best years of his career, and say, we're not giving you a chance to win a Super Bowl after we paid you because these defensive guys are getting a little too uppity about how much money they want to make.

35:56Steven Ruiz:Yeah, it's another situation where I think it shouldn't be complicated, but the Bengals are making it more complicated. And I think to their detriment. We also had some other extensions signed recently. George Karloftis signed four years,$88 million. Zach Tom got the same exact deal, four years,$88 million. The Packers offensive linemen. Sauce Gardner signs four years for$120 million. That's$30.1 million per year, which is$0.1 million more than Stingley got earlier in the offseason. I feel like that was very notable and very designed. And then Garrett Wilson gets four years,$130 million. That's$32.5 million per year.

36:29Steven Ruiz:A couple more million than Higgins got, But a few less than... Where are you at with him as a player? I have a hard time with Garrett Wilson. Garrett Wilson, like... Clearly very talented. Yes, yes. Clearly very talented. I think he's a high-end number two. I don't know if I would feel confident in... If I had him as my number one, I don't know if I'd feel confident in us being like a championship offense. I don't know. That might be harsh because we haven't seen him with good quarterback play. The tape checks out. He gets open. He catches the ball. He's dangerous after the catch. I think maybe it's a little prejudice on my part.

37:00Steven Ruiz:like the body type. He just looks like a skinny guy. He wears those big ass sleeves too, which makes him look a little skinnier. Maybe that's the issue is his aesthetic, but I think this is a good deal. Like he got paid less than DK Metcalf and I've made my feelings on DK Metcalf very clear. That's fair. I think he's a better player than DK Metcalf. That's fair. And I think maybe, and this is where it's like, all right, I don't want to be the guy that's just, you know, holding up a spreadsheet like, oh, this is a couple million too much, right? Like there does come a point where even if I think that I would rather he'd be making Jalen Waddle money, you know, which he got paid, you know, he got paid about 84 million, I believe, 85 million over three years.

37:37But I mean, it's what the difference of four and a half,$5 million. Like, I guess you can live with that. I do think that his ceiling is much higher than a guy like Waddles, or at least, you know, to do this point in their career, given off how they produce throughout their first, you know, few years in their career. I do struggle with what Garrett Wilson as a lead receiver looks like, right? Like, I don't know if Garrett Wilson lead receiver is enough for an offense. And I guess that this year is going to be a great test case in how much you can get out of Garrett Wilson being an elevator for a flawed or a limited quarterback, especially when you know you're going to be paying him big money in the future.

38:12So it'll be fascinating to see. I think he is a high end number two. I think it's high end number two with really no ceiling as a number one, which is fine. I just struggle with what$30 million for that kind of player is going to mean for building out the rest of your offense.

38:29Steven Ruiz:Yeah, but I feel like when you're the Jets you're kind of in a hard place just because you need offensive talent. You've got to pay good players. Like if Malik Neighbors doesn't improve on his rookie season and is kind of the same guy over the next couple of years the Giants still have to pay him because they don't have any choice without him. So I think it's one of those situations. The Sauce Gardner deal I mean, I'm willing to overlook last year but last year was an issue. Like I would be very concerned And I know, I think he was dealing with injuries, but like the tackling was bad. I don't think he was as good in coverage.

38:55Steven Ruiz:So I do want to see him bounce back before I can fully judge that deal. Because I think last year could be a confounding. I think that might have been, yeah. I think he was a little, little lacked in motivation once things started going sideways. But he's not better than Stigley. And Stigley got 0.1 million less than him per year. So I don't know. That's a good deal for the Texans, I guess. Another bit of news, Tyron Matthew retired. Phillip Rivers also retired. I thought he was already retired, but he retired as a charger officially. I don't know if that delays his Hall of Fame clock. But yeah, just thoughts on Tyron Matthews.

39:24Steven Ruiz:I think Tyron Matthews is one of the best players of the 2010s. I think he's one of the more important players because he made that Cardinal secondary in the middle of the decade, which was one of the more important teams in the league over that span. And then I don't think he deserves enough credit for the Chiefs kind of getting over that hump. I say it's a hump because they had the one year where they didn't win the championship when Mahomes started. But then they went in 2019. He really changed that defense and allowed Spags to kind of get into the too high stuff, the man coverage stuff, and like everything that Spags has been known for over the last couple of years.

39:54Steven Ruiz:So Tyron Matthew, I just think is leaving behind a very good legacy in the NFL. What were your thoughts on Matthew as a player? And do you see him making the Hall of Fame eventually? To answer the second question first, I was literally just noodling on that as you were talking, right? Like this guy is probably as much of, as fringe a case as you can have in the modern era. 100%. Right? Like I think that sometimes we throw our own, the terminology of Hall are very good, almost as a backhanded compliment. I don't want to use that terminology because I think of it almost like as a backhanded compliment of like, good but not good enough.

40:25Because this is a guy that to me is one of the defining players of his decade to me, right? You talk about the versatility, the tackling. You think about all the teams that have tried to get a Tyron Matthew-esque player, right? Like Jamal, people are trying to find a Jamal Adams player. Jamal Adams was brought into the league to be a Tyron Matthew type of player, right? Like he is his own archetype. Buda Baker, in a lot of ways, is in the Tyron Matthew. Safety slot corner. A guy who can blitz, an undersized guy who will show up and fit the run, who can go play the ball in the air. You know, he's very versatile, very multidimensional as a player.

41:03Like you said, when Spagnuolo got to Kansas City, the defense was basically like the honey badger defense. Because a lot of stuff that worked was stuff that worked because Tyron Matthew could do all these different things. I would put together these reels when I was working at PFF, this guy running all these crazy cover two rotations, because you can use Matthew as a backer, basically, from safety. You can use him as a half guy. Right. He was able to paper over so many issues, not just in Kansas City, but in his time at Arizona as well. You look at those old pictures, and it's all those guys from that era of football.

41:36Tony Jefferson at his best. You get Patrick Peterson. You have Tyron Matthew there. And I think that Matthew was one of the lead guys when you think about impact play on the defensive end. And a guy that we always throw around being ahead of your time. You think about the way the slot defenders are being used in the league now. And he set up what it is to be a modern slot or a kind of hybrid safety in the modern context now. So I can't say enough good things about him. I don't know if he makes the Hall of Fame. Like you said, I mean, if you're talking about the 2010s, man, you cannot have a conversation about the defensive side of the ball and not have Tyron Matthews name come up pretty early.

42:13Steven Ruiz:He's in my Hall of Fame. I'm going to say that. And I have a take. I feel like with guys like this who like were successful in the NFL, I'm not talking, not talking about other guys, but like guys who were not only successful in the NFL to this degree, but were also so impactful in college. I think that should be factored into the equation. That's what the Basketball Hall of Fame has as a ball beat, is that they can honor the college career as part of your holistic, just the story of you as a player, a lot better than we do in the league. And I understand why it's different for the NFL, but man, it would be nice to have a guy like that, to have his college career be just as much a part of what defines him as what we saw in the NFL.

42:49Steven Ruiz:Yeah, I'm not saying like Tim Tebow should be in the Hall of Fame because of what he did in college. But I think like when that's an added layer to it, it should be considered. And I think one of the more interesting things was like how the defenses that he was on when he went out with injury, especially with Arizona, because he had a lot of injury problems. They fell apart. Like, I believe I should have looked this up before the pod, but I'm pretty sure he got injured in that 2015 season. And their defense just got torn apart by the Panthers in the NFC Championship game. And I think it's because Tyron Matthew wasn't out there.

43:18Steven Ruiz:And the Chiefs are one of the worst defenses in the NFL in 2018. He comes to the team. Obviously, Spags has also added to the equation, replaced Bob Sutton as defensive coordinator. But the identity totally changes. They become a way better pass defense. And I think that ultimately got them over the hump where they won the championship the next year. I don't think he's the most important player on that defense. That was Chris Jones. I don't think he's the most important player on the whole team. That was Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelsey and Tyree Kill. but you could make the argument that he was the fifth most important player on maybe the best team of that era for the champs if we're saying this era like the Eagles domination kind of ended it so yeah I would put Tyron Matthew in my hall of fame and another guy I would put in my hall of fame is Philip Rivers who retired as a charger I I don't know how you rank the 20 I think it was 2004 draft class of quarterbacks with Ben Roethlisberger and Eli Manning but I think Philip Rivers is the best of all three of them so I would put him in my hall of fame I don't think he had the greatest career of all three of them because he didn't win a Super Bowl like the other two did.

44:14Steven Ruiz:But I judge the players based on what they did as individuals. And I think he's 100 % a Hall of Famer. He's one of the five best quarterbacks for about a decade. I think that he should make the Hall, right? Like this is where the QB wins stuff becomes as thorny as it can be. And one of the reasons why it's important that we don't get so hung up about how many wins you get in the playoffs. Like Phillip Rivers was literally on an even playing field with Drew Brees at his best, with Peyton Manning at his best, with Tom Brady at his best. Like at least regular seats from week one to week 17 at the time, he was just as good as every one of those guys.

44:53And I think that being in the AFC, you know, and we talk about some of these other young quarterbacks when we were at the Super Bowl, we had that conversation about Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, these guys in the AFC who no matter what you do, from September to December, you know, you've got to go see 15 at some point. Right. And there's nothing more dejecting than knowing that you could have an MVP caliber year and that you might not get there because you've got to go see the guy that's better than everybody else. Right. So, and I think that Phillip Rivers is a victim of that, but if you look at the counting stats, if you think about some of the most iconic moments over his career in the two thousands into the early 2010s before the, you know, kind of the makeup of that team in San Diego started to change.

45:32I mean, he's right there with all those guys. And if he gets just one of the two Super Bowls that like an Eli Manning got, then it's not even a question, right? Because he would be checking every other box. But the fact that he's the one guy from that era who ended his career without having a Super Bowl run, I think that that ultimately might be what keeps him out. But I would not be surprised at all if people are able to appreciate what he was during that time and give him a Hall of Fame nod.

45:57Steven Ruiz:Yeah, I would call Eli Manning like a right place, right time Hall of Fame guy. and I think I think Phillip Rivers is a wrong place wrong time guy like being in that AFC his best team that 20 2007 Chargers that lost to the Patriots that undefeated team in the AFC Championship and by the way he played on a torn ACL in that game exactly that should get you in the Hall of Fame too but yeah I'm a big Phillip Rivers guy I think he should definitely be in the Hall of Fame we're gonna take a break and then after that we're gonna come back and do a watchability draft of teams but not for the regular season that's like a totally different exercise maybe we'll get to that like in late August, early September, we're going to do a preseason watchability draft of teams, which I think is a totally different thing because we want mess, we want slop, we want to see controversy, we want to see QB competitions, which don't happen on good teams.

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47:56Steven Ruiz:All right, welcome back. We are officially, I think we are a week away from the first preseason game. The Hall of Fame game is next Thursday. Hall of Fame game is right around the corner. Are you excited for it? You've been studying film. You got any predictions on the game? I have never in my life been excited for a Hall of Fame game. I cannot imagine an NFL game with less interest from your boy than the Hall of Fame game on a year-by-year basis. It's literally the worst football game played every year. It's the worst. Nobody plays in it. None of the starters play. It's bad. I don't even know who's in it.

48:26Steven Ruiz:Exactly. tell me I need two teams and I would believe that they were in it. You can tell me it's a scrimmage between the Cowboys offense and Cowboys defense and I would believe you. But real preseason game. Now that's some football. That's some real football that I can't wait to dig into. But yeah, we're going to draft teams based on watchability. We're going to draft five teams each. Should we do snake draft or do you want to just go back and forth? I don't know. We can go back and forth. Alright, let's just go back and forth. I'm going to give you the honors. I'm going to let you make the first pick.

48:51Steven Ruiz:Who are you going with? Who's the team that you are most excited to watch in preseason? And you could base this off of, you know, a young quarterback you're interested in seeing, a young rookie player you're interested in seeing, some competition that you want to see play out. Who is your first team that you're going to be seeded for their first and second and maybe even third playoff game? You know, I usually don't just go with where the quarterback competition is, because like you said, sometimes it can be a little deceptive, right, going off of, whether it's the practices, whether it's the games, whether it's the joint practices, right, because oftentimes it just comes down to which way is the coach leaning, right it doesn't always have to do with how guys are actually performing in competition but just how they feel about their comfort level with guys i think that for me though like the colts are probably number one like i just have to see what kind of a wreck this year might be in indianapolis like and i think that these guys are going to have to play in the preseason if you're trying to have an honest competition because anthony richardson at least if he's available to go in training camp that's a guy that no matter how many years he's got in the league based off some of his issues on a week-by-week basis.

49:54This guy needs reps. You need live game reps. I need to know that you can throw a dig when you need to throw a dig. I need to know that you can put the ball in the seam when it's time to and actually give it to our guys. I need to know you're not going to freak out under pressure and do something reckless or put the ball on the ground. And I want to see when you're in a competition, which is something that's very new for him, opening the season with the competition, I want to know how you react to that. And I want to see how Shane Psych and manages all this, right? You think about the benching and all the messaging problems.

50:23I need to see how this team is going to manage what could be a really messy quarterback competition between two guys that are, if we're being honest, they're probably having a mid-off on a day-by-day basis.

50:34Steven Ruiz:I mean, I think that would be an improvement. I don't know if there's some clips going around it was like their first throws of some drill work and they both just totally missed the throw. They were throwing at the same time, which added to the hilarity of it all. But I do think Anthony Richardson, his performance of preseason will be informative just because his issues are just so blatant like can the guy complete a pass can he complete a short pass and if he can if he checks that box and like i'm not saying he has to be joe burrow accurate but if he's like i don't know the 25th most accurate quarterback we can work with that that's something i can work with so i think we will be able to tell based off that and i'm not interested in watching daniel jones play preseason football i'm not interested in watching him play regular season football but i do think the competition will be interesting to watch by the way Chris Ballard year 9 GM of the Colts is preaching patience just a couple more years you can't judge me now the best job in sports man the GM who has it in with the owner I know they're obviously changing owner but he had it in with Ursae best job in sports because you're never playing Chris Greer, Terry Fontenot you just get to hang out At this point, you're just showing up to the office as long as I'm well-dressed and I keep a smile on my face.

51:48I don't think the owner really cares what I'm doing around here.

51:50Steven Ruiz:No, it's like living the dream. They're basically doing... I know they're doing actual drafts, but imagine you got paid just to sit around and do mock drafts and make bad decisions and do what we do on Twitter and complain about contracts and stuff. Alright, my pick... I'm looking at my board right now. The Colts were the first off my board. I'm going to go with the Browns. This is the... This is definitely watching a car accident. it? Yes, yes. I don't think the quarterback play is going to be good, but I will be watching from minute one to minute 60 every Browns game just because of, I mean, you have Shador Sanders, who I guess is fourth on the depth chart, the most intriguing fourth string quarterback we've ever seen in NFL history.

52:29Steven Ruiz:You have Dylan Gabriel, whose name I almost just forgot, even though he was technically drafted ahead of Shador Sanders and sits ahead of him in the depth chart. We have Kenny Pickett trying to reprise his role, you know, try to get back to that first round magic that he added with the Steelers. Then you have Joe Flacco, who's still doing it. I thought Joe Flacco would retire 10 years ago. He's not the oldest guy, but even compared to Aaron Rodgers, I feel like he's the most ancient playing QB that we're going to have in the elite this year. He doesn't move at all. Aaron Rodgers kind of plays like Joe Flacco played during his prime now.

53:02Steven Ruiz:He just doesn't move. I remember the talking point in Baltimore when I was living there during the heyday of the Flacco. is Flacco elite era. It was like, does this guy actually really care about football as much as these other quarterbacks? And somehow he's still playing. He's outlasted all these other quarterbacks. So yeah, I'm interested in seeing that. I mean, the rest of it, I don't really care about the Browns to be honest with you. I guess I'm just most fascinated about like, how do you even logistically put together an honest quarterback competition with this many guys that you want to get a look at, right?

53:32Do you give them each a quarter every game? That's where I'm like rotating. Do you actually play Joe Flacco in the pre like, are you actually going to glean anything interesting from a 38 year old Joe Flacco in preseason action? Probably not. Right. And now what you're going to see is Kenny Pickett basically like trying to hold off these young guys from getting him cut, you know, basically, because I don't think, I mean, you're not going to keep all four of these guys. I don't think Kenny Pickett does, you know, does, you know, good as a practice squad quarterback, if you've got two rookies, you'd probably rather have those two guys that they can beat them out for the spot, right?

54:05And you're not going to have him as an emergency QB in that scenario either. So now it's like a desperate Kenny Pickett in preseason ball. We have an opportunity to see interceptions that we've never seen before, right? And I can't wait for it.

54:20Steven Ruiz:I really can't wait for it. No, no, it's going to be intriguing television. It's going to be like watching a car crash like you compared it to. All right, so I got the Browns, you got the Colts. So who's your next pick? Next one I'm saying in the AFC, I'm going with the Raiders and this is really like Chips Kelly specific, right? I think about just what it was at the end of Philadelphia where every defense just knew, oh, if you're in this formation, these are the two runs you've got. This is the one play action you've got. You're the three drop back passes. They had mesh, and then they had the mesh where the pivots.

54:48Steven Ruiz:They run the pivots. Exactly. That was his counter. Exactly. I mean, he basically turned into an old school air raid coach where it's like, oh, we only run eight plays, but if we master these eight plays, no defense can stop them in the NFL very quickly, reminded him that that's just not how this works at this level. even in San Francisco, right? Like we saw a very bland, very stagnant version of his offense before he left for the college ranks. But if you watched him once he got to UCLA, certainly this last year at Ohio state, I think we saw a guy that really spent some time in the lab trying to figure out what the next iteration of the Chip Kelly offense needed to look like.

55:22And in that championship run last season in Ohio, I saw a guy that had a better understanding of how to use personnel, right not just because Jeremiah Smith is like this prodigal talent at wide receiver but even assignment Will Howard right like I think during the back half of the year Michigan lost not withstanding for the most part you got very efficient drop back passing Will Howard because he was able to tee up the passing game in a way that really worked for his quarterback's limitations and strengths I'm really fascinated to see what that's going to be like with a guy like Geno which is a different profile of NFL quarterback than he had either in Philadelphia or San Francisco This is a guy that if you design it up and you tell Geno, hey, if you want to throw the dig, we trust you to throw the dig, he'll let it rip.

56:04I'm really fascinated to see what that's like for Chip Kelly in a prove-it situation. Pete Carroll's in a prove-it situation. Geno Smith's in a prove-it situation. So it might not necessarily be watching Smith in preseason games, but I want to see what Kelly is designing to be kind of like the bread and butter of this offense. And I think we'll be able to glean some really interesting information from that throughout the preseason.

56:25Steven Ruiz:Yeah, and I think because of how things went in the last two years in Philadelphia and then obviously the one year in San Francisco, I think we forget how that offense looked that one magical year where Nick Foles goes 27 touchdowns, two interceptions. That Washington game on Monday Night Football was something I'd never ever seen in the NFL. Yeah, they never really got back to that. I remember the swinging gate formation. They were busting that out. They were hurrying up. It just feels like he had those ideas and then stopped using them. I don't know. I don't know how it went, but like when Nick Foles got in there later in the year, they were bombing the ball downfield.

56:59Steven Ruiz:I remember that Raiders game where I think Foles threw for seven touchdowns and like Riley Cooper was getting, Riley Cooper was catching touchdowns. What a guy's remembering dudes. That's the name for guys. That's a bad one. That's the only way to lose remembering guys is by bringing up Riley Cooper. All right, OJ Simpson. OJ Simpson, right. But no, they were bombing the ball downfield. So I'm really interested in seeing how that looks and how Geno Smith kind of operates in that offense. I feel like they're going to be an interesting team to watch all year long. They were also on my board here.

57:29Steven Ruiz:But I'm going to have to pivot now because of that. I'm going to go with the Bears. I'm going to go with the Bears, and I just want to see what the offense looks like and how it compares to Ben Johnson's offense in Detroit. Are we going to see under center? Are we going to see more shotgun? I know we're not going to see the offense, obviously, but we're going to see some base plays and maybe the stuff that they kind of major in on first and second down. I'm really interested to see how that looks and how Caleb looks in year two. Is he going to be more accurate on some of these throws? Is he going to be missing throws downfield like he did last year?

57:56Steven Ruiz:And how does he look on the under center drops, like the footwork? I know he's got some practice with that, and I thought he was pretty good with it. I thought he was very convincing with his play action fakes and attention to detail was there. But I want to see how it looks in the Ben Johnson offense. So, yeah, that's really the only reason I want to watch. I don't really have interest. No, I mean, it makes some sense. And like you said, he's given a lot of quotes. he gave a lot of coach right when he was hired right like don't expect a one-for-one copy of what you saw in detroit but then you look at the depth chart and it's like i mean he went out and you're trying to close to loveland cole commit is does merit getting a lot of playing time even if you don't think he's an actual top tier tight end like he is a functionally usable tight end both in the passing game and as a blocker and i think loveland's going to need some time to learn what it's like to be an nfl tight end anyways even though he has a pretty versatile skill set you bring in all these veterans on the interior of offensive line, probably to do some run game stuff that you did in Detroit.

58:50Like, yeah, it might not be as much like under center stuff because that's just what Jared Goff's deal is a little bit more comfortably is under center runs to play action passes. But I think you're pretty clearly trying to build maybe a more spread version of that. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that either, right? Like to me, I understand why you don't necessarily want to set an expectation because Detroit's offense was just gangbusters, basically for the last few seasons. So you don't want to mention that and have people conflate the scheme of the offense with the expectations of the performance of the offense.

59:21But to me, the best way to use these guys is exactly what you had then. You want to use, I think, DJ Moore as your kind of movable chess piece, a guy that can run a bunch of option routes. You can get the ball to underneath. You can design touches for similar to what they did for Amon Ross St. Brown. And to me, you want Roma Dense to be a guy that you can go challenge on the perimeter the way that I think they always hoped. that a Jamison Williams might turn into. And, you know, they ended up bringing in a host of other guys to be a true X in that way when they found out that JMO maybe just couldn't kind of handle that kind of use and they used him more as kind of like your design shot play player.

59:56So I'm really fascinated to see what that works out like. Like you said, we're not going to get the full menu in the preseason, but the use of tight ends, I'm really interested in. What you show me in the run game, is it more under center? Is it more gun? what are you actually trusting Caleb Williams to go out and execute in a preseason context that's the stuff that I think will be really important for us just to try to set the table for what the Bears might be on that side of the ball this year yeah 100 yeah I and I want to see

1:00:25Steven Ruiz:Caleb Williams I just I feel like he was like one of the highlights of the preseason last year he made a bunch of highlight reel throws and I think we're going to see something similar so that will be exciting to watch who is your third pick my third pick here I'm actually I'm going to the NFC too. And this one is less about the offensive side of the ball, right? Like this is probably my only defensive pick one with the 49ers here. And to me, this is about the guys that are going to be playing in the preseason with all these offenses and quarterbacks. A lot of this is kind of conditional on, Hey, we know we're only going to see this maybe for a quarter at a time per week.

1:00:57And the rest of what we're gleaning is going to be from these training camp practices for San Francisco, for the young guys are bringing in for some of the fresher faces they're bringing in for bringing back Robert Sala to be the defensive play caller. I want to see what that looks like. Totally separate from the players that we know and trust. I don't need to see Diamandor Lenore. I know what he is as a corner. I obviously don't need to see Fred Warner. That's the best linebacker in football. You don't have to do anything. I want to see Michael Williams in every preseason game. Are you able to get after the passer now that your ankle is healthy?

1:01:27Right. Presumably I want to see Alfred Collins, right? Can you really take on double teams. Are you going to be an anchor point in the middle of this defense that's going to allow Fred Warner to move more freely? And then some of the younger, less proven pieces, right? D Winters has been in and out of this lineup a bunch in his time in San Francisco. There's going to be a lot on your plate now being the number two linebacker now that Dre Greenlaw is gone. So I'm interested in that. You know, you've got your Malik Mustafa whenever he's able to go. If he is able to go in this preseason, I haven't looked to see what any updates are on his health.

1:01:58Trey Brown is a new face playing in the nickel. So, So, you know, even Jair Brown, he's flashed a lot. He's also had some health problems. But when he's been out there, you've seen a guy that wouldn't would inspire enough confidence to let you know that maybe you can move on from a talent. No, who fun good and it not totally cost your defense. So, yeah, there's a lot of question marks up on that side of the ball. Those guys are going to need to play. And I want to see if Fala still got it as a defensive play caller. Right. Like if you put the colors back on that you had when you were at your best, are you able to summon that again?

1:02:29So that's really what I'm looking for more than anything.

1:02:31Steven Ruiz:Yeah, I think the 49ers are always an interesting watch. I think they're going to be one of the more fascinating teams in the regular season, too, so looking forward to that. I'm going to go with my third pick. I guess I'm going to be the one that does it. I'm going to take the Giants. I'm going to take maybe, I mean, if the Browns are the messiest quarterback situation, this is definitely the second one, and I don't know how much we're going to see of Jackson Dart, Russell Wilson, Jameis Winston. I think it will be entertaining. I don't know. It's better than watching some no-name backup that you never, like Alex Magoo or whatever his name was.

1:02:59Steven Ruiz:Like, I don't want to say that. I want to see a quarterback I know that I can make fun of if they suck too. So I'm going to go with the Giants for that reason alone. And Malik Nabors is exciting. So I want to see him play. Yeah, the Giants should be exciting to watch as well. And Abdul Karim too. Right, exactly. So for me, number four, for me, this is my first rookie QB. I'm going with the Titans, right? And I feel like, and I said this in the training camps, he said I put up on our website at the Ringer. Like I cannot, some people maybe brought up Baker Mayfield. And I think a lot of that was more just because his pick was more of a fait accompli than anything that he wasn't really discussed.

1:03:32I don't know if that's necessarily the case with Cam Ward as much as he just wasn't the biggest draw at the draft in terms of storylines. And I thought that maybe we'd hear a little bit more about him once he got to Tennessee. But honestly, it's been so quiet over there. You would forget that they just had the number one overall pick and drafted a quarterback to be the new leader of the franchise. And after the news about Will Levis getting this surgery on his shoulder, there's really nothing but a clear runway for this guy to get as many reps as possible to learn what he can and can't get away with.

1:04:00I don't know if we can expect a CJ Stroud level rookie year. You certainly wouldn't expect just athletically for him to be as impactful as Jaden Daniels was this past season. But off play style, you know, I've made the comp to Jordan Love, even though he doesn't have as strong an arm. I've made the comp to Ben Roethlisberger in terms of pocket movement and kind of the risks he's he's willing to take at least a young Ben Roethlisberger as a comp in that regard I want to see that style of play in a Brian Callahan offense because that's that's a lot of what made Joe Burrow work so well in Cincinnati right and if Callahan is going to try to replicate that in Tennessee with this quarterback I want to see Cam Ward in the gun you know you're going to get a bunch of dropbacks you're going to have to take some chances to make this stuff work What can you get away with?

1:04:45What can't you get away with? And just how does that kind of play style coming from Miami articulate itself in the league when you know you're going to have a limited wide receiver core outside of Calvin Ridley, and you're probably going to have to score a lot of points if you want to be in the game based off this defense's limitations as well.

1:05:01Steven Ruiz:Yeah, I'm hoping Cam Ward gets a lot of playing time because he's like one of the most exciting quarterbacks to watch. The film was just fun to watch, which made it surprising that he didn't get more talk before the draft and after the draft. I think part of it was there wasn't a viable QB2. There was no debate there. There was no friction there, which is usually when we get riled up. The Baker Mayfield draft, we were too busy yelling at each other about Lamar and Josh Allen, I guess, to pay attention to Baker Mayfield. But I thought he got plenty of talk back then. He was really hyped up, especially by the analytics guys.

1:05:31Steven Ruiz:So you took the Titans. They were on my board a little bit lower on my board just because their backup quarterbacks are Brandon Allen and Tim Boyle. I thought those were the same guy. the second that those guys strap up the chin strap the channel is being changed please make no mistake about that okay so he's not here for a long time he's here for a good time uh i'm gonna i'm gonna take the packers and i think they are one of the more fascinating teams on offense because you have the offensive line questions and who's going to start there the wide receiver rotation has just been a very fascinating thing for the last couple years obviously to bring uh bringing in uh golden into the situation i want to see how he's kind of used and where he fits in And then Jordan Love, like seeing Jordan Love fully healthy, is the accuracy problem still there?

1:06:13Steven Ruiz:Or was that a product of the injuries? Did that exacerbate the problem? I want to see how he's delivering the football, how the ball's coming out. Maybe is he scrambling a little bit more? I know you've been advocating for something like that. You haven't really liked the way he's reacted to pressure and how he's handled it. So I think there's a lot to watch, especially on the offensive side of the ball for the Packers this preseason. I like that. I mean, I would say both sides of the ball, honestly. Like this is a team that has all of the requisite pieces. They just haven't had the breakout star.

1:06:40Right. Again, we're going to need over the course of the season to get some answers on that. But to me, preseason wise, offensively, like you said, I want to see what love looks like coming in healthy. They're not on my list. Maybe they're on your board. Like I think about Jacksonville in a similar light, even though they haven't had nearly as much regular season success as Green Bay has had. As far as just like, I want to see your quarterback in training camp healthy again. can you deliver on what we think you're capable of? So this will be an informative piece from that perspective. This is another team similar to Chicago.

1:07:12You've got a lot of different moving pieces in terms of your skill position group. I want to see how you're deploying guys, right? I want to see what Tucker Craft and Luke Musgrave can be because I've been waiting for this. Right, exactly. Clearly, I've been waiting for this to look like 2012 New England now since these guys were drafted because that's been the athletic potential of these two guys. I want to see that finally be, you know, kind of walked out. I want to see what they're doing in the run game, because one thing that we can say is that Matt LaFleur has basically evolved the core of its run game almost every single season, whether Aaron Rodgers or Jordan Love was that quarterback or Malik Willis from time to time.

1:07:48So I think that there's going to be a lot of interesting things for us to find out. And hopefully this group can finally be healthy enough for them to land on an identity that we can easily identify early in the year. And I hope that we can do that as early as this preseason.

1:08:01Steven Ruiz:Yeah, actually the Jags are my next pick Just because you said it, I might as well just reveal my last pick I'm going to go with the Jags for everything I said about Jordan Love Like I want to see Trevor more accurate Does he look better as a thrower just because he's Healthier, and then obviously there's the Travis Hunter and how they use him How many snaps he's going to play at receiver Are we going to see him play both sides of the ball in preseason I don't know if that would be something I would do Looking ahead at a long Grueling season where you're planning on playing on Both sides of the ball So I think the Jags are going to be fascinating to watch just for those two guys alone.

1:08:33I'm with you. And then for my last pick, I'm going with the team that I have probably paid the least amount of respect to since I've been working here. And it's the Cardinals, right? Like they have been the most interesting and least impactful. The biggest combination of interesting without it being impactful in the league, right? They do have an interesting defense. They've not necessarily had a good defense. It's just been really fascinating. They've had these really kind of wild splits between how they perform in obvious passing situations versus how they perform on neutral downs. And it's been improving, right?

1:09:03Their performance on neutral downs has improved. And they've been one of the best teams in the NFL at kind of finding who they are midway through the year, right? And then being able to really lean into their identity. So you'll find them get these hot streaks. I would say that probably exists on both sides of the ball for them. But they brought in some really young, interesting guys defensively in terms of Walter Nolan, right? I want to see what he looks like. That's a guy who, when he's locked in, can be as good as any defensive tackle that was drafted this year. Will Johnson has a strong pedigree.

1:09:33Obviously, a lot of health issues, so I want to see you in the NFL. Exactly, and I want to see this guy finally show up and be the player that I think he can be based off his best tape at Michigan. But there are a lot of questions about health, about top-tier athleticism, about how much you can run defensively if he's your number one corner. And then on the other side of the ball, I don't necessarily need to see anything from Kyler Murray. I think he's kind of a known quantity at quarterback. But again, this is a team that is really played in a lot of different worlds offensively. In the run game, they want to put a bunch of tight ends on and really manipulate what a defense can do so they can run this power spread game.

1:10:09And then in the passing game, it's kind of changed on a year by year, sometimes week by week basis of what they want to be. And I think that's because they've been waiting on a true outside receiver to be the guy. And Marvin Harrison Jr. has got to be that. I don't know how many reps we're going to see of him in actual preseason action, but I'm going to be tuned into everything that's going on with training camp with the Cardinals because I need to see Kyler Murray. If he's going to be the quarterback that everybody tells me he can be, he needs a number one wide receiver. And a player like Marvin Harrison can be that, even if he's not Julio Jones, just having a guy that you can depend on.

1:10:41If he's nothing more than like a DK Metcalf-esque type of player, even that might be enough to get the most out of a guy like Kyler Murray. So that's what I'm going to be looking at for them in the preseason.

1:10:52Steven Ruiz:No, yeah. I think the Cardinals are always a good watch in preseason. And they have that one commentator with the impossibly deep voice. You know? Yes. I love that guy. I'm on the East Coast, obviously. Deontay's on the West Coast. But at 12, midnight, I'm watching this guy talk about it. I'll watch the second half just based on him alone, to be honest with you. I should look up his name. But actually, I'm not going to. He's the guy with the deep voice. That's his name. Just honorable mention. I'm going to throw one more team out there to the Saints. I want to watch the quarterbacks. I want to watch Spencer Rattler versus Tyler Shuck.

1:11:24Steven Ruiz:I think Spencer Rattler is going to win that competition. I think Spencer Rattler is going to end up being the better of the two quarterbacks. I do wonder if they end up just going with Shuck because, you know, new regime and just give that guy a chance. And if he can't handle it, I mean, shit, you don't need to wait for a guy who's 25 years old to figure out the league, right? So just drop him in and see what he can do. I think that that's kind of where my mind is at with that. And then my honorable mention is going to be the Jets. We kind of talked about them briefly, so I didn't want to pick them outright.

1:11:53But obviously, Justin Fields, new offensive system. You know, what are you going to put on Fields' plate as a passer? Right. Pittsburgh, I think, had a really hard time trying to figure out how much they could trust him with. And if we're being honest, if you looked at the tape in the first two or three weeks of the season, the way he was working through progressions did not always look like the guy that you could put a lot on the plate of. So I'm fascinated to see what that's going to look like. but they have all the pieces to be kind of like Cardinals East, right? Like the quarterback's not as good as Kyler Murray.

1:12:23Justin Phil's not as good as Kyler Murray. We think about the run game. You think about this tricky defense, trying to figure out how to attack. You think about the fact that they can be explosive. If you look at how much athleticism is in their backfield, I'm really fascinated to see what they want to do offensively. And I think that we can get some good information out of them because they have a lot of unproven commodities on that side of the ball.

1:12:44Steven Ruiz:Yeah. It'll be interesting. They're another team where it's like, how much gun are you running? How much under center are you running? Obviously, they're dabbling in the Sean Payton style of offense. So yeah, that's going to be interesting to see just how they align, basically. I don't want to watch them after the snap. I'll watch them before the snap, but I don't need to see them. They have a hell of an athletic offensive line, right? They do, yeah. Great athlete. Armin Minbu, great athlete. Elijah Barataka, when he's healthy, can be a really strong guy in the interior. Even John Simpson, when he's been available, he's played at a pretty decent level.

1:13:11And Joe Tippmann, I think they have a no weakness offensive line, I want to see them really kind of let those guys loose and let them be the engine of this offense and see where that leads. The run game could be very interesting.

1:13:23Steven Ruiz:I'm really fascinated to see how they kind of weave the run threat of Justin Fields into this offense, which this offense typically hasn't had that style of quarterback in the past. And I don't think the Steelers really leveraged enough with Justin Fields when he was out there early on. So just to recap the draft, you have the Colts, Raiders, 49ers, Titans, and Cardinals. I have the Browns, Bears, Giants, Packers, and Jags, all the other teams, the other 22 teams in the NFL. We don't care. We're not watching. Sorry. I'm with you. All right. So that's going to do it for this episode. We will be back next week.

1:13:57Steven Ruiz:I don't know what we're going to talk about. We're going to have an actual slate of games to look forward to the next time. I'm glad you said a slate of games and not football. I don't know how much football is actually going to be played, but there will be games happening. Games are on the schedule. It's almost that time when we can react to real football being played. I'm not counting the Hall of Fame game in that situation. That is not real football, but it's almost time. So next week, we will talk to you about something about preseason. Thanks to Christopher Sutton for producing. Thanks to Kiera Givens on socials.

1:14:28Steven Ruiz:And thanks to Connor Nevins and Arjuna Ramkapal for additional production supervision. We will see you next week.

1:14:43Steven Ruiz:Must be 21 plus and present in select states. For Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C., gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050. for 24 seven support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY in New York. This episode is brought to you by ChatGPT. Hey, it's Bill Simmons from the Bill Simmons podcast. Have you guys heard about ChatGPT work? It's the new way to use ChatGPT for bigger multi-step projects.

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