Ranking the Top 10 NFL Offenses for the 2026 Season!

22:51Diante Lee:I like it. Peyton, Knicks, Waddell, Sutton, and maybe the best offensive line in the NFL. I mean, if we could throw out all other analysis and be like, yeah, that sounds to me like it should be an offense that ranks in the top 10. I had him again just outside the top 10, but I'm glad that Deontay, I like this. We don't have a single common one. Nothing in alignment yet, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Let's see if that changes or not, but I think that just speaks to kind of how challenging an exercise this is and how many teams you could really make the case for. to be in the top 10. All right, let's take a break.

23:24Diante Lee:We'll come back. We'll get to my ninth ranked team. Will Deontay have them in his list? Or are we just going to keep this agreeing? Maybe until we get to the top five or the top three. We'll talk about it all when we come back. This episode is brought to you by EA Sports Madden NFL 27. If the excitement of the preseason isn't enough, Madden NFL 27 is here to fill the gap. Run your league the way you want and see just how far you could go with the MVP bundle. with access to College Football 27, Madden NFL 27, and Deluxe Edition rewards in both games. From campus legend to NFL superstar, make your rise with the MVP bundle.

24:05Diante Lee:Learn more at EA.com. Rated E for everyone with mild lyrics, users interact, and in-game purchases includes random items, conditions, and restrictions apply. Scan QR code for more info. All right, we are back here on the Ringer. NFL show, Deontay. Oh, you know what? I should have got my cheesehead prop over there, but I'm not going to interrupt the pod and go walk over and get it. I've got the Green Bay Packers at number nine. And this was really, a lot of the analytical part of my brain was like, you got to have them in there. Like, just look at me. LeFleur's history here, it's kind of wild. If you look at it, seven seasons in Green Bay, his offenses have been in the top 10 six of those times and never lower than 12.

24:55Diante Lee:Like LeFleur, I don't think he's perfect. I think there's game management stuff. I think there's stuff with hiring a staff that I'm like, oh, I wish he would do that different. But just in terms of getting an offense to play at a certain level, he really deserves to be mentioned with almost any play caller in the entire NFL. So I saw that. I know Jordan Love has become I'm a polarizing guy. It feels like, you know, there's always like one quarterback every summer. I don't know if it's him or not. It might be a game. One of the guys we talk about later. He and Justin Herbert are like, it's an NFC AFC version, like probably areas of each other.

25:30Diante Lee:Yeah. Yeah. You know, I think the thing with Jordan Love, and I think the reason why he has skeptics is because his bad play. I used to think about this early in Josh Allen's career. His bad plays are really bad where if you're not like watching him every week or you don't care about the analytics, here just like, I'm sitting down on a Sunday watching Jordan Love and he might make a play. And you're like, what a boneheaded play. This is the guy every podcaster is telling me is one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL. The thing is, he doesn't make a lot of bad plays. Like if you just look at the frequency with which he makes negative plays, he's almost, he's like one of the best quarterbacks in the entire NFL at avoiding negative plays.

26:09Diante Lee:But when he does have the head scratcher, you're just like throwing your remote at the TV. So that's my theory on Jordan Love. But I mean, if you just look at it, last three years, he ranks second in the NFL in EPA per pass play. He hunts explosive, so it might not look great down to down, but he's going to hit on those explosive plays. And I think LaFleur deserves credit for that as well. I'm not totally sure about the O-line here this year. They did lose a good amount of players from last year, but that's happened before and they have guys step up. Matthew Golden, I think, is really one of the key players, maybe, in the NFC.

26:49Diante Lee:If he can be a really good wide receiver, the guy they thought they were drafting, then I think Green Bay's ceiling's a little higher. So I don't have them top five, but I do think they're going to be a top 10 offense this season. Where are you on the Green Bay Packers? I had them 11, and it all comes back to just some of the questions that I have that you were kind of laying out here. And this is not just specific to their offense. I think across this roster, we've seen a lot of their depth just be slowly stripped away over the last two to three off seasons. And now when you go and look at their depth chart, it's like, man, this used to be a team where I felt like it didn't even matter who their number ones and number twos were on either side of the ball because they just had so much to backfill around them to be able to kind of aggregate that level of production across their roster.

27:32I think this team right now is much more positioned to need Jordan Love to perform like a first-team All-Pro, MVP caliber quarterback, to really need Tucker Craft, who I think was just activated off of Pup, over this weekend to be there and available and looking the way that he did to start off the 2025 season. And on top of that, guys like Jaden Reed, guys like Christian Watson, it's really not even a matter of what you can produce, because I think that we've seen them year over year be strong production guys when they're available. They just have to be available, right? Like the conditions that have derailed the Packers' seasons over the last couple years, whether it's been an inopportune injury with this offensive line, Christian Watson having to miss a month, Jaden Reed being kind of 80 % or 75 % of himself over five to six weeks because he's nursing some nagging injury.

28:21Those are the reasons why I have them out of the top 10, and I think that that's also the reason why there's so much pressure on this team to deliver on all of the young promise that they have. They don't really have any other pathway to be a contender that I think they can be. They 100 % need this offensive line to be above its level. They definitely need Jaden Reed and Christian Watson to be number one, number two receiver types. And I think that Jordan Love is going to have to be a star for them to be that. In the event that they're able to check off two out of those three boxes, this could end up being the number one seed in the NFC.

28:51I think that they have that kind of ceiling with their offense. At least they will be in that conversation, I think, with Seattle and Los Angeles. Short of that, though, we could certainly see another season where Matt LaFleur is feeling his seat getting warm or having more conversations about, hey, is there going to be some mutual parting of ways? Is it ever going to happen for Green Bay in the Jordan Love era? I think that all of these things are on the table. It is a high-stress environment for Green Bay, and I wouldn't be surprised if they were great again. I just think I need to see health and then consistency on a week-by-week basis by the players around Jordan Love more than anything.

29:29Diante Lee:Yeah, LaFleur is kind of, how I described Love earlier, it's kind of similar where if you just look at the pro football reference page, it's kind of unassailable that he's one of the better coaches in the NFL. If you just watched him coach playoff games over the last few years, you'd be like, this guy's... You would think that he needed to be fired two years ago. Yeah, you would think he needs to be fired. So they're kind of a line there. I love the point you made about the O-line. I think that might be the biggest one. Love splits last year, very different. clean versus pressured. He was first in EPA for pass play when kept clean, 13th when pressured, where I know me personally, I hadn't always thought about him as that kind of guy.

30:08Diante Lee:And those stats can be noisy year to year. It doesn't mean it's going to be like that again this year. But if you feel like their O-line might take a step back this year, which I think would be a reasonable case to be made, then that could really impact Jordan Love in a way that maybe it's more so than other quarterbacks there. So, and then there's just always that like, they run the ball so much on early downs where you're like, I like Jordan Love. The stats like Jordan Love, but does Matt LaFleur like Jordan Love? Because they run the ball at the third highest rate in the NFL. I think it was Richard Sherman on a broadcast last year was like, he doesn't like trust.

30:40Diante Lee:It might not have been him, but for some reason, he's the one in my head is like, does he trust his quarterback? And I'm like, I mean, that kind of is true statistically. It's fair to ask that question when you look at the way they play. So yeah, I think there are questions about him. I leaned on the history here. It is funny to kind of talk about just like where his stock is because I think if we woke up tomorrow and we found out that Cincinnati and Green Bay had traded their head coaches straight up, I would look at Cincinnati and be like, there's no reason why this team can't be in the AFC championship game with Matt LaFleur calling their offense.

31:08If I woke up tomorrow and found out that Andy Reid and Matt LaFleur traded places and you're telling me that Matt LaFleur gets to work with Patrick Mahomes and how he kind of uses his spread, the spread iteration of the Shanahan-McVay system, I would have no reason not to have Kansas City as a potential top 10 offense. Even with all of the holes that we were talking about them having earlier. That said, I still 100 % recognize all the disappointments that we've seen in the playoffs. We've seen his offense be out-physicaled by Chicago last year, and that was not the most physical defense in the NFL.

31:39We have seen them bump into San Francisco and other teams that have just really been able to control the line of scrimmage and really been able to take away some of the things they want to do most in terms of pushing the ball downfield off the play-action game, I need to see this team have an answer, right? A legitimate, dependable answer in those scenarios. And this comes back to just the stress that there is on this team to deliver on being not really a top-10 offense, but really a top-5 offense, because that's what it's going to take to beat the top teams in the NFC. So that is a team I'm going to have my eye on.

32:09I would not be surprised again if they're right there. But for me, until I see Watson, Reed, Matthew Golden performing like they can be Pro Bowl players over the stretch of a full 17 game season, I am going to withhold optimism.

32:25Diante Lee:All right. Number eight, Deontay, who do you got? Let's see if we can finally agree on a team. Let's see. We're staying in the NFC North here. I'm going to go with the Detroit Lions. Okay. We both have the Detroit Lions in our top 10. I got them all the way up at number four. Oh, interesting. You're really buying Drew Petzing then. Well, you make your case for why you have them at eight, and then let's see where you're at, and I can tell you where maybe I disagree or I'm a little more bullish. I mean, that's where it begins with me, is Drew Petzing and I think trying to port over some of the things that he did well in Arizona to what's already available in Detroit, right?

33:04Like I think that one of the positives, one of the true positives of his time with the Cardinals was that he was, I don't want to say inventive, but I think he was willing to kind of ride the tide, right? With his run game. You have a mobile quarterback in Kyler Murray who needs to be in the gun and needs to be more spread out. We saw them kind of embrace multiple tight ends out of the gun and you're running a bunch of gap school to try to manufacture explosive plays. And off of that, now you can use your quarterback in the option game to be able to take advantage of overaggressive defenses who are really trying to crash down to take away those openings between the tackles.

33:38I think that in Detroit, it's not going to be that way because Jared Goff is obviously not as mobile as a Kyler Murray is, but you have an offensive line that they're trying to rebuild or retool to be able to move people again on the interior. And I think that's part of the reason why it got hired, is that they probably looked at all the different ways in which Drew Petsing was able to take a bad offensive line in Arizona, a very specific style of play with Kyler Murray, and still be able to generate some interesting run games. And I think that Dan Campbell ultimately views the best version of Detroit as one that can do that, that can pound teams in between the tackles.

34:11And I think that Petson can be that. Ultimately, whether or not this is a 8-10 offense or a 3-5 offense really comes back to Jared Goff, right? And I think that that is one thing that I don't have a good answer for because we just never saw Arizona string together prolific passing attacks on a week-to-week basis often enough. Underpetting for me to feel like this really can be upper-crust NFL offensively. But I do think that the run game will be strong enough. They'll be explosive again. You have Jameer Gibbs. You should have a healthy Sam Laporta. I think that between the tackles, it can still be one of the five best teams in the league.

34:48And then the ceiling ultimately is going to be determined on whether or not Jared Goff can fight away the eight an incoming age cliff eventually and still be able to push the ball downfield in the play-action passing game.

34:59Diante Lee:Yeah, I'm not like Drew Petsing's going to be Bill Walsh and take him to another level. I just feel like it will be a little more settled this year. Last year was coming off of Ben Johnson and Campbell hires a guy and then takes away play-calling duties. It's going to be one person's sort of voice and structure and foundation here in Drew Petsing. And I just feel like last year was not as bad as maybe our minds remember. You know, I think they got a little unlucky. I'm not saying it was perfect. There were some ups and downs for sure. When you look at it, their offense was sixth in EPA per drive and seventh in DVOA last year.

35:36Diante Lee:And they finished between three and eight for four straight seasons. So I just looked at it like there's kind of a small window here where it might not matter who the offensive coordinator is because they are loaded with talent, with maybe the best version of Jamison Williams. Williams we've seen Amon Ross St. Brown, Laporta, Jameer Gibbs. Like when you have all those guys and you're just a defensive coordinator getting ready to face the Lions, it's hard because you need to have answers for how you're going to cover all those guys, how you're going to count for all those guys. I thought the run game, you know, it was kind of hit or miss last year.

36:10Diante Lee:Like there were times early in the first half of last season where I'm like, Jameer Gibbs looks like the best player in football. Like he's just taking over games. And then you look at some of the numbers and it It wasn't, you know, down to down, the consistency of their run game really wasn't there. So the O-line, this is kind of a running theme. They did make some changes there. They're kind of relying on some young players up front. But I think the O-line is still going to be above average. I think the supporting cast is terrific. And we know who Jared Goff is at this point in his career. If kind of the infrastructure is there, if the conditions are favorable, he can dice you up and you can be like, how could anyone say this guy is not a phenomenal quarterback?

36:49Diante Lee:and if some of those things start to falter and he faces some pressure, then all of a sudden, it's kind of like what I mentioned with Jordan Love, probably to a much greater extent where he's really going to crumble under that pressure. So I just felt good about it. I felt really good about them being in the top eight and then I was like, well, why can't they be a little bit better than they were last year with some more stability with the play caller? So yeah, I have the Lions at four. Deontay has them at eight, but we finally, Deontay, agree on one team in the top 10. There you go. It took long enough.

37:23It took long enough. I know we're going to have a lot in the top five that are probably aligned, but I am interested about six and seven as well.

37:31Diante Lee:All right. Well, let me get you my eighth, number eight team here, Deontay. And am I a sucker for a coach who mentions regression in a press conference? Possibly. Maybe I had him at 12 or 13, team, but I'm like, all right, if Ben Johnson's just going to pander to the nerds like me, then I'm going to go ahead and have the Bears in my top 10. So I got Chicago here at number eight, Deontay. Are the Bears in Deontay Lee's top 10 or did they just miss? They just missed. They're in that 10 to 14 range again with the cluster of teams that could be in there, but I'm just not really ready to totally jump in with them.

38:10But make your case, So what are you looking at with Chicago that makes you believe there'll be a top 10 offense this year?

38:15Diante Lee:Well, there really is. I mean, the nerd part of my brain is like there really is a strong case for them to not be in the top 10 because they were ninth last year. And if you look at it, they were second in turnover EPA. So that just means that, you know, how much was each team hurt by turnovers last year? Only one offense was hurt less than the Bears by turnovers last year. And that's not something you can really count on year to year. They stayed relatively healthy. They were eighth in FTN's adjusted games loss metric, which means they had the eighth healthiest offense in the NFL. So I factored those things in.

38:48Diante Lee:And then I'm just like, I trust Ben Johnson to figure this thing out. The way he just figured out that run game last year and how good that run game was in his first season, where maybe he didn't even have all the guys he wanted. I'm like, all right, that's something you can lean on. The run game. I like that Caleb Williams is going to avoid sacks at one of the, you know, one of the best rates in the NFL that, all right, the offensive line isn't perfect. There's going to be some pressure, but you know what? So he's, he's going to be able to escape some of those with his legs. I know he can create those high degree of difficulty plays.

39:23Diante Lee:And so I'm not like all in where I'm like, Oh, Caleb Williams is going to win MVP and be a top five quarterback this year. I do think that's in play with his upside. You know, I like, I don't think you're crazy. If you want to make that prediction, I do want to see that consistency from him. I I have some questions about the O-line, but this came down to talented quarterback, coach I really trust, what I saw last year, that they're going to avoid taking a major step back. So that's my case. I don't hate it. I think that for me, my hangup is that this run game was really reliant on Joe Tooney, who's entering his mid-30s, Jonah Jackson, who just could not get healthy in Los Angeles, and then kind of finds himself in Chicago, and all of a sudden he's good to go.

40:08I don't know if I'm as comfortable with really relying on those guys. That said, I mean... Left tackle's a question. Yeah, the O-line is a question. There's no doubt about it. You know, so there is a lot to be uncomfortable with up front. I think that there's a fair counter-argument that all those questions existed last year, and they had absolutely no problem just dominating teams between the tackles, especially in the second half of the season. And then you look at their skill position group, And in spite of not having anybody who really screams out all pro in 2026 outside of maybe Colston Loveland and whatever you believe of Caleb Williams and his ceiling to be in his third season, the receiving core is pretty well built, right?

40:47I think you can make a case that they have all the skill sets they need and maybe just not enough of the name recognition outside of their young star quarterback, right? I wouldn't be surprised at all if Colston Loveland leads all tight ends in passing touch and receiving touch. He could be an all pro. Yeah, he easily could be an all-pro at tight ends. Based on what we saw over the last five, six weeks of the year, I mean, there were times where I'm like, this might be the most unguardable tight end short of Trey McBride in the league, right? Like teams just couldn't do anything with him in the red zone.

41:14They couldn't do anything with him once they were in plus territory because he is so consistent at being able to get open. And Ben Johnson has done such a great job of mixing up where he's aligned and really kind of growing out his route tree. I think that the two players that would need to show up to make this happen outside of some of the guys we talked about will be Luther Burden and Roma Dundee. Yes. Right? I think that last year, going into last year, I was really excited for what Roma Dundee could have been for a Ben Johnson offense. We just didn't really see it come to fruition, right? I think that now there's no DJ Moore, so now there's more necessity.

41:47So maybe you're going to see more targets just by just being forced to him because there aren't many other places for the ball to go. And then Luther Burden, I think, needs to be maybe not exactly a Jalen Waddell for this offense, but some kind of version of that, right? You think about guys like Ladd McConkie. I mentioned Jalen Waddell, these guys who can take these underneath passes. And even if you're not breaking them out for touchdowns, you can go turn what should be just a six-yard gain to keep you on schedule into a chunk gain that changes the shape of a drive. I think that Burden kind of sold that.

42:21That was part of the reason why he was drafted in the top 100 coming into the league. I think that clearly, if you listen to Ben Johnson's comments at training camp and throughout the minicamp time of the year, he clearly believes that that's on the table for Luther Burden. There seems to be a lot of expectations that he's going to step in and be either the Amon Ross St. Brown of this offense or something more close to kind of what I was talking about in terms of those like ultimate yak threats. And if those two things happen, this could 100 % be a top 10 offense, even if the offensive line and run game takes a step back.

42:51But again, there's just a lot hanging up in the air in terms of what we can expect from last year carrying over to this year. and the thing that really holds me up is that their first and second down rushing success rate was third in the league last year. The two teams are behind the Rams and Bills, two teams that have proven already over a two, three-year sample size that they can just mash teams no matter what you're doing to them defensively. We have not yet seen that from the Bears up front. I think that Ben Johnson is capable of that as a play caller. They just have not necessarily purchased enough goodwill with me just yet for me to think that that's exactly what's going to happen this year.

43:28Diante Lee:It's funny, Deontay. Your view of the Bears is like my view of the Jaguars. I mean, it's really very similar. I mean, those two teams were kind of mirrored last year. Very similar. They got hot around the same time. Absolutely. The metrics kind of line up, you know, between the two teams. So, yeah, I think that there is a case to make that if you're bullish on one, you should be bullish on the other. But I think that just speaks to, again, just feel. Or you have to pick one. How about that? Right, exactly. You can't be bullish on both. Exactly. So, you know, and I think that out of those two teams, teams, both could be top 10 and both could 100 % be 17th, 18th because their run game takes a step back and maybe the turnover margin regresses to something that makes them look a little worse, even if they are a more complete team ultimately in 2026.

44:11Diante Lee:Yeah, two guys who look like bright offensive play callers who should be around for a while. But you know what? We've said that about other guys before and it hasn't always worked out. Two of the most talented quarterback prospects we've seen in the last decade when you're just like, you know, is there anything that they can't do from a physical perspective? I would put both those guys in that category. And now we see, you know, does it take, get, get to another level with one of these pairings, both of these pairings, neither of these pairings, uh, this year, by the way, for, if you don't know what I was talking about with the regression thing, I do need to remind myself, not everyone's in our little, uh, NFL bubble.

44:46Diante Lee:Ben Johnson was asked something about, you know, how do you deal with the bears being hyped coming off a strong season? and he was like, well, we're the number one regression candidate. So I don't, you know, it's just last year, you said something about EPA for pass play, this year regression. It's very easy to, you know, just get me, put in the palm of your hands, just like, all right, Shield's going to say nice things about us and Ben Johnson's doing a couple of those things. All right, so Deontay's got them out of, just outside the top 10. I've got them at number eight. All right, we moved to number seven, Deontay.

45:21Diante Lee:So, so far, the only team we both have in the top 10 is the Detroit Lions. I have a feeling we're going to get on the same page a little bit more, maybe right about now. Who do you have? Who's number seven? So, I think that very similar to how you refuse to be on the wrong side of a Patrick Mahomes season, where like, hey, I'm just going to be safe and not put myself in a position where I'm getting clipped up by their social team for not believing in them. I'm the same way with Baltimore. And at seven, I've got the Ravens, right? Okay. I think for me, the thing that I'm banking on ultimately is that Derrick Henry is ageless and that Lamar Jackson can be an elite quarterback in any system.

46:00I think that we've seen evidence of the two already. Lamar's transition to the Todd Munkin offense was seamless. And he played like an MVP with Todd Munkin when he was healthy. And last year, prior to the hamstring injury, even though he wasn't playing his best ball, we were seeing some interceptions. for the most part, his dropbacks on a play-to-play basis were still looking relatively strong in the first month or so of the season outside of that Chiefs game. I think that I believe, well, what I really believe is that Declan Doyle, if he was able to bring over the Ben Johnson offense in terms of under center run game to set up easy play action passes, which means now Lamar Jackson does not have to risk his legs as often on early downs, that we can get to something a little more akin to what we've seen in Buffalo, right, with Josh Allen, where he doesn't have to do a ton of heavy lifting on first and second down, which does free him up in the red zone, in these third and obvious passing situations, to just be the ultimate eraser of any issues that that offense has with the Bills.

47:03I think that ultimately that's what Declan Doyle is probably going to seek out to try to build around Lamar Jackson. And if they're young receivers or unproven receivers, which there are a lot of questions about that receiving core coming into this season, if one of those young guys can break out or if Zay Flowers can be a week-to-week threat the way that we've seen in fits and starts throughout his career, then I think it's probably a little more comfortable for me making them a top 10 team. Right now, this is a lot of wish casting and me saying MVP-level quarterback, Offensive Player of the Year-level running back.

47:34I'm just going to bank on those two Hall of Fame talents being able to figure it out in any offensive ecosystem. And I do have a lot of belief that Declan Doyle can give me some version of what we saw in Chicago last year with Lamar Jackson in this O.

47:49Diante Lee:There's for sure a high ceiling there. Just, I mean, at a very basic level, what you said there, when you have a quarterback who's won MVP twice and you feel like you're putting him in a scheme that's going to work, it could be fireworks where we're saying, man, why didn't they, you know, they should have done this four years ago or something like that. So I think that's in play. I have them just missing the cut, Deontay. And you're probably not that surprised because you were laying out some of the question marks. Here are the two big questions I have about the Ravens, and I want your take. The first question is, is this supporting cast good enough?

48:22Diante Lee:I mean, I look at this, and you mentioned, you're like, Zay Flowers, and who else is? And then what? Yeah. And is catching. I mean, if he's out for a month, who were you throwing the football to in this offense? You know, like you said, there always could be an unexpected player who rises up, and you're like, okay. But that's not a sure thing. when you compare into a team like the Lions we just discussed or some of these other teams. It's like, no, I know. They lose one guy. You have all those guys. Defensive coordinators are sweating. Derrick Henry, Lamar Jackson, say Flowers. I'm not saying that's easy to defend, but just in terms of the passing game, I don't think they have the type of options that I would like a team to have if Lamar Jackson were my quarterback.

49:06Diante Lee:That's one. And then are we sure the O-line's going to be good this year? in Baltimore? Are you bullish or not? I think that's a big conversation piece. I don't know if I'm bullish. I think I'm willing to believe that they can be league average. And I think that what Jackson and Henry can do, even with the league average offensive line, is enough to get them over the hump and to be in the top 10 offense. And I think, honestly, prior to them signing Ethan Posik, and this is me assuming that he's going to be healthy and available and at his best self. Obviously, I know he got cleared right before he signed with Baltimore, and it seemed like there were some positive signs for his health for the 2026 season.

49:44And maybe I'm just willing to suspend enough disbelief to believe in that. Prior to, when it was just Danny Pinter and, you know, a rookie in Vega Ioane and John Simpson at this age with a tread on his tires. Like, we are kind of, I'm pretty tense about what this might look like. So yeah, at their absolute best, I still think this is probably maybe only the 12th to 14th best offensive line. And I think the median outcome probably is something closer to 18th, 19th in the league. And then you're just asking your quarterback to lift that level. We've seen him do that. We've seen Derrick Henry do that.

50:18But a lot of that, I think, is going to be reliant upon Zay Flowers being the best version of himself. Honestly, Rashad Bateman, I don't know where you're at with Bateman. I haven't totally bailed on the ability. I think that the expectation that he was going to fold into a number one receiver role clearly has passed him by. And I think that maybe a Jacoby Lane has to be one of those third down DeAndre Hopkins-esque, you can just throw the ball up and he's going to go catch everything, which was on tape coming out of USC, but that is a big ask for a rookie receiver, right, who didn't have a complete route tree coming into the league anyhow.

50:54There's a lot up in the air with them, maybe more than any team that I've talked about being in the top 10 so far, but ultimately I think, again, I'm just going to bank on their superstar talent at quarterback and running back being enough to figure this out.

51:06Diante Lee:Okay, so here's my other question. So one was about the supporting cast. And we'll do this a little deep dive on the Ravens here, but I think they are a very interesting team going into this season. Is Lamar Jackson entering a different phase of his career or was he just playing through injuries last season? Now, we know Lamar Jackson can operate from the pocket. He might look like a different version who is also an awesome quarterback. I'm not saying decline. But there are some numbers as I was doing my deep dives for this, Deontay. Last year, he was sacked on 11 % of his dropbacks. Only Geno Smith was sacked at a higher rate.

51:44That's a bad quarterback indicator typically is having a sack rate that high.

51:50Diante Lee:Right. And then you have the stat pressure to sack rate, which just looks at how many times were you pressured, how many of those pressures turned into sacks. He was 32nd in that category. All of his rushing numbers were career-worst numbers last year. Now, this could be as simple as Lamar Jackson was playing injured last year. It's no sign of he's entering a different phase of his career. But also, when quarterbacks are really great at using that escapability and athleticism early in their career, it doesn't last forever. We have this conversation with quarterbacks all the time. How long can that aspect last?

52:27Diante Lee:So he's just such an interesting player to me this year because, again, it could be he's not running a lot. Maybe he's not taking more sacks, but that's because the scheme's really working for him and he's just carving people up. I mean, we can go to his pro football reference page and look at some of the passing numbers over the years. Maybe it's that kind of year that's coming for Lamar Jackson. But that just, my radar's up a little bit on that, whether we're going to see kind of a different version of him here going forward or whether that was just kind of a one-year play. I think that's fair.

52:56I think that my thing would be is a pocket is a more pocket centric version of Lamar Jackson in 2026 and beyond something closer to what Dak Prescott has been at his, you know, when he's been healthy and available. And I do think that that's on the table, right? Prescott doesn't come into the league with the strongest arm ever, right? He was a guy who was a little bit more mobile than a pocket passer who just really kind of built up his game, you know, within structure enough to be able to play at a pro bowl, a consistent pro bowl, sometimes all pro level, you know, from the pocket when he's available.

53:26and we've seen when Dak gets hurt, you know, because he has suffered quite a few lower body injuries, all of a sudden those sack rates do go up. The interception, you know, the turnover-worthy plays do go up because he can't escape, he can't extend as often. And I think maybe that is something that's on the table for Lamar Jackson and that does change the context in which we talk about him, right? Because so much of what makes him unique is the fact that at any point in time, what would have been a sack or what would have been a QB hit on a check down is now an 18-yard scramble for a first down, right?

53:55That is something that you do have to fear. And maybe this does mean that he has to phase into a different version of himself going forward. But I think what we saw in 2024 and definitely what we saw in 2023 was when he's dialed in in the pocket and in rhythm, this guy can dice defenses up without ever having to step outside the tackle box. I'm willing to bank on the fact that this was more of an injury-related thing and that when he's back to 100%, even if the rushing numbers, the scramble numbers can tend to trend downward, continue to trend downward, that we can still see something stable, even if it's not at peak MVP level.

54:31I think we can still get a 30 to 33 touchdown, passing touchdown season, and he can keep those interceptions and sacks low enough to justify him not being a scrambler as often.

54:42Diante Lee:All right, there you go. There is a case for it. There's some variance, I think, with that offense. I think the Ravens are a very interesting team. All right, number seven for me, Deontay. I've got the New England Patriots as my number seven offense. They're on your list. How high do you have the Patriots? I actually have them fourth. So I'm pretty bullish on this team. Okay, so you're pretty bullish on the Patriots. I felt good about having them in my top 10. You just look at how they performed last year, and then you just look at the big upgrade they made at wide receiver with A.J. Brown and Romeo Dobbs, and you feel like, hey, that could easily make them an even better offense this season.

55:25Diante Lee:So I think the case for them is pretty straightforward. They're really good last year. They made it to the Super Bowl. They upgraded wide receiver. Why wouldn't they be better? Okay, so let me give you the reason why I have them at seven, maybe rather than four. And I was a little bit like, all right, I do think there are some potentially some issues here. One of them is I still don't know that the offensive line is going to be great here. I know I sound like a broken record with some of these offenses. Now, they did address it. They addressed it in the draft. They're hoping to get healthy play out of Elijah Vera Tucker.

55:58Diante Lee:But there are some unknowns there up front. And if you look at it, the pressure to sack rate I mentioned with Lamar Jackson, I didn't realize this last year. I don't think at any time. Drake May, if you include the playoffs, Deontay, 35th out of 38 quarterbacks in pressure to sack rate. His pressure to sack rate was the same as Cam Ward last year. Now, I know he faced a lot of quick pressures. I know the offensive line wasn't good, but a lot of those pressures ended up turning into sacks. And so now if you're saying you're not sure about the offensive line, and by the way, they got really good injury luck overall, not in the playoffs with Drake Bay playing injured, but in the regular season, their depth wasn't tested as much as other teams.

56:39Diante Lee:And now if you say, all right, well, what if they get some injuries up front with a guy like Vera Tucker, who has had trouble staying healthy. Now I'm getting a little nervous about that. And then I was just thinking overall what it takes to play 21 games in a season, especially when you're May and you were playing injured and you were taking hits against really good defenses. I mean, and carrying the entire offense, every single down. Correct, in the entire regular season. So that made me, you know, year one, he had, what, at least one concussion and I think we weren't sure about the other one.

57:12Diante Lee:And then last year, he's got this injury that really makes him a shell of himself in the postseason. Those things made me a little bit nervous about the Patriots and their ability to just do what they did last year and do it better because they have two better wide receivers. I think that the Patriots learned the right lesson from that playoff run, which is that, yes, it is possible that we have a franchise-changing, game-altering talent at quarterback that could end up being in the MVP race for the next decade. We also just watched him get absolutely battered by good defenses week over week, and we just saw that slowly sap all the things that made him such a special talent in the regular season.

57:57And they went out, and I think that they, as aggressively as possible, tried to address some of the things that were a problem for them down the stretch of the year. So you go out, you add an A.J. Brown to go be your man-beater. That was what I think they were hoping that Stephon Diggs could have been for them last year before he just kind of settled into being that kind of chain moving, zone beating type of underneath threat as a receiver. You go get a Romeo Dobbs, who can now fill in for what Stephon Diggs left behind. He can be that chain mover type. He can be a contested catch guy. He can go make catches in traffic and help them stay on schedule as a passing game.

58:32So you check those boxes off. I still think it's fair to have some questions about their offensive line, but given what they tried to do in one offseason, you go add Elijah Barrett Tucker, who has had health problems throughout his career, but when he's available, plays typically like a top 12 guard in the NFL, especially in the run game, which I think they're going to need to take some things off of Drake May's plate. And then you go get Caleb Lomo, I think, ostensibly as an insurance plan against Morgan Moses getting hurt, against needing to move Will Campbell if he proves that he just can't handle, you know, the ask of being a left tackle on a week-to-week basis.

59:08I think that they gave themselves just enough optionality up front to be able to say, hey, at least for a season, we can say that we did what we could to try to improve the ecosystem around Drake May and not ask him to have to be the most explosive, the most accurate, you know, the best scrambler, you know, the leader of our run game, really, you know, in terms of being able to keep us ahead of the chains. I think that they did all that they can do. and if their wide receiver core is able to force more light boxes, it's able to dissuade team from blitzing as often, and now you are able to lean more on the run game, you are able to get the ball out of Drake May's hands and clean pockets more often, that alone should do it in terms of keeping this team in the top 10.

59:48They may regress in terms of the otherworldly production, but I think they're a more complete team now than they were at this time last year.

59:56Diante Lee:Or could be better equipped to take on playoff teams. Yeah, I agree with that, just with the firepower they added. All right, let's take one more break. We come back. We get to our top six, right? It's kind of like our top five because we already both have our fourth one there. You had the Patriots fourth. I had the Lions fourth. So we got five more slots to get through. We'll do that when we return. All right, back on the Ringer NFL show, Deontay, number six. Who do you got? I think my number six team is probably the last one on my list that doesn't have like bonafide superstar talent across the board, right?

1:00:32Maybe one of two teams, depending on how you feel about Buffalo, who I know we'll get to eventually. This is the Los Angeles Chargers. Like I'm buying the good vibes, man. I'm buying the good vibes.

1:00:42Diante Lee:We both have them at six, Deontay. Perfect. We both have the Chargers at six. What could go wrong? Been to a couple of their practices throughout this off season. Saw them at mini camp. Saw them at training camp last week. You know, and just listening to some of the quotes that are leaving the building. You know, you talk to people who are there on a day-to-day basis about how they are interpreting the vibes, coming out of the locker room, coming out of the coach's office. I think that there's a lot of optimism that Mike McDaniel genuinely is the missing piece for this offense. And I think that that plus good health actually could be exactly what this team needs.

1:01:18Getting the ball out of Justin Herbert's hands so he's not the most hit, you know, most knocked down quarterback in the league the way that he was last season. building an infrastructure for the run game that isn't as predictable, isn't as, you know, dependent upon being able to just beat guys and man blocking, snap over snap, the way that we saw with Greg Roman last year. And then I think another year of Trey Harris, of adding guys like Kendrick Lambert-Smith, you know, having a healthy Ladd McConkie, adding Charlie Kohler to the tight end room. Like you look now, the depth that this team has in terms of his playmaking talent is far and away better than what it was two years ago, certainly last year, and assuming health, even if guys do get banged up too, I should say, they have enough now I think to be able to carry this offense through a 17-game schedule and not be asking Justin Herbert to hang in with broken hands or busted ribs and all the other things we've seen this guy have to brave it through on a week-to-week basis to be able to keep this offense afloat.

1:02:17I think that there is legitimate top 10 potential. I would say that their ceiling is probably capped, I would say, around fifth or sixth because I just struggle to see them having a true breakout passing game in terms of just receiving talent that's able to carry them into that top three, top four type of conversation. But I love what I think this team has done to kind of raise the floor around Justin Herbert. And if Herbert's available on a week-to-week basis, there's almost no way to me I could see this team being worse than the six to eight range in the NFL.

1:02:45Diante Lee:Now listen, they've only had a top 10 offense once in six seasons, with Justin Herbert. So for the Herbert haters out there, we're telling both sides. Joe Lombardi's not calling plays anymore. So, you know, I would ask the Herbert haters to, you know, suspend, you know, suspension of disbelief for a second. Listen, they might say, there's been a few OCs, you know, they seem to keep getting fired, Deontay, every year or two. Now, I know you would say, and I think it's fair that they haven't really found a good one. If you would give up your offensive coordinator for Joe Lombardi or Greg Mowen, please message me on Twitter or Blue Sky.

1:03:21I would love to hear this argument.

1:03:23Diante Lee:All right, listen. Sometimes you have to know what's coming with a segment of the audience and you have to address it beforehand. So I think that it's only happened once. Again, six seasons with Justin Herbert as the starter, top 10 offense once. We're both bullish on him this year. I mean, you mentioned the ceilings capped. We talked about A.J. Brown and Jalen Waddell. I did get to the point where I'm like, man, a player like that would have looked really good on this Chargers team. Are we going to say that was a missed opportunity for the Chargers? I think potentially we are. But to your point, I'm just kind of putting the trust in Mike McDaniel.

1:04:01Diante Lee:I'm putting the trust in Justin Herbert and his talent and his production and his performance. I'm looking at the tackles and saying they got to play more games than they played last year when Rashawn Slater missed the entire season and Joe Alt missed 11 games. I'm looking at the pass catchers saying, okay, it's not like a top five, top 10 group, but McConkie, Quentin Johnson, Gadsden, Hampton in the run game, like there's enough talent there for the Chargers to make that leap and be number six. Now, have we both had Chargers takes and Herbert takes and whatever over the course of our careers that we would like scrubbed from the internet?

1:04:37Diante Lee:Of course, I had him, I think, winning MVP in his second season. It did not necessarily go that way. And so who knows? I understand. There's always, it feels like Chargers hype in this summer. And we'll see when we get to our season predictions, whether we really believe them in them as a Super Bowl caliber team, depending on what you think of the defense. But yeah, I felt good about it. I felt good about them being in the top 10. And as I do it, I come up the initial list and then I start at one and then I get to two and I'm like, all right, am I sure I like one more than two? Yes. And then I get to two.

1:05:10Diante Lee:All right. Am I sure? All right. Yeah. And it's just like - We were very similar. Yeah, and I got to the Chargers, and I'm like, I think this is the right spot. I have them at six. You have them at six. Like I said, what could go wrong? Chargers fans, sorry. You probably prefer that we just had them at 32. Honestly, I think that this has been a little too much optimism over the offseason for Chargers fans. If you're a Chargers fan, knowing the curse nature of this franchise, you've got to be feeling like, can people stop looking at us? Deja vu. I know. It's every year for them. All right, so we both have the Chargers at number six.

1:05:43Diante Lee:Number five, Deontay, who do you have at number five on your list? Number five for me are the Dallas Cowboys. Okay, I've got the Cowboys up at number three. So we're in a similar range. Dallas Cowboys, you got them top five. Is the case just straightforward? They were good last year. They're going to be good again this year, or is there more to it? It's really just as simple as that. the things that made this offense as good as it was last season is still around. I trust Brian Schottenheimer as a play caller, as a game manager. I think that he was clearly able to get more out of Dak Prescott last year than what we saw Michael McCarthy get out of him.

1:06:21Diante Lee:What a sentence, by the way. And I agree with you. No, seriously. If you would have told me two years ago that I would be other than that. If you would have told me at the time of the press conference. That's right. You have to change your opinions based on what you see. And I think he's done a pretty good job. I can't believe it, but it's true. 100%. I think that what we saw from George Pickens, if you would have told me that George Pickens, fresh off of a trade and not being paid, was going to show up and be this unguardable X receiver for this team, I wouldn't have believed that either. So much so that it kind of came at the expense of CeeDee Lamb's production, right, in some points, because Jack Prescott has such a strong connection with George Pickens throughout the year.

1:06:58But yeah, this is a team that just checks all the boxes. You want supporting cast, they've got two, you know, bona fide number one type wide receivers. Jake Ferguson has been a very dependable tight end. You have a running game that you're able to lean on. You have a healthy Javante Williams, which hopefully remains his way because he was a very enjoyable watch once we got him healthy again in the NFL. And I hope that we're able to continue to see him affect games as a power runner between the tackles the way that we did last year. Their offensive line is young. You know, it's reliable, both good in the run game and the pass game.

1:07:29And they kept their staff together, right? Like there really wasn't any brain drain. There's really nothing to point to that would tell you that you should be concerned that this team is going to take some unforeseen step back from last year to this year. If anything, I wouldn't be surprised at all if we're having conversations about how they might be the number one or number two offense in the league if guys are healthy and they're performing at peak capacity again this year.

1:07:51Diante Lee:Yeah, I was just looking at history and I know Dak Prescott, not everybody's a fan of Dak Prescott. If you just look at it historically, when he is on the field for them, the offense is good. And that's been with different supporting cast, different offensive lines, different play callers. The last five times Dak Prescott has played at least 12 games, they've had a top eight offense. Like that's a pretty remarkable run of consistency that I think speaks to the quarterback's play for the Cowboys. Now, you know, the rest of the Cowboys, obviously they haven't had a playoff success. And that's a conversation for another day.

1:08:26Diante Lee:But last year they were fourth in EPA per drive. To your point, they return their top five pass catchers from last year. They return seven of their top eight offensive linemen from last year. It's the same scheme. It's the same OC. It's the same staff. It's just a very reliable offense. Now, could there be injuries or something weird, fluky happening with turnover? Sure. That can happen with any offense we talk about today. But when I just felt like, man, unless something like that happens where you're just, you know, from hell with the injuries. I feel really good about this offense being really good in the regular season.

1:09:01Diante Lee:The Cowboys were almost up there with any team for me. So yeah, I had them at number three. You had them at number five. We are on the same page there with the Dallas Cowboys. All right. So I got to give you my number five team, which I think you might not have in your top ten. Oh, I see. I got the Cincinnati Bengals at number five, Deontay. Nope. They're number three for me. Oh, three. What an upset. Deontay more bullish on the Bengals offense than me. That was off the board for Van Dool for that to be the case. I just feel like I've been the high man on the Bengals on every podcast I've done.

1:09:34If we want to talk about the whole 53, then we can have a different conversation.

1:09:38Diante Lee:But if you're just telling me about one side of the ball, then I'm right there with you on this. All right. So we both like the Bengals. My case here is it's very similar to what I just said about Daff. when Joe Burrow has been healthy and played the requisite amount of games, the offense is generally good. They were, I think, seventh, I want to say, in 2024. They were fifth in 2022. The health concerns are real. The health concerns are real with a lot of these guys. It's hard. You get hit and there's a lot, you know, it's a violent sport. And so I don't like to just predict what quarterback's going to get injured.

1:10:13Diante Lee:But when you look at Burrow and those wide receivers, it's just like, that's hard to defend every week for a lot of NFL defense. Jamar Chase is very hard to account for. T. Higgins, very hard to account for. Their run game, actually, this surprised me, Deontay, because in my head, I didn't think the run game was very good last year. Statistically, the run game was quite good last year. It was uniquely efficient for the last two seasons. Yeah. They've been able to get away with not really having difference and making talent in the backfield. I think the Chase Brown is probably better than he gets credit for, right?

1:10:45Like, I know the fantasy football guys will be quick to correct me on that and tell me how dependable he is on a week-to-week basis because he does get light boxes. But I think that they've built up the kind of running game infrastructure that they didn't have in 2022 and 2023 when teams just started saying, hey, we'll just play cover two and cover four and we're just going to make Joe Burrow sit in the pocket and just get beat up by our pass rush. They've built, I think, something that's a lot more dependable now than they used to have.

1:11:09Diante Lee:It's really interesting because the early days of Burrow and those wide receivers was so fun and they're bombing it downfield and it's explosives. and then we know what happened. Teams changed how they wanted to play against them. And now I still feel like the way for them to get in the top five, they still need to find a way to manufacture explosives. I mean, if you look at the numbers last year, the explosives are not where you would want them to be for a team that has Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase, and Tee Higgins. And I know we've discussed this before. It's like when a defense wants to force you into doing one thing, you kind of can't just do that thing and be like, all right, they're taking away explosives.

1:11:44Diante Lee:Like you still need to find a way And that's easier for me to say when I don't have to, you know, figure out a way schematically or I'm not the players playing. But I almost felt like looking at it, there were times last year where it just felt a little too conservative, a little bit too much of take what the defense gives you and check it down and get the ball out. So I think the way for them to really make that leap into the top three or the top five is to combine the run game, which is a little bit better. The O-line, which I think secretly is not that bad. I mean, if you look at the numbers from last year, pressure rate, it was the lowest sack rate of Joe Burrow's career.

1:12:20Diante Lee:I think they're more towards the middle of the path than to - Their interior is a lot better. It's a lot better. A lot better than it gets credit for. Amarius Mims could end up being a really good player for them at tackle. So there's just a lot I like here. And again, it's really similar to the team we just talked about with the Cowboys where Joe Burrow, I think the last, I forget, three, four years, he's been healthy. He's ranked top 10 in EPA per pass play. The supporting cast is very similar. Like the formula works, whether the ceiling is this high or whether it's more 7, 8, 9, 10, we can talk about that.

1:12:53Diante Lee:But yeah, I felt pretty good about the Bengals and you felt even better about them. 100%. I think the one thing that the Cowboys were able to access that we just didn't see enough from Cincinnati is they do have an ability to change gears, play heavier personnel, and really be able to mash teams between the tackles in the run game. Whereas Cincinnati has been a little bit more, give us light boxes, we can count. If we've got a numbers advantage here, we're just going to take the four to five yards you're handing away. I would like to see Cincinnati incorporate a little bit more of that. Part of the issue is that because they have built their offense so hyper-specifically to be this 11 personnel, spread out, shotgun, let Joe Burrow cook with his 35 to 40 dropbacks a game.

1:13:38it doesn't really lend itself to the current era of football. When we start talking about some of the other offenses we expect to be in the top 10, we've kind of hit on some of the same points. The ability to control games on the ground. A lot of that comes from being able to get under center and have multiple tight end sets or be able to add a fullback or a fullback-esque talent to be able to go add a gap in the run game when you need it. You're talking about play-action game. Can you draw a defense forward to find easy passes in the intermediate area of the field So that way a team like Seattle, right, a team like Philadelphia, ones who are really inviting you to just play more spread out and say, hey, we're just going to sit on you in between the hashes.

1:14:16We're not going to give you anything easy. You're going to have to go get your explosive plays the hardest way possible on these 50-50 balls way deep downfield. And we've got all these different coverages to make you have to pause before you let the ball go. I think the Cincinnati is very similar to Kansas City. they're interesting teams to kind of look at the meta of the game, right? If you're trying to find a lens of where has the game been at and where is it going? You used to really be able to count, you know, kind of sight unseen a team like Cincinnati and say, this is probably going to be the first or second best offense in the league because they just have superstar talent all over the case.

1:14:49And built very similarly to the old Colts in the Peyton Manning era in that respect. Whereas now you look at teams like, you know, Los Angeles, you look at what a team like Philadelphia is doing, kind of divesting from that model to say, hey, we want to be a little bit more balanced across the board. You know, you look at the Lions, you look at the Chargers. A lot of these teams are trying to balance out their attacks, even if it comes at the expense of not having star talent. I'm fascinated to see. I think this year will be kind of a nexus point for this team. Maybe kind of that fork in the road moment where they have to decide whether or not it's really about leaning into the superstar talent or if it's going to be more about, hey, we've got to diversify some of these things that we do offensively to get the most out of every single play.

1:15:31Diante Lee:I was thinking as I was looking at all these teams and we mentioned the Ravens changing the way they're playing and the Eagles changing the way they're playing and the way the Bills play now. There is going to be a time in probably the next three to five years where we're just going, oh, this team is going back to the spread and playing 11 personnel. And oh, this is, oh, this is, okay, this is back now. It's no longer getting the tight ends and the fullbacks on there and getting under center and using play action because you know what? The defenses went so far that way with their nickels, making sure those nickels can fit the run.

1:16:03Diante Lee:Well, those nickels now can't cover these dynamic slot receivers. It's just so funny. It's like every three to five years, it's going to be different. So maybe the Bengals are like, you know what? We're ahead of the curve. We're not changing. The defense will come back to us. Eventually the game will come back to us. Yes. Listen, Sean McVay hired Cliff Kingsbury this offseason. That caught my attention a little bit. Why is he hiring Cliff Kingsbury? They need a little trick up their sleeve in case what they used last year doesn't work and they need to pivot again. I don't know. Maybe, just a thought I had.

1:16:32Diante Lee:All right, so we basically flipped the Bengals and the Cowboys. We got them both as top five. I had Cowboys three, Bengals five. You had Bengals three, Cowboys five. I imagine we're going to have the same top two, but maybe you'll surprise me. I kind of think it has to be. I kind of think it has to be. There's one team I really felt like you were going to have on here that you don't, that I want to get to at the end. But yeah, number two, Deontay, who do you got? Number two, I have the Buffalo Bills. Okay, I got the Bills won. Okay. So there you go. I think that we're going to end up having a similar conversation then about the Rams and why I have them won and maybe what your holdup was with them being the number one offense in the league.

1:17:13But for me with Buffalo, again, I feel like for the last three teams, we're talking about steady, stable. They've got a proven track record already. Their style of play isn't changing. The people at the helm of calling the offense and executing the offense have not changed. Strong offensive lines. they can run the ball to control the clock, control game situations when they need to and they've got a quarterback that can build them out of bad situations. I mean that just to a T has been why Buffalo, even in those moments, I feel like we were podcasting together when they had that cold spell where they got beat up really bad by the Texans and I think that was kind of like the alarm bells going off moment.

1:17:52But even like two to three weeks before that you started seeing defenses picking up on some of their tendencies in terms of what they liked in the passing game in terms of what they like to do at a certain personnel groupings in the run game. And ultimately, they still turned out to be a really excellent offense because they can just lean on their favorites because they have talent all over this roster. And now if you add DJ Moore and you get a DJ Moore who's motivated, who is, I think, in an understandable role where he doesn't necessarily have to be some 150 targets guy, he can be a manufactured explosives.

1:18:22He can be a catch on the run in the intermediate area type of receiver. He can be a screen game guy, right? Like you can just fold him into all the same things you've been doing with your tight ends and with Khalil Shakir this entire way. And now you're just going to a bigger receiver who has a little bit more wiggle in the open field. And this offense can just, I guess, just add another dynamic piece to what it already does. I don't know that they needed to change anything. I think they just needed a player like Moore to maybe be able to unlock some things when defenses load up the box to take away the run game.

1:18:54Diante Lee:Reliability, consistency. It's just like, I mean, I'm with you. DJ, you know, it's so funny, like the ebbs and flows of an NFL offseason because they make that DJ Moore trade and I'm sure that I said on this podcast I wouldn't have made that trade, giving up what they gave up and why are they paying him what they're paying him, but then you get to August and you look at the depth chart and now I like this group a lot more when DJ Moore kind of bumps everyone down. I liked the other players. The other players weren't good enough to just stand pat and not do anything. So now it's DJ Moore. Now it's Khalil Shakir.

1:19:28Diante Lee:Now it's whoever's your wide receiver three, whether it's Josh Palmer or Keon Coleman. He's both tight ends, Dawson Knox and Dalton Kincaid. It's James Cook at running back. It's a very good offensive line. And it's like, oh, okay. I do like this group. And I would say if you had to pick one quarterback where you said, it doesn't matter who the play caller is, who the offensive line is, who the wide receivers are. You're going to have a top five offense. I think Josh Allen is that guy for me right now. I mean, the numbers back it up. The last six, six years in a row, they finished between first and fourth in EPA per drive.

1:20:05Diante Lee:That is a remarkable level of consistency. I know all the stats are out there that are like, this is the best team to never even get to a Super Bowl. This is the best run by any team to not even get to a Super Bowl, which if you're a Bills fan, you're like, we're not hanging the banner for that. We're not doing the parade for that. Especially that franchise. That franchise has experienced the heartbreaks of all heartbreaks in their history. It really is remarkable that they have not broken through, but the offense has just about been the most reliable unit in the NFL over the last five, six seasons.

1:20:38Diante Lee:I think they're going to be right up there once again. Will they definitely beat number one. I don't know. Maybe not, but I'm just like, if Josh Allen's healthy, I don't care what, who else gets injured or has a down year. This isn't a Joe Brady thing to me. I mean, Joe Brady, right place, right time. As far as I'm concerned, you know, Ken Dorsey's looking at it going, Hey, someone compare the stats when I was calling the offense compared to when Joe Brady was, you know, I don't think it's that hard to come up with a great offense when you have Josh Allen. I do like some of the stuff he's done.

1:21:08Diante Lee:You mentioned it earlier, taking some stuff all off of his plate, not asking him to be Superman the entire game, you know, having a good run game, all those things. But yeah, I had the Bills won just because I felt like they were sort of, I was going to say recession-proof, which doesn't make any sense, but you know what I'm saying? Like, it kind of does, the conditions don't really matter. As long as the quarterback's healthy, they're going to have a top five offense. So I've got Bills won. You have presumably the Los Angeles Rams, number one. Why did you give them the edge here over the Bills?

1:21:40Diante Lee:And we're, of course, just picking nits with this right here. Yeah, I think for me, I took this exercise all the way down to the end this morning before we hopped on the podcast, and I just kept toggling between Buffalo being one, Los Angeles being two, and then vice versa. And eventually, I just kind of got to a point where I'm like, this offense is awesome. Nitpicking is for losers at this level. Instead of trying to find all of the trap doors for this team, Let's just take what we've seen on film. And a lot of this really is based on the fact that Sean McVay and the Rams have built an offensive infrastructure that doesn't really ask Matthew Stafford to have to do what he did in 2021 for this to be a top five offense in the NFL.

1:22:22In truth, I mean, they very rarely need him to play at that level. I would say that last year, the only times they really called for it were those three games against the Seahawks. And in the last two of them, he played exactly like we saw in 2021. Matthew Stafford played. And I think that that's a large reason why I ended up winning MVP is because those memories stuck out in that Thursday night game and then in the NFC Championship, even though that was after the voting. I think you just think about those moments, right, when it's called upon at most when he needed to deliver, you know, in the biggest moments for the Rams, he was able to do so.

1:22:53And then you look at just some of the more underlying metrics, right, like by name recognition, maybe by volume, and some of the other things that we look at, maybe by box score, we don't always appreciate just how effective the Rams are in the run game. But you go and you look at success rate, especially on early downs. I mean, they were just beating the hell out of teams. And some of this was before they even went to the 13 personnel thing where they're adding all these big bodies on. They're able to play with 11 personnel. They can get two tight ends on the field if they want to. They can play with more of their finesse 12 personnel looks if they wanted to between your Terrence Ferguson and Colby Parkinson's who are, you know, Parkinson is a pretty balanced tight end.

1:23:34Ferguson is much more of a receiver than he is a blocker. And still, just by formation, by motion, by Sean McVay's ideas in how to craft a run game, they're able to find six, seven yards, sometimes a pop in a quarter or in a half, right? I trust so much of what they have built in the run game, in the play-action game, in who Matthew Stafford has been in the twilight of his career, what they're able to do in the red zone with Devontae Adams, being able to kind of feed touchdowns to him. And I think that my assumption is Pukin Nkua's suspension, which I do expect him to get one eventually, won't be so long.

1:24:09I don't think that Alaric Jackson, who might get suspended for his off-the-field conduct, I don't know if that's going to be extensive either. And they're going to have their guys, right? I'm assuming health and that they're going to have their guys available. And as long as those players are on the field, it is hard for me to see Sean McVay not turning in the number one offense in the NFL, no worse than a top three offense in the league this year.

1:24:30Diante Lee:Yeah, you mentioned the Seattle matchups, and I would even throw in when they faced the Eagles the last couple of years. They have the thing where, because of Stafford's experience and talent and savvy and know-how and Sean McVay's offensive mind, they can figure stuff out against the best defenses in the NFL, which I think that is, you know, I think that's a great case for them to be number one, where it's just like, You're probably not going to shut them down for an entire game. You might get the first quarter. You might get the first half. You might get the first possession, whatever. But eventually, that combination is so special that they're going to figure it out.

1:25:08Diante Lee:And so they were the best offense in the NFL last year. They've done it against great defenses. I mean, think about it. The Seahawks, no one was able to do anything against the Seahawks except for the Rams offense last year. They kind of put themselves on another level. I mentioned earlier, I think the Broncos continuity. I believe the Rams have 13 of 14 players who logged 400 snaps last year on offense. 13 of 14 are back. So they've got that continuity going for them. Yeah, my only real question about the Rams was what it looks like if they lose Puka Nakua. It's all depth stuff or if they have injuries on the offensive line, but it really is first world problem type of things.

1:25:50Diante Lee:I'm tired of predicting that Matthew Stafford's age is going to be an issue for them when the guy just won the MVP last year. So yeah, I think it's perfectly reasonable to have the Rams as number one. I have Bills one, Rams two. You have Rams one, Bills two. So we agreed on seven teams, Deontay. Bills, Rams, Cowboys, Lions, Bengals, Chargers, Patriots. I had the Bears, Packers, and Chiefs. You had the Ravens, Broncos, and Jaguars. Neither of us had the Niners. That was the one team I was surprised that I thought you were going to have in there. That was the one. That's the one. That's the one that had me feeling like, am I a bozo?

1:26:28Like, am I thinking too hard about some of the issues or some of the hangups that I might have about George Kittle being hurt and Mike Evans being a little advanced in age? Like, I'm sorry, man. It's too much for me. And then I think the other team I was thinking about is just like Philadelphia. just because of the arguments that we're making about teams like Denver, teams like Dallas, the ones that are really built upon offensive line, being able to win between the tackles, quarterback who's not turning the ball over. Is this a team that could be maybe towards the bottom end but can make the top 10 because they're not going to be as volatile as a Chicago, as a Jacksonville, maybe as Baltimore might be?

1:27:09But for me, I think that that's one of those things where first-year play caller, Big system overhaul Loss of a very talented player You're going to have to show it to me first And I had them 15th So it's not like I have them being Some bottom half of the league offense

1:27:22Diante Lee:The Niners, you could just make the case Hey, Shanahan and Purdy It works It has worked And they might not be top five But they're going to be really good I just The injuries already I mean The summer they've had so far We're like one week in I'm just like I have them a little I don't think they're going to be bad But I had them outside the top 10 Eagles you mentioned. I think there's a case for them. Seahawks, I think there's a case for them if you feel good about the new OC coming in and then not losing much. The Vikings, I thought about getting spicy and being like, maybe I buy this. It's a good supporting cast.

1:27:56Diante Lee:That would have been an inspired pick. I couldn't quite get there. I was like, should I do Vikings over Chiefs for content? Nope. I'm just going to go with what I actually think here with the Chiefs. So yeah, I think those were some of the teams that just missed out. But that was a lot of fun. Top 10 offenses, I think. Deontay, come back next week and do top 10 defenses. How does that sound? Let's do defenses. Hey man, you're talking my language. I would love nothing more. We'll do defenses next week. All right, thanks to Deontay Lee from The Ringer. Thank you to Christopher Sutton for producing.

1:28:24Diante Lee:Stefano Sanchez on video and additional production supervision by Connor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopala. I'm Shil Kapati. We will talk to you next time on The Ringer NFL Show.

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