The Least Watchable Teams in the NFL

0:00Welcome to the Ringer NFL Show. I'm your host, Sheil Kapadia. Today, we are doing a 2025 unwatchables draft. All right, so what's the exercise here? We've reached the point of the season where there are teams you're just kind of done with, you know? You can't watch them anymore. You don't need to see them in an island game. You don't need to see them in a primetime game. You don't need to see the red zone channel cut to them because you're just not that interested. You flat out are like, I'm good. I don't need to watch this team anymore. for whatever reason. It doesn't mean the worst teams. It's just like, all right, this team's kind of a drag.

0:34I don't want to watch them anymore. So we're going to bring in the Ringers, Anthony DeBundo. You know him from the Ringer Gambling Show. The guy watches more sports than literally anybody I know, a complete sicko. So he is the perfect person for this exercise. If he says he doesn't want to watch a team, that really means something from DeBundo. So we're going to go through, do a little draft, go back and forth, have a lot of fun. So let's take a break. We'll come back and then we will do the 2025 unwatchables. This is the Ringer NFL show presented by FanDuel. And if you're betting on the NFL, FanDuel is the place to do it.

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3:09All right, we're back with Anthony DeBundo, the 2025 unwatchables draft, maybe the most ringery title we've had for a ringer NFL show this year. Bunsy, you get the first pick. Who is your most unwatchable team right now? They're not the worst team in the NFL, but we sat through this last night in the Spotify theater. The Houston Texans. Oh my God. And last year, I think we were at Core Week last year and I was discussing them with you and we were like, you know, this offense just isn't right. It's not sustainable. They're not making it work. They can't run the ball in first down. There's O-line issues.

3:46we said oh Bobby Sloick's the problem Bobby's gotta go what a year for Bobby Sloick yeah I mean he's the winner of the 2025 season maybe we got a little too uh overly quick to blame Bobby because now Nick Caley he's not doing the job CJ Stroud like last year I was kind of enjoying the CJ Stroud downfall a little bit because I thought he was a little too high up on his pedestal I'm a Colts fan. I'm a Colts fan. I was enjoying the downfall a little bit. But now it's sad. Like I sit back and I watch and when they need a yard, they try outside zone. They can't do it. They try an up the middle run.

4:24They can't do it. They try the bootleg. Can't do that. And I feel like there's nothing more sad than trying to watch this team because the pieces are there. The defense is a top five unit and they're playing their butts off, turning teams over, getting safeties and forcing mistakes and getting good field position. And then this offense is just so inept. And it's so bad that I want to pose a question to you. Okay. How bad would it have to get for D 'Amico Ryan's seat to get quite warm in Houston? I don't know that there's a situation where, and I think we might disagree on this. I don't think there's a situation where that would happen.

5:00I think they feel like it's not the head coach's issue, but part of being a head coach is finding the right offensive coordinator. I mean, look at Todd Bowles. I mean, they won guys out and they bring in the next guy and it works every time. And then if it's not the coordinator, now they're talking about, well, is CJ Stroud the guy we thought he was? As a rookie, Casario, has he done a great job? There are going to be a lot of questions asked. I mean, I'm with you. We watched that game and it felt like a miracle when they completed a pass. I was standing up because I was so antsy. If there's no more doubleheaders on Monday night, the Texans will be the one we can either thank or blame, depending on how you feel about it, because that was atrocious.

5:38I mean, the only play they can actually execute is play action, boot CJ Stroud five yards. Dump off and dump off. Every other play was, I couldn't believe it. And so I'm sorry, the Stroud discourse, just watching their offense, how hard everything is. I'm with you watching their defense. It's good, but it's just like, all right, who's going to have a late hit here or do something stupid? They're not the most disciplined unit. So I think that's a worthy first pick. You heard me. I was going nuts during that game. And the unwatchable part of it gets to the defense too. They get an interception, right?

6:10And they're running it back. And then they stiff arm Jackson Smith and Jigba, rip his helmet off. And then a guy comes in late and knocks him into the bench. 15-yard penalty. That's a big 15 yards. It takes him three minutes to get 15 yards. Eight plays. What a job by the ref on that. The ref. Protecting. All-time. Unbelievable. Yeah. But I just, I think it's frustrating because, yes, there are, like I said, there are worse teams. And we're going to take worse teams over the next three or four picks. But those are teams we kind of knew were going to be bad. So they're unwatchable, but they're not unwatchable in a way that is surprising to us.

6:42Even I, who was the biggest Houston skeptic going into last year and this year, never thought it would get to this level. And I think Casario deserves a ton of blame because they tried to rebuild the O-line. And it's been a complete failure. They just brought in bad players. They just brought in. They just reshuffled the deck chairs. Bad players for bad players. It hasn't worked. I'm with you. Texans are a worthy first pick. And again, the exercise is not the worst teams. Like you said, we could do a who are the worst teams. that we just did that earlier this week. This is just unwatchable. And I'm going to surprise you with my first pick here, I think.

7:09I find this team to be maybe the saddest watch in the NFL. And I got the San Francisco 49ers. This Mac Jones version of five yards and Kyle Shanahan's getting really fired up at missed field goals on the sideline. And I'm watching this going like, this is a team where unless they win the Super Bowl, it's a disappointment. It's like every year that Kyle Shanahan goes without winning one, the stress on his face, these in-game interviews, like he is wound so tight. And I find everything about it sad. I mean, Christian McCaffrey, do you know how many touches he has right now? For the season? For the season.

7:49I'm going to go with 149. 185 touches, 31 more than any other player. So it's not all their fault. If Fred Warner was healthy, if Nick Bosa were healthy, if Proc Purdy stayed healthy, if Ricky Pierce all still, then I might be like, man. George Kittle. Yeah, I was saying before the season, this team can win the Super Bowl. They can't get to the Super Bowl without Warner and Bosa. And so I just watched them, and they're 5-2. They're a good team. They could win the division. They could make the playoffs. But this is all about, like, who do I not want to really see in a standalone game? And listen, there are worse teams where if I had to actually pick, but again, we didn't want to just pick the worst teams.

8:27I don't find the 49ers watchable this year. You seem to disagree a little. No, I agree. I think we're anchored to these hyper-efficient offenses that we've watched. And it almost feels unfair because last year was the year from hell, right? You're supposed to, like, karma is supposed to come back around. You're supposed to have a season where things are going to go a little more right for your team because we've seen San Francisco be the premier offense. Two years ago, Brock Purdy had one of the most efficient quarterback seasons of all time. And now we're watching this team struggle to get first downs.

8:56And it's like a big deal, like you said, when they complete a 12-yard in. And it's a good coaching job. I mean, they have done a good job. I'm not saying they haven't done a good job. Yeah, but it's just in terms of watching them, like you said, it's sad because we have seen versions of this 49ers team where it felt like a juggernaut and they're not like on the rise, you know? They're trying to expand that window and it's just like, guys, I don't think it's happening this year. And I was excited for their defense too. They got really young. I think Robert Sala is a great defensive coordinator.

9:25And we're like, well, this defense might take a huge step forward. And week, I mean, it's only week one, But think back to week one when they were healthy, what they did to that Seattle offense. Seattle's offense has looked great most of the season. That was the one game they could not move the ball. And since then, it's just game by game by game. I've talked about this on the gambling show. Their pressure rates since Bosa got hurt have basically been cut in half. They went from above average to bottom three. I know Bryce Hoff had an injury. I know every year's the year from hell for them when they don't.

9:56Yeah, with these injuries. But yeah, I got the 49ers on my list. started. Who's your next pick here? Who do you got? We were kind of a little more optimistic about this team going into the year. And we've been calling Austin Gale the Phantom of the Opera all week because he sits up at the top of the theater and he manages the volume for us. He didn't even cheer for like a single moment of that three-hour game on Sunday, Raiders-Chiefs. I don't know that I can remember a more sad NFL performance. And the whole thing, you bring in the adults in the room right that was the case and i think we both kind of like the i bought it i bought it no doubt we said adults in the room pete carroll chip kelly i like i still like patrick graham this this thing kind of fell apart really fast didn't it i mean they were competent last year maybe was antonio pierce better than we thought this is my favorite coaching discourse antonio pierce and bobby slowick the big winners of 2025 it's not your fault it's not it's a players league maybe i don't know but the whole the whole thing has fallen apart and you could have been critical of the gino move from the raiders perspective it's like what's the ceiling for trading for a 35 year old quarterback uh what is the end game what was the best case scenario for the raiders going into the season nine wins yeah but they've been one of the worst teams in the nfl in like four of the seven weeks at this point on they were on my they were on my big board pretty high up most depressing watch i think is that you know what we could call the Raiders because of what you said.

11:22This is like the bizarro Pete Carroll experience. You know, I covered Pete Carroll for two years. Before I covered the Seahawks, he wrote this book. You know, I forget what it's called. Something about compete, win forever, something. And I'm like, let me listen to this audio book, you know? You didn't read it? Just listen. Yeah, I listen. I mean, what am I? I don't got that kind of time. You know, I need something where I'm working out or walking around. So I listened to the book. I enjoyed the book. It's all about Pete Carroll's philosophies. Then I covered him. I enjoyed covering him. It was all about energy and enthusiasm.

11:50And there was like this belief that there's something good that's about to happen. It doesn't matter how down you are. Believe in your head. Something good is right around the corner. And this is like the bizarro Pete Carroll team. I mean, all of his, it's like he got hurt. Maybe because I just watched K-pop Demon Hunters. It's like a demon came out and it's like, Pete, everything you believed at this stop, I am putting a curse on you. It is not going to work. And none of it has worked. I feel sad for Pete Carroll. How far of a drive is Vegas from here? We're in LA recording, you know. How fast are we driving?

12:25Let's say 10 to 15 miles over the speed lane. I want to say it's like five hours. Okay, all right. Me and you, we go to Vegas. I'm in. We get Pete. You'll probably put down a couple bets while you're there. That's okay. You can do that. I'll fill up the gas. We get Pete. We bring him to LA. We say, Pete, join the Ringer Podcast Network. Join the Ringer NFL show. This isn't working out. we don't want this to continue. It's too sad. We like you. He can teach at USC like he did. He was doing a good. There is a better life for you, Pete Carroll, because I'm with you. I cannot watch another snap of this team this year.

13:01It's not. I feel like Bill Belichick and UNC has kind of led us to overlook this situation. Yeah. And I'm not saying Pete Carroll is Bill Belichick as a coaching, his stature. But like we said, when was the last time Pete Carroll didn't win seven games as a head coach? it was in the 90s right i know i was quoting all those stats before the season like he gets you to a floor now seven wins feels like a miracle for this team so maybe it's because you know indian culture we got to take care of our elders and so this one's just painting me this is elder abuse yeah this i mean this is this is not good there's a law firm right by my house elder law i don't know if that factors into this or what we're just trying to save you look p carroll hiring in In hindsight, and hindsight is always 2020, hiring Pete Carroll, we ranked this job, I ranked this job as the worst job last year when we did the, me and Austin did rankings of like opening jobs.

13:53And I said, well, you're in this division with Sean Payton and Jim Harbaugh and Andy Reid and Pat Mahomes and Justin Herbert. What's the ceiling on this job? Vegas as a market. It's not the original market of the team. There's not a ton of fan buzz there because it's a destination, tourist destination for other teams. So your home field advantage is limited. There isn't a quarterback in place. Yeah. maybe Pete was the best they could do, but I feel like there's going to be a mutual parting of ways come January. When's Tom Brady start taking some Pete for this? I mean, they're all reports where he was heavily involved in all this planning.

14:23So just saying, Tom, you're not ducking the ringer NFL shell. Other people might be scared of you. We're not. All right, Tom Brady. I have a lot of bad things to say. He's tortured a lot of my childhood. So I've got some memories to get back at him for. All right, let's take a break. We come back. we continue with the unwatchable strap. This episode is brought to you by American Eagle. Listen up. And you heard this from me first. American Eagle just launched the second drop of their exclusive limited edition collab with True Colors by Travis Kelsey. And I'm pretty excited to see what new styles are out now.

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15:43Yeah. Hunter Pence, Matt Faskersian, a whole bunch of people. And it's the one night where you don't swing to make contact. You swing to make history. I'm interested to see what Bond says about this, actually. Anyway, it is all live from Citizens Bank Park in Philly. Watch the T-Mobile Home Run Derby live on Netflix Monday, July 13th at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific. All right, we're back on the Ringer NFL show. All right, so some of these are bad teams. Cleveland Browns, I'm good, man. Like, I don't need to see another. No more? Dylan Gabriel. I'll tell you what, I like Judkins and I like Fannin Jr.

16:16Okay. They're fun to watch. Watch their clips. Their defense is fun, too. I mean, yeah. Miles Garrett, I can get a cut-up of Miles Garrett. I can get a couple, you know, Judkins and Fannin. You know, I don't know that I need to make time in my week for Judkins and Fannin, but I can. I got a couple fantasy teams that are struggling that have been saved by Judkins and Fannin. Well, I mean, these five-yard passes, I'm good. Manufactured, Chador debates. during dead air. That's coming on the broadcast. Oh, they cut to him three times on Sunday. I'm good with that. They're two and five. I honestly think what they should do with the Browns is like, you know how they're experimenting with all these windows?

16:50Use the Browns as an experimental team. Like flex them into like 6.30 a.m. on Monday morning. See who's watching. How many people can we get to watch in these terrible windows? You have this thing you like to do where you want more football windows? No. But then you complain at 1 a.m. when we're watching football. Well, for the NFL, I think they're going to do it. For me personally, I don't need the more windows. Yeah, so you are right. I am playing both. You know, Tuesday at noon. See, I think they should just experiment. What's our rating on Tuesday at noon with the Cleveland Browns? This is the Browns' destiny because I don't need to watch them in any island games.

17:22I don't need to watch them on any Sundays. I think that was the easy first pick. Yeah. We all knew that going into the season. There's one team that I think had a little bit of hope. Okay, give it to me. Who's next? And through seven weeks, there's no hope. Tennessee Titans. all right but the titans okay so you'll get a couple cam ward throws yeah but i could see those on the red zone channel okay you will get for someone like me who likes to make fun of coaches okay i thought i was dead you know brian callahan got fired i said oh my god he was such a good punching bag but mike mccoy's up to the challenge i mean we saw him last week the guy has no idea what's going on with timeouts well i wrote my notes he's no jeff saturday yeah that's right like he's no antonio pierce yeah when jeff saturday came down from the espn set to coach the team and again it's my team but I was kind of like how bad could this go or how well could this go turns out it was for one week awesome the one week bump and then they were awful the Titans couldn't even get they got the one half bump no they were up 10-3 quarter and a half they were up 10-3 on New England they were looking decent and then the house of cards crumbled but the reason I say the Titans are unwatchable Austin gave you the stats on Sunday night on the Monday show he's been one of the worst rookie quarterbacks ever it's crazy so I didn't realize that if you had hope you're like we have number one pick maybe this quarterback can give us something and And maybe people who know ball more than me, who watch quarterback film, can tell me that I'm missing something when I watch him.

18:41I see a lot of sacks. I see a lot of fumbles. I see a lot of off-target throws. Is he getting help from his receivers? No. But it's just sad. Because this guy was supposed to save the team. And he's actually been worse than Will Levis, the guy who was the mocking joke of the league. And they are the 10th worst offense by EPA per drive since 2010. The team right above them was the 2024 Titans. So they're worse by a tiny bit. it's just such a bad situation that the can if you like cam ward i'm not going to tell you you're wrong it's a it's we're not even half a season in to his rookie year let's see what it looks like at the end of the year i see the flashes the flashes are exciting but flashes don't mean that you're eventually going to turn that into a consistent uh nfl career i am with you i was just i just yeah maybe i tune into the titans like last two minutes of the half um you know maybe go back in the game log all right was there like a fourth and one at the opponent's 19 and they were down by like five and he kicked the field goal because those are the things i get excited about listeners no but yeah they they should be on the list my favorite titan sequence of the year was week three right before halftime they had to burn a timeout they burned the timeout to kick the field goal before half and then they got the delay of game that was do you know why they got the delay of game because the kicker mouthed it because they didn't have the right ball yeah it was the regular passing ball it was not the k-ball couldn't even get the right ball into the game to snap it just unbelievable listen some people live for like a bichon robinson juke some people live for like a justin herbert rope i live for moments like that yeah you know when the coach is just has no idea like he could hire a guy out of college for thirty thousand dollars a year and there would be a competitive pool of candidates who could literally help him i would take that job you would take that job who would be able to help him every week.

20:29And they were there's a how much are the tendency Titans were and they refuse to do it. And people like me get content out of that. So don't do it. It's good for me. All right. I got one for you next on my board. Arizona Cardinals. I knew you were going to do it. You knew I was, you know, I like Gannon more. Yeah. I mean, I'm sick of everything about I was sick of sick of them before the season when the hipsters were telling me, oh, my God, watch out. They're cool. They got three safeties. You know, watch out this offensive. this is going to be the year and what has gone on since then jonathan gannon is poking i don't know how to call it i don't know you didn't punch him we didn't get a good whatever he did to de mercado contacting contact the de mercado gets fined a hundred thousand dollars you know what jonathan gannon's winning percentage is 37 341 i mean he is now he has to coach nine more games to make that pro football reference list where it's like you have to love the i love it he's a guy's third.

21:20I mean, he is way down there. I'm sick of Kyler Murray. I'm sick of Kyler Murray versus Jacoby Brissett debates. I don't really feel like I need to do that. I'm sick of, are they using Marvin Harrison Jr. correctly? I'm good. This team's irrelevant. They've been irrelevant. They continue to be irrelevant. I don't need to watch any more snaps of the Arizona Cardinals. But they play fun games. Every game comes down to the final possession. Well, that's why they weren't first on my board. Whether they're playing Green Bay, whether they're playing Seattle, or whether they're playing the Titans. Yeah.

21:50Every game is interesting in some way. I feel like I've been watching way too much Cardinals football this year. And I've determined that Brissette runs the offense way better than Murray. Well, I think there are people in Arizona that agree with you. It's a scary thought if you're signing up for 10 more weeks of Jacoby Brissette for the rest of the season. I'm not signing up for either of that. I just don't need to see them anymore. They're 2-5. I mean, honestly. Why do we need to watch this team anymore? The Cardinals. All right, who do you got? Well, I did a ringer poll of The Office today.

22:18Oh! look at the work hold up your little notes here okay okay i mean this is his notes here this guy packs a carry-on the size of my laptop where i'm packing a suitcase like i'm going to moonbite for two weeks uh and but he is doing the work he did a poll all right so give me the jets won the poll i disagree with that i i disagree too and i'm not going to pick them but i why aren't the jets on this list well because they are a disaster and they they are such a disaster that that can be entertaining in a way, you know, that you look at it and go, Aaron Glenn, what are you doing? Or you can say, Aaron Glenn, that's a cool dance when you block a field goal.

22:54That was fun. Yeah, I would rather watch a Jets game than some of these other teams on our list. They, you know, they still have Garrett Wilson and Sauce Gardner and like, you know, defense has some moments they can run the ball. So yeah, I don't mind. I wouldn't mind if the Jets are on in like primetime. You're kind of sure. I compared them before to like an embarrassing family member where you're just like, oh, what's Uncle Joe going to say at Thanksgiving? And that's how Jets fans feel. That gave me a throwback. Yeah, Jets are good for content. So I don't hate watching Jets. I spend Thanksgiving with my family every year in New Jersey and there's one very loud Jets fan.

23:30And remember, the butt fumble was on Thanksgiving. And it's just one of the greatest all-time crash outs I've ever seen from my cousin. He was a season ticket holder and they haven't been relevant since. So now I'm thinking of him. But I'm going to pick a team that is trending into that territory for me. this one because it's because it's kind of getting sad um the second year not being as good as the first year the washington commanders on sunday were borderline unwatchable well but that's because daniels went out no but even before he went out okay they're down 27 to 15 they had scored two times on their opening eight possessions there was a ton of possessions in that game because dallas was scoring every three minutes yeah um the defense is so injured right now with the secondary problems.

24:11They can't cover anybody. Bobby Wagner looks three years older than he was last year in coverage. And then Jane Daniels. I mean, Ruiz came, we were watching, he was watching film earlier and he turned around and he goes, man, Daniels is missing a lot of throws he didn't miss last year. And I just don't think he's quite healthy. So I'm not saying that like the whole team is cooked and that it's over or that we should write them off. But you look at their schedule and I'm like, oh man, like they're going to Kansas City. I think it could be really ugly on Monday night. And if Daniels is just not healthy, like that was what made them fun last year.

24:39Like this rookie put on one of the greatest rookie seasons ever. And now - They would have been first on the watchability rankings kind of last year. Because every game was down to the wire and they were in shootouts so often. And now it's just, the timing is off. The receiver injuries are killing them. The O-line hasn't been as good. The quarterback hasn't been as good. They look a little less fluid and everything has fallen apart to the point where it's like, man, I was kind of excited to watch the commanders. I wasn't that high on the commanders. I thought they'd be a fun, you know, nine and eight type team who played a lot of high scoring games and now it's like this is rough i think it's all daniels and even if he hasn't looked great i feel like if he's in the game i am interested in watching the commanders i hope that he gets healthy and there's a stretch i'm with you if mariotis starting for him i'm with you i mean he's been on my unwatchable quarterback he's actually played pretty well i understand i do not find him to be aesthetically pleasing in terms of the quarterbacks i like to watch in the NFL.

25:38So yeah, if Mariota's playing next week, if Mariota has to play for a stretch here, we'll see with Daniel's hamstring injury, then I would be with you that I believe the commanders should be high on that list. But I'm still hopeful that we can just get some Daniels magic. Even if they don't have a great season, I want to see some Daniels magic. I don't want to see a CJ Stroud thing where we're like, well, is that rookie season? And we're two years later next year going, all right, that was a little bit fluky. So I'm holding out hope for the commanders, but it's a good one to end on. All right, I'm happy with the list.

26:08We didn't just go worse teams. That's boring, yeah. We threw some curveballs. We barely even mentioned the Jets. We didn't do Miami. I think Miami's still fun to watch most weeks. Maybe not this week against Cleveland, but they've had some good games. They could have been on the list. They went toe-to-toe with Buffalo, toe-to-toe with the Chargers. They were there. With Mike McDaniel just waving two off the field. So there are some potential fighters. Giving Quinn Ewers the cold shoulder as he came off the field. Yeah, there are some reasons to watch them, but I don't have any interest in watching the Dolphins.