The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Are Josh Allen and the Bills Failures? Plus San Fran’s Problems, Goff’s Heater, and Lamar Vs. Mahomes With Todd McShay

Episode Date: January 22, 2024

Russillo starts the show by digging into what makes a winner and a loser in the NFL (0:27). Then, he’s joined by Todd McShay to preview both conference championship games and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of all four teams (13:53). Plus, Life Advice! Is my girlfriend's obsession with Taylor Swift a problem (58:51)? The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Todd McShay Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, and Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You want the earliest preview in the business? We got it for you. Conference Championship Look Ahead with McShay and also what we saw from this past weekend, including Mahomes getting it done again against the Bills. Do the Bills have a Bills problem or is it something else? That's my open and life advice. This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats. Winter is here, so be prepared and get almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. What do I mean by almost anything? Well, you can't get

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Product availability may vary by region. See app for details. Before we get to McShay to break down all four games and maybe a little look ahead to the conference championship weekend, my favorite weekend of the NFL season, I want to talk about winners. And I want to talk about winners and I want to talk about losers. A GM for a team once told me this, he goes, sports basically, and I'm paraphrasing here, the dumbest business because only one group is supposed to feel good about themselves.

And if this GM doesn't have a championship, you'd be like, all right. It was like when Billy Bean basically said, you build your team, you play. You know, it was like when Billy Bean basically said, you build your team, you play the one 62 and then it's a flip of the coin. It's like, well, is it because you haven't won and you're rationalizing your lack of success in the playoffs?

I didn't feel that way, but that was some of the criticism that you got because like, he's kind of right. You look at who you are over all of these months and then you see how it plays out in series and no more fragile than the NFL. One and done. So we could probably get into the depth of, is sports the only thing where only one group is supposed to feel good about themselves and their respective leagues? you could say politics maybe has some similarities, except for the part where if the bills were making fun of the chiefs for four years, and then at the very end, the bills were like,

hey, do you want to join up and beat the Ravens together? That would be a little bit more like politics. But if you're in sales, you don't have to be the number one guy. You can have a great year. If you're managing portfolios, you don't have to be the number one performing fund or bank or whatever. You can have an awesome year and feel great about yourself. Entertainment. If you look at movies, you look at television, right? You don't ask what's wrong with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood when it loses best picture to Parasite. But we do that in sports. And maybe that's why all this matters so much. Because some of you have been at funk for two days because your team lost. Maybe it's a few hours.

Maybe it's a week if your team lost in the wildcard round. You can't watch or listen to anything today. Maybe you go back to this episode and check out life advice and skip everything else. Okay. Maybe you go back to this episode and check out life advice and skip everything else. Okay. Maybe you're watching everything. Maybe you are listening to everything and maybe you're yelling all night, all morning. Maybe you're on message boards. Maybe you're just firing off tweets. You're blocking people. You're just so mad. And maybe that's why we're only one group is supposed to feel good about themselves. Conversely, every other group feels terrible about themselves. But look, I'm different.

The way I see things, the way I talk about things, the things that I think are important. I think you know this by now. I'm different. It's not that I'm trying to be different. I just see things differently. And I don't think that the NFL is a collection of losers all waiting out these last four teams. So I'm going to give you the winners, and then I'm going to give you the losers,

and then I'm still undecided on a few things and have that come full circle to how you're supposed to feel if you're a Bills fan today, even if you're not a Bills fan. The better question is, how should you feel about the Bills today after losing to the Chiefs again in the playoffs? Here are the winners. Houston's a winner. You've got a quarterback who looks like he's going to be the guy for 10 years. D'Amico Ryan's looking like he's a terrific coach. Now, granted, you'll get mad about him in three or four years if they don't win enough, and he'll get cycled out just like everybody else does. But young defense, quarterback,

add a receiver to this group. You should feel like a winner. Stroud's the youngest dude to ever win a playoff game. I believe the first quarterback selected in the top two to win a playoff game since 1967. I mean, look, they might go 7-10 next year, but just you're excited. Yeah, sure, it sucks you lost to Baltimore, but you're okay with it and you should feel good about it. Green Bay's a winner. A lot of similarities. Coach, the quarterback, in love. Yeah, we're worried about the defense a little bit, but all the youth on the offense at the skill position stuff, that's not a team that should feel bad about themselves today.

The Rams, 3-6 to 10-7, zero expectations. Good season. Detroit, you're already a winner. You can't have their history. Get to the NFC Championship game. Lose it. You might be disappointed, but you know months from that disappointment. And if it's a gutting loss, granted, we're talking about different things in the emotional scale. Look, Detroit can win this game. They absolutely can win this game. But if they don't, you're not going to be like,

oh, what a massive disappointment. Again, when we start talking about guys being 80 years old, they're like, man, at 57, that's when I was hooked with Lions football. Tampa Bay, you should feel like a winner. Maybe you have some kind of solution with Baker Mayfield. It feels like he's worth re-signing. It'll be interesting to see what that number is. We were like, look, we're still not totally sold. So we get you a discounted number, which then makes us sold. It's not a great division. They

could be out of the playoffs next year, but that was a battle against Detroit. They fought, they hung in there, but they weren't the better team. So no shame in that. And if you were to say, hey, Tampa, like week 11, week 12, they're going to beat Philly at home and make Philly look like they have way more problems than they do in a playoff game. Nobody would have ever seen that coming. Cleveland's a little tougher because of that great defense and get torched by Houston, but when your quarterbacks are Deshaun Watson, P.J. Walker, DTR, Jeff Driscoll, and Joe Flacco. Those are the players that played that position for you this season after losing 60% of your projected offensive line. You've got a defense

that's off the charts that you'd expect to carry over in the next year and a coach of the year candidate in Stefanski. I think you still should feel pretty good, but we're about a year out. I should say it this way. I have one more year on my open mind about Deshaun Watson ever being a dude again. All right. I got one more year and then I'm out, but I don't think they should feel like losers. The losers are Philadelphia for a million reasons that we would all agree on Dallas because it's all right. 12 wins in a row, three straight years. I know everybody's pissed. They brought back McCarthy, but you hate hearing it. Most of it works, but it didn't work at home in the playoffs again.

But that's more about expectations. So I think that's fair. And then you have Miami. You might score 50 a game in September next year. Nobody's going to care. And those are the rules. Pittsburgh tier. The only team I have in the Pittsburgh tier is Pittsburgh. I don't know what to do with them because they're not losers. The team wasn't very good. I still can't believe they

were a playoff team. And the weird thing is that game against Buffalo, you're like, wait, is this about to get really weird? And it didn't. Buffalo closed them out, and that's fine. So what were the real expectations? Pittsburgh is probably more about, hey, guess what? This offseason is going to be a lot less fun talking about your starting quarterback after buying into Kenny Pickett all summer of 23. Then we have the TBDs. Kansas City because of standards. Baltimore because of this incredible season and that defense that looked horrifying against Houston this weekend. And then San Francisco because it's like, all right, Shanahan, let's go. You finally get the comfort behind victory in the fourth quarter. Didn't look like you should even have beaten the Packers. You've got to get to the Super Bowl this year. That San Francisco game, we're just going to spend some time on with McShay.

That's almost like I've had to recalibrate my expectations for them. These are the games. Well, this is the game. This is the Purdy quarterback. Like, this is the version of him where there are people like, until Lamar kind of closed it out for the MVP stuff, it's like, wait, I got to vote for this guy. I got to vote for this guy for MVP. I was counting his bad throws and maybe it was the rain, right? Maybe it was just the rain. It's simple as

that. And we'll see what happens here against Detroit. But I just was like, I'm going to stop counting how many misses. Purdy's balls were dirtier than Barry Keoghan's this weekend. So now we're on the bills. What do we do with these guys? Let's actually start with Mahomes. Mahomes now headed to his sixth AFC Conference Championship game, which is every year he plays the position. Every year he's been the quarterback, he's in this game. Not a bad start. He's 13-3 in the playoffs. You know, he has a couple of Super Bowls. So Brady had eight straight AFC title game appearances from 2011 to 2018 with the Pats. He had 13 with the Pats, 14 overall with the 14th, obviously with the Bucks. He has the head-to-head Super Bowl win over Mahomes, which no one ever understands why I say this, but Mahomes getting smashed 31-9 in the game,

the way he played, that made me love Mahomes even more. That's one of my favorite Mahomes games of his entire career, and his team got destroyed. So we know what the start of the Mahomes resume is. We know what the Brady resume is. And the fact that I'm even open to the idea of Mahomes potentially having a resume that could match or exceed what Brady has done is the highest compliment I could pay to any quarterback ever. If you mapped out Brady's stuff and you're like, yeah, and then another guy's going to challenge it when he's done, you'd be like, what are we like? That's the dumbest thing ever. Like your show just on digital or is it on actually a TV station? Like it doesn't make any sense. And yet we'll see. Brady feels like this thing that you, it's like in a dream where you're running towards something

and it just never gets any closer because it's all fake. That's what Brady's resume is, but it's actually not fake or the idea that you could reach out and touch it if you're Mahomes. So that's who the bills lost to that point. I can run through every single Mahomes stat here on and on and on what he's done and all this different stuff, but him even being on track to potentially match, which still feels unlikely what Brady did, that's who the Bills keep losing to. Okay? The Bills don't have a Josh Allen problem.

I don't think they have a coaching problem with the fake punt, although I still don't understand that McDermott 9-11 thing. I just can't fathom being like, this will get the guys fired up. This will work. And beyond whether or not you thought the analogy was going to be good for like planning and teamwork, why would you ever share it? I mean, like there's a bunch of people in this room. Will anyone ever tell anybody in the media how absurd this analogy is? a bunch of people in this room. Will anyone ever tell anybody in the media how absurd this analogy is? So Allen was good yesterday. He was good. If you think about the way the Bills wanted to attack, what the Chiefs were doing, it didn't feel like the Chiefs were sending a ton of pressure. It

felt like they wanted to make sure there were no deep shots. They were willing to give up the rushing attack, maybe because they wanted the Bills to actually run the football more than having Allen throw it all over the place. And if you look at it, it was actually working for the Bills offense. On their first 31 carries, they only had three touches by a defender at or behind the line of scrimmage. Not even a tackle. I'm just talking how often the rusher was touched at the line of scrimmage or behind it. Only three of 31 times. So that was working. So I think some of the Allen attacking or lack thereof was what was available to him. Kansas City didn't send a lot of pressure in this game. They normally do in big spots, so it may not be over the course of a season how often they're blitzing.

But there's always those Spagnola moments where I'm like, oh, he's going to bring the house, he's going to bring the house. And it's like, nope, they kind of drop back out of it. You know, look, it'd be nice if Allen hit Shakir on the second and nine to the end zone. It looked like he had an angle. It looked even more like a miss from the camera angle from behind. Chris Jones is bearing down on you, but you know what? It's not like he wiped them out. There was still a blocker in between there. So it'd be nice if he had hit that. It'd be nice if he hit Diggs underneath. It'd also be nice if Diggs had caught the deep shot to the right side. It'd also be nice if the Bills' defense, which is getting old quick here, was able to stop

Kansas City. I think one of the most overlooked parts of this game is look at Kansas City's play chart. Field goal, field goal, touchdown, and then just the half runs out. So not a real possession. Touchdown, touchdown. So it's three straight touchdowns. It was going to be a fourth until Hardman fumbles. Then it's the touchback. And then it's the punt after the penalty on third down. So it's the only time they actually get them off the field, the punt, and then victory formation. So essentially the defense had stopped them once. And obviously it'd be nice if Tyler Bass hit the game-tying

field goal, which would have given Kansas City the football back with about a minute 40 left, minute 35. And I'm sure like me, you're like, well, if Mahomes had gotten the ball back at 27-27, you're still going to lose that game because of Mahomes. Although, as we pointed out on the show, the season in those Mahomes moments, my favorite thing to watch. All right, Mahomes needs four, he needs three. We'll see what happens. All right, Mahomes needs four. He needs three. We'll see what happens. They actually hadn't really closed the deal very often this season at all in some of those bigger spots,

but it still does make me think that it wasn't going to happen again. Picking against him is the dumbest thing ever. It's just dumb. The defense couldn't get anything done. You have the missed kick. You have a couple plays here. It'd be nice if Allen were better, but guess what? He's not better than Mahomes because nobody is.

So if your issue with Buffalo... Look, I just... You want to call them winners today because of the disappointment? We agree. But when you're losing to Mahomes, you're not a loser. We got Todd McShay again, recapping the divisional round, getting ready for conference championship week.

So a bunch of stuff that I want to get to. But the headliner clearly Kansas City on the road in Buffalo, taking out Josh Allen. Let's start with Mahomes. This is an offense where, like, man, it doesn't feel very Mahomes-ish-y all season long. If you look at their yards per play, which I think is a great number, they were one and two, number one or number two overall in the NFL

the previous five seasons. This year they were ninth. There was some other stuff that looked even worse. It looked like it was getting worse as they closed out the season. Miami didn't have any defensive players, and yet here they are. They actually weren't really stopped except for the one punt in the second half. So what have you seen from this offense? Does it look different?

Does it look more formidable, although maybe not peak Chiefs offense of years past? Well, let's start with the fact that Mahomes is the best quarterback in the NFL. We all know that, but he just continues to confirm it. And honestly, one of the things that jumped out to me, a couple of things really stood out to me. One was all season long, we talked about the receivers, not making plays, making mistakes, penalties in critical moments, dropping passes in critical moments. That wasn't the case. And that's, you know, I'm not, you can't give that credit to Mahomes, but

you can tell like the leadership, how he cared for his receivers, how he protected his receivers, even though they were dead wrong in certain circumstances. For whatever reason, those receivers started to be more consistent. And that was, I think, critical in the game. The other thing that no one really wants to talk about, because who wants to sit here on Monday after these great games and talk about offensive line play? But you got to give a lot of credit to Brett Veach, the general manager of the Chiefs, and this organization. Like the decision that they made to move on from Tyree Kill allowed them to put money into other places and to focus in other places that had to get better.

The defense, if we can get to that, but the offensive line as well. I mean, you look at the veterans that they brought in. Donovan Smith in 2023, this season, Jawan Taylor, who's had a lot of penalties, but still has been an upgrade at the other tackle spot, 2023 edition, Joe Tooney, 2021 edition at guard. And then in 2021 as well, the two draft picks that they made Creed Humphrey, I think was second round. And then Trey Smith was like sixth round, I think, who had some durability questions, but really was a day two talent prospect.

That offensive line that they built led to a huge improvement all season long. But how about this, Ryan? They didn't give up a single sack in this game. And when they had to run the football, Pacheco had a really strong game, and especially late in the game. And when they had to run the football, you know, Pacheco had a really strong game and especially like late in the game to seal the win, they can lean on their run game and can trust their protection more than they have throughout this, what, six year run that they've

had with, with Patrick Mahomes. And that, that to me is huge. We focus so much on the receivers. They're not as prolific, but, but what they've been able to do with Brett Veach is the leadership in the personnel department in terms of getting stronger on the defensive side and protecting Mahomes. I think it's built to last longer, if you will. Yeah, that part is totally overlooked because the Mahomes part of it is too much fun. The Kelsey part of it is too much fun. And now with Rice developing as what looks like hey you know look i don't know he's going to turn into these guys that we debated whether or not they're the

top five but post the tampa super bowl where the offensive line was going to be in transition they feel like they fixed it on the fly and then decided to instead of take the tyreek money which was a big reason like sure they would have loved to have him. Yeah, of course. Tyreek wanted, like, I think, what, the $90 million he ended up getting. A lot of it guaranteed. Miami was game. And then it's like, all right, fine. So we're going to spread these resources around.

And they reinvented this defense in, like, two years, where it's one of the youngest defenses, and it's the best defense of the entire run. So I – Yeah, you look at, like, Nick Bolton in 2021, Karloftis at defensive end. McDuffie. McDuffie that they brought in, who's been huge for them. Like those three picks alone from 2021, 2022 are key cogs that they've added to this defense. I just don't know that that you're right.

Like, what are we supposed to do? OK, we're talking about it now. Hey, world, appreciate it more and all this stuff. But they overhauled two completely different units in a very short amount of time where I think other organizations would have just been like, we can't lose the number one receiver that stretches the field, which led to the comebacks for the first Super Bowl.

We can't do that. And they were actually disciplined enough. Or maybe Mahomes allows you to all of a sudden be principled in a front office because you're like, this guy's going to figure out, he's going to cover for a lot of our mistakes anyway because he's the best. Yeah. And listen, not only is it greatness, it's also the ability to recognize the situation. And like Josh Allen, we've talked a lot about, right? the situation and like Josh Allen, we've talked a lot about, right? Like the phenomenal plays, like his throw rolling out to the left to Shakir in the end zone was classic Josh Allen, the runs to pick up first downs and touchdowns, classic Josh Allen. And Josh has protected the

ball a lot better this year than he had in years past. But Mahomes, it's not only the greatness, it's not like just some of the throws that he makes and some of the runs in critical situations. It's understanding protecting the ball. That is a special quality in and of itself. To be able to provide greatness when moments require greatness, but also to recognize we're in the playoffs now. It's a different animal. These games are so close for a reason. These teams are built so close to one another. The pressure mounts. You can't afford to give out freebies.

And I thought this was fascinating. I went and double-checked because yesterday I heard someone say through the first round of the playoffs, no quarterback on a winning team had thrown an interception. Ten playoff games, Rye, have been played so far. All ten winning teams in those ten playoff games had a quarterback in that specific game that did not throw an interception. No team has won with a quarterback that's thrown an interception so far, which is remarkable. Obviously, there's a lot more to it than just not throwing an interception, but it shows how critical protecting the ball is.

And Mahomes being able to protect the ball while still providing greatness in the moments that required it, um, you know, tells you everything you need to know about him. Okay. So on the other side, the open, my entire premise was if you're theills, I don't think you should feel that bad about yourselves. You know, you're tweak here, tweak there. They're going to have to get younger on defense. Maybe there's a McDermott conversation. Maybe it's a bit like McCarthy where it's like, look, he wins games and we're still a really good team. Although their season is really weird in itself.

Really? Three different seasons. But when they needed to have it, they came back. Now you could say, hey, they should have never been in that position considering how well we thought they were prepped up for this year. But they have a Mahomes problem more than they have a Bills problem would be my point on this. Look, Allen's not going to be perfect. There's too many turnovers. There's still that zero blitz pick in the red zone against Miami to start that game that they have to have. And I'm like, what are you like? How are you still at this point against zero coverage early in the downs? You've even thrown

this kind of pick. But I'd still take them. I think 28, 29 other franchises would sign up for those problems at the position than anybody else. So there's a limit on how far I can go with the criticism of them. Yeah. I mean, let's, it's kind of simple to me. Josh Allen is the reason that they were in that situation last night. Had they been able to pull it off, Josh Allen would have been the reason for it. Unfortunately, the supporting cast didn't do its job. And so we always want to talk about Allen versus Mahomes, and it was spectacular to watch. For an hour and a half, that was the best football you could ask for.

Back and forth and big plays and critical third downs and conversions. It felt like a special, special game, and it was. And that's what we've seen from them in the past. But ultimately, how do you have a defense that's been built to get pressure? And we've talked about it multiple times throughout the season. The reason the Bills were making the turnaround this season, in large part, was because of the defense, the pass rush pressure, the amount that Bean has put into draft picks and free agency, getting guys that can get to the quarterback.

They didn't sack Mahomes once. And it wasn't just Mahomes being special and eluding it, although it was at times, it was the pressure just wasn't there. They weren't winning up front. So to me, if you're going to go and dish out blame today, part of it has to be the defensive front for Buffalo not getting home, not affecting Mahomes enough. Part of it too, like late in the game, there were three drop passes. How about that? Like Stefan Diggs on that deep ball. How do you place it much better? And Diggs to me has been a disappointment throughout the season. And that may be the final time we see them with what he's due moving forward in terms of the cap hit. That could be the end of Diggs and Buffalo. So we'll see how that plays out. But my point is, Josh played well enough to win. Josh is as special as advertised.

Could he have done a couple things? You know, like you talk about that crosser to Diggs was wide open, could have gotten it closer. So it was like a fourth and two, fourth and three versus taking a shot down the field. But if his, I think it was his left tackle, doesn't give up pressure, the speed to power rush, and if Josh doesn't get bumped when he throws that post right into the back of the end zone,

that ball's there. I mean, 99 out of 100 times, if he's able to get that ball off without getting bumped while throwing, that's a touchdown. We're all sitting here today talking about how he turned down the opportunity to get close to a first down to create a good fourth down opportunity for the offense when that crosser to Diggs, and he went for the touchdown, and that's what makes him special. So I don't have a problem with that.

It's just their final three drives, Buffalo had drops, and they couldn't convert. They didn't score in their final three drives, Buffalo had drops and they couldn't convert. They didn't score in their final three drives in a game like that. And you also just look at they didn't have one pass beyond 10 yards in those final three drives. It was a completion. So did Josh Allen stall? There was a play or two he could have made,

but three drops in three drives, it's debilitating. Right. And if you look at the throw chart, Mahomes, all three levels, 20 plus yards, he hit on all three of the deep balls that he threw. And it's like, oh, okay, well, Allen didn't do that. And you're like, we agree. Yeah. We agree.

That guy's better than him. Okay. So you look at the lack of pressure from this Bill's defense, which that's probably the thing that'll look the most different from them. They have to figure out a way to get younger. They have to figure out a way to, you know, have a couple of healthier pieces. And when they had the last injuries, and by the way, the pick in the red zone on the opening position against Miami was the third down play. So I shouldn't have said early in the downs, but it was still third down when you didn't need that pick. But that leads us to what Baltimore is doing and the pressure that they're getting.

And I know it's Houston, and I know that there was probably, I think all of us watching the Cleveland game, like this is going to be a bit more of a wake-up call. They held that offense to three points. And watching the way the Ravens defensive players fly to the football on Saturday was like, I can't compare anything to that Ravens defense 20 years ago, and I'm not going to, but they are at another level right now. And Mahomes doesn't get sacked. His sack rate is

like 3.9%. Buffalo didn't really have a chance. And even if you think you're going to sack him, then he just doesn't get sacked on top of everything else. What are you seeing as you kind of look ahead as opposed to recapping Lamar's great day and the defense's great day about this matchup with the Ravens and the Chiefs? Well, the first thing that stands out is, and it's a big picture, is just Baltimore to me is the most complete, most dominant football team still alive, right? I mean, you look at the divisional wins and Grant, I mean, you could say Houston isn't the caliber of, but Houston was coming in on a hot streak. I mean, they were,

they had all the confidence in the world. And Baltimore didn't play always the smoothest, crispest offensive football, but Lamar just, you know, a hundred yards rushing, it just kind of negated a lot of that. He only threw for 152, but he rushed for 100. And the biggest thing to me, honestly, and you talk about flying to the football, their depth, versatility, strength, toughness, discipline along the defensive front seven is unmatched. We talked about Sam Fran, how great they were in talent and how, you know, in years past, they've been special in terms of pass rush. Well, it wasn't there in this last game and it needs to

be there if they're going to beat Detroit. Like to me, front seven defense is so critical right now at this level. You've got to get pressure. You've got to, you got to take these great quarterbacks off their spot. You've got to harass them. And Baltimore did like, and there's, I mean, linebacker. Yeah. They've got stars, Roquan Smith did like and there's I mean linebacker yeah they've got stars Roquan Smith and Patrick Queen at the off-ball linebacker spots but you're talking about like Matt Abuike, Justin Matt Abuike, Clowney and Leighton Age those two come out have combined for 22 and a half sacks this year Pierce, Travis Jones, Brent Urban, Kyle Van Noy like they've got a bunch of dudes whether old or young,

high draft picks, low draft picks, that fit what they're trying to do. They all play versatile roles. And I go back to this. I remember talking after the Ohio State game, after the semifinal, and after the national championship about what made Michigan special on the defensive side. And it feels like I'm having the same exact conversation, and it's not a coincidence. Mike Mike McDonald was, was at Baltimore for a while,

took the DC job at Michigan, built what they currently have. And Zinter has done a great job of expanding upon it, but it's versatile guys who are tough, strong, can play, you know, wear multiple hats, um, and believe in a system that is is really like schemed up and asks a lot of you from down to down and and provides different looks for the quarterback and that's what you know and obviously obviously mike mcdonald comes back as the dc the last two years and there's no star there's we're not talking about a bosa we're not talking about like a number one or number two or number three overall pick. We're talking about a bunch of dudes that play great together.

And that defensive front seven, to me, is the story for Baltimore. Okay, there's more on the Niners that I wanted to get through there. Did we even see the Ravens attack that we need to see against Kansas City? And it's not even like a knock, necessarily. I like Zay Flowers better than any receiver that the Chiefs attack that we need to see against Kansas city. And it's not even like a knock necessarily. Like I like Zay Flowers better than any receiver that the chiefs have. I mean, even with rice excelling, you can say rice has a size,

but like to me, Zay is just harder to guard. He's just, he's going to do more stuff. He can, I think he can get more separation quicker off the line of scrimmage than, than rice can. But again,

you know, that's just sort of my observation to this point. I just really love him coming out of the draft. But the new version of Lamar, MVP number two, the one seed, all this stuff, I don't even know that we needed to see it against Houston because the Texans weren't going to do anything. I mean, the only thing that was weird about that game is you're like, wait, we're tied at the half?

This doesn't make any sense. And it's on, you know, the punt return. And I'm, you know, like sometimes with these scores, I'm, I like the final score of this game. It was Baltimore and Houston. Cause I go, well, that's a reflection of where these two teams are right now. Everybody loving the Stroud storyline. Did you see, like, help us kind of those of us that don't see it that way,

but understand a little bit more of the development of what they're doing with Lamar, which should be the things that we have to see against Kansas City this weekend. Yeah, I thought Houston did a good job, quite honestly, in pass defense, of containing their receivers. I thought they were great. past defense of containing their receivers. And really, like... I thought they were great. Like, the pass rush, like, what they were doing by design in that first half, I thought it was terrific.

So, go ahead. Absolutely. And so, does Baltimore have to play better on the offensive side? And do their receivers have to produce more against Kansas City? Absolutely. And I think... But the thing that is so intriguing about Baltimore and the reason why I think they're the best team in the league right now is because they can beat

you. Like if you take away their fastball or take away one thing, they can still beat you. And that Lamar element, like all season long, Lamar, we've talked, we've praised him and we should have for the development and the continued ascension of him as a passer, the patience, the poise. But now it's playoff time. And part of the reason it's so important for Lamar to stay in the pocket, move around and develop as a passer is to protect him. But now you've got a three game situation and it's like, all right, like the gloves are off. Go ahead. Throw different looks at us. Take away Zay gloves are off like go ahead try to throw different looks at us take away zay all those things come try to pressure me but i'm gonna go rush for i think it was a hundred yards on like 11 carries around like 10 yards of pop so pick your poison and so that

that was good to see and now you got to realize realize that Kansas City all week is going to sit there and say, okay, shit. Not only is Lamar showing that he's going to do it if that's what we ask, if that's what we provide to him is the answer is you're going to have to run to win. He's still Lamar. So how do we bottle him up, keep him as a passer, but still harass him and take away the passing game? And so it's tricky. And then the other thing that no one's

really talked about, and we'll see what happens, but if Mark Andrews comes back and he obviously didn't play this past week, but the tight end for the Ravens, if he can come in and play even at like 80% and provide another problem, but you have Andrews and Likely at the tight end spots, Isaiah Likely, and then with Flowers on the perimeter, and obviously you've got OBJ and you've got Bateman, Rashad Bateman. But those guys, they're just guys at this point, right? But to me, if you can bring in two tight ends and create problems in the middle of the field and mismatches and matchup problems,

then how do you spy Lamar? and create problems in the middle of the field and mismatches and matchup problems, then how do you spy Lamar? How do you spy Lamar, cover those two guys without occupying a lot of your safety and linebacker help? So looking forward in that matchup, it's going to be interesting to see if Mark Andrews, but if he doesn't, there's still a lot of problems that you've got to deal with. But that to me is kind of the missing piece in terms of this offense clicking and every single time you line up, if you got to account for Andrews, Likely, Zay Flowers, and Lamar is a runner, that's a headache. There's no right answer. So that'll be interesting to see this week. I'm glad you brought up Likely. When Andrews goes down, and Andrews has

been throughout the entire Lamar run the one thing he could trust. To his guy. When they brought in Zay, I was like, okay, this is going to be the best receiver that he's ever had to this point. And it hasn't been. And there's depth, and there's some names, and Odell's come along, and there's a few guys where if you're really casual about it, you'd be like, oh yeah, that guy's on that team or whatever. But the part that didn't really drop off was because likely he's been so good. He adds another touchdown. So that's like from December 10th in the overtime win against the Rams, the guy is at six touchdowns. He's a matchup nightmare. He's shifty at 6'4", 235. He's got some real attitude to him, which I love. Like, I feel like he always needed a couple of those guys because he started to feel himself a little bit more this year in his second year, you know, Coastal Carolina.

Like, this guy's a problem. And it became, look, I know Ravens fans understood it but you're like oh wow they're still doing this without Andrews you're like do you see who's now playing tight end for them like do you see what a matchup problem this guy is so I'm glad that you're giving him some love here because again I kind of screwed it up in the beginning I was like wait what's that guy who is he again yeah and then every week you felt like with them to close out the season like oh he's making another huge play and the trust already being there for him after really, it's not like he's some first round rookie that they're going, hey, we're just going to make sure you're getting 50 snaps. So Lamar

has to develop the chemistry with him. It just was like, no, it's a necessity. You're out there and it worked. Yeah. And likely I loved his, I loved his tape tape and then I remember going to the senior bowl down in Mobile Alabama his his draft year and he was he was like to me the most consistent weapon and dynamic and it wasn't just running routes it was after the catch and it was the athleticism the mismatches the one-on-one drills all that like to me those scouting opportunities to see a guy against top tier, because he was playing at Coastal and he wasn't playing, you know, top competition every week.

And to see him one-on-one versus some of the country's best linebackers and safeties and even cornerbacks in situations, he stood out. And I thought, you know, because he's a little undersized, because he played at that level, maybe, you know, falls to the third round, whatever, you know, wherever it is, but this guy's going to make an impact. And it got accelerated accelerated as you said but it's good to see a guy who everyone was kind of doubting because of the size and the level of competition come in and prove that he has that ability and there's no more important position with a running quarterback like Lamar to then to have a tight end that is a mismatch and creates problems. Because again, you are so, as a defense,

you're off the ball linebackers have now have two jobs in coverage. And a lot of times it's going to be zoned because you've got to keep an eye on the quarterback, but coverage and keeping that spy mentality on the quarterback. So it just creates that run, natural run pass option, not a play call, run, natural run pass option, not a play call, but a natural run pass option where if that tight end

is causing problems for a linebacker, it's going to and can run them off. It's going to create some running opportunities for the quarterback, too. So they've been a great marriage. And that's why I said no one's really talking about it.

And I don't have the medical report. Just from what I've been told, he's targeting trying to come back next week. But if you could get Andrews back even at a 75% with likely and the confidence he's playing with, and now you have those two guys to create problems for linebackers and safeties with Lamar showing that, hey, it's playoff time. I'm going to run. That becomes a major problem for Kansas City.

I'm glad you brought up Lamar, too. Like, two games to go. Well, you break the glass here. Yes. And I do wonder, too, if there's something defensively where you feel like the secondary is so good. You know, a lot of it's because of the banner zone and how Lamar can get off.

And then Houston had to, like, change it up with a spy. And then once they went from Harris to the other guy, it just wasn't as effective, which kind of had more to do with, you know, stuff I probably don't understand. But, you know, sometimes in basketball, you're like, hey, we actually want this guy to shoot all the time. So we're not going to double him. Let's let him get his points. Let's let him go off. You'll see it against Embiid sometimes. You'll see it against Jokic sometimes. But maybe that'll take everybody else out of the game. Like you wonder if Kansas City would say, no, no, no,

instead of containing him, let's let him run. Let's hope he runs 17 times today. And, you know, that's part of it. It's just that's just a third of the Ravens challenge, right? Because then you're like, oh, and by the way, we have to move the ball against them when they've just had numbers all season long. So anyway, all right. Purdy, his completion percentage based on expectation was like a negative.

It can be the rain. But I think this is where they're like, so this guy's going to win a Super Bowl? You know, Shanahan's going to do it with this guy? Like, this guy's the big improvement from the other people or whatever uh what did you see what's fair about purdy assessing his chances here in the conference championship game um i i thought when debo went out the versatility you know versatility is kind of what makes shanahan's offensive system so difficult to defend the versatility that mcafree has the versatility that McCaffrey has, the versatility that Kittle has at tight end, the versatility that Debo brings as a guy you can run on sweeps,

you can utilize in the backfield. And even when he's not touching the ball, and again, Debo, to me, has kind of lost a step. He's not the same guy. He's been dinged up. But when he left that game, it was almost like a sigh of relief, you know, defensively for Green Bay. Like, all right, that's one less thing that we have to worry about, even when he's not getting the ball. You know, we're still having to account for him. And that, to me, was part of the issue for Sam Fran. Second part of the issue for Sam Fran is, and I've got to go back and track it. I don't know if rain has always been an issue. I mean, Purdy played at Iowa State. The weather's not great there. He just didn't look to have the same ball placement as

a passer. He was struggling throwing the football, whereas Jordan Love, yeah, he made a couple poor decisions and all that, but was still able to drive the ball through the rain, whereas Jordan Love, yeah, he made a couple poor decisions and all that, but was still able to drive the ball through the rain, through the elements, and it wasn't a problem. And Purdy's never had an elite arm, but he's adequate arm strength and all of that. So we'll see what the weather is. We'll see if that was really the factor or just the moment felt big, but that hasn't been a problem in the past for whatever reason and give green Bay credit. Cause they, they cause problems for them. And that defense played really well for the vast majority of the game. Purdy did not play up to

the level. And so that, that inconsistency concerns you. If you're Shanahan and you're the organization, what, what are we going to get from Purdy? What's the situation with Debo moving forward? And quite honestly, Green Bay was the better football team for more minutes than San Francisco was the better football team. And by more, I mean like probably 45, like three quarters of the game. But they couldn't convert in the red zone. The Packers couldn't. And Jordan Love, while he's been phenomenal and there's so much to take away from what he brings in the young wide receivers and what they can be moving forward, he still is making a mistake or two. Obviously the last interception being highlighted that he's got to cut down on. Although let's face it, there are

nine previous games, including the playoff win in Dallas. He only threw one interception. So he showed improvement in that area. But again, no Debo, Purdy was off, and I didn't think San Francisco's pass rush was what San Francisco's pass rush needs to be if they're going to win the Super Bowl. Those are the three things that really jumped out to me in this game. Green Bay for the first half plus did a really good job of keeping third down manageable. You know, I had an awful throw chart for Purdy because early on I was like, what is going on with him right now? And like, it's one thing for there to be incompletions, but like you start to see NFL misses differently where you start to like appreciate even the worst NFL quarterback because you're like, why is the ball on the ground

all the time? And if for an NFL game, that was alarming for an NFL quarterback. Like you had the third down throw on their first position in the, in the second half was just ugly. Um, he had a second and six where it was a drop pick, terrible throw. He had a third and five at 21-14 where it was just awful again. He had a throw to Ayuk that was low. There should be a sponsored segment. What's that? The Russillo throw chart, pass chart. I could listen to this all day.

We don't have the tech yet. There's room for our Series A. We will tell you that right now just let the world know we need to get some silicon valley company to sponsor you in this segment i guess i'm just not used to seeing a football land in the dirt first that often in an nfl game and you're you're right like look detroit's 30th in EPA against the pass. If there's a defense to go up against that's going to make you feel good about yourself, it should be Detroit's, unless you believe that Detroit had turned some kind of corner. I don't know if Tampa couldn't block them or if Tampa didn't know what they were supposed to do. There are two absolute whiffs that you go, what's going on with the right tackle?

But I don't even know if it was the right tackle's fault. One of them was a communication. One of them was either. Right. You're talking about Hutchinson coming off his left edge, the right edge of the quarterback, right? Right, on Gadecki. So, you know, Gadecki actually had my favorite thing ever in a playoff game where it was like third and 19, and they got nine yards and got the ball back to the original line of scrimmage so 10 yards short and he's like let's go baby first

at like that's it that was amazing even even terrico and collinsworth picked up on that that was awesome that i mean that's by the way the offensive lineman in a nutshell you know like the smartest guys on the field outside of quarterbacks passionate like but they play in a in a closet all day long and all of a sudden he picks his head up outside of that closet and looks around and he sees the stick and he's like first down oh it was beautiful i couldn't believe that they they saw it you know like of all the things and granted they're terrico and chris are fantastic yeah i think terrico is, I would say right now, we actually have like a really good depth of, of announcing teams,

but it was just this little thing. And I rewound it. I was like, wait, did he just signal first down? It's amazing. What? And I was like, Hey, look, we're going to give corner shit all the time for like the fourth down fist. When the guy's a foot and a half past the line to gain, right.

Right. Right. You know, every single time, or, you know, the other one where the ball goes 20 yards in the air out of the back of the end zone. And the guy's just sitting there like Spider-Man crouched down, like going incomplete. I show you down. Yeah. Yeah. And be like, all right, man. Absolutely. One-on-one. So, um, yeah, look, I don't, I don't think the offensive line was line was great for Tampa in that game,

but their offensive line isn't on paper what San Francisco should be. So I just, I don't know if Purdy, like it's a completely different, like you go Mahomes first round pick, Lamar first round pick, Goff the number one overall pick, which again, I want to spend some time on him here too. And then there's Purdy. The Purdy doubters were like, this is what we're talking about. And it may be as simple as the rain thing. All I'm saying, it was just, it, it makes me kind of think like, wait, like normally I'm

just picking San Francisco at home against that defense. No problem. Let's go see in Vegas. That Purdy game has, has that confidence wobbling a little bit. Yeah, I agree. And, and we'll find out. And I tend to agree. I don't think Detroit is going to present some of the problems. Like they were physical, like IU got pushed around and got, I mean, he had a couple of big catches, but he was not the same confident, consistent weapon throughout that game. And you could see him getting frustrated with how physical Green Bay was. So, I mean, there are some things that Detroit can pick up from that. Detroit certainly needs its pass rush

to continue to get home and even to harass. But I don't know. Listen, I love Kansas City, obviously because of Mahomes, and I love how they've built their thing. I just think Baltimore is a better football team. This game, and I would have thought coming into the playoffs, and especially at certain points during the year, like we always talked about Sam Franz up here, right? Like the top echelon, like the number one team in the league at certain points during the season, and Detroit was creeping closer and closer. I don't see a big difference in these two teams based off of how they're playing. The two sample sizes for Detroit and the one for San Francisco. But Sam Fran is capable of coming out and playing.

Weather's good. Purdy gets on a roll early on. He gets his confidence going. They're spreading the ball around. McCaffrey's running it, catching it. Kittle's creating mismatch problems. They're capable of coming out and playing a great game. There's no question about it. But I am far less confident in San Francisco than I am in Baltimore. Let's put it that way. Let's talk about San Francisco's D-line. It's got all the names.

You want to go further out. It's probably got my favorite pair of linebackers, including my favorite single linebacker and Fred Warner. Yeah. But green law is incredible unless he has the ball in his hands. And for those that didn't understand like what he was trying to do, I don't think anybody understood it because he also did it on the pick where it looked like he wanted a lateral three different times. Yep.

Yep. When he had the ball, excuse me, the pick was the last play, but when he had the ball, excuse me, the pick was the last play, but when he had the ball earlier in the game, he was running around like a fucking crazy person. Like, so,

um, anyway, so you look at the, the names, chase young comes over the trade. Hargrave comes over free agency. Armstead has been there for a while. Both has been there for a while.

They blitz 20% of the time during the regular season, six lowest blitz rate, because that's how they're supposed to be built. We don't need to blitz because we have all of those guys. Correct. Have you seen that pass rush live up to its expectations and the resumes of the names in that group on the depth chart? No, I have not. And that was honestly, like, Purdy's what we're going to talk about because he just, he did not play to the level. But I think the big, the most alarming thing to me was that pass rush. Quarterbacks can kind of get hot and cold and weather can affect them. But we're in the playoffs.

You had a week of rest. You've got all that depth. You've got all this talent. And you look in years past, like for several years, the one constant was that that front four is going to get after your ass. Yeah. I like have visions of like, you know, Bosa with his, with his fingers in the dirt, looking like he's seven foot two in length, coming out of his three point stance and just like every snap affecting the quarterback and guys opposite him with the one-on-ones as he's getting chipped and doubled and all that stuff.

Like they were just like, you had, if you didn't get the ball out in 2.6 seconds, you had a problem on your hands. That has not been the case consistently. And it was not the case in that green Bay game. And, you know, if it doesn't change against Detroit, like Goff is on a heater, man. And they kept referencing that they chanted his name, and he got comfortable, and he's

finally like, it feels like this is his city and his team and all this. I don't care what the reasoning is. Goff's completed 74% of his throws with what, five or six touchdowns, no interceptions in two games. And even when they weren't clicking offensively, he's not making mistakes. He's not putting them in bad situations in the first half of this last game. And he's keeping them alive so that when the offense does start to get rhythm, they're not in a hole and they don't have to overcome certain things. So I couldn't be more impressed with what Jared Goff is doing. And when you look at it now with like Laporta

and what he's providing, and we've talked about the team building of this organization for Panay Sewell and Mella Fonwu and Derek Barnes and Anzarike and all those guys in 2021, Hutchinson, Jamison Williams, Josh Pascal, Kirby Joseph in 2022, Gibbs, Campbell, Laporta, Branch, those first four picks that everyone was killing this past year. So Brad Holmes has built this organization in the last three years in a manner that really should be studied by other NFL teams. But when you start to look forward to this matchup, you've got a quarterback in Goff who, like I said, is on a heater,

is playing with as much confidence as any quarterback still left in this tournament, and you've got weapons that are different now. Jameer Gibbs, 17 carries, 99 yards and a touchdown. Gibbs and Laporta, the rookie tight end, who was banged up and still, they combined for 20 catches, right? 20 catches between two rookies, a tight end and a running back. We're not talking about two-star receivers. We're talking about a tight end and a running back that are rookies

with 20 catches for 162 yards and another touchdown. And so if they're not getting front four pass rush and you throw a, um, say Brown into the mix and like Detroit is dangerous, but the only way you can negate those weapons and the rhythm that golf is in is to get that pressure. So to me, you've got two areas, that front four pass rush and, and Pur purdy like the pressure is solely on those two spots and golf has done something uh that i went back and tracked it i did this segment this year where if you looked at first round picks and how well they did on their next stop it was basically like unheard of to win a playoff game yeah you know tannahill was i think like baker now it's

not right baker and now golf so first round picks bounce to the next team because there's still the allure and granted you know if you're a front office and you had a high grade in the guy and then he flames out somewhere else you're just like oh that staff sucks the owner stinks front office stinks like you're just blaming everybody else um even though the hit rate we know is still pretty disappointing on the first round quarterbacks but as i went through it which didn't mean to say hey it's impossible and it can't happen but it does put into perspective how special it is what baker did and now what golf continues to do here and i can't imagine there's many quarterbacks that you've ever seen go from pretty raw needs a lot of hand holding that's kind of why McVay turned the page on him he goes to Stafford to how long

is he going to be the starter in Detroit to one of the biggest and I you know look I think people like Goff too like I know people that like him they love this dude yes the person for him leader right yeah for for him to feel like really good about himself in a second home I didn't get that Like, I know people that like him. They love this dude. Yes, the person, the leader. Right. Yeah, for him to feel like really good about himself in a second home. I didn't get that vibe coming out of Cal with Goff. Like, I liked him. Perfectly nice guy. Like, you know, obviously he's very talented. But I didn't, like, with Baker, you either love Baker, you hate Baker,

but you know what he is. He's fiery. He's this, he's that the other thing with golf. It was kind of like a little bit of vanilla ice cream, like personality wise, leadership wise. Like, what are you getting? It's probably not going to be anything that like, but he's done it like behind the scenes, keeping his head down, grinding it out, stay, staying the course.

Obviously their offensive coordinator, Johnson, has been phenomenal for him, and he's now interviewing for other head coaching jobs and deserves to be. But it's an organizational thing. Dan Campbell is Dan Campbell, and we all love him and his sound bites and everything else, but he's the right person for that job.

Ownership changed, and they finally put a structure and a communication level that needed to be there that hadn't been there for 20-plus years. They bring in weapons now around Goff. So they're getting better offensively, but let's bring in two guys in Laporta and Gibbs that can kind of create something bigger and more versatile and more dynamic with more speed. And, and Goff has been

the consistent, tough, smart, analytically driven, wants more information, a sponge, you know, community work, like everything he's done has put him in the place to be where he is today. But he also had an organization that bought in on him and they didn't buy in on him in LA. And McVay's a great offensive coach, but he didn't see what Brad Holmes, the general manager, Dan Campbell, and Johnson, the offensive coordinator saw in Goff. And while I'm making mock drafts two years ago talking about, well, you know, Goff, I've said it a dozen times and I'll own it. Goff is a great bridge the gap quarterback for when Detroit gets up there and has an opportunity to draft one of these top guys.

And they've been up there since, and they did draft another quarterback. They had options to do it. They could have packaged picks and moved up and gone, but they stayed the course with golf and they, they recognize who he is and the toughness that he has and the leadership he has. And it was all behind the scenes and quiet. And by, by going all in on golf and golf going all in on this organization, it has led to this point and it's special to see. It's backed up by what you're saying. But like as a person who spends his whole life studying, evaluating and like digging in to how do you build an organization and having like deep philosophical conversations with general managers and coaches, how do you truly build an organization? Again, this is something to study what they did. Again, this is something to study, what they did. Does Dan Campbell's success lead to an open mind in the NFL to make Scott Cochran a head coach?

Oh, man, Scott Cochran's special. I mean, I think Campbell's like the perfect, he's the perfect person for the job because of how real he is, how honest he is, how well he works with Brad Holmes. I know I'm giving you a serious answer to it, but there's only a handful of meat sticks out there that can really do what Campbell's done. Let's just be honest. I can't wait to see the Rock Eater adjustment like campbell to win a super bowl yeah i mean when everyone was digging with like young you know shit the the shanahan tree offensive system

brilliant minds the mcveigh's the lafleurs and all that detroit zagged so hard that that everyone was scared and then he comes out. And if your ownership, you're like, ah, shit, he's talking about biting knees now. Like did we,

and then, then they win three games and then they won one game in the first like eight or nine games the second year. And they still stamped it. Like he's our guy. We're staying the course. We're not going to make changes like Detroit has in years past, but it's somewhere quietly. Like as, as someone's going to bed at night, ownership,

they've got to be thinking, did we really screw this up? But they bought in. Well, I don't. It just, look, here's the point, is that it speaks to, like, if you just stay vanilla and fail, you're just better off. Correct. Because if you give us something specific to knock, where Sirianni, when he's introduced, you're like, what is this? Like, are you fucking kidding me?

And then it's, oh, wait, these guys rally around and they love playing for him. And you're like, no, no, it's just himself. He's goofy Nick. It all makes sense. And then they lose. And you're like, this guy's not a leader. It was all the coordinators. So if you give us something specific to knock, because most of these stories end in failures in head coaching, um, then you're just feeding the fire for us. And that's why I love when somebody actually is like, it's why I want Raheem Morris to get another chance because when he was introduced as the Bucks head coach, he was so young. He was nervous as hell. It was the Mike Allstott thing. It was like, you're a buck. And it was like, I was younger. So I was like, what's up with this guy?

Now that I'm older, I go, he was just freaking out. He's totally nervous. He couldn't believe he was going to be a head coach. And now you look at the chance that him getting a second chance and knowing that he actually already has head coaching experience, even though it was so long ago, that actually would make sense. Because he just would be different. He'd be different in that moment.

But in that moment when he gets fired later on, you're like, oh, this guy wasn't ready. And maybe he wasn't, but they were trying something a little bit different. So look, I'll always root for, well, I wouldn't say it's, I shouldn't make it definitive, but I'm not going to criticize something that's different. Um, and that's, that's those, those intro pressers so many times. It's the first time the rest of the world even has any acknowledgement of who the guy is. At least Campbell, he played and had been an intern head coach.

You're terrific. We'll have you back again before the Super Bowl, all right? All right, my man. I can't wait. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari, 355 Cabriolet. What's up?

I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. It's life advice. The email address is lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. We have a couple follow-ups that I think I will share today.

How's everyone doing? Doing good. Doing good. About to drive into Spotify 101 on a rainy day. Excited to see what that brings. You have to be there tomorrow, I hope. Give yourself some time. Yeah, so I won't wax poetic today.

Put it that way. Can I just say that I would like to thank all of the people who have reached out about the popcorn situation who have actually been on my side. It has been overwhelming. And I just, I see you, I hear you, and I really appreciate the love and support. Thank you.

And it's been a long time since you weren't on the other end of that. So it's nice to see like, you know, the hive come together for good. Yeah, man. Yeah, man. Because it's not that crazy. Actually, if you just don't knock until you try it just saying but thank you i did think about you this weekend i thought about it i uh i i don't know that i saw the same amount of

support but you know a lot of that might have been just directed at you and then i saw kind of a community opinion on things where i think a lot of people were like that's ridiculous and then i loved the guy because it was how i was picturing your popcorn barrel where i loved the guy who had the huge popcorn tub with a seat belt over it and i was like that's that's a retweet um but i did think about you at some point and i'm like well saruti's a smart person i like a lot of his instincts that's why we've gotten along professionally, personally, for such a long time. I was like, could he possibly, like, I don't think he would just be absurd about it kind of tasting good a couple of days later. Like, I don't think Saruti has

that in him where if somebody else said it that I know, I'd be like, you've been, you have the worst instincts of anyone I've ever met. There's no way this is good. I'm not open to the idea of it. I started thinking about it. I'm not doing it, but I started thinking about it a little bit more being like, I bet he's probably onto something and there's, there's some flavor profile in there with a couple of days later, it just kind of works because it's movie theater popcorn. So, uh, a little crunchier, it's a little like saltier. Cause I don't know if it just kind of like bakes in a little bit more to the to the kernels. I don't know.

It is a different flavor profile. I'm not saying it's better. It just is also good. So that's that's all I'm saying. Yeah, I like a steak out of the refrigerator that's been cooked like the day before. I'll take. I mean, a lot of people be like, why, dude? There's no way it's better.

It's not better, but it is different. It's like, yeah, it's pizza. Same same thing. Like, you know, you warm up pizza in the toaster oven the next day. It's different. It's a little crispier. It's not like fresh pizza, but it's actually very good. So again, don't knock it till you try it. And plus, here's the thing. Like if you're at a carnival or something, you're at like a, you know, you're at an NBA game and you get like a box of that popcorn, that's probably stale anywhere. There's a good chance that's been sitting around for a while and that still tastes really good. So it's your favorite place for popcorn. It'd be a game. It actually is delicious is delicious yeah there was somebody somebody uh sent me a

video of jalen brown eating popcorn before the game but he didn't want it to be in his fit pic so he like handed it off to somebody else but he's a big popcorn guy so good for him all right good for you popcorn's the best snack it is it's the most elite snack in my opinion. The highest of eliteness. All right. Yeah, here's one. 6'2", 175, 240 bench, NBA comp is Mac McClung because I'm white and can dunk. All right. All right. Wow. Cerruti was like, because McClung is just another level of dunking, former guest of the show. Had to stick up for Cerruti. Taking home a bucket of popcorn is wild, but he hit the nail on the head with the stale popcorn take during college at my house we had a popcorn machine in my roommates and i would make popcorn a night or two before to have stale popcorn for

our movie nights we even had a friend that loved stale popcorn so much that he came to visit who'd ask us to get a batch of stale popcorn going about three days before he came down stale popcorn is 100 on the same level as fresh popcorn. Same level? How is it on the same level? I don't... It doesn't have to be above or below to go through all that?

No, it's just different. It's just a different... Again, it's a different texture and flavor profile. It's like I can like filet mignon and I can like a strip steak and they're very different cuts of meat. They're both steak, but they're both delicious.

All right. Okay. I think we we're good i think we got it all right five eight five eight 159 pounds 50 years old cardio only no hoops comp last played competitively and poorly in the eighth grade there's a gap there this email feels a little like the one you had last year where someone said they played basketball texas a&m and left out that it was for Corpus Christi's school. Yeah, right. But that guy was kind of like downplaying it. He was a bit like the guy dunking in the nine-foot rims. We've got some real honest people here. We appreciate it. For years, I've had a hard time telling people I played one year of college football and wonder if I should. I was unrecruited as a walk-on for a D2 school in Northern California. And since we're on the quarter system, I joined the team when school started and they were already

three games into their season. At this point of the season, there was little to no contact during practice. My role consisted mainly of taking a knee while the real players went through various schemes and worked through the game plan for the upcoming game in two hours. It was extremely boring. I honestly don't have a ton of memories in this brief period of my life other than the equipment manager losing his shit on me before my first practice because I grabbed an air pump for my helmet without asking him and getting to dress for the final game of the season against our rival. I transferred schools after one year and the school actually ended up dropping the program a year later. There's absolutely no record online of me playing for the school. And if you asked any of the 80 or so players on the team I'm certain they would have zero memory of me aside from a couple

guys I went to high school with and they probably forgot too so I feel a bit like a fraud telling people I played college football without going into a lot of details on how borderline my experience was which as you can see you can get a little wordy that said it's pretty cool to be able to tell people I played a college sport albeit briefly so i can tell people i played college football all right so excuse me i should just read that with some different emphasis there last sentence so can i tell people i played college football i think my first thought is why would you want to tell them yeah you played college football because you didn't like you you did but you didn't This isn't like a hard-o, man, you never played. But what you just outlined doesn't scream of college athlete experience.

And I know there's plenty of guys. Once I heard about the walk-on program after the fact, like I asked Stanford Steve, I'm like, wait, you had just tackling dummies? He's like, they got the shit beat out of them he's like we had like eight of them on stanford i'm like so in theory if i had gone to stanford i could have just been on the football team he's like you wouldn't want to do it he's like i know what you think you would want to do and you know you get all rudy about it he's like, they weren't good. They got destroyed. It's the worst job ever. And they're never going to play. Like you're never going to play. So what do you want to do?

Tell people you're a walk-on at parties on campus and knowing like, Hey, I'm going to come to your game this weekend and be like, Oh, they're not letting me dress. Yeah. So I picked up a knock. Yeah. I got an ankle thing going on right right yeah yeah i got a little it's just a little tweak hit flexor yeah let me be fresh for oregon state um now i think some of those tackling dummies were allowed to dress i i'm not going to get into a debate about that because i'm pretty sure some were allowed to dress there's probably some situations where it wasn't so like in my head i'm thinking like oh you could just be at florida and be like a walk-on that's just one of the practice dum situations where it wasn't. So like in my head, I'm thinking like, oh, you could just be at Florida and be like a walk-on. That's just one of the practice dummies.

And it doesn't really passes. Yeah. Right. So at a certain point, age wise, you know, when you're younger, a little more insecure about who you are as a man, you know, I can understand it, but you're 50. And I don't think that like, I don't feel like this is harsh towards the emailer. I think he already knew the answer here. So yes, technically, you were on a college football team. But man, that experience feels like it has some holes in it. You never played. No one knows you were on the team. It's D2, Northern California.

I just expected to say Northern Carolina. The way that I was like, oh, Northern California. I just expected to say Northern Carolina the way that I was like, Oh, Northern California. All right. Um, I, cause you telling somebody, yeah, I actually played a little college ball back in the day. You're just leading to a million follow-ups that will be met with massive disappointment. So I don't, where's the win? Where's the win for you saying to people, like, if somebody asked you, Hey, did you ever play any sports? You're like, yeah, actually, I was on the football team, but I'd come in late and then I transferred and there was really nothing to it. Hey, wow, that's pretty cool because that is cool. It's still most of what everybody else is doing.

But I think that should be initiated by somebody else more so than you walking around being like, dude, I want to get a tackle. Here's a little nugget. Yeah, right. I just met you that tackle here's a little nugget yeah yeah right i just met you but here's a fun fact yeah this is this is my latino fraternity story right this is like i'm not telling people it's not as good unless unless i've got the time to explain what what the fuck and why i'm not and whatever like i'm not bringing it up like some every once in a while not often in my line of friends or whatever, our people are like, do you ever join a fraternity, dude?

Like that doesn't come up often, but I'm going to really take, I'm going to take an account. Like, where is this conversation going to go? Who is this conversation with before? I'm like, actually, yeah, I was, but then I wasn't. We started a treasure embezzlement. Well, I could do the whole thing or I could just be like, no, not really. No thought about it. Didn't do it.

That's basically what it is. So I'm like, I'm weighing like, what's the opportunity cost here? Like, does this, does this matter? Do I want to deal with this?

So it sounds very similar. I've had this feeling a lot. Yeah. It kind of reminds me of, you know, did you see that story recently? At least it's new, newish to me,

but it was like Dawn Staley. Who's the coach at the South Carolina women's team. She was talking about how I think did she give rings to the to like the dudes that played against the girls like, you know, as like practice players, or she was saying she was going to give them rings if they ever won a title. And I was like, could you imagine walking around being like, yeah, man, I want a natty at South Carolina. Like what you play? Oh, I was the guy that like, you know, scrimmage with the women's hoops team like that. Like imagine telling someone Like, I'm a national champion.

Like, it would just be such an awkward thing. Again, I knew guys at UConn that actually did that and played. It's, like, really cool. They played hoops with some of the best women's basketball players there are. But those guys also don't, like, say that they played hoops in college. Like, they just played. They scrimmaged the women's team in college. So, yeah, there's just levels to this. I think if you're going to tell people, I would say do what Ryan said,

but also could you say, hey, yeah, I played D2 college football because then nobody's going to look at it. Nobody cares. They're not going to be like, did you play at Florida? Did you play in the SEC? Where'd you play? Big 10?

I played D2. No one's going to care. And if that gives you the satisfaction, then you're going to get away with that because most people are going to look up D2 schools to see what their roster was and what your stats were, unless they're crazy. So I think that's a safe-ish way to get away with it if you

really want to tell people but i personally would not brag about that yeah we agree i don't like to do these often and we could just have its own spin-off of we kind of wanted to do judge kyle because he loved judge jud so much. Still loves. And just still, right? Not Judy Justice. It's called Judy Justice. What happens is a contract thing. And she like had to spin off.

She just. Yeah, she. Oh, I think she owns like the whole. She has the whole show with her. But it's just like she just like, fuck it. I'll name it something else. Put it on Amazon. So just a smart businesswoman on top of everything. Really?

The whole package. Good for her. I've never liked her. Yeah, a lot of people think that. That's all right. I don't have to defend her. I just say difference of opinion. I like regular popcorn.

You like stale popcorn. It's all good. But we could do non-life advices that are specifically like, we need a ruling here. Yeah. We could just do a spinoff episode. It'd be like the Ryan Russillo podcast, 1884. You're like, wait, do I have to watch 84 before I watch 97?

Like, what's going on here? All right. So 27 years old, that gives it away. 6'2", 205, mostly skip leg day, bench 225 times. All right. As an NBA fan and historian, first of all, Bill's like run circles around me as an historian, by the way. Just a heads up on that one. It doesn't happen often,

but every once in a while when the boys get together, some NBA dialogue gets going along with a few drinks here and there. This topic will sporadically come up. The question, would Larry Bird be a star in today's NBA? I'm on the side of yes, he yes he would the opposing side he believes that due to the athletic ability of today's NBA players Bird and the other greats in the 70s 80s 90s would be nothing more than role players in league today my buddy on the other side went as far as say Larry Bird would be Duncan Robinson in today's NBA since you guys are the guys that grind league pass like it's nobody's business and a historian can you please weigh in on this debate so we can finally put it to rest um here's my question so you guys are 27 so that means you're born in 95 so there's a really good chance none of you have ever watched bird play a game right

like maybe you saw a highlight here that thing that always makes the rounds or the YouTube video about how much shit he talked. I would start my ruling with this, that the gap between the athleticism is astonishing. I also think the defense from those eras, specifically the 80s or 90s, are comically overrated. like comically overrated um but there's just a couple hard foul videos that show pistons hacking the shit out of somebody at the rim as if it's happening on 80 drives a game which it didn't that it's like man you know guys today they had to play back then it's like no you guys would have freaked out because you had to guard every inch of the floor now with the space that this league has so i've been really annoyed for years, I would say, of players from certain generations just dumping on this generation of players. But I understand some of the motivation behind it.

It's actually a longer form thing that I'm working on. Today's basketball player and a theory that I'm developing in hockey is involved as well. but whatever you think of what I've just said about the gap and the athleticism and all that kind of stuff, the idea that bird wouldn't figure it out is one of the most insulting things you could say about him. He's a top 10 player. It's not debatable. He's probably closer to five than he is 10. He was one of the smartest players ever. He's also massive. At the beginning of his book with Bob Ryan, it's just funny. He's like, look,

I was good at it, but I'm also huge. He's like, I'm also really tall. And even though athletically, he's not going to wow you, his positioning, his understanding, the way he read things, the way he passed, the way he would help defend, you know, we get really caught up in like, who's a good defensive player. We basically just become visual idiots. Like that guy looks like he might be a good defensive player so therefore he must be a good defensive player that guy looks like he must be bad so therefore he's a bad defensive player and it's like hey do you care are you a good teammate defensively do you get a good position so yeah if you were going to clear him out and run and pick and roll against prime westbrook and derrick rose he's going to struggle you know who else is going to struggle with that

fucking everybody so bird and i know people always bring up like the three point shooting is if they're showing something that's interesting, it just wasn't a shot. Like guys barely took one a game. And if you look at some of that stuff, you're like, wait, I thought bird was this great shooter. What I'm telling you is that if bird were in an offense where you were prioritizing five to seven three-point attempts, he's going to figure it out and he's going to make a ton of them. He was clutch. He was tough. Mentally, he was off the charts. I still would take magic over him, which never was super popular when I was growing up, but Bird isn't Duncan Robinson. Okay.

but bird isn't duncan robinson okay i i was these guys when i was younger and i'm happy to say that i've come around on on this in a lot of parts of life we still know that i you know i'm one of if i haven't i haven't seen a lot of older movies i just you know i'm not really like a big like go back and watch movies from the 80s guy um but i i'm not as disrespectful i think because i used to be about it like i'm still like all right, it was a different era. The movies were great and I just missed out on it. And I probably would have said something similar in my early 20s, definitely in high school.

Like, oh yeah, Bird couldn't play even in the early 2000s NBA, which is actually hilarious if you think about it because that was a terrible era of the NBA. I think the question for me on this is always like, does Larry this is always like, does Larry Bird get, like, does he grow, is he just, what, 30 years,

he gets born 30 years later and he gets the development of like modern day medicine and training? Because if that's the case, Bird's going to be sick. If you drop, right? He's probably not tarring his family, right?

He's probably not doing any of that stuff. If you drop like the actual version of Larry Bird just into the NBA today, I don't know if it would be as successful. I still think he would be successful, though. And you're right, Ryan. Like, you know, it's just hard to say

because the idea that Larry Bird, like, wouldn't have been a sick three-point shooter if he grew up in today's day and age is just dumb and wrong. So, as a reformed idiot on these type of sports takes, like you guys, I think you guys need like

maybe another five to 10 years and you'll come around because I was real hard on the, on the like, hey, LeBron's better than Jordan, probably like 10 years ago. And I, I'm actually, Ryan, one of the few guys that has flip-flopped on that.

I'm actually now a Jordan guy. I'm overall LeBron guy. And I think a lot of it was because I was just dumb and young and LeBron, I grew up watching LeBron. And then you just kind of educate yourself and you're like, yeah, LeBron guy. And I think a lot of it was because I was just dumb and young and LeBron. I grew up watching LeBron. And then you just kind of educate yourself and you're like, yeah,

LeBron's great, but there's just some stuff that Jordan did that was totally on a different level. And so you'll come around. I just give it, give it a couple more years. Uh, and,

and I think you guys will kind of understand. I think as, as you get older, you appreciate old guys. And, um, that's kind of what's happened to me. Maybe.

Yeah. I don't, I don't know, but it's definitely, there's definitely thing about the young male,. Maybe. Yeah, I don't I don't know. But it's definitely there is definitely a thing about the young male, the 20s. Like, I think it's it's not even about sports. It's like you haven't been wrong enough to understand how wrong you might be. And when you're young, you just don't have the wrong scars yet. And this isn't the exact same thing. That's more about like kind of life and perspective. you're you're suggesting that you know duncan robinson at one point with miami was out of the rotation that like bird time machine is sitting

at the bench you know during the the backup minutes with the heat just kind of sitting there in his warm-ups like looking being like hey if somebody gets in foul trouble will i get my nine minutes tonight like i just i and I also think between Bird's handling and passing and shooting and all that kind of stuff, he, you know, I always talk about like how guys are wired. He's wired the way you want

your franchise guy to be wired. Like there's, there's something going on in that guy's head that made him as up for the moment. You know, it's hard to put anybody up against Jordan, but just seeing him find ways to impact a game and impact a game in a winning way.

And, you know, look, the team was really good around him and everything else, but there's a drop-off from 40 years ago. There's a drop-off from 20 years ago. Well, I should say it the other way. The game overall in the town, the athleticism and all that stuff, like it's all real. But let's leave Bird out of the Duncan Robinson comps. How about that? How about that be the rule for today? Okay. Doing this one blind. It's quick. 25 years old, 5'10", 160, 245 bench, 5'15", conventional deadlift with wraps,

15 conventional deadlift with wraps. Three 55 back squat. That's good. That's good. Probably some people are going to ding you on the straps here. I don't care. I love it. Good for you.

Basketball compass, Bill Lambert, but with less skill. Wow. Well, look, yeah, pretty skilled.

Deadlift back squat is just letting people have it. All right. I seeing my girl for about two years overall she's been great she's kind smart my family likes her we have a lot of the same long-term goals however it's become apparent her only real interest is taylor swift i have no issue with taylor and enjoy her music but my girlfriend's hyper fixation on her has become incredibly annoying she turns nearly every conversation is something about taylor and couples with the broad-based media coverage on her i'm at my taylor swift limit as someone who's had a multitude of hobbies lifting sports squash reading religion cook his religion a hobby dude kind of thought it was a lifestyle so definitely a way of life dude maybe he just into studying religion uh cooking history this guy's got the full palate at 25 man this guy's not going to

have any kind of midlife crisis you hear doug bought a trumpet sounds like you need a new girlfriend dude i made somebody a little more culture i find her tunnel vision to be a real thorn in our relationship how can i bring my need for her diversify her interest should i say nothing and just encourage other hobbies or is this something i need to either deal with and decide if it's a deal breaker sounds annoying yeah but i just don't think it should be a deal breaker if that's her only interest that's pretty rough like i that i i'm a taylor swift guy i like her music i went i saw her in concert she was great um i don't get annoyed about the coverage of her just once just once i did not watch, though. My wife put the movie on a couple weeks ago. It's like three and a half hours long.

And I'm like, why am I going to watch this? I saw the concert. I saw it live. Why am I going to watch this? Yeah, exactly. I was there, man. But I feel like if that's your only... If your only personality trait is that you're just a Taylor Swift fan,

because those are the kind of people that defend her to the death on on Twitter and Reddit and they're psychopaths so that to me is she do that of a red flag yeah no you're right like if she does that that's a problem good call I guess the one thing I would say is like football season is almost over right like like is it is it is it unusually ramped up right now like are the like are the pheromones going crazy right now because she is everywhere and Travis Kelsey and cut away to the box and, and, oh my God, they're winning. Look at, look at the Taylor effect, whatever, you know, like if this, like, did this think back to like September or whenever, whenever this happened, like, was it October?

Like, was it this, was it this in your face before that? Or is it like, is there just like, is she just juiced up right now? So I would, I would say if you're considering, you know, you're in a bubble, what should I do here? face before that or is it like is there just like is she just juiced up right now so i would i would say if you're considering you know you're in a bubble what should i do here yeah what you're definitely on the bubble and you should if you're considering what do i do here after two years i would say just wait until mid-february maybe you've maybe got to give it a ramp down period too maybe march see see if anyone see if she's still this this amped up about everything if it's if it's working your way into conversations.

Because America sees her every Sunday on top of everything she's doing. I will say, I do find myself annoyed with the people who are annoyed about her and the coverage. You don't have to listen to Taylor Swift. I don't care if you like or listen to Taylor Swift, but she's a big deal. So of course, CBS and all these people are going to milk every single ounce of

her out of whatever covers they're doing. So I, I just get annoyed with the people that are like, Oh, I'm so over Taylor Swift. She sucks. Like this blows. I don't know,

man. Like, it's kind of fun. Like, I think it's been a kind of a fun, weird subplot that we've never really had before. And any sport that I could remember. And if you just don't like her,

that's one thing, but I, it's kind of i just the people that come off as like just haters of her for no reason because like they keep showing her on cvs those people i don't really like either yeah you know if mcconaughey was at every cowboys game i'd be interested to see what he's doing up in the box when something cool happens too i mean it's it would be a little different but if like if it's somebody that i would be different if it's somebody that i find interesting well because he's probably not with one of the players you know what

i mean it's not like oh crap there's you know d he's probably not with one of the players. You know what I mean? It's not like, Oh crap. There's, you know, Dak just took a hit. What does he think? Like, you know, I don't know,

but I just, I'm saying if it was someone else interesting, I don't know how, if everyone else would be upset too. I definitely wouldn't. I'd be into it. I just wonder what the real spike is. Like we can talk engagements and all that stuff,

but I usually feel like that stuff is like, it's a base Bitcoin, you know, like, what is like it's a eighth bitcoin you know like what is it what does it really mean what is it really worth how many people are actually watching the games is that something that they can then tell advertisers and partners like hey we have this real taylor spike and it's a real thing i'm not even remotely annoyed by the cutaways tour it's three and a half hours there's so many commercials i'd rather watch her kelsey yeah and watch another fucking commercial for some drug i have no idea what it is so i'd rather watch her than hear a coach get interviewed at halftime and say absolutely nothing like like something like you know what i mean like there's so many parts of the broadcast that don't matter

to me i would say the only part about it that's predictably gotten weird is is the gender argument that's played out on social media with it where it's like a guy tweets hey this is fucking annoying and then usually a female media member would be like oh here we go again men just hating on a woman doing anything or taking in joy it's like no that guy might just legitimately be annoyed and it has nothing to do with that. But I would say for our guy that's emailing, buckle up if it's a Super Bowl run. Buckle up because if the Chiefs are in the Super Bowl

and she's going to be in the mix, it's going to be a lot. It's going to be a lot. I going to be a lot. It's going to be a lot. I do like Kyle's idea. What's that? I think Kyle's idea of just like, this could just be a really rough patch and make it to March.

And if it's still really annoying you, then you probably know that this isn't going to be a thing that's going to be for the future. Yeah, meditate on it over March madness and then make your choice in April. Okay, but what if her and Kelsey break up and then she's dating Elijah Pepper? Getting 22 a game for UC Davis.

Shocker smart, right? It's real. So just a heads up. Can't rule it out, you know? Yeah. She's doing a podcast with Jim Nance talking about her bracket and our guy's losing his fucking mind over here.

ESPN comes out with a Taylor bracket instead of a presidential bracket. That bracket thing would be great. He's over there reading the Bible. Just a hobby. But she's ruining March Madness for me now too. God damn it. All right.

Yeah, I think that's it. I think we solved a lot of problems today. I feel great about myself. Me too. That's it? All right, cool. Thanks, Saruti. Thanks to Kyle.

Thanks to Wargon. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, we think a normal week, unless somebody else gets fired or retires, or there's a trade. You never know with that. Trade deadline coming up. The Ryan Rosillo Podcast. Bring your Spotify. We'll be right back. 21 and older and present in select states, FanDuel is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under agreement with Kansas Star Casino, LLC. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com forward slash RG in Colorado, 1-888-789-7777,

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