The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Are the Bills Back? Plus, Todd McShay Talks Lamar Jackson’s Value and Life Advice.

Episode Date: December 18, 2023

Russillo opens by recapping Week 15 of the NFL season and giving his biggest winners and losers (0:41). Then, Todd McShay returns to talk the Bills’ defensive depth, Lamar Jackson, what makes a good GM and his relationship with Sean Stellato (22:27). Finally, the guys close it out with some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (79:29). 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 Stefan Anderson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

on today's episode of the podcast bill's dominant win we'll break it down baltimore as well an mvp push for lamar todd mcshay joins us we talk comparing nba drafting with nfl drafting and where the mistakes happen who who makes more mistakes, some love for Detroit. He gets into Lamar as well. And then we have an all Kyle life advice. I mean, I'm on it too, but just a lot of Kyle and we're excited about it. Enjoy. 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 a ski slope, but dish soap, definitely doable. Sunshine, that's no. A bottle of wine, yeah. And a snow day, again, no. But

blueberry muffins with the delicious crumb topping, total yes. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol in select markets. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details. Week 15 in the books. One more game to go and we'll run through everything we saw specific to really Sunday's games. We got some Bills, we got some Dallas, we got some Baltimore,

a sprinkle of Jacksonville, some numbers you should know, quarterback depth charts, are you ready? And a dueling report on Bill Belichick's future. We start with the Bills at home against Dallas, blowing them out, 31-10 the final score, but this was domination. They held the number one scoring offense coming into this game. Now they're slightly behind Miami for the Cowboys. They held this Cowboys offense to three points through 57 minutes garbage time touchdown there at the end. This also becomes a study on finding a way in the NFL battling through adversity because for most every team, you're going to have these moments where you're

just like, hey, we're not healthy this week or we're losing multiple guys. And we know that the Bills have lost defensive players that are really good and then going into this game against Dallas, no A.J. Epinesa and Micah Hyde both out of this one. It also starts a comparison conversation of other teams that are struggling. When you look at the Jets, the Jets have lost 6-7. They are

5-9 overall. They've got a Rodgers decision to make here because they have to activate him off the IR on Wednesday if they think he's going to come back. It seems like Rodgers wants to come back no matter what to prove that he did it, which I'm not going to criticize him for trying to defy the science of medicine here. But it doesn't really seem to make a ton of sense with this offensive line. And I think after the games, whether it's a Zach Wilson decision again and the O-line issues,

you look at their situation and go, okay, it makes a lot of sense that they've fallen off despite this great defense, but is there something else that's happening with another team that is very similar and they're finding a way through it? That example would be Cleveland. They're on Joe Flacco at this point. They've lost both tackles. There's another injury, one of their offensive linemen. It's an offensive line at the beginning of the year on paper. You're like, hey, that's a really talented group. Probably more talented if you consider the Jets going into it, but the Jets seem to look at their downside on offense as the main excuse, and Cleveland has found a way through it post Deshaun Watson and losing both tackles that are really talented. So then you look at Cleveland, and they're 9-5, and they have found a way. Some of it can be schedule stuff. We could dig through the strength of schedule and all those different things. Some of the strength and schedule stuff is going to be misleading at

the end of the year because you're going to go, well, who was starting at quarterback when you even won that game? That is the NFL. There's really no sympathy at certain points. Sometimes the teams are so hurt. There's a couple of years with the Niners where I was like, well, just everybody's gone. It seems to happen to the Chargers every single year. If you're looking at the Jets and going, hey, that kind of makes sense. But if you're a Jets fan, you're looking at Cleveland going, well, wait a minute, why do we actually have to be this bad? Are you going to argue that Joe Flacco is that much better than Zach Wilson? Maybe you would do that. We both know that their defenses are terrific. And I think there are some defenses that when they realize

they have really no chance with their offense, this happened with Denver for a few years where I'd look at their defense, and at the start of the year, you're like, that defense is nasty. I'm like, yep, but guess what? The defense is slipping, and it's probably not because the defense is all of a sudden worse, although statistically they are. It just means, hey, we have no chance with our offense. And maybe that's what's happening with the Jets, but not happening with Cleveland

despite a couple games where they have given up some points. So if you look at Buffalo's defense without Hyde and Epinesa, the most impressive thing I thought, and yes, I know Zach Martin went out, was that it's a group that we know that they've put a lot of resources into in that front, and it feels like it's getting home now, and it's getting home at the right time. They limited Dak on deep throws. I looked at his throw chart today.

I knew it was going to be bad based on what we're used to with Dak because they've gotten this thing rolling. Again, the number one offense in scoring coming into that game yesterday, it's about deep shots, about CeeDee Lamb being a top five receiver, Ferguson a tight end. It's Dak stretching the field because that's probably when they're at their best. He had only two attempts past 20 yards. Now, when you look at a lot of quarterback throw charts, the number of throws that are actually air throws beyond 20 yards, it's a lot less than maybe you would think over the course of a game, but there were only two, I think compared to like six the week previous for Dak. And we just know that that's what Dak wants to do. And they took

that away from him. And on some of those big third downs, third and longs where they're losing and you feel like he's got to get a little bit more aggressive and take a shot, when he ended up throwing a pick, he probably could have had two more picks on that same series. There just wasn't time. There wasn't time for the play to even develop to get those guys down the field and get any kind of separation. So the Buffalo defense was incredible. Buffalo's offense, 28 first downs, 20 rushing first downs, the most I've released since 1996 for the Bills. The run-pass ratio when the score was 21-3, you can pick any part that you want to here. At one point, I wrote it down, 29 rushes to only 13 passes for Buffalo. Now, when

we look at Dallas against the run, we know it's an issue, but is it a fatal flaw? Now, if you look at some of the straight stats, Dallas is 18th in opponent's yards per carry. Not great. 19th in total rushing yards allowed per game. Also not great. But if you look at some of the win rate stuff that ESPN has, they calculate a little bit later in the week. So we don't have the latest numbers, you know, pass, block, run, win rate, pass, rush, win rate, all this different stuff. They have it by team. They have it by individual. Maybe it doesn't paint the clearest picture, but when you look at Dallas's stuff, and again, I'm not knocking the number there. I think there's just some teams where you're like, hey, they're really good here, but they're really

bad here. Does that actually match what you're seeing in the eye test? But if you look at Dallas's run stop win rate going into this week, so it's going to be even worse after they calculate yesterday's game, it was 30th in the NFL. So starting to smell a little fatal. James Cook, 221 total yards, two touchdowns. A bit of, oh yeah, that guy. That guy's really good. I know you know that, Bills fans, but just they let him loose yesterday.

Game situation dictated it. Maybe it was the matchup. Maybe it was the rain. All of those things check. I think the most deflating part of this for Dallas has to be that Allen passing 15 times and completing seven of them. You're like, wait, we get destroyed by Buffalo and Josh Allen was seven to 15 for 94 yards. Well, it speaks to the rushing numbers that I just shared with you. It feels a bit like for Josh Allen, like J.J. McCarthy's game, Michigan quarterback against Penn State, where he looked

at the final numbers. He was still maybe flirting with, he was going to win the Heisman, but you get the point. If he had had like a 400-yard passing game, had his Heisman moment, maybe he's there in New York. But those numbers were not an indictment on McCarthy. It was, we don't need to throw the football. That's how not scared of you we are. Dallas is

certainly a scarier offense than Penn State's is, but you get the point. It wasn't that Allen was limited. They just didn't need to use him at all. So as we look at the Dallas home road splits, didn't need to use them at all. So as we look at the Dallas home road splits, they're scoring 40 a game at home and 22 a game on the road. That is a massive, massive discrepancy. They're 7-0 at home. They're 3-4 now on the road. And in this game that we call the NFL, where we go, man, I really like that team. And then they give us a few weeks of not liking them. And we're like, I don't like them anymore. And then we like them again. It's like, yeah, I like them. But what if they do the stuff that reminded me why I didn't like them in the first place? Dallas is stuck in that. As bad as this was, at least for me, I look at Dallas

as we are aware of what their high ceiling is. and you can give me the blowout against San Francisco, the blowout against Buffalo. The Philly loss I thought was a good one. The rematch obviously went in their favor. They were the much better team that day. I'm not writing them off if we're doing a circle of the teams that could win a Super Bowl. As bad as it was, I'm just not there yet with Dallas because I've seen a lot of good in there as well. So Buffalo is your nine seed today. Dallas is back to the five seed in the NFC. And it's now coming down to because everybody loves Buffalo again. We're looking at the remaining strength of schedule stuff.

Instead of going through what the rankings would be, let's just talk about the reality, what the matchups would be. Miami versus Dallas at home. They're at Baltimore, which could be not just trying to hold off Buffalo, but it would be a game that maybe decides the one seed in the AFC. It feels like because of Miami's penchant for just not playing the best. Look, it's real. It's a real thing for Miami against the better teams. I don't know that anybody's going to pick the Dolphins in that game, especially knowing what Baltimore has done defensively. I'm going to spend some time on them as well. And then they close out Week 18 at home against the Bills.

Could it be for the AFC division? Certainly, seeding, all these different things. But there's a lot of traffic in front of Buffalo still, but a lot of these teams are going to be playing each other, so they may take care of business if Buffalo continues to win. They're at the Chargers against Easton Stick. That doesn't feel like a loss. Home against New England, that doesn't feel like a loss. And then we'll see what happens at Miami to close out the regular season. So the Baltimore-Miami game that I've mentioned here very well could be not just holding off

Buffalo, but as I said, for the one seed in the AFC where the Ravens sit today, the only other 11-3 team, they and San Francisco, they win at Jacksonville last night, 23-7. Jacksonville legitimately left 12 points on the field in the first half, missed the two field goals, the fumble by Lawrence, and then the clock management disaster at the very end of the half. Rarely can you say, oh, well, this happened, but if that had happened on this series, then that would have been 14 points instead of just the seven because I feel like almost all of these possessions are connected. You can't just give yourself seven points for not getting in on fourth and goal and then add it to the seven points that you got when you stopped

and deep in their own territory, they punted to you, and you had a 45-yard drive for a touchdown. It doesn't work that way. You probably wouldn't have gotten the second touchdown had you not had the great field position. Rare is the case, as bad as it was last night, where you're like, nope, that's three, that's three, that's three. That's 12 points. They had zero at the half. They should have had 12 and they didn't. I have no idea what Lawrence was doing. We didn't really get a great explanation in the game with that, with Peterson. And if you didn't see it, Lawrence hits this deep shot right at the goal line. They don't have a timeout. It's a running clock where I actually don't mind the not spiking of the

football because you feel like, you know what, let's take another shot at it instead of wasting it down. But in this case, you were never going to use all the downs anyway, especially without the timeout. So in this case, it was a bad decision to not spike it. Worse than that was Trevor Lawrence to not take a shot at the end zone where it's either complete for a touchdown or incomplete and the clock stops. Maybe you even have one more chance at a shot at the end zone, and then you have the field goal come out at third down. In this case, he throws out to a flat to a receiver who is going to catch it. Receivers have spent their entire lives catching things. It's really hard in that moment with traffic around you thinking you can get out of bounds.

Maybe you can catch it, turn it upfield and get into the end zone where the receiver is going to catch that football. That's not his fault. It's Lawrence's fault for even throwing something where there was uncertainty of whether or not they were going to be able to stop the clock. He's tackled inbounds. They run the clock. They have no chance of getting back to the line of scrimmage and spiking the football. So that's on the Jacksonville side, but it's because Baltimore is also doing this to teams. Jacksonville, by the way, from eight and three now to eight and six, I had spent a good chunk on Jacksonville earlier in the year going, hey man, look at some of this stuff. The stats told me they weren't very good, but I felt like Lawrence still gave you a

better chance on third and long than some of the other guys. With him, it is weird. It seems to make the hard throws easy, but the easy throws hard too often throughout a game. I mean, the first part's really great, right? But there was a lot of stuff that I was watching with him. Like, well, you know, look, I like that guy. This guy's talented. Okay. Maybe this stat isn't great. There was just all these stats that I was kind of just not ignoring because I was aware of them, but I wasn't letting them tell me the true story of who this team is. And now they feel like, as I said last week, fancier Pittsburgh. There's a bunch of bad numbers.

The one loss record was better. Now it isn't. But I was saying how they need to be taken more seriously because they're drafting behind the tension of a Baltimore, of a Miami, which was so exciting at the beginning of the year, certainly with Kansas City and Mahomes and Allen. And I was like, yeah, you know what? I think it was right for them to not be paid attention to as much because now I feel like I'm just off them as a real threat in the AFC. Baltimore, Lamar's at a point now where they change the offense.

You're like, the numbers are still pretty good, but I think you're just seeing a more complete version of him, even though statistically he's not holding up with some of the other quarterbacks. It's kind of a weird year for some of the MVP stuff, which I'll get to here in a second. I think the hardest thing with Lamar is if you're a defense, you're going, are you going to stop him and his abilities three plays in a row to get them to punt?

And other than Mahomes, maybe Allen's in that category too. But when you watch Lamar, even when you think maybe there's the bad play in there, which isn't that often because he's not turning the ball over a ton, but there'll be the sack, which they're not terrible. I'll get to some of those numbers here. It's just like, yeah, but you're going to do it three straight times against him. Like on second and seven, when you think you have everything covered and you do, and then he runs out. You think you have him for a sack and then you don't. Or he makes a ridiculous throw like he did to Lively, where he gets hit. And you can see the defensive lineman just exasperated.

Like, I cannot believe you just completed that pass. Likely, by the way, not likely. Thinking of the Pistons for a second. That feels like maybe the most daunting task defensively in football right now. I know he's not the best quarterback. I'm not saying that. But over the course of a game with Lamar, you're just like, oh, all right. Well, they're slowing him down here a little bit.

Nope. Nope. I think we have him. Nope. You don't. So the question then becomes, could Baltimore and Lamar do enough in the regular season where all of us as non-Ravens fans, would you be sitting there, again, taking out the people that are passionate about it, would you go, hey, they're going to win the AFC. That's my team. I think they're going to win the AFC this year. going to win the AFC this year. Now the Mahomes thing is always going to be an issue for me where I'm like, I don't know that I'm going to pick anybody against him. But if you're going to pick against Mahomes and more specifically the Chiefs, it feels more right now after week 15 than any

other time. But Baltimore is kind of doing those things collectively that we should be paying attention to as, yeah, maybe they can because look at some of the numbers. And I'm going to just beat you over the head with a bunch of Baltimore numbers right now. If we look at them in yards per play offensively, Baltimore's fourth. Yards per game, they're sixth. Red zone touchdown percentage, they're sixth best in the NFL. Getting touchdowns, not field goals

in the red zone. Points per game, they're the fourth highest scoring offense in the league. Third down conversion rate, they're ninth. Pretty good number. Sacks per game allowed. 2.4, it's middle of the pack. Third down conversion rate, their ninth. Pretty good number. Sacks per game allowed. 2.4, it's middle of the pack. With Lamar, you take it because there's probably an extra sack coming every week because he's going to keep plays alive in a way nobody else does in the league.

Rushing yards per carry, they're second in the NFL, behind only Miami. Passing yards per completion, they're fifth. Yards per attempt, they're fourth, all on Lamar. Interception percentage, Lamar's throwing picks on 1.5% of his throws, fourth best in the NFL.

You look at the pass rush and some of the win rate stuff that I've referenced before, it doesn't jump out of the page at you, except they're second in the league in sacks with this group, and I think a lot of it has to do with how they use their secondary. The other part that is probably the most important number that you're going to see from Baltimore is I think they flashed it last night, but the opposing yards per attempt is the fourth lowest since 2006. yards per attempt is the fourth lowest since 2006. So they're doing all the things that you would want and have a quarterback that I don't know if the trust is there in the way there is for other guys that have some kind of playoff resume. Because Lamar, we know the regular season number is 97 rating

in the regular season, 68 in the playoffs. Touchdown interception ratio in the regular season is great. In the playoffs, it's 3 to 5. Completion percentage goes from 64% to 56%. The last Ravens playoff win with Lamar was almost three years ago. The next time they do it, that was the Titans game where he wasn't even that good. The next touchdown pass that Lamar throws in the playoffs would be his first one in four years. The NBA comp that I would think of is Embiid because I think everybody likes Lamar.

I know people, for the most part, really like Embiid. In the NBA, Embiid, and I've mentioned this before he he gets destroyed more than um well I would say that more often than not an NBA star now with an MVP in his back pocket if you're not winning in the playoffs not getting out of the second round we just start like those are the rules we just start going what's wrong with this guy and Embiid it felt like there's been a hesitation to do that there There hasn't been the hesitation for Lamar. And that might be the only thing holding you up, despite all the evidence that I've just given you that the one seat in the AFC is really good. And an MVP vote for Lamar, where I know I said, look, look at some of the stats. There's just no way you can vote for him. If you focus

on the valuable part, which some voters do and and compare him to some of the other people, and look, he's eighth in EPA. Purdy's kind of running away in that category. I don't know if Purdy would get the vote. If people look at the talent, look at Shanahan. But when you're watching these games and going, if you take this guy out and put this guy in, Lamar makes as much of an argument for that. And that's something I probably pushed back on a month ago. Last couple things. Numbers you should know.

I can't wait to look at the depth charts for teams, looking at some of the quarterbacks this week, because we saw a glimpse of it on Saturday. And I mean, it just keeps happening. You're like, man, quarterbacks are going down. But are they going down this year in a way that is an outlier previous seasons? We are at 57 different starting quarterbacks through week 15. Like, man, when's the last time that happened? Last year through

week 15, 58 different quarterbacks. So, yep. Yep. I'm guilty of it. I was like, man, this is terrible. Let's look at the numbers. Oh, wait, it happened last year. If you go back to 2000, so 24 seasons, the number is usually in the 50s, not for the season, but through week 15. So 2010, 59 different starting quarterbacks, 2007, 60 different starting quarterbacks. So we're actually right where we should be. It just, maybe it was the Saturday slate. Like, what are we doing? The other number that is important, if you look at the division winners, let's see if you sense a trend here. Miami, Tua, Baltimore, Lamar, Jacksonville, Lawrence, Kansas City, Mahomes. You're like, wait, are you telling us who starts for the good teams?

Because I think we know that. Thanks for the pod. Detroit, Goff, Tampa Bay, Baker, San Francisco, Purdy. Although there was a week where we thought maybe he wasn't going to start. And then Jalen Hurts, by the time you listen to us, you probably know what his status is for Monday Night Football. We don't know as of this morning. That's eight division leaders with the same quarterback for every single week. Final thought here, the award of the dueling banjos of semantics. So Tom Curran, who's a friend, works in Boston, very plug into the Patriots,

said after the Germany game that there was a decision that had already been made, all right, on Belichick's future. And I even was like, maybe we should get him on, you know, figure this all out because it felt significant because Tom is really good. We've had him on the pod before. Uh, I, again, I'm biased. I really like the guy.

And then there was like an Ian Rappaport correction on Kern's report, which I thought was interesting that Kern then responded to. And look, this is a big deal. This isn't a local story. This is a national story of the future of Bill Belichick. So Rappaport was basically semantic. It by saying no firm decision had been made,

which, oh, excuse me, not a firm conclusion. But the part for Rappaport that's weird is that on October 22nd, when there was speculation about Belichick's future, because it looked like this season was going to be ugly, and it is, it looked like this season was going to be ugly and it is um rapid report reported that quote there was a lucrative multi-year new contract continuing the quote and the tweet that at least adds some context to discussions about the greatest coach in nfl history i was like man that's a really nice way to talk about bill so most most of us were like, okay, that feels like there was a strategic leak on Belichick status. But then we found out that this lucrative multi-year extension,

as it was phrased in October, was a contract that was agreed upon that takes him through 2024. I don't know what your history is with the phrase lucrative extension means. Maybe it's just a dollar amount, but that made us all feel from the outside going, oh, well, I guess he signed up for a bunch of years. So we'll see what that is. Well, it isn't, it isn't. It's only through 24. My, my definition of lucrative multi-year extension is, is not, is not just one more year tacked into a season where he was clearly going to coach. Was he without a contract? Did we think he wasn't going to show up week one of 23? I don't think any of us necessarily thought that. So it was just a year added on. So there's a bit of a battle of

semantics here. I can't wait to see who wins. And more importantly, I can't wait to see what the decision is because I'm at a point now where I don't know how you hand the keys over to Belichick to revamp an entire staff that has to get a little bit more caught up with the rest of what's happening with offensive football. Joined again this week by Todd McShay. What is up, Todd? You guys have some power issues out there in the North Atlantic, correct? Yeah, it's pretty wild, man. We got southern winds coming up.

It's like 60 degrees. Rain this morning, and now we have steady 65-mile-an-hour, well, they're gusts, like 40-mile-an-hour winds. Trees falling down. I just looked out the window. My back porch furniture is blowing into a tree. Power's gone out seven times. So if the house blows down or something

comes smashing through a window or we go without light just say a quick prayer you know there you go uh tough day in the seas too in that region of the country so uh tough day for dallas tough segue there tough day for dallas weather man you know a little rain out there but as i said at the beginning of the pod just domination by buffalo in a matchup where you know, a little rain out there. But as I said, at the beginning of the pod, just domination by Buffalo in a matchup where, you know, it's a reminder of what Buffalo is capable of. It leaks into the doubts there with Dallas. I want to start for that defensive front with Buffalo. You know, we know that over the years you're like, Oh, they're, they're drafting another guy. Like there was one point where their depth chart again, when it's healthy, I'm like, do I like all seven of their guys in the rotation? Or just you know sometimes i can confuse depth with just familiarity but in

their case i'm like i think they have a lot of options and granted they lost jones the middle of that line um but it was a big part of the story by limiting any chance dak had at deep shots based on the secondary alignment and that pass rush yeah i, I give a lot of credit to Brandon Bean, the general manager, and a commitment to the defensive front. And we've seen the same commitment. Look at Howie Roseman, right, with the Eagles and what he's been able to do. And every year we think they're going to go a different position, and a lot of times it's defensive front and the veterans that they have,

but then continuing to bring in all the Georgia guys and others. The 49ers. You ready for this? I just looked this up because I knew we would be talking about this front. The 49ers, arguably the best team in the league, right? Bosa, Armstead, Hargrave, Chase Young, Javon Kinlaw, Cleland Farrell, Randy Gregory. They have on their defensive front, Ryan, six former first-round draft picks and a third-round draft pick. And that's drafting, a commitment in drafting, and then also free agency or trading, as we've seen too.

So the best teams in the league, and look at the Ravens. They've always been a team. Defensive front seven, and they don't have an elite edge rusher. They don't have a Bosa on their team, but they lead the league in sacks and they do it with a really good scheme. They do it with a back seven. We can get to all that, but they've had a commitment to their defensive front seven. And Brandon Bean, as you alluded to, you know, 2019, he comes in, I think you're 2017, but in 2019, they realized, hey, we have got to bolster our front. Ed Oliver's a first-round pick. 2020, A.J. Epinesa is a first-round pick.

Then 2021, Rousseau and Basham were first- and second-round picks. 2023, they add Leonard Floyd. And now all of a sudden, just going into last night's game, I didn't look at after the game, but going into last night's game, Leonard Floyd has nine-and-a-half sacks. Epinesa, six-and-a-half sacks. Didn't play last night, but they still had the depth they needed. Ed Oliver, defensive tackle, six and a half sacks. Rousseau, four and a half sacks. Jordan Phillips with the sack and a half. Shaq Lawson played a big game last night. So their commitment to their

defensive front, like some of these other teams, the 49ers, the Ravens, the Eagles, shows up throughout the year, but I think it especially shows up late in seasons when teams are beat up on the offensive line, when quarterback play is not nearly what it is early in the season. This is when defensive fronts take over, and we're seeing that with the Bills. There's a lot to get into. James Cook, his emergence the last five games, their run game. But ultimately, you take one of the best offenses in the league with Dak Prescott. We spent a third of a podcast last week talking about Prescott is finally elevated to the elite level and what they're able to do offensively. by a defense that decided, okay, we're going to play a lot of cover too, right? With two safeties back. Mix up the looks a little bit and confuse Dak and make him go through his progressions,

but we're not going to give up the big play. And we trust our defensive front four that they're going to get home, or at the very least, they're going to pressure and make Dak uncomfortable. And they did that all night long. So I don't know what you saw in that game, but I on both sides of the line the bills were just dominant yeah that's what i saw i mean the the best thing if you're a bills fan is that you know those third downs where you're still wondering like what if dallas gets it going here because it's been so good and i know that the home road splits are overwhelming it's weird right you know the weather the weather place i mean it's it's so bad the discrepancy that

you wonder, well, wait a minute, at least they're capable of scoring for you a game at home. I mean, you could get into some of the opponent stuff there, but it's not like it's- Yeah, the thing you're nervous about, not to cut you off, the thing you're nervous about, Ryan, is now after losing that game, they've got a relatively tough schedule. They probably need to win out. And they're going to need, I think, correct me if I'm wrong, I think the Eagles have to play the Giants twice. Is that right?

In the last few weeks or at least once. And I think they'll need, in order for the Cowboys to win the division, they'll need the Eagles to lose to the Giants, which I don't have a whole lot of confidence in. So now you're looking at a playoff run that will include at least two road games to get to the super bowl yeah and the the numbers tell you that they're not built that way and you're right they've got the seahawks obviously the monday nighter were taping this before and then they've got the giants at home cardinals and then at the giants to close it all out and you you think, despite the Tommy DeVito love here,

where everybody kind of loves the story, and then sometimes I'm kind of like, all right, but I mean, isn't it basically like a couple of good drives? Although I don't want to say anything to you because I isn't as agent of the North Shore guys, so I don't want to upset you here. I mean, don't get me going on Sean Stilato, please. Whoa, I may want to get you going.

All right. Yeah. I mean, Sean Stilato has been absolutely, I don't want to say tormenting, but the fact that Sean Stilato is still in my life drives me crazy. And I like Sean. I've gotten to know Sean over the years, right? We flew together and going down, I think it was Mobile, the senior bowl. I've caught up with him a couple of times. I know he's been an agent in the league has had kind of the lower

tier prospects, but just to give you the background and it's an indictment on me, I'll admit it up front. Okay. It's me being, it's like the mass hole coming out in me, the competitive edge that like I've tried to like mature. I've got two kids now. I'm trying to teach them better ways. But I have a competitive problem, right? Senior year in high school, we're 7-0. We're going to play Salem, Massachusetts. And if we win this game, we kind of know we're going to win the last two games. If we win this game, we're going to play in the Super Bowl.

We're playing in Patriot Stadium. I think it was Foxborough Stadium, now Gillette Stadium. Huge deal. As a kid growing up, that was always the dream. There's no chance we could play where the Patriots play their home games, right? Well, here we are, week seven of the season. We lose to this team in Salem. Sean Stilato's the quarterback. They play great that game. All week long, it was like this big media frenzy because the Salem teachers, including their head coach, were on strike. But the head coach crossed the picket line, and they wind up coming in and playing. He gets fired at the end of the year because he crossed the picket line.

This big story. So they beat us in that game. Then we go on and win the next two games and and we're we dominate marblehead i know no one cares this isn't like florida texas california football but we're in position to go the super bowl because we're getting word right this is like pre-self longer we're getting word from our play-by-play guy it's trickling down to the sidelines that salem's losing to beverly this other town in massachusetts and if they lose this game, we're going to the Super Bowl again. Dreams are back on. Okay. Sean Stilato throws a touchdown pass with like no time

left and they win that game and we're shut out. Season's over. High school career's over, right? So it is the worst day of my entire life to that point and still remains at 46 years old, one of the worst days of my life. You know, you lose that game to Salem, to Sean Stilato. You don't want to talk about it, think about it, hear about it the rest of your life. 15 years later, I get word from somebody that I know who's talked to Stilato. He's writing a book about it. Can you imagine the worst day of your life is now being put in print as a book?

And Stilato wants to contact me to do an interview. I tell him to go bleep himself. Okay. He emails me. I don't respond. I mean, this again, not Sean's fault. Sean beat us. Sean won the Beverly game. Sean wants to write a book about the picket, you know, crossing the picket line and his head coach. And you know, he's the underdog and he's Rocky Balboa and blah, blah, blah. So he's lived his whole life as this underdog guy. And know he's the underdog and he's rocky balboa and pa pa pa so he's lived his whole life as this underdog guy and now he's the underdog agent and it's all come to fruition but so 15 years later wants to write a book go bleep yourself i'm not getting involved i never i never respond to him and i think it's all going to go away and i'm sitting on my couch a couple

weeks ago monday night football and i look at this guy and I'm like, Oh shit, that's Sean Stilato. He won't go away. He's like this, this rodent that won't go away in my life. Again, all my fault, not Sean's. I'm thrilled for Sean. Good guy, Italian American, you know, hall of fame, all the great things. But now I am 46 years old and i'm still feeling anguish towards sean stilato and it's not his fault there you go that's my story i have no follow-ups uh yeah okay move on yeah i thought it was going to be nastier but now at least i understand your hands yeah no it just shows my lack of my lack of character to be honest or or the continuing sharpening of your edge so that's how i look at it as a positive okay let's uh let's talk about baltimore here i want to start

with kyle hamilton because when you watch ravens games you're like there he is again and he's over there and he's doing this and you know it's funny because you know obviously you do all the draft stuff and i'd watch a decent amount of him at Notre Dame, and there were a couple plays with him at Notre Dame where I go, oh my God. Because if he were really going to be that guy, then he's probably drafted. Maybe some of the pre-draft projections with him were higher.

He was one of the five best players in that draft when he got drafted, right? But he ran, I forget the exact number, like a 4-6-2, 4-6-7, something like that. But the two plays you're talking about, I think it was USC was one of them. He comes across the field. Florida State, he's the safety on the other side of the field. Reads it early, beelines, makes the interception two feet down. It's the Florida State play because I remember watching it, Todd. The two plays in the Florida State game,

but that interception against Florida State was one of the best plays I've ever seen as a safety prospect of value. I mean, it was ridiculous. But then it goes and runs into four sixes. Go ahead. Before you give us the four six, though, because I think I even texted you after the play against Florida State where you see it happen and you go, a guy his size is not supposed to do that. If the fastest safety who was smaller did that, it would have been an incredible play.

And I think on some of the draft projections, it was always like he was going to be the top 10 guy, top 10 guy. He runs that time. He goes 14th to Baltimore because I also think that there's just a real body type stereotype that we have that I would say usually plays out historically. When you see the little stout linebacker that's shorter than everybody else and you're like, I don't know if he moves well enough and you're like, oh, he's just a badass. Our bad, we got it wrong. But if teams are going to say, well, no, we actually just want the 6'3", 6'4 guy that can run sideline to sideline, I'd rather make the mistake baltimore's defense did an incredible job with him but now watching him on sundays and you go back and tell the draft timeline but just just watching him now you go this is this is the the

the i guess i'm trying to like phrase it is the thing everyone's looking for to kind of unlock matchups that other people don't have like he's the guy he's he's unicorns probably a little bit too much here but wait we have the size matchup with him on tight ends we have him in this linebacker role but oh yeah that's right the florida state and usc game he can go and make these plays so the 40 time ended up becoming irrelevant with him yeah because he plays faster and we all we all knew that but teams like you, like when you have those long, leggy safeties and they don't run fast, you're worried. Okay, does he have that twitch? Because a lot of times the safety, it's reactionary, right?

It's see something, change direction, and then have the speed to go close. Well, teams, just talking to teams, a lot of teams got worried. All right, he's a long, leggy guy. Is he going to be able to change direction? And now I don't think he can close and make up ground like you need to as an elite safety. So give credit to Baltimore for drafting him, give credit to Baltimore for not, I wouldn't say developing him as much as utilizing him in a role that's perfect for him and give credit to Hamilton to adjusting his game. He played,

you know, he played in the slot a lot. He played some deep safety, but what they do with him and you were alluding to it, Ryan, everyone in the league now is trying to do that. The chess, you know, chess piece that you hear chess piece all the time, right? Like a bigger receiver in the slot of a faster, you know, a Kelsey type guy that you can flex out. And there's not a lot of guys in the league that can hold up in coverage, but also be there to help support, right? Support the run. So the way he's basically a big nickel, you know, playing in the slot and because of his length, because of his size and because of his instincts, he's able to hold up man to man coverage underneath zone, but also be that support guy. He's the third linebacker when they're in a nickel package with four defensive linemen, two linebackers, or however they're lining up. So to me, he's become one of the elite weapons in the NFL in defense because of that versatility. in the NFL and defense because of that versatility. There's never a play where you have to take them off the field. And as defensive back in the league today with so many teams throwing on first down,

second down, like they used to on third down, you've got to be able to do a little bit of everything. And that's what he does. And the secondary for Baltimore is outstanding. That's part of the reason why they lead the league in sacks. The secondary with Hamilton as kind of that hybrid guy who's a linebacker and a secondary player is, it's critical to what they do. And like we talked about, the emphasis on the defensive front seven and drafting over and over again to have the depth that they need. The Ravens, I mean, if I had to look at it right now and say, who are the best two teams in the league? I would say the Niners and the Ravens. And there's a lot of different – we can get into Baltimore and Lamar Jackson, and I thought that that was the best version of him that we watched last night,

utilizing all of his mobility, staying in the pocket. But those teams, in large part, because of their commitment to their defensive front, that's why they're the best two teams in the league in my opinion. And it's no surprise that they're the best two teams in the league, in my opinion. And it's no surprise that they're excelling late in the season, just like we talked about with having that defensive front because it's critical this time of year. Yeah. Averaging three and a half sacks per game, number one in the NFL. Let's talk a little Lamar here because when there's been this uncertainty of who the MVP is, which I think is still the case here through week 15. You'll look

at the best team and it's like, okay, well, Purdy's on the best team and I agree the Niners are the best team. And then you look at some of the other stats and there's some stats that feel like they're being dismissive of him by design. And then there's other stats that kind of counter those, like the yards after the catch stuff where I was like, yeah, man, it feels like there's a lot of yards after the catch. You're like, you mean lower than Mahomes last season? You're like, oh, okay. He's kind of like in the middle of the pack on some of this stuff. Then there's some other numbers that tell you that number's not wrong. So the point is, is like

Dak was making a bit of a push. It's going to be tough for him. Maybe he lost it yesterday against Buffalo, where I'm watching specifically for Lamar, even though some of the traditional numbers are just way behind. Some of the analytics are way behind some of the other guys. But then I kept kind of coming back to most valuable. And I'm like, look, I know you did the breakdown of him.

I had Louisville on all the time. I've already covered this in the past, but I felt like he made easy throws really hard. And I was like, he has to be better at that to be a consistent guy. I still think there was some stuff at times. I think maybe some of the playoff stuff is like, will you really get fired up to match up against him? Does that limit him?

But then it'd be like, okay, so teams in week 12 decided to take it easy on the game planning against him that doesn't make a ton of sense could be the randomness of the playoff stuff and maybe he's due and then on the other side lawrence it felt like he checked every single box where i feel like he's now making the easy throws harder than he needs to throws the great deep ball uh it i just thought it was a really interesting kind of case of these guys side by side where there was this all-in, just buy-in to who Lawrence was as the prospect. And it felt like, wait, he needs to be better. I don't care about his first year.

I thought he turned the corner last season. I was still kind of buying into him two months into this year. But I think I've watched too much of it going like maybe it's the ankle injury, the whole thing. But those Lamar concerns, which have been in the past now for a while, the only thing for him now is the playoff part of it. I just thought it was a really interesting comparison. Granted, Lamar being in the league longer, you would hope he's the more polished product, but he is the far more polished quarterback based on the prospects being told that story in reverse. I always try to get a scouting lessons out of all this stuff, right? Like how is the league changing and where are we headed as a league? To me, it's fascinating.

Growing up, I'm talking about like in scouting and evaluating and learning and learning from guys in the league and general managers and area scouts and everyone else. It was always an understanding that the one thing you're not going to improve upon when you go from college to the NFL is accuracy, right? Like you can work, you can work on the footwork and all that stuff,

but like you can't improve accuracy wise. Well, at that point it was a league where it was vast majority, like 90% pocket passers. Now we're seeing a real trend like Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, a real trend like Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, I would say most of all. When you have the mobility early in your career to stay on the field and to excel in that way, you can be an average passer. And then it buys you time, right? It buys you time to develop as a passer and develop in terms of your anticipation, develop in terms of what you're seeing, time to develop your mechanics or develop, you know, just throw more and continue to work on it. And those three guys, when they came in the league, not nearly as good. And in Lamar's case, like Lamar, it was almost a, it was, you know, it was almost a liability, his passing. I remember that first playoff game and

he came in and started like the only thing he could do was run. They couldn't throw the football and to see where he is now. And for me to make the comment a couple minutes ago about like, that's the best version of Lamar because he's not taking off past the line of scrimmage very often. He's utilizing all those athletic traits he has to buy extra time to accentuate or to highlight his passing skills and his ability to throw the ball down the field is just an unbelievable credit to all three of them and what they've done. And especially Lamar in terms of developing. But, you know, from an evaluation standpoint now, it like okay does this quarterback have the mobility to last

and to remain the starter and to continue to buy time to develop as a passer and it's almost like a pitcher in baseball like you know the the fastball guy the 105 mile an hour fastball whatever it is early in their career and they start to lose that can can you adjust throughout your career and hit spots and and you know develop more of a curveball or change up or whatever it is and that's what we're seeing with lamar and honestly like he still has the ability as much as anyone if not more than anyone in the league to take off run and burn you that way but it doesn't have to be that anymore and that's the fascinating fun i mean look at their running back situation like what are they on their fourth running back now after last night with mitchell going out with

the injury they're still able to effectively move the ball when they need to their receivers are considerably better than they they used to be and they have been in previous years but to me so much of it and they also lost mark andrews a tight end and they're still this productive and still this successful right like most teams i'm glad you said the andrews part because i i had it down in my who lost Mark Andrews at tight end. And they're still this productive and still this successful, right? Like most teams, they- I'm glad you said the Andrews part because I had it down in my open and far as like the MVP argument for him,

if you really want to focus on the value part of it. I'm glad you said it because I forgot to say it. And it's a huge part of this because he was a security blanket in the red zone. And that's why the red zone numbers

have been so good. And you wonder like, okay, is that going to fall off because you have this absolute matchup nightmare at tight end. I mean, he's awesome. He's like one of the most underrated tight ends in the league anyway. And then Mitchell goes down as we all started like learning about him and getting really excited about the speed. And I mean, look, they had what two years ago, they went through so many running backs. Like I started losing track of who was even at the position for them. So, so here's my

question. And I'm honestly, I'm not that big of an MVP guy. It is what it is. And congratulations to whoever wins it. But to me, it's like the value. Okay? No, I mean, it's just like, hey, here's your MVP. Honestly. We'll never have you

present the award. Thank you. Yeah, here you go. Take the hardware. But it's like, are you in position to make a run at a Super Bowl? And where would you be without one guy? And like Brock Purdy, what would the Patriots, what would Purdy be if he was on the Patriots? Let's just be honest. What would Lamar, like what would the Patriots be if Lamar was on that team?

And more importantly, like you lose your best pass catcher, you lose these running backs now, and you're still arguably the best, if not the second best team in all of the National Football League. It's because of one guy on the offensive side. It really is. Odell's great to some games. He wasn't a factor last night.

Guys are stepping up. Bateman had a good night. But it's really because of Lamar. And so to me, again, I don't care about the MVP argument, but if you're talking to me about who's the most valuable to his team, I would have to put him up there with the top two or three guys in the league. Yeah, and I don't think this is hey you guys watched sunday night football and they were going for it because even it's been all year long right no and and i really look i as big a fan as torico going uh because i know the guy and i just think he's that good at the job but he just does

a really good job he does as good of a job like i think fowler's really good at the two but you know telling the story but not getting so caught up in the broadcast that you start telling the but he just does a really good job of, he does as good of a job. Like I think Fowler's really good at the two, but you know, telling the story, but not getting so caught up in the broadcast that you start telling the story instead of actually doing the game. And is that not about him? Even though it felt like it was close. Right. Well,

that's the, yeah. I mean, that's a whole other part of Tariqo's talent, but you know, even though that game was like still close the way it was being played, but Jacksonville can't score any points in the first half, which I had already covered.

They, they called themselves out being like, Hey like, hey, it's the Sunday night. You spend all week with them, the production meetings and all this kind of stuff. Are we selling this message? I think in a year where you're trying to wonder who it is, maybe you shouldn't keep trying to look. I think my final point would be, I'm not going to bang the table and say he has to win MVP in every vote that isn't for him is stupid

because I think it is wide open sort of but where I think a couple weeks ago I was like, come on, really? Look at some of the numbers. He's not going to win MVP. Now I wonder if somebody voted for him I might just be like, yeah, I think you might have had the right vote. Two other things I want to do so I want to keep it moving here.

Detroit, their draft. Take us through it. Take us through the reaction, and now tell us the reality of what this draft class is. Yeah. I mean, I give Brad Holmes a lot of credit. He's the general manager for the Lions and has done a really good job, obviously, turning this organization around. It was a nightmare for decades, right? And so much of it is coaching, coaching, you know, the environment there and all of that. But this was an organization we all saw last year, like they're heading in the right direction, but they've got to get better personnel wise. They've got to get some difference

makers. And I'll never forget like all right they're picking at six sitting in there the draft in kansas city sitting on the desk with herb street and and reese and those guys they trade out of that number six spot and they they move back which to me made made sense like you know they didn't quite have the needs of the certain positions then they move back and they take jameerer Gibbs at number 12. I love Jameer Gibbs. The question was always like, all right, it's a running back. But they knew he's not going to last to when we pick again, I think at 18. They knew. And that was true. After talking to other GMs in the league and other people in scouting departments in the league, he wasn't going to be there at 18.

So they had that information. Bottom line is they take Jameer Gibbs, a running back, Jack Campbell, an off the ball linebacker with their first two picks. And everyone's, you know, you go to your editors after, after the draft and everyone's got to write, do a write up of like who had the best draft, who got this, who got that, which teams reached the most. who got this, who got that, which teams reached the most. And everyone was just killing Detroit because they took a running back at 12. They took an off the ball linebacker. You don't do that in the NFL these days, right? And I'll even say it to this moment. I thought it was a reach taking

Jack Campbell where they took Jack Campbell. I knew the need that they had for that position. I think he's a really good player. I don't ever think he's going to be a great player. We'll let time tell. That, to me, was their reach in this draft. But they still got a darn good football player who has contributed this year. So you move back and you get Gibbs at 12, who has been a huge impact player so far and really has been kind of that difference

for them offensively. And it continues to get better as the season goes on, in my opinion. They get Jack Campbell, who's been solid for them at linebacker. But you got to remember, by moving back, they got Gibbs and Laporta. And Laporta is on track to become the best tight end in the history of the NFL as a rookie. to become the most, the best tight end in the history of the NFL is a rookie. So that, that six pick became a difference maker, a weapon at running back and an elite tight end already as a rookie. And then they, they pick it a 45 again in the second round, their second pick in the second round. And they get Brian Branch who I, my argument all draft long was there's not 32 better football

teams in Brian Branch, football players than Brian Branch. I had him as like the 30th best player. Everyone was like, even Nick Saban called and yelled at me because he thought I was too high on him. And I was part of the factor in why Branch came out early. And he's like, I'm just not, you know, another, he could benefit from another year. And I didn't disagree that he could benefit from another year. And I didn't disagree that he's going to be a second round pick,

but I knew he was going to be a darn good football player in the NFL. And they got those four players. Now, I don't know. And again, after the draft, everyone was like, and I remember being like, I understand it. And maybe they reached, they took a running back in the first round. They took a linebacker in the first round. I get it.

But to have the conviction in what you're doing to trade out a number six and to have the foresight to say, hey, we're going to get a really good player at 34 in a deep draft. And to say, I don't give a shit what people say about running back and linebacker. These are the two guys that we need in our football team and they fit our profile. And then to take Laporta where they took him, even though he had been, you know, kind of up and down and dinged up and had some question marks. Brian Branch, the question marks with his speed and who's going to be an elite player. To take those four players,

I don't know that there's a team in the league. And we praised all these other teams, right? All these other teams for their great drafts and the Eagles, and they had a great draft. I don't think there's a team in the league that's benefiting more from their rookie class than Detroit. I really don't. think there's a team in the league that's benefiting more from their rookie class than Detroit. I really don't. I don't have an argument against it. I'm not going to go well.

I'm not looking for an argument. I'm not saying they're definitively the best. I'm just saying sometimes we get so caught up in the draft and so caught up in like, well, they shouldn't take a running back. They shouldn't take this. They shouldn't do that. But we all need to go back and circle back, whether I was right or wrong, whatever it is. And there are plenty of times where I'm wrong and I'm happy to go back and say, you know what? They got it right. And Detroit took a ton of heat,

but they're now one of the best teams in the league. They go into the playoffs. They're coming off a win after a couple of losses. But the bottom line is every week I look up, it's like Gibbs is leading them in rushing. Laporte is leading them in receiving or up there one or two with St. Brown and Branch is making plays on the defensive side and Campbell's doing a solid job. There's no other team I watch in the league and say, wow, this rookie class is not carrying them, but is probably the biggest

reason why they've taken another step. Draft Iowa tight ends is the lesson in this one because they understand adversity. You go all the way back to Austin Wheatley, if you want, on that one. I love the Laporta pick, the Campbell pick. I kind of defer to you guys because originally he wasn't even projected as a star. He started nine of the 14 games this year. And look, anybody that watched Jameer Gibbs in college, whether Tech or Bama, you're like, this guy's filthy.

But I'm still of the mindset. I mean, there was even an argument you could make prior to the season just looking at their needs where you're going, wait, if you have Montgomery, why are you spinning the 12th pick? Because I will always at the 12th pick, give me another edge guy. Give whether it's a d lineman and o lineman like let me just do that let me maybe take another corner so it's always a fundamental argument but it doesn't mean that you think gibbs sucks because if anything especially we watch this weekend against denver the explosiveness that he's showing now he's at like five I think it's actually closer to like six yards per carry with him. He hit 23 miles an hour on the, on the,

um, it did Alabama. He was the fastest player at Alabama. He was one of the fastest players in the country coming out and his ability to make guys missing. I mean, not just miss, but like whiff in tiny areas.

That's what you look for at running back is, can they create their own yards is, is unique. And, you know And just to finish up this point, part of drafting is realizing what we need to take another step and to become better. What are we missing? They had a physical football team, an offense that could possess the ball and be efficient moving down the field, but they realized that we've got to be more dynamic. So let's get a matchup piece at the tight end position

to create some mismatches. Let's get a running back who's not just a grinder, a pounder, a guy who can pick up three, four yards, someone who can actually be a difference maker in the run game and the pass game. And also, like, all right, we lost his rookie year, but we knew when we drafted him in his rookie year we weren't going to have that.

Now he's suspended. But Jamison Williams, if we have Branch, all right, we lost his rookie year, but we knew when we drafted him in his rookie year, we weren't going to have that. Now he's suspended. But Jamison Williams, if we have Branch, Laporta, and it's not Branch, Gibbs, Laporta, and Jamison, this offense has got a chance to go next level. And it hasn't been that all season long, but at times we've seen that. And to me, it gives them a chance to make some noise in the playoffs. Yeah. Jamison was, was awesome. I got worried. I thought he got rolled up pretty good in that game. And I was worried about him. Um, but it was a season high targets for him, at least seven. Uh, we know he's slight, but we've seen him stretch the field so much in college, but he's still only played 16 games ago, the weird start of his entire career.

So you're, you're hoping there's a step beyond this because that's who he certainly profiled as a receiver there. You said something there when you were talking about how Saban was saying Branch could use another year. Could use another year could be applied to 75% of the first round draft picks in the NBA. I

understand Saban's point. There's a version of his explanation of it that is far more specific than you could counter that and generalize and just say, well, who couldn't benefit by playing another year somewhere in college and then becoming more seasoned for the next job? That would be the case for most people. But I think in your world, it's used specifically for guys. We're in the NBA. When anybody says, oh, you can use another year, you're like, well, no shit. That guy could use three more years before he's actually asked to defend NBA players

and make decisions with the basketball on his hands. But that's just not the way the job works. I love the job. I love what front offices have to figure out, the challenge of it, the mystery behind it. And I'll admit, we met 20 years ago. My first job on a talk show was 2003 after a minor league baseball stint. So it was 20 years ago. And I was lucky a talk show was 2003 after minor league baseball stint.

So it was 20 years ago. And I was lucky enough because it was a Celtic station that some of the Celtics front office guys, specific shout out to Chris Wallace, Leo Papil, guys that were unbelievable to me very early on. And it was my fascination with what they did. It was me. I don't think naive is the right word, just uneducated because I was kind of the idea that they had a magic power. They had a lens that they watched basketball through that mere mortals couldn't understand. And I would ask, I'd be like, what is it? I wanted to know so badly. And back then I'd rather- I remember that feeling. Right. I wanted to be in a front office way more than I ever wanted to be on the air going back to those years.

Same here. Close. If somebody had said, hey, you never can be on the air tomorrow, but you have to stay at a Red Roof Inn for the rest of the next 10 years and cover the Sun Belt, I'd be like, done. So they were cool about it, though. In that position with somebody younger, they very well could have said, ah, you'll never get it. You'll never understand. We do have the secret power. and there's definitely some people that want you to think that. And you know, in the conversation, I started talking to more people. I go to Portsmouth, I go to Orlando and then Chicago, ultimately stuff. You start talking to enough people who start watching enough games. You're

like, okay, it isn't, it isn't this superpower. It's like, you hope you have some instincts that help you understand, like, look at the way that guy moves or look at the way this guy's body type compares to this one and it's one of my favorite things even going to some of the draft camps where there's a college player that has a massive resume you know timmy gonzaga is a really good like he was an incredible college basketball player then you saw him out there with not even elite nba players but nba combine participants and you go physically i don't know that it's gonna and i don't know that you notice that unless you've watched your thousands and thousands of hours of the sport that you focused on. So when I look at how the NBA compares to the NFL, I want to table that question with just kind of your start of, that's how I felt in the beginning.

And I certainly don't pretend that I have it all figured out or I could do the job because the job is so much more complicated than anybody realizes. But that superpower doesn't really exist or you're just, or you just fall into the category of you're just bad at it. You're just bad at watching guys and you, you just don't see the things that you have to figure out eventually if you're ever going to be one of them. I, I learned, I don't want to say early on, it probably took, I don't know, five, seven years. I learned that the superpower was different than I thought the superpower was going to be. I thought there were some guys, and listen, I know guys, and I've spent time evaluating tape with guys who I believe just have a keener eye and see something a little bit better, have just a better feel, right?

And I've been around guys, I've heard stories of guys who just kind of don't get it, if you will. But I would say the vast majority of evaluators are good to very, very good at their job, okay? And the way you hone that skill is by watching and studying and sitting with other guys and watching tape. That to me was always the most valuable thing. Like people would go out and party in Mobile at the Senior Bowl, go out and party in Indianapolis. And early in my career, I'll be honest, I'm 25 years old. I'm going out, I'm networking and all that. And I'm enjoying that. But as my career went on, like that was the time like, Hey, come, come in the room. I got XO set up. I've got the, you know, cowboy remote. Let's, let's watch tape and guys would

come in. And I also was lucky that Joe Douglas, I played college football with him. He's now the GM at the jets, uh, Dwan Jones. I played college football with him at Richmond. And he's, he's like the, you know, the national scout for the Atlanta Falcons has been in the league. Kevin Whitehall worked with me for a while and is now in the league with the Ravens and his older brother, um, Andy Whitehall has with the Ravens and Eagles and now the Steelers. So like I had a network of guys that I could sit and watch tape with the superpower though, it turned out to be, and this is good for any young evaluator to learn because it's something it took me a while to learn. The superpower, in my opinion, as an evaluator is figuring out what is it we're looking for and does this player possess that talent? Can he provide that? If it's a 3-4 scheme, if it's a 4-3 scheme, but even more in depth of we play heavy zone

coverage. We need someone who's versatile, like Kyle Hamilton, going back to him. We need someone to play this specific role. Because quarterback is quarterback. That's a different evaluation than anything else. There are certain positions, like cornerback, you're looking for length and speed and all those sorts of things. And first and second rounders are great, but there are so many other guys that build out a roster. And I think this is kind of one of the bigger differences from the NBA evaluating to the NFL evaluating is I get to fill out a roster with 22 starters and backups behind them. Not everyone's going to be a first or second round pick. Not everyone's going to be a star. How do I make sure I've got all these players that can help support our stars

and play a role in our team? They don't have to be a great player, but can they be as, can they be really good in their role? And so like teams that worked tirelessly with their scouts on finding the traits that fit what they want to do are the teams that have been successful. And to that point, it's also not a coincidence that the vast majority of the teams that we're talking about, like the Eagles, the 49ers, the Patriots for a long time, the Ravens, they have had the same people in place. the Ravens, they have had the same people in place. When Ozzie Newsome left and retired after an unbelievable Hall of Fame run as a general manager, Eric DaCosta was in that system with him for, I don't know, 15, 20 years. So it continued. John Harbaugh, one of the longest tenured coaches in the National Football League, the Eagles with Howie Roseman, the Patriots with Bill Belichick. The 49ers have built their thing a little bit more recently, but there's consistency and stability there, which is so good in a lot of different ways. But for a scout, it's not always changing.

Like, all right, now we're changing defensive coordinators. We've got a new scheme. Now we've got to figure out who fits that scheme. And now you're always kind of learning and trying to catch up rather than being ahead of the curve. So that to me became the superpowers, figuring out what we want. And then also the, I think the thing that is so overlooked in football, probably more so than basketball is the psychological. Does this guy need football? Is he coachable? Those are the two most important questions that you can't ask the player, but you've got to ask questions, take psychological tests, do digging. It is a relationship-based business in scouting. And that would be the biggest thing I would tell. When you're an area scout starting out or you get an opportunity as an intern, you better build relationships.

And I'm talking about every school in your area, every other team, when you're on the road with scouts, like it is a relationship based business because you've got to get information from your relationship. It's not bringing donuts and being a kiss ass. It's really like finding the one guy in the building who's actually going to tell you like, ah, yeah, I know we said all this and this and this and coaches trying, you know, recruiting, it's a bad, a bad idea for, for a coach to say that he's not a great guy or he spends too much time in the training room and all that stuff. But keep an eye on this, or we're worried about this, or this is something you should

know. So to me, the superpowers are building relationships, getting information, understanding the psychological and what fits for us. And I know this is like kind of a boring trend, but like for anyone that wants to get into this, those are the kind of the four things that me that became the superpower when I thought it was just a guy was like, Hey, I got a great eye for, for wide receiver talent, right? I'm the best at scouting defensive lineman. Like everyone, if you watch thousands of hours of tape, you figure out who's the good guys are, who are the guys that might not work? Who are the guys that run the 40 the fastest, have the length, all those numbers.

You can put them into a computer and analytics has helped. There's no question. But ultimately, if you don't have the relationships, you don't know what you're looking for, you don't understand the psychological, you're not going to last very long in this business. And if you do, you're going to be doing it for an organization that's not going to you're not going to last very long in this business and if you do you're going to be doing it for an organization that's not going to be very successful comparing the nba draft process to the nfl draft process is an apples to apples so let's just start there and also let me also add this to it your evaluation of of nfl guys is is so beyond you know what i do with the nba thing it's not my year-round job.

I like it. I get stuff right. I get plenty of stuff wrong. But I know that we've talked about this with somebody being like a draft expert is that the public wants to believe that you actually suck at your job because deep down they wouldn't mind having your job. And I think it's the same thing for front office is that when it starts going south, it's like, okay, all of these guys are collective idiots.

Because I say that because I used to be that guy. I used to be that guy that was in his twenties that would watch teams draft. And I'd be like, I can't believe they thought that guy was good. I watched him play like 16 games in Missouri. Like that guy wasn't that good. And the one you were keeping track of all your wins from the outside that nobody else is keeping track of. And I remember like when Sheldon Williams went fifth in 2006 to the Hawks. And I remember doing the tape and going, a lot of this stuff is off of JJ Redick drives. Like how could, how could somebody who has this job, how could someone who has this job and runs a team take Sheldon Williams fifth? And then you immediately as a young guy, you're like, I can do this. You know, I can do this. I can figure this out. And out and it's you know it's not really fair because then you also have to remember all the times you were totally wrong on players which has happened and will continue to happen at least for me it is i do it's like an aside everything else that i do but when i look at i've said this before i'm like there are more busts in the nfl than there are in

the nba and then if i say that then immediately nfl guy wants to be like well what about anthony bennett it's like well look if if the quest was to find busts in the NBA, then you win the quest. That's not the point because in no world would Michael Jordan go 37th in an NBA draft, whereas Tom Brady is going to go down as the greatest ever. I don't know that anybody's going to surpass him. Maybe Mahomes does, but you're not going to have 100 guys picked in front of the greatest player in the history of your sport, the way you do in football, uh, in the NBA. Now you could also say, well, what about Jokic? Okay. All right. Look, if the next Jokic as an overweight Serbian, who people weren't a hundred percent sure about who he was going to be now is the best player in the world. That's fine. Now all he has to do is

be better than Jordan and your argument checks out. All right. So when I look at the NBA stuff and I've had teams be cool enough to share with me, like I remember one guy who worked for an analytics department was like, look, you said something about the draft that actually is right. Like I started noticing, I thought the smarter teams are just trading picks in the twenties because they were like, it's fun. It's fun to have a first round pick. It's fun to introduce them and give them the jersey and have the draft party and the whole thing. But the success rate for these picks in the 20s is like way below what perception is. So smarter teams started packaging up their 20s being like, who cares? And the guy was like, if you look at the way we chart success, like look at this. And it was just a graph that started up

top of the left of the number one pick and took a drastic turn down to the right. Whether you want to chart it out or whatever, there wasn't the success that we have in the NFL where there's just mid-rounders all over the Hallators worse in the NFL than the NBA guys are? Like, is that even a fair comment to make? And knowing how the NBA can screw it up, like I'll use an example, the Sacramento Kings, they took Keegan Murray instead of Jaden Ivey. I think there were some complications to access to information with Jaden Ivey. Ivey, if you watched him play in a game, just had, if you watched Ivey play a really good college game at Purdue and then watch Keegan Murray play a really good game at, you'd be like, there's no way you're taking the Murray guy over Ivy. The way it's worked out, Murray's been the much better pro. I think he fits almost in a football sense in a better way

than Sacramento. And Ivy, this whole thing with Detroit is a mess. I'm not going to bore you to death with it. But right now, the way the careers have started, those of us that would be like, why would you ever take a Murray over an Ivy? We look like we're going to be wrong. that would be like, why would you ever take a Murray over an Ivy? We look like we're going to be wrong. But yet the NBA guy will default to, I don't care about fit. I don't care about the football things. I care about physically what are you capable of out there with the greatest athletes in the world.

What can you do when it's five on five to unlock some offense? And Ivy has those physical traits, but it's not translating. Again, Detroit is a mess, so it's not even entirely on him in his second year. It's the reason why Giannis, who you have to understand what he looked like when he's coming out of the draft. He was a lot smaller. He was 6'9". He couldn't really play.

And I talked to John Hammond, who drafted him, and I said, what did you see? And he kind of shrugged. He goes, he's pretty big and athletic. That's kind of what our league is. I could have taken a four-year starter from college where i knew the ceiling was really really low but for the most part like i knew that it's just i'd rather be wrong with the physically gifted guy in the nba than i would be with the guy uh that that doesn't check a lot of physical boxes so i think the misses are motivated sometimes they're the same but a lot of physical boxes. So I think the misses are motivated.

Sometimes they're the same, but a lot of them are a little bit different, but I don't know if that means that the NBA is better at picking the right guys than the NFL want guys are, or is as if you just said, the sport is so comically different that, yeah, like if you have that bad-ass has to have football or he'll die on the inside a little undersized edge guy that goes in the third or fourth round and makes five

pole balls like that makes sense in that sport where that story doesn't happen that often in the nba allowing for the exceptions that actually happen far more rarely than I think people realize. Yeah. I mean, it's to me like team and scheme are the variables in the NFL that are, I don't want to say it's not about team and scheme in the NBA, but it's so much more of a factor, right? Like the team you play on in college, the scheme you played in college is a factor in terms of evaluating a player. And then even more importantly, the thing that we don't have access to when we're evaluating and getting ready for a draft is the team is going to draft them. And in terms of the personnel around and the scheme that they're running, does that fit what they, you know, what they do best?

And it's so like, correct me if I'm wrong. You can tell me like if you draft LeBron James, like you're going to LeBron James, first of all, it's five on five. There's isolations. There's one-on-ones. There's a lot more of that. He's on the court, the vast majority of the game. If you draft Josh Allen, it's 11 on 11. There's a lot more potential for mistake. There's also like the scheme that he's playing in the, which has not been great part of this year, right? And the negative effects that had on him, the talent pool around him. If it gets better, his game is likely to rise. If there's injuries or players aren't playing to level, it's likely to fall because there's 10 other guys on the field.

And you're not on the field for a full 60 minutes where in the nba you can be on the field on the court for for a full 60 minutes so or 48 i guess uh so to me like there's there's those those variables but i have to assume part of it quite like just to boil it down to there's just not many human beings that are seven feet tall six seven six nine seven feet seven one they're that athletic that can actually play that game right there's just yeah the pool the pool is is completely limited i mean it's why you know so as you're rising up from middle school to high school like it's just so they've weeded themselves out yeah right the sport is weeded out the people that aren't going to be there more than football does yeah so there's

you've got this huge pool for nfl players and comparatively of comparatively right it's still limited in comparison it's still a huge pool but like compared to if you were to look at the pools so i i don't i think that's part of it too. And I think obviously, I mean, it's just such, it's so much more of like an isolation game, one-on-one. Can I go up against this guy? Whereas, you know, LeBron is not counting on the four other players on the court nearly as much as Mahomes is counting on the other 10 guys on the field.

Agreed? That's the best way of saying it. It was what I was thinking of, and I think it's a good way to end it because Mahomes might be the only basketball version of an NFL player, where even though he's relying on all these other people, he has made things happen throughout his career

the way a basketball, like the best basketball player impacts a basketball game. And that's why, you know, even though the team aspect of everybody doing their job and if everybody's doing their job and they're blocking it, like when football is right, when everybody's aligned, when everybody knows what they're supposed to do, it's a fucking beautiful sport. But at the same time, right now, right. Same time when I look at basketball, it's like, yeah, but if I'm that dude, then I get to dictate like what happens in this game.

And I kind of love that where it's like okay like it's not it's not a hit or hitting a line drive with somebody at second with two outs right at the shortstop and it's like you did everything you were supposed to do except that happened we're in basketball if you're that guy you you're that guy you you kind of show you show like i'm a Celtics fan i watch tatum and like it wasn't always like this but i'm watch tatum now and the development he's had and like the he's got a lot of good guys around him but when he's on and there's a bunch of different but i just get to what like there's no one in the end like no matter how good you are and what you do if you're patrick mahomes when tatum decides like all right like this is mine. It's just like, he's the guy.

He's him, right? Like, it could be a fall away shot. It could be driving to the, like, in the NFL, you can't just snap the ball and take over a game like a Tatum can, like, you know, LeBron could, like, you know, like the elite, elite guys. When it's just like, it's time, there's 20 seconds left. That's it. And nine, I don't know, seven, eight, nine out of ten times,

it feels like those guys, when you need them, they come through. Yeah. All right, last thought here, and we'll do this throughout our visits here because we'll do a bunch of stuff over the draft as well. Give me your top five defensive prospects right now. I know there's still a lot of work to do, more tape, more film, the whole deal,

but as of now, as we're getting into the bowl season here, give me your list of the top five defensive guys for the draft. Yeah, we still have the senior bowl that I'm going to try to, I'm going to do everything in my power

to get you down to Mobile for at least 48 hours. When is that? When is the Senior Bowl? Because we were supposed to do it in the past. I have to look up the exact dates, but it's like the last week in January, first week in February,

and then the Combine in Indianapolis. I'd love to get you from the NBA to the NFL Combine and see the differences. That's in, I think it's the first week in March. I'm feeling like access is better. Put it on the calendar for now. Write it down. Write it down.

We'll see what we can do. Anyway, looking at this class, yes, a lot can change because of the All-Star games and the workouts and all that stuff. But I was just looking at it, Brian, the top eight prospects I have are all offensive players. It's exciting for NFL teams, but it's different than what we normally have. I mean, you've got the top two quarterbacks we've talked about, three wide receivers, two offensive tackles, and Bowers at tight end from Georgia. So my first player on my board, and I'm keeping up the board. You asked before. I'm watching more tape than I've ever watched

because I don't have TV responsibilities and online responsibilities. I just got off the phone yesterday with one of the top scouts in his department, and I've been talking to GMs. I'm probably going to be more dialed into this draft than before, and I feel like I'm always as dialed in as you can be but um but I just I a love doing it b who knows what what what's going to happen moving forward and where I'm going to be and what I'm going to be doing and and and also just you got to keep your eye sharp as you know like you can't just take a year off and and all that so anyway a lot of wasted time there but edge edge rushers,

I think are edge rushers and corners, the premium on those positions. And I think you're going to see kind of when we get to like pick seven, eight, nine, there's going to be a run on those guys. Dallas Turner, the edge from Alabama. I thought he had a great year, got better kind of as the season progressed, led the SEC in pressures, I believe, with like around 50 or so pressures. He's a little bit lean, but he's 6'4", he's up to like 252. And I think he'll continue to build up in his frames. Got a lot of power, quickness, speed. He had nine sacks this year.

So I think he could be the top edge rusher. But there's also UCLA's edge, Liatu Latu, 6'5", 265, 13 sacks this year. But he's got the neck injury, retired briefly from football, transferred into UCLA. There will be questions about that. But Latu, if he's healthy and your medical team clears him, he could very easily push Turner to be the number one edge. Jared versus the other edge out of Florida State.

Albany transfer, like unheard of, right? Comes in that LSU game early in last season. He was a relative unknown. I told you in the last two years, I don't know if there's a better tape to watch an edge rusher than Jared versus LSU in 2022. And he

got a lot more attention this year. Wasn't having an exceptional year for a portion of it. Was kind of nicked up a little bit, but he really came on late in the season. He finished the regular season, nine sacks. Powerful, powerful player. So Jared Vers from Florida State. Those are the three edges. Dallas Turner, Latu, and Vers. The two corners, I think, that could be the top corners and are in that mix, that like 9 to 15 range in this year's draft class, are Nate Wiggins from Clemson. Can become a little bit better in run support, be 6'2", 185, kind of long, lean frame, fast, athletic.

He had six pass breakups, a couple interceptions this year. And then Kool-Aid McKinstry has got all the traits, physical player, discipline for the most part. He's 6'1", 195, not the longest, but he's got good length and he's physical. He's a Nick Saban type of corner who will support the run. But interestingly enough, I think his teammate actually played better. Tarion Arnold had more opportunities because teams are thrown away from McKinstry. But Arnold had five interceptions this year and has another long corner who I think could wind up in the first round, too. So there are a bunch of edge rushers and corners in this year's class to get excited about. Awesome stuff today, Todd.

I enjoyed it, and we'll talk to you again soon. Yeah, it was fun. That was fun digging into your NBA scouting roots, bro. They say money can't buy happiness. Look at the fucking smile on my face. Ear to ear, baby. 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 could possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Mexico Steve off today.

That brings us just to full frontal of Kyle. What's up, man? What's up, man? What's up? I miss Steve. I do. I'll say it. Nobody wants to say it.

I'll say it. I didn't text Steve the whole time. I was like, don't text him. Don't have any thoughts. Hey, is this something? I haven't done it once to him. Bill was texting Steve the whole time. I don't think he remembered he was on vacation, but he was texting me stuff. I was texting about video stuff for Bill for bill pod and i'm just like yeah and i think steve probably knows what's what the

deal is so i thought that was kind of funny he's just getting every text that i'm getting on what we should do about the youtube breakouts but but uh he he never wants me he's like hey i'm on vacation he just now he just stayed silent mexico steve would never do that all right life advice the email address is lifeadvicerr at gmail.com let's get to it salary mistake dilemma six foot 175 former college lacrosse player 205 bench 185 squat noodle legs sorry man uh i've been working with the top five revenue medical device company in the world. Okay, that's high ranking. Just got promoted to a new role. Earnings the last two years was roughly $85,000 per year. This promotion will put me on track to earn $250,000 plus every year. Congrats. Those lax guys know how to get it done, Kyle. It's a sales job. The base salary the last two years was at $55,000. In the discussions after

getting promoted, it was told to me that my base salary would stay the same, so at $55,000. But the expected earnings would triple. I got my job offer letter today, and the base salary was $67,788.42. Thank you for being so specific. I was thrown off because it's a completely random number and over 12,000 more than I was expecting. I obviously love my job in this company. I'm in a dilemma over whether to bring this up to my boss or leave it alone and accept the extra money. Was it a typo? Was it on purpose? Obviously, the letter had to go through multiple people to look it over before it was sent back to me, but I don't want to regret not saying anything. What do you guys think I should do? All right. Well, you know, the immediate response is everybody's in the car going, don't say anything, like keep the extra 12 grand. And that may be the right way to go about it, but let's try to examine it from all angles. Number one is just because a bunch of people,

executive people that had to look over this thing, saw it, they didn't pay attention to it. Half of them probably didn't read it. And because the number isn't 6 million, it's 67,000 instead of 55,000, the guys probably forgot because they're interacting with so many other things and probably have things that are far more important than a $12,000 bump. So I wouldn't worry about that part of it. Now, you could get the spirit award for going back to them and saying, hey, you had mentioned my basis 55. I just want to make sure that this is either accurate because if it's a mistake, I wanted to make you aware of it. And then all of a sudden, maybe there's all sorts of awesome guy equity that pays off for you later on with this company because you want to keep the job. And especially if you're going to be making 250,000 is 12,000 before taxes really that big of a deal. All right. It's not. is really that big of a deal. All right?

It's not. It isn't. So now there's different pay stuff that can happen where you're like, hey, you should tell the company. Like that's the right thing to do. You're going to be sweating it out. And if six months from now, somebody's like, I can't believe this happened and you never said anything and you knew,

then you can look much worse. But that's not really what this dollar amount is. Like you're out pretty quickly if you ever got called on it, which I doubt you would be, would be like, hey, what happened? How come you never said anything? And you were like, oh, I thought maybe the base thing was off or whatever. You could just play dumb on that and you would probably win. So it really kind of comes down. I don't think this is the moral dilemma that it would be in other examples of this, where it's such a significant difference. It's like, hey, eventually somebody's going to figure that one out, like shaving pennies in office space.

That's not going to work. Somebody's going to find out. And if you hated the job, then you'd be like, whatever, find out when you find out, but I'll keep cashing them checks, which I think is what a lot of people would do here. So I'm not telling you to tell them. which I think is what a lot of people would do here. So I'm not telling you to tell them. I'm telling you that if you're on the fence about it and it's your own inner battle, giving up 12K pre-tax knowing you're actually going to be making 250 grand a year might be your answer, even though I'm sure most people listening to this are like, no, even if it was a mistake or

was a mistake, it's not that big of enough thing to even cause any kind of red flag. You're probably going to pocket that extra 12 grand a year, every year, and no one will ever notice. But I don't know that the pie chart of salary flow here, it doesn't seem to be enough of a difference for you to be like six months or a year from now. Or if they told you immediately like, holy, thank you for telling us we made that mistake. We never would have changed it that you feel like you cost yourself all this money that you would have got if you never said anything. Kyle, I don't understand how we keep arriving to this place and different sort of versions of it. It's like, oh, my landlord is not charging me enough rent. Oh, I'm getting paid too much money at work. Like this isn't you

didn't find 12 grand on a fucking envelope outside the bank. And like somebody's missing that like this is a company that's making profits that could probably be paying everybody more you know if that was their prerogative you got one of the lucky ones like maybe maybe they were just like actually we've just we've changed the pay scale for this level of the company and it's actually this now you know what maybe like why why would you why would you be like oh i think you i think you may have uh been too nice to me here. Can you, can you take this money back? I don't, I think it's just, it should be easy to zoom out and be like, okay, this isn't like, nobody's like searching for this money. Nobody's hurting because I have this extra money. They just gave me money. And all I can ever do is, is get the

money that they decide I deserve. That's it. I mean, yeah, you're a salesman, so I guess you could do, you could do great in that respect, but that's just if you're an employee in general, like unless you're breaking down walls at this company, like you're pretty much going to be capped on whatever they think you should be able to do besides the whole sales goal thing. Yeah, but should I let people know and make a meeting about this? Like, definitely not. And I wonder if it's like a sale. I don't know what kind of sales rooms are like with medical device companies. But I don't know if they're like, the fuck's wrong with this guy's giving money back. It's not the kind of killer we need here. I'm just kind of joking when I say that. But I don't know. Just a thought.

I would not. I think it's easy to decipher right from wrong in this situation. And I think there's nothing wrong about being like, oh, I guess, I guess they decided to give me just a tiny bit more money pre-tax. That's good. So you'd keep it.

I keep it. This wasn't like a massive error. There wasn't an extra digit, you know, like it's not like we didn't go from six figures to seven figures by accident, you know? Yeah.

I mean, I could see, I'm not even saying you're wrong and I'm not even saying I disagree with you. I can just understand a guy being like, Hey, it's not really even significantly that much money. Do I actually make more back by being that guy that goes to them? You know, is there a payoff for me down the road or whatever? But then when you start looking for this amount of money, if you were the bookkeeper, but, but I think your train of thought is, is probably the more likely one in that you just start digging in and you can see what you're doing, like going corporate America. And you're like, oh, they put me up in a shitty hotel.

That one time I had to do the roadshow. And then, you know, there was this other time this happened. And then Chris, I heard, is making this. And it's like you're you're it's not even that much gymnastics to justify the extra 12 grand. But like, I think most people would start doing that. And that's why I always feel like, again, corporations are a little bit different. But like, I've had friends that have small businesses and some guys, it feels like I want to pay everybody as little as I possibly can because this is about profit and this

is my business and I'm the one that put the money in all of this thing. And I'm thinking specifically of friends of mine that have owned bars where there's other guys that have owned bars where I'm like, how much do you pay your manager? And it's like, I pay him this much. I'm like, man, that's a lot. And he's like, yep, I do. And you know why? Because that way I know he's not as likely to steal from me. Because when you're running a bar, specifically when it used to be way more of a cash business than it is now with everybody just using credit cards all the time, it was something where you're like, I have all of these people who are going to find a reason to resent me, even if I've been fair to them, because fair will be the floor fair. Like you will create

a rational version of events in your head where you feel like you're justified to start dipping into things a little bit more. And that's why I always thought the smarter guys were the ones, but like, I'd rather pay my manager and my top people more than what the comps would be as insurance against them than getting to a point of frustration, justification of stealing from me. But that's not really, this is more of a corporate thing. And I think the corporate thing, there'd be even less sympathy from the employee, which again, I'm not telling you you're wrong. All right. Another one here. Christmas gift time.

2864200. Golf F45 guy. wow he's doing he's doing it all nba comp is dragon bender the dragon people had hopes for him what's on an f45 can you just tell me i've passed them before and is it just like a lot of it's like a lot of row machines in there and you're doing a lot of like jumping up and down i don't know it seems like a lot of stuff is going on in there i don't i don't know i don't know if it's like the hit classes or or what it seems to be fast paced a lot of movement that's the one i've what i've noticed yeah we'll try to keep this brief as i can't imagine i'm the only one in this dilemma going to my girlfriend's family christmas for the first time having trouble uh deciding where I cut off getting gifts for people.

That's a tough one. In years past, we bought gifts for her brother, mother, father, divorced. But given this year, I'll be seeing the grandparents, cousins, step-parents too. Do I decide to get them something as well? I've also bought her brother 24 gifts the last two years, but haven't seen anything back. Admittedly, not all that surprising,

given I doubt I would at his age either. I don't you're 28 though it's not like you're um so look this this guy sounds like a real giver so let's just start there credit to you on understanding uh you know the spirit spirit of it all make enough money where i'm not super pressed but also not quite rolling in it any advice greatly appreciated so yeah we're looking at some numbers here. All right. So we got the brother, the mother, the father divorced. I don't know if that means you should get less of a gift. I don't know. Grandparents, there's two more. We're at five. Step-parents, let's throw, say it's two more, seven. And then we got cousins. That could be an unlimited number. I mean, we could be looking at 10 individual gifts if this guy decides to be, you know, Captain Christmas over here. So, Kyle, what would you do?

I've already I've decided to throw the siblings off the wagon this year. The last couple of years, nothing in return. I told you in the rankings, I'll never be one. I probably shot up to two in responsibleness. I probably also shot up to do it. You can make an argument that I'm maybe three, but when it comes to this, I was like, I'm sure I should get at least one gift back. Nothing, not a single gift. I've got three siblings, nothing, not one. One of them's, you know, in college, I think you expect, but you know, the other ones, they come in and it's just nothing. Even my, even my sister, the very tippy top of the kids food chain who's never gonna lose her spot you know nothing didn't

even think about it um i think and you got her something where she unwrapped the present from you oh hey this is from kyle oh it's exciting somebody gets a camera out and then didn't know we were doing gifts this year like it was almost like a little barb. Like she said that. Yeah. Like she opened your present. Yeah. I think after she opened it. Yes.

But so I was just like, you know, we're not doing this. We're not doing this. I got credit cards. I'm not fucking around. We're getting the parents. We got the grandparents. And that's it. That's it.

She I was like, if you want to get something for your sister, that's cool. I've been burned by my brothers and sisters for the last like three years since I decided it was like, oh, time to start something for your sister, that's cool. I've been burned by my brothers and sisters for the last three years since I decided it was like, oh, time to start getting gifts. You're an adult now. No, we'll wait until I get pleasantly surprised one year. By the way, my sister, I don't know how it came out that she didn't get me a wedding gift. And then it was still a couple weeks after the wedding when I was back. She gave me this thing that she had an extra of and didn't want,

and that was how she got it. So I think she just thinks about gifts differently. Man, I feel for you on this one. I do think you came up with something else, though. Is there a theory in just if you're among many siblings, just to aim for two? Is that a shirt? Yeah, I think two is great. Two is just to aim for two is that a shirt yeah i think two is great

two safe aim for two yeah if there are cuts you're good like you know two is good yeah uh you know as he was playing out the scenario i kind of was thinking well is there any way to is there any way to do kind of like hey i got you a steakhouse gift card to this place and it's you guys can all go well with the step parents and the divorced dad and the cousins and different ages and different locations like that's not all that realistic um if he's that into gifts though that's a pretty that's a cop-out for a real gift giver if he's that into gifts and he's just thinking about you know maybe not doing 10 that's kind of a cop-out 10s too many 10s for a girlfriend yeah at 28 tens too many

i mean unless you want to go like super thoughtful but if you start buying young dudes candles you know they're like cool puzzle puzzle can't wait to lose this you know i mean that's where the dvd player always used to come in handy you're like i got this for the family and you can come over and watch and watch the matrix there's all these extra things you can see on it you're like i got this for the family and you can come over and watch and watch the matrix there's all these extra things you can see on it they're like dude have you bought you don't own matrix on dvd how do you even fucking go outside how do you operate so yeah i was kind of thinking like if they were collectively close enough you could just go like hey let's pick out the nice steakhouse in town i throw around 200250. It's not going to cover the whole dinner.

Whoever wants to go, you guys go. But the physical thing of one gift card being unwrapped with all these different people there, I mean, it sounds like a Secret Santa needs to be installed here at some point. We never did that. I just take care of my siblings because I should. And I don't know. i don't know the last time i got a christmas present but um yeah now i think about it holy shit so

i may have gotten a gift card actually now let me let me be fair and uh and i'm not saying i'm retracting it but i think i think or whatever, this is its own segment. So for me, I'm sure of it. I don't, I don't, I wouldn't want anything from you. I wouldn't want anything from work. I wouldn't, that's not the way. No, I'm saying for my guys, for my siblings, still nothing. I'm sure of it. Nothing slipped through the cracks. This is a fucking iron box in here. Maybe you have your own lottery. Like you just show up with everybody's name in a hat and then you buy like neutral gifts and you go, Hey, first three picks are getting gifts. The other seven, you can just watch. It's like entertainment. They're like, okay, here's the, here's the deal. Like they have to really like you. Like if they're sort of on the fence about you, you're not going to get away

with this, but if they really like you and you were like, Hey, here's the deal. I can't get 10 gifts. Want everybody to be involved. So everybody's name is on a piece of paper. We're throwing it into this hat. Here are the gifts. It's a Nike gift card. It's a fucking sandwich plate, whatever. You know, again, I'm not trying to be like gift card guy the whole time because I think one of the biggest problems of the gift card industry and push for is because they know people lose half of them.

And then, you know, look, you can talk about e-gifts and all that different stuff, but you can't. Hey, let me get your email and I'll send this over to you for me. but you can't, let me say, let me get your email and I'll send this over to you for me from. So, uh, yeah,

the lottery, but you probably don't want to do that in case it goes poorly, but it would be like just suspenseful or you just start peeling off hundreds. Do it first, first three names, get a hundred bucks each. I'm out that way. I don't have to spend $1,500 on gifts or a girl that who knows if you're not

going to marry, you're going to regret spending any of this money. Um, or you could strategically be like, who are the people that I need to take care of the most? Is it the mom? Is it the brother? You know what I mean? The fact that you're getting something like if some cousin on the scene who you've never met is sitting there with his hands out after an hour at gift giving being like where's mine doug like fuck that guy anyway so i don't beat yourself up yeah i would give the parents and like publicly give the parents i'd actually look forward to finally you know making eye contact with the sister who never thought about you before or

the brother or whatever and if there is another brother that you're like tight with like i don't know how many they said i forget you said 10 gifts so that's a lot if there is one of those like 10 potential gifts that you want to give outside of the parents i'd maybe do that to the side to be like hey man i just want to take care of this here or something but like i think publicly just the parents i think that's what you do and then you can also tell her like hey listen if you want to do take care of them your siblings that's fine i got you know i'll help your help your parents with their gift or something like i'm not like i think that's fine. I got, you know, I'll help your parents with their gift or something. Like, I'm not. I think that's fine to say as well. Just to your girlfriend in private.

Like, listen, if you feel like they need gifts, fine. But I'll take the edge off your parents' ones. Because I'm also going to buy shit for my parents or whatever. So, I think that's cool. Yeah, where is she in all of this? That's a great point, Kyle. Like, you should be able to go, hey, what's to be expected here? Because 10 gifts is a lot if you were married. Right.

Totally. You know, and these cousins, how are they even in the email? All right. Let's do one more. Should I tell my brother he smells musty? Yep. Hey, guys, 29, 6'1", 65, pickup comp game, poor man's Javon Carter, streaky shooter, makes some solid hustle plays

on d my brother bought a log cabin around two years ago that was previously pretty poorly maintained by an older couple since moving in all of his belongings now have a smell that can only be described as musty as if uh the windows in place haven't been open in 10 years and had dirty water sitting in a bathtub i first noticed after staying in this house for a few days, three or four months ago, when I got back, my girlfriend immediately noticed the smell in my bag and my clothes. Everything had to be washed twice to get the smell out. Obviously, the smell isn't contained to the house, but transfers to his clothes, which makes him smell musty as well.

I floated this to my family and they claimed it's just the soap or deodorant that he uses, but we're certain that's not the case. Should I tell him that he and his house smell musty or should i let him let him go on living oblivious to this fact thanks fellas love the pod yeah i mean one once you're in the must like a first person must exposure you just become you know just becomes part of your day you don't notice it anymore. The out here is that it's your brother. It's not a coworker. It's not somebody you just met. It's that it's your brother. Your brothers are supposed to not just hug, but they're supposed to tell each other when

they smell musty. You know, even if you don't like each other, you're in a great relationship with your brother. You'd have a terrible one. You should be like, dude, you smell like fucking Outback Jack, man. Now, the only thing that scares me a little bit is that he chose to live in a poorly maintained log cabin. Maybe it was a pricing thing. Could be the mortgage rates that are dipping a bit. Who knows? You know, Zillow's tough out there.

So it could be that he just wanted to do that or he really loves the idea of a log cabin. And if he's a guy that loves the idea of a log cabin that isn't well maintained, he doesn't give a shit that he smells musty. He's already made his decisions to put himself in this situation. So I would, without question, no reservation at all, be like, hey bro, you smell bad and it's your house. I stayed there, smells bad. So if you want to continue smelling bad, smell bad, but I'm going to be the guy that's

telling you. All right. This is a little different than the bad breath coworker thing, because there's some delicate nature to that conversation. This doesn't have to be delicate. And that's telling you all right this is a little different than the bad breath co-worker thing because there's some delicate nature to that conversation this doesn't have to be delicate and that's what having a brother is there for like what the fuck are you doing um and if he tells you i don't smell it it doesn't bother me it's like all right you musty motherfucker you just you continue to be musty the rest of your life when you i don't know if he's married or not but if he starts telling you the dating hasn't been great all that lately you just smell your shirt and look at him yeah i think the only thing that could make this better is if it was like your best friend so you and so you and your circle could joke about

it forever that's the only but like this is number two and like we said you want to be number two this is the number two of situations i think exactly what i would do it i have him get in my car or something i'd be like god damn it you still haven't fixed that you stink bro i thought that was just because you moved into the cabin you didn't do anything about that and i wouldn't be angry about it i'd just be surprised and then hopefully that would that would get him it's just me and him in the car and i'm just like i'd put the windows down and i'd just be like man you got to do something about that i thought you fixed it do you need do you need something i think that's it that's what i would do like do you need tips that's probably what i would do because then you're like it is weird though when people's houses smell and then you smell because of the house i mean we all know

that kid child of divorce yeah well my buddy's house always smelled like syrup which was just fucking it made me made me like my stomach curl a little bit like your house like syrup my buddy's house no my buddy's house i would go to my i would go to my dad for my mom's my mom would smoke inside told you i used to pee in the cigarettes in the toilet and all that stuff so i'd get there and he would just be like go change now and that's you know i felt a little bad about it but that was it wasn't really in my control this guy's totally in control and he's an adult so i think i think this is perfect you couldn't tell your syrup buddy that he smelled like syrup no i was like 12 how do

you what do you even what do you know at 12 did you guys make fun of him did he have a nickname like syrup yeah we did kind of make fun of him but it was like a grandma living with grandma situation and the mom i don't know it's just it was like you don't kick people when they're down but it definitely smelled like syrup all the time i guess of all the smells syrup wouldn't be the worst but i guess if you were just exposed to it all the time you get sick of it yeah but you're like i don't know if it is syrup man what is it though that's the thing it's like it can't be syrup all the time but sugar cane it is processing i don't know don't think so tiny house didn't have the space see if you can get more details on that i'm actually curious still thanks okay that'll do it for life advice and the pod today thanks to kyle

thanks to stefan the ryan rossillouling wise, I know things get a little different around the holidays, but we have a pretty good plan to get pods out almost every normally scheduled day other than Christmas and then whatever. We'll figure it out. But we'll be here. We'll be here Wednesday. Please subscribe. Ryan Russillo podcast.

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