Transcript

NFL QB Value Rankings w/ Mike Sando, Plus CFP Quarterfinal Confidence Rankings w/ Danny Kanell

From The Ryen Russillo Show · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 2 h 9 min · 26,796 words · 340 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "NFL QB Value Rankings w/ Mike Sando, Plus CFP Quarterfinal Confidence Rankings w/ Danny Kanell", an episode of The Ryen Russillo Show published December 29, 2025 (2 h 9 min, about 26,796 words). It mentions 36 people, works and ideas, including Ryan Rascilo, Mike Sando, Danny Canel, Indiana, NFL.

What this episode is about

The discussion explores NFL quarterback value rankings, analyzing which QBs would hold the most or least worth if up for trade, featuring insights from Mike Sando. Additionally, it previews the upcoming college football playoff games with Danny Kanell and provides commentary on recent NFL matchups, including the significance of Philadelphia's win over Buffalo and reflections on the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Key takeaways

  • In a quarterback trade frenzy, some stars shine brighter, while others dim—a paradox in value assessment.
  • Jacksonville's red zone turnovers may raise eyebrows, but every interception is a story—context matters more than stats.
  • Trevor Lawrence's growth echoes Matt Ryan's early struggles; it takes time to simmer before the quarterback stew is perfect.
  • College playoff previews fuel excitement, but remember: potential is a fickle mistress, never guaranteed to pay off.
  • Philly’s win over Buffalo proves survival of the fittest in football—expect the unexpected as playoffs loom.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 15:00: DraftKings, Ryan Rascilo, Mike Sando, Danny Canel
  2. – 30:00: Shake Shack, Christmas, Mike Sando, Super Bowl
  3. – 45:00: Super Bowl
  4. – 1:00:00: Mike Sando, Super Bowl
  5. – 1:15:00: Indiana, Danny Canel, Georgia
  6. – 1:30:00: Georgia, Indiana, Alabama, SEC Championship
  7. – 1:45:00: Indiana, Alabama, Georgia, Christmas
  8. – 2:00:00: Christmas, Christmas Eve, New Year, Vince Guaraldi
  9. – 2:08:55: Christmas, Christmas Eve

Notable quotes from "NFL QB Value Rankings w/ Mike Sando, Plus CFP Quarterfinal Confidence Rankings w/ Danny Kanell"

  • The Ryan Rascilo Show presented by DraftKings. A lot of football for you today except for maybe like 60 seconds on Anthony Black. We are going to talk with Mike Sando, the quarterback tier.
    about Ryan Rascilo · at
  • This is one of the all-time numbers from the entire season that I'm going to throw at you here. All right, so Ben Solak and ESPN research, good friend Ben Solak, can we say…
    about Ben Solak · at
  • And I don't know. Maybe it's because maybe it's because people after the Super Bowl win were No, no, he's way higher. He's way higher. Why do you not think he's way better? I don't know.
    about Super Bowl · at
  • The Big Shack is out now and it's a serious burger. We're talking two Angus beef patties, three buns, new secret sauce. It's stacked balanced and built the right way. You get everything you.
    about Shake Shack · at
  • Yes. did you see the video of Kirby Smart getting after Georgia like at practice when there was like somebody outside in the parking lot and he was just laying in coaches everybody? I would expect that's the type of coaching.
    about Georgia · at
  • It's good thing they didn't have a test on what was on those tapes. no, I do not think like I do not think Alabama's problems are fixed because of a win against Oklahoma. And I…
    about Alabama · at
  • We saw against Georgia in the SEC championship game, the one we saw struggle to beat Auburn. I and I think Indiana's a really good football team.
    about Indiana · at
  • Mhm. 100%. what did I do? We had family over. We do like a brunch situation on Christmas and my sister got married the day after Christmas. So we were in the city for that.
    about Christmas · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Ryan Rascilo — Person · Host / main speaker · 1 mention · first at
    He introduces the episode, delivers the opening NFL monologue, and conducts the interviews with Mike Sando and Danny Canel.
  • Mike Sando — Person · Main guest (NFL/QB market segment) · 3 mentions · first at
    He’s interviewed as the 'QB tier' expert and helps build a hypothetical NFL quarterback trade-value ranking, discussing contracts, age, and performance.
    DraftKings. A lot of football for you today except for maybe like 60 seconds on Anthony Black. We are going to talk with Mike Sando, the quarterback tier god. But in a…
  • Danny Canel — Person · Main guest (college football playoff preview) · 2 mentions · first at
    He joins for a CFP preview segment, discussing matchups, confidence picks, and team/quarterback evaluations.
    Least value? We're going to preview the college football playoff games with Danny Canel. And we are also going to spend some time on learning to maybe not love Jacksonville…
  • Tyler Shough — Person · Referenced expert · 2 mentions
    Mentioned in the context of NFL quarterback performance and potential.
  • Ben Solak — Person · Referenced expert · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned in the context of NFL research and analysis.
  • Germaine Pratt — Person · Referenced expert · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned in the context of NFL player performance.
    Second and three and you're at the 16, you don't want to raise your level of risk. He was throwing a one-on-one route against Germaine Pratt, a linebacker.
  • Steve Brenell — Person · Referenced expert · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned in the context of NFL player performance.
    That happened where the Panthers got the quarterback, Tom Coughlin was really good at this, they got in Branell, even though Steve Brenell, I think, was their first pick. does…
  • Nico Dean — Person · Referenced expert · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned in the context of NFL player performance.
    Philadelphia play football? The answer is no. The defense feels all the way back. even without my guy Nico Dean out there at linebacker, they held the number six offense in the…
  • Nolan Smith — Person · Referenced expert · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned in the context of NFL player performance.
    Carter after this shoulder thing looks like a stud again. Jix Hunt, couple sacks. Nolan Smith even starting to notice Nolan Smith. Jaylen Phillips has been a huge pickup for them. Both the corners are locked down guys.
  • Jaylen Phillips — Person · Referenced expert · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned in the context of NFL player performance.
    Like a stud again. Jix Hunt, couple sacks. Nolan Smith even starting to notice Nolan Smith. Jaylen Phillips has been a huge pickup for them. Both the corners are locked down guys.
  • Vince Guaraldi — Person · Referenced artist · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned in passing, no significant relevance to the discussion.
    Actually a tight game. and so I was able to dunk and then I posted it with skating from the Peanuts Christmas album, which is still I think one of my favorite songs of all time, Vince Galdi.

Companies & orgs

  • Indiana — Company · Referenced team · 16 mentions · first at
    Mentioned in the context of college football playoff games and their performance against Ohio State.
  • Georgia — Company · Referenced team · 13 mentions · first at
    Mentioned in the context of college football playoff discussions.
  • Alabama — Company · Referenced team · 7 mentions · first at
    Mentioned in the context of college football playoff discussions.
  • Shake Shack — Company · Referenced business · 3 mentions · first at
    Mentioned in a humorous anecdote about Christmas shopping and food preferences.

Places & events

  • NFL — Event · Referenced event · 2 mentions
    Mentioned in the context of NFL games and team performance.
  • Super Bowl — Event · Referenced event · 6 mentions · first at
    Mentioned in the context of NFL games and team performance.
  • Big Ten Championship — Event · Referenced event · 2 mentions
    Mentioned in the context of college football playoff discussions.
    I think he had the four touchdowns against Texas, four against Old Miss.
  • SEC Championship — Event · Referenced event · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned in the context of college football playoff discussions.
    Interceptions. So, I still think I'm worried that Alabama could be the team we saw against Georgia in the SEC championship game, the one we saw struggle to beat Auburn. I and I think Indiana's a really good football team.
  • Christmas — Event · Referenced event · 16 mentions · first at
    Mentioned in the context of holiday football and personal anecdotes.
  • NCAA — Event · Referenced event · 2 mentions
    Mentioned in the context of college football playoff discussions.
  • Orange Bowl — Event · Referenced event · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned in the context of college football playoff discussions.
    I just I'm excited. I'm going to the Orange Bowl, so I'm going to be there. I picked Oregon to win the national championship, so I'm like very bullish on Oregon, but if you had me put the most amount of money on a game this.
  • Christmas Eve — Event · Referenced event · 4 mentions · first at
    Mentioned in the context of holiday football and personal anecdotes.
    Yeah, I know. What do you Yeah. Like why I would do that? Even though Christmas Eve I spent cleaning out a gutter at a at someone's house, which was fun. That was awesome.
  • New Year — Event · Referenced event · 3 mentions · first at
    Mentioned in the context of holiday football and personal anecdotes.
    You ruined New Year's. You ruined next Christmas by even trying to do this and not making sure that we ended up at Shake Shack. And so it's been tough.
  • Easter — Event · Referenced event · 3 mentions
    Mentioned in the context of holiday football and personal anecdotes.
  • Fourth of July — Event · Referenced event · 3 mentions
    Mentioned in the context of holiday football and personal anecdotes.
  • Halloween — Event · Referenced event · 3 mentions
    Mentioned in the context of holiday football and personal anecdotes.
  • Labor Day — Event · Referenced event · 3 mentions
    Mentioned in the context of holiday football and personal anecdotes.
  • Memorial Day — Event · Referenced event · 3 mentions
    Mentioned in the context of holiday football and personal anecdotes.
  • Thanksgiving — Event · Referenced event · 3 mentions
    Mentioned in the context of holiday football and personal anecdotes.
  • Valentine's Day — Event · Referenced event · 3 mentions
    Mentioned in the context of holiday football and personal anecdotes.
  • NCAA Tournament — Event · Referenced event · 2 mentions
    Mentioned in passing, no significant relevance to the discussion.
  • Olympics — Event · Referenced event · 2 mentions
    Mentioned in passing, no significant relevance to the discussion.
  • World Series — Event · Referenced event · 2 mentions
    Mentioned in passing, no significant relevance to the discussion.
  • South Fork — Place · Setting · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned in passing, no significant relevance to the discussion.
    I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's.

Sponsors

  • DraftKings — Company · Sponsor · 3 mentions · first at
    Primary sponsor of the podcast, mentioned multiple times in the context of sports betting and NFL partnership.
    The Ryan Rascilo Show presented by DraftKings. A lot of football for you today except for maybe like 60 seconds on Anthony Black. We are going to talk with Mike Sando, the quarterback tier.

Full transcript with timestamps

The Ryan Rascilo Show presented by DraftKings. A lot of football for you today except for maybe like 60 seconds on Anthony Black. We are going to talk with Mike Sando, the quarterback tier god. But in a hypothetical scenario, if all the quarterbacks were available on the trademark, who would have the most least value? We're going to preview the college football playoff games with Danny Canel. And we are also going to spend some time on learning to maybe not love Jacksonville, but like Jacksonville. Shanahan, coach of the year. uh some general observations and complaints and Philly's big win at Buffalo and what it actually means.

We've got life advice Christmas recap. So enjoy the show. Holiday football has arrived. The regular season's wrapping up. The playoffs are on deck and every win matters more. With DraftKings Sportsbook and official sports betting partner of the NFL, the unexpected can turn game day into payday. From fierce rivalries to playoff pushes, nothing beats football this time of year. First touchdown, anytime TV, live bets. When your team scores, you score. And don't forget, DraftKings has your back with early exit. If your player goes down in the first half, you still get paid in cash. With DraftKings, you're protected through the entire first half. Why bet anywhere else? New customers bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you'll get $200 in bonus bets instantly. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app. Use the code Ryan. That's code Ryan Ryen. Bet five bucks and get $200 in bonus bets.

If your bet wins in partnership with DraftKings, the crown is yours. Chill. Buy now and get the hoodie free. Call 1800 European theater of the week is the Oregon Ducks.

We need a big push here. Week 17. Five things before the interviews today on the show. One more week of regular season football with the NFL. Only a couple things at stake here. So, I can't wait for Pittsburgh Baltimore. Uh, and also the NFC South. So, Jacksonville, you wanted the credit, you wanted the respect. Well, you've got it. At least you've got it for me on this one. Uh, Houston probably the best win of the week if you consider the opponent on the road, the playoff implications of everything that they did, and just being dominant for most of the game against the Chargers. So, look, you go out to LA, 362 yards a total offense, five sacks against an offensive line that can't protect Herbert, but again, that game was was pretty windsided early on. Um, so when I look at Jacksonville, I'm not going to say that their win against the Colts is the best win. But it was a game I wanted to

watch from start to finish, much like the Denver game. And [snorts] so considering Jacksonville goes into Denver and come into this game against Indianapolis is only three and a half point favorites against Philip Rivers in his third game here, you're like, "Okay, well this this would make sense that Jacksonville is actually like going into I was like I think they might struggle today just because of whatever this carousel of who's good in the AFC uh that we keep experiencing every every single week. But after that Denver win like that feels like a spot and then you're still on the road and you're kind of like all right, we'll see if this one gets a little weird." They were the better football team for three plus hours. And you know, looking at Trevor Lawrence and over who he's been now in year five, remember that Matt Ryan line we had him on recently. It was like, when did you actually feel like you felt comfortable

and figured it out? He was like probably year five. Matt Ryan's first four years better than Trevor Lawrence's. But the last years of of Trevor Lawrence, I would say every single year of Trevor Lawrence, whenever I look at the QBR, which isn't the end all beall, but kind of gives you a pretty good perspective of like, hey, where is this quarterback in comparison to the rest of the guys that are playing? You know, his QBR rankings, 28th his rookie year, whatever. No big deal. Some guys are complete disasters their rookie year. I do like some of the stuff I'm seeing from Cam Ward more and more the last couple weeks. 17th in QBR, 17th in QBR, 16th in QBR, and then he came in actually this game like still 19th or something in the NFL. But if you go over his last month and not the total QBR, but the average QBR scores he would have over the last four games, it'd be 86, which would be like even better than

Drake May, who's leading the NFL in QBR right now. So that's the level that Trevor Lawrence, I just spit all over the place, has been at the last month. Okay. Jacksonville has [clears throat] a league high six red zone turnovers. I've seen this point brought up. I mean, that sounds like, hey, what's wrong with you? I mean, that seriously, when it's six, when it's six in this many games, I mean, it seems like a pretty high number. Again, it's leading the league, but if you dig into it, you're like, is this like some fatal flaw that this team has? Cuz I think you're going to hear that number brought up as we gear up for the playoffs. So, they have a fumble at the Colts 17 in the first quarter and then the interception was on a second and three at the Colts 16. But, was it a bad interception? I've heard it described as a batter. Oh, which Trevor, you know, another turnover in the red zone here. Let's go through what that

play was. Now, you can argue when it's second and three and you're at the 16, you don't want to raise your level of risk. He was throwing a one-on-one route against Germaine Pratt, a linebacker. Pratt makes an insane play. His head is turned. He turns at the last minute come and is like on the ball because he reads the receiver reacting to the ball in the air. We talk about this all the time on this podcast. I am more than willing to excuse interceptions against linebackers for the most part. I mean, unless the linebacker is actually facing you, but a lot of that stuff on those routes and the linebacker's turned like you can there's a reason why quarterbacks throw that ball so often because they're like the linebacker's never going to make that play except when they do. So, I don't look at that turnover as like some alarming thing of like inconsistency with Trevor Lawrence. I understand 100%

why he threw it. He understands it. The coaches understand it. He comes back to the sideline. He's frustrated, but it's not like some moment where it's like, I'm not figuring it out. I read something wrong. I was totally lost before the snap. He's like, look, I'm going to beat this linebacker. The worst will be incompletion. You're like, I can't believe he just picked that ball off. So, not a bad interception from this guy at least. So, now we're looking at the Jags having the most wins in a season since 1999 if they get the win next week against Tennessee. a funny talking point about Jacksonville and even Carolina from those mid to late 90s runs. So Jacksonville starts off Tom Coughlin four and 12, then nine wins, 11 wins, then 14 wins. The Panthers made the NFC Championship game year two and the argument I remember because I was there uh before I was ever on the air.

Believe me, I actually was young at some point. The argument was that you know what's really unfair what these expansion teams get to do because look at Jacksonville success and look at what the Panthers are able to do in year two. It's actually unfair to the rest of the teams because of what draft positioning because they gave him high picks. The expansion draft which was like I think there was only eight unprotected players on a 53man roster. Um and then a clean cap sheet which is like so it's our fault that your cap sheet is messed up.

But that was a real talking point. I remember thinking, is that true? Is it true that an NFL expansion team actually has this massive advantage and you'd rather have that to start all over, which is kind of a different conversation altogether, that it's fundamentally an advantage for an NFL expansion team, or is it just something that happened where the Panthers got the quarterback, Tom Coughlin was really good at this, they got in Branell, even though Steve Brenell, I think, was their first pick. Um, does it really mean that there's some advantage or are we just playing the results? And thus, the origin story was born for your boy. So, with this defense, which has picks all over the place that feel like they're making plays, the number four turnover margin per game, Houston's actually number two. Um, look, it's going to be about do you trust Trevor Lawrence more as a quarterback in the playoffs than the

quarterback that he's going up against? And again, we don't know the seedings because we know they're a week to go. We don't know what the matchups are going to be. But I'm telling you right now, I think both Jacksonville and Houston are better than the one and two seeds in the AFC. I think Jacksonville and Houston are better than Denver and New England. And if you look at Jacksonville schedule, the reason why I think that is because depending on what happens with the playoffs in the NFC South and the way the scheduling works out, uh it could be five wins against playoff teams for Jacksonville plus a Kansas City win.

That doesn't even count, right? That's with Carolina winning the NFC South. With New England, they've got a Buffalo win. They've got a Baltimore win on the books if they win the AFC South against Pittsburgh. And then they've got the AFC the NFC South winner because they've beaten both Carolina and Tampa Bay. So, you know, a couple more wins, much tougher resume. We shared that number with you where I think if you go through the draft order right now, it feels like the entire Patriots schedule. I'm actually going to do that later this week. Uh, but New England's also a 21 zip blown lead away from winning 13 straight. And Drake May was literally perfect yesterday, but I'll say it again. I think Jacksonville and Houston are better than the top two seeds in the AFC. Do I still hate watching Philadelphia play football? The answer is no. The defense feels all the way back. Uh even without my guy Nico Dean

out there at linebacker, they held the number six offense in the NFL in the Bills to 12 points. All of them were in the fourth quarter. Yes, I understand that the conditions were rough, but look, this is a team defensively that's held their last three opponents to 30 com 30 combined points. Um, and you know, you can say the game turned around on this fumble call that was a really tough call against Allen and the Bills, but the Bills still had 49 more minutes of football to play. They still touched the ball. They had nine more possessions and it didn't matter because Jaylen Carter after this shoulder thing looks like a stud again. Jix Hunt, couple sacks. Nolan Smith even starting to notice Nolan Smith. Jaylen Phillips has been a huge pickup for them. Both the corners are locked down guys.

And there was a rant probably two months ago where I think I did the exact same thing naming all of these Eagles players on defense being like why are you guys like why are you not awesome? I think that part of the team is awesome again with Vicio and I'm not worried about it whatsoever. I think they're primed to maybe go on a run. But why did I start to say I hated watching the Eagles? Because Jaylen Hurst's quarterback. He was great in the first half, five of five on third downs. Perfect quarterback rating against the Blitz in this game.

And then the second half happens and this is one of the all-time numbers from the entire season that I'm going to throw at you here. All right, so Ben Solak and ESPN research, good friend Ben Solak, can we say that? So Herz didn't complete a pass in the second half in this win. All right, this is the second time Herz has done this in a win this season with the Eagles. So here's the note. Um, the Eagles are the first team since the 1987 Patriots to win multiple games in a season in which they didn't complete a second half pass. Herz is the first quarterback in the play-by-play era, that's since 1978 to go 07 or worse in multiple games in a season.

It's so weird talking about him because you're like, you know, two Super Bowls, win one, and I I don't know. Maybe it's because maybe it's because people after the Super Bowl win were like, "No, no, he's way higher. He's way higher." Why do you not think he's way better? I don't know. Cuz I don't. So, there you go. Um, alltime. All right. Hit the sounder. Let's do some numbers.

Do you know how easy this is for me? Do you have any [ __ ] idea how easy this This is a [ __ ] joke.

Carolina 8 and8. And aside watching Seattle Carolina, that was the other game I was super locked in on yesterday. Not that this is new. I think this is going to be a nice Carolina story. Year three for Bryce Young. They get into the playoffs. If they beat Tampa in the showdown next week, Tampa, you want to talk about some of these teams, Pittsburgh, Tampa, losing these games in week 17. Um Bryce is 29th in yards per attempt. Okay 29th of the 12 quarterbacks lower than Bryce, they're either quarterbacks that were playing because the starter was hurt, they're quarterbacks that were benched, they're cam warded, or they're 45 years old. It's year three. I don't think it's going to happen for Bryce. If they make the playoffs, prepare yourself for the result storyline. Bryce figured it out.

just doing some things. I like him. I was rooting for him. I thought he would be better. I don't think he's the guy. Carolina's point differential is -67. Tampa is - 33. Kansas City, your Chiefs are plus 36. We already touched on worst loss. It's Pittsburgh. I know Cleveland, Miles Garrett, and everybody's kind of taken a victory lap on the sense that, hey, they cared more about me not breaking the record than it was them winning the game. Um, granted, if you're Pittsburgh and you don't want to have to worry about a showdown with Baltimore next week for the division, which is now the situation that they're in, uh, you got to win this game and you score six points against the Browns. But they also dropped back and threw it 39 times. So, I don't know that the number one priority was making sure that Garrett didn't break the sack record. Pittsburgh was also three of 15 on third downs. I have a complaint that I want to file

here. Um, and I don't know that this is specifically a Fox thing, a CBS thing, an ESPN thing, a Red Zone thing, a YouTube TV thing, a Peacock thing, a Netflix thing, an Amazon thing, or a Sunday Ticket thing. Not getting on those guys. But the Josh DS catch in the Colts game again against Jacksonville. It's third and 10. Philip Rivers throws it out to the left sideline. DS looks like he Well, he makes the catch, but you're like, is there any way his right toe was actually down cuz we're used to that right toe drag. It didn't happen. Didn't look like it was down. So, Philip Rivers gets right up the line of scope.

Challenge flag was out. Greg Olsson was on it. We go to commercial and then we come back and Jonathan Taylor's running into the end zone and you're like, "What the [ __ ] is going on here?" This is happening all the time on television broadcast right now. I know the rights I know they went up because the cap goes up. I know the money's pouring in, but this is happening way too often. It happened in the Denver Orlando game. You know, I'm sitting there. We go to commercial Magic Nuggets. Terrific game. Nice little bounce back from the Magic after that disaster against Charlotte the night before plus four and a half.

So, you know, I'm like Denver has I know Denver has the possession coming out of the commercial. Next thing I know, Anthony Black's dunking. I'm like, how did that happen? Was Anthony Black traded? No, he wasn't traded. Wouldn't trade him yet. [snorts] So, it was because we were in a commercial and we came back. This is happening, folks, way too much. I feel like we're a couple years away from the announcer, like after Terry Cruz annoys the [ __ ] out of us for 30 seconds. No offense to Terry Cruz. I get that the commercials are supposed to be annoying and Dodge makes a great product, but I feel like we're a couple years away from the announcer coming back like, "All right, third down. Couple runs weren't that exciting.

Didn't miss a thing. Third and seven at the 40. There's a limit. I'd like to think there's a limit that we're going to be able to put up with. So, the downs thing was upheld. Taylor runs in the touchdown. There was a flag. They called that went back. I was rewinding before the commercial cuz I was like, I thought I was all over this. Like, what is going on again? It wasn't any broadcast fault. It wasn't the announcers's fault. It's just a trend. is a guy that has been known to watch a game from time to time. We end on this, the Gail King Award, switching to men's tennis.

Oh, before awards, Kyle Shanahan, he's your coach of the year. Vable's going to win it. He's the odds on favorite, but it should be Shanahan based on schedule, based on injuries. I don't want to talk about it. It's actually the Greenie award. I think it's Shanahan, and it's not particularly close. Uh, so the Greenie Award, we already did that one. Coach of the year award. Back to the Gail King award. Men's tennis. Men good at football. Better than women at least. Also better at tennis. Curios. I don't know if you guys saw that yesterday, but [ __ ] right man.

Men. The Big Shack is out now and it's a serious burger. We're talking two Angus beef patties, three buns, new secret sauce. It's stacked balanced and built the right way. You get everything you expect from Shake Shack. fresh ingredients. That toasted potato bun and sauce that pulls the whole thing together. It's big, it's fresh, and it's legit. One of their best burgers yet. I was doing some Christmas shopping with my boy and we get stuck at one of those malls. You know the ones. And he was like, I want something to eat. And all he's been doing, he's just been on the Shack Burger this entire time. I mean, the little guy's not afraid. He's like, I don't need a spot.

I don't need nothing. I don't need you even looking at me. Don't judge me. Like I'm I'm going to get there. And darn it, if it doesn't make me proud every time. And so unfortunately, we had to go somewhere else. And you know, he just looked at me like he found out he was adopted and he's not. But he looked at me and was just like, "You ruined Christmas. You ruined New Year's. You ruined next Christmas by even trying to do this and not making sure that we ended up at Shake Shack." And so it's been tough. But the thing is, what's made it the toughest is that he's right. And granted, I didn't want him to saying that to me at a food court in front of so many people and embarrassing me and just dressing me down the way he did.

But I can't tell my son he's wrong when he's right about the burgers. It's big. It's fresh. It's legit. One of the best burgers yet. That's what he said to me. If you've been waiting to see what all the hype's about, today's the day. Go to Shake Shack and order the Big Shack. Sounds familiar, made different. A fun exercise here as we wind down the rest of the NFL regular season, but I always think it's kind of fun to take stock of like the quarterback market, whether it's the end of the year, maybe after the playoffs, and also as you gear up for the next season. Mike Sando from The Athletic, who joins us throughout the year, is just great on this because he is the QB tier god. Uh, a piece that we love doing and talking about every single season when he talks with front offices, talks with coaches. So to try something a little bit different as we wind down this season. We wanted to look at the value of quarterbacks. And it

would also be kind of interesting how this compares with like resetting it and then thinking about it this summer, Mike, but if we were to take all the quarterbacks in the league, and we're not going to run through every single guy that's taking a snap here or all 32 projected starters, but trying to figure out the most trade value, like which quarterback right now has the most trade value, which is in that first tier of guys. I went through it. We have not talked about what the results have been, what kind of work that you've done, but why don't you continue to kind of set up the process that you went through so we run through the next 30 minutes.

Yeah, Ryan's making me nervous because he's like checking in with me repeatedly. You know, like during the game last night, I'm like, "Holy gez," he's like, "Hey, you know, you've talked to some front office people." I'm like, "Oh my gosh, this is he's really going to be ready for this thing." So, uh, basically, you know, there's some precedent of of trades of quarterbacks in the NFL. So the Russell Wilson deal didn't work out for Denver, but I mean he was perceived as kind of a nearear prime guy had been to a Super Bowl sort of ascended into the upper tier, you know, and we saw what they got for him ended up being I think what was three three ones involved in that, you know, a big sort of idea.

So yeah. Yeah. And fan there's players going back and forth, a couple players and that sort of a thing. So, um, I kind of used that as, you know, some some historical comps and and so I the way I kind of looked at it was more who the player is and some of their age le you know the contract thing to me I have a column in my thing for you know a column I have a little spreadsheet here it's big surprise but there's a column for like uh you know their salary or something and and that's a consideration but to me it's not a major it's Uh look, if you're if you're signed for years to come, Lamar Jackson's value to me is higher because there's a couple years left than if he was didn't. But a lot of these guys are going to get new deals probably anyway if they get to go to a new team. The money isn't really uh the issue. Uh it only really becomes an issue for me if you're upside down like a Kyler Murray or a Tua Tongalo where

you're inheriting a big contract for a mid player. Then obviously that diminishes the player's value. But I don't think, you know, Josh Allen costing more than uh uh you know, who's a good a good young quarterback is the is the uh is a dealbreaker now. I don't want Josh Allen. Does that make sense?

Yeah. I think there's a big difference between like if you were listing NBA value, the contracts play a much bigger part. Although I would say contracts with recent history are not nearly

like there was times throughout the NBA where you had some of these deals, especially when you had longer Max deals with a different CBA where if you got that wrong, it was like you might be screwed. Um, when I look at the contract situation for all the quarterbacks that we're going to talk about here, like Goff making 53 million a year, like does that mean that he's less valuable than [snorts] I don't know. I mean, maybe there is. Maybe I'm doing a bad job with the examples of like Baker, but to finish the thought though, I just don't think quarterback contracts are all that big of a deal. One, because the cap goes up almost 10% every single year.

And it's it's basically like the quarterbacks don't get paid on like, hey, my guy's better than this guy, so now he's going to make more. It's like, no, my guy is up now and your guy was up two years ago, so that's why Dak Prescott ends up with $60 million a year. And then also, you know, the team that is trading away the player oftentimes eats some of the burden or the, you know, that at least from a cap standpoint. And I've always been trained it's the cash that matters. That's what people care about the most. The cap can be manipulated. If you if you have cash, the cap matters way less. Uh, you know, the cap matters way more if you don't have a lot of uh cash and don't want to spend than, you know, than it does. But for these quarterback contracts, I don't think it's a huge consideration unless, like I said, you're not very good in your contract side. No one wants to, you know, the price you'd be willing to pay

for Kyler Murray is different if he's uh got a three-year deal at a million dollars a year or he's got a three years left at 50 million a year, right? That's a huge difference. I'm not giving you anything for Kyler Murray and that contract right now. I don't want it. But if he was signed for three years and a million a year, I give you something. Does that make sense?

Yeah. Right. Um, but the problem is is that Kyler is an average annual salary of 46 million and Tua is an average annual salary of 53 million, which I love. They got the extra 100,000 in there, 53.1 to get ahead of golf.

Um, to get him ahead of golf, to get him ahead of party because it was like, hey, we got to make sure our our guy gets a little bit more than the last contracts that were signed. All right, so let's let's get to it. So, I want to try to guess at least the first couple. All right. And this is the first example of like does Drake May end up being the most valuable quarterback in a hypothetical hypothetical trade market because he's making over 2 million combined the next two years and is putting together what could be an MVP season.

Um I didn't I didn't do it that way. I mean if you have that evaluation of him and and uh yeah I had him kind of in the second second tier. I I I put You want me to say who I got where? I can

I'm gonna guess Allen's one. Yeah, I've got him. I I've got I've got four guys that I put in the Hey, it's four number one picks or three ones in elite elite player. Three ones in a starter, that type of a thing. I got four guys in that bucket.

All right. So, it's Allen, it's Mahomes, it's it's Herbert and Burrow for me. Herbert and Burrow. All right. Mhm. Cuz I I was going to guess Burrow and Lamar.

Burrow scares me a little bit with the injuries. I just think those guys transfer to whatever we're doing anywhere. And I'm not overly concerned about the rest of their career or or falling off other than Burrow a little bit with the injuries. So, um you know, he's one we could quibble with a little bit, but I was going to put him there in that top group. And and I think that is a a massive hall like like the the Bills aren't taking four ones in an elite starter for Josh Town. Correct.

No. Why would you? There's no point. They wouldn't do it. But that's I kind of put that in like the that's the kitchen sink ask for whatever you want group. And you know maybe within that you'd rather have Josh Allen than Mahomes coming off of the injury or than Herbert or Burrow. I might. So, so Allan may be the the top guy there, but I put those other guys kind of in a similar bucket. And then I had Drake May right after that. Uh, you know, then going to Yeah, with Lamar I think is right there too, but I had him a little after. And Lamar just kind of seems like depends on the year what you think of him a little bit. I wrote about that today. He's had two great years and a bunch of decent years. Yeah,

if we stay with the top guys here then again. So your evaluation of May is even with this being one of the few examples where the contract thing would feel entirely different because I mean May again to put together the numbers here I think it's

it's 2.2 2 million over the next two years. But your resistance to that or anyone's resistance would be that May has only done it for one year and that you can't put him ahead of Allen or Mahomes even with the contractual savings.

Yeah. A little bit of that. Now, you know, if I were if I were starting my own team, is this is this a little bit of a different thing? Like I I may decide I would roll with with Drake May. I'm just trying to look at an actual market like what that may look like. And I I think having one really good year um is different than having multiple really good years, you know. And I I as I said to you last night when we were chatting briefly, like I think I did anyway, like you know, a year ago, uh Jaden Daniels would have been higher than he is now, right? Because he's had one year. And so I don't have really any concerns about Drake May. I think we would have had some of Jaden Daniels of his uh durability and that sort of a thing. and and uh I don't really have him with Drake May. I think he's really grown and jumped this year. So, if you wanted to put him, you know, in that top group, uh go for it. I just think that there it's

there is somewhat of a distinction between the one-year performer and every year performance.

I like that rule. It usually is a rule where you prevent yourself from making massive overreaction mistakes here. But just knowing that May's making a million a year and the other guys are making 50 plus million a year all the way up to Dak making 60 million a year. Um it's different. Who would you rather have right now if you were an expansion team? I mean this is stupid but

say you're an expansion team and again for whatever reason you could have your choice of Mahomes or Allen moving forward for the rest of their careers. Who would you take?

I think I would take Josh Allen. Uh I I think that I would uh you know if I I feel like Mahomes now with this injury and and some of this is maybe biased towards what they've been doing offensively. I just feel like he's been carrying so much of a load and it's just been it's it's been a little bit of a while since they've just been a super explosive offense where he's really uh you know producing the way maybe Josh Allen has done a little bit more recently. So yeah, you pick one, I'll take the other. I think Mahomes has obviously uh probably been better at this point. Um but I I do like Josh Allen long term.

The way I would run this exercise is I would say was there ever a point in the previous five or six years where I would have ever ever debated this and the answer is no. Um, I know there was some momentum for Allen before this season and what we all saw from this offense with Mahomes. You're like, what is going on with this team this year? But I think ultimately like all you have to do is look up front and they've done a really bad job

with I mean, look, I'm even watching Sky Moore running around for the Niners being like, hey, you know, is there was there was there something there with Kansas? I mean, that's that's that's not really the exercise here. But

yeah, if I if you were presented this hypothetical and you're like, "Okay, Allen is the choice." More people would pick Allen. I don't know if offices would I think NFL fans would be like, "I'll take Allen. He's a year younger." The contract thing, it doesn't really mean anything. Even though Mahomes when he signed that massive 10-year extension, [snorts] you could Well, I argued at the time, I'm like, "This isn't 450. This is a savings. Like, this is a huge favor that he just did the Chiefs." Um, if I've never ever thought about it and never had to debate it, then that's why I would be like, I don't know. Although wearing the Wyoming jersey today, it makes me feel like I should probably take Allen. So, I I'm just going to be stubborn about if Mahomes was fully healthy right now and they they had a, you know, a 12 and four record or something. I mean, I think we'd probably lean, you know, maybe lean

that direction. Um, I think it's debatable right now just the way things have been going. of no disrespect to Mahomes, but I think Allen is just such a such a physical beast. Um, who can just do it all and carry the team and hasn't had the uh now, you know, a significant injury. Um, I'd be real happy with him.

Okay. Yeah, that's totally fair. Burrow, I'm with you. Um, you know, he's only 29 to start the 26 season. You know, Mahomes is a year older than Allen. So, going into 26, I was looking at the ages. Mahomes would be 31 if he's healthy. Allen 30, Burrow 29. His average annual salary is number two with Allen up there. But

yeah, you know, he's got a he's got the track record here where he's had three seasons where he's been hurt. He's played he's started more games than I think people would realize. Like if you said, "Hey, give me how many times he's missed starts." He's had three full seasons and he's had three kind of half seasons. and he's obviously, you know, he's not that much younger than those other guys because he was so late coming out of school. He'll be 29 to start next year.

I know. And so that that's one where I've got him as, you know, be the fourth guy in that bucket. And I I would I would put Herbert possibly above him even though it'd be close. It'd be close just on the physical part of it. I do think uh, you know, the physical part concerns me and always has a little bit with Burrow. I just feel like he could have a, you know, a little bit of a broken down second half of career. Remember Kurt Warner? That's why he left the Rams. You know, he just was banged up and he was so great when he played, but it was hard for him to to always sustain it. So, and I think Kurt Warner played like three full seasons and went to the Super Bowl every time that he played a full season. But it's hard, you know, it's just hard. He's in the Hall of Fame, but it's just hard to, you know, to be that that's that's a little bit less value somewhat to me than than than someone who I look at and just feel

physically is going to make it. So, Herbert Burrow Allen Mahomes who's in the rest of the second tier as far as trade value?

Well, that's I'm Yeah, I'm putting those guys in the in kind of the top tier. And then my my next group is probably

it's probably May and Lamar would kind of be my next group there. And I'm breaking a little bit of my rule that May hasn't played as much. So I initially had Lamar a little a tick higher, but just in terms of what his value would be, but that this is one where there's there's things that concern me about Lamar if I'm entering into this relationship with him. and and one is the magic of the legs will not be the same second of his career. And I think that's a big part of what makes him great. And then I don't like the fact that we can't even talk to his agent. He doesn't have one. I don't like that as an organization. I think that's a I wrote about it in my column today. I think it's a big deal. I think a lot of the the the reason why it feels like sometimes the the Ravens and Lamar sort of fall out of step is a little bit every once in a while is because that line of communication is very difficult

when you got to talk to the player all the time. The agents manage so much for these quarterbacks. So, you're going to have Lamar Jackson and then eventually you're going to sort of be hoping you can be back in phase with them. And that that bothers me a little bit. And then like I looked at my column today, it's it's amazing like his two great seasons and one of them wasn't even his MVP season. It was 2019 and 2024 are like the two best seasons of the last 25 years statwise. His other seasons if you combine them together are about 17th out of 40 players that that played you know basically every season 2020 one two three and 2025. It's a four-year block where, you know, he's missing games and and the production just hasn't been the same. So, love him. You're going to get a lot for him. I feel like if a team acquired him, you could win it all. Uh but there are a little bit of concerns along those lines about just a long-term

part of the relationship. So, that's two players in the second tier. So, then let's get into this meaty group here because this was harder than I thought when I was going through it and doing on my own last night.

Yeah. So did Trevor Lawrence more valuable, you know, because of this last month? Like is would he even be discussed in this group or is

he I think he's kind of in my tier after this next year. So this next year for me was kind of Caleb Williams, CJ Strad, Jaden Daniels, and Jordan Love. Can you see that as guys that are, you know, and Love may sort of be Yeah.

I don't know what to do with Jordan Love anymore, by the way. like I still believe in

at the bottom of this, but but these are guys that to me it's two number one picks and another pick. Does that make sense?

Yeah, because CJ feels completely overlooked. Um while that team has turned things around and I know it has way more to do with the NFL's best defense, but he's still good and there's talent in there from him that I'm like, you know what? And we all loved him his rookie year. So, if you put some of the numbers side by side too with it, you're like, look, he's he's kind of even better than he was his rookie year. I don't know if the EPA numbers still back.

Yeah. Yeah. Some might, some might not. I don't know. Right. There there's He's one I struggled with, but I I put him in there. And And I just kind of feel like those are guys that are young, have been either have been productive, or in Caleb Williams case, looks like he's on the upswing with a good coach. uh where there's more out there, right? We we don't know what the ceiling is yet, but we think it may be even higher than where they've played. And they've played pretty good at times, right? You say that they've had, you know, they've had winning seasons where they had where they were a driver of it. Now, I Caleb Williams is probably early enough in his career that we're giving a little benefit of the doubt there, but he was a consensus number one pick. Everybody liked it. He makes spectacular plays and we're seeing him in some structure this year where you know you probably are more optimistic than you were a year

ago right? So, uh, way I mean way more optimistic. I look I think some of the stuff that Collinssworth was saying about him in last night's game despite putting up 35 points and you know you're on the road to Sunday Night Football and you've got a fourth down throw to get it. Well, actually it wasn't fourth down because they had gotten the first down and DeAndre Swift of one of the first times all season long actually cut it inside as opposed to outside and maybe getting out of bounds there. Um, but Caleb isn't able to make the throw. I know he had was it was it more wide open on the back end. Like I just wish people would watch these replays and understand how hard it is at quarterback at that play the last play.

Well, yeah, the winning play or in the Bears case the losing play. But, you know, just to say, "Oh, you didn't see this guy that was wide open." And it's like, do you know how hard it would be for him through all the confusion trying to stay on his feet and he's locked in on the things that he's locked in on to then pivot? I mean, yeah, sure, he could have thrown a pop-up over there. Um, look, this isn't the point. It's about that. I mean, yeah, to to me on that, yeah, we won't get too deep into that play, but I mean, there's a guy rushing in his lap, you know, the windows were closing. It wasn't there there wasn't a lot of guys open. I just felt like

we agree then. I'm just talking about retreating with the guy coming there. He couldn't get even he couldn't get it there and he's got he makes amazing throws. Like there's not a lot of guys who I mean look Josh Allen had a layup yesterday for him and and you know dribbled it off his knee it looked like but but that shows you how hard this is. You're playing in a rainstorm you know it's not easy. You got a bad foot. So I got no problem with Caleb on the last play for just you know that's not didn't show some limitation to me. He he can do amazing things. But see this this Caleb conversation is really because I would say he's more valuable in the trade market than Jaden is because of Jaden's injuries.

Yeah. And you know it would be the other way around. Last year we wouldn't even we would just say on to the next topic with all of this. I think

that's why I think that Yeah. There's speculation. There's speculative component with both of those guys,

right? But the ceiling part of Caleb probably breaks whatever tie you would have unless like some people listening to this can't stand Jordan Love. Think he's one of the most overrated guys ever. Stout again seems to be just completely out of the day-to-day consciousness of the way we talk about the NFL. Um it it does seem maybe a little crazy to for me to have Caleb ahead of both of those guys, but I think it's about year two with Ben Johnson and going it's such a jump from year one to year two. We're so excited about the physical gifts. Shanahan raving about the guy that Caleb's probably the leader out of this group off of what we've seen.

Uh yeah. Yeah, that I think that's fair. I just wanted to look at something here real quick. Um, that's crazy. Uh, that's crazy. I was going to say on the the Jordan Love stuff's interesting. So, Caleb Williams, CJ Strad, and Jade Daniels have all won the division, you know, as starting quarterbacks that were playing pretty well. And I was going to put Jordan Love in that bucket. I realized the Packers have never won the division with them. The Packers haven't won the division since Rogers was there. Yeah. By the way, did you see that number where I don't know um it was my guy Florio who had it where if the playoffs hadn't been expanded, the Packers would have never made it during this run.

I mean, I get that, but you play sometimes. Would you play differently if you knew there's only six or you know what I mean? That's kind of like saying that shot would have missed on an 11 foot rim. Well, I wasn't shooting on an 11 foot rim, dummy. You know, I would have shot it different.

Yeah. You know what? All right. You know what? I'm I'm going to I'm going to take take away the the uh the observation. Okay. So,

yeah, whatever. It's not that simple, but like a little bit of me is like, all right, we know what the rules are. So, they were trying to make it in the seven. You know,

I don't know that we have to spend a ton of time on Deshawn Watson. So, we're in now kind of the Dak Trevor Lawrence.

Deshawn Watson. Why was he even mentioned? Oh, you're going by salary, sir. Yeah, I have the salary list in front of me.

Oh, okay. Gotcha. Yeah. No, no. Well, if you want to talk about modeling a franchise quarterback for multiple teams there

uh how come Perty How How is Perie not in the third? Well, I've got him in the next group. Well, and maybe he should be hired, but I had a group of four guys that I sort of had in the hey first and a second round pick maybe. And this isn't going to be for everybody and we can really some of these guys are going to be hotly debated, but I sort of had Trevor Lawrence, Brock Perie, Goff, and Jaylen Herz in there. And and look, Jayen Jayen Hers went 0 for seven in the second half. It's probably not, you know, but he but they've he's played great in some big games. Obviously been a Super Bowl MVP, but you know, I think each one of these guys come with some things where where I feel like maybe they can be franchise quarterbacks. Uh certainly Pury has played great, but with every one of these guys, you can say a yeah, but uh Trevor Lawrence, yeah, but he's been inconsistent. Great talent. Yeah, but

he's been inconsistent. hasn't done it over multiple years. Brock Freddy, yeah, but he misses games and everybody looks good in Kyle Shanahan's offense. He looks better than Jimmy, but we can go through the all-time leaders in the history of the league and yards per attempt and all these things. And Jimmy's going to be in the top 10 with Marino, right? So, uh, I get it. Purdue especially was great last night. He's better than that. But, but, but you can say a butt on him. And I think you can say a butt on Jared Goff. Does anyone look better or worse based on how good his protection is? You give him a great offensive line, he he's going to lead the league and or be top five in the stats. You put him on uh you have the

You should be hoping Brian Flores is getting a head coaching job in the AFC. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. So, and then Jaylen Herz, same sort of thing. He's proven it. He's been, you know, you look at the winning and and they've had great offenses, but but but but they're winning with defense now. It's it's always been a run game component. He's a big part of that. I think if he has to pass, it's not his game, but he's got some skins on the wall. So, do you you okay with that group there?

I am. I mean, the Hurst conversation is like, "All right, so what do we have to have? We have to have two like number one options at wide receiver. We have to have arguably the best running back of the time of when he's been healthy. We have to have all pros all over the offensive line. We have to have two Pro Bowlers at wide at corner. We have to have first round draft picks all over the front seven. and Kobe Dean. Um, so yeah, if we have all that, our quarterback might be all right. So, I'm just over the Herz conversation in general. I feel like I had a breaking point earlier this year

and it led to kind of like a bigger Eagles observation even though I just enjoyed so much of what they did defensively against Buffalo yesterday. But this isn't what did they do defensively Buffalo conversation here. Uh,

you're done with him like you're just done with him as a viable player. You don't want to talk about him. viable viable strong,

but I I I think that because they've had playoff success, they win a Super Bowl. I mean, the MVP thing to me is like the quarterback almost always gets it no matter what.

Well, I'm with you. I'm with you. They won. They had a great defense, you know? That was part of it,

right? I mean, I loved when he got out of that safety yesterday because it was like, you know what, that's part of the the good part of Jayla Hurse here. But again, comparing it to what?

Yeah. In that bucket though, would you rather better have golf or hurts if you're if you're just gonna build a team right now? And I'm taking golf.

Yeah, I it's a reluctant even though I've just spent, you know, this whole time breaking down the hurts part of it. The golf thing that scares me is it does seem that if you're geared up to disrupt the timing for him, it's it's not it's not going to be great for you. However,

fast. Um, I think he's going to throw to more places on the field than Herz will. I think Herz has like a pretty pretty defined area where he doesn't want to throw the football.

The Eagles offense, if the Eagles have golf this year, is AJ Brown in the news every week for being unhappy?

No. But is Jared Goff healthy at the end of the year on all the push tushes? Because I would say Herz is physically

No, they're not doing that. But but they're going to they're going to have uh you know maybe the field in different ways so that the running back's harder to defend or whatever, you know. [snorts]

Yeah, this is a this one's tough, man. I think I'd probably rather have Perty out of the entire group.

Yes. Even though the Shanahan thing is totally legitimate. I spent a lot of time at the beginning of the pod talking about how good Trevor Lawrence has looked this last month. It's been terrific. I need it to be more than a month for me to start saying I would take Trevor Lawrence over perie over Goff and even Herz probably, you know, because I think Trevor,

yeah, go ahead. He has just not been consistently accurate over the course of his career and and that's a hard thing to just suddenly be right, but I do think that the team I think they're playing more complimentary now. I think they're better coached. Uh, you know, their their defense is part of this. I think the the coordinating job by Liam Con is much better than it was the last few years under Doug Peterson. So, I think the game is probably, you know, he's getting some advantages now um in terms of how it's set up and being under less stress. I think his pressure rates down.

I think his time to throw is down. It feels a little bit more like he's in a real offense and it's doing some of the work for him. And so, I am more optimistic about him than I was uh even entering the season. Uh you know, just wasn't sure. I know Liam Con had done a nice job before with uh Tampa, but you know, Baker Mayfield would have done good with a bunch of different guys there. So, I just kind of wasn't sure. Um, but I'm liking it liking it a lot better.

Okay, what's the next group? So, the next group I have, it's sort of these guys don't all maybe belong together, but uh this was sort of like maybe late first round pick or, you know, some kind of a first depending on where you're at in your team. And I have two young guys in Bo Knicks and Cam Ward. And then I have two old guys in Dak Prescott and Matthew Stafford. I think they're just valued to me a little bit similarly for different reasons. I think Prescott and Stafford are two older guys, but they play at a real high level. Um, you know, Stafford was sort of criticized the way Dak has been, hasn't been able to do it in the playoffs, but he gets with the right team, the right group, and he wins the Super Bowl. I feel like Dak isn't as good as Stafford, but with the right team, right group, maybe the GM not holding press conferences every week, maybe the defense not historically bad, I think you could I think you could uh,

you know, win with him. He's just they're older guys, more expensive. It's really a couple year proposition, maybe less than that for Stafford. Maybe it's three, four years for Dak. And then to me, Bo Knicks and Cam Ward are two um you know, young guys who we've seen production from Knicks, but you know, we're not sure how he plays in a great context with a good defense, Shawn Payeyton, all of that, good offensive line. um you know we didn't have that that can't miss pedigree coming in so we probably just feel good about him but not great and cam wards early enough that maybe there's some speculative value they're still in a really bad situation kind of the opposite of of uh some of these guys who've had success early

right but I I see this is tough because the Rams wouldn't trade Stafford for Cam Ward even going into next year because they would just be like we I mean unless they're in evaluation.

Well, what the first Yeah, I'm not sure Ryan Callahan and ask him about them or whatever, but I the Rams may the Rams are a bad uh example to use. I think your point is correct, but the Rams are the type of team that might do something like that. Just if they were to win at all this year or they thought it was towards the end of Stafford, they they've looked for others. You it would be a move to the future, right? And Stafford's older there's a certain point to get off the train. So, I could I could see them. It may not be Campbell War.

Well, Tennessee wouldn't do it. I mean, Stafford's kind of like an impossible. He's gonna be 38 in February and he's he might be

MC wouldn't do it either. Tennessee wouldn't do it either, but right, you know, that's one of the So, I have another little um column in my spreadsheet that is uh internal versus external value. Does the team that has the player value them more or less than the market? Right. So,

and usually it's always more. Yeah. And the the example that I gave, like we haven't even mentioned Tyler Shook, like I had him in a group of lower, but but like I don't think the Saints would trade him for the number one pick in the draft next year. I don't think they would

really. I think they'd rather have him. The Giants, if you watch him, go ahead.

I don't know what the Giants think about Jackson Dart, but the the Saints would not trade uh I don't think the Saints would trade Tyler Shuck for any quarterback in that draft. Jackson Dart or anybody. And that's an example of, hey, they've got this guy in their building. They're watching every Saints game. How many Saints games are we watching? You know, the whole game. Uh, and when you listen to stuff that's when you listen to stuff that's coming out of there, I mean, former players, the Scott Shanley's of the world, Tyron Matthews, I mean, they're anointing, okay? They are super excited about this guy. And, um, I think his production's been really good. the last he got dinged in the draft a little bit for reasons like being a little bit older.

Okay. Do you would you rather have JJ McCarthy at his current age now or 26? What would you rather have? You know what I mean? It's not like he's he's 38 and going to have to retire. He's going to play he could play 10 or 14 years. He's pretty good. So, that's an example of somebody who maybe should be in one of these higher buckets, but I didn't put him there because I don't know that the rest of the league would view him that way, right? He hasn't done anything but internally in that building there's super excitement and you you read it every week.

I don't think they would trade him well we know they wouldn't trade him for Jackson Dar the Giants part of it that that turns into something else where it's like we just took this guy

but that's the internal external yeah so you have they wouldn't trade him for Bicks

uh the the Saints. The Saints. Yeah. No, I don't think they would at all. Do you think Denver would do it?

I have no idea what Shawn Peyton Shawn Payeyton may think that his guy is the uh prototype that he wants. You know, he drafted him. So, I would imagine Shawn Peyton may like Bo Knicks more. You know, I don't know that, but he drafted him. There's he's not Bo Nicks is not in the Broncos if any almost anyone else is the coach of the Broncos probably.

So, what's the next group then? Is this the dark group? Well, I think there's a on the fringes of this group I just said is Baker Mayfield's going to be in there. Do you think is Baker Mayfield probably belongs in that group? I had him like a tick lower, but I'm going to put him in that group, too. And they they're on a cold streak right now, but I like him. Don't you?

Uh I liked him more last year. Um I I think he's been really adventurous with the ball and it hasn't always led to turnovers. Like there's a couple games where he felt clean and I was like man he is like there's the gunslinger thing and then there's some times where like look they're down 2010. There's still some time left. He takes a shot on I think there was what at Miami inside the 30 or 32 or something like that. That was just a spot where it's like you know again the division's on the line. I just feel like he is either whether it's offensive line issues or not having the full complement of receivers at times, but I felt like it's been a consistent thing where he has I always talk about that level of risk. Like I want you to be willing to take some of it. And I I think he's he's kind of gotten back to some of that stuff where the beginning of the year it was working. You know, they weren't having the leads and he was

he was finding ways to win some of these games, but it wasn't really necessarily costing him. And maybe a change in the Philly game, maybe he's dealing with more stuff. I know that again a lot of the things around him have been super inconsistent. Maybe that's but I I feel like the way he's been playing lately is but he's still young enough, you know, I mean he's not like super super young as some of these other guys that we're talking about here.

Yeah. We're also like in the sixth group here. So it's not like we're sitting Yeah. But but I'm going to do something here. You So I read off that group with Nicks, Ward, Prescott, Stafford, kind of the weird group. I may put Dart and Shuck in that group, too. Okay, it's your grouping.

Yeah, that that's what I'm going to do in that group. I've got notes all over my page here uh now. Um I kind of like that in that group. And then that would then leave to me another sort of Penn JJ McCarthy group where hey, maybe your uh draft eval is what matters most here. They've got injury concerns. uh they weren't they weren't unanimous, you know, go in the top five type guys, but there were people that liked them enough to take them that early. And I may not be one of them, but there could be three teams or whatever, you know, that that would really like these guys way more than than that, but I'm putting them in the kind of I mean, I don't think you're getting a first round pick for those guys. Do you?

No. So, um, you I would put them in kind of a a group where they are they were drafted in the first round. All hopes not lost by any means, but I got more questions than answers and maybe more skepticism than optimism until we see more. But I'm gonna still keep them in a little bit of a higher group than my next group. Is there anyone left?

This could be unfair. Well, what could be unfair is what do you do with Bryce Young?

Uh, I wouldn't trade for him. Right. But would you rather Hey, GM or Sillo. Um, we we got a tight window here to make a trade. We can get for a for for a second and a fourth. We can get you Pennix McCarthy or Bryce Young. Who do you got?

Uh, I would go Pennix McCarthy. Bryce Young. Okay. I feel like if I had to play a game this week, I would do Bryce Young over those other two guys.

That's fine. Um, but I also feel like there's a ceiling with Bryce Young to where

um, I wouldn't want to have that just from a size standpoint be my quarterback.

I touched on in the open. I I think it's year three and we kind of know what it is.

Yep. And then I sort of had this other group of now, you know, Darnold may be, you know, Darnold may be somebody um Darnold's somebody I would probably put above Bryce Young and and Pennix and McCarthy.

Yeah, that's fine. But you wouldn't put him ahead of Darnold. Who would you rather have, Darnold or Baker?

I think I'd rather have Baker. What What about you? I think I'd rather have Darnold.

Okay. Why? Yeah. I don't know. Uh and and I, you know, I I'm open to it being Darnold, too. Um I feel like Baker's had a few more years of production. I I just don't feel like Baker's ever really had terrible years other than, you know, right. I mean, he had some tough times in his career, but when he's been healthy, like he's been pretty good most of the years, right?

Yeah. I think the end of the Cleveland stuff it was pretty clear that guy was hurting.

He couldn't throw. Yeah. And I think he's tough and I think people rally around him. So you take one, I'll take the other. I think we'd be happy with that. And then I think we're really into the Gino Smith, you know, Rogers, Daniel Jones, Cousins. I put Kyler and Tua sort of together.

But Kyler and Tua at this point are a negative asset, right? So this is where the contract thing kind of comes back full circle where you're not getting anything for either one of those players. Is that correct?

Yeah, they're in their own bucket where you know maybe they could be a starting quarterback but not under these terms.

Like do does the team do the teams have to cut him or give you something for you to take him? Like who's acquiring Kyler Murray? I don't know. I mean this is why it's we do that NBA NFL quarterback thing all the time. Well, we do it every year, you know, whatever. It's some fun stupid little exercise. But, you know, in the past, you've done Kyler and Trey Young. And at that point, it was like, hey, they put up numbers. They're the face of the franchise. The fan base wants it to be real so bad.

And the national media are the jerks because they're like, "Yeah, I don't really know." And then, you know, it just turns into this entire thing. And like for years and years and years, Atlanta fans are just telling you how wrong you are about Trey Young. And now, you know, look, they wanted to trade him last summer or two summers ago. There wasn't much of a market. There's even less of a market now. This Atlanta team was really good without him. now he's healthy and he's coming back and I'm watching that Knicks game the other day and I'm like are you really going to put him back in to close out these last five minutes and they're a point now where they kind of feel like they have to and they end up losing a close game at home against the Knicks. I mean that'd be actually good for Kyler because he'd be playing. Granted, it's different being the quarterback in basketball, but the reason I'm I'm giving you the long

runway on all this stuff is that everyone else knows that you're probably like Arizona announced if he were healthy it would still be Brassette, which I thought was shocking.

Yeah, Kobe Brassette. I mean, nothing against Kobe Brassette, just a really solid backup,

but with zero chance of being anyone you want to build. But that's a point. They're making a point to go we're by the way just so everybody knows like Brousett's still the guy no matter what. So, I don't know who would be who would be desperate enough. And I also think it's totally fair to be like, what's Kyler like? Like, what's his mind? Somebody who there was plenty of criticism about what he was like as a teammate, how serious he was taking the stuff. Maybe he's a little bit older. Maybe all that stuff's kind of fine, but like I don't know that you're bringing in Rudy here. If you're the next team,

he's a he's he's in the category of, yeah, you can come here and compete for a job, but you got to show us. He's not, we're gonna come in, you're gonna be our guy, and we want the rest of our locker room to model themselves after your work habits and your approach to the game. Those are two very different things. I'm I'd be very reluctant to I think I think having the right guy at that position when he's the guy is really critical, but lots of guys can come in and compete for a job under our terms, right? And so if you

uh, you know, wanted to do that, that that's fine. Like uh uh bring them in. But is is Kyler Murray with all the money he's made, is he going to and all that's owed to him, is he going to go compete somewhere for nothing? Well, I guess we'll find out. Yeah, I don't know the answer to that one. Uh, all right. You can check out Mike Sando's stuff. Did we leave anything out on The Athletic? It's two sentences combined.

I don't think we did. Yeah. All right. Check out Mike Sando's piece in the athletic. The pick six every Monday morning. must readad for all NFL fans and I'm sure we'll check in with you again, man. Thanks.

Thank you. That was fun. Little College Football Playoff preview with good friend Danny Canel from Dusty and Danny SiriusXM every morning and the cover three pod. You guys have uh probably a million shows this week, I assume, right Danny?

Yeah, a little bit. Previews, brdowns, locks, any way you can do reaction shows. It's pretty loaded slate this time of year, which Courtney and the girls always love when they're ready to go to the beach. I mean they literally their office school and court's like you want to go to the beach and I was like I have to work and she was a little bit upset. Then I told her I was doing your show and she's like oh it's with Ryan so let's go like she wasn't as upset as she would have been. It was like nor this is special.

I appreciate that Danny. So Danny family sacrificing for the show here. Uh make sure you say hi to Court and all the girls for me. So I appreciate it.

We'll do. Um okay let's let's look at it this way. of the four games the most confident to least confident that we are picking. So you can go first obviously. Uh most confident pick for you.

And now these are with the spread or just straight up. No, no, just straight up.

Straight up Oregon Texas Tech. I like Oregon a lot. Um I think they're I mean I I eventually picked them to win my national championship in my bracket. I think they're really good. I think they're getting healthy at the right time. I think their schedule and some of their wins are tougher than like that beating Iowa on the road in that winter in that weather. Like everyone's like, "Yeah, well, they should have beat Iowa." That Iowa's defense is always really good to be able to beat USC the way they beat them and then beat Washington to finish out the season. I thought their finish was really, really strong. And I think they're getting right at the right time. And I don't I don't want to bash Texas Tech, but I do think their defense is slightly overrated from statistical standpoint because I don't think they have faced a great offense, a great quarterback uh for the majority of the season. Um

you know, Sam Levit and that was without it was our one loss. Sam Lev was the best quarterback they faced and they lost the game. Um you know, so I I just I think the Big 12 might have been a little bit overrated. Texas Tech is a really good football team. Their defensive front seven is pretty nasty, but I just think Oregon is in a different class with the athletes they've got across the board. See, I knew that because it's my least confident pick of the four. Um, just cuz I I've heard you talk about Texas Tech and I look, I don't think that you're out of line with that because I was going through it again last night and I was looking at it from like the Baron Morton standpoint where I think all of us appreciate that he's the kind of quarterback because he's been there for a while that, you know, Tech's like we know we can trust him and when he got hurt in the Utah game and he brought in

Hammond and Hammond clearly, you know, is a big time recruit and he's certainly more athletic, a little bit more dynamic, probably threatens you running the football a little bit more. you're watching it going like I wonder if they would make the switch you know and we had Magguire on the show and you know it wasn't like he was going to say yeah it was really tough decision or whatever but you just when you watch Baron Morton play you're like you know what it makes all the sense in the world but in the first game against BYU he wasn't great um they didn't really need him to be great in either of those matchups because it's just like that was kind of like another topic all together is like you really want to sit here and talk about like how BYU got screwed like come on, man. So, over the course of the year, you think, okay, like what's even close to what they've faced in Oregon? And I don't I I don't know what it is. And

even even though Levit was great, we know what Arizona State did last year, like this Oregon challenge is a completely different level. And I guess I still felt more confident about the other games.

I there is a great unknown like they might be really good. They just haven't, you know, like that could be a factor too. They might just be as good as we think. They just haven't been tested. I think Utah was a really good win. Um, you know, that was in Texas Tech and that ironically was Baron Morton had a his worst game and was knocked out.

The Utah game. The Utah game was at Utah. Yeah, that's it was in Salt Lake, right? Yeah. That was when Baron Morton got knocked out, but he had two picks, zero touchdowns. He was playing awful and Hammond came in and actually played great. But it was also a game where Devin Dampier was kind of banged up for the youths and like he we like because Kyle Whittingham doesn't give any injury reports. No one knew like he missed the whole week of practice before coming into that game. Um that's probably from a physicality standpoint in the defense.

I would say that and BYU are their biggest tests. But again, I think some of the like Bear Alexander all of a sudden is playing really good. Sort of his contract year if you will. Amari Washington a couple big dudes in that in the interior of that defensive line. Bryce Bcher is a really good linebacker. Matteo Ugo, like they've got a lot of really good players on their defense, too. So, and again, I just think that Dante Moore will easily be the best quarterback they've faced. And even if they're not 100% health, like even if Evan Stewart doesn't come back, but if Cory Moore, who I do think will come back and will play, Malik Benson, like I just think they're a caliber of athlete.

And I even mentioned Noah Whittingham, who's you have a great run game. like they're that's going to be a really interesting challenge to me cuz Oregon likes to run the football. Will they be able to establish the run against this Texas Tech front seven?

Yeah, I think we agree that Texas Tech, although you're sure, you know, this is where it's tough when you're looking at some of the statistical stuff and you're like, okay, well, what what was your 12game experience versus, you know, some of these other teams that have had really tough schedules. So then when you're looking at some of the yards per play, opponent's yards per play, and all that kind of stuff, you're like, "All right, what does it actually mean?" because Tech across the board is awesome in all these different categories. But [snorts] I'm with you. I cannot shake how impressed I was in that Iowa game.

Like I looked at that game as incredibly impressive because the injury situation for Oregon's receivers, they lose their right tackle and they have to kind of just on the fly be like, "All right, we're a power running team and we're going to be a power running team in these conditions against Iowa where you wouldn't normally expect to be able to just push them around." It's like Iowa would be like, "Go ahead, like please do this." And they gashed him. So, with the receivers getting back healthy, I don't know if it means Stewart as well, but I what I like about Oregon is that I do think that there's an adaptability depending on how the game goes. And it's funny because you watch that game against James Madison. And by the way, I have a number for you.

Um, on defense, opponent's yards per play. So, if you go all college football, all FBS, James Madison was fourth in the country on defense.

I mean, it kind of speaks to the the nonpower four teams in this debate that we've had of like, okay, should these teams be in the playoffs? I think I'm okay with one. I'm I'm certainly not okay with two, but to watch that game and have it be 346 and go, this is just it's a different version of football and it's like a nice story, but now you have a chance at a national championship. And the great thing from that 346 lead for Lanning is that they've got a couple turnovers, they take their foot off the gas, and now James Madison scores 28 points in the second half. So, it was like a great playoff win for Landing then to be pissed off the entire time.

Yes. Um, did you see the video of Kirby Smart getting after Georgia like at practice when there was like somebody outside in the parking lot and he was just laying in coaches everybody? I would expect that's the type of coaching you'll get from Dan Lanning this week. Like, are you kidding me? We gave up that many points. We gave up we we let our foot off the gas. Totally agree with you. That is the best case scenario. You win the game, but your team doesn't feel like it. You get after them. they're not, you know, they're not going to be, you know, at all overlooking the next opponent or feeling really good about themselves. And I think the point spread is another thing that you can like they're not that heavy of a favorite in this game. So, I think this game's going to be really interesting.

I think Dante Moore too. I do think I think Dante Moore has a ton at stake in this playoff where if he does get hot and if they do make a run potentially to the national championship or even just to the national championship game. I think he's going to they're the NFL scouts and GM they already like him. I think they could fall in love with him if he has a strong playoff performance.

Who do you like better as a prospect? Him or Mendoza is today? I like Fernando Mendoza better because I've seen more of him. I I would love to see Dante Moore get another year of experience and then, you know, challenge for the number one spot. But, I mean, that's gonna be him and Arch Manning coming out together. So, I don't know if he wants to, you know, go through that. But, I think Fernando Mendoza is the real deal. I just seeing him at Cal, too. What he was able to do and help that team be competitive when there wasn't all this talent around him. And I I still think one of the most impressive plays I've seen from him is getting up off the deck after he was absolutely wrecked that first play of the Big 10 Championship game, Ohio State. He's just I think he's kind of all exactly what you want from a on the field and off the field. Uh you can trust him and I think he's a very I think he still has a lot

of uh a lot of good football ahead of him. So like I know that Dante Moore the upside everybody talks about the upside till to come and I want to know exactly what I'm getting and I feel like I know that with Fernand Fernando Mendoza.

Oregon also as far as sacks allowed and I'm talking like not per game not over the course of the season but just percentage of dropbacks where they're allowing sacks. their 13th best in the power four. So, you're looking at that going, all right, this is this is going to get back to kind of the schedule part of it in the Big 12 play of like, can this front that was built to get after and disrupt because they've done it all season long. Like, is that going to be some kind of like, wait a minute, you know, this is a different challenge here with Oregon alto together? But I actually have that as the hardest one because I just it's the Texas Tech and kind of the unknown part of it where it's like, are they really at this level? um in

and if they can't run it, let's say Oregon can't run it and and because if you remember like all the money that Joey Maguire and Texas Tech put into this defense is on the defensive front like their secondary is their biggest question mark. So if it does become a Dante Moore game and they do have to throw it, I still think that advantage goes to Oregon.

I went or Ohio State Miami is the easiest one for me to pick. Which way? Because I This game has thrown me for an absolute loop because I get if you pick Ohio State, but I have no idea where they're getting the nine and a half point uh spread on this one. I think Miami is a really good football team who has a really good offensive and defensive line. I think there's a massive I think there's also they have really good weapons in Malachi Tony and CJ Daniels and they just found a running game in Mark Fletcher where I could see a very similar game that unfold in the Big 10 championship game unfold with these two teams a lot of defense you know points at a premium and if Indiana was able to get to Julian saying five times confuse him I just are is Ohio State's offensive line issues fixed have they fixed that problem. Maybe maybe they made some adjustments. Maybe they'll give him some tight end help. Um

but I still think when you look at Ruben Bay and Aake Meador, they could be problematic for uh for Ohio State. Ohio State gave up six sacks through 12 regular season games and then to your point, five in the Indiana game. And you know, I was talking to somebody else that was there for the game and they're like, "Oh, Ohio State's game plan absolutely sucked." And you're just like "Okay but it at what point like do you look at Ohio State like in that game?" I mean, the rushing numbers are thrown off because of all the saying sacks, but like they ran it for 2.2 yards per carry against Indiana. So, you think there's similarities between Indiana's front and Well, the thing is that's crazy. It's like you're not looking at Miami's front going, "Oh, this underdog group here.

There's probably higher profile." Well, there isn't. I mean, there is more high-profile guys with Miami's front than there are with Indiana's. I just was so impressed with the way, not only, you know, look, the way Indiana's played all season long, but it [snorts] was pretty clear, and I I keep bringing this up, but on that third and short, the third one, the fourth and one, when they had those decisions to make at that point, like Ryan Day did not like his team in that matchup, and you could tell by the play calling. So, I think the rest of it is that like I I'm not surprised Miami beat&m. Okay. And that had more to do with my feeling about how like Marcel Reed I thought was like incredibly hyped up all season long. It was like, "Hey, who's the quarterback on the best SEC team that's still undefeated? Okay, we'll make him a Heisman finalist." And I'm thinking to myself as I see the odds, I'm like,

"What are you guys watching?" Um, so to have Miami go down and get that game, have Reed make the mistakes. But I mean, Tony's the MVP of that game. He completely changes that game on two plays,

but I still kind of was like, "So, I'm going to pick Carson Beck to beat like I'm going to I'm going to watch this game and then pick this team to then beat Ohio State, even though, you know, tougher challenge going on the road at&m."

So, I think there's some similarities because I liked Miami, too, in that game. Um, when you looked at Texas&M schedule, they played the bottom half of the SEC. The one big test they f beat Notre Dame early in a game where their defense, which supposed to be awesome, gave up 40 plus points and then they had their biggest challenge right before was Texas. They go down to Texas. Quality opponent they faced.

I think, by the way, is it okay to say that AM's defense actually was pretty good this year.

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. But I think like when we're talking about elite, best of the best, you know, I I think there's like there's a delineation there where it's fair to say like somebody's overrated when it comes to like are they top five like legit. Um, so Ohio State's defense clearly one of the best in the country. Their offense was all-star, like incredible. But I do think the schedule, like the offense against two of the best defenses they faced in Texas only put up what 14 points and then against Indiana struggled to score at all. And then like the middle of their schedule, they didn't really play a lot of great teams and they dominated a lot of them. And in some of their biggest challenges, they came up short, you know, and and beating Texas, that was with Arch Manning his first game when clearly he wasn't the same player as he was at the end of the season. I don't want to take away from that. Still a

good win, but I just wonder if Ohio State is I don't say overrated, but a little overrated because their talent across the board, like NFL talent, there's going to be so much NFL talent on this field for both sides. I mean, they have four maybe five guys on the defensive side of the ball that are probably going to be first round picks. You know, they've got the best player in the country on both offensive and defense and Caleb DS and Jeremiah Smith, but like why couldn't they beat Indiana then? You know, I mean, is that was that but and then that might have been a good thing. It might have been a test for them to reveal some of their weaknesses that they go back and fix and they come out and they address their issues and they steamroll Miami. But I I I think Miami is going to be a bigger challenge for Ohio State. Like I actually picked an upset here. I picked Miami to win the game. But the thing that makes me most

nervous about is the spread is even close. But I think that's a lot of the the talent edge that goes to Ohio State. But I do think if Carson Beck can and I I I did not look into his stats at all from the game against Texas&M cuz the wind was 30 mph gust. I mean, you could see the impact it had on the kicking game. It was almost impossible to throw. And so Miami just shut it down. There were a couple throws that I think he makes where they popped a couple guys open and he just overthrew them. I put those all up to the wind. Gus, as long as he doesn't turn the ball over, I think they have a really good chance to be in the fourth quarter.

So do you have that as your second easiest then? Or I mean because I also realize too like sometimes you just want to pick an upset, you know, when you do the job you're like, you know, let me just not go chalk every single game.

I think from my second easiest I'd probably say George miss. I think Georgia beats Old Miss. I think that's my second easiest like second most confident.

Yeah, same for me. Same for me on that one. We saw and it's kind of I mean we a lot of these rematches we saw them already happened once. I know Miss was leading going in the fourth quarter, but I actually think Georgia's defense is better now even though it's only five or six weeks later. They've been doing a better job. Feel like Kirby Smart watching what they did well through three quarters, he'll take away what Miss did well. You know, I don't I don't even put much stock in Lane not being there or not. I just think George is the better football team. And Gunnar Stockton, I think he'll tear up again the Old Miss defense the same way he did the first time around.

First five possessions for Old Miss in that game, they scored touchdowns and four were long drives and then there was the 75 yard play. So that's five possessions, 35 points for Old Miss against George's defense. You want to talk about impossible things that would happen over the course of a college football season? They're like, "That's not happening again." I I can't believe going back to that game last night and thinking like they just gashed Georgia like this. And I I think the Georgia story, at least on defense, has been like two different things because it's what do you expect from Stockton?

And usually you shouldn't expect too much. It's like, is this running game actually this good? But if it's Georgia, I expect by the time October, November rolls around, there's three guys in that front that are like, "Okay, well this guy's the next guy." And there's probably a couple guys from the secondary. I like better than even the guys up front, but watching them collectively like you can go pick any of the games towards the end of the year. I know no one like feels good about Georgia after the Georgia Tech game because the offense couldn't do anything, but if you watch them defensively against what I think is, you know, a good decent Tech team, even though they lost their bowl game, uh, yeah, they they they blow that one to BYU. Um, I think this Georgia defense is starting to look more like Georgia. So, when I when I combine like what happened in the first game and you know, it's it feels a

little unfair to say like, hey, Stockton will do that again, but then say, well, Miss won't do that again. I feel way more confident saying Miss is not going to be able to score 35 points on their first five touches of the football against Georgia. Totally agree. I I do think Gunner Stockton, I do think you can count on him to play big in these games. I mean, some of their bigger games on the bigger stages have been sort of when he's played the best. Um, you know, he had the four four touchdowns against Texas, four against Old Miss. Uh, Alabama, he hit the one the wide receiver dropped the touchdown that would have put him ahead in the second half. Probably won him the game.

I He reminds me a ton of Stson Bennett. I know he probably doesn't want to be compared to just another white quarterback who looks like he's off the inter mural field, you know, from a, you know, fraternity league, but he doesn't have the best physical skill set, and yet he's stepped up and proven to be a gamer. He gets a lot of hidden yards, too, with his legs. It's not pretty, but he he can scramble around some, too. his season high on yards, Tennessee 304 in that overtime game where he still had the best throw I think of his entire season on that fourth down. Yeah. Where at that point because you could tell like Herb Street the way he was talking about Stockton throughout the course of the game. It's like, you know, he's just basically telling you what the coaches are saying that he needs to be better at. And it's like you can't just tuck the ball and run when you don't like the first thing you see the entire time. And

so it felt like we were like, okay, we're getting the full fully formed version of Stockton. And then that didn't really happen. It didn't carry over through the rest of the season. But his second highest total was against Old Miss. He was really clean the entire day. And that opposing yards per play number. I'm going to run through all the playoff teams. So Ohio State was number one in the country with that. Texas Tech was number two. This is the James Madison number, by the way, where they were four before the Oregon game.

Oregon's fifth, Miami 7th, Indiana's 14th, Georgia's 20th. Bama's 26th, Miss is 51st. That's where I think Georgia can just score at will on him. You know, Kiwan Lacy, I don't He wasn't able to run it against him the first time around.

31 yards. Yeah. But I mean, you can't really knock their offense in that game, but

Right. Right. But I mean, Georgia, didn't they not get stopped at all? Didn't they have like Didn't they have every drive? Didn't they score?

I don't think they ever punt it. Yeah. Right. Right. And I would expect more of the same. That one probably would be the biggest upset. Like if we're talking about surprises, most confident if Miss beats Georgia, that would be this the biggest surprise of the weekend.

So it sounds like you're more See, that's why I'm shocked that you had Texas Tech in Oregon as a more confident selection over Georgia Old Miss cuz I last night when I was sitting there like who cares? It's not like it was super intense and it kept me up all night, but I was I probably as I started making the case as we've just made the case, it's like it sounds like both guys are way more on Georgia than any of the other games. Yeah, if I was re-evaluating, reassessing, I might re-rank them.

Reank it at the end of it. I just I'm excited. I'm going to the Orange Bowl, so I'm going to be there. I picked Oregon to win the national championship, so I'm like very bullish on Oregon, but if you had me put the most amount of money on a game this weekend, I'd probably put it on Georgia money line.

All right. So, I had IU Bama third. Yeah, I I could buy that. I think that game could go either way. I like Indiana. I am not certain. And man, it got a little uncomfortable with me and Dusty this week on the radio because I said Oklahoma was a little bit overrated. He did not like that. He accused me of not watching any film.

So, I had to remind him of who's had better record and picks. Got a little bit uncomfortable. Got a little uncomfortable. But

he accused you of not putting in the hours. I know. I know. It's kind of Does he not know that you had a fully like the New York Giants installed a video system when you were Well, you were a secondy year guy figuring it out, right?

Yeah, exactly. I took that thing home. It's good thing they didn't have a test on what was on those tapes. Um, no, I do not think like I do not think Alabama's problems are fixed because of a win against Oklahoma. And I do think it was a great comeback coming down from 17 down. Ty Simpson made some big throws. Defense, you know, comes up big with a uh big with a big pick six, which was maybe one of the worst throws we've seen. Um and like worst decisions we've seen from John Matier. I mean, that's basic day one stuff for him not to recognize. They're dropping out. It is not a blitz. The route should convert to a fade. And he just throws it right to the stop route was supposed to be. and you just gifted them that one. So, like I don't think Alabama's defense is all that because they stopped Oklahoma's offense with a quarterback who on the season was 12 touchdowns, 10 interceptions. So, I still think I'm

worried that Alabama could be the team we saw against Georgia in the SEC championship game, the one we saw struggle to beat Auburn. I and I think Indiana's a really good football team. Steven Daly does concern me. One of their best, you know, rushers. He was leading in tackles for loss, leading in sacks. He's a really good player. I just think they're really good. I still think it takes people a hard time to look at the talent that they've got on this team that they hit in the portal. I mean, they they went out and addressed a lot of those issues this offseason. And I think that's why they were able to beat Ohio State. I think that was fluky. They physically went toe-to-toe with Ohio State and withtood the challenge and came out on top.

Bama, we know they can't run the football. And then when you're looking at Oklahoma's defensive numbers, you're like, do you even bother? like is a carry even worth it? Um and they ran it for 28 yards on 25 carries which I actually thought was pretty good for them,

right? Like positive. I was like good job guys. Uh like their offensive line their offensive line is just I think that's the bigger problem than Jam Miller being healthy or who's been running the ball. offensive line has not been that great.

When you think about them and you watch their handoffs, it's like, okay, I just got the ball and now there's all this traffic. Like, this not rarely are you watching any kind of push where you're like, the guy's clean, line of scrimmage, three yards, you know, then we start getting into those numbers of like how many yards before contact and that kind of stuff. Like, I can't imagine how bad they rank. And if they ranked better than I thought they did, then I would just disagree with the number because you just don't feel like there's this huge push even in situations where it's like, all right, we're going to sell out to run block here. So, I don't think it's Jam's health. I thought Hill was going to maybe change things around because he's so physical and he's so big. He's 250.

That hasn't really been the case. Um, but I love the receivers and even with this Ryan Williams milk carton part of the season where you're like, what happened to this guy? Um, Lazier Brooks, that 5'9 kid is a stud. I was watching his high school stuff last night because I was trying to get a like the best pronunciation of his name and I'm still not 100%. I kind of stands it there a little bit.

Uh, but there, you know, like I love Simpson. I love the toughness that Simpson has shown. He knows there's going to be series where they don't block well for him and he feels like he's running around. He's probably going to get hit a lot in this game. But even even without knowing what you're getting from Ryan Williams, which you know, this is somebody who's supposed to be able to flip the entire field, there's still enough in the receiving game. And if Quavvis is is good to go, you know, not having him in the past, you've been like, "All right, well, this is a huge problem here because he's been so good at tight end." Uh, it just feels like it'll have to be some sort of free-for-all Simpson and receivers game to put up enough points. But I do like their front more than you do and more than I did in the beginning of the year.

Because in the beginning of the year too with Bama, you're like, where's the guy? Like where's where's this game record? And there's definitely whether it's Pierre or whoever else you want to pick, I do feel better about Bama's pass rush and and some of those guys developing over the course of the year.

Agreed. Um I mean they're not they're not slouches by any means whatsoever. I I do think too one thing that Tai Simpson was doing earlier this season because I remember watching him against Missouri in tight pockets like guys all around him just delivering the ball perfectly downfield like down vertical routes

the sideline throw that he had like throwing the ball downfield under duress and then he just kind of lost it and it started with that Oklahoma game when he had the pick six and then there was the fourth down throw that came up short it just wasn't a very confident throw if he has found it and he kind of does get it going and he has that type of performance, then absolutely Bama could could hang with him and could possibly win the game.

I saw a Mendoza number flying around and when it was so bad that I'm like, no, I shouldn't say it was so bad, but it was based on like production against the worst six teams versus the best six teams. You know, when you really dig into it, you know, that kind of stuff. And so if you go with Mendoza against Oregon, Iowa, Ohio State, Penn State, if you're including Penn State, you have to include Illinois because Illinois is good. You know, I know it's maybe a little disappointing with the momentum that they had had when they played them.

Illinois was ninth in the country. And that's why I thought the Iowa game was going to be really interesting for Indiana because it's like, is there going to be some sort of let down here? And it was a really competitive game. But you can sit there and go, "All right, well, he has a 10-4 touchdown interception split, and that's with five touchdowns in a clean interception sheet against Illinois in that game." So, he lights them up for five. So, that means there's a lot of singledigit touchdown games there the rest of the way because it's a 23-2 split on touchdowns, interceptions against everybody else.

So, I was basically seeing like an argument being formed against like, hey, do you realize Mendoza like statistically destroys all these bad teams, but against the tougher competition? But then you start to ask like about his toughness and if you want to go through the Iowa game where it's a third and 10 touchdown to win that game for 49 yards throw like they it was it was I think it was zero coverage or it was it was a heavy blitz and it was kind of like one-on-one and if he hits the receiver perfectly he knows he's gone. So he makes that throw. I think the mental toughness of responding after the pick six against Oregon huge totally calm like looks like it's not going to be an issue. What he had to do in the Penn State game and then the physical toughness that you referenced when you came on after the Big 10 championship game as you just did again to get blasted that early in that Ohio

State game and you wonder like oh my god like is this like is this Indiana story over? you know, granted they're still going to be in the playoffs, but like is this guy gonna get up? You can't question anything about the mental or physical stuff based on everything that I've seen and just laid out for you and the audience here. So, even though I've seen that number kind of crafted to tell some version of a story against a tougher competition, um I I don't I don't I just don't believe it. I don't I don't think that's a fair assessment of who he's been.

I mean, all you have to do is watch the game against Ohio State when his numbers were very pedestrian. I mean, it was 15 to 22 for how many yards did he throw for 222, one touchdown, one interception. I mean, he won him that game, you know. I mean, couple big plays, the touchdown throw to Elijah Serat, the the throw to close out the game.

Um, you know, he just he finds ways Yeah, he he finds ways to make plays and he doesn't make the big mistake. The other thing, too, is Indiana's probably one of the more balanced teams out of all these as far as run pass. That's why he didn't throw for 40 touchdowns and he probably could have put up bigger numbers if they had really wanted to. They run the football and they're pretty committed to being, you know, a runbased team, which I think especially in the bigger games when they want to try to control the clock, keep themselves in favorable situations, they don't really care about how much they throw it. They want to be balanced up front. So I think that takes away some of the numbers from uh from Mendoza as well.

So it sounds like we're both picking India. I do. I like in this game. So to reank the confidence rankings here, it appears you are going Georgia Old Miss over Oregon Texas Tech.

Yeah, I'll keep Oregon Texas Tech, too. You'll keep it too. All right. So, I'm Ohio State 1, Georgia, Old Miss 2, Indiana, Alabama 3. And I really don't think that I'm I'm doing a Jersey historical thing there as

right as like I don't know, maybe I am. You know, that's what's kind of fun about this even though the spreads aren't as tight as you would want them to be. But again, we can't get like so spoiled like what do you want every game to be two and a half points? Like that's just not going to happen, right? Um even even in an older system, you know, you had some terrible terrible even with four teams, you'd have one of those first semis be like, "Oh my god, this game's going to suck."

And there's one of these games might be sideways that we don't see happen. It's like it's okay. It happens. Like uh we always as fans, we want the perfect like gamewinning field goal or walk-off touchdown throw. It's okay if team dominates in sports. It happens. If Indiana wins the entire thing, that'll be three different teams from the Big 10 winning national championships.

Or Oregon, my pick. Oregon, your pick. That'd be Yeah, there you go. There's four teams in play here. Uh

there's a there's definitely a shift that has taken place. And I think the shift that has happened, I think I told you this last time or one of the times we've caught up, the shift that is taking place is the SEC is getting deeper as the teams that were able to spend the most preil hoard all the talent like Alabama, Georgia, let's take those two for example, they were always able to I talked to Damen Harris who I work with all the time about this because they used to have like when you looked at his running back room or you looked at the wide receiver room, it was so deep because you had three or four first round guys that were juniors and seniors, but then you stashed a couple, you know, four and five stars who were eventually going to be there uh on the depth chart. They were freshman or sophomores. Well, now those freshman and sophomores either aren't going in the first place because they have an

opportunity to make money somewhere else. And then even worse, like if you have them there for a year, you're there's zero chance you're going to be able to keep all of them if there's two or three. and you're probably going to lose one or two to another team in the SEC. So, you're not able to be as dominant with as much depth. So, the the talent at the top that's always been so strong for the SEC, which has been able to dominate and win championships, it's spreading throughout the entirety of the SEC. And I do think the SEC is still way more at the forefront of pressing the envelope with the revshare and NIL go and what's who what like no one is paying attention to that in the SEC. And I do think outside and I I don't think in the in the Big 10, I think there's a couple. I think Ohio State, I think Oregon, um you know, Michigan, the top teams there are still spending more than everybody else. And so they're able to

hoard more of the talent and keep it there than because the rest of the Big 10 isn't really trying yet. I think they're going to I think you're starting to see that. And I think Indiana is a good example of somebody who has tried and it's worked. Michigan State just got a $400 million check, you know, and they're bringing in Pat Fitzgerald. Like, they clearly want to be more competitive. I think it's just taking longer for the talent to siphon through the rest of the Big 10 because the other teams are still playing catch-up at the bottom tier.

I think we actually agree for the first time in a while here. Um because my So, the Big 10 rules college football is what you're saying.

No, but that's what's going to happen. I mean, look, it already happened after Ohio State won it last year. Like, I was seeing people that I respect their work, but I also like wonder if the click, you know, when it's like it's almost like the New Heisle LA Times, the Monopoly is over.

Yeah. You know, it's just there's something to be said if you're a college football writer and you're just like the SEC dominance is done and like people are going to be psyched to read that or they're going to be so mad they're going to hate read it. And when I think back to like this this whole year, you know, this is this has been a year now where I'm like, okay, I know there's all these SEC teams that are ranked, but and I think they were deserving the ranking. I'm fine with the playoff committee stuff. We all hate the Notre Dame decision. It was a perfect storm of events for that to happen. And ultimately, the headto-head ended up being something that, you know, was something the committee was like, we can't do this. But as far as title contenders, like it's it's not it's not been the same. And I think, you know, whether it was the Michigan Alabama game, I'm like, did I like Alabama better then? Well,

sure. You know, Sabin's there, but I didn't like Milro. You know, I like Simpson 100 times more than Milo, but it was more complete team. So, when I think back to like the last couple years, it's like these contenders from the SEC, you know, technically Texas last year obviously cuz it's it's real and then Georgia having to go through the quarterback change that they made and you're like, "Yeah, these teams are all right." You know, they're good teams, but I don't I don't know if they're scaring the [ __ ] out of you. And that was always the thing is that these teams were normally and like there would be that non-conference game week one and you would go, "Did you see what Georgia did to Oregon?" Like, are you

kidding me? here. LSU against Oregon. Alabama had that Michigan game that we all went to in Texas years ago. We were like, "This is horrifying." So that that feels different. I think it is different. I think it is very clearly different, but I'm preparing myself and I don't know if you'll mean it earnestly and I don't know if anyone covering it will be like, "Hey, it is because there's been such a demand of like it has to be over. It has to be over. I want it to be over so bad. Um, that if you have a third Big 10 team win, and that was always my argument with with the SEC, is like how many other conferences could have four teams win a national championship for seven straight years and like we're arguing about this and now like Ohio State, you know, look, they might win this whole thing if Indiana wins it, if Oregon wins it. Um I I think for a lot of the season I felt like Big 10 had the three best

contenders. So if you're talking about like what does best conference actually mean? Like that's a really hard thing to ignore even if it really frustrates me where there'd be certain SEC and Big 10 schedules where I'm like do you realize how ridiculously different the back half of these schedules are which you've alluded to here as we've been talking about it.

Yeah. And as somebody who just wants to see good like good college football, I want to see the Big 10 become more like the SEC where you don't have to watch

blow out Ruters or Maryland or whoever it is, you know? Like I want to see the bottom of the Big 10 get better and see some like cuz what's interesting is we were talking about you were saying one of those SEC teams would annihilate everybody. That was supposed to be Ohio State going into the Big 10 championship game. It was like is it Ohio State or the field? They look unbeatable. They broughten come down to earth a little bit, but they are sort of that type of team that has so many draft picks, so much talent on their roster, but ultimately I want to see the Big 10, you know, start to get deeper so we can get more competitive games in the regular season. We get better M. I some CBS has the Big 10 contract and trust me, there's a lot of weekends when it's this is the best game that we can get and there's a third pick and it's already down to a what was it? Penn State, UCLA, one of the weeks, you know, there was

Well, that was that was like the Black Friday game where Yeah. It was it was Indiana Purdue on NBC. Yeah.

And you're like, "All right, well, I realize you guys have the game of games here for this conference, but like that's that's your Friday night game." Because

I don't know how anybody who's totally fair and reasonable about this stuff is like when you looked at the SEC package of all those games over that weekend, you were like, "This weekend's absolutely loaded with awesome games." and the Big 10 had they had two because I think it was um was it Oregon and Washington too as well. So there was at least like two games that I was excited about with that conference, but I was like that's a marquee Friday night, Black Friday. People are at home kind of like this malaise of a the first holiday weekend before the big holiday week of Christmas and New Year's and all that kind of stuff and you're like that's the third game that you have to choose from there. So I hope it's deeper. I hope it ends up being as competitive as the SEC.

But it sounds like what I'm learning from this conclusion is that you now retroactively go back and realize a lot of your criticism of the SEC the SEC's dominance was maybe misguided.

No, never. Because I do remember that one I think it was the 2016 bowl season when it was just a disaster for the SEC. And they actually the SEC did destroy bowls

because they were the ones that came up with we didn't care. So now no one cares and it doesn't matter and they have player optouts and so everyone's Florida State that year.

That's right. That is true. That was that bowl season for you was that was fun.

It was like your Academy Awards speech. It was like, "Hey, he finally got one."

I just remember coming into the studio like on cloud apologized to you, I think. And I didn't I wouldn't I was I went like line by line through every single game and I was like, "This is a dead cat bounce." I like I'm not apologizing to you at all. The next thing to watch out for, keep an eye on this because this is a story that I don't think enough of people are paying attention to the revshare and the NIL go the college sports commission if they don't do anything teams are going to keep that's why we're seeing these record setting NIL deals and some schools are still trying to play by the rules and like submit everything and do it right. Those schools are going to be left behind.

I love Stu Mandel's piece on the athletic this past weekend. And it was it was awesome.

It went through the whole thing. And by the way, I would tell like the NIL people out there,

don't charge the kids 20%. Right? You know, like it's for the kids, right? It's for the kids. This is this is great. This new system, they can finally dig in. So, help the kids out.

And don't charge them 20% as if it's some sort of marketing deal where you're already making a percentage off of the salary part of it because that's kind of the construct of how how like player stuff. And granted, a lot of the player stuff's like three or 4% because they have unions and they have people arguing this stuff. So, I would ask like the people that were on the NIL side like why are you taking 20% from these kids if you know it's a great opportunity for these kids? You know, maybe just make a 10%.

Yep. Or five. They are just making too much money. All right, Danny, you're the best. Enjoy the bowl games and we will talk to you soon.

All right, man. See you. You want details? Bye. I drive a Ferrari, 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Life advice. The email address is lifeadvice rrgmail.com. We've got Siruti. We've got Kyle. Think Tom will ever jump on. Kind of like an out of nowhere waron thing. I don't know if Tom can pull up a camera and say hello, but I just uh you never know. You never know what kind of resources you're not mining.

We don't I could, but we don't have the graphics for the forot. All right, next up Tom.

Just the voice of Wait, we Kyle, we can't even hear you right now. Yeah, Kyle's mic doesn't work, so that actually worked out well. God, I've been talking the whole time. Great start.

There we go. How are you doing? Great. Great holiday. How about you? Ah, that went viral, which was Yeah,

you knew you were doing that, though. You knew that was going to hit. Well, then the next day I was like, how do I was like, where's that woman with the grapes? Like, I'll post that or something. I was just trying to I was trying to figure out a way to keep the momentum going. When you go viral like that, there's all this pressure on you. Like, what's next? What's next from the big guy? And I just I couldn't I couldn't handle it. I didn't couldn't think of anything. I couldn't find a great video.

Congrats on your 15 minutes, I guess. Yeah. I've watched that clip a lot of times. Your clip, not the grape one. Um, it's just still a good watch. Still hidden, as they say.

That was like a shack dunk, too. Like legs out, you know, pulling up on the rim. It really was.

There's talks of like the next t-shirt or the next item because just the silhouette.

Yeah. The RSLO hoodie is not for everybody, which I fully understand, but look, the Legends guys are my guys. I'm an investor. So, we were like, "Hey, the first thing we want to make sure we do it this way or whatever because that's something we'd made in the past." [snorts] And um that model shoot that I had done at my house in front of, you know, the exposed

concrete um people love that picture. Yeah. Um I thought it looked really good. So, I don't know. I mean, you don't post it. So, that was actually at that guy's house. So, the founder of Legends invited me over Christmas Eve. Did a big dinner with his family. And so it was his kids, it was his nieces, and they have a full like turf backyard just activity fest lacrosse nets, hockey sticks, and then like an adult adjustable hoop with a breakaway rim. But they were all mini balls, so that's all we had to go on. And so his son Cam, who actually is a model, um,

no big deal. Yeah. NBD, but he doesn't carry himself like one. That's what I like about him. That's good to know.

Yeah, he's a sick athlete. Sick athlete. So, how old is he? I think he's seven.

We've hung out a few times. We've gone boating together. We went to a luxury box together. So, you know, Cam and I

We don't hang out all the time, but I always like to feel like there's something going on.

I love that that video ended with him being like, "Hey, he can't do that." That was awesome.

I think that was her. Are you sure? Somebody Somebody said it. I mean, I was more focused on the dunk than the what happened after, but

so yeah, I played one on two. It was actually a tight game. Um, and so I I was able to dunk and then I I posted it with skating from the Peanuts Christmas album, which is still I think one of my favorite songs of all time, Vince Galdi. That's the brushes they use. A lot of jazz drumming, Kyle. They don't use all the time

layers, dude. So, but there was a lot of criticism of the handle. Saw it. Yep. Went at a couple people,

but yeah. Got your SCP on. [snorts] Yeah, I did a little bit. A little bit. I I was watching that did it cross my mind like how what is the limit of like how many kids, seven-year-olds could you beat in one on one on how many? What's the number? You know,

I couldn't handle a third. But like you weren't like if you could really like you didn't know these people like consequences didn't matter. Like you could be physical. Like is one on 10 sevenyear-olds realistic.

If I wanted it bad enough full court but if they start passing it around like seven-year-olds just are not designing stuff. Like they didn't set many screens. Like if they had set a couple screens then maybe there's some more layups for him there. They're in love with threes because of Steph. So, I knew as long as I could rebound, I was I probably had a pretty good chance, but the mini ball, a deflated miniball in the turf in the rain was a little tough.

It's probably hard. Yeah. Yeah. Really test your skills. So, yeah, it went viral. And then Christmas day, I was asked, "Do you want to go lift with Lane Keifin?"

And I was like, I said, "I'm around. Usually, I'll probably want a break from the five NBA games and and the three NFL games. So, yeah, I'll do it." I was like, "I'm in." And then the guy hit me back up. He's like, "I haven't heard from Lane."

So that was actually going to be my Christmas. Basketball, football. I made some steak tips. And then lifting lifting with Lane Keifin.

Did you see Lane that video of Lane? Speaking of going viral, didn't he like bring a a shopping like the

the actual what is it even the basket home? He brought it. He just didn't know that you weren't supposed to bring that home, which is just an incredible look into how many times kid gone shopping in his life.

Yeah. I hope it's not a recruiting violation. Tell me about you guys. Run me run me through it, Kyle. Give me uh I was buying gifts for different people this year. I mean, shout out to sports. That was good. Like I just went to like a sports store in the mall and it was like

No, just not sports in general. Jets. Well, just having that like, you know, I've got in-laws now that we're seeing and I was just like, what what are we doing? It's like Jets trash can. Boom. Yankees uh Yankees grill set. Boom. It was just so great. like trash.

Well, yeah, that was the my most proud gift. I think Jets Trash Jan was I mean as on the nose as it gets and honestly huge hit at Christmas when when it when it came out of the wrapping paper. Everyone loved it. So, u but again just shout out to those sports stores that will just like you look for the team of the person you know and just you don't have to think about it too much. It's great. I got a lot of those things. A lot of Pat stuff just like golf balls and TE's and you know just just shout out to sports for just making gift giving easy for the dudes in your extended family.

Mhm. 100%. Uh what did I do? We had we had uh family over. We do like a brunch situation on Christmas and my sister got married the day after Christmas. So we were in the city for that.

That's right. So we were in New York City until Sunday. It was it was pretty great because the originally

so originally the kids were supposed to come. It was like a blizzard that day too but then the babysitter fell through so we didn't have to bring the kids which was love it like love my sister but like that was the best case scenario. Um so we actually kind of enjoyed ourselves. Went to a karaoke bar south of Monttero. This place is awesome. I talked to this guy the owner I think his name is Joe. He had all these like boat things on on the wall like pictures of just like different cargo ships. I was asking him about it and he was basically like well let me tell you he started like in 1930. He's like that boat. Five guys man that boat.

There's no cranes, no nothing. He was like basically calling all the people now that do boating like [ __ ] essentially.

Wow. Um yeah, it great dude. Anyway, um sang [snorts] Wonder Wall radar. Uh but yeah, it was a great night. Great night. Sister got married. Good times. Then drove back uh the next day.

You know, you you made me think of something that I'm having to deal with now. Like when there's like a inclimate weather on the weekends, I'm like, what are we doing, man? How bad do you want it? Is this a bad look? should you be going out to go mess around when we're talking inches of snow? So, that's been a whole new thing I've had to contend with. You know, my family like, you know, wait, where are you going? You know, it's going to be like 4 inches today. Like, yeah. And it's just I've been wrestling with like, you know, actually taking the weekend to its fullest potential when there's, you know, a couple inches of precipitation on the earth.

I feel like a a bar during a snowstorm is awesome, though. Then you got to get home, though.

Yeah. But if you're I mean, you're right. Like, if you're in New York City and you could just walk, like it's perfect. Like obviously if if you're drive I don't we did scramble home. Don't remember that at all. So shout out to the Uber driver who got us home.

Um probably was a little bit hairy because a few inches. No, it was a good time. Yeah. And honestly, weirdly enough, I felt fine the next day. I slept like for 12 hours, but but I felt fine the next day. No kids. It was great.

Take me to the Four Seasons. Well, [snorts] you get like the blackout shades in the hotel room and like I I couldn't have told you if it was 2 a.m. or 9 a.m. and turned out it was 10:30 a.m.

Was that Ryan Ryan Whitney when we had him on and we had heard that breakout and I was like was that at some other players like no that was us. He's like we're in Montreal and the cab driver was yelling at us. He was like get out of the cab. We're just throwing money and they're like bring us to the four seasons. Brings us to four seasons. Like god damn it just bring us to the Four Seasons. The guy's like finally. He was like fine. And he drove like

you go 100 yards up the street. It was like four seasons cuz he was he was French and he was like trying to he was trying to help them out. Uh I love that story cuz sometimes you just got to get home. You don't care. All right. Uh yeah, I think that'll do it for the recap. Anybody get a great gift?

Uh no, but the kid thing is great. Like my my daughter got she's really into Bluey obviously as most kids are and she got this like my my grandma gave her or my mom her grandmother gave her like this hideandsek bluey thing and you basically hit its nose and it plays this dance mode song. So that's been playing for about 48 straight hours. Pretty great. Uh but you know over there fun to see her have fun. Yeah.

Yeah. I bought super high bounce balls for all my buddies kids and they're like thanks man. But those are awesome. I just love a

Nothing is safe in the house. I love a super high bounce ball. And then uh I got some weather text for the 4Runner and the 4Runner is still my favorite thing that I own. So uh yeah, big win for your boy.

Was it Do you kind of like being home now and being able to buy seasonal floor mats?

Do I kind of like it? Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. He's been placing planning this for years,

dude. I mean, I've been plotting. I know you wanted to go. Yeah. any anything ever since I've known you. But just every now and then I feel a little left out when I can't like, "Hey, do I want mud floor mats?"

Yeah, I know. What do you Yeah. Like why I would do that? Even though Christmas Eve I spent cleaning out a gutter at a at someone's house,

which was fun. That was awesome. Oh, you got uh you got roped that you got like uh conscripted into the gutter cleaning.

Yeah, that basically. Um, I'm going to sound like a dick when I say it, but yeah, rental property. I get it. Yeah, I wasn't just doing somebody a favor. It was like nobody was around. Uh, and I took it upon myself cuz I was like, you know, I'm going to be a little handy. Next thing I know, I put my boot through a bucket cuz it was so [ __ ] annoying cuz I can't tell if it was designed wrong. I think there might be a pitch issue and more than a drainage issue, but I got in there and cleaned out a year's worth of street debris bare-handed. I'm like, if you cut yourself, this is a year's worth of [ __ ] that's been on the street. Not the full meeting. I'm just talking like dirt and sand and and whatever. So, all right.

Um, I think I spent too long on that because of the way the taping schedule works today. So, let's just dig into it. 61, 190, 27 years old, lift four days a week. The other three days I do cardio or play pickup basketball. player comp is Ronda Hollis Jefferson NBA version, not the 23 FIA World Cup version.

Um, [clears throat] he Georgetown, right? Yeah. No, is he? Who am I thinking of?

Richard Jefferson. Well, I see cuz I'm thinking, was he Arizona? He was Yeah, you're right. Wow. Who am I thinking of? Who was that guy in the Sixers? Victor Paige? No. I'll figure it out. Keep going.

All right. So, uh, we had an email and I closed it out. So, could do some basketball player Google searching. Um, yeah, cuz double check cuz I was sort of like blown away that you were saying Georgetown cuz I'm like, no.

Now, there's a specific guy I'm thinking of on the Sixers, but hold on. It's going to take me a second, so keep reading.

Are you talking about the year they were tanking and they had like three Hoya on the team? Yeah.

Was that that center? No, it was like a wing. It's like a three-point shooter. Because whenever anybody like goes the dumbest thing ever is that a college team could beat an NBA team. I think that that Sixers like the peak hinky team because I've gone through it in the past and you go total minutes of the guys are on this roster and the total minutes that they played in the NBA after they were on the Sixers sanking roster. That team may have actually lost like one of the Kentucky teams that had five first rounders on it. So, and just an aside. Okay, so back to our guy.

Great comp. Rattled us because we I right Thompson. There you go. There you go. Holl. I had the Hollis in there. Okay, there you go. My bad. Great call, man.

Yep. I'm single doing a self scout for 26. Uh we should do our self scouting reports at some point. Uh early 26, just update those on the year. But we started our New Year's resolutions December 1st on this show. We'd just like to get a month ahead of it. Uh, I realize the only girls I date are blonde female women with graduate degrees. Recent example, school nurse, flight instructor, med student, lawyer, nutritionist. I haven't dated a blonde female pastor yet, but God willing that will change. So, the guy likes the blondes.

I think that's a nice mix of um professions. Yeah, flight instructor. That seems very different from school nurse. I don't know. Maybe they were. Maybe. I don't know. Uh context if you want. I'm graduating in June with a master's degree in economics and business law. I have six figure job lined up after graduation in Scottsdale.

Wow. I rate myself as a seven and a half. LinkedIn profile pick attached. But great on a curve because Scottsdale has proathletes and fitness influencers everywhere you look. Yeah. Jeremy Scott. [ __ ] smoke show. [snorts] And pretty much any woman with a pulse gets hits on gets hit on 24/7 here. So imagine how an attractive well educated blonde woman is treated. I've had some luck dating here, but nothing long-term. Considering my lack of long-term success, should I change the style or the type of woman that I date? Supply and demand principle suggests yes. But is it even possible to change your type? Uh, the guy sent in a picture looks like a good-looking guy, 61, terrific tie collar, little madman look type. So, he looks like, look, I've always joked that Scottsdale, if you're in a rut, go to Scottsdale. Uh, because it's out of control. And I think there's just a sexual energy to the place that

is unlike anywhere else. But it might be older than you. Like it might be that I'm only I wasn't there all the time when I was in my 20s. I'm just telling you like if you were a guy where you were prioritizing that, maybe you've got divor divorced late 30s, early 40s and you've got a little bit of coin and you're like, I want to put on a Robert Graham shirt and stand around at at MA at at U Mastros, you know, like you could probably do pretty well for yourself. You seem one to be a lot younger than that. Um, and you also seem to actually like be looking at this as I want to meet somebody that I have a long-term thing with. So, I think it comes down to back to discussing, which we haven't even discussed yet. Can you actually change your type?

The type is like guidelines. I mean, this guy's talking like he's, you know, building a 2K character or something like it has to be this. Like I

I don't know. It just seems like just because what the past is type is Well, no. I've had a couple of friends that were like that and they're so annoying when they talk about their type. Uh, but I don't know. I've never

Can you share some of that annoyance? I've never been. It's usually like um I don't know. I don't even want to get into this muddy water. This seems stupid.

Why would I even do this? Why would I do this? I'm not doing it. But it's just, let's say, the conversations when I hear about what is acceptable to them is a bit annoying. Um, that's all I'm saying. I'm not saying I'm annoyed with this guy, but uh these are the kind of conversations that I have a shorter fuse with when I'm listening to them. That's all. I think I had a type when I was younger, but I I don't know. Like older.

No, no, no. Like I, you know, I think it was it was obviously like pretty traditional, like nothing crazy. And now I I don't know.

Preppy though. Preppy. Yeah. You know, pitch vibe, you know. Uh yeah, maybe back double one white, one a color. Yeah, exactly.

When's that coming back? Can you bring it back? Everything's coming back. You seen Well, Abberrombie is already back. So,

well, you you were way out in front of that one. I can't believe you were even working anymore with your

crazy should this for fun. Uh but no, I feel like my taste has changed, but I definitely have two I have two buddies that I'm thinking of right now. Like I could tell you exactly the I could look at a girl and be like he'd be into that girl. We went on the golf trip. We saw one of them and I was like my guy Mike would be 100% into that girl 100%. Now would she be into him? Probably not. But different story.

Damn Mike. Yeah. Uh, I mean I think you I think you can like it sounds like your type. I mean even though we could sit here and talk about being blonde and I don't know if like Arizona has a higher percentage of blondes like honestly I would guess. Yeah. Yeah. Like if we had to draft hot blonde towns, Scottsdale would go early.

I [snorts] don't have any stats to back it up. But it's just an eye test thing.

Yeah. I mean should you move to Cuba? You know I don't know. I don't know what to tell you here on this one. But is it have anything to do with blondes and then feeling like you're repeating a mistake? Or does it have way more to do with the fact that you seem to be like a little bit more um like and I mean this as a compliment, but like you really know what you want. Like you you seem to want the relationship to be at a level of maturity that maybe those in your peer group are not ready for. So maybe they're not working out because you keep picking blondes. They're not working out because you're like, "Hey, this is what I want out of life." And this is So you're looking at like this string of dating and breakups as some sort of failure when in fact you may just not find the person that's aligned with where you're at in your life. So he's not worried that the blonde population of Scottsdale uh would line up with

whatever his stats are that he could maybe catch one. Is that I guess I'm a little confused with what this email is actually about.

That's also a good observation. I it feels like because he's had this string of unsuccessful relationships that he's equating it like to it just being these blondes, but they're all from different like professions. Like I'm asking if he should ask himself,

but they're all successful. He he had said in there like either I date like what people with grad degrees or what was it whatever it was like is he saying like hey I should date just kind of like I'm not I'm going to go st

the crazier. I I don't know. Like I I'm just like it doesn't have to be looks like to see what her Yeah, there are a lot of different varieties of blondes out there.

You do well in Provo. Still love that line. I don't I look I I think guys can change their type, but it just usually means like, "Hey, I really like blondes except for this brunette who's a nine." Trenton's like, you know, I'm sorry. Yeah, like I wouldn't date Prime Kate Beck and Sale. I'm only into blondes. Like it that just doesn't really work that way.

They like darker features. Those are the type of conversations that I have to tell you. I have a buddy who is just like I would never I don't care. I don't care. You know what I mean? Those are the type of conversations that I was referring to earlier. Those actually happened. So, all right. Did I overreact to my drunk cousin at Christmas? Gym stats, 32 years old, 5'9, 190. Only real stat is that I regularly bench 225 for 12 to 15 reps. All free weights for the lower. You're 190 repping out 225 12 to 15 times. I'm gonna have your back no matter what this email says. That's a that's a great stat. Uh my cousin showed up my family's Christmas Eve dinner noticeably drunk, acted like a dick, and I've been thinking for days about whether I overreacted to his behavior. Every year my family has a Christmas Eve dinner gathering at my mom's house. About 15 to 20 people, four dogs, smalish house.

God, that guy from last week would have freaked out about this. Seating dogs, right?

I want that guy to check in with us. My 35-year-old cousin has always been by far the least friendly of the typical family members at this gathering. Usually, it's a surprise if he says more than a few words the whole evening. This year, he showed up late, clearly drunk, like couldn't put a sentence together drunk.

This led to a series of drunk behaviors throughout the night. Cussing loudly in front of my toddler, kicking a dog,

and well, no one's going to have this guy's back no matter what he did. Yeah, he's done.

Yeah. And saying things like, "Fuck this family multiple times would piss me off."

I'm going to say, "You're good, dude." Yeah, probably. What could he have possibly done that we'd be like, "Actually, you went too far, guy." Like,

like if he beat this guy up in the family party with other family members like, "Thank God. Nobody else wanted to do it, but you did it,

dude." I mean, imagine showing up to your family's deal and being like, "Fuck this. Why are you even coming at that point, too?

Teaching the toddler some new words. Yeah. I mean, listen, a lasting impact. If this is what you're going to pull, don't show up. Later, when I went to the fire we had going on in the back porch to throw some cardboard in it, his dog was laying by my feet. He said, "If you step on my dog, I'll [ __ ] you up." My response was, "I bet, comma, bitch." He mumbled something else about the family. At which point I put the cardboard down, went inside, told my aunt, his mom, that if he was at the next gathering, we also do Christmas morning breakfast at a different location, I would not be coming. This led to an argument between my aunt and cousin and almost everyone leaving. I've been wondering for days whether I overreacted. Should I just let it go as harmless drunk behavior preventing Christmas Eve drama and potentially future family conflict? Uh, I was going to say like going into it, you know, I think whether it's um

your own experience like I have a higher tolerance for people [ __ ] up a night, whether it's me regretting [ __ ] up a night or bartending and just being around people [ __ ] up the night all the time. Like I feel like, hey, you know what? But when you're home, when you're around family, and this is the route that you're going to go, you did nothing wrong. And the mom is way more aware of this behavior than your re-entry into it around the holidays. So, whatever the mom and the cousin were yelling about, and in this case, the mom and her son, like, can you imagine where she is at with this guy?

So, it sounds like if everything you're telling us is true here, like you actually handled it pretty well. And yeah, you could have just eaten it and said, "Whatever, we'll get through tomorrow. It's not going to be that big of a deal." But like that argument was going to happen with the mom and and this this guy no matter it's already happened. So, I don't I I don't feel like you were the catalyst to this maybe in the way that you you feel the next day.

Yeah. As a guy who stumbled into a Christmas dinner two two years ago and regretted it, I'm glad everyone was nice and wasn't like if he's at the next thing I'm not going. So when you start throwing family,

you weren't an [ __ ] No, I was a little bit loud in the restaurant. Friendly. That's fine.

Actually, a good time was had by most. A couple people who noticed mentioned it later. Uh but again, I was a little loud in the restaurant. Nice restaurant. Uh but again, didn't love that. It's like, you know, you could have just maybe not not showed up there. you might have you might have got that that point eventually, but you don't show up, you know, the first inning like that. So, um, again, I'm just saying I think I think that it the grace is nice when we're talking family. I would have more waited to be like, how did he react to was there a little bit of remorse before you start talking to, you know, about family ultimatums that same night. I maybe would have, you know, waited until the next day and be like, if he's doesn't feel any remorse and isn't like, man, I wish I could have that one back, then you make a statement like that. But again, I don't think I think it was probably shocking and it was a terrible

time for all and you definitely weren't, you know, wrong for feeling and saying your things, but I think I would have maybe held off on the ultimatum till the guy was back to his normal self and see what he actually felt about it.

It doesn't It sounds like this is this is his normal self. Sounds like No, it sounds like his normal self is a little closed off and maybe not the funnest guy around, but I mean, this was this was a shock.

Yeah. I I I don't know, man. Like Christmas is one of those things where like just you don't mess with Christmas. Like I if you're like I don't you don't want somebody killing the vibe especially if you got a ton of family there's there's kids there and this guy is just being a total dog. Like I I would uh

you know [snorts] younger me would probably not do much. I don't know if my kids were around I'd be pretty mad about that. Um you know kicking the dog is a whole another thing to the side. I mean obviously that just tells what kind of person this is deep down but I think yeah I think I think you kind of handled it well and yeah I guess you could have waited till it was done and just say afterwards hey you know is so and so going tomorrow? If not, we're we're not kind of handing it slightly privately. But like maybe this guy needed like a kick in the ass to be like stop doing this or either just if you're going to keep doing this, don't come. I I I'm kind of tired of just like forgiving people who who just make make bad decisions and like like changing your plans and how you want to have a great holiday with your family. How having to like, you know, change that to to to accommodate them. So, I kind of like

that you put it all out there. I'm sure there's other family members. I mean, maybe not cuz you didn't bring it up, but I'm sure there are other family members like, "Thank God he did something cuz like is anybody going to say anything?" Like, I've been in a situation where like, you know, you're at a family thing. You're like, "Is somebody going to say something?" Because this is like kind of awkward and then nobody does. And it just kind of like keeps being somebody keeps being enabled to do something and it just like makes things worse. So, I thought you kind of handled this with the best care that you possibly could have without being like a huge ass. And, you know, it's it's a legitimate ultimatum to give. So, I think I think you know you might be uncomfortable about it, but like somebody at some point had to do this and I think your family's probably going to be glad that you did it at some

point. I think that covers it. I check in with Tom, but we don't have the graphics for it.

Next time. Yeah, maybe maybe next time. We'll introduce Tom to the audience here. Thanks to Kyle, thanks to Tom. Thanks to Steve. Uh, that'll do it for the show today. We will be back on We'll do what, like a recap

Thursday night, right? We're going to go Friday morning. Well, all of it's going to be Friday morning. Okay. All right. Um, yeah. So, we wanted to just let everybody know what the schedule is. We'll have another episode this week. So, make sure you subscribe and check out the Ryan Rolo Show, Bars Network.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "NFL QB Value Rankings w/ Mike Sando, Plus CFP Quarterfinal Confidence Rankings w/ Danny Kanell"?

Ryan Russillo (Host), Mike Sando (Guest), Danny Kanell (Guest).

What is "NFL QB Value Rankings w/ Mike Sando, Plus CFP Quarterfinal Confidence Rankings w/ Danny Kanell" about?

The discussion explores NFL quarterback value rankings, analyzing which QBs would hold the most or least worth if up for trade, featuring insights from Mike Sando. Additionally, it previews the upcoming college football playoff games with Danny Kanell and provides commentary on recent NFL matchups, including the significance of Philadelphia's win over Buffalo and reflections on the Jacksonville…

What is mentioned in this The Ryen Russillo Show episode?

36 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Ryan Rascilo, Mike Sando, Danny Canel, Indiana, NFL, Georgia. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "NFL QB Value Rankings w/ Mike Sando, Plus CFP Quarterfinal Confidence Rankings w/ Danny Kanell"?

The episode runs 2 h 9 min; the transcript is about 26,796 words in 340 timestamped sections.

More from The Ryen Russillo Show

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 24, 2026.