← The Ryen Russillo Podcast
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Lions and Chiefs Try to Lose But Don’t, Bears Dysfunction, and the NFL Middle With Mike Sando, Plus Updated CFB Rankings After Weekend Upsets
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- [00:11]
Ryan Russillo
Massive NFL pod for you today, Mike Sando. We're going to run through Detroit's win, some of the 5 and 5 ish 4 and 6, 6 and 4 teams that he actually really likes. A big breakdown of the Caleb Williams problems in Chicago. An alarming number on Jaden Daniels. I've got best win, worst loss stats to impress the ladies. We're bringing it back, something that may only annoy me and the PUD Galvin Award. I've got my college football top 12, a recap of a weekend in Baton Rouge. I spent a week in Louisiana, actually, and I'm alive still, so that's good news. And we've got Life advice. Week 10 Lions football do you know how good you have to be to win a football game in the NFL when your quarterback throws five interceptions? That's what Jared Goff did last night in an epic comeback for the Lions against the Houston Texans on the road. All right, let's go through the five picks. I may bring this back at the very end of this. I don't know, working theory, interception points. I don't know if I can be in charge. I don't know if I have that time. But I nominate myself because I trust myself on interception classification. All right, so the five picks. The first one's tipped on a throw to the out to the right. You know, great play by the defensive player to tip it to allow it to be live. The second one, he said from behind. Another great play by the Texas defense, getting the position pass rush behind him. The third one's in a Hail Mary before the end of the half. So you could actually say the first three weren't like really on him. Now there's those different interceptions. Don't worry, we'll get to the Jacksonville game. We're like, what is that guy doing with Goff? Those are pretty clear. The fourth on the throw to laporta off on the throw a little. Maybe laporta can make a better play on the ball. Also Lasseter just making a great play on it. And then the fifth pick's probably the worst of the five. Deep shot, but he's got one on one with Jameson Williams. So not a great throw, but five interceptions by your starting quarterback. By 8:18 of the third quarter, it's the first team to win a game throwing five or more interceptions since Matt Ryan threw five and beat Arizona in 2012. Goff's last pick was on September 22nd. He had gone five games without throwing one. He had four on the season going into last night's game and now he has nine. And if you remember Big Cat and I having our long term, I guess you could call it the Jared Goff timeline of arguments. And all those different moments I had now moved past it. So I at no point was I sitting there last night be like, oh, I should have just held onto my position a little bit longer because I think golf is terrific now. And I think it was a very weird five interception night. And the fact that it happened so quickly, you're still in the game because then he's clean the last 18 or the last 18 of the third and then the comeback in the fourth quarter. So the Lions are now 8 and 1 for the first time since 1954. They've won seven straight. I think they're the best team in the NFL and they survive that kind of night. Now how do they survive that kind of night? Well, Houston, CJ's picks were tough because he doesn't really throw many. That's only his third game of his career or two or more. He had three in a game last year. They don't have Nico Collins, so they activated him this week. Once he's activated, I'm going to feel even better about Houston. Will Anderson wasn't activated last night. Tunsil is dealing with this ankle thing where he just got back and then he gets rolled up again. So I actually probably one of the few people sitting here today going, I actually still feel good about Houston despite being shut out in the second half and then not winning the game where the other team throws it away five times. But I do. There's 6 and 4 in the AFC today. They were 6 and 4 a year ago. They're, I don't know. Let's look at their schedule here. They've got Dallas, Tennessee at Jacksonville, Miami over the next four. Yes, they have a negative point differential, but they go three and four over those next four. They're nine and six. And maybe it's the Bills win. Maybe it's the Bills win. And the fact that they're going up against what I think is the best team in the league and getting up on Detroit like that, that as bad as the jets game was, I'll judge teams on, on those moments against the other really good teams in the league being like, do they look like they can hang with them? And I think they don't have the Tunsil issue. Anderson's playing and Nico's out there. You know, maybe Houston even pulls this one off. They probably do with Nico Collins. So despite the loss and the historic nature of all of it with all of those turnovers. Let's see how these next four games play out for the Texans. Okay, that's probably best win. I don't know that we can top that. I don't know if Kansas City can be eligible for best win. Even though it's a last second field goal block against the Broncos. I don't know what to like. I think my Bronco stance is fairly clear. Like they, they are one of those decent record teams that I had zero fear of in a playoff game, but they were terrific defensively yesterday. I don't know what I would have done with the Broncos at 6 and 4 today. I probably would have still just been like, yeah, okay, interesting win, interesting team. Don't really buy into them. They're the number one defense in the NFL as far as opponents yards per play. Some will go by scoring defense. So you'll see different teams ranked as the best and the worst. They're scoring these number four behind the Chargers at one, Pittsburgh at two, Minnesota at three. So Denver lines up for a 35 yard field goal and in that spot, like that's a no brainer. If you look back at teams lining up out 35 yards, they're going to make that field goal like 94% of the time. So Leo Chanel, who has the block on the game winning field goal attempt, actually was talking about this after the game saying, we're playing defense. Denver's getting into field goal range. You know, they're up too. So you're starting to think, is this one of those spots where you want to just let them score Spags. The defensive coordinator was like, absolutely not. Chanel had told Albert Breer and si.com you can read it this morning where he was like, you know, the two previous kicks in the game, I'd won my matchup. So I really like my chance. Going after it. He goes after it, he blocks it. The chief state undefeated and I don't think we should start now. Look, it's good tv, it's good radio and all that kind of stuff and I'm going to be doing a little bit of it here but like the likelihood of the Chiefs and look, we have hours to fill, okay? So if somebody in a producer in a pre show meeting saying do we do the likelihood of the Chiefs going undefeated and being 170 like you go, that's probably not going to happen. Especially the way they're playing like point differential. They're behind a bunch of teams. For a team to have this kind of record, maybe it's the Mahomes, Mariano Rivera factor where it's just a little bit different. You can't look at point differential, which would be entirely fair. But when I look at the Chiefs and their schedule, they're going to Buffalo. They opened as a one point favorite. They're now getting two and a half points. They're a dog. And they still have five games left against projected playoff teams. So I don't think they're going. It'd be one thing if they were just smoking most of these teams, but it feels like these moments where they regress overtime with Tampa, this Denver game where they're struggling against, again, a really good defense, one of the best defenses in the league. It's. It's just. And dude, during the playoffs, I'm probably still going to pick them, even if it stays like this. And I'd imagine there's a couple losses waiting for him. I still feel good about the San Francisco 49ers. I know you already knew that, and I thought yesterday encapsulated a lot of thoughts on why I like them when things are cooking. They're five and four. They're projected out of the playoffs as of this morning, an eighth seed in the nfc, and they actually have the fourth toughest remaining strength of schedule. But if you look at that game, and there's a big reason why it ended up being close. And that's the field goal kicking for Moody. But the niners outgame. Tampa 413 to 2 15. They're five of 11 on third down. McCaffrey's first game back. He had 19 touches. He didn't run a grade 13 for 39. But the elements there. You have the Kittle deep shot. That was hilarious because there was a defensive back for Tampa. I think it was 32, was like, I don't want to deal with this. And he just tries to peel off from the thing or he just kind of takes himself out of the play and he still ends up getting mauled. And it made it even worse, the Kiddle touchdown. Can we talk about Pie's hips? I'd like to. That throw by Pie being flushed out and then having to throw it going right to left. Watch how he resets himself and gets his hips and every. Like, it's a. I don't. I don't know if the elite 11 guys are going to be running that over and over again in the hallways of the facility, but it's the kind of stuff you're like, that is. That's some of those little things there because I think, you know, we're going to spend probably 10 years of Py's career being like, is he elite? Is he not elite? Like it's just going to happen. But that's the kind of throw in that spot and the pressure that he was under to get himself steadied and make that kind of throw, I think that's some of those little things that all of us could do a better job of picking up on. So, yeah, the concerning part of the NERS story here is Moody misses three field goal attempts. The fact that they had to take six isn't exactly correct rate. But late in the game when they needed it, they had two three and outs against Tampa, who. Look, Baker's out there battling as much as he possibly can without the wide receivers. They're trying to make shift this offensively and they're actually hanging in some of these games against now back to back weeks with really good opponents here and they even got a field goal late there. So I just thought there were some things in the second half, maybe in that fourth quarter string of possessions there, where when San Francisco got the two three and outs, I was like, all right, this is what it's supposed to look like. Debo, though, we could add to the list of concerns. He's just not running the football the same right now. He's three point yards per carry in eight games for his career, he was 5.8, he was 6.8 last year, and it's not like he's going to get a million carries, but it's just such a devastating thing to prepare for. And there was one run in particular against the Bucks where he ran it kind of like into everybody. Think he got stuffed for a loss and it looked like he was just having a hard time even getting up. So it may be lingering stuff. I don't know if it's his frustration, because then we saw his frustration boil over a little bit later where he went at his long snapper and then sort of swiped Moody the kicker. Should you slap the long slapper or. Excuse me. Well, long slapper, I will leave that in. Should you go at the long snapper then kind of slap. Your kicker never played. So I don't know. I don't know if that's. I can tell you this. If they lost that game, be seeing that video a lot more. That video would mean a lot more. It would mean all sorts of different things. It's probably not great, it's probably not what you're looking for, but the entire package of the niners despite some of those. Those negative things. I think there's a lot to like about what I saw there. And again, we know what history is too. Pre buy with Shanahan. They're 25 and 37, winning 40% of their games. Post by 44 and 18. Under Shanahan, 71% clip worst loss it's the Bears at home 19:3 to the Pats. 142 yards of offense. Surprised it was that high. They were 1 of 14 on third down. Caleb Williams was sacked nine times. Again, the Pats. The Patsy. Caleb's been sacked 38 times, most in the NFL. He could also get rid of the ball. Sometimes this is not optimal. It's so bad in Chicago. These were back to back questions to head coach Matt Eberflusse after the game. How do you defend your work as head coach when it looks this bad? Well, I would just say that. I would just go back to. We have the men in the room and we have evidence of doing it. Are you willing to be fired without ever exploring the opera the possibility that the offense could be better with better offensive game planning and play calling by changing the coordinator? Yeah, like I said, we'll look at everything. Second question is great. Are you willing to be fired if you know whatever the men in the room is. I don't know. What's he supposed to say, Right? Like I'd fire me. I just can't imagine that they're going to run this back. I cannot imagine that they're going to run this back and have a quarterback. You spent the first overall pick on play in this kind of setup and they're. It may not be the old line you want, but there's guys out there that can catch some footballs and they're never open. They're never open. Okay. A couple other things. I'm not done. I'm not done yet. Toughest remaining strength of schedule, the Bears. It's not even close. I mean this is such a tough schedule. The rest of the way remaining winning percentage of the combined opponents, 708. Cleveland has the second toughest and it's 587 again. Chicago 708. All right. And we could start going like back retroactively, auditing some of the Bears wins. Going Tennessee kind of gave that one away. Jacksonville was terrible. You know what about this? Although they should have won the Washington game. I'm not done. I'm bringing it back. Stats to impress people. We used to call it stats to impress the ladies. We have updated things here. All right, so remember when I talked about the Browns historically and how like where they were at, how bad they were on third down? I'd gone through it, you're watching. And he's like, they never convert any third downs. Let's see how bad it is. And it was terrible. They were sub 20%. Okay. And then I tried to find somewhere like, how does that match up historically with other stuff? All right, well, I looked through 20 years of teams results. Had anyone ever finished sub 20? Well, I got sick of looking it up. I couldn't find anyone that had a number that was even close to as bad as the Browns. Usually the teams that were last were like 30, 31% conversion rate on third down. There was a couple that were even worse than that, like 25%. But that was pretty rare to be in the 20s and the Browns were under 20%. Well, the good news for the Browns has gotten better. Why am I talking about this? Because the Browns are still the worst, but they're tied with another team for worst third down conversion rate in the NFL. And after the showing yesterday, the Bears have caught the Browns both at like 28.7 on third down conversions. This may only annoy me. Mac Jones kind of annoys me. I think it was just a lot of the stuff where with New England, he was carrying himself a little bit like a dude who'd had some non alternate pro bowl nominations. But look, he gets the first start. Trevor Lawrence is out. In that Jacks Vikings game yesterday, Trevor Lawrence got the shoulder issue, which some people are hoping is like a real injury to explain some of this stuff. So Mack runs it in on third and one and he celebrates, man. And I'm, I'm sorry. I just watched. I was like, man, this guy's feeling himself. And to be fair, if we want to do the Mac Jones side of the argument, the guy's career looks like it's over. He's named a backup, gets a chance to start, gets to run in the end zone. Probably feels pretty good. Probably feels pretty good. So who am I, who am I to do a slight eye roll at the celebration? I'm admitting I'm wrong on that. But the reason I give you the eye roll is that it was the only touchdown. And the interceptions at the end of the game, you're like, what are you seeing? And on top of that, why are you putting your team at risk that's still in this game because of these two possessions, because of when you're throwing the interceptions. So Minnesota finds a way to go up in this game. Finally. Because there would have been a different Minnesota conversation today if they had dropped another one. They're down 12, seven. It's second and eight. Mac Jones throws a pick on second and eight. It's a bad pick. Defense forces a punt, they get it back, they start moving the ball a little bit. It's first and 10 at the Minnesota 43. He throws another pick and it's not even. It's awful. And it's also first down. Okay, you want to throw one on third, you want to throw on fourth, I'm here for it. It's why I think I need to come up with a system where it's interception point totals. Right. So the lower the interception point total, the better. Your interceptions are like Jared Goff's hail Mary attempt at the end of the first half. That's a point. Shouldn't even count really. Maybe like half sacks, we call them half interceptions. But let's stay with the point system. Number two is maybe the laporta interception. Yeah. Something else could happen. Not the best throw you've ever seen, but that's like a real pick. And then there should be a three pointer for like the Mac Jones interception on first and 10 to 43, down five points, moving the football time enough time to at least like you can throw a couple incompletions and then see what happens. Maybe like the Jamis of Marlon Humphrey had caught that one in their win against the Ravens. That'd be a three pointer. And the end of the year, if you have a ton of interception points, it means your interceptions are worse. I don't know that I have the time to go through all of them, but it wouldn't be that hard to do actually. All right, final thing here. It's the Pud Galvin award. We couldn't call it the Cy Young Award because that is taken. It's Pud Galvin and Daniel Jones wins it. Because baseball is changing, kids. Baseball has changed. And Cy Young has The all time MLB record for most complete games. 749 complete games pitched. Put Galvin, though you may not have known this, ask your granddad. 646 complete game. Complete games. Right? So we know that there's not a lot of complete gamers anymore. Justin Verlander is the active leader. He's 620 shy of put Galvin. He has 26. But you're like Verlander's old Garrett Cole younger new generation. He has eight complete games to his record now. You're like, what is going on? What's Russello doing? Well, here's what I'm doing. I don't think we're ever going to see somebody else like Daniel Jones get 70 plus starts in a career. I mean this is the longest bad relationship your buddy's ever been in. And I'll admit the best part about it is there was a couple peaks there at times of like could this potentially work out? You know, could you, could he just manage the game for a bit? There's even a couple of times this year I was like, man, it looks like he's throwing the football all right, but let's not fall in love with just the throws. Much like the complete game number in baseball. I don't know with the speed with which things move at that position, I don't know if we're ever going to have another Daniel Jones. The NBA is back and FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook wants you to catch all the action because right now FanDuel is giving everyone three months of NBA League Pass. All you have to do to catch every tip off in buzzer beater is place a five dollar bet on the NBA. Biggest story is it the Cavs 110 they don't Streus I saw him live. I'll tell you. I think they look connected in a way that it was hard for them to maybe even achieve connectivity last season with all the guys in and out but they'd had that incredible. Was it the 171 stretch last year and you're still like okay, that's cool. Good job Cavs. Yeah, I think they're absolutely better but I also don't think that I'm going to pick any team in the east to beat Boston unless it were the Pistons. What did he say? The red hot Pistons. Better team. Even with the loss at the beginning of the season everybody's like, you guys like this team a little bit? Yeah, sneaky did they started oh and four. So that means what? That means four and three since that's over 500 ball and over 500 ball makes you like a four seed in the east. I was kidding. It would make you a four seed. The Pacers are five and five and they're a three seed. Orlando's five and six head out west. It's stacked only four teams below 500. I like the Phoenix and the Miss. I like the old guys. Shout out to the old guys. Move yet west young man. Move. Western Conference old man if you're a basketball player. Suns and warriors both tied at 8 and 2 taking up the 1 and the 3 seeds so early on, liking some of that stuff that we've seen from teams that were kind of easy to be bummed out with at the end of last year. So the next time you get a hunch on who is going to win or how many points a player will score, you can watch your picks come to life live. Just visit FanDuel.com Ryan R Y E N to get three months of NBA League Pass courtesy of FanDuel make every moment more with FanDuel Official sportsbook partner of the NBA must be 21 and older in President select states or 18 plus in President D.C. after three month free trial, the full price of League Pass will be automatically charged monthly. Cancel anytime. No refunds. Terms, restrictions and embargoes apply. Limit one pass per customer. See terms@sportsbook fanduel.com gambling problem. Call 1-800- GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com so much of what we want to do can seem impossible. Big ambitions, lofty goals. Are you there yet? Me neither. But believe it or not, that's a good thing. The highest achievers among us are the people still striving, still reaching for something. It's those people who approach the impossible and embrace it. There's a vehicle for people like that. It's called the Defender. The entire defender lineup is engineered to meet challenges head on, with legendary capability off road or in the city. Its tough, rigid body design and refined details make the journey ahead not possible, but comfortable. It's an icon reimagined for the next generation of Explorers. Discover the full Defender lineup at land Rover USA.com that's land RoverUSA.com okay, time again for my college football top 12. It's just my top 12, remember? And then if I have to, maybe I'll do it at the end of the year prior to the committee's last bracket. I'll just go, this is what my bracket would so there you go. That's fine because there's a lot of different stuff here. Oregon. Some of these would be quick, some of them will not be quick. Oregon's number one Obvious reasons. Ohio State at number two in this poll, right? Not doing the bracket here. And to add confusion to this, when you start projecting out like, okay, where are the extra games going to be? How could the conference championship games play out? Like Ohio State technically right now would not be in the conference championship game. It'd be Oregon and Indiana. But the Indiana Ohio State result will take care of that. Just a quick note here. On Ohio State's defense, they've allowed 18 or more points just once this season. That was the Oregon game. They've had six games between seven and zero points allowed. Texas at number three. I flirted. It is crazy how you can get to, like, 10 games into the season and you're still kind of wondering, well, do you have a win that justifies this? Or are we just kind of defaulting back to our preconceived notions about what a team could be? Because you could get into it with the Ohio State stuff. The Ohio State win against Penn State, in theory, is better than anything that Texas has done. But Texas putting up 49, 49, 17 against Florida. You can make fun of Florida all you want if you'd watched him the last few weeks. There's definitely a little bit more. Despite the fact that they're on this third walk on quarterback, but yours finally look like yours. Five touchdowns. You could argue it's the best game he's had all season, is at least the best game he's had in over a month. But to that Texas point of. It's very easy. Like, here's. Here's something I think is kind of like our fault. And then it can happen to me, and I'll be like, well, that's not really what'll happen. But if you listen to somebody talk and then you go, I want to put it together, right? The excerpt that comes out, it can look like it can just sit differently. And it also hits differently, right? The words in front of you as opposed to the tone, right? Is there a smile on the person's face? Is the person angry when they're on television? So that's another visual layer, right? Where when we have more components, we can understand the point the person was trying to make a little bit more, as opposed to, like, let me just now go ahead and put this in text form. And then it looks a little bit different. The college football version of that is just to be the guy sitting there and being like, man, do we even know that they're good, though, dude? Do we even know that they're, like, really? Have they actually beaten anybody? Like, that's the easiest fucking thing to do, to just dismantle any of those things. At some point, you just have to sit down and go, this is what I've watched this year, and this is who I think is good. This is who I think is bad. You're still going to be wrong about a ton of that stuff. But to just be constantly the guy in the corner and like, sure, dude, are you sure? And Texas Definitely falls into that category. But what I'd ask is, is the dude who's saying are you sure about Texas's wins? Do you like Penn State and Indiana's wins? Because we can do that too. Are you saying. Because what I can have from an Indiana fan right now is you not liking Texas's resume. Can't do it. I'm sorry. Penn State's at 4. I'm not sure why their best wins. Let's compare them to Tennessee, who I have five. Tennessee has three ranked wins. I'm doing that in quotes. They beat NC State in Oklahoma and they also beat Bama, which is a really good win. Believe it or not. If they beat Georgia this week, is number three. Is number two in play for Tennessee? Maybe at least number three. I would think so if you're going through Tennessee's wins. Right. Does Penn State have a win? What's Penn State's win? Is 4 and 5 USC a better win than 5 and 5 Oklahoma? I actually think it is, at least for that day. But Tennessee was dominant and Penn State needed to kick a field goal. So maybe I'm actually wrong in Tennessee's Oklahoma, you know, because we could just beat up on those records of those teams. But I think at that time I probably liked USC better than I like Oklahoma going into that game. And then Penn State's lost. The reason they're 4 and higher in the polls than Tennessee, at least for me on this one because let me double check. Take a look at the polls because I think this is split between the coaches and the AP. It is Penn State's 4 in the AP 6 for Tennessee, Tennessee's 4th in the coaches poll. Coaches poll did a couple wild things today. But yeah, I, I have Tennessee probably because their loss is worse to Arkansas. The backup quarterback under that game for Arkansas as well. So it's kind of the, the best loss is Penn State's over Ohio State. So yeah, I had a really hard time with it. As I'm explaining again, I'm having a hard time with it again. It's a coin toss. I would not get into a fistfight in a parking lot over this one. All right, number six, Indiana, first place in the Big Ten obviously off this week before the Ohio State game 10 win season for the first time in 126 years. BYU, I've got him seven. So I actually matched the AP through the first seven down 2110 at the half against Utah team you figured that's had a disastrous season for them based on expectations they would get up for this one because of the rivalry. It's the second game, I believe BYU is one of the last 10 seconds of a game. Their wins are better than Indiana, I think. I just feel like Indiana's a little bit better than byu. All right, this is where it changes. Notre Dame's eighth in the ap. Bama is ninth. I have Bama eighth. So that first drive against lsu, yes, I was in the building. This was an absolute ass kicking and they got everything going to the perimeter early. It kind of neutralizes the pass rush, makes the defense think about things more and more. And it also eliminated Milro really needing to like process a ton of stuff. And here's the. He threw it. He completed 12 times. 12 passes. 12, 18. Right. But he ran it for 185 yards and had a million touchdowns. So that's pretty good. The point is, is that if you were an LSU guy going in, you're wondering, hint if there'd be the chance if Milroe had to like get into a shootout with Nussmeyer, if it would lead to Milro having like the bad Milro game. Well, instead it was the bad Nussmeyer game, which unfortunately he's having some of these mistake prone games and Milro didn't even need to throw the football because they just destroyed them. So that part of it wasn't like there wasn't the South Carolina moments. Right. There wasn't anything in that game where Milroe was ever going to be put in a spot where it was even that tough for him because he's so. I still think he's the best running quarterback in the entire league. All right, let's go to number nine. That is Notre Dame. Notre Dame's eighth in the coaches or eighth in the ap. Seven of the coaches. I could be accused of not liking them enough. Sure. I think he got me. You go common opponent that I saw a lot of people doing after Miami lost to Georgia Tech. You're like, oh, wow, here's a common opponent for this team that was ahead of them the entire time. Well, that's because they didn't have a loss to Northern Illinois. Georgia Tech. The Irish beat him 3,000, 113, but no Haynes King for Georgia Tech. It was the other guy who we did see on Saturday as well. Welcome back. Ole miss, number 10 in my poll, 10th in the AP, 11th in the coaches. This was at the start of the game. I'm like, this is pretty bad. They come out first series, does Ole Miss. Jackson dart, gets smashed up, throws the pick Short field touchdown drive for Georgia, no problem. Then Austin Simmons, the three star freshman out of Florida comes in. He's getting so big, bigger now than what he was listed as a recruit. And they go down the field and tie the game. Seven. Seven. If Ole Miss makes it into the playoff. And granted there could be potential moments that are bigger. But to this point, that drive by Simmons should be seen as the single most important position in Ole Miss's 24 football season. Okay, because when that happened, it was one thing if you thought like Simmons was going to have to play the rest of the game, but it was an incredible answer. So everything looking like it was falling apart. Speaking of falling apart, the Georgia offense continues now. They are 50th in the country on yards per play. Beck two more turnovers and you can say, well, they scored how many points again? 10 and 7 were gifted to him. I know Ole Miss is invested in the D line, but that's basically like three points that were not off of the gift in the very beginning of the game. All right, number 12, I kept him in there. Miami. I thought Miami was always a little fraudulent, but I put them in there because they were undefeated and they were a powerful team. Whether it was Virginia Tech, whether it was Cal, but then to respond against Duke. But it just kept happening. Okay, it just kept happening. I think they'd be 9 and 3, 8 and 4 in the SEC. Their defense is terrible. Think about what Georgia Tech did to them. All right, so Georgia Tech runs it for 271. And by the way, Miami dropped eight spots in both polls. So they're still on that 12 line as of right now, but in front of Boise State and smu, which is probably frustrating, I guess I. I was going to be that guy and have him outside of it, but I still didn't think that was entirely fair. I think eight spots is enough punishment them, but the craziest part of how bad their defense is is that Haynes King's back starting. He completed six passes for 32 yards. Six. Six. He gets smashed in the shoulder again. So Aaron Filo, who's played a little bit in reserve of King obviously because King was out. And I like King because I think he's a baller. I think he's tough and all those kind of things. He runs around, but I feel like he's always going to get hurt because he has always gotten hurt. But Philo comes in and tries to manship a little bit here. So they completed 11 passes. So they were completely one dimensional. And Miami still couldn't fucking tackle these guys. Their tackling is terrible. The third and forevers that Miami allows to be converted. And so the part that sucks for all of this is Cam Ward, who I was watching because I was in a sportsbook as this game was going on and monitoring the live Heisman odds and they went from like plus 150 to plus 450 to today they're plus 650. So this game, because his team can't tackle, may have cost him a Heisman, which sucks because, yeah, I know he had the fumble at the end of this, but Cam was pretty clean throughout. They didn't really run the football. So it's turned into Ken Cam Ward, save us every single week. And the point of this, it's not an anti Miami thing, but show me the Michael Irvin Cam again. That's fun. It's just that this team was bailed out most weeks by like a guy with this incredible receivers room too, right? We've already talked about Jacoby and Arroyo and then Restrepo being one of my favorite guys. But when I have to start thinking about you as a potential winner of a national championship, it never felt right when I thought about Miami. Mike Sando, the athletic senior NFL writer, hanging out with us as he does throughout the season from time to time. Good to see you, man. Good morning.
- [32:28]
Mike Sando
It's a great morning. Deep into the season, lots of fun stuff. Freaking Detroit and Kansas City. Can't lose if they try. I mean, it's unbelievable, isn't it?
- [32:37]
Ryan Russillo
That's a good place to start because they both tried yesterday in the Open. Went through the history of how rare it is for somebody to throw five interceptions and still win a football game. It's been 12 years since it happened. But I like the golf story in combination with Baker, who I know has the loss. And we'll get to Tampa maybe more in depth a little bit later on. And then Darnold, even though maybe the timing for that isn't great because they're leaking a bit. So here's the point is that I had done all this work on quarterbacks that basically, if they were told to leave as first rounders from the team that drafted them, a failure essentially, and then gone somewhere else how rare playoff success was. And prior to golf last year, you've gone almost like 20 years without a quarterback switching. In that scenario where he had won a playoff game, Stafford doesn't count because Stafford was somebody the other team desired. Right. So that was kind of the way I framed the whole thing. But when I Look at Baker and I look at golf and I know the timing isn't perfect for Darnold after that Jags game yesterday, but looking like he may actually be a guy now in Minnesota long term. Like how would you compare contrast the reclamation of those QBs. Because I do wonder if this is something that's possible after so many years of thinking the second stop usually is probably the second to last stop.
- [33:45]
Mike Sando
So yeah, I would put him in a little bit of different buckets. I feel like Goff showed that if he was in a great environment he'd be a good quarterback. That's what it was in the Rams. I think he's in a great environment now where they have the best offensive line in the league. Weapons run game. Now they even have the defense, you know, improving. So I always thought he was good if it was good around him and then couldn't overcome as well because he's limited in his ability to create. Right. Some of the other guys who can pull a rabbit out of the hat or whatever maybe don't need it is right around him. That's not golf. It can look really bad if you put him in a bad situation. I believe, like I think if he was on a bad team now we'd see some bad stuff. But he's on a really good team. He can drive the Ferrari. Right. That's, that's golf to me. Darnold to hasn't played even this year, playing well with Minnesota, hasn't played to that level even this year. I mean they have a number one defense. They're winning with defense. Even when he has had some big plays and done some nice things. If you go back and watch the games, it's not as impressive on a throw to throw basis. And they're, they're winning with defense. He hasn't really had to win too many games. A few nice plays here there. I just don't think he has done it as consistently but has some talent and has been in an extremely bad situation before. So I don't know that he's going to. Would go to the same heights. Right. Like I think, I think Goff, if it's right around him, he can thread the needle. I think he can be precise enough as a player and make the throws to really do it well. I don't know if Goff or if Darnold were in that situation in Detroit that it would look as good as it does with Goff. Okay. That's just my impression of him as a player. A little sloppier, probably just not as, not as sharp and refined. To me, Mayfield is interesting because he has a little bit of a different mindset than the others. He's a little bit more of a gunslinger, has a little bit more of an attitude. Probably that moxie word gets thrown around with him sometimes that gets overused. But I think he's Captain Moxie. And then what's impressed me about him, even though they've lost four in a row, is like he's, he's going down swinging with, you know, some somewhat diminishing returns, too. It's probably throwing it too much. Not the efficiency is not as amazing, but they're like their defense has fallen apart. He's losing receivers. This guy's game, he's going to give you a chance to win or lose every week. He may lose the game, but you, you got a shot like he, he's going to be a three touchdown, two interception guy when there's asking him to do too much. But that's better than a two intercept, two touchdown, four interception guy. Right. And I think there's other players that follow. Like a Jameis Winston kind of goes over that too far. Right. You can rally around Jamis, but he's going to have, he's going to have more mistakes. Right. Like Baker, like, dang it, watching him, I'm like, I don't know if we're winning the super bowl, but I want to play with this guy. Do you get that feel, too?
- [36:42]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah, I, especially for the last couple of weeks. I mean, I'm not just focusing on the left arm, stiff arm of Bosa on that play where he keeps that play alive. It was huge. They needed to have it. It still seems scientifically impossible that Bosa couldn't. But, you know, you're running and you're kind of like ranging. Is it a penalty if you were to rip a player's arm out?
- [37:03]
Mike Sando
No. I, I wondered if the mentality of the game now, where you're so worried about doing something, you know, to hurt the quarterback and get a 15 yard penalty, even though Bosa, if he's sitting there at his locker and you're asking him about the rules, would know. He knows what they are. But I wonder if in the heat of battle, even sometimes you are like, what can I do here? Because he really should have just ragdoll cartwheeled him, just taken his arm and just thrown him. Right. Violently thrown him. Which he could do.
- [37:32]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah. I mean, I think at some point he was figuring, well, I'll click close here. But then as you're watching it and granted on the replay it's like, oh, it's totally unfair to say, oh, you should have done this, this or this or all these different things. But to your bigger Baker point that the touchdown drive against Kansas City to get in an overtime, they're down the receivers. You're like, how are they going to do this? Yeah, there's some real fight in him.
- [37:54]
Mike Sando
And I, yeah, and I like the job Liam Cone's done too. If you would have said before the year, if we would have gotten a bunch of 50 year old coaches in the league, they'd be going, Liam Cohen, what's he ever done? It looks pretty good. I think he's done a nice job too. I think that's been part of it. You know, finding Kate Otten. Right. Finding other ways to do it has helped him too.
- [38:13]
Ryan Russillo
So where is Tampa then? Because I think there's this group of teams with records where you're like, well, I can't, I can't like you that much. Whereas, you know, I was laughing in the beginning going, if Denver had pulled that game out against Kansas City, they'd be six and four. They have this terrific defense and I still would be like, you can have them where I'm hyping up the Niners and with these Tampa Bay buck injuries on the road and granted it's because of the field goals probably more than anything, they're, they're even in it with a chance to win the game at the end. Like I always think there's like not all 5 and 5, 6 and 4, 4 and 6 teams are created equal. And I think that's the point of the season that we're at.
- [38:56]
Mike Sando
So I think when they play teams that have good offenses because of where they're at defensively, they're going to win like 40% or 35%. And we can, we can see that these last few weeks, they've lost to the 49ers, Chiefs, they've lost to the Falcons twice, Baltimore, but earlier, you know, they were able to beat Philly, they're able to beat Detroit, they're able to beat Washington. Their strength of victory is like the highest in the league, meaning the teams that they've beaten have good records. Other than the Saints, what I look at is bye week, catch your breath. You know, maybe Mike Evans gets a little healthier. Maybe you get somebody back in your secondary or something and then you're going to go Giants, Panthers, Raiders, Chargers, Cowboys, Panthers, Saints. That's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. That's seven games where you're disappointed if you don't win six and they're not going to win all of them. Maybe they only win five, but if you win five, you get nine wins. That's what I think they're going to be.
- [39:45]
Ryan Russillo
Arizona 6 and 4. They were 2 and 4. They've won four in a row. Wins against the Chargers. I think the Dolphins win was a good win. They destroy the Bears and they destroy the jets, which I think is important. If you're looking at, like, you know, different teams, like, do you have any just dominant Sundays on your resume? You know, for a team that you're really trying to project being dangerous in the playoffs, like, I need to see a couple of those. They put them together back. Back weeks. If you're just from a statistical standpoint, no one's going to read their numbers in the resume and go, yeah, this defense is really, really good. But I'll tell you, McBride at tight end, he's their leading receiver right now. He's only a couple years out of Colorado State. This guy has turned into a beast. And I think he's going to end up at like over a thousand yards this year. Every single Sunday. I'm watching McBride, and I'm not saying, like, we have to say he's now up there with those other dudes, but he's kind of playing that way. He's become a real game changer for them on top of Harrison, who just apparently is going to catch touchdown, like every other week for them as a rookie receiver.
- [40:46]
Mike Sando
Yeah, they were kind of my sleeper team coming into the week because I felt like Kyler Murray Stock had dropped so far, like, way below what he actually was. Right. He had the homework clause. Everybody laughed at him, and then he got hurt, so he just kind of disappeared. And the thinking he played last year, like, we forget, he. He kind of got his toe back in the water a little bit the last half of the season. I thought that was a situation where either Kyler Murray or Trevor Lawrence was going to have a resurgence this year. Not both, but one of them was going to. And I think Kyler is having that. And I think they have a little bit of a formula. You know, they're going to run the ball and they're going to be pretty physical. And they have a. Like you said, their defense isn't there yet, but they hit on defense, they play aggressively. Buddha Baker flies around. They will. They will, you know, they will tag you. And then they have a quarterback who can pull the rabbit out of his hat so that combination of we're committed to running the ball will hit you and hopefully they made a trade deadline move to try to help their pass rush. I don't know if it'll do it, but they're 15th in defense EPA per play during their last six games. So 24th on the season before that probably last year in the lower. So they've been better during this run. They've got a little something going. You have to have some on field results though, to harness this. And I remember and I wrote about this in my column today, like they're a little bit like Detroit was with Dan Campbell to me early on where you made fun of Gannon, you made fun of, you know, you made fun of Campbell and they lost a bunch of games but you felt they were plucky, like they were kind of plucky that you they didn't even get their win total last year but you felt like they, they exceeded expectations of little bit but they just didn't have the results. And then in the second year it starts to turn and it's dicey. Like they're winning games by two points, one point. You know, I think they've got, let's see, two one point wins and a two point win. I mean those are easy losses that could go the other way, but they got them and you start to get a little confidence, you know. And now you play a couple bad teams. Chicago jets, you're now able to beat the bad teams and they've done it consistently. So if you can beat the bad teams, it doesn't mean you're a great team, but you're going to win. You know, you're going to be out of that four or five win mode, right? You're going to win maybe closer to half your games or around there.
- [43:11]
Ryan Russillo
Would you have thought the Broncos were good if they had won yesterday?
- [43:14]
Mike Sando
Well, I was really, yes, I was. I was really looking at them. I don't know about how good but like I was thinking I and I maybe I still do just need to do some analysis on them because I think so much of the Denver story nationally has been the demise of Russell Wilson, Peyton's handling of that. And then you sort of go, okay, they drafted Bo Nicks. He hasn't been that overly impressive, at least early in the year. You know, it's been a little better lately. And I think a lot of people just sort of held off kind of waiting to see are they really going to win any games. And then they had their hearts ripped out yesterday. You Know, they really should have won the game and they didn't win the game. And so they didn't get to harness it like, like the Cardinals have. And I don't know that it's a damaging death blow, but it was a tough one for them. I think they could have claimed some corner turning a little bit more had they won that. But I think they are. I think they're not, they're not bad. I put them in that category. They're not a bad team.
- [44:09]
Ryan Russillo
If we do this exercise and say, all right, how many teams would you pick to be Kansas City today? The Mahomes part of it maybe still ends up like leaving. I think I still have the list at zero. There's teams I think that are better than them. I think Detroit's better than them. I think Baltimore is better than them. Maybe Buffalo, you know, I don't know. Maybe.
- [44:31]
Mike Sando
Yeah, Buffalo might beat him this week.
- [44:33]
Ryan Russillo
I'd like to see just a clean like three or four week Green Bay stretch. No, Philadelphia, I think is back in this conversation. We're going to get to Philadelphia here in a second. But I guess I'm asking you like, how many teams you think are better than them? Because I think it's a different answer than how many teams did you actually pick right now to beat Mahomes.
- [44:53]
Mike Sando
To beat Mahomes. Yeah. And so I don't. I think you. I think you can't honestly separate those two things. I think if you think they're going to win the game every time they play a team, then they have to be the best team. They've won. Are they 14 in a row now? 15. So 15 might be 15 in a row, counting playoffs.
- [45:09]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah.
- [45:10]
Mike Sando
So, you know, yesterday was. Feels fluky to win on a special teams play, but I'm. If I'm going to pick them to win every game against whoever they play in a given week, then how can I say that they're not the best team? That's part of being the team. Right? You win the game when you play.
- [45:33]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah, it sounds pretty, pretty simple. So I don't know, I mean, sometimes when I look at the power ranking, all that kind of stuff. By the way, it is 15 in a row the last two of the regular season, four in the playoffs now.
- [45:42]
Mike Sando
So like, here's the thing about them, they're a good defense, but they're not a bunch of turnovers and flashy and anything like that. They're. They're in the bottom. They're in the bottom of turnovers for the last three Years, bottom five, six teams. So. But. But they're just like really solid defensively. Right. They're good. The offensively, not explosive plays, but they, they can go on a 15 play drive whenever they need to. That's really impossible to do. And they have, when they get Pacheco back to when they're running game, you know, they're, they're just a team that can grind you out and then Mahomes can still do the incredible thing. And I think DeAndre Hopkins will lead him in touchdown catches this year. You know, I think that'll be a good thing for them. I can't pick someone to beat him.
- [46:30]
Ryan Russillo
Okay, what about Philly? Not just again outside of the Kansas City thing, but this is a roller coaster and I saw, I don't know who said it the other day, but it was like the local fans still hate him and I think the rest of us all think they're pretty good.
- [46:43]
Mike Sando
It's so funny.
- [46:44]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah, hate him is strong, but you get my point.
- [46:46]
Mike Sando
Well, I mean, okay, the win streak, Cleveland, they almost lost the game. It felt like. So you're like, all right, we're not giving them ton of credit for that. Okay. You beat the Giants impressive win over the Bengals. Beat them by 20. Love that. But then Jacksonville and Dallas are really nobodies. Right. So I think what we're going to see is this next three week stretch of home, Washington at Rams at Ravens will really give the Eagles a chance to show what they are. And I think if they, I think if they win two of the next three, then you know, they are who their fans would hope they are but fear they're not. And if they lose two of the next three, they kind of have a good record. And yet, you know, maybe some of those concerns will be valid. I just feel like they have improved and some of that stuff's died down. A lot of noise around the team with the coaching staff and all of that feels like it's calmed down. We'll see. Washington, Rams, Ravens, a lot of stuff can happen.
- [47:41]
Ryan Russillo
So you still think there's the second best team in the NFC because that's what their seed is today.
- [47:46]
Mike Sando
Yeah. Let me call it. Let me just look at the teams. It helps me to visually see them. Yeah. Yes.
- [47:51]
Ryan Russillo
You're off Minnesota.
- [47:55]
Mike Sando
Yeah. I would put Minnesota a notch below that because I, I don't think Sam Darnold's that good. I mean, I think he's done. It's a nice job and a nice story, but I think they're very super defense Reliant, whereas I feel like the Eagles are probably just a little bit more balanced as a team. Yeah, I would put Philly second because I think Washington's also come back to. It's only one game lost, but just. We'll get into that, too. With where Jaden Daniels is at, I think they're not quite firing like they were. So maybe Philly right in there. Keep our eye on San Francisco.
- [48:30]
Ryan Russillo
Okay. Before we get to. Well, I guess we could just do it here. Let's start with the Russell Wilson side of things, because you are kind of the. If there was a special on Nat Geo about Russell Wilson, they'd be like, we got to get Sando. And you would sit there in your chair and they would cut back to you all these different times to give us the full scope of the Russell Wilson thing. It was a rough, rough start that first game, but he. He righted himself within the game. I would need to see multiple weeks of this, but I think the one thing that's clear is there's a deep shock trust because of the talent at receiver. Whether it's, I think, Pickens getting more looks and then Williams being there a week, you know, we all like Mike Williams. We all know how talented he is. It's just his availability issues. But they plug him in, I think that makes it look a little bit different where they can win a shootout against a Washington team. Granted, the score of this game was a little fluky because some of the deep turnover stuff that happened, but early returns and maybe just on the deep ball opportunities alone, it feels like it's adding something else that Fields wasn't as consistent with.
- [49:35]
Mike Sando
Oh, no doubt. I think it's really refreshing. You know, I think the Russell Wilson story got so tiresome and just, you know, it was all about him and his personality and all this stuff. Hey, it's framed up just right in Pittsburgh because he's a $1.2 million player. It's not all about him. He's part of the team. And so I think it's just been a great change for his career. And he's got a good defense again. He's got a physical runner. And the deep ball doesn't leave you. Right. I mean, I think you could find a lot of older quarterbacks who could still throw the deep ball better than they could do some other things. I don't know why some of these teams, it feels like they. In fact, I was talking to someone last night is like, are they going to play man coverage on these deep balls? All Forever on Russell Wilson. Right. I mean, because it's just like he's going to drop it in the bucket like you want to give him that. He's going to. He can throw the ball down the field in a place where the defense probably won't get it. And if you have a good receiver who can go get it, you might get a touchdown. So it's a great setup. I think he has the components around him with the defense, you know, a team that wants to run it to be able to hit some of those shots. And he hasn't been blowing the games. Right. He hasn't, he hasn't done anything terrible. Right. It's been very. It's been manageable for him. And I do think he's definitely a better passer and an overall quarterback than Justin Fields. Even if he doesn't have that gear to go running like he used to, he can function in this type of.
- [51:02]
Ryan Russillo
A manner on the other side. Let's talk about Jaden, because you shared some splits on your athletic piece this morning. Well, it's showing you a difference here. I just don't know how alarming they are this early on.
- [51:14]
Mike Sando
Well, okay, so if we go back to what our concern was for Jaden analysis was, hey, pretty slight frame. He got blown up a lot, took big hits in college and then coming in this year, he took some hits, but it didn't seem to be as damaging. Well, then he, Baltimore played him pretty physical. And when that happened, I was talking to some coaches in the league and they were like, hey, did you see that? You see what Baltimore did to him? And I was like, well, I mean, you know, it was okay that if teams start doing this, they didn't have you convinced. Well, I mean, you know, I watched the game. I didn't like, you know, watch it from all 22, seven angles or anything, but I. Okay. And then the next week, Carolina, he had the injury, which again, didn't look like something that would necessarily always injure you, but clearly we've seen a big shift in him. To where? Completion percentage in the first five games, 77% down to 60. He's lost a yard per attempt on that. And then the rushing usage, I mean, is in half. He had 52 rushes, counting scrambles in the first five games. He has 25 since then. He had four rushing touchdowns in the first five games, none since then. So something's changed. And if we, if the concerns we had coming into the season were durability over course of a whole year given frame and playing style, And Cliff Kingsbury over second halves of seasons, which we saw be an issue for him in the past, either through scheme or through quarterback attrition. Right. You have a quarterback who's running in a college type style of on offense right now at this point, we're more concerned about those things than we were a month ago. And that's all I'm saying is, you know, they got playing some tough defenses in here. Pittsburgh. Right. What's it going to look like, do.
- [53:08]
Ryan Russillo
You think, do you think it changes like who he is or can he just live as a passer?
- [53:15]
Mike Sando
Oh, I think he could probably live. I think he's a good passer. Yeah. I think he has a good feel for the position. But I think that other component of it is an X factor that's not going to go away forever. You know, I think it's been muted and diminished for whatever reason the injury could be. Possibly be it. They. You know, the ribs is a terrible thing to play through. Right. He could really be hurting and taking a shot before the game and that type of stuff. If you have a. If you have ribs, you don't want to cough, you know, let alone do all the rotational mechanics and things that you have to do in football and take a hit. So totally understandable. Maybe that heals up and then he's kind of fine and you know, has some bumps and bruises that he can play through but still be explosive. I think that remains to be seen.
- [54:00]
Ryan Russillo
Okay, so that's been the good story for a top pick. Let's talk about the bad story. Caleb Williams. Yeah, this is ugly. I don't know that any of it's been as ugly as it was yesterday because New England's terrible. I mean, look, the Cardinals smash him, but they're not the Pats. The commander's loss was a really fluky thing. You could go back and I was talking about this beginning like, well, the Titans will Levis kind of threw that one away. The pants were terrible. They did beat the Rams in there. The Jags were still a bad football team, but now it's. It's the combination of like how bad it all is with the Bears. So let's start there because I have a follow up within some of the stuff that you've already talked about with how bad this is. I just can't imagine they're going to run this back with Caleb and the resources you put into a number one pick.
- [54:47]
Mike Sando
You mean. Oh, run it back next season with the same.
- [54:51]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [54:54]
Mike Sando
That stuff will take care of itself. Because they have. I believe their entire NFC north schedule is up ahead, plus the 49ers. So it'll take care of itself if they.
- [55:02]
Ryan Russillo
Have you looked at it, by the way, did you look at the strength of schedule?
- [55:06]
Mike Sando
I didn't do the number, but I looked at it and look at the number. My column, it's. What is it go to?
- [55:11]
Ryan Russillo
If you go to the remaining Tankathon or.
- [55:13]
Mike Sando
Where do you get it?
- [55:14]
Ryan Russillo
Go to Tankathon. This is good because the audience already knows what it is, because I should.
- [55:18]
Mike Sando
I should have put this in the freaking column. I.
- [55:20]
Ryan Russillo
Did you see it?
- [55:21]
Mike Sando
Okay, I'm looking right now.
- [55:23]
Ryan Russillo
708.
- [55:25]
Mike Sando
Sorry. Sorry. He reflects in those guys over there.
- [55:30]
Ryan Russillo
Right?
- [55:32]
Mike Sando
Their easiest opponent is Seattle, who on any given day is Jekyll and Hyde. They could put up. They put up 40 first downs on Detroit. One week, you know, that's your easiest game.
- [55:41]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah. So seven oh, eight hole.
- [55:44]
Mike Sando
And the next team's 587, Cleveland. Oh, my gosh. And see, this is exactly what I was saying. Tampa is 328 at the other end. So Tampa is going to have a bunch of wins. Yeah. Chicago, like, hey, if Chicago stays the course, it'll be because those guys earned it. Right. They will have to turn it around. Against good teams, they'll earn it. But this decision will make itself over the remaining games, and it looks terrible. The 708 looks horrific for them. One of the interesting components of this that I didn't get in my column, but I talked about with my editor beforehand, is we don't always do a good job, just we, meaning public or media whatever, of predicting what are good and bad situations for these quarterbacks. Last year, everyone was like, oh, my gosh, C.J. stroud is doomed. He's going to the Texans. This organization's crap. And then, like, as the year goes on, you're like, well, they're pretty good at receiver. You know, the offensive line was better than we expected. Obviously, that's an issue. This year. They got a runner, you know, and then at the end of the year, you're like, oh, man, Bryce Young had the worst situation in history. Well, this year, you couldn't. I couldn't turn on any. It was even worse or nothing. People are like, you know, and people are like, oh, this is the best environment for any number one pick ever. And, you know, I didn't write a column saying it wasn't, but I was skeptical of that. I mean, says who? What have they won? The offensive line's good because the GMs likes it. I mean, that was another component of my column, was like, yes, this is the sky falling here. The bottom's fallen out. There's been some real crises the last few weeks that makes it even seem worse. But are they. Is four and five way worse than what they should have been going into the year, or does it just look bad because Caleb's taken 38 sacks and that's the part of it that is most concerning. I think it's the aesthetic of it and just the 38 sacks and not having an answer on offense while these other, you know, Jaden Daniels and. And even though I don't think Drake May is doing anything, you know, he's at least had some flashes and won a game here recently, you know.
- [58:02]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah, it's also because it's going up against Drake May. It's then losing to the number two pick that the way it did. So there's some. If you were writing a season worth of episodes for some drama, you know, these would be the moments where it kept getting tougher and tougher and tougher. But with that remaining schedule, I think I'm just shocked how. How rarely I feel like they're finding some answers. I think the first play that came out in the second half, they roll out Caleb, they brought Rome across the formation and it was like, oh, hey, did it take the entire halftime to come up with this one play that you knew would work on one side? And by the way, if it was covered, that was the only option they were going to have on the play. On top of everything else, I think Caleb could do a better job getting rid of the football on some of those. I think there's some Russell Wilson ish. I should have said it differently. Russell Wilson ish. Sacks to Caleb's game where if you weren't watching the Seahawks, you're like, man, I get Russell Wilson's point. Like, he's upset about the protection, all this stuff. Like, man, half of those sacks. Yeah, yeah, there's.
- [58:58]
Mike Sando
There's some of that. There's definitely some of that. But that was to be expected, right? That's what everybody said coming into the year. He was going to be a big play merchant, right, Looking for the home run. He was going to hold the ball too long and they were going to possibly have, you know, three and outs and some inefficiency as part of their game because of how he was conditioned to try to play. And that's kind of what's happened. And they haven't been able to lead him out of that or coach him out of it or block him out of it. Right. It's a. To me, it's a total failure of the offensive line is bad when they said it was good. So that's not Caleb Williams fault. That's not even necessarily Shane Waldron's fault. That's a structural thing. Then you get a second chance to hire an OC and you interview a bunch of guys. And by the way, your first guy you hired has already been refired. Okay. They hired Luke Getzy. He's been refired. And then their second one, Waldron, you know, had some decent things in Seattle, but that hasn't gone well. He hasn't had the answer. So that's on the offensive coordinators and on the head coach who hires the offensive coordinators. Right. You're definitely 0 for 1 and maybe 0 for 2 if he's going to make a change, which sounded like he might, so that's a problem. And then you throw in Caleb's culpability with some of that, too. And just playing style. I do love the way Caleb handles himself. I love at the podium, he's the one guy who seems like when I listen to him talk, I feel like he gets it. And that's been impressive by him. I don't think it's too big for him. But the other. All the other stuff around them got to probably be different.
- [60:30]
Ryan Russillo
So. Did you have that in your piece? I think I may have lost it in just all the stuff that I was reading this morning. But Paul's talking about the offensive line. He was like, I can't believe, like, the ninth guy. Like, I can't believe the last guy we had to let go. And then. And then here we are. And it's. It's just a good reminder of, like you had said, like, we thought the O line was good. Why? Because they told us it was absolutely.
- [60:49]
Mike Sando
Yeah, absolutely there in that quote, which. There's a YouTube of it. You know, it's on like, the bears YouTube or something. It was like, hey, we cut this one guy. And he was even like, man, that's the best offensive line room I've ever been a part of. You know, it was like, it was over the top. You know, it was really over the top. So. But I don't remember people in the league going, hey, that offensive line, look out. No, I don't. No one ever said that. It was always sort of like coming out of there. And, you know, this is where I think media becomes complicit in going with the narratives that everyone sort of wants to have happen. I see it with Drake May right now. Oh, Drake May's capturing this team. All of that. Just relax. Wait, they beat the freaking Bears. They had like four field goal drives and a two yard touchdown pass. This is not. He is not taking the league by storm. Or just let him play. Right. Let it play out a little bit. And I think sometimes when you get the generational talent and they say the line's good and everybody like Keenan Allen, you still got to let it play out.
- [61:55]
Ryan Russillo
I'm with you on the Drake May thing too. Like, it's fine, it's okay. Like, it's not a disaster or anything. But it's also not all of the other things that I. That I've been hearing because I'm just like, how did. How did. Like, he completed seven passes in this one game. Then I remember somebody telling me, like, it was different.
- [62:12]
Mike Sando
Oh, we're seeing flashes. It's different. Yeah, that's just narrative bs. Don't fall for it.
- [62:18]
Ryan Russillo
You know, I actually have another bearish follow up because I thought in your piece it was really interesting. Kevin Warren, who we know worked with the Big Ten, comes in, president of the team, the whole thing. It seemed to be adamant. There's a feeling around the NFL that if they do make the change from Eber Fluss, that they wouldn't want to hire somebody that's like the headliner. And that's the kind of stuff where I hear, like, I remember it's happened with Dallas forever with Jerry Jones because of what happened in the past. It's like, okay, so he brings. Brings in Jimmy, brings in Switzer, but then he went to parcels. And then it's like, all right, so it's only Campos and Garrett's from now on because Jerry doesn't like sharing the spotlight. So I've heard that forever. I guess I can't just as like a pragmatist understand why anyone that would be this committed to the success of the thing that they're supposed to be in charge of would be like, I'd like to get a good coach in here, but I don't want them to be super, like, popular. And then it takes away from the attention of me. So I'm going to do a worse job. I'm going to do. I'm going to hire somebody who's not as good. That prevents me from maybe being. I guess I. You have the quote in there. All these people seem to hammer this over and over again. I just have a hard time believing competitive People could actually do this at times.
- [63:26]
Mike Sando
Well, I don't think they necessarily think they're getting a worse coach, and they may not be. There's plenty of coaches that come in that don't fit the Jim Harbaugh role who are good coaches, but nobody usually hires somebody who significantly impinges on their own roller power. Right. In any. In any job. Right. So some of these team presidents are just kind of business guys in the background. They're not really part of the operation. They're not really out front talking about it. And then there's some guys who are out front. You know, you can go on the Bears website, read A Day in a Life with Kevin Warren. The limo picks them up at this time and. Right. All that type of stuff, you know, and then shoulder to shoulder with polls and kind of, you know, in just involved in all this stuff going on. So the people in the league look at that and go, okay, that's probably less compatible with, you know, bringing in a coach who's going to, like you said, be more of a headliner or push aside the input from somebody like that. Right. So that's just. You have to look at. In every building. They're all different. And Jerry Jones is an extreme example of that. He really emphasizes the business part, and he wants to himself talk every week after the game. Kevin Warren isn't doing that. Right. He's not out there talking about the team, but he's down on the sideline taking notes last season, and he's having more input on the football operation than he would if Jim Harbaugh was the coach there. Right. It might not be like that. His role might not be the same.
- [65:04]
Ryan Russillo
So you buy it then, because the way you lay it out there, because Jones is different. It's still his team.
- [65:08]
Mike Sando
Jones is different.
- [65:08]
Ryan Russillo
It's not Kevin Warren's team. So you would. You would say, like Warren or someone in his role would be wary of. Maybe it's the chill.
- [65:18]
Mike Sando
It would just naturally lead, like Chip Kelly, which.
- [65:21]
Ryan Russillo
I mean, how he didn't lose his gig, but there was clearly, like, a disconnect between the Philadelphia power structure there when Chip was there.
- [65:28]
Mike Sando
Right.
- [65:28]
Ryan Russillo
And then.
- [65:28]
Mike Sando
Absolutely. Yeah, he did get. He did get displaced a little bit. I mean, he was still there, I think, then his office, change of where it was or whatever, things like that. And then he, you know, had enough equity with the owner to step back into that role, and, you know, it's gone pretty well for them. So, look, we need to see how it plays out there. This isn't Fact. Right. This is. This is analysis of the situation. We'll see what they do. Maybe they surprise us and go in a different direction, but that's not the expectation. Just based on people, you know, from afar, from other teams who look at it. And you have to take into account those people's perspectives, too. You know, they have their own biases as well. So, you know, I think it's something interesting to keep in mind. We don't just take it to the bank as fact because they could do whatever. They could do something different. Depends who the candidate is, too. Right. Maybe there's somebody who's a big coach that Kevin Warren actually really likes or has a relationship with. Right. Those are the types of things you just don't know.
- [66:26]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah, I guess I couldn't imagine, like, okay, so this didn't work out. You spent, like, how long do you think you get to be team president? You know, wouldn't you rather be team president of the team? Even if it meant that that coach was a headliner enough to have a little bit more direct line to ownership? And I understand the ownership thing with the Bears is about as challenging as it gets, too.
- [66:43]
Mike Sando
But think of it this way. Where was Bill Belichick rumored to go last offseason?
- [66:49]
Ryan Russillo
Atlanta.
- [66:50]
Mike Sando
Why is it perceived that he didn't.
- [66:51]
Ryan Russillo
Go there because he wanted full control? And everybody that already had control in there told Arthur Blank, don't bring him in here because he's going to want total control. Which basically was going to undermine what they were already doing.
- [67:02]
Mike Sando
Right. It was perceived to be because of their Kevin Warren. Right? Rich McKay. Yeah, that's what it was perceived to be. So.
- [67:09]
Ryan Russillo
But I. Look, I tell you right now, I would hire Belichick to be my coach. I'd be like, you're never doing personnel after your run.
- [67:15]
Mike Sando
Hey, he might go to a different team.
- [67:17]
Ryan Russillo
Okay. Well, he didn't. He didn't, though, did he?
- [67:20]
Mike Sando
No.
- [67:22]
Ryan Russillo
Anybody? Look, I have to separate the two things. I mean, you sit there and you watch these clips and everything, and, like, I'll watch a clip of him breaking something down, and then I may disagree. Like, do you realize what you just did? Like, you disagreed with Bill Belichick about a football thing that happened, about his thoughts on, like, who this player would be.
- [67:38]
Mike Sando
I love that.
- [67:39]
Ryan Russillo
Right?
- [67:39]
Mike Sando
Yeah.
- [67:40]
Ryan Russillo
And then I go, what are you doing? And then I think, like, but, God, like, he was the guy in charge of putting together what became, at one point, I think, like, the least exciting roster in the entire league. But we got all that.
- [67:53]
Mike Sando
They do. Do things that you scratch your head at, you know, but they. Yeah, they also have way more information. So there's things they know that, you know, we don't know.
- [68:03]
Ryan Russillo
Imagine we're seeing a different game. Yeah, imagine we're seeing a different game. They bill and he's great on tv. He's great with those breakdowns. And, um, you know, I'm lucky enough to, you know, be friends with somebody that works with them. And, you know, he just tells me like all the time. It's like a really cool relationship and getting to know him. So, anyway, thank you for letting us to get to know you for about 36 minutes today. You can check out Mike Santos must read pick six column every Monday morning. It is essential for me every week of the show and it should be essential reading for NFL fans as well. On the athletic. Thanks, man.
- [68:37]
Mike Sando
Hey, thanks, Ryan. Appreciate it.
- [68:43]
Ryan Russillo
You want details?
- [68:44]
Ceruti
Fine. I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet.
- [68:48]
Ryan Russillo
What's up?
- [68:50]
Oregon
I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine.
- [68:55]
Ceruti
And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible.
- [69:01]
Ryan Russillo
Let me tell you what's required. The email address life advice rro.com We've got Kyle, we've got Steve. Maybe just a sprinkle of Oregon made it back from Baton Rouge, changed up the plan. Something I haven't done, and that is I got the hell out of there early Sunday morning. Now, when the alarm went off, could I have used a couple more hours or should I? Absolutely. But there's something to be said of just attacking the day and getting out of there and then you end up being rewarded for it later on. I think the epiphany was last year. I don't know if it was post Bama, lsu, maybe post Ole Miss, LSU also, both losses.
- [69:42]
Oregon
Thanks.
- [69:43]
Ryan Russillo
I think it was Bama. I think it was in Tuscaloosa and I had to go to a strip mall for dinner on Sunday night. And I was sitting at the strip mall bar of a place that I'm not going to name and I was like, I guess this is my only option. I'll eat here. And then I was back in my hotel room taking notes after taking notes all day, and then my stomach turned. It was pretty bad. And then I got up Monday and I was still in Tuscaloosa. And we tape later on the eastern time zone, Central time zone stuff. And then I'm at the airport at like 3 or 4 and then I get back to LA and like I miss all the NBA stuff and it's. It's kind of shot. And I was like, maybe I shouldn't do it this way anymore because I don't want to be at a casino in Baton Rouge on a Monday afternoon by myself when all my buddies are gone after a big weekend. So we changed it up, got out of there despite the loss, and boy, was it a loss. It's the worst one I've ever seen there. I'm one in seven when I go to the game in Baton Rouge again, I'm going up against Alabama here. So it's not like, you know, I'm just picking Louisiana Lafayette. But Chris Long enjoyed it. It was his first time. But, you know, he said something really smart. Place is wild. We're on the sideline, Bama's got the football, and they convert a couple third downs, score, and it's never the same the rest of the game. It's just that whole thing that builds and builds over the three hours that night. You know, LSU is in the game or they're winning the game or whatever. Apparently the Ole Miss game's like one of the all timers. I'd like to think that 22 was up there as well. But luckily, luckily when LSU loses, they don't lose the Saturday night. They're just like, we're. We're not doing this. So made it over to walk ons and then golf carts from walk ons to Freds. Kind of a baller move. Opened up the gates. Fred's shout out to Mark and everyone at Fred's for taking care of everybody. And then staff shirt for your boy Chris Long. And yeah, another. Another Baton Rouge trip in the books and how much I love. Look, Brandon Todd and the whole deal. You've heard me talk about it before. Got a little Paul Skene's FaceTime. Yeah. Up in the suite. Yep, yep. I played cool for a little while. And then.
- [72:14]
Oregon
Paul or Libby.
- [72:20]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah, I mean, I think. I think Paul found me a little more interesting than Livy did, which is totally fair enough. Yeah, well, he had a buddy that was like asking me for advice, like during the game. And I was like trying to be like really sincere about it. And then it was kind of going on for a little while. And then I was like, I gotta start watching some of the game, man. So don't feel like it's just you guys. Don't feel like it's just you guys and then it's things. I think, though, the most challenging moment was when LSU was theoretically still in the game. Brooks Nader got up in front of all of us, and she was on the outside of the suite, and then I was on the inside, and we were behind the glass, and I kind of couldn't see what was going on, but it was also Brooks Nader, and I just kind of was like, this is sort of a big third down. But she couldn't. She couldn't hear me, you know? And then some of the guys were like, to be fair, it is a big third down. But she was. She was really nice. She was sweet. Everybody's nice down there, man.
- [73:17]
Oregon
The amount of people who would tell Brooks Nader, actually, could you just step aside here? I'm kind of missing something. Most dudes would be like, how do I get in that position? You're like, actually, could you move?
- [73:29]
Ryan Russillo
I was like, what. What are they? Are they. What's the formation here? I'm like, oh, I can't. What's going on on the left side? So, no, she was really nice. Totally. I mean, you know, her whole family's LSU royalty anyway, so, yeah, that's about it. That's. That's the only. The only thing I have. But the fact that I'm, like, raring to go and I'm back in my home and I'm waking up on a Monday, that might be the move now. It might be just, hey, get. Get to the airport as soon as you can. And I got to watch all the games on YouTube, TV on the flight. The Internet worked, so it was fine. Yeah, worked out great.
- [74:06]
Oregon
How are you one of those guys? Because I feel like, you know, you brought Chris, and there's a lot of expectations about lsu because, you know, when you, like, you watching a movie with somebody that you love. Like, I used to do this with Lord of the Rings with my now wife, and it's like, oh, yeah, you see how awesome this is? And you, like, you want her to love it. And she gets.
- [74:22]
Ryan Russillo
Did you feel that through him?
- [74:23]
Ceruti
And she's like, you don't need to pause.
- [74:24]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah.
- [74:24]
Ceruti
I'm like, I want.
- [74:25]
Oregon
You get that call back. Did you get that call back? Yeah, yeah. He was an elf.
- [74:30]
Ryan Russillo
Did you.
- [74:31]
Oregon
Was there, like, pressure, or did you, like, would you wanted to make sure Chris was having a good time, right? I'm sure. Like, you're like. You're talking this thing up, and it's like, is it going to live up to the expectations? Because, I mean, I went there. What was that, 2016. We talked about this last night, and it was, like, a horrible game. Not. It Was just like a 10. It was Jalen Hurts, it was 10. Nothing else. You could not score, they could not move the ball. But I still had. It was still one of like the top five sports experiences I've ever had. But I don't know if there's like pressure on you as a host as, like, as the LSU guy when you.
- [74:56]
Ryan Russillo
Bring a guest there, I get totally what you're saying. And I definitely have moments where when I've brought friends, I'll turn to them to kind of like go, do you get it? Elbow.
- [75:06]
Oregon
And yeah, yeah.
- [75:07]
Ryan Russillo
And I did it, I think once with Chris, but then it was over. I mean, credit to Bama. Like, they convert a couple times in that first drive and they take him out of it. And then, I mean, there's still two other moments in the game prior to the Nussmeyer fumble where you're like, well, maybe if this were to happen. And then after the fumble you're like, all right, they get the ball, they come out, they're talented enough on offense, all these things, and they throw us a pick in the end zone. You're like, all right, this is over. So to not get to experience like a close game, fourth quarter wildness, the crowd like finding energy and finding like, it's just so nasty and hostile in the beginning. But it was that at the very beginning of the game. So at least he got so that's when I kind of turned to him and he was like, yeah, this is not. But then it just wasn't. I mean, it was only like this 10 minute window where you got to experience and. And then it was just over. There was nothing. And he had said he goes, if you score as the road team in a place like this on that first possession, it can change everything in a game. It also helps when you just gash a defense the entire time and your quarterback turns it over in two spots where you're trying to get momentum back. So yeah, you're right. Like, I've had. I think I've had that moment with like, if I was going to watch Inception with somebody for the first time, I'd probably say, like, do you even understand that they're dreaming right now, but it's another layer of dreams. I think that's very observant of you, Ceruti, but most of the time LSU kind of delivers on its own. It doesn't really need a hostess to check in on you. I guess we just get to the emails now, right? I don't think there's anything else down a Belt, though.
- [76:33]
Oregon
That sucks. I lost a belt at a wedding a couple months ago and I just like cannot find a similar one. And I hate the one that I.
- [76:39]
Ceruti
Bought belts in the hotel room or we don't know where it is.
- [76:42]
Ryan Russillo
Oh, no, Chris borrowed it.
- [76:44]
Ceruti
Oh, okay.
- [76:44]
Oregon
Oh, okay. So, you know, one follow up.
- [76:49]
Ryan Russillo
Well, I mean, it's gone. You think he's gonna mail. You think a man is gonna mail another man his belt, right?
- [76:56]
Oregon
I don't know. I. I think some men, I would. I know the importance of a good belt. That thing was like a decade old and I, I really do miss that thing. So I don't know. Maybe worth an ask, you know.
- [77:08]
Ryan Russillo
Okay, all right, moving on.
- [77:12]
Oregon
Maybe I'm.
- [77:13]
Ryan Russillo
Well, I just.
- [77:14]
Oregon
This, this is the trivia thing over again.
- [77:15]
Ryan Russillo
All right. No, I'll. I actually started pre reading a life advice email as you were doing that. And so I was just like, all right, I'm. I'm ready to go. It had literally nothing to do with my opposition or support of what you said. Yeah, so we're good. We're still good. Dudes are checking in constantly. But yeah, it was, it was, it was not a great game. It was not a great game, but it was just. I love going. I love being down there. I love being able to go down there. So.
- [77:41]
Oregon
All right, isn't your warriors record bad too?
- [77:43]
Ryan Russillo
Right, My warriors record is like impossible. I'm 0 and 3 for finals games. I've gone to three warriors games in the NBA finals and they've lost all three of them, I think. Yeah. And I had tickets to the crazy Steph Curry game in Boston in 22. And because I went to the one they lost, I wanted to try to get my dad into the building. And then my brother took the other ticket. So I was like, you know what? I'm just going to do the right thing here and let them go do it together. And then it's like one of the all time Steph things. And I was like, man, I kind of. Normally I can just be like, hey, whatever. I get to go to a lot of stuff. Like things come around that one. I was like, probably should have kept one of those tickets and told your brother to beat it. But I did not. I didn't.
- [78:33]
Oregon
Okay, there you go.
- [78:35]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah, yeah, I'm the best.
- [78:37]
Ceruti
My utility iron.
- [78:38]
Ryan Russillo
No, no, no, no, it's fine. How you hitting that thing? Good. Loving it, man. Yeah. Just got a curiosity. I checked everything that I gave you to see what it was worth on TaylorMade's trade in site.
- [78:52]
Oregon
Don't fully regret it.
- [78:53]
Ryan Russillo
But like, wait, what could. I was like, they have a trade in program. Like, oh man. I was like, that's. All right. All right. All right. The Denver Live POD photographer checked in again. He didn't think we would follow up. He would. Like, if this is a no, I probably just. No one's going to respond to anything. No, I guess we'll just play it out for the audience. Heard the pod. Appreciate the conversation that you didn't make fun of my email. We didn't. I mean his avatar is black and white, so I'm taking this guy seriously. It makes sense that it's not up to Russell if Bill wants a photographer still happy to cover the event. But I don't know how to email Bill. There you go.
- [79:29]
Ceruti
Yeah, it's going to be end of that road right there.
- [79:31]
Ryan Russillo
Sorry. Yep.
- [79:33]
Oregon
Can I help?
- [79:34]
Ryan Russillo
Even I had to learn about the soft nose from Bill. Like the Bill soft? No, like when I first started like working, working with Bill Ringer and then ultimately Spotify five plus years ago, I would have all of these people ask me favors from Bill and like one of them, even the ones that you.
- [79:50]
Ceruti
Think are like important enough and you're like, oh, he might respect this one.
- [79:53]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah, that's what I mean. I mean I was.
- [79:55]
Ceruti
You vetted them carefully and still no good.
- [79:57]
Ryan Russillo
I would know like, oh, that's. There's no point even bringing that up. Yeah. And then it was, oh, these are all no's. And then I realized the guys asked about stuff every single day. So then I was like, this is not something to venture into anymore. Because at first you're like, I don't think I got a no. I was like, no, that's a no. That was a no. And then you learn. You learn. All right, so yeah, I can't help you there. Also taking photos of Kyle in Denver sounds hilarious. But like you guys said, not exactly what I was hoping for. If I shot the event, I'd be happy to add an hour or so with Kyle pre show to get some family calendar worthy photos. Let me know if you can help. If not, I'll just assume not getting an email back is a no. Thanks. Which is fine. Yeah. So it sounds like Kyle soft.
- [80:42]
Ceruti
No.
- [80:43]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah, it sounds.
- [80:45]
Oregon
This is a Bill now. Yeah.
- [80:47]
Ryan Russillo
Right. But I mean, no to everybody.
- [80:50]
Ceruti
No to me. No to no to you. It's all good, normalized.
- [80:53]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah.
- [80:53]
Ceruti
What I. I'm on that corner.
- [80:54]
Ryan Russillo
Normalize.
- [80:55]
Ceruti
No, that's fine.
- [80:56]
Ryan Russillo
What I, what I don't like is, well, you know here's what I'll say that I do like is that if it turned into just a Kyle photo shoot and then he wasn't allowed to shoot the live event, he's telling us I a pass and I love that transparency. Yeah. This one I think is fake. Like, do I read it? I don't know.
- [81:23]
Oregon
I would say yeah.
- [81:24]
Ryan Russillo
All right. I lift a whole bunch. Hope you're impressed. Bad start. 42 couple friends. He uses two names here that I'm not even going to use. In their late 20s, she's kind of a third daughter for my wife and me as she lived with us and our two much younger, younger daughters when she was a teenager during a difficult time in her life with a relationship, I thought I'd be able to say anything to her without fear. Fast forward a few years and they've had their first child a couple years ago after much difficulty in several complications. We've lived several hours apart and are communication is affected by this. That being said, we did not find out until after the birth of their first amazing child. Some weird details. First, the details of which were we were aware they were nervous about hospitals due to the nature of their previous difficulties. We were aware they were going to have a home birth. We were concerned about the logistics because they live in a very small home. They assured us it would be fine. Now, what caught us by surprise? Only after the birth of their amazing daughter did we find out where the home birth occurred. They rented out an Airbnb. They decided to have their child in someone else's house. We asked if they told the owner their intention when booking and they said, quote, no, we'll have it all cleaned up. I almost emailed you after this to ask if I should say the extent of my disgust, but I decided it's not worth it. It seems now I only delayed the inevitable demand. I respond with my opinion they're now pregnant again in the past and past the probable point of risk. Now for my question, is it worthwhile to voice my opinion discussed for their first birthing experience? My purpose in doing so should be to avoid what I believe to be a disgusting use of property rentals, knowing full well the full ranges of demented uses for which these properties are used. I've even heard tell of a friend borrowing his friend's place for an adulterous tryst. So why would you matter?
- [83:17]
Ceruti
Yes, she's trying to visit you near the due date. Other than that, I think you're fine. You'd be like, you know what? I'm going to I got something to say. But other than that, I thought, mind your business.
- [83:26]
Oregon
Yeah, this feels like one of those. That's weird. Anyway, moving on with my day.
- [83:30]
Ceruti
She's like, yeah, we were thinking about stopping by around Thanksgiving, and you're, like, doing the math. You're like, nope, I don't think I'm around.
- [83:35]
Ryan Russillo
Actually. I don't even know what. Why we'd be asked. I mean, unless it just falls into the standard category of I have a challenging conversation conversation. Like, waiting here for me. I gotta be honest. With, like, renting. Renting an Airbnb to do something, if that were even true. That's so weird that I don't think I would. I would just go. I'm gonna. I don't. I'm never talking to you about this.
- [84:05]
Oregon
Well, I do feel like there's also kind of a rule, like, I don't think you mess with other people's birthing plans. You know, we. I remember when we were in the hospital and, you know, we were talking, like, to the nurses there, and there's. They have some, like, just crazy stories of, like, people who bring in, like, full binders of how they want their birth to go. And they're very specific. We had no plan. We're just like, hey, could we just, like, have a safe baby and go home? And that's great, but you kind of can't, like, you can't shame them for that. You can't really talk. I mean, unless you're, like a really, really. I mean, you are a close family member. I guess that's the case. But I think this is one of those things where you just kind of let it happen. And the other thing, too, is it does sound weird on the surface, like, hey, you're giving birth in some stranger's house, but their house is on Airbnb. I don't know. That's kind of what happens. Like, the.
- [84:51]
Ryan Russillo
Is it kind of what happens?
- [84:53]
Oregon
I mean, I think you sign away a lot of the, like, control over what happens in that house. And also, like, I've never been at a home birth. I think I know a little bit about them. I mean, it's not like there's just, like, fluids everywhere.
- [85:03]
Ceruti
You know, they said there was only gonna be two people in the Airbnb, so you definitely broke the agreement.
- [85:08]
Oregon
Maybe that's true. Maybe that's true.
- [85:11]
Ryan Russillo
They love. Right. You gotta stay another night. We gotta update the occupancy.
- [85:18]
Ceruti
No, guess after that.
- [85:20]
Oregon
I don't know.
- [85:22]
Ryan Russillo
I don't think the email. I don't Know, I don't think it was real. And I think it was weird enough to try to get us.
- [85:26]
Oregon
That's so weird to be not real. That's real.
- [85:29]
Ryan Russillo
I think it's real.
- [85:30]
Ceruti
I think we've been burned in the past, but that's real.
- [85:32]
Ryan Russillo
Well, yeah, but I think the last line though is a reference to something else we already talked about. So I don't know, whatever. Maybe we'll get an update on it and you know, I don't want an update on it. Good luck with everybody. All right. The strong or the weakest Strongman at the circus. Hey guys. Love the pod. Always find life advice section super engaging. So wanted to reach out and get your take on my situation. No discernible gym stats to mention, but I'm a distance runner. Just managed to top 30 placement at the Marine Corps Ultra Marathon last month out of a field of 993. That sounds actually insane.
- [86:05]
Ceruti
It's like a tough group.
- [86:06]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah, yeah, right.
- [86:07]
Oregon
Ultra marathon. That's the.
- [86:09]
Ryan Russillo
Is it 40 miles? Is it longer? Kyle, that's too long for you.
- [86:15]
Ceruti
That's too long.
- [86:16]
Oregon
31 miles, 50 miles, 100 miles.
- [86:20]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah, we just counting 70 miles.
- [86:22]
Oregon
No, I think those are all the different things. I don't know which one. I would assume it's a 30 mile run.
- [86:29]
Ryan Russillo
I don't know, 50 mile bike or maybe. I don't know.
- [86:31]
Mike Sando
Who knows?
- [86:31]
Oregon
Anyway, it doesn't matter.
- [86:33]
Ryan Russillo
I'm looking it up from. Yeah, whatever. It sounds like it's just longer. That's. That's. Good job. Good job. Actually, I think Cerudi was right. He was on. He's on the right path.
- [86:44]
Oregon
Start throwing numbers out there.
- [86:46]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah. Anyway, as far as athlete comp. Have to go with Tony Romo. Little pedigree to speak of. In terms of the background and underlying reason of being as successful as I am outside of hard work, coupled with being in the right places at the right times with the right people around me. I always thought this. I always thought his career embodied fortuitous circumstances. And I look at my situation quite similarly. I'm 37, married, no kids, two dogs, and like Tony, am incredibly lucky to be where I am. Lots of sacrifice along the way, but despite my relative youth, will likely be in a position in the upcoming three to five years to walk away from the corporate world. I wouldn't say we're rich, but without the cost of children or any other dependents. As long as we continue with our current lifestyle, we'll be set living off investments and other assets. Thing is, what's next. When that happens, all friends family are doing the kid thing. And while my wife and I love being the fun aunt and uncle, we have no interest in having any ourselves. All right, so that's, that's a position. We both love to travel, we live abroad, and we'll both be hitting 40 countries visited each later this year when we envision an extended period of exploring the world. But given we'll likely have half of our lives ahead of us, we'll both be feeling a bit of aimlessness creeping in, knowing we're finding ourselves in a unique situation and quite dissimilar to those around us. The title of the email is a reference to succession where Connor and Tom are telling Greg he'll be in purgatory. Like State being well off but not rich. 5 million is a nightmare. 5 million is a nightmare. Greg. Yeah, I love that scene. And while I find that laughable, I'm finding myself trying to sort out what a second act will be like. I'm working 67 hours a week and the thought of all that free time makes me think I'll either run myself from the ground, currently doing 45 miles per week, gain £100, love to cook, or drive my wife crazy with historic anecdotes if I get even more into presidential biographies and other history books. Would love your take on reinvention. And how do you depress approach a reset if you're in a similar position? Well, look, you're making a very significant decision and as somebody that doesn't have kids, I certainly think about it a lot more now. Like, what are you actually going to do? What's the plan going to be? I mean, it doesn't haunt me, it doesn't make me sad, but it's the reality of like, what's that phase going to be like? And I don't know, I, I don't know that you can feel it until you get a little bit older. I just don't. When like the reality of like the window going, oh, yeah, all right. So, like there's a lot of things I really like about my deal. I am constantly hearing from guys and I don't love it. You know, they're have done the more traditional things being like, you're my hero. I'm like, well, I'm not doing this to be anybody's hero. And I, I think there's times with way things go for me that you would, you would not like this, right? You wouldn't, you wouldn't like any of this stuff. But you have a Wife, right? You have a wife, you get along, everything's great. You love doing all this traveling thing. I think you, I don't know that there's this answer, like, oh, make sure you do this or have a, have a podcast about your travels. Like, do you have to, do you have to have something? Well, for some, for some it does. But do you, do you need to have a thing? Because like, I think one of the funniest things about retirement is like when you're a little kid, you're like, oh, you get to retire and then just do nothing. Doing nothing would be hell for a lot of people. It'd be hell for me. Like, if I had enough money to just retire tomorrow, I probably wouldn't watch this many games and maybe I'd get out of sports, but I would constantly be like, trying to figure out some other grind because I just like, what's the point of doing any of this without goals and even failing at some of those goals? So it sounds like you're so driven and you've worked so hard. Are you really sure that once you can walk away financially in five years that it's not even about kids? Like, you may be wired in a way where you're going to need something that kind of replaces it. And that's where, you know, again, the running thing alone shows your determination. So it sounds like not only are you a really hard worker with an incredible focus, you were actually accomplishing this too, on top of everything else. So you're going to need something. And it's not about replacing kids, it's probably going to be about replacing the work. And I don't know, I mean, why do you think people golf? Why do you think people join country clubs? Why do you think people get into fly fish? You know, like all these different things, like, oh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be so into fly fishing that I'm gonna hit a the top 50 fly fishing spots. And like, I'm very task oriented and I have to get through all this stuff. Like, you may have to figure out that kind of stuff because seems like you're totally okay with the kid thing where I think a lot of people as they get older, I'm just, you know, for younger dudes that like look up to me and stuff, I'm like, h, I don't know, man, you're probably not going to like it. You see, you know, see the dad at the beach with the two year old daughter with a backward hat, throwing tennis ball back to you. The dad you're like never going to do that. You know, that's real shit, man. And you don't see it the same way at 35 you do when you're fucking 49.
- [92:05]
Ceruti
Anyway, so is this guy, I mean, are you anti work or are you anti like buttoned up corporate world? Extra words in your emails. Work. Like, is it something you could do for like my dad, IBM, you know, probably 30 years at this point. He's like, he's nearing the end of his time there and he's ready to be done with that. But he's also like, you know what, maybe I'll just get like a part time gig at Home Depot. I feel like I'd really love it there. Like, I don't need the money, I'm good. But it's, you know, I could see 20, 23 hours a week or whatever, you know, whatever three days a week is on a light shift, I could do that. My stepdad is a retired fire captain, Yonkers. He's like making Adirondack chairs at his leisure. And I'm like, you know, maybe you could throw these in your pickup truck, bring them into town and see if anybody wants them. And he's like, yeah, maybe, I don't know, I like having extra ones at the house. So like he's got stuff that he's doing. Like, have you thought about like a business? Like, I don't know, maybe you're into like get a good formula for soap on a rope. Like some shit you could just do at home and just be like, look what I made. Like just like a hobby that maybe you can turn into, you know, something that you're like, oh, I'm getting a little money for this. It's not a waste of time. I personally think I could golf two, three times a week and be good maybe mixing some nine holes and some 18 so I'm not, you know, hurting all the time. But like I think, I think there's stuff that I would mix. I wouldn't just be like, well, I'm at home all the time. I hope my wife's okay with this. Like, you definitely just find your thing that you're cool with doing and maybe that's just a place that you go three times a week, you know, even if it's work, but it's just, you know, maybe it just, it breaks it up a little bit and you don't mind doing the job that it is.
- [93:33]
Oregon
Yeah. I was worried about my dad when he retired because he's, he's just one of those Guys, like, He's up at 4:30 every morning. He had his whole day.
- [93:40]
Ceruti
Senior coffee from McDonald's, right?
- [93:42]
Oregon
Yeah, he's just. He's just always. Always doing stuff, you know, and it was just like, okay, now you're not gonna have anything to do now. He, like, you know, he fixes up cars. So he's got, you know, he.
- [93:52]
Ryan Russillo
That, that.
- [93:52]
Oregon
That certainly takes up a lot of his time now. And that's like a huge. It's always been a huge hobby of his and just carry that into retirement. But that's still like. There's still more hours. Like, he started. He volunteers.
- [94:01]
Ceruti
Yeah.
- [94:01]
Mike Sando
Yeah.
- [94:02]
Oregon
But he started volunteering at a train museum, like, which is just a classic old guy thing. But it's like, it's awesome. He loves doing it.
- [94:07]
Ceruti
Oldest guy shit I've ever heard.
- [94:09]
Oregon
Yeah. He gets to see people, though. Like, he knows about the trains. Like, it's kind of awesome.
- [94:14]
Ryan Russillo
I love that he loves trains. I didn't even know that.
- [94:16]
Oregon
Oh, yeah, he's got a.
- [94:17]
Ryan Russillo
He's.
- [94:18]
Oregon
He's the model train guy too. He's got like a whole set up in the basement. Like, he's got a lot of the garage.
- [94:21]
Ceruti
They're nice.
- [94:22]
Oregon
Yeah. Yeah.
- [94:24]
Ryan Russillo
I could see. I could see being a trained guy. Post 70, it's kind of cool. Yeah.
- [94:28]
Oregon
But I move along the Christmas tree, you know, and, you know, whatever. It was, the steam engine, whatever.
- [94:33]
Ryan Russillo
No, I'd gone. I'd have stuff moving gravel and lumber.
- [94:37]
Oregon
You could do that too.
- [94:38]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah.
- [94:38]
Oregon
Listen, then.
- [94:38]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah, if you move one day, buddy.
- [94:40]
Oregon
You'Ll have the time. The thing for the. So I. I don't know, Ryan.
- [94:45]
Ceruti
You don't have a lot of shit to move. I feel like I was. I saw your house. I think you could find room in the truck for some train stuff.
- [94:50]
Ryan Russillo
But I don't know.
- [94:51]
Ceruti
I have a storage unit, though.
- [94:53]
Ryan Russillo
Which room could I give up train space to? Well, if you.
- [94:57]
Ceruti
If you just commit to only going to the gym and not, you know, having a gym, you know, 10 minutes away from your house and in your house.
- [95:03]
Ryan Russillo
But, you know, that's just. That's a preference thing saying, get rid of the squat rack and put in a train.
- [95:08]
Ceruti
Well, I just depends how much you're into this train stuff. Are you trying to build an empire here or just get stronger?
- [95:13]
Ryan Russillo
I don't know. Yeah, that's true. What movie is it with Denzel where he has the train? Is that him?
- [95:22]
Ceruti
He has the trains? I know when he was on a train. It's Pelham 120.
- [95:26]
Ryan Russillo
Three, I think, but has the trains or Unstoppable. Yeah, that's right. Two train movies for him. Chris Pine, Shout Out. I thought there was a movie where he had way too many trains set up in an apartment and he had to move and could be thinking about somebody else, though. I'm going to research this. Were you guys done answering this?
- [95:50]
Oregon
Well, no, I was just going to add. I say all that to say. I don't. It's not. To me, it's not also about just like, what are you going to do during your day? It's the relationships. Right. So, you know, if you go to work, you talk to people all day and you interact with people and that's like, you know, some. That's social energy for a lot of people. They like that. That gives them purpose in life. If you're only around your partner all the time, you guys kind of hit on this. Like, that's kind of. That's a little treacherous territory there, you know, because you're not used to spending. Like, it was definitely when my wife and I both started working at home, like, it was a different vibe because, like, wow, we see each other all the time now. There's no escape. And it's. And it's fine. But it's definitely like an adjustment. So I think you got to get out of the house one first and foremost. Like, you could have the train hobby, but also like, yeah, maybe go golfing, maybe get into rock climbing. The other thing, if you do get into one of those hobby things, you know, what are some of my favorite, like social media accounts or those people that, like, they'll buy like a. Just a total dump of a house and then they just. The whole progress of how they fix it up or they do it with a car or there's some sort of like, thing that they do that's really unique to them that they build and they're following or on the way. I don't know if you're into that, but that's. I've always kind of wanted to do that if I had more free time. Not just for like the clicks and the likes and all that stuff, but just because it's cool. Like I. Some people out there, it's cool to watch people do stuff. And so if you like something and you want to maybe get a following, you could potentially make some money off that, like by accident. So I think you gotta get on for free.
- [97:12]
Ceruti
I think those guys are great.
- [97:13]
Oregon
Yeah, those are awesome videos. I love those videos.
- [97:14]
Ceruti
I watched the whole thing.
- [97:16]
Oregon
The power washers too. Anything that's like very, you know, you know, whatever that's called. But I agree.
- [97:22]
Ryan Russillo
Maybe time capsule, bury one of those.
- [97:27]
Oregon
It's a long term play.
- [97:28]
Ryan Russillo
But yeah, we buried one in fourth grade. That thing's due to crack open pretty soon.
- [97:32]
Ceruti
I think maybe you could like be. Be the guy who does like start a lawn business. But I only do the ride along tractor. That way you're never like. You only do the fun part and you're like, yeah, I'll mow the lawn. I'm not, I'm not doing any edging. And you know, the mulch, that's not really me. I'll give you a reference, but I only. We only play 80s Joel.
- [97:50]
Ryan Russillo
You know what I mean?
- [97:51]
Oregon
Strictly 80s Joel. Yeah.
- [97:53]
Ceruti
Hey, man, what'd I say?
- [97:55]
Ryan Russillo
80S Joel. Now that I'm thinking about this time cap so that we buried in fourth grade, there's no chance it didn't just get plowed when they like had to expand the school or like dig. Yes.
- [98:05]
Ceruti
Not on a special map somewhere and a protected area, right?
- [98:09]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah, we just went to like the edge of the woods and like put it three feet in.
- [98:13]
Ceruti
Oh, wow.
- [98:13]
Ryan Russillo
And then we all went back being like, man, people from space are going to see our Van Halen cassette tape. Wonder. Wonder what?
- [98:21]
Oregon
This is a half ass job. Usually they put them like, what a waste of like the flagpole out front. They don't put them in the.
- [98:27]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah, well, we were nine, so we were pretty into it at the time. I mean, they may have buried it and picked it up like that summer, like, all right, they're out of here. We're going to do the same thing again. Fourth grade classes forever. By the way, the Denzel thing, it's not trained. It's a Civil War reenactment scene that it just takes up a massive, massive piece of his apartment. I think it's Denzel, but anytime I try to Google it now, it's just. Well, I can't remember the movie. And anytime I Google anything. Denzel, Civil War. It's just coming back up as glory. 1989. Matthew Broderick. People really fought. Speaking of fourth grade, people were very against Matthew Broderick having that role. Like Ferris Bueller is going to be this guy and be like, you didn't even realize that he was actually theatrically trained. You know, it's ridiculous. All right, that'll do it for the pod today. I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks, Siri. Thanks to Oregon and of course thanks to Kyle. Check out our YouTube page. I think we have something planned this week, do we, Ceruti?
- [99:27]
Oregon
Tbd.
- [99:27]
Ryan Russillo
No tbd. Maybe we won't. Maybe we won't do it. Maybe we'll take.
- [99:30]
Oregon
We gotta get your history, corn. We haven't done yours yet, so.
- [99:33]
Ryan Russillo
All right, well, I've been prepping it for years. Please subscribe. Ryan Rizzolo Podcast Ring or Spotify.
- [100:07]
Mike Sando
Must.
- [100:08]
Ryan Russillo
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