← The Ryen Russillo Podcast
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Prime-Time Giants! NBA GM Survey Thoughts. Plus: Jeff Darlington on Baker’s Career Turnaround, Shanahan Love, and Belichick’s future.
02:01:27
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- [00:00]
Ryan Marcillo
Foreign is a long one. So we have announcements for everybody in front of life advice, We've got the alliance, we've got a really long life advice and some other stuff as well. Teasing Canel joining us on Monday. But the headlines Giants win. Giants football, baby. Division win against the Eagles. Excitement for the Giants in a way that you probably haven't felt in a long time because it's new and there's hope. And then a bunch of Eagles questions. So we've got Jeff Darlington previewing Tampa and San Francisco. What do we make of the Bucks? The Baker story that continues to be the perfect fit in the NFL. He's done games with the Chiefs, with the Ravens, with the Colts. Some love for Shanahan once again. So a big, big NFL conversation including the future of TUA and Miami staff down there in his home state. So enjoy the pod. This is the Ryan Marcillo podcast presented by FanDuel, and if you're betting on the NFL, FanDuel is the place to do it. They've got everything. Same game parlays, quick bets for when you want to jump in live and your way so you can set your own lines. The app's fast, it's easy to use, and best of all, when you win, you get paid out instantly. Download the FanDuel app or go to FanDuel.com Ryan R Y E N to get started. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available and listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Must be 21 + and present in select states. 18+ in DC, Kentucky and Wyoming. Gambling problem. Call 1-800- GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com, call 888-78-9-7777 or visit ccpg.org chat in Connecticut Giants Prime Time. I saw it on the schedule. I was like, okay, this hasn't always been fun, but guess what, Giants fans? It was fun. Giants dominant in the second half against division rivals the Philadelphia Eagles. Tough night for Philly. Tough night for Philly in general. I don't know if anyone on the Sixers got hurt. I hope that didn't happen because walk off play at home plate against the Dodgers. I mean, just all sorts of stuff not going great. But that's enough. We've covered all right, because you won a Super bowl last year, we're not going to feel that bad for you. Phillies have a World Series anyway. Villanova. Remember that? Dynasty. So the Primetime Giants. I don't know that I might be at the forefront of this, just out there navigating uncharted waters. I'm just like, this is the worst. It's the worst when they're on prime time. And yet last night, it was amazing. It was so much fun. I don't know if the Jackson Dart Scatter Boo thing is going to be like, a lot of kids are going to be buying posters. You know, those shirts are going to start getting pumped out. There's going to be a lot of product with these two guys out there. You know, Jokic Trump, you know, white running back, just, you know, tracking these things. So the Giants scoring stuff, right? The last time the Giants were better than 14th in points per game in the NFL was was 2015, when they scored the sixth highest point per game, right? So you go 10 seasons from that point on, they've averaged 25th in the NFL in scoring. And then that was always the primetime version that we would get, because I would go through the numbers and be like, okay, they average this many points per game of the regular season, but here's what they do in primetime games. And it was like, there was a stretch where it was the last eight, whatever. I don't even remember. I just would look it up all the time. I don't know why I would do that. Like, hey, this thing that really annoys you. Spend more time understanding. And then it was basically like, I want to find a reason to justify my annoyance and be like, they've averaged 12 points per game over the last eight to 10 primetime games, and it was just brutal. But last night was about newness. Last night was about hope, because Jackson Dart, I would argue in the Chargers game, it was about defense and starting field position. The New Orleans game was not a good game. Also, the fact that they would turn the ball over five straight possessions, like, I don't know the next time I'm going to see that. And D afterwards was like, yeah, you don't. You don't see that a lot. So you've got one kind of whatever game, and it starts first performance. So even though maybe I was a little bit more on the critical side of it, I get. I resist the, hey, this team won. It was new. So that means all the stuff that was new was the only reason why they won the game. But last night, to do this at home against Philly and then just have this celebration of these two dudes running all over the place, making big plays, dismantling this Eagles team that now we're like, what the hell do we do? With these guys, the Amazon part of this, which I do think is like a real thing. The TNF crew. Yeah, I'm a little biased. I like some people on that, on that desk. And it's this party where everybody's hanging out afterwards. Scatter Boo's taken off his shirt with Fitzpatrick. Dart's mom comes up and she's part of the interview. You know, they're in Chris's ear going like, hey, now we're tossing to a neighbor from eighth grade. But I just, I thought it was something Giants fans kind of needed because it's been one of the most boring franchises now in the NFL for a decade. And I don't know if it means everything's fixed. It just, you just know that at least it feels a little bit different and that it's not going to be the same. And in the beginning of the year, it felt like it was going to be the same. Like, hey, maybe we have some good defensive players. The offense can't really push the football and you're waiting on Dart. You're like, okay, this unknown thing, like, is this really going to work out? Who knows? With the first round QBs, the fact that they were so motivated to go get him maybe feels like they weren't just drafting a quarterback based on need. It's that they, they really evaluated this guy and thought he was special. And the coolest thing about Jackson Dart, when you watch him in college, whether it was sc. I remember the first game I saw him play for sc, I was like, what fuck is this? Like, this guy doesn't care. Like he, he's just going for it. And then a more refined version of that against Ole Miss. But then I, I'd say like last night he has a couple plays where you're just like, I can't believe this guy's wired this way as a quarterback. So. So maybe this is all really exciting and, and hopeful for the future. Philly was up 17:13 in this game, outscored 21 zip to close from the end of the first half again to the close of the game. So I was looking at third downs for Philadelphia because they came out running the football. They wanted to run the football against a Giants defense that I think was 25th against the run on opposing yards per carry, 26th in rushing yards allowed per game, 29th as I checked my notes on yards per carry. So you're like, all right, let's just line it up. Now we know that the Eagles are missing some people. You argue the Giants too. It's like hey, we're missing one of the best receivers in the NFL. But. But no Jalen Carter. That's a big deal. Landon Dickerson out. Quinion Mitchell only played 13 snaps. Big snap count guy this morning going over it. So we already were worried about the Eagles on the other side because they wanted to get away from Adori and then play more Ringo. And then it's like, now Quinion's out for after 13 snaps. So now Adori, who had one snap total the last two weeks, played a season high 57. Nolan Smith had been out. But when you're the best roster, like this isn't, this isn't supposed to happen to you. And I promise I'm not going to do a Jalen Hurts thing every single week, but he was awful last night. And the third downs, they're one of nine in the game. I stopped keeping track after they were one of seven. If you go through it, they had two fourth down completions would save him a little bit. Third and eight, sack third and ten. He scrambles for nine. He's short. Third and six. That's the Ms. To Devonta Smith, which would have been a touchdown, would have made it 24, 20. Quarterbacks miss those deep shots. All right, that's fine. But for the criticism of like Hurts going, could he just be average in the greatest setup in modern NFL history? That throw didn't help. The counterargument to that point that I'm becoming more and more comfortable with all the time. Here's a thought that's totally unfair, but I'm sharing it with you. When I was watching him, because we always know, like, oh, he's so reserved. He's so reserved. Nothing phases him. I let it creep into my head that after that missed throw, when he looks at the iPad and then just sits on the bench and then he's stoic the whole time, I was like, is he actually doing this on purpose now? It's like I just missed a wide open touchdown. I've been criticized for my passing attack now for a while and I'm going to sit here right now and remain absolutely unfazed to show that this does not bother me. I let it get in my head. I don't even know that's true because I think the first thing that impressed me the most with Jalen Hurst is when he gets benched and then comes in and saves Alabama after Tua got hurt and just the way he carried himself back then. So I think it's, it's far more real. But even I was allowing myself to like, have a kind of negative reaction to the stoic nature of the whole thing. Being like, is this starting to become like a bit more of an act? Let's stay on the third downs. Third and seven, sack, third and 12. A Saquon pass. That's short. Second and 10 at the Giants 15. That's the interception on the field goal in the opening drive. He had a third and 10. So I didn't put this one down. He threw it five yards. So it's like, okay, hey, maybe we could just play for a field goal. It's the Giants. We're going to be able to hold them off even with our defensive injuries. Maybe that was kind of the approach. He had a third and three where clearly they had had two plays. They were down, they were going to go for in fourth down. So maybe Hertz is thinking, hey, I'm third and three, I can throw it to Saquon. But he throws it short and they lose a yard on that play. They convert the fourth, the fourth down, it was fourth and four on that. Those possessions, you're like, man, like this, this isn't good. They're 27th. The Eagles are the third down conversion rate right now in the NFL. Let's go through Hertz career last year, they were 11th in 23, they were fifth in 22, they were third in 21, they were fourth his first season 20, they were 28th. Whatever. He was a rookie, he looked pretty limited. The AJ Brown 30 yarder, that throw stood out to me because it was one on one. And if it's A.J. brown, you should throw the football hurts pick that he had last night is his first regular season pick because he had one in the super bowl since week three of last season. I've talked about this about a lot of quarterbacks. It's really cool when you don't have many interceptions and there are certain players like Rogers is just that dialed in at the peak, you know, Brady just that dialed in. I think Lamar has had a couple seasons where it's like, you know, it's okay. But I, yeah, I'm going to say it. I'd like more interceptions from Jalen Hurts because it's clear that whatever version of this offense is right now, it's so limited. And that AJ Brown throw is a throw where I'm like, good. I mean, it was a great ball and AJ Makes a great catch on the thing. But the point is, it's like, sure, the defensive back, step for step with him, but you've got to start raising the risk a little bit. Like maybe this defense isn't going to be as good with all of these injuries. Uh, their defense was terrible last night. I thought they were bad angles. I, I don't like to use lazy, but they're guys that looked like they were just kind of giving up on some stuff. And I'm talking about early, not even when you're down two scores. And the Jackson dart scramble from 20 yards out. Like, granted, he just works Zach Bond in the open field, which is what Dart should be able to do against the middle linebacker. And by the way, the middle linebacker numbers, if you look at those snap count stuff, it's just not. There's not a lot of options there other than your top guy. So now you're wearing down a really good group there. Hoping on my guy, Nicobe Dean. But there's no way Dart should be able to run that out. So I wonder a bit too. Like that pitcher that gets through a few teams and nobody's really familiar with his stuff. And the next time he starts playing teams the second time it's like, okay, now we know kind of the way this guy attacks, the movement on his ball, all this stuff. Maybe Jackson Dart running from 20 yards out is the Eagles going like, what the fuck is this guy doing? Like he's going to try this. So yeah, there's a bit of that that I wondered with Dart and his success last night. So ugly night for Philadelphia, not impossible for them to fix this thing. Injuries played a part. But again, I'm less sympathetic to you when we keep talking about how you have the best roster in the NFL the entire time. I also couldn't help this thought. After The Eagles averaged 3.7 yards per carry against the Giants, this was a different thought. And it was the post game and it was watching Dart just all smiles. Scatterboos, just you could tell, like you're surprised that there's not a missing half a finger from Scatterboo in some sort of firecracker accident when he was a little kid. And I'm like, look at these two guys. And it's New York City. And it's, it's this is the only game in town type of thing, meaning the NFL schedule on a Thursday nighter. And it's like these two guys are sitting there being like, we are going to run the fucking world. And I don't know the answer to this. None of us know the answer to this. And either this is going to be the beginning of something really special. But I also couldn't help myself from thinking, like, what if we look at that picture of those two guys and it's three years from now and be like, remember everything we thought about these two rookies then. And look, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that any of us have an answer, don't have an answer for it, because at least now it's fun and it's not. I mean, Russell Wilson's job right now for this team, it's like, hey, here's the deal, you've been benched, but when Jackson goes in the tent, you're going to come out for third down. And yes, they will be really long. And then everybody's going to boo you. They're going to be impossible downs, but you're going to come out and snap the ball, maybe throw one in the dirt, maybe a third and 26 in there. It's going to be tough. It's not a great gig. But that's your role right now. None of it really matters because if you're a Giants fan, you wake up today, there's a version of hope that you haven't had in a really long time. This episode is brought to you by Prime Video. Thursday Night Football is on, and it's only on Prime Video. This week, the AFC north takes center stage as the Pittsburgh Steelers battle the Cincinnati Bengals. What I'm looking forward to is anyone in that stadium quitting on Jake Browning. Because it's pretty clear just when you think you've counted them out, he's going to find a way to get back in the game. Did you watch what Cincinnati did in the fourth quarter against Detroit? 21 points. Now, they didn't win the game, but that's what I'm saying to the Steelers. It's like he's going to get those interceptions out of the way. He's going to get them out of the way early. He's going to get him out of the way often against the Steelers team, which again, I cannot get past the average depth of target numbers for Aaron Rodgers. It's like, man, that might be a problem long term. Even though, even though Pittsburgh, right now, your Pittsburgh Steelers in first place for this division wins against the jets, the Pats, the Vikings, but they get the Pats early before Drake May became the fourth best quarterback in the NFL. Is that too high? Coverage begins at 7pm Eastern with Football's Best Party TNF Tonight, presented by Verizon. Not a Prime member. Not a problem. Simply sign up for free 30 day trial. It's the Steelers and the Bengals Thursday at 7pm Eastern only on Prime Video. Restrictions apply to Amazon.com amazonprime for details. I want to add a little extra content to the show today because one of my favorite content pieces every year from NBA.com and more specifically, John Schumann, who does a great job on this every year. It's the annual NBA GM survey, 49 questions ahead of the new season. Three and I are going to go over some of this stuff. I love it because, I mean, even though some of it's predictable, hey, who's going to win the 26 NBA Finals? 80% of the vote. Thunder Cavs get a couple votes. Denver got a couple votes. I'm thinking about leaning Denver. What's that? Yeah, look, I. I love it.
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Kyle
Yeah, that was actually one of my. I mean, I just have a bunch of takeaways written down. Yeah, let's go. So the, The Celtics were 83% last year, so slightly higher. And I, I kind of have a hard time finding who I think that team. That's really good. Maybe it is Denver, but it feels like I don't know who I even like to challenge. OkC. I feel like it's even more of a landslide than last year. And it isn't. More people had the Celtics repeating last year than they had okc slightly the.
- [16:38]
Ryan Marcillo
Only reason I picked OKC last year. And if they, if they hadn't done it right, there's what's wrong with them type of thing. So it's like twofold. It's do they repeat? Because they're going to be even better with their growth and Chet being even better, you know, and it's not like this team was getting eliminated earlier than they should have three or four playoff seasons in a row. So the whole monkey on their back thing seems ridiculous for a group like this. So I'm actually not doing that. But the unknown part of like Jalen Williams in the spot and some of the Dallas games when they got eliminated two years ago, you're like, all right, you know, is this guy going to have. And he did. And. And the other thing too is like there's up and down moments for almost any of these guys. Unless you're like a surefire, like one of the greatest players ever or even a bad playoff game for those guys is like 25 points. And I'm not saying that that's what Jalen Williams is, but there's stuff they've gotten through this whole thing. So it's, it's a much safer pick than. Than anything else. I can really come up with other than if I was just like, hey, unless I just want to be different. Like, do I just want to go. And, hey, I'm going to try something different. Which definitely goes into me picking against a heavy favorite. Just trying to be like, hey, you know what? I'm going to try to do something a little bit different than everybody else.
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Kyle
On this one, but, like, beyond Denver, like, who. Which I get. And I think that will probably be people's default if they don't want to pick.
- [18:02]
Ryan Marcillo
Not.
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Kyle
Not. This isn't like a negative thing towards you, but I feel like people will probably just pick Denver because, like, yeah, I don't want to pick okc, but, like, I don't know, Houston feels like a stretch. Anybody from the east feels like a stretch. Like, I just. I'm like, I'm sitting here going, even if I want to pick against okc, I don't even. I don't feel that great about anybody else.
- [18:17]
Ryan Marcillo
Yeah, the way they picked the west was okc, Denver, Houston, Minnesota, Golden State. They were way down on the Clippers. Only one voter had them in second, like, just down on the Clippers in comparison to some of the total stuff that I've seen. I. I'm. I'm with the GMs on this one. I like what the Clippers did. Like, good for you.
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Kyle
But, oh, that's just because they signed Chris Paul.
- [18:46]
Ryan Marcillo
No, he's talking about John Collins. I think I could do a John Collins. Like, I could probably do this for every player in the league. Not every. I wouldn't want to have to do 450 of these videos. But if you just took, like, the top 100 and you could just, like, John Collins is a perfect example where you go, what's his career been like? You go, hey, maybe pretty good. Wait a minute. Is this guy kind of not that good? Like, hey, look at his stats. Like, hey, he's available. Hey, he's available. Again, why does no one want if he's available? Maybe this guy isn't any good. Hey, you know who's better than people think? Oh, hey, you know what? That's a great trade. He's not that great, but he's still pretty good. That would be John Collins.
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Kyle
You know who else that was? Thaddeus Young. I remember. I forget. I wish I could give the credit to this person, but somebody was like, every NBA, the perfect example was Thaddeus Young. And every NBA player is underpaid until they're overpaid.
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Ryan Marcillo
That is perfect. That's perfect. And then Thaddeus Young always pops up in some weird graphic where it's like for last player to do this since it's like Bird, LeBron, Carl.
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Kyle
Yeah. Even though.
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Ryan Marcillo
And then it'll just be like Thaddeus Young pops up on a couple of those every now and then. Like. All right, my all time favorite question is this one. If you were starting a franchise today and could sign any NBA player, who would it be? Wembanyama. 83% of the votes. That means four votes for SGA and still one vote for Jokic. Last year, Wembanyama had 77% of the boat. That's. That actually probably feels low.
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Kyle
I had this down as an interesting one for a different reason. Yeah, like obviously Wemby's going to be the runaway pick. And. And this was. I think Nick Angstad on Twitter kind.
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Ryan Marcillo
Of had this too.
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Kyle
It's just like the decline of what we think of LUCA as like 2021, he was first. He was 43%. 2022, he was 45. That was second. 2310 last year, 3. This year, 0. He's younger than SGA. And no one thinks Luka would. You would take Luka? I think I would take Luka over sga, especially now that he's in shape. You know, now he's motivated, got the trade. Like, he's looking good. Like, I'm just. My mind is. Obviously Wemby is in a whole different stratosphere, so he could be 100%. I wouldn't argue it. But if we're. If we're talking about the guys that are in, you know, the second and third, I guess I think. What is it? SGA, 13%. Jokic had 3%. I would take Luke over both of those guys to start a franchise with May. The Okish thing is tough. Cause he's 30 and it's like he's.
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Ryan Marcillo
Going to age well too.
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Kyle
Yeah. I don't know.
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Ryan Marcillo
I would think I would take Luka over SGA too. Like if I think about the best players in the world and we'll do this once we start up the new show. Like I'm going to give it a month in and then I'm going to do top 10 players and then I'll do it again. Like I'll do it before the playoffs start. Because I think whenever you start doing playoff result player ranking stuff, it's when you really start to screw up here. So. Yeah, I mean, anybody like going, no, I'll take this player over Jokic right now. Even at Jokic's Age. I just don't really want to do that. But I think the worst that Luka could be is the fourth best player in the world. So maybe you put SGA ahead of him there. I would still. Well, unless it's an SGA never gets hurt thing versus Luka being hurt.
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Kyle
Maybe. But I. I think if I'm starting a team, like in this hypothetical scenario, you're doing like a fantasy draft of the whole league. There's a good chance that SGA is not going to be playing on a team as good as the Thunder. And that's not even being. I'm not even trying to be disrespectful to sga, but if I'm building a team like Luca has proven to take. He took what the Mavs a pretty. I don't want to say average. Above average.
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Ryan Marcillo
That wasn't a great basketball team.
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Kyle
Nope. To a Western Conference final and an NBA final. Like, do I think SGA is capable of taking either of those teams to that. To those heights? Maybe I'm being a hater. That's where I just think Luke is a different cat.
- [22:42]
Ryan Marcillo
Thinking someone is fourth best in the world as opposed to third best in the world. Stop being a hater. And everybody needs to do a better job with that kind of stuff. So it's a bad time to be picking somebody ahead of SGA for the same reason why I wouldn't do top 10 players in the. In the world after the NBA finals are over. But the. The Luca point that you make is really good. It also gets to like the confusion on Luca. So if you look at the best position awards. So best point guard in the NBA. SGA, 73% of the vote. Luca is second at 17%. Who's the best shooting guard in the NBA? And it should have been higher. He got 70% of the vote. I don't know who you would put behind him. Donovan Mitchell's the only actual true shooting guard. I think that's in this conversation.
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Kyle
Booker didn't even make the list. Crazy to me. Or that down on Devin Booker.
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Ryan Marcillo
Yeah. Like the one guy that gave Steph the vote couldn't give it to Devin Booker. Or the one guy that. Or there's two guys that gave SGA a vote here and they couldn't give it to. So Luca actually got two votes for best shooting guard. He got. I'm trying to do the math here. 5 votes for best point guard and he won best small forward with nine or 10 votes. Tatum probably would have won it if his Achilles wasn't blown. So Luca was top five in three different positions.
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Kyle
I don't know how he's a shooting guard. I will never understand that.
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Ryan Marcillo
Remember too, that you can't vote for your own guys. So best power forward, Giannis, 93% of the vote. That was low. Mobley had two votes. So that means Milwaukee voted for Mobley and then somebody else voted for Mobley. That I like Evan Mobley a lot. That seems ridiculous. That one person that was not ineligible from voting for Giannis. Best center in the NBA, Jokic, 97% of the vote. So I guess that means Denver voted for Victoria. Let's. Let's dig into the off season stuff. People love the Hawks off season.
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Kyle
It confused me. People love the Hawks in general. I feel like everyone but Trey.
- [25:01]
Ryan Marcillo
People are so excited about the Hawks off season that when I was recapping some of the off season moves because I was like, did they do more? Yeah, well, they got na. They brought in Canard. And then obviously Porzingis is the thing that everybody's really excited about. And I would say to anybody, like, yeah, when it's good with Porzingis, it's pretty good. But there should be a governor on your potential excitement about what that's going to be for the next however many months, because the track record is atrocious. But they won the best off season, which seems a little dismissive of the Durant acquisition for what the Houston Rockets did here. So it's Porzingis canard. And sometimes when I look at the best off season reaction, it'll be about like, quantity, not necessarily always quality. But I was laughing because when I was going through it last night, you know, when it's dig deeper into AI mode. Even AI was going. Trae Young was incredibly valuable on his influence in bringing in all these players. AI was on Trey Young side. I was like, this is nuts. Did you like the Desmond Bain reaction?
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Kyle
Yeah, well, listen, I, I had this written down. A lot of. Lot of Magic love here, which I don't know that I should be excited about or terrified about because usually, like, you know, whoever wins the off season, like that team never in any sport, that team never does anything. Just going back to like, what was it?
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Ryan Marcillo
The.
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Kyle
The Dream Team, Philadelphia Eagles. But like Magic picked 47% to be the most improved. That's number one, third best team in the East. Franz was on fifth on the breakout list, which I don't know that I like the Franz breakout thing. Franz is now we're getting into like my Laurie Markkanen territory where it's like he's already been around for so long. He's going to have another breakout maybe. Hope he does, but he's there. 4th best off season and Bain was the number one most underrated player acquisition, which I think that is a true ball knowers know that that was an excellent trade for the Magic. I don't want to hear about how many first round picks it was. They're not going to matter. Sorry to Chris Vernon, but like it's a great, it's a great acquisition no matter how, how you look at it.
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Ryan Marcillo
Dude. Heads up to the non ball knowers. You just got, you just got called out, son.
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Kyle
You just got got. Yeah, there you go.
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Ryan Marcillo
The MVP Jokic. 67%. I think that would be like a shift on. Hey, if he and SGA have the same seasons, then SGA will lose the momentum part of it because it's not new. And then they'll give it back to Jokic when Jokic should have won it last year anyway.
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Kyle
I'd be stunned if SGA won an MVP next year. Stunned.
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Ryan Marcillo
Yeah. Luka got three votes on this. Wembanyama got two votes. I'm going to say it again. Is there any chance. See, I don't even like doing this because then it's going to turn into me being like a non Wembanyama guy. But is there any chance the NBA world is collectively losing their mind about what Wembanyama will be this year?
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Kyle
He's 75 now though, officially. So.
- [27:56]
Ryan Marcillo
I think he was officially. What I mean by that is it's not a stats thing, it's not the defense thing. It's just are you going to be a go to bucket? Because that's what you have to be to be the kind of player we think you can be. You have to be a go to solve our problems. Get us a bucket. So the starting the franchise thing, when do you think the last time. What's the last year LeBron won if you could start a franchise with any player? So I went back, I was on this all night.
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Kyle
So he's drafted in 03.
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Ryan Marcillo
Yeah.
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Kyle
2012.
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Ryan Marcillo
Pretty good. Pretty good. 2015.
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Kyle
Wow. I didn't think it creeped into the second Cav stint years while. That's a good guy.
- [28:45]
Ryan Marcillo
That's a good guess. Yeah, that was a good guess. So AD won it in 16 and then as everybody knows, that was the 201516 season for AD when he won it. And then they got off that quick because 16, 17, Cat won this, which I've referenced many Times he won it with 48% of the vote. So that means like half the NBA GMs that voted on this in 1617 said if I could start my franchise with any player in the NBA, it would be Karl Anthony Towns. AD had won it the previous year with 86% of the vote. There was a couple breakout season hopeful votes for Andrew Wiggins in year three. In 1617 he did have a better season average.23 a game.
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Kyle
NBA champion.
- [29:40]
Ryan Marcillo
Yeah, let me see if I can even read my handwriting. The best player in five years from that draft. From the Ben Simmons draft, the best player in five years, Chris Dunn got six votes.
- [29:56]
Kyle
Oh man.
- [29:57]
Ryan Marcillo
So that's. You ask the GMs. Here are the rookies. It'll be like, hey, who's going to be the best rookie? But then they'll say okay, of this rookie class, who's going to be the best? Six general managers watch Chris Dunn play in college and said he'll be the best player from this draft class in five years.
- [30:12]
Kyle
I, I did write down because the one this year, obviously Cooper flag is 93% right? Yeah.
- [30:21]
Ryan Marcillo
So that means only one GM didn't vote for him because Dallas can't vote for him.
- [30:25]
Kyle
Right. Reed shepherd. The Reed shepherd love. Last year he won. He won most likely to win rookie of the Year and he won best player in five years. And I'm still not, I'm still holding Reed shepherd stock. So like I'm not getting rid of any of it. But that's crazy to me. I forgot how high we thought of him because that draft was such a question mark and he just barely played.
- [30:51]
Ryan Marcillo
Now I did double check the intro on this piece at least for 25, 26. Percentages are based on the pool respondents to that particular question and not necessarily all 30 gm. So maybe I'm, I'm being but I like on the wembanyama one best center. I think that's pretty self evident that if one guy decided to not vote for Gokich, it's probably his own team on that one. So six votes for Chris Dunn. Steel of the draft, Henry Ellenson. Three votes that year. Shout out to Big H. I kind of like huge.
- [31:25]
Kyle
Did you see who was voted most likely to be the best player in 5 years 5 years ago?
- [31:31]
Ryan Marcillo
James Wiseman.
- [31:33]
Kyle
Yeah, damn.
- [31:36]
Ryan Marcillo
Do you want to go over those numbers? So Wiseman had 36% of the vote. Mello had 25% of the vote. Ant had four votes. The guy who was picked one, only four people voted that he would be the best Player in five years. He was the best player in five days. Not really true because like there was a lot of lamello stuff there very early on where I was like, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. But James Wiseman, that means 12 people voted for him and only 4 voted for Ant. So again, shout out to those guys. We saw something about the possibilities of what it could be. NBA GMs. They can be just like us sometimes. This isn't to make fun of them because in 2018 they said that the steal of the draft was Neil Alexander Walker, 17th overall to New Orleans. The best player. The best player from the Zion Ja Morant draft. The best player from that also known as the RJ Barrett draft. In five years, Zion 67% of the vote. Ja 19% of the vote. Cam Reddish had two votes. Oh, man. In five years, Cam Reddish would be better than all those suckers.
- [32:56]
Kyle
Where's he China? He's not in the league. Right.
- [33:01]
Ryan Marcillo
There's some fan base going like, look how long he is. I mean, because you want to talk length. Steal the draft.
- [33:06]
Kyle
Lithuanian Lithuanian league. My bad.
- [33:09]
Ryan Marcillo
Steal the draft 2015. Rodney, you can feel good, good about Hood. He was number 23. Yeah, nice. Nice is a great way to describe man. You know, he's got some. He has a nice game. It's Rodney Hood. Lionel Holland's also going to coach. Vote for. For best coach in the NBA. Better said would be a vote for coach. Best coach. There was a ton of 2015 and a 16 jabari parker hope. Just outrageous amounts. There was also three votes for Emmanuel Moodya to be the best player from that rookie class in five years. It's hard folks, but sometimes they do a good job. 2021 breakout player, 15% of the vote. SGA 2021, his second year there and boy, did he ever break out. And then you have the other ones where Durant went to Golden State and 4 GM still voted for Al Horford. Going to Boston is the biggest impact move. Like, hey, Durant's going to go and probably put together the best starting five in the history of the game. Yeah, but have you seen Horford defend a pick and roll? Yeah.
- [34:37]
Kyle
Not as nice as Al Horford.
- [34:40]
Ryan Marcillo
That's one of those. When you're on the air all the time and you'd be like, you know what I'm kind of thinking like, yeah, this Durant thing I'm trade with dollar I would take. I get it. I get the Durant part of it. But I think what people are missing here is you Want to talk about boxing out on free throws? You want to talk about verbalizing, switching? You want to talk about just a nice silky 17 footer that he may not take a lot of? Like, there's a glue factor to Horford that I think. And then you're just talking yourself into this terrible fucking segment. And then you're like, I've got it.
- [35:20]
Kyle
No, it's just prime spite, and I honestly respect it.
- [35:25]
Ryan Marcillo
That's exactly what it was.
- [35:28]
Kyle
I respect the hell out of it, and I won't criticize anyone who did that.
- [35:31]
Ryan Marcillo
All right, Good stuff. Thank you to the NBA GMs who do this, and thanks to john@mba.com. yeah. This episode is brought to you by Little Caesars, the official pizza sponsor of the NFL. At Little Caesars, the pizzas are always large, so you'll always get more bite for less buck on game day. I remember my first experience with Little Caesars. I was like, so we're getting pizzas, right? And the guys were like, not just pizzas. We're getting all of the other stuff. You're like, like what? You've never had the bread that goes with it and the dipping sauces. And I'm like, so I'm kind of getting a version of pizza that isn't pizza that I get to eat before I eat my pizza. That was the first day of the rest of my life. And knowing that people are coming over, hey, what kind of pizza want? Oh, what do you want? Oh, I don't want. Oh, all right. How about we also do this little thing over here with all that nice warm marinara as you get ready to make your pizza decision? That's why Little Caesars and the experience I've had, the history I've had with that experience is something I will cherish the rest of my life. Right now, you can get 15% off orders over $15 on NFL game days with code Gameday. Order now at Little Caesars.com or in the Little Caesars app. Offer ends February 8, 2026. Offer good at participating Little Caesar stores on app and online orders, excluding third party online sites with an online purchase of $15 or more. Only available on NFL game days. Enter promo code at Checkout to get 15% off your order online. Max discount, $5 limit, 1 per person per day. Cannot be combined with any other offers, plus tax where applicable. Prices may vary. Delivery available from participating locations with online orders only. Copyright 2025 LCE Incorporated. Jeff Darlington. ESPN covers the NFL, doesn't just cover the NFL. He's become international. He's great on the show. So excited to talk to him. What's up, man? Good to see you.
- [37:25]
Jeff Darlington
Good to see you, too. Yeah. You know, I'm a football guy during football season, though, Ryan. It's none of that golf and tennis shit at this point.
- [37:34]
Ryan Marcillo
You should. I don't want you to lose any of those assignments because I understand how you.
- [37:38]
Jeff Darlington
I love it. It's awesome. Truly. It's. It's very fun. Very different.
- [37:43]
Ryan Marcillo
Yeah, it's great, man. It's great to kind of even crack into some of the golf stuff at espn, too, especially. I think there's like a long list of people that go, can I do some majors? Can I travel for all these things? So good for you. And obviously, after your Schaeffler moment, I mean, that was a whole nother level. So let's start with a couple teams here. San Francisco, that Tampa. You've got that game. You've been around these teams. It's four straight for the Niners. Last year's game was terrific. You know, they're the 1 and 2 seeds in the NFC today. So I think the simple question is like, all right, we can get in the matchup and everything, but do you think these teams are better than, say, the kind of understood trio of Green Bay, Detroit and Philadelphia in the nfc?
- [38:26]
Jeff Darlington
I don't know that I'm ready to go there yet. I think it's just. I'm just not someone who commits to any narratives at this point in the season, whether it be about a team success or an MVP conversation or whatever it might be. I will say what I think is unique about both of these teams, the bucks and the 49ers, is that they're both doing it despite some injuries that some. The 49ers, more so at some very key spots. And I think that that speaks volumes to where they could potentially go with this season. 49ers incredibly impressive, and I think it's just a continuation of the belief that Kyle Shanahan can make chicken salad out of chicken shit, quite frankly, he's so good at it. And if they can get healthy at the right time, something they haven't been able to do even in the postseason in recent years. I do think that they are right there with those other teams that you mentioned. Detroit, Green Bay, some of those other NFC powerhouses.
- [39:32]
Ryan Marcillo
Yeah, I know it seems weird to say Philadelphia after last night, but I think I still.
- [39:36]
Jeff Darlington
By the way, I'm not going to jump on. I'm not jumping off that bandwagon either. Like Are we going to fire Nick Sirianni again in week seven?
- [39:46]
Ryan Marcillo
I'm totally with you. I mean, it was really bad last night. There's also a collection of names, but, I mean, there's certain teams where, you know, I would say about, like the Eagles O line specifically, and we'll get back to the other game here. But if you are, without question the best O line in football. Although, look, you can make an argument for what Denver's able to put out there every single week, but when you're losing one player on the O line, like, I just don't have as much sympathy for you when you can't run the football, like, if. If every one of us are sitting there going, look at this guy. Look at this roster. So that makes me think, like, there's hope. But last night's performance was terrible. And it's not just because Landon Dickerson's out of the game.
- [40:24]
Jeff Darlington
That's right. It was terrible. I agree. It's just so early. I mean, again, I just, I think that we jumped on the Eagles so early when they were. Came out of the gates like 10 and oh, a couple years ago. And then we're going to jump on it again when they're at this point. I just think that we need to give them a little bit of time. I'm still not. Anyway, I know we're not even talking about the Eagles, but I'm not. Sky is falling with them just yet.
- [40:45]
Ryan Marcillo
Yeah. Because you can just look and I think we're totally aligned and I'll move on here. But it's like, okay. But the cycles of how a season goes, like, it's almost like three or four seasons within a season for every single team. And so when you look at the roster and go, okay, well, these guys aren't on IR here. Like, there's a path to figuring this out and they're better. Go ahead.
- [41:04]
Jeff Darlington
No, to bring it back to the, to the matchup that we're talking about with the 49ers and the Bucks. Like, I am. I've been fully in on the Bucks for years just because of the way the gm Jason Light, does things. I think he. He builds. And they have the best deal in football with Baker Mayfield, given what they're paying him. But they still, with this team. And these players do need to prove that they're more than just a regular season squad. Like, to me, I'm willing to give more grace to the Chiefs and the Eagles at times like this because I know in January what they're capable of. And it does take a different type of football. That's why I'm very impressed by the Bucks. But I'm still not going to say that they're ready to go win the super bowl with this team just yet.
- [41:47]
Ryan Marcillo
I think in previous years, I was just straight up dismissive of it, like, hey, nice little story. And as Baker gets better every single year, you know, the O line issues that we saw in that Houston game in particular, and I'm just going to reference that game, I feel like all season long, because I was on a plane, that's all I was going to do. And I was just completely locked in on, like, every single snap. And it was just such a wild game.
- [42:10]
Jeff Darlington
I feel super smart. Because you watched the whole game. Like, that's how I am, too. Like, these guys who, like, break, like Orlovsky, who, like, watch every game, every week I watch one game, and I swear to God, I think I'm like, you know Chris Berman.
- [42:23]
Ryan Marcillo
Yeah. Because I'm like, oh, this is okay. They're having a really hard time with this defensive tackle and all these different things. Give me, give me kind of like the. The larger view. Because you've referenced Jason Light in the post Brady thing, their draft approach and where this roster is, and a defense that now, I don't know that they ever get talked about, maybe they shouldn't statistically, but it's a defense that definitely, it feels like it's disrupted games in a way that maybe I wasn't always banking on in previous versions, the last two years.
- [42:55]
Jeff Darlington
True. When it comes to Jason, I think that there's two players that really symbolize what they've been able to do in the post Brady era, and the first of which, of course, is Baker. Um, and like, I'm not saying that there's not a degree of luck in, you know, acquiring. I. You know, if I think that there was a part of Jason Light that's like, no, we could take a chance on this guy. And I think he just has sensibility when it comes to risk management with players. So you go get him and you're paying him, what, $3 million his first year, and then you say, wow, this guy's performing really well. Let's get out in front of this. Let's give him a nice deal that's, you know, not top end market, but let's get ahead of this and make sure we reward a guy who feels like our franchise guy. And then this year before that, they can, you know, before Baker's saying, God damn, I'm Underpaid. This feels like a There's dissension kind of what we see with the Cowboys. They go and say, hey, Baker, we're going to guarantee you your salary in 2026. Don't even come to us. Don't even worry about that. That's yours. And then we're going to figure out your contract soon, too. I think the sensibility of all of that is what leads to both good morale in a locker room, but also good deals with players. And then you go out and you draft a guy like a mecca Buca at wide receiver, who, by the way, they knew this summer, I just. You could tell talking to them, that they knew this guy was going to be a stud. So when you can wisely pick up free agents like Baker Mayfield at key positions and get homegrown talent, that's the key. And I think that they've done that. Now, will that translate to a Super Bowl? I don't know yet. But I think that they've been wise in the way that they've built a roster at a time when they should have really been in purgatory after Tom Brady retired.
- [44:48]
Ryan Marcillo
I think the cycling, too, of the NFL is like, it's likely that four of the teams maybe we had in front of them in the nfc, like two or three to struggle, you know, we don't. We don't know what's going to happen with Green Bay. Detroit looks like the best team in the NFL right now, but yet you go back to that Green Bay week one thing, and I think all of us that have done this long enough, it's like, oh, my God, Green Bay looks incredible. And then it's like, are you surprised that they are not looking like that every single week? Of course not. That's the sport. It's just, at least for me, it's more of an open mind. You know, I just was dismissive of Tampa. There's a cap there, cool story, got to be ready to play them. Maybe they get a playoff game. But I'm not going to let you convince me that there's something they can do beyond this. And I think in 25, do you.
- [45:34]
Jeff Darlington
Still feel that way?
- [45:35]
Ryan Marcillo
No, that's the point. That's. Now it's like, hey, what if. What if Philly doesn't get healthy? You know, what if the Green Bay thing was kind of a fluke? What if Detroit has some. And I don't want to base it all just down to injuries and all this different stuff, but, like, just the way Baker's played and to be able to get Igbuka knowing that Mike Evans is still, you know, a major factor, but you're probably not banking on his health and that it doesn't really matter. And if the old line's right, yeah, I think that's where I'm at. Bucks, they also.
- [46:04]
Jeff Darlington
They just got some shit to them too, right? Yeah, he always looked for that with. And, you know, you could go the other way and say that they've won all these, like, close games that easily could have gone the other way and we'd be like dismissing them. You know, are they going to be built for. To win these games in January? You could make a case either way that they, they aren't blowing teams out. So maybe they're not that good. But you could also say they're going to be battle tested. All the cliches that we can throw out there, depending on what narrative we want to, you know, we want to fit.
- [46:33]
Ryan Marcillo
Yeah. And it's the same thing that Baker even referenced in one of the press conferences. I don't know if it was this week or an earlier week, but it was. And I mean, he nailed it. He's like, now it's moxie. He's like perfect.
- [46:44]
Jeff Darlington
He's. He's awesome. We're doing. I'm doing something on that for Sunday Countdown about. Basically built off that quote which you just referenced. But he said before I was immature and what was the other word he used? I was immature and.
- [47:01]
Ryan Marcillo
Thought it was cocky. Arrogant or something.
- [47:03]
Jeff Darlington
Cocky and immature. And now I'm a dog and I have moxie. It's so true. I mean, he really hasn't changed that much. I will say that I think that there is a more mature Baker in there to pick his spots. But when you see him talking trash to the Seahawks fans, like, when you're winning, you love that in your quarterback. And I also think that. I really think that he fits Tampa more than people realize. Like, I'm from that area, but you got to have. I know Tampa thinks, you know, it's. That's the ultimate Florida man territory. Like, there's some freaks in Tampa. And I think that Baker's got some of that grit that, that just sort of fits that community in a way that people probably don't realize.
- [47:47]
Ryan Marcillo
If they lose the Seattle game and he's yelling you're a pussy to a fan, that is process. Yeah.
- [47:53]
Jeff Darlington
Doesn't work. But if he's yelling it when you're winning, I tell you right now, those pirates in Tampa will love you.
- [48:00]
Ryan Marcillo
I'd say the most important thing of all of that, because I'm not going to sit there and, like, praise that. I think that's cool just because they won.
- [48:07]
Jeff Darlington
Right.
- [48:07]
Ryan Marcillo
I don't know that I would lose it. We already know, like, if this. If this were an average season from him, and maybe they're two and three because the bounces go the other way. They don't get the pick late against Seattle, he's screaming, you're a pussy to a fan. I mean, it is.
- [48:22]
Jeff Darlington
It is his point, too. I mean, that's on. That's on us. That's not on him. And I think that's his point. We can call whatever we want. He's sitting there saying, I'm doing the same stuff that I've always done. Call me whatever you want. It's just who I am. And I think that that's true. And if you know Baker on any level, I mean, he's really. I hate to use the word. Normal is not the right word. I hate when people say, I almost just did it. But he's just a dude who plays really good football and has an edge to him that he's carried with him. And you talk to people in Tampa who will tell you on days when it's good, when they're doing well and coming off a win and Baker doesn't have something to have a chip on his shoulder about, that's when he's in the absolute worst mood. He'll come in there and you don't even want to talk to him because he's just manufacturing it inside of him. That's just who he is. For good or for bad.
- [49:17]
Ryan Marcillo
Yeah. I even thought the Carolina, like, Steve Wilkes thing was weird because I'm like, first of all, you weren't even that good when you were there. And I think it was bigger than I think there were a lot of.
- [49:28]
Jeff Darlington
That's very Tom Brady esque, where you're like, you're around Tom and he's in a bad mood and it's like, oh, wait, you're doing the thing where you manufacture something completely out of thin air.
- [49:39]
Ryan Marcillo
The most important part of this, and you're around football for your. Essentially your entire professional career, but the most important thing is, like, as long as his teammates, when they break the huddle, believe in him and love all this stuff. Like, that's the most important thing 100%. And.
- [49:54]
Jeff Darlington
And that's very likable. Again, when you're. I mean.
- [49:57]
Ryan Marcillo
Right.
- [49:57]
Jeff Darlington
You know, I don't know that he ever did. He. I'm Trying to go back to even Cleveland when he was doing this kind of stuff. Did he lose the locker room there? I don't think.
- [50:07]
Ryan Marcillo
I just don't think he was healthy. He was playing. There were games, I remember, with him in Cleveland, and I'm not sitting there suggesting that. I thought he would have this redemptive look and all this kind of stuff, but I thought he was pretty here. I don't remember. I don't remember his arm was hurt.
- [50:21]
Jeff Darlington
I just don't remember if he. To your point, like, I mean, these guys love playing for him, you know, And I think that that's. You know, that goes a long way, too.
- [50:32]
Ryan Marcillo
So on the Niner side of this, and it feels like a Shanahan question, because I just like talking to you guys that are in so many meetings and get that time that we don't necessarily see on camera. But I really, for whatever reason, I've liked the Niners organization for a long time. I kind of feel the same way about the Rams. You know, I just liked how proactive both front offices seem to be. Clearly, with McVeigh and Shanahan, it's on a short list of the best coaches here. But that Niners win against the Rams, like, what I loved about that win is you could tell that lynch and that staff, that they went into that going, we have no chance to win. I mean, maybe they pretended they did they pull that game out with all of those injuries. So it feels a bit like a Shanahan question. So if it's Shanahan, go ahead. But I'm wondering, of the people that you've had multiple interactions with, who do you come away with? When you talk football with other people in the media or just your friends, you're like, this person is just so impressive every single time.
- [51:27]
Jeff Darlington
Yeah, well, that's. That's Kyle. I mean, but that's always. And I think that the. The. The underrated component to Kyle, like, I go back to. I mean, I think when I first covered him, and I've known him very well for almost two decades now, he was the offensive coordinator at Houston, and I think I was covering the Dolphins for the Miami Herald, and I remember Matt Schaub, like, the last play of the game in Houston, Matt Schaub was the quarterback, and they ran a quarterback draw, like, designed up the middle to win the game. And I was like, who the hell called that play? And it was Kyle, and it was to do what he did. And I always remember from that moment being like, he's different because. And I think that that's just a very small microcosm kind of look into. It's these games against the Rams where he thrives the most because he's a mad scientist. And you ever watched the, the Bear. So you know how like his big problem is that he wants to change the ingredients every single night. That's Kyle. Like Kyle never wants the menu to be the same. And there are Sean McVay always fine, having the best six things on the menu at all times, and Kyle always wants to change it. And that can get you, that can bite you at times because you're, you're worn so thin, you're grinding so much throughout the week with this new game plan to take advantage of your opponents. But it's games like this against the Rams when you have nobody, when you benefit the most from that. And I think that that is the genius of Kyle. But to a degree, that's also probably the thing that maybe hurts him the most at the end of the season.
- [53:20]
Ryan Marcillo
Yeah, I mean, the Mac Jones part of it. And run, it's like, this is him. And it's funny too that you bring up Matt Schaub because it's like, hey, that was. Remember when he had that weird little run?
- [53:29]
Jeff Darlington
That was Kyle. I mean, it's unbelievable. Kyle, Kyle is like, nobody wants to ever hear this because of the cursed Super Bowls. And just. And by the way, like I said, a lot self inflicted. But if you just take the body of work, like he's on a Hall of Fame trajectory as a head coach and if he gets fired in San Francisco, there will be 31 owners looking very hard at their head coach saying, do we want Kyle? Instead, I'm telling you, like, inside football, I understand the frustrations, but inside football, he is still like, respected to a degree that few others are.
- [54:14]
Ryan Marcillo
Okay, you had Kansas City for that Baltimore win. Right. And it was a, hey, Kansas City is going to be fine. But then it's also like, look at what's happening to Baltimore. But because of all the different injuries, were you able to gather anything from that game? Because you were. There was a lot of stuff that I was reading that you were covering. I'll point to a couple of them here as we're chatting, but it was like, hey, this Lamar thing looked a little bit more significant than maybe just he's leaving the game. And so now they get blasted by Houston again. The top six paid players on the team weren't even active in that game. They were missing at the end of the Chiefs game. Were you able to gather anything else from just being around it there on what Lamar is or where this team is. Long term.
- [54:59]
Jeff Darlington
The Ravens, I feel like, are. The problem is they. Even before the injuries started to mount, they were having issues on defense to the point where the defensive coordinator is starting to get questioned right away. And then all of a sudden you're like, well, they've got to creep themselves out of this hole. The entire defense gets hurt. Multiple guys going into that game. And then during that game, and then Lamar. To me, that was sort of. I mean, again, I don't like to write teams off at any point, but at that point, you're like, okay, this is not the Ravens year. There was a part of me going into that, like, the Ravens could still be that team where they flip the script and maybe they're not as good in the regular season, but they get hot in the postseason, unlike years past. But I think that sometimes you just don't have that year defensive side of the ball. They're going to have to go into a full evaluation mode of. Of how they want that to look after losing the coordinator last year, I just think. And from. So I'm not saying, right, the season off, but I feel pretty certain that the Ravens are just not. Which, by the way, you could come out of that game saying, the Chiefs still feel vulnerable, but they got that win. I would say, though, that you take the Bengals out of the mix, you take the Ravens out of the mix. The Bills obviously look really good for the most part, other than, you know.
- [56:21]
Ryan Marcillo
Maybe, you know, look, I think that Bill's defense, even at moments, I don't know if it's a Saints game more than the Baltimore game. You know, the Baltimore game, it's like, all right, opening week and that rushing attack looked like impossible. The Henry Lamar stuff that they were doing week one, you're like, okay, maybe this isn't entirely on the Bills side secondary, because this is really, really hard to do. They come back, it might end up being the best win in the entire regular season. But whether it was, you know, look, the turnover thing was finally going to happen to him after 26 straight games, winning the turnover battle, which was an NFL record. But there's stuff even with the Bills where, you know, it is stupid. We can't help ourselves. But it's like we forget that the best teams generally are going to go 13 and 4, 12 and 5. So that means. That means there's going to be a month of football where it doesn't work out for you, and they're not all going to be great.
- [57:09]
Jeff Darlington
That's right. That's a good way of looking at it. But I also, I'll, I'll say, you know, it's funny because I, I, what, two, three years ago you would have said, man, the AFC is impossible to get through and you want to be in the NFC at that time. And now it's kind of flipped because of this year and the way. I mean, it's obviously somewhat injury oriented with Burrow going down, but you're taking some of those top teams out of the mix and the Chiefs are going to get Rashid Rice back. They are like, that is a big components. Have all those guys on the field. You saw they're better with Worthy. I just, I mean, it's, it's going to wind up being the Chiefs and the Bills at the end of the season again. I just, I don't, I don't know who else is going to really step up and challenge them.
- [57:52]
Ryan Marcillo
Okay, but that's, that's good too because like, that Chiefs win against the Ravens, it just was like, okay, at least even with all the Ravens injuries here, which, you know, was a huge factor because we're talking about like the best defensive.
- [58:04]
Jeff Darlington
No, no, it was huge.
- [58:06]
Ryan Marcillo
Huge. Right? It wasn't just a couple of guys who were like, hey, we have 11 guys on defense who are the five best. It's like, okay, well, they're all not going to play. But it looked like that Mahomes style of quarterbacking that looked like basketball again. And then they get that Jags team where I'm like, okay, well, coming off of where they're at now, this Jags thing again, I'll just admit it feels a little fluky because of the turnover margin being so dramatic in their favor. Something that is just not sustainable. I was like, it's going to make sense, you know, prime time. They'll be on and they're going to win and then they don't. All right. And it was the pick that Lawrence threw despite me feeling like he just might be average. And we have to kind of get over it. Like, there's some of these quarterbacks, like, we're going to be having the same conversation about this QB in five years and that should tell us that, like, hey, this might be it. I've seen some other people argue that it has been better with Combs offense and that like, there's, there's things to feel better about. Again, that interception was a completely missed call, but that's a huge win in that spot where now it was kind of like twofold. It was. Did I get too excited about this inevitable Chiefs thing where I give them the benefit of the doubt and am I just writing off a Jags team with a really good record in an AFC that, to your point, that's more open now?
- [59:20]
Jeff Darlington
No, I think that that's probably the most. One of the most interesting games of the season. I'm not going to go so far as to compare it entirely to the last night between the Giants and the Eagles, but there was a little bit of that there for me, too, where I'm like, Jackson, Dart and Scatter Boo feel pretty energizing. Like, this Giants team is putting up points and everybody's just pointing to the Eagles and the issues that they have. And I would kind of look at that Jags game similarly in that, you know, the Jags looked impressive no matter who they were up against. Does that mean that the Chiefs are just a more vulnerable team? To me, it's. It's definitely one of the more compelling. I didn't expect the Jags and the Chiefs to be as compelling a watch. I was very entertained by the game, but also sort of. Sort of sucked into the idea that maybe this Jags team really is worth watching. Which, by the way, still, I still subscribe to the fact that neither of us will probably talk about the Jags until probably week 15. Like, I don't know what it's going to take for us to really be like, no, that team is ready to go. Yeah.
- [60:35]
Ryan Marcillo
I mean, I don't. They're going to be at home against Seattle in the Rams. I mean, does. Does Liam Cohen feel any different? Does it. Does it feel different? Because I don't know what to do with Lawrence. And that was. The whole point, is that it was supposed to be better. And again, I've seen some people that I do respect trying to make the argument that it's. That it's better than it's been. Statistically, it's. You could argue it's worse.
- [60:59]
Jeff Darlington
Well, there were still some moments in the game where you're like. Like when he didn't have. And I'm never.
- [61:05]
Ryan Marcillo
I'm not.
- [61:05]
Jeff Darlington
I mean, I think Trevor Lawrence is awesome. Like, I really. I really do. I've been pretty. Pretty positive on him. But there's. There's these moments when he, like, crosses the line of scrimmage and throws and he gets penalized for that. Like, little things like that where you're like, ah, man, I feel like those things should be out of your system by now.
- [61:20]
Ryan Marcillo
The Clock stuff. I mean, winning that game is one thing. And he makes the unbelievable play of getting back up. And Chris Jones apologized for just stopping. And that was after he had taken inside on a rush, on a pass rush that let the quarterback get out earlier in the season. Um, so whatever. I mean, we're not going to do a Chris Jones segment here, but I guess I'm with you. Like, what if they beat Seattle and the Rams? They're at home.
- [61:49]
Jeff Darlington
You know, if they, if they win both of those games, I think we're, we're on the, on the clock. But think about that. Think about what we're saying. They have to beat the Rams, the Seahawks and the Chiefs for us to start to respect them. Like, no shit.
- [62:01]
Ryan Marcillo
And I, you know, again, they beat the Niners in that game where it was. What did they end up with? I mean, it was four turnovers.
- [62:13]
Jeff Darlington
Well, that, yeah. And I think that that's, that's part of the problem is you, like, at some point you just want everything and we just need more of a body of work. That's the truth. Even if they were to lose one of those games, if they're turnover free and have some turnover, they get in some picks and good offensive output, I think that I'd start to respect it.
- [62:34]
Ryan Marcillo
You're right though. If you're a Jags fan, you're like, so you're going to beat the Chiefs, Seahawks and Rams. And then you guys will be like, hey, maybe they're the fourth best team in the afc. Like, that's bullshit. And you're right to be upset about it, but TBD. Okay, let's talk a little dolphins. Sure. Mike McDaniel. You know, this is a very Baker conversation. This is just like we were talking about with Baker. Because when they got things rolling offensively and the biggest thing is like, look at the defensive numbers from, from last year to this year. Okay, but my point with McDaniel has been he was, he was brought in to do one thing and that was fix. Tua. Do we have a franchise qb? Because it really didn't look like you had anything remote. It looked like a backup. Okay? And then that part of it's fixed. And the audience already knows this part. Cause I've already done this timeline a million times. And the quirky, weird reference personality thing, like when they're scoring points, it's like.
- [63:33]
Jeff Darlington
That'S a great analogy.
- [63:34]
Ryan Marcillo
Right? And then when they're losing, it's like, I can't believe this guy is a head coach and we're showing him rambling at the podium, which he had always done. Okay, just looks so bad before they show. And by the way, like, this is my biggest thing on the body language. Who gets their ass kicked in sports, who looks like they're having a good time?
- [63:55]
Jeff Darlington
You don't want that either.
- [63:56]
Ryan Marcillo
That might be alarming.
- [63:58]
Jeff Darlington
That's. It would 100% be alarming. I mean, and you can't. You can't win in these moments. Like, you just. I don't know. I have a tough time with this one, too, because I really do have huge amount of respect for McDaniel and have been on record for that for many years. And I don't believe that you just get stupid overnight to where you were running an offense that led the league both when you were having success in that first year and then again when things were. I mean, like, his record coming into the year, when two was healthy, when he had a starter, you look at just the numbers and you're saying it's hard to just think this guy is suddenly a dumb coach. I do not subscribe to that belief. And I, you know, I understand. I get eye rolls from Dolphins fans when I say that because they're in this moment of frustration. But, you know, there's coaches all around the league right now, whether it's Ben Johnson who was in Miami or Dan Campbell who was in Miami. And I'm not saying they got ran off, but we see it all the time in this league. We're talking about Baker Mayfield. You know, he was a laughingstock not long ago. I just think that it is very difficult to evaluate right now who is at fault for the Dolphins woes. Is it the personnel? Is it an offensive line and a defensive line that seem vastly incapable and on offense, undersized? A secondary that we knew coming into the season? I mean, can you name the starters in the secondary for the Dolphins? And even if you did, would you have ever heard of them?
- [65:33]
Kyle
No.
- [65:35]
Jeff Darlington
We kind of knew that these problems, we're going to rear their head. So do you just blow it up, all of it, and say we don't know where the blame is, so we're just going to blow it all up? Or do you. Do you go about it with more nuance? I think that that's what Steven Ross has to do right now. I don't envy it. But I will say I do not think that Mike McDaniel is suddenly stupid.
- [65:58]
Ryan Marcillo
Is Storm Duck healthy, though?
- [66:00]
Jeff Darlington
Yeah. So you do know.
- [66:02]
Kyle
I just.
- [66:03]
Ryan Marcillo
I just looked it up. I mean, other than Minkowski, have you Ever heard of that?
- [66:05]
Jeff Darlington
I mean, first of all, it's a great name, but, like, that's, that's, it's just. I just look across the roster and, and you can, you can obviously pick out the people like every other sport and every other team who believes in who. And obviously it sounds like I probably think that Mike McDaniel is a pretty good coach. So I'm going to point to the roster, but I understand that there's, there's a defense to make, you know, across the board.
- [66:36]
Ryan Marcillo
The two are part of it, though. I mean, disastrous, disastrous stuff at the end. And, you know, this is crazy. Like, if you ever want a study and how irrelevant completion percentage could be, like, look, if you're sub. If you're sub, 50% completion rate is an NFL QB today. You're not going to be around very long. All right? So that's, that's one part of it. But he's at like 71, 72% completion rate the last two years. Um, and I think because of everything that he's gone through, clearly they've. They've been like, you've got to play to protect yourself. It's pretty obvious that he's.
- [67:13]
Jeff Darlington
Internally, that's what you want to be in as a coach or quarterback.
- [67:16]
Ryan Marcillo
He was always like between 35, 45 rushes a season, 17 last year, only seven this year. Hasn't had a rushing touchdown, I think in three, three, four years, maybe three. But he is. It's getting at least, if you can a couple times a game, burn somebody on a third and six scramble, which he always could do, and now when it's like you should never do, makes it even harder. And I mean, there's a confidence thing with him that is, that is different. I mean, we could point to all sorts of stats, but there's just not much juice there.
- [67:52]
Jeff Darlington
If that is the case, and if we're going to, let's just use that as the exercise here. And this is why, like, this comes across as being hate toward Tua. But if that is the case where you have to. And I think Tua is immensely talented. Again, we've seen that. But if you're having to call an offense differently, that was why I really never understood, and I was on the record saying it, why would you have paid him going into that fifth year when you could just evaluate him after? It wasn't as if the deal that was on the table was going to.
- [68:23]
Kyle
Be.
- [68:25]
Jeff Darlington
That much higher after the season had he won. They were paying him top of market dollar going into that Fifth year. So why not just evaluate the fifth year and make the decision after? To me, the math didn't make sense, and it was almost like an emotional decision. We're going to support this guy who has been through so much and show him that we believe in him. And it's like the economics of football, and beyond just the economics of it. Suddenly you find yourself in this situation where what we're doing right now, well, is it his fault? Is it his fault? And you know, you have Tua next year as well, contractually, or you're paying $55 million for nothing. So now you're in this weird situation where I was talking about with Jason Light, with Baker Mayfield. Just these smart decisions at the right times, and you can get ahead of a contract with the player when it's merited. Like what the Cowboys should have done with Micah or Dak. I think in this situation, you weren't going to get a deal economically by paying him before the season as opposed to after it. I just don't think they ever should have paid him.
- [69:33]
Ryan Marcillo
I think you'd agree, though, and I'm not disagreeing with anything you said, but it seems like the way business is done in all these sports, there's always something where it's like, well, why? Why do you do it that way? Or, you know, the NBA. One of the things that I'll always point to is like, sometimes the front office, just as the agent, the favor and the fan can just go like, well, that doesn't make any sense. Like, why would you do something like that? And granted, it's not like you're just giving your players away to go, hey, get us in a couple years, buddy. But with quarterbacks, it does feel like there's kind of this stupid, this is our guy decision, as if there's just, hey, we have. We've solidified the position. This shows how much we believe in him. And there's so many quarterback contracts that are done where it's like, we're just showing our guy, he's our guy, and you're really raising the risk. But it seems like that's the way, you know, again, it's the time.
- [70:23]
Jeff Darlington
I get that. I get that to a degree. I get it more from a business model standpoint. I get it from the standpoint that, like, if we don't pay him now and he goes out and he's the MVP of the league, we're going to be paying him $70 million after this year. I understand that component, but when you looked at that situation Even if he was the MVP of the league, it wasn't like you were going to pay him 70. It was still, you couldn't find another team that was going to do that. And I don't really need, I don't really want to make this some debate about whether you paid two or not. It's more philosophical to your point about like, what is the right approach to take with quarterbacks who are, first of all, you're paying them $60 million a year. But more than the money, which I always tell fans all the time, why do you care? Don't care about the money. Care about the cap hit and all that. But it's not your money. Who gives a damn? But it's more about are you going to put your team in a situation where if it's not the right decision or if this doesn't work out, that you're now set back several years. And to me, I'm looking at this now saying, I don't know. I don't know that it was the best choice.
- [71:29]
Ryan Marcillo
The other thing about it though is, and this isn't even about 2 anymore, it's like the only discounted quarterbacks are the retreads, the Bakers that we're talking about, right?
- [71:40]
Jeff Darlington
If TUA doesn't work out in Miami, that's two and two years. And it'll probably go to, you know, like, Ryan Tannehill went to Tennessee and balled out and Dolphins fans were like, well, what the hell? You know, it's cyclical. It really is.
- [71:54]
Ryan Marcillo
It's true. Do you think the Dolphins would bring in Belichick?
- [72:01]
Jeff Darlington
No, no.
- [72:07]
Ryan Marcillo
Hey, look, I'm just checking the boxes of these thoughts I have.
- [72:10]
Jeff Darlington
What. What do you think happened? What is. What's next for Bill Belichick?
- [72:15]
Ryan Marcillo
Ryan, I think he's be sitting next to McAfee soon. No, I don't mean that as like a dis.
- [72:24]
Jeff Darlington
No, I know. I just.
- [72:26]
Ryan Marcillo
They get great guests, I think, you know, look, that whole million dollar buyout thing, like, I'm so miserable, I'll kick in my own buyout as opposed to getting fired and getting all that money. That's not usually how that thing works. No, I don't know that. I mean, that one would kind of shock me. I guess I'm just wondering if there's another. If Ross would go, hey, look, we wanted to get. Brady wanted to mess with the crafts. The thing is that the crafts would be like, go ahead.
- [72:57]
Jeff Darlington
Are you kidding? Yeah. No, I don't even. Like, I. As far as your. I love the way you think, I always enjoy it. This might be the biggest stretch that you've ever made.
- [73:12]
Ryan Marcillo
I'm aware. But I had, I had to talk to you about it.
- [73:16]
Jeff Darlington
I just don't even. I don't even know. I'm very curious to see what happens next with Belichick and NFL. I mean, if an NFL team wasn't hiring him before Unc, you know.
- [73:28]
Ryan Marcillo
Yeah, yeah. Okay, let's end on the Colts because you, you've spent some time with them. This offense is incredible. I mean, this is, this is Tannehill on steroids from Miami. I mean, although Giants fans are feeling really good this morning as we touched on that in the open a little bit. Give me. Well, I don't want you to sell me on something you don't believe, but if you're in your pre show meetings and everybody's sitting around be like, what do we do with this Colt story? What's real, what isn't? What can this team do? Like, like summarize what they've done so far?
- [73:59]
Jeff Darlington
You know, it's a good question. I really can't pinpoint it either. And it's probably similar to some of these teams that we've already talked about, whether you feel like they're real or not. I think the Jonathan Taylor component, I know we can talk about Daniel Jones and that resurgence, but I think when everything else around you is going well, it's kind of what we were talking about to the idea of a retread. It's a system type of league. And the one thing I learned when I was there about Jonathan Taylor is that his. I don't know if you know this, but his past protection has improved drastically. Is this something that like. So I didn't realize that he was never really that much of an every down back when he was succeeding earlier pre injury. And he has really studied up on pass protection and receiving to be able to be in there on third down like he was coming off the field on third downs, which really eliminated kind of his ability to impact the offense in the way that he is right now. I don't know if that's, you know, the number one reason for why this is happening right now, but that was one thing that I learned where it's like, all right, Jonathan Taylor was great, but now he is kind of graduated to an even higher tier of running backs.
- [75:15]
Ryan Marcillo
It is funny though, when you think about week one, right, and you go, hey, the Dolphins will be rolling. They're going to come out, score a ton of points.
- [75:22]
Jeff Darlington
Yeah.
- [75:23]
Ryan Marcillo
And you know, the Colts have Daniel Jones. This thing's a mess. And it's like, oh, and now, I.
- [75:29]
Jeff Darlington
Mean, it's so true.
- [75:31]
Ryan Marcillo
The through line for the Dolphins is like it's still a problem, but just the way that loss felt Week one versus now, what we're doing with this Colts team.
- [75:39]
Jeff Darlington
That's a great point. The Colts are unquestioned. Daniel Jones is by far the surprise of the season. But the Colts in general, I mean, you're right, Anthony. I remember when they signed Daniel Jones, like that's your response, like that's your fix. And here we are. So we'll see.
- [75:58]
Ryan Marcillo
Even the Broncos game, it's like, oh, they blew it. They blew it to the Colts. And yeah, totally. Now it's like a good loss on the road for Denver. One point loss, a field goal situation.
- [76:09]
Jeff Darlington
You know, they feel like they're built to for a, for a run. Just the way that they kind of the vibe that I got when I was there. But again, it's early. I, I'm not a. I get it. We have to at this point. But you know, we'll see what teams, whether it's the Bucks, the Colts, the Jaguars, like which team is actually going to be there when it gets when it's when it's time in week 17, week 18.
- [76:36]
Ryan Marcillo
You're the man. Enjoy Bucs Niners and catch up again this season. Good game.
- [76:41]
Jeff Darlington
Thanks, Brian.
- [76:45]
Ryan Marcillo
This message is a paid partnership with Apple Card. If there's one thing I love about my Apple Card right now, it's how good it is for my wallet. No joke. I can earn up to 3% daily cash back on every purchase in any category. When I use my Apple Card with Apple Pay, Food, Sports, travel, the list goes on. And this card is designed to help you pay off your balance faster with smart payment suggestions. When's the last time your credit card did that for you? Take control of your finances. Apply for the Apple card in the Wallet app on your iPhone. Subject to credit approval. Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Salt Lake City branch terms and more@applecard.com this episode is brought to you by State Farm. Having insurance isn't the same as having State Farm. It's like needing an offensive guard, but getting an elementary school crossing guard. Sure, they're both guards, but who's going to protect your quarterback on the football field? You wouldn't settle for just anything for your team, so don't settle for just any insurance. When it comes to getting the help you need, State Farm is the real deal. Like A good neighbor State Farm is there. This episode is brought to you by the all new 2025 Lincoln Navigator SUV. Lincoln's original SUV is back and better than ever with a bold new design and elevated features throughout experience. Three rows of comfort and tech from the multisensory Lincoln rejuvenate to available massaging seats. Explore more@lincoln.com Some models, trims and features may not be available or may be subject to change. Check with your local retailer for current information. Lincoln and Navigator are trademarks of Ford or its affiliates. The alliance takes breaks and then continues so Rudy is with us. We need the three of us. We got off to a great start getting you in the money week one. Kyle and I tried to piece it together last week. Can't get them all right, so let's some of us anyway. Well, I had to do two picks.
- [78:34]
Rudy
Yeah, no, I know you did.
- [78:35]
Ryan Marcillo
You did. Darren. I were all over the Texas thing. I mean, gave it out. But then Purdue, you know, that last two possessions, I mean it's nothing like betting on a game where you're watching Purdue. You're like, I shouldn't be watching Purdue right now, but I just need a late touchdown here with this. And then they had every reason to score a touchdown just to cover like those the Kirk Cousins time. Like I'm definitely getting a touchdown here and then we're going to lose. But look at this. 70 more yards, another touchdown. I actually need to dig into whether or not Kirk Cousins has that many touchdowns during some of those years because I always felt like that was auto of him. Anyway, do you want to hear more about me? Recap me being upset about.
- [79:18]
Kyle
Typically my strategy in these is like if you want to take that on your own, that's fine. But like to subject other people to watching a bad team do something that they're likely not going to do is just I don't like to do that. So Purdue, having them do anything to me. Have it on your own. Don't put it in the ball.
- [79:34]
Ryan Marcillo
You're sleeping. You're sleeping on Purdue's offense. And again, if you watched the very end of those two possessions.
- [79:39]
Kyle
I did not.
- [79:42]
Ryan Marcillo
That's just not the urgency. We need to get a cover.
- [79:45]
Kyle
I didn't watch the end of the Purdue game.
- [79:48]
Ryan Marcillo
All right. The board's yours, man. All right.
- [79:52]
Kyle
Yeah, no pressure here. I am one and oh, what's up Head? Alabama against Georgia in our first alliance. I'm going to take Florida and Texas A and M. I'm going to go over 47 and a half points. I'm not going to explain it. Just going to take the over.
- [80:05]
Ryan Marcillo
Oh, you take me the over. Okay. All right, Kyle, I too, am not.
- [80:09]
Rudy
Going to explain my under pick here, but I was really jazzed up about this South Florida thing that's on Fridays. I think it's just we want it all to be clean. So I had to pivot and I went back to the South Carolina thing and I look at LSU and I say, ooh, I don't like that at all. So I just went with the under 44 and a half and I guess I did kind of explain it. So we're taking under 44 and a half.
- [80:27]
Ryan Marcillo
That's minus 115. Okay. Lot of interesting stuff here. Tempted on the Oregon thing just to stay in with the headliner games against Indiana, but then I think people are just going to think I'm doing that. Although that line, I think went from eight and a half to seven and a half. Might be screaming at you to try to take Indiana there, so we're going to stay away from that one. Look, the Oklahoma Matier part of this is probably frustrating slash confusing, but it's minus one and a half in the Texas Red river rivalry. Give me the Sooners minus a point and a half. So there you go. That's the alliance. You can check it out.
- [81:13]
Kyle
Yeah, almost plus 600 on that. So.
- [81:16]
Ryan Marcillo
Whoa, Scary. For more lines, check out sportsbook.fanduel.com you want details?
- [81:24]
Jeff Darlington
Fine.
- [81:25]
Ryan Marcillo
I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet. What's up?
- [81:31]
Kyle
I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork.
- [81:33]
Jeff Darlington
I have every toy you can possibly.
- [81:35]
Kyle
Imagine, and best of all, kids, I am liquid.
- [81:39]
Ryan Marcillo
So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Life advice is the email address lifeadvicermail.com real quick. Before we do that, Monday is going to be my last show at Spotify. I would announce more, but I'm afraid since the war gone goodbye was edited out. If I say anything more, I don't want that to happen. I want to be straightforward with the audience because I know there's been a lot of stuff out there, but I just can't address it on the show. So get in while you can, folks. Monday will be my last show at Ringer Spotify. Let's read some emails.
- [82:18]
Rudy
Can I send one in real quick?
- [82:19]
Ryan Marcillo
I'm just kidding. I don't have anything to ask. I'm just joking.
- [82:25]
Kyle
Let's see Danny Cannell Monday, too, by the way.
- [82:28]
Ryan Marcillo
Yeah, Danny Cannell.
- [82:30]
Kyle
So definitely tune In Way to bury the lead, dude.
- [82:33]
Ryan Marcillo
I missed his last show at espn.
- [82:37]
Kyle
Yeah, man. I remember that day.
- [82:39]
Ryan Marcillo
I took layoff week off. I was like, I don't want to be around for any of this stuff, especially considering I thought there was a chance it could happen to me. Whoa. So that was like, I was in la, Manhattan Beach.
- [82:51]
Rudy
You didn't have any inside info that you're good? You're just like, when I come back, we'll just see where the chips landed. Like, what? That doesn't sound like you at all, honestly.
- [83:04]
Ryan Marcillo
Here's what happened. It was about. I met with Skipper because we usually got together once a year, spent an hour together. Right before I was supposed to meet with him, the story leaked that there was going to be massive on air layoffs. So I sat and listened to him bitch about the leak for one straight hour. And we didn't talk about my career at all. And then as I walked out of the office, he said, hey, just so you know, like, a lot of this is going to be me just delegating authority and trusting the people that want to make these kinds of decisions. So I went from like, oh, I'm just listening to this guy vent because he was really upset about it to, oh, my God. I think he just told me that I could be gone and so that.
- [83:42]
Rudy
I went down and it wouldn't be.
- [83:43]
Ryan Marcillo
Up to him at all. Yeah, I went down to the talent office and was like, hey, I just met with Skipper. That didn't. Wasn't my favorite meeting. I was like, is there a chance, like, I'm done? And he was like, yeah, there is. There's a chance you're probably done. And I was like, holy shit, that's crazy. And then I was like, all right. And then an NBA team was like, well, if you get let go, why don't you come work for us? And you're not going to make as much money, but you'll make this money. So I was like, all right. So then I went back to the town office. I was like, can I be done now then? And they were like, no.
- [84:10]
Rudy
Reverse psychology.
- [84:12]
Ryan Marcillo
Yeah. And so then it was like back and forth. I'm done. And then I would talk to Danny about it. And then the funny thing is that his agents, who used to be my agents, that didn't really like me anymore, which is fine. I was like, what are you hearing? He's like, oh, just. They keep saying how you're done. I was like, yeah, but didn't you say to them that. I told you I Thought I might be done and that there's a really good chance they're just repeating back to you what you said to them, which again came from me. He was like, I don't know. He's like, they're adamant, like, you're done, you're done. And so that it went on and on and on for a while and then I was done. On. I was like, I'm just going to go to Manhattan beach that week and look for a property and rent a place and see where life takes me. And then right before I was leaving, I met with somebody. He's like, you're going to be done. And I was like, okay. I was like, that's good. I was like, that was my last show or whatever. And so then it. I think I had to work one more day or something before I was flying to la. And he was like, hey, you're not done. I was like, well, I'm still getting on a fucking plane, man. So I already put in for the time off. Like, I don't want to be here tomorrow. And they were like, okay, no problem. And then I woke up, I don't know, it was like 6:00am Manhattan beach time. And it was a pretty high up person. And they were like, hey, you're not done. You know that, right? I was like, yeah, yeah. I found out yesterday you never were done. And I was like, oh, really?
- [85:42]
Kyle
Sounded like it.
- [85:43]
Ryan Marcillo
Yeah, yeah, that. It was like weird game of telephone.
- [85:46]
Rudy
I was playing, right?
- [85:47]
Ryan Marcillo
Don't move out there and take a job with Fox. Like he kind of jokingly said, and I got along with the guy. He's like, don't move out there and take a job with Fox. I was like, all right. I was like, no problem. I was like, I'll see you guys Monday and I'll be back. And right before that, he was like, by the way, Danny's gone. And I didn't know anything about it. And that's. I was like, shit. So, yeah, it was, it was. Look, you know, I don't know that people have a ton of sympathy for people that are on air and carve out pretty good lies. But look, for, for a lot of my friends that day, there was a lot. I lost a lot of friends that, that I worked with, that lived near me that were, that were part of kind of our, our group, our hanging. And it was tough. It was a tough day for a lot of people.
- [86:35]
Rudy
The contract shit sucks, man. I can't imagine. Just like, oh, hopefully after these next two years, everything's still the same. Most people have a job until they are fired or until there's an actual layoff where it's not just like contracts aren't getting renewed or whatever. So I don't like that life at all.
- [86:53]
Ryan Marcillo
I'm glad I don't have that.
- [86:55]
Rudy
Haven't had to live that life.
- [86:57]
Kyle
The Danny thing sucked too, because I know, like, there's obviously this perception of Canel, but he's like the nicest dude. He just.
- [87:05]
Rudy
What is the perception of Canal?
- [87:07]
Kyle
That he's like a shitster, you know, SEC hater. Which may. Is all true.
- [87:11]
Ryan Marcillo
Which is also true.
- [87:14]
Rudy
All right.
- [87:16]
Kyle
So personally. And he's just like an incredibly good, nice person. And, you know, I think, you know, he had, I think, just bought a house. I mean, it was, he was kind of fucked. Like, it was, he was good at his job. Like, I, I, there's, there's no, I don't know. He's, he's, he's one of the better college football people. Like, and say what you want about where he leans or whatever, but he's, he's, I don't know, he watches games, pays attention, gives a shit, and he's a good dude and that's what matters. And I thought he was done pretty hard done by that day. Cause I remember, I remember like, yeah, it was like 9:30 in the morning. I get a phone call and we.
- [87:45]
Ryan Marcillo
Were, you know, he showed up to work.
- [87:46]
Kyle
Yeah, no, I saw me. I saw him that day. But then it was like, hey, Adnan, I think, was going to host the show solo today because he was filling in for you, Ryan. It was like an, it was like, it was a disaster.
- [87:55]
Rudy
That's a disaster.
- [87:56]
Kyle
Yeah.
- [87:58]
Ryan Marcillo
Solo. Yeah.
- [87:58]
Kyle
Very little planning went into this because.
- [88:01]
Ryan Marcillo
I was like, I'm gone. I'm like, I don't want to be here for any of this stuff because, I mean, I already, like, you know how many times I left ESPN where I was like, this will be my last day here. I think I had five different walks out to the parking lot. I was like, this might be it. This might be the last day. And then it happened so many times. It was kind of funny because then I'd end up like, either I would decide, hey, this is still the best place for me, re up. Or they would go, we don't know what to do with you, but we're going to re up you. After they were like, we're done. So I was like, all right, that's fine. So this is, this is not, I hope none of this is Framed as, like, it just was tough. It was a tough little stretch. And then it was just so weird because then at the. After it was all done, like, a couple people that really mattered were like, hey, do you know you never ever, like, they were never. You weren't even in the discussion. I was like, I find it hard to believe that there was never. I think you have to discuss every single person. So that's probably not something that was true. Maybe that was an exaggerated version of, like, when it came down to it, it was like, hey, you know, you go around the room, you're like, he's fine. He's good. He's not breaking the bank here.
- [89:03]
Rudy
I was just thinking, did you, like, develop some sort of, like, routine when you thought you were leaving for the last time? Like, touch the top of the door frame or something? Be like, something cool as you're, like, on your fourth walk out? Like, I've got this down to a science right now. Anything. Anything cool. You're like, last time I'd be doing this, boom.
- [89:20]
Ryan Marcillo
No, but I think the most important thing in any industry, depending on, like, what you want out of your life, at least on the professional side of things, is that you learn to prepare for the next thing way before you think you should have to. Right? You know, and part of it's just like, sometimes it's a mental approach of like, hey, I wonder if I could do this. I wonder if I could figure this part out, or is this a spot? Or whether it's a conversation with someone or whatever you have to be. I've been lucky enough. I've worked at two places now for 20 years. The only time I've ever been told, we don't want you to work here, was the first job that I had was Sporting News, which was local radio. And they had signed me to a contract that was three years, like, 100 grand, 110, 125 or something like that. So it was like, three years, 325 grand. I was just about to be 30. I hadn't made any money, and I was so fucking psyched. I was going from, like, 25 grand to 38 grand to, like, I'm going to make $100,000. Like, this is the best thing ever. Agreed on the contract, turned down other offers, was like, this is good. I'm going to keep getting the reps. You know, I'm in a good spot. Nobody can hear our station. That's fine. This is going to be good. There were things, you know, I didn't like about it. When I wasn't making any money. But I was like, okay, this will make sense. Like, you can. You can buy more hangers for your closet and the wood ones. That was the one place. Like, of all the dirty shit that's happened to me, that one had a special place because it was like, although Trenton didn't go great, but it was the first.
- [91:07]
Rudy
I've heard great things about Trenton.
- [91:08]
Ryan Marcillo
Yeah, there seems to be a theme here.
- [91:11]
Rudy
Go cover that field real quick. The rain's coming down.
- [91:16]
Ryan Marcillo
Look, they gave me the contract. I signed it. My agent was like, okay, we're good to go. And then they. Talent or whatever, people that were making decisions and hiring, contract, extensions, the whole thing, they were on a completely different page of what was happening in the corporate offices. And the corporate offices, we're pulling the plug. Plug on all of these shows, like, Sporting News Radio is not working. We're done. And they're like, yeah, we just signed this guy in Boston. Like, three years, 300 grand. Like, well, did we sign it? And they were like, nope. Oh, so that's the only time. So I don't even count that one. Really? Because I did. I signed the contract and did I see any of that money? Nope. They apologized. They apologized, which was nice. I appreciated that. Hey, we're sorry. Sorry we did this, too. So anyway, I didn't mean to go down memory lane with that, but that means Danny Cannell, now you have the full back.
- [92:10]
Rudy
Monday. Canal Monday. Don't go anywhere.
- [92:14]
Ryan Marcillo
Last show. Show's going to do huge numbers. Huge.
- [92:18]
Kyle
All right.
- [92:19]
Ryan Marcillo
Girlfriend and I are fighting because of the way ryan is. Great. Wow. 25, 6ft. Really? 5' 11. But I'm always a roundup guy because of being an athlete. 170 pounds. Hey, rosters. Don't worry about it. Gym, stats, bench 205. Everything else I do on a machine. Basketball comp. Goran Dragic, former D1 walk on, but loves to prove myself by scoring as much as I could in pickup. Well, if you were a walk on at D1 and you're not 6ft or you are, excuse me. You probably can absolutely light it up. Do you know how good you have to be to walk on as a D1 basketball player? Especially if you're not just a 611 project. Right? Like, what's up with that guy? What's up with stilts? Like, we saw him at the cafeteria.
- [93:10]
Kyle
The Dragon's a great NBA comp too, actually, because he's, like, not, like, incredibly athletic. Smart player, good, could do a bunch of things.
- [93:16]
Ryan Marcillo
Well, Heady. Yeah.
- [93:18]
Kyle
Like, that's just a realistic. Oh, yeah, I could see that.
- [93:22]
Ryan Marcillo
I played with Antoine Davis, who's two points shy. Pete Maravich in the all time scoring. Would love to hear your take on him almost doing it in five years and how insane Pete's record is. I don't have. I don't have a ton of time on that, but yeah, I mean, look up the Maravich scoring stuff. It's nuts. Although, wasn't there an argument then that there was a college player, a women's college player, that actually like broke Maravich's thing and that was being. That was being promoted because the Maravich thing is just that. I mean, what, he played three seasons. Right. I think that's what it is. Does anyone care about this right now? I don't know.
- [93:59]
Rudy
I mean, I'm just counting. I'm like, wow, it's been like 14 minutes since we started the segment. We haven't got past the stats.
- [94:06]
Ryan Marcillo
Yeah, yeah, you couldn't play as a freshman.
- [94:07]
Kyle
Oh, Caitlin Clark.
- [94:09]
Ryan Marcillo
Yeah, let's see. Abdul Jabbar, Caitlin Clark. That's right. That's right. All right. So. Been with my girlfriend two years. Been known her my whole life. We have a very strong relationship. Rarely fight. She's an amazing person and someone who always pushes me to be my best by being honest with me. Sometimes brutally so. Here's what happened. I always listen to the show, usually by myself on the drive to and from work. But this time I left. I left Life advice play while driving to dinner with my girlfriend. I've told her many times how much I love listening to you guys, but Ryan specifically. I always tell her how much I think Ryan and I are alike. I felt I tell my dad the same thing and he agrees with me. Our takes on sports are always pretty similar and your outlook on some things seem to be as well. She did not agree when she finally heard life advice, I made her listen. And she could not stand your quote, condescending attitude and straight up said, you sound like an asshole. She then asks me, do you have your own family? And I said, no, but that's just the way he is. She says with a smart quote, maybe if he wasn't such a dick, he could get one. Wow. Damn, dude.
- [95:07]
Rudy
Well, you could have tricked her into a live show, but now you can't, you know, guess we won't see you in Denver on the next one.
- [95:15]
Ryan Marcillo
I did not expect her to actually feel so strongly about you. She says you seem like you're a narcissist and A know it all as well as a bully. Once we got to dinner, she begins to bring it up once again and I it says, I can't believe this is the guy you've told me you like so much and think you're similar to over the years. She says she still loves me, but it makes her question me a little bit. Jesus Christ. Sounds like a good dinner. Did she pay for it? I'm just kidding. It definitely made dinner awkward and I thought she was joking. But then she brought it up again once we got home. It's been three days and there's clearly some tension between us and I haven't backed down from me saying I'm still similar to Ryan in my head. So what should I do? Back down from my take about Ryan? Stand my ground and tell her this is just who I am. Something else. Thanks, guy. Love the show and Ryan always. P.S. she said that Ceruti sounds like he is sweet and a great dad somewhere in this argument too. So not everyone has to say I get a compliment.
- [96:09]
Kyle
This is incredible.
- [96:10]
Ryan Marcillo
Dude.
- [96:10]
Rudy
This is like backwards shit.
- [96:12]
Kyle
What is going on right now?
- [96:13]
Ryan Marcillo
Wow.
- [96:16]
Kyle
Yeah, I would love to know which one it was. Like, what life advice did you have or listen to? Because I'd like to listen back and maybe you did come off as an ass. That there are certainly days I feel like where all of us can, you know, put out certain things that might not be like, who we are as people.
- [96:30]
Rudy
Maybe he was doing a bit like during us, during that part and she, she just didn't understand that that was a bit.
- [96:35]
Ryan Marcillo
I don't know. Yeah, look, small sample size could be. Could be the issue here. Right? You know, we're a, we're a long game show.
- [96:45]
Rudy
Maybe it was like a heavy F bomb show and we grow on. Just takes the likability away.
- [96:49]
Ryan Marcillo
I don't know. Yeah, I've. I'll admit there's times when I've done stuff on the air where I would like think to myself, if I didn't know me and I were in the car listening to me, it's like, would you hate me? I'm serious. It's a little exercise that I do. This is like, okay, but like the know it all things. Fine. Yeah. I mean, I think I'm know it all.
- [97:14]
Rudy
Yeah, it's right there.
- [97:14]
Ryan Marcillo
Yeah. I mean, do I really think I know it all? Of course I know what the job is. There's going to be a million things that get wrong all the time. But my process, right. Just like the golf swing. If my Process is right. I still will feel better about, like, the long term results. Hey, maybe the Sixers should trade. Embiid took a few years on that one. Hey, Tua looks like a backup to me. You know, it wasn't great timing when I did it, but, you know, some of the long game stuff, you guys are still keeping track. So the Indiana, you know. Yeah, I mean, I just sound like a dick right there. So. The narcissist thing is the only thing I would really push back on because I've spent time with narcissists, and I think narcissists are incapable of caring about other people's feelings. And I think if you get to know me pretty well, I do care about. I don't want to constantly monitor how people think about how I make them feel, because then that's the other end of the spectrum of things. But I think a narcissist is incapable of understanding how your actions make them feel. They just can't even, like, conceive of the idea because they're so caught up in their own stuff. So, yeah, look, if she caught one episode, it's the wrong episode. All those things are totally fair. Bully's not true, but I don't know, I would back down. It's your wife. Like, maybe you should just say, hey, look, he's on the fence about hurts then. Yeah, this Jalen hurts. Things getting worse. He's kind of going like, this dude might just be average. It has way more to do with that. He's been big on, you know, he was really early on the pitchers thing with the second and third time through. He basically described what baseball would become 20 years ago. So it's just a lot of stuff like that.
- [98:56]
Kyle
Honey, I got two years and it'll be all right. Yeah, he'll grow on you.
- [99:01]
Rudy
I got two things here. One, could we put you side by side with like, a real. Like a real narcissist or a real, like, terrible podcaster, where it's like, next dinner, it's. It's like, here's the Nick Fuente show. Or here's the. Whatever. Here's the. You know, even Tim Dillon. Tim Dillon, who's like, I listen to, but he basically does a bit his whole show. Tim Dillon is just like, you know, why the Riyadh Comedy Festival is actually good and why it's like, you know, who cares? They're chopping off hands. Like, he's just doing comedy bits or whatever. And, like, so maybe you could do that where she's like, maybe that's not so bad. The other thing I was going to think was I. I was thinking is, do you think that, like, the words narcissist and sociopath are getting thrown around like. Like, gaslighting a little bit? Because I'm actually not. I'm not exactly sure what sociopath means. I've heard it attributed to people that I think I like, and I'm just like, I'm not really sure what. What the actual. Can we get a running definition of those two words?
- [99:54]
Kyle
It's not just those two words. I feel like, is it selfish?
- [99:57]
Rudy
Like, does one of them just mean selfish? Like, I'm not. I don't know.
- [100:00]
Ryan Marcillo
But which one I don't like. Right.
- [100:03]
Rudy
Does one of them mean just selfish? Like, I. I just.
- [100:08]
Ryan Marcillo
Is like a steroid ped version of selfishness, you know? But you're right. Like, the. You just keep throwing these words around, like, constant. Like, racism. Being called a racist. Used to be like, I'm rooting for the downfall of another group of people based solely on the way they look. And now it's like, hey, I didn't think Black Panther was Citizen Kane. Like, and it's like, you piece of shit. You know, so just said, Irish guys drink.
- [100:31]
Kyle
Yeah, would agree, would agree. I'll also add, I think there are a lot of people that say, this is. Maybe your girlfriend or your wife is listening to this. You should have her listen to this. I think there are a lot of people who.
- [100:43]
Ryan Marcillo
I made that mistake.
- [100:44]
Kyle
They want to say, hey, I think I'm like Ryan. Or I'm. Yeah, I'm like Priscillo. But they actually aren't. You know, I. I think. I think that's just like, an easy thing to say. And two, you never know. Like, was she in. You know, you never know. You catch somebody in the wrong mood and they just aren't really willing to hear. Something like, this happened to me the other day in the car with my wife. We were listening to the new Taylor Swift album. I made a comment that, like, and you know me, I like Taylor Swift. I'm not afraid to admit it. I went to a concert. We talked about that. I don't love the new album, don't think it's very good. I don't think it's her best. And she, like, got mad at me for saying that. So sometimes when you present people with information, they're just not in the right mood to hear that information. So maybe, again, maybe give her a life advice that, you know is, like, a good one or. That's funny. Or that brings an endearing side of Ryan just so you can give like a different perspective of it. Because sometimes it's just kind of like, you know, you need to be in the right mood to be able to hear something that day. Maybe that's the case with you, Ryan.
- [101:34]
Ryan Marcillo
Yeah, that's another one from a few years ago where I totally call myself out for not having a family and the thought process that, you know, I was going through at that time in my life. But that's all right. That's okay.
- [101:44]
Rudy
Sensitivity to criticism is one of these key tenets of narcissism.
- [101:47]
Ryan Marcillo
I'm reading it right now, so just.
- [101:50]
Rudy
Keep that in mind.
- [101:52]
Kyle
Thank you.
- [101:53]
Ryan Marcillo
Thank you. All right, here's one. I don't think a narcissist would do this. Ryan's fruit guy. Six foot and a half. Round up to six, we get a couple round uppers here. Hey, that's all right. I was doing it. 180, can bench 225 for at least 10 on a good day. Great numbers player comp. Brandon Bass. You know, you know you're going to be hard in the pain if you're throwing up 10 reps. Love life just.
- [102:17]
Kyle
I like, I actually love Brandon Bass. I was so mad. I was so mad about that, that, that big baby trade. I mean, I, I wasn't thinking about not becoming a magic fan, but that really shook me to my core.
- [102:28]
Ryan Marcillo
Yeah, I'm. I'm psyched you got that in there.
- [102:32]
Kyle
No, but you don't understand, like, for like, obscure dub, NBA trades. That trade pisses me off so much. But again, we don't have to.
- [102:38]
Ryan Marcillo
Who's Dwight's buddy?
- [102:39]
Kyle
Yep. Then you left a year later.
- [102:41]
Ryan Marcillo
Cool. Just wanted to know who the Manhattan beach fruit vendor was that Ryan mentioned in case I'm in the area, wanted to pick some up. Yeah, Tuesdays, the Manhattan beach farmer's market. This guy is just a scientist. I don't know what's going on back there, but, you know, there's a couple different fruit people. He's. He's behind the pizza ovens. And by the way, the pizza at the Manhattan beach thing, some guy learned how to do it in Naples, make some single oven pies. I mean, it's just. It's actually off the charts how good it is. A little tough to smash a large pepperoni in the middle of the day for your boy, but sometimes, sometimes we've already gotten the work done. It's going to be a slow Tuesday around the casa. Sometimes I'll let myself do it. But there's a couple of different fruit stands. I'm just telling you. Like, this guy has signs and he has toothpicks out for all the different experimental fruits that they have going on.
- [103:31]
Rudy
Are we talking fruit in a cup, guy? And then like, you. A little bit of tahin if you want.
- [103:35]
Ryan Marcillo
What, fruit in a cup?
- [103:37]
Kyle
No, no, no.
- [103:38]
Rudy
I mean, like, is he like chopping it all up and like, you know, do you want to go mango heavy? Do you want to go pineapple? It's not that. It's like you're getting straight up fruit and then you're putting it in your. On your counter.
- [103:51]
Kyle
I think what you're describing, Kyle, is like a street vendor in like, tulum. That's. I don't think that's what or Hollywood situation is.
- [103:57]
Ryan Marcillo
That's kind of what I was thinking. I think the Hollywood farmer's market, like, I mean, so much melon in here.
- [104:04]
Rudy
Yeah, exactly. But, you know, he kind of hypnotizes you with the knives. It's, you know, it's really. He's got a nice routine going on. Next thing you know, you are. Yeah, you are 70% green melon.
- [104:13]
Ryan Marcillo
It's like, ah, damn.
- [104:15]
Kyle
Green melon's underrated.
- [104:16]
Rudy
I mean, it's fine. It's fine. But the pineapple's the fucking star. And it's like there's, you know, four pieces on top.
- [104:22]
Ryan Marcillo
I don't know. All right. Yeah, I don't. I mean, basically like he's. He's combining cherries and plums and. What are you talking about, man? I don't know.
- [104:39]
Kyle
Yeah, I don't know what that is.
- [104:41]
Ryan Marcillo
Well, look, that's why I keep talking about it. I can't stop talking about this guy's fruit. I got a flight next week. And I was like, if you, if you. If it's today, if you book at that time, you get back. No, I'm gonna miss the fruit window. Hey, look, you empty. You know, your priorities change as you get older. This guy's fruit is off the chart. Never had anything like it. I'm gonna eat some as soon as I get done with this today. That's gonna be my pre workout. I don't even know what it is. I was like, I'll just sample and be like, what? What? I'm like, you know what? Nevermind. Come back. Okay.
- [105:16]
Rudy
With a notepad. Be like, I was guessing this was actually the cherry hybrid. Is that right? Is that.
- [105:20]
Ryan Marcillo
Oh, no. Okay. Sometimes I'll be like, hey, do you still have that other one from laughing and be like, no, man. He's like, that's like a 10 day window. All right, last one here. About to propose then huge red flag. Hey, guys. Especially Wargon. I DM'd him the other day. Not a nude. It was just said, miss you.
- [105:43]
Kyle
You have his number?
- [105:44]
Ryan Marcillo
Yeah. That's strange. It is strange.
- [105:48]
Rudy
That's fucking weird, man.
- [105:50]
Kyle
We're out of group chat.
- [105:51]
Rudy
Did he block you?
- [105:52]
Ryan Marcillo
What? Didn't go through?
- [105:54]
Kyle
Did he send reply to you?
- [105:57]
Ryan Marcillo
Yeah, he gave an earnest. He's like, oh, man, that makes me feel really good. No. Yeah, it was a bunch of sentences. But I mean, it's a dm, so I don't want to share that because I didn't get his approval ahead of time.
- [106:07]
Kyle
All right.
- [106:09]
Ryan Marcillo
61205. 27 years old, haven't maxed a while, but usually throw up 225. 5 reps. Everybody's checking in right around 6. 1. Good. 2, 25 numbers too. Can also do a non embarrassing pyramid. I'm not a basketball guy or runner, but I did play junior hockey before going to college Again. Junior hockey is, you know, that's. That's the gateway to professional hockey. Technically, I mean.
- [106:38]
Kyle
Yeah.
- [106:38]
Rudy
What. What pyramid is this?
- [106:39]
Ryan Marcillo
Is this. Is this.
- [106:40]
Rudy
I'm thinking pyramid. Like a weird thing you do, like as a stretch or is that a hockey term that.
- [106:46]
Ryan Marcillo
I don't know, I thought it just meant you had a couple buddies and they just do pyramids.
- [106:52]
Rudy
Is that really okay?
- [106:53]
Ryan Marcillo
No.
- [106:55]
Kyle
All right.
- [106:57]
Ryan Marcillo
Am I wrong to think it's that upside down thing where it's not necessarily like a headstand or handstand, but it's.
- [107:03]
Rudy
It's some sort of contortion.
- [107:05]
Kyle
Right, the elbow thing.
- [107:06]
Ryan Marcillo
Yeah.
- [107:07]
Kyle
Yeah. I don't know what that's called.
- [107:09]
Ryan Marcillo
Okay, can you look that up? So, Rudy.
- [107:10]
Kyle
Yep.
- [107:11]
Ryan Marcillo
All right. Thanks, man. I have a dilemma that I want life advice.
- [107:16]
Rudy
Boy. Should we throw together a pyramid right now? You think of what I'm thinking?
- [107:22]
Ryan Marcillo
That would be great to do if you were like the odd man out of a bachelor party. Because like a new thing that we're doing at golf. I think I said this before, but it's like if you're paired up. Oh, yeah. We did already do this before because it's ballsy to do if you're the single with three other people, but if it's two and then it's two people you don't know, and then you and your buddy are in the car and you're laughing and you just. We've already talked about this, but it Was like, just go up to the strangers after like three holes. Like, where are we on tips? Like, do you guys. If I see something I don't like, like you guys open the tips. It's funny. Just, I mean, just right, like, totally piss them off. I think if you're the odd guy out in the Bachelor, right, you're the brother in law that got invited with the eight friends that have all been kind of going like, what is the vibe? Is he going to throw it off? Like, is this just a little bit too much nacl into the beaker? And you just go, hey, like first night at the hotel, you've down a couple solves. So things are sort of mellow. But you ramp it up and be like, hey, you know, be sick is just. Let's throw together a pyramid right now in this room. Set the timer. Yeah.
- [108:19]
Rudy
I see a couple strong middle layers in here. You guys are actually the key to the pyramid.
- [108:24]
Ryan Marcillo
Yeah. If anybody does that, get back to us. Let us know how it goes. Yeah. All right. So, Rudy, do you have a definition?
- [108:29]
Kyle
I think it's just called an elbow stand, so probably should have blown that one off our heads, but yeah.
- [108:34]
Ryan Marcillo
Okay.
- [108:35]
Kyle
How to do an elbow stand?
- [108:36]
Ryan Marcillo
Here's the question. Yeah, yeah.
- [108:38]
Rudy
What is trying to do one.
- [108:39]
Ryan Marcillo
I'm going to read the next few lines.
- [108:41]
Kyle
All right, you've got space now in the back there.
- [108:43]
Ryan Marcillo
I do, I do. I got a lot of space. I have a dilemma that I want life advice for. Currently living with my girlfriend at two years in a large Midwestern city. Everything is great between a shared interest, hobbies, physical attraction, chemistry in every way. We've been living together for about six months and have openly talked about getting married. So she won't be surprised when I pop the question. Which is tentatively scheduled to happen right before Thanksgiving this year. Ring has not been purchased as of yet. Both have professional jobs. You don't have to give us the jobs, but they're good jobs. When things were getting serious, the two of us, between the two of us, we were deciding whether or not to move in together. We had a few of the sit down, quote, tell me about anything in your past that I should know. End quote. Talk.
- [109:23]
Kyle
Is that where you normal skin together?
- [109:25]
Rudy
Who the fuck does that? Hey. But things are going well. Does anyone want to ruin this real quick before we take the next step?
- [109:32]
Kyle
Throw a couple grenades in here before we.
- [109:37]
Rudy
What an idiot.
- [109:40]
Ryan Marcillo
This isn't normal, right?
- [109:41]
Rudy
No, this is not normal.
- [109:44]
Kyle
Yeah, it just is. Like, do I actually not trust you? And I don't know if they gave me some information.
- [109:51]
Rudy
Sounds like her friend or something was like, you know what you should do. And she just did not take the advice. Like, I don't know how you'd arrive at this for your own life. I just don't know why you'd want it.
- [110:00]
Kyle
You know what's funny too? It's like, well, yeah, I'm glad you asked because I've got a list of things I need to get off my chest.
- [110:09]
Ryan Marcillo
Are you familiar with the difference between murder and manslaughter?
- [110:15]
Rudy
A lot of it's intentions.
- [110:20]
Ryan Marcillo
We both respect our privacy about the past, didn't need extreme details about each other, but we both wanted to share enough so that if something gets brought up about our past in front of friends and family, the other one isn't embarrassed.
- [110:32]
Kyle
What in God's name you guys got?
- [110:35]
Ryan Marcillo
Example.
- [110:36]
Jeff Darlington
What the hell?
- [110:38]
Ryan Marcillo
She told her that she, she probably know that I got a DUI when I was 23. Things like that. Yeah, I mean, look, there's been an awesome one.
- [110:47]
Rudy
What an awesome one to have and be like, that's it. That's all I have. Like, that's like a great. That's like that hits hard enough to be like, I don't have to tell her anything else. That's a good one.
- [110:56]
Ryan Marcillo
Lucky you. Obviously, you know what I mean? I mean, again, it's a level of maturity that you'll have to have if, if you feel like you need to have this. It's just like I had a crazy like orgy summer. It just was my thing, but it's out of my system. I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you. Like, you can totally be in love, but you'll want to have her be the mother of your children. But there's just, just no way you're going to look at it the same way. And so it's probably better just not to get any confirmation. I mean, instead of like something that is actually like derailing, like the DUI thing makes a lot of sense. I mean, unfortunately for me, if I meet somebody new, I have to explain a little trip to Wyoming with basically everybody and some people understand and some people think it's, you know, like, especially if it's somebody who's divorced, who has kids, you know, so it's come up a couple times. It sucks, but whatever.
- [111:54]
Rudy
I understand.
- [111:55]
Kyle
What's crazy though, you know what's crazy though about that is like all those red flags, right? Like you could be perfectly happy with someone for two years and not Know something that like, hey, yeah, you got a DUI in the past or like something happened or whatever. And that would be a non starter from day one for a lot of people. Like they're like, these relationships wouldn't even get a chance if some of these people knew from day one. So like I always said, like, you know, I. I don't really particularly care about knowing a lot of the stuff. Anything that happened with my wife free me knowing her, like, I don't. Not that I don't trust her or whatever, but it's like, why? What?
- [112:25]
Rudy
Probably for the best, dude, what good.
- [112:26]
Kyle
Is that going to do any of us? Like for me too. I always say multiple times in my life, like, if we met in college, you wouldn't have liked me. We wouldn't be together right now.
- [112:33]
Rudy
So this is probably the lost tapes of bullshit of my life. You don't need that. That shit got cut for a reason.
- [112:42]
Ryan Marcillo
Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't do this now at my age. Imagine me at like 53 being like, okay, which decade do you want to start with? All right, so we feel like we know each other well enough to get married. I won't tell the whole story because it's too long, but out of nowhere, I found out that much of her senior year. Oh, wait. So she told me some of the things about herself. Definitely not a complete open book as I don't really care what she did with guys in her past. You feel similar about me and girls in the past. Okay, all right, so that makes a little bit more sense.
- [113:12]
Kyle
Guys are fine then, but.
- [113:14]
Ryan Marcillo
Right, it's on. But I found out that much of her senior year in college. In college, and a little bit after she graduated, she worked as a stripper. She never once mentioned this to me, ever. I brought it up to her and asked why she didn't tell me. And she said it was just a phase and I needed some money and I don't really like thinking about it. My obvious follow up was, is there anything else like this? And she said no. Now I don't care at all that she worked as a stripper when she was 22 and wouldn't have cared if she had told me. My question for you guys is, is the fact that she kept this from me a big enough red flag to rethink the whole engagement, marriage, et cetera. Now going to. Am I going to be thinking about other red flags on my horizon? Should I let it go and consider the fact that I'm marrying a girl that was hot enough to be A stripper a few years ago, which is kind of cool. Parentheses. Which, by the way, if she had told me before I found out, that's how I would have felt. Thanks. You guys are awesome. So really, this isn't about. For our guy here. This isn't something that she did. It's just the fact that she didn't tell him, and now he's. He's worried about it, so go ahead.
- [114:19]
Rudy
I think onlyfans made strippers cool again. I don't know if strippers were ever uncool, but I think it's certainly, like. It's like, analog. You know, it's kind of cool.
- [114:29]
Kyle
But I think it's different. Like, it's different when you. If it's different if you tell somebody that you're an only fans model versus if you tell somebody you're a stripper. I think there is a difference.
- [114:38]
Ryan Marcillo
Yeah.
- [114:38]
Rudy
I think people have more respect for the stripper. Well, that's just. I just think the tides have changed. You think so? I thought the tides have changed. I mean, strippers aren't really dming anybody or anything like that. They're just sort of, like, up there picking something to the ground.
- [114:51]
Kyle
There's like, a businesswoman aspect of the only fans thing that I think garners more respect. I could be wrong on this.
- [114:59]
Ryan Marcillo
Yeah, maybe.
- [115:00]
Kyle
But I have a question, though. Just the whole. Who initiated this again? Who initiated the.
- [115:05]
Ryan Marcillo
She did.
- [115:06]
Kyle
I think she asked to come clean. So maybe. Maybe she just wanted to tell you and didn't know how to tell you and just wanted a vessel to tell you this before because it was eating her up.
- [115:16]
Rudy
You know, on three, we both say one thing, right? One, two, three.
- [115:22]
Ryan Marcillo
Huh?
- [115:25]
Rudy
I think strippers are cooler than onlyfans people.
- [115:27]
Kyle
I'm not saying strippers aren't. I'm not saying this isn't. I'm not dissing either one. I just think the perception of an OnlyFans model is probably higher.
- [115:36]
Ryan Marcillo
Would. Would there be a red flag? Like, would you have a scenario here where it's not about what she did and he is pointing this out? It's that she didn't tell him. He finds out, he's like, hey. I mean, they kind of like. It's a point in my life I don't feel like talking about. Like, okay, but isn't that what we're. We're doing here? Yeah, right.
- [115:58]
Rudy
How long ago was it?
- [116:00]
Ryan Marcillo
Was it like you slept with my sister, though? Look, it's a time of my life that I.
- [116:04]
Rudy
No, no, no, no.
- [116:05]
Ryan Marcillo
That's not who I am. No.
- [116:06]
Kyle
That's betrayal, though, bro.
- [116:08]
Rudy
That's betrayal.
- [116:11]
Ryan Marcillo
He's fine with the stripping part. He even says it's kind of cool that she was hot enough to be a stripper, that he's marrying her the whole time. I would guess this couple's a little bit younger, you know? And I'm just telling you, man, you meet somebody that you really connect with, and it seems like everything is really good here. Try to understand where she's coming from. It's probably. If you're thinking long term of being the mother of your kids, it's probably cooler that she doesn't think it's cool, right? That she doesn't think it's cool and she's thinking, hey, this thing is really stupid. I regret doing it. I don't like talking about it. Yeah, it'd be great if everybody just came clean on every single thing. But this might be one of those things. You have to think about the differences in genders, and you have to think that it's probably something. She just was like, I don't want to talk about this. I don't want to talk about this. I had a buddy that manages strip joint, and he didn't want to talk about it, and he had his clothes on the whole time.
- [117:05]
Rudy
Also, dude, if you. If you do pop the question, you guys are going to win whichever Thanksgiving you go to.
- [117:10]
Ryan Marcillo
That's like a huge Thanksgiving.
- [117:12]
Rudy
If you're, like, newly engaged at Thanksgiving, it's sick. It's going to be great.
- [117:16]
Kyle
That's true.
- [117:16]
Ryan Marcillo
Yeah. Is that a thing?
- [117:18]
Kyle
Yeah, just the news, you know, the family gets excited.
- [117:21]
Rudy
Yeah. It's a big.
- [117:22]
Ryan Marcillo
It's a big one.
- [117:23]
Rudy
Might get like a great aunt and uncle actually make a trip and be like, oh, they're going to Thanksgiving. They just got married or they just got engaged. It's like, dude, you totally won Thanksgiving.
- [117:31]
Ryan Marcillo
Yeah. Strippers usually don't like anybody and she likes you, so that's, you know, that's a win whenever you can actually pull that off. I went on a couple dates with a stripper and her big thing. I was fine with it. I was very young. And she shout out to Michelle B.
- [117:51]
Kyle
Active.
- [117:53]
Ryan Marcillo
Oh, yeah, Active. I don't think she's active now.
- [117:56]
Kyle
Yeah, Retired now.
- [117:57]
Ryan Marcillo
That would be.
- [117:57]
Kyle
Although, who knows?
- [117:58]
Ryan Marcillo
Cal Ripken type run on the TB12 plan.
- [118:01]
Rudy
Yeah, exactly.
- [118:05]
Ryan Marcillo
So it was when I managed that dump and the owner was like, hey, I'm letting a bunch of my buddies have, like, a bachelor party thing. And I was like, during the day, I Was like, we got like, Tom Glavin, Kevin Brown on Come on, man. And he's like, dude, you have to open up. So I was pissy, and I opened it up, cut up some fruit. And I had seen her round, but I'd never seen her strip. And so then she stripped, but I didn't turn off the tv and I watched baseball. And of course, the muscle guy for the strippers is always the worst. Well, let me not shame the entire industry. It felt like during the run in Vermont, the particular muscle guy for all the different stripper companies for different stuff that would happen again. New part 10 with you. You were just. It would happen more often. You'd be around a little bit more often. And those guys be like, all right, boy. Like, we gotta. We gotta get those singles out. And like, let's get this. Let's get this TV off, chief. You know, we gotta have the attention of the lady. And I was like, dude, it's not even. He comes over, he's like, can you turn off the game? He's like, focus needs to be on the woman. And I was like, no. I was like, I'm not even watching, you know, And I can think. Some of you like, all right, this is where we start asking for Silo can smell colors. And he's like, there's 112 knobs on that tire.
- [119:20]
Kyle
But.
- [119:25]
Ryan Marcillo
I would say at that point in my life, like, I probably took boobs for granted. It's like, you don't think I could see a boob in eight hours? Like, I just. Like, it was a good. It was a good run. Yeah. You know, I took it. I took it for granted. I said, too, that's. Just apply myself a couple beam of Cokes. Like, I'll see a. See a boob tonight. Come on. Killing it. So I didn't really care, right? And I wanted to watch the baseball game. And I was like, the TV isn't even. Those guys are over there. I'm in the. Over here. You can't even see it. He's like, you're really not turning off. I was like, no, I'm not. Because I was already pissed that I had to be there. So then randomly, like, later on a couple dates, and she's like, wait, have you ever seen me strip? And I was like, actually, I was like, is this going to be a deal breaker? She's like, yeah, kind of. She's like, you never said anything. I was like, so when I first met you, I was supposed to say, hey, senior work. Huge fan. Yeah, Actually, you think that was going to be normal? She's like, well, I just feel like you've known this whole time. I was like, of course I knew this whole time. I didn't fucking care. I thought it was awesome. Two of my buddies were like, no way. I was like, way. And she was like, okay, so you saw me. And I was like, I didn't really pay attention. And that actually made it way worse. So it was like, if you've seen me, I can't go on dates with you. And I was like, all right, no problem.
- [120:45]
Rudy
Actually averted my eyes.
- [120:46]
Ryan Marcillo
I was like, I didn't watch in particular that day. She's like, so then. So I couldn't win.
- [120:51]
Kyle
Yeah.
- [120:53]
Ryan Marcillo
Because if I had just been a customer. It's like, you're done. It's like, but I was actually there. And then you watch baseball.
- [120:59]
Kyle
You're stripper adjacent. Doesn't. Doesn't work. Yeah. Damn nice, guys.
- [121:04]
Rudy
Finished last, man.
- [121:05]
Ryan Marcillo
Who knows what would have happened.
- [121:06]
Kyle
Yeah, listen.
- [121:09]
Ryan Marcillo
Who knows? We get along great, but, you know, ships and ships in the night.
- [121:18]
Kyle
Yeah.
- [121:19]
Ryan Marcillo
All right, that'll do it for the show. Thanks to Sruti. Thanks to Kyle. Thanks to Jonathan Frius. Monday will be the last show. Ryan Rosso podcast Ring or Spotify.
- [121:27]
Kyle
They were going to name me Michael Jordan.
- [121:29]
Jeff Darlington
My dad was like, I don't think he can live up to it.
- [121:31]
Ryan Marcillo
So they named me Michael. Jared must be 21 and older and present in select states. For Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 + in present in D.C. kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com, call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is there. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24. 7 support in Massachusetts or. Or call 1-877-8-HOPE NY or text HOPE NY in New York.