Peak Tiggle

FivetoNine Podcast: Welcome in to the five to nine podcast. We got the special graphics this time. Huge upgrade for for episode nine. But ⁓ welcome in. You know, trying to make your nine to five feel a little bit more like a five to nine. ⁓ something to to kick us right off was I think it was announced or reported just about thirty minutes ago, but the SEC joins ⁓ the Big Ten in banning pro players. Obviously, that means something to LSU specifically. I didn't even know this. Yeah, yeah. So the SEC joined the Big Ten. ⁓ yeah, breaking news on the five to nine. Wait, they didn't join the Big Ten. Well, sorry. They joined the Big Ten in banning the the pre yeah, it's one big mega conference. No. No, but so obviously that means apparently the vote was sixteen zero, which is interesting because obviously I feel like the whole story was It wasn't like some stupid school like Mississippi State just voting weighing down everything. I thought LSU might be not even LSU. Exactly, because they had that Daquan right guy who Was an undrafted free agent signed with the Eagles because that include basketball? Because RJ Lewis just signed from the Celtics to LSU. I think it's just football. Let me pull it up because I I think it's 'cause it's funny enough, like that LSU was also the team in basketball that was doing the same thing. Like they were the problem school, even though that's not Lane Kiffin, like They were also the school with Will Wade that was doing all the tampering, so they're just tampering you. But SEC being a ban pro athletes, conference follows Big Ten blocking NFL players and adds on NBA and W NBA. So it sounds like the Big Ten is only the NFL, but the SEC is the NFL, the NBA, and the W NBA. ⁓ ⁓ well I thought he tried to go to the WNBA, not college. Okay. Yeah. But I I don't know. I thought LSU would going back to the football thing. I thought they would be the ones to ⁓ vote against it, but maybe that's just a a Lane Kiffin thing he wants the players cause whatever A D or team or president for the school obviously voted to ban him, so I think that's the right decision. I don't know about you guys. Yeah. I mean I think it's Pro players going back is like the dumbest thing ever. I think if you declare even if you like even if you like declare for the draft, like I know the NBA is a little bit like gray area where it's like you can declare but still go back to college as long as you like maybe weren't drafted or whatever that guideline is. Yeah. But I feel like if you declare like you you're done. Like you can't go back to college. I feel like it would be like a solid baseline. Because even something like and it's funny because the and like our Hockey League that I work for. Like a kid played for Adrian for three years, which is a college in Michigan, and then he foregoed his senior year to come get signed by us. And I'm pretty sure I'm actually I'm not pretty sure, I am sure that we like didn't sign him for the full season. Like it was a training camp contract. But I don't think he went back to college. But then again, we had players play like the latter half of a season and then go back to college after that. So even in like smaller leagues, the line is just like so grayed. as to, you know, this guy could do it, but this guy couldn't. So I mean yeah, I think it's probably for the better that the the sixteen and ⁓ bet or sixteen and ⁓ vote went through. Yeah, I mean speaking of the WNBA, we've been having a lot of gray area conversations in that league, but I think ⁓ the gray area conversations in this one may be more obvious. Like I mean I I it's crazy world we live in in twenty twenty six where we have to say and make votes on if NFL players should return to college. Like, I mean, that's just been an obvious no no since the beginning of time. ⁓ but it's obviously the right decision. There's no reason because again, even if let's just, you know, to play devil's advocate, let's say that it was allowed. Fuck it. We just allow NFL players to come back. Again, the only thing that's going to do is create obviously even a further gap between the well it ⁓ between the SEC Big Ten schools and the rest of the teams that NIL has already created. Like, well it would be fun, yeah, let's get, you know, I don't know, ⁓ Daekon right to go play for ⁓ ball state. Like, you know, he would probably put up ⁓ two thousand yards for ball state. That'd be pretty fun. ⁓ but like obviously he's not gonna go there. If there's anyone even in that situation, like as we saw with a few of the players that trickled out before the rulings today and yesterday. ⁓ they're just going back to Big Ten SEC. So ⁓ it's obviously the right decision. Yeah. ⁓ Todd, you're eating, so I'll say something real quick while you finish what you're chewing in your mouth there. But what do you why don't you tell us what we're what we're eating tonight? What's what are we munching on? Why don't we guess? What do we think? I don't know, you probably some poop? Some sort of pasta. So poop and pasta. Two two peas. Well actually you have poop pasta. Yeah, okay, mix them together. No, it's orange chicken and rice. Okay. ⁓ okay. From Panda? No, from from Trader Joe's. ⁓ okay. Trader Joe's is banging, man. That's it. Trader Joe's is so good. I can respect that. I haven't had a single from Trader Joe's I think I'd done like I didn't like. Everything from Trader Joe's just smacks. Yeah. I'm rocking with TJ's. Amen. I'm a Lido Man. Lido Man? Dude, you're such a Yarkean. There's a Lytle right next to me. I've never heard of this place. In New York. Dude, it's the same thing as L pretty much. L I Yeah, they got a fresh bakery, they got some good bread. Yeah, they know how to do things. They got what you need. What were you gonna say, Tommy, before I interrupted you with my ⁓ feast. ⁓ talking about thinking it was the right choice for the vote. ⁓ I I always thought that it was or I thought that it was interesting that obviously it's guys that are UDFAs or like borderline. Like you don't see and obviously you know, it makes sense, but what's stopping who who was a first round pick this year? ⁓ or who was stopping Jahad Campbell last year, yeah. He was drafted this year just going back to Bama? Who's stopping even a guy like Justin Jefferson after his rookie year going back? Like obviously these are past players. Yeah. So the line was not exactly where it is in present day. But It's kinda like a re-roll. Like you could theoretically, if that was a rule, be like, you know, if you're jihad and let's say you get taken by the Browns. Okay, fine, fuck it. I don't want to go play for the Browns. Let me have college have a bidding war over me. I'll make more than I would make in my rookie year. And again, we already see some of that now with players, you know, choosing to forego the draft, stay another year, trying to get more NIL money, but you could take it a step further Literally get drafted, be like, I don't want to play for this team. This situation sucks. This team is the Browns. This team is, I don't know, the Falcons in twenty twenty six. Like, let me just go back to college, mind my time there, and let's see who's picking in the top five next year. What I think is crazy about that point is that not only in football with Drew Brees, with Phillip Rivers being like, I don't want to play for those guys and getting traded. Well, I guess Drew Brees not necessarily did that, but Eli Manning, I think, is the one who I was trying to think of that did that. Yeah. But even like In the NHL, ⁓ for the Flyers, Cutter Gautier got drafted. He didn't want to play for the Flyers, so they traded into the Ducks. Like that's a little bit more recent than like Eli. ⁓ so it's just like why why was that the case then? But now with this new generation coming up, and obviously the world's different from when Eli got drafted, not that that was decades ago. Yeah. It was a while ago. ⁓ actually probably was close to a decade decades ago. Anyways, ⁓ It's like why why is that not still the case? Like why don't you take and and again, maybe it's because it's undrafted free agents. I'm not gonna trade an undrafted free agent. I'll probably get a a firm handshake from the other team. But it's like I don't know. It it's such a gray line that I could just ramble on about that ⁓ it feels like the only right answer is to just make it not so gray anymore. I wanna see Brandon Ayuk go to like two lane. That would see what he can do. Yeah. See he can see if he can perform. I mean two lane, you just have to get to the fifty yard line. Or especially if you went to like an indoor team. I mean, if he goes to shit, Syracuse, they got the indoor stadium. I mean, he's set up, he's gonna set every single record possible. I thought you were talking indoor football. I was like Tulso will take breakfast. Well I was gonna get into that point as well. actually let me draft real quick. I actually just took Caleb Williams. I'm doing a draft right now as we did. You gotta explain to the to the people the draft you're doing right now. I'm doing so ⁓ every year the first draft I always do with my fa with my family. We've been doing it for ten years. It's like me, my dad, brother, couple uncles. ⁓ and it's ⁓ it's essentially a massive running joke because it's a six man draft. ⁓ we all chuck in fifty bucks, six people ⁓ and your team is just absolutely loaded. The picks fly by. The draft started at eight o'clock. It's eight thirty as we film this right now, and we are currently in round twelve. ⁓ but my team, like, for example, you know, you just it's it's it's a little bit of a change of pace, ⁓ but to give you kind of a a feel for my first four round picks, ⁓ I got Gibbs, JSN, Cook, and Trey McBride. ⁓ so the team's looking looking pretty all right and I just took Caleb as my QB. It's ridiculous. Yeah. Too many fantasy leagues. It's yeah, it's ⁓ we already had that whole conversation. Yeah, we're Yeah, we had that one last that's a whole nother rabbit hole, but it's a good way to kick it off because every draft just gets instantly harder. Like by round three of, you know, our sixteen man draft, y you know, I'm taking players I'm taking in round eight. of this one. But it's a good way to kind of introduce yourself to the players, get familiar with them. ⁓ shit. I just didn't for like a second, but you're back. Well, I wasn't making any good points. speaking out of your ass. Yeah, I'm just rambling out of my ass, but you know, you kick off the season. Y'all done any drafts yet? No. I'm not even looked at anything. And I'm in my first one is this Sunday and the next one For our g our league is Monday. So these are the two that I got. And then my office does like a we do a one and draft. One and done Monday. Yeah, our draft's Monday at eight, August thirty first. ⁓ we do a one and done. Have you guys have you guys heard of the one and done's before? ⁓ yeah, yeah. So it's basically like you pick a team week one and then you can not use those guys again for the rest of the season. So like towards the end of the year you're having you know Hollywood Brown is your wide receiver. Isn't Hollywood on the Eagles this year? He is. ⁓ god, we're having draft difficulties before we even get started. What the fuck kind of who the fuck puts a draft on a Monday? Monday's just bad vibes, dude. Well, it doesn't matter. You can just set your guys on auto. Your team's gonna read out Caleb Williams, Luther Burton, Roma Gonze. I just picked the stupid. Dude, it's gonna be a battle between me and you for who actually gets Caleb Williams 'cause I want him bad. And you're you're I know you're gonna reach for him in like the third round. I don't reach. That's he's not gonna be a reach 'cause he's gonna be a top three MVP candidate this year. He really could win the ⁓ V P especially 'cause We're gonna have to score forty points a game to win. Yeah. True, definitely. But I don't think I'm I'm not gonna I'm not a I'm not a reacher in fantasy. I'm a I'm a much more go with the flow type of fantasy player. I let I especially 'cause I'm in a sixteen man league and an eighteen man league, you can't really prep too much for those Yeah. Like even the mock drafts where it's like you get through two rounds and and you just quit. You just it's like I'm tired. It's been thirty minutes. People are auto picking. Yeah. It's like a lot of this guy. Yeah. That's a good it does serve as a good ⁓ transition. We were mainly gonna get into some NFL finally. Feels like we've been talking about other sports beating around the bush. We did a little bit of NFL ⁓ in last ⁓ episode, but it's finally time to just ⁓ go full steam ahead towards the NFL. I think ⁓ we got nothing but NFL to talk about today. Yeah, let's ⁓ let's what about the PGA championship? ⁓ yeah, all right. I'll give I'll give my I'll give my two cents on that. Alright, so big news did come out of the PGA today. New format as we approach this ⁓ year's four championship. Yeah, new format's sick. PGA essentially listen, like it's imagine you had the World Cup in the group stage with the teams of four ⁓ too advanced in the old format before they made it three. ⁓ but gr World Cup meets March Madness meets Match play. It's pretty much e any anything you could ever ask for. Essentially and to put it as simply as I can, you're gonna have, you know, pods of four teams just like you would for the World Cup. They're gonna compete in match play. The best two out of those four will move on. Once you get then, then it's a thirty two man bracket of match play where you're just playing each other each day, you know, the thirty two is playing the one. The ⁓ Sixteen is playing the seventeenth. Then you move on. You know, you could get the, you know, twenty-four seed going on a run and playing Scotty Shuffler, the one seed, and then eventually you go until it's a one on one matchup on Sunday on the finale to decide ⁓ the champion. One on one match play. So I think it's perfect. Players have been players and fans have been asking for match play for a while. It's done really well on YouTube and in other formats. yet the PGA really has one event that does that the entire season. So that's that's a really fun change. More details to come on that. That won't be till 2028. But there's been really positive feedback so far. And that releases ahead of this week, which is the tour championship, ⁓ under the current format. Final 30 players, the best 30 players of the season who have made it, ⁓ will have a chance to duke it all out. It used to be a starting stroke tournament, whereas for example, Scotty Scheffler, number one player, would start at ten under, which is just a ridiculous advantage. I get you need to have some advantage from, you know, playing so well throughout the season, but I don't know. There's all arguments and that's why they switched. But top thirty players this week going on and Nice reaction. Should be a good one. I know, I don't know where the the flying emoji came from. But yes is there not like the like this there's a couple of years obviously until the match play. And match play is is only for Like the actual PGA playoffs, right? Yes. So it's they're not like do they not have any any chance or any plan to like debut it in like the John Deere classic? Like something random just to like test it out like sooner. And that's I mean obviously it sounds like it's gonna work, but Yeah. And so that's some of the stuff that's still up in the air ⁓ right now. It hasn't been decided. Like they're kind of Again, it's not happening until twenty twenty eight and a lot of the stuff is not even figured out. Like, for example, like Rory gave a press conference today, being asked about it and he like, Yeah, I was just told I just found out about this new change last week and he's one of the main people involved with the committee. So all of it's actively still being figured out. They know kind of the the bones of how things are going to look. ⁓ but they haven't figured out a lot of the details. But they did say in the original press conference or release of this information back in June ⁓ that there would be specifically more match play involved. And so yeah, there's definitely a really good chance that match play will be involved in something like the John Deere. Because I think people want to see that. Like this is a good step and I think it's ⁓ it makes sense to kind of make this final playoff something separate, its own entity, and add excitement to it, which it's been kind of lacking. ⁓ like this is the tour championship. The winner gets ten million dollars. It's supposed to be this big thing. It's not even as big as the players, which ⁓ is just an elevated normal tournament that just has taken on a life of its own. ⁓ but I think just adding in little elements and fun twists as well as new venues as I've talked about in the past, ⁓ it's all good for the league and I've liked everything they've done so far. ⁓ and this was another another good step I thought. As an outsider looking into the golf world, it genuinely looks like this is the biggest improvement any major U like US sport has made in the longest time. I the only other thing that comes to mind, I I actually like the new kickoff rule in the NFL. I think that's I do like that too. I don't mind that I it's not like a huge approval, but what they're doing in the PGA, they're completely reshaping the league. Yeah. And it's gonna make for some of the most exciting golf tournaments. The viewership is g you're gonna see players like Scotty and Rory match up for some of the most prestigious trophies in golf. Yeah one on one. It's gonna be like it's gonna be So exciting to watch. It's gonna elevate golf to a new level. I I really think that's how do you feel how do you feel about it, Tommy? Yeah, no, I I definitely think Todd makes a great point. ⁓ th there's also like maybe part of it is kind of what he said, like there hasn't been any huge changes in like the big four ⁓ in a in American sports and and for this to not only be as big as it is, but to sound as as cool. as it is to even people that aren't super ⁓ into ⁓ the golf world like Todd says. I mean, I can't imagine that it's not gonna do well and at the very least, even if for some reason it tanked, ⁓ there's gonna be a peak at the start for people to tune in ⁓ just to see what the hell's going on, I feel like and especially for a sport like golf where it's so rooted in tradition, to see like how everyone is so accepting and excited for this new idea shows how good of an idea really is most of these other leagues are either trust me, tradition is very important to maintain, but most of the other leagues will be too coward to make a change or make the wrong change like consistently. They they'll keep on making steps in the wrong direction while this looks like it's gonna really just change the game completely. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean it's and if y'all are it's just y'all two saying that, ⁓ you know, and it's easy for me to sit here and say that as as someone who religiously is involved with golf and everything around the sport. ⁓ but, you know, if y'all are sitting here and reacting positively to that thing about how many other people saw the posts on whatever platform today and is like, ⁓ this is pretty cool. I would tune into this. ⁓ and especially it's it's gonna be interesting to watch that they do it the week of the old format this week because I think I'm gonna be watching the tournament this week and be just looking forward salvating, you know, towards what potentially is down the future because I think it's gonna be night and day ⁓ better than what we have. ⁓ but no, I I think, you know, on a s on a serious note, the fact that they're actually like listening to what the fans want, like and some leagues are kinda landlocked. Like it's hard for the NFL to make significant changes. There's just so many so much money and, you know, viewership and everything involved and tied up into it. But I do think that golf's at a good And specifically the PGA, a good, you know, level right now to kind of make that big decision. Like, ⁓ you know, they're not too landlocked to anything, and I think this is gonna help with viewership a lot. It's what I've been asking for and I think it's gonna help bring a lot more eyes ⁓ into the game. Yeah. For sure. Jumping off of that, do you think there what are what are like if you could make one change to another league that you think would improve it? What do you think that could be? Allow betting on the Little W League World Series? I mean you can find your way to the answer. You can find your way. So if you know you know. ⁓ that's a great question. I think I would wanna change something with the NBA 'cause like I feel like the NBA currently is the league that I have the most gripes over. Like I think the obvious answer answer is to say like shorten the regular season schedule. Like, I mean, i there just does not need to be eighty two fucking games, but I don't want to mess with history and historical stuff either. Yeah, that would like change all the I know records and stuff like that. I wouldn't necessarily mind like a playoff series getting shot. Would you say? Foul baiting. Yeah. Some way if they could stop the foul baiting. I I mean it just like ruins the game. No one enjoys watching it. Yeah. No one wants to see these guys go to the line. They're trying out the one free throw thing in the G League where one free throw is worth all the points of the free throw you're taking. I think they've done that. They did that in the summer league this year. But watching my guy Caleb Wilson just ⁓ miss r repeated free throws, it's like Yeah. You you you're losing like ten points if you miss five free throws, so And I do and I do think it takes like, you know, like I don't like the NBA is it doesn't mean you have to massively overhaul. Like we just mentioned the PGA. They're doing a massive over overhaul. In their case, that was maybe needed to get more eyes, but for leagues that already have it, that are just getting complaints, like the NBA, it just takes a small rule change. Like, for example, think about how much the MLB has changed after the pitch clock rule. Like, again, like games just because games are about on average like forty, forty five minutes to up to an hour shorter, how much they've been able to kind of increase in terms of viewership, at least from when ⁓ once they implemented the rule. And that's just a small thing. Like all we're doing is just adding a clock. You have thirty seconds in between pitches. You can't stop and pick your nose and pick your butt and, you know, rub in the dirt five times before each pitch. like in in in it was just one small tweak. Like I think if they were able to do something with the foul baiting, that tweak would save so much. I think specifically the area I have a lot of issues with is in the final two minutes of games. ⁓ in slowing down the pace and the action of those final two minutes. Like there's nothing worse than when you're in a close game and you're slowed down by, you know, five commercial breaks, you know, with three reviews that are five minutes long. Like if there was a way even to just limit the amount of, you know, reviews or just review time. Like you got like the refs huddle up. All right, you guys have you get one shot of this live action in a review, you have thirty seconds, make a decision, you know, even if we put it in a little mini box to the side, do the commercial on the right, like it's just too much time to get through the final two minutes and it breaks up the game flow. So something with that in the foul baiting is kind of where I would land. Yeah. I I I would agree. I think that's probably the the best way to go about it. The only thing that I could think of bec honestly because you said short in the regular season is maybe do like a like an MLB format. postseason. ⁓ obviously the play in is like winning in. Well obviously you have to play two, but whatever. It's not like it's a series, but after that it becomes a series and I'd be curious to see how like the first round would go if it was a a best of three or even like a best of five. Yeah. That makes sense. I thought they did that. They well they used to do it way in the past. Yeah. I thought they like did that this season. Nah. I don't think so. It's just all the games all I can't remember a single thing that really happened in the first round, other than the Hawks at one point had a lead on the Knicks. Yeah, because Knicks Celtics went to or Knicks Celtics Sixers Celtics went to seven in the first round. I forgot that was a first round series. Yeah. Never mind. Well that happened. That was cool. Yeah. No, that that was definitely a good one. That's probably one of the ones that you'd if it did change, you'd be like, ⁓ we don't get that you know, and there's 15 million rabbit holes I could go down with this, but I think the NBA just in and of itself leads to natural problems. Just, you know, like with the fact that there's only so many players on a team. Like it's it's hard to you can set yourself up for failure. Like tanking has obviously been a big issue and a big talking point in the NBA. You can set yourself up for failure in the NFL, like the Dolphins are gonna do. But like as a team of fifty-two players, it's hard in an actual game to tank. Basketball, you can do things like the Jazz did. Taking up players, minute restrictions for certain guys, it's just natural like when you only have five players on a court, ⁓ and thirteen, fourteen players on a team, that you know, it's gonna be a little bit less ⁓ parody and it's gonna be harder to t and when you spread it out over eighty two games instead of seventeen. ⁓ so the NBA is just always going to have I think issues and it's just if they can minimize them. Yeah. I would say that like you're probably Right, in terms of that being like that's the league that my mind went to first when Todd asked what would you change 'cause obviously you probably there's something to change somewhere that somebody complains about in almost every sport. Yeah. But the NBA it's like always at the forefront of not just like the media's minds, but like fans' minds too. I mean, I think you made a great point with the two minutes. Like I I don't watch the final two minutes of like a close game if it's not the Sixers recently, because it's literally Like you said, I mean commercial break and then review and then commercial break and then there's a foul bait and the last minute is just this team's within five, so if we keep fouling there's a chance that and it's like it's just it's hard not to it's hard not to pull your phone out and then ⁓ shit. ⁓ they came immediately back from a you know, minute long fan duel commercial right into the inbound and ⁓ shit, you look up from your phone and someone just splashed a three. Right. Yeah. But one sport that I don't have complaints about is natural transition by the way, is the NFL. ⁓ and one sport I would not want them to change is the NFL schedule and making it eighteen games. Keep it at seventeen. ⁓ but I think we should I think we should hit some NFL. What do what do we Dell is such a greedy bastard? He's such a greedy he's such a greedy little fuck. He's so grimy. I don't like him. He is a little grim. He also just I mean Goodell, like, there's a lot of people you could put in this category. We could do a whole draft on punchable faces. Like, I think Goodell is inarguably a top five punchable face. He looks like he should have been like a villain in the Smurfs movie. Like a dumb yeah, like a dumb villain. Not a villain in like a James Bond movie, like in a child like or trolls too. Like that's where he should be the villain. Yeah, like he's just so ⁓ his face. He wants to put a team in like Europe. Yeah, go fuck yourself. Yeah. Literally go fuck yourself. That's what we want, dude. Everyone's just been asking for NFL gets more NFL games in London. We need a team in in Paris. I think there's this is the new how many games are in ⁓ Europe this year? I think it's like sixteen. There's a lot. Sixteen in Europe? I mean there's gotta be some in like Brazil and then some in Brazil. Yeah, just in i international games. How many NFL games International. There's gonna be a record nine NFL games played outside the United States. I exaggerated a little bit. But nine is is is about eight too many. Let's be like like the NBA. NBA's got the one do the one game in Paris. It's on like a one o'clock on a Wednesday each year. Let's just do that, dude. Let's get one maybe two. And let's make it at like some bummy teams, so I don't really have to Yeah, you don't gotta pay attention. Like so we don't get a situation last year where it was that Jets Broncos game where it was like twelve to nine and it was the worst thing I've ever watched in ⁓ No, that's fine. I'm saying keep it. Keep those keep the bad games in Europe. So you don't gotta watch Yeah, I mean if they're gonna be at six AM, I'm gonna place my parlay at night. Yeah, the Eagles go to London that I have to wake up for in like week five Yeah, it's terrible. Well, and now it sucks too because the Jags are actually good. And before they would, you know, kind of they would exist over there as the shitty team and get like multiple games in London, but now they're actually worth watching. And so now you actually have to tune tune into those games. It's not just like, you know, for example this year, Jags Titans could be pretty decent if Cam Ward's alright. Right. Yeah, maybe Titans not the best example. Titans. Jags Texans. Yeah, that would be a good game. That would be a good game. Texans are gonna be dirty again this year. I think they could their defense at least. We all know who H is on. It's he ca I I I I don't think he's good, but I think he can perform at least in the regular season to make their re I think they could be like one of those teams that just like like the Steelers and what was it like with Chase Claypool in like twenty twenty one where it's just like how is this team eleven and ⁓ right now? Yeah. Right. It's like they just haven't lost. I could see the Texans being that team this year. Yeah, I i that's kind of what they were last year and like they really like and the thing is like for as much shit CJ Stroud took last year, like they somehow ended up like eleven and five, won a playoff game, you know, for the third straight year. Such a good receiving core. Yeah. And Tank Dell should be back. I mean, at least for you know, he'll be back for four games and that's frustrating for them. Yeah, Yeah, he tore his ACL. Jaden Higgs. What about is Tutu Atwell? Is he on the Texans still? He's on the Rams. And he I believe went to the Dolphins. He's got wide receiver two. He got a D yeah. He's wide receiver two for the Dolphins this year. Two two Atwell. ⁓ I meant tanked out. ⁓ yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's back from injury. At least for now. He's back from like they just got bootet. They just got from ⁓ yeah, they did get booty. Mm-hmm. ⁓ yeah, speaking of Z I mean Xavier Hutchinson, he's pretty good. I don't know how I feel about that trade as a as Residence Pats fan. I mean, like I was j it's crazy how we were just having an argument about our wide receiver room in depth the other day, and then they immediately go trade Budet to make my ⁓ argument a sh a lot worse. ⁓ It just I don't know, it sucks. I I I thought that he was probably You know, other than Diggs and Diggs was only on the field about fifty percent of snaps last year, I thought Boudet made some really good strides and improvement, and people forget he was a monster at LSU. I can't remember if it was was it injuries or was it ⁓ he was the gambling. His gambling case at LSU, I believe, dropped him into like ⁓ into like a day three pick. kind of not s not too dissimilar to how ⁓ Luther Burden in in just a Because he was kind of mid in his final year at Mizoo, dropped from. And Luther Burton wasn't even that bad. He was like getting into the season, he was That's even weirder. Supposed to be the number one wide receiver in that class. Like he was like the Mizzus. And I remember him mossing us when we were playing him, just absolutely catching one over. I don't know who was playing cornerback at the time, just watching another guy dive out of bounds while he jukes, and then he dances into the end. So thank God Rocket Sanders is able to. I know maybe maybe my favorite game at That twenty twenty four season was was awesome. That game was that game that game's sneaky one of my favorites. One of the loudest one I've ever heard the stadium. Maybe the Yeah, they it registered an earthquake in the in the area when he got in the end zone. It was insane. But yeah. I know. ⁓ Is he is he a is he alive? People forget that ⁓ Rocket Sanders scored the first touchdown of the Browns season last year. He scored ⁓ because people were pissed because everyone had all their different first touchdown bets, and then Rocket Sanders, he was like the highest odds of any five. Did anyone have one ticket? I don't think so. No. ⁓ absolutely not. We we we've had a couple of ⁓ who's the the tight end for the Broncos? ⁓ Nick Mews? Or Nick Me for Vikings. Nick. Nate Atkins. Nate Atkins. Not Nick Husters on the Vikings. Yeah, yeah. I so I confused the fourth string tight ends from South Carolina. Are we gonna get a are we gonna get a season long ⁓ Diggles or five to nine parlay for like maybe a Prize picks or something or I that's not even a question. Sleeper sleeper. That could be that could be that could be next episode. We ⁓ come back, do some research for episode ten. Get a little get a little tri ⁓ a trifecta. We could do a six leg or each do two. Yeah, I mean if it's season long, I mean I don't like to do anything less than six legs if it's seasoned for sure. Right. I'm trying to think about last year. We combined one leg off. It was because fucking Baker Mayfield ⁓ just could not get a three hundred yard passing game. We both missed we both. I think his line was three and a half, three hundred yard games. He had like seven the year before and he had like two last year. Yeah. It was yeah, it was gross. Yeah. And that was one of my that was one of my what's I don't know what divisions we want to kind of get into, but one team I I feel like is We people talk a lot about going into the season about teams that have something to prove, teams that are, you know, ha have a lot of pressure this year. Like, I feel like a team that doesn't get talked about as maybe having something to prove just because they get kind of lost in the shuffle is the Buccaneers. Like, the fact of the matter is that for the past four years in a row, they've had between eight and ten wins. They've been mid for four straight years and they haven't jumped up to a bottom level to get into a good pick, and they have not jumped up since Brady. ⁓ to go up towards a top pick. Baker's had some good regular season stuff. He's been a fun story, but last year they started off whatever they were five and one, five and two, then limped to an eight and nine finish and and again ended between that eight and ten. I feel like they're sneaky a team where it may not be pressure like I no one expects them to win the Super Bowl, but it's like ⁓ can you show me something or what ⁓ or are you guys just gonna be mid it and go nine and eight and be a little bit fun to win. In weak division two. Yeah. I feel like Like it would be different if they were in a stacked NFC West. Yeah. That's why I think ⁓ we should stick to to what we said. Jackson said he's he's has random knowledge on the NFC West. Obviously my birds. For some reason the South and C East and then and then Todd's ⁓ NFC South. But let's get it ⁓ let's get the the stinker swim going here. Stinker swim for the ⁓ stinker swim season. Debut with graphics. Stinky. Stinky. Alright, who wants to wants to go first? So we just go game by game or team by team. Let's find their totals. Let's find their totals for the year. Yeah. Okay. See what we think. We can go game by game. Well let's look at the let's look at the win totals and then we'll look at the win totals. Let's start with the NFC West just 'cause you said NFC West. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Start us off, Diggs. Because I feel like, you know, NFC West a good is a good ⁓ division to start with because you have not only last year's Super Bowl winner, you have a team that could be competing for a bottom three pick or a or a top three pick, and you have a team that's the favorite for the Super Bowl. So there's a lot of different things and ways it could go. ⁓ with Seahawks, Rams, and then Niners may be the funniest offseason aside from ⁓ well they could have just got j one upped by the Jets owner. But other than that. Yeah. No, it's ⁓ Yeah. So should we start we should start with the dog shit first. Start with the cards. Yeah, yeah. Go bot go bottom to top. What's ⁓ so let's let's get a win total on the Cardinals. My guess would be it's four and a half or three and a half. There's no way it's You were looking at three and a half or four and a half. That's correct. So we'll do four. We'll put four right here. We'll do yeah, exactly four. Yeah. So I the Niners and the Seahawks both are ten and a half and the Rams are eleven and a half. So it is loaded at the top. I mean division odds plus one hundred division odds for the Rams, plus two ⁓ five for the Seahawks, three ⁓ five for the Niners, and then the poopy Cardinals are one there's definitely one that auto sticks out for an under. ⁓ but we I'll get to that team when we talk about it. I think we should G just talk about the Cardinals first, get them out of the way because they're you know, if we want to talk about stink or swim, they're the stinkiest team maybe ever, especially defensively. That team is gonna allow fifty points per game. Yeah, there's there's really nothing good to look at. I mean, they released Trey Benson, who had probably the only good running back games for them. I mean maybe Bam Knight had a few, but yeah. He's gone. Marvin Harrison Jr., God knows what's going on with him. He was supposed to be unbelievable. ⁓ I think Carson Beck could be a service a quarter serviceable quarterback, but he just him and Jacoby Brissett are going to be sacked maybe the the NFL record between the two of ⁓ I mean they they're missing so many pieces and it it shocks me that Buda Baker has not been traded or asked to be traded. Respect I guess for being loyal, ⁓ but he is the only name that comes to mind off the top of my head, ⁓ other than Josh Sweat just 'cause he's a former Eagle. ⁓ won super bow them to them for them to be any sort of of notable player on the defensive side of things. I mean, I wrote down I wrote down a a couple quibs for each team, just like short notes. For Cardinals, I wrote down should be gunning for a top three pick, could be a fun offense, get Carson Beck and ⁓ Jeremiah Love reps, ⁓ and a function. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, fun fantasy offense and one of the worst defenses of the twenty twenties is is what I wrote down for the Cardinals. So a little bit all over the board there, but ⁓ like you said, I I we don't know what we have with Love. He was really he's looked solid enough in preseason, especially that Hall of Fame game. ⁓ but, you know, I I think that ⁓ they all know, everyone knows that Brissett is not the long term guy. You're not gonna go win a Super Bowl with Brissett, you know, if you look back He's he's a bridge quarterback. That's simply what it is. It's to get from this year to next year until you're in the draft, or maybe you have something with ⁓ with Beck and that changes things. I like Beck. I I think Beck is ⁓ Yeah I think he could be something he's kind of been looked down upon for like the last three years now. Yeah. And he's he's especially social media. And he got and he got robbed. ⁓ ⁓ yeah. Get robbed? Yeah, he got robbed within like a week of transferring to Miami. Yeah. ⁓ I mean, look, it's not for nothing, like in the teams and the rosters that those teams had, but it's not for nothing that he was the quarterback in his final two years of college for two playoff teams in Georgia and then took Miami to the national championship game. ⁓ and and competed pretty well against a team that knocked the doors off of everyone for the entire season. He's got the specs, he's he's six five, I believe, you know, has ⁓ good height and weight. ⁓ you know, he's got an NFL body and ⁓ and this was a dude that, you know, ⁓ a year or two years ago was looked at very squarely as a first round talent. ⁓ and through a bunch of different situations, ended up falling. So I I think there's no reason not to at least try and see what you have with him. ⁓ I you know, and it it'll be ⁓ made a lot easier. Last year Brissett actually played his frickin' ass off, at least on offense. It was easy to do when he was throwing fifty sixty passes a game. But ⁓ you know, I it's hard to repeat that. I see a scenario where Brissett is just okay through the first four or five weeks of the season. Maybe he gets an injury, maybe they start out 0-5 and they're like, all right, we're just gonna switch the QB, let's see what Beck can do. Yeah. I I think that's probably the best thing for them in terms of their future, but ⁓ I guess there's not really much else to talk about when it comes to that team, especially in again an NFC West division that three teams are separated by one game in their win total. Yeah. Obviously two of those being tied at ten and a half. And ⁓ the forty niners are are such a confusing team to me. ⁓ obviously you're mentioning the off season they've had so many injuries, not necessarily all of them long term, ⁓ or anything like that. But that's kind of been ⁓ at least a good laugh with the whole ⁓ plant next to him and whatnot. But ⁓ having the same over under win total as The reigning Super Bowl champions and obviously the Rams, I think they deserve Would you say Niners was? Nine and a half or ten and a half? Ten and a half. So ten and a half for the Niners and the Seahawks. They're tied with the Super Bowl champions. I think that's pretty ridiculous. I mean, I feel like every year you look at the Niners on paper and they're like they could get to eleven wins, right? But did we get a record out there for the Cardinals? Yeah, we should we should do that as well. Yeah, let's we could step back there. I mean Three and a half or four and a half is their win total. Let let's just let's just put ⁓ what we what their what we think the record will be. I mean they're they're a big time stink. They're mega stink. I'm putting three wins, four wins, three and fourteen. I think that's a good line, honestly. Three and a half. That's great line in my opinion. I would say three and fourteen's probably pretty likely. Okay. I'm g I think two and fifteen. I think they're gonna be really bad. Yeah, I'll go to twenty six. I'll go towards the higher end. I I just I think that their offense is good enough where maybe they can knock off some shitty games or just because you know, the Cardinals don't really get a lot of nice things. I'll I'll just I'll go four wins and I don't think they get the number one pick. I think they're picking like three. Okay, so under we're going under. Yeah, let's go under. Especially if you can get a four and a if you can get an under four and a half on any book out there, I suggest ⁓ taking out the mortgage. There's no way that team wins five games. They may win three, four, like ⁓ they're not winning five. Yeah. Okay. ⁓ back to the back to the stinky stinky. Why don't you read your thoughts for the Niners and the Seahawks since they have the same win total? We can kind of just put ⁓ a little bit of a head to head and and look at two at the same time. 'Cause if you if you couldn't tell by the disgusted face I made as you read out the fact that the Niners and the Seahawks had the same line, I have a lot of thoughts on the on the Niners and that was the one that immediately stuck out to me. But the thought the the the thoughts I put down for the Niners were injury, injury, injury injury, stinky vibes team, very eight and nine or nine and eight feeling. Stribbling insane hype. It seems like they wasted a healthy CMC year last year. Were the thoughts that I had on the Niners. ⁓ because CMC ⁓ Christian McCaffrey, you may know who he is. He played 17, all 17 games last season in essentially like, you know, Anthony Davis having a McAu Bridges type year. ⁓ like imagine if Anthony Davis played 82 games. That's essentially what CMC did. ⁓ the man made of glass. And I feel like that was a waste because while the Niners did have a better regular season ⁓ than I expected, ⁓ I I it didn't really amount to anything besides, you know, ⁓ a fun little ⁓ fun little playoff win there. ⁓ as ⁓ as Tommy very well knows. Yeah. Tough for loss. Yeah, I look, I mean, going into the vibes have just been awful. You bring in Mike Evans to be a top guy when he's in season what, ten, eleven at age like thirty four, thirty five. He's had plenty of injury s injury questions going into the year. you bring in Debo Samuel too. It's not like he was ⁓ you know, lighting up four three track speed anymore. ⁓ and then behind him you have ⁓ they lose they lose Jawan Jennings. ⁓ and then behind him you have Deshaun Stribling who I wrote down as you know one of the guys Pearsall's out too isn't he? ⁓ what'd you said? Pearsall's out ⁓ yeah and I mean I forgot to mention Pearsall because he's pretty easy to forget when he's never on the field in the first place. And then even a guy like Stribling who's gotten massive hype essentially ⁓ from what I've seen the Omeka Igbuka hype campaign ⁓ for this y this season of what a Meka was last year. ⁓ but he's now injured and he has a bunch of questions and that's popped up within the last week or so. And, you know, so when you combine that with yes, CMC is healthy, how much can you trust him? And just the overall stink poop vibes, I cannot believe their win total is ten and a half. I don't know what y'all think. I want to hear your thoughts, but I I cannot believe that is their total. Yeah. ⁓ I mean I think you summed it up pretty well in terms of the injuries is like the first thing that comes to mind when I think of the forty niners over the last handful of years. ⁓ you always hope that CMC is healthy just 'cause he's such a fun player to watch and a fully healthy C ⁓ C is what top ten, top five player in the league? At this stage I would go five top seven. Yeah. So i I mean, obviously he's so much fun to watch and I'm not exactly a big fan of the Niners just due to like the recent past, but I can't for the life of me see a situation where they're tied in their win total with the Super Bowl champ the reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks. I think that team they lost a couple people, the Seahawks did. ⁓ but I I just think that they brought back the right guys that made an impact in that Super Bowl run. And I think for that reason the I think the Niners could I mean eight I was expecting To see an eight and a half or a nine and a half. And then I did think the Rams would have a higher half. Yeah. So just drop ⁓ down, have a nine and a half Niners, ten and a half Seahawks is fine, and then eleven and a half Rams. I mean that team the the fact that they are listed one less win total number below the Rams, who are like plus six hundred to win the Super Bowl. Like is is genuinely asinine to me. Yeah, I don't know if this offense will be good enough to protect how many times their defense is gonna be exposed by how good the other offenses are in this division. Like you have the Seahawks and the Rams who have maybe the two best offenses in the NFL going against you d at least two times per season. That's that's gonna be tough to to even hold your own and and then you gotta verse so many other teams in the NFC. It's gonna be really tough road for them. Like I mean even if you split with them, that's auto two that's generous. Yeah, that is one and three. I think O and four is pretty possible between between those four games. So I mean just think about that over that line too. What how many games you're ten and eight now? Ten and seven. Ten and seven would be what it is. So what that's say one and two million. You can only lose four more games before. And a team relying on stretch. relying so badly on their key players. If one of those guys goes down, it seems like it's like a Jenga a puzzle like the like if one goes down it's like the tower starting to fall. And like if you you knock out another one, it's like that thing's coming down. They're giving ⁓ a nice kick in the nuts too because they open the air playing the Rams on the road. That's their first game. It's tough. They give ⁓ two easy games after that. They get to play both the Dolphins and the Cardinals at home. So that's two and one. Then you have to go for the the Broncos, then the Seahawks, ⁓ then that's the th they keep giving ⁓ the Falcons and the Raiders. Yeah, Bonox is good to go. Or will be. Like, I mean, there's some winnable games on here. Like then the back half of the season is a brute. They end the season by playing Rams, Four ⁓ Rams, Chargers, Chiefs, Eagles are their final four games. They could go ⁓ and four there too. Yeah. They're gonna have a tough stretch to make those playoffs, man. They're gonna be yeah. I mean, I I don't think like and and I think a lot of it goes back to last year, like you have to credit and there's a reason why Shanahan was getting genuine ⁓ V P talks for what was overall a a mid team that happened to go, you know, twelve and five. ⁓ is what they did in twenty twenty five. There he was and he probably deserved them because that team should have been nowhere near twelve wins. He scrapped together a defense, he scrapped together that offense. ⁓ you know, he Mac Jones was able to go like six and two when Purdy was out or whatever he did. ⁓ and so it's honestly a miracle they got to that number, and it just feels like they're gonna have the same voodoo vibes, and I don't know if you can get more of a of a sign or a message going into this year than Shanahan getting in a literal car crash in the offseason. Like, to me, of the one person who, in my opinion, saved their season last year, I I don't see it this year. I I think I'd be looking at an alternate Unders market. I would be look at go as far to say under seven and a half, under six and a half, whatever you could get that at. If you could find that at plus three hundred, you know, that's I I I just do not see it. Yeah, maybe. It's sometimes they put horrible prices on the ship, but you know, whatever it is, put lock me down for my hot take of this podcast. Niners under six and a half wins. Majority. Let's roll the let's roll through the NFC West here real quick. Maybe some quick thoughts on the I'm gonna give them nine and eight on the Rams. I w I would say stink on the the win total for the Niners. Yeah, we've we spent we've spent too much time talking about the dog shit teams. I would say probably that line for the Seahawks is pretty good. I'll probably say eleven or twelve wins for them. So I'd probably swim on that total. And then I mean the Rams are just The Rams could win fifteen games. They could easily Like a eleven and a half is is probably low for this is a terrifying team that's going to get Aaron Donald back. This is a s this is a sussy baca line, is what I'll say. Eleven and a half is so weird because it is low. Like it feels like how does that team other than a Matthew Stafford injury, and even if Matthew Stafford gets injured, what we've seen from Ty Simpson is And Stetson Bennett in the preseason is like shit, with how good the rest of the team is, maybe they could they probably still could win some games even if Stafford did go down with an injury. Yeah. Odell looks pretty good. Like Odell is looking pretty good. Giants legend. He's on the Giants, bro. Yeah, I it was hilarious watching he he ran like a like a five yard out route and caught a ball like with zero separation, and they were like twenty twenty six Odell is I saw that. Or something like that. It's like, dude, come on. She's back. They're trying to get hype. Speaking of the speaking of the Giants, let's rip the the bottom two teams here for the Commanders and the Giants both have seven and a half projected win total. ⁓ are we are we swimming? Eleven and a half for the Rams? We're swimming? Yeah. We're going up. I'm going over Jackson's little sus, but I think I'm still swimming. I'm I'm still swimming. Yeah. I am. I was convinced by the preseason from how good their backup quarterbacks played, because my whole argument was that Stafford could get hurt and they suck, but even if he gets hurt, they'll be fine. I think once they confirm that Aaron Donald's back, that total is gonna jump to twelve and a half. If Puka can just if they can just make Puka stay off of any streams for the year, they'll be chillin'. Just no streaming for Puka. No streaming. Every time Puka did c something controversial on a stream He literally had like two hundred yards and three touchdowns. That is true. Maybe more streams. Dude Every t every time he went fucking stupid. Every time he insulted Jewish people or did something anti Semitic or was racist or something, the next stream, the next game, he walked out with like demonized and just like kept on. They were like trying to hurt him out there. He had like a hundred and ninety yards. I remember it was the first game of the playoffs. Or maybe it was like the last game of regular season. One of it was it was the la it was the Fantasy football like finale is when Puka everyone it was like seventeens. I don't know. Puka did some retarded shit. Yeah. And like the next game people were like dude, he's gonna be suspended. Like they're gonna suspend him for a game. I was saying that. And they he comes out, he had like two hundred yards, two touchdowns, he just fucked it. It was a Thursday night football game too. ⁓ it was the game against the the Seahawks. Yeah, and it's like immediately whoever was versus Puka in the finals lost. Show was promised to him. Yeah. It was. Or he took that promise away from them. Yeah, now they're taking it away. But yeah, just get ⁓ on like an Aiden Ross stream before every game and they're chilling. Yeah. All right. Commanders Giants, seven and a half overunder. That is they're both their win totals. These teams are the NFC East is a two team race. ⁓ I don't think that the Giants or the Commanders have a chance. I I like the Giants defense. The Giants offense is gonna be pretty terrible. The commanders are are just the most def like the definition of just like you'd be having like a a conversation with a group of friends and you're all like tight knit and there's just somebody over here. And like that's the commanders. Like they're just over here. Like they're there. They have some okay players. Right here is Brandon Ayuk. Yeah. Yeah, then he's right he's like got his shoulder his arm around him. Like Just a little bit a little bit further back. Take a couple steps more back, Brandon. Yeah. It's just like I don't know. Commanders, Giants are probably a a seven the under five hundred, seven to eight win teams. ⁓ so that line again, ⁓ I think is good at seven and a half. I would like I don't know, man. The Giants are terrible. Giants I'm I'm s I'm s they're sinking. They are not swimming. They're stinking and sinking. Pooh all in the water. There's ⁓ brown out, brown out, brown out. Jackson Dart is not actually good. He played a couple of good games last year. He's not a good quarterback. This team is not good. So Camp Scadabou is going to do some s something so dumb and he's gonna break his leg. He's not even that good. Najee Harris, I think was he the one that just got signed by him? He's actually pretty good. He might be able to help as a workhorse back, but he's the most boring player in the NFL. ⁓ Najee Harris has never had an exciting season. He is the biggest snorfest of all time. So nothing crazy is gonna happen. Poor Malik Neighbors ruining his potential and talent on that team. Okay. Bad form. My my thoughts is it's interesting that both lines are seven and a half. So the Giants won four games last year. The Commanders won five. So they're saying that the Giants they're basically saying that a healthy neighbors, potentially healthy Scataboo and John Harbaugh is worth four extra wins. Is is worth them going from a four win team to an eight win team. I think both those teams are pretty popular picks to kind of make jumps. ⁓ I especially the it seem especially the Giants once they signed Harbaugh. It's died down a little bit, but I just feel like that's a crapshoot. I feel like one of those teams is actually going to, you know, win eight or nine games and the other one's going to suck again. I would I like the Giants more than the Commanders. The commanders just feel I feel like the Commanders do win Seven games with a healthy Daniels season. Obviously, if he's not healthy again, that team's gonna suck ass again. And I don't know, they're just so mid everywhere outside of, you know, Daniels and McLaurin. Their running back room still stinks. ⁓ regardless, blah, blah, blah. I I don't want to talk about the commanders. I don't think there's more of a boring team in the NFL. Like it I'm surprised they didn't sign Najee Harris. He'd be a perfect fit for him. Yeah, it was the Giants, interesting. Like, I don't know. I think Dart. Or Harbaugh will be good for Dart, maybe make him grow up a little bit, Scatabo grow up a little bit. It's just good things in the Giants don't mix again. So I'd honestly I don't know. I feel like they both win seven games and go under. I think they're both close but don't get there. So Cal I agree. ⁓ I would barely just barely stink. Like there's a little whiff of the sound. They're both stinking. One of those barely like fish in the trash can, but it's only been there for like three days. It's not a horrible stink yet. Yeah. What's in the trash can? Three day fish sounds way worse than a little bit. Three day fish in the trash can? Maybe like three hour fish. Okay, never mind. That's Jackson's trash can. We have different we have different stinks down to anything. Yeah, if that does tell you anything. ⁓ And then I'll throw in the Eagles are ten and a half. ⁓ I'm not gonna give my opinion on the Eagles. ⁓ obviously I would go over and swim and I think Sean Man proceeds to give his opinion about the Eagles. ⁓ I think Sean Mannion's offense is gonna be really good. ⁓ I think AJ's departure will be felt, but not felt as much as people think it's going to be. I've heard really good things about ⁓ about Smitty, obviously, ⁓ about Duntavon Wicks, ⁓ Hollywood Brown. Hollywood Brown, of course, dude. Legendary wide receiver four. I'm bullish, I'm bullish on Saquon this year in fantasy fantasy. I think he has a He can't be as bad as he was last year. Not as bad, but as disappointing, I guess. And and the Cowboys it I I would say I'm the eight and a half to nine and a half, which one do you guys want to go off of? Nine. That would be the question. Do nine and a half? No, just nine. Nine in the middle. Just nine. Yeah, split it down the middle. I mean I I really like the Cowboys this year, too. I really like the Cowboys too. I think they win that division. Why? I'm not gonna lie. I'm ⁓ people have been sleeping on they're saying Pickens is gonna get like have a down year this year. I think Pickens is gonna get even better. He overperformed last year, but I think he really showed who he really was with a decent quarterback throwing to him. He is a good player. CeeDee Lamb frees him up. And both of them with full coverage. Yeah. That was with a disappointing C D year last year. Like C D was just okay. I know he had some injury stuff too, but like you know, CD's a top five receiver in this league, if not top three. He's he's he's so he's so slippery, so good. And Pickens could be easily a top ten, top fifteen guy. I mean he certainly was last year. And it th I mean the the biggest thing for the Bengals of the NFC, like, is obviously gonna be their defense. We know just like the Bengals, the offense is there, you know, it's just like having Burrow, Chase, and Higgins, ⁓ having Dak, Pickens, and CD, the offense is gonna be fine. And Javante was pretty good last year at running back as well for him. It's just is their defense gonna hemorrhage points or not? And I think that some of the moves, while crazy in the moment last year, obviously the the mica trade, the trade for ⁓ Kenny Williams as well, like were crazy trades in the moment, but I do think that some of those moves, ⁓ Logan Wilson at linebacker as well, ⁓ are gonna start to pay ⁓ some some dividends. I I think that even if like, 'cause they were probably what, like thirtieth ranked in defense last year, even if they can make it can't get much worse. Yeah, it can't get much worse. Jump up to like fifteenth to twentieth while having, you know, the top six offense that they had last year, you know, I think that's good enough to win eleven games in that division. ⁓ and I think ⁓ ⁓ my thing my thing is like it can't get much worse. No. But how is it going to get better? Right? Yeah. Like Von Miller's not gonna do anything. Rashawn Gary was a good trade, I guess, but that I don't think they like what is their depth chart on the back end? Like their corners and their safeties. And and like obviously Caleb Downs is a great pick, like one hundred percent. They're gonna be a good run defense, in my opinion. I'm betting off gut feeling here. I I I I just I'm betting that. No, it's fair. It's fair. I I understand that the Cowboys are hyped, and obviously I'm not gonna like it because I hate the Cowboys, but I I don't know. ⁓ I think I think the Eagles are easily hitting ten and a half too. I think both of these teams are gonna duke it out for winning the division. So I ⁓ it's a two horse range. I would say it's fifty fifty. I I would agree with you there. Towards the quarterback in Philadelphia, I think he's a As do most people. We can we can save we can save the ⁓ for another pod where maybe we we go more in depth ⁓ specifically about our teams, but you know, I think we both have some thoughts. We all three of us have thoughts that differ ⁓ on Hurts and the rest of the Eagles. But I'm also a hater, so I can't, you know, everything I say comes with a spoonful of bias. Very much. We can get into that. Yeah. Again, that's an hour long podcast in itself. The Jalen Hurts Todd, you're you got the NFC North. We'll give it a little quick one since we're over an hour here. ⁓ we'll try to make it quick. Win totals at the bottom, Minnesota Vikings eight and a half. ⁓ Chicago Chicago Bears nine and a half. ⁓ Packers nine and a half to ten and a half. Lions ten and a half. ⁓ my god. I think J J and Kyler winning nine games. Yeah, right, dude. Break my arm. That's not happening. I don't think we need to talk about that one. Could start a couple wins off off the start. I think Kyler could get hot, but then he's not gonna be too good for too long. He people will figure him out and he he's not gonna be the Vikings are are not a good team. They're kind of a joke. Jay Jay McCarthy and Kyler. Poor poor poor Justin Jefferson. That's a ridic that's a I know they won I think they won nine games last year despite the awful quarterback play and they had like Brosmer start for four games. I don't know. Like KOC is a he's a good coach. Like that they have a good defense. ⁓ I don't know. They you can only just blitz for so long and just blitz, blitz, blitz, blitz. Eventually the league is, you know, gonna figure out a little bit on defense, pop you over the And they lost Jonathan Grenard too. One of their one of their better defensive lines. I don't know. ⁓ like I don't even think I think that's a team where you can sometimes you can over analyze teams, you can underanalyze teams. I think the Vikings are a team where you just look at the quarterback situation, you look at the fact that they somehow scrapped and overachieved last year. And and you just look at that line this year, eight and a half, and you say, Come on, dude. Like that that there's I just do not see it, especially in what's going to be a tough and competitive division. Well let's ⁓ let's look at the the next team. Todd, I didn't give much thought about the Eagles. I'll quickly go over the Bears. I'll just be like it's time for Caleb to put up or shut up. If if they want to be a successful team, it relies pretty much entirely on his shoulders. He's the face of man if he wants to be the face of the league. This is the time to show it. This year you have everyone watching you. Go out and perform. If you don't, you know, a a he he seems like one of the players in the league where like whichever way he performs is how much people are gonna react like exponentially. Like if he plays a bad game, people react a lot. He has a good game, people see what he can do. So it relies on him. The defense is not very good. We have the hardest or at least top three most difficult schedule in the NFL. He's a polarizing player. Yeah. Very Very ⁓ Which is it's kinda sad. He he he reminds me a lot of a of another Chicago player that's a a very polarizing player where he should be one of the most beloved and and most watched and liked players, and and that would be PCA, who gets hate for actually no reason when he's one of the most exciting players to watch. And I feel very similar about Caleb. Like I think polarizing players is so fun on your team though. Yeah, yeah. Like a little like a little footnote as well. Like Jalen Hurts is polarizing. I think that's fun to defend. Drake May is polarizing. We all have Drake. Jalen Carter, obviously, because of Drake's not a great I wouldn't say Drake May is I mean, ⁓ not as much as the other people we've talked about. Drake, the schedule may. I mean, you know, he's polar he's not as much but that's like a Patriot. I think we gotta see one more season out of him. He's gotta be polarizing is someone that makes headlines. Drake May is kind of a guy that out of the three quarterbacks in this chat room right now, he is number three in the polarizing list, and it's not close. I would agree. I I would say but I would also say that the three most polarizing QBs in the league are Hertz, Caleb, and May. We just happen to have ⁓ on our teams. ⁓ Okay. All right. ⁓ I'll give you I'll give Biggie Herbert. Yeah. Okay. Well anyways. Anyways. We're stinking the eight and a half on the Vikings. ⁓ I wouldn't say we're we're all ball swimming. Okay, we're swimming on nine and a half, just barely. We're still eleven on the Bears. Packers I think will probably have the same exact record. They're such a sneaky, annoying team because they're that puts them over their win total though. Yeah, I think they're ten and seven is what's their win total? ⁓ that actually it said nine and a half to ten and a half. So if we're looking at ten wins as like their win total, then technically pushes. But it feels like they were s they were the team that a lot of people were projecting, you know, and I like them too, were like the team that was gonna make a jump up to that, you know, NFC ⁓ championship game. And and maybe this is kind of a post hype year. They were getting a lot of hype going into last season, so maybe it happens this year. I I I think they win like twelve games. Okay. Yeah, and then I think the Lions are another team that the Lions is an interesting one. And I think yeah, I would agree. Everyone before the season is saying like the Lions bounce back here, bounce back here. Heard that nonstop. I think the era is over. You you lost your key player and it was your coach. They remind me a lot of the Yeah. ⁓ They remind me a lot of the Orioles of the NFL, where it's like they had this young core, they had this really bright hot start right out of the gate when all Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson all came up, and now look at where they are now. It's fizzled out, it's gone. I think the Lions are kind of on a similar trajectory. They have good players. They got Gibbs who's scary. Goth is obviously a good Amon Goth gets the ball where James a dog. Yeah. They have defensive players that are. These guys are fantasy football players. This is national football players. Like they're not it's these guys are they're good on paper. It's it's just it's a it's not a poor man's, it's it's like a rich man's Buccaneers. Like if the Buccaneers are I don't know, target, then they're Trader Joe's. Like they they're good for fantasy, they're good in the regular season. Like I don't think they're built to compete ⁓ far beyond that. No one's a word and we're we're stinking on the win total. Eleven and a What is are they nine and a half Lions? I think it was eleven and a half. They have the same win total as the half, sorry. Ten and a half. It's ten and a half. Under. I would say it's a nine and ten team. That division is going to be so damn close. Yeah. That makes it that makes it harder for all the totals as well, 'cause it's gonna every game is competitive. Each team could go, you know, technically three, ⁓ three and three against their division. Yeah. Pretty easily. So such an annoying league to be in. But it's so fun. Well, four and two. Everyone's gonna sweep the Vikings. True. Yeah. I don't know. Especially if JJ's getting No, they'll get some. They'll get some. I don't think the Vikings are as bad as Jackson was making it out to be. I'm not I'm not completely writing them off. I think they could still prove their their defense is always just like s w we good. Look, the defense is it's a good defense. They still have Justin Jefferson. I with Connoisseur, so I don't know who the running back is. We'll get into in a in a future episode, we'll get more into it. Aaron Jones. Yeah. See their RB1, old ass Aaron Jones. ⁓ Aaron Jones. Jordan Mason? Yeah, dude. Stacked running back still. That's a fucking bummy running running back. Yeah, dude, they're winning nine games for sure. Yeah, Aaron Jones, Jordan Mason, Damon Claiborne, and Xavier Scott out the four. Damn, do they got anyone below the age of 30 on the Keep an eye on Damon Claiborne, though. Sleeper. Yeah, I I had heard some interesting things about him. on a on a future episode, we'll get into some players in fantasy. ⁓ and and Jettis just feels like a no brainer for regardless of how bad that team is or not is, I feel like Jettis just naturally has to bounce back and have a better year from what he had last year. Alright. Well ⁓ a little preview. We obviously went through three divisions because there's three of us. Maybe we'll What's the one we ⁓ forgot? I mean out of the NFC, the South. Which technically we touched on saying it was super close and it's gonna be it's gonna be like an NFC North, but they're all dog shit type of thing. Yeah, I mean I'm I'm from Charlotte and I can't even it's hard to even root for the Panthers. Like I'm rooting for Tyler Shuck. Yeah. So we'll ⁓ maybe we'll touch on the AFC next episode. But we got a new outro as well. So check check that out here. ⁓ hopefully we'll catch you guys next week and ⁓ it's it's been fun, boys. Yeah. Later farewell.