Everything that Mattered from Preseason Week 2

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I understand it's just a couple preseason games.

The team that I am watching in these games feels like a different type of Giants team to me.

That's going to be a rough and tumble out no matter who is on the schedule.

And I'm confident in my over because there's a lot of young, vicious, violent young players on this roster who are going to be a load to handle.

Welcome to Heed the Call,

a football show, heeding that call.

On a Monday,

Dan Hans is here with Mark Sessler,

Justin Graver on the ones and twos,

a familiar friend joining us just in a bit.

Ceci, I gotta come clean.

I gotta be real because you know, I gotta be real with you.

I gotta be real with the audience.

This

perennially is a very difficult episode for me.

This particular Monday show,

because preseason week one, I'm like everybody else.

You know, it's like football.

It's back in any form.

So you're just like, and you're digging in and you're loving it all.

But it's by this second weekend here that I have this like

visceral reaction against.

the preseason.

And I think of the great Dr.

Ian Malcolm

portrayed by Jeff Goldblum in the Spielberg classic, Jurassic Park, analyzing football games in August.

We were so preoccupied that we could

that we didn't stop to think if we should.

So, like, I'm not looking to take the wind out of anyone's sails about what we're about to talk about in these ensuing 60 minutes, though perhaps this might sound like I am, and maybe it's because i'm an asshole but um i am triggered for instance as i'm i'm spending time with my family this weekend by i open up my twitter i'm seeing all these ben johnson memes right presenting him as this cold-blooded assassin because you know the bear is just executed a bunch of future fedex drivers and nightclub bouncers and

that happen to be in Bill's uniforms.

And then I worry about my friend Mark, Sassy himself, when I see the text messages about the understated beauty of the 2025 Cleveland Browns.

Oh, geez.

This is a private property, these texts.

Let me land this cranky plane, Mark, and then I want to throw it to you.

I think it's totally okay to formulate opinions on certain players, especially young ones.

But I loathe to make any judgments on teams right now when there are so many clear and obvious differences to the games we are watching in August and and the personnel and schemes and other factors like crowd and you know all sorts of stuff that we're gonna see come September annual curmudgeon rant over mark I apologize no I think it's totally apt and like you know our job when we observe and watch and there are flights of fancy and that text thread right there is an example where I get a little carried away but then you got to re-examine what it means and where you're at and come back down to earth before you jump jump on a microphone.

I will say this.

Like, one of my favorite conversations was back with our great friend Wes when we were, you know, he was a pretty anti-preseason guy, too.

And so you're in good territory.

But he would talk about the fact that like single out like running back play and who's healthy, how powerful are they, and who is creating chaos.

So I always think there are like things to take away.

I think the problem with football is that the one reason I love it is that maybe the game is 0-0 until the end, and someone kicks a like scores a touchdown, and it's a 7-0 game, but it took on a tone and a vibe that I liked.

The problem with preseason is the starting material is getting worse rapidly as you go from the first to second to third.

I've always thought we'd do the preseason where you start the junkie players out of the gate and we reverse it, and the players get better and better and better as the game goes on so that you keep people around.

But I get you.

And, you know, know, I think it's also, it's still those last couple of weeks of summer, Dan, and I know that you had to micromanage a pretty hardcore family vacation during a time when there's like 18 games happening over four days.

It's a lot to juggle.

And I respect you for that.

No, yeah.

And like I said,

and

as we welcome in Connor Orr, I

think there is a lot to get out of it.

There's a lot to take out of these games, but it's just taking the right list.

So maybe this is the way to look at it, Conman.

And hello, buddy.

That this is a message of hope to

fans that maybe saw their team stomped this past weekend or maybe the first two weekends.

That this doesn't mean you should be any less excited about the season to come.

It's just a different thing.

And as long as people have the proper perspective on what we've watched these last two weekends, I think everybody will be better off.

I think it's a continual reminder for an NFL fan to just live in the moment and to accept what is happening to you right now.

Because the preseason is a total funhouse hall of mirrors where you can look at something and you think that you're 11 feet tall and then you walk out of the building and you're actually two feet eight, which is what the bears may be.

And we'll get to that.

Or it could be the total opposite where you walk through the entire thing thinking, Jesus Christ, like this is impossibly bad.

And then you come out the other side saying, oh, yeah, because I played third and fourth stringers from Shadron State the whole time.

And so now we're good and we're ready to go.

So I think it's just, I love every bit of it.

Like, if you look at my laptop now, this is probably not a good thing for recording a podcast, but I have 61 tabs open.

I have Evan Neal guard play over here.

I have Tyson Bajant snaps over here.

I have Dylan Gabriel snaps over here.

I love it because, you know, by week eight, it's Mahomes and Josh Allen, and you have to have the QB.

But before that, we can dream and we can make a world of our own.

And Dylan Gabriel is a person that we talk about.

And I love that.

I like it.

It's a bigger, broader universe.

Well said.

Everybody,

we're all in a good headspace.

Let's go.

Woo!

Yes, this is another Texas one from Connor.

It was a video grab of Efton Chisholm, the ladies Patriots white.

And

with the all caps addendum from Connor, look at this tiny pale ballerina.

But he's a perfect example.

I think a guy, like a young, undrafted free agent like Efton,

you could say, okay.

That guy looks like he's solidifying a roster spot.

And on a team that is still kind of searching for who are going to be their playmakers in 2025, you absolutely can take something out of it.

What I'll take less out of it is like, wow, the Patriots really stomped whomever in this game and they're much better than people think.

Like, that is when I draw the line and get angry viscerally.

I have a perfect comparison, I think.

And you tell me whether I'm right or wrong.

But the preseason is sort of like when you're super into something, like whether it's a comic book movie or Star Wars or something.

And then there's the expanded universe.

And the true hardcore fans fall in love with the bizarro expanded universe of all the things that are happening outside of the central nucleus of what actually matters.

And to me, Efton Chisholm is like some Groots cousin ass character from Guardians of the Galaxy that is just very silly and we enjoy watching him hop around for a couple, like a short-run miniseries and then he's just done so and wiped off the face of the earth in six weeks.

So enjoy Eften.

If this is it, this would be this would maybe qualify Mark for you, like the Zack Zenner all-stars.

You've fallen in love with quite a few players

over the years, especially this time of year.

And I like that perspective, Connor, that there's actually a place to be held just to enjoy these guys, even if they never actually become guys.

Totally.

That's a positive, healthy way to look at it, too.

It's also like your first sip of beer in like 12 months or something.

That's what this football is.

And we don't have to act like it's special, but like I do, I do walk away from the weekend a little concerned that Dan is slightly judgy about what we're texting him, Connor.

Like, it's we've got a no, no, it's

stated my piece.

And I have, and again, I don't judge anyone for the excitement level of football back.

I just want, I guess, heed the call to be a place where people could come for the right perspective of what you just saw.

I like that.

So let's get into it.

We're all in a good headspace.

I think we're all on the same page here.

So let's talk about

what jumped out to us in these football games that were played.

Connor, let's start with you.

And yeah, why don't we start with the Chicago Bears?

Because 38 hyphen 0 against the Buffalo Bills means a lot of things went very well for the NFC North upstarts.

I'm upstarts, he said.

This is, but this is what I love about the preseason, right?

Because you can go into it, and I did my all-272 predictions last week, and I feel like having the Bears at 8-9 was just, you know, it was a white flag of surrender.

I think I should have either planted my flag firmly on one side or the other of this, and it makes me think like I've underplayed them.

I mean, this offense looked awesome in every way, shape, or form.

Everything that Caleb Williams did had an answer.

It reminded me so much of the Jared Goff offense in Detroit that Ben Johnson ran a year ago, where it was just one indicator.

You look in one direction.

And then if it's not there, then it's choice B.

And he just, there was no drifting.

I think it was really only that one incompletion where he backed off the field and was sort of, you know, trying to make something happen, buying time with his legs.

Every other moment in this game, there was an immediate response there was an immediate reaction and it it just looks so good and this two tight end thing everyone thought cole komet was going to be oversight when uh when they drafted colson levelin i think they're going to run a ton of 12 personnel and i think he's going to be a big part of this it's um like you know we've been reading how hard ben johnson has been pushing Caleb Williams to take on the entire playbook, process it, make good decisions.

And sure, it was a small sample size, but this offense gets people open.

And he made the right reads and it was precision.

And it's kind of just like, if you're a Bears fan and you've been waiting for generations for anything exciting to happen on offense, like a pretty great first couple of minutes to your game experience here.

And I thought Williams just looked comfortable.

And like, that's the chaos you came out of from a year ago.

That's just so key.

And it just speaks to good coaching.

Yeah.

And it's, here's a perfect example of what we're talking about.

Caleb Williams is someone absolutely you're going to want to lock in on, and you're going to

lock in on this relationship between him and Ben Johnson,

who obviously made the Lions into the most explosive offense in the league

overseeing that attack.

And the reports out of Chicago throughout

training camp have been a little up and down.

The athletics, Kevin Fishbane reported just last week that he believed that Williams hasn't been consistent enough in training camp and that his

accuracy, quote, hasn't been there like it was last summer.

So it hasn't been like he's been lights out throughout the summer, but then you get a performance like this, and not only is it good for public perception and optimism around the Chicago Bears, but also confidence-wise, for something to build off for the young player.

In the first year where the Bears seem to do everything wrong around the rookie quarterback, it seems like they put him in such a better position, and it's going to be really fun to see how this offense develops.

For me, the hallmark of a good coach and a good coaching change is we didn't just leave that preseason game thinking that Caleb Williams looked awesome.

We've gone through this entirety of this preseason thinking Luther Burden looks really good.

Braxton Jones looks really good.

Tyson Badgett looks really good.

Like, holy crap, Tyson Bagett could play for another team and start next year.

And I wouldn't be surprised.

But that just means that everybody is being put in a better position and everybody in totality, I think, is better prepared than they were a year ago.

You could be accurate as shit in training camp and it just doesn't matter.

That might mean that the situation is not hard enough for you.

And what Ben Johnson has been doing is has been making, he's been trying to give, and this is a Dan Campbell staple, I want everything to be as hard as it possibly can during training camp so that once we get into live bullets, we've seen everything.

And Dan Campbell is famous for creating like the chaos drill, where he'll turn off all communication, he'll shut everything down, and he'll force his players to call their own plays and to get through something difficult together.

And Ben Johnson is of that ilk.

And I think that if he has a bad training camp, good, because he looks good once the game actually started.

Here is some more from Ben Johnson on his young quarterback.

He's really been locked in.

You know, it's

anytime you're a young player, there's usually a couple steps forward and one step back.

And that's really been the story of his training camp.

And he and I have been really open and honest about that as we've gone through.

And he's had some really good practices.

And then he's had a couple where it's like, that's not good enough, bud.

So

I thought really the three days of practice we had this week and this game were the most he stacked up good days in a row right now.

And so the challenge is going to be to keep pushing in that direction.

It's funny, like the

what the Bears have with Johnson.

We'll talk about the Jets a little bit with Aaron Glenn, both guys that came out.

They were main figures under Dan Campbell.

In both cases, it does feel like there's an adult in the room that's in charge of these rosters, and it's something to be excited about.

On the other side of the ball, yeah, to my point at the top of the show, I feel like the Buffalo Bills, they're testing the boundaries for me in terms of preseason and how much I'm supposed to care about an absurd team performance.

Just a couple of stats.

And again, Cole Bishop, their safety, their young safety, and wide receiver Joshua Palmer, they're the only actual projected starters who played in this game.

And some other key reserves were left out too, but

they failed to convert on a single third down attempt the entire game.

The one time where it looked like they were going to score, Frank Gore Jr.

coughs it up.

They commit 10 total penalties.

They

could not do anything in the back end to slow down the Bears' passing attack.

It was just a total zero.

I guess

if nothing else, maybe Mark gives us a little juice for Hard Knocks episode three.

God knows we could use it.

So there's something here for Sean McDermott to bite into and maybe just, you know, performatively yell at the team with the cameras on.

I don't know.

Maybe that's the goal here.

I've never heard of a hard knock season where more people seem to be ghosting it out of just saturation or lack of interest.

But

we are in this world now.

And I was thinking back like when I was like young and and remembering listening on the radio, and it sounds like that's from like the 1700s.

It was just, I was at my grandparents' house and I had a, like an AM radio next to me, but it was like a Browns Steelers

preseason game.

They played each other in the preseason.

It was one of six preseason games they had.

I think that was like your, the days of heavy evaluation.

And now they're happening in these team practices.

I think that's where the starters are getting their grist.

And like they talked about like Josh Allen and his ups and downs and these practices, and he's been good.

And it's like, and the game, they don't play at all.

It's like they just, the preseason, if you're going to be Goodell and be honest and say this is not a competitive product, like

half the league is not playing anyone of any note.

And I think it's just like a really, it makes it harder to like evaluate Caleb Williams and the Bears offense when you're playing against

no names, Hammond Edgars.

I feel like one thing that's really,

even during the time since we've been doing this podcast and the previous one, Connor, the joint practices that the teams have

often leading into the games where the teams play each other, logistically, it makes sense for these teams.

But you get the sense a lot of these coaching staffs take those joint practices just as seriously, if not more seriously, than anything that happens that's telephized and has announcers and people are being forced to pay money to go see it because it's looped into their season ticket packages.

These things are one A and one B, I think, in terms of the team planning.

I suppose so, but I'll tell a quick story about

the Ravens preseason approach, which I didn't think would hit me emotionally as much as it did.

They had the famous winning streak, you know, of course.

I'm sitting on my couch with my wife one night and I'm watching them lose.

They end up losing the game to the Commanders.

And I don't know why, but I just start getting very oddly emotional about this whole thing.

And I start just writing my thoughts down.

And I'm writing down like...

Wait, oddly emotional about that they lost?

That the streak was over and right I start thinking to myself like why is this important?

Why was this important to John Harbaugh?

Why is it important to the world?

And I start writing my thoughts down and I end up getting like 1500 words into this thing and I'm like well, okay, like the Ravens are this example of in the preseason if you're this lonely girl sitting in your apartment and you go you have art inside of you paint it even though no one's gonna see it like who gives a shit and I and I got like really high-minded with it and I sent it to my editor and I was like I don't think anyone's gonna publish this.

So I sent it to him.

And he's like, okay, well, I'll just put it online, whatever.

And like four weeks later, this golden envelope, massive golden envelope arrives at my house from Owings Mills, Maryland.

And it's from John Harbaugh.

And he goes, I read this and like, hell yeah, like you totally articulated what I was trying to do with this.

Like, I get it.

And from there, there on out, I always thought,

why would we excuse a bad preseason performance because it's part and parcel to something that we have to do a couple weeks later in a real game?

And how we act when no one is looking or when the local weatherman is broadcasting it is probably how we're going to act in front of Joe Buck and Troy Eggman on Monday Night Football.

And so

I bought all into it at that point.

And I have the letter framed.

It's sitting upstairs, actually.

And

every time I pass by it, I'm like, you know what?

The preseason does kind of matter a little bit.

I adore this.

I can promise you, the Ravens sent me something.

Sure, let me know at the top of the show come.

Right.

The Ravens sent me something much different than a golden envelope.

I can promise you that.

All right.

Let's see.

Let's stick with those Cleveland Browns, Mark.

Yeah, Dylan Gabriel, and he got your heart aflutter at points over the weekend.

But the news that came out from the Cleveland Browns headquarters in Berea there was that Joe Flacco will open the season as the Browns starting QB.

Flacco, who is entering his 18th NFL season, he'll start the finale against the Rams, the preseason finale at home on Saturday.

And that puts him officially ahead of Kenny Pickett, Gabriel, and Shador Sanders on the depth chart.

Who will be the backup based on what you've seen, Ceci?

Who do you think is going to be the backup to Joe Flacco in week one against the Cincinnati Bengals?

And we've known for weeks that this was going to Flacco.

I think it's been such a muddled four-person competition, largely because of injuries, that the backup situation to me, I think they're going to, if I had a guess,

I think they would want to give it to Pickett.

But Pickett's been injured.

And the second choice would be Dylan Gabriel, and you have Shador in the background.

I see Flacco as a kind of a classic progress stopper here in the sense that what is the goal of this year's Cleveland Browns?

Like, I think the number one goal from ownership on down is to evaluate the young quarterbacks you have on the roster before you go into next offseason with two number one picks.

And like, I don't see how you get through this campaign without Flacco in a very tough schedule getting

hurt or knocked out of there at some point.

And then like, I think if Jimmy Haslam is saying, you have got to see Shador Sanders.

But the thing about Gabriel that made this tough, and not to dig too much into this because he's not the starter, but like he looks like he's about four feet tall, which is a problem.

But he was

wildly accurate and I thought aggressive and made some really good throws and kind of confirmed what it was they liked about him.

But I still think that just because of his draft stock, he would come after Pickett and before Shador.

But I would say like most reporters covering the team are like, we have no idea what will happen with this quarterback race after Flacco.

I get why you don't want to throw Gabriel or Shador out there at this stage, especially because, you know, there's been injuries.

Shador has this oblique injury now.

Also,

I do think, I still think the guy that doesn't make sense here is Kenny Pickett.

I agree.

I feel like they have a double progress stopper right now.

You got Flacco, and then the stopper behind Flacco is Pickett.

And I wonder if maybe Pickett ends up getting a lot of play.

What's his health status now?

Is he back yet?

What is his situation?

He's participating to some degree in practice, but

he's not appeared in a game yet.

That's annoying, I would think, because I wouldn't be surprised if maybe the plan was, let's see how the summer goes, and then maybe we could showcase Pickett in these games and maybe

flip him for a conditional sixth or something if you feel good about these young guys.

But now it's a little bit of a

trickier sled.

by the way gabriel during the the uh

the telecast eagles browns uh created a little bit of uh some waves about uh when asked about you know turning out the noise surrounding the browns quarterback competition let's check that out it's just part of it you know there's there's entertainers and there's competitors and i totally understand that and my job is to compete and that's what i'm focused on doing of course we're we're doing this mid-game but uh you know it's something that i'll get used to and just want to be the best team that I can and create an environment where we can all go do our best work.

That's all we want to do.

Gabriel explained in his post-game news conference that he refers to the media as entertainers.

And his in-game quote was something he had said before.

No, that was about Shador Sanders.

No.

That's a guy.

That's a good idea.

That's not my absolutely

100% was.

Absolutely was.

He's a guy that's had a chip on his shoulder since the draft being overlooked, and he doesn't like any of that juice, and he's trying to expunge it, and that's okay.

I like that that's about Shadora Sanders.

No, it's not about

the media.

I'm just listening to a word of this because it was an interview with

an interview with our friend, Adida Kinkawala, and like she, he literally verbally described that the people that talk about the quarterbacks, the announcers, the media, are entertainers.

He's like, I get that that's your role.

He's like, like, our job is to be competitors.

It was not, I know what you're doing here, but it was not about

what I'm doing.

I'm hardly the only person that thought this.

So let's not.

Well, it's me.

It's a classic pull quote that sounds like it's about something other than it was because it was about discerning the outside noise and the media versus just the competition

itself.

All right.

Okay.

Sure.

Connor, help me out here.

Yes.

Okay.

Okay.

That's another way to look at it.

All right.

Tagging in on the crisis line.

If you are good enough to become a quarterback, even at the Division I level in college, you have enough emotional intelligence to know if you're Dylan Gabriel that Shadur Sanders is going to spin himself out of contention.

Because after that one good game, there was his brother's private film production about the fact that he beat the Panthers in the preseason and all these things that he's saying on the sidelines, apparently, to the GM.

Whatever is going on here, Shadur is going to play himself out of this.

If you're Dylan Gabriel, if you stay in your lane, they want you to win the competition.

And all you have to do is just say something banal and move on and complete the passes and get into week one as the number two quarterback and nothing else bad will happen.

And I think that's what he did.

I totally agree with him and almost sensationalizing it as playing it into his point a little bit and making it into something where we are entertainers and we're taking it to a level that it didn't need to.

So I'm firmly in defense of Dylan Gabriel, this poor child.

By the way, this wasn't an attack of Dylan Gabriel.

This is a kid that has a major competitive streak that wants this job.

He wants to be one of the Browns.

He's winning, and he knows he's winning.

He knows he's winning.

And I think he probably doesn't like the fact that the fifth-round pick gets all the pop.

That's all.

That's all I'm saying.

And that, and that he has been, that fifth-round pick happens to be someone who

is accused by some of being more sizzle than steak.

That's

came off a very good game of his own, by the way, but we can look past that.

We don't have to look past anything.

Can we just fast forward three years to when he has a podcast and his guest DJing at Coachello and we can stop giving a shit and pretending that this is going to be a long-term situation for anybody?

Enough.

Yeah.

We can.

We can.

Yes, Justin.

Just wanted to chime in to take the sound.

We probably won't.

Not on this show.

We can't, but

we could, hypothetically.

Yes, go on.

Just wanted to chime in to take the side of Mark and Connor here.

I don't think Dylan Gabriel was great.

Taking shots.

Thank you, Justin.

Thank you, you too.

Okay, you can pop out now.

Okay, great.

Thanks a lot, Justin.

Thanks for adding to the shots.

Definitely necessary.

Definitely needed.

It was like,

let's make us a balance back and forth.

No, let me just come in as the third guy.

I'll take all comers.

What was that?

What did they call it in their their old wrestling?

It was the handicap match.

It's like Andre the Giant against six guys, just pounding on him with double axe handles.

He's just not moving.

You're Andre the Giant now in this illusion?

Yeah, I am.

How about that?

How about that?

The eighth wonder of the world.

Let's move on.

One quick Browns.

Like lightning fast.

Of course.

Another one.

Please.

Nick Chubb looked pretty good over the weekend.

And I think if this team was seriously serious, they would have brought him back.

That's all I got to say about that.

I never understood that.

I was harping on that throughout the offseason.

It seemed odd that they wouldn't keep him around, given who he is and what he means to the fans.

In other news,

Mark, what was something that jumped out to you this weekend in the football realm of games?

You know,

our last episode, I went on the over for the Giants' win total, which was at 5.5.

And you correctly

verbally mowed through their schedule, which is a laundry hardware.

It's a horror show.

And I understand it's just a couple preseason games.

The team that I am watching in these games feels like a different type of Giants team to me that's going to be a rough and tumble out no matter who is on the schedule.

And I want to start here, not with Jackson Dart, but with

this loaded pass rush.

And Connor, you noted this as well

in that show but like when you put together brian burns kayvon thibodeau um sort of vague friend of previous show i wouldn't call him a friend um abduel carter and dexter lawrence i think they're just gonna beat people up and it was present against the jets um they

They to me have just done, it kind of reminds me like when they won those Super Bowls, and I'm not going there now, but it was the pass rush that was dominant.

And I think they've got a lot of good young players.

I'd say this also, that Russell Wilson threw like a wild 80-yard touchdown shot to Bo Collins.

He looked young.

He looked fresh to me.

And you throw in Tyrone Tracy, who is a good running back.

I thought that last year.

And then Jackson Dart.

And I don't know who's going to start all these games when you get to the end of the year, but Jackson Dart has looked really good two weeks in a row.

And I think Brian Dayball simply believes in him.

And I think this team is starting to build something.

And it's going to take patience with the actual results because of this schedule, but I'm confident in my over because there's a lot of young, vicious, violent young players on this roster who are going to be a load to handle.

Can I just say, and

I think Justin has video elements of this, the Jets fans, and I'm sorry, celebrating...

A total bullshit pancake of Abdul Carter was one of the dumbest things.

Like, you are proving the point where you have a chip on him during the damn preseason.

You have a second defender on him during the preseason.

And so, there was this one where it was stone smart, and then there was a second one where he just gets pushed over at the end of the play, and it's a run play that he held the edge on.

And you have all these Jets fans like, oh, pancakes for dinner.

It's like, no, man, you are proving the point that he is a good quarterback and Abdul or a good pass rusher.

I'm sorry.

I'm so mad that I don't even know where he plays on the field right now.

But good for Abdul Carter because you know what?

He's going to rip this year.

And this is ridiculous.

God forbid.

Again, I feel like this is the second week in a row this time.

God forbid Jets fans are allowed to get excited about literally anything.

I mean, did you guys happen to see Justin Fields try to complete passes in this game?

Like, are you serious?

Like, Jets fans can't even...

This is the number three overall pick of the Crosstown rival Giants.

And it's like, like it's a fun little thing on Twitter.

We can't even, Jets fans can't even be like, That was cool that we kicked that rich boy's ass.

We can't, we can't even get that.

We can't even get one play where it's like, Oh, that was cool.

We looked dominant on that play over the guy that's supposed to be dominant.

That's all it was, Connor.

It was just that's just general fan excitement in the preseason.

That's that's all that was.

And we have we have to attack the Jets for that.

I won't have it.

Like, there was this one.

I'm reading this tweet.

Oh, he must be stuffed after eating all these blocks.

They're putting two guys on him in the damn preseason.

Like, well, maybe they should, you know, get better about their defensive schemes to protect the Glory Boy, third overall pick, and not leave him out to dry.

And maybe he should learn how to keep his head on a swivel.

I mean, how is this the Jets fans' fault?

No, two other elite pass rushers.

You've never seen anything like that before.

Two other good pass rushers are single-blocked.

So try that in a game.

Try that in a real game when it matters.

I'm proving Mark's.

This is all proving Mark's point.

We go back to back with Shador Sanders news items and anti-Jets sentiment.

It's a mistake.

No, it's just like, it's not even that.

It's like, I can't believe we're now in the camp that the Giants, the 2025 Giants, are going to be this incredible team.

Six points.

Shock the world.

We are reading too much into the game.

No, I think they're well-built rosters.

Holy God.

They're a well-built roster with a plan.

And you're starting to see it.

You are.

Starting to see it.

Six games.

We don't start to see it until week one.

They're going to win six games.

Don't start to see it.

They have players.

Absolutely.

The defensive line is their strength.

The Dart thing, again, he looked very good for the second straight week.

And like, I don't, like, it could have been 31-12 Jets over Giants.

I wouldn't give a shit.

But if I am the Giants fan, and if I'm Connor, who does believe Russell Wilson's going to be playing almost every game, if not every game, for the Giants, no way in hell is that going to happen unless he plays like 2018 Russell Wilson because Dart is balling out in these games.

And especially if

you are in the camp that I am, that the Giants are not going to have a successful season, win-loss record.

They could have a successful season without winning six games, honestly, because they have pieces that can develop.

Number one is Dart.

Get him on the field because Russell Wilson is a progress stopper on this roster.

And I just wonder

this seed that's being being planted with these performances by the first-round pick, if Dables is going to be able to shut that out when it's week four and it's one of those games where Wilson is leading an offense that's struggling to cross 300 total yards for the third time in four weeks against a very difficult schedule.

I just think the train is coming with Jackson Dart.

I'm with you on that.

Depends when, but yes.

2023, Russell Wilson would have been the best Giants quarterback since like prime Eli Manning, statistically.

But anyway, let's

just say

they haven't had a quarterback that good since like 2016.

They gave Daniel Jones, like we talked about last week, a lot of money for that playoff season he had.

That would probably be the only one I can think off the top of my head.

If you looked at his numbers and the production at the end of that season, that maybe that would be the best Giants QB season.

But there haven't been many, to your point.

I mean, it's been a rough go.

Connor, how about what was happening around the Raiders?

What jumped out to you in that game?

So I got my first really good look at Ashton Genty, and

it's really hard for me to be able to tell what I'm looking at.

And I realized that I should come here with a take, but I think the take is that I have yet to come away thinking that this guy was far and away the absolute number six pick.

And there was a prospect that was so impossible to miss that he had to be taken that high, even though that team had a gargantuan amount of needs.

And that big, that one play that I think is playing now if you're watching it on YouTube, where he trucks a safety is great.

But then there's other plays in that span of time.

I think he had

however many carries he had, where he actually gets knocked backwards by defenders too.

And so, you know, for me, it's really difficult.

And the one that was most disappointing to me, there was a situation that, again, would never happen during a game, but the Raiders ran a pass play.

I think it was on second and long.

And this guy gets the ball with no defender,

I mean, within a quarter mile of him.

And for some reason, that thing doesn't go for a touchdown.

You have the wide receivers kind of running some vertical routes that are taking the defenders out of the way.

Geno Smith is late to check down, but when he gets the ball, the two defenders are literally 12 yards away from him.

and we run right into them.

Nice job tackling in space, I guess, by San Francisco.

But if you're the sixth overall pick, you're a running back that's taken sixth overall, that's got to be house.

You got to take that in for six

or close to it, or you got to make one of them miss.

But I don't know if I'm being too harsh.

I don't know if he's running, you know, at 50%.

I don't know if we don't know anything.

And that's the kind of the house of mirrors analogy here.

I see your point.

So basically, if you're going to, in this age, even though I feel like running backs and the perception of them is maybe it's leveled up a little bit from a very, very low point a year or two ago,

if you're going to take a guy that high, he better be special, special, special.

And you didn't exactly see that.

It was weird.

I've never had a split like this where, for example, Trayon Henderson's first game with the Patriots, we all watched that.

And he takes a kickoff back for a touchdown.

He's in on third downs, and he's making people miss in a short amount amount of space.

And again, part and parcel to maybe the opponent, who knows?

But you're watching that and you're saying, dear God, that's incredible.

And this is, I guess I just expected to have the same taste, the same flavor of it every time I see this guy touch the ball, but it's more in fits and starts.

And I just don't know if I'm being the miserable prick here.

And I might be.

I don't think you are.

I mean, it's obviously, and you're saying this too, but it's a very small sample size.

I saw moments that lit me up, that made me see what he could be.

I mean, I think also that these running backs that get drafted real high, I think of like Trent Richardson or,

you know, it's not a guarantee.

And I mean, Saquon Barkley is another guy that has a lot of like huge play then gets stopped like six plays in a row.

I will say this is also like, where is this entire offense?

There was a lot of energy in that stadium.

I don't think I've ever seen that stadium kind of respond to the Raiders team the way this one did.

But Genti, like, I'm going to hold, I'm going to hold back on this one until I see a lot bigger of a sample size.

And in fact, an entire season.

Like, even Bijan Robinson took time to get going in that offense in Atlanta.

So I don't know.

Isn't it a little too early to

suggest we're not impressed with him?

And in fairness to Genti, the guy that he trucks is a starter.

It's a five-year veteran.

It's not like he's running over, you know, a guy who's going to pick you up from Enterprise car rental.

This is a legit NFL prospect.

And so, I don't know.

You ever get that pickup from Enterprise?

Remember that used to be the thing we'll pick you up?

Yeah, which is,

honestly, that's a nightmare.

I do not want to be in a car with a total stranger driving from point A to point B, no matter how short it is.

Like, what's the win there?

I did that once here in LA, and it was, I had a very nice experience, and I had a nice conversation with the driver.

I had a rental car from there.

Did you?

Wait.

I think I'm at the point where literally everything i i say today will be challenged in some way or vice versa

but that is that's good i'm i'm happy you had that experience mark

it was singular it's good i think it's i think you're on the right side of the ledger on that one it's like having you know meeting new people and getting to know them i me i put me in this like stinky car like oh how many cigarettes were in this uh vehicle uh inhaled by the previous occupant and get me to my next location yeah i don't want to end up on forensic files either, so I wouldn't do it like over and over necessarily.

All right, okay, let's talk about

one other little note from that game.

Sorry, but Ricky Parasol, and I know that we all are into Ricky Parasol.

Wow,

he just looks like a full-time ready-to-go guy to me and played really well with Purdy.

Just like this guy is a big part of their offense, and they need him to be.

Well, that's my guy.

That's my making the leave candidate.

You made a good pick just to, you know, just to let you know.

Look at this.

We're on the same page of that one.

Is it a Pearsall?

I think it's Pearsall.

Yeah, Ricky Pearsall.

Yeah.

What drives me nuts about that, and then quickly I'll move on, is the fact that guys like that, Ricky Pearsall, that should be like a pick that we get to make in fantasy that the other 10 Jamokes have no idea about.

And then we end up going on to smoke people.

But because every fantasy football thing has a matrix that shows you like average draft position, then there's some Yahoo who just walks into the place and trips over his own feet and gets Ricky Pearsall in the sixth round.

Whereas, like, you know, 10 years ago, you and I are walking in there like, like, like sniper agents, and we're getting him in the ninth, and then we're absolutely just mowing bitches down.

Yeah, if there is anything pleasing you today at all, anyway.

To like, to your point, though, it always frustrates me if I'm doing it.

And we're, by the way, our fantasy extravaganza

returns on Wednesday with a bunch of special guests.

So get ready for that.

That's going to be a lot of fun

to nail your draft.

The fantasy extravaganza is back.

What always grinded my gears was when you're in a fantasy draft and then some Jamoke, to your point, misses the clockwinds down.

He misses his pick and they give him best available player.

And it ends up being someone that had been unfairly or shouldn't have been dropping as long as they were.

And you're up next and you're going to grab him.

And then, you know,

the robot spits out a Pearsall

to Jeff Baker, and you're like, Jeff sucks.

He doesn't know anything.

And now Jeff's got Ricky Pearsall.

If I went into that, if I went into my draft last year and I said, is Lad McConkie the name of a Chargers wide receiver or the grub hub guy who just dropped off Buffalo Wild Wings?

90% of the people would have said that.

I got Lad McConkey in like the 10th round and just blew that place up.

And now, all of a sudden, I'm at a disadvantage next year because everybody knows who he is.

That sucks.

That's just not fair.

You know, it's a doubly annoying thing: our fantasy extravaganza.

I have people that I know coming up on Wednesday.

I have people that are in my fantasy league that will listen to that fantasy show.

And then I am going to share players I like, and then they're going to take it from me.

Such as Ricky Peterson.

Yo, can't have them.

Don't listen to my show.

And then we have to take him in the fourth just to get him.

And then...

No, no, that's not right either.

Hey, I want to talk about the Seattle Seahawks.

I feel like we haven't talked about the Seahawks a lot.

And maybe we should get Michael Sean Dugar on the show at some point to talk a little Hawks.

That would be apt.

Yes, Clint Kubiak.

What's that?

Buy his book, by the way.

Yes.

Michael Sean Dugar.

We'll talk about the book with Mike, but he has a book on the Pete Carroll, Russell Wilson-era Seahawks that he was working on for a couple years

that is available now.

Clint Kubiak

is the new offensive coordinator in Seattle.

You may remember, it was Ryan Grubb that was there with Mike McDonald last year, but there wasn't enough balance to that Geno Smith offense last year.

It was a little bit weird.

There were injuries that maybe contributed to that, but the idea here is to have a more balanced offense.

My thought as I'm watching these preseason games and knowing full well that they have two kind of dogs in Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet.

And Charbonnet looked really good in the game is that Sam Darnold might have the fewest passing attempts of any QB1 in football this year.

Or if not the fewest, amongst the fewest, just because I really think that old school Seattle mentality is going to be back and it's going to drive the offense through it.

And quite frankly, as someone who obviously is the queen bee of the Darnold Hive, I think that's great.

I think that's exactly the type of offense I want Sam in, where he's not being asked to do too much.

But if he's in a balanced offense that keeps defenses from knowing what's coming next, he's going to be able to eat just like he did with Minnesota.

Maybe not at that level, because, again, part of the reason also I think that we're going to see less passing in Seattle is DK Metcalf is gone, obviously in Pittsburgh now, and Jackson Smith and Jigba is a very good player.

But I just, I don't know if they, if they are going to just run the offense in any way where Darnold is truly leading the show.

So

that was my takeaway from that game, just how they really were mauling this weekend.

And Charbonnet, Walker has missed a lot of time.

um

this summer but i don't get the idea that it's an actual injury i think it's management because Kenneth Walker famously can't stay healthy.

And maybe we'll talk about that when we in the fantasy extravaganza about how to handle these situations.

Because Connor, there seems to be a lot of committee setups in the league that's that might be more in vogue than ever this year.

And I think you're going to see both these guys get a lot of carries in this offense.

And you know who I think is going to propel this?

This is obscure a little bit because last year we had an episode where it was a Sunday episode where we were talking about the Seahawks and this weird little package that she that they were running with Jake Bobo and they were basically had him almost as a fullback in an offset eye formation they didn't really have an actual fullback they have this guy in the preseason Robbie Oots and it's spelled O U Z T S he's from Alabama he's like 273 pounds and he's beating the shit out of people this preseason.

He looks awesome and this is one of those things where Seattle didn't have that.

And they didn't have that part of the identity where, you know, in a Kubiak offense or a real Shanahan offense, you need that big boy fullback as kind of part of the attitude.

And I think it helps.

And that's, I think, why you're seeing a lot of this running game get propelling and moving forward.

I don't care who's back there at that point.

If you got Oots in front of you, you're going all the way, you know?

Give me a little bit of a test.

Roll with Oots.

Yeah.

Yeah.

By the way, Kenneth Walker, there has been reports of a foot issue.

So the, you know, but it's hard to say whether how much is maintenance and how much is actually injury.

But he did practice in full on Sunday.

So that's that's a good sign.

Uh, let's see.

Where else do we want to go?

Where else do we want to go?

Oh, how about this?

Only one of us, I believe, and let I don't know, maybe SI sent you somewhere this weekend, Connor, and we haven't talked about it yet.

But I know one of us was in a stadium, boots on the ground.

It was none other than the gravedigger who

was at Jero World for Ravens Cowboys.

First of all, what's going on?

What's going on in Jarrah World?

When you roll in there for a preseason game, what's the energy?

What's the vibe?

Do you have a nice time?

I know you were there with Jessica, your wonderful fiancé.

Yeah, we have a family friend who's been going to Cowboys games forever, and they invited us to come hang out with them for this game.

And it was really cool to be able to go there.

The energy was,

I would, I don't know if non-existent is the right word.

The upper bowl,

the 300 section was packed.

The lower bowl was empty, empty, like 50-yard line, prime seats, completely empty.

So,

not a ton of juice for this game.

It was all backups playing, you know.

But Jerry World is an impressive building to be in.

I've been in there a few times.

I was actually at the Cowboys home opener, regular season home opener in that stadium when I was a high school lad.

But this game was New York Giants week one, right?

The Giants won, I football.

Wow, I was there.

I remember that game.

I watched that in my apartment in Bay Ridge on one of those TVs that wasn't even a flat screen.

It was still with a square.

Wow.

That's how I recall that.

I was unemployed at the time.

Yeah.

My wife was paying the rent in Bay Ridge, but great pizza there.

But otherwise, you know, a dark time in my life.

But go on.

Overall, it was a pretty trash game.

Nothing but backups played.

I was intrigued to see Tyler Loop, and every time he kicked a field goal through the upright, I was screaming his name, which the Cowboys fans around me didn't exactly appreciate.

But I was really.

What is he you t guy i forgot no no just excited for the lucky kid guy just literally you were audibly just screaming his name like in yeah i was just like yelling tyler loop you know how people yell had you been drinking or what was the i had one drink but i wasn't like i wasn't really feeling anything but um you know people like fake boo when a player's name rhymes with like the boo sound like sure i was doing the loo

oh okay yeah what and what was your fiancé doing while yeah what's her response to this She listened to something on her phone.

There was not a lot of game watching going on.

For the record, Luke went five for six in the game with two 50-yarders, and he was announced that he had won the job, I believe, afterwards.

So he is the kicker that officially replaces Justin Tucker, who is right now in Parts Unknown.

Don't ask.

I've been getting a lot of phone calls at the kicker club, like, hey, where's Justin?

Know that Justin is not in the kicker club.

He might have, I mean, there were plans at a point to put a statue up for Justin at the kick.

That's not happening.

He's not in the kicker club.

No one knows where Justin is, and that's all I'll say.

Statement concluded on Justin Tucker.

Tyler Loop is the new Ravens kicker.

Tyler Baker, the Cowboys first-round pick, looked pretty good out there at guard.

But Joe Milton, who's who I really wanted to talk about and was kind of excited to watch in person that rocket of an arm.

Remind everyone who Joe Milton is.

He is bad.

Joe Milton was a former, what, sixth round pick, I think, out of Tennessee to the New England Patriots.

He famously won them their week 18 game and allowed the Titans to get Cam Ward.

So he's, you know, kind of my hero for that reason.

But then Jerry Jones goes out and trades for him this offseason.

Jerry last week said that he had to pinch himself that he was lucky enough that they were able to add Joe Milton to the team.

He's bad.

He's just bad.

He completed one really nice throw deep into the second half, but I think he had like 14 passing yards at halftime or something.

Really just like the Ravens.

This was a lot like the Bears-Bills game in terms of the Ravens outgaining the Cowboys like 200 and something yards to less than 50 at halftime.

So I think there was a lot of hype.

I want to hear Mark's thoughts on Joe Milton because that was

a long time back and forth.

I tried to tamp down the Joe Milton hype on this program, but always unsuccessful.

It's been a raging wildfire of optimism.

Your thoughts about it.

Well, this will be an enjoyable moment for you.

When you look at these players and you don't have a lot of tape,

I am a classic person that can get a little too involved, especially in a quarterback like Joe Milton, the way he played in that late season game last year.

Mia Culpa, like he did not look the part.

And it's to the point where

I think there's tangible, real conversations about the Cowboys needing to find a different backup potentially if this is just a project going south.

And I can think of it.

You were hardly the only one, Mark.

I think what I was pushing back.

Well, I wanted the Browns to go trade for him, which is

where they are.

I think there's something was ringing like alarm bells for me that everyone was just on fire about this kid.

And that was the only thing I was pushing him back against.

I will say that, like, just because he does not look great in these games doesn't doesn't mean now he sucks.

But I guess overall, it hasn't been a great summer for Milton.

And they're kind of banking on him to be a dude for them in case that goes down.

Got rid of Cooper Rush this season.

He was playing.

He's the Raven Rush played the Cowboys in the middle of the day.

And he played well.

Yeah.

He was decently picked too at one point, but yeah.

Deep revenge game for him.

The Cowboys could be a game.

He's a little kiddie picket to the Dallas Trade school.

That's what people are saying.

That's what's the name that's bubbling up is picket to the Cowboys to be their best.

How much future capital, if you're the Cowboys, are you trading away for backup quarterbacks where if that gets hurt, your season's probably over anyway.

You never know with Jarrah.

You know what I would do if I were the Browns?

I'm picking up the phone and I'm saying, hey, Shadora Sanders, he's pretty cool, huh?

Second round pick.

What do you think, Jara?

Listen to that whiskey,

whiskey glass rattle around as Jarrah thinks about the idea of Deion's son as his backup QB.

Why not?

We're just handing away

potentially promising prospects at this point to the Cowboys?

No.

Well, according to Connor, that is not a promising prospect.

Let's just keep in mind.

I'm just saying, if you can get value.

The Browns traded a fifth-round pick and DTR for Kenny Pickett.

So they're not just going to be like, oh, yeah, Shadur Sanders is fine.

Let's just give him away.

Like a fifth-round pick is kind of on the outer reaches of what you would still consider valuable draft capital.

So

you guys want to know something funny about Shadur Sanders?

If you go to the NFL shop page and go to the Browns page on NFL shop where they like market where you can buy jerseys and they like, who's their most marketable player?

I don't know, Miles Garrett, maybe.

No, Shador Sanders is the cover photo for the Browns by Browns merchandise.

He dumps a lot of people.

I always think if you were

a player on that roster, say another quarterback, say another rookie on the roster, and you were even drafted ahead of him, you might say, like, this guy is more less player and more, oh, I don't know, entertainer.

This is all theater constructed by a team that just signed another person with a criminal sexual history in his past and is trying to dance past that.

So

let's all play into their hands.

Hook them horns, man.

Jesus, Justin, no.

Sometimes you got to sit out to hook them horns.

Joe, that would have been a spot.

Joking.

Jump in there.

It's facetious.

All right.

All right.

So let's see what happens with Joe Milton.

Maybe he can play the guitar, but right now,

no, the guitar is out of tune.

Injuries to report.

Matthew Stafford returned to practice on Monday.

How about that?

This comes after what seemed to be a potentially ominous update from Sean McVay over the weekend where they were going to have some type of update on the situation.

And to me, I was like, oh, is that that sounds like it might be pupilist?

He's got this disc issue.

But instead,

he returns to practice.

Let's see, what did he do in this this game?

He ran 26 plays of team drills,

and that is a big step forward, Mark.

Now, we'll find out if he practices a second day and a third day, and if he's actually in the plans to start week one,

but one step at a time.

And so today was a good day in Los Angeles, as Ice Cube once said.

I mean,

sure.

He's I mean, it is.

It's good news.

It's not saying everything is fine now, but it's

positive.

It's a disc injury.

He's receiving epidural shots.

Like, um, not unlike many women in labor need an epidural shot.

Um, sometimes you do.

Uh, I'm not saying that that's what he is, but it's uh,

I this is one of the most concerning injuries.

You don't have to clear that up.

Nobody was saying that you were saying that he was a woman.

No, I don't think he is.

There's always that extra line.

There's always that extra thing.

Anybody else notice that?

Sorry.

This is really

concerns me.

Like, I just feel like what happens when in the third quarter of week one, he gets destroyed by a gigantic human being.

Like, do you keep getting up from this?

I don't know.

Yeah, when you don't have the red jersey on, Connor.

And

I mean, will he make it past the third quarter of week one?

It's one of those questions.

I know people are sick of talking about it, so we won't dwell on it, but it's like, it's a big question around a team that was a player in the NFC last year.

And until we see him take a hit and get back up or even be cleared for week one action, it continues to

undermine, obviously, that entire season for McVeigh and the Rams.

I think we just need to get to the point where we can accept that it is a 37-year-old with a back injury.

And we have all these timetables.

And it's like, oh, yes, this player is going to return in four to six weeks when that injury will still hurt them very much in different facets, no matter how recovered you are in air quotes.

And so Matthew Stafford is going to have games where he looks great and he's going to get the epidural at the right time, and he's going to get just enough, you know, Tylenol shot in his back, and everything's going to be cool.

And there's going to be days just like us where you can sneeze and then have to lay on the couch for 45 minutes.

And Matthew Stafford is, that's where he's at in his life and in his career.

And there's going to be games where we're like, God, why did the Rams run the ball 45 times?

And he was nine of 21.

Well, that's why, because his damn back hurts.

Yeah.

And I don't know, arrow up or arrow down, Mark, for Immortal Corp, because that shiny orb

trailer that was sitting on the grounds of Ram's headquarters, you could say, okay, look, it got him back on the field on Monday.

Or you could say, uh-oh, this is going to take us out of the news cycle.

And I just, I don't put anything past Immortal Corp and what they would do to remain

a positive entity to the shareholders.

I'm very much with you.

I'd say arrow down because you're unless you can find another like luminary A-lister to get inside one of that

like the cigar-shaped vehicle there and be tended to, you're out of the news cycle.

And like your whole point was to grow and become more powerful and renowned.

And instead it's the Rams complex.

It needs an organism, Connor, to feed upon.

And if it's not Stafford, yeah.

So if like Devontae Adams disappears in the next couple of days, you could start connecting the red string.

This reminds me of like

before the Patriots Super Bowl where they beat the Rams, Josh McDaniels was saying, oh, we have this

chamber that gives us in 45 minutes, we get four hours worth of sleep.

And it was one of those floating pods.

Do you know what I'm talking about?

So I went on this deep dive and I learned everything about floating pods and got deep enough that it necessitated a call from the Patriots like two days before the Super Bowl.

And it got to the point where like no one was happy about this story.

But then you write it and you're like, wow, this is amazing.

Like they can triple their productivity because they're sleeping in these pods.

And then any normal doctor or sleep expert is like, no, they f ⁇ ing can't.

And like, at some point, they're going to need to sleep.

Like, they're going to need to sleep like normal people.

I'm mad at myself.

And so for Matt Stafford, it's like, we can say that this, as this,

the soundtrack from Close Encounters continues to play in the background,

We can say that this thing is going to be the first device in the history of medical mankind to fix something like this in a short period of time, or it's probably not because nothing else has.

So, I don't know.

Connor making so many good points and sharing an anecdote connected to one of the great dynasties in the history of football, and I can only hear these sound effects.

It's the only thing I can hear.

Sometimes you laugh because someone else is the victim of Justin's keyboard, and sometimes you are the

the gravel underneath the steamroller of this

damn thing.

Justin, who's been heavy vaping since 8 a.m.

Texas time.

You can tell.

Don't worry.

What I was saying wasn't important.

Let's move on.

Dolphins running back Devon A-chan has a soft tissue lower body injury that could keep him out days or perhaps weeks, according to Mike McDaniel.

I don't like that.

I also don't like Panthers rookie second-round pick.

Defense man Nick Skorton suffered a collapsed lung during practice Thursday.

Unpleasant.

That's going to cost them time.

Chargers wide receiver Quentin Johnston suffered a concussion, needed to be taken off the field and or taken to a hospital to be looked at.

So hopefully Johnston is going to be okay.

And yes, one thing to keep an eye on around the 49ers, Christian McCaffrey is healthy, but everybody else is banged up on that depth chart.

including Isaac Garendo, who's been battling a shoulder issue for a couple weeks.

So keep an eye on that depth chart as CMZ tries to have a big comeback season.

And finally, one of the Falcons' first-round pick edge rushers, Jalen Walker, he won't practice until at least the middle of the week.

He's got a groin injury.

So there's your injuries that you need to know about.

All right.

Boys, what, what a show.

We've learned so much.

Week two.

And I, again, I apologize if

I was cranky in this episode.

It is something about that second preseason game, but I promise you that I will be

as happy and excited for real football as I ever have been once we get past this little bump on the schedule of the NFL.

I don't think you're out of character.

You've never

struck anyone over the last decade plus, listener-wise, as a huge preseason guy.

And I think you're in character.

A reminder, mentioned it, Fantasy Extravaganza is back with many a special guest, and we're going to hit what you need to know ahead to win your league of record.

It is vital that you listen to this show if you have not drafted yet.

And if you already drafted, like, I don't want to hear it.

That's too early.

That's novice.

That's too early.

Right.

All right.

Connor, anything else you want to say before we sign off?

I don't think so.

I think this was a great show, and I think everybody did a a good job including justin unbelievable any plugs any si plugs you know what we have uh next week our football preview mag starts rolling out the content starts rolling out and people want to say i oh i can buy this or i can read it for free online buy it on the newsstand because it's special and we put photographs in certain places and like it's all there for you to not have to stare at your phone for 18 hours.

And there's like, there's like 10 really good good stories in there, and you should read them all.

Justin,

that was really directed at your generation more than anyone.

Get some physical media in your hands before it's too late.

Agreed, peers.

Higher than ever.

Thanks, Justin.

Higher than ever.

That's a kite.

All right.

Thanks, everybody.

See you for the extravaganza on Wednesday.

Till then, heat the call.

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