Hour 2: Trae Young Loved Highly Questionable (feat. Mina Kimes)

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This is the Dan Labatar Show with the Stu Gats Podcast.

As if Pablo Torres' investigating and journalism wasn't crazy enough, the Clipper story is so crazy that the episode before the one that dropped at 5 a.m.

this morning, he reported that China is stealing Yannick Sinner's brainwaves.

He reported that, and no one noticed because of the Clipper stuff.

To possibly train the soldiers of tomorrow.

Think about that for a second.

There's a.

Which is great news if China ever declares war on Al-Qarath.

The stealing of brainwaves is not journalism that other people are doing.

China stealing the number one tennis player in the world's brain waves.

Spain is well positioned here, I must say.

And no one's noticing because it's just like cheating over here, Kawaii.

The details on the the Kawhi thing, the idea that you wouldn't get him to plant a tree, that you wouldn't get him to do

anything.

One Instagram post, you're good.

Yeah, right.

That photo would live forever.

Can you imagine him standing next to a freshly planted tree with a shovel in his hand?

I'd buy that.

That Steve Ballmer would pay and have all the money in the world and still not be able to get this person to play.

They should have just kept Shea Gilgis Alexander.

None of this would have happened.

They might be champions.

Uh, Zaslow and

we have breaking football news.

Um, as we talked about earlier when Chris Whittingham was joining us, there was a lot of positive momentum for Leo Messi to extend with Inner Miami.

Michelle Kaufman is now officially reporting for the Miami Herald that Leo Messi has agreed to a multi-year deal that she says in the article will be his final contract.

Look at that.

So, Miami will get the punctuation on that right.

I I wonder what the money is.

I'd love to know what the dollars are with something like that because you can't pay too much for it, right?

Like it's something that you want as a part of your product to build a stadium near the airport so that you can have soccer down here in South Florida as opposed to in Broward and you've got the best player in the world and

the best player ever?

Like we can, it's either him or Pele, right?

Those are your choices.

I mean, I never saw Pele, really.

So the best player I've ever seen is Leo Messi.

And, you know, he's done the things that people asked him to do to get to that

level.

That stadium's going to be pretty awesome, right?

It's going to be pretty awesome.

Terms are presently undisclosed.

However, I believe, through my own sourcing, Dan, that we have given him Opa-laka.

Is that all?

He has Opa-laka.

Just Opa-laka.

Parts of West Kendall.

We're still negotiating with Baptists.

I would assume that he would take all of Key West and just keep asking for stuff.

At a padded?

Presently in the hands of others.

Oh, okay.

But Middle Keys.

Had Saudi come to the table correct, maybe Islamorada,

lower Mattacumbi, perhaps Upper Mattacumbi.

With the arrogance only Zaz could display, he just blew a bunch of lunch breath in my face.

Man.

And said.

He loves lunch.

And just said,

big surprise.

Darren Waller ruled out tonight.

Yeah, I mean, I don't know if you're aware.

You know, just he's, he's not going to have his services this evening.

Big game in Buffalo, but he's not available.

That is true.

We're going to get to pitch clock.

That's going to be before the end of the show.

And Mina Kimes is going to join us as well.

But we've got a Patrick Beverly and Trey Young beef to get to.

Do you want to give any context here before we play some of the sound here?

Why do Patrick Beverly and Trey Young have beef?

It's well, I don't know, but it's so good because I love it.

Because that sport, the NBA, the players, they all love to hug and kiss before every game.

I don't like that garbage.

I like them the players hate each other.

All right, take me back to the 80s and 90s, where if you play for another team, screw you, man.

And so we got a little bit of this here.

I like it.

So, Pat Beverly, you know, he's got a podcast.

Everyone's got a podcast, Dan.

If you don't have a podcast, you're a huge loser.

And Pat Beverly, he's got a podcast and

he's essentially talking about Trey Young here because he's talking about how he was asked a question by fans.

They're reading like mail, you know?

And it's, why don't players play hard in the all-star game?

Let's hear.

I don't know.

I don't think he's in a position to speak.

I don't think he's one enough to even speak to me like that or tweet me like that.

He's been to the playoffs three times.

I've been to the playoffs nine.

Nine is more than three.

He's been in the NBA seven years.

My first seven years, I didn't miss the playoffs at all.

Interesting.

In the Western Conference.

Interesting.

Right.

His rebuttal is probably going to be, yeah, you want the main player in the team.

Absolutely right.

But this is why it's a team.

I've talked to people who played in Atlanta.

They don't want to play there.

Why?

They don't think he's a good leader.

They don't think he's a good teammate.

This is not coming from me.

This is coming from Joe Blow over here.

Trey, you can score all the points you want.

You can make all the money you want.

You can have all the leading assistants you want.

You can do all that.

If you don't win, that won't matter.

If you don't win, when you retire, they're going to forget your name.

Fast, too.

I don't even think he has the wiggle room to talk about, are you not playing hard for an all-star game?

You're not like you're playing in the playoffs.

So what do you think his point is?

I don't know.

I think he's trying to put himself above you.

I think so.

Put it on the poll, please, Juju at Lebatard show.

Bigger loser, person who doesn't have a podcast or person who walks into the rain with their own umbrella.

Let's hear Trey Young's response to that.

But wait, we got some more facts for you.

And this has nothing to do with any of the guys' legacies and Players that I'm about to name because to be honest I didn't really want to mention anybody's name in this because this is between me and you You play with some big-time players my guy you talk about winning and impact winning and all these things you've been on some some some teams with some big time players.

How about I go through a list of these guys LeBron Giannis Kawhi Leonard Paul George Ant-Man Cat.

And we're not even going to talk about how we celebrate play-in wins.

I win play-in games on the road and I'm ready to get to the playoffs.

You win play-in games at home and you standing on the scores table acting like it's a championship.

We celebrate wins different too.

It's a good response by Trey Young.

It is and it should be noted they've gone equally both as far in the playoffs as one another.

However, Trey Young has been the man on his conference runner-up team, where Pat Beverly, as Trey Young outlined, has played with a lot of great players.

That being said, Pat Beverly does have the tenure in the NBA to be able to opine about what people think about Trey Young, and he's espousing things that people have said about Trey Young for a long time.

Can we just acknowledge, though, that when Pat Beverly says, I've been to playoffs this many times, you've been to playoffs this many times, that there's a little bit of a difference between Trey Young being the main dude on a team and Pat Beverly being like the seventh or eighth guy on a different team.

every year because for whatever reason, however high Pat Beverly thinks of himself, no one wants to sign him to a multi-year deal.

Patrick Patrick Beverly thinks very highly of himself.

There are very few players in the history of the league who have made themselves more famous while actually doing less in the way of production.

Patrick Beverly has a name as an irritant, at least in part, because he irritates everybody.

He should think highly of himself, too.

He wasn't born with the gifts that Trey Young was born with.

He wasn't that type of prospect.

He was on the roster when the big three was formed, and the Miami Heat said, you're not good enough to be on this team.

and he took that and he made something of himself and he listed all the times that he's been in the playoffs he's been in the playoffs because he's been in the league longer and he had no right to be he had to fight for his spot so i think he's certainly entitled to his opinion i would concede as someone that echoed that very same point Trey Young has been the man there.

But Pat Beverly, like, this is a shot-for-shot duel, and they each made good points.

I like it.

I like when the players hate each other.

That's what the world needs, more hate these days.

I think we can all agree on that.

it's there's nothing in sports possibly quite enough hate uh trey young's hair looked better there than it's ever looked also that video heavily edited uh took a lot of takes on trey young it seemed like that was not one take nah it's not a lot of that it's they want pacing right so it's just edited poorly no it's edited the way that people you're not a young person you don't understand young people choppy internet it's just choppy we want this one to be choppy we want it to be as quick as possible there are no spaces in between where you're hemming and hawing it's chop chop chop chop, chop.

We're getting to it.

This is like the early days of Highly Questionable.

You guys did the same thing.

Oh, yeah.

That lasted less than a week.

They took the feedback and Eric Reidholm, the producer, changed that.

We were doing like a max headroom thing that was heavily, heavily.

He was way ahead of the curve.

That's how young people wanted it, but it was too early.

They didn't want it that way.

We were super edited for two days.

Super edited.

And then they immediately bailed on the entire concept.

Do you think when Trey Young recorded that yesterday that he said to like the guys, like, I want it to look like Highly Questionable's his first week?

His hair does look great there.

We're in agreement, right?

His hair looks terrible when he's playing, but here his hair looks impeccable.

It was weird to me to see that hair walk into Madison Square Garden and slay Madison Square Garden and enjoy the slaying of Madison Square Garden.

Trey Young might be the worst defensive player in the league if it's not Tyler Hero.

What happened?

I hurt your feelings.

What was that sound?

What was that sound?

Oh, man.

What?

They're bad defensive players.

You guys are going to dispute that?

No.

Who's disputing that?

No one.

I'll ask Amin who the worst defensive player in the league is.

I think Tyler Hero's better defending than Luca.

Okay.

Isn't that who Tyler Hero compared himself to?

He's like, I view myself on the lines of Luca and Trey Young and John Ramp on my podcast.

With altitude on it.

Clearly, he meant just bad defending.

Mina Kimes is going to join us in a moment.

And as I mentioned, Pitch Clock is going to be here at the end of the show.

I know none of you care, but uh blake snell continues to be unhittable uh i believe he's uh in his last 13 innings it's no runs in 23 strikeouts last night uh the dodgers are talking about shohei otani coming out of the bullpen man dave roberts definitely did not pull him from that game early that was funny yesterday where dave roberts goes to the mound in the seventh inning and blake snell's up i think 3-0 at the time has got two runners off and blake snell's like get out of here just just get out of here i don't want you here and then dave roberts scampered back to the duckout it's fun when managers actually listen to the pitcher on that.

I remember a few years ago, Sandy Alcantra in his Cy Young season, Mattingly walks out and he just starts shaking his head no.

And this is in Bush Stadium.

And he goes, all right, walks right back to the dugout after talking to him.

It was incredible.

I have a response from Amin about the worst offensive player in the NBA.

That was quick.

I said, who's the worst offensive player in the NBA?

His response?

Probably Joe Ingalls.

Oh, that's good.

You know what?

He's got me beat, but he doesn't play.

He doesn't play anymore.

Like, okay, ask him for the second worst then.

Your dad calls him Joe Inglis.

Yeah, that's the way it should be pronounced in Spanish or in English.

Joe Inglis is exactly what it should be.

When you guys think about what's happening with Tom Brady, I know Mike's got a lot of objections to things I've said around here recently, and I want to ask Mina about this when she gets here.

The Tom Brady in the press box or in the coach's box with a headset, to me, that wasn't as offensive as him with a headset and a suit.

That did not look right to me.

Oh my God.

Well, it's wrong.

It's fundamentally wrong to have the guy who's doing the coordinator work in a headset be wearing a tie, be wearing a suit.

There was something awful.

It can't be a suit.

It just looked awkward, like pulling.

He was like, I want both ears covered.

He knew it too.

He was looking around like, I don't fit.

It would have been like, how are you guys sitting?

As odd if he had been in a tux, in a full tuxedo.

It would have struck me as stepbrothers when they're getting interviewed.

I think my frustration on the on the Tom Brady conversation is we should have been having this weeks ago when it was announced that he would now be allowed in these meetings, in these production meetings with players and coaches.

And that is a huge red flag because he'd be meeting, presumably, with teams that are on the Raiders' schedule.

And he'd be asking about schematics, about insights on the team and team dynamics that would undoubtedly be helpful to the Raiders.

And you can have plausible deniability and say, well, he's not as involved with the Raiders.

What?

Have you been paying attention to the entire summer?

Like, Pete Carroll's calling him his boss.

He very much, even though he only owns 5%,

wants to be perceived as a very involved minority owner in the Las Vegas Raiders.

And as evidence, he was in the box.

And I find it hilarious that the most obvious thing in the world happened.

And it just took him being shown on camera for the whole thing to be undone.

Immediately, the league says he's not allowed in those production meetings anymore.

Duh!

This was there.

What?

There's a reason why you did this last year.

And everybody, including your partner, was complaining he's not good on the broadcast, which, by the way, maybe that ship has sailed.

Because that was like the one hope.

Well, he's not in these production meetings.

Certainly he'll be improved.

Second year doing it.

And then they announced this whole plan that was dumb from the jump and completely undone with a finger snap.

Did people need to see it to know that this was a problem?

I guess so.

I got a response from Amin.

Uh-oh, mercy.

I wrote Second Worst.

And he wrote, there's a lot of shitty defenders that I don't know it lines up nice and neat as a clear number two.

So he gave me three names with question marks as his nominees

for the second worst.

Trey Young, question mark.

George Niang, question mark.

Michael Porter Jr., question mark.

See, there's already four guys.

Tyler Hero.

Take it back.

You know what?

Sounds like Tyler Hero might be a good defender.

George Niang.

I knew that would be the name.

It's funny.

It's funny.

How many Big 12 basketball games we have action on George Niang there, pal?

I can't dispute George Niang.

You got me there.

We started earlier in the show.

We didn't know what P's P's and Q's were.

Do any of you know when Mike says huge red flag, do you know why there's a huge red flag?

Like, what is a red flag?

I know what the expression means, but I don't know the starting point of why it is there would be a red flag.

Can I venture a guess as a child of Windows 97?

I assumed because of the game Minesweeper on Windows 97 that they would plant red flags wherever there was a mine.

So that's what I've told myself is the origin of it.

Jeremy, can you look this up?

That's pretty good.

That's a pretty good guess.

I mean, there's plenty.

I'm sure it's a signal for distress that people use flags all the time.

I know the hurricane warning flag is in red in part, so red usually means a warning.

Those are two good nominees.

I, for some reason, thought it was piratey.

I thought that the red flag had something to do with pirate ships and warning on pirate ships.

There are several different reasons.

Like now, they'll sometimes put one at an outdoor shooting range, but seemingly, originally, this is because a red flag is frequently flown by armed forces to warn the public of live-fire exercises in progress.

Okay.

Thank you.

Mina Kimes next

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Hey everyone, it's Mike Ryan.

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Don Lebatard.

John, can you rate my Al Pacino from that billiard scene in Carlito's Way if I do it for you?

I think it's pretty good.

Yeah, okay.

Stugats.

You think you're big time?

Or you're gonna die

big time.

That is

on my infamous scale of one to 10.

That's a 7.6.

Good job, Dad.

That's a Suey nominee right there.

Good.

This is the Don Lebatar show with the Stugats.

Mina Kimes is here and we will bounce around the league with her, but let's talk about tonight's game.

I was saying earlier in the show, Mina, that I thought the biggest mismatch in the entire league is Bill's offense against Dolphins' defense.

I defy you.

I defy you to find a mismatch.

Give me a mismatch that you would say in the hypothetical, not even one that's actually happening, but just a mismatch I can put on the field that would feel anything like that.

Maybe when the Ravens offense goes up against the Bengals defense, but early on,

Dolphins' defense looks worse.

The thing about the Dolphins defense that's so

dispiriting is we knew that the secondary was going to be bad, right?

The pass rush was supposed to be good.

They got everybody healthy.

They got Chuck Robinson.

They got Jalen Phillips.

They got Bradley Chubb.

And they're not getting pressure and they're not able to compensate for what's going on in the back end.

It could be very ugly tonight.

What do you make of the fact that I don't have the numbers right in front of me, but I think over the last, I don't don't know, I'm going to say two years, that Patrick Mahomes has three 320-yard games, and so does Jake Browning.

I think that wide receivers matter, it would be my take.

Jake Browning, because I've been revisiting this obviously since we're going to be watching him for a while, was actually pretty decent in the second half of...

2023 when he played.

This was

an L for me because, you know, I'm a Washington Huskies fan.

I did not think he would be good in the NFL at all.

And he really impressed me that year.

I'm not saying he's like an above-average NFL starting quarterback by any means, but I thought the offense was pretty good.

Jamar Chase was excellent in those games.

And,

you know, Patrick Mahomes has been, I mean, that offense is failing for a number of reasons, but right now he's playing with probably the worst receiver group in football.

And turns out the quarterback, while the most important player, maybe in any sport, can only do so much.

Joe Burrow plays a bit of a reckless style.

He has been hit a lot more than Andrew Luck was hit during the time frame that made Andrew Luck retire.

What do you make of Joe Burrow perpetually getting injured because of the way that he plays?

It's

sometimes hard to know how to assign blame when we talk about quarterback injuries, but I think your point about Burrow versus Luck is notable because I think with Luck, it was so obviously a route of circumstances.

And I think with Burrow, it's a little bit more of a mixed picture.

Obviously, the offensive line hasn't been good, and he compensates for it in a lot of ways.

And when he throws the ball very quickly, this offense is great.

But I would say earlier in his career in particular, he took way too many sacks, and some of them were on him.

So when we look at like the number of hits he's taken over the years, he is not entirely

blameless through some of that.

But, you know, he's not the biggest factor by any means.

It's still the offensive line.

Mina, what have you made of the discourse surrounding Mike McDaniel lately?

I think it's weird, and I think there's like a personal tone to some of it that is a little bit I don't love, if I'm being honest.

And I say that as someone who thinks, you know, McDaniel is not above blame.

I think the run game stalling out the way it has, the way it did last year in particular, he deserves a lot of criticism for that.

However, this is an offense that is limited limited because of personnel decisions and a defense that is just bad, mostly also because of personnel decisions.

And I'm not, this is, I don't know, people are going to say, oh, you know, the nerds defending the nerds.

This is not me saying that Mike McDaniel deserves to keep his job or that he's done a great job.

But to my eye, Chris Greer, the GM of the Dolphins, is so clearly the biggest problem in Miami.

I don't know what the discourse is like around him, but I feel like he should be at the top of people's tongues more than the coach who is,

I think, trying to coach around the limitations of the players that they have.

What in the league is the second team you would point to where you would say it is super strange that Chris Greer still has a job given that he's the longest tenured GM to not have a playoff victory?

Like what, what, how distant is second place there in terms of confusing that the pressure isn't on the general manager there when a lot of people say it's the architecture.

It's not that distant.

I would say Mickey Loomis with the New Orleans Saints is right there with him as

a guy who I think deserves a lot of criticism for how that team is, the approach that he took, has taken a team building now for several years and the state of the Saints roster.

He should, I mean, it's kind of crazy to me that he kind of flies into the radar for all of the bad decisions, bad drafts.

He had like a couple of really banger drafts like 10 years ago, more than 10 years ago, I think.

And no, not more than 10 years ago, actually, it was less than that.

But anyways.

He has made some really brutal decisions in New Orleans.

Those are the two names that come to mind when I look at those teams and I think, wow, these GMs have their fingerprints all over these teams and have made some really debilitating errors.

When you think of it being personal with the Mike McDaniel criticism, because I do feel like some of this is cavemen who are threatened by computers, but let's look here

or hear some sound from McDaniel.

He doesn't help himself here.

To win games, you have to win the game,

not lose the game.

I mean, you can take that quote from like any coach.

I don't, I've never felt like his press conferences have never really like.

So annoying.

Yeah, I've never, even when they were winning.

It's funny, though, like winning

covers everything up.

I've never felt like.

Oh, I loved it when we were winning.

It was charming.

I think football culture does not like perceived outsiders and when

you don't look or sound like a traditional football person the second that you fail there are people who will turn on you quicker than they would if he was just ex you know a former player who looks and sounds like a traditional head coach but the other thing i would say is you know it's not like he's an analytics guy he he is

a

former college player and i think of architect of a pretty interesting offense that was that's definitely run stale, but a lot of that has to do with the players as well.

In any case,

I actually think like the way he looks and sounds is inflicting a lot of this.

Let's go ahead and speed Mina up so we can get to as much football as possible because we want a lot of football from her.

What is more accurate?

CJ Stroud has regressed or CJ Stroud suffers from pressure up the middle?

CJ Stroud suffers from pressure.

That's not to say though he's blameless for some of that pressure.

Look at how good she's gotten it fast.

You guys have noticed?

The tush push, bad for football, yes or no?

Yes, even though I'm not saying that it should be banned, but it's not entertaining.

How good is Baker Mayfield?

Good.

Good.

Not elite, but good.

Name the quarterbacks in the league you trust more than Baker Mayfield on a drive late in the game.

Sure, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert, Jaden Daniels,

Joe Burrow, if he's healthy, those are the mates.

Matthew Stafford.

Oh, Jalen Hurts.

What do you do?

Oh, Jalen Hurts late as well.

You've got Jalen Hurts driving right down the field late.

Not no frontrunner in him, like Lamar Jackson, where they can get far ahead.

But I don't think of Lamar Jackson as he's going to do what Aaron Rodgers or Russell Wilson or what those guys, you know, I don't think of him as Patrick Mahomes.

Hating ass hater comments right now from me to Kimes.

Hate and ass hater.

Said what I said.

I mean, jalen hurts

when

when

dare i say how

well he he's had the two best games of his career in the most high profile games possible the super bowls yeah what are you talking about yeah and he didn't have to come back in the final minute like baker mayfield had to baker mayfield is the best at this baker mayfield's incredible he becomes steve young in the final minutes he also threw the ball on a two-point conversion which like like nobody should acknowledge was like an insane thing to do but whatever worst offensive line in football.

Oh, this is a tough competition right now.

I'm going to go with Houston.

Is that just a bad organization?

Because it feels like C.J.

Shroud has been in the league now for a couple seasons, and he's been more underwhelming than he's been awesome.

He came out incredible, and the line was an issue last year, remains an issue.

And I'm starting to look at the top of this organization.

I feel like they're either wasting this young man or we were wrong about the young man.

They traded their best offensive lineman.

I know he had a bunch of penalties, but whatever.

And then they signed two free agents from like two of the worst offensive lines by the end of the season.

Like two of the worst guard free agents available.

And then they started them and we were supposed to think, okay, it'll just get better because they changed the offensive coordinator.

Get out of here.

I hate watching them.

It's weird.

It's so unpleasant.

And it's such a waste.

The defense is so good.

It's such a waste.

It drives me crazy.

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Don Lebatard.

Did you get lost on the way to Home Depot today, Dan?

Like, what's going on with the platform?

Get his ass, Mina.

Stugats.

But you look like you're about to ask me to like check the oil on my car

or like come over and like look around and point things in my house that need to be fixed.

This is the Don Lebatar show with the Stugats.

Atlanta Falcons, what are they?

Frisky will compete for the NFC South, but I don't view them as a true contender in the NFC.

Mina, what's been the biggest overreaction through the first couple weeks?

I would say that the Chiefs are dead in the water.

I don't think that's true at all.

The offense is going to improve.

Xavier Worthy is coming back.

I wasn't impressed by what Xavier Worthy did last year as their deep threat, even though he's faster than everyone else on the field.

He's going to come back and what's going to change?

By the second half last season, they were like...

kind of, they figured out how to use him against man coverage and they stopped using him as a deep threat.

It was more like quick outs and motions.

So that's going to help.

The really big factor is Rashi Rice turning in week seven because he is a true number one wide receiver.

Impressions of Ben Johnson through two games.

I mean, he's got to figure out that run game, man.

I mean, it's awful.

It's a bottom three run game right now.

Another, by the way, personnel decision that didn't make any sense to me sticking with DeAndre Swift.

What is Caleb Williams?

Work in progress.

He is, let me ask, revise that, far from the biggest reason why the Chicago Bears are getting their butts kicked right now.

Is Aaron Rodgers closer to what he was in week one or what he was in week two?

Week one when he plays bad defenses, week two when he plays good defenses.

What is Michael Pennix?

A quarterback who'd like to see push the ball downfield more because he's got great arm talent and thus far they've like really been hampering that deep passing game.

Did you just call the Jets a bad defense?

Yeah, they're awful.

What happened?

It's been a multi-year thing, talent erosion, but like right now it's like busted coverages all over.

This is the thing with Aaron Glenn that's confusing me so much.

The defense should be so much better than they are.

Will Tyreek Hill play for the Dolphins tonight and the Chiefs on Sunday?

I don't think so.

Who's a better coach in football?

All ranks of football, Pete Carroll or Jim Harbaugh?

Right now, it might be Jim Harbaugh, but I don't know if that's true over the course of their entire careers.

What has Jim Harbaugh done that makes that Charger's secondary and defense so stifling?

Hired Jesse Minter.

That's it?

I don't know.

Yeah, dude, he's not coach of the defense.

But I'm just saying, that's it?

That's all he...

Chargers' defense is the reason they are winning.

Like, that's they are.

Well, week one, the offense was awesome.

I people love Jim.

I mean, it's funny because, right, like we talked about Mike McDaniel and like the vibes, people.

People love Jim Harbaugh so much because he's such like a football guy.

And I feel like everybody wants to give him credit for every part of that team.

I mean, you know, Jesse Manter is a defensive credit.

And he was his coach in Michigan.

So he deserves credit for hiring him.

What are the Vikings?

Team that's going to miss the playoffs.

Do you believe in J.J.

McCarthy?

Not yet.

Yeah, I don't either.

Tell me more.

Do you believe that O'Connell has a skill?

Like, if you had to give me three coaches who have a skill of making quarterbacks, who are those three coaches?

Shoot.

I would say

making quarterbacks.

Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay.

Shane Steichen, apparently.

Apparently, Shane Steichen.

Yeah, Yeah, that's been a crazy story.

But O'Connell, you got to see it now.

When should we see Jackson Dart?

Probably week 10.

Who wins, Steelers or Patriots?

I win Steelers in this one, but that's not because I'm high on the Steelers.

What has surprised you most the first two weeks of the season?

Freaking Daniel Jones.

There's no other answer.

It's Daniel Jones.

And

I've taken the L on this already.

It's not that I think Daniel Jones is going to continue to play at at the level that he has.

I think that some of this is going to come down to earth, the play under pressure, the pushing the ball downfield.

That's just not who he's been over the course of his career.

But the accuracy underneath has enabled this offense to go, and they've got a bunch of incredible weapons.

I mean, Tyler Warren has been absolutely a beast for them, and Chain Steichen's pretty damn good at his job.

The second best running back in the league is Blank.

John Robinson.

What is Drake May?

Promising.

Played really well this week.

It's going to be up and down.

Ashton Genty looks small.

Would you agree?

I don't think his size is why he's not having overwhelming success thus far.

Also, Bucky Irving's small and he's shredding it in Tampa.

But Bucky Irving is good in pass protection, it would appear.

I mean, Genty's getting rolled.

It feels like more size would help him, but it definitely looks a lot different in the pros than it did in Boise, no?

Yeah, well, that's what happens when you join a team with a bad offensive line.

I'm never getting drunk on running backs again in the draft.

Watching the Chargers and the Raiders, I was just like,

I knew this was gonna be an up and down thing.

I knew offensive line mattered.

And yeah, mad at myself.

Should the league move the field goal posts closer together, Mina?

No.

Kickers are too good.

Are they?

I love long field goals.

Is that crazy?

Am I, is it wrong for me to be in?

Like, when Brandon Aubrey lined up, were you guys not entertained as football?

Forget the strategy as football fans.

I was.

Yeah.

Where would I have to put the ball down for you to say Aubrey can't make it from there?

Great question.

I would say anything over 70 is when I'd start to get a little bit nervous.

But anything in the 60s, I think that dude's banging it in.

A little bit nervous.

A little bit.

Is he already the best kicker ever?

You're gonna, it's gonna have to be longevity to hit that award, but like hitting from distance the way he has,

I mean, he's he's gonna be in the conversation.

What is Cam Ward?

Exciting, putting some really fun throws on tape every week, playing behind terrible pass protection.

That's got to improve for me to take this team seriously.

But I've enjoyed watching his tape every week.

You didn't have Jordan Love late in games when we asked you the Baker Mayfield question.

That's true.

I didn't think about him.

I think that the offense is so good that I would bet on them.

But individually, I think Love's a little bit inconsistent.

The Packers.

I like him, though, a lot.

The Packers are the blank best team in the

Best.

Whoa.

Nice.

What just happened there?

Are they going to feel this injury, though?

Because they've navigated Watts and they're sneaky deep at wide receiver, but Jaden Reed has been their best wide receiver over the last few seasons.

Certainly most consistent and most available.

He's out for some time.

Yeah, but they're so close to hitting it with Watt, with Matthew Golden.

Him and Jordan Love are like just a little bit far apart.

Yeah, he's got like crazy separation stats, right?

And it's just like the timing's not right.

But that'll get there.

And then they've got so many other weapons.

Tucker Kraft is like now making a case for himself to be one of the best tight ends in the league.

The run game is good.

They haven't even been healthy on the offensive line.

And the defense is just, I mean, that's the best defense in football, I think.

You can only have one, one and one only.

Micah Parsons or Miles Garrett?

Miles Garrett by like the hair, the thinnest of hairs.

He has quietly been unbelievable this season, but it's the Browns so no one cares neighbors is the blank best receiver in the league.

Oh gosh, I don't know.

I'd have to he's not in the top eight, so maybe maybe top 10 to 12.

Huh?

Whoa.

I'd have to really

top 10.

He's top 10.

Well, what I saw against Dallas, like they seem to be really, like, what Diggs did trying, he was covered.

He was covered on both of those touchdowns.

Diggs is reaching in there

and he punches the football, but it doesn't move.

Like, I mean, I'm legitimately confused.

Okay, sorry.

Let's do this.

Okay, so Chase, Jefferson,

A.J.

Brown,

Amon Ross, St.

Brown, Huka Nakua.

Those are five receivers who are better than Malik Neighbors that I just named.

Give me a combination that is better, that has better chemistry, okay?

You're not allowed to choose Kelsey and Mahomes and their history than St.

Brown and Goff.

Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase.

Yeah, it's a good choice.

Who's the best LSU receiver ever then?

I don't.

That's still, it's still such a work in progress.

That's still, yeah.

Who's better, Jamar Chase or Justin Jefferson?

Let's pin you down here.

Used to be Jefferson, but

I'm still going to stick with Jefferson, but it's very close.

And they just, they bring different things to the table.

I think Chase is more QB-proof, though.

Have you had an eye towards the NFL draft?

Yeah, it seems like a down year for quarterbacks in college football.

Is there any quarterback that may stake its claim to number one overall?

I mean, I like that kid, Matir, I'm saying his name right.

But yeah, I think this is one where it's a good reminder to that whole like, oh, next year it's going to be the best draft ever.

I've got to pump the brakes on that every year.

But I think some of these guys are going to look better at the end of the season than they do now.

Will the Miami Dolphins have a top three pick?

No.

Grab one of the books on the shelf behind you and give us a one-minute book report.

Okay, um let's go with

things appropriate right now, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, one of my favorite books ever about not just the NFL, but like the NFL and like the NFL mutilatory industrial complex and all of the patriotism surrounding football.

It's about a soldier returning from war who goes to a Dallas Cowboys game.

It's an excellent book.

Has she actually read it?

Yeah.

Selling movies.

I actually have read every single book behind me.

Well, Darren Waller played it.

I got one too.

Martyr, my friend wrote this.

No pride of the lines.

What do you do?

Darren Waller's out tonight.

Zaszlo's an asshole.

He's got lunch breath, and I want to do a book report with you every week, okay?

Let's do that.

I love that.

Zaszlo clearly ran out of questions.

Mina, good question.

I don't know if he's playing.

You beat us that time.

You beat us because you're getting very good at this game.

Thank you for being on on with us.

Bye, guys.

Everybody go read Martyr.

Hey, everyone.

It's Mike Ryan.

One thing about me that everybody knows, I absolutely love Miller Light.

You know what else I love?

You.

That's right.

You.

Listening on your way to work right now, wondering whether or not today is the day to tell your boss what you really think of the new reports he needs filled out every week?

I absolutely love you.

That's why I'm thrilled to tell you that we are again partnering with Miller Light to give you a chance to play along with weekend observations.

Starting September 22nd, you'll be able to go to draftkings.com and guess what will happen during weekend observations on the show Monday, September 29th.

How many beeps will there be?

Who's the first person to interrupt?

How many people will talk about the used chances to win a national title?

Spoiler alert, definitely me.

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