September 12, 2025 • 51 mins
The most honest group chat on the internet returns for Episode 30, serving up New York sports talk without the empty calories or performative hot takes.
Justin Fields looked like the version Chicago was promised – decisive, dangerous, and low on self-inflicted nonsense as the Jets beat Pittsburgh. His comfort in Tanner Angstrom's system was evident with the Jets running on 58% of snaps, keeping Fields in manageable situations while the ground game racked up 189 yards. Meanwhile, Sauce Gardner shadowed DK Metcalf on 30 of 34 pass plays, completely shutting down the Steelers' top threat. Most telling was the organization's accountability – Xavier Gibson fumbled a kickoff that led to the game-deciding score and was cut by Wednesday, showing Aaron Glenn's no-nonsense approach.
Across town, the Giants continued last year's offensive struggles with a 21-6 loss to Washington. Russell Wilson looked every bit like a QB in a blender (17-for-37, 168 yards), going 2-for-12 under pressure. Despite this, Brian Daboll immediately reaffirmed Wilson as starter, pushing aside any Jackson Dart talk. More concerning might be Malik Nabers' sideline frustration moment and linebacker Micah McFadden's foot injury requiring surgery.
Baseball brings its own drama with the Yankees suffering bullpen meltdowns while playing Anthony Volpe through a small labrum tear discovered back in May – raising serious questions about player management. The Mets face an uphill playoff battle after getting swept by Philadelphia, though young pitchers Nolan McLean, Jonah Tong, and Brandon Sproat provide hope for the future.
We close with fantasy football buy-lows (AJ Brown, Kenneth Walker), sell-highs (Baker Mayfield, Daniel Jones), and Week 2 betting picks. Follow @RiceOnTheRadio and join our Wednesday Mic Checks on Instagram to participate in the conversation – after all, this is a bar conversation, not a book report.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I guess there's only one way to find out.
Let's do it to it right.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0.
All engines running.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
(00:23):
oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
Episode 30.
Kind of wild, we're herealready If you've been rocking
(00:45):
with me from the jump.
Thank you so much.
If you're new, welcome to themost honest group chat on the
internet, Served hot and ready.
Tonight's spread.
We're starting local with theJets and Giants Doing a quick
tasting of week one around theleague, then plating up New York
baseball with a moment thatthis city never forgets, and for
(01:07):
dessert, fantasy, the bettingcard and a three-bite mailbag.
No empty calories today, Ipromise, first course, jetsies.
Justin Field looked like theversion Chicago was promised and
that Pittsburgh never figuredout.
Decisive, dangerous and, mostimportant, low on self-inflicted
(01:27):
nonsense.
The Jets cook to theirstrengths Designed runs,
balanced bases, fewer third andlong burnt ends.
189 yards on the ground.
That's a base that you canbuild an entire menu on and, yes
, the kitchen's accountabilityis real.
Xavier Gibson fumbles a kickoff.
He's cut by Wednesday.
The fans showed up.
Hand flags drowned out theterrible towels.
(01:49):
The vibe was beautiful, giants.
Well, they're still in the oven.
Brian Dayball says RussellWilson remains QB1.
Jackson Dart stays on thetasting menu for now.
Malik Naver's sideline momentCompetitive fire with cameras in
his face.
Then he goes 5 for 71 on 12targets.
Dallas is next and historicallythat's not comfort food for Big
(02:11):
Blue.
Quick week, one tasting flight.
Josh Allen did a fourth quarterCPR on the Ravens and the Bills
stole one.
Micah Parsons in green changedthe temperature in Green Bay
instantly.
Jj McCarthy's second half rallyin Chicago and Brock Purdy
looks to We'll be right back.
Would have needed it the most.
Now the rant Yankees twostraight bullpen catastrophes
(02:46):
and then Detroit hung 11 on them, and the headline is Anthony
Volpe.
Boone went from day-to-day to asmall labrum tear.
That's not development, that'sovercooking the sauce.
As for the Mets, the Philliesturned the burner to high Kepler
with five ribbies, badercontinues to crush, harper goes
yard, christopher Sanchez is incontrol and the panic meter for
(03:10):
the Mets slider hit north of 75%Soto's still smoking, but the
schedule is a gauntlet.
And for dessert, well, fantasyowners buy lows and sell highs.
You can actually pull off thebetting card.
I'm honest about last week'srecord and still cooking.
Three plays and a mailbag.
Three smart questions, quickbites, a couple of promises
before we plate the rest of this.
(03:30):
This is a bar conversation, nota book report.
We get into smart coachingcalls, usage that actually
matters and vibes you can feelfrom the 300 section Save the
performative hot take flambe forsomebody else's timeline.
Hundred section Save theperformative hot take flambe for
somebody else's timeline.
If you haven't yet follow,subscribe and jump in on the
Wednesday mic check on Instagram.
(03:50):
Your vote's literally seizingthe show.
Okay, aprons on fields firstday, bowl.
Next, grip around week one.
Then we hit baseball and westart with a moment the city
never forgets.
This is episode 30 of Rice onthe Mics.
I am Ian Rice.
Let's cook Liftoff and theclock has started.
(04:26):
Tranquility Base here.
The Eagle has landed.
Alright, let's talk NFL, and I'mstarting with the Giants this
week, because they have way morerant energy than the Jets.
The Giants rolled into Landoverand basically re-ran last
year's worst episodes 21-6, 231total yards and two separate
(04:48):
goal-to-go possessions thatturned into vibes and field
goals First and goal at the one.
Nothing First and goal at thethree late.
Four straight incompletions.
You could almost hear BrianDayball's headset cooking on his
ears.
Russell Wilson looked every bitlike a QB in a blender too 17
(05:10):
for 37 on 168 with no touchdowns, and when Washington heated him
up it got ugly quick.
Goes two for 12 under pressure,two sacks, a couple scrambles
that led nowhere, no rhythmwhatsoever.
And yet Monday comes andDayball doesn't even blink.
Quote no, russ will be thestarter.
(05:31):
Not hedging, not hinting, justflat out.
He's our guy.
He spread the blame too.
Coaching plan executioneverybody took a slice Not
really what you want out of yourhead coach.
It was me, it was me, it was meright.
And look, I get why the JacksonDart talk is humming.
(05:54):
We literally asked you to getthe pulse of the people to see
how much dart you wanted thisupcoming week, and most of you
said second half of gettingblown out, chunky.
You voted.
They wanted a few scripteddrives but almost nobody wanted
the full-on coup, and that'sfair.
But you know, if Jackson goesin second half and they're
(06:20):
getting blown out and all of asudden he looks all right and
throws for a touchdown pass ortwo, it's only going to fuel the
fire more of if he should startor not.
The Alex Smith to Mahomesblueprint that everyone loves to
reference worked because Alexactually mentored the kid.
He saw the forest through thetrees.
(06:41):
Yeah, he was playing hard, buthe still knew that his time was
going to come and he taught thekid the winning way while he did
the damn thing on the field.
So is Russ that guy right now,while he's chasing maybe his
last chapter in his career, hislast run in New York?
The jury's out.
(07:02):
Maybe he likes the kid, maybehe doesn't.
The jury's out.
Maybe he likes the kid, maybehe doesn't.
But the funny thing that no onereally talks about is the vet
who vibed the most with dart wasjamis, not russ.
So file that in the books asdrama incoming.
And speaking of drama, thesideline moment between
Neighbors and Dayball played soloud on TV, visibly frustrated,
(07:28):
and then Dayball goes for a dapin between a timeout, neighbors
doesn't sell it, and then itturns into a meme.
I mean, I literally saw thislast year with Sala and Rodgers
and now the entire organizationis new Neighbors downplayed it
after the fact said the camerasjust found him and said he has
(07:50):
to be more conscious of hisnatural, resting bitch face
those are his words, by the wayand that he's more annoyed with
himself about his targets andhis film.
I mean he had 12 looks hecaught five for 71.
I guess he dropped a bunch,said he admitted the tape made
him sick to for 71.
I guess he dropped a bunch,said he admitted the tape made
him sick to his stomach.
And look, he's been dealingwith a back since the summer but
(08:10):
he's fine, he's practicing,he's good to go.
The bigger issue is what comesnext, and that would be how
about them?
Cowboys?
Dallas Going into Jerry Worldhas been a nightmare, been a
terrible, recurring nightmarefor the last decade.
(08:31):
For the Giants there'shistorical context too 16-4 over
the last decade and honestly,most of those wins are because
of Eli.
The problem Giant fans shouldbe more worried about but is
getting swept under the rug bythe jackson dar stuff is the
injury to micah mcfadden's foot.
He's having surgery and isgoing to be quote out a
(08:52):
significant time.
So what happens in steps?
Darius mayasu yeah, tell me ifyou heard that name before.
What happens during thewashington game?
They immediately found himright over the middle.
Jaden Daniels Zach Ertz to atouchdown when he's supposed to
be covering him.
That's not a coaching pointproblem, that's a personnel
(09:14):
shift problem, and opponents aregoing to just keep chasing you
on that until you slam the doorshut and I'll look.
I'll give Washington somecredit too.
This wasn't just the Giants arebad.
The commander's run game lookedlegitimately multiple and mean.
Debo Samuel in Burgundy is aproblem and rookie Jacory Krosky
(09:36):
, aka Bill, looked completelycomfortable doing whatever he
wanted.
Ripped off explosive runs onfive different sets and Jaden
Daniels bailed him out on secondand forevers like it was a
walkthrough practice.
Add in Dan Quinn stoning.
Two red zone trips.
That's identity.
That's showing up after whatPhilly did to them last year on
(09:57):
the touch push in January.
If you're Giants, the fix isboring but simple.
Get out of the third and longbusiness on offense.
Have an actual red zone planthat isn't just hero ball, and
figure out how you're going tosurvive off ball without
McFadden before Dallas, whodoesn't really have a running
(10:20):
game, rings your bell and hopeto God that Andrew Thomas can
suit up sooner rather than later, because he really is just the
full linchpin in this offensiveline from the blue to the green.
The jets, jets, jets.
Yes, unfortunately my streaklives on.
(10:41):
I am now 0-18 lifetime watchingthe Jets in person.
I should probably be on a watchlist at this point, but I will
say, this time at least thereseems to be a blueprint and
honestly, I can't remember thelast time I saw the Jets score
30 points.
Justin Fields played grown-upfootball.
(11:04):
The box line is clean to 16 of22, 218 yards.
Touchdown, no picks, 12 rushesfor 48, ran one in himself.
But what mattered was whatwasn't there in the box score.
No reckless sacks trying toplay hero.
(11:25):
No, hold the ball for fourseconds and try to invent a
window which, by the way,honestly he could have if he
wanted to, because the offensiveline looked stellar.
And rookie Armand Membo, whowas the highest graded tackle on
pass protection for week one.
That looks good.
(11:46):
But Tanner Angstrom, oc for theJets, called a great game.
Jets ran the ball on about 58%of their snaps.
That's roughly 21% over whatyou'd expect given their down
and distance, and they keptfields out of the booby traps.
His average third down game wasfour, four point five yards.
That's.
(12:07):
That's how you defang a passrush like pittsburgh's and let
your qb live in the easy stuff,live in the high life, even
without avt.
The opening play set at allmotion the tight ends at a right
hold, tj want zone the otherway, let brie sa hall hit the
cutback for 18 yards.
Not just copy the concept yousaw on twitter, but actual
(12:30):
misdirection to mess with thebaddest dude on the field.
Breeze looked like breeze to 19for 107.
Isaiah davis had a burst,braylon allen felt found pay
dirt and field still left.
A couple reads out.
There was a couple times hepulled the ball when he should
have given it off.
So it's encouraging because thebaseline felt controlled
(12:53):
Defensively.
This was Sauce Gardner's firsttrue quote-unquote travel game.
So what do I mean by that?
He shot out DK Metcalf, thePackers, the Steelers, best
receiver on 30 of 34 pass playsand he held him to nothing but
like a goofy pinball deflectionin the final minutes.
(13:14):
And he tackled with realurgency in the run scheme, which
is something that Jet fansreally criticized him on all
last year, and it was warrantedtoo.
But it also shows thedifference in scheme.
Look, if you're going to shadowthe number one wide receiver
most of the time, they aren'tgoing to run that way, if you
get stuck on one side of thefield and the offense sees you
(13:37):
aren't the best tackler, guesswhat any good offensive
coordinator is going to do?
They're going to put their bestrun blocker on that side and
send the running back your way.
Aaron Glenn called itoutstanding and said we'll see
again when the matchup calls forit.
Aka, it's probably going tohappen every week.
(13:57):
And you guys were split on thepoll too.
Half of you wanted sauce islandall game and the other half
wanted you to mix it in week toweek.
That's probably where they land.
To be honest, build it into theplan and don't just staple it
blindly.
But the part that showed a truechanging of the guard with this
Jets franchise was XavierGibson's kickoff fumble, first
(14:21):
turnover of the game.
Steelers recover.
Two plays later, rodgers hitsCalvin Austin and the Jets cough
up the lead in a two-point loss.
Right, gibson was the darlingon hard knocks and returned the
punt to win week one againstBuffalo after that Rodgers
disaster.
But this isn't Salah or JoeDavis.
Aaron Glenn talked aboutaccountability all offseason and
(14:43):
flat out said you will not beon this team if you are going to
cause us to lose games.
Well, wednesday comes around.
Gibson was cut, isaiah Williamswas signed Look, it's brutal,
but that's the business side ofthe game.
But it also showed themessaging of the head coach
holds weight.
To quote Herm Edwards you playto win the game.
(15:10):
Sorry for the kid, but I'mhappy for my franchise.
And I also got to give thebuilding a little love too.
Yes, that refrigerator, thatair conditioning unit, that
MetLife piece of trash stadium,I got to give it a little bit of
love.
They handed out green and whiteflags to everyone who entered
the stadium and you know,steeler fans travel with those
(15:31):
yellow towels like passports.
So what did they do?
They handed out a wall of greenand white to drown it out and
the fan base was in Waved themall game.
Even the lady next to me askedif she could borrow mine so she
could wave two at a time.
The building was filled with alot of Steeler fans and the
(15:53):
chance of let's go Steelers downthe steps on the way out was
mind-numbing to say the least.
But the fans that did show up,that didn't sell their tickets,
they were in-house and theyloved rooting for this new look
jets.
Now, if you're wondering howmuch of aaron rogers stealer
debut is sustainable.
Well, he did throw for fourtouchdowns and everybody lost
(16:18):
their mind and it's the jetsrevenge game and he was a real
prick in the postgame saying itwas real nice to beat the entire
Jets organization.
But let's zoom in a little biton that performance.
Right, he did say midweek hisback was tight and he didn't
move well, well, yeah, he walkedhimself into two sacks and
(16:39):
there was a lot of yards afterthe catch plus a short field
after Gibson fumble.
There was no throws of 20-plusyards downfield.
So really functional, notvintage, right, and that's not a
diss, even though I did boo thehell out of him.
That's not a diss In thatoffense.
Functional wins that's whatMike Tomlin has been doing for
(17:01):
years.
That's what he will alwayscontinue to do, but it's not a
time machine for Rodgers either.
That's what Mike Tomlin hasbeen doing for years.
That's what he will alwayscontinue to do, but it's not a
time machine for Rodgers either.
So the big picture for the Jets,the thing that was real was the
run game and the intent behindit.
The thing that's not reallyreal, at least not yet, is
crowning Rodgers off of a statline.
(17:21):
Keep insulating fields, keepbuilding play, action and
movement menu and keep lettingsauce erase receiver problems.
You can win like that.
And look, I'm going to be alittle Jets home here.
They always play the Bills welland the Bills are coming off an
exhausting victory on Sundaynight against a bruiser team in
(17:41):
the Ravens.
I wouldn't be surprised if theJets pull off the upset at home.
But anyway, let's do a quickrip around the league before we
pivot.
Just to cover some things.
Monday night JJ McCarthy flippedhis debut from yikes to yup in
one quarter.
Kevin O'Connell told him athalftime you're going to bring
(18:03):
us back from this.
And he did Two touchdowns and akeeper himself.
Late the Vikings slipped pastthe Bears.
Fun fact for JJ he's only lostfour games in his football
career since he was 14 years old.
I mean, the kid won a nationalchampionship at Michigan and
then set out for a year to learn.
It's only one game, but thereturns on this young prospect
(18:26):
look great early.
As for Cale Williams, he hadmoments, but Chicago had a lot
of penalties that didn't helphim out.
I do still think that him andBen Johnson can be electric when
they figure it out, but youbetter hope it's sooner rather
than later.
Bears fans are the Jets of theNFC.
Now Bills and Ravens wasabsolutely unhinged 41-40.
(18:53):
Josh Allen basically put thefranchise on his back for the
entire fourth quarter.
Three scoring drives in amatter of four minutes, matt
Prater walks it off andBaltimore somehow becomes the
first team ever to lose, whilescoring 40 points and rushing
for 235 yards.
That's crazy.
(19:13):
And Lamar was sharp and DerrickHenry looked good too.
Looked like a runaway trainthat he is.
People that they had 169 yardsand two touchdowns combined.
The late fumble flipped thewhole script.
Hold on to the damn ball right.
The building wanted a storybooksend-off and they got theater
(19:36):
instead.
As for this week's Thursdaynight game Washington at Green
Bay well again, the commander'srun game is legit and Jaden
Daniels doesn't sweat long downthe distance, he's not afraid of
the moment.
But Lambeau at night with thePackers front, that's a
different kitchen man.
Plus, they're on back-to-backhome games and Washington
(19:57):
travels all over the country.
Our pick-and-pull leanedPackers minus three and a half,
and if I was going to bet thegame I'd probably be riding
there with you.
So that's the NFL plate.
The Giants need answers andpatience.
In that order.
The Jets finally have a plan.
(20:17):
Now they just need closing time.
Cleanse the palate.
After the break we'll head tobaseball, and before we yell
about both locals, we're goingto take a minute to remember why
this sport matters here.
Piazza swing george w's paintin the black with that first
pitch, and then we'll get intothe rants about the teams.
(20:38):
Stay tight, let's grab a breathand set the table for baseball
with something that still hitsyou in the chest this week
always does.
Baseball didn't fix anythingafter 9-11, but it gave New York
(21:02):
a heartbeat again.
Mike Piazza's swing that nightdidn't just leave Shea.
It lifted an entire city, everyplayer wearing NYPD and FDNY
caps, president Bush walking outthere in front of 40,000 people
and an entire nation watching,delivering a strike right down
(21:24):
the middle on the first pitch.
I still get goosebumps andstill get emotional talking
about it.
That game brought everyonetogether, regardless of what
team you rooted for that night,and it gave the city the boost
that it needed at the time.
It's a day that will never beforgotten in history and
(21:48):
definitely deserves a moment ofgratitude before we dive into
the mess of what's happeningright now.
Thank you to all those outthere who threw their own safety
away to put safety of othersfirst, and God bless, the
families that were and still areaffected by the tragedy of 9-11
(22:08):
.
Okay, so not the easiest topicto transition from.
But we start with the yankeesfirst here, because we just
watched the full roller coasteron the weekend.
They quietly did grown-upthings against Toronto, while
the NFL sucked the oxygen out ofthe room.
(22:30):
They took two or three.
Cody Bellinger uncorked a95-mile-per-hour laser from
right to hose Bobachet In amonsoon.
Nonetheless, luis Hill gave yousix strong and David Bednar got
you four out Saturday, thenclosed again on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the captain playingright field again stole a run
(22:54):
with that full layout catch onSpringer, swiped a bag, scored
on Belly's double, clogged upthe bases, drawing three walks
and a partridge in the pear tree.
That's what you're looking forand that's how you close within
two games in the division andremind everyone the lights
aren't too bright, right, right,well, no, because this team
(23:19):
cannot ever let you breathe.
Detroit came in and put a ninespot on their heads.
In the seventh inning they had14 batters reach plate, with the
first nine all reaching base.
That was just one inning 12-2in a blink of an eye.
Fernando Cruz couldn't buy azone and Mark Leiter Jr followed
(23:43):
with a wild pitch and a bruiseparade.
Mark Leiter Jr followed with awild pitch and a bruise parade.
So that clean, tight, nice andeasy game turned into a blooper
reel in about five minutes.
And that wasn't one bad nighteither.
Since August 1st, the bullpenera has been over five.
You felt it and so did they.
(24:07):
But now the vulpy part, whichis the kind of thing that turns
this rant into a referendum.
All year they have given Volpea rope that none of us could
understand.
Well, now we come to find outthat Volpe has been trying to
play through a small tear in hislabrum all season.
That was discovered in May, may.
(24:30):
Aaron Boone says they're goingday-to-day at shortstop and he's
going to try to play through it.
Well, he needed cortisone shotsat the break and then again
this week after he aggravated iton Sunday.
Boone just continues to insistthat it isn't a major factor and
they want him to play throughit and he'll tough it out if he
(24:51):
can handle it.
Well, I got news for you, man.
I'm not even a Yankee fan, butmy eyes and the box score.
They show a 206 batting averageand a 268 OPS.
I got strikeouts piling up andI got a defensive gold glove
shortstop slipping into negativeplays.
I am not here to question thekids' toughness.
(25:14):
This is on the adults in theroom.
Athletes will always, always,always, always tell you that
they are good to go and theywant to play.
You will have to fight to takethem out.
Part of being a good manager isprotecting the player from
himself.
If he's hurt, sit him.
(25:37):
If he needs a rest, give him areal one.
No, don't grind him into thedust in front of 40,000 people
every night and the boo birdsare relentless, to the point
where his father, who's in thestands, has to defend his own
son.
And then you wonder why helooks like he has zero
confidence at the plate and he'sgot yips in the field.
(26:00):
Look, I'll give credit.
They traded for Jose Caballeroand he's handled short cleanly
and he definitely brings adifferent kind of spark.
You know stolen bases, speed onthe bags, but the bigger
picture here is organizationalProtect your players.
(26:21):
This is borderline franchisemalpractice for a prospect that
was touted to be the nextcornerstone of your franchise
behind Judge, and I'm sorry,unless a miracle happens, the
Yankees probably aren't winningthe World Series this year, so
then he'll have off-seasonsurgery to which he'll come back
to even more pressure of well,now that he's healthy, we expect
(26:44):
him to pick up where he leftoff, and yada, yada, yada.
And now, if he doesn't it, it'sworse and the organization is
under even more pressure becausethis is yet another year that
you've wasted of judge's careeragain.
I don't want to seem like I'mpiling on the Yankees here,
because there is plenty to geton about the Mets, but this is
(27:10):
an absolute mess right now.
And speaking of the Mets, let'sjust dive right into it.
Let's flip to Queens.
I've got a bone to pick.
And the panic meter slider.
You all filled out, came backnorth of 75%, so you guys tend
to agree with me.
All filled out came back northof 75 percent, so you guys tend
to agree with me.
(27:30):
The Phillies are now 12 up inthe division after getting swept
in the last four game seriesthey had, and every game was a
mess.
Do you realize?
The Mets had a seven game leadon the Phillies in this division
.
At one point, schwarber hitsnumber 50.
Ranger Suarez punched out 12 insix or five and two thirds,
whatever it was.
Game three turned into the MaxKepler showcase drives in five
(27:53):
ribbies, while Bryce Harper hasa souvenir to it in deep, deep
right field and look, soto isdoing hero stuff right.
Three knocks number 39 into theright field seats, but one bat
can't stop a flood and theconfidence in this team couldn't
be any lower, with all the keyguys slumping.
(28:13):
If you want a microcosm of thisweek, clay Holmes took the loss
in that third game, gets chargedwith four and then the bullpen,
the parade, comes in behind himand they didn't stop the
bleeding at all.
In fact they made it way worse.
And this is on the heels ofgetting nicked in Cincy, who
you're fighting off with a stickfor the last wild card, where
(28:36):
Brandon Sprote, in his debut,gets called up and does a no-no
through six innings and he stilltook the loss because Hunter
Green is apparently untouchableto this Mets lineup.
That's the season in twosentences.
Right there, flashes of whatyou want to be and no margin for
error when the other guy isjust better.
But I will say this, and I'vebeen consistent, you can go back
(29:03):
and listen the kids are realand it is always, always better
to be in the party fighting notto be kicked out than outside of
the party fighting to get in ifthey can dig deep and win
enough games and stave off thereds and the giants who just you
(29:23):
know yeah, we trade, you getdrew gilbert.
Now you're a fucking playoffteam.
This playoff rotation and rosterfor that matter, will look much
different than it is now.
Nolan McLean has shown up withthat ridiculous frisbee sweeper
and has pushed his way to thefront of this rotation.
Jonah Tong is doing his bestTim Lincecum impression and also
(29:46):
has elite stuff based on hismetrics at only 6'1".
Sprote, who was the highesttouted of the three and he
showed it in his debut, justneeds the reps.
The poll that I ran this weekwas who do you trust the most?
And McLean got the nod.
And I get it.
The floor looks the highestthere right now.
Tong's funk plays and andsproat ceiling is loud.
(30:09):
But yes, the schedule is mean.
It's a bear to be quite honest.
You start off with texas, withdegrom making his city field
return.
That should be awesome.
Kind of wish I had tickets forthat.
Then you got the padres, whohave always seemed to have our
number, followed by the Nats,who always turn into the mid-90s
(30:33):
Braves against the Mets for Godknows what reason, and then, to
close the season.
You're at the Cubs and at theMarlins, who would love nothing
more than to play spoiler to theMets.
You want a direction.
You got one.
It's not painless, in fact it'sgoing to be really hard, but if
(30:55):
you're planning on making anynoise in the postseason
whatsoever, the road isn't goingto be, nor is it supposed to be
easy.
Let this be the stretch theyfind themselves and actually man
up if and I say if becauseright now I'm losing confidence
they will, but if they make theplayoffs, one thing I can
(31:19):
guarantee is we would have beenhot leading up to it and we will
for sure not be the team thatanyone wants to play come
postseason time.
We'll cap off this segment witha couple stories from around the
league.
Two quick ones while we got thestove on.
You know, in seattle themariners just detonated the
(31:39):
braves 18 to 2 with 20 hits.
God, how the mighty have fallen.
Speaking of 90 braves, calRiley is at 53 home runs, one
shy of Mickey Mantle's switchhit record, with AUNEO Suarez
having 45 in the same lineup,and they're back in the wild
card window with Luis Castilloshoving on the hill.
(32:00):
That's a lineup and a rotationyou do not want to run into in
the playoffs, especially ifyou're nursing a bullpen Yankees
and everybody's favoritemustache, paul Skeens, crossed
200 strikeouts and somehowneeded only 64 pitches to get
through five scoreless inBaltimore.
(32:21):
They are dialing back usage toland the plane now, but a 1.92
ERA over 178 big league inningsin your first full season is
cartoonish.
Sub 2 ERA.
Ask me what his record is?
Go ahead, ask me Ready.
(32:41):
He currently sits at 9-10 witha boatload of no decisions.
He currently sits at 9-10 witha boatload of no decisions.
He is a shoo-in to win the NLCy Young, but as soon as his
deal is up, goddammit, he'sgoing to.
I'm going to hate to say this.
He's going to look great inpinstripes.
He's going to be a Yankee.
I can almost guarantee you.
He's 23 and he already lookslike the adult in the room.
(33:07):
To recap for the Yankees it's a,it's a triage and honestly, get
the bullpen synced.
Be smart with Volpe ride, judge.
While he's in this everythingmatters mode, do what you can to
win games.
Hopefully you win the division.
You could honestly flounderfrom being the number one seed
in the al to the third wild card, which is crazy to think about.
(33:28):
And for the mets, it issurvival mode, with a pulse
squeeze every off day.
Lean into the youth that hasrevitalized this franchise and
just hope soto keeps breathingfire.
Focus on winning the game infront of you and not the guys
that are chasing you.
Alright, hydrate up After thebreak.
(33:52):
Fantasy.
Buy lows, sell highs.
Couple of waiver noodles thatwon't give you indigestion.
Then we will plate the week 2betting card and tear into the
mailbag this week.
Keep it right here.
It's our final segment of theshow and it's time for your
(34:21):
dessert.
And we kick it off with fantasythis week.
Week one is always a funhousemirror.
Everything looks bigger andweirder than it actually really
is.
So here's how I'm playing itthis week.
I'm going to be buying talentin roles that stick.
(34:42):
Aj Brown is the poster child.
One weird quiet outing andsuddenly people forget that he's
a 1400 yard machine.
If the AJ manager in yourleague is twitchy, make the call
and pull the trigger if thedeal is right.
Remember the answer is alwaysno until you ask.
(35:04):
Same idea with Kenneth Walkertoo.
The line wasn't pretty, but heled that backfield and Seattle
didn't draft him to just be adecoy.
I'll send out offers builtaround flexy-ish pieces who
popped off in week one.
Guys like Quentin Johnson, whohad a two-touchdown spike but
(35:27):
everybody knows he couldn'tcatch a cold in the winter, or
like a hot wide receiver four.
I trust Walker's role to growas he gets fully healthy and I'm
also kicking the tires onCalvin Ridley.
I was very, very high on himall draft season and I still
trust Cam Ward's arm.
He has a tough Denver draw weekone.
(35:48):
That won't be the script allyear.
Calvin Ridley is going toexplode and you're going to wish
that you got him on your team.
I'll throw in a speculative adon Harold Fannin in Cleveland
too.
Yeah, I know you never heardthat name before.
The Browns lived in 12personnel because mostly Joe
(36:10):
Flacco's a statue back there andthe double set, the rookie,
logged real routes with a legittarget share with David Njoku.
That's not normal for a firstyear tight end.
So if you lost George Kittle tothe IR for the next four, which
I'm sure most of you did Fanninmight be the stash here Now.
(36:34):
On the flip side, I'm notmarried to box score sugar highs
either.
Baker Mayfield's good week camewith a soft setup.
I will happily flip him for ahigher echelon quarterback if
anyone's overreacting.
Same thing goes for DanielJones too.
A big fantasy line against avery leaky defense.
(36:56):
Look, maybe he needs to get outof New York and maybe he turns
back into Danny Dimes, but I'mwilling to bet he levels out.
And he levels out to that guythat you offloaded for a solid
player and stuck him on somebodyelse's team, or he becomes the
streamer.
You pick up for a bi-weekreplacement and then it's no
(37:17):
harm, no foul, and I hate to saythis as much as I love the
player, brees Hall.
This Jets offense is going tokeep other backs involved, and
they showed you that week one.
Brees got a lot of yardage,sure.
He got a couple pass catches,sure.
But Isaiah Davis had some popand it was Braylon Allen who hit
(37:42):
pay dirt.
So if someone wants to payrunning back one prices off of
that opener, I'd be willing tolisten, especially if I'm light
at wide receiver.
This is the whole game afterweek one.
Everybody tries to make tradespost-draft, but you don't do
that.
You wait till week one.
You wait till those guys pop.
You buy the roles that you cantrust and you sell the lightning
(38:05):
in a bottle early.
A couple of streamy notes forthis week too, with Brock Purdy
out 3-5.
Temper expectations for anybodyon the Niners really, besides
CMC I mean Mack Jones can runShanahan stuff and actually
(38:26):
little known fact, he wasinfatuated with mac jones but he
just didn't have the draftcapital to get him the year that
he was drafted.
But it was.
It's still probably going to bevery conservative to start.
So cmc owners great, butanybody else not great.
Devin hn looked pretty good inhis opening week, but the
(38:48):
Dolphins are an absolute mess.
They have a coach that couldn'tlight up a Bic lighter, never
mind a team, and so much talent.
So if guys start not caring orguys get hurt and don't want to
rush back, if you have a guy onyour bench that's a dud and
Ollie Gordon is available on thewire, I highly recommend
(39:11):
stashing him, just in case youknow.
Justin Fields lookedcomfortable.
I guess you could say he hadsome designed runs, he shot some
plays off the play action andhe has a coordinator who gets
how to use him.
So if you drafted him, like Itold you to wait on quarterback,
(39:32):
that was the plan all along.
Don't get cute.
Hold tight on him.
The best is yet to come.
Okay, now let's slide over tothe batting corner.
Last week we went one for two.
San Fran cashed.
They did everything in theirpower to give the game away, but
they cashed.
Atlanta coughed it up late andCarolina showed that they
(39:56):
couldn't stop a nosebleed, toquote Bart Scott.
So we're in the red early, butit's a long season.
Here's what I've got circledthis week.
First on the list Cowboys minus4.5 against the Giants.
I know, I know Giant fans takea deep breath.
I'm sorry to go against you,but Dallas has owned you in this
(40:20):
matchup for about a decade andthe numbers back it up,
especially in Jerry World.
So until New York can provethat they can stop CD and avoid
third and forever, I'm layingthe number Next Chiefs plus one
and a half at home.
Or just take the money line.
(40:40):
If you want even money, that'sfine too.
Look, they looked flat onnational television.
They traveled all the way toBrazil.
They got clowned all offseasonabout the Super Bowl.
Tay-tay will probably be in thebuilding, will definitely be in
the building.
This is the spot where AndyReid and Mahomes tend to answer
the bell, and it's rare you getKansas City as a home dog.
(41:01):
Yeah, I'll bite on that.
I'll even throw in a Kelseytouchdown.
Last on the list Cardinals minus6.5.
Hosting the Panthers Cardinalscan move the ball, sure, but
they can't stop the run.
Travis Etienne did whatever hewanted last week.
So Arizona's combo of JamesConner and Kyler Murray on
(41:23):
keepers, with Trey McBriderunning up the seam, is just a
flat-out bad matchup and a frontthat leaks chunk yardage, not
to mention Carolina's on theroad back-to-back weeks.
So look, if you're squeamish,buy it down to 5.5.
They win by a touchdown,whatever, but I honestly believe
that they run away with thisgame.
(41:44):
So, if you're feeling spicy,that is carolina minus six and a
half, that is chiefs plus oneand a half and that is cowboys
minus four and a half.
All in a parlay, that's plus584.
Now, because we all have a fewdollars that we don't know what
to do within the account, I gotthe lot.
(42:06):
I'll take it for you, boysready.
Jets money line plus 250.
Bears money line plus 220.
Saints money line plus 136.
That is roughly plus 2543.
Turn 15 bucks into 300 for thechaos, gods right.
Look, the Jets always play theBills hard, especially at home.
(42:26):
Buffalo is coming off ahard-fought comeback win Sunday
night against a bruising teamwith a mobile quarterback and a
bruising running back.
Well, now they face threestrong running backs and a
new-look mobile quarterback.
This has trap game written allover it for Buffalo Bears over
the Lions.
Look, lions lost bothcoordinators that look to maybe
(42:48):
be solid head coaches and theiroffense looked lost and their
defense looked.
Even worse Could happen.
Bears can pull up a divisionupset, no problem.
Lastly, saints over the Ninersis strictly based on the line.
The books are giving us Plus136 for a team that's projected
to finish dead last against ateam that was in the Super Bowl
two years ago, startingquarterback or not.
(43:11):
That line tells me that thebooks don't want to lose much on
the Saints and they are beggingyou to take the Niners this
week.
Last but not least, I asked youguys to send in some questions
or topics to cover on thisweek's episode, and I got
flooded with responses, so muchso that this will now be a
recurring segment every week.
(43:32):
That's how much you guys pouredin stuff.
So let's shove our hand in thismailbag, swirl it around a
little bit and let's see what wecan pull out.
First up, we have Tooch at thebar.
He says simply Kyle Schwarberis the NL MVP.
You know what?
(43:54):
I get it, and I'm close toagreeing with you.
Look, 50 homers and the onlyguy ever with a four home run
game and a 50 home run season inthe same year, all while
hitting under 250.
It's pretty impressive, to behonest with you, and he's been
the heartbeat that this teamneeded.
(44:14):
Even more so when Bryce wentout for a little bit.
The curtain call with the 50Schwab bombs on the board told
you everything you need to knowabout his value to this
clubhouse.
Otani is the perpetual favorite, for obvious reasons, in the NL
, but if you're weighing mostvaluable to this contender right
(44:38):
now, schwab absolutely has acase and, honestly, he's got my
vote Okay.
Next up, we got Cap in Salt LakeCity.
Cap asks is it too early to beall in on Ja'Cory Krosky
Merritt's fantasy production?
Well, it's never too early tobet on a good role in a good
(45:02):
design, right?
So Washington's run game isreal.
They run multiple concepts,pistol looks.
I mean he ripped off a bunch ofbig chunk plays on a whole
bunch of different designs.
But it's important to be honestwith yourself about the
timeshare math too.
Jaden Daniels will stealcarries in the green zone,
(45:24):
that's, between the 40 and the30, not the red zone and Austin
Eckler will definitely vacuum uppast targets when they trail in
games.
So, all in, I don't know mystance would be flex maybe an
RB2 in weeks when Washington isfavored against a shitty
opponent.
But look, if someone wants topay you like you got to belk out
(45:46):
, hear them out, if not, stashand deploy them when necessary,
all right.
Last one here we got Rob in K-10.
He closes it out for us.
He says which rookies finishnumber one in fantasy by year
end quarterback, running max,wide receiver, tight ends.
(46:09):
So I'm not sure if he's askingof the rookie class which
position will do better or whichrookie in each class will do
the best, but more than likelyrunning backs as a class will do
better, just because of thesheer volume of good ones that
(46:31):
came out this year betweenAshton Janty, rj, harvey,
travion, henderson, omarion,hampton, hell, even guys like
Cam Scadabo and Ollie Gordon ifDavid A Chan gets hurt.
I mean the wide receivers thatcame out have some talent too.
You know I've been preachingthem all year.
I'm really high on TetratoaMcMillan, but just on sheer
(46:54):
volume, if we're going to go asa class, the running back should
dominate this year.
No doubt class, the runningback, should dominate this year.
No doubt Now, if I had to pickone out of the class, let's go
with Omarion Hampton by a nose.
The Chargers used him not like arookie, got 80% of snaps with
(47:14):
15 carries, he ran routes and hewas in on pass protection.
Harbaugh's trust is thecurrency that you want to use
when you're evaluating usage.
All right, that's the trio thefantasy sanity to help you win
your league, the week two cardto help you beat the books, and
(47:37):
the mailbag for you to take partin the show.
If you want in on the mailbagfor you to take part in the show
, if you want in on the mailbagnext week, or you want your vote
to be counted in the polls thatI run, hop over on the
Instagram.
Every week, we do a Wednesdaymic check Polls sliders.
I throw a quiz in there just tokeep you on your toes.
Like it's high school Plenty ofdishes that we didn't get to
(48:00):
plate tonight.
That's the kitchen life,unfortunately, but we are open
every week, so swing back andsample the rest next week.
For now, though, let's box upthe leftovers and I will bring
you the check.
Make sure to tip your waiter.
Okay, that's going to do it forepisode 30.
(48:30):
Today we got a little messy inthe best way.
We started with the GiantsDable doubling down on Russ, the
neighbor sideline moment andwhat that actually meant and the
very real possibility you guysare playing with fire in Dallas.
Then we swung it over to theJets Fields looking like the guy
(48:51):
that Chicago was promisedsauce's new travel plan, the
accountability under Aaron Glennyes, my personal walk of shame
to 0-18, lifetime in thatbuilding.
We took a moment to recognize9-11 and what baseball meant
(49:11):
during that time, from Piazza'sswing to President Bush piping
one down the middle.
And then we got back to themodern reality the Yankees'
bullpen melting down twice, theVolpe-Labrum news and the way
the whole thing had been handled.
Mets getting broomed in Phillywhile Schwarber parked number 50
(49:32):
.
But still some hope for theyoung kids.
We mix in your Mic.
Check Wednesday results.
You're mostly in on fields.
Uh, met fans live at defcon onebased upon the panic slider,
and you're semi-cautious onjackson dart but also want to
see him get in the game.
Lastly, we finished up withsome fantasy football talk.
(49:55):
Buy lows, sell highs.
Streamers, that won't make youhate yourself.
Laid down the gambling card forweek, two cowboys minus four
and a half chiefs at home cardson the ground.
And then we finished the showwith a quick mailbag schwarber
for mvp, how to treat krosky,merit and fantasy, and why this
(50:16):
rookie running back class isgoing to be a weekly headache in
a good way.
If you made it this far, do me asolid.
Follow the show on socials.
It's going to be at Rice on theRadio and make sure you jump
into the Wednesday Mic Checks.
It's a great way to participatein the show every week.
Rate and review the pod onApple or Spotify wherever you
(50:37):
listen.
Hit, subscribe, share it withthat one friend who screams at
the TV like you do.
Rate and review the pod on Appleor Spotify wherever you listen.
Hit, subscribe, share it withthat one friend who screams at
the TV Like you do.
It literally takes you twoclicks, but it helps me
exponentially.
Last but not least, make sureyou tune in and catch me
Saturday mornings with my buddyNikki at wolves of wisdom.
(50:58):
We go live on IG and if you'reinto college football, he's the
guy to listen to to make wolvesof wisdom.
We go live on IG and if you'reinto college football, he's the
guy to listen to to make yousome money.
We'll set your weekend card andwe'll do our best to beat the
books, as always.
Spread good energy in thisworld and tell someone you love
I'm being rice, this has beenrice on the mics and I'll catch
(51:18):
you guys next week.
I guess there's only one way to find out.
Let's do it to it right.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0.
All engines running.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
(00:23):
oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
Episode 30.
Kind of wild, we're herealready If you've been rocking
(00:45):
with me from the jump.
Thank you so much.
If you're new, welcome to themost honest group chat on the
internet, Served hot and ready.
Tonight's spread.
We're starting local with theJets and Giants Doing a quick
tasting of week one around theleague, then plating up New York
baseball with a moment thatthis city never forgets, and for
(01:07):
dessert, fantasy, the bettingcard and a three-bite mailbag.
No empty calories today, Ipromise, first course, jetsies.
Justin Field looked like theversion Chicago was promised and
that Pittsburgh never figuredout.
Decisive, dangerous and, mostimportant, low on self-inflicted
(01:27):
nonsense.
The Jets cook to theirstrengths Designed runs,
balanced bases, fewer third andlong burnt ends.
189 yards on the ground.
That's a base that you canbuild an entire menu on and, yes
, the kitchen's accountabilityis real.
Xavier Gibson fumbles a kickoff.
He's cut by Wednesday.
The fans showed up.
Hand flags drowned out theterrible towels.
(01:49):
The vibe was beautiful, giants.
Well, they're still in the oven.
Brian Dayball says RussellWilson remains QB1.
Jackson Dart stays on thetasting menu for now.
Malik Naver's sideline momentCompetitive fire with cameras in
his face.
Then he goes 5 for 71 on 12targets.
Dallas is next and historicallythat's not comfort food for Big
(02:11):
Blue.
Quick week, one tasting flight.
Josh Allen did a fourth quarterCPR on the Ravens and the Bills
stole one.
Micah Parsons in green changedthe temperature in Green Bay
instantly.
Jj McCarthy's second half rallyin Chicago and Brock Purdy
looks to We'll be right back.
Would have needed it the most.
Now the rant Yankees twostraight bullpen catastrophes
(02:46):
and then Detroit hung 11 on them, and the headline is Anthony
Volpe.
Boone went from day-to-day to asmall labrum tear.
That's not development, that'sovercooking the sauce.
As for the Mets, the Philliesturned the burner to high Kepler
with five ribbies, badercontinues to crush, harper goes
yard, christopher Sanchez is incontrol and the panic meter for
(03:10):
the Mets slider hit north of 75%Soto's still smoking, but the
schedule is a gauntlet.
And for dessert, well, fantasyowners buy lows and sell highs.
You can actually pull off thebetting card.
I'm honest about last week'srecord and still cooking.
Three plays and a mailbag.
Three smart questions, quickbites, a couple of promises
before we plate the rest of this.
(03:30):
This is a bar conversation, nota book report.
We get into smart coachingcalls, usage that actually
matters and vibes you can feelfrom the 300 section Save the
performative hot take flambe forsomebody else's timeline.
Hundred section Save theperformative hot take flambe for
somebody else's timeline.
If you haven't yet follow,subscribe and jump in on the
Wednesday mic check on Instagram.
(03:50):
Your vote's literally seizingthe show.
Okay, aprons on fields firstday, bowl.
Next, grip around week one.
Then we hit baseball and westart with a moment the city
never forgets.
This is episode 30 of Rice onthe Mics.
I am Ian Rice.
Let's cook Liftoff and theclock has started.
(04:26):
Tranquility Base here.
The Eagle has landed.
Alright, let's talk NFL, and I'mstarting with the Giants this
week, because they have way morerant energy than the Jets.
The Giants rolled into Landoverand basically re-ran last
year's worst episodes 21-6, 231total yards and two separate
(04:48):
goal-to-go possessions thatturned into vibes and field
goals First and goal at the one.
Nothing First and goal at thethree late.
Four straight incompletions.
You could almost hear BrianDayball's headset cooking on his
ears.
Russell Wilson looked every bitlike a QB in a blender too 17
(05:10):
for 37 on 168 with no touchdowns, and when Washington heated him
up it got ugly quick.
Goes two for 12 under pressure,two sacks, a couple scrambles
that led nowhere, no rhythmwhatsoever.
And yet Monday comes andDayball doesn't even blink.
Quote no, russ will be thestarter.
(05:31):
Not hedging, not hinting, justflat out.
He's our guy.
He spread the blame too.
Coaching plan executioneverybody took a slice Not
really what you want out of yourhead coach.
It was me, it was me, it was meright.
And look, I get why the JacksonDart talk is humming.
(05:54):
We literally asked you to getthe pulse of the people to see
how much dart you wanted thisupcoming week, and most of you
said second half of gettingblown out, chunky.
You voted.
They wanted a few scripteddrives but almost nobody wanted
the full-on coup, and that'sfair.
But you know, if Jackson goesin second half and they're
(06:20):
getting blown out and all of asudden he looks all right and
throws for a touchdown pass ortwo, it's only going to fuel the
fire more of if he should startor not.
The Alex Smith to Mahomesblueprint that everyone loves to
reference worked because Alexactually mentored the kid.
He saw the forest through thetrees.
(06:41):
Yeah, he was playing hard, buthe still knew that his time was
going to come and he taught thekid the winning way while he did
the damn thing on the field.
So is Russ that guy right now,while he's chasing maybe his
last chapter in his career, hislast run in New York?
The jury's out.
(07:02):
Maybe he likes the kid, maybehe doesn't.
The jury's out.
Maybe he likes the kid, maybehe doesn't.
But the funny thing that no onereally talks about is the vet
who vibed the most with dart wasjamis, not russ.
So file that in the books asdrama incoming.
And speaking of drama, thesideline moment between
Neighbors and Dayball played soloud on TV, visibly frustrated,
(07:28):
and then Dayball goes for a dapin between a timeout, neighbors
doesn't sell it, and then itturns into a meme.
I mean, I literally saw thislast year with Sala and Rodgers
and now the entire organizationis new Neighbors downplayed it
after the fact said the camerasjust found him and said he has
(07:50):
to be more conscious of hisnatural, resting bitch face
those are his words, by the wayand that he's more annoyed with
himself about his targets andhis film.
I mean he had 12 looks hecaught five for 71.
I guess he dropped a bunch,said he admitted the tape made
him sick to for 71.
I guess he dropped a bunch,said he admitted the tape made
him sick to his stomach.
And look, he's been dealingwith a back since the summer but
(08:10):
he's fine, he's practicing,he's good to go.
The bigger issue is what comesnext, and that would be how
about them?
Cowboys?
Dallas Going into Jerry Worldhas been a nightmare, been a
terrible, recurring nightmarefor the last decade.
(08:31):
For the Giants there'shistorical context too 16-4 over
the last decade and honestly,most of those wins are because
of Eli.
The problem Giant fans shouldbe more worried about but is
getting swept under the rug bythe jackson dar stuff is the
injury to micah mcfadden's foot.
He's having surgery and isgoing to be quote out a
(08:52):
significant time.
So what happens in steps?
Darius mayasu yeah, tell me ifyou heard that name before.
What happens during thewashington game?
They immediately found himright over the middle.
Jaden Daniels Zach Ertz to atouchdown when he's supposed to
be covering him.
That's not a coaching pointproblem, that's a personnel
(09:14):
shift problem, and opponents aregoing to just keep chasing you
on that until you slam the doorshut and I'll look.
I'll give Washington somecredit too.
This wasn't just the Giants arebad.
The commander's run game lookedlegitimately multiple and mean.
Debo Samuel in Burgundy is aproblem and rookie Jacory Krosky
(09:36):
, aka Bill, looked completelycomfortable doing whatever he
wanted.
Ripped off explosive runs onfive different sets and Jaden
Daniels bailed him out on secondand forevers like it was a
walkthrough practice.
Add in Dan Quinn stoning.
Two red zone trips.
That's identity.
That's showing up after whatPhilly did to them last year on
(09:57):
the touch push in January.
If you're Giants, the fix isboring but simple.
Get out of the third and longbusiness on offense.
Have an actual red zone planthat isn't just hero ball, and
figure out how you're going tosurvive off ball without
McFadden before Dallas, whodoesn't really have a running
(10:20):
game, rings your bell and hopeto God that Andrew Thomas can
suit up sooner rather than later, because he really is just the
full linchpin in this offensiveline from the blue to the green.
The jets, jets, jets.
Yes, unfortunately my streaklives on.
(10:41):
I am now 0-18 lifetime watchingthe Jets in person.
I should probably be on a watchlist at this point, but I will
say, this time at least thereseems to be a blueprint and
honestly, I can't remember thelast time I saw the Jets score
30 points.
Justin Fields played grown-upfootball.
(11:04):
The box line is clean to 16 of22, 218 yards.
Touchdown, no picks, 12 rushesfor 48, ran one in himself.
But what mattered was whatwasn't there in the box score.
No reckless sacks trying toplay hero.
(11:25):
No, hold the ball for fourseconds and try to invent a
window which, by the way,honestly he could have if he
wanted to, because the offensiveline looked stellar.
And rookie Armand Membo, whowas the highest graded tackle on
pass protection for week one.
That looks good.
(11:46):
But Tanner Angstrom, oc for theJets, called a great game.
Jets ran the ball on about 58%of their snaps.
That's roughly 21% over whatyou'd expect given their down
and distance, and they keptfields out of the booby traps.
His average third down game wasfour, four point five yards.
That's.
(12:07):
That's how you defang a passrush like pittsburgh's and let
your qb live in the easy stuff,live in the high life, even
without avt.
The opening play set at allmotion the tight ends at a right
hold, tj want zone the otherway, let brie sa hall hit the
cutback for 18 yards.
Not just copy the concept yousaw on twitter, but actual
(12:30):
misdirection to mess with thebaddest dude on the field.
Breeze looked like breeze to 19for 107.
Isaiah davis had a burst,braylon allen felt found pay
dirt and field still left.
A couple reads out.
There was a couple times hepulled the ball when he should
have given it off.
So it's encouraging because thebaseline felt controlled
(12:53):
Defensively.
This was Sauce Gardner's firsttrue quote-unquote travel game.
So what do I mean by that?
He shot out DK Metcalf, thePackers, the Steelers, best
receiver on 30 of 34 pass playsand he held him to nothing but
like a goofy pinball deflectionin the final minutes.
(13:14):
And he tackled with realurgency in the run scheme, which
is something that Jet fansreally criticized him on all
last year, and it was warrantedtoo.
But it also shows thedifference in scheme.
Look, if you're going to shadowthe number one wide receiver
most of the time, they aren'tgoing to run that way, if you
get stuck on one side of thefield and the offense sees you
(13:37):
aren't the best tackler, guesswhat any good offensive
coordinator is going to do?
They're going to put their bestrun blocker on that side and
send the running back your way.
Aaron Glenn called itoutstanding and said we'll see
again when the matchup calls forit.
Aka, it's probably going tohappen every week.
(13:57):
And you guys were split on thepoll too.
Half of you wanted sauce islandall game and the other half
wanted you to mix it in week toweek.
That's probably where they land.
To be honest, build it into theplan and don't just staple it
blindly.
But the part that showed a truechanging of the guard with this
Jets franchise was XavierGibson's kickoff fumble, first
(14:21):
turnover of the game.
Steelers recover.
Two plays later, rodgers hitsCalvin Austin and the Jets cough
up the lead in a two-point loss.
Right, gibson was the darlingon hard knocks and returned the
punt to win week one againstBuffalo after that Rodgers
disaster.
But this isn't Salah or JoeDavis.
Aaron Glenn talked aboutaccountability all offseason and
(14:43):
flat out said you will not beon this team if you are going to
cause us to lose games.
Well, wednesday comes around.
Gibson was cut, isaiah Williamswas signed Look, it's brutal,
but that's the business side ofthe game.
But it also showed themessaging of the head coach
holds weight.
To quote Herm Edwards you playto win the game.
(15:10):
Sorry for the kid, but I'mhappy for my franchise.
And I also got to give thebuilding a little love too.
Yes, that refrigerator, thatair conditioning unit, that
MetLife piece of trash stadium,I got to give it a little bit of
love.
They handed out green and whiteflags to everyone who entered
the stadium and you know,steeler fans travel with those
(15:31):
yellow towels like passports.
So what did they do?
They handed out a wall of greenand white to drown it out and
the fan base was in Waved themall game.
Even the lady next to me askedif she could borrow mine so she
could wave two at a time.
The building was filled with alot of Steeler fans and the
(15:53):
chance of let's go Steelers downthe steps on the way out was
mind-numbing to say the least.
But the fans that did show up,that didn't sell their tickets,
they were in-house and theyloved rooting for this new look
jets.
Now, if you're wondering howmuch of aaron rogers stealer
debut is sustainable.
Well, he did throw for fourtouchdowns and everybody lost
(16:18):
their mind and it's the jetsrevenge game and he was a real
prick in the postgame saying itwas real nice to beat the entire
Jets organization.
But let's zoom in a little biton that performance.
Right, he did say midweek hisback was tight and he didn't
move well, well, yeah, he walkedhimself into two sacks and
(16:39):
there was a lot of yards afterthe catch plus a short field
after Gibson fumble.
There was no throws of 20-plusyards downfield.
So really functional, notvintage, right, and that's not a
diss, even though I did boo thehell out of him.
That's not a diss In thatoffense.
Functional wins that's whatMike Tomlin has been doing for
(17:01):
years.
That's what he will alwayscontinue to do, but it's not a
time machine for Rodgers either.
That's what Mike Tomlin hasbeen doing for years.
That's what he will alwayscontinue to do, but it's not a
time machine for Rodgers either.
So the big picture for the Jets,the thing that was real was the
run game and the intent behindit.
The thing that's not reallyreal, at least not yet, is
crowning Rodgers off of a statline.
(17:21):
Keep insulating fields, keepbuilding play, action and
movement menu and keep lettingsauce erase receiver problems.
You can win like that.
And look, I'm going to be alittle Jets home here.
They always play the Bills welland the Bills are coming off an
exhausting victory on Sundaynight against a bruiser team in
(17:41):
the Ravens.
I wouldn't be surprised if theJets pull off the upset at home.
But anyway, let's do a quickrip around the league before we
pivot.
Just to cover some things.
Monday night JJ McCarthy flippedhis debut from yikes to yup in
one quarter.
Kevin O'Connell told him athalftime you're going to bring
(18:03):
us back from this.
And he did Two touchdowns and akeeper himself.
Late the Vikings slipped pastthe Bears.
Fun fact for JJ he's only lostfour games in his football
career since he was 14 years old.
I mean, the kid won a nationalchampionship at Michigan and
then set out for a year to learn.
It's only one game, but thereturns on this young prospect
(18:26):
look great early.
As for Cale Williams, he hadmoments, but Chicago had a lot
of penalties that didn't helphim out.
I do still think that him andBen Johnson can be electric when
they figure it out, but youbetter hope it's sooner rather
than later.
Bears fans are the Jets of theNFC.
Now Bills and Ravens wasabsolutely unhinged 41-40.
(18:53):
Josh Allen basically put thefranchise on his back for the
entire fourth quarter.
Three scoring drives in amatter of four minutes, matt
Prater walks it off andBaltimore somehow becomes the
first team ever to lose, whilescoring 40 points and rushing
for 235 yards.
That's crazy.
(19:13):
And Lamar was sharp and DerrickHenry looked good too.
Looked like a runaway trainthat he is.
People that they had 169 yardsand two touchdowns combined.
The late fumble flipped thewhole script.
Hold on to the damn ball right.
The building wanted a storybooksend-off and they got theater
(19:36):
instead.
As for this week's Thursdaynight game Washington at Green
Bay well again, the commander'srun game is legit and Jaden
Daniels doesn't sweat long downthe distance, he's not afraid of
the moment.
But Lambeau at night with thePackers front, that's a
different kitchen man.
Plus, they're on back-to-backhome games and Washington
(19:57):
travels all over the country.
Our pick-and-pull leanedPackers minus three and a half,
and if I was going to bet thegame I'd probably be riding
there with you.
So that's the NFL plate.
The Giants need answers andpatience.
In that order.
The Jets finally have a plan.
(20:17):
Now they just need closing time.
Cleanse the palate.
After the break we'll head tobaseball, and before we yell
about both locals, we're goingto take a minute to remember why
this sport matters here.
Piazza swing george w's paintin the black with that first
pitch, and then we'll get intothe rants about the teams.
(20:38):
Stay tight, let's grab a breathand set the table for baseball
with something that still hitsyou in the chest this week
always does.
Baseball didn't fix anythingafter 9-11, but it gave New York
(21:02):
a heartbeat again.
Mike Piazza's swing that nightdidn't just leave Shea.
It lifted an entire city, everyplayer wearing NYPD and FDNY
caps, president Bush walking outthere in front of 40,000 people
and an entire nation watching,delivering a strike right down
(21:24):
the middle on the first pitch.
I still get goosebumps andstill get emotional talking
about it.
That game brought everyonetogether, regardless of what
team you rooted for that night,and it gave the city the boost
that it needed at the time.
It's a day that will never beforgotten in history and
(21:48):
definitely deserves a moment ofgratitude before we dive into
the mess of what's happeningright now.
Thank you to all those outthere who threw their own safety
away to put safety of othersfirst, and God bless, the
families that were and still areaffected by the tragedy of 9-11
(22:08):
.
Okay, so not the easiest topicto transition from.
But we start with the yankeesfirst here, because we just
watched the full roller coasteron the weekend.
They quietly did grown-upthings against Toronto, while
the NFL sucked the oxygen out ofthe room.
(22:30):
They took two or three.
Cody Bellinger uncorked a95-mile-per-hour laser from
right to hose Bobachet In amonsoon.
Nonetheless, luis Hill gave yousix strong and David Bednar got
you four out Saturday, thenclosed again on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the captain playingright field again stole a run
(22:54):
with that full layout catch onSpringer, swiped a bag, scored
on Belly's double, clogged upthe bases, drawing three walks
and a partridge in the pear tree.
That's what you're looking forand that's how you close within
two games in the division andremind everyone the lights
aren't too bright, right, right,well, no, because this team
(23:19):
cannot ever let you breathe.
Detroit came in and put a ninespot on their heads.
In the seventh inning they had14 batters reach plate, with the
first nine all reaching base.
That was just one inning 12-2in a blink of an eye.
Fernando Cruz couldn't buy azone and Mark Leiter Jr followed
(23:43):
with a wild pitch and a bruiseparade.
Mark Leiter Jr followed with awild pitch and a bruise parade.
So that clean, tight, nice andeasy game turned into a blooper
reel in about five minutes.
And that wasn't one bad nighteither.
Since August 1st, the bullpenera has been over five.
You felt it and so did they.
(24:07):
But now the vulpy part, whichis the kind of thing that turns
this rant into a referendum.
All year they have given Volpea rope that none of us could
understand.
Well, now we come to find outthat Volpe has been trying to
play through a small tear in hislabrum all season.
That was discovered in May, may.
(24:30):
Aaron Boone says they're goingday-to-day at shortstop and he's
going to try to play through it.
Well, he needed cortisone shotsat the break and then again
this week after he aggravated iton Sunday.
Boone just continues to insistthat it isn't a major factor and
they want him to play throughit and he'll tough it out if he
(24:51):
can handle it.
Well, I got news for you, man.
I'm not even a Yankee fan, butmy eyes and the box score.
They show a 206 batting averageand a 268 OPS.
I got strikeouts piling up andI got a defensive gold glove
shortstop slipping into negativeplays.
I am not here to question thekids' toughness.
(25:14):
This is on the adults in theroom.
Athletes will always, always,always, always tell you that
they are good to go and theywant to play.
You will have to fight to takethem out.
Part of being a good manager isprotecting the player from
himself.
If he's hurt, sit him.
(25:37):
If he needs a rest, give him areal one.
No, don't grind him into thedust in front of 40,000 people
every night and the boo birdsare relentless, to the point
where his father, who's in thestands, has to defend his own
son.
And then you wonder why helooks like he has zero
confidence at the plate and he'sgot yips in the field.
(26:00):
Look, I'll give credit.
They traded for Jose Caballeroand he's handled short cleanly
and he definitely brings adifferent kind of spark.
You know stolen bases, speed onthe bags, but the bigger
picture here is organizationalProtect your players.
(26:21):
This is borderline franchisemalpractice for a prospect that
was touted to be the nextcornerstone of your franchise
behind Judge, and I'm sorry,unless a miracle happens, the
Yankees probably aren't winningthe World Series this year, so
then he'll have off-seasonsurgery to which he'll come back
to even more pressure of well,now that he's healthy, we expect
(26:44):
him to pick up where he leftoff, and yada, yada, yada.
And now, if he doesn't it, it'sworse and the organization is
under even more pressure becausethis is yet another year that
you've wasted of judge's careeragain.
I don't want to seem like I'mpiling on the Yankees here,
because there is plenty to geton about the Mets, but this is
(27:10):
an absolute mess right now.
And speaking of the Mets, let'sjust dive right into it.
Let's flip to Queens.
I've got a bone to pick.
And the panic meter slider.
You all filled out, came backnorth of 75%, so you guys tend
to agree with me.
All filled out came back northof 75 percent, so you guys tend
to agree with me.
(27:30):
The Phillies are now 12 up inthe division after getting swept
in the last four game seriesthey had, and every game was a
mess.
Do you realize?
The Mets had a seven game leadon the Phillies in this division
.
At one point, schwarber hitsnumber 50.
Ranger Suarez punched out 12 insix or five and two thirds,
whatever it was.
Game three turned into the MaxKepler showcase drives in five
(27:53):
ribbies, while Bryce Harper hasa souvenir to it in deep, deep
right field and look, soto isdoing hero stuff right.
Three knocks number 39 into theright field seats, but one bat
can't stop a flood and theconfidence in this team couldn't
be any lower, with all the keyguys slumping.
(28:13):
If you want a microcosm of thisweek, clay Holmes took the loss
in that third game, gets chargedwith four and then the bullpen,
the parade, comes in behind himand they didn't stop the
bleeding at all.
In fact they made it way worse.
And this is on the heels ofgetting nicked in Cincy, who
you're fighting off with a stickfor the last wild card, where
(28:36):
Brandon Sprote, in his debut,gets called up and does a no-no
through six innings and he stilltook the loss because Hunter
Green is apparently untouchableto this Mets lineup.
That's the season in twosentences.
Right there, flashes of whatyou want to be and no margin for
error when the other guy isjust better.
But I will say this, and I'vebeen consistent, you can go back
(29:03):
and listen the kids are realand it is always, always better
to be in the party fighting notto be kicked out than outside of
the party fighting to get in ifthey can dig deep and win
enough games and stave off thereds and the giants who just you
(29:23):
know yeah, we trade, you getdrew gilbert.
Now you're a fucking playoffteam.
This playoff rotation and rosterfor that matter, will look much
different than it is now.
Nolan McLean has shown up withthat ridiculous frisbee sweeper
and has pushed his way to thefront of this rotation.
Jonah Tong is doing his bestTim Lincecum impression and also
(29:46):
has elite stuff based on hismetrics at only 6'1".
Sprote, who was the highesttouted of the three and he
showed it in his debut, justneeds the reps.
The poll that I ran this weekwas who do you trust the most?
And McLean got the nod.
And I get it.
The floor looks the highestthere right now.
Tong's funk plays and andsproat ceiling is loud.
(30:09):
But yes, the schedule is mean.
It's a bear to be quite honest.
You start off with texas, withdegrom making his city field
return.
That should be awesome.
Kind of wish I had tickets forthat.
Then you got the padres, whohave always seemed to have our
number, followed by the Nats,who always turn into the mid-90s
(30:33):
Braves against the Mets for Godknows what reason, and then, to
close the season.
You're at the Cubs and at theMarlins, who would love nothing
more than to play spoiler to theMets.
You want a direction.
You got one.
It's not painless, in fact it'sgoing to be really hard, but if
(30:55):
you're planning on making anynoise in the postseason
whatsoever, the road isn't goingto be, nor is it supposed to be
easy.
Let this be the stretch theyfind themselves and actually man
up if and I say if becauseright now I'm losing confidence
they will, but if they make theplayoffs, one thing I can
(31:19):
guarantee is we would have beenhot leading up to it and we will
for sure not be the team thatanyone wants to play come
postseason time.
We'll cap off this segment witha couple stories from around the
league.
Two quick ones while we got thestove on.
You know, in seattle themariners just detonated the
(31:39):
braves 18 to 2 with 20 hits.
God, how the mighty have fallen.
Speaking of 90 braves, calRiley is at 53 home runs, one
shy of Mickey Mantle's switchhit record, with AUNEO Suarez
having 45 in the same lineup,and they're back in the wild
card window with Luis Castilloshoving on the hill.
(32:00):
That's a lineup and a rotationyou do not want to run into in
the playoffs, especially ifyou're nursing a bullpen Yankees
and everybody's favoritemustache, paul Skeens, crossed
200 strikeouts and somehowneeded only 64 pitches to get
through five scoreless inBaltimore.
(32:21):
They are dialing back usage toland the plane now, but a 1.92
ERA over 178 big league inningsin your first full season is
cartoonish.
Sub 2 ERA.
Ask me what his record is?
Go ahead, ask me Ready.
(32:41):
He currently sits at 9-10 witha boatload of no decisions.
He currently sits at 9-10 witha boatload of no decisions.
He is a shoo-in to win the NLCy Young, but as soon as his
deal is up, goddammit, he'sgoing to.
I'm going to hate to say this.
He's going to look great inpinstripes.
He's going to be a Yankee.
I can almost guarantee you.
He's 23 and he already lookslike the adult in the room.
(33:07):
To recap for the Yankees it's a,it's a triage and honestly, get
the bullpen synced.
Be smart with Volpe ride, judge.
While he's in this everythingmatters mode, do what you can to
win games.
Hopefully you win the division.
You could honestly flounderfrom being the number one seed
in the al to the third wild card, which is crazy to think about.
(33:28):
And for the mets, it issurvival mode, with a pulse
squeeze every off day.
Lean into the youth that hasrevitalized this franchise and
just hope soto keeps breathingfire.
Focus on winning the game infront of you and not the guys
that are chasing you.
Alright, hydrate up After thebreak.
(33:52):
Fantasy.
Buy lows, sell highs.
Couple of waiver noodles thatwon't give you indigestion.
Then we will plate the week 2betting card and tear into the
mailbag this week.
Keep it right here.
It's our final segment of theshow and it's time for your
(34:21):
dessert.
And we kick it off with fantasythis week.
Week one is always a funhousemirror.
Everything looks bigger andweirder than it actually really
is.
So here's how I'm playing itthis week.
I'm going to be buying talentin roles that stick.
(34:42):
Aj Brown is the poster child.
One weird quiet outing andsuddenly people forget that he's
a 1400 yard machine.
If the AJ manager in yourleague is twitchy, make the call
and pull the trigger if thedeal is right.
Remember the answer is alwaysno until you ask.
(35:04):
Same idea with Kenneth Walkertoo.
The line wasn't pretty, but heled that backfield and Seattle
didn't draft him to just be adecoy.
I'll send out offers builtaround flexy-ish pieces who
popped off in week one.
Guys like Quentin Johnson, whohad a two-touchdown spike but
(35:27):
everybody knows he couldn'tcatch a cold in the winter, or
like a hot wide receiver four.
I trust Walker's role to growas he gets fully healthy and I'm
also kicking the tires onCalvin Ridley.
I was very, very high on himall draft season and I still
trust Cam Ward's arm.
He has a tough Denver draw weekone.
(35:48):
That won't be the script allyear.
Calvin Ridley is going toexplode and you're going to wish
that you got him on your team.
I'll throw in a speculative adon Harold Fannin in Cleveland
too.
Yeah, I know you never heardthat name before.
The Browns lived in 12personnel because mostly Joe
(36:10):
Flacco's a statue back there andthe double set, the rookie,
logged real routes with a legittarget share with David Njoku.
That's not normal for a firstyear tight end.
So if you lost George Kittle tothe IR for the next four, which
I'm sure most of you did Fanninmight be the stash here Now.
(36:34):
On the flip side, I'm notmarried to box score sugar highs
either.
Baker Mayfield's good week camewith a soft setup.
I will happily flip him for ahigher echelon quarterback if
anyone's overreacting.
Same thing goes for DanielJones too.
A big fantasy line against avery leaky defense.
(36:56):
Look, maybe he needs to get outof New York and maybe he turns
back into Danny Dimes, but I'mwilling to bet he levels out.
And he levels out to that guythat you offloaded for a solid
player and stuck him on somebodyelse's team, or he becomes the
streamer.
You pick up for a bi-weekreplacement and then it's no
(37:17):
harm, no foul, and I hate to saythis as much as I love the
player, brees Hall.
This Jets offense is going tokeep other backs involved, and
they showed you that week one.
Brees got a lot of yardage,sure.
He got a couple pass catches,sure.
But Isaiah Davis had some popand it was Braylon Allen who hit
(37:42):
pay dirt.
So if someone wants to payrunning back one prices off of
that opener, I'd be willing tolisten, especially if I'm light
at wide receiver.
This is the whole game afterweek one.
Everybody tries to make tradespost-draft, but you don't do
that.
You wait till week one.
You wait till those guys pop.
You buy the roles that you cantrust and you sell the lightning
(38:05):
in a bottle early.
A couple of streamy notes forthis week too, with Brock Purdy
out 3-5.
Temper expectations for anybodyon the Niners really, besides
CMC I mean Mack Jones can runShanahan stuff and actually
(38:26):
little known fact, he wasinfatuated with mac jones but he
just didn't have the draftcapital to get him the year that
he was drafted.
But it was.
It's still probably going to bevery conservative to start.
So cmc owners great, butanybody else not great.
Devin hn looked pretty good inhis opening week, but the
(38:48):
Dolphins are an absolute mess.
They have a coach that couldn'tlight up a Bic lighter, never
mind a team, and so much talent.
So if guys start not caring orguys get hurt and don't want to
rush back, if you have a guy onyour bench that's a dud and
Ollie Gordon is available on thewire, I highly recommend
(39:11):
stashing him, just in case youknow.
Justin Fields lookedcomfortable.
I guess you could say he hadsome designed runs, he shot some
plays off the play action andhe has a coordinator who gets
how to use him.
So if you drafted him, like Itold you to wait on quarterback,
(39:32):
that was the plan all along.
Don't get cute.
Hold tight on him.
The best is yet to come.
Okay, now let's slide over tothe batting corner.
Last week we went one for two.
San Fran cashed.
They did everything in theirpower to give the game away, but
they cashed.
Atlanta coughed it up late andCarolina showed that they
(39:56):
couldn't stop a nosebleed, toquote Bart Scott.
So we're in the red early, butit's a long season.
Here's what I've got circledthis week.
First on the list Cowboys minus4.5 against the Giants.
I know, I know Giant fans takea deep breath.
I'm sorry to go against you,but Dallas has owned you in this
(40:20):
matchup for about a decade andthe numbers back it up,
especially in Jerry World.
So until New York can provethat they can stop CD and avoid
third and forever, I'm layingthe number Next Chiefs plus one
and a half at home.
Or just take the money line.
(40:40):
If you want even money, that'sfine too.
Look, they looked flat onnational television.
They traveled all the way toBrazil.
They got clowned all offseasonabout the Super Bowl.
Tay-tay will probably be in thebuilding, will definitely be in
the building.
This is the spot where AndyReid and Mahomes tend to answer
the bell, and it's rare you getKansas City as a home dog.
(41:01):
Yeah, I'll bite on that.
I'll even throw in a Kelseytouchdown.
Last on the list Cardinals minus6.5.
Hosting the Panthers Cardinalscan move the ball, sure, but
they can't stop the run.
Travis Etienne did whatever hewanted last week.
So Arizona's combo of JamesConner and Kyler Murray on
(41:23):
keepers, with Trey McBriderunning up the seam, is just a
flat-out bad matchup and a frontthat leaks chunk yardage, not
to mention Carolina's on theroad back-to-back weeks.
So look, if you're squeamish,buy it down to 5.5.
They win by a touchdown,whatever, but I honestly believe
that they run away with thisgame.
(41:44):
So, if you're feeling spicy,that is carolina minus six and a
half, that is chiefs plus oneand a half and that is cowboys
minus four and a half.
All in a parlay, that's plus584.
Now, because we all have a fewdollars that we don't know what
to do within the account, I gotthe lot.
(42:06):
I'll take it for you, boysready.
Jets money line plus 250.
Bears money line plus 220.
Saints money line plus 136.
That is roughly plus 2543.
Turn 15 bucks into 300 for thechaos, gods right.
Look, the Jets always play theBills hard, especially at home.
(42:26):
Buffalo is coming off ahard-fought comeback win Sunday
night against a bruising teamwith a mobile quarterback and a
bruising running back.
Well, now they face threestrong running backs and a
new-look mobile quarterback.
This has trap game written allover it for Buffalo Bears over
the Lions.
Look, lions lost bothcoordinators that look to maybe
(42:48):
be solid head coaches and theiroffense looked lost and their
defense looked.
Even worse Could happen.
Bears can pull up a divisionupset, no problem.
Lastly, saints over the Ninersis strictly based on the line.
The books are giving us Plus136 for a team that's projected
to finish dead last against ateam that was in the Super Bowl
two years ago, startingquarterback or not.
(43:11):
That line tells me that thebooks don't want to lose much on
the Saints and they are beggingyou to take the Niners this
week.
Last but not least, I asked youguys to send in some questions
or topics to cover on thisweek's episode, and I got
flooded with responses, so muchso that this will now be a
recurring segment every week.
(43:32):
That's how much you guys pouredin stuff.
So let's shove our hand in thismailbag, swirl it around a
little bit and let's see what wecan pull out.
First up, we have Tooch at thebar.
He says simply Kyle Schwarberis the NL MVP.
You know what?
(43:54):
I get it, and I'm close toagreeing with you.
Look, 50 homers and the onlyguy ever with a four home run
game and a 50 home run season inthe same year, all while
hitting under 250.
It's pretty impressive, to behonest with you, and he's been
the heartbeat that this teamneeded.
(44:14):
Even more so when Bryce wentout for a little bit.
The curtain call with the 50Schwab bombs on the board told
you everything you need to knowabout his value to this
clubhouse.
Otani is the perpetual favorite, for obvious reasons, in the NL
, but if you're weighing mostvaluable to this contender right
(44:38):
now, schwab absolutely has acase and, honestly, he's got my
vote Okay.
Next up, we got Cap in Salt LakeCity.
Cap asks is it too early to beall in on Ja'Cory Krosky
Merritt's fantasy production?
Well, it's never too early tobet on a good role in a good
(45:02):
design, right?
So Washington's run game isreal.
They run multiple concepts,pistol looks.
I mean he ripped off a bunch ofbig chunk plays on a whole
bunch of different designs.
But it's important to be honestwith yourself about the
timeshare math too.
Jaden Daniels will stealcarries in the green zone,
(45:24):
that's, between the 40 and the30, not the red zone and Austin
Eckler will definitely vacuum uppast targets when they trail in
games.
So, all in, I don't know mystance would be flex maybe an
RB2 in weeks when Washington isfavored against a shitty
opponent.
But look, if someone wants topay you like you got to belk out
(45:46):
, hear them out, if not, stashand deploy them when necessary,
all right.
Last one here we got Rob in K-10.
He closes it out for us.
He says which rookies finishnumber one in fantasy by year
end quarterback, running max,wide receiver, tight ends.
(46:09):
So I'm not sure if he's askingof the rookie class which
position will do better or whichrookie in each class will do
the best, but more than likelyrunning backs as a class will do
better, just because of thesheer volume of good ones that
(46:31):
came out this year betweenAshton Janty, rj, harvey,
travion, henderson, omarion,hampton, hell, even guys like
Cam Scadabo and Ollie Gordon ifDavid A Chan gets hurt.
I mean the wide receivers thatcame out have some talent too.
You know I've been preachingthem all year.
I'm really high on TetratoaMcMillan, but just on sheer
(46:54):
volume, if we're going to go asa class, the running back should
dominate this year.
No doubt class, the runningback, should dominate this year.
No doubt Now, if I had to pickone out of the class, let's go
with Omarion Hampton by a nose.
The Chargers used him not like arookie, got 80% of snaps with
(47:14):
15 carries, he ran routes and hewas in on pass protection.
Harbaugh's trust is thecurrency that you want to use
when you're evaluating usage.
All right, that's the trio thefantasy sanity to help you win
your league, the week two cardto help you beat the books, and
(47:37):
the mailbag for you to take partin the show.
If you want in on the mailbagfor you to take part in the show
, if you want in on the mailbagnext week, or you want your vote
to be counted in the polls thatI run, hop over on the
Instagram.
Every week, we do a Wednesdaymic check Polls sliders.
I throw a quiz in there just tokeep you on your toes.
Like it's high school Plenty ofdishes that we didn't get to
(48:00):
plate tonight.
That's the kitchen life,unfortunately, but we are open
every week, so swing back andsample the rest next week.
For now, though, let's box upthe leftovers and I will bring
you the check.
Make sure to tip your waiter.
Okay, that's going to do it forepisode 30.
(48:30):
Today we got a little messy inthe best way.
We started with the GiantsDable doubling down on Russ, the
neighbor sideline moment andwhat that actually meant and the
very real possibility you guysare playing with fire in Dallas.
Then we swung it over to theJets Fields looking like the guy
(48:51):
that Chicago was promisedsauce's new travel plan, the
accountability under Aaron Glennyes, my personal walk of shame
to 0-18, lifetime in thatbuilding.
We took a moment to recognize9-11 and what baseball meant
(49:11):
during that time, from Piazza'sswing to President Bush piping
one down the middle.
And then we got back to themodern reality the Yankees'
bullpen melting down twice, theVolpe-Labrum news and the way
the whole thing had been handled.
Mets getting broomed in Phillywhile Schwarber parked number 50
(49:32):
.
But still some hope for theyoung kids.
We mix in your Mic.
Check Wednesday results.
You're mostly in on fields.
Uh, met fans live at defcon onebased upon the panic slider,
and you're semi-cautious onjackson dart but also want to
see him get in the game.
Lastly, we finished up withsome fantasy football talk.
(49:55):
Buy lows, sell highs.
Streamers, that won't make youhate yourself.
Laid down the gambling card forweek, two cowboys minus four
and a half chiefs at home cardson the ground.
And then we finished the showwith a quick mailbag schwarber
for mvp, how to treat krosky,merit and fantasy, and why this
(50:16):
rookie running back class isgoing to be a weekly headache in
a good way.
If you made it this far, do me asolid.
Follow the show on socials.
It's going to be at Rice on theRadio and make sure you jump
into the Wednesday Mic Checks.
It's a great way to participatein the show every week.
Rate and review the pod onApple or Spotify wherever you
(50:37):
listen.
Hit, subscribe, share it withthat one friend who screams at
the TV like you do.
Rate and review the pod on Appleor Spotify wherever you listen.
Hit, subscribe, share it withthat one friend who screams at
the TV Like you do.
It literally takes you twoclicks, but it helps me
exponentially.
Last but not least, make sureyou tune in and catch me
Saturday mornings with my buddyNikki at wolves of wisdom.
(50:58):
We go live on IG and if you'reinto college football, he's the
guy to listen to to make wolvesof wisdom.
We go live on IG and if you'reinto college football, he's the
guy to listen to to make yousome money.
We'll set your weekend card andwe'll do our best to beat the
books, as always.
Spread good energy in thisworld and tell someone you love
I'm being rice, this has beenrice on the mics and I'll catch
(51:18):
you guys next week.
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