Adam Rank Gives Fantasy Advice & New Safety Rules Discussion | 'The Insiders'

eastern. Have a good Nine more days until we see number one in action. What can we expect from Caleb Williams in his debut against the Titans? We'll tell you how the bears quarterback is progressing. Just seven days until the NFL takes Brazil by storm. Brian Baldinger is going to be there. He will show you what he's expecting from Jalen Hurts and the Eagles against the Packers. Also, if you haven't done your fantasy draft yet well you might be like the league with my high school friends. Everybody's quiet. Quitting the league actually might fold if not Adam Rank has a crash course for you to dominate your draft. How else would you want to start off a holiday weekend than with us? Welcome inside with the insiders alongside Judy Battista and Mike Garafolo. I am Tom Pelissero here at NFL network headquarters in Los Angeles, six days away now from kickoff in the NFL, it's the Ravens, it's the Chiefs. And when you get this close to a game guys, guess what? We've got actual injury updates that matter. Let's start out for Kansas City where it's not a surprise, but Hollywood Brown, according to coach Andy Reid, unlikely to play in the Chiefs opener. He suffered a collarbone injury, an AC joint sprain back in training camp. Expectation is he'll be back on the field sooner than later. But a big speed threat, they added. In the off season, more than likely not going to be out there for week one. Better news for the Baltimore Ravens, who for the first time since a car accident involving tight end Mark Andrews back on August 14th, had their star tight end on the field. So how are you feeling, Mark? Like I said, I feel really good. I'm excited. I'm excited for this game. It's a big game. The guys have been working hard and my body feels great. And you know, for me, I'm moving forward and yeah, I've always kind of had that mindset of being resilient moving forward and you can't take things for granted. And I think for me it definitely, you know, you know, showed me that. And yeah, you know, just moving forward, you know, you know having a big picture in mind and that's a team that's winning games and trying to be the best player and best teammate that I can be for this team moving forward. This is notable, Mike, because initially the Ravens had announced there were no injuries for Mark Andrews. Anybody, though, who has been in a car crash, knows you may not be injured, but you might be hurting for a while. What do we know right now about Mark Andrews? And given the time he's missed, as well as the nature of the situation, what do we expect from him in that Thursday night kickoff game? Tom, with just a couple of days away from when injury reports are actually filed, and if you've got an ailment in a specific part of the body, you have to list that on the injury report. You don't have to do that during training camp. So Mark Andrews taking the time off of practice and then returning today, you're right. I mean, even if you're not technically injured, you can be hurt from a car crash. So clearly something that they wanted to make sure was behind him before they put him back on the field there. Andrews, wearing a seat belt as he made clear several times. So that was very good. Good job. Mark Andrews wearing the seat belt. He talked about the importance of that. Also the perspective he got out of this car accident. So one of the great guys to cover around the league, one of the great football players that we have in our league, right now, his target chair last year before he got injured with that hip drop tackle, which was a big reason why the NFL this offseason decided to ban the hip drop tackle. He was on pace to blow past the year before, and the target share. So we know what he means to this offense. We know what he means as a security blanket for Lamar Jackson. So the fact that these two who have such great chemistry are back on the field working together is a great sign for Baltimore. Judy, there's so many fun rematches of games from last season on this schedule. I don't know that any are better than Ravens Chiefs, because the last time that we saw them was back on January 28th, the reigning NFL MVP and Lamar Jackson, the multiple time Super Bowl MVP in Patrick Mahomes, two great offenses. Neither one of them could generate a whole lot of offense, particularly in the second half of this game. The conditions should be slightly improved for this one. Next Thursday night. What are you looking for in this matchup? Well, and also Baltimore's approach to this game should be much improved from where it was during that game. Remember they went away from the run very quickly. They were the number one rushing team in the NFL going into the AFC Championship game. They only rushed 16 times for 81 yards. They went away from it really early in the game. There wasn't a lot of scoring. You were right that Baltimore defense did its job. It held the Chiefs in check. But the Ravens just could not generate any points. Again, they went away from the run. You you assume they're probably not going to do that now that they have Derrick Henry on the roster. One piece to keep in mind though, if there is any question mark about the Ravens going into this season, they are a very complete team. But that offensive line is in a bit of flux. The right side of the offensive line is going to look new. Center Tyler Linderbaum has missed most of training camp and missed the preseason with a neck injury. He has been back at practice, although wearing the red non-contact jersey, so in the next few days, as they really gear up for the opener, you want to see him engage in practice fully and you want to see how that offensive line looks because again, this is a great, great rushing team. When they commit to it, they need to commit to it. So on Thursday night Ravens and Chiefs kick off week one. On Thursday night, several nights later Monday Night Football it wraps up week one with another really intriguing matchup. It's the Jets against the 49 ers. There's a lot of questions of course entering this game including how Aaron Rodgers is going to look coming off of his Achilles injury. Also an open question right now will we see that guy Haason Reddick on the field? A holdout for all the training camp has not gone through a practice, a walk through anything with his new team since he was acquired back in the spring. Here's what GM Joe Douglas had to say about the Reddick situation yesterday, I can't lay out any expectations right now, but you know, when he does arrive, we're all going to be excited. I wouldn't say frustration. I mean, obviously we've we made the we made the move because we have a lot of respect for him as a as a player and a person. And you know, we think he can he can help us win games. And felt really, really good about the conversations leading up to and at at the moment of trade. So again, we're just we're going to be excited to add him when, when he decides to arrive. This is a different one. Mike. We've had some weird situations in this off season. We wrapped up one yesterday with Brandon Aiyuk. The thrilling conclusion he goes back to the same team for basically the same money that he was going to get along the way with Haason Reddick. There hasn't even been negotiations. It doesn't sound like at this point there's really not a lot going on. They want him to come in and be a part of the team before they work on the contract. Reddick has yet to show up. What gives in the coming days? Is there any chance we actually see him out there for the kickoff game? Well, I was struck by Hassan Reddick there working out at Temple Temple taking on Oklahoma tonight. Boy, they could use Hassan Reddick in that game. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way. Hassan Reddick, now an NFL player. So you know as you see the workout again you're right. It's a weird one. And you know for Aiyuk Jamaar Chase CeeDee lamb even Trent Williams like you can see the end of how this could come to fruition right at some point, the team offers enough money and the players expectations come down and they meet in the middle. And okay, fine. Like you can see how it's going to end. The problem with this one is the Jets aren't willing to negotiate until Reddick shows up, and Reddick's not willing to show up until he has his new deal. So it's like, who's going to blink? Who's going to flinch, and how does it happen? Do the Jets have some kind of injury early in the season? And they say, okay, you know what? Assuming it lasts into the season, they say, you know what Hassan? We'll negotiate. We need you here. Or does Reddick see what's happening with the Jets and go oh man. This team really could be going somewhere special. Forget it. Let's just go in there and take the best possible offer. Like I just, I don't know, we got to look into the future to see how this one's going to end. And you're right, Tom, it is a tough one because there haven't been negotiations and no sense that either side is going to blink right now. I was struck, I thought Joe Douglas sounded decidedly less optimistic than Robert Saleh sounded a few days ago. Maybe that's just their personalities, but Robert Saleh sounded like, you know, he doesn't really need to come into practice. Look how he'll be in great shape. You know, he knows how to prepare for the season. He's a veteran, and he said at that point, plenty of time. Now that was early this week. Obviously the days have gone by since then and he's still not there. And so maybe that led to Joe Douglas's tone, but something else that Joe Douglas said stuck with me. And he said, you know, as a GM, you have to consider you can't just deal with one player and one agent. You have to think sort of about how it reverberates throughout the locker room with other players. If you give one guy a contract, how will that affect the other guys in the locker room? So that sounded to me like he knows this is not going to be easy. It's not going to be easy to sort of break this staredown with Hassan Reddick. It wouldn't be easy, even if he comes in to negotiate a contract. I just thought like that did not sound very hopeful that they think he's going to come in in week one. And that makes me flash back to you. Remember Chris Jones sitting up in the luxury suite when the Chiefs season started? And then they didn't look so great without Chris Jones. And all of a sudden Chris Jones is back with the team. And I wondered, is it going to take something like that to sort of break this logjam and get the two sides to come to the table and get to an agreement? The 2023 season began for the Chiefs, with Chris Jones and his agent sitting in a luxury box, and ended with Travis Kelce kissing Taylor Swift on the field. That's a storyline, okay, through the course of the 2023 season, what will 2024 bring? Has it brought Hassan Reddick back yet to the New York Jets? Across town, though, the Giants made an addition to their defense just a short time ago. It's a guy that they know well they are resigning Adoree Jackson according to Mike, as well as our friend Ian Rapoport, who apparently had better things to do on the Friday night of Labor Day weekend. 28 years old, he's played some good football for the Giants. The market seemingly just didn't quite materialize the way that Adoree Jackson was anticipating that it would. So he heads back to New York on a one year deal. Mike McDaniel, the Dolphins coach, also has a new contract. Miami extending its coach through 2028 on a multiyear contract extension that was finalized earlier this week. Of course, the Dolphins also paid Tua Tagovailoa, the quarterback who since Mike McDaniel got there, has played at a Pro Bowl level, just got his big deal. Now those two are locked up together for the next five seasons. They try to take the next step in Miami. Brandon Aiyuk, you might have heard, also got his monster contract officially today, signing a four year, $120 million deal includes $76 million in guarantees. He's hugging John Lynch. All is well. It's as if none of the walkouts and the trade talks and the social posts and anything happened. That's what $120 million will do. Jalen hurts got a big deal not that long ago. Well, first though, let's hear what Brandon Aiyuk had to say. It's been a long time coming, but we're here faithful. Four more years. Let's get it. Let's get to it. Let's go. Like I was saying, Jalen Hurts got his contract not that long ago. It was a tricky 2023 season on a lot of levels for the Philadelphia Eagles. Well they get to kick things off one week from tonight in Brazil. Our guy Brian Baldinger is going to be there. He let the whole company know that in no uncertain terms. We'll explain that next. And Baldy will break it all down on the insiders. adopting a teen at Adopt Us Kids. Org. Kick off the first Friday of NFL football with a first international game of the season. Tune in September 6th a week from today to watch Jordan Love and the green Bay Packers take on Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Streaming exclusively on Peacock. Go to NFL.com slash kickoff to learn more. The Eagles and Packers revealing today what they'll be wearing. The Packers will be wearing green. The Eagles, usually green, will be wearing black. The black helmet, the black pants. They said you've never seen this combination. That's right. You've never seen this combination. So the Eagles go with the white jerseys and the black hats and the pants. Speaking of black and white, here's a email that came across in black and white. To who? To the entire NFL. Com media. Anybody who's got a.com NFL.com email got this this is Baldy Charlie. So Baldy sent this to the entire company. Was trying to email one person. It's our friend Alex Fragola. What's up frags, and it was an email from 2017 that Brian Baldinger was replying to, if I'm not mistaken. Mistaken So listen as reply emails a reply all emails go baldy. It could have been a lot worse. Like it could have been a lot. It could have been. Yes yes. I'm glad it was just about travel to Brazil and credential pickup there. Mike. Yes, I'm still. I still need to get on point here when it comes to emails and things like that. It's all good, bro. It's all just. Just don't ever attach any pictures or anything like that, and you'll be fine. Yes, you'll be all good. Baldy. Speaking of travel and speaking of your credentials. Speaking of. You're going down to Brazil. You're headed down to Sao Paulo as everybody in the entire company knows, let's talk about this game and what you're expecting or what you're looking for from the Eagles on this side of the game. Well, you know, Mike, look, nobody has seen the Eagles starters at all throughout preseason. The off season we've all been down there in Novacare. We've all watched them practice. But we really want to see what is Saquon going to be like in this offense. I mean it's one of the big questions. Great acquisition by Howie Roseman. But how is Saquon going to be used. How is you know Kellen Moore and Doug Nussmeier are going to use him in this offense. I mean that's number one because I don't think that Saquon has ever played behind an offensive line quite as good as what the Eagles are going to put out there in Sao Paulo next Friday night. And then let's just see what Jalen Hurts looks like, I think they've made a lot of changes. Personnel changes. But I think the protections are different. I think there's going to be much better answers to the blitz when that would happen. And I think that, his role is going to be much easier and much easier to find where he's going to be able to keep his eyes down the field to look for his target. So I think the Eagles offense could look decidedly different than it did in those horrible final seven weeks of the season, Jalen Hearts. Jalen hurts should be a big part of that. Well if the Eagles offense is going to look different the Packers defense is probably going to look pretty different too. They have a new defensive coordinator, Jeff Hafley, who came by way of Boston College but certainly has an NFL background too. What do you expect that defense to look like, Baldy? I think it's going to be much more aggressive, you go back and you even go back and watch Jeff Hafley last year at Boston College and how he played, you know, some pretty good programs like Louisville. You're going to see a four man front. You're going to see a single high safety. You're going to see their corners. Jaire Alexander, Eric Stokes, Keyshawn Nixon. They're going to be pressing wide receivers and challenging receivers and quarterbacks. Rashan Gary is going to be coming full steam off the edge. We'll look for that matchup against Lane Johnson next Friday night. I think it's going to look a lot different. Jeff Hafley coached in this league like you mentioned for seven years in this business. He coached with the 40 niners. He coached with the Browns, with the Buccaneers, he's coached secondaries, what I hear from the guys in the secondary, including Xavier McKinney, the big free agent acquisition from the Giants who I expect big things from in this defense, they really like this style of defense. They like challenging these receivers. I think they played a lot of zone. They played off the ball. They weren't as aggressive as I think these guys want to play. And for a team that has acquired so much talent over the last few years via the draft, I think you might see him in the best position possible to showcase that talen. All right, Baldy, we talked about your email off the top. I'm not going to give it away, but it's got the word travel in there somewhere because you are a big travel guy. So you're heading down to Brazil? I know the game is in Sao Paulo. Don't show the email again. The game is in Sao Paulo, but I gather you're going to get the full Brazil experience. Are you going to go see the Christ the Redeemer statue? You heard a touchdown Jesus in Notre Dame. That's incomplete. Jesus right here. No, I've already got the I've already got the ride. Take me to the top of Corcovado. I mean, it's already done. You don't go to Brazil, Mike. You don't go to Brazil and not pay a visit to Rio. I mean, we play in Rio, we work in Sao Paulo, so we'll get to the work. But you got to play first. You got to go, you know, play on Copacabana Beach, maybe throw a football around, maybe take in the sights, there's some great churrascarias right there, in Copacabana. Right there on the on the strip, you got to go up to all the sites. So you go to Rio first. We'll get to Sao Paulo, we'll get to the stadium. We'll get to the game. The man breaks down more than just football. Ladies and gentlemen, if you don't follow him on all social media platforms that he's on, you're crazy. You got to do that, baldy, wishing you the best. Looking forward to hearing from you next week and seeing your coverage of this game in Brazil. The first one ever coming up. We are going to talk Caleb Williams with our buddy Stacey Dales, who spent a ton of time around the bears this entire offseason. You're not going to want to miss her thoughts on Caleb and the bears. Look what I've just made the perfect Pearl. Not too bad, but all night, all day, all night, all day, all night. All day. And Caleb Williams ready to make his first snap as a Chicago bear. The number one overall pick the excitement. Level off the charts. Williams whistles a pass. There you go. The first completion as a Chicago Bears. First down. He has faith in his arm strength and cut it through the wind. Snap back. Pressure coming under pressure. Caleb Williams dumps it off and a bears first down. Caleb Creativity. That's exactly what that play was. And hopefully we say that a lot throughout his career. Is this the quarterback that finally stops the ongoing carousel in Chicago? The last three guys who stepped in and attempted to do that, a combined zero and three in their debuts, none of those guys, not even Justin Fields, though, arrived with the type of hype as the number one overall pick. Caleb Williams, who in just nine days makes his NFL regular season debut against the Titans. Welcome back to The insiders. I'm Tom Pelissero, that is Stacey Dales, who spends more time around the bears than anyone, even though Caleb Williams once left her alma mater, Oklahoma, and transferred to USC. But that's a story for another day. Stacey with Caleb Williams. You spent a lot of time around that team. You saw him in training camp. We've talked about it a lot. But as we get ready for the real games, what's your impression of what are you looking for? Oh, so much, by the way, I was really ticked off when Caleb Williams left Oklahoma for USC. Tom. And I'm really ticked off that we didn't have Jim McMahon up there on that, that full screen with those other bears quarterbacks. Just saying, I'm sure Jim McMahon is too, if he's watching right now, to answer the question right, Tom, this is probably we were just talking during the break with our production team. Jeff Collette and company. This is probably the most excited that I can ever remember. The Chicago Bears fans being about a quarterback, and it's real. I know people are going to, you know, continue to break down his tape from the preseason, but everything has been confirmed. If you're the Chicago Bears in terms of his ability to learn, his maturity, his arm talent, the platforms with which he throws and then his feel, his natural feel in the pocket at the quarterback position. I mean, he's he's just special. You talk with anybody there. Watch that little flick pass right there on our screen in our B-roll. But what has been also confirmed within Halas Hall and the structure at Halas Hall, Tom, is the intangibles. Everything about him that the bears had studied in their lead up to drafting him, which starts with Ryan Poles, was confirmed and nothing, as poles recently talked about, has been forced. He is such a natural born leader and that should translate very well for this team. What are they looking for with Caleb Williams? They're looking for him to, as pulse has talked about and I've also talked with people on the staff about this trust in the talent around him, because they have formulated an outstanding roster. You know, the talent, Tom, I could go through the bevy of receivers that they have. It is in stark difference to what they've had in years previous. They love their running back room and Ryan poles thinks this is the deepest offensive line group he's had yet. This is a really good roster. They want Caleb to trust that roster and then let that special player come out when they need him to come out. Kind of like a guy we know in Kansas City that we're going to see next week to kick off the season in Patrick Mahomes. Soldier field is going to be absolutely rocking for that debut. There's also excitement around this Titans team. They got a new coaching staff led by Brian Callahan. He's got a young. Quarterback in Will Levis who we certainly saw at various points Stacey last season. Why some people really liked Will Levis coming out in the pre-draft process, even though he ended up sliding to the second round. He is a big dude with a big arm. He is committed to it. He works his butt off here. What have you heard so far about the way that those two, Brian Callahan and Will Levis, are getting on the same page together? Well, much like Caleb Williams, Tom is going to be this year different circumstances to a strong degree, but will Levis was a rookie last year. Mike Vrabel was his head coach. And all of a sudden now he's got a head coach with a whole different pedigree. This is a quarterback driven coach. This is a player friendly quarterback coach. And what I've learned in my sort of assessment of the Titans and talking to some folks is Will Levis is much more relaxed, which you would expect entering your sophomore season. But when you look at those numbers right, when you talk about quarterback efficiency, we always talk about quarterback rating. He had an 84 rating. He was three and six as a starter last season. As a rookie. In nine games, he had a 58% completion percentage. If you watched him throughout this preseason, this offense is very efficient for him. It is make that first read, hit that checkdown and let's keep the chains moving. Lots of screen game in this offense. They love to use and push with their offensive line, which they consider a very big strength offensively. When you think about J.C. Latham on the left side at the bookend on left, and then Peter Skowronski two first rounders over the last two seasons that athletic offensive line should allow some push with the run game and allow this team to move the chains. Will Levis already seems more comfortable. You know, Brian Callahan, Tom, and he loves to teach quarterbacks and he loves an efficient offense. And I think that's what bears fans should expect to come into Soldier Field next week. Brian Callahan, a very level headed guy in terms of his approach, which for a really tightly wound dude like Will Levis, might be a good kind of yin and yang type situation. Good luck to your Sooners tonight against temple. They probably don't need luck. We look forward Stacy to talk with you again soon. But first, this fantasy football is back. Head to NFL.com. Slash fantasy to create your NFL fantasy team. All leagues include free live scoring, instant video highlights, enhanced gameplay, and exclusive features. One of our exclusive features well, maybe not that exclusive on this show, but a guy we like to have on often. Our buddy Adam rank one of our fantasy experts right here on the show. Such an expert as Mike Garafolo rejoins us as well that I have been texting rank. I'd say over under 75 texts over the past week here about two different drafts trying to stack my cap keeper league, as well as handle the snake draft. Appreciate all the input. So we wanted to bring you on right to kind of give us a final cheat sheet, a path forward for anybody who's doing a cram session for their final Fantasy drafts here. But one of the things that really impressed me, Tom, was what you were able to lay out, what your league is and what your needs are, because every league is different. And the one thing I tell everybody that when you go and sit down for a draft, please understand what your scoring settings are. Understand if you're playing Superflex, which would be two quarterbacks, do you start two wide receivers or three? That makes a huge difference. Can you flex the tight end? Is it six points for passing touchdowns? There's all these details and believe me, I know every one of Tom's leagues now because he does that. But that is the first thing I do. I just got another text from my friend Matt. He's like, I have done no prep and I'm like, what's your league look like? What are we doing? So once you get that all situated, then you got to kind of catch up on the news a little bit. In case you missed it, Brandon Aiyuk. It's something that was broken here on this network. Brandon Aiyuk is now back with the San Francisco 40 niners. And I still really like him, because what we've seen over the past couple of weeks is that his ADP has drifted all the way down to the fourth round, which is a tremendous value. So a lot of people in your league probably don't pay attention as much as you do. If you're sitting here watching the insiders. So you got a little bit of an edge right there. Don't be afraid of Brandon Aiyuk. He should hit the ground running. He's going to be a great option. And another great option is a player that just recently signed as well. CeeDee lamb. And for a lot of people, CeeDee lamb could be the first player off the board. Now I still like CMC, but depending on how your league is and again, this goes back to your prep of is this a ten team league? Is this a 12 team league? Do the guys in your league love to draft wide receivers or running backs? CeeDee lamb should be one of the top three picks in your league, third at worst, first at best. He's going to be. He's going to have a monster year. There's nobody there outside of old Fergie who's battling for targets with him. So CeeDee lamb is a great option to have, even though it's been a little bit of a holdout, but also keep an eye out on what's happening with Jamaar Chase over the next couple of days to, well, CeeDee lamb is going to have the longest consistent run up of practice time of these wide receivers before the start of the season. You want to make sure you don't have those soft tissue injuries, so I'd say he's the least amount of risk IU coming back should get a full week of practice. So a little less risk there. You're right. Keep an eye on Jamaar Chase because you don't want to draft him so highly. And all of a sudden he's got a hamstring or something going on early on. All right, let's switch from the wide receiver position to the running back position. Who do you like there? Well, obviously the top three guys off the board should be CMC, Breece Hall or Bijan Robinson. Unless you're on Good Morning football then I don't know what you're doing but that's okay. Tom did great. Tom did great. By the way. I was very impressed with him over the last couple of days. One player that I really love, though, is Jonathan Taylor. At the end of last season, he was on fire. He was scoring a touchdown, and seemingly every game that he played, I think it was the last 5 or 6 games he had a touchdown. The best part about him is that we haven't seen him play with Anthony Richardson for an extended period of time. I really do believe that these two players can go out there and do a lot of damage. You get near the goal line and you have the run threat option with both of these players. Man Jonathan Taylor, who has been drifting into the second round. I believe that's a mistake. I think that if you're at the end of the first round, early in the second round, make the decision, go for Jonathan Taylor. You got to have one of those big time running backs. We call it a hero. RB strategy one stud Bellcow running back and then you can fix the other stuff down the down the down the draft board. But getting a guy like Jonathan Taylor or Saquon Barkley or somebody at the end there, even Travis Etienne, those guys are going to be hugely valuable this season. All right. Now about quarterbacks here because quarterback again to your point I'm in a superflex league where essentially you're being told you should probably just start a second quarterback here. That's not every league. I also blew the minds of my friends in a non superflex league by taking Josh Allen as high as I did. Who do you love right now at the quarterback position? Well, the reason that you love Josh Allen is the rushing ability going into every game with at least the floor of 40 points, because he's going to run for 40 yards, which is why I've really focused on Kyler Murray this season. I went into the I went into this draft season thinking I was going to get a lot of Anthony Richardson, but you know what? Everybody was hip to that. Like that. You couldn't pull that past anybody. But Kyler Murray has been coming off the board as the quarterback ten, which to me is way too tremendous of a value. When you sit there and think about like, hey, Anthony Richardson or Jayden Daniels or somebody like that, why not go with one of the originators? Why not go with Kyler Murray? Now he's got Marvin Harrison Jr, his tight end Trey McBride. Those two guys combined last year to average about 14 fantasy points per game. I'm talking about Trey McBride. I should say Trey McBride was amazing. He was the tight end one when Kyler Murray was his quarterback. So that's a that's a guy that I'm really focusing in on. And I'll tell you what, Tom, because I sit here and I made fun of you guys. I made fun of Kyle Brandt for, for all his things. But you know what? Let me show you that I put my money where my mouth is. And this is my team right here. This is this is most of it. Now, obviously, I took Kyler Murray and early, so. Okay, now you guys know Michael F Florio comes on the show all the time. Who's who does he love the most? Isaiah Pacheco. And he loves Trey McBride. And he passed on McBride. And I'm like, oh, Florio, you're going to pay for this one. Grabbed I grabbed Trey McBride and then I took Kyler Murray so I could have that stack. I would have loved to have stacked Marvin Harrison Jr with Kyler Murray, but I'll take it. I'll take it with Trey McBride. And I think if you also noticed too, I took two rookie running backs that are going to be big this season, Blake Corum was one of them. And the other one was probably like Jalen, Tyrone, Tracy make sure you stack up on those rookie running backs. They're going to have a huge impact this season. They always are. The guys who win for you. We remember last year if you had Sam Laporta and Puka Nacua, you probably won your fantasy league. So do not ignore those rookie players. Fantasy live 6 p.m. weeknights. You can get all the best fantasy advice and maybe hear rank sing like 30s of Eminem to break while begging the producers to get him out of the segment. Were we not sued by somebody, I was going to say, you're going to keep getting that until the lawyers get involved and tell them to knock it off. Rank. Thank you very much. We will chat with you again soon. I will be texting you over the next 24 hours because I got another draft tomorrow. These guys will be playing next week. Jared Goff, big season. Lions made a deep playoff run week one. He's facing his old team. How do the Rams stop him without Aaron Donald. Talk about it next on the insiders Sundays in the fall. Can only mean one thing. Game day and we're all over only on NFL network. Well, during the preseason we saw a number of Indianapolis Colts players wearing the Guardian caps in a game and earlier this week, we heard from some players who say they plan to wear Guardian caps during the regular season to talk about that more and other issues as we head into the regular season. Welcome to the insiders, Doctor Allen Sills, the NFL's chief medical officer. Doctor sills, great to see you. As we get ready for the start of the season, I want to start by asking you about the Guardian Caps again. We heard from a couple of players this week who said they plan to wear Guardian caps during the regular season, which has allowed for the first time this season. What is your expectation when the regular season starts next week? About how many players we might see wearing the Guardian caps and how many players might be wearing the helmets that, in testing, have actually outperformed Guardian caps. Well, let's start with the Guardian caps. Judy, I think we're going to have a handful of players at the at the start of the season, probably something in the 5 to 10 range, but I think that number may grow over the course of the season. Obviously some of that will depend on the initial experience of that group, but that's about the number we saw in the preseason. And so that's that's kind of what I would expect going forward. And that's obviously something we'll continue to monitor and track. So far, we've had good feedback from the players that did wear the Guardian cap in preseason. There's really no downside. And so again, something that I think we'll probably see grow during the season in terms of the position specific helmets and specifically those that are testing the highest. That's been an amazing story. I mean, this year we have over 200 linemen and almost 30 quarterbacks that are wearing helmets that are specific for their position, that are designed to offer some additional protection. And so those numbers are way up from what we saw in the very first year of the introduction. And I think it reflects the fact that players are taking an interest in this topic. They're paying attention to the science and the testing data from the laboratory, says these helmets really are much safer than anything we've seen before. What were the early returns? More, more players had to wear Guardian caps during training camp practices this season than ever before. What have been the early returns on what you saw about concussion numbers and injuries as a result? Well, we're still getting that data in, Judy, so I don't have final numbers, but I would say the early returns look really, really promising. And so we'll look forward to kind of sharing that as, as we let that data mature. We did not hear anything in terms of negative effects. You know, there were no unintended consequences. And we didn't have any issues with heat illness and things like that, for example. And I think overall players adapted to it really well. I mean, again, most all the players joining the league now, Judy, as rookies wore these in college. And so they're very used to it. So it's not a big transition for them. So we'll be eager to see what the final data shows. But I would say the early returns look really promising. All right. Obviously in the preseason we got our first look at the dynamic kickoff, which was created in part because of safety issues, because of the disproportionate number of concussions suffered on kickoffs and kickoff returns. What was your impression of how that play, as it is currently designed, worked in terms of slowing the play down and maybe decreasing the risk of head injury there? Well, Judy, I'm not sure we've seen the actual play yet. I think in preseason we don't always see the full range of strategy, and certainly we don't see the same personnel on the field. So I don't really think we've seen the play in its entirety yet. Obviously, we've all now seen what it's going to look like, and there's some early experience and I would just say again, our early data doesn't show a dramatic increase in risk of injury. But but again, we need a much bigger sample size. Sample size really matters here. You can't take one week or two weeks worth of games. You really need a longer period to look at and sort of compare apples to apples with what we've done in the past, but, you know, this is something where it was a very collaborative effort between those of us on the health and safety side, our Rules committee, coaches, players, all these different levels of input. And I really am excited personally about it, Judy, because I think that the two elements of the former kickoff play that really led to injury were space and speed, and both of those have been reduced in this new formation. So I'm really excited to track it. We'll follow the data really carefully and we'll continue to evolve the play if we need to. I think, you know, we've said all options are on the table. There I know you spent a lot of time working on soft tissue injuries and ways to decrease them and decrease the fallout going into the season. What did you see from the ramp up period going into training camp this year in terms of soft tissue injuries? Well, once again still waiting on the final numbers. But the early returns again look very favorable. We had a great off season of meeting with every single club we met with every single one of our 32 clubs and talked with coaching staffs and talked about what we've seen in the first couple of years of this effort. And the results have been really dramatic. As you know, we've had decreasing numbers of soft tissue injuries in training camp, which leads to more players being available, which also leads to fewer recurrent injuries. You know, we had about a 50% drop in our recurrent injuries last year during the season, and so that just translates to more of the best players on the field, which is what everybody wants to see. So we're really encouraged by that. There's always more work to be done, but this particular off season, Judy, our coaches really dove into that and really tried to understand it and work together with us and their own sports, science, strength and conditioning staff to design those practices and figure out, hey, how do we bring players back into activity, get them ready for preseason and ultimately the regular season. But but do it in a safe manner as possible. All right. Last one from me. Where do things stand on the league's review of surfaces? Because, you know, as soon as the regular season starts, that question is going to come up about whether some surfaces lead to more injuries than others. Where does that stand right now? Well, once again, Judy, that's an area where we have a lot of research and a lot of activity going on. And I'll just boil it down to a couple of points. One is we're doing more testing than we've ever done of surfaces. We've got new devices that are testing those surfaces and measuring more things about the surface, because what we've come to realize is that we don't just have two surfaces in the league where we have an artificial and a natural grass. We've got really 30 different surfaces. One in every one of our stadiums is different in some ways, and so we have two efforts there. One is to better measure those surfaces. What are their properties then try to take those measurements and see if there's a correlation with injury. Because sometimes you can associate those things. Sometimes you can't. But most importantly, I think our efforts together with the players Association is going to be let's decrease the variance from one surface to another, because right now around the league, with those 30 different surfaces, there's a lot of variability just among natural grass fields of how one feels and plays versus another one. And so a lot of excitement about that work. We've got a new person heading that up within the NFL. And I'm personally really excited that at the end of this season, we're going to have more data and a better understanding than we've ever had in the past and hopefully can continue to evolve this to where we use that information to create safer surfaces and surfaces that players prefer. Doctor sills thanks so much for joining us. Great to see you and we'll see you again during the regular season, I am sure. And when we return on the insiders, Omar Ruiz is going to join us. And he is going to be talking about this guy, Josh Allen, and how the Arizona Cardinals defense might try to handle him or might not be able to handle him. Next, on the insiders. putter today. Josh Allen going to be quite the test for the young Cardinals defense coming up here in week one. There you see his record as a starter in regular season openers. And with that we bring in our Omar Ruiz to talk about a couple of NFC West young defenses. You heard me just mention this young Cardinals defense. So let's get right there. How does this young Cardinals defense approach this matchup with Josh Allen right out of the gate. Week one here. Well with a sense of urgency Mike. That's exactly what Jonathan Gannon said. He said they ramped up their intensity this week. Ones on ones good on good fast on fast. He did say that he does believe there is a sense of fatigue. If you start preparing for your week one opponent too soon. So not much specific on preparing for Josh Allen and Buffalo just yet. Just knowing that they're going to have to play their best football in Buffalo against a Sean McDermott coached team, I asked earlier this week, Jonathan Gannon, how he felt about the depth about his defensive front, given that B.J. Ojulari was lost for the season and Darius Robinson, their first round rookie, is probably going to miss some time with that calf injury. And that was before they traded away Cam Thomas. And he said they are comfortable with that depth in their defensive front. Xavier Thomas is a fifth round rookie who has really shined in training camp, hoping to get production from him. They'll obviously rely on the back end of Budda Baker and his experience to put that defense all together, but he said we may not be comfortable with it in the media, maybe fans. But he said there is more than one way to win in the NFL. He is confident with the game plan that they'll put together to face Buffalo. They'll go into Buffalo and Western New York with confidence with that young group and we'll see how they do week one and how they fare against that. Josh Allen led offense. Max Melton, the second round pick, the cornerback going to be tasked with being a big part of this defense as well this upcoming season. You saw those rankings. They're not so hot last year. I'm expecting those to improve. Certainly Jonathan Gannon, a defensive minded head coach, expects them to improve as well. Elsewhere in the NFC West, you might have heard no Aaron Donald for the Rams anymore. So this is a defense that is going to have to look for somebody else to be a corner, a combination of people. You don't replace him with just one guy, but a combination of guys to replace that production up front. And as well as some of the young guys on the back end as well. They've got a challenge in former Rams quarterback Josh Jared Goff. Excuse me. And that Lions offense. Week one. Yeah that young defense for the Rams. No way to hide in Detroit Sunday Night Football Jared Goff and the Detroit Lions coming in with full of confidence. But the Rams are confident too obviously no Aaron Donald you mentioned they can't replace him with one player. But they expect Coby Turner for the sensational season. He had obviously was in Defensive rookie of the year talk most of the year last year. Obviously Byron Young flashed hoping for a big jump from him in year two. But then Jared Verse and Braden Fiske the two rookies this year have flashed all training camp. They expect big production from him. And while that young untested front is talented they believe in them. It's that back end with all that veteran leadership that they hope will put it all together. Tre'davious White, Darius Williams at corner. You have John Johnson back there who has been around for all this time. And then Quinton Lake, another young player, third year nickelback slash safety who was voted team captain along with Coby Turner. So they expect them to help all bring that together. And if they get that ferocious pass rush like they got last year from those young guys, they can grow. They get that veteran leadership. Cam curl is a big free agent addition who has shined all offseason. If they can put that together and help replace Aaron Donald and Ernest Jones, now, who was traded last week to the Tennessee Titans to get some of that leadership as well. It was a heck of a playoff game. Cannot wait for the rematch. Week one Sunday night under the lights. Rams and the Lions Omar Ruiz. You're a heck of a guy and a heck of a reporter as well. We appreciate your time, the season approaching. You know what that means. Game day morning on NFL network and sit downs and interviews. Kind of like this Kurt Warner with Sean McVay. Well yeah. Let's start out with week one. Schedule makers always do a great job. Back to Detroit where you guys had that great playoff matchup to finish the season last year. Yeah what a great challenge I mean physical tough excellent football team coming a couple plays away from going to a Super Bowl. And that atmosphere was incredible. I mean they were booing and it was I mean they were just saying some mean things to me. And it was a great atmosphere. That's what you love about the NFL. The opportunity to go see if you can be at your best and whatever happens, happens. And let's get back up and let's keep swinging and so we're going to prepare as well as we can. So, so that we can be at our best on the 8th of September. Don't make me shoot me through every tree 4th at 9:00 PM eastern on NBC. The next time we do this show, it will officially be Game Week. Be here Monday night, 7:00 eastern. We'll see Cowboys hosting the Los Angeles