The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Conference Title Game Picks With Sheil Kapadia. NFL Coach Hiring Drama With Dianna Russini. Plus What’s Up With the Celtics?
Fri, 24 Jan 2025
Russillo is joined by Sheil Kapadia to preview this weekend’s games and share their picks (0:42). Then, Dianna Russini comes on to break down the Liam Coen drama, Pete Carroll’s return, and the entire NFL coaching carousel (32:00). Next, Ryen attended Thursday’s Celtics-Lakers matchup and shares his thoughts on two teams trending in opposite directions (64:27). Finally, Life Advice with Ceruti and Kyle (79:07)! Should I be mad that my girlfriend refuses to mention me on social media? Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, livestreams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Sheil Kapadia and Dianna Russini Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, and Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What are the AFC and NFC title game picks?
A lot of NFL for you today on the podcast, we're going to pick the AFC and NFC title games tendencies maybe with Shilka Padia and the latest on all the NFL coaching hires. How did all of these people land where they landed the best job and the worst job? with NFL insider Diana Rossini. I went to the Lakers Celtics last night. The Lakers looked really good. The Celtics did not.
The Celtics are kind of weird right now. What's going on? I dig into some of the numbers, present some theories. I'm probably not convinced of any of it yet, but I'm going to share it with you anyway. And life advice. Well, let's do it. Our picks and breakdown. Sheil Kapadia, who joins us. You know him from the Ringer Philly special and the Ringer NFL show. It is my favorite slate of NFL football.
I know everybody likes division because you get the four games. I just think the magnitude of what matters. I think we remember these games a lot better than we remember the division games. So let's just start in the AFC. On Monday, I said I was picking Buffalo. I hate it. Because you're picking against Mahomes. But I'm there. Let's do this. Let's do it for the Bills down in Kansas City.
Who are you picking?
I've got the bills too. I hate it too. I hate myself for doing it because I know my feeling, what it's going to be like on Sunday around nine o'clock Eastern time where I'm going, you idiot. Why did you try to do this again and outsmart yourself?
But I just feel like, you know, from a narrative standpoint, I felt coming into the playoffs that Josh Allen or Lamar, one of them was going to finally, finally break through. And so I'm basically just sticking to a previous take. That's my analysis.
Okay. Now, If you look at the thing that was... Did you pick Baltimore against Buffalo? No, I had the Bills. Okay, all right. It made a lot of sense on paper because of the mismatch of thinking about the front and Derrick Henry and the rushing attack, a lighter D-line.
I mean, I think it was repeated nonstop during the broadcast as well, but that was the Baltimore argument in picking them against Buffalo. Oh, which is the way I should say it. And honestly, it made a lot of sense. If you look at this Bill's rushing attack, They've been really good at it.
Sometimes I think the best quarterbacks, maybe it's the offensive coordinator and Brady being there for a while, but it's just sometimes they can't help themselves with the toys. And it's pretty clear that Buffalo a couple games in, and the Denver game wasn't really close, but at times it felt conservative even against Baltimore.
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Chapter 2: What is the latest drama in the NFL coaching carousel?
It was beautiful. So I think it's been two things. I think one is just kind of the league-wide trend where all these defenses right now are saying, hey, play with two safeties deep. eliminate the explosive pass plays at all costs. And I think that kind of started with having to stop those Chiefs offenses. And now it's all over the league. So I think that's one. And then two is what you said.
I mean, look at the supporting cast. You have two tackles who can't, you know, who have had issues to tackle positions. Now they've sort of figured it out with Tooney, but you can't block well. And then just the supporting cast, like it's not great. I mean, I laugh when I saw like the MV, you know, the top five MVP thing where I'm still going like,
Put some of these guys in that, you know, in that Chiefs offense and let's see what it looks like. Like it hasn't been perfect this year. I'm not saying it has, but I still think he's doing more with less as much as any quarterback in the NFL. So I think it's been a combination of those things. But yeah, I think they would love to get back to playing the way they did, you know, a few years ago.
The funny thing is this offensive line shuffle. It looks like Joe Tooney is the best left tackle they're going to have.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he's been out there now. I think it has affected them a little bit, like the guy who's replacing him at guard and the run game a little bit, but it is an unbelievable job by him to just be playing guard. They drafted a guy, they signed a guy and they're like, nope, yeah, stick Tooney out there. And for the most part, he's held up really well.
I mean, that Texans pass rush is better than anything they're going to face the rest of the postseason. So, you know, if you could survive that, you're going to be in good shape the rest of the way.
I feel like there's going to be a lot of man coverage in this, and part of that would be because Kansas City, Amenahu being back, too, is another thing. I think they're getting back. There's a corner that wasn't playing in the regular season matchup. Is it Watson? Yeah. Who's back?
So there's some health stuff you could look at here with the Chiefs matchup, because I think Amenahu is an incredibly underrated dude. And maybe it's just because we talk about Jones and there's just so many different Karloftis making plays. There's just a lot of guys. They've done a really good job of stocking this this defense.
And it's a big reason why they can play the way they played on offense and still win all of these football games. So it's it's pretty incredible, like long term of like reinventing themselves on one side of the football and just maintaining the standard here of competing for Super Bowls every single year. But when I think about some of the matchup stuff here, like Shakir has been great.
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Chapter 3: What are the current issues with the Celtics?
I have a Mahomes legacy question, but I don't know that I want to ask it because I don't want. I'm just not going to ask it because he very likely will win this game at home and the fact that they're healthier and that they've already seen them. And, you know, it's Buffalo. They can like the matchup and they beat him a few times here. But this is a whole different animal. All right.
Mahomes overrated if he loses this game. Is that where you were going with it?
Not overrated, but maybe I'll save it for Monday. Maybe it'll be one of those things where I do it in a monologue where I ask the question, but I'm definitely saying the question as my definitive answer. Okay. But I just, I hate picking against that dude. I hate it. And here we go again. All right. NFC.
So I think seeing Jaden Daniels a third time here for Philadelphia, the more I've thought about this game, the more I've read about this game. This Washington story is incredible. He's incredible. I haven't liked what I've seen from Jalen Hurts, but I think for Fangio to see this dude a third time is a massive advantage.
It should be, but I don't know. That fourth quarter, they played in week 11 and week 16. Week 11 was when Daniels was having the injury stuff, and he had that little lull in the middle of the season. I just remember watching that game and re-watching it. There were plays to be made that he didn't make that he's been making the rest of the season.
Then you get to week 16, and they get the commanders for five takeaways ahead. And you're like, all right, five takeaways. You're winning that game. You look at it statistically every time. But the commander scored touchdowns on like three of their final four possessions. And it was Daniels with his legs. I mean, he had a fourth and 11 where he takes off for a 29-yard scramble.
He had another fourth down where Jalen Carter, it's kind of what you were just talking about with the, hey, force a guy to scramble. They basically did that, and Jalen Carter's waiting for him, and he just sidesteps him, takes off, and picks up the first down. So I think in terms of game plan, the Eagles, this isn't a game where you're aggressive and blitz Jaden Daniels.
He has killed that all year, been one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL against the Blitz, and that's not how Fangio wants to play anyway. So I think it's a big game for, hey, their four-man pass rush, Jalen Carter, the rest of those guys up front, they've got to control the game if they're going to contain Daniels.
So I'm glad you brought that up because Daniels was at like just under 7% design runs in that week 11 matchup. But that was strictly because of the rib injury. Yeah. Like you can see it in the play calling from Kingsbury where it's like, okay, this guy's banged up. And I think the,
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Chapter 4: How to handle relationship dilemmas on social media?
He's able to attack the middle of the field. That was a big question of him. coming out of the draft as well. You know, does this guy throw to the middle of the field or is he, cause Jalen hurts is a guy who does not throw to the middle of the field. And Jaden Daniels has done that at a very high rate. So he's been incredible.
And the other thing with that offense is the rate at which they go, no huddle. I think it's like over 60% of the time and no other offenses above, I want to say 25%. And so it's, Now they're getting to the line of scrimmage and now you got to be sound and all right, you're getting lined up and now, all right, is he keeping the ball? Is this play action? Are they going downfield?
So it is a tough group to prepare for. And Jalen Carter for the Eagles plays like over 90% of the snaps. He's on like that Max Crosby plan of just never come out of the game. I think that's a factor here. If you're going no huddle and you don't have those breaks in between plays, does that limit his effectiveness a little bit?
So that's something to keep an eye on because Carter took over that game against the Rams last week. Like he made two plays on that final Rams possession where if he doesn't make those plays, the Rams are in the NFC championship and we're talking about an amazing comeback.
So that is one way where the commanders can say, hey, we don't have the best offensive line, but this is a way to maybe tire out the best defensive players on the other team.
Yeah, with Cosme out, who's probably considered their best offensive lineman and going up against Carter, good luck with that. I have some other numbers that maybe I'll get to here, but I want to focus on Philly here because it hurts. We know that, I mean, look, he's 28-41, 259, no picks through two playoff games. He's got the two touchdowns. He's done it with his legs, the huge run against L.A.
early to kind of set the tone there. Um, but it hasn't been great, but he has real legitimate excuses. Like pick any of the three that I think are totally justifiable of like, okay, sure. He hasn't looked good, but these mall might be reasons you've watched him his whole career. What do you see?
I think this is the most cautious version of Jalen hurts we've ever seen as an NFL quarterback. You know, I think early in the season, he had some games where he turned the football over, uh, And then as a, I don't know if it was as a team, if it was a meeting, if it was just subconscious, but they said, Hey, we've got Saquon Barkley. We've got the best offensive line in football.
And our defense is coming on with Vic Fangio. Now I think it's the best defense in football. Like you don't have to be a superhero. Let's just not turn the football over. And that's at the expense of, of everything. Like you watch these games. If he's not sure he's tucking the ball and running or taking a sack, he takes seven sacks last week in that game against the Rams.
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