Yeah, and they kind of did the same thing at the All-Star break where they obviously had a number of days off, and then they came right back out in the second half of the season and just kind of kept going.

Yeah, and they came out, you know, their schedule's pretty easy out of the second half.

They beat up on the Mets and the Reds and the Angels of the world, if I remember correctly.

I think this series, you're going to need a better start from Jacob Mizorowski in Game 1. important.

The Brewers have won both game one and game two of their previous series, and I think his allowed them to manage and play in such a way throughout the series that has really obviously put them in advantage in the win column, but the way they're managing and calling these games.

Jacob Mizorowski has yet to have a Jacob Mizorowski start.

If you had told me the Brewers were in the World Series, I'd say, oh, I'm sure Miz is just having a playoff run for the agents.

Like had to have them kind of at that moment.

[laughs]

I, I hope they do keep playing him, 'cause I think the Brewers have a plan for him.

And, uh, a- and their lefty's between Gasser, who's gonna start game three, Romero out of the bullpen, who's been great against Ohtani in his career, Ashby, who's a power lefty.

Like, they have the guys to deal with him in his current form.

Um, so I, I hope they keep playing him.

Um, but, but Simpson, to, to go back to your point, you're right.

This team is awesome, and if I was watching them on the outside, I'd say they won 103 games.

And even when they had stretches, you know, briefly, where it felt like maybe the wheels are coming off, they would course correct and get right back on track.

Even though, you know, a conference opponent that you thoroughly dominate, are they going to be ranked? Are they ranked yet? I didn't see the new rankings,

I guess.

I do not believe – I was not watching the rankings, the AP like a hawk.

In fact, I'm not even – I can't even remember if those come out on Monday or Tuesday.

I think Tuesday.

I actually thought the Badgers was the second most significant win.

I got more from the Badgers' win than the Packers' win.

roof incident uh the memes but the memes were fantastic uh seeing pictures of euchre up there with a miller light in hand wearing his signature jacket and just kind of batting the ball away uh and getting the win and then of course the walk off i mean that were you there did you go please tell me you were there no i was not there okay um

Whatever Defcon you wanna go direction, where are we at for the Packers' offensive line right now?

I'm not panicky.

No, I'm not panicky at all.

But, but intrigued, uh, m- maybe skeptical, because here's the thing, we, we went into this off-season thinking, "Okay, gotta fix the O line." Right? And we all just kind of assumed like, "Yeah, they'll do some work here this off-season.

They'll make some changes.

They'll sign people.

They'll draft people." And I think over the last couple weeks we've started to revisit and we're looking back, it's like, "Okay, but did, did they fix it?" Like, still lots of questions.

Yep.

Yep

... you know, he's never played a certain number of snaps, and when he has he's more...

So th- th- a couple of those players weren't slam dunk cases, and the contracts aren't simple, you know, top of the market ... valuations, all four of those contracts feel kind of similar to me and they're all contracts that could work out and be great for the team or they couldn't be, and they won't be the worst contracts if not, but I think the team will be in a lesser spot.

So I think those four contracts from this off-season, um, gonna go a long way into deciding how successful the Packers are gonna be this year.

If Reed and Watson are healthy and perform, those are great deals and the team will win.

If Ryan plays well, they have a center and they'll be good and if Wyatt stays healthy, that contract will be great and their pass rush will be good and if not, like tho- again, those four players and those four contracts are gonna go a long way this year for me.

Yep.

Okay, he did say that.

That's totally cool

...

the first thing that I wrote down in my notes that I would love for you to react to is this, this constant conversation, and it's listener driven.

We get a lot of texts and a lot of calls based on this concept of Jordan Love taking the next step.

What's the next step for Jordan Love? How can he take the next step? And I, I, I circled that and I wrote it down because I, I feel like that's a conversation that's been happening about Jordan Love in each of the last two or three off-seasons.

And I think because we've been used to, as a fan base, Favre and Rodgers, like, we're just waiting for Jordan Love to turn into Aaron Rodgers.

And I think in the process, a lot of us have missed that he's Jordan Love and that he's just very good.

No

Excellent

... because here's the thing.

I don't know that Jeff Hafley was as good as everyone thought.

Like, I think he was good.

I think he was fine.

But we talk about him like he's some deity, and I'm like, well, re- like, really if we look at it, like, Joe Barry's defenses were in some instances, like, just as or more effective with lesser talent.

Like, I, I don't know that Jeff Hafley was awesome.

Mm.

Yeah

... you know, except for the teams that don't make the playoffs.

But for any team that's, like, competent and all their fans that think that.

But the way they just ran it back this off-season, aggressively.

Like, they aggressively ran it back.

They, they kind of puffed their chest out and says, "No, we're, we're extending Matt LaFleur." Basahchi left, but that's 'cause he wanted to leave.

They had to get a new DC, but that's 'cause Jeff Hafley got a head job.

Yeah

... for this to be true.

You would have to own a mountain of Lucas Van Ness stock.

And look, if he comes out in the first two games and has a sack, sack and a half in both, like, I wouldn't be surprised.

I, I-- Something I think, I have been thinking about a lot this off-season is what Lucas Van Ness' year would've looked like had he been healthy, because you can make the case, like, when he was healthy, there were real flashes.

And I, I guess I j- will never know.

I, I wanna know that alternate reality where he was healthy throughout because I, I wanna know what we'd be saying about him right now.

I wanna know if, like, how much hype, how much excitement, like, what kind of Lucas Van Ness conversations would we be having going into this next season if he was healthy all of last season.

[laughs]

Okay.

S- they're paying one.

Um, maybe that means Sean Ryan is returning or they're bringing in somebody from the outside out of nowhere like they did with Banks last year.

And I don't know how the dollars and cents works out.

I, I'm a believer that most of these teams, if they really want to find a way to do something, they can find a way to do it, so I, maybe I have to look at the cap breakdown.

I just have a hard time believing with how poorly the offensive line played this year, um, that they are going to run it back next year with a first-time starter at left tackle, presumably in Jordan Morgan, a new center, a left guard who wasn't awesome, a right guard who's a second-year player.

I'm not even sure if he's a right guard and I, I think his performance is a little bit overrated.

Okay

Obviously, you're referring to the postseason.

It is kind of nuts because in theory, the second thing should be easier, right? Shouldn't it? Like it, it should be easier to play the variants and get hot in a seven game sample than it is to win 90 plus games across one 62.

Now, in order to do the second thing, you also have to be good enough at the first, like in order to get into a seven game series, you need to be good enough over one 62 to get that opportunity.

So I understand that both things are connected.

It just, it blows my mind that, And I don't really understand it, how a team with a small budget, the smallest market, has found a way to win 90-plus games consistently, or 87-plus games consistently.

But I've watched the Diamondbacks and teams like the Mets, who weren't really all that hot going into the playoffs two years ago.

I've watched all these other teams say, okay, we can get hot for 7, 14 postseason games.

That's it.