Rebels Edge · Wed, Jul 15, 2026
Wall Street Is Making a Massive Bet Against This Rally
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The hosts discuss a broad market rally supported by cooler producer inflation and upbeat earnings, while a guest reports rising short interest across major exchanges. They highlight potential short-squeeze setups, reported PayPal takeover interest, and a weaker outlook at Pentair, before turning to college football and NFL commentary.
- Cooler producer inflation, ASML’s raised sales forecast, and strong Morgan Stanley earnings are cited as support for the rally.
- The VIX trades near 16, down from roughly 20.50 a month earlier.
- The guest reports year-to-date short-interest increases of approximately 17% on the NYSE and 21% on Nasdaq.
- Short positioning is elevated across utilities, insurance, banks, real estate, and software; the guest links these bets to interest rates and AI disruption.
- Nike above roughly $45–$50 and Palantir above $150 are identified as potential short-covering triggers.
- The hosts discuss prediction-market bets on government investments in domestic drone companies, while emphasizing the market’s small dollar volume.
- The transcript describes a reported PayPal bid near $60.50 per share and Michael Burry’s argument for a $100 valuation; the hosts doubt bidders would pay that much.
- Pentair faces a weaker outlook, a CFO resignation, and an RBC downgrade, with shares reportedly reaching a new 52-week low.
Full transcript
Welcome back to the Rebel's Edge, along with a special short report this week.
If there are any shorts in PayPal, they're hurting today. We'll be talking about that, stocks, and sports on today's Rebel's Edge.
>> [music] [music] >> All right, Pete. Well, what do you say?
It's another day and another rally in the market, Pete. Is that what we're seeing?
>> Yeah, things are kind of looking pretty good right now, John. I mean, it's uh It's interesting, you know, we we never know what's going to happen, what's going to affect it, you know, but it is earning season, so I think we have a pretty good lean on that, and that's going to help a lot as well. But, uh yeah, there's quite a few different storylines out there that are helping push this market to the upside, no
doubt.
>> Yeah, well, the Nasdaq's up about half a percent. The Dow's up about 4/10 of a percent. Even the Russell, the Russell 2000, Pete, is up 4/10 of a percent. So, yeah, uh I'd say overall, the the haters are getting hated on.
>> Yeah.
>> So, let's dive right into macro because uh we're going to get to Jeff Garbacz and the short report in just a bit. But, macro, Pete, I'm going to say the markets uh trading to the upside, uh the tech names that were under pressure early in the week because of Hynix and Samsung
are no longer really under pressure, Pete. Uh cooler than expected producer price index is one reason. So, people could go right back to thinking maybe we could get an easing. I don't think at the July meeting, but it could be coming, Pete. What do you think?
>> Yeah, I think that's a possibility, John. I mean, it's something we talked about long before it seems like anybody else kind of figured out. And it didn't take that much figuring. Hey, look, uh the price of crude's gone from 111 all the way down to 68. Now, it's not there now, but it's lifted up a little bit, but uh certainly we're seeing uh
inflation sort of calm down a little bit. And I think that's that that would should have been pretty obvious. I think um the combo platter of this though, John, ASML ASML is out there and raised their annual sales force forecast. Got people pretty and it sure does make people start to
think, well, maybe this whole thing about the chips and the semiconductors and, you know, what's going on in AI, uh maybe it's not done. Maybe it's not cooked.
>> [laughter] >> So, that was one. And then all you had to do is look at the earnings and we look at micro or excuse me, um Morgan Stanley today and holy smokes, John. I mean, they only put up record numbers. Their revenue was up 27%. Some of their numbers were off the charts as far as earnings. Uh there's a lot of positives out there
starting off with the with the earnings that we're seeing some from most of these financials, too. So, the combo platter's there and that's why the markets are up.
>> Yep. Well, Morgan Stanley opened up, Pete, and went a little bit higher than that. Went up to like 232 or so a share, but then it pulls back like seven bucks and it's down about one and what? A little over a buck, buck and a half right now.
Uh but nonetheless, like you said, those earnings were spectacular for Morgan Stanley. So, if somebody wants to sell it, I guess they were in it a lot cheaper and they're just being disciplined. Either that or they're stupid.
>> Well, I think Yesterday, John, just just a when the other financials were reporting, Morgan Stanley reacted with them. So, it's still up uh 3 and 1/2% for the last four or five days or whatever. And when you look back to yesterday, that's when it started to make that move already.
>> Well, what do you got as far as VIX today, Pete? The volatility metric.
>> Yeah, well, it's it's doing what we would want it to be doing or maybe at least seeing how it's gotten down towards 16, John, and actually breaking through there. So, the the new range is now we'll call it 15.95 up to about 16 and 1/2. It's fairly tight. We'll see if
that stays right there, but that's the range of today so far. Um it was down another 3% earlier or whatever when we got and broke underneath that 16 level.
So, just think about this, John. A month ago, the June VIX, it was trading over 20. It was trading 20.50 just a month ago. And now here we are back at these very interesting levels back towards, you know, that 16. So, we'll see. It seems like it wants to be there for a while, but earnings will be a dictator
of that, I'm sure.
>> Yeah. Well, how about this one, Pete?
The prediction markets are basically betting again on which companies the US is going to take a stake in.
And one of them, Unusual Machines, is approximately 29 or 30% possibility. I think it's going to be higher than that because these are the same guys with RedCat, Pete. Uh they make the drone uh supplies in
America. So, uh when you're but they're hobbyist drones for Unusual Machines, so you might say, "Well, why would the US go after a hobbyist?" Because they make the parts here. So, you don't have to get Chinese parts in the drone companies because that's something Hexeph and the
military doesn't want. But, as you see there, uh there's a fair amount of bets going on, Pete, that we're going to see another Intel sort of uh investment by the government into these drone companies. And again, I wouldn't be surprised. How about you?
>> You know, I I'm with you. I think this unusual machines as you pointed out, yes, it's the least likely, right?
And it's dropped 12% or whatever. So, um you know what? There's probably some reasoning behind that, but I I would take a flyer on that one to be honest with you just because of the fact that it is USA and all the rest of it and I think that's a That seems to be the direction that, you know, we'd like to
see from the military side hexaf as well as the president. So, yeah, I would I would take the long shot on this one.
>> Yeah, and I'll point out though, folks, that when you look at the number on the screen there, if you look at the top uh uh third of the screen or so, you see the what we've highlighted. There's only a million dollars bet on this. So, I like it because it's putting your money
where your mouth is, but we're not talking about an extremely big bet right now. We're talking about little bets again. Pete, when he trades, could put on five or 10 million dollars worth of upside on any of those three stocks and it wouldn't even be that big a trade for
him to do that. So, do the prediction markets have a place? Yes. Are they likely to be hurt by uh the government going after them since they've entered into uh basically gaming and uh so forth uh on the stock or rather on the sports betting side? Yeah. Pete and I had a
little insight into that from being out there in Vegas some of those casino owners, but uh I would say, Pete, a million-dollar bet is like a drop in the ocean compared to what trades really trades uh in the stock market on any of these
kind of bets if we want to call them that. All right. Well, let's bing it bring in uh the one and only Jeff Guttarbais from The Short Report. Jeff, welcome back, sir. How are you?
>> Hey guys, how are you? I'm doing pretty good. No complaints.
>> What are you seeing, Jeff, on the short side of the market? Because you're like the Michael Berry of our report, I think.
>> Well, um first let's just take a look at this Excel spreadsheet that I keep track of and uh look at it since the beginning of the year. At the beginning of the year there were 18.5 billion shares short on New York.
Now we're up to 21.9 75 billion shares short.
Nasdaq has gone from 18.56 to 22.68.
Pretty pretty big increase and if you look at the percentage year-to-date now New York's up 16.
97.
All of last year it was up 18.10. So with only halfway through the year, we're almost equal to what we did last year. And if you look at last year down here, it's it's the highest since we started the decade in 2020. So shorts
are really adding to their to their bets in a really big way. And on Nasdaq, look, 21.26% for the year. And last year was its biggest up year, it was 25.21.
Um what's interesting about this is if we go into chart room and we can then go down to our sector stuff.
If we sort by sectors here, the short ranks. Look at this. We now have 11 sectors that have short intensity above 50%.
And that that's a pretty big number. On a relative basis, like if I had to do a rank from 1 to 10 when we've got 11 of them above, it's about a seven and a half on a scale of 1 to 10. So the shorting is is definitely getting there. And and look, you can see where they're going to.
Uh the highest is utilities, obviously because of what's happening with interest rates, insurance, kind of same thing, banks, real estate. They're really They're really making a bet. Um, that we're going to see rates continuing to, uh, to rise.
Software, they're in in a really big way. And if you think about what's going on with software, this whole question of whether AI trumps software and people are going to decide not to continue to buy stuff. That's why shorts are are going in there and making bets there.
So, it's really interesting. Uh, it's very It's very obvious to see the type of bets that they're making.
And then, if we go look at like the biggest increases in New York and Nasdaq, it's really in So, look at this.
Look what the number one increase was in this latest data, which is uh, from um, June 15th to June 30th.
Number one was SpaceX.
They shorted 88 million shares of SpaceX.
The next biggest name is uh, QXO was 31.
Ondas, 30, which is a drone maker.
OpenDoor, 29. I mean, just lots of really aggressive bets, uh, being made against, um, a bunch of these companies. And if we go over here to, uh, the New York, and we look at the jump in New York, number one, Infosys,
number two, Stellantis, which is the old Chrysler, Snap, Nike. Let's just take a look at Nike.
Nike's kind of an interesting one.
I mean, the stock's making a bottom, and the shorts are just adding to it.
So, if it if it ever gets through like 45 or 50, like the shorts are going to be like, we got to cover.
And this is kind of one that I'm watching pretty closely. Palantir, look look what's been happening since February.
Look how the shorts have been adding to Palantir as well. And Palantir's basing, you know, it it clears 150, those shorts will be really having to scramble and and get out of the name. So, it's
it's keeping us pretty busy in Rebel Squeeze Play Pro and Rebel Squeeze Play Elite in getting names. Even even Meta was a fun one last week.
We did a Meta call spread on this little pop here that we saw last week here and here. I'll make it a little bigger so you can see.
And we got a we got we got in here, rode it here and here and got out in 2 days with like a a 60% call spread gain on the stock. So, lots lots of opportunities now, for sure. And that's that's kind of what's
going on in the in the short world, guys.
>> Well, folks, Jeff does the Rebel setup in the mornings. He also does, as he said, the Elite and the Pro Squeeze Play, where he's identifying exactly what he did, just like he did here,
for the subscribers. And when you have shorts like Pete talks about all the time, when they're stacked up in there and all of a sudden you have a break to the upside like what he may or may not see soon in Nike or in Palantir, there's all of a sudden nowhere for
these people to hide. They've made a lot of money on the way down, good for them, but they're kind of vulnerable if it starts to move up and it moves up quickly. So, Jeff, as always, great insights, my friend. Thank you.
>> Thanks. Thanks, Pete and John. Have a great day.
>> Thanks, John.
>> Nice job.
>> Yep.
>> Well, and I'd also say, folks, that when Jeff was highlighting how many shorts were in, and he said, "Hey, there's 18 billion short shares at the beginning of the year, and now it's 21." If you take that 3 billion difference, we've increased shorts by about 16 almost 17%.
And at times, they've been really right.
But, uh again, just like us on the long side, the shorts are, you know, experiencing a lot of pain when they're wrong. And with the market doing this, Pete, like a heartbeat, you know, you got to think they're getting squeezed right and left, just like the longs. I mean, the longs are squeezed when we go down hard. Short are squeezed when we go
up. And then it's just a question, do we bounce back in either case, or >> We keep going.
>> And uh yeah, Jeff does a great job breaking that down for everybody over at Market Rebellion. So, you guys definitely check that out. Well, Pete, let's let's dive into uh the PayPal issue today >> Mhm.
>> because apparently, I think you saw that Michael Burry uh was saying maybe it's not nearly enough that Stripe and their uh co-bidder are willing to pay for this, but a private equity firm known as Advent International uh with a little
Silver Lake Partners thrown in there, Pete, are bidding for PayPal uh a 28% premium to yesterday's close.
And I wish we had unusual in this one, Pete, but boy, PayPal has been sort of dead money for a long time, even though they're in payments, obviously, with both Zelle and PayPal, and they're uh a play in crypto, and maybe the crypto side has been what's held them back,
Pete. Yeah.
>> Well, um you're exactly right, John, and I'll tell you the value of the company is just amazing the direction that this thing has gone over the last even if you go back for a more of an extreme length, but then 5 years it's down 81%. So, it's just been down down down down, and
um they're they're I think going in at the right time, but will they get the price that they want? I mean, the price that they want right now, John, is a premium. I think it's 28% premium, $60.50, or something like that per share. And then all of a sudden I I I came across this thing with Michael Burry, and he's
saying, "You know what? That That's insufficient. Uh a realistic number's 100." Well, maybe it is, let's see where he's right now, right? I mean, I I I'm not sure how he pulls that out.
I I understand what he's saying, "Hey, this thing had this value, but it had this value back in 2021." It hasn't been over 100 bucks, John.
You got to go all the way back to 2022 before it actually hit 100. So, um you know, I I can appreciate what he's saying, but uh at the same time, hey, the reality is this is where this company is right now, and they've had some competition come out of it. So,
um interesting to see, stock is up about 14% today, so there that that part's pretty interesting. Would they go a lot higher? Uh my guess would be these guys are smart guys that probably wouldn't, but they might go higher than where they are right now. But I'm not sure they're going to the Michael Burry side of 100
bucks a share, either.
>> Yeah, I don't think they are, Pete. Um and you know, Michael could plug in, and again, this is not me hating on Dr.
Burry, but Michael could plug in 300, where it was 5 years ago, and say, "Yeah, they shouldn't take a penny less than 500." The markets are the markets. They trade every day that, you know, when the 5 days a week right now, apparently it's worth $54. That's where
it's trading right now. And where was it yesterday? $45 or whatever.
You can say on a takeover it's worth whatever you think it's worth to you, Advent, Silver Lake, or Strive, but it's trading where it's trading because the world isn't really believing in their story that much anymore. Right. So, the PayPal Mafia, which used to include Elon Musk, Pete,
he was one of them, Peter Thiel was one of them.
I don't know that they've done that much that's that outstanding lately. I'm sure they'd both like to see a higher takeover price, just like Michael Burry.
But, I don't know if they're going to get it, Pete.
All right. Let's take a look then at another one, Air Systems.
Because these guys absolutely surged, Pete, without a takeover being in the offing. They had a Q4 earnings beat that was rather substantial. They reported revenue growth up 33%.
I mean, keep in mind that IBM only had a 1% revenue growth, and people were not at all happy about that yesterday, along with the weak guidance and other things.
But, Air Systems Pete, looks like it's really hitting it hard, and the markets are really loving what they reported so far.
>> Yeah, I mean, this thing got all the way up to, and it's not showing here, but it it got all the way up over 100 at one point, John, that I saw. So, maybe that was, you know, before the market opened.
Settled in at around the '90s, where it where it's showing it is right now. They beat on the earnings in a huge way, John, for them. They They were looking to lose a penny, They actually made 11 cents. So, that's a pretty damn good bit beat. The revenue as well, the growth that they've got, you mentioned it, 33% year-over-year. That's pretty monstrous.
You look at the guidance that they gave for 2027, they they crushed that because they were looking for 85 million and now they put it up there to 130 to 150 million. So, you look at all these numbers, it's pretty darn impressive.
And there's a good reason why this stock has is running the way it is today. I I show that it it's been up as much as 28% today. So, I would say that's a pretty solid day.
And again, like we say, it's earning season and these earnings are crushing it.
>> Yep.
Uh it closed yesterday at 72. Today, it traded up over 110.
>> Yep.
>> Right now, it's only 91 or 92 P.
So, like you say, it's up 27% now, but at 110, oh my gosh.
>> Yeah.
>> Absolutely blew it out. And what do they do? Testing of semiconductor wafers and things like that. So, very very much on the high-tech side. And with Samsung and SK Hynix, uh you know, putting cold water on the sector earlier, uh this is something that really should
rather ignite interest in the sector.
And it is.
>> Yeah.
>> All right. What do you say, Pete, to BlackRock, BLK?
So, this one comes out. Are they an investment bank? No, they're not.
Um but in other words, is BlackRock really in the same business as Goldman Sachs? They have some overlap, for sure, but no, they're not an investment bank.
Um but nonetheless, this is a pretty strong report out of BlackRock. And uh their uh iShares Bitcoin Trust saw a lot of inflows, which I must admit, Pete, kind of surprised me because for the most part, a lot of Bitcoiners think it's
been dead money for a while. So, I guess somebody out there is calling, if not a bottom, a diversification into Bitcoin by throwing cash at BlackRock for their version of Bitcoin Trust. And maybe it's working.
I hope so, but they're the only ones really seeing it. Most of my Bitcoin friends, like when you and I sat with that big Bitcoiner out in Vegas, uh he was not as optimistic as some of the people are that are going into the BlackRock Bitcoin Trust.
>> Yeah.
Well, and and to your point, John, you were talking about, "Hey, how's it doing?" or whatever, year-to-date maybe even, um it's basically flat. It's up just a little bit, a couple of percent.
Uh meanwhile, Goldman Sachs, who you used as a measure, um 30%. So, you know, it gives you a little bit of an idea.
Yes, different businesses, and that doesn't mean that Sachs bad. It doesn't mean that BlackRock's not doing just fine, cuz I think that they are, especially with the 15 trillion they got in assets right now. I mean, that's that's a real number. Stock is up like 6 or 7% today, so having a pretty damn good day because their inflows are good.
You talked about some of those ETFs, that's also something that's pretty strong. But they beat on the earnings in a big way. They get they put up almost 14 bucks. They were looking for close to 12 and 1/2. And they beat on the revenue in a big way. A little over 7 billion versus 6.7 billion. So, um wherever you
look, these guys did really, really well also. So, the earning season so far, man, I mean, they are cooking, John. And crypto, yep, as you mentioned, that that's part of it. Maybe there's a little momo there, but uh let's also remember, uh when we look at some of the biggest things in in in the crypto world, and
we're looking at Bitcoin, Bitcoin was 126, I want to say. And here it is still kind of low lowed to sleep down here at 65,000. So, uh pretty much cut in half, right?
>> Yeah. Yep, that's right. And uh like I said, uh some of the biggest Bitcoiners that Pete and I have talked to have been licking their wounds uh rather than uh but they're still buying. I mean, as you remember, Pete, he said the gentleman that we were with said, "I just close my eyes and buy it every month."
>> [laughter] >> So, uh it's an interesting strategy, but it is what everybody always says, dollar cost average. If you're trying to time it, um I think you could get carved up even worse. Uh all right, let's talk about PNR, Pete, because this company
makes pumps and things for your home with flow or pools. Anyway, uh they came up with 2026 sales and earnings outlook uh that projected 4 to 5% or 4 to 7% decline. So, keep in mind, when IBM
said, "Hey, we're only going to grow at 1% revenue," people said, "So." Well, these guys are saying, "We're going to decline by 4 to 7% um in our revenue in the pool industry and so forth." And that is not good, Pete.
And they hit this thing hard, and then they had a little issue of a CFO as well, right, Pete?
>> I mean, nothing seemed to be going well for these guys, unfortunately, John. And it hit new 52-week lows, which, you know, is a reaction to that. I mean, it got underneath 58 today. So, uh that's not so good. But like you just said, the CFO resigns. He says, "I'm out, you know, I'm I've had enough." Earnings,
well, they put out a warning. Guidance, they cut it. Uh RBC came out and said, "Holy crap, we're we're downgrading this thing." So, I mean, across everywhere, you know, all you had to do is look at what they put up, the declines that they had as far as their outlook as well, John. That's what we always talk about, you know, it's great to see the earnings, great to see the revenue,
what's the outlook look like?
>> All right, Pete. I know you're going to like this. Now, none of us really like to hear that a successful program got there because of cheating. But on the other hand, if they did cheat and they get caught, well, there should be some sort of penalty or or if not, what's
going to happen?
They'll continue to cheat. So, you know, the the quote men of Michigan or whatever, you know, they like to really hold themselves out there at a very high level. And we've got friends that went to Michigan and many of them just great successful business people. I get it.
But there are also uh some real issues with their sports program, apparently.
And if you guys watch this video, you tell me what you think when you hear this.
>> Well, well, well, well.
>> So, former Wolverines assistant coach Chris Partridge is suing the University of Michigan for making him the scapegoat of their sign-stealing scandal. AKA, they fired him and now he's snitching on everybody involved.
>> Yeah. So, the lawsuit alleges that former Michigan president Santa Ono not only knew about the sign-stealing scheme, he instructed staff not to report their findings to compliance or the NCAA.
>> First of all, what a scumbag and a loser. I don't want to hear Michigan >> Scumbag and a loser.
>> How do you really feel?
>> Second of all, how about how everyone, all the way up to the university president, knew about the sign-stealing scheme except for the head coach Jim Harbaugh. But that's not all that comes out of this lawsuit, folks. It also alleges that current Michigan athletic director Ward Manuel was aware of the inappropriate relationship between
Sherrone Moore and his staffer Paige Shiver for years without taking any action. But then Ohio State beats Michigan like a drum in the big house and all of a sudden they pretend [laughter] to just find out and they fire Sherrone. Look folks, if either of these are true and I'm not exaggerating here, forget stripping them of the natty which should have been done years ago.
You got to bring back the death penalty for this program. I mean you have 12 staff members from the year 2021 to 2023 either sanctioned or moved on in midst of the scandal. You've got a former president intentionally derailing an investigation.
>> And you've got the athletic director literally covering up an inappropriate relationship and an affair that led to the stalking and breaking and entering of a female staff member's apartment.
But then when it was clear that he wasn't a great head football coach, that's when it came out and that's when he fired him. Michigan football is a disgrace and an embarrassment and it doesn't need to be punished, it needs to be shut down. Well, well >> Well, well, well, Pete.
>> He's wearing Ohio State gear from head to toe by the way. Just to point that out.
>> Against a Buckeye screen behind him too, Pete.
>> He might have He might have an axe to grind.
>> [laughter] >> He may. He may. But uh >> My god.
>> [laughter] >> If all that is true, Pete.
>> Yep.
>> If all that is true, I don't know how you don't number one strip them of the national title and because it was during that time frame with the sign stealing and all that. And number two, um how do you not give them a penalty like take scholarships away? Maybe
they're too big a program, Pete, to give them the death penalty like SMU got. But uh do they deserve to have the full complement of all the scholarships?
Maybe they have to cut some of those back to sort of really drive home how you know, how horrible this scandal was and how they let it go on. I mean again, if the university president is part of covering it up, telling staffers not to
disclose the truth? That's That's breaking the law, isn't it?
>> It doesn't sound great, that's for sure.
>> No.
>> It's funny, it's been hanging around and hanging around, and then every once in a while it explodes out with something like this or whatever, but uh I guess time will tell, John. That's going to be an interesting one. All right, college football, let's stick with it for a second here.
>> All right.
>> We haven't really talked much about it since since it all happened, but Brandon Sorrells B, we all know the story.
Basically, he's out for now. Uh who knows how long that now is, by the way, but um even got the NFL denial, right? That means they decided not to do that whole thing. So, here's the thing I thought would be interesting is, okay, so this kid was going to be a transfer anyway, they're paying him to come down there to
Texas Tech, right? Uh Texas Tech, by the way, was a pretty damn good football team last year. Um the signs are that they might be a pretty damn good football team this year, too. And they maybe don't need Sorrells B. And And I'll tell you, when when I started kind of breaking down and
looking at what their roster looks like and how many five-star guys at a lot of different positions that they've either signed recently or signed over the last year or two or whatever, that head coach that they've got, Joey McGuire, is doing an outstanding job, John. I mean, he's got plenty of money, there's no doubt he has access to I
think one of the largest amounts of money of anybody in football these days.
But, you know, he talks about recruiting, he talks about retention, holding on to those players. Shoot, these guys were in the Big 12 last year, they they they won that, they got into the playoffs, and um it didn't get as far as they would have liked to, but shoot, uh they were there, so it's a it's a pretty damn good program, John.
And I'm just wondering, should we just forget about this whole Sorrells B thing? I mean, is it Do we just say, "You know what? The kid made his own bed. He screwed up, and he got what he probably should have gotten." Um especially if, and then nobody really knows, some of the bets. But, you know, if he did anything nefarious with what
the information is that he had or whatever, who knows, but unlikely, I would say. I think the guy just had a gambling problem, and he was just a part of this whole thing, but either way, I think this is a team with Sorsby or without him. I think they've got a damn good shot. What about you? Can they beat Can they win the Big 12 and, you know, beat Colorado and some of those kind of
teams?
>> Well, they can beat Colorado.
>> Yeah.
>> Well, I just put that out there.
>> Yeah, and sorry about that, Deion, but yeah, they can beat Pete, they are um definitely, last year and probably coming in this year, a top 10 team, I think. And was their quarterback good last year? Yeah.
Uh and he's on New England's team now cuz he got drafted in the seventh round, but uh you know, the the kid threw for almost 2,800 yd, 22 touchdowns, and six interceptions.
>> Not bad.
>> So, they have a real offense. They're not like just uh a bunch of big road graders like Kansas usually does, Pete, where they have, you know, the 330, 340-lb kids that are great at run blocking, but might not be as great about pass blocking and all the rest.
But, when you're throwing for 2,800 yd and 22 touchdowns, you're pretty good.
Uh and it probably means you have a diverse offense already. You can run the ball, obviously, and they can pass the ball. Uh so, uh I would say that they're in a good position in the conference. Um it was a redshirt freshman who was coming in, Pete, as their number one, so you can't
blame them for going out and tapping some guy like Sorsby. It wasn't like they had a guy that was just this close to starting last year. No.
The guy that started last year, like I say, he's good enough. He might make the Patriots roster. We'll see behind Drake May and all that. But, I like I like them. I think they're going to be a great team again. And you named a bunch of reasons, like a billion reasons maybe, as to why they might have plenty
of money behind them with that big backer to make this one another run into the championship series.
>> Yeah, should be pretty cool to watch.
And you know, everybody's going to be watching Texas Tech because of all that stuff going on. I think that's just one more reason. And they're fun to watch.
They really are. They play great defense. They run the ball well, as you just said, they throw the ball pretty damn well, too. So, there's a good reason why they were where they were.
How about this one, John?
The The The Rams. The Los Angeles Rams.
Damn good football team, right? I mean, quarterback, even though with his age and whatever else you can be however critical you want, but the guy played an unbelievable season last year. And with the talent they've got, the offensive line and everything that they've got, the receivers, some of the running game as well that helps out for the passing
game. I would expect that it's going to be another good year on the offensive side. On the defensive side, it was okay. It could be better. And what did they do? They went out and they got Myles Garrett, um who is a damn good football player.
But, on top of that, John, this is the interesting part. Aaron Donald is talking about maybe coming back.
So, that defense suddenly looks a lot different than a lot of people probably were expecting. And their numbers already kind of matched up pretty well with Seattle. I mean, they're pretty dead even in a lot of different ways or whatever. But, I'll tell you what, that defense could really I mean, with those
two players alone on that defensive line, that really could change a lot for the Rams. And I I I think it makes them that much closer to being a Super Bowl type team. What about you?
>> Well, uh there's no doubt he's a huge talent, Pete. And I think he retired right after that Super Bowl win. Not positive of that, but I think that's when he retired, 2023. And uh uh so we're coming up on 2026 season.
>> Yeah.
>> Uh that's a long time to be away from the game.
Um so, I'm not saying though that it is a Shoot, Pete. Um our guy uh Von Miller is several years older than this gentleman, >> Yeah.
>> than Aaron Donald. Um and Aaron Donald was one of the dominant, strongest players in the history of the NFL. So, has he been keeping himself in shape? Of course. I I believe he would because that guy looks like a gym rat to me. Um
but he hasn't had the endur- The good news and bad news is he hasn't had to endure the injuries that you get as an NFL player for basically two seasons cuz he wasn't there in '24, he wasn't there in '25. He'd return this year. So, he's only been out two seasons.
>> Mhm.
>> But he's also been out for two seasons.
So, the question is whether or not he can make that comeback. Um if anybody could, Pete, this guy I believe has both the uh uh the strength and the uh the will to come back. Um he wouldn't be doing it for money. He
might do it for another ring.
Um because he knows with Myles Garrett on one side, if he can start on the other side, um I don't know how I don't I don't anybody makes yards on the Rams Um because that's a damn good solid football team right now and then you throw Miles Garrett in there and
then you bring Aaron Donald back.
That's a monstrous lineup that nobody wants to face.
>> Yeah, I totally agree with you. I I think it's interesting. I don't know for sure that it's going to happen. I know that it's been talked about. I know he's been talking about it, but uh it's going to be really really interesting, John.
That would change that defense and their offense is already damn near unstoppable. So uh to say that they would be one of the favorites for the Super Bowl, I don't think is that big of an you know, that you're not stretching too far for that. Hell, they were 12 and five last year. I mean, they're a pretty damn good football team already.
>> Yeah, and uh Seattle, you know, the team that they had to play multiple times at the end of the season. One time just because they're in the the conference um and the second time because of the playoffs, but that team was that close to going back to the Super Bowl, Pete.
Yeah, I mean, that's a really good team and you know, I think they're the betting favorite and should be the betting favorite to go to the Super Bowl this year and even win it. So, but uh again, they do have one of the oldest quarterbacks in the league, 38 years
old, but I haven't seen him slow down yet, Pete. And we know Aaron Rodgers uh plays into his 40s and this kid uh is Matt Stafford is, you know, a tough kid, smart kid and a great talent. So, yeah, I'd love it if Aaron Donald came back.
>> That would be cool. And yeah, Stafford Stafford's got good size as well.
>> Yeah, he's a big man. All right. Well, folks, thanks for joining us.
Uh we will uh be posting up, you know, on all the socials as always. We encourage you guys to share the videos and so forth, either the shorts or the the full-length videos and we appreciate all of you watching. We will be back at what time tomorrow, Pete?
>> What is it, John? Is it Oh, I got Oh, 1:00 Eastern time.
>> [laughter] >> 1:00 Eastern. We'll see you then. Bang.
>> [music]
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