So Long Sam

Opening

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Transcript

Machine transcript generated in 2026 by Grok Bot from the episode audio (Whisper small.en + sherpa-onnx speaker diarization). Speakers labeled Opening / Jake / Justin. Timestamps about every three minutes. Diarization note: HOST_LOCK: after Opening, host/welcome voice = Jake; other = Justin; host-first-speech cluster=1 @ 27.0s → Jake; other-primary cluster=0 → Justin; Justin name in host line kept on Jake (HOST_LOCK); Jason-ref Jake cluster 1 sim=0.80; WEAK clustering: dominant speaker share 97% (labels kept: host=Jake).

00:26 Jake: 338 times in a row and burning his Sam Darnell jersey. It's Justin, Justin, how you doing? Oh, we're talking about Jersey burning already. I'm not burning Sam's Jersey. I am disappointed however that I... own literally zero active players now in terms of jerseys. I've been burned by Jamal Adams, I've been burned by Sam Darnold, been burned by many others in the past, but those two I thought would be around for a while. And I was mistaken. I am not buying another Z ever. Ever, ever again? Ever, ever. I'm just sticking with my Joe Klecko, my Nick Mangold, and my Joe Namath. Stay there. I will probably go and buy another jersey. And my Curtis Martin and my Dorell Reavis. Those guys get to stay. Yeah, I have a Dorell, I of a Curtis Martin, but alright, let's talk about the news. We're having technical difficulties. I just turned off my camera just so we don't have that trying to bug me. We're going to try to see if this actually works. We'll see. Here we go. So, well, the big news hitting. We'll talk about the free agency, we'll talk about the big trade, and we'll talk maybe about a little bit about the draft, although... Draft's like in three weeks, so we should probably, we should start to talk about draft, but we come back with a better draft episode. So let's just talk about the news, the Jets got it done, act free agency, and we'll come back to free agency because there's lots to do. They traded Sam, bye-bye, three years, you're done. Thanks for playing, it's been nice knowing you. Traded-Sam Darnold, the new just Traded-Sam Darnold to the Carolina Panthers. I can't believe they actually found somebody. For three picks. We had a pick in the, so I'm looking at the numbers. We have a six this year, correct? Yeah. And then a two four, a two and a four next year. Yeah, and there's some like swap of six. So like, I don't know if we actually picked up three picks, not clear on that actually. But either which way, the trade kind of puts us in a really good spot in terms of drafting. We have many, many picks in the first two rounds over the next two years.

03:01 Jake: We have tons of, you know. space on the team for players to come in and make a name for themselves. Including that starting quarterback position, actually looking at it, it's not really that surprising that Panthers are the trade pair for the Jets here with Sam Darnold. Because if you go rewind, you know, to a couple years ago, before the Jets hired Adam Gaze. And after they fired Todd Bowles, they were very interested in the coach that is currently coaching Carolina, Matt Rule. He was a coach in college and they're the Jets entire thing. They were going to hire him. They liked him. He liked Sam Darnold. There was a thing there. And his thing was I want to bring my staff and they were like no you're a college coach you're going to work with Greg Williams on defense and because of that this guy said no I'm not coming to coach if you're not going to let me bring my. Staff and so we didn't get an up-and-coming coach who knows if he'll be good or not we don't know we've only seen him coach for one year with Carolina last year. But Carolina has this guy who believes in Sam Darnold and wanted to coach him for the New York Jets and now he's coaching in Carolina. The Jets have the Jets also let Robbie Anderson go and hey that guy signed him last year and he had a pretty good season last year in Carolina with our with our quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. So like I feel as though. Sam Darnold is going to be pretty good for Carolina. Well, I mean, he could have been good for the Jets if given a proper opportunity. I'm more convinced than ever that the coaching staff at an early age for quarterbacks is at the utmost of importance. And that a good coaching staff can always turn a quarterback around actually. You go to a good coaching staff, they have a good offense, they have things set in place for you and you just fit right in. And I feel like that's what Sam's gonna go to in Carolina. I'm not saying they have a great offense already, but they have players. They have Christian McCaffrey, he's great. Thank you for watching! If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe to our channel and let us know in the comments what you think! Thanks for watching! They have Robbie Anderson. We know what he can do. He can stretch the field and do things. That team's going to be interesting and I think Sam will have a nice career there, personally. Yeah, I mean, I think it's what we've been talking about for many months. It's like Sam wasn't working out under the Jets old regime. The question was, was the new regime going to stick by him? And we've always said... Incoming new coach likes to start with his own person doesn't like to start with the red dreads and they tried to play it like Oh, well, we're comfortable and Sam's great and yeah the end of the day You know you have a you have the second pick in the draft

06:02 Jake: You have two picks in the first round you have two picks in the next year And you have Sam who you know, yes moments of brilliance great But but really as we look to the numbers we looked at the three years. It's like never got better like Trying to explain to my 16 year old daughters this this morning or yesterday she was she was like what no Sam We suck for Sam that whole thing just to get him which remember this is a Sam journey goes back five years not Not three years and I was like yeah, but he just didn't get better like he didn't show enough after three years We talked about this in 337 different podcasts about how, yeah, one year can you evaluate a quarterback? No, not really, two years. No, you still gotta give him three years. I think we would always say, look, by his third year, we should be seeing an uptick, like you see in the future. And he never showed up. I'm bummed, I mean, honestly, because I like Sam, I liked him as a person. I liked him as a whatever. I met him, like didn't play ping pong with him, but played ping pong. or watched him play ping pong, watched every game, was excited about him. And you maintain that he was an average quarterback. Yeah, and we'll see. For the New York Jets, even though he wasn't. He was one of the worst quarterbacks in the entire league for the New York Jets objectively. Now that he's gone... We can all get that, right? Yes. Was he a good statistical quarterback? No, but we always said he's super young. It's not even statistical. Like, he didn't win. No, he didn't. So I... There was nothing there when like, all right, it's the fourth quarter and we just got the ball back and we need to score. It wasn't there. There was no confidence that we were going to score. It's like, all right, we're probably going to turn the ball over. And we're back where we were three years ago? Does that suck? Yeah, it kind of sucks, but it also, it's like, but that's where we were three years ago. We were excited about the future, so we have to go back to being excited. I'm back to being excited about the future. We have a ton of picks, ton of free agency, a brand new head coach who we hope is gonna be good. And yeah, we're gonna pick another quarterback and we're gonna try again. Like the other option is to spend six years figuring out the guy isn't very good. and then try again. And I think that just this double, the double whammy of the brand new coach, the lots of picks, the huge amount of money with a free agency, like it, it really leads to a feeling of, oh, you really should reboot now because next year, if you're down at number 10, like, you know, you're not going to have the chance to get the one of the top two quarterbacks. And it's just becomes more and more obvious that that's that's it. Like this is all this is a lock. This is a lock number two Just sucks to like be a jet fan sometimes, you know, yeah, because you look at you look at like Cleveland and baker and they did it. They did it. They made the playoffs Cleveland made the playoffs And look at Buffalo too, Josh Allen.

09:01 Jake: Buffalo made the playoffs. They did it. In year three, they did it. And look at Baltimore with Lamar. They did it. And to be a Jeff fan just sucks because we just never do it. We have to reboot again. Well, yeah. Like the fourth time in 10 years, just sucks. You just have to keep rebooting until one of the reboot works. And, you know, again, the game of football is so fun in that it's not just one person. You can't just take LeBron James, put him on your team and start winning championships. Like it's the beauty is it is the coaching staff. It is the ownership. It is the, you know, conditioning person is the head coach, the offensive coordinator. It is. There's a lot of factors that go into whether you win or lose. So that's where we are. We're rebooting. And we think once again. Again, where do we want to put all of our chips? Do you want to put them in the Johnson twins hands? No. Do you want to put them in Joe Douglas's hands? Yeah, we put all the chips in his hands. Okay, here you go. You got them. Let's go. What's what's what are you going to do? And he's like, okay, here's what I'm doing. I'm hiring this head coach looks good so far. And I've looked at the bar hasn't coached a game. I mean, that's how just coaches look good. They don't. Well, everything is everything is great. It's like, here's your draft. He got something for Sam. So you can say that. He did get something for Sam, which is pretty good. He did net some good stuff there in terms of what the experts said Sam was worth. Basically, people were just saying, yeah, keep them. Because then you let them leave, and you get the third round compensatory pick. So that's the baseline. You got to do better than a third rounder. Right. And we did. Kinda. I mean, I don't know what the add up of a two or four and a six adds up to. I get her than a third. I mean, there's a two in there. There's a two in there. Yes. There's, there's a twos are. And I don't know if there's any usually in these trades, it's like, if they play, but it seems like it's a straight up, it's not a if they play or don't play or whatever situation. It'll be fun to watch the Sam Darnold Teddy Bridgewater quarterback competition again. Well, and we play them this year. So fun. Can't wait. We play the Panthers and it's on. So, okay, Sam's gone. My only real jersey I've ever owned in my life is now a thing of the past. I will put it out to pasture and time to move on. So let's talk about some free agency stuff. Okay, well prediction. So let's just do some predictions for Sam. Let's put him on. Here's the prediction. The Carolina Panthers win more than, well, we can't really talk about the 17 games, but win our better team than 500, better than 500 team this year. Yes or no? Oh, let's do Sam as a starter. Yes or no. Yeah, Sam starts. I agree. You're not gonna trade away. Right. Okay. They're a better team than 500.

12:02 Jake: Um, well, that's like a big, like, you know, injury variable, but I'll say yes. I'm gonna go no. Alright then in three years Sam has won a playoff game. I'm gonna say no. Yeah, I'm gonna say no too. So there you go. If we're both saying look. the guy's going to start, but he's not going to win a playoff game the next three years. If I said he was on the Jets, we'd probably be a little bit more optimistic. But all right. So that's where we see it. We see like he didn't work out. He has a limit. He's not going to lead them to the playoffs. And if he's not going to lead them to the playoffs, then probably wasn't going to lead us to the playoffs. So then you just kind of say. Okay, good. We got out of a bad situation again as a person He's great and as we watch, you know, when I don't know when one of the last podcast we were on here There's a name we're not bringing up right now that we're not talking about We're not talking about trading all our picks for it's very interesting. You know, the world has changed in last. Yeah two months, there's a player who we were super like, trade away, get him, it's everything, three picks, four picks, give, give the, now it's like, wouldn't touch him with a 10 foot pole. Yeah, he might not even play this season. Right? Like, that's a, that's not a good situation. He's gotten himself into, um, but anyways, um, I guess, you know, one of the last things on Sam is... There was a time last year where there was a prime time game, I think it was. I can't remember what it was. They had the camera in the huddle pregame, that get hype huddle thing that they do. And like Sam was leading it and it was very uninspiring. It was like, wait, this is the leader of this team. He barely knows what to say here. Like he's not confident. And that was a thing to note. It's like, hey, this is your third year. You're the quarterback. You know, you watch Baker, Josh Allen, you watch these guys on the field and they're pumped. They're excited. Their teams behind them never saw that with Sam. Never saw guys like really rally around him and like get hyped around him. It just didn't happen. So that's something too, I think, to just note. Like personality. Those were not things coming out of his college tank. He was a leader. They talked like, did we just knock it out of him? Like, did we mono him out? So he became less than he was. I think when you come to the Jets, your confidence level automatically decreases. Well, that then then doesn't matter who we pick in the draft. Like, they're gonna suck. It's like you're on the Jets, you're gonna suck. And again, bad. That's where I think coaching is a big thing. Like you get a great coach and a great coach can make.

15:01 Jake: So this is going to be huge. Like this, and that's where I go as a fan. We'll talk about free agency. Like that's where I go as a fan. And that's where I was talking about that other player who now is no longer going to probably play. As a fan, I just have to go to what do I want to see? Like, obviously I want to win. Okay, we all want to win, right? But what I want to see, what do I want to get excited for? What I want to get dressed up on a Sunday morning and drive 30 minutes and park and sit in the cold? Like, what do I want to get excited about? And that's what drives me as a fan. Like what drives me as a fan is the opportunity to see fun and to have fun games. and to be excited about the future. And Sam gave us that, like we were excited. But at the end of the season, you know, it didn't feel like that. It felt like, yeah, this is not like he didn't live up to the hype. And so we're drafting quarterback, drafting Wilson at two. And with the new coach, with it, once again, I'm like, OK, fine. I'm ready to be excited again. Let's get excited. Let's go. All gas. No brakes. Fun. Like fun to watch. Like I'm excited to see. Like we preseason will be fun to watch. Like what's this kid gonna do? Is he gonna be good or not? Right? He's gonna have some rookie games. You're gonna be like, oh my god, he's terrible. Then he's gonna make a play. You're like, oh my god, he's the greatest. Like just as a fan, what I want is excitement and fun. And Because obviously I want to win Super Bowl, but I want the fun. Bring me something that I'm excited to turn on the TV every Sunday or go to a game every year. And just I'm excited because the outcome is unknown. And last year did not feel that way. Last year, we would watch games just knowing we were going to get our asses handed to us. And knowing we were going to lose. It was not exciting to watch, right? So I'm like, if anything, this just reboots me. And I'm like, great. New coach, new this, new that, new players, new rookie quarterback number set, tech and pick. And like, let's go. There's going to be some fun things to watch. So that's where I go with it as a fan. Are you excited for drafting? So you want to go right to the draft I mean Drafting I mean, I think it's that Wilson it looks like it's that Wilson He's the he's the pick that everybody keeps talking about it's funny that was it Justin Fields kind of fell off the Fell off the train He was the number two pick when when they were playing in the pool in the bowl games Everybody was talking about one to them and you know, it's fields fields fields And then that was it. Everybody talked about that. But then Wilson is just sort of, I don't know, I don't know how these things happen. A great pro day, a great, he's got to, you know, they just, it somehow just starts to happen that the player you were talking about during the program, the Pro Bowls is no longer play, is no longer the number two. He kind of falls. And then this guy starts to make the rounds and hit the papers and oh, this is the guy. Now he's presumptive number two.

18:00 Jake: Seems like it's him. I've watched some of his tape. I watched some of his highlights, you know I have the same thing when I watch every one of these highlights. It's like yeah, they look great. First of all, their highlights second of all Every time there's some play that the the wide receiver catches it and that corner falls on his ass and the wide receiver runs for another 30 yards, it's like I just, that doesn't happen a lot in the NFL. Corners are much better. They're on your ass. They don't let that ball go by them. So I always have that feeling of like, yeah, I don't know if this, if that was an NFL caliber corner on him, I don't think he makes that catch. So whatever, you know, the arm strength, sure. The mobility of the pocket, great. Is he six, three, 240 pounds? Sure. Great size. You know, does he look like a quarterback? Yeah, you know, it's got the little gleam in his eye. Two negatives. He's coming from a from, I don't know, BYU, really? Is that like a that's like a college powerhouse? Like, do you get a lot of awesome quarterbacks? Kind of a Hall of Fame quarterback coming out of BYU, which is. Steve, yeah. Okay, good. That helps me. And the other thing is, it's the who is the who's the guy? Who was the guy who who came out a couple years ago drafted. They always say didn't have motivation because he had money. Oh, he went to the Cardinals. Rosen. Rosen. Was it? You got it? Yeah, yeah, that's what you're talking about. Yeah, and it was just like, oh, he has money comes from family money. He doesn't have the doesn't have the drive. Like, that is a That's a real thing. I mean, they talk about Brady and his drive and he says in every interview, I'm still pissed 20 something years later about being drafted and, you know, whatever the sixth round, like, I'm still about I'm still pissed that that's like, that's my driver, I get up every morning and do 600 crunches because somebody pissed me off 20 years ago. So, you know, Zach Wilson, he's comes from the jet blue money like All right, then maybe he plays he's not playing this to make money. He's not playing it to, you know, get a $300 million contract because. Well, whatever it's not that he, but it's he's a, he's a wealthy kid. And so that always, I don't know. I hope that's not a negative. What's your thought? You think we're picking him or just going to wait and trade around. Now, I think we're. in a quarterback, you don't trade your starting quarterback when you hold the second overall pick when there's a bunch of quarterbacks in the draft that can be picked second overall to not to pick a quarterback. So we're picking a quarterback. I don't know. The Zach Wilson thing is a little like... It's a little scary, right?

21:10 Jake: It's like, time. I didn't think he was that great personally with my own eyes, but what you read about him is, hey, he's just as fast as like, our G3 and, you know, maybe not quite, but kind of right there with Lamar Jackson, like he's that level of athlete, but he's a better quarterback than all of them ever were. And it's like, wait a minute, that's interesting. Like those guys win with their athleticism alone and like being able to throw the ball in certain spots Because they're wide open because of their own athleticism and they open those spots by game plan and scheme. I Just think however that this coaching staff and this coordinator that we hired is more interested in a guy like Zach Wilson, who is more of a traditional quarterback in the pocket but can also move and roll and run a west coast, shanahani type of system. So that's what you're gonna see. You'll see a lot of stretch running zones. You're gonna see a ton of bootlegging and motion. I think you see tons of motion things you haven't seen in a while with the jets. And hopefully this kid can handle it because I think it probably is Zach Wilson at the end of the day. Not sure it's going to be right. We won't know for a couple of years, but that's the game, right? Hopefully the joke is, or hopefully you know the first year, right? Some of these quarterbacks have come out and that was the thing with Sam, like we didn't know. We had to wait till the second year and it was the second year, the last three games. The last three games of the second year were like, OK, maybe that's the guy. And then he goes to the third year and you're like, oh, that's not the guy. It's tough, though. Would you have said after year one, like Josh Allen looks like a guy? No, but after year two, it's like Josh Allen looks like a guy. And then in year three, it's like, whoa, this guy is like. But Lamar Jackson, the material guy, first year, like first year, he looked like the guy with the athleticism. You know, that's easily translated. It's like this guy can just run around you. Yeah, I mean, I'm look it went. The thing is, every time you get into that, like, oh, you're going to get the guy. You just remember that you just got rid of the guy that you just said was going to be the guy. So it feels like it feels weird to be like, OK, he's got the this, the this, this, you know, like, yeah, but that's what you just said about that other guy. Like that guy that you just traded away for a bag of peanuts, you literally just said was the guy and had all the thing and lucky to get him. And so we all know it's such a freaking crapshoot. I actually, you know, I did watch Justin Fields play. Like I watched him play in three games, more than I've watched any college player ever play anything. So I actually watched three games of his, the one with him, you know, the one where he went up against Trevor Lawrence, out of school, he beat him.

24:01 Jake: And then I watched the next one. And so I guess it was two or three. That was the third one. So I've never watched Wilson play. Right, so I watched this how would you have no cuz where the hell is BYU playing on TV? Honestly? Yeah, I don't I just I don't know that's that's sort of like deep in the deep in the depths of ESPN the ocho or whatever but like You know you're if you want to watch Zach Wilson, that's where you are You're on the ocho like auction at like 1030 in the evening and then that's sort of the thing, too It's like you you There is this like, there is this curse of the one two, right? The curse of the one two goes along. There is a theory of some kinds these guys drop. Remember, we have a second pick in the first round. There is the, I mean, I don't think we'll do it. I don this is Joe Douglas's thing. But sometimes you're like, no, that guy's overranked. He's not ranked as high as you want him. You don't need to pick him at. You can get something else to do and wait to see who drops down to you and maybe maybe they have someone else ranked better Right. I don't know like can maybe fields drops down below to below You know 10 and you actually the guy you wanted all on you get a blower or you trade back up from Whatever we have 20 something up to 10 to grab the quarterback. I don't know It doesn't seem like it, you know, you get number two picks. We look back We have kind of number two picking and forever so You have no idea until they pick them. I wouldn't be just drafted running back I lackluster By the way, I know we only have like five or ten minutes here. Yeah, who's the backup? Well, it's not what's a face gone. Flacco is off to Philly kind of interesting I don't know. It's nobody who the hell is our backup? You know, it would be fun. You know, it'd be fun. I know they won't do it pull a Redskins redskins. Redskins, sorry. The football team of Washington. Thank you. Sorry, I was confused there for a second. Well, they were the redskins when they did it. So, it's historically, where that year where they picked RG3 in the first round and in the third round they picked her cousins. third or fourth round? Fourth, yeah, they could do that. I mean, why? I don't think Cousins was actually the backup that year. I think they had another guy on the team that was a veteran, like to actually be the backup. I mean, how much crap would the Jets be in if they picked two quarterbacks in the first round? A lot. I mean, that's just dumb. in. You know it'd be funny if they got like Ryan Fitzpatrick or something to come,

27:05 Jake: Yeah let's get Uncle Josh back fine. He's like 50. It's fine. But he kind of ruined, again, he didn't do great with. With Sam. So let's get somebody I would disagree. I think Sam was great as rookie year for a rookie. We were very happy with Uncle Josh. Then Uncle Josh disappeared for his second and third year and... Sammy was comfortable with Uncle Josh. Sure. All right. We got a couple minutes. So far, free agency seems like no big splashes. It seems like just quality dudes. That's my take. It's like no huge splashes. No, like you got the guy, which has always been. We've done that every fucking year for years. We get the guy. We got. frickin the running back we got the guy we always get the guy and then that guy turns out to be a pumpkin so i'm a a A the and a the the and, . That's good to have on the team. Vinnie Curry adds depth in a line position that I think is going to change to a 4-3 from a 3-4. So you need more defensive linemen. This guy, Hardee, Justin Hardee from New Orleans is a DB who's apparently a whiz-bang special teamer. Like he's a gunner who tackles. And like New Orleans had the best special teams in the league last year and he was a big part of it. So that's good. We like that. That's good. Let me snack like a fifth receiver, Keelan Cole, who showed flashes with Jacksonville with Blake Bortles at times, but hey, it's a flyer on like a fifth, sixth receiver. Yeah, it's a funny thing when you don't have a very talented team and you look down at the people who have left and you're like, okay, so we lost Flacco, okay, we lost Basham, we lost You know, LooVoo, we watched. Andrew's like, yeah, okay. Just like, some of these guys like played a role for the Jets last year. Sure. But are they real NFL starters? I mean, I don't know. I think Cory Davis replaces Burchog Parraman perfectly fine. So Carl Lawson, which that's I did my bad. Yeah, because that's a big. Yes, I mean, that's a big signing. Yeah. three years, $45 million. That guy's that is, that's a big sign. That's like, they're going to ask him to sack the quarterback. Yes. Which is, I mean, when's the last time you

30:00 Jake: had an outside rusher sack a quarterback from a New York jazz? Like, I don't know. Sean Ellis, John, Sean Ellis, maybe big John, John, Sean Ellis had like years where he had sacked and Calvin pace actually had a year or two where he was sacked the quarterback. But yeah, nobody with any real. Consistency, I guess, Quinn and Williams might be like that guy. Yeah, brings a lot of pressure like a like a up the middle type of dude. But you need a guy coming around the edge to finish the finish the play. Yeah, I mean, around the edge, guys, something we just just. Yeah, I think John Abrams. No, that's what I ask. I feel like he was like, no, Sean Ellis. Sean Ellis was with the Jets far longer than John Abraham. They were drafted in the same year. And then they got rid of Abraham early on, like traded him for two firsts, like good value, I think. And but Sean Ellis was around like. He was around with Rex Ryan, like, and was a part of that. That game that we were at in New England, where they where they won that divisional playoff game, he had, I think he had one or two sacks in that game, he always killed the Patriots. Sean Ellis was a good player against the Patriots. He sacked Brady a lot. Yeah, I mean, look, I like it. None of them. So like, I don't seem to get no big splashes, but I don't think we've ever done very well with big splashes. So, you know. Let's get some value guys. And we have a big draft ahead of us. Like a double first round draft is like, that's two starters. Huge, big time. You don't get that very often. Like how many times the Jets have two number one picks? It's three, three times of what the, was it the D brick year, D brick man gold, the Chad. Wasn't Chad and Kishon, was that it? No, no, no, no. What am I remembering? There is one there's there were a few years under, um, Parcels where we had multiple, like there was one year, I think we had four in the first round. Yeah. And that's Pennington was a part of that draft class where we had four first tractors, Anthony back to was a part of that, I think. Butterfinger Beck. I believe he was a part of that class and that might have been the Abraham Ellis class too. I think that's right. And they had another one where they had multiples with D-Brick and Mangold later. This team is going to look very very different. Like we just, if you think of like the draft who we just drafted last three years, like It's gonna look very very different. This is gonna be a very different roster and in some ways You can see he's gonna build through the draft right? He's not going and getting those big name free agents He knows he has the draft capital. He's like I'm gonna pick like in the next two years I'm gonna pick 11 guys and like the first two rounds and those guys are gonna start. Yeah

33:02 Jake: and you got to pick them well. So it's up to him like, you know, let's see what he does. All right, I know you got to go. We'll see if this actually recorded. And until then, Justin Jake saying, let's go chance. Thanks for watching!