March 17, 2023 • 48 mins
John defends Aaron Rodgers for wanting to move on from dealing with the ownerless Packers, and looks at the compensation holding up the deal. He also discusses if Jerry Jones is capable of learning his lesson from the albatross Zeke Elliott contract, why Josh McDaniels’ tenure feels like more of the same old Raiders dysfunction, how far Georgia DE Jalen Carter will drop as red flags continue to mount,
He also answers listener questions in the Middlekauff Mailbag.
Subscribe NOW and follow Middlekauff and The Volume on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for the latest content. It's always FanDuel for the best wagering action! #volume #herd
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Episode Transcript
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gambler dot net West Virginia. What is going on? Everybody?
John Middlecoff three and out podcasts? How are we doing? Friday?
Excuse me? Thursday afternoon. You'll probably listening to this on Friday, Hopefully,
(02:15):
you know, in line for a good weekend. I was
kind of dragging a little bit ago, but it's like
it's podcast time. Thought about walking across the street, grabbing
maybe a six pack slamming a couple and then podcasting.
But I said, you know what, just gravigatorade get my
mentals right, and let's talk Aaron Rodgers because obviously that's
what we're gonna do, is we're gonna talk to Aaron
Rodgers with McAfee, a couple other things around the league.
(02:36):
Zeke Waller, Chiefs, Jalen Carter having a rough go at it.
But I'm here, I'm ready to roll. Hopefully everyone's had
a good week. Rogers man, it just it just won't end.
It's the gift that keeps on giving. So we will
talk all things football. What I will do is have
a mailbag at John middlecoff is the Instagram firing those dms,
(03:00):
and I will do a podcast this weekend. A lot
of your dms, a lot of questions, anything obviously football related,
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(03:20):
fire in those dms if you got golf questions and yeah,
anything else. We got March Madness. I've been on Arizona.
They obviously lost immediately, so that was two hundred dollars.
I might as well have just lit on fire. But yeah,
we don't need to talk about it. Let's talk about
happier times in football before we dive in to all
(03:41):
things Aaron Rodgers, as well as some other stories around
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Thank me later. Kay, let's dive in the Aaron Rodgers.
(04:48):
I guess I'm not proud, though I'm entertained by McAfee
and a J Hawk and I watched the entire hour
of Aaron Rodgers Life. I couldn't turn it off, even
though it kind of ebbed and flowed and is in
its entertainment. I didn't enjoy McAfee, which clearly looks pretty stoned,
(05:08):
but you kind of gotta be if you're gonna go
an hour with Aaron Rodgers. And I wanted to start
with this before I'm going to defend Aaron, and I
am going to be critical of Aaron. I picked the
two angles, which I think are fair on both sides,
but overall, like I think we make somewhat too big
of a deal when it obviously, star players drive pro sports.
(05:30):
When I was a kid, it was Michael Jordan, cal Ripken,
Ken Griffey Jr. Through Tom Brady and Peyton Manning and
Lebron and Curry and Derek Jeters, and we all know
you're not building pro sports off the backs of the
working class guy, right, you know, the middle infield or
the offensive guard or the seventh man. You are as
(05:53):
strong as your stars. And in football it's the quarterback,
and it really always has been the quarterback. They make
more than anyone my entire life. Welcome to the business. Now,
I would say this, it's gonna be weird when he inevitably,
as of recording this has not been traded yet, plays
for the Jets. But like welcome to the gate, welcome
(06:14):
to pro sports. When I was a kid, like there
was always this story that you know, if you were
born anytime after like the sixties, you wouldn't even understand it.
But Willie Mays played for the Mets. And then once
you kind of lived through it, you see, Tom Brady
played for the Bucks, Peyton Manning played for the Denver
broncos Hell when I was really young, Joe Montana ended
(06:36):
up playing for the Kansas Chiefs. It's part of the business.
You know. One thing that I actually think is more
relatable now in twenty twenty three than it definitely was
thirty years ago. Like my mom had the same job
for thirty years. I can't tell you how many family
friends I had when I was a kid, like through
either my parents or my friends parents that had the
(06:57):
same job for a decade. I don't have one friend
who hasn't had minimum like three jobs by the time
they were thirty five. Most people in my generation, millennials
bounce around gigs. So society has changed in terms of
the way. It's actually much more relatable to sports. How
(07:18):
many people listening to this right now, if you're in
around my age thirty eight, whether you're a little younger
or a little older, have held several jobs in your life.
And I'm not talking like in high school and college
while we're construction one summer that I interned for Morgan Stanley.
I'm talking professionally earning a salary with benefits, having a
real job. Most people I know have bounced around, which
(07:41):
is kind of the cultural culture we are in right now.
It's also more access with LinkedIn times of change, but forever,
pro sports and athletes kind of like coaches, have always
bounced around and most people couldn't really relate to that.
I actually feel it's much more relatable now. Hell, people
like me, not in a million years, would have left
(08:02):
California the majority of my life. Now, I can't tell
you how many people I know that kind of paralleled
me left for financial reasons, for opportunities, for whatever, for job,
you name it. People just are more inclined to make
changes now professionally, it's like, I can't tell you how
many people I know in California that have sent their kids,
(08:24):
Like I know several people whose kids to go to
the SEC. When I was a kid coming out out,
like in high school in two thousand and two, thousand
and one, two thousand two, two thousand and three, I
knew one person who left the state of California really
for college, not counting like Oregon or Arizona. I'm talking
like headed East And it was a guy that went
to Virginia Tech because he got an engineering scholarship. It
(08:45):
was a no brainer. But most people went to schools
in California, whether it was the elite schools or the
state schools. You just stayed locally. That's not the case anymore.
So Aaron Rodgers gonna end up on another team, Like, yeah,
it's been happening since the history of sports, football, basketball, baseball,
Like Michael Jordan played for the Wizards. So Aaron Rodgers
it was inevitable that he was not going to end
(09:06):
his career on the Packers. Help Brett Farve. Now, granted,
one thing Aaron told McAfee is like, I'm the best
player in the history of the franchise. And I said, yeah,
he's right, Like he's a better player than Brett Farve.
Now is he more important to the franchise than Brett Farve?
We could argue that, but like once you get old,
Tom Brady was told by Bill Belichick in not so
(09:26):
many words, like we don't want you anymore. Peyton Manning
was cut. Joe Montana, who had won four fucking Super
Bowls never lost in the Super Bowl, was told, we're
going with Steve Audios, buddy. So I think, listen, it's
an awesome story because he's one of the most famous
players of the last several decades. He is right there
(09:48):
with the Brady Montana, Peyton Manning. You know, he's in
that world. You know, I don't know whether he ranks
fourth or whether he ranks seventh, but he's in the conversation.
I personally would have obviously Tom and Joe above him,
but I would have Peyton Manning above Aaron Rodgers. But
I would probably have Aaron Rodgers right behind Peyton Manning,
so the alway Marino, Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, like they're
(10:12):
all in the same world. So anytime you get a
player of this level of this fame, and hell, he
just won recently two back to back MVPs and probably
in a stretch right there with Mahomes and Brady is
the best player in the league in his late thirties.
So I understand that the polarization with him why it's
such a big story, but it's always inevitable. Most guys
(10:34):
do not finish their career on one team, and whether
it's a small market team like the Packers or whether
it's you know, the New York Giants or the San
Fransco forty nine ers, most guys play another snap on
another team. Sometimes that doesn't happen, but for the most part,
he is just following in the line of all the
elite players. Okay, I'm gonna defend Aaron Rodgers clearly if
(10:59):
you watch the interview, and I think Packer fans would
understand this if you don't quite know the Packers. Obviously
they don't have an owner, but they have a team
president who basically operates and acts like he's the pseudo owner.
And I've said this before on this podcast. I have
a hard time, like, if you're the best employee in
your business, if you don't take your manager seriously, if
(11:23):
he's not the owner of your company, right, like whoever
signed if you're listening to this, whoever signs your check,
whether you work for a smaller mom and pop shop
and you directly know the owner, or whether you work
for a big corporation, a big conglomerate and it's paid
for like an like an Oracle, an Apple or whatever.
You work for someone who has nothing to do with
(11:45):
your check beside like you have to answer to him,
but the money you're generating, like he is not the
grand poo ball in terms of the cash flow. It's
not his money, So I understand. Like Tom Brady, for example,
remember a couple of years ago, I guess it would
have been last year when it was clear he was
going to come out of retirement where he was spotted
(12:07):
with a son overseas. I think it's man City or
Manchester United that is owned by the Glazier family, which
Tom Brady has talked about like having a lot of
respect for why they're richer than him. On the hierarchy
of power in society, they're above him. And you saw
the same thing with Tom Brady when he was with
(12:28):
the Patriots with Robert Kraft. And one thing Aaron Rodgers
gets mad at is clearly I don't think he respects
Mark Murphy the president, and he doesn't love the way
they handle players, which makes sense, right. I've seen it
with the forty nine ers. They take a lot of
pride when a guy has cut or moved on about
keeping the door open. Jed Yorke wants to be friends
with them long term. I saw when I worked in
(12:50):
Philly with Jeffrey Lurry. You see it with a lot
of organizations. But Tom Brady, specifically with Robert Kraft. He
did not want him to leave on bad terms with him.
This is between you and Bill, you and the standing
in the organization will never change. That doesn't exist with
the Green Bay Packers because ultimately Murphy, why does he
give a shit? The Packers are not his. When Aaron
Rodgers makes forty fifty million dollars a year, it's not
(13:11):
his money, he answers to. I don't exactly understand the hierarchy,
the board of directors. Now he's a well paid middle manager.
So when Murphy last week goes on you know, Packer
dot com or the local television and basically says it's over,
he's kind of acting like he's fucking Robert Kraft, Jerry
(13:32):
Jones or Amara, and he's just simply not So I
understand Aaron Rodgers looking at him like we are not equals.
You don't not only sign my check, I don't work
for you yet the way the Packers is set up,
Gudakin's answers to that guy. So this is never going
to change. And I've said it before. Like the Packers,
I think, listen, it hasn't well, you know, inhibited their
(13:55):
ability to win. Now. Part of that as they've averaged
ten plus wins for thirty years because of Brett and
Aaron Rodgers, and they've done a good job of hiring
coaches and hiring general managers. But clearly there's a disconnect
when guys get cut and Aaron Rodgers is fought for
this for a couple of years because they're not a
normal setup. There isn't an owner in the building who
takes a lot of pride in those players want to
(14:17):
open the doors when they come back. Most organizations you
go to want those guys to be welcome when they
come back. It's a big deal. It's like the NFL's
version of alumni with college sports, and if you're a
good player for a team, you always want the door
to be open. That's a huge part of your identity.
It's a huge part as you get older, of continuing
(14:37):
to make money. And it's fair to say that the
Packers lack that, but I understand. I only worked in
corporate America for a couple of years when I worked
in radio, and I worked for a middle manager guy
my last year there. That is the most incompetent, dumbest
guy I've ever been around. If you've ever seen the
Howard Stern movie, I think he called them pig vomit,
(14:58):
you know. In the guy we to call him. If
you've ever seen the Seinfeld episode when they're sitting by
the guy on the plane and they dude can barely
form sentences and Elane's making fun of him, calls them
vegetable lasagna. We used to have these names for him,
and it was like this guy was in somewhat control
of my employment. Yet he was such a peon in
the grand scheme of things, and I had no respect
(15:20):
for him, and it was very hard to operate, and
it was the best thing that ever happened to me
when I had never really left. But I can, and
I think most people listening to this, like, you could
have a disagreement if you work for whoever owns the business,
but really, at the end of the day, you have
to respect like they own the thing. This is their money,
and whether they're paying you fifty grand or fifty million,
(15:41):
it's their cash. So there's always a level of respect there.
Like it's no different than you like with your parents,
or a real teacher and a substitute teacher, right, a
real parent and maybe a step parent, that there is
just a level of respect when it's not there, that
like when you are so good, And that's where Aaron
is on hierarchy of talent. It doesn't get any higher.
(16:02):
So I do understand with him looking at the organization
and just struggling with it sometimes when he knows that
a huge part for the last decade plus of ass
kicking and taking names has been because of him. Now
we can argue his personality and how bought it, and
he's been the last several years, and all the different variables,
and we'll get into that in a second, but I
(16:23):
do defend him in his disdain for Murphy, who again
acts like an owner and does not own the team,
and too like have they done the greatest job of
over his career handling some pretty legendary veteran players who
have helped them win a lot of games. I think
he's onto something there because he has friends on other
(16:44):
teams who's owners, whether it's any team that as an owner,
they take a lot of pride. If you play for
my team for seven, eight, nine years and we're consistently
good on you're always a part of this. Now the business,
inevitably we're going to break up, right, but that doesn't
mean that we can't come back together. Richard Sherman had
a bad breakup with Pete Carroll and John Schneider. He
(17:06):
went to the rival team, the forty nine Ers. Yet
this year when they played Russell Wilson, who was right
there game one Richard Sherman. So it's a big deal
to organizations that clearly the Packers, in Aaron's eyes, are
hit or miss. And I do think he's coming from
that in a pretty genuine spot. Now, if we wanted
to be critical of Aaron Rodgers during this whole situation
(17:29):
is one when you threaten to retire, like that gets old,
and that gets old fast. It's one thing when Tom
Brady's like, I don't know if I have anything left,
and he's like forty four or forty five years old.
You know, I don't know if I can keep doing this.
I don't know if the passion stad like that's understandable.
But when you're like the peak of your powers win
an MVPs, You're like, yeah, I gotta think about this.
Like that gets exhausting, and that gets exhausting fast. And
(17:50):
the number one thing, like I hate exhausting people in
my life. That's why I think me and Colin have
such a good relationship Professionally. I don't bug him like
bullshit about sports stuff, but when it comes to business wise,
any complaints, like there's none of that, Like we don't
do that. I hate that. He hates it, and our
professional relationship is awesome because of it. I think we're
a match made in heaven. It's like I don't I
(18:12):
see it with my girlfriend. I see it with some
of my other friends. They can have very like emotional
emotional draining people in their life. You're emotionally draining on me.
I'm moving on, okay. I don't have the energy. I'm
not good with it. Maybe that's a character flaw, but
like Aaron's pretty emotionally needy. Now, he's been so good
at his job. I do understand it. Now part of
(18:33):
his job. And when you're the quarterback, the offseason matters, right,
especially when you transition to players. So this year when
they transition to younger players and get rid of Davante,
like I understand the packers, like Aaron, we'd like to
hear working with these guys. We're trying to know, you know,
get over the hump in the playoffs, and we need
your participation. You don't have a twelve month a year job.
(18:56):
You get six months off, even if you come here
for three or four weeks the job. I think sometimes
players act like you know, seat some time off. You
get a fucking shitload of time off. You know, most people,
even people and making big money, whether you work on
Wall Street, run banks that aren't going under whatever, run restaurants,
most people don't just like yeah, it just works six
(19:18):
months a year, like coach held the coaches you know
where Andy Reid, Belichick and Sean Payton were today in
the office, you know. So it's like most jobs, you
don't get this huge period off. And he's always complained
about that. He didn't play that well this year, like
part of it, like anytime you're an older player, Like
part of the reason Joe Montana got traded. He had
(19:39):
injuries his back, Like they didn't think he could stay healthy,
White Peyton Mann and get cut. They had the opportunity
to take Andrew Luck, but they thought his back was
fucked right, Peyton Mann or I mean Tom Brady Belichick
basically shorted his age. He's like, I know, you're still
playing well kind of even though he's coming off a
rough season. You're forty one, forty two years old. I'm
gonna short you as a stock now. He was wrong,
(20:00):
But like as you get older or as you get injured,
sometimes be able to move on average season thirty nine
years old. I don't actually think it's that crazy logically
to move on for Maaron Rodgers. You know, the two
most famous coaches of the last forty years are Bill
Walsh and Bill Belichick. And the thing that they are
get so much credit on. You know, I think people
(20:20):
in like normal businesses, you know, I would say admire
about them is their ability to be early, not late,
in terms of getting rid of players and not being
stuck with albatrosh contracts famous players who aren't good anymore,
players who once you know their name, carried premium salaries,
(20:42):
but then their play no longer and they're always able
to pivot. So you could argue that they could have
just sold last year instead of giving him this contract,
and I think they probably should have. I think every
all parties regret that, but one hundred and fifty million
dollars he had just won another MVP. I understand it,
But I don't think it's that weird to get rid
of a thirty nine year old player who maybe you're like, okay,
(21:04):
now officially the arrow is pointing down now in twenty
twenty three. You never know, it's hard to like put
an age on a quarterback and say he's gonna suck, right,
like I would have said when they drafted Jordan Love,
which is clearly something that Aaron never forgot, which I understand.
I don't care what you do for a job. If
I bring in someone specifically to replace you, that would
(21:27):
bother you. Yeah, I understand it's part of the business.
But with quarterbacks is a little different. I could be
a star d lineman, I could be Nick Bosa, and
the Niners could draft every player in the draft could
be a defensive lineman. I know, I'm fine, right, But
with a quarterback, when you take a quarterback really high,
it was pretty clear what they were doing, and let's
face it kind of backfired because if they would have
(21:48):
traded up and got Justin Jefferson or Brandon I Yuk
or drafted T Higgins, they would have been better off
and maybe they would have got over the hump one
time in those three years when Aaron Rodgers was playing
pretty well. But ultimately with this situation, like I do
understand the Packers old player kind of a pain in
the ass. Can be a little exhausting when he's awesome whatever,
(22:09):
but if he's not gonna be awesome, see you later.
And I understand Aaron Rodgers going, Murphy, this isn't your money,
this isn't your team, and you walk around here acting
like you're more important than me, and we all know
you're not. And then in terms of the compensation, I
think it's somewhat complicated because the packers, I know you're
moving on, you're over it, but you have an asset
(22:31):
that you don't just want to give up for nothing,
especially when you factor in he's a quarterback. But I
do think you can look at it like this, You
once got this guy whatever pick twenty four back in
two thousand and five. He immediately became a first vowed
Hall of Famer and in the argument for a top
five quarterback of all time, probably I think most people
will probably put him somewhere like six to eight. But
that's what you got out of it for fifteen years.
(22:52):
So your return on investment you have got. You didn't
get a ten extra, you got one hundred excer. It
doesn't get any better a draft pick in the twenties
than Aaron Rodgers. That's as good as it gets. So
his contract makes it pretty complicated. He's kind of complicated
if ultimately you capitulate and give him for a second round,
because you just want to pivot. Even though if you
(23:14):
were listening to this you're a Diard fan. You know
the thing with the with the bonus, they can give
it any time up until September. Separate from that, Like,
if you just want to move on and just start
the offseason and just end this conversation, I don't think
it's that big a deal. And if you're the Jets,
if you like, I understand not wanting to give a
first round pick, which is for you this year of
pick thirteen, because you go this guy he just told
(23:36):
Pat McAfee two weeks ago that he went in the
Darkness Retreat ninety ten I'm gonna retire. So this is
a guy who's not only talked about retirement now for
a couple of years, just said he was ninety percent
going to retire this year. Now we talked to him,
we got a face to face. Maybe he told us,
but he just sure doesn't sound like he didn't even
(23:56):
commit to them that when they left his house, he's like,
just give me a week, let me see how I feel.
So it's not like, hey, guys, you trade for me minimum,
you got two years. The commitment is still kind of
loosey goosey. So if I'm going to invest a premium
pick and a lot of money into a guy, I
really don't get commitment. On the other side, it's great
for Aaron Rodgers. He gets to go one year, goes well,
(24:17):
keep playing if it doesn't see you later. Well, if
I'm the Jets, i gotta give up pick thirteen for
a guy that I'm getting off your hands, who you
want to get rid of any way, and pivot to
this other quarterback, which is your prerogative. Obviously, he is
an all time great player and immediately gives me a
chance to compete in the playoffs. But there's no long
term commitment here. So when I trade a first round
(24:38):
pick for Tyree Hill or Davante Adams, or two first
round picks back in the day for Jalen Ramsey or
clil Mac, I'm signing they're gonna be on my team
for a while. Now. Obviously they're a risk, they could
get injured, they could not be as good. But still
I know for a long period of time, I'm getting
a guy that's gonna be able to play. I could
get seventeen games at Aaron Rodgers, and because the AFC
(24:58):
is tough, we missed the playoffs. He's just quick. I
just gave you pick thirteen. I could also argue, like, listen, man,
if you win a couple of playoff games and get
to the AFC Championship game. The pressure on Aaron to like,
is he really going to retire off that? Would that
alone be worth it? Probably? Is there a point in
time where you're just like, I just want to get
this guy now. I would have some demands like listen, Aaron,
(25:20):
we're just gonna pull this trigger. You're gonna be here
during OTAs. We want you working with these players. We
don't need three months in the offseason, but can you
get us like one month of just which are really
three days a week. It's like Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. We
also act this is a Monday through Friday job. This
is three days a week and you're in the office
for like six seven hours. You can hang out in
(25:42):
New York, you can take your private jet to wherever
you want to go, fly across do whatever you want,
hit to Jupiter, Florida in the weekend. But can we
just get some of your time? Like there has to
be some give and take here. It's why when Tampa
signed Tom it was so easy. You knew you were
getting everything. You knew he didn't want to stop playing football.
You knew even during the VID and we had the dumbest,
(26:03):
fucking rules that have aged so poorly. He said, come
over to my house. Trained with the guys. They had
helicopters chasing him. The league was trying to find him.
That Tom, you got everything you had from Tom. When
the Broncos signed Peyton Mann, they got everything he had.
And that's that would make me nervous. I find the
Jets given that pick thirteen, that ultimately feels like they
end up capitulating to But listen, this is a complicated situation,
(26:28):
just like Aaron is a complicated individual. And if he
plays like an MVP, none of it matters. Simply, none
of it matters. You'll win twelve to fourteen games and
you'll compete for Super Bowl. But if he plays like
he did last year and you're the Jets and things
don't go well, and you go eight and nine and
you just gave pick thirteen, and then he's like, screw it,
I'm out. You're like, God, that wasn't quite worth it.
(26:51):
So I don't have a great feel for how this
is gonna go. I obviously the Jets have nothing to
lose in the sense of, like, what are their other options.
There's a no brainer for me, But I do see
the complications on their end about just getting in the
Aaron Rodgers business and what is going to cost me?
And how long I get a you know, feel good
(27:11):
about the guy being in my organization. The midway point
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gambler dot net, West Virginia. Couple other quick things. Contracts
really matter, right. We learned that with Jerry Jones, who
I think listen. He is a fantastic personality for the league.
For a guy that hasn't been to an NFC Championship
(29:47):
game in two and a half decades, his mark on
the league is undeniable and his personality. Love him or
hate him, everyone's got an opinion on him. And the
ultimate reality with football is the way they make money.
It's a big television show. It's basically you know, it's
not scripted, but it's reality television and Jerry is a
(30:09):
key character. Now. One downfall he has because they actually
have drafted pretty well over the last seven eight years,
they have drafted a ton of good players, is that
he gets very emotionally like there's a balance of drafting
good players and then being unemotional when you have to
make decisions on their contract. I loved Ezekiel Elliott in college.
I loved him early on in his career. How could
(30:30):
you not. He was a dominant player. He could run inside,
he could run outside, he could pass, block, he could catch,
He was a load. He was great in short yardage.
He could bust long runs. He was a beast. But
the thing with running backs you should never be in
a rush to pay them. And when you draft a
guy fourth overall, that means he got paid a lot
of money. He was a highly paid player the moment
(30:52):
you draft him, and you have the fifth year option
as a reason. Now I understand that he kind of
created Remember he went to Camp Moon or whatever. But
they paid him. I was looking at it this year.
They paid him after his third year. So he's drafted
in sixteen, he got paid going into nineteen, and obviously
he's never been the same. He got a fifty million
dollars guaranteed contract. That's where Jerry kind of hasked to
(31:14):
play hardball. And I read some of the quotes that
Jerry had when he paid him. It was about, you know,
Emmett Smith played in the league for thirteen years. He
was on our team forever. That is what Zeke's gonna be.
That's not usually the way it works, and most general
managers who are unemotional would have been like ze you
got to do this again, and then we'll pay you
after your fourth year, when most first rounders get paid.
(31:35):
You should never pay a non quarterback after the third year.
It's a first round pick, obviously, with guys drafting the
second through seventh round. But we've seen it. We saw
it with Todd Gurley and it had devastating consequences. And
same thing was Zeke, because you never know, you can't quantify,
you know, when the tread on the tire is gonna
(31:56):
go and the guy's gonna lack explosion and not be
a good player. But it came pretty immediately, was Zeke,
and it was a pretty devastating contract for the Cowboys
that they are still going to have dead cap space
on the books this year. And I think one thing
that these players do, at least with Dak who I'm
hard on the contract. You know, whether you're paying him
(32:17):
twenty eight million or forty million, his value as a
functional top twelve ish starter. He has moments where he's
the fifth guy, and he has moments where he's the
fourteenth guy, and probably averages out somewhere like nine to eleven.
It is fine, and you're still gonna win a lot
of games. Because he's the quarterback. When you're running back
is like a bottom fifteen running back as a starter
(32:37):
in the league, and you're paying you paid him fifty
million dollars guaranteed. It's a devastating contract. And I just
think Jerry, these agents and these players played to his
loyalty because, like I said, what the Packers are missing
that owner who wants to take pride in the guys.
You can argue Jerry takes too much pride in the guys,
whether it's Daz you know, whether it's Zeke, whether it's Dak.
(32:57):
It's like he's too close to the sun. And like Amari,
it was much easier for him to be unemotional. A
lot of Maori, like he signed him because he was
good and then he traded him. But when he drafts you,
you know, you see it with the offensive lineman, you
see it with the defensive lineman. He loves you and
he takes a lot of pride in you. And I
think some of these players play to that, and sometimes
(33:18):
it works and sometimes it has devastating, devastating ramifications. Josh McDaniels.
What I don't understand about Josh McDaniels is he's got
this McVeigh quality, except he doesn't win. And same thing
with Gruden is he turns on players so fast. Last year,
Darren Waller, you know, ultimately he's not the general manager,
(33:41):
but the general manager works for Josh McDaniels. He's the boss.
And they gave him twenty two million dollars guaranteed. They
gave him a three year, fifty million dollar contract. Now,
Darren Waller, when you pull up a stat sheet, was endless.
And I've watched a lot of Darren Waller because I
watched a lot of Raiders. When he was humming, he
was awesome. It was like him Kittle and else like,
and he was you know, Kittle's the total package, Kelsey's
(34:04):
the best receiver, and Waller is like, what the hell
is Waller? The six six guy that can run like
the wind unreal in the red zone? Can just who's
covering this guy? But when you look at his statute,
he hasn't really done much the last couple of years.
But even two years ago, like it had started trending down,
yet they still paid him. And then a year later
they like, yeah, we don't really want this guy. I
(34:27):
just think there's not really a method to his madness.
When it comes to Josh McDaniels, like, you have to
be able to coach and figure out guys that aren't
just your guys, right, or someone that you have a
connection with. What do they immediately do? Last year they
signed Chandler Jones. This year they bring in Jimmy Garoppolo,
they bring in Jacoby Myers, Like, you gotta figure out
(34:48):
and listen, I'm not acting like I wouldn't give Darren
Waller that contract. It's like, bro, you gotta prove you're
a really good player again and fit in our system
and then we'll figure it out. Right, you haven't done enough,
Like ultimately DeVante you break him off because he's been
the best or the top two or three wide receiver
for years. You don't even think twice. When it comes
to a guy that you have it coached and he's
coming off a bad year, it's like, what's the rush, Well,
(35:09):
why are you letting him bullow you around? And then
he does, and then all of a sudden a year
later you trade him. So it's just it's been very,
very rocky. It's been very very weird. You know, a
lot like when John Gruden got to the Raiders. It's
just dysfunctional. That's what it feels like. Dysfunctional, and it's hard,
Like there's a difference between dysfunctional and just being like
to me, denver does it feel dysfunctional. It just feels
(35:32):
like a coach run organization paying mcglinchy fifty million like Sean.
He's not a thirty million dollar player. But I know
when it comes to the season, he's gonna coach him hard.
He's gonna have him operating on a high level. Now
is that going to result in ten wins? I don't know,
but he will do everything in his power as a
head coach to make them successful work. I don't even
know if Josh McDaniels knows what he's doing as a
(35:52):
head coach. Obviously a good coordinator when he has Tom Brady,
but when he gets out on his own and he's
in charge of signing guys, on utilizing guys, on working
with different personalities, I think a lot of people think
he's weird, you know, and players struggle to relate to him.
It's one thing when you got Belichick in the building
(36:13):
and everyone kind of has to fall in line, right
like you walk into the Marine barracks, like everyone's at
attention when you know the head acho walks in. I
don't know the hierarchy, sergeant whatever, the lead of the
Navy seals like everyone gets up, stands straight. It's like
that with Belichick. You know, it'll be like that with
Sean Payton. I wonder if people start going like, wait
(36:35):
this guy, and it's just you know. I saw Darius
Slay tweet out like I tried to tell you guys,
and he was talking about Matt Patricia. But Matt Patricia,
Josh McDaniels, they struggle with the human dynamics of these guys.
You got to be relate to the players, whether it's
your center, whether it's your safety, whether its're tight end.
(36:56):
They all come from different backgrounds too, and it just
feels like, Josh, some's just off. I can't put my
finger on it. Didn't get a wrong car, didn't get
along with Darren Waller. It's like, who do you get
along with? Like it's just Jimmy Garoppolo. Why because he
was just once a Patriot. You sure that's gonna work?
Like Kyle he didn't always text Kyle Shanaian back. He's
(37:16):
gonna text you back what if he doesn't. Jimmy Garoppolo
has already worked like one hundred and forty million dollars.
He's not trying to prove anything anymore. He's rich. He's
richer than you. I think this Raider thing man is
off to a very, very rocky start. One thing I
find pretty fascinating is the Chiefs, like they're a good
example of not getting that emotionally tied. And I think
(37:39):
I heard Coward and bre Are talking about it today
of like, you know, the Chiefs are kind of the
new Patriots, or they don't get emotionally tied to guys
that they'll utilize guys coming off average seasons help them
resurrect their career. They'll take chances on guys like they
did when they traded for Orlando Brown. But they never
gave Orlando Brown some huge contract, right. They played it
(37:59):
out two years ago, they franchise them. This year. They
didn't resign him. They said, hit the open market, and honestly,
he didn't get that much money from the Bengals. Now
he's gonna play left tackle, right tackle. He can do
it both. And they went out and signed Juwan Taylor,
who was a right tackle. Really in college and then
the pros who they think they can move to left tackle,
(38:19):
but if it doesn't work, which is kind of risky,
but he's a much better athlete than Orlando Brown and
if it doesn't, you can always bump up to right tackle.
And hell, they could draft a left tackle in this draft.
They could trade up. You know, I still think that
they'll sniff around Laramie Tunseil. We'll see. But like heart
of being good with contracts and in free agency is
(38:41):
being unemotional and being able to say, like, listen, this
guy's a solid player. We can win a super Bowl
with him, but we're not going to go to that
price point. And Belichick for twenty years and the Patriots
for twenty years were the best at that. You'd be like, God,
you guys just won fourteen games, you won the super Bowl,
and you're gonna let this guy walk. It's like, yeah,
we think we got the most out of him, or
we know something that you don't. It kind of feels
(39:02):
like the Chiefs are doing that now. And that's that's
how you sustain, because the only way to not sustain
when you're good is the pay for average, right is
to give guys like Mike McGlinchey fifty million dollars, Like,
that's just you can't win with those type contracts. It's
not gonna work. But the Chiefs have figured out a
way to not really do that and be unemotional with
(39:24):
their decisions. Now, is everything one of them gonna work?
Of course not like can Taylor just bump over to
left tackle? Maybe not. They might eventually have to move
him back to right tackle, but they wouldn't be stuck.
It's not like, well, you screwed up. Now, we just
we could always change his position back to the one
that he's most comfortable with if he's unable to be
comfortable with it. So the Chief's got to be looking
(39:45):
at like, yeah, the Raiders are in shambles, the Denver
Broncos spent so much money on average, and like our
dynasty is about to really start humming. We're just getting started.
You see how many young random guys we just won
the Super Bowl with? Can you name majority of the
guys in our secondary? Do you know young? Some of
our linebackers are do you know young? Some of our
(40:08):
offensive skill guys are that barely just learned how to
play in the NFL? You know, good our quarterback is
no good our coaches. If I'm Chiefs fan right now,
I'm licking my lips like we're about to go on
a Golden State Warriors New York Yankees in the late nineties,
like is our league okay? A couple other quick things
around the league. Jalen Carter that many consider the number
(40:31):
one player in this draft from a talent standpoint, and
I would agree, is not having a good offseason. He
won't see received jail time for the reckless driving situation
with that led to the loss of life for a
girl in recruiting and a teammate, but he pleaded no
(40:51):
contest and also at a pro day where he showed
up out of shape. Listen, there are two reasons guyste
unquote fall. One, media overhypes them and in the eyes
of the NFL, they're not falling. They went where they should.
And then there are the guys that have off field
(41:12):
question marks and it's impossible to quantify, yet you still
know they are really good. Warren Sap Randy Moss or
two examples of everyone understood how good those players were,
but they fell because of off the field concerns. I'd
say one of the craziest drops was Laramie Tunzel based
on a picture that hell, I smoked some weed a
(41:36):
few times in my day. Even that one I thought
was like, what the hell is this? Never see anything
quite like that, So ended up falling. I think to
twelve was at twelve to the Dolphins. And people fall
for character concerns because I can't trust you, or I'm unsure,
or I just don't know, I feel uneasy. No one
(41:57):
in the NFL disputes how talent Jalen Carter is, and
there are not many guards and centers in the NFL
that can block the guy right now. But when you
don't trust the person, it'd be very, very difficult for
me to draft him really high. If there are other
players available. If there are other players available who I
(42:20):
think can be Pro Bowl level guys and are high
character guys, I would take them over Jalen Carter. Now,
that never guarantees anything, because there's no such thing as
a high floor. That's easy for us to say, it
doesn't actually exist because a lot of high floor players suck.
So Jalen Carter is a high ceiling guy who's already good,
(42:41):
but gosh darn it, he makes me nervous off the field,
and I know for a fact he makes everyone nervous
off the field. I am. I think it's fair to
say that this guy has a potential drop like a rock.
And to me, when you are legit number one overall talent,
to me, if you go in the team that that
would be pretty crazy. But I think it's all on
(43:02):
the table. I really do. He could still go five, six, seven,
you know, I think it's pretty clear he's not gonna
go in the top three or four because of the quarterbacks.
But I think you're looking at a guy who's gonna
fall because of off the field concerns, not on the
field concerns off the field. The Eagles, they've resigned a
lot of their dudes. You know, they're getting the band
(43:24):
back together. As of right now, it feels like they're
Darius Slay's gonna come back like he never left. James
Bradberry resigned, They resigned Brandon Graham, and they resigned Fletcher Cox.
Now Graham and Fletcher obviously just one year deals. I
think it's fair to say this would probably the last
year definitely for Fletcher. Maybe Brandon could go in a
(43:47):
year by year basis Travis Kelsey. Excuse me, Jason Kelsey
announced that he's going to return, took a tequila shout
with Howie, and then tweeted something out earlier this week.
So they're getting a lot of their old veteran players
back and they're gonna have influx of new players. Right.
Jordan Davis, a guy they drafted last year, is gonna
play much more moving forward. You would assume that Nakobe Dean,
(44:09):
the third round pick that they drafted, is gonna play
a lot more at at linebacker. They have the tenth
overall pick in this draft. I would guess that guy
is going to impact the team. They obviously have their
own first round pick, so I think they have a
unique ability to blend old and young because most teams
I would say it's kind of stupid to resign these
(44:31):
older players, but they have. They have a lot of
younger players, and they're gonna have multiple, you know, high
picks in this draft to immediately kind of get in
the mix. So to me, that that makes me understand
the move because I would say the Howie by nature
would be move on. But it's it's pretty tough with
with Fletcher and Brandon Graham, specifically right. Fletcher has been
(44:55):
a stalwart on that team who's clearly arrow is pointing
down and Brandon, you know, just kind of the heartbeat
of the defense. His energy had one of the most
historic plays, and I mean the most historic play in
the history of the franchise, given that is their only
Super Bowl win and uh and yeah, I mean the
Eagles as long as Jalen's healthy, until the Niners figure
(45:16):
out their quarterback situation, I think they gotta be the
favorite and last, but not least. You know, mister TikTok
Juju Smith Schuster was signed by the Patriots. I've seen
a lot of people kind of bag on the move,
Like I'll say this for Juju. When Juju played at USC,
they were good and he dominated. When Juju played in
the NFL, he's played for winning teams and he's been productive.
(45:38):
It'd be one thing if Juju was a big TikToker
and he played for shitty teams, Like, yeah, I don't
know this guy, what is he? Juju just was a
starting receiver caught almost eighty balls for the Kanci Chiefs.
So it's seemed to work out pretty well right there
with coach Reid and Patrick Mahomes before played five years
for the Steelers. Last time I googled them. They don't lose. Now,
(46:00):
they don't always win the Super Bowl, but they have
winning records. So this guy adds to winning. Does it
feel like Juju and TikTok and Bill are gonna work?
It could be weird, but listen, I've always kind of
liked Juju as a role player, and clearly they took
Juju over Jacoby. I haven't seen the breakdown of Juju's
(46:21):
numbers relative to Jacoby's, but you know, I think we're
somewhat splitting hairs. I think sometimes Bill, in his mind,
whether you're a late round pick or an undrafted free agent,
if he's never gonna view you as a guy he
feels comfortable paying, He's never gonna pay you, and as
long as he has the juice which Craft gives him,
(46:42):
like that's gonna happen, and like it's been really successful.
But I think I heard someone say it's like they're
still operating like Tom Brady's there and Tom was not.
It's kind of true, you know, you can't kind of
but the one year they splurged, it didn't work. So
maybe he's Gunshine. Now, I don't know. I don't expect
the Patriots to be a super Bowl team, But like
(47:03):
we've talked about before on the podcast, it's gonna be
hard for them ever to suck because he's just too
good of a coach. So even if they are quote
unquote shitty for them relative to the Brady years, what's
that seven to ten, eight nine, which sucks when you're
just stuck in no man's land. And when you got
Bill Belichick, I don't care what your roster is, you're
(47:23):
always going to be stuck in no man's land worst case,
because he's just too good of a coach. And now
they've got Bill O'Brien, i'd pick him to win eight
nine games, kind of in that range, but that's not
really where you want to be, especially in the AFC,
which is pretty stacked. Have a great weekend. Talk to
everyone soon. Audios. The volume
The volume. It's the three and Out Podcast presented by FanDuel.
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(01:51):
gambler dot net West Virginia. What is going on? Everybody?
John Middlecoff three and out podcasts? How are we doing? Friday?
Excuse me? Thursday afternoon. You'll probably listening to this on Friday, Hopefully,
(02:15):
you know, in line for a good weekend. I was
kind of dragging a little bit ago, but it's like
it's podcast time. Thought about walking across the street, grabbing
maybe a six pack slamming a couple and then podcasting.
But I said, you know what, just gravigatorade get my
mentals right, and let's talk Aaron Rodgers because obviously that's
what we're gonna do, is we're gonna talk to Aaron
Rodgers with McAfee, a couple other things around the league.
(02:36):
Zeke Waller, Chiefs, Jalen Carter having a rough go at it.
But I'm here, I'm ready to roll. Hopefully everyone's had
a good week. Rogers man, it just it just won't end.
It's the gift that keeps on giving. So we will
talk all things football. What I will do is have
a mailbag at John middlecoff is the Instagram firing those dms,
(03:00):
and I will do a podcast this weekend. A lot
of your dms, a lot of questions, anything obviously football related,
anything else. Subscribe to the podcast. If you listen to
Collins feed, make sure you subscribe to the three and
outfeed because the golf podcast goes there as well during
the week at Golo pod. At Golo pod as the Instagram,
(03:20):
fire in those dms if you got golf questions and yeah,
anything else. We got March Madness. I've been on Arizona.
They obviously lost immediately, so that was two hundred dollars.
I might as well have just lit on fire. But yeah,
we don't need to talk about it. Let's talk about
happier times in football before we dive in to all
(03:41):
things Aaron Rodgers, as well as some other stories around
the National Football League. I want to tell you about
my friends at game time. Go to your smartphone. I
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Thank me later. Kay, let's dive in the Aaron Rodgers.
(04:48):
I guess I'm not proud, though I'm entertained by McAfee
and a J Hawk and I watched the entire hour
of Aaron Rodgers Life. I couldn't turn it off, even
though it kind of ebbed and flowed and is in
its entertainment. I didn't enjoy McAfee, which clearly looks pretty stoned,
(05:08):
but you kind of gotta be if you're gonna go
an hour with Aaron Rodgers. And I wanted to start
with this before I'm going to defend Aaron, and I
am going to be critical of Aaron. I picked the
two angles, which I think are fair on both sides,
but overall, like I think we make somewhat too big
of a deal when it obviously, star players drive pro sports.
(05:30):
When I was a kid, it was Michael Jordan, cal Ripken,
Ken Griffey Jr. Through Tom Brady and Peyton Manning and
Lebron and Curry and Derek Jeters, and we all know
you're not building pro sports off the backs of the
working class guy, right, you know, the middle infield or
the offensive guard or the seventh man. You are as
(05:53):
strong as your stars. And in football it's the quarterback,
and it really always has been the quarterback. They make
more than anyone my entire life. Welcome to the business. Now,
I would say this, it's gonna be weird when he inevitably,
as of recording this has not been traded yet, plays
for the Jets. But like welcome to the gate, welcome
(06:14):
to pro sports. When I was a kid, like there
was always this story that you know, if you were
born anytime after like the sixties, you wouldn't even understand it.
But Willie Mays played for the Mets. And then once
you kind of lived through it, you see, Tom Brady
played for the Bucks, Peyton Manning played for the Denver
broncos Hell when I was really young, Joe Montana ended
(06:36):
up playing for the Kansas Chiefs. It's part of the business.
You know. One thing that I actually think is more
relatable now in twenty twenty three than it definitely was
thirty years ago. Like my mom had the same job
for thirty years. I can't tell you how many family
friends I had when I was a kid, like through
either my parents or my friends parents that had the
(06:57):
same job for a decade. I don't have one friend
who hasn't had minimum like three jobs by the time
they were thirty five. Most people in my generation, millennials
bounce around gigs. So society has changed in terms of
the way. It's actually much more relatable to sports. How
(07:18):
many people listening to this right now, if you're in
around my age thirty eight, whether you're a little younger
or a little older, have held several jobs in your life.
And I'm not talking like in high school and college
while we're construction one summer that I interned for Morgan Stanley.
I'm talking professionally earning a salary with benefits, having a
real job. Most people I know have bounced around, which
(07:41):
is kind of the cultural culture we are in right now.
It's also more access with LinkedIn times of change, but forever,
pro sports and athletes kind of like coaches, have always
bounced around and most people couldn't really relate to that.
I actually feel it's much more relatable now. Hell, people
like me, not in a million years, would have left
(08:02):
California the majority of my life. Now, I can't tell
you how many people I know that kind of paralleled
me left for financial reasons, for opportunities, for whatever, for job,
you name it. People just are more inclined to make
changes now professionally, it's like, I can't tell you how
many people I know in California that have sent their kids,
(08:24):
Like I know several people whose kids to go to
the SEC. When I was a kid coming out out,
like in high school in two thousand and two, thousand
and one, two thousand two, two thousand and three, I
knew one person who left the state of California really
for college, not counting like Oregon or Arizona. I'm talking
like headed East And it was a guy that went
to Virginia Tech because he got an engineering scholarship. It
(08:45):
was a no brainer. But most people went to schools
in California, whether it was the elite schools or the
state schools. You just stayed locally. That's not the case anymore.
So Aaron Rodgers gonna end up on another team, Like, yeah,
it's been happening since the history of sports, football, basketball, baseball,
Like Michael Jordan played for the Wizards. So Aaron Rodgers
it was inevitable that he was not going to end
(09:06):
his career on the Packers. Help Brett Farve. Now, granted,
one thing Aaron told McAfee is like, I'm the best
player in the history of the franchise. And I said, yeah,
he's right, Like he's a better player than Brett Farve.
Now is he more important to the franchise than Brett Farve?
We could argue that, but like once you get old,
Tom Brady was told by Bill Belichick in not so
(09:26):
many words, like we don't want you anymore. Peyton Manning
was cut. Joe Montana, who had won four fucking Super
Bowls never lost in the Super Bowl, was told, we're
going with Steve Audios, buddy. So I think, listen, it's
an awesome story because he's one of the most famous
players of the last several decades. He is right there
(09:48):
with the Brady Montana, Peyton Manning. You know, he's in
that world. You know, I don't know whether he ranks
fourth or whether he ranks seventh, but he's in the conversation.
I personally would have obviously Tom and Joe above him,
but I would have Peyton Manning above Aaron Rodgers. But
I would probably have Aaron Rodgers right behind Peyton Manning,
so the alway Marino, Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, like they're
(10:12):
all in the same world. So anytime you get a
player of this level of this fame, and hell, he
just won recently two back to back MVPs and probably
in a stretch right there with Mahomes and Brady is
the best player in the league in his late thirties.
So I understand that the polarization with him why it's
such a big story, but it's always inevitable. Most guys
(10:34):
do not finish their career on one team, and whether
it's a small market team like the Packers or whether
it's you know, the New York Giants or the San
Fransco forty nine ers, most guys play another snap on
another team. Sometimes that doesn't happen, but for the most part,
he is just following in the line of all the
elite players. Okay, I'm gonna defend Aaron Rodgers clearly if
(10:59):
you watch the interview, and I think Packer fans would
understand this if you don't quite know the Packers. Obviously
they don't have an owner, but they have a team
president who basically operates and acts like he's the pseudo owner.
And I've said this before on this podcast. I have
a hard time, like, if you're the best employee in
your business, if you don't take your manager seriously, if
(11:23):
he's not the owner of your company, right, like whoever
signed if you're listening to this, whoever signs your check,
whether you work for a smaller mom and pop shop
and you directly know the owner, or whether you work
for a big corporation, a big conglomerate and it's paid
for like an like an Oracle, an Apple or whatever.
You work for someone who has nothing to do with
(11:45):
your check beside like you have to answer to him,
but the money you're generating, like he is not the
grand poo ball in terms of the cash flow. It's
not his money, So I understand. Like Tom Brady, for example,
remember a couple of years ago, I guess it would
have been last year when it was clear he was
going to come out of retirement where he was spotted
(12:07):
with a son overseas. I think it's man City or
Manchester United that is owned by the Glazier family, which
Tom Brady has talked about like having a lot of
respect for why they're richer than him. On the hierarchy
of power in society, they're above him. And you saw
the same thing with Tom Brady when he was with
(12:28):
the Patriots with Robert Kraft. And one thing Aaron Rodgers
gets mad at is clearly I don't think he respects
Mark Murphy the president, and he doesn't love the way
they handle players, which makes sense, right. I've seen it
with the forty nine ers. They take a lot of
pride when a guy has cut or moved on about
keeping the door open. Jed Yorke wants to be friends
with them long term. I saw when I worked in
(12:50):
Philly with Jeffrey Lurry. You see it with a lot
of organizations. But Tom Brady, specifically with Robert Kraft. He
did not want him to leave on bad terms with him.
This is between you and Bill, you and the standing
in the organization will never change. That doesn't exist with
the Green Bay Packers because ultimately Murphy, why does he
give a shit? The Packers are not his. When Aaron
Rodgers makes forty fifty million dollars a year, it's not
(13:11):
his money, he answers to. I don't exactly understand the hierarchy,
the board of directors. Now he's a well paid middle manager.
So when Murphy last week goes on you know, Packer
dot com or the local television and basically says it's over,
he's kind of acting like he's fucking Robert Kraft, Jerry
(13:32):
Jones or Amara, and he's just simply not So I
understand Aaron Rodgers looking at him like we are not equals.
You don't not only sign my check, I don't work
for you yet the way the Packers is set up,
Gudakin's answers to that guy. So this is never going
to change. And I've said it before. Like the Packers,
I think, listen, it hasn't well, you know, inhibited their
(13:55):
ability to win. Now. Part of that as they've averaged
ten plus wins for thirty years because of Brett and
Aaron Rodgers, and they've done a good job of hiring
coaches and hiring general managers. But clearly there's a disconnect
when guys get cut and Aaron Rodgers is fought for
this for a couple of years because they're not a
normal setup. There isn't an owner in the building who
takes a lot of pride in those players want to
(14:17):
open the doors when they come back. Most organizations you
go to want those guys to be welcome when they
come back. It's a big deal. It's like the NFL's
version of alumni with college sports, and if you're a
good player for a team, you always want the door
to be open. That's a huge part of your identity.
It's a huge part as you get older, of continuing
(14:37):
to make money. And it's fair to say that the
Packers lack that, but I understand. I only worked in
corporate America for a couple of years when I worked
in radio, and I worked for a middle manager guy
my last year there. That is the most incompetent, dumbest
guy I've ever been around. If you've ever seen the
Howard Stern movie, I think he called them pig vomit,
(14:58):
you know. In the guy we to call him. If
you've ever seen the Seinfeld episode when they're sitting by
the guy on the plane and they dude can barely
form sentences and Elane's making fun of him, calls them
vegetable lasagna. We used to have these names for him,
and it was like this guy was in somewhat control
of my employment. Yet he was such a peon in
the grand scheme of things, and I had no respect
(15:20):
for him, and it was very hard to operate, and
it was the best thing that ever happened to me
when I had never really left. But I can, and
I think most people listening to this, like, you could
have a disagreement if you work for whoever owns the business,
but really, at the end of the day, you have
to respect like they own the thing. This is their money,
and whether they're paying you fifty grand or fifty million,
(15:41):
it's their cash. So there's always a level of respect there.
Like it's no different than you like with your parents,
or a real teacher and a substitute teacher, right, a
real parent and maybe a step parent, that there is
just a level of respect when it's not there, that
like when you are so good, And that's where Aaron
is on hierarchy of talent. It doesn't get any higher.
(16:02):
So I do understand with him looking at the organization
and just struggling with it sometimes when he knows that
a huge part for the last decade plus of ass
kicking and taking names has been because of him. Now
we can argue his personality and how bought it, and
he's been the last several years, and all the different variables,
and we'll get into that in a second, but I
(16:23):
do defend him in his disdain for Murphy, who again
acts like an owner and does not own the team,
and too like have they done the greatest job of
over his career handling some pretty legendary veteran players who
have helped them win a lot of games. I think
he's onto something there because he has friends on other
(16:44):
teams who's owners, whether it's any team that as an owner,
they take a lot of pride. If you play for
my team for seven, eight, nine years and we're consistently
good on you're always a part of this. Now the business,
inevitably we're going to break up, right, but that doesn't
mean that we can't come back together. Richard Sherman had
a bad breakup with Pete Carroll and John Schneider. He
(17:06):
went to the rival team, the forty nine Ers. Yet
this year when they played Russell Wilson, who was right
there game one Richard Sherman. So it's a big deal
to organizations that clearly the Packers, in Aaron's eyes, are
hit or miss. And I do think he's coming from
that in a pretty genuine spot. Now, if we wanted
to be critical of Aaron Rodgers during this whole situation
(17:29):
is one when you threaten to retire, like that gets old,
and that gets old fast. It's one thing when Tom
Brady's like, I don't know if I have anything left,
and he's like forty four or forty five years old.
You know, I don't know if I can keep doing this.
I don't know if the passion stad like that's understandable.
But when you're like the peak of your powers win
an MVPs, You're like, yeah, I gotta think about this.
Like that gets exhausting, and that gets exhausting fast. And
(17:50):
the number one thing, like I hate exhausting people in
my life. That's why I think me and Colin have
such a good relationship Professionally. I don't bug him like
bullshit about sports stuff, but when it comes to business wise,
any complaints, like there's none of that, Like we don't
do that. I hate that. He hates it, and our
professional relationship is awesome because of it. I think we're
a match made in heaven. It's like I don't I
(18:12):
see it with my girlfriend. I see it with some
of my other friends. They can have very like emotional
emotional draining people in their life. You're emotionally draining on me.
I'm moving on, okay. I don't have the energy. I'm
not good with it. Maybe that's a character flaw, but
like Aaron's pretty emotionally needy. Now, he's been so good
at his job. I do understand it. Now part of
(18:33):
his job. And when you're the quarterback, the offseason matters, right,
especially when you transition to players. So this year when
they transition to younger players and get rid of Davante,
like I understand the packers, like Aaron, we'd like to
hear working with these guys. We're trying to know, you know,
get over the hump in the playoffs, and we need
your participation. You don't have a twelve month a year job.
(18:56):
You get six months off, even if you come here
for three or four weeks the job. I think sometimes
players act like you know, seat some time off. You
get a fucking shitload of time off. You know, most people,
even people and making big money, whether you work on
Wall Street, run banks that aren't going under whatever, run restaurants,
most people don't just like yeah, it just works six
(19:18):
months a year, like coach held the coaches you know
where Andy Reid, Belichick and Sean Payton were today in
the office, you know. So it's like most jobs, you
don't get this huge period off. And he's always complained
about that. He didn't play that well this year, like
part of it, like anytime you're an older player, Like
part of the reason Joe Montana got traded. He had
(19:39):
injuries his back, Like they didn't think he could stay healthy,
White Peyton Mann and get cut. They had the opportunity
to take Andrew Luck, but they thought his back was
fucked right, Peyton Mann or I mean Tom Brady Belichick
basically shorted his age. He's like, I know, you're still
playing well kind of even though he's coming off a
rough season. You're forty one, forty two years old. I'm
gonna short you as a stock now. He was wrong,
(20:00):
But like as you get older or as you get injured,
sometimes be able to move on average season thirty nine
years old. I don't actually think it's that crazy logically
to move on for Maaron Rodgers. You know, the two
most famous coaches of the last forty years are Bill
Walsh and Bill Belichick. And the thing that they are
get so much credit on. You know, I think people
(20:20):
in like normal businesses, you know, I would say admire
about them is their ability to be early, not late,
in terms of getting rid of players and not being
stuck with albatrosh contracts famous players who aren't good anymore,
players who once you know their name, carried premium salaries,
(20:42):
but then their play no longer and they're always able
to pivot. So you could argue that they could have
just sold last year instead of giving him this contract,
and I think they probably should have. I think every
all parties regret that, but one hundred and fifty million
dollars he had just won another MVP. I understand it,
But I don't think it's that weird to get rid
of a thirty nine year old player who maybe you're like, okay,
(21:04):
now officially the arrow is pointing down now in twenty
twenty three. You never know, it's hard to like put
an age on a quarterback and say he's gonna suck, right,
like I would have said when they drafted Jordan Love,
which is clearly something that Aaron never forgot, which I understand.
I don't care what you do for a job. If
I bring in someone specifically to replace you, that would
(21:27):
bother you. Yeah, I understand it's part of the business.
But with quarterbacks is a little different. I could be
a star d lineman, I could be Nick Bosa, and
the Niners could draft every player in the draft could
be a defensive lineman. I know, I'm fine, right, But
with a quarterback, when you take a quarterback really high,
it was pretty clear what they were doing, and let's
face it kind of backfired because if they would have
(21:48):
traded up and got Justin Jefferson or Brandon I Yuk
or drafted T Higgins, they would have been better off
and maybe they would have got over the hump one
time in those three years when Aaron Rodgers was playing
pretty well. But ultimately with this situation, like I do
understand the Packers old player kind of a pain in
the ass. Can be a little exhausting when he's awesome whatever,
(22:09):
but if he's not gonna be awesome, see you later.
And I understand Aaron Rodgers going, Murphy, this isn't your money,
this isn't your team, and you walk around here acting
like you're more important than me, and we all know
you're not. And then in terms of the compensation, I
think it's somewhat complicated because the packers, I know you're
moving on, you're over it, but you have an asset
(22:31):
that you don't just want to give up for nothing,
especially when you factor in he's a quarterback. But I
do think you can look at it like this, You
once got this guy whatever pick twenty four back in
two thousand and five. He immediately became a first vowed
Hall of Famer and in the argument for a top
five quarterback of all time, probably I think most people
will probably put him somewhere like six to eight. But
that's what you got out of it for fifteen years.
(22:52):
So your return on investment you have got. You didn't
get a ten extra, you got one hundred excer. It
doesn't get any better a draft pick in the twenties
than Aaron Rodgers. That's as good as it gets. So
his contract makes it pretty complicated. He's kind of complicated
if ultimately you capitulate and give him for a second round,
because you just want to pivot. Even though if you
(23:14):
were listening to this you're a Diard fan. You know
the thing with the with the bonus, they can give
it any time up until September. Separate from that, Like,
if you just want to move on and just start
the offseason and just end this conversation, I don't think
it's that big a deal. And if you're the Jets,
if you like, I understand not wanting to give a
first round pick, which is for you this year of
pick thirteen, because you go this guy he just told
(23:36):
Pat McAfee two weeks ago that he went in the
Darkness Retreat ninety ten I'm gonna retire. So this is
a guy who's not only talked about retirement now for
a couple of years, just said he was ninety percent
going to retire this year. Now we talked to him,
we got a face to face. Maybe he told us,
but he just sure doesn't sound like he didn't even
(23:56):
commit to them that when they left his house, he's like,
just give me a week, let me see how I feel.
So it's not like, hey, guys, you trade for me minimum,
you got two years. The commitment is still kind of
loosey goosey. So if I'm going to invest a premium
pick and a lot of money into a guy, I
really don't get commitment. On the other side, it's great
for Aaron Rodgers. He gets to go one year, goes well,
(24:17):
keep playing if it doesn't see you later. Well, if
I'm the Jets, i gotta give up pick thirteen for
a guy that I'm getting off your hands, who you
want to get rid of any way, and pivot to
this other quarterback, which is your prerogative. Obviously, he is
an all time great player and immediately gives me a
chance to compete in the playoffs. But there's no long
term commitment here. So when I trade a first round
(24:38):
pick for Tyree Hill or Davante Adams, or two first
round picks back in the day for Jalen Ramsey or
clil Mac, I'm signing they're gonna be on my team
for a while. Now. Obviously they're a risk, they could
get injured, they could not be as good. But still
I know for a long period of time, I'm getting
a guy that's gonna be able to play. I could
get seventeen games at Aaron Rodgers, and because the AFC
(24:58):
is tough, we missed the playoffs. He's just quick. I
just gave you pick thirteen. I could also argue, like, listen, man,
if you win a couple of playoff games and get
to the AFC Championship game. The pressure on Aaron to like,
is he really going to retire off that? Would that
alone be worth it? Probably? Is there a point in
time where you're just like, I just want to get
this guy now. I would have some demands like listen, Aaron,
(25:20):
we're just gonna pull this trigger. You're gonna be here
during OTAs. We want you working with these players. We
don't need three months in the offseason, but can you
get us like one month of just which are really
three days a week. It's like Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. We
also act this is a Monday through Friday job. This
is three days a week and you're in the office
for like six seven hours. You can hang out in
(25:42):
New York, you can take your private jet to wherever
you want to go, fly across do whatever you want,
hit to Jupiter, Florida in the weekend. But can we
just get some of your time? Like there has to
be some give and take here. It's why when Tampa
signed Tom it was so easy. You knew you were
getting everything. You knew he didn't want to stop playing football.
You knew even during the VID and we had the dumbest,
(26:03):
fucking rules that have aged so poorly. He said, come
over to my house. Trained with the guys. They had
helicopters chasing him. The league was trying to find him.
That Tom, you got everything you had from Tom. When
the Broncos signed Peyton Mann, they got everything he had.
And that's that would make me nervous. I find the
Jets given that pick thirteen, that ultimately feels like they
end up capitulating to But listen, this is a complicated situation,
(26:28):
just like Aaron is a complicated individual. And if he
plays like an MVP, none of it matters. Simply, none
of it matters. You'll win twelve to fourteen games and
you'll compete for Super Bowl. But if he plays like
he did last year and you're the Jets and things
don't go well, and you go eight and nine and
you just gave pick thirteen, and then he's like, screw it,
I'm out. You're like, God, that wasn't quite worth it.
(26:51):
So I don't have a great feel for how this
is gonna go. I obviously the Jets have nothing to
lose in the sense of, like, what are their other options.
There's a no brainer for me, But I do see
the complications on their end about just getting in the
Aaron Rodgers business and what is going to cost me?
And how long I get a you know, feel good
(27:11):
about the guy being in my organization. The midway point
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gambler dot net, West Virginia. Couple other quick things. Contracts
really matter, right. We learned that with Jerry Jones, who
I think listen. He is a fantastic personality for the league.
For a guy that hasn't been to an NFC Championship
(29:47):
game in two and a half decades, his mark on
the league is undeniable and his personality. Love him or
hate him, everyone's got an opinion on him. And the
ultimate reality with football is the way they make money.
It's a big television show. It's basically you know, it's
not scripted, but it's reality television and Jerry is a
(30:09):
key character. Now. One downfall he has because they actually
have drafted pretty well over the last seven eight years,
they have drafted a ton of good players, is that
he gets very emotionally like there's a balance of drafting
good players and then being unemotional when you have to
make decisions on their contract. I loved Ezekiel Elliott in college.
I loved him early on in his career. How could
(30:30):
you not. He was a dominant player. He could run inside,
he could run outside, he could pass, block, he could catch,
He was a load. He was great in short yardage.
He could bust long runs. He was a beast. But
the thing with running backs you should never be in
a rush to pay them. And when you draft a
guy fourth overall, that means he got paid a lot
of money. He was a highly paid player the moment
(30:52):
you draft him, and you have the fifth year option
as a reason. Now I understand that he kind of
created Remember he went to Camp Moon or whatever. But
they paid him. I was looking at it this year.
They paid him after his third year. So he's drafted
in sixteen, he got paid going into nineteen, and obviously
he's never been the same. He got a fifty million
dollars guaranteed contract. That's where Jerry kind of hasked to
(31:14):
play hardball. And I read some of the quotes that
Jerry had when he paid him. It was about, you know,
Emmett Smith played in the league for thirteen years. He
was on our team forever. That is what Zeke's gonna be.
That's not usually the way it works, and most general
managers who are unemotional would have been like ze you
got to do this again, and then we'll pay you
after your fourth year, when most first rounders get paid.
(31:35):
You should never pay a non quarterback after the third year.
It's a first round pick, obviously, with guys drafting the
second through seventh round. But we've seen it. We saw
it with Todd Gurley and it had devastating consequences. And
same thing was Zeke, because you never know, you can't quantify,
you know, when the tread on the tire is gonna
(31:56):
go and the guy's gonna lack explosion and not be
a good player. But it came pretty immediately, was Zeke,
and it was a pretty devastating contract for the Cowboys
that they are still going to have dead cap space
on the books this year. And I think one thing
that these players do, at least with Dak who I'm
hard on the contract. You know, whether you're paying him
(32:17):
twenty eight million or forty million, his value as a
functional top twelve ish starter. He has moments where he's
the fifth guy, and he has moments where he's the
fourteenth guy, and probably averages out somewhere like nine to eleven.
It is fine, and you're still gonna win a lot
of games. Because he's the quarterback. When you're running back
is like a bottom fifteen running back as a starter
(32:37):
in the league, and you're paying you paid him fifty
million dollars guaranteed. It's a devastating contract. And I just
think Jerry, these agents and these players played to his
loyalty because, like I said, what the Packers are missing
that owner who wants to take pride in the guys.
You can argue Jerry takes too much pride in the guys,
whether it's Daz you know, whether it's Zeke, whether it's Dak.
(32:57):
It's like he's too close to the sun. And like Amari,
it was much easier for him to be unemotional. A
lot of Maori, like he signed him because he was
good and then he traded him. But when he drafts you,
you know, you see it with the offensive lineman, you
see it with the defensive lineman. He loves you and
he takes a lot of pride in you. And I
think some of these players play to that, and sometimes
(33:18):
it works and sometimes it has devastating, devastating ramifications. Josh McDaniels.
What I don't understand about Josh McDaniels is he's got
this McVeigh quality, except he doesn't win. And same thing
with Gruden is he turns on players so fast. Last year,
Darren Waller, you know, ultimately he's not the general manager,
(33:41):
but the general manager works for Josh McDaniels. He's the boss.
And they gave him twenty two million dollars guaranteed. They
gave him a three year, fifty million dollar contract. Now,
Darren Waller, when you pull up a stat sheet, was endless.
And I've watched a lot of Darren Waller because I
watched a lot of Raiders. When he was humming, he
was awesome. It was like him Kittle and else like,
and he was you know, Kittle's the total package, Kelsey's
(34:04):
the best receiver, and Waller is like, what the hell
is Waller? The six six guy that can run like
the wind unreal in the red zone? Can just who's
covering this guy? But when you look at his statute,
he hasn't really done much the last couple of years.
But even two years ago, like it had started trending down,
yet they still paid him. And then a year later
they like, yeah, we don't really want this guy. I
(34:27):
just think there's not really a method to his madness.
When it comes to Josh McDaniels, like, you have to
be able to coach and figure out guys that aren't
just your guys, right, or someone that you have a
connection with. What do they immediately do? Last year they
signed Chandler Jones. This year they bring in Jimmy Garoppolo,
they bring in Jacoby Myers, Like, you gotta figure out
(34:48):
and listen, I'm not acting like I wouldn't give Darren
Waller that contract. It's like, bro, you gotta prove you're
a really good player again and fit in our system
and then we'll figure it out. Right, you haven't done enough,
Like ultimately DeVante you break him off because he's been
the best or the top two or three wide receiver
for years. You don't even think twice. When it comes
to a guy that you have it coached and he's
coming off a bad year, it's like, what's the rush, Well,
(35:09):
why are you letting him bullow you around? And then
he does, and then all of a sudden a year
later you trade him. So it's just it's been very,
very rocky. It's been very very weird. You know, a
lot like when John Gruden got to the Raiders. It's
just dysfunctional. That's what it feels like. Dysfunctional, and it's hard,
Like there's a difference between dysfunctional and just being like
to me, denver does it feel dysfunctional. It just feels
(35:32):
like a coach run organization paying mcglinchy fifty million like Sean.
He's not a thirty million dollar player. But I know
when it comes to the season, he's gonna coach him hard.
He's gonna have him operating on a high level. Now
is that going to result in ten wins? I don't know,
but he will do everything in his power as a
head coach to make them successful work. I don't even
know if Josh McDaniels knows what he's doing as a
(35:52):
head coach. Obviously a good coordinator when he has Tom Brady,
but when he gets out on his own and he's
in charge of signing guys, on utilizing guys, on working
with different personalities, I think a lot of people think
he's weird, you know, and players struggle to relate to him.
It's one thing when you got Belichick in the building
(36:13):
and everyone kind of has to fall in line, right
like you walk into the Marine barracks, like everyone's at
attention when you know the head acho walks in. I
don't know the hierarchy, sergeant whatever, the lead of the
Navy seals like everyone gets up, stands straight. It's like
that with Belichick. You know, it'll be like that with
Sean Payton. I wonder if people start going like, wait
(36:35):
this guy, and it's just you know. I saw Darius
Slay tweet out like I tried to tell you guys,
and he was talking about Matt Patricia. But Matt Patricia,
Josh McDaniels, they struggle with the human dynamics of these guys.
You got to be relate to the players, whether it's
your center, whether it's your safety, whether its're tight end.
(36:56):
They all come from different backgrounds too, and it just
feels like, Josh, some's just off. I can't put my
finger on it. Didn't get a wrong car, didn't get
along with Darren Waller. It's like, who do you get
along with? Like it's just Jimmy Garoppolo. Why because he
was just once a Patriot. You sure that's gonna work?
Like Kyle he didn't always text Kyle Shanaian back. He's
(37:16):
gonna text you back what if he doesn't. Jimmy Garoppolo
has already worked like one hundred and forty million dollars.
He's not trying to prove anything anymore. He's rich. He's
richer than you. I think this Raider thing man is
off to a very, very rocky start. One thing I
find pretty fascinating is the Chiefs, like they're a good
example of not getting that emotionally tied. And I think
(37:39):
I heard Coward and bre Are talking about it today
of like, you know, the Chiefs are kind of the
new Patriots, or they don't get emotionally tied to guys
that they'll utilize guys coming off average seasons help them
resurrect their career. They'll take chances on guys like they
did when they traded for Orlando Brown. But they never
gave Orlando Brown some huge contract, right. They played it
(37:59):
out two years ago, they franchise them. This year. They
didn't resign him. They said, hit the open market, and honestly,
he didn't get that much money from the Bengals. Now
he's gonna play left tackle, right tackle. He can do
it both. And they went out and signed Juwan Taylor,
who was a right tackle. Really in college and then
the pros who they think they can move to left tackle,
(38:19):
but if it doesn't work, which is kind of risky,
but he's a much better athlete than Orlando Brown and
if it doesn't, you can always bump up to right tackle.
And hell, they could draft a left tackle in this draft.
They could trade up. You know, I still think that
they'll sniff around Laramie Tunseil. We'll see. But like heart
of being good with contracts and in free agency is
(38:41):
being unemotional and being able to say, like, listen, this
guy's a solid player. We can win a super Bowl
with him, but we're not going to go to that
price point. And Belichick for twenty years and the Patriots
for twenty years were the best at that. You'd be like, God,
you guys just won fourteen games, you won the super Bowl,
and you're gonna let this guy walk. It's like, yeah,
we think we got the most out of him, or
we know something that you don't. It kind of feels
(39:02):
like the Chiefs are doing that now. And that's that's
how you sustain, because the only way to not sustain
when you're good is the pay for average, right is
to give guys like Mike McGlinchey fifty million dollars, Like,
that's just you can't win with those type contracts. It's
not gonna work. But the Chiefs have figured out a
way to not really do that and be unemotional with
(39:24):
their decisions. Now, is everything one of them gonna work?
Of course not like can Taylor just bump over to
left tackle? Maybe not. They might eventually have to move
him back to right tackle, but they wouldn't be stuck.
It's not like, well, you screwed up. Now, we just
we could always change his position back to the one
that he's most comfortable with if he's unable to be
comfortable with it. So the Chief's got to be looking
(39:45):
at like, yeah, the Raiders are in shambles, the Denver
Broncos spent so much money on average, and like our
dynasty is about to really start humming. We're just getting started.
You see how many young random guys we just won
the Super Bowl with? Can you name majority of the
guys in our secondary? Do you know young? Some of
our linebackers are do you know young? Some of our
(40:08):
offensive skill guys are that barely just learned how to
play in the NFL? You know, good our quarterback is
no good our coaches. If I'm Chiefs fan right now,
I'm licking my lips like we're about to go on
a Golden State Warriors New York Yankees in the late nineties,
like is our league okay? A couple other quick things
around the league. Jalen Carter that many consider the number
(40:31):
one player in this draft from a talent standpoint, and
I would agree, is not having a good offseason. He
won't see received jail time for the reckless driving situation
with that led to the loss of life for a
girl in recruiting and a teammate, but he pleaded no
(40:51):
contest and also at a pro day where he showed
up out of shape. Listen, there are two reasons guyste
unquote fall. One, media overhypes them and in the eyes
of the NFL, they're not falling. They went where they should.
And then there are the guys that have off field
(41:12):
question marks and it's impossible to quantify, yet you still
know they are really good. Warren Sap Randy Moss or
two examples of everyone understood how good those players were,
but they fell because of off the field concerns. I'd
say one of the craziest drops was Laramie Tunzel based
on a picture that hell, I smoked some weed a
(41:36):
few times in my day. Even that one I thought
was like, what the hell is this? Never see anything
quite like that, So ended up falling. I think to
twelve was at twelve to the Dolphins. And people fall
for character concerns because I can't trust you, or I'm unsure,
or I just don't know, I feel uneasy. No one
(41:57):
in the NFL disputes how talent Jalen Carter is, and
there are not many guards and centers in the NFL
that can block the guy right now. But when you
don't trust the person, it'd be very, very difficult for
me to draft him really high. If there are other
players available. If there are other players available who I
(42:20):
think can be Pro Bowl level guys and are high
character guys, I would take them over Jalen Carter. Now,
that never guarantees anything, because there's no such thing as
a high floor. That's easy for us to say, it
doesn't actually exist because a lot of high floor players suck.
So Jalen Carter is a high ceiling guy who's already good,
(42:41):
but gosh darn it, he makes me nervous off the field,
and I know for a fact he makes everyone nervous
off the field. I am. I think it's fair to
say that this guy has a potential drop like a rock.
And to me, when you are legit number one overall talent,
to me, if you go in the team that that
would be pretty crazy. But I think it's all on
(43:02):
the table. I really do. He could still go five, six, seven,
you know, I think it's pretty clear he's not gonna
go in the top three or four because of the quarterbacks.
But I think you're looking at a guy who's gonna
fall because of off the field concerns, not on the
field concerns off the field. The Eagles, they've resigned a
lot of their dudes. You know, they're getting the band
(43:24):
back together. As of right now, it feels like they're
Darius Slay's gonna come back like he never left. James
Bradberry resigned, They resigned Brandon Graham, and they resigned Fletcher Cox.
Now Graham and Fletcher obviously just one year deals. I
think it's fair to say this would probably the last
year definitely for Fletcher. Maybe Brandon could go in a
(43:47):
year by year basis Travis Kelsey. Excuse me, Jason Kelsey
announced that he's going to return, took a tequila shout
with Howie, and then tweeted something out earlier this week.
So they're getting a lot of their old veteran players
back and they're gonna have influx of new players. Right.
Jordan Davis, a guy they drafted last year, is gonna
play much more moving forward. You would assume that Nakobe Dean,
(44:09):
the third round pick that they drafted, is gonna play
a lot more at at linebacker. They have the tenth
overall pick in this draft. I would guess that guy
is going to impact the team. They obviously have their
own first round pick, so I think they have a
unique ability to blend old and young because most teams
I would say it's kind of stupid to resign these
(44:31):
older players, but they have. They have a lot of
younger players, and they're gonna have multiple, you know, high
picks in this draft to immediately kind of get in
the mix. So to me, that that makes me understand
the move because I would say the Howie by nature
would be move on. But it's it's pretty tough with
with Fletcher and Brandon Graham, specifically right. Fletcher has been
(44:55):
a stalwart on that team who's clearly arrow is pointing
down and Brandon, you know, just kind of the heartbeat
of the defense. His energy had one of the most
historic plays, and I mean the most historic play in
the history of the franchise, given that is their only
Super Bowl win and uh and yeah, I mean the
Eagles as long as Jalen's healthy, until the Niners figure
(45:16):
out their quarterback situation, I think they gotta be the
favorite and last, but not least. You know, mister TikTok
Juju Smith Schuster was signed by the Patriots. I've seen
a lot of people kind of bag on the move,
Like I'll say this for Juju. When Juju played at USC,
they were good and he dominated. When Juju played in
the NFL, he's played for winning teams and he's been productive.
(45:38):
It'd be one thing if Juju was a big TikToker
and he played for shitty teams, Like, yeah, I don't
know this guy, what is he? Juju just was a
starting receiver caught almost eighty balls for the Kanci Chiefs.
So it's seemed to work out pretty well right there
with coach Reid and Patrick Mahomes before played five years
for the Steelers. Last time I googled them. They don't lose. Now,
(46:00):
they don't always win the Super Bowl, but they have
winning records. So this guy adds to winning. Does it
feel like Juju and TikTok and Bill are gonna work?
It could be weird, but listen, I've always kind of
liked Juju as a role player, and clearly they took
Juju over Jacoby. I haven't seen the breakdown of Juju's
(46:21):
numbers relative to Jacoby's, but you know, I think we're
somewhat splitting hairs. I think sometimes Bill, in his mind,
whether you're a late round pick or an undrafted free agent,
if he's never gonna view you as a guy he
feels comfortable paying, He's never gonna pay you, and as
long as he has the juice which Craft gives him,
(46:42):
like that's gonna happen, and like it's been really successful.
But I think I heard someone say it's like they're
still operating like Tom Brady's there and Tom was not.
It's kind of true, you know, you can't kind of
but the one year they splurged, it didn't work. So
maybe he's Gunshine. Now, I don't know. I don't expect
the Patriots to be a super Bowl team, But like
(47:03):
we've talked about before on the podcast, it's gonna be
hard for them ever to suck because he's just too
good of a coach. So even if they are quote
unquote shitty for them relative to the Brady years, what's
that seven to ten, eight nine, which sucks when you're
just stuck in no man's land. And when you got
Bill Belichick, I don't care what your roster is, you're
(47:23):
always going to be stuck in no man's land worst case,
because he's just too good of a coach. And now
they've got Bill O'Brien, i'd pick him to win eight
nine games, kind of in that range, but that's not
really where you want to be, especially in the AFC,
which is pretty stacked. Have a great weekend. Talk to
everyone soon. Audios. The volume
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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