3 & Out - Bill Belichick’s Disconnect, QB Redemption Stories, and Joe Flacco to the Bengals

On this episode of 3 & Out with John Middlekauff, John dives into Bill Belichick’s lack of connection with his players and their families, and how that might be impacting the UNC culture. He also breaks down how several quarterbacks are finding a second life in the NFL and making the most of their careers. Plus, John reacts to Joe Flacco being traded to the Bengals and what that means for Cincinnati’s offense. Later, he explains why kickers are now playing a bigger role than ever in determining the outcome of games.
Finally, John answers your questions in this episode's mailbag segment.

Follow John on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for the latest. 

All lines provided by Hard Rock Bet

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. What is going on everybody, John Middlecoff three
in our podcast, how are we doing? Hopefully everyone's doing great?

(00:22):
Got a big show today. I do want to start.
I talked about this a little bit yesterday on the
Monday Night Football Reaction podcast at the end, but I
want to dive deeper into it and listen, I was
wrong about something and I want to address it, and
it'll be in revolving around Bill Belichick and the failure
and the disaster that is currently North Carolina football. We

(00:45):
will definitely talk some quarterbacks, Daniel Jones, Mac Jones, you know,
kind of have a Baker Mayfield, Sam Darmal. We've just
seen a lot of resurrections around the league these last
several years, and I don't necessarily think it's a coincidence.
And then we will also discuss the the kickoffs and

(01:07):
the field goal kickers have dramatically changed the sport. Like
what we're witnessing now on a weekly basis is a
much different game because of the new kickoff rule and
these guys' ability to kick long field goals. Then football
was like three years ago. And then of course the
mail bag at John Middlecoff at John Middlecoff is the
Instagram fire and those dms get your questions answered here
on the show and we will have a long mail

(01:29):
bag today as well. But that will be the game
plan today. So make sure you subscribe. If you listen
on Collins Feed, make sure you subscribe to three and
I appreciate everyone that subscribes and listens. And if you
want to watch, we obviously got a YouTube channel. You
can go subscribe and watch all of our content up
there as well. We react, you know, this Eagle Giants
game Thursday night. We will be live right after the
game reacting, very very exciting, stive it as in football.

(01:55):
I want to start with Belichick because I had mentioned
something a while back, and I had been pretty adamant
about this, and I was wrong, and I had simply
said that college football recruiting, the relationships don't mean anything anymore.
It's all about the money, whoever will pay you the most,

(02:15):
that's all that matters. In getting to know people, going
to dinner at their house, knowing their parents, interacting with
the circle of humans in their life doesn't matter. And
I was wrong, and I was thinking about this a
couple weeks ago when I flew out to New York.
Remember in twenty twenty and twenty twenty one, it's like

(02:35):
business travel is dead. No one will ever do face
to face interactions to do deals anymore. Everything's gonna be zoom,
everything's gonna be FaceTime, everything's gonna be over our computer.
And then over the last couple of years, business travels
booming and people that do business deals of any substance.
I don't know, kind of like to get to know people.

(02:58):
I flew out to to help facilitate a deal that
was probably ninety eight percent done, but you know what,
it's kind of important for both sides to see the people,
to talk with people and just get to know someone.
I was just with my one of my good childhood
friends who had his fortieth birthday at probably the boogiest

(03:19):
place in all of Napa, and a bunch of people
showed up, people I didn't know, and one of our
college buddies showed up. And he is currently in business
with Jordan Palmer, that is Carson's younger brother, who obviously
plays a big role still. You know coaches in the
off season, guys like Sam Darnold and Josh Allen, and
their business right now is thriving. He's doing really well.

(03:42):
And their relationship stems from high school. They've known each
other for over twenty five years. In relationships matter, And
I had a front row seat when I worked in
college football the coach Hill, Pat Hill, who had worked
for Belichick, who got hired at Fresno State, coming from
the Cleveland Browns and working for Bill Belichick and being

(04:03):
the assistant offensive line coach where Kirk Farns was the
O line coach, and running scout team against Nick Saban
every day in practice for years. And I witness that
man do in home visits, do school visits for years
and know his entire team, their family, their high school coaches,

(04:24):
their brothers and sisters. You know why that kind of matters.
You can say that I hate Ohio State kind of true.
I root against him. I do respect Ryan Day and
I have always said this. He takes recruiting very seriously.
His mentor Chip Kelly did not. He will openly say
like I hate recruiting, Well, then he can't really function

(04:44):
in college football. It's not the way it works. Like
you just hate recruiting, well, do you hate the draft?
I mean, this is like a basic element of the sport. Right,
this is how you acquire your players. Do you want
to go eat dinner at seventeen year old's homes four
months on end? Probably not? Hell, Deon Sanders doesn't even

(05:05):
do that. You know, Deon Sanders has never had a
home visit. Right. But I would say this about Dion
Sanders and how he would differ from Belichick is Dan's
got a pretty big personality and I've seen him deal
with a lot of different people. I mean, granted just
on social media with his own team, like his relationship
from Travis Hunter to his sons, to like the little

(05:26):
Mexican kicker. Like he's pretty good dealing with people. You
would say Dion's personality is a positive attribute. Belichick's personality
is a negative. No one's ever argued that his football
knowledge is an elite. Ask all the young offensive coaches
right now in the NFL McVeigh, Kyle Shanahan, Kevin O'Connell
who played for him. They speak about him like he's

(05:48):
the football Jesus hell Andy Reid, who is somewhat his
peer in terms of an age group. If you got
him unfiltered talking about Bill Belichick, they have the utmost
respect for his ability to understand the entire landscape of
the game, offense, defense, special teams, schemes, team building at all.

(06:08):
But no one has ever confused Bill Belichick for caring
about others. And listen, I have no problem with that, right,
that is his All of our personalities are different, and
he gives no shits about anyone. Well, in the pros,
when you screw up, right, if the Arizona Cardinals, the
dude that dropped the ball at the goal line, if
they wanted to, they're not going to because their running

(06:30):
back situations kind of in shambles with James Connor going down,
they could cut them Monday morning and say, listen, you're
gone right just because you drop the ball in the
end zone. It happens all the time. You see guys,
especially as the season goes and teams lose in the NFL,
you will see so and so got cut, so and
so got released, and sometimes just personality don't want to

(06:54):
deal with you anymore. It's a cutthrow business. Why because
it's pro football. In college football is kind of morphed
into that. The nil all I hear about is the nil. Well,
it's not the nil because I'm not paying for your name, image,
and likeness. I'm just paying you to play for my team,
which I got no issue. It's why I'm on the
fence of like I don't see. I read an article

(07:16):
today that arch Manning makes six point eight million dollars.
I was like, jeez, that's a lot. Hell, I heard
a story. I was listening to Brian Windhorse say the
kid at BYU, the basketball player makes seven million dollars. Now,
in basketball, it's a little different. These guys are one
and done. But in college arch Manning has been making
millions now for a couple of years. Well, the moment
you play and you don't get it done, you're not

(07:37):
going to continue to be my starter. But during the season,
you don't see guys in college football just get cut.
And part of this big story with college football, or
I mean with Belichick, has been he has no relationship
with any of his player's family with anything they got
going outside of football. Same thing with his son Steve,

(07:58):
who most guys on the team, even on his side
of the ball, don't even have his number. Well in football,
right when these guys worked for the Patriots, it was
like whether Jason mccordy or Devin mccordy or Dante high Tower,
and Belichick didn't need to know, his parents didn't need
to know, his girlfriend didn't really care. You either get
the job done or we will get rid of you.

(08:20):
Remember when Jamie Collins started playing like shit and they're
like trading him. It was cutthroat, and no one was
more cutthroat than the Patriots. Well that's not really how
it works in college, even in this transactional time. Do
you think that Kirby smart his starting lineup and guy,
especially that he recruited out of high school or even
the transfer portal guys, that he knows a decent amount

(08:40):
about that player. I'm not talking about strengths and weaknesses,
their ability on the field, but like their parents or
whoever is like the guiding mentor in their life. You
know why, because when that nineteen year old goes into
the tank, you kind of got to play, you know,
coach psychologists on the fly. You're not dealing with a

(09:02):
forty year old Tom Brady who has multiple kids for
multiple different women, who's been married for ten years, who
is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, who is forty
freaking years old, or Rob Gronkowski who's thirty two years old,
or Julian Edelman, who's thirty four years old. You were
dealing with a nineteen or twenty year old whose insecurities
go up and down, you know, as fast as a

(09:23):
stock market. Right. We're human beings, we're young human beings.
We haven't experienced that much in life. And if you're
a college football player, most of your life, definitely in
high school was probably pretty good because you were the
star athlete and the guy getting all the chicks when
you were fifteen, sixteen, seventeen years old. Then you get
to college, you start losing, you start getting yelled at,
it's not great. Well, Belichick doesn't give a shit about

(09:45):
any of that, and we knew that he didn't care.
And I always thought, like, well, does that even matter anymore? Yeah,
it still kind of matters, because remember last year when
Ohio State won the championship, or the year before when
Jim Harboss team won the championship, And I remember there
was a viral video JJ McCarthy's pro day and JJ's
family were there, and he just started talking to JJ's mom,

(10:06):
and maybe it was Blake Korum's like dad or so
like he just he knew all these people intimately because
that's college football and it still is even in this
NIL era. I bet you Ryan Day because he recruited,
like you know, the quarterback and the safety that transferred
from Alabama from high school knows their families. That doesn't
mean you need to text them about playing time on

(10:27):
a Tuesday, but it shows that, like, I know more
about you, because that's part of this deal. Because most
guys on your team, even at Alabama, Ohio State, and Oregon,
are not going to be NFL stars, and a programs
like North Carolina they definitely are not. So if I
don't get invested in as a player. The thing I
respect most about Pat Hill wasn't that he was one

(10:50):
of the trailblazers for smaller schools. I think he was
the first non power five million dollar coach. He pushed
so many small school guys that did not have offers
into the NFL. It was how much he cared about
his players and the guys that were gonna go to
the NFL. But like their girlfriends, their wives, he gets

(11:12):
invited to their wedding. That's usually how it works. Hell,
look at Andy Reid. Do you know who's gonna be
there at the Travis Kelce Taylor Swift wedding, assuming he
can make it. It's not like during the draft Andy
freaking Reid. Do you think Belichick's getting invited to any
of these weddings, let alone like they're just using this
as a transaction machine, which I think a couple of
years ago we thought, well, this is college football, well

(11:33):
kind of. It still is a relationship based business, just
like the real world is. It's like, well, just zoom
this guy, Well how much here asking for? You need
an investment in your startup? You want that guy to
give you five hundred thousand dollars. You think just a
zoom's gonna get it done? Probably not. You might need
to hop on a bird fly, have dinner with them. Hell,
maybe spend a couple of days with them. That's the

(11:55):
way the real world works in college football. I bet
if we went to Kirby Smart, if we went to
Ryan Day, if we went to Dan Lanning, Like, do
these guys still want to do home visits? Do these
guys there're gonna be days? Hell no, they don't, but
they know it's important and they know what matters. Like
do you think Dan Lanning knows Dante Morre's family knows
his parents' names. I would bet a million dollars right

(12:17):
now he does. Do you think Belichick has any fucking
clue about any of this stuff? No, And this is
where I thought Belichick would probably work because he's such
a good coach, And now looking at it, like, I
think the personality element kind of matters because recruiting, even
if money is involved, well, we know Belichick's not really
into offering a lot of money. That's never really been

(12:39):
hismo To think that he's just gonna outbid everybody on
these players all the time. That's probably not gonna be
his thing. Well, it's like, what about his relationships? What
about his personality? That is definitely not his thing. So
if the only thing you're hanging your hat on is like,
you know, in twenty fifteen, we were down twenty eight
to three, well cool, Coach I was nine years old.

(13:01):
I don't really remember that game. It's like, do you
remember when we have the undefeated team and we lost
to the Giants in the Super Bowl in two thousand
and seven or January two thousand and eight, Coach I
was two years old then, Like the age gap of
some of his success. You know, part of the reason
the Patriots beating the Bills the other night was such
a big deal. It's like they had been really shitty

(13:23):
for a long time now, Like it's not just a
year now relative to the last twenty five years. Obviously
they had a good run. But for a kid that's
eighteen years old. Ten years ago, the kid was eight,
So in twenty twenty five, when Belichick and Brady were
in their second iteration of the dynasty, kid doesn't remember
anything like I think back to my childhood. Some of
my first memories are more like tennish. And maybe that's

(13:46):
because I'm forty years old now, forty one. Actually birthday yesterday,
No big deal. Not a big birthday guy, though. But
I just I think this thing's only going to get
uglier because I see it myself. I bet many of
you listen can relate, especially if you're over thirty or
thirty five or forty. Our personalities don't change that much, right,

(14:07):
the way we're wired, the way we like to live
our life. I'm not saying we don't, especially if you
are an ambitious person not willing to adapt and willing
to professionally change. But the way you're wired, like how
you enjoy the party. I was just at over the
weekend one of my good buddies, his wife, she is
she likes to socialize and it gives her energy. You know,

(14:28):
I do it for two days and I'm like, I
am still tired. Four days later, I'm like, I'm exhausted.
She'll be at an event tonight or tomorrow and then
all weekend like it just it energizes her. And your
personality is something that kind of defines you, and you
have to figure out as you age how to professionally
dial it in so you can have the most success.

(14:50):
But you don't just become some crazy extroverted human. If
you're an introvert, Just like if you're an extroverted person,
it's really hard to lay low all the time. And
Belichick does not want to deal with a lot of people. Hell,
he was, you know, legendary for being a dick to
the guy that was paying him twenty fucking million dollars
a year. He wasn't he was well known in the

(15:11):
NFL circles. He wasn't even nice to the crafts one
individual that cut the checks for everything. And I've always
kind of offended him. I do understand if you're Bill, like, listen,
should it be nice to Robert? Yes? But the kid like,
I'm sorry, I can't take Jonathan seriously if I'm Bill,
But like where gets around like, hey, you don't want

(15:31):
to deal with that guy. And now he goes to
a university where there are way more hands than the
cookie jar. You got boosters, you got boro regients, you
got presidents, you got athletic directors, you got kids parents
that kind of matter, right, I mean kids' parents. Even
in eighteen nineteen, they still rely on these people. They
talk to them all the time. And high school coaches

(15:52):
like think how many high school coaches For the last
twenty plus years, Kirby Smart isn't just on a first
name basis with but like legitimately knows a lot about
their life, has hung out with them, has spent time
with them, has brought them to his facility over the
years for clinics, for beers, had played golf with them.
Like intimate relationships, that shit matters. Yet you look at

(16:15):
Belichick's relationships, It's like who who are his relationships? Hates
everyone of the Patriots. Now the Belichick boys follow them,
you know, look at the guys with Andy Reid. You know,
Matt Nagge gets fired by the Bears, goes right back, right.
Steve Spagnola had worked from the Philly comes right back.
These guys swear by the guy, even the guys that

(16:38):
go on on their own. I'll never forget being at
the Combine one year and seeing John and Jim Harbaugh.
And this was I think John was probably a year
away from winning the Super Bowl and Jim was like
in his first year at this forty nine ers and
they were walking together and they looked inside our suite
and they said aby, and they lit up like Christmaster.
I remember thinking it was pretty cool. And they came

(16:59):
in and they just kind of shot the shit for
like thirty minutes while the workouts were going on, and
it's like, I, you know, I just think this thing's
gonna be even a bigger disaster. And you'd be like, well, John,
everyone's kicking him while he's down, and it has nothing
to do with this team. This team is gonna suck.
We saw it against TCU. But I do think your
personality you can get by. Like Kyle Shanahan would have

(17:20):
no chance to recruit, Zero, wouldn't want to do it,
couldn't do it, couldn't even fake it, and so he does.
I'm just a pro coach. He would not do well.
But you watch Steve Sarkisi, and you watch Ryan Day,
you watch Dan Lanning. Their personalities are a little bit different.
It's why we all agree. Like, you know, I think
Sean McVeigh could do both. I think Mike Tomlin could
do both. Not saying they want to, not even saying

(17:42):
that they have. They would could like it wouldn't even
interest them, but if they had to do it, they could.
Like It's easy to see Pete Carroll's personality. It's like, yeah,
I get it. I could see him walking right down
the street, you know, by the Bloods and the Crips
and Compton and sitting in a dude's house and landing
the recruit with a big smile. I mean, the stories
were legendary. I heard the same stories about Pat Hill

(18:02):
when they tried to recruit Malik Jackson and his brother
who ended up going to USC and then Tennessee and
then won a Super Bowl with Denver. He just like, hey, coach,
chill stand at the sidewalk, do not walk down this
street in South central La. He got out of the car.
He fucking just belined it, didn't give a shit, liked it,
enjoyed it because that was his personality. That's always been
a Pete Carroll thing. Clearly, I see it in Dan Lanning.

(18:23):
You know, I think Ryan de Sark, I think Lane's
become that your personality really matters. We're in college. It
just doesn't where in the pros. What matters being the
ability to influence the quarterback. And I was thinking about,
you know, I love Baker Mayfield. I'm a big Oklahoma guy,
and early on my guy Drew Hill when he got
hired to Bob Stoops. You know, I think Baker was

(18:44):
like a year later and I watched every game Baker
played in college, and he's one of my favorite players
that I've seen over like twenty plus years, you know,
watching college football as an adult. Reggie Bush, Johnny Manziel,
Baker Mayfield. Now, the difference is like I that Baker
Mayfield was like an athletic Drew Brees when you watched
him in college, he dominated. Now looking back, his teams

(19:06):
were stacked, but he was. I mean, he's gotta be
one of the great Oklahoma players of all time. And
they have one of the more storied histories in all
the college football. And obviously, you know, John Dorsey bought
in to not just the player but the personality, and
it took a while for it to come to fruition.
He had to fail, he had to you know, grow

(19:26):
up a little bit. But like watching Baker Mayfield now,
like he was the number one overall pick for a reason.
The guy's a fucking player right now, you could argue
Sam Donald had more physical attributes. He was a number
three overall pick. So watching these guys getting good situations,
you know, I think Baker I just looked last night,
it was twelve to one. Today he's eight to one

(19:46):
to win the MVP. Sam Donald to me is like
he's not gonna win the MVP this year, but he's
a high end Pro Bowl level guy. It's like, yeah,
he's six foot four. I met him this year at
the at the Super Bowl. He's way bigger than you think.
His arms big and he can move. Like, yeah, it
kind of works. Now, you gotta be able to impart
a playing quarterback is more. You know, the attributes, all

(20:09):
that stuff matter, But how do you readefense is how
do you pross process, how do you handle the pocket? Like,
clearly those two guys have it, But looking back when
they were drafted, a lot of people thought they had it.
You know, people love Baker Mayfield coming out of college,
people love Sam Darno coming out of college. A couple
guys that to me didn't have their physical attributes, Daniel
Jones and Mac Jones. I think most people that I

(20:31):
know would have thought like crazy over drafts for both
Daniel Jones at six and Mac Jones at fifteen. But
like Daniel Jones was a legitimate, you know, top thirty
forty quarterback prospect. To me, Mac was a little bit
more quarterback inflation historically, but he was really good in college.
I'd have no problem taking him in the third round, right,

(20:51):
But you take a guy in the third round, he
could become your starter. Russell Wilson, Kirk Cousins, Dak Prescott
like that level of guy, and I'm watching him now.
We all need help. Most human beings are not Peyton
Manning or Lebron James, where if you coached them, if
they went to the best organization, if they went to
the worst organization, it would not matter. They were going
to succeed. Most people are not that. Most people are

(21:14):
not Steve Jobs, right. Most people need someone in their
life to help them and be a catalyst moving forward,
especially young, right. And football is no different than any
of us in life. I owe a ton of my
professional success because Colin Coward a long time ago believed

(21:34):
in me. And now I'm in a position with this
company and these people behind the scenes, and so much
goes into it that is out of my control in
a positive way. But I can't do this on my own,
just like many of you listening, whether you own your
own company, whether you're successful and working for a company
like you're dependent on other people. Hell, we know personally,

(21:56):
I got married a year ago, I got a child
on the way, Like my life is dreamadically better with
someone in it because we can accomplish more the two
of us than I could as a single human being. Right.
Football is no different and most guys. Tom Brady benefited
a lot from going to a place that turned out
to have one of the great defenses over the Internet era,

(22:19):
and a coach that listen just kind of shit on
him because he has no personality is an excellent pro coach.
I mean gonna go down as one of the great
coaches any sport ever. But like mac Jones and Daniel Jones,
they need people that believe in them, and they need
help around him, and they're very dependent on the play color.
Some guys like Lamar Jackson early in his career, very

(22:39):
dependent on the offense. Right now, Lamar Jackson can play
for anybody. You put Lamar Jackson on the Bengals and
they've started fucking rattling off wins with his eyes close,
assuming he his hamstring was healthy. Right. Mac Jones and
Daniel Jones are not that now. Daniel Jones has more
physical skills, he's bigger, he's faster, and he's got a
bigger arm. But mac Jones pretty good. Like once upon

(23:00):
a time, Nick Saban said, I want you here, and
when Tua went down, Mac Jones came in and had
a lot of success and obviously the next year won
his championship and I was looking today they are combined
seven to one in twenty twenty five, the forty nine
ers have won three games with mac Jones. Daniel Jones
is four and one right now, is the starter and
he is going to be a lifeline and get extensions

(23:23):
for the head coach and the general manager. They were
going to get fired a couple months ago, and now
they are going to get extensions assuming he stays healthy.
If he stays healthy, they're winning I don't know, eleven, twelve,
thirteen games, Like they're good and he's good. And he
needed Shane Stiken, just like Mac Jones needed Kyle Shanahan
because those guys make life easier. They can get you

(23:47):
in position. I saw this video that went viral of
Ben Jones, the former center for the Titans, and he
was talking about in twenty seventeen, when Terry Rubisky, longtime
you know wide receiver coach, been a coordinator a couple times,
said like Terry wouldn't even call plays. He would just
like give you the game plan and then you would

(24:08):
just like sometimes in like the second half or in
a two minute situation, he would just be like, go cook,
like we got like a second year quarterback here, and
Ben Jones and Mariota would just kind of on the fly,
be like calling plays in the huddle together. And back
when Kevin O'Connell whatever six months ago said more teams
fail quarterbacks, then quarterbacks fail team, and you see stuff

(24:30):
like that you're like Jesus, imagine getting these guys that
are young and a coach not even helping them out.
And I've always said this, you know, the NFL, especially
now it's Wall Street on grass, there's a position coaches
make nine hundred grand. Whenever you get a lot of
money involved, you get a lot of scam artists. The
amount of people in scouting, uh in coaching that are

(24:54):
doing it because it's a high profile, high paying job
has never, you know, been more prevalent than it was,
Like didn't pay anything in the eighties. It wasn't as
glamorous of a job. So if you were coaching, like
when Belichack and Coach Reid and Pete Carroll, like when
they got into sport, it was for the love of football,
which is honestly refreshing. I think about some of the

(25:14):
younger guys, especially the offensive coaches, like it feels like
they're junkies. Obviously they're all highly paid, you know, Ben Johnson,
Kevin O'Connell, Lafloor, McVeigh, Kyle, but it's like these guys,
these cats would have coached in the eighties and seventies
when it wasn't very you know, making much money. And
then there are some guys like this guy's just doing
it because it's football, make high six figures or seven figures,

(25:36):
but they're scam artists. You know, this guy has no business.
And I hear stories in the scouting community, you know,
guys trying to work their way up just because they
want to be doing press conferences, they want to be famous,
they want to make a lot of money that they
kind of skip steps and you know, don't actually they're
not in it for the right reasons. And I think

(25:56):
the one thing you see with Mac Jones and Daniel
Jones is sometimes when you get thrown a lifeline and
you get into a place where someone believes in you.
And I've said this for a long time, when you're
a younger person and Daniel Zones, I think is like
they're both you know, late twenties, but that's still pretty
young for dudes. You know, women are way more mature
than us. Help. My wife is seven years younger than me.

(26:19):
She is dramatically more emotionally buttoned up than myself. She
is way more mature at the same age than I
was in my early thirties. It's not even close. And
having people in your life that are successful to like
Shane Steichen is an excellent offensive coordinator. Kyle Shanahan, his
resume speaks for itself. So when these guys go, I

(26:42):
want you around. Look at Sam Donald's when his career
clearly changed for the better, you can say Baker Mayfield too.
Who are the two guys that wanted Sam and wanted Baker.
Sean McVay claimed him, and Kyle Shanahan signed Sam Donald
and their careers ever since have been like rocket ships
right up to the moon. You put those two in
Carolina with Matt Ruhle, who's completely over his head as

(27:04):
an NFL coach, with a GM that has no clue
what he's doing, and they look like scrubs, and then
you get him out and you go got Baker Mayfield
might win the MVP, and Sam Darnold is one of
the great stories like I ever remember, right, But you know,
maybe as the Panthers and the Jets, who are a
fucking joke. And I say this like I'm a huge
John Spidech guy. I hope he wins the Super Bowl

(27:27):
in his career as a GM. I have nothing but
admiration for Pete Carroll, but you're seeing those two guys
go to a franchise like that franchise loses a lot.
You know, Google the last twenty five years with the Raiders.
It's not something that's easy for people to overcome. Right,
you go to the Jets. What we witnessed Aaron Glenn

(27:47):
help Dan Campbell do these last couple of years in
Detroit was one of the great accomplishments we've ever seen
in football. The Detroit Lions are now a powerhouse. Imagine
telling someone that ten years ago. Listen, you're not gonna
believe me, but the Detroit Lions are a powerhouse. Hell
if I would have told people in the nineties or
the eighties or the early two thousands, you know that

(28:09):
the Golden State Warriors are gonna be probably the Lakers
equal in popularity and just dominance. Even no chance. That
shows you the power of Steph Curry. Right, He's a
transcendent human being. And that's even if like Pete Carroll's
proven to be transcendent changed USC they went through the
greatest stretch in modern program history. But the Seattle Seahawks

(28:32):
became a jugger. Not no chance that happened. And he
goes to Raiders. It's like, shit, is he gonna quit?
You know? Is this gonna drive him back to retirement?
So I just think it's really really cool when guys
you know that probably have a little less talent than
some just getting the right spot and see them flourish.

(28:54):
And I also think you see, you know when the
story of Shador miming the other day, you know what
we never saw is any dude on Cleveland kind of
come out, even like an anonymous player going, you know,
shoe Door's getting fucked. He should one hundred percent be
the starter. Never heard that. I'll never forget. When I
was around the forty nine ers a lot, do you

(29:16):
know what, You didn't hear much positive talk about Trey Lance?
Why because all the players knew he wasn't that good.
Nothing against him personally, but they knew he couldn't really play,
and players know and coaches know, and then eventually you
just got to do it. And you know what Mac
Jones has done so far of the season, he saved
the season. If they would have had a bad backup,

(29:36):
if they would have had a guy that is not
probably a starter in the NFL, the forty nine ers
would be like one and four, we'd be talking about
Kyle Shannan having back to back shitty seasons, like is
he legitimately on the hot seat? Is this franchise a
current disaster? Now instead they get Mac Jones, who's broke.
I think they're own six touchdowns so far this season.
We talked about the Colts. Their owner has a headset

(29:58):
on the sideline. It's like she wants to know, like,
if I'm gonna fire these guys, I better feel really
confident about it. Now she's sitting there on the sideline
and just watching touchdowns and forty point blowouts. She's like,
this is fucking incredible. Joe Flacco, he was traded today
to the Bengals. My overall take is he's got no chance.
He is probably the least mobile of any guy that

(30:20):
can be a starter in the NFL, Like right up
there with Kirk Cousins. Can't move at all, right, but
he's not a very good player anymore, and he's going
to a team with a horrendous offensive line. Horrendous offensive line.
Now I would have been like, well, why can't you
trade for like a younger, more mobile player, and who knows,
maybe you just get a little lightning in the bottle,

(30:40):
kind of like last year when the Packers traded for
Malik Willis, were like, idiots, what are they doing? Then
he saw Milik Willis play, You're like, oh, not terrible?
Like why I would much rather do something like that
than trade for Joe Flacco, a guy in your division
who again incredible career, seems like a fucking awesome dude,
and teammate can't move in You're off defensive line is

(31:00):
like me and you and three other guys blocking, He's
gotta get killed. Jake Browning and Joe Burrow are dramatically
better athletes, and they're getting mollywoffed on a weekly basis.
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(32:57):
In last but not least, there was this story that
I saw the Flourio put out that the NFL had
six double digit comebacks in one week. This was last
week for the first time since two thousand and three.
And we talked about this last week with the kicking balls,

(33:17):
that the kickers are now allowed to have all week
long instead of just an hour before the game, so
they can doctor the balls, you know, like the you know,
the Brady Deflaategate thing was you only got to deal
with the balls whatever the allotted time was pregame right, Well,
same thing with the kickers. You had an hour. Well

(33:39):
now you have all week long and you pick and
choose what balls you want to bring to the game.
And it's not really even arguable if you've been watching
football for ten, twenty thirty forty years, the sixty is
the new fifty, and honestly, like sixty five's the old fifty.
I mean, these guys are draining kicks from so deep
it's stupid. I mean, when you watch a sixty yard

(34:01):
field goal go in, how many times do you go, God,
that would have been good for like four or five
more yards. It's happening all the time. It wasn't that
long ago. When I was a kid, a fifty yard
field goal was a bomb. Teams would all the time
punt instead of kicking a fifty yard field goal. So
that has dramatically changed the math because we saw it
in the NBA. The three point shot had been around

(34:23):
for decades, but more and more people were shooting them
at a high clip, and more and more teams emphasized
it and put guys that never shot three pointers. They
usually played down by the basket outside the three point line.
So now you see these crazy comebacks in basketball. I
used to gamble on basketball all the time when I
was in radio because I used to hammer the over

(34:45):
for the KD. Russ Westbrook, OKC. They would score so
many points their individual team overs the game overs, and
I just remember, like this is cake and them covering
the spread against random teams. That they were really good
for a couple of year period time, right before he
came to the Warriors. But the same thing with the Warriors.

(35:05):
They would destroy people. But now you can have a
twenty point game and all of a sudden you're not
really paying attention. The team hits like four to threes,
all of a sudden, it's seven eight points right. Well,
on football, and we noticed this on Monday Night football,
you are much more one. You're not that far away
from field goal range just in general, if you have
sixty plus yard range. But this new kickoff rule has

(35:27):
dramatically changed the sport. We saw Harrison Butker couldn't just
kick it out of the end zone. Why because he
didn't want them to start at thirty five. So we
tried to have his cake and eat it too. He
tried to directionally pin them, and clearly they had probably
worked on it so they could tackle the guy withinside
the twenty five. But we see this happen all weekend
long when you try to do the pins right, almost

(35:50):
like a punt. Well, at a punt, if it goes
out of bounds at the two yard line, who cares well?
In the NFL, if it goes out of bounds on
the kickoff, you're starting at the forty yard line. So
the Chiefs go up four points, and then when they
kick off, the Jacks start at the forty fucking yard line,
and then they sack them essentially twice. Well, imagine if
they had just back in the day kicked the ball

(36:10):
through the end zone, they would have started the twenty
yard line. So even if he hits the forty yard
bomb on third and seven at the twenty three, they're
still at the thirty eight or forty yard they still
got a while to go. Instead he hits that starting
at the forty three yard line, they're basically in the
red zone. I do think the teams and listen. I'm

(36:32):
on board with the kicking changes. It is undeniably made
the game more entertaining. But a little like the three
point shot, like it's kind of fake, you know. You
know these comebacks, the ability if you've got thirty seconds
left and you're down a touchdown, well they kick it

(36:53):
out of bounds. You know, boom, I'm at the forty
I'm one play away from being at the other forty
and I'm well within Hail marriat distance. Before if you
had thirty seconds left, you're probably gonna start lateraling it
three plays in because you're gonna have to go eighty yards.
You're gonna have no shot. And if you're down a
touch or less than a field goal, you have a
very good chance to either tie the game or win

(37:14):
the game. So I do think Roger Goodell will say
this is unequivocally working, like there's no denying it. From
an entertainment standpoint. Then I think there would be people
like old school people. They probably don't like it because
they feel like we're kind of manipulating all this. You know,
before I would say the Chiefs win that game because

(37:35):
Trayner Lawrence in two minutes isn't going eighty yards. But
if you only has to go sixty, if you had
a forty three yard play, well shit, you've just made
up seventy five eighty percent of the yards you gotta go.
And uh, I don't necessarily have a take. I'm entertained
by it, but I do think it's a just dramatically
different sport with this new kickoff rule and with the

(37:58):
kickers being able to doctor the balls then we have
ever witnessed, and the comebacks, the more points a little
more difficult to gamble on. You know, before, if you
had a three point lead with under forty five seconds
and they got no timeout, it's like there's no chance
they're getting in the field goal range. Now it's like
even if they start at thirty five, they're two plays away.

(38:20):
They're kickers in range, kickers in range with ease. Hell,
they're thinking like touchdown, let alone field goal. Okay, it's
that time of the day. It's actually just mailback time.

(38:44):
Middlecoff mailbag at John Middlecoff at John Middlecoff is the Instagram.
Fire in those dms and get your questions answered here
on the show. Do you believe that Joe Flacco can
keep us in the mix until Joey B comes back?
I do not. I think you guys are completely screwed.

(39:05):
I would rather have for your team. I would rather
have Jake Browning than Joe Flacco. Ja. Joe Flacco cannot
move and your offensive line can't block, So you have
a guy who is a statue back there who is
not gonna have much time. You know, one thing with
Burrow and Browning, you know there has to be some mobility,

(39:26):
right I'm not looking Kyler Murray Lamar Jackson here, but
you have to be able to keep plays alive with
your legs and he cannot. I think the Flacco magic
of a couple of years ago in Cleveland was pretty cool,
but those that was a one time deal. This is over.
Do the Steelers have a defensive coordinator problem. I don't
think Austin is horrible, but he has no ability to

(39:47):
make adjustments. The last four or five years, we've had
great talent and some horrible defensive results. James games like
the Jets scoring thirty two this year, or like in
the PA last few seasons that made Zach Wilson and
Will Levis look great. When can we play based defense
and everything goes to plan, it looks good. But I

(40:08):
don't get why the run defense specifically isn't working. I
never see real adjustments being made. Letting Brian Flores walk
and not promoting him to DC when we had him
was a huge, huge mistake. I wanted to bring up
your guys schedule. I think sometimes in like the Flora situation,

(40:31):
it's easy to say that. I mean, it wasn't that
long ago Trell Austin was viewed as like a hot
coaching candidate. Listen, the division I think is over. If
the Ravens lose this week and they're one to five,
they would be have eleven games left to get to
get to ten wins. They would have to go nine
and two to get to nine wins, they'd have to

(40:54):
go eight and three like they're not doing that. The
Browns and the Bengals stink like you guys are kind
of in the driver's seat. So you get the Browns
this week, should win. Then you get the Bengals, should win.
Then you get the Packers, Colts some tougher games. Then
you go to the Chargers, Bengals again. At the Bears, Bills,

(41:16):
the Ravens they're in shambles, the Dolphins, the Browns again.
I mean, I think the Steelers are winning this division
at like ten and seven, you'll be fine. Now, to me,
your defense comes down to two things. Pass rush number one.
If TJ is gonna dominate and he's looked excellent these
last couple of weeks, and other guys around him play

(41:38):
at a high level, your defense gonna be solid because
if you give a good pass rush to a competent
defensive coordinator, team's gonna be good. And then these corners
like Jalen Ramsey has a good season, you're gonna be okay.
But I do think it's easy to play the Brian
Flores game. They weren't gonna fire. Torell Austin for Brian

(42:00):
Floris at the time, not to take no question, just
a thought. I said to my coworker today. The James
Franklin is the college Mike Tomlin great during the regular season,
but anytime they play real team or get to the playoffs,
the rails fall off. Mike Tommins won a lot of

(42:22):
big games in the regular season and in the playoffs.
He doesn't won a playoff game in a while, but
historically he's won some playoff games, won Super Bowl. Comparing
James Franklin to Mike Tomlin is not fair to Mike Tomlin.
That's kind of funny because I think this current version
feels a little James Franklin. He but Mike tomins resume

(42:42):
speaks for herself. James Franklin's never won a big game,
never worst franchise decision Vikings letting Donald go or the
forty nine ers giving Purty over fifty million dollars a year.
It's got to be Donald because you could have just
had Donald with Addison, with Justin Jefferson with Hawkinson for

(43:03):
years to come, and your backup could have been JJ
McCarthy and maybe is a three year deal, and you
treat JJ McCarthy like Aaron Rodgers, he sits for three years.
To me, Purdy like earned the contract. He was a
really good player. Now he's injured and the forty nine
or somehow find backup quarterbacks that can play always. But

(43:24):
they weren't gonna not pay him. They just weren't. I mean,
they talk about paid Purdy years ago. I love the pod.
Thank you for the entertainment. Where does Daniel Hunter Danielle Hunter?
I don't know why call him Danielle Daneil Hunter rank
in the top defensive players in the league. Ever since
he joined the Texans, they've had a top five defense.
It seems no one on the networks really mentions his name,

(43:46):
and they bring up the best of the best. The
man is only thirty with a hundred sacks. I remember
when I was doing radio, I got to know a
lot of guys on the Raiders staff because I was
going to all the Raider games, and I got to
know John d. Philippo pretty well. He was the quarterback
coach for the Raiders with Dennis Allen, and then he
went on to the Eagles, and then he became the
OC for the Vikings for a couple of years with

(44:07):
Kirk Cousins, and I remember texting him in his first
training camp. He's like, this is one of the biggest
freaks I've ever seen. He said, who He said, Hunter,
he is a dominant, dominant player. That was the first
time kind of came on my radar. That would have
been probably twenty eighteen range I would guess, Yeah. I mean,
he's just a freak show. I mean, they gave him

(44:29):
two years, fifty million dollars guaranteed it, basically every penny
for a reason. He's a monster, really good player. I
think part of it is, you know, we don't spend
much time talking about the Houston Texans. We just don't
unless they're really really good. But yeah, he's a badass.
I mean, you put him with Will Anderson and their
dbs and Demico dialing up the defense, good defense. I

(44:55):
know you're not the biggest soccer fan in the world,
but with tickets going on sale this past week, I
wanted to ask if you're looking forward to the tournament,
given that it's across North America, and if there's any
players teams you'd want to get tickets to see in
the Bay or it's so fi Now I think I'm
gonna be a watched the World Cup on TV game.

(45:16):
You know it's cool, it's coming here. It's gonna be
bad ass, gonna be a massive event. But I think
your boy is just gonna enjoy it on television. Here's
what I know. I am not, and I repeat, I
am not gonna get excited for our team. I do
not plan on us advancing. I plan on everyone complaining
after we lose a game that we should have won,

(45:37):
and then be winning a game that we shouldn't win
and end up tying it or losing it. Like my
expectations for our team. We do this every four years.
I'm just not buying into it. I'll never forget. I've
told this story before the World Cup that would have
been twenty ten, I think was in Brazil and the
American team stopped off to play a like a friendly

(46:01):
at the Link and I was downstairs working out, and
they came to practice at our practice facility and I
was actually outside like running some gassers or something back
in my skinny days, and I just remember the team
doing a warm up basically around our fields, and that
they were like right next to me, and the only
guy I remember thinking like Tim Howard looked a part

(46:21):
the goalie, but the rest of the players, it's like,
we're so small, and that was you know, Landon, Donovan Dempsey,
some of those guys. But I just remember whenever we
watched some of these other teams, and I understand size
does a betteran Sorry, I get it, MESSI small, but
it does feel like some of these teams have more
blue chippers just athletic body types than us, and clearly

(46:42):
we're just not as good. But I'm done. I'm done
even pretending to get excited. I'll root for the when
we're playing, but my expectations for Team USA are zilch.
They do not exist. Everyone always complains like this was no,
this was not gonna be the year. We don't care
about soccer enough here. We care about football, We care

(47:04):
about a lot of sports, soccer on the importance of
our country. If it was more important, we'd be better, period,
point blank. Industry. I'm not sure why these teams keep
trying to pooch kick the kickoffs late in the fourth quarter.
I think the risk reward really flops flips late games.
I've watched Seattle basically win a game because of a

(47:26):
bad pooch kick, which set them up for a field
goal with not much time left. I watched the Niners
last night. The Rams kicker Pooch kicked the ball in
overtime and it didn't make it to the landing zone,
meaning you start at the forty. Poor special teams coaching
late in the fourth quarter. Why not just keep kicking
it deep in those situations because if you kick it

(47:48):
deep and you fly the landing zone into the end zone,
they will start at the thirty five. So you're kind
of getting greedy. You're hoping if you poochkick it correctly
that you will tackle them somewhere between the twenty and
twenty five and ten yards late in a game, especially
if they don't have timeouts, is a huge difference. But

(48:08):
you could argue the risk first reward. If you fuck
up like Butker did, like the Rams did, and I
give you the ball at the forty, that is a massive,
massive penalty for a screw up. It's like a poorly
thrown ball getting me fifty yards of pass interference. It's
pretty devastating. But I think it's hard for a coach

(48:29):
to go, yeah, just kick it through the end zone.
Start at the thirty five so I think there everyone's
still feeling this out. I don't think there's a right
or wrong way to do it, because if your pooch
kits kick works, you feel pretty good about it. A
few weeks ago, I listened to your Sunday Night podcast
with Coward. The whole time you spoke with a very

(48:50):
strong lisp. I listened to your podcast almost daily. I've
never heard you speak like this was the glitch in
the matrix? Did you lose a bet with Colin? Or
what are what's to explain it? We have a video
and audio team at the volume, and the audio that
I'm currently recording gets sent off to my guy, Adam.

(49:12):
He is a an audio wizard and no different with Colin.
So the raw audio that I send him that I'm
recording on like garage band from my computer, gets put
through programs to make like the echo in my room
and just any sort of sounds kind of dissipate, so

(49:32):
when you listen ideally it's really high quality. Now, I
got high quality equipment and you know, sound modifiers in
front of me, but this is not a studio. Now,
I'm building a studio right now for my backyard. But
even then, like this is not gonna be like Taylor
Swift recording an album in a legitimate music studio or

(49:54):
radio studio. Right, So we have a bunch of programs
that deal with everything from video to audio, and a
button got pressed. I got so many DM saying John,
did you drink pretty heavily? John? Did you have a
tooth removed? What is wrong with you? And after like

(50:16):
seven of those, I went and listened. I'm like, what
are these people talking about? And something like I think
in the program. The way it was explained to me
is one of the attributes of the audio program is
so like hard S's and listen. I screw up words
all the time. I try to say, I think extravaganza

(50:37):
the other night, and that word did not come out
of my mouth. So that there are gonna be things
that you can't fix, but there are, you know, things
that just make the audio quality better. But I think
a button was pressed and it did something with anything
that involved an s and made it sound insane, but
it was funny. I mean it will ultimately, but I

(50:59):
was not drunk. I didn't develop a list overnight. But
it's programs. The amount of stuff that goes on behind
the scenes with all this stuff is pretty crazy. Honestly,
I didn't even really, I think, grasp that until that
moment happened, and then I had it explain to me, Oh,
that's cool. What is your opinion of Justin Fields. Does

(51:32):
he have the potential like a Baker or a Daniel Jones,
to where he could manage a team and bring them
to a championship with the right pieces around him. I'm
a Michigan State fan, so I have no loyalty to him,
but I feel like people aren't seeing the improvements he
has made with bad franchises and defensive coaches. Also f
the Bengals for screwing over Burrow and Jake Browning by

(51:55):
trading for Flacco. I would not. I would say, listen,
if Daniel Jones can play this well, then yeah, maybe Fields.
But I would not compare Baker Mayfield to Justin Fields.
He's a dramatically better natural passer of the ball, natural
feel for the pocket. He's a dramatically better player. But

(52:16):
when you see someone like Daniel Jones resurrect his career,
you would say, you know, Fields to me, has been
really impressive off the field with the Bear situation, with
obviously the Steeler situation. The Jets are a joke, So
like my expectations for his play aren't great though, like
I would say, Justin Fields has not been a very

(52:37):
good NFL quarterback most of his career. He's an excellent runner,
but when it comes to passing the ball, he struggles.
He has a big arm, and listen, I was wrong.
I loved him coming out. I thought you could make
the argument that he was a better prospect, or more
intriguing prospect than Trevor Lawrence. And I had buddies in

(52:58):
the league. They were like, you're on cocaine. I'm like, no,
I just I just like this guy. I think his
attributes are better. And I'm not the biggest Trevor Lawrence guy,
but he's he's a more natural player. And I wouldn't
even call Trevor Lawrence the most like instinctive natural player
relative to his talents. But Fields, there's just like a
lack of rhythm and feel to this to the game.

(53:19):
And at quarterback, when you lack the field and rhythm
to passing is it's hard to play. I mean, the
stat that went viral of Justin Fields is like I
think he's like, oh, In twenty five when someone scores
Let me just bring this up, Justin Fields is oh
and twenty six as a starter when the opponent scores

(53:43):
twenty one points. That's that's an insane stat. It'd be
one thing if it's like he's all in twenty six
when they score forty points, Like, yeah, he's playing on
terrible teams. Twenty one points. So it's nice way of
saying as a starting quarterback, I'm out now. Daniel Jones

(54:06):
Like they got him for fourteen million dollars? What I
paid Justin Fields one year? Ten million dollars? Sure, they
gave him two years forty million dollars, thirty million guaranteed.
I was like, that's that felt like a little pricey
relative the way he played. I would have said the
Colts would have been insane if they would have given
Daniel Jones that contract. Or what's it gonna take for

(54:29):
the Eagles to pull the trigger and fire Patula to
prevent another BJ situation? I said, BJ's Brian Johnson. You
think Nick still believes in his buddy? My fear is
the offensive talent the roster will delay an inevitable firing.
I do think sometimes Thursday night games whether you're an
elite team or a bad team, can just be weird,

(54:51):
especially as the season goes on. You're tired, quick turnaround coaches,
can't sleep. It's just the games could be really wacky.
So like, if the Eagles in a perfect world had
the number one offense in the league right now, it
wouldn't shock me at all if they played this Giant's
team and won, like fifteen to ten Thursday night, You're tired,

(55:14):
road game, very believable. But if I tell you right
now they win this game fifteen to ten on prime
time with everyone watching, it's it's only going to get louder.
And I don't know the guy personally, but it's a
tough place to be with the expectations, with the amount
of talent on the offense, I mean, it's immense with

(55:37):
a quarterback who can be just a little fickle. I mean,
he's one of the more bizarre players in the league history.
He really is, because I don't know, I just don't
ever remember a guy quite like Jalen Hurts, where it's
like you just ask a random guy, You're like, is
he a really good player? Was like, he's done some
really good things. He has a lot of talent, but

(55:59):
like you can to watch him on games, we're like,
this guy's terrible. But is it like the coordinator. I
don't know. I've seen him with good coordinators have bad
games too, But then he's had great games in the
Super Bowl, So I don't I don't know one thing
I think he hesitates to do. He did a little
more last year because remember two years ago he didn't
do it and he was kind of banged up. Is
like it an't he should run more. He's way more

(56:24):
accomplished than bo Nicks. But Tony Romo was talking about
this in the Bronco game. I guess they were playing
the Eagles, So if you're an Egle fan, you were
watching the game too. It's like, Boat, just take off.
Every once in a while. It's like getting the free
throw line. As a basketball player, it's like I'm over
nine from deep. Well, yeah, get an easy basket, get
to the hole, get fouled, see a couple hit the net.

(56:44):
This isn't that fucking complicated. It's like, Jalen, just take off, Boat,
just take off. If you're if you're struggling a little bit,
just game ten yards. Mahomes and Josh Allen do it
all the time, and they're not even trying to get
a rhythm. They're just trying to gain you yards. But
they just like, go utilize your feet. More Browns fan

(57:07):
here sadly, what do you think should be done about Stefanski?
I like him and think we should keep him till
we get a quarterback one because it's hard to be
consistent when there's no consistency at the most important position
in the league quarterback. I don't know, man, I think.
I think the Browns have found themselves in this ugly,
unenviable position. They made a move with Baker Mayfield and

(57:31):
it's one of the all time failures this guy. If
Baker Mayfield wins the MVP and you are shuffling through Flacco,
Shador Sanders and Dylan Gabriel as your team wins three
or four games, and you're just an embarrassment while you
pay a guy fifty sixty million dollars to rehab who
you are gonna cut the moment you don't know him

(57:51):
as much money anymore. It's tough to shake, you know,
and I think it's easy. You know, people like media,
people that don't like what we do will always be like, oh,
you're just so hyperbolic, just talking head, just saying this,
Like I understand why they moved on from Baker Mayfield.
That doesn't change the fact that four or five years

(58:12):
later we're in a position where he might win the
MVP of the league. And if you're the Browns who
drafted him number one overall, and yeah, it was he
a little immature. Sure, they traded for a guy that
could not stay out of the massage therapists giving him handies.
I mean, it's an all time story. We've never seen
anything like. It's like quarterback, good looking guy should get
laid with eaves. It's like, now, this guy was just

(58:33):
addicted to going to massages and then he's terrible. He's
kind of a weird dude, and clearly people aren't that
into him, and then he sucks at football. I mean,
it's an all time disaster, it really is. And I
have a hard time putting that on Stefanski. But the
simple reality is you fire coaches before you fire players.

(58:55):
And if they would have, they could have fired DeShawn
Jacks or Deshaun Watson. They would have fired him a
year ago. We'd fire him right now. They can't so
can these guys survive just losing week after week? I
would say, based on their owner's history, I still can't
believe when you think about the Watson situation. Now, they
thought he was a star, so they went, who cares

(59:16):
about the massage situation? But then they get him and
he's not a star, and that thing just would not
go away, like pretty embarrassing. I mean, it's really kind
of a low level thing, and I'm not moral high
horse to act like. You know a lot of people
listening been to their massage therapists over the years, right,

(59:36):
But relative to in his situation now, I see some
of these pictures now, like with his new fiance, it's
just it's just it's just weird. It's kind of just, yeah,
this guy's just toxic. I mean, the Browns can't wait
to get rid of de Shaan Watson, and no team
will ever sign him ever again. Think about that Henry

(59:56):
Ruggs who got wasted top Golf and killed the chicken
or dog. We'll get another chance. He will when he
gets out of prison. He will get a workout. Wouldn't
shock me at all if he's at OTA's or training camp.
Deshaun Watson will never play for another NFL team whenever

(01:00:18):
he is cut within the next twenty four months ever.
And I don't say that lightly, like I don't just
say teams do not care. But he is to me,
he's untouchable, terrible and a whack job. Is there any
worse combination? Like ideally, do you know what you want?

(01:00:40):
Good player, great guy Malmes. You know that's high character guy.
Teammates love him, never gets in trouble, good player, That's
that's what you're working. The least desirable is like, you know,
he sucks, whack job, got about seventeen lawsuits coming after him.
You're like, yeah, don't really want to get in yu

(01:01:00):
with that. But that, to me's on Jimmy Haslam, not
on the GM and the owner. With how obviously important
the NFL front office is to team's success, can you
expand on these roles? The GM is a critical piece.
Is the GM exclusively responsible for the salary cap or
is there a finance guy that helps run the cap? Also?

(01:01:22):
Can you expand on what the pay for front offices?
What is the GM pay? How much would the second
third guys in line make? I think it depends right,
Like Howie Roseman is intimately involved in the salary cap.
Now they pay people you know Jake Rosenberg, who is
there forever and now you know whoever filled his spot,

(01:01:44):
who worked the day to day cap numbers and contract negotiations,
but how he has intimate knowledge of how that works.
And then you know a guy like Jason light who
has said, like I depend like I understand the basics
of it, but I'm not the nitty gritty of the
contract right like John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan depend on

(01:02:08):
Perrague and his team to run point on the contracts.
Right now, they determine value and how much you want
a guy and stuff. But most of these teams, now,
with how much money's on the line, it is ran
by a financial, an individual with the financial background. I
think the GM would very team, the team, you know.

(01:02:30):
I think the highest paid GMS in the league would
be like Howie Roseman, John Schneider. I mean I would
this would be an educated guess. I'd say eight to
ten million dollars. John Lynch makes a ton. I think
John Lynch makes like ten million dollars. I would imagine
less Sneed makes a lot. And then the low paid
GMS you know, probably make a couple of million dollars.

(01:02:54):
You know, a guy like Brett Veach when he first
got the job was probably making a million. And then
you start winning Super Bowls, you start can ask to
take in names that thing five six, seven x's. So
I think the pay varies from anything from like two million,
like Dan Morgan with Carolina, probably one of the lower
paid guys, which again relative to society making two three

(01:03:14):
million dollars, and then you have guys making ten plus.
I think the number two would probably, very on experience,
would run you. I mean I've had different people tell
me anywhere from like eight hundred grand to a million
dollars as like the true number two GM. But it

(01:03:34):
also varies like where do you live? Because paying you
a million dollars to be the forty nine ers number
two is essentially the same of being probably paid six
hundred grand to be the chief's number two. So if
you can get and this is the argument that I've
had buddies tell me that their owner will be like, well,

(01:03:54):
we're in you know, this city is way less expensive
than you're comparing this to the guy in la or
the guy in New York. So I think you battle
some of those, so that that depends. I think the
number two is typically under a million dollars, but high
six figures, seven eight, nine hundred grand, and then once

(01:04:16):
you start going below that, it's simply based on experience.
How much you know, some franchises are cheaper than others.
But you can find college directors making five hundred grand.
You could probably find some that make two hundred and
seventy five thousand dollars. But I mean, these are obviously
good jobs. The other thing about a college director is

(01:04:40):
some of these guys don't live in their area. So
like I could be the college director for the forty
nine ers, but potentially live in like Dallas, Texas, right
or for the Philadelphia Eagle, and it lives somewhere else.
Now that doesn't mean I'm I'm going to the facility,
going to games a lot, but my home base can
be somewhere different. And then you know, scouts on the

(01:05:02):
road probably you know I started like fifty grand, and
that was fifteen years ago, a little less, probably twelve,
But you can find anyone making sixty seventy grand. You
can find guys making two hundred grand, So it probably
varies that way. So obviously gms make less than coaches.
The high end guys like you know, the high end
coaches are making fifteen to twenty million. The gms are

(01:05:23):
making you know, the good the good ones and accomplished
Super Bowl ones are making seven to ten. So I
mean these there's a lot of money getting thrown around.
That's why I always say Wall Street on grass, But
I think the college director would say, are wide receiver
coaches making seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars? Coaches make

(01:05:43):
way more than scouts. The coordinators are all making millions.
But you have these position coaches, you know, like a
running back coach if he's been in the league twenty
years might be making seven and seventy five thousand dollars.
Right a linebacker coach who's got fifteen year experience might
be making six hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The position
coaches in the NFL and college and the SEC, the

(01:06:05):
big tent are making a ton, I mean huge money.
And obviously the coordinators, you know, the Fangio's, the Chip Kelly's,
the Robert Salas. These guys are making four to six
million dollars a year. It's a good time to be
in the NFL, right, But it's also why there can
be some bitterness. Some of these, like road scouts, get

(01:06:26):
angry because they go like, I'm making one hundred and
fifty K. I am on the road eighty percent of
the year, I scout. You know, guys, we're gonna draft
in the first second round and I'm making nothing relative
to my profession what other guys in my building are making.
So there's gonna be some bitterness and resentment there. For sure.

(01:06:48):
The volume