January 11, 2025 • 55 mins
John breaks down Ohio State defeating Texas 28-14 in the College Football Playoff’s semifinal. Led by a potent Buckeyes defense, Ohio State took down Steve Sarkisian, Quinn Ewers and the Texas Longhorns, punching their ticket to a National Championship appearance against Notre Dame. John starts off by tipping his cap to Ryan Day, Chip Kelly and the Ohio State Buckeyes for turning around their season after a tough loss to the Michigan Wolverines en route to a DOMINANT College Football Playoff run. John goes on to explain why Steve Sarkisian’s play calling ended up losing the game for the Longhorns, and compliments the Buckeyes high-powered offense and inventive game plan. After, John dives into Quinn Ewers struggles and what makes him unfit for the NFL before diving into former Georgia QB Carson Beck transferring to the Miami Hurricanes. Finally, John looks ahead to Ohio State and Notre Dame, led by former Buckeyes player and current Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman facing off against embattled team leader Ryan Day for all the marbles.
Later, John answers some of your questions in this episode's mailbag segment.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume What is going on Everybody? John Middlecoff three
Now podcast, How Are We Doing? I did a little
(00:21):
reaction to Ohio State, who beats Texas and is going
to the Natty playing their former player, actually Marcus Freeman
in the Notre Dame fighting Irish. What an excellent just
in terms of the brands on TV, I thought tonight
was just it looks sweet Texan Ohio State. But so
(00:42):
we get Ohio State against Notre Dame Ohio State. I
think I saw it was gonna be like eight and
a half point favorite, so big, big favorite, even bigger
than they were against Texas.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
So we'll dive in a little to the game.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
We just saw Sarkeisi and Chip Kelly, Jack Sawyer, Will Howard.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
It's fun game.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Actually really second half was was riveting, really was really good.
Both games. Great Final four, fantastic final four, year one
of the college football playoffs. Also did a little mailbag.
We just had so many questions, so I wanted to
bang out a mail bag. That will be in there
as well. And yeah, other than that, make sure you
(01:20):
subscribe to the podcast. Also, everything's on YouTube, go check
that out. And let's just dive into the game. I
got to start with, Listen, you lose that Michigan game,
the vitriol, the anger from Ohio State fans in Herb Street,
and you know, all the guys taking shots at the
(01:40):
fan base. It's kind of laughable given how bad that
loss was, like in a vacuum, that loss separate, no
one knew what was gonna happen. Was really really bad,
like there's no way around it. But they have really responded,
and they didn't get to go to the conference championship games.
They got an extra week. They kicked the crap out
(02:02):
of Tennessee, they kicked the crap out of Oregon, and tonight,
even that first drive, you're like, they kind of looked
that first drive of the game. I almost put money
on Texas. I was like, I'm not gonna Chase. I
just felt like ninety percent or something I saw of
the money was on Ohio State. Money line, the spread
(02:24):
of the public.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
I'm like, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Usually when that happens, and then the first drive of
the game happens, I'm like, I'm glad I didn't do it.
Ohio State just looked excellent. You're like, this is the
best team in the country. They're gonna roll and then
for the majority of the first half at seven.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
To nothing and you're just like, Okay, game's gonna be weird.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Texas is really good on defense, and Texas has one of,
if not the best defensive.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Coordinators in all of the country.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
And clearly whatever he did tonight, bracketing, double coveraging, throwing
different looks at Jeremiah Smith neutralized that player and that
part of their passing game. Now Ohio State, I mean,
Henderson is such an explosive running back. Their third wide
receiver Tait was dominated tonight. Abuka is obviously a really
(03:11):
good player and Will Howard as listen, he's a solid player.
I don't know what his future looks like at the
next level. Has some beautiful passes, obviously he's an excellent
runner and just made some plays. But to me, this game,
like this specific game, came down to play calling. It
came down to Chip Kelly and Steve Sarkisian. And in
(03:35):
the second half, when it's fourteen to fourteen and Texas
had come storming back, right, they're down seven to nothing,
but it felt a little wider than that. Then they
score toward the end of the half where Sark makes
a great play call on fourth down, bringing in Arch
on that play where they throw it under the tight
ends legs and they run the quarterback sweep and then
(03:55):
they score a touchdown. You're like, it's seven to seven,
They're gonna go to halftime, seven to seven, and then boom,
Chip Kelly calls the screen. Henderson looks like he's going
ninety miles an hour, scores from like eighty yards. He's
just like, that's kind of a gut punch from Texas.
But they came out in the second half. They kept
playing unreal defense. They tied the game. It's fourteen to fourteen.
(04:17):
You're going, you know, middle of the fourth quarter and
it's fourth and two and Chip Kelly just leaves the
ball in the hands of his quarterback and honestly, if
the quarterback doesn't trip himself, I don't know if he scores,
but he definitely gains an extra I don't know, six
seven yards and then they score on that.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Drive to go up twenty one to fourteen.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
And I'll be honest, like, I'm not a huge quinn
Ewers guy. Like you watch the difference between Will Howard
and Quinn Eewers or Riley Leonard and Quinn ewers like
Quinn has a better arm than those guys. Quinn just
standing there in a seven on seven situation probably looks fantastic,
but his feel for playing the position is not great.
(05:00):
A lot of their big plays in the passing game,
to me, are Sark related. He schemes them open. They
ran that sweet play to the tight end on the
touchdown drive. I guess it ended up not being a
touchdown drive, but on the drive that they should have
scored for where he pointed it downs on the ground.
There was another play where he just schemes these wide
(05:21):
receivers open and he does a great job. But to me,
when yours has to sit in the pocket and feel
pressure and move, he just feels like a lost puppy sometimes,
like he doesn't have a great feel for it. And
it's why he took some awful sacks tonight. And you know,
so fourth and two, Chip Kelly calls the play and
(05:42):
then listen Sark and they drive right down the field
and you're like, damn, I didn't know they have this
in them. And they get to the one yard line
and they run it up the gut and they.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Get stuffed and listen that happens.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
I got no problem on a first in goal trying
to go between the tackles in score touchdown. I got
no problem doing it again. The problem is Sark through
a pitch play that got lateral that ended up losing
them seven yards. I just can't imagine going lateral in
(06:16):
that situation where you have been a tough, physical team,
Like at the end of the day, one thing Ohio
State has found a balance of after that Michigan game,
Like Michigan's tougher than you. You just have to acknowledge it.
You could be a great boxer. If you get in
the ring with Mike Tyson, you're probably gonna lose, right,
So when you're Ohio State, your greatest advantage is passing
(06:38):
the ball and the threat of passing the ball. You
look tonight like they were doing every single humanly possible
to stop Jeremiah Smith. They treated him like Jerry Rice
kids nineteen years old, and they kind of took him
out of the game, not because he couldn't get open,
just because they're throwing probably two and three guys on
him every look, and Chip Kelly's like, Okay, what else
do we have to do? We gotta throw two other guys.
(07:00):
We got to run the football, we gotta throw screen passes,
we gotta run our quarterback. And you look at Sark
it's like, listen, you've kind of bullied them, like you've
been running the ball well tonight.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
How are you gonna get away from that?
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Especially with a team with that much team speed on defense,
where their best player on their best player on the
team's probably coin flip It's Downs or Jeremiah Smith, but
definitely the best player on their defense is like this
versatal safety that can get everywhere. So you go lateral,
like the likelihood that he's gonna be out in space
is going to be pretty high. And that's exactly what happened.
(07:36):
And then third down, obviously Viewers gets the ball tipped,
and fourth down, the not feeling any pressure shows up again.
He gets sacked by his former college roommate, who sometimes
in football, you have no clue how the ball's gonna bounce.
For Jack Sawyer bounced literally right back into his lap
and he took into the house.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
And that was the game.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
But the game didn't happen on fourth down. The game
happened on second down when he ran a lateral toss
to me, you can't go lateral in that situation. You
have to go vertical. Hell, bring an arch and go forward.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
You would score.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
I have pretty good confidence that if they ran three
or four times right up the middle, whether it's quarterback,
whether it's with their running backs, hell, whether it's a
direct snap to their tight end, it's gonna work. You're
definitely not gonna lose seven yards, and your quarterback definitely
won't get sacked fumbled, and they'll score. So Sark, who
someone texts me tonight In the NFL, they're like Texas
(08:35):
has one of the best coaching staffs in the league
and Sark is an excellent play caller.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Their defense is.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Incredibly well coached. And listen tonight, while they were a
six point underdog, and we've talked and most people have
about the price tag that is on Ohio State and
the twenty million dollar roster, I don't know if Texas
his roster is twenty million, might be a team like
their roster is pretty unreal. It is very very highly paid.
(09:06):
They have some big time guys, so you were going
toe to toe with them from a talent perspective.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
So what happened to Night.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
This is what happens in the NFL playoffs comes down
to coaching, comes down to play calling, and Chip made
some huge play calls to night. Even that play at
the end of the first half, when he called the
screen clearly Texas was kind of scared they were probably
gonna push the ball down the field with ah, you know,
with a Will Howard bomb to one of the one
(09:36):
of the wide receivers. All of a sudden, that screenplay
opened up, and once he made one guy miss, he
was out the gate, and the Will Howard play was
you could argue the second biggest play of the night
beside that second down seven yard loss and Sawyer's fumble
sack touchdown. So Chip Kelly in the big moments out
(09:58):
coach Sark. He had play calls that worked. Sark had
play calls that's chances of working were so low, let alone,
they blew up in his face, which sucks because he's
had such a good season he's had. He's done such
a good job of building this team like they were.
(10:18):
You just watch from a talent perspective, there isn't any difference.
We've seen some games in the playoffs where we're all like,
how is Arizona State going toe to toe with Texas.
They shouldn't have. They don't have the talent. We saw
Notre Dame play Indiana. It wasn't a fair fight. Tonight
was a fair fight, guy for guy. The talent on
(10:39):
this field. I think I heard someone say or someone
forward me a tweet of the forty four starters tonight,
I think it's twenty six or twenty seven of them
are NFL prospects, and obviously a ton of them are
highly drafted guys. And that doesn't even count some of
these freshmen and sophomores that probably don't play that much.
(10:59):
And then a rotateational backups who are going to turn
into some will turn into first and second round picks,
a lot of them will turn into fourth and fifth round.
The amount of NFL players on this field tonight was outrageous,
I mean simply outrageous. And you felt that the team
speed the tackling, so which is cool about.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Moments like this?
Speaker 1 (11:19):
This is why Ryan Day and Steve Sarkis and they
make a combine over twenty million dollars. Chip Kelly's making
two and a half. I don't want to screw up
his name. Boise State Sarks defensive coordinator Kawai Kowski might
have mispronounced that Bowler awesome defensive coordinator. These guys are
all making huge money and like they have highly paid rosters,
(11:42):
and it came down to two or three plays. Chip
Kelly got it done, Stark did not. And I think
that Sark play call on second down is for a
guy who's come a long way.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
I mean, this was a guy at USC and it is.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
This is a cool part about sports, right you're seeing
it in real time with Ryan Day over for the
last month, and you're seeing it with Sark over the
course of his career. Is like you can be down
in the shitter, your career can feel over. I mean
Sark got fired for USC for showing up to the
meeting on the sauce to his team, got fired that morning,
(12:18):
and a decade later, like he's he's got Texas on
the brink of going to the national championship. Hell, he
had him there last year too, Ryan Day just a
month ago and felt.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Like is this guy gonna get fired?
Speaker 1 (12:30):
This guy getting get fired, and you can change some
people change their career like that. That's what Ryan Day
has done over the course of these three games, it's
like he's sixteen minutes away from being a national champion.
Sark it took him a little longer, but it's like
he's one of the best coaches in the country. But
you become legendary. And Ryan Day said it after the
game about Jack Sawyer, like these are the type moments
(12:51):
when legacies are made and you can or cannot become
a legend. And like, let's face it, like I've been
hard on Ryan Day, but his resume now after these
last three weeks, like beating the shit out of Tennessee's
a really good win. Housing Oregon was beyond impressive. Tonight
was the most of all three of them because it
(13:12):
was a tight game, because it was difficult because the
defense you were playing is excellent. But the one downfall
of Texas is I saw someone tweak this out, like
their red zone offense is I think there's one hundred
and twenty teams that.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Are Division I football programs.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
They're one hundred and eighth in red zone offense, and
you feel it when you watch them. Now, to me,
it's not all coaching. Part of that's your quarterback who
just lacks the field. But on that specific.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Play from the one yard line.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
When you get first and goal in the one yard line,
you kind of can take it out of the player's hands,
put it on your offensive lineman, just say we're going forward.
And that's what Chip did on that fourth and two
with Will Howard. Like listen, they've been covering our guys.
Someone could slip. We're not over complicating this thing. We
have a power running quarterback. We're gonna run quarterback power.
(14:04):
And I mean, best case scenario is what happened. You know,
the garden the center basically parted like the Red Sea
when the dude pulled up the middle. But even if
it hadn't and they had collapsed it, we think our
guy's powerful enough to get us two yards and we're
gonna go down swing with this guy. Meanwhile, they run
that play. It's like too much room for error and
(14:25):
the worst case scenario happened, and I think as a
play caller you kind of gotta factor that in. It's
like listen, just could listen. If they little, uh, they
get discombobulated. Maybe we walk in and he touches the
pylon on the.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Way sprint into the corner.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
What happens if we miss a block on the edge
and a guy gets penetration. All of a sudden, we're
at the one could we be at the six yard line? Like,
I think you have to factor that into play. You're
playing Ohio State. Now, we're not playing Mississippi State. We're
not playing Oklahoma State. This is Ohio State, which regardless
they're the eighth seed, they're the best team in the country.
(15:00):
So does this make sense? And the answer is no.
And then you have to put it on your quarterback
the next two plays from the eight yard line, and
we saw how that goes. And Quinn yours just talk
about getting I see it with Carson back, and I
get it.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
You see it in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
People get desperate for quarterbacks, but paying these guys, who
knows if this is true, but you see some of
these numbers, three, four or five six million dollars. Man,
I don't blame Carson Beck. If you just got five
or six million dollars to go to Miami or four
million dollars, that is one hundred percent the right move.
More power to you. That is a great business decision.
(15:38):
You should go to Miami instead of going to the NFL.
Quin yours, someone is gonna give you five million dollars
next year to play college football. Do that.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Do that. That is a great idea, I do.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
No one will ever give you better advice than the
history of your life. If there's five million dollars available,
make sure you get in writing. Then they signed and
you signed no no handshake deals. But if they're signing it,
take that money and drive immediately to campus. Tell them
you will see them tomorrow. You will sign that contract.
Because these guys are not NFL players. Like that's not
(16:15):
an NFL quarterback, and there's done wrong with that. Most
human beings that play college football are not NFL quarterbacks.
Most human beings in America are not NFL quarterbacks. But
when yours not an NFL quarterback, well Howard, And that's
what I think was fascinating about this. I'll end with
this this matchup. I mean, both games were awesome. Part
of this long now playoff system, We're gonna get some
(16:38):
bad games. There's nothing you can do, but the cream's
gonna rise. You might have an upset or two over
the course of the next three or four years. I
would be stunned if we don't get a consistent theme though.
Of the best four of the best six or seven
programs every single year in the final four. It's just
the football in college. The separation of talent in this
(17:01):
year obviously, I mean the amount of NFL guys on
the field these last twenty four hours is just it's
pretty eye opening. But two guys that have helped themselves. Man,
Like I think Quinn you were stinks, I really do.
I know he's got a good arm and he can
make some throws. I don't think he's a good quarterback.
But I watched Will Howard and Riley Leonard, and it's
(17:22):
like I would have been a hater of those guys
three months ago, kind of earned in my respect. Both
of them elite competitors. Obviously in college, running the ball
is a huge part of their game. I mean Will
Howard tonight, I mean the defense played really well, but
throughout these playoffs he's been throwing the ball very well.
I mean tonight he got fooled on the one where
(17:44):
he tried to force feed the ball. Don't blame him
to Jeremiah Smith, linebacker drops last second and makes a
really really good play. That happens to NFL quarterbacks. But
I think both these guys are players that listen I'm
not talking about first round, but for guys that mid round, guys,
third or fourth round, they are going to be players
(18:06):
that quarterback coaches and the coaching staffs once they get
involved in the draft process are really gonna like because
it is clear how much their teams like them. It
is clear how competitive they are now a huge part
of that in college is runs with your leg legs,
not your leg So are both these guys getting quarterback
(18:29):
power calls In the NFL.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
You have to be a better thrower.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
But Riley Lonnard last night made some huge throws, some
dots on third and long. Will Howard's been doing that
in all the big games. Hell in the big game
they lost against Oregon, or excuse me, against Michigan, it's like.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Why didn't you throw it more?
Speaker 1 (18:52):
And when they've leaned on his arm, like he's come through.
He made a great play today laid in the fourth
quarter where he was kind of a scrambling backwards, almost
backpedaling away from the pressure. Tate breaks off like a
deep breaking route hits him in stride. Will Howard's growing
on me, so was Riley Leonard. I'm not saying I
want these guys in my starting quarterbacks. But you're telling
(19:13):
me these guys can't be mid round backups as rookies.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
I mean, look at some of these scrubs playing in
the NFL.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
So I think this is two guys that have really
kind of, I don't know, giving themselves a chance that
I would say halfway through the season.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
We're not viewed like that, but.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Obviously their legs and just their playmaking has been huge
for their team.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
And now we get.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Marcus Freeman who is an Ohio State alum and played there,
and Ryan Day who just taking this program over from
Urban Meyer and has them in the Natty. Now this
is a fun matchup. Now everyone and their mother's gonna
pick Ohio State. I would be stunned if Ohio State
doesn't win the game. We won't know, oh until the
(20:00):
game comes around. On Notre Dame's injury situation, they lost.
You know, their offensive line is obviously clearly banged up.
Their star defensive lineman has been out.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
But I maybe it's just.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Touchdown Jesus' year. But I really enjoyed the last couple
of nights, very impressed with Ohio State tonight that that
was any elite team can dominate when they get up
big early, they can kick the crap out of it,
especially in college football. But they even mentioned it to
Night on the broadcast. The one thing Start kept saying
is like, we need to get these guys in a
(20:38):
close game in the second half. We feel like we'll
have an advantage. And it was that, and it was like, God,
is Ohio State gonna lose this game, especially when it
looked like they were going to tie it up twenty
one to twenty one. It's like all the pressure wasnt
Ohio State.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
And then they didn't and they ended.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Up winning by two touchdowns and covering pretty easily. And
Ryan Day has the boys in the natty NFL playoffs.
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Speaker 2 (22:39):
Let's do a little mail bag.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Got a bunch of questions, so I would like to
answer some of them, and uh, I actually just got
this and I responded manually. But we might as well
start with this one at John middlecoff Instagram fire and
those dms get your questions answered here on the show.
If Notre Dame gets whipped in the Natty, how's that
(23:00):
better than what Brian Kelly did. He brought them to
a BCS title got whipped. Well, because you know, one
of the great fugazis of all time is for a
long long time, we just picked two teams and they
played for the national championship. It wasn't like the NFL
or baseball or basketball where you I don't know, had
(23:20):
to win in the playoffs. She's like, oh, yeah, they're
the best team, and they go and sometimes it worked
and sometimes it did not. So Marcus Freeman just beat
Georgia as a dog and then beat Penn State and
the final line ended up he was a dog as
well with a bunch of injuries. That is more impressive
(23:43):
to the route to getting there than Brian Kelly just
getting put there when they can just fudge their own schedule.
Now I'm not some Brian Kelly hater, but it's more
impressive winning playoff games, three of them, even if one's
a home game, especially against Georgia and Penn State. Then
Brian Kelly just playing a regular season, no championship game
(24:06):
and be like, oh yeah, go play Alabama. Hope you're
doing well. If you were the Raiders, would you hire
Pete Carroll at seventy three? He would be the oldest
coach in NFL history? How many years would he realistically
be able to coach five? So you know you're gonna
need another guy soon. You bring him in, You get
a sure thing and a winner to change the culture,
(24:27):
and then maybe let him pick the guy who's next
as he moves into a front office role. I was
actually thinking about this the other day. One I don't
think Pete Carroll aspires to be a front office guy.
He wants to coach, He wants to be on the field.
He for a seventy three year old, has more of
like a fifty five year old.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
Five.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
You see some of these guys we all know them
that you know we're in their sixties that feel like
they're eighty or vice versa. You're like, how old are you?
We met a l walking the dogs the other day
who's kind of lived in our neighborhood for decades and
turns out like her and her husband owned very successful businesses,
(25:10):
and Murray really liked her that they were talking while
the dogs were kind of playing. I was kind of
off to the side, but then Maria briefed me on it.
She's like, do you know how old that lady was?
I was like, I don't know, sixty six. She's like,
she was eighty two years old. I mean, she looks fantastic,
and there's something about and this lady still works to
this day. Now, businesses she had are pumping out cash,
(25:31):
but they like to work. And Pete Carroll started making big,
big money early on at USC. And obviously he had
coached in the NFL in the nineties, but I mean
he started to becoming like a true true millionaire. When
USC was humming, he was print in cash. Then he
got a ton of money to go to Seattle and
(25:51):
got countless contract extensions there. Pete Carroll is filthy rich.
And I try to say this to any human being
that ever asked for an advice, because you go, Pee
Carroll's seventy three years old, He's worth millions upon millions.
He's actually already accomplished everything literally humanly possible in his profession.
(26:12):
He coached in college one to Natty, won multiple he
coached in the NFL, won a Super Bowl, and went
to another one. It's like he literally has checked all
the boxes. He's coached Hall of famers, He's helped guys
make a ton of money. He's helped coaches go on
to make a lot of money. It's like he's literally
checked every box professionally. He could given his what he
(26:36):
does for a living, Yet he still wants to coach really,
really bad. If he gets offered any of these jobs,
he is one hundred percent going to take it. You
know why. He loves coaching football. He loves football, and
he got into it back in the day when you
made no money. He didn't get into this profession for
the money. Now he you know, rode the wave of
(26:58):
being a part of it when it took off. But
when you find what you like to do, retirement sounds
like death. It really does. And I got no issue
with anyone that wants to retire or is retired. But
I know a lot of people that you couldn't pay
them to go into retirement. And it's not because you know,
(27:19):
It has nothing to do with money. They just they
like to work because they really really like what they do.
And Pete Carroll is clearly addicted to football. Addicted to football.
It's kind of crazy. There hasn't been a guy older
in seventy three being a head coach. I thought there
was no chance him becoming a head coach because I
(27:40):
just thought people would discriminate against his age. I do
think he's got a pretty young vibe. Now. His downfall
is like, who's his offensive coordinator. He's run through a
lot of coordinators in the past. Part of that's Russell,
But yeah, I think he's a pretty unique old guy.
I would say the same for Belichick. When you're around
old coaches, they don't feel that old. And part of
(28:04):
it is when you coach, you're mainly coaching guys in
their twenties, and if you're a college coach, you're coaching
guys in their teens. Kind of keeps you young. I'm
a miserable Raider fan. I expect them to make poor
decisions every single year. I was curious what you think
about the Raiders going after Joe Milton with the Patriots.
He played well when he's on the field, He's big
(28:26):
and physical. I think his upside is huge and this
draft doesn't look promising when it comes to quarterbacks. Just
get another weapon in the first round. You know what's
funny is I read an article the other day after
Telesco got fired, and it's just talking about all the dynamics,
and it was like, you know, Tom didn't have a
great plane at quarterback. What were his options? Like, seriously,
(28:50):
what were his options? They didn't have a high draft pick.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Now.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Could he got really aggressive and traded up. Maybe, but
it feels like it would have been hard to jump
all these teams that wanted quarterbacks. Could he have signed
Sam Donald? Okay, he could have. Would Sam Donald probably
have looked like he did in Minnesota for Luke Getzy
and Antonio Pierce? Doubtful? He signed Gardner Minshew, who actually
(29:17):
was just a solid kind of bridge guy when Anthony
Richardson got hurt and theyde O'Connell. Like, I just don't
see what his options were. I'm not disputing that it
wasn't a good situation with the two quarterbacks, but I
think his options are pretty limited. Like if you go
into the offseason and you don't have a quarterback typically,
(29:40):
and you're not drafting really really high to get one
of the guys you want. For sure, it can be
pretty difficult. I will defend coaches slash gms Dick sometimes
fall into a predicament. Even this offseason. There's more options,
are there?
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Really?
Speaker 1 (29:55):
What you got a forty one year old Aaron Rodgers?
You have a thirty seven, thirty eight year old Kirk
Cousins who looks terrible. Sam Darnold is not going to
be available to me. It would take like a four
interception game against the Rams for them just to let
him walk, even if he had the same game he
(30:17):
had against the Lions. I think they're franchising. So who
you signing, Jimmy Garoppolo, Carson Wentz? What are your options?
My name is Brandon and I'm twenty four about to
be twenty five. Jealous you're in the prime of your life.
Well not really, but you're just in the prime of
your youth. Just great times, no worries. I didn't go
(30:39):
to college right out of high school and I went
to work instead. But I realize now that having a
degree can open as well as I think it could
be insanely cool to be an NFL Scout. I have
a couple questions. I love if you answered, but even
if you didn't, I still want to say love watch
the podcast. My questions are, is a degree necessary to
be an NFL scout? If so, which field should I
(31:03):
look to study. That's a good question. I I don't
know the answer to that because I was coming like,
I obviously have a an undergraduate degree, and then when
I got hired with the Eagles, I was going to
graduate school and I guess, yeah, I got a graduate
(31:24):
degree at Fresno State. But if I hadn't, I guess
they saw my resume. I would imagine it would be
pretty difficult to become a scout without a degree. I
would imagine if you went around the NFL and just
looked at every guy that works in a front office,
the only guys that might not have a degree would
(31:46):
be former players that played in the NFL that never
actually quote unquote graduated college, but had attended college playing football,
and then just after their playing career got into coaching
or scout. But two that there are no fields.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
The fields.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
No one asks you if you're meeting with like Belichick
or Kyle Shanahan, like tell me about what you studied
in college. Nobody cares. It's one of those professions. It's
not like a doctor or architecture or engineering. It's there's
nothing you can learn in school that can help you
(32:27):
do what your job is going to be. Scouting players
or front office. They'll teach everything you need to know.
I'm a cheese fan, but after listening to your Antonio
Pierce pod, I can't help but think how great of
a move it would be for the Raiders to trade
for Mike Tomlin any reason they shouldn't in your mind,
(32:49):
I would say, yes, crazy at all. I would trade
for Mike tom and I fire them for sure. Now
do I think they're gonna do that? I don't, but
I'm recording this before they play on Saturday Night. But
if he loses, and obviously he's a big, big underdog
(33:11):
in that game, I don't see how they just keep
going on. That's my question. How do you just keep
going on doing the same thing, doing the same thing
over and over like except expecting different results. But it
feels like they're pretty.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
They just don't budge. They're just very loyal to him,
which he's good in this notion, of like, what are they?
I don't know. Sometimes just sometimes you need a change.
Do you just change for the sake of changing?
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Of course not.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
But do you get to the point where Jim Harbaugh
has won more playoff games than you in the last
fifteen years when he spent eight years at Michigan. Is
that a problem? Yeah, because the knock is always.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Like, well, who's his quarter back?
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Russell Wilson, Kenny Pickett, Old Roethlisberger. So yeah, this dude
was winning playoff games with Alex Smith, lighten people up
with Kaepernick. So it can be done if your team
is good, if Miami is willing to part with Tyreek.
What do you think of Washington acquiring him to help Jaden?
(34:22):
I could see him filling a role to Brian Thomas
Junior at LSU. You know, I saw God, I love
this guy. Drew Rosenhaus could sell ice to an Eskima.
He is so good and so captivating when he just
is on television and has a mic in front of
his hand and he was just able to sell me.
(34:45):
I'm like, ah, I got Tyreek hurtis wrist in training camp.
I think it was against the Washington Commanders in a
joint practice, played all season injured when a lot of
people said he should have got surgery. So you know,
you can say he had.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
A down year.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
They're missing a quarterback. I mean, Tyreek's shittiest of the
year out of his career. You know, in nineteen he
had a down year, but he was injured. He had
eighty one catches, lowest average per per catch, you know,
in his basically in his entire career, beside his rookie season,
still had six touchdowns, no rushing touchdowns. I'm not opposed
(35:22):
if I'm of a team like Washington to acquire him.
But he's got a lot of wear and tear. I mean,
you're talking about a guy that's been in the league
one two three, four, five six, seven, eight nine. So
next year's gonna be his tenth season. And he's a
speed guy. So if we just do let's just look
(35:42):
Randy Moss year ten, what that looked like, because that
would make me a little nervous. One two three, four,
five six, seven eight nine ten. I mean year ten
was actually seven with the Pats. He had fifteen hundred
yards and twenty three touchdowns. No big deal. Yeah, I
(36:04):
wouldn't be opposed I would say the highest I would
go would be like a third round pick, because you
do have to attempt to kind of mitigate, you know,
your problems, because or mitigate and just have contingency plans
if it doesn't work out. You know, obviously the Patriots
(36:28):
Randy Moss, they hit a home run year ten. They
got him for a fourth round pick. Found you in
Collins podcast, like you, I just want you to look
up something called the Paretto distribution, also known as the
Matthew principle by some economists. I think it kind of
depicts the reality you talk about a lot regarding the
incompetence of the owners, the coaches, and the players. To
(36:52):
make this more of a question, I'll ask this, do
you think it's possible, given the statistical reality, for there
to be an abundance of highly confident and successful teams
in the NFL where all the teams are beaten up
on each other? Well, just based on like you said,
they all play each other. Right, if you just use
like use the setup of the sport, not everyone like
(37:18):
twenty teams couldn't win eleven games, right, you are gonna
have winners and losers a lot like society. Our society now,
because not everyone's in the same industry, we can have
a lot of winners, but for capitalism to truly work,
there has to be losers.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
That's just the nature of the beast.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Right, you have a building that is I don't know,
thirty stories high. There's only so many corner offices in
the top several floors. Someone has to clean the toilets,
right unless it turns into a robot, which is probably coming,
and the robots will clean the toilets. But someone has
(37:58):
to have the number one overall pick. Someone has to
win the Super Bowl. Some team is just statistically going
to lose a bunch of close games and have five
wins instead of having ten or eleven because they were
awesome in close games. So there is some randomness to
winning and losing on an individual game. But over the
(38:18):
course of a season, over the course of a decade,
that is where it's harder to get like the statistical
anomalies and the cream rises. And I think some people
are just more talented than others. Like, that's just the
nature of the beast. In highly competitive industries, some people
(38:39):
are just better than others. Now, those individuals have some
luck along the way, right, is there some element of
luck and things that go your way that are out
of your control. Of course, the Chiefs the way that
they handled the Mahome situation coming out of college, they
knew the Saints really liked them, and what if the
(39:01):
Saints would have done some crazy, crazy power play and
jumped ahead of them and got them. But I think
we could play that with a lot of situations in life.
I don't know the exact rules or details of the
of the theory that you laid out, but I think
anytime you're dealing with human beings, one, you could be
(39:22):
really talented and having a lot of skills that should
translate when I hire you to be my coach or
my GM or even my quarterback. And there are things
that I can't measure that maybe mentally that you break
down and you weren't meant to be the superstar or
the stud head coach or the stud GM, even though
(39:44):
you know in a controlled environment as the number two
with less pressure, It's like, how can this guy fail?
How can this guy not.
Speaker 4 (39:52):
Be a star?
Speaker 1 (39:54):
I just add more variables to the equation. When you
become you know, from coordinator to head coach, from assistant
GM to the GM, from like the college star to
the pros. It's just really, really difficult. Luckily, as a player,
it's not the same as a coach or GM. You
(40:15):
can still make a lot of money being number twos
at those other two roles. Hell, you can make a
lot of money being the backup quarterback. I mean, how
long's Mariota going to play for making cash?
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Same with Wentz.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
I'm currently living the mountains and I'm a fifty year
plus Chiefs fan. I've been the head of security at
the Barrett Jackson Auto Auction for many many years, and
i also run security at the Birds Nest.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
Concerts for the Phoenix Open.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
I'm writing you to invite you to either. If you
would like to attend the concerts at the auto Auction,
I'm sure you can afford the tickets. Just thought you
might like an easier way to attend.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
I thought I would.
Speaker 4 (40:54):
I like this guy.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
Since the quarterbacks are the most valuable players in the NFL,
we should not allow any teams drafting the top ten
to be able to select a quarterback. They stink, the
record stinks, and they probably don't have the assets at
the O line or skill positions to support the development
of a rookie quarterback. Teams outside of the top ten
can trade up to ten to be able to draft
(41:29):
a quarterback.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
These are better teams.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
Quarterback draft pay slide, the quarterback draft pay scale slide. Accordingly,
you know, we've had a lot of theories over should
there be a lottery, should the worst teams get the
best picks?
Speaker 2 (41:49):
They're fun to.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
Have these conversations. I don't think the NFL has showed
any inclination, and I mean any to make any changes.
Did see Belichick earlier this year talking about the lottery.
I'd be all for that. So let's say the top
five teams of the top five worst records in the
NFL all have the statistical the same chance in the lottery.
(42:13):
So it's like, yeah, the Titans could get the number
one pick, or they could have the fourth pick. I'd
have no issue with that, But it also just doesn't
feel like that's happening. Bears fan here, please be brutally
honest and rip on my team if needed. To answer
the question, do you think the Bears have a chance
to win a Super Bowl in the next ten years?
(42:34):
If not, how about twenty. Diehard Cubs fan, so I
know the possibility eventually, but damn it feels like they
do everything so poorly in an age where the blueprint
is there and they do something else. PS, you have
a dream job. I love tux Sports. Thanks good, Thanks Nick.
(42:54):
I would say let's use the Cubs as an example.
The Cubs really really sucked, right, and they am pulling
up his Wikipedia right now to find out what year
they hired him. They were terrible, and they hired theo
Epstein in twenty twelve, and then obviously four or five years.
Speaker 2 (43:18):
Later they win the World Series.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
But theo Epstein is one of the most transformative sports
executives of my lifetime. Pat Riley, you know Bill Belichick.
It's just a very very short list of guys that
(43:42):
have his resume and I'm looking right now. So in
October twelfth, twenty eleven, the cub signed Epstein to a
five year, basically twenty million dollar contract. So they gave
the keys to a guy who held lead the change
to end one of the longest curses in the history
(44:04):
of our country when it comes to sports, probably the longest, right,
definitely the most talked about one at the time when
the Red Sox won it and he was just a
young hot shot. I mean he kind of felt like,
you know, a Steve Jobs an Elon Musk something like
that of baseball and what he did to be the
(44:25):
GM of the two teams that could never win the
World Series. And so you look at the Bears and
you go, can they win it?
Speaker 2 (44:34):
And you use the.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
Cubs as an example, Well, are they going to hire
a theo Epstein? Like are they going to hire a
theo Epstein? Because if they don't, then and their theo
Epstein to me is the coach's whether it's Frable, whether
it's Ben Johnson, whoever it is. If they get the
theo right, you could argue it's Vrabel. Just get a
(44:56):
Vrabel and I don't know if you'll win a World Series,
but at.
Speaker 4 (44:58):
Least you'll be good.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
But it feels like they're more likely to hire the
ball dude from Arizona. Now. I don't know if there's
necessarily like a theo Epstein sitting out there right now,
right there's not Ted Thompson of the Packers or John
Schneider of Seattle. Go steal one of those guys. But
I think that's that's like the game, because baseball is
(45:20):
obviously way different than football, but didn't who was there?
Wasn't Joe Madden their coach, So they got THEO and
Joe Madden. I mean, think about that combination. How long
was Joe Madden their coach for? Yeah, from fifteen, so
they hired him. Fifteen he won, and sixteen they probably
had the best coach GM combination there for a couple
(45:41):
of years. Even though baseball is different, it still has
a lot of similarities in terms of you need the
best people to win. Lifelong Cardinals fan here, Why do
so many people think Kyler should be traded? Do people
not watch all the teams and realize how much worse
we can do than Kyler? Has struggled at quarterback for
years before Kyler. Our shortcomings as a team are on
(46:04):
the defense. We had Buffalo Minnesota beat defense is awful.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
He's not getting.
Speaker 4 (46:10):
Traded like you said.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
Listen, you didn't say it, but I'll say, he's not
a perfect player, and he's not even a top ten quarterback,
but he's better than fifteen ish guys, and he's a
little bit of a roller coaster. He could make some
bad decisions, you could do way worse, and to me,
as you build up this team. You just he's under contract.
You just keep playing it out. I'm a Jets fan
(46:35):
and in pain, and the question I had for the
pod is what is the path forward? Is there a
path forward with the roster they currently have with the
right head coach and Rogers or should they scrap it
and rebuild it? Well, I think you got to remove
you gotta or you gotta separate the two things. To me,
Rogers is in his own bucket. He's a forty forty
(46:56):
one year old guy who had a couple of good
games this season. And then you have the roster which
has a lot of good pieces Quinn Williams, Sauce Gardner,
Garrett Wilson, Breis Hall, the Penn State, Ifashanho was at
his name, the guy you just drafted in the top
whatever fifteen, you got some good pieces on the team.
(47:17):
So to me, the roster is intriguing. Could you just
play another season with Rogers? I think you could. But
if they hired Rex Ryan, Rex Ryan already said he's gone.
I bet there are some coaches that are in the
interview and go, yeah, we could function with.
Speaker 2 (47:34):
Him for a year.
Speaker 1 (47:35):
And I think there are others like get rid of them.
But my question is what do you do at quarterback?
And I like we talked about with the Raiders. I
don't know if there's a great answer, like Shador Sanders.
I like Shadoor more than most, I don't I don't
expect him to be a very good player as a rookie.
Draft idea that's been floating around on Instagram and I
(47:57):
wanted to know your thoughts. Week seventeen was garbage. So
to make games matter more once you are mathematically eliminated,
you get points for each win. Teams with the most
points get the top pick. This helps both sides. Players
aren't going to be in worst possible situation and force
this team to continue to win games for the fans,
(48:19):
I don't all these teams are trying to win. All
these teams are attempting to win these games, right. We
just saw the Giants win the second to last week
literally happened. The Patriots won the last game of the season.
All these teams are attempting to win. The only time
a team doesn't really care, and to me, they got
(48:42):
the right is like the Chiefs Week eight team, the
Rams Week eight team. It's like, yeah, those teams have
already won the division, so every other team tries help.
The Steelers were trying just to get a better seat,
Same with the Chargers. I don't hate these outside the
box ideas, but I also we have to acknowledge they're
(49:06):
just not gonna happen. What are your thoughts on Watson's future?
Also as a Saints fan? Your thoughts on Rattler's performance, Uh, Deshaun, Well,
he tore his achilles again. I think there's a good
chance he never plays another snap in the NFL. I
think that he is His status as an NFL player
was in major jeopardy when he tore his achilles. Now
(49:29):
that he tears it again in January, and is I
mean all science point that he can't play in twenty
twenty five. I don't think we ever see him play again. Obviously,
the toxicity that surrounds him that if he's ever cut,
I don't see anyone else messing with him. He hasn't
played good football in such a long period of time,
(49:49):
So I think Watson's big picture status is in major,
major jeopardy. I would say about Rattler, I'd be lying
if I said I watched you guys play that much
less two or three weeks. Do you think the Browns
should try to trade out of their number two overall
pick and acquire more picks or should they just stay
put and draft the best player available like Travis Hunter. Also,
(50:11):
in terms of quarterbacks, do you think it would be
wise for them to acquire someone like Fields or JJ McCarthy.
We are both still young enough and are both coachable
and mouldable to still have an impact in the league. Well,
Fields is gonna be a free agent, so obviously he's
a backup for the Steelers. I would imagine they're not
(50:33):
gonna resign them, so you could just sign Justin Fields. Yeah,
I mean if that's people are gonna be interested in him,
and he won't cost that much. Jj, you'd have to
trade for In given that Minnesota hasn't shown any desire
to get rid of them. Obviously they're only a year in.
But I are you gonna trade your first round pick
(50:54):
for him? One problem is gonna be for the Browns
like is Denzanders gonna lets Shador Sanders go there if
cam Ward goes one. I don't imagine Dion allowing that.
Speaker 2 (51:06):
Now. I clicked on this.
Speaker 1 (51:07):
YouTube of Shador talking Shador was like, yeah, you know,
it's just God's plan. I'll kind of go wherever it's
not my control. Just let whatever happened. Now, that's not
how Deon talks. Now, it's Shador's life, but that's something
to keep an eye on. Would Dion allow his son
to go to the Browns? Okay, last question, I have
(51:27):
a question for the mailbag and want your opinion. Who
would you say are the top ten to fifteen NFL
quarterbacks of all time? Well, I feel the most confident
talking about it in my life, so it is hard.
Like Johnny Unitas, fran Tarkington, I don't. I don't know
if many people would consider Ken Stabler. But like guys
(51:50):
that played in the sixties and seventies, I don't have
a great feel for them, and the guys that were
in the prime in their eighties La Montana, Dan Marino,
for example, even Jim Kelly, but I didn't watch them
play in their prime. Now we all agree that Joe Montana,
(52:14):
Dan Marino, and John Elway are all top ten quarterbacks
right to me, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, no doubt about it.
Top ten quarterback. So that's five guys I think Rogers, Farv,
Steve Young would go in there, and then I just
think we start arguing. You know, the guys that are
playing right now, I think.
Speaker 2 (52:35):
Mahomes, Lamar and Josh.
Speaker 1 (52:39):
You know, we'll see Joe Burrow. I mean, those guys
have a lot of career left. Mahomes to me, based
on his resume, he's won a couple MVPs, he's won.
Speaker 2 (52:46):
Three Super Bowls.
Speaker 1 (52:48):
How do you not argue that he's already a top
ten guy of all time. But guys that aren't still
playing Rogers I'll count as of you know, retired, But
I would go Brady won. Of the guys that I watched,
obviously you include let's just include the guys from the eighties.
I'd go Brady one, Montana two. It's some order three
(53:12):
through five. I would have Manning, Lway, Marino, Rogers, Farv,
kind of that group. I'm sure I'm probably missing someone,
you know, I don't think most people think Troy aikman'
is a top ten player. I think Steve Young is
a better player. Though Aikman won more Super Bowls as
a starting quarterback. But I think Steve Young's better than
(53:34):
Troy Aikman. I think if you're just looking at the nineties,
far to me, clearly the best quarterback of the nineties
probably goes Far then Young to the two thousands and
twenty twenties. I mean, it's pretty clear Brady Manning, Rogers
kind of separated themselves. Now Mahomes has jolted himself in there,
(53:56):
and then I think, you know, some people might argue
Drew Brees. I feel like I'm missing someone top ten
quarterbacks stallback. It's hard for me to discuss him. Rogers, Marino, Lay, Farv, Manning, Montana.
I think that's pretty fair. I think the argument is
(54:17):
is the group is Montana, Marino, Elway. I'm not talking
Super Bowls. I'm just talking as true players on a
weekly basis. Is that trio better? Like how would you
rank the trios eighties, Montana, Lway, Marino, Nineties, Farv Young,
(54:38):
Aikman two thousands and I would go tens as well,
you would go Brady Manning, Rogers, and now this crew,
it's definitely Mahomes, I'd say right now, Mahomes, Josh Allen,
Lamar Burrow.
Speaker 2 (54:57):
It's a pretty good group. Pretty good group.
Speaker 1 (55:03):
The volume
The volume What is going on Everybody? John Middlecoff three
Now podcast, How Are We Doing? I did a little
(00:21):
reaction to Ohio State, who beats Texas and is going
to the Natty playing their former player, actually Marcus Freeman
in the Notre Dame fighting Irish. What an excellent just
in terms of the brands on TV, I thought tonight
was just it looks sweet Texan Ohio State. But so
(00:42):
we get Ohio State against Notre Dame Ohio State. I
think I saw it was gonna be like eight and
a half point favorite, so big, big favorite, even bigger
than they were against Texas.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
So we'll dive in a little to the game.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
We just saw Sarkeisi and Chip Kelly, Jack Sawyer, Will Howard.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
It's fun game.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Actually really second half was was riveting, really was really good.
Both games. Great Final four, fantastic final four, year one
of the college football playoffs. Also did a little mailbag.
We just had so many questions, so I wanted to
bang out a mail bag. That will be in there
as well. And yeah, other than that, make sure you
(01:20):
subscribe to the podcast. Also, everything's on YouTube, go check
that out. And let's just dive into the game. I
got to start with, Listen, you lose that Michigan game,
the vitriol, the anger from Ohio State fans in Herb Street,
and you know, all the guys taking shots at the
(01:40):
fan base. It's kind of laughable given how bad that
loss was, like in a vacuum, that loss separate, no
one knew what was gonna happen. Was really really bad,
like there's no way around it. But they have really responded,
and they didn't get to go to the conference championship games.
They got an extra week. They kicked the crap out
(02:02):
of Tennessee, they kicked the crap out of Oregon, and tonight,
even that first drive, you're like, they kind of looked
that first drive of the game. I almost put money
on Texas. I was like, I'm not gonna Chase. I
just felt like ninety percent or something I saw of
the money was on Ohio State. Money line, the spread
(02:24):
of the public.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
I'm like, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Usually when that happens, and then the first drive of
the game happens, I'm like, I'm glad I didn't do it.
Ohio State just looked excellent. You're like, this is the
best team in the country. They're gonna roll and then
for the majority of the first half at seven.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
To nothing and you're just like, Okay, game's gonna be weird.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Texas is really good on defense, and Texas has one of,
if not the best defensive.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Coordinators in all of the country.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
And clearly whatever he did tonight, bracketing, double coveraging, throwing
different looks at Jeremiah Smith neutralized that player and that
part of their passing game. Now Ohio State, I mean,
Henderson is such an explosive running back. Their third wide
receiver Tait was dominated tonight. Abuka is obviously a really
(03:11):
good player and Will Howard as listen, he's a solid player.
I don't know what his future looks like at the
next level. Has some beautiful passes, obviously he's an excellent
runner and just made some plays. But to me, this game,
like this specific game, came down to play calling. It
came down to Chip Kelly and Steve Sarkisian. And in
(03:35):
the second half, when it's fourteen to fourteen and Texas
had come storming back, right, they're down seven to nothing,
but it felt a little wider than that. Then they
score toward the end of the half where Sark makes
a great play call on fourth down, bringing in Arch
on that play where they throw it under the tight
ends legs and they run the quarterback sweep and then
(03:55):
they score a touchdown. You're like, it's seven to seven,
They're gonna go to halftime, seven to seven, and then boom,
Chip Kelly calls the screen. Henderson looks like he's going
ninety miles an hour, scores from like eighty yards. He's
just like, that's kind of a gut punch from Texas.
But they came out in the second half. They kept
playing unreal defense. They tied the game. It's fourteen to fourteen.
(04:17):
You're going, you know, middle of the fourth quarter and
it's fourth and two and Chip Kelly just leaves the
ball in the hands of his quarterback and honestly, if
the quarterback doesn't trip himself, I don't know if he scores,
but he definitely gains an extra I don't know, six
seven yards and then they score on that.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Drive to go up twenty one to fourteen.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
And I'll be honest, like, I'm not a huge quinn
Ewers guy. Like you watch the difference between Will Howard
and Quinn Eewers or Riley Leonard and Quinn ewers like
Quinn has a better arm than those guys. Quinn just
standing there in a seven on seven situation probably looks fantastic,
but his feel for playing the position is not great.
(05:00):
A lot of their big plays in the passing game,
to me, are Sark related. He schemes them open. They
ran that sweet play to the tight end on the
touchdown drive. I guess it ended up not being a
touchdown drive, but on the drive that they should have
scored for where he pointed it downs on the ground.
There was another play where he just schemes these wide
(05:21):
receivers open and he does a great job. But to me,
when yours has to sit in the pocket and feel
pressure and move, he just feels like a lost puppy sometimes,
like he doesn't have a great feel for it. And
it's why he took some awful sacks tonight. And you know,
so fourth and two, Chip Kelly calls the play and
(05:42):
then listen Sark and they drive right down the field
and you're like, damn, I didn't know they have this
in them. And they get to the one yard line
and they run it up the gut and they.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Get stuffed and listen that happens.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
I got no problem on a first in goal trying
to go between the tackles in score touchdown. I got
no problem doing it again. The problem is Sark through
a pitch play that got lateral that ended up losing
them seven yards. I just can't imagine going lateral in
(06:16):
that situation where you have been a tough, physical team,
Like at the end of the day, one thing Ohio
State has found a balance of after that Michigan game,
Like Michigan's tougher than you. You just have to acknowledge it.
You could be a great boxer. If you get in
the ring with Mike Tyson, you're probably gonna lose, right,
So when you're Ohio State, your greatest advantage is passing
(06:38):
the ball and the threat of passing the ball. You
look tonight like they were doing every single humanly possible
to stop Jeremiah Smith. They treated him like Jerry Rice
kids nineteen years old, and they kind of took him
out of the game, not because he couldn't get open,
just because they're throwing probably two and three guys on
him every look, and Chip Kelly's like, Okay, what else
do we have to do? We gotta throw two other guys.
(07:00):
We got to run the football, we gotta throw screen passes,
we gotta run our quarterback. And you look at Sark
it's like, listen, you've kind of bullied them, like you've
been running the ball well tonight.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
How are you gonna get away from that?
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Especially with a team with that much team speed on defense,
where their best player on their best player on the
team's probably coin flip It's Downs or Jeremiah Smith, but
definitely the best player on their defense is like this
versatal safety that can get everywhere. So you go lateral,
like the likelihood that he's gonna be out in space
is going to be pretty high. And that's exactly what happened.
(07:36):
And then third down, obviously Viewers gets the ball tipped,
and fourth down, the not feeling any pressure shows up again.
He gets sacked by his former college roommate, who sometimes
in football, you have no clue how the ball's gonna bounce.
For Jack Sawyer bounced literally right back into his lap
and he took into the house.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
And that was the game.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
But the game didn't happen on fourth down. The game
happened on second down when he ran a lateral toss
to me, you can't go lateral in that situation. You
have to go vertical. Hell, bring an arch and go forward.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
You would score.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
I have pretty good confidence that if they ran three
or four times right up the middle, whether it's quarterback,
whether it's with their running backs, hell, whether it's a
direct snap to their tight end, it's gonna work. You're
definitely not gonna lose seven yards, and your quarterback definitely
won't get sacked fumbled, and they'll score. So Sark, who
someone texts me tonight In the NFL, they're like Texas
(08:35):
has one of the best coaching staffs in the league
and Sark is an excellent play caller.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Their defense is.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Incredibly well coached. And listen tonight, while they were a
six point underdog, and we've talked and most people have
about the price tag that is on Ohio State and
the twenty million dollar roster, I don't know if Texas
his roster is twenty million, might be a team like
their roster is pretty unreal. It is very very highly paid.
(09:06):
They have some big time guys, so you were going
toe to toe with them from a talent perspective.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
So what happened to Night.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
This is what happens in the NFL playoffs comes down
to coaching, comes down to play calling, and Chip made
some huge play calls to night. Even that play at
the end of the first half, when he called the
screen clearly Texas was kind of scared they were probably
gonna push the ball down the field with ah, you know,
with a Will Howard bomb to one of the one
(09:36):
of the wide receivers. All of a sudden, that screenplay
opened up, and once he made one guy miss, he
was out the gate, and the Will Howard play was
you could argue the second biggest play of the night
beside that second down seven yard loss and Sawyer's fumble
sack touchdown. So Chip Kelly in the big moments out
(09:58):
coach Sark. He had play calls that worked. Sark had
play calls that's chances of working were so low, let alone,
they blew up in his face, which sucks because he's
had such a good season he's had. He's done such
a good job of building this team like they were.
(10:18):
You just watch from a talent perspective, there isn't any difference.
We've seen some games in the playoffs where we're all like,
how is Arizona State going toe to toe with Texas.
They shouldn't have. They don't have the talent. We saw
Notre Dame play Indiana. It wasn't a fair fight. Tonight
was a fair fight, guy for guy. The talent on
(10:39):
this field. I think I heard someone say or someone
forward me a tweet of the forty four starters tonight,
I think it's twenty six or twenty seven of them
are NFL prospects, and obviously a ton of them are
highly drafted guys. And that doesn't even count some of
these freshmen and sophomores that probably don't play that much.
(10:59):
And then a rotateational backups who are going to turn
into some will turn into first and second round picks,
a lot of them will turn into fourth and fifth round.
The amount of NFL players on this field tonight was outrageous,
I mean simply outrageous. And you felt that the team
speed the tackling, so which is cool about.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Moments like this?
Speaker 1 (11:19):
This is why Ryan Day and Steve Sarkis and they
make a combine over twenty million dollars. Chip Kelly's making
two and a half. I don't want to screw up
his name. Boise State Sarks defensive coordinator Kawai Kowski might
have mispronounced that Bowler awesome defensive coordinator. These guys are
all making huge money and like they have highly paid rosters,
(11:42):
and it came down to two or three plays. Chip
Kelly got it done, Stark did not. And I think
that Sark play call on second down is for a
guy who's come a long way.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
I mean, this was a guy at USC and it is.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
This is a cool part about sports, right you're seeing
it in real time with Ryan Day over for the
last month, and you're seeing it with Sark over the
course of his career. Is like you can be down
in the shitter, your career can feel over. I mean
Sark got fired for USC for showing up to the
meeting on the sauce to his team, got fired that morning,
(12:18):
and a decade later, like he's he's got Texas on
the brink of going to the national championship. Hell, he
had him there last year too, Ryan Day just a
month ago and felt.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Like is this guy gonna get fired?
Speaker 1 (12:30):
This guy getting get fired, and you can change some
people change their career like that. That's what Ryan Day
has done over the course of these three games, it's
like he's sixteen minutes away from being a national champion.
Sark it took him a little longer, but it's like
he's one of the best coaches in the country. But
you become legendary. And Ryan Day said it after the
game about Jack Sawyer, like these are the type moments
(12:51):
when legacies are made and you can or cannot become
a legend. And like, let's face it, like I've been
hard on Ryan Day, but his resume now after these
last three weeks, like beating the shit out of Tennessee's
a really good win. Housing Oregon was beyond impressive. Tonight
was the most of all three of them because it
(13:12):
was a tight game, because it was difficult because the
defense you were playing is excellent. But the one downfall
of Texas is I saw someone tweak this out, like
their red zone offense is I think there's one hundred
and twenty teams that.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Are Division I football programs.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
They're one hundred and eighth in red zone offense, and
you feel it when you watch them. Now, to me,
it's not all coaching. Part of that's your quarterback who
just lacks the field. But on that specific.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Play from the one yard line.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
When you get first and goal in the one yard line,
you kind of can take it out of the player's hands,
put it on your offensive lineman, just say we're going forward.
And that's what Chip did on that fourth and two
with Will Howard. Like listen, they've been covering our guys.
Someone could slip. We're not over complicating this thing. We
have a power running quarterback. We're gonna run quarterback power.
(14:04):
And I mean, best case scenario is what happened. You know,
the garden the center basically parted like the Red Sea
when the dude pulled up the middle. But even if
it hadn't and they had collapsed it, we think our
guy's powerful enough to get us two yards and we're
gonna go down swing with this guy. Meanwhile, they run
that play. It's like too much room for error and
(14:25):
the worst case scenario happened, and I think as a
play caller you kind of gotta factor that in. It's
like listen, just could listen. If they little, uh, they
get discombobulated. Maybe we walk in and he touches the
pylon on the.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Way sprint into the corner.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
What happens if we miss a block on the edge
and a guy gets penetration. All of a sudden, we're
at the one could we be at the six yard line? Like,
I think you have to factor that into play. You're
playing Ohio State. Now, we're not playing Mississippi State. We're
not playing Oklahoma State. This is Ohio State, which regardless
they're the eighth seed, they're the best team in the country.
(15:00):
So does this make sense? And the answer is no.
And then you have to put it on your quarterback
the next two plays from the eight yard line, and
we saw how that goes. And Quinn yours just talk
about getting I see it with Carson back, and I
get it.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
You see it in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
People get desperate for quarterbacks, but paying these guys, who
knows if this is true, but you see some of
these numbers, three, four or five six million dollars. Man,
I don't blame Carson Beck. If you just got five
or six million dollars to go to Miami or four
million dollars, that is one hundred percent the right move.
More power to you. That is a great business decision.
(15:38):
You should go to Miami instead of going to the NFL.
Quin yours, someone is gonna give you five million dollars
next year to play college football. Do that.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Do that. That is a great idea, I do.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
No one will ever give you better advice than the
history of your life. If there's five million dollars available,
make sure you get in writing. Then they signed and
you signed no no handshake deals. But if they're signing it,
take that money and drive immediately to campus. Tell them
you will see them tomorrow. You will sign that contract.
Because these guys are not NFL players. Like that's not
(16:15):
an NFL quarterback, and there's done wrong with that. Most
human beings that play college football are not NFL quarterbacks.
Most human beings in America are not NFL quarterbacks. But
when yours not an NFL quarterback, well Howard, And that's
what I think was fascinating about this. I'll end with
this this matchup. I mean, both games were awesome. Part
of this long now playoff system, We're gonna get some
(16:38):
bad games. There's nothing you can do, but the cream's
gonna rise. You might have an upset or two over
the course of the next three or four years. I
would be stunned if we don't get a consistent theme though.
Of the best four of the best six or seven
programs every single year in the final four. It's just
the football in college. The separation of talent in this
(17:01):
year obviously, I mean the amount of NFL guys on
the field these last twenty four hours is just it's
pretty eye opening. But two guys that have helped themselves. Man,
Like I think Quinn you were stinks, I really do.
I know he's got a good arm and he can
make some throws. I don't think he's a good quarterback.
But I watched Will Howard and Riley Leonard, and it's
(17:22):
like I would have been a hater of those guys
three months ago, kind of earned in my respect. Both
of them elite competitors. Obviously in college, running the ball
is a huge part of their game. I mean Will
Howard tonight, I mean the defense played really well, but
throughout these playoffs he's been throwing the ball very well.
I mean tonight he got fooled on the one where
(17:44):
he tried to force feed the ball. Don't blame him
to Jeremiah Smith, linebacker drops last second and makes a
really really good play. That happens to NFL quarterbacks. But
I think both these guys are players that listen I'm
not talking about first round, but for guys that mid round, guys,
third or fourth round, they are going to be players
(18:06):
that quarterback coaches and the coaching staffs once they get
involved in the draft process are really gonna like because
it is clear how much their teams like them. It
is clear how competitive they are now a huge part
of that in college is runs with your leg legs,
not your leg So are both these guys getting quarterback
(18:29):
power calls In the NFL.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
You have to be a better thrower.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
But Riley Lonnard last night made some huge throws, some
dots on third and long. Will Howard's been doing that
in all the big games. Hell in the big game
they lost against Oregon, or excuse me, against Michigan, it's like.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Why didn't you throw it more?
Speaker 1 (18:52):
And when they've leaned on his arm, like he's come through.
He made a great play today laid in the fourth
quarter where he was kind of a scrambling backwards, almost
backpedaling away from the pressure. Tate breaks off like a
deep breaking route hits him in stride. Will Howard's growing
on me, so was Riley Leonard. I'm not saying I
want these guys in my starting quarterbacks. But you're telling
(19:13):
me these guys can't be mid round backups as rookies.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
I mean, look at some of these scrubs playing in
the NFL.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
So I think this is two guys that have really
kind of, I don't know, giving themselves a chance that
I would say halfway through the season.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
We're not viewed like that, but.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Obviously their legs and just their playmaking has been huge
for their team.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
And now we get.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Marcus Freeman who is an Ohio State alum and played there,
and Ryan Day who just taking this program over from
Urban Meyer and has them in the Natty. Now this
is a fun matchup. Now everyone and their mother's gonna
pick Ohio State. I would be stunned if Ohio State
doesn't win the game. We won't know, oh until the
(20:00):
game comes around. On Notre Dame's injury situation, they lost.
You know, their offensive line is obviously clearly banged up.
Their star defensive lineman has been out.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
But I maybe it's just.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Touchdown Jesus' year. But I really enjoyed the last couple
of nights, very impressed with Ohio State tonight that that
was any elite team can dominate when they get up
big early, they can kick the crap out of it,
especially in college football. But they even mentioned it to
Night on the broadcast. The one thing Start kept saying
is like, we need to get these guys in a
(20:38):
close game in the second half. We feel like we'll
have an advantage. And it was that, and it was like, God,
is Ohio State gonna lose this game, especially when it
looked like they were going to tie it up twenty
one to twenty one. It's like all the pressure wasnt
Ohio State.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
And then they didn't and they ended.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Up winning by two touchdowns and covering pretty easily. And
Ryan Day has the boys in the natty NFL playoffs.
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Speaker 2 (22:39):
Let's do a little mail bag.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Got a bunch of questions, so I would like to
answer some of them, and uh, I actually just got
this and I responded manually. But we might as well
start with this one at John middlecoff Instagram fire and
those dms get your questions answered here on the show.
If Notre Dame gets whipped in the Natty, how's that
(23:00):
better than what Brian Kelly did. He brought them to
a BCS title got whipped. Well, because you know, one
of the great fugazis of all time is for a
long long time, we just picked two teams and they
played for the national championship. It wasn't like the NFL
or baseball or basketball where you I don't know, had
(23:20):
to win in the playoffs. She's like, oh, yeah, they're
the best team, and they go and sometimes it worked
and sometimes it did not. So Marcus Freeman just beat
Georgia as a dog and then beat Penn State and
the final line ended up he was a dog as
well with a bunch of injuries. That is more impressive
(23:43):
to the route to getting there than Brian Kelly just
getting put there when they can just fudge their own schedule.
Now I'm not some Brian Kelly hater, but it's more
impressive winning playoff games, three of them, even if one's
a home game, especially against Georgia and Penn State. Then
Brian Kelly just playing a regular season, no championship game
(24:06):
and be like, oh yeah, go play Alabama. Hope you're
doing well. If you were the Raiders, would you hire
Pete Carroll at seventy three? He would be the oldest
coach in NFL history? How many years would he realistically
be able to coach five? So you know you're gonna
need another guy soon. You bring him in, You get
a sure thing and a winner to change the culture,
(24:27):
and then maybe let him pick the guy who's next
as he moves into a front office role. I was
actually thinking about this the other day. One I don't
think Pete Carroll aspires to be a front office guy.
He wants to coach, He wants to be on the field.
He for a seventy three year old, has more of
like a fifty five year old.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
Five.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
You see some of these guys we all know them
that you know we're in their sixties that feel like
they're eighty or vice versa. You're like, how old are you?
We met a l walking the dogs the other day
who's kind of lived in our neighborhood for decades and
turns out like her and her husband owned very successful businesses,
(25:10):
and Murray really liked her that they were talking while
the dogs were kind of playing. I was kind of
off to the side, but then Maria briefed me on it.
She's like, do you know how old that lady was?
I was like, I don't know, sixty six. She's like,
she was eighty two years old. I mean, she looks fantastic,
and there's something about and this lady still works to
this day. Now, businesses she had are pumping out cash,
(25:31):
but they like to work. And Pete Carroll started making big,
big money early on at USC. And obviously he had
coached in the NFL in the nineties, but I mean
he started to becoming like a true true millionaire. When
USC was humming, he was print in cash. Then he
got a ton of money to go to Seattle and
(25:51):
got countless contract extensions there. Pete Carroll is filthy rich.
And I try to say this to any human being
that ever asked for an advice, because you go, Pee
Carroll's seventy three years old, He's worth millions upon millions.
He's actually already accomplished everything literally humanly possible in his profession.
(26:12):
He coached in college one to Natty, won multiple he
coached in the NFL, won a Super Bowl, and went
to another one. It's like he literally has checked all
the boxes. He's coached Hall of famers, He's helped guys
make a ton of money. He's helped coaches go on
to make a lot of money. It's like he's literally
checked every box professionally. He could given his what he
(26:36):
does for a living, Yet he still wants to coach really,
really bad. If he gets offered any of these jobs,
he is one hundred percent going to take it. You
know why. He loves coaching football. He loves football, and
he got into it back in the day when you
made no money. He didn't get into this profession for
the money. Now he you know, rode the wave of
(26:58):
being a part of it when it took off. But
when you find what you like to do, retirement sounds
like death. It really does. And I got no issue
with anyone that wants to retire or is retired. But
I know a lot of people that you couldn't pay
them to go into retirement. And it's not because you know,
(27:19):
It has nothing to do with money. They just they
like to work because they really really like what they do.
And Pete Carroll is clearly addicted to football. Addicted to football.
It's kind of crazy. There hasn't been a guy older
in seventy three being a head coach. I thought there
was no chance him becoming a head coach because I
(27:40):
just thought people would discriminate against his age. I do
think he's got a pretty young vibe. Now. His downfall
is like, who's his offensive coordinator. He's run through a
lot of coordinators in the past. Part of that's Russell,
But yeah, I think he's a pretty unique old guy.
I would say the same for Belichick. When you're around
old coaches, they don't feel that old. And part of
(28:04):
it is when you coach, you're mainly coaching guys in
their twenties, and if you're a college coach, you're coaching
guys in their teens. Kind of keeps you young. I'm
a miserable Raider fan. I expect them to make poor
decisions every single year. I was curious what you think
about the Raiders going after Joe Milton with the Patriots.
He played well when he's on the field, He's big
(28:26):
and physical. I think his upside is huge and this
draft doesn't look promising when it comes to quarterbacks. Just
get another weapon in the first round. You know what's
funny is I read an article the other day after
Telesco got fired, and it's just talking about all the dynamics,
and it was like, you know, Tom didn't have a
great plane at quarterback. What were his options? Like, seriously,
(28:50):
what were his options? They didn't have a high draft pick.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Now.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Could he got really aggressive and traded up. Maybe, but
it feels like it would have been hard to jump
all these teams that wanted quarterbacks. Could he have signed
Sam Donald? Okay, he could have. Would Sam Donald probably
have looked like he did in Minnesota for Luke Getzy
and Antonio Pierce? Doubtful? He signed Gardner Minshew, who actually
(29:17):
was just a solid kind of bridge guy when Anthony
Richardson got hurt and theyde O'Connell. Like, I just don't
see what his options were. I'm not disputing that it
wasn't a good situation with the two quarterbacks, but I
think his options are pretty limited. Like if you go
into the offseason and you don't have a quarterback typically,
(29:40):
and you're not drafting really really high to get one
of the guys you want. For sure, it can be
pretty difficult. I will defend coaches slash gms Dick sometimes
fall into a predicament. Even this offseason. There's more options,
are there?
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Really?
Speaker 1 (29:55):
What you got a forty one year old Aaron Rodgers?
You have a thirty seven, thirty eight year old Kirk
Cousins who looks terrible. Sam Darnold is not going to
be available to me. It would take like a four
interception game against the Rams for them just to let
him walk, even if he had the same game he
(30:17):
had against the Lions. I think they're franchising. So who
you signing, Jimmy Garoppolo, Carson Wentz? What are your options?
My name is Brandon and I'm twenty four about to
be twenty five. Jealous you're in the prime of your life.
Well not really, but you're just in the prime of
your youth. Just great times, no worries. I didn't go
(30:39):
to college right out of high school and I went
to work instead. But I realize now that having a
degree can open as well as I think it could
be insanely cool to be an NFL Scout. I have
a couple questions. I love if you answered, but even
if you didn't, I still want to say love watch
the podcast. My questions are, is a degree necessary to
be an NFL scout? If so, which field should I
(31:03):
look to study. That's a good question. I I don't
know the answer to that because I was coming like,
I obviously have a an undergraduate degree, and then when
I got hired with the Eagles, I was going to
graduate school and I guess, yeah, I got a graduate
(31:24):
degree at Fresno State. But if I hadn't, I guess
they saw my resume. I would imagine it would be
pretty difficult to become a scout without a degree. I
would imagine if you went around the NFL and just
looked at every guy that works in a front office,
the only guys that might not have a degree would
(31:46):
be former players that played in the NFL that never
actually quote unquote graduated college, but had attended college playing football,
and then just after their playing career got into coaching
or scout. But two that there are no fields.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
The fields.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
No one asks you if you're meeting with like Belichick
or Kyle Shanahan, like tell me about what you studied
in college. Nobody cares. It's one of those professions. It's
not like a doctor or architecture or engineering. It's there's
nothing you can learn in school that can help you
(32:27):
do what your job is going to be. Scouting players
or front office. They'll teach everything you need to know.
I'm a cheese fan, but after listening to your Antonio
Pierce pod, I can't help but think how great of
a move it would be for the Raiders to trade
for Mike Tomlin any reason they shouldn't in your mind,
(32:49):
I would say, yes, crazy at all. I would trade
for Mike tom and I fire them for sure. Now
do I think they're gonna do that? I don't, but
I'm recording this before they play on Saturday Night. But
if he loses, and obviously he's a big, big underdog
(33:11):
in that game, I don't see how they just keep
going on. That's my question. How do you just keep
going on doing the same thing, doing the same thing
over and over like except expecting different results. But it
feels like they're pretty.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
They just don't budge. They're just very loyal to him,
which he's good in this notion, of like, what are they?
I don't know. Sometimes just sometimes you need a change.
Do you just change for the sake of changing?
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Of course not.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
But do you get to the point where Jim Harbaugh
has won more playoff games than you in the last
fifteen years when he spent eight years at Michigan. Is
that a problem? Yeah, because the knock is always.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Like, well, who's his quarter back?
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Russell Wilson, Kenny Pickett, Old Roethlisberger. So yeah, this dude
was winning playoff games with Alex Smith, lighten people up
with Kaepernick. So it can be done if your team
is good, if Miami is willing to part with Tyreek.
What do you think of Washington acquiring him to help Jaden?
(34:22):
I could see him filling a role to Brian Thomas
Junior at LSU. You know, I saw God, I love
this guy. Drew Rosenhaus could sell ice to an Eskima.
He is so good and so captivating when he just
is on television and has a mic in front of
his hand and he was just able to sell me.
(34:45):
I'm like, ah, I got Tyreek hurtis wrist in training camp.
I think it was against the Washington Commanders in a
joint practice, played all season injured when a lot of
people said he should have got surgery. So you know,
you can say he had.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
A down year.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
They're missing a quarterback. I mean, Tyreek's shittiest of the
year out of his career. You know, in nineteen he
had a down year, but he was injured. He had
eighty one catches, lowest average per per catch, you know,
in his basically in his entire career, beside his rookie season,
still had six touchdowns, no rushing touchdowns. I'm not opposed
(35:22):
if I'm of a team like Washington to acquire him.
But he's got a lot of wear and tear. I mean,
you're talking about a guy that's been in the league
one two three, four, five six, seven, eight nine. So
next year's gonna be his tenth season. And he's a
speed guy. So if we just do let's just look
(35:42):
Randy Moss year ten, what that looked like, because that
would make me a little nervous. One two three, four,
five six, seven eight nine ten. I mean year ten
was actually seven with the Pats. He had fifteen hundred
yards and twenty three touchdowns. No big deal. Yeah, I
(36:04):
wouldn't be opposed I would say the highest I would
go would be like a third round pick, because you
do have to attempt to kind of mitigate, you know,
your problems, because or mitigate and just have contingency plans
if it doesn't work out. You know, obviously the Patriots
(36:28):
Randy Moss, they hit a home run year ten. They
got him for a fourth round pick. Found you in
Collins podcast, like you, I just want you to look
up something called the Paretto distribution, also known as the
Matthew principle by some economists. I think it kind of
depicts the reality you talk about a lot regarding the
incompetence of the owners, the coaches, and the players. To
(36:52):
make this more of a question, I'll ask this, do
you think it's possible, given the statistical reality, for there
to be an abundance of highly confident and successful teams
in the NFL where all the teams are beaten up
on each other? Well, just based on like you said,
they all play each other. Right, if you just use
like use the setup of the sport, not everyone like
(37:18):
twenty teams couldn't win eleven games, right, you are gonna
have winners and losers a lot like society. Our society now,
because not everyone's in the same industry, we can have
a lot of winners, but for capitalism to truly work,
there has to be losers.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
That's just the nature of the beast.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Right, you have a building that is I don't know,
thirty stories high. There's only so many corner offices in
the top several floors. Someone has to clean the toilets,
right unless it turns into a robot, which is probably coming,
and the robots will clean the toilets. But someone has
(37:58):
to have the number one overall pick. Someone has to
win the Super Bowl. Some team is just statistically going
to lose a bunch of close games and have five
wins instead of having ten or eleven because they were
awesome in close games. So there is some randomness to
winning and losing on an individual game. But over the
(38:18):
course of a season, over the course of a decade,
that is where it's harder to get like the statistical
anomalies and the cream rises. And I think some people
are just more talented than others. Like, that's just the
nature of the beast. In highly competitive industries, some people
(38:39):
are just better than others. Now, those individuals have some
luck along the way, right, is there some element of
luck and things that go your way that are out
of your control. Of course, the Chiefs the way that
they handled the Mahome situation coming out of college, they
knew the Saints really liked them, and what if the
(39:01):
Saints would have done some crazy, crazy power play and
jumped ahead of them and got them. But I think
we could play that with a lot of situations in life.
I don't know the exact rules or details of the
of the theory that you laid out, but I think
anytime you're dealing with human beings, one, you could be
(39:22):
really talented and having a lot of skills that should
translate when I hire you to be my coach or
my GM or even my quarterback. And there are things
that I can't measure that maybe mentally that you break
down and you weren't meant to be the superstar or
the stud head coach or the stud GM, even though
(39:44):
you know in a controlled environment as the number two
with less pressure, It's like, how can this guy fail?
How can this guy not.
Speaker 4 (39:52):
Be a star?
Speaker 1 (39:54):
I just add more variables to the equation. When you
become you know, from coordinator to head coach, from assistant
GM to the GM, from like the college star to
the pros. It's just really, really difficult. Luckily, as a player,
it's not the same as a coach or GM. You
(40:15):
can still make a lot of money being number twos
at those other two roles. Hell, you can make a
lot of money being the backup quarterback. I mean, how
long's Mariota going to play for making cash?
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Same with Wentz.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
I'm currently living the mountains and I'm a fifty year
plus Chiefs fan. I've been the head of security at
the Barrett Jackson Auto Auction for many many years, and
i also run security at the Birds Nest.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
Concerts for the Phoenix Open.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
I'm writing you to invite you to either. If you
would like to attend the concerts at the auto Auction,
I'm sure you can afford the tickets. Just thought you
might like an easier way to attend.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
I thought I would.
Speaker 4 (40:54):
I like this guy.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
Since the quarterbacks are the most valuable players in the NFL,
we should not allow any teams drafting the top ten
to be able to select a quarterback. They stink, the
record stinks, and they probably don't have the assets at
the O line or skill positions to support the development
of a rookie quarterback. Teams outside of the top ten
can trade up to ten to be able to draft
(41:29):
a quarterback.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
These are better teams.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
Quarterback draft pay slide, the quarterback draft pay scale slide. Accordingly,
you know, we've had a lot of theories over should
there be a lottery, should the worst teams get the
best picks?
Speaker 2 (41:49):
They're fun to.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
Have these conversations. I don't think the NFL has showed
any inclination, and I mean any to make any changes.
Did see Belichick earlier this year talking about the lottery.
I'd be all for that. So let's say the top
five teams of the top five worst records in the
NFL all have the statistical the same chance in the lottery.
(42:13):
So it's like, yeah, the Titans could get the number
one pick, or they could have the fourth pick. I'd
have no issue with that, But it also just doesn't
feel like that's happening. Bears fan here, please be brutally
honest and rip on my team if needed. To answer
the question, do you think the Bears have a chance
to win a Super Bowl in the next ten years?
(42:34):
If not, how about twenty. Diehard Cubs fan, so I
know the possibility eventually, but damn it feels like they
do everything so poorly in an age where the blueprint
is there and they do something else. PS, you have
a dream job. I love tux Sports. Thanks good, Thanks Nick.
(42:54):
I would say let's use the Cubs as an example.
The Cubs really really sucked, right, and they am pulling
up his Wikipedia right now to find out what year
they hired him. They were terrible, and they hired theo
Epstein in twenty twelve, and then obviously four or five years.
Speaker 2 (43:18):
Later they win the World Series.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
But theo Epstein is one of the most transformative sports
executives of my lifetime. Pat Riley, you know Bill Belichick.
It's just a very very short list of guys that
(43:42):
have his resume and I'm looking right now. So in
October twelfth, twenty eleven, the cub signed Epstein to a
five year, basically twenty million dollar contract. So they gave
the keys to a guy who held lead the change
to end one of the longest curses in the history
(44:04):
of our country when it comes to sports, probably the longest, right,
definitely the most talked about one at the time when
the Red Sox won it and he was just a
young hot shot. I mean he kind of felt like,
you know, a Steve Jobs an Elon Musk something like
that of baseball and what he did to be the
(44:25):
GM of the two teams that could never win the
World Series. And so you look at the Bears and
you go, can they win it?
Speaker 2 (44:34):
And you use the.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
Cubs as an example, Well, are they going to hire
a theo Epstein? Like are they going to hire a
theo Epstein? Because if they don't, then and their theo
Epstein to me is the coach's whether it's Frable, whether
it's Ben Johnson, whoever it is. If they get the
theo right, you could argue it's Vrabel. Just get a
(44:56):
Vrabel and I don't know if you'll win a World Series,
but at.
Speaker 4 (44:58):
Least you'll be good.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
But it feels like they're more likely to hire the
ball dude from Arizona. Now. I don't know if there's
necessarily like a theo Epstein sitting out there right now,
right there's not Ted Thompson of the Packers or John
Schneider of Seattle. Go steal one of those guys. But
I think that's that's like the game, because baseball is
(45:20):
obviously way different than football, but didn't who was there?
Wasn't Joe Madden their coach, So they got THEO and
Joe Madden. I mean, think about that combination. How long
was Joe Madden their coach for? Yeah, from fifteen, so
they hired him. Fifteen he won, and sixteen they probably
had the best coach GM combination there for a couple
(45:41):
of years. Even though baseball is different, it still has
a lot of similarities in terms of you need the
best people to win. Lifelong Cardinals fan here, Why do
so many people think Kyler should be traded? Do people
not watch all the teams and realize how much worse
we can do than Kyler? Has struggled at quarterback for
years before Kyler. Our shortcomings as a team are on
(46:04):
the defense. We had Buffalo Minnesota beat defense is awful.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
He's not getting.
Speaker 4 (46:10):
Traded like you said.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
Listen, you didn't say it, but I'll say, he's not
a perfect player, and he's not even a top ten quarterback,
but he's better than fifteen ish guys, and he's a
little bit of a roller coaster. He could make some
bad decisions, you could do way worse, and to me,
as you build up this team. You just he's under contract.
You just keep playing it out. I'm a Jets fan
(46:35):
and in pain, and the question I had for the
pod is what is the path forward? Is there a
path forward with the roster they currently have with the
right head coach and Rogers or should they scrap it
and rebuild it? Well, I think you got to remove
you gotta or you gotta separate the two things. To me,
Rogers is in his own bucket. He's a forty forty
(46:56):
one year old guy who had a couple of good
games this season. And then you have the roster which
has a lot of good pieces Quinn Williams, Sauce Gardner,
Garrett Wilson, Breis Hall, the Penn State, Ifashanho was at
his name, the guy you just drafted in the top
whatever fifteen, you got some good pieces on the team.
(47:17):
So to me, the roster is intriguing. Could you just
play another season with Rogers? I think you could. But
if they hired Rex Ryan, Rex Ryan already said he's gone.
I bet there are some coaches that are in the
interview and go, yeah, we could function with.
Speaker 2 (47:34):
Him for a year.
Speaker 1 (47:35):
And I think there are others like get rid of them.
But my question is what do you do at quarterback?
And I like we talked about with the Raiders. I
don't know if there's a great answer, like Shador Sanders.
I like Shadoor more than most, I don't I don't
expect him to be a very good player as a rookie.
Draft idea that's been floating around on Instagram and I
(47:57):
wanted to know your thoughts. Week seventeen was garbage. So
to make games matter more once you are mathematically eliminated,
you get points for each win. Teams with the most
points get the top pick. This helps both sides. Players
aren't going to be in worst possible situation and force
this team to continue to win games for the fans,
(48:19):
I don't all these teams are trying to win. All
these teams are attempting to win these games, right. We
just saw the Giants win the second to last week
literally happened. The Patriots won the last game of the season.
All these teams are attempting to win. The only time
a team doesn't really care, and to me, they got
(48:42):
the right is like the Chiefs Week eight team, the
Rams Week eight team. It's like, yeah, those teams have
already won the division, so every other team tries help.
The Steelers were trying just to get a better seat,
Same with the Chargers. I don't hate these outside the
box ideas, but I also we have to acknowledge they're
(49:06):
just not gonna happen. What are your thoughts on Watson's future?
Also as a Saints fan? Your thoughts on Rattler's performance, Uh, Deshaun, Well,
he tore his achilles again. I think there's a good
chance he never plays another snap in the NFL. I
think that he is His status as an NFL player
was in major jeopardy when he tore his achilles. Now
(49:29):
that he tears it again in January, and is I
mean all science point that he can't play in twenty
twenty five. I don't think we ever see him play again. Obviously,
the toxicity that surrounds him that if he's ever cut,
I don't see anyone else messing with him. He hasn't
played good football in such a long period of time,
(49:49):
So I think Watson's big picture status is in major,
major jeopardy. I would say about Rattler, I'd be lying
if I said I watched you guys play that much
less two or three weeks. Do you think the Browns
should try to trade out of their number two overall
pick and acquire more picks or should they just stay
put and draft the best player available like Travis Hunter. Also,
(50:11):
in terms of quarterbacks, do you think it would be
wise for them to acquire someone like Fields or JJ McCarthy.
We are both still young enough and are both coachable
and mouldable to still have an impact in the league. Well,
Fields is gonna be a free agent, so obviously he's
a backup for the Steelers. I would imagine they're not
(50:33):
gonna resign them, so you could just sign Justin Fields. Yeah,
I mean if that's people are gonna be interested in him,
and he won't cost that much. Jj, you'd have to
trade for In given that Minnesota hasn't shown any desire
to get rid of them. Obviously they're only a year in.
But I are you gonna trade your first round pick
(50:54):
for him? One problem is gonna be for the Browns
like is Denzanders gonna lets Shador Sanders go there if
cam Ward goes one. I don't imagine Dion allowing that.
Speaker 2 (51:06):
Now. I clicked on this.
Speaker 1 (51:07):
YouTube of Shador talking Shador was like, yeah, you know,
it's just God's plan. I'll kind of go wherever it's
not my control. Just let whatever happened. Now, that's not
how Deon talks. Now, it's Shador's life, but that's something
to keep an eye on. Would Dion allow his son
to go to the Browns? Okay, last question, I have
(51:27):
a question for the mailbag and want your opinion. Who
would you say are the top ten to fifteen NFL
quarterbacks of all time? Well, I feel the most confident
talking about it in my life, so it is hard.
Like Johnny Unitas, fran Tarkington, I don't. I don't know
if many people would consider Ken Stabler. But like guys
(51:50):
that played in the sixties and seventies, I don't have
a great feel for them, and the guys that were
in the prime in their eighties La Montana, Dan Marino,
for example, even Jim Kelly, but I didn't watch them
play in their prime. Now we all agree that Joe Montana,
(52:14):
Dan Marino, and John Elway are all top ten quarterbacks
right to me, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, no doubt about it.
Top ten quarterback. So that's five guys I think Rogers, Farv,
Steve Young would go in there, and then I just
think we start arguing. You know, the guys that are
playing right now, I think.
Speaker 2 (52:35):
Mahomes, Lamar and Josh.
Speaker 1 (52:39):
You know, we'll see Joe Burrow. I mean, those guys
have a lot of career left. Mahomes to me, based
on his resume, he's won a couple MVPs, he's won.
Speaker 2 (52:46):
Three Super Bowls.
Speaker 1 (52:48):
How do you not argue that he's already a top
ten guy of all time. But guys that aren't still
playing Rogers I'll count as of you know, retired, But
I would go Brady won. Of the guys that I watched,
obviously you include let's just include the guys from the eighties.
I'd go Brady one, Montana two. It's some order three
(53:12):
through five. I would have Manning, Lway, Marino, Rogers, Farv,
kind of that group. I'm sure I'm probably missing someone,
you know, I don't think most people think Troy aikman'
is a top ten player. I think Steve Young is
a better player. Though Aikman won more Super Bowls as
a starting quarterback. But I think Steve Young's better than
(53:34):
Troy Aikman. I think if you're just looking at the nineties,
far to me, clearly the best quarterback of the nineties
probably goes Far then Young to the two thousands and
twenty twenties. I mean, it's pretty clear Brady Manning, Rogers
kind of separated themselves. Now Mahomes has jolted himself in there,
(53:56):
and then I think, you know, some people might argue
Drew Brees. I feel like I'm missing someone top ten
quarterbacks stallback. It's hard for me to discuss him. Rogers, Marino, Lay, Farv, Manning, Montana.
I think that's pretty fair. I think the argument is
(54:17):
is the group is Montana, Marino, Elway. I'm not talking
Super Bowls. I'm just talking as true players on a
weekly basis. Is that trio better? Like how would you
rank the trios eighties, Montana, Lway, Marino, Nineties, Farv Young,
(54:38):
Aikman two thousands and I would go tens as well,
you would go Brady Manning, Rogers, and now this crew,
it's definitely Mahomes, I'd say right now, Mahomes, Josh Allen,
Lamar Burrow.
Speaker 2 (54:57):
It's a pretty good group. Pretty good group.
Speaker 1 (55:03):
The volume
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