3 & Out - Eagles PREPARED to win again, How will the Cowboys fare, Patriots REACTION to Belichick and UNC

On this episode John breaks down why the Eagles still have their foot on the pedal and what that means for the NFC race. He dives into the big question in Dallas, how will the season play out for the Cowboys, and whether they can finally get over the hump. 

Plus, a deeper look at whether organizations truly help quarterbacks succeed or if it’s all on the player. And with NFL Sunday Ticket moving, John shares his thoughts on the changes to Red Zone since joining ESPN.

Later, John answers your questions in this episode's mailbag segment. 

43:57 - Eagles still have their foot on the pedal

14:50 - Cowboys season ahead

23:57 - Who fails who regarding QB's

31:28 - Patriots reaction to Belichick

35:30 - Changes to Red Zone

47:32 - Mailbag

Follow John on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for the latest. Check out Gametime - the fastest growing ticketing app in the US, and the official ticketing app of 3 & Out and GoLow -  for tickets to all of your favorite NFL, NBA, NHL, NCAA teams. Concert and comedy show tickets, too. Go to Gametime now to create an account, download the app and use code JOHN for $20 off your first purchase. #Volume

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. What is going on everybody? How are we doing?
Hopefully really well? A big smile on your face because

(00:22):
NFL football is back. The Eagles take on the Cowboys tonight.
We're gonna do a lot of football talk today. Some
thoughts on that game, some thoughts on quarterbacks. Mike Vrabel
had some comments. Kevin O'Connell had a comment. Red Zone
will now have commercials. Your boy might have done a
little couch scouting. Youtubing watched a couple of college quarterbacks
their highlights from week one, big game this weekend, Oklahoma

(00:43):
and Michigan. Those two guys look good. I will do
a little mailbag at John Middlecoff. Fire in those dms.
Get your questions answered here on the show. We'll try
to bang out a little mailbag on the back end.
And other than that, Subscribe to the podcast if you
listen on Collins. Subscribe to the YouTube page if you
want to watch and we got you covered. But before
we dive in, do you want to go to one

(01:03):
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I think my main man, pat Riley, who's lived a
good life in Miami, those team's not very good anymore.
Once famously said and talked about in a book which

(02:07):
he's talking about the disease of me, which is essentially,
when guys have success, they start thinking about themselves way
more than they did previously when it was about the team,
the team, the team, which is ironic because the guy
put it in a book to make money about kind
of himself and his ideas. But that's another conversation. Listen,
pat Riley's a legend, but let's face it, the disease

(02:28):
of me is real. It is. I say this all
the time. It is so much easier to make changes,
to be driven to work hard, to do everything humanly
possible when things aren't going your way, or when you're
trying to climb up the mountain once you get to
the top. I always have a lot of admiration and

(02:48):
respect for people that are really, really rich, especially older people,
and still work really hard. Listen, Belichick and UNC might
completely be a flop at seventy three years old when
you have as much money and it has made as
much money as him, for him not to just be
retired at seventy three, seventy four years old with his
twenty five year old girlfriend Nantucket in the summer, Miami's

(03:08):
in the winters, That's what I would do. Board likely
that's what probably you would do. It say it's like
he's coaching at UNC, a school that's never really won. Listen,
I Pete Carroll, it's like, bro, just retire, just chill.
You're super rich, relax, you're in your seventies. But they're drive,
they're aspirational. You just can't turn that clock off. And
I'm not respect it. But once you've won a super Bowl,

(03:30):
once you've accomplished anything in life, definitely in pro sports,
like I do understand, well, maybe don't work as hard.
You know that that gym session in June during the
off season when you're on vacation, maybe like, yeah, I'll
skip today, and then today leads into tomorrow and then
you look back at your summer you're like, god, I
worked way harder two years ago. It is understandable. Like

(03:51):
I always do get when people have had success. Listen,
I think it happens in college football all the time.
You know, you go to a school like Alabama, and
if you're a level of recruit, you assume you're gonna win.
It's not the way it works. The reason they won
is because of what Nick Saban mandated they do three
sixty five. It wasn't just because you showed up you're
a great player and you're automatically gonna dominate. That's not

(04:12):
how the world works, right, So I do think the
Eagles are pretty equipped moving forward, and this game tonight
is going to be, I think a microcosm of what
we're gonna see with these two teams, even though I
do think Dallas could be somewhat competitive throughout the year
because they're offense. I mean, shit, they've invested enough offensively
in terms of money and draft resources, but obviously defensively,

(04:35):
they're gonna stink, probably gonna be a long, tough season. Now,
Unlike most people, they just think they're gonna suck. Like
we all agree the Eagles are gonna be good. The average,
I would say ninety percent of people think the Cowboys
are gonna suck. I'd be a little surprised if they
won like three or four games now seven and ten, Like,
that's a long season. It's a lot of losses, you know,
that's a lot of losses, and some of those wins

(04:55):
are ugly too. So I do think the Eagles, unlike
the Cowboys, as I've said this before, like their biggest
advantage is Howie right, their owner, really successful guy does
not meddle in football for the most part. I mean,
every owner gives his opinions here and there. But unlike Jerry,
who's like, I'm always gonna be the GM, he's like, Howie,

(05:15):
you do everything like I've said it. With the Mica trade,
I understand it, like I get it, But you don't
trade that guy at the end of August if you
are gonna ever be open to trading him. He traded
him before the draft, Howie Roseman if he was. Let's
use an example. If if Jeffrey Lurie said, listen, under
no circumstances are we gonna give Jalen Carter another contract,

(05:36):
which obviously he's not gonna say, but let's just use
this hypothetical. Jalen has another huge year and he is
gonna get one hundred and seventy million dollars guaranteed in
like two years. It's like, how he trade this guy?
And like Micah Parsons or like Khalil Mack, he's a
guy that every team and especially the good teams are
gonna be very very interested in. I'll promise you this
that trade happens before the draft because when you trade

(05:57):
for draft picks in the future, they're not worth as
much as ones in the presence, so called time value money.
And I think the Eagles one thing I'll never forget spending.
I mean, I've worked for him for three years, but
I was in the office for two and my office
was you know, first office was probably fifteen feet away.
My second office was actually closer. They were all in

(06:19):
the vicinity. I mean, it's it's crazy, it's become a
little different. But for a long time, NFL teams like
a mom and pop shop. You know, the coaches, the scouts,
they are all kind of together. You spend every waking
moment together, and I'll never forget. It's why I think
once I left football, I never went back. Is I realized,
like I didn't love football, And clearly I like it

(06:40):
a lot. I mean, I've dedicated my life to working
at it and talking about it, and this is my profession,
but not nearly enough. Because I saw Andy Roseman and
Howie Roseman, or I saw Andy Reid and Howie Roseman,
and Andy's the first bout Hall of Famer. Sure, how
He's going to won two Super Bowls and two different coaches.
I signed multiple court with two different quarterbacks, like that's

(07:01):
the Hall of fame. Resume their drive, their love of football,
their passion for it was unrelenting. And obviously Howie is
smarter than a lot of gms, but his talent, but really,
like Andy's work ethic, I'll never It'll be seared in
my memory for life. And I remember being at the
combine a couple of years ago, I think, after they

(07:21):
won their second Super Bowl and talking to one of
my buddies on the coaching staff and he's like, you know,
the crazy thing is I notice no difference in Andy
than I did in two thousand and nine. When I
drive by the office in April on my way to
home depot on a Saturday morning, his truck will be outside,
and his work ethic, his focus and overall it comes

(07:45):
from your passion and love of the sport is as
big and as strong as humanly possible. He's a football addict.
And I would say the same thing for Howie and
a lot of guys, just like a lot of human beings,
once they have success, it's human. It happens to a
lot of players, it happens a lot business people that
their drive slows down, And I don't think that will
be a factor at all with Howie because he's got

(08:06):
this neurotic, just kind of chip on his shoulder that
doesn't get phased with. Like he's been a millionaire for
a long time, he won a Super Bowl in twenty seventeen,
and his work ethic is the way his mind operates.
I think will be completely unphased moving forward. And you
saw this training camp. The dude literally made three trades

(08:28):
on a day. I mean, that's type stuff you do
when you're trying to claw your way to the playoffs.
He's the defending champs, where we all agree he's got
one of, if not the best roster in the league,
and it's like we can improve here, we can do this,
we can make this move. That's just the way he's
wired and that's not gonna change whether he's thirty years
old or when he's seventy years old. He will always
be like that. So the Eagles greatest asset non player

(08:51):
is clearly their GM, who is one of I mean truly,
I mean, based on his resume, Gonna Go Down is
one of the greats of all time. That's just a
And the other thing is listen, when they're asking Nick
Sirianni about the banner ceremony. It's a really big deal
for an NFL team or a college team to win
a championship, especially when you're at a place like Philadelphia,

(09:16):
the Green Bay Packers, the Pittsburgh Steelers, Alabama, Florida, Georgia.
It means a lot. So for the Eagles to listen,
it's a celebration of what happened. It's going to be
in a sports sense, like a religious experience for these people.
Always say, in my experience, my biggest takeaway from Philly

(09:39):
was one, love the people, love the food. But what
I appreciated about it most is I got to work
in football and that was as important as anything in
that city, that football team, the Philadelphia Eagles. And I
understand Nick the disease of me, you're trying to move
on last year the championship doesn't help his team, But
like it's a little cheesy for me, not really my style.

(10:00):
But the one thing I'll give Siriani is a couple
of years ago when they made the Super Bowl and
he was doing that stuff of pumping his chest, beating
Andy Reid and you know, not in the Super Bowl,
but literally remember when they played him with the Chiefs
on Monday Night football, he got a little humble pie
because they started that season red hot, like ten and
one or eleven to one. They lost a bunch of games.
They got their ass kick in the playoffs. He almost

(10:20):
got fired. Like I think it was probably a coin
flip from him being axed for William Belichick. That probably
wouldn't have been the right move. But I don't care
who you are when you are that close to your
professional ending at a place, especially from a coach, and
you know it like this isn't it's not like the
elephant in the room anymore. But like, he's not dumb

(10:43):
that I think you saw last year. Obviously they revamped
the staff, he had to fire people. I think one
of the guys he fired on that staff two years ago,
if not the best man in his wedding, was definitely
in his wedding. So it's like, bro, this is not
going to be tolerated here. You know why, because we
don't tolerate that this Listen, I do respect. I think
Alabama fans are gonna take a lot of shit, Like

(11:04):
they're really mad this they've been so spoiled. Well, yeah,
that's what they're used to. For seventeen years, they were
kicking the shit out of everybody. We're all human beings.
You know, you can't win the national championship every year.
They didn't win Nick Saban, But they don't expect to
go five and five over a ten game stretch, Like
that's understandable. Like the Eagles don't expect to look like crap.
So that year two years ago, like it's just not

(11:26):
gonna be tolerated there, not by the owner and not
by the general manager. And I think Sirianni learned a
valuable lesson. You better just kind of swallow your pride
a little bit and change your antics and be careful
because this game will humble you really quick. And I
do think he got a big, big slice of humble
pie and was better for it. And obviously the organization

(11:47):
with Jeffrey Lurie, they're willing to do whatever it takes
to buy coaches, Like you look at Jerry Jones, it's
like you're going with Brian Schottenheimer and Matt Eberflus. Meanwhile,
the Eagles have one down year where they still made
the playoffs. They're like Vic fangiol here's a three year,
fifteen million dollars. We want the best defensive coordinator on
our staff. Jerry's probably paying Brian Schottenheimer Vic Fangio money

(12:08):
and Vic Fanniel's their coordinator. So I think the Eagles
are equipped moving forward at least for the next couple
of years. Again, as you have more success, more guys
need to be paid. They do a really good job
with the cap and pushing the cap down the road.
Obviously their quarterback is completely unfazed by success. To me,
he reminds me a lot of like an Andy Reider.

(12:29):
Belichick in terms of his wiring doesn't smile that much
in the sense of like not doing huge celebrations onto
the next thing. Absolute grinder. So I would expect the
Eagles to be really really good this year. And when
you look at the Cowboys and moving forward in general,
as long as how he's the GM and they have
that infrastructure in place, I do think when you look
at the Cowboys, you know we talk shit, would be strong.

(12:53):
But like Kirk Cousins getting made fun of a lot, like, oh,
he's this great businessman. He made three hundred million dollars
and what was he have to show for it? Now,
in fairness to Kirk Cousins, he never considered him like
some top quarterback, but he was kind of hovered between
eight to twelve. That's a guy. If you do a
good enough job building the team should be able to
compete for a Super Bowl. Right. We have seen Jared
Goff lead a team to a Super Bowl, lead a

(13:13):
team to the NFC Championship. And I think there have
been periods like is Dak Kirk Cousins similar mold, similar
type player, like never gonna be an elite guy, but
when he's on pretty damn good, And I wonder if
Dak's career is gonna end and we're gonna speak about
him like an NBA player, It's like, oh, yeah, I
remember Dak, guy that made five hundred and seventy five
million dollars playing football and never did anything in the playoffs.

(13:36):
Actually was terrible in the playoffs, but then when it
came to getting paid, always needed the most money possible,
which hindered his team to build around him. And he's
a player that needs help building around him. And just like, hey,
super rich guy, awesome, but nothing to show of any
validity and something that you can hang your hat on.
From a legacy standpoint, when it matters the most, if anything,

(13:58):
he'll be known, like, let's face it, he's closer to
James Harden than anyone wants to make it out some
great regular seasons, a lot of Pro Bowls, and a
lot of bad playoff performances. So I think the Cowboys
this game in general. I think it's easy for everyone
to act like they're gonna lose by one hundred points,
and they might. I just know from a gambling standpoint,

(14:19):
you got to be very careful with these divisional matchups.
Wouldn't shock me at all if this game gets weird.
Same thing Friday night. Listen, it's Week one. Every team
has hope and beliefs. Now, maybe the Micah Parsons thing
deflated some people by some reports, like some of the
players were glad he's gone, But from a football standpoint,
it's clearly a big loss. I do just believe you

(14:42):
got to be very careful about overreacting to one game.
Now over the aggregate of the season, it could be long,
and it could be pretty ugly, but this is what
you sign up for when you give a guy sixty
million dollars who probably most of the time is somewhere
between the ninth to thirteenth best quarterback, Like he's going
to take up a lot of cap room. He needs help,
you know, Bucky Brooks says, tractors and trailers. He needs

(15:05):
to be pulled. He needs a good running game, he
needs a good defense, he needs a good offensive line.
And I think there are a lot of question marks
with the defense with the Cowboys, with their offensive line
of the Cowboys, because they got a lot of young players,
and I'm sorry their running back room is pretty shitty
on paper now just because you're bad on paper. That's
why you play the games. How they look between the
white lines. You never know. That's a position to where

(15:26):
random guys get created. But I would have said that
last year, and then nothing got created. The terrible running
the ball, and a lot of that was in Collins
talked about this. They couldn't side Dereck Henry tight million dollars,
didn't have any They had all the cap space going
to Dak going to Ceedee Lamb, you know, going to Lawrence,
going to Diggs. I mean, they're paying all these guys

(15:46):
and you got to be very careful. And Jerry said
this before and I'll never forget it, because I try
to use this thinking about whenever I'm making a purchase,
like if you're buying a house, if you're gonna just
purchase whatever, that is some what on the larger scale
for whatever you're you know, relative to how much money
you have is I've never made a mistake paying a

(16:09):
premium for a premium. Well, it's like he's basically talking
about paying guys like Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes,
Josh Allen. Yeah, you can't. You can't overpay those guys.
It's impossible. It's impossible to overpay Steph Curry. It's impossible
to overpay Aaron Judge, right, it's impossible to overpay show

(16:31):
Heyo Tani. What they bring to the table, they're just
so much better than everybody else. But if you overpay
Dak Prescott, it's going to be a problem. And it
legitimately has. And again I've always defended Dak. I've said, listen,
for whatever reason, he plays really good in November December,
and then he gets in these playoff games and he shrinks.
I do think he has it in him to play

(16:52):
a good playoff game against another worthy opponent. I mean
His best playoff game is obviously that Tampa team that
was folding like a cheap tent. But at this point
in time, their team's not gonna be good for the
foreseeable future. And even if they are able to reset
it with this trade, which is possible if you make
the right picks. Like the reason the Khalil Mack trade,
you could say it was a lose lose. I would

(17:13):
say it was kind of a win for the for
the Bears, they made the playoffs a couple times. They
got this elite player who was an All Pro and
a Pro bowler as a team captain. The Raiders got
all these draft picks and they started whiffing on all
the picks, So you got to make the picks look
great on paper, but they got them to turn into players,
you know, So like trading AJ Brown for the seventeenth pick,

(17:34):
we laugh at that because they took Treillon Burks. Well,
if they had taken you know, the equivalent of Justin
Jefferson or DK Metcalf or just AJ Brown two point zero,
we wouldn't make fun of them as much. They took
a guy that most people think stinks, who actually I
kind of like coming out in the draft, but clearly
he's not a very good player, and I was injured

(17:55):
and it feels like his career is just derailed. So
who you take with those pick is ultimately how we
you know, we judge the trade. So I don't know
how you bet against the Eagles tonight. I would just
be leery of huge, huge lines when it comes to
divisional opponents. We'll see. I mean, I'm very fascinated to
watch how the Eagles come out tonight. It should be fun.

(18:17):
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Speaking of quarterbacks, I read a good article on the Athletic.
You know, they say journalism is dying, but that there

(20:04):
are some good good articles there football wise and college
football wise. That and the premise of this article was
Kevin O'Connell, who made comments a while back to Rich
Eisen that organizations failed quarterbacks more than quarterbacks fail organizations.
And I think Zach Kiefer was the writer. He talked

(20:25):
to Troy Aikman, Peyton Manning, Alex Smith, Matt Hasselback, all
these quarterbacks that have been in all sorts of these situations,
and from Troy Aikman to Peyton Manning their early struggles
to turning into Hall of Fame careers to Matt Hasselback
starting as a backup. Matt Hasselback said in this article
that I was the youngest at the time backup. That

(20:46):
I was the first guy younger than Brett Favre, and
that was his eighth season in the NFL, my first
year in the league, and I was his backup, and
I was the first guy throughout those eight years that
was younger than him. And that was not by accident.
And I'll never forget talking to each and the Chiefs
guys when they got rid of Alex, traded Alex to
the Washington Commanders with the Redskins at the time, that

(21:09):
one thing that they were going to do with their
backup quarterback was sign a married guy. And it turned
out to be Chad Henny like that. They were not
going to sign some They weren't going to sign Tyson
Badget or mac Jones. They were going to sign an
older player who was married and listen, I'm a big
believer in that right. The Colts did that last year
when they brought in Joel Flacco for to mentor and

(21:33):
be around Anthony Richardson. Peyton Manning had some great comments.
He said, I never would have been allowed to throw
twenty eight touchdowns if I was playing for Bill Parcells.
It's because you would have been benched. He's like, no,
he would have killed me first. And I do think
some of those guys. When you look at Troy Aikman,
and if you watch the documentary Hell By his third year,
he got kind of injured and kind of got benched

(21:55):
down the stretch of the season. Peyton Manning struggled his
first couple of years. Obviously, we've seen some quarterbacks over
the course of their career Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, Alex
Smith hit Bumpy Rhoades early on in their career. I
think one separator, and I think this is true for
life too, is mental toughness and the only way, and

(22:16):
Bill Parcells was quoted in this He said, I wouldn't
evaluate a quarterback coming out of college after they throw
three or four touchdowns. I would try to dial into
them and lock into them. What do they look like
after they throw three picks and they lose? And that's
easier said than done. But I do agree you learn
way more about a person through adversity than you do

(22:37):
through success. Because when you're having success in whatever you do,
especially football, most human beings are riding high and don't
want to change anything and don't need to because it's working.
When your back's against the wall and you are pressed,
you got a couple options either kind of fold or
you mentally power through. It's why I think a lot

(22:59):
of success people, and you're using Peyton Manning and Troy's
Aikman as examples, I'd argue that either one of those
guys would have been so successful in any industry. Like
when I watched Troy Aikman talk or Peyton Manning talk,
like those guys could have like ran a bank, those
guys could have created a company from nothing. Peyton Manning
literally did so Troy Aikman. I mean, these guys are

(23:20):
outlier human beings. I guess the point of this is
for me to say I do think there's some truth
some teams fail guys, But I also think quarterbacks often fail.
Teams slash their skill set. Isn't that relatable to what
you have to do in the NFL. If Caleb fails,

(23:40):
it might not be because his physical talents. He clearly
has those, but he has an attribute that he holds
onto the ball too long, so to a lot of quarterbacks,
and it doesn't usually work in the NFL because you
have to get rid of the football because even the
best offensive linemans Lane Johnson, Zach Martin, Trent Williams can
only hold a defensive lineman for so long until they're

(24:02):
gonna get some pressure. You have to get rid of
the ball, and sometimes that means throw the fucking ball away.
And Anthony Riginson's a good example. I would argue he
probably fails no matter where he goes, just like Trey
Aikman and Peyton Manning probably figure it out wherever they go.
Did Peyton? Did Patrick Mahomes benefit from playing for Andy Reid?
Of course he did? Did he benefit for a year

(24:24):
sitting behind Alex Smith? Do I think Patrick figures it
out if you put him on the Cleveland Browns, if
you put him on the Miami Dolphins, I do. Do
I think he wins four Super Bowls? Maybe not, But
do I think he's clearly one of the best players
in the NFL. I do think he does, because I
think there's a wiring and just a focus to certain individuals. Now,

(24:47):
certain people like the Lamar Jackson we see now is
dramatically better than the guy that won the MVP in
twenty nineteen. So did he benefit from an organization that
could pivot their offense around him and let him grow?
Of course he did. But if you watch him, like,
what would his floor have been? Like what Kyler Murray's doing,
And I'd argue it's probably higher than that. And Kyler's

(25:09):
been in a chaotic situation. So I'm always been a
believer that the cream rises at the top. Obviously, if
you don't have the work ethic, if you don't have
the mental capability, football is hard. If football is confusing,
there's a lot thrown at you. You can be overwhelmed.
But I think for the most part, guys that fail
would have failed with most people. There's the occasional player

(25:32):
that would you know, that needs different spots, that has
to mesh with the right coach. Isn't that kind of life.
There's a reason if you date ten girls and you
marry the eleventh, it's like, well, maybe you could have
married three or four of those girls, potentially seven of them.
You're just like, yeah, sleepular, but I want no part
of this. We all mesh different with human beings. So

(25:55):
I just think that like Deshaun Watson, his style once
he got into doesn't translate to anyone's offense. It doesn't
work at all. Just freelancing, running around and making plays
when you've become an average athlete in your arm's not
great anymore, that's not gonna work. Caleb, even if he
was just a run around and throw the ball guy,
his armstrow strong. There is value there, right, But when

(26:18):
I watch Anthony Rigson, he's not accurate. He clearly was overwhelmed.
And Chris Ballard's quote in this article that he was swimming,
but to me, the tapping out of the game. He
doesn't even know what. He doesn't even know. But there's
a chance that his physical skills. For every Josh Allen
that improves his accuracy. I think Warren Moon was a
guy back in the day that improved his accuracy. Most
guys don't like. That's not usually a tangible asset that

(26:42):
can grow. It's like, you know, he was extremely inaccurate.
By the end of the career, he was one of
the most accurate guys in the NFL. It's not the
way it usually works. So I do get what Kevin
O'Connell is saying. And clearly JJ McCarthy is better off
going to Kevin O'Connell than he would be going to
some random coach in a shitty environment. I'm not disputing that.

(27:04):
But like, if JJ McCarthy fails, probably would have failed anywhere.
And if JJ McCarthy becomes one of the best quarterbacks
in the NFL, even if he wouldn't have reached his
ceiling somewhere else, he probably would have become a good player.
I do believe that. Another thing I said this yesterday,
the sweating right now so hot in here. I turned

(27:26):
on the ac too. The North Carolina tar Heels banned
Patriots scouts from coming through, which is unheard of, And
I said it yesterday like nothing's more unbecoming than just
old bitter guy, Like he's just like, bro, why are
you so angry? Especially when like life's been pretty good
to you? But you can't fake your personality. And Belichick's personality,

(27:47):
I'll give him credit, has never changed, like he's this
isn't an act. He's not mister Smiley. But to me,
to ban the Patriots, like, bro, get over it, you
got fired. That happens in the NFL. Mike Vrabel was
at about Belichick start it, basically threw a jab, saying that,
well Erbin Myers first year to Ohio State, he went
twelve and zero. That's my experience because Mike Vrabel was

(28:09):
around then, and I think a lot of people are like, oh,
I thought they were boys, that they were close. People
ask me all the time, like from how as a fan,
how I've changed? Who do I root for? The number
one thing I would root for over anything, if my
fandom was still as strong as it was when I
was a little kid would be this podcast would be
stories would be things to get the most people listening

(28:31):
would be how do I get Josh Allen or Patrick
Mahomes or Sean McVay to come. I would do anything
to improve this and make this bigger over absolutely anything
that happens on the field. That is my number one
prerogative when it comes to the sport of football is
this podcast. And when you're a head coach, the only
thing you care about is your team in the organization. So, yeah,

(28:55):
you played for this guy back in the day and
he inevitably traded you. But you're not gonna let my
scouts come your organization because you're mad at my owner
that he fired you two years ago from going four
and twelve. Guess what, Bill, I got fired as well.
It happens. It's football. So I think this Belichick thing,
I do think it's insane that the schedule makers made

(29:17):
Bill Belichick play on Monday night and then play a
road game the following Saturday against Charlotte, which I don't
know that much about. I don't think they're that good
at football. But the initial betting line was twenty four points,
so three touchdowns in a field goal. It has already
been bet down to under two touchdowns. I just think

(29:39):
that a lot of people, and Bill's I think acknowledging
the NFL's never happen to me. Back double middle fingers.
I hate you guys too, and I'm gonna be your enemy,
which Coward once famously said that holding a grudge is
like chain smoking hate. And I've never forgot that because
when I was younger and listen, I got fired in
the NFL, I could have easily held grudges and just

(30:03):
hated everybody. And I was like, what's the point of this?
Like I can text how he called me up said
we're not renewing your contract. I mean, he's one of
the gms in my phone. It's probably a relationship I
want to keep. I could have held a grudge to
this date. What's the point of that, just to be
mad about something that happened in the past. Like move on,
stop looking in the rear view mirror. Isn't that what
Belichick's telling his players, like, let's move forward. We got

(30:25):
to get better. Yet he's holding this grudge in the
past against this eighty five year old owner. It's not
the scouts didn't do this, you know, Elliott Wolf didn't
do this. Mike Vrabel had nothing to do this. But
you're you're taking it out against them. So I think
Mike Rabel saying that was because of what's going on
behind the scenes with the scouting community. It's it's an embarrassment.

(30:49):
And I've been pro Belichick, I've defended him, but I'm
starting to think like, with his mindset, with the way
people are, the tiktokification of the youth, he might be fucked.
Red zone, which I've never actually watched that much. Occasionally,
as the season goes on, I'll have it on one

(31:09):
of the four boxes. But I've always been like I
watched the games, not against the red zone. I understand
its popularity, and it's definitely good for the NFL. It's like,
I don't play fantasy football, but I understand its impact
on society, gravitating towards the sport of football. It's a
good thing. The more people that play fantasy football, the
more people that watch the games, the more people that

(31:30):
listen to shows like me. So I am pro fantasy football.
Even besides some daily fantasy. Over the years, I haven't
really dabbled. I've never been in a league, not against
It's just not my thing. I do understand, I would say,
somewhat of the way the media landscape works. I've been
in radio and now podcasting for a long time, and

(31:53):
the goal of like this isn't a passion project. This
is a business, a for profit business where we got
to make money. That's the whole reason we're doing any
of this. I tell people all the time. They're like,
how cool was it you get to work in sports.
I'm like, I don't listen. I take I don't take
it for granted, but like I also look at it
like you would a job you have to or else

(32:14):
you're doing yourself somewhat of a disservice, right, The mortgage
is coming no matter what. And if it's like just
my passion project, good luck to you, because that thing
wouldn't get paid. So last year to someone told me this,
we were having our weekly meeting for three and out
and I guess they dabbled last year. I kind of
kind of vaguely remember this with commercials on the Red

(32:38):
Zone and people freaked. And then when this ESPN NFL
merger acquisition, however you want to quantify it happened. The
writing was on the wall. A company like ESPN, like Fox,
like CBS, whoever would not acquire something like the Red

(32:58):
Zone and have it commercial free for seven hours, especially
even if there are less people than I think the
casual fan would assume are actually watching it. Like the
numbers of actual games are much higher than the red Zone,
but still, if you're getting a million or two million
people to watch the red zone, that it can be
a very profitable endeavor. So it was announced the day

(33:21):
I think Scott Hansen told Pat McAfee there will be
commercial breaks. This is no longer seven hours of commercial
free football. Those days are done. Once ESPN purchased them.
You think they were just gonna run seven hours commercial free.
You think Disney and they're boarded directors. Yeah, we just
had this product that you know, on a given day,

(33:41):
if it's good, two million people could watch, and we're
just not going to advertise. That wouldn't be tolerated. That's
literally not allowed. You're not allowed to operate like that
as a public company. So I think I understand the
freak out if you're a loyal guy and it does suck.
I'm not acting like it doesn't suck. But I say
this all the time about streaming what everyone's like, it's

(34:02):
so unfair. Look at what the NFL fan has. They
got to subscribe to Peacock, Like, do I want to
subscribe to Peacock? Not really? But am I bitching? NBC
is not going to exist in five, ten, twenty years.
It won't be around the only way for them to
keep going is for the streaming service to operate. If
it doesn't, the network will go under. I will promise

(34:24):
you that. No different than all these companies. Now. I
don't subscribe to every single one of them, though it
definitely feels like that. I do understand that, like traditional
television is not going to be around in the relatively
new near future. We just had a meeting today and
after that beating ended, it was a video meeting on zoom,
I got an email sent to me with a complete

(34:46):
hour long breakdown of everything we hit in AI. It
literally broke down everything. Hey, this is what we're doing
on Thursday night, these ads and just like every single
topic we hit for big picture stuff, for college football stuff,
it was like, this is a I honestly, I didn't
even know what was going on. I just thought I
was like, are we being recorded? I didn't even say anything,
and I saw it get I was like, damn, that

(35:06):
is fucking remarkable. So times have changed and you have
to change or you won't survive. It's no different. Like
we do more stuff on YouTube and this will be
for the near future, but who knows. If something else happens.
Instagram goes away, Twitter goes away. You just pivot and
that's that's the way. And now you pivot faster than
ever before because of the changing landscape. So I don't

(35:32):
have any issue with anyone being mad about the commercials.
But what do you expect. That's not the way the
world works. Last, but not least, I did a little
YouTube scouting today because I basically just sent out Saturday
and I was gonna watch the three big games. I
was gonna watch, obviously the morning game arch at Ohio State.
I was going to watch Florida State Alabama, and then

(35:54):
watch the LSU cleansing game. I didn't really watch, Like,
I didn't watch Utah. I love Utah. We're gonna bet
on Utah, but I didn't. I don't have time to
watch that game. I just didn't have four boxes going.
I just wanted to dial in on those games. Well,
I went back and watched Bryce Underwood and the best
part about YouTube is you can just type in a
guy's throws, give me Bryce underwoods highlights, give me John
Matteer's highlights. The biggest game this week by far is

(36:16):
Michigan going to Oklahoma. Here's the thing with Arch. We
all watched the Arch game and we went, I don't
really see the arm you flip on Oklahoma and John
Matteirs slinging that pill. You turn on Bryce Underwood slinging
that pill. You go, those are arms. That's what NFL
scouts look for. Now. Just because you have a strong
arm does not mean you're a good NFL quarterback. And

(36:39):
John Mattier had some balls fly around a little bit,
but his talent jumped off the screen. And Underwood's a
true freshman, so you know he's I'm sure he's gonna
have some bumps in the road, but his talent ooz
is off the screen. You can't miss it. You cannot
miss it. So I was in the car the other
day and I heard Brady Quinn was around radio channels

(37:01):
and he was on and he said, I'm soak right
now in sweat that He's like, the craziest part of
watching college football all day Saturday is how far quarterback
plays come. He's like, when I think back to my
freshman sophomore year, He's like, I was terrible. I go
back and look, it's like god, I was awful. But

(37:23):
also like I played multiple sports in high school, so
when I got to college, I hadn't been working with
a quarterback coach an individual trainer, like I hadn't been
doing that stuff. And all these kids now have been
going to the elite eleven's, they've done training, they do
off season seven on seven. You just watch Bryce Underwood
or John Matteer or some of these quarterback last year
Cam wore. These guys have had so many reps throwing

(37:43):
the ball, and even back twenty years ago, but definitely
thirty and forty years like the Troy Aikman days, a
lot of these quarterbacks didn't throw the ball that much
in college. These were running offenses, so you get these guys.
It's never been easier to evaluate. These teams are throwing
the ball NonStop. Now they're gonna have some blowout win
against nobody's. But even when like archs Mannings first ever
real start still had thirty pass tips, you know you

(38:06):
look it back. I bet if we went to box
scores in like the seventies and eighties, with like Barry
Switzer versus Jimmy Johnson, I bet there were games where
some of these quarterbacks like threw the ball a lot
sixteen times, right, and of those sixteen, probably four or
five of them were around the line of scrimmage. I mean,
you go back that watch the U Michael Irvin started
lining up in a three point stance at wide receiver.
So the game has revolutionized for the quarterback and throwing

(38:32):
the ball. It's why even an average fan can go like, God,
there's something there. It doesn't mean you're gonna be The
NFL is way harder in college, but the talent of
these guys just oozes off the screen. So like John
Mattier watching that guy, like that's first round talent. Now
we'll have to see how he played. This is a
huge game against Michigan, and he's gonna have huge games

(38:53):
this year against Texas against I think they play Alabama again.
Like he's gonna play real teams throughout the year. So
Illinois State ain't it. But like if that, if he
plays well in these games, you could look at a
guy going really high. And obviously Bryce Underwood probably got
one of the biggest pay packages in the history of
college football. Now, granted we're early on in this kind

(39:13):
of nil world, but I get it, like I saw
it like, yeah, understandable, k Bao back time at John Middlecoff,

(39:34):
at John Middlecoff, firing those dms. Get your questions answered
here on the show that's on Instagram. Dms wide open,
fire in him. We'll start with Dave, call me Judas.
But can I push back on the Broncos hype train
just a little? Obviously as a fan, I'm more excited
about this season than any since the Manning era, But
come on, Herd hierarchy have them four and at least

(39:57):
one contingent of every talk show has them win the division.
I'm more confident against the Chiefs, Chargers and Raiders, But
come playoff time, do we really think they're going to
go into high Mark or M and T and win
or going to Philly week five and winning. Maybe I'm wrong,
but the hype scares the shit out of me. When
I was on the show and he did the Herd

(40:17):
hierarchy and had them above the Chiefs, I had to
say this, you can't have them above the Chiefs. I
do think there was value there like a month ago,
I don't know if the value is still there. And
then winning division. I've come around like if you're going
to bet how to bet against the Chiefs to win
this division. But I do think the Broncos can be
pretty good that they would need bo Nicks to become

(40:37):
a top ten player. Like, what if he's just better
than Dak Prescott. What if he just becomes clearly better
than a bunch of guys that used to kind of
the Kirk Cousins, like that level guy. If he becomes
better than we know their defense is good, we know
their offense will be good with Sean, So I do
think it's on the table. Second, have you heard anything
around the league about Davis Webb as our quarterback coach?

(41:00):
Bookmark this he will be in OC in the next
two years. No, I just remember when they hired him
basically fresh off playing to be their quarterback coach. Listen,
most quarterback coaches, I bet if you looked around the league,
you know, I remember when I was in Philly, it
was Doug Peterson who then becomes an OC head coach.
Kevin O'Connell quarterback coach, OC head coach. You know, it's

(41:23):
kind of a path if the backup quarterback gets into coaching,
they kind of go like this, you know, So I
think Davis Webb would fall under that for sure. I'm
not sure if you've seen the article about the Clippers
and Balmer paying twenty eight million for a job he
didn't even have to show up, was blatantly done to
circumvent the salary cap. But my question is this, do

(41:46):
you think things like this happen in the NFL? I
know you'd have to be elite to get this kind
of treatment, but do we really think Brady was the
only guy making below market value with no other kickbacks
all those years in New England and then in Tampa. Also,
is there a dirtier league than the NBA between refs
being paid off draft lottery, malfeasan's cap circumvention, and clear corruption.

(42:10):
I was thinking this today when I saw you know,
the NBA got really political for a while and it
obviously backfired in their face. They need to lean into
what they've always been one just hooping, two like care
about money over everything, and three like banging chicks, a
lot of them married or not. Like that is what

(42:31):
the players have been notorious for. I mean, I saw
this PJ. Washington video go viral. I was thinking about that.
I'm with you, It's like lean into who you are,
which is actually we can embrace. You got a little
mob feel to it, you got a little porn feel
to it. You got the most incredible athletes on the
planet in your league, but they always try to pretend
they're not something that they are. So I'm with you, Kawhi.

(42:51):
Leonard is an awful business partner. I mean, is there
a worst guy to be in business with than Steve Balmer?
In the business relationship that he's paid them hundreds of
millions of dollars if they get in trouble for doing this.
I didn't read the article, but I watched like the
five minutes someone forwarded me. Maybe it was on Twitter,
like Pablo tore I mean, clearly people at the company

(43:12):
that probably got fired gave him a bunch of information. Now,
I bet Kawhi, like the NBA doesn't have legal standing
to go to get information. They're not the cops. So
if you didn't do anything wrong, right, you can pay
someone and not show up. Now you can't do that
in the NBA. But like, what recourse are they going
to have to really figure this out? And KAUI could

(43:33):
just be like, like games, I just didn't want to
do it. You know, it could be that simple. Now,
clearly it looks pretty shady. But I'm totally with you.
The NBA always like they try to have this perception
different than reality. I mean, I hear some stories. I
got a couple buddies that you know are deep in
the league, either as assistant coaches or like close to
a certain player. And you hear some of these stories
with some of these players that are in theory happily

(43:55):
married and some of the stuff going on the side,
You're like, holy shit. I mean, if this ever got out,
this would be an enormous TMZ story. And that's then
I'm talking about Lebron James there in fairness, but I'm
with you. I just shady league. I mean, it's always
been what but again, one individual has so much more
of an impact the shady stuff going behind the scenes.

(44:17):
Like if you think Balmer is the only one doing this,
you would be in You'd be crazy. I really think
you would be naive to believe that this. Ain't remember
when Jaylen Brunson took that pay cut a couple of
years ago. Can we look into the Knicks think he's
got a little piece of the sphere or something. I
wouldn't blame him, I do the same thing. Like, I'm

(44:39):
not anti any of this. I have no problem with
Steve Balmer paying Kawhi. On the side, my take would be,
do you regret going into business Kawhi Leonard? Is there
any less dependable of a quote unquote talent than this individual?
It's at least with you know, if you watch some
of these documentaries on like famous musicians, it's like, God,

(45:01):
this guy was pain in the ass, but it's like,
holy shit. He put out some hit records and he
would sell out every single stadium and we went to
this guy was a cash cow. He delivered, quite doesn't deliver,
doesn't play half the games in the regular season, and
when the last time the Clippers did anything in the
playoffs since he's been there New Slash, they haven't. So
do I think it happens in the NFL? Probably wouldn't

(45:21):
shock me, and I have no problem with it now.
I understand if I was in the league from a
business partner and I was doing it the right way
and someone wasn't, it would make me mad. But where
I'm sitting doing what I do, I got no issue with.
It doesn't bother me in the slightest. I wish Adam
Silver would just just embrace what they actually are. I
actually think it would be better for the league. I

(45:42):
mean the league I grew up on. Like everyone just
openly talked about Michael Jordan drinking, boozing and playing hoops
and hanging out with chicks while he was married. How
could Micah's back be a nothing burger because of the contract,
But Stafford's back is a disaster waiting to happen. The
Rams also gave a new contract to Stafford. Seems like

(46:03):
they're either both potentially fucked or both nothing to worry about.
The difference is I think Micah was injured because he
didn't want to get fined by the Cowboys, Like it
was clear they were in a contract dispute. And you
can't just say, uh, I broke my leg because the
doctor would be like, well, you didn't break your leg.

(46:23):
You can't say I pulled my hamstring because the MRI
I would say, you didn't pull your hamstring back. Injuries
are very hard to figure out. Like I said, I
do not think that the Packers would have given him
one hundred and eighty five million dollars, which I promise
you unless he shatters his leg he is going to
see every penny if his back was a problem. I

(46:44):
don't think the Rams thought Stafford's back was a problem
when they gave him the contract. But there was also
a reason, like they were like, we're going one year
max because he was old. They did not, do you
have a back injury last year? He was playing well
at the end of the season. I think they're completely
different circumstances. If his back is a thing and they
just gave him that contract, that's insane. It's a fireable

(47:06):
offense if it goes bad, like if he's if he
misses a bunch of game with a back, that's insane.
I can't I can't fathom that. Maybe I'm being naive
because I can't fathom that you would give a guy
a max contract who has a back injury. Question for you,
you mentioned today that you expect the Lions to regret
what regress? My question is, what makes coordinator so much

(47:28):
better than other coordinators is a play calling, play calling
in the right time, creativity. When I say regrets, I
just think that like as great as Ben was, it
will be impossible for Johnny Morton to be as good
as he is. I think there is a level of
I think if you just got Johnny Morton, Ben Johnson,
Andy Reid, Sean Payton, Mike McDaniel, you can go around

(47:48):
the leak, Brian day Ball, whoever, every play caller in
the league on a whiteboard. They would all talk football.
If you and I were in the room, it would
sound like Chinese beck. What are these guys talking about?
It would blow your mind. I think if you've got
a lot of them on the field just coaching up
a play, they could do it. I think two things separate.

(48:09):
One your ability to interact and teach the players. So
understanding different players, how they're wired, get it through to
their head, knows what motivates this guy. So your human
interactions with your offense, teaching these guys the offense obviously,
how adaptable you are to the playbook, Like do you
just have a playbook and the players have to fit

(48:29):
within that, or as Alex Smith said in this article,
like Andy Reid doesn't have a playbook. I mean he
has philosophies historically, but he will change. If you do
something well, he will build plays around what you do well.
A lot of coaches go, this is my playbook. You're
listen Kyle Shanahan's like, that's his playbook, right, Sean Payton,

(48:51):
that's his playbook, Like it ain't changing. That's Belichick historically
for twenty years in New England was like, we don't
really have a playbook. We'll do whatever it takes a
weekly basis, will implement an institute new plays. So I
think it's some of that. And then I think there's
just like a player. Some players are instinctive players, just
like some human beings. If you put certain people in

(49:13):
a room that are like, hey, there's a big meeting today,
there's a cocktail party, some people are gonna come away like, oh,
I've met these three people, I got these three contacts.
I love this guy, and they're gonna be another guy
that comes away like people will like, get this guy
away from me. Because certain people have instincts dealing with
other humans, and certain people have instincts in a meeting.

(49:33):
Certain people have instincts. Whatever you do. I think it's
no different with a play caller. You just either have
the instincts or you don't, right, like, this is not
a good time to call this play, or there's a
good time to set up this other play. And obviously
with experience. You know, hey, setting these up in the
first quarter will benefit me in the third quarter, or
benefit me when I want to call the one play
that they're gonna bite on. It's gonna lead to an

(49:55):
explosive play or a touchdown. That's a huge part about football,
and some guys just don't have it for whatever reason.
I don't know. I'm not a coach, but I've just
we've seen it. Middlecoff Any Rex for your preferred streaming
service for the NFL college graduating from illegal streams. Now
that I'm post college, I appreciate that. I saw to

(50:18):
day a headline that one of the quote unquote big
illegal streamers got shut down. So maybe that's why you're
asking the question. I've just been on YouTube TV now
for years, so listen, I pay for everything. It's probably unhealthy.
I mean, we got more apps, yet I have less
to watch besides sports than I've ever had, so I

(50:39):
when it comes to football and just TV. I've been
a YouTube TV guy now for years and it's incredible.
Like when I travel, you can watch YouTube TV when
you're in a hotel. I recommend YouTube TV. Big Texas

(51:05):
fan here, super fan of the game, Arch could possibly
be a Ryan Tannehill type player instead of Manning. Just
give it a thought. Ryan was a wide receiver and
Arch might have those type traits. Yeah, I feel like
Ryan Tannehill threw the ball a little bit better than Arch.
I feel like Ryan Tannehill didn't have a great arm,

(51:26):
but it was my concern with Archs and he doesn't
throw the ball that well, just doesn't look great. We'll see.
Maybe it was just really nervous playing a great defense.
I'm not going to bury the kid after one start
against a top two or three team on the road,
defending national champs with unlimited foot you know NFL players,
But that to me is the biggest concern. I have

(51:48):
no issue with the pick. People throw picks, you know.
I have no issue with getting stoffed on a stuffed
on a quarterback. Sneak football happens. Do you see any
similarities between Andy Reid and Spags like his time in
Philly with the late great Jim Johnson. I think there

(52:09):
are definitely some similarities. I think if you put Patrick
Mahomes on those Eagles teams, I think Eagles win a
couple of Super Bowls. So Donovan was a really good player.
Wasn't Patrick. So I think if you put Patrick with
Jim Johnson and Andy Reid in two thousand and two
and two thousand and three and two thousand and four,
two thousand and five, they probably win a Super Bowl
or two. Right, So, Jim Johnson's elite Spags learned under

(52:30):
Jim Johnson, now Spags under Andy and they're elite on defense.
So yeah, I definitely see some some traits there for similarities.
I've been a Packer fan my whole life. You've lived
a pretty good life. Then I think this might be
the year they returned to glory. New one, number one
wide receiver Josh Jacobs, Parsons eaton double teams for Gary.

(52:53):
I think they're definitely gonna be really good. And you
know Parsons motivated to prove the Cowboys trading him was
a mistake. Can he be like defensive player of the year,
get twenty plus sacks? Can Jordan Love have a big year? Yeah?
I don't think. I don't see why I win in
twelve thirteen games. Isn't on the table, and then you know,
in the mix to win the NFC. I don't think

(53:18):
I wore enough sunscreen in Hawaii. I mean, my shoulders
are peeling, my elbows are peeling. My face is like
dry and itchy. Top of my head's peeling off. I
thought I did, but I guess I gotta get a
little more aggressive. You get older, your skin gets a
little thinner. I used to be able to sit out
in the sun. It's probably not It definitely wasn't healthy.
But when I was young, I didn't even know what

(53:39):
sunscreen was. I would just get so dark in tan.
Now my skin peels off. My days in the sun
might be over. Without wearing like bucket hats and long
sleeved shirts. I'm like a football coach. You know when
you see those football coaches that you see highlights. If
you've ever been to an NFL or college practice, you
go out there, it be I mean the peak of

(54:03):
summer humidity in the South, or like when I was
at President State and be one hundred and ten degrees.
These coaches have long pants, long sleeves, bucket hats. Smart move. Actually, Hey, John,
big fan of the show. Question for the mailbag. I'm
a Giants fan. My family has had season tickets since
the sixties. For the first time in a long time,
I feel like there is optimism around the team. Yes,

(54:25):
Joe Shane has made some head scratching moves, but I
think post Saquon Barkley, he's actually learned from his mistakes
and made some really good football decisions. Dayball can be
a hothead, but I do think he can coach given
what he did with DJ in twenty two. My question
is this, do you think they will get another year?
And what would you need to see if the team
is truly going in the right direction and what would

(54:47):
need to happen for that. I think this year will
be rough because of the schedule, and I do think
that for better or worse, Dart will play a lot
of football. It looks like by all accounts, Dayball is
in love with Jackson and I can help, but it
would be a mistake. I do think they're in a
little bit of a predicament and this is a tough
spot for Dable, and I think this is why they

(55:08):
made him the number two quarterback, because they're probably not
gonna win nine er ten games. But we kind of
think like they got some pretty good pieces, good defensive
line of dual. Carr's got a chance to be a
beast to go with Burns and Dexter Lawrence. I don't
even think Cabon is that good, and they for whatever
reason picked up fifthier option. But if he could be
like your fourth best defensive lineman, you're in pretty good
shape offensively, I mean neighbors as a monster. If they're

(55:33):
running back, room's pretty good. The rookie last year and
then Scataboo this year to go along with Jackson Dart
It's going to be hard. This is where I do
agree with like Peyton Manning and everyone about the organization's
fucking with young quarterbacks. There is no point to let
Brian day Ball pick his quarterback, which he did because

(55:56):
if you watch the clips that came out of that
draft room, all clearly loved him, and Joe Shane was
in charge of making sure they landed Jackson Dart form
Why would you fire Dable after a year. So you
have to be okay with having a rough stretch. Now,
if he wins like two games, it's gonna be hard
to justify. But if they could win six or seven,

(56:16):
if Jackson can show some I would say promise. Yeah.
I mean I think I think Russell Wilson's leash couldn't
be shorter. I give Russell Wilson over under three and
a half games. So I think what will have to
happen is less about the wins and losses and more
just like, how does Jackson Dart look? Because Jackson Dart
looks good. With Brian Dable, I think they would be

(56:39):
in pretty good shape. Siriani deserves more credit. He doesn't
pick the players, but he does make it work on
the field. There are many stars on the team and
he keeps them rowing in the same direction. His style
might look different, but he delivers results. Your thoughts, I agree.
I think you know, Joe Tory is a good example.

(56:59):
Philled I think does get a lot of credit. But
I think we act like it's easy to coach Kobe
and Shack or Michael or the Yankees or some loaded team. Obviously,
he has advantages. He has one of the best gms
that has a bunch of juice and a bunch of power.
He has fic fangio. You know when he had Shane

(57:19):
Steiken or last year Kellen Moore became a head coach.
I mean it's two offensive coordinators became mad coaches. But
he is the guy that's in charge of Like if
Jalen Carter is acting up. You know when a guy
gets a dui. Well, Dom's kind of in charge of that,
but you know what I mean, Like he's got to
deal with these personalities and when situations happened last year

(57:40):
that Brandon Graham Jalen Hurts thing with aj Brown, like
that's his problem, like ultimately how he can get involved.
But he's with those guys in the meeting, he's with
those guys on the practice field. So yeah, it's it's
not an easy job at all. This is not one
of those where like you couldn't fake it this long.
He definitely brings stuff to the table and he's clearly
good at delan with people, which is important, you know,

(58:02):
because unlike that Browns assistant GM that was like data
points and the fucking robots. It's like, well, Miles Garrett
and Shador Sanders and you know Jerry Judy like they
a robots, they're human beings. It's always what baseball manager said,
it's so easy for the analytical guy to come to
my office and hand me the lineup and be like, well,

(58:23):
this guy's had seven hits in the last two games
and he's you benched him for this other guy. Because
you like the matchup. Well, I have to tell him that,
and a little nerd gets to go back upstairs. He's
probably gonna be replaced by Ai here pretty soon, and
I have to go interact with the first baseman and
say that you're out of the lineup today. So it's
like you can talk about data points and all this stuff,

(58:43):
which again I'm not anti data points, but like, ultimately
he's on Nick Sirianni. Even if you know the Eagles
have a pretty big analytical group, you know, it's on
him to verbalize that to the players. So yeah, it's
it's a tough job coaching and Philly is really really hard.
It's like coaching an SEC football team. It is difficult.

(59:04):
Speaking of the SEC will end on this. I know
that people are saying Kaitlin de Bor's job is in
jeopardy after the loss of Florida State, But who could
be doing a better job. I know coaching in the
SEC requires a certain mindset and energy to be applied
to your coaching practice. But he was honestly the best
option in the country to replace Nick Saban, coming off

(59:25):
a national championship appearance with Washington and years of success
before that, I don't think there would have been a
better option. Saban set the bar so high that it's
almost impossible to live up to the same performance that
he had for such a long period of time. Well,
didn't they go after Steve Sarkizi and he turned him down?

(59:45):
I do think you could have argued, could they have
hired Lane Kiffin? Would nick Saban of Okay to Lane
Kiffin at the time? I don't know. Maybe you wouldn't have.
I think that's fair Lane new Alabama. Lane knows the
SA I think could Stark turned down rightfully? So I
would say at Texas as well. I do think if

(01:00:06):
you look back, should Alabama have hired Lane Kivin? And
I do think there's an undercurrent of I don't know
if I know they act like they're close, but if
Saban was gonna let Lane replace him, I can't confirm that,
but I I can put enough pieces of the puzzle
together to know, Like, obviously Lane would have left Old

(01:00:26):
miss for Alabama, but was that an option because clearly
it wasn't already to be there. So I do think
it's fair to go could we have hired Lane Kivin?
But I'm with you, like who there weren't that many options.
I do understand a lot of these tiktoks are going
viral of the Alabama guys doing tiktoks. I do think

(01:00:48):
you could probably find guys on Georgia or Ohio state
doing tiktoks. I think the problem is, like people have downtime,
they go on their phone, they do stupid shit. Yeah,
I can't relate to a TikTok dance. I can't, but
most twenty year old can they do them. Nick Saban
had guys, I'm sure they were on TikTok. You know what,
You couldn't be late to a meeting, you wouldn't have
tapped out of a game, you wouldn't have got thrown around.

(01:01:10):
So clearly, whatever Dubor's doing Kaylin de Boor sometimes say
his name wrong, it's just not working. He's proven he's
a good coach. I do believe that in certain places,
like being a kind of an old school a hole
works like that's gonna work with the New England Patriots
the Northeast. That works. That's what Belichick was, That's what

(01:01:32):
rabel is. Drid Mail tried to be everyone's friend. It's
not gonna work now, just to be an a hole.
To be an a hole is you got to know
what you're talking about. So when Nick Saban screamed at everybody,
they all knew a couple of things. One, he obviously
knows what he's talking about, look at his resume. And
two then he would just tell you what to do
football wise, it would work. So whatever they're coaching these

(01:01:52):
guys up to do is not working. Now are they
recruiting the right guys? I don't know. I don't know.
I don't have the answers to this. But what we
witnessed the other day against Florida State and sometimes last
year was just pretty embarrassing. And they're gonna have some
big games this year. We'll just like, are they gonna

(01:02:13):
lose to LSU? Are they gonna lose? Are they just
gonna get worked by these SEC teams? I don't know.
I don't have the answer. I was a big believer
in this guy. Something clearly is off. And sometimes you know,
you can set people up on a blind date and
be like, these guys are perfect for each other. You know,
she's a lawyer, high achiever, he's an entrepreneur, businessman. They

(01:02:34):
both similar intellectually, both good looking people, or are they're
both into this or that? And then it just doesn't work.
You know, in theory, this really good coach, he's good
at offense, tough guy from the Midwest, should have a chance.
He's won everywhere he's been and it doesn't happen. Does
it mean Kaitlin's some feelage idiot? No? Does it mean

(01:02:57):
Alabama's a tough place to play? Of course it does.
But maybe, like you're right, maybe no one could have
replaced him, maybe unless it was Kirby Smart, you know,
or Urban Meyer or someone that like this notion. And listen,
if Kaylin were to get fired, which I still don't
think is gonna happen, but let's just say hypothetically he
gets fired, everyone hired John Gruden. Listen, I do believe

(01:03:21):
John Gruden's going to get one of these jobs. But
I also think we forget John Gruden got run out
of Tampa at the end. It wasn't really going that
great with the Raiders. You know, Like, listen, he loves football,
and when he talks about football, it's easy to kind
of gravitate like he's a great personality. John Madden was
the same. But look at John Madden's resume. When he

(01:03:42):
was with the Raiders, he dominated. John Gruden didn't win
much since like two thousand and four, like lost a lot,
and with the Raiders it was honestly pretty underwhelming. So
this notion that like, Okay, let's say Duboris fired tomorrow,
it's like, we'll go hire John Gruden. I'd rather have
a Lane given I'd be all over Lane Kiffin knows
the SEC and is winning. It's like, if you can

(01:04:04):
win nineteen games and all miss, you can't win national
championships in Alabama to me, and Lane Kiffin should be
the number one idea for if if Florida flames out
this year in Alabama, I would be all and I
don't think Alabama's gonna open up, but I would be
all over Lane Kiffn. That being said, I do think
Kirby Smart and Lane Kiffin are both going to be

(01:04:25):
in the mix if Mike McDaniel's flames out in Florida
to replace because that that owner is gonna want a
splashy coach. And I was like, who are the really
splashy guys in the NFL? Not gonna be probably this cycle,
but Lane Kiffen and Kirby Smart get some headlines, and
whether they work or not, I don't know, but I
get to see both those guys tired of dealing with

(01:04:45):
the nil no rules. It's just it's just chaotic. With
the NFL's challenging. You got to land a quarterback, you
got to build a team, you got salary gap, you
know restrictions, but at least you know the rules. It's
very black and white. You can and can't do the volume.

(01:05:08):
Mm hmm