On this episode of 3 & Out, John Middlekauff reacts to Bijan Robinson landing a massive new contract, breaking down what the extension means for the Falcons, the running back market, and why elite talent at the position is once again being rewarded.
Next, John reacts to the NFL quarterback tier rankings, discussing where the league's biggest stars stack up, which quarterbacks are climbing, and which ones still have something to prove heading into the season. From MVP candidates to young signal-callers on the rise, John explains what separates each tier.
Plus, John talks about the story of Dan Lanning driving 13 hours for a job opportunity, highlighting the relentless work ethic and persistence that helped shape one of college football's top coaches. It's a conversation about ambition, networking, and the sacrifices required to make it in the profession.
To wrap things up, it's another edition of the Middlekauff Mailbag, where John answers your questions on the NFL's biggest storylines, roster construction, quarterback play, coaching philosophies, and much more.
From blockbuster contracts and quarterback debates to coaching journeys and fan questions, it's all covered on this episode of 3 & Out.
Follow John on Twitter, and Instagram for the latest.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. What is going on? My friends and family?
How are we doing? I don't know how many family
(00:21):
members are listening, but a lot of friends out there,
a lot of people, and hopefully you guys are doing
well because we got a lot going on. We got
big contracts being handed out to running backs, which actually
aren't that big relative to wide receivers. We got quarterback tears.
We got some guys falling, we got some guys dropping
like rocks, and uh we got problems because some of
them make a lot of money, So we'll discuss Jalen Hurst,
(00:45):
Dak Goff Purdy, CJ Stroud, Caleb Dan Lanning gave some
very interesting uh Hea have a story which I think
can serve as advice to us all and as well
as a Middlecoff mailbag at John Midlecoff at John Middlecoff
is the Instagram. Fire in those dms and get your
questions here on the show. Make sure you listen. If
(01:07):
you listen on Collins Feed, you can always subscribe to
my podcast as well so you never miss an episode,
as well as Netflix. I actually got a light delivered
today because my lighting was so bad in the hotel room.
But this light goes right up the top of my computer.
I look pretty good, not gonna LIEU. So yeah, hit
the alert button. You'll never miss an episode and let's
(01:28):
just let's just dive right in. But I definitely wanted
to start with the morning breaking news of Bjon Robinson
becoming the highest paid running back in the NFL. Everyone's like,
three year, seventy five million dollars. They are given some
serious money to running backs. It's like I just saw
(01:49):
a center this offseason get twenty seven million dollars a year.
I've seen average guards make up to twenty four million
dollars a year. I do not understand in twenty twenty
six how the NFL is so out of whack. Like
Zayflowers got a contract today, and he's a good wide receiver.
(02:12):
He was once a first round pick and he's made
a bunch of plays. He's never going to be a
top probably a top ten wide receiver in the NFL.
Definitely a top six or seven wide receiver in the NFL.
He will never sniff what jamar Cha, Ceedee Lamb, Justin Jefferson.
The top guys on a year in, year out basis
like the impact they have and if you could choose.
(02:35):
You would always take those guys over him. What Davante
was in his prime. Puka Jsn again, really good player.
Every team would want him. But you know, we talk
quarterback tiers, he's one a second tier wide receiver. In
guaranteed dollars, he cost over one hundred million dollars. If
you just pulled every GM and every defensive coordinator in
(02:59):
the NFL, is Bjhon Robinson not just one of, if
not the best running back. Is he one of the
best offensive players non quarterbacks in the NFL. There would
be a universal yes. And what I can't wrap my
head around is for a long period of time, it
was a running league seventies, eighties, even the nineties, right,
(03:21):
and passing has evolved, so it's it's become more of
a pass centric league. And wide receivers have dramatically benefited
from that kind of market explosion because their stats look
way better. Even if you're not Jerry Rice, Randy Moss.
You know some all time great you can catch ninety
balls and be a guy that's like, is he really
(03:42):
that good? B John Robinson's own teammate who again, I
like Drake London good player. I'm not sure he's ever
gonna be a top five wide receiver. This offseason got
over one hundred million dollars and you could sign and
I'll never forget a couple of years ago, this is
when it really first started working in my brain, because
I was always on the side like I wouldn't pay
(04:03):
a running back either, And then the market got so
I would say diminished, just it became so out of
whack relative to the rest of these NFL positions beside
like quarterback, pass rusher, and offensive tackle, which understandable. I
would pay the elite guys all the money at those positions,
(04:27):
but it's like wide receiver, like I'm having some tough
conversations unless you're certain individuals. And when Howie Roseman signed
Saquon Barkley to a contract that he only had to
guarantee I think twenty seven million dollars when he stole
him from the Giants, and then he's the best player
on a team that wins the Super Bowl, and we
all knew he had like elite ability. He just needed
(04:49):
to go to the right spot. He goes to a
great offensive line. In every game, it felt like he
was running for three hundred yards. He was unstoppable. He
had a season where I think he had seven or
eight runs at over sixty yards. He couldn't be he
was had one of the truly great offensive seasons we've
ever seen. And he goes, didn't have to spend that much.
I went, I don't know. And then you see guys
like McCaffrey, Bjon Gibbs. These guys aren't just running backs.
(05:15):
They are offensive weapons. Bijeon Cott seventy nine balls last year.
If you told Bijon Gibbs or we'll see what McCaffrey
looks like during the season. But McCaffrey in his prime,
you can't play running back anymore. You can just play receiver,
slot outside, wherever you are just purely a receiver. You
line up opposite at tackle or a tight end every
(05:36):
single play. Those guys would be fine, and they would dominate,
but they happened to also have the ability to rush
for fourteen fifteen, sixteen hundred yards and catch seventy to
ninety balls thousand yards and get you a ton of
touchdowns that way. Yet they're compensated like they're not nearly
(05:57):
as good as the players in which they're compared to.
So we are currently dealing with the market that if
you have a second tier wide receiver. I saw this
a couple of years ago, Brandon Ayuk, I went, under
no circumstances can you max out a guy who is
at most gonna catch you eighty balls, yet because of
(06:18):
the position he plays, you're gonna have to give twenty
eight to thirty million dollars. It didn't make any financial
sense when they did it. It became an emotional move.
And then I see it year in and year out
that these guys that most of us would not consider,
not even close to a top five wide receiver getting
(06:38):
I mean half of Wells Fargo delivered to their bank accounts,
and a guy like Bijon Robinson, and I'm sure Gibbs
will have either the copy and pasted Robinson contract or
maybe you know, a couple percent added on tax because
usually when you sign after you get a little bit
more of not anywhere near some of these other guys
(07:01):
that they are clearly better football players too or then,
and it's not like they're just asked to carry the ball.
These guys dominate in the passing game, where linebackers and
safeties in the open field struggle to tackle them. I
just I think sometimes marketing efficiencies really have changed the
(07:25):
way we've looked at things. And now in the NFL,
all these positions are kind of paid premiums. You know,
you got centers making twenty seven million dollars, You've got
detackles making thirty five million dollars a year. We have
safeties now making twenty twenty five million dollars a year.
Linebackers two right up there at twenty plus. But if
(07:47):
I could have a guy like Bijon Robinson on my team,
like I don't know, if you just had a player
draft non quarterback of every guy offensively in the NFL,
I don't know how far we're getting down the list
before Bijon Robinson is coming off the board because he
is definitely going above Drake London. He is definitely going
(08:09):
above Flowers and he costs half as much. So I
I just I think we're at a point in time
that they're so far behind. It's not like they're ever
going to make the jump, but it is one hundred
percent out of whack. And when you look at Jeremiah Love,
who is projected to be a similar type player, do
(08:30):
it all If the Cardinals could ever figure their shit out,
which under Michael Bidwell honestly feels not likely. They would
have a guy who could be one of the best
players in the league at a fraction of the price
of guys on other teams who are considered good definitely
(08:52):
not great, And you got the way better player at
a way cheaper number. So and it's Talary cab Leak.
You're always manipulating the cap. Well, you don't have to
manipulate that much when you're actually not throwing around signing
bonuses and guaranteed numbers that aren't that big. So right now,
the running back market, if you can get them, I
would be all over it because it is a relatively
(09:14):
cheap kind of avenue to go down. And speaking of
you know this offensive talent now, Drake London, Kyle Pitts,
and Bijon Robinson all extended this offseason. I sometimes come
off like a hater. I'm really not. I met Stefanski
a couple of years ago at the Combine. Seems like
(09:34):
a nice guy. Clearly he is well liked in the
NFL community. I just struggle when some guys get kind
of anointed as like Kevin Stefanski is a fantastic coach,
like is he because typically good offensive coaches figure out
ways to manipulate some yards. And I've watched in the
(09:55):
last couple of years and I went, I don't know
if he was some dynamic coach. I'm not holding him
to playoff standards, but it should look a little bit
better than it did. And last year was a complete abomination.
I mean, honestly, it was an embarrassment. It really was.
And now he goes to a team which I think
is pretty easy. But we other quarterback situation. They got Tua, well,
(10:18):
someone in that building had to want Tua like well,
he was cheap, okay, I wouldn't want two on my
team for five dollars. That they were cool with making
him a part of this quarterback room, especially when they
knew that Pennix is not guaranteed to be ready week one.
They were comfortable with we might have to start a
game with Tua. I did see Mike McDaniel win some
(10:39):
football games with Tuataga bay Loa Pennix, who I was
guilty I thought was going to be a really good
NFL player. I'm not as confident at this point, especially
coming off like it's seventeenth ACL injury. But if I
give Sean McVay, Kevin O'Connell, Shanahan, Lafleur, Drake London, Kyle Pitts,
(11:04):
and Bijon Robinson, they would be able to win seven
eight games. And I'm looking at the Atlanta Falcons going
don't trust the coach. Definitely do not trust the quarterback situation.
Like I've seen the Browns with some players and it
still look really really bad, Like well, John, their offensive
line was horrendous. Okay, the Falcons offensive line is more
(11:29):
than serviceable. So I don't think the Falcons are making
the playoffs. I'm not going to hold Stefanski to like
anything less than the playoffs is a failure, but I
kind of know what it looks like, and to me,
there is some pressure to go, like you should be
able to function with all these weapons, to manipulate some
sort of offense, especially if Pennix is ready to go
(11:53):
early in the season. It doesn't have to look great,
but it can't look like what has been the last
couple of years. Because this kind of label that you
carry with you of being a really good offensive coach,
we're gonna have to erase that because currently, that's no
longer inact, that's in pencil, and I got the eraser
(12:15):
in my back pocket and I'm ready to remove that
from wherever they put it on your desk, because they
had a lot of money worth a lot of high
end players. And here's the other thing. I think there's
two school of thoughts. Personally, I would have entertained trading
(12:36):
b John Robinson because I don't think it's team's going anywhere.
James Pierce, who had the crazy incident with the WNBA
girlfriend who somehow just avoided all charges. Everything got dropped
and everything's just good. Now, it's like, how is that
even possible? We had the video, we witnessed it all.
It's like, no, nothing happened. Actually, it's like, okay was
carded off. Now. The one thing in recording this, by
(12:57):
the time you listen to this, we might have right
a report of something very serious. But we've seen enough
over the course of the last I don't know, two
weeks just because you get carted off, some guys freak out,
some guys are scared. Sometimes I have seen so far
during training camp a guy get carted off and it's
a shin bruise. So I think I think the Falcons went.
(13:24):
We got good players because every team would want Drake London.
I don't know for that price, Kyle Pitts and definitely
be John Robinson, and we will figure out the quarterback later.
We've seen a lot of teams just never be able
to figure out the quarterback, but they've taken the kind
of tactic of team building. Listen, we're not gonna trade
(13:45):
these guys. We're not gonna go Miami Dolphins and just
try to get first round picks and pick the guys
we want because we already got good players, which I understand.
I'm just not sure it's gonna work. Today's show is
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New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia. The quarterback tears in the
NFL Sando put out his list today and you know
it wasn't too shocking, right, Mahomes is kind of grandfathered
(15:59):
in it. One. Then you got Josh Allen, who I
think most people would say is the best quarterback in
the league. But if you're based on resume, you got
the Burrows, the Lamar's, the Herbert's, like the same cast
of characters are near the top. What I find fascinating,
and this gets back to the contract situation. Most good
(16:19):
quarterbacks right are not gonna be Patrick Mahomes and Josh
Allen are not gonna win multi MVPs, like Lamar Jackson,
like Dak Prescott's Jared Goff. If you're a betting man
right now, you see those guys are never gonna win
an MVP. Brock Purty is never gonna win an MVP.
(16:40):
It doesn't mean you can't win a ton of games
with that guy. It doesn't mean you can't go to
the playoffs. You're in, you're out with that guy. Saying
what Sam Darnold's proven to be. Now he's a super
Bowl champion, but what he's really proven to be, Like,
if I'm your starting quarterback, I'm not gonna be Patrick
Mahomes or Josh Allen. But if you do a good
enough job the Vikings with Kevin O'Connell and Flores two
(17:03):
years ago, John schnyder and Mike McDonald last year of
building a good team around me, I can take you
to the playoffs and then listen. Football is a one
game scenario. Anything's fucking possible. Seattle got hot, they won
that NFC Championship game and got a shitty Patriot team,
shitty relative to most Super Bowl teams. Obviously, the Patriots
had a good year, you know what I mean? That groups,
(17:24):
to me is the most fascinating because if I get
a Patrick Mahomes, a Josh Allen, a Lamar Jackson, a
Joe Burrow, those guys always get a blank check. Those
guys always set the market and you feel good about it.
The other guys are the polarizing ones. It's like, you
just gave Dak Prescott how much money and he got
crushed for his contract sixty million dollars a year. You're
giving Jared Goffin perty fifty to fifty five million dollars
(17:46):
a year? Are you nuts? It was like every year
I look up and they're over five hundred last year,
the reason the Lions didn't make the playoffs wasn't because
of Jared Goff. It was because their offensive coordinator was
a disaster, had to get fired in the middle of
the season, and defensively, their secondary was atrocious. He was
playoff worthy. He honestly, statistically wasn't that different from the
(18:08):
year before. Brock Purdy had multiple games down the stretch.
I mean he had dueled Kayleb Williams Monday Night Football
with a couple of weeks left to go in the season.
Bigger reason the forty nine ers wildcard team. Then Boom
goes on the road they beat the Philadelphia Eagles. So
to me, the key is if you're never going to
be a top four or five quarterback in the NFL,
and most guys like Mahomes, Josh, you know people are
(18:33):
being critical of Lamar, I would expect them to have
a pretty good season. Herbert Burrow is kind of widely
considered the top group of guys that aren't thirty eight,
thirty nine years old like Stafford. And if Stafford, you know,
was in the prime of his career, he would be
grandfathered into that unit for the next four or five years.
If he was with McVeigh just like Rogers for a
majority of his career was considered right there with Brady
(18:55):
and Manning best quarterback in the league. Those guys are
outlier even to their own position. The majority of the
group is Philip Rivers, Eli Manning, Joe Fly It's that
next tier guys, which Dak, Goff, Purdy, Sam Darnold Baker.
That group. And as long as to me, you are
(19:16):
hovering somewhere between seven and twelve in that group, You're
in good shape. And while I'm paying you more money
than I'm probably comfortable with, it's on me as the
team builder. It's on me as the coach, to do
a good enough job. We can win double digit games,
we can go to the playoffs, and then, like I said,
anything is possible. I've said this forever about Dak. He's
(19:39):
had some fantastic years, won twelve games, got to the
playoffs and just look like a completely different player. Absolutely
shit the bed. So is Lamar Jackson. You know, I've
seen Eli Manning have some bizarre years in his career,
even play average kind of in the regular season, get
to the playoffs and look like Tom Brady, then literally
(20:00):
out duel Tom Brady or go toe to toe with
him in a super Bowl and win them Flaco, same thing.
It's like, how good is Flacco? And then he goes
on one of the great hot runs in like the
history of the league. In a contract here, So if
those guys can do it, Dak Prescott, Jared Goff, Brock Purdy,
Sam Donald, and listen, you removed the Rams game from
Sam Donald. I wouldn't say he was actually some dominant,
(20:24):
dominant quarterback in a lot of the playoff games. But
that's not always your job. And when I have that
version of a player, I don't always ask them to
carry my team right now, you have to make sacrifices
when you're paying a large amount of money. The problem
where you get into is like when you're the Philadelphia Eagles.
(20:45):
On this list, Jalen Hurts was seventeen, behind Purty, behind Baker,
behind Donald, obviously Goff and Dak, who were I think
seven and eight and seven respectively. If Jays I don't
need Jalen Hurts to be a top five quarterback, you
know why he's not a top five quarterback. He'll never
(21:06):
be a top five quarterback. And there's nothing wrong with that.
But I can't have him being the seventeenth best quarterback
when I'm paying fifty one million dollars a year. I
need him to be like eleven, twelve, ten. If he's
doing that with the roster how he's built, they'll be fine.
But when he's seventeen, let's face it, it feels closer to
twenty five than he does ten. That's a disaster because
(21:30):
the money and the amount of guaranteed dollars and the
way I build a salary cap when I give a
contract at that size, if he's trending the wrong way,
I'm fucked. There's no way around it. And this is
why I'm a little hesitant on the Eagles, not because
I don't think the roster is loaded with good players,
(21:51):
not that I don't. Vic Fangio is one of the
best defensive coordinators in my lifetime. His defense is loaded
with talent. They were good on defense las year. Offensively,
what I saw last year is something that you just
can't forget. You can forget a bad game. Peyton Manny's
had bad games, Rogers have bad games. Joe Montana, every quarterback,
(22:13):
Michael Jordan had bad games. It's called sports. Tiger Woods
didn't shoot sixty five every round. You know, every Beef Wellington,
Gordon Ramsay makes isn't perfect. You're allowed to fuck up.
I have some bad podcasts. Sometimes I hang up the mic.
I go, god, that was terrible, honestly. Right now, getting
up at four in the morning doing Collins Show, it's like,
(22:34):
I my brain's you know, not firing at all cylinders.
But like, you gotta produce, you gotta dig deep, you
gotta find a way. And that was one number. And
again this is all based on the leak. This is
based on coordinators, head coaches, personnel, people like for as
(22:54):
much as like, oh they got biases, they got agenda.
When you work in the league, do you know what
your agenda is? To base it off the film and
the one thing and this is Russell had this. Russell
Wilson is the only quarterback. And I was telling one
of the guys at Fox today, you know, I've been
working on not being grouchy in my house, being positive,
(23:19):
and I saw this, this, this Instagram post from Russell
Wilson and Russell say what you want about him a
little cheesy for me personally, he's always positive. I never
see that guy on a post on social media or
just in any time during his football career, or he's negative.
I said it to my wife, I'm gonna be like,
I'm gonna try to have more of this attitude because
(23:42):
he's just, he's just, he's an uplifter, and it's my
nature is to be a little negative, you know. So
we're working on trying to be a little more positive
in the home. But it is not positive when you're
paying a guy fifty one million dollars and they're seventeenth
and back to Russell Wilson is typically All Star Pro Bowl.
(24:06):
I don't know if he's gonna end up in the
Hall of Fame, but for a long period of time,
it felt like he was a Hall of Fame player
or trending that way. Their coordinators when they're head coach
as a defensive guy, become head coaches. All of Russell
Wilson's coordinators were fired, Bevil Schottenheimer, they were all shit canned,
(24:29):
Shane Waldron at the end, all fired. None of them,
I repeat, none of them went on to become head
coaches while they were coordinating for Russell Wilson. That's insane.
How many coordinators have gotten fired on Jalen Hurts's watch
last time I checked multiple And if this doesn't go well,
(24:51):
I would say Sean Mannion's tenure would be in some trouble.
And I'm just not a believer that this offense and
this player is gonna have a great working relationship. Could
be wrong. And I've already prefaced it by if they
are one of the top running teams in the league,
he will be okay because this offense will give them
(25:14):
enough layups that it can work. But if they cannot
run the ball and he is forced to play in
the pocket in this offense, it's I got major questions
and I will short it. So we've seen the Eagles.
They will pivot. They are cutthroat. They are not emotional
(25:34):
when it comes to players the moment you start making
a lot of money and don't live up to that
standard in terms of production. And a quarterback wins and losses,
because you can tell me on the internet, wins and
losses is not a quarterback stat I'm gonna pull back
and say bullshit. All the best quarterbacks in my lifetime
(25:54):
tend to win a lot. Doesn't mean you win the
super Bowl every year, doesn't mean you win thirteen games
a year, but on the most part, the star quarterbacks
typically have winning records most years, and I think he
is one of the most fascinating stories in the league.
Another guy that we're going to talk a lot about
because this team has Super Bowl aspirations. The problem is
(26:16):
their quarterback is on this list ranked number twenty, And
if you have the twentieth best quarterback, your team basically
needs to be like the two thousand and one Ravens,
the two thousand and two Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the eighty
five Bears, just an all time great team where your
quarterback can just kind of fit in and no one
notices and try not to screw it up. CJ. Stroud,
(26:40):
who was drafted second overall, still plays like a guy
trying to show everyone that he's a superstar and it
just doesn't work. And I said last year, towards the
end of the season and in the playoff stretch, it's like, bro,
you just need to find a way to become Ryan
Tannehill on Tennessee, Alex Smith on Kansas City. You just
(27:02):
need to be somewhat of a game manager and do
not fuck it up. And at twenty that also feels
kind of generous. He feels closer to twenty five, twenty
eight than he does fifteen. Is he is my number
one question mark for the Houston Texans. So when I
say I love the Houston Texans, I'm just such a
believer in all their players that it's like they're going
(27:24):
to be so good in the regular season. I think
they can overcome that. But in these one off situations
where all of a sudden, it's a thirteen to thirteen
game in the third quarter, there's no way you could
trust this player right now in the regular season over
the course, our defense is so dominant the division. Actually,
you know, Titans are not going to be that great.
(27:45):
Still got a lot of question marks with the Colts.
We'll see the Jacks. I mean, are they just a
consistent playoff team? Historically that hasn't been the case. Now
maybe that's changed because Liam Cohen is basically Ben Johnson
of Florida, which might be the case. I mean, I'm
not I'm a Liam Cohen guy, but I just think
(28:06):
this CJ. Stroud thing is is a legitimate problem for
the Houston Texans, who have, minus the quarterback, a super
super Bowl level operation. So this this thing's always fascinating.
You know. You see some names like Drake May is
an excellent talent. I'm pro Drake May. Same with you know,
(28:31):
any guy who's had a one off season like Jadon
Daniels had one good season that was two years ago.
What do I make of those guys? You know, the
most of these other you know Dak and Goff. These
guys have been doing it for ten plus years now.
You know, Perty has three four years body of work.
Even Caleb, and I know Colin loves to put him
as like a top five quarterback in the NFL if
(28:54):
you want to call him the John Elway A comebacks Okay,
I think he had seven comebacks last year, a ton
of game winning drives, one in the playoff game against
Green Bay. There is no disputing that. But to be
a great player, it's not just about the fourth quarters
and the comebacks. I know he can do that. He's
right there with Josh Allen is one of the other
talented throwers of the football we've ever seen. But like,
(29:17):
are you gonna be an MVP candidate and are you
gonna do it year in and year out? Then you'll,
like Caleb would be a guy outside of the top
five or six that this guy's top five ceiling. Most
of these other guys do not. I would say Jaden
based on two years ago, yeah he would as well.
But like you know, Caleb, I don't really get worried
(29:38):
about injuries because he's been a very durable player. Jade
Daniel's durability has been a pretty big question mark. And
if I was gonna bottom feed a little bit, I
think Jacoby Burssett at thirty three is too low. Like
I would have Jacoby Burssettes much higher based on what
we saw last year. Now, maybe I'm just a little
(30:00):
of the moment. I understand he what one to eleven
in the games in which he started, He did throw
twenty three touchdowns and his defense was basically rolling out
me and you there again though, I mean, we're what
are we doing here? Kirk Cousins twenty eight, Some of
the numbers at the bottom, it's it's hard, you know.
I think there's a lot of debate on Jordan Love
being a top ten quarterback feels a little high for me.
(30:23):
You know, I don't know if i'd have Jordan Love.
Like you, if you told me right now, would you
rather have Sam Donald or Jordan Love. I think I'd
take Sam Donald. I think Sam Donald's ceiling is higher.
I would definitely yeah. I mean, and to me, Baker
(30:43):
Mayfield is a guy, and this is his argument, right,
I totally know the group of quarterbacks he sees himself
with that is Jared Goff, Dak Prescott, Brock Purty, and
he sees how much money those guys are making, and
that's the type contract he wants. And that's what makes
the say is very complicated. It's back to the CJ.
Stroud thing. There aren't many, you know, like under if
(31:07):
I'm Nick Cassirio, there's no way we talked about contract
extensions this offseason. Would you give him some massive max
contract for a quarterback? Of course not. Would you even
feel comfortable giving him the Baker Mayfield Sam Darnold like
the three for one hundred. I don't even think you
would do that either. So it's you're kind of in
no man's land. You're kind of in just like, let's
play it out, worst case scenario, you end up not
(31:29):
being our quarterback and we have to figure it out.
This list is always fascinating, though, And uh, I think
one thing that has powered the NFL through for a
long time. Is I'm a child of the eighties, right,
I don't even remember l Way, Marino, Joe Montana, those
guys in their prime. But I bet people at one
(31:52):
point in time in the mid to late eighties went,
how are we ever going to replace these guys? And
then all of a sudden, you looked up when I
was a kid, and you've got Steve Young, You've got
Troy Aikman. Then Brett fav comes around, and you start thinking,
how are we ever gonna replace these guys? And then
Tom Brady, then Peyton Manning, then Philip Rivers, and then
this guy named Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees and all
(32:13):
these guys, Ben Roethlisberger, Eli Manning. It's like, how are
we gonna replace all these guys? And then Mahome. It
just it's a never ending cycle. And football has been
very lucky that they've just always had a crew of
five to six power names. And then the second tier
(32:34):
guys are not as don't have the high end talent
as a lot of those guys, but can have great seasons,
do it for a long period of time, can get
hot in the playoffs and become Super Bowl champions have
big moments in the playoffs. That it's been a very
very very long run of different generations. You know. You
(32:56):
hear it all the time, like there will never be
another Michael Jordan. Okay, maybe true, but there's been Kobe.
There will never be another Kobe Bryant. It's like, well,
Lebron James feels like one of the more famous. There
will never be another Steph Curry, Like, I don't know,
probably there will be. You know, we've seen different they look,
they come in different shapes and sizes, but at one
(33:17):
point of the magic and Larry and that's it. No,
it's like people keep on coming, you know. And I
say this all the time, like there will never be
another Tiger Woods. Maybe not that like this dude's name Tiger,
I mean just that by itself, but probably there will
be something in that world we go. I don't know
if I've ever seen this before, because it always freaking happens,
(33:42):
and we've been very very fortunate because clearly the league,
I don't care how many Miles Garrett's and Bjon Robinson's
and Luke Keekley's and Ed Reids are on the field.
If you have two awful quarterbacks starting against each other
in games. It is hard to watch. Someone recently asked, like,
(34:02):
what by over under I think on the Jets or
the Titans? Was I'm like, bro, I haven't even thought
about that team. They're like, who do you like in
the Jets Titans Week one game? I one hundred percent
I haven't thought about that game hasn't even crossed my mind,
you know who has? I wonder what my home's gonna
look like this year? Can Joe Burrow win thirteen games?
(34:25):
Can Josh Allen win another MVP? Is Stafford gonna continue
to play an MVP level? So? I mean the NFL
is truly carried by some serious star power right now.
And speaking of star power, Josh Allen was you know,
it's been a pretty polarizing figure slash organization, the situation
(34:45):
with Sean McDermott. There just hasn't been an organization who
has been consistently as close and just had devastating losses, right,
I mean, just absolutely devastating losses like they have had
really through history of time. Right, you go back to
the early nineties. I can't even imagine in the Internet
(35:06):
era a team going to four straight Super Bowls and
losing them all, some getting just curb stomped and others
missing game winning field goals. That would be I wouldn't
wish that upon my worst enemy, the team they root for.
That to happen to, that would truly suck. I'd rather
get knocked out in the first round the playoffs in
a couple of those years, losing in the Super Bowl
(35:28):
year after year after year. And you could argue the
thirteen second losses one of the worst losses in the
history league. It's probably crazier. You know, twenty eight to three.
There wasn't a quarter and a half, you know, there
was a lot of time. There were thirteen fucking seconds.
And this was the old kickoff for you had to
(35:49):
go a long way just to get in a field
goal range. So Josh Allen essentially said, like I believe
if we keep knocking on the door, the door will
eventually open. I'm in complete agreement, and I think this
carries over for anything in life. If you keep putting
yourself in position, something will break. Right. If you just
(36:12):
never put yourself in position for any opportunities, then it's
hard to complain when you don't get any opportunities. Even
though the opportunities when they arise, nothing is guaranteed. I
was talking to a couple guys I was working with
today at Fox. If I don't know how the old
they were, they felt younger than me. I was asking
(36:32):
their kind of origin story, and both of them kind
of had a little bit different paths, but they just
once started as like an executive assistant kind of got
his foot in the door and this opportunity arose and
he got in a talent agency. And it's just like
you put yourself around enough people. I think I get
asked for advice. And I said this a while back,
Like one thing you should try to do is you
(36:53):
get older, it's hard to meet like true new friends, right.
I think as we get older, we get a lot
of like acquaintances. Anytime you can meet someone you truly
call a friend like that is a positive. But just professionally,
the more people in more rooms you can put yourself around.
However that is whether that's going to different conferences in
(37:14):
your industry, whether that's going to places in whatever town
you live in, especially if you live in a big
city where those guys frequent. However, you have to do it,
but put yourself in rooms with these people, and it's
no different football, right John Elway went to five Super
(37:35):
Bowls and for a long period of time just kept
going to the playoffs, kept going to the playoffs. Some years,
Tom Brady, they got knocked out the first playoff game
they played. I vividly remember when Rex Ryan knocked him
out early in the twenty tens. It's not like they
didn't win every AFC championship game. Peyton Manning beat him
(37:56):
multiple times. But part of the reason they went to
nine Super Bowls, it's because every fucking year they were
in the playoffs, every stinking one and honestly, most years
they were the one or two seed, and back then
it got you a bye. But if you just go
to the playoffs every single year, and that's really what
the Bills have done in Josh Allen's career, you would say,
(38:19):
if you tell me right now that the Bills go
to the playoffs for the next five years, I would
put their likelihood of at least getting to another Super
Bowl as extremely high. And if you tell me you're
going to Super Bowl with Josh Allen as your quarterback,
your chance to win it is pretty fucking good. So
(38:40):
I it's hard to lose. It took Peyton Manning a
long long time, and even in the game there's like, God,
they're getting I think it was twenty four to seven
or twenty four to three at half time against the
Patriots in that AFC Championship game in India, and it
was this six season. It was the you know, it's
like the January of seven. But like you just give
(39:01):
yourself enough byes of the apple, eventually something breaks your way.
And that's where I wanted to end on this is
before we do a couple of mailbag questions. Is Dan Lanning?
I think I've heard versions of this story. He's been asked,
but I wanted to play the audio because PFT comedy
he asked Dan Lanning kind of about his origin story,
(39:23):
his his breakthrough moment in his career in college football.
And I just think it's a good thing for young
people to hear because I was, I would say inspired
listening to it.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
I am fascinated to hear about the first job that
you got and how you did that drive across the country. Yeah,
how long is it was it?
Speaker 3 (39:45):
You were you were going around thirteen hours.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
It's Todd Graham, right, at pitt Yeah, and so.
Speaker 3 (39:49):
I was a high school coach at park Hill South
was kind of waiting for an opportunity, and I ended
up meeting with Keith Patterson. When I first got the pit,
nobody was there. I was waiting in a lobby and
Eric Thatcher's the first guy that he's actually a scout
now for the forty nine ers, and he said, hey,
the coaches are gone. So I stayed the night, met
with him. The next day. They said, hey, we got
a job for you for eight hundred bucks a month.
(40:09):
My wife was pregnant at the time, we had a
one year old. Didn't tell him I had a house,
had a job, so it you know, it didn't make
a lot of sense, but it made a lot. It's
made a lot of sense sense.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
So when you decided to get in the car and drive,
you didn't know if coach was going to be It
was unannounced.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
Yeah, So i'd gotten a call around Christmas saying, hey,
we might have a job for you. Will call you
after signing day. And I didn't get a phone call.
And this is the closest I'd ever been to get
in the Division one job.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
So I said, well, I guess I guess I gotta
just drive there.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
I'm going to show up.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
So I went and did. I taught elementary pee, so
I did elementary p that day, I did after school weights,
and then I drove through the night and drank a
lot of mountain dew and listened to some crazy music
and changed into a suit in the gas station.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
I've been guilty of this. I'm sure a lot of
people listening are guilty of this as well. For most
of human history up until really the cell phone, which
really got going right around like I would say, late nineties,
early two thousands, especially early two thousands, where you could
(41:09):
just put it in your pocket and stuff like that,
and then as that was happening, the Internet was really
starting to take off. But from about ninety eight and
every year before, if you wanted something, you wanted to
get something done, you wanted to meet someone, you wanted
to talk to someone, you wanted to try to get
(41:30):
a job, you had to show up. I guess you
could send a letter, but most of the time you
had to be physically present somewhere. And then throughout my
time in life, you could send voicemails, You could send emails.
We all do it. You could send LinkedIn or Twitter,
(41:52):
Instagram direct messages. There are a million ways to contact
people from just sitting at home help. You could try
to get a job and contact a guy seven different
ways and never have to get off your couch. When
I think Dan Lanning told that story about driving thirteen
hours through the middle of the night when they had
(42:14):
no clue he was coming, and I do think it
is way harder so a lot of young people that
asked me for advice, Listen, all of our situations are different,
all of our pasts are different, and all of our
I would say, desires and wants tend to be a
little different too. Professionally, even though I think you know
a lot of people share a lot of different characteristics
of what they Most of us have basic needs, right
(42:34):
We want to be successful for a family, to take
care of our family, to be a good role model
to our children, want to be able to provide food
and shelter, like most human beings have the same basic needs.
But when you show up for a job that you want,
or you want to get in touch with somebody when
(42:54):
you were there physically in person, it is way harder
for them to delete a voicemail to delete an email
to not look at a direct message. I'm guilty of
this too. I'm sure some people listening to this have
sent me inquiries about coming on their podcast or whatever.
If I haven't response, I'm a dick. Sometimes just get
(43:18):
distracted doing something else, don't have time. Like we all
fall under that category. But if you just wanted to
come on my podcast, and again this is a bad example,
but and you showed up in front of my face,
it I can't really avoid you. And I think the
day and age of people, and it's not just gen
(43:40):
Z or whatever, it's everyone, because it is way easier
to just send a text message or shoot an email.
It's also the easiest thing to just bypass or delete.
And I think Dan Lanning's story, of which I can't
even imagine making eight hundred dollars a month, and I
know this is fifteen plus years ago, but having a
(44:01):
child another one on the way, and like you said,
it worked out pretty well. But I just I admire
the shit out of that guy for doing that, and
I think it serves as a great lesson. You might
not have to drive thirteen hours through the middle of
the night, but if you're trying to get someone's business,
or you're trying to get involved in someone's company. You're
(44:21):
trying to work for a guy and you can't get
him to call you back, if you can't get him
to email you back, if you have the means, or hell,
he's in your town or in your city. On the opposite,
if it's a thirty minute drive and you're like, hey, no, no,
I'll just shoot him in another text, show up. You'll
be amazed at the power of what showing up will do.
(44:45):
What's the old adage showing up as half the battle,
I'd argue in a day and age of technology, it's
like ninety percent of the battle of just gaining someone's attention, right,
especially young people that they've never heard of, because it's
very very easy to not respond to anything. I'm sure
(45:06):
we've all had that. And listen, even if you show up,
some people might just beect I'm not meeting with you.
You're not guaranteed to hear anything. You are much more
likely though, to gain some traction that way. So crazy story,
great story. It's just very very admirable move by Dan
(45:26):
Lanning and not shocking to see all his success since
guy's a ball coach, and everyone keeps saying that this
is the Oregon's best team in the history of the
program roster wise. Right, They've been in my lifetime multiple
national championships. They've lost them, but they've been there. So
there's a big difference of having the historic amount of
(45:47):
talent relative to the program and accomplishing the same thing
on the field. So to me, the only way that
this would be the best team in orient history they
have to win the Natty. They have to win the Natty,
and well, I think a lot of people are gonna
pick him win the Natty. Landing is one guy that's
kind of like Josh Allen. He's been knocking on the door.
(46:08):
He's been knocking on the door. He's just got there.
And a couple of years ago he got the crap
kicked out of him by Hoho State. Last year he
got the crap kicked out of him by Indiana. I
would all say, at least you're losing to the two
teams that won the National Championship back to back years.
If you be one thing to lose to some random team
who gets knocked out the next year. So I'm a
Dan Lanning fan. Let's answer a couple of dms this year,
(46:42):
there have been a ton of big trades Garrett, Micah Parsons,
Dexter Lawrence, A J. Brown, Jaylen Water, Sauce Gardner, McDuffie, etc. Etc.
Even mccrosby obviously that was rescinded. Has one calendar year
in any sport ever had more huge trades. Is this
(47:03):
representative of a larger trend of general managers taking bigger swings?
Which big name move isn't being talked about enough? As
a Bengals fan, Lawrence has me feeling more optimistic. That
is a great question. I mean the amount, I mean
all the guys you listed, Miles, Garrett, Hall of Famer,
Micah Parsons was trending that way. I mean Dexter Lawrence,
(47:27):
all pro level player, A J. Brown, All pro level player,
Sas Gardner, all pro level player, Trent McDuffie, all pro
level player, Max Crosby, All pro level player, DJ Moore,
Pro Bowl level guy. That's as a lot of firepower. Max.
Now he's back on his old team, I think we'd
all agree that if the Raiders, you know, like two
(47:50):
and six, that I think he will be back on
the trading block. I think it has to do with
a couple of things. Is one the explode a revenue
in the NFL. So historically, if I gave a guy
a huge contract and he was still a good player,
gate receipts, having star power, if my team sucked would
(48:12):
still matter. I'd be less likely to trade that guy. Also,
because I've already paid him a lot of money. I
think owners they don't get caught up like twenty thirty
forty million dollars signing bonuses mean little to nothing to anybody.
I definitely think his representative of gms you when I
first got hired in twenty ten, how he was an outlier,
(48:35):
How he was wired no different then as he is
now in terms of aggression, always trying to acquire players
we weren't even allowed to say like camp bodies. He
hated that, like you were always churning the roster. You
only wanted to bring in guys who can compete. He
was just he was much more wired like gems from
other leagues back then, and clearly that is carried over.
(48:56):
But now there are a bunch of guys like him.
Let's need John Schneider. All these gms will wheel and deal,
and I think it has to do with kind of
a youth movement where fifteen twenty years ago a lot
of GMS probably got into football. Seventies in the eighties
is where they learned it was much more of a
conservative sport in the sense of like trades weren't just
(49:19):
consistently has made as much because I also think the
financial ramifications of them, and now people value draft picks more.
I think there's a lot of factors, and I think
they're all playing into part, but I think number one
first and foremost is the explosion of money in the league,
and right behind that is the GM's willingness to just
(49:41):
always do trades because for them to pull off a trade,
the owner has to agree. So even I'm sure Howie whoever,
any GM throughout the league has had trades they wanted
to make or been interested in that maybe their owner
was uncomfortable with, which is great for the sport because
forever football, the other you know, baseball and basketball had
(50:05):
all the trades. Football didn't have. That mean, they had
free agent signings, but they didn't have all these stars
getting traded. It just it was very rare. A big
trade was like you know, Brett Favre was traded right
after his rookie year, Matt Schab, Matt hasselback guys like
(50:26):
that kind of get trade, you know, backups that you
think could be starters. Alex Smith got traded. Now, it's
like you convinced me most guys in the NFL could
be traded. It actually crossed my mind to day, if
the Bengals have a disastrous season, could the Rams do
some sort of package where it's like, let's say they
(50:49):
don't sign Pooka Nakua. We traded Puka n Akua in
like three years of drafts for Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase.
When I was sitting there with Colin going on some rant,
it kind of came over my head. I was like,
it's my worst nightmare. But I definitely think they would.
If you told me if the Rams wanted Burrow, I
(51:11):
feel like they'd also try to acquire Jamar Chase. All
of a sudden, it's like the Rams have traded seventy
five draft picks multiple drafts, like the entire twenty twenty
seven draft, the entire twenty twenty eight draft. Then I
know after this year, right they gave Jared Verse, they
give a first round of this upcoming year and then
(51:31):
the following year, so they'd have to I don't know
exactly how it would work, but you wouldn't put it
past them. Been listening to you for over a decade
now for the mailbag, you mentioned something or something or
someone needs to fix college football. The porter's the I
can't even talk. The portal seems like an easy fix,
(51:53):
but it's probably too far gone at this point. What
are your thoughts on creating stricter scheduling rules for games.
If we're going to split up the P four and
G six conferences, let's just draw a firm lind P
four teams can only schedule one G six FCS team
a year. They must pay a certain money amount to them,
(52:16):
say two and a half million dollars, and that's their
one cupcake game. Then conferences do like the NFL does
and make competitively balanced conference schedules to create more parody.
This way, schools like Texas Tech aren't skipping out on
other top Big twelve schools, Perdue can play lower level
Big ten schools, et cetera. I personally think if we
(52:38):
get to the point where the power for they should
be mandated to play each other. So everyone plays the
same amount of conference games, and then your non conference
are rotating. If I'm a Big ten team, I play
the SEC, the ACC and the the Big twelve, and
(53:03):
maybe we do some sort of rotation of strength of schedule,
or there's just some lottery drawing for like a five
year stretch that's totally random, however you want to do it, right.
I I don't love looking and seeing Texas play Texas State,
seeing even USC play San Jose a State, Like I
(53:23):
think there should be different tiers in the NFL. Doesn't
play the UFL. Right, If you're USC, you shouldn't be
playing like Mountain West teams. You should be playing You
don't have to play Alabama? But could you play like Vanderbilt?
I guess Eric's a pretty good Could you play Kansas?
Could you just play other Power four teams unless you
(53:47):
mandate them doing that, they won't do that. So I
don't have an easy fix, and there's no mandate coming
at least in the next couple of years. But that
to me is the number one fix because you look
at Week one the college Football's back, and you look
at the matchups, you're like, this is disgusting. Thank God
(54:08):
for Clemson play LSU. Thank god for Old Miss playing Louisville.
There is a lot of just teams. It's an embarrassment.
It truly is mail bag. Are the Browns going forward
with this mediocre quarterback, whether it's Watson or Sanders to
(54:31):
plan for next year's draft? Do you think they decided
on Munkin as the coach because of his experience in
college to help the quarterback evaluation process. This reminds me
of the Browns sixteen and seventeen when they literally put
the worst players on the field to accumulate higher draft picks.
Those teams were horrendous, didn't they did? They go on sixteen?
I can't even remember now, you know, Hugh Jackson did
(54:52):
not win many games. It was bad that. I mean
twenty sixteen seventeen Cleveland Browns football feels like fifty years ago.
I mean, seriously, that feels like a long time ago.
I remember it was really really ugly, Freddy Kitchens fun times.
I just don't think they have another choice, you know.
(55:15):
I mean they drafted shador a year ago, who was
a fifth round pick, but he's really more like, you know,
a top one hundred pick. He's really more like someone
you'd get in the second or the third round. And
they're paying to Sean Watson fifty million dollars. So their
team actually is not that bad like them in the Jets,
probably not gonna win that many games, but both of
(55:36):
them have a ton of players that every team that's
in the playoffs would line up to acquire. So I
just think they're just kind of in this weird spot
quarterback wise. And I think Monkny it was a tough job,
you know. I think a lot of people yank their
name out of the hat. They had a weird process
in terms of some of the cognitive testing they were given. Guys.
(55:57):
I think it made people uncomfortable, like what are we
doing here? And I think Munkin didn't care, like this
was his only shot at becoming a head coach. He
didn't give a shit. No different Jim Schwartz like he
felt this was like his only shot to become the
head coach. He thought he could become the head coach.
And that kind of felt like their final group, those
two guys. Do you think Vitavea will get traded or
(56:20):
do you think Tampa will sign him to a new
contract if they do trade him? Would Seattle be a
potential landing spot since they are projected to have the
most draft picks in twenty seven and Schneider loves mid
season trades. Well, I think they're looking at it like this.
If Vitavea were to become a free agent, I think
he would get multiple years at you know, free agent market.
(56:43):
Let's say you get two years, three years, sixty seventy
million dollars. So they would in return get a third
round comp pick. So they know vita Vea on the
open market gets them a third round pick. Well, you'd
rather just have Vitavea for the year, let him walk
and then get the comp pick. So if I'm going
to trade him, I probably need like a second and
(57:06):
a fourth. Perfect world, probably like a second and a third.
You're not gonna get a first round pick. I don't
think for a thirty two year old guy that needs
a new contract. Right, you just gave the tenth pick
for Dexter Lawrence, who's several years younger, and you just
had to give one year on an extension who's already
under contract. So I think it all factors in. I
(57:29):
think in a perfect world, Jason light would just keep
it and play it out and have him played on
the seventeen million dollars and probably that'll walk at the
end of the season. But if it's clear, like someone
makes an offer that's this is better than the comp
pick we're gonna get, I think they would entertain it.
So I don't think anyone's desperate here on August fourth.
(57:51):
I could definitely see him getting traded in season, because
even if he holds in the entire training camp, he
may million dollars a game. So he's gotta hold out
a million dollars a game. No one would hold out
at that clip. Never been done, never will get done.
Uh would be curious your thoughts on this topic periodically.
(58:15):
Quote could the best team beat the worst NFL team?
Comes up. For my entire adult life, I have rolled
my eyes and said, no chance. Half of the college
starters won't get drafted, half of them won't start in
the NFL. The other team is twenty two starters. However,
in our new data driven world, I decided to nerd
out a little bit. I looked at the two time
(58:38):
national champion LSU Tigers of twenty nineteen. They won two
is the national champion LSU Tigers twenty nineteen versus the
two and four Cincinnati Bengals seven years earlier. I looked
at draft position years in a league, number of stars,
Pro Bowls, in all pros. Based on the data, it
might be closer than I initially thought. The Bengals would
(59:01):
obviously have the edge and physical maturity and experience, but
the Tigers have them in star power. Could Dre Fitzpatrick
shut down Jefferson or Chase How would the Tigers align
be able to deal with Carlos Dunlap and Geno Atkins?
Interesting to ponder. What would you say? I think, like
(59:21):
Geno Atkins and Carlos Dunlop against the college offensive line
would be a major major brown that they would have
a lot of pressure on Joe Burrow. Now, like those
two guys specifically, I think the Bengals would struggle to neutralize.
You know, it's been proven. I mean, those guys are
two of the most talented players I've seen in my
(59:42):
adult life. It's pretty great. I mean, the quarterback duo
with those two guys, no wonder they'd beat the shit
out of everybody. I don't know who the best college
team is of the last twenty five thirty years. I
do think there would be specific teams that could get
whoever the worst NFL team is of all time, whoever
(01:00:03):
the worst NFL team is of all time. You would
also want to play them like ten games into the
season because some of their geno Atkins Carlos Dunlap might
not be playing it, might be injured, might be out
of lineup, so they would have they were already bad
to begin with, and then the attrition of a year.
By the time you got to December, you would have
fringe NFL players all over the roster. So like week
(01:00:27):
one version, it would be very difficult. And there's also
like the version of Jamar Chase and Justin Jefferson at
twenty years old, physically is a different animal at twenty
six twenty seven years old. So there is just a
natural like physicality to a human being that changes as
(01:00:48):
you're in the NFL, even if they still kind of
look like the same in the face or whatever, they're
dramatically younger. It would be difficult, but there have been
some awful NFL teams. If NFL players are allowed in
the Olympics for flag football, what current NFL player would
be the ultimate flag football cheat code? I just saw
(01:01:10):
highlights that day that they did the flag football and
we got killed. It clearly is not an apples to
apples comparison. You can't just show up and dominate these
guys who like understand the game, which is dramatically different
than tackle football. So I'm no longer as comfortable as
(01:01:31):
just like oh, Tyreek Hill in his prime, Barry Sanders
in his prime. Like in theory, those guys would run
circles around everybody. But maybe it doesn't just work like that.
So I'll be the first to admit, like, I'm not
as confident that this is as easy as I thought.
(01:01:53):
You missed the key part in answering my question yesterday,
who will be the next quarterback to receive a contract
that their team regrets? Rats and he had brought up
c J. Stroud, Jalen Hurts, Baker Mayfield. I don't think CJ. Stroud.
I think he's a year away from even entertaining a
contract extension, and that would be a year where he'd
have to play really well. I saw the Panthers contract
(01:02:15):
negotiation negotiator talked about Bryce Young. To me, he's got
two years under contract, Like, I can't give Bryce Young
a contract. I could give contracts to certain individuals if
I felt like they could be a top fifteen quarterback.
If I could sign the Donald Mayfield contract, will you
take three years, one hundred and ten million dollars at
(01:02:36):
like fifty or sixty guaranteed? Like, if you will do
those type deals, then I would do the contract basically
bijon with an extra year. But those contracts have seemed
and proven to be extremely extremely rare. So I actually
(01:02:57):
think we're in kind of an I have a theory.
I think the Tua Kyler Murray kind of era really
rattled the NFL, and I think that was basically a
trial ground for like, if you have question marks and
you are going to pay a guy a premium, you
will lose your job. It will be a devastating financial
(01:03:20):
decision for your franchise. And I do wonder look at
Kirk Cousins coming off the Achilles who got two years
ninety million dollars, everyone in Atlanta got fired. So if
you're gonna pay premiums at forty forty five with which
in a couple of years will be the equivalent of
fifty to fifty five, whether it's two years, three years,
or five years. You better be damn fucking sure. If
(01:03:42):
Daniel Jones this year does not play well and the
Colts go like seven to ten, everyone's getting fired. There.
Daniel Jones is rich, Two is rich, Kyler's rich, Kirk
Cousins is rich. Those guys have gotten a lot of
people fired, you know, they just have. Now. You could
argue like, yeah, you shouldn't have signed that contract. We
(01:04:03):
all saw it's coming, and that's that's fair. But they did.
And if those guys then had just played a little
bit better, then guys probably would have not gotten fired.
So I think we're at the point now unless you
are the upper tier of the second group. You know,
Baker's pretty fascinating. It's like, Okay, Baker, you're gonna play
(01:04:24):
this out. Let's say you have a good year. And
Jason Light's like, man, I'll give you three years, one
hundred and forty million dollars forty a year, and he's like,
I can get more from the Jets. Okay, go play
for the Jets. Godspeed, buddy, you can be richer. It's
not gonna go well, Like, you got it pretty good.
You got Jason Light, who's proven to build teams, who drafts. Well,
(01:04:48):
you may be in a little lull right now as
you kind of reset the roster, but like you got
a pretty you're in a pretty good football spot. And
I think we're kind of transitioning of like it's gonna
be the haves and the have nots. It's like what
everyone keeps telling me about AI, it'll all consolidate, there'll
be two or three, you know, operations that everyone will
go do. That's probably true. I think that's kind of quarterbacks, Like,
(01:05:11):
I don't think you just think, you know, we just
I don't think we can do better in CJ. Stroud.
Here's two hundred million dollars, Like, I don't think that's happening.
You know, Bryce Young's probably as good as we're gonna do.
Here's two hundred and twenty million dollars. Like, No, those days.
Maybe I'm being naive, but at least for the near future,
(01:05:32):
feel highly unlikely. Audios. The volume
The volume. What is going on? My friends and family?
How are we doing? I don't know how many family
(00:21):
members are listening, but a lot of friends out there,
a lot of people, and hopefully you guys are doing
well because we got a lot going on. We got
big contracts being handed out to running backs, which actually
aren't that big relative to wide receivers. We got quarterback tears.
We got some guys falling, we got some guys dropping
like rocks, and uh we got problems because some of
them make a lot of money, So we'll discuss Jalen Hurst,
(00:45):
Dak Goff Purdy, CJ Stroud, Caleb Dan Lanning gave some
very interesting uh Hea have a story which I think
can serve as advice to us all and as well
as a Middlecoff mailbag at John Midlecoff at John Middlecoff
is the Instagram. Fire in those dms and get your
questions here on the show. Make sure you listen. If
(01:07):
you listen on Collins Feed, you can always subscribe to
my podcast as well so you never miss an episode,
as well as Netflix. I actually got a light delivered
today because my lighting was so bad in the hotel room.
But this light goes right up the top of my computer.
I look pretty good, not gonna LIEU. So yeah, hit
the alert button. You'll never miss an episode and let's
(01:28):
just let's just dive right in. But I definitely wanted
to start with the morning breaking news of Bjon Robinson
becoming the highest paid running back in the NFL. Everyone's like,
three year, seventy five million dollars. They are given some
serious money to running backs. It's like I just saw
(01:49):
a center this offseason get twenty seven million dollars a year.
I've seen average guards make up to twenty four million
dollars a year. I do not understand in twenty twenty
six how the NFL is so out of whack. Like
Zayflowers got a contract today, and he's a good wide receiver.
(02:12):
He was once a first round pick and he's made
a bunch of plays. He's never going to be a
top probably a top ten wide receiver in the NFL.
Definitely a top six or seven wide receiver in the NFL.
He will never sniff what jamar Cha, Ceedee Lamb, Justin Jefferson.
The top guys on a year in, year out basis
like the impact they have and if you could choose.
(02:35):
You would always take those guys over him. What Davante
was in his prime. Puka Jsn again, really good player.
Every team would want him. But you know, we talk
quarterback tiers, he's one a second tier wide receiver. In
guaranteed dollars, he cost over one hundred million dollars. If
you just pulled every GM and every defensive coordinator in
(02:59):
the NFL, is Bjhon Robinson not just one of, if
not the best running back. Is he one of the
best offensive players non quarterbacks in the NFL. There would
be a universal yes. And what I can't wrap my
head around is for a long period of time, it
was a running league seventies, eighties, even the nineties, right,
(03:21):
and passing has evolved, so it's it's become more of
a pass centric league. And wide receivers have dramatically benefited
from that kind of market explosion because their stats look
way better. Even if you're not Jerry Rice, Randy Moss.
You know some all time great you can catch ninety
balls and be a guy that's like, is he really
(03:42):
that good? B John Robinson's own teammate who again, I
like Drake London good player. I'm not sure he's ever
gonna be a top five wide receiver. This offseason got
over one hundred million dollars and you could sign and
I'll never forget a couple of years ago, this is
when it really first started working in my brain, because
I was always on the side like I wouldn't pay
(04:03):
a running back either, And then the market got so
I would say diminished, just it became so out of
whack relative to the rest of these NFL positions beside
like quarterback, pass rusher, and offensive tackle, which understandable. I
would pay the elite guys all the money at those positions,
(04:27):
but it's like wide receiver, like I'm having some tough
conversations unless you're certain individuals. And when Howie Roseman signed
Saquon Barkley to a contract that he only had to
guarantee I think twenty seven million dollars when he stole
him from the Giants, and then he's the best player
on a team that wins the Super Bowl, and we
all knew he had like elite ability. He just needed
(04:49):
to go to the right spot. He goes to a
great offensive line. In every game, it felt like he
was running for three hundred yards. He was unstoppable. He
had a season where I think he had seven or
eight runs at over sixty yards. He couldn't be he
was had one of the truly great offensive seasons we've
ever seen. And he goes, didn't have to spend that much.
I went, I don't know. And then you see guys
like McCaffrey, Bjon Gibbs. These guys aren't just running backs.
(05:15):
They are offensive weapons. Bijeon Cott seventy nine balls last year.
If you told Bijon Gibbs or we'll see what McCaffrey
looks like during the season. But McCaffrey in his prime,
you can't play running back anymore. You can just play receiver,
slot outside, wherever you are just purely a receiver. You
line up opposite at tackle or a tight end every
(05:36):
single play. Those guys would be fine, and they would dominate,
but they happened to also have the ability to rush
for fourteen fifteen, sixteen hundred yards and catch seventy to
ninety balls thousand yards and get you a ton of
touchdowns that way. Yet they're compensated like they're not nearly
(05:57):
as good as the players in which they're compared to.
So we are currently dealing with the market that if
you have a second tier wide receiver. I saw this
a couple of years ago, Brandon Ayuk, I went, under
no circumstances can you max out a guy who is
at most gonna catch you eighty balls, yet because of
(06:18):
the position he plays, you're gonna have to give twenty
eight to thirty million dollars. It didn't make any financial
sense when they did it. It became an emotional move.
And then I see it year in and year out
that these guys that most of us would not consider,
not even close to a top five wide receiver getting
(06:38):
I mean half of Wells Fargo delivered to their bank accounts,
and a guy like Bijon Robinson, and I'm sure Gibbs
will have either the copy and pasted Robinson contract or
maybe you know, a couple percent added on tax because
usually when you sign after you get a little bit
more of not anywhere near some of these other guys
(07:01):
that they are clearly better football players too or then,
and it's not like they're just asked to carry the ball.
These guys dominate in the passing game, where linebackers and
safeties in the open field struggle to tackle them. I
just I think sometimes marketing efficiencies really have changed the
(07:25):
way we've looked at things. And now in the NFL,
all these positions are kind of paid premiums. You know,
you got centers making twenty seven million dollars, You've got
detackles making thirty five million dollars a year. We have
safeties now making twenty twenty five million dollars a year.
Linebackers two right up there at twenty plus. But if
(07:47):
I could have a guy like Bijon Robinson on my team,
like I don't know, if you just had a player
draft non quarterback of every guy offensively in the NFL,
I don't know how far we're getting down the list
before Bijon Robinson is coming off the board because he
is definitely going above Drake London. He is definitely going
(08:09):
above Flowers and he costs half as much. So I
I just I think we're at a point in time
that they're so far behind. It's not like they're ever
going to make the jump, but it is one hundred
percent out of whack. And when you look at Jeremiah Love,
who is projected to be a similar type player, do
(08:30):
it all If the Cardinals could ever figure their shit out,
which under Michael Bidwell honestly feels not likely. They would
have a guy who could be one of the best
players in the league at a fraction of the price
of guys on other teams who are considered good definitely
(08:52):
not great, And you got the way better player at
a way cheaper number. So and it's Talary cab Leak.
You're always manipulating the cap. Well, you don't have to
manipulate that much when you're actually not throwing around signing
bonuses and guaranteed numbers that aren't that big. So right now,
the running back market, if you can get them, I
would be all over it because it is a relatively
(09:14):
cheap kind of avenue to go down. And speaking of
you know this offensive talent now, Drake London, Kyle Pitts,
and Bijon Robinson all extended this offseason. I sometimes come
off like a hater. I'm really not. I met Stefanski
a couple of years ago at the Combine. Seems like
(09:34):
a nice guy. Clearly he is well liked in the
NFL community. I just struggle when some guys get kind
of anointed as like Kevin Stefanski is a fantastic coach,
like is he because typically good offensive coaches figure out
ways to manipulate some yards. And I've watched in the
(09:55):
last couple of years and I went, I don't know
if he was some dynamic coach. I'm not holding him
to playoff standards, but it should look a little bit
better than it did. And last year was a complete abomination.
I mean, honestly, it was an embarrassment. It really was.
And now he goes to a team which I think
is pretty easy. But we other quarterback situation. They got Tua, well,
(10:18):
someone in that building had to want Tua like well,
he was cheap, okay, I wouldn't want two on my
team for five dollars. That they were cool with making
him a part of this quarterback room, especially when they
knew that Pennix is not guaranteed to be ready week one.
They were comfortable with we might have to start a
game with Tua. I did see Mike McDaniel win some
(10:39):
football games with Tuataga bay Loa Pennix, who I was
guilty I thought was going to be a really good
NFL player. I'm not as confident at this point, especially
coming off like it's seventeenth ACL injury. But if I
give Sean McVay, Kevin O'Connell, Shanahan, Lafleur, Drake London, Kyle Pitts,
(11:04):
and Bijon Robinson, they would be able to win seven
eight games. And I'm looking at the Atlanta Falcons going
don't trust the coach. Definitely do not trust the quarterback situation.
Like I've seen the Browns with some players and it
still look really really bad, Like well, John, their offensive
line was horrendous. Okay, the Falcons offensive line is more
(11:29):
than serviceable. So I don't think the Falcons are making
the playoffs. I'm not going to hold Stefanski to like
anything less than the playoffs is a failure, but I
kind of know what it looks like, and to me,
there is some pressure to go, like you should be
able to function with all these weapons, to manipulate some
sort of offense, especially if Pennix is ready to go
(11:53):
early in the season. It doesn't have to look great,
but it can't look like what has been the last
couple of years. Because this kind of label that you
carry with you of being a really good offensive coach,
we're gonna have to erase that because currently, that's no
longer inact, that's in pencil, and I got the eraser
(12:15):
in my back pocket and I'm ready to remove that
from wherever they put it on your desk, because they
had a lot of money worth a lot of high
end players. And here's the other thing. I think there's
two school of thoughts. Personally, I would have entertained trading
(12:36):
b John Robinson because I don't think it's team's going anywhere.
James Pierce, who had the crazy incident with the WNBA
girlfriend who somehow just avoided all charges. Everything got dropped
and everything's just good. Now, it's like, how is that
even possible? We had the video, we witnessed it all.
It's like, no, nothing happened. Actually, it's like, okay was
carded off. Now. The one thing in recording this, by
(12:57):
the time you listen to this, we might have right
a report of something very serious. But we've seen enough
over the course of the last I don't know, two
weeks just because you get carted off, some guys freak out,
some guys are scared. Sometimes I have seen so far
during training camp a guy get carted off and it's
a shin bruise. So I think I think the Falcons went.
(13:24):
We got good players because every team would want Drake London.
I don't know for that price, Kyle Pitts and definitely
be John Robinson, and we will figure out the quarterback later.
We've seen a lot of teams just never be able
to figure out the quarterback, but they've taken the kind
of tactic of team building. Listen, we're not gonna trade
(13:45):
these guys. We're not gonna go Miami Dolphins and just
try to get first round picks and pick the guys
we want because we already got good players, which I understand.
I'm just not sure it's gonna work. Today's show is
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(15:36):
New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia. The quarterback tears in the
NFL Sando put out his list today and you know
it wasn't too shocking, right, Mahomes is kind of grandfathered
(15:59):
in it. One. Then you got Josh Allen, who I
think most people would say is the best quarterback in
the league. But if you're based on resume, you got
the Burrows, the Lamar's, the Herbert's, like the same cast
of characters are near the top. What I find fascinating,
and this gets back to the contract situation. Most good
(16:19):
quarterbacks right are not gonna be Patrick Mahomes and Josh
Allen are not gonna win multi MVPs, like Lamar Jackson,
like Dak Prescott's Jared Goff. If you're a betting man
right now, you see those guys are never gonna win
an MVP. Brock Purty is never gonna win an MVP.
(16:40):
It doesn't mean you can't win a ton of games
with that guy. It doesn't mean you can't go to
the playoffs. You're in, you're out with that guy. Saying
what Sam Darnold's proven to be. Now he's a super
Bowl champion, but what he's really proven to be, Like,
if I'm your starting quarterback, I'm not gonna be Patrick
Mahomes or Josh Allen. But if you do a good
enough job the Vikings with Kevin O'Connell and Flores two
(17:03):
years ago, John schnyder and Mike McDonald last year of
building a good team around me, I can take you
to the playoffs and then listen. Football is a one
game scenario. Anything's fucking possible. Seattle got hot, they won
that NFC Championship game and got a shitty Patriot team,
shitty relative to most Super Bowl teams. Obviously, the Patriots
had a good year, you know what I mean? That groups,
(17:24):
to me is the most fascinating because if I get
a Patrick Mahomes, a Josh Allen, a Lamar Jackson, a
Joe Burrow, those guys always get a blank check. Those
guys always set the market and you feel good about it.
The other guys are the polarizing ones. It's like, you
just gave Dak Prescott how much money and he got
crushed for his contract sixty million dollars a year. You're
giving Jared Goffin perty fifty to fifty five million dollars
(17:46):
a year? Are you nuts? It was like every year
I look up and they're over five hundred last year,
the reason the Lions didn't make the playoffs wasn't because
of Jared Goff. It was because their offensive coordinator was
a disaster, had to get fired in the middle of
the season, and defensively, their secondary was atrocious. He was
playoff worthy. He honestly, statistically wasn't that different from the
(18:08):
year before. Brock Purdy had multiple games down the stretch.
I mean he had dueled Kayleb Williams Monday Night Football
with a couple of weeks left to go in the season.
Bigger reason the forty nine ers wildcard team. Then Boom
goes on the road they beat the Philadelphia Eagles. So
to me, the key is if you're never going to
be a top four or five quarterback in the NFL,
and most guys like Mahomes, Josh, you know people are
(18:33):
being critical of Lamar, I would expect them to have
a pretty good season. Herbert Burrow is kind of widely
considered the top group of guys that aren't thirty eight,
thirty nine years old like Stafford. And if Stafford, you know,
was in the prime of his career, he would be
grandfathered into that unit for the next four or five years.
If he was with McVeigh just like Rogers for a
majority of his career was considered right there with Brady
(18:55):
and Manning best quarterback in the league. Those guys are
outlier even to their own position. The majority of the
group is Philip Rivers, Eli Manning, Joe Fly It's that
next tier guys, which Dak, Goff, Purdy, Sam Darnold Baker.
That group. And as long as to me, you are
(19:16):
hovering somewhere between seven and twelve in that group, You're
in good shape. And while I'm paying you more money
than I'm probably comfortable with, it's on me as the
team builder. It's on me as the coach, to do
a good enough job. We can win double digit games,
we can go to the playoffs, and then, like I said,
anything is possible. I've said this forever about Dak. He's
(19:39):
had some fantastic years, won twelve games, got to the
playoffs and just look like a completely different player. Absolutely
shit the bed. So is Lamar Jackson. You know, I've
seen Eli Manning have some bizarre years in his career,
even play average kind of in the regular season, get
to the playoffs and look like Tom Brady, then literally
(20:00):
out duel Tom Brady or go toe to toe with
him in a super Bowl and win them Flaco, same thing.
It's like, how good is Flacco? And then he goes
on one of the great hot runs in like the
history of the league. In a contract here, So if
those guys can do it, Dak Prescott, Jared Goff, Brock Purdy,
Sam Donald, and listen, you removed the Rams game from
Sam Donald. I wouldn't say he was actually some dominant,
(20:24):
dominant quarterback in a lot of the playoff games. But
that's not always your job. And when I have that
version of a player, I don't always ask them to
carry my team right now, you have to make sacrifices
when you're paying a large amount of money. The problem
where you get into is like when you're the Philadelphia Eagles.
(20:45):
On this list, Jalen Hurts was seventeen, behind Purty, behind Baker,
behind Donald, obviously Goff and Dak, who were I think
seven and eight and seven respectively. If Jays I don't
need Jalen Hurts to be a top five quarterback, you
know why he's not a top five quarterback. He'll never
(21:06):
be a top five quarterback. And there's nothing wrong with that.
But I can't have him being the seventeenth best quarterback
when I'm paying fifty one million dollars a year. I
need him to be like eleven, twelve, ten. If he's
doing that with the roster how he's built, they'll be fine.
But when he's seventeen, let's face it, it feels closer to
twenty five than he does ten. That's a disaster because
(21:30):
the money and the amount of guaranteed dollars and the
way I build a salary cap when I give a
contract at that size, if he's trending the wrong way,
I'm fucked. There's no way around it. And this is
why I'm a little hesitant on the Eagles, not because
I don't think the roster is loaded with good players,
(21:51):
not that I don't. Vic Fangio is one of the
best defensive coordinators in my lifetime. His defense is loaded
with talent. They were good on defense las year. Offensively,
what I saw last year is something that you just
can't forget. You can forget a bad game. Peyton Manny's
had bad games, Rogers have bad games. Joe Montana, every quarterback,
(22:13):
Michael Jordan had bad games. It's called sports. Tiger Woods
didn't shoot sixty five every round. You know, every Beef Wellington,
Gordon Ramsay makes isn't perfect. You're allowed to fuck up.
I have some bad podcasts. Sometimes I hang up the mic.
I go, god, that was terrible, honestly. Right now, getting
up at four in the morning doing Collins Show, it's like,
(22:34):
I my brain's you know, not firing at all cylinders.
But like, you gotta produce, you gotta dig deep, you
gotta find a way. And that was one number. And
again this is all based on the leak. This is
based on coordinators, head coaches, personnel, people like for as
(22:54):
much as like, oh they got biases, they got agenda.
When you work in the league, do you know what
your agenda is? To base it off the film and
the one thing and this is Russell had this. Russell
Wilson is the only quarterback. And I was telling one
of the guys at Fox today, you know, I've been
working on not being grouchy in my house, being positive,
(23:19):
and I saw this, this, this Instagram post from Russell
Wilson and Russell say what you want about him a
little cheesy for me personally, he's always positive. I never
see that guy on a post on social media or
just in any time during his football career, or he's negative.
I said it to my wife, I'm gonna be like,
I'm gonna try to have more of this attitude because
(23:42):
he's just, he's just, he's an uplifter, and it's my
nature is to be a little negative, you know. So
we're working on trying to be a little more positive
in the home. But it is not positive when you're
paying a guy fifty one million dollars and they're seventeenth
and back to Russell Wilson is typically All Star Pro Bowl.
(24:06):
I don't know if he's gonna end up in the
Hall of Fame, but for a long period of time,
it felt like he was a Hall of Fame player
or trending that way. Their coordinators when they're head coach
as a defensive guy, become head coaches. All of Russell
Wilson's coordinators were fired, Bevil Schottenheimer, they were all shit canned,
(24:29):
Shane Waldron at the end, all fired. None of them,
I repeat, none of them went on to become head
coaches while they were coordinating for Russell Wilson. That's insane.
How many coordinators have gotten fired on Jalen Hurts's watch
last time I checked multiple And if this doesn't go well,
(24:51):
I would say Sean Mannion's tenure would be in some trouble.
And I'm just not a believer that this offense and
this player is gonna have a great working relationship. Could
be wrong. And I've already prefaced it by if they
are one of the top running teams in the league,
he will be okay because this offense will give them
(25:14):
enough layups that it can work. But if they cannot
run the ball and he is forced to play in
the pocket in this offense, it's I got major questions
and I will short it. So we've seen the Eagles.
They will pivot. They are cutthroat. They are not emotional
(25:34):
when it comes to players the moment you start making
a lot of money and don't live up to that
standard in terms of production. And a quarterback wins and losses,
because you can tell me on the internet, wins and
losses is not a quarterback stat I'm gonna pull back
and say bullshit. All the best quarterbacks in my lifetime
(25:54):
tend to win a lot. Doesn't mean you win the
super Bowl every year, doesn't mean you win thirteen games
a year, but on the most part, the star quarterbacks
typically have winning records most years, and I think he
is one of the most fascinating stories in the league.
Another guy that we're going to talk a lot about
because this team has Super Bowl aspirations. The problem is
(26:16):
their quarterback is on this list ranked number twenty, And
if you have the twentieth best quarterback, your team basically
needs to be like the two thousand and one Ravens,
the two thousand and two Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the eighty
five Bears, just an all time great team where your
quarterback can just kind of fit in and no one
notices and try not to screw it up. CJ. Stroud,
(26:40):
who was drafted second overall, still plays like a guy
trying to show everyone that he's a superstar and it
just doesn't work. And I said last year, towards the
end of the season and in the playoff stretch, it's like, bro,
you just need to find a way to become Ryan
Tannehill on Tennessee, Alex Smith on Kansas City. You just
(27:02):
need to be somewhat of a game manager and do
not fuck it up. And at twenty that also feels
kind of generous. He feels closer to twenty five, twenty
eight than he does fifteen. Is he is my number
one question mark for the Houston Texans. So when I
say I love the Houston Texans, I'm just such a
believer in all their players that it's like they're going
(27:24):
to be so good in the regular season. I think
they can overcome that. But in these one off situations
where all of a sudden, it's a thirteen to thirteen
game in the third quarter, there's no way you could
trust this player right now in the regular season over
the course, our defense is so dominant the division. Actually,
you know, Titans are not going to be that great.
(27:45):
Still got a lot of question marks with the Colts.
We'll see the Jacks. I mean, are they just a
consistent playoff team? Historically that hasn't been the case. Now
maybe that's changed because Liam Cohen is basically Ben Johnson
of Florida, which might be the case. I mean, I'm
not I'm a Liam Cohen guy, but I just think
(28:06):
this CJ. Stroud thing is is a legitimate problem for
the Houston Texans, who have, minus the quarterback, a super
super Bowl level operation. So this this thing's always fascinating.
You know. You see some names like Drake May is
an excellent talent. I'm pro Drake May. Same with you know,
(28:31):
any guy who's had a one off season like Jadon
Daniels had one good season that was two years ago.
What do I make of those guys? You know, the
most of these other you know Dak and Goff. These
guys have been doing it for ten plus years now.
You know, Perty has three four years body of work.
Even Caleb, and I know Colin loves to put him
as like a top five quarterback in the NFL if
(28:54):
you want to call him the John Elway A comebacks Okay,
I think he had seven comebacks last year, a ton
of game winning drives, one in the playoff game against
Green Bay. There is no disputing that. But to be
a great player, it's not just about the fourth quarters
and the comebacks. I know he can do that. He's
right there with Josh Allen is one of the other
talented throwers of the football we've ever seen. But like,
(29:17):
are you gonna be an MVP candidate and are you
gonna do it year in and year out? Then you'll,
like Caleb would be a guy outside of the top
five or six that this guy's top five ceiling. Most
of these other guys do not. I would say Jaden
based on two years ago, yeah he would as well.
But like you know, Caleb, I don't really get worried
(29:38):
about injuries because he's been a very durable player. Jade
Daniel's durability has been a pretty big question mark. And
if I was gonna bottom feed a little bit, I
think Jacoby Burssett at thirty three is too low. Like
I would have Jacoby Burssettes much higher based on what
we saw last year. Now, maybe I'm just a little
(30:00):
of the moment. I understand he what one to eleven
in the games in which he started, He did throw
twenty three touchdowns and his defense was basically rolling out
me and you there again though, I mean, we're what
are we doing here? Kirk Cousins twenty eight, Some of
the numbers at the bottom, it's it's hard, you know.
I think there's a lot of debate on Jordan Love
being a top ten quarterback feels a little high for me.
(30:23):
You know, I don't know if i'd have Jordan Love.
Like you, if you told me right now, would you
rather have Sam Donald or Jordan Love. I think I'd
take Sam Donald. I think Sam Donald's ceiling is higher.
I would definitely yeah. I mean, and to me, Baker
(30:43):
Mayfield is a guy, and this is his argument, right,
I totally know the group of quarterbacks he sees himself
with that is Jared Goff, Dak Prescott, Brock Purty, and
he sees how much money those guys are making, and
that's the type contract he wants. And that's what makes
the say is very complicated. It's back to the CJ.
Stroud thing. There aren't many, you know, like under if
(31:07):
I'm Nick Cassirio, there's no way we talked about contract
extensions this offseason. Would you give him some massive max
contract for a quarterback? Of course not. Would you even
feel comfortable giving him the Baker Mayfield Sam Darnold like
the three for one hundred. I don't even think you
would do that either. So it's you're kind of in
no man's land. You're kind of in just like, let's
play it out, worst case scenario, you end up not
(31:29):
being our quarterback and we have to figure it out.
This list is always fascinating, though, And uh, I think
one thing that has powered the NFL through for a
long time. Is I'm a child of the eighties, right,
I don't even remember l Way, Marino, Joe Montana, those
guys in their prime. But I bet people at one
(31:52):
point in time in the mid to late eighties went,
how are we ever going to replace these guys? And
then all of a sudden, you looked up when I
was a kid, and you've got Steve Young, You've got
Troy Aikman. Then Brett fav comes around, and you start thinking,
how are we ever gonna replace these guys? And then
Tom Brady, then Peyton Manning, then Philip Rivers, and then
this guy named Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees and all
(32:13):
these guys, Ben Roethlisberger, Eli Manning. It's like, how are
we gonna replace all these guys? And then Mahome. It
just it's a never ending cycle. And football has been
very lucky that they've just always had a crew of
five to six power names. And then the second tier
(32:34):
guys are not as don't have the high end talent
as a lot of those guys, but can have great seasons,
do it for a long period of time, can get
hot in the playoffs and become Super Bowl champions have
big moments in the playoffs. That it's been a very
very very long run of different generations. You know. You
(32:56):
hear it all the time, like there will never be
another Michael Jordan. Okay, maybe true, but there's been Kobe.
There will never be another Kobe Bryant. It's like, well,
Lebron James feels like one of the more famous. There
will never be another Steph Curry, Like, I don't know,
probably there will be. You know, we've seen different they look,
they come in different shapes and sizes, but at one
(33:17):
point of the magic and Larry and that's it. No,
it's like people keep on coming, you know. And I
say this all the time, like there will never be
another Tiger Woods. Maybe not that like this dude's name Tiger,
I mean just that by itself, but probably there will
be something in that world we go. I don't know
if I've ever seen this before, because it always freaking happens,
(33:42):
and we've been very very fortunate because clearly the league,
I don't care how many Miles Garrett's and Bjon Robinson's
and Luke Keekley's and Ed Reids are on the field.
If you have two awful quarterbacks starting against each other
in games. It is hard to watch. Someone recently asked, like,
(34:02):
what by over under I think on the Jets or
the Titans? Was I'm like, bro, I haven't even thought
about that team. They're like, who do you like in
the Jets Titans Week one game? I one hundred percent
I haven't thought about that game hasn't even crossed my mind,
you know who has? I wonder what my home's gonna
look like this year? Can Joe Burrow win thirteen games?
(34:25):
Can Josh Allen win another MVP? Is Stafford gonna continue
to play an MVP level? So? I mean the NFL
is truly carried by some serious star power right now.
And speaking of star power, Josh Allen was you know,
it's been a pretty polarizing figure slash organization, the situation
(34:45):
with Sean McDermott. There just hasn't been an organization who
has been consistently as close and just had devastating losses, right,
I mean, just absolutely devastating losses like they have had
really through history of time. Right, you go back to
the early nineties. I can't even imagine in the Internet
(35:06):
era a team going to four straight Super Bowls and
losing them all, some getting just curb stomped and others
missing game winning field goals. That would be I wouldn't
wish that upon my worst enemy, the team they root for.
That to happen to, that would truly suck. I'd rather
get knocked out in the first round the playoffs in
a couple of those years, losing in the Super Bowl
(35:28):
year after year after year. And you could argue the
thirteen second losses one of the worst losses in the
history league. It's probably crazier. You know, twenty eight to three.
There wasn't a quarter and a half, you know, there
was a lot of time. There were thirteen fucking seconds.
And this was the old kickoff for you had to
(35:49):
go a long way just to get in a field
goal range. So Josh Allen essentially said, like I believe
if we keep knocking on the door, the door will
eventually open. I'm in complete agreement, and I think this
carries over for anything in life. If you keep putting
yourself in position, something will break. Right. If you just
(36:12):
never put yourself in position for any opportunities, then it's
hard to complain when you don't get any opportunities. Even
though the opportunities when they arise, nothing is guaranteed. I
was talking to a couple guys I was working with
today at Fox. If I don't know how the old
they were, they felt younger than me. I was asking
(36:32):
their kind of origin story, and both of them kind
of had a little bit different paths, but they just
once started as like an executive assistant kind of got
his foot in the door and this opportunity arose and
he got in a talent agency. And it's just like
you put yourself around enough people. I think I get
asked for advice. And I said this a while back,
Like one thing you should try to do is you
(36:53):
get older, it's hard to meet like true new friends, right.
I think as we get older, we get a lot
of like acquaintances. Anytime you can meet someone you truly
call a friend like that is a positive. But just professionally,
the more people in more rooms you can put yourself around.
However that is whether that's going to different conferences in
(37:14):
your industry, whether that's going to places in whatever town
you live in, especially if you live in a big
city where those guys frequent. However, you have to do it,
but put yourself in rooms with these people, and it's
no different football, right John Elway went to five Super
(37:35):
Bowls and for a long period of time just kept
going to the playoffs, kept going to the playoffs. Some years,
Tom Brady, they got knocked out the first playoff game
they played. I vividly remember when Rex Ryan knocked him
out early in the twenty tens. It's not like they
didn't win every AFC championship game. Peyton Manning beat him
(37:56):
multiple times. But part of the reason they went to
nine Super Bowls, it's because every fucking year they were
in the playoffs, every stinking one and honestly, most years
they were the one or two seed, and back then
it got you a bye. But if you just go
to the playoffs every single year, and that's really what
the Bills have done in Josh Allen's career, you would say,
(38:19):
if you tell me right now that the Bills go
to the playoffs for the next five years, I would
put their likelihood of at least getting to another Super
Bowl as extremely high. And if you tell me you're
going to Super Bowl with Josh Allen as your quarterback,
your chance to win it is pretty fucking good. So
(38:40):
I it's hard to lose. It took Peyton Manning a
long long time, and even in the game there's like, God,
they're getting I think it was twenty four to seven
or twenty four to three at half time against the
Patriots in that AFC Championship game in India, and it
was this six season. It was the you know, it's
like the January of seven. But like you just give
(39:01):
yourself enough byes of the apple, eventually something breaks your way.
And that's where I wanted to end on this is
before we do a couple of mailbag questions. Is Dan Lanning?
I think I've heard versions of this story. He's been asked,
but I wanted to play the audio because PFT comedy
he asked Dan Lanning kind of about his origin story,
(39:23):
his his breakthrough moment in his career in college football.
And I just think it's a good thing for young
people to hear because I was, I would say inspired
listening to it.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
I am fascinated to hear about the first job that
you got and how you did that drive across the country. Yeah,
how long is it was it?
Speaker 3 (39:45):
You were you were going around thirteen hours.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
It's Todd Graham, right, at pitt Yeah, and so.
Speaker 3 (39:49):
I was a high school coach at park Hill South
was kind of waiting for an opportunity, and I ended
up meeting with Keith Patterson. When I first got the pit,
nobody was there. I was waiting in a lobby and
Eric Thatcher's the first guy that he's actually a scout
now for the forty nine ers, and he said, hey,
the coaches are gone. So I stayed the night, met
with him. The next day. They said, hey, we got
a job for you for eight hundred bucks a month.
(40:09):
My wife was pregnant at the time, we had a
one year old. Didn't tell him I had a house,
had a job, so it you know, it didn't make
a lot of sense, but it made a lot. It's
made a lot of sense sense.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
So when you decided to get in the car and drive,
you didn't know if coach was going to be It
was unannounced.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
Yeah, So i'd gotten a call around Christmas saying, hey,
we might have a job for you. Will call you
after signing day. And I didn't get a phone call.
And this is the closest I'd ever been to get
in the Division one job.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
So I said, well, I guess I guess I gotta
just drive there.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
I'm going to show up.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
So I went and did. I taught elementary pee, so
I did elementary p that day, I did after school weights,
and then I drove through the night and drank a
lot of mountain dew and listened to some crazy music
and changed into a suit in the gas station.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
I've been guilty of this. I'm sure a lot of
people listening are guilty of this as well. For most
of human history up until really the cell phone, which
really got going right around like I would say, late nineties,
early two thousands, especially early two thousands, where you could
(41:09):
just put it in your pocket and stuff like that,
and then as that was happening, the Internet was really
starting to take off. But from about ninety eight and
every year before, if you wanted something, you wanted to
get something done, you wanted to meet someone, you wanted
to talk to someone, you wanted to try to get
(41:30):
a job, you had to show up. I guess you
could send a letter, but most of the time you
had to be physically present somewhere. And then throughout my
time in life, you could send voicemails, You could send emails.
We all do it. You could send LinkedIn or Twitter,
(41:52):
Instagram direct messages. There are a million ways to contact
people from just sitting at home help. You could try
to get a job and contact a guy seven different
ways and never have to get off your couch. When
I think Dan Lanning told that story about driving thirteen
hours through the middle of the night when they had
(42:14):
no clue he was coming, and I do think it
is way harder so a lot of young people that
asked me for advice, Listen, all of our situations are different,
all of our pasts are different, and all of our
I would say, desires and wants tend to be a
little different too. Professionally, even though I think you know
a lot of people share a lot of different characteristics
of what they Most of us have basic needs, right
(42:34):
We want to be successful for a family, to take
care of our family, to be a good role model
to our children, want to be able to provide food
and shelter, like most human beings have the same basic needs.
But when you show up for a job that you want,
or you want to get in touch with somebody when
(42:54):
you were there physically in person, it is way harder
for them to delete a voicemail to delete an email
to not look at a direct message. I'm guilty of
this too. I'm sure some people listening to this have
sent me inquiries about coming on their podcast or whatever.
If I haven't response, I'm a dick. Sometimes just get
(43:18):
distracted doing something else, don't have time. Like we all
fall under that category. But if you just wanted to
come on my podcast, and again this is a bad example,
but and you showed up in front of my face,
it I can't really avoid you. And I think the
day and age of people, and it's not just gen
(43:40):
Z or whatever, it's everyone, because it is way easier
to just send a text message or shoot an email.
It's also the easiest thing to just bypass or delete.
And I think Dan Lanning's story, of which I can't
even imagine making eight hundred dollars a month, and I
know this is fifteen plus years ago, but having a
(44:01):
child another one on the way, and like you said,
it worked out pretty well. But I just I admire
the shit out of that guy for doing that, and
I think it serves as a great lesson. You might
not have to drive thirteen hours through the middle of
the night, but if you're trying to get someone's business,
or you're trying to get involved in someone's company. You're
(44:21):
trying to work for a guy and you can't get
him to call you back, if you can't get him
to email you back, if you have the means, or hell,
he's in your town or in your city. On the opposite,
if it's a thirty minute drive and you're like, hey, no, no,
I'll just shoot him in another text, show up. You'll
be amazed at the power of what showing up will do.
(44:45):
What's the old adage showing up as half the battle,
I'd argue in a day and age of technology, it's
like ninety percent of the battle of just gaining someone's attention, right,
especially young people that they've never heard of, because it's
very very easy to not respond to anything. I'm sure
(45:06):
we've all had that. And listen, even if you show up,
some people might just beect I'm not meeting with you.
You're not guaranteed to hear anything. You are much more
likely though, to gain some traction that way. So crazy story,
great story. It's just very very admirable move by Dan
(45:26):
Lanning and not shocking to see all his success since
guy's a ball coach, and everyone keeps saying that this
is the Oregon's best team in the history of the
program roster wise. Right, They've been in my lifetime multiple
national championships. They've lost them, but they've been there. So
there's a big difference of having the historic amount of
(45:47):
talent relative to the program and accomplishing the same thing
on the field. So to me, the only way that
this would be the best team in orient history they
have to win the Natty. They have to win the Natty,
and well, I think a lot of people are gonna
pick him win the Natty. Landing is one guy that's
kind of like Josh Allen. He's been knocking on the door.
(46:08):
He's been knocking on the door. He's just got there.
And a couple of years ago he got the crap
kicked out of him by Hoho State. Last year he
got the crap kicked out of him by Indiana. I
would all say, at least you're losing to the two
teams that won the National Championship back to back years.
If you be one thing to lose to some random team
who gets knocked out the next year. So I'm a
Dan Lanning fan. Let's answer a couple of dms this year,
(46:42):
there have been a ton of big trades Garrett, Micah Parsons,
Dexter Lawrence, A J. Brown, Jaylen Water, Sauce Gardner, McDuffie, etc. Etc.
Even mccrosby obviously that was rescinded. Has one calendar year
in any sport ever had more huge trades. Is this
(47:03):
representative of a larger trend of general managers taking bigger swings?
Which big name move isn't being talked about enough? As
a Bengals fan, Lawrence has me feeling more optimistic. That
is a great question. I mean the amount, I mean
all the guys you listed, Miles, Garrett, Hall of Famer,
Micah Parsons was trending that way. I mean Dexter Lawrence,
(47:27):
all pro level player, A J. Brown, All pro level player,
Sas Gardner, all pro level player, Trent McDuffie, all pro
level player, Max Crosby, All pro level player, DJ Moore,
Pro Bowl level guy. That's as a lot of firepower. Max.
Now he's back on his old team, I think we'd
all agree that if the Raiders, you know, like two
(47:50):
and six, that I think he will be back on
the trading block. I think it has to do with
a couple of things. Is one the explode a revenue
in the NFL. So historically, if I gave a guy
a huge contract and he was still a good player,
gate receipts, having star power, if my team sucked would
(48:12):
still matter. I'd be less likely to trade that guy. Also,
because I've already paid him a lot of money. I
think owners they don't get caught up like twenty thirty
forty million dollars signing bonuses mean little to nothing to anybody.
I definitely think his representative of gms you when I
first got hired in twenty ten, how he was an outlier,
(48:35):
How he was wired no different then as he is
now in terms of aggression, always trying to acquire players
we weren't even allowed to say like camp bodies. He
hated that, like you were always churning the roster. You
only wanted to bring in guys who can compete. He
was just he was much more wired like gems from
other leagues back then, and clearly that is carried over.
(48:56):
But now there are a bunch of guys like him.
Let's need John Schneider. All these gms will wheel and deal,
and I think it has to do with kind of
a youth movement where fifteen twenty years ago a lot
of GMS probably got into football. Seventies in the eighties
is where they learned it was much more of a
conservative sport in the sense of like trades weren't just
(49:19):
consistently has made as much because I also think the
financial ramifications of them, and now people value draft picks more.
I think there's a lot of factors, and I think
they're all playing into part, but I think number one
first and foremost is the explosion of money in the league,
and right behind that is the GM's willingness to just
(49:41):
always do trades because for them to pull off a trade,
the owner has to agree. So even I'm sure Howie whoever,
any GM throughout the league has had trades they wanted
to make or been interested in that maybe their owner
was uncomfortable with, which is great for the sport because
forever football, the other you know, baseball and basketball had
(50:05):
all the trades. Football didn't have. That mean, they had
free agent signings, but they didn't have all these stars
getting traded. It just it was very rare. A big
trade was like you know, Brett Favre was traded right
after his rookie year, Matt Schab, Matt hasselback guys like
(50:26):
that kind of get trade, you know, backups that you
think could be starters. Alex Smith got traded. Now, it's
like you convinced me most guys in the NFL could
be traded. It actually crossed my mind to day, if
the Bengals have a disastrous season, could the Rams do
some sort of package where it's like, let's say they
(50:49):
don't sign Pooka Nakua. We traded Puka n Akua in
like three years of drafts for Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase.
When I was sitting there with Colin going on some rant,
it kind of came over my head. I was like,
it's my worst nightmare. But I definitely think they would.
If you told me if the Rams wanted Burrow, I
(51:11):
feel like they'd also try to acquire Jamar Chase. All
of a sudden, it's like the Rams have traded seventy
five draft picks multiple drafts, like the entire twenty twenty
seven draft, the entire twenty twenty eight draft. Then I
know after this year, right they gave Jared Verse, they
give a first round of this upcoming year and then
(51:31):
the following year, so they'd have to I don't know
exactly how it would work, but you wouldn't put it
past them. Been listening to you for over a decade
now for the mailbag, you mentioned something or something or
someone needs to fix college football. The porter's the I
can't even talk. The portal seems like an easy fix,
(51:53):
but it's probably too far gone at this point. What
are your thoughts on creating stricter scheduling rules for games.
If we're going to split up the P four and
G six conferences, let's just draw a firm lind P
four teams can only schedule one G six FCS team
a year. They must pay a certain money amount to them,
(52:16):
say two and a half million dollars, and that's their
one cupcake game. Then conferences do like the NFL does
and make competitively balanced conference schedules to create more parody.
This way, schools like Texas Tech aren't skipping out on
other top Big twelve schools, Perdue can play lower level
Big ten schools, et cetera. I personally think if we
(52:38):
get to the point where the power for they should
be mandated to play each other. So everyone plays the
same amount of conference games, and then your non conference
are rotating. If I'm a Big ten team, I play
the SEC, the ACC and the the Big twelve, and
(53:03):
maybe we do some sort of rotation of strength of schedule,
or there's just some lottery drawing for like a five
year stretch that's totally random, however you want to do it, right.
I I don't love looking and seeing Texas play Texas State,
seeing even USC play San Jose a State, Like I
(53:23):
think there should be different tiers in the NFL. Doesn't
play the UFL. Right, If you're USC, you shouldn't be
playing like Mountain West teams. You should be playing You
don't have to play Alabama? But could you play like Vanderbilt?
I guess Eric's a pretty good Could you play Kansas?
Could you just play other Power four teams unless you
(53:47):
mandate them doing that, they won't do that. So I
don't have an easy fix, and there's no mandate coming
at least in the next couple of years. But that
to me is the number one fix because you look
at Week one the college Football's back, and you look
at the matchups, you're like, this is disgusting. Thank God
(54:08):
for Clemson play LSU. Thank god for Old Miss playing Louisville.
There is a lot of just teams. It's an embarrassment.
It truly is mail bag. Are the Browns going forward
with this mediocre quarterback, whether it's Watson or Sanders to
(54:31):
plan for next year's draft? Do you think they decided
on Munkin as the coach because of his experience in
college to help the quarterback evaluation process. This reminds me
of the Browns sixteen and seventeen when they literally put
the worst players on the field to accumulate higher draft picks.
Those teams were horrendous, didn't they did? They go on sixteen?
I can't even remember now, you know, Hugh Jackson did
(54:52):
not win many games. It was bad that. I mean
twenty sixteen seventeen Cleveland Browns football feels like fifty years ago.
I mean, seriously, that feels like a long time ago.
I remember it was really really ugly, Freddy Kitchens fun times.
I just don't think they have another choice, you know.
(55:15):
I mean they drafted shador a year ago, who was
a fifth round pick, but he's really more like, you know,
a top one hundred pick. He's really more like someone
you'd get in the second or the third round. And
they're paying to Sean Watson fifty million dollars. So their
team actually is not that bad like them in the Jets,
probably not gonna win that many games, but both of
(55:36):
them have a ton of players that every team that's
in the playoffs would line up to acquire. So I
just think they're just kind of in this weird spot
quarterback wise. And I think Monkny it was a tough job,
you know. I think a lot of people yank their
name out of the hat. They had a weird process
in terms of some of the cognitive testing they were given. Guys.
(55:57):
I think it made people uncomfortable, like what are we
doing here? And I think Munkin didn't care, like this
was his only shot at becoming a head coach. He
didn't give a shit. No different Jim Schwartz like he
felt this was like his only shot to become the
head coach. He thought he could become the head coach.
And that kind of felt like their final group, those
two guys. Do you think Vitavea will get traded or
(56:20):
do you think Tampa will sign him to a new
contract if they do trade him? Would Seattle be a
potential landing spot since they are projected to have the
most draft picks in twenty seven and Schneider loves mid
season trades. Well, I think they're looking at it like this.
If Vitavea were to become a free agent, I think
he would get multiple years at you know, free agent market.
(56:43):
Let's say you get two years, three years, sixty seventy
million dollars. So they would in return get a third
round comp pick. So they know vita Vea on the
open market gets them a third round pick. Well, you'd
rather just have Vitavea for the year, let him walk
and then get the comp pick. So if I'm going
to trade him, I probably need like a second and
(57:06):
a fourth. Perfect world, probably like a second and a third.
You're not gonna get a first round pick. I don't
think for a thirty two year old guy that needs
a new contract. Right, you just gave the tenth pick
for Dexter Lawrence, who's several years younger, and you just
had to give one year on an extension who's already
under contract. So I think it all factors in. I
(57:29):
think in a perfect world, Jason light would just keep
it and play it out and have him played on
the seventeen million dollars and probably that'll walk at the
end of the season. But if it's clear, like someone
makes an offer that's this is better than the comp
pick we're gonna get, I think they would entertain it.
So I don't think anyone's desperate here on August fourth.
(57:51):
I could definitely see him getting traded in season, because
even if he holds in the entire training camp, he
may million dollars a game. So he's gotta hold out
a million dollars a game. No one would hold out
at that clip. Never been done, never will get done.
Uh would be curious your thoughts on this topic periodically.
(58:15):
Quote could the best team beat the worst NFL team?
Comes up. For my entire adult life, I have rolled
my eyes and said, no chance. Half of the college
starters won't get drafted, half of them won't start in
the NFL. The other team is twenty two starters. However,
in our new data driven world, I decided to nerd
out a little bit. I looked at the two time
(58:38):
national champion LSU Tigers of twenty nineteen. They won two
is the national champion LSU Tigers twenty nineteen versus the
two and four Cincinnati Bengals seven years earlier. I looked
at draft position years in a league, number of stars,
Pro Bowls, in all pros. Based on the data, it
might be closer than I initially thought. The Bengals would
(59:01):
obviously have the edge and physical maturity and experience, but
the Tigers have them in star power. Could Dre Fitzpatrick
shut down Jefferson or Chase How would the Tigers align
be able to deal with Carlos Dunlap and Geno Atkins?
Interesting to ponder. What would you say? I think, like
(59:21):
Geno Atkins and Carlos Dunlop against the college offensive line
would be a major major brown that they would have
a lot of pressure on Joe Burrow. Now, like those
two guys specifically, I think the Bengals would struggle to neutralize.
You know, it's been proven. I mean, those guys are
two of the most talented players I've seen in my
(59:42):
adult life. It's pretty great. I mean, the quarterback duo
with those two guys, no wonder they'd beat the shit
out of everybody. I don't know who the best college
team is of the last twenty five thirty years. I
do think there would be specific teams that could get
whoever the worst NFL team is of all time, whoever
(01:00:03):
the worst NFL team is of all time. You would
also want to play them like ten games into the
season because some of their geno Atkins Carlos Dunlap might
not be playing it, might be injured, might be out
of lineup, so they would have they were already bad
to begin with, and then the attrition of a year.
By the time you got to December, you would have
fringe NFL players all over the roster. So like week
(01:00:27):
one version, it would be very difficult. And there's also
like the version of Jamar Chase and Justin Jefferson at
twenty years old, physically is a different animal at twenty
six twenty seven years old. So there is just a
natural like physicality to a human being that changes as
(01:00:48):
you're in the NFL, even if they still kind of
look like the same in the face or whatever, they're
dramatically younger. It would be difficult, but there have been
some awful NFL teams. If NFL players are allowed in
the Olympics for flag football, what current NFL player would
be the ultimate flag football cheat code? I just saw
(01:01:10):
highlights that day that they did the flag football and
we got killed. It clearly is not an apples to
apples comparison. You can't just show up and dominate these
guys who like understand the game, which is dramatically different
than tackle football. So I'm no longer as comfortable as
(01:01:31):
just like oh, Tyreek Hill in his prime, Barry Sanders
in his prime. Like in theory, those guys would run
circles around everybody. But maybe it doesn't just work like that.
So I'll be the first to admit, like, I'm not
as confident that this is as easy as I thought.
(01:01:53):
You missed the key part in answering my question yesterday,
who will be the next quarterback to receive a contract
that their team regrets? Rats and he had brought up
c J. Stroud, Jalen Hurts, Baker Mayfield. I don't think CJ. Stroud.
I think he's a year away from even entertaining a
contract extension, and that would be a year where he'd
have to play really well. I saw the Panthers contract
(01:02:15):
negotiation negotiator talked about Bryce Young. To me, he's got
two years under contract, Like, I can't give Bryce Young
a contract. I could give contracts to certain individuals if
I felt like they could be a top fifteen quarterback.
If I could sign the Donald Mayfield contract, will you
take three years, one hundred and ten million dollars at
(01:02:36):
like fifty or sixty guaranteed? Like, if you will do
those type deals, then I would do the contract basically
bijon with an extra year. But those contracts have seemed
and proven to be extremely extremely rare. So I actually
(01:02:57):
think we're in kind of an I have a theory.
I think the Tua Kyler Murray kind of era really
rattled the NFL, and I think that was basically a
trial ground for like, if you have question marks and
you are going to pay a guy a premium, you
will lose your job. It will be a devastating financial
(01:03:20):
decision for your franchise. And I do wonder look at
Kirk Cousins coming off the Achilles who got two years
ninety million dollars, everyone in Atlanta got fired. So if
you're gonna pay premiums at forty forty five with which
in a couple of years will be the equivalent of
fifty to fifty five, whether it's two years, three years,
or five years. You better be damn fucking sure. If
(01:03:42):
Daniel Jones this year does not play well and the
Colts go like seven to ten, everyone's getting fired. There.
Daniel Jones is rich, Two is rich, Kyler's rich, Kirk
Cousins is rich. Those guys have gotten a lot of
people fired, you know, they just have. Now. You could
argue like, yeah, you shouldn't have signed that contract. We
(01:04:03):
all saw it's coming, and that's that's fair. But they did.
And if those guys then had just played a little
bit better, then guys probably would have not gotten fired.
So I think we're at the point now unless you
are the upper tier of the second group. You know,
Baker's pretty fascinating. It's like, Okay, Baker, you're gonna play
(01:04:24):
this out. Let's say you have a good year. And
Jason Light's like, man, I'll give you three years, one
hundred and forty million dollars forty a year, and he's like,
I can get more from the Jets. Okay, go play
for the Jets. Godspeed, buddy, you can be richer. It's
not gonna go well, Like, you got it pretty good.
You got Jason Light, who's proven to build teams, who drafts. Well,
(01:04:48):
you may be in a little lull right now as
you kind of reset the roster, but like you got
a pretty you're in a pretty good football spot. And
I think we're kind of transitioning of like it's gonna
be the haves and the have nots. It's like what
everyone keeps telling me about AI, it'll all consolidate, there'll
be two or three, you know, operations that everyone will
go do. That's probably true. I think that's kind of quarterbacks, Like,
(01:05:11):
I don't think you just think, you know, we just
I don't think we can do better in CJ. Stroud.
Here's two hundred million dollars, Like, I don't think that's happening.
You know, Bryce Young's probably as good as we're gonna do.
Here's two hundred and twenty million dollars. Like, No, those days.
Maybe I'm being naive, but at least for the near future,
(01:05:32):
feel highly unlikely. Audios. The volume
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Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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