March 14, 2025 • 57 mins
John dives into free agency and questions if free agency in the NFL is overrated compared to the other leagues because so few big names in the NFL actually become free agents. Next, John discussed Mac Jones signing with the 49ers and how Jones signing in SF is the league coming full circle. Later, John does his latest installment of "Fugazi Friday."
Later, John answers your questions in this episode's mailbag segment.
4:52 - Is Free Agency overrated in the NFL
16:10 - Mac Jones to the 49ers
35:09 - Fugazi Friday
38:33 - Mailbag
Follow John on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for the latest. #Volume #Herd
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
What is going on? My people?
Speaker 1 (00:17):
How are we doing? I'm John this three and now podcast.
Hopefully everyone is having a good day. It's currently pouring
rain outside my office, trential downpour here in Scottsdale. We've
had update of a bunch of people from my wedding
got really sick. Some had to go to urgent care.
I guess this thing called the flu is going around.
(00:38):
I thought I got it. Oh, I did get it
a couple times.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Over the last I don't know, three four months. I
thought I had immunities.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
But I definitely have not felt great this week. At
first I thought it was a hangover, like on like Monday,
It's it was kind of a hangover come down, and
then it's just kind of gotten worse. I did not
feel very good today at all. But luckily we're not
digging interest here. We're just podcast and I was able
to put up a bunch of electrolytes into Stanley slam
them into a podcast. So we will look back on
(01:06):
free agency because it's I don't want to say it's over,
but it's definitely slowing down. Talk some quarterbacks from Sam
Darnold to Aaron Rodgers to Mac Jones and Kyle Shanahan
finally get to unite in their love of football together.
So Mac Jones is now the backup quarterback for the
(01:29):
forty nine ers. Do a couple of few Gayzy Fridays,
slash rants, system thoughts on life, and mailbag. The mailbag questions,
I need a lot of them. It's the off season.
I need you guys. Fire in those dms at John middlecoff.
If any of you over the last month have given
questions and I haven't read them, follow up or something,
(01:51):
it'll it'll kind of get you to the back of
the top where you'll show up on my inbox in
the Instagram. So make sure you do that so I
can notice, because I had so much going on in
there that a lot got lost in the shuffle. But
make sure we're gonna need them. We're gonna go heavy
on the mail bag in the offseason, So hit that
(02:13):
and hit that hard, and make sure you subscribe to
three Now podcast, make sure you subscribe to the YouTube channel.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
And other than that, let's talk some football.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
And I guess I'm just gonna ask a question. Is
free agency overrated in the NFL? Obviously, it's not in baseball?
And it's not in basketball, but is it overrated in football?
And don't get me wrong, I like you get excited.
It is fun to watch these transactions. It is been
(02:45):
something I've looked forward to as a sports fan my
entire life.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
It is cool. I enjoy this week.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I enjoy watching guys star, big names, get traded, guys
get signed, teams get really a great with cab space.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
I'm not acting like I am.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Not into this, but after you give it a couple days,
you take a deep breath and you look back and
you go, isn't this always the most overrated time of
the league year? Because first of all, the best dynasty
of my life was Belichick. He never really dabbled in this.
He always waited for the second tier guys that he
(03:26):
got it for no money, or older players who were
high level Pro Bowl guys willing to give him a discount.
He rarely, if ever, broke the bank on guys that
weren't his guys. The current dynasty, the Kansasity Chiefs, their
core guys have been three people. They drafted, Patrick Mahons,
Travis Kelce, and Chris Jones, and they won their first
(03:50):
Super Bowl with Tyreek Hill, who they also drafted and
then they flipped, and how they continued this dynasty was
basically through that draft was a huge part of it
with mc duffie and Karloska's But when you think about
like the Chiefs, who has been their huge signing over
the last five six years, an offensive lineman here or there,
(04:10):
Like they are not signing sex justin Reid, you know,
it's that they are not out there fishing in the
deep end of the pond. And I thought about last year,
and again I'm not trying to hate on any team
that signed players. Totally understand if I'm the Minnesota Vikings
or if I'm the Chicago Bears. Basically, if you take
those two teams, bad at five starting offensive linemen, right,
(04:33):
the Vikings did two and the Chicago Bears did three.
Totally understand why they would do that. If I was
in their shoes, I probably.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Would do the same.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
But like when I see Aaron Banks get eighty eight
million dollars from the Packers, like, yeah, they need a guard?
Is that a good contract? Like, I mean, I understand
people around the league go, that's kind of rich, But
look at last year, you could argue the best signing
of the year when you factor in the money was
(05:01):
Zach Bond How he gave him like one year four
million dollars his first team All Pro. He was honestly
one of the better players non quarterback in the NFL.
Obviously Saquan had the best running back season, but Derreck
Henry had the second best running back season. The Baltimore
Ravens gave him eight million dollars eight million dollars guaranteed,
(05:24):
So some of these contracts that are getting thrown around,
Milton Williams gets a huge amount of money. All my
buddies with the Eagles love the guy. I mean, he's
a stut. He had an incredible season. I don't even
think he played over fifty percent of the snaps, and
he also got to play the majority of the time
next to what many consider the best and most talented
(05:46):
young defensive lineman in the league in Jalen Carter. So
you have a guy you're giving I mean, I hate,
you know, talking about it this way. It's just easier
sometimes like twenty five to twenty six million dollars a year.
He's never even become close to a full time player
and really benefited from playing next to a superstar. And
I'm not anti the Patriots signing them, but these contracts
(06:09):
that get thrown out for these players said enormous expectations,
cause you're no longer talked about, like, let's face it,
the core of the Chiefs over the last however many
years have been guys they've drafted had developed. Same thing
with the Patriots for a long time. Same thing with
a lot of the good teams you know in the NFL.
(06:30):
When you look at the Eagles, the forty nine Ers,
the Detroit Lions. It doesn't mean you can't supplement players,
but we talk so aggressively about this time like this
is gonna change this team, this team, it's like, I
don't know, we'll see the cohesion, the chemistry that's built
over time. Like I love what the Bears did. It
(06:52):
was a no brainer doing all that, but like, offensive
line chemistry isn't just built overnight. It takes time. And
same thing with the with the Minnesota Vikings adding two
new starting offensive linemen. Now, I would say adding guards
and centers in theory should be the easiest plug and
play in all of the sport. But I just think
(07:14):
this time of year it's kind of a tried and
true way we react and we're all, including myself, guilty
of this is the way we talk about these moves
usually isn't the way.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
They actually play out.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
So is free agency overrated? I think it's fair to
say in the National Football League it is a little bit.
You know, I was watching Sam Donald give his press
conference today and it's pretty clear that that game that
he had against McDonald and Seattle that essentially knocked them
out of the playoffs, and I would say was his
defining moment as from a positive standpoint for Sam this year.
(07:52):
That game winning touchdown on the road was a huge,
huge reason that Mike felt very confident about supporting the signing,
and even he talked about it obviously having a front
row seat in that game, but it was the way
that we had game planned against him throughout the week
of essentially watching all of his snaps, and I think
sometimes you gotta be careful with that, but like that
(08:14):
held it was held in high regard when it came
to their head coach, that performance and his performance previously
because that was before the last couple of games. But
watching Sam Darnold talk and right before that, they tweeted
out like the I don't think it's called periscope anymore,
but YouTube or wherever it's streamed at on Twitter is
Seattle had put something out on Gino Smith, who clearly
(08:37):
resurrected his career in Seattle and.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Became a really solid player.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
And you start thinking about some of the players in
the NFL, like it's it's a no brainer when you
talk about the star players like Patrick Mahomes is good immediately, right,
Josh Allen after year one was sweet. Lamar Jackson was
pretty incredible from early on, right. Joe Burrow's been pretty
fucking good as long as he's been healthy. Justin Herbert
had like one of the great rookie seasons we've ever seen,
(09:01):
and he was thrown in because Tyrod Taylor got a
needle to his kidney. Most guys see a lot of crap, honestly, historically,
a lot of like great players. You I mean, Drew
Brees was basically told you're out of here for Philip Rivers.
You know, Steve Young was a backup for a long
period of time to Joe Montana, but before that was
not viewed as a good player in Tampa Bay. And
(09:25):
I think sometimes with quarterbacks you know so many other
players because you get to rotate in kind of battle
through stuff and when you're bad early on in your career,
Like most guys aren't incredible day one. Most guys aren't
just like Aaron Donald or Justin Jefferson, even great players,
they go through adversity. And that's usually and I think
most people would agree in any line of work, that's
(09:48):
how you learn. Like you usually don't learn that much
when everything's going well. Why is that because you don't
like look that much inward. You don't have that much
perspective on things because things are good and you don't
have to overthink anything, and when things are bad, you
kind of gotta like lay it on the table and
(10:08):
look yourself in the mirror. And I think Sam Darnold,
I think Gino Smith, and I think Baker Mayfield are
good examples of Like Pete Carroll just traded a third
round pick for a thirty five year old quarterback. Why
he kind of swears by the guy, and I think
he thinks that, Like Gino's a really impressive person obviously
on top of a solid player. And when you look
(10:28):
at what Baker Mayfield has done down in Tampa, how
much now I'm not even talking about how well he's played,
but how much the guys on that team like him.
I don't know if they would be where they're at
without kind of going through the Andy Dufrain sewer and
coming out on the other end. And listen, I'm done
psychoanalyzing what Aaron Rodgers, you know, or why it's taken
(10:51):
him so long when he's gonna make a decision at
this point in time, I'm assuming he's going to continue
to play like that. That is my assumption. He's either
gonna play on the Giants, were more than likely the
Pittsburgh Steelers, And I think a lot of people think
that he's waiting to announce it at McAfee's deal, which
I was like, Oh, that makes some sense. McAfee's doing
this live show in Pittsburgh, But then I google it
(11:12):
the McAfee shows not till like April ninth, Like that
would be insanity if that is true, and he announces
on April ninth, like that, that's that we've jumped the
shark on that. And I don't think he's gonna wait
that long, like I understand like doing some you know,
thinking long and hard though from a football perspective, I
think the Pittsburgh Steelers is an easy decision, assuming that
(11:35):
they want him. But you know, for the first time
in a long time, Aaron's really kind of hit the skids,
Like they were really, really terrible, and people are talking about, like,
is your career over?
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Like it's not.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
The box score doesn't look that terrible, but when you
watch you play, you're a shell of yourself and you're
kind of done. And that might be true, but like
that Humble all these other guys, everyone talks shit about
Sam Donald, Everyone talks shit about Baker Mayfield. People thought
Geno Smith was like a joke, and look at them
(12:11):
now they're all making thirty forty million dollars and Baker
Mayfield second the league in touchdowns. Sam Donald just had
a team in the playoffs, you know, Geno Smith, I
think three straight years ninety nine to ten wins in Seattle.
Once they kicked Russell Wilson to the curb. Like we've
seen Russell Wilson. No matter what happens, Negative is the
(12:31):
same guy, same cheesy, optimistic bs like Russell's time to pivot.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Bro this ain't working.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
And I think Rogers in a weird way is a
little more real, but also like he's been so used
to held to such high esteem by every human being,
one of the greatest ever. You're so good, you're gonna
carry the team, hell, even the Jets. You're gonna you're
gonna save our franchise. And it's like, not only are
you not gonna save our franchise, you're gonna be in ambarrassment.
(13:01):
And if he does come back to play, I do
wonder if there's a little like self reflection and a
little humility to like make you a better player, a
better teammate, because it clearly works for these other guys.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Now.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
It's usually harder on the other end, when you've been
a superstar to change, you know the old sayings like
you don't teach an old dog new tricks. And at
this point in time, Aaron Rodgers made I don't know,
four hundred million dollars MVPs. Maybe he just is what
he is, and I listen, I'm not saying that he's
going to change, but like smart guy like that, there's
(13:35):
no chance that maybe it's like little humility moving forward,
time will tell Mac Jones forty nine ers kind of
a full circle moment, because like most people. It was
highly publicized and highly reported on that for a long
period of time. It was like Kyle Shanahan's going to
take Mac Jones with the number three overall pick, which
(13:57):
I said at the time would have been the most
insane draft pick in the his of the NFL. And
I think we're kind of pivoting off this time of
I don't care what you do for a living, like
the best of the best, Like the price of admission
is working hard, getting up early, working late, you know,
putting in a lot of effort, going above and beyond,
(14:19):
like all the basic high level stuff. Like that's the
price of admission in any competitive business with a lot
of money on theline. Like what really separates the high end?
Like some people are just more talented than others, period,
point blank, end of story. Some people are just better
at what they do than their peers, whether it's the
(14:39):
top sales guy, whether it's the top quarterback, whether it's
the top dude on Wall Street. And that's what like
I love about pro sports is watching the talent separate.
And when you play starting quarterback in the NFL, like
it's pretty clear of all the top guys in the league,
Like the top five or six, their talent is immense Holmes,
(15:00):
Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson. I would say Joe Burrow has
the least amount of attributes, but he's just so instinctive
and so good in terms of not the greatest athlete,
not the biggest arm but he's clearly just an elite
player and his instincts are unreal. Matt Stafford is long
in the tooth now, but like just an all time
great talent, like was drafted number one overall for a reason,
(15:22):
and then it started this crew of guys like Mac
Jones right, who just doesn't have great physical skills. So
even if they maximize everything and they're drafted in the
perfect situation, their upside is always going to be limited.
It's the conversation right now with Shador Sanders.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
So many of these.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Conversations are so stupid. Around Shador Sanders. The main question
people have is like is does he have the elite
skill set to be an a top ten player?
Speaker 2 (15:54):
And that's highly up for debate.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
In NFL teams where people go doesn't mean you're gonna
be a good or a bad player? Do you have
the physical characteristics like cam Ward cam Warred could be
the worst quarterback in the NFL, or he could be
the sixth best quarterback.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
In the NFL.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
But he does have high end traits. Guys like Mac
Jones and Kenny Pickett do not. And historically those type
players got drafted between like the third and the sixth round.
And then there we went through this time where guys
like mac Jones were even talked about in discussed going
number three overall. He ends up going fifteenth. Kenny Pickett
(16:30):
goes twentieth. Those are two of the most insane draft
picks of my lifetime. Now you could go look at
a guy like Brock Purdy, who also doesn't have a
great set of physical gifts.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
He probably got pushed.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Down because of these other failures with being the last
pick in the draft, he probably should have gone in
like the fifth round. But again, like these should be
low risk selections because for them to hit, everything has
to go perfect, and when things get derailed, they have limitations.
So when I see this conversation of like could mac
(17:05):
Jones be leveraged for brock Purty, they're two separate conversations.
Mac Jones isn't remotely as good as Brock Purty. It's
not even close, because back to the Joe Burrow thing,
there's an instinctive nature to playing quarterback that brock asps
that Mac simply does not. Not as good an athlete,
hell not as even as good of an arm And
(17:26):
I think when you look at Kyle Shanahan, he has
always kind of been obsessed and it's why the Trey
Lance thing looking back made no sense. I think he
was kind of desperate and he was kind of hoping
to like hit his Josh Allen clearly blew up in
his face, and he's pivoted back, you know, kind of
to the lane he's the most comfortable in. And that's
taking guys like this, but ideally taking guys like this, you.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Don't have to pick very high, right, So I do
think it's just kind of fascinating.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Guy like Mac Jones should be a ten year backup,
can't he Pickett? I don't know if it will be
a ten year backup, but should be. I think Mac
Jones a better player and Canny Pickett, but should be
a backup in the NFL for several years, five six years,
like starting now, so we'll have an eight, nine, ten
year career and I hopefully as we pivot away from
this like overdrafting quarterbacks who lack the physical attributes, you
(18:19):
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Speaker 1 (20:09):
Okay, fugazy Friday. I got a couple of things.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
One.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
I don't know how many of you guys, depending on
where you live. You know, we all have different airline hubs.
You know, for us in the West coast, Southwest is
a really big deal. Some of you could be Delta,
some of you could be United, some of it could
be American Airlines. For a large portion of my life,
I've flown Southwest because when I've lived on the West Coast,
(20:36):
you kind of stick to going to southern California, going
to Vegas, coming to Arizona. Maybe you know Pacific Northwest
like Seattle and Southwest had the cheapest flights. They also
had the ability to get two free backs, so it
was like a bargain airline, which was just highly efficient.
Like most people I knew that flew Southwest like never complained.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
It was easy, it was cheap. Those days are long gone.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
And I said this, I think when I was looking
at flights, maybe what was that to the super Bowl
or might have been home during Christmas? I remember looking
at like American Airlines first class flight wasn't that much
more than just flying Southwest home. So the prices are
no longer even competitive in terms of like it's not
even that cheap. Now they have officially announced there's no
(21:24):
longer random seating, so they're just gonna be like every
other airline. You buy a specific seat and there are
no free backs, So their greatest advantage is now gone.
Southwest is gonna be this airline that used to be
like could hang his hat on like best best.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Deal at the airport.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
So now it's like it might be the worst deal
at the airport. So I'm fascinated to watch what Southwest,
what happens there. I'd also and I talked about this
last week drinking on the plane. I do think, like, again,
I don't fly. I've flown more times on American airlines
in the last six months than I probably haven't my life.
(22:01):
I wouldn't say splurge because one I had some I
had some like vouchers or you know whatever, flyer miles
that basically the flight was turned out to be a
couple hundred bucks. But like, I think their first class
and I've flown first class like less than five times
in my life, pretty overrated experience. And I was talking
to someone obviously there are certain airlines, you know, Delta, United,
(22:25):
depending on the flight, are way better experience. But domestic
first class can be a little overrated because it's like,
what am I really getting? Like, if you can fly
for half as much in the business section, you get
the same amount of leg room, maybe you don't get
a meal, but it's like, I don't want to fucking
eat this meal anyway. It's like, uh, you know, microwaved enchiladas. Again,
(22:50):
I'm just speaking for American I thought it was we
took it on our way to our wedding and then
we flew southwest home. It wasn't that big a difference,
to be honest with you. The other thing was, this
is just a couple quick rants. It is funny how
some people, and it's hard for me to put myself
in their shoes, are just really terrified of public speaking.
(23:13):
And obviously there's a different level of public speaking getting
up and speaking at a wedding than like getting up
and speaking in front of ten thousand people.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
I'm not acting like that would be easy.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
But I remember speaking at just different weddings, but specifically
my brothers, and not even really thinking twice about it.
He just got up, told some jokes and said some
things that probably made some people uncomfortable, but also lighting
up the room, and I didn't even think twice about it.
And then at my wedding, my brother was going to
give a speech, and I was expecting him to just
you know, talk a little shit, say a couple of zingers,
(23:44):
and just get a couple of laughs. Turns out I'm
watching him at like the cocktail hour after we get
done taking pictures. He's like pacing, like is Jeff okay?
And it's like, yeah, he's really nervous. I'm like nervous
for what They're like the speech. I'm like, the speech,
just say a couple of lines of me doing dumb
stuff and say you love me and move on. And
(24:07):
then we eat dinner and I have to go, like
I have to go to the bathroom. So I leave
to go to the bathroom, and speeches are probably in
like ten minutes, and I come back in and I
look and I see one piece of like steak, and
no one else has any food on their table and
there's just one piece of steak. I'm like, has everyone eaten?
(24:28):
Has a food come out?
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Ye?
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Because I'd already eaten probably ten minutes before. They're like, yeah,
everyone's eating. They've already taken the food away. I'm like,
whose steak is that? They're like, that's Jeff's your brother.
It's like he can't eat.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
I'm like why.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
I'm like, he's terrified. And then he gives you know,
like a probably a twenty second speech, and I just realized, like,
and even he told me, some people are just very
very uncomfortable doing that, and I think we take for granted,
like someone like myself, who I just it's not only
not saying that I don't get anxiety about certain things
in life, like I don't love, you know, looking at
(25:00):
my portfolio the last couple of weeks, that gets my
ticker moving. But I just thought that it's not even
a thing. And I actually thought he, you know, he'd
be good. And it turns out and I almost had him,
you know, run the part of the wedding. What's it
called the uh not the or I can't even think
(25:20):
of the word, you know, like the actors, like the priest,
and he clearly wanted no part of it. Now, looking back,
I'm glad. I'm glad I had guy do it. And uh, last,
but not least, I also wanted to get married after
you hit a certain age. I was like, I'm gonna
get married at the I'm just gonna get married at
(25:43):
the courthouse, Like I don't need a wedding, you know,
I'm thirty five, thirty six, thirty seven years old. Whenever
I get married, I'm gonna get married at the courthouse,
easy in and out. And I was a huge believer
in that, and I was adamant, like that's what I'm
gonna do. If we had whatever money we'd put toward
the wedding, like put it towards something else, put in
(26:03):
the stock market, put it by a second home. I
don't know, it was to do something else with it.
And then Maria was Adam like I having a wedding.
And I remember years ago I was at some function
and I was talking to this guy whose wife was
a wedding planner in him just telling me because I
remember telling him this, He's like, I think it would
(26:23):
be a mistake. It'd be something you remember, whether it's
big or small, but like you should have a wedding
with your family and at least your closest friends. And
I remember when we went into the courthouse to get
the uh you got to get the paper to like
get signed to be officially married, and thinking I'm really
(26:47):
glad that I didn't just do this. Luckily, in my life,
I've haven't gotten trouble. Like I started thinking, like, when's
the last time I've been to the courthouse beside like
a field trip when I was like twelve, I don't
think I've ever been to the courthouse. So my thought
of the courthouse is more much more based on like
television or something you would see on television, and then
(27:07):
you go in You're like, this would have been an
awful decision. And looking back on getting married last week
and we didn't have a big wedding. It was like
sixty people and a lot of you know, family, really
really close friends, and I was kind of it like
it was it was really small, and I'm really glad
that we did that. And I was I wouldn't say
(27:29):
talked in because I was into it pretty early, like
I was cool with it, but like I changed my
tune pretty hard, Like it was a hard pivot because
I swear like I was sett in stone I'm getting
married at the courthouse.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Then you go to the courthouse and you're like people are.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Getting dragged in here for Dewey's and you know, getting
in trouble and you got this going on here. It's
like you got metal detectors here. It's like, yeah, I
don't know if that's the greatest vibe. So any recommendation
to young people that ever have that in their mind,
even if you just get get married with you know,
your parents, her parents and like some brothers and scissors
(28:04):
or something, I would recommend doing something where you can
look back and at least have your family to just
enjoy a nice dinner or something, because it is it
is a pretty cool night. The officiant. The officiant is
the name I was looking for. Okay, let's do a
(28:33):
little mailbag at John middlecoff firing those dms. I need
more questions because a lot of them got lost in
the shuffle because of I talked about this yesterday, but
I got so many dms about the wedding that it's
just made my inbox insane. So if you asked a
question and I haven't even come close to answering it
(28:55):
over the last week, like, either re ask it or
you know, throw another comments and it'll kind of come
back up near the top. So I would recommend that
if you want to get questions, because it's the off
season and obviously I'm gonna need you guys. You guys
are part of the team. Here a question for the bag.
(29:16):
What do you make of the Chargers off season. I
know we will be primarily building through the draft, re
signing our studs, Mac and hopefully Slater. Well, you guys,
resign Mac maybe you meant that and look to avoid
overpaying free agents. But looking at our cap space, we
have as much as any team in the league and
didn't make any many signings. I wasn't looking at overpaying
(29:39):
any stars, but thought we could build up our depth
and retain starters like Puna Ford and JK.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Dobbins.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
Wanted your take on Harbaugh's second off season as he
builds the team in his image. Many are critical of
our off season, but I've see this.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Is we talked about this earlier.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
You have to pay such a premium to get any
of these players. So let's say you're the Chargers and
you got some space. I don't have your cap space
in front of me, but more than enough space to
sign a couple sweet guys. It's like, Okay, you're just
gonna sign like Josh Sweat, the dude who went to
the Cardinals for like ninety million and a ton of guaranteed.
Are you gonna sign Milton Williams for twenty five twenty six?
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Like I.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
You're already a playoff team. Signing a big contract like
that limit your flexibility. An underrated part about cap space
is you can roll it over.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
So if you're a good team.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
And you don't feel comfortable overpaying, because that's what you
have to do, the last week, you overpay, which if
the guy solid for you, okay, but like you're looking
for now difference makers. So when you give Khalil Mack
eighteen million dollars again, it's been a long week, a
little fuzzy, but I remember seeing the Chargers resign Khalil
Mack eighteen million dollars.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
You feel really good about that, even if it's a
little overpay. You go, he's our type guy. Jim likes him.
He fits our culture.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
When you signed these outside guys, you know, it's kind
of risky. So I got no problem not playing in
the deep end. This notion too, that they were gonna
sign like they're not gonna give t Higgs one hundred
million dollars, they were never gonna trade for DK Metcalf, Like,
that's not how Harbaugh does business.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
I think I have full faith.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
It's gonna be pretty good. I did question a little
bit Naji Harris, who actually I think the last couple
of years has looked the best of his NFL career.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
They gave him ten million dollars.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Again, I'm not Mike Florio here breaking down the contract,
so I just kind of take it on face value
till I read otherwise. But he's making decent money. Jim Harbaugh.
When I lived in the Bay Area, Naji Harris was
the biggest star in the Bay Area. He went to
Antioch High School and he was being recruited by Alabama. Well,
Jim Harbaugh was trying to sign him as well, and
(31:56):
used to recruit the hell out of him at Michigan.
So like that one of those that Jim's liked since
he was in high school, and now he finally got him.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Guys in the wedding.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Funny enough, my dad was also in Nashville this past weekend.
I have a question for the mailbag. Why do you
think it's a bad idea for the Browns to extend
Miles Garrett. I don't believe that they are that far
away from contending. They won eleven games and made the
playoffs in twenty three with a heavily injured roster. I
think all they need is competent quarterback play and they'll
(32:28):
be right back in the playoffs. Well, I didn't like,
trust me, I would want Miles Garrett on my team,
and I didn't just come up with the idea like
let's trade him. He came out and said trade me.
If Miles Garrett had said like I want to be
a Brown, I would have done exactly what they did. Pam, like,
you're in the business up keeping. Well, once he goes,
(32:49):
I want out, and you go, we got this Deshaun
Watson disaster.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
We got the number two overall. Pick.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
I just thought it would have been a time to
kind of blow it up and not even blow it up,
like you said, you still got good players. You just
kind of get a bunch of first round pack. It's
like a transitional period. And they obviously throw a bunch
of money at him, which I respect, Like they they
kind of went old school. He's like, I want to trade,
and I don't think he was just bullshitting, Like I
think he was pretty adamant. He was going on the shows.
(33:16):
He was doing it, and they're like, we're gonna offer
you so much money. Good luck saying no. And I'll
say this about Jimmy HASLM. They pay, they pay a
lot of cash. And this is what I said about
like if Shador had gone into that interview, like you'd
want like you get really really rich with that team,
like really rich. I mean he pays more than any
(33:39):
team in the league. When will NFL gms wake up?
NFL quarterback is the only position in pro sports, and
really the only job in the economy where they pay
mediocre person the same as the best person in their field.
An average quarterback should not be paid what Mahomes makes
because quote, he's the next up. That's what the market is.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
No, it isn't. They're over paying.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
I've never understood that, And I understand the revenue sharing
the way the business partnership works, because that's well, the
NFL owns, you know, the owners own the teams. They're
still in a partnership with the players, and you got
to pay like that. There is a fifty to fifty
or forty eight fifty two or whatever the exact percentage.
(34:27):
There's a there's a revenue split. It's essentially fifty to fifty.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
And you got to pay the players.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
So I think they look at it, we got to
pay somebody. But to me, if you want to win
and you're giving a quarterback who you know is probably
not a top ten quarterback one hundred and fifty two
hundred million dollars, I just think you're an idiot. And
it's like, well, just what else am I going to do?
I don't know, there's got to be figured out other options.
See what else is out there? Play out the contract.
(34:55):
That that's always my symbol. Play out the contract. It's
like brock Party wants to undred million dollars, which if
his agent called and said that, I wouldn't blame him.
That's what Trevor Lawrence Gott if I was the Niners,
would be like, here's one hundred and twenty five. Like, well,
that's not what the market is. Well, then fine, we'll
play out next year. You play again on next year
on one point five million dollars. We'll give you one
(35:16):
hundred and twenty five million dollars guaranteed right now. I
know you want two hundred, but we'll give you one
twenty five. Or we can play next year for one
point five million dollars. You want to do that, because
if you do, that's like that what we'll do. I
think some of these teams have lost the logic of
having some of this leverage, and I think a lot
of times people don't want to deal with the holdouts
and stuff, which I get.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
But it's insane.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Like if Josh Allen makes two hundred and fifty million dollars,
what's to a fifty million dollar guarantee is Josh Allen
five times better than to a Tonga Bai looa. I'm
not trying to hate on Tua.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
I respect the guy. He's proven he's.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Like a solid player. But Josh is in a different universe.
Lamar is in a different universe. So it's like, well,
we got to pay him what eighty percent?
Speaker 2 (36:05):
What?
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Like you said, the sales guy who brings in ten
million dollars does not make the same as the sales
guy that's bringing in four hundred thousand dollars. That guy
makes way more money. Shouldn't quarterbacks be compensated on that
as well? Like this guy's way better by every single metric.
But it's just I don't know, it's just not the
(36:26):
way it works. Welcome back, Mason Rudolph. I guess could
you explain to me what the Steelers are doing? Two
high drama wide receivers and a backup quarterback. Well, I
just think the Rogers thing feels inevitable. And however he's
approaching this, he's not in a huge rush. So I
(36:49):
would imagine Aaron Rodgers starting quarterback, Rudolph's your backup, and
maybe you trade up for like Shador that that would
be my educated guess. As we sit here Thursday, March thirteen,
in a league obsessed with numbers, metrics, and analytics, how
does the observations about a player, quote unquote losing a
(37:09):
step stand up. I understand when a player time to
the combine when they're twenty one or so. Surely will
lose a step when they're thirty three. I see from
time to time, and rarely where they are able to
track the speed of a player using the chip. Still
there really is no continuing commentary on player speed from
year to year. I'm guessing there is no time forty
(37:32):
during the season. So other than a subjective evaluation by
a commenter based only on a player getting a year
or two older, say twenty eight to thirty, the commenting
that he has lost a step is something to be
taken with a grain of salt. Totally agree. I mean,
they're not when he's lost a step. They're not like
quantifying it with a numeric value, Like if one time
(37:55):
the guy was a nine, now he's a seven and
a half.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
This isn't you know Madden, where his's.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
His speed rating, his energy in a game has.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
Gone down by half.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
But I think coaches when you're evaluating a player, you know,
like Andy Reid can watch a guy and go, this
guy's not as good as he was three years ago
on my own team or on a team I compete against,
because I have a base of knowledge of watching him.
If he's on your own team for several years, let's
just pick. I don't know, I'm trying to think. I'm
(38:30):
trying to think of a good example. It have to
be an older player. Let's use Kyle ust Check. Let's
say the forty nine ers think he's lost a step,
and Ustcheck thinks he has not lost a step. Well,
Kyle for nine years.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Or eight I guess eight. I keep saying nine is
eight years.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Has evaluated every snap of Kyle ust Check's career, so
he can watch him and he can base it on
and he can just pull up film see what he
looked like in twenty twenty or twenty one. Again, that's
a bat it it's kind of a niche player as
a fullback, but like tackles guards. I remember when I
was with the Eagles and we signed Ronnie Brown. I
(39:10):
remember the first snap or first couple snaps of like
OTAs it looked like he was running in concrete, Like,
why does this guy look so slow? And turns out
his lagser is shot. That's the other thing with football,
you know, it's such a you know, running back at
wide receiver, at corner, at linebacker. Foot speed is a
pretty big deal. Like you can get away with a
(39:30):
little bit of guard or center or even defensive tackle
as long as you still have a little burst. But
like if you're a running back and you lose a step,
like that's a problem. Huge Ohio State fan, do you
think Ryan Day would ever make a good NFL coach?
He has a good track record putting quarterbacks in the
first round and is a good offensive play caller. He
(39:52):
does have flaws, but notably tightening up in big games occasionally.
But isn't the NFL always looking for offensive gurus and
quarterback development coaches? Well, I got to remove my bias
as a well known Ohio State hater. He doesn't call
the plays though, and he hasn't called the plays. When's
the last time Ryan Day called the plays? It feels
(40:12):
like it's been a couple of years.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
Could be wrong.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
Obviously didn't call him this year in their national championship year.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Maybe call Did he call him? Two years ago. Did
he take it away from what's his name?
Speaker 1 (40:22):
The who's your wide receiver coach that makes a bunch
of money, that's not the offensive coordinator.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Uh, Listen.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
People I know that know him personally, that worked with
him in the NFL with the Niners and the Eagles
like him a lot.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
He's very well thought of.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
I I just sometimes everyone's hanging the left.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
I gotta hang it right.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
I've never had a negative interaction with a guy. People
like him, you know, clearly pretty impressive guy that's not
an easy job, handled it pretty well. We nitpick him
some of this big game losses. I do think it's
hard to be a tough guy because Michigan is just
out tough to him when you're just not as tough
as certain opponents. So when you lean into that, like
(41:04):
you're not gonna get in the ring and go blow
for blow with Mike Tyson or a Vander Holyfield, You're
gonna have to fight them differently. And maybe he learned
that and it kind of made him pivot once he
hit the playoffs, and then he just kind of I mean,
it's one of the great playoff runs in recent memory.
Blew out Tennessee, blew out Oregon who they play then Texas?
(41:27):
Why don't I don't even remember that game against Texas.
I wouldn't say blew him out, but it was in
control of that game and obviously notre name was up big.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
He's good, There's no disputing it. He's good.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
Congrats on the nuptials. Totally agree in the silicon rings
rubber silicon same thing. My question is this, The draft
by most sources is loaded at defensive line. Is there
a edge rusher you like that would be the difference
maker available at the end of the first to pair
with Aiden Hutchinson, who helped the Lions' biggest weakness. I
(42:04):
got to dive a little deeper into the draft. I'd
be lying if I like, have a great feel for
late first early second round players. You know the guys
I focused on is I would say the defensive tackle
from Michigan, the obviously Abdul Carter from Penn State. I
(42:24):
do think the guy from Stewart from Texas A and
M that tested like a freak, but only as four
and a half career sacks. I would just base on
his testing and just the way he looks. There's no
chance he would be there, Like ideally, guys like that should.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
Be in the twenties.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
It's like, you know, wasn't a very productive player, tested
like a freak. But I also think you need to
be careful of those, like when the Packers took the
dude from Iowa who tested like a freak but never started,
and then it's like he's a bust. Yeah, I mean,
I think you could go detackle or defensive end. You
just need to get someone who can and a trade
with Hutchinson because if you get another high end pass
(43:03):
rusher with that guy, holy shit. So I don't think
it necessarily has to be you said defensive line, Yeah,
tackle or end. I think there's just a lot of them.
I mean, I think a lot of people think, like,
of the top thirty players, probably like eleven or twelve
defensive lineman. So if you just do the math, there
are gonna be some wide receivers, running backs, and offensive linemen,
and clearly a couple quarterbacks.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
They're gonna come off the board.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
So there is gonna be, you know, some high end
defensive lineman at the end of the first round, which
can be pretty rare. And then if you do draft
a defensive lineman. You just need him, and you need
the corner you took last year from Bama. If those
guys over the next couple of years can be kind
of cornerstone players with Aiden. All of a sudden, your
(43:46):
defense with Jack Campbell, Aiden Hutchinson, Terry On, Arnold Branch,
who's like the safety nickel from Bama, who's sweet, who's
really good? All of a sudden, your defense looks a
little like your offense. Like you guys are good at
every position, or got impact guys at every position every time?
This year, I can't help but reminisce and marvel at
(44:07):
the fact that Jason Peters was a tight end in
college and not only became one of the best offensive
tackles of all time, but was undrafted. I was curious,
since you were a former scout, did you or do
you know if scouts always have their eye on potential
prospects like that, not necessarily tight end or offensive tackle
every time, but an athletic offensive guard that could can
(44:28):
be a fullback. I think in every draft there are
guys who you know can do position flexibility. When I
first got out of scouting and started doing radio, the
forty nine ers drafted Bruce Miller, who was a defensive
lineman I think at South Florida or Central Florida, and
(44:48):
they turned into full back and he was a good fullback.
You know, the Chargers have a defensive lineman that plays fullback,
so like that position is somewhat possible. We'd also, and
I know buddies that still do, look at college basketball
kind of that tight end position. Could the guy be
a defensive lineman, could the guy be an offensive tackle,
or could the guy be a tight end? But those
(45:10):
I do think those situations are kind of outliers. You know,
I don't know about Jason Peter's college experience. He went
to Arkansas, but he clearly I mean, by the time
I was around Jason Peters, he weighed three hundred and
forty pounds, so obviously he didn't weigh that in college.
But even if he weigh two hundred and seventy pounds
in college, there used to be tight ends that weigh
(45:30):
two hundred and sixt two hundred seventy, two hundred eighty pounds.
What was the dude, if you're my age or older,
you know Tony Gonzales in Kansas City, they had a
second tight end. His last name was Done. He was
basically like a third tackle because Tony wasn't that big
of a blocker, so you kind of had to have
your second tight end be a blocking tight end. And
(45:50):
I think that, yeah, I mean I I think when
you look at a player, sometimes there's a wide receiver
in college, and I'm sure there's a guy like this
every year or two where you go, you know, he's
kind of big and he's not fast enough to play outside.
Couldn't he just be like a hybrid slot?
Speaker 2 (46:10):
Could he get big enough to play tight end?
Speaker 1 (46:12):
And it happens sometimes and every once in a while,
what was the guy's turope pryor became a wide receiver.
You know what's funny is we do it in college
all the time. Like a guy comes out of high school.
He's like I'm playing quarterback and I play safety. That
all of a sudden, by like year two, he's playing
running back, or he's playing wide receiver or he's playing corner.
(46:33):
It's like, you just do whatever you have to do
to start for Alabama or Texas or whatever. But when
you come to the pros, no one ever wants changed positions.
It's like, what if you change positions, you become a
ten year pro, and you make millions of dollars for
the bag. I know you're not a big fan of them,
but I have a hypothetical for you. If the Chiefs
don't trade up to jump the Saints in twenty seventeen,
(46:57):
do you think Mahomes has similar success in New Orleans
Peyton at head coach Dennis Allen, a defensive coordinator, and
guys like Joe Brady, Dan Campbell and Aaron Glenn on staff.
I've I'm not anti hypotheticals. I just think sometimes, you know,
the draft one, which I'm guilty and a sucker for,
is kind of a waste of energy. I do think
(47:17):
this one is a pretty cool pivot point in the
NFL because that moment, let's face it, led Sean Payton
to quitting and now being on the Broncos because Sean
Payton has Patrick Mahomes. Maybe they don't have three super Bowls,
probably got one or two. I mean, it's fucking Patrick
Mahomes and Sean Payton, like Andy Reid is offensive genius
(47:37):
and that team was good, So I think it's fair
to assume that he would still be there. But you
have those moments sometimes where it's like, what if instead
of Baker Mayfield it won overall Josh Allen had gone
to the Browns because we remember that draft was or
gone to the Jets at number three because it was
(47:59):
Baker may Field, Sam Darnold, Josh Allen, Josh Rosen, and
then Lamar Jackson. I don't think I'm mixing drafts there,
but think about that, like where you go matters, and
I think the example you use because clearly the Saints
liked him, they were pretty good and it was a
pretty awesome place for a quarterback to play. So my
(48:21):
guess is it would have worked at the level of
the Chiefs.
Speaker 2 (48:24):
I don't know. I think that's.
Speaker 1 (48:27):
I think that's unfair to say that will work that well.
Would they have been a double digit win team every
single year, been in the playoffs and had high seeds?
I think that's fair to assume. Lifelong Dolphins fan, last
time we won a playoff game, I was in diapers.
What do you think of the Zach Wilson signing. I
think it's an absolute joke given Tua's injury history. Do
(48:48):
you think the Dolphins intentionally signed bad backups so that
Tua does not feel threatened. Also, would you say the
Dolphins are the softest.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
Team in the league.
Speaker 1 (48:58):
It seems like anytime they are met with a little
bit of adversity or cold weather, the team collapses.
Speaker 2 (49:04):
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (49:05):
I mean I will say this is Sean Payton liked him,
but didn't like him enough to make him the backup quarterback.
So I think when you look like Mac Jones was
the backup quarterback last year, right, So you go, Kyle
Shanahany signed Mack Jones, You're the backup, and I'm paying
you five million dollars. But you look at Justin Fields
(49:26):
like he gets benched and then the Jets give him
thirty million dollars. Pretty bold in this situation, you're taking
another team's third string quarterback to turn him into the backup.
So Sean Payton could have chose because I knew another
team that had planned on signing Jared Stidham, and Sean
Payton clearly didn't want to lose him because he resigned him.
(49:49):
But if you like Zach Wilson as much, he would
have been like, okay, take him. I'll just keep Zack
Wilson for five or six million. Now, maybe there's a
dynamic of Stidham's older. Yeah, I don't know. Is Zach
Wilson good based on what we know right now? You
would say no. I do think it felt like he
matured and people liked him a lot more in Denver
than what had happened with the Jets. But like, what
(50:11):
were your other options? Sound like Daniel Jones Gardner Minshew Like,
once you're paying your quarterback as much as you guys are,
your backup's probably gonna be kind of random. Look who
Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson's backups are. Mahomes backup was
Henny and then Carson wentz Okay cup more. You said
(50:34):
multiple times last season last season was the worst the
Broncos and Chargers will be for the foreseeable future. I
agree with you until free agency. I'm a diehard Bronco fan,
But just as a football fan and a fan of
Herbert and Harbaugh, are the Chargers actually better after free agency?
Notable moves are retaining mac Jalen Rager, signing Naji Harris,
(50:59):
Dante Jackson, in reuniting with Mike Williams. Honestly, I must
have missed that. I didn't even see that one Mike
Williams on the Chargers again. They lost Bosa, I mean
they cut him. They lost Gus Edwards, Josh Palmer, and
likely JK.
Speaker 2 (51:14):
Dobbins.
Speaker 1 (51:15):
Everyone in our division closed the gap on the Chiefs
except the Chargers. We got U Funka in green Law
and Ingram who chose us over the Chargers and retained
DJ Jones. Raiders kind of sort upgraded at quarterback now
they did. Yeah, I mean, I think part of Harbaugh
is the guys they drafted last year.
Speaker 2 (51:34):
They expect him to be better, so they go. We
expect Joel to be an All Pro.
Speaker 1 (51:39):
We expect Lad McConkey to be a top ten wide receiver,
top fifteen wide receiver. We expect the linebacker we drafted
from Michigan to be much.
Speaker 2 (51:47):
More like That's how he looks at it.
Speaker 1 (51:49):
He looks at it from a college perspective, like I'm
developing these young I expect Herbert to be better.
Speaker 2 (51:55):
I'm better than my competition, So I think we.
Speaker 1 (52:00):
You can't just assume, based on free agency, teams are
better or worse. I mean, most of my college years
in the two thousands, Dan Snyder won free agency every
single year, bought all the players every single free agency
and it never worked out. So this is part of
(52:21):
buying players in free agency. It's fun and it's huge headlines.
We don't have anything else going on. It doesn't guarantee
you crap, It really doesn't Listen. I've said I love
Hufunga in green Law, I mean I love Drey Greenlaw.
Speaker 2 (52:36):
Drey Greenlaw is a bad ass.
Speaker 1 (52:40):
He tore his achilles, he tried to come back, and
his hamstring and other injury started happening. Like, I hope
he's okay, but there is no guarantee that, like his
lower extremities are all gonna you know, match up. Love
Hufunga tours ACL then he fucked up his shoulder and
his and he missed a bunch of games last year.
(53:02):
Part of the reason the Niners are letting him go
is like they got this other kid named Mustafa who
hits just like Ufunga.
Speaker 2 (53:12):
Who I even.
Speaker 1 (53:12):
Saw that Sam Browner on his podcast when he had
debo on was like, might've been the hardest I got.
Speaker 2 (53:18):
Hit all year.
Speaker 1 (53:19):
So again, like I would rather have those guys on
my team than not. But they've missed a lot of games,
and I just think sometimes these guys.
Speaker 2 (53:31):
No player. Like the Chargers didn't.
Speaker 1 (53:34):
Want Joey Bosa anymore. It's not like they lost Joey Bosa.
They cut him. They did not want him on the
team anymore. They want Khalil Mack back, they don't want him.
I'm not trying to like defend. I just think sometimes
in free agency you can basically keep any player you
really want to keep. Right, the Chargers would never let
(53:55):
Slater go, Hardball would not let Derwin James go. But like, yeah,
I could do without this guy. So if you are
a player available during free agency, there's a reason behind it.
I could have kept you. Well, we didn't have the space. Well,
I'll cut other guys.
Speaker 2 (54:11):
I'll make I'll figure it out.
Speaker 1 (54:13):
This is a puzzle and I control the pieces. Okay,
last question. I feel like some people are sleeping on
the Packers. There is an opportunity for improvement, but they're
essentially bringing back the same roster and added to free
agents who are huge upgrades. We know that Jordan Love
played hurt all year. The receivers in No Line played
well below, played well below expectations, and they gave the
(54:37):
Eagles a tough game. How do you feel about the
state of the Packers. I say this all the time.
I said this when people start dming me, should we
fire on la floor?
Speaker 2 (54:47):
Like, guys, you're gonna be okay.
Speaker 1 (54:52):
I would like my chances now more even than six
months ago. That a lot of question marks with JJ
McCarthy and the Vikings. We can say whatever we want
about Sam Donald. Last year he played really well and
there is absolutely no guara. If JJ McCarthy has Sam
Donald's season, Vikings fans will be doing fucking cart wheels
down the hallway. So you went one in five in
(55:16):
the division, how often are you going.
Speaker 2 (55:20):
To be a playoff team?
Speaker 1 (55:20):
Which I would bet on the Backers be a playoff
team next year and go one and five in the division.
So if you go three and three in the division,
you're probably more likely to be a twelve or thirteen
win team. Now is Jordan Love was last year just
a banged up year? Was last year more what he's
gonna be, That's what he's We got a small sample size.
Speaker 2 (55:38):
With him, right.
Speaker 1 (55:39):
We have eight games, eight good games his first year,
which is fair. He'd never started last year, was injured,
would have some moments and then have some bad moments,
a lot of unknown still with him. I still would
bet on it, just because we've seen the good. We've
seen him play high end, We've seen him play well
in a playoff game, but receivers are a little bit
of a question mark. What's his name got multiple concussions, Watson
(56:04):
towards ACL. You gotta feel good about Jacobs. You gotta
feel good about your tight end. Like you said, you
needed a guard, so you overpay banks. Coaches good, your
GM's good. I'd you're gonna be okay, Packer fans, and
I get it. You just you've kind of been in
the same spot now for a while. Uh, You're gonna
(56:25):
be fine. It wouldn't shot like you might be able
to compete to win the division next year. Right now,
if I was handicapping the NFC North, because all the
Lions guys at least going in this it will be healthy,
I'd go Lions, which agains new coordinators, no lock, but
I'd give them the benefit of out Lions. Then I
(56:45):
think it's a coin flip between you and the Vikings,
because like JJ McCarthy, I don't know. I'd probably give
you the benefit of the doubt right now until JJ
pruves me otherwise, and the bears are gonna be improved,
So that vision is good, it really is. But the
likelihood of Europe going one and five and that thing again,
that would be low the volume
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
What is going on? My people?
Speaker 1 (00:17):
How are we doing? I'm John this three and now podcast.
Hopefully everyone is having a good day. It's currently pouring
rain outside my office, trential downpour here in Scottsdale. We've
had update of a bunch of people from my wedding
got really sick. Some had to go to urgent care.
I guess this thing called the flu is going around.
(00:38):
I thought I got it. Oh, I did get it
a couple times.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Over the last I don't know, three four months. I
thought I had immunities.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
But I definitely have not felt great this week. At
first I thought it was a hangover, like on like Monday,
It's it was kind of a hangover come down, and
then it's just kind of gotten worse. I did not
feel very good today at all. But luckily we're not
digging interest here. We're just podcast and I was able
to put up a bunch of electrolytes into Stanley slam
them into a podcast. So we will look back on
(01:06):
free agency because it's I don't want to say it's over,
but it's definitely slowing down. Talk some quarterbacks from Sam
Darnold to Aaron Rodgers to Mac Jones and Kyle Shanahan
finally get to unite in their love of football together.
So Mac Jones is now the backup quarterback for the
(01:29):
forty nine ers. Do a couple of few Gayzy Fridays,
slash rants, system thoughts on life, and mailbag. The mailbag questions,
I need a lot of them. It's the off season.
I need you guys. Fire in those dms at John middlecoff.
If any of you over the last month have given
questions and I haven't read them, follow up or something,
(01:51):
it'll it'll kind of get you to the back of
the top where you'll show up on my inbox in
the Instagram. So make sure you do that so I
can notice, because I had so much going on in
there that a lot got lost in the shuffle. But
make sure we're gonna need them. We're gonna go heavy
on the mail bag in the offseason, So hit that
(02:13):
and hit that hard, and make sure you subscribe to
three Now podcast, make sure you subscribe to the YouTube channel.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
And other than that, let's talk some football.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
And I guess I'm just gonna ask a question. Is
free agency overrated in the NFL? Obviously, it's not in baseball?
And it's not in basketball, but is it overrated in football?
And don't get me wrong, I like you get excited.
It is fun to watch these transactions. It is been
(02:45):
something I've looked forward to as a sports fan my
entire life.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
It is cool. I enjoy this week.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I enjoy watching guys star, big names, get traded, guys
get signed, teams get really a great with cab space.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
I'm not acting like I am.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Not into this, but after you give it a couple days,
you take a deep breath and you look back and
you go, isn't this always the most overrated time of
the league year? Because first of all, the best dynasty
of my life was Belichick. He never really dabbled in this.
He always waited for the second tier guys that he
(03:26):
got it for no money, or older players who were
high level Pro Bowl guys willing to give him a discount.
He rarely, if ever, broke the bank on guys that
weren't his guys. The current dynasty, the Kansasity Chiefs, their
core guys have been three people. They drafted, Patrick Mahons,
Travis Kelce, and Chris Jones, and they won their first
(03:50):
Super Bowl with Tyreek Hill, who they also drafted and
then they flipped, and how they continued this dynasty was
basically through that draft was a huge part of it
with mc duffie and Karloska's But when you think about
like the Chiefs, who has been their huge signing over
the last five six years, an offensive lineman here or there,
(04:10):
Like they are not signing sex justin Reid, you know,
it's that they are not out there fishing in the
deep end of the pond. And I thought about last year,
and again I'm not trying to hate on any team
that signed players. Totally understand if I'm the Minnesota Vikings
or if I'm the Chicago Bears. Basically, if you take
those two teams, bad at five starting offensive linemen, right,
(04:33):
the Vikings did two and the Chicago Bears did three.
Totally understand why they would do that. If I was
in their shoes, I probably.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Would do the same.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
But like when I see Aaron Banks get eighty eight
million dollars from the Packers, like, yeah, they need a guard?
Is that a good contract? Like, I mean, I understand
people around the league go, that's kind of rich, But
look at last year, you could argue the best signing
of the year when you factor in the money was
(05:01):
Zach Bond How he gave him like one year four
million dollars his first team All Pro. He was honestly
one of the better players non quarterback in the NFL.
Obviously Saquan had the best running back season, but Derreck
Henry had the second best running back season. The Baltimore
Ravens gave him eight million dollars eight million dollars guaranteed,
(05:24):
So some of these contracts that are getting thrown around,
Milton Williams gets a huge amount of money. All my
buddies with the Eagles love the guy. I mean, he's
a stut. He had an incredible season. I don't even
think he played over fifty percent of the snaps, and
he also got to play the majority of the time
next to what many consider the best and most talented
(05:46):
young defensive lineman in the league in Jalen Carter. So
you have a guy you're giving I mean, I hate,
you know, talking about it this way. It's just easier
sometimes like twenty five to twenty six million dollars a year.
He's never even become close to a full time player
and really benefited from playing next to a superstar. And
I'm not anti the Patriots signing them, but these contracts
(06:09):
that get thrown out for these players said enormous expectations,
cause you're no longer talked about, like, let's face it,
the core of the Chiefs over the last however many
years have been guys they've drafted had developed. Same thing
with the Patriots for a long time. Same thing with
a lot of the good teams you know in the NFL.
(06:30):
When you look at the Eagles, the forty nine Ers,
the Detroit Lions. It doesn't mean you can't supplement players,
but we talk so aggressively about this time like this
is gonna change this team, this team, it's like, I
don't know, we'll see the cohesion, the chemistry that's built
over time. Like I love what the Bears did. It
(06:52):
was a no brainer doing all that, but like, offensive
line chemistry isn't just built overnight. It takes time. And
same thing with the with the Minnesota Vikings adding two
new starting offensive linemen. Now, I would say adding guards
and centers in theory should be the easiest plug and
play in all of the sport. But I just think
(07:14):
this time of year it's kind of a tried and
true way we react and we're all, including myself, guilty
of this is the way we talk about these moves
usually isn't the way.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
They actually play out.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
So is free agency overrated? I think it's fair to
say in the National Football League it is a little bit.
You know, I was watching Sam Donald give his press
conference today and it's pretty clear that that game that
he had against McDonald and Seattle that essentially knocked them
out of the playoffs, and I would say was his
defining moment as from a positive standpoint for Sam this year.
(07:52):
That game winning touchdown on the road was a huge,
huge reason that Mike felt very confident about supporting the signing,
and even he talked about it obviously having a front
row seat in that game, but it was the way
that we had game planned against him throughout the week
of essentially watching all of his snaps, and I think
sometimes you gotta be careful with that, but like that
(08:14):
held it was held in high regard when it came
to their head coach, that performance and his performance previously
because that was before the last couple of games. But
watching Sam Darnold talk and right before that, they tweeted
out like the I don't think it's called periscope anymore,
but YouTube or wherever it's streamed at on Twitter is
Seattle had put something out on Gino Smith, who clearly
(08:37):
resurrected his career in Seattle and.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Became a really solid player.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
And you start thinking about some of the players in
the NFL, like it's it's a no brainer when you
talk about the star players like Patrick Mahomes is good immediately, right,
Josh Allen after year one was sweet. Lamar Jackson was
pretty incredible from early on, right. Joe Burrow's been pretty
fucking good as long as he's been healthy. Justin Herbert
had like one of the great rookie seasons we've ever seen,
(09:01):
and he was thrown in because Tyrod Taylor got a
needle to his kidney. Most guys see a lot of crap, honestly, historically,
a lot of like great players. You I mean, Drew
Brees was basically told you're out of here for Philip Rivers.
You know, Steve Young was a backup for a long
period of time to Joe Montana, but before that was
not viewed as a good player in Tampa Bay. And
(09:25):
I think sometimes with quarterbacks you know so many other
players because you get to rotate in kind of battle
through stuff and when you're bad early on in your career,
Like most guys aren't incredible day one. Most guys aren't
just like Aaron Donald or Justin Jefferson, even great players,
they go through adversity. And that's usually and I think
most people would agree in any line of work, that's
(09:48):
how you learn. Like you usually don't learn that much
when everything's going well. Why is that because you don't
like look that much inward. You don't have that much
perspective on things because things are good and you don't
have to overthink anything, and when things are bad, you
kind of gotta like lay it on the table and
(10:08):
look yourself in the mirror. And I think Sam Darnold,
I think Gino Smith, and I think Baker Mayfield are
good examples of Like Pete Carroll just traded a third
round pick for a thirty five year old quarterback. Why
he kind of swears by the guy, and I think
he thinks that, Like Gino's a really impressive person obviously
on top of a solid player. And when you look
(10:28):
at what Baker Mayfield has done down in Tampa, how
much now I'm not even talking about how well he's played,
but how much the guys on that team like him.
I don't know if they would be where they're at
without kind of going through the Andy Dufrain sewer and
coming out on the other end. And listen, I'm done
psychoanalyzing what Aaron Rodgers, you know, or why it's taken
(10:51):
him so long when he's gonna make a decision at
this point in time, I'm assuming he's going to continue
to play like that. That is my assumption. He's either
gonna play on the Giants, were more than likely the
Pittsburgh Steelers, And I think a lot of people think
that he's waiting to announce it at McAfee's deal, which
I was like, Oh, that makes some sense. McAfee's doing
this live show in Pittsburgh, But then I google it
(11:12):
the McAfee shows not till like April ninth, Like that
would be insanity if that is true, and he announces
on April ninth, like that, that's that we've jumped the
shark on that. And I don't think he's gonna wait
that long, like I understand like doing some you know,
thinking long and hard though from a football perspective, I
think the Pittsburgh Steelers is an easy decision, assuming that
(11:35):
they want him. But you know, for the first time
in a long time, Aaron's really kind of hit the skids,
Like they were really, really terrible, and people are talking about, like,
is your career over?
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Like it's not.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
The box score doesn't look that terrible, but when you
watch you play, you're a shell of yourself and you're
kind of done. And that might be true, but like
that Humble all these other guys, everyone talks shit about
Sam Donald, Everyone talks shit about Baker Mayfield. People thought
Geno Smith was like a joke, and look at them
(12:11):
now they're all making thirty forty million dollars and Baker
Mayfield second the league in touchdowns. Sam Donald just had
a team in the playoffs, you know, Geno Smith, I
think three straight years ninety nine to ten wins in Seattle.
Once they kicked Russell Wilson to the curb. Like we've
seen Russell Wilson. No matter what happens, Negative is the
(12:31):
same guy, same cheesy, optimistic bs like Russell's time to pivot.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Bro this ain't working.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
And I think Rogers in a weird way is a
little more real, but also like he's been so used
to held to such high esteem by every human being,
one of the greatest ever. You're so good, you're gonna
carry the team, hell, even the Jets. You're gonna you're
gonna save our franchise. And it's like, not only are
you not gonna save our franchise, you're gonna be in ambarrassment.
(13:01):
And if he does come back to play, I do
wonder if there's a little like self reflection and a
little humility to like make you a better player, a
better teammate, because it clearly works for these other guys.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Now.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
It's usually harder on the other end, when you've been
a superstar to change, you know the old sayings like
you don't teach an old dog new tricks. And at
this point in time, Aaron Rodgers made I don't know,
four hundred million dollars MVPs. Maybe he just is what
he is, and I listen, I'm not saying that he's
going to change, but like smart guy like that, there's
(13:35):
no chance that maybe it's like little humility moving forward,
time will tell Mac Jones forty nine ers kind of
a full circle moment, because like most people. It was
highly publicized and highly reported on that for a long
period of time. It was like Kyle Shanahan's going to
take Mac Jones with the number three overall pick, which
(13:57):
I said at the time would have been the most
insane draft pick in the his of the NFL. And
I think we're kind of pivoting off this time of
I don't care what you do for a living, like
the best of the best, Like the price of admission
is working hard, getting up early, working late, you know,
putting in a lot of effort, going above and beyond,
(14:19):
like all the basic high level stuff. Like that's the
price of admission in any competitive business with a lot
of money on theline. Like what really separates the high end?
Like some people are just more talented than others, period,
point blank, end of story. Some people are just better
at what they do than their peers, whether it's the
(14:39):
top sales guy, whether it's the top quarterback, whether it's
the top dude on Wall Street. And that's what like
I love about pro sports is watching the talent separate.
And when you play starting quarterback in the NFL, like
it's pretty clear of all the top guys in the league,
Like the top five or six, their talent is immense Holmes,
(15:00):
Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson. I would say Joe Burrow has
the least amount of attributes, but he's just so instinctive
and so good in terms of not the greatest athlete,
not the biggest arm but he's clearly just an elite
player and his instincts are unreal. Matt Stafford is long
in the tooth now, but like just an all time
great talent, like was drafted number one overall for a reason,
(15:22):
and then it started this crew of guys like Mac
Jones right, who just doesn't have great physical skills. So
even if they maximize everything and they're drafted in the
perfect situation, their upside is always going to be limited.
It's the conversation right now with Shador Sanders.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
So many of these.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Conversations are so stupid. Around Shador Sanders. The main question
people have is like is does he have the elite
skill set to be an a top ten player?
Speaker 2 (15:54):
And that's highly up for debate.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
In NFL teams where people go doesn't mean you're gonna
be a good or a bad player? Do you have
the physical characteristics like cam Ward cam Warred could be
the worst quarterback in the NFL, or he could be
the sixth best quarterback.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
In the NFL.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
But he does have high end traits. Guys like Mac
Jones and Kenny Pickett do not. And historically those type
players got drafted between like the third and the sixth round.
And then there we went through this time where guys
like mac Jones were even talked about in discussed going
number three overall. He ends up going fifteenth. Kenny Pickett
(16:30):
goes twentieth. Those are two of the most insane draft
picks of my lifetime. Now you could go look at
a guy like Brock Purdy, who also doesn't have a
great set of physical gifts.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
He probably got pushed.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Down because of these other failures with being the last
pick in the draft, he probably should have gone in
like the fifth round. But again, like these should be
low risk selections because for them to hit, everything has
to go perfect, and when things get derailed, they have limitations.
So when I see this conversation of like could mac
(17:05):
Jones be leveraged for brock Purty, they're two separate conversations.
Mac Jones isn't remotely as good as Brock Purty. It's
not even close, because back to the Joe Burrow thing,
there's an instinctive nature to playing quarterback that brock asps
that Mac simply does not. Not as good an athlete,
hell not as even as good of an arm And
(17:26):
I think when you look at Kyle Shanahan, he has
always kind of been obsessed and it's why the Trey
Lance thing looking back made no sense. I think he
was kind of desperate and he was kind of hoping
to like hit his Josh Allen clearly blew up in
his face, and he's pivoted back, you know, kind of
to the lane he's the most comfortable in. And that's
taking guys like this, but ideally taking guys like this, you.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Don't have to pick very high, right, So I do
think it's just kind of fascinating.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Guy like Mac Jones should be a ten year backup,
can't he Pickett? I don't know if it will be
a ten year backup, but should be. I think Mac
Jones a better player and Canny Pickett, but should be
a backup in the NFL for several years, five six years,
like starting now, so we'll have an eight, nine, ten
year career and I hopefully as we pivot away from
this like overdrafting quarterbacks who lack the physical attributes, you
(18:19):
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Speaker 1 (20:09):
Okay, fugazy Friday. I got a couple of things.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
One.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
I don't know how many of you guys, depending on
where you live. You know, we all have different airline hubs.
You know, for us in the West coast, Southwest is
a really big deal. Some of you could be Delta,
some of you could be United, some of it could
be American Airlines. For a large portion of my life,
I've flown Southwest because when I've lived on the West Coast,
(20:36):
you kind of stick to going to southern California, going
to Vegas, coming to Arizona. Maybe you know Pacific Northwest
like Seattle and Southwest had the cheapest flights. They also
had the ability to get two free backs, so it
was like a bargain airline, which was just highly efficient.
Like most people I knew that flew Southwest like never complained.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
It was easy, it was cheap. Those days are long gone.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
And I said this, I think when I was looking
at flights, maybe what was that to the super Bowl
or might have been home during Christmas? I remember looking
at like American Airlines first class flight wasn't that much
more than just flying Southwest home. So the prices are
no longer even competitive in terms of like it's not
even that cheap. Now they have officially announced there's no
(21:24):
longer random seating, so they're just gonna be like every
other airline. You buy a specific seat and there are
no free backs, So their greatest advantage is now gone.
Southwest is gonna be this airline that used to be
like could hang his hat on like best best.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Deal at the airport.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
So now it's like it might be the worst deal
at the airport. So I'm fascinated to watch what Southwest,
what happens there. I'd also and I talked about this
last week drinking on the plane. I do think, like, again,
I don't fly. I've flown more times on American airlines
in the last six months than I probably haven't my life.
(22:01):
I wouldn't say splurge because one I had some I
had some like vouchers or you know whatever, flyer miles
that basically the flight was turned out to be a
couple hundred bucks. But like, I think their first class
and I've flown first class like less than five times
in my life, pretty overrated experience. And I was talking
to someone obviously there are certain airlines, you know, Delta, United,
(22:25):
depending on the flight, are way better experience. But domestic
first class can be a little overrated because it's like,
what am I really getting? Like, if you can fly
for half as much in the business section, you get
the same amount of leg room, maybe you don't get
a meal, but it's like, I don't want to fucking
eat this meal anyway. It's like, uh, you know, microwaved enchiladas. Again,
(22:50):
I'm just speaking for American I thought it was we
took it on our way to our wedding and then
we flew southwest home. It wasn't that big a difference,
to be honest with you. The other thing was, this
is just a couple quick rants. It is funny how
some people, and it's hard for me to put myself
in their shoes, are just really terrified of public speaking.
(23:13):
And obviously there's a different level of public speaking getting
up and speaking at a wedding than like getting up
and speaking in front of ten thousand people.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
I'm not acting like that would be easy.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
But I remember speaking at just different weddings, but specifically
my brothers, and not even really thinking twice about it.
He just got up, told some jokes and said some
things that probably made some people uncomfortable, but also lighting
up the room, and I didn't even think twice about it.
And then at my wedding, my brother was going to
give a speech, and I was expecting him to just
you know, talk a little shit, say a couple of zingers,
(23:44):
and just get a couple of laughs. Turns out I'm
watching him at like the cocktail hour after we get
done taking pictures. He's like pacing, like is Jeff okay?
And it's like, yeah, he's really nervous. I'm like nervous
for what They're like the speech. I'm like, the speech,
just say a couple of lines of me doing dumb
stuff and say you love me and move on. And
(24:07):
then we eat dinner and I have to go, like
I have to go to the bathroom. So I leave
to go to the bathroom, and speeches are probably in
like ten minutes, and I come back in and I
look and I see one piece of like steak, and
no one else has any food on their table and
there's just one piece of steak. I'm like, has everyone eaten?
(24:28):
Has a food come out?
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Ye?
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Because I'd already eaten probably ten minutes before. They're like, yeah,
everyone's eating. They've already taken the food away. I'm like,
whose steak is that? They're like, that's Jeff's your brother.
It's like he can't eat.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
I'm like why.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
I'm like, he's terrified. And then he gives you know,
like a probably a twenty second speech, and I just realized, like,
and even he told me, some people are just very
very uncomfortable doing that, and I think we take for granted,
like someone like myself, who I just it's not only
not saying that I don't get anxiety about certain things
in life, like I don't love, you know, looking at
(25:00):
my portfolio the last couple of weeks, that gets my
ticker moving. But I just thought that it's not even
a thing. And I actually thought he, you know, he'd
be good. And it turns out and I almost had him,
you know, run the part of the wedding. What's it
called the uh not the or I can't even think
(25:20):
of the word, you know, like the actors, like the priest,
and he clearly wanted no part of it. Now, looking back,
I'm glad. I'm glad I had guy do it. And uh, last,
but not least, I also wanted to get married after
you hit a certain age. I was like, I'm gonna
get married at the I'm just gonna get married at
(25:43):
the courthouse, Like I don't need a wedding, you know,
I'm thirty five, thirty six, thirty seven years old. Whenever
I get married, I'm gonna get married at the courthouse,
easy in and out. And I was a huge believer
in that, and I was adamant, like that's what I'm
gonna do. If we had whatever money we'd put toward
the wedding, like put it towards something else, put in
(26:03):
the stock market, put it by a second home. I
don't know, it was to do something else with it.
And then Maria was Adam like I having a wedding.
And I remember years ago I was at some function
and I was talking to this guy whose wife was
a wedding planner in him just telling me because I
remember telling him this, He's like, I think it would
(26:23):
be a mistake. It'd be something you remember, whether it's
big or small, but like you should have a wedding
with your family and at least your closest friends. And
I remember when we went into the courthouse to get
the uh you got to get the paper to like
get signed to be officially married, and thinking I'm really
(26:47):
glad that I didn't just do this. Luckily, in my life,
I've haven't gotten trouble. Like I started thinking, like, when's
the last time I've been to the courthouse beside like
a field trip when I was like twelve, I don't
think I've ever been to the courthouse. So my thought
of the courthouse is more much more based on like
television or something you would see on television, and then
(27:07):
you go in You're like, this would have been an
awful decision. And looking back on getting married last week
and we didn't have a big wedding. It was like
sixty people and a lot of you know, family, really
really close friends, and I was kind of it like
it was it was really small, and I'm really glad
that we did that. And I was I wouldn't say
(27:29):
talked in because I was into it pretty early, like
I was cool with it, but like I changed my
tune pretty hard, Like it was a hard pivot because
I swear like I was sett in stone I'm getting
married at the courthouse.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Then you go to the courthouse and you're like people are.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Getting dragged in here for Dewey's and you know, getting
in trouble and you got this going on here. It's
like you got metal detectors here. It's like, yeah, I
don't know if that's the greatest vibe. So any recommendation
to young people that ever have that in their mind,
even if you just get get married with you know,
your parents, her parents and like some brothers and scissors
(28:04):
or something, I would recommend doing something where you can
look back and at least have your family to just
enjoy a nice dinner or something, because it is it
is a pretty cool night. The officiant. The officiant is
the name I was looking for. Okay, let's do a
(28:33):
little mailbag at John middlecoff firing those dms. I need
more questions because a lot of them got lost in
the shuffle because of I talked about this yesterday, but
I got so many dms about the wedding that it's
just made my inbox insane. So if you asked a
question and I haven't even come close to answering it
(28:55):
over the last week, like, either re ask it or
you know, throw another comments and it'll kind of come
back up near the top. So I would recommend that
if you want to get questions, because it's the off
season and obviously I'm gonna need you guys. You guys
are part of the team. Here a question for the bag.
(29:16):
What do you make of the Chargers off season. I
know we will be primarily building through the draft, re
signing our studs, Mac and hopefully Slater. Well, you guys,
resign Mac maybe you meant that and look to avoid
overpaying free agents. But looking at our cap space, we
have as much as any team in the league and
didn't make any many signings. I wasn't looking at overpaying
(29:39):
any stars, but thought we could build up our depth
and retain starters like Puna Ford and JK.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Dobbins.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
Wanted your take on Harbaugh's second off season as he
builds the team in his image. Many are critical of
our off season, but I've see this.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Is we talked about this earlier.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
You have to pay such a premium to get any
of these players. So let's say you're the Chargers and
you got some space. I don't have your cap space
in front of me, but more than enough space to
sign a couple sweet guys. It's like, Okay, you're just
gonna sign like Josh Sweat, the dude who went to
the Cardinals for like ninety million and a ton of guaranteed.
Are you gonna sign Milton Williams for twenty five twenty six?
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Like I.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
You're already a playoff team. Signing a big contract like
that limit your flexibility. An underrated part about cap space
is you can roll it over.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
So if you're a good team.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
And you don't feel comfortable overpaying, because that's what you
have to do, the last week, you overpay, which if
the guy solid for you, okay, but like you're looking
for now difference makers. So when you give Khalil Mack
eighteen million dollars again, it's been a long week, a
little fuzzy, but I remember seeing the Chargers resign Khalil
Mack eighteen million dollars.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
You feel really good about that, even if it's a
little overpay. You go, he's our type guy. Jim likes him.
He fits our culture.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
When you signed these outside guys, you know, it's kind
of risky. So I got no problem not playing in
the deep end. This notion too, that they were gonna
sign like they're not gonna give t Higgs one hundred
million dollars, they were never gonna trade for DK Metcalf, Like,
that's not how Harbaugh does business.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
I think I have full faith.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
It's gonna be pretty good. I did question a little
bit Naji Harris, who actually I think the last couple
of years has looked the best of his NFL career.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
They gave him ten million dollars.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Again, I'm not Mike Florio here breaking down the contract,
so I just kind of take it on face value
till I read otherwise. But he's making decent money. Jim Harbaugh.
When I lived in the Bay Area, Naji Harris was
the biggest star in the Bay Area. He went to
Antioch High School and he was being recruited by Alabama. Well,
Jim Harbaugh was trying to sign him as well, and
(31:56):
used to recruit the hell out of him at Michigan.
So like that one of those that Jim's liked since
he was in high school, and now he finally got him.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Guys in the wedding.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Funny enough, my dad was also in Nashville this past weekend.
I have a question for the mailbag. Why do you
think it's a bad idea for the Browns to extend
Miles Garrett. I don't believe that they are that far
away from contending. They won eleven games and made the
playoffs in twenty three with a heavily injured roster. I
think all they need is competent quarterback play and they'll
(32:28):
be right back in the playoffs. Well, I didn't like,
trust me, I would want Miles Garrett on my team,
and I didn't just come up with the idea like
let's trade him. He came out and said trade me.
If Miles Garrett had said like I want to be
a Brown, I would have done exactly what they did. Pam, like,
you're in the business up keeping. Well, once he goes,
(32:49):
I want out, and you go, we got this Deshaun
Watson disaster.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
We got the number two overall. Pick.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
I just thought it would have been a time to
kind of blow it up and not even blow it up,
like you said, you still got good players. You just
kind of get a bunch of first round pack. It's
like a transitional period. And they obviously throw a bunch
of money at him, which I respect, Like they they
kind of went old school. He's like, I want to trade,
and I don't think he was just bullshitting, Like I
think he was pretty adamant. He was going on the shows.
(33:16):
He was doing it, and they're like, we're gonna offer
you so much money. Good luck saying no. And I'll
say this about Jimmy HASLM. They pay, they pay a
lot of cash. And this is what I said about
like if Shador had gone into that interview, like you'd
want like you get really really rich with that team,
like really rich. I mean he pays more than any
(33:39):
team in the league. When will NFL gms wake up?
NFL quarterback is the only position in pro sports, and
really the only job in the economy where they pay
mediocre person the same as the best person in their field.
An average quarterback should not be paid what Mahomes makes
because quote, he's the next up. That's what the market is.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
No, it isn't. They're over paying.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
I've never understood that, And I understand the revenue sharing
the way the business partnership works, because that's well, the
NFL owns, you know, the owners own the teams. They're
still in a partnership with the players, and you got
to pay like that. There is a fifty to fifty
or forty eight fifty two or whatever the exact percentage.
(34:27):
There's a there's a revenue split. It's essentially fifty to fifty.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
And you got to pay the players.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
So I think they look at it, we got to
pay somebody. But to me, if you want to win
and you're giving a quarterback who you know is probably
not a top ten quarterback one hundred and fifty two
hundred million dollars, I just think you're an idiot. And
it's like, well, just what else am I going to do?
I don't know, there's got to be figured out other options.
See what else is out there? Play out the contract.
(34:55):
That that's always my symbol. Play out the contract. It's
like brock Party wants to undred million dollars, which if
his agent called and said that, I wouldn't blame him.
That's what Trevor Lawrence Gott if I was the Niners,
would be like, here's one hundred and twenty five. Like, well,
that's not what the market is. Well, then fine, we'll
play out next year. You play again on next year
on one point five million dollars. We'll give you one
(35:16):
hundred and twenty five million dollars guaranteed right now. I
know you want two hundred, but we'll give you one
twenty five. Or we can play next year for one
point five million dollars. You want to do that, because
if you do, that's like that what we'll do. I
think some of these teams have lost the logic of
having some of this leverage, and I think a lot
of times people don't want to deal with the holdouts
and stuff, which I get.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
But it's insane.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Like if Josh Allen makes two hundred and fifty million dollars,
what's to a fifty million dollar guarantee is Josh Allen
five times better than to a Tonga Bai looa. I'm
not trying to hate on Tua.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
I respect the guy. He's proven he's.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Like a solid player. But Josh is in a different universe.
Lamar is in a different universe. So it's like, well,
we got to pay him what eighty percent?
Speaker 2 (36:05):
What?
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Like you said, the sales guy who brings in ten
million dollars does not make the same as the sales
guy that's bringing in four hundred thousand dollars. That guy
makes way more money. Shouldn't quarterbacks be compensated on that
as well? Like this guy's way better by every single metric.
But it's just I don't know, it's just not the
(36:26):
way it works. Welcome back, Mason Rudolph. I guess could
you explain to me what the Steelers are doing? Two
high drama wide receivers and a backup quarterback. Well, I
just think the Rogers thing feels inevitable. And however he's
approaching this, he's not in a huge rush. So I
(36:49):
would imagine Aaron Rodgers starting quarterback, Rudolph's your backup, and
maybe you trade up for like Shador that that would
be my educated guess. As we sit here Thursday, March thirteen,
in a league obsessed with numbers, metrics, and analytics, how
does the observations about a player, quote unquote losing a
(37:09):
step stand up. I understand when a player time to
the combine when they're twenty one or so. Surely will
lose a step when they're thirty three. I see from
time to time, and rarely where they are able to
track the speed of a player using the chip. Still
there really is no continuing commentary on player speed from
year to year. I'm guessing there is no time forty
(37:32):
during the season. So other than a subjective evaluation by
a commenter based only on a player getting a year
or two older, say twenty eight to thirty, the commenting
that he has lost a step is something to be
taken with a grain of salt. Totally agree. I mean,
they're not when he's lost a step. They're not like
quantifying it with a numeric value, Like if one time
(37:55):
the guy was a nine, now he's a seven and
a half.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
This isn't you know Madden, where his's.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
His speed rating, his energy in a game has.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
Gone down by half.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
But I think coaches when you're evaluating a player, you know,
like Andy Reid can watch a guy and go, this
guy's not as good as he was three years ago
on my own team or on a team I compete against,
because I have a base of knowledge of watching him.
If he's on your own team for several years, let's
just pick. I don't know, I'm trying to think. I'm
(38:30):
trying to think of a good example. It have to
be an older player. Let's use Kyle ust Check. Let's
say the forty nine ers think he's lost a step,
and Ustcheck thinks he has not lost a step. Well,
Kyle for nine years.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Or eight I guess eight. I keep saying nine is
eight years.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Has evaluated every snap of Kyle ust Check's career, so
he can watch him and he can base it on
and he can just pull up film see what he
looked like in twenty twenty or twenty one. Again, that's
a bat it it's kind of a niche player as
a fullback, but like tackles guards. I remember when I
was with the Eagles and we signed Ronnie Brown. I
(39:10):
remember the first snap or first couple snaps of like
OTAs it looked like he was running in concrete, Like,
why does this guy look so slow? And turns out
his lagser is shot. That's the other thing with football,
you know, it's such a you know, running back at
wide receiver, at corner, at linebacker. Foot speed is a
pretty big deal. Like you can get away with a
(39:30):
little bit of guard or center or even defensive tackle
as long as you still have a little burst. But
like if you're a running back and you lose a step,
like that's a problem. Huge Ohio State fan, do you
think Ryan Day would ever make a good NFL coach?
He has a good track record putting quarterbacks in the
first round and is a good offensive play caller. He
(39:52):
does have flaws, but notably tightening up in big games occasionally.
But isn't the NFL always looking for offensive gurus and
quarterback development coaches? Well, I got to remove my bias
as a well known Ohio State hater. He doesn't call
the plays though, and he hasn't called the plays. When's
the last time Ryan Day called the plays? It feels
(40:12):
like it's been a couple of years.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
Could be wrong.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
Obviously didn't call him this year in their national championship year.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Maybe call Did he call him? Two years ago. Did
he take it away from what's his name?
Speaker 1 (40:22):
The who's your wide receiver coach that makes a bunch
of money, that's not the offensive coordinator.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Uh, Listen.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
People I know that know him personally, that worked with
him in the NFL with the Niners and the Eagles
like him a lot.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
He's very well thought of.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
I I just sometimes everyone's hanging the left.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
I gotta hang it right.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
I've never had a negative interaction with a guy. People
like him, you know, clearly pretty impressive guy that's not
an easy job, handled it pretty well. We nitpick him
some of this big game losses. I do think it's
hard to be a tough guy because Michigan is just
out tough to him when you're just not as tough
as certain opponents. So when you lean into that, like
(41:04):
you're not gonna get in the ring and go blow
for blow with Mike Tyson or a Vander Holyfield, You're
gonna have to fight them differently. And maybe he learned
that and it kind of made him pivot once he
hit the playoffs, and then he just kind of I mean,
it's one of the great playoff runs in recent memory.
Blew out Tennessee, blew out Oregon who they play then Texas?
(41:27):
Why don't I don't even remember that game against Texas.
I wouldn't say blew him out, but it was in
control of that game and obviously notre name was up big.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
He's good, There's no disputing it. He's good.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
Congrats on the nuptials. Totally agree in the silicon rings
rubber silicon same thing. My question is this, The draft
by most sources is loaded at defensive line. Is there
a edge rusher you like that would be the difference
maker available at the end of the first to pair
with Aiden Hutchinson, who helped the Lions' biggest weakness. I
(42:04):
got to dive a little deeper into the draft. I'd
be lying if I like, have a great feel for
late first early second round players. You know the guys
I focused on is I would say the defensive tackle
from Michigan, the obviously Abdul Carter from Penn State. I
(42:24):
do think the guy from Stewart from Texas A and
M that tested like a freak, but only as four
and a half career sacks. I would just base on
his testing and just the way he looks. There's no
chance he would be there, Like ideally, guys like that should.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
Be in the twenties.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
It's like, you know, wasn't a very productive player, tested
like a freak. But I also think you need to
be careful of those, like when the Packers took the
dude from Iowa who tested like a freak but never started,
and then it's like he's a bust. Yeah, I mean,
I think you could go detackle or defensive end. You
just need to get someone who can and a trade
with Hutchinson because if you get another high end pass
(43:03):
rusher with that guy, holy shit. So I don't think
it necessarily has to be you said defensive line, Yeah,
tackle or end. I think there's just a lot of them.
I mean, I think a lot of people think, like,
of the top thirty players, probably like eleven or twelve
defensive lineman. So if you just do the math, there
are gonna be some wide receivers, running backs, and offensive linemen,
and clearly a couple quarterbacks.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
They're gonna come off the board.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
So there is gonna be, you know, some high end
defensive lineman at the end of the first round, which
can be pretty rare. And then if you do draft
a defensive lineman. You just need him, and you need
the corner you took last year from Bama. If those
guys over the next couple of years can be kind
of cornerstone players with Aiden. All of a sudden, your
(43:46):
defense with Jack Campbell, Aiden Hutchinson, Terry On, Arnold Branch,
who's like the safety nickel from Bama, who's sweet, who's
really good? All of a sudden, your defense looks a
little like your offense. Like you guys are good at
every position, or got impact guys at every position every time?
This year, I can't help but reminisce and marvel at
(44:07):
the fact that Jason Peters was a tight end in
college and not only became one of the best offensive
tackles of all time, but was undrafted. I was curious,
since you were a former scout, did you or do
you know if scouts always have their eye on potential
prospects like that, not necessarily tight end or offensive tackle
every time, but an athletic offensive guard that could can
(44:28):
be a fullback. I think in every draft there are
guys who you know can do position flexibility. When I
first got out of scouting and started doing radio, the
forty nine ers drafted Bruce Miller, who was a defensive
lineman I think at South Florida or Central Florida, and
(44:48):
they turned into full back and he was a good fullback.
You know, the Chargers have a defensive lineman that plays fullback,
so like that position is somewhat possible. We'd also, and
I know buddies that still do, look at college basketball
kind of that tight end position. Could the guy be
a defensive lineman, could the guy be an offensive tackle,
or could the guy be a tight end? But those
(45:10):
I do think those situations are kind of outliers. You know,
I don't know about Jason Peter's college experience. He went
to Arkansas, but he clearly I mean, by the time
I was around Jason Peters, he weighed three hundred and
forty pounds, so obviously he didn't weigh that in college.
But even if he weigh two hundred and seventy pounds
in college, there used to be tight ends that weigh
(45:30):
two hundred and sixt two hundred seventy, two hundred eighty pounds.
What was the dude, if you're my age or older,
you know Tony Gonzales in Kansas City, they had a
second tight end. His last name was Done. He was
basically like a third tackle because Tony wasn't that big
of a blocker, so you kind of had to have
your second tight end be a blocking tight end. And
(45:50):
I think that, yeah, I mean I I think when
you look at a player, sometimes there's a wide receiver
in college, and I'm sure there's a guy like this
every year or two where you go, you know, he's
kind of big and he's not fast enough to play outside.
Couldn't he just be like a hybrid slot?
Speaker 2 (46:10):
Could he get big enough to play tight end?
Speaker 1 (46:12):
And it happens sometimes and every once in a while,
what was the guy's turope pryor became a wide receiver.
You know what's funny is we do it in college
all the time. Like a guy comes out of high school.
He's like I'm playing quarterback and I play safety. That
all of a sudden, by like year two, he's playing
running back, or he's playing wide receiver or he's playing corner.
(46:33):
It's like, you just do whatever you have to do
to start for Alabama or Texas or whatever. But when
you come to the pros, no one ever wants changed positions.
It's like, what if you change positions, you become a
ten year pro, and you make millions of dollars for
the bag. I know you're not a big fan of them,
but I have a hypothetical for you. If the Chiefs
don't trade up to jump the Saints in twenty seventeen,
(46:57):
do you think Mahomes has similar success in New Orleans
Peyton at head coach Dennis Allen, a defensive coordinator, and
guys like Joe Brady, Dan Campbell and Aaron Glenn on staff.
I've I'm not anti hypotheticals. I just think sometimes, you know,
the draft one, which I'm guilty and a sucker for,
is kind of a waste of energy. I do think
(47:17):
this one is a pretty cool pivot point in the
NFL because that moment, let's face it, led Sean Payton
to quitting and now being on the Broncos because Sean
Payton has Patrick Mahomes. Maybe they don't have three super Bowls,
probably got one or two. I mean, it's fucking Patrick
Mahomes and Sean Payton, like Andy Reid is offensive genius
(47:37):
and that team was good, So I think it's fair
to assume that he would still be there. But you
have those moments sometimes where it's like, what if instead
of Baker Mayfield it won overall Josh Allen had gone
to the Browns because we remember that draft was or
gone to the Jets at number three because it was
(47:59):
Baker may Field, Sam Darnold, Josh Allen, Josh Rosen, and
then Lamar Jackson. I don't think I'm mixing drafts there,
but think about that, like where you go matters, and
I think the example you use because clearly the Saints
liked him, they were pretty good and it was a
pretty awesome place for a quarterback to play. So my
(48:21):
guess is it would have worked at the level of
the Chiefs.
Speaker 2 (48:24):
I don't know. I think that's.
Speaker 1 (48:27):
I think that's unfair to say that will work that well.
Would they have been a double digit win team every
single year, been in the playoffs and had high seeds?
I think that's fair to assume. Lifelong Dolphins fan, last
time we won a playoff game, I was in diapers.
What do you think of the Zach Wilson signing. I
think it's an absolute joke given Tua's injury history. Do
(48:48):
you think the Dolphins intentionally signed bad backups so that
Tua does not feel threatened. Also, would you say the
Dolphins are the softest.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
Team in the league.
Speaker 1 (48:58):
It seems like anytime they are met with a little
bit of adversity or cold weather, the team collapses.
Speaker 2 (49:04):
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (49:05):
I mean I will say this is Sean Payton liked him,
but didn't like him enough to make him the backup quarterback.
So I think when you look like Mac Jones was
the backup quarterback last year, right, So you go, Kyle
Shanahany signed Mack Jones, You're the backup, and I'm paying
you five million dollars. But you look at Justin Fields
(49:26):
like he gets benched and then the Jets give him
thirty million dollars. Pretty bold in this situation, you're taking
another team's third string quarterback to turn him into the backup.
So Sean Payton could have chose because I knew another
team that had planned on signing Jared Stidham, and Sean
Payton clearly didn't want to lose him because he resigned him.
(49:49):
But if you like Zach Wilson as much, he would
have been like, okay, take him. I'll just keep Zack
Wilson for five or six million. Now, maybe there's a
dynamic of Stidham's older. Yeah, I don't know. Is Zach
Wilson good based on what we know right now? You
would say no. I do think it felt like he
matured and people liked him a lot more in Denver
than what had happened with the Jets. But like, what
(50:11):
were your other options? Sound like Daniel Jones Gardner Minshew Like,
once you're paying your quarterback as much as you guys are,
your backup's probably gonna be kind of random. Look who
Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson's backups are. Mahomes backup was
Henny and then Carson wentz Okay cup more. You said
(50:34):
multiple times last season last season was the worst the
Broncos and Chargers will be for the foreseeable future. I
agree with you until free agency. I'm a diehard Bronco fan,
But just as a football fan and a fan of
Herbert and Harbaugh, are the Chargers actually better after free agency?
Notable moves are retaining mac Jalen Rager, signing Naji Harris,
(50:59):
Dante Jackson, in reuniting with Mike Williams. Honestly, I must
have missed that. I didn't even see that one Mike
Williams on the Chargers again. They lost Bosa, I mean
they cut him. They lost Gus Edwards, Josh Palmer, and
likely JK.
Speaker 2 (51:14):
Dobbins.
Speaker 1 (51:15):
Everyone in our division closed the gap on the Chiefs
except the Chargers. We got U Funka in green Law
and Ingram who chose us over the Chargers and retained
DJ Jones. Raiders kind of sort upgraded at quarterback now
they did. Yeah, I mean, I think part of Harbaugh
is the guys they drafted last year.
Speaker 2 (51:34):
They expect him to be better, so they go. We
expect Joel to be an All Pro.
Speaker 1 (51:39):
We expect Lad McConkey to be a top ten wide receiver,
top fifteen wide receiver. We expect the linebacker we drafted
from Michigan to be much.
Speaker 2 (51:47):
More like That's how he looks at it.
Speaker 1 (51:49):
He looks at it from a college perspective, like I'm
developing these young I expect Herbert to be better.
Speaker 2 (51:55):
I'm better than my competition, So I think we.
Speaker 1 (52:00):
You can't just assume, based on free agency, teams are
better or worse. I mean, most of my college years
in the two thousands, Dan Snyder won free agency every
single year, bought all the players every single free agency
and it never worked out. So this is part of
(52:21):
buying players in free agency. It's fun and it's huge headlines.
We don't have anything else going on. It doesn't guarantee
you crap, It really doesn't Listen. I've said I love
Hufunga in green Law, I mean I love Drey Greenlaw.
Speaker 2 (52:36):
Drey Greenlaw is a bad ass.
Speaker 1 (52:40):
He tore his achilles, he tried to come back, and
his hamstring and other injury started happening. Like, I hope
he's okay, but there is no guarantee that, like his
lower extremities are all gonna you know, match up. Love
Hufunga tours ACL then he fucked up his shoulder and
his and he missed a bunch of games last year.
(53:02):
Part of the reason the Niners are letting him go
is like they got this other kid named Mustafa who
hits just like Ufunga.
Speaker 2 (53:12):
Who I even.
Speaker 1 (53:12):
Saw that Sam Browner on his podcast when he had
debo on was like, might've been the hardest I got.
Speaker 2 (53:18):
Hit all year.
Speaker 1 (53:19):
So again, like I would rather have those guys on
my team than not. But they've missed a lot of games,
and I just think sometimes these guys.
Speaker 2 (53:31):
No player. Like the Chargers didn't.
Speaker 1 (53:34):
Want Joey Bosa anymore. It's not like they lost Joey Bosa.
They cut him. They did not want him on the
team anymore. They want Khalil Mack back, they don't want him.
I'm not trying to like defend. I just think sometimes
in free agency you can basically keep any player you
really want to keep. Right, the Chargers would never let
(53:55):
Slater go, Hardball would not let Derwin James go. But like, yeah,
I could do without this guy. So if you are
a player available during free agency, there's a reason behind it.
I could have kept you. Well, we didn't have the space. Well,
I'll cut other guys.
Speaker 2 (54:11):
I'll make I'll figure it out.
Speaker 1 (54:13):
This is a puzzle and I control the pieces. Okay,
last question. I feel like some people are sleeping on
the Packers. There is an opportunity for improvement, but they're
essentially bringing back the same roster and added to free
agents who are huge upgrades. We know that Jordan Love
played hurt all year. The receivers in No Line played
well below, played well below expectations, and they gave the
(54:37):
Eagles a tough game. How do you feel about the
state of the Packers. I say this all the time.
I said this when people start dming me, should we
fire on la floor?
Speaker 2 (54:47):
Like, guys, you're gonna be okay.
Speaker 1 (54:52):
I would like my chances now more even than six
months ago. That a lot of question marks with JJ
McCarthy and the Vikings. We can say whatever we want
about Sam Donald. Last year he played really well and
there is absolutely no guara. If JJ McCarthy has Sam
Donald's season, Vikings fans will be doing fucking cart wheels
down the hallway. So you went one in five in
(55:16):
the division, how often are you going.
Speaker 2 (55:20):
To be a playoff team?
Speaker 1 (55:20):
Which I would bet on the Backers be a playoff
team next year and go one and five in the division.
So if you go three and three in the division,
you're probably more likely to be a twelve or thirteen
win team. Now is Jordan Love was last year just
a banged up year? Was last year more what he's
gonna be, That's what he's We got a small sample size.
Speaker 2 (55:38):
With him, right.
Speaker 1 (55:39):
We have eight games, eight good games his first year,
which is fair. He'd never started last year, was injured,
would have some moments and then have some bad moments,
a lot of unknown still with him. I still would
bet on it, just because we've seen the good. We've
seen him play high end, We've seen him play well
in a playoff game, but receivers are a little bit
of a question mark. What's his name got multiple concussions, Watson
(56:04):
towards ACL. You gotta feel good about Jacobs. You gotta
feel good about your tight end. Like you said, you
needed a guard, so you overpay banks. Coaches good, your
GM's good. I'd you're gonna be okay, Packer fans, and
I get it. You just you've kind of been in
the same spot now for a while. Uh, You're gonna
(56:25):
be fine. It wouldn't shot like you might be able
to compete to win the division next year. Right now,
if I was handicapping the NFC North, because all the
Lions guys at least going in this it will be healthy,
I'd go Lions, which agains new coordinators, no lock, but
I'd give them the benefit of out Lions. Then I
(56:45):
think it's a coin flip between you and the Vikings,
because like JJ McCarthy, I don't know. I'd probably give
you the benefit of the doubt right now until JJ
pruves me otherwise, and the bears are gonna be improved,
So that vision is good, it really is. But the
likelihood of Europe going one and five and that thing again,
that would be low the volume
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Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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