Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. Okay, what is going on everybody? The Washington
Commanders win a playoff game for the first time in
(00:23):
two decades, first win in twenty years. Walk off field
goal that was it hit the pylon. Now it hit
the inside, so it had a good track to bounce
in beat Baker Mayfield, Todd Bowles and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
A lot I want to get into in this game.
(00:43):
I thought Baker was really good beside the one fumble. Obviously,
Jaden's a star the franchise. It's amazing how important ownership is.
And overall that game was something we desperately needed because
this weekend you talk about a snooze fan. Holy shit,
it was terrible. I wrote down just some WTF moments
(01:06):
of the weekend, and I want to dive in from
the Jets, who are just maybe they're trying to break
a record to see how many total coaches and gms
that they can interview. You look at the Patriots, they
interviewed three people, then immediately hire vaybel knocked out the
Rooney Roll variable here's your contract. Let's roll had a
clear intention of what they were doing. These other teams.
(01:30):
The Jets fired Robert Soahl and Joe Douglas like three
months ago. I just I'm baffled at what's going on.
But that's what happens when you hire, you know, consultants
who everyone wants their hand in the cookie jar. Just
what are we doing here to just some things we
saw in the Green Bay Philadelphia game. You know, there's
a pile on effect when people question you and you
(01:53):
lose an ugly game. The the internet pile on job
on Harbaugh and Herbert makes me laugh. But we'll dive
into some of that stuff as well as one quick
thing I did want to hit on when it comes
to the National Championship Notre Dame and Ohio State. Something
I think both programs have in common just based on
(02:15):
this season that they can relate. And I think it's
two moments, one for each team that really propelled them
to be in this National Championship that if you're listening
to this on Monday, we are a week away from that.
So I went out with Colin as I do every Sunday,
you know, so we discussed heavily. We went on right
after the Eagles kind of smothered the Packers, who I
(02:40):
don't remember at least I'm sure it's happened, but it
felt like they lost ten guys today and they were
losing a guy every series in the second half and
important players the Eagles who lost Nakobe Dean, their starting
linebacker to a knee injury, which is not ideal. But yeah,
big win in Philly this morning. Was pretty boring game Buffalo.
(03:02):
Now we get Buffalo Ravens, you know, next week, pretty
good slate. You know, obviously Houston. They love putting Houston
in that first game on a Saturday, and Houston playing
Kansas City, which is going to be a challenge. Then
the night games Washington at Detroit. Then the morning game
will be the Eagles against the winner of the Monday
night football game in Philadelphia, and then Sunday we get
(03:25):
the heavyweight matchup of Josh Allen versus Lamar, which is
gonna be a conversation we're gonna have all weekend long.
So yeah, let's dive into some football. Okay, two things
before we dive in to the meat of the game.
One consistent theme that we're talking a lot about when
it comes to a lot of these teams looking at
(03:46):
coaches and gms and people to hire, has been ownership,
in the importance of ownership, and how you have no
chance to win with incompetent ownership. The people that signed
the checks really set the tone for the entire building,
even though they aren't the ones picking the players, coaching
(04:08):
the players, scouting the players, implementing the scheme, running the meetings,
like they don't do anything football wise, but there is
a direct correlation of good ownership winning teams, bad ownership
bad teams, Like we have a lot of data now
and the commanders and listen, my three years in the
(04:28):
NFL were in the NFC East, and during that time
it was like the peak of Dan Snyder, who was
a laughingstock. And I worked with Lewis Ridick, who now
that you see on television, who when I got there,
had worked for Dan Snyder for years and at one
point in time they were really close. So I got
a lot of good inside scoop when it came to
Dan Snyder. And for whatever reason, when I first got there,
(04:53):
they were terrible. Then they made a splurge at Mike
Shanahan and they had that coaching staff that's pretty legendary,
and they the one year with RG three, but for
the most part that franchise has been a complete shit
show forever. They sell the team, they get Josh Harris.
He blows every incompetent, moron, idiot, loser out of the
(05:13):
building and hires real football people. So they get Dan Quinn,
they get Adam Peters, and those guys obviously know what
they're doing. But if you put Dan Quinn and Adam
Peters with Dan Snyder, there is no way this team
wins twelve games in the second round of the playoffs.
We have the data that never happened with Dan Snyder.
(05:33):
So Josh Harris, who pretty polarizing guy in the sense
that he owns the Philadelphia seventy six Ers and the
Washington Commanders, we haven't quite got a crazy overlap, but
we are a week away. If somehow the Commanders play
the Philly play the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship Game,
(05:57):
I would not want to be Josh Harris, and listen,
I'm not a huge Daryl Mory guy. But it can't
really be argued that Josh Hare's a good owner. He
gives you the funds to do whatever you need to do,
and he supports the infrastructure of his coaches. Obviously, his
players and his front offices, and that is something this
franchise has not had the last twenty plus years of
(06:21):
Daniel Snyder, which I always thought was insane, because Daniel
Snyder was not handed this team like a Mark Davis
or like a George McCaskey, where his dad owned the
team and just gave it to him. He was a
self made billionaire. He literally did it on his own
and honestly, maybe got rich too fast. He became a
billionaire in his early thirties and somehow ruined this franchise
(06:43):
for a long, long period of time. But it is
not random, It is not by accident. It is not
a coincidence that they get rid of them. They get
a guy who is a good owner, hires good people,
and they are immediately successful because this team is not
that talented. Obviously, the quarterback very talented player, Zach Ertz
(07:04):
is like thirty eight years old. Terry McLaurin is a
really good player. They got a couple solid defensive tackles.
Bobby Wagner's been in the NFL forever. They trade for Latimore,
who for the most part has been injured. Like, this
is not a team you watched tonight. Tampa Bay has
way more high end impact players on their team. If
(07:26):
you just take Baker and Jayden away from the two teams.
Baker obviously he's a Pro Bowl level throwing forty touchdowns.
Jaden one of the more dynamic rookies. Let's just remove
them and you go who has more high end players.
It's Tampa Bay. Yet they're well coached. Clearly, they're tough,
and there is a level of mental toughness to this
(07:48):
franchise that did not exist under Dan Snyder. And I
truly believe this. It starts at the top. I've worked
for one NFL team and the owner is pretty I
would say there's a supportive nature. It's not random that
the Eagles have been successful since Jeffrey Lurie has owned
the team. And I think if you're a Washington Commander fan,
(08:10):
whether you lose this next round against the Lions by
twenty points, whether it's a close game, you win, regardless
what happens the rest of the season, it's already been
a major success. It's about the future. How excited, like,
are we a real franchise? Are we a team that's
gonna be good every single year? And my response would
be probably yes, I don't know, like if you're gonna
(08:32):
win Super Bowls or how good you're gonna be, Like
obviously won twelve wins or twelve games this year. I
think we'd all agree it's it's probably more like a
nine or ten win season. But with a rookie starting
quarterback with a brand new administration, it's incredible accomplishment. And
the like I say this about the Chargers and the
Denver Broncos all the time, this is the worst team
they're gonna have, And I would say this about Adam
(08:54):
Peters and Dan Quinn this is gonna be the worst
team they have. So congratulations for just becoming a real
franchise because under Dan Snyder they simply were not. They
were like the Bears, they were like the Jags, they
were like the Raiders, just a consistent, laughingstock joke, a
team that other good teams circled to be, like when
(09:16):
they cut that guy or when that guy becomes available
for trade, we want them. And now you're a playoff
team where the future couldn't be any brighter. And just
before we dive into the media, this game overall, you know,
during football season, right from the start of football season
up until week eighteen. There are so many games every
(09:37):
day on Saturday and Sunday, so if you do have
a clunker or something boring, there's always something else to watch.
And for those of you with YouTube TV, we have
a million options. Right usually get the four boxes so
you can watch the entertaining game while the shitty games
are going on. Obviously, during the playoffs, every single game
is a primetime game in the sense that it just
(09:59):
gets to isolate, live in a vacuum by itself and
you're stuck with it. And I used to love to nap,
and in my adult life it's very, very difficult for
me to do that, maybe because I drink a ton
of coffee, but unless I am severely hungover, I cannot
sleep during the middle of the day anymore. It's something
I wish I still could do, like I could in
(10:21):
my twenties, but definitely in my thirties and headed into
my forties. It's just not something I have in the back.
But yesterday I fell asleep during the Charger Houston game
because it was so bad. It actually got good at
the end, but the meat of it was just it
was an unwatchable product. And then this morning as the
Buffalo bill started curb stomping the Denver Broncos kind of
(10:45):
took a little snooze between that game and the Eagles game,
and that just never happens to me. And part of
it was like the football was kind of boring and
this weekend was kind of a dud until that game
on Sunday night. And obviously you would say it was
probably one of the least you know, just in terms
of headliners, Washington, who hasn't been a great franchise over
(11:08):
the last twenty years in Tampa. It was a smaller market.
Obviously they're a good team, but it's not exactly the
Eagles and the Packers or Buffalo and Denver. But that
game was awesome. That was extremely enjoyable and for as
crappy as most of the football that we've watched in
the previous four games, I mean, that Pittsburgh Baltimore game
(11:30):
is a complete embarrassment. If you're a Pittsburgh Steiler fan,
and you guys all know and you guys agree like
that something has to change, and that's going to be
a conversation that not only shouldn't die, it should gain
steam over the next couple of days. But I felt
very like, I'm glad this is happening right now because
I just needed a good football game. I needed something
to come down to the wire where every play felt big,
(11:51):
where every third and short felt like it mattered, where
a team was going forward on fourth down and sometimes
they were getting it, sometimes they weren't, and being emotionally
moved moved, you know, in a tie game with a
defensive holding call instead of it being a twenty point blowout,
where you're like, this is just run out the clock.
So congrats to those two teams for just entertaining us
(12:12):
now on the game. When I got done with Colin,
the first quarter was almost over, I think it was
three to nothing, and as the game went on, then
Jaden led him on a touchdown drive. The Tampa Bay
did not look very good until the final drive in
the first half with Baker Mayfield where he went on
that run he ended up running over Bobby Wagner. He's
(12:34):
kind of the guy that ignites that franchise. I mean,
once upon a time, John Dorsey drafted him number one
overall and said that he reminded him of Brett Farv.
There was an intangible quality to Baker that is hard
to quantify, but you know when you're around it, and
early on in his career you didn't really feel it.
These last couple of years in Tampa, you really do
(12:56):
let him on a touchdown drive, Boom scores a touchdown
and the game kind of gets going. And one thing
you saw in the second half is Terry McLaurin and
Jayden Daniels, Baker Mayfield and Mike Evans, Like that's an
elite combo with those guys. It's basically an unstoppable operation
when those two guys get rolling with their number one target,
(13:17):
and it's really really enjoyable to watch. And Jayden is
a true dual threat guy. Whatever Baker has done in
over the course of the last I don't know, forty
eight months, maybe not that forty eight months, maybe twenty
four months of losing the weight of clearly just being
a lot more explosive as an athlete, Like running and
(13:38):
movement is a big part of his game, and he
just is a really, really enjoyable player to watch. I
really like watching those two quarterbacks play football, and Jaden
the threat he had and Listen, I liked Washington going
for it constantly on fourth down. You have nothing to lose.
You're on the road, you're a dog. This is year
(14:01):
one playing for field goals. Who gives a shit? Let
it rip? And they went forward on an early fourth
down and they got it to Zach Ertz. They went
for another one on the goal line, they did not
get it. Then they get the Tampa gainst the ball back.
Obviously Baker has I don't know if miscommunication, the mistiming.
(14:21):
They fumble the ball, Tampa gets it back. Then after
that they went in a situation where they went for
it on fourth and goal, wasn't even close to Ertz,
and I guess that was the play I was talking about.
Tampa fumbled. Then fourth and goal they hit Terry McLaurin
for the touchdown, and it was just like, this is awesome.
(14:41):
And on the Terry McClure touchdown after the Baker Mayfield fumble,
you can see Winfield killing grass. He has just stopped
as Terry's running right behind him. So instead of going
back and being a football player, instead of being a robot,
he's frozen because he's scared Jaden's gonna run tow the pylon.
And Jayden's athleticism and the threat of a running moment
(15:06):
at any time. Froze one of the better defensive backs,
especially you know, playing forward in the NFL in Winfield
and McLaurin got open with ease. And one problem you
saw as this game went on is Tampa's front's good.
I mean, Vidavea is one of the best players in
the NFL. Vidavea is a star. Clancy looks excellent, I
(15:29):
mean how good the ole explosive their front looks, but
their back end is not great. And I know they
were dealing with some injuries, but there were countless big
times in the game tonight, whether it was fourth down,
fourth and five, fourth and goal, where you just felt like,
I don't know if Tampa can cover these guys, and
(15:52):
countless times over the middle of the field, Jaden Daniels
hit big plays and obviously the play that cemented the
game was I mean Clancy had a chance to tackle
him in the backfield. I think if you could do
it over again, when Jayden gives him the stiff arm,
he went for the body. He should have just grabbed
his stiff arm and essentially hip dropped the stiff arm.
(16:13):
Grab the stiff arm, either climb up on him like
a lion does on the serengetti to its prey, or
you just grab the arm and fall down and let
your whatever your body weight is take the quarterback down
with these but instead Jaden great play kind of stiff
arms him and then uses his leg and dies for
the first down, and you know, essentially ends the game
(16:33):
right there. But I think the difference down the stretch
of this game. Obviously, the Baker Mayfield fumble was a
huge swing moment because at the time it was seventeen
to thirteen and it just that was killer. But I
do think that that play in the backfield, like part
(16:53):
of Jayden Daniels, and you see this with Lamar Is,
he can kill you throwing the ball. We know he's
a good deep ball thrower, he's an excellent thrower over
the middle of the field, but he freezes everybody in
the second line of defense with his legs because at
any moment, especially on you know, any down and distance
that's not like third and fifteen, if it's like third
(17:15):
and three, third and four, third and two, at any moment,
he can take off and get laterally to the edge,
and that's what he did tonight. So I really enjoyed
this game. I think it's crazy, how good, how just
consistently physical Washington's defenses with not really a star studed group.
(17:39):
I mean Tampa's from a name recognition standpoint, Clancy Videvea, Levante,
David Winfield, Carlton Davis was in and out of the game,
but he's he's a solid player. And you just watch,
you watch Washington, and you go. They got the two
defensive tackles. Obviously Payne got injured. They have Bobby Wagner,
(18:00):
who's pretty long in the tooth and nowhere near his
once upon a time elite self. He's still a solid player,
but he's not the Hall of Fame version of himself
that he was four or five, six, seven years ago.
And you just watch a team like it reminds me
of a better version, because Jaden is so much better
version of Daniel Jones of what the New York Giants
(18:22):
were the year that they beat Minnesota in the first
round of the playoffs, the year that what was that
game that was Dave, Yeah, they beat him, Kirk Cousins
and Minnesota had won thirteen games and they just went
in there. Now, every human alive would take Daniel or
excuse me, Jaden Daniels over Daniel Jones. But that team
(18:42):
was just so well coached, it was so tough. It
was just they were just buttoned up. And they remember
they had Wink Martindale was their defensive coordinator and Dave
Ball was the coach of the year. That's kind of
the vibe you get here. I don't love all of
Cliff's stuff. I mean some of the short yardage when
he puts the quarterback in the shotgun on the one
(19:03):
play at work tonight because Jayden that was the stiff
arm play. But that stuff makes me nervous. It's not
my cup of tea. Like if I had to pick
one of the two offensive coordinators, I would take Liam
Cohen all day, every day over Cliff Kingsbury as my
offensive coordinator because of the style of offense in which
he runs. And clearly you saw this year once they
got Bucky Irv and they're dramatically better running the football
(19:27):
than they have been in years past with Leftwich and
what's his name in Carolina last year. But this game
was fun, that was really really enjoyable. Two defensive coaches
kind of going at it, and you have to wonder,
you know, I don't think Liam Cohen's going to get
a head coaching job. And listen, I like Todd Bowles,
(19:49):
but I'd be hard pressed to let Liam Cohen walk
out of the building. And that would be the one
thing that would make me nervous. I laugh when people
go Cliff Kingsbury is gonna get what hired as a
head coach. The guy was a head coach like two
years ago at Arizona Cardinals, like we all saw that.
Now just because he makes some good play calls with
Terry mclaur and Jade Daniel, are gonna hire him to
(20:10):
be your head coach? That seems kind of crazy to me.
I can't be alone on that. I'm not like what
he's doing in Washington solid, but this notion and I
get he's got a lot of friends in the media
and by all accounts, he's a great guy. I'm not
rooting against him, but we just saw it a couple
of years ago. It did not work. It's why I
(20:32):
see all these puff pieces with Brian Flores. Guys. Brian
Flores is an excellent defensive coordinator. We know that no
one's ever argued that Brian Flores's problem was he was
a raging asshole with the offense. He couldn't get along
with offensive coaches or the quarterback. That's kind of important
in twenty twenty five. It doesn't really work without that.
(20:53):
Like we saw Cliff Kingsbury in Arizona. He was like
a better looking version of Mike McDaniel. No accountability. Players
walked all over this notion that like two years later
we're like, how about this guy? How about that guy? Guys,
we literally just saw all this. You think anything's gonna change,
Like what are we talking about? But that's the way
(21:15):
it goes sometimes in the NFL. The powerful thing in
the NFL, when you want to get that momentum going,
you get someone to write a piece about you. I
read the thing about Floraes and Grigson. You know, you
see the momentum about Cliff Kingsbury. It's like, can you
imagine being like, what's his name? Why can't I remember
his name? Steve Spagnola, who I understands older but can
(21:38):
barely get a sniff. I mean, it's shocking when you
see that. He gets an interview and everyone's like, what
about Flores? What about Kingsbury? What about this guy? It's like, hey, guys.
I've been literally kicking the shit out of everybody for
half a decade right now, and I've got a combined
one interview in six years. And these guys were laughing
(22:00):
out of their buildings. We're run out of town, and
they're just like getting interviews left and right, and they're
getting puff pieces about them all over the place, like
give this guy another shot. The power of the media
and this stuff. You see it with coaches, and you
see it during draft time, and it's why these agents
work these people to write puff pieces and talk about
(22:21):
them and tweet about them and say what you want.
It sounds stupid, but it works because these owners and
these people in these hiring committees spend a lot of
time on social media, and for whatever reason, they gain
momentum in those situations. It's fucking laughable, and it's not
shocking that the same teams went over and over while
(22:42):
these guys recycle and get fired in three or four years.
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Speaker 1 (24:25):
One thing I was thinking is heading in to these
last couple of weekends of football, would anyone take the
trio of the AFC Baltimore Buffalo, so essentially the winner
of that game. I think we all acknowledge that it
would be stunning if the Chiefs were to lose to Houston.
(24:45):
So basically the Chiefs versus the winner of Buffalo Baltimore
or the rest of the field to win the Super Bowl.
So essentially the NFC versus those teams. And I was
thinking about for the majority of the two thousands and
twenty tens, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady went to thirteen
Super Bowls. Peyton went to four, Tom went to nine,
(25:10):
and they won. You know, Peyton won two, Tom one
once he went to not counting Tampa, but just when
they played in the same conference, they won eight Super Bowls.
So it's basically those two guys winning all the time.
There was Naron Rodgers and Drew Brees and a Roethlisberger
in there. But for the most part, there weren't many randoms.
(25:30):
Why because they were beating everybody. And you watched Josh
Allen today, you watched Lamar Jackson last night. We've watched
Patrick Mahomes flip a switch down the stretch of the season.
It's not even a fair fight. It really isn't. When
Joe Burrow can't make the playoffs and he's the only
guy that should be included in that conversation. These guys
(25:50):
are in a different universe than everyone else, in a
different universe. Patrick Mahomes could retire tomorrow, he would walk
straight into the Hall of Fame. Josh Allen and Lamar
Jackson are Hall of Fame players in the peak of
their powers and dominate. I can't wait for this game
on Sunday Night. But is anyone beating these teams? Because
I would say that Buffalo is probably the worst team
(26:14):
of the three. But if Josh beats Baltimore and then
goes on the road and beats Kansas City, they clearly
are peaking at the right time and no one's betting
against them. If Baltimore goes on the road to Buffalo,
and then beats the Chiefs. Nobody's betting against them, and
the Chiefs because they're the one seed, only got to
play one of the two, where last year they had
to play them both. Take care of business of Houston.
(26:36):
Let these two teams beat the shit out of each other,
host that game at Arrowhead, win that game their favorite
in the super Bowl. I think right now, unless anything
can happen in football, it's a one game scenario. It's
not a you know, a series, right, so you could
have a bad half and it can cost you a game.
But how do we not have Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson
(26:57):
or Patrick Mahomes hosting the Lombardis We got watched the
Eagles today. I'm sorry, like Jalen's missed some games. He
just looked off. And their offense for most of the
year passing wise, has been very hit or miss. Their
defense is good, but lost to Kobe Dean. They had
to throw Burks in there. I saw Burks last year
played for the forty nine ers. He's not any good.
(27:19):
It's one thing to play a half with the guy,
it's another thing to play him in a full game
against the Lions, against the Ravens, he is a liability.
He guess what happens against elite teams, liabilities get exposed
and before he goes out, Like the Eagles didn't have
that many liabilities, their defense was so stacked, and now
they got a key liability on teams that have fantastic
(27:39):
running backs and tight ends, and that's where that type
player gets exposed because you get him in one on
one situations and you attack him. So I just think,
right now, it's gonna come down to the AFC, and
really the AFC is those three teams. So it's you know,
Manning and Brady carried this league for a long long time,
(28:01):
and that's what it feels like Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes,
and Lamar Jackson are doing currently. I wrote down just
some things that just made me scratch my head, like
what the hell is going on? And sometimes you have
those moments like what the hell is going on today?
In the Packer game, obviously they had to put in
a backup left guard. And sometimes there's a reason you're
(28:23):
a backup and not a starter. You're not as good
as the guy. And because we don't see, for the
most part, only the teams truly know how good your
backup is or not. But even in the land of backups,
some backups are way better than other backups. Like some
backups are a second year player who is gonna go
(28:44):
on to be a five year starter in the NFL.
Other backups are only on the team, maybe because of injury,
maybe because of some poor draft picks, and in six
months during free agency in the draft, that guy's roster
spot will be in jeopardy and he will not be
a backup in the NFL. And you saw today the
Packers got into a pinch and had to go to
(29:04):
a backup and he got exposed immediately. And sometimes when
you have to play a backup against the wrong matchup
i e. The Eagles who have elite inside pass rush
in Jalen Carter, you are fucked. And there is not
a goddamn thing the offensive coordinator can do because he's
(29:24):
just gonna get put in one on one situations against
the defensive lineman. And he was holding him, he was
holding him, he was holding him. So they yanked him
out of the game and then they put the backup
in and late in the game, the backup, you know,
the backup to the backup gets tossed into the center,
hopefully didn't break his ankle, and it was like just
an all time meltdown. You have that spot and sometimes,
(29:48):
you know, for a long time you could get around
having a bad guard or a bad center on your
team because most teams did not have big time interior
pass rush. I would say most teams in the NFL
now have at least one, especially the good team's high
end interior rushers, and they will move those guys around,
(30:11):
and hell, they'll put defensive ends now over a guard
or a center if that guy is that bad. Aaron
Donald used to do this all the time, Like if
you would hurt, a tackle would get injured, and you
would put in a backup left tackle or backup right tackle,
the rams would move ninety nine and they would just
flex him out of defensive end for a couple of snaps.
You'd be like, let's see if you can block this guy.
(30:31):
Happen to the Niners countless times. It's like, oh shit,
here we go. And that's that they will sniff you
out and they'll smoke you out, and they will just
expose your problem immediately, you know, for whatever reason. And
I get it. He's a pollar rising guy. I guess
(30:55):
everyone doesn't just acknowledge Jim Harbaugh's good at his job.
Some people just hate Jim Harball. I don't know if
he's a quirky guy, kind of arrogant, kind of cocky.
People just look down upon guys that win a lot, right,
just jealousy. Most people aren't winners, so they try to
demean that guy. He's obviously a weird cat, so I
(31:17):
guess people naturally root against him. And for whatever reason,
people just want to act like Justin Herbert isn't good
at football. Oh, everyone's been telling me jerking off. Justin
Herbert is his all time great players. Like guys, No
one acts like Justin Herbert is better than Josh Allen,
Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow or Patrick Mahomes. He's just better
(31:38):
than everybody else. Now, did he have an awful game, Yes,
he was terrible, probably one of the worst games in
college or the pros he's ever played in his life.
But if you think if you lined up every general
manager and you took the four guys that I listed
off the table and started listing everybody else and said,
(31:58):
do you want Justin Herbert or this guy? And just
started going down the line from Jared Goff to Jalen
Hurts to Baker Mayfield. Who do you think they would say?
And I get it. It's easy to pile on when
he has a god awful game and it was bad,
It was really, really bad. His best wide receiver is
Lad McConkie, who's really good. They traded Keenan Allen, they
(32:21):
got rid of Mike Williams. I don't know if you
notice put over the years, those guys are pretty good players.
So his wide receiver room isn't good and he has
to force balls to the little white guy, and he
overthrew him a couple times and it was ugly and
one went for a pick six. But this notion that
he's some scrub and some overrated media creation, and listen,
(32:42):
there are a lot of media creations that are fucking
laughable in sports and politics, you name it. This is
not one of them. This is one of those things
that universally in the industry everyone acknowledges this is a
high end player. Now, is he ever going to be
a champion? Is he ever going to be the league MVP?
I don't know. I wouldn't bet my life savings. And
(33:05):
he's gonna be a super Bowl champion. But I'd say
there's a decent chance why he has a great coach,
not a good coach. A great coach, you don't happen
to that great coach. He had his ass kick. You
know what happened to Bill Walsh in the eighties. He
didn't win the Super Bowl every year. Sometimes he lost
playoff games to the Giants, to the Bears, to the
(33:25):
Minnesota Vikings. They did not win it every year. Jim
Harball lost in the first round for the first time
in his NFL career. But it just made me laugh
that everyone. I knew some people would make fun of him.
I didn't realize like the universal hatred for this duo
(33:45):
so overrated guys, What are we talking about? I mentioned
it earlier and I will say it again. This is
the worst version of the Chargers and the deadver Broncos.
For Sean Payton and Jim Harbaugh. This the worst their
team is going to be moving forward was this season.
Both these teams are going to be better next year.
(34:08):
I say the same thing about the Commanders. They might
not win twelve games next year, might win ten. They
will be more talented next year. I'll promise you that
the Jets man, this is one that is just really
head scratching. I was thinking about this today Dennis Allen.
I saw a clip come up on my Instagram. Jay Glazers,
(34:32):
who was really close with Sean Payton back in the day,
so he I think still is but knew all the
Saints guys really well. So he's tight with any dude
that came from the Saints, and he's boys with Dennis Allen.
And Dennis Allen was talking about how he's really tried
to invest himself in his family over the last two months.
Dennis Allen got fired a long time ago. Matt Eberfluss
(34:56):
got fired a long time ago. Robert Sala was the
first guy to be fired. A week or two later,
Joe Douglas is gone. Those three teams fired their guys
forever ago. Doug Peterson lost his job on Black Monday.
As of recording this right now, Mike McCarthy not quite
(35:16):
sure what's going on there. Feels like he's staying, but
who knows. But he had his job the whole time.
These other teams fired their guys forever ago. So the
Jets go into this process and every single day they interview,
like seven people like what is going on? And this
is what happens when Tannebaum and Spielman who listen, I like,
(35:40):
I know Mike Tannebaum. I had Rick Spielman on the
podcast last year. He was an awesome interview. But whenever
you hire these consultant firms, it always feels like they
have their own agenda and their own objective. You start
helping out some agents, you start helping out some of
your buddies. I'll never forget when Washington State was looking
(36:04):
for a coach. I think it was I think it
would have been like twenty eleven or twenty twelve. They
interviewed the athletic director who had come I think from
like Domino's, Like he had had a business background before
he got into college athletics. And they asked him about
like what search firm or committee he was going to
use to help him whittle down his candidates, and he said,
(36:26):
I'm hiring the search firm of what you're looking at,
it's me. I'm the committee. I will conduct the search.
And if you're Woody Johnson and you have a team president,
once you fire everybody, shouldn't your job as a team
president or any of his right hand men have been
to accumulate a list of the specific six to seven
(36:47):
guys that you want to talk to. So they're going
on this wild goose chase of interviewing people like Mike
Loxley and how I like this guy too, Jim Naggy
from the Senior Bowl. No one of these guys are
gonna get hired yet, what is the point of interviewing
them all? And I'm not anti interviewing people to gain
some information, but this is also serious. Like you saw
(37:11):
the Patriots for the first time in a while, it
felt like, you know what, the Patriots got their shit
back together just of we know exactly what we want.
We're firing this guy to hire Mike Vrabel. We're not
gonna just maybe we'll like Ben Johnson know, we're going
after Mike Vrabel, will bang off Byron Lefwich and Pep
(37:32):
Hamilton check off the Rooney rule, and we're gonna hire
this guy immediately. We're not fucking around. We're not gonna
interview six other people to hopefully get some tidbits about
some other shit. No, Mike Frables our got how could
the Jets fired these people so long ago, even if
you don't know who your specific guy is gonna be,
they not have a pretty good idea of like three
(37:53):
or four guys. These are the guys we're gonna dial
into and want to get to know Aaron Glenn. Hopefully
we can get Ben Jonson and a couple other offensive coordinators,
maybe a defensive coordinator former a coach like Rex Ryan
or whatever, and have a specific idea. Instead, it just
feels like they're kind of pissing in the wind and
hopefully don't get soaked. And we talk about all the time,
(38:16):
like the haves and the have nots in the NFL.
The Bears are getting crushed. They're interviewing a million people.
You fired Eberflus on Thanksgiving. It is January twelfth. How
what on when Black Monday started? You kept your general manager?
Not have a specific idea. We're gonna give Thomas Brown
(38:37):
a chance to interview, and we're gonna go after these
three or four guys. These are the guys. These are
the guys we've done all this research on. What else
have you been spending your time on? I don't get it,
Like this is when Harbaugh, brothers Andy Reid, Sean McDermott
this is not a fair fight. This league is one sided.
(38:59):
We say it's all about the quarterbacks. Obviously you gotta
have a good quarterback, but it's all about the organizational
philosophy from the owner to the front office. They're the
haves and the have nots. It's like society, you get
the rich people and the poor people. Difference in the NFL.
Everyone's rich, but because you're part of the club, it
doesn't actually mean you know what you're doing. And you
see these franchises that just feel like they're lost at
(39:21):
see that they have no freaking chance, and it's it's
kind of sad, Like I feel for Jets fans, there's
a lot of them. I feel for Bears fans, there's
a lot of them. It just doesn't feel like anyone
knows what's going on. And I would say the Raiders
feel like that a little bit too. I know Tom
Brady's much more involved now, but it's I don't know.
It just feels like everyone's lost, like no one has
(39:42):
any clear idea of what they want, Like you should
have a pretty specific idea, especially in this business, of like,
these are the five guys, the five guys I'm gonna
put a fence around these five guys, and I'm gonna
do all my due diligence, all my work, interview the
shit out of all of them, will fly to each
one we meet in person. I'm pro zoom and listen,
(40:05):
I do a lot of zoom stuff. I do zoom
calls with clients, people we do business with. I'm not
anti zoom, but if I was gonna give guy a
four or five year contract at ten to fifteen million
dollars a year to be the head coach of my
football team, I don't think if I could meet with
him in person, I would do it over zoom. That's
just bad business. If you have to do it over zoom,
(40:29):
because they have a job and the rules totally understand it.
There's nothing you can do. But if you have the
ability to either fly him to you or fly to
that guy, and you are interested in potentially making him
your head coach, you deserve to lose if you do
it over zoom, I think you're a fucking moron. And last,
but not least, a couple of years ago, this guy
(40:55):
named Tony Fenol, who's actually an Arizona resident for a
long time, on the PGA tour he was one of
the best players. Famously, he was in Tiger Woods's group
in twenty nineteen when Tiger won the Masters, and he
hid in the water on hold twelve. But it was
like he was making all this money. He was a
great player, but he could never win. And then he
finally won. He actually won back to back weeks a
couple of years ago, and it was a really big deal.
(41:16):
And he gave a quote that I'll never forget, and
he said, a winner is just a loser who never
gave up. And that always stuck with me because I
think most people like what really separates people in society.
Obviously there are more talented people than others, but I
think a consistent theme that anyone is taught at a
young age, he's like, just keep showing up, keep swinging,
(41:38):
do not quit. And a lot of people when they're
faced with adversity, and it's inevitable in life that you're
going to go through personal and professional adversity, whether you
lose someone close in your life, your parents, close family member,
broken up with, dump, divorced, fired, bankruptcy, you name it, it
is unavoidable. Some people just dust themselves off, maybe not
(42:03):
the next day, it's human nature to let it rattle
you for a little bit. I've been fired a couple times.
I didn't wake up swing in the next day. Sometimes
it took a week, maybe two. But you have you
either start moving forward or you wallow and pity and
you get lapped. You either choose like I'm gonna figure
this out and I'm going to start making progress moving forward,
(42:25):
whatever that may look like, or I'm just gonna go
into a tank and let life control me. And I
think when you look at the National Championship, let's start
early in the season Notre Dame and lost to NIU,
which is about as embarrassing of a home loss as
they've ever had in the history of the program. The
(42:45):
crazy thing was that at the time, it's like, well,
n IU, they might just be an excellent team. I
look the other day. They finished seventh in the MAC.
They did not have a good season. They lost a
ton of games. They did not parlay the note name
season or win into some great season. It did not
go well. It would have been pretty easy to be
(43:07):
like this, this is not gonna be good. Instead, they
clearly came together and they started kicking everyone's ass, and
then they got to the playoffs, and they used that
adversity that they had early in the season, and they
got into a tight game with Georgia and they overcame it.
They got into a tight game with Penn State and
they overcame it. I think that is directly correlated to
(43:29):
losing that NIU game Ohio State. The Orgame loss is
not a crazy loss at Eugene. A lot of people
lose their not that big a deal, especially in the
fashion in which they lost. That's the type loss you
hold your head high, you don't even drop in the rankings.
The Michigan loss was their version of the NIU loss.
It was unexplainable. They were basically a three touchdown favorite
(43:52):
at home. They were better in literally every area except
they're not as tough, and for whatever reason, they tried
to prove they were tough and run it right up
the middle, and it failed and they lost. And I
don't think it was hyperbolic when everyone reacted to like
fire Ryan Day, and I get Ryan Day's got a
lot of buddies, Herbstreet, Joel Clatt, and they all defended him.
That loss is not defendable, and if they wanted to
(44:13):
fire him after that loss, it would have been defensible
to fire him. It was that bad. And you could
tell on Ryan Day's face like it was the most
embarrassing moment of his life. He was shell shocked. It
looked like he just witnessed a murder when they were
getting in the fight at midfield. But whatever they did
since that moment galvanized their team and they came together.
(44:37):
And obviously the first two games they beat the crap
out of Tennessee in Oregon, but then that game against
Texas like they felt a little adversity, and like Notre
Dame against Penn State, they prevailed and they came out
on top. And I think both are great examples of
it would have been easy to go into the tank.
It would have been easy to like let the season
get away from you. After the Michigan loss and after
(44:59):
the NIU lost, no one would have thought it would
have been that nuts if Ohio State would have lost,
maybe not the Tennessee game looking back, but that Oregon
game or even against Texas. But they just refuse to lose.
And I think sometimes when you go through a really,
really tough time, if you are able to bottle that
(45:19):
up and use it to your benefit. Sky's the limit,
because let's be real, when you're having success at whatever
you're doing, you don't learn that much. You really don't.
You learn through failure, you learn through adversity. And I
think both these programs are directly correlated, like their success
(45:45):
with the two games that you could argue are two
of the worst losses of the season and might be
the two worst losses of twenty twenty four. Think about that.
The National Championship between Ohio State and Notre Dame includes
the two worst losses of the season NIU at Notre
Dame and Michigan at Ohio State. I mean, I think
(46:07):
combined it was like forty five point favorites. I don't
know the exact spread off top of my head for NIU.
I know I think Ohio State finished like eighteen and
a half nineteen points. At one point in time it
was over twenty and now they're playing in the Natty.
How cool is that? See you guys tomorrow Monday Night Football.
I think I like the rams, the volume