May 9, 2025 • 40 mins
John answers all of your questions in this episode's massive mailbag segment.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. What is going on? Everybody, Happy fu gayzy Friday.
Hopefully everyone is doing well and getting ready for a big,
(00:25):
nice weekend. Today, we're just gonna do a big mail
bag at John Middlecoff. At John Middlecoff is the Instagram.
Fire in those dms and get your questions answered on
the show. We had Willie Cologne on yesterday, so if
you missed that podcast, you've got to subscribe to three
and Out podcast. You've got to subscribe it separate from
(00:47):
Collins Feed obviously, as well as the YouTube. But today
we'll be a mail bag only, so fire in those
get those mail bag questions. Obviously, we got a long summer,
so buckle up. The sun's shining, it's warm outside, and
we will be mail bagging because there's your guys show.
So we like to interact with the people. Well, I
(01:08):
mean technically it's mine, but without you guys, it doesn't exist.
It'd just be me talking to nobody. And yeah, other
than that, no plans beside uh mail bag today. So
let's let's dive in. But first, you know, I gotta
tell you about my friends, my partners, and the official
ticketing app of this podcast, Game Time. Here's the drill,
usually the afternoon NBA playoff game, the Eastern game. I
(01:32):
don't watch right away. I'm out doing stuff. Maybe I
was taking the dog for a walk, running Errand's on Wednesday.
Checking my phone the Knicks. It's the second half and
they're down. I'm like, oh, they're gonna lose by twenty.
And then I check again, like in the beginning of
the fourth or maybe a couple of minutes in, they're
down like fifteen points. I like, this game's over. And
then I just don't even turn on the TV, which
is unlike me. I mean, I probably watch as much
(01:53):
TV as any human in America, especially I do it
for a living, and to try to always have a
game on on one of the television's in the house.
Didn't do it. Then I checked my phone. I got
some burgers on the barbecue. Knicks have lost, obviously up
two ozho going to the garden. Probably the most expensive
Nick ticket potentially ever. I mean, when you factor in
inflation everything. So if you live in that area, you
(02:15):
want to watch your squad, any playoff basketball game, any
playoff hockey game, baseball off and running Dodgers look good,
the Padres look good. So you want to check out
a baseball game, football game. Football is not that far away.
It's not right around the corner, but it's not forever.
So we've already passed the draft. We're just like, I mean,
(02:35):
a couple months away from the fourth of July and
then Boom training camp will be here. So if you
want to get your tickets early, you know we got
you covered. Take the guests work out of buying tickets
with game Time. Download the game Time app, created an
account and use a go John for twenty dollars off
your first purchase. Terms of play Again, create an account
and redeem the code John for twenty dollars off. Down
the game Time at the day, last minute tickets low
as prices guarantee. I think I'll bang out some questions
(02:59):
and I'll give my Fugazi Friday probably in the middle,
and then I'll bang out some more. How do you
survive the offseason? I swear I'm losing my mind over here.
Just don't say baseball or basketball. They don't even come
close to filling the void. There is no filling the void.
But as someone that I mean, I watch a lot
(03:20):
of football, like many of you, I can take a
deep breath for a couple months. I when sun comes out,
play a little golf, enjoy some family time, just take
a deep breath, calm before the storm. So I like
the build up of the summer. I mean, I'm a
summer guy, not a winter guy. So I'm a football
guy through and through, but I do like to experience summer,
(03:43):
even if where I'm at it's one hundred and fifteen degrees.
Question for the bag, how cool would it be if
arch ended up on the Colts. It's also a decent
chance it's happening because the Colts are gonna stink. We
talked about this the other day, which Manning gets discussed
like he's Peyton's son even more than Eli. It's like
(04:05):
he's Peyton's a guy. The crazy part is he's not
Peyton's son, He's not Eli's son. He's Cooper's son. Obviously
they're all synonymous with each other. I would say, Peyton,
you know, I guess if you're older, if you were
like my dad, you knew that family from Archie. But
Peyton has really taken the mantle of being the most
(04:27):
famous Manning and he deserves it. Even though his brother
had won multiple Super Bowls before. He had won multiple
Super Bowls and won his first Super Bowl before Peyton
won one, or maybe I guess Peyton won one and
then Eli one one. But regardless, I do think we
talk and just the casual person. I'm sure I'm guilty
of this if we're having a cocktail, just bullshit about him.
(04:47):
It's like, Oh, Manning, he's gonna be like Peyton. It's like, guys,
he's Cooper's son, Like you know, if I was gonna
argue with you, So why couldn't he go to the Giants?
The Giants had Eli. They won multiple supers Super Bowls
with Eli. Hell, Peyton only won the one Super Bowl
with Indy. I think it would be cool if he
went to either spot. But again, he's not Peyton or
(05:08):
Eli Sun. He's Cooper's who was a great athlete, was
going to Ole Miss to play wide receiver before he
got I don't want to screw up whatever he had,
but it forced him to retire from football. And if
you've watched that special on the Mannings, it was a
big driving force for Peyton and like kind of drove
him through college and early on in his NFL career
was like playing for Cooper, a huge Ravens fan here.
(05:32):
Over the past few years, the opinions of Ravens fans
have increasingly grown sour on Harball. Year after year. We
are very dominant team in the regular season, but always
seem unprepared for the big moments. For example, in the
Bills divisional game this year, if you told me they
didn't practice ball control the entire week or at halftime adjustments,
(05:55):
I wouldn't beat an eye. I think we should have
promoted Mike McDonald last year while he was still in
house and clearly showed the Ravens mentality. What do you
think about John's recent quote unquote success during the Lamar era.
I think anytime you're in a situation like him and
Mike McCarthy was a little bit of a version of
(06:16):
like this. When you win that Super Bowl early, it
gained you a lot of equity with the franchise. So
he woned whatever against the forty nine Ers, just like
McCarthy wanted early against the Steelers, and that carries with
you with some of your devastating losses. I think at
this point in time, over the next two or three years,
(06:37):
because listen, you guys consistently win you're one of the
better run organizations. He hires fantastic coaches. I mean, Mike
McDonald's pretty good. Higher like you get credit for that.
Jesse mentor his brother's guy, like that was John Harbaugh's guy,
Anthony Linson, who's now the USC defensive coordinator, Like that
was a John Harbaugh hire. That they are great at
(06:58):
hiring defensive coaches. I mean they really are. So he
does a lot of good. But when you have a
player this dominant, especially in the regular season, and a
defense that is consistently pretty sweet, I mean they're not
always like two years ago best defense in the league,
but they are never it doesn't feel like I'm sure
we could find some examples. But during the Lamar era,
they've been really, really good. I would say these next
(07:22):
couple of year and would say the same thing for
the Bills when you got Josh Allen, when you got
Lamar Jackson, I mean, it's Super Bowl bust. You know,
they are probably two of the only teams, like Chiefs
are truly the only team in the league that you
can say the Eagles now because they got over the
hump and they won it with Jalen, They're like, if
you said, right now, the season ends and you lose
(07:43):
in the Super Bowl, like that is a major disappointment
to the Chiefs, to the Eagles, and I think the
Ravens and the Bills are two teams that like, when
you have a quarterback this freaking good, it's on your
coach to get it done. You know, you want to
become like John Harbaugh can become a legend by winning
another Super Bowl. But it also feels in a weird
way like they're far away. I mean two years ago
(08:05):
they get worked at home by the Chiefs, who you know,
it's like, scored seventeen points. And then last year they
lose the Bills, who I think they were clearly better
than now. I don't put Mark Andrews drops like that.
Is that John's fault in ball security? Like what's he
supposed to tell Lamar hold on to the ball. He's not.
He's not the offensive coordinator. So I don't know. I mean,
(08:27):
I hear you. I just think beside like nitpicking Mark
Andrews dropping the ball or Lamar fumbling the ball in
the pocket, regardless, Like John Harbaugh's got to win with
these teams. He's got to win a Super Bowl. I mean,
because this team is more dynamic than the team he
won a Super Bowl with the first time. Are the
(08:48):
Steelers slowly becoming the Saints where they probably would have
blew it up and started their rebuild, but they're holding
onto the Super Bowl hopes, so they just keep getting
old and expensive. I would say a major difference is
the Saints have had some lulls, right, They've had the
lolls the last couple of years. They had them for
in the middle of the Drew Brees era. The Steeler
(09:09):
team has never lost, right that They have never been like, oh,
the Steelers just went five and twelve, Like that is
not happening. Now their seasons feel like a disappointment because
you know they're winning whatever nine ten games and then
getting rolled in the first round. And that's totally understandable.
But I don't think they're comparable at all. And they're
(09:30):
definitely not comparable franchises. I mean, the Saints when I
was a kid were called the Aints, they were called
the Aks. People wore paper bags to the games. People
get mad at Mike Tomlin because he keeps going ten
and seven. So it's I don't think it's comparable at all. Now,
relative to like their situation for good teams like, yeah,
they this, They're just in a weird spot. They really are,
(09:54):
And I don't really think anything gets better this year necessarily,
even though I like their draft. The tackles good. The
running back from Iowa. I watched Iowa in a weird
I don't know why, but a couple times this year
he was a stud. That's a good pick. How do
you think the Patriots draft did with their draft? While
(10:14):
giving draft grades immediately after the conclusion of their draft
is silly. I feel like they did pretty well addressing
needs while also adding value players in the mid to
late rounds. Curious to hear your thoughts. I've come around
on not that I was ever down on him, but
the listen. You can nitpick arm length all you want,
(10:35):
but talking to Willie Cologne last week or not last week,
I mean literally yesterday. I do think when you're wired
the right way and you're just a smart, tough guy,
like you're just not going to fail. He's just not
going to fail. Now, how good is he going to be?
Because anytime you draft an offensive lineman in the top five,
you want him to be a pro bowler. Time will tell,
(10:58):
But I think we have a long history. Like you
don't bet around those type guys, or you don't bet
against those type guys, will Campbell, you just don't like
they're gonna play in the NFL for a long time. Now,
how good it'll come down to? Does that armlengk become
an issue? But as Willie said, if you coach these
(11:18):
guys the right way, like you can't play maybe like
Jonathan Ogden or Trent Williams, your styles a little bit differently,
and Josh McDaniel's for a long period of his career.
You know, I wouldn't say Matt Light is exactly Trent Williams,
you know, or now I know Josh you know he
was in the two thousands. He wasn't always the offensive coordinator.
But but my point is simple is that you can
(11:41):
figure it out and if you have to attack your
protections a little bit differently or coach the technique a
little bit differently, that's what you got to do. But
I think he's gonna be a good player. And obviously
Henderson the Ohio State running backs of stud I mean
home run hitter. They drafted a guy Kyle Williams, the
wide receiver from Washington State in the second round. I
(12:02):
did not love the Polk pick last year from Washington.
I thought he was a third best wide receiver on
his own college team. Now, granted that college team was
in the championship and they had good wide receivers, but
I think McMillan for the Bucks is a better player,
and I think they realized they needed to kind of
restock the cupboard there. But you know, I'm not going
(12:23):
to break down your third day picks. But other than that,
I'd be pretty bullish on the Patriots. This is a
guy not happy because yesterday I said that the I
think the Cowboys gave up a little too much. I mean,
I just thought that giving up a third round pick
for a guy that is going to need a new
contract that not of a lot of other people wanted.
(12:44):
I just didn't like the deal. And the comment was
how he gave a third rounder for Dotson. We really
needed a number two wide receiver. The Cowboys were going
to draft McMillan, but the Panthers took him at eight.
The Cowboys were trying to trade for him during the draft,
but the Steelers wanted a first or second for him.
You take your take on this needs more context, just
like the Steelers will wait for Rogers because they are
(13:05):
desperate for the Cowboys. Here's the thing. Let me pull
up the Eagles trade for Dodson. So the Eagles gave
a third round pick and two seventh round picks in
exchange for a fifth round pick. Yeah, it's not a
(13:25):
good trade. I don't disagree, but I'd say Howie has
a long history of making good trades, and maybe he underestimated.
I forget at the time. Was someone injured, Did they
not like the rest of their room? Did they think
he brought something different? I think it's he would say
he would like that one back just because someone else
(13:46):
paid something like he doesn't like that trade. And he
has a long history of making sweet trades. In your
most recent history of Jerry Jones making two big trades
a fourth and a third round pick, which are valuable
picks for a team that is very like three or
four players at the top of their org jerk. The
Trey Lance thing was a disaster, and you just gave
away a fourth round pick, this third round pick. I
(14:09):
just can't get behind it. For a guy, I thought
the Dotson trade was weird too, but I gave Howie
the benefit of the doubt, like Jerry recently hasn't earned
the benefit of the doubt based on his recent moves
in the trade world. And you go, wait, especially when
you factor in you know, how we bet on their
draft grade. It was a local kid, and again they
(14:32):
regretted it. You know, this cowboy thing was like, we're
desperate for this elite town. Well, it's like that is
the team that's punting on this guy. I wouldn't have
done a deal with him. I'm sorry now, I hear you.
I don't disagree that you need offensive help, but I
just think that's a steep price to pay for a
guy that is a one year rental that you're a
team that is very desperate for picks. Your owner's proven
(14:55):
to be cheap. The other thing is, like Jeffrey has
proven over like a three or four year period, like
he'll spend the mon I was cashing the leak right
behind Jimmy Haslin. Your guy won't even though he's really rich.
Like that's a fact. And I've always just I'm guilty
of being Oh, Jerry's rich, he's wheeling a dealing like
it's kind of cheap. Crafts were like that forever too.
We talked about that yesterday. So I hear you listen.
(15:18):
If he's good, no one will really care. Been watching
your videos for the past seven hours. Good stuff. That's
a lot of watching me. I give you credit because
I don't think I could do that. Well. I can't.
I mean when I when I get shared like my Instagram,
like the reels and Twitter videos, I just press reposts.
(15:40):
I can't even I hate watching myself, but I appreciate that.
Wondering your thoughts on the Broncos is upcoming season. Keep
up the hard work. I think I said it last
year that that was gonna be the worst version of
the Chargers in the Broncos tho's gonna be their worst
teams from a roster standpoint. Now you can win eleven
twelve games and have a better team and win win
(16:01):
a game or two less. You're right. A fumble doesn't
go right here, an injury happens, but your team's going
to be better now. Sean Payton really liked that. Was
it the UCF running back you know, like they were
He talked about it after the draft. Who did the
Broncos draft? There should just be a page where I
(16:22):
can pull it up really quick. The Texas dB was
one of those guys that during the season people weren't
talking about him as a first round pick, and the
playoffs happened and the combine and everything happens, and he
I wouldn't say he's a riser because he's viewed as
a really good player. But I asked a buddy in
the league because some of my friends were definitely lukewarm
(16:44):
on him where he was drafted, and then some of
the pundits loved him right. People were really high on him.
Clearly teams were highing The Broncos are high on I said,
Brian Branch, the kind of safety hybrid nickel from the
from the Lions, who was people coming out the reason
he went in the mid second round is because like
(17:05):
kind of small, what positions do he play? And it's
like he's clearly a first round pick. I said, well,
is this guy that? And I had some friends that said,
I like Branch more so, you know, this is a nickel,
which is a starting corner position in the league. Like
if you can play the slot, you are a starter.
And if you can kind of play that hybrid role
like I can play safety, I can play corner in
(17:26):
a pinch on the outside, I can do a lot
of different things. There's a lot of value there. So
I think depending on who you talk to, people were
really high on him. Some people thought it's a little
bit of an overdraft. Clearly they liked Genty a lot,
and it was clear that Genty wasn't going to be
there and that they weren't going to be able to
trade up, and that's not a good move. So they
(17:48):
take RJ. Harvey in the second round, who Sean Payton loved,
so I listen, I give him the benefit of doubt
when he's evaluating that player because he has a pretty
good track record. I think the only question is gonna
be specifically because it's gonna be one of their rivals,
is they could have taken Hampton in the first round.
(18:08):
They could have just taken the guy the Chargers took.
So if it we're gonna gonna judge those two players
like you could have had Hampton. If Hampton becomes one
of the best running backs in the league, there's a
lot of pressure on barn There to be an impact player,
and if he doesn't and Harvey does, then he'll look
like a genius right, and it'll look like the Chargers
overdrafted him. So sometimes it doesn't necessarily like if a
(18:30):
running back had gone two spots later, but it had
gone to like the Cardinals, like whatever. But like it's
going to a team in your division that you're gonna
play twice and just gonna have a huge impact on
every year you play. So it's gonna be fascinating to watch.
I think the Bronc is gonna be pretty good. And
like I said, he's earned the benefit of doubt because
Harvey's another guy depending on who you talk to. But
(18:51):
catch the ball, get him in space. He's fast, forty
eight touchdowns. I mean, yeah, he's just he's a talented player,
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Speaker 1 (20:57):
I picked this one up from Nick Wright, but I
thought it was interesting and wanted to get your opinion.
Nick was asked about how some new ideas for the
NFL that said one or two more weeks on the
schedule with an additional bye week. He talked about an
altogether one week of international games overseas where sixteen games
are played in different cities across the world, and a
bye week given before or after the week. Well, what
(21:21):
would be on television? The NFL during the season is
never going to have a bye week for everybody. That's
never gonna happen at the same time, because television pays
the bills. So it's like if I don't have advertisers
on the show, like there's no food on the table right.
The reason in twenty twenty, the NFL is like there's
(21:43):
absolutely zero chance we're not playing football. Same with the SEC,
there's zero chances we're not playing football. Why because the
games on television literally pay for everything, so they will
never have a bye week where nobody's playing. Now, the
second bye week is something the media never shut up
about ever, and the players talk about it too. I've
(22:04):
never seen the league. I don't care if they want
to institute it. I'm not gonna complain, And honestly, I
like as the season gets going, when there are weeks
where there's way less games to watch, so it's it's
easier for me. I'm that's this is a selfish thing
to say, but when there are only three or four
games on TV in the morning, and then two afternoon
games and then all the primetime games, it's much easier
(22:27):
for me to work. But you know, the league has
never felt inclined, the league office with rog to do
that for whatever reason, and I don't care enough to
like look into it. But until it feels like the
league is ever entertaining that thought, it's kind of pointless
to talk about. Just one of those things that the
media talks about constantly. That is, now, if the if
(22:50):
the players want to negotiate it in the next collective
bargaining agreement, maybe it can happen. But if if they don't,
it's it doesn't feel like it's ever gonna happen. Question
for you, having played in Arizona a number of times,
why does the Phoenician not get more respect in the
course rankings. Personally it's in my top three in the
(23:11):
Scottsdale area and it never seems to get ranked high
on any list. I've only played at one time, and
like you said, I liked it a lot. It goes
right up through Camelback. It's beautiful the hotel. Again. Never
stayed there, but I know, like the San Francico Giants
stay there. I think a lot of the Major League
Baseball team stay there. Is really nice. It's a pretty
(23:34):
famous hotel. I don't know good question gets lost in
the shuffle a little bit. I can't exactly tell you why,
but yeah, I've never heard anyone stay at the Phoenician
that didn't like it. Quick, I'll hit on the couple
of fugasis really quick. I started because it's supposed to
(23:56):
be healthy for you, taking fish oil, and just like
anything you would take right like antioxidants, an advil or whatever.
You just take and don't even think about it. After
a couple days of taking it straight in in Arizona,
if you're outside, you're working out, you're gonna sweat. I
started sweating, and I started smelling like a sushi restaurant.
(24:17):
I could smell like the salmon on me. And then
I googled it and it's like, you gotta be careful.
If you take too much of it, you will smell
like a fish. And even when I wasn't sweating, I
could like smell it like on my mustache. I do'n't
have a mustache, but like if I hadn't shaved. And
then I sweated on my clothes and I was just
(24:38):
I put on clothes this morning and I was like,
where's this fish smell coming from? And I'm smelling my shirt.
I'm like, my shirt doesn't smell like it. And then
I realized I take off my shorts, so I'm in
my underwear and I walk out to the kitchen and
Maria's there and I say, can you smell my shorts
and tell me what they smell like? And she takes
(24:59):
one with and she starts laughing, and obviously it's smelled
like fish, And it's just I would never have taken
because its supposed to be healthy for You're supposed to
be good for a lot of different elements of your life.
But if you are gonna smell like a fucking fish,
if you have to take the supplement, I just don't
think that is a workable solution for whatever the fish
(25:20):
try to give you. Maybe I just need to eat
more salmon. But I think I'm done with fish oil
because it has made my clothes all my workout I
had to throw away a bunch of workout clothes. Now
granted they were like old stuff from like Fresno State
dry fits from Nike from like six but they reaped
of they smell like a salmon swimming through the swimming
(25:41):
through the Atlantic, and my other this isn't necessarily fugeesy,
but it's definitely just a little rant. I Uh. One
of the best things I ever did was was leaving
California and living in Arizona. And I really can't love
it anymore. And this place is freaking awesome. And every
single person that I meet or know that is also
(26:04):
from California, we just laugh, like God, we hack the
system here. This is and whenever we go back, because again,
northern California is not exactly Newport Beach or San Diego,
and you go, you're like, God, this place is old.
I can't even imagine living here. And my family still
lives there. But I love being here. The one thing
(26:25):
that's tough is like, we're going somewhere maybe for Memorial
Day and over the summer. It's like, my brother has
my mom, so like when he leaves somewhere, he can
just leave the dog there. They can have my mom
watch the kids. Right, And a lot of you that
live wherever you live, that have family around you for
just little things, right, It's like, hey, we're leaving for
(26:45):
a couple of days, can you just can we just
drop the dog of your house? Yeah, no problem, bring up,
bring little Fifi over and I finding somewhere and some
people to watch your dog is more challenging than you
would think. Uh, And we have tried many places. We
tried one place one time and she got into a
(27:08):
little tussle, lost the tooth, a little brawl. Hopefully she won,
but you know she lost the tooth. So fought this
dog named Lionel, So you know, Lionel can hold her
head eye as well or his hide. But you know
there's this other place that's like a dog hotel. It
might as well just be like the Four Seasons for dogs.
Like I'm paying this, it's like get shoved into a
little locker. Like at what's going on here. It's just
(27:30):
a challenge. So any of you guys that have family
around or people that live around you listen, there are
those benefits are something that I'm definitely jealous of because
it makes life a lot easier and we don't even
have kids yet, which, you know, God speed to that
process once we got to figure that one out question.
(27:55):
Is there anything you hear from someone that will reveal
that they know nothing about ball? Like, for example, in basketball,
I'm a lifelong Laker fan, but when someone tries to
tell me Kobe top three all time, I immediately know
they know nothing about the sport. With football, it's more rare,
but when they say Dak is one of the league's
(28:15):
best or Herbert is one of the league's worst, I
immediately know they don't know what they're talking about. Are
their takes you hear that make you go, this guy
doesn't know the sport at all? Uh, that's a good question.
I think the I will say this, like to me,
(28:39):
let's use Steph Curry, Like, is Steph Curry a better
player than Lebron. No, Like, obviously, Lebron pound for pounder
in his prime is just a better player, two way
player than Steph Curry. But anyone that argues that Steph
Curry isn't more important to the sport and more enjoyable
for the casual fan to watch over the course of
(28:59):
his I think would kind of be on like crack.
And I think Lebron has this like hive like Beyonce
or Taylor Swift on the Internet. It's like, yeah, always
arguing that these better than Jordan or whatever. It's like
you're not changing. It's like politics that there is nothing
you can ever do to convince me that Lebron James
better than Michael Jordan. It will never happen. And literally,
(29:20):
most people in my life that are my age or
older are never budget either, Like they're never budgeting. And
I think sometimes we argue like that, But listen, if
you want to argue over you know, if you love
Kobe Bryant, like yeah, maybe you're not like Phil Jackson
or Tom Thibodeau. When it comes to basketball schematics and
ranking players, You're not exactly Jerry West there. But that
(29:43):
doesn't bother me as much. I think sometimes and I
see this, you know, on Twitter a lot, you know,
football breaking down the All twenty two. Everyone wants to
pretend that they know so much. It's like, guys, at
the end of the day, this is football. We're not
developing a rocket here. We're not developing, you know, the
(30:05):
ability to build a skyscraper. That this isn't that complicated.
Now we can argue whether this guy is better than
that guy, like that's a normal, healthy debate. But I
think sometimes that you see some of these film guys,
it's like, guys, this this isn't that big a deal.
Just fucking get your best player of the ball in space,
(30:25):
figure it out, you know. And I think we spend
so much time arguing over these like nuances of the sport.
It's like, gets back to Belichick what he said, It's
like the sport a lot of people over complicate this thing.
Get your best players against their worst players, and get
your worst players to avoid their best players and their strengths,
(30:47):
you know, try to have your weaknesses go the other way.
And whatever their weaknesses are, find a way to exploit them.
It's just basically like, this just is not that complicated,
even though it is complicated in the sense of like
the verbiage of a play, and obviously there are adaptations
of being able to add lib a play with whether
(31:09):
it's audibling at the line of scrimmage, whether it's just
knowing based on different I'm not saying the game overall
is not complicated, but I think so many people that
like cover the sport want to prove how smart they are.
It's like, guys, you don't need to talk like you're
Sean Payton here. In a weird way, Kobe is underrated,
(31:29):
like his movement and his power, and maybe it's changed
once he passed away and in that accident with the helicopter.
I do think it, like put it into perspective how
his cultural impact, like how famous he was on the
biggest team in the league, and the impact he had
on players. But in a weird way, he's kind of
(31:50):
overrated as a player because, like you said, some people
are like he's like one of the two or three
best players of all time. It's like he wasn't even
the best player of his generation that was Tim Duncan.
We haven't had the Cowboys move off of DA. I
know they paid him a ton of money, but he
can't win big games and can't stay healthy. If he
feels like the Cowboys, if it feels like the Cowboys
are always right there but somehow can't get over or
(32:11):
pass the wild card? Do you think Dak can get
the Cowboys to Super Bowl? If not, what do they
have to do to get there. I've said this for
a long time. I do think he's good enough to
just go on a run, a three or four game run,
because we've seen him have these games that are worthy of,
like a winning big right in the regular season. I
(32:32):
remember a couple years ago he had against the Eagles.
Last year that game winning drive against the Steelers. He's
had these moments, yet in the playoffs he plays terribly.
So I would say, yeah, he is good enough to
have like a three game stretch in the playoffs, assuming
their team is good enough. But every year that goes by.
(32:53):
Now he's coming off a hamstring injury, you'd probably bet
against it. Thoughts on McCarthy and his likely readiness to
lead Vikings offense. Did the Vikings do enough with their
own line to protect them well. Unlike Cousins, he can move,
so he's not Lamar Jackson or Kyler Murray. But he's
a good athlete, so their offensive line. They signed some
(33:16):
guys in free agency, which obviously will help. They'll get
their left tackle back off injury, which will clearly help.
But he is like looking at some of his I
guess he didn't run the forty here, but his short
shuttle was fast. Three comes like he's a good athlete,
so I wouldn't worry about his movement. Like he can
(33:37):
do things. I guess Sam was too. Sam ran into
some sacks down the stretch, but Sam could move. He
plays a life that's JJ JJ like Sam is gonna
be able to play like that. Cousins couldn't. Cousins was
a sitting duck. That's not the case here. As a
Dolphins fan, I have come to accept that we will
always be middle of the pack. I've never seen us
(33:58):
win a playoff game. My question is why do teams
accept mediocrity for long? Love the pod Because it's pretty simple.
The NFL pays you whether you win or lose. So
if you're Stephen Ross, you're any owner right, you don't
(34:22):
need to fire people all the time and pay them
to go away. And you say, yeah, we'll write it
out because no matter what, you're not only making money,
you're making a lot of money. So it's one of
the few businesses in America. It's like insurance. You know
how many these insurance companies. We all deal with it.
You know, I have pay for car insurance, pay for
held insurance, pay for all these insurances, pay for home insurance.
(34:44):
If my house were to burn down or I were
to get into a car wreck or whatever. I have
been paying them consistently for X number of years. Right,
Yet when I need the money, I gotta like fight
them for the money. It's like one of my paying
when it is part of the business. But it's an
incredible business. Why Warren Buffett invested in insurance companies because
(35:06):
guarantee cash ref I mean, it's like TV. The cable
bundle was like that forever the Comcasts and the Cocks
and whatever your cable company was. Everyone had to have
cable to watch television. We're just giving them one hundred
hundred and fifty whatever it was a month, and then
eventually you're like, I'm not paying for this anymore, and
that business models fucked the NFL business model as long
(35:27):
as the league is willing to pay huge amounts of money,
or excuse me, the television networks for the league, that
you are making so much four hundred and plus million
dollars guaranteed just from the television networks, that that has
nothing to do with any ticket sales, that has nothing
to do with any merchandise, that has nothing to do
with anything else, just the television network, which the Cowboys
(35:48):
make the same as the Cardinals make, the same as
the Dolphins. Well, your player salary cap, which is by
far your biggest expense, is you know, like sixty percent,
So even though you pay your coaches a lot, it's
not that much. You're not paying that many other people
in the building that much money. So you're probably guaranteed
(36:09):
give or take one hundred million dollars profit guaranteed at
the beginning of the year. And then you factor in
everything else, like the merchandise, so you're just you're you're
never gonna be in the red. You can't even really
even have a recessionary year. The only thing that's ever
threatened that was twenty twenty and they plowed right through
(36:29):
love listening to the podcast. I was listening to Colin
today and he was talking about he sees it better
for the Rams to use their two first rounders next
year to support Stafford instead of getting his replacement. What's
your take on this. I believe it would be better
to take a quarterback because with the ability to trade
up with those picks, you may not have the future
(36:51):
that in the future drafts you could possibly end up
like the Steelers having a major loss at quarterback. I
think we are so far away, and Colin's better at
this than me, Like talking about next year's draft class
is completely pointless. Like we got some names, that's interesting.
What to see how they all play, from Sellers in
(37:13):
South Carolina to Arch to just go around the country.
Whoever the top four or five quarterbacks are. There are
gonna be a couple guys Baker Mayfield, Joe Burrow, cam Ward,
Jayden Daniels that have incredible seasons and they're like, God,
this guy's a top five pick. Might like Joe Burrow
or Jayden Daniels, Like this guy's a top one or
two pick. Baker Mayfield top pick, So that's gonna happen.
(37:37):
So we don't know that right now. The other thing
is what a Stafford look like, because the last couple
of years he's had stretches where it's like, got it
kind of look told. Then you have stretches where it's
like he's a top five quarterback right now. So I
think you got to play that out. And I think
the kicker is the Rams have proven. You'd be kind
of crazy to not think they're going to be a
(37:58):
playoff team in two thousand twenty like this upcoming fall,
so like in January of twenty twenty six. But I
think the Falcons are a pretty big wild guarden. Like,
what if that pick is fifteen? So then if that
picks fifteen like it was this year, could you take
fifteen and twenty five and move up to four or
five because some of these teams that already have quarterbacks
(38:19):
are gonna be bad this year, or you know, have
young quarterbacks and take one of the guys. So I
think that would definitely be on the table. But what
if Stafford You could argue, even if he like wins
the MVP, what is he thirty seven years old? I
think that everything's on the table, and I would be
stunned if less. If I was less need, I would
(38:42):
mandate that every one of my area scouts, if you
have a top quarterback in your area, a guy that's
gonna get drafted in the top I would say seventy
five picks. A guy coming into the year that's viewed
as like a top first or second day quarterback, you
have to see that guy live. And if I was
less need, you know, depending on how my schedule played out,
(39:04):
I guess we'll find out what the NFL schedules here
in a couple of weeks. I guess maybe next week
or in two weeks, I would try to hit through
or for of them. So I would make a scouting
effort where you know, if you're the Ravens, you're not.
It's not the end all be all to see all
these quarterbacks live. But I do believe now you could
(39:26):
argue it should just be a yearly thing. If you
have a top quarterback in your area, as a scout,
you should see the guy. And I mean look at
the Eagles, right, I mean the Eagles went from Carson
Wentz and they drafted Jalen Hurts, and they've traded for
Canny Pickett, They've had Mariota. So like, you never know
when a quarterback that gets drafted in the first round
or even really high, even if you're not in the
quarterback world, becomes available a couple years later, so you
(39:50):
might as well. This is why when people ask like,
do you even spend that much time? Well, if he's
in your area, you spend a lot of time on
the player because in a couple of years, you want
to know that guy really well, even after he's been
in the NFL. So I would say the Rams, just
like the Browns, I mean, the Giants did it this year,
you are going to be in the quarterback scouting business.
(40:12):
Now doesn't mean you end up taking one, but you're
going to know everything about these guys before the combine
because you are going to have done a lot of
effort that maybe you wouldn't have done two or three
years ago. Now does that mean you actually pulled the trigger?
I don't know, but I think it definitely means that
you have. You have had a detailed operation during the
(40:33):
fall of paying attention to what's going on with these guys.
The volume
The volume. What is going on? Everybody, Happy fu gayzy Friday.
Hopefully everyone is doing well and getting ready for a big,
(00:25):
nice weekend. Today, we're just gonna do a big mail
bag at John Middlecoff. At John Middlecoff is the Instagram.
Fire in those dms and get your questions answered on
the show. We had Willie Cologne on yesterday, so if
you missed that podcast, you've got to subscribe to three
and Out podcast. You've got to subscribe it separate from
(00:47):
Collins Feed obviously, as well as the YouTube. But today
we'll be a mail bag only, so fire in those
get those mail bag questions. Obviously, we got a long summer,
so buckle up. The sun's shining, it's warm outside, and
we will be mail bagging because there's your guys show.
So we like to interact with the people. Well, I
(01:08):
mean technically it's mine, but without you guys, it doesn't exist.
It'd just be me talking to nobody. And yeah, other
than that, no plans beside uh mail bag today. So
let's let's dive in. But first, you know, I gotta
tell you about my friends, my partners, and the official
ticketing app of this podcast, Game Time. Here's the drill,
usually the afternoon NBA playoff game, the Eastern game. I
(01:32):
don't watch right away. I'm out doing stuff. Maybe I
was taking the dog for a walk, running Errand's on Wednesday.
Checking my phone the Knicks. It's the second half and
they're down. I'm like, oh, they're gonna lose by twenty.
And then I check again, like in the beginning of
the fourth or maybe a couple of minutes in, they're
down like fifteen points. I like, this game's over. And
then I just don't even turn on the TV, which
is unlike me. I mean, I probably watch as much
(01:53):
TV as any human in America, especially I do it
for a living, and to try to always have a
game on on one of the television's in the house.
Didn't do it. Then I checked my phone. I got
some burgers on the barbecue. Knicks have lost, obviously up
two ozho going to the garden. Probably the most expensive
Nick ticket potentially ever. I mean, when you factor in
inflation everything. So if you live in that area, you
(02:15):
want to watch your squad, any playoff basketball game, any
playoff hockey game, baseball off and running Dodgers look good,
the Padres look good. So you want to check out
a baseball game, football game. Football is not that far away.
It's not right around the corner, but it's not forever.
So we've already passed the draft. We're just like, I mean,
(02:35):
a couple months away from the fourth of July and
then Boom training camp will be here. So if you
want to get your tickets early, you know we got
you covered. Take the guests work out of buying tickets
with game Time. Download the game Time app, created an
account and use a go John for twenty dollars off
your first purchase. Terms of play Again, create an account
and redeem the code John for twenty dollars off. Down
the game Time at the day, last minute tickets low
as prices guarantee. I think I'll bang out some questions
(02:59):
and I'll give my Fugazi Friday probably in the middle,
and then I'll bang out some more. How do you
survive the offseason? I swear I'm losing my mind over here.
Just don't say baseball or basketball. They don't even come
close to filling the void. There is no filling the void.
But as someone that I mean, I watch a lot
(03:20):
of football, like many of you, I can take a
deep breath for a couple months. I when sun comes out,
play a little golf, enjoy some family time, just take
a deep breath, calm before the storm. So I like
the build up of the summer. I mean, I'm a
summer guy, not a winter guy. So I'm a football
guy through and through, but I do like to experience summer,
(03:43):
even if where I'm at it's one hundred and fifteen degrees.
Question for the bag, how cool would it be if
arch ended up on the Colts. It's also a decent
chance it's happening because the Colts are gonna stink. We
talked about this the other day, which Manning gets discussed
like he's Peyton's son even more than Eli. It's like
(04:05):
he's Peyton's a guy. The crazy part is he's not
Peyton's son, He's not Eli's son. He's Cooper's son. Obviously
they're all synonymous with each other. I would say, Peyton,
you know, I guess if you're older, if you were
like my dad, you knew that family from Archie. But
Peyton has really taken the mantle of being the most
(04:27):
famous Manning and he deserves it. Even though his brother
had won multiple Super Bowls before. He had won multiple
Super Bowls and won his first Super Bowl before Peyton
won one, or maybe I guess Peyton won one and
then Eli one one. But regardless, I do think we
talk and just the casual person. I'm sure I'm guilty
of this if we're having a cocktail, just bullshit about him.
(04:47):
It's like, Oh, Manning, he's gonna be like Peyton. It's like, guys,
he's Cooper's son, Like you know, if I was gonna
argue with you, So why couldn't he go to the Giants?
The Giants had Eli. They won multiple supers Super Bowls
with Eli. Hell, Peyton only won the one Super Bowl
with Indy. I think it would be cool if he
went to either spot. But again, he's not Peyton or
(05:08):
Eli Sun. He's Cooper's who was a great athlete, was
going to Ole Miss to play wide receiver before he
got I don't want to screw up whatever he had,
but it forced him to retire from football. And if
you've watched that special on the Mannings, it was a
big driving force for Peyton and like kind of drove
him through college and early on in his NFL career
was like playing for Cooper, a huge Ravens fan here.
(05:32):
Over the past few years, the opinions of Ravens fans
have increasingly grown sour on Harball. Year after year. We
are very dominant team in the regular season, but always
seem unprepared for the big moments. For example, in the
Bills divisional game this year, if you told me they
didn't practice ball control the entire week or at halftime adjustments,
(05:55):
I wouldn't beat an eye. I think we should have
promoted Mike McDonald last year while he was still in
house and clearly showed the Ravens mentality. What do you
think about John's recent quote unquote success during the Lamar era.
I think anytime you're in a situation like him and
Mike McCarthy was a little bit of a version of
(06:16):
like this. When you win that Super Bowl early, it
gained you a lot of equity with the franchise. So
he woned whatever against the forty nine Ers, just like
McCarthy wanted early against the Steelers, and that carries with
you with some of your devastating losses. I think at
this point in time, over the next two or three years,
(06:37):
because listen, you guys consistently win you're one of the
better run organizations. He hires fantastic coaches. I mean, Mike
McDonald's pretty good. Higher like you get credit for that.
Jesse mentor his brother's guy, like that was John Harbaugh's guy,
Anthony Linson, who's now the USC defensive coordinator, Like that
was a John Harbaugh hire. That they are great at
(06:58):
hiring defensive coaches. I mean they really are. So he
does a lot of good. But when you have a
player this dominant, especially in the regular season, and a
defense that is consistently pretty sweet, I mean they're not
always like two years ago best defense in the league,
but they are never it doesn't feel like I'm sure
we could find some examples. But during the Lamar era,
they've been really, really good. I would say these next
(07:22):
couple of year and would say the same thing for
the Bills when you got Josh Allen, when you got
Lamar Jackson, I mean, it's Super Bowl bust. You know,
they are probably two of the only teams, like Chiefs
are truly the only team in the league that you
can say the Eagles now because they got over the
hump and they won it with Jalen, They're like, if
you said, right now, the season ends and you lose
(07:43):
in the Super Bowl, like that is a major disappointment
to the Chiefs, to the Eagles, and I think the
Ravens and the Bills are two teams that like, when
you have a quarterback this freaking good, it's on your
coach to get it done. You know, you want to
become like John Harbaugh can become a legend by winning
another Super Bowl. But it also feels in a weird
way like they're far away. I mean two years ago
(08:05):
they get worked at home by the Chiefs, who you know,
it's like, scored seventeen points. And then last year they
lose the Bills, who I think they were clearly better
than now. I don't put Mark Andrews drops like that.
Is that John's fault in ball security? Like what's he
supposed to tell Lamar hold on to the ball. He's not.
He's not the offensive coordinator. So I don't know. I mean,
(08:27):
I hear you. I just think beside like nitpicking Mark
Andrews dropping the ball or Lamar fumbling the ball in
the pocket, regardless, Like John Harbaugh's got to win with
these teams. He's got to win a Super Bowl. I mean,
because this team is more dynamic than the team he
won a Super Bowl with the first time. Are the
(08:48):
Steelers slowly becoming the Saints where they probably would have
blew it up and started their rebuild, but they're holding
onto the Super Bowl hopes, so they just keep getting
old and expensive. I would say a major difference is
the Saints have had some lulls, right, They've had the
lolls the last couple of years. They had them for
in the middle of the Drew Brees era. The Steeler
(09:09):
team has never lost, right that They have never been like, oh,
the Steelers just went five and twelve, Like that is
not happening. Now their seasons feel like a disappointment because
you know they're winning whatever nine ten games and then
getting rolled in the first round. And that's totally understandable.
But I don't think they're comparable at all. And they're
(09:30):
definitely not comparable franchises. I mean, the Saints when I
was a kid were called the Aints, they were called
the Aks. People wore paper bags to the games. People
get mad at Mike Tomlin because he keeps going ten
and seven. So it's I don't think it's comparable at all. Now,
relative to like their situation for good teams like, yeah,
they this, They're just in a weird spot. They really are,
(09:54):
And I don't really think anything gets better this year necessarily,
even though I like their draft. The tackles good. The
running back from Iowa. I watched Iowa in a weird
I don't know why, but a couple times this year
he was a stud. That's a good pick. How do
you think the Patriots draft did with their draft? While
(10:14):
giving draft grades immediately after the conclusion of their draft
is silly. I feel like they did pretty well addressing
needs while also adding value players in the mid to
late rounds. Curious to hear your thoughts. I've come around
on not that I was ever down on him, but
the listen. You can nitpick arm length all you want,
(10:35):
but talking to Willie Cologne last week or not last week,
I mean literally yesterday. I do think when you're wired
the right way and you're just a smart, tough guy,
like you're just not going to fail. He's just not
going to fail. Now, how good is he going to be?
Because anytime you draft an offensive lineman in the top five,
you want him to be a pro bowler. Time will tell,
(10:58):
But I think we have a long history. Like you
don't bet around those type guys, or you don't bet
against those type guys, will Campbell, you just don't like
they're gonna play in the NFL for a long time. Now,
how good it'll come down to? Does that armlengk become
an issue? But as Willie said, if you coach these
(11:18):
guys the right way, like you can't play maybe like
Jonathan Ogden or Trent Williams, your styles a little bit differently,
and Josh McDaniel's for a long period of his career.
You know, I wouldn't say Matt Light is exactly Trent Williams,
you know, or now I know Josh you know he
was in the two thousands. He wasn't always the offensive coordinator.
But but my point is simple is that you can
(11:41):
figure it out and if you have to attack your
protections a little bit differently or coach the technique a
little bit differently, that's what you got to do. But
I think he's gonna be a good player. And obviously
Henderson the Ohio State running backs of stud I mean
home run hitter. They drafted a guy Kyle Williams, the
wide receiver from Washington State in the second round. I
(12:02):
did not love the Polk pick last year from Washington.
I thought he was a third best wide receiver on
his own college team. Now, granted that college team was
in the championship and they had good wide receivers, but
I think McMillan for the Bucks is a better player,
and I think they realized they needed to kind of
restock the cupboard there. But you know, I'm not going
(12:23):
to break down your third day picks. But other than that,
I'd be pretty bullish on the Patriots. This is a
guy not happy because yesterday I said that the I
think the Cowboys gave up a little too much. I mean,
I just thought that giving up a third round pick
for a guy that is going to need a new
contract that not of a lot of other people wanted.
(12:44):
I just didn't like the deal. And the comment was
how he gave a third rounder for Dotson. We really
needed a number two wide receiver. The Cowboys were going
to draft McMillan, but the Panthers took him at eight.
The Cowboys were trying to trade for him during the draft,
but the Steelers wanted a first or second for him.
You take your take on this needs more context, just
like the Steelers will wait for Rogers because they are
(13:05):
desperate for the Cowboys. Here's the thing. Let me pull
up the Eagles trade for Dodson. So the Eagles gave
a third round pick and two seventh round picks in
exchange for a fifth round pick. Yeah, it's not a
(13:25):
good trade. I don't disagree, but I'd say Howie has
a long history of making good trades, and maybe he underestimated.
I forget at the time. Was someone injured, Did they
not like the rest of their room? Did they think
he brought something different? I think it's he would say
he would like that one back just because someone else
(13:46):
paid something like he doesn't like that trade. And he
has a long history of making sweet trades. In your
most recent history of Jerry Jones making two big trades
a fourth and a third round pick, which are valuable
picks for a team that is very like three or
four players at the top of their org jerk. The
Trey Lance thing was a disaster, and you just gave
away a fourth round pick, this third round pick. I
(14:09):
just can't get behind it. For a guy, I thought
the Dotson trade was weird too, but I gave Howie
the benefit of the doubt, like Jerry recently hasn't earned
the benefit of the doubt based on his recent moves
in the trade world. And you go, wait, especially when
you factor in you know, how we bet on their
draft grade. It was a local kid, and again they
(14:32):
regretted it. You know, this cowboy thing was like, we're
desperate for this elite town. Well, it's like that is
the team that's punting on this guy. I wouldn't have
done a deal with him. I'm sorry now, I hear you.
I don't disagree that you need offensive help, but I
just think that's a steep price to pay for a
guy that is a one year rental that you're a
team that is very desperate for picks. Your owner's proven
(14:55):
to be cheap. The other thing is, like Jeffrey has
proven over like a three or four year period, like
he'll spend the mon I was cashing the leak right
behind Jimmy Haslin. Your guy won't even though he's really rich.
Like that's a fact. And I've always just I'm guilty
of being Oh, Jerry's rich, he's wheeling a dealing like
it's kind of cheap. Crafts were like that forever too.
We talked about that yesterday. So I hear you listen.
(15:18):
If he's good, no one will really care. Been watching
your videos for the past seven hours. Good stuff. That's
a lot of watching me. I give you credit because
I don't think I could do that. Well. I can't.
I mean when I when I get shared like my Instagram,
like the reels and Twitter videos, I just press reposts.
(15:40):
I can't even I hate watching myself, but I appreciate that.
Wondering your thoughts on the Broncos is upcoming season. Keep
up the hard work. I think I said it last
year that that was gonna be the worst version of
the Chargers in the Broncos tho's gonna be their worst
teams from a roster standpoint. Now you can win eleven
twelve games and have a better team and win win
(16:01):
a game or two less. You're right. A fumble doesn't
go right here, an injury happens, but your team's going
to be better now. Sean Payton really liked that. Was
it the UCF running back you know, like they were
He talked about it after the draft. Who did the
Broncos draft? There should just be a page where I
(16:22):
can pull it up really quick. The Texas dB was
one of those guys that during the season people weren't
talking about him as a first round pick, and the
playoffs happened and the combine and everything happens, and he
I wouldn't say he's a riser because he's viewed as
a really good player. But I asked a buddy in
the league because some of my friends were definitely lukewarm
(16:44):
on him where he was drafted, and then some of
the pundits loved him right. People were really high on him.
Clearly teams were highing The Broncos are high on I said,
Brian Branch, the kind of safety hybrid nickel from the
from the Lions, who was people coming out the reason
he went in the mid second round is because like
(17:05):
kind of small, what positions do he play? And it's
like he's clearly a first round pick. I said, well,
is this guy that? And I had some friends that said,
I like Branch more so, you know, this is a nickel,
which is a starting corner position in the league. Like
if you can play the slot, you are a starter.
And if you can kind of play that hybrid role
like I can play safety, I can play corner in
(17:26):
a pinch on the outside, I can do a lot
of different things. There's a lot of value there. So
I think depending on who you talk to, people were
really high on him. Some people thought it's a little
bit of an overdraft. Clearly they liked Genty a lot,
and it was clear that Genty wasn't going to be
there and that they weren't going to be able to
trade up, and that's not a good move. So they
(17:48):
take RJ. Harvey in the second round, who Sean Payton loved,
so I listen, I give him the benefit of doubt
when he's evaluating that player because he has a pretty
good track record. I think the only question is gonna
be specifically because it's gonna be one of their rivals,
is they could have taken Hampton in the first round.
(18:08):
They could have just taken the guy the Chargers took.
So if it we're gonna gonna judge those two players
like you could have had Hampton. If Hampton becomes one
of the best running backs in the league, there's a
lot of pressure on barn There to be an impact player,
and if he doesn't and Harvey does, then he'll look
like a genius right, and it'll look like the Chargers
overdrafted him. So sometimes it doesn't necessarily like if a
(18:30):
running back had gone two spots later, but it had
gone to like the Cardinals, like whatever. But like it's
going to a team in your division that you're gonna
play twice and just gonna have a huge impact on
every year you play. So it's gonna be fascinating to watch.
I think the Bronc is gonna be pretty good. And
like I said, he's earned the benefit of doubt because
Harvey's another guy depending on who you talk to. But
(18:51):
catch the ball, get him in space. He's fast, forty
eight touchdowns. I mean, yeah, he's just he's a talented player,
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Speaker 1 (20:57):
I picked this one up from Nick Wright, but I
thought it was interesting and wanted to get your opinion.
Nick was asked about how some new ideas for the
NFL that said one or two more weeks on the
schedule with an additional bye week. He talked about an
altogether one week of international games overseas where sixteen games
are played in different cities across the world, and a
bye week given before or after the week. Well, what
(21:21):
would be on television? The NFL during the season is
never going to have a bye week for everybody. That's
never gonna happen at the same time, because television pays
the bills. So it's like if I don't have advertisers
on the show, like there's no food on the table right.
The reason in twenty twenty, the NFL is like there's
(21:43):
absolutely zero chance we're not playing football. Same with the SEC,
there's zero chances we're not playing football. Why because the
games on television literally pay for everything, so they will
never have a bye week where nobody's playing. Now, the
second bye week is something the media never shut up
about ever, and the players talk about it too. I've
(22:04):
never seen the league. I don't care if they want
to institute it. I'm not gonna complain, And honestly, I
like as the season gets going, when there are weeks
where there's way less games to watch, so it's it's
easier for me. I'm that's this is a selfish thing
to say, but when there are only three or four
games on TV in the morning, and then two afternoon
games and then all the primetime games, it's much easier
(22:27):
for me to work. But you know, the league has
never felt inclined, the league office with rog to do
that for whatever reason, and I don't care enough to
like look into it. But until it feels like the
league is ever entertaining that thought, it's kind of pointless
to talk about. Just one of those things that the
media talks about constantly. That is, now, if the if
(22:50):
the players want to negotiate it in the next collective
bargaining agreement, maybe it can happen. But if if they don't,
it's it doesn't feel like it's ever gonna happen. Question
for you, having played in Arizona a number of times,
why does the Phoenician not get more respect in the
course rankings. Personally it's in my top three in the
(23:11):
Scottsdale area and it never seems to get ranked high
on any list. I've only played at one time, and
like you said, I liked it a lot. It goes
right up through Camelback. It's beautiful the hotel. Again. Never
stayed there, but I know, like the San Francico Giants
stay there. I think a lot of the Major League
Baseball team stay there. Is really nice. It's a pretty
(23:34):
famous hotel. I don't know good question gets lost in
the shuffle a little bit. I can't exactly tell you why,
but yeah, I've never heard anyone stay at the Phoenician
that didn't like it. Quick, I'll hit on the couple
of fugasis really quick. I started because it's supposed to
(23:56):
be healthy for you, taking fish oil, and just like
anything you would take right like antioxidants, an advil or whatever.
You just take and don't even think about it. After
a couple days of taking it straight in in Arizona,
if you're outside, you're working out, you're gonna sweat. I
started sweating, and I started smelling like a sushi restaurant.
(24:17):
I could smell like the salmon on me. And then
I googled it and it's like, you gotta be careful.
If you take too much of it, you will smell
like a fish. And even when I wasn't sweating, I
could like smell it like on my mustache. I do'n't
have a mustache, but like if I hadn't shaved. And
then I sweated on my clothes and I was just
(24:38):
I put on clothes this morning and I was like,
where's this fish smell coming from? And I'm smelling my shirt.
I'm like, my shirt doesn't smell like it. And then
I realized I take off my shorts, so I'm in
my underwear and I walk out to the kitchen and
Maria's there and I say, can you smell my shorts
and tell me what they smell like? And she takes
(24:59):
one with and she starts laughing, and obviously it's smelled
like fish, And it's just I would never have taken
because its supposed to be healthy for You're supposed to
be good for a lot of different elements of your life.
But if you are gonna smell like a fucking fish,
if you have to take the supplement, I just don't
think that is a workable solution for whatever the fish
(25:20):
try to give you. Maybe I just need to eat
more salmon. But I think I'm done with fish oil
because it has made my clothes all my workout I
had to throw away a bunch of workout clothes. Now
granted they were like old stuff from like Fresno State
dry fits from Nike from like six but they reaped
of they smell like a salmon swimming through the swimming
(25:41):
through the Atlantic, and my other this isn't necessarily fugeesy,
but it's definitely just a little rant. I Uh. One
of the best things I ever did was was leaving
California and living in Arizona. And I really can't love
it anymore. And this place is freaking awesome. And every
single person that I meet or know that is also
(26:04):
from California, we just laugh, like God, we hack the
system here. This is and whenever we go back, because again,
northern California is not exactly Newport Beach or San Diego,
and you go, you're like, God, this place is old.
I can't even imagine living here. And my family still
lives there. But I love being here. The one thing
(26:25):
that's tough is like, we're going somewhere maybe for Memorial
Day and over the summer. It's like, my brother has
my mom, so like when he leaves somewhere, he can
just leave the dog there. They can have my mom
watch the kids. Right, And a lot of you that
live wherever you live, that have family around you for
just little things, right, It's like, hey, we're leaving for
(26:45):
a couple of days, can you just can we just
drop the dog of your house? Yeah, no problem, bring up,
bring little Fifi over and I finding somewhere and some
people to watch your dog is more challenging than you
would think. Uh, And we have tried many places. We
tried one place one time and she got into a
(27:08):
little tussle, lost the tooth, a little brawl. Hopefully she won,
but you know she lost the tooth. So fought this
dog named Lionel, So you know, Lionel can hold her
head eye as well or his hide. But you know
there's this other place that's like a dog hotel. It
might as well just be like the Four Seasons for dogs.
Like I'm paying this, it's like get shoved into a
little locker. Like at what's going on here. It's just
(27:30):
a challenge. So any of you guys that have family
around or people that live around you listen, there are
those benefits are something that I'm definitely jealous of because
it makes life a lot easier and we don't even
have kids yet, which, you know, God speed to that
process once we got to figure that one out question.
(27:55):
Is there anything you hear from someone that will reveal
that they know nothing about ball? Like, for example, in basketball,
I'm a lifelong Laker fan, but when someone tries to
tell me Kobe top three all time, I immediately know
they know nothing about the sport. With football, it's more rare,
but when they say Dak is one of the league's
(28:15):
best or Herbert is one of the league's worst, I
immediately know they don't know what they're talking about. Are
their takes you hear that make you go, this guy
doesn't know the sport at all? Uh, that's a good question.
I think the I will say this, like to me,
(28:39):
let's use Steph Curry, Like, is Steph Curry a better
player than Lebron. No, Like, obviously, Lebron pound for pounder
in his prime is just a better player, two way
player than Steph Curry. But anyone that argues that Steph
Curry isn't more important to the sport and more enjoyable
for the casual fan to watch over the course of
(28:59):
his I think would kind of be on like crack.
And I think Lebron has this like hive like Beyonce
or Taylor Swift on the Internet. It's like, yeah, always
arguing that these better than Jordan or whatever. It's like
you're not changing. It's like politics that there is nothing
you can ever do to convince me that Lebron James
better than Michael Jordan. It will never happen. And literally,
(29:20):
most people in my life that are my age or
older are never budget either, Like they're never budgeting. And
I think sometimes we argue like that, But listen, if
you want to argue over you know, if you love
Kobe Bryant, like yeah, maybe you're not like Phil Jackson
or Tom Thibodeau. When it comes to basketball schematics and
ranking players, You're not exactly Jerry West there. But that
(29:43):
doesn't bother me as much. I think sometimes and I
see this, you know, on Twitter a lot, you know,
football breaking down the All twenty two. Everyone wants to
pretend that they know so much. It's like, guys, at
the end of the day, this is football. We're not
developing a rocket here. We're not developing, you know, the
(30:05):
ability to build a skyscraper. That this isn't that complicated.
Now we can argue whether this guy is better than
that guy, like that's a normal, healthy debate. But I
think sometimes that you see some of these film guys,
it's like, guys, this this isn't that big a deal.
Just fucking get your best player of the ball in space,
(30:25):
figure it out, you know. And I think we spend
so much time arguing over these like nuances of the sport.
It's like, gets back to Belichick what he said, It's
like the sport a lot of people over complicate this thing.
Get your best players against their worst players, and get
your worst players to avoid their best players and their strengths,
(30:47):
you know, try to have your weaknesses go the other way.
And whatever their weaknesses are, find a way to exploit them.
It's just basically like, this just is not that complicated,
even though it is complicated in the sense of like
the verbiage of a play, and obviously there are adaptations
of being able to add lib a play with whether
(31:09):
it's audibling at the line of scrimmage, whether it's just
knowing based on different I'm not saying the game overall
is not complicated, but I think so many people that
like cover the sport want to prove how smart they are.
It's like, guys, you don't need to talk like you're
Sean Payton here. In a weird way, Kobe is underrated,
(31:29):
like his movement and his power, and maybe it's changed
once he passed away and in that accident with the helicopter.
I do think it, like put it into perspective how
his cultural impact, like how famous he was on the
biggest team in the league, and the impact he had
on players. But in a weird way, he's kind of
(31:50):
overrated as a player because, like you said, some people
are like he's like one of the two or three
best players of all time. It's like he wasn't even
the best player of his generation that was Tim Duncan.
We haven't had the Cowboys move off of DA. I
know they paid him a ton of money, but he
can't win big games and can't stay healthy. If he
feels like the Cowboys, if it feels like the Cowboys
are always right there but somehow can't get over or
(32:11):
pass the wild card? Do you think Dak can get
the Cowboys to Super Bowl? If not, what do they
have to do to get there. I've said this for
a long time. I do think he's good enough to
just go on a run, a three or four game run,
because we've seen him have these games that are worthy of,
like a winning big right in the regular season. I
(32:32):
remember a couple years ago he had against the Eagles.
Last year that game winning drive against the Steelers. He's
had these moments, yet in the playoffs he plays terribly.
So I would say, yeah, he is good enough to
have like a three game stretch in the playoffs, assuming
their team is good enough. But every year that goes by.
(32:53):
Now he's coming off a hamstring injury, you'd probably bet
against it. Thoughts on McCarthy and his likely readiness to
lead Vikings offense. Did the Vikings do enough with their
own line to protect them well. Unlike Cousins, he can move,
so he's not Lamar Jackson or Kyler Murray. But he's
a good athlete, so their offensive line. They signed some
(33:16):
guys in free agency, which obviously will help. They'll get
their left tackle back off injury, which will clearly help.
But he is like looking at some of his I
guess he didn't run the forty here, but his short
shuttle was fast. Three comes like he's a good athlete,
so I wouldn't worry about his movement. Like he can
(33:37):
do things. I guess Sam was too. Sam ran into
some sacks down the stretch, but Sam could move. He
plays a life that's JJ JJ like Sam is gonna
be able to play like that. Cousins couldn't. Cousins was
a sitting duck. That's not the case here. As a
Dolphins fan, I have come to accept that we will
always be middle of the pack. I've never seen us
(33:58):
win a playoff game. My question is why do teams
accept mediocrity for long? Love the pod Because it's pretty simple.
The NFL pays you whether you win or lose. So
if you're Stephen Ross, you're any owner right, you don't
(34:22):
need to fire people all the time and pay them
to go away. And you say, yeah, we'll write it
out because no matter what, you're not only making money,
you're making a lot of money. So it's one of
the few businesses in America. It's like insurance. You know
how many these insurance companies. We all deal with it.
You know, I have pay for car insurance, pay for
held insurance, pay for all these insurances, pay for home insurance.
(34:44):
If my house were to burn down or I were
to get into a car wreck or whatever. I have
been paying them consistently for X number of years. Right,
Yet when I need the money, I gotta like fight
them for the money. It's like one of my paying
when it is part of the business. But it's an
incredible business. Why Warren Buffett invested in insurance companies because
(35:06):
guarantee cash ref I mean, it's like TV. The cable
bundle was like that forever the Comcasts and the Cocks
and whatever your cable company was. Everyone had to have
cable to watch television. We're just giving them one hundred
hundred and fifty whatever it was a month, and then
eventually you're like, I'm not paying for this anymore, and
that business models fucked the NFL business model as long
(35:27):
as the league is willing to pay huge amounts of money,
or excuse me, the television networks for the league, that
you are making so much four hundred and plus million
dollars guaranteed just from the television networks, that that has
nothing to do with any ticket sales, that has nothing
to do with any merchandise, that has nothing to do
with anything else, just the television network, which the Cowboys
(35:48):
make the same as the Cardinals make, the same as
the Dolphins. Well, your player salary cap, which is by
far your biggest expense, is you know, like sixty percent,
So even though you pay your coaches a lot, it's
not that much. You're not paying that many other people
in the building that much money. So you're probably guaranteed
(36:09):
give or take one hundred million dollars profit guaranteed at
the beginning of the year. And then you factor in
everything else, like the merchandise, so you're just you're you're
never gonna be in the red. You can't even really
even have a recessionary year. The only thing that's ever
threatened that was twenty twenty and they plowed right through
(36:29):
love listening to the podcast. I was listening to Colin
today and he was talking about he sees it better
for the Rams to use their two first rounders next
year to support Stafford instead of getting his replacement. What's
your take on this. I believe it would be better
to take a quarterback because with the ability to trade
up with those picks, you may not have the future
(36:51):
that in the future drafts you could possibly end up
like the Steelers having a major loss at quarterback. I
think we are so far away, and Colin's better at
this than me, Like talking about next year's draft class
is completely pointless. Like we got some names, that's interesting.
What to see how they all play, from Sellers in
(37:13):
South Carolina to Arch to just go around the country.
Whoever the top four or five quarterbacks are. There are
gonna be a couple guys Baker Mayfield, Joe Burrow, cam Ward,
Jayden Daniels that have incredible seasons and they're like, God,
this guy's a top five pick. Might like Joe Burrow
or Jayden Daniels, Like this guy's a top one or
two pick. Baker Mayfield top pick, So that's gonna happen.
(37:37):
So we don't know that right now. The other thing
is what a Stafford look like, because the last couple
of years he's had stretches where it's like, got it
kind of look told. Then you have stretches where it's
like he's a top five quarterback right now. So I
think you got to play that out. And I think
the kicker is the Rams have proven. You'd be kind
of crazy to not think they're going to be a
(37:58):
playoff team in two thousand twenty like this upcoming fall,
so like in January of twenty twenty six. But I
think the Falcons are a pretty big wild guarden. Like,
what if that pick is fifteen? So then if that
picks fifteen like it was this year, could you take
fifteen and twenty five and move up to four or
five because some of these teams that already have quarterbacks
(38:19):
are gonna be bad this year, or you know, have
young quarterbacks and take one of the guys. So I
think that would definitely be on the table. But what
if Stafford You could argue, even if he like wins
the MVP, what is he thirty seven years old? I
think that everything's on the table, and I would be
stunned if less. If I was less need, I would
(38:42):
mandate that every one of my area scouts, if you
have a top quarterback in your area, a guy that's
gonna get drafted in the top I would say seventy
five picks. A guy coming into the year that's viewed
as like a top first or second day quarterback, you
have to see that guy live. And if I was
less need, you know, depending on how my schedule played out,
(39:04):
I guess we'll find out what the NFL schedules here
in a couple of weeks. I guess maybe next week
or in two weeks, I would try to hit through
or for of them. So I would make a scouting
effort where you know, if you're the Ravens, you're not.
It's not the end all be all to see all
these quarterbacks live. But I do believe now you could
(39:26):
argue it should just be a yearly thing. If you
have a top quarterback in your area, as a scout,
you should see the guy. And I mean look at
the Eagles, right, I mean the Eagles went from Carson
Wentz and they drafted Jalen Hurts, and they've traded for
Canny Pickett, They've had Mariota. So like, you never know
when a quarterback that gets drafted in the first round
or even really high, even if you're not in the
quarterback world, becomes available a couple years later, so you
(39:50):
might as well. This is why when people ask like,
do you even spend that much time? Well, if he's
in your area, you spend a lot of time on
the player because in a couple of years, you want
to know that guy really well, even after he's been
in the NFL. So I would say the Rams, just
like the Browns, I mean, the Giants did it this year,
you are going to be in the quarterback scouting business.
(40:12):
Now doesn't mean you end up taking one, but you're
going to know everything about these guys before the combine
because you are going to have done a lot of
effort that maybe you wouldn't have done two or three
years ago. Now does that mean you actually pulled the trigger?
I don't know, but I think it definitely means that
you have. You have had a detailed operation during the
(40:33):
fall of paying attention to what's going on with these guys.
The volume
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Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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