July 3, 2025 • 37 mins
John answers all of your questions from signing second round draft picks to fully guaranteed contracts, owners not wanting to interview for new head coaches, why certain coaches outrank GM's, and much more in this episode's massive mailbag segment.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. What is going on everybody? How are we doing?
John Mitticoff three and now podcast? Not ideal lighting, less
(00:22):
than ideal microphone situation here, I forgot something extremely important.
My traveling operation is held together by a thing called
a Zoom recorder that plugs in my microphone to my computer,
and I left it on my desk and there's just
no way one. They've come out different models since it
wouldn't be here for a couple of days, and it's
(00:44):
just it wasn't going to happen. So I had to
add lib and get this USB mic. So the audio
quality is not great, but I had to record a
couple mailbag here for business purposes. So I apology for
forcing you to sit through this quality, because I pride
myself on good audio quality, especially someone who listens to podcasts, like,
(01:07):
if you have bad audio quality, I'm out. So I
screwed up that there's no way around it, and we'll
just have to battle through and I'll be back here
end of next week potentially, because I don't know if
I can do podcasts even from Lake Tahoe with this microphone.
It's just too terrible. It's embarrassment and it's an embarrassment
that I cost. So it's like I'm a football coach
(01:28):
at my press conference saying put this on my shoulders,
put this on my back. But before we dive into
any mail bag at John Middlecoff is the instagram you
guys know, the drill fire in those dms. I got
to tell you about my friends, my partners in the
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(02:10):
last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Okay, let's uh, let's
dive into the mailbag. Could you imagine Darren Waller's career
if you played with Drew Brees, Mahomes or Joe Burrow
instead of Carr and Daniel Jones. I think more elite
players should stop taking these massive contracts from bad teams
that overpay because they suck, and go to a place
that will elevate them to new heights. I think that's
(02:31):
easier said than done. When someone offers you millions of dollars.
Let's just say you know your team is offering you
and you've never made any money thirty forty fifty million
dollars guaranteed, and you're playing at a high level, and
that total contract is eighty ninety million dollars, and you're
looking at yourself, well, I'm probably gonna make eighty ninety
million dollars. It's easy to go, well, I'll play this
(02:53):
out another two years because I got to play out
usually my my the year in which a last year
in my contract, and then they're usually gonna franchise tag
me if I'm a good player, So it doesn't it's
easier said than done. I know where you're coming from,
but I think that's easier in theory than it is
(03:15):
done in reality. And that's why it's never done in reality,
I'm surprised the forty nine ers brought back Kyle Huscheck
when they cut them. I thought it was justified. He's
a thirty four year old expensive But what was the
thinking behind it? Is it more based on intangibles? Yeah,
I think it's it's hard to find that position, right,
that it don't really exist in the NFL, that there
(03:37):
aren't fullbacks, There aren't guys coming out of college that
play that position. He knows the offense, he's a versatile player.
He also, at this point in time, given that they've
done a bunch of pay cuts, is a cheap player,
and he took a discount because he was offered more.
I think to go to Pittsburgh. He values the forty
nine ers. He likes playing with McCaffrey. He likes Kyle Shanahan,
(03:58):
he likes Purty, like that's Kittles this guy. So there's
a comfort level in cohesion just together. You know. I
don't know. I don't have his total off the top
of my head, but I think it's just a couple
of million dollars. Now he's gonna go down as the
highest paid pullback in the history league. I know you're
a big Sopranos fan, which moment's episode is the funniest
(04:19):
to you. When I first got into the show, I
anticipated at being super serious crime drama, which at times
it is, but most part it's like a comedy. A
classic moment for me is when John gets escorted away
crying at his daughter's wedding and the conversation all the
guys have afterwards. I do think the all time episode
is when they're in the woods freezing their ass off,
(04:41):
chasing that like Russian spy who is like got confirmed
like twenty five kills, and they can't find them, they
can't kill them, and it's just they have no self service.
To me, that's got to be one of the more
iconic moments in the show. I would say the best
scene in the show is and the intervention with Chrissy
(05:02):
when they're all sitting around in his apartment and it's
just I've watched that scene on YouTube probably fifty times
in my life. It's hard to beat. I mean, some
of the comments by Polly, I mean, it's it's it's
pretty funny. Regard to the mailback question about UFC, I
had some additional thoughts, not only is there a buried
(05:24):
barrier to entry with pay per view? But the main
card doesn't come on until eleven or twelve at night
on the East Coast. Let's be honest, most people don't
have the energy to stay up till one or two
am watching. Also, you're right, it's very niche. I'm in
the military, and the UFC is very popular with us.
Because of the violence. I would say a majority of
(05:45):
Americans just don't have the stomach for it. I'm with you.
I do think there are There was a moment last
fight where the dude kotom he hit the ground, I
might have knocked himself out on the ground as well,
and then the guy hammer cocked him to his face.
I mean, it was, like Jesus, it's a very very
violent whatever twelve minutes I guess three, five minutes, around
(06:08):
fifteen minutes, ten minutes, however long the fight lasts. I
do think though, the human humans are drawn to fights,
going back to like when we're kids in junior high
and high school. There's a fight, everyone surrounds it. It's
just a natural instincts of human beings. But you could
argue with how civilized culture has got, especially in America,
(06:32):
how soft certain regions have gotten. You know, they're not
around fighting ever. So like you said, it's going to
turn certain people off. It's going to be too much
for other people. They're just going to be people like
me who I love violence. I mean I miss it
in the NFL, I miss fighting in the NBA. I'm
drawn to violence. I'm drawn to sports and I don't
(06:53):
watch so it's hard to get people's attention. It just
is even people like me that should be in the demo,
forty year old guy who watches sports and likes violence,
and they can't. They can't get me to buy the
pay per views, and I like Dana White. Julio Jones
retired after the offseason and a great career had me
thinking there are only three wide receivers I'd have on
my team over Julio, Rice Moss and Calvin Johnson. I
(07:17):
have Julio as the fourth best wide receiver of all time.
What do you think where would you put Julio? Probably
a little rich for me, you know, I think many
people would say Terrell Owens, Terrell Owens is a more
dominant player than Julio Jones. I would say, I mean,
there are a lot of guys over the course of
(07:37):
the last twenty five years. You know, Marvin Harrison was
pretty elite, pretty unstoppable. I would say that Tyreek Hill
pretty elite, pretty unstoppable. I would say that. Try it
else to think it's a good question. I don't know,
but I to me, he's probably top ten talent of
all time. But it just in terms of production. I mean,
(08:01):
you know, when you look, he had some weird years
where he didn't score touchdowns. I mean, Antonio Brown had
a six year stretch where he was better than Julio Jones.
I mean, Antonio Brown had one of the greatest six
year stretches in the history of the league. But yeah,
I'd say he's one of the great talents. He's one
of the great stories of elite blue chip prospect. Right
he was the number one overall recruit. He then becomes
(08:23):
a top six or seven draft pick, and then he
goes on to become a Hall of Fame level career.
I do think sometimes when these player podcasts, you know,
I saw a clip the other day He's does he
do a podcast? Roddy White. I mean, both those guys
are bitching moan about a lot of stuff. It's like Julio,
you were a great player, then you got old and
they got rid of you, like, welcome to the league.
(08:44):
How many of your teammates did they get rid of?
They got rid of Matt Ryan, they got rid of
basically every single guy you played with beside you and
Matt Ryan before you both were discovered. They're always so
offended when like, yeah, we had a new coach come
in and I called Arthur Blank and he's like the
coach is gonna get to decide. He's like, bullshit, Arthur No,
Arthur Blank hired these guys. He's not a football guy.
(09:05):
He's gonna let them decide, and he's paid you a
premium for your services. These players get so offended, like, well,
you know why because they're treated so well, they're paid
premium amounts of money, they get everything handed to them,
and then the moment they're not great anymore, it's like
kind of you see it with Lebron James right now,
for the first time in Lebron james career, is like, Eh,
we don't We're not really worried about what you think, Like,
(09:27):
we're not going through you. You don't have any leverage anymore.
We're on we have a new beautiful girl on the
team now and her name is Luca, and he's very
offended by it. You could tell we're gonna weigh our option.
We're gonna Lebron shut up, take your fifty million play
for the Lakers. Welcome to the NBA. This happens to
literally every player, and I think the great players really
(09:49):
struggle with that transition of like, well, you're not just
kissing my ass, jerking me off and tickling my taint. No,
we're not anymore. We're just we're over you. And sometimes
I see these podcast it's like, geez, these guys lived
in a different world than the rest of the NFL,
even the because most NFL players are kind of like
on their toes about stuff, like at any moment, anything
could go on. I have a question about justin Herbert.
(10:13):
Correct me if I'm wrong, But it seems like success
during his rookie season may have raised the bar for
incoming quarterbacks. Ever since his historic debut, it feels like
teams expect their rookie quarterbacks to start right away in
week one. When you look at a trend of rookie
quarterbacks since Herbert, the expectations to start Week one seemed
noticeably higher than they used to be when quarterbacks sat
(10:36):
their first year to learn the new Systemah, listen, man, expectations.
People have been drafting quarterbacks now for six to seven years,
hoping to find the next Patrick Mahomes. When I draft
a play really high at quarterback, especially in the top
I don't know ten picks. My expectations are high. Whether
you're compared to Justin Herbert, whether you're compared to Patrick Mahomes,
(10:57):
whether you're compared to Brett fahrv Peyton Manny or Tom
you're expecting you're trying to hit a star quarterback and
fair not like the expectations are never like, yeah, it
would be cool if he's Dak Prescott, even though if
you drafted a guy he turned in at Dak Prescott
or Kirk Cousins, you know, a pick five, would it
be ideal? No, But like would you keep your job
for a long time and have just a successful team
(11:19):
potentially yes? And I think the expectations for high draft
picks are always really high when it comes to quarterbacks,
especially with people starting right away. And the other expectation,
like you said, is like people don't want people to sit,
the Aaron Rodgers, the Jordan love That is not the norm.
Even Patrick Mahomes sitting for a year is definitely not
(11:43):
ever going to be the norm with rookie contracts. With
how much these guys have played now in seven on
seven and in college, people want to see these guys play.
Should the NFL add overtime kickoff decision to the opening
coin toss? For example, if you win the coin toss,
you get to choose three options kick receive for the game,
kick receive for overtime, three field direction. This way, everyone
(12:08):
knows ahead of time who gets the first ball first
in overtime, so no team doesn't feel screwed after the
coin toss. Also, teams could play more aggresfully at the
end of games if they knew they had to kick
off in overtime. I don't hate this, but I don't
think at the start of the game you're even thinking
(12:31):
about overtime. Really, the decision to defer or not is
based on the start of the second half, which there's
still thirty minutes of football left, so I think that
would be an element coaches wouldn't want to mess with.
I think they would rather just kind of stay focused
on the present and at worst the start of the
(12:53):
second half. I don't hate the idea. I think you're
actually kind of thinking outside the box here. But I
think if you went to the owner's meetings and threw
that kind of idea out there, it would get kicked
back pretty fast. The Texans and brown seem to be
fully guaranteed way more money than everyone else. There are
(13:15):
only two teams to guarantee their second round picks, and
then Watson fully guaranteed with the Browns, and Stingley got
eighty nine of ninety million dollars guaranteed with the Texans.
Do you think they're doing this on purpose to screw
with everyone else's negotiations? If one, if no one else's
second round picks, that'd be a huge blow. All the
(13:36):
Cardinal media keeps ping, I didn't see that they guaranteed
their second round picks fully guaranteed contract. I didn't see that.
I do wonder you know you could argue Derek Stingley
giving him eighty nine million dollars of ninety million dollars guaranteed,
because if I was a star corner, I'd be like,
(13:57):
why am I getting way? Why is justin Jefferson and
Nick Bosa getting one hundred and twenty five million dollars guaranteed,
and I'm only getting eighty or ninety Why wouldn't I
get the same amount guaranteed as those guys? I play
premium position. I'm covering the highest paid guy in the league. Right.
The reason you give these pass rushers so much money
(14:18):
is because they go, well, I'm going up against Lane Johnson,
Trent Williams, Tristan Worse. These guys are making thirty million
dollars a year. If I'm beating them, why am I
not getting thirty million dollars a year? So if I'm
Derek Stingley and I'm covering the guy making thirty million
dollars a year, why wouldn't I make thirty million dollars
a year? Right? Why am I making twenty? So I
think it's a way to kind of actually give him
a little less, But you're right, they have and it
(14:41):
gives a shorter term contract, right, Like, what are they
giving four years ninety million dollars? What do they give
to Nell Hunter two years ago? I think two years
fifty million dollars and guaranteed forty nine of it. So
you actually keep yourself more flexible instead of giving like
the six or seven year deals. Maybe you'd have to
ask Cereo. That's a good question because I don't view
(15:02):
the Texans and the Browns as the same. I mean,
they gave DeShawn Watson two hundred thirty million dollars to
make sure that he joined the team. I don't know
why they did it. Honestly, that's a great question. Why
isn't the Giants GM fired. Especially after the hard knocks,
he would be on the hot seat, But now since
(15:22):
Barkley won a championship with the Eagles, I'm surprised John
didn't fire him already. It's hard to find a proper GM.
Even the NFL fan knows that it's a bad idea,
and I doubt he would get another GM job. By
the way, love the pod appreciate it. I don't know.
I mean your guess as good as mine. I think
it's pretty clear the Giants ownership has hesitated when it
(15:47):
came to making a major major change. They want no
part of it. So I would guess that that's a
major reason that they just don't want to They don't
want to fire anybody because he doesn't want to go
in a situation where he has to interview new people.
That sucks. That is the last thing these owners want
(16:08):
to do. They're printing money. Life's good. They're all they
all in yachts, they all in seven houses all around
the world. They've never had more money and win or lose,
they're still making the money. The last thing they want
to do is spend all January interviewing a bunch of
potential gms and then typically you got to listen to
that guy he what coach does he want to hire?
(16:31):
That does suck. Now you could argue, well, yeah, it sucks,
but would you rather win? Of course, I think you'd
just rather win with the guys you have, especially if
you like them. But I don't think he has like
naked pictures of any of these guys. Pro Golfers drive
(16:53):
for show, but they putt for doe. The easiest shot
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responsible gambling resources, see DKG dot co slash audio. How
do you golf in Arizona in the heat? Do you
(18:37):
golf in the middle of the day or go early
and try to beat the heat? Listen, I don't understand,
like it's hot to one hundred and ten degrees, you
check fucking water and gatorade. How could anyone like I've
lived in the heat my whole life. I grew up.
I'm actually down the street in a hotel because my
brother and his kids are living in my mom's house
because they're premodeling their house. So we stayed at a
(18:58):
hotel down the street. I mean it was we landed yesterday.
It was one hundred and two degrees in Davis, California,
and it was humid. It sure felt humid to me,
Like it's hot. So summers are hot, you play golf,
not going to kill you. How could anyone function in
zero degrees? All you guys in the Midwest or the
Northeast live in the snow, Like, you couldn't pay me
to do that. So everyone's always like, how do you
(19:20):
live in the heat? I don't know. You drink some
water that you put on a hat. It's not that complicated. Okay.
When you look at recent history, none of the offensive
play college head coaches hired in the past five years
have won more than one playoff game. Yet CEO coaches
like Sirianni, Dan Campbell, de Miko Ryans, Dan Quinn have
won multiple playoff games. It seems like there are more
(19:42):
distractions now than ever to manage as a head coach.
Long schedules, more weekday games, more primetime games, more international games.
Social media and podcast gives players an outlet. Analytics have
contributed to the unconventional in game decision making. A lot
of this is new over the last five ish years.
Do you think tions are too high for Ben Johnson
the Bears this year, given that he's a first year
(20:03):
head coach. Yeah? Man, I think it's really really hard
to be a head coach, especially when your bread and
butter is like calling the game. And that's why Ben Johnson,
that's why Sean McVay, that's why Kyle Shanahan. And when
you're young, you have a million things going on. Sometimes
you get to go to a crappy team, right, you
(20:24):
just get to go to a team that has no expectations.
People just think it's gonna suck, right, Like I'm gonna win.
I'm gonna win three or four games. It's like whatever
you win six or seven, everyone's happy. Then there's a
guy like Ben Johnson who is just anointed the next
great play caller. It's like, next Mike Shanahan, next Mike Homber,
next Andy Reid, and listen, he was incredible in Detroit. Well,
(20:49):
he goes to a team who's expectation. I would say
this year, anything less than nine to ten wins gonna
be a does Like he wins seven eight, it's gonna
get weird like and that's not a normal landing spot
for a first time head coach. So godspeed, I'm with you.
I think there's a lot going on. Like Sirianni is
a good example, young guy, ton of help, ton of help.
(21:12):
Right when he first got there, his two coordinators, Jonathan
Gannon and Shane sykein two head coaches. Now how good
they are A sad coach, I don't know, but like
legit head coaching candidates and really good like Jonathan Gannon
is a good leader. Shane Syken's an excellent like offensive innovator.
He's got Howie Roseman the best GM. Like that's Ben
Johnson's got Ryan Poles, which seems like a nice guy.
(21:34):
No clue if he knows what he's going on. He's
got he's the offensive play caller. I guess Dennis Allen's
is defensive coordinator. That that will help. I hear you.
I've been beating this trump for a long time. I
was wondering why some NFL organizations the head coach outranks
(21:55):
the GM, but in others it doesn't. How does the
hierarchy work. Doesn't the head coach make more than gms?
I can there can't be many teams where the GM
makes more than the head coach. Maybe Philly, but Sirianni
just got a raise. So I mean listen to how
he probably should make fifteen or twenty million. But let's
(22:17):
say he's making ten, that'd be one of the highest
paed GMS. If Sirianne's making ten, he's lower half of
the NFL and head coach salaries, so or definitely, you know,
he wouldn't be in the top twelve or fourteen and
Gain just won a Super Bowl, so I think it
just gets the money. It's also in the contract, so
like when Kyle Shanahan was hired, he gets final say
(22:38):
on everything. Now that doesn't mean like in a draft room,
he might let John Lynch do it, but it is
in his contract. If he wants something, he gets it.
And that's how it works with a lot of these.
When Ben Johnson got hired, Ben Johnson had a leverage,
So if Ben Johnson wanted in his contract, he get
basically whatever he wanted in his contract. Mike Frabele hired
(22:59):
in England, Well, who do you think had all the juice?
Liam Cohen. Remember they were desperately trying to hire. So
sometimes coaches, even if they don't have experience like Vabel
or Pete Carroll or whatever that a guy like Liam
Cohen has has leveraged because you need you're desperate to
hire him, so he has on the leverage of like
(23:21):
I need this in my contract, I get the final
say that's where I think that happens a lot. It's
not like a there's not a set hierarchy, like there
are at a lot of you guys jobs that let's just
say at a corporate structure, like if you went to
Chase Bank, or you went to Oracle, or you went
to you know, some of these major companies. Like if
you were at a retailer like Safeway and you were
(23:43):
or an alcohol company a distributor, there's very clear org chart,
the org chart. Sometimes in football it's like, well, who
had all the juice? Like if I'm desperately trying to
hire let's say Adam Peters to be my GM, Well,
if he's hired before the coach and I had a
bunch of leverage. If I'm Adam Peters, I get it
in my contract that I get to run the draft,
(24:05):
and I get to run free agency, and maybe I
get to pick the final fifty three. Now it doesn't
mean that I don't let my coach do a lot
of that, but it's in my contract that I do.
And it's just based on which one of those guys
when you hired him either had the leverage slash use
the leverage to make sure that was written in stone. Now, ideally,
(24:25):
like John Schneider was hired by Pete Carroll by the
middle of their run, like Pete Carroll relied on him
a lot, brett Veach was hired by Andy Reid. Right,
Andy Truss Bretton lets him operate. So you know, Sean
McVeigh makes more money than less need McVeigh. Let's less
need pick the players. Now here's the other thing. Even
(24:47):
if you are an equal with the coach, you don't
want to pick a player. Let's say I'm scouting and
I love this this badass linebacker named John middle Coff.
Like this guy John Middlecoff, What is this? Is this
Patrick willis two point zero and my coach hates him.
He's like, I don't like him. I don't think he
(25:09):
fits my scheme. Maybe he meets him at the combine
and it's like turned him off. I don't like this cat. Well,
even if you love the player, are you going to
force that on your coach knowing he hates him. That's
not a It's not a fun way to work. So
I think a lot of that stuff works itself out.
So I think I think overall, there's not like, there's
(25:31):
not a set ORG chart. The only ORG chart in
football that stays the same is whenever the GM and
head coach is hired, the coaching staff and the scouting
staff are both under those guys. My bad if you
already answered this question. But who would you say is
the greatest college prospect ever? And if there was an
all time draft, would that same prospect go first overall?
(25:54):
Like a quarterback, I think many would argue that Elway
was the best prospect of all time. I mean, he's
six three sixty four, he could run, he had a
huge arm, and he was a Stanford intellect guy who
was whose dad was a coach. I think it would
be hard You'd be hard pressed to call John Elway
(26:16):
the greatest quarterback prospect of all time. And if the
greatest quarterback prospect of all time, that means you're the
greatest prospect of all time, because even if you're I'm
trying to think, you know it was funny. Is some
of the great tackles in the history of the league,
(26:39):
like Jonathan Ogden. Let's use him as an example. Jonathan Ogden.
I think he was like the twelfth pick in the draft.
It was a fourth pick. I'd say Jonathan Ogden would
be pretty high. Nine time first or second team All
Pro I mean guys like that. But Trent Williams, Jonathan Ogden,
(27:01):
you know, Lane Johnson's gonna be a first bout Hall
of Famer. A lot of these tackles, they were the
fourth overall pick. So it's hard for me to call
some of these tackles the greatest prospect of all time
if they're the fourth overall pick. I'd imagine Reggie White
a little before my time, but he's probably gonna be
(27:23):
one of the great prospects of all time. Lawrence Taylor
would probably be up there, but Reggie White was technically yeah,
he was in the supplemental Draft. I forget the exact
details on that one, but he was the fourth overall pick.
Lawrence Taylor was the second overall pick, so you know,
(27:49):
I'd say l Way'd be hard to beat. I'd say
the two best quarterback prospects of my life would be
Lway Peyton and then a lot of these other g
You know, Lawrence Taylor, you know Reggie White played in
the USFL. I'll tell you it was a fucking sweet prospect.
Von Miller was pretty sweet. He went two overall. You
(28:13):
briefly mentioned it when you were all with Colin a
few weeks ago, that you spend some time in San
Sebastian when you were younger, wondering what your thoughts were
on the place. If so, I went back. I went
back a few years ago from my thirtieth and was
blown away by the food. Watch your thoughts on international fixtures,
even possibly future teams in Europe as a European fan,
(28:34):
I can say for certain that I would I wouldn't
like any team based outside of the America, even in London.
If you're a European fan, in my opinion, you don't
want to support watch one of the established thirty two
American teams. You want to watch the other base in Europe.
It's a good question. When I went to San Sebastian,
I was that's almost twenty years ago. Now. What's funny
(28:56):
is we went to the beach. I was there for
like a month, went to the beach like every single day.
It was incredible. The water was warm, the food. I
just remember there being a lot of tapas, remembering tapas
every day, was drinking a lot, would go for runs
along the beach. We went to class I think like
twice a week was stupid. I don't remember anything that
(29:16):
was said. We actually went out drinking one night with
the teacher who didn't speak great English, but he was
a cool guy. I just remember screwing around there. I
didn't surf, but it was it's technically that beach, I
you know, has decent surf. I just remember swimming and
going to the beach and I was just I've never
been more tan in my life. It's absolutely beautiful there.
(29:38):
I remember being hot and humid, but it was It's
been a long time and that was a time too.
You know, we didn't have a cell phone with a camera,
so I don't even have that many pictures. I have
a couple that are on like a buddy probably someone
else that I went with Facebook page back in the day.
It's like a completely different time in life. I remember
(29:59):
having a Nokia flip phone with me so I could
like call my parents, but it was it was fun.
Not gonna lie question for the pod. I'm a diehard
app State football fan and truly believe on any given
Sunday we could beat anyone in the country. That being said,
I realized we are tremendously outclassed and talent with the
portal and turned G five schools into breeding grounds for
(30:21):
Power five. What does the future of G five football
look like to you? And is there a G five
school from their own league? There is there any world
where the G five schools formed their own league. It
kind of hit me when we were talking about Simmons
the other day because someone asked a question about Jason
Kelcey comparing Josh Simmons to the best, you know, a
(30:44):
prospect with his physical capabilities, like a Jason Peters or
Trent Williams. And then I didn't realize this because again
I'm not living and dying in this world anymore. I
just assumed, if you're just starting left tackle for Ohio State,
that you went to Ohio State at high and you
were just some blue chip guy, right, like your CJ. Stroud,
or you're Jeremiah Smith or your even Caleb Downs right
(31:06):
Alabama Ohio State blue chipper. Simmons was at San Diego State,
I mean a couple of years ago. San Diego State
was pretty good. You know, UNLV had a moment last year.
Obviously you guys had some moments. Those days are done
when you get a Josh Simmons. Now, when you get
at San Diego State a legitimate NFL prospect, I got
(31:27):
my start at Fresno State. We had Ryan Matthews. When
I got there, Ryan Matthews was a top fifteen pick
at running back. The Chargers drafted Ryan Matthews to literally
replace Ledanian Tomlinson, who's one of the greatest players ever.
Ryan Matthews at point in time in his childhood grew
up in a car. His mom and him lived out
(31:50):
of a car. It was an incredible story. And Ryan
has gone on now to everyone that's ever met Ryan
loved him. He's gone on to coach I think a
high school football at baker Field. Ryan Matthews was so
loyal to coach Chill because he did not academically qualify
when he was being recruited by the big boys, and
then the last second to get into Fresnel State, he
(32:10):
academically qualifies, and Pete Carroll and this is like seven
in the peak of the USC dynasty, offers Ryan Matthews
a scholarship and Ryan turn says no and goes to
Fresnel State. Well, maybe he would have still done that,
but after a year or two, the nil he would
have been offered too much money and he wouldn't have
been able to stay at presdent State and financially, people
(32:32):
would have had to look at him and sayd bro,
you got to take eight hundred thousand dollars to go
play at sc or play at Oregon. No one would
Texas wherever. And I think that's where you just don't
even if the guy is loyal, it's really really hard
to turn that and no one would even blame you.
The NFL has always had an edge over other sports,
and part because the regular season games carry far more
(32:54):
weight than any other league. Is the NFL diluting its
product by adding an eighteenth game. There's a reason NBA
ratings are average. Their product is watered down. Would love
to hear your thoughts. Yeah, I mean, listen, the NFL
product at this point in time is a little watered
down based on they play Thursday night football, They've added
(33:15):
the extra game, they forced games in constantly on short weeks.
It is not the same as it was twenty years ago,
and the league has never been more popular now. Part
of that is still like even if I forced a
game in on Thursday, there still is a lack of inventory,
and the greatest thing the NFL has going for it
is the setup of the sport is built for short
(33:36):
attention spans. It's literally built for modern day people because
there's only one game a week for your team, and
in basketball, especially baseball, there are just a ton of games.
But there always have been a ton of games. But
twenty thirty forty years ago, our attention spans were shorter.
There was we were allowed to be bored. Think about this,
(33:58):
when was the last time I remember thinking all the
time when I was a kid, like I'm bored. I
was just with swimming with my nephews. Do you know
what they're probably never ever going to say in their
entire life I'm bored, which is you could argue sad
because I think some of the most creative people, some
(34:19):
of the best ideas have come when you just get
to spend time with your thoughts and think and create.
Maria was telling me something yesterday that Shaw on Instagram about,
you know, scrolling. I don't even know if it's true,
but has some impact on part of your brain that
helps with problem solving. And I wonder if that's true
(34:39):
because I was actually taking the trash out the other
day and there's like a rip in the trash bag
and we were both looking at each other in the
kitchen and there's just like coffee spilling all over and
I just froze. It's like, what do I do. She's like,
I don't know, run outside. And I was like, does
my problem solving part of my brain not work anymore
because I've scrolled too much? I hope not, but I
(35:01):
can't discount that possibility. But overall, listen, I think the
eighteenth game, I'm not for it. I was for the
seventeenth game, but it's coming. It's it's inevitable. So I
don't know what else to tell you. I was rewatching
The Sopranos and there was a scene where Sylvia steps
in as the acting boss while Tony is in the hospital.
He tells his wife he better as a number He's
(35:23):
better as a number two. And I really believe that's
a real thing. Some people thrive in that role, and
putting them out can be risky when coaching moves. With
coaching moves, the last couple of years, we've seen a
lot of former head coaches go back to coordinator rules.
I think this could possibly raise the quality of football
this season alone, We've got Solid, Dennis Allen, Eberflus, all
(35:44):
these guys. Josh McDaniels, Chip Kelly curious to hear your take. Yeah,
you could argue, though, I mean, what if Ben Johnson
is you know, fails at his position taking over as
a head coach, leaving as a coordinator. I think there's
always Eban flows in this business in terms of people
being a head coach, people being a coordinator. It kind
(36:04):
of goes in circles. But you could argue, definitely from
a defensive coordinator standpoint, solid being a defensive coordinator is
a plus ibra Flus being a defensive coordinator in theories
of plus. Dennis Allen for sure, Robert Solid, Dennis Allen
are big additions to the league who defensively. I mean,
it's a shitty coach league, so there's a small percentage
(36:26):
of guys that know what they're doing. I think, in fairness,
it's hard to coach defense. The rules are not on
your side. It is basically officiated against you, so you
have to be so freaking good. There's always been a
huge advantage with you know, great defensive coaches because it's
like a great combination of of motivation of like the
(36:48):
academic motive, the academic schematic coaching, developing a scheme, teaching
your players that with like a level of craziness and
violence that off. It's just it's basically just out thinking
you of playing chess. There is a level of like
being kind of a crazy asshole on defense, which is
(37:09):
always resonated with the consumer with fans watching defensive coordinators,
like watching Kirby Smart or Nick Saban kind of address
the team. That's what made Belichick kind of unique is
he was like this academic but he was a defensive guy.
But he wasn't like a huge you know, Belichick wasn't
given raw Ross speeches right like Tomlin or the Harbaugh can.
(37:31):
So I think a raw Ross speech is a big
part of a defensive coordinator for most of them not
named Belichick, but I like where you're coming from there.
The volume
The volume. What is going on everybody? How are we doing?
John Mitticoff three and now podcast? Not ideal lighting, less
(00:22):
than ideal microphone situation here, I forgot something extremely important.
My traveling operation is held together by a thing called
a Zoom recorder that plugs in my microphone to my computer,
and I left it on my desk and there's just
no way one. They've come out different models since it
wouldn't be here for a couple of days, and it's
(00:44):
just it wasn't going to happen. So I had to
add lib and get this USB mic. So the audio
quality is not great, but I had to record a
couple mailbag here for business purposes. So I apology for
forcing you to sit through this quality, because I pride
myself on good audio quality, especially someone who listens to podcasts, like,
(01:07):
if you have bad audio quality, I'm out. So I
screwed up that there's no way around it, and we'll
just have to battle through and I'll be back here
end of next week potentially, because I don't know if
I can do podcasts even from Lake Tahoe with this microphone.
It's just too terrible. It's embarrassment and it's an embarrassment
that I cost. So it's like I'm a football coach
(01:28):
at my press conference saying put this on my shoulders,
put this on my back. But before we dive into
any mail bag at John Middlecoff is the instagram you
guys know, the drill fire in those dms. I got
to tell you about my friends, my partners in the
official ticketing app of this podcast, Game Time best ticketing
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go to a show, if you want to go to
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last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Okay, let's uh, let's
dive into the mailbag. Could you imagine Darren Waller's career
if you played with Drew Brees, Mahomes or Joe Burrow
instead of Carr and Daniel Jones. I think more elite
players should stop taking these massive contracts from bad teams
that overpay because they suck, and go to a place
that will elevate them to new heights. I think that's
(02:31):
easier said than done. When someone offers you millions of dollars.
Let's just say you know your team is offering you
and you've never made any money thirty forty fifty million
dollars guaranteed, and you're playing at a high level, and
that total contract is eighty ninety million dollars, and you're
looking at yourself, well, I'm probably gonna make eighty ninety
million dollars. It's easy to go, well, I'll play this
(02:53):
out another two years because I got to play out
usually my my the year in which a last year
in my contract, and then they're usually gonna franchise tag
me if I'm a good player, So it doesn't it's
easier said than done. I know where you're coming from,
but I think that's easier in theory than it is
(03:15):
done in reality. And that's why it's never done in reality,
I'm surprised the forty nine ers brought back Kyle Huscheck
when they cut them. I thought it was justified. He's
a thirty four year old expensive But what was the
thinking behind it? Is it more based on intangibles? Yeah,
I think it's it's hard to find that position, right,
that it don't really exist in the NFL, that there
(03:37):
aren't fullbacks, There aren't guys coming out of college that
play that position. He knows the offense, he's a versatile player.
He also, at this point in time, given that they've
done a bunch of pay cuts, is a cheap player,
and he took a discount because he was offered more.
I think to go to Pittsburgh. He values the forty
nine ers. He likes playing with McCaffrey. He likes Kyle Shanahan,
(03:58):
he likes Purty, like that's Kittles this guy. So there's
a comfort level in cohesion just together. You know. I
don't know. I don't have his total off the top
of my head, but I think it's just a couple
of million dollars. Now he's gonna go down as the
highest paid pullback in the history league. I know you're
a big Sopranos fan, which moment's episode is the funniest
(04:19):
to you. When I first got into the show, I
anticipated at being super serious crime drama, which at times
it is, but most part it's like a comedy. A
classic moment for me is when John gets escorted away
crying at his daughter's wedding and the conversation all the
guys have afterwards. I do think the all time episode
is when they're in the woods freezing their ass off,
(04:41):
chasing that like Russian spy who is like got confirmed
like twenty five kills, and they can't find them, they
can't kill them, and it's just they have no self service.
To me, that's got to be one of the more
iconic moments in the show. I would say the best
scene in the show is and the intervention with Chrissy
(05:02):
when they're all sitting around in his apartment and it's
just I've watched that scene on YouTube probably fifty times
in my life. It's hard to beat. I mean, some
of the comments by Polly, I mean, it's it's it's
pretty funny. Regard to the mailback question about UFC, I
had some additional thoughts, not only is there a buried
(05:24):
barrier to entry with pay per view? But the main
card doesn't come on until eleven or twelve at night
on the East Coast. Let's be honest, most people don't
have the energy to stay up till one or two
am watching. Also, you're right, it's very niche. I'm in
the military, and the UFC is very popular with us.
Because of the violence. I would say a majority of
(05:45):
Americans just don't have the stomach for it. I'm with you.
I do think there are There was a moment last
fight where the dude kotom he hit the ground, I
might have knocked himself out on the ground as well,
and then the guy hammer cocked him to his face.
I mean, it was, like Jesus, it's a very very
violent whatever twelve minutes I guess three, five minutes, around
(06:08):
fifteen minutes, ten minutes, however long the fight lasts. I
do think though, the human humans are drawn to fights,
going back to like when we're kids in junior high
and high school. There's a fight, everyone surrounds it. It's
just a natural instincts of human beings. But you could
argue with how civilized culture has got, especially in America,
(06:32):
how soft certain regions have gotten. You know, they're not
around fighting ever. So like you said, it's going to
turn certain people off. It's going to be too much
for other people. They're just going to be people like
me who I love violence. I mean I miss it
in the NFL, I miss fighting in the NBA. I'm
drawn to violence. I'm drawn to sports and I don't
(06:53):
watch so it's hard to get people's attention. It just
is even people like me that should be in the demo,
forty year old guy who watches sports and likes violence,
and they can't. They can't get me to buy the
pay per views, and I like Dana White. Julio Jones
retired after the offseason and a great career had me
thinking there are only three wide receivers I'd have on
my team over Julio, Rice Moss and Calvin Johnson. I
(07:17):
have Julio as the fourth best wide receiver of all time.
What do you think where would you put Julio? Probably
a little rich for me, you know, I think many
people would say Terrell Owens, Terrell Owens is a more
dominant player than Julio Jones. I would say, I mean,
there are a lot of guys over the course of
(07:37):
the last twenty five years. You know, Marvin Harrison was
pretty elite, pretty unstoppable. I would say that Tyreek Hill
pretty elite, pretty unstoppable. I would say that. Try it
else to think it's a good question. I don't know,
but I to me, he's probably top ten talent of
all time. But it just in terms of production. I mean,
(08:01):
you know, when you look, he had some weird years
where he didn't score touchdowns. I mean, Antonio Brown had
a six year stretch where he was better than Julio Jones.
I mean, Antonio Brown had one of the greatest six
year stretches in the history of the league. But yeah,
I'd say he's one of the great talents. He's one
of the great stories of elite blue chip prospect. Right
he was the number one overall recruit. He then becomes
(08:23):
a top six or seven draft pick, and then he
goes on to become a Hall of Fame level career.
I do think sometimes when these player podcasts, you know,
I saw a clip the other day He's does he
do a podcast? Roddy White. I mean, both those guys
are bitching moan about a lot of stuff. It's like Julio,
you were a great player, then you got old and
they got rid of you, like, welcome to the league.
(08:44):
How many of your teammates did they get rid of?
They got rid of Matt Ryan, they got rid of
basically every single guy you played with beside you and
Matt Ryan before you both were discovered. They're always so
offended when like, yeah, we had a new coach come
in and I called Arthur Blank and he's like the
coach is gonna get to decide. He's like, bullshit, Arthur No,
Arthur Blank hired these guys. He's not a football guy.
(09:05):
He's gonna let them decide, and he's paid you a
premium for your services. These players get so offended, like, well,
you know why because they're treated so well, they're paid
premium amounts of money, they get everything handed to them,
and then the moment they're not great anymore, it's like
kind of you see it with Lebron James right now,
for the first time in Lebron james career, is like, Eh,
we don't We're not really worried about what you think, Like,
(09:27):
we're not going through you. You don't have any leverage anymore.
We're on we have a new beautiful girl on the
team now and her name is Luca, and he's very
offended by it. You could tell we're gonna weigh our option.
We're gonna Lebron shut up, take your fifty million play
for the Lakers. Welcome to the NBA. This happens to
literally every player, and I think the great players really
(09:49):
struggle with that transition of like, well, you're not just
kissing my ass, jerking me off and tickling my taint. No,
we're not anymore. We're just we're over you. And sometimes
I see these podcast it's like, geez, these guys lived
in a different world than the rest of the NFL,
even the because most NFL players are kind of like
on their toes about stuff, like at any moment, anything
could go on. I have a question about justin Herbert.
(10:13):
Correct me if I'm wrong, But it seems like success
during his rookie season may have raised the bar for
incoming quarterbacks. Ever since his historic debut, it feels like
teams expect their rookie quarterbacks to start right away in
week one. When you look at a trend of rookie
quarterbacks since Herbert, the expectations to start Week one seemed
noticeably higher than they used to be when quarterbacks sat
(10:36):
their first year to learn the new Systemah, listen, man, expectations.
People have been drafting quarterbacks now for six to seven years,
hoping to find the next Patrick Mahomes. When I draft
a play really high at quarterback, especially in the top
I don't know ten picks. My expectations are high. Whether
you're compared to Justin Herbert, whether you're compared to Patrick Mahomes,
(10:57):
whether you're compared to Brett fahrv Peyton Manny or Tom
you're expecting you're trying to hit a star quarterback and
fair not like the expectations are never like, yeah, it
would be cool if he's Dak Prescott, even though if
you drafted a guy he turned in at Dak Prescott
or Kirk Cousins, you know, a pick five, would it
be ideal? No, But like would you keep your job
for a long time and have just a successful team
(11:19):
potentially yes? And I think the expectations for high draft
picks are always really high when it comes to quarterbacks,
especially with people starting right away. And the other expectation,
like you said, is like people don't want people to sit,
the Aaron Rodgers, the Jordan love That is not the norm.
Even Patrick Mahomes sitting for a year is definitely not
(11:43):
ever going to be the norm with rookie contracts. With
how much these guys have played now in seven on
seven and in college, people want to see these guys play.
Should the NFL add overtime kickoff decision to the opening
coin toss? For example, if you win the coin toss,
you get to choose three options kick receive for the game,
kick receive for overtime, three field direction. This way, everyone
(12:08):
knows ahead of time who gets the first ball first
in overtime, so no team doesn't feel screwed after the
coin toss. Also, teams could play more aggresfully at the
end of games if they knew they had to kick
off in overtime. I don't hate this, but I don't
think at the start of the game you're even thinking
(12:31):
about overtime. Really, the decision to defer or not is
based on the start of the second half, which there's
still thirty minutes of football left, so I think that
would be an element coaches wouldn't want to mess with.
I think they would rather just kind of stay focused
on the present and at worst the start of the
(12:53):
second half. I don't hate the idea. I think you're
actually kind of thinking outside the box here. But I
think if you went to the owner's meetings and threw
that kind of idea out there, it would get kicked
back pretty fast. The Texans and brown seem to be
fully guaranteed way more money than everyone else. There are
(13:15):
only two teams to guarantee their second round picks, and
then Watson fully guaranteed with the Browns, and Stingley got
eighty nine of ninety million dollars guaranteed with the Texans.
Do you think they're doing this on purpose to screw
with everyone else's negotiations? If one, if no one else's
second round picks, that'd be a huge blow. All the
(13:36):
Cardinal media keeps ping, I didn't see that they guaranteed
their second round picks fully guaranteed contract. I didn't see that.
I do wonder you know you could argue Derek Stingley
giving him eighty nine million dollars of ninety million dollars guaranteed,
because if I was a star corner, I'd be like,
(13:57):
why am I getting way? Why is justin Jefferson and
Nick Bosa getting one hundred and twenty five million dollars guaranteed,
and I'm only getting eighty or ninety Why wouldn't I
get the same amount guaranteed as those guys? I play
premium position. I'm covering the highest paid guy in the league. Right.
The reason you give these pass rushers so much money
(14:18):
is because they go, well, I'm going up against Lane Johnson,
Trent Williams, Tristan Worse. These guys are making thirty million
dollars a year. If I'm beating them, why am I
not getting thirty million dollars a year? So if I'm
Derek Stingley and I'm covering the guy making thirty million
dollars a year, why wouldn't I make thirty million dollars
a year? Right? Why am I making twenty? So I
think it's a way to kind of actually give him
a little less, But you're right, they have and it
(14:41):
gives a shorter term contract, right, Like, what are they
giving four years ninety million dollars? What do they give
to Nell Hunter two years ago? I think two years
fifty million dollars and guaranteed forty nine of it. So
you actually keep yourself more flexible instead of giving like
the six or seven year deals. Maybe you'd have to
ask Cereo. That's a good question because I don't view
(15:02):
the Texans and the Browns as the same. I mean,
they gave DeShawn Watson two hundred thirty million dollars to
make sure that he joined the team. I don't know
why they did it. Honestly, that's a great question. Why
isn't the Giants GM fired. Especially after the hard knocks,
he would be on the hot seat, But now since
(15:22):
Barkley won a championship with the Eagles, I'm surprised John
didn't fire him already. It's hard to find a proper GM.
Even the NFL fan knows that it's a bad idea,
and I doubt he would get another GM job. By
the way, love the pod appreciate it. I don't know.
I mean your guess as good as mine. I think
it's pretty clear the Giants ownership has hesitated when it
(15:47):
came to making a major major change. They want no
part of it. So I would guess that that's a
major reason that they just don't want to They don't
want to fire anybody because he doesn't want to go
in a situation where he has to interview new people.
That sucks. That is the last thing these owners want
(16:08):
to do. They're printing money. Life's good. They're all they
all in yachts, they all in seven houses all around
the world. They've never had more money and win or lose,
they're still making the money. The last thing they want
to do is spend all January interviewing a bunch of
potential gms and then typically you got to listen to
that guy he what coach does he want to hire?
(16:31):
That does suck. Now you could argue, well, yeah, it sucks,
but would you rather win? Of course, I think you'd
just rather win with the guys you have, especially if
you like them. But I don't think he has like
naked pictures of any of these guys. Pro Golfers drive
(16:53):
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responsible gambling resources, see DKG dot co slash audio. How
do you golf in Arizona in the heat? Do you
(18:37):
golf in the middle of the day or go early
and try to beat the heat? Listen, I don't understand,
like it's hot to one hundred and ten degrees, you
check fucking water and gatorade. How could anyone like I've
lived in the heat my whole life. I grew up.
I'm actually down the street in a hotel because my
brother and his kids are living in my mom's house
because they're premodeling their house. So we stayed at a
(18:58):
hotel down the street. I mean it was we landed yesterday.
It was one hundred and two degrees in Davis, California,
and it was humid. It sure felt humid to me,
Like it's hot. So summers are hot, you play golf,
not going to kill you. How could anyone function in
zero degrees? All you guys in the Midwest or the
Northeast live in the snow, Like, you couldn't pay me
to do that. So everyone's always like, how do you
(19:20):
live in the heat? I don't know. You drink some
water that you put on a hat. It's not that complicated. Okay.
When you look at recent history, none of the offensive
play college head coaches hired in the past five years
have won more than one playoff game. Yet CEO coaches
like Sirianni, Dan Campbell, de Miko Ryans, Dan Quinn have
won multiple playoff games. It seems like there are more
(19:42):
distractions now than ever to manage as a head coach.
Long schedules, more weekday games, more primetime games, more international games.
Social media and podcast gives players an outlet. Analytics have
contributed to the unconventional in game decision making. A lot
of this is new over the last five ish years.
Do you think tions are too high for Ben Johnson
the Bears this year, given that he's a first year
(20:03):
head coach. Yeah? Man, I think it's really really hard
to be a head coach, especially when your bread and
butter is like calling the game. And that's why Ben Johnson,
that's why Sean McVay, that's why Kyle Shanahan. And when
you're young, you have a million things going on. Sometimes
you get to go to a crappy team, right, you
(20:24):
just get to go to a team that has no expectations.
People just think it's gonna suck, right, Like I'm gonna win.
I'm gonna win three or four games. It's like whatever
you win six or seven, everyone's happy. Then there's a
guy like Ben Johnson who is just anointed the next
great play caller. It's like, next Mike Shanahan, next Mike Homber,
next Andy Reid, and listen, he was incredible in Detroit. Well,
(20:49):
he goes to a team who's expectation. I would say
this year, anything less than nine to ten wins gonna
be a does Like he wins seven eight, it's gonna
get weird like and that's not a normal landing spot
for a first time head coach. So godspeed, I'm with you.
I think there's a lot going on. Like Sirianni is
a good example, young guy, ton of help, ton of help.
(21:12):
Right when he first got there, his two coordinators, Jonathan
Gannon and Shane sykein two head coaches. Now how good
they are A sad coach, I don't know, but like
legit head coaching candidates and really good like Jonathan Gannon
is a good leader. Shane Syken's an excellent like offensive innovator.
He's got Howie Roseman the best GM. Like that's Ben
Johnson's got Ryan Poles, which seems like a nice guy.
(21:34):
No clue if he knows what he's going on. He's
got he's the offensive play caller. I guess Dennis Allen's
is defensive coordinator. That that will help. I hear you.
I've been beating this trump for a long time. I
was wondering why some NFL organizations the head coach outranks
(21:55):
the GM, but in others it doesn't. How does the
hierarchy work. Doesn't the head coach make more than gms?
I can there can't be many teams where the GM
makes more than the head coach. Maybe Philly, but Sirianni
just got a raise. So I mean listen to how
he probably should make fifteen or twenty million. But let's
(22:17):
say he's making ten, that'd be one of the highest
paed GMS. If Sirianne's making ten, he's lower half of
the NFL and head coach salaries, so or definitely, you know,
he wouldn't be in the top twelve or fourteen and
Gain just won a Super Bowl, so I think it
just gets the money. It's also in the contract, so
like when Kyle Shanahan was hired, he gets final say
(22:38):
on everything. Now that doesn't mean like in a draft room,
he might let John Lynch do it, but it is
in his contract. If he wants something, he gets it.
And that's how it works with a lot of these.
When Ben Johnson got hired, Ben Johnson had a leverage,
So if Ben Johnson wanted in his contract, he get
basically whatever he wanted in his contract. Mike Frabele hired
(22:59):
in England, Well, who do you think had all the juice?
Liam Cohen. Remember they were desperately trying to hire. So
sometimes coaches, even if they don't have experience like Vabel
or Pete Carroll or whatever that a guy like Liam
Cohen has has leveraged because you need you're desperate to
hire him, so he has on the leverage of like
(23:21):
I need this in my contract, I get the final
say that's where I think that happens a lot. It's
not like a there's not a set hierarchy, like there
are at a lot of you guys jobs that let's just
say at a corporate structure, like if you went to
Chase Bank, or you went to Oracle, or you went
to you know, some of these major companies. Like if
you were at a retailer like Safeway and you were
(23:43):
or an alcohol company a distributor, there's very clear org chart,
the org chart. Sometimes in football it's like, well, who
had all the juice? Like if I'm desperately trying to
hire let's say Adam Peters to be my GM, Well,
if he's hired before the coach and I had a
bunch of leverage. If I'm Adam Peters, I get it
in my contract that I get to run the draft,
(24:05):
and I get to run free agency, and maybe I
get to pick the final fifty three. Now it doesn't
mean that I don't let my coach do a lot
of that, but it's in my contract that I do.
And it's just based on which one of those guys
when you hired him either had the leverage slash use
the leverage to make sure that was written in stone. Now, ideally,
(24:25):
like John Schneider was hired by Pete Carroll by the
middle of their run, like Pete Carroll relied on him
a lot, brett Veach was hired by Andy Reid. Right,
Andy Truss Bretton lets him operate. So you know, Sean
McVeigh makes more money than less need McVeigh. Let's less
need pick the players. Now here's the other thing. Even
(24:47):
if you are an equal with the coach, you don't
want to pick a player. Let's say I'm scouting and
I love this this badass linebacker named John middle Coff.
Like this guy John Middlecoff, What is this? Is this
Patrick willis two point zero and my coach hates him.
He's like, I don't like him. I don't think he
(25:09):
fits my scheme. Maybe he meets him at the combine
and it's like turned him off. I don't like this cat. Well,
even if you love the player, are you going to
force that on your coach knowing he hates him. That's
not a It's not a fun way to work. So
I think a lot of that stuff works itself out.
So I think I think overall, there's not like, there's
(25:31):
not a set ORG chart. The only ORG chart in
football that stays the same is whenever the GM and
head coach is hired, the coaching staff and the scouting
staff are both under those guys. My bad if you
already answered this question. But who would you say is
the greatest college prospect ever? And if there was an
all time draft, would that same prospect go first overall?
(25:54):
Like a quarterback, I think many would argue that Elway
was the best prospect of all time. I mean, he's
six three sixty four, he could run, he had a
huge arm, and he was a Stanford intellect guy who
was whose dad was a coach. I think it would
be hard You'd be hard pressed to call John Elway
(26:16):
the greatest quarterback prospect of all time. And if the
greatest quarterback prospect of all time, that means you're the
greatest prospect of all time, because even if you're I'm
trying to think, you know it was funny. Is some
of the great tackles in the history of the league,
(26:39):
like Jonathan Ogden. Let's use him as an example. Jonathan Ogden.
I think he was like the twelfth pick in the draft.
It was a fourth pick. I'd say Jonathan Ogden would
be pretty high. Nine time first or second team All
Pro I mean guys like that. But Trent Williams, Jonathan Ogden,
(27:01):
you know, Lane Johnson's gonna be a first bout Hall
of Famer. A lot of these tackles, they were the
fourth overall pick. So it's hard for me to call
some of these tackles the greatest prospect of all time
if they're the fourth overall pick. I'd imagine Reggie White
a little before my time, but he's probably gonna be
(27:23):
one of the great prospects of all time. Lawrence Taylor
would probably be up there, but Reggie White was technically yeah,
he was in the supplemental Draft. I forget the exact
details on that one, but he was the fourth overall pick.
Lawrence Taylor was the second overall pick, so you know,
(27:49):
I'd say l Way'd be hard to beat. I'd say
the two best quarterback prospects of my life would be
Lway Peyton and then a lot of these other g
You know, Lawrence Taylor, you know Reggie White played in
the USFL. I'll tell you it was a fucking sweet prospect.
Von Miller was pretty sweet. He went two overall. You
(28:13):
briefly mentioned it when you were all with Colin a
few weeks ago, that you spend some time in San
Sebastian when you were younger, wondering what your thoughts were
on the place. If so, I went back. I went
back a few years ago from my thirtieth and was
blown away by the food. Watch your thoughts on international fixtures,
even possibly future teams in Europe as a European fan,
(28:34):
I can say for certain that I would I wouldn't
like any team based outside of the America, even in London.
If you're a European fan, in my opinion, you don't
want to support watch one of the established thirty two
American teams. You want to watch the other base in Europe.
It's a good question. When I went to San Sebastian,
I was that's almost twenty years ago. Now. What's funny
(28:56):
is we went to the beach. I was there for
like a month, went to the beach like every single day.
It was incredible. The water was warm, the food. I
just remember there being a lot of tapas, remembering tapas
every day, was drinking a lot, would go for runs
along the beach. We went to class I think like
twice a week was stupid. I don't remember anything that
(29:16):
was said. We actually went out drinking one night with
the teacher who didn't speak great English, but he was
a cool guy. I just remember screwing around there. I
didn't surf, but it was it's technically that beach, I
you know, has decent surf. I just remember swimming and
going to the beach and I was just I've never
been more tan in my life. It's absolutely beautiful there.
(29:38):
I remember being hot and humid, but it was It's
been a long time and that was a time too.
You know, we didn't have a cell phone with a camera,
so I don't even have that many pictures. I have
a couple that are on like a buddy probably someone
else that I went with Facebook page back in the day.
It's like a completely different time in life. I remember
(29:59):
having a Nokia flip phone with me so I could
like call my parents, but it was it was fun.
Not gonna lie question for the pod. I'm a diehard
app State football fan and truly believe on any given
Sunday we could beat anyone in the country. That being said,
I realized we are tremendously outclassed and talent with the
portal and turned G five schools into breeding grounds for
(30:21):
Power five. What does the future of G five football
look like to you? And is there a G five
school from their own league? There is there any world
where the G five schools formed their own league. It
kind of hit me when we were talking about Simmons
the other day because someone asked a question about Jason
Kelcey comparing Josh Simmons to the best, you know, a
(30:44):
prospect with his physical capabilities, like a Jason Peters or
Trent Williams. And then I didn't realize this because again
I'm not living and dying in this world anymore. I
just assumed, if you're just starting left tackle for Ohio State,
that you went to Ohio State at high and you
were just some blue chip guy, right, like your CJ. Stroud,
or you're Jeremiah Smith or your even Caleb Downs right
(31:06):
Alabama Ohio State blue chipper. Simmons was at San Diego State,
I mean a couple of years ago. San Diego State
was pretty good. You know, UNLV had a moment last year.
Obviously you guys had some moments. Those days are done
when you get a Josh Simmons. Now, when you get
at San Diego State a legitimate NFL prospect, I got
(31:27):
my start at Fresno State. We had Ryan Matthews. When
I got there, Ryan Matthews was a top fifteen pick
at running back. The Chargers drafted Ryan Matthews to literally
replace Ledanian Tomlinson, who's one of the greatest players ever.
Ryan Matthews at point in time in his childhood grew
up in a car. His mom and him lived out
(31:50):
of a car. It was an incredible story. And Ryan
has gone on now to everyone that's ever met Ryan
loved him. He's gone on to coach I think a
high school football at baker Field. Ryan Matthews was so
loyal to coach Chill because he did not academically qualify
when he was being recruited by the big boys, and
then the last second to get into Fresnel State, he
(32:10):
academically qualifies, and Pete Carroll and this is like seven
in the peak of the USC dynasty, offers Ryan Matthews
a scholarship and Ryan turn says no and goes to
Fresnel State. Well, maybe he would have still done that,
but after a year or two, the nil he would
have been offered too much money and he wouldn't have
been able to stay at presdent State and financially, people
(32:32):
would have had to look at him and sayd bro,
you got to take eight hundred thousand dollars to go
play at sc or play at Oregon. No one would
Texas wherever. And I think that's where you just don't
even if the guy is loyal, it's really really hard
to turn that and no one would even blame you.
The NFL has always had an edge over other sports,
and part because the regular season games carry far more
(32:54):
weight than any other league. Is the NFL diluting its
product by adding an eighteenth game. There's a reason NBA
ratings are average. Their product is watered down. Would love
to hear your thoughts. Yeah, I mean, listen, the NFL
product at this point in time is a little watered
down based on they play Thursday night football, They've added
(33:15):
the extra game, they forced games in constantly on short weeks.
It is not the same as it was twenty years ago,
and the league has never been more popular now. Part
of that is still like even if I forced a
game in on Thursday, there still is a lack of inventory,
and the greatest thing the NFL has going for it
is the setup of the sport is built for short
(33:36):
attention spans. It's literally built for modern day people because
there's only one game a week for your team, and
in basketball, especially baseball, there are just a ton of games.
But there always have been a ton of games. But
twenty thirty forty years ago, our attention spans were shorter.
There was we were allowed to be bored. Think about this,
(33:58):
when was the last time I remember thinking all the
time when I was a kid, like I'm bored. I
was just with swimming with my nephews. Do you know
what they're probably never ever going to say in their
entire life I'm bored, which is you could argue sad
because I think some of the most creative people, some
(34:19):
of the best ideas have come when you just get
to spend time with your thoughts and think and create.
Maria was telling me something yesterday that Shaw on Instagram about,
you know, scrolling. I don't even know if it's true,
but has some impact on part of your brain that
helps with problem solving. And I wonder if that's true
(34:39):
because I was actually taking the trash out the other
day and there's like a rip in the trash bag
and we were both looking at each other in the
kitchen and there's just like coffee spilling all over and
I just froze. It's like, what do I do. She's like,
I don't know, run outside. And I was like, does
my problem solving part of my brain not work anymore
because I've scrolled too much? I hope not, but I
(35:01):
can't discount that possibility. But overall, listen, I think the
eighteenth game, I'm not for it. I was for the
seventeenth game, but it's coming. It's it's inevitable. So I
don't know what else to tell you. I was rewatching
The Sopranos and there was a scene where Sylvia steps
in as the acting boss while Tony is in the hospital.
He tells his wife he better as a number He's
(35:23):
better as a number two. And I really believe that's
a real thing. Some people thrive in that role, and
putting them out can be risky when coaching moves. With
coaching moves, the last couple of years, we've seen a
lot of former head coaches go back to coordinator rules.
I think this could possibly raise the quality of football
this season alone, We've got Solid, Dennis Allen, Eberflus, all
(35:44):
these guys. Josh McDaniels, Chip Kelly curious to hear your take. Yeah,
you could argue, though, I mean, what if Ben Johnson
is you know, fails at his position taking over as
a head coach, leaving as a coordinator. I think there's
always Eban flows in this business in terms of people
being a head coach, people being a coordinator. It kind
(36:04):
of goes in circles. But you could argue, definitely from
a defensive coordinator standpoint, solid being a defensive coordinator is
a plus ibra Flus being a defensive coordinator in theories
of plus. Dennis Allen for sure, Robert Solid, Dennis Allen
are big additions to the league who defensively. I mean,
it's a shitty coach league, so there's a small percentage
(36:26):
of guys that know what they're doing. I think, in fairness,
it's hard to coach defense. The rules are not on
your side. It is basically officiated against you, so you
have to be so freaking good. There's always been a
huge advantage with you know, great defensive coaches because it's
like a great combination of of motivation of like the
(36:48):
academic motive, the academic schematic coaching, developing a scheme, teaching
your players that with like a level of craziness and
violence that off. It's just it's basically just out thinking
you of playing chess. There is a level of like
being kind of a crazy asshole on defense, which is
(37:09):
always resonated with the consumer with fans watching defensive coordinators,
like watching Kirby Smart or Nick Saban kind of address
the team. That's what made Belichick kind of unique is
he was like this academic but he was a defensive guy.
But he wasn't like a huge you know, Belichick wasn't
given raw Ross speeches right like Tomlin or the Harbaugh can.
(37:31):
So I think a raw Ross speech is a big
part of a defensive coordinator for most of them not
named Belichick, but I like where you're coming from there.
The volume
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