September 13, 2025 • 31 mins
John answers all of your questions from the Packers hot start to the season and if the way they've been playing is sustainable, how the 49ers should handle the rest of the season with all the injuries that have happened in Week 1, what things we will look back on and say "we're totally wrong" and much more 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. Okay, you know, I thought I'd do a
little middlecop mailbag because we skip one during the middle
of the week, and I just had a bunch of
questions and then once the weekend, like Saturday Sunday comes,
(00:24):
they kind of get outdated once everyone plays. So I'm
recording this on Thursday afternoon, right before the Packer Washington game,
which hopefully is a fantastic competition between two teams. But
let's just bang out, you know, thirty minutes worth of
questions and then we will get on with our day.
(00:45):
We will start with Aaron longtime listener message for the back.
Not a Vikings fan, but JJ looks like he can
absolutely sling that pill. What do you think of his
first game? You know, I think you learn more about guy.
I mean, this is pretty evident when they struggled and
when they're having success. Any player when it's going well,
(01:07):
looks good, right. I mean, there have been a lot
of guys in the history of pro sports that had
good weeks, that had good months. But like having a
long career obviously is very difficult. But in that individual moment,
which is the only sixty minutes of NFL football in
(01:27):
the regular season, the kid had ever played. I don't
remember seeing a guy looks Usually when you're having a
game that catastrophic, right, it's one thing you throw a
pick or like last year Lamar Jackson the playoffs had
the bad interception, then he had the fumble, like he
has so many games that, like over the course, you
always feel like it's going to kind of work its
way out. Now in the playoffs's been a little different.
(01:48):
But he was excellent in the second half, so it
wasn't really that shocking. It wasn't shocking at all. Right.
I think with JJ all we could go off of
is like is this guy bad? Is he completely overwhelmed?
And you're like, well, game. I love when people do that,
like don't overreact. Overreact, like we have one game to
go off. What are we supposed to talk about? That's
what we talk about what we just witnessed. And there
(02:09):
was no way that every human being, including Kevin O'Connell,
it had to cross his mind on the sideline or
we're gonna have to call Kirk Cousins in like three
weeks because our team's really good. We're gonna have darrisaw
coming back, you know, Jordan Addison coming back. I mean
those are high end players. We have arguably the best
receiver in the league, we have an excellent defense with
(02:31):
an excellent defensive coordinator, and then he turned into just
a great player. I mean, there's no way around it.
He the eye test, the ball placement, the ball, the
arm strength, clearly, the mobility. But the one thing you
never know about a player, especially at quarterback in my experience,
you know, being around football and watching football extremely closely,
(02:54):
is the intangible level of mental and physical toughness. And
physical toughness some of these guys or in college and
if you play at the right program, you're not getting
hit that often. And then you come to the pros
and even if you're on a good team, a lot
of good teams, offensive lines are hit or miss. They
start getting peppered. So can you physically handle it? And
usually when you're physically going through it, mentally do you break?
(03:18):
And again, one game on the road against the Bears,
who look like they have a pretty good defense. Whenever
I see someone like the defense, let him know the
defense had to be gassed, had to be gassed. So
I'm impressed. Now, can't he go on to have like
rookie of the Year type season, A long way to go,
and I technically, I know he's not a rookie. But
you know, in the NBA, which I think the NFL should,
(03:38):
maybe they did change that rule. You know, remember Blake Griffin.
Some guys have hurt their knees and then played the
second year. I think he should be considered a rookie. Now,
you could argue it's a little advantage because mentally he
was in the in the room, but I don't know.
I mean when you have multiple knee surgeries and don't
play a snap, So yeah, I mean excellent performance. Big
Packer fan, with ed Policy taking over and no owner,
(04:02):
do you think the Packers could be the team of
the future with his leadership spent big draft and draft well,
congrats on everything. Uh, I would say, you just nothing's
gonna change, right, I'm recording this before the game, But
unless something catastrophic happened, they're gonna be really good this year,
and they've been really good for thirty years. I don't
(04:25):
think anything's gonna change now. The margin for error of
winning playoff games, winning the NFC Championship where they went
to a lot you know, with Aaron and couldn't get
over the hump. But they went to won Super Bowl,
and I think they lost was it, four NFC Championship games.
They lost to the Falcons, they lost to the forty
nine ers, they lost to Tampa, and they lost to Seattle.
(04:50):
So I think there's a big difference the way we
look at this team historically. If you went, hey, FARV
went to a couple of Super Bowls, won one. Let's
say Rogers had won one of those NFCS Hampshire games
and won a second Super Bowl, You'd be like, hell,
they've won three super Bowls over the last you know,
thirty plus years, or winning one a year or won
every ten years on average. But over the course they're
making the playoffs all the time. I think we'd look
(05:12):
at them a little differently. I mean, they've only been
one to one super Bowl and what I consider the
Internet era, which is starting, you know, ninety nine two thousand.
So I'm bullish on the franchise. But I don't look
at them much differently with ed policy than you did
or were with Murphy. I think the same infrastructure, the
(05:33):
same mindset of the GM has a lot of juice.
You know, obviously offensive innovative coaches and a well run operation.
It is a very, very impressive operation. There really is
no way around it. I know they don't win Super
Bowls at the same clip as some of these other franchises,
but I mean, think how many teams in the NFL
(05:54):
would sign up for what they got cooking massive rams
fan season ticket Kronkey need you, guys, because he spent
about eight billion dollars on that stadium. I fly to
all the home games from San Francisco and have been
doing that since McVeigh was hired. I can't relate to you,
(06:14):
though I have a lot of respect that admire you
to be that passionate about something. And it's one thing
like if you are a season ticket holder to a
major college or an NFL team and you live within
i'd even say hour and a half two hours, like
a drivable distance, when you have to go to the airport,
even though it's a short flight forty five hour. You know,
(06:35):
if you depending on if you're coming from San Jose
or San Francisco, that takes that takes some effort, even
if it's a day trip, which is very possible if
you got the one thirty kickoffs, fly in the morning,
go to the game fly back at night. I've actually
done that before. But I have a lot of respect
for you. I mean, that's your fandom is pretty impressive.
(06:56):
Do you think the Rams defense, especially their defensive line,
isn't getting enough love. They rarely get talked about and
haven't allowed more than ten points in five of their
last seven games. Everyone rightfully talks about McVeigh and the offense,
but the defense looks like it's heading toward an elite status.
I would say this. I saw a stat that they
hit CJ. Stroud on like over forty percent of his dropbacks,
(07:16):
and I think hit him like either seven or eight times,
and I know they sacked him three times. The defensive
line is a great defensive line can make a defense,
obviously a Hall of Fame defense. You gotta be good
at every level. You gotta have a middle linebacker, you
gotta have defensive backs. But if you just have an
elite defensive line, it's gonna be hard for your defense,
and I'll be good. It really is, right. I don't
(07:39):
care how many holes or weaknesses or replaceable players you
have on the back six or seven. If you have
an elite pass rush, dominant run players. You're just gonna
be good. And then if I give you of the
seven guys, let's say three of them are really good starters,
like you can most teams don't have multiple good corners.
(08:00):
If you got one good corner and you can mix
and match with some safety help and your linebackers are solid,
gonna be a really good defense. It's crazy how some
of these offensive coaches. And I think this has to
do with the investing in the quarterback. Once you pay
the quarterback forty fifty sixty million dollars, you got a
draft well on defense. And if you do that, like
your defense is gonna be a little under the radar,
(08:22):
which the Rams are. With a lot of guys on
rookie contracts, especially once Aaron you know, calls or quits.
So you got a lot of guys on rookie contracts
that are really really high level players. And a Fisk
and Jared Verse become Pro Bowl especially Verse becomes like
a Khalil Mack type guy, then that changes the course
of your franchise. What is a dominant trend in today's
(08:46):
National Football League? He said NFL, But sometimes I just
like saying it out. You think we'll look back on
in ten years and say we're totally wrong about that.
Ten years ago, we still believed in paying running backs
punting on fourth and two and question whether mobile quarterbacks
could win long term. Well, I think one of the
big reasons we'd go for it now on fourth and
(09:08):
two and whether mobile quarterbacks could win long term is
every quarterback is a mobile quarterback. They used to be
in the minority. They used to be an outlier, right.
The reason we talked up Michael Vick or McNabb or
back in the day, like Steve Young or Randall Cunningham,
they were kind of it. Most of the guys were
(09:28):
just like sitting back in the pocket and slinging that pill.
They were not elite athletes relatives to NFL players. I mean,
they were obviously like Dan Marino is a good athlete,
but relative to like Lawrence Taylor, Well, I mean, think
about the amount of quarterbacks now that are mobile. Even
of the top guys, you would say Burrow is the
(09:48):
least mobile of like the top end group, and he's
a pretty mobile quarterback in terms of movement ability. He's
not Peyton Manning or Philip Rivers in there. So it's
based on college, and you go, are we ever gonna
get back to that individual? And I say this to
Colin all the time, like Jared Goff, is Jared Goff
going to exist again? Just a guy who can't really
move like you. I've watched a decent amount of the
(10:09):
quarterback so far this year. To me, Garrett Nsmeyer my
comp for him. He's got a little like the good
version of Jimmy Garoppolo. I wouldn't call him a bad athlete,
but he's not emo. He's not Eli Manning. But then
you look at all the other guys, like they check
boxes of athleticism. So a lot of it's based on
you know who's coming up. And to me, the fourth
(10:30):
and two thing became a product of that way better
more mobile quarterbacks. So it's like I basically have three
options on short yard and stuff. I can hand it off,
I can have the quarterback run around or just run,
or I can pass. So you just got more options
to call. Plus because of the defensive rules that they're
(10:50):
I mean in theory, I know Week one was hit
or miss, but over the course of a season, it's
just easier to play offense. Well, we're never going back,
right they're never just and listen. This bothers me sometimes
because I don't want to see anyone to get a
concussion or anyone get knocked out. But some of these
passes are hospital balls. And this is where I agree
with Tom that forever not that guys didn't get KO'ed
(11:15):
and make passes into hostile environments where safeties and linebackers were,
but they had to think twice. And now guys let
it rip and they just don't have to think twice.
When I hear people say that Week one game, like
Ferguson should have caught it that ball twenty thirty years ago.
Ferguson is cut in half and Dak probably doesn't let
it rip because he's laying his guy out to dry.
(11:36):
Now it doesn't even cross his mind, like they can't
touch him. And then what happens. Ferguson has to dive
into the ball and what's his name? On thirty two?
Got My brain's not firing. Haven't even had a cocktail
this week? What what's he supposed to do? Float away? Right?
You could be Dion Sanders or Ed Reed level athlete.
(11:58):
You're just gonna run into his head. I see this
countless times during the year where a guy gets flagged
for a defenseless receiver, it's an awful pass and the
guy honestly has there's nowhere else he could touch him,
even when he's trying to be safe. So that's a
great question. I think it's just more offensive oriented things.
(12:19):
Maybe how tight ends are underpaid. I mean, right now,
a high end tight end is making way less money
than a wide receiver. And I hear on precedent a
lot or that's the market value. Well, if the house
I'm sitting in right now was worth a hundred thousand
dollars and my neighbor sells their house for a million dollars,
(12:42):
if I try to sell my house, they wouldn't come
to me and go it's the same house. Go, well,
the last time you bought the house one hundred thousand dollars,
so you know, with inflation, we'll give you two hundred grand. No,
it's based on the comp of your next house. But
all the comps are based on previous tight ends. But
the games so much diference. Like I'm catching ninety balls,
I see guys catching seventy five balls. Eighty balls get
(13:05):
seventy five eighty million dollars and you want to pay
me fifty million dollars because I'm just a tight end
even though I do what they do, and honestly more
they kind of get screwed. But there's no way to
break out of that cycle. I don't have a great answer.
I mean, I think, yeah, don't really have a great
answer for that, because I think part of the trends
(13:26):
are you don't see them coming and then an individual
and that's what makes it. Like Chip Kelly was ahead
of the curve with the way he played in the
space he you know, in the pace he went and
he I'd even say the spacing of the passing game
with Mike Leech fifteen twenty years ago. All that stuff
is integrated in you know, in most of the world,
things moved down, but in football, things move up. Like
(13:50):
think about high school football. A lot of good teams,
not not I mean Dayala sal was great and they
ran the triple option, but for the most part, like
the spread offense and spreading it out. Why all right,
that's been happening now for a long, long period of time,
and it's been moved up into college and it's now
moving its way up into the NFL, and as we
get more and more of these quarterbacks, they always say
(14:11):
it the first thing they ask when they get to
the Senior Bowl. They go, raise your hand if you've
ever been under center, not even just in college, but
in your life. And the majority of guys don't raise
their hand because they've been in shotgun the whole time.
So do is does under center end? I doubt it
because there're gonna be enough younger Shanahan guys that the
play action pass. I mean there are benefits to having that.
(14:34):
What if like every team is just running push pushes
fifteen times a game, ratings would drop. I know you
and Colin have talked about this before, but a defensive
head coach has not won the Super Bowl since Bill
Belichick back in twenty eighteen nineteen, and it goes all
the way back to Pete Carroll after that. The top
(14:54):
teams with a defensive coach are clearly the Ravens and
the Bills. My question, do you see this being a
hindrance in both these teams ever winning or making a
Super Bowl? Or am My Galaxy braining this too much?
I think when you got those two quarterbacks, if Lamar
or Josh I mean, if Lamar got on a heater,
(15:16):
they would be tough to beat. If you told me
Lamar had a month where he played as good as
football as he could play, I would say the Ravens
win Super Bowl. You can't say that about Josh. Josh
could play the best football humanly possible. That like that
he can play, and they can lose playoff games. But
no one's as good as the Ravens if he's playing
at the high level, because their defense is just better.
(15:37):
They guess have better players. And obviously the running back,
now Cook, Cook's pretty good too, so you know difference
obviously Henry's going to the Hall of Fame is Cook.
You got a long way to go. But like Cook
can get you one hundred and fifty yards all purpose,
no problem with his eyes close, score a couple of touchdowns,
catch some balls, so that it's the offense isn't the issue.
It's to me defense And you can never ever win
(16:00):
a championship in football, high school, college or the NFL
at the highest level, in big playoff games and obviously
Super Bowl if your defense isn't good. And that's the
thing I always get back to with the Bills, which
their coaches defensive guys. I mean, when you look at
the Ravens and the Bills, like, the Ravens typically are
a well rounded team. You know, by the end of
(16:20):
last year they definitely were, but the Bills haven't been. Now. Granted,
the Bills made a bunch of defensive plays against the
Ravens in that playoff game, so I don't know. Yeah,
it wouldn't shock me if either one wins it. Like
right now, they are clearly two of the five to
six seven teams. At most they can win the Super Bowl.
(16:43):
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(18:09):
With party being out two to five with a turf
toe things look, my mother in law, I'm on this
group text. I just got a text that said party
turftoe two to five. Jennifer. We know you're a little
late with that news. Things look pretty gloomy on paper, however,
I tend to give a more optimistic view. Granted I'm
a little biased, assuming there are no more major injuries.
(18:31):
I know there is a big ass assumption. I think
the schedule sets up pretty nicely for them with their
next four games Saints, Jags, Cards, Rams, they should come
out of it at least five hundred with all their
defense showed against Seattle in Week one and anticipation of
getting some playmakers back. Robinson, I think Mac Jones needs
to play like Jimmy Garoppolo light for them to be
(18:52):
in competition. Am I crazy? Their defense was excellent last week.
So if you get a defensive effort of just elite tackling,
good play, you can stay in games, especially against like
you said, the next couple games the Saints. You know,
Jackson got some players in the Cards. I think if
you are three and one after your first four games,
(19:13):
if Mac has to play, you're in pretty good shape.
John Lynch did say that they view him week to week.
I mean, I could argue, what the hell's the difference
between week to week and two to five, Like it's
usually we get like six to eight right out a
year out, One to two, two to five is a
pretty big difference like two to five could technically mean
like he might come back that second week or he
(19:36):
could miss till the middle of October like that. There's
a big swing there. That's that's pretty big open ended.
It's like any of you on the dating apps, like
what's your age limit. There's a big difference between going
like twenty five to thirty five and once you go
like twenty one to sixty. So the two to five
things a little crazy to me. But listen, party was
(19:58):
I thought he had one bad threat in that game,
the second interception, but for the most part he was
lights out. If you told me perty was healthy, they
easily could run the table going into that RAMS game.
I just think Mac Jones a pretty big wild card,
and if he plays well, they obviously should beat the Saints,
and they definitely could beat one of the Jags or
(20:19):
the Cardinals. But if you win this weekend ideally, then
worst case you would be two and two going into
the Rams game. But like you'd be favored in the
Cards game, which is in San Francisco. Jags game, that
might be tough coming up the Saints game long flight
out or I guess the Jags game would be at home. Huh,
(20:39):
because that would be their home opener. Yeah, because they
played Seattle, so they go road road and then home.
It's tough, man, But this is why you pay your
quarterback or your coach a lot of money and your
quarterback a lot of money. Obviously, one thing with a
quarterback and someone's fault. No one wants to get injured.
But durability really matters. And that to me, Purty is
(21:03):
a pretty big badass to be the last pick in
the draft and to be as good as he is, Like,
we're not seeing that again, Like we have seen that
in my adult life, like once and that was undrafted
free agent Tony Romo. You know Tom Brady situation, being
drafted pick. That's such an to be the greatest quarterback
of all time, but over the last twenty years, like
it just doesn't happen if you hit Russell Wilson or
(21:25):
dak or Kirk in like the third or fourth, like
that's unheard of. Nick Foles in the third. Most of
the good quarterbacks in the NFL. Let's look at all
the top guys. Patrick Mahomes Round one, Lamar Jackson round one,
Josh Allen round one, Joe Burrow round one, Justin Herbert
round one. Let's even go to some of the random
guys Kyler Murray round one, Jalen Hurts round two. You
(21:46):
just go around the league, right, even at like some
of the guys on that list, who are they playing
the Jacks Trevor Lawrence round one, Rams, Matt Stafford round one,
Sam Darnold one, JJ McCarthy round one. Look look at
all the guys that started, Drake May, Caleb Williams. You
just don't get a lot of like, yeah, six round
(22:07):
pick starting, that's not very normal. Mac Jones round one.
So yeah, I mean, it's just I don't really know
what to say. I'm gonna be fascinated to watch. I
think they would be in major trouble, major trouble if
their schedule is hard, if their next two weeks were
like you know, Ravens Packers or something, you'd be like, well,
(22:30):
what what am I even? It's not even fair to
expect Mac and Kyle to win those games. But when
you the one reason I felt confident even before I
knew what the roster would look like, and even when
I knew their roster still had a lot of question marks.
Some of these random guys playing, but easier schedule, like
it's easy for people to go. You never know. I
hate it when people say easy schedule, and I mainly agree.
(22:53):
But the schedule is pretty easy. I mean, you get
the Saints week two, like, that's a pretty easy draw.
It could be easier. It could be Miami, but it
sure as shit ain't the Bills. It sure isn't the Eagles.
So I mean, I think if you just listed what
would be the five teams, if you got some major
(23:14):
injuries and you're missing your quarterback, you would want to play.
I'll promise you this, you would draw the Saints. Question
for the pod, what are your thoughts on the Eagles?
OC throwing the O line under the bus In his
recent interview, I saw this question. I looked it up,
and I just I could not find it. So maybe
I missed it. Maybe I'm just doing a bad job
(23:35):
of searching on the interweb, but I could not find
this situation. Now I'm gonna give an overall take here.
I talked for a living and have done it for
a while. So if you get me on an interview
with whoever I'm comfortable talking, it doesn't mean I won't
say something stupid. Every once in a while. It doesn't
mean I say things like aah, I probably should have
(23:56):
said that, or it's like, yeah, I don't even give
a shit, but I know what I'm doing when I'm talking.
In terms of in a public form, this guy, and
I would say the same thing about like Pete Carroll
or Belichick at this point, right, these guys have been
in front of a microphone or an old like Matt Stafford.
They have been doing interviews forever, so they know exactly
(24:17):
what they're doing. If you have never been in a
position with a camera and a microphone in front of you,
like this guy's a lifetime position coach. This guy's not
used to talking in the media. That's not an excuse.
And again I don't even know what he said, but
I'm just saying I would give grace to any individual
the first time they become a coordinator, and like that
first half of that first year, and that includes the
(24:40):
off season two, it's a pretty dramatic. You never have
to talk say a word till like every Thursday you
talk and everyone wants to talk to you and get
your opinions on stuff. That's a pretty dramatic shift from
just being like what are you doing. I'm just hanging
out in my office, get some downtime. Yeah, we'll just
bsing to Like, no, I have a press comm it's
in ten minutes. And in the first game we had
(25:04):
an hour delay. We got our star wide receiver who
can be a little diva ish. I mean, there has
been some quarterback wide receiver friction before. Like it or not,
it came out. They pushed back. Brandon Graham said it
We're not making that up. So it's like, there's a
lot going on. You got an intense environment. You got
(25:25):
Howie looking over your shoulder. You're trying to prove to
the players you know what you're doing, and it's it's
to me. I'd even say, I'm not expect anything unless
you're a disaster. I put no emphasis on any press
conference you do in the offseason. The off season's cake.
You're working three or four days a week. You're going
to the pool with your kids three days a week,
you're playing golf twice a week. You're just you're chilling.
(25:47):
You got a tan on, you're looking good. There aren't stresses.
Give me a give me week two after you just
lost a barn burner in the offense had two hundred
and twenty yards offense. What do you sound like on Thursday?
It's hard, it's hard, and it's positioned. Some guys are
comfortable to do. Vic Fangio has done a million press conferences.
(26:08):
So whether the Eagles have a bad defensive performance or
a good up performance, like he knows what he's doing right,
Sean Payton bo Nix, Like you could put a mic
in front of him a minute after that game ends
and he can just handle himself right. Doesn't mean he's
gonna say what you're gonna want him to say, or
maybe even something he regrets, but like he's gonna be okay,
(26:30):
you give me a guy that's not used to talking.
It's no different than I think about this all the
time when people because how would you not if I
wasn't doing what I'm doing, I'd be like, I can
do that. If I just gave you a microphone and
say hey, I'll give you thirty minutes to prepare and
then you're just gonna talk for forty five minutes on
football godspeed. It's a little harder than you think. You know,
(26:51):
It's like, can you just go and keep people's attention?
But if I gave you five years of doing it.
You know, if you know your shit, be fine. So
I give again. I don't even know if this happened.
I couldn't find it when I googled it. Maybe it's
a bigger story than I realized. You never know in Philly.
I also think little stories in Philly become big. But
(27:14):
I think you got to give the first time coordinator
a little grace. But this also shows you that they
go to KC. Case's defense was atrocious. You know they're
gonna be spags. He's gonna have rally the troops. What
if they have another rough outing on offense and Saquan's
not as involved aj the passing game's weird. It's just
(27:35):
it's difficult. These are really really hard positions. I'll never forget.
I had an offensive coordinator who got fired and they
still owed him. And this is like eight years ago,
when it was a you know, coordinators just started making
like unless you were a top, top guy. But he's
a first time coordinator. He was making a million dollars
a year and it was a really big I mean,
(27:55):
that's a ton of money. He's like five years ago,
I was making seventy five thousand dollars, so you'd worked
up his way up. And he's like, I don't feel
bad cashing these checks because he got fired and then
he didn't work the next year. The things that were
set about my family, the things that were set about
me that my family had to read. He's like, it's
a lot different being in the coordinator position than it
(28:17):
is the quarterback coach or the O line coach or
the D line coach, because you are truly under the
firing line. So it's like, the reason I get way
more money doing this is the stress it puts on
my life because it goes dramatically up. And then from
the coordinator position to the head coaching position, that's like
a fifty x position, so that there is an element.
(28:39):
And we all know anyone who's read about stress got
to be one of the biggest killers in the world.
And we get a lot of that here in America
because we capitalist society. Got a lot of stressful situations
going professionally, which I like at times. I mean, it's
good to get your blood following, but there's a balance
of the pressure that some of these guys are under,
(29:00):
especially in a place like Philadelphia. So I wouldn't want
to be that guy. You know, it's hard to follow,
and they just won the Super Bowl, So anything less
than being a dominant team with a dominant offense, especially
all their fans and I support Philly fans, but let's
face it, like they've Jalen's an elite guy. Why are
you considering Jalen a top five guy? Well, yeah, he's
played excellent in the Super Bowl, so he justs a
(29:22):
ton of credit. We all think the guy is mentally
tough wired the right way, and when he's good is good.
It's awesome. But like over the course of the season,
he's kind of a roller coaster ride, and he can
have games where you're like, what's going on, And that's
a little different than the other guys in the top five.
No one says he sucks, but obviously the Super Bowl
(29:42):
is the most important game that he'll ever play, and
he's played in it twice and he was good. So
you get a lot of credit for that. And he's
Super Bowl champion. No one can take that away from you.
He's being paid a lot of money. No one can
take that money away from But just in terms of
like he's not paidon Manning or John Elway. So he's
a really good player, who would you watch him randomly?
Can look pretty shitty as well. His game is honestly,
(30:04):
sometimes it's not great. He's not a great watch. I
think that's part of it. Like you watch Justin Herbert
in that Chiefs game, like this guy's just a great watch.
Or you watch Joe Burrow when he's on or something
like sometimes Dalen hurts. Yeah, he scored three touchdowns, he
threw one, and he had two Toush pushes, like great cool.
I think that's some of the pushback on him, though
I respect it, Himan. The Toush push is because he's
(30:26):
got really strong legs. Like most people I see other
guys trying the Toush pushes, they don't get it because
they can't get any push because they can't squat six
thousand pounds like he can't. Mean, that's that's the advantage
they have, and that's what all their players say. It's
not just their own lines good. It's the power in
the quarterback. Most guys can't get that low and can't
be that powerful. Like he's a huge part of it.
(30:46):
But we gotta be honest about this. Sometimes he's just
a boring player, and some boring works. A lot of
people are own boring companies that make millions of dollars.
So just because you in something that's not glamorous, it
doesn't matter. But he can have moments where he's just
not that glamorous of a player. The volume
The volume. Okay, you know, I thought I'd do a
little middlecop mailbag because we skip one during the middle
of the week, and I just had a bunch of
questions and then once the weekend, like Saturday Sunday comes,
(00:24):
they kind of get outdated once everyone plays. So I'm
recording this on Thursday afternoon, right before the Packer Washington game,
which hopefully is a fantastic competition between two teams. But
let's just bang out, you know, thirty minutes worth of
questions and then we will get on with our day.
(00:45):
We will start with Aaron longtime listener message for the back.
Not a Vikings fan, but JJ looks like he can
absolutely sling that pill. What do you think of his
first game? You know, I think you learn more about guy.
I mean, this is pretty evident when they struggled and
when they're having success. Any player when it's going well,
(01:07):
looks good, right. I mean, there have been a lot
of guys in the history of pro sports that had
good weeks, that had good months. But like having a
long career obviously is very difficult. But in that individual moment,
which is the only sixty minutes of NFL football in
(01:27):
the regular season, the kid had ever played. I don't
remember seeing a guy looks Usually when you're having a
game that catastrophic, right, it's one thing you throw a
pick or like last year Lamar Jackson the playoffs had
the bad interception, then he had the fumble, like he
has so many games that, like over the course, you
always feel like it's going to kind of work its
way out. Now in the playoffs's been a little different.
(01:48):
But he was excellent in the second half, so it
wasn't really that shocking. It wasn't shocking at all. Right.
I think with JJ all we could go off of
is like is this guy bad? Is he completely overwhelmed?
And you're like, well, game. I love when people do that,
like don't overreact. Overreact, like we have one game to
go off. What are we supposed to talk about? That's
what we talk about what we just witnessed. And there
(02:09):
was no way that every human being, including Kevin O'Connell,
it had to cross his mind on the sideline or
we're gonna have to call Kirk Cousins in like three
weeks because our team's really good. We're gonna have darrisaw
coming back, you know, Jordan Addison coming back. I mean
those are high end players. We have arguably the best
receiver in the league, we have an excellent defense with
(02:31):
an excellent defensive coordinator, and then he turned into just
a great player. I mean, there's no way around it.
He the eye test, the ball placement, the ball, the
arm strength, clearly, the mobility. But the one thing you
never know about a player, especially at quarterback in my experience,
you know, being around football and watching football extremely closely,
(02:54):
is the intangible level of mental and physical toughness. And
physical toughness some of these guys or in college and
if you play at the right program, you're not getting
hit that often. And then you come to the pros
and even if you're on a good team, a lot
of good teams, offensive lines are hit or miss. They
start getting peppered. So can you physically handle it? And
usually when you're physically going through it, mentally do you break?
(03:18):
And again, one game on the road against the Bears,
who look like they have a pretty good defense. Whenever
I see someone like the defense, let him know the
defense had to be gassed, had to be gassed. So
I'm impressed. Now, can't he go on to have like
rookie of the Year type season, A long way to go,
and I technically, I know he's not a rookie. But
you know, in the NBA, which I think the NFL should,
(03:38):
maybe they did change that rule. You know, remember Blake Griffin.
Some guys have hurt their knees and then played the
second year. I think he should be considered a rookie. Now,
you could argue it's a little advantage because mentally he
was in the in the room, but I don't know.
I mean when you have multiple knee surgeries and don't
play a snap, So yeah, I mean excellent performance. Big
Packer fan, with ed Policy taking over and no owner,
(04:02):
do you think the Packers could be the team of
the future with his leadership spent big draft and draft well,
congrats on everything. Uh, I would say, you just nothing's
gonna change, right, I'm recording this before the game, But
unless something catastrophic happened, they're gonna be really good this year,
and they've been really good for thirty years. I don't
(04:25):
think anything's gonna change now. The margin for error of
winning playoff games, winning the NFC Championship where they went
to a lot you know, with Aaron and couldn't get
over the hump. But they went to won Super Bowl,
and I think they lost was it, four NFC Championship games.
They lost to the Falcons, they lost to the forty
nine ers, they lost to Tampa, and they lost to Seattle.
(04:50):
So I think there's a big difference the way we
look at this team historically. If you went, hey, FARV
went to a couple of Super Bowls, won one. Let's
say Rogers had won one of those NFCS Hampshire games
and won a second Super Bowl, You'd be like, hell,
they've won three super Bowls over the last you know,
thirty plus years, or winning one a year or won
every ten years on average. But over the course they're
making the playoffs all the time. I think we'd look
(05:12):
at them a little differently. I mean, they've only been
one to one super Bowl and what I consider the
Internet era, which is starting, you know, ninety nine two thousand.
So I'm bullish on the franchise. But I don't look
at them much differently with ed policy than you did
or were with Murphy. I think the same infrastructure, the
(05:33):
same mindset of the GM has a lot of juice.
You know, obviously offensive innovative coaches and a well run operation.
It is a very, very impressive operation. There really is
no way around it. I know they don't win Super
Bowls at the same clip as some of these other franchises,
but I mean, think how many teams in the NFL
(05:54):
would sign up for what they got cooking massive rams
fan season ticket Kronkey need you, guys, because he spent
about eight billion dollars on that stadium. I fly to
all the home games from San Francisco and have been
doing that since McVeigh was hired. I can't relate to you,
(06:14):
though I have a lot of respect that admire you
to be that passionate about something. And it's one thing
like if you are a season ticket holder to a
major college or an NFL team and you live within
i'd even say hour and a half two hours, like
a drivable distance, when you have to go to the airport,
even though it's a short flight forty five hour. You know,
(06:35):
if you depending on if you're coming from San Jose
or San Francisco, that takes that takes some effort, even
if it's a day trip, which is very possible if
you got the one thirty kickoffs, fly in the morning,
go to the game fly back at night. I've actually
done that before. But I have a lot of respect
for you. I mean, that's your fandom is pretty impressive.
(06:56):
Do you think the Rams defense, especially their defensive line,
isn't getting enough love. They rarely get talked about and
haven't allowed more than ten points in five of their
last seven games. Everyone rightfully talks about McVeigh and the offense,
but the defense looks like it's heading toward an elite status.
I would say this. I saw a stat that they
hit CJ. Stroud on like over forty percent of his dropbacks,
(07:16):
and I think hit him like either seven or eight times,
and I know they sacked him three times. The defensive
line is a great defensive line can make a defense,
obviously a Hall of Fame defense. You gotta be good
at every level. You gotta have a middle linebacker, you
gotta have defensive backs. But if you just have an
elite defensive line, it's gonna be hard for your defense,
and I'll be good. It really is, right. I don't
(07:39):
care how many holes or weaknesses or replaceable players you
have on the back six or seven. If you have
an elite pass rush, dominant run players. You're just gonna
be good. And then if I give you of the
seven guys, let's say three of them are really good starters,
like you can most teams don't have multiple good corners.
(08:00):
If you got one good corner and you can mix
and match with some safety help and your linebackers are solid,
gonna be a really good defense. It's crazy how some
of these offensive coaches. And I think this has to
do with the investing in the quarterback. Once you pay
the quarterback forty fifty sixty million dollars, you got a
draft well on defense. And if you do that, like
your defense is gonna be a little under the radar,
(08:22):
which the Rams are. With a lot of guys on
rookie contracts, especially once Aaron you know, calls or quits.
So you got a lot of guys on rookie contracts
that are really really high level players. And a Fisk
and Jared Verse become Pro Bowl especially Verse becomes like
a Khalil Mack type guy, then that changes the course
of your franchise. What is a dominant trend in today's
(08:46):
National Football League? He said NFL, But sometimes I just
like saying it out. You think we'll look back on
in ten years and say we're totally wrong about that.
Ten years ago, we still believed in paying running backs
punting on fourth and two and question whether mobile quarterbacks
could win long term. Well, I think one of the
big reasons we'd go for it now on fourth and
(09:08):
two and whether mobile quarterbacks could win long term is
every quarterback is a mobile quarterback. They used to be
in the minority. They used to be an outlier, right.
The reason we talked up Michael Vick or McNabb or
back in the day, like Steve Young or Randall Cunningham,
they were kind of it. Most of the guys were
(09:28):
just like sitting back in the pocket and slinging that pill.
They were not elite athletes relatives to NFL players. I mean,
they were obviously like Dan Marino is a good athlete,
but relative to like Lawrence Taylor, Well, I mean, think
about the amount of quarterbacks now that are mobile. Even
of the top guys, you would say Burrow is the
(09:48):
least mobile of like the top end group, and he's
a pretty mobile quarterback in terms of movement ability. He's
not Peyton Manning or Philip Rivers in there. So it's
based on college, and you go, are we ever gonna
get back to that individual? And I say this to
Colin all the time, like Jared Goff, is Jared Goff
going to exist again? Just a guy who can't really
move like you. I've watched a decent amount of the
(10:09):
quarterback so far this year. To me, Garrett Nsmeyer my
comp for him. He's got a little like the good
version of Jimmy Garoppolo. I wouldn't call him a bad athlete,
but he's not emo. He's not Eli Manning. But then
you look at all the other guys, like they check
boxes of athleticism. So a lot of it's based on
you know who's coming up. And to me, the fourth
(10:30):
and two thing became a product of that way better
more mobile quarterbacks. So it's like I basically have three
options on short yard and stuff. I can hand it off,
I can have the quarterback run around or just run,
or I can pass. So you just got more options
to call. Plus because of the defensive rules that they're
(10:50):
I mean in theory, I know Week one was hit
or miss, but over the course of a season, it's
just easier to play offense. Well, we're never going back,
right they're never just and listen. This bothers me sometimes
because I don't want to see anyone to get a
concussion or anyone get knocked out. But some of these
passes are hospital balls. And this is where I agree
with Tom that forever not that guys didn't get KO'ed
(11:15):
and make passes into hostile environments where safeties and linebackers were,
but they had to think twice. And now guys let
it rip and they just don't have to think twice.
When I hear people say that Week one game, like
Ferguson should have caught it that ball twenty thirty years ago.
Ferguson is cut in half and Dak probably doesn't let
it rip because he's laying his guy out to dry.
(11:36):
Now it doesn't even cross his mind, like they can't
touch him. And then what happens. Ferguson has to dive
into the ball and what's his name? On thirty two?
Got My brain's not firing. Haven't even had a cocktail
this week? What what's he supposed to do? Float away? Right?
You could be Dion Sanders or Ed Reed level athlete.
(11:58):
You're just gonna run into his head. I see this
countless times during the year where a guy gets flagged
for a defenseless receiver, it's an awful pass and the
guy honestly has there's nowhere else he could touch him,
even when he's trying to be safe. So that's a
great question. I think it's just more offensive oriented things.
(12:19):
Maybe how tight ends are underpaid. I mean, right now,
a high end tight end is making way less money
than a wide receiver. And I hear on precedent a
lot or that's the market value. Well, if the house
I'm sitting in right now was worth a hundred thousand
dollars and my neighbor sells their house for a million dollars,
(12:42):
if I try to sell my house, they wouldn't come
to me and go it's the same house. Go, well,
the last time you bought the house one hundred thousand dollars,
so you know, with inflation, we'll give you two hundred grand. No,
it's based on the comp of your next house. But
all the comps are based on previous tight ends. But
the games so much diference. Like I'm catching ninety balls,
I see guys catching seventy five balls. Eighty balls get
(13:05):
seventy five eighty million dollars and you want to pay
me fifty million dollars because I'm just a tight end
even though I do what they do, and honestly more
they kind of get screwed. But there's no way to
break out of that cycle. I don't have a great answer.
I mean, I think, yeah, don't really have a great
answer for that, because I think part of the trends
(13:26):
are you don't see them coming and then an individual
and that's what makes it. Like Chip Kelly was ahead
of the curve with the way he played in the
space he you know, in the pace he went and
he I'd even say the spacing of the passing game
with Mike Leech fifteen twenty years ago. All that stuff
is integrated in you know, in most of the world,
things moved down, but in football, things move up. Like
(13:50):
think about high school football. A lot of good teams,
not not I mean Dayala sal was great and they
ran the triple option, but for the most part, like
the spread offense and spreading it out. Why all right,
that's been happening now for a long, long period of time,
and it's been moved up into college and it's now
moving its way up into the NFL, and as we
get more and more of these quarterbacks, they always say
(14:11):
it the first thing they ask when they get to
the Senior Bowl. They go, raise your hand if you've
ever been under center, not even just in college, but
in your life. And the majority of guys don't raise
their hand because they've been in shotgun the whole time.
So do is does under center end? I doubt it
because there're gonna be enough younger Shanahan guys that the
play action pass. I mean there are benefits to having that.
(14:34):
What if like every team is just running push pushes
fifteen times a game, ratings would drop. I know you
and Colin have talked about this before, but a defensive
head coach has not won the Super Bowl since Bill
Belichick back in twenty eighteen nineteen, and it goes all
the way back to Pete Carroll after that. The top
(14:54):
teams with a defensive coach are clearly the Ravens and
the Bills. My question, do you see this being a
hindrance in both these teams ever winning or making a
Super Bowl? Or am My Galaxy braining this too much?
I think when you got those two quarterbacks, if Lamar
or Josh I mean, if Lamar got on a heater,
(15:16):
they would be tough to beat. If you told me
Lamar had a month where he played as good as
football as he could play, I would say the Ravens
win Super Bowl. You can't say that about Josh. Josh
could play the best football humanly possible. That like that
he can play, and they can lose playoff games. But
no one's as good as the Ravens if he's playing
at the high level, because their defense is just better.
(15:37):
They guess have better players. And obviously the running back,
now Cook, Cook's pretty good too, so you know difference
obviously Henry's going to the Hall of Fame is Cook.
You got a long way to go. But like Cook
can get you one hundred and fifty yards all purpose,
no problem with his eyes close, score a couple of touchdowns,
catch some balls, so that it's the offense isn't the issue.
It's to me defense And you can never ever win
(16:00):
a championship in football, high school, college or the NFL
at the highest level, in big playoff games and obviously
Super Bowl if your defense isn't good. And that's the
thing I always get back to with the Bills, which
their coaches defensive guys. I mean, when you look at
the Ravens and the Bills, like, the Ravens typically are
a well rounded team. You know, by the end of
(16:20):
last year they definitely were, but the Bills haven't been. Now. Granted,
the Bills made a bunch of defensive plays against the
Ravens in that playoff game, so I don't know. Yeah,
it wouldn't shock me if either one wins it. Like
right now, they are clearly two of the five to
six seven teams. At most they can win the Super Bowl.
(16:43):
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(18:09):
With party being out two to five with a turf
toe things look, my mother in law, I'm on this
group text. I just got a text that said party
turftoe two to five. Jennifer. We know you're a little
late with that news. Things look pretty gloomy on paper, however,
I tend to give a more optimistic view. Granted I'm
a little biased, assuming there are no more major injuries.
(18:31):
I know there is a big ass assumption. I think
the schedule sets up pretty nicely for them with their
next four games Saints, Jags, Cards, Rams, they should come
out of it at least five hundred with all their
defense showed against Seattle in Week one and anticipation of
getting some playmakers back. Robinson, I think Mac Jones needs
to play like Jimmy Garoppolo light for them to be
(18:52):
in competition. Am I crazy? Their defense was excellent last week.
So if you get a defensive effort of just elite tackling,
good play, you can stay in games, especially against like
you said, the next couple games the Saints. You know,
Jackson got some players in the Cards. I think if
you are three and one after your first four games,
(19:13):
if Mac has to play, you're in pretty good shape.
John Lynch did say that they view him week to week.
I mean, I could argue, what the hell's the difference
between week to week and two to five, Like it's
usually we get like six to eight right out a
year out, One to two, two to five is a
pretty big difference like two to five could technically mean
like he might come back that second week or he
(19:36):
could miss till the middle of October like that. There's
a big swing there. That's that's pretty big open ended.
It's like any of you on the dating apps, like
what's your age limit. There's a big difference between going
like twenty five to thirty five and once you go
like twenty one to sixty. So the two to five
things a little crazy to me. But listen, party was
(19:58):
I thought he had one bad threat in that game,
the second interception, but for the most part he was
lights out. If you told me perty was healthy, they
easily could run the table going into that RAMS game.
I just think Mac Jones a pretty big wild card,
and if he plays well, they obviously should beat the Saints,
and they definitely could beat one of the Jags or
(20:19):
the Cardinals. But if you win this weekend ideally, then
worst case you would be two and two going into
the Rams game. But like you'd be favored in the
Cards game, which is in San Francisco. Jags game, that
might be tough coming up the Saints game long flight
out or I guess the Jags game would be at home. Huh,
(20:39):
because that would be their home opener. Yeah, because they
played Seattle, so they go road road and then home.
It's tough, man, But this is why you pay your
quarterback or your coach a lot of money and your
quarterback a lot of money. Obviously, one thing with a
quarterback and someone's fault. No one wants to get injured.
But durability really matters. And that to me, Purty is
(21:03):
a pretty big badass to be the last pick in
the draft and to be as good as he is, Like,
we're not seeing that again, Like we have seen that
in my adult life, like once and that was undrafted
free agent Tony Romo. You know Tom Brady situation, being
drafted pick. That's such an to be the greatest quarterback
of all time, but over the last twenty years, like
it just doesn't happen if you hit Russell Wilson or
(21:25):
dak or Kirk in like the third or fourth, like
that's unheard of. Nick Foles in the third. Most of
the good quarterbacks in the NFL. Let's look at all
the top guys. Patrick Mahomes Round one, Lamar Jackson round one,
Josh Allen round one, Joe Burrow round one, Justin Herbert
round one. Let's even go to some of the random
guys Kyler Murray round one, Jalen Hurts round two. You
(21:46):
just go around the league, right, even at like some
of the guys on that list, who are they playing
the Jacks Trevor Lawrence round one, Rams, Matt Stafford round one,
Sam Darnold one, JJ McCarthy round one. Look look at
all the guys that started, Drake May, Caleb Williams. You
just don't get a lot of like, yeah, six round
(22:07):
pick starting, that's not very normal. Mac Jones round one.
So yeah, I mean, it's just I don't really know
what to say. I'm gonna be fascinated to watch. I
think they would be in major trouble, major trouble if
their schedule is hard, if their next two weeks were
like you know, Ravens Packers or something, you'd be like, well,
(22:30):
what what am I even? It's not even fair to
expect Mac and Kyle to win those games. But when
you the one reason I felt confident even before I
knew what the roster would look like, and even when
I knew their roster still had a lot of question marks.
Some of these random guys playing, but easier schedule, like
it's easy for people to go. You never know. I
hate it when people say easy schedule, and I mainly agree.
(22:53):
But the schedule is pretty easy. I mean, you get
the Saints week two, like, that's a pretty easy draw.
It could be easier. It could be Miami, but it
sure as shit ain't the Bills. It sure isn't the Eagles.
So I mean, I think if you just listed what
would be the five teams, if you got some major
(23:14):
injuries and you're missing your quarterback, you would want to play.
I'll promise you this, you would draw the Saints. Question
for the pod, what are your thoughts on the Eagles?
OC throwing the O line under the bus In his
recent interview, I saw this question. I looked it up,
and I just I could not find it. So maybe
I missed it. Maybe I'm just doing a bad job
(23:35):
of searching on the interweb, but I could not find
this situation. Now I'm gonna give an overall take here.
I talked for a living and have done it for
a while. So if you get me on an interview
with whoever I'm comfortable talking, it doesn't mean I won't
say something stupid. Every once in a while. It doesn't
mean I say things like aah, I probably should have
(23:56):
said that, or it's like, yeah, I don't even give
a shit, but I know what I'm doing when I'm talking.
In terms of in a public form, this guy, and
I would say the same thing about like Pete Carroll
or Belichick at this point, right, these guys have been
in front of a microphone or an old like Matt Stafford.
They have been doing interviews forever, so they know exactly
(24:17):
what they're doing. If you have never been in a
position with a camera and a microphone in front of you,
like this guy's a lifetime position coach. This guy's not
used to talking in the media. That's not an excuse.
And again I don't even know what he said, but
I'm just saying I would give grace to any individual
the first time they become a coordinator, and like that
first half of that first year, and that includes the
(24:40):
off season two, it's a pretty dramatic. You never have
to talk say a word till like every Thursday you
talk and everyone wants to talk to you and get
your opinions on stuff. That's a pretty dramatic shift from
just being like what are you doing. I'm just hanging
out in my office, get some downtime. Yeah, we'll just
bsing to Like, no, I have a press comm it's
in ten minutes. And in the first game we had
(25:04):
an hour delay. We got our star wide receiver who
can be a little diva ish. I mean, there has
been some quarterback wide receiver friction before. Like it or not,
it came out. They pushed back. Brandon Graham said it
We're not making that up. So it's like, there's a
lot going on. You got an intense environment. You got
(25:25):
Howie looking over your shoulder. You're trying to prove to
the players you know what you're doing, and it's it's
to me. I'd even say, I'm not expect anything unless
you're a disaster. I put no emphasis on any press
conference you do in the offseason. The off season's cake.
You're working three or four days a week. You're going
to the pool with your kids three days a week,
you're playing golf twice a week. You're just you're chilling.
(25:47):
You got a tan on, you're looking good. There aren't stresses.
Give me a give me week two after you just
lost a barn burner in the offense had two hundred
and twenty yards offense. What do you sound like on Thursday?
It's hard, it's hard, and it's positioned. Some guys are
comfortable to do. Vic Fangio has done a million press conferences.
(26:08):
So whether the Eagles have a bad defensive performance or
a good up performance, like he knows what he's doing right,
Sean Payton bo Nix, Like you could put a mic
in front of him a minute after that game ends
and he can just handle himself right. Doesn't mean he's
gonna say what you're gonna want him to say, or
maybe even something he regrets, but like he's gonna be okay,
(26:30):
you give me a guy that's not used to talking.
It's no different than I think about this all the
time when people because how would you not if I
wasn't doing what I'm doing, I'd be like, I can
do that. If I just gave you a microphone and
say hey, I'll give you thirty minutes to prepare and
then you're just gonna talk for forty five minutes on
football godspeed. It's a little harder than you think. You know,
(26:51):
It's like, can you just go and keep people's attention?
But if I gave you five years of doing it.
You know, if you know your shit, be fine. So
I give again. I don't even know if this happened.
I couldn't find it when I googled it. Maybe it's
a bigger story than I realized. You never know in Philly.
I also think little stories in Philly become big. But
(27:14):
I think you got to give the first time coordinator
a little grace. But this also shows you that they
go to KC. Case's defense was atrocious. You know they're
gonna be spags. He's gonna have rally the troops. What
if they have another rough outing on offense and Saquan's
not as involved aj the passing game's weird. It's just
(27:35):
it's difficult. These are really really hard positions. I'll never forget.
I had an offensive coordinator who got fired and they
still owed him. And this is like eight years ago,
when it was a you know, coordinators just started making
like unless you were a top, top guy. But he's
a first time coordinator. He was making a million dollars
a year and it was a really big I mean,
(27:55):
that's a ton of money. He's like five years ago,
I was making seventy five thousand dollars, so you'd worked
up his way up. And he's like, I don't feel
bad cashing these checks because he got fired and then
he didn't work the next year. The things that were
set about my family, the things that were set about
me that my family had to read. He's like, it's
a lot different being in the coordinator position than it
(28:17):
is the quarterback coach or the O line coach or
the D line coach, because you are truly under the
firing line. So it's like, the reason I get way
more money doing this is the stress it puts on
my life because it goes dramatically up. And then from
the coordinator position to the head coaching position, that's like
a fifty x position, so that there is an element.
(28:39):
And we all know anyone who's read about stress got
to be one of the biggest killers in the world.
And we get a lot of that here in America
because we capitalist society. Got a lot of stressful situations
going professionally, which I like at times. I mean, it's
good to get your blood following, but there's a balance
of the pressure that some of these guys are under,
(29:00):
especially in a place like Philadelphia. So I wouldn't want
to be that guy. You know, it's hard to follow,
and they just won the Super Bowl, So anything less
than being a dominant team with a dominant offense, especially
all their fans and I support Philly fans, but let's
face it, like they've Jalen's an elite guy. Why are
you considering Jalen a top five guy? Well, yeah, he's
played excellent in the Super Bowl, so he justs a
(29:22):
ton of credit. We all think the guy is mentally
tough wired the right way, and when he's good is good.
It's awesome. But like over the course of the season,
he's kind of a roller coaster ride, and he can
have games where you're like, what's going on, And that's
a little different than the other guys in the top five.
No one says he sucks, but obviously the Super Bowl
(29:42):
is the most important game that he'll ever play, and
he's played in it twice and he was good. So
you get a lot of credit for that. And he's
Super Bowl champion. No one can take that away from you.
He's being paid a lot of money. No one can
take that money away from But just in terms of
like he's not paidon Manning or John Elway. So he's
a really good player, who would you watch him randomly?
Can look pretty shitty as well. His game is honestly,
(30:04):
sometimes it's not great. He's not a great watch. I
think that's part of it. Like you watch Justin Herbert
in that Chiefs game, like this guy's just a great watch.
Or you watch Joe Burrow when he's on or something
like sometimes Dalen hurts. Yeah, he scored three touchdowns, he
threw one, and he had two Toush pushes, like great cool.
I think that's some of the pushback on him, though
I respect it, Himan. The Toush push is because he's
(30:26):
got really strong legs. Like most people I see other
guys trying the Toush pushes, they don't get it because
they can't get any push because they can't squat six
thousand pounds like he can't. Mean, that's that's the advantage
they have, and that's what all their players say. It's
not just their own lines good. It's the power in
the quarterback. Most guys can't get that low and can't
be that powerful. Like he's a huge part of it.
(30:46):
But we gotta be honest about this. Sometimes he's just
a boring player, and some boring works. A lot of
people are own boring companies that make millions of dollars.
So just because you in something that's not glamorous, it
doesn't matter. But he can have moments where he's just
not that glamorous of a player. The volume
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