December 3, 2025 • 57 mins
John answers all of your questions from the latest with the Lane Kiffin saga, what will happen in Minnesota after this disaster season, despite the Browns not being able to win games, do they actually have a decent roster, all that and more.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume What is going on Everybody? John Middlecough three
and Out podcast brought to you by my friends at
(00:21):
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dot com for twenty percent off at checkout. Hopefully everyone
is doing well. We have been grinding, so I said,
you know what, Let's do a big mail bag at
John Middlecough at John middlecoff is the Instagram. We'll just
do about fifty minutes where the mailbag questions fire in
(01:06):
those dms, get your questions answered on the show. We'll
appreciate everyone that's been watching listening to the content. We've
had a lot of stuff out reacting to the Thanksgiving games,
Black Friday Games, Sunday Night, Monday night games. Our people
who have been grinding behind the scenes, so appreciate everyone listeners,
couldn't do it without you. And yeah, the game plan
(01:28):
a day again just mail bag only you guys know
the drill. Subscribe to the podcast. If you listen on
Collins Feed, subscribe to the YouTube channel. I think we're
about ten k away from one hundred. So's trying to
make my parents proud, you know. Other than that, any
other news and notes, I don't think so. So let's
just dive into the mailbag again at John middlecoff my
(01:50):
Instagram fire in the DMS. We will start with Jonah.
What's exciting about the Bears in the paths is they
feel like they can be good for years to come.
They to have great young coaches, a high end coordinator
who likely will not be a head coach, and a
young core. What do you think the difference makers between
teams who have a good season or two and teams
(02:12):
who can sustain high level of play? Well, it gets
down to two things, quarterback play and coaching. And you know,
I think you're seeing this with the Lions. I get
a lot of dms. I get a lot of people conversate.
Have you know, Ben Johnson is just a fascinating individual.
(02:33):
Is anytime the head coach is a guy like a
Harbaugh brother, you know John Harbaugh. I guess they are brothers,
John and Jim, Dan Campbell, Mike Tomlin. They can be
pretty quarterback de Pete Carroll, right, and you know these
guys all have philosophical beliefs, right, Jim Harbaugh running the ball,
running between the tackles and something he's always gonna do.
(02:54):
Pete Carroll defenses his baby, and even offensively, he has
specific things that he wants to do. It's why Chip
Kelly clearly been leaking things to push back on everyone
shitting on him about that he forced him to run
Shane Waldron's offense, which is probably some validity to it, right,
And I think some of these older CEO type coaches
have big picture beliefs on how they want to run it.
(03:17):
But like sixty times a game on offense or defense,
Mike McDonald, Matt Lafleur, Kevin O'Connell, Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay,
Sean Payton, Andy Reid, like they're touching the field with
their play call.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
They are impacting the offensive or defensive place and that
matters so to me, like the thing that you just said,
you know, Ben Johnson, his superpower is his play calling.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Clearly leadership and organization. He's good at that. But he's
an elite play caller, so you will never lose that.
So even Caleb Williams, like if he can never figure
out this accuracy issue, and it's not gonna derail the franchise.
You know, Mike Vrabel has this offensive coordinator. You know,
the defense is Mike's baby, you know, but the offense
(04:04):
when you have a good young quarterback, like if Mike
Vrabole had an offensive coordinator like Josh McDaniels ten years ago,
and people like people gonna hire Josh mc daniels, you go,
this could be a problem. Right when he had Arthur
Smith in Tennessee, it went pretty well. Then he lost
him and it wasn't quite the same. So like Josh
m daniels never getting hired again in the NFL, I
(04:25):
guess you'd never know. With college. As of recording it,
they currently don't have a Penn State coach, and once
upon a time Penn State hired a Patriot coach named
Bill O'Brien. So I think keeping coaching continuity. Look at
the Chiefs they've had, you know, during the Patrick Mahomes run,
Andy Reid, Steves Maagnel and Patrick Mahomes really their core group,
Chris Jones and Travis Kelsey. So you need a core
(04:48):
group of guys forever. It was Bill Belichick, Tom Brady,
Matt Patricia, Josh McDaniels, Brian Flores, the majority of the
twenty tens, with Edelman, with Gronk, with mccordy, with high Tower.
So you kind of have a core David Andrews kind
of have a core group of guys, and that message
(05:08):
never graduates out of the program. And so I think
continuity at the top matters, right because owners never really change.
But if you're coaching, the play callers don't change, your
quarterback doesn't change, and your core two or three star
players don't change, like you're kind of cooking with gas,
you know, really kind of matters. I mean, the forty
(05:29):
nine ers could have unraveled this season, but they got
Kyle and so when they went to the backup quarterback,
like he could make Mac Jones look pretty good, and
while they lost some core guys, they still had George
Kittle and Christian McCaffrey, right, So you got to have core,
high end players that really really matters. My question is
regarding Michael Pennix, but not just him in general. Why
(05:52):
do teams draft players with long injury histories. I can
understand a broken bone or other injuries that aren't likely
to repeat, but both the acls and other ligaments seems
like it's a ticking time bomb that can be seen
from miles away. I would say this as a GM
or a coach. You can't predict things with bodies. You
(06:15):
can give educated opinions on experiences, but when your team doctor,
that's at you know, if you're an LA team, UCLA Med,
the Niner, Stanford Med, Philadelphia penn Med, I mean the
team doctor or the people interacting with your health and
(06:37):
wellness side of the operation are the best in the
business in the cities you live in. So when they
tell you I don't think this is going to be
a problem, are you supposed to dispute them. It's why
most gms during the draft process or coaches during the
season will go listen, I'm not a doctor. I'm just
kind of going off what they tell me, because most
(06:58):
of these the coaches, they make their living with a
whistle around their neck, right, So you kind of have
to go off the information that the doctor is telling you.
If they go he's never gonna tear his ACL again,
or or this, I mean, he wouldn't say that, but
if he goes, he's no like, he's no more likely
to tear his ACL than the other guy who's never
(07:20):
torn his ACL. Are you supposed to just dispute him now?
I'm sure that happens sometimes, and sometimes it's on the
flip side. And I think this what drives coaches in
GM's nuts is they will have players that they're medical
team that the league lead investigator in whatever to the
doctor is that goes through the checks either during the
(07:43):
physical time during free agency or during the draft process,
and goes I can't recommend drafting this guy. I don't
think he'll ever make it to a second contract or
like this, his shoulder or his knee is a ticking
time bomb. You hear that a lot, and then all
of a sudden you look up and he's made five
Pro Bowls, one hundred fifty million dollars and you go,
we didn't have him on a draft board. So I
(08:05):
think it's a lot of back and forth, but it's
hard to you're just taking educated guesses and obviously the
more information you have, if a guy's missed as many
seasons as him, you could have taken an educated guess
is his body gonna make it? So I think him
specifically panics. It's fair to argue, like should he have
(08:26):
been off draft boards? And I'm sure he was. He
was not on every draft board, right, So it's personal preference.
It's teams medical teams. You know, Danny Kanell, his dad
used to be the doctor for the Miami Dolphins and
when Saban was, the coach told him that Drew Brees's
(08:46):
shoulder would not last. And he went to the Saints
and the rest, and then Saban a year later goes
to the Alabama Crimson Tide. The rest is history for
both guys. You know, So I what Saban's supposed to do? Like, No,
I think his shoulder is gonna be fine. It's kind
of a tough predicament you find yourself in as a
football guy with the doctor crew when they're telling you
one thing and you're like, I better hope you're right,
(09:09):
and then all of a sudden he gets signed by
a divisional opponent, and then he's kicking your ass, like
what the hell? There's been a lot of arguments in
that world over the years. That's for damn sure, and
it's never really going to end because the football people
can't go off anything more and like, are you sure?
Are we sure? Hey, John? At the start of the season,
(09:35):
do you think Miles Garrett would rather have the sack
record or the Browns reach the playoffs? Well? In his career,
just thinking off the top of my head, I don't
think he's gone to the playoffs many times, right, the
one year with Baker in twenty and then the one
year a couple of years ago with Flacco when they
got killed by the Texans. So he hasn't had much
(09:56):
postseason success. My guess is what he would say is,
I'd like to have a good season, my team to
be good. Would I just rather have the sack record
and my team suck every week? I think he would
probably go, well, I would just choose make the playoffs,
and I'm pretty confident I'd get fifteen to twenty sacks. Again,
(10:17):
I don't know the guy now, if he ends up
with thirty sacks. Let's just say he ends up with
thirty sacks. I think most people at the beginning of
the year would sign up for thirty sacks, and I
think he'd also say, if I have thirty sacks, I
bet we're pretty good. Turns out Nope, no, you're not
for the bag. When LSU fired Brian Kelly to aggressively
(10:41):
target Lane Kiffen, why wouldn't Lane tell LSU when they
approached him that he wanted to focus on his contractual
agreement with all Miss for the time being and resume
negotiations in six to eight weeks. What would LSU have
done snipe summer all. It's clear they wanted Lane, and
I bet he could have got the best of both worlds.
(11:03):
Or do you think Lane was nervous of maybe getting
upset in the playoffs and hurting his chances of getting
big money or even the LSU job As a whole,
Penn State is waiting until the end of the season
to make their higher Did LSU just want to ruin
ole Miss's season since theirs was pathetic? Love loved the pod.
(11:25):
Maybe Lane generally thought ole Miss would roll over and
give him everything he wanted. Honestly, it's believable since Lane
can be delusional. I do think Lane, looking back on
him making the sixty, was trying to change the narrative
this summer because he had planned to go somewhere else
this fall if a big time opportunity opened up, and
(11:48):
I think based on last year, no jobs opened up,
he had a pretty good idea. There were some guys
on the hot seat, especially Florida right Jimmy Sexton represents
Billy Napier. He knew he was in a lot of
trouble so that there were gonna be some job opening,
So he was trying to change the narrative. I'm a
much better guy. I'm not this scumbag, toxic person that
you all thought I was years ago. So he started
(12:10):
actively doing that. Probably didn't imagine his team was going
to be in the playoffs, and honestly, he definitely didn't
imagine LSU was going to come open whatever it did.
A month into the season. When did Kelly get fired
in the middle of October, So that changed the equation.
But I would imagine there was a point in time
where he thought they will let me coach, and then
(12:32):
I can leave and that clear became clear to him
that that was not going to be an option. There
were probably conversations that Lane, you're kind of lucky. We
think you're going because you're not signing our contract. We
shouldn't even let you coach the egg ball, like you're
already set the moment he sent his family on the
(12:53):
quote unquote fact finding mission. Now, listen, ole Miss is
not Alabama, Georgia, LSU Ohio State. Right, So when I
say that those programs never would allow it, I think
people would push back, well, Ole Miss should be lucky
they're even in this position, And there's probably some truth
to that, but that's not how you feel once you're
in that position. You know, if you're married and you
(13:15):
start getting worried that she's kind of sleeping around, and
then you get some evidence that she's definitely sleeping around. Like,
you got a couple choices. You either draw a line
in the sand and end it, or you kind of
tuck your tail between your legs and just try to
figure it out. And I think Ole Miss tried to
figure it out, and they had to look in the
mirror and kind of like, we feel awful about ourselves.
(13:35):
We're getting played here. We're getting used, and this is
not like LSU stealing our coach. They hate us their
arrival of ours. It's weird. We're business partners with them
in the SEC, but we don't act like that right
in terms of stuff like this, because even the NFL
doesn't allow anything even close to this. So it's a
(13:56):
complicated situation, right with the timeline, the rules, which there
aren't any you can just steal coaches. I don't think
it's as black and white as everyone has taken stances on.
There's clearly a lot of gray area. I do believe though,
that Lane was pretty delusional about ever thinking that he could,
(14:16):
because if LSU didn't hire a coach, let's say, for
the next two weeks, they just haven't hired a coach,
it'd be pretty clear if everyone else hired coaches, that
Lane's going there and you're gonna let him continue to coach.
You could even make the argument, the story just broke
a little earlier today, that they're gonna let Charlie Weiss Junior,
who's going to be Lane's offensive coordinator in LSU, continue
(14:37):
to coach all missed through the playoffs. I bet if
I was having a beer with their ad. He'd be like, listen,
we're kind of desperate here because we need one of
those two guys to call the place, and obviously Lane's
not going to be doing that. So is this the
ideal situation? Of course not, but we kind of need him,
(14:57):
and it happens other places where assistants get stay, so
it's not as crazy. But in a perfect world, we
would not do this, but he is. You know, I
think Lane would call some plays during the season. Again,
I've consumed a lot of Lane Kiffen content. I think
Charlie Weiss Junior was the primary play caller. Lane would
chime in like he's a part of it and like
(15:19):
give ideas and even like override occasionally. But like Charlie
Weiss Junior is the play caller. I just think Ole
Miss really wants to win one playoff game. They have
a home playoff game. You know, the rankings are coming
out here in an hour. We're recording this, either the
nineteenth or the twentieth. They're gonna have a home playoff game.
They want to win that playoff game. If they win
(15:40):
that home playoff game, their season is an undeniable all
time great success. If they lose that game, it would
really really suck. You lost your coach, you lost the game,
especially if it was ugly. You know, depending on the matchup,
I mean, there are some matchups depending on where they
rank got ranked, could be pretty hard, right A Miami,
(16:02):
a Notre Dame an I guess Oregon probably would have
a home game as well, but it could get a
little weird, and I think they're just desperate to try
to win that game. You know, you never want to
negotiate or make a decision out of desperation. Sometimes we
don't have a choice, right I've been there, You've been
there where it's like I don't want to be doing this,
(16:24):
but I have to say, yes, I have to do this.
And it feels like there's a part of Old miss
doing that with Charlie Weiss where they just couldn't allow lame.
I also think the sec is is it's like the
NFL meets Bravo Real Housewives. That's kind of what it is,
and it's why it's so entertaining. You know, their motto
(16:44):
from Greg Sankey is it just means more. It's true,
it does just mean more. But if the NFL allowed this,
it would happen as well. It one would happen if
you allow teams to poach coaches. You don't think like
Jeffrey Lurie a couple of years ago would have offered
Sean McVay like thirty million dollars a year. You don't
(17:06):
think that this would happen in some programs where coaches
were stolen left and right, especially coordinators, it would happen
all the time. It would be an arms race on steroids.
The difference is, these are big cities, there's more going on.
These are little last towns. It's like, you don't think
we're gonna spot you and Layla driving around in the
(17:26):
two nice neighborhoods in the area, Like this is not Chicago.
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(18:56):
gambling problem and wants help, call one eight nine with
it gambling problem called one Hunter Gambler Arizona, Colorado, Illinois,
New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia. Question for you. I think
the quarterback reclamation projects in the last few years, Baker,
(19:19):
Baker Gino, uh, Sam Donold, Daniel Jones are all overrated.
They all walked into above average systems with competent coaches
and above average weapons and played pretty well. None of
them have won or will win more than one playoff
game in a season. It takes real strength to go
(19:39):
from joke to a plus starter. But you see any
of them playing in a conference championship game. It's a
good question. Uh, I think they already wreck. You know,
were the reclamation project was leading a team to the playoffs.
If you go from Baker Mayfield, traded for, then benched,
(20:00):
Carolina cut, then go to the Rams, then go to
Tampa on a four million dollar one year deal and
have a competition in training camp, go on to be
the starting quarterback, get extended, take your team to the
playoffs every year. That's like a Grand Slam. It's not
like a walk off Grand Slam in the World Series,
but that's like a playoff Grand Slams. That's pretty incredible
(20:23):
what Sam Darnold has done this last year and a half.
We just don't see very often. Of course, they happen
in good situations. How often do you see, like go
around the greatest quarterbacks ever and go pretty bad situations?
Last time I checked, Joe Montana had had Bill Walsh,
Tom had Belichick and he inherited a great defense when
(20:44):
he was young. Peyton Manning had Tony Dungee and Bill
Polly in last time I checked. Both guys are in
the Hall of Fame. Now, I think I would take
Peyton over those two. But my point is, like those
two know what they're doing. Tony Dungee was winning a
lot of games in Tampa. You know John L. Way,
I don't exactly know the situation in Denver in the eighties,
but by the time he won big, like it was
(21:06):
a lot going on in Denver with Mike Shanahan, pretty
good situation. Brett Fahr traded Mike Holmbron and Ron Wolf
traded for him like that. There aren't many all time
great quarterbacks who went to you know, this team sucks,
just figured it out. That's not usually the way it works,
so that they go hand in hand, Like Geno Smith
has no chance on a bad team. Patrick Mahomes wouldn't
(21:30):
look that great on the Raiders, and we all agree
Patrick Mahomes is way better than Geno Smith. No one's
playing well in the Raiders. But if you put Geno
Smith this year on the Colts, he'd probably looked fine. Honestly,
might even be better than Daniel Jones. So I agree
with you, but I also think you can't resurrect your
career in a situation that's awful. It's not possible, and
(21:53):
it doesn't really, it just doesn't happen. I was watching
the show with Colin the other day and he mentioned
Mac to Minnesota, which is a forty nine er fan.
Is kind of scary given the injury history. But what
about Mack for Jefferson. I know there would need to
be more picks logistics, but I mean Minnesota has got
to know by now you can't win with Jefferson without
(22:16):
a quarterback, and the Niners would trade picks anyway. I
kind of like where you're thinking, And this is a
little Maddenee one. Minnesota fans obviously they're desperate for a quarterback.
They would never allow you to trade Justin Jefferson in
a Mac Jones type package. I also think Kyle Shanahan
learned a valuable lesson. It's really very very hard to
(22:39):
follow all the information with the Brandon ayuk saga. I'm
honestly Brandon ayuked out. I don't really click care beside
the facts that we have that the forty nine ers
clearly can't wait to get rid of them, and by
all accounts, you give up twenty five million, he clearly
can't wait to leave. I was adamant about the situation
that it never made sense to invest in a guy
(23:00):
who was catching seventy five balls a year and the
cost of wide receivers and he's like a second tier
guy was seventy five million dollars eight guaranteed. Well, Justin
Jefferson is the elite of the elite. The forty nine
ers don't play like that. Like to me, the forty
nine ers would be much more inclined, Like you know
who they would love is like Trey McBride for the
(23:21):
Arizona Cardinals. They're not gonna use They're not gonna have
a Randy Moss Justin Jefferson Jamar Chase catching one hundred
and twenty balls a year. I just have a hard
time ever seeing that happen in this offense with Brock Purty.
That's not really the way. I bet if we look
back at Kyle Shanahan's years, what's the most productive wide
(23:43):
receiver he's ever had. Andre Johnson was really good in
two thousand, probably eight nine, ten to eleven range. I'm
looking at Julio's big year, their big year when the
Atlanta Falcons went to the Super Bowl twenty sixteen, he
had eighty three catches in fifteen hundred yards. The previous
(24:06):
year they weren't as good. He had one hundred and
thirty six catches in eighteen hundred yards. And I'm pretty
sure the Atlanta Falcons they were not a playoff team.
To me, Kyle Shanahan's whole offense is much more predicated
running the ball and really tight end throwing the ball
to running backs. In the wide receivers, you know, I
(24:29):
don't want to say like play. They're much more robbin
than they are Batman. So I just think Justin Jefferson,
if I'm gonna do a crazy trade, I'm more inclined
to go get a Max Crosby to go get you know,
some good tackle than I am to trade for Justin Jefferson. Now,
if I'm the Patriots or you know, some of these
(24:50):
other teams. I'm much more interested. But the forty nine ers,
the way they operate, just to me, doesn't make as
much sense. Appreciate the question. The question is asked before
the season happened, because I wholeheartedly agree that Miles Garrett
has passed TJ this year. But why is everyone thought
he is mounds above better before the season, Because aside
(25:11):
from this year, TJ was a lead in every stat
aside from quarterback pressures and has always said is sachs
don't matter as much as people think. That's why TJ
to most has never been considered as good. But now
sacks are the reason he's the best ever. I think
we're I'm not going to argue over two players. Listen,
(25:33):
TJ in his prime was an elite dominant player. The
force fumbles, the creating the turnovers. There was a momentum
aspect with him. He was like the defense's version of
Steph Curry. There would be him coming around him creating
a fumble and then it would just flip. Von Miller
had this level to him. I think the arguments more
(25:54):
is like Miles is just a more talented player. I
think Miles is one of the most talented players ever
to be in the NFL, just physical gifts wise now
just pure sacks, Like if he ends the season with
twenty seven sacks, is he like the greatest defensive player
of all time? Like? No, I think Belichick will tell
you it's Lawrence Taylor. He's still better, and I'd agree.
But I think the sad part about a guy like
(26:16):
him and the Browns have had a couple now with
Joe Thomas is what would you look like on like
the Ravens, or on the Rams or the Chiefs or
the Eagles, just a team every single year in the
mix the Packers and we'll never know because he got
stuck with the Browns. Can you list your top five
quarterbacks that you would start your franchise with, assuming all
(26:37):
healthy love the pot? Well, I think you have to
factor in age. You know, Mahomes is now thirty years old,
So I'm going back to the world of like in
your late thirties, you're gonna start slipping. You're no longer
playing like the forty five thing. You see it with
Rogers at forty two. I'm not counting on anyone playing
into their forties. Ever again, if you're if you are
(27:00):
able to do that at any position, especially quarterback, that's bonus.
Most guys thirty seven, thirty eight, thirty nine start falling
off a cliff, you know. It's what Stafford's doing at
his age right now is pretty incredible. And even he's
like kind of threatened with retirement. You know, the Rams
kind of play it year by year because they're trying
to mitigate their risks. They don't want to get into
a position where they gave him like a three year,
(27:23):
one hundred and fifty million dollars deal and then going
into year two, he's falling off a cliff because of
age and wear and tear. So like Josh Allen I
think is a little younger than Patrick, but I think
when you factor in all these guys' ages, especially the
way he plays, Josh is twenty nine. I bet Lamar's
price twenty seven and Lamar this year's I mean kind
(27:46):
of taking a pounding. Lamar is twenty eight and he'll
be twenty nine, So I mean, how many more years
does like Lamar and Josh physically just completely dominant, like
because to me, they are much more likely to show
signs of slow down in their early to mid thirties
than just like kicking ass all through their thirties. And
(28:07):
Patrick will be thirty one here next year, So like
I would bet on young guys now again, I'm a
little bit more of a renegade risk taker when it
comes to investing, So I got no problem taking some swings.
Open Door has been pretty good your boy here, and
most people would have said, I'm high on crack cocaine
to invest the amount of money I did a couple
(28:28):
of years ago, and I think it was heavily in
the red. Don't get me wrong, It's not like it's
always been profitable, but when that thing started ripping, it's
started ripping. So to me, I'm going young, and I
mean listen, like right now, Drake May used to talk
about a guy that is how old is Drake May
twenty three years old? Is he even that he's just
turned twenty three? He'd be pretty up there. Jayden Daniels,
(28:52):
I would have bet the farm on him last year.
It's always a little risky with younger players because you know,
like part of what makes Josh Lamar and Patrick like,
why have such high respect for those guys They've been
doing it in such a high level for a long time.
Like part of being a great player is like Peyton Manning,
(29:12):
Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, like every single year you knew
what you were getting. Some for two decades, some for
fifteen years, some for twelve, thirteen years. It's a long time.
A lot of guys, these guys are all pros, right
and especially a lot of these quarterbacks we just talked
about Sam Darnold Gino. A lot of people have had
a good couple of year run. Can you do it
for a decade? Like google Travis Kelsey stats, He's been
(29:35):
catching a lot of balls for a long time. That's
hard to do, and so it'd be pretty risky, but
I would probably be inclined to take a swing at
some of the young guys. The safe thing would be, like,
just give me Josh Allen for the next three or
four years, and if I win a couple of championships,
if I build my team right, then it's all worth it.
But I'd like this the same success. I mean, if
(29:57):
I'm a Patriot fan, I'm pretty high on my own
supply right now. I'm feeling pretty good. Love the show.
What do you think about the NFL implementing a mercy
rule mostly to prevent unnecessary injuries in a game that's
basically over, Like the game is over as soon as
the team is up thirty in the second half. Teams
(30:19):
would keep their foot on the gas to end the
game rather than coast for thirty minutes, and a ton
of injuries would be prevented. I hear what you're saying,
but here's the problem. The NFL's business is predicated on television,
and these networks CBS, ABC Monday Night, which was thirty
to seven at halftime, Fox, Amazon Prime have spent a
(30:43):
lot of money on this inventory, and I mean a
lot of money, and in a couple of years it's
gonna cost a lot more. Well, the only way to
make your money back is to utilize that entire at
the end of the day, like whether the game's good
or bad, you kind of know if a game kicks
off at ten in the morning for US Pacific Standard time,
(31:04):
you know the game's gonna end, give or take at
one o'clock. So that network knows I have three hours,
and I have a pretty good idea when the breaks
are the TV timeouts, the quarters, the halftime to implement
my sell my advertising, which everyone wants to be associated
with football to make my money back and turn a profit.
So I listen. We're all very invested and emotional about
(31:26):
the sport and the game. That's why I got into
the business originally. But this is all a business, and
the way it's all paid for is that would never
in a million years be allowed ever, Cause I listen.
Sometimes when I'm doing these live shows on like especially
Thursday or Monday night football, I'll be on my the
(31:46):
three and out text chain with the boys and I'll
be like, God, I wish this think at the end
at halftime, but like I'm just saying that knowing that
that's never going to happen. Ever, Hey, John, after tonight's
ass kicking, I feel pretty good about the Pats ability
to wrap up the division and contend for the number
(32:08):
one seed going forward. They should try and trade for
brock Bowers, May gets his Gronk, and we don't need
to worry about the offense, spend the rest of that
draft improving the defense. What are your thoughts. I think
Raiders fans would just if they lost Crosby and brock
(32:28):
Bauers in an offseason. I wouldn't blame any Raider fan
if you just quit. I do think Max Crosby will
be traded this offseason. But I think here's the thing
for brock Bowers. He is in a second year, so
next year, he will need a contract extension after next year,
and he's been a little banged up this year. I mean,
(32:49):
if I'm the Raiders, I'm not giving you it. Like
I can't trade. I did it with Khalil Mack. I
can't do it with this guy. So even for me
to entertain it if I was willing, the price would
be outrageous, like three ones. It's like you couldn't trade
three ones for brock Bowers, right, I mean part of
what made the Pats so good for so long. Even
(33:10):
do you know why the Chiefs extended their run? You
got to make trades the other way. It's on you
to hit on draft picks, right, because that's how you
build a team for sustaining success. They're much cheaper, right,
It's pretty rare. Like here's the thing with Bowers. Now,
you could argue that tight ends are a lot cheaper
than they are, But doesn't that kind of play into
(33:34):
the Raiders. Why don't we just keep the guy then,
So my take would be, obviously you're not going to
just find a brock Bowers every year, but like, look
at what you've done from a skill position standpoint this
year in player acquisition, Travon Henderson, I mean, over the
last month, every other carry you see, you're like, damn,
this guy looks sweet. Kyle Williams, the wide receiver from
(33:55):
Washington State, had a nice catch last night and he
can fly. You know, even the Digs acquisition in the offseason,
I feel pretty good if I'm them, like, let's just
keep investing, Let's keep Why can't we use our first
round pick this year on a skill guy, on an
impact skill guy? Because the trade for brock Bauers, if
they were even willing to entertain it, I mean to me,
(34:18):
I wouldn't give them away for more than, like, for
less than two ones, two twos and two three. I mean,
it'd be outrageous. When a coach gets fired mid season,
like day Ball or Brian Kelly, do you think they
still tune into each game that their former team plays in.
(34:40):
That's a great question. I've never been a coach fired
in the middle of the season, so I can't speak
to that I haven't fired though, And I do think
your natural inclination when you're invested into something, and I
would imagine this goes for relationships too. You pay attention
right there. Is doesn't mean I don't you know you're
(35:03):
watching every snap, but like, think about when you're invested
into something, especially in a position like that, you probably
follow the things on social media people are telling you
a lot about them. You would still have people that
Karen like you in those buildings talking to you about
things that are messed up. So I think you're still
(35:24):
kind of invested. I mean, Brian Kelly's kid plays for LSU,
and I'm sure many of you saw that viral video
of his son saying free my boy BK, singing if
I ever call my dad BK, or I ever called
my dad my boy, I probably would have got backhanded.
I'm like, what is wrong with this kid? Is very
uncomfortable thing to watch, And I get it was you know,
(35:48):
his dad couldn't be there for senior night. Now, I
think this guy was like the last player in the roster,
but free my boy BK. Like everything I've seen of
Brian Kelly, that's not how he communicates. I mean I'm
fast needed by that relationship Brian Kelly's kid and Brian Kelly.
That think's got to be a weird one. I bet
Dave Ball paid attention because you're also how they're doing
(36:11):
reflects you, right, Like when I got fired from radio,
I wanted my time slot to go belly up. Turned
out it did, but uh, I was rooted against it heavily,
and you just you'd hate listen sometimes in the car. Definitely.
When I got fired from the Eagles, I just knew
a lot of people with the organization, so I kind
of just felt like I kept talking to people. It
didn't really change. So I think you naturally stalk a
(36:35):
little bit. Right she dumps you, You're gonna see who
she's dating on Instagram. We're just we're human beings, Like
I don't care, insulate the noise, don't let the outside distractions.
All that shit sounds great. We're all kind of wired
the same. On the topic of Lane, what are your
thoughts on him going after the young podcaster who accurately
(36:57):
described him as a hope. Never mind that he immediately
proved the guy right by leaving all miss and Flames
less than twenty four hours later. Shouldn't someone in his
position be able to take the shot. Neither guy look great.
Not that it's really your mo you, but how would
you handle if someone you shit on in a podcast
(37:18):
where to step to you at a football game when
you talked for a living. And I've said this forever
when people get mad at me, you know, I've had
a couple occasions where guys in the NFL get mad
at me, and I say, you know the difference between
me and you, Like everything I say is public, right,
My opinions are all how I make my living. You
(37:38):
have all similar opinions on different stuff, but you never
say any of them publicly. So we're both have similar
takes on certain things, yet everyone knows mine. So you're
talking shit left and right about half the people you
work with and work around and play against, but you
never say that publicly. And then when you leak stuff
to the press, you say anonymous GM Like there's nothing
(38:00):
anonymous about anything I've said for a decade now, So
it's like, I get it. It comes with the territory.
You're gonna piss some people off, But like part of
like I've always thought, the media can be a bunch
of softies. You know, they give it very well, they
don't take it very well. Part of giving it, like
if a guy wants to give it back to you
in that position. For that kid, and I actually saw
(38:23):
that he's like forty years old, he's crazy. In the South,
sometimes a guy can be look thirty eight or I
mean look twenty two and he's thirty eight because they
had that haircut. But what was he gonna do? He
just kind of stood there. Sometimes you can let the
guy yell at you. It's part of the deal, Like
what who cares? What's I'm gonna do? Hit him in
the face. The guy was right, he uses an analogy
(38:44):
that is correct, you know. And I think he even
said that Lane called him later that night and apologized
and then send him a meme of a hoe hat.
I think part of it. I wonder if Lane was
trying to show everybody that he was like gonna stand
up for himself. Like I think actually that had less
to do with that guy's hoe as a housewife comment
(39:07):
than it did about Lane's insecurity, about the whole situation.
And ultimately, I don't think Lane cares at all. I
truly don't. If you're laying right now. Think how many
enemies and people you would need to do that to
over the last four hour, four days, Like you wouldn't
even be able to keep up with it. And once
you start, he makes twelve million dollars. Who cares what
(39:29):
any of these people say? But like, yeah, if you
are gonna quote unquote talk some shit, you gotta take it.
And what guy gets mad at you? Like, Okay, it's life.
It's not that big a deal. I truly believe this
lane doesn't care that much at all about that comment.
I mean truly because, like you said, the guy was
proven right. I didn't even argue this. Most coaches like
(39:56):
they're nomadic by nature, They're not exactly the same down type.
I don't think we will see many nick Sabans and
Dabbos Sweeney's anymore. Kirby might be the last of his
kind because he went to Georgia. It's the best program.
He could probably stay there for twenty five years. Is
Kirby smart? More likely be coaching there in ten years,
(40:17):
so he would have been there twenty years or be
coaching somewhere else. I also think the elephant in the
room now in the profession, you know ten twenty thirty
years ago. The money has changed so dramatically. It is
such a grind to do that job. If you could
continue doing that, especially in college, and have one hundred
(40:39):
million dollars in the bank, you are an all time
football addict. Are we going to see some of these
guys just get burnt out, you know, in their mid
fifties because they're like, I've been making fifteen million dollars
for last five years. I was already a millionaire before
I signed that contract. I just need a year off.
I think we're gonna see some of that more and
(41:00):
more with the amount of money that's getting thrown around.
You know, Lane's still trying to prove himself, right. I
don't think Lanes you could argue. I heard Rhys Davis
and Pete Dammel and Dan Wetzel talking about this, like Google,
Lane's biggest wins of his life. It's like Georgia last
year in a season that was nine and three, so
it actually didn't mean that much. He knocked Oregon out
(41:22):
of the playoffs in like twenty eleven. He won at
Oklahoma this year, which pretty good win. Though Matier has
not been good since he hurt his hand, it's like
he doesn't have that many. You know, Kirby smarts won
a couple championships. So if in like three years, Kirby's like,
I'm burning eyes, need a break. And I even think
George would be like, oh, take the year off. You
can come back when you're ready. That's the other thing
(41:44):
about college football is like Georgia one hundred percent would
tell Kirby like, hey, you're off. We'll just have a
replacement for an interim for a year and then you
can come back. Can't make a whole house wife. Most
of these coaches, they're always they get bored. I mean,
Bill Parcells coach like seven different teams. It's part of
the profession. It's not a normal industry at all. Even players,
(42:08):
like look at the majority, most players are two team
guys their entire career. Most players play for like three
or four teams. I do need to tell you about
my friends, my partners. The official ticketing app of this
podcast Game time, and do you want to go to
(42:29):
one of these games? Monday Night Football tomorrow is in
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like we're gonna get a bunch of opposing fans to
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So if you want to go to a game, even
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(42:50):
can search by arena, you can search by the team obviously,
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John for twenty dollars off for his purchase terms. To
play again, create an account, redeem the code John for
twenty dollars off down the game time after day, last
minute tickets, lowest price is guaranteed. Love the Show. Question
(43:19):
for the mailbag, Colin on your on the Show Sunday
said he likes the head coach and the GM and
the and the roster. For the Cleveland Browns question, what
is there to like? They lose every week, They aren't
competitive most games. Why does Sefanski and Barry get so
much credit for never having done anything? They drafted a
(43:40):
tiny quarterback in round three. I'm sorry, you don't get
the benefit of doubt for that decision. Yeah, man, I
I I'm with you. They do have good players, right,
there's no this draft class looks good. They do have
some interesting players on the roster. To me, the franchise
is a complete joke. It is just always the same
(44:04):
shit over and over and over again. The drafting of
the two quarterbacks is pretty embarrassing. Let's be real. Drafting
Dylan Gabriel in the third round is one of the
crazier draft picks in recent memory. It really is like
the Canny Picketts and mac Jones guys going in the
top twenty that historically would have been third round picks.
(44:25):
Like that, that was insane. Now, granted that was in
the peak of quarterback inflation. Like if you have to
admit how much you paid for you know, a car
or house a couple of years ago, it's like, hey man,
there's peak inflation. It's like, eh man, cost of doing business. Right,
But this year Dylan Gabriel in the third round and
then back it up with Chador a couple of rounds.
It makes no sense. It's like there's no rhyme or
(44:46):
reason anything they do. It's like, well, we got Mason
Graham and Quinchawn Jenkins. It's like, ah, I like those players,
but you don't have any quarterback. Yeah, this guy that's
gonna go for twenty five sacks on a four win team.
I think the whole thing is one of the most
to overrated operations in the league. You know, My stance
for a long time is they get a little bit
(45:08):
of a pass because they're just two highly educated guys
from Ivy League schools, and the media kind of sees
versions of themselves and highly educated people, so they go,
these are us, So, yeah, that is you. That's what
you guys would look like if you were coaching and
running a team four wins every year. Great, these other
meatheads are winning twelve. Hey, John, I'm gonna need to
(45:30):
talk to your guys in San Francisco. Investigate what Juwan
Jennings is saying the guys when they're on the ground.
My wife, who follows like a million forty nine or pages,
asked me the other day, She's like, what is he saying?
I'm like, I don't know, what could you possibly say
to piss people off that much? I mean, it's the
nature of the sport crazy. I hate the word inappropriate.
(45:56):
Something's inappropriate to you, that's not inappropriate to me. But
things that make people uncomfort are set all the time
in locker rooms, let alone on the field. So for Juwan,
like Shelby Harris, when you just watch Shelby Harris's rant,
you're like, like, I kind of felt Shelby Harris, but
it's like I need some Can you give me the evidence?
(46:16):
I need to hear some of the words, like what
is he saying? Is he doing investigative research before the
game so he knows what to bring up. I saw
John Lynch today on local radio in the Bay Area
compare Juwan Jennings to their Draymond Green, So it's he's
clearly visits the people off. I don't know, you'd probably
(46:37):
have to ask, like McCaffrey, more of a comment than
a question that I'd love your thoughts on. As we
wake up this morning, the top two seeds in the AFC,
in the top seed in the NFC, all of quarterbacks
from last year's draft is more of their ability in
year two or three to have an elite coaching now
and put in the right position. It goes to show
you how quickly a franchise can turn around with the
(46:58):
right coach. It does give you a more flexibility financially.
So having Caleb Williams making six seven million dollars gives
you a lot more wiggle room these other guys making
fifty and sixty million dollars. There is no disputing that
having bo Nick's contract allows them to be much more aggressive,
and partly because they have a bunch of dead money
from previous bad contracts, and obviously Drake May this year
(47:20):
they spent a bunch of money. I think as much
as obviously you know, Rabel and Ben Johnson have been awesome.
But when you have Drake May or Caleb Williams contract,
you can trade for a star left guard, you can
you know, pay for a center. You can just do
the stuff that gives you more wiggle room. I saw
(47:40):
today the Steelers cut Darius Slay like they don't have
that much wiggle room. So when you give Darius Slay
one year ten million dollars and his cap hit is
ten million dollars, and you give him a nine million
dollars signing bonus, like that's a pretty big contract. Like
you can do a lot for nine million dollars. You
can get a star or maybe two out there on
(48:01):
the open market. So when you do that and then
by Thanksgiving he's a healthy scratch and by December he's cut.
That's an awful allocation of resources. Where when you have
the wiggle room with the quarterback contract, like you can
miss on a player or two because you just have
more room to deal with with the cap. So I
think the cap manipulation with the quarterback contract is a
(48:26):
massive variable that comes into play for the Bears and
the Patriots, who are very aggressive this offseason. Is McDermott underrated,
that'd be Sean McDermott. He dominated the Steelers with the
run game in defense. Yes, the Steelers aren't good, but
he seems to dominate almost every AFC opponent except you know,
one of the greatest football dynasties of all time, and
(48:47):
he beats them a lot in the regular season. I
was thinking this the other day, like he wins a
lot of games and gets you know, Coward does. This
puts him right there with Tomlin. Like the Bills are
in the AFC Championship game last year. They beat the Ravens.
They just happen to lose the Chiefs. They lost the
(49:07):
Chiefs two years ago. Like it's the only team they
can't beat the playoffs. They're beating all the other teams
this year. I'm rooting for the Bills. I hope they
go on a little bit of a run. But like
he's won a lot of playoff games he's last three
or four years, he just can't beat Kansas City. I
think he's lost him what four or five years, and
the other year to the Bengals who did house them.
That was an embarrassing loss. But like he's lost the Chiefs.
(49:29):
I like comparing, you know, to Tomlin, who hasn't won
a playoff game in a decade. I do think Sean
takes a lot of crap. I actually think the GM
has let him down. Now. Sean has a big hand
in personnel, but their personnel operation has been a little
hit or miss. If they were better on personnel, I
(49:50):
think they would they would have made a super Bowl
by now. But their personnel department has just has let
him down, which he's probably playing a big role. A
lot of my fellow forty nine fans seem convinced that
Sala's gone as a new head coach and he deserves it.
But I remind them spags, who, in my opinion without
him definitely doesn't beat the forty nine Ers in the
(50:12):
Super Bowl, has been amazing and has no second head
coaching job yet. So why does one seem to be
on the radar and the other isn't. I mean, I
think a huge element is age. I think if Steve
Spagnola was fifty two instead of my guess is he's
sixty four, Steves Paganol sixty five. I listen, you're not
(50:36):
supposed to legally discriminate for age, but he's getting discriminated
for age. He's not getting hired at sixty five. But
Robert Sola is forty six years old, So I mean
there's a twenty year age gap. I was thinking if
if Mike Tomlin finally does break up with the Steelers,
I saw Albert Briers say today he's not gonna get
fired even if he's on another team next year, they
(50:57):
will not fire. So let's say traded to the Giants.
I do think Robert Solo would kind of feel a
little Pittsburgh Steelers because you go, well, who the Pittsburgh
Steelers is gonna hire? Well, who have there been their
last two coaches? Of my life? I can't speak to
Chuck no a little before my time, Bill Kauer defensive
guy that jaw I think former linebacker in the NFL.
(51:20):
He's a defensive guy. Mike Tomlin defensive guy. I can't
picture them hiring like Liam Cohen, Like that's not really
their style. Now you could argue, maybe you should, that's
not what they're gonna do. They're gonna hire a defensive guy.
Robert Sawa kind of looks like if you didn't know
Robert Salo was, you know, a middle of the road,
(51:42):
you know, like a non power for college football player,
you'd be like, I bet that I played for the Steelers,
like Mike Vrabel. When you say, yeah, Mike Rabel played
for the Steelers, it's believable. Look at even though now
he kind of looks like a first baseman that would
have played for the Yankees in like nineteen eighty three.
But Robert saw looks like he's a former NFL player
and specifically he played, like played for Pittsburgh and Baltimore. Right,
(52:03):
So to me, Robert Solo would make a lot of
sense for Pittsburgh and he would accept that job yesterday.
So there is no guarantee he's gonna get hired. I
think depending on the options. Like if I'm Robert Sala,
would I take the Arizona Cardinals job, I would not.
I wouldn't touch that job with a ten football, but
(52:24):
would some of these other I mean, I just took
the Jets job, and okay, I got richer, but it sucked.
So I do think he's gonna want a more stable operation.
I think if you're Sali, you'd be all over the Giants.
Are the Giants hiring Robert Sala? I don't. I don't
think they can and Bears Falcons fan it's clear we
(52:44):
need a clean house. With Tomlin and Harbaugh clearly needing
some resets, should they go for one of them? Or
do they go in the route of Mike McCarthy but
no first round pick next year and Penni's hurt. I
think it's gonna be hard. I really do. I mean,
I couldn't even begin assuming that everyone gets fired. What
they do. I mean, their last two coaches have been
(53:06):
Raheem had coached there before, so that that one made
some sense. Though they almost hired Belichick. Maybe the owner's
mad that he didn't hire Belichick and now hires Belichick
which would still be a little shocking. You know. I
had someone kind of make the plea of me about
Mike McCarthy that look at Mike McCarthy. Look at he's
(53:27):
been replaced twice and the team got better both times
when he left, and this year specifically, like Jerry nailed
that one, Like, yeah, Mike, I'm not gonna extend you.
I thought Jerry was kind of crazy, like I just
give him a couple of year extension. I'm not paying
this guy anymore. I'm gonna go with Brian Schottenheimer. Brian
Schottenheimer wins on Thursday. Jerry's gonna look like a genius.
(53:52):
I'm a Colts fan. And if they don't end up
making the playoffs, is Ballard on the hot seat? He
traded two first rounds for sas Gardner and now he's hurt,
Daniel Jones is hurt, and the offense doesn't look the same.
I would say Ballard, if they completely unravel, everything would
be on the table, and that would be a disaster.
That would be a little like an NBA trade where
(54:14):
a guy was on the hot seat. Things were going well,
quadrupleed down for SaaS Gardner, which I thought was pretty insane.
And if they were to just start losing a bunch
of games. Who they played this week, the Jags. I
think it's up to the Dodters. Now. I don't know
(54:34):
what their relationship is with them. I'm sure they probably
like him, but I would say that he's he would
be in some trouble. Yes, is that a great job?
Though you have no two for you have no first
round picks for the next couple of years. You would
probably start to rebuild and start selling guys off. Watching
this train wreck of a Vikings team and Jefferson looks
(54:57):
dead inside. Do you think it's realistic that QUESSI or
Chaos are gone after this offseason. I would see no
chance that Kevin O'Connell's gone. He would the Steelers would
hire an offensive coach, then the Giants would hire him. Yesterday,
he would teams would be lined up to hire Kevin O'Connell.
The GM. Listen, you guys die hards, and you guys
(55:19):
have a great fan base. I haven't done a deep
dive on his drafts. I know people are not high
on them, obviously, for all the picks that have missed.
The JJ situation is pretty devastating. But in fairness to him,
like bloodshot just on his hands for that pick, you're
not taking JJ McCarthy if Kevin O'Connell's not fully on
(55:41):
board as well. So listen, it's hard you make mistakes.
Some mistakes have bigger consequences than others. All of our
decisions have consequences, some good, some bad. Right the outcome
of what we do when we do it. A lot
of times we don't know. And on big decisions like
(56:01):
a draft pick, drafting a quarterback in the first round,
you're doing that because you have high hopes that this
thing is gonna work. But they didn't just keep their
fingers crossed like we hope. They were pretty confident, but
it's a draft. You never know. If I would have
told you that how many games they played last year,
seventeen and the other twelve. So that's twenty Sepisode twenty nine.
(56:23):
Of bo Nix's twenty nine games, his team has won
twenty of them. No one would have believed that two
years ago. Now, obviously the defense is you know, played
a large role in a lot of that action. But still,
if JJ McCarthy was the Broncos quarterback, they would not
have won twenty to twenty nine games. Well on that one.
(56:44):
I appreciate everyone and we will be back again tomorrow.
Keep firing in those dms at John Middlecoff and have
a great day peace. The volume
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is doing well. We have been grinding, so I said,
you know what, Let's do a big mail bag at
John Middlecough at John middlecoff is the Instagram. We'll just
do about fifty minutes where the mailbag questions fire in
(01:06):
those dms, get your questions answered on the show. We'll
appreciate everyone that's been watching listening to the content. We've
had a lot of stuff out reacting to the Thanksgiving games,
Black Friday Games, Sunday Night, Monday night games. Our people
who have been grinding behind the scenes, so appreciate everyone listeners,
couldn't do it without you. And yeah, the game plan
(01:28):
a day again just mail bag only you guys know
the drill. Subscribe to the podcast. If you listen on
Collins Feed, subscribe to the YouTube channel. I think we're
about ten k away from one hundred. So's trying to
make my parents proud, you know. Other than that, any
other news and notes, I don't think so. So let's
just dive into the mailbag again at John middlecoff my
(01:50):
Instagram fire in the DMS. We will start with Jonah.
What's exciting about the Bears in the paths is they
feel like they can be good for years to come.
They to have great young coaches, a high end coordinator
who likely will not be a head coach, and a
young core. What do you think the difference makers between
teams who have a good season or two and teams
(02:12):
who can sustain high level of play? Well, it gets
down to two things, quarterback play and coaching. And you know,
I think you're seeing this with the Lions. I get
a lot of dms. I get a lot of people conversate.
Have you know, Ben Johnson is just a fascinating individual.
(02:33):
Is anytime the head coach is a guy like a
Harbaugh brother, you know John Harbaugh. I guess they are brothers,
John and Jim, Dan Campbell, Mike Tomlin. They can be
pretty quarterback de Pete Carroll, right, and you know these
guys all have philosophical beliefs, right, Jim Harbaugh running the ball,
running between the tackles and something he's always gonna do.
(02:54):
Pete Carroll defenses his baby, and even offensively, he has
specific things that he wants to do. It's why Chip
Kelly clearly been leaking things to push back on everyone
shitting on him about that he forced him to run
Shane Waldron's offense, which is probably some validity to it, right,
And I think some of these older CEO type coaches
have big picture beliefs on how they want to run it.
(03:17):
But like sixty times a game on offense or defense,
Mike McDonald, Matt Lafleur, Kevin O'Connell, Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay,
Sean Payton, Andy Reid, like they're touching the field with
their play call.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
They are impacting the offensive or defensive place and that
matters so to me, like the thing that you just said,
you know, Ben Johnson, his superpower is his play calling.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Clearly leadership and organization. He's good at that. But he's
an elite play caller, so you will never lose that.
So even Caleb Williams, like if he can never figure
out this accuracy issue, and it's not gonna derail the franchise.
You know, Mike Vrabel has this offensive coordinator. You know,
the defense is Mike's baby, you know, but the offense
(04:04):
when you have a good young quarterback, like if Mike
Vrabole had an offensive coordinator like Josh McDaniels ten years ago,
and people like people gonna hire Josh mc daniels, you go,
this could be a problem. Right when he had Arthur
Smith in Tennessee, it went pretty well. Then he lost
him and it wasn't quite the same. So like Josh
m daniels never getting hired again in the NFL, I
(04:25):
guess you'd never know. With college. As of recording it,
they currently don't have a Penn State coach, and once
upon a time Penn State hired a Patriot coach named
Bill O'Brien. So I think keeping coaching continuity. Look at
the Chiefs they've had, you know, during the Patrick Mahomes run,
Andy Reid, Steves Maagnel and Patrick Mahomes really their core group,
Chris Jones and Travis Kelsey. So you need a core
(04:48):
group of guys forever. It was Bill Belichick, Tom Brady,
Matt Patricia, Josh McDaniels, Brian Flores, the majority of the
twenty tens, with Edelman, with Gronk, with mccordy, with high Tower.
So you kind of have a core David Andrews kind
of have a core group of guys, and that message
(05:08):
never graduates out of the program. And so I think
continuity at the top matters, right because owners never really change.
But if you're coaching, the play callers don't change, your
quarterback doesn't change, and your core two or three star
players don't change, like you're kind of cooking with gas,
you know, really kind of matters. I mean, the forty
(05:29):
nine ers could have unraveled this season, but they got
Kyle and so when they went to the backup quarterback,
like he could make Mac Jones look pretty good, and
while they lost some core guys, they still had George
Kittle and Christian McCaffrey, right, So you got to have core,
high end players that really really matters. My question is
regarding Michael Pennix, but not just him in general. Why
(05:52):
do teams draft players with long injury histories. I can
understand a broken bone or other injuries that aren't likely
to repeat, but both the acls and other ligaments seems
like it's a ticking time bomb that can be seen
from miles away. I would say this as a GM
or a coach. You can't predict things with bodies. You
(06:15):
can give educated opinions on experiences, but when your team doctor,
that's at you know, if you're an LA team, UCLA Med,
the Niner, Stanford Med, Philadelphia penn Med, I mean the
team doctor or the people interacting with your health and
(06:37):
wellness side of the operation are the best in the
business in the cities you live in. So when they
tell you I don't think this is going to be
a problem, are you supposed to dispute them. It's why
most gms during the draft process or coaches during the
season will go listen, I'm not a doctor. I'm just
kind of going off what they tell me, because most
(06:58):
of these the coaches, they make their living with a
whistle around their neck, right, So you kind of have
to go off the information that the doctor is telling you.
If they go he's never gonna tear his ACL again,
or or this, I mean, he wouldn't say that, but
if he goes, he's no like, he's no more likely
to tear his ACL than the other guy who's never
(07:20):
torn his ACL. Are you supposed to just dispute him now?
I'm sure that happens sometimes, and sometimes it's on the
flip side. And I think this what drives coaches in
GM's nuts is they will have players that they're medical
team that the league lead investigator in whatever to the
doctor is that goes through the checks either during the
(07:43):
physical time during free agency or during the draft process,
and goes I can't recommend drafting this guy. I don't
think he'll ever make it to a second contract or
like this, his shoulder or his knee is a ticking
time bomb. You hear that a lot, and then all
of a sudden you look up and he's made five
Pro Bowls, one hundred fifty million dollars and you go,
we didn't have him on a draft board. So I
(08:05):
think it's a lot of back and forth, but it's
hard to you're just taking educated guesses and obviously the
more information you have, if a guy's missed as many
seasons as him, you could have taken an educated guess
is his body gonna make it? So I think him
specifically panics. It's fair to argue, like should he have
(08:26):
been off draft boards? And I'm sure he was. He
was not on every draft board, right, So it's personal preference.
It's teams medical teams. You know, Danny Kanell, his dad
used to be the doctor for the Miami Dolphins and
when Saban was, the coach told him that Drew Brees's
(08:46):
shoulder would not last. And he went to the Saints
and the rest, and then Saban a year later goes
to the Alabama Crimson Tide. The rest is history for
both guys. You know, So I what Saban's supposed to do? Like, No,
I think his shoulder is gonna be fine. It's kind
of a tough predicament you find yourself in as a
football guy with the doctor crew when they're telling you
one thing and you're like, I better hope you're right,
(09:09):
and then all of a sudden he gets signed by
a divisional opponent, and then he's kicking your ass, like
what the hell? There's been a lot of arguments in
that world over the years. That's for damn sure, and
it's never really going to end because the football people
can't go off anything more and like, are you sure?
Are we sure? Hey, John? At the start of the season,
(09:35):
do you think Miles Garrett would rather have the sack
record or the Browns reach the playoffs? Well? In his career,
just thinking off the top of my head, I don't
think he's gone to the playoffs many times, right, the
one year with Baker in twenty and then the one
year a couple of years ago with Flacco when they
got killed by the Texans. So he hasn't had much
(09:56):
postseason success. My guess is what he would say is,
I'd like to have a good season, my team to
be good. Would I just rather have the sack record
and my team suck every week? I think he would
probably go, well, I would just choose make the playoffs,
and I'm pretty confident I'd get fifteen to twenty sacks. Again,
(10:17):
I don't know the guy now, if he ends up
with thirty sacks. Let's just say he ends up with
thirty sacks. I think most people at the beginning of
the year would sign up for thirty sacks, and I
think he'd also say, if I have thirty sacks, I
bet we're pretty good. Turns out Nope, no, you're not
for the bag. When LSU fired Brian Kelly to aggressively
(10:41):
target Lane Kiffen, why wouldn't Lane tell LSU when they
approached him that he wanted to focus on his contractual
agreement with all Miss for the time being and resume
negotiations in six to eight weeks. What would LSU have
done snipe summer all. It's clear they wanted Lane, and
I bet he could have got the best of both worlds.
(11:03):
Or do you think Lane was nervous of maybe getting
upset in the playoffs and hurting his chances of getting
big money or even the LSU job As a whole,
Penn State is waiting until the end of the season
to make their higher Did LSU just want to ruin
ole Miss's season since theirs was pathetic? Love loved the pod.
(11:25):
Maybe Lane generally thought ole Miss would roll over and
give him everything he wanted. Honestly, it's believable since Lane
can be delusional. I do think Lane, looking back on
him making the sixty, was trying to change the narrative
this summer because he had planned to go somewhere else
this fall if a big time opportunity opened up, and
(11:48):
I think based on last year, no jobs opened up,
he had a pretty good idea. There were some guys
on the hot seat, especially Florida right Jimmy Sexton represents
Billy Napier. He knew he was in a lot of
trouble so that there were gonna be some job opening,
So he was trying to change the narrative. I'm a
much better guy. I'm not this scumbag, toxic person that
you all thought I was years ago. So he started
(12:10):
actively doing that. Probably didn't imagine his team was going
to be in the playoffs, and honestly, he definitely didn't
imagine LSU was going to come open whatever it did.
A month into the season. When did Kelly get fired
in the middle of October, So that changed the equation.
But I would imagine there was a point in time
where he thought they will let me coach, and then
(12:32):
I can leave and that clear became clear to him
that that was not going to be an option. There
were probably conversations that Lane, you're kind of lucky. We
think you're going because you're not signing our contract. We
shouldn't even let you coach the egg ball, like you're
already set the moment he sent his family on the
(12:53):
quote unquote fact finding mission. Now, listen, ole Miss is
not Alabama, Georgia, LSU Ohio State. Right, So when I
say that those programs never would allow it, I think
people would push back, well, Ole Miss should be lucky
they're even in this position, And there's probably some truth
to that, but that's not how you feel once you're
in that position. You know, if you're married and you
(13:15):
start getting worried that she's kind of sleeping around, and
then you get some evidence that she's definitely sleeping around. Like,
you got a couple choices. You either draw a line
in the sand and end it, or you kind of
tuck your tail between your legs and just try to
figure it out. And I think Ole Miss tried to
figure it out, and they had to look in the
mirror and kind of like, we feel awful about ourselves.
(13:35):
We're getting played here. We're getting used, and this is
not like LSU stealing our coach. They hate us their
arrival of ours. It's weird. We're business partners with them
in the SEC, but we don't act like that right
in terms of stuff like this, because even the NFL
doesn't allow anything even close to this. So it's a
(13:56):
complicated situation, right with the timeline, the rules, which there
aren't any you can just steal coaches. I don't think
it's as black and white as everyone has taken stances on.
There's clearly a lot of gray area. I do believe though,
that Lane was pretty delusional about ever thinking that he could,
(14:16):
because if LSU didn't hire a coach, let's say, for
the next two weeks, they just haven't hired a coach,
it'd be pretty clear if everyone else hired coaches, that
Lane's going there and you're gonna let him continue to coach.
You could even make the argument, the story just broke
a little earlier today, that they're gonna let Charlie Weiss Junior,
who's going to be Lane's offensive coordinator in LSU, continue
(14:37):
to coach all missed through the playoffs. I bet if
I was having a beer with their ad. He'd be like, listen,
we're kind of desperate here because we need one of
those two guys to call the place, and obviously Lane's
not going to be doing that. So is this the
ideal situation? Of course not, but we kind of need him,
(14:57):
and it happens other places where assistants get stay, so
it's not as crazy. But in a perfect world, we
would not do this, but he is. You know, I
think Lane would call some plays during the season. Again,
I've consumed a lot of Lane Kiffen content. I think
Charlie Weiss Junior was the primary play caller. Lane would
chime in like he's a part of it and like
(15:19):
give ideas and even like override occasionally. But like Charlie
Weiss Junior is the play caller. I just think Ole
Miss really wants to win one playoff game. They have
a home playoff game. You know, the rankings are coming
out here in an hour. We're recording this, either the
nineteenth or the twentieth. They're gonna have a home playoff game.
They want to win that playoff game. If they win
(15:40):
that home playoff game, their season is an undeniable all
time great success. If they lose that game, it would
really really suck. You lost your coach, you lost the game,
especially if it was ugly. You know, depending on the matchup,
I mean, there are some matchups depending on where they
rank got ranked, could be pretty hard, right A Miami,
(16:02):
a Notre Dame an I guess Oregon probably would have
a home game as well, but it could get a
little weird, and I think they're just desperate to try
to win that game. You know, you never want to
negotiate or make a decision out of desperation. Sometimes we
don't have a choice, right I've been there, You've been
there where it's like I don't want to be doing this,
(16:24):
but I have to say, yes, I have to do this.
And it feels like there's a part of Old miss
doing that with Charlie Weiss where they just couldn't allow lame.
I also think the sec is is it's like the
NFL meets Bravo Real Housewives. That's kind of what it is,
and it's why it's so entertaining. You know, their motto
(16:44):
from Greg Sankey is it just means more. It's true,
it does just mean more. But if the NFL allowed this,
it would happen as well. It one would happen if
you allow teams to poach coaches. You don't think like
Jeffrey Lurie a couple of years ago would have offered
Sean McVay like thirty million dollars a year. You don't
(17:06):
think that this would happen in some programs where coaches
were stolen left and right, especially coordinators, it would happen
all the time. It would be an arms race on steroids.
The difference is, these are big cities, there's more going on.
These are little last towns. It's like, you don't think
we're gonna spot you and Layla driving around in the
(17:26):
two nice neighborhoods in the area, Like this is not Chicago.
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(18:56):
gambling problem and wants help, call one eight nine with
it gambling problem called one Hunter Gambler Arizona, Colorado, Illinois,
New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia. Question for you. I think
the quarterback reclamation projects in the last few years, Baker,
(19:19):
Baker Gino, uh, Sam Donold, Daniel Jones are all overrated.
They all walked into above average systems with competent coaches
and above average weapons and played pretty well. None of
them have won or will win more than one playoff
game in a season. It takes real strength to go
(19:39):
from joke to a plus starter. But you see any
of them playing in a conference championship game. It's a
good question. Uh, I think they already wreck. You know,
were the reclamation project was leading a team to the playoffs.
If you go from Baker Mayfield, traded for, then benched,
(20:00):
Carolina cut, then go to the Rams, then go to
Tampa on a four million dollar one year deal and
have a competition in training camp, go on to be
the starting quarterback, get extended, take your team to the
playoffs every year. That's like a Grand Slam. It's not
like a walk off Grand Slam in the World Series,
but that's like a playoff Grand Slams. That's pretty incredible
(20:23):
what Sam Darnold has done this last year and a half.
We just don't see very often. Of course, they happen
in good situations. How often do you see, like go
around the greatest quarterbacks ever and go pretty bad situations?
Last time I checked, Joe Montana had had Bill Walsh,
Tom had Belichick and he inherited a great defense when
(20:44):
he was young. Peyton Manning had Tony Dungee and Bill
Polly in last time I checked. Both guys are in
the Hall of Fame. Now, I think I would take
Peyton over those two. But my point is, like those
two know what they're doing. Tony Dungee was winning a
lot of games in Tampa. You know John L. Way,
I don't exactly know the situation in Denver in the eighties,
but by the time he won big, like it was
(21:06):
a lot going on in Denver with Mike Shanahan, pretty
good situation. Brett Fahr traded Mike Holmbron and Ron Wolf
traded for him like that. There aren't many all time
great quarterbacks who went to you know, this team sucks,
just figured it out. That's not usually the way it works,
so that they go hand in hand, Like Geno Smith
has no chance on a bad team. Patrick Mahomes wouldn't
(21:30):
look that great on the Raiders, and we all agree
Patrick Mahomes is way better than Geno Smith. No one's
playing well in the Raiders. But if you put Geno
Smith this year on the Colts, he'd probably looked fine. Honestly,
might even be better than Daniel Jones. So I agree
with you, but I also think you can't resurrect your
career in a situation that's awful. It's not possible, and
(21:53):
it doesn't really, it just doesn't happen. I was watching
the show with Colin the other day and he mentioned
Mac to Minnesota, which is a forty nine er fan.
Is kind of scary given the injury history. But what
about Mack for Jefferson. I know there would need to
be more picks logistics, but I mean Minnesota has got
to know by now you can't win with Jefferson without
(22:16):
a quarterback, and the Niners would trade picks anyway. I
kind of like where you're thinking, And this is a
little Maddenee one. Minnesota fans obviously they're desperate for a quarterback.
They would never allow you to trade Justin Jefferson in
a Mac Jones type package. I also think Kyle Shanahan
learned a valuable lesson. It's really very very hard to
(22:39):
follow all the information with the Brandon ayuk saga. I'm
honestly Brandon ayuked out. I don't really click care beside
the facts that we have that the forty nine ers
clearly can't wait to get rid of them, and by
all accounts, you give up twenty five million, he clearly
can't wait to leave. I was adamant about the situation
that it never made sense to invest in a guy
(23:00):
who was catching seventy five balls a year and the
cost of wide receivers and he's like a second tier
guy was seventy five million dollars eight guaranteed. Well, Justin
Jefferson is the elite of the elite. The forty nine
ers don't play like that. Like to me, the forty
nine ers would be much more inclined, Like you know
who they would love is like Trey McBride for the
(23:21):
Arizona Cardinals. They're not gonna use They're not gonna have
a Randy Moss Justin Jefferson Jamar Chase catching one hundred
and twenty balls a year. I just have a hard
time ever seeing that happen in this offense with Brock Purty.
That's not really the way. I bet if we look
back at Kyle Shanahan's years, what's the most productive wide
(23:43):
receiver he's ever had. Andre Johnson was really good in
two thousand, probably eight nine, ten to eleven range. I'm
looking at Julio's big year, their big year when the
Atlanta Falcons went to the Super Bowl twenty sixteen, he
had eighty three catches in fifteen hundred yards. The previous
(24:06):
year they weren't as good. He had one hundred and
thirty six catches in eighteen hundred yards. And I'm pretty
sure the Atlanta Falcons they were not a playoff team.
To me, Kyle Shanahan's whole offense is much more predicated
running the ball and really tight end throwing the ball
to running backs. In the wide receivers, you know, I
(24:29):
don't want to say like play. They're much more robbin
than they are Batman. So I just think Justin Jefferson,
if I'm gonna do a crazy trade, I'm more inclined
to go get a Max Crosby to go get you know,
some good tackle than I am to trade for Justin Jefferson. Now,
if I'm the Patriots or you know, some of these
(24:50):
other teams. I'm much more interested. But the forty nine ers,
the way they operate, just to me, doesn't make as
much sense. Appreciate the question. The question is asked before
the season happened, because I wholeheartedly agree that Miles Garrett
has passed TJ this year. But why is everyone thought
he is mounds above better before the season, Because aside
(25:11):
from this year, TJ was a lead in every stat
aside from quarterback pressures and has always said is sachs
don't matter as much as people think. That's why TJ
to most has never been considered as good. But now
sacks are the reason he's the best ever. I think
we're I'm not going to argue over two players. Listen,
(25:33):
TJ in his prime was an elite dominant player. The
force fumbles, the creating the turnovers. There was a momentum
aspect with him. He was like the defense's version of
Steph Curry. There would be him coming around him creating
a fumble and then it would just flip. Von Miller
had this level to him. I think the arguments more
(25:54):
is like Miles is just a more talented player. I
think Miles is one of the most talented players ever
to be in the NFL, just physical gifts wise now
just pure sacks, Like if he ends the season with
twenty seven sacks, is he like the greatest defensive player
of all time? Like? No, I think Belichick will tell
you it's Lawrence Taylor. He's still better, and I'd agree.
But I think the sad part about a guy like
(26:16):
him and the Browns have had a couple now with
Joe Thomas is what would you look like on like
the Ravens, or on the Rams or the Chiefs or
the Eagles, just a team every single year in the
mix the Packers and we'll never know because he got
stuck with the Browns. Can you list your top five
quarterbacks that you would start your franchise with, assuming all
(26:37):
healthy love the pot? Well, I think you have to
factor in age. You know, Mahomes is now thirty years old,
So I'm going back to the world of like in
your late thirties, you're gonna start slipping. You're no longer
playing like the forty five thing. You see it with
Rogers at forty two. I'm not counting on anyone playing
into their forties. Ever again, if you're if you are
(27:00):
able to do that at any position, especially quarterback, that's bonus.
Most guys thirty seven, thirty eight, thirty nine start falling
off a cliff, you know. It's what Stafford's doing at
his age right now is pretty incredible. And even he's
like kind of threatened with retirement. You know, the Rams
kind of play it year by year because they're trying
to mitigate their risks. They don't want to get into
a position where they gave him like a three year,
(27:23):
one hundred and fifty million dollars deal and then going
into year two, he's falling off a cliff because of
age and wear and tear. So like Josh Allen I
think is a little younger than Patrick, but I think
when you factor in all these guys' ages, especially the
way he plays, Josh is twenty nine. I bet Lamar's
price twenty seven and Lamar this year's I mean kind
(27:46):
of taking a pounding. Lamar is twenty eight and he'll
be twenty nine, So I mean, how many more years
does like Lamar and Josh physically just completely dominant, like
because to me, they are much more likely to show
signs of slow down in their early to mid thirties
than just like kicking ass all through their thirties. And
(28:07):
Patrick will be thirty one here next year, So like
I would bet on young guys now again, I'm a
little bit more of a renegade risk taker when it
comes to investing, So I got no problem taking some swings.
Open Door has been pretty good your boy here, and
most people would have said, I'm high on crack cocaine
to invest the amount of money I did a couple
(28:28):
of years ago, and I think it was heavily in
the red. Don't get me wrong, It's not like it's
always been profitable, but when that thing started ripping, it's
started ripping. So to me, I'm going young, and I
mean listen, like right now, Drake May used to talk
about a guy that is how old is Drake May
twenty three years old? Is he even that he's just
turned twenty three? He'd be pretty up there. Jayden Daniels,
(28:52):
I would have bet the farm on him last year.
It's always a little risky with younger players because you know,
like part of what makes Josh Lamar and Patrick like,
why have such high respect for those guys They've been
doing it in such a high level for a long time.
Like part of being a great player is like Peyton Manning,
(29:12):
Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, like every single year you knew
what you were getting. Some for two decades, some for
fifteen years, some for twelve, thirteen years. It's a long time.
A lot of guys, these guys are all pros, right
and especially a lot of these quarterbacks we just talked
about Sam Darnold Gino. A lot of people have had
a good couple of year run. Can you do it
for a decade? Like google Travis Kelsey stats, He's been
(29:35):
catching a lot of balls for a long time. That's
hard to do, and so it'd be pretty risky, but
I would probably be inclined to take a swing at
some of the young guys. The safe thing would be, like,
just give me Josh Allen for the next three or
four years, and if I win a couple of championships,
if I build my team right, then it's all worth it.
But I'd like this the same success. I mean, if
(29:57):
I'm a Patriot fan, I'm pretty high on my own
supply right now. I'm feeling pretty good. Love the show.
What do you think about the NFL implementing a mercy
rule mostly to prevent unnecessary injuries in a game that's
basically over, Like the game is over as soon as
the team is up thirty in the second half. Teams
(30:19):
would keep their foot on the gas to end the
game rather than coast for thirty minutes, and a ton
of injuries would be prevented. I hear what you're saying,
but here's the problem. The NFL's business is predicated on television,
and these networks CBS, ABC Monday Night, which was thirty
to seven at halftime, Fox, Amazon Prime have spent a
(30:43):
lot of money on this inventory, and I mean a
lot of money, and in a couple of years it's
gonna cost a lot more. Well, the only way to
make your money back is to utilize that entire at
the end of the day, like whether the game's good
or bad, you kind of know if a game kicks
off at ten in the morning for US Pacific Standard time,
(31:04):
you know the game's gonna end, give or take at
one o'clock. So that network knows I have three hours,
and I have a pretty good idea when the breaks
are the TV timeouts, the quarters, the halftime to implement
my sell my advertising, which everyone wants to be associated
with football to make my money back and turn a profit.
So I listen. We're all very invested and emotional about
(31:26):
the sport and the game. That's why I got into
the business originally. But this is all a business, and
the way it's all paid for is that would never
in a million years be allowed ever, Cause I listen.
Sometimes when I'm doing these live shows on like especially
Thursday or Monday night football, I'll be on my the
(31:46):
three and out text chain with the boys and I'll
be like, God, I wish this think at the end
at halftime, but like I'm just saying that knowing that
that's never going to happen. Ever, Hey, John, after tonight's
ass kicking, I feel pretty good about the Pats ability
to wrap up the division and contend for the number
(32:08):
one seed going forward. They should try and trade for
brock Bowers, May gets his Gronk, and we don't need
to worry about the offense, spend the rest of that
draft improving the defense. What are your thoughts. I think
Raiders fans would just if they lost Crosby and brock
(32:28):
Bauers in an offseason. I wouldn't blame any Raider fan
if you just quit. I do think Max Crosby will
be traded this offseason. But I think here's the thing
for brock Bowers. He is in a second year, so
next year, he will need a contract extension after next year,
and he's been a little banged up this year. I mean,
(32:49):
if I'm the Raiders, I'm not giving you it. Like
I can't trade. I did it with Khalil Mack. I
can't do it with this guy. So even for me
to entertain it if I was willing, the price would
be outrageous, like three ones. It's like you couldn't trade
three ones for brock Bowers, right, I mean part of
what made the Pats so good for so long. Even
(33:10):
do you know why the Chiefs extended their run? You
got to make trades the other way. It's on you
to hit on draft picks, right, because that's how you
build a team for sustaining success. They're much cheaper, right,
It's pretty rare. Like here's the thing with Bowers. Now,
you could argue that tight ends are a lot cheaper
than they are, But doesn't that kind of play into
(33:34):
the Raiders. Why don't we just keep the guy then,
So my take would be, obviously you're not going to
just find a brock Bowers every year, but like, look
at what you've done from a skill position standpoint this
year in player acquisition, Travon Henderson, I mean, over the
last month, every other carry you see, you're like, damn,
this guy looks sweet. Kyle Williams, the wide receiver from
(33:55):
Washington State, had a nice catch last night and he
can fly. You know, even the Digs acquisition in the offseason,
I feel pretty good if I'm them, like, let's just
keep investing, Let's keep Why can't we use our first
round pick this year on a skill guy, on an
impact skill guy? Because the trade for brock Bauers, if
they were even willing to entertain it, I mean to me,
(34:18):
I wouldn't give them away for more than, like, for
less than two ones, two twos and two three. I mean,
it'd be outrageous. When a coach gets fired mid season,
like day Ball or Brian Kelly, do you think they
still tune into each game that their former team plays in.
(34:40):
That's a great question. I've never been a coach fired
in the middle of the season, so I can't speak
to that I haven't fired though, And I do think
your natural inclination when you're invested into something, and I
would imagine this goes for relationships too. You pay attention
right there. Is doesn't mean I don't you know you're
(35:03):
watching every snap, but like, think about when you're invested
into something, especially in a position like that, you probably
follow the things on social media people are telling you
a lot about them. You would still have people that
Karen like you in those buildings talking to you about
things that are messed up. So I think you're still
(35:24):
kind of invested. I mean, Brian Kelly's kid plays for LSU,
and I'm sure many of you saw that viral video
of his son saying free my boy BK, singing if
I ever call my dad BK, or I ever called
my dad my boy, I probably would have got backhanded.
I'm like, what is wrong with this kid? Is very
uncomfortable thing to watch, And I get it was you know,
(35:48):
his dad couldn't be there for senior night. Now, I
think this guy was like the last player in the roster,
but free my boy BK. Like everything I've seen of
Brian Kelly, that's not how he communicates. I mean I'm
fast needed by that relationship Brian Kelly's kid and Brian Kelly.
That think's got to be a weird one. I bet
Dave Ball paid attention because you're also how they're doing
(36:11):
reflects you, right, Like when I got fired from radio,
I wanted my time slot to go belly up. Turned
out it did, but uh, I was rooted against it heavily,
and you just you'd hate listen sometimes in the car. Definitely.
When I got fired from the Eagles, I just knew
a lot of people with the organization, so I kind
of just felt like I kept talking to people. It
didn't really change. So I think you naturally stalk a
(36:35):
little bit. Right she dumps you, You're gonna see who
she's dating on Instagram. We're just we're human beings, Like
I don't care, insulate the noise, don't let the outside distractions.
All that shit sounds great. We're all kind of wired
the same. On the topic of Lane, what are your
thoughts on him going after the young podcaster who accurately
(36:57):
described him as a hope. Never mind that he immediately
proved the guy right by leaving all miss and Flames
less than twenty four hours later. Shouldn't someone in his
position be able to take the shot. Neither guy look great.
Not that it's really your mo you, but how would
you handle if someone you shit on in a podcast
(37:18):
where to step to you at a football game when
you talked for a living. And I've said this forever
when people get mad at me, you know, I've had
a couple occasions where guys in the NFL get mad
at me, and I say, you know the difference between
me and you, Like everything I say is public, right,
My opinions are all how I make my living. You
(37:38):
have all similar opinions on different stuff, but you never
say any of them publicly. So we're both have similar
takes on certain things, yet everyone knows mine. So you're
talking shit left and right about half the people you
work with and work around and play against, but you
never say that publicly. And then when you leak stuff
to the press, you say anonymous GM Like there's nothing
(38:00):
anonymous about anything I've said for a decade now, So
it's like, I get it. It comes with the territory.
You're gonna piss some people off, But like part of
like I've always thought, the media can be a bunch
of softies. You know, they give it very well, they
don't take it very well. Part of giving it, like
if a guy wants to give it back to you
in that position. For that kid, and I actually saw
(38:23):
that he's like forty years old, he's crazy. In the South,
sometimes a guy can be look thirty eight or I
mean look twenty two and he's thirty eight because they
had that haircut. But what was he gonna do? He
just kind of stood there. Sometimes you can let the
guy yell at you. It's part of the deal, Like
what who cares? What's I'm gonna do? Hit him in
the face. The guy was right, he uses an analogy
(38:44):
that is correct, you know. And I think he even
said that Lane called him later that night and apologized
and then send him a meme of a hoe hat.
I think part of it. I wonder if Lane was
trying to show everybody that he was like gonna stand
up for himself. Like I think actually that had less
to do with that guy's hoe as a housewife comment
(39:07):
than it did about Lane's insecurity, about the whole situation.
And ultimately, I don't think Lane cares at all. I
truly don't. If you're laying right now. Think how many
enemies and people you would need to do that to
over the last four hour, four days, Like you wouldn't
even be able to keep up with it. And once
you start, he makes twelve million dollars. Who cares what
(39:29):
any of these people say? But like, yeah, if you
are gonna quote unquote talk some shit, you gotta take it.
And what guy gets mad at you? Like, Okay, it's life.
It's not that big a deal. I truly believe this
lane doesn't care that much at all about that comment.
I mean truly because, like you said, the guy was
proven right. I didn't even argue this. Most coaches like
(39:56):
they're nomadic by nature, They're not exactly the same down type.
I don't think we will see many nick Sabans and
Dabbos Sweeney's anymore. Kirby might be the last of his
kind because he went to Georgia. It's the best program.
He could probably stay there for twenty five years. Is
Kirby smart? More likely be coaching there in ten years,
(40:17):
so he would have been there twenty years or be
coaching somewhere else. I also think the elephant in the
room now in the profession, you know ten twenty thirty
years ago. The money has changed so dramatically. It is
such a grind to do that job. If you could
continue doing that, especially in college, and have one hundred
(40:39):
million dollars in the bank, you are an all time
football addict. Are we going to see some of these
guys just get burnt out, you know, in their mid
fifties because they're like, I've been making fifteen million dollars
for last five years. I was already a millionaire before
I signed that contract. I just need a year off.
I think we're gonna see some of that more and
(41:00):
more with the amount of money that's getting thrown around.
You know, Lane's still trying to prove himself, right. I
don't think Lanes you could argue. I heard Rhys Davis
and Pete Dammel and Dan Wetzel talking about this, like Google,
Lane's biggest wins of his life. It's like Georgia last
year in a season that was nine and three, so
it actually didn't mean that much. He knocked Oregon out
(41:22):
of the playoffs in like twenty eleven. He won at
Oklahoma this year, which pretty good win. Though Matier has
not been good since he hurt his hand, it's like
he doesn't have that many. You know, Kirby smarts won
a couple championships. So if in like three years, Kirby's like,
I'm burning eyes, need a break. And I even think
George would be like, oh, take the year off. You
can come back when you're ready. That's the other thing
(41:44):
about college football is like Georgia one hundred percent would
tell Kirby like, hey, you're off. We'll just have a
replacement for an interim for a year and then you
can come back. Can't make a whole house wife. Most
of these coaches, they're always they get bored. I mean,
Bill Parcells coach like seven different teams. It's part of
the profession. It's not a normal industry at all. Even players,
(42:08):
like look at the majority, most players are two team
guys their entire career. Most players play for like three
or four teams. I do need to tell you about
my friends, my partners. The official ticketing app of this
podcast Game time, and do you want to go to
(42:29):
one of these games? Monday Night Football tomorrow is in
Vegas And a huge part of building that stadium was
like we're gonna get a bunch of opposing fans to
fly into Vegas, spend way too much money and stay
in one of these hotels, gamble and come to the games.
So if you want to go to a game, even
a road game, you can find NFL tickets as low
as one hundred dollars. You can find flash deals. You
(42:50):
can search by arena, you can search by the team obviously,
any other sport, any concert, any event you want to
go to. They have you covered. So take the guests
work out of buying tickets with game time down the
game time app. Created an account and use the code
John for twenty dollars off for his purchase terms. To
play again, create an account, redeem the code John for
twenty dollars off down the game time after day, last
minute tickets, lowest price is guaranteed. Love the Show. Question
(43:19):
for the mailbag, Colin on your on the Show Sunday
said he likes the head coach and the GM and
the and the roster. For the Cleveland Browns question, what
is there to like? They lose every week, They aren't
competitive most games. Why does Sefanski and Barry get so
much credit for never having done anything? They drafted a
(43:40):
tiny quarterback in round three. I'm sorry, you don't get
the benefit of doubt for that decision. Yeah, man, I
I I'm with you. They do have good players, right,
there's no this draft class looks good. They do have
some interesting players on the roster. To me, the franchise
is a complete joke. It is just always the same
(44:04):
shit over and over and over again. The drafting of
the two quarterbacks is pretty embarrassing. Let's be real. Drafting
Dylan Gabriel in the third round is one of the
crazier draft picks in recent memory. It really is like
the Canny Picketts and mac Jones guys going in the
top twenty that historically would have been third round picks.
(44:25):
Like that, that was insane. Now, granted that was in
the peak of quarterback inflation. Like if you have to
admit how much you paid for you know, a car
or house a couple of years ago, it's like, hey man,
there's peak inflation. It's like, eh man, cost of doing business. Right,
But this year Dylan Gabriel in the third round and
then back it up with Chador a couple of rounds.
It makes no sense. It's like there's no rhyme or
(44:46):
reason anything they do. It's like, well, we got Mason
Graham and Quinchawn Jenkins. It's like, ah, I like those players,
but you don't have any quarterback. Yeah, this guy that's
gonna go for twenty five sacks on a four win team.
I think the whole thing is one of the most
to overrated operations in the league. You know, My stance
for a long time is they get a little bit
(45:08):
of a pass because they're just two highly educated guys
from Ivy League schools, and the media kind of sees
versions of themselves and highly educated people, so they go,
these are us, So, yeah, that is you. That's what
you guys would look like if you were coaching and
running a team four wins every year. Great, these other
meatheads are winning twelve. Hey, John, I'm gonna need to
(45:30):
talk to your guys in San Francisco. Investigate what Juwan
Jennings is saying the guys when they're on the ground.
My wife, who follows like a million forty nine or pages,
asked me the other day, She's like, what is he saying?
I'm like, I don't know, what could you possibly say
to piss people off that much? I mean, it's the
nature of the sport crazy. I hate the word inappropriate.
(45:56):
Something's inappropriate to you, that's not inappropriate to me. But
things that make people uncomfort are set all the time
in locker rooms, let alone on the field. So for Juwan,
like Shelby Harris, when you just watch Shelby Harris's rant,
you're like, like, I kind of felt Shelby Harris, but
it's like I need some Can you give me the evidence?
(46:16):
I need to hear some of the words, like what
is he saying? Is he doing investigative research before the
game so he knows what to bring up. I saw
John Lynch today on local radio in the Bay Area
compare Juwan Jennings to their Draymond Green, So it's he's
clearly visits the people off. I don't know, you'd probably
(46:37):
have to ask, like McCaffrey, more of a comment than
a question that I'd love your thoughts on. As we
wake up this morning, the top two seeds in the AFC,
in the top seed in the NFC, all of quarterbacks
from last year's draft is more of their ability in
year two or three to have an elite coaching now
and put in the right position. It goes to show
you how quickly a franchise can turn around with the
(46:58):
right coach. It does give you a more flexibility financially.
So having Caleb Williams making six seven million dollars gives
you a lot more wiggle room these other guys making
fifty and sixty million dollars. There is no disputing that
having bo Nick's contract allows them to be much more aggressive,
and partly because they have a bunch of dead money
from previous bad contracts, and obviously Drake May this year
(47:20):
they spent a bunch of money. I think as much
as obviously you know, Rabel and Ben Johnson have been awesome.
But when you have Drake May or Caleb Williams contract,
you can trade for a star left guard, you can
you know, pay for a center. You can just do
the stuff that gives you more wiggle room. I saw
(47:40):
today the Steelers cut Darius Slay like they don't have
that much wiggle room. So when you give Darius Slay
one year ten million dollars and his cap hit is
ten million dollars, and you give him a nine million
dollars signing bonus, like that's a pretty big contract. Like
you can do a lot for nine million dollars. You
can get a star or maybe two out there on
(48:01):
the open market. So when you do that and then
by Thanksgiving he's a healthy scratch and by December he's cut.
That's an awful allocation of resources. Where when you have
the wiggle room with the quarterback contract, like you can
miss on a player or two because you just have
more room to deal with with the cap. So I
think the cap manipulation with the quarterback contract is a
(48:26):
massive variable that comes into play for the Bears and
the Patriots, who are very aggressive this offseason. Is McDermott underrated,
that'd be Sean McDermott. He dominated the Steelers with the
run game in defense. Yes, the Steelers aren't good, but
he seems to dominate almost every AFC opponent except you know,
one of the greatest football dynasties of all time, and
(48:47):
he beats them a lot in the regular season. I
was thinking this the other day, like he wins a
lot of games and gets you know, Coward does. This
puts him right there with Tomlin. Like the Bills are
in the AFC Championship game last year. They beat the Ravens.
They just happen to lose the Chiefs. They lost the
(49:07):
Chiefs two years ago. Like it's the only team they
can't beat the playoffs. They're beating all the other teams
this year. I'm rooting for the Bills. I hope they
go on a little bit of a run. But like
he's won a lot of playoff games he's last three
or four years, he just can't beat Kansas City. I
think he's lost him what four or five years, and
the other year to the Bengals who did house them.
That was an embarrassing loss. But like he's lost the Chiefs.
(49:29):
I like comparing, you know, to Tomlin, who hasn't won
a playoff game in a decade. I do think Sean
takes a lot of crap. I actually think the GM
has let him down. Now. Sean has a big hand
in personnel, but their personnel operation has been a little
hit or miss. If they were better on personnel, I
(49:50):
think they would they would have made a super Bowl
by now. But their personnel department has just has let
him down, which he's probably playing a big role. A
lot of my fellow forty nine fans seem convinced that
Sala's gone as a new head coach and he deserves it.
But I remind them spags, who, in my opinion without
him definitely doesn't beat the forty nine Ers in the
(50:12):
Super Bowl, has been amazing and has no second head
coaching job yet. So why does one seem to be
on the radar and the other isn't. I mean, I
think a huge element is age. I think if Steve
Spagnola was fifty two instead of my guess is he's
sixty four, Steves Paganol sixty five. I listen, you're not
(50:36):
supposed to legally discriminate for age, but he's getting discriminated
for age. He's not getting hired at sixty five. But
Robert Sola is forty six years old, So I mean
there's a twenty year age gap. I was thinking if
if Mike Tomlin finally does break up with the Steelers,
I saw Albert Briers say today he's not gonna get
fired even if he's on another team next year, they
(50:57):
will not fire. So let's say traded to the Giants.
I do think Robert Solo would kind of feel a
little Pittsburgh Steelers because you go, well, who the Pittsburgh
Steelers is gonna hire? Well, who have there been their
last two coaches? Of my life? I can't speak to
Chuck no a little before my time, Bill Kauer defensive
guy that jaw I think former linebacker in the NFL.
(51:20):
He's a defensive guy. Mike Tomlin defensive guy. I can't
picture them hiring like Liam Cohen, Like that's not really
their style. Now you could argue, maybe you should, that's
not what they're gonna do. They're gonna hire a defensive guy.
Robert Sawa kind of looks like if you didn't know
Robert Salo was, you know, a middle of the road,
(51:42):
you know, like a non power for college football player,
you'd be like, I bet that I played for the Steelers,
like Mike Vrabel. When you say, yeah, Mike Rabel played
for the Steelers, it's believable. Look at even though now
he kind of looks like a first baseman that would
have played for the Yankees in like nineteen eighty three.
But Robert saw looks like he's a former NFL player
and specifically he played, like played for Pittsburgh and Baltimore. Right,
(52:03):
So to me, Robert Solo would make a lot of
sense for Pittsburgh and he would accept that job yesterday.
So there is no guarantee he's gonna get hired. I
think depending on the options. Like if I'm Robert Sala,
would I take the Arizona Cardinals job, I would not.
I wouldn't touch that job with a ten football, but
(52:24):
would some of these other I mean, I just took
the Jets job, and okay, I got richer, but it sucked.
So I do think he's gonna want a more stable operation.
I think if you're Sali, you'd be all over the Giants.
Are the Giants hiring Robert Sala? I don't. I don't
think they can and Bears Falcons fan it's clear we
(52:44):
need a clean house. With Tomlin and Harbaugh clearly needing
some resets, should they go for one of them? Or
do they go in the route of Mike McCarthy but
no first round pick next year and Penni's hurt. I
think it's gonna be hard. I really do. I mean,
I couldn't even begin assuming that everyone gets fired. What
they do. I mean, their last two coaches have been
(53:06):
Raheem had coached there before, so that that one made
some sense. Though they almost hired Belichick. Maybe the owner's
mad that he didn't hire Belichick and now hires Belichick
which would still be a little shocking. You know. I
had someone kind of make the plea of me about
Mike McCarthy that look at Mike McCarthy. Look at he's
(53:27):
been replaced twice and the team got better both times
when he left, and this year specifically, like Jerry nailed
that one, Like, yeah, Mike, I'm not gonna extend you.
I thought Jerry was kind of crazy, like I just
give him a couple of year extension. I'm not paying
this guy anymore. I'm gonna go with Brian Schottenheimer. Brian
Schottenheimer wins on Thursday. Jerry's gonna look like a genius.
(53:52):
I'm a Colts fan. And if they don't end up
making the playoffs, is Ballard on the hot seat? He
traded two first rounds for sas Gardner and now he's hurt,
Daniel Jones is hurt, and the offense doesn't look the same.
I would say Ballard, if they completely unravel, everything would
be on the table, and that would be a disaster.
That would be a little like an NBA trade where
(54:14):
a guy was on the hot seat. Things were going well,
quadrupleed down for SaaS Gardner, which I thought was pretty insane.
And if they were to just start losing a bunch
of games. Who they played this week, the Jags. I
think it's up to the Dodters. Now. I don't know
(54:34):
what their relationship is with them. I'm sure they probably
like him, but I would say that he's he would
be in some trouble. Yes, is that a great job?
Though you have no two for you have no first
round picks for the next couple of years. You would
probably start to rebuild and start selling guys off. Watching
this train wreck of a Vikings team and Jefferson looks
(54:57):
dead inside. Do you think it's realistic that QUESSI or
Chaos are gone after this offseason. I would see no
chance that Kevin O'Connell's gone. He would the Steelers would
hire an offensive coach, then the Giants would hire him. Yesterday,
he would teams would be lined up to hire Kevin O'Connell.
The GM. Listen, you guys die hards, and you guys
(55:19):
have a great fan base. I haven't done a deep
dive on his drafts. I know people are not high
on them, obviously, for all the picks that have missed.
The JJ situation is pretty devastating. But in fairness to him,
like bloodshot just on his hands for that pick, you're
not taking JJ McCarthy if Kevin O'Connell's not fully on
(55:41):
board as well. So listen, it's hard you make mistakes.
Some mistakes have bigger consequences than others. All of our
decisions have consequences, some good, some bad. Right the outcome
of what we do when we do it. A lot
of times we don't know. And on big decisions like
(56:01):
a draft pick, drafting a quarterback in the first round,
you're doing that because you have high hopes that this
thing is gonna work. But they didn't just keep their
fingers crossed like we hope. They were pretty confident, but
it's a draft. You never know. If I would have
told you that how many games they played last year,
seventeen and the other twelve. So that's twenty Sepisode twenty nine.
(56:23):
Of bo Nix's twenty nine games, his team has won
twenty of them. No one would have believed that two
years ago. Now, obviously the defense is you know, played
a large role in a lot of that action. But still,
if JJ McCarthy was the Broncos quarterback, they would not
have won twenty to twenty nine games. Well on that one.
(56:44):
I appreciate everyone and we will be back again tomorrow.
Keep firing in those dms at John Middlecoff and have
a great day peace. The volume
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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