December 6, 2025 • 54 mins
John answers all of your questions from around the NFL and College Football landscape. Are the Chargers good enough to win a Super Bowl, is Patrick Mahomes over the hill, and should the Raiders have stayed in Oakland? John dives into 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 Middlecock three
and out podcast, brought to you by my friendst Zone
Zone Pouches. Appreciate you guys sponsoring the show, being part
(00:23):
of the show. Love These guys went through about a
can in the last twenty four hours, No big deal.
Hopefully every one of you are getting involved because this
is a great product. If you like a little nickteing
in your upper lip, because I know I do. But
today I thought, because middle of the week, I just
need to take a deep breath of my staff. We've
just been grinding here during the holiday. So I said,
(00:44):
we didn't do anything on Wednesday, or maybe that was Thursday.
We didn't do anything. I didn't record anything Wednesday that
came out Thursday. So I said, you know what, I
got a bunch of mailbag questions. Let's do a big
mail bag, little weekend mail bag at John Middlecoff. At
John Middlecoff is the Instagram fire in those dms? Not
sure I mentioned this on the YouTube page, but I
(01:05):
haven't mentioned this on the on the podcast. I know
a lot of you guys I listen to podcasts, watch
them on YouTube. They're kind of all the same. Any
of you guys that send me those raps of you
watching like top you know, half percenter, one percenter. I
appreciate it, you guys. I don't know how you stand
this much of me, but I'm very grateful that you
(01:25):
do so I from the bottom of my heart for
those of you diehards, I appreciate it. I was actually
we started watching Bed last night, that that Eminem documentary
of his crazy fans. So yeah, hopefully you guys aren't
that crazy. But I appreciate all of you guys for sure.
So thanks for spreading the good word and listening to
(01:47):
the podcast. I'm glad you guys liked football, But you
guys know the drill. If you listen on comms feed,
make sure you subscribe. If you want to watch all
of our content it's on YouTube. Just type in our name,
subscribe and you'll never miss a thing. Let's let's just start.
Wanted to say I've been a subscriber for a while
and no, this is some kind of words. I appreciate it.
(02:08):
I think this is k Your knowledge of football educated
opinions truly have taught me, you know, I try. Here's
a question. Now. My question is pretty simple, who do
you think the best coaching staff is in the NFL,
And how significant is your coordinators in personnel coaches compared
to the head coach alone? Do they all full staff
(02:29):
way more than the head coach comparably to the impact
of teams success on both sides of the ball. I
actually just was watching this clip of Urban Meyer talking. Now,
college is a little different than pros because during the season,
recruiting is such a big element in college football. We're
in the pros like Andy Reid and Kyle Shanahan, unless
(02:49):
they're in their hotel room or at home watching a
little college football. They are not scouting college football that way,
just in the same way that a college coach has
to kind of be dialed in on the class. But Urban,
basically said, is obviously the head coach if he's not
the play caller. And this is true for the for
(03:09):
the NFL. Is a big part of the culture, of
the vision, of the message, of the way practice is structured.
But he's like, once the balls kicked off, you know,
beside maybe chiming in with a run, here, go for
it on fourth down, there calling a timeout, the coordinators
are in full control. So like to me, the most
powerful coaching staffs I think pretty consistent around the NFL
(03:34):
are the head coach being the offensive coordinator, Andy Reid,
Sean Payton, Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, Matt Lafleur, and then
a really really good defensive coordinator. And to me, I know,
they're six and six right now, but their track record
over last since Spags got there kind of speaks for itself.
I would say it's hard to trump Andy and Spags.
(03:55):
I mean, that's a pretty dominant one two combination. I think.
I mean, Island Sola, pretty tried and true formula shula
has been really good with McVeigh. Vrabel doesn't fall under
that category, but clearly he's pretty elite, and having Josh
who's not gonna leave is pretty damn good. So I
(04:17):
think anytime that your head coach is a play caller
and he just has so much of an impact because
he's doing all that leadership stuff and he's calling the game.
So Mike McDonald and Kubiak have been excellent this year,
but I have a hard time not giving it to
Andy and SPACs. I mean, they're just their record is
(04:39):
unapeachable in this little run Happy Holidays, Why does college
football have conference championships. Meanwhile, teams have already made the
playoffs basically get a bye before the playoffs. It's like
the top two seeds in the NFC, the Bears and
the Rams having to play the seedies the number one seed. Well,
this will be the last year, or maybe we got
(05:01):
a couple more years of the iteration of which it
is now. I'm recording this on Friday afternoon before the
Ohio State Indiana game. They're both getting buys and this
is a massive game and like the history of Indiana.
But what if I tell you, like Ohio State doesn't
try because Stucky was on yesterday and he's like, just
look at the path. It's gonna be way easier at
three than it isn't one. It happened to Oregon last year.
(05:24):
So like if I told you what happens Week seventeen
in the NFL, right, if you are winner, get into
the game, winner get into the playoffs. Is usually the
Sunday night game and two playoff teams playing. If one
team's not trying, I think where we are destined to
go or playing games this week. The reason they're happening
(05:45):
is they are very, very lucrative. They make the networks
a lot of money, They make the conferences a lot
of money. But I'm fascinated this Ohio State Indiana game, Like,
what is the benefits specifically for Ohio State defending champs undefeated?
I know Indiana is too, but like they are the
heavy favorites to win it again. What do they have
(06:08):
to gain here? Right? Especially last year they benefited, you know,
they took out Oregon, so they saw on the flip
side of what it can do getting a really tough
matchup where it's like, well, if you're the three seed
like Indiana would probably be. If they lose, you might
get Virginia in the first round or All Miss without
a coach. So I don't know, I don't know how
this thing's gonna play out, but it's it's destined to
(06:32):
be done here soon. The conference championships the way it
is now, now, what is inevitable or games this week?
And to me, if there were playing games Miami versus Texas,
Notre Dame verse, it have to be in the conference.
So you would take two big ten teams. You know,
once we go to sixteen teams, which is inevitable, it'd
(06:52):
be like USC versus Washington, it would be Vanderbilt versus
Texas that that would be the game and winners in,
which would be sweet. What if we did notre dame
Miami rematch winner gets in? Really they just take them both.
Question for the mailback, what is the point of an
(07:14):
offensive coordinator in the case of a coach being the
play caller? For example, the ram Sean McVay is the
play caller. So what does the offensive coordinator Mike Lafleur
do or is he in charge of? In the case
question love the pod, Well, it's like, just because you're
(07:35):
not calling plays on game day doesn't mean you aren't
a major factor in the weekly game plans. And Sean McVay,
because of his head coaching responsibilities, right, he has to
dedicate time to media availability, to meeting with the defense,
to meeting with personnel people like he has just other responsibilities, right,
(07:57):
So that guy whoever that is the offense of coordinator
and maybe sometimes like a run game coordinator. They have
specific roles during the week, right first second down, third down,
red zone. They help script break down, develop the game
plan each week. So they are an extension of the
(08:17):
play caller that helps put the whole thing together that
when they meet, they've already done a lot of lakework. Now,
it doesn't mean that Shawn is not doing extensive work
in all those situations, right, because you're not just going
to go into the game and call plays. But I
would imagine, like any industry, when you have right hand men,
right hand men who you can rely on, you can
(08:41):
you don't have to micromanage, you can let them do
stuff and maybe there are things that he doesn't have
to waste time on and he can trust come game day, hey,
we love these three things. You can call him in
these situations will be good to go and he's like, okay,
let's roll and they work through it a practice. But
they are a major major factor in terms of I
would say, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday game planning, while that guy
(09:04):
does other stuff and then comes in you know at
periods and meetings and stuff and gets up to speed
with anything that they've already done, you know, short yardage,
red zone tendencies, just stuff that they can dedicate more time.
So they have a pretty big role and they make
a lot of money. And those guys, I mean Kevin
(09:26):
O'Connell never called a play for Sean mcvagan. Look at him.
He's a head coach. Mike McDaniel same thing, never called
a play head coach in Miami. I know everyone is
down on Mike McCarthy because he has been fired twice
and the team has gotten better. But I would argue
the Titans, Falcons or the Giants cannot take a huge
risk at coach. McCarthy is at proven, he's proven to
(09:48):
work well with quarterbacks, and these teams could do much worse. Also,
is there any help for the Raiders and Dolphins? Could
Mike Tomlin save you? The franchise thing? In Arizona? Your
lips gets so chopped when you go for like a walk,
you're out in the sun. It's just so dry here.
I would say this about Mike. I think he's a
(10:08):
pretty safe option to what I thought Pete Carroll was
gonna be with the Raiders. It turned out Pete Carroll
here was Pete Carroll's problem is Pete Carroll had been
the boss for so long that he has one way
of doing things well. Pete had no leverage when he
got hired with the Raiders. So what did they do?
They force coaches on him. They forced Chip Kelly on him.
(10:30):
Pete Carroll not in a million years would have hired
Chip Kelly. He literally had him forced on him. And
what happened He made Chip run Shane Waldron's offense. So
if you're gonna hire a guy and then you start
dictating the terms to him, that's where it gets weird.
If you just trust Mike to hire some coaches to
do his thing, he will just get you going in
(10:50):
the right direction. So I'm in agreement there is some
value there. I've been talked to by people in the
league that have kind of convinced me he's probably a
little overrated because I was higher on him in his
cowboy tenure and looking back, I just think their team's
pretty talented and they got, you know, a good quarterback.
Now he did a good job. But so to kill
them Moore, I mean, it's like you could do worse.
(11:13):
And I'm with you. There are certain teams that, like
the Titans can't just let's just take a flyer on
a coordinator, God's speed on that one. The Giants definitely cannot.
So I think Mike McCarthy, like Mike Tomlin, if and
when he becomes available, their value is you kind of
know what you're getting, and there is big time value
in that. I mean, Titans fans would have said a
(11:34):
couple of years ago, Mike Vrabel's kind of overrated, right
because it kind of got weird there at the end.
Might have been because they didn't have a quarterback. But
I think there's a value in a guy. Listen, there
are people like Ben Johnson that just hit the ground
running and are really really impressive and very comfortable in
the seat. And those guys are out wires. Most people
(11:56):
are completely overwhelmed, and most people fail. It's an extremely
difficult job. Like extremely difficult, I bet. I mean honestly,
it is a harder job at a lot of these places
than like a lot of these fortune five hundred companies,
because you're not dealing with widgets, you're not dealing with products.
(12:20):
Every single one of your assets is a human being,
young human being. It's very very hard. You're controlling a staff.
I mean a lot of your coaching staffs now. I mean,
look how many guys in the coaches are now in
their thirties. You know, position coaches, coordinators, big egos, everyone's
making money now. I mean you got running back coaches
(12:40):
making eight hundred Grand So it's like everyone's kind of rich,
like not just the players, like your assistant coaches, you know,
are driving up in range rovers So it's very, very difficult,
and those guys are comfortable doing it. Listen, I've known
Matt Naggie for a long time. He's going to get
another shot. Robert sla is gonna get another shot. But
(13:01):
there's no guarantee that those guys when they do get
their other shot, it's gonna work. Right now, the thing
they have going for him is they've sat in that
seat and there's value to that. And you know, I
think when the Eagles originally hired Andy Reid in the
late nineties, they had run this study and found out
that you're no more likely to be a star head coach,
(13:21):
you know, coming from a coordinator, than you are a
position coach because Andy had never even called plays in
the NFL, obviously working from Mike holmber and who called
the plays. And I think what it showed and their
study really kind of pulled out like being a head
coach is much more about vision, leadership, discipline, I just
(13:41):
emotional stability. You look at some of these guys who
are not emotionally stable in the NFL. Like in college,
you can be a little bit of a nut, right
Nick Kirby. These guys run hot, they don't lose very much.
So it's like in the NFL. You can have an
excellent season and go twelve and five, those five long weeks,
you know, and some of those wins, I mean they
(14:04):
were close wins. You know. You're coaching at Georgia and listen,
Kirby's a stud. But like a terrible year for Hyms
ten and two, a terrible year for Hims ten and two,
he's gonna have a lot of years where he's twelve
and zero, I'm eleven to one. I'm about to start
grad school at a small D three university. My company
(14:25):
is covering tuition and still paying my salary, so I'm
able to work for free. I'd love to get involved
with the football program as a GA, but I'm not
sure how to approach it. Do I walk into the
facility with my resume and ask for help or should
I reach out to someone already on staff for context.
I studied mathematics at University of Pittsburgh and did my
senior project with the Pittsburgh Pirates on optimizing pitch selection strategy.
(14:48):
So I've got some sports analytics experience. I'm a total
football junkie and would love to contribute. It's a good question.
We actually this this time that came up during Thanksgiving
with my family here, my brother, my in laws, and
we were talking about, you know, back in the day,
(15:09):
especially before technology, if you wanted to get your foot
in the door with something, you had to be very
aggressive in person, right knocking on doors, showing up at
the company, the office, whoever you wanted to work for.
Famous story about Jedfish showing putting a note in Steve
Spurgers car every day for like a year straight back
(15:29):
in the nineties, just to get his foot in the door.
And my wife's mother was telling this story about someone
in her life, a young kid who's like telling his
parents that he's being really aggressive. He's sending a lot
of emails and LinkedIn messages, and there's some truth like
you could send a five hundred LinkedIn messages a day,
(15:53):
there's a chance you never get one response. And I'm
not anti doing that, but there is value in just
literally when the way I got to Fresno State, my
cousin had played there and he was done playing and
I had gone down to visit him and I had
seen like the internet, there was an opening and he's like, bro,
just go by the facility. And I just walked into
(16:14):
the facility and introduced myself. And obviously I had a
little bit of an end because they knew who my
cousin was because he had played there, but like they
didn't know me from Adam. And it was one of
those things that just kind of materialized and took off.
I mean there was I look back sometimes and go
if that didn't happen, I mean, what would I be doing.
(16:35):
I mean, there's a decent changing boy might have a
shovel in his hands digging ditches somewhere. So I think
sometimes there is value to just showing up. And I
mean I've known a lot of people. It happens less
and less in twenty twenty five, but I'd also argue
that works to your benefit. So go to the I'm
assuming you want to work in recruiting, just find out
(16:57):
who the recruiting coordinator is, direct football operations, and just
go introduce yourself. I mean there is a power. I mean,
it wasn't that long ago, like no one's ever gonna
fly or meet anyone in person. Again, No, it's bullshit.
There's always gonna be value in that uh that it works,
always has, always will. So I just think I would
(17:18):
one go and introduce myself in person, and who knows,
I'm not. There's no guarantee they might not want to
talk to you, they might blow you off. I mean,
there's no guarantee it goes well. But I would take
your chance that way. How to fact about the Falcons?
With elite talent like Bijeon and Drake London on the
offensive side and no viable quarterback along with no first
(17:41):
round pick, do you think it would be smart to
sell those two players and tear this thing down to
the studs. It's a great question. Bijon would have a
lot of value, I mean so with Drake, but you
could you could get a haul for both guys. I
just think we got a who's taken over? You know,
what do they do? They've had the same GM now
(18:04):
for two different coaches. Who's their head coach? Assuming that
they fire everybody, I just think they're kind of a
wild card. I don't know why. I think you could
easily justify firing everybody. They made a historic quarterback just mistake.
I mean, giving Cousins ninety million dollars and then a
(18:24):
month later taking a quarterback who again, I'm not acting
like I loved him now. Maybe it's the Pac twelve
and me biased. Maybe it's because I bet on them
a lot. One of the biggest bets of my life
was on them beating Texas and Panics slinging that thing around.
I was a big Panics guy. Most of my friends
in the NFL, A lot of them have Super Bowl rings.
(18:45):
Were like, bro, you're insane. We don't even we don't
have top forty five fifty grades on them. A lot
of teams didn't have them really high, not a first
round pick. I mean you can find people didn't have
them in the second round, and then there were all
the medical questions completely blown up in their face. So
that alone, and then obviously listen, he's just not a
very good head coach. I mean, there's no really arguing that.
(19:09):
Seems like a great guy, and to me, I think
there's a very good chance if Robert solid were to
get a head coaching job, that Kyle Shane would hire
him to be the defensive coordinator. He will be the
defensive coordinator of the forty nine ers next year, if Sala,
what's gone assuming he gets fired. But I just think
as a head coach, who it is, it's gone worse.
(19:29):
So I don't know. I think there are two schools
of thought. I think the analytical kind of new modern
version of the way these guys view it is much
more you know, baseball, basketball, blow it up, get picks.
I think old school football people would go, well, I'm
gonna come in, I'm gonna try to win, and I
want those two guys because Bijon Robinson and Drake London
(19:53):
are my two best players, so I need them on
the team. It just depends who you hire. So if
I was a betting man, I bet they're on the team.
I mean, as Drake London, didn't he get a contract extension.
I have to go double check that question for the bag.
(20:15):
The narrative this year look at who the Patriots have played,
seems nonsense, nonsensical to me. If people actually paid attention,
they realize they have absolutely crushed some of the teams
they played. Beat the Titans thirty one to three, Like
you don't need to listen. There's a major difference between
like Indiana, It's like Indiana play last year, they didn't
(20:39):
play this year. They beat Oregon, Like that's a really
good win. In college, most of these conferences is like,
well we played one really good team. Right in the NFL,
even when you're playing random teams, it's like, I'm guilty
of this. I gave the Packers a hard time. Like
the Panthers are not bad. That's not that terrible loss.
(21:00):
I think we talked about, how do they lose the Panthers, Well,
they are seven and six, Like, losing the Panthers and
losing the Browns are not the same. I was in
the car the other day and I heard I was
flipping around. I know it was like Florio because I
was on NBC radio and he's like, people questioned la
Floor because he loses the teams like the Browns and
the Panthers. Like those fucking teams aren't the same. The Browns.
(21:21):
They are in their own category of dysfunction and losing
because that's what they do a lot. The Panthers are
winning this year. There's they got seven wins. They're gonna have.
I bet there are a nine to eighteen minimum potential
chance to get to ten and seven, depending on how
their games go against the Bucks. But that's not like,
that's not the terrible. It's very very difficult. I'll never
forget uh. When I say this name, he might laugh
(21:44):
because he was he had no business being a head coach,
but incredible guy, good position coach, David Kelly. And one
of my jobs when I got hired by the Eagles
was I mean, I mean, nowadays with technology it sounds
so stupid, but the injury report would happen, right, So
when you see like so and so's questionable, so and
so's limited in practice, so and so's, you know whatever, doubtful.
(22:08):
Throughout the week, I would print all those out and
I would go room to room and hand them to
all the position coaches, all the coordinators and co treat
and I remember going to David Collies and sometimes you'd stay,
you'd drop it off, and it technically because in the
East Coast time it was a little later, right around
dinner time, and usually shoot the shit, you know, have
a casual conversation. I remember saying something like we were
(22:30):
playing the Bills. Who this is pre Josh Allen. They're
pretty bad, and I was like, this is an easy
game this week, and he was so offended by me
saying that, and he just kind of went on this one, like, Bro,
that's not that there are no easy games in this league.
That they got a ton of guys that live in
(22:51):
big ass homes and drive nice cars, and they got
kids and bend to Pro Bowls, right, even the bad teams.
So the NFL like, it's the Patriots go thirteen and four, Like, yeah,
did they play the Packers every week? Of course not,
but that's still really impressive. Just because you have an
easier schedule, you still gotta win the games. So I'm
(23:13):
not disputing anything about the Patriots. And ultimately this question
was like why is everyone blowing the Broncos. Both the
teams are pretty good. I think they have a better
team than you, Like they have more higher end players,
but you guys have the much better quarterback. So it's like,
who would you take, John, Would you take the team
with a little bit better talent but a quarterback who
might just suck in a given game, or would you
(23:34):
take a team with maybe a little less talent. Both
teams are winning and the quarterback they might win the MVP.
If we didn't know the teams and we played blind
resume we would all take the MVP quarterback, every single
one of us. So it's like, I think we get
caught up in the conversations of like, oh, they didn't
beat anybody. It's like, well, the forty nine ers are
schedules easy, they've lost half their team. Well we're nine
(23:56):
and four, we haven't beat anybody. Well, look at we're
fucking playing with half these guys. Middlekoff would have say
they would be selling insurance like two months ago. But
we have seven injuries and we need to call this
guy and then this guy, and then this guy gets hurt.
I mean their practice squaders are getting hurt. Today's show
(24:18):
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New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, Hey, John, why should I
(25:54):
get excited about these Mike Tomlin rumors about a Giants?
As a Giants fan, he doesn't won a playoff game
in a decade. Here's the thing, James Harrison I saw
say this the other day. He essentially said, like, stop
calling him a great coach. He's a good coach. Do
you know what the Giants would do for a good coach?
Think about that? Do you know what you guys would
do for a good coach? Think of the run you're
(26:15):
on from McAdoo to Shechrmer to Joe Judge to the
last couple of years of Brian Dable. Do you know
what you would do for the last couple of years
of the Steelers just being ten and seven, ten and
seven and this year maybe nine to eight A lot?
I mean, and you guys are more equipped with your
roster to be better than them. So this notion that
(26:39):
you guys are too good for Mike Domlin, you weren't
too good for Joe Judge or Pat Shermer. Those guys
are fucking terrible. Joe seems like a nice guy. He's
just awful head coach. Whenever I see this notion, like,
do you know what it's? Why? When bent when Roethlisberger
said that Tomlin should go to Penn State, I was like, bro,
(27:07):
do you know what the Titans would do to go
from Brian Callahan to Mike Tomlin. He doesn't have to
go to Penn State and live in state college. It's
like the fifth best Big Ten job, which obviously what's
his name with the funny hat Perdies guy is going? Uh,
Clearly JJ isn't the guy. So where do the Vikings go?
(27:28):
Clearly no good free agents? Do you try and trade
for mac Jones or get a guy like Jamis and
have a fun year before you fire the GM? It's
a great question. I don't know. I think anytime you're
in that situation, it's a scary place to be because
there aren't really good answers. Cause if I told you
Mac Jones is their quarterback next year with Kevin O'Connell,
with the talent they have, if Flores is still there,
(27:50):
they could easily be a ten to eleven win team.
But like if I'm Kyle Shanahan, like, I'm not just
giving him to you for nothing. He's really valuable for us,
So the price that I would need to give him
up is a price like I can't give a second
round pick for mac Jones. And maybe you'd say, well,
maybe you can't do you want to win eleven games?
(28:10):
Or do you want to be in the position you're
in right now? Because if who do the Vikings play
this week? I don't know why I'm blinking right now,
but let me look it up really quick. The Vikings
who are the Oh they play the Commanders. If you
(28:33):
lose the Commanders and he looks terrible against that defense,
I just think Vikings fans will be over him. And
one thing you cannot do is like roll back, like
we'll give him an off season. This. I hate it
when people are like, what about the patience? A lot
different when teams are worth like four hundred million dollars
in nineteen ninety six and the biggest contract was like
Emmett Smith getting four years fifteen million dollars, which, don't
(28:56):
get me wrong, was a ton of money back in
nineteen ninety three. But when you're talking about giving countless
people on your team hundreds of millions of dollars, when
you're paying a coach fifteen million dollars, like, the timelines
are just different. They just are no different than quarterly
earning reports in twenty twenty five have more impact on
(29:16):
the market than they did twenty years ago. Times have changed.
We live in a different world. We have less patience.
It doesn't mean they'll never play in the NFL, but
his Vikings ten year, I would say, is like a
couple more bad games from being like borderline officially over.
Anyone saying otherwise is on drugs. I can't help but
(29:39):
find myself more and more nervous after every win. I
love Sean Payton and the defense is nails, but bo
and the offense terrify me. I can't help but think
the fourth quarter magic will run out. Do you think
they can go all the way? I have a couple
of tickets left at the beginning of the year, and
one of them was I put one hundred dollars on
a Packers Broncos up in the Super Bowl. That thing
(30:02):
pays over eight thousand dollars. So I am rooting for
the Packers and Broncos to play in the Super Bowl
unless I'm playing with some house money. And I have
a huge like division parlay, which I need the Texans
to win that division and I need to Seattle to
win the division. I'm in pretty good shape with Denver
(30:24):
and Tampa's not even done yet, so that might not
hit but one hundred dollars to win eight thousand, like,
that's I'm rooting for that. So I hope. So I
don't feel great. I don't. I think it's going to
be getting home field is going to be big. So
however it plays out between you and the Patriots, pretty
clear the AFC is going to go through New England
(30:46):
or Denver, kind of like old times. I get a
lot of questions, what do you think the Denver Broncos
should do? Or excuse me this, I don't know why
said Denver Broncos. What do I think the Vikings should do?
I just don't think there's a concrete answer. I think
you know what these guys are hoping. It's like he'll
(31:08):
just figure it out, as crazy as that sounds, which
is not gonna happen. But at this point in time,
with whatever five games left, you're just praying, like, could
he just rattle off like three good games and just
shut everybody up? Probably not gonna happen, but I think
that's where they're at. I don't even think like they
can contemplate what their options are. You can't draft another
(31:30):
quarterback high. There aren't really great options. It's not like
even the good options like mac Jones would be an
okay option, but he's not even available. They're in a
tough spot. I saw with the forty nine ers, they
were completely screwed and they got lucky with a seventh
round pick. You know, the Colts a little bit too.
(31:51):
They just could sign Daniel Jones, and even now he's
got a broken fidula and sauces hurt, and it kind
of feels like it's unraveling. Stucky kind of broke down
the schedule. They lose week to the Jags, like they
could lose out. Your guy, Tim Skipper taking over at
cal Poly awesome for that program. I'm very happy for him,
(32:11):
not gonna lie. I texted him probably a week ago,
when kind of rumors are flying, I said, skip, go
to the SEC. Go be someone's assistant head coach. It
wasn't that long ago. He was Florida's assistant head coach
when they were winning the SEC East. And you know,
I just think he's so much better than these guys
getting opportunities. I'm such a believer in the human being.
(32:35):
And listen, I went to cal Paly. I don't care
that much about the football program. I do now and
the program is extremely lucky, and I mean extremely lucky
to get Tim Skipper, like the school out kick their
coverage like this. He's just he's too good for them,
I mean, and I say that with pride, like they're very,
(32:57):
very lucky. And you know, when I was there, they
had Rich Ellerson, who was a defensive coordinator for some
of the great Arizona teams in the nineties with like
Teddy Bruski, and that cal Paul was very lucky to
have him as a coach, and he went on to
coach at Army. I would be stunned if Skipper does
(33:18):
not have success putting together a staff, started texting with
some former dogs and just putting a toughness there and
again the standard at cal Paulyly get to the playoffs
in Division one Double A, and he'll be the next
coach at President in a couple of years. But I'm
happy for him because you get become Jeff Tedford quits
in the summer, you're thrust on being the interim coach
(33:40):
with none of your own people. And then obviously this
year at UCLA kind of unofficially ending the James Franklin era.
Pretty historic moment, right take it out James Franklin in
that game as a twenty five point favorite. I know
you have some great things about to say about Patrick
Mahomes guts and tough play. This season, he has lost
some close games and seemed to bid off and throws
(34:03):
when trying to push the ball down the field. Do
you think it's because Patrick is getting older and lost
a step, whereas the fact that the offensive line less
looks suspect and wide receivers don't get the same separation.
I think two things can be true. He's still a
stud and everyone in the league would have want him right.
I think the only guy teams would consistently pick over
him is Josh Allen. We could make the argument, like
(34:25):
you know, Drake May, you got to do it multiple years,
but obviously he's on the come up. There are other
good quarterbacks, but he's His resume speaks for himself. He
also would like a little more. You know, he's missed
a lot of these passes down the field, and not
all of them are just like sixty yard bombs. Some
of them are like in stride. He should be able
(34:46):
to hit with his eyes closed. He's missing, so I
would say his superpower of dominating in eighteen, nineteen, twenty,
twenty one, twenty two. He just hasn't quite been the
same guy. And there are variables around you. But I
do think that the Chiefs are gonna continue this run.
They're gonna need him to be a dominant player. And
(35:08):
he's shown flashes, but you know, you're thirty years old.
He's played a lot of football. I think sometimes too,
when you go to a on a long, long run
and they've been to five Super Bowls in six years,
and the one year they didn't go, they lost in
the AFC Championship Game. If they do miss the playoffs,
like they get a long, long break, refresh, come back
(35:29):
and have the best season or one of the best
seasons of your career. Like to me, if they missed
the playoffs, the expectation if I'm coach Reid and Veach
and the Chiefs brass is like, Okay, you take a
long break. We'll do a good job restocking the cupboard here.
We're gonna have a better team next year. We'll hit
on some draft picks. We need you to be like
(35:49):
right there with Josh Allen and a couple of years ago,
like Lamar when he's healthy like dominate the league like
you did when you hit the scene, double middle fingers
every single week, kind of what you know Manning had
that when he got to Denver. Just be pissed off
for greatness and be fascinating to watch a big time
(36:12):
Charger fan. My question is, do you think the Chargers
in a hypothetical situation where both tackles are healthy. I mean,
we could play that all every team in the league.
Could you guys compete to win the Super Bowl if
everyone was healthy? I know what you're saying, but it's like,
there are so many injuries in the NFL. I do
think this with Jim Harbaugh and the infrastructure that he brings,
(36:36):
that you guys are going to be a contender for
years to come, and to win a Super Bowl, you
need to have health on your side. You guys can't
afford to lose your two star tackles and compete for
Super Bowl. It's impossible, right, So you know you lose
rn Agie Harris Hampton gets injured like you just had
(36:56):
with a coach that wants to run the ball. So
it's like, wait, I lose my two best lineman, but
two running backs and the dude from the backup has
been good. Yeah, I actually kind of like them, But
you guys will have a chance. You guys are not
going anywhere. It's not going to be the up and
down kind of phillip Rivers era as long as Jim
Harbaugh is there. In retrospect, do you think things would
(37:21):
have played out better if the Chargers were the team
that went to Vegas and the Raiders stayed in Oakland.
Rams would get LA all to themselves. Oakland doesn't lose
their team, so the Raiders keep their core fans, and
the Chargers get a new billion dollar stadium plus a
state all to themselves. The Raiders could have even moved
back to their roots in LA if Oakland couldn't afford them,
(37:44):
couldn't afford to keep them. I think Oakland fans would
say their roots in LA. They were in Oakland, and
you guys took them from us for fifteen years. When
they came back, well, I was you know. Some might
say I became a podcaster because of my takes on
this story and It's Heyday. The Raiders and me butted
heads over this one, and at the time I had
(38:07):
a big core group of Raider fans and I felt
really bad for them, and I talked a lot of
shit about the Vegas move. It was an emotional take
and I was completely wrong. The best thing that ever
happened to the Raiders by a mile, was leaving Oakland
and going to Vegas. Financially, they're at a different level.
It's great for the league. Now you can say their
(38:27):
home games are altered. That is true. It was not
sustainable what was happening, and there was just a siphon.
It's like another team playing in Chicago, another team playing
in Philly, another team playing in Dallas. It's not the
forty nine ers take too much of the energy, and
you were always gonna be the little brother, and so
(38:50):
moving from a financial standpoint, from a market standpoint makes
a lot of sense. Now you get a win. But
the league also was never gonna allow them to go
to LA. They weren't allowing the Raiders to go to
Los Angeles like that. That was a big thing. They
weren't gonna It wasn't gonna happen. So I think it
worked out best actually for the Raiders and the Ramps,
(39:14):
the Chargers. I think Dean would say there is an
economic element to San Diego. They clearly have more money
in Los Angeles. Clearly a little bit of an afterthought. Obviously, Listen, financially,
the Chargers and the Raiders benefited greatly. The Raiders have
(39:36):
the city to themselves in Vegas is while the casino industry,
like tangibly the Strip. I think it's going through hard times.
I would bet the farm on the overall economic ceiling
of Vegas. No taxes, companies will move there, so it
might shift from being gambling heavy to other industries. But
(40:00):
I got news for you. New companies aren't probably starting
in California over the next one hundred years. When you
factor in taxes and getting employees to move like Vegas
is gonna benefit greatly. They already have. So it was
a huge win. Every team left Oakland, every single one.
The A's were the team that desperately tried the most
and had the hardest time. Joe Laca bought the Warriors
(40:21):
to move them to San Francisco, and Mark Davis had
desperately been trying to leave. So I think everyone kind
of won. It's it's not a perfect situation, but I
think we got the right outcome. If you've never been
to the Coliseum, I mean obviously the older stadiums that
are now long gone. It is a relic. It is
(40:43):
such a dump. I can't even it's harder to describe.
I mean it's I would take dynamite and blow that
bitch to smither rings. I would go to baseball games.
The A's would be playing like the Yankees. Wow, the
Yankees will get fans, but definitely a random team. It
(41:04):
was like A's Rangers, this major League Baseball. This when
the A's were winning like ninety five games. I mean,
they had teams that you thought could win the World Series.
They always shit the bed in the playoffs. You would
go to a game on Wednesday and I shit you not,
there were seven hundred people in the park. It's like,
what is going on? It just it's it's kind of
(41:25):
sad what happened because once upon a time, obviously the
Raiders in the seventies, the A's in the seventies and eighties,
those times are long gone. And I think a huge
reason is that the forty nine ers in the San
Francsco Giants, their success, their corporate success of getting the sponsors,
it just separated. You know, little mom and pop shops
(41:47):
that used to crush it and then Target moves in
next door put you out of business. Luckily for those teams,
A's who knows the Raiders are fine. When we discussed
the greatest coaches of all time, we usually bring up
the guys that have the most super which is completely
valid in your opinion. Who are some of the best
coaches that don't have a Super Bowl? It's a good question.
(42:07):
I would say Brian Schottenneimer's dad obviously would be near
the top of that list. When I was a kid,
I mean I felt like Marty's teams. I even missed
some of his Cleveland teams that lost to John Elway
in that famous drive game, but his Kansas City teams
were awesome. He just couldn't get it done. I would
(42:30):
say currently, you know, forever it was Andy Reid and
then obviously he shut everyone up. Kyle right now has
to be near the top. I mean, you have a
lot of guys in the league right now. I mean,
Kyle's been a two Super Bowls and had leads in
the second half, lost them both. Now they both come
to Andy and Patrick. But you know, you'd say, like
Mike Vrabel, Like Mike Rabel's been a one championship game.
(42:52):
So it's like if you get to super Bowls and lose,
you know, Marv Levy losing to those Bills games. Did
Marv Levy ever win a Super Bowl somewhere else? I
don't think he did, but that was a little before
my time. A lot of guys any think about the
best coaches win super Bowls? Marvel Levy man, I never
(43:13):
want it. Coached in the Canadian League for a while,
I would say Marty Schottenheimer would be near the top.
I would say currently it'd have to be Kyle just
bend To too. Lost them both and he gets knocked
for the one that he was offensive coordinator for. I
(43:35):
noticed that koc has been missing on play calling. He's
great as a head coach, but has been regressing on
the play calling. Do you think it's time for him
to give up play calling and focus on the players.
I heard someone say I haven't seen the clip that
he kind of admitted either on Sunday. I don't think
it was after the game. It might have been on
Monday or Wednesday's press conference. He didn't really change the
(43:56):
game plan for the for the kid that came in
and what was an unmitigated disaster. I think it's really
really hard to judge in these type situations, Like I
don't know what he's really supposed to do, like last
week on the road in Seattle that had disaster written
all over it. JJ McCarthy, like Bill Walsh could be
(44:21):
calling place. If he's overthrowing guys by seventeen feet, what
are you gonna do? So? I just I don't know.
I no one would look good in this situation, not
a soul. My boyfriend deactivated his Instagram accounts, sol I'm
asking this question for him. Do you think about dak
to the Vikings in the off season, assuming the Cowboys
(44:42):
fizzle out before or during the playoffs. They seem like
they're gonna sign George Pickens, they have the draft capital
for Micah to trade, and if the Vikings give them
a first and possibly a second, maybe throwing JJ McCarthy,
that there is no chance that the Cowboys are getting
ready to deck all Jerry has said for like the
last seven years, like he's our most important player, he's
our most important He's more important than Michael Parsons. Kind
(45:06):
of proven right. I also think that last night, I'm
recording this on Friday was a rough moment for George,
and I text multiple high ranking NFL officials what would
you do? Like would you pay George Pickens? And both
of them are replied essentially f no, no chance, and
there is no disputing his talent, but like you're gonna
(45:27):
give this is the cost of doing business with a
wide receiver. It's like, wow, we can get him two
years twenty million dollars. I mean minimum he'd want like
four years one hundred million dollars. You got to get
into business with people you can trust, like CDs had
some drops or whatever. But the guy's war Daddy Dak.
(45:48):
I'll go to War Dak Prescott. Look at their guys
on defense playing their ass off. George's like, oh no, no, no, no, no,
no no. I keep thinking about Mike Tomlin walking around
the office just going on, like I've told everyone, you
guys watching this. It's like Mike, we're six and six
and we're circling the drink. I don't care. You see
George lollygagon on that comeback route. He was a lollygagon.
(46:10):
I thought that he's talking shit to Richard Sherman because
Richard was like, bro, you gotta play harder. It's like George,
if you want the random people like US podcasters talking
like say in your Lollygagon, I can understand, but you
might want to google that guy's resume, like no one's
like yeah, Richard's dogs It guy had won at a pretty
(46:31):
high clip. I would say this LB would have taken
your ass out if you were playing like that. That
When those guys are saying that, especially someone like him,
that's offensive to them. Right, it's a you're gonna lose.
It's it's sports, it's life. You're not always gonna win.
But I think one thing I'm about to have a son,
(46:52):
like the one lesson that any father tries to teach
a young man is like we don't quit, and if
you're gonna do something, you gotta try hard. Right Listen,
you might not be good at it, but if you're
doing it, you gotta try. These are like basic principles
of life. It's why I have so much respect. I
mean I was I already really liked the player and
(47:15):
liked the guy and everything he stood for. But my
respect for amanas Saint Brown, Like he's everything you would
want in a player. He's everything that the Steelers when
they were rolling the Ravens, Like those are the type
guys they go to war with back in like the
two thousands. It's that type player. I'm seventy five percent
who gives a shit, shoot me up, tape it up.
(47:36):
In this roll, you got George like Amos's Ben paid
his direct deposits, already hit with big numbers. George is
the one that wants a contract and he's playing like that.
It was just I have a lot of respect for
making it to the NFL, and it's it's I didn't
play in the NFL, so it's who am I to
(47:57):
be like, Oh, this guy, but you know you're working
per now. It's just kind of how they talk. The
reality is is certain people are not good enough, right,
But then you get someone like this who clearly has
a ton of talent, who's a blue chiper from Georgia.
But there was a reason when you google him, he
didn't go in like the top twenty. And there's a
reason if you just know people in the NFL and
(48:17):
you started texting, like what do you think of this guy?
Just just wait. That's a consistent theme if you just
text scouts, Oh yeah, it's going well, now, just wait.
I don't blame the Cowboys for making the move, but
you have moments like that that would almost be a
defining moment for me, like I can't pay you, no chance,
can't happen. I can't do business with that. How do
(48:41):
I say to CD, like, I know you just got
a concussion, you were about to go for two hundred
and fifty yards and your running made over here is
just I don't know, going for a jog. That's the
type stuff like well run organizations do not tolerate it.
And Jared, you know, I think Jerry clearly like they
(49:03):
have a lot of high level guys, but that's one
where you know the coaching staff, how much juice they have.
It'll be interesting how that plays out. I find the
(49:26):
AFC North coaching situation fascinating. Harbaugh Tomlin have each won
a Super Bowl, Taylor has been to one, and Kevin
Stefanski is a two time Coach of the Year. And
I think all fan bases would agree they've been largely
underwhelmed or frustrated with their coaches in recent years. My
question is this, how would you rank these four coaches
on the hot seat are right now and Secondly, how
would you rank them as potential candidates if they hit
(49:48):
the market. I personally believe three of the four would
quickly quickly get another job. I think Zach Taylor would
clearly be the last guy. I think Stefanski, who has
not had a good year, been really weird the last
couple of years, is really highly thought of. I think
people would blame the owner. I think the first two guys,
(50:09):
I mean, the New York Giants would be all over
either one. The New York Giants John Marrow would cut
off like his pinky tote, hire one of those two
guys to be his coach right now so their market.
They would be hired so fast you your head would spin.
I think Stefanski, I don't know if he'd be one
(50:31):
hundred percent locked, but I think someone would. I don't
think anyone hire Zach Taylor. Maybe that's not fair, but
I just think that's just narratives momentum. People just think
it's all Joe Burrow. I mean, I don't know, so
I do wonder what if the Steelers do somehow just
(50:52):
win the division at nine to eight and the Ravens miss.
Could John Harbaugh be in trouble because again I think
the Giants would immediately hire the guy. And again part
of it also is like who else are you hiring?
Would the Steelers or the Ravens hire Stefanski because he
can call plays? That's a good question. Well end on
this speaking of Joe Burrow, speaking of a guy that's
(51:16):
zoned in, there is I use this analogy with Amen
ros Saint Brown. Just proving that you will play through
an injury. The toughness and the mentality that it shows
the entire team is something that you can't quantify, right,
And the momentum of Joe Burrow, even his pregame interview
on Thanksgiving, was like, I make a lot of money,
(51:39):
I don't care what our record is. If I can play,
I can play. And clearly when he's playing, he's one
of the best players in the league. And this week
they're playing the Bills, who the Bills had a pretty
embarrassing moment happened to him this week. They cut this guy,
I forget his first name, his last name is Ingram
to claim Darius Slay. They claimed Darius Lay. Ingram then
(52:02):
gets claimed by the Texans, Darius lay quits and Ingram
is now on the Texans, and Sean McDermott is like,
what just happened? And McDermott loved that player, but they
needed to make a roster spot. I don't know exactly
how it happened. Disastrous personnel move, I mean, embarrassing, there's
no way around it. And they are fighting for their
(52:24):
lives just to keep up and have a chance to
win the division, a division in which they've dominated. Now
they do well at home, but as my buddy Ethan
diehard Bills fan, text me today, he said, Bengals kind
of holess and I think this line of the Bills
minus six against Joe Burrow t Higgins's back is kind
of crazy, and like I started looking at it because
(52:48):
I thought, listen, like they don't they're four and eight. Well,
the other two teams are chasing are six and six.
One of those two teams is gonna lose, and especially
if it's an ugly game that there's those teams could
lose to anybody at any time. So if you just
run the table, which would be possible if you win
this week, and it's been kind of a weird year
for the Bills, and then they had that moment this
(53:09):
week they cut a guy that they would not have
cut if they didn't want to claim a guy who
doesn't want to play for them and then just quits
and retires. That rattles the front office coaching staff because
someone in that organization, especially if it wasn't a coach,
is pounding the table. Darius Slays an upgrade, which is insane.
He just got bench for a terrible defense and just
it's it's that could rattle you. The Bengals come in
(53:31):
with nothing to lose their quarterbacks back to Higgins's back.
It would not shock me. You watch Shoe Burrow throw
a couple of touchdowns. He's comfortable playing this team like
they have kind of dominated. The Bills beat him a
lot over the years. I'm excited to watch Burrow play
and they win. Don't let the Bengals get hot and
(53:52):
Zach Taylor kind of move up that ranking. The volume
The volume. What is going on Everybody? John Middlecock three
and out podcast, brought to you by my friendst Zone
Zone Pouches. Appreciate you guys sponsoring the show, being part
(00:23):
of the show. Love These guys went through about a
can in the last twenty four hours, No big deal.
Hopefully every one of you are getting involved because this
is a great product. If you like a little nickteing
in your upper lip, because I know I do. But
today I thought, because middle of the week, I just
need to take a deep breath of my staff. We've
just been grinding here during the holiday. So I said,
(00:44):
we didn't do anything on Wednesday, or maybe that was Thursday.
We didn't do anything. I didn't record anything Wednesday that
came out Thursday. So I said, you know what, I
got a bunch of mailbag questions. Let's do a big
mail bag, little weekend mail bag at John Middlecoff. At
John Middlecoff is the Instagram fire in those dms? Not
sure I mentioned this on the YouTube page, but I
(01:05):
haven't mentioned this on the on the podcast. I know
a lot of you guys I listen to podcasts, watch
them on YouTube. They're kind of all the same. Any
of you guys that send me those raps of you
watching like top you know, half percenter, one percenter. I
appreciate it, you guys. I don't know how you stand
this much of me, but I'm very grateful that you
(01:25):
do so I from the bottom of my heart for
those of you diehards, I appreciate it. I was actually
we started watching Bed last night, that that Eminem documentary
of his crazy fans. So yeah, hopefully you guys aren't
that crazy. But I appreciate all of you guys for sure.
So thanks for spreading the good word and listening to
(01:47):
the podcast. I'm glad you guys liked football, But you
guys know the drill. If you listen on comms feed,
make sure you subscribe. If you want to watch all
of our content it's on YouTube. Just type in our name,
subscribe and you'll never miss a thing. Let's let's just start.
Wanted to say I've been a subscriber for a while
and no, this is some kind of words. I appreciate it.
(02:08):
I think this is k Your knowledge of football educated
opinions truly have taught me, you know, I try. Here's
a question. Now. My question is pretty simple, who do
you think the best coaching staff is in the NFL,
And how significant is your coordinators in personnel coaches compared
to the head coach alone? Do they all full staff
(02:29):
way more than the head coach comparably to the impact
of teams success on both sides of the ball. I
actually just was watching this clip of Urban Meyer talking. Now,
college is a little different than pros because during the season,
recruiting is such a big element in college football. We're
in the pros like Andy Reid and Kyle Shanahan, unless
(02:49):
they're in their hotel room or at home watching a
little college football. They are not scouting college football that way,
just in the same way that a college coach has
to kind of be dialed in on the class. But Urban,
basically said, is obviously the head coach if he's not
the play caller. And this is true for the for
(03:09):
the NFL. Is a big part of the culture, of
the vision, of the message, of the way practice is structured.
But he's like, once the balls kicked off, you know,
beside maybe chiming in with a run, here, go for
it on fourth down, there calling a timeout, the coordinators
are in full control. So like to me, the most
powerful coaching staffs I think pretty consistent around the NFL
(03:34):
are the head coach being the offensive coordinator, Andy Reid,
Sean Payton, Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, Matt Lafleur, and then
a really really good defensive coordinator. And to me, I know,
they're six and six right now, but their track record
over last since Spags got there kind of speaks for itself.
I would say it's hard to trump Andy and Spags.
(03:55):
I mean, that's a pretty dominant one two combination. I think.
I mean, Island Sola, pretty tried and true formula shula
has been really good with McVeigh. Vrabel doesn't fall under
that category, but clearly he's pretty elite, and having Josh
who's not gonna leave is pretty damn good. So I
(04:17):
think anytime that your head coach is a play caller
and he just has so much of an impact because
he's doing all that leadership stuff and he's calling the game.
So Mike McDonald and Kubiak have been excellent this year,
but I have a hard time not giving it to
Andy and SPACs. I mean, they're just their record is
(04:39):
unapeachable in this little run Happy Holidays, Why does college
football have conference championships. Meanwhile, teams have already made the
playoffs basically get a bye before the playoffs. It's like
the top two seeds in the NFC, the Bears and
the Rams having to play the seedies the number one seed. Well,
this will be the last year, or maybe we got
(05:01):
a couple more years of the iteration of which it
is now. I'm recording this on Friday afternoon before the
Ohio State Indiana game. They're both getting buys and this
is a massive game and like the history of Indiana.
But what if I tell you, like Ohio State doesn't
try because Stucky was on yesterday and he's like, just
look at the path. It's gonna be way easier at
three than it isn't one. It happened to Oregon last year.
(05:24):
So like if I told you what happens Week seventeen
in the NFL, right, if you are winner, get into
the game, winner get into the playoffs. Is usually the
Sunday night game and two playoff teams playing. If one
team's not trying, I think where we are destined to
go or playing games this week. The reason they're happening
(05:45):
is they are very, very lucrative. They make the networks
a lot of money, They make the conferences a lot
of money. But I'm fascinated this Ohio State Indiana game, Like,
what is the benefits specifically for Ohio State defending champs undefeated?
I know Indiana is too, but like they are the
heavy favorites to win it again. What do they have
(06:08):
to gain here? Right? Especially last year they benefited, you know,
they took out Oregon, so they saw on the flip
side of what it can do getting a really tough
matchup where it's like, well, if you're the three seed
like Indiana would probably be. If they lose, you might
get Virginia in the first round or All Miss without
a coach. So I don't know, I don't know how
this thing's gonna play out, but it's it's destined to
(06:32):
be done here soon. The conference championships the way it
is now, now, what is inevitable or games this week?
And to me, if there were playing games Miami versus Texas,
Notre Dame verse, it have to be in the conference.
So you would take two big ten teams. You know,
once we go to sixteen teams, which is inevitable, it'd
(06:52):
be like USC versus Washington, it would be Vanderbilt versus
Texas that that would be the game and winners in,
which would be sweet. What if we did notre dame
Miami rematch winner gets in? Really they just take them both.
Question for the mailback, what is the point of an
(07:14):
offensive coordinator in the case of a coach being the
play caller? For example, the ram Sean McVay is the
play caller. So what does the offensive coordinator Mike Lafleur
do or is he in charge of? In the case
question love the pod, Well, it's like, just because you're
(07:35):
not calling plays on game day doesn't mean you aren't
a major factor in the weekly game plans. And Sean McVay,
because of his head coaching responsibilities, right, he has to
dedicate time to media availability, to meeting with the defense,
to meeting with personnel people like he has just other responsibilities, right,
(07:57):
So that guy whoever that is the offense of coordinator
and maybe sometimes like a run game coordinator. They have
specific roles during the week, right first second down, third down,
red zone. They help script break down, develop the game
plan each week. So they are an extension of the
(08:17):
play caller that helps put the whole thing together that
when they meet, they've already done a lot of lakework. Now,
it doesn't mean that Shawn is not doing extensive work
in all those situations, right, because you're not just going
to go into the game and call plays. But I
would imagine, like any industry, when you have right hand men,
right hand men who you can rely on, you can
(08:41):
you don't have to micromanage, you can let them do
stuff and maybe there are things that he doesn't have
to waste time on and he can trust come game day, hey,
we love these three things. You can call him in
these situations will be good to go and he's like, okay,
let's roll and they work through it a practice. But
they are a major major factor in terms of I
would say, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday game planning, while that guy
(09:04):
does other stuff and then comes in you know at
periods and meetings and stuff and gets up to speed
with anything that they've already done, you know, short yardage,
red zone tendencies, just stuff that they can dedicate more time.
So they have a pretty big role and they make
a lot of money. And those guys, I mean Kevin
(09:26):
O'Connell never called a play for Sean mcvagan. Look at him.
He's a head coach. Mike McDaniel same thing, never called
a play head coach in Miami. I know everyone is
down on Mike McCarthy because he has been fired twice
and the team has gotten better. But I would argue
the Titans, Falcons or the Giants cannot take a huge
risk at coach. McCarthy is at proven, he's proven to
(09:48):
work well with quarterbacks, and these teams could do much worse. Also,
is there any help for the Raiders and Dolphins? Could
Mike Tomlin save you? The franchise thing? In Arizona? Your
lips gets so chopped when you go for like a walk,
you're out in the sun. It's just so dry here.
I would say this about Mike. I think he's a
(10:08):
pretty safe option to what I thought Pete Carroll was
gonna be with the Raiders. It turned out Pete Carroll
here was Pete Carroll's problem is Pete Carroll had been
the boss for so long that he has one way
of doing things well. Pete had no leverage when he
got hired with the Raiders. So what did they do?
They force coaches on him. They forced Chip Kelly on him.
(10:30):
Pete Carroll not in a million years would have hired
Chip Kelly. He literally had him forced on him. And
what happened He made Chip run Shane Waldron's offense. So
if you're gonna hire a guy and then you start
dictating the terms to him, that's where it gets weird.
If you just trust Mike to hire some coaches to
do his thing, he will just get you going in
(10:50):
the right direction. So I'm in agreement there is some
value there. I've been talked to by people in the
league that have kind of convinced me he's probably a
little overrated because I was higher on him in his
cowboy tenure and looking back, I just think their team's
pretty talented and they got, you know, a good quarterback.
Now he did a good job. But so to kill
them Moore, I mean, it's like you could do worse.
(11:13):
And I'm with you. There are certain teams that, like
the Titans can't just let's just take a flyer on
a coordinator, God's speed on that one. The Giants definitely cannot.
So I think Mike McCarthy, like Mike Tomlin, if and
when he becomes available, their value is you kind of
know what you're getting, and there is big time value
in that. I mean, Titans fans would have said a
(11:34):
couple of years ago, Mike Vrabel's kind of overrated, right
because it kind of got weird there at the end.
Might have been because they didn't have a quarterback. But
I think there's a value in a guy. Listen, there
are people like Ben Johnson that just hit the ground
running and are really really impressive and very comfortable in
the seat. And those guys are out wires. Most people
(11:56):
are completely overwhelmed, and most people fail. It's an extremely
difficult job. Like extremely difficult, I bet. I mean honestly,
it is a harder job at a lot of these places
than like a lot of these fortune five hundred companies,
because you're not dealing with widgets, you're not dealing with products.
(12:20):
Every single one of your assets is a human being,
young human being. It's very very hard. You're controlling a staff.
I mean a lot of your coaching staffs now. I mean,
look how many guys in the coaches are now in
their thirties. You know, position coaches, coordinators, big egos, everyone's
making money now. I mean you got running back coaches
(12:40):
making eight hundred Grand So it's like everyone's kind of rich,
like not just the players, like your assistant coaches, you know,
are driving up in range rovers So it's very, very difficult,
and those guys are comfortable doing it. Listen, I've known
Matt Naggie for a long time. He's going to get
another shot. Robert sla is gonna get another shot. But
(13:01):
there's no guarantee that those guys when they do get
their other shot, it's gonna work. Right now, the thing
they have going for him is they've sat in that
seat and there's value to that. And you know, I
think when the Eagles originally hired Andy Reid in the
late nineties, they had run this study and found out
that you're no more likely to be a star head coach,
(13:21):
you know, coming from a coordinator, than you are a
position coach because Andy had never even called plays in
the NFL, obviously working from Mike holmber and who called
the plays. And I think what it showed and their
study really kind of pulled out like being a head
coach is much more about vision, leadership, discipline, I just
(13:41):
emotional stability. You look at some of these guys who
are not emotionally stable in the NFL. Like in college,
you can be a little bit of a nut, right
Nick Kirby. These guys run hot, they don't lose very much.
So it's like in the NFL. You can have an
excellent season and go twelve and five, those five long weeks,
you know, and some of those wins, I mean they
(14:04):
were close wins. You know. You're coaching at Georgia and listen,
Kirby's a stud. But like a terrible year for Hyms
ten and two, a terrible year for Hims ten and two,
he's gonna have a lot of years where he's twelve
and zero, I'm eleven to one. I'm about to start
grad school at a small D three university. My company
(14:25):
is covering tuition and still paying my salary, so I'm
able to work for free. I'd love to get involved
with the football program as a GA, but I'm not
sure how to approach it. Do I walk into the
facility with my resume and ask for help or should
I reach out to someone already on staff for context.
I studied mathematics at University of Pittsburgh and did my
senior project with the Pittsburgh Pirates on optimizing pitch selection strategy.
(14:48):
So I've got some sports analytics experience. I'm a total
football junkie and would love to contribute. It's a good question.
We actually this this time that came up during Thanksgiving
with my family here, my brother, my in laws, and
we were talking about, you know, back in the day,
(15:09):
especially before technology, if you wanted to get your foot
in the door with something, you had to be very
aggressive in person, right knocking on doors, showing up at
the company, the office, whoever you wanted to work for.
Famous story about Jedfish showing putting a note in Steve
Spurgers car every day for like a year straight back
(15:29):
in the nineties, just to get his foot in the door.
And my wife's mother was telling this story about someone
in her life, a young kid who's like telling his
parents that he's being really aggressive. He's sending a lot
of emails and LinkedIn messages, and there's some truth like
you could send a five hundred LinkedIn messages a day,
(15:53):
there's a chance you never get one response. And I'm
not anti doing that, but there is value in just
literally when the way I got to Fresno State, my
cousin had played there and he was done playing and
I had gone down to visit him and I had
seen like the internet, there was an opening and he's like, bro,
just go by the facility. And I just walked into
(16:14):
the facility and introduced myself. And obviously I had a
little bit of an end because they knew who my
cousin was because he had played there, but like they
didn't know me from Adam. And it was one of
those things that just kind of materialized and took off.
I mean there was I look back sometimes and go
if that didn't happen, I mean, what would I be doing.
(16:35):
I mean, there's a decent changing boy might have a
shovel in his hands digging ditches somewhere. So I think
sometimes there is value to just showing up. And I
mean I've known a lot of people. It happens less
and less in twenty twenty five, but I'd also argue
that works to your benefit. So go to the I'm
assuming you want to work in recruiting, just find out
(16:57):
who the recruiting coordinator is, direct football operations, and just
go introduce yourself. I mean there is a power. I mean,
it wasn't that long ago, like no one's ever gonna
fly or meet anyone in person. Again, No, it's bullshit.
There's always gonna be value in that uh that it works,
always has, always will. So I just think I would
(17:18):
one go and introduce myself in person, and who knows,
I'm not. There's no guarantee they might not want to
talk to you, they might blow you off. I mean,
there's no guarantee it goes well. But I would take
your chance that way. How to fact about the Falcons?
With elite talent like Bijeon and Drake London on the
offensive side and no viable quarterback along with no first
(17:41):
round pick, do you think it would be smart to
sell those two players and tear this thing down to
the studs. It's a great question. Bijon would have a
lot of value, I mean so with Drake, but you
could you could get a haul for both guys. I
just think we got a who's taken over? You know,
what do they do? They've had the same GM now
(18:04):
for two different coaches. Who's their head coach? Assuming that
they fire everybody, I just think they're kind of a
wild card. I don't know why. I think you could
easily justify firing everybody. They made a historic quarterback just mistake.
I mean, giving Cousins ninety million dollars and then a
(18:24):
month later taking a quarterback who again, I'm not acting
like I loved him now. Maybe it's the Pac twelve
and me biased. Maybe it's because I bet on them
a lot. One of the biggest bets of my life
was on them beating Texas and Panics slinging that thing around.
I was a big Panics guy. Most of my friends
in the NFL, A lot of them have Super Bowl rings.
(18:45):
Were like, bro, you're insane. We don't even we don't
have top forty five fifty grades on them. A lot
of teams didn't have them really high, not a first
round pick. I mean you can find people didn't have
them in the second round, and then there were all
the medical questions completely blown up in their face. So
that alone, and then obviously listen, he's just not a
very good head coach. I mean, there's no really arguing that.
(19:09):
Seems like a great guy, and to me, I think
there's a very good chance if Robert solid were to
get a head coaching job, that Kyle Shane would hire
him to be the defensive coordinator. He will be the
defensive coordinator of the forty nine ers next year, if Sala,
what's gone assuming he gets fired. But I just think
as a head coach, who it is, it's gone worse.
(19:29):
So I don't know. I think there are two schools
of thought. I think the analytical kind of new modern
version of the way these guys view it is much
more you know, baseball, basketball, blow it up, get picks.
I think old school football people would go, well, I'm
gonna come in, I'm gonna try to win, and I
want those two guys because Bijon Robinson and Drake London
(19:53):
are my two best players, so I need them on
the team. It just depends who you hire. So if
I was a betting man, I bet they're on the team.
I mean, as Drake London, didn't he get a contract extension.
I have to go double check that question for the bag.
(20:15):
The narrative this year look at who the Patriots have played,
seems nonsense, nonsensical to me. If people actually paid attention,
they realize they have absolutely crushed some of the teams
they played. Beat the Titans thirty one to three, Like
you don't need to listen. There's a major difference between
like Indiana, It's like Indiana play last year, they didn't
(20:39):
play this year. They beat Oregon, Like that's a really
good win. In college, most of these conferences is like,
well we played one really good team. Right in the NFL,
even when you're playing random teams, it's like, I'm guilty
of this. I gave the Packers a hard time. Like
the Panthers are not bad. That's not that terrible loss.
(21:00):
I think we talked about, how do they lose the Panthers, Well,
they are seven and six, Like, losing the Panthers and
losing the Browns are not the same. I was in
the car the other day and I heard I was
flipping around. I know it was like Florio because I
was on NBC radio and he's like, people questioned la
Floor because he loses the teams like the Browns and
the Panthers. Like those fucking teams aren't the same. The Browns.
(21:21):
They are in their own category of dysfunction and losing
because that's what they do a lot. The Panthers are
winning this year. There's they got seven wins. They're gonna have.
I bet there are a nine to eighteen minimum potential
chance to get to ten and seven, depending on how
their games go against the Bucks. But that's not like,
that's not the terrible. It's very very difficult. I'll never
forget uh. When I say this name, he might laugh
(21:44):
because he was he had no business being a head coach,
but incredible guy, good position coach, David Kelly. And one
of my jobs when I got hired by the Eagles
was I mean, I mean, nowadays with technology it sounds
so stupid, but the injury report would happen, right, So
when you see like so and so's questionable, so and
so's limited in practice, so and so's, you know whatever, doubtful.
(22:08):
Throughout the week, I would print all those out and
I would go room to room and hand them to
all the position coaches, all the coordinators and co treat
and I remember going to David Collies and sometimes you'd stay,
you'd drop it off, and it technically because in the
East Coast time it was a little later, right around
dinner time, and usually shoot the shit, you know, have
a casual conversation. I remember saying something like we were
(22:30):
playing the Bills. Who this is pre Josh Allen. They're
pretty bad, and I was like, this is an easy
game this week, and he was so offended by me
saying that, and he just kind of went on this one, like, Bro,
that's not that there are no easy games in this league.
That they got a ton of guys that live in
(22:51):
big ass homes and drive nice cars, and they got
kids and bend to Pro Bowls, right, even the bad teams.
So the NFL like, it's the Patriots go thirteen and four, Like, yeah,
did they play the Packers every week? Of course not,
but that's still really impressive. Just because you have an
easier schedule, you still gotta win the games. So I'm
(23:13):
not disputing anything about the Patriots. And ultimately this question
was like why is everyone blowing the Broncos. Both the
teams are pretty good. I think they have a better
team than you, Like they have more higher end players,
but you guys have the much better quarterback. So it's like,
who would you take, John, Would you take the team
with a little bit better talent but a quarterback who
might just suck in a given game, or would you
(23:34):
take a team with maybe a little less talent. Both
teams are winning and the quarterback they might win the MVP.
If we didn't know the teams and we played blind
resume we would all take the MVP quarterback, every single
one of us. So it's like, I think we get
caught up in the conversations of like, oh, they didn't
beat anybody. It's like, well, the forty nine ers are
schedules easy, they've lost half their team. Well we're nine
(23:56):
and four, we haven't beat anybody. Well, look at we're
fucking playing with half these guys. Middlekoff would have say
they would be selling insurance like two months ago. But
we have seven injuries and we need to call this
guy and then this guy, and then this guy gets hurt.
I mean their practice squaders are getting hurt. Today's show
(24:18):
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New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, Hey, John, why should I
(25:54):
get excited about these Mike Tomlin rumors about a Giants?
As a Giants fan, he doesn't won a playoff game
in a decade. Here's the thing, James Harrison I saw
say this the other day. He essentially said, like, stop
calling him a great coach. He's a good coach. Do
you know what the Giants would do for a good coach?
Think about that? Do you know what you guys would
do for a good coach? Think of the run you're
(26:15):
on from McAdoo to Shechrmer to Joe Judge to the
last couple of years of Brian Dable. Do you know
what you would do for the last couple of years
of the Steelers just being ten and seven, ten and
seven and this year maybe nine to eight A lot?
I mean, and you guys are more equipped with your
roster to be better than them. So this notion that
(26:39):
you guys are too good for Mike Domlin, you weren't
too good for Joe Judge or Pat Shermer. Those guys
are fucking terrible. Joe seems like a nice guy. He's
just awful head coach. Whenever I see this notion, like,
do you know what it's? Why? When bent when Roethlisberger
said that Tomlin should go to Penn State, I was like, bro,
(27:07):
do you know what the Titans would do to go
from Brian Callahan to Mike Tomlin. He doesn't have to
go to Penn State and live in state college. It's
like the fifth best Big Ten job, which obviously what's
his name with the funny hat Perdies guy is going? Uh,
Clearly JJ isn't the guy. So where do the Vikings go?
(27:28):
Clearly no good free agents? Do you try and trade
for mac Jones or get a guy like Jamis and
have a fun year before you fire the GM? It's
a great question. I don't know. I think anytime you're
in that situation, it's a scary place to be because
there aren't really good answers. Cause if I told you
Mac Jones is their quarterback next year with Kevin O'Connell,
with the talent they have, if Flores is still there,
(27:50):
they could easily be a ten to eleven win team.
But like if I'm Kyle Shanahan, like, I'm not just
giving him to you for nothing. He's really valuable for us,
So the price that I would need to give him
up is a price like I can't give a second
round pick for mac Jones. And maybe you'd say, well,
maybe you can't do you want to win eleven games?
(28:10):
Or do you want to be in the position you're
in right now? Because if who do the Vikings play
this week? I don't know why I'm blinking right now,
but let me look it up really quick. The Vikings
who are the Oh they play the Commanders. If you
(28:33):
lose the Commanders and he looks terrible against that defense,
I just think Vikings fans will be over him. And
one thing you cannot do is like roll back, like
we'll give him an off season. This. I hate it
when people are like, what about the patience? A lot
different when teams are worth like four hundred million dollars
in nineteen ninety six and the biggest contract was like
Emmett Smith getting four years fifteen million dollars, which, don't
(28:56):
get me wrong, was a ton of money back in
nineteen ninety three. But when you're talking about giving countless
people on your team hundreds of millions of dollars, when
you're paying a coach fifteen million dollars, like, the timelines
are just different. They just are no different than quarterly
earning reports in twenty twenty five have more impact on
(29:16):
the market than they did twenty years ago. Times have changed.
We live in a different world. We have less patience.
It doesn't mean they'll never play in the NFL, but
his Vikings ten year, I would say, is like a
couple more bad games from being like borderline officially over.
Anyone saying otherwise is on drugs. I can't help but
(29:39):
find myself more and more nervous after every win. I
love Sean Payton and the defense is nails, but bo
and the offense terrify me. I can't help but think
the fourth quarter magic will run out. Do you think
they can go all the way? I have a couple
of tickets left at the beginning of the year, and
one of them was I put one hundred dollars on
a Packers Broncos up in the Super Bowl. That thing
(30:02):
pays over eight thousand dollars. So I am rooting for
the Packers and Broncos to play in the Super Bowl
unless I'm playing with some house money. And I have
a huge like division parlay, which I need the Texans
to win that division and I need to Seattle to
win the division. I'm in pretty good shape with Denver
(30:24):
and Tampa's not even done yet, so that might not
hit but one hundred dollars to win eight thousand, like,
that's I'm rooting for that. So I hope. So I
don't feel great. I don't. I think it's going to
be getting home field is going to be big. So
however it plays out between you and the Patriots, pretty
clear the AFC is going to go through New England
(30:46):
or Denver, kind of like old times. I get a
lot of questions, what do you think the Denver Broncos
should do? Or excuse me this, I don't know why
said Denver Broncos. What do I think the Vikings should do?
I just don't think there's a concrete answer. I think
you know what these guys are hoping. It's like he'll
(31:08):
just figure it out, as crazy as that sounds, which
is not gonna happen. But at this point in time,
with whatever five games left, you're just praying, like, could
he just rattle off like three good games and just
shut everybody up? Probably not gonna happen, but I think
that's where they're at. I don't even think like they
can contemplate what their options are. You can't draft another
(31:30):
quarterback high. There aren't really great options. It's not like
even the good options like mac Jones would be an
okay option, but he's not even available. They're in a
tough spot. I saw with the forty nine ers, they
were completely screwed and they got lucky with a seventh
round pick. You know, the Colts a little bit too.
(31:51):
They just could sign Daniel Jones, and even now he's
got a broken fidula and sauces hurt, and it kind
of feels like it's unraveling. Stucky kind of broke down
the schedule. They lose week to the Jags, like they
could lose out. Your guy, Tim Skipper taking over at
cal Poly awesome for that program. I'm very happy for him,
(32:11):
not gonna lie. I texted him probably a week ago,
when kind of rumors are flying, I said, skip, go
to the SEC. Go be someone's assistant head coach. It
wasn't that long ago. He was Florida's assistant head coach
when they were winning the SEC East. And you know,
I just think he's so much better than these guys
getting opportunities. I'm such a believer in the human being.
(32:35):
And listen, I went to cal Paly. I don't care
that much about the football program. I do now and
the program is extremely lucky, and I mean extremely lucky
to get Tim Skipper, like the school out kick their
coverage like this. He's just he's too good for them,
I mean, and I say that with pride, like they're very,
(32:57):
very lucky. And you know, when I was there, they
had Rich Ellerson, who was a defensive coordinator for some
of the great Arizona teams in the nineties with like
Teddy Bruski, and that cal Paul was very lucky to
have him as a coach, and he went on to
coach at Army. I would be stunned if Skipper does
(33:18):
not have success putting together a staff, started texting with
some former dogs and just putting a toughness there and
again the standard at cal Paulyly get to the playoffs
in Division one Double A, and he'll be the next
coach at President in a couple of years. But I'm
happy for him because you get become Jeff Tedford quits
in the summer, you're thrust on being the interim coach
(33:40):
with none of your own people. And then obviously this
year at UCLA kind of unofficially ending the James Franklin era.
Pretty historic moment, right take it out James Franklin in
that game as a twenty five point favorite. I know
you have some great things about to say about Patrick
Mahomes guts and tough play. This season, he has lost
some close games and seemed to bid off and throws
(34:03):
when trying to push the ball down the field. Do
you think it's because Patrick is getting older and lost
a step, whereas the fact that the offensive line less
looks suspect and wide receivers don't get the same separation.
I think two things can be true. He's still a
stud and everyone in the league would have want him right.
I think the only guy teams would consistently pick over
him is Josh Allen. We could make the argument, like
(34:25):
you know, Drake May, you got to do it multiple years,
but obviously he's on the come up. There are other
good quarterbacks, but he's His resume speaks for himself. He
also would like a little more. You know, he's missed
a lot of these passes down the field, and not
all of them are just like sixty yard bombs. Some
of them are like in stride. He should be able
(34:46):
to hit with his eyes closed. He's missing, so I
would say his superpower of dominating in eighteen, nineteen, twenty,
twenty one, twenty two. He just hasn't quite been the
same guy. And there are variables around you. But I
do think that the Chiefs are gonna continue this run.
They're gonna need him to be a dominant player. And
(35:08):
he's shown flashes, but you know, you're thirty years old.
He's played a lot of football. I think sometimes too,
when you go to a on a long, long run
and they've been to five Super Bowls in six years,
and the one year they didn't go, they lost in
the AFC Championship Game. If they do miss the playoffs,
like they get a long, long break, refresh, come back
(35:29):
and have the best season or one of the best
seasons of your career. Like to me, if they missed
the playoffs, the expectation if I'm coach Reid and Veach
and the Chiefs brass is like, Okay, you take a
long break. We'll do a good job restocking the cupboard here.
We're gonna have a better team next year. We'll hit
on some draft picks. We need you to be like
(35:49):
right there with Josh Allen and a couple of years ago,
like Lamar when he's healthy like dominate the league like
you did when you hit the scene, double middle fingers
every single week, kind of what you know Manning had
that when he got to Denver. Just be pissed off
for greatness and be fascinating to watch a big time
(36:12):
Charger fan. My question is, do you think the Chargers
in a hypothetical situation where both tackles are healthy. I mean,
we could play that all every team in the league.
Could you guys compete to win the Super Bowl if
everyone was healthy? I know what you're saying, but it's like,
there are so many injuries in the NFL. I do
think this with Jim Harbaugh and the infrastructure that he brings,
(36:36):
that you guys are going to be a contender for
years to come, and to win a Super Bowl, you
need to have health on your side. You guys can't
afford to lose your two star tackles and compete for
Super Bowl. It's impossible, right, So you know you lose
rn Agie Harris Hampton gets injured like you just had
(36:56):
with a coach that wants to run the ball. So
it's like, wait, I lose my two best lineman, but
two running backs and the dude from the backup has
been good. Yeah, I actually kind of like them, But
you guys will have a chance. You guys are not
going anywhere. It's not going to be the up and
down kind of phillip Rivers era as long as Jim
Harbaugh is there. In retrospect, do you think things would
(37:21):
have played out better if the Chargers were the team
that went to Vegas and the Raiders stayed in Oakland.
Rams would get LA all to themselves. Oakland doesn't lose
their team, so the Raiders keep their core fans, and
the Chargers get a new billion dollar stadium plus a
state all to themselves. The Raiders could have even moved
back to their roots in LA if Oakland couldn't afford them,
(37:44):
couldn't afford to keep them. I think Oakland fans would
say their roots in LA. They were in Oakland, and
you guys took them from us for fifteen years. When
they came back, well, I was you know. Some might
say I became a podcaster because of my takes on
this story and It's Heyday. The Raiders and me butted
heads over this one, and at the time I had
(38:07):
a big core group of Raider fans and I felt
really bad for them, and I talked a lot of
shit about the Vegas move. It was an emotional take
and I was completely wrong. The best thing that ever
happened to the Raiders by a mile, was leaving Oakland
and going to Vegas. Financially, they're at a different level.
It's great for the league. Now you can say their
(38:27):
home games are altered. That is true. It was not
sustainable what was happening, and there was just a siphon.
It's like another team playing in Chicago, another team playing
in Philly, another team playing in Dallas. It's not the
forty nine ers take too much of the energy, and
you were always gonna be the little brother, and so
(38:50):
moving from a financial standpoint, from a market standpoint makes
a lot of sense. Now you get a win. But
the league also was never gonna allow them to go
to LA. They weren't allowing the Raiders to go to
Los Angeles like that. That was a big thing. They
weren't gonna It wasn't gonna happen. So I think it
worked out best actually for the Raiders and the Ramps,
(39:14):
the Chargers. I think Dean would say there is an
economic element to San Diego. They clearly have more money
in Los Angeles. Clearly a little bit of an afterthought. Obviously, Listen, financially,
the Chargers and the Raiders benefited greatly. The Raiders have
(39:36):
the city to themselves in Vegas is while the casino industry,
like tangibly the Strip. I think it's going through hard times.
I would bet the farm on the overall economic ceiling
of Vegas. No taxes, companies will move there, so it
might shift from being gambling heavy to other industries. But
(40:00):
I got news for you. New companies aren't probably starting
in California over the next one hundred years. When you
factor in taxes and getting employees to move like Vegas
is gonna benefit greatly. They already have. So it was
a huge win. Every team left Oakland, every single one.
The A's were the team that desperately tried the most
and had the hardest time. Joe Laca bought the Warriors
(40:21):
to move them to San Francisco, and Mark Davis had
desperately been trying to leave. So I think everyone kind
of won. It's it's not a perfect situation, but I
think we got the right outcome. If you've never been
to the Coliseum, I mean obviously the older stadiums that
are now long gone. It is a relic. It is
(40:43):
such a dump. I can't even it's harder to describe.
I mean it's I would take dynamite and blow that
bitch to smither rings. I would go to baseball games.
The A's would be playing like the Yankees. Wow, the
Yankees will get fans, but definitely a random team. It
(41:04):
was like A's Rangers, this major League Baseball. This when
the A's were winning like ninety five games. I mean,
they had teams that you thought could win the World Series.
They always shit the bed in the playoffs. You would
go to a game on Wednesday and I shit you not,
there were seven hundred people in the park. It's like,
what is going on? It just it's it's kind of
(41:25):
sad what happened because once upon a time, obviously the
Raiders in the seventies, the A's in the seventies and eighties,
those times are long gone. And I think a huge
reason is that the forty nine ers in the San
Francsco Giants, their success, their corporate success of getting the sponsors,
it just separated. You know, little mom and pop shops
(41:47):
that used to crush it and then Target moves in
next door put you out of business. Luckily for those teams,
A's who knows the Raiders are fine. When we discussed
the greatest coaches of all time, we usually bring up
the guys that have the most super which is completely
valid in your opinion. Who are some of the best
coaches that don't have a Super Bowl? It's a good question.
(42:07):
I would say Brian Schottenneimer's dad obviously would be near
the top of that list. When I was a kid,
I mean I felt like Marty's teams. I even missed
some of his Cleveland teams that lost to John Elway
in that famous drive game, but his Kansas City teams
were awesome. He just couldn't get it done. I would
(42:30):
say currently, you know, forever it was Andy Reid and
then obviously he shut everyone up. Kyle right now has
to be near the top. I mean, you have a
lot of guys in the league right now. I mean,
Kyle's been a two Super Bowls and had leads in
the second half, lost them both. Now they both come
to Andy and Patrick. But you know, you'd say, like
Mike Vrabel, Like Mike Rabel's been a one championship game.
(42:52):
So it's like if you get to super Bowls and lose,
you know, Marv Levy losing to those Bills games. Did
Marv Levy ever win a Super Bowl somewhere else? I
don't think he did, but that was a little before
my time. A lot of guys any think about the
best coaches win super Bowls? Marvel Levy man, I never
(43:13):
want it. Coached in the Canadian League for a while,
I would say Marty Schottenheimer would be near the top.
I would say currently it'd have to be Kyle just
bend To too. Lost them both and he gets knocked
for the one that he was offensive coordinator for. I
(43:35):
noticed that koc has been missing on play calling. He's
great as a head coach, but has been regressing on
the play calling. Do you think it's time for him
to give up play calling and focus on the players.
I heard someone say I haven't seen the clip that
he kind of admitted either on Sunday. I don't think
it was after the game. It might have been on
Monday or Wednesday's press conference. He didn't really change the
(43:56):
game plan for the for the kid that came in
and what was an unmitigated disaster. I think it's really
really hard to judge in these type situations, Like I
don't know what he's really supposed to do, like last
week on the road in Seattle that had disaster written
all over it. JJ McCarthy, like Bill Walsh could be
(44:21):
calling place. If he's overthrowing guys by seventeen feet, what
are you gonna do? So? I just I don't know.
I no one would look good in this situation, not
a soul. My boyfriend deactivated his Instagram accounts, sol I'm
asking this question for him. Do you think about dak
to the Vikings in the off season, assuming the Cowboys
(44:42):
fizzle out before or during the playoffs. They seem like
they're gonna sign George Pickens, they have the draft capital
for Micah to trade, and if the Vikings give them
a first and possibly a second, maybe throwing JJ McCarthy,
that there is no chance that the Cowboys are getting
ready to deck all Jerry has said for like the
last seven years, like he's our most important player, he's
our most important He's more important than Michael Parsons. Kind
(45:06):
of proven right. I also think that last night, I'm
recording this on Friday was a rough moment for George,
and I text multiple high ranking NFL officials what would
you do? Like would you pay George Pickens? And both
of them are replied essentially f no, no chance, and
there is no disputing his talent, but like you're gonna
(45:27):
give this is the cost of doing business with a
wide receiver. It's like, wow, we can get him two
years twenty million dollars. I mean minimum he'd want like
four years one hundred million dollars. You got to get
into business with people you can trust, like CDs had
some drops or whatever. But the guy's war Daddy Dak.
(45:48):
I'll go to War Dak Prescott. Look at their guys
on defense playing their ass off. George's like, oh no, no, no, no, no,
no no. I keep thinking about Mike Tomlin walking around
the office just going on, like I've told everyone, you
guys watching this. It's like Mike, we're six and six
and we're circling the drink. I don't care. You see
George lollygagon on that comeback route. He was a lollygagon.
(46:10):
I thought that he's talking shit to Richard Sherman because
Richard was like, bro, you gotta play harder. It's like George,
if you want the random people like US podcasters talking
like say in your Lollygagon, I can understand, but you
might want to google that guy's resume, like no one's
like yeah, Richard's dogs It guy had won at a pretty
(46:31):
high clip. I would say this LB would have taken
your ass out if you were playing like that. That
When those guys are saying that, especially someone like him,
that's offensive to them. Right, it's a you're gonna lose.
It's it's sports, it's life. You're not always gonna win.
But I think one thing I'm about to have a son,
(46:52):
like the one lesson that any father tries to teach
a young man is like we don't quit, and if
you're gonna do something, you gotta try hard. Right Listen,
you might not be good at it, but if you're
doing it, you gotta try. These are like basic principles
of life. It's why I have so much respect. I
mean I was I already really liked the player and
(47:15):
liked the guy and everything he stood for. But my
respect for amanas Saint Brown, Like he's everything you would
want in a player. He's everything that the Steelers when
they were rolling the Ravens, Like those are the type
guys they go to war with back in like the
two thousands. It's that type player. I'm seventy five percent
who gives a shit, shoot me up, tape it up.
(47:36):
In this roll, you got George like Amos's Ben paid
his direct deposits, already hit with big numbers. George is
the one that wants a contract and he's playing like that.
It was just I have a lot of respect for
making it to the NFL, and it's it's I didn't
play in the NFL, so it's who am I to
(47:57):
be like, Oh, this guy, but you know you're working
per now. It's just kind of how they talk. The
reality is is certain people are not good enough, right,
But then you get someone like this who clearly has
a ton of talent, who's a blue chiper from Georgia.
But there was a reason when you google him, he
didn't go in like the top twenty. And there's a
reason if you just know people in the NFL and
(48:17):
you started texting, like what do you think of this guy?
Just just wait. That's a consistent theme if you just
text scouts, Oh yeah, it's going well, now, just wait.
I don't blame the Cowboys for making the move, but
you have moments like that that would almost be a
defining moment for me, like I can't pay you, no chance,
can't happen. I can't do business with that. How do
(48:41):
I say to CD, like, I know you just got
a concussion, you were about to go for two hundred
and fifty yards and your running made over here is
just I don't know, going for a jog. That's the
type stuff like well run organizations do not tolerate it.
And Jared, you know, I think Jerry clearly like they
(49:03):
have a lot of high level guys, but that's one
where you know the coaching staff, how much juice they have.
It'll be interesting how that plays out. I find the
(49:26):
AFC North coaching situation fascinating. Harbaugh Tomlin have each won
a Super Bowl, Taylor has been to one, and Kevin
Stefanski is a two time Coach of the Year. And
I think all fan bases would agree they've been largely
underwhelmed or frustrated with their coaches in recent years. My
question is this, how would you rank these four coaches
on the hot seat are right now and Secondly, how
would you rank them as potential candidates if they hit
(49:48):
the market. I personally believe three of the four would
quickly quickly get another job. I think Zach Taylor would
clearly be the last guy. I think Stefanski, who has
not had a good year, been really weird the last
couple of years, is really highly thought of. I think
people would blame the owner. I think the first two guys,
(50:09):
I mean, the New York Giants would be all over
either one. The New York Giants John Marrow would cut
off like his pinky tote, hire one of those two
guys to be his coach right now so their market.
They would be hired so fast you your head would spin.
I think Stefanski, I don't know if he'd be one
(50:31):
hundred percent locked, but I think someone would. I don't
think anyone hire Zach Taylor. Maybe that's not fair, but
I just think that's just narratives momentum. People just think
it's all Joe Burrow. I mean, I don't know, so
I do wonder what if the Steelers do somehow just
(50:52):
win the division at nine to eight and the Ravens miss.
Could John Harbaugh be in trouble because again I think
the Giants would immediately hire the guy. And again part
of it also is like who else are you hiring?
Would the Steelers or the Ravens hire Stefanski because he
can call plays? That's a good question. Well end on
this speaking of Joe Burrow, speaking of a guy that's
(51:16):
zoned in, there is I use this analogy with Amen
ros Saint Brown. Just proving that you will play through
an injury. The toughness and the mentality that it shows
the entire team is something that you can't quantify, right,
And the momentum of Joe Burrow, even his pregame interview
on Thanksgiving, was like, I make a lot of money,
(51:39):
I don't care what our record is. If I can play,
I can play. And clearly when he's playing, he's one
of the best players in the league. And this week
they're playing the Bills, who the Bills had a pretty
embarrassing moment happened to him this week. They cut this guy,
I forget his first name, his last name is Ingram
to claim Darius Slay. They claimed Darius Lay. Ingram then
(52:02):
gets claimed by the Texans, Darius lay quits and Ingram
is now on the Texans, and Sean McDermott is like,
what just happened? And McDermott loved that player, but they
needed to make a roster spot. I don't know exactly
how it happened. Disastrous personnel move, I mean, embarrassing, there's
no way around it. And they are fighting for their
(52:24):
lives just to keep up and have a chance to
win the division, a division in which they've dominated. Now
they do well at home, but as my buddy Ethan
diehard Bills fan, text me today, he said, Bengals kind
of holess and I think this line of the Bills
minus six against Joe Burrow t Higgins's back is kind
of crazy, and like I started looking at it because
(52:48):
I thought, listen, like they don't they're four and eight. Well,
the other two teams are chasing are six and six.
One of those two teams is gonna lose, and especially
if it's an ugly game that there's those teams could
lose to anybody at any time. So if you just
run the table, which would be possible if you win
this week, and it's been kind of a weird year
for the Bills, and then they had that moment this
(53:09):
week they cut a guy that they would not have
cut if they didn't want to claim a guy who
doesn't want to play for them and then just quits
and retires. That rattles the front office coaching staff because
someone in that organization, especially if it wasn't a coach,
is pounding the table. Darius Slays an upgrade, which is insane.
He just got bench for a terrible defense and just
it's it's that could rattle you. The Bengals come in
(53:31):
with nothing to lose their quarterbacks back to Higgins's back.
It would not shock me. You watch Shoe Burrow throw
a couple of touchdowns. He's comfortable playing this team like
they have kind of dominated. The Bills beat him a
lot over the years. I'm excited to watch Burrow play
and they win. Don't let the Bengals get hot and
(53:52):
Zach Taylor kind of move up that ranking. The volume
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