3 & Out - The Herd Update, Jaire Alexander and the Ravens, Caleb Williams and Bryce Young get humbled - The Herd with Colin Cowherd

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. What is going on? Everybody? How are we doing?
John Middlecop that'd be me three and out podcasts, that'd

(00:22):
be this show. My voice is coming around, had a
wicked head cold, signus infection. Who knows a lot of
stuff going on, but we're battling, so you gotta bear
with me. I'm down in Los Angeles because I got
to call a couple weeks ago from a man some
of you have heard him named Colin Coward. He's like, John,
you want to come down to LA and McIntyre's he's

(00:44):
off for a couple of days doing something. You want
to fill in for a couple days. I said, you
know what, Colin, I'm there because whatever he asked me anything,
my first answer is always yes. So I'm here. We'll
go over that experience really quick, filling in for a
couple days for McIntire Jason and doing a little herd
line news. So I did that today on Monday, do

(01:05):
that again on Tuesday, and do that again on Wednesday,
and then and then head back to Scottsdale. Colin's here
in LA with me from Chicago. So we'll discuss that experience,
talk about some other football stuff, and uh do a
Little mail Bag as well at John Middlecoff. At John
Middlecoff is the Instagram fire in those dms and the plan.
I think I think I'll do a Go Low podcast tomorrow.

(01:28):
A lot happened yesterday. I was watching on the plane
Keeth and Bradley come back on Tommy Fleetwood. Obviously, football,
we got a little bit of a break now for
a couple of months. A couple of months will be strong,
about five six weeks until training camp starts, so we
just got a we gotta dig deep and for me,
I gotta, I gotta entertain, So I'm ready. So we

(01:48):
Go Low podcast tomorrow and love podcasts the rest of
the week as well. But I'll be on with Colin
the next couple of days exciting down here in Los Angeles,
and uh, let's record a podcast. But obviously if you
listen to this on Collins Feed, make sure subscribe to
three Now podcast. We also have a YouTube channel which
all of our content is up there as well, so
go check that out YouTube. It's type in middle coof

(02:09):
all of our content we have you covered before we
talk a little football, you know, I gotta tell you
about my friends, my partners in the official ticketing app
of this podcast, Game Time best in the business. It's
the summer. You know. I got the Dodgers here down
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Do you want to go to a baseball game this summer?
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(02:30):
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a comedy show, if you want to get out of
the house, go enjoy yourself, do something fun. That's what
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(02:50):
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(03:11):
Los Angeles, shooting, taping, recording, uh, doing the Herd live,
which uh, which was cool. A couple weeks ago, Coward
calls me. I actually was recording a podcast and I
saw a miscall and I was like, you're gonna tell
me they just signed the Kelsey's three and out is
on the street and I call him back and he's like, uh,
what are you thinking? What are you doing in a

(03:31):
couple weeks. Let me check the schedule. I look at
my schedule. There's not much on it. Come to summer months,
and he's like, would you be interested in h McIntyre's
out of town. I just someone brought your name up,
Like yeah, why don't we just use middle cough Like yeah,
I'd do it, and he's like, okay, So I've known
for a couple of weeks. I was gonna come down

(03:52):
here on Sunday yesterday. My mother in law's in town
with my wife, so I'm like, okay, I'm going to
Los Angeles. You guys, you guys have a good time,
and uh yeah. A couple of years ago, it was
probably like twenty nineteen. I most of you were not
probably listening to the show then some of you diehards
on the audio side, we didn't even have a video portion.
I was doing three and out for him. Then. This

(04:13):
was before the volume, and I came down here because
I know a lot of guys on his staff at
the time, a guy named John Goulay for any of
you longtime Coward listeners, was like his main producer. Now
it's Ryan and Toohey and some other guys that I've
also known for a while, And I said, hey, can
I just come down and just kind of watch and
just see how the sausage is made? And I remember
coming down and being blown away. You know, for those

(04:34):
of us on the West Coast, the show doesn't start
till nine am. They're in the meeting, you know, calling
at the head of the seat like you know, godfather,
and then probably ten plus people surrounding him, you know
that work on the team, and they are just firing
through takes, right. I mean today it was a little unique.
It was after Game seven of the NBA Finals, so
you get some idea going in, you know, I would

(04:55):
imagine they're going to talk some hoops and basketball, but
it's just them throwing takes and Colin throwing takes back,
and it is it's really impressive. I mean, listen, this
is when you're a podcaster. Obviously the volume is now
way more than a startup, but you know you kind
of lose one thing I miss kind of in the
Daily Grind. And it's why as my family expands, hopefully,

(05:20):
then you know, I get an office and get a
place where you can be around other people because the
energy and the the ability to be creative in those
scenarios is pretty eye opening. And obviously when you have
Fox the support here, I mean they're like, hey, middle Coffe,
you're sitting at the front of the bird. Hey Middlecoff,
you're in the Sweet Hotel. I'm like, in in, I'm
gonna bring Chipotle to my room. But you know you

(05:42):
get there. I mean I walk in. I was technically late,
you know, I had to wait for the car picked
me up. And then I'm sitting there six fifteen, they're
already rattling off takes again three hours until the show starts.
So it's just it's a really really impressive operation. A
ton of good people and uh Collins just a unique talent.

(06:04):
He just gets there and he starts he starts slinging them.
It's also kind of I would say, less stressful for
me given that me and him do a podcast, I
don't know, thirty weeks a year for years on end now,
so it felt pretty comfortable, even though it's, you know,
this is not a podcast, a little more corporate, you

(06:25):
gotta they're like, you got a button that that top button.
We don't we don't need that, uh you know that
taco meat flying out. But we've had some trail blazers
Jay Glazer and some Craig carton now, so we bald
people are a little more uh welcomed in Hollywood. It's
also cool that where the where the Fox studios are,
and I think this is also where they shoot like

(06:46):
the Fox pregame show where Terry Jimmy I think Jimmy
actually just retired, but you know Howie and Gronk and
all those guys. Is kind of in that it's also
on like the Fox production lot. So I'm pretty sure
they're like literally right next to it are where movies
are shot. I mean, I I'm pretty sure there's a

(07:07):
street that's basically just New York City. There's a street
that looks like Chicago, and there are just I didn't
see any actual movies or television shows being shot, but
it's pretty clear like this is a Hollywood lot where
and listen, as you get older, there aren't as many
things that kind of I think are kind of cool,
that are like I'm gonna turn this corner and look

(07:29):
down there. Right. It's like I walked in to fill
my water after the show and there's Paul Pierce. That's
kind of cool. Paul Pierce, NBA Champ. I was always
a big fan of the teams he was on with
with Doc and KG. But then I remember walking out
to go get lunch after the show. I'm like, this
is where fucking movies and television shows are made, and
it's just it's kind of surreal. It really is. And
these guys is kind of where they work and what

(07:51):
they do, and you just kind of be I say
it all the time, this is why do something you
like because even when you do a cool job, you
kind of become numb to it. Like these guys every
day they know they got to come in with takes.
I gotta have stuff ready. There's an operation, there's an execution,
and whether you work, you know, for a plumbing service
or on the Fox lot, your job, you better enjoy

(08:13):
what you're doing because you know every day the sun
comes up and you gotta be ready to roll. I mean,
these guys, I give them a lot of respect that
they are up and at them early every day. I mean,
that's the one thing as a podcaster, and I know
when I do my best stuff, it's actually usually more
toward like I would say, lunchtime afternoon. When I was

(08:35):
doing radio for a while, I did the morning show
a couple of times. I hated it. I'm just I'm
not not a morning person. Like I'm not a huge
sleep in guy anymore, but it does take my brain
a second to wake up. It was, you know, you
just you're a guest. So you walk in the meeting's
going at six fifteen in the morning. It's not like
I could canvass the landscape and like, where can I

(08:56):
grab my coffee? So I wasn't even able to get
coffee till eight o'clock. So I basically it was in
the shower at five point fifteen, five twenty in the morning.
He didn't have coffee of late. I remember, just mentally,
you got a tough it out and it's like, God,
this first world problems. I'm claiming that I haven't had
caffeine in my own head. But really cool and just
just a pretty pretty high level operation. Not shocking that

(09:16):
Colin's been at the top of the game for so
long and there are a lot of people that you know,
many people on the outside don't know that clearly helped
make the show go round, and just cool to to
get invited down in doing it. So it's it's nice
to mix up the routine of the of the podcast
world because we're just a little more wild wild West

(09:37):
to what the fuck I want this? A little more structured,
you know, put on a nice shirt, shave in the morning,
so it's be presentable, no no swearing, Look up straight,
sit ups, sit, you have your back straight. Say okay,
not no one told me that, but I was just
trying to look presentable, mainly for my mother. But other
than that, I had a good time this morning. Okay,

(09:59):
couple NFL thinks we had. We actually talked about this
on the show a little bit today that JayR Alexander,
who played with Lamar Jackson at Louisville, who was most
people thought like was gonna get a restructured contract and
stay with the Packers, ended up getting cut, and then
they made some comments that he was making too much

(10:19):
money not playing enough, which is totally understandable. Immediately signs
with the Ravens. And you know, anytime that a quote
unquote bigger name guy signs or guy former pro bowler
signs with the team, it's like Jaire Alexander signs with
the Ravens. Simple reality. With the Ravens, their defense has
been good. Now since Lamar Jackson has got there, they

(10:41):
have played championship level defense several times in the Lamar
Jackson era. The one year I think was the second
year when he won the MVP and they were the
one seed and Derrick Henry went through him like as
Nick Saban would say, shit through a tin horn, maybe
bird shit or rats hit through a tin horn. That
was bad. But over the last couple of years Lamar

(11:02):
let him down. I mean two years ago in that
playoff game, he was atrocious, and last year he just
played one good half of football where they really needed
at least three quarters. And I've said this before about
Dak Prescott, and obviously Lamar Jackson is a better player
than Dak Prescott I for a long time. I don't
know if I still feel that way now the Dak's
coming off a couple different injuries. I did think if

(11:22):
his team was good enough, he could play well enough
for them to win a Super Bowl. Now he hasn't
done it, but if he just played three good playoff games,
he is a good enough player. Eli Manning proved that
he got hot a couple of times in playoff stretches
and they won the Super Bowl. If you have a
good defense, and you have a good team, and you're
like a top tennis quarterback and you get hot, you
could be a major freaking problem. Flacco did it one time, right,

(11:44):
he'd been on a really good team, been on a
really good team and they get scorching hot and they
win the Super Bowl. And Lamar Jackson is better than
these guys obviously, But right now, like the biggest question
with the Ravens is not going to be like how
deep first secondary? Secondary's always good? How good is their
defensive line? I don't know, top five in the league usually,
Brokewan Smith second best linebacker in football. You could argue,

(12:05):
you know, Fred Warner banged up last year, might have
been the best middle linebacker in football. Defense is what
the Ravens do. It's literally their brand. So you gotta
talk about what are you get in tacos? Like when
I turned on Baltimore Raven football, I expect people to
get crushed. And even last year it's like their defense
started a little weird, got figured out by the second
half and they were fantastic. But in that playoff game,

(12:25):
what happened. The offense let him down. Lamar had a fumble,
Lamar had an awful pick, obviously a couple of the
drops from a star tight end like this game, and
this sport now has pretty consistently come down to, especially
in the AFC, the top quarterbacks making big plays in
the big spots. Now, if your defense screws you, and
it happened to Josh Allen a couple of times, nothing
you can do. If Lamar Jackson played in a game

(12:47):
against the Chiefs where they scored thirty five points, it's
not gonna be on him. Happened to Aaron Rodgers a
couple times. But by think these last couple of years,
they were both two games that Lamar Jackson would like
back and listen, he's proven he's good enough. I've seen
him play in the regular season. I do think he
has it in him now maybe as it goes by,
And this happened to Peyton Manning for a while, there
was like this. I sometimes hate the word narrative because

(13:10):
it's just like, that's just a fact that it's not
a creative story. Peyton Manning early on his career, I
was a huge fan, was not the most dependable player
in the playoffs. He was a guy when they would
play mainly the Patriots, he was going to be at
a disadvantage. And then he figured out why because he's
a great player and he was gonna have great moments

(13:30):
in the playoffs sooner than later. Some guys never do right.
James Harden clearly is just a guy the Brice come on,
it gets a little too bright for him. His style
doesn't work like He's just not as good in the
playoffs as he's been in the regular season. For most
quarterbacks who are great, they have playoff moments. I believe
Lamar Jackson will and the Ravens signing this guy whether

(13:50):
he's good, If he's good, awesome, If you tell me
that he plays in five games, zero impact. I think
he has zero impact on their ability to win a
Super Bowl because the only impact in terms of getting
over the hump will be can Lamar Jackson have one
of his I run for one hundred and twenty yards
and throw three touchdowns because I'll promise you this. If
he does, they're probably beating the Bills or the Chiefs

(14:12):
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(16:02):
talked about this a little bit last week you know,
the NFL has been a lot different than basketball historically.
Even Kevin Durant was asked when he got traded at FanFest.
He's like, yeah, I had an input. I told him
where I wanted to go, and I let it be
known like I'm interested in going to these places. So
if you're interested in trading for me and you want
me to stay, you better know that I want to

(16:22):
come there. And that's kind of how the NBA works,
and that's on the lighter scale. Typically it was like
Anthony Davis, I'm only going to the Lakers, you know,
Kevin Durant, I'm only going to the Suns. It's actually
surprising when it's like I'll give you these three or
four teams. Here are my four options. And the NFL
over the course of the economic boom, which has been

(16:44):
great for owners. We have a family friend who was
taking a delayed honeymoon because they had a baby last year,
and they were in Italy and they saw Jerry's yacht
and the Google did a I think the thing was
like seventy or eighty million. So it's business been booming
for everyone involved in the NFL, well, the owners, the coaches,
the players, everyone's gotten rich. But as these contracts have

(17:05):
gone up and up and up, players have gotten a
little more juice. I mean, part of the reason NBA
players have so much juice is one, one individual guy
impacts so much of the sport. And two, like the
top guys all make I don't know, two hundred and
fifty three hundred four million dollar contract. These contracts are huge. Spaseball,
the top guys, they are getting five hundred and six hundred,

(17:26):
seven hundred million dollars. It was like Rafael Dever's like,
we don't want to pay anymore. They signed to a
three hundred million dollar contract. So anytime that you pay
people that much money in business, when you pay when
you buy a company for one hundred million dollars, that's
a big purchase. I mean Google once purchased YouTube for
a billion dollars. Didn't Showyotani just signed for seven hundred

(17:46):
and twenty didn't didn't want Soto just signed for seven
hundred million dollars. I mean, these are astronomical sums of money.
One football, Now, these quarterbacks, you know Josh Allen's over
a course of six seven years, lamar j, they've already
talked about giving him a contract extension. These guys will
have accumulated three four five hundred million dollars, so you
are very very invested in. But it's not even just

(18:08):
the quarterbacks now. You know, Terry mclaurin's told now he
wants a hundred million dollars guaranteed. Brandon Ayuk last year
held out. He got seventy five million dollars guarant There.
These are wide receivers. I like McLaurin more than Ayuk.
But these are guys catching seventy five eighty balls. This
is not Jamar Chase or Justin Jefferson, TJ. Watt, Miles Garrett,
Max Kristans. Guy are getting a hundred million dollars. This

(18:30):
is like their third contract. I mean. So these guys
now have a lot of power and it's become more
of a player friendly league, you know. In OTA's my
first year in the NFL was twenty ten, and in
twenty eleven the lockout happened and everything changed in terms
of the rules at training camp and OTAs and double

(18:52):
days and all that Stuff's gone well early on during
the new CBA in the twenty twelve thirteen fourteen to
fifty rane teams getting in trouble. Remember Seattle, they got
in trouble for being too physical in an Ota practice.
Same thing with John Harbaugh. I think John Harbaugh ran
some special teams drills where they put on shoulder pads
and what happened. They got turned in and they got

(19:14):
they got dinged. I think practices that would never have
happened in the eighties and nineties, when it truly was
basically on the on the pie chart version, players had
little to no say. You know, it was you were
well compensated and you were famous, but in terms of
like you weren't telling the team what to do. Now
it's like players like, yeah, we don't really show up

(19:35):
to many camps, and if we don't feel like practicing
that hard, we don't practice that hard. And there's a
there's much more of a balance, I would say now
than ever before. And when I see this story that
there are several elements to the Rams taking the team
to Hawaii. One of them is just simple business. The
RAMS did a deal with Hawaiian tourism. Hawaii's trying to

(19:56):
get the tourism back after the fires. But I also think,
like Lombardi, Parcels, Holme Grens, Shanahan's, Mike Hankyle Belichick, these
old school coaches, This is not something that they would
have done. This is a very modern thing. That's where
Sean McVay strikes his balance of having a little collegiate

(20:19):
feel to him, and you just see the way that
it happened, and I think he learned. I think he
learned a big lesson in the way he handled Jared Goff,
because he handled the Jared Goff situation shitting on him
publicly once that he is in something that he has
been outspoken about and regretting for, and something he's gone
to Jared and talked about and just wasn't a good

(20:40):
look something that coaches would have done consistently in the seventies,
the eighties and nineties, even the two thousands. Now, I
think he got to be a little more careful with that.
And part of it is Jared Goff's a good guy
and obviously a pretty good player. He's had a little
rough stretch. Everyone got frustrated. But you look at the
way Sean McVay handled the Matt Stafford thing, handled it
much more like an NBA situation. We want him here,

(21:02):
We'll let him explore we'll do whatever he wants to do.
We want to do right by the player. We have
a number, but this is important to us. We're on
Matt Stafford's side. We're in this together. And I think
a huge part of these OTAs now because when I
had John Schneider on the pod a couple weeks ago.
If you haven't heard that, check that out. He was like,

(21:22):
I think he told me this before the podcast started,
is that they were going to cancel the last practice
of voluntary mini camp. He's like, we're only going to
have the for Tuesday and Wednesday. These OTAs in mini
camps are basically a glorified cardio workout. It's why it's
so embarrassing some of these guys that skip these, that
have kickers of one hundred, two hundred, five hundred thousand
dollars workout bonuses. Like, Guys, I understand you're making ten, fifteen,

(21:45):
twenty million dollars, but in no other line of work,
regardless how much you're making, would you just give away
five hundred thousand dollars to do something that you would
be doing anyway. You're literally just at home working out,
you might as well just go there and work out
for a couple weeks and then bounce. This is really
really easy. So these guys take everyone to Hawaii, take
their families and it's a bonding experiment. I'm seeing clips

(22:07):
with them playing golf and there is a lot of
positive momentum for the the Los Angeles Rams coming into
the season. And the thing that has kind of slowed
them down the last couple years they started slow. If
they could start fast and they could stay healthy, you
know Jared Verse and Fist, the two guys they took
out of Florida State. Obviously, if Stafford can play at
a high level, you bring DeVante, which I would expect

(22:28):
to have a big year. I think the Rams are
a team. I mean they went to toe with the Eagles
last year. Why because their physical style works. Matt Stafford
is a quarterback that, when he's playing at a high level,
can play up against anyone in the league. It's Mahomes,
it's Josh, that's Lamar Like. He can go toe to
toe with those guys on an individual game basis. Maybe
not over the course of seventeen games. But I think

(22:49):
you're just looking at more of a modern day football team,
and that is kind of players friendly I was flipping
around YouTube yesterday hanging out the hotel, and I watched
this talk between Peyton Eli and Bryce and Caleb Williams.
And one thing that's always struck me, and I've mentioned
this forever when I used to go to games a lot,

(23:11):
is that these quarterbacks in the Peyton and Eli era,
they're enormous. Palin and Eli, Tom Brady, these guys are
Carson Palmer, these guys, Philip Rivers. These guys are massive,
Joe Flacco. You're talking six four and a half to
six six, all of them were two hundred and thirty
to two hundred and forty pounds. None of them could run,
but they were just massive Broethlisberger fucking horses. And now

(23:36):
you see them next to Bryce who's five ten a
buck ninety and Caleb, who is bigger than Bryce but
still relative to that era of quarterbacks, not that big,
and I think, you know, and they were trying to
give them advice, and you know, Peyton's talked about he's
he's very positive when it comes to quarterbacks, like he's

(23:56):
not a guy that's gonna be overly critical and shit
on guys, which I would like, but that's not really
going to be his style is The record for interceptions
in year one was Peyton Manning through twenty eight, and
he mentioned in this talk he threw ten in his
first three games. The ball's hard and playing quarterbacks hard,
and I don't give a shit how hyped up you are,

(24:19):
what your accolades were coming out of college. If you're
going number one, even if there's a trade, like with
Kayleb Williams, you're typically going to a bad team. You're
not usually going to an Andy Reid, a Kyle Shanahan,
a Bill Belichick led operation. So you go into a
franchise that typically the coaching is unstable and the pressure
is a Mets and nowadays with social media, the intensity

(24:40):
of it is speaks for itself. But Bryce Shung was
really humbled, and looking at it, I had forgotten, you
know what a big time barely lost in high school
and in college. By his first year starting they were.
They beat Georgia in the SEC Championship, and if it
wouldn't have been for a couple of injuries, he might
have been a national championship all our national champion. All

(25:02):
the guy had done is win, you know, Caleb. It's
weird because his team his senior year sucked and they
haven't been good the last two years, but his last
year at USC they were not good. But he didn't
get any of the blame. The coach got all the blame,
the program got all the blame, the state of USC

(25:24):
football got the blame, the recruiting got the blame. It
was not put on him. And in fairness, like in
some of their games even than that they won. I
remember they beat Arizona in an overtime game when he
was at USC. Shit, the only reason they were in
that game was him. But sometimes when that happens, like,
there's not my fault, and then all everyone's talking about
is he's gonna go number one. He's gonna go number one.

(25:44):
He's gonna go number one. He's gonna go number one.
And he did. And honestly, looking back, Ryan Poles didn't
really even I mean didn't even bring another quarterback during
that time. So you have to think Bryce Young was
as has as any young quarterback I can remember, and
handled it as good as you possibly can. He was

(26:04):
benched after a couple of games and came back and
I would say resurrected his career got to a point
where it's like he can be a legitimate starter in
the league now for a minimum a couple of years,
Like he's getting a little runway now. He has proven
that over the course of the second half of the season.
And Caleb, it never got that bad, though there were
some conversations last year that people internally were like, hey,

(26:26):
let's go to Tyson. That was kind of crazy. And
coach gets fired, everyone gets embarrassed, the franchisees and shambles.
But you have to wonder sometimes humility, and it's easy
to be like you's got to humble yourself sometimes when
you're young and everyone's giving you a reach around and
everyone's calling you the greatest thing since slice spread. Sometimes
it's hard. Sometimes you just got to get in the

(26:47):
arena of whatever you're doing and just suck at it
to realize, like this is hard because every old quarterback
and this what Peyton and Eli were telling him, like
this game is so hard. You prepare, you work so hard.
And I think Eli said this that you know, it
never gets easy. It gets easier because of your experiences,
because of what you've seen, but it never gets easy.

(27:11):
And I think for these guys, especially when you're a
big time athlete like Caleb Williams. You're used to running
away from guys being able to make plays. Being when
you make the throws on the run everything you can
be lining it into an area that another guy can't
make a play well. In the NFL, that guy might
be Marlin Humphrey. That guy might be jy R. Alexander.
That guy might be Ed Reed or Troy Paulamler who

(27:31):
Fred Warner who's covering your tight end? Or ro Quand
Smith or you name it. All these guys on all
the good teams can play, and all the coordinators in
your division on defense are good. So being humbled sometimes
in life is forced upon you when you're young. Usually
as you get older, it's pretty easy at different times

(27:53):
in your life to humble yourself, to take a deep breath,
to you know, look in the mirror. Sometimes you know
because we have perspective, been around a little bit longer.
But when you're younger and you don't really know what,
you don't really know. Sometimes it's fortunate it happened to Bryce,
it happened to Caleb, and you really get two options.
Now for Caleb, he got Ben Johnson, who This is

(28:15):
what's weird about this situation. And I've said this before,
is the pressure coming into this year? I've seen in
other spots and this is what happened to Anthony Richardson,
Like the pressure was not on Shane Stiken. We've seen
Shane Sdyken. People think he's a good coach. We saw
him win games with Gardner Minshew. We saw him turn
Jalen Hurts into a high level starting quarterback. Like people

(28:35):
think Shane Stikeen knows what he's doing. It's an Anthony
Richardson issue. It's like when Trey Lance was thrown in
there after a while, It's like, this is not on
Kyle Shanahan. This guy can't play. I know Ben Johnson
can call plays. We've seen it now for years. I
know they had a talented offense. But his play calling,
his trickeration, his feel for it. We talk about this
all the time. Certain people have instincts, right, Certain people

(28:58):
are just instinctive about what they do. People it's with business.
Some people, it's with you know, Colin and just his
ability to hold a conversation and keep you engaged. Why
he's great at doing what he's doing for a living.
We see it with coaches. Some coaches. If you just
got me ten quarterback coaches in the NFL, and you
gave me a whiteboard and a sharpie, and I just said,

(29:18):
let's talk football, all ten of them, and I'll give
each of them fifteen minutes, they would all blow you away.
It would be insane. They could all get to the
levels of football where your job would be on the floor.
It's like, is this guy speaking Chinese? But if I
gave them all the same team, same weapons, same aligned,
same quarterback, and we played two games, each of them
got two games, there would be a couple of coaches

(29:40):
that would be dramatically better than the other at calling plays,
cause it is there's a feel, there's an instinct to it.
McVeigh has it, Kyle has it, Andy Reid's had it forever.
It's defensive coaches too, you know. And some guys aren't
that good at it, Like Jim Harbaugh, it's not really
his thing. Don't even know if he would know how
to do it. It doesn't matter. It's not what he's trying
to do. But so many of these Kevin O'Connell like,
they have a feel for calling plays. And you see

(30:01):
some coordinators that immediately get overwhelmed. And sometimes it's their
personnel's not great, but it's like, yeah, Luke getz, he's
just not good at this job. He's just not that
good at this job. Could he be better if he
had Patrick Mahomes and Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelse. He
probably would, But I think something's missing here. And I
think sometimes when it comes to a guy getting their

(30:21):
first job. I know, Ben Johnson can call plays, and
we saw it with Sean McVay, like the guy can
call if his quarterback could just kind of settle down,
and he did. And Jared Goff was awesome early on,
and that to me is the key. And this is
what Peyton and Eli talked about. CJ Stroud was up
there as well. I texted a buddy on the Texans
I said, God, this guy's CJ is an impressive guy.

(30:44):
He's just an impressive guy. I know he had a
rough season and the offensive line wasn't that good, but
when you watch him sit there with Peyton Eli and
you watch him talk football and leadership, you go, yeah,
I kind of get it. I would keep buying stocking
this guy. I believe might have been a year early
on my Texans bet but they're not going away. But
I think if you're Kleb, you need to learn from
these guys, like just get rid of the ball. Just

(31:06):
dump the ball. You can't not everyone Steph Curry and
shooting fadeaway threes. You can't always run around and try
to throw de pumps. And the way Jared Goff got
his career back on track with Ben was just getting
rid of the ball quick, just getting the ball out
of your hands. This is the NFL. It's a space game,
and a team like the Bears, just like a lot
of teams in the NFL, have a lot of really
good offensive skill guys. The skill top to bottom in

(31:29):
the on offense in the NFL has probably never been better.
There are more running backs who can catch the ball.
You know, Historically for every Ledanian, Tomlinson and Marshall Falk,
there were a lot of running backs who weren't that
great at pass catching, so you usually had third down
backs at Fox they I saw Shady. Shady was kind
of unique. He catched the ball and he could run
the ball. There were a lot of guys that struggled

(31:49):
catching the ball, So if you were in third and seven,
you'd yank that guy out of the game. Go around
the league right. Now, Look how many starting running backs
are excellent in the passing right? I mean, if we
consider Saquon Barkley's hands to be kind of meh, shows
you how I mean awesome. The standard is currently in
the NFL in terms of catching the ball. It's I

(32:10):
would say that's the quote unquote weakness of his game.
Not that he has bad hands, but they're not I
wouldn't say Alvin Kamara or Christian McCaffrey or something. But
my point is that is a huge element for these
young guys is to learn like it's not all on me,
because before in college a high school, it's always been
on them. Like in the pros, it is a team game.
It eventually comes all on you as you get older,

(32:31):
as you become, you know, a better player, But like,
make the right decision, just keep the play going forward.
I mean a huge part of progress is just continuing
to take a step right in whatever we're doing. It's
like you never want to take step steps backwards. And
I think young quarterbacks they kind of get caught up
sometimes in trying to make these crazy plays because that's

(32:54):
what they've done most of their career in the NFL.
You will get humbled, and you will get destroyed, and
you will get embarrassed. And in some of these cases
it can ruin your confidence and derail a career. In others,
it makes you way stronger and you come back better
and you're an awesome player. So I think the Bears
they're gonna be one of the better stories in the
NFL coming up in twenty twenty five. Okay, let's do

(33:30):
a little middle Cough mail bag at John Middlecoff. At
John Middlecoff is the Instagram firing those dms questions here
on the show. Just fire into my dms. This was
what I was supposed to do last week, but my
voice was just given out. So I think I've battled
back enough. We will answer your questions here. We'll start
with Brandon, short and simple. In your opinion, what is

(33:52):
the most devastating moment in sports history? What is the
worst decision you've ever seen as a Seahawks fan. I
think you know what my answer is be I would
say devastating moment in sports history the Malcolm Butler game
for the Super Bowl. I mean, you were part of it.
It's hard to top that. I was thinking last night
watching Tyree Saliverton. I was on a treadmill here at

(34:14):
the hotel, trying to get a good little sweat on,
and my jaw hit the floor because when he starts
banking on the floor and then they show the replay
and you see that kind of explosion, you tear an achilles.
And the Malcolm Butler thing that ended the Super Bowl,
so that it's hard to top that. Like if you
had torn your achilles with five minutes left of a

(34:35):
tai game and you have twenty ten and ten, it
would have been worse. But it looked like the Pacers
could win that game, and their star player tears his achilles.
It was crazy that the game was even close. So
that was so There's been some injuries, you know, Drake
Greenlop popped his achilles, But when you just think about

(34:58):
devastating games, I don't think anything tops the Malcolm Butler situation.
If you wanted to slow bleed twenty eight to three,
it's pretty pretty tough. That'll be hard to overcome twenty
eight to three second half against the Dynasty because it's
part of who you're playing, right, So when Malcolm Butler

(35:18):
picks you off, you're gonna go back to back Super
Bowls against Belichick and Brady. What makes Eli and Tom
Coughlin so legendary is they beat those two guys like
they were the team that took down the undefeated Pats.
So part of it to who you beat. Mike Grabel recently
said these next five weeks are the most important of

(35:40):
the offseason, and it had me thinking how many players
that are put in the work before training camp or
else they might get the acts. How many of these
players rest on their laurels in vacation verst how many
are working with quarterback gurus in working with their teammates
during this period. It's a good question. I I think

(36:03):
if you've been in the league a little bit, you
realize how much is on the line, and you realize
you have perspective of how lucrative this is. So you
would have to be a moron not to have something
pretty set up over the course of the next five
or six weeks or however many weeks you're off to
keep your body because you're pretty dialed in right season ends,

(36:25):
take a little break, and then you most guys come back,
start training at the facility and are in really good
shape by last week. Well, you don't want to lose that.
You want to maintain that. Now everyone's a little bit different,
but I think most veteran guys, like if you just
went around the league, Like if I just it's Monday
to day, I'm recording this. If I just picked a
player at every position, right, Sauce Gardner, Rokewan Smith, George Kittle,

(36:50):
Terry McLaurin, you just name it every position. I'd be
stunned if they all didn't work out today and work
out hard, right, And I think you kind of listen,
you gotta cut times where you can kind of get
after it. Fourth of July weekend maybe if you're married, vacation.
But these guys, they're not dumb. I mean, how many
professions pay a ten to twenty thirty million dollars And

(37:13):
once you know the thing. In the NFL, unlike the NBA,
you see a lot of guys careers end immediately. And
a lot of these guys, some of these guys I
just listed, weren't all top five ten picks. So if
I'm a fourth rounder and I go on to be
a multimillionaire, I watch first rounders guys I was drafted
in the class with out of the league. I watch
these guys at home that they don't work in football anymore.

(37:34):
Where I think guys can get humbled is the youth.
So if I'm a rookie, you know, I've always had
when I play at Alabama, when I play at Texas,
when I play at Ohio State, when I play at Michigan,
I don't really leave campus all summer maybe for a week.
And now it's it's on me. So luckily it's like
trust me. I know with my metabolism. When you're young,

(37:55):
you know you can get away with it, but veterans can't.
But I also think veterans know. I know you're not
high on Shador. How does an unbiased observer not see
all the major red flags when he comes with Colin
is usually against just a backwards hat at the podium,
But think Shador is mature even though he's an arrogant,

(38:16):
not trying to pin you in Colin against each other.
But was wondering what you thought, Well, I talked about
is speeding last week that I in my overall take
was these cars in twenty twenty five go a lot
faster than they ever have and going ninety one hundred
miles an hour is a much smoother ride than it
would have been if you got caught in nineteen ninety
seven going one hundred and five miles an hour in

(38:37):
a Ford Explorer, Like you knew you were hauling ass.
If you're doing one hundred miles an hour in a
turbo charged ram truck, you might not even be paying attention. Now,
when I gave my take on that last week, I
didn't realize he had been pulled over multiple times and
was in trouble for the unpaid tickets. Now, I would

(38:59):
also be a hypocrite. I used to get parking tickets
in college and never pay him. It's like an f
you to the system. But they would just go to
my parents' house and my dad wanted to kill me.
So I think sometimes when you're young, you can be
just naive and not pay attention. But once you get
pulled over and you're the quarterback, I think you should
be pretty dialed and like, yeah, maybe I knew need

(39:21):
to slow it down. That's where it's like my original
take was just thinking that he had been pulled over once,
he'd been pulled over twice. Not ideal, And it also
shows you like he's a fifth round pick. This isn't
a story for most guys, like if Will Howard gets
pulled over or people talking about it, you know, this
guy's lightning rods. Probably he's a polarizing He's just a

(39:43):
he's a headline. It's kind of like whether he's good
or bad. Like Bronnie anything Bronnie James did. It's like
Bronnie James had a taco frontpagespn dot com. It's kind
of gonna be Shadoor. Chador is not gonna be covered
like most fifth rounders. Chador is gonna be covered like
he was a top ten pick, especially once training camp starts.

(40:07):
In an NFL scouting department, are there certain people that
specialize in specific positions? For example, are there a small
group of guys that focus solely on scouting White House
and others that have more knowledge about the offensive and
defensive lines. Follow up question, what position group did you
feel you did the best? No, Like, if you are

(40:28):
you know, the college scouting director, or you do the
SEC or the Big ten, you evaluate every player in
your region. So if you're the college scouting director, you
know during the season you're writing up all the top
four or five round guys and you get to the
later guys as the off season goes. If I have
like I'm in LA right now, like the year that

(40:49):
I did the West Coast, I had basically the Pac twelve,
the Mountain, West Colorado, and El Paso. I think any player,
any position that was draft eligible and draft double was
my responsibility. So even if you know scouting certain positions
or players is more difficult than others, you have to

(41:12):
learn to do it all now. When there are individuals
like I think how he has used Jason kelce before.
He would just give Jason Kelcey some offensive lineman right,
and he would let him focus and give his two
cents on what he thinks of the offensive lineman class.
There are individual situations like that, but any pure like

(41:32):
legitimate executive or scout is typically entrusted with doing his
entire area whoever's given to him. So it's not you
don't specialize in a position. I would say this, when
you work in certain organizations, you become better at evaluating
certain positions. Like in my experience, I worked at Fresno State.

(41:56):
We had a bunch of NFL wide receivers and an
NFL running back NFL quarterbacks and NFL offensive lignment. See,
I felt really good about offense, and then I went
to the Eagles. You know Michael Vick, Brent Selick, Shady McCoy,
Jeremy Macklin, DeShawn Jackson, Jason Levant, like Jason Peters, Jason Kelcey.

(42:17):
You just you kind of see what high you know
defensive guys. I wasn't didn't work for the Steelers or
the Ravens. So you it gives you old you just
if you work for the Ravens, You're probably gonna get
pretty goodt evaluating defense. If you work for Andy Reid,
You're gonna get pretty good evaluate offense. You know, if
you it depends who you know. People that work for
Sabing forever, like they were good at evaluating offense or defense,

(42:40):
and then as time change, they got good at offense too.
But you kind of have to figure it out. I mean,
I wouldn't feel best about anyone think in the secondary.
I think dB in general safety and corner is difficult.
But I would say the thing I know the least
of when it comes to the sport of football, would
just be feeling, especially now that I'm out of it,
Like I'm not dialed in like this could bang out

(43:01):
every coverage like a coach. When you're in it, you're
a little more in tune to that stuff. And it
does matter because when you're evaluating someone, you can't be like,
well he's he's not a great man demand guy. It's like,
well he's not even being asked to do that, So
you got You kind of gotta know some defense to
truly evaluate the dB position. That's where at linebacker and
defensive line, there's so much stuff at the point of

(43:22):
attack that even if you don't know all the defensive responsibilities,
you can evaluate a pass rusher or a linebacker you know,
pretty easily without knowing the playbook. I'm a big Patriot
fan and have a lot of belief in Drake May.
When do you think Vrabel and May will be able
to compete with Buffalo in the division and make a
run at the playoffs? Also, being Scottsdale in the early July,

(43:45):
was wondering the best areas to visit. It's a good question.
This is all it's hot. I'll tell you this, bring
your swim shorts, it's going to be warm. I think
you guys can make the playoffs. This year. I think
you make the playoffs this year. I still I understand
against a lot of hype, but there'd be a lot

(44:08):
of pressure on Drake May. It's a big difference between
just losing these games, playing game zono matter in games
that do matter. But clearly a lot of people in
the league are high on him. The coach took the
job because he's high on him. You know, I think
Josh is perfectly suited to be a coordinator, clearly, And
I just think your schedule sucks. I also think your

(44:28):
division sucks. I think Miami's and shambles. I think that
place is a taking time bomb. I really do. If
you were saying Colin said something to Day on the
show that he's got New York, the New York Giants
would be have the number one pick. I think Miami
to have a shot. I would take the New York
Giants roster over Miami Dolphins roster and a heartbeat, especially
because they're gonna trade Jalen Ramsey and who the hell

(44:49):
knows what happens with Tyrek Hill. If Tyreek Hill a
little older now not as fast, what if his career,
I mean, he's had a Hall of Fame level whatever
ten plus years, like what if it's just over now?
He's never quite the same, So I think that really
benefits you. Guys. Your division sucks, so I would say,
next week or excuse me, next year, I'm picking you
make the playoffs. I've listened to your interviews with Schneider

(45:15):
and spy Tech. Would love to hear more of these
GMS interviews me too. Trust me, I emailed and texted
a lot of people, and they were the two that
said yes. As I've listened to their advice and takeaways
from all the great leaders they worked in and got
me thinking about a mail back question for you. What
are some of the best lessons you learned from all

(45:36):
the incredible people you've worked with, people like Pat Hill,
Andy Reid, Howie Coward, keep crushing it. That's a great question.
I would say the number one thing I learned from
Pat Hill, I've never been around a human being that
took more ownership in his program. And you know, as

(45:56):
a college football coach, like he doesn't own the buildings,
he doesn't own any of it, right, He's just an
employee of the State of California. And you would have
thought Fresno State was owned by Pat Hill every day.
He'd like make sure the doors were locked at night.
He just took so much pride in the program, so
much ownership, and I never forgot that as I've gotten older,

(46:18):
and you know, I think as you get older and
you know you stuff is yours, whether it's like you
own to home or you know this podcast as mine,
or things that I'm associated with, I just try to
take great ownership because I look back and how much
success he had. I think he was one of the first,
if not the first, non power five millionaire coach, and

(46:41):
just think how much pride in ownership he took in everything.
And I would say Coach Hill, like Coach Reid, they
just they just had this gravitational pull and I got
very lucky, like they were associated with each other, they
had known each other forever that there were just two
guys that you meet him and you're like, these type

(47:01):
guys you want to be like in terms of the
way they treat other people and how much respect that
the people working for them have for them. It doesn't
mean they agree with everything they do, but leadership and listen,
I'm it's something I'm fascinated by and obviously working in
the football world forever and you know, covering sports and

(47:24):
football and watching them from afar. Something we talk about
a lot, especially with quarterbacks, but some this we talked
about instincts with play callers, like some guys have it
or not. I think it's kind of like that with
leadership and coaches, and Pat Hill and Andy Reid just
have it like whatever that is, Like they were just

(47:44):
natural at the head of the table being the boss
and that's not something you can teach. And obviously Andy
just just incredible human being. I mean just I think
him and coach, he'll both have this. Just be nice
to people. Just treat people well. Some people are gonna disagree,

(48:06):
you're gonna have especially in a public job like this,
You're gonna have some your moments. But just treat people well.
One thing with Howie he was relentless. I mean he
still is. I know people that still work for him.
Just a relentless pursuit of just like the grind, how
do we get better? What do we do? Are we

(48:28):
every single rock? Are we looking under? What can we
make a move to get? Is this guy better than
what we got? And there's a balance as you get
an established team like they have now, But because you
can't just you know, cut everybody. When you know some guy,
it's just it gets a little more complicated. But he's
just a relentless pursuer of the business, you know. And

(48:55):
his ability to interact with from agents to media to
other gms, I would say second to none. He's obviously
really smart. But I would say when I think Howie
and being around Howie and still when I see him
at a combine or whatever day, just aggression. You know,
Hungry dogs eat first. That's what's something we used to
say at Fresil State. But it's true, you know, and

(49:17):
that motherfucker is hungry. And he's got a couple of
Super Bowls. He makes a bunch of money. He's been
to another Super Bowl. Like, he's pretty accomplished. Most people
consider him, if not the best, one of the best
gyms in the league. You know, if he broke up
with the Eagles tomorrow, ten teams would hire him. And
he works like it's his first year on the job.
He's just kind of a I don't know, he's just grinder.

(49:38):
The thing I'd say about Colin is, you know, think
about it, he's I don't know, sixty years old. He's
got to the top of the mountaintop in his profession.
He made it like he accomplished it. And he's still
like create the volume, still doing podcasts on top of like,

(49:59):
like all I do is the podcast, and I've got
very lucky. Some people asking me, like you're able to
create a living. Well, yeah, I mean I'm doing our
podcast as well. But that's my life. I dedicate everything
I have to it. You know, the show that he
does for Fox is obviously a big vehicle for the
distribution of the podcast that I benefit from the notoriety

(50:22):
of him and in the brand. But he doesn't have
to do all this stuff. I mean he was mentioned
in someone he was going to dinner with tonight. I mean,
he's just always in the pursuit. He's got a little
howie to him. You know what's next? What are we
doing next? And that's a really good quality to have
because it'd be easy and I never fault anyone once

(50:43):
you make it financially, once you get a little older,
you're like, I'm good, I'm cool. I did it. And
that is not how he's wired. I actually see some
similarities with I mean, they're completely different. I would say
personalities and obviously they do different things. But him and
how he are just one hundred miles an hour, go
go go and intense, and it works. On a serious note,

(51:05):
since it's I can tell you're based on listening to
your pods, I've had a couple of people say you're based.
I had to google. That shows you how out of
the loop I am with some of these new terms.
I didn't know what that meant. I guess to my knowledge,
looking it up means like unapologetic about your opinions or something.

(51:26):
I'm thirty three and I lost my father in twenty
twenty two unexpectedly. He's my best friend. Rock always knew
what to say, when to say it, and to ease
my mind. The only reason I got into football and
eventually loved the Bills was because of him. The last
time I ever saw was the thirteen second game. That
was devastating enough. That was bad. My question is this,

(51:46):
If you feel comfortable, do you mind explaining your situation
in what you went through in detail you want to share.
I can tell that you have a good amount of
guys in their twenties or listening to their pod. All
our situations are different, However, based on the questions you
receive that aren't football related, I can tell you value
and look up to have to say you are relatable, authentic,

(52:08):
blah blah blah. I guess are you just asking me
to share my situation of losing my father. I remember
hearing this a long time ago, in the way it
does ring try. I think Scott Van Pelt's I heard
say it is that you never truly become a man
till your dad passes away, And it is true. It's

(52:30):
it's not easy. I lost most of my grandparents relatively young,
so you know some people I had friends that hadn't
lost any family members really up until they got to
like their mid to late thirties, even grandparents, so you
see death early on. But it's a lot different when
you lose a parent, especially a father. My dad Mina
was pretty old school like. There was no like hugging

(52:51):
and kissing in my family. I know some people. I'm
sure I'll do that with my children. So it was
not much talking about feelings in the sense of, hey,
how am I trying to explain this? Turns out he
was sick for a while and I didn't know. Now
I knew because he was off. He just was sounded
like a different person. He was losing a bunch of weight,

(53:15):
but it's not like he announced like I have cancer. No,
I'm in trouble, because I don't even think he knew
he might have, might not have. And then he started
getting really sick and I got a call trying to
remember one night something happened and he was in the hospital.
Thinking it was like, you know, maybe a check up,
old guy. My dad had me a little later in life,

(53:36):
like I think he was forty two, so this is
like in his mid seventies and moms like, you should
probably come to the hospital. And I went to the
hospital and it turns out that cancer had spread all
over his body and he was basically on life support.
And it was like, man, now, I would say, the

(53:58):
year lead up to his death, he had shown it
had just he had just deteriorated. It just didn't quite
feel like the same guy. And there are people my
brother was working with him at the time, and it
was just it was just different. He just wasn't the same. Uh,
you know. I used to talk to him once I

(54:20):
left to college. I mean forever, I said, every day,
but I talked to him a lot. He'd call me
all the time. He just I wouldn't hear fromhim. And
I just don't know if he didn't have the energy,
he just wasn't all there. Maybe he knew inside. I
don't know if he gave through up the white flag.
You know, he came from a generation they weren't huge
on like doctors because it was like showing weakness. But yeah,

(54:46):
I don't know what else to say beside you go there.
You know, he had been in poor health. But it's
different when you show up at the hospital and they say, yeah,
he's on life support and you've heard that term. They're like, wait,
what does that mean. They're like, yeah, if we pulled
the plug right now, he could not live on his own.
Like what. And then my mom, like me and my
brother were there. This is probably twenty eighteen, so Jeff's

(55:13):
twenty eight I'm thirty three. My Mom's like, well, I
can't do it. Someone's got to do it. He's not.
I mean, he's alive, but he's not really alive. So
it happened fast. It happened fast, but it didn't really
like I had to kind of like a year realizing
like something's just way off. So I don't know if
I could mentally get wrap around that, like this is

(55:36):
he's just getting old, he's getting a little sick. He
doesn't quite realize. Yeah, I don't know. It was it
was tough, and then it's just over. So it's just
I think any piece of advice I would give to
someone who has their parents around, whether they're fifty, sixty, seventy,
however old they are, however old you are, once you
get to a certain age and that relationship no longer

(55:58):
is like you know, you're living under their roof, and
you know it's more of just it's almost you become
a peer, like you share your lives together with them.
And what's weird is they get older. Sometimes you help
them out as they helped you out. Most of your
life is really just value the time that you have
with your family because it's gonna come, but you have

(56:19):
no clue when that date is. And if you're thirty
years old and your parents are sixty and sixty two,
you might have twenty more great, awesome years and that
they're gonna see your children. It's gonna be sweet. And
something unexpected could happen. Someone gets sick, someone getting an
accident and it could end tomorrow. So anytime you get
a chance, because once it's over, there's no god. I

(56:40):
wish I could do this again with my dad. I mean,
I remember watching. I remember watching during Christmas break. Jimmy
Garoppolo had just been traded the Niners and they were
playing the Jacks and Jimmy lit them up. I remember
my dad wasn't quite even the same thing. I think
he lived another what would have been a couple more
months after that, but I remember being on the couch
and my parents' house sucks. Huge Knight of fan, born

(57:19):
and raised in the Bay Any interesting takes on Shanahan
obviously his top five offensive head coach in the NFL. However,
I can't help but feel like play calling has been
very scripted in the lack of ability in game ten adjustments.
Because of this, the margin for error can be slim,
as in everything in the game plan goes right, they'll
win If ten to twenty percent of his plays don't

(57:40):
work as expected, they end up in a close game
against a team that they should destroy or lose to
a good team they could easily beat. Will they get
back to the NFC championship for him? This year. I
do think we hear this a lot about coaches. I
was watching on the plane right before the plane was
taken off, and I was like scrolling around YouTube. I

(58:00):
saw this clip of Spags talking to Kelsey Brothers and
he was talking about all of his years around Andy,
just about how different the offense is now from when
he showed up with the Philadelphia Eagles in nineteen ninety
nine he was on the original staff to what they
do now in practice, how different the concepts are. And

(58:24):
Andy's always willing to adapt. You know, Andy Reid got
his start in the NFL with home grewn West Coast offense,
and he's changed his offense over the years to different stuff. Now,
Kyle's offense is never going to dramatically change. Like coach
reads is always going to be around the past. Kyle's
is always going to be I would say, predicated on
the run. But you do have to look back and

(58:46):
adapt and say how can we change things? And Jay
Gruden said to me this last year is he thinks
a pure drop back passing game sucks because Kyle doesn't
want to drop back pass game. Like it's twenty twenty
five in the NFL. I'm sorry, guys, you gotta drop
back and pass. You're paying a quarterback now fifty million
dollars a year who can throw the ball. Let's let's
let's expand a little bit, and it's it's on him.

(59:09):
I think he's I admire a lot what Kyle stands for.
Wants to shove the ball down your throat in the
in the run game. He values defense, he values defensive lineman,
but for some weird reason, he doesn't really value offensive lineman.
He's admitted it. They will take skill guys over offensive lineman. Now,

(59:30):
if you give him Trent Williams will take Trent Williams.
Most guys aren't Trent Williams. We should be taking guards
and centers and in backup tackles multiple times every draft games.
One loss in the trenches. Just take Owen d lineman.
If anything, Kyle should be able to create skill guys,
but he actually views it the other way. I can
create offensive lineman. So that would be my one philosophical

(59:53):
difference with the guy is his the way he looks
at offensive lineman. It's like, I do think that what
his dad was able to do back in the nineties,
the league's a lot different good teams back then might
have had like two good defensive linemen. There are some
teams now all four defensive linemen can pass rush. So
if you have some shitty ass guard, he's gonna get smoked.

(01:00:15):
I'd say NFC championship is seems a little bold, but
I do think that they could make the playoffs. Schedules
might have the easiest schedule in the league. I think
statistically they do. And it's one of those that like
because you know, some people always push back, like don't
try to overreact to schedule in the summer. True, because

(01:00:36):
you could have the Ravens on the schedule, and if
Lamar Jackson rolled his ankle the game before and he
misses it, a lot different game. Niners ain't playing the Ravens.
Nwiers are playing a lot of the Jags and the
Titans and the Colts in the Saints. If all things
were ranked even sixteenth ranked offense, defense, head coach, middle
of the pack for everything, and you had to choose

(01:00:56):
your starting quarterback for the season with the goal to
win the Super Bowl, who are your top eight choices?
I would go Mahomes, I would go Josh Allen, and
I would go Lamar Jackson would be my easy first
three decisions. You know, people say that I'm I don't
mention Burrow enough. I would take Burrow fourth out of

(01:01:17):
that group. I think Burrow's awesome, But I think in
these type scenarios, I would take a little bit more
mobile guys. I would go Herbert five. I would go
you know, Stafford's a little older. Now. The one thing
Jalen Hurts gives me is the running element. But who

(01:01:39):
is coach is kind of matters. That's the thing with
certain quarterbacks, Like what they do kind of matters. Like
you couldn't if I put Jalen Hurts with Kyle Shanahan,
it would not work. I mean, it just it's not
gonna work. So I think, what scheme you're running matters? Now?
Could that coach play it? Stafford's a little older, cjut,

(01:02:00):
I'm still high on rough little year. If the offensive
line is not great, can be humbled quick. I think
Jayden Daniels have to be a pretty hot pick right now.
You know, golf, if the if the offensive line sucks,
like he's in trouble because he can't fucking move, you know,
the GoF and the you know what, Kirk Cousins was
four or five years ago. You give them bad offensive line,
they're sitting duck. They just they can't move. So I

(01:02:22):
just think what I think is great about the league
right now is once you get past so I go Mahomes,
Josh Lamar Burrow, Herbert Jayden, I'll go see j my
guy party. Who am I missing? I'm in Los Angeles?

(01:02:47):
Stafford Baker Baker. If Justin Fields doesn't work out for
the Jets, what do you think is next for him?
Career backup, gadget quarterback, new position, exit the NFL to
be accommodator. It's a good question. I would imagine if

(01:03:10):
this year goes really bad, he won't be the quarterback
for the Jets next year, and then it's just he's
gonna be a backup. Which he played it perfectly right.
He like was a starter, made a bunch of money
because he was a top fifteen pick. Then he went
to the Steelers got benched. But people are like, should
he have been benched? And it was such a weird

(01:03:32):
situation that some team is so desperate and they wanted
to get rid of Aaron Rodgers so bad. They're like, here,
here's forty million dollars thirty of a guaranteed. You're like,
what what are we doing here? So now you got Rogers,
or excuse me, now you got Fields of the Jets.
That's gonna be a disaster. It's not gonna work. I
promise you this, It is not gonna work. I like

(01:03:53):
Justin Fields seems like a great fucking guy, honestly wired,
like a backup in terms of clearly a high character guy,
team first guy. I just don't think he's good enough
to be a starting quarterback, and I don't think the
Jets first time head coach. I think it's gonna be weird,
but good for him to get some money. A big fan,
You've been a big inspiration for me. Two part question.

(01:04:14):
You've talked about quite a bit on how you didn't
think about not being married for so many years and
didn't care. I'm now thirty and pretty much all my
friends are married except for me. Have a really good
career and a good life friend group, but feel like
I'm an outlier because I'm the only single one left.
Any advice there? Football related question? What's the floor ceiling

(01:04:36):
for the Steelers? Any hope Rogers goes Montana? Chiefs Mode?
And leads us to the AFC Championship Game. I would
say one thing that helped me, if I'm being completely
honest about my late twenties even early mid thirties, I
wasn't crazy social. I just I was working a lot.

(01:04:57):
My life balance was skewing, like pretty out of whack.
So I wasn't around it that often of just being
around my friends and their wives and their girlfriends and
feeling out of the loop that much, I guess, so
it's also easy for me to be like I didn't care.
I wasn't inundated with it on a weekly basis. I

(01:05:19):
was around it enough where it's like, yeah, I would
like that. But I also I was dead set on
I'm not gonna do something that I don't want to
do just because a bunch of other people do it.
I was never gonna do that. I didn't do that.
So I think you just got to realize, like, what
are you gonna do? Just get married? To get married.
You're thirty. That means you're really really young, got a

(01:05:41):
good career going, you got good people around your life.
You sometimes just got a I'm not the most religious guy,
but just feel like everything's gonna work out because there
are things in your life that are out of your
control and you look back. I mean, if I would
have said ten years ago what my life would be,
I don't know if I would have believed it. So
you just don't know how it's gonna work, and you

(01:06:03):
just I don't really know the dating scene in terms
of like Internet dating DMS. However you're meeting people. I
would just say actively date actively, try to meet people,
be in the right head space. And I'm also a
believer as you attract what you want. So when you
are really serious and like want to, you know, get
into a serious relationship, you'll attract it. If you know

(01:06:25):
successful men, if you're doing well in life, you're gonna
be okay like you age well, I'll promise you that.
And I would say the Steelers upside would be like
ten to eleven games. If Rogers has a career renaissance, looks young,
their defense is awesome, and they can run the ball.
I could see them win eleven games in the playoff game.
I do think that would be on the table, and

(01:06:46):
I think the floor would be it gets injured. He
doesn't play that many games. I think he would have
an injury you know you're forty one, you take a
big hit, think about we can make fun of, Like
how bad the Bengals defense was last year. I still
feel like they hit hard. We know the Ravens hit hard.
Miles Garrett said he's trying to fucking end his career

(01:07:09):
essentially in a nice way. Buckle up, Buttercup, because people
are gonna be coming for you. A year back, you
mentioned Arizona and thought it was a really scenic Do
you recall the name of the lake. I've been to
Arizona once for my bachelor party, to Scottsdale and Sedona,
and was a big fan of the desert geography in
the mountains in the northern part of the state, along

(01:07:30):
with the lake. Any cities in northern Arizona you would
recommend Prescott, Flagstaff. I have not been to Prescott. I
have not even been to Sedona yet. Flagstaff is sweet.
The lake I went to, I think was Pine Lake.
I could be screwing that up. We were just there
for a couple of days where he was looking at
some future client that ended up not working out. But

(01:07:52):
I mean when I see the lake, I mean it
was solid. I wouldn't call it lake Tahoe or anything.
Flagstaff's cool. Uh, Sedona, I mean I've everyone that goes
there loves it. But yeah, it's it's a unique. It's
you know, it's the mountains and Northern South sale are
hard to beat. One of my favorite plays in the world. Uh,

(01:08:14):
when you were in your late teens and early twenties,
who was your favorite player in each sport? Major League Baseball,
NFL and NBA Baseball is easy Berry Bonds NFL early twenties.
Probably Peyton Manning. That would have been late teens, you know,
late nineties, early two thousands. I love Peyton Manning. NBA.

(01:08:36):
I don't really think I had it. I mean I
loved Michael Jordan when I was a kid. I think
I really had a favorite NBA player. Then I hated
Kobe because I hated the Lakers, and I still do.
I mean, I hate the Lakers. I respect the brand,
I respect how expensive it is, how big their fan
base is. I mean they do have like it's a

(01:08:57):
real deal. But I fucking hate them, I really do.
I hated Kobe and then he retired and I remember
watching all these things. I'm like, I like everything about
this guy had a weird relationship because I'm kind of
a nomadic NBA guy in the nineties, loved Michael Jordan.
Bulls were my team, but I lived close Sacramento and

(01:09:19):
then they got good and I was like, Ah, this
team's sweet. But then they couldn't be the Lakers. That's
when my Laker hate really started. And then I was
around Stephan Clay doing stuff in the Bay and I
fell in love with that team. I'm like an NBA player,
just a nomad Ai Alan Iverson baby currently watching you

(01:09:41):
on the Herd and this is awesome. Congrats. Can you
give us behind the scenes of what it was like.
How did Colin ask you? Were you nervous being live?
How much prep loved the podcast. I talked about this
at the beginning of the podcast that I wasn't nervous.
I'm not like auditioning. I'm not trying to get a job.

(01:10:03):
So I look at it like, hey, you asked he
could ask me to do anything. At this point, what
he's done for my life in my career, I would
say yes. And two, I'm not going into a situation
where I don't. I feel like I when I do
a podcast with him. One I've watched a show or
listen to a show for decades now, so I kind

(01:10:24):
of know the way ticks, I know the way he thinks.
I've watched definitely last week the show a little more intently.
Sometimes I'll have it on my office and like the
cadence of him and Jason, like today is about I'm
sitting in Jason Seed. So I got to know, like
when I'm supposed to talk and you have people helping

(01:10:45):
you out, it wasn't that intense because you have a
lot of help. You have people to kind of tell
you what you're doing. And I've done television, you know,
when I first started in the Bay Area, I started
doing television in like local TV. So I've had ear
pieces in, I've been, you know, in a button up shirt,
was a makeup on my head sitting on a studio.

(01:11:06):
So it's not like something I've never done. And then
my chemistry or just working with Colin. I mean, think
how many shows we've done now the last three or
four years. For the volume on Sundays I've done, I
can I would imagine one hundred plus podcasts with him,
and most of our podcasts fifty minutes to an hour.
So I've just done a lot. It wasn't It's the

(01:11:28):
first time I'd ever done that, sat in this seat
and done that for the show. But it wasn't that difficult,
just because I've done so many things with him. I
followed him his entire career. I kind of know his
takes and know how to get him to get a
little laugh. So I think this is also if I
had never done anything and you just sat me there,
I would have been sweating bullets. I remember the first

(01:11:49):
time I went on television in the Bay Area, it
was very nervous. I can never been on television, not
saying I'm great or anything, but I just I wasn't
nervous at all. End of the damn A podcaster like
this is this is my job, and I love it.
I feel very, very fortunate I'm able to do it.

(01:12:11):
In a weird way, there's not as much pressure when
you do this right, Like I'm just in a hotel
room right now recording this, and this is how I
pay my bills. But when you do this every single day,
especially me, I'm it's just me in front of the
mic most of the time. Every once in a while,
we have, you know, John Schneider, John spy take, no
big deal. But Joe Klatt hit me back, said he

(01:12:34):
was just super busy, but we'll get him on. I
got a couple other guys that I said, they'll come on.
But you just get used to doing this, so you
just feel pretty comfortable with a mic and looking at
yourself and talking. So it's one of those situations where
they say this a lot in any line of work.
The reps, the reps, the reps, It doesn't matter. The
more reps you do it something, the more comfortable you're doing.

(01:12:56):
I saw Keegan Bradley you Love have a Go Low
podcast tomorrow. He won the tournament yesterday and he knocked
out Tommy Fleetwood on the eighteenth toll and he said,
is in the eighteenth toll, he hit a shot. He
knocked it like six seven feet and he said, I've
hit that exact same shot on the range one hundred
thousand times. So when I stepped over the shot, I'm

(01:13:17):
very comfortable doing it. I've done it one hundred thousand times.
And when people ask me all the time, like hey,
I want to get into podcasting, I want to get
into this, you just got to start because even when
you're doing it and I've done a lot of podcasts.
I had another podcast as well, and I've done this podcast.
Before we got on the volume, the people didn't listen

(01:13:37):
to maybe people definitely people didn't see. But those reps
and putting together a show and talking and just being
there by yourself and having to do the content and
having to create something semi interesting even if twenty few,
whether twenty people are listening, twenty thousand people are listening
tow hunred thosand people are listening or today hundreds of
thousand people are watching. Like every rep builds you up

(01:13:57):
to a position where you can sit in the seat
and just like do it. If I had to talk
to Tom Brady tomorrow, right and you just had to
sit down with Tom Brady for an hour do an interview,
would I be a little intimidated, sure, tom Brady never
met the guy. But would I be pretty comfortable after
a couple questions in yeah, because this is what you do.
So I think you get a situation like that, and

(01:14:18):
again I'm just I look at it like I'm doing him.
He's doing me a favor by everything he's done for me.
So when he asked me to do something, my first
answer is yes, I just not even like how much
are getting paid? I don't know, but yeah, here's have
this guy email me and you need me to buy
my plane fly. I would have paid to come here.
I would have paid to fly out here and to

(01:14:39):
put myself out of a hotel, just what I feel
I owe the guy before he's done for my life. Instead,
they're putting me at the front of the bird the god.
He's living pretty nice in Delta. I never fly Delta Airlines,
but when you do, you're like, oh, that's pretty nice.
We'll talk about him. Fugazi Friday, I wrote this down

(01:14:59):
plain why five man. The best wife I've ever had
on a plane was JSX because they used Starlink and
the Wi Fi was elite. These other planes you talk
about a fugazi. Okay, last question, big fan of the Pod,
I just wanted to get your take on the Kevin
Durant being traded to the Rockets. You know, it's funny

(01:15:20):
and it's sad. I mean, I mentioned this today with Colin.
I grew up twenty twenty five minutes away from Marco Arena,
where the Sacramento Kings played, and when I was in
junior high high school, they got really good and it
became a really big deal. And when you have a
team in a smaller town, you know, the Bay Area
has obviously the Warriors, but they had the Giants, the A's,

(01:15:42):
the Raiders, the Niners. There's a lot going on. Look
at LA. You get some of these markets where there's
just so many teams. When you have a place like
Oklahoma City or Sacramento with their basketball team, it's a really,
really big deal. And I remember looking back on the
devastation when Sack couldn't get over the hump against the Lakers.
It was like it hurt the town and looking back,

(01:16:07):
they never recovered. But I do appreciate smaller markets in
these situations. And sometimes it's a smaller market you get
lucky like the Warriors, or excuse me, the Warriors are
not a small market. They used to be a low
budget team, but they're not a small market team. They're
a big market. I mean, they've turned into like I

(01:16:28):
would say, the Northern Californsian Fournia version of the of
the Lakers. But that's Steph Curry. The Lakers brand is
bigger than the Warriors brand. But you know what I mean,
And the Kings got Chris Webber traded to them in
the late nineties when he got caught getting high in
a parking lot or something. The Wizards just punted on him.

(01:16:49):
When Tyre's Halliburton tore his achilles in whatever five seven
minutes into the game, pattern are a little lucky that
he's on their team. The Kings are such a fucking joke.
They just traded to him. Terrors Achilles not only doesn't
devastate because you can't win the NBA Championship, but that
could change the course of his career. That was their
opportunity to potentially win a championship, and now it's like,

(01:17:10):
who knows they ever get back. And you see Oklahoma City, like,
I get it. I was kind of bored. They don't
do much for me, but I do appreciate how cool
it is for their city. Yet in Game seven, when
they were the day that they were ended up winning
the NBA Championship, how ironic was it that it feels
like Kevin Durant stole the show because Kevin Durant. It's weird.

(01:17:32):
It is just a bigger deal than the Oklahoma City
Thunder and a huge reason he's a big deal is
because he became a superstar while he played for the
Oklahoma City Thunder and I went to those games. I
went to games one, two, five, and seven in the
Western Conference Finals. The year the Warriors ended up losing
to Cleveland in Game seven in the in the NBA Championship,

(01:17:55):
but that was the year that Clay had Game six
and the Warriors came back three to one on the Thunder,
and I just remember thinking, like, this Thunder team looks incredible.
They are so good, and Kevin and Russell they were
just so badass. And for whatever reason he goes to
the Warriors. I don't blame him. He didn't want to

(01:18:16):
play with Russell Westbrook anymore. But after that Warrior situation,
he's a special player. But it feels like these last
five or six years have kind of just been wasted.
Obviously had a torn achilles in one of them, but
Brooklyn and Phoenix. I mean, listen, I've been in the
Scottsdale area now for whatever three four years. It's a

(01:18:37):
good sports down because there are a lot of people
that love sports, they just don't like those sports teams.
Most people are like Vikings fans, Bulls fans, Chiefs fans,
Niner fans. Everyone I know love sports, they just don't
care about really the Phoenix teams. Just I think that
brand's kind of dead there, I really do. And he

(01:18:58):
wanted to go there as a cool play, but feels
like he's kind of wasted last couple of years and
now he's going to Houston, who, in theory should be
perfectly suited for him. I don't know. He's thirty seven,
he gets injured a lot. I'd be stunned if I mean,
it just does feel like it's not gonna end. Well,
He's made a lot of money. I know. He always
says I loved Hoop. I loved Hoop. It's like, well,

(01:19:21):
do you really like or do you just like to
hoop your way? Because some of your ideas. I think
he's got great ideas, like some people like he's he's
creatively great once the basketball is in his hands, but
like as when he becomes the GM of himself, like
where should I play? Who should I play with? What
should I do? I think that's where he needs people
in his life to be like yeah, you know, it's
like the director, like when a guy's like banging out

(01:19:43):
a record, be like, yeah, I think those three songs
should not make the album. I'd put those two songs.
He doesn't have that guy he's because everyone's working for him.
He's got a bunch of people just tell him, Oh yeah, Ike,
have a great idea, Oh hell yeah, Kevin. I think
they just got into the spot of like couldn't get
out of his own way because he could have been
a player. The Kyrie Brooklyn thing, I mean that was crazy.

(01:20:06):
Even the Phoenix thing, that was pretty crazy. The Houston thing,
I don't know. If I had to guess right now,
I'll probably like, go the second round next year and
be done. Go the second round a couple times, be
a highly paid guy, but i'd be if I was
a betting man. Right now. Does Kevin Durant win another title?
And that's what's crazy about sports. The Patriots did not

(01:20:28):
win a championship when they had Randy Boss and the
greatest offense of all time, and then their dynasty restarted
when Julian Edelman became their best wide receiver and a
bunch of other random guys through out. So it's like
the Kevin Durant Russell Westbrook team. If you played a
seven game series of that team in their peak against
this Thunder team, I think I'd take Kevin Kadi's team,

(01:20:49):
Yet they never won a title and this team, shit,
they might. If you're a betman, they probably win like
two of the next three. Sports Man, you never know
the volume

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3 & Out - The Herd Update, Jaire Alexander and the Ravens, Caleb Williams and Bryce Young get humbled

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}3 & Out - The Herd Update, Jaire Alexander and the Ravens, Caleb Williams and Bryce Young get humbled