John discusses the reasons for optimism on Bryce Young after a run of pre-draft criticism, why Aaron Rodgers will benefit from his new surroundings with the Jets, if the Packers are sending the wrong message by not picking up Jordan Love’s 5th year option, and explain how Patrick Mahomes is underpaid despite his $450 mil contract. He also answers listener questions in the Middlekauff Mailbag.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume What is going on Everybody, John Middlecop three
and Out podcast. Those of you listening subscribed on Apple Spotify,
(00:23):
appreciate you. We're also live every single day of the week,
not this show, but all the volumes content on Amazon amp,
so make sure you download that bad Boy. We got
a good show coming up. A lot going on football wise,
some thoughts on Bryce Young Rogers and Jordan Love. I
saw Clark Hunt say that Mahomes he's underpaid and there's
(00:43):
nothing really they can do about it. We'll talk about
it all because the drafts is now over free agency.
The drafts, we had a pretty good idea who your
squad is. Now. You can make tweaks, you can make
a trade here there once the big cuts happen around
UH September first, but for the most part, like you're
not adding ten players moving forward. This is kind of
who you got to who you got uh and it's
(01:06):
fun time. So OTA's right around the corner. Aaron Rodgers
not skipping them this year. So we will keep rocking
and rolling as well as the Middlecoff mailback at John
Middlecoff is in the Instagram dms. Wide open fire in
those dms and get your question answered here on the show.
We will have a football podcast today, golf podcast tomorrow,
and another football podcast at the end of the week,
(01:26):
so we'll just we'll keep the content flowing. So buckle up,
get ready. We're only getting started. But as you can see,
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Before we get into Rogers and Jordan Love because I
have a couple quick thoughts there. I wanted to listen.
Bryce Shong is a polarizing prospect, and typically unless your
(02:35):
name's like Peyton Manning or John Elway, you are going
to be nitpicked in the draft process. It's going to
happen next year with Caleb Williams. It happened with Trevor
Lawrence right two years later, the Jags have a star quarterback.
I mean, people hated Justin Herbert Patrick Mahomes like people
thought he was a scrub. So it's just part of
the draft and whether you are an accomplished college player,
(02:58):
whether you didn't play that much and Anthony Richardson you're
gonna get there's gonna be a lot of negativity surrounding
you leading up to the draft. Then once you get drafted,
everything becomes very positive. But I understand why people question
Bray Show. He's small and for NFL standards, he's tiny, right,
And typically quarterbacks that have success in the NFL are
(03:21):
bigger players. Kyler Murray, who you know, I wouldn't say
he's had that much success on the field. He's obviously
had a lot of success offfit with this contract, but
it was very, very easy to see how unique he was.
He's literally faster than every player basically in the NFL,
and his arm is really really strong. Bryce Young did
(03:42):
not run a forty. Why because he's not that fast.
I remember when Lamar Jackson refused to run the forty.
It really bothered me. Fast players should always run why
cuse they're fast, and it'll be a positive once there's
a four to three to two next to your name.
I'll believe till my dying days that if Lamar Jackson now,
(04:03):
ultimately he got a massive contract and it all worked
out for him, But if he had just ran the
forty coming out of college or at the combine, he
would not have fallen. He'll pick thirty two because no
one's passing on a guy with a four to three
next to their name with his type tape. But he
didn't run, and part of that obviously was impacted by
Bill Poley in calling him a wide receiver. Bryce Shewing
(04:26):
didn't run a forty wide because he would have ran
a four to eight. But his game is not predicated
on running around. He keeps plays a live with his legs,
but he is not a running quarterback. He's not Kyler Murray.
He doesn't play like that at all. He plays like,
i'd say, like Deshaun Watson. He plays like the Deshaun
Watson before he got to the Browns, before all this
(04:46):
stuff came out about massage therapist, back when we all
thought he was a really sweet quarterback for the Houston Texas.
He keeps plays a live behind the line of scrimmage
and tries to win from within the pocket. And honestly,
in college, Bryce was even a better player than DeShawn,
and DeShawn was damn good. But here's one thing I
will say. I saw this stat on the interweb and
it was its eye opening, even though once you say
(05:09):
it out loud. Of course, the Georgia defense two years
ago is widely considered one of the great defenses of
all time, and now it has NFL draft status to
back it up. They had fourteen players over the last
two years drafted off that defense. Obviously, only eleven players
can be on the field at one time, so that
(05:29):
means guys that were backups last year were drafted, and
seven of those fourteen players were first round picks. That
is going to go down as one of the most
accomplished college defenses and one of obviously relative with all
the guys drafted, it might be unprecedented and it might
never happen again. Bryce Young played that team in twenty
(05:51):
twenty one twice in a month, and the first time
he played him, he kicked their ass. Alabama them forty
one to twenty four. Bryce was twenty six to forty
four through three touchdowns through for four hundred and twenty yards,
and then in the National Championship game that ultimately Georgia
(06:12):
got them, Bryce was still good. He completed thirty five
balls through for three hundred and seventy yards and through
a touchdown. He through two picks, but in that game,
unlike the game he destroyed them. His top two targets,
Jamison Williams and Metchie were injured obviously, Jamison top fifteen
pick and Metchie a second round pick with the torn ACL.
(06:33):
So Bryce Young has proven anytime you scout a player
in football, if it's a quarterback or a running back
or any position, you scout them against the best talent
they play. So whether that's teams or if I'm a
wide receiver, it's against the corners that are going to
get drafted if I'm a defensive lineman, it's against the
(06:56):
tackle or tackles that I played that are going to
be NFL players. And if I'm a quarterback, it's the
best teams that I play, right, And no player in
recent memory has played a team as good if you're
an offensive player as that twenty twenty one Georgia defense.
So when I see there's a lot of negativity and
(07:18):
a lot of people questioning Bryce Young, how do you
take a quarterback who's five to ten And honestly, he
probably weighs closer to one hundred and eighty five than
the two hundred pounds that he weighed in at the combine,
because he's not really two hundred pounds. As a scout
told me that was there at the wighans, he looked bloated.
He looked like a guy who put it on a
bunch of fake weight. Of course he did, right, but
(07:39):
he's it doesn't it's not about the weight. It's like
can the guy play? And the guy can really play?
So is he going to get injured? I have no clue.
Nobody knows. I heard Steve Kam tell Coward the other
day that like they had done studies in Arizona. There's
no way to know based on college information whether a
(08:03):
guy will stay healthy or get injured once he gets
to the pros. And I've talked about this before. We've
seen guys that get injured all the time in college,
then come to the pros and have no injury proms,
just like we've seen the opposite guys who have been
healthy their entire career high school, college, come to pros
and get hurt all the time. No one has a
crystal ball. No one knows. And quarterbacks, when you get hit,
(08:26):
typically get injured. Whether you're Russell Wilson, whether you're Peyton Manning,
whether you're Tom Brady. If I'm going to hit you
and hit you hard justin Fields or justin Herbert, I
can injure you. So it's just whether you're small or
you're big. Now, in theory, you should be able to
take more pounding if you're bigger, for sure. But I
watch Bryce Young play that Georgia defense, dominate them and
(08:48):
get peppered in and keep getting getting up. Is Bryce
Young going to be a star in the NFL? No
one knows. I mean, all I know is that the
guy that I watched in college that shit translates to
the NFL, and he proved it dominating against Georgia. Aaron
Rodgers and Jordan Love. I don't want to start with
Aaron rodgerscause I saw a headline the day he is
(09:10):
going and he mentioned this as introductory press conference, and
now he's living it. He is going to be with
the New York Jets this offseason. In the last several years,
he was nowhere to be found in the off season.
When it came to the Green Bay Packers and their
OTAs their mini camps, he didn't show He did not
show up. And I know I can speak for myself,
(09:32):
and I'm a creature of Haver habit. I can do
the same things on a weekly basis. I like to
keep my schedule relatively routine. I like eating the same foods.
I don't like a lot of change in my life,
though someone who hell, I just moved States a year ago,
not because I had to, but because I wanted to.
(09:53):
For me, it's very healthy when I create change sometimes
in my life it usually brings benefits for me. And
when I've been changed has been forced on me, whether
I've been fired from a job, whether you know, broken
up with a girl. Usually it brings very healthy benefits
to me. And I wonder if Aaron Rodgers knew that
(10:15):
he just needed to mix it up partly himself, right
like I need to leave this team, and partly because
the Packers wanted to leave him. And look what it's
already done, right, Like, he can't not show up in
the off season, Like that wouldn't work. He needs to
be there. But part of it's a little bit easier
knowing that, Like, you know what, I kind of want
(10:35):
to stay in New York this offseason. I'll go to
some NHL games, I'll go to Madison Square Garden, I'll
hang out with new people, and it'll force me to
kind of get out of my comfort zone a little bit.
And sometimes, and I think I speak for everybody, it's
easy to stay in her comfort zone. Hell, I'm king
of that. I love my little comfort zone. But when
I force myself to get out of it. And now,
(10:58):
once I've crossed state lines, I don't have a choice.
I have to a lot of times do things that
I wouldn't say make me uncomfortable, but just are something
that I would not do if I still lived in
Northern California and it has brought a lot of benefits
to my life professionally, personally, and I think you see
it with Aaron Rodgers, and I saw it with him
when I watched his press conference, that like making this change,
(11:20):
which i'd say kind of fifty to fifty forced on
him slash, he wanted this. I think it's going to
bring a lot of healthy benefits to him as a player,
right because, let's face it, last year, a big negative
with the Packers is he didn't have DeVante Adams, who
he had known for almost a decade. That like it
wasn't going to matter whether he was there throwing with
(11:43):
him in May and June because once they drafted multiple
wide receivers and traded DeVante, like he had to get
on the same page as Dobbs and Watson, and they
didn't get on the same page till it was too eight. Well,
this year, like there's urgency from the jump. You're on
the New York Jets and everyone's watching you. So getting
on the same page as Garrett Wilson, immediately, getting to
(12:06):
know these offensive linemen, getting this team to kind of
rally around you is really important. And getting the benefit
of doing this stuff in excuse me, in April, in May,
and in June is very very important. Building the foundation
of a relationship with someone else that you do not
(12:26):
know and have no you know, previous history with matters.
And I think the Jets are going to benefit from
kind of this new Aaron Rodgers of a guy that
has just gotten out of his comfort zone, because let's
face it, he had kind of been, you know, in
the same hamster wheel over and over as the Green
(12:49):
Bay Packers quarterback as the last several years. Kind of
knew the routine, knew the operation, and knew the players
around him. And listen, I think it's going to work,
and I think they're going to be good. Obviously, he's
got to stay healthy. But if he stays healthy, I
think we see a rejuvenated guy. And sometimes when you
force change on yourself, you kind of chip on your
(13:12):
shoulders the wrong word. It just adds a little urgency
to your life. It just adds a little new motivation
and maybe he needed that. And listen, I think the
Jets are going to benefit from it. And I think
the players, obviously the Jets have been missing a quarterback
if they got the Aaron Rodgers version, even of last year,
the Jets are a wildcard team, so I think this
(13:35):
is going to be a pretty seamless transition. I said
the other day. I guess it was yesterday's podcast that
like if And as of recording this right now on
Monday afternoon, the Packers have not exercised the fifth year
option on Jordan Love, and I need some more digging
on some of the comments and Gudakin's I thought had
(13:58):
a very fair like it's a lot of money to
commit to a pretty big unknown. It's not verbatim what
he said, but essentially, like to pay a guy Jordan
Love picking up his fifth year option would be twenty
million dollars because he hasn't played any snaps. He hasn't
made any Pro Bowls or anything, so his fifth year
option is a different number than Herbert or Joe Burrow.
(14:21):
But he essentially said, like, giving you a twenty million
dollars that's essentially never played is whatdline nuts. And I
think if you look at last year with the New
York Giants, because in my take was yesterday, like, it's
a pretty bad reflection if they don't pick up the
fifth year option. Well, as I've had like twenty four
hours to think about it. I heard this guy in
finance the other day. He was on a podcast, very
(14:44):
successful individual kind of talk about, you know, the successful investors.
There's this balance. And I am a believer that optimistic
people tend to be more successful, but this guy, and
this guy reiterated that he's like I think in life
you need to be optimistic, but when it comes to
financial you know, freedom and investing and just knowing what
(15:08):
to do with money, you got to be very cautious
at times. You can't just be naively positive, right. Sometimes
you got to go, yeah, this is not a good
idea or this risk is not really worth it, even
if I believe into this. And I think, if you're
the Packers, what if Jordan loves terrible this year, even
(15:29):
if you like him, you've seen him grow over the years,
and you pick up his twenty million dollar option next
year and he's clearly a bottom ten starter and you're
stuck with him. That'd be terrible business. What has he done? Honestly,
there's nothing he could have done, because he hasn't played
for you to feel good enough to pay the guy
twenty million dollars guaranteed in twenty twenty four. Now there's
(15:53):
a chance after this year if you don't pick up
the option and he has a fantastic season and you
make the playoffs. Let's say throws twenty five touchdowns, and
you would you want to keep him on the team.
Still you go, God, we should have picked up the option.
But that's playing Monday morning quarterback as of the day.
All completely understand if by tomorrow the deadline, they haven't
(16:14):
picked up the option and they just play it out
like Daniel Jones, because the worst case scenario is also
a pretty good scenario. He plays really well and you
gotta pay him, and so what you know, he's not
We've seen kind of the market now for Daniel Jones,
who has way more playing experience. You would think if
Jordan Love throws twenty twenty five touchdowns, his number might
(16:37):
even be a little less than that, and then you
can get the guy under a multi year contract where
you'd have to pay more than the twenty million dollars.
But he had done enough in seventeen games where you
feel pretty good about him over the next couple of years.
But they are in a weird spot, and they're in
a spot that not necessarily their fault they had a
guy that started winning MVPs who was already one of
(16:57):
the great players of his generation. Or we're gonna do
play Jordan Love, you couldn't. You made the draft pick,
and you've put yourself in a position now to get
a tryout. Let's say he is terrible, and this to
me would be a bad scenario. He's terrible, your team's terrible,
and you picked up the fifth year option, and then
all of a sudden, you're drafting a quarterback high, right,
(17:18):
really high, and in a quarterback draft that looks very,
very tasty, you just cut him. He's not tradable then
with a twenty million dollar price tag. So I've come
around and understand that by the time you're listening to this,
if it has come out that they have not picked
up his fifth year option, I completely understand why they
did that, And if they did, I do think it's
(17:39):
fair to say that's pretty risky scenario. That puts a
ton of pressure on him to feel very very good
about making him your starter still in two years, which
based where we're sitting today on May first, there's just
no way you can know whether or not you're going
to be in that situation because you have this great
unknown of the season beside practice, nothing to back that
(18:02):
up on. And speaking of nothing to back that up on,
I saw as of recording this, there have been eleven
guys that have had their fifth year option from two
thousand and this doesn't include Jordan Love twenty twenty that
draft picked up. And I always one thing I've really
(18:23):
changed my tune on over the years is like trying
to make bold takes on four fifths, six seventh round picks.
It's pointless because absolutely nobody knows. Nobody knows or good players.
The Tom Brady's, the Richard Sherman's, the George Kittles would
never sniff where they go, but at the time, no
one knows. Just like in this draft, there's going to
(18:44):
be a fifth rounder who becomes a stud, and there's
going to be a first rounder who stinks. But the
first round, which in theory should have the most talent.
Every single year just had a group. And this was
pre COVID, so this was based on two thousand nineteen.
A real college football season is going to have twelve
to thirteen guys max have their fifteenth have their fifth
(19:07):
year option picked up. That means over half the first
round three years ago, did not even get to a
point where you feel good enough about picking up their
fifth year option. Now some of them, right, Damon Arnette
was cut by the Raiders. Henry Ruggs is in jail.
Jalen Rager different team, Akudah, different team. So some of
(19:31):
these players we have known now for months, if not
a year, that this was a disaster. And some of
them you know right away, Herbert Burrow justin Jefferson home run.
Some of them take a little bit longer, I uke,
but that is still a number that is well under
half the first round. So when you look at this
(19:52):
draft and I saw Clark Hunt came out and said that, uh,
you know, of course Patrick Mahomes is underpaid. There is
no no way even if he was the highest paid
player in the league, he would still be underpaid. And
I was thinking about it the other day watching Steph
Curry go for fifty. There is no amount of money
(20:12):
the Warriors could pay Steph Curry that isn't like two
hundred to three hundred million dollars a year, which obviously
is not even allowed. Then you could say he's properly paid.
In the peak of Tiger Woods or the peak of
Michael Jordan, that there is no amount of money that
can come their way that can equal their value to
either their league or the PGA tour their team. And
(20:36):
I also thought about this with the draft. There are
really like four or five players in the league. And
in football it's quarterbacks, you know, in basketball it's less
than a handful of guys. If you don't have one
of those guys, you really don't have a shot. You know.
The reason the Philadelphia Eagles came so close to winning
(20:58):
the Super Bowl was not their roster was elite. It
really was obviously that helped. They had a really good
roster and a lot of good players. It was because
their fucking quarterback, like this season, like a top two
or three guy. He played like he was Burrow, Mahomes,
Josh Allen. Because if you don't have one of those
(21:19):
guys like Dak Prescott, people think I'm hard on Dak Prescott.
I have a lot of respect for Dak Prescott. Great guy,
very very solid player. And if he's your quarterback, every
year you're going to be in the playoff mix. And
if you saw this year you probably win a playoff game,
you are not winning a super Bowl. It's just not happening.
You know, if you look at the AFC, if you
(21:41):
don't have Mahomes, I'm going to include Josh Allen, even
though they've not made it out of the second round
the last couple of years and it just feels like
they're a little short. But I do think he's good enough.
And obviously Burrow, I'm just not taking it that seriously.
I think we can add Aaron Rodgers, even though I
know they haven't got over the hump. Well, like you're
(22:01):
probably not winning it, like until the forty nine ers
figure out the quarterback situation, Like they're always gonna come
up short. It doesn't mean they won't make long runs
and win some playoff games, but like hard to win
super Bowl that way basically impossible. If you don't have Lebron,
if you don't have Steph Curry, if you don't have Giannis,
like you're not winning it. Hell, you can have Kevin Durant.
Every time Kevin Durant is not around Steph Curry, he
(22:23):
ain't getting that close. You know, it's such a small thing.
So the draft, I love it, you love it. Fifty
four million people over a three day span and watch
the thing. It's fantastic television. But most of these players
have little to no impact, and well over half of
them will get cut, We'll be on different teams. And
then even the starters like those are replaceable starters. There's
(22:46):
a small percentage of huge impact guys, whether it's the
first round, and it only diminishes by the round. So
when I see Clark Hunt say he's underpaid, of course
he is because there's no amount of money the Chiefs
could give Patrick Holmes that he wouldn't be worth it
to them, right, just like Josh Allen, just like Joe Burrow. Obviously,
you know, if Jalen keeps playing like that, he's just
(23:09):
his value to the franchise is unquantifiable. Like there's just
it's impossible to quantify what Steph Curry means, not just
to the Wars, but to the NBA. And he was
a seventh He was a seventh pick in his draft,
like three point guards went ahead of them, Like James
Harden went ahead, way ahead of Steph Curry, and James
(23:31):
Harden was a third pick. James Harden and Steph Curry,
they're not even the same fucking universe as players, and
James Harden's when All Sudden Done, is gonna make five
hundred million dollars, win an MVP. All these points they
have nothing in common, and James Harden is like gonna
be Hall of Famer. So the draft while fun, these
players will become really good players, but for the most part,
(23:53):
it's like, does it really matter that much to the
overall landscape of the league. Now? If Anthony Richardson becomes
Josh Allen, then the Colts got a shot. And that's
what I saw a baller talking about it, like, listen,
this might fail, and I talked about it yesterday. If
it does, they're all screwed. They're all going to get fired.
But if it hits and he becomes like a bona
(24:15):
fide star, they got a shot. Like the reason when
Lamar is healthy. Listen, they haven't got over the hump yet,
but or even won that many playoff games, But you
can give him a shot. When he's playing at a
high level and he's running around fucking throwing touchdown passes,
the defense is playing well, it's intriguing and honestly, more
than likely he'll never be on that tier. But maybe
(24:37):
they're hoping they get his mind back right, and he
can get him back in the mix. Because right now
it's clear in the AFC two guys are head and
shoulders above everyone else in Mahomes and then Burrow and
Josh Allen. You know, I would put right in a
separate tier, but damn close, you know. And then there's
you know, the Aaron Rodgers lamar jack. And that depends.
(25:01):
Like Aaron if he starts winning an MVP, if he
were to be the MVP of the Jets this year,
not the Jets actual team, but the entire league, you'd
be like, yeah, they'd have a good chance as any
You'd be like, well, then Packers didn't win anything. Well,
their defense has been pretty atrocious historically with Aaron Rodgers.
So if the Jets defense is good, like part of
the reason the Chiefs have had some success in the playoffs,
like their defense plays well. Obviously, Mahomes an all time
(25:22):
special quarterback, but you got to have a solid defense
to go along with a special player. Like what are
the Bengals had the defense been prety damn good the
last couple of years. Okay, let's bang out a little
mail bag at John Middlecoff is the Instagram. Fire in
those dms. Get your question answered here on the show
Easy to Do Instagram is just my name DMS wide open.
(25:48):
Start with Jordan, huge fan of the pot I'm curious
what the communication chain is as a scout. How did
you evaluate players? Who did you report to your findings
and were you evaluated? I love to learn more about
the process. Well, I would imagine every organization is different.
You know when I was when I became a road scout,
(26:12):
I had worked in the office and I had just
because you know, my first year, I basically was like,
how he's essentially scouting assistant. So when you put in
something to the you know, as a road scout, obviously
the bosses can see it, whether you're director of scouting,
your personnel guy in your GM. So once you put
(26:33):
it in, everyone can see it. Now, you know, my
relationship at the time, Like I could just shoot how
he a text like hey I saw this, love this right?
Or I could send the director of college scouting a text,
hey I like this. So I do think it depends
on the organization, your relationship with the boss. I think
some are vary by the book, Like if you don't
(26:55):
have a great relationship with the GM, not because he
doesn't like you, just because you don't know him that well.
You know, you don't spend that much time with them
as a road scout. Maybe you just report directly to
the college director, which I think is pretty normal. And
there are gonna be some scouts that are close with
the head coach, right so during not that he's locked
(27:15):
in during the season, but like you know, when Brett
Veach was a road scout, like he could just shoot
Andy a text, right, just like you know, there are
guys with the Chiefs that just you know, shoot probably
Veach text all the time, and there are some that
just report to people under him. I'm just using those
two his examples because I know how they kind of work.
I just think it's very dependent on the organization. I
(27:38):
can only speak from my experience, but I think knowing
some scouts, I think some probably deal directly with the
GM throughout the season, like just texting and emailing more
than others. And I think it's just it's like any company, right,
(27:58):
if you work and you know the CEO directly, you
know you might friends with a guy, right. If you don't,
you probably don't communicate with him that much. You communicate
with management. Now, I the hard part is like our
scouts evaluated. You know, the sad part about the profession is,
you know, I don't think as much as you'd think, right,
(28:21):
coaches are if you're an offensive coordinator and your offense sucks,
you're gonna get fired. Same thing with a defensive coach,
or same thing with a position coach. When it comes
to scouts, like if your buddies with a GM or
your buddies with the head coach, or buddies with the owner,
that's another thing the owner. You might be an average
below average scout and keep your job for a long
time and get elevated. But that's i'd say the same
(28:45):
and most industries anyone listening to this knows, and especially
if you consistently work in the office. Now it's crazy
that I even like consistently like it used to be
for the history of time to everyone just worked in
the office, but their office dynamic mix of yeah, this
guy's overpaid, this guy's worthless, this manager sucks right, this
(29:05):
guy's stealing, this guy's underpaid. It's probably no different than
any industry. Now that the draft is over, how do
you think the Cowboys will do this season, shouldn't they
be a Super Bowl contender? If not, why not? Well,
of course they are, and partly because of the NFC.
There's them, the Eagles and the Niners, which I would
(29:27):
put on their own tier, and I'd probably put the
Eagles in the Niners on a higher tier than the Cowboys.
But the Cowboys went toe to toe with the Niners.
They easily could have won that game. The thing that
gives me pause about the Cowboys back to back seasons
Dak throwing picks in the playoff games that they lost.
(29:47):
And listen, I don't think Dak is some scrub. I
think he's like the tenth, eleventh, ninth, twelfth quarterback, right
and you're gonna have games like he did against Tampa
where he throws a bunch of touchdowns and he looks
like a superstar, but that's not actually who he is. Now.
I don't think he's the guy that throws all these picks.
But last year he threw a lot of picks. He
threw multiple picks in a playoff game. And until he
(30:08):
like I will bet against him in big games and
maybe he'll prove me wrong. But like I just said
earlier in the podcast, like the reason I don't think
the Cowboys can win the Super Bowl. They have talented
enough players on the roster. It's a quarterback is not
good enough. And maybe as a moment and I eat Crow,
I'd be happy to because obviously when the Cowboys play,
(30:29):
it's interesting, everyone cares. Television ratings are big, which means
more people are watching football, which matters to me because
that's the business I'm in. You guys watch, I give takes.
You know, the less people that watch worse than is
for my business. I wish he was even better, but
I just don't. I think he has a ceiling. I
(30:49):
think he has physical limitations, you know. I think he's
closer to Alex Smith as a thrower than anyone wants
to admit. This guy ain't fucking Josh Alan and Patrick
Mahomes slinging around out there. So but he kind of
thinks he is at times, and that got him in trouble. Now,
if you can clean up on that, maybe they can
(31:11):
overcome it. But I don't know. I would say to me,
the Cowboys feel like a second round and out team.
But I do think they're really good. I think dan
Quinn's the stud I think their defense is gonna be awesome.
I think they're, you know, offensive solid. Their offensive line's good. Seed.
He looks like a stud. Paulard's a good player. I'm
(31:32):
a senior at the University of Oregon. I just got
a job in Arizona entry level sales. I'm an avid
golfer around a nine handicap. Was wondering what are some
good tracks to play in or around Scottsdale in my budget.
I'm a huge fan, love the podcast. I think the
best thing to do when and this is what I
did when I first moved out here is there's an
(31:54):
app called golf Now, and download the golf Now app
and then just type in wherever you live. For you
type in Scottsdale, and it'll show all the public tracks
and the different deals throughout whatever day you want to play. Uh,
that's the way I would recommend it. So I don't
know what your budget is. I take it that you
just graduated college, or you are your senior in college,
(32:17):
or you know you'd like you don't want to play
five hundred dollars rounds, then it can give you a
lay of the land. There's a course right down the
street from me. Silverado, which you know I was always
told I've played it before. It's like a muni. Someone
told me the to the day they're charging one hundred
fifty dollars. One thing one industry you talk about the
inflation has impacted positively for their business is golf, because
(32:42):
not only have they raised the prices, they're filling out
the tea times. I saw in the Bay Area. I
see it here in Scottsdale. Average course is charged way
more than in your You're like, wait, this is you're
charging two hundred dollars to play this course. And then
you look at the T shirt. You're like, every fucking
foursome's packed. Right. You can be like, wow, this restaurant's
way over priced average food, and then you look in
(33:04):
the restaurant there's not an empty seat. You're like, well,
are they actually overpricing the stuff or are they just
being smartier? You know, right, if you can sell it
at that price point, you should keep selling it at
that price point. And I'll tell you this, download the
golf Now app, which maybe you already have your nine handicap,
but I don't you know, things are it's expensive to
(33:26):
play golf. The public golf around here is just it's
borderline outrageous. If you've been playing golf for a while,
I really enjoy your content. I'm not even a football guy,
but the but I like listening to some more people
break things now. I appreciate it. Love your work. Really
nice to listen to someone who has a NOBS approach.
(33:48):
Most of those ESPN guys suck. That being said, I'm
from Wisconsin and a huge Packer fan who follows the
draft process closely. I had this thought last night after
Day two of the draft about the Packers draft philosophy
and the results after and I wanted to get your
take on it for the mailbag. Our last thirteen first
(34:09):
round picks, beside Love have been defensive players. How much value,
how much valuable draft capital can we devote to that
side of the ball every year to end up with
the top five or ten defense this year in in
year out? Are we missing on picks that much? Is
it coaching, scheme, play calling? I'm not sure? But at
(34:31):
what point do we change or just our philosophy sounds
like the definition of insanity. Seems like we are behind
the times and need to adapt or die, especially in
the post Rogers era. I'll defend them this way. If
I'm just thinking your last whatever seven eight drafts, the
(34:52):
majority of those years, your team has not been under
five hundred. Hell, you've won the division many of those years,
right up until last year where you had a shitty
year and you still went eight to nine. The previous
three years you won the division, you were like the
one seed. You were drafting in the mid to late twenties.
(35:12):
You're just drafting. Even in a good draft, most drafts
have Let's say if last if this draft had just happened,
on average, had fourteen first round graded players. If we
just went throughout the whole league, let's say a good
draft has twenty three first rounders. Well, if you're drafting
on average every year twenty five, for the most part,
(35:34):
there might be a first rounder or two even left there,
so you're typically it is much easier. The best draft
the Niners have had in the last like five years
was the draft where they drafted Nick Boson, Deebo Samuel. Well,
what happened that draft? They drafted two overall. So when
you suck, you don't just draft high in the first round.
(35:55):
You draft high in every draft. Well, when's the last
time it's like all the Packers won three games. Well,
that wouldn't just be like, oh, they could also draft
whoever in the first round. That means every single round
you get to draft a good player. And that's just
typically not the case with you guys, because you're always
pretty damn good. And when I think about it, you know,
(36:16):
you have hit on some players over the years. Ji
Alexander's good, Kenny Clark is good. You probably know it'd
be hard for me to break down Savage his game,
but kind of liked him, you know. You, Yeah, you've
also missed on some players. But I don't think it's
(36:37):
ever wrong to just draft who you think is the
best player now, just because instead of drafting whatever defensive player,
Let's say I wanted to say Kenny King, but I
don't think that's his name. Whatever, King's the corner that
you drafted a couple of years ago. Let's just say
you would have drafted an offensive player there. There's no
(36:57):
guarantee just because you drafted a guard or or tight
end that that guy's gonna be any good. So I
understand what you're saying, Like we've drafted all these picks,
how is our defense doesn't look like, you know, the
fucking forty nine ers or the Dallas Cowboys or something
like what's going on? And I'd go, well, your coaching
has been pretty questionable, right, your defensive coordinator. When's the
(37:22):
last time you've had a defensive coordinator that went on
to be a head coach? For example, you and the
forty nine ers have been pretty even over the last
three or four years. Right, one differentiating factors You had
Rodgers and they had an awesome defense. Well, both their
defensive last two defensive coordinators became head coaches, and Kyle
has nothing to do with that. Hell, John Lynch has
(37:42):
nothing to do with that. Now Kyle does in terms
of he hires them. But like, those guys are just
really good coaches. Well, Laflor and Goudikins, I forget the
guy you fired wasn't Oh's Pettin and then you go
with Barry. Well, are either one of those guys going
to be a head coach or even in the to
be a head coach? Doesn't seem like it, right, So
(38:05):
part of having really good defensive players, which you got
a draft well, but also defensive coordinators, really good ones
can make guys really good. I saw Fred Warner say, like,
I don't think my career is here if I'm not
Aroundmiko Ryans. What if Fred Warner's just on Seattle or
on the Houston Texans or on the Minnesota I does
he become that? Maybe? But I don't know. So coaching
(38:30):
in the NFL really really matters. Like if I put
the top ten college coaches at Georgia these last two years,
I'd say eight out of ten of them might win
back to back national championships. And I'm not diminishing Kirby Smart.
Kirby Smart's really good. But as we've seen, the teams
that had the most drafted players this year were Georgia, Alabama, Michigan,
(38:55):
and TCU. What do all four of those programs have
in common? Awesome? I mean Michigan, TCU, Georgia were playoff teams,
Ohio State the one team that is not in that list,
and Alabama was basically the fifth playoff team. So, like,
to be good in college, you have to have a
ton of NFL guys. It's about the jimmy's and the
jokes way more than the exes and the os. The
(39:18):
NFL is the nex'es and o's game. Now, Obviously, if
you get Miles Garrett, or you have Ed Reed or
Ray Lewis or Nick Bosa Khalil Mack in his prime,
of course they can overcome bad schemes. But like most
good defensive coordinator, like what makes Vic Fangio so good,
Like that guy's smart. That guy is a great defensive schemer.
(39:41):
And I've known people that have been in the meeting
room with him that just like I'm telling you, when
he tells a player something's gonna happen, it happens. Why
do we give offensive coaches so much because when you
hear these if you talk to Travis Kelcey, or you
talk to George Kittle, or you talk to trying to
think of really good offensive coaches in the NFL. You
know the Tennessee when Arthur Smith was there, they go,
(40:02):
these guys really know what they're doing because scheming and
game plans really matter. So I guess this is a
roundabout way of saying, I don't think your philosophy of
drafting these players is crazy. I don't even think it's wrong.
I think we could argue as like maybe your defensive
coordinators just our blow average out of the quarterbacks taken
(40:23):
in the first round. Who do you think has the
best chance to succeed? Bryce Young has the intangibles, but
he's gonna go into rebuilding franchise much like CJ. Strout. Personally,
I think Anthony Richardson is in a really good situation.
They don't have a bad roster. The old line will
be healthy. Jonathan Taylor will also be healthy. The Colts
have promising pieces outside of Pittman, Pierce Downs and Woods.
(40:48):
A veteran quarterback who can teach Richardson. More importantly, a
coach with a good track record of coaching good young quarterbacks. Well,
I agree of all the I mean of c J.
Stroud and Bryce Young, clearly he goes to the team
with the most talent on the current roster. The one
thing I will say, though, Bryce and CJ have played
(41:11):
a ton of football in the brightest of lights, in
the biggest programs and been multiple year starters. I mean,
this guy's a thirteen game starter and for the most
part it's been pretty ugly. So to think that this guy,
even if it's an easy landing spot, there is still
a massive, massive question. A couple of years ago, a
(41:31):
lot of people like Trey Lance there's not a better
spot to go to than the San Franco forty nine ers,
And it was actually the opposite because the standards like, well,
gott he looks really bad. Now. The difference is the
cults are not as good as that team. But my
point is if we look at it like that, if
it doesn't go as well and he starts swimming, you
(41:52):
can kind of get into a weird spot. Now I
listen to podcast, everyone thinks it's gonna start. There's gonna
start him, which I guess that seems pretty risky because
what if he clearly isn't ready, Like what if it's
like he's a year away. Can they just take a
deep breath or are they just unwilling to because there's
there's a there's a fine balance of like the only
way to get better is reps, but like, is he
(42:15):
ready for the reps? And I'm talking outside of practice
because okay, I don't know their schedule, but like, you
play the Jags, then you play the Paths, and then
you play the Steelers and then you play you know, Seattle,
Like these are real teams. You're you're no longer playing
in Mississippi State or fucking Kentucky. This is like you
got the Jets this weekend. You know, then you gotta
(42:36):
go on the road and play the Patriots and Bill Belichick,
you are not playing Vanderbilt. You're not getting you know,
some of these lesser SEC teams. You know, most teams
in the SEC are not Georgia in Alabama, tex A
and m was terrible. So I I think long term,
(43:01):
I think it's Anthony Richardson has the highest ceiling. I
would say immediately, I think Bryce will probably look the best.
He's got Frank, He's got a coach who's had success,
who's been an offensive coordinator, has been the head coach,
who is a quarterback. So I think immediately I will
look for Bryce to look the best. It would not
shock me if early on and CJ, I would imagine
(43:25):
CJ will look better than Anthony Richson early on. I
would kind of expect Anthony Richison to look pretty terrible
early on. Remember Josh Allen's rookie year, it was like Jesus,
this has got a long way to go here. That
to me would kind of be the Anthony Richardson expectation
to be like what is happening? Okay, last one Hey John,
(43:46):
another boyfriend dming you for the mail bag from a
girlfriend's Instagram. Actually had my insta hacked from a bitcoin scammer,
semi similar to your Azuki running. Might have to retake
my Insta just to do DM for the pod. As
a Bills fan, should we be excited for Kincaid? Watch
a good amount of Utah football this year? And I
(44:07):
know you did as well. I like the pick, but
have mixed feelings about moving up two spots to get them.
I think it's comp of what I think DJ hit
it on the head is like a Travis Kelce type player. Now,
some of these comps comparing anyone to Travis Kelce, who
might go down is the greatest tight end is stupid.
Just like when Zay Flowers comes on DV, It's like,
(44:29):
who's this comp Tyreek Hill or the Pittsburgh guy. It
was Aaron Donald, Like what it's not fair to any
Michael Mayer Gronkowski. But if this guy is a really
good tight end and can be an eighty catch guy
can be a just a security blanket for your quarterback
(44:52):
because to win in the playoffs in cold conditions, you
can't just go bombs away. Sometimes you got to ugly
up the game, and that's where tight ends I'm into play. Now.
I know you have Dawson Knox, and I think, is
he still on the team. I've always liked Dawson Knox,
but you clearly need you know, Burrows. It's pretty unique
because they got the two unreal receivers. Obviously, Mahomes has
(45:15):
has Kelsey. You know you look at Jalen Hurts, he
has Dallas Goddard. I think it is very, very important
to have a high end tight end. I'm a big
believer in the tight end position. Two teams I watch
the most have Kelsey and Kittle. Those guys are unfucking
stoppable when they get rolling because like safety can't cover them.
(45:35):
So if that's this guy who comes from a high
level program who's been one of the better players, they've
gone back to back Rose Bowls, like yeah, I like it.
I like drafting highly productive, high character guys on winning
programs Utah football back to back Rose Bulls, and I
wonder if you asked them who's your best player the
last couple of years, he'd be right there in the mix,
him and Devin Lloyd. Devin Lloyd got drafted pretty high too,
(45:59):
So I almost said Devin Lloyd was on the Bills,
but he's on the He's on the Jacks. I like
to pick, I do. I actually like you guys signed,
and I'm a little biased here signed a running back
out of Fresno State, MIMS. Love that guy. You can
(46:19):
keep an eye on mems prediction right now, he makes
a team. I know you just signed Latavious Murray. What
if he beats him out? That's all ind on that
hot take, MIMS. Undrafted free agent. Listen, everyone listening right now?
Who's a fan of said team? Vikings, Cowboys, Texans, Cardinals, Niners, Rams.
Undrafted free agent will make your team. That's what's so
(46:41):
cool about the NFL that undrafted some teams, several undrafted
free agents will beat out four fifths, six seventh round picks.
So what makes football so cool? Just because you get
drafted in the fourth round, you ain't guaranteed anything, and
that undrafted free agent that got seven thousand dollars to
sign might beat your guy out. Get a phone call.
I need to pick up audios. Talk to everyone later.
(47:03):
Peace the volume
The volume What is going on Everybody, John Middlecop three
and Out podcast. Those of you listening subscribed on Apple Spotify,
(00:23):
appreciate you. We're also live every single day of the week,
not this show, but all the volumes content on Amazon amp,
so make sure you download that bad Boy. We got
a good show coming up. A lot going on football wise,
some thoughts on Bryce Young Rogers and Jordan Love. I
saw Clark Hunt say that Mahomes he's underpaid and there's
(00:43):
nothing really they can do about it. We'll talk about
it all because the drafts is now over free agency.
The drafts, we had a pretty good idea who your
squad is. Now. You can make tweaks, you can make
a trade here there once the big cuts happen around
UH September first, but for the most part, like you're
not adding ten players moving forward. This is kind of
who you got to who you got uh and it's
(01:06):
fun time. So OTA's right around the corner. Aaron Rodgers
not skipping them this year. So we will keep rocking
and rolling as well as the Middlecoff mailback at John
Middlecoff is in the Instagram dms. Wide open fire in
those dms and get your question answered here on the show.
We will have a football podcast today, golf podcast tomorrow,
and another football podcast at the end of the week,
(01:26):
so we'll just we'll keep the content flowing. So buckle up,
get ready. We're only getting started. But as you can see,
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You want to go to a game, well, do it
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(01:49):
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(02:11):
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Before we get into Rogers and Jordan Love because I
have a couple quick thoughts there. I wanted to listen.
Bryce Shong is a polarizing prospect, and typically unless your
(02:35):
name's like Peyton Manning or John Elway, you are going
to be nitpicked in the draft process. It's going to
happen next year with Caleb Williams. It happened with Trevor
Lawrence right two years later, the Jags have a star quarterback.
I mean, people hated Justin Herbert Patrick Mahomes like people
thought he was a scrub. So it's just part of
the draft and whether you are an accomplished college player,
(02:58):
whether you didn't play that much and Anthony Richardson you're
gonna get there's gonna be a lot of negativity surrounding
you leading up to the draft. Then once you get drafted,
everything becomes very positive. But I understand why people question
Bray Show. He's small and for NFL standards, he's tiny, right,
And typically quarterbacks that have success in the NFL are
(03:21):
bigger players. Kyler Murray, who you know, I wouldn't say
he's had that much success on the field. He's obviously
had a lot of success offfit with this contract, but
it was very, very easy to see how unique he was.
He's literally faster than every player basically in the NFL,
and his arm is really really strong. Bryce Young did
(03:42):
not run a forty. Why because he's not that fast.
I remember when Lamar Jackson refused to run the forty.
It really bothered me. Fast players should always run why
cuse they're fast, and it'll be a positive once there's
a four to three to two next to your name.
I'll believe till my dying days that if Lamar Jackson now,
(04:03):
ultimately he got a massive contract and it all worked
out for him, But if he had just ran the
forty coming out of college or at the combine, he
would not have fallen. He'll pick thirty two because no
one's passing on a guy with a four to three
next to their name with his type tape. But he
didn't run, and part of that obviously was impacted by
Bill Poley in calling him a wide receiver. Bryce Shewing
(04:26):
didn't run a forty wide because he would have ran
a four to eight. But his game is not predicated
on running around. He keeps plays a live with his legs,
but he is not a running quarterback. He's not Kyler Murray.
He doesn't play like that at all. He plays like,
i'd say, like Deshaun Watson. He plays like the Deshaun
Watson before he got to the Browns, before all this
(04:46):
stuff came out about massage therapist, back when we all
thought he was a really sweet quarterback for the Houston Texas.
He keeps plays a live behind the line of scrimmage
and tries to win from within the pocket. And honestly,
in college, Bryce was even a better player than DeShawn,
and DeShawn was damn good. But here's one thing I
will say. I saw this stat on the interweb and
it was its eye opening, even though once you say
(05:09):
it out loud. Of course, the Georgia defense two years
ago is widely considered one of the great defenses of
all time, and now it has NFL draft status to
back it up. They had fourteen players over the last
two years drafted off that defense. Obviously, only eleven players
can be on the field at one time, so that
(05:29):
means guys that were backups last year were drafted, and
seven of those fourteen players were first round picks. That
is going to go down as one of the most
accomplished college defenses and one of obviously relative with all
the guys drafted, it might be unprecedented and it might
never happen again. Bryce Young played that team in twenty
(05:51):
twenty one twice in a month, and the first time
he played him, he kicked their ass. Alabama them forty
one to twenty four. Bryce was twenty six to forty
four through three touchdowns through for four hundred and twenty yards,
and then in the National Championship game that ultimately Georgia
(06:12):
got them, Bryce was still good. He completed thirty five
balls through for three hundred and seventy yards and through
a touchdown. He through two picks, but in that game,
unlike the game he destroyed them. His top two targets,
Jamison Williams and Metchie were injured obviously, Jamison top fifteen
pick and Metchie a second round pick with the torn ACL.
(06:33):
So Bryce Young has proven anytime you scout a player
in football, if it's a quarterback or a running back
or any position, you scout them against the best talent
they play. So whether that's teams or if I'm a
wide receiver, it's against the corners that are going to
get drafted if I'm a defensive lineman, it's against the
(06:56):
tackle or tackles that I played that are going to
be NFL players. And if I'm a quarterback, it's the
best teams that I play, right, And no player in
recent memory has played a team as good if you're
an offensive player as that twenty twenty one Georgia defense.
So when I see there's a lot of negativity and
(07:18):
a lot of people questioning Bryce Young, how do you
take a quarterback who's five to ten And honestly, he
probably weighs closer to one hundred and eighty five than
the two hundred pounds that he weighed in at the combine,
because he's not really two hundred pounds. As a scout
told me that was there at the wighans, he looked bloated.
He looked like a guy who put it on a
bunch of fake weight. Of course he did, right, but
(07:39):
he's it doesn't it's not about the weight. It's like
can the guy play? And the guy can really play?
So is he going to get injured? I have no clue.
Nobody knows. I heard Steve Kam tell Coward the other
day that like they had done studies in Arizona. There's
no way to know based on college information whether a
(08:03):
guy will stay healthy or get injured once he gets
to the pros. And I've talked about this before. We've
seen guys that get injured all the time in college,
then come to the pros and have no injury proms,
just like we've seen the opposite guys who have been
healthy their entire career high school, college, come to pros
and get hurt all the time. No one has a
crystal ball. No one knows. And quarterbacks, when you get hit,
(08:26):
typically get injured. Whether you're Russell Wilson, whether you're Peyton Manning,
whether you're Tom Brady. If I'm going to hit you
and hit you hard justin Fields or justin Herbert, I
can injure you. So it's just whether you're small or
you're big. Now, in theory, you should be able to
take more pounding if you're bigger, for sure. But I
watch Bryce Young play that Georgia defense, dominate them and
(08:48):
get peppered in and keep getting getting up. Is Bryce
Young going to be a star in the NFL? No
one knows. I mean, all I know is that the
guy that I watched in college that shit translates to
the NFL, and he proved it dominating against Georgia. Aaron
Rodgers and Jordan Love. I don't want to start with
Aaron rodgerscause I saw a headline the day he is
(09:10):
going and he mentioned this as introductory press conference, and
now he's living it. He is going to be with
the New York Jets this offseason. In the last several years,
he was nowhere to be found in the off season.
When it came to the Green Bay Packers and their
OTAs their mini camps, he didn't show He did not
show up. And I know I can speak for myself,
(09:32):
and I'm a creature of Haver habit. I can do
the same things on a weekly basis. I like to
keep my schedule relatively routine. I like eating the same foods.
I don't like a lot of change in my life,
though someone who hell, I just moved States a year ago,
not because I had to, but because I wanted to.
(09:53):
For me, it's very healthy when I create change sometimes
in my life it usually brings benefits for me. And
when I've been changed has been forced on me, whether
I've been fired from a job, whether you know, broken
up with a girl. Usually it brings very healthy benefits
to me. And I wonder if Aaron Rodgers knew that
(10:15):
he just needed to mix it up partly himself, right
like I need to leave this team, and partly because
the Packers wanted to leave him. And look what it's
already done, right, Like, he can't not show up in
the off season, Like that wouldn't work. He needs to
be there. But part of it's a little bit easier
knowing that, Like, you know what, I kind of want
(10:35):
to stay in New York this offseason. I'll go to
some NHL games, I'll go to Madison Square Garden, I'll
hang out with new people, and it'll force me to
kind of get out of my comfort zone a little bit.
And sometimes, and I think I speak for everybody, it's
easy to stay in her comfort zone. Hell, I'm king
of that. I love my little comfort zone. But when
I force myself to get out of it. And now,
(10:58):
once I've crossed state lines, I don't have a choice.
I have to a lot of times do things that
I wouldn't say make me uncomfortable, but just are something
that I would not do if I still lived in
Northern California and it has brought a lot of benefits
to my life professionally, personally, and I think you see
it with Aaron Rodgers, and I saw it with him
when I watched his press conference, that like making this change,
(11:20):
which i'd say kind of fifty to fifty forced on
him slash, he wanted this. I think it's going to
bring a lot of healthy benefits to him as a player,
right because, let's face it, last year, a big negative
with the Packers is he didn't have DeVante Adams, who
he had known for almost a decade. That like it
wasn't going to matter whether he was there throwing with
(11:43):
him in May and June because once they drafted multiple
wide receivers and traded DeVante, like he had to get
on the same page as Dobbs and Watson, and they
didn't get on the same page till it was too eight. Well,
this year, like there's urgency from the jump. You're on
the New York Jets and everyone's watching you. So getting
on the same page as Garrett Wilson, immediately, getting to
(12:06):
know these offensive linemen, getting this team to kind of
rally around you is really important. And getting the benefit
of doing this stuff in excuse me, in April, in May,
and in June is very very important. Building the foundation
of a relationship with someone else that you do not
(12:26):
know and have no you know, previous history with matters.
And I think the Jets are going to benefit from
kind of this new Aaron Rodgers of a guy that
has just gotten out of his comfort zone, because let's
face it, he had kind of been, you know, in
the same hamster wheel over and over as the Green
(12:49):
Bay Packers quarterback as the last several years. Kind of
knew the routine, knew the operation, and knew the players
around him. And listen, I think it's going to work,
and I think they're going to be good. Obviously, he's
got to stay healthy. But if he stays healthy, I
think we see a rejuvenated guy. And sometimes when you
force change on yourself, you kind of chip on your
(13:12):
shoulders the wrong word. It just adds a little urgency
to your life. It just adds a little new motivation
and maybe he needed that. And listen, I think the
Jets are going to benefit from it. And I think
the players, obviously the Jets have been missing a quarterback
if they got the Aaron Rodgers version, even of last year,
the Jets are a wildcard team, so I think this
(13:35):
is going to be a pretty seamless transition. I said
the other day. I guess it was yesterday's podcast that
like if And as of recording this right now on
Monday afternoon, the Packers have not exercised the fifth year
option on Jordan Love, and I need some more digging
on some of the comments and Gudakin's I thought had
(13:58):
a very fair like it's a lot of money to
commit to a pretty big unknown. It's not verbatim what
he said, but essentially, like to pay a guy Jordan
Love picking up his fifth year option would be twenty
million dollars because he hasn't played any snaps. He hasn't
made any Pro Bowls or anything, so his fifth year
option is a different number than Herbert or Joe Burrow.
(14:21):
But he essentially said, like, giving you a twenty million
dollars that's essentially never played is whatdline nuts. And I
think if you look at last year with the New
York Giants, because in my take was yesterday, like, it's
a pretty bad reflection if they don't pick up the
fifth year option. Well, as I've had like twenty four
hours to think about it. I heard this guy in
finance the other day. He was on a podcast, very
(14:44):
successful individual kind of talk about, you know, the successful investors.
There's this balance. And I am a believer that optimistic
people tend to be more successful, but this guy, and
this guy reiterated that he's like I think in life
you need to be optimistic, but when it comes to
financial you know, freedom and investing and just knowing what
(15:08):
to do with money, you got to be very cautious
at times. You can't just be naively positive, right. Sometimes
you got to go, yeah, this is not a good
idea or this risk is not really worth it, even
if I believe into this. And I think, if you're
the Packers, what if Jordan loves terrible this year, even
(15:29):
if you like him, you've seen him grow over the years,
and you pick up his twenty million dollar option next
year and he's clearly a bottom ten starter and you're
stuck with him. That'd be terrible business. What has he done? Honestly,
there's nothing he could have done, because he hasn't played
for you to feel good enough to pay the guy
twenty million dollars guaranteed in twenty twenty four. Now there's
(15:53):
a chance after this year if you don't pick up
the option and he has a fantastic season and you
make the playoffs. Let's say throws twenty five touchdowns, and
you would you want to keep him on the team.
Still you go, God, we should have picked up the option.
But that's playing Monday morning quarterback as of the day.
All completely understand if by tomorrow the deadline, they haven't
(16:14):
picked up the option and they just play it out
like Daniel Jones, because the worst case scenario is also
a pretty good scenario. He plays really well and you
gotta pay him, and so what you know, he's not
We've seen kind of the market now for Daniel Jones,
who has way more playing experience. You would think if
Jordan Love throws twenty twenty five touchdowns, his number might
(16:37):
even be a little less than that, and then you
can get the guy under a multi year contract where
you'd have to pay more than the twenty million dollars.
But he had done enough in seventeen games where you
feel pretty good about him over the next couple of years.
But they are in a weird spot, and they're in
a spot that not necessarily their fault they had a
guy that started winning MVPs who was already one of
(16:57):
the great players of his generation. Or we're gonna do
play Jordan Love, you couldn't. You made the draft pick,
and you've put yourself in a position now to get
a tryout. Let's say he is terrible, and this to
me would be a bad scenario. He's terrible, your team's terrible,
and you picked up the fifth year option, and then
all of a sudden, you're drafting a quarterback high, right,
(17:18):
really high, and in a quarterback draft that looks very,
very tasty, you just cut him. He's not tradable then
with a twenty million dollar price tag. So I've come
around and understand that by the time you're listening to this,
if it has come out that they have not picked
up his fifth year option, I completely understand why they
did that, And if they did, I do think it's
(17:39):
fair to say that's pretty risky scenario. That puts a
ton of pressure on him to feel very very good
about making him your starter still in two years, which
based where we're sitting today on May first, there's just
no way you can know whether or not you're going
to be in that situation because you have this great
unknown of the season beside practice, nothing to back that
(18:02):
up on. And speaking of nothing to back that up on,
I saw as of recording this, there have been eleven
guys that have had their fifth year option from two
thousand and this doesn't include Jordan Love twenty twenty that
draft picked up. And I always one thing I've really
(18:23):
changed my tune on over the years is like trying
to make bold takes on four fifths, six seventh round picks.
It's pointless because absolutely nobody knows. Nobody knows or good players.
The Tom Brady's, the Richard Sherman's, the George Kittles would
never sniff where they go, but at the time, no
one knows. Just like in this draft, there's going to
(18:44):
be a fifth rounder who becomes a stud, and there's
going to be a first rounder who stinks. But the
first round, which in theory should have the most talent.
Every single year just had a group. And this was
pre COVID, so this was based on two thousand nineteen.
A real college football season is going to have twelve
to thirteen guys max have their fifteenth have their fifth
(19:07):
year option picked up. That means over half the first
round three years ago, did not even get to a
point where you feel good enough about picking up their
fifth year option. Now some of them, right, Damon Arnette
was cut by the Raiders. Henry Ruggs is in jail.
Jalen Rager different team, Akudah, different team. So some of
(19:31):
these players we have known now for months, if not
a year, that this was a disaster. And some of
them you know right away, Herbert Burrow justin Jefferson home run.
Some of them take a little bit longer, I uke,
but that is still a number that is well under
half the first round. So when you look at this
(19:52):
draft and I saw Clark Hunt came out and said that, uh,
you know, of course Patrick Mahomes is underpaid. There is
no no way even if he was the highest paid
player in the league, he would still be underpaid. And
I was thinking about it the other day watching Steph
Curry go for fifty. There is no amount of money
(20:12):
the Warriors could pay Steph Curry that isn't like two
hundred to three hundred million dollars a year, which obviously
is not even allowed. Then you could say he's properly paid.
In the peak of Tiger Woods or the peak of
Michael Jordan, that there is no amount of money that
can come their way that can equal their value to
either their league or the PGA tour their team. And
(20:36):
I also thought about this with the draft. There are
really like four or five players in the league. And
in football it's quarterbacks, you know, in basketball it's less
than a handful of guys. If you don't have one
of those guys, you really don't have a shot. You know.
The reason the Philadelphia Eagles came so close to winning
(20:58):
the Super Bowl was not their roster was elite. It
really was obviously that helped. They had a really good
roster and a lot of good players. It was because
their fucking quarterback, like this season, like a top two
or three guy. He played like he was Burrow, Mahomes,
Josh Allen. Because if you don't have one of those
(21:19):
guys like Dak Prescott, people think I'm hard on Dak Prescott.
I have a lot of respect for Dak Prescott. Great guy,
very very solid player. And if he's your quarterback, every
year you're going to be in the playoff mix. And
if you saw this year you probably win a playoff game,
you are not winning a super Bowl. It's just not happening.
You know, if you look at the AFC, if you
(21:41):
don't have Mahomes, I'm going to include Josh Allen, even
though they've not made it out of the second round
the last couple of years and it just feels like
they're a little short. But I do think he's good enough.
And obviously Burrow, I'm just not taking it that seriously.
I think we can add Aaron Rodgers, even though I
know they haven't got over the hump. Well, like you're
(22:01):
probably not winning it, like until the forty nine ers
figure out the quarterback situation, Like they're always gonna come
up short. It doesn't mean they won't make long runs
and win some playoff games, but like hard to win
super Bowl that way basically impossible. If you don't have Lebron,
if you don't have Steph Curry, if you don't have Giannis,
like you're not winning it. Hell, you can have Kevin Durant.
Every time Kevin Durant is not around Steph Curry, he
(22:23):
ain't getting that close. You know, it's such a small thing.
So the draft, I love it, you love it. Fifty
four million people over a three day span and watch
the thing. It's fantastic television. But most of these players
have little to no impact, and well over half of
them will get cut, We'll be on different teams. And
then even the starters like those are replaceable starters. There's
(22:46):
a small percentage of huge impact guys, whether it's the
first round, and it only diminishes by the round. So
when I see Clark Hunt say he's underpaid, of course
he is because there's no amount of money the Chiefs
could give Patrick Holmes that he wouldn't be worth it
to them, right, just like Josh Allen, just like Joe Burrow. Obviously,
you know, if Jalen keeps playing like that, he's just
(23:09):
his value to the franchise is unquantifiable. Like there's just
it's impossible to quantify what Steph Curry means, not just
to the Wars, but to the NBA. And he was
a seventh He was a seventh pick in his draft,
like three point guards went ahead of them, Like James
Harden went ahead, way ahead of Steph Curry, and James
(23:31):
Harden was a third pick. James Harden and Steph Curry,
they're not even the same fucking universe as players, and
James Harden's when All Sudden Done, is gonna make five
hundred million dollars, win an MVP. All these points they
have nothing in common, and James Harden is like gonna
be Hall of Famer. So the draft while fun, these
players will become really good players, but for the most part,
(23:53):
it's like, does it really matter that much to the
overall landscape of the league. Now? If Anthony Richardson becomes
Josh Allen, then the Colts got a shot. And that's
what I saw a baller talking about it, like, listen,
this might fail, and I talked about it yesterday. If
it does, they're all screwed. They're all going to get fired.
But if it hits and he becomes like a bona
(24:15):
fide star, they got a shot. Like the reason when
Lamar is healthy. Listen, they haven't got over the hump yet,
but or even won that many playoff games, But you
can give him a shot. When he's playing at a
high level and he's running around fucking throwing touchdown passes,
the defense is playing well, it's intriguing and honestly, more
than likely he'll never be on that tier. But maybe
(24:37):
they're hoping they get his mind back right, and he
can get him back in the mix. Because right now
it's clear in the AFC two guys are head and
shoulders above everyone else in Mahomes and then Burrow and
Josh Allen. You know, I would put right in a
separate tier, but damn close, you know. And then there's
you know, the Aaron Rodgers lamar jack. And that depends.
(25:01):
Like Aaron if he starts winning an MVP, if he
were to be the MVP of the Jets this year,
not the Jets actual team, but the entire league, you'd
be like, yeah, they'd have a good chance as any
You'd be like, well, then Packers didn't win anything. Well,
their defense has been pretty atrocious historically with Aaron Rodgers.
So if the Jets defense is good, like part of
the reason the Chiefs have had some success in the playoffs,
like their defense plays well. Obviously, Mahomes an all time
(25:22):
special quarterback, but you got to have a solid defense
to go along with a special player. Like what are
the Bengals had the defense been prety damn good the
last couple of years. Okay, let's bang out a little
mail bag at John Middlecoff is the Instagram. Fire in
those dms. Get your question answered here on the show
Easy to Do Instagram is just my name DMS wide open.
(25:48):
Start with Jordan, huge fan of the pot I'm curious
what the communication chain is as a scout. How did
you evaluate players? Who did you report to your findings
and were you evaluated? I love to learn more about
the process. Well, I would imagine every organization is different.
You know when I was when I became a road scout,
(26:12):
I had worked in the office and I had just
because you know, my first year, I basically was like,
how he's essentially scouting assistant. So when you put in
something to the you know, as a road scout, obviously
the bosses can see it, whether you're director of scouting,
your personnel guy in your GM. So once you put
(26:33):
it in, everyone can see it. Now, you know, my
relationship at the time, Like I could just shoot how
he a text like hey I saw this, love this right?
Or I could send the director of college scouting a text,
hey I like this. So I do think it depends
on the organization, your relationship with the boss. I think
some are vary by the book, Like if you don't
(26:55):
have a great relationship with the GM, not because he
doesn't like you, just because you don't know him that well.
You know, you don't spend that much time with them
as a road scout. Maybe you just report directly to
the college director, which I think is pretty normal. And
there are gonna be some scouts that are close with
the head coach, right so during not that he's locked
(27:15):
in during the season, but like you know, when Brett
Veach was a road scout, like he could just shoot
Andy a text, right, just like you know, there are
guys with the Chiefs that just you know, shoot probably
Veach text all the time, and there are some that
just report to people under him. I'm just using those
two his examples because I know how they kind of work.
I just think it's very dependent on the organization. I
(27:38):
can only speak from my experience, but I think knowing
some scouts, I think some probably deal directly with the
GM throughout the season, like just texting and emailing more
than others. And I think it's just it's like any company, right,
(27:58):
if you work and you know the CEO directly, you
know you might friends with a guy, right. If you don't,
you probably don't communicate with him that much. You communicate
with management. Now, I the hard part is like our
scouts evaluated. You know, the sad part about the profession is,
you know, I don't think as much as you'd think, right,
(28:21):
coaches are if you're an offensive coordinator and your offense sucks,
you're gonna get fired. Same thing with a defensive coach,
or same thing with a position coach. When it comes
to scouts, like if your buddies with a GM or
your buddies with the head coach, or buddies with the owner,
that's another thing the owner. You might be an average
below average scout and keep your job for a long
time and get elevated. But that's i'd say the same
(28:45):
and most industries anyone listening to this knows, and especially
if you consistently work in the office. Now it's crazy
that I even like consistently like it used to be
for the history of time to everyone just worked in
the office, but their office dynamic mix of yeah, this
guy's overpaid, this guy's worthless, this manager sucks right, this
(29:05):
guy's stealing, this guy's underpaid. It's probably no different than
any industry. Now that the draft is over, how do
you think the Cowboys will do this season, shouldn't they
be a Super Bowl contender? If not, why not? Well,
of course they are, and partly because of the NFC.
There's them, the Eagles and the Niners, which I would
(29:27):
put on their own tier, and I'd probably put the
Eagles in the Niners on a higher tier than the Cowboys.
But the Cowboys went toe to toe with the Niners.
They easily could have won that game. The thing that
gives me pause about the Cowboys back to back seasons
Dak throwing picks in the playoff games that they lost.
(29:47):
And listen, I don't think Dak is some scrub. I
think he's like the tenth, eleventh, ninth, twelfth quarterback, right
and you're gonna have games like he did against Tampa
where he throws a bunch of touchdowns and he looks
like a superstar, but that's not actually who he is. Now.
I don't think he's the guy that throws all these picks.
But last year he threw a lot of picks. He
threw multiple picks in a playoff game. And until he
(30:08):
like I will bet against him in big games and
maybe he'll prove me wrong. But like I just said
earlier in the podcast, like the reason I don't think
the Cowboys can win the Super Bowl. They have talented
enough players on the roster. It's a quarterback is not
good enough. And maybe as a moment and I eat Crow,
I'd be happy to because obviously when the Cowboys play,
(30:29):
it's interesting, everyone cares. Television ratings are big, which means
more people are watching football, which matters to me because
that's the business I'm in. You guys watch, I give takes.
You know, the less people that watch worse than is
for my business. I wish he was even better, but
I just don't. I think he has a ceiling. I
(30:49):
think he has physical limitations, you know. I think he's
closer to Alex Smith as a thrower than anyone wants
to admit. This guy ain't fucking Josh Alan and Patrick
Mahomes slinging around out there. So but he kind of
thinks he is at times, and that got him in trouble. Now,
if you can clean up on that, maybe they can
(31:11):
overcome it. But I don't know. I would say to me,
the Cowboys feel like a second round and out team.
But I do think they're really good. I think dan
Quinn's the stud I think their defense is gonna be awesome.
I think they're, you know, offensive solid. Their offensive line's good. Seed.
He looks like a stud. Paulard's a good player. I'm
(31:32):
a senior at the University of Oregon. I just got
a job in Arizona entry level sales. I'm an avid
golfer around a nine handicap. Was wondering what are some
good tracks to play in or around Scottsdale in my budget.
I'm a huge fan, love the podcast. I think the
best thing to do when and this is what I
did when I first moved out here is there's an
(31:54):
app called golf Now, and download the golf Now app
and then just type in wherever you live. For you
type in Scottsdale, and it'll show all the public tracks
and the different deals throughout whatever day you want to play. Uh,
that's the way I would recommend it. So I don't
know what your budget is. I take it that you
just graduated college, or you are your senior in college,
(32:17):
or you know you'd like you don't want to play
five hundred dollars rounds, then it can give you a
lay of the land. There's a course right down the
street from me. Silverado, which you know I was always
told I've played it before. It's like a muni. Someone
told me the to the day they're charging one hundred
fifty dollars. One thing one industry you talk about the
inflation has impacted positively for their business is golf, because
(32:42):
not only have they raised the prices, they're filling out
the tea times. I saw in the Bay Area. I
see it here in Scottsdale. Average course is charged way
more than in your You're like, wait, this is you're
charging two hundred dollars to play this course. And then
you look at the T shirt. You're like, every fucking
foursome's packed. Right. You can be like, wow, this restaurant's
way over priced average food, and then you look in
(33:04):
the restaurant there's not an empty seat. You're like, well,
are they actually overpricing the stuff or are they just
being smartier? You know, right, if you can sell it
at that price point, you should keep selling it at
that price point. And I'll tell you this, download the
golf Now app, which maybe you already have your nine handicap,
but I don't you know, things are it's expensive to
(33:26):
play golf. The public golf around here is just it's
borderline outrageous. If you've been playing golf for a while,
I really enjoy your content. I'm not even a football guy,
but the but I like listening to some more people
break things now. I appreciate it. Love your work. Really
nice to listen to someone who has a NOBS approach.
(33:48):
Most of those ESPN guys suck. That being said, I'm
from Wisconsin and a huge Packer fan who follows the
draft process closely. I had this thought last night after
Day two of the draft about the Packers draft philosophy
and the results after and I wanted to get your
take on it for the mailbag. Our last thirteen first
(34:09):
round picks, beside Love have been defensive players. How much value,
how much valuable draft capital can we devote to that
side of the ball every year to end up with
the top five or ten defense this year in in
year out? Are we missing on picks that much? Is
it coaching, scheme, play calling? I'm not sure? But at
(34:31):
what point do we change or just our philosophy sounds
like the definition of insanity. Seems like we are behind
the times and need to adapt or die, especially in
the post Rogers era. I'll defend them this way. If
I'm just thinking your last whatever seven eight drafts, the
(34:52):
majority of those years, your team has not been under
five hundred. Hell, you've won the division many of those years,
right up until last year where you had a shitty
year and you still went eight to nine. The previous
three years you won the division, you were like the
one seed. You were drafting in the mid to late twenties.
(35:12):
You're just drafting. Even in a good draft, most drafts
have Let's say if last if this draft had just happened,
on average, had fourteen first round graded players. If we
just went throughout the whole league, let's say a good
draft has twenty three first rounders. Well, if you're drafting
on average every year twenty five, for the most part,
(35:34):
there might be a first rounder or two even left there,
so you're typically it is much easier. The best draft
the Niners have had in the last like five years
was the draft where they drafted Nick Boson, Deebo Samuel. Well,
what happened that draft? They drafted two overall. So when
you suck, you don't just draft high in the first round.
(35:55):
You draft high in every draft. Well, when's the last
time it's like all the Packers won three games. Well,
that wouldn't just be like, oh, they could also draft
whoever in the first round. That means every single round
you get to draft a good player. And that's just
typically not the case with you guys, because you're always
pretty damn good. And when I think about it, you know,
(36:16):
you have hit on some players over the years. Ji
Alexander's good, Kenny Clark is good. You probably know it'd
be hard for me to break down Savage his game,
but kind of liked him, you know. You, Yeah, you've
also missed on some players. But I don't think it's
(36:37):
ever wrong to just draft who you think is the
best player now, just because instead of drafting whatever defensive player,
Let's say I wanted to say Kenny King, but I
don't think that's his name. Whatever, King's the corner that
you drafted a couple of years ago. Let's just say
you would have drafted an offensive player there. There's no
(36:57):
guarantee just because you drafted a guard or or tight
end that that guy's gonna be any good. So I
understand what you're saying, Like we've drafted all these picks,
how is our defense doesn't look like, you know, the
fucking forty nine ers or the Dallas Cowboys or something
like what's going on? And I'd go, well, your coaching
has been pretty questionable, right, your defensive coordinator. When's the
(37:22):
last time you've had a defensive coordinator that went on
to be a head coach? For example, you and the
forty nine ers have been pretty even over the last
three or four years. Right, one differentiating factors You had
Rodgers and they had an awesome defense. Well, both their
defensive last two defensive coordinators became head coaches, and Kyle
has nothing to do with that. Hell, John Lynch has
(37:42):
nothing to do with that. Now Kyle does in terms
of he hires them. But like, those guys are just
really good coaches. Well, Laflor and Goudikins, I forget the
guy you fired wasn't Oh's Pettin and then you go
with Barry. Well, are either one of those guys going
to be a head coach or even in the to
be a head coach? Doesn't seem like it, right, So
(38:05):
part of having really good defensive players, which you got
a draft well, but also defensive coordinators, really good ones
can make guys really good. I saw Fred Warner say, like,
I don't think my career is here if I'm not
Aroundmiko Ryans. What if Fred Warner's just on Seattle or
on the Houston Texans or on the Minnesota I does
he become that? Maybe? But I don't know. So coaching
(38:30):
in the NFL really really matters. Like if I put
the top ten college coaches at Georgia these last two years,
I'd say eight out of ten of them might win
back to back national championships. And I'm not diminishing Kirby Smart.
Kirby Smart's really good. But as we've seen, the teams
that had the most drafted players this year were Georgia, Alabama, Michigan,
(38:55):
and TCU. What do all four of those programs have
in common? Awesome? I mean Michigan, TCU, Georgia were playoff teams,
Ohio State the one team that is not in that list,
and Alabama was basically the fifth playoff team. So, like,
to be good in college, you have to have a
ton of NFL guys. It's about the jimmy's and the
jokes way more than the exes and the os. The
(39:18):
NFL is the nex'es and o's game. Now, Obviously, if
you get Miles Garrett, or you have Ed Reed or
Ray Lewis or Nick Bosa Khalil Mack in his prime,
of course they can overcome bad schemes. But like most
good defensive coordinator, like what makes Vic Fangio so good,
Like that guy's smart. That guy is a great defensive schemer.
(39:41):
And I've known people that have been in the meeting
room with him that just like I'm telling you, when
he tells a player something's gonna happen, it happens. Why
do we give offensive coaches so much because when you
hear these if you talk to Travis Kelcey, or you
talk to George Kittle, or you talk to trying to
think of really good offensive coaches in the NFL. You
know the Tennessee when Arthur Smith was there, they go,
(40:02):
these guys really know what they're doing because scheming and
game plans really matter. So I guess this is a
roundabout way of saying, I don't think your philosophy of
drafting these players is crazy. I don't even think it's wrong.
I think we could argue as like maybe your defensive
coordinators just our blow average out of the quarterbacks taken
(40:23):
in the first round. Who do you think has the
best chance to succeed? Bryce Young has the intangibles, but
he's gonna go into rebuilding franchise much like CJ. Strout. Personally,
I think Anthony Richardson is in a really good situation.
They don't have a bad roster. The old line will
be healthy. Jonathan Taylor will also be healthy. The Colts
have promising pieces outside of Pittman, Pierce Downs and Woods.
(40:48):
A veteran quarterback who can teach Richardson. More importantly, a
coach with a good track record of coaching good young quarterbacks. Well,
I agree of all the I mean of c J.
Stroud and Bryce Young, clearly he goes to the team
with the most talent on the current roster. The one
thing I will say, though, Bryce and CJ have played
(41:11):
a ton of football in the brightest of lights, in
the biggest programs and been multiple year starters. I mean,
this guy's a thirteen game starter and for the most
part it's been pretty ugly. So to think that this guy,
even if it's an easy landing spot, there is still
a massive, massive question. A couple of years ago, a
(41:31):
lot of people like Trey Lance there's not a better
spot to go to than the San Franco forty nine ers,
And it was actually the opposite because the standards like, well,
gott he looks really bad. Now. The difference is the
cults are not as good as that team. But my
point is if we look at it like that, if
it doesn't go as well and he starts swimming, you
(41:52):
can kind of get into a weird spot. Now I
listen to podcast, everyone thinks it's gonna start. There's gonna
start him, which I guess that seems pretty risky because
what if he clearly isn't ready, Like what if it's
like he's a year away. Can they just take a
deep breath or are they just unwilling to because there's
there's a there's a fine balance of like the only
way to get better is reps, but like, is he
(42:15):
ready for the reps? And I'm talking outside of practice
because okay, I don't know their schedule, but like, you
play the Jags, then you play the Paths, and then
you play the Steelers and then you play you know, Seattle,
Like these are real teams. You're you're no longer playing
in Mississippi State or fucking Kentucky. This is like you
got the Jets this weekend. You know, then you gotta
(42:36):
go on the road and play the Patriots and Bill Belichick,
you are not playing Vanderbilt. You're not getting you know,
some of these lesser SEC teams. You know, most teams
in the SEC are not Georgia in Alabama, tex A
and m was terrible. So I I think long term,
(43:01):
I think it's Anthony Richardson has the highest ceiling. I
would say immediately, I think Bryce will probably look the best.
He's got Frank, He's got a coach who's had success,
who's been an offensive coordinator, has been the head coach,
who is a quarterback. So I think immediately I will
look for Bryce to look the best. It would not
shock me if early on and CJ, I would imagine
(43:25):
CJ will look better than Anthony Richson early on. I
would kind of expect Anthony Richison to look pretty terrible
early on. Remember Josh Allen's rookie year, it was like Jesus,
this has got a long way to go here. That
to me would kind of be the Anthony Richardson expectation
to be like what is happening? Okay, last one Hey John,
(43:46):
another boyfriend dming you for the mail bag from a
girlfriend's Instagram. Actually had my insta hacked from a bitcoin scammer,
semi similar to your Azuki running. Might have to retake
my Insta just to do DM for the pod. As
a Bills fan, should we be excited for Kincaid? Watch
a good amount of Utah football this year? And I
(44:07):
know you did as well. I like the pick, but
have mixed feelings about moving up two spots to get them.
I think it's comp of what I think DJ hit
it on the head is like a Travis Kelce type player. Now,
some of these comps comparing anyone to Travis Kelce, who
might go down is the greatest tight end is stupid.
Just like when Zay Flowers comes on DV, It's like,
(44:29):
who's this comp Tyreek Hill or the Pittsburgh guy. It
was Aaron Donald, Like what it's not fair to any
Michael Mayer Gronkowski. But if this guy is a really
good tight end and can be an eighty catch guy
can be a just a security blanket for your quarterback
(44:52):
because to win in the playoffs in cold conditions, you
can't just go bombs away. Sometimes you got to ugly
up the game, and that's where tight ends I'm into play. Now.
I know you have Dawson Knox, and I think, is
he still on the team. I've always liked Dawson Knox,
but you clearly need you know, Burrows. It's pretty unique
because they got the two unreal receivers. Obviously, Mahomes has
(45:15):
has Kelsey. You know you look at Jalen Hurts, he
has Dallas Goddard. I think it is very, very important
to have a high end tight end. I'm a big
believer in the tight end position. Two teams I watch
the most have Kelsey and Kittle. Those guys are unfucking
stoppable when they get rolling because like safety can't cover them.
(45:35):
So if that's this guy who comes from a high
level program who's been one of the better players, they've
gone back to back Rose Bowls, like yeah, I like it.
I like drafting highly productive, high character guys on winning
programs Utah football back to back Rose Bulls, and I
wonder if you asked them who's your best player the
last couple of years, he'd be right there in the mix,
him and Devin Lloyd. Devin Lloyd got drafted pretty high too,
(45:59):
So I almost said Devin Lloyd was on the Bills,
but he's on the He's on the Jacks. I like
to pick, I do. I actually like you guys signed,
and I'm a little biased here signed a running back
out of Fresno State, MIMS. Love that guy. You can
(46:19):
keep an eye on mems prediction right now, he makes
a team. I know you just signed Latavious Murray. What
if he beats him out? That's all ind on that
hot take, MIMS. Undrafted free agent. Listen, everyone listening right now?
Who's a fan of said team? Vikings, Cowboys, Texans, Cardinals, Niners, Rams.
Undrafted free agent will make your team. That's what's so
(46:41):
cool about the NFL that undrafted some teams, several undrafted
free agents will beat out four fifths, six seventh round picks.
So what makes football so cool? Just because you get
drafted in the fourth round, you ain't guaranteed anything, and
that undrafted free agent that got seven thousand dollars to
sign might beat your guy out. Get a phone call.
I need to pick up audios. Talk to everyone later.
(47:03):
Peace the volume
Host
John Middlekauff
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