May 15, 2023 • 31 mins
John explain why Ja Morant’s off-court problems are so relatable to NFL Draft evaluations, and his big picture truths about the NFL schedule that apply to all teams.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. What is going on everybody, John Middlecock three
and out Powdcast. How's everyone doing. Hopefully everyone's having a
(00:24):
good day, Good Monday. Hopefully everyone had a good Mother's Day.
Here's a hat tip to your mother, your wife if
she's a mother. Hell, your girlfriend if she's a mother.
We love all the mothers. I definitely especially do. Joe Middlecoff,
great woman, biggest supporter of this podcast or you'll ever meet.
(00:44):
I'll promise you that my biggest number one fan. That
is for damn sure. So happy belated Mother's Day to
all the women in your life. And here's the plan.
I thought I'd just come on and talk a little
bit about you know, the job morant sit you. I
just think there are some parallels in the NFL and
the draft. It's just why it's so difficult. You know,
(01:06):
whether guys are high character and then you get them
and they screw up, or guys are character risks, and
you know, just this is a human business man and
it is very very difficult. You know the situation when
it comes to drafting you know players, whether it's stars
or whether it's average ones. I mean, you're just these situations.
It's what makes the draft hard, so we'll dive into
(01:26):
some of that. Carson Wentz is still unemployed. And then
just a couple quick thoughts on the schedule. I actually
did go through every team schedule and we'll talk about
every game again totally kidding, but I did not do that.
But I'll just a couple of things, a couple talking
points that I think get overvalued and undervalued when it
(01:48):
comes just overall to the schedule. And I'd put out
a podcast yesterday on the three and out feet, So
that was just a mail bag. It was like a
thirty minute mail bag. So if you need some more content,
if you didn't listen because Sunday's Mother's Day, don't blame you.
I got a podcast out yesterday. There's like thirty thirty
five minutes. This is a shorter one too. Probably have
a big football one come Tuesday. We'll have a big
(02:11):
golf podcast. The Major, the PGA Championship is up in
Buffalo actually Okill, so already I got a lot of
wagers already places for that, so we will talk heavily
who to bet on for that thing. Can't wait love
a major, and we'll just keep rocking and rolling. So
that's the plan right now. A couple podcasts, keep on flowing,
(02:32):
keep the content rolling, and any other housekeeping the volume
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(02:53):
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(03:15):
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(03:36):
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So keep hammering that promo code. Sure. I woke up
this morning and it did Saturday, you know, a little
day drinking bike rides. Let it in some night drinking
(03:59):
asleep nine thirty, kind of come to in the morning.
Has had some errands to run bright and early, like
seven o'clock Sunday morning. Happy Mother's Day to all the
mothers out there. Open my phone and see John Moran's
in trouble again and he was showing a gun on
Instagram live for like the seventeenth time. I don't know
(04:19):
how you could be that dumb, but somehow he does that.
And I think this is a good example because all
weekend long, at least the last two weeks, you've seen
these rookie mini camps, and for the most part, rookie
Mini camp is kind of, you know, a shit show.
No one really knows what's going on there, aren't that
many players. You bring a lot of guy on tryouts,
(04:40):
but it's very, very cool to see your star players,
usually the guys that you drafted really high in your jersey,
and definitely the quarterback from Anthony Ridgards into Bryce Young.
I mean, I can't tell you how many text messages
I got this weekend from people or people tagging me
on Twitter. Look how small Bryce Young looks? Yeah, he's
small guys. I mean, small guys look small when they
(05:00):
played football, you know, in college or the NFL. He's
not going to look big. Anthony Richardson will Levis there
were clips of him throwing it. It's fun. It is
fun if you're a fan of that team. It's cool
for us that not much is going on to see
those videos. We talk about it the entire draft leading
up for the process. Most people can watch and especially
(05:22):
next year, Caleb Williams or Marvin Harrison Junior, or a
Bosa brother or Miles Garrett or whoever, Tran Williams, Lane Johnson.
I mean, the premium guys like they can play. My
mom could scout a lot of drafts in the top ten. Right.
The scouting profession and the job of a GM and
(05:45):
the coach plays a large role in this too, because
he has especially all around the league now heavy decision
making power is to evaluate the human being. And I
remember Chris Ballard. I was watching his press conference and
I think they asked him. It was after the first
round they had drafted Anthe Richardson. They said, when did
you decide on Anthony Richardson. He's like, probably about a
month ago after he left on his visit, because we
(06:06):
felt very good about the guy. But here's the hard part,
and this is why you hear these conversations, you know,
NonStop about the draft. A lot of fans complain, media complaints,
help people in the league complain like it's not an
exact science. It's so hard. Look at the bus rates
and people like, how do these teams keep missing? Because
you're not dealing with widgets. You're not acquiring a business
(06:30):
that the revenue is set on a yearly basis. Right,
I didn't just acquire, you know, seven alarm stores that
I know exactly how much money I'm going to make.
You're acquiring people, and people change. They are very fluid, right,
I don't care how mature you are. You never know
what a guy is going to react to every level
in which he steps up in life, right, you change
(06:52):
from high school to college to professionally. I've been saying
it forever, not that it's you know, breaking news here,
but the majority, overwhelming majority of human beings get a
long runway on their professional career. Not the way it
work in pro sports, right, you kind of have to capitalize.
It's being you know, lengthdened a little bit with training
(07:15):
and eating and just health. The way we understand how
to treat the body. Now that's different. Back in the
day where guys had ten year careers, Now guys can
play fifteen years, twenty years. You know, look at Brady,
look at some of these people. But you're still dealing
with a guy, an individual who is going to get
a lot of public criticism and I would say, you know,
(07:40):
praise as well as a lot of money. These are
very difficult spots. I don't care who you are. It's
why a small percentage of people one can handle to
play at the level and then handle the way to
conduct themselves at the level. John Moran's a good example,
can't miss prospect. The only reason he wasn't the number
one pick in the draft is because he was in
Zion Williamson's draft, high character guy. His family was around
(08:04):
all the time. His dad is a major, major part
of his life. And when I saw this video, which listen,
I'm not anti guns. I grew up in a home
with way more guns than people. But I know this
that if I would have ever held a handgun like that,
but my dad's passed away. If I did that right now,
he'd come out of the sky and backhand me. They're like,
(08:25):
that is just what are you doing? You know, I'm
not here to say banish all the weapons, but any
of us that grew up around him and are around
them know there is a way to handle them and
not And then there's a level of stupidity, right. And
this is when you're dealing with Jalen Carter, for example.
The major question mark with him is can I trust him?
(08:45):
Is he trustworthy? And once you get out of college,
it's actually easier. You know, if you play for Duke
or North Carolina or play football for USC or Alabama.
The structure in which I can control you even when
nil is much much stronger in pro sports. In the NBA,
in the NFL, you got a lot of free time
(09:07):
these are business The GM ain't holding your hand twenty
four to seven, three sixty five. And I was thinking
about this when I saw that video. The thing that
I found the most funny thing, the most funny part
it's not funny at all, but just that I remember
thinking it was laughable at the time that there was
a story that someone in the Indiana Pacers had said
(09:27):
that Jah Morant, you know, he has this crew of
clearly dipshits that he runs around with, had pointed like
basically red dotted him like a member of Seal Team
six in one of the SUVs after a game because
there was an altercation, verbal altercation during the game, and
someone on the pacer said they pointed a gun at
(09:48):
me and there was a red dot. I don't know
if it was on his head or his shoulder or whatever.
And Adam Silver did nothing nothing. Of course he didn't
because he's one of the softest leaders in the history
of business. And I remember thinking how much shit Roger
Goodell got and listen, it's not an envious position to
be in to hand down these intense penalties on players,
(10:08):
but I think it's proven that when you lean harsh
in this situation, it's better than currently what the NBA does,
which no one gets in trouble. Again, A dude in
a car that job Morant was in, which is clearly
job Morant's car red dotted. A dude on another team,
not a player, but a personnel guy. I'm not sure
(10:28):
that happened. Adam Silver's like just you know, pointed at
his feet, no hobble points. I mean Roger Goodell would
have it, sus been to the rest of the season.
Get in the NBA. He got like five game suspension.
It was a joke, and they had these situations and listen,
is the NFL perfect? Of course not. But looking back
(10:49):
some of those harsh penalties, I understand some of them
you could argue, but like and not everything's been perfect.
There's been some stuff that has clearly been a disaster
a fiasco. But just in terms of a general statement
of like Lean being harsh or Lean being pro player,
like oh, just slap on the wrist, I think it's
(11:10):
pretty clear which way you should go. But this gets
back to in the draft process of trying to find
people that you can trust, that you can believe in.
What did I I looked at social media, this weekend.
Who's there getting a degree? Oh, Jalen Hurts. Why does
Jalen Hurts need a degree? Think about that. Is there
one human being where currently that just signed a contract
(11:31):
within the last month where a degree could be any
less meaningless? He just the whole point of a degree
is trying to get into the private sector and make
some cash. Guy literally just got paid one hundred and
eighty million dollars. Yet there's a follow through, there's a maturity,
there's a seriousness to the guy, and there's stuff like
like I said, John Morant viewed coming out of college,
(11:52):
high character guy dad around, Like where is this guy's dad?
Stop being his dad, star being his friend? Like what
the fuck's going on? It's it's a clown show, and
it's at a point now and it gets like this sometimes.
And some NFL players over the years have put themselves
where they get to a point where it feels like
they're bigger than the team. The team can't slow them down.
You know, we've seen that. Most recent probably example would
(12:13):
be uh Antonio Brown. It's hard to put you know
it back once you jump the shark. It's usually harder
to get it back under control because by that time,
the guy is unlimited money. John Moran, for example, has
unlimited money. And this is we talk about this a
lot with NIL. You know how that impacts, you know,
(12:34):
guys focus. I actually think it's it helps because you
don't ask the question as much. Like you clearly, if
you're a higher draft pick in one of these sports,
you get more money probably than you've got in the NIL,
but you don't have to ask, like, how's Caleb Williams money.
Once he becomes a millionaire, it's like, yeah, he's made
ten million dollars last two years. You know, he drives
a g wagon, he has a house in Malibu. You know,
(12:55):
every piece of clothing he wears is very expected. Like
the guy's got money, a lot of money. He makes
more money than like a lot of mid round draft
picks right now. They have been in the league for
several years, so that there's just it's difficult. Now. I
always support. I get angry during draft time when people
overdraft talent, but I always understand where you know, teams
(13:17):
this year didn't feel comfortable with Jalen Carter, and we'll
see over time if that's the right or wrong decision.
But I think when you make decisions based off off
the field things you feel confident about. I understand it,
And the hard part is it's easy to go back.
Jalen Carter becomes a seven time All Pro, one of
the greatest defensive lineman ever, and you go, yeah, I
(13:38):
don't know if we were equipped. That might not have
worked here. That might not have worked here. I was
listening to Kelsey pod with and Andy was talking to Travis, like,
you know, they've been together for ten years, and even
Andy was like, you know, those first five years weren't easy.
We butt in our heads a little bit. You were
a great player, so we kept using you, but we
weren't always on the same page in these last five years.
(13:58):
I swear by it. Those first couple of years were
a little rocky. I think that's a good example, and
I'd be fascinated like what Travis was. Would he have
thrived anywhere? Could any situation have handled him? Now? All
these situations of guys getting in trouble, arrested, what are
always different? Right? Some? Or just don't listen to you?
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of a guy that doesn't listen really, Carson Wentz is
(15:26):
a good example. It was just over the last twelve
months Carson Wentz has been traded for a first round
pick and multiple third round picks, So it's not like
his value. You know, he hasn't been worth anything in years. No,
he's literally been traded back to back years for valuable
draft picks. And he currently on May fourteenth when I'm
recording this, does not have a job. Think about that.
(15:48):
Carson Wentz does not have a job. Is he a
good starting quarterback? Clearly? Not really, but there is we
have this argument sometimes with players. He clearly is better
than the majority of backups. But whenever we get into
this argument is like why is so and so not
in the league, And a lot of it is like
as a backup quarterback, which Carson Wentz would have to
(16:10):
transition into being. There are a couple requirements. One low ego,
I need to hear from you very little in terms
of like your opinions on big picture stuff about the squad.
You just kind of fit in. You're just kind of
a little member of the squad here in the back,
even though you play a big role because you help
(16:30):
the starting quarterback get ready depending on the team situation.
You know, you play against the starting defense, so you
give them looks based on the quarterback you're going to
face on that Giving week, which is obviously very very important,
and you got to be a good teammate. People have
to like you. We talked about it with Matt Ariza
(16:54):
over the last couple pods, right like his situation. Did
the Bills screw that up? And I said, I'm gonna
this is just a fact. They had no clue whether
he was telling the truth or not. Clearly he was
telling the truth. The reason that they went their separate
ways and cut him last year was he was a punter,
right and like a backup quarterback kind of the same thing.
(17:15):
I can't have you be in a distraction. I need
you to kind of just be one of the more
well liked guys in the building. And one issue for
Carson wentz from what I've heard, not a bad guy,
like not some terrible human being, but him and coaches
don't always get along. Why he kind of thinks he
has all the answers, And Jason Kelsey said this on
(17:36):
a podcast that one thing he regretted about the Carson
situation was not forcing him to kind of be closer
with guys. So when shit hits the fan, everyone's kind
of in the trenches together. And back to Jalen hurts
when I think about his non quantifiable skills like deep ball,
(17:56):
running ability, you know whatever, non just like on the
field stuff. I would say his two best attributes one improvement,
which to me encompasses like dude wants to be coached
and dude wants to be coached hard. Nick Saban, Lincoln
Riley gets with Sirianni and remember they had a blow up.
(18:18):
It was either last year or two years ago, and
Philly wanted to make a big deal about it, and
Nick was like, I'm the son of a coach. I'm
a coach. He's also a son of a coach. He
likes being yelled at, and we're very comfortable doing that.
And Jalen even said after, like yeah, I'm unfaced Carson,
that's not the case with him. And the other thing
(18:39):
like not the best teammate, not in a bad way,
but just like not super close with guys, being close
with guys. Here's a reality for most of our businesses, right,
depending on who you work with, you don't necessarily need
to be that close. Whether it's in an office situation,
you know, whether it's being coworkers, you can be very
professional and cordial. As the starting quarterback, I would say
(19:01):
it's pretty important to develop and aspire to work on
close relationships with people, and organically it should naturally happen, right,
Say what you want about Aaron Rodgers. Clearly he's pretty
tight with some guys. You know, he just is, you know,
like we can make money about Randall Cobb, Bob he
wants Randall Cobb really likes Aaron Rodgers. Mercedes Lewis really
(19:23):
likes Aaron Rodgers. David Mackiori really likes Aaron Rodgers. I mean,
these guys are really close. Obviously, Brady's lists and Peyton
Manning's list speak for themselves. These guys are boys and
being boys, you know, almost like a high school level
of friendship is important even when you're all millionaires and
really famous. And when you see that Carson Wentz. Like
(19:46):
one thing I heard about Mark Sanchez from people that
were on teams and work for teams around them, They're like,
people love this guy, you know, Chase Daniel, people love
the guy, case Keenum, people love certain players. Why did
brock Purty resonate so fast before he started playing? Fred
Warner started pounding the table for the guy for It's
like I like this guy man having people We talked
(20:07):
about it with Malik willis why his job status is
in trouble because having people that in the building, whether
it be players, executives, or coaches, that get your back
and usually gets someone's back that I don't know you like.
You know, it's easy in pro sports is to get
someone's back because they can play. But at the highest
(20:27):
level it's kind of a combination of both. You gotta
be able to plan, I gotta like you, right, And
this gets back to, you know, to job morant, like
it's like, how long are people going to support this?
Like can I trust the guy? Because clearly, I'd say
doesn't feel like the most trustworthy guy in the world
right now because he can't make good decisions and a
lot of life the older you get, it's just about
(20:48):
making pretty good decisions. It ain't illegal to own a handgun, right,
But when you're in his position, should you be showing
a handgun on Instagram live constantly and listen? I can't
relate to growing up in a social media era, right
I was already twenty twenty two, twenty three as social
media started getting going. I can't imagine being nine years
(21:11):
old right now and going to grow up. It's hard,
it's I can't relate to that, just like a lot
of people listening that are in their thirties can't relate
to what someone listening right now that's eighteen years old
has kind of had to go through. It's a completely
different rule. When when I was at cal Pauly and
we would burn a couch at three in the morning
on the road like no one was taking a video
(21:32):
of it. It wasn't even possible. The iPad didn't even
exist until I was like a junior in college. Excuse me,
not the iPad, the iPod, and the iPod was gigantic.
It was like the size of a notebook. But these
are the way society is now and these are huge
portions of it. And when you do things, you know,
(21:54):
and having Jalen Carter, like the Eagles are going to
do everything humanly possible to take care of that risk,
but there are going to be parts like on Tuesday,
he doesn't have to show up with the facility, you know,
and I don't. I'm not trying to just pigeonhole him.
But he was the best example of the only reason
the Eagles acquired him was because of those question marks.
If he was just viewed as like B John Robinson,
(22:14):
he would have gone I mean, hell, he would have
been the third overall pick the quarterbacks. He would have
been the first non quarterback off the board, and it
wouldn't even have been a question. It would have been him.
He's in a different stratosphere. And again we're nitpicking high
stratus spheres here. But even then Will Anderson as a
player and as a talent. But yeah, these are just
(22:37):
you're dealing with people, and after a while they show
their true colors, like Josh starting to show his true colors. Right,
He's just he's lacking something upstairs. He just is like,
you can't consistently do these. I keep hearing to cry
for help, Cry for help, give me a break. This
gets to a point where you're just an idiot, you know,
cry for help, fucking showing a gun on Instagram, Give
(22:58):
me a break. And before you know, I haven't gone
through everyone's schedule. But talking point when it just comes
to the schedules, I do think there's things that are
important and things that are not important, and a lot
of it just gets thrown under the umbrella of this
(23:19):
team travels a lot Okay, Well, traveling is a major
you know, red flag on a season a team that
has to travel a lot. But one thing that is
completely irrelevant. If you are an East Coast team or
you are a West Coast team, and you have a
long road trip and you play two teams in that
time zone back to back weeks. Like if I'm Seattle
(23:41):
and I play the Giants one week and the Commander's
the next week, that's not a crazy travel in the
sense that I'm not flying back and forth. So I'm
cutting two trips, right because I'm going to stay out there.
And in twenty twenty three, all these teams now say
vice versa. Right, the Giants this week or I mean
week two. In week three, they play the Cardinals week two,
(24:03):
and then they play the forty nine Ers the following
week on Thursday Night football. They're clearly going to stay
on the West coast. So it's a long travel to
play the Cardinals, but then the following week that Thursday
Night game. That travel isn't that crazy. It's you know,
an hour and a half flight. I've made it a
bunch right to the Bay Area. Honestly, it's probably flying
up from Arizona get the win? Could you be there
(24:23):
an hour in twenty five minutes? So when you stay
games back to back, all these teams stay down. Now
when you have the one off situation, that is taxing,
especially when like what I would factor in, if I'm
the Giants and I play the Rams or on the
Rams and I play a Florida team and I got
to go back, who do I play the next week?
(24:46):
That is one hundred percent of disadvantage. All of these
international games not ideal in terms of long travel. It
depending on where you are. I guess if you're on
the Eastern Seaboard and you're playing you know, in the
you or whatever, it's no difference. It's like a five
and a half hour flight. So it's like a cross
country flight in America. But I do think the Thursday
(25:07):
night game I didn't see. I haven't seen it. I
guess I could have looked it up before this podcast.
I know the forty nine ers have two Thursday night games.
I would imagine they're not the only team. If you
have multiple Thursday night games, that is very, very difficult.
But the one example I will use for them, I
always say all Thursday night games are not equal. When
you play a Thursday night game. To me, I would
(25:28):
draw the line of delineation like right around Halloween, maybe
even a week before. If you're playing a Thursday Night
game in the first or second week of September, that
has no parallels to playing a Thursday night game in
early December, right because the wear and tear in your
body is nowhere near the same. So it is a
massive advantage for any team to play your Thursday Night
(25:49):
game earlier in the season. Now, one thing with a
Thursday night game is who do you play after the
Thursday night game? Because if you are able to win
the Thursday night game, if you have a difficult opponent
the Chiefs, the Bills, the Bengals, whatever, that's a pretty
big advantage for you. Obviously, if you're playing a bad team,
that'd be you wouldn't be worried about it on a
(26:10):
short week, let alone extra couple of days. But when
you play a good team the following week, that's a
huge advantage for your team. You could argue win or loose.
And to me, when I look at Thursday Night, it's
like are you the home team? Because if you're the
home team, especially coming off a home game like that's
not that difficult relative to Thursday night games. Now, if
you're the home team and you're coming off a road trip, like,
(26:31):
how far is that road trip? Cause that's a pretty
big disadvantage. And if you have a Thursday night game
earlier in the season, the other thing your coaching staff
can do is work on the games right now, that's
like a good summer you know, training camp project. I
remember when I was with the Eagles, we would have
reps in OTAs about divisional opponents, like you utilize some
(26:53):
of this offseason stuff to just lightly start inserting some
game plan ideas for either early season opponents or divisional opponents. Now,
the one thing with these road games right like a
if you play a Thursday night game and you're the
road team. Now, if you play a divisional game, especially
(27:15):
the NFC East or the AFC North, it's not that
hard to travel. But sometimes they aren't divisional games and
they are longer travels, and that can be a little
more difficult in terms of you know where you got
to go, so based on your Thursday night game, to me,
the key is road team. If you are the road team,
how far you got to go? And if you are
the road team, and it's after kind of that line
(27:37):
late October. That's a fucking hard game. I don't care
if you're playing a three win team or you're playing
the Chiefs. For the Bengals, that is just very difficult.
All these players talk about it, right, how difficult it
is to get their body right for Wednesday's practice. George
Kittle was talking about with Theo Vaughn on this podcast,
like it takes me I have to do a ton
(27:58):
of work day and Tuesday to be able. They're ready
to practice well. I remember Carr, Derek Carr talked about
it how serious he takes Monday and Tuesday because to
feel confident about your week of practice, you don't want
to go into Wednesday sore. And it's it's much more attainable.
I would say earlier in the season that it's just
(28:19):
it might be difficult. The other thing was schedules and listen,
I'm guilty of this too, not necessarily playing the win
loss game. But you look at games that look easier
than others. I mean, it's clear like you're playing the Chiefs, right,
you know, you're playing the Bengals, You're playing the Bills,
you're playing the Eagles. You know, certain teams are going
to be good, but like the Saints, the Saints could
(28:41):
be an eleven win team or they could be a
six win team. I don't know. I have no clue.
Right the Patriots, you could you convince me this is
the year it all kind of falls apart and they
win six or actually they're kind of competitive and it's
like an ugly ten. So what team you're playing past
the first couple of weeks, Because even if a team
is crappy, I mean, the Bears got the number one
(29:03):
overall pick. They beat the forty nine ers week one.
I think week one and week two a little bit,
you're gonna get a tough game. I don't care if
you're playing me or you at quarterback, or you're playing
Mahomes or Borough. It's hard. But as the season goes on,
a couple of things, teams that you think are gonna
be good are not as good. If I gave you
the Giants or Seattle on the schedule in twenty twenty
two and you were a decent team, you'd be like,
(29:25):
win win, Well, clearly it turned out they were pretty good.
The Lions, you're like, as they're not gonna be bad again.
They won nine games, right, and then you thought teams
that were a lock to be good. The Packers weren't
as good. Right, So you just never quite know going in,
and you never know who's gonna get hurt. Right, Not
only key players get hurt, but quarterbacks get hurt. And
(29:45):
it might even not be a serious long term injury.
But at the starting quarterback. If Aaron Rodgers has to
miss two weeks for bad ankle sprint and Zach Wilson starts,
I think we view the Jets game a lot differently. Right,
We've seen it before, like when Chad Haney's to start
for Mahomes being out or whoever. The Rams are a
good example last year, Like, I don't know if the
(30:06):
Rams are going to win back to back Super Bowls.
I would have picked them to make a wild card.
By the middle of the season, they were joke. I mean,
they were unwatchable. All their players were hurt. So it
is difficult to play that game sometimes with the schedules.
Don't get me wrong, I like playing it, but it
is I think sometimes, and like I said, I'm guilty
(30:26):
of this. It can be a waste of our energy
to really look past like you could even argue the
first month. Now, the one thing you know, good or bad,
typically your division games are going to be hard, right
even if you have you know you're a team that's
going to go five and one in the division. Like
last year, Chiefs I think went six to oh and
the forty nine ers went six and oh. I think
I'm pretty sure those are the only two teams that
(30:47):
swept their divisions. Doesn't mean those division games are difficult,
are hard to win. Even if you're a lot better,
something like you might blow out of the six games too,
you're going to be in a dogfight for a couple
of them. That's the way football is, which makes it
very entertaining. It's a huge part of the parody of
even when you have eight point spreads, it's pretty easy
for the team that's favored by eight to be down
(31:08):
in the second half. Now they still end up winning.
They don't cover why the NFL's king Baby the volume
The volume. What is going on everybody, John Middlecock three
and out Powdcast. How's everyone doing. Hopefully everyone's having a
(00:24):
good day, Good Monday. Hopefully everyone had a good Mother's Day.
Here's a hat tip to your mother, your wife if
she's a mother. Hell, your girlfriend if she's a mother.
We love all the mothers. I definitely especially do. Joe Middlecoff,
great woman, biggest supporter of this podcast or you'll ever meet.
(00:44):
I'll promise you that my biggest number one fan. That
is for damn sure. So happy belated Mother's Day to
all the women in your life. And here's the plan.
I thought I'd just come on and talk a little
bit about you know, the job morant sit you. I
just think there are some parallels in the NFL and
the draft. It's just why it's so difficult. You know,
(01:06):
whether guys are high character and then you get them
and they screw up, or guys are character risks, and
you know, just this is a human business man and
it is very very difficult. You know the situation when
it comes to drafting you know players, whether it's stars
or whether it's average ones. I mean, you're just these situations.
It's what makes the draft hard, so we'll dive into
(01:26):
some of that. Carson Wentz is still unemployed. And then
just a couple quick thoughts on the schedule. I actually
did go through every team schedule and we'll talk about
every game again totally kidding, but I did not do that.
But I'll just a couple of things, a couple talking
points that I think get overvalued and undervalued when it
(01:48):
comes just overall to the schedule. And I'd put out
a podcast yesterday on the three and out feet, So
that was just a mail bag. It was like a
thirty minute mail bag. So if you need some more content,
if you didn't listen because Sunday's Mother's Day, don't blame you.
I got a podcast out yesterday. There's like thirty thirty
five minutes. This is a shorter one too. Probably have
a big football one come Tuesday. We'll have a big
(02:11):
golf podcast. The Major, the PGA Championship is up in
Buffalo actually Okill, so already I got a lot of
wagers already places for that, so we will talk heavily
who to bet on for that thing. Can't wait love
a major, and we'll just keep rocking and rolling. So
that's the plan right now. A couple podcasts, keep on flowing,
(02:32):
keep the content rolling, and any other housekeeping the volume
dot com check out the merch golo hats. We're live
on AMP Live on app download Amazon AMP. I think
that's it. Do you want to go to an NFL
game this fall? Do you want to go to a
college football game? Have you ever been dreaming? I want
to go see Michigan. I want to go to Alabama LSU.
(02:53):
I want to go to the Big Game. I want
to watch Caleb Williams live. I got you covered. Here's
what you do. You go to your app store and
you download game Time. They happen to be the official
ticketing app of this show, and you sign up and
you find your tickets. Whatever. You want to go to,
athletic event, comedy, you want to go to a concert,
(03:15):
and you type in the promo code John John twenty
dollars off. You want to go see Caleb Williams this fall?
I kind of do. To be honest with you, I
need to look at their schedule. They come into play
in Arizona State at Arizona State, and I have to
check that bad boy out promo code John Anything Games
baseball games. You want to go to the NBA finals
obviously this fall with football to you name it, concerts,
(03:36):
comedy shows, got you covered. Promo code John, game Time
go download the app right now. All my friends are
using it and a lot of you are too, and
I thank you very much. Game Time does as well,
So keep hammering that promo code. Sure. I woke up
this morning and it did Saturday, you know, a little
day drinking bike rides. Let it in some night drinking
(03:59):
asleep nine thirty, kind of come to in the morning.
Has had some errands to run bright and early, like
seven o'clock Sunday morning. Happy Mother's Day to all the
mothers out there. Open my phone and see John Moran's
in trouble again and he was showing a gun on
Instagram live for like the seventeenth time. I don't know
(04:19):
how you could be that dumb, but somehow he does that.
And I think this is a good example because all
weekend long, at least the last two weeks, you've seen
these rookie mini camps, and for the most part, rookie
Mini camp is kind of, you know, a shit show.
No one really knows what's going on there, aren't that
many players. You bring a lot of guy on tryouts,
(04:40):
but it's very, very cool to see your star players,
usually the guys that you drafted really high in your jersey,
and definitely the quarterback from Anthony Ridgards into Bryce Young.
I mean, I can't tell you how many text messages
I got this weekend from people or people tagging me
on Twitter. Look how small Bryce Young looks? Yeah, he's
small guys. I mean, small guys look small when they
(05:00):
played football, you know, in college or the NFL. He's
not going to look big. Anthony Richardson will Levis there
were clips of him throwing it. It's fun. It is
fun if you're a fan of that team. It's cool
for us that not much is going on to see
those videos. We talk about it the entire draft leading
up for the process. Most people can watch and especially
(05:22):
next year, Caleb Williams or Marvin Harrison Junior, or a
Bosa brother or Miles Garrett or whoever, Tran Williams, Lane Johnson.
I mean, the premium guys like they can play. My
mom could scout a lot of drafts in the top ten. Right.
The scouting profession and the job of a GM and
(05:45):
the coach plays a large role in this too, because
he has especially all around the league now heavy decision
making power is to evaluate the human being. And I
remember Chris Ballard. I was watching his press conference and
I think they asked him. It was after the first
round they had drafted Anthe Richardson. They said, when did
you decide on Anthony Richardson. He's like, probably about a
month ago after he left on his visit, because we
(06:06):
felt very good about the guy. But here's the hard part,
and this is why you hear these conversations, you know,
NonStop about the draft. A lot of fans complain, media complaints,
help people in the league complain like it's not an
exact science. It's so hard. Look at the bus rates
and people like, how do these teams keep missing? Because
you're not dealing with widgets. You're not acquiring a business
(06:30):
that the revenue is set on a yearly basis. Right,
I didn't just acquire, you know, seven alarm stores that
I know exactly how much money I'm going to make.
You're acquiring people, and people change. They are very fluid, right,
I don't care how mature you are. You never know
what a guy is going to react to every level
in which he steps up in life, right, you change
(06:52):
from high school to college to professionally. I've been saying
it forever, not that it's you know, breaking news here,
but the majority, overwhelming majority of human beings get a
long runway on their professional career. Not the way it
work in pro sports, right, you kind of have to capitalize.
It's being you know, lengthdened a little bit with training
(07:15):
and eating and just health. The way we understand how
to treat the body. Now that's different. Back in the
day where guys had ten year careers, Now guys can
play fifteen years, twenty years. You know, look at Brady,
look at some of these people. But you're still dealing
with a guy, an individual who is going to get
a lot of public criticism and I would say, you know,
(07:40):
praise as well as a lot of money. These are
very difficult spots. I don't care who you are. It's
why a small percentage of people one can handle to
play at the level and then handle the way to
conduct themselves at the level. John Moran's a good example,
can't miss prospect. The only reason he wasn't the number
one pick in the draft is because he was in
Zion Williamson's draft, high character guy. His family was around
(08:04):
all the time. His dad is a major, major part
of his life. And when I saw this video, which listen,
I'm not anti guns. I grew up in a home
with way more guns than people. But I know this
that if I would have ever held a handgun like that,
but my dad's passed away. If I did that right now,
he'd come out of the sky and backhand me. They're like,
(08:25):
that is just what are you doing? You know, I'm
not here to say banish all the weapons, but any
of us that grew up around him and are around
them know there is a way to handle them and
not And then there's a level of stupidity, right. And
this is when you're dealing with Jalen Carter, for example.
The major question mark with him is can I trust him?
(08:45):
Is he trustworthy? And once you get out of college,
it's actually easier. You know, if you play for Duke
or North Carolina or play football for USC or Alabama.
The structure in which I can control you even when
nil is much much stronger in pro sports. In the NBA,
in the NFL, you got a lot of free time
(09:07):
these are business The GM ain't holding your hand twenty
four to seven, three sixty five. And I was thinking
about this when I saw that video. The thing that
I found the most funny thing, the most funny part
it's not funny at all, but just that I remember
thinking it was laughable at the time that there was
a story that someone in the Indiana Pacers had said
(09:27):
that Jah Morant, you know, he has this crew of
clearly dipshits that he runs around with, had pointed like
basically red dotted him like a member of Seal Team
six in one of the SUVs after a game because
there was an altercation, verbal altercation during the game, and
someone on the pacer said they pointed a gun at
(09:48):
me and there was a red dot. I don't know
if it was on his head or his shoulder or whatever.
And Adam Silver did nothing nothing. Of course he didn't
because he's one of the softest leaders in the history
of business. And I remember thinking how much shit Roger
Goodell got and listen, it's not an envious position to
be in to hand down these intense penalties on players,
(10:08):
but I think it's proven that when you lean harsh
in this situation, it's better than currently what the NBA does,
which no one gets in trouble. Again, A dude in
a car that job Morant was in, which is clearly
job Morant's car red dotted. A dude on another team,
not a player, but a personnel guy. I'm not sure
(10:28):
that happened. Adam Silver's like just you know, pointed at
his feet, no hobble points. I mean Roger Goodell would
have it, sus been to the rest of the season.
Get in the NBA. He got like five game suspension.
It was a joke, and they had these situations and listen,
is the NFL perfect? Of course not. But looking back
(10:49):
some of those harsh penalties, I understand some of them
you could argue, but like and not everything's been perfect.
There's been some stuff that has clearly been a disaster
a fiasco. But just in terms of a general statement
of like Lean being harsh or Lean being pro player,
like oh, just slap on the wrist, I think it's
(11:10):
pretty clear which way you should go. But this gets
back to in the draft process of trying to find
people that you can trust, that you can believe in.
What did I I looked at social media, this weekend.
Who's there getting a degree? Oh, Jalen Hurts. Why does
Jalen Hurts need a degree? Think about that. Is there
one human being where currently that just signed a contract
(11:31):
within the last month where a degree could be any
less meaningless? He just the whole point of a degree
is trying to get into the private sector and make
some cash. Guy literally just got paid one hundred and
eighty million dollars. Yet there's a follow through, there's a maturity,
there's a seriousness to the guy, and there's stuff like
like I said, John Morant viewed coming out of college,
(11:52):
high character guy dad around, Like where is this guy's dad?
Stop being his dad, star being his friend? Like what
the fuck's going on? It's it's a clown show, and
it's at a point now and it gets like this sometimes.
And some NFL players over the years have put themselves
where they get to a point where it feels like
they're bigger than the team. The team can't slow them down.
You know, we've seen that. Most recent probably example would
(12:13):
be uh Antonio Brown. It's hard to put you know
it back once you jump the shark. It's usually harder
to get it back under control because by that time,
the guy is unlimited money. John Moran, for example, has
unlimited money. And this is we talk about this a
lot with NIL. You know how that impacts, you know,
(12:34):
guys focus. I actually think it's it helps because you
don't ask the question as much. Like you clearly, if
you're a higher draft pick in one of these sports,
you get more money probably than you've got in the NIL,
but you don't have to ask, like, how's Caleb Williams money.
Once he becomes a millionaire, it's like, yeah, he's made
ten million dollars last two years. You know, he drives
a g wagon, he has a house in Malibu. You know,
(12:55):
every piece of clothing he wears is very expected. Like
the guy's got money, a lot of money. He makes
more money than like a lot of mid round draft
picks right now. They have been in the league for
several years, so that there's just it's difficult. Now. I
always support. I get angry during draft time when people
overdraft talent, but I always understand where you know, teams
(13:17):
this year didn't feel comfortable with Jalen Carter, and we'll
see over time if that's the right or wrong decision.
But I think when you make decisions based off off
the field things you feel confident about. I understand it,
And the hard part is it's easy to go back.
Jalen Carter becomes a seven time All Pro, one of
the greatest defensive lineman ever, and you go, yeah, I
(13:38):
don't know if we were equipped. That might not have
worked here. That might not have worked here. I was
listening to Kelsey pod with and Andy was talking to Travis, like,
you know, they've been together for ten years, and even
Andy was like, you know, those first five years weren't easy.
We butt in our heads a little bit. You were
a great player, so we kept using you, but we
weren't always on the same page in these last five years.
(13:58):
I swear by it. Those first couple of years were
a little rocky. I think that's a good example, and
I'd be fascinated like what Travis was. Would he have
thrived anywhere? Could any situation have handled him? Now? All
these situations of guys getting in trouble, arrested, what are
always different? Right? Some? Or just don't listen to you?
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of a guy that doesn't listen really, Carson Wentz is
(15:26):
a good example. It was just over the last twelve
months Carson Wentz has been traded for a first round
pick and multiple third round picks, So it's not like
his value. You know, he hasn't been worth anything in years. No,
he's literally been traded back to back years for valuable
draft picks. And he currently on May fourteenth when I'm
recording this, does not have a job. Think about that.
(15:48):
Carson Wentz does not have a job. Is he a
good starting quarterback? Clearly? Not really, but there is we
have this argument sometimes with players. He clearly is better
than the majority of backups. But whenever we get into
this argument is like why is so and so not
in the league, And a lot of it is like
as a backup quarterback, which Carson Wentz would have to
(16:10):
transition into being. There are a couple requirements. One low ego,
I need to hear from you very little in terms
of like your opinions on big picture stuff about the squad.
You just kind of fit in. You're just kind of
a little member of the squad here in the back,
even though you play a big role because you help
(16:30):
the starting quarterback get ready depending on the team situation.
You know, you play against the starting defense, so you
give them looks based on the quarterback you're going to
face on that Giving week, which is obviously very very important,
and you got to be a good teammate. People have
to like you. We talked about it with Matt Ariza
(16:54):
over the last couple pods, right like his situation. Did
the Bills screw that up? And I said, I'm gonna
this is just a fact. They had no clue whether
he was telling the truth or not. Clearly he was
telling the truth. The reason that they went their separate
ways and cut him last year was he was a punter,
right and like a backup quarterback kind of the same thing.
(17:15):
I can't have you be in a distraction. I need
you to kind of just be one of the more
well liked guys in the building. And one issue for
Carson wentz from what I've heard, not a bad guy,
like not some terrible human being, but him and coaches
don't always get along. Why he kind of thinks he
has all the answers, And Jason Kelsey said this on
(17:36):
a podcast that one thing he regretted about the Carson
situation was not forcing him to kind of be closer
with guys. So when shit hits the fan, everyone's kind
of in the trenches together. And back to Jalen hurts
when I think about his non quantifiable skills like deep ball,
(17:56):
running ability, you know whatever, non just like on the
field stuff. I would say his two best attributes one improvement,
which to me encompasses like dude wants to be coached
and dude wants to be coached hard. Nick Saban, Lincoln
Riley gets with Sirianni and remember they had a blow up.
(18:18):
It was either last year or two years ago, and
Philly wanted to make a big deal about it, and
Nick was like, I'm the son of a coach. I'm
a coach. He's also a son of a coach. He
likes being yelled at, and we're very comfortable doing that.
And Jalen even said after, like yeah, I'm unfaced Carson,
that's not the case with him. And the other thing
(18:39):
like not the best teammate, not in a bad way,
but just like not super close with guys, being close
with guys. Here's a reality for most of our businesses, right,
depending on who you work with, you don't necessarily need
to be that close. Whether it's in an office situation,
you know, whether it's being coworkers, you can be very
professional and cordial. As the starting quarterback, I would say
(19:01):
it's pretty important to develop and aspire to work on
close relationships with people, and organically it should naturally happen, right,
Say what you want about Aaron Rodgers. Clearly he's pretty
tight with some guys. You know, he just is, you know,
like we can make money about Randall Cobb, Bob he
wants Randall Cobb really likes Aaron Rodgers. Mercedes Lewis really
(19:23):
likes Aaron Rodgers. David Mackiori really likes Aaron Rodgers. I mean,
these guys are really close. Obviously, Brady's lists and Peyton
Manning's list speak for themselves. These guys are boys and
being boys, you know, almost like a high school level
of friendship is important even when you're all millionaires and
really famous. And when you see that Carson Wentz. Like
(19:46):
one thing I heard about Mark Sanchez from people that
were on teams and work for teams around them, They're like,
people love this guy, you know, Chase Daniel, people love
the guy, case Keenum, people love certain players. Why did
brock Purty resonate so fast before he started playing? Fred
Warner started pounding the table for the guy for It's
like I like this guy man having people We talked
(20:07):
about it with Malik willis why his job status is
in trouble because having people that in the building, whether
it be players, executives, or coaches, that get your back
and usually gets someone's back that I don't know you like.
You know, it's easy in pro sports is to get
someone's back because they can play. But at the highest
(20:27):
level it's kind of a combination of both. You gotta
be able to plan, I gotta like you, right, And
this gets back to, you know, to job morant, like
it's like, how long are people going to support this?
Like can I trust the guy? Because clearly, I'd say
doesn't feel like the most trustworthy guy in the world
right now because he can't make good decisions and a
lot of life the older you get, it's just about
(20:48):
making pretty good decisions. It ain't illegal to own a handgun, right,
But when you're in his position, should you be showing
a handgun on Instagram live constantly and listen? I can't
relate to growing up in a social media era, right
I was already twenty twenty two, twenty three as social
media started getting going. I can't imagine being nine years
(21:11):
old right now and going to grow up. It's hard,
it's I can't relate to that, just like a lot
of people listening that are in their thirties can't relate
to what someone listening right now that's eighteen years old
has kind of had to go through. It's a completely
different rule. When when I was at cal Pauly and
we would burn a couch at three in the morning
on the road like no one was taking a video
(21:32):
of it. It wasn't even possible. The iPad didn't even
exist until I was like a junior in college. Excuse me,
not the iPad, the iPod, and the iPod was gigantic.
It was like the size of a notebook. But these
are the way society is now and these are huge
portions of it. And when you do things, you know,
(21:54):
and having Jalen Carter, like the Eagles are going to
do everything humanly possible to take care of that risk,
but there are going to be parts like on Tuesday,
he doesn't have to show up with the facility, you know,
and I don't. I'm not trying to just pigeonhole him.
But he was the best example of the only reason
the Eagles acquired him was because of those question marks.
If he was just viewed as like B John Robinson,
(22:14):
he would have gone I mean, hell, he would have
been the third overall pick the quarterbacks. He would have
been the first non quarterback off the board, and it
wouldn't even have been a question. It would have been him.
He's in a different stratosphere. And again we're nitpicking high
stratus spheres here. But even then Will Anderson as a
player and as a talent. But yeah, these are just
(22:37):
you're dealing with people, and after a while they show
their true colors, like Josh starting to show his true colors. Right,
He's just he's lacking something upstairs. He just is like,
you can't consistently do these. I keep hearing to cry
for help, Cry for help, give me a break. This
gets to a point where you're just an idiot, you know,
cry for help, fucking showing a gun on Instagram, Give
(22:58):
me a break. And before you know, I haven't gone
through everyone's schedule. But talking point when it just comes
to the schedules, I do think there's things that are
important and things that are not important, and a lot
of it just gets thrown under the umbrella of this
(23:19):
team travels a lot Okay, Well, traveling is a major
you know, red flag on a season a team that
has to travel a lot. But one thing that is
completely irrelevant. If you are an East Coast team or
you are a West Coast team, and you have a
long road trip and you play two teams in that
time zone back to back weeks. Like if I'm Seattle
(23:41):
and I play the Giants one week and the Commander's
the next week, that's not a crazy travel in the
sense that I'm not flying back and forth. So I'm
cutting two trips, right because I'm going to stay out there.
And in twenty twenty three, all these teams now say
vice versa. Right, the Giants this week or I mean
week two. In week three, they play the Cardinals week two,
(24:03):
and then they play the forty nine Ers the following
week on Thursday Night football. They're clearly going to stay
on the West coast. So it's a long travel to
play the Cardinals, but then the following week that Thursday
Night game. That travel isn't that crazy. It's you know,
an hour and a half flight. I've made it a
bunch right to the Bay Area. Honestly, it's probably flying
up from Arizona get the win? Could you be there
(24:23):
an hour in twenty five minutes? So when you stay
games back to back, all these teams stay down. Now
when you have the one off situation, that is taxing,
especially when like what I would factor in, if I'm
the Giants and I play the Rams or on the
Rams and I play a Florida team and I got
to go back, who do I play the next week?
(24:46):
That is one hundred percent of disadvantage. All of these
international games not ideal in terms of long travel. It
depending on where you are. I guess if you're on
the Eastern Seaboard and you're playing you know, in the
you or whatever, it's no difference. It's like a five
and a half hour flight. So it's like a cross
country flight in America. But I do think the Thursday
(25:07):
night game I didn't see. I haven't seen it. I
guess I could have looked it up before this podcast.
I know the forty nine ers have two Thursday night games.
I would imagine they're not the only team. If you
have multiple Thursday night games, that is very, very difficult.
But the one example I will use for them, I
always say all Thursday night games are not equal. When
you play a Thursday night game. To me, I would
(25:28):
draw the line of delineation like right around Halloween, maybe
even a week before. If you're playing a Thursday Night
game in the first or second week of September, that
has no parallels to playing a Thursday night game in
early December, right because the wear and tear in your
body is nowhere near the same. So it is a
massive advantage for any team to play your Thursday Night
(25:49):
game earlier in the season. Now, one thing with a
Thursday night game is who do you play after the
Thursday night game? Because if you are able to win
the Thursday night game, if you have a difficult opponent
the Chiefs, the Bills, the Bengals, whatever, that's a pretty
big advantage for you. Obviously, if you're playing a bad team,
that'd be you wouldn't be worried about it on a
(26:10):
short week, let alone extra couple of days. But when
you play a good team the following week, that's a
huge advantage for your team. You could argue win or loose.
And to me, when I look at Thursday Night, it's
like are you the home team? Because if you're the
home team, especially coming off a home game like that's
not that difficult relative to Thursday night games. Now, if
you're the home team and you're coming off a road trip, like,
(26:31):
how far is that road trip? Cause that's a pretty
big disadvantage. And if you have a Thursday night game
earlier in the season, the other thing your coaching staff
can do is work on the games right now, that's
like a good summer you know, training camp project. I
remember when I was with the Eagles, we would have
reps in OTAs about divisional opponents, like you utilize some
(26:53):
of this offseason stuff to just lightly start inserting some
game plan ideas for either early season opponents or divisional opponents. Now,
the one thing with these road games right like a
if you play a Thursday night game and you're the
road team. Now, if you play a divisional game, especially
(27:15):
the NFC East or the AFC North, it's not that
hard to travel. But sometimes they aren't divisional games and
they are longer travels, and that can be a little
more difficult in terms of you know where you got
to go, so based on your Thursday night game, to me,
the key is road team. If you are the road team,
how far you got to go? And if you are
the road team, and it's after kind of that line
(27:37):
late October. That's a fucking hard game. I don't care
if you're playing a three win team or you're playing
the Chiefs. For the Bengals, that is just very difficult.
All these players talk about it, right, how difficult it
is to get their body right for Wednesday's practice. George
Kittle was talking about with Theo Vaughn on this podcast,
like it takes me I have to do a ton
(27:58):
of work day and Tuesday to be able. They're ready
to practice well. I remember Carr, Derek Carr talked about
it how serious he takes Monday and Tuesday because to
feel confident about your week of practice, you don't want
to go into Wednesday sore. And it's it's much more attainable.
I would say earlier in the season that it's just
(28:19):
it might be difficult. The other thing was schedules and listen,
I'm guilty of this too, not necessarily playing the win
loss game. But you look at games that look easier
than others. I mean, it's clear like you're playing the Chiefs, right,
you know, you're playing the Bengals, You're playing the Bills,
you're playing the Eagles. You know, certain teams are going
to be good, but like the Saints, the Saints could
(28:41):
be an eleven win team or they could be a
six win team. I don't know. I have no clue.
Right the Patriots, you could you convince me this is
the year it all kind of falls apart and they
win six or actually they're kind of competitive and it's
like an ugly ten. So what team you're playing past
the first couple of weeks, Because even if a team
is crappy, I mean, the Bears got the number one
(29:03):
overall pick. They beat the forty nine ers week one.
I think week one and week two a little bit,
you're gonna get a tough game. I don't care if
you're playing me or you at quarterback, or you're playing
Mahomes or Borough. It's hard. But as the season goes on,
a couple of things, teams that you think are gonna
be good are not as good. If I gave you
the Giants or Seattle on the schedule in twenty twenty
two and you were a decent team, you'd be like,
(29:25):
win win, Well, clearly it turned out they were pretty good.
The Lions, you're like, as they're not gonna be bad again.
They won nine games, right, and then you thought teams
that were a lock to be good. The Packers weren't
as good. Right, So you just never quite know going in,
and you never know who's gonna get hurt. Right, Not
only key players get hurt, but quarterbacks get hurt. And
(29:45):
it might even not be a serious long term injury.
But at the starting quarterback. If Aaron Rodgers has to
miss two weeks for bad ankle sprint and Zach Wilson starts,
I think we view the Jets game a lot differently. Right,
We've seen it before, like when Chad Haney's to start
for Mahomes being out or whoever. The Rams are a
good example last year, Like, I don't know if the
(30:06):
Rams are going to win back to back Super Bowls.
I would have picked them to make a wild card.
By the middle of the season, they were joke. I mean,
they were unwatchable. All their players were hurt. So it
is difficult to play that game sometimes with the schedules.
Don't get me wrong, I like playing it, but it
is I think sometimes, and like I said, I'm guilty
(30:26):
of this. It can be a waste of our energy
to really look past like you could even argue the
first month. Now, the one thing you know, good or bad,
typically your division games are going to be hard, right
even if you have you know you're a team that's
going to go five and one in the division. Like
last year, Chiefs I think went six to oh and
the forty nine ers went six and oh. I think
I'm pretty sure those are the only two teams that
(30:47):
swept their divisions. Doesn't mean those division games are difficult,
are hard to win. Even if you're a lot better,
something like you might blow out of the six games too,
you're going to be in a dogfight for a couple
of them. That's the way football is, which makes it
very entertaining. It's a huge part of the parody of
even when you have eight point spreads, it's pretty easy
for the team that's favored by eight to be down
(31:08):
in the second half. Now they still end up winning.
They don't cover why the NFL's king Baby the volume
Host
John Middlekauff
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