May 8, 2023 • 37 mins
John runs down the top 5 storylines he’s watching heading into OTA’s.
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Speaker 1 (00:14):
What is going on my people, John Middlecough, that'd be
me Three and Out Podcasts, that'd be this show. Hopefully
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(00:36):
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(00:57):
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(01:19):
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(02:03):
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(02:48):
and go to an event, have a good time, and
do it on me with a little discount. Sure, let's
dive into the five big storylines for OTAs. I love
hate relationship with OTAs, having gone to many for you know,
well over a decade. They're fun in the sense to just,
you know, kind of get you outside. It's like it's
(03:09):
kind of like the football version of golf, you know,
just get you some sun, get you a little sweat.
When you work in the league, it's a very positive time.
It's very lighthearted, I would say, from a from a
wark week standpoint, relative to what the fall is. Obviously,
you know, if you turn on your television you see
all these guys going to hockey games, basketball games, NBA
(03:32):
baseball game whatever. These guys are out and about having
a good time all over the country. You get new
players on your team. It's just a very very positive
time in every building, whether you're an elite team like
you know, the Chiefs, the Bengals, the Eagles, whatever, or
your shitting team, right because you get to break out
some of the new toys, may have new coaches. The
(03:55):
only downfall really is injuries, and obviously an injury at
this point in time of the year is typically non
contact and so it tends to be pretty devastating, right.
Other than that, you know, especially if you have a
new quarterback, it's just it's just fun. Listen. I've been
lucky enough to be able to go to these practices.
You know, they're not open to the public, like like
(04:17):
the fall is during training camp, but it is. It's
very very light. It's why I never really support you know,
some of these guys bitching and moaning that don't show up. Now,
I completely understand if you have a specific training regiment
and you know certain players OTAs if you tell me
Tyreek Hill doesn't come to OTA's or Trent Williams like,
(04:37):
I don't care, but some of these players when they
act like it's really difficult. Maybe it was back in
the day, but since I've been around it, and definitely
in twenty twenty three, you know, it's the country club
version of football, and it's just a good time to
be around. Your teammates developed some chemistry, and I do
think that bleeds into the season. Guys like each other,
(04:59):
really get to know each other. This is when I
mean basic things like us normal human beings, which ultimately
football players are. Barbecues, you know, weekend drinking events, going
to games. It's just a good time. So let's start
number one. It's got to be the rookie quarterbacks, right
(05:19):
because we had three guys going the top four, and
really the most polarizing one who fell to the second round.
Is that a place where he's probably gonna play two?
But when the first two quarterbacks that were picked, Bryce
Young and c J. Stroud, these guys are gonna be
the starting quarterbacks for their team week one. I do
not care what their coaches are saying right now. Oh,
(05:41):
they're gonna start with the twos. They gotta work their
way up. They gotta c J. Stroud and Bryce Young,
if they do not get injured, will be the starting
quarterbacks come Week one. If they're not, we got a
major problem. Both of them, multiple year starters, are basically
the best two programs in the country. Georgia, you're included
to the best three programs in the country. Michigan's like,
(06:02):
we've beat him twice. I know, Okay, two of the
top four programs in the country, you know what I mean.
So these guys have played a lot of football, had
a ton of success. Both been in the playoffs. Both,
you know, made big plays when it mattered most. There
is absolutely no reason not every quarterback is the same.
But these two guys plug and play starters. Now, are
(06:24):
they gonna be good? I don't know. I would bet
on Bryce Young, you know, I think a lot of
people are. You know, question how high CJ ceiling is.
I'm intrigued to watch because that game against Georgia made
me change my tune. Clearly, the Texans aren't good, but
both these guys starter week one. The third guy, Anthony
(06:45):
Richardson's a little interesting because in theory he's a complete
red shirt guy. Right. Well, I saw some quotes coming
out of Indianapolis and people that cover the team, Like
you know, I would not be shocked at all if
the guy plays one thing with Trey Lance a couple
of years ago, and I think there are some parallels
in the sense of these physical freaks, even though I
(07:05):
think Anthony Richardson is in a complete different level than Trey,
much faster, much more natural thrower of the football. But
they hadn't played a lot of football, I think thirteen
career starts. So the only way you can improve is
by playing. I mean, you can improve in practice and
the mental reps and learn to become a pro, but
(07:26):
that can only take you so far. You have to
play in the games right. And the hard part about
football is like you can't take live VP. You can't
just play a full on, five on five game in
the NFL like you can in the NBA right in
the offseason. The only time to play football is in
preseason games, in regular season games, the only time real
(07:48):
games happen, because in practice they do not. And most
of these places come even close to replicating what we
see on the field. I looked at their quarterback depth
chart and it's Ellinger from last year, right they drafted
him a couple years ago from Texas and Gardner Minshew.
So in theory, you could start Gardner Minshew to start
the season and with a plan to kind of slowly
(08:11):
integrate him as the year goes, which I would say
is very possible. That's probably what I would bet on.
But I would say there's a fifty to fifty chance
where they just say, screw it, let's just go with
the fourth overall pick. And as we say at cal
Pauly learned by doing figuring out on the go and
almost be okay with this could be a rocky year,
a little like Josh Allen's rookie year, and we're just
(08:35):
going to figure it out on the fly and we're
cool with it. That's, you know, I think that's obviously
a very distinct possibility. Now, Will Levis the last quarterback
I want to talk to you is talk about is
not going to beat out Ryan Tannhill. That's not possible.
The Ryan Tannehill is hanging by a thread. And two
things are going against Ryan Tannehill. One, his team is
(08:55):
not that good. So there is a decent chance that
they are not going to be very competitive this year,
which is their weapons. Look around beside Henry, it doesn't
look like, you know, AJ Brown ain't walking through that door,
so it could be a really slow start for him individually.
(09:15):
So if the team's not playing well and he's not
playing well, especially number wise, I think it's very very possible,
And I know people that cover the team have written
about it. I mean it's captain obvious. Will Levis has
probably starting games this year, you know, start the season
as the backup quarterback and then who knows. I mean,
if they got off to like a one in five start,
you could insert them pretty easily. Now if they're kind
(09:37):
of you know, three and three and you know five
and six, maybe it's a little more difficult. But if
you're them, don't you want to see what this guy has,
Like Ryan Tannehill is not going to be around, so
you might as well just transition sooner the better so
you can see if Levis can play. But the way
I look at it, Bryce CJ starters day one. Anthony
(09:58):
Richardson more of a coin flip, just kind of depending
on internally how they view their team and if they're
cool with I don't want to say tanking the season,
but just taking I mean you would take some early
lumps more than likely with Anthony Richardson that you know,
playing that first couple of months could be pretty ugly,
but it could really benefit them, not just the second
half of the season. Butt in like three years when
they go, oh, all those reps Anthony Richardson got as
(10:20):
a rookie when everyone thought he sucked is the reason
now he's playing really, really well. And Will Levis, I'd
put his over under game started this year at about
seven or eight. Number two. Also stick with the quarterback
theme Trey Lance versus Sam Darnald, because Trey Lance is
(10:42):
battling to be the forty nine ers backup quarterback. That's
where two years removed from being the third overall pick
and them trading multiple ones on top of going from
twelve to three, Trey Lance is now in a quarterback
competition with Sam Donald, and you know what, he's got
an uphill battle because the forty nine Ers have been
(11:04):
telling everyone because they believe this, that Sam Donald's really good,
and they keep hammering that. Like you look at those
last six games for Sam Donald. What they saw, which
is a competent coaching staff and the team had kind
of figured out he played pretty well. Hayle Shanahan already
liked Sam Donald in years past, and they thought about
trading for him when he was traded when the Panthers
(11:26):
ultimately traded for him, like that was a forty nine
Er option, But they were sniffing around Staffer and then
the Deshaun Watson thing happened, and then they just, you know,
they just kind of got lost in the shuffle. But
this is a guy they've had their eyes on. Matt Mayoko.
Buddy Mine has covered the forty nine ers since I
was in like junior high. Knows that everyone in that
(11:47):
building very very well. He just said on a radio
show that Sam Donald might be the best thrower of
the football the forty nine ers have ever had, not
currently half have ever had. Now, what makes that unique
is you're like Matt Joe Montana, Steve Young if I
was going to defend Mayoko. And Mayoko knows football. He's
(12:08):
he's seen it all Stuper Bowl teams, two win teams,
from Kaepernick to Steve Young, to Garcia to Alex Smith,
Jimmy Garoppolo. Matt Mayoko has a lot of scouting experience,
watching the forty nine ers and watching good coaches and
bad coaches. Joe Montana, ironically, who's most would consider the
second best quarterback of all time, was not the most
(12:31):
talented quarterback of all time. Like he did not have
John Elway or Tom Brady or Dan Marino's arm right,
But again, he was an elite all time great player,
but it wasn't because of arm strength. And Steve Young,
who I would say set a slightly better arm than
Montana also not known for having a hose. But if
you do go back and watch the YouTube, I think
Steve Young has a better arm than you think. Both
(12:54):
those guys kind of hung their hat on accuracy, instincts
and athleticism. Obviously, Steve was an elite athlete. Joe sneaky.
You watch that documentary Joke A Move now, Joe was
a much better athlete than even I realized. And something
that all those West Coast offensive guys that went on,
you know, the Home Brens, the Andy Reids, they always
(13:14):
liked their quarterback to be able to move, and those guys,
they hung their hat more on that type stuff than
just pure throwing a Dan Marino two in or mine
on our fastball. But I would say Kaeperdick had the
best arm in forty nine or history now. He had
no touch and he had no ability to throw a
change up like Steve Young and Joe Montana. But just
(13:34):
best pure arm aalent the forty nine ers ever had.
It's not even close. I mean, Kaepridick. You see some
of these videos that come out about draft time of
Will Levis from his knees, you know, throwing it over
three lakes, or Anthony Richardson hitting the scoreboard in the
practice facility. You know Colin could do that shit with
his eyes closed in his sleep. He just would also
(13:55):
hit the trainer on the sideline when they were attending
to someone on the bench because he did not know
where the ball was going. But I think, ultimately what
Matt is saying, forty nine ers like this guy a lot.
And every time I look up at a Warriors game,
you know who you know who's there with McCaffrey and
Kittle and the boys, Sam Darnold. You know who's not
there Trey Lance. Now I'm not trying to say that's everything,
(14:16):
because clearly Christian knows him from their time in Carolina,
but it is a little weird. I get a lot
of DMSs like why is trade not invited, And I
think the simple answer is no, not really doesn't feel
like it. I mean, sure doesn't seem like it. He
was last year when they tried to, you know, kind
of force him into the starting role, and then by
about mid training camp the players are rumbling behind the scenes,
(14:38):
this ain't gonna work. So it's not just one thing
with the forty nine ers. When the front office thinks something,
usually their star players think it too. Why because they're
all kind of incahoots together. The forty nine Ers are
not run like the Patriots Forever with Bill, where he's
like just what Bill wants to do. I'm not saying
Kyle won't do cutthroat things. I mean they traded to
(14:59):
force Buckner, but for the most part, the reason they
resigned Jimmy Garoppolo, all the players were grumbling. And I'm
not talking every player, I'm talking the star group of players. Right,
It's pretty easy to figure out which ones because they
didn't think he was good enough. So if they're not thinking,
if they're thinking that, you know, Kyle's thinking that. I
would be stunned if Trey Lance beats out Sam Donalds.
(15:20):
And when he doesn't, I mean I think if Brock
Purty as a starter, it turns out to be healthy,
and they'll just roll with Brock party and Sam Donald
and trade Trey Lance. I would guess around before week one.
Number three, Bill Belichick mac Jones. This is a relationship
(15:40):
that got weird, and it got weird fast. The one
thing that always happened in New England forever is when
Bill was pissed off about something, or when Bill want
something to change, it changed. Why he trade you. He
would cut you. He would not resign you. It didn't
matter how good of friends you were with. To Welker,
(16:01):
Logan Mankins, all these guys that Tom loved he said
goodbye to obviously, all these good, great players that sign these,
you know, deals for cheap and would win, he would
let them go as well. Right, He would only buy
low and sell high. The mac Jones thing is interesting, right,
because you draft a guy fifteenth overall, you're kind of
(16:23):
stuck with him for a couple of years and forever.
Bill could publicly blast anybody, could make it be known
the way he feels. It's a little different with the
quarterback position, and it's pretty clear through the different leaks
that Bill was not super happy with Mac. But you
know one thing that's changed a little bit, like this
(16:44):
ain't the Tom Brady Patriots. Not everyone just keeps their
mouth shut. Pretty clear that Mac Jones wasn't happy with Bill.
And if you're going to defend Mac Jones, you go, well, Bill,
you gave him, you know, a defensive fucking coordinator to
call his offensive place and a special team coach to
coach a MC quarterback. And it was as ugly as
it could have been. It was a disaster. And just
(17:06):
look at your team. You don't have many, you know,
great offensive skill guys. So it'd be one thing if
Mac Jones, who had an awful season, was terrible even
beside you know, he got injured, but the eye test
was clear this guy was playing low level football. And
the one thing I always thought about Mac Jones, if
he was ever going to maximize his potential, he was
(17:29):
ultimately gonna be I would say, a Jimmy Garoppolo poor
man's Kirk Cousins kind of in that vein. Well, he
throws a lot of interceptions. He throws the ball to
the team a lot, to the other team a lot.
Because he doesn't really play within his skill set. He
makes moronic decisions. Now you can say offense was really
(17:52):
poorly run because of the offensive coordinator. No one's going
to argue with you. But like, ultimately, when you drop
back and there's a dB you know, in front of
your offensive player and you throw it right to him,
I can't totally put that on the coach. So to me,
they both take blame last year for being a disaster.
The one thing though, and listen, I can relate in
the sense of I struggled with my emotions. I would say,
(18:16):
all up until probably three or four years ago, I've
really got controlled of it, meaning my outbursts of temper
and anger. I struggled to control it. So I'd be
a hypocrite to say that if I was in mac
Jones's shoes, I would have just been the ultimate pro
and not freaked the you know what out as he
(18:36):
did all year. Now, I give you a pass to
get super mad once in a while, but he was
doing it over and over and over again. And it's like,
bro yank Tom Brady, and that's ultimately the position. Like
you technically didn't follow Tom because Cam did, but he
kind of did. I mean, this is the highest draft
pick Bills ever put on a quarterback. I'm not thinking
(18:59):
that Bill thought you were going to be Tom Brady,
but they thought you were going to be a long
time starting quarterback and you could help them go to
the playoffs every year. And the way you played, you know,
last year, this team would have no shot to go
to the playoffs. Now I just don't think they're good enough. Though.
Bill hires a real offensive coordinator, a guy that just
knows Mac though he never coached him. Came when Mack left.
(19:20):
But you know one of the stories was Mac Jones
helped teach him the Alabama offense. I mean, they know
each other. And Bill is a real coach, no matter
how much the media informed players think he's the village idiot,
not a good general manager. And he's a great example
why the overwhelming majority of coaches have no business picking
(19:41):
the players or deciding when to do trades. They should
have influence, but most coaches are too close to the sun,
and they're way too emotional, and their patience football wise
is just too short sometimes and then they regret it
later on. Almost have to put them out of the
(20:01):
driver's seat and put them into the passenger seat. He
got in the driver's seat and he was a disaster,
right but he can coach and it's why the Texans were,
you know, always competing to go to the playoffs. He
goes to Alabama and like there were awesome with Bryce Shaw,
He's going to go to the Patriots and be an
enormous upgrade. Now. I think a lot like Josh McDaniels.
(20:21):
You know, the one thing I would imagine it was
harder for Mack as a rookie to do anything right.
He kind of had to shut his mouth. Well. The
second year as a starter, probably felt more in power, rightfully,
so this third year it's kind have been humbled a
little bit because there's buzz that the owner likes Bailey's appy.
Bailey's appy. He had some good moments, had some bad
(20:42):
moments when he played last year, but there's another guy
on the team that has now played and they've had
some success with the other thing. If you're Bill O'Brien,
I think there are zero you know what's given because
why does he give it? He's just trying to win.
If he gets the Patriots offense doing well, he'll be
a head coach in the NFL. Again. That's going to
happen if they have success, and when you look at
(21:06):
their offensive roster that their run game is gonna be fine.
It always is. You know, their defense is pretty good.
The question is the passing game, right, I mean, you're
talking about Devonte Parker, you're talking about Kendrick Bourne, like
they signed Juju Smith and Gasecki, you know, not terrible,
but relative to the rest of the division, not even close.
(21:26):
So I do just think there's a lot of pressure.
I don't think we know Belichick won't, but I don't
think Bill O'Brien's gonna put up with that him freaking
out on the sideline screaming about what plays to call
like he did last year. So that's something to monitor
in that relationship this offseason. I think Bill, during either
right before the draft or during the draft one of
the Knights, kind of changed his tune a little bit
(21:48):
because he has to put out there he kind of
believes in mac because he needs them at least if
Max Cable playing. If he's not build this pivot, I
would imagine pretty quickly this season that Bailey's appy because
Mike Lombardi talks about this a lot on the podcast,
like how unfair it is the Bill with all this
success and we're all questioning, like should he lose his
(22:09):
job when you know, guys like John Harbaugh having won
a meaningful game in like a decade. But it's like, oh,
just on easy street, right, And I do like I
get it. No one's acting like Bill Belichick is an idiot,
right or deserves to lose his job because of his resume.
(22:31):
But it is based on like, yeah, you know, he's
seventy one years old. They got not much hope moving
forward at this season's a disaster, and maybe the owner
is like, you know, we've had twenty two and a
half decades here, We've all made a lot of money.
Maybe it's just time for a divorce. Sometimes it's inevitable professionally, personally,
And that's where it feels if Bill Belichick, if they
let's say they win six games and there's a I
(22:54):
don't think they would fire him a probably mutual departation.
Now maybe Bill is you know, so petty and old
school that he would be like, you know, fire me.
I refuse to let you act like this as mutual.
But like we're all saying that he's it would be
because of like it's just time, like it's just time
for a change. They wouldn't be able to upgrade ninety
(23:15):
nine point ninety percent. The guy they would get after
would be dramatically worse. Why because that guy's not Bill Belichick.
But I don't think it's that crazy, right, Like, is
Bill Belichick way better football coach than John Harbaugh or
Ron Rivera or all these other coaches that probably should
be on the hot seat, of course Mike McCarthy, But
that's not this situation. This situation is about a long marriage,
(23:38):
the ups and the downs, and now Brady leaves and
there's this hole and Bill has unlimited power and paying
a guy twenty million dollars, Like, you don't just get
to make Bill Belichick doesn't on the team. You don't
just get to make twenty million dollars a year and
not make the playoffs forever. That's that's not the way
the world works, especially in this industry. So there's just
a lot of pressure. Talking about a lot of pressure.
(24:01):
Number four, Jordan Love, We've talked a lot about Aaron Rodgers,
who was just took the boys, all the packers back
to the Kentucky Derby where I saw horses were dropping
like flies that they had to kill like three horses
this week because you know, some major injuries. When you
get an injury, you know in football, you just go
to the knee doctor, right, you just go get your
shoulder worked on. And horse racing, he's just take that
(24:24):
horse to the bar, Bye bye horsey. You know. So
it look like Aaron Rodgers and Davante and the boys
are all back together having a good time and we're
gonna We've talked about a lot of Aaron Rodgers. What
about Jordan Love because this offseason it's all his. He
is the guy all the reps. I looked it up
because I was like, how many passes has he actually
(24:45):
thrown in his career? He has attempted eighty three passes.
I mean there have been games when some quarterbacks in
the NFL attempted like sixty plus passes, right, I mean,
how many passes Tom Brady have in that playoff game.
Wasn't it like sixty five pass attempts? Maybe it was,
maybe it was high fifties, but eighty three career passes.
(25:08):
Now he's got this extension, so he's got a little
breathing room. They got a young team, it's all him.
And I do think we underestimate. You never want to
be the guy that replaces the guy. Right. They always say,
you want to be the guy that replaces the guy
that replaced the guy. You don't want to be the
person that replaced Nick Saban. That is an impossible job.
(25:30):
You don't want to be the guy that replaces Bill Belichick.
Good freaking luck. I don't care if they won three
games this year. You got the number one pick. That
is not an easy guy to replace, you know. Ultimately,
Cam Newton, it was unique when he replaced Tom Brady, right,
Andrew Luck replaced Peyton Manning, and that was not easy shoes,
and he delivered right away ultimately, like Jordan Love is
(25:51):
replacing the best player in franchise history. And this is
a franchise that on their mount Rushmore is like Brett
far from Vince Lombardi, one of our most famous franchises
in all of professional sports. This is a team that has,
for being this small, tiny little market team, an enormous
fan base. Their games rate and rate heavily they and
(26:15):
a huge reason is because the last thirty years, these
two star quarterbacks they playing these the massive brand. You know,
I just think and they're gonna downplay it, and like
I've said, they're gonna rely on the running game, and
they have a scheme that's that's you know, created for that.
A lot of easy passes in theory are built into
it with the play action game, the boots to get
(26:38):
a guy, just basic easy layup completions, but a lot
of moving parts with this franchise depending on a lot
of young people. It'd be one thing if if Jordan
Love was taken over and they Lizard was still on
the team, DeVante Adams had never got traded and they
just had some more core people, you know, at the
skill positions, but you're you're talking about second year and
(27:00):
first year wide receivers, first year tight ends. They do
have a stable of veteran running backs and some accomplished
offensive lineman. But this is a very very young offense
and a coach who now has had a lot of success,
But it was all with Rogers. You know, it's the
first time him kind of in the deep end now
without his floaties. You know, Aaron Rodgers is one of
(27:22):
the great all time floaties of all time. Right one
back to back MVPs and Lafloor gets credit for that
you know, La Floor was taught by an around some
genius offensive play callers, some genius guy that created a scheme. Right,
So I'm not talking Coyle talking to his dad, but
I think the pressure on this franchise. There's also kind
(27:46):
of this yin and yang in a situation like this,
where you're kind of always looking over the fence, like
what's he doing over there? And we saw it immediately
with Tom and Bill Belichick. You compare the two against
each other fair not, it's really not because they're two
separate situations. If the Packers went eight to nine this
year and Jordan Love was solid and you could see
(28:06):
the future, it would be very, very successful. Anything less
than a wild card berth for the New York Jets
is a gigantic co letdown. Yeah, I mean, I don't
want to go as far to say but borderline disaster.
But they're going to be compared every single week. If
Jordan Love's good and Aaron Rodgers bad or vice versa,
(28:27):
it's going to be the talking point they are directly correlated,
that they are connected at the hip when we talk
about the two players, and not not that Jordan Love
has to play like Aaron Rodgers. I've said it before.
The chance is that the best case scenario for Jordan
Love I told you if I told Packer fans right now,
you know, he's like seventy five percent of what Aaron Rodgers,
(28:47):
they all would sell their soul for that. More than
likely he's like twenty percent and just not a good player.
That's what history would show us so fascinated to. Here's
the thing, and I've seen that when Trey Lance became
the starter. And it's different because but no, I mean
he read Shirt of the Year every single practice, every
single practice completion percentage, how many balls hit the ground,
(29:09):
how many balls were overthrown, how many good passes. It
is a daily covered story about practice passes. Aaron Rodgers
has not had that happen to him for a decade
and a half. No one cared about an individual pass
in practice. No one was tweeting out these last ten years.
You know, a third day of training camp, Aaron Rodgers
(29:30):
went seventeen of twenty like it didn't matter because we
all knew it was irrelevant. Same thing with Brady, Same
thing now with my homes Like some of his sweet
passes from a training camp practice get tweeted out, but
no one is taking inventory on every single pass. That's
what's gonna happen. I've seen it firsthand, and it's intense
when it goes the wrong way. When I worked with
(29:52):
the Eagles, we got rid of Dave Akers and brought
in a rookie kicker and it was a disaster immediately.
But every single day, Hey, when that guy went out there,
Alex Henry kicker from Nebraska, every kick he had was
charted and every reporter was. At the time, I don't
think Twitter was as big, but newspapers, the blogs. Forty
nine ers is drafted a kicker this year, Jake Moody.
(30:14):
Every single time that guy kicks in practice, it's going
to be a story, good or bad. It's no different
with Bryce and Anthony Richardson and CJ. Stroud, Like their
practices are treated fairly or not like a game by
the people watching and we all get to find out
the numbers at the end of practice. And I think
that's the way just Jordan Love's going to be treated.
(30:35):
Like when he has a training camp practice that's like
eight of twenty, it's like, oh, Jordan Love, have it?
Is he inaccurate? Now? It also goes the other way.
You know, Jordan Love was unreal today fourteen to sixteen.
Now he's judged in the games clearly, But you got
to get there first. And it starts in OTAs that
some of these practices are open to the media, the
(30:57):
mandatory OTAs, all those practices are open to the media. Now,
I mean the ones I've been going to sometimes Kyle, like,
you know, call of practice after thirty minutes and they
go to a swim party. So I'm not saying all
these but once you get a training camp and those
pads come on, that becomes serious football. And we're not
(31:18):
that far away. But I think when you factor in
the pressure on this guy, I would imagine the Packers
have a pretty serious OTA secsion. There's no just like
canceling random practices to get deep breasts because they got
to get this guy reps. They got to get this
guy ready for the season. Whether I believe it or
you believe it, the Packers are trying to go back
to the playoffs this year with this guy and look
(31:39):
like geniuses. You better believe the Goudakins and Matt Lafour
want to be talked about like fuck. I mean these guys.
What a genius move, because if this guy is good,
I don't mean he's got to be great. If he's
just good right at the end of the year, Like
was Jordan Love the eleventh best quarterback in the NFL.
They will immediately get long term extensions and we're all
(32:00):
have to anoint them like that would be an incredible
pivot and last, but not least a little bit of
a wild card here. There was a story last week
that Tom Brady is on the fence about quitting at Fox.
Obviously he hasn't even started yet, but you know, and
a lot of people in media circles have been like,
(32:23):
is Tom Brady really gonna call games? And I've always said, like,
I assume he was. I don't know why. I never
looked at it, like I never thought someone was throwing
a curveball at me. I thought Tom signed this because
he was like, yeah, I'll retire. Heag a deep breath,
and I'll call some games. It's easy. I'll fly in private,
do some zoom meetings. It's not like I'm in the
cities for three out of my seven days a week.
(32:45):
Watch a little film. Keep me in the loop. All
the coaches will talk to me. It won't be that hard.
I've always been hesitant that, like there's two Tom's. There's
corporate Tom, which is the majority of the time we hear,
and then there's Tom like he was on his documentary
on the ESPN Plus about the Patriot Dynasty where he
was swearing, where he was just kind of being the
(33:06):
guy at the locker room, the guy that is in
the locker room with his teammates who just clearly feels
like it just resonates with people. And I was like,
I don't know, for a lock to get the cool Tom,
we might get the corporate Tom. And so I always questioned, like,
is he he's not to me a can't miss Like
he's just not to me a can't miss broadcaster. If
you gave him MIC would be Philip Rivers. I think
(33:28):
Philip Rivers would be elite. He'd be awesome, like Tony
Romeo has his moments and Tony Romel has his momentaries,
you know, kind of cheesy. I think Philip Rivers would
be sweet to me Tom. He's definitely not Drew Brees
like to me, Drew's like, I don't really no chance.
I bet against that one. Immediately. Tom to me, I'd
give like a fifty fifty chance their chance. He's just
awesome because he's just good at everything, So he would,
(33:49):
you know, really try, He'd do whatever he wanted. He's
cool with taking criticism right, He's been coached his whole
life hard. But when that rumor came out, people are like, well,
what about always sure Tom's not playing in twenty twenty three? Okay,
because I'm not. He's single now. I think I saw
a story the other day he's done Dayton Models, Tom
(34:10):
Brady no more Dayton Models. Yeah, Tom firs first class,
good looking problems. But I feel like it is not
going to go quietly, and all it would take is
someone to get hurt in OTA's at a big time team,
and there's one team in Miami Dolphins that I don't
think you could ever discount. And maybe this is something
(34:31):
that flies a little under the radar in the spring, because,
for example, the Dolphins two was not getting concussion in spring?
What about the fall? What about in training camp? You
know what if one guy trips on him and he
hits his head and all of a sudden he's a
little wobbly. It feels like until it's over, like the
season has started and Tom Brady is not on the team.
(34:52):
I don't know if we can discount it. I don't
know if we can. And now there are rumors that
he's having second thoughts about doing this, and I don't
blame him now. I understand it's a lot of money.
They gave him, like three hundred and fifty million, but
Tom Brady's not doing this for the money. Again, three
hundred fifty million dollars, I don't care how rich you are,
is a lot of money to anyone not named like
the Waltons or you know, Bezos or Elon, but top
(35:16):
three hundred fifty million is a lot of money to Tom.
But he does not need the money. Like ultimately, that
money is not gonna change anything he does. He's been
flying private for twenty years. He can buy any home
he ever wants to for a long time. Right, Maybe
he's got some divorce payments, you know, maybe it's a
little tricky. But she's got a lot of coin too, though,
depending on where you get divorces, as I've been told
by divorces that it can get complicated fast and it
(35:39):
gets ugly, especially the more money you have, even if
they're both earners. But I don't wonder that there's just
gonna be I don't think this thing's gonna go quietly.
It never does. It never does, and we always get injuries.
We always get injuries. Is there a chance that Tom
never really wanted to retire? You know, he kind of
did it to save his marriage, and then he realized,
(36:02):
maybe my marriage isn't wor saving. Maybe I just want
to play and we're getting divorce no matter what. So audios, Jaselle,
you go with the people keep saying middle coffee. You
mix up jiu jitsu and martial arts and taekwondo. It's like,
I don't know all the different factions here, but I
do know that Jazell's you know, I've been running around
(36:22):
with her, you know, taekwondo instructor. Not that Tom. Tom
doesn't even care. He say glad, have a good time, baby,
see you later, godspeed. I'll drop off the kids next Friday.
I just don't know if we've seen the last of Tom. Okay,
that should do it. So have a good Monday. Thank
you to Holst on the audio, James on the video.
(36:44):
My people keep this thing rocking and rolling. Thanks to everyone,
for listening. We will talk soon, well you won't. I'll
talk to you and hopefully you'll listen. Audios the volume
What is going on my people, John Middlecough, that'd be
me Three and Out Podcasts, that'd be this show. Hopefully
everyone had a good weekend. Happy Monday. Put out a
podcast like I always do on Sunday, Just Middlecoff mailbag,
So if you hadn't heard it, go check it out.
The way you get in that mail bag is just
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(00:36):
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I also put it on the end of a Tuesday
(00:57):
show as well. The plan is to have this podcast.
We will have another football podcast, Three and Out podcast
on Tuesday. I think I'm gonna dive in Kyler Murray
and the Atlanta Falcons talking trade. That was interesting. I
saw a story in the last couple of days, so man,
it might have to dive into that one. We will
have a go lo podcast on Wednesday. Congratulations to Wyndham
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(01:19):
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So we'll just we'll keep pumping out contact because that's
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(02:03):
talk some football. But before we dive into football, can
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(02:48):
and go to an event, have a good time, and
do it on me with a little discount. Sure, let's
dive into the five big storylines for OTAs. I love
hate relationship with OTAs, having gone to many for you know,
well over a decade. They're fun in the sense to just,
you know, kind of get you outside. It's like it's
(03:09):
kind of like the football version of golf, you know,
just get you some sun, get you a little sweat.
When you work in the league, it's a very positive time.
It's very lighthearted, I would say, from a from a
wark week standpoint, relative to what the fall is. Obviously,
you know, if you turn on your television you see
all these guys going to hockey games, basketball games, NBA
(03:32):
baseball game whatever. These guys are out and about having
a good time all over the country. You get new
players on your team. It's just a very very positive
time in every building, whether you're an elite team like
you know, the Chiefs, the Bengals, the Eagles, whatever, or
your shitting team, right because you get to break out
some of the new toys, may have new coaches. The
(03:55):
only downfall really is injuries, and obviously an injury at
this point in time of the year is typically non
contact and so it tends to be pretty devastating, right.
Other than that, you know, especially if you have a
new quarterback, it's just it's just fun. Listen. I've been
lucky enough to be able to go to these practices.
You know, they're not open to the public, like like
(04:17):
the fall is during training camp, but it is. It's
very very light. It's why I never really support you know,
some of these guys bitching and moaning that don't show up. Now,
I completely understand if you have a specific training regiment
and you know certain players OTAs if you tell me
Tyreek Hill doesn't come to OTA's or Trent Williams like,
(04:37):
I don't care, but some of these players when they
act like it's really difficult. Maybe it was back in
the day, but since I've been around it, and definitely
in twenty twenty three, you know, it's the country club
version of football, and it's just a good time to
be around. Your teammates developed some chemistry, and I do
think that bleeds into the season. Guys like each other,
(04:59):
really get to know each other. This is when I
mean basic things like us normal human beings, which ultimately
football players are. Barbecues, you know, weekend drinking events, going
to games. It's just a good time. So let's start
number one. It's got to be the rookie quarterbacks, right
(05:19):
because we had three guys going the top four, and
really the most polarizing one who fell to the second round.
Is that a place where he's probably gonna play two?
But when the first two quarterbacks that were picked, Bryce
Young and c J. Stroud, these guys are gonna be
the starting quarterbacks for their team week one. I do
not care what their coaches are saying right now. Oh,
(05:41):
they're gonna start with the twos. They gotta work their
way up. They gotta c J. Stroud and Bryce Young,
if they do not get injured, will be the starting
quarterbacks come Week one. If they're not, we got a
major problem. Both of them, multiple year starters, are basically
the best two programs in the country. Georgia, you're included
to the best three programs in the country. Michigan's like,
(06:02):
we've beat him twice. I know, Okay, two of the
top four programs in the country, you know what I mean.
So these guys have played a lot of football, had
a ton of success. Both been in the playoffs. Both,
you know, made big plays when it mattered most. There
is absolutely no reason not every quarterback is the same.
But these two guys plug and play starters. Now, are
(06:24):
they gonna be good? I don't know. I would bet
on Bryce Young, you know, I think a lot of
people are. You know, question how high CJ ceiling is.
I'm intrigued to watch because that game against Georgia made
me change my tune. Clearly, the Texans aren't good, but
both these guys starter week one. The third guy, Anthony
(06:45):
Richardson's a little interesting because in theory he's a complete
red shirt guy. Right. Well, I saw some quotes coming
out of Indianapolis and people that cover the team, Like
you know, I would not be shocked at all if
the guy plays one thing with Trey Lance a couple
of years ago, and I think there are some parallels
in the sense of these physical freaks, even though I
(07:05):
think Anthony Richardson is in a complete different level than Trey,
much faster, much more natural thrower of the football. But
they hadn't played a lot of football, I think thirteen
career starts. So the only way you can improve is
by playing. I mean, you can improve in practice and
the mental reps and learn to become a pro, but
(07:26):
that can only take you so far. You have to
play in the games right. And the hard part about
football is like you can't take live VP. You can't
just play a full on, five on five game in
the NFL like you can in the NBA right in
the offseason. The only time to play football is in
preseason games, in regular season games, the only time real
(07:48):
games happen, because in practice they do not. And most
of these places come even close to replicating what we
see on the field. I looked at their quarterback depth
chart and it's Ellinger from last year, right they drafted
him a couple years ago from Texas and Gardner Minshew.
So in theory, you could start Gardner Minshew to start
the season and with a plan to kind of slowly
(08:11):
integrate him as the year goes, which I would say
is very possible. That's probably what I would bet on.
But I would say there's a fifty to fifty chance
where they just say, screw it, let's just go with
the fourth overall pick. And as we say at cal
Pauly learned by doing figuring out on the go and
almost be okay with this could be a rocky year,
a little like Josh Allen's rookie year, and we're just
(08:35):
going to figure it out on the fly and we're
cool with it. That's, you know, I think that's obviously
a very distinct possibility. Now, Will Levis the last quarterback
I want to talk to you is talk about is
not going to beat out Ryan Tannhill. That's not possible.
The Ryan Tannehill is hanging by a thread. And two
things are going against Ryan Tannehill. One, his team is
(08:55):
not that good. So there is a decent chance that
they are not going to be very competitive this year,
which is their weapons. Look around beside Henry, it doesn't
look like, you know, AJ Brown ain't walking through that door,
so it could be a really slow start for him individually.
(09:15):
So if the team's not playing well and he's not
playing well, especially number wise, I think it's very very possible,
And I know people that cover the team have written
about it. I mean it's captain obvious. Will Levis has
probably starting games this year, you know, start the season
as the backup quarterback and then who knows. I mean,
if they got off to like a one in five start,
you could insert them pretty easily. Now if they're kind
(09:37):
of you know, three and three and you know five
and six, maybe it's a little more difficult. But if
you're them, don't you want to see what this guy has,
Like Ryan Tannehill is not going to be around, so
you might as well just transition sooner the better so
you can see if Levis can play. But the way
I look at it, Bryce CJ starters day one. Anthony
(09:58):
Richardson more of a coin flip, just kind of depending
on internally how they view their team and if they're
cool with I don't want to say tanking the season,
but just taking I mean you would take some early
lumps more than likely with Anthony Richardson that you know,
playing that first couple of months could be pretty ugly,
but it could really benefit them, not just the second
half of the season. Butt in like three years when
they go, oh, all those reps Anthony Richardson got as
(10:20):
a rookie when everyone thought he sucked is the reason
now he's playing really, really well. And Will Levis, I'd
put his over under game started this year at about
seven or eight. Number two. Also stick with the quarterback
theme Trey Lance versus Sam Darnald, because Trey Lance is
(10:42):
battling to be the forty nine ers backup quarterback. That's
where two years removed from being the third overall pick
and them trading multiple ones on top of going from
twelve to three, Trey Lance is now in a quarterback
competition with Sam Donald, and you know what, he's got
an uphill battle because the forty nine Ers have been
(11:04):
telling everyone because they believe this, that Sam Donald's really good,
and they keep hammering that. Like you look at those
last six games for Sam Donald. What they saw, which
is a competent coaching staff and the team had kind
of figured out he played pretty well. Hayle Shanahan already
liked Sam Donald in years past, and they thought about
trading for him when he was traded when the Panthers
(11:26):
ultimately traded for him, like that was a forty nine
Er option, But they were sniffing around Staffer and then
the Deshaun Watson thing happened, and then they just, you know,
they just kind of got lost in the shuffle. But
this is a guy they've had their eyes on. Matt Mayoko.
Buddy Mine has covered the forty nine ers since I
was in like junior high. Knows that everyone in that
(11:47):
building very very well. He just said on a radio
show that Sam Donald might be the best thrower of
the football the forty nine ers have ever had, not
currently half have ever had. Now, what makes that unique
is you're like Matt Joe Montana, Steve Young if I
was going to defend Mayoko. And Mayoko knows football. He's
(12:08):
he's seen it all Stuper Bowl teams, two win teams,
from Kaepernick to Steve Young, to Garcia to Alex Smith,
Jimmy Garoppolo. Matt Mayoko has a lot of scouting experience,
watching the forty nine ers and watching good coaches and
bad coaches. Joe Montana, ironically, who's most would consider the
second best quarterback of all time, was not the most
(12:31):
talented quarterback of all time. Like he did not have
John Elway or Tom Brady or Dan Marino's arm right,
But again, he was an elite all time great player,
but it wasn't because of arm strength. And Steve Young,
who I would say set a slightly better arm than
Montana also not known for having a hose. But if
you do go back and watch the YouTube, I think
Steve Young has a better arm than you think. Both
(12:54):
those guys kind of hung their hat on accuracy, instincts
and athleticism. Obviously, Steve was an elite athlete. Joe sneaky.
You watch that documentary Joke A Move now, Joe was
a much better athlete than even I realized. And something
that all those West Coast offensive guys that went on,
you know, the Home Brens, the Andy Reids, they always
(13:14):
liked their quarterback to be able to move, and those guys,
they hung their hat more on that type stuff than
just pure throwing a Dan Marino two in or mine
on our fastball. But I would say Kaeperdick had the
best arm in forty nine or history now. He had
no touch and he had no ability to throw a
change up like Steve Young and Joe Montana. But just
(13:34):
best pure arm aalent the forty nine ers ever had.
It's not even close. I mean, Kaepridick. You see some
of these videos that come out about draft time of
Will Levis from his knees, you know, throwing it over
three lakes, or Anthony Richardson hitting the scoreboard in the
practice facility. You know Colin could do that shit with
his eyes closed in his sleep. He just would also
(13:55):
hit the trainer on the sideline when they were attending
to someone on the bench because he did not know
where the ball was going. But I think, ultimately what
Matt is saying, forty nine ers like this guy a lot.
And every time I look up at a Warriors game,
you know who you know who's there with McCaffrey and
Kittle and the boys, Sam Darnold. You know who's not
there Trey Lance. Now I'm not trying to say that's everything,
(14:16):
because clearly Christian knows him from their time in Carolina,
but it is a little weird. I get a lot
of DMSs like why is trade not invited, And I
think the simple answer is no, not really doesn't feel
like it. I mean, sure doesn't seem like it. He
was last year when they tried to, you know, kind
of force him into the starting role, and then by
about mid training camp the players are rumbling behind the scenes,
(14:38):
this ain't gonna work. So it's not just one thing
with the forty nine ers. When the front office thinks something,
usually their star players think it too. Why because they're
all kind of incahoots together. The forty nine Ers are
not run like the Patriots Forever with Bill, where he's
like just what Bill wants to do. I'm not saying
Kyle won't do cutthroat things. I mean they traded to
(14:59):
force Buckner, but for the most part, the reason they
resigned Jimmy Garoppolo, all the players were grumbling. And I'm
not talking every player, I'm talking the star group of players. Right,
It's pretty easy to figure out which ones because they
didn't think he was good enough. So if they're not thinking,
if they're thinking that, you know, Kyle's thinking that. I
would be stunned if Trey Lance beats out Sam Donalds.
(15:20):
And when he doesn't, I mean I think if Brock
Purty as a starter, it turns out to be healthy,
and they'll just roll with Brock party and Sam Donald
and trade Trey Lance. I would guess around before week one.
Number three, Bill Belichick mac Jones. This is a relationship
(15:40):
that got weird, and it got weird fast. The one
thing that always happened in New England forever is when
Bill was pissed off about something, or when Bill want
something to change, it changed. Why he trade you. He
would cut you. He would not resign you. It didn't
matter how good of friends you were with. To Welker,
(16:01):
Logan Mankins, all these guys that Tom loved he said
goodbye to obviously, all these good, great players that sign these,
you know, deals for cheap and would win, he would
let them go as well. Right, He would only buy
low and sell high. The mac Jones thing is interesting, right,
because you draft a guy fifteenth overall, you're kind of
(16:23):
stuck with him for a couple of years and forever.
Bill could publicly blast anybody, could make it be known
the way he feels. It's a little different with the
quarterback position, and it's pretty clear through the different leaks
that Bill was not super happy with Mac. But you
know one thing that's changed a little bit, like this
(16:44):
ain't the Tom Brady Patriots. Not everyone just keeps their
mouth shut. Pretty clear that Mac Jones wasn't happy with Bill.
And if you're going to defend Mac Jones, you go, well, Bill,
you gave him, you know, a defensive fucking coordinator to
call his offensive place and a special team coach to
coach a MC quarterback. And it was as ugly as
it could have been. It was a disaster. And just
(17:06):
look at your team. You don't have many, you know,
great offensive skill guys. So it'd be one thing if
Mac Jones, who had an awful season, was terrible even
beside you know, he got injured, but the eye test
was clear this guy was playing low level football. And
the one thing I always thought about Mac Jones, if
he was ever going to maximize his potential, he was
(17:29):
ultimately gonna be I would say, a Jimmy Garoppolo poor
man's Kirk Cousins kind of in that vein. Well, he
throws a lot of interceptions. He throws the ball to
the team a lot, to the other team a lot.
Because he doesn't really play within his skill set. He
makes moronic decisions. Now you can say offense was really
(17:52):
poorly run because of the offensive coordinator. No one's going
to argue with you. But like, ultimately, when you drop
back and there's a dB you know, in front of
your offensive player and you throw it right to him,
I can't totally put that on the coach. So to me,
they both take blame last year for being a disaster.
The one thing though, and listen, I can relate in
the sense of I struggled with my emotions. I would say,
(18:16):
all up until probably three or four years ago, I've
really got controlled of it, meaning my outbursts of temper
and anger. I struggled to control it. So I'd be
a hypocrite to say that if I was in mac
Jones's shoes, I would have just been the ultimate pro
and not freaked the you know what out as he
(18:36):
did all year. Now, I give you a pass to
get super mad once in a while, but he was
doing it over and over and over again. And it's like,
bro yank Tom Brady, and that's ultimately the position. Like
you technically didn't follow Tom because Cam did, but he
kind of did. I mean, this is the highest draft
pick Bills ever put on a quarterback. I'm not thinking
(18:59):
that Bill thought you were going to be Tom Brady,
but they thought you were going to be a long
time starting quarterback and you could help them go to
the playoffs every year. And the way you played, you know,
last year, this team would have no shot to go
to the playoffs. Now I just don't think they're good enough. Though.
Bill hires a real offensive coordinator, a guy that just
knows Mac though he never coached him. Came when Mack left.
(19:20):
But you know one of the stories was Mac Jones
helped teach him the Alabama offense. I mean, they know
each other. And Bill is a real coach, no matter
how much the media informed players think he's the village idiot,
not a good general manager. And he's a great example
why the overwhelming majority of coaches have no business picking
(19:41):
the players or deciding when to do trades. They should
have influence, but most coaches are too close to the sun,
and they're way too emotional, and their patience football wise
is just too short sometimes and then they regret it
later on. Almost have to put them out of the
(20:01):
driver's seat and put them into the passenger seat. He
got in the driver's seat and he was a disaster,
right but he can coach and it's why the Texans were,
you know, always competing to go to the playoffs. He
goes to Alabama and like there were awesome with Bryce Shaw,
He's going to go to the Patriots and be an
enormous upgrade. Now. I think a lot like Josh McDaniels.
(20:21):
You know, the one thing I would imagine it was
harder for Mack as a rookie to do anything right.
He kind of had to shut his mouth. Well. The
second year as a starter, probably felt more in power, rightfully,
so this third year it's kind have been humbled a
little bit because there's buzz that the owner likes Bailey's appy.
Bailey's appy. He had some good moments, had some bad
(20:42):
moments when he played last year, but there's another guy
on the team that has now played and they've had
some success with the other thing. If you're Bill O'Brien,
I think there are zero you know what's given because
why does he give it? He's just trying to win.
If he gets the Patriots offense doing well, he'll be
a head coach in the NFL. Again. That's going to
happen if they have success, and when you look at
(21:06):
their offensive roster that their run game is gonna be fine.
It always is. You know, their defense is pretty good.
The question is the passing game, right, I mean, you're
talking about Devonte Parker, you're talking about Kendrick Bourne, like
they signed Juju Smith and Gasecki, you know, not terrible,
but relative to the rest of the division, not even close.
(21:26):
So I do just think there's a lot of pressure.
I don't think we know Belichick won't, but I don't
think Bill O'Brien's gonna put up with that him freaking
out on the sideline screaming about what plays to call
like he did last year. So that's something to monitor
in that relationship this offseason. I think Bill, during either
right before the draft or during the draft one of
the Knights, kind of changed his tune a little bit
(21:48):
because he has to put out there he kind of
believes in mac because he needs them at least if
Max Cable playing. If he's not build this pivot, I
would imagine pretty quickly this season that Bailey's appy because
Mike Lombardi talks about this a lot on the podcast,
like how unfair it is the Bill with all this
success and we're all questioning, like should he lose his
(22:09):
job when you know, guys like John Harbaugh having won
a meaningful game in like a decade. But it's like, oh,
just on easy street, right, And I do like I
get it. No one's acting like Bill Belichick is an idiot,
right or deserves to lose his job because of his resume.
(22:31):
But it is based on like, yeah, you know, he's
seventy one years old. They got not much hope moving
forward at this season's a disaster, and maybe the owner
is like, you know, we've had twenty two and a
half decades here, We've all made a lot of money.
Maybe it's just time for a divorce. Sometimes it's inevitable professionally, personally,
And that's where it feels if Bill Belichick, if they
let's say they win six games and there's a I
(22:54):
don't think they would fire him a probably mutual departation.
Now maybe Bill is you know, so petty and old
school that he would be like, you know, fire me.
I refuse to let you act like this as mutual.
But like we're all saying that he's it would be
because of like it's just time, like it's just time
for a change. They wouldn't be able to upgrade ninety
(23:15):
nine point ninety percent. The guy they would get after
would be dramatically worse. Why because that guy's not Bill Belichick.
But I don't think it's that crazy, right, Like, is
Bill Belichick way better football coach than John Harbaugh or
Ron Rivera or all these other coaches that probably should
be on the hot seat, of course Mike McCarthy, But
that's not this situation. This situation is about a long marriage,
(23:38):
the ups and the downs, and now Brady leaves and
there's this hole and Bill has unlimited power and paying
a guy twenty million dollars, Like, you don't just get
to make Bill Belichick doesn't on the team. You don't
just get to make twenty million dollars a year and
not make the playoffs forever. That's that's not the way
the world works, especially in this industry. So there's just
a lot of pressure. Talking about a lot of pressure.
(24:01):
Number four, Jordan Love, We've talked a lot about Aaron Rodgers,
who was just took the boys, all the packers back
to the Kentucky Derby where I saw horses were dropping
like flies that they had to kill like three horses
this week because you know, some major injuries. When you
get an injury, you know in football, you just go
to the knee doctor, right, you just go get your
shoulder worked on. And horse racing, he's just take that
(24:24):
horse to the bar, Bye bye horsey. You know. So
it look like Aaron Rodgers and Davante and the boys
are all back together having a good time and we're
gonna We've talked about a lot of Aaron Rodgers. What
about Jordan Love because this offseason it's all his. He
is the guy all the reps. I looked it up
because I was like, how many passes has he actually
(24:45):
thrown in his career? He has attempted eighty three passes.
I mean there have been games when some quarterbacks in
the NFL attempted like sixty plus passes, right, I mean,
how many passes Tom Brady have in that playoff game.
Wasn't it like sixty five pass attempts? Maybe it was,
maybe it was high fifties, but eighty three career passes.
(25:08):
Now he's got this extension, so he's got a little
breathing room. They got a young team, it's all him.
And I do think we underestimate. You never want to
be the guy that replaces the guy. Right. They always say,
you want to be the guy that replaces the guy
that replaced the guy. You don't want to be the
person that replaced Nick Saban. That is an impossible job.
(25:30):
You don't want to be the guy that replaces Bill Belichick.
Good freaking luck. I don't care if they won three
games this year. You got the number one pick. That
is not an easy guy to replace, you know. Ultimately,
Cam Newton, it was unique when he replaced Tom Brady, right,
Andrew Luck replaced Peyton Manning, and that was not easy shoes,
and he delivered right away ultimately, like Jordan Love is
(25:51):
replacing the best player in franchise history. And this is
a franchise that on their mount Rushmore is like Brett
far from Vince Lombardi, one of our most famous franchises
in all of professional sports. This is a team that has,
for being this small, tiny little market team, an enormous
fan base. Their games rate and rate heavily they and
(26:15):
a huge reason is because the last thirty years, these
two star quarterbacks they playing these the massive brand. You know,
I just think and they're gonna downplay it, and like
I've said, they're gonna rely on the running game, and
they have a scheme that's that's you know, created for that.
A lot of easy passes in theory are built into
it with the play action game, the boots to get
(26:38):
a guy, just basic easy layup completions, but a lot
of moving parts with this franchise depending on a lot
of young people. It'd be one thing if if Jordan
Love was taken over and they Lizard was still on
the team, DeVante Adams had never got traded and they
just had some more core people, you know, at the
skill positions, but you're you're talking about second year and
(27:00):
first year wide receivers, first year tight ends. They do
have a stable of veteran running backs and some accomplished
offensive lineman. But this is a very very young offense
and a coach who now has had a lot of success,
But it was all with Rogers. You know, it's the
first time him kind of in the deep end now
without his floaties. You know, Aaron Rodgers is one of
(27:22):
the great all time floaties of all time. Right one
back to back MVPs and Lafloor gets credit for that
you know, La Floor was taught by an around some
genius offensive play callers, some genius guy that created a scheme. Right,
So I'm not talking Coyle talking to his dad, but
I think the pressure on this franchise. There's also kind
(27:46):
of this yin and yang in a situation like this,
where you're kind of always looking over the fence, like
what's he doing over there? And we saw it immediately
with Tom and Bill Belichick. You compare the two against
each other fair not, it's really not because they're two
separate situations. If the Packers went eight to nine this
year and Jordan Love was solid and you could see
(28:06):
the future, it would be very, very successful. Anything less
than a wild card berth for the New York Jets
is a gigantic co letdown. Yeah, I mean, I don't
want to go as far to say but borderline disaster.
But they're going to be compared every single week. If
Jordan Love's good and Aaron Rodgers bad or vice versa,
(28:27):
it's going to be the talking point they are directly correlated,
that they are connected at the hip when we talk
about the two players, and not not that Jordan Love
has to play like Aaron Rodgers. I've said it before.
The chance is that the best case scenario for Jordan
Love I told you if I told Packer fans right now,
you know, he's like seventy five percent of what Aaron Rodgers,
(28:47):
they all would sell their soul for that. More than
likely he's like twenty percent and just not a good player.
That's what history would show us so fascinated to. Here's
the thing, and I've seen that when Trey Lance became
the starter. And it's different because but no, I mean
he read Shirt of the Year every single practice, every
single practice completion percentage, how many balls hit the ground,
(29:09):
how many balls were overthrown, how many good passes. It
is a daily covered story about practice passes. Aaron Rodgers
has not had that happen to him for a decade
and a half. No one cared about an individual pass
in practice. No one was tweeting out these last ten years.
You know, a third day of training camp, Aaron Rodgers
(29:30):
went seventeen of twenty like it didn't matter because we
all knew it was irrelevant. Same thing with Brady, Same
thing now with my homes Like some of his sweet
passes from a training camp practice get tweeted out, but
no one is taking inventory on every single pass. That's
what's gonna happen. I've seen it firsthand, and it's intense
when it goes the wrong way. When I worked with
(29:52):
the Eagles, we got rid of Dave Akers and brought
in a rookie kicker and it was a disaster immediately.
But every single day, Hey, when that guy went out there,
Alex Henry kicker from Nebraska, every kick he had was
charted and every reporter was. At the time, I don't
think Twitter was as big, but newspapers, the blogs. Forty
nine ers is drafted a kicker this year, Jake Moody.
(30:14):
Every single time that guy kicks in practice, it's going
to be a story, good or bad. It's no different
with Bryce and Anthony Richardson and CJ. Stroud, Like their
practices are treated fairly or not like a game by
the people watching and we all get to find out
the numbers at the end of practice. And I think
that's the way just Jordan Love's going to be treated.
(30:35):
Like when he has a training camp practice that's like
eight of twenty, it's like, oh, Jordan Love, have it?
Is he inaccurate? Now? It also goes the other way.
You know, Jordan Love was unreal today fourteen to sixteen.
Now he's judged in the games clearly, But you got
to get there first. And it starts in OTAs that
some of these practices are open to the media, the
(30:57):
mandatory OTAs, all those practices are open to the media. Now,
I mean the ones I've been going to sometimes Kyle, like,
you know, call of practice after thirty minutes and they
go to a swim party. So I'm not saying all
these but once you get a training camp and those
pads come on, that becomes serious football. And we're not
(31:18):
that far away. But I think when you factor in
the pressure on this guy, I would imagine the Packers
have a pretty serious OTA secsion. There's no just like
canceling random practices to get deep breasts because they got
to get this guy reps. They got to get this
guy ready for the season. Whether I believe it or
you believe it, the Packers are trying to go back
to the playoffs this year with this guy and look
(31:39):
like geniuses. You better believe the Goudakins and Matt Lafour
want to be talked about like fuck. I mean these guys.
What a genius move, because if this guy is good,
I don't mean he's got to be great. If he's
just good right at the end of the year, Like
was Jordan Love the eleventh best quarterback in the NFL.
They will immediately get long term extensions and we're all
(32:00):
have to anoint them like that would be an incredible
pivot and last, but not least a little bit of
a wild card here. There was a story last week
that Tom Brady is on the fence about quitting at Fox.
Obviously he hasn't even started yet, but you know, and
a lot of people in media circles have been like,
(32:23):
is Tom Brady really gonna call games? And I've always said, like,
I assume he was. I don't know why. I never
looked at it, like I never thought someone was throwing
a curveball at me. I thought Tom signed this because
he was like, yeah, I'll retire. Heag a deep breath,
and I'll call some games. It's easy. I'll fly in private,
do some zoom meetings. It's not like I'm in the
cities for three out of my seven days a week.
(32:45):
Watch a little film. Keep me in the loop. All
the coaches will talk to me. It won't be that hard.
I've always been hesitant that, like there's two Tom's. There's
corporate Tom, which is the majority of the time we hear,
and then there's Tom like he was on his documentary
on the ESPN Plus about the Patriot Dynasty where he
was swearing, where he was just kind of being the
(33:06):
guy at the locker room, the guy that is in
the locker room with his teammates who just clearly feels
like it just resonates with people. And I was like,
I don't know, for a lock to get the cool Tom,
we might get the corporate Tom. And so I always questioned, like,
is he he's not to me a can't miss Like
he's just not to me a can't miss broadcaster. If
you gave him MIC would be Philip Rivers. I think
(33:28):
Philip Rivers would be elite. He'd be awesome, like Tony
Romeo has his moments and Tony Romel has his momentaries,
you know, kind of cheesy. I think Philip Rivers would
be sweet to me Tom. He's definitely not Drew Brees
like to me, Drew's like, I don't really no chance.
I bet against that one. Immediately. Tom to me, I'd
give like a fifty fifty chance their chance. He's just
awesome because he's just good at everything, So he would,
(33:49):
you know, really try, He'd do whatever he wanted. He's
cool with taking criticism right, He's been coached his whole
life hard. But when that rumor came out, people are like, well,
what about always sure Tom's not playing in twenty twenty three? Okay,
because I'm not. He's single now. I think I saw
a story the other day he's done Dayton Models, Tom
(34:10):
Brady no more Dayton Models. Yeah, Tom firs first class,
good looking problems. But I feel like it is not
going to go quietly, and all it would take is
someone to get hurt in OTA's at a big time team,
and there's one team in Miami Dolphins that I don't
think you could ever discount. And maybe this is something
(34:31):
that flies a little under the radar in the spring, because,
for example, the Dolphins two was not getting concussion in spring?
What about the fall? What about in training camp? You
know what if one guy trips on him and he
hits his head and all of a sudden he's a
little wobbly. It feels like until it's over, like the
season has started and Tom Brady is not on the team.
(34:52):
I don't know if we can discount it. I don't
know if we can. And now there are rumors that
he's having second thoughts about doing this, and I don't
blame him now. I understand it's a lot of money.
They gave him, like three hundred and fifty million, but
Tom Brady's not doing this for the money. Again, three
hundred fifty million dollars, I don't care how rich you are,
is a lot of money to anyone not named like
the Waltons or you know, Bezos or Elon, but top
(35:16):
three hundred fifty million is a lot of money to Tom.
But he does not need the money. Like ultimately, that
money is not gonna change anything he does. He's been
flying private for twenty years. He can buy any home
he ever wants to for a long time. Right, Maybe
he's got some divorce payments, you know, maybe it's a
little tricky. But she's got a lot of coin too, though,
depending on where you get divorces, as I've been told
by divorces that it can get complicated fast and it
(35:39):
gets ugly, especially the more money you have, even if
they're both earners. But I don't wonder that there's just
gonna be I don't think this thing's gonna go quietly.
It never does. It never does, and we always get injuries.
We always get injuries. Is there a chance that Tom
never really wanted to retire? You know, he kind of
did it to save his marriage, and then he realized,
(36:02):
maybe my marriage isn't wor saving. Maybe I just want
to play and we're getting divorce no matter what. So audios, Jaselle,
you go with the people keep saying middle coffee. You
mix up jiu jitsu and martial arts and taekwondo. It's like,
I don't know all the different factions here, but I
do know that Jazell's you know, I've been running around
(36:22):
with her, you know, taekwondo instructor. Not that Tom. Tom
doesn't even care. He say glad, have a good time, baby,
see you later, godspeed. I'll drop off the kids next Friday.
I just don't know if we've seen the last of Tom. Okay,
that should do it. So have a good Monday. Thank
you to Holst on the audio, James on the video.
(36:44):
My people keep this thing rocking and rolling. Thanks to everyone,
for listening. We will talk soon, well you won't. I'll
talk to you and hopefully you'll listen. Audios the volume
Host
John Middlekauff
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