3 & Out - Ravens release Tucker, DC gets the NFL Draft, Michigan suspends Moore - 3 and Out with John Middlekauff

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. What is going on everybody? How are we doing?
John Middlecop, that'd be me three and out podcasts, that'd
be this little podcast. Hopefully everyone is doing well. Had

(00:23):
a good weekend. We didn't record. This is our first
podcast of the week, which feels a little weird. Usually
we do something for Monday morning. But you know what,
I thought, my family hanging out with my wife and
my dog and took a nap. I was like, you
know what, I'm just gonna relax on Sunday. So I
felt like getting back on the horse today though, and
right before I press record, Justin Tucker, the future Hall

(00:47):
of Fame kicker, one of the best kickers of all time,
has been cut by the Ravens, so we will dive
into that. Obviously, there's a lot going on there. Washington,
d C will host the Draft in a couple of years.
Some information about staff contract and how much money he
will be making came out, so relative to quarterbacks, he
he definitely took a discount, but have some thoughts on

(01:08):
why that was probably a pretty easy decision for the man.
Michigan is suspended their coach Sharon Moore for weeks three
and four next year and then a couple other draft thoughts.
We will also do a little mailbag at John Middlecoffe
is the Instagram firing those dms get your questions answered
on the show, so we will do that today as
well as if you listen on Collins Feed, make sure

(01:29):
you subscribe to three and Out because some of our
podcasts don't go on the feed. You never want to
miss anything, so he subscribe. We also got a YouTube
channel so all this stuff gets multipurpose for there. So
we got a lot of stuff on there, and the
plan is, especially as football kind of dies in the
summer hits, to put some other stuff on there as well,
so get back. We got a we had a little

(01:50):
golf series that I've been putting off, but it's time
to get back on the horse and film playing some
golf against some people. So I had some ideas. We'll
put that on the back burner and now it's time
to get down to business. But before we dive into
some football, I do want to talk about my friends,
my partners in the official ticketing app of this podcast.

(02:12):
Someone just forwarded me a picture of them using the
promo code John to buy some Washington Capitals tickets. I
think the game is actually on Monday night, which I'm
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account and redeem the quote John, that's Jawagen for twenty
dollars off. Down the game Time app today, last minute tickets,
lowest prices guaranteed. I read this quote the other day
about Jimmy Johnson when he was the coach of the Cowboys,

(03:20):
and he gave an example where he caught I think,
like a practice squad guy sleeping in a meeting, and
he cut the guy the next day. And I don't
know if this was like a story he told after
the fact, or maybe he's gave this quote in a
press conference over the course of the week after he

(03:40):
cut the practice squad player, and they asked him what
would he have done if Troy Aikman had been sleeping
in the meeting, And he said, well, I would have
woke him up and said, Troy, we're meeting. And I
think that speaks you know, in football is not that
much different than life. Certain people, especially in certain industries

(04:01):
and certain businesses, are just going to be treated differently.
And I think when you look at football specifically, there
are a couple positions where the margin for error for
you either being a distraction, a problem, or simply not
good enough. The leash on your career or your status

(04:23):
with that team is basically nil. Zero does not exist.
There is no leash. You get a much longer leash
when you are a great wide receiver, a great offensive tackle,
a great pass rusher, obviously a great quarterback. Look at
Deshaun Watson all the shit that was going on around
him when he was demanding a trade and the teams
that were interested, he convinced one owner, Now you could

(04:45):
argue the craziest owner in the sport, but to give
him two hundred and thirty million dollars simply because everyone
at the time thought he was a high end Pro
Bowl quarterback. Clearly was not the case. But even Russell Wilson,
who had never have been in trouble like Deshaun Watson,
was like kind of weird, you know, team not really
into him. Pete Carroll, these guys are kind of over him,

(05:06):
and the Denver Broncos like, what do you want multiple
ones a brand new contract? Russell, you're our guy because
he's important, and he's much more important than most guys
on the team. I would say the least important guys
on a team in terms of the hierarchy from a
coaching staff and definitely in front office are the specialists.

(05:27):
Not that you don't need them to win. Having a
good kicker and having a good punter is important. But
justin Tucker just learned a valuable lesson. He is gonna
go down, at least in my life as probably the
best kicker of the Internet era. I use that a
lot because that's kind of my high school to current
right basically two thousand till present, And I would say,

(05:49):
if you needed a kicker in his prime on your team,
you would choose him. He was a weapon. I mean,
game winning kicks from like sixty five plus yards. Obviously,
he was so accurate, he was in credible, and then
over the course of the last twelve months, obviously most
recently you will think of his Deshaun Watson situation. But
the reason he was cut today isn't just that simple.

(06:11):
It's because this year he had the worst year of
his career, lowest percentage of makes of his career. And
it felt like even before I went to his just
wiki page to see the percent when you were sitting
there on the couch on Sunday having the four box
up on YouTube and the Ravens, he was missing a
lot of big kicks. Honestly, it felt like he missed
a lot more than the stats he said. So when

(06:35):
I saw the headline today that the Ravens had cut
Justin Tucker, it wasn't because they have any idea whether
this is true or not, And honestly, maybe they do.
At this point, it's because he's simply not good enough
to worry about his problems, whether he's in the wrong
or whether he's in the right. We don't have time
to figure that out. And your position. They just draft

(06:57):
a kick her in the sixth round. They got no
fucking kid if this from Arizona that they just drafted
is gonna be any good. We see constantly guys. The
forty nine er drafted guy in the third round. He
could not be trusted. He might be a bust. And
Jim Harbaugh once considered him at the University of Michigan.
I think it was like death taxes and Moody. He

(07:19):
was that automatic. The forty nine ers get him, can't
make a kick to save his life, so no one
has any clue. Justin Tucker famously pretty sure undrafted free
agent and used often as an example of why listen,
kicking's pretty random. This is not like quarterbacks or pass rushers.
You can find these guys on the street after the draft.
But today was about like it's just too loud, and

(07:41):
whether you're a kicker, whether you're a punter, whether you're
a long snapper. And I would also put the backup
quarterback in this situation, your leash does not exist. The
conversation around you is zero the moment it gets loud
and noisy. See you, we got enough other issues and
enough other problems, and winning in this league is hard enough.

(08:03):
If we're the Ravens, we got one goal and that's
to win the AFC. Why can't we beat the Chiefs
and beat the Bills? Like that's all worried about. We
don't have time to figure out you're off the field
issues as a thirty five year old kicker. And that's
why they cut them today, not because I mean indirectly
because of this situation that he's dealing with from like

(08:24):
a decade ago, but it's like, we don't got time
to deal with that bullshit. Welcome to life. You know.
Some franchise. I was watching the Clippers get absolutely shlocked
on Saturday Night by the Denver Nuggets, who just beat
the living crap out of them in the second half.
I mean, it was that's as bad of a game

(08:47):
seven as you were going to see. And they were
a franchise that, let's face it, has kind of been
a joke most of my life. And while they've had
good teams over the last ten plus years, they have
never lived up to the hype, and they've been one
of those franchises that like every time the playoffs will
come around, they've become a sexy pick, Like this is
the year every person I heard going into this playoffs

(09:10):
picked the Clippers against the Denver Nuggets. It's like, not
only can a Clipper is gonna beat the Denver Nuggets.
They could make a run, they could win the NBA Championship.
Then the first round ends and they get eliminated, and
it's like something about that franchise. Hell they have I think,
based on his bank account, the richest owner in the

(09:31):
NBA and one of the richest owners in all of
professional sports. Honestly, he might be the richest. He just
built somehow post the VID a new arena in Los Angeles.
I mean, that is a success story in itself. That's
fucking incredible to get something built in the last couple
of years in California of that size and in that area.

(09:53):
Incredible accomplishment, and by all accounts, the arena's badass, and
yet the Clippers are still the Clippers. Every once in
a while, a franchise can go like something about the Lions.
I mean, the Lions were even a bigger joke than
the Clippers, and it does feel like they have course
corrected as hard in a short period of time as
anything I've ever seen. There is no arguing like, I

(10:15):
don't remember in I mean it was I would have
been really really young in the mid to late eighties
and even the early nineties the Redskins being really good.
I don't remember any of that in my life. The
Washington the football team in Washington has been really bad.
They've had a year here and a year there, but
for the most part, they've been a joke. And it
feels like, in a short period of time, overnight it

(10:39):
feels like pretty stable in a pretty normal organization and
honestly a major problem if you're in that division, especially
if you're not the Eagles, like the Cowboys and the Giants,
who for a long period of time took advantage of
this crappy franchise, and now it's like, well, they got
a good coach, they got a good GM, they clearly
got a young budding quarterback, and it just feels like

(11:00):
their franchise has just stabilized. And listen, I'm not saying
that the Clippers didn't stabilize once they got rid of
Donald Sterling, but like their inability to win in any
game is still pretty evident. That matters. Now. Part of
that is like, listen, you're in business with James Harden.
That seems like a U problem. You're one of Adam

(11:22):
Peters and Dan Quinn. They go to the NFC Championship game.
Obviously the NFC Championship game wasn't very close, but no
one thought that that's crazy, given that the talent discrepancy
in that game was a mile wide. And now all
signs point to them getting a new stadium. I think
it was announced they are getting a new one. I
don't know logistically that area really at all. I've been

(11:44):
there twice in my life, once for a game and
once for Fourth of July actually with the college buddy
of mine, Steve. It was actually a fun time. Got
pretty annihilated. That would have been like twenty ten. Probably
ten and twenty eleven were the two times I've ever
been there. Really cool, you know, powerful place, given the history,
and I went to the stadium and it's an absolute dump.

(12:06):
So that's a huge accomplishment getting out of there, but
clearly getting the draft as well. Which I think we've
talked about on the mail bag, is a clear sign
that the Draft is going to these places that are
not going to be in the super Bowl rotation, like
Washington to Sea is not going to be a place
where the super Bowl goes, just like Detroit, just like
Green Bay. Cold weather cities are just not gonna host it,

(12:26):
which I don't really have a big issue with. I mean,
it's a corporate event and less about just hitting every
single city. So giving these cold weather cities the Draft,
which is in a much more desirable time, even though
it still could be cold, as you saw on you
know in Green Bay was raining on Friday. But for
the most part, it's the weather has really started to

(12:47):
change for the better. And it's just crazy how some
franchises can just seem cursed forever. Honestly, the Dolphins feel
like that a little bit. It's like some is just
off about that franchise. The Jags have a little bit
of that vibe in Washington. Within one year of a sale,
getting rid of Dan Snyder, hiring these guys feel like

(13:08):
a brand new team. Matt Stafford, It's funny, like I
totally understand internally in an organization feeling gratitude and appreciation
for a player taking a little pay cut, whether that's
I remember like a decade ago, maybe a little little
less than that. Kevin Durant technically took a little bit

(13:31):
less and enabled them to maneuver and make some extra money.
But it was the difference between like thirty nine million
and thirty six million, and it really wasn't substantial. He
wouldn't even notice it on his paycheck, but he got
a lot of credit for it. And I get internally
in the organization like giving that guy his flowers and
giving him a lot of credit. I never quite understand

(13:53):
people on the outside, especially the media, like what a
great thing to do. It's like, guys, what the fuck
are we talking about. This is not going to change
his life one iota, and it's actually going to enable
him to win more, which is gonna benefit him. And
now looking back, that was the only time he was
ever gonna win. Because he leaves them, he's got no
fucking chance. And so I totally get Sean McVeigh, who

(14:13):
I've seen on some interviews say, listen, we feel a
lot of appreciation for Matt Stafford not only choosing to
stay here but taking less money than he could have
got other places. And I get that from his position,
But when I see today that his number comes out
against two years basically eighty plus million dollars, and they
guarantee him forty million dollars and this year he will
make forty four million dollars, And it was clear he

(14:36):
could have gone to the Giants or the Raiders and
they would have given him a lot more money than that. Now,
by a lot, is that one hundred and twenty million dollars?
Is that six two years, sixty million dollars a year.
It's a number that's bigger than that. But like at
a certain point, the whole point of life in working
is the most valuable thing we all have is time, right,

(14:58):
and time is not something that's unlimited. Now we never
know when that time is going to end. But the
older you get, you realize to really value time with
your family, time with your friends, time that you get
off to do things that you want to do. The ability,
depending on how well your career is going to utilize
that time for what you want to do and not

(15:20):
someone else wants you to do. And I see Matt Stafford,
and I looked just now that he has made in
his career three hundred and sixty four million dollars, three
hundred and sixty four million dollars. So if I was
making a decision, especially at his point time in his career,
where he is simply at this point in time, like

(15:41):
he's chasing tried to get in the Hall of Fame.
He's chasing, try to like really have a legendary career.
This this second five, six, seven years, however long goes
in la and be kind of leave a different taste
in everyone's mouth than the first. I would say seventy
five percent of it in Detroit, which wasn't all his fault.
He was part of an awful organization, but he was

(16:02):
paid a premium and he became and he will go
down as one of the highest paid players in the
history of the game. So when I see a guy
making a decision based on well, I'm with Sean McVay,
one of the great coaches in the NFL. I'm with
the Rams, one of the best teams in the NFL.
I'm with this organization which is clearly really well run.

(16:23):
My GM knows what he's doing, my owner has a
lot of money. I'm in an area that clearly my
family likes living in Like, I don't give you extra
credit for just making a smart decision. Like I hope
at thirty seven, thirty eight years old, you can see this.
So I would imagine there are gonna be articles like
what a great team player. It's like, yeah, if you
want to go to the Giants to get your as

(16:44):
kicked like I have. I believe in John Spytek. Pete
Carroll is one of the better coaches of my life.
I think it is a huge uphill battle over these
next couple of years, which would have been the last
couple of Matt Stafford still playing at a high level
in that division. I mean, it's just and that conference,
it's really fucking hard. So, like Matt Stafford made a

(17:07):
move that people can make when they have unlimited amounts
of money in their bank account, they can make decisions
not based on money. I will never fault an individual
who hasn't made an unlimited amount of money. Well, whether
you're making sixty grand somewhere and someone offers you one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars, you're like, I don't even
want to take this job, but I can't turn down

(17:28):
that type pay race. It's like, yeah, no shit, take
the job. In a couple of years, if you hate it,
you will have banked so much more money than you had.
Maybe then you can make a different decision. Money's all relative,
but when you make three hundred and sixty four million dollars, like,
I'm sorry, money should not be the driving decision in
your football situation. You know, no one's asking every quarterback

(17:50):
to be Tom Brady and make way less than market value.
But you get to a certain point, like Aaron Rodgers,
he believed in what the Jets were selling. Now it
turns out like or the Jets. Bro, you know, you
got Robert Sala and Olbrik's kid doing who knows what.
But he's like, listen, I've made hundreds of millions of dollars.
It is in my best interest at this point in time.

(18:13):
I'll take a little bit less. Remember he took a
huge discount. He basically gave money back so they could
buy other players and give themselves the best chance. Now
it didn't work out, but like, it's not that crazy
of a move. People in business do it all the time. Hey,
I'll take a little bit less. How I talk to
my wife about that all the time we're both involved

(18:34):
in situations like not really getting paid on this. But
from a big picture standpoint, does this make some sense?
Does this actually benefit you? And like, you can't balance
everything on dollars and cents, especially when you've made that
much money. So listen, Matt Stafford made the right decision.
He clearly took a little haircut given what he could
have made at other places. But when it comes to football,

(18:56):
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Speaker 1 (20:58):
I kind of laugh that only college football, like in
the NFL, if a coach is gonna get suspended or
definitely a player is gonna get suspended, ninety nine percent
of the time, is gonna come from the league, Like
you're gonna have to throw the hammer at us, because
like I'm not just gonna suspend a place. He's gonna
have to do something egregious. And that's usually what happens, right.
Goodell suspends people constantly. I mean, it's one of the

(21:22):
defining attributes of I would say his tenure as commissioner.
And I saw today that Remember two years ago, Jim
Hartball was suspended multiple times, spend early in the season,
spend late in the season, and I think one of
those suspensions was from the University of Michigan, well now
the University of Michigan because of Connor stallions. While they're

(21:44):
also dealing with this other situation where this dude was
like cracking into people's phones and getting information based on
whether they should recruit him or whatever. But that's a
whole nother story. This is simply on Connor Stallion's stealing signs,
even though Sharon Moore wasn't in charge. Someone's got to
pay for it, and they try to get ahead of
it based on the NC DOUBLEA, who literally no one

(22:05):
thinks has any power anymore. I don't know why anyone
is worried about what the NC double A is doing.
They've literally just tucked their tail between their legs and
said we're out of it all. Yet somehow they're kind
of still involved in. Some of these teams are a
little leery. It's like they're living in the past. It's
like they're living in like two thousand and six. Like, guys,
it's twenty twenty five. They could give you a suspension.
You could say, kiss my ass and then boat cheeks

(22:30):
because I'm not listening to a word you're saying. But
clearly Michigan. Maybe it's the high academic standards, maybe it's
that old school mentality, but they steer some fear, because
if there wasn't any fear, they would not do this.
But I did laugh that this year, and I didn't
even know this. This is actually a pretty good game
on paper. Because a lot of people think that Oklahoma

(22:51):
is probably one of, if not the most improved teams
of this offseason. They have this sweet quarterback from Washington State,
his offensive coordinator. They've had a good transfer, they got
some good young players, they got a lot of wide
receivers coming back. Obviously Michigan as well. Quarterback situation was
a joke. They get Larry Ellison and Portnoy and all
these guys to give Underwood like fifteen million dollars. You know,

(23:12):
the aspirations of these two programs are gonna be to
compete for a playoff spot. And Sharon Moore played at
Oklahoma for Bob Stoops. Well, they play each other week two,
so they're like, we're gonna suspend you for two games,
but we're not gonna take away your opportunity to coach
against your alma mater, which I would imagine is a
pretty incredible experience. If you're Shillmore, We're gonna suspend you

(23:35):
weeks three and four against some random I think it's
New Mexico and Nebraska. Cool? Cool? What what are we listen?
I think this whole thing is stupid. I think even
having to suspend him to try to pretend like to
the NCAA, they still matter and we still take it seriously.
Is all such like dumb stuff happened for optics, But

(24:02):
this is pretty laughable if you are going to do
something to just randomly suspend them. Week three and four
is one of the most insane, most college athletic things
you will ever see in your entire life. So just
just made me laugh. A couple other quick things. I've
seen a couple GMS talk about this. I saw a
spy tech talk about this on an offensive lineman that

(24:25):
they drafted, I think from Texas Tech, Caleb Rogers, and
I saw Vrabel in the Patriots. I don't know if
it was Vrabel specifically. It could have been Elliott wolferd
could have just been a article written about the Patriots.
One thing that they loved about Kyle Williams, the wide
receiver from Wazoo that they drafted, were that those guys

(24:46):
have the opportunity just like all these kids listen. I
buy and large. I think not playing in a Bowl game.
If you're a top I could pull like an arbitrary
number top one hundred pick, but like feel pretty confident
that you're going to be a first or definitely even
a second day pick, like a second or third rounder.
I got no issue if it's not a playoff game.

(25:07):
These bowl games are pretty meaningless. You get some of
these other teams playing some young guys trying to really
impress coaches. It is not worth the injury risk of
having someone snap your leg or just a natural football injury.
All of a sudden, you go from being, you know,
the fortieth pick in the draft to now being a
sixth rounder because you got a torn labor. So I
am completely from a business standpoint behind any kid that goes,

(25:32):
you know what, the Samsung Rainbow sandal bull, I'm out.
I'm not playing no issue. But I also understand like
some of these kids that are like listen, it was
my last time playing in college. My teammates that are
still playing it means a lot to me. I just
liked playing the game of football, novel concept, given that

(25:55):
I'm pretty good at it, and I want to play
in this game, and it clearly means something to some
of these gms and coaches when guys do that. Now,
I've talked about this. Once you meet a player, right, like,
I've seen enough clips on Will Campbell. I can't imagine
once you start spending time around him, he's pretty easy

(26:16):
to like, pretty easy to go. That's the type guy
we want in our building. I've seen some clips of
Riley Leonard, the quarterback that the Colts drafted. You get
around certain people, whether they are a top ten talent
or whether they are a fifth, sixth, seventh round talent,
you leave that room going, I want that guy in
my building. I want that guy on my team. And

(26:38):
I think sometimes when and I was always taught before
you do the character right up given well, that means basically,
before you go around and get the information on the
kid right so you get to the pro liaison, you
talk to his coordinator, talk to those guys, and they
give you the information good or bad that can jade
the way you view a guy, because if you get

(27:00):
glowing information, you're gonna root for that guy when you
watch him play on tape vice versa. You get negative
information that he's an awful person, or even just stuff
like yeah, not the hardest worker. That can put you
down the wrong direction. And you got to be very
very careful doing that. And I just wonder, like I
get it, and I would like that who wouldn't if

(27:22):
I ran a team. It's like football means everything. This
guy that's I want guys on my team, where football
means everything too. Typically, the best teams have the most
talented players that really really care about football. I mean,
the Patriots built a twenty year dynasty off that. The
Chiefs have maintained a really high level post Tyreek Hill
the last couple of years with just kind of grinders.

(27:44):
They don't have the sexiest team, but they got some
bad you know what dudes, because football is a really
big deal in that building, and you're not allowed to
mispractice there. It's why everyone loves Georgia at What I've
been told by a couple of scouting buddies is like,
you don't really miss practice at Georgia because if you do,
guess what happens. The five star junior sophomore freshman takes

(28:08):
your spot. And if you miss a couple of practices,
all of a sudden you miss a game. You might
never get that spot back because that next guy coming
up is Jalen Carter is Brock Bowers is Mike kel
Williams is Jalen Carter Is. I said his name twice,
but you get my point, Malachi Starks, insert any stud

(28:28):
player that's been drafted really high. Those are the backups. Still,
even in a day and age where it's not quite
as deep as it once was because of nil and
the transfer portal, they're two deep still better in every
two deep. Same thing at Ohio State. You know, Caleb
Downs like has to take practice really seriously even though
he's the best player on the team, because there's a
decent chance, if not last year, this year, they will

(28:50):
recruit another Caleb Downs. That's what they do, and that
maintains the high level of play. So I get like,
in that mindset, it's going to be fascinating to watch
and just kind of keep track if that is something
that actually impacts these guys having long careers, because listen,
at the highest level, like you either got the goods

(29:10):
or you don't. And so if they have the talent
and they have that mindset, then yeah, I would bet
on these kids. One thing I've found pretty interesting I
watched I'm a sucker for these youtubes. The Colts have
been doing this for years. The Eagles put out a
really good one. I'm sure a lot of these teams
do it where they basically give like a edited fifteen

(29:31):
twenty twenty five YouTube version of the draft room. And
one thing's clear, like when you watch the Colts one,
they love Tyler Warren. If you told me they were
drafting fifth instead of fourteenth, they might have drafted Tyler
Warren there After the forty nine ers the first round,
Kyle Shanahan said that when I woke up on Thursday morning,

(29:55):
Mikel Williams was the guy I won. So before you
even watch the draft play out, you would targeted, we
want Tyler Warren, we want Mikel Williams. Howie Roseman in
this clip on YouTube had been trying desperately for like
fifteen picks, and obviously he's the last guy drafting in
the first round to trade up by all accounts to

(30:15):
get Jahad Campbell the entire time, who most considered one
of the top seven, eight ten best players in this draft.
Just some medical question marks about multiple body parts, but
the Eagles and doctor de Luca Good Doctor signed off,
so he's gonna be okay. I started thinking because I

(30:37):
watched his clip on Instagram from Eric da Costa. I
think this is an old clip, but he basically said
that he was telling a story back in like two
thousand and two that they had fallen in love with
trying to think who the player was. I had it
up and I didn't write down Napoleon Harris. Napoleon Harris

(30:59):
was a a linebacker from Northwestern, which sounds kind of crazy,
but back in the late nineties early two thousand Northwestern
was a really good football program. Obviously, they've had years
over Pat Fitzgerald over the last twenty years, but they
were producing some pretty high end NFL talent. And he's like,
we were just obsessed with him. We really really wanted
to draft him, and by all accounts, that looked like

(31:22):
he was gonna fall right into our laps in that
they were drafting pick twenty four and then it picked
twenty three. Al Davis drafts Napoleon Harris and he's like,
you could have heard a pin drop in our room.
We were devastated, and we ended up drafting kind of
a smaller, honestly lower rated guy in our room, safety

(31:46):
from Miami named Ed Reid. And his point to this
story was, no one really knows. If we knew, we
never would have been devastated. Hell Ederid would have gone
like in the top five of that draft, he never
would have been there. So this entire game of getting
locked in on a player I think can be pretty risky.

(32:09):
And you know, ultimately you take who you feel as
the best player. And I totally understand if you're drafting one,
two or three, knowing when the draft starts, this is
exactly who we want. But you hear a lot of
these gms say, hey, we just stack our board and
whoever falls to us falls to us. And I listen,

(32:29):
Howie Roseman at this point in time, it's on a
legendary run of a couple of years. If you want
to take a star linebacker from Alabama and it turns
out he had denied everywhere. He basically had to give
up nothing to go from thirty two to thirty one.
But I do wonder if some of these teams when
the draft starts, like the Indianapolis Colts, like we gotta
have Tyler Warren if he falls to us one hundred
to pick, if that's the right mindset to take. You know,

(32:51):
and listen, it might work and it might not. But
listen to that Eric to Costas story. It just really crystallizes.
And I love the draft as much as anybody. I
watch college football from sun up till well after sundown
on Saturdays for months on end during the fall. I
love college football. The NFL essentially bought my house. But

(33:15):
I value college football very very closely, not quite to
the NFL because I know it's importance to what I do,
but I love everything about it. We have a long
history of knowing exactly what Eric Tacosta is saying. No
one has any fucking clue, and it's so easy to
play Monday morning quarterback a couple of years after like,

(33:36):
oh no, Trey Lance, Zach Wilson, they stink, That's not
what everyone was saying. I respect Chris Sims. I think
he's actually pretty good when it comes to talking about quarterbacks.
He was like, this guy's Aaron Rodgers. Look at that armstrng.
It's like, yeah, he's playing the Sisters of the Poor.
You know, we look at their schedule, but you just

(33:56):
watch them, especially in these pro day settings. And the
thing about the which is always really scary, is and
listen Tyler Warren and Mike Hail Williams and Johad Campbell.
I mean, these guys played for the best of the best,
and all three of them might become Pro bowlers, and
they might not even be great examples of what I'm
even saying, because ultimately, none of these teams really maneuvered

(34:17):
forty nine er Stade the Colt State. I'm sure a
lot of these other teams look at. I think the
best example of this would be Steve Jobs in Jacksonville
James Gladstone, who traded up and traded a future one
for a guy that doesn't have a defined position, and
that sounds like a negative. Obviously it's because he's really
good at two positions. But that's a complicated situation in

(34:39):
the NFL, and I think no matter how much you
love a guy, there just is no guarantee. And I
think sometimes getting aggressive on draft night, especially when you're
trading future first round picks, has proven to be the
wrong decision.

Speaker 3 (34:55):
Blending Vice's signature dynamic storytelling with the high octane world
of sports, Vice Sports brings an exciting and diverse range
of programming that goes beyond the game, catch action pack,
live events, and exclusive sports documentaries and profiles only on
Vice TV.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
Okay, that time again, Time for the mailback at John
middlecoff At John Middlecoff is the Instagram, fire in those
dms and get your questions answered on the show. Let's
do it, Okay, start with Nick, which player positions do
you think are the easiest to scout for NFL teams?
I know none are easy, but are there certain positions
that seem to have less misses than others? I bet

(35:35):
if you did a big study, I mean they there
might be a couple positions that have, like over the
course of twenty years, a higher hit rate. I think
I remember seeing during the Combine Chris Simms, who was
doing the live show with Florio at the Combine. Every
GM they had on, he'd ask the toughest positions to scout,

(35:56):
and I think universally they all answered defensive back, Nation
of safety, and corner, and most landed on safety and
I agreed. I always thought that was a really hard
position too. You know, some guys are pretty obvious, they're
really good players. But for the most part, I mean,
once you get past like the top guy, it's I mean,
it's it's can be very very difficult. And you know,

(36:18):
not just in the eye of the beholder, but so
many teams look for different things, and you know, now
the game has become such a space game. I always
thought guard in an interior offensive lineman was relatively easy
in the sense of like you could see that translating,
especially if they're playing at a big school. They have
the physical requirements, especially now so many teams running the

(36:40):
zone scheme. If you're good enough athlete, obviously, if I
get to know you, you know, the person matters a lot,
like you kind of got to be a tough guy.
You're not gonna find many guards and centers who aren't
just kind of badasses, you know. Now, there's a big
difference between being like an All pro and like a
you know, a pro Bowl level guy just a solid starter.

(37:01):
But I think most of them, from an intangible standpoint,
toughness is pretty highly regarded for that individual. I always
found like running back relatively easy position to be like, yeah,
this guy can play right, this guy's gonna be able
to play in the NFL running back, I think receiver

(37:21):
because there's so many of them. It's by far the
most amount of guys at any position. I think when
you have such scheme specific stuff, you know, teams that
run like a three to four and need a five
technique or a big nose tackle like that there are
only so many guys in a draft that fit some

(37:41):
of your measurable criterias, so you kind of know exactly
what you're looking for in kind of let's say you
have a group of six or seven guys that are draftable.
There can be a big gap between the top two.
But when you're just looking generically, like we need a
wide receiver, Like there's a million different flavors, so it's
like which one do you like the most? And you
know in a draft you got everything from like vanilla

(38:03):
to Rocky Road to mint chocolate chip. You know, I
mean you got speed guys, you got little guys, you
got guys that can play slot, you got only outside guys.
You got contest to catch you guys. You've got guys
that can break tackles. You've got guys that aren't that
smart but physical freaks. You got physical freaks but average hands,
which you know, can be hard to try to kind
of narrow it down, but I think it helps a

(38:23):
lot when teams like the longer you've been somewhere, right,
like if you went to the Rams facility or the
Niners facility, like they got pretty specific things because the
coach and GM have been there for seven eight nine years.
Right when you have turnover, you kind of freelance sometimes,
you know, like Andy Reid's got a pretty good idea

(38:44):
of like things. He likes to look for the Harbob Brothers.
But sometimes you get like, you know, a new coach
you're kind of based like Ben Johnson, who's the apple
of everyone's eye, rightfully so, but he's kind of basing
it on his own philosophies that he's probably had for
a decade and then what really got him hired, right
Like it's I don't think it's random that they just

(39:06):
took the tight end to pick ten. Well, he just
had a ton of successful toport it. If he had
been playing somewhere else and it was a different position,
maybe he would think differently. So we're all kind of
a product of our environment when we get a new opportunity,
and I think over the course of a couple of years,
he might change some of his you know, big picture
of philosophical beliefs. So like you said, I think it's

(39:28):
really getting in a good idea about you know, a
wide receiver. They're gonna be all sorts of personalities. Right
when you meet guards and centers. Like most defensive tackles,
they're all gonna be within the same realm of like
wiring of the good players. The Bills signed Joey Bosa

(39:51):
in free agency and dedicated six of their nine draft
picks to defense, despite lots of question marks about the
underwhelming offensive, underwhelming wide receiver room. Do you think the
Bills are trying to replicate the twenty three and twenty
four Chiefs. Well, they did draft Kean Coleman last year
really high. They've invested two years ago into a tight
So their last two first round picks, I guess was

(40:13):
Coleman technically a second round pick? I forget because I
remember them trading back with the Chiefs and then they
trade back again. Maybe Coleman was the second to last
pick in the first round. No, I'm kind of confused.
But they definitely drafted Kinkaid two years ago in the
first round, so they've invested high picks. They still have
James Cook, they had the highest paid quarterback in the NFL.

(40:33):
I mean, they've invested a lot into their offense and defensively, Like,
let's face it, I know they beat the Ravens, but
watching that game, it was like I don't know how
they're gonna pull this off, and the only reason they
did because Bart Andrews dropped some passes like that. That
defense felt a little overwhelmed and I felt small. If
I understand Derek Henry's enormous, but he made them feel

(40:54):
like little people. So I think investing in that side
of the ball I got no issue with. I ever
have a problem with investing in defensive pieces. Part of
also paying for a quarterback is like you know, Josh,
like Mahomes and like Brady Forever's like elevate and he can.
It took me a while to articulate my point, but

(41:16):
I ran across a random YouTube video and the dude
hit on it a good point. I think we have
reached a point where we have our over valued head
coaches that call plays. The hotshot coordinators always pop up
every year, and look at them now, it's all failing.
Mike McDaniel Canalis and I'm willing to bet Ben Johnson

(41:36):
Liam Cohen fail as we saw Adam Gase. It just
seems like we forget how this usually goes. The only
ones who are good are McVay and Shanahan, and I
think we are sleeping on the CEO headboard archetype. Some
of the biggest winners Belichick, who had Josh handling the offense,
Hardbaugh has been balling in Washington, and Tomlin has never

(41:57):
had a losing season, and my beloved Birds set the
culture and we won the Super Bowl. I know you
love the mob shows, so Silvio Dante said in The
Sopranos once some people are better at being the number two.
Look at Kingsbury and Fangio. Once hot shot coordinators got
the head coaching jobs and it failed, and they got

(42:17):
to the one side of the ball that they both
ended up representing the NFC in the title game. Part
of to get noticed typically as a head coach right
to get the opportunity. For most part, if we just
go around the league, it's to be really good as
a coordinator. Doesn't always mean that. But Belichick became a
head coach in Cleveland and then got another shot in

(42:40):
New England because he was known as the greatest defensive
coordinator of all time. Now you can be Andy Reid,
who had never been an NFL coordinator in the Eagles
doot a little outside the box. But when you just
look at most of the especially coaches under fifty had
been a coordinator, right, Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay, Mike McDonald,
Jonathan gannon if I just started going across the country. Now,

(43:01):
some of these guys didn't necessarily call play. Some of
them did. But I do agree that just because you
are a great play caller does not mean you're gonna
be a great head coach.

Speaker 3 (43:13):
Right.

Speaker 1 (43:13):
You could be the best chef in the state of California,
or in Arizona, or in Nevada, or the best chef
in the West Coast, does not mean you can run
a good restaurant. They're completely different skill sets. We were
out to dinner on Sunday night, first time in a
long time, and it was clear like they had a

(43:34):
bunch of right, just waiters and people clearing tables, and
then the dude like wearing slacks and like a button up.
That guy's probably the owner and he's trying to help.
Can that guy was like this kind of nicer Mexican restaurant.
Can that guy make an enchilada? I don't know, but
his restaurant's pretty depressive, pretty good food, right, Maybe you
hired the right chef. The ambiance in the place is
pretty good, good cocktails. Like it was, like, he's got

(43:55):
a lot going for it is gonna work or fail.
I don't know. Small percent restaurants last. The last restaurant
that was in that spot clearly went out of business,
right because they got a new one in there. And
I've only lived here in this area for a couple
of years, not even, and it's already churned out a spot.
So god speed to him. But his skill set as
the guy that owns the restaurant, I'm assuming, but let's

(44:19):
just in this example has to be a lot different
than the guy cooking all the food. Now does it
help if you can run the restaurant and cook the
food if you have to. One of Belichick's greatest strengths
was he coached any position. He coached the kickers, he
coached the DB's, he coached the offensive lineman. He just
knew everything. But you don't have to know that, right,

(44:42):
Like could Andy Reid coach every position at this point
in time? He could probably give a pretty good effort
to most positions on defense. But is he a much
better coach coaching the offense? Of course that's his baby.
Same thing with Kyle Shanahan. Sean McVay right now, those
guys are much younger. But like, could Sean mcvagh if

(45:03):
he had to for a month coach the defensive alignment?
He could, right, I'm sure he could. Would he be
the best defensive line coach in the league. Probably not.
Could he be a top ten coach in the league,
maybe if you just start doing that full time, But
he can be a great head coach. And if I
told you, he doesn't know anything about defensive line play.
So I think it's it's very difficult to project anybody.

(45:29):
You see this all the time. Like I saw a
headline recently about a CEO that just got fired because
it was Cole's. The Cole ceo had been in the
job for like less than six months and was caught
basically doing some business i think with like his lover

(45:49):
or something, and it was clearly like some shady shit
going on, And it's like, you never know i'd give you,
I give you power. I was reading an article today
by Albert Breer that Joe Shane was given the private
jet by ownership to go see quarterbacks during the fall, right,
Because as a GM's it's harder to get on the road,

(46:09):
especially home games, you're not out. He wanted to see
all the top quarterbacks, so he saw him all from
Shador to even guys that came back, Carson Beck, Drew Aller,
Jackson Dart, quinn Ewers. Will Howard saw him all flew
around and said he felt very uncomfortable, you know, going
to Old Miss because his daughter went there, and he

(46:31):
didn't want the organization to think like, I'm just going
down to Old Miss for like three days to hang
out with my daughter. I'm going there to work. He's like,
looking back, and we ended up taking Jackson Dart. I
could have gone there multiple times and they would have
never said anything. So but that's something you have to
think about. Some people don't think about that at all.
Some people get in position of power and just are
either overwhelmed or start you know how many coaches like

(46:52):
the Belichick guys start being just completely different humans than
they were as position coaches and coordinators. So it's no
one has any clue. Ben Johnson could be the next
Bill Walsh, or he could be the next Joe Judge.
If you said, John you got to put five thousand dollars,
will Ben Johnson be a star or will he fail.

(47:13):
I would put on fail like I would with Ben Johnson,
no different than Liam Cohen, no different than any first
time head coach, because the history and the statistics would
tell us that whether even if you're a CEO guy,
most of them are gonna fail. Robert sla was a
CEO head coach failed. So I don't know. I don't
think any of these we know about any of these guys,

(47:36):
And use the Mike McDaniel example. Mike Daniel didn't call plays,
Kyle did. Brian Callahan, who everyone likes, Brian Callahan didn't
call plays. Zach Taylor did. Fascinating topic. I know you're
more of an NFL guy, but what are your thoughts
on Dan Lanning and the Ducks. I'm a lifelong Duck
fan and never remember a coach like Lanning who reloads

(47:58):
Oregon's roster every year other than tries to build up
one good team every three to four. Landing's been a
head coach for three years and he already has produced
the first and second most Ducks drafted in program history
these past two drafts ten ducks this year and eight
and twenty four. What are your thoughts on him? In
the projection of the program. I would say he's clearly

(48:18):
a stud. I heard more NFL gms and I watch
I don't know minimum half the league's press conferences on
Thursday and Friday night at the draft. Them mentioned from
Sean McVeigh to Adam Peters. I mean teams that drafted
Oregon guys sing this guy's praises. They love him. And

(48:42):
I don't think it's random that Alabama, once Saban retired,
went right after him. He said, no, I think he's
a stud. Now, you know, to win a national championship,
it's obviously hard this year the way they drew Ohio
State tough draw as a one eight seed. But he's
a badass, I mean, clearly. I like him a lot.

(49:04):
I think he has a chance to be I would
say the total package, you know, Chip revolutionized the offense. Obviously,
Mario recruited at just an incredible level. Pre nil oh
it was like the you know, Ducks nil So it's like, hey,
we take area, but Mario can recruit and Landing feels

(49:26):
like the combination of them both. So I think my
buddy guy who works at Big ten Network, we used
to do a pot San Francisco nine forty nine or
podcast together for a long time. He got me started
in radio. He does Big ten games, and he did
the Big ten Spring Oregon game. And Dante Moore, the
quarterback who was the five star that went to play

(49:48):
at UCLA for Chip and then Chip left and he
transferred up there. That it basically came down to UCLA
and Oregon. Now they got him, he's gonna be the starter.
Guy was telling me they fucking love that guy, and
I saw a couple of passes he major. I guess
it's a spring game, but he's a big time talent,
so I listen. I think the goal of your Oregon

(50:09):
is like, how do we become how do we take
that next step and become Oregon or Georgia in ohiose
state right, because we're close. We're like you could argue
right now with Harball leaving some question marks with Michigan
Saban leaving question marks with Bama. I think the bar
right now is like Georgia Ohio State. Right, They've won

(50:30):
a bunch of national championships. Ohio State won it this year,
Georgia won a couple producing all these NFL guys. I
think Texas is coming hard right with the nil and
Sark and how good that team is. They're probably right
butting into that, and I think Oregon's right behind them,
like how do we take that next step? Like Texas, Like,
how do we get to the national championship game? How
do we win a national championship? It's hard, but I

(50:51):
think that's they're right there. I'd be pretty fired up.
I mean, i'd be pretty fired up if I was
an Oregon fan, Bears fan, and love the additions made
this offseason. I'm a huge believer in Kleb. But my
question is how soon into the season do you think
we could see the improvement right away? Middle end of
the season. Well, there's gonna be a ton of pressure

(51:14):
on them right away, so you know, the intensity of
the hype of this team is going to be stupid now.
Good thing for you guys, same thing for you know,
the Lions. There's pressure, but it's like they're not like
the Cowboys or the Eagles in the sense of the
way they're covered. So it's they're loaded and they're expected

(51:36):
to make the playoffs now, but the coverage of them
is a little different. The pressure on Jordan Love and
the pressure on JJ McCarthy. So you got a lot
of teams with pressure in your division, but the intensity
of the Bears, And rightfully so, I think they're pretty good.
They had an incredible offseason. I mean they've just added
sweet players at key positions, especially offensive line guards and centers.
I mean they got two brand new guards in the center.

(51:58):
They're good. So I think the expectation would be to
make a wildcard, and to make a wildcard they need
capab Williams to play well. So to what those stats are? Like,
I is that twenty eight touchdowns and ten picks? Is
that thirty five touchdowns and eleven picks? I don't know
what the stats are, but I think you'll be able
to tell he is getting rid of the ball fast?

(52:19):
Is that playmaking ability? Mixed in with that? Is do
they have a top I don't know ten ish offense?
Are they one of the best offenses in the league?
Not like top five, but clearly a top tennish scoring
offense by mid season? Well? Just yeah, it's good question.

(52:40):
I don't necessarily know how to like answer that, but
I think you kind of I think some things in
life you kind of know when you see it. Now,
once we get to that point, is like is this
guy a pro bowler or just like really good starter.
We got something here. I think you'll have a pretty
good idea by mid season. It's like, Okay, we're gonna
be okay, or we got a problem, and I would

(53:03):
lean you're gonna be okay. From Australia watch YouTube videos.
Question for the back. I've heard you and Colin multiple
times talk about the Dolphins and how there's a chance
they're gonna be one of the worst teams in the NFL.
I'm a to a fan and will ride with him
as my quarterback. But are your judgments on how poorly
the Dolphins will go strictly due to his play, injuries

(53:23):
or just the organizations organizations direction for the future and
their coaching staff, players, et cetera. I like an outside perspective.
Why'd say obviously his status as a player is always
in question given that a concussion. Let's just say, I mean, god,
I'm not no one's rooting for this, no one wants
to see this. But if he does get a concussion,

(53:46):
it would be the loudest conversation of any definitely big
name player of like, he can't play anymore, and whether
that's fair or not. And I thought last year was
so egregious, like you can never play against like guys,
it's his decision, not yours. Now the league would step in.
They didn't. Maybe concussions. You know, it's weird, like obviously
they're doing the right things, but like I honestly thought

(54:08):
they would step in and be like, you're not playing
the rest of the season. They didn't. Maybe there's legalities there.
They didn't want to, you know, step in. But if
he goes down, we saw the drop off and he
signed Zach Wilson this year, which I don't know, man,
I can't get behind that. I would say too. I mean,

(54:29):
the Tyreek situation feels like a ticking time bomb. Jalen
Ramsey's surely to be traded. They've just lost a lot
of players over the last couple of years because of
free agency. I just think they're talent on their team,
especially relative to their division. You know, the Bills own them,
the Patriots are surely going to be better, and the
Jets just feel like a little more stable now that

(54:51):
the Rogers saw a Joe Douglas kind of era has passed.
So I just think this is gonna be a weird
And then if they start slow. Well, I guess we'll
find out the you know, the schedules for all these teams,
see who they play early. But like that's that's got
one of those like god, the Dolphins are two and five,

(55:12):
is they're allowed? Like it's Mike McDaniel gonna be fired, which,
in fairness, I don't think Bill Walsh would lead this
team to eleven or twelve wins. But it's already kind
of weird, you know, the way the season ended last
year of people showing up late in him admitting that
it's just kind of a lot of weird shit going on.
There A question about the recent discussion about quarterbacks with

(55:45):
big arms. Is it something you can quantify or do
you just know it when you see it? Also, can
a quarterback with an average arm hit the gym and
get bigger arm or is it an unchangeable characteristic. I
do think that the combine had I don't think I
know they have a metric in that can quantify how

(56:05):
many miles an hour you're throwing. And I think, you know,
Josh Allen, there's some quarterbacks over the last fifteen years
that have some of the stronger arms, but less and
less of these quarterbacks are now throwing, so that data
is gonna be weird because none of these guys throw
in the offseason. I'd have to text a buddy in
the league to ask if there is data from the
college teams or that the league has based on their

(56:27):
arm strength and games. I would imagine at this point
there is, but don't quote me on that. I do
think when you've just been like, let's say a college
scouting director and I've been in the league for twenty years,
I got a pretty good idea where your arm stacks
against the guys in the last ten years, right, and
the top guys from Josh Allen to Caleb to Jaden

(56:51):
Daniels to you name it, Trevor Lawrence. I can kind
of get a feel for where you fall. And then
I can look at some of the guys that we
thought were gonna be good that weren't. Then some random
guys like a rock party, did we like, did we
think he has an average arm? You're around football long
enough you kind of know it when you see it,
and you can kind of feel it. Now it's much easier.

(57:11):
It's why people like when you run forties, because like,
I think this guy's fast, and then he runs a
four to four eight. Like, guy, he's pretty fast, but
there's a big deal. Like I think this guy's fast,
and then he runs a four to three too, You're like, damn.
I was like, I don't know how fast this guy is.
Then he runs a four to six. So I think
arm strength is one of those things where it's like
you kind of know, right, Drew Brees didn't have the

(57:32):
biggest arm, Alex Smith didn't have the biggest arm. You watch.
I think Lamar's arm definitely feels a little stronger than
I thought it was. In college, you knew Josh and
Mahomes and Herbert had big arms. I think there is
a kind of like a baseline of what you have
to have. You know, guys like Purty, they just can't

(57:56):
do things at the top. Guys you know, it's weird,
like Jalen Hurts can throw a great deep ball, but
like his drive throws I would say aren't as strong
as you would think based on his deep ball. So
every quarterback is a little bit different. I always thought
quarterback like Jared Goff, I saw it. I walked right
by Jared Goff in the Super Bowl. He's huge, right,

(58:19):
but it's like he doesn't like Kyler Murray has a
way stronger arm, and he's got Kyler Murray by seven inches.
So sometimes Michael Vick was not the biggest guy, but
the flick of the wrist, it was like this guy's
throwing babies. So I don't know, Hey, genius. Some of
the best running backs of all time were like five
to nine, and genty was undoubtedly a great talent any year.

(58:43):
No one's arguing with you. My argument on genty is
not that he's a good player. Of course, Jince, he's
a good player. Do you watch him play? You go
to his YouTube page. He's fucking awesome. I just think
drafting running backs really, really high is a pretty risky proposition.
That's all I said. Did I would take offensive lineman

(59:03):
over running back, especially in a draft where I can
get a starting running back later in the draft. That's
my point. And he's five eight. It's like, well, Barry Sanders,
I'm not comparing anyone to Barry Sanders. What Emmitt Smith,
that's who you're comparing him to. It's like, well, cam
Ward plays like Patrick Mahomes, a little bit of Marino
in LA. I mean, that's what we're gonna do. I

(59:25):
saw Howie made a comment he's like the first ten
picks of the draft. Every time we looked up their
comparison was like Abdul Carter next to Lawrence Taylor meets
Micah Parsons, cam Ward little bit of Mahomes meets Alway,
Travis Hunter, Dion meets Justin Jefferson meets Darrell Reeves. It's like, guys,

(59:46):
that's not the way this works. I mean, yeah, it's like,
what are we doing? But it's always like Emmitt's next
to Emitt Smith. Well, if he's the next Barry Sanders,
the Titan should have taken him one. Why is everybody
assuming Arch Manning will declare it will only be his
first year starting And I don't think the Manning family

(01:00:07):
wants him to rush. Eli and Peyton both started three
years in college and money isn't an issue. I can
see Arch staying in school two or three years. Do
you know what's funny with Arch Manning? And you just
did what we all do. You brought up Peyton and Eli.
Peyton and Eli are is uncles, not his father. Now,

(01:00:29):
I'm not saying that they don't have a huge influence
and are obviously very close with Cooper. But I think
sometimes we talk like Arch like he's Peyton or Eli's like, no,
he's Cooper's you know, now I'm with you, like I
don't think anyone knows like I would if you're a
betting man. He's more likely to be multiple year starter
at Texas than a one year starter. But let's say

(01:00:51):
they win the whole thing. He wins the heisman. Who knows,
no one is any clue. I think the hype machine
on Arch. I think it's one of the craziest. I mean,
Caleb was starting, Trevor Lawrence was starting. This guy hasn't
even been a starter. Now he's played, he had to

(01:01:13):
start some games because of yours injury. But we talk
about this guy like he's a three year starter. I
feel like he's unfair. He's twenty twenty one years old
rooting for him. But man, do you feel that the
safety position has really decreased in importance over the past
fifteen years? Think how big of stars guys like Etterie, Troy, Paulamalou,

(01:01:37):
John Lynch, Brian Dwkins were. Now it seems as if
there are no stars at that position. I think one
thing that all those had in common. You know, Ed
was a hybrid, but you could even go to the
LB teams with Cam Chancellor and Earl Thomas.

Speaker 3 (01:01:54):
Is.

Speaker 1 (01:01:55):
They were the biggest hitters in the league, so when
you went across the middle, those guys were involved in
huge tackles.

Speaker 3 (01:02:04):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:02:04):
One of this viral video every once in a while
that creeps into my feed is to Kalo Spikes saying
that Brian Dawkins either told him before the game or
in the huddle that said I plan on taking that
man's soul speaking about the wide receiver when he ran
a go route and too. Kalo Spikes one of the

(01:02:25):
all time badasses who actually talked to it the at
the Super Bowl, and he still looks like he could
play that. Those guys would annihilate you. I mean, Brian
Dawkins nickname was Weapon X. John Lynch got into the
Hall of Fame on literally forcing other dudes to go
to the blue tent, right. I mean, Ed Reid was

(01:02:47):
just kind of had a little d onto his game,
made some incredible plays on the ball. But when I
think Troy, I think the guy like flying over the
pile in that version of like the tush push rights
legendary play I think against the Bengals where he flies
over the on the goal line. So I think part
of it is like they don't hit as much. That

(01:03:07):
used to be a huge sexy part of that position.
I do think that these guys that are still playing
in the league if you allowed hitting, would be bigger stars.
But I would, just thinking about it right now, would
imagine that that's a reason. Is there a chance that
using Travis Hunter as a two way player could cause

(01:03:29):
resentment and division in the Jags locker room? Particularly on defense?
The Jags starting corner and Nickel, Tyson Campbell, Jerry and
Jones and Jordan Lewis are second, third, and third round picks,
so not bad. Imagine you're one of those guys or
the other dbs further down the depth chart. You're in
all the dB meetings for a week, but then the

(01:03:49):
big passing down situation, Travis Hunter comes in and takes
your spot because the Jags want to justify the trade. Well,
here's the thing. It will only cause resentment, like anything
in life, if you're not good enough. If he is
better than those guys, like early on, there's a natural

(01:04:11):
young people egos. If it goes, this guy's better than me,
what are you gonna say? But if it goes we're
not as good when he comes in because this is impossible,
then yeah, people would be bad. I had someone in
the league. Their idea was like what they could see
him being a full time wide receiver and basically just

(01:04:32):
come in on third and lungs on third and lungs
when they just kind of, you know, a specific we're
running like a manned man, some sort of concept in
the defensive scheme in that package, and he just comes
and they just flex him out wide and whoever bumps
into nickel and someone comes out the game. I think

(01:04:55):
resentment is natural in most of these situations. Think how
many GMS had to call an agent or call a
player after the draft. It's like, we don't even know
if this guy can play or not, but like I
have to call my star receiver because we drafted to
do in the second round. I'm sure it happens. I
can't imagine it actually happens a lot. And uh. I

(01:05:17):
heard Chris Ballard say that he's like I get so
tired of these agents call me like after Friday of
the draft, Like what does that mean for my player,
What do you mean? What does it mean? Means? Nothing
like seeing a training camp, like we hope he's still
the starter, but like, this is the NFL, this is competitive,
so it's like some competitive energy is good. I do

(01:05:37):
think there's a balance. And I hear you because I
don't care what you do in life. If you are
working in a situation where you go like, I don't
think there's any gap, Like I'm just as good and
I'm putting in more time, that can get weird. So
it I do think it's fair. It's a slippery slope.
But players are also not dumb that they see what

(01:05:58):
you invested, so they get it initially. But we talked
about this one, the Shador Sanders thing. At the end
of the day, you're gonna just have training camp and
the pads are kind of come on and plays are
gonna be called, just against your own team. Remember, before
you start game planning against opponents and everything, you practice
against your own team in pads for multiple weeks, so

(01:06:19):
you get a pretty good feel for your your room.
Like if you're a guard, like the other guards, the
other centers, if you're a dB, the other corners, the
other safeties, and the receivers. Like, after a couple of weeks,
you got a pretty good idea who can play who
can't play, at least based on camp. Right, So it

(01:06:39):
does become a meritocracy pretty fast in these guys' minds
of like this guy can't play. How often do you
hear veteran players go yeah, and you know, like the weekend,
we're in trouble. Now, I'm not saying that's gonna happen
with Travis Hunter, but it is gonna be unlike anything else.
Right when the uh, the Panthers drafted the Arizona wide

(01:07:00):
receiver McMillan, he's just gonna play wide receiver. He just
goes to the wide receiver room. So even if he struggling,
it's like always gonna keep working with him. But it's like, well,
what if you like the offense you're going It's it
says a lot. It's gonna be very very interesting. If
I am a betting man, I have no clue how
it's gonna play out. None. You could give me five scenarios,

(01:07:22):
and I believe you. He's ends up as a wide receiver,
only he just ends up as a corner. Only he
tries to play wide receiver and a little bit of
corner and it's just too weird. Doesn't work. He tries
to play wide receiver and corner only turns out he's
actually making more plays on defense. So they you know,
there are a million different avenues, maybe not a million,

(01:07:43):
but there's like ten different routes this thing could take.
And like you said, no one's even talking about, like
what about the team. They actually have some good players
on the squad and like you said, some guys that
were drafted relatively high. I like the good dB depth

(01:08:05):
chart for the Jags. That's that's why I lean on
you guys. My question is this big Seahawks fan is
regarding Jalen Milroe. I'd like to compare his college stats
from his last year to Lamar Jackson and his last
year at Louisville, another player most NFL executives said might
not make it at the next level. Milroe last season

(01:08:27):
was sixty four percent sixteen pass touchdowns, eleven interceptions, and
twenty rushing touchdowns. Lamar last season was sixty percent, twenty
seven passing touchdowns, ten interceptions, and eighteen rushing touchdowns. These
numbers seem very comparable to me and all of Milroe's

(01:08:50):
teammates and coaches swear by his work ethic. One in
the last in his desire to get better, he is
about to sit behind another guy who clearly knows how
to get better year to year. Do you think the
Hawks Mike get the steel of the draft? It's kind
of crazy, right, I think Jalen Milroe was viewed as

(01:09:11):
failure would be strong, but definitely like a bumpy Rocky season.
And Lamar, remember, Lamar is pretty controversial too. I was wrong.
I thought that he was pretty inaccurate. And he's he
is a great example of someone who has improved dramatically
in the NFL. Now here's what they did, and this

(01:09:32):
is where it makes it unique. Where was Mike McDonald.
He was there, So it's like Mike McDonald, let me
pull up his uh ohld wiki. Lamar gets drafted. Yeah,
I mean he's there the entire Lamar time except for
one year when he leaves in twenty one. But he

(01:09:53):
saw from the linebacker coach from eighteen to twenty so
we saw not only them draft him, but insert him
as the quarterback and change the offense overnight from Flacco
to him. He saw him in practice as the scout
team quarterback early on, and then he went against him
for years when the Ones played the Ones. So I
think his idea seeing this player is more unique than

(01:10:17):
most coaches who have never been around Lamar Jackson, because
just coaching against Lamar if you're another team, is different
than every day seeing around him. Because to me, when
I think about Lamar Is and knowing a buddy, a
couple actually guys with the Ravens, I mean the way
they speak about the guy, and this is how all
the best quarterbacks are very very well liked in the

(01:10:39):
building in terms of intangibles, toughness, the way the teammates
five off him, and like you said, Milroe fits all that.
So part of the way to improve is to be
a football junkie. Lamar is, you know by all accounts,
Jalen is too. If he improves, he has a coach
who could see the vision. He has a GM like

(01:10:59):
don't get a twist. John Schneider is a trades guy.
Who did John Schneider love five or six years ago?
I guess seven eight years ago? He wanted to trade
Russell Wilson for Josh Allen. He wanted Josh Allen and
Cleveland said no, and they ended up taking Baker Mayfield
and even Russell Wilson was like kind of small, but
he had trades, he could run, and he had a

(01:11:19):
big arm. Sam Darnold Gino Smith like he's got a
he loved Drew Locke. So Schneider's kind of a scout. Scout,
He's he'll take some swings for the fence. So yeah, listen,
More often than not, Lamar Jackson does not happen. But

(01:11:40):
when you factor in Jalen Milroe started for Nick Saban,
led them to the playoffs and made a throw in
the game against Auburn that how many guys could have
made rolling to his left BB in the back of
the end zone to get them in the game against Michigan,
I think sometimes it's hard to unsee the inaccuracy, and

(01:12:03):
while their percentages were a little different, I think if
you watch the wrong game. I remember Lamar playing Mississippi State,
I think in the bowl game, and he's had a
couple throws that I couldn't unsee, and you realize, like, listen,
Johnny made a million throws early on, We're gonna have
him run around and turned out Lamar Jackson is like
the fast guy ever, and then Andrew Berry the Browns
GM was like, yeah, I think this guy's faster, which

(01:12:24):
I think is pretty bold thing to say, because I
think if Lamar had run a forty at the combine,
he would have ran faster than Milrose four to four
to zero. I think he would have ran like a
four to three to zero. But regardless, milrose play speed
is elite as well. So yeah, I mean, I think
in the third round, when you say best case scenario,
it'd be one thing to take him in the top ten,

(01:12:46):
like an Anthony Richardson situation. It'd be like, that's pretty crazy.
Third round. You could argue it's a no brainer. You
could argue it's like the easiest pick they made the
entire draft. It's like, well, if this guy just becomes
seventy percent of that, we're not even looking for the
MVPs and one of the best players in the league.
Can you just become a dynamic starter who has some

(01:13:06):
accuracy issues, We're fine with that. So yeah, good research there.
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3 & Out - Ravens release Tucker, DC gets the NFL Draft, Michigan suspends Moore

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John Middlekauff

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}3 & Out - Ravens release Tucker, DC gets the NFL Draft, Michigan suspends Moore